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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2), by
+John Roby
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2)
+
+Author: John Roby
+
+Release Date: March 7, 2005  [eBook #15271]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRADITIONS OF LANCASHIRE, VOLUME 1
+(OF 2)***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, Charles Aldarondo, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 15271-h.htm or 15271-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/2/7/15271/15271-h/15271-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/2/7/15271/15271-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+"I know I have herein made myself subject unto a world of judges, and
+am likest to receive most controulment of such as are least able to
+sentence me. Well I wote that the works of no writers have appeared to
+the world in a more curious age than this; and that, therefore, the more
+circumspection and wariness is required in the publishing of anything
+that must endure so many sharp sights and censures. The consideration
+whereof, as it hath made me all the more needy not to displease any, to
+hath it given not the less hope of pleasing all."
+
+VERSTEGAN, _Rest. dec. Ant._
+
+
+
+[Illustration: JOHN ROBY]
+
+
+
+TRADITIONS OF LANCASHIRE
+
+by
+
+JOHN ROBY, M.R.S.L.
+
+Illustrated by Engravings on Steel and Wood
+
+In Two Volumes
+
+VOL. I.
+
+Fifth Edition.
+
+
+London:
+George Routledge and Sons,
+Manchester: L.C. Gent.
+
+1872
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
+
+
+ADVERTISEMENT TO FIFTH EDITION
+
+PUBLISHERS' PREFACE TO FOURTH EDITION
+
+MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR
+
+PREFACE TO FIRST SERIES
+
+PREFACE TO SECOND SERIES
+
+INTRODUCTION TO SECOND SERIES
+
+
+TRADITIONS
+
+SIR TARQUIN
+
+THE GOBLIN BUILDERS
+
+MAB'S CROSS
+
+THE PRIOR OF BURSCOUGH
+
+THE EAGLE AND CHILD
+
+THE BLACK KNIGHT OF ASHTON
+
+FAIR ELLEN OF RADCLIFFE
+
+THE ABBOT OF WHALLEY
+
+SIR EDWARD STANLEY
+
+GEORGE MARSH, THE MARTYR
+
+DR DEE, THE ASTROLOGER
+
+THE SEER
+
+THE EARL OF TYRONE
+
+HOGHTON TOWER
+
+THE LANCASHIRE WITCHES
+
+SIEGE OF LATHOM
+
+RAVEN CASTLE
+
+THE PHANTOM VOICE
+
+THE BAR-GAIST
+
+THE HAUNTED MANOR-HOUSE
+
+CLITHEROE CASTLE
+
+THE GREY MAN OF THE WOOD
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+MAB'S CROSS, WIGAN
+
+BURSCOUGH ABBEY
+
+RADCLIFFE TOWER
+
+WHALLEY ABBEY
+
+HORNBY CASTLE
+
+COLLEGIATE CHURCH, MANCHESTER
+
+TYRONE'S BED, NEAR ROCHDALE
+
+HOGHTON TOWER
+
+EAGLE CRAG, VALE OF TODMORDEN
+
+LATHOM HOUSE
+
+SOUTH PORT
+
+INCE-HALL, NEAR WIGAN
+
+CLITHEROE CASTLE
+
+
+
+
+ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIFTH EDITION.
+
+
+The Fourth Edition of the "TRADITIONS OF LANCASHIRE" was published five
+years ago, and the whole of the impression was ordered from the
+publishers before it had left the printers' hands. Owing to the
+difficulty in obtaining copies, it has been suggested that a re-issue,
+in a cheap form, is a desideratum, and the present volumes are the
+result. This is the only Complete Edition (except the Fourth, from which
+it is an unabridged reprint), of Roby's Traditions--several Legendary
+Tales being incorporated which were not included in any of the earlier
+copies of the work.
+
+_November_ 1871.
+
+
+
+
+THE PUBLISHERS' PREFACE TO FOURTH EDITION.
+
+
+Roby's "TRADITIONS OF LANCASHIRE" having long been out of print--stray
+copies commanding high prices--it has been determined to republish the
+whole in a more compact and less costly form. This, the fourth and the
+_only complete edition_, includes the _First_ Series of twenty tales,
+published in two volumes (1829, demy 8vo, £2, 2s.; royal 8vo, with
+proofs and etchings, £4, 4s.); the _Second_ Series, also of twenty
+tales, in two volumes (1831, 8vo, £2, 2s., &c.); and three additional
+stories from his _Legendary and Poetical Remains_, first published after
+his death (1854, post 8vo, 10s. 6d.)[1] In the two volumes now presented
+the reader will possess not only the whole of the contents of both
+series, in four volumes, at one-fourth of the price of the original
+publication, but also three additional stories from the posthumous
+volume, with a memoir, a portrait, &c.
+
+From deference to a strongly-expressed feeling that the work should be
+printed without any abridgment, omission, or alteration, and the text
+preserved in its full integrity, it has been decided to reprint it
+entire; and consequently various inaccuracies in the original editions
+have been left untouched. Two or three of the most important may be
+corrected here.
+
+In the tale of "The Dead Man's Hand," Mr Roby seems to have been led by
+false information into some errors reflecting on the character and
+memory of a devout and devoted Roman Catholic priest, known as Father
+Arrowsmith. Mr Roby states that he was executed at Lancaster "in the
+reign of William III.;" that "when about to suffer he desired his right
+hand might be cut off, assuring the bystanders that it would have power
+to work miraculous cures on those who had faith to believe in its
+efficacy," and, denying that Father Arrowsmith suffered on account of
+religion, Mr Roby adds that "having been found guilty of a misdemeanour,
+in all probability this story of his martyrdom and miraculous
+attestation to the truth of the cause for which he suffered, was
+contrived for the purpose of preventing any scandal that might have
+come upon the Church through the delinquency of an unworthy member."
+
+What, then, are the facts, as far as they have been investigated? The
+Father Edmund Arrowsmith who suffered death at Lancaster was born at
+Haydock in Lancashire[2] in 1585, and he suffered death in August 1628
+(4th Charles I.), sixty years before William III. ascended the English
+throne. The mode of execution was not that of capital punishment for the
+offence committed, but rather that imposed by the laws for treason and
+for exercising the functions of a Roman Catholic priest. He was hanged,
+drawn, and quartered, and his head and quarters were fixed upon poles on
+Lancaster Castle. It was in this dismemberment that the hand became
+separated, and it was secretly carried away by some sorrowing member of
+his communion, and its supposed curative power was afterwards discovered
+and made known.[3] Mr Roby cites no authority for this contradiction of
+the original tradition. The judge who presided at the trial was Sir
+Henry Yelverton of the Common Pleas, who died on the 24th January 1629.
+
+In the Tradition of "The Dule upo' Dun," Mr Roby states that a
+public-house having that sign stood at the entrance of a small village
+on the right of the highway to Gisburn, and barely three miles from
+Clitheroe. When Mr Roby wrote the public-house had been long pulled
+down; it had ceased to be an inn at a period beyond living memory;
+though the ancient house, converted into two mean, thatched cottages,
+stood until about forty years ago. But the site of the house is in
+Clitheroe itself, little more than half a mile from the centre of the
+town, and on the road, not to Gisburn, but to Waddington.[4]
+
+It only remains to add that the illustrations to the present edition
+comprise not only all the beautiful plates (engraved by Edward Finden,
+from drawings by George Pickering) of the original edition, which have
+been much admired as picturesque works of art, but also all the
+wood-engravings (by Williams, after designs by Frank Howard) which have
+appeared in any former edition, and which constituted the sole
+embellishments of the three-volume editions. To these is now first added
+the fine portrait of Mr Roby from the posthumous volume.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] The First Series includes all the Traditions beginning with "Sir
+Tarquin" and ending with "The Haunted Manor-House;" the Second Series
+comprises all the Tales from "Clitheroe Castle" to "Rivington Pike,"
+both included; and the three Tales now first incorporated are--"Mother
+Red-Cap, or the Rosicrucians;" "The Death Painter, or the Skeleton's
+Bride;" and "The Crystal Goblet."
+
+[2] His mother was a daughter of the old Lancashire family of Gerard of
+Bryn.
+
+[3] These dates and facts will be found in the _Missionary Priests_ of
+Bishop Challoner, who wrote about 1740 (2 vols. 8vo., Manchester,
+1741-2), naming as his authority a manuscript history of the trial, and
+a printed account of it published in 1629. His statements are confirmed
+by independent testimony. See Henry More's _Historia-Provinciĉ Anglicaĉ
+Societatis Jesu_, book x. (sm. fol. St Omer's, 1660). Also Tanner's
+_Societas Jesu_, &c., p. 99 (sm. fol. Prague, 1675). Neither Challoner
+nor the MS. account, nor either of the authors just quoted, says one
+word of Father Arrowsmith's alleged speech about the hand.
+
+[4] See Mr Wm. Dobson's _Rambles by the Ribble_, 1st Series, p. 137.
+
+
+
+
+MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.[5]
+
+
+The late John Roby was born at Wigan on the 5th January 1793. From his
+father, Nehemiah Roby, who was for many years Master of the
+Grammar-School at Haigh, near Wigan, he inherited a good constitution
+and unbended principles of honour and integrity. From the family of his
+mother, Mary Aspall, he derived the quick, impressible temperament of
+genius, and the love of humour which so conspicuously marks the
+Lancashire character. He was the youngest child. His thirst for
+knowledge was early and strongly manifested. Being once told in
+childhood not to be so inquisitive, his appeal ever after was,
+"_Inquisitive_ wants to know." As he grew up into boyhood, surrounded by
+objects to which tradition had assigned her marvellous stories, they
+sank silently but indelibly into his mind. In his immediate vicinity
+were Haigh Hall and Mab's Cross, the scenes of Lady Mabel's sufferings
+and penance--the subject of one of his earliest tales. Almost within
+sight of the windows lay the fine range of hills of which Rivington Pike
+is a spur. In after-life he recalled with pleasure the many sports in
+that district which were the haunts of his early days, and the scenes of
+the legends he afterwards embodied. While yet a child he regularly took
+the organ in a chapel at Wigan during the Sunday service. He also early
+excelled in drawing, and after he had commenced the avocations of a
+banker the use of the pencil was a favourite recreation. His first prose
+composition, at the age of fifteen years, took a prize in a periodical
+for the best essay on a prescribed subject, by young persons under a
+specified age. Thus encouraged, poetry, essay, tale, were all tried, and
+with success. In his eighteenth or nineteenth year he received a silver
+snuff-box, inscribed, "The gift of the Philosophic Society, Wigan, to
+their esteemed lecturer and worthy member."
+
+Mr Roby first appeared before the public as a poet; publishing in 1815,
+"Sir Bertram, a poem in six cantos." Another poem quickly followed,
+entitled "Lorenzo, a tale of Redemption." In 1816, he married Ann, the
+youngest daughter of James and Dorothy Bealey, of Derrikens, near
+Blackburn, by whom he had nine children, three of whom died in their
+infancy. His next publication was "The Duke of Mantua," a tragedy, which
+appeared in 1823, passed through three or four editions in a short time,
+and after being long out of print, was included in the posthumous volume
+of _Legendary Remains_. In the summer of that year he made an excursion
+in Scotland, visiting "the bonnie braes o' Yarrow" in company with James
+Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd. The literary leisure of the next six years
+was occupied in collecting materials for the _Traditions of Lancashire_,
+and in weaving these into tales of romantic interest. In this task he
+received the most courteous assistance from several representatives of
+noble houses connected with the traditions of the county; particularly
+from the late Earl and Countess of Crawford and Balcarres, and also from
+the late Earl of Derby.
+
+The _first_ series of _The Traditions of Lancashire_ appeared in 1829,
+in two volumes (including twenty tales), illustrated by plates. The
+reception of the work equalled Mr Roby's most sanguine expectations; and
+a second edition was called for within twelve months. The late Sir
+Francis Palgrave, in a letter to Mr Roby, dated 26th October 1829, thus
+estimates the work:--
+
+     "As compositions, the extreme beauty of your style, and the skill
+     which you have shown in working up the rude materials, must entitle
+     them to the highest rank in the class of work to which they
+     belong.... You have made such a valuable addition, not only to
+     English literature, but to English topography, by your
+     collection--for these popular traditions form, or ought to form, an
+     important feature in topographical history--that it is to be hoped
+     you will not stop with the present volumes."
+
+The _second_ series of the "Traditions," consisting also of two volumes
+(including twenty tales), uniform with the first, was published in 1831,
+and met with similar success. Both series were reviewed in the most
+cordial manner by the leading periodicals of the day; while they were
+more than once quoted by Sir Walter Scott, who characterised the whole
+as an elegant work. In the production of these tales, Mr Roby's practice
+was to make himself master of the historical groundwork of the story,
+and as far as possible of the manners and customs of the period, and
+then to commence composition, with Fosbroke's _Encyclopedia of
+Antiquities_ at hand, for accuracy of costume, &c. He always gave the
+credit of his style, which the _Westminster Review_ termed "a very model
+of good Saxon," to his native county, the force and energy of whose
+dialect arises mainly from the prevalence of the Teutonic element. "The
+thought digs out the word," was his favourite saying, when the exact
+expression he wanted did not at once occur. In these "Traditions" his
+great creative power is conspicuous; about two hundred different
+characters are introduced, no one of which reminds the reader of
+another, while there is abundant diversity of both heroic and comic
+incident and adventure. A gentleman, after reading the "Traditions,"
+remarked that for invention he scarcely knew Mr Roby's equal. All these
+characters, it should be stated, are creations: not one is an idealised
+portrait. The short vivid descriptions of scenery scattered throughout
+are admirable. Each tale is, in fact, a cabinet picture, combining
+history and romance with landscape. Mr Roby excelled in depicting the
+supernatural; and one German reviewer declared his story of Rivington
+Pike to be "the only authentic tale of demoniacal possession the English
+have."
+
+In 1832, Mr Roby visited the English lakes, and recorded his impressions
+in lively sketches both with pen and pencil. In the spring of 1837, he
+made a rapid tour on the Continent, the notes and illustrative sketches
+of which were published in two volumes, under the title of _Seven Weeks
+in Belgium, Switzerland, Lombardy, Piedmont, Savoy, &c._ In 1840, Mr
+Roby again visited the Continent by a different route, making notes and
+sketches of what he saw. At the close of the year, he was engaged in
+preparing a new edition of the "Traditions," in a less expensive form.
+It was published in three volumes, as the first of a series of Popular
+Traditions of England; his intention being to follow up those of
+Lancashire with similar legends of Yorkshire, for which he wrote a few
+tales, which appeared in Blackwood's and Eraser's Magazines.
+
+The principal literary occupation of the next four years appears to have
+been the preparation and delivery of lectures on various subjects in
+connection with literary and mechanics' institutions. In 1844, his
+health gave way, and for years he suffered severely. As a last resource
+he tried the water-cure at Malvern in the spring of 1847, and with
+complete success. In the summer of 1849, he again married--the lady who
+survived him, and to whose "sketch of his life" we are largely indebted
+in this brief memoir. In the two short years following this
+marriage--the two last of his life--he was busily engaged in writing and
+delivering lectures, visiting places which form the scenes of some of
+his latest legends, and in the composition of a series of tales intended
+to illustrate the influence of Christianity in successive periods, a
+century apart. Deferring that for the fourth century, he wrote six,
+bringing the series down to the close of the seventh century; when he
+determined on visiting Scotland. With his wife and daughter he embarked
+at Liverpool on board the steamer _Orion_ for Glasgow, which ill-fated
+vessel struck on some rocks about one o'clock in the morning of the 18th
+June 1850, and went down. Mrs and Miss Roby were rescued after having
+been some time in the water, but of the husband and father only the
+corpse was recovered, and his remains were laid in his family grave in
+the burial-ground of the Independent Chapel, Rochdale, on Saturday, the
+22d of that month.
+
+Mr Roby was not more remarkable for his numerous and varied talents than
+for his warm and affectionate heart, rich imagination, great love of
+humour, and deep and earnest piety. He was a facile versifier, an
+elegant prose writer, an able botanist and physiologist. Possessing a
+fine ear, rich voice, and great musical taste, he not only took his
+vocal share in part-song, but wrote several melodies, which have been
+published. In one species of rapid mental calculation, or rather
+combination of figures--giving in an instant the sum of a double column
+of twenty figures in each row, or a square of six figures--he far
+excelled Bidder, the calculating boy. He was a skilful draughtsman, a
+clever mimic and ventriloquist, an excellent _raconteur_, an
+accomplished conversationist, ever fascinating in the select social
+circle, and always "tender and wise" in that of home. He was a man of
+genuine benevolence, a cordial friend, an affectionate husband and
+father, and a humble and devout Christian. His family crest was a garb
+or wheat-sheaf, with the motto, "I am ready;" and in his case--though
+his death was sudden and unexpected--illness and bereavement, mental and
+physical suffering--in short, the chastenings and discipline of life,
+had done their work. His "sheaf" was "ready for the garner."
+
+_October_ 1866.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[5] This Memoir has been almost wholly derived from the "Sketch of the
+Literary Life and Character of John Roby," written by his widow, and
+occupying 117 pages of the posthumous volume of his _Legendary and
+Poetical Remains_.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO THE FIRST SERIES.
+
+
+A preface is rarely needed, generally intrusive, and always
+tiresome--seldom read, more seldom desiderated: a piece of egotism at
+best, where the author, speaking of himself, has the less chance of
+being listened to. Yet--and what speaker does not think he ought to be
+heard?--the author conceives there may be some necessity, some reason,
+why he should step forward for the purpose of explaining his views in
+connection with the character and design of the following pages.
+
+In the northern counties, and more particularly in Lancashire, the great
+arena of the STANLEYS during the civil wars--where the progress and
+successful issue of his cause was but too confidently anticipated by
+CHARLES STUART, and the scene especially of those strange and unholy
+proceedings in which the "Lancashire witches" rendered themselves so
+famous--it may readily be imagined that a number of interesting legends,
+anecdotes, and scraps of family history, are floating about, hitherto
+preserved chiefly in the shape of oral tradition. The antiquary, in most
+instances, rejects the information that does not present itself in the
+form of an authentic and well-attested fact; and legendary lore, in
+particular, he throws aside as worthless and unprofitable. The author of
+the "TRADITIONS OF LANCASHIRE," in leaving the dry and heraldic
+pedigrees which unfortunately constitute the great bulk of those works
+that bear the name of county histories, enters on the more entertaining,
+though sometimes apocryphal narratives, which exemplify and embellish
+the records of our forefathers.
+
+A native of Lancashire, and residing there during the greater part of
+his life, he has been enabled to collect a mass of local traditions, now
+fast dying from the memories of the inhabitants. It is his object to
+perpetuate these interesting relics of the past, and to present them in
+a form that may be generally acceptable, divested of the dust and dross
+in which the originals are but too often disfigured, so as to appear
+worthless and uninviting.
+
+Tradition is not an unacceptable source of historical inquiry; and the
+writer who disdains to follow these glimmerings of truth will often find
+himself in the dark, with nothing but his own opinions--the smouldering
+vapour of his own imagination--to guide him in the search.
+
+The following extract from a German writer on the subject sufficiently
+exemplifies and illustrates the design the author has generally had
+before him in the composition and arrangement of the following
+legends:--
+
+"Simple and unimportant as the subject may at first appear, it will be
+found, upon a nearer view, well worth the attention of philosophical and
+historical inquirers. All genuine, popular Tales, arranged with local
+and national reference, cannot fail to throw light upon contemporary
+events in history, upon the progressive cultivation of society, and
+upon the prevailing modes of thinking in every age. Though not
+consisting of a recital of bare facts, they are in most instances
+founded upon fact, and in so far connected with history, which
+occasionally, indeed, borrows from, and as often reflects light upon,
+these familiar annals, these more private and interesting casualties of
+human life.
+
+"It is thus that popular tradition, connected with all that is most
+interesting in human history and human action, upon a national scale--a
+mirror reflecting the people's past worth and wisdom--invariably
+possesses so deep a hold upon its affections, and offers so many
+instructive hints to the man of the world, to the statesman, the
+citizen, and the peasant.
+
+"Signs of approaching changes, no less in manners than in states, may
+likewise be traced, floating down this popular current of opinions,
+fertilising the seeds scattered by a past generation, and marking by its
+ebbs and flows the state of the political atmosphere, and the distant
+gathering of the storm.
+
+"National traditions further serve to throw light upon ancient and
+modern mythology; and in many instances they are known to preserve
+traces of their fabulous descent, as will clearly appear in some of the
+following selections. It is the same with those of all nations, whether
+of eastern or western origin, Greek, Scythian, or Kamtschatkan. And
+hence, among every people just emerged out of a state of barbarism, the
+same causes lead to the production of similar compositions; and a chain
+of connection is thus established between the fables of different
+nations, only varied by clime and custom, sufficient to prove, not
+merely a degree of harmony, but secret interchanges and communications."
+
+A record of the freaks of such airy beings, glancing through the mists
+of national superstition, would prove little inferior in poetical
+interest and association to the fanciful creations of the Greek
+mythology. The truth is, they are of one family, and we often discover
+allusions to the beautiful fable of Psyche or the story of Midas;
+sometimes with the addition, that the latter was obliged to admit his
+barber into his uncomfortable secret. Odin and Jupiter are brothers, if
+not the same person; and the northern Hercules is often represented as
+drawing a strong man by almost invisible threads, which pass from his
+tongue round the limbs of the victim, thereby symbolising the power of
+eloquence. Several incidents in the following tales will be recognised
+by those conversant with Scandinavian literature, thus adding another
+link to the chain of certainty which unites the human race, or at any
+rate that part of it from which Europe was originally peopled, in one
+original tribe or family.
+
+A work of this nature, embodying the material of our own island
+traditions, has not yet been attempted; and the writer confidently hopes
+that these tales may be found fully capable of awakening and sustaining
+the peculiar and high-wrought interest inherent in the legends of our
+continental neighbours. Should they fail of producing this effect, he
+requests that it may be attributed rather to his want of power to
+conjure up the spirits of past ages, than to any want of capabilities in
+the subjects he has chosen to introduce.
+
+To the local and to the general reader--to the antiquary and the
+uninitiated--to the admirers of the fine arts and embellishments of our
+literature, he hopes his labours will prove acceptable; and should the
+plan succeed, not Lancashire alone, but the other counties, may in their
+turn become the subject of similar illustrations. The tales are arranged
+chronologically, forming a somewhat irregular series from the earliest
+records to those of a comparatively modern date. They may in point of
+style appear at the commencement stiff and stalwart, like the chiselled
+warriors, whose deeds are generally enveloped in a rude narrative, hard
+and ponderous as their gaunt and grisly effigies. The events, however,
+as the author has found them, gradually assimilate with the familiar
+aspects and everyday affections of our nature--subsiding from the stern
+and repulsive character of a barbarous age into the usual forms and
+modes of feeling incident to humanity--as some cold and barren region,
+where one stunted blade of affection can scarce find shelter, gradually
+opens Out into the quiet glades and lowly habitudes of ordinary
+existence.
+
+The author disclaims all pretensions to superior knowledge. He would not
+even arrogate to himself the name of antiquary. Some of the incidents
+are perhaps well known, being merely put into a novel and more popular
+shape. The spectator is here placed upon an eminence where the scenes
+assume a new aspect, new combinations of beauty and grandeur being the
+result of the vantage ground he has obtained. Nothing more is attempted
+than what others, with the same opportunities, might have done as
+well--perhaps better. When Columbus broke the egg--if we may be excused
+the arrogance of the simile--all that were present could have done the
+same; and some, no doubt, might have performed the operation more
+dexterously.
+
+_1st October_ 1829.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO THE SECOND SERIES.
+
+
+In presenting another and concluding series of Lancashire Traditions to
+the public, the author has to express his thanks for the indulgence he
+has received, and the spirit of candour and kindness with which this
+attempt to illustrate in a novel manner the legends of his native county
+has been viewed by the periodical press.
+
+To his numerous readers, in the capacity of an author, he would say
+Farewell, did not the "everlasting adieus," everlastingly repeated, warn
+him that he might at some future time be subject to the same infirmity,
+only rendered more conspicuous by weakness and irresolution.
+
+Rochdale, _October_ 1831.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND SERIES.
+
+
+No method has yet been discovered for preserving the recollection of
+human actions and events precisely as they have occurred, whole and
+unimpaired, in all their truth and reality. Time is an able teacher of
+causes and qualities, but he setteth little store by names and persons,
+or the mould and fashion of their deeds. The pyramids have outlived the
+very names of their builders. "Oblivion," says Sir Thomas Browne,
+"blindly scatters her poppies. Time has spared the epitaph of Adrian's
+horse--confounded that of himself!"
+
+Few things are so durable as the memory of those mischiefs and
+oppressions which Time has bequeathed to mankind. The names of
+conquerors and tyrants have been faithfully preserved, while those from
+whom have originated the most useful and beneficial discoveries are
+entirely unknown, or left to perish in darkness and uncertainty. We
+should not have known that Lucullus brought cherries from the banks of
+the Phasis but through the details of massacre and spoliation--the
+splendid barbarities of a Roman triumph. In some instances Time displays
+a fondness and a caprice in which the gloomiest tyranny is seen
+occasionally to indulge. The unlettered Arab cherishes the memory of his
+line. He traces it unerringly to a remoter origin than could be claimed
+or identified by the most ancient princes of Europe. In many instances
+he could give a clearer and a higher genealogy to his horse. But that
+which Time herself would spare, the critic and the historian would
+demolish. The northern barbarians are accused of an exterminating
+hostility to learning. It never was half so bitter as the warfare which
+learning displays against everything of which she herself is not the
+author. A living historian has denied that the poems of Ossian had any
+existence save in the conceptions of Macpherson, because he
+condescendingly informs us, "Before the invention or introduction of
+letters, human memory is incapable of any faithful record which may be
+transmitted from age to age."
+
+The account which Macpherson gave may be a fiction, but it is admitted
+by those who know the native Scotch and Irish tongues, and have dwelt
+where no other language is spoken, that there are poems which have been
+transmitted from generation to generation (orally it must be, since
+letters are either entirely unknown or are comparatively of recent
+introduction), the machinery of which prove them to have been invented
+about the time when Christianity was first preached in these islands.
+
+Tradition may well be named the eldest daughter of Time, and
+nursing-mother of the Muses--the fruitful parent of that very learning
+which would, in the cruel spirit of its pedantry and malice, make her
+the sacrifice while it lays claim to the inheritance. What is learning
+but a laborious, often ill-drawn, and almost invariably partial
+deduction from facts which tradition has first collected? When we
+consider in whose hands learning has been, almost ever since its
+creation; the uses which have been made of it by priests and
+politicians; by poets, orators, and flatterers; by controversialists and
+designing historians;--how commonly has it been perverted to abuse the
+very senses of mankind, and to give a bias to their thoughts and
+feelings, only to mislead and to betray! Let the evidence be well
+compared, and a view taken of the respective amounts of doubt and
+certainty which appertain to human history as it appears in written
+records; and it will be seen that, to verify any given fact, so as to
+prevent the possibility of doubt, we must throw aside our reverence for
+the scholar's pen and the midnight lamp, which seem, like the faculty of
+speech, only given to men, as the witty Frenchman observed, "to conceal
+their thoughts." This comparative process is precisely what has been
+adopted by M.L. Petit Radel in his new theory upon the origin of Greece.
+"Not satisfied with the mythological equivocation and contradictory
+statements which till now have perplexed the question, after a residence
+of ten years this learned man returns with a new theory, which would
+destroy all our received ideas, and carry the civilisation and cradle of
+the Greeks much beyond the time and place that have till now been
+supposed. It is their very architecture that M. Petit Radel
+interrogates, and its passive testimony serves as a basis to his system.
+He has visited, compared, and meditated on the unequivocal vestiges of
+more than one hundred and fifty antique citadels, altogether neglected
+by the Greek and Roman authors. Their form and construction serve him,
+with the aid of ingenious reasoning, to prove that Greece was civilised
+a long time before the arrival of the Egyptian colonies. He does not
+despair of tracing back the descent of the Greeks to the Hyperborean
+nations, always by the analogy of their structures, which, by a singular
+identity, are found also among the Phoenicians. The Institute have
+pronounced the following judgment upon his theory:--'If the developments
+which remain to be given to us suffice to gain the votes of the learned,
+and induce them to adopt this theory as demonstrated truth, M.L. Petit
+Radel may flatter himself with having made in history a discovery truly
+worthy to occupy a place in the progress of human genius.'"
+
+Thus the very time in which a living historian of England has chosen to
+inflict an impotent blow, from the leaden sceptre of Johnsonian
+criticism, upon all facts which claim an existence anterior to the
+invention of books, appears pregnant with a discovery of a method of
+investigating the most remote eras, which presupposes an inherent spirit
+of fallacy and falsehood in all written records of their existence.
+
+About three hundred years after the era of the Olympiads, the first date
+of authentic history, Herodotus astonished his countrymen by the
+writings he brought forth. Who kept the records out of which his work
+was elaborated ere he was ready to stamp the facts with the only seal
+which our modern historians will acknowledge or allow? Tradition
+doubtless was his guide, which the learned themselves complain of as the
+source of what they term his errors and his fables. But the voice of
+tradition has often reinstated his claims to our belief, where it had
+been suspended either by ignorance or pretensions to superior knowledge.
+A modern traveller found, in one of the isles of the Grecian
+Archipelago, undoubted vestiges of a state of society similar to that of
+the Amazons. The order of the sexes was wholly inverted. The wife ruled
+the husband, and his and her kindred, with uncontrolled and unsparing
+rigour, sanctioned and even commanded by the laws. Yet the very
+existence of any such people as the Amazons of ancient history has not
+only been questioned, but denied. Learning has proved it to be
+impossible.
+
+The Marquess of Hastings told the Rev. Mr Swan, chaplain of the
+Cambrian, that he had found the germ of fact from which many of the most
+incredible tales in ancient history had grown during his stay in India.
+One instance only we would relate. A Grecian author mentions a people
+who had only one leg. An embassy from the interior was conducted into
+the presence of the viceroy, and he could by no persuasion prevail upon
+the obsequious minister to use more than one of his legs, though he
+stood during the whole of a protracted audience.
+
+But there are other forces now drawing into the field to support the
+long-neglected claims of tradition. Etymology, which professed to settle
+doubts by an appeal to the elementary sounds of words, was banished from
+the politer and more influential circles of English learning by a decree
+as arbitrary as that pronounced on the poems of Ossian. It has come back
+with a new commission and under a new title;--Ethnography is the name
+given by our continental neighbours to this new science, which, in its
+future developments, may bring to light some of the most obscure and
+important circumstances affecting the human race, from its origin
+through every succeeding epoch of its existence. The distinguishing
+object of this inquiry is to identify the fortunes, migrations, and
+changes of the human family as to situation, policy, religion,
+agriculture, and arts, by comparing the terms supplied by or introduced
+into the language of any one country with the names of the same objects
+in every other. There would be no such thing as chance in nature could
+we know the laws which determine every separate accident. In like manner
+there will scarcely be any doubt respecting the primitive history of man
+when this new science shall have accumulated and revealed all the
+treasures which it may be enabled to appropriate. An agreement in the
+primitive term which any object of cultivation, physical or moral, bears
+among many different tribes, spread over many and far-distant regions,
+will be considered as the best evidence of one common origin.
+Disagreement in a similar case, accompanied with a great variety of
+terms of considerable dissonance, will be equally conclusive as to the
+object being indigenous or of a multifarious origin.
+
+Already has Balbi, in his Ethnographic Atlas, given us a list of names
+and coincidences to an extent truly astonishing. Yet what is this, in
+fact, but a judicious use of Bacon's old but much-neglected rule of
+questioning nature about facts instead of theories--examining evidences
+ere rhetoric had made language one vast heap of implied falsehood?
+
+In a court of inquiry we examine witnesses as to facts, not opinions.
+But the historian reads mankind in cities; the philosopher in the
+clouds. He who is anxious for the truth should look abroad on the plains
+or in the woods, where man's first prerogative, the giving of names, was
+exercised. His knowledge of nature must be wretchedly imperfect who
+thinks that no grand outline of truth can possibly exist in the dim
+records of human recollection ere the pen of the scholar was employed to
+depict the scenes that opinion or prejudice had created. How many pages
+of Clarendon's, Hume's, or even Robertson's history would be cancelled
+if we had access to all the recollections of each event, and the
+evidence of the unlettered vulgar who had witnessed the fact brought to
+our notice, even through the mouthpiece of tradition!
+
+There is more truth than comes to the surface in that speech put into
+the lips of the father of lies by a late poet, where he says--
+
+     "The Bible's your book--history mine."
+
+Savigny makes the same charge against one class of historians in his own
+country:--"However discordant," says he, "their other doctrines may
+appear, they agree in the practice of adopting each a particular system,
+and in viewing all historical evidence as so many proofs of its truth."
+
+Were it not for that contempt we have already noticed as the offspring
+of pride and dogmatism, and which, in the administration of the republic
+of letters, has been entertained and openly proclaimed for every kind of
+history except that which its own acts may have originated, we should
+have been in possession of thousands of facts and notions now overlaid
+and lost irrecoverably to the philosopher and the historian.
+
+The origin and the progress of nations, next after the school divinity
+of the Middle Ages, has occasioned the most copious outpouring of
+conjectural criticism. The simple mode of research suggested by the
+works of Verstegan, Camden, and Spelman would, long before this time,
+have made the early history of the British tribes as clear as it is now
+obscure. Analogies in the primary sounds of each dialect; similarity or
+difference in regard to objects of the first, or of a common necessity;
+rules or laws for the succession of property, which are as various as
+the tribes which overran the empire; the nature, agreement, or
+dissimilarity in religious worship with those vestiges of its ritual and
+celebration which, by the "pious frauds" and connivance of the early
+church, still lurk in the pastimes of our rural districts:--the new
+science of which we have spoken, by taking cognisance of these and all
+other existing sources of legitimate investigation, will settle the
+source and affinities of nations upon a plan as much superior to that of
+Grotius and his school as fact and reason exceed the guess-work of the
+theorist and the historian. Meantime we would cite a few examples that
+illustrate and bear more particularly on the subject to which our
+inquiries have been directed.
+
+Nothing seems at first sight more difficult than to establish a
+community of origin between the gods of Olympus and those of the
+Scandinavian mythology. The attempt has often been made, and each time
+with increased success. Observe the process adopted in this interesting
+inquiry.
+
+"Every country in Europe has invested its popular fictions with the
+same common marvels--all acknowledge the agency of the lifeless
+productions of nature; the intervention of the same supernatural
+machinery; the existence of elves, fairies, dwarfs, giants, witches, and
+enchanters; the use of spells, charms, and amulets, and all those
+highly-gifted objects, of whatever form or name, whose attributes refute
+every principle of human experience, which are to conceal the
+possessor's person, annihilate the bounds of space, or command a
+gratification of all our wishes. These are the constantly-recurring
+types which embellish the popular tale: which have been transferred to
+the more laboured pages of romance; and which, far from owing their
+first appearance in Europe to the Arabic conquest of Spain, or the
+migrations of Odin to Scandinavia, are known to have been current on its
+eastern verge long anterior to the era of legitimate history. The
+Nereids of antiquity, the daughters of the 'sea-born seer,' are
+evidently the same with the mermaids of the British and northern shores.
+The inhabitants of both are fixed in crystal caves or coral palaces
+beneath the waters of the ocean; they are alike distinguished for their
+partialities to the human race, and their prophetic powers in disclosing
+the events of futurity. The Naiads differ only in name from the Nixen of
+Germany and Scandinavia (Nisser), or the water-elves of our countrymen.
+Ĉlfric and the Nornĉ, who wove the web of life, and sang the fortunes of
+the illustrious Helga, are but the same companions who attended Ilithyia
+at the births of Iamos and Hercules," the venerable Parcĉ of antiquity.
+
+The Russian Rusalkis are of the same family. The man-in-the-moon has
+found a circulation throughout the world. "The clash of elements in the
+thunder-storm was ascribed in Hellas to the rolling chariot-wheels of
+Jove, and in the Scandinavian mythology to the ponderous waggon of the
+Norwegian Thor."
+
+To the above extract, which is taken from the excellent preface by the
+editor to Wharton's _History of English Poetry_, may be added the number
+of high peaks bearing the name of Tor or Thor, seen more especially on
+both coasts of Devonshire, and which are supposed to signalise the
+places of his worship.[6] From the same source may be derived affinities
+equally strong between the Highland Urisks, the Russian Leschies, the
+Pomeranian or Wendish Berstucs, and the Panes and Panisci who presided
+over the fields and forests of Arcadia. The mountains of Germany and
+Scandinavia are under the governance of a set of metallurgic divinities,
+who agree with the Cabiri, Hephĉsti, Telchines, and Idĉan Dactyli. The
+Brownies and Fairies are of the same kindred as the Lares of Latium.
+"The English Puck, the Scottish Bogle, the French Esprit Follet, or
+Goblin, the Gobelinus of monkish Latinity, and the German Kobold, are
+only varied names for the Grecian Kobalus, whose sole delight consisted
+in perplexing the human race, and calling up those harmless terrors that
+constantly hover round the minds of the timid." "The English and
+Scottish terms, '_Puck,' 'Bogle'_, are the same as the German 'Spuk' and
+the Danish 'Spogelse,' without the sibilant aspiration. These words are
+general names for any kind of spirit, and correspond to the 'pouk' of
+Piers Ploughman. In Danish 'spog' means a joke, trick, or prank, and
+hence the character of Robin Goodfellow. In Iceland Puki is regarded as
+an evil sprite; and in the language of that country, 'at pukra' means
+both to make a murmuring noise and to steal clandestinely. The names of
+these spirits seem to have originated in their boisterous
+temper--'spuken,' Germ. to make a noise: 'spog,' Dan. obstreperous
+mirth; 'pukke,' Dan. to boast, scold. The Germans use 'pochin' in the
+same figurative sense, though literally it means to strike, beat; and is
+the same with our _poke_."
+
+However varied in name, the persons and attributes of these immaterial
+beings have no variance which will not readily be accounted for by the
+difference of climate, territorial surface, and any priority that one
+tribe had gained over another in the march of mind. The relics of such a
+system were much more abundant half-a-century ago, and many a tale of
+love and violence, garnished with the machinery of that _mythos_, might
+have been gleaned from the unwritten learning of the people. Who would
+expect to find amongst the rudest of the Irish peasantry--whose
+ancestors never knew the use of letters, and by whom, even down to
+living generations, the English tongue has not been spoken--a number of
+fictions, amongst the rest the tale of Cupid and Psyche--closely
+corresponding to that of the Greeks?[7] Who that has been a child does
+not recollect the untiring delight with which he listened to those
+ingenious arithmetical progressions, reduced to poetry, called "_The
+House that Jack built_," and the perils of "_The Old Woman with the
+Pig_?" Few even of those in riper years would suspect their Eastern
+origin. In the _Sepher Haggadah_ there is an ancient parabolical hymn,
+in the Chaldee language, sung by the Jews at the feast of the Passover,
+and commemorative of the principal events in the history of that people.
+For the following literal translation we are indebted to Dr Henderson,
+the celebrated orientalist:--
+
+    "1. _A kid, a kid_ my father bought,
+        For two pieces of money.
+                                             A kid, a kid.
+
+    "2. Then came _the cat_, and ate the kid,
+        That my father bought,
+        For two pieces of money.
+                                             A kid, a kid.
+
+    "3. Then came _the dog_, and bit the cat,
+        That ate the kid,
+        That my father bought,
+        For two pieces of money.
+                                             A kid, a kid.
+
+    "4. Then came _the staff_, and beat the dog,
+        That bit the cat,
+        That ate the kid,
+        That my father bought,
+        For two pieces of money.
+                                             A kid, a kid.
+
+    "5. Then came _the fire_, and burnt the staff,
+        That beat the dog,
+        That bit the cat,
+        That ate the kid,
+        That my father bought,
+        For two pieces of money.
+                                             A kid, a kid.
+
+    "6. Then came _the water_, and quenched the fire,
+        That burnt the staff,
+        That beat the dog,
+        That bit the cat,
+        That ate the kid,
+        That my father bought,
+        For two pieces of money.
+                                             A kid, a kid.
+
+    "7. Then came _the ox_, and drank the water,
+        That quenched the fire,
+        That burnt the staff,
+        That beat the dog,
+        That bit the cat,
+        That ate the kid,
+        That my father bought,
+        For two pieces of money.
+                                             A kid, a kid.
+
+    "8. Then came _the butcher_, and slew the ox,
+        That drank the water,
+        That quenched the fire,
+        That burnt the staff,
+        That beat the dog,
+        That bit the cat,
+        That ate the kid,
+        That my father bought,
+        For two pieces of money,
+                                             A kid, a kid.
+
+    "9. Then came _the angel of death_, and killed the butcher,
+        That slew the ox.
+        That drank the water,
+        That quenched the fire,
+        That burnt the staff,
+        That beat the dog,
+        That bit the cat,
+        That ate the kid,
+        That my father bought,
+        For two pieces of money.
+                                             A kid, a kid.
+
+    "10. Then came _the Holy One_, blessed be He!
+         And killed the angel of death,
+         That killed the butcher,
+    That slew the ox,
+         That drank the water,
+         That quenched the fire,
+         That burnt the staff,
+         That beat the dog,
+         That bit the cat,
+         That ate the kid,
+         That my father bought,
+         For two pieces of money.
+                                             A kid, a kid."
+
+The following is the interpretation by P.N. Leberecht, Leipzig, 1731.
+
+"1.--The kid, which was one of the pure animals, denotes the Hebrews.
+
+"The father, by whom it was purchased, is Jehovah, who represents
+himself as sustaining this relation to the Hebrew people.
+
+"The two pieces of money signify Moses and Aaron, through whose
+mediation the Hebrews were brought out of Egypt.
+
+"2.--The cat denotes the Assyrians, by whom the ten tribes were carried
+into captivity.
+
+"3.--The dog is symbolical of the Babylonians.
+
+"4.--The staff signifies the Persians.
+
+"5.--The fire indicates the Grecian empire under Alexander the Great.
+
+"6.--The water betokens the Roman, or the fourth of the great monarchies
+to whose dominion the Jews were subjected.
+
+"7--- The ox is a symbol of the Saracens, who subdued Palestine, and
+brought it under the caliphate.
+
+"8.--The butcher that killed the ox denotes the Crusaders, by whom the
+Holy Land was wrested out of the hands of the Saracens.
+
+"9.--The angel of death signifies the Turkish power, by which the land
+of Palestine was taken from the Franks, and to which it is still
+subject.
+
+"10.--The commencement of the tenth stanza is designed to show that God
+will take signal vengeance on the Turks, immediately after whose
+overthrow the Jews are to be restored to their own land, and live under
+the government of their long-expected Messiah."
+
+To return to illustrations less remote, and of a more familiar nature:--
+
+An ill-bred. Londoner calls a shilling a _hog_, and half-a-crown a
+_bull_. He little knows what havoc he is making with our modern
+theorists, who assert that nothing is worthy of belief, or ought to be
+relied upon, before the era of "legitimate" or written "history." These
+terms corroborate and identify themselves with the most ancient of
+traditionary customs, long ere princes had monopolised the surface of
+coined money with their own images and superscriptions. They are
+identical with the very name of money among the early Romans, which was
+_pecunia_, from _pecus_, a flock. Among the same people, it is well
+known, the word _stipulatio_ signified the striking of a bargain, which
+was done by placing two straws, _stipes_, one across the other. The same
+mode is practised to this day in the Isle of Man, existing, in all
+probability, from a period earlier than the foundation of Rome itself.
+Is the coincidence accidental or traditional? If the latter, what a
+history it tells of the migration of the species!
+
+How much might be written of amulets, cups, and horns of magical power,
+from the divining cup of Genesis to the Amalthean horns, and the goblet
+of Oberon, which he gave to Huon of Bordeaux, the supernatural power of
+which, passing into an hundred shapes of fiction, may be found in our
+baronial halls--a pledge, to a certain extent, like the invulnerability
+of Achilles, of the good fortune of its possessor. It is wonderful that
+Shakespeare, who is so happy in the verisimilitude of his fairy lore,
+and so apt to embellish his plot with its mythology, should not have
+thought of causing the king-making Earl of Warwick to lose the horn of
+that prodigious cow--no doubt one of those guardian pledges bestowed
+upon his family--by way of presage to his fall. Deer's antlers, there
+can be little doubt, were placed in the halls of our forefathers, a
+votive offering to the Diana of the Scandinavian Pantheon; as it was the
+custom in like manner to ornament the temples with the heads of
+sacrificial victims in the Greek and Roman worship. The eagerness of our
+sportsmen for the "brush," as the first trophy in the chase, has in all
+probability originated from the same propitiatory notion.
+
+Few would expect to meet with fragments of the worship of Juno in the
+racing of country girls for an inner garment, and the hunting of the pig
+with his tail greased; yet practised, but rapidly becoming obsolete, in
+wakes and other pastimes from Scotland to the Land's End.
+
+Thus far we have examined tradition by the test of positive experience.
+There is still a gleaning of poetry which might be culled, in some few
+districts, from the "lyre of the unlettered muse." There are songs
+scattered up and down our own and the neighbouring counties among the
+population least affected by the spread of literature which are of great
+antiquity, and are not to be found in any books or writings now extant.
+A few of these might be gathered in; while to some, who love the tone
+and humour of the old ballads, they would be an acquisition of great
+value. But the intercourse between master and man, between town and
+country, and even amongst the learned themselves, becomes so cold and
+repulsive, either from increasing refinement or reserve, that there
+seems little hope of our finding any one who will take the trouble to
+collect them, or a sufficient number of real admirers of these relics
+who would come forward to ensure a suitable reward for the labour. We
+are sorely disgraced among foreigners for inattention to the course and
+progress of our own learning. No work exists, like those which
+illustrate and embellish the French, Italian, and German literature,
+which professes to give a summary view of its history. The knowledge of
+its antiquities, its customs, manners, laws, modes of feeling, and
+pursuits, except in the instances before mentioned, and a few other
+praiseworthy exceptions, have been shamefully obscured by an eagerness
+for supporting a system, the ridiculous rivalry of pretence, and by the
+discredit thrown upon such labours by modern pedantry. A new version of
+Camden, rectified by all the discoveries subsequent to his time;--that
+which is found useless or erroneous left out, and the work enlightened
+by new researches, entered into by a number of inquirers equal in all
+respects to the task, and exerted over every part of the country, would
+very much aid the cause of learning and the future progress of our
+knowledge.
+
+The following traditions, we would fain hope, will not be found quite
+destitute of utility. They are some addition to our existing stock of
+knowledge, either as illustrating English history, manners, and customs
+now obsolete, or as a collection of legends, having truth for their
+basis, however disfigured in their transmission through various
+modifications of error, the natural obscurity arising from distance, and
+the distorted media through which they must necessarily be viewed.
+Perhaps a main source of this inaccuracy arises from the many and
+heterogeneous uses to which the breakings up, the fragments of tradition
+have been subjected and applied. Like those detached yet beautiful
+remnants of antiquity, built up with other and absolutely worthless
+materials in the rude structures of the barbarian by whom they have been
+disfigured, traditions are generally presented to us torn from their
+original connection with edifices once renowned for beauty and
+magnificence. It is our wish, as it has been our aim, to rescue these
+ruins from degradation and decay. Gathered from many an uninviting heap
+of chaotic matter, they are now presented in a different form, and under
+a more popular aspect. We cannot pretend to say that we have invariably
+assigned to them their true origin, or that their real character and
+position have been ascertained. Still, we would hope, that, as relics of
+the past rescued from the oblivion to which they were inevitably
+hastening, they are not either an uninteresting or inelegant addition to
+the literature of our country.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[6] "They worshipped fire as the representative of the Deity,
+which they kept continually burning on the tops of their highest
+mountains."--_Foreign Quarterly Review_, No. XV.: Art. "Popular Poetry,"
+p. 77.
+
+[7] That Ireland has not always presented so degrading and uncivilised
+an aspect as now exists in that unhappy country, there is abundant
+testimony to convince the most incredulous. Camden, an author by no
+means partial on this score, says:--"The Irish scholars of St. Patrick
+profited so notably in Christianity that, in the succeeding age, Ireland
+was termed '_Sanctorum Patria_.'" Their monks so excelled in learning
+and piety, that they sent whole flocks of most holy men into all parts
+of Europe, "who were founders of the most eminent monasteries both there
+and in Britain."
+
+"A residence in Ireland," says a learned British writer, "like a
+residence now at an university, was considered as almost essential to
+establish a literary character." By common consent, and as a mark of
+pre-eminence, Ireland obtained the title of _Insula Sanctorum et
+Doctorum_.
+
+At the Council of Constance, in 1417, the ambassadors from England were
+not allowed to rank or take any place as the ambassadors of a nation.
+The point being argued and conceded, that they were tributaries only to
+the Germans, "they claimed their rank from Henry being monarch of
+Ireland only, and it was accordingly granted."--_O'Halloran_.
+
+[Illustration: SIR TARQUIN.]
+
+
+
+
+SIR TARQUIN.
+
+    "Within this ancient British land,
+      In Lancashire I understand,
+    Near Manchester there lived a knight of fame,
+      Of a prodigious strength and might,
+      Who vanquished many a worthy knight;
+    A giant great, and Tarquin was his name."
+
+_Ballad of Sir Tarquin_.
+
+
+As it is our intention to arrange these traditions in chronological
+order, we begin with the earliest upon record, the overthrow of the
+giant Tarquin, near Manchester, by Sir Lancelot of the Lake, who was
+supposed to bear rule over the western part of Lancashire.
+
+An old ballad commemorates the achievement; and many other relics of
+this tradition still exist, one of which, a rude carving on a ceiling in
+the College at Manchester, represents the giant Tarquin at his morning's
+repast; it being fabled that he devoured a child daily at this meal. The
+legs of the infant are seen sprawling out of his mouth in a most
+unseemly fashion. Some have supposed that Tarquin was but a symbol or
+personification of the Roman army, and his castle the Roman station in
+this neighbourhood.
+
+The following extract is from Dr Hibbert's pamphlet on the subject:--
+
+"Upon the site of Castlefield, near Manchester, was originally erected a
+British fortress by the Sistuntii, the earliest possessors of
+Lancashire, comprising an area of twelve acres. It would possess on the
+south, south-east, and south-west, every advantage, from the winding of
+the River Medlock, and on its west, from the lofty banks which
+overlooked an impenetrable morass. By the artificial aid, therefore, of
+a ditch and a rampart on its east and north sides, this place was
+rendered a fortress of no inconsiderable importance. This fell
+afterwards into the hands of the Brigantes, the ancient inhabitants of
+Durham, York, and Westmoreland. Upon the invasion of the Romans,
+Cereales, their general, attacked the proper Brigantes of Yorkshire and
+Durham, and freed the Sistuntii of Lancashire from their dominion, but
+reserved the former to incur the Roman yoke. In A.D. 79, this British
+hold was changed into a Roman castrum, garrisoned by the first Frisian
+cohort, who erected from the old materials a new fort on the Roman
+construction, part of the vallum remaining to this day. New roads were
+made, and the British were invited to form themselves into the little
+communities of cities, to check the spirit of independence kept alive in
+the uncivilised abodes of deserted forests. The Romans possessed the
+fortress for nearly 300 years, when they were summoned away to form part
+of the army intended to repel the myriads of barbarians that threatened
+to overrun Europe.
+
+"By contributing to their refinement, and protecting them from the
+inroads of the Picts and Scots, the Romans were regarded in a friendly
+light by the ancient inhabitants, and their departure was much
+regretted. It became necessary, however, that the Britons should elect a
+chief from their own nation. Their military positions were strengthened;
+and as the Roman model of a fortress did not suit their military taste,
+instead of one encircled with walls only seven or eight feet high, and
+furnishing merely pavilions for soldiers within, they preferred
+erecting, on the sites of stations, large buildings of stone, whose
+chambers should contain more convenient barracks for the garrison. An
+infinite number of these castles existed within a century after the
+departure of the Romans, of which our Castle at Manchester was one,
+carried to a great height, erected in a good taste, secured at the
+entrances with gates, and flanked at the sides with towers.
+
+"The Britons, however, unable of themselves to cope with their foes,
+imprudently invited the Saxons, who, after subduing the Caledonians,
+laid waste the country of the Britons with fire and sword. The Castle of
+Manchester surrendered A.D. 488."
+
+
+We have endeavoured to preserve the character and manner of the ancient
+chroniclers, and even their fanciful etymologies, in the following
+record, of which the quaint but not inelegant style, in some measure,
+almost unavoidably adapts itself to the subject.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Sir Lancelot of the Lake, as it is related by the older chronicles, was
+the son of Ban, King of Benoit, in Brittany. Flying from his castle,
+then straitly besieged, the fugitive king saw it in flames, and soon
+after expired with grief. His queen, Helen, fruitlessly attempting to
+save his life, abandoned for a while her infant son Lancelot. Returning,
+she discovered him in the arms of the nymph Vivian, the mistress of
+Merlin, who on her approach sprung with the child into a deep lake and
+disappeared. This lake is held by some to be the lake Linius, a wide
+insular water near the sea-coast, in the regions of Linius or "The
+Lake;" now called Martin Mere or _Mar-tain-moir,_ "a water like the
+sea."
+
+The nymph educated the infant at her court, fabulously said to have been
+held in the subterraneous caverns of this lake, and from hence he was
+styled Lancelot du Lac.
+
+At the age of eighteen the fairy conveyed him to the camp of King
+Arthur, who was then waging a fierce and exterminating warfare with the
+Saxons. Here the young warrior was invested with the badge of
+knighthood. His person, accomplishments, and unparalleled bravery,
+having won the heart of many a fair dame in this splendid abode of
+chivalry and romance, his name and renown filled the land, where he was
+throughout acknowledged as chief of "The Knights of the Round Table."
+
+The name of Lancelot is derived from history, and is an appellation
+truly British, signifying royalty, _Lanc_ being the Celtic term for a
+spear, and _lod_ or _lot_ implying a people. Hence the name of
+Lancelot's shire, or Lancashire. From the foregoing it is supposed that
+he resided in the region of Linius, and that he was the monarch of these
+parts, being ruler over the whole, or the greater part, of what is now
+called Lancashire.
+
+Arthur, king of the Silures, being selected by Ambrosius for the command
+of the army, he defeated the Saxons in twelve pitched battles. Four of
+these were obtained, as related by Nennius, on the river called
+Duglas,[8] or Douglas, a little stream which runneth, as we are further
+told, in the region of Linius. On reference, it will be found that this
+river passes through a great portion of the western side of Lancashire,
+and pretty accurately fixes the position here described.
+
+Three of these great victories were gotten near Wigan, and the other is
+currently reported to have been achieved near Black rod, close to a
+Roman station, then probably fortified, and remaining as a place of some
+strength, and in possession of the Saxon invaders. Here, according to
+rude legends, "the River Duglas ran with blood to Wigan three days."
+
+It was during one of the brief intervals of rest that sometimes occurred
+in the prosecution of these achievements that the following incident is
+reported to have happened. Being a passage of some note, and the
+earliest tradition of the county upon record, we have chosen it as the
+commencement of a work principally derived from traditionary history.
+
+Sir Tarquin, a cruel and treacherous knight of gigantic stature and
+prodigious strength, had, as the story is currently told, his dwelling
+in a well-fortified castle nigh to Manchester, on the site of what is
+yet known by the name of Castle-field. It was a place of great strength,
+surrounded by vast ramparts, and flanked at the corners with high and
+stately towers.
+
+He had by treachery gained possession of the fortress, treating the
+owner, who was a British knight of no mean condition, with great cruelty
+and rigour. This doughty Saxon, Sir Tarquin, had, along with many of his
+nation, been invited over in aid of the Britons against their neighbours
+the Picts and Scots. These being driven back, their false allies
+treacherously made war upon their friends, laying waste the country with
+fire and sword. Then arose that noble brotherhood, "The Knights of the
+Round Table," who, having sworn to avenge the wrongs of their country,
+began to harass the intruders, and to drive them from their ill-gotten
+possessions.
+
+The Saxons were no less vigilant; but many of their most puissant
+knights were slain or imprisoned during these encounters.
+
+Sir Tarquin could boast of no mean success;--threescore knights and
+four, it is said, were held in thrall by this uncourteous chieftain.
+
+Sir Lancelot having, as the ballad quaintly expresses it,
+
+    "A mighty giant just pulled down,
+      Who lived near Shrewsbury's fair town;
+    With his keen sword his life away did take."
+
+This giant knight was called Sir Carados; and Sir Lancelot, when about
+betaking himself to these and similar recreations, did hear doleful
+tidings out of Lancashire, how that Sir Tarquin was playing the eagle in
+the hawk's eyrie, amongst his brethren and companions. From Winchester
+he rode in great haste, succouring not a few distressed damsels and
+performing many other notable exploits by the way, "until he came to a
+vast desert," "frequented by none save those whom ill fortune had
+permitted to wander therein." Sir Tarquin, like the dragon of yore,
+entailed a desert round his dwelling: so fierce and rapacious was he
+that no man durst live beside him, save that he held his life and
+property of too mean account, and too worthless for the taking.
+
+The knight was pricking on his way through this almost pathless
+wilderness, when he espied a damsel of such inexpressible and ravishing
+beauty that none might behold her without the most heart-stirring
+delight and admiration. To this maiden did Sir Lancelot address himself,
+but she hid her face and fell a-weeping. He then inquired the cause of
+her dolour, when she bade him flee, for his life was in great jeopardy.
+
+"Oh, Sir Knight!" uncovering her face as she spoke, "the giant Tarquin
+liveth hereabout, and thou wert as good as dead should he espy thee so
+near his castle."
+
+"What!" said the knight, "and shall Sir Lancelot of the Lake flee before
+this false and cruel tyrant? To this purpose am I come, that I may slay
+and make an end of him at once, and deliver the captives."
+
+"Art thou, indeed, Sir Lancelot?" said the damsel, joy suddenly starting
+through her tears; "then is our deliverance nearer than we hoped for.
+Thy fame is gone before thee into all countries, and thy might and thy
+prowess, it is said, none may withstand. This evil one, Sir Tarquin,
+hath taken captive my true knight, who, through my cruelty, betook
+himself to this adventure, and now lieth in chains and foul ignominy,
+without hope of release, until death break off his fetters."
+
+"Beshrew me," said Lancelot, "but I will deliver him presently, and cut
+off the foul tyrant's head, or lose mine own by the attempt."
+
+Then did he follow the maiden to a river's brink, near to where, as
+tradition still reports, now stand the Knott Mills. Having mounted her
+before him on his steed, she pointed out a path over the ford, beyond
+which he soon espied the castle, a vast and stately building of rugged
+stone, like a huge crown upon the hill-top, which presented a gentle
+ascent from the stream.
+
+Now did Sir Lancelot alight, as well to assist his companion as to
+bethink himself what course to pursue; but the damsel showed him a high
+tree, about a stone's-throw from the ditch before the castle, whereon
+hung a goodly array of accoutrements, with many fair and costly shields,
+on which were displayed a variety of gay and fanciful devices. These
+were the property of the knights then held in durance by Sir Tarquin.
+Below them all hung a copper basin, on which was carved in Latin the
+following inscription, translated thus--
+
+    "Who valueth not his life a whit,
+    Let him this magic basin hit."
+
+This so enraged Sir Lancelot that he drove at the vessel violently with
+his spear, piercing it through and through, so vigorous was the assault.
+The clangour was loud, and anxiously did the knight await for some reply
+to his summons. Yet there was no answer, nor was there any stir about
+the walls or outworks. It seemed as though Sir Tarquin was his own
+castellan, skulking here alone, like the cunning spider watching for his
+prey.
+
+Silence, with her vast and unmoving wings, appeared to brood over the
+place; and echo, that gave back their summons from the walls, seemed to
+labour for utterance through the void by which they were encompassed. A
+stillness so appalling might needs discourage the hot and fiery purpose
+of Sir Lancelot, who, unused but to the rude clash of arms, and the
+mêlée of the battle, did marvel exceedingly at this forbearance of the
+enemy. But he still rode round about the fortress, expecting that some
+one should come forth to inquire his business, and this did he, to and
+fro, for a long space. As he was just minded to return from so fruitless
+an adventure, he saw a cloud of dust at some distance, and presently he
+beheld a knight galloping furiously towards him. Coming nigh, Sir
+Lancelot was aware that a captive knight lay before him, bound hand and
+foot, bleeding and sore wounded.
+
+"Villain!" cried Sir Lancelot, "and unworthy the name of a true and
+loyal knight, how darest thou do this insult and contumely to an enemy,
+who, though fallen, is yet thine equal? I will make thee rue this foul
+despite, and avenge the wrongs of my brethren of the Round Table."
+
+"If thou be for so brave a meal," said Tarquin, "thou shalt have thy
+fill, and that speedily. I will first cut off thy head, and then serve
+up thy carcase to the Round Table; for both that and thee I do utterly
+defy!"
+
+"This is over-dainty food for thy sending," replied Sir Lancelot
+hastily, and with that they couched their spears. The first rush was
+over, but man and horse had withstood the shock. Again they fell back,
+measuring the distance with an eager and impetuous glance, and again
+they rushed on, as if to overwhelm each other by main strength, when, as
+fortune would have it, their lances shivered, both of them at once, in
+the rebound. The end of Sir Lancelot's spear, as it broke, struck his
+adversary's steed on the shoulder, and caused him to fall suddenly, as
+if sore wounded. Sir Tarquin leaped nimbly from off his back; which Sir
+Lancelot espying, he cried out--
+
+"Now will I show thee the like courtesy; for, by mine honour and the
+faith of a true knight, I will not slay thee at this foul advantage."
+Alighting with haste, they betook themselves to their swords, each
+guarding the opposite attack warily with his shield. That of Sir Tarquin
+was framed of a bull's hide, stoutly held together with thongs, and, in
+truth, seemed well-nigh impenetrable; whilst the shield of his opponent,
+being of more brittle stuff, did seem as though it would have cloven
+asunder with the desperate strokes of Sir Tarquin's sword. Nothing
+daunted, Sir Lancelot brake ofttimes through his adversary's guard, and
+smote him once until the blood trickled down amain. At this sight, Sir
+Tarquin waxed ten times more fierce; and summoning all his strength for
+the blow, wrought so lustily on the head of Sir Lancelot that he began
+to reel; which Tarquin observing, by a side blow struck the sword from
+out his hand, with so sharp and dexterous a jerk that it shivered into a
+thousand fragments.
+
+"Now yield thee, Sir Knight, or thou diest;" and with that the cruel
+monster sprang upon him to accomplish his end. Still Sir Lancelot would
+not yield, nor sue to him for quarter, but flew on his enemy like the
+ravening wolf to his prey. Then were they seen hurtling together like
+wild bulls--Sir Lancelot holding fast his adversary's sword, so that in
+vain he attempted to make a thrust therewith.
+
+"Thou discourteous churl! give me but the vantage of a weapon like thine
+own, and I will fight thee honestly and without flinching."
+
+"Nay, Sir Knight of the Round Table, but this were a merry deed withal,
+to help thee unto that wherewith I might perchance mount some goodly
+bough for the crows to peck at," replied Tarquin. Terrible and unceasing
+was the struggle; but in vain the giant knight attempted to regain the
+use of his sword. Then Sir Lancelot, with a wary eye, finding no hope of
+his life save in the use or accomplishment of some notable stratagem,
+bethought him of the attempt to throw his adversary by a sudden feint.
+To this end he pressed against him heavily and with his whole might,
+then darting suddenly aside, Sir Tarquin fell to the ground with a loud
+cry; which Sir Lancelot espying, leapt joyfully upon him, thinking to
+overcome his enemy; but the latter, too cunning to be thus caught at
+unawares, kept his sword firmly holden, and his enemy was still
+unprovided with the means of defence. Now did Sir Lancelot begin to
+doubt what course he should pursue, when suddenly the damsel, who,
+having bound up the wounds of the captive knight as he lay, and now sat
+a little way off watching the event, cried out with a shrill voice--
+
+"Sir Knight, the tree:--a goodly bough for the gathering." Then did Sir
+Lancelot remember the weapons that were there, along with the shields
+and the body-armour of the knights Sir Tarquin had vanquished. Starting
+up, ere his enemy had recovered himself, he snatched a broad falchion
+from the bough, and again defied him to the combat. But the fight was
+fiercer than before; so that being sore wounded, and the day exceeding
+hot, they were after a season fain to pause for breath.
+
+"Thou art the bravest knight I ever encountered," said Sir Tarquin, "and
+I would crave thy country and thy name; for, by my troth and the honour
+of my gods, I will give thee thy request on one condition, and release
+thy brethren of the Round Table; for why should two knights of such pith
+and prowess slay each other in one day?"
+
+"And what is thy condition?" inquired Sir Lancelot.
+
+"There liveth but one, either in Christendom or Heathenesse, unto whom I
+may not grant this parley; for him have I sworn to kill," said Sir
+Tarquin.
+
+"'Tis well," replied the other; "but what name or cognisance hath he?"
+
+"His name is Lancelot of the Lake!"
+
+"Behold him!" was the reply; Sir Lancelot at the same time brandishing
+his weapon with a shout of defiance.
+
+When Sir Tarquin heard this he gnashed his teeth for very rage.
+
+"Now one of us must die," said he. "Thou slewest my brother Sir Carados
+at Shrewsbury, and I have sworn to avenge his defeat. Thou diest. Not
+all the gods of thy fathers shall deliver thee."
+
+So to it they went with more heat and fury than ever; and a marvel was
+it to behold, for each blow did seem as it would have cleft the other in
+twain, so deadly was the strife and hatred between them.
+
+Sir Lancelot pressed hard upon his foe, though himself grievously
+wounded, and in all likelihood would have won the fight, but, as
+ill-luck would have it, when dealing a blow mighty enough to fell the
+stoutest oak in Christendom, he missed his aim, and with that stumbled
+to the ground. Then did Sir Tarquin shout for joy, and would have made
+an end of him, but that Sir Lancelot, as he lay, aimed a deadly thrust
+below his enemy's shield where he was left unguarded, and quickly turned
+his joy into tribulation; for Sir Tarquin, though not mortally wounded,
+drew back and cried out lustily for pain, the which Sir Lancelot
+hearing, he leapt again to his feet, still eager and impatient for the
+strife.
+
+The contest was again doubtful, neither of them showing any disposition
+to yield, or in any wise to abate the rigour of the conflict. Night,
+too, was coming on apace, and seemed like enough to pitch her tent over
+them, ere the issue was decided. But an event now fell out which,
+unexpectedly enough, terminated this adventure. From some cause arising
+out of the haste and rapidity of the strokes, one of these so chanced,
+that both their swords were suddenly driven from out of their right
+hands; stooping together, by some subtlety or mistake, they exchanged
+weapons. Then did Sir Lancelot soon find his strength to increase,
+whilst his adversary's vigour began to abate; and in the end Sir
+Lancelot slew him, and with his own sword cut off his head. He then
+perceived that the giant's great strength was by virtue of his sword;
+and that it was through his wicked enchantments therewith he had been
+able to overcome, and had wrought such disgrace on the Knights of the
+Round Table. Sir Lancelot forthwith took the keys from the giant's
+girdle, and proceeded to the release of the captive knights, first
+unbinding the prisoner, who yet lay in a piteous swoon hard by. But
+there was a great outcry and lamentation when that he saw his own
+brother Sir Erclos in this doleful case; for it was he whom the cruel
+Tarquin was leading captive when he met the just reward of his misdeeds.
+
+After administering to his relief, Sir Lancelot rode up to the
+castle-gate, but found no entrance thereby. The drawbridge was raised,
+and he sought in vain the means of giving the appointed signal for its
+descent.
+
+But the damsel showed him a secret place where hung a little horn. On
+this he blew a sharp and ringing blast, when the bridge presently began
+to lower, and instantly to adjust itself across the moat; whereon,
+hastening, he unlocked the gate. But here he had nigh fallen into a
+subtle snare, by reason of an ugly dwarf that was concealed in a side
+niche of the wall. He was armed with a ponderous mace; and had not the
+maiden drawn Sir Lancelot aside by main force, he would have been
+crushed in its descent, the dwarf aiming a deadly blow at him as he
+passed. It fell, instead, with a loud crash on the pavement, and broke
+into a thousand fragments. Thereupon, Sir Lancelot smote him with the
+giant's sword, and hewed the mischievous monster asunder without mercy.
+Turning towards the damsel, he beheld her form suddenly change, and she
+vanished from his sight: then was he aware that it had been the nymph
+Vivian who accompanied him through the enchantments he had so happily
+subdued. He soon released his brethren, and great was the joy at the
+Round Table when the Knights returned to the banquet.
+
+
+Thus endeth the chronicle of Sir Tarquin, still a notable tradition in
+these parts, the remains of his castle being shown to this day.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[8] Du-glass, "the becoming, the seemly, green," described by Camden as
+"a small brook, running with an easy and still stream;" which conveys a
+good idea of the word _Du_. The Du-glass empties itself into the estuary
+called by Ptolemy _Bellesama, Belless-aman-e;_ pronounced
+Violish-anne,[9] the literal meaning of which is, that the "mouth of the
+river only is for ships;" _i.e._, that the rivers which form the haven
+are not navigable.--_Chronicles of Eri.--O'Connor._
+
+[9] Ballyshannon is evidently a very slight corruption of this term.
+
+[Illustration: THE GOBLIN BUILDERS.]
+
+
+
+
+THE GOBLIN BUILDERS.
+
+
+    "By well and rills, in meadows green,
+      We nightly dance our heyday guise;
+    And to our fairy king and queen
+      We chant our moonlight minstrelsies.
+        When larks 'gin sing,
+        Away we fling,
+    And babes new-born we steal as we go,
+        And elf in bed
+        We leave instead,
+    And wend us laughing, ho, ho, ho!"--BEN JONSON.
+
+The story which serves for the basis of the following legend will be
+easily recognised in the neighbourhood where the transactions are said
+to have occurred, though probably not known beyond its immediate
+locality.
+
+The accessories are gathered from a number of sources: and the great
+difficulty the author has had to encounter in getting at what he
+conceives the real state and character of the time, together with the
+history of contemporary individuals and events, so as to give a natural
+picture of the manners and customs of that remote era, can be known by
+those only who have entered into pursuits of this nature. In this and in
+the succeeding legends he has attempted to illustrate and portray the
+customs of that particular epoch to which they relate, as well as to
+detail the events on which they are founded.
+
+It may be interesting to notice that a similar exploit is recorded in
+the Scandinavian Legends, and may be traced, under many variations of
+circumstances and events, in the Icelandic, Danish, and Norwegian
+poetry, affording another intimation of the source from whence our
+popular mythology is derived.
+
+
+Towards the latter end of the reign of William, the Norman conqueror,
+Gamel, the Saxon Thane, Lord of Recedham or "Rached," being left in the
+quiet possession of his lands and privileges by the usurper, "minded,"
+as the phrase then was, "for the fear of God and the salvation of his
+immortal soul, to build a chapel unto St Chadde," nigh to the banks of
+the Rache or Roach. For this pious use a convenient place was set apart,
+lying on the north bank of the river, in a low and sheltered spot now
+called "The Newgate." Piles of timber and huge stones were gathered
+thither in the most unwonted profusion; insomuch, that the building
+seemed destined for some more ambitious display than the humble edifices
+called churches then exhibited, of which but few existed in the
+surrounding districts.
+
+The foundations were laid. The loose and spongy nature of the soil
+required heavy stakes to be driven, upon and between which were laid
+several courses of rubble-stone, ready to receive the grouting or
+cement. Yet in one night was the whole mass conveyed, without the loss
+of a single stone, to the summit of a steep hill on the opposite bank,
+and apparently without any visible marks or signs betokening the agents
+or means employed for its removal. It did seem as though their pathway
+had been the viewless air, so silently was all track obliterated. Great
+was the consternation that spread among the indwellers of the four
+several clusters of cabins dignified by the appellation of villages, and
+bearing, with their appendages, the names of Castletown, Spoddenland,
+Honorsfield, and Buckland. With dismay and horror this profanation was
+witnessed. The lord, more especially, became indignant. This daring
+presumption--this wilful outrage, so like bidding defiance to his power,
+bearding the lion even in his den, was deemed an offence calling for
+signal vengeance upon the perpetrators.
+
+At the cross in Honorsfield a proclamation was recited, to the intent,
+that unless the offending parties were forthwith given up to meet the
+punishment that might be awarded to their misdeeds, a heavy mulct would
+follow, and the unfortunate villains and _bordarii_ be subject to such
+further infliction as might still seem wanting to assuage their lord's
+displeasure. Now this was a grievous disaster to the unhappy vassals,
+seeing that none could safely or truly accuse his neighbour. All were
+agreed that human agency had no share in the work. The wiser part threw
+out a shrewd suspicion, that the old deities whom their forefathers had
+worshipped, and whose altars had been thrown down and their sacrifices
+forbidden, had burst the thraldom in which they were aforetime held by
+the Christian priests, and were now brooding a fearful revenge for the
+many insults they had endured. But the decree from the lord was hasty,
+and the command urgent; so that a council was holden for the devising of
+some plan for their relief.
+
+Hugh de Chadwycke and John de Spotland were subordinate lords, or
+feudatories, holding fortified dwellings, castelets, or peels, in the
+manor of Rochdale; the former had builded his rude mansion of massive
+timber, for the double purpose of habitation and defence, on a bold
+eminence, forming a steep bank of the river, about a mile from the
+Thane's castle. Claiming a relationship to the lord, he was in some
+measure privileged above his friend De Spotland, yet was the latter a
+personage of considerable power and influence at the manor court. To
+these men when their aid was necessary, either as counsellors or
+intercessors, did the inhabitants generally repair.
+
+Hugh de Chadwycke was a man of mild and grave deportment, but politic
+withal, and wary of counsel. John de Spotland was of a more bold and
+open temper. De Chadwycke suggested a submissive application to the
+Thane, with a pledge that all possible diligence should be used for the
+fulfilment of his demands. John urged the removal of the materials with
+all expedition to their original site, a watch being set to discover the
+delinquents, should they again presume to lay hands on the stuff. The
+wisdom and propriety of the latter precaution was undisputed; but no one
+seemed willing to undergo the terrible ordeal, each declining the office
+in deference to his more privileged neighbour. No wonder at their
+reluctance to so unequal a contest. To be strangled or torn limb from
+limb was the slightest punishment that could be expected for this daring
+profanation; yet, unless they had witnesses, bodily, to these diabolical
+exploits, it were needless to attempt excusing themselves before the
+haughty chieftain. He would visit with fearful severity all their
+endeavours to deceive, nor would he credit their belief, unless it were
+confirmed by the testimony of an eye-witness. How to procure this
+desirable source of intelligence was a question that was hourly becoming
+more difficult to solve.
+
+Slow and melancholy was their return, while with fear and hesitation
+they communicated the result.
+
+"Now, shame befall thee, Adam of Wills!" said a stout woman, to one of
+the speakers; "thou wert ever a tough fighter; and the cudgel and ragged
+staff were as glib in thine hands as a beggar's pouch on alms-days. Show
+thy mettle, man. I'll spice thee a jug of barley-drink, an' thou be for
+the bout this time."
+
+"Nay," returned Adam, "I 'll fight Beelzebub if he be aught I can hit;
+but these same boggarts, they say, a blow falls on 'em like rain-drops
+on a mist, or like beating the wind with a corn-flail. I cannot fight
+with naught, as it were."
+
+"Shame on thee, Hal!" said a shrill-tongued, crooked little body,
+arrayed in a coarse grey hood, and holding a stick, like unto a
+one-handed crutch, of enormous dimensions. "Shame on thee! I would watch
+myself, but the night-wind sits indifferently on my stomach, and I am
+too old now for these moonshine lifts."
+
+She cast her little bleared eyes, half-shut and distilling contempt, on
+the cowardly bystanders.
+
+"Now, if there be not old Cicely," first went round in a whisper; then a
+deep silence gradually pervaded the assembly.
+
+She had just hobbled down to the cross, and the audience seemed to watch
+her looks with awe and suspicion.
+
+"What, none o' ye? Come, Uctred, thou shalt shame these big-tongued,
+wide-mouthed boasters."
+
+A short swarthy-looking boy, with a leering and unfavourable
+countenance, here stepped forward, taking his station upon one of the
+steps beside his mother. A notion had gone abroad that the boy was the
+fruit of some unhallowed intercourse with an immortal of the fairy or
+pixy kind, whose illicit amours the old woman had wickedly indulged. She
+too, was thought to bear in some degree a charmed life, and to hold
+communion with intelligences not of the most holy or reputable order.
+The boy was dumb. His lips had, however, at times a slight and tremulous
+movement, which strongly impressed the beholders that some discourse was
+then carrying on between "the dummy," as he was generally called, and
+his invisible relatives. His whole aspect was singularly painful and
+forbidding. No wonder, in these times of debasing superstition, that his
+person should be looked on with abhorrence, and even a touch from him be
+accounted an evil of no slight import. His mother alone had the power of
+communicating with him, or of understanding his grimaces.
+
+"Now what will you give me for the use of his pretty eyes this lucky
+night? The Thane will have regard to his testimony, though all that have
+free use of the tongue he holds to be liars and dishonest. Never lied
+this youth by sign or token!"
+
+A buzz went through the company, and the dame and her boy again sat down
+to await the issue. All eyes were directed towards them, timidly and by
+stealth, as the consultation grew louder and more continuous.
+
+A pause at length ensued. Some three or four of the group drew towards
+the crone, who sat almost double, her chin resting on the neb of her
+crutch.
+
+"Now will we give thee two changes of raiment, together with a mess of
+barley-pottage; and every year thou shalt have a penny at Easter, and a
+fat hen at Shrovetide."
+
+"Good," said the greedy beldame; "but I'll have a sheep-skin cap for the
+boy, and a horn spoon." This demand was also granted; after which she
+made signs to the lad, who swung his head to and fro, at the same time
+distorting his features with a wild and terrible rapidity. It was
+evident that he understood the nature of these proceedings. A glance,
+like that of mockery and derision, he cast towards the crowd; and when
+Mother Cicely was returning, he threw back upon them a look of scorn and
+malignity which made the beholders shrink aside with horror.
+
+The people now addressed themselves to the task of replacing the heavy
+materials, and ere night the greater part were withdrawn, ready to
+begin with the foundations again on the morrow.
+
+A sort of rude shelter was constructed, wherein Uctred was to keep watch
+until daylight.
+
+The morning came, calm and beautiful over the grey hills; and the
+anxious inhabitants, awake betimes, did each turn his first steps
+towards the river's brink. With horror and amazement they again beheld
+the ground bare. Not a vestige remained, nor was there any trace of the
+boy.
+
+"He is gone to his own," said they, as a general shudder went through
+the crowd; "and the fairies have gotten him at last."
+
+Every heart seemed quailing with some hidden fear; nor could any means
+at that moment be suggested for their emancipation.
+
+The stones and timber were again found, as before, on the opposite hill.
+Fifty stout men had with difficulty contrived to fetch them from thence
+the day preceding, and twice that number would hardly have sufficed to
+transport them thither. It was not to be gainsayed that a power superior
+to their own was the agent in removals so mysterious. Nothing now
+remained but to acquaint their lord with this second interruption; and
+their diligence in performing this duty, they hoped, might exculpate
+them from the heavy doom they had incurred. Some of the wiser and more
+stout-hearted were chosen to carry these tidings to the Thane, hoping to
+clear themselves from the ban, as well as to return with commands for
+their future proceedings.
+
+Gamel de Recedham, or Rochdale, had his dwelling in the ancient castle
+built by the Romans on the verge of a steep hill jutting into the valley
+of the Roach. It was a place difficult of access, save on the southern
+side, where a wide ditch formed an effectual defence, and over which a
+narrow bridge admitted only two abreast in front of the outer gate. It
+was now, in some places, fast going to decay, but enough remained out of
+its vast bulk to form a dwelling for the Saxon and his followers. It had
+been once fortified throughout; the castle, or keep, being four-square,
+flanked at the corners with stone towers. The lower part of the walls
+was composed of large pebbles mixed with brick, and held together by a
+firm cement. Higher up, and continued to the summit, were alternate rows
+of brick and freestone. The corners were faced with stone, making a very
+formidable appearance when guarded by slingers and throwers of darts,
+who were stationed there only in times of great peril.
+
+Passing the vallum, or outer defence, they ascended a narrow staircase
+outside the keep, where the cringing serfs were admitted by four of the
+lord's Norman bowmen, who ushered them into the audience-chamber. Some
+of the Thane's men were habited in coats of mail, made of small pieces
+of iron, cut round at the bottom, and set on a leathern garment, so as
+to fold over each other like fish-scales, the whole bending with the
+greatest ease, and yet affording a sufficient protection to the wearer.
+
+The chamber of audience was situated at the uppermost part of the keep,
+and great was the apprehension of the intruders, whilst following their
+guides through the winding passages and gloomy staircases leading to the
+inner cell occupied by their chief. The disposition of the armed
+men,--their warlike habiliments, and the various and uncouth weapons
+which seemed to threaten terror and defiance, were all objects to them
+of apprehension and distrust. The walls of this gloomy apartment were
+lined with thin bricks, ornamentally disposed in herring-bone work,
+after the fashion of the time. The windows, though narrow on the
+outside, were broad and arched within, displaying a rude sort of taste
+in their construction. Round the walls were groups of weapons,
+ostentatiously displayed; two-edged broadswords; long spears, some
+barbed and others flat and broad; shields, the oldest of which were
+large, and had a sharp point projecting from the centre; others, of the
+Norman and more recent fashion, were smaller, and of an oval shape.
+Battle-axes, lances, and javelins, were strewn about in formidable
+profusion. Hauberks, or chain-mail, hung at intervals from the walls,
+looking grim and stalwart from their repose, like the headless trunks of
+the warriors they had once encompassed.
+
+A broad curtain, curiously embroidered, covered one end of the room,
+from behind which crept a page or henchman, in gay attire, his tunic
+glistening with his lord's device.
+
+The serfs bowed with the most abject submission to this representative
+of their lord, who lived in the customary style of barbarous and feudal
+pomp, which the manners of their Norman invaders had rather contributed
+to increase than to diminish.
+
+"Tell thy master," said their companion, "that some of the folk would
+speak with him, touching the matter by which they are in jeopardy."
+
+Smoothing his locks and trimming down his garments, the boy departed.
+It was long or ere the audience was granted; in the meantime, they stood
+trembling and oppressed with an evil foreboding for the result, the
+known hasty and impetuous temper of the Saxon rendering it a matter of
+some doubt, and no small hazard, as to what might be the issue of their
+conference. Suddenly was heard the clanking of armour, and the tramp of
+nailed feet, announcing his approach; the heavy arras was uplifted, and
+Gamel the Thane stood before them. He was richly attired in a loose coat
+reaching down to his ankles; over this was a long robe, fastened over
+both shoulders and on the breast with a silver buckle. The edges were
+trimmed with gold and knots of flowers interwoven with pearls and rare
+stones. On his head he wore a coronet, or rim of gold, enriched with
+jewels; and his bushy hair and grizzled beard looked still more grim and
+forbidding beneath these glittering ornaments. His eyes were quick and
+piercing; his cheeks pale and slightly furrowed. A narrow and retreating
+mouth, firmly drawn in, showed the bent of his disposition to be fierce
+and choleric, and his wrath not easily turned aside. He was accompanied
+by his billmen, together with some half-dozen attendants, clad in shirts
+of chain mail and helmets fitting close to the head. These bore lances
+after the Norman fashion then prevailing over the ruder customs of their
+Saxon predecessors.
+
+The more polished manners of the Norman's court had early pervaded the
+ranks of the nobles; and even the few hereditary Saxon chiefs left in
+possession of their ancient sovereignties, thought their domains cheaply
+purchased by this obsequious show of homage to their king.
+
+The Thane's chief henchman occupied the post of honour, whilst a little
+footpage stood by his master's elbow.
+
+The villains prostrated themselves.
+
+"How now!--Where are the caitiffs I commanded of ye? I vow to the Virgin
+and St Chadde, your own necks shall swing from the tower in their stead,
+should ye fail in that which I require at your hands."
+
+The trembling hearers were, afraid to answer--their lips quivered, and
+each tongue seemed to refuse its office. Gamel proceeded:----
+
+"What! come ye to fawn and whine out my purpose? Now will I make your
+chastisement ten times hotter for this intent. Lodge these knaves,
+Nicholas, i' the further dungeon, till they be reprieved by the rogues
+who are yet at large and defying our power:--they hold it somewhat
+cheap, methinks, when they value it less than the pampering of their own
+wantonness and sport."
+
+Nicholas was herald, bedellus, or chief crier, to the lord of the manor,
+his office being to make proclamations at the court and the cross, where
+the use of his capacious lungs was oft in request. He was hangman, too,
+upon occasion, being never so well pleased as when employed in the due
+chastisement of his master's lieges. He was, moreover, a man of infinite
+humour, generally consoling his dear unfortunates under their
+visitations by some coarse and galling jest.
+
+"Now, Adam of Hunersfield, art thou at thy prayers already?--I'll shrive
+thee quick. Master, shall I give the rogues any victuals? They'll not
+keep else till hanging time;--best finish now--needless to waste
+provender."
+
+"Give them the prison allowance. But, hark thee, no stripes, Nicholas,"
+said the chief, well aware of his flagellant propensities.
+
+"Eh!" replied he; "but black cake and dried beans don't mix well i' the
+stomach without riddling."
+
+"Peace, sirrah!" replied the chieftain with a frown. Nicholas, though a
+licensed jester and in especial favour, knew there was a boundary beyond
+which he durst not pass; he became silent, therefore, at this command.
+The lamentations of the unwary hostages were loud but unavailing.
+Nicholas prepared his manacles, and was leading them from the chamber,
+when the page whispered in his master's ear.
+
+"Stop," cried the Thane: "know ye aught of the boy who was a-watching
+yesternight?"
+
+"We know nothing of the lad, as we hope for deliverance," said the
+terrified rustics.
+
+"Bring in the woman!"
+
+The command was followed by the entrance of Cicely. Leaning on her
+crutch, she bent lowly before the chief.
+
+"Hast thou any suit or accusation to prefer against these men, as
+touching thy boy?"
+
+"Oh, my lord!" said the dame, weeping, "I never aforetime knew him
+missing; and he has slept i' the Killer Dane, where the great battle was
+fought below the castle. He has watched i' the 'Thrutch,' where the
+black dog haunts from sunset till cock-crow. He has leapt over the
+fairies' ring and run through the old house at Gozlewood, and no harm
+has befallen him; but he is now ta'en from me,--cast out, maybe, into
+some noisome pit. The timbers and stones are leapt on to the hill again,
+but my boy is not there!"
+
+She wept and wrung her withered hands.
+
+"Hast thou any witness against these men?"
+
+"Oh! my lord, they bribed me with their gifts that I should suffer the
+boy to watch; and I am poor, and I thought he wore a charmed life, and
+the little hoard would be a comfort and a stay in my old age."
+
+"Thou hast done wickedly in this," said the lord. "Howbeit, I will keep
+them in the stocks; peradventure it may quicken the wits of their
+outdoor friends to find out the mover of these scurvy pranks. The post
+and timbers would not go up hill unless some knave had holpen to lift
+them."
+
+Nicholas was departing to the indulgence of his favourite pastime, when
+a loud hubbub was heard without, and presently a fellow was pushed in by
+the pressure of the crowd upon his shoulders; but they drew back, on
+finding the immediate presence of their chief.
+
+This man was accounted the most notorious idler in the neighbourhood,
+hight "Barnulf with the nose." His eyes looked red and swollen, and his
+senses had become muddled and obtuse with long steeping. Silence was
+immediately enforced, while the assembly anxiously awaited the
+interrogation of this intolerable coveter of barley-drink.
+
+"Art thou again at thy freaks?" said the Thane, angrily: "thou hast soon
+forgotten the stocks and the whipping-post on Easter-day. It were well
+that Nicholas should refresh thy memory in this matter."
+
+At this dreaded name the poor wretch fell on his face.
+
+"Please ye, my lord," said he, hardly raising his head from the floor,
+"I am here but for a witness beliken. I am breeding of no broil, save
+an' my gossip o' yesternight drew me into a tussle with old Split-Feet
+and his company."
+
+He groaned, but not without considerable effort, and his face puckered
+in a heap at the recollection.
+
+"What!--the foul fiend helped thee to thy liquor, I trow?" said Gamel,
+hastily. "Think not to foist thy fooleries upon me. Should I find thee
+with a lie on thy tongue, the hide were as well off thy shoulders. To
+thy speech--quick, what sawest thou?"
+
+"I will give it all, withouten a word but what the blessed saints would
+avouch," said the terrified supplicant, whose once fiery face was now
+blanched, or rather dyed of a dull and various blue.
+
+"I was wending home from Merland, where I had been helping Dan the smith
+to his luckpenny, when as I took the path-road down yonder unlucky hill
+to the ford, not thinking of the de'il's workmen that had flown off with
+the church the night before, I was whistling, or, it mayhap,
+singing,--or--or--I am not just particular to know how it was, for the
+matter of it; but at any rate I was getting up, having tumbled down the
+steep almost nigh to the bottom, and I thought my eyes had strucken
+fire, for I saw lights frisking and frolicking up and down the hill.
+Then I sat down to watch, and, sure enough, such a puck-fisted rabble,
+without cloak or hosen, I never beheld--all hurry-scurry up the hill,
+and some of the like were on the gallop down again. They were shouting,
+and mocking, and laughing, like so many stark-mad fools at a May-feast.
+They strid twenty paces at a jump, with burdens that two of the best
+oxen about the manor had not shifted the length of my thumbnail. 'Tis
+some unlucky dream, said I, rubbing the corners of my eyes, and trying
+to pinch myself awake. Just then I saw a crowd of the busiest of 'em
+running up from the river, and making directly towards the steep bank
+below where I sat. They were hurrying a great log of timber, which they
+threw down close beside me, as if to rest ere they mounted. 'My
+friends,'--what should ail me to talk to 'em I cannot tell,--'My
+friends, but ye seem to have more work in your hands than wit in your
+noddles--ye might have spared yourselves the labour, I trow.' With that
+the whole rout turned upon me with a shout and a chattering that would
+have dumbfounded the shrillest tongue in the whole hundred--the
+mill-wheel was nothing to it. I would have escaped, but my feet were
+holden like as they had been i' the stocks. One, the foremost of the
+crew--I do think he had a long tail and gaping hoofs, but I was over
+frightened to see very clear--came with a mocking malicious grin, his
+tongue lolling out, and his eyes glaring and fiend-like.
+
+"'Pray, good friend,' said he, pulling off a little black bonnet, 'be
+compassionate enough to help us with our load to the hill-top.' Now was
+I terrified beyond measure, insomuch that I made a desperate tug,
+whereby loosening myself, I ran like the wind, the wicked fiends
+following and roaring after me with loud and bitter curses. I jumped
+into the river, in my hurry having missed the ford, and I heard 'em
+still shouting, and, as I thought, pursuing me; but the Virgin and St
+Chadde were my helpers, for when Biddy opened the door in the morning, I
+lay there in a great swoon, with my head bruised, and a hole in my good
+grey cloak."
+
+"And so thou comest here a-boasting of thy drunken discoveries," said
+the Thane. "Thou shalt wish thou hadst not gotten thee so soon from the
+fiend's clutches. A spice of old Nicholas' vocation may not be amiss;
+yet, by way of relish to thy tale"----
+
+The agony of the culprit was loud and appalling, but the chief was
+inexorable, until his denunciations were interrupted by a stranger, who
+craved a short respite for the groaning supplicant.
+
+He was meanly clad: a coarse cloak, stained and threadbare, was thrown
+open, showing a close habit of the most ordinary fabric; yet a natural
+and graceful bearing imparted a dignity even to his poor and worthless
+habiliments.
+
+"I am a stranger, and sore oppressed with long travel. Penury and
+misfortune have been my lot, and I am driven from place to place without
+a home or a morsel of bread. Last night, long after the curfew, I came
+hither, but no _hospitium_ or religious house being near, I sat down by
+the hill-side yonder, until morning should enable me to crave help for
+my hopeless journey. The morning had not dawned ere I awoke--a loud
+trampling, and a rush of many voices had broken in upon my slumbers. I
+beheld crowds of strange-looking men, laden with terrific burdens. They
+seemed to be eagerly and earnestly at work, under heavier loads than I
+thought mortal man could sustain; the whole space too, as far as the eye
+might carry, seemed alive with them, the flickering of their torches
+forming a scene of almost unimaginable splendour. Right before me were a
+number of these labourers, hauling up a heavy beam from the river;
+others were apparently crossing, laden with materials no less bulky and
+intractable. All were in motion, wriggling along like so many ants on a
+hillock. The party just before me stayed immediately below where I sat,
+watching their proceedings with no little curiosity and amazement. They
+threw down their load,--then pausing, appeared to view with some
+hesitation the steep bank above them. The foremost of the group now
+came softly towards me. Pulling off his bonnet, with a grave and
+beseeching aspect he craved help to accomplish the ascent. Not then
+dreaming of goblins and their deceitful glamour, I put my shoulder to
+the work with a right good will; and truly it were a marvel to watch the
+tough beam, how it seemed to obey the impulse. I worked with all the
+might I could muster, but it appeared as though little were needful; and
+in a trice we scrambled to the top, when the whole party scampered off,
+leaving me to follow or not, as I chose. I saw something tossed towards
+me, which glistened as it lay at my feet. Stooping, I found a silver
+ring, beauteously bedecked with one glowing crystal. Round the rim is
+formed a quaint legend, bearing a fair device, which some learned clerk
+may perchance decipher."
+
+The stranger drew from his finger a massy ring. A little ferret-eyed
+monk, a transcriber of saints' legends and Saxon chronicles, was
+immediately called. He pronounced the writing heathenish, and of the
+Runic form. A sort of free translation may be given as follows:--
+
+    "The Norman shall tread on the Saxon's heel,
+    And the stranger shall rule o'er England's weal;
+    Through castle and hall, by night or by day
+    The stranger shall thrive for ever and aye;
+      But in Rached, above the rest,
+      The stranger shall thrive best."
+
+Gamel was troubled and perplexed. The words were prophetic, evidently
+pointing to his own and his country's fate, as well as to the destiny of
+the stranger. He knit his brows, and his very beard coiled upwards with
+the conflict. He appeared loth to allow of a supernatural agency in the
+affair, and yet the testimony and its witness were not to be gainsayed.
+
+"I had not believed the tale, stranger, if this token had not confirmed
+thy speech:--verily thou hast a better witness than a fool's tongue to
+thy story. That ill-omened losel may depart. See thou fall not hastily
+into the like offence, else shalt thou smart from Childermas to
+All-hallowtide. Hence! to thy place." Barnulf awaited not further
+dismissal, glad to escape the scrutiny of Nicholas with a whole skin.
+
+A loud shriek was heard from the court-yard.
+
+"My boy!--Oh, my boy!" cried the almost frantic mother, as she rushed
+into the chamber, leading in Uctred. He had been discovered on removing
+some of the huge piles of timber again from the hill, where, under a
+curiously-supported covering of beams and other rude materials, he lay,
+seemingly asleep. The urchin looked as malicious and froward as ever,
+even when standing before his chief.
+
+"And where hast thou been, my pretty bird?" said the old woman, as she
+began her vocabulary of signs. But the boy looked surly and would not
+answer to the signal: he drew down his black swarthy brows, looking
+eagerly and fiercely from behind their bushy curtains. Suddenly, and
+with a fearful yell, he sprang forward, snatching the ring which Gamel
+was then giving back to the stranger. With a wild and hideous laugh,
+which sent a shudder through the assembly, he drew it on his finger. At
+this moment the expression of his countenance began to change, and some
+of the bystanders, over whom fear had probably waved the wand of the
+enchanter, saw his form dilate, and his whole figure expand into almost
+gigantic proportions. A thick haze rolled through the apartment; then
+was heard a wild unearthly shout, and the vision had disappeared.
+
+"Seize him!" cried Gamel.
+
+The guards, trembling, prepared to execute his commands, but on gaining
+the outworks of the castle, no vestige remained of his appearance, save
+a slight whirlwind of dust, like a mist-wreath curling down the valley,
+which, to their terrified apprehensions, became the chariot of the
+departing demon. Nothing could shake this belief; and in after ages the
+boy was spoken of as a changeling, left by some fairy, whose appointed
+sojourn had been then accomplished, the means for his release being
+fulfilled. Old Cicely became nigh crazed with the loss of her son; but
+Gamel, seriously pondering on these events, sought counsel from the
+"Holy Church." It was therein resolved that the intended site should be
+removed, and the "_unknown_" by such removal appeased. The chapel of St
+Chadde was accordingly built on the hill-top, where the church now
+stands, and unto which the foundations had been so marvellously
+conveyed. One hundred and twenty-four steps were dug to accomplish the
+ascent, and enable the good people to go to prayers. Connected with
+these, the tradition still exists; and unto this day it is here
+observed, that _"Strangers prosper in the town of Rochdale; but the
+natives are generally unfortunate in their undertakings."_
+
+[Illustration: MAB'S CROSS, WIGAN.
+
+_Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden._]
+
+
+
+
+MAB'S CROSS.
+
+    "A pilgrim came from o'er the sea;
+        _Benedicite! benedicite!_
+    And he brought a ring to that proud ladye.
+      His grave is wide, his grave is deep;
+      On that bosom cold he shall quietly sleep:
+          _Benedicite!_"
+
+
+The following extract from the genealogical roll of the Bradshaighs is
+the principal source from whence this tale has originated:--
+
+"Sir William Bradshaighe, second son to Sir John, was a great traveller
+and a souldger, and married to Mabell, daughter and sole heire of Hugh
+Norris de Haghe and Blackrode, and had issue," &c.
+
+Of this Mabel is a story by tradition of undoubted verity, "that in Sir
+Wm. Bradshaghe absence (beinge 10 years away in the holy wars), she
+married a Welsh knight. Sir William, returning from the wars, came in a
+palmer's habitt amongst the poor to Haghe, who, when she saw and
+congetringe that he favoured her former husband, wept, for which the
+knight chastised her; at which Sir William went and made himself known
+to his tenants; in which space the knight fled, but neare to Newton
+Parke Sir William overtook him and sleu him. The said Dame Mabell was
+enjoined by her confessor to doe penances by going onest every week
+barefout and bare legged to a crosse ner Wigan from the Haghe, wilest
+she lived, and is called Mabb ++ to this day; and ther monument lyes in
+Wigan church, as you see them ther portry'd."
+
+Sir William Bradshaigh was outlawed during the space of a year and a day
+for this offence; but he and his lady, it is said, lived happily
+together afterwards until their death. Their effigies on the tomb now
+exist but as rude and unshapely masses; time and whitewash, the two
+great destroyers of our monumental relics, having almost obliterated
+their form, the one by diminishing, and the other by adding to, their
+substance.
+
+That Sir William was at the "Holy Wars," must, it is evident, be a
+corruption of the story, seeing he was born about the year 1280, ten
+years after the last of these unfortunate expeditions. The first
+croisade was undertaken by Peter the Hermit, 1095; a second, by Louis
+VII of France, 1145; a third, under Richard I of England, 1190; a
+fourth, under Philip II of France, 1204; a fifth, under Louis IX,
+against Egypt, 1248; and the last, under Louis IX., against Tunis,
+where he lost his life, 1270. Consequently, the perpetration of these
+"Holy" murders, which it is supposed were to the amount of two hundred
+millions of human beings, without the acquisition even of Jerusalem to
+the Church, must have ceased ere the birth of our "pilgrim." That he was
+at "the wars," however, is pretty certain, but they were nearer home.
+The machinations of that powerful noble, Thomas, Earl of Lancaster,
+together with the disastrous campaign of Edward II. against the Scots,
+are sufficiently important events to account for the long absence of Sir
+William Bradshaigh, who is supposed to have been taken prisoner during
+these unhappy troubles.
+
+Our engraving represents the cross as it exists at present. Some
+attention having been drawn to it of late, we may hope this interesting
+relic will be suffered to remain uninjured, and not be subjected any
+more to those levelling improvements for which this age is so
+distinguished.
+
+In the borough of Wigan, near one of the four gates, called
+Standishgate--which gates are now removed, and their places occupied by
+some undignified-looking posts called "toll-bars"--stands a ruined stone
+cross; in appearance, by no means either interesting or remarkable: it
+would scarcely be noticed by a casual observer. Yet to this mean-looking
+memorial of our faith is attached an eventful story, at which
+
+    "The sad might laugh; the merry weep."
+
+It is a tale of which our brief limits will only allow a rapid sketch.
+This we have thrown together in the dramatic and narrative form, a
+combination more calculated than any other, we believe, to awaken
+attention, and bring forth the subject before the mind with truth and
+distinctness.
+
+One stormy night, in the autumn of the year 1324, mine host of the Merry
+Maypole, a tavern of great resort by the market-cross in the good
+borough of Wigan, was awakened from a laborious slumber. The door which
+opened into a low porch projecting from the thatch, was shaken with a
+vehemence that threatened some fearful catastrophe. Giles, no longer
+able to endure these thundering appeals to his hospitality, desired his
+wife to ascertain the cause of the disturbance.
+
+"Gramercy! An' I be to unlatch for every graceless unthrift that chooses
+to pummel at Giles Dauber's wicket, I shall have but sorry bedding wi'
+an old husband."
+
+"Old, quotha!--Old! I tell thee, dame, that I'm less by a good score of
+winters than Dan o' the higher Wient, when he wed old Simon's
+daughter.--Humph!--She was a merry and a buxom lass; but thou"--
+
+How far this interesting dialogue between the tavern-keeper and his
+newly-wedded spouse might have extended it is impossible with any degree
+of accuracy to set forth, inasmuch as another loud and desperate lunge,
+extenuated to an inaudible mutter the testy rejoinder of "Giles o' the
+Maypole;" this being the cognomen by which he was more familiarly
+designated.
+
+"Anan!" shouted he, "what the---- Save us!" he continued in a low
+whisper, crossing himself, "I had nigh slipped an ugly word over my
+tongue; and if it should be--Dame, I say, get up, and"--
+
+"Nay, thou hast gotten thee two as nimble legs, by thine own reckoning,
+as any knave i' the borough. I shall e'en keep to my bed, goodman,
+though these guzzle-throats hammer till cock-crow.--They are at the
+right side of the door, I trow."
+
+Now, mine host of the Merry Maypole having taken to himself that last
+and worst of all possible plagues for the remnant of his days, to wit, a
+young and somewhat handsome-looking wife, thought it no less meet than
+reasonable, and no less reasonable than a duty, at all times incumbent,
+that the before-named helpmate should, if need were, get out of bed and
+unlatch the wicket whenever good customers were astir; more particularly
+as the first Dame Dauber, having the fear of a short but tough cudgel
+upon her, did, at certain times and seasons, when there was the
+requisite occasion, leave her liege lord to the enjoyment of his warm
+and luxurious couch, and spread a table for the entertainment of many a
+night-betrayed traveller.
+
+It was the first exigency of the kind, since the marriage of Giles
+Dauber to Madge Newsome of the Deercote, in which the discussion of a
+point so knotty and important had occurred. Giles dreamt not of the vast
+difference that exists in the nature and docility of divers women. He
+heard with a sort of incredulous surprise the first incipient grumblings
+in contravention of his authority; but when these had fairly shaped
+themselves into open defiance, he started agape with wonder. Recovering
+himself, with a stern and portentous silence, he jumped out of bed and
+drew on his doublet and hose. While thoughts of relentless import were
+brooding, he groped his way down the ladder that communicated with the
+lower apartment, for the purpose of ascertaining the quality and
+condition of the stranger. The latter still manifested a noisy
+impatience at being suffered, in so inhospitable a manner, to linger
+without. The night was rainy and tempestuous--Giles shivered to the
+backbone as he trod on the wheezing rushes strewed over the floor; they
+were yet damp and dirty, by reason of the many visitors who had that
+night loitered long at the Merry Maypole.
+
+"Holloa, friend!--thy name?" shouted Giles, placing his hand on the
+latch.
+
+"Open the door, for the love of mercy!" cried a strange voice. Giles
+drew back; he liked not this salutation--more, by token, from the
+adjurement being for the love of mercy, in lieu of an appeal to the
+tinkling angels that generally lined a traveller's pouch.
+
+"Some sturdy beggar or mendicant friar," thought he, "that knocks at my
+door because the chantry gates are shut. I care not to open my door to
+every losel that knocks," cried he aloud. "Hence! I know thee not."
+
+"Goodman, give me a night's lodging, and I will reward thee"--the door
+flew open at this intimation--"with a palmer's benison," continued the
+stranger, advancing towards the wan embers that yet flickered on the
+hearth. Had Giles awaited the finishing of this sentence ere the latch
+was loosened, some other and more hospitable roof had enjoyed the
+benefit of that night's adventure.
+
+"Thanks are not over meet for a cool stomach," growled the disappointed
+tapster; whilst his guest roused the decaying faggots into a faint and
+unsteady blaze.
+
+Giles surveyed the new-comer with no very sanguine prepossessions in his
+behalf. The figure that met his scrutiny was clad in a dark cloak. The
+hood, partly thrown back, showed a somewhat "frosty poll," though the
+vivacity of a wild and restless eye, peering from under his dark and
+luxuriant brow, would scarcely have betokened an age at which the coming
+winter of life usually scatters these chill warnings of its approach.
+His features were finely moulded. A weather-beaten cheek, mingling with
+a complexion evidently sallow, gave a rich autumnal hue to his visage: a
+slight furrow, extending from the outer angle of the nostril around each
+corner of a narrow and retreating mouth, gave a careless expression of
+scorn to the countenance when at rest; but, as he smiled, this sinister
+aspect disappeared, and the soft gleam of benevolence which succeeded
+looked the brighter from the portentous scowl that had just passed. His
+beard was grey, and of a most reverent equipment, well calculated to
+excite veneration and respect. He was above the middle size: his humble
+garb but ill concealed a majesty of deportment indicating a disposition
+rather to command than to solicit favours. He seated himself on a low
+stool, and honest Giles, whose courage did not feel sufficiently
+invigorated, in the presence of this proud palmer, to dare an open
+warfare, began hostilities covertly, in manner as follows:--
+
+"What ails ye, to disturb honest folks i' their beds at these hours? You
+might ha' tarried in your last baiting-place--at any rate till the kye
+were astir. I wonder the guard let you pass at the gate. But since these
+evil days have o'ershadowed the land, every braggart has licence to do
+as he list; and the monks and the friars, with their whole crew of dubs
+and deputies, are the worst of all. Old Cliderhow here, the parson,
+thought to have waged war with his betters; but he was a slight matter
+mistaken: we whipt him up by the heels for his treason."
+
+"Is Cliderhow alive?" inquired the stranger.
+
+"Save us, pilgrim! where had you knowledge of the traitor?"
+
+"Our good king Edward," continued the guest, apparently not attending to
+Giles's question in reply, "is still sorely beset with his enemies. Had
+a score of knaves such as Master Cliderhow been hanged long ago, his
+reign had been less burdensome both to prince and people."
+
+"It's twelve years--ay, twelve," said Giles, reckoning the lapse on his
+fingers; "I know it by the great wind that beat down Master Markland's
+barn wall at the Meadows, since Cliderhow's sermon, inciting the whole
+parish to rebellion."
+
+"I know it," replied the palmer: "he was in prison when I last knew of
+the matter."
+
+"Ay, ay," returned Giles knowingly; "but threescore marks, disbursed
+discreetly to our good and loyal burgesses, made the doors as easy to
+open as my wicket--that is, at timely hours, ye understand."
+
+"Is he at large?" inquired the other.
+
+"They say he bides at Haigh," answered Boniface, "roistering it with
+that Welsh knight there, Sir Osmund Neville. I warrant Sir William's
+substance runs gaily down the old parson's throat."
+
+Here the palmer threw the hood over his brows. Suddenly he arose:
+striding across the chamber with considerable speed, he twice repeated
+the name of Sir Osmund Neville in a subdued tone, but with a bitterness
+of spirit that ill accorded with the outward habit of meekness which he
+had assumed.
+
+"Giles Dauber! what keeps ye so long there a-gossiping?" shouted a
+shrill voice from above. It was the vocal substitute of Mistress Dauber,
+who, resolutely determined not to budge at her husband's bidding, had,
+as she lay, listened, but to little purpose. Finding it was no everyday
+guest, she crept to the ladder-head and gave ear for a while; but soon
+discovering it to be an unthrifty sort of intercourse that was going on,
+not likely to bring either gain or good-will to the house, and fearing
+that Giles might fall into some snare from his ready-mouthed opinions
+regarding the unsettled temper and aspect of the time, she thought fit
+to break abruptly on the discourse ere it should lead to some dangerous
+or forbidden subject. He had, however, hit upon a favourite topic, in
+addition to which, he was now evidently loth to leave his guest ere he
+had learnt the nature of his errand to these parts. An "o'er-sea
+pilgrim," as they were generally styled, was too choice an arrival for a
+petty hostel--especially in those times, when newspapers and posts were
+not circulating daily and hourly through the land--to let slip an
+opportunity of inquiring about the king of Scotland, as Robert Bruce was
+then called, or about his majesty, the Sultan Solyman--two personages
+who were very frequently confounded with each other in mine host's
+political hemisphere, and whose realms formed the great pandemonium
+whence issued all that was dire and disastrous to plague and perplex
+unhappy England.
+
+"To bed! to bed!--Thou art ready enough to rise when thou art not
+bidden. To bed, I say!" angrily shouted the disturbed Benedict.
+
+"Hast _thou_ a wife?" sternly inquired the pilgrim.
+
+"A wife!--marry have I!" exclaimed Giles; "and here she comes."
+
+Finding there was no likelihood of a speedy termination to this
+interview, our hostess of the Maypole conceived it to be a matter of
+duty that she should at least take her full share in the discussions and
+disclosures that might ensue. For this purpose she descended, making a
+deep acknowledgment to the generally supposed sanctity of the pilgrim's
+vocation. So much occupied, however, did he appear by other concernments
+that he scarcely noticed her approach, but continued to pass with hasty
+and irregular steps across the chamber.
+
+"By what quality or appearance may Sir Osmund Neville be distinguished?"
+he abruptly inquired.
+
+"A right goodly person, and a brave gentleman! He gave me a sousing
+kiss, and a pair of mittens to boot, the last choosing of knights to the
+parliament," said the Dame.
+
+"Hold thy tongue, Madge!" angrily exclaimed Giles. "Good father, heed
+not a woman; they are caught by the lip and the fist, like my lord's
+trencher-man. This Sir Osmund is both lean and ill-favoured. I wonder
+what the Lady Mabel saw above his shoe to wed with an ugly toad spawned
+i' the Welsh marshes. Had ye seen her first husband, Sir William
+Bradshaigh--rest his soul! he was killed in the wars--you would have
+marvelled that she drunk the scum after the broth."
+
+"Lady Mabel and Sir Osmund are now at Haigh?" cautiously inquired the
+palmer.
+
+"You have business there, belike?" sharply interrogated the
+indefatigable host.
+
+"I have slight matters that require my presence at the hall. Does the
+knight go much abroad, or keeps he close house?"
+
+"Why, look ye, it is some three months or so since I smelt the fat from
+her ladyship's kitchen. Dan Hardseg smutted my face, and rubbed a
+platterful of barley-dough into my poll, the last peep I had through the
+buttery. I'll bide about my own hearth-flag whilst that limb o' the old
+spit is chief servitor. I do bethink me though, it is long sin' Sir
+Osmund was seen i' the borough. Belike he may have come at the knowledge
+of my misadventure, and careth not to meet the wrath of a patient man."
+
+Here the malicious dame burst into a giddy laugh.
+
+"Thee! why Sir Osmund knoweth not thy crop from thy crupper, nor careth
+he if thy whole carcase were crammed into the dumpling-bag. I'feck, it
+were a rare pastime to see Sir Osmund, the brave Welsh knight, give the
+gutter to Giles of the Merry Maypole."
+
+Giles was speechless with dismay at this aggravating insult; but the
+dame continued:--
+
+"I think, good stranger, the knight does keep house of late. Grim told
+me that last week he was a-sporting once only by way of the higher park;
+and he appears something more soured and moody than usual. If thou
+crave speech with him though, to-morrow being almonsday at the hall, the
+poor have free admission, and thou mayest have a sight of him there:
+peradventure, as thou art strange in these parts, it will be needful
+thou hadst a guide."
+
+"And just ready for the job thyself, I'se warrant," bitterly snarled the
+exasperated husband. The storm, long threatening, was about to burst
+forth; but the palmer, with holy and beseeching words, soothed for
+awhile the angry disputants, at the same time intimating that a guide
+was unnecessary, the situation of the house being sufficiently obvious
+from whatever quarter he might direct his steps.
+
+The stranger seemed not solicitous of repose, and Giles was too sulky to
+inquire his wants. The dame, however, drew a bundle of clean straw from
+a huge heap, and threw it beside the hearth. A coarse and heavy rug,
+over which was thrown a sheep-skin with the wool innermost, constituted
+a warm but homely couch. A horn cup filled with cider and a burnt
+barley-cake were next exhibited, of which the palmer made a healthful,
+if not a sumptuous repast. Giles growled off to the loft above; and the
+dame, caring little for the sequel of her husband's humours, soon found
+a resting-place by his side.
+
+Morning shone brightly and cheerfully through the chinks and crevices of
+both door and lattice; but the pilgrim's couch was yet unsought. His
+vigils had been undisturbed, save when the baying of some vagrant and
+ill-disciplined dogs, or the lusty carol of some valiant yeoman, reeling
+home after a noisy debauch, startled him from a painfully-recurring
+thought, to which, however, the mind involuntarily turned when the
+interruption had ceased.
+
+It was late ere Giles awoke. Breathless with expectation, he hastened
+below, anticipating a rich budget of news from his guest; but he had
+departed.
+
+It was one of those fresh and glittering mornings which autumn alone can
+produce. Keen, pure, and exhilarating, the air seemed all buoyant and
+elastic, tinging the cheeks with ruddy health, and animating the whole
+frame with renewed vigour.
+
+A slight hoar-frost yet lay on the thatched roofs. Calm and undisturbed,
+a gem-like brightness twinkled from every object; whilst the vapours
+that covered them looked not as the shroud, but rather as a pure mantle
+of eider, hiding the fair bosom to which it clung.
+
+The pilgrim entered a narrow street leading to the postern or gate,
+called Standish-gate. In those days it was not, as now, a wide and free
+thoroughfare for man and beast. At the accustomed fairs, toll is, to
+this time, demanded on all cattle changing owners at the several
+outlets, where formerly stood four gates; to wit, Wall-gate, Hall-gate,
+Mill-gate, and Standish-gate. Each gate where the toll-bars now stand
+was once, in good sooth, a heavy barrier of stout beams, thickly studded
+with iron. Through the night they were generally bolted and guarded by a
+company of the mayor's halberdiers. An irregular wall encompassed the
+town, save on the eastern side, where the river Douglas seemed, in the
+eyes of the burghers, to constitute a sufficient defence, a low abbatis
+only screening its banks. The walls were covered, or rather uncovered,
+by a broad ditch: a bridge of rough-hewn planks, at three of the
+entrances before named, allowed a free communication with the suburbs,
+except during seasons of hostility, which unhappily were not rare in
+those days of rapine and rebellion. Before the Mill-gate a wider and
+more substantial structure, mounted on huge wooden props, facilitated a
+passage over the river. This edifice could be raised in cases of siege,
+effectually separating the inhabitants from their enemies.
+
+The first beams of the sun began to peep through the angles of the
+wooden gable fronts, projecting nearly midway across the street,
+streaming athwart the frosty air, and giving a beautifully variegated
+and picturesque appearance to the grotesque vista bounded by the
+Standish-gate.
+
+The stranger paused not; mounting the hill with an alertness and agility
+that scarcely seemed compatible with his age and appearance. On arriving
+at the gate, his garb was a sufficient passport, without the necessity
+of a challenge. Three or four of the guards were loitering and laughing
+on a couple of benches built in a sort of arched recess on each side of
+the gateway. As the pilgrim passed they became silent, bowing reverently
+as he pronounced the accustomed benison.
+
+Outside the barriers, the road lay through an open and uninclosed
+country. It was a matter of but slight moment what line of direction the
+narrow and uneven pathways might describe, provided their termination
+was tolerably accurate; all traffic and intercourse, being necessarily
+limited, was mostly carried on through the medium of saddles and
+horse-furniture.
+
+The most inaccessible part of a hill was the site generally chosen; the
+road ascending and descending in a meandering sort of zig-zig on its
+side. Rarely did our timid ancestors tempt the valley, often preferring
+a roundabout course over a line of hills, if by so doing the perils of
+the lower ground could be avoided.
+
+The pilgrim followed a narrow and beaten track: it was bordered on each
+side by a deep ditch, nearly overgrown with weeds and brambles. He
+traversed the intricate windings of the road with considerable facility;
+but an hour had nearly elapsed ere he gained the brow of an eminence of
+no very conspicuous height, though it commanded a pretty extensive view
+of the country adjacent. From the east, a rich flood of glory blended
+the whole into one broad mass of light, melting away the beauteous
+frost-work, as the rays of morning dissipate the unreal visions that
+have their existence only in darkness and repose. Southward lay the
+borough, distinguishable only by the broad tower of All-Saints rising
+from the mist, as if baseless and suspended. A bell boomed heavily
+through the quiet atmosphere: its long and lingering echoes came on the
+pilgrim's soul like the voice of other years--of hopes and anticipations
+that had for ever departed.
+
+Westward might be seen a curl of blue smoke from the newly-dignified
+priory at Upholland, recently invested with that honour through the
+grants and intercessions of Sir Robert de Holland, a proud knight in the
+train of Thomas Earl of Lancaster. It was northward that the pilgrim
+turned, with a look of more intense anxiety. The mansion of Haigh stood
+at the extremity of a broad slope, surmounted by shady woods, now fading
+into the warm and luxuriant tints of autumn. Dark and cumbrous turrets,
+projecting from the wings, grimly caught the first gleam of the morning;
+whilst a tower of considerable strength and elevation rose above what
+could only be surmised as the principal gateway. It was apparently
+designed to overlook the whole fabric, serving as a refuge to the
+besieged, and a stronghold in case of attack. Narrow loopholes might be
+traced, irregularly disposed in the heavy masonry; and at the summit
+stood a small turret resembling a large chair, from which, at stated
+occasions, waved the richly-emblazoned escutcheon of the Norris and the
+Bradshaigh. The staff was just visible, but unaccompanied by its
+glittering adjunct. It was this circumstance principally that seemed to
+engage the attention of the stranger. He broke into a loud and
+involuntary exclamation:--
+
+"Sir William's birthday is forgotten!--That staff opened a rich blossom
+to the breeze ten years agone. It is the day--the very hour of Sir
+William's birth!"
+
+He smote his forehead, scarcely able to contain the violence of his
+emotion.
+
+"Let that day darken!--let it be cursed with storms and tempest!--let
+the shadows of death brood over it, and the teeming night bring tenfold
+horrors!--Yet how calm, how peacefully yonder sun approaches in his
+strength! Nature is the same--bright, joyous, and unchanging!--Man, man
+alone, is mutable--his days are full of mourning and bitterness!"
+
+He bowed his head, crouching almost to the dust, in that overwhelming
+agony.
+
+Suddenly he was aroused, and in a manner as unceremonious as unexpected.
+A smart blow on the back announced a somewhat uncourteous intruder,
+whilst a loud and discordant laugh struck shrilly on his ear. Starting,
+he beheld a figure of a low and unshapely stature, clothed in a light
+dress, fantastically wrought. A round cap, slouched in front, fitted
+closely to his head, from which depended what the wearer no doubt looked
+upon as a goodly aggregate of ornaments. These consisted of ear-tassels
+and rings of various dimensions, that jingled oddly as he twisted his
+head from side to side with a knowing and important grin. A pair of
+large leathern boots, slipped on for travelling purposes, with ample
+flaps turning down from the knee, formed the lower costume of this
+strange being. Round his neck he wore an iron collar: its import,
+whether in the shape of punishment or decoration, is at this time
+doubtful. A visage of more than ordinary size projected from between a
+pair of shoulders that nearly overlooked the lower rim of his cap. A
+sort of dubious leer was its predominant expression, heightened ever and
+anon by a broad laugh, the eldritch shout of which first announced
+itself to the ear of the pilgrim. Matted and shaggy, the twisted locks
+hung wildly about his brow, whilst a short and frizzled beard served as
+a scanty covering to his chin. A "Sheffield whittle" stuck in his
+baldric; and in a pouch was deposited the remnant of a magnificent
+pasty. From oft and over replenishment this receptacle gaped in a most
+unseemly manner, showing the shattered remains, the crumbling fragments,
+of many a huge mountain of crust.
+
+With arms akimbo stood this prepossessing personage before the pilgrim,
+in all his native rudeness and disorder. The latter tightened his cloak
+about him, and withdrew some three or four paces from his companion.
+
+"Nuncle," said the jester--for such was in fact his vocation--"I wonder
+for what property master keeps a fool?--I bethink me 'tis for his wit:
+more wit and less honesty, though." The palmer was silent.
+
+"Art going to the hall?" continued he. "The fool is whipt there for
+being honest. Have a care, nuncle; if Sir Osmund catch thee, thou hadst
+as good bequeath thy bones to the Pope to make into saint's gear.--I'm
+very sad, nuncle!"
+
+"Sad!" said the pilgrim; "in good troth, an' thou be sad, the cock of
+the hall yonder is but in sorry plight."
+
+"'Tis more wholesome to cry to-day," said the dolorous knave, "knowing
+ye shall laugh to-morrow, than to laugh to-day, and to-morrow's dool
+somehow making your mirth asthmatic:
+
+    "Be merry to-morrow; to-day, to-day,
+      Your belly-full fill of grief;
+    When sorrow hath supp'd, go play, go play,
+      For mirth I wot is brief.
+
+"Ay, grandam, ye are wise; and an old woman's wit best becomes a fool:
+
+    "When sorrow hath supp'd, go play, go play,
+      For mirth I wot is brief."
+
+He drew out the last notes into one of those querulous cadences, much in
+vogue as an _ad libitum_ on all fitting occasions: even the sad features
+of the pilgrim were provoked into a smile.
+
+"Art bound for the hall?" again inquired the inquisitive hunchback.
+
+"Yes, friend--whither else? Is it not almous-day, and thinkest thou the
+houseless and wandering pilgrim will not share of the largess?"
+
+"Beggars and friars thrive--treason and corruption wed, and these be
+their children belike. Hast brought the Lady Mabel her old husband's
+bones from heathenrie?--her new one is like to leave her nought else,
+poor soul, for her comfort. She'll make her up a saint out o'them."
+
+"If she has gotten another husband," said the pilgrim, "the old one's
+bones would have a rare chance of her worship."
+
+The facetious impertinent here gave a sort of incredulous whistle. He
+eyed the palmer with a keen and scrutinising glance, but suddenly
+relapsing into his accustomed manner, he burst into a wild and
+portentous laugh.
+
+"I tell thee, if Sir Osmund catch thee carrying so much as a thumb-nail
+of Sir William's carcase, he 'll wring thy neck as wry as the chapel
+weathercock. My lady goes nigh crazed with his ill humours. I warrant
+thee, Sir William's ghost gaily snuffs up the sport. I have watched him
+up and down the old stairs, and once i' the chapel; and he told
+me"--whispering close to the pilgrim's ear--"a great secret, nuncle!"
+
+"Ay--what was that, Motley?"
+
+"Why, said he, if so be Sir William comes home again, he'll find his
+wife has got a cuckoo in her nest." Here he burst from the stranger with
+a malicious shout, and descending a by-path, was soon lost amidst the
+intricacies of a deep wood, skirting the verge of an extensive forest.
+
+The traveller's brow gathered a heavier gloom. With unconscious haste he
+soon gained a gentle ascent, which led by a narrow and deep path to the
+mansion. Nigh to the bridge over the moat stood a blacksmith's hovel,
+conveniently situated for all job-work emanating from the armoury and
+the kitchen, which at that time afforded full exercise for the musical
+propensities of Darby Grimshaw's great anvil. This hut was a general
+resort to all the idlers in the vicinity; Grim, as he was generally
+styled for the sake of abbreviation, discharging the office of "preses,"
+or chief moderator, in all debates held therein. He was a shrewd fellow
+and a bold one. A humorous and inquisitive cunning lurked in the corner
+of his grey and restless eye. His curiosity was insatiable; and as a
+cross-questioner, when fairly at work, for worming out a secret he had
+not his fellow. His brain was a general deposit for odd scraps, and a
+reservoir in which flowed all stray news about the country. He was an
+abstract and chronicle of the time; and could tell you where the Earl of
+Lancaster mustered his forces, the day of their march, and the very
+purposes and projects of that turbulent noble. Even the secrets of my
+lady's bower did not elude the prying of this indefatigable artist; at
+any rate, he had the credit of knowing all that he assumed, which
+amounted very much to the same thing as though his knowledge were
+unlimited: a nod and a wink supplying the place of intelligence, when
+his wondering neophytes grew disagreeably minute in their inquiries.
+
+Towards this abode did the pilgrim bend his steps. A thick smoke hovered
+about the thatch, that appeared very ingeniously adapted for the
+reception and nurture of any stray spark that might happen to find there
+a temporary lodgment. Several times had this Vulcan been burnt out, yet
+the materials were easily replaced; and again and again the hovel arose
+in all its pristine ugliness and disorder.
+
+Darby was just kindling his fire: a merry-making overnight had trenched
+upon morning duties, and daylight found him still stretched on his
+pallet. Subsequent to this a noisy troop from the hall had roused him
+from a profound slumber.
+
+"St George and the Virgin protect thee, honest friend!" said the
+pilgrim, as he stood by an opening, just then performing the functions
+of both door and chimney. Darby's perceptions being much impeded by the
+smoke, he hastily approached the door. His surprise manifested itself
+aloud, yet did he not forget a becoming reverence to the stranger, as he
+invited him into the only apartment, besides his workshop, of which the
+roof could boast. It served for parlour, bedchamber, and kitchen; where
+the presiding deity, Grim's helpmate, carried on her multifarious
+operations.
+
+The officious housewife fetched a joint-stool, first clearing it from
+dust, whilst her husband added a billet to the heap. She was just
+preparing breakfast. A wooden porringer, filled to the brim with new
+milk, in which oatmeal was stirred, a rasher of salted mutton, and a
+large cake of coarse bread, comprised the delicacies of their morning
+repast. To this, however, was added a snatch of cold venison from the
+hall. "But this, you see," said the old woman, "is not of our own
+killing; St Gregory forbid!--it comes from Dan there, who has the care
+of the knight's buttery."
+
+"Rot him for a churl!" said the smith; "Sir Osmund grudges every mouth
+about him; but"--and here he looked wondrous knowing--"he may happen to
+be ousted yet, if Earl Thomas should come by the worst in this cabal."
+
+"Sir Osmund, I find, is no favourite with his neighbours."
+
+"Hang him!" replied Grim, first looking cautiously into the shop;
+"there's not a man of us but would like to see him and his countrymen
+packed off to-morrow upon ass-panniers. They were spawned from the Welsh
+ditches to help that overgrown Earl against his master. If Sir William
+had been alive I had spoken out without fear. He was a loyal knight and
+a true--he ever served his country and his king. But I bethink me that
+peradventure ye may have heard of our late master's death, and who knows
+but ye bring some token, pilgrim, to his lady?"
+
+"Thou hast shrewdly guessed--I bear the last message that Sir William
+sent to his lady; thinkest thou it may be delivered without the knight's
+privity?"
+
+"Save thee, father! peril betides him who would hazard a message to my
+lady without her husband's leave."
+
+"Is the Lady Mabel in health?--and the children?" inquired the stranger.
+
+"Sorely did she grieve when tidings came of Sir William's death in the
+great battle; but sorer still rues she her wedding with Sir Osmund
+Neville. Poor soul! It would melt the nails out of a rusty horse-shoe to
+see how she moans herself, when she can steal privily to her chamber.
+They say the knight caught her weeping once over some token that
+belonged to Sir William, and he burnt it before her face, ill-treating
+her into the bargain."
+
+"How came she to wed this churl?"
+
+"Oh, it's a sorry history!"--The speaker paused, and it was at the
+pilgrim's entreaty that he thus continued:--
+
+"Parson Cliderhow had his paw in the mischief. She was in a manner
+forced either to wed, or, in the end, to have found herself and her
+children with never a roof-tree above their heads."
+
+"How?--Sir William did not leave her portionless?"
+
+"I know not; but Sir Osmund had, or pretended he had, got a grant from
+the Earl of Lancaster for possession of all that belonged to Sir
+William, as a reward for his great services; and unless she wed
+him--why, you may guess what follows, when a lone woman is left in a
+wooer's clutches. I shall never forget their wedding-day; it should
+rather have been her burying, by the look on't. Her long veil was more
+like a winding-sheet than a bride's wimple."
+
+During this recital the palmer drew his seat closer to the hearth. He
+leant him over his staff, absorbed in that conscious stupor which seems
+at once shut out from all connection with external objects, and yet
+intensely alive to their impressions. Suddenly he rose, tightened his
+sandals, and looking round, appeared as if about to depart.
+
+"It is our late master's birthday," said the loquacious informant: "ten
+years ago there was free commons at the hall for man and beast. Now,
+save on almous-days, when some half-dozen doitering old bodies get a
+snatch at the broken meat, not a man of us thrusts his nose into the
+knight's buttery but by stealth. Sir William's banner has not been
+hoisted, as it was wont on this day, since he left, with fifty armed men
+in his train, to help the king, then hard pressed in the Scottish wars.
+Ye may get an alms among the poor to-day, but have an eye to the Welsh
+bowmen: these be the knight's privy guard, and hold not the quality of
+his guests in much respect."
+
+Here the smith's angry garrulity was interrupted by Daniel Hardseg, a
+sort of deputy house-steward, whose duty it was to look after all
+business not immediately connecting itself with any other department in
+the household. He was prime executive in most of the out-door duty, and
+a particular crony at the hovel. His "Hilloa!" was terrific.
+
+"Why, a murrain to thee, goodman Grim, thy fire is colder than my
+halidome; the sun is so high it puts it out, I reckon. Here have I two
+iron pots, a plate from my master's best greaves, and a pair of spurs
+that want piecing, and I'm like to tinker them as I list on a cold
+stithy. Get out, thou"--Here he became aware of an additional inmate to
+Grim's dwelling; and this discovery for a while checked the copious
+torrent of Dan's eloquence. Shortly, Darby drew him aside, and from
+their looks it might be gathered that some scheme was negotiating for
+the pilgrim's safe admission at the hall. To an entreaty, more
+strenuously urged on the part of our diplomatist, Dan replied, in a
+louder tone--
+
+"Why, look thee, gossip, it were as much as my lugs were
+worth--but--I'll e'en try."
+
+"We shall hear some news about Sir William, depend on't, an' thou get
+him a word with my lady."
+
+"And what the better shall I be of that?--dead men make no porridge
+hot," simply retorted Dan.
+
+"Go to," replied the other; "it's but setting Maude on the scent--I
+warrant thee, she'll sharpen her wits for the work. It will be a
+grievous pity should he depart, and whisper not his message to her
+ladyship. Maude's thin ears, as thou knowest, can catch a whisper, and
+thou wilt soon squeeze the secret out of her; then comes Darby's
+turn--by to-morrow, at the latest."
+
+The news-doting artisan rubbed his dark fists with ecstacy. "Go, knave,"
+said he; "thou art a teasing little varlet."
+
+Here Grim seemed ready to hug his comrade in the extremity of his
+delight; but Dan was rather sullen, evidently ruminating on peril and
+mischance, wherein the tempter had no share, though participating in the
+profits of the adventure. Eventually, the stranger was placed under the
+patronage of Daniel Hardseg, who, to do him justice, was well affected
+towards the enterprise he had undertaken.
+
+Passing by a low wall to the north-east of the mansion, they were soon
+hidden by a projecting terrace or platform, which, in cases of siege,
+could be converted into a sort of breastwork to cover the sallies of the
+besieged. At the salient angle of this curtain stood a small postern, to
+which Dan applied a heavy key, and beckoning to his companion, they
+ascended a narrow staircase. A succession of dark passages led to the
+great hall, from which a small arched doorway communicated by a private
+entrance to the chapel. As they passed the half-closed door, a gruff
+voice was heard reciting the appointed service for the day. Dan slept
+cautiously by, and motioned the stranger to tread softly. The latter
+paused, listening with a look of anxiety, and pressed his staff across
+his bosom;--soon, drawing his hood closer over his brow, he quickly
+followed the retreating footsteps of his companion.
+
+"Praised be old Cliderhow's tough pipe!" said Dan, when fairly out of
+hearing. "Ha, ha!--sit down, sit down, good father," opening a
+half-door, as he laughed, and thrusting in the pilgrim; "nobody can hear
+aught besides, when he's fairly agoing."
+
+The apartment into which this unceremonious conductor ushered his guest
+was Dan's store-room.
+
+A most whimsical assemblage of materials were here huddled together.
+Pans, wooden bowls, and matters of meaner import, entered into close
+familiarity with broadswords and helmets; boots of home manufacture in
+their primitive clothing; saddles with their housings; knives, and brown
+bottles of coarse pottery, were intermingled with many a grim-looking
+weapon of bloodthirsty aspect. From the walls depended a heterogeneous
+mass of apparel--cloaks, hats, and body-gear of unimaginable shape and
+appearance. Dan was steward of the wardrobe, or furniture-keeper to most
+of the retainers and other idle appendages to the hall; and as, in those
+days, the sciences dependent on order and classification had not spread
+their beneficial influence through society at large, it frequently
+happened that more time was consumed in rummaging amidst this unexplored
+chaos than would have sufficed to transact the whole affair for which
+any article was required. A round stool in the middle of this
+"_Thesaurus"_--the only unoccupied place except the ceiling--was the
+throne of our friend, Dan Hardseg, when dispensing out his treasures
+with stately munificence;--on this scanty perch was the stranger duly
+installed, and favoured with a benignant and knowing wink from Dan as he
+departed.
+
+Waiting for the return of his patron, the pilgrim was roused from a fit
+of reverie by the well-remembered greeting of the jester, Humphry
+Lathom, or "Daft Humpy," as he was mostly called.
+
+"Eh, nuncle! But if Dan catch thee, he'll be sure to give thee a lift i'
+the stocks."
+
+This strange creature cautiously opened the door, and was speedily
+engulfed in all that fearful accumulation of sloth and disorder. By his
+manner, it did not seem to be his first irruption into this vast
+magazine; whilst, from the cautious and fearful glances he from time to
+time cast through the door, it would appear that he had been detected in
+his expeditions, and in all probability punished for the offence. He was
+evidently in search of some object from amidst the various heaps of
+lumber he overthrew; an inarticulate mutter, accompanying every fresh
+attack, indicated impatience and disappointment. Suddenly he exclaimed,
+drawing forth a large roll, with ludicrous expressions of delight--
+
+"I have thee, now! The buck's horns shall soon butt this great Welsh
+goat from his pen."
+
+He opened the banner. It was the pennon of the Bradshaigh, thrown aside
+to rot in dust and decay.
+
+"Don't tell Dan, nuncle, and thou shall see rare sport."
+
+He said this with his usual familiarity of tone; but suddenly putting
+his mouth to the stranger's ear, he whispered. The words were inaudible,
+save to him for whom they were meant; and in an instant he darted from
+the spot, concealing the spoil amidst the folds of his apparel. Shortly
+afterwards Dan made his appearance. With wonder and dismay did he
+behold the ravages committed in his treasure-house--"confusion worse
+confounded."
+
+"Beshrew me, but thou art a restless tenant. I did not tell thee to
+tumble my wardrobe into haycocks."
+
+"I was long a-watching," said the pilgrim; "and, in good troth, I became
+over curious to know the capacity of thy sty. What tidings from my
+lady's chamber?"
+
+"A plague on her husband's humours! Maude says it were as much as a
+Jew's thumb were worth to get thee privily to an audience, but she hath
+urged my lady to distribute the alms herself to-day; so betake thee to
+the kitchen; Maude will contrive thou shalt have some token of approach.
+St Anthony! but thou hast bestirred thee bravely; such another guest,
+and I might as well set fire to the whole budget. If thou be'st bent on
+such another rummage in the kitchen, the cook will whack thy pate with
+the spit, holy and hooded though it be."
+
+Dan led the way to this arena of gigantic gastronomy. It was a vast and
+smoky den, such as could only exist in those days of feudal
+magnificence. An immense furnace was fed by huge blocks of wood, which
+the ravening flame seized and in a moment enveloped in its embrace.
+Forms, grisly and indistinct, flitted past this devouring blaze, by the
+sputtering and crackling of which, mingled with the hissing delicacies
+before it, and the shrill scream of the presiding fury, a stranger might
+be warned of his approach to this pandemonium some time ere its wonders
+were visible. The pilgrim seated himself in an accessible corner,
+anxiously awaiting the promised signal.
+
+On a long stone bench lay heaps of broken meat, ready for distribution
+to the groups of mendicants who were now clamouring without the gate.
+From the low and ponderous rafters hung dried mutton, bacon, and deer's
+tongues, wreathed in curls of smoke, that might seem to render an
+introduction to the chimney unnecessary for completing their flavour.
+
+It was not long ere a pert waiting-maid approached. She drew up her
+short linsey-woolsey garments from the contaminations beneath her feet.
+Raising her chin, she thus addressed the servitors:--
+
+"My lady bids ye bring the dole quickly into the great hall--She attends
+to-day in person. When the bell rings," looking towards the pilgrim as
+she spoke, "my lady leaves her chamber."
+
+Maude departed with the same supercilious deportment. The bell was
+immediately heard, and the stranger, making the best of his way into the
+hall, found the doors wide open, and an indiscriminate assemblage of
+supplicants, displaying to the best advantage a variety of modes and
+manifestations of distress, unhappily not confined to those unhallowed
+days of wretchedness and misrule. Their chief attention seemed to be
+directed towards a side wicket, in the upper part of which was a slide
+for the more convenient distribution of the accustomed largess, when the
+Lady Mabel did not superintend the apportioning of her beneficence.
+
+It was soon whispered amongst the crowd that she, who had for a
+considerable time kept aloof from all intercourse, would that day
+distribute her own bounty.
+
+The tinkling of the bell ceased, and suddenly the door flew open. Lady
+Mabel and her maidens entered. The crowd fell back as she approached. Of
+a commanding form and deportment, she seemed a being of some superior
+creation; whilst, with slow and majestic steps, she passed on to the
+upper division of the hall, where the dais raised her slightly above the
+multitude.
+
+She was habited in deep mourning: her heavy train swept gracefully over
+the dark pavement; her veil, in cumbrous folds, reached almost to her
+feet, effectually concealing her face from the eyes of the spectators. A
+number of servitors, now entered, bearing the allotted viands, together
+with sundry articles of winter apparel. The upper table was filled, and
+a profound silence showed the awe and respect which her presence
+inspired. She raised her veil. Grief, long subdued, yet deep and
+irremediable, hung heavily on her pallid features, but their form and
+character was untouched by the destroyer. Not a ringlet was visible. Her
+brow, bare and unornamented, threw an air of severe grandeur on her
+whole countenance. Around the lip fell a deeper shade of sorrow; but
+sweet, inexpressibly sweet and touching, was the expression. Though the
+rose had faded, yet, lovelier in decay, it seemed to mingle more
+gracefully with the soft hues by which it was surrounded.
+
+She waved her hand: singly the mendicants approached, proffering their
+simple tale of suffering and privation. To every one she administered
+comfort; consoling the wretched and reproving the careless; but each had
+a share of her bounty ere he withdrew.
+
+The hall was nearly cleared; yet the palmer sat, as if still awaiting
+audience, behind a distant pillar, and deeply pondering, as it might
+seem, the transactions he had witnessed. The last of their suppliants
+had departed ere he rose, bending lowly as he approached. The eye of the
+noble dame suddenly became rivetted on him. She was leaning in front of
+her maidens, beside a richly-carved canopy of state, underneath which,
+on days of feudal hospitality and pomp, presided the master of the
+banquet. Behind, a long and richly-variegated window poured down a
+chequered halo of glory around her form. She seemed an angel of light,
+issuing from that fountain of splendour, and irradiating the whole group
+with her presence.
+
+"Reverend pilgrim, thy behest?" She said this with a shudder of
+apprehension, as if dreading an answer to her inquiry. The pilgrim spoke
+not, but advanced.
+
+The attendants drew aside. A silence, chill and unbroken as the grave,
+pervaded the assembly. He took from his vest a silver ring. The Lady
+Mabel grasped the well-known signet. With agony the most heartrending
+and intense she exclaimed--
+
+"My husband's signet!--Where?--Whence came this pledge?--Speak!"
+
+A pause ensued. It was one of those short ages of almost insupportable
+suspense, when the mind, wound up to the keenest susceptibility of
+endurance, seems vibrating on the verge of annihilation,--as if the next
+pulse would snap its connection with the world for ever.
+
+"Lady," the pilgrim answered, in a low sepulchral tone, "it is a bequest
+from thy husband. It was his wife's last pledge--a seal of unchanging
+fidelity. He bade me seek his dame, and say, 'His last sigh was to
+her--his last wish to heaven.'"
+
+Lady Mabel listened--every tone sunk like a barbed arrow to her heart.
+The voice resembled not that of her deceased husband, yet such was the
+deceptive influence arising from the painful irritation which her
+spirits had undergone, that, if reason had not forbidden, her fancy
+would have invested it with supernatural attributes--listening to it as
+though it were a voice from the tomb.
+
+"For the love I bore and yet bear to his most honoured name, tell me--I
+conjure thee, tell me--his earthly resting-place. My last pilgrimage
+shall be thither. I will enshrine his hallowed relics, and they shall be
+a pledge of our union where we shall no more part."
+
+The last words were spoken with a solemnity of expression awful and
+thrilling beyond the power of language to convey:
+
+"What recks it, lady? thou hast gotten thee another," said the pilgrim.
+
+"Another!--Oh name him not. Never, never!--most base, most cruel. He
+took advantage of my bereavement--a moment of weakness and maternal
+terror. By what long ages of suffering and wretchedness has it been
+repaid! Better I had beheld my babes wasting with hunger, than have
+mated with this unpitying husband for a home and a morsel of bread!"
+
+A flush of proud scorn at her own weakness overspread her features. It
+was but momentary. She bade the attendants withdraw. Looking round for
+this purpose, she was aware, for the first time, of the hated presence
+of Roger de Cliderhow, watching, with considerable surprise, for the
+result of this unexpected interview. He departed with the retinue,
+leaving Lady Mabel and the pilgrim for a while unobserved.
+
+"Thou art a holy and a heaven-destined man, yet surely thou hast been
+taught to share another's sorrows--to pour the oil of compassion over
+the wounds of the penitent and broken-hearted." The lady turned aside
+her head--she leaned over the chair for support, whilst one hand pressed
+her throbbing temples.
+
+"_Mabel Bradshaigh!_" It was the voice of Sir William. She started as at
+a summons from the tomb. No other form was visible but that of the
+pilgrim bending over his staff. Her eye wandered wildly around the hall,
+as if she expected some phantom to start from its recesses. A
+richly-fretted screen, behind which the minstrels and lookers-on
+occasionally sat at the festival, stood at the lower end of the
+apartment. A slight rustling was heard; she was about to rush towards
+the spot, when the voice was again audible, and apparently at her side.
+Slowly the hood of the pilgrim was uplifted. He threw off his disguise;
+but oh, how changed was the once athletic form of Sir William
+Bradshaigh! With a wild and piercing shriek she flew towards the
+outstretched arms of her husband; but ere they met, a figure stepped
+between, barring their approach. It was the ungainly person of Sir
+Osmund Neville.
+
+"Nay, nay, seek thy leman elsewhere, thou gay palmer. It were a brave
+honour, truly, to graft me with thy favours." With this brutish speech
+he was proceeding to lay hands on the lady, who stood stupefied in
+amaze, and bereft of power to offer the least resistance.
+
+"To me this insult! I'll chase thee from thy lair!" exclaimed the
+incensed Sir William.
+
+Roger de Cliderhow at this moment suddenly approached, and in great
+alarm. He whispered Sir Osmund.
+
+"'Tis Sir William!--Thou hast no time for parley. If his coming get
+abroad we are undone. Call thy men hither, and let him be conveyed away
+privily. The dungeon will tell no tales. I'll summon them. If the
+servants get a whisper of the matter, I'll give out he is an impostor."
+
+Fearful of encountering the glance of his injured lord, this worthy
+withdrew in great precipitation.
+
+It was but the work of a moment. Sir Osmund had taken the precaution to
+prevent all egress, so that Sir William and his lady were, in fact,
+prisoners, at the mercy and discretion of a cruel and cowardly foe.
+
+Sir William had thrown off his cloak and the remainder of his disguise.
+He now stood proudly erect before the supplanter, who was somewhat
+stunned by this unexpected issue.
+
+"I defy thee to the combat; hast thou the grace to give me a weapon, or
+art thou as cowardly as thou art presuming?" tauntingly inquired Sir
+William.
+
+"Impostor! wouldst have me believe every wish that folly genders? To the
+proof!" sullenly replied Sir Osmund.
+
+"What says the Lady Mabel? Let her decide," returned the other.
+
+"She!" cried the ingrate, with a contemptuous sneer; "her wits are so
+set upon it, that she would worship any ill-favoured lout that should
+call himself her husband."
+
+"'Tis false! unblushing as thou art." The lightning kindled in the
+lady's eye as she spoke. Sir Osmund quailed beneath her glance.
+
+"Am I mad?" she continued; "ay, if thy wish could have goaded me to it.
+Thou hast heaped on me tortures, indignities, cruel as thy relentless
+nature could devise; but I have been spared for this!" Her lips
+quivered. Shuddering, she spoke with amazing energy and distinctness. "I
+_have_ repented, day and night, but they were unavailing tears. Oh, if I
+have wronged thee"--she covered her face with her hands--"it was not
+even in thought that I grew unfaithful to thy trust. My babes, in a
+moment of weakness I looked on them, smiling as they lay. I could not
+dash the cup from their lips ere they had well nigh tasted. I could not
+behold them so soon doomed to misery and want."
+
+She made a convulsive effort to repress her sobs.
+
+"Can years of suffering atone for my crime?"
+
+She drew back as she continued, "I abhor, I loathe the very existence I
+am forced to prolong. The cloister alone can hide my wretchedness and my
+shame."
+
+"I forgive thee: nay, shrink not from my embrace," cried the distracted
+Sir William; "I blame thee not in my regret. Pure, and as free from
+guilt as when first I knew thee, do I now receive thee to my arms."
+
+Sir Osmund smiled in contempt; at the same time casting a furtive glance
+towards the side entrance, where, true to his word, Roger De Cliderhow
+had summoned a guard of Welsh bowmen, their master's accomplices in many
+a deed of violence and rapine.
+
+Sir Osmund heard their approach. He cautiously undrew the bolts, and,
+pointing to his foe with a signal they but too well understood, the
+latter was immediately seized, and with such rapidity, that almost
+before Sir William was aware of their design, he found himself a
+prisoner and incapable of resistance.
+
+"Traitor, thou wilt rue this foul despite! I here proclaim thee a craven
+knight and a dastard!" exclaimed Sir William.
+
+"False pilgrim," growled his adversary, "didst think to foist thy
+fooleries upon me! The dungeon walls will give thee a patient hearing.
+Boast to them of thy descent, and when they acknowledge thee, so will I.
+Guards, to your duty."
+
+Lady Mabel, with a loud and appalling shriek, fell senseless on the
+pavement.
+
+In vain did Sir William endeavour to free himself from the rude grasp of
+his conductors. He was hurried along, nor did there appear the remotest
+possibility of escape. Just as they turned into a sort of corridor,
+leading to the passages more immediately connected with the place of
+their destination, they encountered Humphry Lathom. The same
+half-stupid, half-knavish expression of face was now lighted up by a
+grin of apparently inexplicable amazement.
+
+"Eh, nuncle," said he, stroking his beard, "but you're in mighty grace.
+The Welshman always mounts his he-goats for guard on them he delighteth
+to honour." With one of his more than ordinarily elvish and malicious
+shouts he scampered past the enraged sentinels, and was heard rapidly
+ascending the steps of the great tower, beneath the massive foundations
+of which lay the dark and cheerless abode so unexpectedly destined for
+the reception of its owner.
+
+Whilst these occurrences were passing within the walls Grim's curiosity
+was in prodigious exercise without. His anxiety increased in a compound
+ratio with the time elapsed, and inversely as the hope of intelligence
+was decreasing. Every spare moment his eye was directed towards the
+hall; but no tidings came, no scout, no messenger from the scene of
+action, from whom the slightest inkling of the result could be gathered.
+It seemed as though all intercourse had ceased, all transit and
+communication were cut off. It was mighty strange! some rare doings were
+afloat, no doubt, and not a soul would remember honest Grim in his
+thrall. He tied and untied his apron, beat the iron when it was cool,
+and let it cool when it was hot. "It will be noon presently." He looked
+at the sun; it seemed to have crept backward for the last half-hour: at
+any rate, he was morally certain that useful appendage to this great and
+troublesome world had stood still, if not retrograded. The mendicants
+were all gone--no tidings to be gained from them--matters were more than
+usually contrary and provoking--and if it had not been for some recent
+disgrace which his prying disposition had occasioned at the hall, he
+would long ago have satisfied himself by a personal inquiry into the
+present posture of affairs.
+
+"Hope deferred" was just on the point of being attended with the usual
+consequences, when, taking another peep through a crevice, constructed
+for putting into effect a more efficient system of examination, he
+beheld a phenomenon as unlooked for as it was incomprehensible. He
+rubbed his eyes, strongly persuaded that some rigorous discipline was
+necessary. He pinched his fingers, shook himself--was he really awake?
+or--he took another peep, still it was there; nor crossings,
+ejaculations, nor other established contrivances had any effect. The
+vision that caused all this disturbance was the great banner of the
+Bradshaigh on the tower, curling full and stately in the breeze. Wonders
+and misfortunes rarely come unattended. Grim's appetite for the
+marvellous was now in danger of suffering as much from repletion as
+before from inanity, and he had just summoned his dame for a special
+council, when his ears were assailed by a furious ding-dong. Stroke
+upon stroke, huge, heavy, and unceasing, followed each other in rapid
+succession. It was the great bell, used only on occasions of emergency
+and importance, the hoarse tongue of which had been silent since the day
+of Sir William's departure. There was no time to waste in conjecture.
+Grim rushed from his dwelling. Convinced that some catastrophe was at
+hand, his intention was to climb the hill behind his little hovel, in
+order to reconnoitre the premises with greater facility. Sallying forth,
+he saw numbers of the peasantry on the same errand. All was bustle and
+inquiry; each giving his neighbour credit for the possession of some
+intelligence whereby the mystery might be unravelled.
+
+"Sir William cannot have returned!" said one.
+
+"No," replied another, "or the buck would soon butt the Welshman out of
+his stall."
+
+"Ha, ha!" said a neighbouring gossip, "those horns are big enough,"
+pointing to the device upon the banner--a buck _passant_.
+
+As they drew nearer to the great gate the bell had ceased, when suddenly
+appeared, perched on a corner of the tower, the well-known form of "Daft
+Humpy." He threw up his cap, caught it, and whirled it round his head
+with every demonstration of joyous extravagance. "Hurrah!" shouted he,
+with a distinct and shrill enunciation, which might be heard to the very
+extremities of the crowd. "Hurrah for Sir William Bradshaigh!--he is
+come again!--hurrah, neighbours!--in, in!"
+
+He ran round the battlements with unceasing vociferation. On hearing
+this news, numbers entered the gate pell-mell, carrying with them some
+who would fain have acted with more discretion, by watching the issue
+warily and out of harm's way. Of this class was our stout-fisted friend
+Darby Grim, who, though of a well-composed valour when fairly tested,
+was yet slow to move, and cared not to thrust his fingers uselessly into
+a broil.
+
+The first party that entered was met by Humphry.
+
+"Pick-axes and spades!" cried he, flourishing a stout staff. "To the
+dungeon!--come along, come along!" So far from accelerating their speed,
+this address seemed at once to suspend all further progress. They gazed
+at each other; none wist what to do, naturally not overburdened with
+confidence in the discretion of their guide. Suddenly checking himself,
+he stood as erect as the nature of his form would admit, before the
+astonished auditors.
+
+"Ye lazy caterpillars! ye cowardly scum of humanity! if ye follow me
+not, I'll rouse the Welsh bull-dogs. Sir Osmund hath ta'en him to the
+dungeon, I tell ye; and who is there that will not lend a hand to the
+rescue of Sir William Bradshaigh?"
+
+Grim was among the foremost of the invading army; on hearing this news,
+a latent spark enkindled his courage most opportunely into a blaze.
+Seizing a cudgel, he brandished it in front of his comrades, like one
+half-frantic, crying, "It is, it is; I have seen him this blessed
+day!--Hurrah for Sir William!"
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted the crowd, whose courage, augmenting with their
+numbers, soon manifested itself in an immediate attack on the cell,
+whence they speedily extricated their lord. Intoxicated with joy, they
+vowed a summary vengeance on the discourteous knight who had so vilely
+entreated him.
+
+Sir William's first care was for the rescue of his lady. She almost
+forgot her own sorrows on witnessing his joy when once more folding the
+children to his embrace. A short interval elapsed ere he sought his
+adversary; but he had fled, along with his unworthy followers. Such was
+the wrong Sir William had suffered, that his yet untamed spirit deemed
+it an offence too foul to be expiated by aught but the blood of his
+merciless foe. Armed, and with but few attendants, he hotly pursued him,
+and, as old chronicles tell, at a place called Newton, he overtook and
+slew him in single combat. Returning in safety, he lived happily with
+his lady to a good old age. They lie buried in the chancel of All
+Saints, Wigan, where, carved on the tomb, their effigies still exist,
+the rarest of the monumental antiquities in that ancient edifice.
+
+The Lady Mabel's spirit had been too sorely wounded to recover its
+tranquillity. For the purpose of what was then deemed an expiation to
+her unintentional offence, she performed a weekly penance, going
+barefooted from Haigh to a place outside the walls at Wigan, where a
+stone cross was erected, which bears to this day the name of "MAB'S
+CROSS."
+
+
+
+
+THE PRIOR OF BURSCOUGH.
+
+
+    "Quhere are ye boun, ye bold prior,
+      With that ladye on your knee?"
+    "I'm boun to the hills, I'm boun to the dales,
+      I'm boun to the grey priory."
+
+_Old Ballad. M.S._
+
+Of the once renowned priory of Burscough, only two pillars, belonging to
+the centre arch of the church, are now remaining. It is situated about
+two miles from Ormskirk, on the Preston road, in a level district of
+great compass renowned for its fertility. The extensive manor and living
+of Ormskirk formerly belonged to this priory. The charter of King Edward
+II., "reciting and confirming the grants of the donors," with a
+confirmation of the charter by which "the prior and convent of
+Burscough, and their successors for ever, shall have one market every
+week on Thursday, at their manor of Ormskirk, and likewise one fair
+every year, of five days' continuance," is still preserved in the office
+of the Duchy of Lancaster.
+
+This religious house was founded for Black Canons by Robert Fitzhenry,
+Lord of Latham of Lathom, in the reign of Richard I. It was formerly the
+burial-place of the Earls of Derby; but many of the coffins have been
+removed to their vault in the church at Ormskirk, built by Edward, the
+third Earl, great grandson of Thomas, first Earl of Derby, who had the
+honour of crowning Henry VII. at Bosworth Field with the coronet torn
+from the brows of the slain tyrant.
+
+The main fact of the following tradition may be found in the Calend.
+Rotulo. Patents, fol. 155, art. 13, containing the free pardon granted
+by Edward III. to the atrocious murderer of Michael de Poininges and
+Thomas le Clarke, after the rape he had committed on Margaret de la
+Bech.
+
+At the Dissolution, this priory had a superior, five monks, and forty
+servants. The last prior was John Barton, who surrendered the living,
+and subscribed to the King's supremacy. He was surviving as late as the
+year 1553.
+
+[Illustration: BURSCOUGH ABBEY.
+
+_Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden._]
+
+That curious structure, the church at Ormskirk, having two steeples, a
+tower and spire, contiguous to each other, is briefly glanced at in the
+tradition. This circumstance, according to some accounts, was occasioned
+by the removal of part of the bells from Burscough at the dissolution of
+the monasteries, when the existing spire steeple was found to be not
+sufficiently capacious. The tenor bell, said to have been the third
+bell, at Burscough, bears some apparent proof of its translation. Round
+the circle, below the ear, is the following inscription in black letter,
+except the initials of the founder:--
+
+"J.S. * de Burscough * Armig. * et * e * vr. * me fecerunt in honorem
+Trinitatis * R.B. 1497."
+
+About half-way down the bell is another date, 1576.
+
+Where each asterisk is marked are the _rose, portcullis_, and _fleur de
+lis_. Beneath the inscription a neat border is cast, filled up in the
+centre with the _rose, portcullis_, and _fleur de lis_, repeated so as
+to occupy the whole circumference of the bell. We have been thus
+particular in our description, as it may not be uninteresting to pursue
+this inquiry, connected as it is with some important historical facts,
+not irrelevant to the subject.
+
+The following remarks may preclude any further observations of our
+own:--
+
+"The _red rose_ is well known to have been the favourite emblem of the
+house of Lancaster, from whom Henry VII. was descended, and through whom
+he gloried in claiming his title to the throne.
+
+"His mother, Margaret Countess of Richmond, then Countess of Derby, was
+sole daughter and heiress of the Duke of Somerset,[10] who bore the
+_portcullis_ as an heraldic distinction. This nobleman was descended
+from John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and Henry had a right to the
+honourable bearings of his royal ancestors. Hence the '_rose and
+portcullis_' were favourite badges of this monarch, as peculiarly
+belonging to the house of Lancaster. The '_fleur de lis_' is the emblem
+of France; and, independently of the arms of that kingdom being
+quartered at that time, and till very lately, with the royal arms of
+England, Henry had a right to assume this distinction also, as being the
+grandson of Sir Owen Tudor and Catherine of France, relict of Henry V.
+
+"The first date, also 1497, refers to a very important period in
+history, as connected with the Derby family. Two short years before, the
+great, the brave Sir William Stanley, who, of his own power and
+interest, raised and brought 3000 horse and foot to the rescue of his
+prince, when his life, his honour, and his hopes of a throne were at
+stake; who contributed to his victory, and helped to crown him 'King' in
+the field; had, by that very sovereign, been sent to the block, merely
+on account of a doubtful and unguarded expression, reported by a rebel,
+a traitor, and an ungenerous friend. The unhappy monarch, learning too
+late the dire effects of groundless suspicion, paid a visit in the
+following year to his deeply-wounded stepfather, the brother of the
+dauntless hero whom he had so lately sacrificed.
+
+"It is stated that the King arrived at Knowsley on or about the 24th
+June 1496, and then went to Lathom; whence, after remaining a month with
+his mother the Countess, and the Earl her husband, he returned to
+London.
+
+"This brings us within one year of the date on the tenor bell, and I
+cannot help thinking that its emblems have some allusion to the royal
+visit to Knowsley and Lathom. It becomes, however, necessary to attempt
+to account for the second date, 1576, on the same bell. And here we can
+again only conjecture. It is not improbable that the original bell was
+injured; that, prior to breaking up, its inscription and emblems were
+carefully moulded, and a new one cast, with the old metal, in the year
+1576, care being taken that a copy of the inscription, &c., should fill
+the same situation in the present bell, which the originals occupied in
+the former."[11]
+
+It may not be deemed irrelevant to mention here a tradition which exists
+relative to the visit of King Henry VII. at Lathom, particularly as it
+does not appear to be generally known.
+
+After the execution of Sir William Stanley, when the King visited
+Lathom, the Earl, when his royal guest had viewed the whole house,
+conducted him up to the leads for a prospect of the country. The Earl's
+fool, who was among the company, observing the King draw near to the
+edge of the leads not guarded with a balustrade, stepped up to the Earl,
+and pointing down to the precipice, said, "_Tom, remember Will_." The
+King understood the meaning, and made all haste down stairs, and out of
+the house; and the fool long after seemed mightily concerned that his
+lord had not had courage to take that opportunity of avenging himself
+for the death of his brother.--_Kennett's MSS_. 1033. fol. 47.
+
+It was on a still and sultry evening, about the close of summer, in the
+year of grace one thousand three hundred and forty-seven, that a
+solitary traveller was seen hastily descending, by a woodland path, into
+the gloomy thickets that surrounded the neighbouring priory of
+Burscough. The rain-drops were just pattering on the dark leaves above
+him, and the birds were fast hastening to some deeper shelter. The timid
+rabbit, as the stranger passed by, darted into its burrow, and many a
+quiet face gazed on him from beneath a pair of ragged antlers, peeping
+over the fences that guarded the demesne. Here and there a narrow glade
+opened beautifully into the woods, through which might be seen green
+lawns and pastures, with herds of dappled deer stealing silently to
+their covert. The low growl of the distant thunder seemed to come upon
+each living thing like the voice of some invisible spirit, subduing
+with its mysterious speech every power and faculty, with an authority
+superior to all human control.
+
+The traveller hastened on. The pinnacles and stately turrets of the
+priory were just visible through the arched boughs, when, turning into a
+more sequestered path, he observed a female of a wild and uncouth aspect
+standing in the way. She showed no disposition to move as he approached,
+nor did she seem to notice his presence. He stopped, but sufficiently
+near to distinguish the motion of her lips. An unintelligible mutter
+accompanied it. She looked darkly towards the south, beckoning to the
+coming thunder, and pointing, as though she would guide its course,
+towards the grey walls of the priory.
+
+She was dressed in a dark-coloured corset fitting close to the body, and
+a hood of the same materials. Her hair was a deep jet, and fantastically
+twisted about her face. She was of low stature, but not bowed by
+decrepitude or age. Her cheek was hollow, and her complexion swarthy,
+but her eye grew unnaturally bright, blazing out with a fierceness,
+intense as though the fire within were visible through these chinks and
+crevices of the soul's tenement.
+
+Though the storm was rapidly approaching she still kept her place,
+unawed by the rude elements, and seeming to surfer but little
+inconvenience from the shower, now descending with great vigour. The
+path was narrow, and a thick underwood skirted the road, so that for the
+stranger to pass was impossible, unless his opponent chose to take up a
+more favourable position. But the sudden burst of a terrific
+thunder-clap, which seemed to roll in a continuous peal above them, made
+him less ceremonious on this head than the laws of gallantry might
+warrant. He drew nearer to the female, with the intention of seeking a
+passage on that side where the least disturbance would be given.
+
+"Go not. 'Tis accursed!" said she, as if preparing to dispute the
+attempt.
+
+"I am a stranger, and hastening for shelter. In troth, 'tis a narrow
+goit that will not let a drowning man through. Prythee, dame, let me
+not, in some wise, seem uncourteous. Yet"----
+
+Here he attempted to pass; but she seized him, and with so powerful a
+grasp that for a moment his intention was foiled, so sudden and
+unexpected was the attack. Though of a stout and muscular shape, yet
+was he holden tightly, as if she were exulting in her strength. Either
+malice or madness had given her a vigour of body beyond that of her sex.
+
+"Michael de Poininges!"
+
+The stranger started at this recognition.
+
+"I warn thee! Thinkest thou yon fiend will forward thy mission. Wilt
+thou tear the prey from the jaws of the famished and ravening wolf?
+Beware!"
+
+Some score of years had elapsed since De Poininges was a visitor in
+these parts; and he was now upon some sacred mission to the Prior of
+Burscough, Thomas de Litherland, whose great power and reckless
+intrepidity of guilt had won for him a name of no common note, even in
+those ages of privileged injustice and oppression. No bosom but his own,
+at least in that neighbourhood, could have been privy to the business
+which brought him hither; and yet he found a woman casually crossing his
+path, whose knowledge of his errand was but too evident, and whose
+appearance and deportment might well excuse the suspicions he
+entertained as to her familiarity with the EVIL ONE.
+
+"Go, poor beast! Thou art but fattened for the slaughter!" She said
+this, apparently addressing a stout buck that was sheltering in the
+thicket. De Poininges shuddered, as she looked on him askance, with some
+dubious meaning.
+
+"I'll meet thee at supper-time."
+
+This was said with a slow and solemn enunciation, as though some
+terrible warning was intended, yet durst he not question her further;
+and ere he could reply she had disappeared in the recesses of the
+forest.
+
+The rain now poured down in torrents, and De Poininges was fain to
+hasten with all possible expedition towards the porter's gate.
+
+The priory of Burscough had been founded the century preceding, for a
+brotherhood of Black Canons, by Robert Fitzhenry, Lord of Lathom. He
+endowed it with considerable property, emoluments, and alms, and,
+according to the weak superstition of the age, thought thereby to obtain
+pardon and rest for the souls of Henry the Second, John, Earl of
+Moreton, himself, his wife, and all his ancestors; at the same time
+wishing the kingdom of heaven to all persons who would increase the
+gifts, and consigning to the devil and his angels all who should
+impiously infringe on his bequests.
+
+It was dedicated to St Nicholas, and a rude effigy of the saint was
+carved over the south porch of the chapel, with two or three naked
+children at his feet. The building was not large, but the architecture
+was chaste and beautiful, a noble specimen of the early Gothic, then
+superseding the ponderous forms and proportions of the Norman, or rather
+Saxon era. The arches were sharply pointed. The windows, narrow and
+lancet-shaped, were deeply recessed; the slender shafts of the columns
+were carried in clusters to a vast height, surmounted by pinnacles of
+rich and elegant tracery; these gave a light and airy character to the
+whole, highly significant of the buoyant feelings that accompanied so
+wonderful an escape from the heavy trammels of their predecessors.
+
+Craving shelter, De Poininges was admitted without any question, as all
+travellers partook indiscriminately of the general bounty. The religious
+houses in those days were the constituted almonries of the rich and
+great; and through these overflowing channels, for the most part,
+proceeded their liberality and beneficence.
+
+He was ushered into one of the _locutories_, or parlours, where, his
+business being with the prior, he was desired to wait until an audience
+could be granted.
+
+Prior Thomas, from some cause or other not assigned, held himself at
+that season much estranged and secluded from his brethren. He had seldom
+been seen from his lodgings, except when performing his accustomed
+office in the church. He had not taken his place in the refectory of
+late, the duties of the day being performed by one of the elder canons.
+
+De Poininges, after a short space, was summoned to the prior's chamber.
+In his progress, he passed the door of the refectory where the brethren
+were at supper. It was large and wainscoted, and furnished with an ample
+dresser. Cupboards were let into the wall, and windows opened into the
+kitchen, through which their meal was served.
+
+One of the monks was reading the appointed service from a low pulpit or
+desk. The prior's seat was still vacant. Their way now led through the
+cloisters, and at the opposite side of the quadrangle a portal
+communicated by a long and dark passage with the prior's lodging. This
+was a sort of inferior castellated mansion, with a spacious hall, and a
+smaller dining-chamber immediately adjoining. At the end was a fair
+chapel or oratory. Ascending a flight of stone steps, they came to a
+low door. The conductor knocked, and De Poininges soon found himself in
+the presence of the proud Prior of Burscough. He wore a square cap of
+black stuff, after the fashion of his order. His cloak, or upper
+garment, was of the same colour, trimmed round the bottom with a double
+edging. He reposed on a couch, or oaken settle, and seemed, in some
+measure, either indisposed or unwilling to notice the homage he
+received. His figure was strong and muscular, his complexion dull, and
+almost swarthy. His lips were full, and his aspect rather coarse than
+sensual. His brows were high, and unusually arched; but his eyes were
+downcast, and seldom raised towards the speaker. In speech he was brief
+and interrogative, but impatient under a tardy or inefficient answer.
+
+"Thy name, stranger?"
+
+"Michael de Poininges."
+
+"From whence?"
+
+"My business concerns you in private. I await your reverence's
+pleasure."
+
+The prior motioned the attendants to withdraw.
+
+"Proceed. Thy message?" He spoke this with precipitancy, at the same
+time abruptly changing his position.
+
+"Mine errand is touching one Margaret de la Bech," said De Poininges,
+seating himself opposite to the prior; "and I am directed to crave your
+help for the clearing away of some loose suspicions regarding her
+concealment."
+
+"Her concealment!" replied De Litherland, starting up angrily from the
+couch. "Her concealment! They who hide may find. I know not aught of the
+wench, save that she was mad, and drowned herself. But why not inquire
+of Sir Thomas? The maiden was not in my keeping." He paced the chamber
+haughtily, but with a disturbed and lurid aspect.
+
+"Yet," replied the other, "it is well and currently reported, and
+witnesses there be who have already testified as to a fact, that some of
+your men were seen the night of her withdrawal lurking in her path, and
+that screams and other manifestations of the outrage then perpetrated
+were heard in this direction. Not that we deem any blemish can attach to
+your reverence in this matter. Still"--
+
+"Why dost thou hesitate in thy speech?" said the prior, in a voice
+almost inarticulate with choler.
+
+"I would say," answered De Poininges, "that it is our wish, and your
+duty, to search into this dark question, without favour or prejudice;
+and, further, we do reckon that the Prior of Burscough is not without
+the means to discover, and the power to punish, his offending vassals."
+
+"And whose evil star guided thee hither with this insolent message?"
+inquired the prior, pale and trembling with rage.
+
+"Those whom your reverence may not lightly contemn. I have here a
+warrant from the Council to procure all fitting help and suppliance for
+the bringing up the body of Margaret de la Bech, who is suspected of
+being detained in this neighbourhood, by persons hitherto unknown,
+against her own proper will and consent."
+
+The prior paused for a space. A somewhat more placid expression and
+demeanour was the result.
+
+"I am no stranger," said he, "to this idle and mischievous rumour. Means
+have been used to discover its likelihood or credibility, but we find it
+to be utterly false and unworthy of our notice. The inventor of these
+tales shall not long escape."
+
+"Yet hath she been a-missing ever since," said De Poininges, warily;
+"and in vain hath search been made for the body. And furthermore, we
+have her own expressed apprehension, as it regards one she durst not
+name, and a perilous foreboding of the evil that awaited her. It is to
+this source, yet obscure, I must own, that our inquiries are to be
+directed."
+
+"Tarry here until the morning, and I will then give thee some further
+discourse on the matter."
+
+"Nay, Sir Prior," answered De Poininges. "I thank your grace's courtesy,
+but this night I must away to the village or town hereabout, Ormschurch
+I think it be, and there, in all likelihood, I may abide for some days."
+
+The prior bit his lips, but sought not to oppose his intent, further
+than by giving a hint that foul weather was abroad, and of the good
+cheer and dry lodging the priory afforded. De Poininges, however, took
+his way afoot, returning to the town, where his horse and two trusty
+attendants awaited him at the tavern or hostel.
+
+The evening was fair, and the sky clear, save a broad and mountainous
+ridge of clouds piled up towards the north-east, from whence hung a
+black and heavy curtain stretching behind the hills in that direction.
+The sparkling of the sea was visible at intervals behind the low
+sand-hills skirting the coast, giving out, in irregular flashes, the
+rich and glowing radiance it received. A lucid brightness yet lingered
+over the waves, which De Poininges stood for a moment to observe, as he
+gained the brow of the hill near the church. To this edifice was then
+appended a low spire, not exhibiting, as now, the strange anomaly of a
+huge tower by its side, seated there apparently for no other purpose
+than to excite wonder, and to afford the clerk an opportunity of
+illustrating its origin by the following tradition:--
+
+Long time ago, two maiden sisters of the name of Orme, the founders of
+this church, disagreed as to the shape of this most important appendage.
+Tower against spire was, in the end, likely to leave the parties without
+a church in answer to their prayers, had not the happy suggestion
+offered itself in the shape of a pair of these campanile structures
+suited to the taste of each.
+
+That the foregoing is an idle and impertinent invention there is little
+need to show, inasmuch as both tower and spire might still have been
+built to satisfy the whim of the old ladies, though placed in the usual
+manner, one serving as a substratum to the other. A more probable
+solution is the following, though it may be as far from the truth:--At
+the dissolution of the priory of Burscough in the time of our great
+reformer Henry the Eighth--who, like many modern pretenders to this
+name, was more careful to reform the inaccuracies of others than his
+own--the bells were removed to Ormskirk; but the small tower beneath the
+spire not being sufficiently capacious, the present square steeple was
+added, and the wonder perpetuated to this day.
+
+De Poininges, on crossing the churchyard, met there a personage of no
+less note than Thomas the Clerk, or Thomas le Clerke, retiring from some
+official duties, arrayed in his white surplice and little quaint
+skull-cap. He was a merry wight, and in great favour with the parish
+wives. He could bleed and shave the sconce; draw out bonds and
+quittances; thus uniting three of the professions in his own proper
+person. He was prime mover in the May games, and the feast of fools.
+Morris, Moriscoe, or Moorish dancers, there is good reason for
+supposing, were not then introduced, though by some said to have been
+brought into England in the sixth year of Edward III., when John of
+Gaunt returned from Spain; but few traces of it are found earlier than
+Henry VII., so that it is more probable we had them from our Gallic
+neighbours, or even from the Flemings.
+
+He could dance, too, and play on the rebeck and citerne, this being a
+common amusement with the customers during the time they were in waiting
+at the barbers' shops, as newspapers were not then at hand to sustain
+this difficult office. He was of a dainty person; clad mostly in a
+kirtle of light watchet-colour, thick set with loose points. His hosen
+were grey, mingled with black, and his shoes were belayed with knots and
+ornaments, of which, and his other stray gear, he was not a little
+proud.
+
+This Thomas was used to go about with a censer, on a Sunday, as Chaucer
+hath it,--
+
+    "Censing the wives of the parish feast."
+
+Absalom, that pink of clerkly portraiture, seemed but a fair prototype
+of this individual, Geoffrey Chaucer at this time being a setter forth
+of rhymes and other matters for the ticklish ears of sundry well-fed and
+frolicksome idlers about the court of King Edward.
+
+The merry knave of whom we speak was, however, in happy ignorance of all
+courtly fashions. Provided he obtained his Sunday contributions, and his
+Christmas loaf, and his eggs at Easter, little wot he how the world went
+round. He was a frequent visitor at the tavern, and De Poininges had
+already been distinguished by his especial notice.
+
+From his character, and the means of information arising out of his
+multifarious occupations, De Poininges expected that some of the
+intelligence he was in search of might be gathered from this source.
+
+The petty hostelry was now in sight, a projecting bush denoting the
+vintner's residence. The house was but thinly attended, though clean
+rushes and a blazing billet bespoke comfort and good cheer. De Poininges
+and his companion turned aside into a smaller chamber, where mine host
+was speedily summoned for a flagon of stout liquor. This being supplied,
+they addressed themselves to the wooden utensil with right goodwill; and
+as the draughts began to quicken, so did the clerk's tongue not fail to
+wag the faster. De Poininges adroitly shifted the discourse upon the
+business of which he was in quest, whenever there was a tendency to
+diverge, no rare occurrence, Thomas being somewhat loth for a while to
+converse on the subject. The liquor, however, and his own garrulous
+propensities, soon slipped open the budget, and scraps of intelligence
+tumbled out which De Poininges did not fail to lay hold of as hints for
+another line of examination.
+
+"I reckon so, at any rate, and so said Geoffrey," replied the clerk,
+after a pause, subsequent to some close question.
+
+"Sir Thomas, the Lord of Lathom, as you may have heard, he is a
+good-hearted soul, and this Margaret de la Bech was companion to his
+daughter Isabel. She was ever held as a dame of good family and descent,
+though a stranger in these parts. Then she was passing fair, so that
+both squire and gentleman, as they looked on her, were nigh devoured
+with love. They say, too, her conditions were gentle and winsome as a
+child; and"--
+
+"Good," said De Poininges, who found he was slipping away from the main
+subject. "But hath not Sir Thomas made some apparent search since her
+disappearance from the hall?"
+
+"Save the mark--she was drowned in the moat. So say the gossips," said
+the clerk, looking askance. "Her hood and mantle were on the brink--but
+her body! why, it never jumped out again to look for them--that's all."
+
+"But did no one look for the body?" carelessly inquired De Poininges.
+
+"The knight groped diligently in the castle ditch for many days; but
+light fishes make light nets, as we say. There was no corpse to be
+found, and many an Ave Maria has been said for her soul."
+
+"What cause was then assigned for this fearful deed?"
+
+"'Tis said she was in love, and went mad! I wot she was ever sighing and
+rambling about the house, and would seldom venture out alone, looking as
+though she were in jeopardy, and dreaded some hidden danger."
+
+"Thinkest thou, friend, that some hidden danger might not be the cause;
+and this show of her drowning but a feint or device that should turn
+aside the current of their inquiry?"
+
+The clerk looked anxious and uneasy, sore puzzled, as it might seem, to
+shape out an answer. At length, finding that the question could not be
+evaded, he proceeded with much hesitation as follows:--
+
+"Safe as my Lord Cardinal at his prayers--she is dead though; for I
+heard her wraith wailing and shrieking up the woods that night as I
+stood in the priory close. It seemed like, as it were, making its way
+through the air from Lathom, for the smell of consecration, I reckon."
+
+"Go on," said De Poininges, whose wits were shrewdly beginning to gather
+intelligence from these furtive attempts at concealment.
+
+"Well-a-day," continued the clerk, draining an ample potation, "I've
+heard strange noises thereabout; and the big building there, men say, is
+haunted by the ghost."
+
+"Where is the building thou speakest of?"
+
+"The large granary beyond the postern leading from the prior's house
+towards the mill. I have not passed thereby since St Mark's vigil, and
+then it came." Here he looked round, stealing a whisper across the
+bench--"I heard it: there was a moaning and a singing by turns; but the
+wind was loud, so that I could scarcely hear, though when I spake of it
+to old Geoffrey the gardener, he said the prior had laid a ghost, and it
+was kept there upon prayer and penance for a long season. Now, stranger,
+thou mayest guess it was no fault of mine if from this hour I passed the
+granary after sunset. The ghost and I have ever kept ourselves pretty
+far apart."
+
+"Canst show me this same ghostly dungeon?"
+
+"Ay, can I, in broad daylight; but"--.
+
+"Peradventure thou canst show me the path, or the clue to it; and I
+warrant me the right scent will lie at the end on't."
+
+"And pray, good master, wherefore may your curious nose be so mightily
+set upon this same adventure?" said the clerk, his little red and
+ferrety eyes peering very provokingly into those of his opposite
+neighbour. Now, De Poininges was not for the moment prepared to satisfy
+this unexpected inquiry, but his presence of mind did not forsake him.
+Rightly guessing his friend's character--a compound in universal esteem,
+to wit, fool and knave--he drew from his pouch a couple of bright ship
+nobles, then but newly coined, which effectually diverted the prying
+looks of Thomas le Clerke.
+
+"Why, look ye," said the latter, as the coin jingled in his bag, "I was
+ever held in good repute as a guide, and can make my way blindfold over
+the bogs and mosses hereabout; and I would pilot thee to the place
+yonder, if my fealty to the prior--that is--if--I mean--though I was
+never a groat the richer for his bounty; yet he may not like strangers
+to pry into his garners and store-houses, especially in these evil
+times, when every cur begins to yelp at the heels of our bountiful
+mother; and every beast to bray out its reproaches at her great wealth
+and possessions."
+
+De Poininges was more and more convinced that his neighbour knew more of
+the matter than he durst tell; but it seemed expedient to conceal his
+suspicions for the present. In the end it was agreed that the cunning
+clerk should accompany him so far as to point out the situation; but on
+no account would he consent to keep watch during the absence of De
+Poininges. The latter assented to this arrangement, secretly resolving
+to dictate other terms where his will should both command and be obeyed.
+
+They immediately set out on horseback, followed by the servants, to whom
+De Poininges had given a private signal.
+
+The moon had risen. One bright star hung like a "jewel in an Ethiop's
+ear" in the dark sky above the sun's track, which at this season sweeps
+like a lucid zone, dividing day from night, round the northern horizon.
+Such a time of purity and brightness often succeeds the sultry and
+oppressive languor of the day, especially when refreshed by the passing
+storm; the air so clear that objects press, as it were, upon the
+eyeballs, affecting the sight as though they were almost palpable to the
+touch. The dews had not descended, but the leaves were still wet. Big
+drops glittered in the moonlight, pouring a copious shower on the
+travellers as they passed. The clerk began a low chant, humming and
+whistling by turns: this gradually grew more audible, until the full
+burst of the "_Miserere_" commenced, richly adorned with his own
+original quavers. So enamoured was he of his qualifications in this
+respect that he was fairly getting through high mass, when, midway in a
+ravishing "_Benedictus_" he made a sudden halt.
+
+"What is that creeping behind the bushes there?" inquired he, in a sort
+of half-whisper to his companion. De Poininges looked in the direction
+pointed out, and thought he saw something, dark and mysterious, moving
+between the boughs on his left. He stopped, but the object, whatever its
+nature, had disappeared.
+
+Sore alarmed was the timid chorister; but though his melodies had
+ceased, a plentiful supply of credos and paternosters were at hand to
+supply their place. Crossing himself with a great show of sanctity, he
+moved on with much caution, his deep hoarse voice having subsided into a
+husky and abrupt whisper, often interrupted when objects the most
+trivial arrested his glance and aroused his suspicions.
+
+They arrived without molestation at an enclosure about a mile distant
+from the priory. Here they alighted, leaving the horses to the care of
+their attendants. Turning the angle made by a low wall, they observed a
+footpath, which the clerk pointed out as the shortest and most
+convenient course to their destination. Soon the east end of the priory
+chapel was visible, basking in the broad light of the harvest moon, then
+riding up full and unclouded towards her zenith. Buttress and oriel were
+weltering in her beam, and the feathery pinnacles sprang out sharp and
+clear into the blue sky. The shadows were thrown back in masses deep and
+unbroken, more huge in proportion to the unknown depths through which
+the eye could not penetrate.
+
+"There--again! 'Tis a footstep on our track!" said the clerk, abruptly
+breaking upon the reverie of his companion.
+
+"'Tis but the tread of the roused deer; man's bolder footstep falls not
+so lightly," was the reply; but this did not quiet the apprehensions of
+the querist, whose terrors were again stealing upon him. Their path was
+up a little glen, down which the mill-stream, now released from its
+daily toil, brawled happily along, as if rejoicing in its freedom. Near
+the mill, on a point of land formed by an abrupt bend of the stream,
+stood the storehouse or grange. It was an ample structure, serving at
+times for purposes not immediately connected with its original design. A
+small chamber was devoted to the poorer sort of travellers, who craved a
+night's lodging on their journey. Beneath was a place of confinement,
+for the refractory vassals and serfs, when labouring under their
+master's displeasure. It was here the garrulous clerk said he had been
+scared by the ghost, and his reluctance to proceed evidently increased
+as he drew nearer. He did not fail to point out the spot, but resolutely
+refused to budge a step farther.
+
+"We had best return," said he; "I have told thee what I know of the
+matter."
+
+"And what should scare thee so mightily, friend," said De Poininges,
+"from out the prior's grange? Methinks, these ghosts of thine had a
+provident eye to their bellies. These haunters to the granary had less
+objection to the victuals than to a snuff of the wind before cock-crow."
+
+"I know not," replied Amen, rather doggedly; "'tis all I heard, though
+there be more that live hereabout than the prior and his monks, I trow."
+
+"Thou hast been here ofttimes o' nights?" carelessly inquired the other.
+
+"I have, upon some chance occasion it may be; but since that ugly noise
+got wind, to which my own ears bear testimony, I was not over-curious to
+pass within hearing, though it were only the rogues, some said, that
+were mulcting the flour-sacks."
+
+"But thou knowest there was a hint dropped a while ago at the hostel,
+that the maiden, whom thou hast now forgotten, methinks, had some
+connection with this marvellous tale of thine; and now, it seems, I am
+to believe 'tis but the knaves or the rats purloining the prior's corn!
+Hark thee, friend," said De Poininges, in a stern tone, "no more
+evasion: no turn or equivocation shall serve thee: out with it, and lead
+on, or"--
+
+A bright flash from his falchion here revealed the peril that he
+threatened.
+
+"_Miserere mei_--Oh,--_Salve et!_"--
+
+"Silence, knave, and pass quickly; but remember, if I catch thee
+devising any sleight or shuffle, this sharp point shall quicken thee to
+thy work. It may prove mighty efficacious, too, as a restorative for a
+lapsed memory."
+
+"I'll tell thee all!--but--hold that weapon a little back, I prithee.
+Nay--nay, thou wouldest not compass a poor man's death in such haste."
+
+"Lead on, then, but be discreet," said De Poininges, softly, at the same
+time pushing him forward at his sword's point.
+
+"Here is some help to mine errand, or my craft fails me this bout."
+
+After many qualms and wry faces, De Poininges, by piecemeal, acquired
+the following intelligence:--
+
+One night, this honest clerk being with a friend on a predatory
+excursion to the prior's storehouse, they heard a muffled shriek and a
+sharp scuffle at some distance. Being outside the building, and fearing
+detection, they ran to hide themselves under a detached shed, used as a
+depository for firewood and stray lumber. Towards this spot, however,
+the other parties were evidently approaching. Presently three or four
+men, whom they judged to be the prior's servants, came nigh, bearing a
+female. They entered into the shed, and proceeded to remove a large heap
+of turf. Underneath seemed to be one of those subterraneous
+communications generally contrived as a retreat in times of peril; at
+any rate, they disappeared through the opening, and the clerk and his
+worthy associate effected their escape unobserved.
+
+Fear of detection, and of the terrible retribution that would follow,
+hitherto kept the secret undivulged. There could be little doubt that
+this female was Margaret de la Bech; and her person, whether living or
+dead, had become a victim to the well-known lawless disposition of the
+prior.
+
+They were now at the entrance to a low gateway, from which a short path
+to the left led them directly towards the spot. Entering the shed, they
+commenced a diligent search; but the terror and confusion of the clerk
+had prevented such accuracy of observation as could enable him to
+discover the opening, which they in vain attempted to find, groping
+their way suspiciously in the dark.
+
+"Softly, softly!" said the clerk, listening. A low murmur came from the
+opposite corner, like the muttering of one holding audible communion
+with his own spirit. De Poininges listened too, and he fancied it was a
+female voice. Presently he heard one of those wild and uncouth ditties,
+a sort of chant or monotonous song, which, to the terrified
+psalm-singer, sounded like the death-wail of some unfortunate ghost.
+
+The following words only became sufficiently distinct:--
+
+    "The sunbeam came on a billow of flame,
+      But its light, like thine, is done:
+    Life's tangled coil, with all its toil,
+      Is broken ere 'tis run.
+
+    "The kite may love the timid dove,
+      The hawk be the raven's guest;
+    But none shall dare that hawk to scare
+      From his dark and cloud-wreathed nest!
+
+    "Wail on, ye fond maidens,
+      Death lurks in the cloud;
+    The storm and the billow
+      Are weaving a shroud:
+
+    "There's a wail on the wind;
+      Ere its track on the main,
+    A light shall be quenched,
+      Ne'er to kindle again!"
+
+"Surely I have heard that voice aforetime," thought De Poininges. It was
+too peculiar for him to mistake. The woman had loitered in his path a
+few hours before. It seemed her brain was somewhat disturbed: a wanderer
+and an outcast in consequence, she had here taken shelter ofttimes for
+the night. He determined to accost her; a feeling of deference prompted
+him, a superstitious notion, arising from an idea then prevalent, that a
+superior light was granted to those individuals in whom the light of
+reason was extinct. He approached with caution, much to the terror and
+distress of his companion.
+
+"It is crazy Isabel," said he, "and the dark spirit is upon her!" But De
+Poininges was not in a mood to feel scared with this intimation. The way
+was intricate, and he stumbled over a heap of dried fuel. The noise
+seemed to arrest her attention for a moment; but she again commenced her
+song, paying little heed to this interruption. On recovering his
+position, he was about to speak, when, to his great surprise, she thus
+accosted him:--
+
+"I have tarried long for thee. Haste--equip for the battle,--and then,
+
+    "'My merry men all,
+      Round the greenwood tree,
+    How gallant to ride
+      With a gay ladye.'
+
+"I am crazed, belike. Good wot; but I can ride o'er the neck of a proud
+prior.
+
+    "'And the moon shone clear
+      In the blue heavens, where
+    The stars twinkle through her veil of light:--
+      There they gave me a merry shooting star,
+      And I rolled round the wain with my golden car,
+      But I leapt on the lightning's flash, beside
+    The queen of this murky night!'"
+
+"Crazed, indeed!" thought De Poininges.
+
+"Hush," said she: "I'll tell thee a secret." She drew a light from some
+concealed recess, and flashing it full in the face of the intruder,
+seemed to enjoy the effect wonderfully. On a sudden her brow wrinkled,
+and the dark billows came over her spirit as she exclaimed--
+
+"But,
+
+    "'Thou hast work to do,
+    Or we may rue
+      The thieving trade.'
+
+"Go to--I must be calm. The spirit goeth forth, and I may not wander
+again. But my poor head: it burns here--here!" And she put her hand
+tenderly on that of De Poininges, raising it to her brow, which throbbed
+violently. She started back, as from some sudden recollection, gazing
+intently on his countenance.
+
+"I know it--the vision tarrieth not. Now," she said--crossing herself
+with great solemnity, and with apparent composure, as if all trace of
+her malady had disappeared--"we must away. Follow; yet will I first set
+yon rogue to watch." She sought the terrified man of canticles, and,
+speaking in a low tone, raised her hand as though with some terrible
+denunciation in case of disobedience. Immediately she returned, and,
+pointing to a heap of loose stuff, began to throw it aside.
+
+"Here--here!"
+
+But De Poininges hesitated, thinking it a somewhat dubious adventure to
+follow a mad woman, it might be, in quest of her wits. Seeing his
+unwillingness to proceed, she whispered something in his ear which
+wrought a marvellous change. He looked as if petrified with wonder, but
+he followed now without shrinking. They entered by a narrow door,
+curiously concealed. On its closing after them, De Poininges and his
+companion seemed shut out from the world,--as if the link were suddenly
+broken which bound them to earth and its connections.
+
+The first sensation was that of dullness and damp, accompanied by a
+mouldering vapour, like that from the charnel-house or the grave. Their
+way was down a winding and broken staircase; at the bottom a straight
+passage led them on to a considerable distance. Damps oozing from the
+walls made the path more and more tiresome and slippery as they
+proceeded. Shortly it became channelled with slime, and absolutely
+loathsome. The bloated reptile crawled across their path; and De
+Poininges beheld stone coffins piled on each side of the vault. Passing
+these, another flight of steps brought them to a low archway, at the
+extremity of which a grated door, now unbarred, led into a cell
+seemingly contrived as a place of punishment for the refractory or
+sinning brethren, who might be doomed to darkness and solitude as an
+expiation of their offence. The only furniture it contained was a
+wretched pallet, on which, as the light flashed doubtfully, De Poininges
+thought he beheld a female. He snatched the light, and eagerly bent over
+the couch. With a shout of joy he exclaimed--
+
+"Be praised, ye saints, 'tis she!"
+
+It was the wasted and squalid form of Margaret de la Bech. She raised
+her eyes towards him, but they were vacant and wandering. It was soon
+evident that her reason was impaired, and the spirit still inhabiting
+that lovely tenement was irrevocably obscured. Cruel had been her
+sufferings. Crimes too foul to name--but we draw a veil over the
+harrowing recital! When the last horrible act was consummated the light
+of her soul was put out, and her consciousness extinguished.
+
+To meet thus! A living inhumation, where the body exists but as the
+spirit's sepulchre! It were better they had been consigned to oblivion,
+shut up and perishing in the dark womb of the grave. The cry of
+vengeance had gone up, but was offered in vain for a season. The present
+period of existence was not allotted for its fulfilment. It was
+permitted to this monster that he should yet triumph unpunished--his
+measure of iniquity was not yet full.
+
+The limbs of the unconscious sufferer were pinioned:--the fiend-like
+mercy of her tormentors prevented her own hands from becoming the
+instruments of her release. De Poininges restored her to freedom; but
+alas! she knew it not. The thick veil which Heaven's mercy drew upon her
+spirit rendered her insensible to outward impressions. He raised her in
+his arms, bearing her forth from that loathed scene of darkness and
+disgrace; and when the pure breath of the skies once more blew upon her,
+it seemed as though it awakened up a faint glimmer in the dying lamp.
+She looked round with eagerness, and De Poininges thought some ray of
+intelligence began to brighten, as objects again appeared to develop
+their hidden trains of association on the memory; but the light was
+mercifully extinguished ere she could discover the fearful realities of
+her despair, and she again relapsed into hopeless and utter inanity.
+
+They were still loitering in the little shed, the clerk groaning out a
+sad and mournful chant. De Poininges appeared unable to arouse himself
+to the exigencies of the moment, when Isabel, wildly waving her torch
+towards the entrance, cried--
+
+"To horse--to horse! They will be here presently. Already has the raven
+snuffed your carcase--
+
+    "'But the bolt whistled through
+      The heavens blue,
+    And Sir Lionel lay on the battle-field.'"
+
+She seemed to hearken, as though in apprehension of approaching
+footsteps. De Poininges, roused from this dangerous stupor, prepared to
+escape ere the prior's emissaries had intelligence of her removal.
+
+They had passed the rivulet in safety, and had just gained the wood
+near to where the attendants lay in wait with the horses, when an arrow
+whizzed past De Poininges. For him the shaft was intended, but its
+destiny was otherwise--the unfortunate chanter lay stretched on the
+ground in his last agony. De Poininges flew on with redoubled speed.
+
+"Treachery!" he cried. His men knew the signal, and galloped towards
+him; but their aid was too late. A shack-bolt, aimed with a sure hand,
+pierced him at this moment.
+
+"Take her--Margaret de la Bech! The prior--a murderer--ravisher! Fly
+to"--
+
+The remaining words fell unuttered. His faithful attendants bore off the
+lifeless body, together with the hapless Margaret, who was soon placed
+in safety, far from the relentless fangs of the Prior of Burscough.
+
+Fearful and undeniable was the testimony and accusation they brought,
+but in vain. No effort was spared to bring upon this monster the just
+recompense of his crime; yet, from the great scandal which a public
+execution must have drawn upon the Church, but more especially from the
+great influence he possessed amongst the nobles and chief dignitaries of
+the land, not only did he escape unpunished, but he received the king's
+most gracious pardon, in the twenty-first year of Edward the Third: so
+true are the following words from an historian of that reign:--
+
+"These men had so entrenched themselves in privileges and immunities,
+and so openly challenged an exemption from all secular jurisdiction,
+that no civil penalty could be inflicted on them for any malversation in
+office, and even treason itself was declared to be no canonical
+offence."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[10] _Beaufort_, Duke of Somerset. Somerset, Duke of Beaufort, now bears
+the _portcullis_ for his crest. There is an engraving by Vertue, from a
+painting in the royal collection at Kensington Palace by Maubeugius in
+1496, of the three children of Henry VII. and Elizabeth his queen,
+_Prince Henry, Prince Arthur_, and _Princess Margaret,_ which is
+ornamented at the top with the _portcullis_ surmounted with roses.
+
+[11] Glazebrook's Southport.
+
+[Illustration: THE EAGLE AND CHILD.]
+
+
+
+
+THE EAGLE AND CHILD.
+
+
+        "She's over the muir,
+        An' over the border,
+    An' ower the blue hills far awa':
+        With her callant, I trow,--
+        On his saddle-bow,
+    While the mist-wreaths around them fa'."
+
+The main facts of the following narrative, lying scattered through a
+wide field of barren inquiry, the author has been at considerable pains
+to collect and arrange in a continuous narrative.
+
+Little needs be said by way of introduction, the traditions here
+interwoven with the general history being mostly of a trivial nature,
+and not at all interfering with the facts developed by the historians
+and rhymers who have illustrated the annals of the house of Stanley.
+These accounts, exaggerated and distorted as they inevitably must have
+been, may yet, in the absence of more authentic testimony, afford a
+pretty accurate glimpse at the real nature of those events, however they
+may have been disguised by fiction and misstatement. Where tradition is
+our only guide we must follow implicitly, satisfied that her taper was
+lighted at the torch of Truth, though it may gleam doubtfully and
+partially through the mists and errors of succeeding ages.
+
+One source from whence we have derived some information, though well
+known to the comparative few who have explored these by-paths of
+history, may not be thought uninteresting to the general reader,
+especially as it is connected with the most eventful portion of our
+narrative.
+
+An ancient metrical account of the Stanleys, Earls of Derby, is
+contained in some uncouth rhymes, written about the year 1562, by
+Thomas Stanley, Bishop of Sodor and Man,[12] and son of that Sir Edward
+Stanley, who, for his valour at Flodden, was created Lord Monteagle.
+There are two copies of these verses in the British Museum: one amongst
+Cole's papers (vol. xxix. page 104), and the other in the Harleian MSS.
+(541). Mr Cole prefaces his transcript with the following notice:--"The
+History of the family of Stanley, Earls of Derby, wrote in verse about
+the reign of King Henry the Eighth from a MS. now in possession of Lady
+Margaret Stanley, copied for me by a person who has made many mistakes,
+and sent to me by my friend Mr Allen, Rector of Tarporley, in 1758.--W.
+Cole."
+
+The MS. formerly belonged to Sir John Crewe, of Utkinton, and was given
+by Mr Ardern, in 1757, to Lady Margaret Stanley.
+
+The commencement of this metrical history is occupied in dilating upon
+the pleasure resulting from such an undertaking; and although the flow
+of the verse is not of remarkable smoothness, yet it hardly furnishes an
+apology for Seacome's mistake, who, in his "History of the House of
+Stanley," printed the first fifty lines as prose. The reverend versifier
+rehearses how Stanley sprang from Audley, and then shows the manner in
+which his ancestors became possessors of Stourton and Hooton. He dwells
+upon the joust betwixt the Admiral of Hainault and Sir John Stanley, the
+second brother of the house of Stanley of Hooton.[13] Then follows the
+account, more particularly developed in our own story, of the adventures
+and moving accidents which have been liberally used to adorn the
+"Garland" of his descendant William, Earl of Derby. "For many
+generations this was the recognised chronicle of the family, until, in
+the time of James the First, a clergyman of Chester translated the
+rhymes of the Bishop into English, carefully retaining the mistakes of
+the original, and adding long and dull disquisitions of his own."
+
+In the days of our valiant King Edward, while the fame of Cressy and
+Poictiers was fresh and stirring in all true and loyal hearts, while the
+monarchs of two powerful kingdoms were held captive in these realms,
+lived a worthy knight, of whom we had a brief notice in the preceding
+narrative. Sir Thomas Lathom of Lathom was a nobleman of great wealth
+and possessions. According to the Calendarium Rotulorum from the Charter
+Rolls in the Tower, he held lands, besides, in Knouselegh, Childewall,
+Roby, and Aulusargh. In Liverpool, he was proprietor of the tower, a
+structure of but little note until rebuilt and fortified by Sir John
+Stanley during his government in Ireland, of which we shall have more to
+say anon.
+
+Sir Thomas married, in the year 1343, the youngest daughter of Sir Hamon
+Massey of Dunham Massey, in the adjoining county of Chester. Twelve
+years had since that period elapsed at the time when our story begins;
+and though earnestly desiring male issue, that his name and race might
+be perpetuated, yet was the sole fruit of their union hitherto a
+daughter, named Isabel, then just entering on her tenth year. Her
+winning and surpassing comeliness proved no solace to his
+disappointment. He grew moodish and melancholy in the midst of his vast
+wealth; apprehending the utter extinction of his name, and the intrusion
+of a stranger on his birthright. Hopeless of other issue by his own
+lady, he had recourse to unlawful means for this purpose, which procured
+for him a sore chastisement in the end, as our narrative will show.
+
+In that neighbourhood dwelt a comely maiden, the only daughter of a
+substantial yeoman, of the name of Oskatell. This damsel, pleasing the
+amorous fancy of Sir Thomas, fell an easy prey to his arts and
+persuasions. Though concealed from her friends, their too frequent
+intercourse at length became visible in the birth of a son, greatly to
+the joy of the father, who meditated nothing less than to adopt this
+illegitimate babe for the perpetuation of his name. Yet were there
+preliminaries of no mean importance to be adjusted, as all men who have
+wives may well conceive. The lady of Lathom must first be consulted; but
+probabilities were strongly against the supposition that she would
+tamely submit to this infringement on the rights of her child by the
+interposition of a bastard. Nay, she had beforetime hinted that some
+individual of the name, of moderate wealth and good breeding, might in
+time be found for a suitable alliance. Still, the success of his scheme
+was an object that lay deeply at his heart, and he grew more and more
+anxious and perplexed. One evening, as he wandered out disconsolately in
+the company of an old and trusty servant, to whom he had imparted the
+secret, they came to a desert place in the park, nigh to where a pair of
+eagles had from time immemorial built their nests. A project struck him
+which promised fair to realise his wishes. After a multitude of schemes
+subservient to the main purpose had been thrown out and abandoned, the
+whole plot was finally unfolded in the following manner:--
+
+A message was conveyed to the mother overnight, that betimes on the
+following morning the babe, richly clad, should be held in readiness,
+and a trusty servant would forthwith convey him to the hall. She was
+peremptorily forbidden to follow; and in her great joy at this
+announcement, naturally supposing that a more favourable posture of
+affairs had arisen between Sir Thomas and his lady on the subject, she
+cheerfully consented to this unexpected deprivation, confident that it
+was to the furthering of her child's welfare and advancement. The
+infant, smiling, and unconscious of the change, was taken from his
+mother's lap, his swaddling clothes carefully folded together, and
+committed to the care of the aged domestic.
+
+Little was the anxious mother aware of the great peril he had to undergo
+ere the goal which bounded her anticipations was won.
+
+It was the soft twilight of a summer's morning, and the little birds had
+begun to chirp their matins, and the lark to brush the dew from her
+speckled breast, waiting for the first gaze of the sun. The old man
+pressed the infant closer to his bosom as he drew nigh to the steep
+acclivity, the solitary dwelling of the eagle. He kissed the babe; then
+looking round, fearful of intruders, he laid the wicker cradle at the
+foot of the precipice, and sprang into a dark thicket close by, as if to
+watch for the descent of the rapacious bird.
+
+Leaving the child, we turn to Sir Thomas, who on that morning, as was
+his wont, together with his dame, awoke betimes, but he was sooner astir
+and more anxious and bustling than usual. Their custom was, awaking with
+the sun, to begin the day with a quiet stroll about the grounds; and on
+this eventful morning their walk chanced happily towards the eagle's
+nest. Being something farther and more out of their common track, it was
+noticed good-humouredly by the lady, who seemed to possess a more than
+ordinary portion of hilarity on the occasion. Evidently under some
+exciting influence, their walk was unconsciously protracted.
+
+In a gloomy dell, not far from the eyrie, Sir Thomas stood still, in the
+attitude of listening. The lady, too, was silent and alarmed, but no
+intimation of danger was visible. Her own senses, though, seemed to
+gather acuteness,--a circumstance by no means rare in the vicinity of an
+unusually timid and listening companion, who braces our perceptions to
+the tension of his own. Soon, however, the short and feeble cry of the
+babe was heard, when the knight sprang forward, feigning great
+astonishment at the discovery. Evidently dropped from the talons of the
+bird, it was looked upon as a special gift of Providence, a deposit
+direct from the skies; to have rejected which would have been a heinous
+offence, and an unlawful contravention of the designs of the Giver.
+Accordingly, the infant was taken home and carefully nursed, being
+baptized by the name of Oskatell.
+
+The good lady became surprisingly enamoured of the little foundling,
+believing his adoption was dictated by the will of Heaven; and to this
+decision its father readily acceded. Sir Thomas, to give the greater
+sanction to this supposed miracle, as well as to remove all suspicion of
+fraud from the prying eyes of a censorious world, assumed for his crest
+an eagle on the wing, proper, looking round as though for something she
+had lost.
+
+The child grew in years and stature, being liberally furnished in all
+things according with the dignity he was destined to receive. Sir Thomas
+purposed the sharing of his wealth equally between his children, a
+measure which had the entire concurrence of Lady de Lathom. Though
+younger by some years, Oskatell was generally considered by the world as
+the future husband of Isabella; but Sir Thomas, aware of danger on this
+head, early impressed them with some notion of consanguinity, and
+intimated the impossibility of their union. This prohibition, settling
+on a womanish fancy, might naturally have been expected to operate in a
+manner the reverse of his intention. Yet we do not find from history
+that Isabella ever cherished for him any other sentiments than those
+arising from a sisterly regard.
+
+Growing up to man's estate, he sought the court of King Edward, where,
+though of a peaceable temper, his soul was stirred to participate in
+the gallant feats incident to that scene of martial enterprise.
+
+Isabella was now in the full summer, or, it might be, ripening into the
+rich autumn of her beauty. Her father would by no means have permitted
+her union save with one of the highest rank, to which her gentle blood
+and princely inheritance entitled her. And though not a few hitherto, of
+noble birth and endowments, had sought the honour of her alliance, yet
+her heart was untouched, and in the end her suitors forbore their
+homage.
+
+All the country was now mightily roused with the news of the French
+champion who, together with sundry of his companions in arms, had
+challenged the English nation to match them with the like number at a
+solemn joust and tourney, and of the great gallantry and personal
+accomplishments of Sir John, then Captain Stanley, who had first taken
+up the gauntlet in his country's behalf. The lists were prepared. The
+meeting, by the king's command, was appointed to be holden at
+Winchester, where the royal court was expected to witness this splendid
+achievement. Oskatell, returning home, strongly importuned his sister to
+accompany him to the show, it being then deemed a pleasant recreation
+for many a fair and delicate maiden to view their champions hack and hew
+each other without mercy. Isabella, unceasingly urged to this excursion,
+at length set out for the city of Winchester, followed by a numerous
+train of attendants, where, in due time, they arrived, mingling in the
+bustle and dissipation incident to these festivities.
+
+Young Stanley was the second son of Sir William Stanley, Lord of Stanley
+and Stourton. As a younger branch of the house, he commenced his career,
+it is said, under the command of his relative Lord Audley; but this
+appears something doubtful. The battle of Poictiers, in which Captain
+Stanley is said to have been, was fought in 1357; and here he must have
+battled in petticoats, seeing that his father was but married 26 Edward
+III., and, consequently, making due allowance for accidents and
+irregularities, young Stanley, as the second son, could not then have
+proceeded beyond his third year! a precocity unprecedented, we believe,
+even in the annals of that fighting era. The conflicting statements we
+meet with about this time, both traditionary and recorded, we cannot
+attempt to reconcile. Sufficient information happily exists, however,
+on which no doubt arises; and by the aid of that we proceed with our
+narrative.
+
+Stanley, according to some, having been a great traveller, had improved
+himself diligently in the art of war; and, as the old chronicles
+quaintly relate, "he visited most of the courts of Europe, even as far
+as Constantinople; wherein he made such advances in the school of Mars,
+that his superior skill in arms was generally applauded in every country
+he passed through." So distinguished and widely-extended a reputation
+for bravery could not fail to provoke the pride and envy of all
+Christendom, whereupon the young Admiral of Hainault, one of the bravest
+men of his time, together with divers gentlemen of the French court,
+defied the whole kingdom to a passage of arms, the result of which
+challenge has been shown.
+
+Great was the confluence and resort to the city of Winchester, it being
+noised abroad as though the king would distinguish the affray by his
+presence; wondrous the stir and bustle of the soldiers, guards, and
+attendants, with hordes of idlers and hangers-on, from the vast array of
+knights and nobles, who came either to see or to share in the
+approaching trial. The splendid banners, the heraldic pomp and barbaric
+grandeur of their retinues, augmenting with every fresh arrival, made
+the streets one ever-moving pageant for many days before the conflict
+began. Isabella had full leisure to observe, from her own lattice, the
+gay and costly garniture, and the glittering appointments of the
+warriors, with the pageants and puerile diversions suited to the taste
+and capacity of the ignorant crowds by which they were followed. The
+king's mummers were arrived, together with many other marvels in the
+shape of puppet-shows and "motions" enacting the "old vice;" Jonas and
+the whale, Nineveh, the Creation, and a thousand unintelligible but
+equally gratifying and instructive devices; one of which, we are told,
+was "four giants, a unicorn, a camel, an ass, a dragon, a hobby-horse,
+and sixteen naked boys!"
+
+The crowds attracted by these spectacles were immense, and the city nigh
+choked with the torrents that set in from every quarter.
+
+From the windows of the houses, where lodged the knights appointed to
+the encounter, hung their several coats, richly emblazoned, rousing
+forth many a shout and hurrah, as one and another symbol was recognised
+to be the badge of some favourite chief; but more than all, was the
+young Stanley's escutcheon favoured by the fickle breath of popular
+opinion, which made it needful that a double guard should be mounted
+near his dwelling,--a precaution, moreover, rendered needful by the many
+tumults among the different partisans and retainers, not always ending
+without bloodshed. The arrival of the king, however, soon changed the
+current of the wondering multitude. Edward was now in his sixty-fourth
+year, and the fiftieth of his reign. Though the decline of his life did
+not correspond with the splendid and noisy scenes which had illustrated
+the earlier periods of his history, yet he still manifested the same
+restless and undaunted spirit, ever considered as the prevailing
+attribute of his character. Towards the close of his career he had the
+mortification to endure the loss of his foreign possessions, having been
+baffled in every attempt to defend them. He felt, too, the decay of his
+authority at home, from the inconstancy and discontents of his subjects.
+Though his earlier years had been spent amid the din and tumult of war
+and the business of the camp, yet was he, at this period, almost wholly
+given up to pleasure and the grossest of sensual indulgences. Alice
+Pierce, to whom he was immoderately attached, had gained an ascendancy
+over him so dangerous that the parliament remonstrated, with a courage
+and firmness worthy of a more enlightened era, and in the end he was
+obliged to remove her from court. Sometimes the spirit of his youth
+awoke; the glory of past ages was stirred up within him; and, like the
+aged war-horse neighing to the shrill note of the trumpet, he greeted
+the approaching tournament with something of his wonted ardour,--though
+now but an expiring flash, brightening a moment ere it was extinguished.
+
+The day rose calm and unclouded. The thin haze of the morning had
+disappeared, and an atmosphere of more than common brilliancy succeeded.
+Through a great part of the preceding night the armourers had been
+busily employed altering and refitting the equipments, and the dawn had
+already commenced ere their labours were suspended. The lists were
+carefully scrutinised, and all chance of foul play averted. The priests,
+too, had blessed the armour and weapons from magic spells and "foul
+negromancie."
+
+The barriers were built of stout boards, firmly riveted together; the
+royal pavilion being on the southern side, richly canopied and
+embroidered with costly devices. Galleries were provided for the nobles,
+not a few of whom, with their courtly dames, were expected to be
+present.
+
+The lists were sixty paces in length and forty in breadth between the
+platforms on which the knights' tents were erected. The ground within
+was made hard and level, the loose stones and other impediments being
+carefully removed. There were two entrances, east and west, well guarded
+and strongly fenced with wooden-bars about seven feet high, so that a
+horse might not leap over. The tents of the warriors were fancifully
+decorated, every one having his shield newly emblazoned and hung out in
+front, where the pages and esquires watched, guarding vigilantly these
+sacred treasures. Nothing was heard but the hoarse call of the trumpet,
+the clank of mail, and the prancing of horses, pawing and eager for the
+battle.
+
+Long before the appointed hour the whole city was in motion. Isabella,
+too, whose bright eyes had not closed since the first gleam had visited
+her chamber, was early astir. An ugly dream, it is said, troubled her.
+Though of ripe years, yet, as we have noticed before, love had not yet
+aimed his malicious shafts at her bosom, nor even tightened his
+bowstring as she tripped by, defying his power; so that the dream, which
+in others would appear but as the overflowing of a youthful and ardent
+imagination, seemed to her altogether novel and unaccountable, raising
+up new faculties, and endowing her with a train of feelings heretofore
+unknown. No wonder that her looks were betrayers: her whole deportment
+manifested some hidden power controlling her high spirit, insomuch that
+her favourite maiden was fain to abate her morning gossip; yet Isabella
+was not averse to speech, though the words seemed to linger heavily on
+her tongue, losing that lightness and exuberance which betokens the mind
+free from care and oppression.
+
+She had dreamed that in her own wild woods a knight accosted her: she
+attempted to fly, but was withheld by some secret influence. He raised
+his visor, smiling as he bent his knee in token of homage. He was a
+stranger. Grasping her hand, she felt the cold hard pressure of his
+gauntlet. She awoke, and sure enough there was the impression as of some
+mailed hand upon her delicate fingers! While marvelling at this strange
+adventure, a deep slumber again overpowered her, when a graceful
+cavalier, unarmed, was at her side. He raised her hand to his lips, and
+her whole soul responded to the touch. He was about to speak, when her
+father suddenly appeared, with a dark and forbidding aspect. He began to
+chide, and the stranger, with a glance she could not erase from her
+recollection, disappeared. It was this glance which subdued her proud
+spirit to its influence. Her maidenly apprehensions became aroused; she
+attempted, but in vain, to drive away the intruder: the vision haunted
+her deeply--too deeply for her repose! Marks of some outward impression
+were yet visible on her hand, whether from causes less occult than the
+moving phantasma of the mind, is a question that would resist all our
+powers of solution. In a mood thus admirably fitted for the encountering
+of some marvellous adventure, did she mount her little white palfrey,
+all pranked out and caparisoned for the occasion.
+
+Followed by a train of some length, with Oskatell by her side, the
+daughter of the house of Lathom allured the eyes of not a few as she
+passed on. Many a stately knight bent his head, and many an inquiry was
+directed to the esquires and attendants as she drew near.
+
+The scene of this renowned combat was a spacious plain below the city,
+on the opposite side of the river Itchen. The chalky cliffs, which
+obtained for it the name of Caer Gwint, or the White City, were studded
+with gay and anxious multitudes, whose hopes and fears have long been
+swept off by the waves of passing generations.
+
+Winchester being one of the fixed markets or staples for wool appointed
+by King Edward, the city had risen in power and affluence above its
+neighbours. Yet the plague, by which it was almost depopulated some
+years before, had considerably abated its magnificence. But the favour
+of royalty still clung to it, and Arthur's "Round Table" attested its
+early claims to this distinguishing character--a monarch's residence.
+The castle, where the Round Table is still shown, was then a building of
+great strength, and, enlivened by the king's presence, displayed many a
+staff and pennon from its stately battlements.
+
+Isabella passed by the fortress just as the trumpets announced the near
+approach of the king down the covered way. The chains of the drawbridge
+were lowered, and presently issued forth the armed retinue of the
+monarch. Isabella and her train were obliged to remain awhile as idle
+spectators.
+
+The king, though old and infirm, yet retained his lofty and commanding
+appearance. His charger was armed with the _chanfrons_ and gamboised
+housings, having thereon the royal arms, and proudly did the conscious
+beast paw and champ, as if rejoicing under his burden.
+
+Edward was dressed in a glittering surcoat of crimson silk, worked with
+lions and _fleurs-de-lis._ His helmet was cylindrical, surmounted by a
+lion as its crest. Round the rim was a coronet of gold, worked with
+_fleurs-de-lis_ and oak leaves. A gorget and tippet covering the
+shoulders was fastened beneath the chin, giving the head a stiff but
+imposing air of command. He carried a short truncheon, which he wielded
+with great dexterity; yet his armour, though light and of the finest
+temper, seemed more cumbersome to him now than in former days.
+
+The royal standard of England, thus described, was borne before him:--It
+was from eight to nine yards in length, the ground blue and red,
+containing, in the first division, the lion of England imperially
+crowned. In chief, a coronet of _crosses pater_ and _fleurs-de-lis,_
+between two clouds irradiated. In base, a cloud between two coronets. In
+the next division the charges were, in chief a coronet, in base an
+irradiated cloud. In the third, the dexter chief and sinister base was
+likewise an irradiated cloud; the sinister and dexter chief a coronet,
+as before. Motto, "Dieu et mon droyt." The whole of this procession was
+one vast masquerade of pomp, little betokening the frailty and folly
+which it enveloped. Though to all outward show fair and glistening, yet
+was there a heavy gloom brooding over the nation. Prince Edward, the
+flower of chivalry, usually called the Black Prince, from the colour of
+his armour, lay then grievously sick, and the whole hope and welfare of
+the land seemed to hang on his recovery. The known ambition of John of
+Gaunt was a main source of alarm and anxiety. "Edward had, however,"
+says the historian, "declared his grandson heir and successor to the
+crown, and thereby cut off all the hopes of the Duke of Lancaster, if he
+ever had the temerity to entertain any."
+
+Not forgetting his former homage to the sex, the king's eye lingered on
+the form of Isabella, but she drew back, daunted by the ardour of his
+gaze. Oskatell saw the impression she had made, in nowise displeased,
+hoping some ray of royal favour would be reflected to him from the beam
+that already dawned on his companion.
+
+We now pass on to the field, where everything was in readiness for the
+combat. The knights had heard mass and made confession, these being the
+requisite preparatives to the noble deeds they had that day vowed to
+perform. The heralds had made the usual proclamation against the use of
+magic, unlawful charms, and other like devices of the devil, when a loud
+flourish of trumpets announced the approach of Stanley, who first
+entered the lists mounted on a grey charger furnished with the chevron,
+or war-saddle, then of great use in withstanding the terrific shock of
+the assailant, being high up in front, and furnished at the back like an
+arm-chair. He was equipped in a full suit of Italian armour, displaying
+a steel cuirass of exquisite workmanship, deemed at that time a novel
+but elegant style of defence, and destined soon to supersede the
+purpoint or gamboised work called mail. If well tempered, it was found
+to resist the stroke of the lance without being either pierced or bent,
+nor was it liable to be pushed through into the body, as was sometimes
+the case with the "_mailles_" when the wambas or hoketon was wanting
+underneath. His shield was thus marshalled: argent; on a bend azure,
+three stags' heads cabossed. In the sinister chief, a crescent denoted
+his filiation; underneath was the motto "Augmenter." The shield itself
+or pavise was large, made of wood covered with skin, and surrounded with
+a broad rim of iron.
+
+He looked gracefully round, first lowering his lance in front of the
+king's pavilion, and afterwards to the fair dames who crowded the
+galleries on each side. Whether from accident or design his eyes rested
+on Isabella with a strong expression of earnestness rather than
+curiosity. Doubtless, the noble representatives of the house of Lathom
+excited no slight interest among the spectators, and the young hero
+might have formed some yet undeveloped anticipations on this head.
+
+She blushed deeply at this public and unexpected notice. The
+recollection of her dream made the full tide of feeling set in at once
+in this direction, much to her consternation and dismay; but when,
+happening to turn hastily round, a silken bandage, loosened by the
+sudden movement from some part of her dress, was carried off by the wind
+and deposited within the lists, she was greatly embarrassed; and her
+confusion was not a little increased as the young gallant with great
+dexterity transferred it to the point of his lance. At this choice of
+his "lady love," a loud shout arose from the multitude; and Isabella,
+now the object of universal regard, would have retired, but that the
+density of the crowd, and the inconvenient structure of the building,
+rendered it impossible.
+
+Another flourish of trumpets announced the approach of the young Admiral
+of Hainault. His armour was blue and white, beautifully wrought and
+inlaid with silver. His steed was black, having the suit and furniture
+of the war-horse complete. The _crouptière_ and _estival_, together with
+the _chanfron_, were of the most costly description. A plume of white
+feathers decorated his casque, extending his athletic form into almost
+gigantic proportions.
+
+The needful ceremonies were gone through; a deep and almost breathless
+silence succeeded, like the stillness that precedes the first swing of
+the storm. The trumpets sounded; the sharp click of the lances was heard
+falling into the rest; and the first rush was over. The noise of the
+shock was like the burst of the tempest on the forest boughs. Through
+the dust, the horses were seen to recoil upon their haunches; but as it
+blew heavily away, the warriors had regained their upright position,
+having sustained no injury, save by the shivering of their lances with
+the stroke. A loud shout of applause ensued; and the esquires being at
+hand with fresh weapons, each knight was too eager for the fray to lose
+a moment in requesting the usual signal. Again their coursers' feet
+seemed to spurn the earth. At this onset the French knight bent back in
+his saddle, whether from subtlety or accident was not known, but there
+was a loud clamour; and the Frenchman, recovering himself, spurred on
+his steed with great vigour, perhaps hoping to take his adversary at
+unawares; but the latter, darting aside with agility, the other's lance
+ran full against the boards, and in deep vexation he came back to the
+charge.
+
+Trembling with choler, he hardly restrained himself until the prescribed
+signal; then, as if he would make an end of his opponent, he aimed his
+weapon with a direct thrust towards the heart; but Stanley, confident in
+his own might, was fully prepared for the blow, as the event
+sufficiently proved; for the French knight was seen to reel from his
+saddle, the point of his enemy's lance being driven completely through
+his armour. He rolled backwards on the ground, and so vigorous had been
+the attack, that his horse's back was broken, and they lay together,
+groaning piteously, besmeared with blood and dust, to the sore dismay of
+his companions. Stanley suddenly alighted, and helped the pages to undo
+his armour; but ere his beaver could be unclasped he had fainted by loss
+of blood, and being borne off the field, he shortly afterwards expired.
+
+The king was mightily pleased with this great prowess of the victor,
+insomuch that he knighted him on the spot, and, according to the old
+ballad, gave him goodly manors--
+
+                           "For his hire,
+    Wing, Tring, and Iving, in Buckinghamshire."
+
+He had so won, likewise, on the hitherto impenetrable disposition of
+Isabella, that when he came to render his homage at her feet, she
+trembled and could scarcely give the customary reply.
+
+Raising his visor, and uncovering his helmet from the grand guard--a
+plate protecting the left side of the face, shoulder, and breast--he
+made a lowly obeisance at the gate of his mistress's pavilion, at the
+same time presenting the stolen favour he had now so nobly won. With a
+tremulous hand she bound it round his arm.
+
+"Nay, thy chaplet, lady," shouted a score of tongues from the
+inquisitive spectators. Isabella untied a rich chaplet of goldsmith's
+work, ornamented with rose-garlands, from her hair, and threw it over
+his helmet. Still armed with the gauntlets, which, either through hurry
+or inadvertence, he had neglected to throw aside, as was the general
+courtesy for the occasion, the knight seized her hand, and with a grasp
+gentle for any other occasion, pressed it to his lips. The lady uttered
+a subdued shriek, whether from pain or surprise, it boots not now to
+inquire; mayhap, it was the remembrance of the mailed hand she had felt
+in her dream, and to which her fingers, yet tingling with the pressure,
+bore a sufficient testimony. Sir John bent lowlier than before, with one
+hand on his breast, in token of contrition. A thousand strange fancies,
+shapeless and undefined, rushed by, as the maiden looked on the warrior.
+It was the very crisis of her dream; her heart seemed as though it would
+have leapt the walls of its tenement,--and she was fain to hide her face
+under the folds of her mantle.
+
+"Now, on my halidome," said the king, "there be two doves whose cooing
+would be the better for a little honest speech. Poor hearts! it were a
+pity their tongues had bewrayed their desire. Fitz-Walter, summon them
+hither."
+
+The blushing Isabella was conducted to the royal presence, where the
+king was graciously pleased to impress a salute on her rich and glowing
+cheek--no mean honour from so gracious and gallant a monarch, who,
+though old, was yet accounted a mighty adept in the discernment of
+female beauty, he never being known to suffer contact of the royal lip
+with aught but the fairest and most comely of the sex.
+
+"Sir John, I commend thee to thy mistress. A dainty choice. She is 'The
+Queen of Beauty' for the day, and to-night we command your presence at
+the banquet."
+
+"My gracious liege," said Isabella, pointing to Oskatell, "I have a
+brother; unto his care it is but meet that I entrust myself; and he"----
+
+"His person and endowments," interrupted the king, "are not unknown to
+us. I do honour thee by ennobling him; for though our ladies' brightness
+be all too dazzling to receive a glory from us, yet peradventure for
+their sakes our courtesy is vouchsafed. Rise, Sir Oskatell de Lathom."
+
+Again a flourish of trumpets proclaimed the king's favour, who with many
+more gracious speeches won the affection of all who heard him that day.
+
+Several other jousts and "gentle passages" were held, the success of
+which falling principally with the English combatants, the boasting
+pride of France was again humbled before the king, who seemed to renew
+his former victories at this memorable "_Tourney of Winchester_."
+
+But Isabella had bartered years of repose for this brief season of
+intoxicating splendour. The barbed arrow was in her heart, and the more
+she struggled, the more irreclaimable it grew. Doubtless that unlucky
+dream had rendered her more susceptible to the wound.
+
+Dreams have this operation; and whether good or evil, they leave an
+impression that no simple act of the will can efface. It seems to be the
+work of a power superior to our own, for "the less begetteth not the
+greater;" how, then, can the mind originate a train of conceptions, or
+rather creations, superior to itself--above its own power to control?
+
+But Isabella was too much engrossed by her feelings to attempt their
+solution. She lay restless on her couch, but there was no escape. An
+unquenchable flame was kindled in her soul, that not all the cool
+appliances of reason could subdue. Tomorrow she must depart, and that
+gay pageant vanish as a dream; and yet not like her own dream, for that
+was abiding and indelible. To-morrow the brave knight must withdraw, and
+the "Queen of Beauty," homaged for a day, give place to another whose
+reign should be as brief and as unenduring. In this distempered mood,
+with a heart all moved to sadness, did the Lady Isabel pass the first
+hours of the following night.
+
+Suddenly the sharp twang of a citerne was heard in the street below her
+window,--nothing new in these piping times of love and minstrelsy; but
+so sensitive was the ear now become to exterior impressions, that she
+started, as though expecting a salutation from the midnight rambler. Her
+anticipations were in some measure realised, the minstrel pausing
+beneath her lattice. A wooden balcony projected from it, concealing the
+musician. Isabella threw a light mantle around her, and rousing one of
+her maidens, she opened the window. The rich melody came upon her senses
+through the balmy odour of myrtle boughs and leaves of honeysuckle. The
+chords were touched with a skilful hand, and the prelude, a wild and
+extempore commentary on the ballad, was succeeded by the following
+ditty:--
+
+    "My ladye love, my ladye love,
+      The moon through the lift is breaking;
+    The sky is bright, and through the night
+      The queen of love is waking.
+    Yon little star that twinkleth so,
+    Fluttering her bright eyes to and fro,
+        How doth she chide,
+        That thou shouldest hide,
+      All joyance thus forsaking.
+    My ladye love, my ladye love,
+      The moon through the lift is breaking;
+    The sky is bright, and through the night
+      The queen of love is waking."
+
+The singer withdrew; and Isabella was convinced, or her eyes were
+befooled by her fancy, that, as he emerged from his concealment, his
+form could be none other than the one her imagination was too familiar
+with to mistake. He, too, had caught a glance of the listeners, for
+presently a folded paper was thrown over the balusters, and the minstrel
+departed. The first light that came through the long low casements
+revealed all that her hopes anticipated. The billet was from Sir John
+Stanley, whose regrets, mingled with vows and protestations of love,
+were to this purport, that he must needs be away before daybreak, on
+urgent business from the king. He sent a sigh and a love-token,
+commending himself to her best thoughts, until he should gain his
+acquittance so far as to visit Lathom.
+
+Passing over the departure, the bustle, and the weariness of a twelve
+days' journey, let us behold the maiden once more in her pretty bower at
+Lathom. How changed! The whole assumed a fresh aspect, thus viewed from
+a different state of the mind. Her favourite spaniel licked her hand,
+but she did not notice his caresses; all about her was as if the wand of
+the enchanter had been there, changing its image, each object calling
+forth a train of sensations heretofore unknown. Even the hangings and
+figured draperies wore a grim and perturbed expression; and Jephtha's
+daughter and the Queen of Sheba looked more dismal and profuse than ever
+from the dusky arras.
+
+She strayed out, as beforetime, into the woods; but their gloom was more
+intense, and the very birds seemed to grow sad with her melancholy
+musings. Their song, that used to be so sprightly, was now subdued and
+mournful, and all their gay and bubbling hilarity was gone. If she
+wandered forth towards evening, the owl hooted in her path, and the
+raven croaked above her. She heard not the light matin of the lark.
+Fancy, stimulated alone by gloomy impressions, laid hold on them only,
+failing to recognise aught but its own image.
+
+Sir Oskatell and her father had often taken counsel together since his
+return. Shortly afterwards, Isabella received a summons to attend Sir
+Thomas in private. What was the precise nature of that interview does
+not appear, save that the lady withdrew to her chamber, and the brow of
+Sir Thomas was for a long space moody and disturbed. Sir John Stanley,
+though of gentle descent, was not endowed with an adequate inheritance,
+at least for the heiress of Lathom, whose extensive possessions, though
+shared by Oskatell, were deemed by Sir Thomas of sufficient magnitude to
+command a connection of higher rank and importance. As a younger brother
+he could have slight pretensions to patrimony, and save the manors, then
+but a slender endowment, just granted by King Edward, his profession as
+a soldier supplied his chief revenue. His exclusive notice of the Lady
+Isabella at the tournament was quickly conveyed to the ear of Sir
+Thomas; and, it was said, the latter had vowed that no portion of
+wealth should descend to his daughter if wedded to Sir John, but that
+the whole should be settled on Sir Oskatell. "The course of true love
+never did run smooth." That Sir John Stanley had a watchful eye at the
+time to the fortune as well as to the person of Isabella, is by some
+rather freely hinted. This, however, turns out to be an unfounded
+calumny, as the events hereafter unfolded will abundantly demonstrate.
+
+Sir John, after vainly endeavouring to avert this cruel purpose, and to
+win the old man's favour, entered into the service of the king. He hoped
+that some lucky adventure would enable him to appear with more certainty
+of success the next time he played the suitor at Lathom.
+
+Isabella, though sorely importuned to the contrary, remained true to her
+first and only attachment; and Sir Oskatell was likely, in the end, to
+gather to himself the whole of these vast possessions. A disposition to
+this effect she had for some time suspected. His conduct, too, was less
+kindly of late, and he took upon himself an authority more direct and
+unconditional. Indeed, it seemed but too evident that Sir Oskatell was
+looked upon as the ultimate possessor. The maiden pined sorely at her
+lot, and lack of perpetuity in the inheritance. But woman's wits have
+compassed a sea of impossibilities, and will ever continue irresistible
+until their beautiful forms shall no longer irradiate these dull
+mortalities with their presence.
+
+One day an aged minstrel craved admission. Sir Thomas had just retired
+from the banquet. Isabella and the lady of Lathom were at their usual
+employment in their private chamber, plying the needle in "Antres vast,"
+and wildernesses of embroidery, along with the maids. The request was
+granted; soon after which an old man, bending apparently under an
+accumulation of years and infirmities, entered the apartment. There was
+a keen scrutinising restlessness of the eye, stealing through the
+silvery locks about his brow, that but ill accorded with his apparent
+decrepitude.
+
+After a very profound obeisance, which the lady-mother scarcely
+recognised, he addressed himself to his vocation. A mighty indifferent
+prelude succeeded the arrangement of the strings, then a sort of jig,
+accented by the toe and head of the performer. Afterwards he broke into
+a wild and singular extempore, which gradually shaped itself into
+measure and rhythm, at times beautifully varied, and accompanied by the
+voice. We shall attempt a more modern and intelligible version of the
+sentiments he expressed:--
+
+Song.
+
+    1.
+    "Rich round thy brow are the clusters bright,
+      And thy tresses are like the plume--
+    The plume of the raven, glossy with light,
+      Or the ray on the spirit's deep gloom.
+
+    2.
+    "As I gaze, the dim echoes of years that are past
+      Bring their joys to my bosom in vain;
+    For the chords, which their spell once o'er memory cast,
+      Ne'er shall waken to gladness again!"
+
+"I hold these minstrels now no better than the croaking of your carrion
+crow," said the elder lady: "these are not like the songs we used to
+hear in hall and bower at Dunham Massey. Then "--the old lady forgetting
+that her own ears had played her false, and her relish for these
+dainties had departed--"Then," raising her voice and gazing round, as
+past scenes recurred to her fancy, "how my young heart would leap at the
+sound of their ditties! and how I long to hear again _'Sir Armoric'_ and
+the '_Golden-Legend_,' and all about the lady with the swine's snout and
+the silver trough!"
+
+But Isabella heard not her mother's reminiscences. The minstrel
+engrossed her attention, absorbing her whole thoughts, it might seem,
+with the display of his cunning. Her cheek was flushed, and her lip
+trembled. Some mysterious faculty there was either in the song or the
+performer.
+
+Again he poured forth a strain more touching, and of ravishing
+sweetness:--
+
+Song.
+
+    1.
+    "Smile on, my love; that sunny smile
+      Is light and life and joy to thee;
+    But, oh, its glance of witchery the while,
+      Is maddening, hopeless misery to me.
+
+    2.
+    "Another bosom thou mayest bless,
+      Whose chords shall wake with ecstasy;
+    On mine, each thrilling thought thy looks impress
+      Wakes but the pang of hopeless destiny.
+
+    3.
+    "Smile on, my love; that sunny smile
+      Is light and life and joy to thee;
+    But, oh, its glance of witchery the while,
+      Is hopeless, maddening misery to me."
+
+These were burning thoughts from the bosom of age; and had not the old
+lady's perceptions been somewhat obtuse, she might have guessed the
+minstrel's purpose. His despair was not so utterly hopeless and without
+remedy as the purport of his song seemed to forebode--for the morning
+light saw the bower of Isabella vacant, and her bed undisturbed. She was
+then far over the blue hills into Staffordshire, where another sun saw
+her the wife of Sir John Stanley; immediately after which they departed
+into Ireland.
+
+Sir Thomas threw the reins on the neck of his choler, and, as tradition
+reports, did then disinherit her for ever in favour of Sir Oskatell. How
+far the latter might be privy to this resolve, or whether Sir Thomas,
+goaded on aforetime to the aggrandisement of his name, seized the
+present opportunity only as it served his purpose, both history and
+tradition leave us without the means of deciding. There does, however,
+seem reason to suspect some unfair solicitations practised on Sir
+Thomas, which subsequent occurrences strongly corroborate; but
+particularly the fact, that on his deathbed he solemnly revoked this
+injustice, appointing Sir John Stanley his lawful heir, disinheriting
+Sir Oskatell, save a slight provision hereafter named, and declaring his
+illegitimacy. We would not lightly throw out an accusation of this
+nature; but surely an act of retribution so unsparingly administered
+would not have been put in force, had not past circumstances in some
+measure rendered it just.
+
+Let us now resume our narrative from the date of the tournament; soon
+after which King Edward died, and Sir John Stanley, in the first year of
+his successor, Richard II., was honoured by him with a commission to
+Ireland, for the purpose of assisting in the total reduction of that
+unfortunate kingdom. By his great prudence and success he brought under
+submission the great rebel chiefs, to wit, O'Neal, King of Ulster;
+Rotherick O'Connor, King of Connaught; O'Caral, King of Uriel; O'Rurick,
+King of Meath; Arthur M'Kier, King of Leinster; and O'Brien, King of
+Thomond. In the year 1379, Richard coming in person to Ireland, these
+chieftains did homage to him as their sovereign prince. For his great
+and eminent services on this occasion Sir John had granted to him, by
+patent for life, the manor and lands of Black Castle in that country.
+
+Ten years did Sir John sojourn, by the king's order, in this unquiet
+and troublesome appendage to the English crown. And it may be conceived
+that if true love had any hold on his affections, they were oft
+communing with Isabella, forsaken, as she then thought, by him whom she
+had once too surely trusted. In the tumult of war, and in the
+administration of his high office, no doubt her gentle form would visit
+his spirit, and, like the star of future promise, guide him on to his
+achievements.
+
+About the year 1390, when the return of Henry Duke of Lancaster from his
+banishment, without leave of the king, had caused a sore dismay
+throughout the land, Richard, harassed with the apprehension of danger,
+appointed Sir John Stanley Lord Justice of Ireland for six years. He was
+now able, in some measure, to confer a sufficient dignity on his
+beloved, though not yet equal, in point of wealth, to the wishes of Sir
+Thomas. But feeling desirous to know the state of her disposition
+towards him, he set out in disguise for Lathom, where, as we have before
+stated, he so far prevailed that she became Lady Stanley in spite of all
+the opposition she had endured. Aware of the determination of her
+father, he deemed her love a sufficient recompense, thus fully refuting
+the insinuations that her dower had more charm for him than her person.
+
+Returning to Ireland with his lady, they lived there happily for some
+years.
+
+When Henry of Lancaster was crowned by the title of Henry the Fourth,
+Sir John being still Lord Justice of Ireland, and holding the government
+there in favour of the deposed king, the new monarch, well knowing the
+knight's power, together with his skill and experience, as well in the
+senate as in the field, found means to attach him to the reigning
+interest, and, as a mark of signal favour, granted to him and his heirs
+for ever, by letters patent, many lands there named, lying in the
+westerly part of the county of Chester. Soon afterwards occurred that
+memorable rebellion, when the Welsh blood, boiling to a ferment by the
+hot appliances of one Owen Glendower, an esquire of Wales, and in his
+youth a resident at the Inns of Court in London, kindled the flames of
+intestine war. After he had conspired with the Percies and their
+adherents, together with a large body of the Scotch, these malcontents
+threatened to overthrow the now tottering dominion of King Henry.
+
+The most prompt measures were, however, taken to meet this
+exigency,--and Sir John Stanley was suddenly called out of Ireland; Sir
+William Stanley, then Lord of Stanley and Stourton, being appointed his
+deputy. Sir John soon applied himself in such earnest to the service of
+the king, his master, that a large and powerful army, headed by Henry
+himself, together with "Prince Harry," his son, marched against the
+rebels. Near to Shrewsbury the latter were overthrown; Sir John, by his
+great bravery and address, mainly contributing to the success of the
+engagement. His presence was now become of essential service to the
+king, who in consequence appointed his second son, the Duke of
+Clarence--who claimed the title of Earl of Ulster in right of his
+wife--Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in his stead, the new governor landing
+at Carlingford on the 2d August 1405.
+
+Sir John obtained, as a favour granted but to few, and those of the
+highest rank, licence from the king to fortify a spacious house he was
+then building at Liverpool, the site whereof was given by Sir Thomas
+Lathom, who, we may now suppose, had in some measure swerved from his
+most unjust purpose, possibly on apprehending the great honours and
+influence that Sir John had already acquired without his aid or
+furtherance. This plot of land, it was said, contained 650 square yards,
+which he held together with several burgage houses and lands in that
+town.
+
+He had full licence to build a castle or house of strength, embattled
+and machicolated, with _tenellare_, or loop-holes in the walls, and
+other warlike devices, which no subject could undertake without special
+leave from the king.
+
+The Isle of Man was at this time, by Northumberland's rebellion, forfeit
+to the crown. Sir John the same year obtained a grant of it for life,
+and in the year following a re-grant to himself and his heirs for ever,
+with the style and title of "King of Man."
+
+It were needless to enumerate all the honours and distinctions heaped in
+such unwonted profusion upon our illustrious hero. It has rarely
+happened that so rapid a career has met with no reverse, for the fickle
+goddess mostly exalts her votaries only to make their downfall the more
+terrible.
+
+Henry dying in 1413, was succeeded by his son Henry V., with whom Sir
+John was held in equal esteem, being again appointed to the government
+of Ireland; but, landing in Dublin, his health was now visibly on the
+wane. Four months afterwards he died at Ardee, to the great grief of
+his family, and the irreparable loss of the nation. He was a rare
+instance wherein a courtier, through four successive reigns, carried
+himself unimpeached, and unsullied by the political vices which were
+then too general to excite reproach. He was truly a knight "_sans peur
+et sans reproche_."
+
+He left two sons, John and Thomas, and one daughter, whose fortunes, at
+this time, we shall not attempt to follow.
+
+Lady Stanley, his widow, returned to Liverpool with her children, and
+lived there until her death, in the house built by her husband.
+
+Now did the beam of Sir Oskatell's favour, like an April day, suddenly
+change its gaudy and suspicious brightness. Sir Thomas, waning in years
+and ready to depart, began to consider his former misdoings. His
+daughter and her offspring were, by the laws of nature, justly entitled
+to his possessions, which he, reflecting on the great impiety and
+injustice of withholding, bequeathed, with some exceptions, to Lady
+Stanley and her heirs, revealing at the same time the fraud which he had
+practised, and extinguishing for ever the hopes and expectations of Sir
+Oskatell. Yet was he not left entirely destitute: to him and to his
+descendants were reserved, by due process of law, the manors of Irlam
+and Urmston, near Manchester, with divers other valuable inheritances.
+At the same time was given to him the signet of his arms, with the crest
+assumed for his sake, _an eagle regardant, proper_. It was only
+subsequent to the supplanting of Sir Oskatell that his rivals took the
+present crest, "_The Eagle and Child_" where the eagle is represented as
+having secured his prey, in token of their triumph over the foundling,
+whom he is preparing to devour. This crest, with the motto "SANS
+CHANGER," the descendants of Sir John Stanley, the present Earls of
+Derby, continue to hold: the foregoing narrative showing faithfully the
+origin of that singular device.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[12] "Thomas Stanley, Bishop of Man, was a cadet of the noble family of
+the Stanleys, Earls of Derby; and, after he had spent some time in this
+and another university abroad, returned to his native country
+(Lancashire), became rector of Winwick and Wigan therein; as also of
+Badsworth, in the diocese of York, and dignified in the church. At
+length, upon the vacancy of the see of the Isle of Man, he was made
+bishop thereof, but when, I cannot justly say; because he seems to have
+been bishop in the beginning of King Edward VI., and was really bishop
+of that place before the death of Dr Man, whom I have before mentioned
+under the year 1556. This Thomas Stanley paid his last debt to nature in
+the latter end of 1570, having had the character when young of a
+tolerable poet of his time."--Wood's _Athenĉ Oxonienses_.
+
+[13] This extract is from an interesting pamphlet, printed for private
+circulation only, by Thomas Heywood, Esq. of Manchester, entitled, "The
+Earls of Derby, and the Verse Writers and Poets of the 16th and 17th
+Centuries." 1825.
+
+[Illustration: THE BLACK KNIGHT OF ASHTON.]
+
+
+
+
+THE BLACK KNIGHT OF ASHTON.
+
+
+    "O Jesu I for Thy mercies' sake,
+      And for Thy bitter passion,
+    Save us from the axe of the Tower,
+      And from Sir Ralph of Assheton!"
+
+It would be a curious inquiry to trace the origin of services and other
+customs, paid by tenants to their feudal sovereign. Connected as the
+subject is with the following tradition, it may be worth while if we
+attempt to throw together a few notices on that head. A rose was not a
+very unfrequent acknowledgment. Near to the scene of our story, the
+tenant of a certain farm called Lime Hurst was compelled to bring a rose
+at the feast of St John Baptist. He held other lands; but they were
+subject only to the customary rules of the lordship, such as ploughing,
+harrowing, carting turves from Ashton-moss to the lord's house, leading
+his corn in harvest, &c. This species of service was called boon-work;
+and hence the old adage, "I am served like a boon-shearer." It, however,
+seems that some trifling present was made in return. In a MS. of
+receipts and disbursements belonging to the Cheethams, kept in the time
+of Charles II., there is an item for moneys paid for gloves to the
+boon-shearers at Clayton Hall, where Humphrey Cheetham, founder of the
+college at Manchester, then resided. The acknowledgment of a rose before
+mentioned might seem to have some allusion to the Knights Hospitallers.
+The estate of Lime Hurst was called John of Jerusalem's land, and the
+tithes and rent, in all probability, once went to the support of that
+order.
+
+In the Ashton pedigree we find a Nicholas Assheton, as it was then
+spelt, who enrolled himself amongst these warrior-monks. It seems not
+improbable that the profits of this estate belonged to him.
+
+The custom of heriotship, however, was the most oppressive, being paid
+and exacted from the parties at a time when they were least able to
+render it. Our tradition will best illustrate this remnant of barbarism,
+to which, even in the customs of the most savage tribes, we should
+scarcely find a parallel.
+
+In the early records of the Ashton family we find that Thomas Stavely,
+or Stayley, held a place called the Bestal by paying one penny at
+Christmas. This Bestal was, perhaps, a place of security or confinement.
+Adjoining the hall yard, the ancient residence of the Ashtons, is an old
+stone building facing the south, now called the Dungeon. It is flanked
+at the east and west corners by small towers with conical stone roofs.
+The wall is pierced by two pointed windows. Judging from its appearance,
+it must have been a place of strength; the name Bestal being probably a
+corruption of Bastile, basilion, or bastilion--all of which we find
+appropriated to places of this description. Tradition, indeed, says the
+ancient lords of Ashton made this a place of confinement, when the power
+of life and death were at their command. A field near the old hall,
+still called Gallows Meadow, was then used as a place of execution.
+
+Sir John Assheton, in the fifth year of Henry VI., became possessed of
+the manor on payment of one penny annually. He is generally supposed to
+have founded the church about the year 1420. We find him assigning the
+forms or benches to his tenants: the names for whose uses they are
+appointed are all females. From this it may seem that seats in our
+churches were first put up for their convenience. Eighteen forms or
+benches are mentioned for the occupation of one hundred wives and
+widows, who are named, besides their daughters and servant wenches.
+Their husbands had not this privilege, being forced to stand or kneel in
+the aisles, as the service required. In the windows there yet remains a
+considerable quantity of painted glass, but very much mutilated. Three
+or four figures on the north side represent a king, saints, &c. In the
+chancel are the coats and effigies of the Asshetons in armour, kneeling.
+In one part seems to have been portrayed the invention of the Holy Cross
+by St Helen. At whatever period the church was built, the steeple must
+either have been erected afterwards, or have undergone a considerable
+repair in the time of the last Sir Thomas Assheton; for upon the south
+side are the arms of Ashton impaling Stayley. There is a tradition, that
+while the workmen were one day amusing themselves at cards, a female
+unexpectedly presented herself. She asked them to turn up an ace,
+promising, in case of compliance, that she would build several yards of
+the steeple; upon which they fortunately turned up the ace of spades.
+This tale may owe its origin to the following circumstances:--Upon the
+marriage of Sir Thomas Assheton with the daughter of Ralph Stayley, a
+considerable accumulation of property was the consequence. This might
+induce him to repair the church, and perform sundry other acts of
+charity and beneficence. Whilst the work was going on, Lady Elizabeth
+Assheton, it is not improbable, surprised the builders at their pastime;
+and giving a broad hint that a part of her money was being employed in
+the erection, might desire that her arms should be fixed in the steeple,
+impaled with those of her husband. The shape of an escutcheon, having a
+considerable resemblance to a spade-ace, in all likelihood was the
+origin of the fable.
+
+Sir John Assheton, the founder of the church, is the reputed father of
+Ralph, whom the following tradition commemorates. The origin of "_Riding
+the Black Lad_" is involved in great obscurity--some ascribing it to the
+tyranny of Sir Ralph, and others to the following circumstance, which
+may have been fabricated merely to throw off the odium attached to his
+name:--In the reign of Edward III., one Thomas Assheton fought under
+Queen Philippa in the battle of Neville's Cross. Riding through the
+ranks of the enemy, he bore away the royal standard from the Scotch
+King's tent, who himself was afterwards taken prisoner. King Edward, on
+his return from France, conferred on Thomas the honour of knighthood,
+with the title of Sir Thomas Assheton of Ashton-under-Line. To
+commemorate this singular display of valour, he instituted the custom of
+"Riding the Black Lad" upon Easter Monday at Ashton; leaving the sum of
+ten shillings yearly to support it, together with his own suit of black
+velvet and a coat of mail. Which of these accounts is correct we cannot
+presume to determine. There is, however, sufficient testimony upon
+record to account for the dislike entertained towards the memory of Sir
+Ralph Assheton.
+
+In the town of Ashton-under-Line, or Lime, called in the ancient
+rent-rolls Ashton-sub-Lima, a singular custom prevails. On Easter Monday
+in every year, the ceremony of "Riding the Black Lad" takes place.
+According to some, it is a popular expression of abhorrence towards the
+memory of Sir Ralph Assheton, commonly called _The Black Knight_, whose
+character and conduct would seem to warrant the odium thus attached to
+his name. The following is a brief account of the ceremony;--An effigy
+is made of a man in black armour, and this image is deridingly
+emblazoned with some emblem of the occupation of the first couple that
+are married in the course of the year. The Black Boy is then fixed on
+horseback, and after being led in procession round the town, is
+dismounted, made to supply the place of a shooting-butt, and all sorts
+of fire-arms being in requisition for the occasion, he is put to an
+ignominious death. Five shillings per annum are reserved from some
+neighbouring estate for the perpetuation of this absurd custom.
+
+Sir Ralph Assheton was sheriff of York in the reign of Edward IV., and
+knight marshal and lieutenant of the Tower under Richard III., being in
+great esteem with the latter monarch. In the Harleian MSS. annuities are
+mentioned as being granted to him, with divers lordships, and a tun of
+wine yearly. So powerful was his jurisdiction, that a grant was made him
+to the effect, that if in cases of emergency suitable persons could not
+be procured for the trial of delinquents, his own authority should be a
+sufficient warrant for the purpose. Hence, from the nature of his
+office, and the powers that were intrusted to him by the king, and
+probably too from the natural bent of his disposition, arose the popular
+dislike which vented itself in the well-known traditionary distich we
+have taken as our motto.
+
+In those days, when the gentry went little from home, set times of mirth
+and recreation were constantly observed in their spacious and hospitable
+mansions. Yule, or Christmas, was a feast of especial note and
+observance. The great hall was mostly the scene of these boisterous
+festivities; where, from the gallery, the lord of the mansion and his
+family might witness the sports, without being incommoded by the uncouth
+and rustic manners of their guests. It was the custom to invite all who
+were in any way dependent on the proprietor, and who owed him suit and
+service.
+
+The mansion of Sir Ralph had, like those of the neighbouring gentry, its
+lofty and capacious hall. At one end was a gallery resting on the heads
+of three or four gigantic figures carved in oak, perhaps originally
+intended as rude representations of the ancient Caryatides.
+
+The Christmas but one following the elevation of Richard to the throne,
+in the year of our redemption 1483, was a season of unusual severity.
+Many tenants of Sir Ralph were prevented from assembling at the Yule
+feast. A storm had rendered the roads almost impassable, keeping most of
+the aged and infirm from sharing in this glorious pastime.
+
+The Yule-log was larger than ever, and the blaze kept continually on the
+roar. No ordinary scale of consumption could withstand the attacks of
+the enemy, and thaw the icicles from his beard.
+
+The wassail-bowl had gone freely about, and the company--Hobbe Adamson,
+Hobbe of the Leghes, William the Arrowsmith, Jack the Woodman, Jack the
+Hind, John the Slater, Roger the Baxter, with many others, together with
+divers widows of those who owed service to their lord, clad in their
+holiday costume--black hoods and brown jackets and petticoats--were all
+intent upon their pastimes, well charged with fun and frolic. Their
+mirth was, however, generally kept within the bounds of decency and
+moderation by a personage of great importance, called the Lord of
+Misrule, who, though not intolerant of a few coarse and practical jokes
+upon occasion, was yet, in some measure, bound to preserve order and
+decorum on pain of being degraded from his office. To punish the
+refractory, a pair of stone hand-stocks was commonly used, having
+digit-holes for every size, from the paws of the ploughman to the taper
+fingers of my lady's maiden. This instrument was in the especial keeping
+of the dread marshal of these festivities.
+
+The custom of heriotship, or a fine payable on the death of the
+landholder to the feudal lord, was then in most cases rigorously
+exacted. This claim fell with great severity upon widows in poor
+circumstances, who were, in too many instances, thus deprived of their
+only means of subsistence. Then came fees and fines to the holy Church,
+so that the bereaved and disconsolate creature had need to wish herself
+in the dark dwelling beside her husband. Sir David Lindsay may not be
+unaptly quoted in illustration of this subject. His poem called "The
+Monarch" contains the following frightful picture of the exactions and
+enormities committed on these defenceless and unoffending victims of
+their rapacity:--
+
+    "And also the vicar, as I trow,
+    Will not fail to take a cow,
+    And uppermost cloths, though babes them an,
+    From a poor seely husbandman,
+    When he lyes ready to dy,
+    Having small children two or three,
+    And his three kine withouten mo,--
+    The vicar must have one of tho,
+    With the gray cloke that covers the bed,
+    Howbeit that they be poorly cled;
+    And if the wife die on the morn,
+    And all the babes should be forlorn,
+    The other cow he takes away,
+    With her poor cote and petycote gray:
+    And if within two days or three
+    The eldest child shall happen to dy,
+    Of the third cow he shall be sure,
+    When he hath under his cure;
+    And father and mother both dead be,
+    Beg must the babes without remedy.
+    They hold the corse at the church style,
+    And thare it must remain awhile,
+    Till they get sufficient surety
+    For the church right and duty.
+    Then comes the landlord perforce,
+    And takes to him the fattest horse;
+    Poor labourers would that law were down,
+    Which never was founded by reason.
+    I heard them say, under confession,
+    That this law was brother to oppression."
+
+As it drew on towards eventide, the mirth increased. The rude legendary
+ballads of Sir Lancelot of the Lake, Beavois of Southampton, Robin Hood,
+The Pindar of Wakefield, and the Friar of Fountain's Abbey, Clim of the
+Clough, Ranulph of Chester, his Exploits in the Holy Land, together with
+the wondrous deeds of war and love performed by Sir Roger of Calverly,
+had been sung and recited to strange and uncouth music. Carols, too,
+were chanted between whiles in a most unreverend fashion. A huge
+Christmas pie, made in the shape of a cratch or cradle, was placed on
+the board. This being accounted a great test of orthodoxy, every one was
+obliged to eat a slice, lest he should be suspected of favouring the
+heretical tenets then spreading widely throughout the land.
+Blind-man's-buff and hot-cockles had each their turn; but the sport that
+seemed to afford the most merriment was a pendulous stick having an
+apple at one end, and on the other a lighted candle, so that the
+unfortunate and liquorish wight who bit at this tempting bait generally
+burnt his nose on the rebound, as the stick bounced to and fro on its
+pivot. The hall was now cleared for the masks. In this play, the Black
+Knight himself generally joined, laughing heartily at and hurrying on
+the mis-haps of the revellers. Many horrible and grotesque-looking
+shapes and disguises soon made their appearance; but one, more
+especially than the rest, excited no slight degree of distress and
+alarm. His antics proved a continual source of annoyance to the rest of
+the company. He singed Will the Arrowsmith's beard, poured a whole
+flagon of hot liquor in the wide hosen of Hobbe Adamson; but the enactor
+of St George in a more especial manner attracted his notice; he crept
+between his legs, and bore him right into the middle of the pig-sty,
+before he could be stayed; from whence the heroic champion of England
+issued, sorely shent with the admixtures and impurities of the place.
+
+This termagant was a little broad-set figure wearing a mask, intended as
+a representation of his Satanic majesty, adorned with a huge pair of
+horns. From it hung a black cloak or shirt, out of which protruded a
+goodly and substantial tail. No one could discover this ruthless
+disturber of their sports. Every attempt was unavailing; he shot through
+their fingers as though they had been greased, and a loud and
+contumelious laugh was the only reward of their exertions.
+
+In the end, a shrewd conjecture went abroad that he was none other than
+some malicious imp of darkness let loose upon their frolics, to disquiet
+and perplex their commemoration of the Blessed Nativity. Yet was it an
+unusual occurrence upon Yule night, when these disturbers were supposed
+to be prevented from walking the earth, being confined for a space to
+their own kingdom. But the desperate character of their lord, who was
+thought to fear neither man nor devil, might in some sort account for
+this unwelcome intrusion.
+
+The guests grew cautious. Whispers and unquiet looks went round, while
+the little devil would ever and anon frisk about, to the great detriment
+and dismay of his companions.
+
+Their lord's presence was anxiously looked for. The ruddy glow of their
+mirth had become dim. Sir Ralph, they hoped, would either unmask this
+mischievous intruder, or eject him from the premises; he having the
+credit of being able to master aught in the shape of either mortal or
+immortal intelligences.
+
+At length he came, clad in his usual suit of black velvet. A swarthy and
+ill-favoured wight he was, with a beard, as the story goes, that would
+have swept off the prickly gorse-bush in its progress. He was received
+with a great show of humility, and all made their best obeisance. But
+this deputy, representative, or vicegerent of "Old Hornie," he stood
+erect, among the obsequious guests, in a posture not at all either
+respectful or becoming.
+
+"Now, knaves, to your sport. Ye be as doleful as a pack of pedlars with
+a full basket after the fair. I'll make ye play, and be merry too; or,
+e' lady, ye shall taste of the mittens. Dan, give these grim-faced
+varlets a twinge of the gloves there just to make 'em laugh."
+
+His tyrannous and overbearing temper would even make them merry by
+compulsion. But the terrified hearers did not manifest that intense
+feeling of gratification which this threat was intended to produce. Each
+looked on the face of his neighbour, hoping to find there some
+indication of the felicity which his own had failed to exhibit.
+
+The countenance of their chief grew more dark and portentous. Just as
+they were expecting the full burst of his fury, up trotted the merry
+imp, and irreverently crept behind Sir Ralph. Before their almost
+incredulous eyes did he lay hold on the tail of the knight's cloak, and
+twisting it round his arm, by a sudden jerk he brought this dignified
+personage backwards upon the floor. The oaken beams trembled at this
+unlooked-for invasion of their repose. Deep, deadly, and abominable
+curses, rang through the hall. Livid and ghastly by turns, the knight's
+features wore that ludicrous expression of rage and astonishment more
+easy to conceive than to portray. Volleys of oaths and inarticulate
+sounds burst out from his wrath, almost too big for utterance. When
+reinstated in that posture which is the distinctive characteristic of
+man, he did not attempt to administer his vindictive retribution by
+proxy. Laying hold on a tough cudgel, he gave it one ominous swing,
+describing an arc of sufficient magnitude to have laid an army
+prostrate. He then pursued the luckless emissary of the Evil One,
+roaring and foaming with this unusual exertion. There was now no lack of
+activity. A hawk among the chickens, or a fox in a farm-yard, were
+nothing to it. Sometimes was seen the doughty Sir Ralph driving the
+whole herd before him like a flock of sheep; but the original cause of
+the mischief generally contrived to mingle with the rabble rout, who in
+vain attempted to rid themselves of his company. The knight was not
+over-nice in the just administration of his discipline. Often, when he
+thought himself near enough for its accomplishment, he aimed a terrific
+blow, but shot wide of the mark, bringing down the innocent and
+unoffending victims, who strewed the floor like swaths behind the mower.
+Whenever a lucky individual could disentangle himself from his comrades,
+he darted through the door, and in spite of the storm and pitchy
+darkness without, thought himself too happy in escaping with a few holes
+in his skin. Yet he of the horns and tail, by some chance or another,
+always passed unhurt; a hideous laugh accompanying the adroit
+contrivances by which he eluded the cudgel.
+
+The hall was now but scantily supplied with guests; the runaways and
+wounded having diminished the numbers to some half-score. A parley was
+now sounded by the victorious and pursuing enemy.
+
+"Hold, ye lubberly rascals! Ye scum--ye recrement--why do ye run?" said
+the knight, puffing with great vigour. "I say, why run ye!" brandishing
+his club. "Bring hither that limb of Satan, and ye shall depart every
+one to his home. Lay hold of him, I tell ye, and begone."
+
+But these terms of capitulation were by no means so easy to accept as
+the proposer imagined.
+
+The first mover of the mischief had gotten himself perched on a
+projecting ledge by the gallery, from whence they were either unable or
+unwilling to dislodge him.
+
+"How!" said the knight. "Ye are afraid, cowards, I trow. Now will I have
+at thee, for once. I'll spoil thy capering!" This threat was followed by
+a blow aimed at the devoted representative from the infernal court; but
+it failed to dismount him, for he merely shrunk aside, and it was
+rendered harmless. Another and a more contumelious laugh announced this
+failure. Even the Black Knight grew alarmed. The being was surely
+invulnerable. He stayed a moment ere he repeated the attack, when, to
+his unspeakable horror and astonishment, there issued a thin squeaking
+voice from underneath the disguise.
+
+"The heriot, Sir Ralph--the heriot! We'll have a heriot at Easter!"
+
+Had a thunderbolt fallen at his feet, the knight could not have been
+more terrified. He let the weapon fall. His hands dropped powerless at
+his side. His countenance was like the darkly rolling sea, strangely
+tossed by some invisible tempest. The cause of this sudden and
+unexpected termination of the assault we will now proceed briefly to
+unfold.
+
+The morning of this day, being the eve of the Blessed Nativity, had been
+employed by the Black Knight in the laudable occupation of visiting a
+poor widow; who, though recently bereaved of her husband, had not
+rendered the customary heriot. Unfortunately, the only valuable she
+possessed was a cow, the produce of which formed the chief support of
+the family; four young children, and a boy of about fourteen, whose
+brains were generally supposed more or less oddly constructed than those
+of his neighbours, depended on this supply for their daily support.
+Cold, bitter cold, was the season, and it had set in with more than
+common severity. Day after day the payment was delayed. Every morning
+the widow and her son fondled the poor beast, as though it were the
+last; but another morning and evening succeeded. Supper could not supply
+the place of breakfast, nor breakfast contend against the wants of
+supper; and how could the already half-famished ones be sustained, when
+their only resource should be taken away?
+
+"Go down upon your knees, Will, and thank God for another morning's
+meal. It is the eve of our blessed Lord's incarnation, and I think He
+will not leave us to perish in this world, who has made such a bountiful
+provision for our well-being in the next. The knight has not sent for
+the heriot, and I think that He alone who succours the widow and the
+fatherless can have inclined his heart to mercy."
+
+Scarcely were the thanksgivings finished, when they were alarmed by the
+rapid approach of their persecutor. The door flew open, and in
+thundering accents the Black Knight himself came to make his demand.
+
+"I'll have thee to the dungeon, hag, for lack of service. How comes it
+to pass the heriot is not paid!"
+
+The widow made no reply. Her heart was full.
+
+"See to it," continued the pitiless churl; "for if thy quittance be not
+forthcoming, and that in haste, I'll turn thee and thy brats into the
+moor-dikes, where ye may live upon turf and ditch-water if it so please
+ye."
+
+"Oh, ha' pity!" But the widow's prayer was vain. The Black Knight was
+never known to hearken either to pity or persuasion.
+
+"Thy cow--thy cow! This night let it be rendered. Sir Ralph Assheton
+never uttered a threat that fell to the ground."
+
+"Mother," said the boy, "is this Sir Ralph, our liege lord?"
+
+"Ay, fool," angrily replied the knight. "And what may thy wits gather by
+the asking?"
+
+"And will _he_ ever die, mother?"
+
+"Hush, Willy," said the terrified woman.
+
+"Nay," returned the leering half-wit, "I was but a-thinking, that if he
+does, may be _his_ master too will want a heriot."
+
+"And what may be the name of my master?" said Sir Ralph, with a furious
+oath.
+
+"The devil," replied the boy, with apparent unconcern.
+
+"Ay,--and what will they give him, dost think?"
+
+"_Thee!_"
+
+Whether the peculiar expression of the lad's face, or the fearless
+indifference of his address, so unusual to that of the crouching slaves
+he generally met with, contributed to the result, we know not; but,
+instead of correcting the boy for his audacity, he hastily departed,
+finally repeating his threat of punishment in case of disobedience.
+
+When Sir Ralph got home, his ill-humour vented itself with more severity
+than usual. On joining the sports, he was at the first somewhat
+startled, on perceiving a representation of the personage which the
+morning's conversation had by no means prepared him to recognise either
+with admiration or respect. Still, as it was nothing out of the common
+usage, he took no apparent notice, farther than by remarking the general
+gloom that prevailed, contrary to the usual course of these festivities.
+Then came the unlooked-for aggression upon his person, provoking his
+already irritated feelings into vehement action. But, when the last
+unfortunate blow had failed in its purpose, appearing to the furious
+knight to have been warded off by a charm, a sudden misgiving came
+across him, which, with the speech of this supposed imp of darkness, so
+strangely alluding to his adventure with the boy, wrought powerfully
+upon his now excited imagination, so that he stood aghast, unable to
+grapple with its terrors. He hastily departed from the hall, leaving the
+enemy in undisputed possession of the field.
+
+What occurred subsequently we are not told, save that on the following
+morning the widow's heriot was sent back, with an ungracious message
+from the knight, showing his unwillingness to restore what terror only
+had wrung from him.
+
+The person who adventured this dangerous personification of the Evil One
+was never known. Whether some bold and benevolent individual,
+interposing on behalf of the fatherless and famishing little ones, or
+some being of a less substantial nature,--whether one of those immortal
+intelligences of a middle order between earth and heaven, who at that
+time were supposed to take pleasure in tormenting the vicious and
+unworthy,--is more than our limited capacities can disclose.
+
+It is said that on Easter Monday following the Black Knight died; and
+though probably it had no connection with the circumstances we have
+related, yet was his decease a sufficiently strange event in the
+mysterious chapter of coincidences to warrant this memorial.
+
+
+
+
+FAIR ELLEN OF RADCLIFFE.
+
+
+In Percy's Relics, this ballad is called "The Lady Isabella's Tragedy,"
+and is thus introduced:--
+
+     "This ballad is given from an old black-letter copy in the Pepys
+     Collection, collated with another in the British Museum, H. 263,
+     folio. It is there entitled, 'The Lady Isabella's Tragedy, or the
+     Step-Mother's Cruelty; being a relation of a lamentable and cruel
+     murther, committed on the body of the Lady Isabella, the only
+     daughter to a noble Duke, etc. To the tune of "The Lady's Fall."'
+     To some copies are annexed eight more modern stanzas, entitled,
+     'The Duchess' and Cook's Lamentation.'"
+
+Dr Whitaker says, "The remains of Radcliffe Tower prove it to have been
+a manor-house of the first rank. It has been quadrangular; but two sides
+only remain." A licence to kernel and embattle shows the date of its
+erection, or rather rebuilding, to be in the fourth year of Henry IV.,
+by James Radcliffe, who, we find by the pedigree, was the eldest son of
+William Radcliffe. He married Joan, daughter to Sir John Tempest of
+Bracewell, in the county of York.
+
+"The noble old hall is forty-three feet two inches in length, and in one
+part twenty-six feet, in another twenty-eight feet in width. The two
+massy principals which support the roof are the most curious specimens
+of ancient wood-work I have ever seen. The broadest piece of timber is
+two feet seven inches by ten inches. A wall-plate on the outside of one
+beam, from end to end, measures two feet by ten inches. The walls are
+finished at the square with a moulded cornice of oak.
+
+"At the bottom of the room is a door opening into one of the towers, the
+lower part of which only remains, of massy grout-work, and with three
+arches, each furnished with a funnel or aperture like a chimney. On the
+left side of the hall are the remains of a very curious window-frame of
+oak, wrought in Gothic tracery, but square at top. Near the top of the
+hall, on the right, are the remains of a doorway, opening into what was
+once a staircase, and leading to a large chamber above the kitchen, the
+approach to which was by a door of massy oak, pointed at the top.
+
+"Over the high tables of ancient halls (as is the case in some college
+halls at present) it was common to have a small aperture, through which
+the lord or master could inspect, unseen, what was going on below. But
+in this situation at Radcliffe is a ramified window of oaken work,
+opening from the apartment above mentioned, but now closed up."
+
+[Illustration: RADCLIFFE TOWER.
+
+_Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden._]
+
+This consists of eight arches, with trefoil-pointed tops, four and
+four, with two narrower apertures above.
+
+"To this place and family are attached the tradition and ballad given by
+Dr Percy, under the name of Isabella, but here applied to a Lord Thomas
+and faire Ellenor, father and daughter, whose figures are supposed to be
+graven on a slab in the church, which the common people, concluding, I
+suppose, from its whiteness, that it was meant as an emblem of the
+innocence it is said to cover, have mutilated by breaking off small
+fragments, as amulets for the prevention or cure of disorders.
+Traditions, always erroneous in their circumstances, are yet rarely
+devoid of foundation; and though the pedigrees of Radcliffe exhibit no
+failure of the family by the premature death of an heiress; though the
+last Richard de Radcliffe, who had daughters only, certainly did not
+make 'a scullion-boy the heir of all his land,' when he settled it on
+Radcliffe Baron Fitzwalter; though the blood actually pointed out on the
+kitchen floor, where this Thyestsean banquet is said to have been
+prepared, deserves no more regard than many other stories and
+appearances of the same kind; yet we are not to discard as incredible
+the tradition of a barbarous age, merely because it asserts the
+sacrifice of a young and beautiful heiress to the jealousy or the
+avarice of a stepmother. When this is granted, the story of the pie with
+all its horrors may safely be ascribed to the inventive genius of a
+minstrel. On the whole, Radcliffe is a place which, not only from its
+antiquity and splendour, but from the great families which have branched
+out from it, and the romantic tradition attached to it, can scarcely be
+surveyed without enthusiasm, or quitted without regret."
+
+There is a story of its being haunted by a black dog; but as this
+apparition has never been seen by two persons in company, it may safely
+be ascribed to the genius of fear, quite as creative a power as any
+other faculty of the imagination.
+
+We have thought it best to give the ballad entire, without any
+embellishments of our own. Though not in the best style of these
+metrical romances, it is still of sufficient interest, from its
+connection, to claim a place in the "Traditions" of the county.
+
+    There was a lord of worthy fame,
+      And a hunting he would ride,
+    Attended by a noble traine
+      Of gentrye by his side.
+
+    And while he did in chase remaine,
+      To see both sport and playe,
+    His ladye went, as she did feigne,
+      Unto the church to praye.
+
+    This lord he had a daughter deare,
+      Whose beauty shone so bright,
+    She was beloved both far and neare
+      Of many a lord and knight.
+
+    Fair Ellen was this damsel call'd,
+      A creature faire was she;
+    She was her father's only joye,
+      As you shall after see.
+
+    Therefore her cruel stepmother
+      Did envye her so much,
+    That daye by daye she sought her life,
+      Her malice it was such.
+
+    She bargain'd with the master-cook,
+      To take her life awaye;
+    And, taking of her daughter's book,
+      She thus to her did saye:--
+
+    Go home, sweet daughter, I thee praye,
+      Go hasten presentlie;
+    And tell unto the master-cook
+      These wordes that I tell thee:
+
+    And bid him dresse to dinner streight
+      That fair and milk-white doe,
+    That in the parke doth shine so bright
+      There's none so faire to showe.
+
+    This ladye, fearing of no harme,
+      Obey'd her mother's will;
+    And presentlye she hasted home,
+      Her pleasure to fulfil.
+
+    She streight into the kitchen went,
+      Her message for to tell;
+    And there she spied the master-cook,
+      Who did with malice swell.
+
+    Nowe, master-cook, it must be soe,
+      Do that which I thee tell:
+    You needes must dresse the milk-white doe
+      Which you do knowe full well.
+
+    Then streight his cruell bloodye hands
+      He on the ladye layd,
+    Who quivering and shaking stands,
+      While thus to her he sayd:--
+
+    Thou art the doe that I must dresse,
+      See here, behold my knife;
+    For it is pointed, presently
+      To ridd thee of thy life.
+
+    Oh then, cried out the scullion-boye,
+      As loud as loud might bee,
+    Oh save her life, good master-cook,
+      And make your pyes of mee!
+
+    For pitye's sake, do not destroye
+      My ladye with your knife;
+    You know shee is her father's joye,
+      For Christe's sake, save her life.
+
+    I will not save her life, he sayd,
+      Nor make my pyes of thee;
+    Yet, if thou dost this deed bewraye,
+      Thy butcher I will bee.
+
+    Now when this lord he did come home
+      For to'sit downe and eat,
+    He called for his daughter deare
+      To come and carve his meat.
+
+    Now sit you downe, his ladye say'd,
+      Oh sit you down to meat;
+    Into some nunnery she is gone,
+      Your daughter deare forget.
+
+    Then solemnlye he made a vowe
+      Before the companie,
+    That he would neither eat nor drinke
+      Until he did her see.
+
+    Oh then bespake the scullion-boye,
+      With a loud voice so hye--If
+    now you will your daughter see,
+      My lord, cut up that pye:
+
+    Wherein her flesh is minced small,
+      And parched with the fire;
+    All caused by her stepmother,
+      Who did her death desire.
+
+    And cursed bee the master-cook,
+      Oh cursed may he bee!
+    I proffer'd him my own heart's blood,
+      From death to set her free.
+
+    Then all in blacke this lord did mourne,
+      And, for his daughter's sake,
+    He judged her cruell stepmother
+      To be burnt at a stake.
+
+    Likewise he judged the master-cook
+      In boiling lead to stand;
+    And made the simple scullion-boye
+      The heire of all his land.
+
+[Illustration: WHALLEY ABBEY.
+
+_Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden._]
+
+
+
+
+THE ABBOT OF WHALLEY
+
+
+    "Earl Percy there his ancyent spred,
+      The half moone shining all soe faire;
+    The Norton's ancyent had the crosse,
+      And the five wounds our Lord did beare."
+
+--_The Rising in the North_.
+
+The Cistercian Abbey of Whalley was founded by Henry Lacy, Earl of
+Lincoln, who, having given the advowson of the parish to the abbey of
+Stanlaw in Cheshire, the monks procured an appropriation, and removed
+hither in 1296, increasing their number to sixty. The parish church is
+nearly coeval with the introduction of Christianity into the north of
+England. This foundation now became the nucleus of a flourishing
+establishment, "continuing," as Dr Whitaker informs us, "for two
+centuries and a half, to exercise unbounded charity and hospitality; to
+adorn the site thus chosen with a succession of magnificent buildings;
+to protect the tenants of its ample domains in the enjoyment of
+independence and plenty; to educate and provide for their children; to
+employ, clothe, feed, and pay many labourers, herdsmen, and shepherds;
+to exercise the arts and cultivate the learning of the times; yet
+unfortunately at the expense of the secular incumbents, whose endowments
+they had swallowed up, and whose functions they had degraded into those
+of pensionary vicars or mendicant chaplains."
+
+The ruins of Whalley Abbey are situated in a beautifully-sequestered
+spot on the banks of the Calder, presenting some of the most extensive
+and picturesque remains of antiquity in the county; and the site
+sufficiently exemplifies that peculiar instinct, if it may be so called,
+which guided the monks in their choice of situations. "Though the
+Cistercians affected to plant themselves in the solitude of woods, which
+were to be gradually essarted by the labour of their own hands, and
+though they obtained an exemption from the payment of tithes on that
+specific plea, yet they were excellent judges of the quality of land,
+however concealed, and never set about their laborious task without the
+assurance of an ample recompense."
+
+The following minute account of these ruins is from the pen of the
+historian of Whalley:--"A copious stream to the south, a moderate
+expanse of rich meadow and pasture around, and an amphitheatre of
+sheltering hills, clad in the verdant covering of their native woods,
+beyond; these were features in the face of Nature which the earlier
+Cistercians courted with instinctive fondness. Where these combined, it
+does not appear that they ever abandoned a situation which they had once
+chosen; and where these were wanting, it is certain they never long or
+willingly remained."
+
+"We now proceed to a particular survey of the remains of Whalley Abbey
+as they exist at present. First, then, the whole area of the close,
+containing thirty-six acres, three roods, fourteen poles, is still
+defined by the remains of a broad and deep trench, which surrounded it;
+over this were two approaches to the house, through two strong and
+stately gateways yet remaining. They are constructed in that plain and
+substantial style which characterised the Cistercian houses; a style
+which approximates to that of fortification, and shows that the monks
+did not obtain a licence to kernel and embattle without an end in view.
+Within this area, and on the verge of the Calder, which formed the
+south-west boundary of the close, was the house itself, consisting of
+three quadrangles, besides stables and offices. The first and most
+westerly of these was the cloister-court, of which the nave of the
+conventual church formed the north side; the chapter-house and vestry,
+yet remaining, the east; the dormitory, also remaining, the west; and
+the refectory and kitchens the south. The cloister was of wood,
+supported, as usual, upon corbels, still remaining: the area within was
+the monks' cemetery, and some of the ancient gravestones here are still
+remembered. Against the wall, on the south side of this quadrangle, is a
+wide surbased arch, apparently of Henry the Seventh's time, which has
+evidently contained the lavatory. The groove of the lead pipe which
+conveyed the water is still conspicuous, as is also another for the
+reception of a wooden rail, on which the towels hung. Beyond this court,
+to the east, is another quadrangle area, formed by the choir of the
+church, on one side, the opposite side of the chapter-house, &c., on
+another, a line of ruinous buildings on the third, and a large distinct
+building, itself surrounding a small quadrangle, on the fourth. This
+appears evidently to have been the abbot's lodgings; for which reason,
+as being best adapted to the habits of an ordinary family, it
+immediately became the residence of the Asshetons, and after many
+alterations, and a demolition of its best apartments, particularly a
+gallery nearly one hundred and fifty feet in length, has still several
+good and habitable rooms, and is now preserved with due care by its
+owner. The ancient kitchen, the _coquina abbatis_ of the _compotus_,
+whence such hecatombs were served up, remains, though roofless, with two
+huge fire-places. On the southern side of this building is a small but
+very picturesque and beautiful rain mantled with ivy, which appears to
+have been a chapel, and was probably the abbot's private oratory. But
+the conventual church itself, which exceeded many cathedrals in extent,
+has been levelled nearly to the foundation. This work of havoc was
+probably an effect of that general panic which seized the lay-owners of
+abbeys, on the attempt made by Queen Mary to restore the monks to their
+cloisters.--'For now,' says Fuller, 'the edifices of abbeys, which were
+still entire, looked lovingly again on their ancient owners; in
+prevention whereof, such as possessed them for the present plucked out
+their eyes by levelling them to the ground and shaving from them, as
+much as they could, all abbey characters.'
+
+"However, in the month of August 1798, permission having been obtained
+from the guardian of the present owner to investigate the foundation by
+digging, a very successful attempt was made to retrieve the whole
+ichnography of the church, of which there were no remains above the
+surface to assist conjecture, or to guide research, but one jamb of the
+west window against the wall of the dormitory, a small portion of the
+south wall of the nave, a fragment of the south transept, and another
+jamb of one of the side chapels eastward from the last. An inequality in
+the ground, eastward from the transept, in an adjoining orchard, showed
+the half-pace into the choir, of which the outline to the north and east
+was also defined in the same manner. Upon these slender data we
+proceeded, first, to investigate the foundations of the columns towards
+the west end; and having ascertained the distance of one from the south
+wall, the width of the south aisle, and consequently of the north,
+followed of course; another digging immediately to the north ascertained
+the width of the middle aisle, and a third, from east to west, gave one
+intercolumnation; the length of the nave being already given by the
+remains of the transept, the number of columns was now proved. A right
+line drawn along the remnant of the south wall, and continued to the
+intersection of the nave and transept, proved the length of the latter
+on the south side, and, consequently, also on the north. The choir
+evidently appeared to have consisted of a presbytery, with two side
+aisles, and four other chapels; two to the north, and as many to the
+south.
+
+"The site of the choir being determined, it remained to investigate its
+contents beneath the surface: accordingly, under the high altar, nothing
+appeared but a bed of undisturbed and native sand; but beneath the
+second half-pace, immediately leading up to it, were turned up many
+broken remains of a painted pavement, consisting of small glazed
+floor-tiles, adorned with various devices, and of different forms and
+dimensions. At the foot of the stalls, a narrow rectilinear filleting of
+the same material had bounded the whole. On some was inscribed the word
+MARIE, in Longobardic characters.
+
+"This pavement had been deeply bedded in mortar, but was altogether
+displaced, and turned down from one to three feet beneath the surface,
+where several skeletons were found very entire, and in their original
+position, but without any remains of coffins, vestments, or other
+ornaments, as appeared upon a most minute investigation. These, however,
+were, beyond a doubt, the Abbots of Whalley. From the confused state of
+the original pavement, the whole floor of the presbytery, from the foot
+of the stalls, appeared to have been successively covered with
+grave-stones, all of which, however, had been removed, excepting
+fragments of two: one of these had a groove, once inlaid with a
+filleting of brass, and the other, beneath which lay the skeleton of a
+tall and robust man, had deeply cut upon it the stump of a tree reguled.
+This I conjecture to have been a thorn, intended as a rebus upon the
+name of Christopher Thornber, the fifteenth abbot, who died in 1486. In
+this search we narrowly missed the fragments of the grave-stone of Abbot
+Lindley, which were casually turned up on this very spot, A.D. 1813. On
+one, in the Longobardic character of Edward the Third's time, were the
+letters IOP, and on the other AJ PVIV.
+
+"From these data, slender as they may seem, I arrive at my conclusion,
+thus:--First, None but abbots were interred in the high choir; secondly,
+The characters cannot be later than the latter end of Edward the Third,
+when the old English black letter was substituted in its place. From the
+foundation to this time three Johns had been Abbots of Whalley;
+Belfield, Topeliffe, and Lindley. The termination of the surname must
+have immediately preceded the word _hujus_, but the letters AJ can only
+have formed the termination of Lindelai, the old orthography of the
+word.
+
+"The remains of the Lacies, wherever deposited, after their removal from
+Stanlaw, had undoubtedly been preserved with religious reverence, and
+enclosed in magnificent tombs. But in these researches there were no
+appearances which justified even a conjecture that we had discovered
+them."[14]
+
+John Paslew, the last Abbot of Whalley, appears, by a reference to his
+arms, to have been of the Paslews of Wiswall. The first twenty years
+after his election were passed, like those of his predecessors, in the
+duties of his choir, in the exercise of hospitality, in attention to the
+extensive possessions of his house, or in the improvement of his
+buildings; but a storm was approaching, before which either his
+conscience or his bigotry prevented him from bending, and which
+precipitated his ruin and that of the abbey. The religious houses in
+general were now greatly relaxed in discipline, and many of them
+dreadfully corrupted in morals. What was the state of Whalley must now
+be left to conjecture, though charity should incline us to think no evil
+to those against whom no specific evidence appears. The Pilgrimage of
+Grace was now commenced, and Paslew seems to have been pushed into the
+foremost ranks of the rebellion; when this expedition ended in the
+discomfiture and disgrace of its promoters, every art of submission and
+corruption was vainly employed to ward off the blow. Paslew was
+arraigned for high treason, tried, and condemned, and is supposed to
+have been interred in the north aisle of the parish church, under a
+stone yet remaining; the ignominious part of his sentence being
+remitted, out of respect to his order.
+
+"The attainder of an abbot was understood, however rightly, by the crown
+lawyers of that time, to infer a forfeiture of the house; and
+accordingly, without the form of a surrender, the abbey of Whalley,
+with all its appurtenances, was instantly seized into the king's hands;
+and thus fell this ancient foundation.
+
+"Fr. Thomas Holden, younger son of Gilbert Holden, of Holden, gent.,
+was, in all probability, the last surviving monk. On the Dissolution he
+appears to have returned to his native place. In 1550 we meet with his
+name as Sir Thomas Holden, curate of Haslingden; and in 1574 he was
+licensed to the same cure at the metropolitical visitation of Archbishop
+Grindall, held at Preston, by the style of Thomas Holden, clerk, of
+sober life and competent learning. Strange as it may seem, we find the
+last surviving monk of Whalley a Protestant minister, thirty-seven years
+after its dissolution!"
+
+It was in the dark month of November, when the brown leaves are
+fluttering on the ground, when the wind comes mournfully through the
+bare woods, and the hollow nooks and quiet caves respond with their
+mystic voice, that two travellers were seen loitering up the grand
+avenue that swept nobly through the western embattled gateway of Whalley
+Abbey. The foremost of them wore a low-crowned cap, simply decorated
+with a heron's plume, and a doublet of mulberry-coloured velvet, puffed
+out capaciously at the shoulders. Trunk-hose of a goodly diameter, and
+wide-flapped boots, decorated the lower extremity of his person. On his
+left hand he bore a hooded falcon. The jesses were of crimson and yellow
+silk, its legs fancifully adorned with little bells fastened by rings of
+leather. These made a jingling and dissonant music as it flew, being
+generally tuned one semitone below another, that they might be the more
+sonorous considering their small size. The bearer wore a pair of stout
+leathern mittens, and he carried a long pole to aid him, as it might
+seem, in the chase. His manner bespoke him above the ordinary rank; and
+his garb, from the minute regulations then existing in regard to dress,
+showed at any rate his pretensions to nobility. This proud cavalier was
+followed by one servant only, who carried a capacious wallet, not
+over-well replenished with provision, as was apparent from its long lank
+shape and attenuated proportions. His master's cloak was slung on the
+other shoulder; and his belt displayed some implements that appeared
+alike formidable as means of offence or defence.
+
+Eventide was then drawing on, but it did not appear that the falcon had
+been loosed to the game; the usual tokens of success were wanting--the
+torn and bloody carcases that marked an abundant sport. Two or three of
+the brethren were sitting on a bench in the gateway. In passing by, the
+foremost of the strangers hastily addressed his follower.
+
+"Ralph Newcome, plague on thee! hast thou had a call again at the
+wallet? Thou guzzling tinder-throat, thy drouth is never slaked!"
+
+Now Ralph, having felt sore oppressed with the weight of sundry leathern
+bottles, loaves, and wedges of cold meat, had taken especial care to
+lighten his back and load his stomach whenever the occasion was urgent.
+His endeavours had not been without success, for the wallet, as we have
+seen, hung from his shoulders, long, narrow, and unfurnished, save with
+the scraps and relics of many a savoury junket.
+
+"Coming, master," was the reply, sufficiently audible for his master's
+ear; the remainder escaped in a sort of grumble, the dregs of his ill
+humour at the interruption.
+
+The sportsman, if such he was, gained a ready admittance into the abbey
+enclosure. Passing round the north transept of the church, he made the
+best of his way to the abbot's house, where Paslew dwelt in great state,
+keeping a separate establishment and a numerous train of domestics and
+officials.
+
+Paslew was in some respects a man of parsimonious habits; and though his
+bounty might now be the better excused, yet in the more prosperous days
+of his dominion he had the character of a selfish and greedy priest,
+whose charity was less than that of his predecessor, and his personal
+expenses double.
+
+Encouraged by the "Pilgrimage of Grace," as it was then called, headed
+by one Aske, a gentleman of but mean pretensions, who yet possessed the
+art of making himself popular with the vulgar, Paslew, though apparently
+taking no open part in the rebellion, had with his monks repossessed
+their ancient seat, from which they had been driven by the decrees of
+Henry VIII.
+
+The rebel army had their camp at Doncaster, where the Archbishop of York
+and the Lord D'Arcy openly espoused their cause, receiving in great
+state a herald from the king's army, who came to negotiate with these
+dangerous malcontents. They had formed high notions of their own power
+and importance, and entertained sanguine hopes of success, especially
+since the Duke of Norfolk, a supporter of the ancient religion, was
+appointed to the command of the royal forces along with the Earl of
+Shrewsbury. The monks made themselves certain that the result would be a
+complete purification of heresy from the land, or at least that measures
+would be adopted for the purpose of forcing Henry to a restitution of
+their rights. So fully established were they in this opinion, that, as
+we have just seen, some of them took possession of their ancient
+inheritances without the tedious formality of awaiting a fresh grant
+from the king.
+
+The rebel army, being allured by Norfolk with vain promises of
+satisfaction, were now dispersed, though with the understanding that
+another assemblage should take place at a given notice, for which
+purpose beacons were erected at convenient distances throughout the
+north. By these means their forces could again be mustered with the
+greatest security and despatch.
+
+Within this interval our narrative begins. Paslew had received some
+communication from the leaders of the pilgrimage; but he seemed wishful
+to procrastinate, hoping, perhaps, he should be spared the necessity of
+any more direct treasonable demonstrations, by the timely submission of
+the king; yet his aid was of too much importance to be neglected.
+
+The stranger, on his introduction, was received with some ostentation,
+and not a little ceremony. They were evidently unknown to each other;
+but the keen glance of the abbot instantly detected the signal for some
+secret message. Paslew was habited in the Cistercian gown, and scapulary
+of white cloth. His eye was dark, but restless; his lips, drawn in, were
+narrow and compressed, showing the curbed impetuosity of his spirit.
+Either as a churchman or a warrior, he seemed fitted for daring
+enterprise; yet was he of a wary and cautious bearing, a characteristic
+which his monkish education had in all probability thrown over his
+natural temperament. The attendants having departed, the stranger drew
+an unsealed letter from his bosom.'
+
+"A written message, my lord abbot, from the Abbot of Kirkstall. 'Tis now
+for your reverence's private regard, afterwards at your discretion." The
+abbot hastily glanced over this piece of quaint and formal latinity,
+occasionally darting a rapid and penetrating look at his visitor.
+
+"He says not aught regarding so goodly a messenger," said Paslew,
+carelessly.
+
+"I should have marvelled if he had," returned the other, with a
+contemptuous smile. "He knew not of so important a personage when that
+epistle was elaborated from his pen."
+
+"How?" said the abbot, his features gathering into a portentous scowl.
+
+"Nay, I beseech your reverence's grace, that you throw off all such
+disturbed apprehensions; for in troth a messenger of my bearing and
+capacity were worth a knight's ransom in these evil days, when the monks
+may not abroad with safety."
+
+"Speak out. Remember I have yet the power to punish both insolence and
+treachery."
+
+The abbot's lip curled upwards, pale and quivering with rage, not
+unmixed with apprehension.
+
+"Grammercy," said the stranger, with a provokingly careless expression
+of cool and contemptuous defiance--"I cry you none--I am at present
+nameless. To work, to work, lord abbot. Thou hast holden back too long;
+and there is a shrewd suspicion abroad of thine integrity in the good
+cause. Hold!" said he, rising, as the reverend prelate was on the point
+of summoning his attendants; "I am not thy prisoner! Impotent, I would
+crook my finger thus, and thou shouldest crouch at my bidding. Nay,
+these be evil days, I say again; and more strange things may come to
+pass than bearding a lordly abbot in his den!"
+
+Great was the astonishment of Paslew. The stranger stood proudly erect;
+his arms were folded, and a withering glance shot from beneath his
+brows. Even John Paslew, unused to a sense of inferiority before his
+fellow-men, felt cowed before him. For the first time, in all
+likelihood, he knew not how or what to answer. The stranger interrupted
+this painful silence.
+
+"Since the monks are forbidden to be out a-gadding, the cowl and
+scapulary might have found some hindrance over the moors from Kirkstall.
+With my hawk and bearing-pole, I can follow on to the sport without let
+or question." The latter part of this speech seemed to throw some light
+on the purpose for which this messenger had been selected. Paslew was
+preparing for a further inquiry, when he was again interrupted.
+
+"I tell thee, a courier of my condition may go free, though nameless.
+But to business--Norfolk is tampering with our credulity. He thinks to
+gain our time to his advantage: but the work must again be urged
+forward. Yet lack we thy aid. May we depend on its being faithfully
+rendered? We must have no lukewarm allies in the rear of our camp."
+
+The stranger drew from beneath his inner vest a crucifix, with the
+representation of a chalice and of the five wounds of Christ.
+
+Paslew kissed the token, and his suspicions were at rest. But still,
+there was a dubiety and hesitation in his manner displeasing to the
+stranger. He would bind himself to no distinct pledge respecting the
+time of his appearance at the rebel camp; and altogether seemed to
+display either cowardice or a want of cordiality. His guest refusing to
+stay the night, on a pretext of urgent business farther north, departed
+soon after the termination of their interview.
+
+The night was fast closing when the strangers left the abbey. One by one
+the pale stars seemed to start out, as if just lighted up in the blue
+vault. The dark woods threw their giant arms around the sacred domain,
+as though to guard it against unhallowed intrusion. The travellers had
+gained the steep ascent towards the south-east, from whence the river,
+winding down the narrow valley, seemed as if here and there a spark was
+floating on its quiet surface--the lights, gliding on the opposite
+brink, fell distinct and unbroken upon the stream. The soft voice of the
+current grew strangely audible, in contrast with the deep silence; the
+wind rolling it round to the ear at intervals startling and abrupt.
+
+Preceded by a guide, they had taken the rough mountain road, leading
+from the abbey into the forest of Pendle, the stranger and his servant
+still walking, or rather climbing, for their journey could only be
+accomplished on foot. Having proceeded about two miles on this rugged
+path, they diverged to the left, where the only indication to assist
+their guide was the turf-cutters' track and a few heaps of stones,
+scarcely distinguishable from the common mass, but by an eye accustomed
+to these land-marks. Carefully were they sought for at times, the
+blazing torch carried by their leader being often requisite for the
+search.
+
+They now descended by a narrow and steep ravine, the termination of
+which brought them to a small brook. This they crossed, and again
+commenced a sharp and troublesome ascent. The mighty Pendle rose up
+before them, huge and dark, engrossing half the hemisphere. To this
+point, it seemed, their path was directed. The guide now trimmed his
+torch, the smoke from which had for some time been rather an
+accompaniment than an assistance to their toil, as it caused them to
+loiter at an inconvenient distance, thereby enhancing the difficulties
+they had to encounter. Slow and toilsome was their progress, yet a
+patient continuance in any path will sooner or later lead to the end.
+The brow of the hill seemed rapidly diminishing; the abrupt steep was at
+length gained, when the whole glorious garniture of the heavens,
+uninterrupted, from that majestic height, was suddenly revealed. True,
+it was a November night, but unusually clear and vivid; the stars seemed
+to burn rather than shine, so piercing was their effulgence. The vast
+track of the milky way appeared to span the dark and level platform,
+like the bow of some triumphal arch. They seemed to stand on a huge
+circle, black, bare,--its verge unapproachable, contrasting deeply with
+the encompassing splendour. Proceeding onwards, a dark speck was
+visible, springing out abruptly from the verge of the horizon. Its bulk
+rapidly increased, their path evidently tending in that direction. A
+shrill whistle from the guide was now answered by a corresponding
+signal. Presently they were challenged by a sentinel.
+
+"_Vale_" growled out the rough voice of their conductor.
+
+"Is it thou, Will?" said the guard. "And what neck art thou fitting for
+the noose; breeding occupation for the hangsman, I trow."
+
+"Not half so ripe as thine own, gossip. Here be two gentles that have
+commission, I guess, to look at the beacons, to see they are in trim and
+properly watched. 'Tis well the guard is set. Holloa, Nicholas Dewhurst,
+bring the flagon. I am wheezing like an old wife's bellows, nigh
+disinherited of my birthright, the free quaffing o' the air. I shall die
+and be canonised."
+
+Will, in his eagerness to attain this glorious end, left his companions
+with the sentinel, who speedily conducted them into a rude hut, erected
+as a temporary shelter to those on the look-out for signals. In this
+narrow shed a lamp was burning. Two of the abbot's servants, stretched
+before a smouldering heap of turf, were scarcely roused by the
+vociferations of Will, as he strode over them in his way to the
+provender. A long pull, and a loud smack, announced the satisfactory
+relish that ensued.
+
+"Hoa, ye lozel knaves!--who sleeps when Will's awake?" This reflection
+was accompanied by a smart blow on that part of the recumbent's person
+where it was most conveniently administered.
+
+"Begone, sot!" was the abrupt reply, not over-abundantly expressive of
+good humour at this disturbance. Will looked again towards the flagon;
+but great was his dismay on beholding it in the very act of disemboguing
+its precious contents into another gulf as insatiable as his own. Ralph
+Newcome, incited thereto by his own discrimination, together with the
+resistless relish of their guide, as soon as the latter had partially
+concluded, took up the subject, and long, powerful, and undeviating were
+the requisitions that he made.
+
+"Plague on thy civility!--A fly will drink from anybody's cup, and so
+will a Yorkshireman," growled the uncourteous churl.
+
+Ralph had, however, braced himself tightly to the task, and stood with
+an air of dogged defiance, stoutly confronting his accuser,--though,
+being a man of few words, the principal weight of the argument rested
+upon Will, whose eloquence was with difficulty interrupted on any
+subject.
+
+"Peace," said one of the sleepers, raising himself half-way,--"I think
+we be like to bide here till our bones rot. There's nought but the same
+dun sky,--black, black, and unchanging. I should like to see a stiff
+blaze from some quarter. Our bundle, here, would soon be in a low."
+
+"Hark!" said the other, "'tis something creaking amongst the faggots."
+
+The sentinel rushed out, but the beacon was undisturbed.
+
+"St Mary protect us!--'Tis the same noise I heard last night, and about
+the same hour."
+
+The stranger here entered the hut. Enveloped in a huge cloak, he sate
+silent, and apparently inattentive; but the conversation was now abrupt,
+and broken down into short and interrupted whispers.
+
+"I wish old Hal and his wives were here, with all my heart," said one:
+"we'd have a rare bonfire. How his fat paunch would swell! But for him
+and his unlucky women, we had been snug in the chimney-corner, snoring
+out psalmody, or helping old Barn'by off with the tit-bits in the
+kitchen."
+
+"Hush!" said his neighbour: "there be the faggots talking again. I think
+they are bewitched.--Dan, look to them."
+
+"Nay," said Dan, "they may bide awhile for me."
+
+The words were scarcely uttered when the building seemed in a blaze.
+Crash upon crash followed. The inmates, stupified with terror, were well
+nigh suffocated ere their astonishment left them the power to escape.
+In the full conviction that the foul fiend had taken him at his word,
+Dan was dragged from the hut, wan, speechless, and gasping with
+affright. Nothing less, too, than a visit from his Satanic majesty in
+person was expected by the terrified rustics.
+
+On gaining the outside, the whole burning mass was before them, one vast
+pyramid of flame. Flakes of blazing matter were hurled into the sky,
+with short and rapid explosions. The roar of the wind through the
+glowing furnace was awful and appalling. Huge and ignited fragments were
+borne away with frightful rapidity. They rode on the rolling volumes of
+smoke like fire-fiends armed with destruction; but the vast reservoir of
+flame still glowed on, apparently undiminished. The curtain of night
+seemed to be suddenly undrawn. Objects the most minute were visible as
+in the broad view of day. The brown heath, the grey and the mossy stone,
+were each distinguishable, but clad alike in one bright and unvarying
+colour, red as the roaring furnace. Soon the great magazine of
+inflammable matter in the interior caught fire, and rolled out in a wide
+mass of light, like the first burst of a volcano.
+
+The stranger stood with apparent unconcern, his back to the flames,
+looking from the brink of the mountain northward, as if on the watch for
+corresponding signals. Soon a bright star hung on the heights above
+Sawley. Increasing in splendour, another broke out on the verge of the
+horizon, marking the site of the camp near Romald's Moor.
+
+Turning towards the south-west, and looking to the right, beyond the
+chain of successive heights that form the vale of Todmorden, he beheld a
+dim spark in the distance, from the summit of Hades Hill, scarcely
+penetrating the mist which hung like a dense cloud in that direction;
+this place and Thieveley Pike forming the connecting-links between
+Pendle Hill and Buckton Castle.
+
+The terrified attendants knew too well the results which would follow
+this unaccountable and irreparable mistake. The whole country would be
+in commotion. Hordes of zealous and fanatic idlers and malcontents would
+repair to the appointed rendezvous, and this premature, and perhaps
+fatal movement, would be attributed to their carelessness. Paslew, not
+over-nice in discriminating their several deserts, would doubtless
+subject them to immediate and condign punishment.
+
+These were thoughts common to each, unquestionable and conclusive; but
+what answer to give, or what excuse to make, was far from being decided
+upon with the same degree of certainty.
+
+"We shall be hanged without mercy," was the dread sum of these
+uncomfortable reflections.
+
+"I know not what you may be," said Will; "but I intend to run for it.
+I've an old dame would make a sore disturbance at my death, more
+especially if dangling from the gallows-tree, which of all the trees in
+the wood hath been my aversion ever since I saw Long Tom of the Nab make
+so uncomfortable a shriving from thence."
+
+"Run, then," said Nicholas, rather stoutly, and in a tone of more
+confidence than heretofore. "I'll stay my ground this bout; and,
+further, I do propose to commit yon knaves into the holy keeping of our
+four-cornered crib, where they may be indulged in recreations of another
+sort than setting the whole country by the ears. 'Twill save our necks
+to slip theirs into the noose."
+
+This happy suggestion, the whole of these honest and conscientious
+servants of the church were prepared to obey. They might with safety
+accuse the strangers; indeed, it was more than probable they had hit out
+the right source of the mischief; so, marching up boldly to the
+execution of this Christian purpose, they were proceeding to lay hands
+on the foremost of the culprits. At this critical moment he turned
+suddenly round. Perhaps from a prior suspicion of their intentions, or
+from the knavish cast of their countenances, he saw that hostilities
+were in contemplation: at any rate, he seemed to be prepared for the
+event. Will, being the mouthpiece of the party, and accustomed,
+moreover, at times to a precise and methodical manner of delivery, was
+the chief speaker.
+
+"Sir, we arrest you for high treason. You are charged with firing off
+beacons without our privity or consent, thereby endangering the safety
+of the lord abbot, and the peaceable governing of this realm." He
+paused, quaking even at his own eloquence; but the stranger made no
+reply, till, throwing aside his cloak, he drew out a hagbut or
+demi-hague as it was sometimes called, being a sort of small harquebuss,
+with its match ready kindled.
+
+"Tell the Abbot of Whalley that neither ye nor the whole horde of drones
+and drivellers about his hive, shall take me against my own liberty and
+consent. Hold back! Your first step, is your last, save to your grave! I
+will see the abbot shortly, but not by your grace or assistance." Saying
+this, he bounded down the steep like the roused deer, in its first pride
+of flight, scorning the chase. The light flashing from his weapons
+marked his form rapidly receding from their grasp.
+
+But Ralph, who, as we may suppose, was minded to imitate the evolutions
+of his master, being it seemed of a more heavy and considerate
+demeanour, paused for a space ere he leapt.
+
+This deliberation was fatal to his enterprise. The enemy, recovering
+from their confusion, seized him in default of his master, and without
+further ado bore him away as a visible acquittance of themselves to the
+abbot. There could be no great harm in throwing the blame of this
+unlucky affair on the companion of the escaped incendiary: besides, it
+would be an effective lesson to him on the danger of keeping bad
+company.
+
+Through bog and brake, over moor and mountain, they hurried on with
+their prisoner, who, dooming them all to "clootie" and his imps, and
+commending himself to Michael, Mary, and a number of his especial
+patrons in the Romish calendar, was urged forward with more than their
+usual speed.
+
+The blaze had ceased to be visible when they came to the last descent
+towards the village. Far and wide the alarm had spread; consternation
+and inquiry were on every countenance. The guards were besieged with
+anxious faces, supplicating intelligence, and much impeded thereby in
+their progress to the abbey.
+
+Outside the gates they found a dense crowd waiting for the news. The
+abbot and his brethren were in close council, expecting every moment the
+arrival of warders from the beacon.
+
+They were hurried into the chapter-house, together with their prisoner,
+who had now taken to the sulks, refusing any reply to the numerous
+inquiries made by the servants who followed, eager for the final
+disclosure.
+
+The room was lighted by a single lamp. Little of the interior was
+visible, save the grim and ascetic faces of the monks who sat nearest to
+the centre of illumination. Their features, in deep masses of alternate
+light and shadow, looked as if carved out, hard and immovable, from the
+oak wainscot. Occasionally, a dull roll of the eye relieved the
+oppressive stillness, and the gazer would look out from the mystic world
+he inhabited, through these loop-holes of sense, into the world of
+sympathies and affections, with which he had long ceased to hold
+communion.
+
+Paslew was standing when they entered. His bushy grey eyebrows threw a
+strange and almost unnatural shade over the deep recesses beneath,
+across which, at times, like the foam swept over the dark billows of the
+spirit, a light and glowing track was visible, marking the powerful
+conflict within.
+
+"Nicholas Dewhurst and Daniel Haydock."
+
+He shaded his eyes from the light, as he thus addressed the foremost of
+the party who had just entered.
+
+"From what quarter was the signal first visible?"
+
+"My lord," said Dan, "we are but unworthy of your highness' grace, did
+we not answer truly."
+
+"Quick!--Thou art slower to thine answers than thy words. Why tarriest
+thou?"
+
+"If your highness will pardon"--
+
+"What?" said Paslew, in a voice that made the culprits quake. "I pardon
+nothing. What means this silence?"
+
+"Please your reverence," said Will, now advancing from the rear, his
+rhetorical flourishes somewhat curtailed, and his confidence thereby
+wonderfully abated, "the first signal was our own, lighted by an
+incendiary, to wit, and here we bring him to your highness' reverence
+for judgment. We ordered the rope and the broad beam to be ready by
+daybreak."
+
+It were idle to paint the astonishment and dismay which this short
+narrative produced. Paslew immediately saw the dangers by which he was
+involved. He was, by this desperate and unfortunate act, at once
+committed to the measures from which he had hitherto kept aloof, and he
+must now stand foremost in the cause, or tamely submit to the infuriate
+vengeance which this overt act of rebellion would inevitably hasten. He
+had hoped that, sheltered in this quiet nook, he should escape without
+being made a party in the contest, and rest secure until hotter heads
+and lighter brains had fought the battles that would leave him in
+possession of the spoil. If the king's party were triumphant, he fancied
+that, by seeming to take little or no part in the hostilities then
+abroad, his house might be spared in the general wreck that would ensue;
+but all these schemes of deep-laid policy and ambition were in a moment
+dissipated. No time was to be lost. The whole country would instantly be
+in array, and the beacon-light of Pendle proclaim Paslew as the source
+and instigator of this second rebellion. It would be in vain to stay the
+rising. Some enemy of his house, or some desperate adventurer, wishful
+to further his own schemes at another's expense, was doubtless the
+author of this mischief. The whole was but the discovery of a moment.
+Almost before the dark thought was visible on the brow he cried out--
+
+"Bring forward the traitor!"
+
+But Ralph, on the first hearing of this accusation, strode forward, even
+to the table, where sat the awful conclave astonished at his temerity.
+He stood calmly erect, surveying his judges with a countenance scarcely
+moved from its usually hard and stolid expression.
+
+"If it be true," cried he, "as these idlers do aver, I am here to
+answer. If it be false, they must look to it."
+
+The abbot frowned at this presumptuous speech.
+
+"Who art thou?"
+
+"Marry, an ass ridden by fools."
+
+"Knave, see thou be discreet and respectful in thine answers. There be
+whipping-posts for knaves, and stocks for the correction of fools."
+
+"Why, if it be for the matter of my name, I trow, 'tis of an honest
+Christian-like and well-conditioned flavour; comes out of the mouth
+sharp as a beer-spigot. Men call me Ralph."
+
+"And from whence?" said the abbot, impatiently.
+
+"These knaves of thy breeding can tell best. 'Tis a road I never before
+travelled; and, by your grace's favour, I do not mean to jog on it
+again."
+
+"He is servant to the stranger yeoman whom your worship entertained a
+few hours back, on some private errand," said one of the auditors.
+
+A sharp guess at the truth raised a slight quiver on the abbot's lip.
+The conversation of the stranger, the anxiety he displayed, with that of
+his brother of Kirkstall, seemed to point out the source and cause of
+his disaster.
+
+"Now, varlet, answer truly, or thou diest," said Paslew, with a
+significant shake of the finger. "At whose instigation hast thou
+committed this foul treason against our house, and the good prospering
+of this realm?"
+
+"The deed was not mine."
+
+"Believe him not, my lord,--we are upon our testimony," said the
+accusers.
+
+Ralph, turning aside, met them face to face. He commenced a short but
+shrewd examination, as follows:--
+
+"You were a-watching, I suppose?" said he, carelessly.
+
+"Ay, were we," sharply replied three or four ready tongues.
+
+"Then, how could I fire the beacon without your leave?" A short pause
+evinced their dislike to this question; but Will, more ready than
+discreet, soon summoned assurance to meet the inquiry, thus--
+
+"My lord, we had just taken them into the hut, thinking to show them a
+courtesy; but that knave's throat holds more liquor than his mother's
+kneading-trough, or"--
+
+"If in the hut, how could I set the beacon in a low?"
+
+"But thou hadst a companion," hastily shouted Nicholas, finding their
+first position untenable.
+
+"And how comes it to pass that ye be taking or guiding thither any
+person, and more particularly wayfarers, whom we know not? How comes it,
+I say, that ye suffer this without my permission?" said the abbot,
+sternly.
+
+"Will was their guide; and we cared not to refuse your reverence's
+messenger."
+
+"My messenger!" returned Paslew, with a glance that almost bent them to
+the ground.
+
+"Please your highness," said Will, falling on his knees, "the stranger
+was a-visiting of the beacons, so said he, to know if they were
+carefully watched. He came to me, as with an authority from your
+reverence, and I mounted them up to the guard-house, unwillingly enough.
+'Tis a sore pull for a pair of shanks like mine."
+
+The abbot now saw plainly into the machinations by which he had been
+betrayed, and reprimanding his men for their negligence, and so careless
+an observance of his commands, ordered them off severally to the stocks.
+Their lamentations were loud but unavailing, especially when they found
+that Ralph was simply dismissed, for a space, to solitary confinement.
+
+Yet was Paslew still at a loss to determine whence this subtle device
+originated, unless from his brother of Kirkstall, and he resolved to
+question Ralph secretly. It was owing to this purpose probably that the
+usual summary process of executive justice was not more speedily
+administered.
+
+A great marvel and gossip, as may readily be supposed, now arose
+throughout the whole country. Rumour, with her hundred tongues, flew
+fast, and her wide wings overspread the land. From all quarters,
+conformably to the signal, the levies marched with great rapidity to
+Doncaster, where they found Lord D'Arcy, who seemed to feel, or to
+feign, astonishment at this sudden rising without his orders. One and
+all proclaimed that the appointed signal was from the Abbot of Whalley,
+at whose war-inciting torch the whole line of beacons had been kindled.
+A messenger, however, was soon forwarded to the camp, from Paslew, with
+an explanation of the affair, while at the same time he demanded their
+aid for the discovery and punishment of the offenders. But D'Arcy and
+Aske were too well pleased to see Paslew's crafty and selfish plans
+frustrated, whilst he was irretrievably committed to their cause. Tired
+of waiting the tardy result of negotiations with their sovereign, these
+ambitious spirits were glad to behold their army once more menacing the
+royalist position, hoping it would either quicken or terminate these
+dilatory proceedings. But the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of
+Shrewsbury, at the news of this unexpected rising, were mightily amazed.
+Their plans were at once terminated. Their emissaries had failed to
+bring intelligence previously of the intended gathering. In the midst of
+their dilemma word was brought that the Abbot of Whalley had first
+lighted up the blaze of insurrection. Secretly resolving that this
+meddling priest should sorely rue his mischievous exploit, they again
+found themselves unwillingly obliged to enter into fresh stipulations
+with their adversaries, though determining on delay, if possible, in the
+hope of dividing their leaders, and of extinguishing the rebellion in
+detail.
+
+But we would crave the reader's return to the abbey, where Ralph was
+left in strict durance, and possibly in some danger from the vindictive
+purposes of the abbot.
+
+Early on the following morning he was aroused from a deeptoned and
+laborious stertoration, by a figure that shook him as he lay, in a
+somewhat unceremonious fashion. The intruder was wrapped in a thick
+cloak or tunic, and he stood gruffly erect by the straw couch, whereon
+the prisoner's night-dreams had nestled in their first existence.
+
+"I marvel thou sleepest so soundly! Thou art the first knave, I trow,
+that hast welcomed these walls with so loud a clarion."
+
+"And what should ail the well-earned slumbers of Ralph Newcome? His
+sleep may be as sound as some of those, mayhap, that have softer beds
+and gayer clothing."
+
+"But the gallows, man!--Hast had no glimpse of the noose in thy night
+visions?"
+
+"Peradventure the hemp is not sown that shall make my collar. When the
+hangsman comes, 'tis time enough to wake; so, I pray thee, bereave not a
+poor man of the only solace the rich cannot purchase from him."
+
+"Thou art a plain-spoken varlet, and I would but ask thy master's name
+and condition. Answer me straight--no equivocation, no shuffling or
+evasion shall serve thee; 'tis a stale device now, and will not avail."
+
+"And who art thou, friend, that hast such a greedy appetite for men's
+names, thou canst not rest a-bed for the craving of thy stomach?"
+
+"I am the abbot, and thou a prisoner in this good house. Fearful odds,
+methinks, for the strife."
+
+"Now hark thee, most reverend abbot, my name thou knowest at a
+peradventure: but for the name of my master, as thou callest him, seeing
+it be a notable secret, thou mightest as well go ask his goshawk yonder,
+who, I guess, continues an unworthy prisoner as well as myself."
+
+"I'll have the truth wrung from thy tongue. Thumbscrews and iron mittens
+will not be denied so easily."
+
+"Humph!" said Ralph; "these be rare things for cracking the shell; but,
+for all that, I wot they'll not get at the kernel."
+
+"What! defiest thou my power?--in my own custody too?" Paslew grew pale
+with anger; but the impolicy of this proceeding soon suggested itself to
+his wary, though at times impetuous, temper. Yet the stubborn
+disposition of his prisoner resisted alike his cajolements and his
+threats.
+
+In vain were offers of reward multiplied; nor bribe nor entreaty could
+avail. Paslew then left him, threatening to extract by force what milder
+measures had failed to elicit. He had that morning despatched a
+messenger to the rebel chiefs at Doncaster with an explanation of the
+accident, likewise with an assurance of his good wishes to the cause;
+but still he delayed to go in person, or to send his quota of levies.
+
+True, however, to his threats, if not to his promises, towards the close
+of the day he again visited the dungeon. He was accompanied by two grim
+attendants, whom he ordered to wait outside until their services should
+be required.
+
+Ralph was striding lustily, and with evident impatience, over the damp
+floor; yet he scarcely seemed to notice the entrance of the abbot.
+
+"How now!--Hast had aught, by way of special discovery, touching the
+name thou hadst forgotten this morning?"
+
+"Yes, I have had a notable discovery therein," said Ralph, still holding
+on his pace diagonally, as heretofore.
+
+"And may we graciously participate in the result? Doubtless 'tis a
+comfortable and happy revelation," said the abbot.
+
+"'Tis to beware of three most unlucky things, persons, or properties, I
+trow,--to wit, a parson's maid, a prior's sow, and an abbot's dinner."
+
+"And what lack they in thy honest esteem?"
+
+"A parson's maid lacks honesty,--a prior's sow a litter,--and an abbot's
+dinner lacks me!"
+
+"Or, rather, thou lackest it."
+
+"Why, troth, I am not over-nice in the disposition of vain words; nor
+should I be over-nice in the disposal of some light scraps from your
+reverence's buttery."
+
+"Thou hast not dined?"
+
+"Peradventure not at thy cost."
+
+"Perchance an empty stomach may be the more apt to yield. A full belly
+makes a stout heart."
+
+"I know not. But hasten, I beseech thee. Thy questions over, we may make
+merry together. Nothing less than a full flagon and a prime haunch will
+suffice."
+
+Ralph rubbed his hands at the bare idea of these prospective dainties.
+
+"Wilt thou now disclose the name of thy master?"
+
+"No," said Ralph; "and now for dinner."
+
+"Prythee, in what haste?" returned Paslew, with a grin of cruel and
+malicious irony. "There be some slight preliminaries to
+adjust,--something to season thy haunch and whet thine appetite." He
+stamped with his foot, and the two attendants entered, bearing
+instruments of uncouth and horrid appearance.
+
+"Thou mayest spare my bones and thy gimcracks. With all thy screwing,
+thou canst not yet squeeze raindrops from the rock."
+
+"I cry thee favour. Thou hast dared the stroke,--thou hast courted the
+vengeance thou wouldest withstand, but thou shalt yield or break. Seize
+him."
+
+"Stand back, caitiffs!" said Ralph, with a look of deep and unutterable
+scorn. "But to thee!--words would fail to express my contempt, my
+derision, my defiance of thy puny power! Read, and skulk back to thy
+cell!"
+
+He drew from his doublet a small roll of parchment, which Paslew, with
+unfeigned astonishment and vexation, recognised as a safe warranty from
+the Archbishop of York, wherein the bearer, under whatever manner or
+distinction he might choose to adopt, was charged with a secret mission
+from the leaders of the "_Pilgrimage_" touching the success and
+wellbeing of the Catholic faith, and the prosperity of the Holy Church.
+All abbots, priests, and others, being true sons of the Church, were
+called on to aid and comfort him in the due exercise of his mission, to
+furnish him with a safe passage, and to obey his bidding without let or
+question.
+
+"Herein fail not at your peril!" said Ralph, eyeing the abbot with a
+glance of cool and deliberate scorn.
+
+"Why was not this protection from his grace given to me before?"
+inquired Paslew, beseechingly.
+
+"That thy deceit and double-dealing-might be the more manifest.
+Yesternight thou didst refuse thine aid until the beacon of insurrection
+should be kindled. When kindled, and upon thine own ground, too, still
+thou holdest back! But think not to escape!--Think not to watch in
+safety whilst others work. Whoever wins in this perilous game, thou wilt
+lose. Marked out for destruction, thine own policy will betray thee.
+Choose thee one party, and thou hast yet one chance of safety. But
+double-dealers, such as thou, do ever tumble into the trap baited by
+their own cunning."
+
+"Will his Grace of York expect my presence at the camp?"
+
+"It is needful thou make thy peace either with him or with the king,"
+said Ralph: "yet am I bold to tell thee, that with Harry thine hope of
+reconciliation is past. The news, ere this, hath reached Norfolk's ear,
+and the beacon-light of Pendle, the first blaze and signal of the
+insurrection, denounces the Abbot of Whalley as a ringleader, and as
+having first kindled the torch of rebellion."
+
+With a malicious smile, cruel as the triumph of the fiend at the
+torments of his victim, did this mysterious foe exhibit to him the toils
+that had been, during his unsuspecting security, wound about him.
+
+"Thine only hope is from his grace; go with me, and thou mayest yet
+dwell in safety, and thine house be established."
+
+Paslew saw with dismay the dark gulf which yawned on either hand, and
+the net so craftily prepared to entangle him. His only hope of security,
+however, was a prompt acquiescence in the plan pointed out by the
+stranger, who accordingly engaged to conduct him without delay to the
+appointed rendezvous.
+
+Passing over the difficulties of the journey, the accidents by the way,
+the slips and damages of sumpter-horses, and their often trackless march
+over the hills, let us behold Paslew, after some narrow escapes from the
+royalist forces, taking up his quarters at an obscure lodging hard by
+the town of Doncaster, and nigh to the cantonments of the rebel chiefs,
+whose forces were once more in formidable array, occupying a conspicuous
+position on the left bank of the river Don.
+
+The left wing of the royalist troops was flanked by a deep morass,
+called Potterie Car; and their right protected by the walls of the town.
+
+The morning that followed Paslew's arrival was the time appointed for a
+general attack by the rebels, who considerably outnumbered the more
+disciplined but less zealous army of their sovereign, D'Arcy and his
+associates intending to cross the river by daybreak, with the utmost
+secrecy, hoping to take the royalist forces by surprise.
+
+Paslew arrived alone, just as the consultation of the chiefs was
+breaking up. His companion, Ralph, had left him some hours before, and
+galloped on at full speed, first giving directions as to the course he
+should take, and the measures he was to adopt on his arrival. Conducted
+in due form to the archbishop's presence, Paslew found his grace at
+supper. The repast was sumptuous, and served up in great state. This
+high dignitary seldom stirred but with his kitchen-furniture and service
+for the table, which last was of massy silver, beautifully wrought and
+embellished. His servants were apparelled in all the pomp and insignia
+of office; but he affected great plainness and simplicity, both of
+dress and demeanour. At his right hand sat a stout, muscular figure,
+whom Paslew immediately recognised, with unequivocal demonstrations of
+surprise, to be his umquhile prisoner Ralph Newcome, now habited in a
+plain suit of velvet, and looking like a country gentleman of some rank
+and importance. His manner was, however, coarse and abrupt; and he still
+seemed nothing loth to sustain his full complement of liquor. On the
+left of the archbishop sat his nameless visitor at the abbey, whose
+personal accomplishments he had good cause to remember. Below them sat
+several chiefs of the confederacy, apparently of an inferior rank.
+
+"Abbot Paslew," said his grace, "thou art a tardy, and it may be
+undutiful son. Thine homage to the Church has not been either freely or
+faithfully rendered; yet does she now welcome thee to her embrace, with
+the promise of a free and unconditional forgiveness."
+
+"Ay," said he of his grace's right hand, "Abbot Paslew was of too great
+weight in the scale of events to be left to choose his own side of the
+balance. I am right fain of his company, and in troth he can use the
+persuasions well,--the thumbscrews and tight boots upon occasion."
+
+"Master Aske," replied the archbishop, "if the sons that our mother hath
+suckled and nourished from her own grace and bounty were every of them
+as true as thou art, who yet receivest not of her temporal favours, then
+would her kingdom be enlarged, and her arms should outstretch to the
+utmost verge and compass of all visible things. But there be evil men
+and seducers abroad, traitors to their altar and their faith." Here he
+paused, but presently continued, "My friends, though our religion be
+meek and lowly, yet does it not deny to us the comforts but sparingly
+scattered through this vain and perishing world."
+
+His grace here filled a cup of spiced sack, inviting Paslew to partake
+of their humble entertainment. Bewildered and intimidated, he yet obeyed
+with all due reverence and courtesy.
+
+"Confusion to the heretic king!" cried he on the left of the archbishop,
+filling his glass, and at the same time taking especial note that the
+guests should repeat this bold and startling treason.
+
+"Lord D'Arcy," said one of the guests, "thou hast imbibed that wish so
+oft in thy drink, that should the king catch thee he may find it
+branded in thy four quarters, when they are cut up to ornament his
+majesty's posterns."
+
+"And what might he find on thine, Norton?" said the fiery leader.
+
+"A cook's rolling-pin and a mutton pasty." A loud laugh here announced
+the hit, of which this sally was the bearer, it being levelled directly
+at the well-known propensities of the personage to whom it was
+addressed.
+
+"Come, friends all," said the archbishop; "let not the gibe and jest go
+round; there be matters of graver import that should occupy us this
+night. To-morrow, let the elements be propitious, and the day is won."
+
+"Od's life," said Aske; "surely the rain will not again prevent us from
+passing the river, as it did in our last campaign."
+
+"If it do," cried a deep and melancholy voice from the lower end of the
+table, "then will I say this Pilgrimage of Grace is the device of man,
+and not of God, and the work will not prosper."
+
+This ominous anticipation seemed to strike terror into the most
+stout-hearted. "Foul fa' the croaking raven!" said Aske. "No good comes
+on't, when the Lord of Ravenswood breaks from his usual silence.
+Mischief follows, safe as the bolt after the flash."
+
+"Hush! my son," said the archbishop to this bird of ill-omen; "thou
+speakest unwisely. 'Tis not for us to adjudge the displeasure of Heaven
+upon slight testimonies. He trieth our faith, when the dark cloud
+overshadoweth His mercy. But let us not dishonour this good cause, and
+weaken our hands by indulging in such gloomy anticipations. The night
+showeth little token of a change, and when I was last abroad, the river
+passed on, shallow and murmuring, over the ford."
+
+The guests were fully occupied to a late hour in discussing the plan of
+attack, the occupation of the town, together with subsequent
+arrangements; after which, with mutual anticipations of success, the
+company departed.
+
+Paslew, on retiring to his chamber, though much fatigued, found himself
+unable to sleep. The dark chaos of events brooded heavily upon his
+brain. Feverish and excited, the dread to-morrow seemed already pressing
+on the past, mingling its deep and unseen flood with the full tide of
+existence. The whirl and eddy, created by the conflict, lashed his
+thoughts almost to madness. He grew appalled. The billows blackened as
+they rose. He seemed sinking, overwhelmed in the struggle, and the
+spirit quivered as they passed. He arose, darting an anxious glance
+through the low casement. The moon was riding on the top of a huge
+mountain of clouds towards the north-west. As he gazed they came rapidly
+athwart the heavens, like the wings of some terrible demon visibly
+unfolding. On a sudden the door of his chamber flew open. He started
+forward to meet the intruder, but there was no footstep--no sound save
+the hurrying gusts that foreran the approaching tempest. Soon like a
+mighty deluge it burst on at once in its full vigour, as though it would
+overwhelm creation once more in immediate ruin. The roll of the river
+answered swiftly to the tempest's voice, now swollen to a huge and
+foaming torrent, rising rapidly over its level banks, and threatening
+devastation on every side. Paslew quaked. Gloomy forebodings crept upon
+him. He beheld in this strange visitation another and a manifest
+interposition of Heaven, fighting against the cause he had unhappily
+espoused. Rest was out of the question, his whole thoughts being
+occupied in the contrivance of measures for his own immediate safety.
+
+In the morning consternation had seized the whole camp. They beheld the
+muddy and turbulent waters before them, again frustrating their hopes,
+levelling their proud schemes, and fighting visibly and irresistibly
+against them, in front of their adversaries. So intimidated were the
+troops, and so convinced that their cause was now hopeless, that not all
+the persuasions and threatenings of their leaders, nor the archbishop's
+promises of an eternal reward, could prevent the breaking up of this
+vast multitude, and the hasty dispersion of the rebel host.
+
+Ere morning Paslew was gone. He liked not the dust from a falling house.
+Weary and alone he came back to his dwelling on the tenth day after his
+departure.
+
+From this time danger and misfortune crowded fast upon that devoted
+house. The dark course of events unfolded with frightful rapidity, and
+Paslew, by many a vain contrivance, sought to avert the king's
+displeasure and his own doom. A relaxation of some measures more than
+ordinarily severe was attempted; and we find, from existing records,
+that a pension of ten marks per annum was granted to Thomas Cromwell,
+the king's secretary and principal visitor,--whether in the way of bribe
+or fee is not certain.
+
+It shows, however, the humiliating and submissive circumstances to which
+the monks were now reduced. They were indeed fallen from that high
+estate, when kings were their tributaries, and empires too narrow for
+the wide grasp of their ambition. The following is a copy of Thomas
+Cromwell's indulgence, taken from the Townley MSS.:--
+
+"To all estates due honour and reverence, and to all other commendacioun
+in our Lord everlastyng. Know ye that we John, abbot of ye monasterie of
+our blessed Ladie of Whalley, in Com. Lanc., by ye assente and consente
+of ye convente, have freely granted untoe ye right honourable Mr Tho.
+Cromwell, secretarie, general visitor, and principal official to our
+most sovereign Lord Kyng Hen. VIII., an annual rent or fee of vi: xiii:
+iv: yerele, to be paide at ye nativitie of St John Baptist unto ye saide
+Maister Thomas Cromwell. Wee, ye saide abbot and convent have put to ye
+same our handes and common seale. Yeven at Whalley 1st Jan. 28 Hen.
+VIII."
+
+But every act of submission, every stratagem and advice, had failed to
+ward off the blow. Within ten weeks from the date of this document there
+was neither abbot nor abbey of Whalley.
+
+After the dispersion, imprisonment, and execution of the principal
+leaders of the rebellion, the day of reckoning and retribution was at
+hand. Shrewsbury, by the king's orders, sent a herald with a troop of
+horse, who, taking Paslew, Eastgate, Haydock, and some others of the
+monks prisoners, they were arraigned at Lancaster, and convicted of high
+treason. On the 12th March 1537, Paslew was conveyed back to Whalley for
+execution, where, in a field called the Holehouses, immediately facing
+the house of his birth, a gallows was erected, on which Paslew and
+Eastgate suffered punishment or martyrdom, for the story varies
+according to the bias of the party by whom it is told. Haydock was
+carried to Padiham, and died there the same ignominious death on the day
+following. The monks, driven from their asylum, escaped into France,
+with the exception of a few, who lingered near the scenes of their
+former enjoyments, hovering like departed hopes round the ruin to which
+they clung.
+
+[Illustration: HORNBY CASTLE.
+
+_Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden._]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[14] Whitaker's Hist. Whalley.
+
+
+
+
+SIR EDWARD STANLEY.
+
+
+    "Why, then, the world's mine oyster,
+    Which I with sword will open!"
+
+     "God never wrought _miracles_ to convince atheism, because His
+     ordinary works convince it."--_Bacon_.
+
+     "No man doubts of a Supreme Being, until, from the consciousness of
+     his provocations, it becomes his interest there should be
+     none."--_Government of the Tongue._
+
+     "Men are atheistical because they are first vicious, and question
+     the _truth_ of Christianity because they hate
+     the _practice_."--_South._
+
+The following will, perhaps, be thought misplaced as a polemical
+subject. But in relating what may be conceived as the true motive that
+incited Sir Edward Stanley to the founding of that beautiful structure
+Hornby Chapel, we may be allowed to show the operation as well as the
+effect--to trace the steps by which his conversion from an awful and
+demoralising infidelity was accomplished.
+
+We have borrowed some of the arguments from "Leslie's Short Method with
+the Deists," condensing and illustrating them as the subject seemed to
+require. We hope to be pardoned this freedom; the nature of the question
+would necessarily refer to a range of argument and reply in frequent
+use; and all that we could expect to accomplish was to place the main
+arguments in such a position as to receive the light of some well-known
+and self-evident truth.
+
+The dark transactions to which the "Parson of Slaidburn" obscurely
+refers may be found in Whitaker's "Whalley," pp. 475, 476.
+
+The same historian remarks in another work,--"From several hints
+obliquely thrown out by friends as well as enemies, this man appears to
+have been a very wicked person, of a cast and character very uncommon in
+those unreflecting times." "There certainly was something very
+extraordinary about the man, which, amidst the feodal and knightly
+habits in which young persons of his high rank were then bred, prompted
+him to speculate, however unhappily, on any metaphysical subject. Now,
+whether this abominable persuasion were the cause or the effect of his
+actual guilt,--whether he had reasoned himself into materialism in order
+to drown the voice of conscience, or fell into the sin of murder because
+he had previously reasoned himself out of all ideas of responsibility,
+does not appear; but his practice, as might have been expected, was
+suited to his principles, and Hornby was too rich a bait to a man who
+hoped for no enjoyment but in the present life, and feared no
+retribution in another. Accordingly, we find him loudly accused of
+having poisoned his brother-in-law, John Harrington, by the agency of a
+servant; and he is suspected also of having, through subornation of
+perjury, proved, or attempted to prove, himself tenant of the honour of
+Hornby."
+
+Sir Edward Stanley, the fifth son of Thomas, first Earl of Derby, early
+received the notice and favour of his sovereign King Henry the Eighth.
+It is said of him, "The camp was his school, and his learning the pike
+and sword." The king's greeting, when they met, was "_Ho! my soldier_."
+Honour floated in his veins, and valour danced in his spirits. At the
+battle of Flodden he commanded the rear of the English army, and was
+attacked by the Earls of Lennox and Argyle, both of whom were slain,
+together with the King of Scots, on that memorable day. Through his
+great bravery and skill he mainly contributed to its success. A sudden
+feint inducing the Scots to descend a hill, their stronghold, an opening
+was caused in their ranks, which Sir Edward Stanley espying, he attacked
+them on the sudden with his Lancashire bowmen. So unexpected an assault
+put them into great disorder, which gave the first hopes of success, and
+kindled fresh courage through the English ranks, ending in the complete
+overthrow and discomfiture of their enemies.
+
+Upon this signal achievement, Sir Edward Stanley, being much advanced
+thereby in the king's favour, received from the hand of his royal master
+a letter of thanks, together with an assurance of some future reward.
+Accordingly, we are told, the year ensuing, the king keeping Whitsuntide
+at Eltham in Kent, Sir Edward being in his train, he commanded that, for
+his valiant acts against the Scots, when he won the hill, and relieved
+the English from their distress, an achievement worthy of his ancestors,
+who bore an eagle on their crest, he should be created Lord Monteagle;
+whereupon he had a special summons to parliament in the same year by the
+title of Baron Stanley, Lord Monteagle.
+
+"Twice did he and Sir John Wallop penetrate, with only eight hundred
+men, into the very heart of France, and four times did he and Sir Thomas
+Lovell save Calais,--the first time by intelligence, the second by
+stratagem, the third by their valour and undaunted courage, and the
+fourth by their unwearied patience and assiduity." "In the dangerous
+insurrection by Aske and Captain Cobler, his zeal for the prince's
+service and the welfare of his country caused him to outstrip his
+sovereign's commands by putting himself at the head of his troops
+without the king's commission, for which dangerous piece of loyalty he
+asked pardon, and received thanks." By stirring up jealousy and
+sedition, too, amongst the rebels, he gave his majesty time, by
+pretended treaties, to draw off the most eminent of the faction, and to
+overcome and dissipate the rest. Yet, with all this outward show of
+prosperity, and the bruit of noble deeds so various and multiplied, that
+Fame herself seemed weary of rehearsing them, there were not wanting
+evil reports and dark insinuations against his honour. Foul surmises
+prevailed, especially in the latter part of his life, as to the means by
+which he possessed himself of the estates he then held in right of his
+lady, and those too that he enjoyed through the attainder of her uncle,
+Sir James Harrington. He acknowledged himself a freethinker and a
+materialist, a character of rare occurrence in those ages, showing him
+to be as daring in his opinions as in his pursuits. That the soul of man
+was like the winding up of a watch, and that when the spring was run
+down the man died, and the soul was extinct, are still recorded as his
+expressions. In those days of demoralising ignorance, this open and
+unhesitating opinion might be the means of creating him many dangerous
+and deadly enemies, especially amongst the priesthood, whose office,
+though tending to higher and nobler ends than the mere thralling of
+man's spirit to creeds and systems of secular ambition, was yet but too
+often devoted to this purpose. Every power that human cruelty and
+ingenuity could compass was tried, but happily in vain, to confine the
+free and unfettered spirit for ever in the dark cells of ignorance and
+superstition.
+
+From a number of unconnected accounts respecting this great, if not good
+man, whose virtues even would have been the vices of our own age, we
+find as the most prominent parts of his disposition a thorough contempt
+for the maxims and opinions of the world, and an utter recklessness of
+its censure or esteem. Marrying into the family of the Harringtons, he
+resided the latter part of his life at the Castle of Hornby, where we
+find him engaged in schemes for the most part tending to his own wealth
+and aggrandisement.
+
+The chapel which he built is said to have been vowed at Flodden, but
+this statement is evidently untrue, having no foundation but the
+averments of those who content not themselves with a plain narrative of
+facts, but assume a licence to invent motives agreeable to their own
+folly or caprice. That Sir Edward Stanley made any such vow we cannot
+imagine, much less would he put it into execution. "Let us eat and
+drink, for to-morrow we die," was the governing principle of his life,
+and the mainspring of his actions. It would be a strange anomaly in the
+records of human opinions to find an edifice reared to perpetuate a
+belief which the founder thought a delusion, a mere system of
+priestcraft and superstition. To this prominent feature in his history
+our attention has been directed, and we think the following tradition
+assigns a better and more plausible motive for the founding of that
+beautiful structure, the chapel at Hornby.
+
+It was by the still light of a cloudless harvest-moon that two men
+appeared to be sauntering up the stream that winds through the vale near
+Hornby. One of them wore a clerical habit, and the other, from his
+dress, seemed to attend in the capacity of a menial. They rested at the
+foot of a steep cliff overhung with firs and copse-wood. The castle,
+upon the summit, with its tall and narrow tower, like a feather stuck in
+its crown, was not visible from where they sat. The moon threw an
+unclouded lustre from her broad full face far away over the wide and
+heavy woods by which they were surrounded. A shallow bend of the stream
+towards the left glittered over its bed like molten silver, issuing from
+a dark and deep pool shaded by the jutting boughs and grim-visaged rocks
+from whence they hung.
+
+The travellers now ascended by a narrow and precipitous path. Their task
+was continued with no little difficulty, by reason of the looseness of
+the soil, and the huge rocks that obstructed their progress. By dint of
+scrambling, rather than walking, they, however, approached to the
+summit, when a light became visible over the hill, growing brighter as
+they ascended. It was the castle turret, where Lord Monteagle generally
+spent the greater part of the night in study. Whatever might be the
+precise nature of his pursuits, they were not supposed to be of the most
+reputable sort.
+
+"Wizard spells and rites unholy"
+
+were said to occupy these midnight vigils. Often, as that lonely
+watch-tower caught the eye of the benighted peasant, did he cross
+himself, and fancy that shadows were flitting to and fro on the
+trembling and distant beam.
+
+"There it is," said the hindmost person, who was none other than the
+parson of Slaidburn. "That lantern, I think, is unquenchable. Does thy
+master never quit yon burning pinnacle?"
+
+"May be," replied the servant, "he careth not to be oft abroad; and who
+dare thwart his will? 'Troth he had need be of a tough temper that
+should give him speech unquestioned."
+
+"They who hold a higher communion reck but little of this frail and
+pitiful dust," returned the clergyman, after a solemn pause. "It is
+enough that he hath sent for me. I would fain warn him ere he depart,
+else yon walls had not again echoed my footstep."
+
+This confidential domestic spoke not; he was either too much attached to
+his master, or implicated with him, to hazard a remark.
+
+The path was now wider and less difficult of access, leading over a
+pretty knoll, glittering like lode-stars in the dew, beyond which arose
+the huge and cumbrous pile then distinguished as the castle of Hornby.
+
+The barking of some half-dozen hoarse-mouthed dogs announced their
+approach. Passing over the drawbridge, they entered the court-yard, from
+whence a side postern at that time opened a communication to the
+turret-chamber without passing through the main building. A winding
+staircase led them directly to the summit. Soft gleams of moonlight came
+at intervals through the narrow loopholes, being the only help or
+direction whereby to accomplish their ascent. After a tedious gyration,
+which more than once made the hindmost party pause to obtain a respite,
+the guide opened a low door. It swung heavily aside, disclosing a small
+ante-room, destitute of all furniture save a large oaken chest, that
+seemed to be the depository, or "ark," as it was usually called, for the
+safe keeping of the family archives.
+
+The conductor approaching an opposite door gave a private signal. It
+flew open as if by its own impulse, displaying a chamber of no mean
+dimensions, in which, by the light from a gigantic lamp, was seen a
+figure seated before a table absolutely groaning with piles of books,
+and various apparatus of unknown and wondrous import. Instruments of
+unimaginable shape lay in heaps round the apartment; their use it were
+impossible to conjecture. Furnaces, alembics, jars, glass urinals, and
+bottles of all sizes, rendered the chamber perilous of access, save to
+those who were acquainted with the intricacies of this labyrinth. "Sir
+Edward," as he was yet generally styled, looked full at his visitors as
+they entered. His eye was large and dark, the expression fierce and
+commanding. He was clad in a gown of black silk, covering an inner vest
+of sables. From a broad belt, glittering with costly stones, hung a
+short sword and a pair of pistols richly embossed.
+
+The upper portion of his head was bald; the hair on its sides short and
+frizzly. His beard was of a reddish tinge, trimmed square and bushy,
+beneath which his white ruff seemed to glisten from the sudden contrast.
+His forehead was high and retreating; his face pale, and-his cheek
+hollow and slightly wrinkled. His nose was small, looking ill suited to
+the other features, which were large and strongly-marked. His mouth was
+full, but compressed; and his teeth beautifully white and well shaped.
+When he spoke, they were much exposed, projecting slightly, and tending
+to give an air of ferocity to his countenance.
+
+In stature he was tall and well formed. Proudly upright in his gait and
+attitude, he appeared like one born to be obeyed,--to rule in whatsoever
+station he occupied.
+
+"Sir Hugh Parker. The parson of Slaidburn is welcome to Hornby," said
+Lord Monteagle, rising. "It is long since we have met. I claim the
+privilege of old fellowship: give me thy hand."
+
+"My lord, I am here at your request. Your wishes are commands with my
+poor endeavours."
+
+"Thou mayest retire, Maudsley," said the baron to his servant, motioning
+him to depart. The minister was accommodated with a low stool, made
+vacant for the occasion. Lord Monteagle, closing the book, abruptly
+addressed his visitor.
+
+"I knew thou wast in the neighbourhood, and I would unravel a few
+arguments with thee; a few quiddities about thy profession. I know thou
+art skilful at thy trade, which, though a vocation having its basis in
+fraud, finding countenance through the weakness and credulity of
+mankind, doth yet hold the commonalty in thrall and terror--a restraint
+which none other scheme might peradventure impose."
+
+"You are too harsh, my lord. I minister not to aught that, my
+conscience disapproves. Being of the Reformed Church, I do not mightily
+affect creeds and opinions. The Bible is the fountain, pure and
+undefiled; its waters fertilise and invigorate the seed of the faith,
+but choke and rot the rampant weeds of error and superstition."
+
+"The Bible! A forgery: the invention of a cunning priesthood to mask and
+perpetuate their delusions. Prove its falsehoods to be the truth.
+Distinguish me thy revelation from the impostures of Mahomet, the dreams
+of the Sibyls, and the lying oracles of Heathenrie. Oblige me either to
+renounce my reason and the common principles which distinguish truth
+from error, or to admit the proof thou shalt allege, which proof, look
+thee, must be such as no imposture can lay claim to, otherwise it proves
+thy doctrine to be an imposture. If thy religion be true, there _must_
+be such a proof. For if the Being who gave this revelation which He
+requires all men to receive, have left His own truth destitute of the
+only proof which can distinguish it from an imposture, this will be an
+impeaching of His wisdom, an error in the very outset of the case,
+proving Him not the Allwise, but liable to infirmity and error. This,
+thou seest, will bring our debate within a narrow compass."
+
+"Nevertheless, I must own the task is hard," replied the clergyman,
+"because of the blindness and impotency of that same reason of which
+thou vauntest, and the feebleness of our mental sight; for we cannot
+come at any abstract truth whatsoever but by many inferences hanging
+together as by a chain, one link of which, not fully apprehended or made
+fast, loosens the whole, and the argument falls to the ground."
+
+"Does the reformed doctrine, too, require a belief in what the hearer
+may not comprehend?" said the baron, scornfully.
+
+"Nay, there is a sufficiency in the evidence, and a fulness in this
+testimony, of which none other history can boast. What book is that, my
+lord?"
+
+"The Anabasis."
+
+"By whom?"
+
+"Surely thou art in j'est. 'Tis Xenophon's."
+
+"How? Xenophon!" said the divine; "methinks thou speakest unadvisedly.
+My reason or apprehension knoweth not of such a man, or that he writ
+this book, and yet thou boldly affirmest the history to be true!"
+
+"I know not that it was ever doubted," replied the other. "The common
+consent and belief of mankind, the transmission of the record from
+remote ages, are of themselves no mean evidence of its truth. But there
+must have been a time when it was first written, and as he appeals in it
+to facts, to matters which were then of recent occurrence, and to the
+public knowledge and belief of those facts, surely every of these
+statements would have insured detection, especially if put forth at or
+about the time when the events took place. Would it not have been
+madness to appeal to eye-witnesses of transactions which never happened,
+which witnesses were then alive, and could easily have belied such an
+impudent and furtive attempt at imposture? The idea seems almost too
+absurd to refute."
+
+"Thou judgest well. It would be madness and absurdity in the extreme to
+deny the existence of thy historian, or the events to which he refers;
+and yet a record which to thee is of the greatest moment, wherein thine
+own interests are for ever involved, and to the truth of which there is
+much more clear and irrefragable testimony, thou rejectest as a fraud
+and an imposture."
+
+"What proof can its promulgers give me of the infallibility of their
+doctrines, even supposing these events to be true?"
+
+"Miracles, acknowledged to be such, contravening and transcending the
+common course of nature,--these, I reckon, will be a sufficient warranty
+that the message is from the great Author of all things Himself."
+
+"I own these are the strongest evidences that I could require, and I
+would admit them if I had witnessed their performance."
+
+"Good. Now to the proof. It is impossible that any simple fact could be
+imposed, or that a number of persons could be made to believe they had
+witnessed such fact, unless it had actually taken place. For instance,
+if I were to assert that I had divided the waters of this river here, in
+the presence of the inhabitants, and that I had once led the whole of
+them over dryshod, the waters standing like a wall on each side, to
+guard their path, appealing to them at the same time in proof of my
+testimony; it would be impossible, I say, to convince those people it
+were true, provided the event had not happened. Every person would be at
+hand to contradict me, and consequently it would be impossible that such
+an imposition could be put upon them against the direct evidence of
+their senses."
+
+"Granted," replied the baron. "But this tale I am not too bold to infer
+might be invented when that generation had passed, when the credulity of
+coming ages might lead men to believe in such foolish and monstrous
+imaginings, like the labours of Hercules, the amours of Jove, and the
+cannibal exploits of Saturn."
+
+"Nay, but hear me. Whenever such a story was first promulged, were it
+then stated that not only public monuments remained to attest the event,
+but that public rites and ceremonies were kept up for its express
+commemoration, which rites were to that day continual, and to which
+those writings appealed as evidence attesting the performance of such
+miracles, then must the deceit have been rendered but the more glaring
+and easy of detection, as no such monuments could exist, no rites, no
+ceremonies demonstrating the truth of this appeal could be in
+observance. Thus, if I should now invent the tale about something done
+two thousand odd years ago, a few might, peradventure, be credulous
+enough to believe me; but if I were to say that ever after, even to this
+day, every male had his nose slit and his ears bored in memory of this
+event, it would be absolutely impossible that I should gain credit for
+my story, because the universality of the falsehood being manifest, and
+the attestation thereof visibly untrue, would prove the whole history to
+be false. Such were the rites and customs of the Jews."
+
+"But still, rites and observances were practised by the heathen, which
+ceremonies ye acknowledge to have been false and impious, yet their
+followers worshipped and slid their neck into the yoke as readily as thy
+favourite Hebrews, who are proverbially rogues and cheats in the
+estimation even of infidels themselves."
+
+"Ay, but impostors appeal not to facts, to eye-witnesses of some event,
+confirming and attesting the authority of their mission. Moses could not
+have persuaded half-a-million of persons that he had brought them
+through the Red Sea, fed them forty years with manna in the wilderness,
+and performed many other miracles during their journey, had not the
+facts been well known; and down to this day the rites and ceremonies of
+the Jews are, in consequence, linked to these main facts as securely as
+though we ourselves had formed the first series of the chain,
+eye-witnesses to the miracles they attest. Again, the books of Moses
+expressly represent that they are the great history and transcript of
+the Jewish law, and speak of their being delivered by him and kept in
+the ark from his time; likewise they are commanded to be read at stated
+periods, and to be taught from father to son throughout all generations,
+to the end that no imposition might be practised. In whatever age,
+therefore, after Moses, these forgeries were committed, it were
+impossible they should have been believed--every one must have known
+they had not even heard of them aforetime, much less been taught all
+these burdensome precepts by their forefathers."
+
+"Still the cunning and wily priests might have prepared men's minds for
+the discovery, having themselves deposited these writings in the ark."
+
+"A manifest impossibility, my lord, and for this plain reason: those
+writings profess to be a book of statutes, the standing law of the land,
+a code of ordinances by which the people had all along been governed.
+Could any person invent a body of statutes for this good realm of
+England, and make it pass upon the nation as the only book of laws which
+they had ever known or observed? Could any man, could any priest, or
+conspiracy of priests, have persuaded the Jews they had owned and obeyed
+these ordinances from the time of Moses, when they had not even so much
+as heard of them in times past?"
+
+"These rites, it is most likely, having their origin in the simplest
+occurrences, might still have been practised prior to the forgeries; and
+these books, by allusions to them, deceived the nation, causing it to
+believe they were performed in memory of some miraculous events which
+never happened."
+
+"What! Is it possible to persuade men they have kept laws which they
+have not even heard of? If I were to frame some idle story of things
+done a long while ago, and say that our Sabbath was kept holy in
+commemoration of these events--this I think, my lord, will answer to the
+terms of your assertion. Suppose I made an attempt to persuade the
+people this day was kept holy in memory of Julius Cĉsar or Mahomet, and
+that everybody had been circumcised or baptized in their names; that in
+the courts of judicature oaths had been taken on these very writings I
+had fabricated, and which, of necessity, they could not have seen prior
+to my attempt; and that these books likewise contained their laws and
+religion--ordinances which they had always acknowledged--is it possible,
+I ask, that such a cheat could for one moment have existed? An impostor
+would not have dared to make any such references, knowing they must
+inevitably have led to the rejection of his testimony."
+
+"But surely if this great transaction, the passage of the Red Sea, had
+really happened, and in the way thou hast pointed out, the evidence
+would not have been suffered to rest solely on the frail and uncertain
+records to which thou hast referred. Books of laws, for instance, the
+writings of Mahomet, we know have been forged, as even thou wilt
+acknowledge."
+
+"True, but those books refer not to miracles and the testimony of
+eye-witnesses, nor to laws and ordinances handed down from generation to
+generation, even to that time. That Mahomet pretended not to the working
+of miracles, he tells us in the Koran. The ridiculous legends related by
+his followers are rejected as spurious by the scholars and expounders of
+the prophet; and even his converse with the moon, his night journey from
+Mecca to Jerusalem, and from thence to heaven, were not performed before
+witnesses. The same may be said of the absurd exploits related of the
+heathen deities."
+
+"But had not the heathen their priests, their public rites and
+sacrifices, equally with the Jews?"
+
+"They had. But it was not even pretended that these rites commenced at
+the time when the things which they commemorate were said to have
+happened. The Bacchanalia, for example, and other festivals, were
+established long after the fabulous events to which they refer. The
+priests of Juno and Venus were not appointed by those imaginary deities,
+but arose in some after-age, and are therefore no evidence whatever to
+the truth of their worship."
+
+"But where is thy proof in the unwritten evidence--monuments which
+cannot lie, bearing silent but convincing testimony to the truth of
+these miracles?"
+
+"Twelve stones" it is said, were set up at Gilgal to commemorate the
+passage over Jordan."
+
+"Ay, in thy book we read it."
+
+"But mark the intention, to which no lying imposture durst have
+referred,--to the end, it is written, that when the children of those
+who had witnessed this miracle, and their children's children, should
+ask their meaning, it should be told them. Now the miracle for which
+these stones were set up as a memorial by the eye-witnesses themselves,
+could not, as before proved, have been imposed upon the people at the
+time it happened, had it not really occurred."
+
+"All this I can safely grant. Yet thou lackest wherewith to conclude
+thine argument."
+
+"Bear with me, my lord, until I have made an end. Let us suppose, for
+one moment, there was no such miracle wrought as this same passage over
+Jordan."
+
+"Which supposition of thine I do hold to be the truth as firmly as I
+believe your revelation is an imposture."
+
+"And yet if it _should_ be true, my lord?" The minister said this in a
+tone that made the listener start. He bit his lips. But the feeling had
+subsided, as, with a sharp and hurried accent, he exclaimed--
+
+"Why this pause? I am prepared to listen."
+
+"These stones," continued the divine, "were, of necessity, well known as
+public monuments existing at the time when these writings were first
+rehearsed in the ears of all the people, because they are here referred
+to as testimonials of the event. But supposing them to have been set up
+on some unknown occasion, as you say, and that designing men in
+after-ages invented the book of Joshua, affirming it was written at the
+time of that imaginary event by Joshua himself, adducing this pile of
+stones in evidence of its truth, what is the answer which every one who
+heard it must have made to this witless falsehood? 'We know this pile of
+stones,' they would say; 'but of such an origin as thou hast related we
+have, not heard, nor even of this book of Joshua. Where has it been
+concealed, and from whence was it brought forth? Besides, it solemnly
+inculcates that this miraculous event, our fathers' passage over Jordan,
+should be taught their children and children's children from that day
+forward, who were to be shown and carefully instructed as to the meaning
+and design of this very monument; but of this we have not so much as
+heard, nor has thy history been handed down to us from our forefathers.
+It is a lying testimony, therefore, and we cannot receive it.' Yet do we
+find the children of Israel commemorating, handing down, and instructing
+their children from age to age into the meaning and design of these
+memorials, which instruction must at some time or another have had a
+beginning, having its commencement with the very events to which they
+refer, which events it would then have been impossible to make the
+people believe against the plain evidence of their senses. Is the chain
+complete, my lord?"
+
+"But what has all this to do with thy religion?--a system far different,
+methinks, from the primitive institutions of these remote ages."
+
+"The self-same reasoning will apply, and in precisely the same mode, to
+the miracles of our Lord and His apostles, together with their
+transmission by records from their times. The histories of the Old and
+New Testaments could not have been received at the time they were
+written, if they had not been true, because the priesthoods of Levi and
+of Christ,--the observance of the Sabbath, the passover, and
+circumcision,--the ordinances of baptism and the eucharist, are there
+represented as descending by uninterrupted succession from the time of
+their respective institution. It would have been as impossible to
+persuade men in after-ages that they had been circumcised or baptized,
+had celebrated passovers and Sabbaths under the ministration of a
+certain order of priests, if it were not so, as to make them believe
+they had gone through the seas dryshod, seen the dead raised, and so
+forth. But without such a persuasion neither the law nor gospel could
+have been received."
+
+"Yet, methinks, if I were the founder of a new religion, and had all the
+stores of Nature and Omnipotence at my command--those boasted attributes
+of thy Law-giver--I would not have left it liable to doubt, to the
+sneers and cavils of any one who might question my pretensions, or my
+right to control their belief. The truths of Omnipotence should be clear
+as the sun's beam, and unquestioned as his existence."
+
+"'If they believe not Moses and the prophets, neither would they believe
+though one should rise from the dead.' 'Tis not for lack of proof; 'tis
+for lack of will. 'Tis not for lack of testimony, one tithe of which
+would have gained a ready assent to any of the drivelling absurdities of
+heathen mythology,--'tis for lack of inclination; 'tis a wish that these
+revelations may not be true; and where the heart inclines, the judgment
+is easily biassed."
+
+"True, 'as the fool thinks.' The proverb is somewhat stale. I marvel
+thou findest not its application to thine own bias, perdie!"
+
+"At any rate, if I am fooled, I am none the worse for my belief, if my
+creed be not true; but if man, as thou wouldest fain hope, is like the
+beasts that perish, I am still at quits with thee. And if this dream of
+thine should prove but a dream, and thou shouldest awake--to the horrors
+of the pit, and the torments of the worm that dieth not!"
+
+"Peace, thou croaker! I did not send for thee to prophesy, but to prove;
+I would break a lance and hold a tilt at thine argument. Now, I have a
+weapon in reserve which shall break down thy defences--the web of thy
+reasoning shall vanish. The fear of punishment, and the hope of future
+reward, held out as a bait to the cowardly and the selfish, shall be of
+no avail when the object of my research is accomplished. Hast thou not
+heard of the supreme elixir--the pabulum of life, which, if a man find,
+he may renew his years, and bid defiance alike to time and the
+destroyer? Then what will become of thy boasted system of opinions,
+begotten by priesthood and nurtured by folly?"
+
+"And this phantasma, which man has never seen; which exists not upon the
+least shadow of evidence--which has not even the lowest dictates of
+sense and plausibility in its favour--on this _Ignis fatuus_, eluding
+the grasp, and for ever mocking the folly of its pursuers, thou canst
+build thine hopes, because it flatters thy wishes and thy fears?"
+
+"My fears!" said the Baron, rising: "and who speaks of my _fears_? I
+would chastise thee, thou insolent priest, wert thou not protected by
+the laws of courtesy."
+
+"Yes, _thy_ fears, Baron Monteagle," said this undaunted minister of the
+truth. "Thou wouldest not care to face thy lady's cousin! His blood yet
+crieth from the ground!"
+
+"And who dares whisper, even to the walls, that I murdered John
+Harrington?" cried the astonished adept, trembling with ill-suppressed
+rage. "Methinks he holdeth his life too cheap who doth let this foul
+suspicion even rest upon his thoughts." He drew his sword as he spoke;
+but the minister stood undaunted, surveying his adversary with a look of
+pity and commiseration.
+
+"Put up thy sword. Thou hast enow of sins to repent thee of without an
+old man's blood added to the number."
+
+"How hast thou dared this insult? By my "----
+
+"Nay, spare your oaths, my lord; they are better unspoken than unkept."
+
+"Have I sent for thee to make sport? To gibe and taunt me even to my
+face?"
+
+"I'll tell thee for what cause thou didst crave my presence," replied
+the other, firmly. "Thou hast misgivings lest thine own hopes should not
+be true; lest thou shouldest perchance depart with a lie in thy right
+hand. Thou didst send for me, an unworthy minister to the faith which I
+profess, that by thy subtlety thou mightest deceive thyself; that by
+overthrowing my arguments thine own might be strengthened, for truly
+'tis a comfortable thing to have our opinions confirmed through the
+weakness of an opponent."
+
+"And daredst thou, with such apprehensions upon thy stomach, to commit
+thyself alone to my mercy and my keeping? Suppose I should reward thee
+according to thine own base suspicions. Understandest thou me?"
+
+"Yes, proud and guilty man, too well! But I fear thee not!"
+
+"What! holdest thou a charmed life? Thou mayest fall into a broil as
+well as other men. And who shall require thy blood at my hands?"
+
+"Ere I left," said the divine, warily, "I whispered a word in your
+cousin Beaumont's ear. Should I not return, he will be here anon.
+Peradventure I am not misunderstood. Thou hadst need be careful of my
+life, otherwise thine own may be in jeopardy!"
+
+A fierce and terrible brightness, like the lurid flashes from his own
+torment, burst from his eye. The very anger and malice he strove to
+quell made it burn still hotter. His visage gathered blackness, cloud
+hurrying on cloud, like the grim billows of the storm across a glowing
+atmosphere. Rapid was the transition. Rage, apprehension,
+abhorrence,--all that hate and malignity could express, threw their
+appalling shadows over his features. Still the dark hints uttered by his
+visitor seemed to hold him in check. Chafed, maddened, yet not daring to
+execute the vengeance he desired, he strode through the apartment with
+an uneasy and perturbed gait. He paused at times, darting a look at the
+minister as if about to address him. Suddenly he stood still, nerving
+his spirit to some awful question.
+
+"My cousin John Harrington died in his own chamber. In this house, God
+wot. Thou didst shrive him at his last shift, and how sayest thou he was
+poisoned?"
+
+"I said not aught so plainly; but thou hast spoken out. Behold
+him!--There!"--The divine pointed his finger slowly round the apartment.
+"Within a short space he cites thee to that bar where his presence will
+be a swift witness to thy doom!"
+
+Had the spirit of the unfortunate heir of Hornby suddenly appeared, the
+Baron could not have followed the movement of the minister's hand with
+greater dismay and astonishment. The strong barrier of guilt seemed
+breaking down. Conscience aroused, as if at once the veil that concealed
+his iniquities had been withdrawn, they rose in all their unmitigated
+horror and enormity. An arrow, drawn at a venture, had pierced the
+joints of the harness. He stood powerless and without defence--motionless
+as the image of despair. By a strange coincidence a thick white cloud
+seemed to coil itself heavily round the room. Whether to the heated
+imaginations of the disputants this appearance might not present an
+image of the form then visible to their minds, it would be impossible to
+determine. Suffice it to say, the effect was memorable, from whatever
+cause it was produced.
+
+An altered man was the Baron Monteagle. The arguments of this champion
+of the truth had in some measure prepared his mind for its reception.
+Under his ministrations he felt gradually more enlightened. His terrors
+were calmed. Soon afterwards rose that noble structure, the chapel of
+Hornby, bearing on its front the following legend:--
+
+EDWARDUS STANLEY MILES, DNS. MONTEAGLE, ME FIERI FECIT.
+
+It is recorded that Sir Edward Stanley, Baron Monteagle, died in the
+faith he had once despised; and we trust he has found a place at the
+footstool of that Mercy whose interposition was not solicited in vain.
+
+[Illustration: GEORGE MARSH, THE MARTYR.]
+
+
+
+
+GEORGE MARSH, THE MARTYR.
+
+
+    "Heavy persecution shall arise
+    Of all who in the worship persevere
+    Of spirit and truth."
+
+--_Milton_.
+
+Smithills or Smethells Hall is situated in a wood, above a small glen,
+two miles and a half from Bolton. The court-gate exhibits nothing
+remarkable in its construction. On the left hand was the principal
+entrance, and a flight of stairs leading from the court. The glass
+casements, and greater part of the ancient front, have been removed,
+giving place to a more comfortable, if not a more pleasing style of
+architecture. The wainscot once displayed a profuse assemblage of
+ornaments, some of which now remain. Amongst them was formerly shown a
+likeness, said to be of King Egbert, though from what cause it should be
+assigned more particularly to that illustrious monarch, it would be
+difficult to conjecture.
+
+In a room called the Green Chamber, it is said that George Marsh, the
+subject of the following history, was examined before Sir Roger Barton.
+In a passage near the door of the dining-room is a cavity, in a flag,
+bearing some resemblance to the print of a man's foot, which is supposed
+to be the place where the holy martyr stamped, to confirm his testimony,
+and which is shown to this day as a memorial of his good confession.
+
+The stone was once removed for a frolic by two or three young men who
+lived in the house. Taking advantage of their parents' absence, they
+cast it into the glen behind the hall. That same night, on retiring to
+rest, the inhabitants were disturbed by many strange and hideous noises.
+Much alarm and inquiry being excited, the offenders confessed, and the
+stone was restored to its place with great reverence and solemnity.
+Some fragments that were broken off upon its removal were carefully
+replaced; after which, according to common report, the noises ceased.
+
+Another story current in _the_ neighbourhood is as follows:--
+
+About the latter end of the year 1732, one Saturday night, a stranger
+sleeping alone in the Green Chamber was much terrified by an apparition.
+He stated that about ten o'clock, as he was preparing for bed, there
+appeared a person before him dressed like a minister, in a white robe
+and bands, with a book in his hand. The stranger getting into bed, saw
+it stand by his bedside for a short time. It then slowly retired out of
+the door, as if going down-stairs, and he saw it no more. This person
+invariably persisted in the same story; and the owner of the estate
+immediately ordered divine service at the chapel on a Sunday, which had
+long been discontinued.
+
+The vaults seem to have been strongly walled and fortified, and were
+most probably used as burying places, many bones having been found when
+digging. There is a tradition that King Egbert founded this place, and
+kept his court here; but no corresponding trace of it occurs in history:
+and we may suppose, from the order of his conquests, that his residence
+would be in the more southern parts of the kingdom.
+
+The situation is secluded, and well calculated for concealment,
+favouring the general opinion that it was the retreat of the famous
+pirate, Sir Andrew Barton, whose exploits and defeat are so beautifully
+told in the old ballad of that name in Percy's Reliques. It is
+surprising that so little should be known of this great and bold man,
+whose conduct had nearly occasioned a war between England and Scotland,
+and whose death, it is supposed, was one of the grievances which led to
+the battle of Flodden.
+
+"Up to the time of Henry the Seventh, it appears, the Radcliffes were
+lords of Smethells; but Joan, daughter and sole heir of Sir Ralph
+Radcliffe, having married Robert Barton of Holme, he became in that
+reign seised of the manor and lordship, where his posterity continued,
+until Grace, sole daughter and heir of Thomas Barton, the last male
+heir, was married to Henry, eldest son of the first Lord Fauconberg,
+whose descendant Thomas, in the year 1721, sold the manor, which
+afterwards passed into the hands of the Byrons of Manchester, by whom it
+was sold to Mr Peter Ainsworth of Halliwell, a descendant of the
+Ainsworths of Pleasington, in this county[15], the present owner.
+
+"Smethells is dependent upon the superior manor of Sharpies, the lord of
+which claims from the owner of this place a pair of gilt spurs annually;
+and, by a very singular and inconvenient custom, the unlimited use of
+the cellars at Smethells for a week in every year."[16]
+
+At the close of a cold, keen day, about the early part of spring, in
+the year 1554, there came two men across a bleak and barren tract of
+land called Dean Moor, near to Bolton-in-the-Moors. When at some
+distance from the main path, and far from the many by-roads intersecting
+this dreary common, they--first looking cautiously around, as though
+fearing intruders--fell on each other's neck and wept. The sun's light
+beamed suddenly through a cleft in the heavy clouds near the horizon,
+along the stunted grass and rushes, stretching far away to many a green
+knoll in the distance, behind which the dark hills and lowering sky
+looked in wild and terrific blackness over the scene. The sun,
+descending fast below the hills towards Blackrode, beamed forth as if to
+cast one short ray of gladness on the world of sorrow he was just
+quitting. Rivington Pike, and the dark chill moors stretching from it
+eastward, were bathed in a wide and stormy burst, of light, like the
+wild and unnatural brightness that sometimes irradiates even the dim
+shadows of despair. A heavy mist lay at their feet, hiding most of the
+intermediate space from the eye of the observer, so that the long line
+of barren hills seemed to start out at once from a sea of vapour, like
+the grim barriers of some gigantic lake. The clouds were following hard
+upon the sun's flight, so that by the time he had disappeared the sky
+was covered with a dense and impervious curtain, rendered darker by the
+rapidity of the change. Chill and eddying gusts rustled over the dreary
+heath; the voice of nature only responding to the chords of sadness and
+of sorrow. The hollow roar of the wind was like the moaning of a
+troubled ocean; a few big drops from the hurrying scud seeming to
+presage an approaching tempest.
+
+The two friends had crept behind a stone wall, built up in a hollow, by
+a stagnant pool, taking but little heed of the darkness and the storm,
+so intent were they upon the subject which engrossed their thoughts.
+
+"I might flee, Ralph, but it would straightway be said, not that I had
+left my country and my kin alone, but rather that I had deserted the
+faith and doctrine I profess, after having unworthily ministered
+hereabout for a season, which might be an occasion of much scandal, a
+weakening of the faith of my poor flock, and a grievous discouragement
+to those that remain."
+
+"'A living dog is better than a dead lion,' says the wise man. Besides,
+it is apresumingon His providence, when He opens away for our escape,
+and we, of our own wilfulness and folly, neglect the blessing. 'Do
+thyself no harm.' Provide for thine own life, and run not as the horse
+and mule, that have no understanding, into the very throat of thine
+enemies, and them that seek thine hurt."
+
+The first speaker was a man of plain but comely appearance, habited in a
+coarse doublet buckled about the waist with a leathern girdle. A round
+woollen cap, from beneath which a few straight-combed locks hung about
+his face, gave a quaint and precise aspect to his figure. His features,
+though slightly wrinkled, did not betoken either age or infirmity: but
+his whole appearance indicated a robust and vigorous frame, capable both
+of exertion and endurance. The other individual exhibited a more
+ungainly form and deportment. He had not the same look of benevolence
+and good-will to man which irradiated the features of the first, of whom
+it might be truly said, that his inward affections did mould and
+constrain his outward image into their resemblance, so that meekness and
+benignity shone through his countenance from the ever-glowing spirit of
+love and Christian charity within. There was a sharp and shrewd
+intelligence in the eye of the latter speaker which showed that some
+considerations of selfish and worldly wisdom might, by possibility,
+mingle with his unerring notions of duty. Yet was he a man of great
+piety and worth, and well fitted as a counsellor in times of peril and
+distress.
+
+"Ralph Bradshaw," replied the other, "thou hast been my tried friend and
+my stay in this waste and howling wilderness, and I have found thy
+counsel hitherto wholesome and pleasant; but," continued Marsh, with a
+heavy sigh, "I have not told thee how Sir Roger Barton's servants have
+made diligent search for me in Bolton, and have given strict charge to
+my brother Robert that he should, by to-morrow at the latest, appear
+with me at Smethells, else shall he and my poor mother answer before him
+at their peril. By God's grace, I would not leave these weaklings of the
+flock to suffer for my sake."
+
+"Leave this matter until thou depart; I will devise some means for their
+relief. I would not have thy life needlessly put in hazard, seeing how
+few men have been raised up like unto thyself, privileged as thou art to
+minister the bread of life to the hungry and famishing poor in this
+barren corner of God's spiritual vineyard."
+
+"And yet," replied Marsh, "I ought with all boldness to confess the
+truth, fearing not to answer for the hope that is in me; and why should
+I refuse to obey the commands of those who are in authority? for the
+magistrate beareth not the sword in vain."
+
+"Truly, obedience were his right, if so be this were some righteous
+judge raised up of God for the punishment of evil-doers. But, as thou
+well knowest, the justice thou shalt demand will not be rendered: the
+summons thou hast received to answer on doctrinal and disputed points,
+and to argue them before these wicked and crafty men, as touching thy
+belief, are but manifest excuses to get thee into their power, from
+which they mean not to liberate thee but by the fire that shall consume
+thy body, and free it for ever from their murderous gripe. Thou knowest,
+too, that Sir Roger beareth thee a malice, and hath used all subtlety
+that he might have wherewith to seek occasion against thee. Didst thou
+not rebuke him openly for his irreverence, when that he must needs play
+with his puppy, that had its collar full of bells, during God's holy
+service--that comfortable form of worship established and publicly
+taught in the lifetime of our last good King Edward, and not this
+papistical, idolatrous mass which they now use, to the eternal ruin of
+both soul and body? No mercy shalt thou have at their hands. And doth
+our blessed Master require of us that we give our bodies up to these
+wicked and malignant deceivers, that their devilish pleasure may be
+glutted in torturing and spitefully using us, while they go about
+putting innocent men to cruel and shameful deaths? As soon would He
+require that we should yield our bodies up to Satan and his angels."
+
+"I know not how to answer thee, Bradshaw, in this matter; but my mind
+misgives me in taking so hasty a departure from our suffering and
+afflicted realm. Yet will we ask counsel of Him who guideth the weak,
+and will not suffer us to be tempted beyond measure."
+
+Whereat these persecuted disciples did unite in prayer to that throne
+before which, having finished their earthly warfare, they now stand with
+crowns of victory on their foreheads, purified from this gross
+mortality. Marsh, much comforted by the exercise, doubted not that,
+according to his faith, wisdom and direction would be granted in the way
+he should take.
+
+Hereupon they separated, wishing each other "God speed."
+
+Through the darkness and tempest of that fearful night George Marsh
+approached the town, where, in a narrow lane leading from the brow of
+the hill by the church, abode his mother and her youngest son. Raising
+the latch, he saw the old woman alone, seated by the fire, weeping.
+
+"Praised be His mercy, thou art yet safe!" said she, clasping her
+withered hands together. "They have again been here to seek for thee,
+and I was fearful thou hadst not escaped their power."
+
+"Who has been here, and from whence?"
+
+"Divers of Justice Barton's servants were here again, not an hour ago,
+who have charged thy brother Robert and thy cousin William Marsh to seek
+for thee, and by to-morrow, ere noon, to render thee up at Smethells.
+They are now gone to Atherton, and elsewhere, for aught I know."
+
+"Then may I not tarry here to-night?"
+
+"Nay, I beseech thee, flee for thy life. In tarrying here shall thou not
+escape; for a man's enemies are now truly those of his own household."
+
+Marsh, after a pause, determined to listen to her advice, and departed.
+
+Cold and weary, he retraced his steps, going beyond Dean Church, where,
+at a friend's house, he staid for the night, "taking ill rest," as he
+quaintly expresses it in his journal, "and consulting much with myself
+of my trouble." He expected, or at least hoped, that some intimation
+would be vouchsafed from his Master as touching the way he should
+pursue, but none was granted; and he lay there, full of tossing and
+unquiet, the greater part of the night. On the following morning, at his
+first awaking, which was early, being still in heaviness, and not
+knowing what to do, came another friend to his bedside, who advised him
+that he should in no wise depart, but abide boldly, and confess the
+faith. At these words he felt so convinced, and, as it were, suddenly
+established in his conscience, that he doubted not, as he says, but the
+message was from God. He thenceforth consulted not with flesh and blood,
+but resolved on immediately presenting himself before his persecutors,
+and patiently bearing such cross as it might please Heaven to lay upon
+him.
+
+He arose betimes, and as his custom was, recited the English Litany,
+with other prayers, kneeling by his bedside; after which he prepared to
+go towards Smethells, calling, as he went, at the dwellings of several
+whom he knew, desiring them to pray for him, to commend him to all his
+friends, and to comfort his mother and his little children, for, as he
+then said, he felt assured that they should not see his face any more.
+Taking leave, with many tears and much, sorrow of heart, he came nigh to
+the residence of Sir Roger Barton, a bigoted persecutor, and an avowed
+enemy of the reformed church.
+
+It was about nine o'clock, on a cold and bitter morning, when he came in
+sight of the court-gate. Then surrounded with trees, the mansion itself
+was not visible but within a short distance. This house, now ancient and
+decayed, then existed in all its pomp and magnificence, having only been
+erected, as tradition informs us, some fifty years before, by Sir Andrew
+Barton, a famous pirate or free rover, who was knighted by James III. of
+Scotland for his great bravery. In the third year of Henry the Eighth,
+with two stout vessels called the _Lion_ and The _Jenny Perwin_, he
+considerably interrupted the navigation on the English coasts. His
+pretence was letters of reprisals granted him against the Portuguese by
+James III. Under colour of this grant, he took ships of all nations,
+alleging that they had Portuguese goods on board. Complaint being made
+to the Privy Council of England, the Earl of Surrey said, "The narrow
+seas should not be infested while he had estate enough to furnish a
+ship, or a son capable of commanding it." Upon this, two ships were
+immediately fitted out, and commanded by Sir Thomas and Sir Edward
+Howard, sons to the Earl of Surrey, at their own expense, when, having
+been some days at sea, they were separated by a storm, which gave Sir
+Thomas Howard an opportunity of coming up with Sir Andrew Barton in the
+_Lion_, whom he immediately engaged. The fight was long and doubtful,
+for Barton, being an experienced seaman, and having under him a
+determined crew, made a desperate defence, himself cheering them with a
+boatswain's whistle to his last breath. The loss of their commander,
+however, caused them to submit, on which they received fair quarter and
+good usage. In the meantime, Sir Edward attacked and captured the _Jenny
+Perwin_, after an obstinate resistance. Both these ships, with as many
+of their crew as were left alive, about one hundred and fifty, were
+brought into the river Thames, on the 2nd of August 1511, as trophies of
+the victory. The prisoners were sent to the Archbishop of York's palace,
+now Whitehall, where they remained for some time, but were afterwards
+dismissed and sent into Scotland.
+
+James the Fourth having then ascended the Scottish throne, after the
+murder of his predecessor, exceedingly resented this action, and
+instantly sent ambassadors to Henry demanding satisfaction, on which the
+king gave this memorable answer, "That the punishment of pirates was
+never held a breach of peace among princes." King James, however, was
+still dissatisfied, and from that time was never thoroughly reconciled
+to the English nation.
+
+Sir Andrew was descended from a good family in Scotland, and adopted a
+seafaring life when very young. A motive of concealment might be the
+cause of his erecting a mansion here, the roads being then almost
+impassable; and the extensive woods, which lay in almost every direction
+from this spot, together with its great distance from the sea-side,
+might be additional recommendations in its favour. An opinion exists,
+though now involved in much doubt and obscurity, that his immediate
+descendant was the Sir Roger Barton whom we have already named, and unto
+whom this pious servant of the truth was about to commit himself.
+
+On venturing through the gate, Marsh observed several men standing by a
+door on the left hand, being the principal entrance.
+
+"What, ho!" said one, "art come to morning prayers?"
+
+"Nay," replied another, "his cap cleaves to a heretic's sconce."
+
+"'Tis Marsh," said the foremost of the group, who proved to be Roger
+Wrinstone, the knight's prime minister, constable, and entrapper of
+heretics. "Now, by my faith," he continued, "if this wily fox do not
+think, by his coming, to take Justice by the nose, and outface her
+through his impudence. But he will be sore mistaken if he think to
+outwit our master by his cunning. Good friend, thy business?" said
+Wrinstone, cap in hand, addressing the minister scornfully, and
+thrusting his tongue into his cheek, to the great diversion of his
+companions, who, with shouts of laughter, began to ape the buffoonery of
+their leader.
+
+"I would fain speak with the Justice," said the stranger, meekly.
+
+"And suppose I were he," said Wrinstone, putting himself into an
+attitude of great authority and importance, setting out his paunch, at
+the same time, something like unto the knight himself. Another laugh, or
+rather titter, went through the courtyard at this exploit; a suspicious
+glance, however, was directed towards the casement above, some
+apprehensions evidently existing lest Sir Roger should have been
+eye-witness to the ceremony.
+
+"Roger Wrinstone, thy mocking is ill-timed," said Marsh, with a severe
+and steadfast gaze, which seemed to awe even this unblushing minion of
+intolerance. "If thy master be not arisen, I will tarry awhile his
+worship's leisure."
+
+"Sir Roger is with his priest at confession," said one, with a shout of
+derision. "Art come to confess him too, Father Marsh?" and with that
+they plucked him by the beard, mocking and ill-treating him. But, filled
+with joy that he was accounted worthy to suffer, he passed from them
+into the great hall, at that period a large and lofty room, which, as
+tradition reports, would have "dined all the monarchs of Europe, and all
+their trains." It has since been much curtailed of its proportions,
+modern improvements having appropriated it to more useful purposes. The
+wainscots were enriched with choice and beautiful carvings, representing
+bucks' heads, flowers, and portraits of the most distinguished ancestors
+of the family. So numerous and varied were these ornaments, that, it is
+commonly reported, the artist wrought out his apprenticeship in
+executing this grand work, which for minuteness and the astonishing
+number and ingenuity of the devices, perhaps exceeded most of the like
+nature throughout the realm. Amongst other whimsical fancies was a ton
+crossed with a bar, having the cyphers A and B above and below, which
+worthless and absurd pun, a sort of emblematic wit much cultivated by
+our forefathers, indicated the name of the founder, Sir Andrew Barton.
+
+Marsh, on his first entrance, inquired of a servitor if the Justice
+might be spoken with. The menial was bearing off the remains of a
+substantial breakfast, and having a flagon of beer at hand, invited the
+stranger to a hearty draught, saying that he looked tired and in need of
+refreshment; but he meekly put it aside, with due courtesy, still
+standing as he repeated his question. The man departed to make the
+inquiry, when presently followed the constable and his gang, who, seeing
+that the hall was cleared, strode in, rudely seizing Marsh by the
+shoulder.
+
+"Thou art my prisoner," said Wrinstone; "I arrest thee in the Queen's
+name."
+
+At this moment came running in a little girl, bounding and frolicsome as
+a young fawn from its covert, who, hearing the word prisoner, and seeing
+a man of such a preposessing and benign aspect in custody, immediately
+came up to Wrinstone, and laid hold of the skirts of his doublet,
+saying,--
+
+"You shan't, Wrinstone. If he has done amiss, let him go, and I'll give
+thee some plums out of my midlent pasty."
+
+The meekness and peaceable demeanour of this unoffending servant of the
+Church had in a moment won the heart of the child, and she pulled him by
+the hand, as if to convey him from the grasp of his persecutor.
+
+"May Heaven bless thee, my child, and make thee a blessing!" He lifted
+up his eyes while he thus spake. "Thy nature hath not yet learnt the
+cruel disposition of these tormentors."
+
+It is said that his prayer was heard; and a passage in the subsequent
+history of this little girl may, in all likelihood, find a place in
+another series of our Traditions.
+
+A tear for the first time trembled in the poor man's eye as he looked on
+this tender and compassionate babe. He thought upon his own sufferings,
+and the hard fate of his own little ones. But he soon repressed the
+rising murmur, calmly awaiting the result.
+
+The child still clung to him; nor would she depart, though threatened
+with Sir Roger's displeasure by his deputy. Indeed, she cared little for
+the issue, being fully indulged in all her caprices by the knight, her
+grandfather, who was mightily entertained with her humours. But threats
+and cajolements failing in their effect, they were glad to let this
+wilful creature accompany them to the presence of Sir Roger as the
+dispenser of justice, or rather of his own vindictive will; and to his
+private chamber they were shortly summoned.
+
+Now this distinguished knight was heavy and well-fed, and of a rich and
+rubicund countenance. From over-indulgence he had become unwieldy, being
+propped up in a well-stuffed chair, one leg resting on a low stool, his
+whole frame bloated by indolence and sensuality. He was short-necked and
+full-chested. His eyes, gray and fiery, were almost starting from his
+head, by reason of some obstruction to the free current of the blood in
+that direction. This was accompanied by a wheezing and phlethoric
+cough, which oft troubled him. At his side sat a priest, who had a fair
+smooth face, and a shining head sprinkled over with a few pale-coloured
+locks close cut and combed back with becoming care from his temples. His
+eyes were small and restless, scarcely for an instant keeping to one
+position. He seemed to pay a silent deference to his patron, allowing
+Sir Roger to begin the examination as follows:--
+
+"So thy relatives have ferreted thee forth at last. Nothing like making
+their kindred in some sort answer for the bodies of these heretics."
+
+"I came of my own free consent, and alone, your worship," replied Marsh;
+"and hope to be honestly dealt with. If I have offended the laws, I am
+here to answer; if not, I claim your protection."
+
+"Peace! Will none o' ye stop that fellow's prating? Justice thou shalt
+have, and that speedily, as thou sayest, but not in the way thou couldst
+desire. Look thee!" He fumbled in his pouch as he spake. Drawing out a
+letter, he continued--"My Lord Derby hath commanded that thou be sent to
+Lathom along with some others who do mightily trouble us, and sow evil
+seed and dissension among the people."
+
+"This, please your grace, I deny; and I would know mine accusers, and
+what they allege against me."
+
+"Now this is a brave answer, truly," replied the Justice. "These rogues
+be all of one tale, pretending that they have done nothing amiss, and
+desiring to know, poor innocents! of what they are accused, as though
+they were ignorant of their own lives and conversation hitherto. Tush!
+it were a needless and an unthrifty throwing out of words to argue the
+matter--for they are wiser in their own eyes than seven men who can
+render a reason. Do thou question him, and urge him to the test," said
+Sir Roger, turning to his conscience-keeper.
+
+"What art thou?" said the priest, leaning forward for the purpose of a
+more strict examination.
+
+"I am a minister," said Marsh. "It is but a short time agone since I
+served a cure hereabouts."
+
+"Who gave thee orders? Or hast thou indeed received any?"
+
+"The Bishops of London and Lincoln, after that I had diligently studied
+and kept terms aforetime at Cambridge."
+
+"Humph!" said Sir Roger. "These bishops be of the reformed sect; and, I
+have a notion, will some day or another answer for it before the Queen's
+council."
+
+"What knowledge hast thou of these men?"
+
+"I never saw them but at the time I received ordination."
+
+After a few more questions of little moment, the priest threw out the
+usual net with which his fraternity were wont to entangle those of
+heretical opinions.[17]
+
+"What is thy belief respecting the sacrament?"
+
+"That is a question of too general and multifarious a nature for a plain
+and faithful answer."
+
+"Are the bread and wine, by virtue of the words pronounced by the
+priest, changed into the body and blood of Christ? And is the sacrament,
+whether reserved or received, the very body and blood of Christ?"
+
+"I am not careful to answer such inquiries, seeing that I am but
+unskilled and unlearned in scholastic disputes. Why do ye ask me these
+hard and unprofitable questions, to bring my body in danger of death,
+and to suck my blood?"
+
+"We are not blood-suckers, and intend none other than to make thee a
+better man and a good Christian," said the priest, mightily offended.
+Whereat Roger Wrinstone, in his great zeal and affection for the Holy
+Church, smote Marsh a lusty blow on the mouth, saying--
+
+"Answerest thou the priest so? By your worship's leave I will mend his
+ill manners."
+
+The little girl at this rebuke fell a-crying, and her grief became so
+loud that Sir Roger was fain to pacify her by ordering Wrinstone to
+stand farther apart. With red and glistening eyes she looked up and
+smiled at the suffering martyr, who, remembering his own dear babes,
+could scarce refrain from embracing her as she clung about him, to the
+great displeasure of Sir Roger.
+
+"Answer this reverend and spiritual admonisher, to the true purport and
+bearing of his question," said Sir Roger, with a mighty affectation of
+sagacity.
+
+"I do believe Christ to be present with His sacrament, inasmuch as He is
+alway with His people to the end of time. But as I am not skilful in
+matters of such nicety, I would ask of this reverend casuist, who is
+more able to answer in questions of such weight than I; who am, as I
+said before, unlearned in disputed points; and truly I am in nothing
+more wishful than to come at a right knowledge and understanding of the
+truth."
+
+"Say on," said the priest, something flattered by this modest appeal to
+his opinion.
+
+"Our Lord took the cup and blessed it, of which He then drank, and
+afterwards His disciples?"
+
+"Yes. But this doth not sanction its being sent round to the laity,"
+replied the priest, not aware of the drift and true bearing of the
+inquiry.
+
+"Then He took the bread and brake, and did eat likewise with His
+disciples?"
+
+"Of a truth," replied the unwary disputant. "For these questions need
+but a plain and simple answer."
+
+"Then," said Marsh, "of a surety He must have ate and drank
+Himself!--Nay," continued he, seeing the priest turn pale with rage and
+vexation, "I can find none other alternative. For, unlearned and
+unpractised as I am; the absurdity of your belief is manifest."
+
+"Thou art a child of perdition--an impious and pestilent heretic! Thou
+eatest and drinkest damnation to thyself; and the Holy Church consigns
+all such to the flames, and to the fire of eternal wrath hereafter!"
+roared the infuriate priest, whose choler waxed hotter in proportion as
+he felt unable to withstand the conclusion of his opponent.
+
+"For," as it has been observed, even by some of the most enlightened
+Catholics themselves,[18] "theological animosity, so far from being an
+argument of men's conviction in their opposite sects, is a certain proof
+that they have never reached any serious persuasion with regard to these
+sublime subjects. Even those who are most impatient of contradiction in
+other controversies, are mild and moderate in comparison of polemical
+divines; and whenever a man's knowledge and experience give him a
+perfect assurance in his own opinion, he regards with contempt rather
+than anger the opposition and mistakes of others. But while men
+zealously maintain what they neither clearly comprehend nor entirely
+believe, they are shaken in their imagined faith by the opposite
+persuasion, or even doubts of other men, and vent on their antagonists
+that anger and impatience which is the natural result of this state of
+the understanding."
+
+"Master," cried Wrinstone, "shall I fetch the bridle that we so oft use
+for scolds and ill women?"
+
+"Ay, do, prithee run, Roger," said the child, hastily, and looking
+towards him, "for my grandfather's priest is like to need it soon."
+
+At this the worthy professor of Christian charity and good-will, darting
+a furious look at the girl, exclaimed--
+
+"Sir Roger, beware lest this viper thou art hatching be suffered to
+sting us. Look to it! This minion of thine is not too young either to
+work mischief or to escape its punishment!"
+
+Whereupon Sir Roger, mightily afraid of his spiritual guide and granter
+of indulgences, rebuked the offending little one, and ordered her out of
+the room. With some difficulty this command was executed; but the
+disturbance at the door became so loud, that they were fain again to
+admit her, upon a sullen promise that she would behave in a more
+reverent manner to the priest, and refrain from interruption.
+
+"Answer me no more with thy deep and devilish sublety," continued this
+champion of the Catholic faith; "for of a truth the devil doth
+wonderfully aid and abet ye in all disputes touching this holy
+sacrament; but show me thy belief in regard to so wholesome and
+comfortable a doctrine."
+
+"I have answered before, as far as my weak understanding will permit,
+and by God's grace I will not swerve from my profession. A doctrine
+pushed to an absurdity is its own refutation."
+
+Then spake one that was standing by, but who had hitherto taken no part
+in the debate.
+
+"Truly 'tis a pity that one so proper and well-gifted, and who might
+doubtless gain some profitable appointment, should so foolishly cast
+himself away by holding these dangerous and heretical opinions. Thou
+wilt bring both body and soul into jeopardy thereby. If not for
+thyself, yet for thy children's sake, and for thy kindred, who must
+needs suffer from thy contumacy, return to the communion from which thou
+hast cast thyself out, and to the arms of that compassionate mother who
+is ever ready to receive back her erring but repentant children."
+
+"Verily," replied the martyr, "life, children, brethren, and friends,
+with all the other delights and comforts of this present state, are as
+dear and sweet unto me as unto any other man, and I would be as loath to
+lose them if I might hold them with a good conscience. But seeing I
+cannot do that, I trust God will strengthen me with His Holy Spirit so
+that I may lose all for His sake. For I now hold myself but as a sheep
+appointed to be slain, and patiently to suffer whatsoever cross it may
+please my most merciful Father to lay upon me. But, as God is my
+witness!"--he seemed to speak with a prophetic denunciation, "from these
+vile ashes shall a fire-brand come that shall consume and destroy
+utterly these bloody men and persecutors of God's inheritance!"
+
+So astonished were the bystanders at his audacity, that they did not so
+much as attempt to stay his tongue or to lay hands upon him, whilst he
+continued, raising his arm in a threatening attitude--
+
+"Ye killers of the prophets, and destroyers of them whom God hath sent
+unto you!--Because we reproach you with your evil deeds, and"--
+
+"Blasphemy?" cried out Sir Roger, who was the first to recover his
+speech: "we will have thy tongue bored for its offence."
+
+"Away with him!" cried the priest, who seemed nothing loath to begin his
+torments. "Thou shalt to my Lord Derby, and he will know how to deal
+with such a bitter and foul-mouthed heretic."
+
+All was uproar and confusion. The Justice was even moved from his chair,
+and swore out lustily that by ten o'clock the day following, unless this
+blasphemer were delivered at Lathom, he would imprison the whole family
+of them: such a pestilent fellow being fit, as he said, to infect all
+the parish with the plague of heresy.
+
+Roger Wrinstone and his crew were preparing to drag him down-stairs; but
+the Justice, hobbling on his crutch, preceded them, leaning on the arm
+of his priest. The party, on their entrance into the hall, found
+Marsh's two kinsmen awaiting the event. They soon found that no favour
+was intended.
+
+"See to it, knaves," bellowed the knight, "that this fellow is delivered
+up to my lord at Lathom by to-morrow, or your own carcases shall answer
+for his."
+
+Then did these poor men pray and beseech their kinsman that he would in
+some wise conform to the religion of his superiors, or find some way of
+escape from a cruel and ignominious death.
+
+But Marsh, standing steadfast before them all, cried out with a loud
+voice--
+
+"Between me and them let God witness!" Looking up to heaven, he
+exclaimed, as if with a sudden inspiration--"If my cause be just, let
+this prayer of thine unworthy servant be heard!"
+
+He stamped violently with his foot, and the impression of it, as the
+general notion is, yet remains, to attest the purity of his cause and
+the cruelty and injustice of his persecutors.
+
+To this day may be seen the print of a man's foot in the stone, which by
+many is believed to exist as a memorial of this good confession.
+
+In shape it is much like that of a human foot, except its being rather
+longer than common. In that part where the sole may have rested is a
+small dent, as though a man had stamped vehemently on the soft earth,
+and the weight of his body had borne principally on that place. The
+impression is of a dark-brown or rather reddish hue, and is very
+perceptible when damp or moistened by cleaning.
+
+Marsh's subsequent history is soon told. From Lathom, where he was
+examined before Lord Derby and his council, and found guilty of
+heretical opinions, he was committed to Lancaster, and from thence to
+the ecclesiastical court at Chester, where, after several examinations
+before Dr Cotes, then bishop of this diocese, he was adjudged to the
+stake, and burnt in pursuance of his sentence, at the place of public
+execution near that city, on the 24th April 1555.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[15] Baines' "Lancashire," p. 540.
+
+[16] Whitaker's "Whalley," p. 424.
+
+[17] "The common net at that time," says Sir Richard Baker, "for
+catching of Protestants was the real presence; and this net was used to
+catch the Lady Elizabeth. That princess showed great prudence in
+concealing her sentiments of religion, in complying with the present
+modes of worship, and in eluding all questions with regard to a subject
+so momentous. Being asked at one time, what she thought of the words of
+Christ, '_This is my Body_,'--whether she thought it the true body of
+Christ that was in the sacrament,--it is said that after some pausing
+she thus answered:--
+
+"'Christ was the Word that spake it, He took the bread and brake it; And
+what the Word did make it, _That_ I believe, and take it;'
+
+"which, though it may seem but a slight expression, yet hath in it more
+solidness than at first sight appears; at least, it served her turn at
+that time to escape the net, which by a direct answer she could not have
+done."--Baker's _Chronicle_, p. _320_.
+
+[18] Cardinal Pole and others.
+
+
+
+
+DR DEE, THE ASTROLOGER.
+
+
+    "Dark was the vaulted room of gramarye
+      To which the wizard led the gallant knight,
+    Save that before a mirror huge and high
+      A hallowed taper shed a glimmering light
+    On mystic implements of magic might;
+      On cross, and character, and talisman,
+    And almagest and altar, nothing bright;
+      For fitful was the lustre, pale and wan,
+    As watch-light by the bed of some departing man."
+
+--_Lay of the Last Minstrel_.
+
+The character of Dee, our English "Faust," as he is not inaptly called,
+has both been misrepresented and misunderstood. An enthusiast he
+undoubtedly was, but not the drivelling dotard that some of his
+biographers imagine. A man of profound learning, distinguished for
+attainments far beyond the general range of his contemporaries, he, like
+Faustus, and the wisest of human kind, had found out how little he knew;
+had perceived that the great ocean of truth yet lay unexplored before
+him. Pursuing his inquiries to the bound and limit, as he thought, of
+human knowledge, and finding it altogether "vanity," he had recourse to
+forbidden practices, to experiments through which the occult and hidden
+qualities of nature and spirit should be unveiled and subdued to his own
+will.
+
+Evidently prompted to unhallowed intercourse by pride and ambition, he
+deluded himself with the vain and wicked hope that the God who spurned
+his impious requests would vouchsafe to him a new and peculiar
+revelation. He would not bow to the plain and humbling tenets already
+revealed, but sought another "sign,"--a miraculous testimony to himself
+alone. Fancying that he was entrusted with a divine mission, he was
+given up to strong delusions that he should believe a lie. He aimed at
+universal knowledge and exhaustless riches; but he died imbecile and a
+beggar!
+
+That he was deceived by Kelly, there is no doubt; and that he was
+sincere, at least in seeking his own promotion and aggrandisement, is
+equally certain; but we would rescue his character from the ridicule
+with which it has been invested. His grasp was greater than his power,
+and he fell, like heroes and conquerors in all ages, unable to execute,
+and overwhelmed with the vastness of his own conceptions.
+
+John Dee was born July 13, 1527, in London. His parents were in good
+circumstances. At an early age (fifteen years) he studied at St John's
+College, Cambridge. His application was intense. For three years, by his
+own account, he only slept four hours every night. Two hours were
+allowed for meals and recreation, and the rest was spent in learning and
+devotion. Five years afterwards he went into the Low Countries, for the
+purpose of conversing with Frisius, Mercator, and others. Returning to
+Cambridge, he was chosen a fellow of Trinity College, then founded by
+Henry the Eighth. His reputation stood very high, and his astronomical
+pursuits, in those days generally connected with astrology, drew upon
+him the imputation of being a conjuror, which character clung to him
+through life. This opinion was much strengthened by an accident which,
+he says, happened soon after his removal from St John's College, and his
+being chosen a fellow of Trinity. "Hereupon," he continues, "I did set
+forth a Greek comedy of Aristophanes, named in Greek [Greek: Heirênê]
+with the performance of the Scarabĉus, or beetle--his flying up to
+Jupiter's palace with a man and his basket of victuals on her back;
+whereat was great wondering, and many vain reports spread abroad of the
+means how that was effected."
+
+He left England again soon afterwards, distinguishing himself at several
+foreign universities, and attracting the notice of many persons of high
+rank, amongst which were the Duke of Mantua and Don Lewis de la Cerda
+(afterwards Duke of Medina Celi). In 1551 he returned to England, being
+well received by King Edward and his court. A pension of one hundred
+crowns per annum was granted him, which he afterwards exchanged for the
+rectory of Upton-upon-Severn.
+
+In Queen Mary's reign he was accused of some correspondence with the
+Lady Elizabeth's servants, and of practising against the Queen's life by
+enchantments. He was seized and confined, but acquitted of the charge.
+He was then turned over to Bonner, to see if heresy might not be found
+in him. After a tedious prosecution he was set at liberty, August 19,
+1555, by an order of the council.
+
+Upon Queen Elizabeth's accession he was consulted as to a fit day for
+the coronation, and received many splendid promises of preferment, which
+were never realised.
+
+In the spring of the year 1564, he made another journey abroad, when he
+presented to the Emperor Maximilian his book, entitled "Monas
+Hieroglyphica," printed at Antwerp the same year. He returned to England
+in the summer, producing several learned works, which showed his
+extraordinary skill in the mathematics.
+
+In 1571 he went to Lorraine, where, falling very ill, he was honoured
+with the solicitude of the Queen, who sent two of her physicians, and
+gave him many other proofs of her regard. Upon his return to England he
+now settled himself in his own house at Mortlake in Surrey, where he
+collected a noble library, and prosecuted his studies with great
+diligence. His collection is said to have consisted of more than four
+thousand books, nearly a fourth part of them manuscripts, which were
+afterwards dispersed and lost. This library, and a great number of
+mathematical and mechanical instruments, were destroyed by the fury of
+the populace in 1583, who, believing him to be a conjuror, and one that
+dealt with the devil, broke into his house, and tore and destroyed the
+fruit of his labours during the forty years preceding.
+
+On the 16th March 1575, Queen Elizabeth, attended by many of her court,
+visited Dr Dee's house to see his library; but having buried his wife
+only a few hours before, he could not entertain her Majesty in the way
+he wished. However, he brought out a glass, the properties of which he
+explained to his royal mistress, hoping to wipe off the aspersion, under
+which he had long laboured, of being a magician.
+
+In 1578 her Majesty being indisposed, Dee was sent abroad to consult
+with some German physicians about the nature of her complaint. But that
+part of his life in which he was most known to the world commenced in
+1581, when his intercourse began with Edward Kelly. This man pretended
+to instruct him how to obtain, by means of certain invocations, an
+intercourse with spirits. Soon afterwards there came to England a Polish
+lord, Albert Laski, palatine of Siradia, a person of great learning. He
+was introduced to Dee by the Earl of Leicester, who was now the doctor's
+chief patron. Becoming acquainted, Laski prevailed with Dee and Kelly to
+accompany him to his own country. They went privately from Mortlake,
+embarking for Holland, from whence they travelled by land through
+Germany into Poland. On the 3d February 1584, they arrived at the castle
+of their patron, where they remained for some time.
+
+They afterwards visited the Emperor Rodolphe at Prague. On the 17th
+April 1585, Laski introduced them to Stephen, king of Poland, at Cracow;
+but this prince treating them very coolly, they returned to the
+emperor's court at Prague, from whence they were banished at the
+instigation of the Pope's nuncio, who represented them as magicians.
+
+The doctor and his companion afterwards found an asylum in the Castle of
+Trebona, belonging to Count William, of Rosenberg, where they lived in
+great splendour for a considerable time. It was said that Kelly had
+succeeded in procuring the powder of projection, by which they were
+furnished with money in profusion; but on referring to the doctor's
+diary, we find the miserable tricks and shifts they resorted to for the
+purpose of keeping up appearances. Kelly, however, it seems, learned
+many secrets from the German chemists, which he did not communicate to
+his patron; and the heart-burnings and jealousies that arose between
+them at length ended in an absolute rupture.
+
+The fame of their adventures was noised through Europe, and Elizabeth,
+in consequence, invited Dee home. He was now separated from Kelly, and
+on the 1st of May 1589, he set out on his return to England. He
+travelled with great pomp, was attended by a guard of horse, and
+besides waggons for his goods, had no less than three coaches for the
+use of his family. He landed at Gravesend on the 23d of November, and on
+the 9th of December was graciously received at Richmond by the Queen. He
+found his house at Mortlake had been pillaged, but he collected the
+scattered remains of his library, and was so successful, by the
+assistance of his friends, as to recover about three-fourths of his
+books, estimating his loss at about £400, He had many friends, and
+received great presents, but was always craving and in want. The Queen
+sent him money from time to time, promising him two hundred angels at
+Christmas. One-half he received, but he gave a broad hint that the Queen
+and himself were defrauded of the rest. He now resolved to apply for
+some settled subsistence, and sent a memorial by the Countess of Warwick
+to her Majesty, earnestly requesting that commissioners might be
+appointed to hear his pretensions and decide upon his claims. Two
+commissioners were accordingly sent to Mortlake, where Dee showed them a
+book containing a distinct account of all the memorable transactions of
+his life, except those which occurred in his Jast journey abroad. He
+detailed to them the injuries, damages, and indignities which he had
+suffered, and humbly supplicated reparation at their hands. The Queen,
+in consequence, sent 100 marks to Mrs Dee, and promises to her husband.
+At length, on December 8th, 1594, he obtained a grant of the
+chancellorship of St Paul's. But this did not answer his expectations,
+upon which he applied to Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury, giving an
+account of all the books he had either written or published. This, with
+other applications, led to his being presented with the wardenship of
+Manchester College, vacant by the removal of Dr William Chaderton to the
+see of Chester. On the 14th of February 1596, he arrived with his family
+in that town, and on the 20th he was installed in his new charge. He
+continued here about seven years, passing his time in a very turbulent
+and unquiet manner. On the 5th of June 1604, he presented a petition to
+King James, earnestly desiring that he might be brought to trial and
+delivered, by a judicial sentence, from those suspicions which his
+astrological and other inquiries had brought upon him. But the King,
+knowing the nature of his studies, was very far from showing him any
+mark of his favour. In November, the same year, he quitted Manchester,
+returning to his house at Mortlake, where he died, old, infirm, and
+forsaken of his friends, being very often obliged to sell some book or
+other to procure a dinner. The following account of Dr Dee's expenses
+from Trebona to London, copied from a statement in his own
+handwriting,[19] we have thought too curious to omit:--
+
+"The charges of my last return from beyond seas, A. 1589, being
+favourably called home by her Majestie from Trebon Castle in Bohemia.
+
+[Sidenote: 600 lib.]
+
+"My journey of remove homeward from Trebon Castle to Staden cost me more
+than 3000 dollars, which we account
+
+[Sidenote: 120 lib.]
+
+"Besides the cost of 15 horses wherewith I travelled all that journey;
+of which the 12 which drew my 3 coaches were very good and young
+Hungarian horses, and the other three were Wallachies for the saddles:
+which 15 cost with one another
+
+[Sidenote: 60 lib.]
+
+"The three new coaches made purposely for my aforesaid journey, with the
+furniture for the 12 coach-horses, and with the saddles and bridles for
+the rest, cost more than 3 score pounds
+
+"The charge of wains to carry my goods from Trebon to Staden, they being
+two and sometimes three (for more easy and light passage in some
+places), cost above an hundred and ten pounds, which I account (for an
+hundred of it) under my former sum of 600 lib. Under which 600 lib. also
+I do account for the charges of the 24 soldiers, well appointed, which,
+by virtue of the emperor's passport, I took up in my way from Diepholt,
+and again from Oldenburgh; the charges of the six harquebusiers and
+musqueteers, which the Earl of Oldenburgh lent me out of his own
+garrison there: I gave to one with another a dollar a man for the day,
+and their meat and drink full. For at the first, 18 enemies, horsemen,
+well appointed, from Lingen and Wilstrusen, had lain five days attending
+thereabout, to have sett upon me and mine; and at Oldeborch, a Scot (one
+of the garrison) gave me warning of an ill-minded company lying and
+hovering for me in the way which I was to pass, as by a letter may
+appear here present. Of the former danger, the Landgrave of Hesse his
+letters unto me may give some evidence.
+
+"The charges of the four Swart Ruiters, very well mounted, and appointed
+to attend on me at Staden, from Breme, being honourably and very
+carefully sent unto me by the noble consuls and senators of Breme, and
+that with a friendly farewell (delivered unto me by the speech of one of
+their secretaries at my lodgings) need not be specified here what it
+was. For their going with me in two days to Staden, their abode there,
+and as much homeward, being in all five days' charges, 30 dollars.
+
+"This was a very dangerous time to ride abroad in thereabouts, as the
+merchants of Staden can well remember. The excellent learned theologian,
+the superintendent of Breme, Mr D. Chrystopher Berzelius his verses,
+printed the night before that of my going from Breme, and the morning of
+my departure, openly delivered to me partly, and partly distributed to
+the company of students and others attending about to see us set forth,
+and to bid us farewell, may be a memorial of some of my good credit
+grown in that city, and of the day of my coming from it.
+
+"I will not enlarge my lines to specific what other charges I was at to
+further some of her Majestie's servants at my lying at Breme; as 70
+dollars given or lent to one Conradus Justus Newbrenner; and about 40
+given to gett some letters of great importance brought to our
+sovereign's honorable privy council in due time.
+
+[Sidenote: 10 lib.]
+
+"The charge of my fraught and passage from Staden to London for my
+goods, myself, my wife, children, and servants
+
+[Sidenote: 796 lib.]
+
+"So that the sum total of money, spent and laid out, in and for my
+remove from Trebon to London doth amount to
+
+[Sidenote: 1510 lib.]
+
+"Whereby the whole sum of the former damages and losses
+
+[Sidenote: 796 lib.]
+
+"And the removing charges doth amount (with the least) to
+
+[Sidenote: 2306 lib.]
+
+"Besides the 100 dollars disbursed at Breme for dutiful love to Queen
+and country."
+
+One minor occurrence in the following tradition--viz., the loss of the
+horse--is related by Lilly as happening to another of the fraternity;
+but we claim it--upon grounds too trivial it might be deemed by
+some--for the "Doctor." It is not our intention to spoil a good story by
+rejecting what we cannot verify. Sufficient for us that the tale exists;
+though we take the liberty of telling it in our own way.
+
+
+There came a thin spare man one evening to Dr Dee's residence in the
+college at Manchester, where he then dwelt by permission only from the
+Earl of Derby, though living there in the capacity of warden to the
+church.
+
+The college being dissolved in the first of Edward VI. (1547), the
+possessions fell into the hands of that nobleman, who, however, kept
+ministers at his own charge to officiate in the church. Mary refounded
+the establishment, restoring the greater part of the lands, but Lord
+Derby still kept the college house. In 1578 Elizabeth granted a new
+foundation to the college, appointing her own wardens. Dr Dee, being the
+third on the new establishment, was installed with great solemnity on
+the 20th February 1596.
+
+The visitor we have just noticed was muffled in a dark cloak, having a
+wide and ample collar, which he threw over his head, as though anxious
+for concealment. The Doctor, having retired into his study, was not to
+be disturbed; but the stranger was urgent for admission, while Lettice
+Gostwich, Dee's help-at-all-work, a pert ungracious slattern, was fully
+resolved not to permit his access to her master.
+
+"Then since nothing else will do," said the pertinacious intruder,
+"convey me this message--to wit, a stranger comes to him on business of
+great moment regarding his own welfare and that of the matter or event
+whose _corollarium_ he is now studying."
+
+Lettice, wearied through his importunity, and hoping by compliance to
+rid herself from these solicitations, went to the Doctor's private
+chamber, where, having delivered her message through the thumb-hole of
+the latch--for on no account would he allow of personal intrusion--to
+her great surprise, he bade her be gone.
+
+"Show the stranger up-stairs," said he. "Why hast thou kept him so long
+tarrying?"
+
+Lettice, with little speed and less good-will, obeyed the Doctor's
+behest, grumbling loud at the capricious and uncertain humours of her
+master.
+
+The visitor was at length ushered into the presence of this celebrated
+scholar and professor of the celestial sciences, whose predictions at
+one period astonished Europe; his presence, like some portentous comet,
+threatening war and disaster, perplexing even emperors and princes, and
+filling them with apprehension and dismay. But Dee was somewhat fallen
+from this high and dangerous celebrity. He was become querulous and
+ill-tempered. Never satisfied with his present condition, but always
+aiming at some greater thing, he generally contrived to lose what he
+already possessed. At one time, to control the destinies and acquire the
+supreme direction of affairs, either as the High Priest or the Grand
+Lama of Europe, was not beyond the compass of his thoughts or the scope
+of his ambition. Now, he was petitioning the Queen for a small increase
+to his worldly pittance, and an opportunity of clearing himself before
+her Majesty's council from the foul and slanderous accusations by which
+he was continually assailed. Yet he had not abandoned his former
+projects. Though failing in his mission aforetime to the Emperor of
+Germany, the King of Poland, and others, to whom he evidently went for
+political purposes, and with offers of his aid, through the
+foreknowledge and spiritual intercourse by which he thought himself
+favoured, yet he still cherished the hope of promotion by such visionary
+follies. That chimera of the imagination, the invention of the
+philosopher's stone, still haunted him, and he did not yet despair of
+one day becoming a ruler among princes, the supreme arbiter and
+depositary of the fate of nations.
+
+The delusions imposed on him by Kelly, his seer and confederate, had so
+impressed him with this belief, that he still purposed going abroad on a
+divine mission, as he called it, and only awaited the auspicious time
+when his spiritual instructors should point out another seer in Kelly's
+room, from whom he had been long separated. Though now in his
+seventy-first year, he was not deterred from making another attempt to
+reach the goal of his ambition. Such is the folly and madness of these
+enthusiasts, that, let them be never so often foiled in their inordinate
+expectations, yet does it in no wise hinder, but, on the contrary, sets
+them more fully on their desire. Casaubon, in his preface to the account
+of Dee's intercourse with spirits, gives a strange instance of their
+infatuation. He says:--
+
+"In the days of Martin Luther, there lived one Michael Stifelius, who
+applying to himself some place of the Apocalypse, took upon himself to
+prophesy. He foretold that in the year of the Lord 1533, before the 29th
+of September, the end of the world and Christ's coming to judgment would
+be. He did show so much confidence that, some write, Luther himself was
+somewhat startled at the first. But that day past, he came a second time
+to Luther, with new calculations, and had digested the whole business
+into twenty-two articles, the effect of which was to demonstrate that
+the end of the world would be in October following. But now Luther
+thought that he had had trial enough, and gave so little credit to him,
+that he (though he loved the man) silenced him for a time, which our
+apocalyptical prophet took very ill at his hands, and wondered much at
+his incredulity. Well, that month and some after that over, our prophet
+(who had made no little stir in the country by his prophesying) was cast
+into prison for his obstinacy. After a while Luther visited him,
+thinking by that time to find him of another mind; but so far was he
+from acknowledging his error, that he downright railed at Luther for
+giving him good counsel. And some write, that to his dying day (having
+lived to the age of eighty years) he never recanted."
+
+These air-built hopes and projects may in some sort account for the
+readiness with which Dee admitted the stranger after hearing his
+message. It seemed to be the very echo of his own thoughts, floating on
+their dark current, which it quickened by some unknown and mysterious
+impulse.
+
+The Doctor was sitting in a high and curiously-wrought chair, cushioned
+with black leather, gilt and ornamented after the antique fashion. His
+upper garment was of black serge, the neck and breast furred with
+sables. A cap of the same materials concealed his bald and shining head,
+giving his pale shrivelled features a peculiar look of learning and hard
+study. His face was long, and his beard pointed. Age and anxiety were
+indelibly marked upon his lank visage; but his eye was yet undimmed;
+small, keen, and restless, it seemed the image of his own insatiable
+desire, consuming soul and body in the fire and fervour of its
+inordinate and uncontrolled appetite.
+
+"Thy name?" said Dee sharply, as the stranger bowed himself before the
+reputed magician.
+
+"Bartholomew Hickman."
+
+"And thy business?" inquired the Doctor, with an inquisitive glance.
+
+"Since your reverence hath dismissed Kelly, you have been but
+indifferently served in the capacity of seer; mine errand is to this
+purport:--If we agree for wages, I will serve you; and I doubt not but
+my faculty of seeing will equal that of Master Kelly, provided you have
+a glass whose quality and virtue shall be equivalent."
+
+"My glass," replied the Doctor, "is not to be matched throughout the
+world. Even Cornelius Agrippa had not its like; nor was his famous
+mirror fit to compare with it. Hast heard aught of its history?"
+
+"I would listen, Master Dee, for my knowledge thereof is but gathered
+from the vulgar report."
+
+"Know then," said Dee, with an air of great pride and complacency, "that
+my stone was brought by the ministration of angels, in answer to fervent
+and oft-repeated prayer. One night, as I sate with Kelly, discoursing on
+the rise and fall of empires, the setting up and the downfall of
+estates, and many other matters of grave and weighty import, he looked
+uneasy for a while, saying that he felt a strange sensation, and, as it
+were, a heavy weight on his right shoulder, as though something sat
+there. He said a spirit, invisible at that time, was in all likelihood
+hearkening to our discourse, and wished to communicate with us. He then
+spake as though to some one behind him, and listened--'Sayest thou so'
+said he; 'then will I speedily apprise the Doctor.' He then told me it
+was the angel Uriel, who would bring us a wonderful glass or crystal,
+whereby a seer, properly gifted, would be enabled to see many wonderful
+things; but this surprising faculty I do not possess, by reason of a
+fiery sign not occupying the cusp of my ascendant and medium cosli.
+Edward Kelly was, however, permitted to supply this defect, and I might
+confidently rely, he said, on the truth of those revelations, which I
+was to note down for the benefit of mankind, and the establishing of a
+new dispensation upon the earth. None but good angels could enter into
+this glass, and they would teach me, as he then foretold, many things,
+whereby, gaining great honour and renown, kings and princes should be
+reproved of me, who was raised up for their sakes. At this revelation I
+was exceeding glad, and more so on finding the day following in my study
+this precious gem, which, as I once told the Emperor Rodolph, is of such
+value that no earthly kingdom is worthy to be 'compared to the virtue or
+dignity thereof. I well remember the time," said Dee, delighting to
+dwell on these recollections: "I was at Prague, the emperor having sent
+for me; I went up to the castle, where, in the _Ritterstove_, or guard
+chamber, I stayed a little; Octavius Spinola, that was the chamberlain,
+saluted me very courteously, having understood that I was he whom the
+emperor waited for. Returning to the privy-chamber, he came out again,
+leading me by the skirt through the dining-chamber and the
+privy-chamber, where the emperor sat at a table with a great chest and
+standish of silver, and my book and letters before him. Then craved I
+pardon, at his Majesty's hand, for my boldness in sending him my '_Monas
+Hieroglyphica_,' dedicated to his father; but I did it of the sincere
+and entire good-will that I bare to his father Maximilian, and also unto
+his Majesty. He then thanked me very kindly, saying that he knew of my
+great endowments, and the esteem I had gotten of the learned; of this he
+had been informed by the Spanish ambassador. He said my book was rather
+too hard for his capacity; but he heard I had something to say to him,
+_Quod esset pro sua utilitate_. 'And so I have,' I replied, looking back
+to see first that we were alone. Hereupon, I began to declare how all
+my lifetime had been spent in learning, and with great pains and cost I
+had come to the best knowledge that man might attain to in this world. I
+had found, too, that no man living, neither any book, was able to teach
+me those truths that I desired and longed for. Therefore I concluded
+within myself to make intercession and prayer to the Giver of all wisdom
+to send unto me knowledge, whereby I might know the nature of His
+creatures, and also enjoy means to use them to His honour and glory. At
+length it pleased God to send me His light--the angel Uriel, whereby I
+was assured of His merciful and gracious answer. For the space of two
+years and a half, as I told his Majesty, angels had not ceased to
+minister unto me through this wonderful stone, whose history I related.
+Furthermore, I said that I had a message from them unto his, Majesty.
+'The angel of the Lord hath appeared unto me,' I cried, 'and hath
+rebuked you for your sins; if you will hear, and believe me, you shall
+triumph; if you will not hear, the Lord, the God of heaven and earth,
+under whom you breathe and have your being, putteth His foot against
+your breast, and will throw you headlong from your seat.' Moreover, I
+said that if he would listen to me, and take me for his counsellor, his
+kingdom should be established, so that there would be none like unto it
+throughout the world. I was commanded, likewise, to show him the nature
+of the holy vision, and the manner thereof, which he might witness, and
+hear the words, though he could not see the fashion of the creatures in
+the glass. He thanked me, and said that he would thenceforward take me
+to his recommendation and care. Some more promises he used, though I
+could not well understand them, he spake so low. Perceiving, now, that
+he wished to make an end for this time, I made my obeisance and
+departed. But mark the favour of princes!--through the cabals of some,
+and the intrigues of his favourite and physician, one Doctor Curtz, who
+was fearful of my displacing him,--in the end I was not only prevented
+from further access to his Majesty, but banished the empire! Go to, go
+to," said Dee, much troubled at these thoughts, "I am something too much
+affected of these vain impressions, and the pomp of these earthly ones."
+
+He arose, lifting an ebony cabinet on the table, which he unlocked with
+great solemnity. During this operation he fell to muttering many
+prayers; and with an air of great reverence he took out a
+richly-embossed casket, which being opened, there was displayed a fair
+crystal of an egg-shaped form, on which he gazed with a long and silent
+delight.
+
+"A treasure beyond all price," said Bartholomew, eyeing it with rapture.
+
+"Even so," said Dee, "and, by the grace of the Giver, I do hope to
+profit by it. Once it was removed from me. Listen. It was in the little
+chapel, or oratory, next the chambers which Lord William of Rosenberg
+had allotted us in his castle at Trebona. I had set the stone in its
+wonted place upon the table, or altar as we called it, when Kelly saw a
+great flame in the stone, which thing though he told me, I made no end
+of my usual prayer. But suddenly one seemed to come in at the south
+window of the chapel, right opposite to Kelly, while the stone was
+heaved up without hands, and set down again; wonderful to behold. After
+which I saw the man who came in at the window; he had his lower parts in
+a cloud, and, with open arms, flew towards Kelly; at which sight he
+shrunk back, and the creature took up between both hands the stone with
+its frame of gold, and mounted up the way he came. Kelly caught at it,
+but could not touch it; thereupon he was grievously alarmed, and had the
+_tremor cordis_ for a good while after.[20] This my angelical stone
+being taken away, I was mightily troubled, for the other stones in my
+possession being made through man's skill and device, I had not a safe
+warranty of their virtue, so that I might confidently trust in what they
+should disclose. I was afraid, too, of the intrusion of wicked spirits
+into them, who might impose on me with their delusions. This happened on
+a Friday, being the 24th of April 1587, as I find it recorded in my
+diary. But mark the manner of its return! The following month, on the
+22d day, and on the same day of the week, about four hours post
+meridian, as I and Kelly were walking out through the orchard, down the
+river-side, he saw two little men fighting there furiously with swords;
+and one said to the other, '_Thou hast beguiled me_.' As I drew near
+they did not abate their heat, but the fray seemed to wax even hotter
+than before. I at length said, '_Good friends, let me take up the matter
+between you_;' whereupon they stayed, the elder of them saying, '_I sent
+a present to thy wife, and this fellow hath taken it away_,' With this,
+they again fought until the other was wounded in his thigh, which seemed
+to bleed. Being in great pain, he took out of his bosom something that
+I guessed to be the very treasure that I had lost. '_Now will I make
+thee return it_,' said the first speaker; with that the other, who was
+wounded, seemed to go suddenly out of sight, but came again ere I could
+answer a word. The elder of them then asked him, saying, '_Hast thou
+laid it under the right pillow of the bed where he lay yesternight_?'
+With these words they both went towards a willow-tree on the right, by
+the new stairs, which tree seemed to cleave open, and as they went in it
+closed, and I never saw them more. With great haste I returned to my
+chamber, where, lifting up the right pillow, I found my precious stone;
+being greatly rejoiced, together with my wife, who joined me in thanking
+God for its return."[21]
+
+"An exceeding comfortable and gracious providence: being preserved, I
+doubt not, from the evil ones," said Bartholomew Hickman. "But I would
+fain give you a sample of my skill, if so be that you will prepare the
+crystal, charging it with due care and attention."
+
+Then did the Doctor betake himself to the performance of sundry strange
+rites, consisting of many absurd forms and hard speeches, ever and anon
+ejaculating a fervent prayer for success, and a petition against doubt
+and deception. He spread a fair carpet on the table, disposing the
+candlesticks on each side, and a little behind the crystal. This was
+placed upon a cushion of black silk, a crucifix near, and the psalter
+before it, open at the service for the departed. After a profound
+silence for about the space of half an hour, Dee looked towards his
+visitor as if expecting that he should begin. The seer threw off his
+upper garment, and kneeling down, clad only in a short tunic of gray
+cloth, without ruff or belt, he betook himself, though with some
+agitation, to the repeating of a few short Latin prayers, intermingled
+with cabalistical jargon, and scraps of some unknown and uncouth tongue.
+The Doctor gave special heed thereto, hearkening as though not
+over-credulous in the boasted skill of his visitor. Presently the latter
+put his face close to the stone, binding it before his eyes with a white
+napkin, his head still resting on the table. Dee asked him softly, "What
+seest thou?"
+
+"Nothing," said Bartholomew.
+
+"Is the curtain not yet visible in the stone?"
+
+"I cannot even see the curtain," replied the seer; "for all is dark."
+
+Then Dee began to pray earnestly that some of his former friends might
+appear, whom he called by many outlandish names, such as _Ave, Nalvage,
+Madini_, and others. Immediately Bartholomew cried out--
+
+"I see a glimmer!--Soft!"
+
+The Doctor scarcely durst breathe, fearing to interrupt the opening of
+the vision.
+
+"I see a golden curtain, partly drawn aside."
+
+"The charge beginneth to work," said Dee. "'Tis the very appearance that
+was always vouchsafed to Kelly ere the spirits showed themselves in the
+glass. Note well what thou seest."
+
+"There appeareth a white cloud, as a curdly vapour wreathing itself
+about a pillar of burning brass, but no creature is visible.--I hear a
+voice!"
+
+"Mark the words and repeat them steadily," said the Doctor, who drew
+nearer that he might hear the purport of the revelation.
+
+"_Sanctum signatum et ad tempus_," said the voice.
+
+"The sense of this may be understood diversely. By which sense may we be
+guided?" said Dee, as though speaking to some invisible thing within the
+glass. Presently the seer again repeated--
+
+"'_Sanctum, quia hoc velle suum; sigillatum, quid determinatum ad
+tempus_;' the voice ceaseth:--but these be hard speeches, Master Dee. I
+hear again, '_Ad tempus et ad tempus (inquam) quia rerum
+consummatio_--_All things are at hand_--
+
+    "'_The seat is prepared.
+    Justice hath determined.
+    The time is short_.'"
+
+"Seest thou no creature?" anxiously inquired the Doctor.
+
+"None. But the pillar openeth as though it were cleft. Now a woman
+cometh forth out of the pedestal, covered with a cloud. I can see her
+face dimly at times through this veil, which seemeth to pass over as a
+thin cloud before the dazzling sun. She standeth as though in a hollow
+shell, glistening with such fair colours that no earthly brightness may
+be comparable to it. She now seemeth to wrap the air about her as a
+garment. She entereth into a thick cloud and disappears. There now
+cometh one like unto a little girl, her hair turned up before, and
+flowing behind in long and bright curls. Her raiment sparkles like unto
+changeable silk, green and red."
+
+"'Tis _Madini_," said Dee, with great delight. "Note well what she
+sayeth, for she is my good angel."
+
+"She sitteth down. Her lips move as though she were speaking, but I hear
+nothing."
+
+"I will speak to her," said Dee; "for she will answer me through thy
+ministry, if it really be Madini. Art thou Madini, that has appeared to
+me beforetime?"
+
+"I think she answereth,'Yes.' But her voice is very feeble."
+
+"I would thou shouldest resolve me three things," said the Doctor, again
+addressing himself towards the glass. "To wit--Whereto shall I direct my
+journey, and how shall I cause it to prosper? Secondly, I would speedily
+be instructed in that great and heavenly mystery, the powder of
+projection, which I have been oft promised, but never understood aright
+by reason of my feeble apprehensions, or inability to accomplish the
+grand and sublime arcanum. Thirdly, How may I find the treasure which
+was shown to me in a dream three several times; but where it is hidden
+is withheld from me?"
+
+"She says she will answer so far as the will of him that sent her will
+permit; but she hath a short continuance, and her answer must be brief.
+With respect to the country, make thine own choice, and thou shalt be
+directed in it for thy good. The other questions she says she cannot
+solve, but will send one of the seven who bear rule over the seals of
+the metals and their matrix. She hath departed, yet I saw her not. She
+went like a sudden stroke of light; and now there cometh a man clad in
+sober apparel, with an inkhorn at his girdle. He holdeth a pen, as
+though he would write, but his face is veiled."
+
+"'Tis a motion that I should bring my tablets," said the Doctor.
+
+"Now he is writing," continued the seer. "He showeth me a roll of
+parchment. But the glass becometh dim, and I think that evil spirits are
+troubling us, for the whole seems to waver, like the glowing air over
+the furnace."
+
+The Doctor now fell to his prayers, when Bartholomew assured him the
+glass grew brighter, gradually becoming still, like the subsiding of
+waves after some accidental disturbance. He could now see the writing
+distinctly, and the veil was also removed.
+
+"Give me the words to the very letter," said Dee earnestly, as he
+prepared to write.
+
+"It runs thus:--'The most noble and divine magister; the beginning and
+continuation of life. Watch well, and gather him so at the highest; for
+in one hour he descendeth or ascendeth from the purpose.
+
+"'_Take common Audcal, purge and work it by Rlodnr, of four divers
+digestions, continuing the last digestion for fourteen days in one and a
+swift proportion, until it be Dlasod fixed, a most red and luminous
+body, the image of resurrection. Take also Lulo of Red Roxtan, and work
+him through the four fiery degrees, until thou have his Audcal, and then
+gather him. Then double every degree of your Rlodnr, and by the law of
+mixture and conjunction work them diligently together. Notwithstanding
+backward through every degree, multiply the lower and last Rlodnr, his
+due office finished by one degree more than the highest. So doth it
+become Darr, the thing you seek for; a holy, just, glorious, red, and
+dignified Dlasod_.'"
+
+"Methinks I have heard this before," said Dee, "and understood it not. I
+am truly in great perplexity for want of money; but still I understand
+not the purport of these symbols, the which, I beseech thee, now
+vouchsafe to thine unworthy servant."
+
+"'See thou take the season,'" said the voice, "'and get her while it is
+yet time. If ye let the harvest pass, ye shall desire to gather and
+shall not be able.'"
+
+"Take pity on mine infirmities, and make it plain," supplicated the
+Doctor, who now began to fear the usual evasions and disappointments.
+
+"'Before I go,'" replied the vision, "'I will not be hidden from thee.
+Read thy lesson.'"
+
+"I read, '_Take common Audcal_' and so on."
+
+"'What is Audcal?' inquireth the spirit."
+
+"Alas! I know not; but thou knowest."
+
+"'It is gold, and Dlasod is sulphur.'"
+
+"Take also, it says, Lulo of Red Roxtan."
+
+"'Roxtan is pure and simple wine in herself, and Lulo is her mother.'"
+
+"There is yet in these words no slight ambiguity."
+
+"'Lulo is tartar of red wine, and Audcal is his mercury. Darr, in the
+angelical tongue, is the true name of the stone.'"
+
+"He said before that Audcal was gold," said Dee, addressing the seer.
+
+"Be thankful," replied Bartholomew, "and keep what thou hast received."
+
+The Doctor was for the present satisfied; but a little reflection
+afterwards, and another trial, left him as ignorant and as poor as ever.
+
+He now returned thanks in the Latin tongue, it being his general custom
+at the end of each revelation, or motion, as it was called.
+
+"_Deo nostro omnipotenti sit omnis Laus, Honor, Gloria, et Jubilatio."_
+Unto which the seer responded, "Amen."
+
+"Now for the third question."
+
+"He goeth to one side," said Bartholomew, "and the curtain hideth him.
+Now he returneth, leading an old man blindfolded, who answereth him in
+manner following, as though to questions put by the first:--'It is
+within, and by a garden belonging to the new lodge in Aldport Park. It
+is in three parts or places.' He now seems to pause. Again he
+speaks--'Many roots and trees do hinder the gathering of it; but if he
+be wise, and understand these things, he may obtain his pleasure. One
+part was laid by Sir James Stanley, the warden, an hundred years ago.
+Another portion was hidden by an aged nun. The remainder was left by the
+Romans, and may be found under the foundations of the castle in the
+park. The time is short, and the treasure guarded; but he shall
+overcome. Listen:--'_Nine with twice seven northerly, and_ ACER _shall
+disappear. The mystical number added to the number enfolding itself;
+this shall be added to its own towards the rising sun. Then turn
+half-round, and note well thy right foot. What thou seest gather, and it
+shall lead thee on to perfection_'"
+
+"Ask him the amount or worth of the treasure," said Dee, whose cupidity
+gloated over the bare thoughts of this vast hoard.
+
+"He says, it is 'two thousand and a half, besides odd money.'"
+
+"How? In gold or silver?"
+
+"'More than three parts thereof are in gold.'"
+
+"Most humbly and heartily do I thank thee, oh"----
+
+Dee was opening out another form of thanksgiving, when the seer
+interrupted his hypocritical and blasphemous addresses.
+
+"The old man goeth aside, groping his way as though it were dark. Now
+all is dim, and the curtain covereth the stone, by which we are warned
+to retire."
+
+The needful and concluding ceremonies being gone through, the crystal
+was returned to its place. After pondering awhile, the Doctor put many
+questions to his guest about his residence, worldly calling, and so
+forth. He offered him £50 yearly, besides lodging, and a fair proportion
+of gold when the celestial and highest projection should be completed.
+Bartholomew was not hard at making a bargain, and the Doctor began to
+hope that, by a patient waiting and trust in the efficacy of these
+strange delusions, he should at length accomplish his desires.
+
+A low tap at the door again betokened the presence of Lettice, who came
+to announce a warm friend of the Doctor's, one Master Eccleston. On
+being admitted, the latter brought with him a low, ferret-eyed
+personage, whose leering aspect betrayed an inward consciousness of
+great cunning and self-satisfaction therewith. Dee received his guests
+with becoming dignity, inquiring to what good fortune he was indebted
+for their visit.
+
+"Thou mayest remain, Hickman," said he to his new acquaintance.
+
+Eccleston proceeded to business as follows:--
+
+"You may readily remember that I once happened a sore mischance--to wit,
+by losing a horse I had but lately bought, and which, through your good
+offices, kindly and without fee administered, I again got back, to my
+great joy and comfort. I was telling of this but few days agone to a
+friend of mine, one Barnabas Hardcastle, whom I have made bold to bring
+before your reverence. He but laughed at me for my pains, and would in
+no wise believe it, but mark how he was served! Within this hour, he
+tells me that he has lost his mare, and would fain have the like help to
+its recovery."
+
+"Hast thou lost thy beast?" inquired the Doctor.
+
+"Verily I have," said Barnabas, making a respectful acknowledgment to
+the Doctor's dignified address. "It was but this morning she was safe as
+Mancastle is in the dirt, hard by Mr Lever's house yonder, in the
+fields. 'Tis a grievous loss, Master Dee, seeing that I was offered a
+score of pounds for the beast last Martinmas."
+
+The Doctor opened his tables, and erected a scheme or figure of the
+heavens, to the very minute when this communication was made. Ere it was
+finished he gave a sharp and shrewd glance at the stranger, saying--
+
+"The latter part of the sign Scorpio ascendeth, and it is not safe to
+give judgment. Mars, lord thereof, is in evil aspect with Venus, lady of
+the seventh and sixth likewise, or house of servants. Yet is Mercury
+lord of the tenth, and free from affliction. I will therefore try my
+skill, though I should fail. The beast thou lackest is either taken by a
+servant or lost through his neglect. Stay. The Dragon's Tail, which I
+have just placed, being located in the seventh, thy mare is certainly
+lost, and will never be recovered."
+
+Dee looked earnestly at the man, who, gathering his features into a grin
+of contempt, could scarcely refrain from an unmannerly burst of
+laughter.
+
+"Now, o' my troth," said he, "I was but minded to try the skill of your
+prophet, and to show your folly. The roan mare is safe, and I left her
+but an hour ago with my lad, who is walking her to and fro just out of
+the town-fields by Withy Grove, until I have done mine errand."
+
+"Thou art a bold man to say so," replied the Doctor angrily, and with a
+glance as though it were meant to annihilate this contemner of the
+celestial art. "I tell thee she is lost, and shall never be got back: a
+reward thou hast well earned for thy folly."
+
+With a scornful and malicious grin did Master Barnabas receive this
+denunciation, taking his departure with little ceremony, as if fearful
+of some mischance. Eccleston, much scandalised at his friend's
+proceedings, followed him down-stairs, not caring to stay longer with
+the Doctor.
+
+As Bartholomew and he sate discoursing on the future, and forming many
+projects, more particularly about the hidden treasures, without which,
+Dee said, he could not continue his search for the elixir, as he was
+nigh beggared, they heard a swift footstep on the stairs. Presently in
+rushed Eccleston followed by Lettice, who strove to prevent this
+intrusion. The Doctor frowned on his entrance, but, Eccleston,
+breathless and much agitated, could with difficulty declare his errand.
+
+"Hardcastle--Hardcastle--I say. He has lost his beast."
+
+"Why, I told him so," said the Doctor, with great composure.
+
+"But he _has_ lost her!"
+
+"I know it," replied Dee.
+
+"I have just left him in great anger, swearing by things both visible
+and invisible that he will have his own again; that we are confederate
+in the matter: and that he will cite us both before the chapter or the
+Star-Chamber."
+
+"How hath it happened?" said Dee, scrawling listlessly with his pen.
+
+"I went with him to the boy, thinking I would see the end on't. By the
+way he did use many taunts and ill-natured speeches about my pursuit
+after the great arcanum, and belief in the celestial sciences; together
+with many unpleasant hints that the money we have expended in the
+adventure will never be got back. Discoursing thus, we came near to the
+place where he expected to find the boy. Sure enough he was there, and
+fast asleep on the ground; but the mare was gone, the bridle being left
+on the lad's arm, which his master banged about his shoulders until he
+awaked. Pray, Master Dee, be pleased to help him to his mare. I owe him
+moneys, for which he, taking advantage of the debt, may put me in
+prison."
+
+"The scoffer shall not go unpunished, nor shall he that revileth partake
+of the blessing. Go thy way, and tell him he may not recover his goods."
+
+Eccleston departed with this heavy message, and Bartholomew was again
+left communing with the Doctor.
+
+The matter that still occupied their thoughts was the treasure at
+Aldport Lodge. With this in their possession they might reasonably
+expect that great progress would be made in their search for the
+philosopher's stone and the vivifying elixir. These important articles
+obtained, the hidden secrets of nature would be at their command, and
+their schemes and wishes might then be pursued with the certainty of
+success. The night but one following, at the precise time when the moon
+came to a trine aspect with Saturn and Jupiter, was appointed for the
+discovery. The hour of Saturn commenced five minutes before midnight,
+and the heavenly influences were then singularly disposed in favour of
+their undertaking.
+
+With dazzling anticipations of future prosperity and success they
+separated: one to indulge in dreams so chimerical and vast that even
+Fancy herself drew back, dazzled with her own brightness; the other to
+an obscure lodging in the Old Millgate, where he committed himself to
+the keeping of a straw pallet and a coverlet of which the rats had for
+some time before held undisputed possession.
+
+The night fixed upon for their search proved drizzling and misty.
+Bartholomew, wrapped in a thick cloak, sallied out of a low postern
+towards the college. The path was more dangerous and uneven than at
+present, and many a grim witness of good-fellowship with his clay had
+the red cloth hose of Master Bartholomew Hickman ere he arrived at the
+arched doorway which admitted him into Dee's lodging. We have no means
+of ascertaining with any degree of certainty the musings and ruminations
+of the seer in his progress, not having the power, or skill it may be,
+like unto many profound and praiseworthy historians, who can portray the
+form and colour of the mind as well as the cut and capacity of the
+doublet. Suffice it to say, that he was so fully occupied in conning
+over his errand as not to be aware that a certain malicious personage
+was dodging his steps--to wit, our worthy owner of the mare, Barnabas
+Hardcastle, who kept a strict watch about the premises, hoping to find
+some clue to the discovery of his beast.
+
+An hour elapsed ere they came forth; the Doctor bearing a covered light,
+and after him the little spare form of Bartholomew Hickham, carrying
+under his cloak sundry implements for the search.
+
+Passing through the churchyard, they turned into the Dean's Gate,
+creeping near the houses, whose overhanging gables poured down a copious
+shower from their dripping eaves. The streets echoed but to the tread of
+these adventurers, and to the howl of a solitary watch-dog roused by
+their approach. They passed the gate without difficulty; the Doctor was
+supposed to have been called forth on clerical duties, and the porter
+accordingly permitted their egress, merely inquiring the probable time
+of their return.
+
+A few straggling houses were built nigh to the ditch and outworks;
+beyond these the way was open towards the park. Here they arrived in due
+time, entering in by a side wicket, which led them round to the back
+part of the house by the gardens.
+
+The proprietorship of the Lodge had latterly fallen to the lot of Edward
+Mosley, by a deed of partition between his brother Oswald Mosley and
+himself, a mercer of great note in Manchester, one Adam Smythe; these
+parties having purchased, jointly, the lands of Nether and Over Aldport
+from Thomas Rowe of Hartford, who had them of Sir Randle Brereton, the
+next purchaser from William, Earl of Derby. The house and grounds, about
+ninety-five acres, of Nether and Over Aldport, formerly belonged to the
+warden of the college for the time being, and were held, by a rent of
+four marks per annum only, from the Lord de la Warre. It was enjoyed
+uninterruptedly by them until the dissolution of this community in the
+first of Edward VI., when it was granted to the Earl of Derby along
+with the rest of the college lands.
+
+Elizabeth, however, in the twenty-first year of her reign, granted a new
+foundation to the college: but the Earl of Derby, who still kept
+possession of the college-house and some portion of the lands, suffered
+the warden and ministers for some time to lodge there.
+
+The house at Aldport was moated round, and a drawbridge stood before the
+main entrance. The mansion was built of timber and plaster, with huge
+projecting stone chimneys, gable ends, and deep casements--a fitting
+residence in those days for rank and nobility.
+
+Outside the moat was an extensive garden, laid out in a sumptuous style,
+beyond which appeared a mound of considerable elevation and extent, the
+site of Mancastle, famous in history as one of the strongholds of the
+Romans, some account of which may be found in the legend of "Sir
+Tarquin."
+
+"I have been thinking," said Dee, after being silent for a space, "that
+no savour of dishonesty can attach to our appropriation of this great
+treasure, seeing the house and all this fair and goodly inheritance did
+once appertain to the wardens of our college, of which patrimony we have
+been most unjustly deprived by the statute of King Edward. My gracious
+mistress, our Queen, not having reinstated me into this my lawful
+possession, I have made bold to remind her Majesty of our wrongs, and to
+supplicate her clemency thereupon."
+
+Bartholomew felt fully satisfied of the right they had to these spoils,
+his conscience being easily quieted on the score of appropriation.
+
+"The rain becomes heavier, and it is more chill and showery than before.
+The mist, too, is driving north-east," said the Doctor. "The clouds are
+cumbrous and broken, coiling, as they roll, into huge masses that will
+ere long bring some of the dark Atlantic on their tails. Seest thou not,
+Bartholomew, as though it were a grim pile of hills on the horizon?"
+
+"I see as it might be a heavy wall of clouds gathering about us; and I
+think the wind comes on more fitful and squally. These heavy lunges
+betoken an angry and vicious humour in the air that will not be long in
+bursting."
+
+"We shall have it about our ears speedily. We must to work while it is
+yet a-brewing below."
+
+The dark pointed roofs and chimneys of the Lodge might be distinguished
+in grotesque masses, changeless and unvarying, against the ever-shifting
+darkness of the sky. A pale star sometimes looked out as if by stealth,
+but was obscured almost ere its brightness could be developed. The wind,
+as it rushed by, broke into short and irregular gusts, like scouts from
+the main body, betokening its approach. The rain had ceased, save a few
+hasty drops at intervals plashing heavily on the moat.
+
+"What is that?" said Bartholomew in a whisper, pointing to the water. A
+light had glanced on its surface, and as suddenly had it disappeared.
+
+"Again!" Dee smiled as he looked upwards to a star just twinkling
+through the cloud. Like some benignant spirit, as it alighted on the
+dark bosom of the moat, the short sharp gust fluttering over, it seemed
+to hover there for a while ere it departed.
+
+Turning out of the path, they approached a thick yew-tree flanking one
+corner of the garden.
+
+"I think we may climb here, Master Dee, with little risk;--there seems a
+fair gap beside its trunk."
+
+They scrambled up a high bank, thrusting themselves, with some
+difficulty, through the opening. The Doctor now, looking round, began to
+recite his instructions:--"'_Nine with twice seven northerly, and_ ACER,
+_shall disappear. The mystical number added to the number enfolding
+itself. This shall be added to its own, towards the rising of the sun.
+Then turn half-round, and note well thy right foot;--what thou seest
+gather, and it shall lead thee on to perfection_.' Good; but from what
+point shall we begin to count?" said the divine, in great perplexity.
+
+"I know not," said Bartholomew, "unless it be from the sycamore tree at
+the opposite corner yonder by the old wall."
+
+"Thou knowest the ground hereabout?" said the Doctor hastily.
+
+"Peradventure I may," replied the other. "Being told aforetime of
+treasure that was hidden, I have wandered often, at odd times, round the
+garden."
+
+"Lead the way, then; it may be this same Acer is the tree of which thou
+speakest. Time passes, and I would not miss this lucky hour for all my
+hopes of preferment."
+
+Preceded by his guide, the Doctor soon came within range of a noble
+sycamore that threw out its huge branches in all the pride of a long and
+undisturbed occupation.
+
+"'Nine with twice seven northerly, and Acer shall disappear.' Shall I
+stride the ground so many steps, or is there a mystic and hidden
+signification couched in these numbers?"
+
+"I know not," said Bartholomew; "but we had best make the trial."
+
+The Doctor, with great earnestness, began to stride out the number
+northerly, but the sycamore did not disappear; its long bare boughs were
+still seen throwing out their leafless and haggard extremities against
+the lowering sky.
+
+They now took counsel, when Bartholomew suggested that, as numbers were
+often used symbolically, they must look elsewhere for a solution. It
+might be the exact number of trees lying between the great sycamore and
+the place signified. "And there they be," said the seer, pointing to a
+goodly row of small twigs newly planted. "Now count them northerly,
+beginning as at first."
+
+This being done, the Doctor was greatly comforted on finding himself
+fairly soused up to the knees in a deep ditch or drain, from whence all
+appearance of the sycamore was effectually excluded.
+
+"Now," said the adept, still standing as before, "the mystical number,
+which is three, added to the most excellent number, which I take to be
+three times three, or the number enfolding itself, will make twelve; but
+there be no trees eastward, or towards the rising sun."
+
+"Then try the steps once more," said Bartholomew, "and take heed they
+are of the right length,--proper easy-going steps. Stay, I will count
+them myself."
+
+Leaving his companion in the ditch, the seer counted forth his number
+with due care, halting at the last step.
+
+"Now stand in my place, turn half-round, and gather from thy right
+foot."
+
+Dee, having cleared the bog, placed himself in the required position.
+Stooping down, he groped diligently by his right foot, but was aware of
+nothing but a crabbed stump, that resisted every attempt they could use
+for its dislodgment.
+
+"Bring the mattock," said the Doctor, cautiously uncovering the light.
+But though Bartholomew tugged with great energy, the Doctor helping, it
+was to little purpose, for the stump was immovable.
+
+"We had best try the probe." Saying this, the warder drew forth an
+instrument in shape something like unto a large auger. He could by this
+means easily ascertain if anything hard were below, or any symptons of
+concealed treasure. As they were thus engaged a hollow voice, to their
+terrified apprehensions issuing from the ground, cried out--
+
+"Hold!"
+
+The treasure-hunters came to a full pause. The wind and rain at the same
+time beat so heavily they could not ascertain the sequel to this
+injunction.
+
+"'Tis Nargal, the spirit who guards hidden treasures," said Dee: "we can
+approach him only by prayers and fumigations."
+
+"Then must we return?" said Bartholomew, apparently unwilling to desist.
+
+"Hark!" said the Doctor, listening.
+
+They heard a moan, as that of some one in great pain. Presently a faint
+shriek stole through a pause in the blast.
+
+"'Tis like the groan of a mandrake," he continued: "they do ever lament
+and bewail thus when gathered. I doubt not but this tree is of that
+accursed nature."
+
+Again the voice was articulate.
+
+"To-morrow thou mayest return at this hour; but I will not yield my
+treasure save thou bring me gold!"
+
+"Who art thou?"
+
+"I am the guardian of the treasure; and
+
+    "Gold I have. Bring gold with thee;
+    Or thou shalt get no gold from me."
+
+"What is thy demand?" inquired Dee, in a hollow voice, like that of an
+exorcist.
+
+"Prop thy purse with fifty nobles;--then dig, and I will tell thee."
+
+The two worthies were somewhat startled at this demand. It was more than
+their joint forces could muster. Yet two thousand and more broad pieces,
+besides other valuables, which lay there for the gathering, was too
+profitable a return to make them easily give up the adventure.
+Accordingly, after some further questions which the demon as resolutely
+refused to answer, they departed, first replacing the earth and other
+matters they had disturbed, in their former position.
+
+Early on the following morning the eager divine applied to his friend
+Eccleston for another loan, assuring him it was the last; while from the
+produce of the treasure he would be enabled to pay his former advances,
+with a copious interest thereon. The needy expectant was loath to
+furnish him with another supply, though in the end he was prevailed on
+to borrow from his friends, at an exorbitant interest, for one day only.
+
+This important preliminary being arranged, the night was anxiously
+awaited, and though more than usually tardy in its approach, twilight at
+length threw her mantle of grey over the world's cares and perplexities,
+and night, that universal coverlet of all things, whether good or evil,
+did wrap them gently about.
+
+And a night of more loveliness and lustre never was unveiled to the eye
+of mortals.
+
+The stars were walking in brightness--so clear and sparkling that each
+seemed a ray or an emblem of that ineffably glorious Beam whose
+uncreated splendour no eye can see and live. Those bright clusters that
+we now behold have been the same through all generations, and they have
+seen "all things that are done under the sun." Fixed as the everlasting
+hills, their bounds and their habitation have been unchanged. The same
+lights were in the heavens when Abraham looked up from the plains of
+Mamre, as now when the Arab and the Ishmaelite are in the desert. The
+bands of Orion are not loosed, nor the sweet influences of the Pleiades
+unbound. The same glittering groups which the patriarch beheld beam
+nightly on our tabernacles. They have shone upon the world's heroes and
+the world's demigods--bright links in the oblivion of ages. And the
+numerous hosts we gaze upon will present the same glowing and immutable
+forms to cheer and gladden the eyes and hearts of coming generations.
+
+Some feeling of this nature was probably rising in the Doctor's bosom as
+they once more took the open path to Aldport, and he looked on the wide
+hemisphere about him--the heavens, with their glowing constellations,
+all spread out without an obscurity or an obstruction. He felt for one
+moment the folly and futility of earthly things, and his heart seemed to
+wither in the immensity into which it was plunged.
+
+It was like a faint glimpse of eternity, and he shrunk back from the
+abyss, all his own vast world of thought, feeling, and desire, lost in
+that immeasurable space. But the dazzling dream of ambition again passed
+before him. The portals of universal empire and immortality were thrown
+open. He drove back the unwelcome intruder, but the phantom he pursued
+again fluttered from his grasp.
+
+They had marked the spot on their former visit, and Dee, with the fifty
+gold pieces in his purse, Bartholomew Hickman acting as chief workman,
+began his unholy proceedings: not, however, without some fear of the
+demon whom these moneys were to propitiate. Bartholomew laboured with
+great diligence, but the earth was much easier to remove than before,
+and the old stump soon gave way, making but a slight resistance. This
+was attributed to some charm wrought by the treasure they carried, and
+was looked upon as a favourable omen--an unloosing of the fetters which
+guarded the deposit. Every spadeful of earth was carefully examined, and
+the probe thrust down anxiously and with great caution. About a yard in
+depth had been taken away when the spade struck upon something hard. The
+strokes were redoubled, and a narrow flag appeared. Raising this
+obstacle they beheld a wooden coffer. Dee sung out a Latin prayer as
+usual; for he failed not to pour out his thanks with great fervour for
+any selfish indulgence that fell in his way, or, as he imagined, was
+granted to him by the special favour of Heaven.
+
+"There," said Bartholomew, raising the box, which from its weight and
+capacity promised a rich reward, "I think we have now what will season
+our labours well. What think you, Master Dee?"
+
+But the Doctor was absorbed in visions of future greatness, now bursting
+on him with a glory and rapidity almost painful to contemplate. He
+seized the shrine, scarcely giving his helpmate time to fill up and
+conceal their depredations.
+
+"But the fifty pieces--have you got them safe?" inquired Bartholomew.
+
+"They are in my pouch. I do think the demon hath forgotten to demand
+them."
+
+"Fear not, he will be ready enough to ask for his own. What comes o'er
+the devil's back will sooner or later go under his belly!"
+
+"Let us pack and begone," said the Doctor, fearful of losing his
+treasure.
+
+The box was presently swung over the seer's shoulders, Dee following to
+keep all safe, though not without many apprehensions and misgivings of
+heart. He feared lest the spirit might appear again for his own; or, at
+least, for the fifty pieces of gold, which were his right.
+
+Just as they came to the gap by the yew-tree, and Bartholomew was
+resting against the trunk, a voice from behind them shouted--
+
+"Stop!--What make ye here, ye villains?"
+
+Dee turned round and the light flashed upon two armed men, masked, who
+evidently came towards them with no friendly intent.
+
+"Put down that box," said the foremost.
+
+Bartholomew was proceeding to surrender at discretion, but Dee first
+inquired their errand.
+
+"We can tell ye that in a twinkling," said the malicious intruders,
+"after we have stepped up to the lodge, and given them a pretty guess at
+the quality of the knaves who be robbing of their garden. Nay, Doctor,
+we take no excuse, unless we take our share of the spoil with it. To
+work, or ye budge not hence without discovery."
+
+This was a provoking interruption--their all depended on a favourable
+issue to this adventure. Dee therefore offered terms of capitulation as
+follows:--
+
+"I'll give you five-and-twenty gold pieces on the spot if ye will let us
+pass."
+
+"Five-and-twenty!--why, that box may hold five-and-twenty hundred," said
+the freebooter with a whistle, by way of derision.
+
+"Perhaps not," said the Doctor, warily; "it is not yet tried, and may
+not be opened here without risk. Come to my lodgings to-morrow, and we
+will share in the product."
+
+"Nay," returned the rogue, sharply, "a pullet in the pen is worth a
+hundred in the fen. Come, we will deal kindly with thee: give us fifty,
+and pass on."
+
+Dee willingly opened his pouch, and threw the gold into the fellow's
+greasy cap, which he held out for the purpose. Immediately they took to
+their heels and departed.
+
+"The demon was more kind, and of a different nature from those that do
+generally haunt these hidden treasures," said the Doctor, as he trudged
+along, following closely at Bartholomew's heels. "If he had not warned
+me to bring the gold, these thieves must needs have opened the box. Had
+they seen the vast hoard which it contains I should not have been
+released for thrice the sum."
+
+With mutual congratulations on their good fortune, and many pious
+thanksgivings on the part of Dee, they arrived, without farther
+molestation, at the college, where Lettice was ill-humouredly awaiting
+their return.
+
+Bartholomew threw down his burden in the study, where the Doctor,
+cautiously guarding against intrusion, wrenched open the chest. His rage
+and agony may be conceived when he found the treasure transformed into a
+heap of stones, bearing the following malicious doggerel on their
+front:--
+
+    "My mare is lost, but I've the gold;
+    My mare is better lost than sold.
+    Full fifty pieces, broad and bright,
+    My bullies bring me home to-night.
+    My trap is baited!--Springs it well,
+    I get the kernel, thou the shell!
+
+"From thy loving,
+
+"BARNABUS HARDCASTLE, _Armiger_."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[19] "Johan Glaston," vol. ii. fol. 535.
+
+[20] _Vide_ Casaubon's folio concerning Dee's intercourse with spirits.
+
+[21] Casaubon.
+
+[Illustration: THE SEER.]
+
+
+
+
+THE SEER.
+
+
+      "_Petruchio_. Pray, have you not a daughter
+    Call'd Katharina, fair and virtuous?
+      _Baptista_. I have a daughter, sir, call'd Katharina,"
+
+_Taming of the Shrew, Act II. Scene_ I.
+
+    "What sudden chance is this, quoth he,
+    That I to love must subject be,
+    Which never thereto would agree,
+      But still did it defie?"
+
+_King Cophetua and the Beggar-maid._
+
+    "Yet she was coy, and would not believe
+      That he did love her so;
+    No, nor at any time would she
+      _Any countenance to him show_."
+
+_The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington_.
+
+The wonderful exploits of Edward Kelly, one of which is recorded in the
+following narrative, would, if collected, fill a volume of no ordinary
+dimensions. He was for a considerable time the companion and associate
+of John Dee, by courtesy called Doctor, from his great acquirements,
+performing for him the office of seer, a faculty not possessed by Dee,
+who was in consequence obliged to have recourse to Kelly for the
+revelations he has published respecting the world of spirits. These
+curious transactions may be found in Casaubon's work, entitled "A true
+and faithful Relation of what passed for many Years between Dr John Dee
+and some Spirits,"--opening out another dark page in the history of
+imposture and credulity. Dee says that he was brought into unison with
+Kelly by the mediation of the angel Uriel. Afterwards he found himself
+deceived by him in his opinion that these spirits, which ministered unto
+him, were messengers of the Deity. They had several quarrels
+before-time; but when he found Kelly degenerating into the worst species
+of the magic art for purposes of avarice and fraud, he broke off all
+connection with him, and would never afterwards be seen in his company.
+Kelly, being discountenanced by the Doctor, betook himself to the
+meanest practices of magic, in all which money and the works of the
+devil appear to have been his chief aim. Many wicked and abominable
+transactions are recorded of him. Wever, in his "Funereal Monuments,"
+records that Kelly, in company with one Paul Waring, who acted with him
+in all his conjurations, went to the churchyard of Walton-le-Dale, near
+Preston, where they had information of a person being interred who was
+supposed to have hidden a considerable sum of money, and to have died
+without disclosing where it was deposited. They entered the churchyard
+exactly at midnight, and having had the grave pointed out in the
+preceding day, they opened it and the coffin, exorcising the spirit of
+the deceased until it again animated the body, which rose out of the
+grave and stood upright before them. It not only satisfied their wicked
+desires, it is said, but delivered several strange predictions
+concerning persons in the neighbourhood, which were literally and
+exactly fulfilled.
+
+In "Lilly's Memoirs" we have the following account of him:--
+
+"Kelly outwent the Doctor--viz., about the elixir and philosopher's
+stone, which neither he nor his master attained by their own labour and
+industry. It was in this manner Kelly obtained it, as I had it related
+from an ancient minister, who new the certainty thereof from an old
+English merchant resident in Germany, at what time both Kelly and Dee
+were there.
+
+"Dee and Kelly being on the confines of the emperor's dominions, in a
+city where resided many English merchants, with whom they had much
+familiarity, there happened an old friar to come to Dr Dee's lodging,
+knocking at the door. Dee peeped down the stairs:--'Kelly,' says he,
+'tell the old man I am not at home.' Kelly did so. The friar said, 'I
+will take another time to wait on him.' Some few days after, he came
+again. Dee ordered Kelly, if it were the same person, to deny him again.
+He did so; at which the friar was very angry. 'Tell thy master I came to
+speak with him and to do him good, because he is a great scholar and
+famous;--but now tell him, he put forth a book, and dedicated it to the
+emperor. It is called '_Monas Hieroglyphicas_.' He understands it not. I
+wrote it myself. I came to instruct him therein, and in some other more
+profound things. Do thou, Kelly, come along with me; I will make thee
+more famous than thy master Dee. Kelly was very apprehensive of what the
+friar delivered, and thereupon suddenly retired from Dee, and wholly
+applied unto the friar, and of him either had the elixir ready made, or
+the perfect method of its preparation and making. The poor friar lived a
+very short time after; whether he died a natural death, or was otherwise
+poisoned or made away by Kelly, the merchant who related this did not
+certainly know."
+
+Kelly was born at Worcester, and had been an apothecary. He had a sister
+who lived there for some time after his death, and who used to exhibit
+some gold made by her brother's projection. "It was vulgarly reported
+that he had a compact with the devil, which he outlived, and was seized
+at midnight by infernal spirits, who carried him off in sight of his
+family, at the instant he was meditating a mischievous design against
+the minister of the parish, with whom he was greatly at enmity."
+
+It would have been easy to select a more historical statement of facts
+respecting Kelly; but the following tale, the events of one day only,
+will, we hope, be more interesting to the generality of readers. It
+exhibits a curious display of the intrigues and devices by which these
+impostors acquired an almost unlimited power over the minds of their
+fellow-men. Human credulity once within their grasp, they could wield
+this tremendous engine at their will, directing it either to good or bad
+intents, but more often to purposes of fraud and self-aggrandisement.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the ancient and well-thriven town of Manchester formerly dwelt a
+merchant of good repute, Cornelius Ethelstoun by name. Plain dealing and
+an honest countenance withal, had won for him a character of no ordinary
+renown. His friezes were the handsomest; his stuffs and camlets were not
+to be sampled in the market, or even throughout the world; insomuch that
+the courtly dames of Venice, and the cumbrous vrows of Amsterdam and the
+Hague, might be seen flaunting in goodly attire gathered from the
+store-houses of Master Cornelius.
+
+His coffers glittered with broad ducats, and his cabinets with the
+rarest productions of the East. His warehouses were crammed, even to
+satiety, and his trestles groaned under heaps of rich velvets, costly
+brocades, and other profitable returns to his foreign adventures. But,
+alas!--and whose heart holdeth not communion with that word!--Cornelius
+was unhappy. He had one daughter, whom "he loved passing well;" yet, as
+common report did acknowledge, the veriest shrew that ever went
+unbridled. In vain did his riches and his revenues increase; in vain was
+plenty poured into his lap, and all that wealth could compass accumulate
+in lavish profusion. Of what avail was this outward and goodly show
+against the cruel and wayward temper of his daughter?
+
+Kate--by this name we would distinguish her, as veritable historians are
+silent on her sponsorial appellation--Kate was unhappily fair and
+well-favoured. Her hair was dark as the raven-plume; but her skin, white
+as the purest statuary marble, grew fairer beneath the black and glossy
+wreaths twining gracefully about her neck. Her cheek was bright as the
+first blush of the morning, and ever and anon, as a deeper hue was
+thrown upon its rich but softened radiance, she looked like a vision
+from Mahomet's paradise--a being nurtured by a warmer sky and fiercer
+suns than our cold climate can sustain. She had lovers, but all approach
+was denied, and, one by one, they stood afar off and gazed. Her pretty
+mouth, lovely even in the proudest glance of petulance and scorn, was so
+oftentimes moulded into the same aspect that it grew puckered and
+contemptuous, rendering her disposition but too manifest; and
+yet--wouldest thou believe it, gentle reader?--she was in love!
+
+Now it so fell out that on the very morning from which we date this
+first passage of our history, Cornelius awoke earlier than he was wont.
+His brow wore an aspect of more than ordinary care. It was but too
+evident that his pillow had been disturbed. Thoughts of more than usual
+perplexity had deprived him of his usual measure of repose. His very
+beard looked abrupt and agitated; his dress bore marks of indifference
+and haste. A slight, but tremulous movement of the head, in general but
+barely visible, was now advanced into a decided shake. With a step
+somewhat nimbler than aforetime, he made, as custom had long rendered
+habitual, his first visit to the counting-house.
+
+The unwearied and indefatigable Timothy Dodge sat there, with the same
+crooked spectacles, and, as it might seem, mending the same pen which
+the same knife had nibbed for at least half-a-century. The tripod on
+which rested this grey Sidrophel of accompts looked of the like hard and
+impenetrable material, as though it were grown into his similitude,
+forming but a lower adjunct to his person. It was evident they had not
+parted company for the last twenty years. Nature had formed him awry. A
+boss or hump, of considerable elevation, extended like a huge promontory
+on one shoulder; from the other depended an arm longer by some inches
+than its fellow. As it described a greater arc its activity was
+proportionate. His grey and restless eyes followed the merchant's track
+with unwearied fidelity; yet was he a man full sparing of words--the
+ever ready "Anon, master," being the chief burden of his replications.
+It was like the troll of an old ballad--a sort of inveterate drawl
+tripping unwittingly from the tongue.
+
+The sun was just peeping through the long dim casement as Cornelius
+stepped over the threshold of his sanctuary. In it lay hidden the
+mysteries of many a goodly tome, more precious in his eyes than the
+rarest and richest that Dee's library could boast. No mean value,
+inasmuch as this celebrated scholar and mathematician, who was lately
+appointed warden of the college, had the most costly store of
+book-furniture that individual ever possessed.
+
+"Good morrow, Dodge."
+
+The pen was twice nibbed ere the usual rejoinder.
+
+"Are the camlets arrived from the country?" inquired the merchant.
+
+"Anon, master--this forenoon may be."
+
+"Is the accompt against Anthony Hardcastle discharged?"
+
+"No," ejaculated the grim fixture.
+
+"And where is the piece of Genoa velvet Dame Margery looked out
+yesterday for her mistress's wedding-suit? I do bethink me it is a good
+ell too long at the measure."
+
+"Six ells, three nails, and an odd inch, besides the broad thumbs,"
+replied Timothy.
+
+"Right:--she reckoned on a good snip for waste; but let no more be sent
+than the embroiderer calls for."
+
+"Not a thread," grunted Dodge.
+
+A pause ensued. Some question was evidently hesitating on the merchant's
+tongue. Twice did his lips move, but the word fell unuttered. The affair
+was, however, finally disposed of as follows:--
+
+"Hast heard of aught, Timothy, touching the private matter that I
+unfolded yesterday?" Cornelius put on as careless an aspect as the
+disquietude of his brow could needs carry, but the inquiry was evidently
+one of no ordinary interest. He twisted the points of his doublet, tied
+and untied the silk cords from his ruff, waiting Dodge's answer in a
+posture not much belying the anxiety he wished to conceal.
+
+"Why, master, an' it were of woman's humours, the old seer himself could
+not unriddle their pranks."
+
+Cornelius sighed, making the following hasty reply:--
+
+"Thinkest thou this same seer could not give me a lift from out my
+trouble?"
+
+"This same seer, I wot," replied Dodge, "is sore perplexed: some evil
+and mischievous aspect doth afflict the horoscope of the nation--Mars
+being conjunct with Venus and the Dragon's tail. Now, look to it,
+master, it is no light matter that will move him; but almost or ere I
+showed him the first glimpse of the business he waxed furious, and said
+that he cared not if all the unwed hussies in Christendom were hung up
+in a row, like rats on a string."
+
+"It is Kate's birthday," answered the merchant, "to-night being the
+feast of St Bartlemy; but, as thou knowest well, the astrologer that
+cast her figure gave no hope of her amendment should this day pass and
+never a husband. Who would yoke with a colt untamed? O Timothy! it were
+well nigh to make an old man weep. I am a withered trunk. Better had I
+been childless than have this proud wench to trouble mine house."
+
+The old man here wept, and it was a grievous thing to see his wrinkled
+cheeks become, as it were, but the sluices and channels of his tears.
+Timothy, too, was something moved from his common posture; and once he
+endeavoured to turn, as though he would hide his face from his master's
+trouble.
+
+He sought to speak, but an evil and husky sort of humour settled in his
+throat, and he waited silently the subsiding of the sorrow he could not
+quell.
+
+Cornelius raised his head: a sudden thought seemed to animate him. A ray
+had penetrated the gloomy envelope of his mind; and he peered through
+the casement intently eyeing the cool atmosphere.
+
+"I'll visit the cunning man myself, Timothy. If he hear me not, then can
+I but return, weeping as I went." And with this speech he hastily
+departed.
+
+Now on this, the morrow of St Bartlemy, it so happened that Kate also
+arose before the usual hour, and in a mood even more than ordinarily
+strange and untoward. Her maiden was like to find it a task of no slight
+enterprise, the attempt to adorn Kate's pretty person. Not a garment
+would fit. She threw the whole furniture of her clothes-press on a heap,
+and stamped on them for very rage. She looked hideous in her brown
+Venice waistcoat; frightful in her orange tiffany farthingale;--absolutely
+unbearable in her black velvet hood, wire ruff, and taffety gown. So
+that in the end she was nigh going to bed again in the sulks, had not a
+jacket of crimson satin, with slashed bodice, embroidered in gold twist,
+taken her fancy. Her little steel mirror, not always the object of such
+complacency, did for once reflect a beam of good humour, which so
+bewitched Kate that for the next five minutes she found herself settling
+into the best possible temper in the world.
+
+"Give me my kerchief, lace scarf, and green silk hood, and my petticoat
+with the border newly purfled. Hark! 'Tis the bell for prayers. Be quick
+with my pantofles:--not those, wench--the yellow silk with silver
+spangles. Now my rings and crystal bracelets. I would not miss early
+matins to-day for the best jewel on an alderman's thumb."
+
+"Anon, lady," replied her waiting-woman, with a sort of pert affectation
+of meekness. But what should cause Kate to be so wonderfully attentive
+to her devotions was a matter on which Janet could have no suspicions,
+or at least would not dare to show them if she had.
+
+Kate, being now attired, tripped forth, accompanied by her maid. As she
+passed the half-closed door of the counting-house, Timothy, with one of
+his most leaden looks, full of unmeaning, stood edgeways in the opening,
+his lower side in advance, with the long arm ready for action.
+
+"Fair mistress, Master Kelly would fain have a token to-day. He hath
+sent you a rare device!"
+
+"And what the better shall I be of his mummeries?" hastily replied the
+lady. Timothy drew from his large leathern purse a curiously-twisted
+ribband.
+
+"He twined this knot for your comfort. Throw it over your left shoulder,
+and it shall write the first letter of your gallant's name. A cypher of
+rare workmanship."
+
+Kate, apparently in anger, snatched the magic ribband, and, peradventure
+it might be from none other design than to rid herself of the mystical
+love-knot, but she tossed it from her with an air of great contumely,
+when, by some disagreeable and untoward accident, it chanced to fly over
+the self-same shoulder to which Timothy had referred. He made no reply,
+but followed the token with his little grey eyes, apparently without any
+sort of aim or concernment. Kate's eyes followed too; but verily it were
+a marvellous thing to behold how the ribband shaped itself as it fell,
+and yet to see how she stamped and stormed. Quick as the burst of her
+proud temper she kicked aside the bauble, but not until the curl of the
+letter had been sufficiently manifest. Timothy drew back into his den,
+leaving the fair maid to the indulgence of her humours. But in the end
+Kate's wrath was not over-difficult to assuage. With an air somewhat
+dubious and disturbed she hastily thrust the token behind her stomacher
+and departed.
+
+The merchant's house being nigh unto the market cross, Kate's
+prettily-spangled feet were soon safely conducted over the low
+stepping-stones placed at convenient distances for the transit of
+foot-passengers through the unpaved streets. Near a sort of style,
+guarding the entrance to the churchyard, rose an immense pile of
+buildings, cumbrous and uncouth. These were built something in the
+fashion of an inverted pyramid; to wit, the smaller area occupying the
+basement, and the larger spreading out into the topmost story. As she
+turned the corner of this vast hive of habitation--for many families
+were located therein--a gay cavalier, sumptuously attired, swept round
+at the same moment. Man and maid stood still for one instant. With
+unpropitious courtesy, an unlucky gust turned aside Kate's veil of real
+Flanders point; and the two innocents, like silly sheep, were staring
+into each other's eyes without either apology or rebuke. It did seem as
+though Kate were not without knowledge of the courtly beau: a rich and
+glowing vermilion came across her neck and face, like the gorgeous blush
+of evening upon the cold bosom of a snow-cloud. But the youth eyed her
+with a cool and deliberate glance, stepping aside carelessly as he
+passed by. She seemed to writhe with some concealed anguish; yet her lip
+curled proudly, and her bosom heaved, as though striving to throw off,
+with one last and desperate struggle, the oppression that she endured.
+In this disturbed and unquiet frame did Kate pass on to her orisons.
+
+It may be needful to pause for a brief space in our narrative, whilst we
+give some account of this goodly spark who had so unexpectedly, as it
+might seem, unfitted the lady for the due exercise of her morning
+devotions.
+
+His dress was elegant and becoming, and of the most costly materials.
+His hat was high and tapering, encircled by a rich band of gold and rare
+stones. It was further ornamented by a black feather, drooping gently
+towards the left shoulder. The brim was rather narrow; but then a
+profusion of curls fell from beneath, partly hiding his lace collar of
+beautiful workmanship and of the newest device. His beard was small and
+pointed; and his whiskers displayed that graceful wave peculiar to the
+high-bred gallants of the age. His neck was long, and the elegant
+disposal of his head would have turned giddy the heads of half the dames
+in the Queen's court. He wore a crimson cloak, richly embroidered: this
+was lined throughout with blue silk, and thrown negligently on one side.
+His doublet was grey, with slit sleeves; the arm parts, towards the
+shoulder, wide and slashed;--but who shall convey an adequate idea of
+the brilliant green breeches, tied far below the knee with yellow
+ribbands, red cloth hose, and great shoe-roses? For ourselves we own our
+incompetence, and proceed, glancing next at his goodly person. In size
+he was not tall nor unwieldy, but of a reasonable stature, such as
+denotes health, activity, and a frame capable of great endurance. He
+stepped proudly along, his very gait indicating superiority.
+
+The town gallants looked on his person with envy, and on his light
+rapier with mistrust. In sooth, he was a proper man for stealing a
+lady's heart, either in hall or bower. Many had been his victims;--many
+were then in the last extremities of love. But of him it was currently
+spoken that he had never yet been subjected to its influence.
+
+There be divers modes of falling into love. Some slip in through means
+of themselves; to wit, from sheer vanity, being never so well pleased as
+when they are the objects of admiration. Some from sheer contradiction,
+and from the well-known tendency of extremes to meet. Some, for very
+idlesse; and some for very love. But in none of these modes had the boy
+Cupid made arrow-holes through the heart of our illustrious hero; for,
+as we before intimated, no yielding place did seem visible, as the
+common discourse testified. How far this report was true the sequel of
+our history will set forth.
+
+Now, this gay gallant being the wonder and admiration of the whole
+place, many were the unthrifty hours spent in such profitless discourse
+by the wives and daughters of the townsfolk, to the great discomfort and
+discredit of their liege lords. He was at present abiding in the
+college, where John Dee had apartments distinct from the warden's house,
+along with his former coadjutor and seer, Edward Kelly. Since the last
+quarrel between these two confederates, they had long been estranged;
+but Kelly had recently come for a season to visit his old master: when
+the Doctor returned from Trebona, in Bohemia, whence he had been invited
+back to his own country by Queen Elizabeth, he having received great
+honours and emoluments from foreign princes. This youth, being son to
+the governor of the castle at Trebona, was about to travel for his
+improvement and understanding in foreign manners. At the suit of his
+parents, Dee undertook the charge of his education and safe return.
+Since then young Rodolf had generally resided under Dr Dee's roof, and
+accompanied him on his accession to the wardenship. His accent was
+decidedly foreign, though he had resided some years in Britain, but not
+sufficiently so for Mancestrian ears to distinguish it from a sort of
+lisping euphuism then fashionable at court and amongst the higher ranks
+of society. An appearance of mystery was connected with his person. His
+birthplace and condition were not generally divulged, and though of an
+open and gallant bearing, yet on this head he was not very
+communicative. Mystery begets wonder and excitement--a sort of interest
+usually attached to subjects not easily understood. When it emanates
+from an object capable of enthralling the affections, this feeling soon
+kindles admiration, and admiration ripens into love. No wonder, then, if
+all tender and compassionate dames were ready to open upon him their
+dread artillery of sighs and glances, and the more especially as it soon
+began to be manifest that success was nigh hopeless. The heart
+entrenched, the wearer was impenetrable.
+
+Kate's oddly-assorted brain had not failed to run a-rambling at times
+after the gallant stranger. He had heard much of her beauty, and
+likewise of her uncertain humours. Each fancied the opposite party
+impregnable; and this alone, if none other motive had arisen, formed a
+sufficiently strong temptation to begin the attack. Kate was
+particularly punctual at church, and once or twice he caught an
+equivocating glance towards the warden's seat, and he really did at
+times fancy he should like to play at "_taming the shrew_." Kate was
+sure the stranger slighted her. He treated her, and her only, with an
+air of neglect she could not altogether account for, and she was in
+month's mind to make the young cavalier crouch at her feet. How this was
+to be contrived could only be guessed at by a woman, and we will not let
+the reader into all the secrets of Kate's sanctuary. Suffice it to say,
+that in so harmlessly attempting to beguile her prey into the snare,
+the lady fell over head and ears into it herself. In a word Kate was in
+love! And this was the more grievous, inasmuch as her lofty bearing
+hitherto would not allow her to whisper the matter even to her own
+bosom; and the pent-up and smothering flame was making sad havoc with
+poor Kate's repose.
+
+She had ofttimes suspected the state of her heart; but instead of
+sighing, pining, and twanging her guitar to love-sick ditties, she would
+fly into so violent a rage at her own folly that nothing might quell the
+disturbance until fairly worn out by its own vehemency. No one suspected
+the truth--yes, one forsooth--gentle reader, canst thou guess? It was no
+less a personage than our one-shouldered friend Timothy Dodge! How the
+cunning rogue had contrived to get at the secret is more than we dare
+tell. Sure enough he had it; and as certain too that another should be
+privy to the fact--to wit, Edward Kelly the seer. Dodge was a fitting
+tool for this intriguer, and well able to help him out at a pinch.
+
+Affairs were in this position when our story commenced. Rodolf had
+formidable auxiliaries at hand, had he been disposed to make the attack;
+but his stay was now short--Kate was petulant and perverse--the siege
+might be tedious. Just on the verge of relinquishing he met Kate, as we
+have before seen, going to church. He caught her for the once completely
+off her guard, and the rich blush that ensued set a crowd of odd fancies
+jingling through his brain. It was just as the old chimes were ringing
+their doleful chant from the steeple, but these hindered not a whit the
+other changes that were set agoing. Not aware of the alteration in his
+course, he was much amazed when he found himself striding somewhat
+irreverently down the great aisle of the church, towards the choir, from
+whence the low chanting of the psalms announced that service was already
+begun.
+
+It was the opening of a bright autumnal day. The softened lights
+streamed playfully athwart the grim and shadowy masses that lay on the
+chequered pavement, like the smiles of infancy sporting on the dark
+bosom of the tomb. The screen formed a rich foreground, in half-shadow,
+before the east window. The first beam of the morning, clothed in
+tenfold brightness, burst through the variegated tracery. Prophets,
+saints, and martyrs shone there, gloriously portrayed in heaven's own
+light.
+
+Rodolf approached the small door leading into the choir,
+
+[Illustration: COLLEGIATE CHURCH, MANCHESTER.
+
+_Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden._]
+
+when his vacant eye almost unconsciously alighted on a female form
+kneeling just within the recess. A ray, from her patron saint belike,
+darting through the eastern oriel, came full upon her dark and glowing
+eye. She turned towards the stranger, but in a moment her head was bent
+as lowly as before, and the ray had lost its power. Rodolf suddenly
+retreated. Passing through a side door, he left the church, directing
+his steps towards the low and dark corridors of the college. Near the
+entrance to his chamber, on a narrow bench, sate a well-caparisoned page
+tuning his lute. His attire was costly, and his raiment all redolent
+with the most fragrant perfume. This youth, when very young, was sent
+over as the companion, or rather at that time as the playmate of his
+master. He was now dignified with the honourable title of page, and his
+affection for Rodolf was unbounded.
+
+"Boy," said the cavalier, something moodily, "come into the chamber.
+Stay--fetch me a sack-posset, prythee. I am oppressed, and weary with my
+morning's ramble."
+
+Now the boy did marvel much at his master's sudden return, but more
+especially at the great fatigue consequent on that short
+interval;--knowing, too, that a particularly copious and substantial
+breakfast had anticipated his departure.
+
+"And yet, Altdorff, I am not in a mood for much drink. Give us a touch
+of those chords. I feel sad at times, and vapourish."
+
+They entered into a well-furnished apartment. The ceiling was composed
+of cross-beams curiously wrought. On one of these was represented a grim
+head in the act of devouring a child--which tradition affirmed was the
+great giant Tarquin at his morning's repast. The room was fitted up with
+cumbrous elegance. A few pieces of faded tapestry covered one side of
+the apartment. In a recess stood a tester bed, ornamented with black
+velvet, together with curtains of black stuff and a figured coverlet. A
+wainscot cupboard displayed its curiously-carved doors, near to which
+hung two pictures, or tables as they were called, representing the fair
+Lucretia and Mary Magdalen. A backgammon-board lay on the window-seat;
+three shining tall-backed, oaken chairs, with a table of the same
+well-wrought material, and irons beautifully embossed, and a striped
+Turkey rug, formed a sumptuous catalogue, when we consider the manner of
+furnishing that generally prevailed in those days.
+
+The page sat on a corner seat beneath the window. He struck a few wild
+chords.
+
+"Not that--not that, good Altdorff. It bids one linger too much of
+home-longings."
+
+Here the boy's eyes glistened, and a tremulous motion of the lip showed
+how his heart bounded at the word.
+
+"Prythee, give us the song thou wast conning yesterday."
+
+The page began with a low prelude, but was again interrupted.
+
+"Nay, 'tis not thus. Give me that wild love-ditty thou knowest so well.
+I did use to bid thee be silent when thou wouldest have worried mine
+ears with it. But in sooth the morning looks so languishing and tender
+that it constrains the bosom, I verily think, to its own softness."
+
+The page seemed to throw his whole soul into the wild melody which
+followed this request. We give it, with a few verbal alterations, as
+follows:--
+
+SONG.
+
+1.
+
+        Fair star, that beamest
+          In my ladye's bower,
+        Pale ray, that streamest
+          In her lonely tower;
+    Bright cloud, when like the eye of Heaven
+      Floating in depths of azure light,
+        Let me but on her beauty gaze
+      Like ye unchidden. Day and night
+        I'd watch, till no intruding rays
+            Should bless my sight.
+
+2.
+
+        Fond breeze, that rovest
+          Where my ladye strays,
+        Odours thou lovest
+          Wafting to her praise;
+    Lone brook, that with soft music bubblest,
+      Chaining her soul to harmony;
+        Let me but round her presence steal
+      Like ye unseen, a breath I'd be,
+        Content none other joy to feel
+            Than circling thee!
+
+"In good sooth, thou canst govern the cadence well. Thou hast more skill
+of love than thine age befits. But, mayhap, 'tis thy vocation, boy. Hast
+thou had visitors betimes this morning!"
+
+"None, good master, but Kelly."
+
+"What of him?"
+
+"Some business that waited your return. I thought you had knowledge of
+the matter."
+
+"Are there any clients astir so early at his chamber, thinkest thou?"
+
+"None, save the rich merchant that dwells hard by, Cornelius
+Ethelstoun."
+
+"Cornelius!" repeated the cavalier, in a disturbed and inquiring
+tone--"hath he departed?"
+
+"Nay, I heard not his footsteps since I watched the old man tapping
+warily at the prophet's door."
+
+Rodolf hastily replaced his hat, and his short and impatient rap was
+heard at the seer's chamber.
+
+It occupied the north-eastern angle of the building, in the gloomiest
+part of the house; overlooking, on one side, a small courtyard,
+barricadoed by walls and battlements of stout masonry, along which were
+ridges of long rank grass waving in all the pride of uncropped
+luxuriance. Another window overlooked the dark-flowing Irk, lazily
+rolling beneath the perpendicular rock on which the college was
+built--the very site of the once formidable station of Mancunium, the
+heart and centre of the Roman power in that vast district.
+
+No answer being rendered to this hasty summons, Rodolf raised the latch,
+but marvelled not a little when he beheld the room apparently deserted.
+Voices were, however, heard in the inner apartment. Ere he could well
+draw back the door slowly opened, nor could he avoid hearing the
+following termination to some weighty conference.
+
+"An hundred broad pieces--good! Ere night, thou sayest?"
+
+"Ere the curfew," replied Cornelius.
+
+"Look thee--'tis but a slender space for mine art to work, and"--The
+seer, as he uttered this with great solemnity, entered the antechamber.
+The gallant stood there, just meditating a retreat. A flush of anger and
+confusion passed for a moment over Kelly's visage. Quickly recovering
+his self-possession, with a severe aspect, he stood before the intruder.
+
+"Art come to listen or to watch?" abruptly interrogated the seer. "Both
+be rare accomplishments truly for a youth of thy breeding."
+
+"Nay, good Master Kelly; I came but at thy bidding, and mine ears are
+not the heavier or the wiser for what they have heard, I trow."
+
+"I thought thee safe at morning prayers."
+
+"Nay," replied Rodolf. "There be too many bright eyes and blushing
+cheeks for the seasoning of a man's devotions."
+
+"Cornelius, thou mayest retire. What mine art can compass shall not be
+lacking at thy need."
+
+The merchant, with a profound obeisance, withdrew. The seer adjusted his
+beard, carefully brushed the down from his velvet cap, and sate for a
+while as if abstracted from all outward intercourse. His keen quick eye
+became fixed, its lustre imperceptibly waning. A cloud seemed to pass
+gradually over his sharp features, until their expression was absorbed,
+giving place to a look of mere lifeless inanity. A spectator might have
+fancied himself gazing at a sage of some remote era, conjured up from
+his dark resting-place. The wand of death seemed to have withered his
+shrunk visage for ages under the dim shadow of the grave.
+
+Rodolf, aware that he was not to be interrupted when the gift was upon
+him, waited patiently the result of the seer's revelations. A
+considerable time had elapsed when the cloud began to roll away. His
+features gradually reassumed the attributes of life, as each separately
+felt the returning animation. His eyes rested full on the cavalier.
+
+"I have had a vision, Rodolf."
+
+"To me is it not spoken?" inquired he.
+
+"Yea, to thee!" The seer said this in a tone so hollow and energetic,
+and with a look of such thrilling awe, that even Rodolf shuddered. He
+seemed to feel his glance.
+
+"Listen. The spirit warned me thus:--
+
+    "'The stranger that hither comes o'er the broad sea
+    Shall wed on the night of St Bartlemy.'"
+
+"Nay, Master Kelly, thine art faileth this once, forsooth. To-night is
+the saint's vigil, yet lurk I not in the beam of a woman's favour; and
+ere another year I may be cured of the simples at my father's dwelling
+in the old castle."
+
+"The vision hath spoken, and it setteth not forth idle tales. Come to me
+anon, I will anoint and prepare my beryl and my divining mirror. Thou
+shall thyself behold some of the mysteries touching which I have warned
+thee beforetime. About noon return to my chamber."
+
+Rodolf withdrew into his own apartment. His countenance looked anxious
+and disturbed. He sat down, but his restlessness seemed to increase.
+His posture was not the most easy and graceful that might be desired,
+nor calculated to set off his personal advantages, though now become the
+more needful, if, as the seer predicted, he should wive ere
+night--albeit his bride were yet unsought--nor wooed, nor won! Nothing
+could be more destructive to that easy self-satisfaction, that seductive
+and insinuating carriage, so essential to the fine gentleman of every
+age. There was a sort of angular irregularity in his movements, neither
+pleasant nor becoming; and his agitation so far overcame his better
+breeding that he really did cram his beard between at least three of his
+fingers. His rapier had, moreover, poked its way through his cloak, and
+the bright shoe-roses were nigh ruined, from the sudden crossings and
+disarrangements they had undergone. A considerable time had now elapsed;
+in the meanwhile his impatience had risen to an alarming height,
+insomuch that we would not have answered for the safety of his red cloth
+hose and silken doublet, had not noon been happily announced.
+
+Raising the latch of the seer's chamber with considerable eagerness, he
+found the room completely dark. An unseen hand led him to a seat. Soon
+he heard a low murmuring chant, as though from voices at a remote
+distance. By degrees the words grew more articulate, shaping themselves
+into the same quaint distich that Kelly had repeated,--
+
+    "The stranger that hither comes o'er the broad sea
+    Shall wed on the night of St Bartlemy."
+
+This was answered in a voice of considerable pathos; a burst of soft
+music filling up the interval. Gradually the eye began to feel sensible
+of the presence of surrounding objects, though in the ordinary way
+nothing could be distinguished; a faculty peculiarly sensitive with the
+loss of sight, and not quite dormant in the general mass of mankind. A
+faint gleam was soon perceptible, like the first blush of morning,
+apparently on the opposite side of the chamber. Becoming brighter,
+flashes of a dim, rainbow-coloured light crept slowly by, like the
+aurora sweeping over an illuminated cloud. Suddenly he saw, or his eyes
+deceived him, a female form shaping itself from these chaotic elements.
+But it was observed only during the short intervals when the beams
+seemed to kindle with unusual brightness. Every flash, however, rendered
+the appearance more distinct. Dazzled and bewildered, the heated senses
+were become the victims of their own credulity, the mind receiving back
+its own reactions. Taking its impression probably from the occurrences
+of the morning, the eye rapidly moulded the figure into the likeness of
+Kate. Her eyes were turned upon him, beaming with that soft and melting
+expression he had so recently beheld. It was but momentary, or he could
+have persuaded himself that she looked on him with an air the most
+tender and compassionate. Never did fancy portray her in a form so
+lovely. Deep and indelible was the impression; and though it might be
+
+    "The imagination
+    Become impregnate with her own desire,"
+
+yet she had performed her office well. Not all the realities, all the
+blandishments that woman ever displayed, even the most resistless, could
+have wrought half so dexterously or gained such swift access to the
+heart. The vision faded, and a momentary darkness ensued. Suddenly a
+blaze of light irradiated the apartment. Rodolf beheld, for one short
+glimpse, a Gothic hall. Kate was there, and a lover kneeling at her
+feet. Madness seized him, agonising and intense. In vain he sought the
+features of his tormentor; the vision had departed, and with it his
+repose.
+
+A new and overwhelming emotion had overpowered him. It arose with the
+speed and impetuosity of a whirlwind. All just and sober anticipations,
+reflections, possibilities, and a thousand calm resolves, were swept as
+bubbles before the full burst of the torrent.
+
+His first impulse was to seek his mistress. But--she had another lover!
+The bare possibility of this event came o'er his bosom like the icy
+chill of the grave. He shuddered as it passed; but the pang was too keen
+to return with the same intensity.
+
+Soon a low murmur, like the distant sough of the wind, gradually
+approached. A faint light flashed through the chamber. He saw his own
+wild woods and the distant castle. It was just visible, dimly outlined
+on the horizon, as he had last beheld it in the cold grey beam that
+accompanied his departure. It arose tranquilly on his spirit. The voice
+of other years visited his soul. His eyes filled--he could have wept in
+the very overflowing of his delight. He dashed his hand across his
+forehead; but the pageant had disappeared.
+
+Daylight once more shone into the apartment; but nothing was discerned,
+save a dark curtain concealing one extremity of the room, and the seer
+sitting at his elbow.
+
+"Boy, what sawest thou?" said Kelly, not raising his head as he spoke,
+but intently poring over a grim volume of cabalistic symbols.
+
+"In troth, I am hard put to it, Master Kelly. The maid I have just seen
+is accounted the veriest shrew in the parish, and one whom no man may
+approach with a safe warranty. I am like to lose all hope of wiving, if
+this be the maiden I am to woo. And yet"--The form of the comely suitor
+he had seen kneeling at her feet just then flashed on his mind, yet
+cared he not to show the seer how much the phantom had disturbed him.
+
+"Idle tales?" said Kelly. "I wot not but half the gay gallants in the
+town would give the best jewel in their caps to have one sweet look, one
+pretty smile from her cruel mouth. 'Tis but the report of those whom she
+hath slighted with loathing and contempt, that hath raised this
+apprehension in her disfavour. The churls know not what is hidden
+beneath this outward habit of her perverse nature, and she careth not to
+discover. Should some youth of noble bearing and condition but woo her
+as she deserves, thou shouldest see her tamed, ay, and loving too, as
+the very idol of her worship, or I would forfeit my best gift."
+
+"But she hath a lover!" said Rodolf, gravely.
+
+"Peradventure she hath, but not of her own choosing, or mine art fails
+me. Look, this figure is the horoscope of her birth. Thou hast some
+knowledge of the celestial sciences. The directions are so close worked
+that should this night pass and Kate go unwed--indicated by Venus coming
+to a trine of the sun on the cusp of the seventh house, she will refuse
+all her suitors, and her whole patrimony pass into the hands of a
+stranger; but"--he raised his voice with a solemn and emphatic
+enunciation--"to-night! look to it! If not thine she may be another's."
+
+The listener's brain seemed on a whirl; thought hurrying on thought,
+until the mind lost all power of discrimination. The succession of
+images was too rapid. All individuality was gone. He felt as though not
+one idea was left out of the busy crowd on which to rest his own
+identity. He seemed a mere passive existence, unable either to execute
+the functions of thought or volition.
+
+"Go, for a brief space. Thou mayest return at sunset. Yet"--the seer
+fixed a penetrating glance on the youth as he retired--"go not nigh the
+merchant's dwelling, unless thou wouldest mar thy fortune.
+To-night--remember!"
+
+In the dim solitude of his chamber Rodolf sought in vain to allay the
+feverish excitement he had endured. He seemed left to the sport and
+caprice of a power he could not control. The coursers of the imagination
+grew wilder with restraint: he recklessly flung the reins upon their
+neck; but this did not tire their impetuosity. His brain glowed like a
+furnace; he seemed hastening fast on to the verge of either folly or
+madness. He threw himself on the couch, when the voice of Altdorff came
+like a winged harmony upon his spirit. The page was seated in the narrow
+cloisters,--the lute, his untiring companion, enticing a few chords from
+his touch, playful and gentle as the feelings that awaked them; some old
+and quaint chant, scarce worth the telling, but cherished in the heart's
+inmost shrine, from the hallowed nature of its associations. A deep
+slumber crept heavily on the cavalier, but the merchant's daughter still
+haunted him: sometimes snatched away from his embrace just as a rosy
+smile was kindling on her lips; at others, she met him with frowns and
+menace, but ere he could speak to her she had disappeared. Then was he
+tottering on the battlements of some old turret, when a storm arose, the
+maiden crept to his side, but in an instant, with a hideous crash, she
+was borne away by the rude grasp of the tempest. He awoke, with a
+mortifying discovery that the crash had been of a somewhat less
+equivocal nature. A cabinet of costly workmanship lay overturned at his
+feet, and a rich vase, breathing odours, strewed the floor in a thousand
+fragments.
+
+The noise brought up several of the college servitors; to rid himself
+from the annoyance he ascended the roof, then protected by low
+battlements, and leaded, so that a person might walk round the building
+and pursue his meditations without interruption.
+
+On this day, teeming with events, Dr Dee had been too closely engaged in
+parish duties to give heed to these love fancies, and even had he been
+ever so free to exercise his judgment in the matter, it is more than
+likely Rodolf would not have opened to him the proceedings then afoot.
+He well knew that the Doctor yet bore no good-will to Kelly, and might
+possibly thwart his designs, to the undoing of any good purposed by the
+strange transactions that had already occurred; he resolved, therefore,
+to let this day pass, ere he opened his lips on the subject. But how to
+while away the hours until evening was a most embarrassing problem.
+Sleep he had tried, but he found no wish to repeat the experiment;
+reading was just then foreign to his humour; mathematics must, that day,
+go unstudied. After beating time to at least a dozen strange metres, he
+hit upon the happy contrivance of writing a love-song, as a kind of
+expedient to restore the equilibrium. He was rather unskilled at the
+work; but the pen becomes eloquent when the soul moves it. We will,
+however, leave him at this thrifty employment, having no design, gentle
+reader, to make the occasion as wearisome to thee as to himself. Having
+the power to annihilate both time and space, let us watch the round sun,
+as he threw his last look, that evening, on the scene of this marvellous
+history. The old walls of the college, and the church tower, were
+invested with a gorgeous apparel of light, as though illumined for some
+gay festival, some season of rejoicing, when gladness shines out visibly
+in the shape of bonfires and torches. But few moments elapsed, ere the
+love-sick youth was again admitted into the dark interior of the seer's
+dwelling.
+
+A voice whispered in his ear--
+
+"Not a word, hardly a breath, as thou wouldest thrive in thy pursuit.
+There be spirits abroad, not of earth, nor air. Be silent and discreet."
+
+A ray suddenly darted across the room. Again the voice was at his ear:--
+
+"Hold thine eye to the crevice when the light enters, and mark well what
+thou beholdest."
+
+Again he saw his mistress, apparently in a vaulted chamber, lighted by a
+single lamp: she sat as if anxious and disturbed, her cheek pale and
+flushed by turns, whilst her eye wandered hurriedly around the room.
+Some one approached; it was the seer. Rodolf heard him speak.
+
+"Maiden, hast thou a lover?"
+
+The sound seemed scarcely akin to that of human speech. It rose heavily
+and deep, as from the charnel-house, as if the grim and cold jaws of the
+grave could utter a voice,--the dreary echoes of the tomb! The seer's
+lips were motionless, whilst he thus continued in the same sepulchral
+tone.
+
+"I know thou hast. 'Tis here thy love would tend." He drew a richly-set
+miniature from his bosom. It was mounted in so peculiar a fashion that
+Rodolf started back with the first emotion of surprise. The miniature
+was his own; a gem newly from the artist, and which he had left, as he
+thought, in safe custody a short time ago. The voice again whispered in
+his ear, "Beware."
+
+He subdued the expression of wonder just rising on his lip, watching the
+issue with increased interest.
+
+Kate covered her face. She had just glanced at the picture, and her
+proud bosom heaved almost to bursting.
+
+"Look, disdainful woman! and though thy bosom be formed for love, yet
+wouldest thou spurn it from thee. I _know_ thou lovest him. Nay, chide
+not; thy brow cannot blast me with its thunders. Go to. I could, by mine
+art, so humble thee, set thy love so exquisitely on its desire, that
+thou shouldest lay thy proud womanhood aside--sue and crouch, even if
+'twere for blows, like a tame spaniel! I have thee in my power, and were
+not the natural bent of thy dispositions kind and noblehearted, yet sore
+beset, and, as it were, overwhelmed by thy curst humours, I had now cast
+my spells about thee--ay, stricken thee to the dust! Shake off these
+bonds that enthral thy better spirit, and let not that beautiful fabric
+play the hypocrite any longer. Why should so fair a temple be the
+dwelling of a demon?"
+
+A deep sob here told that kindlier feelings were at work; that nature
+was beginning to assert her prerogative, and that the common sympathies,
+the tender attributes, of woman were not extinguished.
+
+The struggle was short, but severe. With difficulty she repressed the
+outburst of her grief as she spoke.
+
+"A woman still! 'Tis the garb nature put on. I have wrapped a sterner
+garment about me." A long and bitter sob here betrayed the violent
+warfare within. It was but for a moment. Affecting contempt for her own
+weakness, she exclaimed--
+
+"Throw it off? Expose me defenceless to his proud contumely? Even now
+the cold glance of indifference hath pierced it through!"
+
+Here she arose proudly.
+
+"And what thinkest thou, if I were to stand unarmed, uncovered, before
+his unfeeling gaze?"
+
+"He loves thee," hastily rejoined the seer.
+
+"Me!--as soon that bauble learn to love as"----
+
+"Say but one word, and I will bow him at thy feet."
+
+"'Tis well thou mockest me thus. To worm out my secret, perchance.--For
+this didst thou crave my presence? Let me be gone!"
+
+"Thou shalt say 'Yes,' Kate, ere thou depart!"
+
+The curtain which divided the apartment suddenly flew aside. The
+astonished lover beheld his mistress:--not the unreal phantom he had
+imagined, but a being substantial in quality, and of a nature like his
+own, though gentler than his fondest anticipations.
+
+The seer departed: but in the end the lovers were not displeased at
+being betrayed into a mutual expression of their regard.
+
+The operation of the heavenly influences was, in these days, a doctrine
+that obtained almost universal credit; and it would have been looked
+upon as a daring piece of presumption to baffle the prophetic
+signification of the stars.
+
+On that same night, being the eve of St Bartholomew, they were
+married:--thus adding one more to the numerous instances on record,
+where a belief in the prediction has been the means of its
+accomplishment.
+
+The remainder of Kate's history, and how she crossed the sea,
+accompanied by her husband, into the wilds of Bohemia, living there for
+a space; and how she afterwards returned into her own land, will be set
+forth at some more fitting opportunity.
+
+
+
+
+THE EARL OF TYRONE.
+
+
+    "Still the fairest are his fuell,
+    When his days are to be cruell;
+    Lovers' hearts are all his food,
+    And his baths their warmest blood;
+    Nought but wounds his hands doth season,
+    And he hates none like to reason."
+
+_A Hue and Cry after Cupid_.--Ben Jonson.
+
+The dark and romantic history of the Earl of Tyrone would of itself
+occupy a larger space than these volumes afford. The following episode,
+connected with his concealment in the neighbourhood of Rochdale, the
+author does not presume to bring forward as a fact. Yet there are good
+reasons for supposing that it formed an important era in his life, and
+was followed very soon after by the Queen's pardon. The importance of
+this measure may be conceived, when by some Elizabeth's depression, and
+the profound melancholy she exhibited in her latter hours, were
+attributed to this source. It is said that she repented of having
+pronounced his forgiveness; that having always resolved to bring him to
+condign punishment, she could receive no satisfaction from his
+submission; while the advantages of her high estate, and all the glories
+of a prosperous reign, were unable to alleviate her disappointment.
+
+The following is a brief sketch of his life, extracted from
+generally-received authorities.
+
+Hugh O'Neale was nephew to Shan O'Neale, or the Great O'Neale, as he was
+more commonly called, well known for his eminent courage, a virtue much
+esteemed by the half-civilised hordes whom he commanded. He was created
+Earl of Tyrone by the Queen; but disliking this servitude, and wishful
+to liberate his country from the English yoke, he entered into a
+correspondence with Spain; procured from thence a supply of arms and
+ammunition; and having united many of the Irish chiefs in a dependence
+upon himself, he began to be regarded as a formidable enemy.
+
+[Illustration: TYRONE'S BED, NEAR ROCHDALE.
+
+_Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden._]
+
+The English found much difficulty in pursuing the rebels into the bogs,
+woods, and other fastnesses to which they retreated. Sir John Norris,
+who commanded the English army, was rendered thereby more willing to
+hearken to the proposals made by Tyrone, and the war was spun out by
+these artifices for some years. Sir John dying, as was reported, of
+vexation and discontent, was succeeded by Sir Henry Bagnall. "He
+advanced to the relief at Blackwater, then besieged by the enemy, but
+was surrounded in disadvantageous ground. His soldiers, discouraged by
+part of their powder accidentally taking fire, were put to flight; and
+though the pursuit was stopped by Montacute, who commanded the English
+horse, fifteen hundred men, together with the general himself, were left
+dead upon the spot. This victory so unusual to the Irish, roused their
+courage, supplied them with arms and munitions of war, and raised the
+renown of Tyrone, who was hailed as deliverer of his country and patron
+of Irish liberty."[22]
+
+The unfortunate Essex was afterwards appointed to the command; but his
+troops were so terrified at the reputation of Tyrone that many of them
+counterfeited sickness, and others deserted, fearful of encountering the
+forces of that daring chief. Finding himself in a great measure
+deserted, "he hearkened to a message from Tyrone, who desired a
+conference; and a plain near the two camps was appointed for this
+purpose. The two generals met without any attendants. A river ran
+between them, into which Tyrone entered to his saddle-girth, but Essex
+stood on the opposite bank."
+
+At this meeting where "Tyrone behaved with great submission to the
+lord-lieutenant, a cessation of arms was agreed on.[23] Essex also
+received a proposal of peace, into which Tyrone had inserted many
+unreasonable and exorbitant conditions; and there appeared afterwards
+some reason to suspect that the former had commenced a very
+unjustifiable correspondence with the enemy." From this time the beam of
+Essex's favour was obscured, the issue terminating in his death and
+disgrace. In the meantime, Tyrone had thought proper to break the trace,
+"and joining with O'Donnel and others, overran almost the whole kingdom.
+He pretended to be the champion of the Catholic faith, and openly
+exulted in the present of a phoenix plume, which Clement VIII., in order
+to encourage him in the prosecution of so good a cause, had consecrated,
+and conferred upon him."[24] Essex being recalled, the Queen appointed
+Mountjoy as lord-deputy. "He found the island in a desperate condition;
+but being a man of capacity and vigour, he immediately advanced against
+Tyrone in Ulster. He penetrated into the heart of that country, the
+chief seat of the rebels. He fortified Derry and Mount Norris. He chased
+them from the field, and obliged them again to shelter in woods and
+morasses; and by these promising enterprises he gave new life to the
+Queen's authority throughout the island."
+
+Tyrone, however, still boasted that he was certain of receiving the
+promised aid from Spain; "and everything was put in condition for
+resisting the Spanish invasion, which was daily expected. The deputy,
+informed of the danger to which the southern provinces were exposed,
+left the prosecution of the war against Tyrone, who was now reduced to
+great extremities, and marched with his army into Munster."
+
+"At last the Spaniards, under Don Juan d'Aquila, arrived at Kinsale;
+and Sir Richard Piercy, who commanded in the town with a small garrison
+of one hundred and fifty men, found himself obliged to abandon it on
+their appearance. These invaders amounted to four thousand, and the
+Irish discovered a strong propensity to join them, in order to free
+themselves from the English government, with which they were extremely
+discontented. One chief ground of their complaint was the introduction
+of trials by jury,[25] an institution abhorred by that people, though
+nothing contributes more to the support of that equity and liberty for
+which the English laws are so justly celebrated. The Irish also bore a
+great favour to the Spaniards, having entertained the opinion that they
+themselves were descended from that nation; and their attachment to the
+Catholic religion proved a new cause of affection for the invaders.
+D'Aquila assumed the title of general in this '_holy war_,' for the
+preservation of the faith in Ireland; and he endeavoured to persuade the
+people that Elizabeth was, by several bulls of the Pope, deprived of her
+crown; that her subjects were absolved from their oaths of religion, and
+that the Spaniards were come to deliver the Irish from the dominion of
+the devil.[26] Mountjoy found it necessary to act with vigour, in order
+to prevent a total insurrection of the Irish; and having collected his
+forces, he formed the siege of Kinsale by land, while Sir Richard
+Levison, with a small squadron, blockaded it by sea. He had no sooner
+begun his operations than he heard of the arrival of another body of two
+thousand Spaniards under the command of Alphonso Ocampo, who had taken
+possession of Baltimore and Berehaven; and he was obliged to detach Sir
+George Carew to oppose their progress. Tyrone, meanwhile, with Randal,
+MacSurley Tirel, Baron of Kelly, and other chieftains of the Irish, had
+joined Ocampo with all their forces, and were marching to the relief of
+Kinsale. The deputy, informed of their designs by intercepted letters,
+made preparations to receive them; and being reinforced by Levison with
+six hundred marines, he posted his troops on an advantageous ground
+which lay on the passage of the enemy, leaving some cavalry to prevent a
+sally from D'Aquila and the Spanish garrison. When Tyrone, with a
+detachment of Irish and Spaniards, approached, he was surprised to find
+the English so well posted and ranged for battle, and he immediately
+sounded a retreat; but the deputy gave orders to pursue him, and having
+thrown these advanced troops into confusion, he followed them to the
+main body, which he also attacked and put to flight, with the slaughter
+of twelve hundred men.[27] Ocampo was taken prisoner; Tyrone fled into
+Ulster; O'Donnel made his escape into Spain; and D'Aquila, finding
+himself reduced to the greatest difficulties, was obliged to capitulate
+upon such terms as the deputy prescribed to him. He surrendered Kinsale
+and Baltimore, and agreed to evacuate the kingdom. This great blow,
+joined to other successes gained by Wilmot, governor of Kerry, and by
+Roger and Gavin Harvey, threw the rebels into dismay, and gave a
+prospect of the final reduction of Ireland."
+
+The remaining part of Tyrone's history may be gathered from the
+narrative.
+
+Among other memorable incidents illustrative of his character, it is
+said that Tyrone, appearing in person to execute a treaty, immediately
+on the issue of some sanguinary engagement, was requested to sign the
+terms. "Here is my signature," said he, laying his bloody hand on the
+deed: "'tis the mark of the Kings of Ulster." Hence, tradition gravely
+asserts was the origin of "the bloody hand," the arms of Ulster! That
+such a derivation is fabulous we need not attempt to prove.
+
+What a paradox is love!--the most selfish and yet the most disinterested
+of the passions; the gentlest and yet the most terrible of impulses that
+can agitate the human bosom; the most ennobling and the most humble; the
+most enduring and the most transient; slow as the most subtle venom to
+its work, yet impetuous in its career as the tornado or the whirlwind;
+sportive as the smile of infancy, and appalling as the maniac's shriek,
+or the laugh of his tormentor. 'Tis a joy nursed in the warm glow of
+hope; but who shall reveal the depths of its despair? 'Twas given to man
+as his best boon--his most precious gift; but his own hands polluted the
+shrine--marred the beauteous and holy deposit. The loveliest image was
+then smitten with deformity, and that passion, the highest and noblest
+that could animate his bosom, became the bane of his happiness, the
+destroyer of his peace, and the source whence every attribute of woe
+hath sprung to afflict and darken the frail hopes of humanity. This may
+be the dark side of the picture; but unless the breath of heaven
+sanctify even the purest affections of our nature, they are a withering
+blast, blighting its fairest verdure--a torment and a curse!
+
+The following narrative, floating but indistinctly on the author's
+memory, and in all probability attached to other names in localities
+widely apart, is yet, he believes, true as to the more important
+particulars. The site of a few cottages in a romantic dell in the
+neighbourhood of Rochdale is still associated with the memory of the
+unfortunate Earl of Tyrone. It is yet called "Tyrone's Bed." In history,
+this noble chief is depicted in colours the most hideous and detestable;
+but if the lion had been the painter, we should have had to contemplate
+a different portrait. By his countrymen he was held in the most profound
+reverence and respect. Beloved by all, he was hailed as the expected
+deliverer of his native land from wrong and oppression. The most
+bigoted of his persecutors cannot deny that oppression, the most foul
+and inhuman, did exist; and the men who took up arms for the rescue of
+their brethren may be pitied, if not pardoned, for their noble,
+elevated, and enduring spirit. Let us not be misunderstood as the
+advocates of rebellion; but surely there are occasions when the galling
+yoke of oppression may be too heavy to sustain--when the crushed reptile
+may, writhing, turn against him who tramples on it. Let us not do this
+wrong, even to our enemies, by refusing to admire in them the
+disinterestedness and magnanimity which in others would have insured our
+admiration and applause.
+
+About a mile from the spot we have just named stood the ancient mansion
+of Grizlehurst. Surrounded on every side by dark and almost trackless
+woods, sprung through a long line of ancestry from primeval forests, it
+reposed in undisturbed seclusion, still and majestic as the proud swan
+that basked upon the dark lake before it, secure from intrusion and
+alarm. Gable-ends and long casements broke the low piebald front into a
+variety of detail--a-combination of effect throwing an air of
+picturesque beauty on the whole, which not all the flimsy and frittered
+"Gothic" can convey to the mansions of modern antiques. For the timber
+employed in its erection a forest must have been laid prostrate. Huge
+arched fire-places; chimney-pieces carved with armorial bearings; oak
+tables absolutely joisted to sustain their vast bulk; bedsteads that
+would not have groaned with the weight of a Titan;--the whole intended
+to oppose a ponderous resistance to the ravages of time and fashion. Not
+a vestige is left. Those laughing halls echo no more with the loud and
+boisterous revel; the music of the "many twinkling" feet is gone;
+scarcely a stone is left upon its fellow; a few straggling trees alone
+mark the site. The beech and willow are waving o'er its hearth! Who
+would build for the destroyer? And yet man, with the end of these
+vanities in prospect, daily, hourly still builds on; his schemes and his
+projects extending through the long vista of succeeding ages, as though
+his dwelling were eternal, and his own fabric should survive the ruin
+and the doom of all!
+
+A long train of ancestors bearing the name of Holt occupied this
+dwelling as the family mansion. The manor of Spotland, forfeited by the
+rebellion of Paslew, Abbot of Whalley, was granted by Henry the Eighth
+to Thomas Holt, afterwards knighted in Scotland by Edward, Earl of
+Hertford, in the thirty-sixth year of the reign of that monarch. The
+present possessor of the same name, grandson to Sir Thomas, resided at
+Grislehurst during the latter part of Elizabeth's reign and that of
+James. He married Constance, the daughter of Sir Edward Littleton of
+Pillaton Hall, Stafford. One son, Francis, and a daughter named
+Constance, were the fruit of this union. At the commencement of our
+narrative he had been for some years a widower, and his son was then
+absent on foreign travel.
+
+It was in the memorable year 1603, the last of Elizabeth. The rebellion
+in Ireland had been smothered, if not extinguished; and the great
+O'Neale, Earl of Tyrone and King of Ulster, together with many other
+chiefs, were forced to remain concealed in woods and morasses. Outlawed
+and outcast, some of them crossed over into England, remaining there
+until pardoned by the Queen.
+
+Constance was now in her nineteenth year. Bright as her own morn of
+life, she had seen but few clouds in that season of hope and delight.
+Sorrow was to her scarce known, save in the nursery tales and wild
+ballads of the surrounding district. When the glowing morn was overcast,
+she was unprepared, unfitted for the change. The storm came, and the
+little sum of her happiness, launched on this frail and perishing bark,
+was wrecked without a struggle!
+
+One evening, in the full glare of a dazzling sunset, the light streaming
+like a shower through the dark foliage of the valley, she had loitered,
+along with her old nurse, in the dell to which we have before alluded.
+The glowing atmosphere was just fading into the dewy tint which betokens
+a fair morrow. To enjoy a more extended gaze upon the clouds, those
+gorgeous vestures of the sun, Constance had ascended, by a winding path,
+to the edge of a steep cliff overhanging the river. She stood for some
+minutes looking towards the west, unconscious of the loose and slippery
+nature of the materials beneath her feet, and of her near approach to
+the brink. On a sudden the ground gave way, and she was precipitated
+headlong into the river! Nurse Agnes, who stood below, watching her
+young mistress, not without apprehension as to the consequences of her
+temerity, was stricken motionless with horror. There seemed to be no
+help. Fast receding from all hope of succour, Constance was borne
+rapidly down the stream. Suddenly, with the swiftness of a deer from
+the brake, a figure bounded from an opposite thicket. He seemed scarcely
+to leave his footmarks on the long herbage ere he gained the river's
+brink. Plunging into the current he succeeded in rescuing the maiden
+from her perilous condition. He laid her gently on the bank, beckoning
+to her attendant, and was speedily out of sight. The aged Agnes, with
+trembling hands, relieved Constance by loosening the folds from her
+throat; and almost ere she had wrung out the water from the raven locks
+of her inanimate mistress, the stranger returned. He carried a cordial,
+with which he moistened her lips; the old woman chafed her temples,
+resorting to the usual modes of resuscitation then in practice; and in
+the end, Constance opened her eyes. A heavy sob accompanied this effort.
+She looked wildly round, when she met the deep gaze of the stranger.
+With a faint shriek, she hid her face in the bosom of her attendant,
+who, overjoyed at her recovery, could scarcely refrain from falling at
+the feet of her deliverer. She turned to express her thanks, but he was
+gone.
+
+It was not long ere several domestics, alarmed at their absence, came in
+search; and Constance, borne gently along, was soon restored to her
+anxious parent. But he looked thoughtful and disturbed when the
+stranger's person was described, evidently averse to hold any
+communication on the subject. Nurse Agnes grew eloquent in his praise,
+until the following conversation that same evening in the kitchen turned
+aside the current of her opinions.
+
+"A rough grey cloak, gossip, thou sayest?" again inquired a
+hard-featured hind from the chimney-corner.
+
+"I tell thee a cloak, and a cap turned up in front. He doused it off
+nobly, and took to the water like a spaniel!"
+
+"Why, 'tis the wild man of the woods!" said another listener, who had
+hitherto been silent, but whose remark seemed to strike terror into the
+whole group. They looked round as if anticipating a visit from this
+fearful personage. Dame Agnes crossed herself, and muttered her prayers
+with great despatch; something was at length audible and articulate, as
+follows:--
+
+"Mercy on me! my days are numbered. If it should indeed be this
+incarnate,--forgive the thought!--we are all dead creatures. The very
+horses and kine stagger, and fall into fits at times, when they come
+home, and it is all along of 'em having seen or smelt the brimstone
+from the pit. Davy had two died last week, and he was sure they had
+either seen the deil or his deputy,--this same grey man of the woods.
+Woe's me that I should ha' lived to behold this child of perdition!" The
+old woman here gave way to an outburst of sorrow, that prevented any
+further disclosures.
+
+"It is about a three month agone since this same wild man was first
+seen," said the old seneschal, whose office, though of little use, was
+still filled up in the more ancient establishments. "I saw him myself
+once, but I shook until the very flesh seemed to crawl over my bones.
+They say he neither eats nor drinks, but is kept alive in the body by
+glamour and witchcraft. He'll stay here until his time is done, and then
+his tormentors will fetch him to his prison-house again. Ye should not
+have tarried in the wood after sunset."
+
+"That would I not," sharply replied Agnes; "but the child, poor thing,
+would look at the daylight as it lingered on the hill-top, and I thought
+no harm in't."
+
+"Like enough. He dares not abroad, if so much as the value or size of my
+thumb-nail of the sun's rim were left above the hill!"
+
+"Come, Gaffer, strike up a merry trowl," said a thin, squeaking voice,
+from a personage almost hidden behind a copious supper of broken meat
+and pastry. But whether the party thus addressed was too much alarmed to
+let the current of his spirit run bubbling from the spring of either
+mirth or minstrelsy, or he was too deeply buried in his own thoughts, it
+were needless to inquire. The request for a while passed by unheeded.
+
+Gaffer Gee was the ballad-monger of the whole district. He kept on a
+comfortable and vagabond sort of existence, by visiting the different
+mansions where good cheer was to be had, and where he was generally a
+welcome guest, both in bower and hall. His legendary lore seemed
+inexhaustible; and, indeed, his memory was like an old chest full of
+scraps continually rummaged. He knew all the scandal and family secrets
+throughout the parish, and had a quick eye at detecting either a love
+affair or a feud. He composed a number of the wild ballads that he sang
+or recited, or at least put them into that jingling and quaint rhythm,
+acquired by habitual intercourse with the phraseology peculiar to these
+popular descants. On hearing a story he could readily shape it into
+verse, extempore, too, upon occasion; and many were the jokes that
+rebounded from his theme, whether in hall or kitchen. It was pleasant to
+watch his little grey eye, and the twinkling lashes, as they rose and
+fell, varying the expression of his lips. A slight lisp gave an air of
+simplicity to his ditties, which never failed to charm his auditors. He
+could throw the simplest expression over his features, which made the
+keen edge of his rebukes infinitely more cutting and effective. But the
+prevailing tone of feeling in him was sad and oppressive. These
+wandering minstrels had, from remote ages, been held as seers, and a
+peep into futurity was often supposed to accompany their poetical
+inspirations--a superstition not confined to any particular locality,
+but obtaining a widely disseminated belief in all climes and nations
+where imagination assumes her sway, and dares to assert her power.
+
+After a short space, and without any invitation, the ballad-maker, like
+some Pythian priestess on her tripod, began to exhibit manifestations of
+the _afflatus_. The spirit of song seemed to be stealing upon him, and
+in a moment the listening auditory were still. In substance, he half
+recited, half sung, the following ballad:--
+
+    "'Maiden, braid those tresses bright,
+      Wreathe thy ringlets from the blast;
+    Why those locks of curling light
+      Heedless to the rude winds cast?
+
+    "'Maiden, why that darkened brow?
+      From those eyes, once dimmed with weeping,
+    Lurid gleams are gathering now,
+      O'er their pale wan shadows creeping.'
+
+    "Silent still the maid passed by,
+      Near nor voice nor footstep came.
+    Sudden cleaving earth and sky,
+      Flashed a brand of arrowy flame!
+
+    "'Maiden, turn that gaze on me,
+      Onwards why so madly bent?'
+    Still no stay, no pause made she
+      Through that kindling element.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    "Now, the midnight chant is stealing,
+      Mass and requiem breathing near;
+    Hushed the blast, as if revealing
+      Sounds to earth that Heaven might hear.
+
+    "From yon pile, soft voices swelling
+      Dirge and anthem for the dead;--
+    Demon shrieks, their lost doom yelling,
+      Tend Lord Rudolph's dying bed.
+
+    "Holy men, with song and prayer,
+      Fain would shrive the passing soul;
+    Fiend-like whispers, to his ear.
+      Winds, in muttering curses, roll.
+
+    "Ere his last lone shuddering cry,
+      To his couch the maiden came;
+    On his breast she silently
+      Bent an eye of ravening flame.
+
+    "One wild shriek the sufferer sent,
+      Ere life's last frail link might sever;
+    Laughed the maiden, as she leant
+      O'er that form, to cling for ever.
+
+    "Closer to his heart she pressed;
+      Scorched, the quivering flesh recoiled;
+    Unconsumed his burning breast,
+      While that grim tormentor smiled.
+
+    "'Now revenge!' the maiden cried,
+      'I have bartered heaven for this;
+    Mine thou art, proud Rudolph's bride,
+      Mine, by this last demon kiss.'
+
+    "Tower, and battlement, and hall,
+      Scathed as with the thunder-stroke,
+    Flashed through midnight's dusky pall,
+      Twined in wreaths of livid smoke.
+
+    "O'er that gulph of yawning flame
+      Horrid shapes are hovering;
+    Monstrous forms, of hideous name,
+      To the bridal-bed they bring.
+
+    "'They come!--they come!' their frantic yell.
+      On a wave of billowy light
+    Sudden rose (so marvellers tell)
+      The maiden and her traitor knight.
+
+    "The moon looks bright on Rudolph's towers,
+      The breeze laughs lightly by,
+    But dark and silent sleep the hours,
+      The lone brook murmuring nigh.
+
+    "The lank weed waves round thy domain,
+      The fox creeps to thy gate;
+    Dark is thy dwelling, proud chieftain,
+      Thy halls are desolate!"
+
+The legend we have thus rendered. His own idiom and versification, as we
+have already observed, were of a more unintelligible sort, though better
+suited, perhaps, to the fashion of the time and the capacity of his
+hearers.
+
+But a gloom still pervaded the once cheerful hearth, and the night wore
+on without the usual symptoms of mirth and hilarity.
+
+Holt of Grislehurst held the manorial rights, and was feudal lord over a
+widely-extended domain, the manor of Spotland descending to him by
+succession from his grandfather. His character was that of a quiet,
+unostentatious country gentleman; but withal of a proud spirit, not
+brooking either insult or neglect. This night, an unaccountable
+depression stole upon him. He strode rapidly across the chamber, moody
+and alone. The taper was nigh extinguished; the wasted billet grew pale,
+a few sparks starting up the chimney, as the wind roared in short and
+hasty gusts round the dwelling. The old family portraits seemed to flit
+from their dark panels, wavering with the tremulous motion of the blaze.
+
+Holt was still pacing the chamber with a disturbed and agitated step. A
+few words, rapid and unconnected, fell from his lips.
+
+"Rebel!--Outcast! I cannot betray thee!"
+
+"Betray me!" echoed a voice from behind. Turning, the speaker stood
+before him. It was the athletic form of the stranger, wrapped in his
+grey cloak and cap of coarse felt, plumed from the falcon's wing.
+
+"And who speaks the word that shall betray me? A king,--a fugitive! Yet,
+not all the means that treachery can compass shall trammel one hair
+upon this brow without my privity or consent."
+
+"Comest thou like the sharp wind into my dwelling?" inquired Holt, in a
+voice tremulous with amazement.
+
+"Free as the unconfined air; yet fettered by a lighter bond,--a woman's
+love!" returned the intruder. "Thou hast a daughter."
+
+The Lord of Grislehurst grew pale at these words. Some terrific meaning
+clung to them. After a short pause the stranger continued:--
+
+"Thus speak the legends of Tigernach, and the bards of Ulster, rapt into
+visions of the future:--'_When a king of Erin shall flee at the voice of
+a woman, then shall the distaff and spindle conquer whom the sword and
+buckler shall not subdue_.' That woman is yon heretic queen. A usurper,
+an intruder on our birthright. Never were the O'Neales conquered but by
+woman! I have lingered here when the war-cry hath rung from the shores
+of my country. Again the shout hath come, and the impatient chiefs wait
+for my return. But"----
+
+The warrior seemed to writhe during the conflict. His hands were
+clenched, and every muscle stiffened with agony. Scorn at his own
+weakness, and dread, horrible undefinable dread, as he felt the
+omnipotent power mastering his proud spirit. The man who would have
+laughed at the shaking of a spear, and the loud rush of the battle,
+quailed before a woman's hate and a woman's love.
+
+"And what is thy request to-night?" said Holt.
+
+The stranger answered in a voice of thunder--
+
+"Thy daughter!"
+
+Tyrone, for it was he, seemed nigh choking with the emotion he sought to
+suppress.
+
+"Nay," he continued, "it must not be. Oh! did I love her less, she had
+been mine!"
+
+"Thine?" suddenly retorted her father, somewhat scornfully. "And who
+gave thee this power over woman's spirit? Thou hast not even had speech
+of her, much less the means to win her favour."
+
+An almost supernatural expression seemed to gather on the features of
+the chieftain. His eye, rolling through the vista of past years, began
+to pause, appalled as it approached the dark threshold of the future. He
+appeared lost to the presence of surrounding objects, as he thus
+exclaimed with a terrific solemnity--
+
+"When the dark-browed Norah nursed me on her lap, and her eye, though
+dark to outward sense, saw through the dim veil of destiny, it was thus
+she sung as she guarded my slumbers, and the hated Sassenach was in the
+hall:--
+
+    "'Rest thee, baby! light and darkness
+      Mingling o'er thy path shall play;
+    Hope shall flee when thou pursuest,
+      Lost amid life's trackless way.
+
+    "'Rest thee, baby! woman's breast
+      Thou shalt darken o'er with woe;
+    None thou lookest on or lovest,
+      Joy or hope hereafter know.
+        Many a maid thy glance shall rue,
+        Where it smites it shall subdue.'
+
+"It was an evil hour, old man, when I looked upon thy daughter."
+
+Holt, though of a stout and resolute temper, was yet daunted by this
+bold and unlooked-for address. He trembled as he gazed on the mysterious
+being before him, gifted, as it seemed, with some supernatural
+endowments. His unaccountable appearance, the nature of his
+communications, together with his manner and abrupt mode of speech,
+would have shaken many a firmer heart unprepared for these disclosures.
+
+"What is thy business with me?" he inquired, with some hesitation.
+
+"To warn thee;--to warn thy daughter. She hath seen me. Ay, to-night.
+And how runs the prophecy? Let her beware. I have looked on her
+beforetime. Looked on her! ay, until these glowing orbs have become dim,
+dazzled with excess of brightness. I have looked on her till this stern
+bosom hath become softer than the bubbling wax to her impression; but I
+was concealed, and the maiden passed unharmed by the curse. To-night I
+have saved her life. A resistless impulse! And she hath looked on me."
+He smote his brow, groaning aloud in the agony he endured.
+
+It may be supposed this revelation did not allay the apprehensions of
+the listener. Bewildered and agitated, he turned towards the window. The
+pale moon was glimmering through the quiet leaves, and he saw a dark and
+muffled figure in the avenue. It was stationary for a while; it then
+slowly moved towards the adjoining thicket and was lost to his view.
+Holt turned to address his visitor, but he had disappeared. It was like
+the passing of a troubled dream, vague and indistinct, but fraught with
+horrible conceptions. A cloud seemed to gather on his spirit, teeming
+with some terrible but unknown doom. Its nature even imagination failed
+to conjecture. His first impulse was to visit his daughter. He found the
+careful nurse by her bedside. As he entered the room, Agnes raised one
+finger to her lips, in token of silence. The anxious father bent over
+his child. Her sleep was heavy, and her countenance flushed. A tremor
+passed over her features. A groan succeeded. Suddenly she started up.
+With a look of anguish he could never forget, she cried--
+
+"Help! O my father!" She clung around his neck. In vain he endeavoured
+to soothe her. She sobbed aloud, as if her heart were breaking. But she
+never told that dream, though her haggard looks, when morning rose on
+her anxious and pallid countenance, showed the disturbance it had
+created.
+
+Days and weeks passed by. The intrusion of the bold outlaw was nigh
+forgotten. The father's apprehensions had in some degree subsided, but
+Constance did not resume her wonted serenity. Her earliest recollections
+were those of the old nursery rhymes, with which Agnes had not failed to
+store her memory. But the giant killers and their champions now failed
+to interest and excite. Other feelings than those of terror and of
+wonder were in operation, requiring a fresh class of stimulants for
+their support--tales of chivalry and of love, that all-enduring passion,
+where maidens and their lovers sighed for twice seven years, and all too
+brief a trial of their truth and constancy! As she listened, her soul
+seemed to hang on the minstrel's tongue; that erratic troubadour, Gaffer
+Gee, being a welcome and frequent visitor at Grislehurst.
+
+One night he had tarried late in the little chamber, where she was wont
+to give him audience. She seemed more wishful to protract his stay than
+heretofore.
+
+"Now for the ballad of Sir Bertine, the famous Lancashire knight, who
+was killed at St Alban's, fighting for the glorious red rose of
+Lancaster."
+
+Nothing loth, he commenced the following ditty:--
+
+    "The brave Sir Bartine Entwisel
+      Hath donned his coat of steel,
+    And left his hall and stately home,
+      To fight for Englond's weal.
+
+    "To fight for Englond's weal, I trow,
+      And good King Harry's right,
+    His loyal heart was warm and true,
+      His sword and buckler bright.
+
+    "That sword once felt the craven foe,
+      Its hilt was black with gore,
+    And many a mother's son did rue
+      His might at Agincourt.
+
+    "And now he stately steps his hall,
+      'A summons from the king?
+    My armour bright, my casque and plume,
+      My sword and buckler bring.
+
+    "'Blow, warder, blow. Thy horn is shrill,
+      My liegemen hither call,
+    For I must away to the south countrie,
+      And spears and lances all.'
+
+    "'Oh, go not to the south countrie!'
+      His lady weeping said;
+    'Oh, go not to the battle-field,
+      For I dreamed of the waters red!'
+
+    "'Oh, go not to the south countrie!'
+      Cried out his daughter dear;
+    'Oh, go not to the bloody fight,
+      For I dreamed of the waters clear!'
+
+    "Sir Bertine raised his dark visor,
+      And he kissed his fond lady;
+    'I must away to the wars and fight
+      For our king in jeopardy!'
+
+    "The lady gat her to the tower,
+      She clomb the battlement;
+    She watched and greet, while through the woods
+      The glittering falchions went.
+
+    "The wind was high, the storm grew loud,
+      Fierce rose the billowy sea;
+    When from Sir Bertine's lordly tower
+      The bell boomed heavily!
+
+    "'O mother dear, what bodes that speech
+      From yonder iron tongue?'
+    ''Tis but the rude, rude blast, my love,
+      That idle bell hath swung.'
+
+    "Upon the rattling casement still
+      The beating rain fell fast;
+    When creeping fingers wandering thrice
+      Across that window passed.
+
+    "'O mother dear, what means that sound
+      Upon the lattice nigh?'
+    ''Tis but the cold, cold arrowy sleet,
+      That hurtles in the sky.'
+
+    "The blast was still--a pause more dread
+      Ne'er terror felt--when, lo!
+    An armed footstep on the stair
+      Clanked heavily and slow.
+
+    "Up flew the latch and tirling-pin,
+      Wide swung the grated door,
+    Then came a solemn stately tread
+      Upon the quaking floor!
+
+    "A shudder through the building ran,
+      A chill and icy blast;
+    A moan, as though in agony
+      Some viewless spirit passed!
+
+    "'O mother dear, my heart is froze,
+      My limbs are stark and cold.'
+    Her mother spake not, for again
+      That turret bell hath tolled.
+
+    "Three days passed by. At eventide
+      There came an aged man,
+    He bent him low before the dame,
+      His wrinkled cheek was wan.
+
+    "'Now, speak, thou evil messenger,
+      Thy tidings show to me.'
+    That aged man, nor look vouchsafed,
+      Nor ever a word spake he.
+
+    "'What bringest thou?' the lady said,
+      'I charge thee by the rood.'
+    He drew a signet from his hand,
+      'Twas speckled o'er with blood.
+
+    "'Thy husband's grave is wide and deep.
+      In St Alban's priory
+    His body lies, but on his soul
+      Christ Jesus have mercy!'"[28]
+
+Scarcely had the last solemn supplication been uttered, when the latch
+of the chamber was raised. The door flew open, and the outlaw, in his
+dark grey cap and cloak, stood before them. Constance was too much
+alarmed to utter a word. She clung to her companion with the agony of
+one grasping at the most fragile support for life and safety.
+
+"Nay, maiden, I would not harm thee," said the intruder, in a voice so
+musical and sad, that it seemed to drop into the listener's ear like a
+gush of harmony, or a sweet and melancholy chime wakening up the heart's
+most endeared and hallowed associations. His features were nobly formed.
+His eye, large and bright, of the purest grey; the lashes, like a cloud,
+covering and tempering their lustre. A touch of sadness rested on his
+lips. They seemed to speak of suffering and endurance, as if the soul's
+deepest agony would not have cast a word across their barriers.
+Constance for a moment raised her eyes, but they were suddenly
+withdrawn, overflowing with some powerful emotion. He still gazed, but
+one proud effort broke the fixed intensity of his glance, and his tongue
+resumed its office.
+
+"Maiden, I am pursued. The foe are on my track. My retreat is
+discovered, and unless thou wilt vouchsafe to me a hiding-place, I am in
+their power. The Earl of Tyrone--nay, I scorn the title--'tis the King
+of Ulster that stands before thee. I would not crouch thus for my own
+life, were it not for my country. Her stay, her sustenance, is in thy
+keeping."
+
+Never did wretchedness and misfortune sue in vain to woman's ear.
+Constance forgot her weakness and timidity. She saw not her own danger.
+A fellow-being craved help and succour; all other feelings gave place,
+and she seemed animated with a new impulse. She looked on the minstrel,
+as if to ascertain his fidelity. It was evident, however, that no
+apprehension need be entertained, this personage seeming to manifest no
+slight solicitude for the safety of the unfortunate chief.
+
+"The old lead mine, in the Cleuch," whispered he.
+
+"Nay, it must be in the house," replied Constance, with a glance of
+forethought beyond her years. "The pursuers will not search this loyal
+house for treason!"
+
+As was the case in most mansions belonging to families of rank and
+importance, a room was contrived for purposes of special concealment,
+where persons or property could be stowed in case of danger. A heavy
+stack of chimneys was enlarged so as to admit of a small apartment,
+inconvenient enough in other respects, yet well adapted as a temporary
+hiding-place.
+
+Hither, through secluded passages, the careful Constance conducted her
+guest, who had so strangely thrown himself, with unhesitating
+confidence, upon her generosity and protection. The proud representative
+of a kingly race was rescued by a woman from ignominy and death. Some
+feeling of this nature probably overpowered him. As he bade her good
+night, his voice faltered, and he passed his hand suddenly athwart his
+brow. Constance, having fulfilled this sacred duty, shrank from any
+further intercourse, and hastened to her chamber. It was long ere she
+could sleep; portentous dreams then brooded over her slumbers. The
+terrible vision was repeated, and she awoke, but not to her wonted
+cheerfulness.
+
+How strange, how mysterious, the mechanism of the human heart! The
+feelings glide insensibly into each other, changing their hue and
+character imperceptibly, as the colours on the evening cloud. Protection
+awakens kindness, kindness pity, and pity love. Love, the more
+dangerous, too, the process being unperceived, insidiously disguised
+under other names, and under the finest sympathies and affections of our
+nature.
+
+With a step light and noiseless as that of her favourite spaniel who
+crept behind her, did Constance make an early visit to ascertain the
+safety of her prisoner. His retreat was unmolested. The pursuit was for
+the present evaded, and his enemies thrown out in their track. It was
+needful, however, that he should remain for a few days in his present
+concealment, prior to the attempt by which he purposed to regain his
+native country.
+
+Constance loved the moonlight. The broad glare of day is so garish and
+extravagant. Besides, there is a restlessness and a buz no human being,
+at least no sensible human being, can endure. Everything is on the stir.
+Every creature, however paltry and insignificant, whether moth, mote, or
+atom, seems busy. Whereas, one serene soft gaze of the moon appears to
+allay nature's universal disquiet. The calm and mellow placidity of her
+look, so heavenly and undisturbed, lulls the soul, and subdues its
+operations to her influence.
+
+Constance, we may suppose, accidentally wandered by the end of the
+building, where, in the huge buttress of chimneys, a narrow crevice
+admitted light into the chamber occupied by the fugitive. At times,
+perhaps unconsciously, her eye wandered from the moon to this dreary
+abode; where it lingered longest is more than we dare tell. She drew
+nigh to the dark margin of the pond. The white swans were sleeping in
+the sedge. At her approach they fluttered clumsily to their element;
+there, the symbols of elegance and grace, like wreaths of sea-foam on
+its surface, they glided on, apparently without an impulse or an effort.
+She was gazing on them when a rustle amongst the willows on her left
+arrested her attention. Soon the mysterious and almost omnipresent form
+of Tyrone stood before her.
+
+"I must away, maiden--Constance!" His voice was mournful as the last
+faint sound of the evening bell upon the waters.
+
+"Why art thou here?" She said this in a tone of mingled anxiety and
+surprise.
+
+"Here? Too long have I lingered in these woods and around thy dwelling,
+Constance. But I must begone--for ever!"
+
+"For ever?" cried the perplexed girl, forgetful of all but the dread
+thought of that for ever!
+
+"Ay, for ever? Why should I stay?"
+
+This question, alas! she could not answer, but stood gazing on the dark
+water, and on the silver waves which the bright swans had rippled over
+the pool. Though she saw them not, yet the scene mingled itself
+insensibly with the feelings then swelling in her bosom; and these
+recurrent circumstances, in subsequent periods of her existence, never
+failed to bring the same dark tide of thought over the soul with vivid
+and agonising distinctness.
+
+"Maiden, beware!"
+
+Constance turned towards him:--the moonlight fell on his brow: the dark
+curls swept nobly out from their broad shadows twining luxuriantly about
+his cheek. His eyes were fixed on her, with an eagerness and an anguish
+in their expression the most absorbing and intense.
+
+"I have loved thee. Ay, if it be love to live whole nights on the memory
+of a glance,--on a smile,--on the indelible impress of thy form.
+Here,--here! But no living thing that I have loved;--no being that e'er
+looked on me with kindliness and favour, that has not been marked out
+for destruction. Oh, that those eyes had ne'er looked upon me! Thou wert
+happy, and I have lingered on thy footstep till I have dragged thee to
+the same gulph where all hope--all joy that e'er stole in upon my dark
+path, must perish."
+
+"Oh! do not foretaste thy misery thus," cried Constance. "The cruel
+sufferings thou hast undergone make thee apprehensive of evil. But how
+can _thy_ fate control my destiny?"
+
+"How, I know not," said Tyrone, "save that it shall bring the same
+clouds, in unmitigated darkness, about thy path. Dost thou love me? Nay,
+start not. Stay not!" cried he, making way for the maiden to pass. But
+Constance seemed unable to move,--terrified and speechless.
+
+"Perchance, thou knowest it not, but thou wouldest love me as a woman
+loves;--ay, beyond even the verge and extremity of hope! Even now the
+poison rankles in thy bosom. Hark!--'tis the doom yon glorious
+intelligences denounced from that glittering vault, when they proclaimed
+my birth!"
+
+He repeated the prediction as aforetime, with a deep, solemn
+intonation:--the maiden's blood seemed to curdle with horror. A pause of
+bewildering and mysterious terror followed. One brief minute in the
+lapse of time,--but an age in the records of thought! Constance, fearful
+of looking on the dark billows of the spirit, sought to avert her
+glance.
+
+"Thou art an exile, and misfortune prompted me to thy succour; thou hast
+won my pity, stranger."
+
+"Beshrew me, 'tis a wary and subtle deceiver, this same casuist love.
+Believe him not!" said he, in a burst and agony of soul that made
+Constance tremble. "He would lead thee veiled to the very brink of the
+precipice, then snatch the shelter from thine eyes and bid thee leap!
+Nay, 'tis not pride,--'tis the doom, the curse of my birthright that is
+upon me. Maiden! I will but strike to thine heart, and then--poor soul!"
+He shuddered; his voice grew tremulous and convulsed. "The stricken one
+shall fall. Hark! the hounds are again upon my track!" The
+well-practised ear of the hunted fugitive could discern the approach of
+footsteps long before they were audible to an ordinary listener:--his
+eye and ear seemed on the stretch;--his head bent forward in the same
+direction;--he breathed not. Even Constance seemed to suspend the
+current of her own thoughts at this interruption.
+
+"They are approaching. In all likelihood 'tis a posse from the sheriff."
+Again he listened. "They are armed. Nay, then, Tyrone thou must to
+cover: thou canst not flee. Point not to the hiding-place I have left.
+If, as I suspect, they bring a warrant of search, thy father's life may
+be in jeopardy."
+
+"Where,--oh, where?" said Constance, forgetful of all consequences, in
+her anxiety for her father's fate and that of the illustrious stranger.
+
+"In thy chamber, lady."
+
+She drew back in dismay.
+
+"Nay," continued he, guessing at the cause of her alarm. "They will not
+care to scrutinise for me there with much exactness; and, by the faith
+of my fathers, I will not wrong thee!"
+
+There was a frankness, an open and undisguised freedom of manner, in
+this address, which assured her. Her confidence returned, and she
+committed herself promptly to the issue. She felt her soul expand with
+the desire of contributing to his ultimate escape. All the ardour of her
+nature was concentrated in this generous and self-devoted feeling. Too
+innocent for suspicion she seemed to rise above its influence.
+
+Silently, and with due caution, she led the unfortunate Earl to her own
+chamber, where, in a recess opening through the bed's head into the
+arras, he seemed secure from discovery.
+
+Scarcely was this arrangement completed, ere a thundering knock
+announced the visitor. It was an officer of justice, attended by some
+half-dozen followers, who watched every avenue to the house whilst his
+message was delivered within.
+
+This official delivered into the hands of Holt a warrant for the
+apprehension of O'Neale, Earl of Tyrone, a traitor, then suspected of
+being harboured in the mansion of Grislehurst, whom the occupier was
+commanded, on pain of being treated as an accomplice, to deliver into
+the hands of justice, for the due administering of those pains and
+penalties which were attached to his crime.
+
+The loyal owner, fired with indignation at this foul charge, rebutting
+the accusation with contempt.
+
+"However loth," said the messenger, "I must execute mine office; and,
+seeing this first mission hath failed in its purpose, I have here a
+warrant of search. Mine orders are imperative."
+
+"I tell thee I have no plotters lurking here. Search and welcome;--but
+if thou findest aught in this house that smells of treason, the Queen
+may blot out my escutcheon. I'll dismount the _pheon_. The arrow-head
+shall return to its quiver. 'Twas honestly won, and, by our lady's
+grace, it shall be honestly worn!"
+
+"We must obey," said the officer; "it shall be done with all courtesy
+and despatch."
+
+Holt bit his lips with rage and vexation. From the suspicion of
+harbouring and aiding the traitor Tyrone, his known loyalty and good
+faith should have protected him. He hoped, however, to throw back on the
+author of this foul slander the disgrace attached to it. Smothering his
+wrath, and brooding over its gratification, he accompanied the
+messenger, who, placing an additional guard at the main entrance,
+proceeded with a wary eye to the search. He carefully scrutinised the
+shape of the rooms, striking the walls and wainscots, measuring the
+capacity of the chambers, that no space might be left unaccounted for
+either in one way or another. The concealed apartment in the
+chimney-range did not escape his examination. Closets, cupboards,
+folding-doors,--even the family pictures were turned aside, lest some
+strategem should lurk behind.
+
+Holt, with a look of malicious satisfaction, beheld every fresh
+disappointment, which he followed with undisguised expressions of
+ill-will.
+
+"Now for the women's apartments," said the officer.
+
+"I have but one daughter. Dost fancy that treason may be stitched in her
+petticoat? Thinkest thou she would hide this invisible gallant in her
+bedchamber? 'Sdeath, that it should ha' come to this! But I'll have my
+revenge."
+
+"I would fain spare thee from this contumely, but"----
+
+"But what?"
+
+"I must search the house through; and though I doubt not now that our
+information is false, yet I may not disobey the mandate I have
+received."
+
+"Is this thy courtesy?"
+
+"My courtesy must yet consist with the true and honest discharge of mine
+office. I wait not further parley."
+
+A short gallery communicated from the stairhead to the private chamber
+of Constance. They met her outside the door; and the timid girl grew
+pale as she beheld the officer led on by her father.
+
+"Constance," cried he, "thy chamber smacks of treason: it must be purged
+from this suspicion. This mousing owl will search the crannies even of a
+woman's wits ere he sate his appetite for discovery. Hast aught plotting
+in the hem of thy purfle, or in thy holiday ruff and fardingale? Come
+with us, wench;--the gallant Earl of Tyrone would sport himself bravely
+in thy bedchamber, pretty innocent!"
+
+"If my gallantry were akin to mine office,--then, lady, would I spare
+thy bosom and mine own nature this extremity. Believe me, thou shall
+suffer no rudeness at my hands."
+
+The officer bowed low, observing her confusion and distress.
+
+"Go with, us," said her father, "and leave not until our search is over.
+Mayhap he may find a lover in thy shoe, or in the wrinkles of thy
+rose-tie." He entered the chamber as he said this. It was a little room,
+tricked out with great elegance and beauty. Indian cabinets were there,
+and other costly ornaments, inlaid with ivory and pearl, in the
+arrangement of which, and of the other furniture, considerable taste was
+displayed. A lute lay in one corner;--tambour-work and embroidery
+occupied a recess near the window;--the clothes' presses showed their
+contents neatly folded, and carefully set out to the best advantage.
+
+"I'faith, wench, thy chamber seems well fitted for so goodly a brace of
+guests--not a thread awry. Everything in trim order for thy gallants,
+mayhap. Thou hast not been at thy studies of late.--I have seen its
+interior in somewhat less orderly fashion. I marvel if it might not be
+pranked out for our coming. Now, to work, sir:--where does thy grubbing
+begin?"
+
+Constance posted herself in a gloomy corner, where she could watch their
+proceedings almost unperceived. She hoped that in her chamber the search
+would not be so strict as in situations of more likelihood and
+probability for concealment. At any rate, the common feelings of
+delicacy and respect,--not quite extinct, she observed, even in this
+purveyor of justice,--would prevent any very exact and dangerous
+scrutiny. Nor was she deceived. He merely felt round the walls, opened
+the presses and closets, but did not disturb the bed furniture. He was
+retiring from the search, when her father scornfully taunted him with
+the ill success of his mission.
+
+"I wonder thou hast not tumbled the bed topsy-turvy. I am glad to see
+thou hast yet some grace and manners in thy vocation. Now, Sir
+Messenger, to requite thee for this thy courtesy and forbearance, I will
+show thee a secret tabernacle, which all thy prying has not been able to
+discover."
+
+Saying this he approached the bed: a spring was concealed in one of the
+posts communicating with the secret door behind which Tyrone was hidden.
+As he turned aside the drapery to ascertain precisely its situation,
+Constance, no longer able to control her apprehension of discovery,
+rushed before him. Her terror, for the time, threw her completely from
+her guard.
+
+"Do not, my father:--he must not look there. For my sake, oh, spare
+_this_"----
+
+She was silent:--her lips grew deadly pale; and she leaned against the
+pillar for support. The officer's suspicions were awakened, and he gave
+a shrewd guess at the truth.
+
+"Now, fair dame," he cried: "it is but an ungracious office to thwart a
+lady of her will, but I must see what lurks in that same secret recess.
+Master Holt, I prythee help me to a peep behind the curtain."
+
+But Holt was too much astonished to comply. What could exist there to
+excite his daughter's apprehensions so powerfully, puzzled him greatly.
+He had not a thought, the most remote, that could affect her
+fidelity;--yet he hesitated. The officer, in a more peremptory tone,
+demanded admission. Rousing from his stupor, and mortified at the folly
+of these girlish fancies, he struck the spring: in a trice, a portion of
+the bed's head flew open, displaying a dark chasm beyond. Swift as
+thought the officer darted through the aperture; but the door was
+immediately shut, and with great violence. A scuffle was heard within,
+but not a word was spoken. Holt, in doubt and consternation gazed with a
+wild and terrific aspect on the devoted Constance, who, covering her
+face, sought to avoid seeing the expected result of her imprudence. Her
+father now listened. There was a dread suspense in his look more fearful
+than even the most violent outburst of his wrath. He seemed every moment
+to expect some irrefragable proof,--some visible and overwhelming
+conviction of his daughter's infamy. The door was still closed. Groans
+were plainly audible, telling of some terrible strife within. Suddenly
+these indications ceased. Holt shuddered. He fancied some foul act was
+perpetrating--perhaps even now consummated--under his own roof; and
+swift would be the vengeance required at his hands. Constance, too,
+seemed to apprehend the commission of some deadly crime, as she threw
+herself imploringly before her father.
+
+"Save them,--oh, save them!--their strife is mortal!"
+
+He shook her from him with a glance of abhorrence, and the maiden fell
+heavily on the floor. He was preparing to enter when the door flew open,
+and a form rushed through in the gaudy apparel of the officer. He leaped
+on the floor, and, ere Holt could utter a word, he heard him descending
+the stairs with great precipitation.
+
+"Whom hast thou concealed in thy bedchamber?" inquired the almost
+frantic father. Constance sat on the ground, her head resting on the
+chair beside which she had fallen. She wept not, but her heart was full
+even to bursting.
+
+"What is the name of thy paramour?--Thou hast been somewhat eager,
+methinks, to accomplish thine own and a father's disgrace?"
+
+This cutting address roused her. She replied, but in a firm tone--
+
+"A stranger,--an exile. Misfortune appeals not to woman's heart
+unalleviated. He threw himself on my protection; and where the feelings
+own no taint, their purity is not sullied,--even in a lady's
+bedchamber!"
+
+A glance of insulted pride passed over her beautifully-formed features.
+It was but for a moment. The agony of her spirit soon drank up the
+slender rill her feelings had gushed forth, and she stood withered and
+drooping before the angry frown of her father.
+
+"Surely, 'tis not the rebel Tyrone that my daughter harbours in the
+privacy of her chamber? Speak!--Nay, then hast thou indeed brought an
+old man's grey hairs to the grave in sorrow! Treason!--Oh, that I have
+lived for this,--and my own flesh and blood hath done it. Out of my
+sight, unnatural monster. Dare not to crawl again across my path, lest I
+kill thee!"
+
+"O my father! I am indeed innocent." She again threw herself at his
+feet, but he spurned her from him as though he loathed her beyond
+endurance. Boiling and maddened with rage at the presumption of this
+daring rebel, Holt, forgetful of his own danger, seized the light. He
+burst open the secret door; but what was his astonishment on beholding,
+not the hated form of Tyrone, but the officer of justice himself,
+gagged, pinioned, and deprived of his outer dress. The cap and mantle of
+Tyrone, by his side, told too plainly of the daring and dangerous
+exploit by which his escape had been effected.
+
+The outlaw, soon after his enlargement, finding that the cause he had
+espoused was hopeless, and that matters were at the last extremity in
+his own fate, and that of his unhappy country,--fearful, too, of drawing
+the innocent Constance and her father into the deep vortex of his own
+ruin,--made all haste to the capital, where, through the powerful
+interest excited in his behalf, aided by his well-known valour and the
+influence he was known to possess amongst his countrymen, he received a
+free pardon from the Queen.
+
+Yet his thoughts lingered on the remembrance of her to whose heroic and
+confiding spirit he owed his safety. Never had his proud bosom been so
+enthralled. Though nurtured in camps, amid the din of arms, and the
+shout of the battle, yet his knowledge of the female heart was almost
+intuitive. He had loved more than once, but in every case the attachment
+ended unhappily, terminating either by the death of the object or by
+some calamity his own evil fate had unavoidably brought upon its victim.
+Though fearful the same operation of his destiny would ensue, and that
+misery and misfortune would still follow the current of his affections,
+yet he resolved to behold once more the maiden he loved with an ardour
+almost surpassing his own belief.
+
+One cold dull morning, towards the wane of the year, when the heavy
+drops lay long on the rank herbage; no sunbeam yet loitering through the
+damp chill atmosphere, but the sky one wide and unvarying expanse--a sea
+of cloud--here and there a black scud passing over, like a dim bark
+sweeping across the bosom of that "waveless deep," a stranger stood by a
+low wicket near the mansion of Grislehurst. He looked wistfully at the
+gloomy windows, unlighted by a single reflection from without, like the
+rayless night of his own soul:--they were mostly closed. A mysterious
+and unusual stillness prevailed. The brown leaves fluttered about,
+unswept from the dreary avenues. Decayed branches obstructed the paths;
+and every object wore a look of wretchedness and dilapidation. The only
+sign of occupancy and life was one grey wreath of smoke, curling heavily
+from its vent, as if oppressed with the gloom by which it was
+surrounded. The melancholy note of the redbreast was the only living
+sound, as the bird came hopping towards him with its usual air of
+familiarity and respect. Enveloped in a military cloak, and in his cap a
+dark feather drooping gently over his proud features, the stranger
+slowly approached the house: a side-door stood partly open. He entered.
+A narrow passage led into the hall. No embers brightened the huge
+chimney. The table showed no relics of the feast,--no tokens of the past
+night's revel. The deer's antlers still hung over the master's place at
+the board, but the oaken chair was gone. Dust and desertion had played
+strange antics in these "high places." The busy spider had wreathed her
+dingy festoons in mockery over the pomp she degraded.
+
+He listened, but there was no sound, save the last faint echo of his
+footstep. Turning towards the staircase, a beautiful spaniel, a sort of
+privileged favourite of Constance, came, with a deep growl, as if to
+warn away the intruder. But the sagacious animal suddenly fawned upon
+him, and with a low whine ascended the stairs, looking back wistfully,
+as though inviting him to follow.
+
+Scarcely knowing why, or bestowing one thought on the nature of his
+intrusion, he ascended. The place seemed familiar to him. He entered a
+narrow gallery, where he paused, overcome by some sudden and
+overwhelming emotion. The dog stood too, looking back with a low and
+sorrowful whine. With a sudden effort he grappled with and shook off the
+dark spirit that threatened to overpower him. A low murmur was heard
+apparently from a chamber at no great distance. Without reflecting a
+moment on the impropriety of his situation, he hastily approached the
+door. His guide, with a look of almost irresistible persuasion, implored
+him to enter.
+
+It was the chamber of Constance. A female was kneeling by the bed, too
+much absorbed to be conscious of his approach: she was in the attitude
+of prayer. He recognised the old nurse,--her eye glistening in the
+fervour of devotion, whilst pouring forth, to her FATHER in secret, the
+agony of soul that words are too feeble to express.
+
+Bending over the bed, as if for the support of some frail victim of
+disease, he beheld the lord of the mansion. His look was wild and
+haggard;--no moisture floated over his eyeballs: they were glazed and
+motionless; arid as the hot desert,--no refreshing rain dropped from
+their burning orbs, dimmed with the shadows of despair.
+
+Stretched on the bed, her pale cheek resting on the bosom of her father,
+lay the yet beauteous form of Constance Holt. A hectic flush at times
+passed across her features. Her lip, shrunk and parched with the fever
+that consumed her, was moistened by an attendant with unremitting and
+unwearied assiduity; her eye often rose in tenderness on her parent, as
+if anxious to impart to him the consolation she enjoyed.
+
+"Oh, I am happy, my father!" Here a sudden change was visible,--some
+chord of sorrow was touched, and it vibrated to her soul.
+
+Her father spoke not.
+
+"I _have_ loved!--Oh, faithfully. But, now--let me die without a murmur
+to Thee, or one wish but Thy will, and I am happy!" She raised her soft
+and streaming eyes towards the throne of that Mercy she addressed. The
+cloud passed, but she sank back on her pillow, exhausted with the
+conflict. Her father bent over her in silent terror, anticipating the
+last struggle. Suddenly he exclaimed, as if to call back the yet
+lingering spirit:--
+
+"Live, my Constance! Could I save thee, thou blighted bud--blighted by
+my"--His lip grew pale; he struck his forehead, and a groan like the
+last expiring throe of nature escaped him.
+
+"Would the destroyer of my peace were here!--'Tis too late--or I would
+not now forbid thy love. But he was a traitor, a rebel--else"----
+
+Constance gradually revived from her insensibility. A sudden flash from
+the departing spirit seemed to have animated her--a new and vehement
+energy, which strangely contrasted with her weak and debilitated frame.
+
+"I have seen him," she cried. "Oh, methought his form passed before
+me;--but it is gone!" She looked eagerly round the apartment; other eyes
+involuntarily followed,--but no living object could be distinguished
+through the chill and oppressive gloom that brooded over that chamber of
+death.
+
+"It was a vision--a shadowy messenger from the tomb. Yet, once more if I
+might see him--ere I die." A deep sob, succeeded by a rapid gush of
+tears, relieved her; but it told of the powerful and all-pervading
+passion not yet extinguished in her breast.
+
+"We shall meet!" again she raised her eyes towards that throne to which
+the sigh of the sufferer never ascended in vain.
+
+"Yes, my own--my loved Constance, now!" cried the stranger, rushing from
+his concealment. He clasped her in his arms. A gleam, like sunlight
+across the wave, shot athwart the shadow that was gathering on her eye.
+It seemed the forerunner of a change. The anxious father forbore to
+speak, but he looked on his daughter with an agony that seemed to
+threaten either reason or existence. Constance gazed on her lover, but
+her eye gradually became more dim. Her band relaxed in his grasp, yet
+her features wore a look of serenity and happiness.
+
+"O most merciful Father! Thou hast heard my prayer, through Him whose
+merits have found me a place in that glory to which I come. Be merciful
+to him whose love is true as mine own, and faithful unto death. Tyrone,
+we meet again!--Oh, how have I prayed for thee!" Her eyes seemed to
+brighten even in this world with the glories of another.
+
+"Farewell!--I hear the hymns of yon ransomed ones around the throne.
+They beckon my spirit from these dark places of sorrow. Now--farewell!"
+
+She cast one look towards her lover: it was the last glimpse of earth.
+The next moment her gaze was on the brightness of that world whence
+sorrow and sighing flee away. So sudden was the transition, that the
+first smile of the disembodied spirit seemed to linger on the abode she
+had left, like the evening cloud, reflecting the glories of another sky,
+ere it fades for ever into the darkness and solitude of night.
+
+[Illustration: HOGHTON TOWER.
+
+_Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden._]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[22] Cox, p. 415.
+
+[23] Sydney's Letters.
+
+[24] Camden.
+
+[25] Camden.
+
+[26] Camden, p. 645.
+
+[27] Winwood, vol. i. p. 369.
+
+[28] In the parish church of St Chad, Rochdale, is a marble tablet,
+erected by John Entwisle, Esquire, a descendant of Sir Bertine, on which
+is the following inscription:--
+
+"To perpetuate a memorial in the church of St Alban's (perished by
+time), this marble is here placed to the memory of a gallant and loyal
+man, Sir Bertine Entwisel, Knight, Viscount and Baron of Brybeke, in
+Normandy, and some time Bailiff of Constantin, in which office he
+succeeded his father-in-law, Sir John Ashton, whose daughter Lucy first
+married Sir Richard le Byron, an ancestor of the Lord Byrons, Barons of
+Rochdale, and, secondly, Sir Bertine Entwisel, who, after performing
+repeated acts of valour in the service of his sovereigns, Henry V. and
+VI., more particularly at Agincourt, was killed in the first battle of
+St Alban's, and on his tomb was recorded in brass the following
+inscription:--
+
+"'Here lyth Syr Bertine Entwisel, Knighte, which was born in
+Lancastershyre, and was Viscount and Baron of Brybeke in Normandy, and
+Bailiff of Constantin, who died fighting on King Henry VI. party, 28th
+May, 1455.
+
+"'_On whose sowl Jesu have mercy!_'"
+
+
+
+
+HOGHTON TOWER.
+
+
+    "Pastime with good company
+    I love, and shall until I die;
+    Grudge so will, but none deny;
+    So God be pleased, so live will I.
+      For my pastance,
+      Hunt, sing, and dance,
+      My heart is set;
+      All godly sport,
+      To my comfort,
+      Who shall me let!"
+
+_The Kinges Balade._
+
+    "God gives not kings the style of gods in vain,
+      For on his throne his sceptre do they sway;
+      And, as their subjects ought them to obey,
+    So kings should feare and serve their God againe."
+
+_King James to his Son Prince Henry_.
+
+"The ancient castle denominated Hoghton Tower stands on the summit of a
+hill, formerly shrouded with trees, four miles and a half west of
+Blackburn. It was erected by Sir Thomas Hoghton, in the beginning of
+Elizabeth's reign. It remained for several generations the principal
+seat of the Hoghton family; and after part of it had been blown up by
+accident, when garrisoned for Charles the First, the injury was
+repaired. The family have now removed to Walton Hall; and Hoghton Tower
+is left to decay, two poor families inhabiting the south wing only. A
+ponderous gateway, immediately under the centre tower, leads to the
+quadrangular courtyard, capable of holding six hundred men. The noble
+embattled tower, forming the west front, with its two minor square
+towers, serve as appendages to the north and south wing, and are united
+by low walls. Within the courtyard, a noble flight of steps leads to the
+middle quadripartite, similar in aspect to Stonyhurst College, the
+ancient residence of the Sherbornes. This middle pile contains large
+staircases, branching out to long galleries, into which the several
+chambers open. One chamber, still called James the First's room, is
+considered 'most worthy of notice;' it has two square windows in both
+north and south, is beautifully wainscoted, and contains some old
+furniture. A fine prospect is gained from this ancient and sequestered
+abode: the pretty village of Walton-le-dale, delightfully situate in a
+valley, the improving town of Preston, and the single-coned Nase Point
+presenting itself majestically in the distance. The gentle river Darwen
+pursues its placid course among the enclosures at the base of the hill."
+
+The above description, extracted from Nichols's _Royal Progresses of
+James the First_, and likewise the particulars scattered through the
+following tale, will, we hope, convey to the reader a pretty accurate
+idea of this noble but deserted mansion.
+
+A petition, which was presented here (some say at Meyerscough) to King
+James, by a great number of Lancashire peasants, tradesmen, and
+servants, requesting that they might be allowed to take their diversions
+(as of old accustomed) after divine service on Sundays, is said to have
+been the origin of the _Book of Sports_, soon after promulgated by royal
+authority. James being persuaded those were Puritans who forbade such
+diversions, and that they were Jewishly inclined, because they affected
+to call Sunday the Sabbath, recommended that diverting exercises should
+be used after evening prayer, and ordered the book to be read publicly
+in all churches; and such ministers as refused to obey the injunction
+were threatened with severe punishment in the High Commission Court.
+This legal violation of the day which is unequivocally the Christian
+Sabbath, roused at the time the indignation of the seriously disposed,
+and has been frequently reprobated by historians. Foremost of its
+opposers, and eminent in example, stands the virtuous and firm
+Archbishop Abbot, who, being at Croydon the day it was ordered to be
+read in churches, flatly forbade it to be read there; which the King was
+pleased to wink at, notwithstanding the daily endeavours that were used
+to irritate the King against him. The _Book of Sports_ is not, however,
+without its apologists among modern writers. The following are Mr
+D'Israeli's remarks on the subject:--"The King found the people in
+Lancashire discontented, from the unusual deprivation of their popular
+recreations on Sundays and holidays after the church service: 'With our
+own ears we heard the general complaint of our people.' The Catholic
+priests were busily insinuating among the lower orders that the Reformed
+religion was a sullen deprivation of all mirth and social amusements,
+and thus 'turning the people's hearts.' But while they were denied what
+the King terms 'lawful recreations' (which are enumerated to consist of
+dancing, archery, leaping, vaulting, May-games, Whitsun-ales,
+morris-dances, and the setting up of Maypoles, and other manly sports),
+they had substituted some vicious ones. Alehouses were more frequented,
+drunkenness more general, tale-mongery and sedition, the vices of
+sedentary idleness, prevailed, while a fanatical gloom was spreading
+over the country. The King, whose gaiety of temper instantly sympathised
+with the multitude, being perhaps alarmed at this new shape which
+Puritanism was assuming, published the _Book of Sports_, which soon
+obtained the contemptuous name of 'The Dancing Book'" (_Life of James_,
+p. 135). In reply to this view of the subject we shall, for the present,
+conclude with Dr Whitaker's remark, that "The King was little aware of
+the effects which the ill-judged licence was likely to produce on the
+common people. The relics of it are hardly worn out to this day; and
+there is scarcely a Sunday evening in any village of the county of
+Lancaster which does not exhibit symptoms of obedience to the injunction
+of honest 'recreation.'"--_Royal Progresses of James I_.
+
+On the 15th of August, in the year 1617, a day memorable for its heat
+and brightness, and for the more enduring glory shed over this remote
+corner of our rejoicing and gladdened realm, came forth King James, from
+the southern gate of his loyal borough of Preston, in a gilded and
+unwieldy caroche, something abated of its lustre by reason of long
+service and the many vicissitudes attending his Majesty's "progresses,"
+which he underwent to the great comfort and well-being of his dominions.
+
+It were needless to set forth the mighty state in which this war-hating
+monarch, this "vicegerent of Divinity," departed--or the great error and
+agitation of Mr Breares, the lawyer, when he made a marvellous proper
+speech at the town-cross--wiping his forehead thrice, and his mouth
+barely once. Nor shall we dilate upon the distress, and dazzling silk
+doublets of the mayor and aldermen of this proud and thrice-happy
+borough--nor how they knelt to the soft salute of his Majesty's hand.
+Our whole book were a space too brief, and a region too inglorious, for
+the wide pomp and paraphernalia of the time; and how the bailiff rode,
+and the mace-bearer guarded the caroche, it were presumption, an
+offensive compound of ignorance and pride, to attempt the portraiture.
+Suffice it to say, they wore mulberry-coloured taffeta gowns, carried
+white staves and foot-cloths, and were preceded by twenty-four stout
+yeomen riding before the king, with fringed javelins, unto a place
+beyond Walton, where they departed. Our object is to notice matters of
+less magnitude and splendour; occurrences then too trivial to guide the
+pen of the chronicler, lost beneath the blaze and effulgence that
+followed on the track of this pageant-loving king. Scraps, which the
+pomps and vanities of those days would have degraded, we thus snatch
+from oblivion; a preservation more worthy, and an occupation more
+useful, we hope, than to hand down to admiring ages the colour and cut
+of taffeta or brocade.
+
+This "wisest" of earthly kings was an ill-spoiled compound of qualities,
+the types of which existed in his monitor and his preceptor; two great
+men, whom history has not failed to distinguish--Archie Armstrong and
+George Buchanan--the wit and the scholar, which in him became the
+representatives of two much more useful and esteemed qualities--fool and
+pedant!
+
+Attended by his favourite Buckingham and a numerous train of officials,
+he "progressed" upon the road to Hoghton Tower, the spacious and
+splendid dwelling of Sir Richard Hoghton, the first baronet of that
+family, whose guest he was to continue for a space, to the great envy
+and admiration of the whole neighbourhood.
+
+As they came nigh the Tower, nothing could be conceived more beautiful
+or picturesque. Its embattled-gateway, bartizans, and battlements,
+crowning the summit of a bold and commanding eminence, became brightly
+illuminated, flashing against grim and shapeless masses of cloud, the
+shattered relics of a storm, that was rolling away in the distance.
+
+Many of the neighbouring gentry were in attendance, not disdaining to
+wear, out of grace and courtesy to Sir Richard Hoghton, the livery of
+their thrice-honoured entertainer.
+
+The king's train alone were very numerous, amongst whom appeared Lord
+Zouch, Constable of Dover Castle, and Sir George Goring, Lieutenant of
+the Gentlemen Pensioners.[29] With the latter rode Sir John Finett,[30]
+Assistant Master of the Ceremonies, but who acted the chief part in this
+important office during the king's journey; two worthies, of whom it
+might be said, that for tempering of the king's humour, and aptness in
+ministering to his delights, their like could scarcely have been found.
+Such nights of feasting and dancing, such days of hawking, hunting, and
+horse-racing, had never before gladdened the heart of "Merry Englonde,"
+or England's monarchs. It seemed as if the whole realm were given up to
+idolatry and dissipation. The idol pleasure was worshipped with such
+ardour and devotion, that all ranks were striving to outdo each other in
+tinsel, trumpery, and deeds of worthlessness and folly.
+
+The king loved such disguises and representations as were witty and
+sudden; the more ridiculous, and to him the more pleasant. This vain and
+frivolous humour might seem unworthy and unbecoming in so great a
+prince, whose profundity of wisdom had well entitled him to the
+appellation of "our English Solomon," did we not call to remembrance
+that the greatest of men have not disdained to be children in their
+sports; the deepest dispositions of the mind seeming to require the
+lightest and most frivolous recreations.
+
+These worthy purveyors to the king's pleasure were of a temper and
+capacity widely different. Sir George Goring was caustic and severe; Sir
+John Finett pleasant and social, delighting in nothing so much as in the
+happiness and gratification of his friends. But the natural disposition
+of his thoughts was wild and melancholic, taking its hue from some early
+impression, that was now fading in doubt and disappointment.
+
+The full burst of his hilarity floated joyously on the surface, and his
+loud mirth, blunting the keen edge of his own feelings, became the more
+exhilarating in proportion to their acuteness. He had the warm blood of
+the Italian in his veins, being descended from an ancient family of
+Sienna; and his rich brown cheek and darkly-speaking eye belied not the
+land of his origin. Goring was fat and swarthy: his nose small and
+supercilious, and his eye grey and piercing. He cared not whom he
+wounded, provided the shafts he drew were well pointed; and his wit
+quick and well-aimed, causing the king to laugh, and his victim to
+writhe during their operation.
+
+As the monarch sate discoursing with the Duke of Buckingham, being sore
+heated, he threw open the windows of his coach, from whence he
+occasionally obtruded his wise head for a survey, and a visit from some
+vagrant and silly breeze, if any were abroad. The roads admitted not of
+aught but the gentlest paces, and the great clamour and cloud about the
+procession made the dust and heat excessively annoying; whereupon the
+king, it is said, did apply a very uncourteous epithet to some of his
+loving subjects, who came too close upon his person, which, though not
+generally averse to being gazed at, was in too warm an atmosphere at
+present for enjoying these kingly exhibitions.
+
+"O' my saul, that meikle stane would build a bra' chappin-block for my
+Lord Provost," said royalty, its head again stationed at the window,
+surveying with solemn curiosity an egg-shaped stone of the boulder sort,
+which, sure enough, was of a remarkable bigness, though not of that
+rarity or infrequence that should have drawn forth the wonder of a king.
+His native dialect he generally employed on jocose and familiar
+subjects. In affairs of importance he affected the use of the English
+tongue, which he spoke with great formality and pomp.
+
+"Stop," said he. "There be _literĉ_ or letters thereon. Unto what
+purport?"
+
+But no one could resolve him as to the use of the stone, or the purport
+of the writing. His worthy host protested that the wonder had never
+before been observed. It was doubtless some miracle worked for the
+occasion.
+
+"But the _scriptum_ or writing will set forth the motive or argument
+thereto. The letters be goodly and well-shapen."
+
+Many voices recited the inscription, forming the following ill-spelled
+line.
+
+    "_Torne me o're, an I'le tel thee plaine_."
+
+The well-known childish curiosity of the monarch would not permit him to
+go away unsatisfied. The day was hot, and the stone was heavy; but a
+long and laborious toil brought to light the following satisfactory
+intelligence,--
+
+    "_Hot porritch softens hard butter-cakes,
+    So torne me o'er again_"[31]
+
+"And o' my saul," said the king, "ye shall gang roun' to yere place
+again; for sa meikle as these country gowks mauna ken the riddle without
+the labour."
+
+So the "muckle stane" was replaced for the next comer who had strength
+and curiosity enough to unriddle the sphinx.
+
+But James did not relish fooleries wherein he was the butt. Whether it
+was devised by some wicked rhymester and contemner of royalty in the
+neighbourhood, or placed there by some of the wits of his own company,
+was never ascertained, though he challenged them at random, and swore
+lustily that he would know the originator of this piece of folly and
+impertinence.
+
+As the king drew nigh to the avenue, there presently issued forth a
+goodly flourish of trumpets, which made the women caper and the horses
+prance. Sir Richard Hoghton rode with the king; but his son Sir Gilbert
+met his Majesty with a great retinue, clad mostly after the same
+fashion; many of the neighbouring gentry, as we have before observed,
+not disdaining to put on Sir Richard's gowns and liveries, to swell the
+pomp and magnificence of that memorable occasion.
+
+The javelin-bearers rode two and two: halting at his Majesty's approach,
+they formed an avenue, through which Sir Gilbert, sumptuously attired,
+went forth to salute the king. His cloak and hose were all glistening
+and spangled with embroidery; his vest was cloth of gold, enriched with
+rare and costly stones; his shirt-bands and ruffles were worked in
+silver; and his gloves, Spanish, breathing out the choicest perfume; his
+hat was of French murrey, the brims thick set with gold twist and
+spangles; round it was a band of goldsmith's work, looped with a crystal
+button.
+
+On approaching the monarch he gracefully alighted; whereupon James
+commanded that the carriage should be stayed, thrusting out his hand in
+a very gracious sort to this worthy knight, who, on his knees, received
+the blessing.
+
+His Majesty then took horse, assisted by Buckingham, who held the
+stirrup. But the king's peculiar and unsteady vaulting was much noticed.
+Many of the bystanders, not aware of his Majesty's dislike to these
+equestrian feats, marvelled not a little at the motion of his leg, and
+the disturbed and uneasy position he assumed. The pathway up the avenue
+was laid with purple velvet, on which the glittering cavalcade, horse
+and foot, formed a noble pageant, whose pomp was almost dazzling to
+behold. The carriages took another path opened for the occasion. The
+whole area in front of the Tower teemed with multitudes, whose shouts
+and huzzas made the very hills and echoes loyal, while they rang with
+acclamations to their sovereign. Presently issued forth from the middle
+gateway two curiously-attired figures, bearing emblems to indicate
+their character and design. There were living allegories, represented by
+the house-steward and Hobbe Handycap, the forester or tienman, keeper of
+vert and venison, a "ryghte merrie knave," and one foremost in all
+pastimes and "honest recreations;" a great promoter and performer of
+May-games, morris-dancing, and the like. These figures were to be
+conceived as household gods, the tutelary deities of Hoghton. The first
+spokesman was clad in a purple taffeta mantle; in one hand was a
+palm-tree branch, on his head a garland of the like sort, and in the
+other hand he carried a dog.
+
+King James accustomed to, and expecting these mummeries, made a full
+stop, when, forthwith, began the purple mantle as follows--
+
+    "This day, great Kinge, for government admired,
+    Which these thy subjects have so much desired,
+    Shall be kept holy in their heart's best treasure,
+    And vowed to James, as is this month to Cĉsar;"
+
+with a good score of lines besides, of the like brevity and metre. In
+them he was said to be greater even than the immortal gods themselves,
+seeing that they came to render their homage unto him, together with all
+things else over which they bare rule, even as the greater doth include
+the less.
+
+Then spake Hobbe, the deity of the chase:--
+
+"Greatest of mortals!"
+
+But he was presently nonplussed, and the steward stept forth to his
+relief, reciting how that the glorious beams from his Majesty's person
+had stricken dumb this weaker divinity. Having finished, the heat being
+intense, and they mightily encumbered with garments, did presently turn
+their backs on the king's majesty, making all speed towards the gateway
+for shelter. This breach of good manners was not unnoticed by the
+monarch, who said, wittily, we suppose, for it was much applauded, that
+these gods were not of High Olympus, but of the nether sort, inasmuch as
+they had turned tail upon their subject.
+
+James and his company, passing through the ponderous and embattled
+gateway, entered into the great quadrangle, an area, it is reported, of
+sufficient size to contain six hundred men. Here he alighted, and was
+conducted in great state to the oaken chamber, where, royalty being very
+hot, a tankard of Rhenish wine, mingled with rosewater, was handed to
+him; of this he partook but sparingly, calling to Buckingham for a cup
+of muscadine and eggs.
+
+Goring and Finett were not idle, but each of them fully employed in
+their respective vocations. Sir John had been pierced by a pair of dark
+eyes from the crowd upon the staircase, and Goring was making all haste
+for the royal hunt, his Majesty having signified that he would on that
+same evening kill a stag. James was, generally, as quick to resolve as
+he was impotent to execute; vacillating, and without any fixed purpose,
+in matters that required decision and promptitude of action.
+
+With his usual pusillanimity the king went through the business of the
+hunt, the deer being literally driven into the very teeth of the dogs.
+An hour having been thus occupied, he commanded that they should return,
+highly satisfied with his own skill and intrepidity. Ascending the hill
+with his favourite, Goring, and discoursing pleasantly on this noble
+pastime, the king turned round on the sudden, as though recollecting
+something he had lost.
+
+"What! Jack Finett. Quhere? quhere, I say, is my Sienna balsam?" said
+he, laying a deep emphasis on the guttural. This sally was acknowledged
+with delight by the courtiers. But "Jack" had not been seen or even
+remembered. Some trick or device was doubtless intended, and the king
+held himself in readiness for the expected surprise; but none was
+forthcoming. No magazine of mirth exploded; no mine was sprung; and
+James entered into his chamber without any visible expression of
+jocoseness issuing from the fertile brains of Sir John Finett. The
+irritation produced by his absence seemed to arise, not from any need of
+him, but from that tormenting desire which mortals universally feel for
+the possession of objects beyond their reach. Search was commanded for
+the truant, unsuccessfully; and supper was begun.
+
+The eastern side of the hill on which the tower is built is bold and
+rugged, being steep and difficult of access. At its base the Darwen
+forces itself through a narrow channel, its waters tumbling over huge
+heaps of rock, and reeling in mazy eddies to the echo of their own
+voice. The river seems to have worked itself a passage through the
+chasm; and the boiling and noisy torrent, struggling to free itself from
+observation, foams and bellows like the gorge of a whirlpool, from
+whence originates its name, "The Orr," not unlike in sound to the effect
+that is here produced.
+
+On the opposite shore the rock is nearly perpendicular, the dog-rose
+and the bramble hiding its crevices, and the crawling campanula
+wreathing its bright bells about the sterile front, from which its
+sustenance was derived, like youth clinging to the cold and insensate
+bosom of age. The declivity sloping abruptly from the tower was then
+covered with a wild and luxuriant underwood, stunted ash and hazel twigs
+thinly occupying a succession of ridges to the summit. Here and there a
+straggling oak threw its ungraceful outline over a narrow path, winding
+immediately under the base of the hill,--its bare roots undermined by
+oozings from above, and giving way to the slow but certain operation of
+the destroyer. From the heat and dryness of the season the torrent was
+much diminished, rushing into a succession of deep pools, which the full
+free light of heaven had scarcely ever visited. Now dimly seen through
+the hot gleams of a summer evening, they seemed wavering in the lurid
+reflection from surrounding objects.
+
+Up this narrow gorge had strayed Sir John Finett with a companion, too
+busily engaged, it might seem, in their own converse to note the lapse
+of time, and the probable consequences of the king's displeasure.
+
+"Fair lady," said the gay cavalier, "I am not more bold than my vocation
+holdeth meet. Your cousin, at Myerscough, was so liberal of his own
+suit, and my countenance therein, that he hath entrusted this
+love-billet to my keeping, warning me that I should let none but
+yourself be privy to its delivery."
+
+"Would that my cousin had eschewed letter-writing! I am averse to his
+suit, and yet he ceaseth not to vex me continually with his drivelling
+ditties. His ballad-mongering to these 'eyne' alone would set up one of
+your court rhymesters for a twelvemonth."
+
+"Yet may aversion cease, and your mislikings be not over difficult to
+assuage," said the courtier.
+
+"I doubt not but Sir John Finett speaks of the capricious and changeable
+humours he hath witnessed;--our country fashion holdeth not so lightly
+by its affection or disfavour."
+
+"Then there be doubtless of those stout vessels that shall never leak
+out a lady's favour. That this lot were mine!"
+
+Sir John, perhaps unconsciously, threw his dark eyes full upon the lady,
+who blushed deeply; but the gloom concealed this outward show of
+feeling, too unformed and indefinite for thought. She spoke not; but the
+knight, under cover of his errand, continued the discourse without
+awakening her alarm. He excelled in that specious, though apparently
+heedless raillery, which is so apt to slip without suspicion into a
+lady's ear; and he could ply his suit, under this disguise, with such
+seeming artlessness and unconcern, that a lodgement in the citadel was
+sometimes effected ere the garrison was aware of the intrusion.
+
+This fair dame, Grace Gerard, was of gentle blood, a daughter of the
+Gerards of Ashton Hall, near Lancaster. At the earnest solicitations of
+the Hoghton family, she was induced to remain a guest with them during
+the royal visit. Of a sweet and excellent temper, her form and face were
+its very image and counterpart. The world was to her untried--fresh,
+fair, unblemished--she looked upon it as though she were newly alighted
+on "some heaven-kissing hill," from whence the whole round of life's
+journey was blent and mingled with the glowing beam that now encompassed
+her. Alas! that youth should so soon pluck and eat of the "Tree of
+Knowledge!" that a nearer approach should dissipate the illusion! that
+our path, as it winds through those scenes we have looked on from afar
+in the light of our imagination, should at every step discover the
+tracks of misery,--a world of wretchedness and of woe!
+
+Sir John, with all his faults, inseparable it may be from the society
+into which he had been thrown, was not vicious. Loving and beloved, he
+existed but as the object of woman's regard. This foible he indulged not
+farther. But many a bright eye waxed dim,--many a fond heart was
+withered, in the first spring-tide of its affection.
+
+"Now that I have granted you this audience for my cousin's sake, and
+given him my reply, it is needful that we return. Besides, the night is
+coming on. The king and the feast demand your presence."
+
+"Nay, thou cruel tyrant, tell me not of my chain. The king's humour I
+can control, but"----
+
+"Presume not on the favour of princes; an ancient but wholesome
+caution," said the maiden, laughing at Sir John, who, for the first
+time, seemed to be aware of his duty, and was puzzling his brains for an
+excuse.
+
+The bell now rang out lustily from the Tower, increasing the knight's
+perplexity. The innocent cause of this delay only laughed at his
+concern, singing, as though to herself--
+
+    "'The bell has been rung, and the mass hath been sung,
+      And the feast eat merrily,
+                        Merrily!'
+
+"and the king's master of the ceremonies absent."
+
+The aspect of affairs was now more serious than he had anticipated.
+Supper was indeed commencing. Some scheme or witty device must be hit
+upon,--speedily too, or the king's displeasure might be difficult to
+assuage.
+
+"But for thy bright eyes and fair speech, my lady Grace, I had not been
+amissing from my duty." He looked thoughtful, and it was the maiden's
+turn to rally.
+
+They ascended the hill by a short but steep path. As they approached the
+summit, he seemed to awake from a deep reverie.
+
+"Now have you granted me an audience for a lover's sake--to-morrow, let
+me be the ambassador for another."
+
+"I have no lovers from whom I would care to be honoured with an
+embassy!"
+
+"None?" said the knight, peering curiously, as if he would penetrate the
+folds of a real Flanders scarf she had thrown carelessly about her
+head--
+
+    "'Then will I be thy lover true,
+      And thou my beauteous queene,'
+
+"through these gay festivities. But mark me!"--He became serious on the
+sudden. The expression of his eye, from its general character of assumed
+gaiety, was changed into that of tenderness and respect. "Mark me, lady,
+I would be spared the horror of a rival. Will you be my partner in these
+pageantries--my mistress unto whom I may render mine homage and my
+trust?"
+
+"'Tis a brave speech, Sir John," cried the lady, as though wishful to
+divert the subject. "My cousin tells me that you are a knight of great
+courage and renown, but he sayeth not aught of your disposition to
+outrival him in heroics. Good-bye--a promise made is a promise broken;
+therefore, I'll offer none. I meet you not to-night at the feast, having
+obtained mine excuse."
+
+Saying this, she bounded from him ere he was aware, and was speedily out
+of sight.
+
+He was not a little chagrined at her abrupt departure; yet her very
+carelessness, and the open simplicity of her manner, only served to fix
+her the more deeply in his thoughts. But a problem of greater difficulty
+was to be resolved than how to fix the chameleon hue of woman's
+thought. He had a king to pacify--wayward as a child, fickle as a lady's
+favour. Unless he could acquit himself by some witty quibble or device,
+he might bid adieu to the gaieties over which he presided. The time was
+short, and his wit must needs be ambling. As he passed through the
+court, revolving many plans for his deliverance, he was aware of a loud
+dispute between the two household divinities we have before noticed.
+Words were nigh being exchanged for blows, but they were stayed out of
+respect to the intruder.
+
+Leaving Sir John to confer with those doughty disputants, let us follow
+the king to supper. Space forbids that we describe the wonders of this
+feast, and the dainties that were provided--how the swans were roasted,
+and the herons eaten cold--how pies were baked of the red deer, and the
+wild boar, not a whit too small for the reception of any moderate-sized
+Christian subject of his Majesty's. There were turkeys, quails, poults,
+and plovers; but of pheasants only two, and one for the king. The
+greatest triumph, however, was reserved for the confections; an
+artificial hen was here served of puff-paste; her wings displayed,
+sitting upon eggs of the same materials. In each of these was enclosed a
+fat lark roasted, and seasoned with pepper and ambergris.
+
+They sat down, but the master of the ceremonies was still absent;
+whereupon the king, much distempered thereby, called out to Sir George
+Goring--
+
+"Our mummer and our dancer being departed--whilk thing, aforetime, we
+did maist righteously inhibit--thinkest thou, he may not henceforth
+eschew our service?"
+
+"My liege, your Grace's commands were to seek him a full hour agone, but
+the scared deer hath taken to covert. He was, peradventure, afraid of
+the hunting, and liketh his own neck better than the sport. He careth
+not, methinks, to show his face that turns big back on his comrade's
+peril."
+
+"May be," said Buckingham, "your Majesty's favour is not so winsome as a
+lady's cheek. I would wager my cap, Jack Finett hath found a smoother
+tongue, but a harder service, than your Majesty's."
+
+"O' my saul,--if I thought so," said the monarch, as he threw down a
+spoonful of buttered pease, "I would send him to the Tower, and he
+should write a book on Hercules his distaff."
+
+"Or Omphale's spindle," said a voice at the lower end of the hall,
+which, issuing from a mask, closely fitted, sounded wondrously hollow
+and portentous. A profound silence ensued--all eyes being turned towards
+the speaker, who was no less a personage than the first household god,
+attired in his proper suit. He approached the king's table, waving his
+hand in token of attention--
+
+    "The knight ye speak of, mark me well,
+    I've just drawn from the castle-well!"
+
+"Mercy on us," cried Sir Richard Hoghton. "The draw-well is more than
+eighty yards deep. Thou art a lying deity, and shalt be banished from
+this bright Olympus."
+
+But the deity, nothing abashed, thus continued--
+
+    "How came he thus, I dare not tell;
+    My brother may the mystery dispel."
+
+He stooped down--rising again to the astonished eyes of the fair dames
+and nobles at the upper bench, in the forester's habit of Kendal green,
+with cloak and doublet of the same colour.
+
+"What's now?" said James. "Witchery and fause negromancie, o' my troth.
+'Tis treason, Sir Richard, to use glamour in the king's presence."
+
+But the sylvan god continued in the doggerel of his predecessor--
+
+    "Sir John to be forgiven would hope;
+    He had been drowned, but for the rope!"
+
+"Ay," said the king, chuckling at this opportunity, purposely given, for
+a display of his wit--"he'll be hanged--na doot, na doot."
+
+"Prythee, Sylvanus, or whatever thou be, bring Sir John hither, that he
+may dry his web in the hot sunshine of a lady's glance," said Villiers,
+with an ill-suppressed sneer.
+
+Again this Proteus was transformed. Doffing his habit, Sir John Finett
+stood confessed before them. He knelt penitently before the king, humbly
+assuring his Majesty that he had been preparing this device, and many
+others, to please and surprise him; but that, through the bungling of
+some, and the bashfulness of others, he was obliged to enact the parts
+himself. This excuse the king was graciously pleased to accept,
+commending him for his great diligence and zeal.
+
+The night now wore on with much outward show of mirth and revelry; but
+the king went early to rest, purposing to rise betimes.
+
+On the following day he went out again with a great company, and killed
+a brace of stags, which mighty achievement, by authentic record, we find
+was accomplished before dinner--the king alone being able to bring down
+the venison.
+
+We willingly pass over this day's banquet; nor do we care to chronicle
+the feats of Morris the head-cook, and his deputies of the ranges and
+the pastries. The boiling and roasting of poults and pullets, and the
+construction of comfits and confections, we consign to everlasting
+oblivion.
+
+When the king rose from table, about four o'clock, as we find it in the
+private journal of one present, he purposed to view the alum-mines,
+about two miles distant from the Tower; but, being eager for the sport,
+he went forth again a-hunting. He shot at a stag and missed. The next
+bolt broke the thigh-bone, and the dog being long in coming, Lord
+Compton despatched the poor beast, whereby his capture was effected. We
+forbear to dwell on this, and much more of the like interest, returning
+with the king to supper, where the beauteous Grace Gerard was present,
+and Sir John Finett, her true knight and devoted slave. Dr Morton, then
+Bishop of Chester, was chaplain, doling out a long Latin grace with
+great unction.
+
+The music had ceased, the second course being just served, when a signal
+was given for the king's pledge.
+
+"Let each one pledge the fairest," cried the royal toast-master, moved
+to some unwonted gallantry by approximation with the fair and lusty
+dames about his person. For it hath been wittily if not wickedly said by
+a popular writer in another place that James was in all things like unto
+Solomon, save in the matter of women.
+
+Now was there a brave stir throughout the assembly. Such pledging of
+mistresses and challenging of cups, that nothing could be like unto it.
+
+"To the bright eyes and peerless grace of the lady Grace Gerard," said
+Sir John Finett, draining his goblet to the uttermost;--and the maiden's
+cheek glowed like a furnace.
+
+"Said I not that he could win a lady's grace sooner than a monarch's
+disfavour? Nay, your Majesty, I but meant that Sir John conveys the
+fairest eyes and the warmest hearts into his own keeping, like an
+_Ochus-Bochus_," said Buckingham, looking envious at the distinction he
+had gained.
+
+"I see plainly that Truth is hidden in a well," said Goring, drily.
+
+Sir John Finett, courtier and dissembler as he was, could scarcely hide
+the truth of this sally. But he quickly recovered his self-possession
+ere the king's eye could detect a change. Yet did he not escape the
+vigilance of his two friends, who suspected the real cause of his
+absence on the preceding night.
+
+"Thou shalt be her true knight to-morrow, and she shall be queen of our
+sports," said the king, graciously extending his hand to the blushing
+maiden.
+
+But this speech pleased not some of the courtiers, and Buckingham,
+having his eye on this fair flower, secretly resolved that Sir John
+should not enjoy its fragrance unmolested.
+
+On the following morning, being Sunday, there came a great company of
+peasants and handicraftsmen--notorious idlers about the parish--with a
+petition, wherein it was shown that the loyal and peaceable inhabitants
+of Lancashire had been long hindered of their usual diversions on
+Sundays and other holidays by the rigour of Puritans, Precisians, and
+such like folk,[32] who, being enemies to all innocent and lawful mirth,
+did mightily begrudge and maliciously restrain their use. These
+petitioners, therefore, prayed his Majesty, "that he would not forbid
+their exercising of all honest and lawful recreation, such as dancing of
+men and women, archery, running, leaping, and vaulting; nor prohibit the
+use of May-games, May-poles, morris-dances, and other like lawful
+sports, so that the same should not impediment or cause neglect of
+divine service."
+
+The ground of this complaint was laid in the time of Elizabeth, who, in
+order to reform the manners of the people, instituted a high commission
+in the year 1579. The commissioners were Henry Earl of Derby, Henry Earl
+of Huntingdon, William Lord Bishop of Chester, and others. At their
+sittings, which were held in Manchester, they issued orders throughout
+the county against "pipers and minstrels playing, making, and
+frequenting bear-baiting and bull-baiting on the Sabbath days, or upon
+any other days in time of divine service, and also against superstitious
+ringing of bells, wakes, and common feasts; drunkenness, gaming, and
+other vicious and unprofitable pursuits." These restrictions the royal
+pedant thought incompatible with the public weal, and graciously
+answered the petitioners in such-wise that he would have these
+over-righteous zealots rebuked; that it was a misuse of their authority;
+and that he would not only grant the humble request of his subjects,
+but, on that very evening he would have a masque and an allegory, with
+dancing and other like diversions, by the lords and other nobility there
+present.
+
+Such was the origin of the famous _Book of Sports_. His Majesty, on
+returning to the capital, issued a proclamation,[33] stating--
+
+"That in his progress through Lancashire he found it necessary to rebuke
+some Puritans and precise people, and took order that the said unlawful
+carriage should not be used by any of them hereafter, in the prohibiting
+and unlawfully punishing his good people, for using their lawful
+recreations and honest exercises upon Sundays, after divine service."
+"His Majesty further saw that his loyal subjects in all other parts of
+the kingdom did suffer in the same kind, though not, perhaps, in the
+same degree as in Lancashire; and he did therefore, in his princely
+wisdom, publish a declaration to all his loving subjects concerning
+lawful sports to be used on Sundays and festivals."--Published by his
+royal command in the year 1618, under the title of the _Book of Sports_.
+The royal visit to Lancashire proved ultimately of more importance to
+the civil and ecclesiastical establishments of the kingdom than could
+have been anticipated either by the king or his subjects. This infamous
+_Book of Sports_ formed the first link in that mysterious chain of
+events, ending in the downfall of the Stuarts, and their exile and
+expulsion from the throne.
+
+The gladsome tidings having been communicated to the petitioners, with
+one accord they galloped off, shouting and huzzaing, to the great
+annoyance of all peaceable and sober-minded persons, and the great
+dishonour of that holy day.
+
+The king attended divine service at the chapel, where Dr Morton
+preached, commanding and exhorting to an obedience well pleasing to
+their Maker; inasmuch as it was rendered to the vicegerent of heaven,
+the high and mighty and puissant James, defender of the Faith, and so
+forth. After this comfortable and gracious doctrine, there was a
+rush-bearing[34] and a piping before the king in the great quadrangle.
+Robin Hood and Maid Marian, with the fool and hobby-horse, were,
+doubtless, enacted to the jingling of morris-dancers and other
+profanities.
+
+These fooleries put the king into such good humour that he was more
+witty in his speech than ordinary. Some of these sayings have been
+recorded, and amongst the rest that well-known quibble which has been
+the origin of an absurd mistake, still current through the county,
+respecting the sirloin. It is said to have been knighted there by his
+Majesty, who found, such were his knight-making propensities, that other
+subjects were exhausted.
+
+The occasion, as far as we have been able to gather, was thus:--Whilst
+he sat at meat, casting his eyes upon a noble _surloin_ at the lower end
+of the table, he cried out--
+
+"Bring hither that _surloin_, sirrah, for 'tis worthy of a more
+honourable post, being, as I may say, not _surloin_ but _sirloin_, the
+noblest joint of all;" which ridiculous and desperate pun raised the
+wisdom and reputation of England's Solomon to the highest.
+
+Great was the stir and preparation for the evening masque; a pageant
+containing many allegories and devices; dancing and merry games, with
+all other "lawful recreations and honest amusements." Little heed was
+given, we fear, to their Maker's service, these vain follies running in
+the heads and filling the thoughts of the few who chose to attend in the
+chapel; the greater portion were preparing for the entertainment, into
+which service they entered heartily, and without grudge.
+
+Sir George Goring and Sir John Finett were verily indefatigable on the
+occasion, drilling and marshalling men, women, and children; conning
+their lessons, and correcting the awkward and ridiculous movements and
+mistakes of their pupils. Hobbe and the house steward were the foremost
+in their parts, having important functions allotted to them; one to
+grunt and howl in the similitude of a huge bear, and the other to roar
+in lieu of a lion, before the "_Bower of Beautie_" for such was the
+title or motto of the pageant. Nor was Sir John lacking in due homage to
+his mistress; she was appointed to enact "The Queen of Beautie." It was
+after much solicitation that she consented, receiving with great gravity
+and attention the instructions of her accomplished preceptor.
+
+The day was nigh spent and the sun fast sinking on the ocean, now
+waiting with a chariot of flame to conduct him to other skies.
+
+Grace was just finishing her toilet, and her maid adjusting the last
+plait in her head-dress, when a low and guarded knock announced a
+visitor. The door was slightly opened, when a messenger threw in a gay
+billet and departed. It was superscribed thus:--"_To the Fairest,
+These_."
+
+With a quickened pulse and a tremulous hand, she glanced over the page,
+elaborately penned as follows:--
+
+     "The Bower of Beautie hath a snake; beware that he come not nigh
+     thee, for his tooth has venom, and his tail a sting.
+
+     "From the mask with the black visard and silver mantle.
+
+     "THESE."
+
+She had barely finished the perusal, when there came tripping in the
+page of Sir John Finett, carrying a sealed billet redolent with the most
+costly perfume. The superscription was precisely similar, and nearly in
+the same hand:--"To the Fairest, These."
+
+She hastily broke open the packet.
+
+     "Beauteous and most matchless queen! jealous of thy coming, the orb
+     of day hasteneth to hide himself in Thetis's lap. He leaveth thee
+     our luminary in his stead, whose twin stars shall so outmimic day
+     that his brightness shall not be remembered. Truly am I in great
+     heaviness and sorrow, seeing that I cannot be with you in the
+     opening of the pageant, by reason of mine office, and my duty to
+     the king. Yet will I not leave you without a protector. My trusty
+     friend Weldon will enact your faithful knighte. He weareth a black
+     visard and mantle of spotted silver, and will accompany you to the
+     bower, from whence he delivereth the queene and her distressed
+     damsels out of durance. When the dancing begins, expect me.
+
+     "THINE."
+
+Little space was left for deliberation. The bell rang out its signal
+for the actors to arrange themselves; hearing which, she thrust the
+billets behind her stomacher, and hastened to the great court, where, on
+a platform supported by four wheels, was builded a sort of hut,
+decorated in a tawdry and fanciful style, and yeleped "The Bower of
+Beautie."
+
+Into this bower the queen was to be conducted, but the uproar and
+confusion was indescribable; strange and antic figures hurrying to and
+fro, seeking their companions, and crying lustily for their places. Sir
+John Finett and Sir George Goring fulfilled the office of whippers-in,
+attempting to establish order out of these undisciplined elements. Grace
+drew back; but suddenly there came forth an armed knight from the bower
+towards her, wearing a black visor and a mantle of spotted silver,
+courteously beseeching her that she would accompany him to her station.
+A great curtain of figured arras hung in front, concealing the interior,
+where the queen and her maidens were supposed to be held captive. Grace
+stepped into this temporary confinement, in which were four other ladies
+masked, who graciously saluted their queen. The black-faced visor having
+seated himself, the arras was again let down; when several men,
+bedizened with ribands and nosegays, wheeled off the vehicle to its
+destination on the green.
+
+The bower was garnished with roses, gilliflowers, pinks, and odoriferous
+herbs. Garlands of artificial flowers were interspersed; likewise
+imitations in satin, silk, and gold, of various trees, herbs, and
+fruits, not to be found in those parts. All this had been accomplished
+with great pains by the ladies of the queen's mimic court, Sir John
+Finett superintending "_The Bower of Beautie_," as his peculiar
+province. To Sir George Goring were allotted the bears, satyrs, imps,
+angels, gods, and other like rabble, who were taught with much labour
+and difficulty, in so short a space, their several parts.
+
+Sir John Finett had received a mandate to be near the king during the
+acts, that he might be instructed in their several uses and designs,
+Buckingham having signified his wish to sport a mask on the occasion;
+Sir John, therefore, much to his regret, was completely debarred from
+approaching his mistress.
+
+The king's coming was announced by a flourish of trumpets, and a loud
+bray from the delighted multitude, who sent up a shout that shook the
+very foundations.
+
+Under a pavilion of crimson cloth, decked with fringes and valences of
+gold, walked forth the monarch. He leaned familiarly on the arm of his
+host, who, together with Sir John Finett, was in immediate attendance.
+After the king's train had passed, came a troop of morris-dancers, and
+the hobby-horse, who frolicked in a most ungainly fashion round the
+Bower of Beautie, kissing hands, and making many salutations towards
+their enthralled queen. Next came out a bear and a lion, accompanied by
+a thing intended to represent an ape, whose office it was to torment
+these grave animals with his tricks. But so encumbered were they in
+their disguise,--a heavy covering of bucks' skins and long wool,--that
+they had much ado to keep on their clothes, while attempting to resent
+the indignities they endured.
+
+"Hang thee, Will--keep thy paws off my tail," said lion: "Dost not see I
+shall be uncovered before the king?"
+
+"I'll baste thine hide," said bear, "if thou meddlest any more with
+mine."
+
+The ape had settled himself on the back of this august-looking animal,
+from whence he was suddenly dislodged, much to the delight and
+entertainment of the king, who laughed heartily at his disaster. The
+ravenous animals were on their way to the bower, there to watch for the
+captives, making great demonstrations all the while of their
+bloodthirsty intent.
+
+Bear and lion accordingly squatted down before it, making as though they
+would gladly have been at supper on the fair carcases of those within.
+Anon comes a mighty magician, with a long beard, and a wand of some ells
+in extent, purposing to effect the deliverance of the captives; but the
+beasts rushed upon him, and in a trice brought him to the ground. At
+this juncture the Silver Knight--showing thereby the superiority of true
+valour over false gramarye--should have issued from the bower, rescued
+the magician, and slain the beasts, opening a way for the escape of
+these imprisoned damsels, who were to come forth dancing, and
+representing a fair masque before the king;--but the magician remained
+unrescued, while bear and lion lay growling for a long space, not
+knowing what else to do. They looked about wistfully, not choosing to
+feast on their prostrate victim. At last, finding no change in the
+posture of affairs, they fairly stood erect, much to the marvel and
+amusement of the spectators, running off on their hind legs amid the
+shouts and derision of the assembly.
+
+Sir John, apprehending some mistake, left the king for a moment to see
+how matters stood; but Goring had lifted up the arras, and, lo! the
+knight with the black visor and mantle of silver was not there, neither
+was the Queen of Beauty in her bower. The four disconsolate maidens
+still sat waiting for their cue, and expecting release. This was an
+unlooked-for disaster. The pageant was at a stand. On inquiry, the
+maidens told how that the gallant knight and the peerless queen had
+departed before the king's arrival, saying they would return anon.
+
+Sir John was bewildered and alarmed. The Silver Knight was trusty, and
+no suspicion crossed him from that source; yet was their absence wholly
+unaccountable. The king, seeing some mistake in the unravelling or
+conception of the plot, good-naturedly commanded the minstrels to strike
+up a favourite tune; at the hearing of which a number of masks
+immediately mustered to begin dancing in the soft and dewy twilight.
+Amongst the rest came in Buckingham, negligently attired, and without
+his visor.
+
+"I thought thee hidden amongst the maskers," said the king.
+
+"Ay, my liege, a short space;--but the night is hot, and I am something
+distempered and weary in this turmoil."
+
+Buckingham looked flushed and agitated, strangely differing from his
+usual manner. It was not unobserved by the king, who attributed the
+change to illness.
+
+"Thou shalt continue about our person," said the monarch. "Jack, see to
+the sports:--the pageant hath suffered greatly from thine absence. I do
+think the Queen of Beauty hath played thee false."
+
+Buckingham took his usual station by the king; and Sir John Finett, in
+great dolour, went forth in search of his mistress. He questioned the
+guests diligently, but could gain no further tidings, save that she had
+been seen by many in company with the Silver Knight. Every minute added
+to his uneasiness: thoughts of a wild and terrible import haunted him.
+In vain he tried to shake off these intruders--they came like shadows,
+horrible and indistinct. His naturally sensitive and sanguine
+temperament, as prone to the anticipation of evil as of delight, was a
+curse, and not a blessing. Departed hopes may fling a deeper shadow even
+on the brow of Despair!--and rayless was the night which visited his
+spirit. It was now too evident--for he was no novice in the
+science--that his admiration had awakened one dormant but hallowed
+affection, long lulled in the soft lap of pleasure. The maiden, with
+whom it was his sole aim to pass a few hours of pleasantry and
+amusement, had enthralled him by so sudden a spell, that he was more
+than half inclined to believe in the boasted skill and exploits of the
+sex, which has rendered Lancashire so famous. Her unaccountable absence
+impressed itself strangely upon his thoughts. He was in love!--and he
+writhed at the discovery; but he would have given worlds just then to
+have proclaimed it at his mistress's feet.
+
+Scarcely conscious how the night wore on, he was obliged to act his
+part. Supper was announced; and he took his station where he could see
+the guests unmask as they entered to the banquet.
+
+The tables were nearly filled, but the Silver Knight and his fair lady
+were still absent. Grace Gerard is doubtless in her own chamber, was the
+host's reply to some inquiry from Sir John:--she had craved excuse from
+some slight indisposition. But this did not satisfy him to whom it was
+addressed: he suspected her chamber would be found unoccupied;--his
+heart felt wasted and desolate;--it was as if the whole fair face of
+nature were blotted out,--the light being gone which rendered it
+visible.
+
+"What ho!" said the king, "bring my Sienna knight a cup of hot sack and
+a merry-thought, for he seems melancholic and watchful--a wary eye, but
+a silent tongue. Sir John, are your wits a wool-gathering with your
+queen?"
+
+"I am in my widowhood, most gracious prince,--my queen having departed."
+
+"More fool thou, to fling thy heart after thy wits. Come, honest Jack,
+we'll have some minstrelsy after the feast,--a merry troll and a short
+one."
+
+Sir John was well skilled in handling the lute and rebeck. He had been
+early trained to their use; and many a kind glance and tender word he
+had won thereby.
+
+The feast was over, and those hushed halls thrilled to the following
+ditty:--
+
+
+I.
+
+    "They bade me sing, they bade me smile,
+      They bade my heart be gay;
+    They called my spirit forth, to while
+      The laughing hours away.
+    I've sung, I've smiled: where'er my path
+      Mirth's dazzling meteors shine:
+    All hearts have owned its magic power,
+      And all are glad but mine.
+
+
+II.
+
+    "I've soothed the darkest surge of woe,
+      And many a bosom blessed;
+    Forbade the sufferer's tear to flow,
+      And brought the weary rest:
+    I've poured upon the bleeding heart
+      The balm of Hope,--the shrine
+    Where holier, happier thoughts shall dwell;--
+      But who shall gladden mine?
+
+
+III.
+
+    "Forgive; 'tis but one short complaint,
+      One pang I would reveal:
+    The wretch upon the torturing rack
+      Is not forbid to feel!
+    Then laugh,--let merry hearts to-night
+      Their brightest wreaths entwine:
+    The flowers that bloom on every breast
+      Will, withering, fade on mine!"[35]
+
+Many were the bright eyes glittering on him through their long silken
+lashes; but Sir John looked downward,--diligently noting something
+extraordinary in the disposition of his shoe-roses, or in the tie of his
+garter.
+
+"One raven will set another croaking," said Sir George.
+
+"That we may escape a concert so detestable," cried out Buckingham, "let
+Sir John Finett follow me, and we will reel with our fair dames, until
+cares whirl off like sling-stones."
+
+"And may he that tires first fiddle the witches' jig," said the sapient
+king.
+
+A burst of harsh music followed, and Sir John's feebly tinkling strings
+were thrown aside. Never had he wished so anxiously for one short hour
+of quietness; and right fain he was when the king retired to his
+chamber. His duties for that day were over, and he strolled out from the
+hot and oppressive atmosphere into a calm quiet moonlight. The cool
+breeze came like a healing balm upon his spirit, the soft dew fell upon
+his cheek,--but the fire in his veins burnt fiercely. His mistress's
+form, her face, the sweet influence of her smile, were fixed indelibly
+on his heart. Away from the bustle and cares of office,--which, like
+waves on the surface, for a while effaced their image,--the whole
+beauteous impression was revealed before him in all its loveliness and
+truth. His heart bounded at the thought:--it was but for a moment. Again
+he stood, hopeless and desolate, gazing upon the soft mist-wreath in the
+valley, as though expecting it would render up the form of his beloved.
+
+Suddenly the short swift steps of a steed were heard hurrying up the
+avenue. A horseman approached the gateway: it was his friend, the
+_soi-disant_ knight of the silver mantle!
+
+"How now, Weldon![36]--whither have thy unlucky familiars carried thee?
+Hast thou bestridden the enchanted horse, or wert thou bidden to a
+witch-feast?"
+
+"I have been to Myerscough with your message,--and the pains I have had
+for my labour."
+
+"My message!" said Sir John, with amazement: "I sent thee on no other
+errand than to guard the lady, whom thou hast either made away with or
+she hath slipped from thine hold."
+
+"You are pleasant, Sir John. Your tricks are well enough in court-hours.
+Come, be serious, and tell me thou hast had a fool's errand out of me."
+
+"I never was more serious in my life, Weldon, I do vouch, as my head
+shall swing safely on its pivot. But who gave thee a message--and to
+whom?"
+
+"To our fair hostess at Myerscough. Thy page thrust a scrap of writing
+into my hand after prayers. The request was, that I should see the
+accompanying billet safely delivered, and with mine own hand, without
+loss of time. It was one of your curiously-folded fantastic
+love-billets, as I thought. Knowing I could well be spared hence, I
+immediately took horse, and came in a bath of foam to the lady; but when
+she opened her pretty token, she drew herself erect with great majesty.
+'Tell Sir John Finett,' said she, 'that when he next sends thee forth on
+his fooleries, to choose another butt; to shoot his arrows where they
+will stick, or his goose-feathers may fly back again.'"
+
+Horror almost deprived Sir John of utterance. That some foul play had
+been meditated, and in all probability accomplished, was but too plain;
+but how, or by whom, was inscrutable as ever.
+
+The page was straitly questioned; but he merely said that his message
+was given him by some person he did not recognise in the crowd at the
+chapel-doors, who said he was to seek Weldon forthwith, and deliver him
+the papers from his master. What course to adopt, or where to begin
+their search, were questions alike embarrassing and impossible to
+answer. In the end they determined to lay the matter before the king on
+the morrow.
+
+It may be needful to go back a short space to "The Bower of Beautie,"
+wherein the knight of the silver mantle, having safely ensconced
+himself, as the reader may remember, the arras was let down; after
+which, being wheeled away to their destination, they were to await for
+the commencement of the masque. But the Silver Knight, lifting up the
+curtain, observed they were much too early for the performance, and
+courteously entreated the lady that she would alight. The evening was
+hot, and the bower close and oppressive. An hour might, in all
+probability, elapse ere their presence would be required. Grace,
+trusting to her companion, quitted the car, strolling out amongst the
+masks. Gradually they left the main crowd, unconsciously approaching the
+steep brow of the hill, where, looking towards the east, they beheld the
+broad red moon swinging out from the blue horizon. The loud hum of the
+revellers came softly and pleasantly on the ear. It was an hour of
+quietness and delight--a few hasty, happy moments snatched from these
+gaudy hours--the pomp and circumstance of life. Would that Sir John had
+been here in lieu of his friend! thought Grace. No, she did not think
+so, but she felt as though such a thought might have been nursed into
+being with little effort. They were now stealing down the hill, and the
+dark waters of the Orr were leaping and bubbling at their feet.
+
+"We must return," said the maiden, looking up, alarmed at seeing, for
+the first time, that they were cut off from all connection and
+intercourse with their companions. Her attendant was a perfect stranger,
+except in name, and though counselled to rely implicity on his care by
+the master of the ceremonies himself, she felt her situation
+embarrassing and unpleasant.
+
+"And why must we return?" said the mask. The tone startled her; its
+expression was now soft and beseeching, as though he had before spoken
+in a masked voice.
+
+"Why!" said she, looking as though she would have pierced through his
+disguise.
+
+"Nay, whet not thy glance so keenly. I am not what I seem, and yet am
+not unseemly."
+
+"Your jests had been better timed had they taken a fitter season. I must
+hence."
+
+"Go not, my beauteous queen," said the stranger, taking her hand, which
+she dashed from her with indignation and alarm. She was darting up the
+crag, but was again detained.
+
+"I will worship thee:--thou shall be my star--the axle of my thoughts.
+All"----
+
+"Unhand me, sir, or I'll call those who have the power to punish as well
+as to humble thy presumption!"
+
+"Whom wilt thou call, my pretty lamb? The wolf? The snake is scotched in
+the bower, and I but beseech thy gratitude. How that look of scorn
+becomes thee! Pout not so, my queen, or thou wilt indeed make an excuse
+for my rudeness."
+
+"How? Again this insult! Begone, or thou shalt rue that ever thy thought
+escaped thy tongue. I'll report thee to thy betters."
+
+"My betters! and who be they, maiden? Thou knowest me not, _perdie_.
+Hath not Sir John Finett shorn his love-locks and eschewed thy service
+after leaving thy bower the other night?"
+
+This taunt raised her indignation to a blaze--her bosom swelled at the
+rebuke.
+
+Still he retained her hand--with the other she clung to a withered tree,
+whose roots held insecurely by the rock. Making another effort, she
+sprang from his grasp; but the tree was rent from its hold, and she fell
+with it to the edge of the precipice. Ere the Silver Knight could
+interpose, a faint shriek announced her descent: a swift crash was heard
+amongst the boughs and underwood--a groan and a rebound. He saw her
+disappear behind a crag. Then came one thrilling moment of terror, one
+brief pause in that death-like stillness, and a heavy plunge was heard
+in the gulf below! He listened--his perceptions grew more acute--eye and
+ear so painfully susceptible, and their sensibility so keen, that the
+mind scarcely distinguished its own reactions from realities--from
+outward impressions on the sense. He thought he heard the gurgle and
+the death-throe. Then the pale face of the maiden seemed to spring out
+from the abyss. He rushed down the precipice. Entangled in the copsewood
+and bushes, some time elapsed ere he gained the narrow path below. He
+soon found, as in most other situations, the shortest road the
+longest--that the beaten track would have brought him quicker to his
+destination; but these nice calculations were forgotten. All pranked out
+and bedizened as he was, the puissant knight plunged into the gulf; but
+his exertions were fruitless, and he gave up the search. His love for
+the maiden living and breathing did not prompt him to drown himself for
+her corpse. With hasty steps he regained the Tower, where he doffed his
+dripping garments unobserved.
+
+Sir John Finett, by advice from his friend Weldon, determined on
+acquainting their host with the lady's disappearance. They had a shrewd
+suspicion that Buckingham was the contriver of this daring outrage;
+though from his great power, influence, and audacity, they had
+everything to fear and but little to hope from the result. Yet no time
+should be lost in the attempt.
+
+As they entered the hall, Sir Gilbert Hoghton and several of the guests
+were still making merry after the feast. Calling him aside, they
+communicated the dismal tidings.
+
+"Grace Gerard amissing, say ye?"
+
+"'Tis even so," said Sir John; "we have yet no clue to the search; but
+this night shall not pass without the attempt, at any rate. In the
+morning we will to the king with our complaint."
+
+"Boy," said the baronet to his little henchman, "go to the woman's
+suite, and rouse Grace Gerard's maid."
+
+"The woman was in the kitchen some half hour agone, conveying her
+mistress a warm draught, or some such puling diet," said the page.
+
+"Haste," cried Sir John impatiently, marvelling at this unexpected
+intelligence,--"the lad is blinded by some misapprehension. I'll forfeit
+my best jewel she is not in her chamber. This interlude works i' the
+plot--part of the trickery now enacting."
+
+But the page made a quick return.
+
+"What news?" said Finett.
+
+"The lady is gone to rest; something discomposed, though, and out of
+spirits. So says her maiden, whom I would have questioned more
+straitly, but she rebuked me sharply for my impertinence."
+
+"Pray you send and question her," said Sir John.
+
+"Nay," returned Sir Gilbert, smiling, "I'll be bound the lady is safe;
+and her maiden has other guess-matters to look to than letting out the
+secrets of her mistress's chamber."
+
+They were obliged to rest satisfied, or rather unsatisfied, with this
+answer. But the mystery was more and more inexplicable. Either some
+laughable mistake or some deep-laid villany was intended. Sir John dared
+not pursue the subject to this extremity. He felt assured of her purity
+and honour. Her manners, so confiding and unsuspicious, showed a heart
+unacquainted with guile.
+
+After a sleepless night Sir John arose, feverish and unrefreshed. He
+threw open the window of his chamber, which looked into the courtyard.
+Near a side postern stood a grey palfrey, caparisoned for a lady's use,
+and impatiently awaiting its burden. The hour was too early for morning
+rambles, but the beast was evidently equipped for a journey. Two other
+steeds were now led forth, as if for the attendants. He caught a glimpse
+of Grace Gerard's maid, who seemed, by her dress, to be of the party
+whose movements he was so anxious to ascertain. He suspected this sudden
+departure was for the purpose of escaping without his observance. He
+hurried towards the stairs: just entering the corridor, he met Grace
+Gerard. She was evidently confused at his appearance. It was but for a
+moment; her spirit grappled with the occasion; and she replied firmly,
+and with becoming dignity, to his questions.
+
+"Whither away, our beauteous queen?" said he, bowing almost to the
+ground. "Are you bound for some isle of the Western Ind, getting the
+start of Phoebus in his nightly race to those gem-bearing climes?
+Methinks the sun is departing from us, though but just risen."
+
+"'Tis my purpose to depart, Sir John. This clime is too bright, and its
+beams too fervid, for a lady's eye."
+
+"One word in sober speech:--Wherefore?"
+
+"I know your question, Sir John. Time hastens, and I reply. Your knight
+of the silver mantle I proclaim a recreant, as treacherous as he is
+base. Sir John, for my--no, for your own sake"----
+
+"Another stole into his place," said he, interrupting her with great
+eagerness. "A base-born changeling!--some villain, who, under this
+disguise, abused our honourable intent; but say, peerless princess, to
+whose prowess we owe your rescue."
+
+"'Tis my first venture into the unhallowed limits of your licentious
+court; and through the grace that hath preserved me harmless, I here
+resolve it shall be my last. By your instructions, Sir John, I relied
+implicitly on the protection of your friend. He would fain have abused
+his trust, but I escaped from the offered insult. Struggling to free my
+hand from his grasp, by yonder hill-side, I lost my footing. I fell down
+the steep unhurt. Fear lent me unwonted strength, and I escaped unseen,
+round the narrow pathway. My discourteous knight thought, doubtless, I
+had tumbled into the roaring abyss; for the night mist hung below, and I
+heard a huge fragment of rock, loosened in my descent, plunge into the
+dimly-rolling waters. Now, hear me: my resolve is taken, and no earthly
+influence or persuasion shall stay me. 1 was bewildered, yet flattered
+by your follies: foolish and thoughtless enough to frolic and flutter on
+the very brink of a precipice. I was dazzled by the glittering but
+dangerous excitement. Conscience spoke, but I durst not listen. My
+course of life hitherto has been through scenes of gentleness and peace,
+and I could not look on your bustle and dissipation without alarm. Yet
+was I persuaded to mingle in your sports yesterday--that day hallowed by
+the last fiat of its Creator, wherein the soul, freed awhile from the
+cares of earth, may prostrate itself in homage before Him who said, 'It
+is mine!' Justly punished for trifling with my better thoughts, my
+escape shall not be without its acknowledgment."
+
+Sir John was silent. She stood before him like some purer, brighter
+thing than could be deemed akin to this polluted earth.
+
+"Those siren waves were bearing me on to the gulf where"--She paused a
+moment, shuddering at the dark retrospect of the past. "Where all your
+pomp and pageantry will be overwhelmed, and yourselves, for ever, in the
+same irretrievable ruin!"
+
+Sir John looked uneasy, and his eye wandered, as if in search of some
+object wherewith to throw off these gloomy anticipations. The maiden
+again spoke:--
+
+"It seemed as though a veil, invisible heretofore, were suddenly
+undrawn. The glory and the baseness, the splendour and the pollution,
+were at once revealed. The hand unseen had drawn it aside. I would now
+shun--I hope for ever--- these paths of folly; and I bid farewell to
+your pleasures without a murmur or a regret."
+
+Sir John, courtier though he was, ardently and willingly rendering
+homage at the shrine of pleasure and dissipation, was awe-struck.
+Conscience echoed a fearful response; and he shrank before the reproof
+he could not shun.
+
+"Without regret!" said he, faltering and abashed. "I had hoped--perhaps
+wished--but it was too presumptuous. My purest thoughts would have
+sullied so pure a shrine."
+
+"Stay, Sir John; though the confession be humbling to a maiden's pride,
+yet my heart tells me 'tis the last time we meet; and it is the only
+acknowledgment,--I render it to your honesty and good faith." Her voice
+grew hesitating and tremulous. "There was a tendril twining about my
+heart; but it is wrung off, and I am again--alone!"
+
+Her heart was full, and her whole frame convulsed by some overpowering
+emotion. An adieu died upon her lips; but she resolutely refused any
+further communication. Hastening to the courtyard, she mounted her
+little white palfry, and quitted for ever those fascinating and
+dangerous allurements, which, having once felt, few have had the power
+to withstand.
+
+We need scarcely add, that, amid the gaieties and splendours by which
+the lover was enthralled, the recollection of Grace Gerard sometimes
+mingled in the revelries of this votary of pleasure. It often came as a
+warning and a rebuke. By degrees the impression grew less powerful. Each
+succeeding wave from the ever-tossing ocean left the traces less
+distinct, until they were overwhelmed in the dull tide of oblivion.
+
+
+NOTE ON THE BALLAD, p. 269.
+
+The _music_ to these words is _traditionary_, if we may be allowed the
+expression. It is one of the many wild and characteristic melodies
+floating about, perhaps unappropriated, on the popular breath, varied
+indefinitely according to the humour of the performer. The author has
+listened to several of these ditties; some of them he thinks peculiar to
+this and the neighbouring counties. They are generally sung by the
+labouring classes, and would, in many cases, defy any attempt to commit
+them to writing, being apparently founded upon a ratio of tones and
+semitones at variance with our diatonic scale. From this we might almost
+be led to imagine some truth in the theory that the ancients had
+different scales peculiar to their different moods: a theory which,
+however impossible it may be considered, is not without its advocates,
+who will perhaps not be displeased to find here some slight confirmation
+of their opinions. Yet in these songs the prevailing character of the
+minor key may generally be detected, which, from its being imperfect,
+and probably vitiated by the mistakes of these rustic melodists, may
+give a colour to the notion of a change in the scale.
+
+The great antiquity of these melodies is unquestionable, and it would be
+an interesting inquiry to trace them back through remote ages, perhaps
+to the Jewish temple and the tent of the patriarchs. The author has
+found in them a strong resemblance to the Hebrew music, sounds which,
+since the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, and the destruction of their
+temple, 606 B.C., and in consequence of musical instruments being
+afterwards forbidden, they have clung to with increased tenacity,
+preserving their ancient melodies, and bequeathing them by memory from
+one generation to another with the same jealous care that a miser would
+his treasure, and as the last melancholy relics of a "kingdom passed
+away."
+
+Algarotti says, "Those airs alone remain for ever engraven on the memory
+of the public, that paint images to the mind, or express the passions,
+and are for that reason called the speaking airs, because more congenial
+to nature, which can never be justly imitated but by a beautiful
+simplicity, that will always bear away the palm from the most laboured
+refinement of art."
+
+The author has ventured to give the following air, which he fancies
+would almost suggest the words of the song to which Sir John Finett is
+supposed to have appropriated it. As we have before mentioned, the tune
+is traditionary, possessing some of the peculiar characteristics we have
+described. It bears a considerable resemblance to the ancient Jewish
+music, and likewise to the airs generally given to the little snatches
+of old ballads in Shakespeare's plays, which are supposed to have been
+handed down successively from the performers in his time; being then
+probably "household" music more ancient than the ballads themselves.
+This opinion seems warranted by the poet himself in that beautiful
+allusion, with which he introduces one of the songs of the _Clown_, in
+Twelfth Night--
+
+    "Mark it, Cesario; it is old and plain:
+    The spinsters and the knitters in the sun,
+    And the free maids that weave their thread with bones,
+    Do use to chant it; it is silly sooth,
+    And dallies with the innocence of love
+    Like the old age."
+
+[Illustration: Music]
+
+HOGHTON TOWER.
+
+    They bade me sing, they bade my smile,
+    They bade my heart be gay;
+    They called my spirit forth to while
+    The laughing hours away.
+    I've sung, I've smiled: where'er my path
+    Mirth's dazzling meteors shine;
+    All hearts have owned its magic power,
+    And all are glad but mine.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[29] "Sir George Goring, of Hurst Pierrepoint, in Sussex, representative
+of a junior line of the respectable family of Goring, which maintains
+its importance in that county, was bred at Court, under the care of his
+father, one of Elizabeth's Gentlemen Pensioners; was knighted May 29,
+1608; in 1610, occurs as Gentleman in Ordinary of the Bedchamber to
+Prince Henry; and now accompanied the king to Scotland as Lieutenant of
+his Gentlemen Pensioners. He was recommended to James equally by his
+sagacity and a peculiar jocularity of humour, and became the king's
+familiar companion."--Nichols's _Royal Progresses_, vol. iii. p. 256.
+
+[30] Sir John Finett, says Anthony à Wood (Fasti by Bliss, vol. i. col,
+492), was son of Sir Robert Finett, of Soulton, near Dover, in Kent, son
+and heir of Sir Thomas, son and heir of John Finett, of Sienna, in Italy
+(where his name is ancient), who came into England in quality of servant
+to Cardinal Campegius, and married a maid of honour to Queen Katharine.
+"Sir John was always bred in the Court, where by his wit, innocent
+mirth, and great skill in composing songs, he pleased James the First
+very much. He was sent into France in 1614, about matters of public
+concern, and in the year after received the honour of knighthood at
+Whitehall; about which time (or rather about 1612) he was made assistant
+to the master of the ceremonies, with the reversion of that
+place."--Nichols's _Progresses_, vol. iii. p. 133.
+
+[31] This stone, the author has been told, was in existence less than a
+century ago, though not in the precise situation above alluded to. He
+has heard the disappointment of the curious passers-by told with
+considerable humour; they, however, generally took care to replace the
+stone with its word of promise before the eye, that the next comer might
+bestow the same labour for the like result.
+
+[32] Some say this petition was presented at Myerscough, but we incline
+to the opinion here given.
+
+[33] Royal proclamation, May 21, 1618.
+
+[34] This ceremony was formerly used for the conveyance of rushes
+intended to be strewed in the church upon the clay floors between the
+benches. It is now generally known but as an unmeaning pageant still
+practised in the northern and eastern parts of Lancashire, for the
+purpose of levying contributions on the inhabitants. An immense banner,
+of silk adorned with tinsel and gay devices, precedes the rush-cart,
+wherein the rushes, neatly woven and smooth cut, are piled up and
+decorated with flowers and ribands, in rustic taste. The cart, thus
+laden, is drawn round to the dwellings of the principal inhabitants, by
+morris-dancers, who perform an uncouth dance, attended by a man in
+motley attire, a sort of nondescript, made up of the ancient fool and
+Maid Marian. This personage jingles a horse-collar hung with bells,
+which forms not an unsuitable accompaniment to the ceremony.
+
+[35] See Note at the end.
+
+[36] This person is supposed to be the writer of a curious satire (Harl.
+MSS. 5191), called a Description of Scotland. Welden's name is not
+attached to it in the MS., but it is duly ascribed to him by Sir Walter
+Scott, in his description of Holyrood Chapel, in the _Antiquities of
+Scotland_. Sir Anthony Weldon accompanied the king into Scotland; but
+that he returned with him is not so certain, one of his letters saying
+he should return by sea. By this, however, may be understood his return
+to the court at Edinburgh, having had leave of absence to visit his
+friends in London.
+
+
+
+
+THE LANCASHIRE WITCHES.
+
+
+    "More swift than lightning can I flye
+      About this aery welkin soone;
+    And, in a minute's space, descrye
+      Each thing that's done below the moone."
+
+--BEN JONSON.
+
+     "When I consider whether there are such persons as _witches_, my
+     mind is divided: I believe, in general, that there is such a thing
+     as witchcraft, but can give no credit to any particular instance of
+     it."--ADDISON.
+
+The term witchcraft, says the historian of Whalley, is now "transferred
+to a gentler species of fascination, which my fair countrywomen still
+continue to exert in full force, without any apprehension of the county
+magistrates, or even of the king in council."
+
+Far different was the application in days of old. The common parish
+witch is thus described by a contemporary writer, as an old woman "with
+a wrinkled face, a furred brow, a hairy lip, a gobber tooth, a squint
+eye, a squeaking voice, or a scolding tongue; having a rugged coat on
+her back, a skull-cap on her head, a spindle in her hand, and a dog or
+cat by her side." Such was the witch of real life when this superstition
+was so prevalent in our own neighbourhood, and even throughout England.
+From the beginning of the reign of James the First to the concluding
+part of the reign of James the Second, it may be considered as having
+attained the zenith of its popularity. "Witchcraft and kingcraft both
+came in with the Stuarts and went out with them." It was as if his
+_infernal_ majesty had taken a lesson from his _sacred_ majesty, and
+issued a book of sports for his loyal subjects. "The Revolution put to
+rights the faith of the country as well as its constitution." "The laws
+were more liberally interpreted and rationally administered. The trade
+of witch-finding ceased to be reputable or profitable;" and that silly
+compilation, the "Demonology" of James, which, with the severe laws
+enacted against witchcraft by Henry the Eighth and Elizabeth, had
+conjured up more witches and familiars than they could quell, was
+consigned to the book-worm and the dust. It is said in the Arabian
+tales, that Solomon sent out of his kingdom all the demons that he could
+lay his hands on, packed them up in a brazen vessel, and cast them into
+the sea. But James, "our English Solomon," "imported by his book all
+that were flying about Europe, to plague the country, which was
+sufficiently plagued already in such a sovereign." This sapient ruler,
+who, it is said, "taught divinity like a king, and made laws like a
+priest," in the first year of his reign made it felony to suckle imps,
+&c. This statute, which was repealed March 24th, 1736, describes
+offences declared felonious, thus:--
+
+"One that shall use, practise, or exercise any invocation or conjuration
+of any evil or wicked spirit, or consult, covenant with, entertain or
+employ, feed or reward, any evil or wicked spirit, to or for any intent
+or purpose; or take up any dead man, woman, or child, out of his, her,
+or their grave, or any other place where the dead body resteth; or the
+skin, bone, or other part of any dead person, to be employed or used in
+any manner of witchcraft, sorcery, charm, or enchantment; or shall
+practise or exercise any witchcraft, &c., whereby any person shall be
+killed, destroyed, wasted, consumed, pined, or lamed in his or her body,
+or any part thereof: such offenders, duly and lawfully convicted and
+attainted, shall suffer death."
+
+As might be expected, witchcraft so increased in consequence of these
+denunciations, that, "in the course of fifty years following the passing
+of this act, besides a great number of single indictments and
+executions, fifteen were brought to trial at Lancaster in 1612, and
+twelve condemned; in 1622, six were tried at York; 1634, seventeen
+condemned at Lancaster; 1644, sixteen were executed at Yarmouth; 1645,
+fifteen condemned at Chelmsford, and hanged; in the same and following
+year, about forty at Bury in Suffolk; twenty more in the county, and
+many in Huntingdon; and (according to the estimate of Ady) some
+thousands were burned in Scotland."
+
+Popular hatred rendered the existence of a reputed witch so miserable,
+that persons bearing that stigma often courted death in despair,
+confessing to crimes which they had never committed, for the purpose of
+ridding themselves of persecution.
+
+"One of the latest convictions was that of Amy Duny and Rose Cullender,
+before Sir Matthew Hale at Bury, in 1664. They were executed, and died
+maintaining their innocence." Their execution was a foul blot upon his
+name, as it is scarcely to be doubted but that they were the victims of
+imposture. It was clearly ascertained by experiments in the judge's
+presence, that the children who pretended to be bewitched, when their
+eyes were covered, played off their fits and contortions at the touch of
+some other person, mistaking it for that of the accused, yet "he charged
+the jury without summing up the evidence, dwelling only upon the
+certainty of the fact that there were witches, for which he appealed to
+the Scriptures, and, as he said, to 'the wisdom of all nations;' and the
+jury having convicted, the next morning left them for execution."
+
+But we proceed with a few explanatory notices respecting that portion of
+the history of this superstition, which will be found interwoven with
+the traditionary matter in our text.
+
+A number of persons, inhabitants of Pendle Forest, were apprehended in
+the year 1633, upon the evidence of Edmund Robinson, a boy about eleven
+years old, who deposed before two of his Majesty's justices at Padiham,
+that on All-Saints'-day he was getting "bulloes," when he saw two
+greyhounds--a black one and a brown one--come running over the field
+towards him. When they came nigh they fawned on him, and he supposed
+they belonged to some of the neighbours. He expected presently that some
+one would follow; but seeing no one, he took them by a string which they
+had tied to their collars, and thought he would hunt with them.
+Presently a hare sprang up near to him, and he cried "Loo, loo," but the
+dogs would not run. Whereupon he grew angry, and tied them to a bush for
+the purpose of chastising them, but instead of the black greyhound he
+now beheld a woman, the wife of one Dickisson, a neighbour; the other
+was transformed into a little boy. At this sight he was much afraid, and
+would have fled; but the woman stayed him and offered him a piece of
+silver like a shilling if he would hold his peace. But he refused the
+bribe; whereupon she pulled out a bridle and threw it over the little
+boy's head, who was her familiar, and immediately he became a white
+horse. The witch then took the deponent before her, and away they
+galloped to a place called Malkin Tower, by the Hoarstones at Pendle. He
+there beheld many persons appear in like fashion; and a great feast was
+prepared, which he saw, and was invited to partake, but he refused.
+Spying an opportunity, he stole away, and ran towards home. But some of
+the company pursued him until he came to a narrow place called "the
+Boggard-hole," where he met two horsemen; seeing which, his tormentors
+left off following him. He further said, that on a certain day he saw a
+neighbour's wife, of the name of Loynd, sitting upon a cross piece of
+wood within the chimney of his father's dwelling-house. He called to
+her, saying, "Come down, thou Loynd wife," and immediately she went up
+out of sight. Likewise upon the evening of All-Saints before-named, his
+father sent him to seal up the kine, when, coming through a certain
+field, he met a boy who began to quarrel with him, and they fought until
+his face and ears were bloody. Looking down, he saw the boy had cloven
+feet, and away he ran. It was now nearly dark; but he descried at a
+distance a light like a lantern. Thinking this was carried by some of
+his friends, he made all haste towards it, and saw a woman standing on a
+bridge, whom he knew to be Loynd's wife; turning from her he again met
+with the boy, who gave him a heavy blow on the back, after which he
+escaped. On being asked the names of the women he saw at the feast, he
+mentioned seventeen persons, all of whom were committed to Lancaster for
+trial. They were found guilty, and sentenced to be executed. The judge,
+however, respited them, and reported the case to the king in council.
+
+The celebrated John Webster, author of _The Discovery of Pretended
+Witchcraft_, afterwards took this young witch-finder in hand. He says:--
+
+"This said boy was brought into the church at Kildwick (in Craven), a
+large parish church, where I, being curate there, was preaching in the
+afternoon, and was set upon a stall to look about him, which moved some
+little disturbance in the congregation for a while. After prayers, I,
+inquiring what the matter was, the people told me it was the boy that
+discovered witches; upon which I went to the house where he was to stay
+all night, where I found him, and two very unlikely persons that did
+conduct him, and manage the business.
+
+"I desired to have some discourse with the boy in private; but that they
+utterly refused. Then, in the presence of a great many people, I took
+the boy near me, and said, 'Good boy, tell me truly and in earnest,
+didst thou see and hear such strange things of the meeting of witches as
+is reported by many that thou didst relate?'--But the two men, not
+giving the boy leave to answer, did pluck him from me, and said he had
+been examined by two _able_ justices of the peace, _and they did never
+ask him such a question_. To whom I replied, the persons accused had the
+more wrong. As the laws of England, and the opinions of mankind then
+stood, a mad dog in the midst of a congregation would not have been more
+dangerous than this wicked and mischievous boy, who, looking around him,
+could, according to his own caprice, put any one or more of the people
+in peril of tortures or of death."
+
+Four of the accused only were sent to London, and examined by the king
+in person. In the end they were set at liberty, but not from the
+sagacity of the examiners,--the boy Robinson having confessed that he
+was suborned to give false evidence against them. One of these poor
+creatures, strange to say, had confessed the crime with which she was
+charged. In the Bodl. Lib. Dods. MSS. v.61, p.47, is the confession
+itself, wherein she gives a circumstantial and minute account of the
+transactions which took place between her and a familiar whom she calls
+Mamilian, describing the meetings, feasts, and all the usual routine of
+witchery and possession.--(See Whitaker's _Whalley_.)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+PART FIRST.
+
+
+The mill went merrily round, and Giles the miller sang and whistled from
+morning to noon, and from noon till evening, save when the mulcting-dish
+was about to be embowelled in the best sack; a business too serious for
+such levity, requiring careful and deliberate thought.
+
+Goody Dickisson, the miller's wife, was a fat, round, pursy dame, of
+some forty years' travel through this wilderness of sorrow, and a
+decent, honest, sober, and well-conditioned housewife she was; cleanly,
+thrifty, and had an excellent cheesepress, which the whole neighbourhood
+could testify.
+
+But the days of man's happiness are numbered, and woman's too, as the
+following narrative will set forth.
+
+The mill had stood, for ages it may be, at the foot of a wild and steep
+cliff, forming the eastern extremity of the dreary range of
+Cliviger;[37] an elevated mountainous pass, from whence the waters
+descend both to the eastern and western seas. Upon those almost
+inaccessible crags the rock-eagle and falcon built their nests, unscared
+by the herdsmen, who in vain attempted their destruction. Through this
+pass, the very gorge of the English Apennines, the Calder,[38] a rapid
+and narrow torrent, brought an unfailing supply of grist to the
+ever-going hopper of Giles Dickisson.
+
+Not far from this happy abode, in the innermost part of the gorge, where
+the rocks of Lancashire and Yorkshire frown in close but harmless
+proximity, at an immense height,--the road and this narrow cleft only
+separating their barriers,--rises a crag of a singular shape, jutting
+far out from the almost perpendicular strata beneath. Its form is
+precisely that of a gigantic helmet, hammered out by the fanciful artist
+into the likeness of an eagle, its wings partly outstretched, and its
+beak--the point of the crag--overshadowing the grim head of some gaunt
+warrior. With but little aid from the imagination, the whole features
+may be discerned; hence it was denominated, "_The Eagle Crag_." But
+another appellation, more awful and mysterious, might be attached to
+it--a reminiscence of those "deeds without a name," which have rendered
+this district of Lancashire so fearfully notorious--"The witches'
+horse-block."
+
+The narrow pass we have described opens out into a succession of
+picturesque valleys, abounding in waterfalls of considerable depth and
+beauty, and expanding towards the north in tracts of fertile
+pasture-ground to the base of Pendle, well known as the reputed scene of
+those mysteries in which "the witches of Pendle" acted so conspicuous a
+part.
+
+Towards the close of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth
+century, the fame, or rather the infamy, of witchcraft, infested this
+once peaceful and sequestered district. The crag we have just noticed
+was, no doubt, to the apprehensions of the simple-hearted peasant, oft
+visited by the unhallowed feet of weirds and witches pluming themselves
+for flight to the great rendezvous at Malkin Tower, by the side of "the
+mighty Pendle."
+
+[Illustration: EAGLE CRAG, VALE OF TODMORDEN.
+
+_Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden._]
+
+Little did our country deserve, in those days, the name of "Merry
+England." Plague or the most noisome pestilence would have been a
+visitation of mercy compared to the miseries caused by so dark a
+superstition. "Even he who lived remote from the scene of this spiritual
+warfare, though few such there could be, so rapidly was it transferred
+from county to county to the remotest districts;--he, in whose vicinity
+no one was suspected of dealing with the foul fiend, whose children,
+cattle, or neighbours, showed no symptoms of being marks for those fiery
+darts which often struck from a distance, yet would he not escape a sort
+of epidemic gloom, a vague apprehension of the mischief which might be.
+The atmosphere he breathed would come to him thick with foul fancies; he
+would ever be hearing or telling some wild and melancholy tale of crime
+and punishment. His best feelings and enjoyments would be dashed with
+bitterness, suspicion, and terror, as he reflected that, though
+uninvaded, yet these were at the mercy of malignant fellow-mortals,
+leagued with more malignant spirits, the laws and limits of whose
+operations were wholly undefinable.
+
+"What must have been his feelings on whom the evil eye had
+glared,--against whom the spell had been pronounced; on whom misfortunes
+came thick and fast, by flood and field, at home and abroad, in business
+and in pleasure; whose cattle died, whose crops were blighted, and about
+whose bed and board, invisible, unwelcome, and mischievous guests held
+their revels; who saw not in his calamities the results of ignorance and
+error, to be averted by caution, nor the inflictions of Heaven to be
+borne with resignation, but was the victim of a compact, in which his
+disasters were part of the price paid by the powers of darkness for an
+immortal soul! He who pined in consumption supposed that his own waxen
+effigy was revolving and melting at the charmed fire; the changes of his
+sensations told him when wanton cruelty damped the flame, to waste it
+lingeringly, or roused it in the impatience of revenge: and when came
+those sharp and shooting pains, the hags were thrusting in their
+bodkins, and their laugh rang in his ears: they sat upon his breast
+asleep,--he awoke gasping, and, as he started up, he saw them melting
+into air. Yet more miserable was the wight whom the fiends were
+commissioned bodily to possess;--with whose breathing frame an infernal
+substance was incorporate and almost identified;--whose thoughts were
+sufferings, and his words involuntary blasphemies. Can we wonder that
+all this was not borne passively;--that its authors were hunted out,
+even, if needful, by their own charms;--that suspicion grew into
+conviction, and conviction demanded vengeance;--that it was deemed a
+duty to hold them up to public hatred, and drag them to the bar of
+public justice;--and that their blood was eagerly thirsted after, of
+which the shedding was often believed not merely a righteous
+retribution, but the only efficient relief for the sufferers?
+
+"The notion of witchcraft was no innocent and romantic superstition, no
+scion of an elegant mythology, but was altogether vulgar, repulsive,
+bloody, and loathsome. It was a foul ulcer on the face of humanity.
+Other vagaries of the mind have been associated with lofty or with
+gentle feelings;--they have belonged more to sportiveness than to
+criminality;--they are the poetry interspersed on the pages of the
+history of opinions;--they seem to be dreams of sleeping reason, and not
+the putrescence of its mouldering carcase; but this has no bright side,
+no redeeming quality whatever."[39]
+
+The human body is not more liable to contagion than is that faculty of
+the mind which is called imagination. That many of the accused believed
+in their crime, we have sufficient evidence in their own voluntary
+confessions, as well as in the traditions handed down to us on this
+subject. Both knavery and delusion were at work, as the following
+incidents will abundantly manifest. They have been selected from a wide
+range of materials on this important topic, as illustrating the varied
+operations of the same delusion on different orders and grades of
+mind,--the temptations warily suited to each disposition, all tending to
+the same crime, and ultimately to the same punishment.
+
+Our lusty miller had no children: it was a secret source of grief and
+anxiety to his dame, and many an hour of repining and discontent was the
+consequence. Yet Giles Dickisson's song was none the heavier; and if his
+wheel went merrily round, his spirits whirled with it, and danced and
+frolicked in the sunshine of good humour, like the spray and sparkle
+from his own mill-race. But a change was gathering on his wife's
+countenance: her grief grew sullen; her aspect stern and
+forbidding:--some hidden purpose was maturing: she seldom spoke to her
+husband. When addressed, she seemed to arouse from a sort of stupor,
+unwillingly forcing a reply. "She is bewitched," thought Giles. He had
+his suspicions; but he could not confidently point out the source of the
+mischief.
+
+One evening, as Goody Dickisson was sitting alone, pondering and
+discontented, there came in one Mal Spencer, a dark and scowling hag, to
+whom Giles bore no good-will. He had beforetime forbidden his wife to
+hold any intercourse with this witch-woman, who was an object generally
+of suspicion and mistrust. If the "evil eye" can be supposed to inhabit
+a human frame, this old woman had an undisputed claim to its possession.
+This night, however, old Molly came hobbling in without further ceremony
+than a "Good e'en, thou Dickisson wife," and took her seat opposite the
+dame in the miller's own chair. "Aroynt thee, witch," should have been
+returned to such an ill-omened salute; but the miller's wife was either
+unwilling or unable to utter this well-known preservative against the
+malice of the Evil Ones.
+
+The horse-shoe had been taken down from the door, and the blessed herb,
+moly, was incautiously thrown aside; neither had Goody Dickisson offered
+up the usual petition that evening, to be defended from the snares of
+the devil. Her discontent was too great, and she was in a fitter mood
+for murmuring than prayer.
+
+Leaning her long thin chin upon a little crutch, and throwing her
+bleared eyes full upon the dame, old Molly abruptly exclaimed, in a
+voice like the croaking of a raven--
+
+"Thou hast asked for children, but they are denied thee. What said I to
+thee, Goody Dickisson, in the clough yonder, by the hollow trunk of the
+oak? Rememberest thou, when thou saidest thou wouldst pawn thy body for
+the wish of thy soul?"
+
+Dame Dickisson waxed pale, and her knees shook; but the hag went on.
+
+"Worship the master I serve, and thou shalt have thy desire--ay and
+more!"
+
+"More!--What meanest thou?"
+
+"Come to the feast, as I have bidden thee. If thou likest not the savour
+of our company, thou shalt depart, and without harm."
+
+"But who shall give me a safe conduct that I come back, and harmless as
+I went? Once in your possession, methinks"----
+
+"What!" shouted the beldame, with a look of dark and devilish
+malignity:--"the word of a prince! Shall Goody Dickisson, the miller's
+wife, hold it in distrust? Go, poor fool, and chew thy bitterness, and
+bake thy bannocks, and fret thy old husband until thy writhen flesh rot
+from thy bones, and thou gnawest them for malice and vexation. Is it not
+glorious to ride on the wind--to mount the stars--to kiss the moon
+through the dark rolling clouds, when the blast scatters them in its
+might? To ride unharmed on their huge peaks tipped with thunder? To be
+for ever young in desire and enjoyment, though old and haggard, and bent
+double with age and infirmities? To have our wish and our revenge--ay,
+and the bodies of our enemies wasting before our spells, like wax to the
+flame? But go, sneak and drivel, and mind thy meal and barley-cakes, and
+go childless to thy grave."
+
+She rose as if to depart; but Goody Dickisson's evil destiny prevailed,
+and she promised to attend the feast, with this condition only, that no
+harm should befall her, nor force nor entreaty should be used to win her
+consent to join their confederacy. But she returned not from that
+unhallowed assembly until body and soul were for ever under the dominion
+of the destroyer.
+
+The mill went merrily on no more, and the miller's song was still. He
+looked a heavy and a doomed man. Strange suspicions haunted him. His
+wife's ill-humour he could have borne; but her very laugh now made him
+tremble: it was as if the functions of mind and body were animated by a
+being distinct from herself. Her countenance showed not that her
+thoughts mingled in either mirth or misery, except at times, when
+terrible convulsions seemed to pass over like the sudden roll of the
+sea, tossed by some unseen and subterraneous tempest. The neighbours
+began to shun his dwelling. His presence was the signal for stolen looks
+and portentous whispers. To church his wife never came; but the bench,
+her usual sitting-place, was deserted. At the church-doors, after
+sermon, when the price of grain, the weather, and other marketable
+commodities were discussed and settled, Giles was evidently an object of
+avoidance, and left to trudge home alone to his own cheerless and gloomy
+hearth.
+
+Dick Hargreave's only cow was bewitched. The most effectual and
+approved method of ascertaining under whose spell she laboured was as
+follows:--
+
+The next Friday, a pair of breeches was thrown over the cow's horns; she
+was then driven from the shippen with a stout cudgel. The place to which
+she directed her flight was carefully watched, for there assuredly must
+dwell the witch. To the great horror and dismay of Giles Dickisson, the
+cow came bellowing down the lane, tail up, in great terror--telling, as
+plain as beast could speak, of her distress, until she came to a full
+pause, middle deep in his own mill-dam. This was a direct confirmation
+to his suspicions; but the following was a more undeniable proof, if
+need were, of his wife's dishonest confederacy with the powers of
+darkness.
+
+One morning, ere his servant-man Robin had taken the grey mare from the
+stable, Giles awoke early, and found his wife had not lain by his side.
+He had beforetime felt half roused in the night from a deep but uneasy
+slumber; but he was too heavy and bewildered to recollect himself, and
+sleep again overcame him ere he could satisfy his doubts. He had either
+dreamt, or fancied he had dreamt, that his wife was, at some seasons,
+away for a whole night together, and he was rendered insensible by her
+spells. This morning, however, he awoke before the usual time, probably
+from some failure in the charm, and he met her as she was ascending the
+stairs. Something like alarm or confusion was manifest. She had been to
+look after the cattle, she stammered out, scolding Robin for an idle
+lout to lie a-bed so long. The stable-door was open. With an aching
+heart, he went in. The grey mare was in a bath of foam, panting and
+distressed as though from some recent journey. Whilst pondering on this
+strange occurrence, Robin came in. His master taxed him with dishonesty.
+After much ado, he confessed that his mistress had many times of late
+borrowed the mare for a night, always returning before the good man
+awoke. Giles was too full of trouble to rate Robin as he deserved,
+contenting himself with many admonitions and instructions how to act in
+the next emergency.
+
+Not many nights after, as Robin was late in the stable, his mistress
+came with the usual request, and her magic bridle in her hand.
+
+"Now, good Robin, the cream is in the bowl, and the beer behind the
+spigot, and my good man is in bed."
+
+"Whither away, mistress?" said Robin, diligently whisping down and
+soothing the mare, who trembled from head to foot when she heard her
+mistress's voice.
+
+"For a journey, Robin. I have business at Colne; but I will not fail to
+come back again before sunrise."
+
+"Ay, mistress, this is always your tale; but measter catched her in a
+woundy heat last time, and will not let her go."
+
+"But, Robin, she shall be in the stable and dry two hours before my old
+churl gets up."
+
+"But measter says she maunna go."
+
+"Thou hast told him, then,--and a murrain light on thee!"
+
+With eyes glistening like witch-fires, did the dame bestow her malison.
+Robin half-repented his refusal; but he was stubborn, and his courage
+not easily shaken. Besides, he had bragged at the last Michaelmas feast
+that he cared not a rush for never a witch in the parish. He had an
+_Agnus Dei_ in his bosom, and a leaf from the holy herb in his clogs;
+and what recked he of spells and incantations? Furthermore, he had a
+waistcoat of proof given to him by his grandmother.[40]
+
+"Since thou hast denied me the mare, I'll take thee in her place."
+
+Robin felt in his bosom for the _Agnus Dei_ cake, but it was gone!--He
+had thrown of his waistcoat, too, for the work, and his clogs were lying
+under the rack. Before he could furnish himself with these
+counter-charms, Goody Dickisson threw the bridle upon him, using these
+portentous words:--
+
+    "Horse, horse, see thou be;
+    And where I point thee carry me."
+
+Swift as the rush of the wind, Robin felt their power. His nature
+changed: he grew more agile and capacious; and without further ado,
+found Goody upon his back, and his own shanks at an ambling gallop on
+the high-road to Pendle. He panted and grew weary, but she urged him on
+with an unsparing hand, lashing and spurring with all her might, until
+at last poor Robin, unused to such expedition, flagged and could
+scarcely crawl. But needs must when the witches drive. Rest and despite
+were denied, until, almost dead with toil and terror, he halted in one
+of the steep gullies of Pendle near to Malkin Tower.
+
+It was an old grey-headed ruin, solitary and uninhabited. The cold
+October wind whistled through its joints and crannies;--the walls were
+studded with bright patches of moss and lichen;--darkness and desolation
+brooded over it, unbroken by aught but the cry of the moor-fowl and the
+stealthy prowl of the weasel and wild cat.
+
+But this lonesome and time-hallowed ruin was now lit up as for some gay
+festival; lights were flickering through the crevices, and the coming of
+the guests, each mounted on her enchanted steed, was accompanied by loud
+and fiend-like acclamations. Shrieks and howlings were borne from afar
+upon the blast. Unhallowed words and unutterable curses came on the
+hollow wind. Forms of indescribable and abominable shape flitted through
+the troubled elements. Robin, trembling all over with fright and
+fatigue, was told by his mistress to graze where he could, while she
+went into the feast:--"Make good use of thy time, for in two hours I
+shall mount thee back again."
+
+This was poor sustenance for Robin's stomach,--furze and heath were not
+at all to his mind, and he peeped about for a quiet resting-place. Here
+he was kicked and bitten by others of the herd; several of them were in
+the like pitiable condition with himself; but some were really of the
+brute kind, and these fared the best and were better mannered than most
+of their human companions. Often did our unfortunate hero wish himself
+in their place. Having little else to do, he was prompted by curiosity
+to approach the building, from whence the loud din of mirth and revelry
+grated harshly on his ears. A long chink disclosed to him some part of
+the mysteries within. There sat on the floor a great company of witches,
+feasting and cramming with all their might. An elderly gentleman of a
+grave and respectable deportment, clad in black doublet and hosen, sat
+on a stone-heap at the head, from whence he dealt out the delicacies
+with due care and attention. This was a mortifying sight to a hungry
+stomach, and Robin's humanity yearned at the display. After the first
+emotions had a little subsided, he found himself at leisure to examine
+the faces of the opposite guests, and he recognised several dames of
+his acquaintance, feasting right merrily at the witches' board. Either
+his fears and "thick-coming fancies" deceived him, or, as he afterwards
+declared, he saw nearly the whole of the neighbourhood at the assembly.
+
+Presently it seemed as if the first course were ended, and the floor
+cleared by invisible hands in a twinkling.
+
+"Now pull," said the grave personage in black.
+
+Many ropes hung from the roof. These the women began to pull furiously,
+when down came pies, puddings, milk, cream, and rare wines, which they
+caught in wooden bowls; likewise sweet-meats and all manner of dainties,
+which made Robin's mouth to water so at the sight that he could bear it
+no longer. Intending to groan, he involuntarily uttered a loud neigh,
+which so alarmed the company that the lights were extinguished, and the
+guests sallied out, each immediately bestriding her steed, and setting
+forth at full gallop, save Goody Dickisson, who, in attempting to mount
+Robin, met with a sore mishap. Recollecting the charm which operated
+upon him, he gave his head a sudden fling: as good luck would have it,
+the bridle became entangled about her neck. His speech now came again,
+and he cried out--
+
+    "Mare, mare, see thou be;
+    And where I point thee carry me."
+
+Suddenly she was metamorphosed, and Robin in his turn bestrode the
+witch. He spared her not, as will readily be imagined, until he had her
+safe in her own stable before break of day. Leaving her there with the
+bridle about her neck, he entered the house, hungry and jaded. Soon he
+heard Giles coming down-stairs in a great hurry--
+
+"How now, sirrah!" cried the incensed miller; "did I not tell thee to
+forbid thy mistress the mare?"
+
+"Why, master," replied Robin, scratching his head, "and so I have--the
+beast hasna' been ridden sin' ye backed her on Friday."
+
+"Thou art a lying hound to look me in the face and say so. Thy mistress
+hath been out again last night upon her old errands--I found it out when
+I awaked."
+
+"And what's the matter of that?" said Robin, with great alacrity. "Ye
+may go see, master, an' ye liken--the mare's as dry as our meal-tub, and
+as brisk as bottled ale."
+
+Giles turned angrily away from him towards the stable, tightening a
+tough cudgel in his grasp, with which he intended to belabour the
+unfortunate hind on his return. Nor was he long absent--Robin had
+scarcely swallowed a mouthful of hot porridge when his master thus
+accosted him--
+
+"Why, thou hob thrust, no good can come where thy fingers are
+a-meddling; there is another jade besides mine own tied to the rack, not
+worth a groat. Dost let thy neighbours lift my oats and provender?
+Better turn my mill into a spital for horses, and nourish all the
+worn-out kibboes i' the parish!"
+
+"Nay, measter, the beast is yours; and ye ha' foun' her bed and
+provender these twenty years."
+
+"I'll cudgel that lying spirit out o' thee," said Giles, wetting his
+hands for a firm grasp at the stick.
+
+"Hold, master!" said Robin, stepping aside; "she has cost you more
+currying than all the combs in the stable are worth. Step in and take
+off the bridle, and then say whose beast she is, and who hath most right
+to her, you or your neighbours. But mind, when the bridle is off her
+neck, she slip it not on to yours; for if she do you are a gone man."
+
+Giles stayed not, but ran with great haste into the stable. The tired
+beast could scarcely stand; but he pulled off the bridle, and--as Robin
+told the tale--his own spouse immediately stood confessed before him!
+
+Here we pause. In the next part we shall rapidly sketch another of the
+traditions current on this strange subject. It will but be a brief and
+shadowy outline: space forbids us to dilate: the whole volume would not
+contain the stories that tradition attributes to the prevalence of this
+unnatural and revolting, though, it may be, imaginary crime.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[37] [Illustration: Clyfrigrcype], or _the rocky district_.
+
+[38] Col-dwr, or _narrow water_. See Whitaker's etymology of the word
+(_Hist. of Manchester_).
+
+[39] See an able article on this subject in the _Retrospective Review_,
+vol. v. part i.
+
+[40] "On Christmas daie at night, a threed must be sponne of flax, by a
+little virgine girl, in the name of the divell; and it must be by her
+woven, and also wrought with the needle. On the breste or fore part
+thereof must be made, with needlework, two heads; on the head of the
+right side must be a hat, and a long beard,--the left head must have on
+a crown, and it must be so horrible that it maie resemble Belzebub; and
+on each side of the wastcote must be made a crosse."--_Discoverie of
+Witchcraft_, by Reginald Scott, 1584.
+
+
+
+
+PART SECOND.
+
+
+On the verge of the Castle Clough, a deep and winding dingle, once
+shaded with venerable oaks, are the small remains of the Castle of
+Hapton, the seat of its ancient lords, and, till the erection of Hapton
+Tower, the occasional residence of the De la Leghs and Townleys. Hapton
+Tower is now destroyed to its foundation. It was a large square
+building, and about a hundred years ago presented the remains of three
+cylindrical towers with conical basements. It also appears to have had
+two principal entrances opposite to each other, with a thorough lobby
+between, and seems not to have been built in the usual form,--that of a
+quadrangle. It was erected about the year 1510, and was inhabited until
+1667. The family-name of the nobleman--for such he appears to have
+been--of whom the following story is told, we have no means of
+ascertaining. That he was an occasional resident or visitor at the Tower
+is but surmise. During the period of these dark transactions we find
+that the mansion was inhabited by Jane Assheton, relict of Richard
+Townley, who died in the year 1637. Whoever he might be, the following
+horrible event, arising out of this superstition, attaches to his
+memory. Whether it can be attributed to the operations of a mind just
+bordering on insanity, and highly wrought upon by existing
+delusions,--or must be classed amongst the proofs, so abundantly
+furnished by all believers in the reality of witchcraft and demoniacal
+possession, our readers must determine as we unfold the tale.
+
+Lord William had seen, and had openly vowed to win, the proud maiden of
+Bernshaw Tower. He did win her, but he did not woo her. A dark and
+appalling secret was connected with their union, which we shall briefly
+develop.
+
+Lady Sibyl, "the proud maiden of Bernshaw," was from her youth the
+creature of impulse and imagination--a child of nature and romance. She
+roved unchecked through the green valleys and among the glens and
+moorlands of her native hills; every nook and streamlet was associated
+with some hidden thought "too deep for tears," until Nature became her
+god,--the hills and fastnesses, the trackless wilds and mountains, her
+companions. With them alone she held communion; and as she watched the
+soft shadows and the white clouds take their quiet path upon the hills,
+she beheld in them the symbols of her own ideas,--the images and
+reflections,--the hidden world within her made visible. She felt no
+sympathy with the realities--the commonplaces of life; her thoughts were
+too aspiring for earth, yet found not their resting-place in heaven! It
+was no grovelling, degrading superstition which actuated her: she sighed
+for powers above her species,--she aspired to hold intercourse with
+beings of a superior nature. She would gaze for hours in wild delirium
+on the blue sky and starry vault, and wish she were freed from the base
+encumbrances of earth, that she might shine out among those glorious
+intelligences in regions without a shadow or a cloud. Imagination was
+her solace and her curse; she flew to it for relief as the drunkard to
+his cup, sparkling and intoxicating for a while, but its dregs were
+bitterness and despair. Soon her world of imagination began to quicken;
+and, as the wind came sighing through her dark ringlets, or rustling
+over the dry grass and heather bushes at her side, she thought a spirit
+spoke, or a celestial messenger crossed her path. The unholy rites of
+the witches were familiar to her ear, but she spurned their vulgar and
+low ambition; she panted for communion with beings more
+exalted--demigods and immortals, of whom she had heard as having been
+translated to those happier skies, forming the glorious constellations
+she beheld. Sometimes fancies wild and horrible assaulted her; she then
+shut herself for days in her own chamber, and was heard as though in
+converse with invisible things. When freed from this hallucination,
+agony was marked on her brow, and her cheek was more than usually pale
+and collapsed. She would then wander forth again:--the mountain-breeze
+reanimated her spirits, and imagination again became pleasant unto her.
+She heard the wild swans winging their way above her, and she thought of
+the wild hunters and the spectre-horseman:[41] the short wail of the
+curlew, the call of the moor-cock and plover, was the voice of her
+beloved. To her all nature wore a charmed life: earth and sky were but
+creatures formed for her use, and the ministers of her pleasure.
+
+The Tower of Bernshaw was a small fortified house in the pass over the
+hills from Burnley to Todmorden. It stood within a short distance from
+the Eagle Crag; and the Lady Sibyl would often climb to the utmost verge
+of that overhanging peak, looking from its dizzy height until her soul
+expanded, and her thoughts took their flight through those dim regions
+where the eye could not penetrate.
+
+One evening she had lingered longer than usual: she felt unwilling to
+depart--to meet again the dull and wearisome realities of life--the
+petty cares that interest and animate mankind. She loathed her own form
+and her own species:--earth was too narrow for her desire, and she
+almost longed to burst its barriers. In the deep agony of her spirit she
+cried aloud--
+
+"Would that my path, like yon clouds, were on the wind, and my
+dwelling-place in their bosom!"
+
+A soft breeze came suddenly towards her, rustling the dry heath as it
+swept along. The grass bent beneath its footsteps, and it seemed to die
+away in articulate murmurs at her feet. Terror crept upon her, her bosom
+thrilled, and her whole frame was pervaded by some subtle and mysterious
+influence.
+
+"Who art thou?" she whispered, as though to some invisible agent. She
+listened, but there was no reply; the same soft wind suddenly arose, and
+crept to her bosom.
+
+"Who art thou?" she inquired again, but in a louder tone. The breeze
+again flapped its wings, mantling upwards from where it lay, as if
+nestled on her breast. It mounted lightly to her cheek, but it felt
+hot--almost scorching--when the maiden cried out as before. It fluttered
+on her ear, and she thought there came a whisper--
+
+"I am thy good spirit."
+
+"Oh, tell me," she cried with vehemence: "show me who thou art!"--a mist
+curled round her, and a lambent flame, like the soft lightning of a
+summer's night, shot from it. She saw a form, glorious but indistinct,
+and the flashes grew paler every moment.
+
+"Leave me not," she cried; "I will be thine!"
+
+Then the cloud passed away, and a being stood before her, mightier and
+more stately than the sons of men. A burning fillet was on his brow, and
+his eyes glowed with an ever-restless flame.
+
+"Maiden, I come at thy wish. Speak!--what is thy desire."
+
+"Let thought be motion;--let my will only be the boundary of my power,"
+said she, nothing daunted; for her mind had become too familiar with
+invisible fancies, and her ambition too boundless to feel either awe or
+alarm. Immediately she felt as though she were sweeping through the
+trackless air,--she heard the rush of mighty wings cleaving the
+sky,--she thought the whole world lay at her feet, and the kingdoms of
+the earth moved on like a mighty pageant. Then did the vision change.
+Objects began to waver and grow dim, as if passing through a mist; and
+she found herself again upon that lonely crag, and her conductor at her
+side. He grasped her hand: she felt his burning touch, and a sudden
+smart as though she were stung--a drop of blood hung on her finger. He
+unbound the burning fillet, and she saw as though it were a glimpse of
+that unquenchable, unconsuming flame that devoured him. He took the
+blood and wrote upon her brow. The agony was intense, and a faint shriek
+escaped her. He spoke, but the sound rang in her ears like the knell of
+hopes for ever departed.
+
+For words of such presumptuous blasphemy, tradition must be voiceless.
+The demon looked upwards; but, as if blasted by some withering sight,
+his eyes were suddenly withdrawn.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+What homage was exacted, let no one seek to know.
+
+After a pause, the deceiver again addressed her; and his form changed as
+he spoke.
+
+"One day in the year alone thou shalt be subject to mischance. It is the
+feast of All-Hallows, when the witches meet to renew their vows. On this
+night thou must be as they, and must join their company. Still thou
+mayest hide thyself under any form thou shalt choose; but it shall abide
+upon thee until midnight. Till then thy spells are powerless. On no
+other day shall harm befall thee."
+
+The maiden felt her pride dilate:--her weak and common nature she
+thought was no longer a degradation; she seemed as though she could
+bound through infinite space. Already was she invested with the
+attributes of immateriality, when she awoke!--and in her own chamber,
+whither the servants had conveyed her from the crag an hour before,
+having found her asleep, or in a swoon, upon the verge of the precipice.
+She looked at her hand; the sharp wound was there, and she felt her brow
+tingle as if to remind her of that irrevocable pledge.
+
+Lord William sued in vain to the maid of Bernshaw Tower. She repulsed
+him with scorn and contumely. He vowed that he would win her, though the
+powers of darkness withstood the attempt. To accomplish this impious
+purpose, he sought Mause, the witch's dwelling. It was a dreary hut,
+built in a rocky cleft, shunned by all as the abode of wicked and
+malignant spirits, which the dame kept and nursed as familiars, for the
+fulfilment of her malicious will.
+
+The night was dark and heavy when Lord William tied his steed to a rude
+gate that guarded the entrance to the witch's den. He raised the latch,
+but there was no light within.
+
+"Holloa!" cried the courageous intruder; but all was dark and silent as
+before. Just as he was about to depart he thought he heard a rustling
+near him, and presently the croaking voice of the hag close at his ear.
+
+"Lord William," said she, "thou art a bold man to come hither after
+nightfall."
+
+He felt something startled, but he swerved not from his purpose.
+
+"Can'st help me to a bride, Mother Helston?" cried he, in a firm voice;
+"for I feel mightily constrained to wed!"
+
+"Is the doomed maiden of Bernshaw a bride fit for Lord William's bosom?"
+said the invisible sorceress.
+
+"Give me some charm to win her consent,--I care not for the rest."
+
+"Charm!" replied the beldame, with a screech that made Lord William
+start back. "Spells have I none that can bind her. I would she were in
+my power; but she hath spell for spell. Nought would avail thee, for she
+is beyond my reach; her power would baffle mine?"
+
+"Is she too tainted with the iniquity that is abroad?"
+
+"I tell thee yea; and my spirit must bow to hers. Wouldst wed her
+now--fond, feeble-hearted mortal?"
+
+Lord William was silent; but the beautiful form of the maiden seemed to
+pass before him, and he loved her with such overmastering vehemence that
+if Satan himself had stood in the gap he would not have shrunk from his
+purpose.
+
+"Mause Helston," said the lover, "if thou wilt help me at this bout, I
+will not draw back. I dare wed her though she were twice the thing thou
+fearest. Tell me how her spell works,--I will countervail it,--- I will
+break that accursed charm, and she shall be my bride!"
+
+For a while there was no reply; but he heard a muttering as though some
+consultation were going on.
+
+"Listen, Lord William," she spoke aloud. "Ay, thou wilt listen to thine
+own jeopardy! Once in the year--'tis on the night of All-Hallows--she
+may be overcome. But it is a perilous attempt!"
+
+"I care not. Point out the way, and I will ride it rough-shod!"
+
+The beldame arose from her couch, and struck a light. Ere they separated
+the morning dawned high above the grey hills. Many rites and
+incantations were performed, of which we forbear the disgusting recital.
+The instructions he received were never divulged; the secrets of that
+night were never known; but an altered man was Lord William when he came
+back to Hapton Tower.
+
+On All-Hallows' day, with a numerous train, he went forth a-hunting. His
+hounds were the fleetest from Calder to Calder; and his horns the
+shrillest through the wide forests of Accrington and Rossendale. But on
+that morning a strange hound joined the pack that outstripped them all.
+
+"Blow," cried Lord William, "till the loud echoes ring, and the fleet
+hounds o'ertake yon grizzled mongrel."
+
+Both horses and dogs were driven to their utmost speed, but the strange
+hound still kept ahead. Over moor and fell they still rushed on, the
+hounds in full cry, though as yet guided only by the scent, the object
+of their pursuit not being visible. Suddenly a white doe was seen,
+distant a few yards only, and bounding away from them at full speed. She
+might have risen out of the ground, so immediate was her appearance. On
+they went in full view, but the deer was swift, and she seemed to wind
+and double with great dexterity. Her bearing was evidently towards the
+steep crags on the east. They passed the Tower of Bernshaw, and were
+fast approaching the verge of that tremendous precipice, the "Eagle
+Crag." Horse and rider must inevitably perish if they follow. But Lord
+William slackened not in the pursuit; and the deer flew straight as an
+arrow to its mark,--the very point where the crag jutted out over the
+gulf below. The huntsmen drew back in terror; the dogs were still in
+chase, though at some distance behind;--Lord William only and the
+strange hound were close upon her track. Beyond the crag nothing was
+visible but cloud and sky, showing the fearful height and abruptness of
+the descent. One moment, and the gulf must be shot:--his brain felt
+dizzy, but his heart was resolute.
+
+"Mause, my wench," said he, "my neck or thine!--Hie thee; if she's over,
+we are lost!"
+
+Lord William's steed followed in the hound's footsteps to a hair. The
+deer was almost within her last spring, when the hound, with a loud
+yell, doubled her, scarcely a yard's breadth from the long bare neb of
+that fearful peak, and she turned with inconceivable speed so near the
+verge that Lord William, in wheeling round, heard a fragment of rock,
+loosened by the stroke from his horse's hoof, roll down the precipice
+with a frightful crash. The sudden whirl had nearly brought him to the
+ground, but he recovered his position with great adroitness. A loud
+shriek announced the capture. The cruel hound held the deer by the
+throat, and they were struggling together on the green earth. With
+threats and curses he lashed away the ferocious beast, who growled
+fiercely at being driven from her prey. With looks of sullenness and
+menace, she scampered off, leaving Lord William to secure the victim. He
+drew a silken noose from his saddle-bow, and threw it over the panting
+deer, who followed quietly on to his dwelling at Hapton Tower.
+
+At midnight there was heard a wild and unearthly shriek from the high
+turret, so pitiful and shrill that the inmates awoke in great alarm. The
+loud roar of the wind came on like a thunder-clap. The tempest flapped
+its wings, and its giant arms rocked the turret like a cradle. At this
+hour Lord William, with a wild and haggard eye, left his chamber. The
+last stroke of the midnight bell trembled on his ear as he entered the
+western tower. A maiden sat there, a silken noose was about her head,
+and she sobbed loud and heavily. She wrung her white hands at his
+approach.
+
+"Thy spells have been o'ermastered. Henceforth I renounce these unholy
+rites; I would not pass nights of horror and days of dread any longer.
+Maiden, thou art in my power. Unless thou wilt be mine,--renouncing
+thine impious vows,--for ever shunning thy detested arts,--breaking that
+accursed chain the enemy has wound about thee,--I will deliver thee up
+to thy tormentors, and those that seek thy destruction. This done, and
+thou art free."
+
+The maiden threw her snake-like glance upon him.
+
+"Alas!" she cried, "I am not free. This magic noose! remove it, and my
+promise shall be without constraint."
+
+"Nay, thou arch-deceiver,--deceiver of thine own self, and plotter of
+thine own ruin,--I would save thee from thy doom. Promise, renounce, and
+for ever forswear thy vows. The priest will absolve thee; it must be
+done ere I unbind that chain."
+
+"I promise," said the maiden, after a deep and unbroken silence. "I have
+not been happy since I knew their power. I may yet worship this fair
+earth and yon boundless sky. This heart would be void without an object
+and a possession!"
+
+She shed no tear until the holy man, with awful and solemn
+denunciations, exorcised the unclean spirit to whom she was bound. He
+admonished her, as a repentant wanderer from the flock, to shun the
+perils of presumption, reminding her that HE, of whom it is written that
+He was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be _tempted_ of the
+devil,--HE who won for us the victory in that conflict, taught _us_ in
+praying to say, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."
+She was rebaptized as one newly born, and committed again to the keeping
+of the Holy Church. Shortly afterwards were united at the altar Lord
+William and Lady Sibyl. He accompanied her to Bernshaw Tower, their
+future residence,--becoming, in right of his wife, the sole possessor of
+those domains.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[41] In Lancashire these noises are called the Gabriel Ratchets,
+according to Webster, which seem to be the same with the German
+Rachtvogel or Rachtraven. The word and the superstition are still
+prevalent. Gabriel Ratchets are supposed to be like the sound of puppies
+yelping in the air, and to forebode death or misfortune.
+
+
+
+
+PART THIRD.
+
+
+Twelve months were nigh come and gone, and the feast of All-Hallows was
+again at hand. Lord William's bride sat in her lonely bower, but her
+face was pale, and her eyes red with weeping. The tempter had been
+there; and she had not sought for protection against his snares. That
+night she was expected to renew her allegiance to the prince of
+darkness. Those fearful rites must now bind her for ever to his will.
+Such appeared to be her infatuation that it led her to imagine she was
+yet his by right of purchase, without being fully conscious of the
+impiety of that thought. His own power had been promised to her: true,
+she must die; but might she not, a spirit like himself, rove from world
+to world without restraint? She thought--so perilously rapid was her
+relapse and her delusion--that his form had again passed before her,
+beautiful as before his transgression!--"The Son of the Morning!"
+arrayed in the majesty which he had before the world was,--ere heaven's
+Ruler had hurled him from his throne. Her mental vision was perverted.
+Light and darkness, good and evil, were no longer distinguished. Perhaps
+it was a dream; but the imagination had becomed diseased, and she
+distinguished not its inward operations from outward impressions on the
+sense. Her husband was kind, and loved her with a lover's fondness, but
+she could not return his affection. He saw her unhappy, and he
+administered comfort; but the source of her misery was in himself, and
+she sighed to be free?
+
+"Free!"--she started; the voice was an echo to her thought. It appeared
+to be in the chamber, but she saw no living form. She had vowed to
+renounce the devil and all his works in her rebaptism, before she was
+led to the altar, and how could she face her husband?
+
+"He shall not know of our compact."
+
+These words seemed to be whispered in her ear. She turned aside; but saw
+nothing save the glow of sunset through the lattice, and a wavering
+light upon the floor.
+
+"I would spare him this misery," she sighed. "Conceal but the secret
+from him, and I am again thine!"
+
+Suddenly the well-known form of her familiar was at her side.
+
+The following day was All-Hallows-e'en, and her allegiance must be
+renewed in the great assembly of his subjects held on that fearful
+night.
+
+It was in the year 1632, a period well known in history as having led
+to the apprehension of a considerable number of persons accused of
+witchcraft. The depositions of these miserable creatures were taken
+before Richard Shuttleworth and John Starkie, two of his Majesty's
+justices of the peace, on the 10th of February 1633; and they were
+committed to Lancaster Castle for trial.
+
+Seventeen of them were found guilty, on evidence suspicious enough under
+ordinary circumstances, but not at all to be wondered at, if we consider
+the feeling and excitement then abroad. Some of the deluded victims
+themselves confessed their crime, giving minute and connected statements
+of their meetings, and the transactions which then took place. Justices
+of the peace, judges, and the highest dignitaries of the realm, firmly
+believed in these reputed sorceries. Even the great Sir Thomas Brown,
+author of the book intended as an exposure of "Vulgar Errors," gave his
+testimony to the truth and reality of those diabolical delusions. But we
+have little need to wonder at the superstition of past ages, when we
+look at the folly and credulity of our own.
+
+It may, perhaps, be pleasing to learn that the judge who presided at the
+trial respited the convicts, and reported their case to the king in
+council. They were next remitted to Chester, where Bishop Bridgeman,
+certifying his opinion of the matter, four of the accused--Margaret
+Johnson, Frances Dickisson, Mary Spencer, and the wife of one
+Hargreaves--were sent to London and examined, first by the king's
+physicians, and afterwards by Charles I. in person. "A stranger scene
+can scarcely be perceived," says the historian of Whalley; "and it is
+not easy to imagine whether the untaught manners, rude dialect, and
+uncouth appearance of these poor foresters would more astonish the king;
+or his dignity of person and manners, together with the splendid scene
+by which they were surrounded, would overwhelm them."
+
+The story made so much noise that plays were written on the subject, and
+enacted. One of them is entitled, "The late Lancashire Witches, a
+well-received Comedy, lately acted at the Globe on the Bank-side, by the
+King's Majesty's Actors. Written by Thomas Haywood and Richard Broom.
+_Aut prodesse solent, aut delectare_, 1634."
+
+But our element is tradition, especially as illustrating ancient manners
+and superstitions; we therefore give the sequel of our tale as tradition
+hath preserved it.
+
+Giles Dickisson, the merry miller at the Mill Clough, had so taken to
+heart his wife's dishonesty that, as we have before observed, he grew
+fretful and morose. His mill he vowed was infested with a whole legion
+of these "hell-cats," as they were called; for in this shape they
+presented themselves to the affrighted eyes of the miserable
+yoke-fellow, as he fancied himself, to a limb of Satan. The yells and
+screeches he heard o'nights from these witches and warlocks were
+unbearable; and once or twice, when late at the mill, both he and Robin
+had received some palpable tokens of their presence. Scratches and
+bloody marks were plainly visible, and every hour brought with it some
+new source of annoyance or alarm.
+
+One morning Giles showed himself with a disconsolate face before Lord
+William at the Tower; he could bear his condition no longer.
+
+"T'other night," said he, "the witches set me astride o' t' riggin' o'
+my own house.[42] It was a bitter cold time, an' I was nearly perished
+when I wakened. I am weary of my life, and will flit; for this country,
+the deil, I do think, holds in his own special keeping!"
+
+Then Robin stept forward, offering to take the mill on his master's
+quittance. He cared not, he said, for all the witch-women in the parish.
+He had "fettled" one of them, and, by his Maker's help, he hoped fairly
+to drive them off the field. The bargain was struck, and Robin that day
+entered into possession.
+
+By a strange coincidence, this transaction happened on the eve of
+All-Hallows before mentioned; and Lord William requested that Robin
+would on that night keep watch. His courage, he said, would help him
+through; and if he could rid the mill of them, the Baron promised him a
+year's rent, and a good largess besides. Robin was fain of the offer,
+and prepared himself for the strife, determined, if possible, to eject
+these ugly vermin from the premises.
+
+On this same night, soon after sunset, the lady of Bernshaw Tower went
+forth, leaving her lord in a deep sleep, the effect, as it was supposed,
+of her own spells. Ere she departed, every symbol or token of grace was
+laid aside;--her rosary was unbound. She drew a glove from her hand, and
+in it was the bridle ring, which she threw from her,--when the flame of
+the lamp suddenly expired. It was in her little toilet-chamber, where
+she had paused, that she might pursue her meditations undisturbed. Her
+allegiance must be renewed, and revoked no more; but her pride, that
+darling sin for which she raised her soul, must first suffer. On that
+night she must be guided by the same laws, and subjected to the same
+degrading influence, as her fellow-subjects. At least once a year this
+condition must be fulfilled:--all rank and distinction being lost, the
+vassals were alike equal in subordination to their chief. On this night,
+too, the rights of initiation were usually administered.
+
+The time drew nigh, and the Lady Sibyl, intending to conceal the glove
+with the sacred symbol, passed her hand on the table where it had
+lain--but it was gone!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In a vast hollow, nearly surrounded by crags and precipices, bare and
+inaccessible, the meeting was assembled, and the lady of the Tower was
+to be restored to their communion. Gliding like a shadow, came in the
+wife of Lord William,--pale, and her tresses dishevelled, she seemed the
+victim either of disease or insanity.
+
+Under a tottering and blasted pine sat their chief, in a human form;
+his stature lofty and commanding, he appeared as a ruler even in this
+narrow sphere of his dominion. Yet he looked round with a glance of
+mockery and scorn. He was fallen, and he felt degraded; but his aim was
+to mar the glorious image of his Maker, and trample it beneath his feet.
+
+A crowd of miserable and deluded beings came at the beck of their chief,
+each accompanied by her familiar. But the lady of Bernshaw came alone.
+Her act of renouncement had deprived her of this privilege.
+
+The mandate having been proclaimed, and the preliminary rites to this
+fearful act of reprobation performed, the assembly waited for the
+concluding act--the cruel and appalling trial: one touch of his finger
+was to pass upon her brow,--the impress, the mark of the beast,--the
+sign that was to snatch her from the reach of mercy! Her spirit
+shuddered;--nature shrank from the unholy contact. Once more she looked
+towards that heaven she was about to forfeit,--and for ever!
+
+"For ever!"--the words rang in her ears; their sound was like the knell
+of her everlasting hope. She started aside, as though she felt a horrid
+and scorching breath upon her cheek, as though she already felt their
+unutterable import in the abysses of woe!
+
+Conscience, long slumbering, seemed to awake; she was seized with the
+anguish of despair! It seemed as though judgment were passed, and she
+was doomed to wander like some rayless orb in the blackness of darkness
+for ever. One fearful undefined form of terror was before her; one
+consciousness of offence ever present; all idea of past and future
+absorbed in one ever-during NOW, she felt that her misery was too heavy
+to sustain. A groan escaped her lips, but it was an appeal to that power
+for deliverance, who is not slow to hear, "nor impotent to save."
+Suddenly she was roused from some deep and overpowering hallucination;
+the promises of unlimited gratification to every wish prevailed no more,
+the tempter's charm was broken. All was changed; the whole scene seemed
+to vanish; and that form, which once appeared to her like an angel of
+light, fell prostrate, writhing away in terrific and tortuous folds on
+the hissing earth. The crowd scattered with a fearful yell;--she heard
+a rush of wings, and a loud and dissonant scream,--and the "Bride of
+Bernshaw" fell senseless to the ground.
+
+We leave the conscience-stricken victim whilst we relate the result of
+Robin's watch-night at the mill.
+
+He lay awake until midnight, but there was no disturbance; nothing was
+heard but the plash of the mill-stream, and the dripping ooze from the
+rocks. His old enemies, no doubt, were intimidated, and he was about
+commencing a snug nap on the idea--when, lo! there came a great rush of
+wind. He heard it booming on from a vast distance, until it seemed to
+sweep over the building in one wide resistless torrent that might have
+levelled the stoutest edifice;--yet was the mill unharmed by the attack.
+Then came shrieks and yells, mingled with the most horrid imprecations.
+Swift as thought, there rushed upon him a prodigious company of cats,
+bats, and all manner of hideous things, that scratched and pinched him,
+as he afterwards declared, until his flesh verily "reeked" again.
+Maddened by the torment, he began to lay about him lustily with a long
+whittle which he carried for domestic purposes. They gave back at so
+unexpected a reception. Taking courage thereby, Robin followed, and they
+fled, helter-skelter, like a routed army. Through loop-holes and windows
+went the obscene crew, with such hideous screeches as startled the whole
+neighbourhood. He gave one last desperate lunge as a parting
+remembrance, and felt that his weapon had made a hit. Something fell on
+the floor, but the light was extinguished in the scuffle, and in vain he
+attempted to grope out this trophy of his valour.
+
+"I've sliced off a leg or a wing," thought he, "and I may lay hold on it
+in the morning."
+
+All was now quiet, and Robin, to his great comfort, was left without
+further molestation.
+
+Morning dawned bright and cheerful on the grey battlements of Bernshaw
+Tower; the sun came out joyously over the hills; but Lord William walked
+forth with an anxious and gloomy countenance. His wife had feigned
+illness, and the old nurse had tended her through the night in a
+separate chamber. This was the story he had learnt on finding her absent
+when he awoke. Early presenting himself at the door, he was refused
+admission. She was ill--very ill. The lady was fallen asleep, and might
+not be disturbed: such was the answer he received. Rising over the hill,
+he now saw the gaunt ungainly form of Robin, his new tenant, approaching
+in great haste with a bundle under his arm.
+
+"What news from the mill, my stout warrior of the north?" said Lord
+William.
+
+"I think I payed one on 'em, your worship," said Robin, taking the
+bundle in his hand. "Not a cat said mew when they felt my whittle.
+Marry, I spoilt their catterwauling: I've cut a rare shive!"
+
+"How didst fare last night with thy wenches?" inquired the other.
+
+"I've mended their manners for a while, I guess. As I peeped about
+betimes this morning, I found--a paw! If cats are bred with hands and
+gowden rings on their fingers, they shall e'en ha' sporting-room i' the
+mill! No bad luck, methinks."
+
+Robin uncovered the prize, and drew out a bleeding hand, mangled at the
+wrist, and blackened as if by fire; one finger decorated with a ring,
+which Lord William too plainly recognised. He seized the terrific
+pledge, and, with a look betokening some deadly purpose, hastened to his
+wife's chamber. He demanded admittance in too peremptory a tone for
+denial. His features were still, not a ripple marked the disturbance
+beneath. He stood with a calm and tranquil brow by her bed-side; but she
+read a fearful message in his eye.
+
+"Fair lady, how farest thou?--I do fear me thou art ill!"
+
+"She's sick, and in great danger. You may not disturb her, my lord,"
+said the nurse, attempting to prevent his too near approach;--"I pray
+you depart; your presence afflicts her sorely."
+
+"Ay, and so it does," said Lord William, with a strange and hideous
+laugh. "I pray thee, lady, let me play the doctor,--hold out thy hand."
+
+The lady was still silent. She turned away her head. His glance was too
+withering to endure.
+
+"Nay, then, I must constrain thee, dame."
+
+She drew out her hand, which Lord William seized with a violent and
+convulsive grasp.
+
+"I fear me 'tis a sickness unto death; small hope of amendment here.
+Give me the other; perchance I may find there more comfort."
+
+"Oh, my husband, I cannot;--I am--I have no strength."
+
+"Why, thou art grown peevish with thy distemper. Since 'tis so, I must
+e'en force thy stubborn will."
+
+"Alas! I cannot."
+
+"If not thy hand, show me thy wrist!--I have here a match to it,
+methinks. O earth--earth--hide me in thy womb!--let the darkness blot me
+out and this blasting testimony for ever!--Accursed hag, what hast thou
+done?"
+
+He seized her by the hair.
+
+"What hast thou promised the fiend? Tell me,--or"--
+
+"I have, oh, I fear I have,--consented to the compact!"
+
+"How far doth it bind thee?"
+
+"My soul--my better part!"
+
+"Thy better part?--thy worse! A loathsome ulcer, reeking with the stench
+from the pit! Better have given thy body to the stake, than have let in
+one unhallowed desire upon thy soul. How far does thy contract reach?"
+
+"All interest I can claim. His part that created it I could not give,
+not being mine to yield."
+
+"Lost! lost! Thou hast, indeed, sold thyself to perdition! I'll purge
+this earth of witchery;--I'll make their carcases my weapon's
+sheath;--hence inglorious scabbard!" He flung away the sheath. Twining
+her dark hair about his fingers--"Die!--impious, polluted wretch! This
+blessed earth loathes thee,--the grave's holy sanctuary will cast thee
+out! Yon glorious sun would smite thee should I refrain!"
+
+He raised his sword--a gleam of triumph seemed to flash from her eye, as
+though she were eager for the blow; but the descending weapon was
+stayed, and by no timid hand.
+
+Lord William turned, yet he saw not the cause of its restraint. The lady
+alone seemed to be aware of some unseen intruder, and her eye darkened
+with apprehension. Suddenly she sprang from the couch; a shriek from no
+human agency escaped her, and the spirit seemed to have passed from its
+abode.
+
+Lord William threw himself on her pale and inanimate form.
+
+"Farewell!" he cried: "I had thought thee honest!--Nay, lost spirit, I
+must not say farewell!"
+
+He gazed on his once-loved bride with a look of such unutterable
+tenderness that the heart's deep gush burst from his eyes, and he wept
+in that almost unendurable anguish. The sight was too harrowing to
+sustain. He was about to withdraw, when a convulsive tremor passed
+across her features--a trembling like the undulation of the breeze
+rippling the smooth bosom of the lake; a sigh seemed to labour heavily
+from her breast; her eyes opened; but as though yet struggling under the
+influence of some terrific dream, she cried--
+
+"Oh, save me--save me!" She looked upwards: it was as if the light of
+heaven had suddenly shone in upon her benighted soul.
+
+"Lost, saidst thou, accursed fiend?--Never until his power shall yield
+to thine!"
+
+Yet she shuddered, as though the appalling shadow were still upon her
+spirit.--"Nay, 'twas but a dream."
+
+"Dreams!" cried Lord William, recovering from a look of speechless
+amazement. "Thy dreams are more akin to truth than ever were thy waking
+reveries."
+
+"Nay, my Lord, look not so unkindly on me--I will tell thee all. I
+dreamt that I was possessed, and this body was the dwelling of a demon.
+It was permitted as a punishment for my transgressions; for I had sought
+communion with the fiend. I was the companion of witches--foul and
+abominable shapes;--a beastly crew, with whom I was doomed to
+associate. Hellish rites and deeds, too horrible to name, were
+perpetrated. As a witness of my degradation, methought my right hand was
+withered. I feel it still! Yet--surely 'twas a dream!"
+
+She raised her hand, gazing earnestly on it, which, to Lord William's
+amazement, appeared whole as before, save a slight mark round the wrist,
+but the ring was not there.
+
+"What can this betide?" said the trembling sufferer. She looked
+suspiciously on this apparent confirmation of her guilt, and then upon
+her husband. "Oh, tell me that I did but dream!"
+
+But Lord William spoke not.
+
+"I know it all now!" she said, with a heavy sob. "My crime is punished;
+and I loathe my own form, for it is polluted. Yet the whole has passed
+but as some horrible dream--and I am free! This tabernacle is cleansed;
+no more shall it be defiled; for to Thee do I render up my trust."
+
+A mild radiance had displaced the wild and unnatural lustre of her eye,
+as she looked up to the mercy she invoked, and was forgiven.
+
+Her spirit was permitted but a brief sojourn in this region of sorrow.
+Ere another sun, her head hung lifeless on Lord William's bosom;--he had
+pressed her to his heart in token of forgiveness; but he held only the
+cold and clammy shrine--the idol had departed!
+
+According to the popular solution of this fearful mystery, a demon or
+familiar had reanimated her form while she lay senseless at the sudden
+and unlooked-for dissolution of the witches' assembly. In this shape the
+imp had joined the rendezvous at the mill, and fleeing from the effects
+of Robin's valour, maliciously hoped that Lord William would execute a
+swift vengeance on his erring bride. But his hand was stayed by another
+and more merciful power, and the demon was cast out.
+
+The ring and glove were not found. It was said that Mause Helston had
+taken them as a gage of fealty, and dying about the same period, was
+denied the rites of Christian burial. Hence may have arisen the belief
+which tradition has preserved respecting the Lady Sibyl.
+
+Popular superstition still alleges that her grave was dug where the dark
+"Eagle Crag" shoots out its cold bare peak into the sky. Often, it is
+said, on the eve of All-Hallows, do the hound and the milk-white doe
+meet on the crag--a spectre huntsman in full chase. The belated peasant
+crosses himself at the sound as he remembers the fate of "The Witch of
+Bernshaw Tower."
+
+[Illustration: LATHOM HOUSE AS IT EXISTED BEFORE THE SIEGE, RESTORED
+FROM EXISTING DOCUMENTS.
+
+_Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden._]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[42] "Riggin'" or ridging. The hills which divide the counties of York
+and Lancaster are sometimes called "th' riggin'," from their being the
+highest land between the two seas forming part of what is called the
+backbone of England. An individual residing at a place named "The
+Summit," from its situation, was asked where he lived. "I live at th'
+riggin' o' th' warld, I reckon," says he; "for th' water fro' t' one
+side o' th' roof fa's to th' east sea, an' t' other to th' west sea."
+
+
+
+
+SIEGE OF LATHOM.
+
+
+    "Let me no longer live, she sayd,
+      Than to my lord I true remain;
+    My honour shall not be betray'd
+      Until I see my love again.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    "Oh! blame her not if she was glad
+      When she her lord again had seen.
+    Thrice welcome home, my dear, she said,--
+      A long time absent thou hast been:
+    The wars shall never more deprive
+      Me of my lord whilst I'm alive."
+
+--_Mirrour for Married Women_.
+
+No authentic drawing or representation of Lathom House, we believe,
+exists. The author has, however, had the temerity to present a
+restoration of this renowned edifice, as it appeared before the siege,
+and before "the sequestrators under Cromwell, weary of the slow disposal
+of the building materials by sale, invited the peasants of the hundred
+of West Derby to take away the stones and timbers without any charge."
+
+The very numerous documents to which he has had recourse were aided by
+measurements, and a visit to the spot, where he found that a tolerable
+accurate idea might be formed of the situation and extent of the walls
+and towers, together with the main entrance, and the "great Eagle
+Tower."
+
+The accompanying view is taken from a hill above the valley or trench,
+where, it is said, the main army of the besiegers was encamped. It is
+called in the neighbourhood "Cromwell's Trench," and the engraving may
+serve to convey some idea of that magnificent and princely dwelling,
+which, as the old ballad expresses it, would hold "two kinges, their
+traines and all." Henry the Seventh, two years after his visit to
+Lathom, restored his palace at Richmond, the same authority tells us,
+"like Lathom Hall in fashion." The gate-house in the engraving is drawn
+from the description of a carving of the Stanley legend in Manchester
+Collegiate Church, executed in the time of James Stanley, Bishop of Ely.
+From this it appears to have had two octagonal turrets on each side of
+an obtusely-pointed or circular archway with battlements, machicolated
+and pierced for cannon.
+
+The Eagle Tower alone remained when part of the estate was transferred
+to John Lord Ashburnham, on his marriage, in 1714, with Henrietta,
+daughter of William, ninth earl of Derby. Lord Ashburnham sold it to a
+Furness, and he to Sir Thomas Bootle. Not a vestige now exists, and even
+the records of the family are destroyed. "Golforden," says Mr Heywood,
+in his interesting _Notes to a Journal of the Siege of Lathom,_ "along
+whose banks knights and ladies have a thousand times made resort,
+hearkening to stories as varied as those of Boccaccio;--the maudlin
+well, where the pilgrim and the lazar devoutly cooled their parched
+lips;--the mewing-house,--the training round,--every appendage to
+antique baronial state,--all now are changed, and a modern mansion and a
+new possessor fill the place."
+
+This memorable siege, and the heroic defence by Lady Derby, though among
+the most prominent topics in the history of the county, supply but few
+materials which may not be found in records that already exist. Yet
+there are incidents connected with them which the historian has left
+unrecorded; occurrences, it might be, too trivial or too apocryphal for
+his pen. One of the main events in the following narrative, though not
+found amongst written and authenticated records, the author has listened
+to when a child, with a vigorous and greedy appetite for wonder,--one of
+the earliest and most delightful exercises of the imagination.
+
+We purpose to follow briefly the order of events as they appear in the
+several narratives to which we have had access, interweaving such
+traditionary matter as we have gathered in our researches, thereby
+interrupting and relieving the tediousness of this "thrice-told tale."
+
+Lord Derby, from the usual unhappy fatality, or rather from the
+indecision and jealousies prevailing in his Majesty's councils, had been
+commanded to leave the realm, and proceed instantly to the Isle of Man,
+at the precise time when his presence here would have been the most
+serviceable, not only from his great zeal, activity, and loyalty to his
+sovereign, but by reason of the influence he possessed, and the example
+which his noble and valiant bearing had shown throughout the county. His
+house, children, and all other temporal concerns, he left to the care of
+his lady, first making provision, secretly, for their defence, supplying
+her with men, money, and ammunition, that she might not be unprepared in
+case of attack. His lordship's opinion of this disastrous and impolitic
+removal may be gathered from the following hasty expressions. After a
+perusal of the despatches, announcing the king's, or rather the queen's,
+pleasure that he should speedily repair to the Isle of Man, where an
+invasion was apprehended from the Scots,--speaking to the Lady Derby
+with more than ordinary quickness, he said, "My heart, my enemies have
+now their will, having prevailed with his Majesty to order me to the
+Isle of Man, as a softer banishment from his presence and their malice."
+
+This valiant and high-born dame was daughter to Claude, Duke of
+Tremouille, and Charlotte Brabantin de Nassau, daughter of William,
+Prince of Orange, and Charlotte de Bourbon, of the royal house of
+France. By this marriage the Earl of Derby was allied to the French
+kings, the Dukes of Anjou, the Kings of Naples and Sicily, the Kings of
+Spain, and many other of the sovereign princes of Europe. Her father was
+a staunch Huguenot, and a trusty follower of Henry IV. That she did not
+sully the renown acquired by so illustrious a descent, the following
+narrative will abundantly prove.
+
+It was at a special council of the Holy States,[43] held at Manchester
+on Saturday the 24th of February 1644, that, after many former debates
+and consultations, the siege of Lathom was concluded upon. The
+parliament troops under Colonel Ashton of Middleton, Colonel Moore of
+Bank-Hall, and Colonel Rigby of Preston, on the same day began their
+march, proceeding by way of Bolton, Wigan, and Standish, under a
+pretence of going into Westmoreland, that the soldiers should not
+presently know of their destination.
+
+Lathom, for magnificence and hospitality, was held in high reputation,
+assuming, in these respects, the attitude of a royal court in the
+northern parts of the kingdom; and the family were regarded with such
+veneration and esteem that the following harmless inversion was familiar
+"as household words:"--"God save the Earl of Derby and the King;" the
+general feeling and opinion thereby apparent being love to their lord
+and loyalty to their prince.
+
+On the 27th of February the enemy took up their quarters about a mile
+distant from the house. The next day Captain Markland was the bearer of
+a letter to her ladyship from Sir Thomas Fairfax, commander-in-chief of
+the parliamentary forces, and likewise an ordinance of parliament: the
+one requiring that she should surrender the house upon such honourable
+terms as he might propose; and the other setting forth and commending
+the great mercy they had manifested by thus offering to receive the Earl
+of Derby if he would submit himself. But she indignantly refused to
+surrender without the consent and commandment of her lord; and after
+many interviews, to which she assented only to gain time, and to
+complete the provisioning and fortifying of her little garrison, they
+began to find her answers too full of policy and procrastination,
+dangerous to the fidelity of their troops. In the end, seeing she was
+only amusing them by vain pretences, they sent the following as their
+final terms, by Colonel Morgan, commander of the engineers, who had been
+appointed by Sir Thomas Fairfax to conduct the siege:--
+
+1st. "That the Countess of Derby shall have the time she desires, and
+then liberty to transport her arms and goods to the Isle of Man, except
+the cannon, which shall continue there for the defence of the house.
+
+2d. "That her ladyship, by ten o'clock on the morrow, shall disband all
+her soldiers, except her menial servants, and receive an officer and
+forty parliament soldiers for her guard."
+
+Morgan is described as "a litle man short and peremptory, who met with
+staidnes to coole his heat; and had the honor to carry backe this last
+answer--for her ladyshipp could scrue them to noe more delayes, viz.--
+
+"That she refused all their articles, and was truely happy they had
+refused hers, protesting shee had rather hazard her life than offer the
+like again;--
+
+"That though a woman, and a stranger, divorced from her friends, and
+rob'd of her estate, she was ready to receive their utmost vyolence,
+trusting in God both for protection and deliverance."
+
+The next morning they discovered the enemy had been at work about a
+musket-shot from the house, in a sloping ground, where they appeared to
+be forming a breast-work and trench to protect the pioneers--multitudes
+of country people being every day forced into this laborious service.
+
+The situation of Lathom deserves some notice, it being admirably
+calculated to resist any attack.
+
+"It was encompassed by a strong wall, two yards thick; upon the walls
+were nine towers, flanking each other, and in every tower six pieces of
+ordnance, that played three one way and three another. Upon the tops of
+these towers were placed the best and choicest marksmen, who usually
+attended the Earl in his sports, as huntsmen, keepers, fowlers, and the
+like, who continually kept watch, with screwed guns and long
+fowling-pieces, to the great annoyance and loss of the enemy, especially
+of their commanders, who were frequently killed in the trenches. Without
+the wall was a moat eight yards wide and two yards deep; between the
+wall and the moat was a strong row of palisadoes. A high tower, called
+the Eagle Tower, stood in the midst, surmounting all the rest. The
+gate-house had a strong tower on each side, forming the entrance to the
+first court."
+
+The site of the house seemed to have been formed for a stronghold, or
+place of safety: thus described by Seacome:--
+
+     "Before the house, to the south and south-west, is a rising ground,
+     so near as to overlook the top of it, from which it falls so quick,
+     that nothing planted against it on those sides can touch it further
+     than the front wall; and on the north and east sides there is
+     another rising ground, even to the edge of the moat." "The
+     situation of it may be compared to the palm of a man's hand, flat
+     in the middle, and covered with a rising ground, about it, and so
+     near to it, that the enemy, in two years' siege, were never able to
+     raise a battery against it, so as to make a breach in the wall
+     practicable to enter the house by way of storm."[44]
+
+It is said the camp of the besiegers was in a woody dell, near what is
+now called "The Round O Quarry," about half-a-mile from Lathom. This
+dell is still called "Cromwell's Trench;" and a large and remarkable
+stone, having two circular hollows or holes on its upper surface,
+evidently once containing nodules of iron, is called "Cromwell's
+Stone"--the country people supposing these holes were used as moulds for
+casting balls during the siege.
+
+The besiegers, however, thought to reduce the place by famine, being
+deceived through the following device of her ladyship's chaplain, the
+Rev. Mr Rutter, a person whom the Earl had left to her assistance, that
+she might be guided by his great skill and prudence:--
+
+During one of the conferences before-named, a captain of the
+parliamentary forces, recognising in the chaplain an old friend, with
+whom he had been educated, and very intimate and familiar aforetime,
+took a secret opportunity of addressing him, hoping to worm out her
+ladyship's secrets; conjuring him, by reason of their former friendship,
+to tell truly upon what ground or confidence she still refused these
+offers, seeing that it was impossible to defend her house against such
+a numerous and well-furnished army as was then encamped in the park.
+
+Rutter, casting his eyes earnestly towards the ramparts, bade his friend
+note their disposition and defence. Her ladyship, as commander-in-chief,
+to prevent any sudden assault, and likewise to awe the enemy by these
+demonstrations, had disposed her soldiers in due order, so that they
+should be seen, under their respective officers, from the main-guard in
+the first court, down to the great hall, where they had left her
+ladyship's council. The rest of her forces she had placed upon the
+walls, and on the tops of the towers, in such manner that they might
+appear both numerous and well-disciplined.
+
+"She is in nothing so desirous," said Rutter, "as that you should waste
+your strength and forces by a sudden assault, wherein you would not fail
+to have the worst of the battle: the place being armed at all points, as
+thou seest, and able to withstand any attack but that of famine."
+
+A promise of secresy was exacted, when the wary chaplain pretended to
+unfold her ladyship's plans. He said there was but little provision in
+the place--that she was oppressed with the number of her soldiers--that
+she would not be able to subsist more than fourteen days; and she hoped
+to dare them to a sudden onset, not from her own confidence to give them
+a repulse, but knowing that, should they continue the siege, she must
+inevitably be forced to surrender.
+
+The captain, after embracing his friend, and promising faithfully to
+maintain the secret, revealed, as Rutter intended he should, the whole
+of his confidential story to the enemy's council; who, giving credit to
+the tale, laid aside, for the present, all thoughts of an attack, and
+resolved to invest the place in a close and formal siege.
+
+Fourteen days being expired, and they, supposing her provisions were
+nigh spent, and the garrison reduced to the last extremity, sent another
+and more peremptory summons. But during this time her soldiers were
+training, the walls and fortifications were undergoing a thorough
+repair, and the cannon properly served and mounted. The fortress, too,
+was well stocked, and even abundantly stored with provisions, in spite
+of their enemies, who kept a strict watch, but failed to detect the
+source and manner of the supply. She was not without hope, too, of
+relief from the king's troops, whom she daily expected to her
+assistance.
+
+The besiegers finding themselves deceived, their confidence abused, and
+their schemes only serving to the advantage of the opposite party,
+orders were given and preparations made for more offensive measures, by
+drawing a line of circumvallation round the house.
+
+The garrison consisted of 300 men, commanded by the Captains Henry Ogle,
+Edward Chisnall, Edward Rawsthorne, William Farmer, Mullineux Ratcliffe,
+and Richard Fox, assisted in their consultations by William Farrington
+of Werden, Esq., who, for executing the commission of array, and
+attending her ladyship in these troubles, had suffered the seizure of
+all his personal estate and the sequestration of his lands.
+
+There were 150 men each night upon the watch, with the exception of
+sixteen select marksmen out of the whole, who all day kept the towers.
+
+The besieger's army was between two and three thousand, divided into
+tertias of seven or eight hundred men, who watched every third day and
+night. They were commanded by Colonels Egerton, Ashton, Holland, Rigby,
+Moore, and Morgan, with their captains and lieutenants.
+
+After many warlike demonstrations, by which they hoped to intimidate the
+garrison, and after some days spent in fruitless endeavours to bring her
+ladyship, as they said, to a due sense of her condition, they sent one
+Captain Ashurst, "a fair and civil gentleman, of good character," with
+fresh proposals. But Lady Derby, justly considering these frequent
+treaties and debates were a discouragement to her men, implying weakness
+and a want of confidence in her resources, replied sharply--
+
+"That no one should quit the house, but that she would keep it, whilst
+God enabled her, against all the king's enemies; that, in brief, she
+would receive no more messages, but referred them to her lord, scorning
+their malice, and defying their assaults."
+
+As the sequel of a business often depends upon the manner of its
+beginning, to second and confirm this answer the next morning she
+ordered a sally, when Captain Farmer with one hundred foot and
+Lieutenant Kay with twelve horse, their whole cavalry, went forth at
+different gates. Captain Farmer, determining to take them by surprise,
+marched up to the enemy's works without firing a shot; then pouncing
+upon them suddenly in their trenches, he ordered a close and well-aimed
+volley, which quickly made them leave their holes in great disorder.
+Immediately Lieutenant Kay, wheeling round with his horse, took them in
+flank, doing great execution as they fled. There were slain of the enemy
+about thirty men. The spoil was forty muskets, one drum, and six
+prisoners.
+
+The retreat of this little band was skilfully secured by Captain Ogle
+and Captain Rawsthorne, so that not one of the assailants was either
+slain or wounded.
+
+The besiegers were much annoyed with devices, ingeniously contrived by
+the garrison to intimidate them, and hinder and injure their work.
+Hitherto they had not been able to cast up a mound for their ordnance,
+so harassed and occupied were they with these incessant alarms. But
+Rigby, on whom devolved the plan and conduct of the siege, seeing that
+their affairs were in no thriving condition, but that rather they were
+the scoff and jest of the garrison, who daily taunted them from the
+walls, determined at all hazards to raise his cannon. For this purpose a
+considerable number of the peasantry and poorer sort in the
+neighbourhood, and for miles round, were driven like beasts to their
+daily work, labouring unremittingly at the mounds and trenches. At first
+they were sheltered by baskets and hurdles, afterwards by a testudo, or
+wooden house running upon wheels and roofed with thick planks. Still
+many lives were lost in this desperate service. In the end they brought
+up one piece of cannon, amusing themselves like schoolboys at a holiday,
+in practising their harmless reports. The first shot struck the outer
+wall, but it was found proof. Afterwards they aimed higher, intending to
+beat down a pinnacle or turret, but this also passed without damage. The
+last shot, which missed entirely, went over and beyond the buildings,
+burrowing in a field on the other side.
+
+When they had performed this mighty feat they sounded another parley,
+having, as they supposed, mightily beat down the hearts of the besieged.
+Colonel Rigby's chaplain then appeared at the gate with a letter that
+Sir Thomas Fairfax had received from Lord Derby, who was now at Chester,
+on his return from the Isle of Man. In this epistle he desired a free
+and honourable passage for his lady and their children, if she so
+pleased, being unwilling, as he said, to expose them to the uncertain
+hazard of a long siege. His lordship knew not, by reason of his long
+absence, either how his house was provided with ammunition and
+sustenance, or in what condition it might be to withstand the attack. He
+was desirous that the garrison alone should bear the brunt, and that a
+defenceless woman and her children should be rescued from captivity.
+
+Her ladyship replied that she would communicate with the earl, and if he
+should then continue in the same opinion, she would willingly submit to
+his commands; but until this, she would neither yield up the house nor
+abate in her hostility, but would abide by the result. Immediately she
+despatched to his lordship a messenger, conveying him from the house by
+a well-executed sally. The attempt succeeded; but whether he was
+suffered to reach his destination or not we have no means of
+ascertaining. No answer was returned, though some days had elapsed,
+during which the enemy made many fruitless attempts to batter the walls.
+
+They had now mounted the whole of their artillery, including their great
+mortar-piece, at that period looked upon as a most destructive engine,
+casting stones thirteen inches in diameter and eighty pounds weight;
+likewise grenadoes--hollow balls of iron, filled with powder, and
+lighted by a fusee. These were dangerous intruders, calculated to
+produce great alarm and annoyance, as we shall find in the sequel. The
+mortar was planted only about half a musket-shot from the walls,
+south-west, on a rising ground, from whence the engineer commanded a
+view of the whole buildings.
+
+The work on which it stood was orbicular, with a rampart of two yards
+and a half broad above the ditch. To lessen the destructive effects of
+this dangerous piece of artillery, chosen men were set as guards with
+wet hides and woollen coverlids to quench the flame, had the enemy been
+skilful enough to accomplish their purpose; it being their general
+opinion that to burn the house would be the most effectual means of
+subduing and driving out the garrison. But finding their endeavours met
+with no prosperous return, they bethought them to cast a show of
+religion over these attempts at robbery and rapine, issuing out commands
+to all men well affected towards their success, to co-operate with them
+for the overthrow of the "Babylonish harlot," by which term some worthy
+disciples of the visible church scrupled not to call the Lady of
+Lathom.[45]
+
+The following proclamation was sent forth from their headquarters at
+Ormskirk:--
+
+     "To all ministers and parsons in Lancashire, well-wishers to our
+     successe against Lathom House, these:--
+
+     "Forasmuch as more than ordinary obstrucc'ons have from the
+     beginning of this p'sent service ag^t Lathom House interposed our
+     proceedings, and yet still remaine, which cannot otherwise be
+     removed, nor our successe furthered, but onely by devine
+     assistance: it is, therefore, our desires to the ministers and
+     other well-affected persons of this county of Lancaster, in publike
+     manner, as they shall please, to com'end our case to God, that as
+     wee are appoynted to the s^d employment, soe much tending to the
+     settleing of our p'sent peace in theise parts, soe the Almighty
+     would crowne our weake endeavours with speedy success in the said
+     designe.
+
+     (Signed)
+
+     "RALPH ASHTON.
+
+     "JOHN MOORE.
+
+     "ORMSKIRK, 5 Ap. 1644."
+
+The four following days were, on their part, consumed in these unholy
+exercises; but the garrison, tired with inaction, resolved to awaken
+them, and turn their thoughts into a more profitable channel.
+
+On Wednesday, the 10th of April, says the MS. journal, "about eleven
+o'clock, Capt^n Farmer and Capt^n Mullineux Rattcliffe, Lieu^t Penckett,
+Lieu^t Woorrale, w^th 140 souldiers, sallyed out at a postern gate,
+beate the enemy from all theire worke and batteries, w^ch were now cast
+up round the house, nailed all theire canon, killed about 50 men, took
+60 armes, one collours, and three drumes, in which acc'on, Capt^n
+Rattcliffe deserves this remembrance, that w^th 3 souldiers, the rest of
+his squadron being scattered w^th execuc'on of the enemy, he cleared two
+sconces, and slew 7 men w^th his owne hand, Lieu^t Woorrall, ingageing
+himself in another worke among 50 of the enemy, bare the fury of all,
+till Capt^n Farmer relieved him, who, to the wonder of us all, came off
+without any dangerous wound.[46]--The sally-port was that day warded by
+Capt^n Chisnall, who with fresh men stood ready for succour of ours, had
+they been putt to the extremity; but they bravely marched round the
+works, and came in att the great gates, where Capt^n Ogle w^th a p'ty of
+musketeers kept open the passage. Capt^n Rawstorne hadd the charge of
+the musketeers upon the walls, which hee plac'd to the best advantage
+to vex the enemy in their flight. Capt^n Foxe, by a collours from the
+Eagle Tower, gave signall when to march and when to retreate, according
+to the motions of the enemy, which hee observed at a distance.--In all
+this service wee had but one man mortally wounded, and wee tooke onely
+one prisoner, an officer, for intelligence. In former sallyes some
+prisoners were taken, and by exchange releast, Colonel Ashton and Rigby
+promising to sett at liberty as many of the king's freinds, then
+prisoners in Lancaster, Manchester, Preston, and other places proposed
+by her ladishipp. But most unworthily they broke condic'ons, it suiting
+well with their religion neither to observe faith with God nor men; and
+this occasioned a greater slaughter than either her la^pp or the
+captaynes desired, because wee were in no condic'on to keepe prisoners,
+and knew the co'manders wold never release 'em but upon base or
+dishonorable terms."
+
+Though their cannon had been injured in the spiking, yet were they not
+rendered useless; for the same night they "played a sacre twice," it is
+said, "to tell us they had cannon that wold speke tho' our men had
+endeavoured to steele up all their lippes."
+
+On the 15th a grenado fell short of the house, in a walk near the chapel
+tower: some pieces of the shell, two inches thick, flew over the wall,
+and were gathered up by the attendants. It was a mighty achievement to
+fire this unwieldy engine, requiring great labour and exertion to fill
+up its mouth when once it had vomited forth its malice. The day after,
+they loaded it with stones: to their great joy, Morgan and his
+bombardiers beheld one of them strike within the body of the house, it
+being always a matter of some uncertainty where the ball might spend
+itself. Indeed, it was said, in derision it might be, that sometimes
+their guns occasioned more damage to the besiegers than to the besieged.
+
+Morgan now set to work, keeping as accurately as he might the head of
+the blatant beast to the same level, and loading it with a grenado. When
+the gunner had finished his task and lighted the fusee, Morgan rubbed
+his hands for joy. Retiring sharply, off went the missile with an
+explosion that shook the whole fabric. When the smoke was gone they
+perceived some trifling damage in an old court, where the bomb, striking
+about half-a-yard into the earth, burst as it rose, much abated of its
+violence; yet it shook down some slight buildings near, but without
+hurting any one, save two women who had their hands scorched as a
+memorial of their presence at the siege of Lathom.
+
+This mortar-piece was like some mighty dragon of old, causing great
+terror in the minds of the soldiers, who knew not how to escape, but
+were in continual fear and watchfulness, dreading the assaults of this
+terrible monster. To allay their apprehensions, and to show their own
+indifference, the captains lodged in the uppermost rooms, behind clay
+walls, when not upon duty; and many other devices were resorted to for
+the purpose of encouraging their troops. One circumstance, however,
+seemed to renew their courage; a gunner opposite, as he was mounting the
+ramparts to see the success of his shot, was slain by a marksman from
+one of the towers. The next day one of their cannoneers was slain
+through the porthole by a skilful hand, which made the enemy more
+cautious than formerly. Yet did they not slacken their endeavours, but
+fired almost incessantly. On the Saturday afternoon they played their
+mortar-piece five times; and in the night twice with stones, and once
+with a grenado, which by the turning of the gunner fell short of the
+house.
+
+On Easter Monday and Tuesday Colonel Rigby must needs gratify the
+country people with some pastime. He had already spent upwards of two
+thousand pounds, and his great pretensions were hitherto unfulfilled.
+Accordingly he ordered his batteries to be directed against the Eagle
+Tower, which, as we have before seen, stood near the centre of the
+buildings, and was the place where Lady Derby and the children usually
+lodged.
+
+"We will strike off a horn of the beast, or level one of her hills,"
+said Rigby, as he strode forth early on that morning to the enterprise.
+
+"Which seven towers be the seven hills of Rome or spiritual Antichrist,"
+said Jackson, his chaplain, who kept near his master, or rather kept his
+master between himself and the Babel that roused his indignation. Morgan
+was just preparing his engines when Rigby approached, cautiously worming
+his way along the trenches, for the marksmen were become unmercifully
+expert by reason of continued practice.
+
+The match was lighted,--when bounce went the shot, a four-and-twenty
+pounder, against the Eagle Tower.
+
+"We will beat the old lady from her perch: I find she hath taken to
+high-roosting of late," said Morgan, as he watched the despatch and
+destination of his messenger.
+
+The ball had entered into her ladyship's chamber, where she and the
+children were at breakfast. With as little emotion as Charles the
+Twelfth on a like occasion, she merely remarked that since they were
+likely to have disagreeable intruders, she must e'en seek a new lodging.
+
+"But," said she, rising with great dignity, "I will keep my house while
+a building is left above my head."
+
+This mischievous exploit, though an occasion at the time of great
+triumph and exultation to the besiegers, was the main cause of their
+subsequent expulsion and defeat.
+
+We now propose to follow out their operations with more minuteness,
+tracing the consequences of this action to its final result.
+
+That same night some of the garrison, having permission from their
+commanders, annoyed their enemies with strange and noisome alarms,
+during which they contrived to steal some powder, and other necessaries
+of which they were much in want.
+
+Colonels Egerton and Rigby were in close counsel before their tent when
+they beheld a terrible appearance moving towards them,--looking in the
+dark like the leaders of some mighty army, waving their torches to light
+them to the assault. This frightful apparition was a poor forlorn horse,
+studded with lights fastened to cords, that shook and flickered about in
+so fearful a manner. In this plight he had been turned out of the gates,
+the garrison looking on, with frightful shouts and yells.
+
+The sentinels ran from their posts, crying out that the king's army was
+coming. In an instant all was uproar and confusion, the trenches were
+cleared, and happy was he that came foremost in the rout.
+
+Rigby clasped on his sword-belt which he had doffed for the night.
+Springing on his horse, he met some of the runaways, whom he forced
+back, hoping by their means to stem the main torrent. But, lo! in the
+very height of the panic, appeared another and more direful intruder--an
+avenue of fire seemed to extend from the walls to their own trench. It
+appeared as though the enemy had by some unaccountable means formed in a
+double line from the fortress, illuminated rank and file as if by
+magic--flinging their torches by one simultaneous and well-concerted
+movement into the air with great order and regularity.
+
+Had a legion from the puissant army of Beelzebub been approaching,
+their terror could not have been greater. Yet fear kept many from
+escaping, while they knew not which way to run for safety. Rigby in the
+nick of time galloped up to this awful and hostile appearance, crying
+out to his troops that he would soon demolish the bugbear. This saying
+encouraged some of the runaways, who followed him to the combat.
+Approaching within a sword's length, for he was not deficient either in
+hardihood or valour, he made a furious stroke right in the face of this
+flaming apparition, when down it fell, revealing its own harmlessness
+and their cowardice.
+
+Taking advantage of the panic which followed the lighted horse, a few of
+the garrison had thrown a cord covered with matches and other
+combustibles round a tree, close to the enemy's camp; one end was
+fastened near the walls, and the other was quickly carried back after
+being passed round the tree. The whole on being lighted was swung to and
+fro, producing the terrific appearance we have described.
+
+Rigby was greatly mortified at this exploit; it seemed as though they
+were become the jest and laughing-stock of the garrison.
+
+Morgan at this moment galloped up in great dudgeon. The enemy had found
+him a similar employment, he having twice bravely discharged his cannon,
+loaded with cartridge and chain-shot, against two lighted matches thrust
+into balls of clay that were thrown at him from the walls.
+
+The leaders, provoked beyond measure, speedily assembled in council.
+Egerton, who had the most influence, from the beginning had urged milder
+measures, thinking to starve the enemy into submission; but Morgan,
+Rigby, and some others were now red-hot for mischief, smarting from
+their late ridiculous disaster.
+
+"And what have we gotten by delay?" said Rigby; "we have wearied our
+soldiers, wasted our powder, and emptied our purses; and this proud dame
+still beats and baffles us, casting her gibes in our very teeth which we
+deserve to lose for our pains."
+
+"Take thine own course, then," said Egerton, mildly. "We are brethren,
+serving one cause only; the which, being best served, is best won."
+
+"Then be to-morrow ours," said Morgan, with his usual heat and
+impatience. "We will burn them up like a heap of dry faggots. The house,
+though well fenced against our shot, hath yet much inward building of
+wood, and you shall see a pretty bonfire kindled by my bomb-shells--a
+roaring blaze that shall ride on the welkin between here and Beeston
+Castle!"
+
+"Whilst thou art plying thy vocation we will scale the walls, and the
+sword shall slay what the fire hath failed to devour," said Rigby.
+
+"Fire and sword!" cried Egerton. "Ye are apt at a simile; but, methinks,
+these be your own similitudes."
+
+"They give their prisoners no quarter," said Morgan; "and why should we
+sheath the sword when a weapon is at our own throat?"
+
+"Why, doubtless they have more mouths to feed than they can conveniently
+supply," said the more pacific personage. "Living men, to keep them so,
+even though prisoners, require feeding."
+
+"Our vengeance is sure, though tardy," said Rigby, rising in great
+choler. "The blood of these martyrs crieth from the ground. To-morrow!"
+and he breathed a bloody vow, looking fiercely up to heaven in the
+daring and impious attitude of revenge.
+
+"We had best give her ladyship another summons; which, if she refuse,
+her blood be upon her own head!" Saying this, Egerton abruptly left the
+council.
+
+On the next morning, which was cold and drizzly, a "pragmatical" drummer
+went out from the nearer trench, beating his drum for a parley, lest his
+person should be dismissed without ceremony to the hungry kites.
+
+Early had he been summoned to Rigby's lodging, where Ashton and Morgan
+were contriving a furious epistle to the contumacious defenders of their
+lives and substance. A summons, couched in no very measured terms, was
+drawn up, to the purport that the fortress should be surrendered, and
+all persons, goods, arms, and munitions therein, to the mercy of
+parliament; and by the next day, before two o'clock, her ladyship to
+return her answer, otherwise at her peril. Their valour grew hotter with
+the reading of this cruel message, which they secretly hoped and
+suspected she would refuse. The drum-major was called in, one Gideon
+Greatbatch by name--a long, straight-haired, sallow-faced personage, of
+some note among the brethren for zeal and impiety. By this we mean that
+awful and profane use of Scripture phraseology with which many of these
+gifted preachers affected to interlard their everyday discourse,
+attaching a ludicrous solemnity to matters the most trivial and
+unimportant.
+
+In delineating this species of character, unfortunately not extinct in
+our own days, we do not hold it up to ridicule, but to reprehension.
+Irreverence and profanity, under whatever pretext, are without excuse,
+even beneath the mask of holy zeal and ardent devotion.
+
+The man stalked in with little ceremony and less manners. He stood stiff
+and erect, the image of pride engendered by ignorance.
+
+"'Tis our last," said Rigby, folding up the message; "and if our arms
+are blessed, as we have hoped, and, it may be, unworthily deserved, ere
+the going down of to-morrow's sun yon strong tower wherein she trusteth
+shall be as smoke; for the hope of the wicked shall perish."
+
+"Yea, their idols shall fall down; yea, their walls shall be as
+Jericho," said the drum-major, with a sing-song whine, to sanctify his
+blasphemous allusions, "and shall utterly fall at the sound of"----
+
+"Thy two drumsticks, mayhap," returned Morgan, sharply; for this latter
+personage, though his presence became needful in the camp by reason of
+his reputed skill and bravery, was a great scandal to the real and
+conscientious professors--of whom not a few had joined the ranks of the
+besiegers--as well as the hypocritical and designing; some of whom did
+not hesitate to liken him to Achan and the accursed thing, by reason of
+which they were discomfited before their enemies.
+
+"Thine ungodly speeches, Master Morgan, I would humbly trust, may not be
+as the fuel that, when the fire cometh, shall consume the camp, even the
+righteous with the wicked," said Gideon, as if shrinking from the
+contact of so unholy a personage.
+
+Morgan replied not to this deprecation, save by swearing--covertly,
+though it might be--at the impudence and insubordination of these
+inferior agents, whose disorderly conduct it was necessary to connive
+at, while they were looked upon as saints and prophets--men from whose
+presence was impiously expected the blessing and protection of heaven.
+
+A loud screaming was heard, and Rigby, darting a furious look through
+the doorway, ordered it to be closed.
+
+"Another porker!" said he. "I verily think she hath provision behind the
+walls that would last out our siege till doomsday. There is treachery
+somewhere. Have we not heard, morning by morning, the self-same cry?"
+
+"A whole herd of swine have been martyred in the cause," said Morgan,
+sneeringly.
+
+"Every day they have slain a pig," said the leader of the drums. "Two
+score and eight," reckoning upon his fingers. "Verily a drove from the
+legion."
+
+They knew not that this unfortunate swine, the only one in the garrison,
+was made to perform so uncomfortable a duty every morning to mislead the
+besiegers, and impress them with the idea of a plentiful supply within
+the walls.
+
+"Even the rabble about the garrison throw shives of bread into our
+trenches," said Morgan; "and once or twice I have thought their muskets
+were loaden with peas instead of pellets."
+
+"Then is our assault the more urgent," replied Rigby: "delay doth not
+increase her strength. Prince Rupert too, some fair morning, may jump
+between us and head-quarters."
+
+"I have as many grenadoes," said Morgan, "as will save his highness the
+trouble. Were he here, I would make him dance the Flemish _coranto_."
+
+"The Amalekites shall ye utterly destroy," said Gideon, with a sudden
+indrawing of the breath, as though he were suffering the pangs and
+throes of possession. "Neither shall ye spare the women and the little
+ones nor the stuff; no, not even a kid for a burnt-offering. Your eye
+shall not spare as Saul spare Agag, whom Samuel hewed in pieces."
+
+"Keep thy counsel to light thine own courage. Yon fiery-tempered woman
+will not be over-nice in her respect to thy vocation. Peradventure she
+may dangle thy carcase over the walls in defiance of our summons."
+Morgan would have rebuked him farther, had not Rigby hastily put the
+message into his hands, and bade him good speed.
+
+With inward but audible murmurs at this unholy connection, for Morgan
+valued not their prayers a rush, Gideon strode forth, his eyes twinkling
+grievously as the drizzling rime came on his face. His long ungainly
+figure, surmounted by a high-peaked hat, was seen cautiously stealing
+through the trenches. Near to the embrasure by Morgan's mortar-piece he
+made a sudden halt. After preparing his drum, he first beat the roll to
+crave attention. He then stepped upon the redoubt, drumming the usual
+signal for a parley. It was soon answered from the walls, and Gideon,
+with much ceremony and importance, arrived with his musical appendage
+before the gate. The requisite formalities being gone through, the
+drawbridge was lowered, and this parliamentary representative was
+speedily admitted through a little wicket into the Babylon which he
+abhorred. His very feet seemed in danger of defilement. He looked as if
+breathing the very atmosphere of pollution; but when ordered to kneel
+down that he might be blindfolded, his spirit rose indignantly at the
+command.
+
+"Ye be contemners and despisers of our holy heritage. I have not bowed
+the knee to Baal, nor will I worship the beast or they that have his
+name on their foreheads. Do with me as ye list. Ye would cover mine eyes
+that your iniquities may be hidden;--but ye shall suddenly be destroyed,
+and none shall deliver."
+
+A loud laugh was the answer to this denunciation; for truly it were a
+marvellous thing to hear an ignorant, arrogant drummer, misapply and
+profane the words of Holy Writ, wresting the Scriptures to their
+destruction, if not his own.
+
+In the outer court soldiers were playing at span-counter with silver
+moneys, which Gideon observing, again lifted up the voice of warning and
+rebuke.
+
+"But destruction cometh upon them, even as upon a woman in"----
+
+"Peace, thou spirit of a drum-stick!" cried one of them, and, as though
+he were playing at chuck-farthing, he threw a tester between his teeth;
+for the soldiers had about fifty pounds amongst them in silver coin, but
+it was of no use except as so many counters, which they lent one another
+by handfuls without telling. Sometimes one soldier had won the whole,
+then another; but if they had been heaps of the rarest jewels they had
+been of less worth than pebble-stones.
+
+Gideon's speech was marred in the delivery; thinking he had been hit
+with a stone, he sputtered out the offending morsel; but, seeing the
+coin with the king's image and superscription, he gathered it up again.
+
+"This shall be to me for a prey, even a spoil, as Moses spoiled the
+Egyptians." Saying this Gideon thrust the king's money into his pocket,
+and consented to be blindfolded, as was customary, in order that he
+should not act the spy in his progress. He heard many gates unbarred,
+many sentries challenged, and the pass-words demanded. Indeed the order
+and discipline throughout was of an excellent and well-contrived
+regularity.
+
+"Make way for the drum!" ran along the avenues, as though he were
+passing through a numerous array of guards and soldiery. At length he
+was safely deposited in a spacious hall used as a guard-room; where his
+conductors delivered him to Captain Ogle, the officer in waiting that
+morning upon her ladyship. Being informed she was at prayers, for, as we
+are told, "her first care was the service of God, which in sermons and
+solemn prayers she daily saw performed," Gideon lifted up his hands and
+said--
+
+"Their new moons and their fasts are an abomination." He then desired to
+be conducted near the fire, for the double purpose of drying his
+threadbare red coat, and relieving his extreme length by a change of
+position.
+
+He had not waited long ere the signal was given for an audience. Still
+blindfolded, he was led by a circuitous route into a little wainscotted
+chamber lighted by a single bay-window. Here the bandage was taken from
+his eyes, and when the dimness had a little subsided, he beheld that
+heroic lady for the first time whom he had often compared, in no very
+moderate terms, to Jezebel, and many other names equally appropriate. A
+very different person she appeared from what his heated and morbid fancy
+had suggested. Indeed, if she had been the personification of all evil,
+with a demon's foot and a fiend's visage, he had been less surprised
+than to find her with the outward form and attributes of humanity.
+
+She was sitting with the children, before a narrow table covered with
+papers. She wore a black habit, with a white kerchief on her head, and a
+long Flanders veil of rich open work. This she threw back, and Gideon
+beheld a countenance not at all either commanding or heroic, but one to
+which smiles and good-nature would have been most congenial, though a
+shade of anxiety was now thrown over the natural expression of her
+features. Her eye seemed to have forgotten its bland and benevolent
+aspect, and was fixed sharply upon him. For a moment his spiritual
+pride was daunted, and that natural and inherent principle, not extinct
+though often dormant,--a deference to superiority, whether of intellect
+or station--rendered him for a while mute and inoffensive. It is even
+said that he made a sort of half-conscious obeisance; but his mind
+misgiving him during the offence, which smote him on the sudden as an
+act of homage and idolatrous veneration, he breathed out a very audible
+prayer.
+
+"Pardon thy servant in this matter, even if I have bowed in the house of
+Rimmon." As he said this, he threw himself back, lifting his narrow eyes
+towards the ceiling; then thrusting out his hand with the despatch at
+arm's length, he was striding forward, but Ogle intervened ere he had
+made his way to the Countess.
+
+"With all courtesy, friend," said he, "these communications must proceed
+from the officer on duty."
+
+With great gallantry and respect the captain presented it to his
+mistress.
+
+"Eye-service and will-worship!" growled Gideon. "'Tis like your vain and
+popish idolatry and the like, through the ministry of saints, even to a
+woman, vain and sinful as yourselves. I would as soon commit my prayers
+to the angel of the bottomless pit!"
+
+Her ladyship had broken open the seals. Her eye kindled as she spoke--
+
+"Thou hadst thy reward were we to hang thee up at the gate.--Yet art
+thou but a foolish instrument in the hands of this traitor Rigby; and we
+do not punish the weapon, but him that wields it."
+
+Now Gideon, finding himself moved by natural heat and choler, and
+mistaking this wrath for a righteous indignation, thought himself surely
+called upon to reprove these unrighteous ones for their iniquities. His
+body fell into the usual disposition for a harangue. His eyes rolled
+upwards, and his whole frame swung to and fro whilst the exhortation was
+preparing. To his great mortification, however, the lady quitted the
+room, leaving word for them to follow her to the hall.
+
+The preacher was greatly chagrined, when his eyes resumed their office,
+to find himself almost thrust out and on his way back to the
+guard-chamber. A number of soldiers and domestics were here assembled.
+Lady Derby, with her chaplain, steward, and captains, ranged on each
+side, stood at the higher end of the chamber.
+
+Silence was commanded, whilst she read aloud the despatch.
+
+"And this,--and this, my answer!" said she, tearing the paper as she
+spoke, and throwing the fragments indignantly from her.
+
+"Tell that insolent rebel he shall neither have our persons, our goods,
+nor yet this house. When our strength and provision be spent, we shall
+find a fire more merciful than Rigby; and then, if the providence of God
+prevent it not, my goods and house shall burn in his sight:--myself,
+children, and soldiers, rather than fall into his hands, will seal our
+religion and loyalty in the same flame!"
+
+A loud shout burst through the assembly, who, with one general voice,
+cried out--
+
+"We will die for his Majesty and your honour:--God save the king!"
+
+Gideon's countenance grew terrible, and he seemed as though suffering
+under some violent excitement. Lifting up his hand, he was about to
+thunder forth anathemas and denunciations, the dealing out of which,
+strange to say, most parties agree in reserving to themselves. Even men
+whose honesty and single-heartedness we cannot doubt--who have boldly
+defended our rights and liberties against religious tyranny and
+intolerance--have still arrogated to themselves exclusively the control
+of opinions and modes of belief:--wielding the terrors of Heaven where
+the arm of Omnipotence can alone be felt; their efforts futile and
+ineffectual, as though a feeble worm were attempting to grasp the
+quiver,--to launch the bolt and the arrow from the skies.
+
+But Gideon's purpose was again frustrated: the impious idolaters,
+refusing to listen, blindfolded him before he was aware.
+
+But his spirit kindled suddenly, and he cried aloud--
+
+"Yet shut your eyes wilfully, and go blindfold to your destruction.
+To-morrow these walls in which ye trust, this Egypt in whom your soul
+delighteth, shall be as Sodom. Brimstone and fire shall devour you; and
+they that flee from it shall not escape!"
+
+Gideon and his threats were, however, speedily thrust out at the gates,
+and the answer transmitted through him was faithfully reported to the
+council.
+
+Though this heroic woman was not daunted, yet she saw her soldiers
+were, at times, dispirited, by reason of the expected succours so long
+delayed. The mortar-piece, too, which, if it had been well managed, was
+sufficient to have laid the fortress in ruins, was an object of daily
+terror and annoyance.
+
+One of the MS. journals states,[47] "The little ladyes had stomack to
+digest cannon; but the stoutest souldiers had noe hearts for granadoes,
+and might not they att once free themselves from the continual
+expectac'on of death?"
+
+Her ladyship was well aware that inactivity is, of all things, the most
+dangerous and dispiriting to the soldier, who, used to the bustle and
+array of camps, doth fear nothing so much as a quiet home and winter
+quarters.
+
+It was needful that something should be done, some decisive blow struck;
+for, according to the historian, "Chaunges of tymes are the most fitt
+for brave attempts, and delayes they are dangerous, where softnes and
+quyetnes draweth more danger than hazarding rashly."
+
+"A hard choice either to kill or be killed;" but such was their case.
+The Countess therefore proposed that the next morning, a little while
+after daybreak, they should make a sortie; and though ordnance was
+planted against every passage, yet that they should sally forth, and
+stake their all upon one desperate throw.
+
+On the 26th April, about four o'clock, before sunrise, the action
+commenced. Captain Chisnall and Captain Fox, with Lieutenants Brettargh,
+Penketh, Walthew, and Woorrall, were appointed for the service. Captain
+Ogle had the main-guard to secure a retreat at the southern gate, while
+Rawsthorne had the charge of the sally-gate to secure a retreat on the
+eastern side. Captain Ratcliffe had the command of the marksmen and
+musketeers on the walls, while Farmer, with the reserve, stood ready at
+the parade, to relieve any of them in case of necessity. All things
+being ready, Captain Chisnall and two lieutenants issued out at the
+eastern sally-port. The morning favoured their attempt, being wet and
+foggy, so that before he was discovered he got completely under their
+cannon, marching immediately upon the scouts where the enemy had planted
+their great gun.
+
+"It cost him a light skirmish to gain the fort; at last hee entered;
+many slayne, some prisoners, and some escaping. Now by the command of
+that battery, the retreate being assured, Capt Foxe seconds him w^th
+much bravery, beateing upon their trenches from the easterne to the
+south-west point, till hee came to the work w^ch secur'd the
+morter-peece, w^ch being guarded w^th 50 men, hee found sharpe service,
+forceing his way through muskett and cannon, and beateing the enemy out
+of the sconce w^th stones, his muskett, by reason of the high worke,
+being unserviceable. After a quarter of an houres hard service, his men
+gott the trench and scal'd the rampier, where many of the enemy fledd,
+the rest were slayne. The sconce, thus won, was made good by a squadron
+of musketteers, which much annoyed the enemy, attempting to come upp
+agayne. The 2 maine works thus obtained, the two captaynes w^th ease
+walked the rest of the round, whilst Mr Broome, w^th a companye of her
+la^pps servants and some fresh souldiers, had a care to levell the
+ditch, and by a present devise, with ropes lifting the morter-peece to a
+low dragge, by strength of men drew it into the house, Capt. Ogle
+defending the passage ag^t another companye of the enemye which play'd
+upon their retreate. The like endeavour was used to gayne theire greate
+gunnes; but lying beyond the ditch, and being of such bulke and weight,
+all our strength could not bringe them off before the whole army had
+fallen upon us; however, our men took tyme to poyson all the cannon
+round, if anything will doe the feate, Capt. Rawstorne still defending
+the first passe ag^t some offers of the enemy to come up by the wood."
+
+It was near the conclusion of this affray, as Mr Broome, the steward,
+and several of his helpers, were encompassing the great dragon which had
+so often vomited forth fire and smoke upon them, intending to carry it
+away captive, that they heard a voice from the breach below:--
+
+"Hold, ye uncircumcised:--I will make your house desolate, and the glory
+thereof shall be turned into ashes."
+
+The mortar was ready charged, and they beheld Gideon, with a lighted
+match, springing towards them. Several of the men drew aside in dismay;
+but as Providence willed it, he was prevented from his purpose, the
+light being struck from his hand, and himself tumbled backwards into a
+deep and muddy ditch, extinguishing both light and life apparently
+together. But he arose, and would have run a tilt at them in this
+unsavoury condition, had he not been caught by one of his enemies, who
+waggishly exclaimed--
+
+"Let us yoke this great Amalekite to the gun. He'll help us well over
+the ditch."
+
+This goodly piece of advice was not neglected; and the unhappy Gideon,
+fastened between two yoke-fellows, was dragged on by main force, the
+hindmost threatening to shoot him if he made any resistance.
+
+In vain did he cry out for vengeance upon them. His gods were deaf--no
+miracle was wrought for his deliverance; and though he would have called
+down fire from heaven upon his adversaries, the thunders he impiously
+desired died harmless on his own tongue.
+
+We again quote the words of the journal:--
+
+"This action continued an houre, with the loss of two men on our part,
+who, after they were mortally wounded, still fired upon the enemy, till
+all retreating. What number of the enemy were slain it is not easy to
+guesse. Besides the execuc'on done in their trenches, Capt. Farmours and
+Capt. Rattcliffes reserves, w^th the best marksmen, played upon them
+from the walls with much slaughter, as they quitt theire holds. Our men
+brought in many armes, three drums, and but five prisoners, preserved by
+Capt. Chisnall to show that he had mercy as well as valour. One of
+theese was an assistant to their engineere, Browne, who discovered to us
+the nature of their trench, in which they had laboured two monthes to
+draw away our water. Theire first designe was to drayne and open our
+springs, not considering theire rise from a higher ground south-east
+from the house, w^ch must needs supply our deepe well, where-ever they
+suncke their fall: this invenc'on faileing, they bringe up an open
+trench in a worme work, the earth being indented or sawed for the
+securitie of their myners, and the ditch two yards wide and three deepe
+for the fall of the water.
+
+"But now neither ditches nor aught els troubled our souldiers, theire
+grand terror, the morter-peece, which had frighted 'em from theire meate
+and sleepe, like a dead lyon, quyetely lying among 'em; everye one had
+his eye and his foote upon him, shouteing and rejoiceing as merrily as
+they used to doe w^th theire ale and bagpypes. Indeed ev'y one had this
+apprehenc'on of the service, that the maine worke was done, and what was
+yet behind but a meere pastime.
+
+"Her la^pp though not often overcarryed w^th any light expressions of
+joy, yet religiously sensible of soe great a blessing, and desirous,
+according to her pious disposition, to returne acknowledgements to the
+righte authour, God alone, presently commands her chaplaynes to a
+publike thanksgiving.
+
+"The enemy, thus terrifyed with this defeate, durst not venture theire
+workes agayne till midnight; towards morneing removeing some of theire
+cannon, and the next night stealeing away all the rest, save one peece
+for a memorand. This one escapyt nayleing, which the colonells durst not
+venture on its owne mount, but planted att a distance, for feare of
+the madmen in the garrison.
+
+"One thing may not heere bee omitted: that day that our men gave Rigby
+that shameful defeate, had hee destined for the p'secuteing of his
+utmost cruelty. Hee had invited, as it is now gen'ally confest, all his
+friends, the holy abettors of this mischiefe, to come see the house
+yeelded or burnt, hee haveing purposed to use his morter gunne w^th
+fireballs or granadoes all afternoone; but her la^pp before two o'clocke
+(his own tyme) gave him a very skurvy satisfying answ^r, soe that his
+friends came opportunely to comfort him, who was sicke of shame and
+dishonour, to be routed by a lady and a handfull of men."
+
+This proved a sore disaster to the besiegers. The soldiers, too, began
+to cry out for their pay. The long-expected plunder of Lathom had
+hitherto kept them quiet; but they were now willing to leave this
+precious booty to the next comers, and content themselves with their
+stated allowance.
+
+Rigby, fearful of the crumbling away and dispersion of his army, made
+shift to furnish some small arrears of their pay, declaring that it had
+cost him £2000 of his own moneys during the siege; but how he got such
+great store of gold we are not informed, safe that "he was once a
+lawyer, and a bad one!"
+
+Still there were many deserters, escaping even in the open day; not a
+few of them coming over with valuable intelligence to the garrison.
+
+Wearied with duty, and sorely perplexed, Rigby sent for Col. Holland,
+from Manchester, to his assistance. Many days now elapsed, during which
+little happened worth recording on either side. On the 23d May, Captain
+Moseley brought another message to her ladyship, desiring, in terms of
+great courtesy and respect, that she would grant him an interview. He
+was received with great ceremony; for she abated not a whit of the
+dignity belonging to her high birth and station.
+
+"Captain Moseley," said she, having read the summons, commanding her
+that she should yield up the house, together with the ammunition, arms,
+goods, servants, children, and her own person too--submitting to the
+mercy of parliament, "you are, I understand, an honourable man and a
+soldier."
+
+He bowed with great humility.
+
+"I would not receive this from any other. But"--and her lip curled
+proudly as she spoke. "Here seems a slight mistake in the wording of
+your message. They should rather have written _cruelty_ and not
+_mercy_!"
+
+"Nay, my lady," he replied, "the mercy of parliament. Trust me, you will
+not be evil entreated at their hands."
+
+"The _mercies_ of the wicked are _cruel_," said she, quickly, but with
+great composure. "Not that I mean," she continued, "a wicked parliament,
+of which body I have an honourable and reverend esteem, but wicked
+agents and factors, such as Moore and Rigby, who for the advantage of
+their own interests labour to turn kingdoms into blood and ruin.
+Besides, 'tis dangerous treating when the sword is given into the
+enemies' hand."
+
+"Most assuredly, madam, as our tractates on the art of war teach
+us,--which it seems you have not studied in vain," said Moseley, bowing
+with an air of great deference and gallantry. "Your ladyship is
+commander-in-chief, we hear."
+
+"My lord being absent. I am left in trust, and cannot listen to treaties
+without his permission."
+
+"Not to dishonourable overtures, assuredly. But if we agree to your own
+conditions,--quitting the house in the way it shall seem best to your
+ladyship, as was once the basis of your own propositions, I believe, it
+cannot in this case be a reproach or a breach of trust, but will prevent
+much damage, and be the saving of many lives."
+
+"I will not treat without my lord's commands, Captain Moseley, and I
+have listened to you longer than is expedient. It is unjust to myself,
+and these brave defenders, that I appear in any way doubtful of their
+ability and courage. For their sakes, and for my own, I must end this
+parley."
+
+The officer bowed low at this peremptory dismissal, wishing her
+ladyship's resolutions were less firm or her means more ample.
+
+"I can but deliver your reply. Yet"--He hesitated awhile. "There be
+fierce and bloody men about the camp, who would lay down their own lives
+to compass your destruction. It is not in our power to restrain them."
+
+"One of these flaming zealots is already extinguished: we have him safe
+under cover," said her ladyship, smiling; "in our own custody, I trow.
+He threatened us with all the plagues of Egypt and that of his own
+tongue to boot,--the worst that ere visited the garrison. One morning,
+an earthquake would devour us; another, we were to be visited with the
+destruction of Sodom. Some of our men once looked out for the coming
+tempest, and buffeted him well for their disappointment. He seems either
+malignant or insane; but in charity, of which Christian exercise he
+seems utterly ignorant, we suppose the latter. We have therefore made
+his feet fast in the stocks, from whence, I hear, he pronounces his
+anathemas as confidently as though he were armed with the power and
+thunders of the Vatican!"
+
+"May I crave the name of this doughty personage?--We have but too many
+of them amongst us."
+
+"Verily, 'tis your drum, by whose hands I have had a message heretofore.
+The chances of war have again brought him hither,--but now a prisoner!"
+
+"Gideon Greatbatch?"
+
+"The same. We have heard him, with many blasphemous allusions, liken
+himself unto that great one among the judges of Israel,--and truly he
+seems more fitted to wield the sword than the drum-stick!"
+
+"Your ladyship would perhaps indulge me with an interview. It might
+comfort him to see one from the camp."
+
+"Provided that no sinister design or advantage be lurking under this
+request. Yet am I speaking, I would fain hope, to a gentleman and a
+soldier."
+
+Moseley was conducted down a dark flight of steps, damp and slippery.
+The ooze and slime rendered his footing tedious and insecure. Soon he
+recognised the mighty voice of Gideon bellowing forth a triumphant
+psalm. Another stave was just commencing as the door opened, and the
+torch glared lurid and dismally on the iron features and grisly aspect
+of the captive. A pair of rude stocks, through which Gideon's long
+extremities protruded, stood in the middle of the dungeon. He scowled
+terrifically at the intruders; but suddenly resumed his exercise.
+
+"Still at thy devotions?" said Moseley; but the moody fanatic
+vouchsafed not to reply.
+
+"We must wait the finishing of this duty, I fear," said the captain,
+knowing that interruption would be useless. Silently they awaited the
+conclusion, when Gideon abruptly cried out--
+
+"Captain Moseley, are ye, too, cast into this den of lions?"
+
+"I came hither on an embassage, and I have craved this visit ere I
+depart."
+
+"Hast furnished my breakfast?" inquired this stalwart knight from the
+enchanted wood. "I think your garrison be short of victual, or my"----
+
+"Hold thy tongue, thou piece of ill-contrived impertinence," said the
+gaoler. "We have victual and drink too; but for such as thou art, it
+were an ill-bestowed morsel. I marvel what can have possessed my lady to
+keep thee alive!"
+
+The gaoler drew out from his provision bag a small dark-coloured loaf,
+which he threw at the hungry captive, who, to say the truth, had been
+half-starved since his imprisonment.
+
+Gideon was devouring it greedily without any further notice, when he
+suddenly cried out to his keeper--
+
+"Where gat ye this coarse stuff? I would not say good-morrow to my dog
+with so crusty a meal."
+
+"It was tossed over the wall," replied the gaoler. "Our friends oft
+supply us that way with provision, captain. I picked it up as I came,
+and thought it was too good for thy dainty appetite."
+
+"Captain Moseley," said the hungry drummer, with great earnestness,
+"take this. Break it before thy brethren, and show them how vilely these
+Egyptian task-masters do entreat us in the house of bondage."
+
+There was something more than usually impressive in his manner. Moseley
+took the loaf as requested; and the gaoler, as if the object before him
+were beneath suspicion, exclaimed with a knowing look--
+
+"Had I not brought the manchet myself, and watched thee narrowily, I
+should have guessed thou hadst crammed some secret message therein to
+the camp. But I defy thee, or any of thy batch, to cheat old Gabriel,
+the rogue's butler!"
+
+"Prithee, search," said Captain Moseley, drawing the loaf from his
+pocket; "thou mayest, peradventure, find treachery in a toothmark, for
+o' my troth they be legibly written."
+
+"Nay," said Gabriel, with great self-importance, "the knave's jaws will
+score no ciphers. I had as lief interpret pot-hooks and ladles."
+
+The captain again thrusting it beneath his belt, promised to show his
+commanders with what coarse fare and severity the prisoners were
+treated.
+
+"Wilt thou that I intercede for thee before the Countess?" he continued;
+"if so be that she would remit thee of this durance."
+
+In a voice of thunder spake the incorrigible Gideon--
+
+"Intercede!--I would as lief pray to the saints they should intercede
+with the Virgin Mary. I will rot from this perch piecemeal ere I pray to
+yonder ungodly woman. Yet shall I escape out of their hands, but not by
+mine own might, or mine own strength," said the lion-hearted captive.
+
+Leaving this indomitable Roundhead to his fate, Moseley returned to the
+camp, reporting the ill success of his mission.
+
+Great part of the day was spent in angry discussion, so that Moseley had
+nigh forgotten his message from Gideon; yet he remembered it ere he left
+the council. Pulling out a coarse bannock, to the great astonishment of
+his auditory, he brake it, relating his interview with the captive. Near
+to where the prisoner had taken his last mouthful, Moseley found a bit
+of crumpled paper. The surprise and dismay of the assembly may be
+conceived after he had read the following billet:--
+
+     "MY DEAREST HEART,--
+
+     "With much joy and comfort I send thee news that his Highness
+     Prince Rupert hath gotten a great victory over the rebels at
+     Newark; and I have besought his Majesty that he should march into
+     Lancashire. By two days, at farthest, these enemies who now
+     beleaguer my house shall be cut off. We purpose to come upon them
+     suddenly, so that they shall be taken in their own snare. I have
+     raised £3000 on the jewels conveyed to me from Lathom by the last
+     sally, which sum I purpose giving in largess to the soldiers, that
+     it may quicken them to thy help. My prayers and blessing for thee
+     and the children.--Thine,
+
+     "DERBY."
+
+This secret intelligence had missed its destination. The gaoler had
+unfortunately picked it up from where some friendly hand had thrown it,
+reserving the curious envelope for Gideon's breakfast, not aware of the
+important message it contained. But the prisoner, more wary than his
+keeper, when he felt the paper between his teeth, rightly judged that
+it was some communication of importance to his enemies, and craftily
+conveyed it, as we have seen, into the hands of Captain Moseley.
+
+No mean act of heroism for a starving man to wrench the food from his
+own jaws,--a deed we might in vain look for amongst the patriots of our
+own day,--persons who would sneer at the fanaticism, and, it may be, the
+sincerity of Gideon Greatbatch.
+
+Consternation was visible throughout the assembly. They had all along
+flattered themselves with the expectation that Prince Rupert's army was
+too urgently required for the relief of York, to have caused them any
+disturbance; and, with inward curses on the king for his humanity,
+secret preparations were made for raising the siege.
+
+Though ignorant of the cause, the garrison soon espied an unusual bustle
+in the camp. They were evidently preparing for some exploit. One of the
+spies brought intelligence that two squadrons had departed in the night,
+and that Colonels Moore and Ashton were on their return to Manchester.
+
+On Monday morning, the 27th of May, it was agreed that Captains Ogle and
+Rawsthorne should make a sally. But they found the enemy had been
+beforehand with them, leaving the camp in the utmost terror and
+disorder. Intelligence now arrived that Prince Rupert had entered
+Lancashire by way of Stockport, where the Parliament army, under
+Colonels Duckenfield, Mainwaring, Buckley, and others, had suffered a
+total route. The besiegers had commenced their retreat between twelve
+and one o'clock the preceding night.
+
+Thus ended the first siege of Lathom, after the place had been closely
+beset four months; during which time the garrison lost but six
+men,--four in the service, and two by negligence and over-daring.
+
+They were, in general, supplied with provisions, her ladyship seeing the
+men's rations duly served. Yet were they not seldom pushed to a sally
+for their dinner; their friends outside, by lights and other appointed
+signals, directing the foragers in their operations.
+
+The enemy shot 107 cannon-balls, 32 stones, and but four grenadoes. By
+their own confession near 100 barrels of gunpowder were spent, part of
+which was in supplies to the garrison, who often replenished their stock
+at the expense of the besiegers. They lost about 500 men, besides
+wounded and prisoners, according to their own returns.
+
+The next day Rigby, with about 3000 men, drew up at Eccleston Green, six
+miles only from Lathom, in great uncertainty which way to march, fearful
+of meeting with Prince Rupert. In the end, imagining that his Highness
+would go through Blackburn or Lancaster to the relief of York, Rigby
+marched off in great haste to Bolton, then a garrison town, and well
+fortified.
+
+The Prince, hearing of their escape, together with Lord Derby,
+immediately turned their forces in this direction, determined to carry
+the place by assault, and revenge the insults and barbarity her ladyship
+had endured. This resolution was terribly accomplished. Sixteen hundred
+of her besiegers lay dead on the place; and twenty-two colours, which
+three days before flourished proudly before the house, were presented to
+her from his Highness by Sir Richard Crane, as a memorial of her
+deliverance, and "a happy remembrance of God's mercy and goodness to her
+and her family."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[43] The name assumed by a body of men who met, during the wars, in
+Manchester; and who in energy and power were second only to their London
+brethren.
+
+[44] "Hist. of the House of Stanley," p.90.
+
+[45] One of these sons of violence, Bradshaw of Brazen-nose, took
+occasion, before his patrons at Wigan, to profane the 14th verse of the
+15th chapter of Jeremiah, from thence proving that Lady Derby was the
+scarlet whore and the whore of Babylon whose walls he made as flat and
+thin as his own discourse.
+
+[46] Plus animi est inferenti quam periculum propulsanti.--_Cĉs. Com_.
+
+[47] Harleian MSS. 2043.
+
+
+
+
+RAVEN CASTLE.
+
+
+    "He bargained with two ruffians strong,
+      Which were of furious mood,
+    That they should take these children young,
+      And slay them in a wood.
+
+    "Away then went these pretty babes,
+      Rejoycing at that tide,
+    Rejoycing with a merry minde,
+      They should on cock-horse ride."
+
+--_The Children in the Wood_.
+
+Situated amid the wild and high moorlands, at whose feet hath stood for
+ages the royal and ducal capital of the county palatine of Lancaster,
+once rose a strong border defence called Raven Castle. Its site only
+remains. This noble and castellated fortress now lies an almost
+undistinguishable heap on the barren moor; the sheep browse above it,
+and the herdsman makes his pillow where warriors and dames once met in
+chivalric pomp, and the chieftain held his feudal and barbaric court.
+
+The point on which it stood is nearly on the line of separation between
+the counties of York and Lancaster. From the southern declivity of the
+hill on the Yorkshire side springs one of the rills which fall into the
+Hodder, a well-known stream, held in great respect by those ambulatory
+gentlemen whose love of society and amusing recreations leads them to
+lay in a stock of patience for life in the pursuit of piscatory
+delights.
+
+This mountainous tract forms part of the forest of Bowland, once ranged
+by numerous herds of deer, and is still under the jurisdiction of a
+master-forester, or bow-bearer, called _Parker_, which office has been
+held for centuries by a family of that name.
+
+It was in the broad and still moonlight of a spring morning, in the year
+16--, that two horsemen were ascending by a steep and difficult pass
+through the Trough of Bolland, along the hills and almost pathless wilds
+of the forest. They were apparently of that dubious class called
+"Knights of the Post,"--highway-men, deer-stealers, or cattle-harriers;
+all and every of which occupations they occasionally followed.
+
+As they passed by the edge of a steep ravine, from which hung a few
+stunted oaks projecting over the gulf, the foremost rider--for the path
+admitted them not abreast--turned sharply round on his saddle.
+
+"Again!--Didst thou not see it, Michael?" inquired he, in great alarm.
+
+"Nothing, Anthony, as I do follow thee in this honest trade;--nothing, I
+tell thee, save thine ugly face in this clear moonshine. Prythee, make
+more speed, and thou wilt have the fewer wry mouths to answer for. Thou
+art fool enough to make a man forswear honesty, and rid him of his
+conscience for life. Beshrew me! thou hast got a troublesome tenant;
+either less roguery, or fewer qualms; depend on 't, thou canst not keep
+friends with both."
+
+"I'll go no farther. Old Hildebrand finds some foul business on his
+hands, that he would fain thrust into our fingers. A bad business quits
+best at the beginning; if once we get to the middle, we might as well go
+on, or we may be like old Dick, who swam half-way through the mill-pond,
+and then, being faint-hearted, swam back again."
+
+"Look thee now, thou art a precious ass:--thou wouldst be a wit without
+brains, and a rogue, ay, a very wicked and unconditional rogue, without
+courage. Tut, that same cowardly rogue, of all unparalleled villains, is
+verily the worst. Your liquorish cat, skulking and scared with a
+windle-straw, is always the biggest thief, and has the cruellest paws,
+for all her demure looks and her plausible condescensions."
+
+"I don't care for thy jeers, Michael."
+
+"What!--hast brought thy purpose to an anchor already? 'Tis well. I
+shall on to Raven Castle with all speed, if it were only to inform one
+Hildebrand Wentworth of this sudden qualm. Likewise I may, peradventure,
+remember to tell him of another little qualm thou wast taken with, once
+upon a time, at the sight of a score of his fat beeves; a little bit of
+choice roguery played off upon him by honest Anthony of the tender
+conscience! Look to it, comrade, he shall know of this before thou canst
+convey thy cowardly carcase out of his clutches. An' it be thou goest
+forward--mum!--backward! Ha! have I caught thee, my pretty bird?"
+
+At the conclusion of this speech, with the malice of a fiend urging on
+his hesitating victim to the commission of some loathed act of folly and
+of crime, the speaker lashed on his companion's beast, and they were
+soon past the steepest part of the ascent, on their way to Raven Castle.
+Its present occupier, whom, it appears, they had befriended beforetime,
+in the way of their several callings, had sent for them in haste,
+requiring their aid, it might seem, in some business relative to their
+profession.
+
+For an hour or two they travelled on as fast as the nature of their
+track would permit. Day was just brightening in the east, when, emerging
+from a more than usually intricate path, they pushed through a thick
+archway of boughs. Suddenly a bare knoll presented itself, sloping
+towards a narrow rivulet; beyond, a dark and well-fortified mansion
+stood before them,--here and there, a turret-shaped chamber, lifting its
+mural crown above the rest, rose clear and erect against a glowing sky,
+now rapidly displacing the grey hues of the morning. The narrow
+battlements rose up, sharp and distinct, but black as their own grim
+recesses, in solemn contrast with the bright and rolling masses from
+behind, breaking into all the gorgeous tints that betoken a heavy and
+lurid atmosphere.
+
+They crossed a narrow bridge, and the clattering of their horses' hoofs
+were soon heard in the courtyard of the castle.
+
+"So, masters, if it had not pleased your betters to have built hostels
+and roosting-places on the road, I might have been snug in my blanket
+some hours ago may be."
+
+The personage who thus accosted them was dressed in a plain leathern cap
+and doublet, with a pair of stout hose that would not have disgraced a
+burgher of the first magnitude; his short and frizzled beard was
+curiously twirled and pointed, we may suppose after the fashion of those
+regions; and his manner and appearance was that of some confidential
+menial belonging to the establishment. His whole demeanour had in it an
+air of impertinent authority; his little sharp eyes twinkled in all the
+plenitude of power, and peered in the faces of the travellers as they
+alighted to render him an unwilling salutation.
+
+"We have made the best of our road, Master Geoffery, since we left our
+quarters in Netherdale. But, in troth, it's a weary way, and a drouthy
+one into the bargain: I have not wet even the tip of this poor beast's
+nose since we started."
+
+"Go to; an' the beasts be cared for, thine own muzzle may take its
+chance of a swill. Willy, see to the horses. Now for business. Master
+has been waiting for you these three hours: make what excuse you may.
+Heigh-ho! my old skull will leak out my brains soon with these
+upsittings."
+
+Taking a small lamp from a recess, he commanded the strangers to follow.
+A wide staircase led to the gallery, from whence a number of low doors
+communicated with the chambers or dormitories. Entering a passage from
+an obscure corner, they ascended a winding stair. The huge and terrific
+spars of the intruders struck with a shrill clank on the narrow steps,
+mingled with the grumblings of Master Geoffery Hardpiece; a continual
+muttering was heard from the latter, by way of running accompaniment to
+the directions which, ever and anon, he found it needful to set forth.
+
+"There--an ass, a very ass!--keep thy face from the wall, I tell thee,
+and lift up thy great leathern hoofs."
+
+Then came another series of murmurings, mingled with confused and
+rambling sentences.
+
+"This stair is like old Giles's horn, it's long a-winding. Now,--thy
+spurs, is it? Aroynt thee, knave, thou art like to frighten the children
+with their clattering. They are up, and ready for their trip. Alice will
+stitch a pillow to your pummels, and they'll ride bravely, the pretty
+dears. Stop there, I tell ye; I'll just say that you wait his pleasure,
+and return."
+
+Old Hardpiece tapped gently at a small door; it was opened hastily; and
+a few moments only elapsed ere Master Geoffery's cunning face was
+cautiously extended out of the narrow opening. He beckoned to his
+companions, and at once ushered them into a low chamber. A lamp, half
+extinguished, stood on the floor; the walls were nearly bare, and
+streaked in various colours by the moisture filtering from the roof; a
+curiously-carved oak-table, and two or three stone benches comprised the
+furniture of the apartment; a few rusty swords, with two large pistols
+nearly falling from their holsters, hung from the wall. In one corner,
+reposing in decayed dignity, were seen some halberds, with several
+unmatched pairs of mildewed boots; near to the window, or rather
+loop-hole, heaped up in dust and disorder, lay a score or two of rusty
+helmets, their grim appurtenances mostly broken and disjointed.
+
+Pacing to and fro in this audience-chamber appeared a figure of about
+the middle size, attired in a loose open garment. His head was nearly
+bald; a few thin locks only hung from the lower part of his poll; and
+yet his age was not so far advanced as the scanty covering of his
+forehead might seem to intimate. He paused not as they entered; but
+during the greater part of the succeeding interview persevered in the
+same restless and abrupt gait, as though repose were anguish, and it was
+only by a continued change of position that he could soothe the rising
+perturbation of his spirit.
+
+"Is this your haste, when my commands are most urgent?"
+
+He turned sharply upon them as he spoke: his eyes grew wild and keen;
+but at times a heaviness and languor, as if from long watching, seemed
+to oppress them.
+
+"We could not"--Michael was stammering out an apology, when thus
+interrupted:--
+
+"Enough! I know what thou wouldst say. Let thy comrade remain below.
+Geoffery, conduct him to the refectory; Michael abides here. Haste, and
+let refreshments be prepared."
+
+What was the purport of the conversation that ensued may be surmised
+from the following history.
+
+Old Hardpiece, grumbling the greater part of the way, led his companion
+through a labyrinth of stairs and passages to a small room, where a huge
+flagon of ale, with cold beef and other substantial articles for
+breakfast, were about being displayed. Anthony, nothing loth, threw
+aside his cap, and unbraced his girdle, for the more capacious disposal
+of such savoury and delicious viands. A heavy pull at the tankard again
+brought out Master Geoffery's deep-mouthed oratory. Anthony's tongue
+grew more nimble as his appetite waxed less vigorous; he asked many
+questions about the business which required their presence at Raven
+Castle in such haste.
+
+"The orphan children of Sir Henry Fairfax are to be conveyed to some
+place of concealment for a short period. Master says he has had
+intimation of a design on the part of the late Sir Henry's friends to
+seize them perforce. Which act of violence Hildebrand Wentworth, being
+left as their sole guardian, will make all haste to prevent."
+
+"The children of the late Sir Harry Fairfax who was killed in the wars?"
+inquired Anthony.
+
+"Ay, ay. Poor things! since their mother drowned herself"----
+
+Old Hardpiece here looked round, as though fearing some intrusion. He
+continued in an undertone--
+
+"Goody Shelton says she walks in the forest; and that her wraith so
+frightened Humphrey's horse that it would not budge a straw's breadth,
+just beside the great oak in the Broad Holm, before you get into the
+forest on the other side towards Slaidburn."
+
+Anthony was, at this precise moment, cramming the last visible remains
+of a goose-pie into the same place where he had before deposited half
+the good things on the table, anointing his beard with their savoury
+outskirts,--when suddenly his chin dropped, his face assumed a sort of
+neutral tinge, and his whole form appeared to grow stiff with terror. He
+made several efforts to speak; but the following words only could be
+distinguished:--
+
+"I was sure it would be a ghost!"
+
+"What!--a ghost!--Where!" anxiously inquired Geoffery.
+
+"Just by the great oak in the Broad Holm, on the other side of the
+forest."
+
+"What was it like?"
+
+"I cannot tell; and Michael pretended he did not see it!"
+
+"Thou canst surely show the appearance it put on."
+
+"Something, as it might be, like unto a woman, crossed our path twice,
+and within a stone's throw. O Master Geoffery, we be dead men!"
+
+Another groan here interrupted their discourse. Master Hardpiece
+muttered some unintelligible prayers, putting on a face of great
+solemnity. Several minutes elapsed, while the following exclamations
+rapidly succeeded each other:--
+
+"A ghost!--save us!--a very ghost! I'll not to Slaidburn again without
+help. Another draught, Anthony; a stiffener to thy courage, mayhap. It's
+now daylight, though," said he, looking through the casement, "and most
+of us fear only what may be felt, in the day-time at any rate."
+
+Anthony took the cup, and, apparently without being aware, drank off the
+contents. He was much invigorated by the draught which seemed to invest
+him with new courage; partly from the recollection that a long daylight
+would intervene between the beginning and the end of his journey, and
+partly because of the sudden rush of spirits to his brain. He arose, and
+assuming a posture more erect, planted his cap in a becoming attitude,
+whilst Geoffery was putting aside the empty vessels into a sort of
+large wooden chalice, for the purpose of a more convenient removal.
+
+Light footsteps were now heard bounding along the passage, and the door
+was suddenly burst open by two rosy-cheeked children; the elder a boy of
+some four or five years' growth, and his sister scarcely a twelvemonth
+younger.
+
+"Master Geoffery, Master Geoffery," lisped one laughing urchin, "hide
+me; there is Alice--she'll not let me go. We are to ride on two great
+horses; and I shall have a sword, and sister Julia a coach."
+
+Here nurse Alice made her appearance. She had been weeping: tears and
+entreaties were vain. She asked permission to accompany them; but with a
+frown Hildebrand Wentworth had chidden her from his presence. Since the
+loss of her mother, and almost from the time that news had arrived of
+their father's death, which happened a little while before the birth of
+Julia, she had borne a mother's part to her little charge; and had it
+been allowed her, she would gladly have served them without reward.
+
+Fearful of leaving them, she had followed hastily into the room. With a
+searching glance she eyed the stranger for a while; then suddenly
+turning to the children, she addressed them with great seriousness and
+affection.
+
+"Harry, you have not repeated your prayer this morning. Do you think God
+will take care of you to-day, if you ask Him not?"
+
+Here the rebuked boy grew silent; and with a suffused face, ran to his
+nurse. Whilst in her lap, he poured out his morning orison. It was a
+simple but affecting request. Julia knelt also; and Alice, laying a hand
+on each, blessed the children.
+
+"God of their fathers, I commit them to Thy care!"
+
+She could say no more; loud sobs checked her utterance; but leaning over
+these little ones, she convulsively clasped them in her embrace.
+
+Old Hardpiece grew unusually busy about matters of no importance, and
+the hard-featured trooper was seen to brush his brows, as though some
+unpleasant suspicions had crossed his brain. He raised his arm as he
+gazed on the children, muttering as he clenched his hand--
+
+"If he dare!"--He then carelessly examined his sword, returning it
+quickly into its sheath, as the weeping Alice drew away the children to
+her own apartment. Old Geoffery now grew more talkative. Leaning his
+chin upon his hand, and his elbow on the table, he thus proceeded:--
+
+"It's four long years come St Barnabas since Sir Harry's death; and my
+lady, rest her soul! went melancholy soon after. Everything was
+bequeathed in trust to my master, Hildebrand Wentworth, a great friend
+of Sir Harry's, and his secretary or purse-bearer, I forget which--no
+matter--all the property, I say, was left in trust for Sir Harry's wife
+and children. Hildebrand brought a will from Sir Harry to this effect,
+and poor Lady Fairfax never looked up afterwards. She moped about, and
+would see nobody, and then it was they said she was out of her wits. It
+was not long before her head-gear and mantle were found by the
+river-side just below the old bridge you crossed--but her body never."
+
+Here the entrance of Michael cut short the old man's discourse.
+
+"Belike thou hast not lacked a cup of warm sack, and a whey-posset with
+my master in the west turret," scoffingly cried Master Geoffery. Michael
+looked surly as he replied--
+
+"Old Gabergeon, let us have a draught of thy best, a stirrup-cup.
+Breakfast I have settled with above stairs."
+
+"Marry take your swill, Mr Saucypate," tartly replied Geoffery. "And so,
+because you have eaten and drunk with my master, it is 'old Gabergeon;'
+else had it been good Master Hardpiece, or 'if you will, Master
+Geoffery!' Out upon such carrion, say I, that think themselves live meat
+when they are but fly-blown."
+
+"Old Geoffery," said Michael, coolly, "we'll settle our rank at a more
+convenient opportunity. Just now I'll thank thee for the flagon."
+
+"It's in the cupboard," growled Hardpiece. "Verily these arms would
+tingle. But I am old, and that same Michael but a sorry brute--no
+beating would mend him. An ass of most vicious propensities; he will
+bite forwards and kick backwards. Friends get the benefit of his teeth,
+and foes the favour of his heels."
+
+Thus did the old man console himself for the rudeness he could not
+restrain. It was not long ere a summons hurried them to the courtyard.
+They found their beasts equipped and ready to depart; Harry and Julia
+looking joyously on, vastly diverted with the horses' accoutrements.
+Hildebrand stood by the gateway, looking moody and anxious for their
+departure; Alice, full of sorrow, attended with some refreshments which
+were stowed into the wallet. The journey was but short, and an hour's
+ride that fine morning, Michael said, would bring them to their
+destination. Hildebrand forbade him to mention the place where he wished
+to conceal the children, lest it should be known to their iniquitous
+relatives. Each horseman, with a child mounted before him, slowly passed
+the outer court, at the entrance of which Alice disappeared. The iron
+tramp of the steeds rang shrilly from underneath the arched gateway;
+Hildebrand stood by the platform; he bade them good speed. Anthony
+passed first; Michael checked his horse for a moment, when Hildebrand
+took the hand of the boy, and pressed it; but one portentous look, as at
+the recognition of some sinister purpose, passed between Michael and the
+old man, unobserved by his colleague. Hildebrand raised his hand above
+his mouth, and slowly whispered--
+
+"Remember!--the gulf underneath the waterfall."
+
+The horsemen departed. Passing the bridge they were just rising over the
+green slope when the children recognised Alice upon her mistress's
+palfrey. They screamed out loudly to her; but she was riding in a
+contrary direction, and soon passed out of their sight.
+
+The narrow glades of the forest suddenly encompassed them. The morning
+was pretty far advanced; the merry birds twittered in their dun covert,
+brushing the dewdrops from the boughs with their restless wings. The
+thrush and blackbird poured forth a more melancholy note; whilst the
+timid rabbit, scared from his morning's meal, rushed by and sought his
+burrow. The wood grew thicker, and the sunbeams that shot previously in
+broad slopes across their path soon became as lines of intensely-chequered
+light piercing the grim shadows beneath. The trees, too, put on a more
+sombre character; and the sward appeared choked with rank and noxious
+weeds. It seemed a path rarely trod, and only to be recognised by
+occasional openings through the underwood.
+
+They travelled for some hours. Michael had taken the lead, and Anthony
+with his prattling charge rode carelessly on. Looking round, the latter
+suddenly checked his horse. A momentary alarm overspread his features as
+he cried--
+
+"Michael, you have surely mistaken the path: an hour's ride should have
+brought us to the end of our journey, and our beasts have been footing
+it on since morning."
+
+"Heed not, comrade; thou wilt soon find we have the right track before
+us. We shall be through the wood presently."
+
+"Why, this is the road to Ingleton, if I mistake not; I hear the roar of
+the Greta."
+
+"Right--we shall be on our road to the old castle shortly."
+
+They travelled on more silently than before, until the brawling of the
+torrent they had heard for some time increased with rapid intensity. The
+road now widening, Anthony spurred on his beast by the side of his
+companion, who slackened his pace to afford an opportunity for further
+parley.
+
+"Whither are we bound?" inquired Anthony.
+
+"Where the children will be well cared for."
+
+A dubious expression of countenance, which Anthony but too well
+understood, accompanied these words; and villain was expressed by
+indications too unequivocal to be easily mistaken through every change
+and inflection of his visage. Anthony, though not of the most unsullied
+reputation, and probably habituated to crimes at which humanity might
+shudder, pressed the little victim closer to his breast. The prattle of
+the babe had won his heart: and the morning scene with Alice had
+softened his spirit so that he could have wept when he thought of the
+remorseless nature of his comrade, to whose care the children were
+entrusted.
+
+The roar of the torrent grew louder. Suddenly they entered upon a sort
+of irregular amphitheatre--woods rising above each other to the very
+summit of the hills by which they were surrounded. A swollen waterfall
+was visible, below which a bare and flattened trunk, whose boughs had
+apparently been but just lopped, was thrown across the torrent. A ruined
+keep or donjon was seen above a line of dark firs, crowning the summit
+of a steep crag that rose abruptly from the river.
+
+"This is our halfway-house," said Michael, pointing to the grim
+fortress: "the children are tired, and have need of refreshment. Tarry
+here with the horses whilst I carry them over the bridge."
+
+"We have refreshments in the wallet--what need we to loiter yonder?"
+replied Anthony, eyeing the other with an expression of distrust.
+
+"The children want rest," said Michael, "and we shall there find
+shelter from the heat."
+
+"If rest be needful," was the reply, "surely this dry sward and these
+overhanging leaves will afford both rest and shelter."
+
+"The children are in my keeping," said Michael, fiercely, "and I am not
+to account with thee for my proceedings. Alight, and give me the child."
+
+"I will not!--Michael, I have watched thee, and I know that thou art a
+villain. Ay, draw, I have weapons too, comrade."
+
+Fast and furious grew the combat, during which the terrified children
+made the woods echo with their shrieks. The result was not long
+doubtful. Michael soon proved himself the better swordsman; and his
+antagonist, stumbling from fatigue, broke his own weapon in the fall.
+Defenceless and exposed, the uplifted sword of his adversary was raised
+for his destruction, when suddenly the arm of the ruffian was arrested,
+the weapon snatched from his grasp, and a female figure habited in a
+dark and coarse vestment stood between the combatants. Her brow was
+bare, and her dark full eye beamed on them with a look of pity and of
+anger. Her naturally pale cheek was flushed; but it betrayed not the
+agitation she endured. Erect and unbending she stood before them, and
+the quailing miscreant crouched at her feet.
+
+"Away to thy master!--thy blood, too worthless even for thine own
+steel"----
+
+She hurled away the weapon as she spoke.
+
+Burning with revenge at his late defeat, Anthony flew after the falling
+brand: seizing it, he renewed the attack. Michael fled towards the
+bridge. With the bound of a bereaved tiger Anthony sprung upon his prey.
+Just where the root of the trunk rested on the bank they closed, after a
+desperate lunge parried by the unprotected arm of Michael. It was
+disabled--but he still clung to his enemy. Anthony strove to disengage
+himself; but the other, aware that life or death depended on the issue
+of that struggle, hung on him with a convulsive tightness that rendered
+the advantage he had gained of no avail. The sword was useless. Anthony
+threw it into the boiling gulf at his feet. Both hands being now free,
+whilst one arm of his opponent hung powerless and bleeding at his side,
+he had greatly the advantage. He wrenched the other arm of Michael from
+its hold, lifted him from his narrow footing-place, and with a malignant
+shout of triumph shook him over the abyss. One startling plunge, and the
+wretch sank in the rolling waters. An agonising yell, and but one,
+escaped him, as he hung quivering over that yawning portal to eternity;
+the next cry was choked by the seethe of the boiling foam. The waves
+whirled him round for a moment like some huge leviathan tossing its
+prey. He sank into its gorge, and the insatiate gulf swallowed him up
+for ever. Anthony drew back. He turned from the horrid scene, with some
+yet lingering tokens of compunction, in the expectation of rejoining his
+companions; but in vain--the babes and his deliverer had disappeared!
+
+Hildebrand Wentworth had passed the remainder of that day in his own
+chamber. It was a dark lone room, leading out of the turret we have
+before described. Often had he ascended the narrow stair communicating
+with the parapet, and often had he watched the dark woods beneath the
+distant mountain. It was the road taken by his guilty emissaries; and,
+whether on the look-out for signals or for their return, he repeated his
+visits until the blue mists were gathering on the horizon, and
+day--another day!--had passed into the bosom of eternity. It was an hour
+of holiness and peace, but heavy and disturbed was the current of his
+thoughts. He sat near a projecting angle of the turret, his head bent
+over the parapet. A female voice was heard beneath, chanting
+monotonously a low and melancholy psalm. Soon the following words were
+distinguished:--
+
+    "Dark as the bounding waters
+      When storm clouds o'er them roll,
+    The face of Zion's daughters
+      Reveals the troubled soul."
+
+Hildebrand drew his breath, as if labouring under some violent emotion.
+His whole frame was agitated. His lip grew pale as she went on with a
+voice of exultation--
+
+    "But joy is sown in sadness,
+      And hope with anxious fears;
+    Yon clouds shall break in gladness.
+      And doubts dissolve in tears."
+
+Fiends increase their torments at the sight of heaven! Hildebrand threw
+back his cloak,--with one clenched hand he struck his forehead, and with
+a loud groan he rushed from the spot. He sought rest in the gloom and
+solitude of his chamber; but hours passed on, during which the
+conscience-stricken culprit endured the horrors of accumulated guilt.
+Sometimes he opened the casement, gazing on the dark heavens, until he
+thought they were peopled, and he held converse with unseen and terrible
+things. Inarticulate murmurs broke from his lips. A few words might
+occasionally be distinguished--"Murder!--An old man too--The
+children--they are at rest!" A gleam of pleasure passed over his haggard
+features.
+
+"I am now"--looking round--"now master of all."
+
+"All?" breathed a low voice in the chamber.
+
+The cringing wretch was speechless. Sense almost forsook him: horror
+fastened on his spirit, while he turned his eyes, as if by some
+resistless constraint, towards the place from whence the voice had
+issued. Near his couch was a curiously-wrought cabinet inlaid with ivory
+and gems of the most costly workmanship. An heir-loom of the house, it
+was highly valued, and tradition reports that it was one of those spoils
+on which our forefathers cast a longing glance in the wars of the Holy
+Sepulchre. Be this as it may, every document of value connected with the
+family was here deposited. By virtue of the power given to him from the
+dying Sir Henry, though ostensibly for the benefit of his lady and her
+infant offspring, Hildebrand guarded the trust with a jealous eye. No
+one had access to it but himself, nor did he permit any other person
+than old Geoffery, the house-steward, to visit his chamber.
+
+Before this cabinet stood a figure enveloped in a dark robe. Pale,
+deadly pale, were the features, though scarcely discernible in their
+form and outline. The lamp burnt dimly; but with the quickened
+apprehension of guilt he recognised the wan resemblance of Lady Fairfax!
+
+A cry of exhausted anguish escaped him, and he fell senseless on the
+floor.
+
+Morning had risen, casting its bright and cheerful rays into the
+chamber, ere Hildebrand Wentworth awoke. Consciousness but slowly
+returned, and the events of the preceding hours came like shadows upon
+his soul. He stamped thrice, and immediately the vapid countenance of
+Geoffery Hardpiece was before him.
+
+"Come hither, Hardpiece. I am wondrous heavy and ill at ease."
+
+"Why, master, your bed has not been disturbed these two nights.--How
+should there be anything but an aching head, and complaining bones,
+when"----
+
+Hildebrand cast a hasty and confused glance towards the couch as he
+replied--
+
+"I have matters of moment just now that weigh heavily on my spirit. I
+cannot"----
+
+Here was a short pause; he continued, with a slow and tremulous accent--
+
+"I hope the children are safe."
+
+"Why, master," said Geoffery, "you have sent them out of harm's way, I
+hope; but--I know not what ails me--an uneasy night of it I have had
+about them."
+
+"What hast thou seen?" eagerly demanded Hildebrand.
+
+"Seen! I have seen nothing, but I have been haunted at all quarters by a
+vast crowd of vexatious busy dreams--about cut-throats and murderers."
+
+"Who says murderer?--I will have thee in the stocks."
+
+Hildebrand attempted to lay hold on him as he spoke; but, accustomed to
+these outbreaks of temper, Master Hardpiece merely stepped on one side,
+still maintaining his usual forward and self-sufficient demeanour.
+
+"Mr Hildebrand Wentworth, when an old servant"----
+
+"Peace!" interrupted his master,--"I am chafed beyond endurance." He
+struck his forehead violently, but suddenly recollecting himself, he
+seized Geoffery by the arm.
+
+"What sawest thou last night, knave?"
+
+"Only dreams, master--but"----
+
+"Say on--what makes thee hesitate?"
+
+"A messenger arrived last night."
+
+"A messenger!--from whence?" eagerly demanded Hildebrand.
+
+"Unluckily," said Geoffery, "it was shortly after you had retired for
+the night; I durst not then trouble you with the message. Marry, it's
+not the sort of news one likes to be in a hurry to tell."
+
+"Go on, varlet."
+
+"Why," continued the provoking simpleton, looking as if he had to reveal
+unpleasant tidings, and drawing back as he spoke, "the bearer is in the
+train of some herald or pursuivant, come from o'er sea to our court,
+about exchange of prisoners and the like. This man has a message from
+Sir Henry Fairfax."
+
+"He lies! I'll have his tongue bored!" furiously cried Hildebrand.
+
+"Nay, but listen: he says Sir Henry, whom we all thought dead, is now
+alive, and a prisoner in some ugly old German fortress."
+
+During this recital the astonished Hildebrand clenched his hands, with a
+look of awful and impotent rage. Hardpiece continued--
+
+"This coxcomb says he was sent specially by Sir Henry to obtain from you
+some papers of great moment, which will ensure his immediate release. He
+bears Sir Henry's signet, and the knave hath no lack of assurance."
+
+"Has this fellow had any communication with the menials, Geoffery?--or
+hast thou done me the service to keep him and his message to thyself?"
+anxiously inquired Hildebrand.
+
+"Why, as touching that, Alice, somehow or other,--for these women are
+always looking to anybody's business but their own,--wormed out his
+message in part, before I was aware of her drift."
+
+"Alice!--Again has that viper crossed my path?--Bid the messenger
+attend."
+
+When Geoffery returned he was followed by a short, muscular-looking
+personage, attired in a foreign garb. A military cloak, and slouched
+hat, garnished with a broad band and feather, gave him altogether an air
+of importance which his bare exterior had not sustained. On entering he
+made a slight obeisance. Hildebrand watched his bearing, as if he would
+have searched him to the heart's core. Not in the least disconcerted,
+the soldier threw himself on a seat. Preliminaries were waived by this
+unceremonious guest, who, speaking evidently in a foreign accent, began
+the interrogatory as follows:--
+
+"You were the private secretary of Sir Henry Fairfax?"
+
+"I was," briefly replied Hildebrand.
+
+"Know you this signet?"
+
+"I do," again he sullenly answered.
+
+"It was given into my keeping," said the stranger, "as a token whereby
+Hildebrand Wentworth should, in the due exercise of his fealty and
+trust, commit to my charge certain documents that shall immediately be
+set forth. But first, and briefly, it may be needful to relate the
+manner in which Sir Henry recovered after your departure. On the day
+following the skirmish, wherein Sir Henry was supposed to be mortally
+wounded, he gave unto you, as his most valued and bosom friend, those
+solemn credentials, by which, as a dying man, he invested you with full
+powers to proceed to England, as the sole guardian and protector of his
+beloved wife and their infant offspring. The goods and effects of which
+he died the possessor were vested in your name, I believe, in trust for
+her benefit and the surviving children. I think I am right in this? In
+case of her death, though, I believe the property became yours."
+
+"It did."
+
+"Such was the nature of the wound that his physicians believed a few
+hours only could intervene before his dissolution. He urged your
+immediate departure. Shortly afterwards the whole camp equipage,
+together with the sick and wounded, fell into the hands of his enemies.
+Driven off to a considerable distance up the Rhine at full speed, and
+without any other comforts or necessaries than what his captors could
+supply, his wounds bleeding afresh, and every limb racked with pain, to
+the astonishment of all he speedily recovered; and from that time he has
+remained a close prisoner in the fortress. Not receiving any tidings
+from his native shores, he knows not his loss. Yesternight only I heard
+of Lady Fairfax's most lamentable decease. In a cartel lately arrived
+for negotiating an exchange of prisoners, Sir Henry sends by me,
+secretly, as one of the envoys, a requisition for the papers I have
+before mentioned. His name, by some mistake, perhaps, not being included
+in the lists for exchange, has induced him so to act. The credentials,
+which he will thus be enabled through me to present, will doubtless
+accomplish his release, and restore him to his family and to his home.
+They are papers of great moment, and will set forth claims which cannot
+be overlooked; and I have most minute and special instructions to get
+them laid before the council."
+
+"Where are these precious documents deposited?" said Hildebrand.
+
+"An Eastern cabinet of choice and costly workmanship, containing other
+records of great value, stands in Sir Henry's private chamber." The
+envoy looked round, and his eyes rested on the cabinet. "The outer doors
+being opened, there are seen two ranges of drawers, with their separate
+mountings and compartments, each containing materials of greater or less
+moment. Sir Henry was minute in his directions, lest his lady might be
+bsent; and the innermost secrets of this goodly tabernacle not being
+known, save to themselves, the object of my visit might be retarded.
+With the permission of Hildebrand Wentworth, I will describe minutely
+where he may find this deposit."
+
+Hildebrand slightly moved his head, and the speaker continued--
+
+"From Sir Henry's description, and the tracings which he drew on the
+floor of his cell, I should conceive that this room contains the object
+of our search. I will recount the memoranda that I made, lest memory
+should be unfaithful. When the third cover is unclosed, in the lowest
+part of the recess on the right hand, beneath a sliding panel, is a
+spring, on touching which the whole flies back, and discovers a rare
+device, beautifully wrought in arabesque relief. So far, in all
+likelihood, you being his confidential secretary, have beheld?"
+
+"I have seen this cunning work thou speakest of. What more?"
+
+"Embellishing the four corners thereof is the likeness of a hand,
+curiously chased in silver; the second joint on the third finger of the
+lowest of them, on the left, being pressed, the whole picture, by
+marvellous sleight and artifice, riseth up, revealing the treasure of
+which I am in search."
+
+"Hath Sir Henry sent no written message, that we may know his will in
+this matter?" inquired Hildebrand.
+
+"It is strictly forbidden to a prisoner," replied the other, "to use
+tablets; but my knowledge of the secret is a sufficient safeguard
+against imposture."
+
+"Retire: I will begin the search with all speed. But hold thyself in
+readiness for immediate departure. Thou wilt not have the worse thrift
+for a hasty dismissal."
+
+The stranger withdrew, accompanied by Hardpiece. Hildebrand listened to
+their retreating footsteps; when, like unto one possessed, he stamped,
+and tore his thin grey locks, and cursed--audibly and bitterly
+cursed--his destiny.
+
+"Hast thou escaped?--when the draught danced and bubbled over my parched
+lips. Fate--fortune, whatever thou art, I would curse thee!"
+
+As he spoke, he lifted up one clenched hand towards heaven, laden with
+imprecation. And why did not that power, whose vengeance he visibly
+defied, launch a bolt against the impious?--Why not reader him, in that
+very act, a monument of just and righteous retribution?--"_Shall not the
+Judge of the whole earth do right?_" is a master-key that unlocks the
+mysteries and ministrations of Divine Providence, however complicated
+in their nature and obscure in their design.
+
+As the hoary sinner withdrew his hand, suddenly the muscles of his face
+relaxed; a ray of hope had irradiated his spirit--a gleam of delight
+passed over his pale features. He grew calm, and with a firm step he
+strode across the apartment. He approached the cabinet.
+
+"Thou shalt not escape me now!"--As he said this, he threw open the
+doors. Hildebrand had often searched this depository, but the place of
+concealment pointed out by the stranger had hitherto escaped his notice.
+He soon detected the stratagem--the lid flew back; but the papers of
+which he was in search were gone!
+
+The spirit of mischief was again foiled, but his evil genius did not
+forsake him. He sat down, and, for purposes of the blackest malignity,
+forged a series of evidences--a development of plans and proceedings
+that would at once have branded Sir Henry as a coward and a traitor.
+These letters he sealed up, and calling for the messenger, committed the
+packet into his hands.
+
+"You have Sir Henry's orders to lay these before the king?" said
+Hildebrand.
+
+"I have," replied the envoy.
+
+"Then hasten to court, and so good speed. Stay--when you meet Sir Henry
+Fairfax, offer him an old man's sympathy and condolence. Break the
+matter to him tenderly--and when he returns--I say no more. Away, thy
+mission hath need of despatch."
+
+The soldier made a slight inclination of the head as he departed.
+
+Hildebrand Wentworth sat down to reap the fruits of his villany--a
+harvest of his own planting. The full fruition of it he now seemed ready
+to enjoy; but days and weeks passed by, and still found him feverish and
+anxious. The fate of the children--whether the work of destruction had
+or had not been accomplished--was still to him a matter of uncertainty.
+He had often sent in search of the ruffians, but they had not been seen
+at their usual haunts. Guilt whispered that all was not complete.
+Restless and oppressed by undefined and terrible apprehensions, he
+resolved to end his doubts, and, if possible, procure an interview. He
+expected to obtain some clue to their procedings by a visit to the
+tower.
+
+It was not far from the close of a bright summer's day when he gained
+the rude bridge below the waterfall. He shuddered as he looked on the
+narrow trunk and the ever-tossing gulf beneath. The blackness of
+darkness was upon his spirit, and he ran as if some demon had pursued
+him, climbing with almost breathless haste the steep and winding
+staircase that gave access from the bridge to the ruined fortress above.
+
+From the platform a narrow ledge of rock led to the ditch, now dry, and
+nearly filled with fragments from the ruins. He passed the tottering
+arch of the portcullis;--long weeds choked up the entrance, waving
+drearily as the light breeze went over them. Hildebrand heard not the
+moan of the coming blast. Evening approached, and the thousand shadows
+haunted him,--grim spectres that crossed his path, crowding upon him
+with anger and menace. From a ruined doorway he ascended a narrow stair,
+and had penetrated far into the interior of that part of the castle
+which, in some measure, remained entire, when, for the first time, he
+seemed startled into a consciousness of his situation. It was an
+appalling scene of solitude and decay. The realities, to which he almost
+instantaneously awoke, might have awed a less guilty spirit than that
+which inhabited the bosom of Hildebrand Wentworth. A long gallery,
+supported by huge pillars, terminated in the distance by a long and
+narrow oriel. On each side, broken but richly-variegated windows threw
+down a many-tinted light, which, oppressed by the dark and caverned
+arches, gave a strange and mysterious character to the grotesque
+reflections hovering on the floor. Narrow streams of light flitted
+across the dense vapours, visible only in their gleam. Involuntarily did
+Hildebrand pass on: impelled as if by some unseen but resistless power,
+he durst not retrace his footsteps. His tread was slow and fearful, as
+he traversed the long and dreary vista. Every sense was now in full
+exercise;--his faculties becoming more acute by the extremity of terror
+he endured. His ear caught the slightest sound--his eye, the least
+motion that glimmered across his path. Sometimes a terrific shape seemed
+to glide past: he brushed the cold and clammy damps from his brow, and
+it vanished.
+
+Suddenly a door opened at the extremity of the gallery, and a faint
+light streamed from the crevice. Voices--children's voices--were heard
+in the chamber. He rushed onward. Rage, frantic and uncontrolled,
+possessed him, as he beheld the babes, the intended victims of his
+avarice, in all the bloom of health and innocence, unconscious of
+danger, bounding through the apartment, together with their nurse and
+protector, Alice! Goaded by his insatiate tormentor, he drew a poniard
+from his vest, and rushed on the unoffending objects of his hate. Alice
+shrieked; she attempted to throw herself between them and their foe, but
+was too far off to accomplish her purpose. His arm was too sure, and his
+stroke too sudden. But ere the steel could pierce his victims it was
+arrested. He looked round, and a female figure, loosely enveloped in a
+dark cloak, had rescued them from death. It was the same form that had
+before interposed between them and the fangs of their remorseless enemy.
+Loosened by the sudden spring, her garment flew aside. Hildebrand gazed
+silently, but with a look of horror, too wild and intense to be
+portrayed. He seemed to recognise the intruder--his lips moved rapidly
+while he spoke.
+
+"Thee!--whom the waves had swallowed! Have the waters given up their
+dead?"--he faintly exclaimed, almost gasping for utterance.
+
+"Monster! canst thou look upon this form," she cried, "and not wither at
+the sight? But I have done," she meekly continued: "Heaven hath yet a
+blessing for the innocent;--but thy cup of iniquity is full. Thy doom is
+at hand. I have trusted Thee, O my Father; and I trust Thee still!"
+
+It was the much injured and persecuted wife of Sir Henry Fairfax who now
+stood before the abashed miscreant.
+
+"Away!" she cried; "to Heaven I leave my vengeance and thy crime.
+Hence--to thy home! Thine, did I say? Soon, monster, shall thou be
+chased from thy lair, and the wronged victim regain his right."
+
+Hildebrand, awed and confounded, retraced his path, brooding over some
+more cunning stratagem to ensure his prey. He had passed the bridge,
+and, on attempting to remount his steed, his attention was directed to a
+cloud of dust, and a pale flash of arms in the evening light. Two
+horsemen drew nigh--their steeds studded with gouts of foam, and in an
+instant one of them alighted before the traitor. It was Sir Henry
+Fairfax! "Have I caught thee?" cried the knight.--"What mischief art
+thou here a-perpetrating?--Seize that villain!"
+
+In a moment, Hildebrand was denied all chance of escape.
+
+"Thy machinations are defeated--thy villanies revealed, and vengeance
+demands a hasty recompense."
+
+Hildebrand prostrated himself on the ground in the most abject
+humiliation, and besought mercy.
+
+"I will not harm thee, wretch," exclaimed the gallant knight: "to a
+higher power I leave the work of retribution. The ministers of justice
+await thee at my castle. I came hither first to seek my wife!--Lead the
+way; thou shalt be witness to our meeting--wife, children, all. Our
+bliss will to thee be misery that the most refined tortures could not
+inflict. On--on."
+
+Hildebrand, with imbecile agony, grasped at the very stones for succour.
+He then rushed towards the bridge, and, ere his purpose could be
+anticipated, with one wild yell, precipitated himself into the waters!
+
+A few lines will suffice by way of explanation to this unlooked-for
+termination of their sufferings.
+
+When Lady Fairfax fled from the castle, in order to elude his
+search,--for Hildebrand had the audacity to threaten by force to make
+her his wife,--she threw off her cloak and head-dress, laying them on
+the river's brink that it might appear as though she had accomplished
+her own destruction. To the care of the faithful Alice she had committed
+her children, and likewise the secret of her concealment. Alice was in
+continual correspondence with her unfortunate mistress; and great was
+the joy and exultation with which she communicated the arrival of a
+messenger from her lord, whom she had long mourned as dead.
+Providentially, no interview took place between Hildebrand and the
+stranger on the night of his arrival; and sufficient time intervened to
+enable Lady Fairfax to make a desperate attempt, in the hope of gaining
+possession of the papers for which he had been sent. She well knew
+Hildebrand would not relinquish the possession of credentials that might
+ensure his lord's return. It was Lady Fairfax who had alarmed him the
+same night by her appearance in his chamber. She hoped to have found him
+asleep; but was enabled to get possession of the writings through his
+timidity and surprise. With these she met the envoy, as he was returning
+from the castle. Disclosing all the tortuous and daring villany of
+Hildebrand, she committed the real documents to his care, instructing
+him at the same time to lay before her sovereign the narrative of her
+wrongs. Soon was the captivity of Sir Henry terminated; and joy,
+heightened by recollection of the past, and chastened by the severity of
+their misfortunes, attended them through the remainder of their earthly
+career.
+
+[Illustration: SOUTH PORT.
+
+_Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden._]
+
+
+
+
+THE PHANTOM VOICE.
+
+
+    "He heerde a sunde but noughte he zee.
+      No touche upon his fleshe ther came;
+    Bot a swedderin witide smote heavilee,
+      And heavilee brenn'd the fleckerin' flame."
+
+_--Old Ballad_.
+
+The following tradition, like some of the preceding legends, has been
+found, under various modifications and disguises, connected with local
+scenery, and attaching itself in the mind of the hearer to well-known
+places and situations with which he may have been familiar.
+
+Southport, a bathing-place of great resort on the Lancashire coast, has
+been pointed out as the scene of the following tragedy, which probably
+occurred long before its salubrity and convenience for sea-bathing had
+rendered this barren tract of sand the site of a populous and thriving
+hamlet. From the mildness and congeniality of the air to persons of weak
+and relaxed habits, it has been not inaptly termed, "The Montpelier of
+England."
+
+"But the coast is probably as dangerous for shipping as any round the
+kingdom. The sandbanks extend in a north-westerly direction for at least
+six miles, so as to render the navigation extremely difficult even to
+the natives, and impracticable for strangers. Hence shipwrecks are very
+frequent;" and "in a coming tide, accompanied by a strong westerly wind,
+it is almost impossible for boats to put off or to live in the sea."
+
+"It not unfrequently happens that these accidents occur in the
+night-time, in very hazy weather, or at ebb tide. In the latter case it
+is necessary for boats to be taken in carts over the sands down to
+low-water mark, before any assistance can be attempted.
+
+"If the captain of the vessel be obstinate, and trust to his own skill,
+he increases the danger. When the crews of the vessels take to their own
+boats, and disobey the directions of the Southport pilots, their
+jeopardy is tenfold greater, and their loss almost inevitable."[48]
+
+Nearly one hundred vessels have been wrecked on this coast within the
+last thirty years, and more than half of them totally lost. Of these
+calamities the particulars are upon record. Which of them may have given
+rise to the events here detailed we have no means of ascertaining.
+
+It was at the close of a bright and memorable evening in October that I
+had carelessly flung the reins upon the neck of my horse, as I traversed
+the bare and almost interminable sands skirting the Lancashire coast.
+
+On my right a succession of low sand-hills, drifted by the partial and
+unsteady blasts, skirted the horizon--their summits strongly marked upon
+the red and lowering sky in an undulating and scarcely-broken outline.
+Behind them I heard the vast and busy waters rolling on, like the voice
+of the coming tempest. Here and there some rude and solitary hut rose
+above the red hillocks, bare and unprotected: no object of known
+dimensions being near by which its true magnitude might be estimated,
+the eye seemed to exaggerate its form upon the mind in almost gigantic
+proportions. As twilight drew on, the deception increased; and, starting
+occasionally from the influence of some lacerating thought, I beheld,
+perchance, some huge-and turreted fortress, or a pile of misshapen
+battlements, rising beyond the hills like the grim castles of romance,
+or the air-built shadows of fairy-land.... Night was fast closing; I was
+alone, out of the beaten track, amidst a desert and thinly-inhabited
+region; a perfect stranger, I had only the superior sagacity of my steed
+to look to for safety and eventual extrication from this perilous
+labyrinth.
+
+The way, if such it might be called, threading the mazes through a chain
+of low hills, and consisting only of a loose and ever-shifting bed of
+dry sand, grew every moment more and more perplexed. Had it been
+daylight, there appeared no object by which to direct my course,--no
+mark that might distinguish whether or not my path was in a right line
+or a circle: I seemed to be rambling through a succession of
+amphitheatres formed by the sand-hills, every one so closely resembling
+its neighbour that I could not recognise any decided features on which
+to found that distinction of ideas which philosophers term
+individuality. In almost any other mood of the mind this would have been
+a puzzling and disagreeable dilemma; but at that moment it appeared of
+the least possible consequence to me where the dark labyrinth might
+terminate.
+
+Striving to escape from thought, from recollection, the wild and
+cheerless monotony of my path seemed to convey a desperate stillness to
+the mind, to quench in some measure the fiery outburst of my spirit. It
+was but a deceitful, calm--the deadening lull of spent anguish: I awoke
+to a keener sense of misery, from which there was no escape.
+
+But it was not to lament over my own griefs that I commenced my story.
+Let the dust of oblivion cover them; I would not pain another by the
+recital. There are sorrows--short ages of agony--into the dark origin of
+which none would dare to pry: one heart alone feels, hides, and
+nourishes them for ever!
+
+Night now came on, heavy and dark; not a star twinkled above me; I
+seemed to have left the habitations of men. In whatever direction I
+turned not a light was visible; all fellowship with my kind had
+vanished. No sound broke the unvarying stillness but the heavy plunge of
+my horse's feet and the hollow moan of the sea. Gradually I began to
+rouse from my stupor: awaking, as from a dream, my senses grew rapidly
+conscious of the perils by which I was surrounded. I knew not but some
+hideous gulf awaited me, or the yawning sea, towards which I fancied my
+course tended, was destined to terminate this adventure. It was chiefly,
+however, a feeling of loneliness, a dread, unaccountable in its nature,
+that seemed to haunt me. There was nothing so very uncommon or
+marvellous in my situation; yet the horror I endured is unutterable. The
+demon of fear seemed to possess my frame, and benumbed every faculty. I
+saw, or thought I saw, shapes hideous and indistinct rising before me,
+but so rapidly that I could not trace their form ere they vanished. I
+felt convinced it was the mind that was perturbed, acting outwardly upon
+the senses, rendered more than usually irritable by the alarm and
+excitation they had undergone--yet I could not shake off the spell. I
+heard a sharp rustling past my ear; I involuntarily raised my hand; but
+nothing met my touch save the damp and chilly hair about my temples. I
+tried to rally myself out of these apprehensions, but in vain: reason
+has little chance of succeeding when fear has gained the ascendency. I
+durst not quicken my pace lest I should meet with some obstruction;
+judging it most prudent to allow my steed to grope out his path in the
+way best suited to his own sagacity. Suddenly he made a dead halt. No
+effort or persuasion could induce him to stir. I was the more surprised
+from knowing his generally docile and manageable temper. He seemed
+immovable, and, moreover, as I thought, in the attitude of listening. I
+too listened eagerly--intensely; my senses sharpened to the keenest
+perception of sound.
+
+The moan of the sea came on incessantly as before; no other sound could
+be distinguished. Again I tried to urge him forward; but the attempt was
+fruitless. I now fancied that there might be some dangerous gulf or
+precipice just at his feet, and that the faithful animal was unwilling
+to plunge himself and his rider into immediate destruction. I
+dismounted, and with the bridal at arm's length, carefully stepped
+forward a few paces, but I could find no intimation of danger; the same
+deep and level bed of sand seemed to continue onwards, without any
+shelving or declivity whatever. Was the animal possessed? He still
+refused to proceed, but the cause remained inscrutable. A sharp and
+hasty snort, with a snuffing of the wind in the direction of the sea,
+now pointed out the quarter towards which his attention was excited. His
+terror seemed to increase, and with it my own. I knew not what to
+anticipate. He evidently began to tremble, and again I listened. Fancy
+plays strange freaks, or I could have imagined there was something
+audible through the heavy booming of the sea--a more distinct, and as it
+were, articulate sound--though manifestly at a considerable distance.
+There was nothing unusual in this--perhaps the voice of the fisherman
+hauling out his boat, or of some mariner heaving the anchor. But why
+such terror betrayed by the irrational brute, and apparently proceeding
+from this source? for it was manifest that some connection existed
+between the impulses of the sound now undulating on the wind, and the
+alarm of my steed. The cause of all this apprehension soon grew more
+unequivocal--it was evidently approaching. From the sea there seemed to
+come, at short intervals, a low and lengthened shout, like the voice of
+one crying out for help or succour. Presently the sounds assumed a more
+distinct and definite articulation. "Murder!--Murder!" were the only
+words that were uttered, but in a tone and with an expression of agony I
+shall never forget. It was not like anything akin to humanity, but an
+unearthly, and, if I may so express it, a sepulchral shriek--like a
+voice from the grave.
+
+I crept closer to my steed: nature, recoiling from contact with the
+approaching phantom, prompted me thus intuitively to cling to anything
+that had life. I felt a temporary relief, even from the presence of the
+terrified beast, though I could distinctly perceive him shuddering, yet
+fixed to the spot. The voice now came on rapidly; it was but a few paces
+distant. I felt as though I was the sport and prey of thoughts too
+horrible for utterance. Alone, I had to cope with the Evil One;--or I
+was already, perhaps, the victim of some diabolical agency. The yell was
+close upon my ear; I felt the clammy breath of the grave across my face,
+and the sound swept by. It slowly arose;--but the agony of the cry was
+more intense,--more sharp and vehement the shriek of "Murder!" Grown
+bolder, or perhaps more desperate, I cried out, "Where, in the name
+of----?" I had scarcely uttered the words when a loud rushing cleft the
+air, and a crash followed, as though some heavy body had fallen at my
+feet. The horse burst from its bonds, galloping from me at full speed,
+and I stood alone! In this appalling extremity, I approached the object
+of my fears. I bent to the ground; stretching out my hand, my fingers
+rested on the cold and clammy features of a corpse! I well remember the
+deep groan that burst from my lips;--nature had reached the extremity of
+endurance--I felt a sudden rush of blood to the heart, and fell beside
+my ghastly companion, equally helpless and insensible.
+
+I have no means of ascertaining the duration of this swoon; but, with
+returning recollection, I again put out my hand, which rested on the
+cold and almost naked carcase beside me. I felt roused by the touch, and
+started on my feet--the moon at this instant emerging from a mass of
+dark clouds, streamed full on the dead body, pale and blood-stained, the
+features distorted, as if by some terrible death. Fear now prompted me
+to fly: I ran as if the wind had lent me wings--not daring to look back,
+lest my eyes should again rest on the grisly form I had just left. I
+fled onwards for some time; the moon now enabling me to follow the
+beaten track, which, to my great joy, brought me suddenly, at the turn
+of a high bank, within sight of a cheerful fire gleaming through a
+narrow door, seemingly the entrance to some wayside tavern. Bursts of
+hilarity broke from the interior; the voice of revelry and mirth came
+upon my ear, as though I was just awakening from a dream. It was as if I
+had heard the dead laugh in their cold cerements. As I stepped across
+the threshold, the boisterous roar of mirth made me shudder; and it
+seemed, by the alarm visible in the countenances of the guests, that my
+appearance presented something as terrible to their apprehensions.
+Every eye was fixed on me as I seated myself by a vacant table; and I
+heard whisperings, with suspicious glances occasionally directed towards
+the place where I sat. The company, however, soon began to get the
+better of their consternation, and were evidently not pleased at so
+unseasonable an interruption to their mirth. I found that some
+explanation was necessary as to the cause of my intrusion, and with
+difficulty made them comprehend the nature of my alarm. I craved their
+assistance for the removal of the body; promising, if possible, to
+conduct them to the spot where the miserable victim was thrown. They
+stared at each other during this terrible announcement; and, at the
+conclusion, I found every one giving his neighbour credit for the
+requisite portion of courage, though himself, at the same time,
+declining to participate in the hazards of the undertaking.
+
+"Roger towed me 'at he stood i' th' churchyard, wi' shoon-bottoms
+uppermost, looking for the wench he wur to wed through the windows. Ise
+sure he'll make noa bauk at a bogle."
+
+"Luk thee, Jim, I canna face the dead; but I wunna show my back to a
+live fist, the best and the biggest o' the country-side--Wilt' smell, my
+lad?"
+
+Roger, mortified at this test of his courage, raised his clenched hand
+in a half-threatening attitude. A serious quarrel might have ensued, had
+not a sudden stop been put to the proceedings of the belligerents by an
+interesting girl stepping before me, modestly inquiring where I had left
+the corpse; and offering herself as a companion, if these mighty cowards
+could not muster sufficient courage.
+
+"Shame on thee, Will!" she cried, directing her speech to a young man
+who sat concealed by the shadow of the projecting chimney;--"shame on
+thee, I say, to be o'erfaced by two or three hard words. I'se
+ganging,--follow 'at dare."
+
+Saying this, she took down a huge horn lantern, somewhat dilapidated in
+the outworks, and burnt in various devices, causing a most unprofitable
+privation of light. A bonnet and cloak, hastily thrown on, completed her
+costume; and, surrendering the creaking lantern to my care, she stood
+for a moment contemplating the dingy atmosphere before she stepped forth
+to depart. During these ominous preparations, a smart sailor-looking
+man, whose fear of his mistress' displeasure had probably overcome his
+dread of the supernatural, placed himself between me and the maiden, and
+taking her by the arm, crustily told me that if I could point out the
+way, he was prepared to follow;--rather a puzzling matter for a
+stranger, who scarcely knew whether his way lay right or left from the
+very threshold. Thus admirably qualified for a guide, I agreed to make
+the attempt, being determined to spare no pains, in the hope of
+discovering the object of our search.
+
+Company breeds courage. Several of the guests, finding how matters
+stood, and that the encounter was not likely to be made single-handed,
+volunteered their attendance; so that our retinue was shortly augmented
+to some half-dozen stout fellows. The vanguard was composed of myself
+and the lovers; the rest crept close in our rear, forming their rank as
+broad as the nature of the ground would admit.
+
+Luckily I soon found the jutting bank round which I had turned on my
+first view of the house we had just left. We proceeded in
+silence,--except that a whisper occasionally arose from one of the
+rearmost individuals talking to his bolder neighbour in front, when
+finding his own courage on the wane. Following for some time what
+appeared to be the traces of recent footsteps, I hoped, yet almost
+feared, that every moment I might stumble on the bleeding corpse. An
+attendant in the rear now gave the alarm,--something he saw moving on
+our left causing him to make a desperate struggle to get before his
+companions. This produced a universal uproar--each fighting for
+precedency, and thoroughly determined not to be the last. I soon beheld
+a dark object moving near, and the next minute I was overjoyed to find
+my recreant steed, quietly searching amongst the tufted moss and
+sea-reed for a scanty supper. My associates knew not what to make of
+this discovery. Some of them, I believe, eyed him with deep suspicion;
+and more than one glance was given at his hoofs to see if they were not
+cloven.
+
+Order, however, being re-established, we again set forward with what
+proved a useful auxiliary to our train. We had not travelled far ere I
+was again aware of the peculiar snort by which he manifested his alarm;
+and it was with difficulty I got him onwards a few paces, when he stood
+still, his head drawn back, as if from some object that lay in his path.
+I knew the cause of his terror, and, giving the bridle to one of my
+attendants, cautiously proceeded, followed by the maiden and her lover;
+who, to do him justice, showed a tolerable share of courage--at any
+rate, in the presence of his mistress. At length I recognised the spot,
+where, yet unmoved, lay the bleeding carcase. The girl started when she
+beheld the grim features, horribly drawn together and convulsed, as if
+in the last agony. I was obliged to muster the requisite fortitude to
+attempt its removal; and raising it from the sand, with a little
+assistance I placed it across the horse, though not without a most
+determined opposition on the part of the animal. Throwing a cloak over
+the body, we made the best of our way back; and on arriving at the house
+I found that the only vacant apartment where I could deposit my charge
+was a narrow loft over the out-house, the entrance to which was both
+steep and dangerous. With the assistance of my two friends, though with
+considerable difficulty, it was in the end deposited there, upon a
+miserable pallet of straw, over which we threw a tattered blanket. On
+returning, I found the guest-room deserted: the old woman to whom the
+tavern belonged--the mother, as I afterwards found, of my female
+companion--was hastily clearing away the drinking utensils, and
+preparing for an immediate removal to the only apartment above-stairs
+which bore the honours of the bedchamber. She kindly offered me the use
+of it for the night; but this sacrifice of comfort I could not allow;
+and throwing my cloak over a narrow bench, I drew it near the fire,
+determining to snatch a brief interval of rest, without robbing the good
+woman and her daughter of their night's repose.
+
+It was now past midnight; sleep was out of the question, as I lay
+ruminating on the mysterious events of the few past hours. The
+extraordinary manner in which the murdered wretch had been committed to
+my care seemed an imperative call upon me to attempt the discovery of
+some foul and horrible crime. With the returning day I resolved to begin
+my inquiries, and I vowed to compass sea and land ere I gave up the
+pursuit. So absorbed was I in the project, that I scarcely noticed the
+storm, now bursting forth in a continuous roll from the sea, until one
+wild gust, that seemed to rush by as if it would have swept the dwelling
+from its seat, put an end to these anticipations. I watched the rattling
+casement, expecting every moment that it would give way, and the
+groaning thatch be rent from its hold. Involuntarily I arose and
+approached the window. It was pitchy dark, and the roar of the sea,
+under the terrific sweep of the tempest, was truly awful. Never had I
+heard so terrible a conflict. I knew not how soon I might be compelled
+to quit this unstable shelter; the very earth shook; and every moment I
+expected the frail tenement would be levelled to its foundations. The
+eddying and unequal pressure of the wind heaped a huge sand-drift
+against the walls, which probably screened them from the full force of
+the blast, acting at the same time as a support to their feeble
+consistency; sand and earthy matter were driven about and tossed against
+the casement, insomuch that I almost anticipated a living inhumation.
+The next gust, however, generally swept off the greater portion of the
+deposit, making way for a fresh torrent, that poured upon the quaking
+roof like the rush of a heavy sea over a ship's bulwarks.
+
+I was not destined to be left companionless in the midst of my alarms.
+The old woman and her daughter, too much terrified to remain quiet, came
+down from their resting-place, which, being close within the thatch, was
+most exposed to the tempest. A light was struck, and the dying embers
+once more kindled into a blaze. The old woman, whom I could not but
+observe with emotions of awe and curiosity, sat cowering over the flame,
+her withered hands half-covering her furrowed and haggard cheeks; a
+starting gleam occasionally lighted up her grey and wasted locks, which,
+matted in wild elf-knots, hung about her temples. Occasionally she would
+turn her head as the wind came hurrying on, and the loud rush of the
+blast went past the dwelling. She seemed to gaze upon it as though
+'twere peopled, and she beheld the "sightless coursers of the air"
+careering on the storm; then, with a mutter and a groan, she again
+covered her face, rocking to and fro to the chant of some wild and
+unintelligible ditty. Her daughter sat nearly motionless, hearkening
+eagerly during the short intervals between the gusts; and as the wind
+came bellowing on, she huddled closer into the chimney-corner, whither
+she had crept for protection.
+
+"Such nights are not often known in these parts," said I, taking
+advantage, as I spoke, of a pause in the warfare without. The old woman
+made no answer; but the daughter, bending forwards, replied slowly and
+with great solemnity:--"Mother has seen the death-lights dancing upo'
+the black scud: some ha' seen the sun sink down upon the waters that
+winna see him rise again fro' the hill-top."
+
+"Is your mother a seer, then, my pretty maiden?"
+
+"Ye're but a stranger, I guess, if you know not Bridget o' the Sandy
+Holm--Save us! she's hearkening again for the"----
+
+"There!--Once!" The old woman raised her hands as she spoke, and bent
+her head in an attitude of listening and eager expectation. I listened
+too, but could discover no sound, save the heavy swing of the blast, and
+its receding growl."
+
+"Again!" As she said this, Bridget rose from the low stool she had
+occupied, and hobbled towards the window. I thought a signal-gun was
+just then audible, as from some vessel in distress. Ere I could
+communicate this intelligence, another and a nearer roll silenced all
+conjecture. It was indeed but too evident that a vessel was in the
+offing, and rapidly driving towards the shore, from the increasing
+distinctness of the signals.
+
+Old Bridget stood by the window; her dim and anxious eyes peering
+through the casement as if she could discern the fearful and appalling
+spectacle upon the dark billows.
+
+"Your last!--your last, poor wretches!" she cried, when a heavy gust
+brought another report with amazing distinctness to the ear. "And now
+the death shriek!--another and another!--ye drop into the deep waters,
+and the gulf is not gorged with its prey. Bridget Rimmer, girl and
+woman, has ne'er watched the blue dancers but she has heard the sea-gun
+follow, and seen the red sand decked with the spoil. Wench, take not of
+the prey: 'tis accursed!"
+
+The beldame drew back after uttering this anathema, and again resumed
+her station near the hearth.
+
+The storm now seemed to abate, and as if satisfied with the mischief at
+this moment consummating, the wind grew comparatively calm. The gusts
+came by fitfully, like the closing sobs of some fretful and peevish
+babe, not altogether ceasing with the indulgence of its wishes. As I
+stood absorbed in a reverie, the nature of which I cannot now accurately
+determine, the maiden gently touched my arm.
+
+"Sir, will ye walk to the shore? I'se warrant the neighbours are
+helping, and we may save a life though we canna gie it."
+
+She was wrapped in a thick cloak, the hood thrown forward, and the horn
+lantern again put in requisition, fitted up for immediate service. We
+opened the door with considerable difficulty, and waded slowly through
+the heavy sand-drifts towards the beech. The clouds, shattered and
+driven together in mountainous heaps, were rolling along the sky, a dark
+scud sweeping over their huge tops, here and there partially illuminated
+by the moonbeams: the moon was still obscured, but a wild and faint
+light, usually seen after the breaking up of a storm, just served to
+show the outline of objects not too remote from our sphere of vision.
+
+My companion soon brought me to an opening in the hills which led
+directly down to the beach. Immediately I saw lights before us moving to
+and fro, and the busy hum of voices came upon the wind; forms were
+indistinctly seen hurrying backward and forward upon the very verge of
+the white foam boiling from the huge billows. Hastening to the spot, we
+found a number of fishermen--their wives assisting in the
+scrutiny--carefully examining the fragments of wreck which the waves
+were from time to time casting up, and throwing with a heavy lunge upon
+the shore. Either for purposes of plunder, or for the more ostensible
+design of contributing to their preservation, sundry packages were
+occasionally conveyed away, subsequently to an eager examination of
+their contents. My associate ran into the thickest of the group,
+anxiously inquiring as to the fate of the crew, and if any lives had
+been preserved.
+
+"I guess," cried an old hard-featured sinner, "they be where they'll
+need no lookin' after. Last brast o' wind, six weeks agone next St
+Barnaby, I gied my cabin to the lady and her children--an' the pains I
+waur like to ha' for my labour--I didn't touch a groat till the parson
+gied me a guinea out o' th' 'scription;--but I may trot gaily hoam
+to-night. There's no live lumber to stow i' my loft; the fishes ha' the
+pick o' the whole cargo this bout."
+
+"Canna we get the boats?--I can pull an oar thou knows, Darby, wi' the
+best on 'em," inquired the female.
+
+"Boats!" exclaimed Darby; "ne'er a boat would live but wi' keel
+uppermost. I'se not the chap to go to Davy Jones tonight pickled i'
+brine, my pratty Kate."
+
+"Thou'rt a greedy glead;--I'se go ask Simon; but I'll warrant thou'lt be
+hankering after the reward, and the biggest share to thine own
+clutches."
+
+She turned away from the incensed fisherman; and proceeding to a short
+distance, we found a knot of persons gathered around a half-drowned
+wretch who owed his appearance again upon land to having been lashed on
+some lumber which the sea had just cast ashore. Almost fainting from
+cold and exhaustion, he was undergoing a severe questioning from the
+bystanders--every one wishing to know the name of the ship, whither
+bound, and the whole particulars of the disaster. We just came in time
+for his release; and I soon had the satisfaction to find the poor fellow
+in my quarters, before a comfortable fire, his clothes drying, and his
+benumbed limbs chafed until the circulation was again pretty nigh
+restored. After drinking a tumbler of grog he appeared to recover
+rapidly; and we found on inquiry that he was master of the vessel just
+wrecked on the coast. He shook his head on a further inquiry as to the
+fate of her crew. "A score as good hands," said he, "are gone to the
+bottom as ever unreefed a clean topsail or hung out a ship's canvas to
+the wind; I saw them all go down as I lashed myself to the jib." He
+groaned deeply; but speedily assuming a gayer tone, requested a quid and
+a quiet hammock. "My lights are nearly stove in,--my head hangs as loose
+as a Dutchman's shrouds; a night's sleep will make all taut again."
+
+Old Bridget was gone to bed; and unless the sailor chose to occupy the
+straw pallet already in the possession of a guest whose mysterious
+arrival seemed to be the forerunner of nothing but confusion and
+disaster, there did not seem any chance of obtaining a berth save by
+remaining in his present situation. I told him of the dilemma, but Kate
+replied:--"We can just take the body fro' the bed; it winna tak' harm
+upo' the chest i' the fur nook. The captain will not maybe sleep the
+waur for quiet company."
+
+He did not seem to relish the idea of passing the night even with so
+quiet a companion; but as it seemed the least disagreeable alternative,
+we agreed to pilot him to the chamber and help the miserable pallet to
+change occupants. The corpse we agreed to lay on some clean litter used
+for the bedding of the cattle. We conducted the stranger to his
+dormitory, which was formerly a hay loft, until converted into an
+occasional sleeping-room for the humble applicants who sometimes craved
+a night's lodging at the Sandy Holm.
+
+The only entrance was by a crazy ladder, and so steep, that I was
+afraid our feeble companion would find considerable difficulty in
+climbing to his chamber. It was my intention to have prevented him from
+getting a sight of the ghastly object that occupied his couch; but
+pressing foremost, he ran up the ladder with surprising agility, gaining
+the top ere I had made preparations for the ascent. I mounted
+cautiously, giving him the light whilst I made good my landing; and he
+went directly to the bed. I had set my foot on the floor, and was
+lending a hand to Kate, who had still to contend with the difficulties
+of the way, when I heard a dismal and most appalling shriek. Starting
+round, I beheld the stranger gazing on the couch, his eyeballs almost
+bursting from their sockets, and his countenance distorted with horror
+and amazement. I ran to him as the light dropped from his grasp;
+catching it ere it fell, I perceived his eyes rivetted on the livid and
+terrific features of the corpse. My limbs grew stiff with horror;
+thoughts of strange import crowded on my mind; I knew not how to shape
+them into any definite form, but stood trembling and appalled before the
+dark chaos whence they sprung. Scarcely knowing what I said, still I
+remember the first inquiry that burst from my lips--"Knowest thou that
+murdered man?"
+
+The words were scarcely uttered when the conscience-stricken wretch
+exclaimed, in accents which I shall never forget, "Know him!--yesterday
+he stood at my helm. I had long borne him an evil grudge, and I brooded
+on revenge. The devil prompted it--he was at my elbow. It was dark, and
+the fiend's eyes flashed when I aimed the blow. It descended with a
+heavy crash, and the body rolled overboard. He spoke not, save once; it
+was when his hated carcase rose to the surface. I heard a faint moan; it
+rang on my ear like the knell of death; the voice rushed past--a low
+sepulchral shout; in my ear it echoed with the cry of 'MURDER!'"
+
+Little remains to be told; he persisted to the last in this horrible
+confession. He had no wish to live; and the avenging arm of retributive
+justice closed the world and its interests for ever on a wretch who had
+forfeited all claims to its protection--cast out, and judged unworthy of
+a name and a place amongst his fellow-men.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[48] Glazebrook's Southport.
+
+[Illustration: THE BAR-GAIST.]
+
+
+
+
+THE BAR-GAIST.
+
+
+    "From hag-bred Merlin's time have I
+      Thus nightly revelled to and fro;
+    And for my pranks men call me by
+      The name of Robin Goodfellow.
+        Fiends, ghosts, and sprites,
+        Who haunt the nightes,
+    The hags and goblins do me know;
+        And beldames old
+        My feates have told--
+    So _vale, vale_; ho, ho, ho!"
+
+--BEN JONSON.
+
+"In the northern parts of England," says Brand, speaking of the popular
+superstitions, "ghost is pronounced _gheist_ and _guest_. Hence
+_barguest_ or _bargheist_. Many streets are haunted by a _guest_, who
+assumes many strange appearances, as a mastiff dog, &c. It is a
+corruption of the Anglo-Saxon [Illustration: jart], _spiritus, anima_."
+
+Drake, in his _Eboracum_, says (p. 7, Appendix), "I have been so
+frightened with stories of the barguest when I was a child, that I
+cannot help throwing away an etymology upon it. I suppose it comes from
+A.S. [Illustration: bupp], a town, and [Illustration: jart], a ghost,
+and so signifies a town sprite. N.B. [Illustration: jart] is in the
+Belgic and Teutonic softened into gheist and geyst."
+
+The boggart or bar-gaist of the following story resembles the German
+_kobold,_ the Danish _nis_, and the Scotch _brownie_; but, above all,
+the Spanish _duende_, which signifies a spirit or sprite, supposed by
+the vulgar to haunt houses and highways, causing therein much terror and
+confusion. "DUENDE. _Espiritu que el vulgo cree que infesta las casas y
+travesea, causando en ellas ruidos y estruendos_"--LEMURES, LARVĈ. "To
+appear like a _duende_," "to move like a _duende_" are modes of
+speaking by which it is meant that persons appear in places where they
+are least expected. "To have a _duende_" signifies that a person's
+imagination is disturbed.
+
+The following curious Spanish "Moral," the MS. of which has been kindly
+lent to the author by Mr Crofton Croker may not be deemed uninteresting
+as an illustration of the subject. We have accompanied each stanza with
+a parallel translation of our own.
+
+DUENDE ENEMIGO DEL JUEGO.
+
+DUENDE AN ENEMY TO GAMING.
+
+    _Cuento Morál._
+
+    _A Moral Tale._
+
+      Un _Duende_, grave Señor,
+    Que estudió la astrologia,
+    Se propuso la mania,
+    De ser rico jugador.
+
+    A grave and learned Senior, who
+      Practised astrology,
+    Bethought him by his lucky stars
+      He passing rich would be.
+
+      Todos los siete planetas,
+    Formaban su gran consejo;
+    Y antes de llegar á viejo,
+    Ya no tenia calzetas.
+
+    The planets seven his council made,
+      He hugged the glozing cheat;
+    But ere the pedant's legs were old,
+      No stockings held his feet!
+
+      Aburrido y sin dinero,
+    Mui tarde se arrepintid,
+    Y en un desban se metid
+    A llorar su error primero.
+
+    Enraged and disappointed, he
+      Waxed sour and melancholy,
+    And to a vintner's garret trudged,
+      There to bewail his folly.
+
+      Por su gran sabiduría,
+    En duende se corivirtió,
+    Y la guerra declaró,
+    Al arte de fullería.
+
+    "I'll have revenge," he cried, then wrought
+      So wondrous cunningly,
+    That in a trice transformed he was,
+      A brisk _Duende_ he.
+
+      La vecíndad asombrada,
+    De sus fuertes alaridos,
+    Corriendo despavoridos,
+    Abandon an la Posada.
+
+    This pedant, now a "Boggart" made,
+      No soul could rest in quiet;
+    Nor rogue nor bully was his match
+      For kicking up a riot.
+
+      Dueño absolute ya el duende,
+    De la espantosa mansion,
+    Se aunientó la confusion,
+    Y el temor entre la gente.
+
+    At last none dared that garret drear,
+      His dwelling, to come nigh;
+    Sole master of his attic, he
+      Reigned peremptorily.
+
+      Pero siendo tan demente
+    El hombre que es codicioso,
+    No faltó quien jactancioso,
+    Despreciase al señor duende.
+
+    Not so the sharpers, who this house
+      Had made their special haunt:
+    "Señor Duende!--Humph!"--cried they
+      "May suck eggs with his aunt!"
+
+      Unos cuantos jugadores,
+    Que llaman de profesion,
+    Eligieron la mansion
+    Para exercer sus primores.
+
+    They and their worthy company,
+      Of the black-limbed profession,
+    Here cheated in a lawful way,
+      By that best right--possession!
+
+      Mui luego la compañia,
+    Numerosa vino á ser,
+    Y el que Ilegaba á perder,
+    Contra al duende maldecía.
+
+    The crowd increased. Some luckless wight
+      His winnings at an end, he
+    Swore by his trumps, 'twas owing to
+      That rascally _Duende_!
+
+      La confusa gritería,
+    Pronto al duende incomodó,
+    Y al complot se apareció
+    Que ápenas, cuarta tenía.
+
+    This roused him from his garret, where
+      He heard the daily squabble;
+    And lo, in human form, he stands
+      Before the shirtless rabble!
+
+    En voz, como chirimía,
+    Dijoles cortés y atento
+    _Que habitaba el aposento_
+    _Donde su amo existia_.
+
+    He squeaked, "Your servant, gentlemen;
+      I would not thus intrude,
+    'Pon honour, but your conduct is
+      So very-very rude.
+
+      _Que en alta camara fiero,_
+    _Todo señor, reclamaba_
+    _El orden, y lo aperaba,_
+    _Aunque ageno de en fullero_.
+
+    "My master,--he who sits up-stairs
+      I mean,--no jesting, gents,--
+    Expects that you'll be quiet, else
+      He'll scold at all events."
+
+      No fue poca la sorpresa,
+    Del mensage y la vision;
+    Y aun con todo, un temerón,
+    Quiso de ella hacer presa.
+
+    The gamblers stared, some tumbled down,
+      Some gaped, some told their prayers
+    But one, more daring, swore, i'fack,
+      He'd kick the brute down-stairs!
+
+      Mas el caso se fustró,
+    Sin saber como ni cuando,
+    Pues por el ayre volando
+    Nuestro duende se fugó.
+
+    But ere he felt th' uplifted foot
+      He 'scaped,--how none could tell;
+    But, sooth it was, this messenger
+      No bodily harm befell!
+
+      El suceso maldecían
+    Los unos por el temor,
+    Y gritaban con furor
+    Los que el dinero perdían.
+
+    The rogues, who saw him disappear,
+      Waxed paler than before:
+    Some said an _Ave_; some for fear,
+      And some for folly, swore.
+
+      Vuelve por segunda vez,
+    El mensajero, crecido
+    Media vara, y atrevido,
+    Les dice, menos cortés.
+
+    When suddenly amidst them all,
+      Again the demon stands;
+    A full half-yard in stature grown!
+      Their business he demands.
+
+      _Que su amo, era absoluto,_
+    _De aquella encantada casa,_
+    _Y su paciencia era escasa,_
+    _Con todo fullero astuto_.
+
+    "I tell ye, villains, gamblers, thieves!
+      His patience is but small,
+    With such as you,--so master says,
+      Who master will you all!
+
+      _Que les mandaba salir_
+    _De aquel lugar, con presteza,_
+    _Pues de no, su gentileza,_
+    _Los haría consumir_.
+
+    "Out of the house, ye rabble rout!
+      Out of the house! I say,
+    Or otherwise his honour will
+      Consume you utterly!"
+
+      Del duendecito quisieron
+    Apoderarse valientes,
+    Mas se les fué entre los dientes,
+    Y sin la presa se vieron.
+
+    Thought one, "I'll seize this varlet vile,"
+      And speedily arose;
+    He caught him in his clutch--the sprite
+      Vanished and tweaked his nose!
+
+      Ya el temor empezó á obrar
+    Y entraron las reflexiones,
+    Apoyando con varones,
+    Que era Duende, á no dudar.
+
+    "San Jerome, save us, we are loo'd
+      If this should be the sprite;
+    The big _Duende_, best we bid
+      His boggartship good night."
+
+      Como siempre al jugador,
+    Lo sostiene la esperanza,
+    Fundàron la confianza,
+    En que un Duende es vividor.
+
+    But hope, the gambler's enemy,
+      Beguiled them to their ruin;
+    "These ugly sprites, they say, are rich,
+      Yet yield nought without wooing.
+
+      Que su ciencia atrae dinero,
+    Y medios paro adquirirlo,
+    Y era cuerdo el admitirlo,
+    Dandole el lugar primero.
+
+    "His skill may help us to repair
+      Our cloaks, and eke our breeches;
+    Best speak him fair. We'll worship Nick
+      If he but grant us riches!"
+
+      Mas el duende que escuchaba
+    La trama de los fulleros,
+    Quiso en tales caballeros,
+    _Vengàr,_ lo que suspiraba.
+
+    The sly _Duende_, like a mouse,
+      Hearkening behind the wall,
+    Did now resolve he quickly would
+      The greedy rogues bemaul
+
+    En efecto, agigantado,
+    Con negro manto talár,
+    Cornamenta singular,
+    Ufías largas y barbado.
+
+    A mighty giant, lo he comes.
+      Wrapped in a cloak of sable;
+    With horns, hoofs, nails, and beard yclad,
+      He jumped upon the table!
+
+      Un garrote enarbolado
+    Y brotando espuma y fuego,
+    Les dijo: _Yo devo al juego_
+    _Mi desgracia y este estado._
+
+    A cudgel of some seven years' growth
+      He brandished. Fire and smoke
+    Shot from his lips, while thus he spake;--
+      "I'll gripe you gambling folk.
+
+      _Los fulleros me han quitado_
+    _Con mi dinero, la vida,_
+    _Y pues que sois homicida_
+    _De todo hombre inocente!_
+
+    "To gaming my disgrace I owe,
+      With money went my wife;
+    'Tis such as you the murderers be,--
+      This night shall end your life!
+
+      _No quede vicho viviente,_
+    _En toda culta nacion,_
+    _Que ejérza la profesion_
+    _De fullero y vagamundo_.
+
+    "In every nation, called refined,
+      Or gamblers or their wives,
+    Or wealthy wight shall ne'er be found,
+      Who shakes the bones and thrives."
+
+      Y dando un grito profundo,
+    Su garrote descargando,
+    A todos fué despachando,
+    Sin dejar uno en el mundo.
+
+    With that a loud and horrid yell
+      He gave. And cudgel flew
+    Broadside amongst them; when, like vermin, he
+      Dispatched the hungry crew!
+
+    No extinguió, sin duda, el Duende,
+      Toda la mala semilla,
+      Pues hay muchos, como el Duende,
+      Sin camisa, y sin capilla.
+
+    But woe is me, they were not all destroyed.
+    For many still, by these cursed arts decoyed,
+    Shoeless and shirtless, miserable sinners,
+    Are seen, snuffing, with empty wind, their dinners!
+
+In the _Dunske Folkesagen_ appear one or two circumstances relative to
+the freaks of a _nis_, the goblin of the Danish popular creed, similar
+to the pranks detailed in our Lancashire legend. Fancy, however sportive
+and playful with materials already in her possession, is of a much less
+creative character than is generally supposed, even by those most
+susceptible to her influence. It is surprising how few are the original
+conceptions that have sprung from the human mind. Popular
+superstitions--the great mass of them spread over an immense variety of
+surface, climate, manners, and opinions--might be supposed to exhibit a
+corresponding difference in originality and invention. But here we find
+the same paucity of incidents, varying only in character with the
+climate which gave them birth; the leading features being evidently
+common to each. The Scandinavian and the Hindoo, the European and the
+Asiatic, construct their legends on the same basis; the same stories,
+and even the same train of events, proving their common origin.
+
+Mr Crofton Croker, a name familiar to all lovers of legendary lore, has
+kindly communicated the following tale. In substituting this, in place
+of what the author might have written on the subject, he feels convinced
+that his readers will not feel displeased at the change, and assures
+them it is with real gratification that he presents them with an article
+from the pen of the writer of _The Fairy Legends_.
+
+Not far from the little-snug smoky village of Blakeley, or Blackley,
+there lies one of the most romantic of dells, rejoicing in a state of
+singular seclusion, and in the oddest of Lancashire names, to wit, the
+"Boggart-hole." Rich in every requisite for picturesque beauty and
+poetical association, it is impossible for me (who am neither a painter
+nor a poet) to describe this dell as it should be described; and I will
+therefore only beg of thee, gentle reader, who peradventure mayst not
+have lingered in this classical neighbourhood, to fancy a deep, deep
+dell, its steep sides fringed down with hazel and beech, and fern and
+thick undergrowth, and clothed at the bottom with the richest and
+greenest sward in the world. You descend, clinging to the trees, and
+scrambling as best you may,--and now you stand on haunted ground! Tread
+softly, for this is the Boggart's clough; and see in yonder dark corner,
+and beneath the projecting mossy stone, where that dusky sullen cave
+yawns before us, like a bit of Salvator's best, there lurks the strange
+elf, the sly and mischievous Boggart. Bounce! I see him coming; oh no,
+it was only a hare bounding from her form; there it goes--there!
+
+I will tell you of some of the pranks of this very Boggart, and how he
+teased and tormented a good farmer's family in a house hard by, and I
+assure you it was a very worthy old lady who told me the story. But
+first, suppose we leave the Boggart's demesne, and pay a visit to the
+theatre of his strange doings.
+
+You see that old farm house about two fields distant, shaded by the
+sycamore-tree: that was the spot which the Boggart or Bar-gaist selected
+for his freaks; there he held his revels, perplexing honest George
+Cheetham--for that was the farmer's name--scaring his maids, worrying
+his men, and frightening the poor children out of their seven senses, so
+that at last not even a mouse durst show himself indoors at the farm, as
+he valued his whiskers, five minutes after the clock had struck twelve.
+
+It had long been remarked that whenever a merry tale was told on a
+winter's evening a small shrill voice was heard above all the rest, like
+a baby's penny trumpet, joining in with the laughter.
+
+"Weel laughed, Boggart, thou'rt a fine little tyke, I'se warrant, if one
+could but just catch glent on thee," said Robert, the youngest of the
+farmer's sons, early one evening, a little before Christmas, for
+familiarity had made them somewhat bold with their invisible guest. Now,
+though more pleasant stories were told on that night beside the hearth
+than had been told there for the three preceding months, though the fire
+flickered brightly, though all the faces around it were full of mirth
+and happiness, and though everything, it might seem, was there which
+could make even a Boggart enjoy himself, yet the small shrill laugh was
+heard no more that night after little Bob's remark.
+
+Robert, who was a short stout fellow for his age, slept in the same bed
+with his elder brother John, who was reckoned an uncommonly fine and
+tall lad for his years. No sooner had they got fairly to sleep than they
+were roused by the small shrill voice in their room shouting out,
+"Little tyke, indeed! little tyke thysel'. Ho, ho, ho! I'll have my
+laugh now--Ho, ho, ho!"
+
+The room was completely dark, and all in and about the house was so
+still that the sound scared them fearfully. The concluding screech made
+the place echo again;--but this strange laughter was not necessary to
+prevent little Robert from further sleep, as he found himself one moment
+seized by the feet and pulled to the bottom of the bed, and the next
+moment dragged up again on his pillow. This was no sooner done, than by
+the same invisible power he was pulled down again, and then his head
+would be dragged back, and placed as high as his brother's.
+
+"Short and long won't match,--short and long won't match,--ho, ho, ho!"
+shouted the well-known voice of the Boggart, between each adjustment of
+little Robert with his tall brother, and thus were they both wearied for
+more than a hundred times; yet so great was their terror, that neither
+Robert nor his brother--"Long John," as he ever afterwards was
+called--dared to stir one inch; and you may well suppose how delighted
+they both were when the first grey light of the morning appeared.
+
+"We'st now ha' some rest, happen," said John, turning on his side in the
+expectation of a good nap, and covering himself up with the bed-clothes,
+which the pulling of Robert so often backwards and forwards had tumbled
+about sadly.
+
+"Rest!" said the same voice that had plagued them through the night,
+"rest!--what is rest? Boggart knows no rest."
+
+"Plague tak' thee for a Boggart!" said the farmer next morning, on
+hearing the strange story from his children: "Plague tak' thee! can thee
+not let the poor things be quiet? But I'll be up with thee, my
+gentleman: so tak' th' chamber an' be hang'd to thee, if thou wilt. Jack
+and little Robert shall sleep o'er the cart-house, and Boggart may rest
+or wriggle as he likes when he is by himsel'."
+
+The move was accordingly made, and the bed of the brothers transferred
+to their new sleeping-room over the cart-house, where they remained for
+some time undisturbed; but his Boggartship having now fairly become the
+possessor of a room at the farm, it would appear, considered himself in
+the light of a privileged inmate, and not, as hitherto, an occasional
+visitor, who merely joined in the general expression of merriment.
+Familiarity, they say, breeds contempt; and now the children's bread and
+butter would be snatched away, or their porringers of bread and
+milk-would be dashed to the ground by an unseen hand; or if the younger
+ones were left alone but for a few minutes, they were sure to be found
+screaming with terror on the return of their nurse. Sometimes, however,
+he would behave himself kindly. The cream was then churned, and the pans
+and kettles scoured without hands. There was one circumstance which was
+remarkable;--the stairs ascended from the kitchen, a partition of boards
+covered the ends of the steps, and formed a closet beneath the
+staircase. From one of the boards of this partition a large round knot
+was accidentally displaced; and one day the youngest of the children,
+while playing with the shoe-horn, stuck it into this knot-hole. Whether
+or not the aperture had been formed by the Boggart as a peep-hole to
+watch the motions of the family, I cannot pretend to say. Some thought
+it was, for it was called the Boggart's peep-hole; but others said that
+they had remembered it long before the shrill laugh of the Boggart was
+heard in the house. However this may have been, it is certain that the
+horn was ejected with surprising precision at the head of whoever put it
+there; and either in mirth or in anger the horn was darted forth with
+great velocity, and struck the poor child over the ear.
+
+There are few matters upon which parents feel more acutely than that of
+the maltreatment of their offspring; but time, that great soother of all
+things, at length familiarised this dangerous occurrence to every one at
+the farm, and that which at the first was regarded with the utmost
+terror, became a kind of amusement with the more thoughtless and daring
+of the family. Often was the horn slipped slyly into the hole, and in
+return it never failed to be flung at the head of some one, but most
+commonly at the person who placed it there. They were used to call this
+pastime, in the provincial dialect, "laking wi' t' Boggart;" that is,
+playing with the Boggart. An old tailor, whom I but faintly remember,
+used to say that the horn was often "pitched" at his head, and at the
+head of his apprentice, whilst seated here on the kitchen table, when
+they went their rounds to work, as is customary with country tailors. At
+length the goblin, not contented with flinging the horn, returned to his
+night persecutions. Heavy steps, as of a person in wooden clogs, were at
+first heard clattering down-stairs in the dead hour of darkness; then
+the pewter and earthern dishes appeared to be dashed on the
+kitchen-floor; though in the morning all remained uninjured on their
+respective shelves. The children generally were marked out as objects of
+dislike by their unearthly tormentor. The curtains of their beds would
+be violently pulled to and fro,--then a heavy weight, as of a human
+being, would press them nearly to suffocation, from which it was
+impossible to escape. The night, instead of being the time for repose,
+was disturbed with screams and dreadful noises, and thus was the whole
+house alarmed night after night. Things could not long continue in this
+fashion; the farmer and his good dame resolved to leave a place where
+they could no longer expect rest or comfort: and George Cheetham was
+actually following with his wife and family the last load of furniture,
+when they were met by a neighbouring farmer, named John Marshall.
+
+"Well, Georgey, and soa you're leaving th' owd house at last?" said
+Marshall.
+
+"Heigh, Johnny, ma lad, I'm in a manner forced to 't, thou sees,"
+replied the other; "for that wearyfu' Boggart torments us soa, we can
+neither rest neet nor day for't. It seems loike to have a malice again't
+young ans,--an' it ommost kills my poor dame here at thoughts on't, and
+soa thou sees we're forc'd to flitt like."
+
+He had got thus far in his complaint, when, behold, a shrill voice from
+a deep upright churn, the topmost utensil on the cart, called out--"Ay,
+ay, neighbour, we're flitting, you see."
+
+"'Od rot thee!" exclaimed George: "if I'd known thou'd been flitting
+too I wadn't ha' stirred a peg. Nay, nay,--it's to no use, Mally," he
+continued, turning to his wife, "we may as weel turn back again to th'
+owd house as be tormented in another not so convenient."
+
+They did return; but the Boggart, having from the occurrence ascertained
+the insecurity of his tenure, became less outrageous, and was never more
+guilty of disturbing, in any extraordinary degree, the quiet of the
+family.
+
+[Illustration: INCE HALL, NEAR WIGAN.
+
+_Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden._]
+
+
+
+
+THE HAUNTED MANOR-HOUSE.
+
+
+    "But he was wary wise in all his way,
+      And well perceived his deceitful sleight;
+    No suffered lust his safety to hetray;
+      So goodly did beguile the _guiler_ of the prey."
+
+--SPENSER.
+
+Ince-hall, the subject of our view, stands about a mile from Wigan, on
+the left hand of the high road to Bolton. It is a very conspicuous
+object, its ancient and well-preserved front generally attracting the
+notice and inquiry of travellers.
+
+About a mile to the south-east stands another place of the same name
+once belonging to the Gerards of Bryn. The manor is now the property of
+Charles Walmsley, Esq., of Westwood, near Wigan.
+
+The two mansions are sometimes confounded together in topographical
+inquiries; and the following story, though told of some former
+proprietor of the Ince to which our plate refers, yet, by its title of
+the "Manor-house," would seem as though intended for the other and
+comparatively less known mansion, the old "Manor-house of Ince," once
+inhabited by a family of that name. But the same traditions are often
+found connected with localities widely asunder, so that we need not be
+surprised at the mistake which gossips have made in this particular
+instance.
+
+It is, after all, quite uncertain whether the event occurred here or
+not, story-tellers being very apt to fix upon any spot near at hand on
+which to fasten their marvellous narratives, and to give them a stronger
+hold on the listener's imagination.
+
+The story is supposed to be written or related by the chief actor in the
+occurrences arising out of the "Haunted House." The author has thrown
+the narrative into this form, as he hopes it will vary the style of the
+traditions, and probably give more character and interest to the events
+here detailed than they would retain if told by a third person.
+
+The coach set me down at the entrance to a long and unweeded avenue. A
+double row of beech-trees saluted me, as I passed, with a rich shower of
+wet leaves, and shook their bare arms, growling as the loud sough of the
+wind went through their decayed branches. The old house was before me.
+Its numerous and irregularly-contrived compartments in front were
+streaked in black and white zig-zags--_vandyked_, I think, the fairest
+jewels of the creation call this chaste and elegant ornament. It was
+near the close of a dark autumnal day, and a mass of gable-ends stood
+sharp and erect against the wild and lowering sky. Each of these
+pinnacles could once boast of its admired and appropriate ornament--a
+little weathercock; but they had cast off their gilded plumage for ever,
+and fallen from their high estate, like the once neatly-trimmed mansion
+which I was now visiting. A magpie was perched upon a huge stack of
+chimneys, his black and white plumage rivalling the mottled edifice at
+his feet. Perhaps he was the wraith, the departing vision of the
+decaying fabric; an apparition, insubstantial as the honours and
+dignities of the ancient and revered house of----!
+
+I looked eagerly at the long, low casements: a faint glimmer was
+visible. It proceeded only from the wan reflection of a sickly sunbeam
+behind me, struggling through the cleft of a dark hail-cloud. It was the
+window where in my boyhood I had often peeped at the town-clock through
+my little telescope. There was the nursery chamber, and no wonder that
+it was regarded with feelings of the deepest interest. Here the first
+dawnings of reason broke in upon my soul; the first faint gleams of
+intelligence awakened me from a state of infantine unconsciousness. It
+was here that I first drank eagerly of the fresh rills of knowledge;
+here my imagination, ardent and unrepressed, first plumed its wings for
+flight, and I stepped forth over its threshold into a world long since
+tried, and found as unsatisfying and unreal as the false glimmer that
+now mocked me from the hall of my fathers.
+
+A truce to sentiment!--I came hither, it may be, for a different
+purpose. A temporary gush will occasionally spring up from the first
+well-head of our affections. However homely and seemingly ill-adapted,
+in outward show and character, for giving birth to those feelings
+generally designated by the epithet romantic, the place where we first
+breathed, where our ideas were first moulded, formed and assimilated, as
+it were, to the condition of the surrounding atmosphere (their very
+shape and colour determined by the medium in which they first sprung)
+the casual recurrence of a scene like this,--forming part and parcel of
+our very existence, and incorporated with the very fabric of our
+thoughts,--must, in spite of all subsequent impressions, revive those
+feelings, however long they may have been dormant, with a force and
+vividness which the bare recollection can never excite.
+
+The garden-gate stood open. The initials of my name, still legible,
+appeared rudely carved on the posts--a boyish propensity which most of
+us have indulged; and I well remember ministering to its gratification
+wherever I durst hazard the experiment, when first initiated into the
+mystery of hewing out these important letters with a rusty pen-knife.
+
+Not a creature was stirring; and the nature of the present occupants,
+whether sylphs, gnomes, or genii, was a question not at all, as it yet
+appeared, in a train for solution. The front door was closed; but, as I
+knew every turn and corner about the house, I made no doubt of soon
+finding out its inmates, if any of them were in the neighbourhood. I
+worked my way through the garden, knee-deep and rank with weed, for the
+purpose of reconnoitring the back-offices. I steered pretty cautiously
+past what memory, that great dealer in hyperbole, had hitherto generally
+contrived to picture as a huge lake--now, to my astonishment, dwindled
+into a duck-pond--but not without danger from its slippery margin. It
+still reposed under the shadow of the old cherry-tree, once the
+harbinger of delight, as the returning season gave intimation of another
+bountiful supply of fruit. Its gnarled stump, now stunted and decaying,
+had scarcely one token of life upon its scattered branches. Following a
+narrow walk, nearly obliterated, I entered a paved court. The first
+tramp awoke a train of echoes that seemed as though they had slumbered
+since my departure, and now started from their sleep to greet or to
+admonish the returning truant. Grass in luxuriant tufts, capriciously
+disposed, grew about in large patches. The breeze passed heavily by,
+rustling the dark swathe, and murmuring fitfully as it departed.
+Desolation seemed to have marked the spot for her own--the grim abode of
+solitude and despair. During twenty years' sojourn in a strange land
+memory had still, with untiring delight, painted the old mansion in all
+its primeval primness and simplicity--fresh as I had left it, full of
+buoyancy and delight, to take possession of the paradise which
+imagination had created. I had, indeed, been informed that at my
+father's death it became the habitation of a stranger; but no
+intelligence as to its present condition had ever reached me. Being at
+L----, and only some twenty miles distant, I could not resist the
+temptation of once more gazing on the old Manor-house, and of comparing
+its present aspect with that but too faithfully engrafted on my
+recollections. To all appearance the house was tenantless. I tried the
+door of a side kitchen or scullery: it was fastened, but the rusty bolts
+yielded to no very forcible pressure; and I once more penetrated into
+the kitchen, that exhaustless magazine which had furnished ham and eggs,
+greens and bacon, with other sundry and necessary condiments, to the
+progenitors of our race for at least two centuries. A marvellous
+change!--to me it appeared as if wrought in a moment, so recently had
+memory reinstated the scenes of my youth in all their pristine
+splendour. Now no smoke rolled lazily away from the heavy billet; no
+blaze greeted my sight; no savoury steam regaled the sense. Dark,
+cheerless, cold,--the long bars emitted no radiance; the hearth unswept,
+on which Growler once panted with heat and fatness.
+
+Though night was fast approaching, I could not resist the temptation of
+once more exploring the deserted chambers, the scene of many a youthful
+frolic. I sprang with reckless facility up the vast staircase. The
+shallow steps were not sufficiently accommodating to my impatience, and
+I leapt rather than ran, with the intention of paying my first visit to
+that _cockaigne_ of childhood, that paradise of little fools--the
+nursery. How small, dwindled almost into a span, appeared that once
+mighty and almost boundless apartment, every nook of which was a
+separate territory, every drawer and cupboard the boundary of another
+kingdom! three or four strides brought me to the window;--the broad
+church-tower was still visible, peacefully reposing in the dim and heavy
+twilight. The evening-bell was tolling: what a host of recollections
+were awakened at the sound! Days and hours long forgotten seemed to rise
+up at its voice, like the spirits of the departed sweeping by, awful and
+indistinct. These impressions soon became more vivid; they rushed on
+with greater rapidity: I turned from the window, and was startled at the
+sudden moving of a shadow. It was a faint long-drawn figure of myself on
+the floor and opposite wall. Ashamed of my fears, I was preparing to
+quit the apartment when my attention was arrested by a drawing which I
+had once scrawled, and stuck against the wall with all the ardour of a
+first achievement. It owed its preservation to an unlucky, but
+effectual, contrivance of mine for securing its perpetuity: a
+paste-brush, purloined from the kitchen, had made all fast; and the
+piece, alike impregnable to assaults or siege, withstood every effort
+for its removal. In fact, this could not be accomplished without at the
+same time tearing off a portion from the dingy papering of the room, and
+leaving a disagreeable void, instead of my sprawling performance. With
+the less evil it appeared each succeeding occupant had been contented;
+and the drawing had stood its ground in spite of dust and dilapidation.
+I felt wishful for the possession of so valuable a memorial of past
+exploits. I examined it again and again, but not a single corner
+betrayed symptoms of lesion: it stuck bolt upright; and the dun squat
+figures portrayed on it appeared to leer at me most provokingly. Not a
+slip or tear presented itself as vantage-ground for the projected
+attack; and I had no other resource left of gaining possession than what
+may be denominated the Cĉsarean mode. I accordingly took out my knife,
+and commenced operations by cutting out at the same time a portion of
+the ornamental papering from the wall commensurate with the picture. I
+looked upon it with a sort of superstitious reverence; and I have always
+thought that the strong and eager impulse I felt for the possession of
+this hideous daub proceeded from a far different source than mere
+fondness for the memorials of childhood. Be that as it may, I am a firm
+believer in a special Providence; and that, too, as discovered in the
+most trivial as well as the most important concerns of life. It was
+whilst cutting down upon what seemed like wainscoting, over which the
+papering of the room had been laid, that my knife glanced on something
+much harder than the rest. Turning aside my spoils, I saw what through
+the dusk appeared very like the hinge of a concealed door. My curiosity
+was roused, and I made a hasty pull, which at once drew down a mighty
+fragment from the wall, consisting of plaster, paper, and rotten canvas;
+and some minutes elapsed ere the subsiding cloud of dust enabled me to
+discern the _terra incognita_ I had just uncovered. Sure enough there
+was a door, and as surely did the spirit of enterprise prompt me to open
+it. With difficulty I accomplished my purpose; it yielded at length to
+my efforts; but the noise of the half-corroded hinges, grating and
+shrieking on their rusty pivots, may be conceived as sufficiently dismal
+and appalling. I know not if once at least I did not draw back, or let
+go my hold incontinently, as the din "grew long and loud." I own,
+without hesitation, that I turned away my head from the opening, as it
+became wider and wider at every pull; and it required a considerable
+effort before I could summon the requisite courage to look into the gap.
+My head seemed as difficult to move as the door. I cannot say that I was
+absolutely afraid of ghosts, but I _was_ afraid of a peep from behind
+the door--afraid of being frightened! At length, with desperate
+boldness, I thrust my head plump into the chasm!
+
+But I was more startled at the noise I had thus produced than by
+anything that was visible. As far as the darkness would permit, I
+explored the interior, which, after all, was neither more nor less than
+a small closet. From what cause it had been shut out from the apartment
+to which it had belonged, it were vain to conjecture. All that was
+really cognisable to the senses presented itself in the shape of a
+shallow recess, some four feet by two, utterly unfurnished, save with
+some inches of accumulated dust and rubbish, that made it a work of
+great peril to grope out the fact of its otherwise absolute emptiness.
+This discovery like many other notable enterprises seemed to lead to
+nothing. I stepped out of my den, reeking with spoils which I would much
+rather have left undisturbed in their dark recesses.
+
+Preparing for my departure, and a visit to my relation in the nearly
+adjoining town, who as yet had no other intimation of my arrival than a
+hasty note, to apprise him that I had once more set foot on English
+ground, and intended to visit him before my return, I stepped again to
+the window. Darkness was fast gathering about me; a heavy scud was
+driven rapidly across the heavens, and the wind wailed in short and
+mournful gusts past the chamber. The avenue was just visible from the
+spot where I stood; and, looking down, I thought I could discern more
+than one dark object moving apparently towards the house. It may be
+readily conceived that I beheld their approach with an interest by no
+means free from apprehension; and it was not long ere two beings, in
+human habiliments, were distinctly seen at a short distance from the
+gate by which I had entered. Feeling myself an intruder, and not being
+very satisfactorily prepared to account for my forcible entry into the
+premises, and the injury I had committed on the property of a stranger,
+I drew hastily aside, determined to effect a retreat whenever and
+wherever it might be in my power. Door and window alternately presented
+themselves for the accomplishment of this unpleasant purpose, but before
+I could satisfy myself as to which was the more eligible offer, as
+doubters generally do contrive it, I lost all chance of availing myself
+of either. "_Facilis descensus_"--"Easier in than out"--&c., occurred to
+me; and many other classical allusions, much more appropriate than
+agreeable. I heard voices and footsteps in the hall. The stairs creaked,
+and it was but too evident they were coming, and that with a most
+unerring and provoking perseverance. Surely, thought I, these gentry
+have noses like the sleuth-hound; and I made no doubt but they would
+undeviatingly follow them into the very scene of my labours; and what
+excuse could I make for the havoc I had committed? I stood stupefied,
+and unable to move. The thoughts of being hauled neck and heels before
+the next justice, on a charge of housebreaking, or what not--committed
+to prison--tried, perhaps, and--the sequel was more than even
+imagination durst conceive. Recoiling in horror from the picture, it was
+with something like instinctive desperation that I flew to the little
+closet, and shut myself in, with all the speed and precision my fears
+would allow. Sure enough the brutes were making the best of their way
+into the chamber, and every moment I expected they would track their
+victim to his hiding-place. After a few moments of inconceivable agony,
+I was relieved at finding from their conversation that no notion was
+entertained, at present, of any witness to their proceedings.
+
+"I tell thee, Gilbert, these rusty locks can keep nothing safe. It's but
+some few months since we were here, and thou knowest the doors were all
+fast. The kitchen door-post is now as rotten as touchwood; no bolt will
+fasten it."
+
+"Nail it up,--nail 'em all up," growled Gilbert; "nobody'll live here
+now; or else set fire to 't. It'll make a rare bonfire to burn that ugly
+old will in."
+
+A boisterous laugh here broke from the remorseless Gilbert. It fell upon
+my ear as something with which I had once been disagreeably familiar.
+The voice of the first speaker, too, seemed the echo of one that had
+been heard in childhood. A friendly chink permitted me to gain the
+information I sought; there stood my uncle and his trusty familiar. In
+my youth I had contracted a somewhat unaccountable aversion to the
+latter personage. I well remembered his downcast grey eye, deprived of
+its fellow; and the malignant pleasure he took in thwarting and
+disturbing my childish amusements. This prepossessing Cyclop held a
+tinder-box, and was preparing to light a match. My uncle's figure I
+could not mistake: a score of winters had cast their shadows on his brow
+since we had separated; but he still stood as he was wont--tall, erect,
+and muscular, though age had slightly drooped his proud forehead; and I
+could discern his long-lapped waistcoat somewhat less conspicuous in
+front. He was my mother's brother, and the only surviving relation on
+whom I had any claim. My fears were set at rest, but curiosity stole
+into their place. I felt an irrepressible inclination to watch their
+proceedings, though eaves-dropping was a subterfuge that I abhorred. I
+should, I am confident--at least I hope so--have immediately discovered
+myself, had not a single word which I had overheard prevented me. The
+"will" to which they alluded might to me, perhaps, be an object of no
+trivial importance.
+
+"I wish with all my heart it were burnt!" said mine uncle.
+
+"The will, or the house?" peevishly retorted Gilbert.
+
+"Both!" cried the other, with an emphasis and expression that made me
+tremble.
+
+"If we burn the house, the papers will not rise out of it, depend on 't,
+master," continued Gilbert; "and that box in the next closet will not
+prove like Goody Blake's salamander."
+
+I began to feel particularly uncomfortable.
+
+"I wish they had all been burnt long ago," said mine honest uncle. After
+a pause he went on: "This scapegrace nephew of mine will be here
+shortly. For fear of accidents--accidents, I say,--Gilbert--it were
+better to have all safe. Who knows what may be lurking in the old house,
+to rise up some day as a witness against us! I intend either to pull it
+down or set fire to it. But we'll make sure of the will first."
+
+"A rambling jackanapes of a nephew!" said Gilbert; "I hoped the fishes
+had supped on him before now. We never thought, master, he could be
+alive, as he sent no word about his being either alive or dead. But I
+guess," continued this amiable servant, "he might ha' staid longer, and
+you wouldn't ha' fretted for his company."
+
+Listeners hear no good of themselves; but I determined to reward the old
+villain very shortly for his good wishes.
+
+"Gilbert, when there's work to do thou art always readier with thy
+tongue than with thy fingers. Look! the match has gone out twice,--leave
+off puffing and fetch the box; I'll manage about the candle."
+
+I began to feel a strange sensation rambling about me. Gilbert left the
+room, however, and I applied myself with redoubled diligence to the
+crevice. My dishonest relation proceeded to revive the expiring sparks;
+the light shone full upon his hard features. It might be fancy, but
+guilt--broad, legible, remorseless guilt--seemed to mark every
+inflection of his visage: his brow contracted,--his eye turned
+cautiously and fearfully round the apartment, and more than once it
+rested upon the gap I had made. I saw him strike his hand upon his
+puckered brow, and a stifled groan escaped him; but as if ashamed of his
+better feelings, he clenched it in an attitude of defiance, and listened
+eagerly for the return of his servant. The slow footsteps of Gilbert
+soon announced his approach, and apparently with some heavy burden. He
+threw it on the floor, and I heard a key applied and the rusty wards
+answering to the touch. The business in which they were now engaged was
+out of my limited sphere of vision.
+
+"I think, master, the damps will soon ding down the old house: look at
+the wall; the paper hangs for all the world like the clerk's wig--ha,
+ha! If we should burn the house down we'd rid it o' the ghosts. Would
+they stand fire, think you, or be off to cooler quarters?"
+
+"Hush, Gilbert; thou art wicked enough to bring a whole legion about us,
+if any of them are within hearing. I always seemed to treat these
+stories with contempt, but I never could satisfy myself about the noises
+that old Gidlow and his wife heard. Thou knowest he was driven out of
+the house by them. People wondered that I did not come and live here,
+instead of letting it run to ruin. It's pretty generally thought that I
+fear neither man nor devil; but--oh! here it is; here is the will. I
+care nothing for the rest, provided this be cancelled."
+
+"Ay, master, they said the ghost never left off scratching as long as
+anybody was in the room. Which room was it, I wonder?--I never thought
+on't to inquire; but--- I don't like this a bit. It runs in my head it
+is the very place; and behind that wall, too, where it took up its
+quarters like as it might be just a-back of the paper there. Think you,
+master, the old tyke has pull'd it down wi' scratching?"
+
+"Gilbert," said my uncle solemnly, "I don't like these jests of thine.
+Save them, I prithee, for fitter subjects. The will is what we came for.
+Let us dispose of that quietly, and I promise thee I'll never set foot
+here again."
+
+As he spoke he approached the candle--it was just within my view--and
+opened the will that it might yield the more readily to the blaze. I
+watched him evidently preparing to consume a document with which I felt
+convinced my welfare and interests were intimately connected. There was
+not a moment to be lost; but how to get possession was no easy
+contrivance. If I sallied forth to its rescue they might murder me, or
+at least prevent its falling into my hands. This plan could only prolong
+its existence a few moments, and would to a certainty ensure its
+eventual destruction. Gilbert's dissertation on the occupations and
+amusements of the ghosts came very opportunely to my aid, and
+immediately I put into execution what now appeared my only hope of its
+safety. Just as a corner of the paper was entering the flame I gave a
+pretty loud scratch, at the same time anxiously observing the effect it
+might produce. I was overjoyed to find the enemy intimidated at least by
+the first fire. Another volley, and another succeeded, until even the
+sceptical Gilbert was dismayed. My uncle seemed riveted to the spot, his
+hands widely disparted, so that the flame and its destined prey were now
+pretty far asunder. Neither of the culprits spoke; and I hoped that
+little more would be necessary to rout them fairly from the field. As
+yet they did not seem disposed to move; and I was afraid of a rally,
+should reason get the better of their fears.
+
+"Rats! rats!" shouted Gilbert. "We'll singe their tails for them." The
+scratching ceased. Again the paper was approaching to its dreaded
+catastrophe.
+
+"_Beware!_" I cried, in a deep and sepulchral tone, that startled even
+the utterer. What effect it had produced on my auditory I was left alone
+to conjecture. The candle dropped from the incendiary's grasp, and the
+spoil was left a prey to the bugbear that possessed their imaginations.
+With feelings of unmixed delight, I heard them clear the stairs at a few
+leaps, run through the hall, and soon afterwards a terrific bellow from
+Gilbert announced their descent into the avenue.
+
+Luckily the light was not extinct, and I lost no time in taking
+possession of the document, which I considered of the most importance.
+A number of loose papers, the contents of a huge trunk, were scattered
+about; but my attention was more particularly directed to the paper
+which had been the object of my uncle's visit to the Manor-house. To my
+great joy, this was neither less nor more than my father's will,
+witnessed and sealed in due form, wherein the possessions of my
+ancestors were conveyed, absolutely and unconditionally, without entail,
+unencumbered and unembarrassed, to me and to my assigns. I thought it
+most likely that the papers in and about the trunk might be of use,
+either as corroborative evidence, in case my uncle should choose to
+litigate the point and brand the original document as a forgery, or as a
+direct testimony to the validity of my claim. I was rather puzzled in
+what manner to convey them from the place, so as not to excite
+suspicion, should the two worthies return. I was pretty certain they
+would not leave matters as they now stood when their fears were allayed,
+and daylight would probably impart sufficient courage to induce them to
+repeat their visit. On finding the papers removed, the nature of this
+night's ghostly admonition would immediately be guessed, and measures
+taken to thwart any proceedings which it might be in my power to adopt.
+To prevent discovery, I hit upon the following expedient:--I sorted out
+the waste paper, a considerable quantity of which served as envelopes to
+the rest, setting fire to it in such a manner that the contents of the
+trunk might appear to have been destroyed by the falling of the candle.
+I succeeded very much to my own satisfaction. Disturbed and agonised as
+my feelings had been during the discovery, the idea of having defeated
+the plan of my iniquitous relative gave a zest to my acquisitions almost
+as great as if I had already taken possession of my paternal
+inheritance.
+
+Before I left the apartment, I poured out my heart in thanksgivings to
+that unseen Power whose hand, I am firmly convinced, brought me thither
+at so critical a moment, to frustrate the schemes and machinations of
+the enemy.
+
+Bundling up the papers, my knowledge of the vicinity enabled me to reach
+a small tavern in the neighbourhood without the risk of being
+recognised. Here I continued two or three days, examining the documents,
+with the assistance of an honest limb of the law from W----. He
+entertained considerable doubts as to the issue of a trial, feeling
+convinced that a forged will would be prepared, if not already in
+existence, and that my relative would not relinquish his fraudulent
+claim should the law be openly appealed to. He strongly recommended that
+proceedings of a different nature should be first tried, in hopes of
+enclosing the villain in his own toils; and these, if successful, would
+save the uncertain and expensive process of a suit. I felt unwilling to
+adopt any mode of attack but that of open warfare, and urged that
+possession of the real will would be sufficient to reinstate me as the
+lawful heir. The man of law smiled. He inquired how I should be able to
+prove that the forgery which my uncle would in all probability produce
+was not the genuine testament; and as the date would inevitably be
+subsequent to the one I held, it would annul any former bequest. As to
+my tale about burning the will, that might or might not be treated as a
+story trumped up for the occasion. I had no witnesses to prove the fact;
+and though appearances were certainly in my favour, yet the case could
+only be decided according to evidence. With great reluctance I consented
+to take a part in the scheme he chalked out for my guidance; and, on the
+third day from my arrival, I walked a few miles and returned to the
+town, that it might appear as if I had only just arrived. On being set
+down at my uncle's I had the satisfaction to find, as far as could be
+gathered from his manner, that he had no idea of my recent sojourn in
+the neighbourhood. Of course the conversation turned on the death of my
+revered parents, and the way in which their property had been disposed
+of.
+
+"I can only repeat," continued he, "what I, as the only executor under
+your father's will, was commissioned to inform you at his decease. The
+property was heavily mortgaged before your departure; and its continued
+depression in value, arising from causes that could not have been
+foreseen, left the executor no other alternative but that of giving the
+creditors possession. The will is here," said he, taking out a paper,
+neatly folded and mounted with red tape, from a bureau. "It is
+necessarily brief, and merely enumerates the names of the mortgagees and
+amounts owing. I was unfortunately the principal creditor, having been a
+considerable loser from my wish to preserve the property inviolate. For
+the credit of the family I paid off the remaining incumbrances, and the
+estate has lapsed to me as the lawful possessor."
+
+He placed the document in my hands. I read in it a very technical
+tribute of testamentary gratitude to M---- S----, Esq., styled therein
+"beloved brother;" and a slight mention of my name, but no bequest, save
+that of recommending me to the kindness of my relative, in case it
+should please Heaven to send me once more to my native shores. I was
+aware he would be on the watch; guarding, therefore, against any
+expression of my feelings, I eagerly perused the deed, and with a sigh,
+which he would naturally attribute to any cause but the real one, I
+returned it into his hands.
+
+"I find," said he, "from your letter received on the 23d current, that
+you are not making a long stay in this neighbourhood. It is better,
+perhaps, that you should not. The old house is sadly out of repair.
+Three years ago next May, David Gidlow, the tenant under lease from me,
+left it, and I have not yet been able to meet with another occupant
+fully to my satisfaction; indeed, I have some intention of pulling down
+the house and disposing of the materials."
+
+"Pulling it down!" I exclaimed, with indignation.
+
+"Yes; that is, it is so untenantable--so--what shall I call it?--that
+nobody cares to live there."
+
+"I hope it is not haunted?"
+
+"Haunted!" exclaimed he, surveying me with a severe and scrutinising
+glance. "What should have put that into your head?"
+
+I was afraid I had said too much; and anxious to allay the suspicion I
+saw gathering in his countenance--"Nay, uncle," I quickly rejoined; "but
+you seemed so afraid of speaking out upon the matter that I thought
+there must needs be a ghost at the bottom of it."
+
+"As for that," said he, carelessly; "the foolish farmer and his wife did
+hint something of the sort; but it is well known that I pay no attention
+to such tales. The long and the short of it, I fancy, was, that they
+were tired of their bargain, and wanted me to take it off their hands."
+
+Here honest Gilbert entered, to say that Mr L----, the attorney, would
+be glad to have a word with his master.
+
+"Tell Mr L---- to walk in. We have no secrets here. Excuse me, nephew;
+this man is one of our lawyers. He has nothing to communicate but what
+you may hear, I dare say. If he should have any private business, you
+can step into the next room."
+
+The attorney entering, I was introduced as nephew to Mr S----, just
+arrived from the Indies, and so forth. Standing, Mr L---- made due
+obeisance.
+
+"Sit down; sit down, Mr L----," cried my uncle. "You need not be bowing
+there for a job. Poor fellow, he has not much left to grease the paws of
+a lawyer. Well, sir, your errand?"
+
+I came, Mr S----, respecting the Manor-house. Perhaps you would not have
+any objections to a tenant!"
+
+"I cannot say just now. I have had some thoughts of pulling it down."
+
+"Sir! you would not demolish a building, the growth of centuries--a
+family mansion--been in the descent since James's time. It would be
+barbarous. The antiques would be about your ears."
+
+"I care nothing for the antiquities; and, moreover, I do not choose to
+let the house. Any further business with me this morning, sir?"
+
+"Nothing of consequence--I only came about the house."
+
+"Pray, Mr L----," said I, "what sort of a tenant have you in view;--one
+you could recommend? I think my uncle has more regard for the old
+mansion-house than comports with the outrage he threatens. The will
+says, if I read aright, that the house and property may be sold, should
+the executor see fit; but, as to pulling it down, I am sure my father
+never meant anything so deplorable. Allow me another glance at that
+paper."
+
+"Please to observe, nephew, that the will makes it mine, and as such I
+have a right to dispose of the whole in such manner as I may deem best.
+If you have any doubts, I refer you to Mr L----, who sits smiling at
+your unlawyer-like opinions."
+
+"Pray allow me one moment," said the curious attorney. He looked at the
+signature and those of the parties witnessing.
+
+"Martha S----; your late sister, I presume?"
+
+My uncle nodded assent.
+
+"Gilbert Hodgon--your servant?"
+
+"The same. To what purpose, sir, are these questions?" angrily inquired
+my uncle.
+
+"Merely matters of form--a habit we lawyers cannot easily throw aside
+whenever we get a sight of musty parchments. I hope you will pardon my
+freedom?"
+
+"Oh! as for that you are welcome to ask as many questions as you think
+proper; they will be easily answered, I take it."
+
+"Doubtless," said the persevering man of words. "Whenever I take up a
+deed, for instance,--it is just the habit of the thing, Mr S----,--I
+always look at it as a banker looks at a note. He could not for the life
+of him gather one up without first ascertaining that it was genuine."
+
+"Genuine!" exclaimed my uncle, thrown off his guard. "You do not suspect
+that I have forged it?"
+
+"Forged it! why, how could that enter your head, Mr S----? I should as
+soon suspect you of forging a bank-note or coining a guinea. Ringing a
+guinea, sir, does not at all imply that the payee suspects the payer to
+be an adept in that ingenious and much-abused art. We should be
+prodigously surprised if the payer were to start up in a tantrum, and
+say, 'Do you suspect me, sir, of having coined it?'"
+
+"Sir, if you came hither for the purpose of insulting _me_"----
+
+"I came upon no such business, Mr S----; but, as you seem disposed to be
+captious, I _will_ make free to say, and it would be the opinion of
+ninety-nine hundredths of the profession, that it might possibly have
+been a little more satisfactory to the heir-apparent had the witnesses
+to this, the most solemn and important act of a man's life, been any
+other than, firstly, a defunct sister to the party claiming the whole
+residue: and secondly, Mr Gilbert Hodgon, his servant. Nay, sir," said
+the pertinacious lawyer, rising, "I do not wish to use more
+circumlocution than is necessary; I have stated my suspicions, and if
+you are an honest man, you can have no objections, at least, to satisfy
+your nephew on the subject, who seems, to say the truth, much astonished
+at our accidental parley."
+
+"And pray who made you a ruler and a judge between us?"
+
+"_I_ have no business with it, I own; but as you seemed rather angry, I
+made bold to give an opinion on the little technicalities aforesaid. If
+you choose, sir," addressing himself to me, "the matter is now at rest."
+
+"Of course," I replied, "Mr S---- will be ready to give every
+satisfaction that may be required as regards the validity of the
+witnesses. I request, uncle, that you will not lose one moment in
+rebutting these insinuations. For your own sake and mine, it is not
+proper that your conduct should go forth to the world in the shape in
+which this gentleman may think fit to represent it."
+
+"If he dare speak one word"----
+
+"Nay, uncle, that is not the way to stop folks' mouth now-a-days.
+Nothing but the actual gag, or a line of conduct that courts no favour
+and requires no concealment, will pass current with the world. I
+request, sir," addressing myself to the attorney, "that you will not
+leave this house until you have given Mr S---- the opportunity of
+clearing himself from any blame in this transaction."
+
+"As matters have assumed this posture," said Mr L----, "I should be
+deficient in respect to the profession of which I have the honour to be
+a member, did I not justify my conduct in the best manner I am able.
+Have I liberty to proceed?"
+
+"Proceed as you like, you will not prove the testament to be a forgery.
+The signing and witnessing were done in my presence," said my uncle. He
+rose from his chair, instinctively locked up his bureau; and, if such
+stern features could assume an aspect of still greater asperity, it was
+when the interrogator thus continued:--"You were, as you observe, Mr
+S----, an eye-witness to the due subscription of this deed. If I am to
+clear myself from the imputation of unjustifiable curiosity, I must beg
+leave to examine yourself and the surviving witness apart, merely as to
+the minutiĉ of the circumstances under which it was finally completed:
+for instance, was the late Mr---- in bed, or was he sick or well, when
+the deed was executed?"
+
+A cadaverous hue stole over the dark features of the culprit; their
+aspect varying and distorted, in which fear and deadly anger painfully
+strove for pre-eminence.
+
+"And wherefore apart?" said he, with a hideous grin. He stamped suddenly
+on the floor.
+
+"If that summons be for your servant, you might have saved yourself the
+trouble, sir," said his tormentor, with great coolness and intrepidity.
+"Gilbert is at my office, whither I sent him on an errand, thinking he
+would be best out of the way for a while. I find, however, that we shall
+have need of him. It is as well, nevertheless, that he is out of the way
+of signals."
+
+"A base conspiracy!" roared the infuriated villain. "Nephew, how is
+this? And in my own house,--bullied--baited! But I will be revenged--I
+will."
+
+Here he became exhausted with rage, and sat down. On Mr L---- attempting
+to speak, he cried out--"I will answer no questions, and I defy you.
+Gilbert may say what he likes; but he cannot contradict my words. I'll
+speak none."
+
+"These would be strange words, indeed, Mr S------, from an innocent
+man. Know you that WILL?" said the lawyer, in a voice of thunder, and at
+the same time exhibiting the real instrument so miraculously preserved
+from destruction. I shall never forget his first look of horror and
+astonishment. Had a spectre risen up, arrayed in all the terrors of the
+prison-house, he could not have exhibited more appalling symptoms of
+unmitigated despair. He shuddered audibly. It was the very crisis of his
+agony. A portentous silence ensued. Some minutes elapsed before it was
+interrupted. Mr L---- was the first to break so disagreeable a pause.
+
+"Mr S----, it is useless to carry on this scene of duplicity: neither
+party would be benefited by it. _You have forged that deed!_ We have
+sufficient evidence of your attempt to destroy this document I now hold,
+in the very mansion which your unhallowed hands would, but for the
+direct interposition of Providence, have levelled with the dust. On one
+condition, and on one only, your conduct shall be concealed from the
+knowledge of your fellow-men. The eye of Providence alone has hitherto
+tracked the tortuous course of your villany. On one condition, I say,
+the past is for ever concealed from the eye of the world." Another
+pause. My uncle groaned in the agony of his spirit. Had his heart's
+blood been at stake, he could not have evinced a greater reluctance than
+he now showed at the thoughts of relinquishing his ill-gotten wealth.
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Destroy with your own hands that forged testimony of your guilt. Your
+nephew does not wish to bring an old man's grey hairs to an ignominious
+grave."
+
+He took the deed, and, turning aside his head, committed it to the
+flames. He appeared to breathe more freely when it was consumed; but the
+struggle had been too severe even for his unyielding frame, iron-bound
+though it seemed. As he turned trembling from the hearth, he sank into
+his chair, threw his hands over his face, and groaned deeply. The next
+moment he fixed his eyes steadily on me. A glassy brightness suddenly
+shot over them; a dimness followed like the shadows of death. He held
+out his hand; his head bowed; and he bade adieu to the world and its
+interests for ever!
+
+
+
+
+CLITHEROE CASTLE;
+
+OR,
+
+THE LAST OF THE LACIES.
+
+
+      "By that painful way they pass
+    Forth to an hill that was both steep and high;
+      On top whereof a sacred chapel was,
+    And eke a little hermitage thereby."
+
+--SPENSER'S _Fairy Queen_.
+
+Clitheroe, _the hill ly the-waters_, the ancient seat of the Lacies,
+carries back the mind to earlier periods and events--to a rude and
+barbarous age--where justice was dispensed, and tribute paid, by the
+feudatories to their lords, whose power, little less than arbitrary, was
+held directly from the crown.
+
+The Lacies came over with the Conqueror; and, on the defection of Robert
+de Poictou, obtained, as their share of the spoil, sixty knights' fees,
+principally in Yorkshire and Lancashire. For the better maintainence of
+their dignity they built two castles, one at Pontefract, the principal
+residence, and another at Clitheroe. A _great fee_, or great lordship,
+as Pontefract was a possession of the highest order; an honour, or
+seigniory, like Clitheroe, consisting of a number of manors, was the
+next in rank; and these manors were severally held by their subordinate
+lords in dependence on the lord paramount, the lord of the fee or
+honour.
+
+[Illustration: CLITHEROE CASTLE.
+
+_Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden._]
+
+What was the precise aspect of our county when the Normans possessed
+themselves of the land, it might be deemed an effort of the imagination
+perhaps to portray. "Yet," says Dr Whitaker, in one of his happier
+moods, "could a curious observer of the present day carry himself nine
+or ten centuries back, and, ranging the summit of Pendle, survey the
+forked Calder on one side, and the bolder margins of Ribble and Hodder
+on the other, instead of populous towns and villages, the castle, the
+old tower-built house, the elegant modern mansion, the artificial
+plantation, the park and pleasure ground, or instead of uninterrupted
+enclosures, which have driven sterility almost to the summit of the
+fells; how great must then have been the contrast, when, ranging either
+at a distance or immediately beneath, his eye must have caught vast
+tracts of forest ground stagnating with bog or darkened by native
+woods, where the wild ox, the roe, the stag, and the wolf had
+scarcely learned the supremacy of man--when, directing his view to the
+intermediate spaces, to the windings of the valleys, or the expanse of
+plain beneath, he could only have distinguished a few insulated patches
+of culture, each encircling a village of wretched cabins, among which
+would still be remarked one rude mansion of wood, scarcely equal in
+comfort to a modern cottage, yet then rising proudly eminent above the
+rest, where the Saxon lord, surrounded by his faithful cotarii, enjoyed
+a rude and solitary independence, owning no superior but his sovereign.
+
+"This was undoubtedly a state of great simplicity and freedom, such as
+admirers of uncultivated nature may affect to applaud. But although
+revolutions in civil society seldom produce anything better than a
+change of vices, yet surely no wise or good man can lament the
+subversion of Saxon polity for that which followed. Their laws were
+contemptible for imbecility, their habits odious for intemperance; and
+if we can for a moment persuade ourselves that their language has any
+charm, that proceeds less, perhaps, from anything harmonious and
+expressive in itself, or anything valuable in the information it
+conveys, than that it is rare and not of very easy attainment; that it
+forms the rugged basis of our own tongue; and, above all, that we hear
+it loudly echoed in the dialect of our own vulgar. Indeed, the manners
+as well as language of a Lancashire clown often suggest the idea of a
+Saxon peasant; and prove, with respect to remote tracts like these,
+little affected by foreign admixtures, how strong is the power of
+traduction, how faithfully character and propensities may be transmitted
+through more than twenty generations."
+
+The Normans were a more polished, a more abstemious people; as scribes
+and architects they were men to whom this district was greatly indebted.
+Our only castle, our oldest remaining churches, our most curious and
+valuable records, are all Norman.
+
+"Such was the state of property and manners when the house of Lacy
+became possessed of Blackburnshire." The simplicity of the Saxon tenures
+was destroyed. A tract of country, which had been parcelled out among
+twenty-eight lords, now became subject to one; and all the intricacies
+of feodal dependence, all the rigours of feodal exaction, wardships,
+reliefs, escheats, &c., were introduced at once. Yet the Saxon lords,
+though dependent, were not in general actually stripped of their fees.
+By successive steps, however, the origin of all landed property within
+the hundred, some later copyholds excepted, is to be traced to voluntary
+concessions from the Lacies, or their successors of the house of
+Lancaster; not grants of pure beneficence, but requiring personal
+service from the owners, and yearly customs or payments, equivalent at
+that time to their value. Their present worth grew out of the operation
+of causes little understood in these ages either by lord or
+vassal--namely, the certainty of the possession, the diminishing value
+of money, and the perpetuity of the title.
+
+In four generations, or little more than one hundred years, the line of
+the Lacies became extinct; Roger Fitz-Eustace, lord of Halton and
+constable of Chester, coming into possession by right of his grandmother
+Awbrey, uterine sister of Robert de Lacy, the last of this illustrious
+race. Fitz-Eustace, however, took the title of De Lacy; but in the
+fourth descent from him the very name was lost. Henry de Lacy, the last
+and greatest man of his line, dying the 5th February 1310, left one
+daughter only, who had married, during her father's lifetime, Thomas
+Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster--and carried along with her an
+inheritance even then estimated at 10,000 marks per annum. On the earl's
+attainder, the honour of Clitheroe, with the rest of his possessions,
+were forfeited to the crown. After undergoing many changes while it
+continued a member of the Duchy of Lancaster--that is, until the
+restoration of Charles II.--that prince, in consideration of the great
+services of General Monk, whom he created Duke of Albemarle, bestowed it
+upon him and his heirs for ever. Christopher, his son, dying without
+issue, left his estates to his wife, daughter and co-heiress of Henry
+Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle; by her they were bequeathed to her second
+husband, Ralph, Duke of Montague, whose grand-daughter Mary, married
+George, Earl of Cardigan, afterwards Duke of Montague. Elizabeth, his
+daughter, married Henry, Duke of Buccleuch, in whose family the honour
+of Clitheroe is now vested.
+
+Clitheroe Castle is described by Grose as "situated on the summit of a
+conical insulated crag of rugged limestone rock, which suddenly rises
+from a fine vale, in which towards the north, at the distance of
+half-a-mile, runs the Ribble, and a mile to the south stands Pendle
+Hill, which seems to lift its head above the clouds."
+
+In the time of the Commonwealth it was dismantled by order of
+Parliament; the chapel has totally disappeared; and nothing now remains
+but the square keep and some portions of the strong wall by which the
+building was surrounded.[49] The tower, though much undermined, remains
+firm as the rock on which it was built, and forms the principal object
+in our engraving.
+
+It was midnight; and the priest was chanting the service and requiem for
+the dead in the little chapel or chantry of St Michael, which was built
+within the walls of Clyderhow or Clitheroe Castle. The _Dies irĉ_ from
+the surrounding worshippers rose in a simple monotone, like the sound of
+some distant river, now caught on the wing of the tempest, and flung far
+away into the dim and distant void, now rushing on the ear in one deep
+gush of harmony--the voice of Nature, as if her thousand tongues were
+blended in one universal peal of praise and adoration to the great
+Power that called her into being. Many a heart quailed with
+apprehension, many a bosom was oppressed with doubtful and anxious
+forebodings. Robert de Lacy, the last of this illustrious race, fourth
+in descent from Ilbert de Lacy, on whom the Conqueror bestowed the great
+fee of Pontefract, the owner of twenty-eight manors and lord of the
+honour of Clitheroe, was no longer numbered with the living; and here in
+the chapel of this lone fortress, before the dim altar, all that
+remained of this powerful baron, the clay no longer instinct with
+spirit, was soon to be enveloped in the dust, the darkness, and the
+degradation of its kindred earth.
+
+Many circumstances rendered this scene more than usually solemn and
+affecting. Robert de Lacy had died without issue to inherit these
+princely domains, the feudal inheritance of a family whose power had so
+wide a grasp, that it was currently said the Lacies might pass from
+Clitheroe Castle to their fortress at Pontefract, a journey of some
+fifty miles, and rest in a house or hostelrie of their own at every
+pause during their progress.
+
+With him ended the male line of this great family. Failing in issue, he
+had devised all these vast estates to Awbrey, his uterine sister,
+daughter of Robert de Lizours, married to Richard Fitz-Eustace, lord of
+Halton and constable of Chester.
+
+Thus ended the last of his race; and the inheritance had passed to a
+stranger.
+
+The surrounding worshippers were mostly domestics and retainers of the
+family, save Robert de Whalley, the dean of that ancient church,
+supposed to have been founded by Augustine or Paulinus in the seventh
+century, and then called "The White Church under the Leigh." No tidings
+had been heard from the Fitz-Eustace at Halton, and in two days the body
+was to be carried forth on its last pilgrimage to Kirkstall Abbey,
+founded by Henry de Lacy, father of the deceased, about forty years
+prior to this event.
+
+The beginning of February, in the year 1193, when our story commences,
+was an epoch memorable for the base and treacherous captivity of Richard
+Coeur de Lion by the Duke of Austria; and for the equally base and
+treacherous, but short-lived, usurpation of John, the brother of our
+illustrious crusader. The nation was involved in great trouble and
+dismay. The best blood of England and the flower of her nobility had
+perished on the deserts of Palestine, or were pining there in hopeless
+captivity. The house of Fitz-Eustace, into whose possession the estates
+of the Lacies were now merged, had themselves been shorn of a goodly
+scion or two from the family tree during these "holy wars."
+
+Richard Fitz-Eustace, the husband of Awbrey, died about the 24 Hen. II.
+(1178), leaving one son, John, who founded the Cistercian Abbey of
+Stanlaw in Cheshire, the present establishment of Whalley. He was slain
+at Tyre in the crusade, A.D. 1190, the second of the reign of Richard
+I., leaving issue, Richard a leper, and Roger, who followed his father
+to the Holy Land, but of whose fate no tidings had been heard since his
+departure thence on his return to Europe. Besides these were two sons,
+Eustace and Peter, and a daughter named Alice.
+
+Roger Fitz-Eustace and his friend William de Bellamonte--from whom are
+descended the Beaumonts of Whitley-Beaumont, in Yorkshire--had fought
+side by side at the memorable siege of Acre; but whether alive or dead
+the certainty was not yet known, though there might be good grounds for
+the apprehension generally entertained, that they were held in captivity
+by infidels or by princes miscalled Christian, the bitterest enemies to
+the faith they professed.
+
+Clitheroe Castle was built by Roger de Poictou, or, as he is otherwise
+called, Roger Pictavensis, of a noble family in Normandy, and related to
+the Conqueror. He led the centre of William's army at the battle of
+Hastings. King William having given him all the lands between the Mersey
+and the Ribble, he built several castles and fortresses therein,
+providing largely for his followers, from whom are descended many
+families who are still in possession of manors and estates originally
+granted by this unfortunate relative of the Conqueror. He was twice
+deprived of his honours, many of them being escheated to the crown,
+while Clitheroe Castle, together with the great fee of Pontefract, was
+bestowed on Ilbert de Lacy, a Norman follower of William.
+
+In a country not abounding with strong positions, an insulated conical
+rock of limestone rising out of the fertile plain between Penhull
+(Pendle) and the Ribble would naturally attract the attention of the
+invaders. Here, therefore, we find a fortress erected even earlier than
+the castle at Lancaster. The summit of this rock was not sufficiently
+extensive to admit of a spacious building, and probably nothing more was
+at first intended than a temporary retreat and defence from the
+predatory incursions of the Scots. The structure was, however, gradually
+enlarged, and became one of the chief residences of the Lacies. A lofty
+flanking wall ran along the brink of the rock, enclosing the keep and
+adjoining buildings, likewise the chapel of St Michael, coeval with the
+foundation of the castle, and forming part of it, being amply endowed by
+the founder, and license procured from the Dean of Whalley for the
+purpose of having divine service performed and the sacraments
+administered therein, to the household servants, foresters, and
+shepherds, who occupied these extensive and thinly-inhabited domains.
+
+In this little sanctuary now lay the remains of its lord. The cold
+February sleet pattered fitfully against the narrow panes; and the
+shivering mourners muffled themselves in their dark hoods, while they
+knelt devoutly on the hard bare pavement of the chapel. Oliver de
+Worsthorn, the old seneschal, knelt at the foot of the bier; his white
+locks covered his thin features like a veil, hiding their intense and
+heart-withering expression. He felt without a stay or helper in his last
+hours--a sapless, worthless stem in this wilderness of sorrow.
+
+Robert, the Dean of Whalley, attended as chief mourner. Being descended
+from a distant branch of the Lacies, he had long thrown a covetous
+glance towards the inheritance. A frequent guest at the castle, he had
+been useful as an auxiliary in the management and control of the secular
+concerns; the spiritual interests of its head were in the keeping of
+another and more powerful agent, little suspected by the dean of
+applying the influence he had acquired to purposes of secular
+aggrandisement.
+
+It may not be deemed irrelevant that we give a brief outline of the
+constitution or office of dean, as then held by the incumbents of
+Whalley. The beautiful abbey, now in ruins, was not as yet built. Some
+Saxon lord of [Illustration: Dpaellej] had, about the seventh century,
+founded a parish church, dedicated to All Saints, called The White
+Church under the Leigh. The first erection was of wood, many years
+afterwards replaced by a plain building of stone. The rectors or deans
+were also lords of the town, and married men, who held it not by
+presentation from the patron, but as their own patrimonial estate, the
+succession being hereditary. In this manner the deanery of Whalley was
+continued until the Lateran Council, in the year 1215, which, by
+finally prohibiting the marriage of ecclesiastics, put an end to this
+order of hereditary succession, and occasioned a resignation of the
+patronage to the chief lord of the fee, after which the church of
+Whalley sunk, by two successive appropriations, into an impoverished
+vicarage.
+
+Long before the Conquest the advowson had become far more valuable than
+the manor, and the lords, who were also patrons, saw the advantage and
+convenience of qualifying themselves by inferior orders for holding so
+rich a benefice; and thus the manor itself in time ceased to be
+considered as a lay fee, and became confounded with the glebe of the
+church.[50]
+
+The office of dean, at the period in which our history commences, had
+for centuries been considered as a dignity rather secular than
+ecclesiastical, and the pursuits of the incumbent had doubtless
+assimilated generally with those of his lay associates. Indeed, it is
+recorded that Dean Liulphus, in the reign of Canute, had the name of
+Cutwulph, from having cut off a wolf's tail whilst hunting in the
+forest of Rossendale, at a place called Ledmesgreve, or more properly
+Deansgreve. Like many other ancient and dignified ecclesiastics, they
+were mighty hunters, enjoying their privileges unmolested through a vast
+region of forest land then unenclosed, and were only inferior in
+jurisdiction to the feudal lords of these domains. "On the whole, then,
+it appears," says Dr Whitaker, "that the Dean of Whalley was compounded
+of patron, incumbent, ordinary, and lord of the manor; an assemblage
+which may possibly have met in later times, and in some places of exempt
+jurisdiction, but at that time probably an _unique_ in the history of
+the English church."
+
+Robert de Whalley, the incumbent before named, was not a whit behind his
+progenitors in that laudable exercise of worldly wisdom and forethought,
+as it regarded matters of a temporal and transitory nature. His bearing
+was proud, and his aspect keen; his form was muscular, and more fitted
+for some hardy and rigorous exercise than for the generally self-denying
+and peaceful offices of the Catholic Church. In his youth he had the
+reputation of being much disposed to gallantry; and the same proneness
+to intrigue was yet manifest, though employed in pursuits of a less
+transitory nature. His disappointment was, in consequence, greatly
+augmented when these long-coveted possessions were given to another, and
+his ambitious dreams dissipated. Yet was he not without hope that the
+succession of the Fitz-Eustace family might be frustrated. The leper
+would of necessity be passed over, and, Roger being either dead or in
+captivity, the revenues and usurpation of this distant and almost
+inaccessible territory might still be enjoyed without molestation or
+inquiry. Such were the meditations of this plotting ecclesiastic, as he
+knelt before the altar in that solemn hour, in the chapel of "_St
+Michael in Castro_."
+
+The walls of the chapel, or rather chantry, were smeared with black; and
+in front of the screen were portrayed uncouth representations of the
+arms and insignia of the deceased. A pall was thrown over the body, and
+a plate of salt, as an emblem of incorruptibility, placed on the
+corpse--a heathenish custom borrowed from the Druids. The candles burnt
+dimly at the little altar, and the cold and bitter wind threw the
+shadows in many a grotesque and startling shape on the dark bare walls
+which enclosed them. It was an hour and a scene that superstition might
+have chosen for manifesting her power; and many an anxious glance was
+thrown towards the dark recesses out of which imagination was ready to
+conjure some grim spectre, invested with all the horrors that monkish
+legends had created. The priest who officiated was an unbeneficed
+clergyman, long known as an inmate of the castle. He was of a quiet and
+inoffensive disposition, but much attached to his lord; often during the
+service grief stayed his utterance, and he mingled his loud sobs with
+those of the surrounding worshippers.
+
+The _dirage_ was concluded, and vespers for the dead were now commencing
+with the "_Placebo Domino_." The priest with his loud rich voice sang or
+recited the anthem, and the attendants gave the response in a low and
+muttering sound. Just as he was beginning the fumigation with a sign of
+the cross, to drive away demons and unclean spirits from the body,
+suddenly a loud, deep, and startling blast was heard from the horn at
+the outer gate. The whole assembly started up from their devotions, and
+every eye was turned towards the dean, as though to watch and take the
+colour of their proceedings from those of his reverence. He lifted his
+eyes from the corpse, which lay with the face and shoulders uncovered;
+and, as if startled from some bewildering reverie, cried aloud--
+
+"What untimely visitor art thou, disturbing the sad offices of the
+dead?"
+
+He paused, as though the sound of his own voice had disturbed him; while
+wrapping himself in his cloak, he hastily approached Oliver, who stood
+irresolute, not knowing how to act in this unexpected emergency. De
+Whalley pointed towards the door, and the seneschal prepared to obey,
+accompanied by the porter with a light, and one or two attendants.
+
+Immediately outside the chapel the way led down a steep angle of the
+rock, which Oliver, by dint of much use and experience, descended
+without any apparent difficulty, save what arose from the slippery state
+of the path, which rendered the footing more than usually precarious and
+uncertain.
+
+Again, the blast brayed forth a louder and more impatient summons,
+startling the echoes from their midnight slumber, while the deep woods
+answered from a thousand unseen recesses.
+
+"Hang thee for a saucy loon, whoever thou be! I'll warrant thee as much
+impudence in thy face as wind i' thy muzzle," said the disturbed
+seneschal. "Tarry a while, Hugo; ope not the gate without a parley,
+despite the knave's untimely summons."
+
+Oliver, hobbling onward, reached the wicket, just then occupied by
+Hugo's broad and curious face prying out cautiously into the misty and
+unintelligible void, without being a whit the wiser for his scrutiny.
+
+"What a plague do ye keep honest men a-waiting for at the gate," said a
+gruff voice from the pitchy darkness without, "in a night that would
+make a soul wish for a dip into purgatory, just by way of a warming?"
+
+"Hush," said Oliver, who was a true son of the Church, and moreover,
+being fresh from the services appointed for the recovery of poor souls
+from this untoward place, felt the remark of the stranger as peculiarly
+impious and full of blasphemy--"Hush! thou bold-faced scorner, and learn
+to furbish thy wit from some other armoury; we like not such unholy
+jests--firebrands thrown in sport! Thy business, friend?"
+
+"Open the gate, good master priest-poke," said the other, in a tone of
+authority.
+
+"Not until thou showest thine errand," said the equally imperative
+interrogator within; who, having the unequivocal and somewhat ponderous
+advantage of a pair of stout-built and well-furnished gates to back, or
+rather face, him in the controversy, was consequently in a fair way for
+keeping on the strong side of the argument.
+
+"Now, o' my troth, but ye be a pair of rude curs, barking from a warm
+kennel at your betters, who are shivering in the cold, without so much
+as a bone to pick, or a wisp of straw to their tails! Well, well, 'tis
+soon said; every dog, you know,--and 'twill be my turn soon. I come
+hither from the castle at Halton, where my Lady Fitz-Eustace would lay
+your curs' noses to the grinding-stone; but, rest her soul, she will not
+long be above ground, I trow. Know then, masters, I am her seneschal,
+whom she sends with a goodly train to the burying. Quick, old goat-face,
+or we will singe thy beard to light thee to our discovery."
+
+The gates were immediately unbolted at this command, opening wide before
+so dignified a personage, who, as the representative of the
+Fitz-Eustace, was evidently impressed with a sufficient sense of his own
+importance, while he and his attendants rode through the grim Norman
+arch into the courtyard. The uppermost extreme of this illustrious
+functionary was surmounted with a sort of Phrygian-shaped bonnet or cap,
+made of deerskin, suitably ornamented. A mantle or cloak of a dark
+mulberry colour, fancifully embroidered on the hem, was clasped upon one
+shoulder by a silver buckle. Underneath was a short upper riding-tunic
+made of coarse woollen, partly covering an under-vest made of finer
+materials. A leathern girdle was buckled round his loins, having sundry
+implements attached thereto, requisite during the performance of so long
+a journey through a thinly-inhabited region. The upper garment scarcely
+covered the knee, over which stockings of red cloth were seen, reaching
+half-way up the thigh; round the leg were bandages or cross-garterings
+well bespattered with mud; low boots or buskins protected the feet and
+ankles; to these spurs were fastened, the head being spear-shaped and
+something crooked in the shank. His beard was forked, and this
+appendage, apparently the result of a careful and anxious cultivation,
+he occasionally twisted with one hand whilst speaking. He carried a
+lance, or rather hunting-spear, which he wielded with an air of great
+formality and display; his followers were likewise furnished each of
+them with a cloak and tunic, and a conical cap of coarse felt tied under
+the chin with a leathern band: a girdle of the same material was buckled
+round the waist, with a scrip and other necessaries for the journey.
+They rode horses of the Welsh breed, small and stout-built; spoil
+captured, in all probability, from that rebellious and unruly nation.
+
+The entry of this armed train was more like an act of taking possession
+than that of a peaceable and formal embassage; and the newly-arrived
+seneschal soon began to exercise the office of governor or castellan,
+seizing the reins of government with an iron grasp. He was a square
+carroty-headed personage, about the middle size, and of a ruddy aspect.
+He held an office of trust under the Fitz-Eustace, and, spite of his
+saucy garrulity, in which he indulged on most occasions, he was
+faithful, and would have challenged and immolated any one who had dared
+to question the right of the Fitz-Eustace to precedence before any other
+baron of the land. Long service rendered him more intrusive than would
+have been thought becoming, or even excusable in any other enjoying less
+of his mistress's confidence.
+
+"Now, my merry men all," said this authoritative personage, "a long and
+a weary path have we ridden to-day; and had we not been, as it were,
+lost in your savage wildernesses--where our guide, whom we forced before
+us by dint of blows and hard usage, could scarce keep us in the right
+track--we had been here before sunset. Thanks to this saint of yours,
+whosoever he be, for we saw the watchlights at times from the chapel, as
+we guessed, else had we been longer in hitting our mark, and might,
+peradventure, have supped with the wolves on a haunch of venison. Now
+for the stables. What! have ye no knaves hereabout to help our followers
+with the beasts?"
+
+Oliver, much troubled at this loquacious and unceremonious address,
+replied with some acrimony--
+
+"The household are in the chapel, where it had been better thou hadst
+let us bide, and given the corpse a quiet watchnight--the vigils for the
+dead are not ended."
+
+"Go to, master seneschal, for of this post I do adjudge thee, and
+reverence thine office in respect of mine own, but let dead men make
+their own lanterns; we must have supper anyhow, and that right
+speedily."
+
+Oliver, after seeing the gate secured, sent Hugo for help, whilst he led
+the way himself into the hall of this once formidable fortress. It was
+high and gloomy, the fire being apparently extinguished. A step on the
+floor showed where the higher table was placed, prohibiting those
+beneath a certain rank from advancing upon the skirts of their
+superiors; an indispensable precaution, when servants and retainers of
+all sorts ate their meals with the master of the feast. Perches for
+hawks, in form like unto a crutch, were placed behind his chair; for
+these birds were usually taught to sit hoodless in the evening among
+company undisturbed. Hunting-spears, jackets, chain-armour, shields, and
+helmets, decorated the walls; and many a goodly heritage of antlers
+hung, like forest boughs stripped of their verdure. There were two
+oriels furnished with leaning-stones for the convenience of loungers.
+Painted glass filled the higher portions of the windows, representing
+uncouth heads, hands, feet, and bodies of saints, in all the glowing and
+gorgeous magnificence which the beam of heaven can give to colours of
+more than earthly brightness, though disposed in forms of more than
+childish absurdity.
+
+The hall, the usual rendezvous of the household, was now deserted for
+the dread solemnities of that cheerless night. But the stranger was much
+discouraged by reason of the coldness and gloom, shivering audibly at
+the comfortless appearance that was before him.
+
+"St Martin's malison light on ye--fire, billets, and all--I've seen
+nothing like to warm my bare nose and knuckles since we left Halton, two
+long days agone. Verily, to my thinking, there's as much timber burnt
+there daily as ye would pile here for a winter's use."
+
+"Prithee come with me into the kitchen, we may have better quarters
+peradventure among the fleshpots," said Oliver, leading the stranger
+through a small doorway on the left. This _coquinus_ of our ancestors
+was usually placed near the hall, for the convenience of serving. Here,
+through a sliding aperture in the panel, the victuals were transferred
+with safety and despatch. It was built entirely of stone, having a
+conical roof with a turret at the top for the escape of steam and smoke.
+A fire was still burning, provided with a large cauldron suspended on a
+sort of versatile gibbet, by which contrivance it could be withdrawn
+from the flame. Fire-rakes and fire-jacks were laid on the hearth, and
+around the walls were iron pots, trivets, pans, kettles, ladles,
+platters, and other implements of domestic economy. Huge dressers
+displayed symptoms of preparation for to-morrow's necessities, and a
+coarse kitchen-wench was piling fuel on the ever-burning fire.
+
+The envoy, glad to be ensconced so near the blaze, quickly addressed
+himself to the task of improving it by a dexterous use of a huge faggot
+by way of poker. He had thrown off his upper clothing; and the grim
+walls soon reddened with the rising glow. So intent was he on an
+occupation which he evidently enjoyed, that he was not aware when Oliver
+departed, the latter slipping off unobserved to the chapel for the
+purpose of informing the dean of this arrival.
+
+In one part of the kitchen was a long low-roofed recess, accessible only
+by a ladder, wherein dried meats, consisting of bacon, ham, deers'
+tongues, mutton, venison, and other dainties of the like nature, were
+stored. To this inviting receptacle was the attention of our guest more
+especially directed. Without ceremony or invitation he ascended, and
+drawing out a formidable weapon from his belt he commenced a furious
+attack.
+
+Oliver, on his return, found this worthy usurping the functions of both
+cook and consumer of the victual with great assiduity. He was
+accompanied by the dean, who addressed the intruder as follows:--
+
+"How is it that we have none from the noble house of Fitz-Eustace save
+thou and thy company?"
+
+The messenger looked askance from his occupation, disposing of a large
+mouthful of the viands with sufficient deliberation ere he vouchsafed a
+reply.
+
+"Me and my company! As goodly a band, I trow, as ever put foot to
+stirrup or fist to crupper! yet will I resolve thy question plain as
+Beeston Castle. My lady is old, and her only son died long ago on a
+crusade. Her third grandson, now in the office of constable, is out
+amongst the Welsh--plague on their fiery blood!--by reason of the
+absence of his elder brother, Roger, yet abroad in these Holy Wars. Of
+the eldest born, Richard, we know not but that he is deceased. He left
+the castle many years ago, sorely afflicted, for he was a leper. So
+that, peradventure, my lady hath sent the best man she had, inasmuch as
+I am steward and seneschal, being appointed thereto through her
+ladyship's great wisdom and discretion."
+
+Here he surveyed himself with an air of indescribable assurance and
+satisfaction.
+
+"And, saving your presence," continued the deputy, "I come here as
+castellan, or governor, until he whose right it is shall possess it."
+
+"And how know we that we be not opening our gates and surrendering our
+castle to some losel knave, whose only title may lie on the tip of his
+tongue, and his right on the end of his rapier?"
+
+"By this token," said the seneschal haughtily, at the same time drawing
+out a formal instrument, to which was appended the broad seal of the
+ancient house of Fitz-Eustace.
+
+The dean cast his eyes over the document, returning it to the messenger
+without either answer or inquiry, and immediately retired from the
+presence of this usurper on his long-coveted possessions.
+
+Much chagrined by so unexpected an interference, he left the castle,
+even at this untimely hour. Yet his footsteps were not bent towards the
+shadow of his own roof, the deanery at Whalley.
+
+Outside the castle wall, and on the steepest side of the hill, was a
+little hermitage, wherein dwelt one of those reputed saints that dealt
+in miracles and prayers for the benefit of the "true believers." Many of
+these solitaries were well skilled in craft and intrigue; others,
+doubtless, deceived themselves as well as others in the belief that
+Heaven had granted them the power to suspend and control the operations
+of nature. To this habitation, occupied by one of these holy santons of
+the Church, were the steps of the dean immediately directed. He raised
+the latch as though accustomed to this familiarity. The chamber, a high
+narrow cell, scooped out of the rock, was quite dark; but the voice was
+heard, a deep sepulchral tone, as though issuing from the ground--
+
+"Art thou here so soon, De Whalley?"
+
+"Sir Ulphilas," said the intruder hastily, and with some degree of
+agitation, "canst work miracles now? The Canaanites are come into the
+land to possess it; nor will threatenings and conjurations drive them
+forth."
+
+"I know it," said the hermit, who, though unseen, had not, it seems,
+been an inattentive observer of the events of the last two hours. A
+light suddenly shot forth, enkindled as if by magic, showing the tall
+gaunt form of the "Holy Hermit of the Rock." He was dressed in a long
+grey garment of coarse woollen. It was said that he wore an iron corslet
+next his skin, for mortification, it was thought by the vulgar; but
+whether for this purpose, or for one of a more obvious nature, it would
+perhaps be easy to surmise. A girdle of plaited horse-hair encompassed
+his thin attenuated form. His head was uncovered; and he seemed to have
+just risen from his couch, a board or shelf, raised only a few inches
+from the rock on which it lay. His eye was wild, quick, and sparkling;
+but his cheek was deadly pale, and his features collapsed and haggard in
+their expression.
+
+"I have dreamed a dream," said the visionary.
+
+"And to what end?" inquired his visitor, seating himself with great
+deliberation.
+
+"Nay, 'twas not a dream," continued the hermit: "St Michael stood before
+me this blessed night, arrayed as thou seest him portrayed in the glass
+of his holy chapel above. His armour was all bright and glistering, and
+his sword a devouring flame. He flapped his wings thrice ere he
+departed, and said unto me, 'Arise, Ulphilas, and work, for thine hour
+is come!'"
+
+"And what the better am I," said the irreverent priest, "for this
+saintly revelation? I must work too, or "------
+
+"Hold," said the hermit, laying his hand on the other's shoulder with
+great solemnity; "speak not unadvisedly with thy lips; there be created
+intelligences within hearing that thou little knowest of."
+
+"Thou didst promise; but verily the substance hath slidden from my
+grasp: whilst I, fond fool, embraced a shadow. Cajoled by thine
+assurance, that my blood should be with the proud current that inherits
+these domains, I forebore, and let thee work. But thou hast been a
+traitor to my cause I do verily suspect, nay, accuse thee of this fraud.
+Thy machinations and thy counsel were the cause. By thine accursed arts
+Robert de Lacy hath left his patrimony to a stranger!"
+
+"True, I counselled him thus. What then?"
+
+"I and mine are barred from the inheritance!"
+
+"Shall the word of the Hermit of the Rock fall to the ground? Have I not
+promised that thy blood shall be with those that inherit these domains?"
+
+"Promises are slender food for an hungry stomach," cried the unbeliever.
+
+"If the promise fail, blame thy dastardly fears, and not my power. Thou
+shalt see the promised land thou shalt not inherit. Thy son shall
+receive the blessing."
+
+The dean looked for a moment as though he could have fawned and
+supplicated for a reversion of the decree; but pride or anger had the
+mastery.
+
+"And so," cried he, "thou findest thy predictions run counter to thy
+schemes, perdie; for thou dost mock me in them with a double sense."
+
+"How, false one? Have I not wrought for thee? Hath not he, whose corpse
+now resteth in hope, overwhelmed thee with his favours through my
+counsel and contrivance? I owed thee a service, for thou wast my stay
+and sustenance when driven hither an outcast from the haunts of men. But
+thoughtest thou that I should pander to thy lust, and hew out a pathway
+to thy desire?"
+
+"To me this!" said the covetous intruder, his voice quivering with rage.
+
+"Yes, to thee, Robert de Whalley," replied the hermit: "because thou
+hast not leaped the last height of thine ambition, forsooth--because
+thou art not lord of these wide domains, through my interest and holy
+communion with the departed--and because I have not basely sold myself
+to thee, thou art offended. Beware lest the endowment be wrested from
+thy grasp, the glebe and manor pass away from thine inheritance."
+
+"Thou hadst the privity and counsel of the deceased, and a whisper would
+have made it mine," said the dean, with great dejection.
+
+"Greedy and unblushing as thou art, know it was I who counselled him,
+and the deed is in my keeping. I sent a secret message unto Halton with
+the news, and Roger de Fitz-Eustace will be here anon!"
+
+"Thou dreamest; he is in bondage, or slain at Ascalon."
+
+"He will reappear," replied the hermit, "and the banner of the
+Fitz-Eustace wave on yonder turret. Hence! ungrateful member of our holy
+communion;--to thy house, and let an old man rest in peace."
+
+The disappointed priest departed in great haste: terror, of which he
+could not divest himself, and for which he could not account,
+overpowered him in the presence of the hermit. He durst not provoke him
+further; but as he crossed the courtyard again a glimpse of hope shot
+suddenly on his soul.
+
+"In thy keeping!" He spoke scarcely above his breath; but the walls
+seemed to give back the sound. He started like some guilty thing at the
+discovery of its crime.
+
+Before morning light on the following day the castle bell began to toll.
+Preparations were making for the conveyance of the last of the Ladies to
+the Abbey of Kirkstall, a journey which would occupy the greater part of
+two successive days. The pathway over the hills was narrow, and the mode
+of conveyance difficult, if not dangerous. A sort of litter was made for
+the corpse, and slung on a pole between two horses, covered, as in a
+bier, with the pall and trappings. A sword of ceremony was carried in
+front; the dean rode immediately before the body, the chanters
+preceding, and a priest with the cross and censer. Behind came the male
+domestics, and the seneschal of Halton with his train.
+
+Psalms were sung at every halting-place, and in the villages through
+which they passed, and torches were kept lighted during the greater part
+of the journey. These were for the purpose of being extinguished in the
+earth that should finally cover the body.
+
+Thus attired, and thus attended, was this once powerful baron conveyed
+to his narrow dwelling-house in the dust.
+
+We will not follow them further, nor detail the pomp of the funeral
+rites, that last mockery of greatness, but return to existing objects
+and events--man's ever-gnawing ambition; so vast, when living, that the
+whole earth is too narrow for its sphere; when dead, the veriest churl
+hath as wide a possession!
+
+Weeks and months passed away, and the raw February wind grew soft in the
+warm and joyous impulse of another spring. One night, about the hour of
+vespers, two men, habited in monkish apparel, came to the cell of the
+Hermit of the Rock. After the usual salutation they entered, carrying
+with them staff and scrip, as if bent on a long and weary travel.
+
+"Whence come ye, and whither bound?" said the hermit, surveying the
+intruders by the light of a solitary lamp that was burning in a niche,
+wherein stood a skull and crucifix, emblems of our faith and our
+mortality.
+
+"We are from the Abbey of Stanlaw, on our way to Kirkstall in the
+morning."
+
+"Wherefore abide ye here? There is lodging and better cheer withal in
+the castle above."
+
+"We are under a vow, and rest not save on holy ground: we crave thy
+hospitality, therefore, and shelter for the night."
+
+"Is your errand to Kirkstall hidden, or is it an open embassage?"
+
+"The Lady Fitz-Eustace sendeth greeting by our ministry unto the holy
+abbot through our superior at Stanlaw, beseeching that he would make
+diligent inquiry touching the will of Robert de Lacy, once lord of this
+goodly heritage. She hath had news of his demise, and likewise another
+message with an assurance that every of these possessions have been
+devised to the Fitz-Eustace by his last will and testament. Yet this
+writing she has not yet seen, nor knoweth she into whose custody it hath
+been given. Apprehending the great favours which the Cistercian house at
+Kirkstall hath received from the Lacies, and the close intimacy which
+the abbot once enjoyed, she doth conjecture that, in all likelihood, the
+testament is in his keeping."
+
+"Your journey hath need of none other reference, for the will is in my
+custody."
+
+"In thine, Sir Ulphilas?"
+
+"How! know ye my name already?" said the hermit sharply, and a fierce
+glance shot from under his high and pallid brow.
+
+"Holy St Agatha! and has not the fame and sanctity of the Hermit of the
+Rock gone forth to many lands! Where the broad Mersey and the silver Dee
+roll their bright waters, thou art known by thy holiness and thy faith."
+
+"And how is our good brother Roger, abbot of your monastery at Stanlaw?"
+inquired the hermit, not deigning to notice their fulsome and flattering
+epithets.
+
+"Holy Virgin! how knowest thou his name?"
+
+"And hath not the fame of your holy abbot, and the sanctity of your
+house, reached us even here?" said the hermit, with a look of scrutiny
+and scorn. The visitors were silent. The hermit seized the lamp, and
+surveyed their persons with much care and deliberation.
+
+"Holy father," said the abashed intruders, "we crave thy blessing, and
+moreover a share of thy pittance, for our way hath been long and
+toilsome: since yesterday our journeying hath been over hills and
+through deep forests, infested by wolves and noisome beasts, which we
+had much ado to escape."
+
+The hermit drew a little table from the recess, blowing the wan embers
+until a cheerful blaze flashed brightly through the cell. He then opened
+a cupboard scooped out of the solid rock, and took thence a scrap of
+hard cheese, a barley cake, and a few parched peas, with which the holy
+men commenced their supper. They ate their meal in silence, washing down
+the dainties with a draught from the spring. When the repast was
+finished, one of the brethren thus addressed his host--
+
+"And what shall be thy message to our holy abbot? Wilt thou send the
+parchments to his grace?"
+
+"Nay, brethren, that is not my purpose."
+
+Another and a brief pause ensued.
+
+"But the message?"
+
+"Say that the will is here,"--he looked towards his bosom as he
+spoke,--"and at the appointed hour it shall be ready. When Roger de
+Fitz-Eustace comes hither, his claim shall be duly certified."
+
+"Alas!" said the wayfaring guests, in a tone of deep sorrow and
+apprehension, "he went on a warfare against the infidels."
+
+"He will return," was the reply.
+
+"The Virgin grant him a safe deliverance! but he tarrieth long, and a
+rumour hath lately been abroad that he fell at Ascalon."
+
+"'Tis false!" cried the hermit, roused to an unexpected burst of wrath.
+His eyes kindled with rage, and he darted a glance at the intruders
+which made them cower and shrink from his rebuke. In a moment he grew
+calm, relapsing into his usual moody and thoughtful attitude. Taking
+courage, they again addressed him.
+
+"Is this thy message to the abbot of Stanlaw? If so, our errand hath but
+a sorry recompense."
+
+"And what recompense should fall to the lot of miscreants like ye?" said
+the hermit, surveying them with a contemptuous glance. "I hear the sound
+of your master's feet behind ye. Tell Robert, the proud Dean of Whalley,
+that when he sends ye next on so goodly an errand, to see that ye con
+your lesson more carefully, else will ye be known for a couple of errant
+knaves as ever went a-mousing into an owl's nest! Hence, begone!" said
+the hermit, as he drave them from his threshold; and the counterfeit
+monks went back to Whalley in haste, reporting the ill success of their
+mission.
+
+"Nevertheless," said De Whalley, "I have some clue to the search, if
+the glance of his eye, which these varlets have reported, do show truly
+where the treasure is hidden. I will foil the old fox yet with his own
+weapons."
+
+This comfortable reflection, in all probability, moderated his anger at
+the unskilful disposition of his messengers, whom he dismissed with
+little ceremony from his presence.
+
+In the meantime the new castellan was exercising his power with
+unsparing and immoderate severity. Oliver de Wortshorn was almost
+heartbroken; the old man suddenly found himself reduced to the condition
+of a mere dependant on the self-will and caprice of this petty tyrant,
+his authority having been usurped, and his office wrested from him, by
+the hand of a stranger. Adam de Dutton[51] was the name of this new
+functionary, and he rode it out bravely over the necks of the servants
+and retainers, discharging some, punishing others, and making the whole
+community groan beneath the iron yoke of his oppression. Had there been
+a master-spirit to wield the elements of conspiracy, and unite the
+several members, so as to act from one common impulse, matters were just
+ripe for rebellion.
+
+Early in the morning, after a day of more than ordinary discipline,
+Oliver bent his feeble steps to the hermitage. He laid his complaints
+before the occupier of the cell, who was ever ready to administer aid
+and comfort to the afflicted.
+
+"Take little heed of the deputy now," said the holy man, "his master
+will be here anon. I hear the tramp of armed men, with the herald's
+trumpet. I see the red griffin, and the banner of the Fitz-Eustace."
+
+"But, holy father, Sir Ulphilas," replied the ejected steward, "there is
+no peace either by night or day, and we are nigh worn out with his
+waywardness and oppression. If it might be that your reverence would
+come with me, peradventure the churl would grow tame at your presence."
+
+The hermit, complying with this importunity, accompanied Oliver to the
+castle.
+
+In the hall Adam de Dutton was about consigning one of the villains,
+for some venial offence, unto the whipping-post and the stocks. The
+accused besought his inexorable judge for some remission of the
+sentence, falling on his knees before him just as the hermit, with great
+solemnity, entered the hall. His face was partly concealed by a large
+hood, and little of his countenance was visible above the long beard
+which flowed over his bosom, and the fire of his eye, which seemed to
+glow through the dark shadows beneath.
+
+"Whom bring ye next for our disposal?" inquired the castellan; but there
+was no answer; every eye was directed to the hermit, who came slowly
+forward, standing opposite to, and within a very short distance from,
+the dread arbiter of justice in the castle of the Lacies.
+
+"What brings thee to our presence? Back to thy sanctuary; else we may
+deal with thee as with other knaves who live by their wits and the
+witlessness of fools."
+
+"What hath this man done amiss?" inquired the hermit, in a tone that
+showed his meekness to be disturbed, and his wrath evidently kindling;
+nor would the thunder be long ere it followed the flash.
+
+"It is our pleasure!" answered Adam de Dutton, reddening with rage; "and
+furthermore our pleasure is, that thou get thee to thy cell, or, by the
+beard of St Michael, my bowmen shall help thee thither when this fellow
+hath had his allowance at their hands."
+
+"Fool!" cried the hermit, in a voice which struck terror through the
+assembly; and even the judge himself started back with amazement.
+
+"Begone, child!" said Ulphilas to the culprit; "I dismiss thee of the
+punishment; peradventure thou hast deserved to suffer, but I give to
+this emissary a timely warning thereby."
+
+The criminal was not loth to obey, disappearing speedily without
+hindrance, while the spectators were mute with amazement. The hermit,
+too, was silent before the usurper, who, almost frantic with vexation,
+cried out--
+
+"Seize him!--help, for the Fitz-Eustace!--treason against our Lady of
+Halton!"
+
+Uttering many rapid and incoherent expressions, he approached the
+hermit, who stood unmoved, apparently the only unconcerned spectator in
+the rising tumult. The seneschal's guards were already in motion, but
+Adam was the first who attempted the seizure.
+
+The holy man drew back, as though from some touch of pollution.
+
+"Hold!" cried he, "one touch and 'tis thy last. Rash fool, thou hast
+provoked this rebuke!"
+
+The hand of the seneschal had scarcely been put forth, when, lo! the
+astonished deputy shrank back in dismay. A sudden change came over his
+angry countenance--a look of surprise mingled with horror, as though he
+could have wished the earth to gape and hide him from the object of his
+apprehensions. He stood trembling, speechless, pale as ashes, expecting
+immediate and condign punishment. So suddenly this change was wrought
+that the spectators fancied it to be some direct interposition from
+heaven; concluding that he was smitten for the sacreligious and profane
+hand he had dared to stretch toward this holy man. Yet was the change
+not so sudden but that a quick-eyed observer, if such were there, might
+have seen the hermit's outer garment loosened for a moment, and a
+significant whisper which the other evidently heard with such visible
+tokens of alarm.
+
+Ulphilas immediately retired to his cell, and from that hour the
+castellan discharged his official duties evidently under the control of
+some overmastering influence or apprehension.
+
+Not long afterwards it was rumoured abroad that tidings had been heard
+from Roger de Fitz-Eustace, who was supposed either to be in captivity
+or to have fallen at the siege of Ascalon.
+
+The king was still detained in prison by the Emperor Henry VI., and it
+was only through the remonstrance of the German princes, and a threat of
+excommunication from the Pope, that Henry, finding he could no longer
+hold him in durance, concluded a treaty for his ransom at the exorbitant
+sum of 150,000 marks, about £300,000 of our money; of which sum
+two-thirds were to be paid before he received his liberty, and
+sixty-seven hostages delivered for the remainder. The captivity of the
+superior lord was one of those cases provided for by the feudal tenures,
+and all vassals were, in that event, obliged to contribute towards his
+ransom. Twenty shillings were therefore levied on each knight's fee
+throughout England; but as this money came in slowly, and was not
+sufficient for the intended purpose, the voluntary zeal of the people
+readily supplied the deficiency.
+
+The churches and monasteries melted down their plate to the amount of
+30,000 marks; the bishops, abbots, and nobles paid a fourth of their
+yearly rent; the parochial clergy contributed a tenth of their tithes;
+and the requisite sum being thus collected, the queen-mother and Walter,
+Archbishop of Rouen, set out with it to Germany, paid the money to the
+emperor and the Duke of Austria at Mentz, delivered to them hostages for
+the remainder, and freed Richard from captivity.[52]
+
+During these important negotiations two messengers arrived at Clitheroe,
+who in consequence of the deputy's absence for a season, held a secret
+conference with the Dean of Whalley ere they departed. An order was left
+that the castle should be forthwith in readiness for the reception of
+some distinguished guest. In those days tidings travelled slowly in such
+thinly-populated districts; like the heath-fire, which extends rapidly
+where the fuel is thickly strewn, but is tardy in spreading where it is
+less abundant.
+
+The dean, having received the messengers, took special care that the
+knowledge of their arrival should be kept, if possible, from the ears
+and eyes of Adam de Dutton, who happened for several days at that season
+to be hunting in the forest, where a mighty slaughter of game--wolves,
+bears, and such like--was the result; in which dangerous pastime,
+Geoffery, the dean's only son, acted a distinguished part. This bold
+adventurer was accounted the most skilful hunter in the whole range of
+these vast forests, where the venison was so strictly kept that the life
+of a man was held in but little estimation, comparatively, with the care
+and preservation of a beast.
+
+The Deans of Whalley, as we have before seen, were mighty hunters in
+those days; and a wild and picturesque story is told in Dugdale's _Mon.
+Angl._. v. i., to which we have before alluded--to wit, that the
+great-grandfather of the present incumbent, Liwlphus Cutwolph, cut off a
+wolf's tail whilst hunting, from which he acquired this surname.
+Geoffery inherited a more than ordinary passion for the chase. With his
+bow and hunting-spear he had been known to spend many days in these deep
+and trackless recesses, where the feet of man rarely trod, and the wild
+roe and the eagle had their almost inaccessible haunts. Adam was often
+his only companion; the seneschal's partiality for the sport having
+rendered these dissimilar spirits more akin than their nature had
+otherwise permitted.
+
+On the evening of a sultry day Ulphilas had thrown himself on his couch,
+when, without warning or intimation, the Dean of Whalley stood beside
+him.
+
+"The holy hermit hath betaken himself early to his repose. How fareth he
+in this hard cell? 'Tis long since we have met."
+
+"Peradventure it might have been longer, had not news travelled to thine
+ear touching the safety of the Fitz-Eustace and his speedy arrival,"
+said the hermit, without so much as turning his eyes toward his visitor.
+Robert de Whalley stood silent and aghast. This was a direct and
+unequivocal testimony to the prescience of the good father, for to no
+ears but his own had the tidings been communicated.
+
+"Thou knowest of his return?"
+
+"Yes, ere the knowledge was thine," said the hermit carelessly.
+
+"There is little use in secrecy where the very walls possess a tongue;
+and seeing that the first part of mine errand is known, it may be thou
+art as well instructed in the latter, which is the true purport of my
+visit."
+
+"I am," replied the other quickly, now for the first time fixing his
+eyes on the intruder, "and of the issue too, I trow."
+
+"Ah!" said the dean, with a long-drawn exclamation of surprise, and a
+sudden gasp as though he would have held the secret more tightly to his
+bosom; "and who"--
+
+"Nay, thou art but obeying the impulse of thy nature," said the hermit,
+musing. "The brutes ye hunt obey their common instinct--and thou--Yet
+the ravening wolf and the cunning fox ye follow, and worry to their
+death."
+
+"Death!" cried the dean; "what meanest thou?"
+
+"Did I not counsel thee to beware? But thou wilt tumble into thine own
+pitfall. The trap is laid for thine own feet!"
+
+The hermit sat on the low couch, and he gazed wildly round the cell as
+though pursuing some object visible only to himself.
+
+"Give me the parchments committed to thy trust by De Lacy, and I will
+build a house to thy good saint, enriching it with rare endowments."
+
+"Thou wouldest drive a thrifty bargain with Heaven. Verily thou
+shouldst have the best on 't, though," replied the hermit, with a
+contemptuous smile.
+
+"Truly I could but return to Heaven the bounties that it gave; yet would
+I, peradventure, build, for His honour and glory, to whom all things
+belong, a habitation, the like whereof hath not been seen for
+stateliness and grandeur," said the dean, with affected reverence and
+humility of spirit.
+
+"Others may do that as well as thou."
+
+"But will he, whose coming is now at hand, make so costly a sacrifice
+for the welfare of the Church? I will found an abbey, holy father,
+consecrate to thy patron, wherein thou shalt be the ruler. I purpose to
+enrich it with half my possessions, even of those whereby, through thy
+ministry, I do become entitled from the death of Robert de Lacy."
+
+"Which meaneth, if I but aid thee to rob another of some large and
+goodly inheritance, thou wilt give to Heaven, forsooth, a portion of
+what belongs not to thee."
+
+"Once thou didst promise me thine aid."
+
+"To robbery and rapine?"
+
+"I have not wronged _thee_!"
+
+"Nor I"--
+
+"Thou hast; the inheritance is mine; thou hast robbed me of my right,
+but I will regain these lands or perish on them."
+
+"And so thou mayest, unblushing traitor."
+
+"Traitor!--ah! this word to me?"
+
+"Yes, to thee, Robert de Whalley!"
+
+"Thou art in my power, old man; ere I entered thy cell I left a trusty
+keeper at the door," cried the dean, with a grin of savage exultation.
+
+"In thy power!--never, miscreant."
+
+"Give the deed to my keeping, and no harm shall happen thee; refuse, and
+thou art my prisoner. Force may accomplish my wishes without thy
+compliance."
+
+The hermit's eyes glistened like twin fires in their hollow recesses. He
+stood erect, confronting his visitor, who, bold in audacity and guilt,
+repeated his demand.
+
+"Never!" said the hermit.
+
+"Then die, fond dotard!" cried De Whalley; and, sudden as the
+lightning-stroke, he drew a dagger from his vest, aiming a blow at the
+hermit's bosom; but, marvellous to relate, the steel hardly penetrated
+the folds of his drapery, glancing back with a dull sound, his person
+remaining uninjured. A look of unutterable scorn curled the features of
+the charmed, and apparently invulnerable, being before him.
+
+"Cowardly assassin!" he cried, "I hold thy threats at less worth than a
+handful of this base dust beneath my feet, and utterly defy thy power. I
+am free as the untrammelled air, and thou mayest as well attempt to
+grasp the shadow or the sunbeam!"
+
+Swift as the words he uttered the hermit disappeared! The effect was so
+sudden, aided, in all likelihood, by the dimness and obscurity of the
+cell, that, to the astonished apprehension of De Whalley, Ulphilas had
+made himself more impalpable than the air he breathed, sinking like a
+shadow through the rocky floor.
+
+"Thou hast escaped me, fiend," said the dean, gnashing his teeth with
+vexation; "but I will overmatch thy spells: with the aid of this good
+hand I may yet retrieve the inheritance."
+
+Saying this, he left the cell, and returned to his home at Whalley.
+
+Early on the morrow the hermit entered the hall where Adam de Dutton was
+preparing for another expedition to the forest. The seneschal looked
+uneasy and surprised, but acknowledged his presence with great respect
+and humility.
+
+"Adam de Dutton, thou hast other work to do," cried the holy man, "than
+rambling after these fools i' the forest! Thy lord will be here anon."
+
+"How! whom meanest thou?" inquired the castellan, with a vacant stare of
+astonishment.
+
+"Roger de Fitz-Eustace. He is at hand; see thou prepare to meet him."
+
+"Surely thou mockest, Roger de"--
+
+"Peace! The last beam of to-morrow's sun shall see the banner of the
+Fitz-Eustace beneath the gate."
+
+"To-morrow! Why--how cometh my lord? Surely thou dreamest--or thy"--
+
+"Once more I warn thee of his coming; see to his reception, or thy lord
+will be wroth; and Roger with the ready hand was not used to be
+over-nice, or loth in the administering of a rod to a fool's back."
+
+The hermit departed without awaiting the reply.
+
+But great was the stir and tumult in the stronghold of the Lacies on
+that memorable day. The hurrying to and fro of the victuallers and
+cooks--the clink of armourers and the din of horses prancing in their
+warlike equipments--kept up an incessant jingle and confusion. A
+watchman was stationed on the keep, whose duty it was to give warning
+when the dust, curling on the wind, should betoken the approach of
+strangers. The guards were set, the gates properly mounted, and the
+drawbridge raised, so that their future lord might be admitted in due
+form to his possession.
+
+The sun went gloriously down towards the wide and distant verge of the
+forest, and the brow of Pendle flung back his burning glance. Nature
+seemed to welter in a wide atmosphere of light, from which there was no
+escape. Panting and oppressed, the hounds lay basking by the wall, and
+the shaggy wolf-dog crept, with slouching gait and lolling tongue, from
+the glare into the shadow of some protecting buttress. The watchman sat
+beneath the low battlements, hardly able to direct his aching eyes
+towards the forest path below the hill. The monotony of this dull and
+weary task was reiterated until the very effort became habitual, and he
+could scarcely recognise or identify any change of object from the
+absorption of his faculties by the listlessness it created. One slight
+curl of dust had already escaped him, another waved softly above the
+trees where the path wound upwards from the valley. Again it was
+visible, and the watchman seemed to awaken as from a lethargy or a
+dream. Strangers were surely approaching, but without retinue, as the
+wreath of dust, from its slight continuance, would seem to intimate.
+Just as he came to this conclusion, two horsemen swept into view, where
+a broad turn of the road was visible, disappearing again rapidly behind
+the arched boughs of the forest.
+
+Bounding almost headlong down the narrow stair, he ran immediately to
+the hall, informing the deputy of what he had seen. Scarce had he
+concluded when a hoarse blast from the horn rang at the outer gate. Adam
+de Button hurried to the postern, where he saw two horsemen, bearing
+unequivocal signs of their allegiance to the renowned constable of
+Chester. They wore what was then considered a great novelty in dress,
+the tabord or _supertotus_, a sleeveless garment, consisting of only two
+pieces, which hung down before and behind, the sides being left
+open.[53] Low-crowned yellow caps covered their heads, and the upper
+tunic was yellow, richly embroidered, reaching only to the knees. They
+wore forked beards, well pointed, and gloves and boots of beautiful
+Spanish leather. Their horses were low, but of an exquisite symmetry,
+and the beasts were pawing and champing before the gate when Adam
+hastened down into the courtyard. These were avant couriers or
+messengers from Roger de Fitz-Eustace, whom they announced as being
+nigh, and to be expected ere nightfall, with his daughter Maud, a maiden
+much renowned for her beauty.
+
+As the sun sank deeper into the gloom of the woods, and the shadows grew
+long on the green and sunny slope of the hill, the wild shrill notes of
+a clarion rung through the forest glades; a distant burst of martial
+music was heard, together with the roll of a drum--an instrument
+borrowed from the Saracens, and in use only after the crusades.
+
+Now went forth Adam de Dutton and his train bareheaded to meet their
+lord, whom they found riding at a slow pace, conversing familiarly, but
+attentively, with the Dean of Whalley. Behind him came the blushing Maud
+on a beautiful white palfrey, and beside her a comely youth, in a fair
+hunting-suit, the son of De Whalley, who, by his fervid and impassioned
+glances, showed himself apt in other and nobler exercises than the
+upland chase and the forest cover could afford.
+
+Roger de Fitz-Eustace, the terror and scourge of the Welsh, and by them
+called "Hell," from the great violence and ferocity of his temper, was
+then about forty years old. He was clothed in a light suit of armour,
+the hauberk, with the rings set edgewise, reaching down to the knees.
+His helmet was cylindrical, the _avantaille_, or face-guard, thrown up.
+He wore a coloured surcoat; a fashion that seems to have originated with
+the Crusaders, not only for the purpose of distinguishing the different
+leaders, but as a veil to protect the armour, so apt to heat excessively
+when exposed to the direct rays of the sun. It was of a violet colour,
+without any distinctive mark or badge. His highly-decorated shield was
+borne behind him, the three garbs and the lions being chiefly
+conspicuous in the marshalling: the former, the original bearing of Hugh
+Lupus, was often used by the constables of Chester, in compliment to
+their chief lord. Its shape was angular, and suspended from the neck by
+a strap called guige or gige, a Norman custom of great antiquity. A huge
+broadsword was carried by his armour-bearer, the person of the chief
+being without any further means of impediment or defence than a French
+stabbing sword, fastened on one side of his pommel, and a stout
+battle-axe on the other. The horse was decorated with great and costly
+profusion. At a short distance rode William de Bellomonte, the baron's
+inseparable companion. A small train of archers and cross-bowmen brought
+up the rear of the escort, save the baggage and sumpter horses, laden
+not only with provisions but cooking utensils, and even with furniture
+for the household. In those days it was a matter both of economy and
+necessity for the occupants or lords of several castles to travel with
+accompaniments of this sort; though possessing many residences, most of
+them had the means and even conveniences only for the furnishing of one.
+
+The seneschal and his train alighted, doing homage to their lord, who
+was conducted with great pomp and ceremony into the fortress, now lapsed
+for ever from the blood and succession of the Lacies; yet Roger de
+Fitz-Eustace and his descendants, probably in commemoration of the
+source whence originated their great honours and endowments, were ever
+afterwards styled by the surname of De Lacy; and, strange as it may
+appear, his father, John, constable of Chester, who died fifteen years
+previously to this event, and who founded the Cistercian abbey of
+Stanlaw, the parent establishment of Whalley, though he had not the
+slightest pretensions to the name of Lacy, was popularly invested with
+the name. It is still more singular that the mistake should have been
+committed by Henry de Lacy, the last of the line of the Fitz-Eustace,
+third in descent from Roger, in the foundation-charter of Whalley Abbey,
+where he expressly styles his ancestor "Joh. de Lacy, Const. Cest."
+
+Accompanied by her father and her female attendants, the "gentle" maiden
+entered the hall. She was stately and beautifully formed, with little
+show of her lineage except the high forehead and well-formed nose of the
+Fitz-Eustace. She was enveloped from head to foot in a long gown or
+habit; over this was cast a richly-embroidered purple silk surcoat or
+cloak, embellished with those ephemeral absurdities called
+pocketing-sleeves. These hung from the wrists almost to the ground,
+showing an opening or pocket which might have supplied the place of a
+lady's arm-bag in our own era. A wimple or peplus was thrown over the
+head; a sort of hood, which, instead of covering the shoulders, was
+brought round the neck beneath the chin like a warrior's gorget, giving
+an exceedingly stiff and muffled appearance to the upper part of the
+figure.
+
+Geoffery was unremitting in his attentions, and his father seemed as
+assiduous in his court to the fierce Crusader, who listened intently to
+some private intelligence which the dean was evidently much interested
+in communicating. The following were the only words that could be
+distinguished at the dismissal of the courteous De Whalley, as he
+retired a few paces ere he departed:--
+
+"To-morrow be it," said Fitz-Eustace, "after matins, and we will hear
+thee further in this matter: let him then be conveyed to our presence."
+
+The dean retired, but at dawn he was again present in the chantry of St
+Michael, within the castle.
+
+Fierce came the beams of the morning sun through the eastern oriel of
+the hall, and the guards and retainers of this feudal fortress were
+waiting the appearance of their lord. Lounging idly at the great
+entrance were those more immediately in attendance on their chief, some
+playing at _merelles_, or nine-men's morris; others tilting with mimic
+arms, and twanging the bowstring. The pikemen were drawn up in the
+courtyard, awaiting orders from their superior. Their glittering weapons
+flung back the morning light in sharp flashes to the sky; while on the
+tower the dark pennon hung motionless and drooping in the sultry air.
+
+The news of his arrival had drawn hither not a few of the surrounding
+peasantry to gaze upon the pomp and to pay homage at the court of their
+feudal lord; and a crowd of idlers was accumulating beneath the walls of
+the fortress.
+
+The breakfast meal being over, the baron entered through a side door
+behind a rude bench, overhung with faded drapery, which formed an
+elevation for the chief. His cheek was scorched and darkened with the
+burning suns of Palestine, while his beard seemed to have been whitened
+in that fiery clime. He was now habited in a rich purple cope or gown,
+fitting close, without sleeves or armholes, and embellished with a deep
+gold-coloured border, the Anglo-Saxon mantle being now discarded by
+persons of distinction. The tunic underneath was of scarlet, bordered
+with real ermine, which, together with the low square cap or coronet
+that he wore, gave him something of a regal appearance. A leash of
+hounds crouched at his feet. Before and below him the heralds and
+officers of the household arranged themselves, amongst whom Adam de
+Dutton was conspicuous by his ludicrously-solemn attitude and
+appearance. The whole scene had the aspect of a military tribunal,
+especially when Roger de Lacy (by which name we shall now distinguish
+him) ordered that silence should be proclaimed, and that the Dean of
+Whalley should be summoned to his presence.
+
+Robert de Whalley immediately presented himself, with arms folded, and
+an air of great ceremony in his behaviour.
+
+"Thou hast been prompt to our bidding; the lark, I trow, had but newly
+risen from her bed ere thou wast away from thine," said the baron.
+
+"Three weary miles through this grim forest is good speed ere matins;
+but I knew the occasion was urgent, and my lord's commands admit not of
+delay. The palfrey which you so pleasantly noted yestereen is the sole
+companion of my pilgrimages to and fro for the good of this noble house.
+I did offer prayers for the soul of the deceased ere matins this
+morning, in the chapel."
+
+"Hast heard aught of, or communicated with, the traitor thou didst
+denounce to me privily yesterday?"
+
+"Being holden as one of great sanctity, by common report, peradventure
+it were dangerous to lay hands on him without an express warranty from
+our chief."
+
+"He shall be summoned to our court. Adam de Dutton"--
+
+"Stay, my lord," said the wily dean. "I would, with all due submission,
+urge that caution were best in this matter."
+
+"Caution, De Whalley! and to what end? Are not the Lacies able to
+execute as well as to command? or is the lax ministration of justice now
+complained of throughout the realm prevailing here also? By the beard of
+Hugh Lupus, I will be heard, and obeyed too!"
+
+"In good sooth, my lord, I see nor let nor hindrance in this matter,
+provided that he whom we seek were of such ordinary capacities that be
+common to flesh and blood, and subject to the same laws; but when we
+have to cope with the devil, we must use his subtilty. Pardon me, my
+lord," continued the accuser, seeing symptoms of impatience gathering on
+the brow of the haughty chieftain, "though I am plain of speech, yet is
+it the more easily understood. This delinquent of whom we speak hath
+not, as the general report testifieth, the same nature and existence as
+our own. He useth magic--I have credible testimony thereto, my
+lord;--and anointeth his body so that it shall be invisible. The free
+unconfined air is not more accessible to the scared bird than rocks and
+walls are to this impalpable mockery of our form; and yet he may be
+dealt with."
+
+"Troth, a man of many faculties. How came he thus?"
+
+"The vulgar do imagine that by dint of great maceration and humility, by
+prayer and fasting, he hath attained communion with angels; but I
+suspect they be those of the bottomless pit!"
+
+"And why should he withhold the deed?"
+
+"I know not, save that he purposeth by fraud and subtilty to cast these
+fair possessions into the treasury of the holy church, and build an
+abbey hereabout, the like whereof hath not been seen for glory and
+magnificence."
+
+"Doth he then deny our right to the inheritance? The Lady Fitz-Eustace
+had a fair copy of the deed, purporting to be sent by the holy confessor
+who shrived the testator in his extremity. But how hath this canting
+hermit gotten the writing into his possession?"
+
+"I know not, my lord, unless it be that the like arts have enabled him
+to appropriate it by other means than those of honesty and good faith.
+But give me a band of men, together with leave so to deal with him as I
+shall see fit, and I trust ere long to render a good account of the
+matter. I will come upon him unawares, ere he can render his body
+inaccessible, and lay hold of the traitor."
+
+"Traitor!" echoed a voice from behind a screen at the lower extremity of
+the hall. Every eye was turned in that direction; when lo! the hermit
+himself, the end and object of their deliberations, stalked forth,
+unquestioned and unobstructed.
+
+The baron rose, and his grim eyebrows were fiercely knit and contracted.
+He looked inquiringly towards the dean, who, for a moment, was
+confounded by this unexpected event. Yet his presence of mind and
+fertility of expedient did not forsake him.
+
+"Let him be instantly bound, my lord," whispered De Whalley, "and holden
+by main force, or he will escape like a limed bird from the twigs. Let
+him be led forthwith to the dungeon, where I myself will question him.
+It is not fitting that this plotter should practise devilish devices
+upon our assembly."
+
+At a signal from their chief the soldiers surrounded him; but the
+hermit, whose features were still hidden by the cowl, took hold of the
+foremost, and with an incredible strength, dashed him to the ground. The
+others drew back intimidated.
+
+"Treason, my lord, treason!" cried the dean; "you behold him even in
+your presence exercising forbidden arts. Away with him to the dungeon!
+Guards, do your office."
+
+"Miscreant, beware!" said the hermit. De Whalley, though bold and
+generally undaunted, started back at the sound.
+
+"What, this lawless intromission to our face, and in our council too?"
+cried the baron. "Seize that hooded kite, knaves, or I will hang every
+one o' ye on the Furca ere the sun be two hours older!"
+
+Roger de Lacy, in a threatening attitude, approached the guards, who now
+environed the hermit, using more caution than before. Suddenly they
+rushed upon him, and he was pinioned ere he could make the least
+resistance.
+
+At this moment, so anxiously hoped for and expected by the dean, the
+latter pushed towards him. Thrusting his hand into the hermit's bosom,
+the long-coveted parchment was in his grasp, and in a twinkling it was
+conveyed to his own.
+
+"How now!" cried the baron, "wherefore in such haste? I trow the deed is
+ours!"
+
+With a great show of obedience and respect he drew the parchment again
+from beneath his robe, and holding it cautiously beside him, exclaimed--
+
+"My lord, ere this be read is it not prudent that we convey the traitor
+to the dungeon, lest by his subtilty the writing be wrested from our
+grasp?"
+
+The hermit, yet held in close custody of the guards, cried with a loud
+voice--
+
+"Who is the traitor let the walls of my cell bear witness, when they
+heard him offer a heavy bribe that this, the only evidence to the right
+of the Fitz-Eustace, might be destroyed!"
+
+"Fatherest thou the accursed progeny of thine avarice upon me?" cried
+the dean, apparently indignant at so unjust an accusation.
+
+"Give me the roll," said the constable, "and we will confront him by
+what he would have withheld. After we have made our own right secure, we
+adjudge him to his deserts."
+
+The dean was obliged, however unwillingly, to obey; handing forward the
+parchment, which Roger de Lacy unfolded in the presence of the hermit.
+But it would be impossible to describe the consternation of the
+chieftain when he read therein a formal grant, bequeathing the whole of
+these vast possessions to Robert de Whalley and his heirs for ever.
+
+The dean, apparently with surprise, and a well-feigned indignation at
+the fraud which the hermit intended to have put upon him, exclaimed--
+
+"I had a grievous suspicion long ago that this hoary hypocrite would
+play me false; and indeed his great unwillingness to show the deed led
+me to think that he meditated some deadly wrong."
+
+"But wherefore," inquired the chieftain, "should there be messengers to
+Halton with news and credentials so explicit that the estate was left
+without let or encumbrance to the Lady Fitz-Eustace? A web of mystery is
+here which we will speedily unravel. Who gave thee this deed? and
+wherefore shouldest thou conceal it?" said he, addressing the hermit.
+
+"Roger de Fitz-Eustace," replied the prisoner, "thine honour is abused.
+That lying instrument was never in my charge."
+
+"Why hast thou refused to render up the deed?"
+
+"Lest it should fall into the hands of robbers, and thou shouldest be
+cheated of thine inheritance. This traitor hath long had an eye to the
+possession."
+
+"'Tis his," returned the constable, sternly, "by this good title."
+
+"'Tis a fraud--a base attempt put forth by this cut-purse to wrest it
+from thee. Search him, and if thou findest not another, and of a
+different tenor, hidden about his goodly person, let me die a traitor's
+death."
+
+"I see not that our power hath need of such a pleasant exercise. Thou
+art accused by him of treachery; and verily 'tis a vain attempt to rid
+thee of the charge to throw back the accusation upon him thou hast
+wronged."
+
+"My Lord de Fitz-Eustace," said the dean,--but Roger looked displeased
+at this style and address, reminding him so soon of the departure of his
+lately-assumed title De Lacy,--"your ear and mine have been too long
+abused by this plotting wizard. He is now subject to my authority.
+Hereby do I assume my rights, and arraign the culprit before my
+tribunal."
+
+The ambitious churchman approached the judgment-seat, whereon he was
+just ascending; but the hermit, with a desperate effort, burst from his
+bonds, and ere the guards could arrest him, he had grasped his adversary
+by the throat.
+
+"Traitor, I warned thee beforetime. Now will I unrobe thy villany to its
+very nakedness."
+
+The hermit, thrusting one hand beneath the garment of his victim, drew
+forth the real deed, which had been dexterously exchanged by the wily
+priest for his own fraudulent imposture. He then loosened his grasp, and
+placed the real instrument in the hands of the baron.
+
+"'Tis a forgery--- a base disposal of my rights," roared out the
+infuriate and detected hypocrite.
+
+But Roger de Lacy immediately saw that the deed was to a similar purport
+with the copy which had been sent by some unknown hand, immediately on
+the death of the testator, to Halton Castle.
+
+With a look of devouring and terrible indignation he cried out--
+
+"Though thou wert the holy pontiff himself, and all the terrors of the
+Church were at thy command, thou shouldst not escape my vengeance, thou
+daring priest! To the Furca!--his offence is repugnant to my
+nostrils--'tis rank with treason!"
+
+"Hold!" cried the mysterious hermit; "I have promised him protection,
+nor shall the promise be foregone."
+
+"Thou!" cried the warrior, with unfeigned astonishment; "and who art
+thou that seemest here the arbiter of destiny, whether good or evil?"
+
+"A sinful but heaven-destined man," replied the hermit, meekly.
+
+"Our vengeance slumbereth not," said the chief; "the sentence is gone
+forth, and he dies ere sunset."
+
+"Not so," replied the hermit, again assuming the attitude of command.
+
+"By the beard of Hugh Lupus, he dieth."
+
+"He doth, but not by thy decree."
+
+"How! methinks the fever of disloyalty hath seized you all: the
+infection hath so tainted your nature that a skilful leech, whom I
+employ in cases of emergency, will be of service--my headsman, or
+hangman, as shall seem most fitting. He dies, I tell thee, though the
+saints themselves were interceding."
+
+"I have promised," said the hermit again, with the confidence of
+careless superiority.
+
+Adam de Dutton, who had hitherto been waiting anxiously for an
+opportunity to communicate with his lord, now whispered something in his
+ear.
+
+"How!" said the bewildered chieftain; "'tis said thou wearest the badge
+of our house, and art thyself under some surreptitious disguise."
+
+"I wear no disguise," returned the hermit calmly; "what thou seest is my
+badge, and will be, Heaven permitting, until I die."
+
+"Who art thou?"
+
+"A sinful mortal like thyself; but worn down with long vigils and
+maceration. Lord of as wide inheritance as thou, and yet a tenant only
+in a narrow cell!"
+
+"Thou speakest riddles;--thy meaning?"
+
+"I was an outcast, though heir to a vast heritage. I vowed that if He,
+whose prerogative it is, would cleanse me from my stains, my life should
+thenceforth be His, and consecrate to Heaven. I was a leper; but my
+prayer was heard. I washed in yonder holy well which gushes from the
+rock, whose virtues had been reported to me. Washing daily, with faith
+and prayer, I was healed. I found close by a convenient hermitage; and
+many caverns and secret chambers, with hidden passages and
+communications, had been dug therefrom, by which I could pass to and
+fro, and thus visit the castle unseen. I was the confessor and companion
+of Robert de Lacy. At my desire, he left the whole of his domains to the
+Fitz-Eustace. But thou art not the eldest-born of thy father."
+
+"My eldest brother has long been dead. He was a leper; his cruel disease
+drove him from the haunts of men. The last we knew of him, he went forth
+with cup and clapper as they are wont. Soon after news arrived of his
+decease."
+
+"Was he not driven forth by rude and cruel taunts, the rather?" said the
+hermit, gazing with unaverted eye on the haughty chieftain. "This noble
+birth and heritage are mine! Behold, 'tis thus I repay your injustice!"
+
+He threw off his cloak; underneath appeared a complete suit of proof
+armour, and a surcoat, on which was emblazoned the badge of the
+Fitz-Eustace.
+
+"I am Richard Fitz-Eustace, thine elder brother! Nay, put off that brow
+of discontent. I claim not my birthright; the vows of Heaven are upon
+me, and to thee and thine will this good inheritance devolve. One right
+only do I claim--this prisoner is free. Was he not my stay and
+sustenance when the fiat of Heaven guided me hither? He sheltered me,
+and had pity on mine infirmity. Moreover, he had some well-founded
+expectancy towards these domains, by reason of kindred to the Lacies,
+had they not been devised by will to the Fitz-Eustace. His blood is
+noble as our own. He thinks there is injustice in the deed, but not to
+him shall the atonement come. Thou hast a daughter, and my prescience
+hath this consequence, that by her this rankling wound shall be healed.
+If so be that he have found favour in her sight, let her and the son of
+this ambitious priest be joined together in the bonds of holy wedlock;
+for my word is gone forth--his blood mingles with ours."
+
+The whole assembly were aghast with this thrilling discovery. The baron
+would have embraced his brother; but the gloomy ascetic forbade. He left
+the hall, returned to his cell, and but a short period elapsed ere the
+grave he had prepared with his own hands was closed over his corpse--the
+period of his sojourn having been shortened, no doubt, by the
+austerities and mortifications he deemed himself called upon to endure.
+
+Maud was shortly afterwards united to Geoffery de Whalley, unto whom her
+father granted the Villa de Tunley or Townley, and the manor of
+Coldcoats, with Snodworth, as a marriage portion. From them is descended
+the present owner of Townley, nephew to that celebrated scholar and
+antiquary, Charles Townley, the twenty-ninth in descent from
+Spartlingus, the first Dean of Whalley upon record. The latter was
+predecessor to Cutwulph, whose exploits in the days of Canute we have
+before noticed.
+
+Soon afterwards died Robert de Whalley, his departure hastened, it is
+said, by grief and chagrin at the loss of these long-coveted
+possessions.
+
+Roger de Lacy died 1st October A.D. 1211, after a long and active life,
+spent between his arduous wars and invasions of the Welsh, and his no
+less arduous journeyings to and fro between the castles of Clitheroe and
+Pontefract, where he spent the latter part of his days. He was succeeded
+by John de Lacy, his eldest son, who, by marriage with Margaret,
+daughter and co-heiress of Robert, son of De Quincy, Earl of Winchester,
+became Earl of Lincoln by patent from Henry III., the monarch having
+re-granted this title to him and his heirs for ever.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[49] Baines's _Lancashire_.
+
+[50] Whitaker's _History of Whalley_.
+
+[51] At the commencement of a list of "_Senescalli de Blackburnshire,_"
+occurs the name of "_Adam de Dutton, temp. Rog. et Joh. de Lacy_." Dr
+Whitaker says: "This Adam de Dutton is one of the witnesses to the
+foundation-charter of Stanlaw, A.D. 1178; and a Dominus Adam occurs as
+steward in the charters of John de Lacy, who succeeded Roger A.D. 1211;
+so that, if both these names design the same person, which I believe, he
+must have held the office of seneschal at least thirty-three years."
+
+[52] Hume.
+
+[53] Like the knave on playing-cards, who is still depicted in this
+dress.
+
+[Illustration: THE GREY MAN OF THE WOOD; OR, THE SECRET MINE.]
+
+
+
+
+THE GREY MAN OF THE WOOD;
+
+OR,
+
+THE SECRET MINE.
+
+
+    "_Humph_. Say, what art thou that talk'st of kings and queens?
+      _K. Hen_. More than I seem, and less than I was born to;
+    A man at least, for less I should not be;
+    And men may talk of kings, and why not I?
+      _Humph_. Ay, but thou talk'st as if thou wert a king.
+      _K. Hen_, Why, so I am, in mind, and that's enough.
+      _Humph_. But if thou be a king, where is thy crown?"
+
+--_King Henry VI_.
+
+Waddington Hall, the site of the following legend, says Pennant, "is a
+stone house, with some small ancient windows, and a narrow winding
+staircase within, now inhabited by several poor families; yet it
+formerly gave shelter to a royal guest. The meek usurper, Henry VI.,
+after the battle of Hexham, in 1463, was conveyed into this county,
+where he was concealed by his vassals for an entire twelvemonth,
+notwithstanding the most diligent search was made after him. At length
+he was surprised at dinner at Waddington Hall, and taken near Bungerley
+Hippingstones in Clitherwood. The account which Leland gives from an
+ancient chronicle concurs with the tradition of the country, that he was
+deceived--_i.e._ betrayed--by Thomas Talbot, son and heir to Sir Edmund
+Talbot, of Bashal, and John his cousin, of Colebry. The house was beset;
+but the king found means to get out, ran across the fields below Waddow
+Hall, and passed the Ribble, on the stepping-stones, into a wood on the
+Lancashire side, called Christian Pightle, but being closely pursued,
+was there taken. From hence he was carried to London, in the most
+piteous manner, on horseback, with his legs tied to the stirrups. Rymer
+has preserved the grant of a reward for this service, of the estates of
+Sir Richard Tunstall, a Lancastrian, to Sir James Harrington, by Edward
+IV., dated from Westminster, July 9th, 1465."
+
+At that time Waddington belonged to the Tempests, who inherited it by
+virtue of the marriage of their ancestor, Sir Roger, in the reign of
+Edward I., with Alice, daughter and heiress of Walter de Waddington. An
+alliance had just been made between the Tempests and the Talbots. It may
+be presumed, that in order to save their estates (which they afterward
+were suffered quietly to possess), they agreed with Sir James to give up
+the saintly monarch, which was the reason that the latter had the reward
+for what the grant calls "his great and laborious diligence in taking
+our great traitor and rebel, Henry, lately called Henry VI."
+
+Far different was the conduct of Sir Ralph Pudsey, of Bolton Hall, where
+the king was concealed for some months prior to his appearance at
+Waddington. Quitting Bolton, probably from some apprehension that his
+retreat was in danger of being discovered, he left behind him the
+well-known relics which are still shown to the curious. These are a pair
+of boots, a pair of gloves, and a spoon. The boots are of fine brown
+Spanish leather, lined with deer-skin, tanned with the fur on; about the
+ankles is a kind of wadding under the lining, to keep out wet. They have
+been fastened by buttons from the ankle to the knee; the feet are
+remarkably small (little more than eight inches long); the toes round,
+and the soles, where they join to the heel, contracted to less than an
+inch in diameter.
+
+The gloves are of the same material, and have the same lining; they
+reach up, like women's gloves, to the elbow; but have been occasionally
+turned down, with deer-skin outward. The hands are exactly proportioned
+to the feet, and not larger than those of a middle-sized woman. In an
+age when the habits of the great, in peace as well as war, required
+perpetual exertions of bodily strength, this unhappy prince must have
+been equally contemptible from corporeal and from mental imbecility.[54]
+
+A well adjoining to Bolton Hall still retains his name. He is said to
+have ordered it to be dug and walled round for a bath; and it is much
+venerated by the country people to this day, who fancy that many
+remarkable cures have been wrought there.
+
+It is not generally recorded that the science of alchemy was much
+encouraged by the royal visionary. Though he had commissioned three
+adepts to make the precious metals, and had not received any returns,
+his credulity remained unshaken, and he issued a pompous grant in favour
+of three other alchemists, who boasted that they could not only
+transmute metals, but could impart perpetual youth, with unimpaired
+powers both of mind and body, by means of a specific called the _Mother
+and Queen of Medicines, the Celestial Glory, the Quintessence or Elixir
+of Life._ In favour of these "three lovers of the truth, and haters of
+deception," as they styled themselves, Henry dispensed with the law
+passed by his grandfather, Henry IV., against the undue multiplication
+of gold and silver, and empowered them to transmute the precious metals.
+This extraordinary commission had the sanction of Parliament; and two
+out of the three adepts were the heads of Lancashire families--viz., Sir
+Thomas Ashton of Ashton, and Sir Edmund Trafford of Trafford. These
+worthy knights obtained a patent for changing metals, 24 Hen. VI. The
+philosophers, probably imposing upon themselves as well as others, kept
+the king's expectation wound up to the highest pitch; and in the
+following year he actually informed his people that the happy hour was
+approaching when, by means of the _stone_, he should _be able to pay off
+his debts_[55]
+
+With regard to the prophecy or denunciation made by him against the
+Talbots, recorded in our legend, Dr Whitaker observes,--"Something like
+these hereditary alternations of sense and folly might have happened,
+and have given rise to a prophecy fabricated after the event; a real
+prediction to this effect would have negatived the words of
+Solomon,--'Yea, I have hated all my labour which I had taken under the
+sun; because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me; and
+who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool?'
+
+"This, however, is not the only instance in which Henry is reported to
+have displayed that singular faculty, the _Vaticinium Stultorum_."[56]
+
+In 798, this place was noted for the defeat of Wada, the Saxon chief, by
+Aldred, king of Northumberland. He was one of the petty princes who
+joined the murderers of King Ethelred. After this overthrow he fled to
+his castle, on a hill near Whitby, and dying, was interred not far from
+the place. Two great pillars, about twelve feet asunder, mark the spot,
+and still bear the name of "Wada's Grave."
+
+It was on a bright and glorious summer evening, in the year 1464, while
+the red glare of sunset was still in the west, and a wide blush of
+purple passed rapidly over the distant fell and the blue and heath-clad
+mountain, that a group of labourers were returning from their daily toil
+through the forest glades that skirt the broad and beautiful Ribble
+below Waddow. Some of them were of that class called hinds, paying the
+rents of their little homesteads by stated periods of service allotted
+to each; in this respect differing but little from the serfs and
+villains of a more remote era, their toil not a whit less irksome,
+though their liberty, in name at least, was less under the control and
+caprice of their lord.
+
+Two of the peasants loitered considerably behind the rest, seemingly
+engrossed by a conversation too interesting or too important for the
+ears of their companions. The elder of the speakers was clad in a coarse
+woollen doublet; a belt of untanned leather girt his form; and on his
+head was a cap of grey felt, without either rim or band. His gait was
+heavy and slouching. Strong, tall, and muscular, he stooped
+considerably; but less through age and infirmity than from the laborious
+nature of his occupations. His companion, younger and more vivacious,
+was distinguished by a goodly and well-thriven hump, and by that fulness
+and projection of the chest which usually characterise this species of
+deformity. His long arms nearly trailed to the ground as he walked; huge
+and sprawling, they seemed to have been originally intended as an
+attachment to a frame of much more gigantic proportions. His face had
+that peculiar form and expression which always, more or less, accompany
+this kind of malformation. Wide, large, angular; the chin sharp and
+projecting, supported on the breast; the whole head scarcely rivalling
+the shoulders in height and obliquity. His disposition was evidently
+wayward and irascible, and a keen satirical humour lurked in every line
+of his pallid visage; generally at war with his species, and ready to
+act on the defensive; snarling whenever he was approached, and always
+anticipating gibe and insult from his fellows.
+
+"Weary, weary,--ay, as a tom-fool at a holiday feast," said the
+hunchback to his companion. "Spade and axe have I lifted these twenty
+years, and what the better am I o' the labour? A groat's worth of wit is
+worth a pound o' sweat,' as my dame says. I'll turn pedlar some o' these
+days, and lie, and cheat, and sell."
+
+"Ay, Gregory," interrupted the other, "thee'd sell thy own paws, if so
+be they'd fetch a groat i' the market; but then, I warrant, the dame at
+the hall would lack her henchman at the churn."
+
+"Tut! I care for nought living but my worthless carcase," replied the
+hunchback, surveying his own person. "Why should I? there's nought
+living that cares for me. Sure as fate, if a' waur dead beside, we'd ha'
+curran' baws i' the pot every day. What a murrain is it to this hungry
+maw whether Ned Talbot, or Joe Tempest, or any other knave o' the pack,
+tumbles into his berth, or is put to bed wi' the shovel, a day sooner or
+later. He maun budge some time. Faugh! how I hate your whining--your
+cat-a-whisker'd faces, purring and mewling, while parson Pudsay says
+grace over the cold carrion; he cares not if it waur hash'd and stew'd
+i' purgatory, so that he gets the shrift-money. Out upon't, Ralph, out
+upon it! this mattock should delve a' the graves i' the parish, if I
+could get a tester more i' my fist."
+
+"Thou murdering tyke! wouldst dig my grave?"
+
+"Ay," shouted Gregory with a grin, displaying a huge double crescent of
+white teeth, portals to a gulf, grim, hideous, and insatiable; "ay, for
+St Peter's penny."
+
+"And leave me to knock at the gate, and never a doit to pay the porter?"
+
+"Thou shouldst cry and howl till doomsday, though my pouch had the
+keeping of a whole congregation of angels.
+
+"Keep out o' my way, cub--unlicked brute!" cried the infuriate Ralph;
+"keep back, I say, or I may send thee first on thine errand to St Peter.
+Take that, knave, and"--
+
+But the malicious hunchback stepped aside, and the blow, aimed with a
+hearty curse at this provoking lump of deformity, fell with a murderous
+force upon a writhen stem, which bore witness to the willing disposition
+with which the stroke was dealt. Gregory was laughing and mocking all
+the while at the impotent wrath of his companion.
+
+"A groat's worth for a penny, I'm not yet boun' for St Peter's blessing,
+though, old crump-face!" cried the learing impertinent, one thumb
+between his teeth, and the little finger thrust out in its most
+expressive form of derision and contempt.
+
+"Hush--softly, prithee," said the offended party, his anger all at once
+under the influence of a more powerful feeling. He stood still, in the
+attitude of listening, earnestly bending forward with great solicitude
+and attention.
+
+He pointed to some object just visible through the arches of the wood,
+in the dim twilight.
+
+"There is the grey man o' the mine again, as I live, Gregory; we'd best
+turn back, for our companions are gone out of hearing." The terrified
+rustic was preparing for immediate flight, but Gregory caught him by the
+belt.
+
+"How now! stand to thy ground, man," said he; "I've had speech at him
+not long ago. We came upon one another suddenly, to be sure, and I could
+not well escape, so I stood still. He did the same, shook his pale and
+saintly face, and, with a wave o' the hand, bade me pass on."
+
+"But look thee," replied the other, "I'm bodily certain he walks without
+a shadow at his tail. See at that big tree there; why, the boughs bend
+before he touches 'em, like as they were stricken wi' the wind. I
+declare if the very trees don't step aside as if they're afraid of him.
+I'll not tarry here, good man."
+
+Disengaging himself from the other's gripe, Ralph ran through the wood
+in an opposite direction, and was soon out of sight. A loud shout from
+Gregory followed him as he fled, which only served to quicken his speed;
+and the hunchback was left alone. The figure which was the moving cause
+of this cowardly apprehension almost immediately disappeared behind a
+projecting crag, at the base of which grew a thick skirting of
+underwood; but Gregory pursued cautiously in the same direction. He had
+heard strange stories of demons guarding heaps of treasure; and it was
+currently reported that in former times a mine had been secretly worked
+in these parts for fear of discovery; all mines yielding gold and
+silver, so as to leave a profit from the working, being considered as
+"mines royal," and regarded as the property of the king.[57] Gregory's
+prevailing sin was avarice; and oftentimes this vice put on the
+appearance of courage, by rendering him daring for its gratification,
+though at heart a coward. He thought that if the treasure were once
+within his grasp neither man nor demon should regain it.
+
+For a short time past this part of the forest had been commonly reported
+as the haunt of a spectre, in the likeness of a man clad in grey
+apparel, who by some was supposed to be an impalpable exhalation from a
+concealed mine existing in the neighbourhood. It is well known that
+these places are generally guarded by some covetous demon, who, though
+unable to apply the treasures to their proper use, yet strives to hinder
+any one else from gaining possession.
+
+Gregory had once encountered it unexpectedly, face to face, but he did
+not then follow--surprise and timidity preventing him. He, however,
+resolved that, should another opportunity occur, he would track the
+spectre to its haunt, and by that means find out the opening and
+situation of the mine.
+
+He now crept slowly towards the crag, behind which the figure had
+retired. Looking cautiously round the point, he again saw the dim
+spectral form only a few yards distant. Suddenly he heard a low whistle,
+and the next moment the mysterious figure had disappeared--not a vestige
+could be traced. He thrust his huge head between the boughs for a more
+uninterrupted survey, but nothing was seen, save the bare escarpment of
+the rock, and the low bushes, behind which the phantom had, a moment
+before, been visible. Though somewhat daunted, he crept closer to the
+spot, but darkness was fast closing around him, and the search was
+fruitless.
+
+"Humph!" said the disappointed treasure-hunter audibly; "daylight and a
+stout pole may probe the mystery to the bottom. I'll mark this spot."
+
+"Mark this spot," said another voice at some distance, repeating his
+words like an echo. The rock was certainly within "striking distance,"
+and it might have been this accident which lent its aid to the delusion.
+
+Gregory could not withstand so apparently supernatural an occurrence. He
+took to his heels, driven fairly off the field; nor did he look behind
+him until safely entrenched before a blazing fire in the kitchen at
+Waddington Hall.
+
+"Out, ill-favoured hound!" said a serving wench, who was stirring a
+blubbering mess of porridge for supper. But Gregory was not in the
+humour to reply: he sat with one long lean hand under his chin, the
+other hung down listlessly to his heels, which were drawn securely under
+the stool on which he sat. His thoughts were not on the victuals, though
+by long use and instinct his eyes were turned in that direction.
+
+"Thee art ever hankering after the brose, thou greedy churl!" continued
+the wench, wishful to goad him on to some intemperate reply.
+
+But Gregory was still silent. At this unwonted lack of discourse, Janet,
+who generally contrived to bring his long tongue into exercise, was not
+a little astonished. It needed no great wit, any time, to set him
+a-grumbling; for neither kind word nor civil speech had he for kith or
+kin, for man or maid.
+
+Looking steadfastly towards him, she struck her dark broad fists upon
+her hips, and, in a loud and contemptuous laugh, abruptly startled the
+cynic from his studies. He eyed her with a grin of malice and vexation.
+
+"Thou she-ape, I wonder what first ye'arn made for; the plague o' both
+man and beast,--the worst plague that e'er Pharaoh waur punished wi'.
+Screech on; I'll ha' my think out, spite o' thy caterwauling."
+
+"Thou art a precious wonder, Master Crab. Squirt thy verjuice, when thou
+art roasting, some other way. I wonder what man-ape thy mother watch'd
+i' the breeding. She had been special fond o' children, I bethink me."
+
+"And what knowest thou o' my dame's humours, thou curl-crop vixen?" said
+Gregory, unwarily drawn forth again from his taciturnity. "How should
+her inclinations be subject to thy knowledge?"
+
+"She rear'd thee!" was the reply.
+
+Two other hinds belonging to the household, who were watching the issue
+of the contest, here joined in a loud clamour at the victory; and
+Gregory, dogged with baiting, became silent, scowling defiance at his
+foe.
+
+Waddington Hall was at that period a building of great antiquity.
+Crooks, or great heavy arched timbers, ascending from the ground to the
+roof, formed the principal framework of the edifice, not unlike the
+inverted hull of some stately ship. The whole dwelling consisted of a
+thorough lobby and a hall, with a parlour beyond it, on one side, and
+the kitchens and offices on the other. The windows were narrow, scarcely
+more than a few inches wide, and, in all probability, not originally
+intended to contain glass.
+
+The chimneys and fireplaces were wide and open; the apartments, except
+the hall, low, narrow, and inconvenient, divided by partitions of oak,
+clumsy, and ill-carved with many strange and uncouth devices. The hall
+was, on the right of the entrance, lighted by one long low window; a
+massy table stood beneath. The fireplace was on the opposite side,
+occupying nearly the whole breadth of the chamber. A screen of wainscot
+partitioned off the lobby, carved in panels of grotesque workmanship.
+Beyond the hall was the parlour, furnished as usual with an oaken
+bedstead, standing upon a ground-floor paved with stone. In this
+dormitory, the timbers of which were of gigantic proportions, slept
+Master Oliver and Mistress Joan Tempest,--the latter not a little given
+to that species of uxorious domination which most wives, when they apply
+themselves heartily to its acquisition, rarely fail to usurp.
+
+"Here," says Dr Whitaker (this being the general style of building for
+centuries, and scarcely, if at all, deviated from),--"here the first
+offspring of our forefathers saw the light; and here too, without a wish
+to change their habits, fathers and sons in succession resigned their
+breath. It is not unusual to see one of these apartments now transformed
+into a modern drawing-room, where a thoughtful mind can scarcely forbear
+comparing the past and present,--the spindled frippery of modern
+furniture, the frail but elegant apparatus of a tea-table, the general
+decorum, the equal absence of everything to afflict or to transport,
+with what has been heard, or seen, or felt, within the same walls,---
+the logs of oak, the clumsy utensils, and, above all, the tumultuous
+scenes of joy or sorrow, called forth, perhaps, by the birth of an
+heir, or the death of an husband, in minds little accustomed to restrain
+the ebullitions of passion.
+
+"Their system of life was that of domestic economy in perfection.
+Occupying large portions of his own domains; working his land by oxen;
+fattening the aged, and rearing a constant supply of young ones; growing
+his own oats, barley, and sometimes wheat; making his own malt, and
+furnished often with kilns for the drying of corn at home, the master
+had pleasing occupation in his farm, and his cottagers regular
+employment under him. To these operations the high troughs, great
+garners and chests, yet remaining, bear faithful witness. Within, the
+mistress, her maid-servants, and daughters, were occupied in spinning
+flax for the linen of the family, which was woven at home. Cloth, if not
+always manufactured out of their own wool, was purchased by wholesale,
+and made up into clothes at home also."[58]
+
+This is a true picture of the simple habits of our ancestors, and will
+apply, with little variation, to the scene before us.
+
+Here might be seen the carved "armoury,"--the wardrobe, bright, clean,
+and even magnificent. On the huge rafters hung their usual store of
+dried hams, beef, mutton, and flitches of bacon. In the store-room,
+great chests were filled to the brim with oatmeal and flour. All wore
+the aspect of plenty, and an hospitality that feared neither want nor
+diminution.
+
+In one corner of the hall at Waddington sat Mistress Joan, her only
+daughter Elizabeth, and two or three female domestics.
+
+They had been spinning, trolling out the while their country ditties
+with great pathos and simplicity.
+
+Being nigh supper-time, the group were just loitering in the twilight
+ere they separated for the meal.
+
+"Come, Elizabeth," said her mother, "lay thy gear aside; the
+strawberries are in the bowl, and the milk is served. Supper and to bed,
+and a brisk nap while morning."
+
+The dame who addressed her was a perfect specimen of the good housewife
+in the fifteenth century. She wore a quilted woollen gown, open before,
+with pendant sleeves, and a long narrow train; a corset, fitted close to
+the body, unto which the petticoats were attached, and a boddice laced
+outside. She wore the horned head-dress so fashionable towards the close
+of the fourteenth century, and at that time still in use, giving the
+head and face no slight resemblance to the ace of hearts. An apron was
+tied on with great care, ornamented with embroidery of the preceding
+century. Her complexion, was dark but clear, and her eyebrows high and
+well-arched. Her mouth was drawn in, raised slightly on one side,--a
+conformation more particularly apparent when engaged in scolding the
+maids, or in other similar but indispensable occupations.
+
+Her gait was firm, and her person upright. Her age--ungallant historians
+we must be--was verging closely upon sixty; yet her hair, turned crisp
+and full behind her head-dress, showed slight symptoms of the chill
+which hoar and frosty age, sooner or later, never fails to impart.
+
+Elizabeth Tempest was young, but of a staid and temperate aspect, almost
+approaching to that of melancholic. Her complexion, pale and sallow; her
+eye full, dark, and commanding, though occasionally more languor was on
+it than eyes of that colour are wont to express. She wore a long jacket
+of russet colour, and a crimson boddice. Her hair, turned back from her
+brow, hung in dark heavy ringlets below the neck, which, though not of
+alabaster, was exquisitely modelled. In person she was tall and
+well-shapen, and her whole manner displayed a mind of no ordinary
+proportions. She was well-skilled in household duties, her mother having
+an especial desire that her daughter should be as notable and thrifty as
+herself in domestic arrangements.
+
+"Elizabeth," or "Elspet," as she was indiscriminately called, cared
+little about her reputation touching these important functions. She
+could sing most of the wild legendary ballads of the time; her rich full
+voice had in it a sadness ravishingly tender and expressive, more akin
+to woe, and the deep untold agony of the spirit, than to lightness and
+mirth, in which she rarely indulged.
+
+"Give us one of thy ditties ere supper," said the dame, who was just
+then laying aside her implements in the work-press. "I wonder thy father
+does not return. The roofs of Bashall ring with louder cheer than our
+own, I trow. He is playing truant for the nonce, which is dangerous play
+at best."
+
+"Is he now at our cousin Talbot's?" inquired the maiden, with a look of
+more than ordinary interest.
+
+"If he be not on the way back again," returned the dame, as though
+wishful to repress inquiry.
+
+"The woods are not safe so late and alone. Comes he alone, mother?"
+
+"Alone! Ay,--and why spierest thou?" The dame looked wistfully, though
+but for a moment, on her daughter; then changing her tone, as if to
+recommend a change of subject, she cried--
+
+"Come, ha' done, Elspet; we will wait no longer than grace be said. Now
+to thy song."
+
+The maiden began as follows:--
+
+    1.
+    "There sits three ravens on yon tree,
+        Heigho!
+    There sits three ravens on yon tree,
+    As black, as black, as they can be.
+      Heigho, the derry, derry, down, heigho.
+
+    2.
+    "Says the first raven to the other,
+        Heigho!
+    Says the first raven to the other,
+    'We'll go and eat our feast together.'
+      Heigho, &c.
+
+    3.
+    "'It's down in yonder grass-grown field,
+        Heigho!
+    It's down in yonder grass-grown field,
+    There lies a dead knight just new killed.'
+      Heigho, &c.
+
+    4.
+    "There came a lady full of woe,
+        Heigho!
+    There came a lady full of woe,
+    And her hands she wrung, and her tears did flow.
+      Heigho, &c.
+
+    5.
+    "She saw the red blood from his side,
+        Heigho!
+    She saw the red blood from his side,--
+    'And it was for me my true love died!'
+      Heigho, &c.
+
+    6.
+    "'Oh, cruel was my brother's sword,
+        Heigho!
+    Oh, cruel, cruel, was his sword,
+    But sharper the edge of one scornful word.'
+      Heigho, &c.
+
+    7.
+    She laid her on his bosom cold,
+        Heigho!
+    She laid her on his bosom cold,
+    While adown his cheek her tears they rolled.
+      Heigho, &c.
+
+    8.
+    "No word she spake, but one sob gave she,
+        Heigho!
+    No word she spake, but one sob gave she:
+    Said the ravens, 'Another feast have we,
+    And long shall thy rest and thy slumbers be.'
+      Heigho, the derry, derry, down, heigho!"
+
+At the concluding stanza in walked Oliver Tempest, who, as if to avoid
+notice, sat down, without uttering a word, in a dark corner at the
+opposite side of the hall. He looked moody, and wishful to be alone.
+Joan, for a while, forbore to interrupt his reverie, and the females
+finished their evening repast in silence.
+
+"Is Sir Thomas Talbot yet returned from the Harringtons?" inquired the
+dame soon after, with an air of assumed carelessness.
+
+"He returned an hour only ere I departed."
+
+Another pause ensued.
+
+"And his son Thomas, comes he back from the Pudsays of Bolton? Does the
+gentle Florence[59] look on him kindly, or is the wedding yet delayed?"
+
+"I know not," was the brief reply. After a short pause he
+continued--"The wanderer has left Bolton, I learn, and, 'tis said, he
+bides at Whalley."
+
+Here he cast a furtive look at the domestics, and then at his wife, as
+though wishful to ascertain if others had understood this intimation.
+
+"Nay, some do boldly affirm that he has been seen i' these very woods,"
+continued he, lowering his voice to a whisper.
+
+"Which Heaven forefend!" said the wary dame. "I would not that he should
+draw us down with him to the same gulf wherein his fortune is
+o'erwhelmed. No luck that woman ever brought him from o'er sea, and now
+she's gone"--
+
+"They say that she hath escaped to Flanders," said Oliver, hastily
+interrupting her.
+
+"I wish he had been so fortunate," said the dame; "what says our cousin
+Talbot?"
+
+"Hush, dame; our plans are not yet ripe. But more of this anon."
+
+Elizabeth listened with more interest than usual. Every word was eagerly
+devoured, and with the last sentence she could not forbear inquiring--
+
+"And Edmund?--surely Edmund Talbot is not"--
+
+"What?" sternly inquired her father; "what knowest thou of--? Said I
+aught whereby thou shouldst suspect us?"
+
+"Hush, thou foolish one," said the more cautious dame; "thy thought
+alone was privy to it, and so no more. There be others listening."
+
+The moonbeams now crept softly into the chambers, whither, too, crept
+the weary household; the master and his wife remaining for a short time
+together in the hall, apparently in earnest discussion. But Elizabeth
+retired not to her couch. She passed softly through the courtyard,
+looking round as though in search of some individual. This proved to be
+the hunchback Gregory, whom she found esconced behind a peat-stack in
+marvellous profundity of thought. With a soft step, and one finger
+raised to her lips, she gently tapped him upon the shoulder.
+
+Looking round, he saw her gesture and was silent.
+
+"Gregory, art thou honest?" she inquired, in a whisper.
+
+"Why, an' it be, Mistress Elspeth, when it suits with my discretion;
+that is, if discretion be none the worse for it, eh?"
+
+"Thou art ever so, Gregory; and yet"--
+
+"If ye want honesty, eschew a knave, and catch a fool by the cap. None
+but fools worry and distemper themselves with this same pale-faced
+whining jade, that will leave 'em i' the lurch at a pinch, Dame Honesty,
+forsooth. More wit, more wisdom; and there is a plentiful lack of wit in
+your honest folk," continued the cynic, as though pursuing a train of
+thought to its ultimate development.
+
+"Gregory, thou art not the rogue thee seems. I think beneath that rough
+and captious speech there lurks more honesty than thou art willing to
+acknowledge. Thou hast been angered with baiting until thou wouldst run
+at every dog that comes into the paddock, though he fawned on thee, and
+were never so trusty and well-behaved."
+
+Gregory was silent. He looked upwards to the bright moon and the
+quenched orbs that lay about her path. Again Elizabeth whispered, first
+looking cautiously around--
+
+"Wilt do me a service?"
+
+"Ay, for hire," he quickly answered.
+
+"If thine errand is done faithfully, thou mayest get more largess than
+thou dream'st of."
+
+"Ye want a spoon belike, that ye soil not your delicate fingers?"
+
+"Ay, Gregory, an' thou wilt, we 'll first use thee."
+
+"And then the spoon shall be broken, I trow. Well, if I am a spoon, I'll
+be a golden one, and I shall be worth something when I'm done with.
+Understand ye this, fair mistress?"
+
+"Yes, knave; and thou shalt have thy reward."
+
+"What! I shall swing the highest, eh?"
+
+"Peace; I want a messenger. Take this."
+
+"Not treason, I trow," said Gregory, as he eyed the billet with a
+curious but hesitating glance.
+
+"Go by the nearer path to the wood. Where the road divides to the ford
+and the farther pastures; take the latter, then turn to the right, where
+the old fir-tree rises above the rock. Walk carefully through the bushes
+at the base of the crag. Near unto a sharp angle of the rock thy path
+will be stayed by a fallen tree. Grasp this with both hands, and whistle
+thrice. I know thou canst be trusty and discreet. Yet remember thy life
+is in my power shouldst thou fail." She paused, pointing significantly
+at the billet. "Now hasten. Bring back, and to me only, what shall be
+committed to thy care. I will expect thee at my window by midnight."
+
+Now it so happened that this precise spot was identified to Gregory's
+apprehensions with the very place where his attention had that night
+been directed by the mysterious disappearance of the grey man of the
+mine. He would certainly have preferred making his second visit by
+daylight; but needs must when a woman drives, especially when that woman
+is a mistress, and gold is the goad. Besides he might perchance get a
+glimpse of the treasure; and his pockets were wide and his gripe close.
+Thus stimulated to the adventure, he addressed himself to perform her
+behest.
+
+The night was singularly clear, and the shadows lay on his path, still
+and beautifully distinct. As he hastened onwards the wood grew darker
+and more impervious. Here and there the moonbeams crept fantastically
+through the boughs, like fairy lamps glimmering on his path. Sometimes,
+preternaturally bright, the wood seemed lit up as though for some magic
+festival. He followed the directions he had received, pausing not until
+he saw the dark fir-tree rearing its broad crest and gigantic arms into
+the clear and twinkling heaven. It looked like the guardian genius of
+the place,--a huge monster lifting its terrific head, as though to watch
+and warn away intruders. Beside this was the rock where his adventure
+must terminate.
+
+With more of desperation than courage he scrambled through the bushes.
+Not daring to look behind him--for he felt as though his steps were
+dogged, an idea for which he could not account--he made his way with
+difficulty by the crag until he came to a fallen tree that had
+apparently tumbled from the rock. Laying hold of the trunk he whistled
+faintly. It was answered; an echo, or something even more indistinct,
+gave back the sound. His heart misgave him; but he stood committed to
+the task, and durst not withdraw. Again he whistled, but louder than
+before, and again it was repeated. With feelings akin to those of the
+condemned wretch when he drops the fatal handkerchief, he sounded the
+last note of the signal. His breath was suspended. Suddenly he felt the
+ground give way beneath his feet, and he was precipitated into a chasm,
+dark, and by no means soft at the nether extremity.
+
+This was a reception for which he was not prepared. He had sustained a
+severe shock; but luckily his bones were whole. Recovering from his
+alarm, he heard a low jabbering noise, and presently a light, which, it
+seems, had been extinguished by his clumsiness, was again approaching.
+
+The intruder saw, with indescribable horror, a hideous black dwarf
+bearing a torch. He was dressed in the Eastern fashion. A soiled turban,
+torn and dilapidated, and a vest of crimson, showed symptoms of former
+splendour that no art could restore. This mysterious being came near,
+muttering some uncouth and unintelligible jargon; while the unfortunate
+captive, caught like a wolf in a trap, looked round in vain for some
+outlet whereby to escape. The only passage, except the hole through
+which he had tumbled, was completely filled by the broad, unwieldy lump
+of deformity that was coming towards him. The latter now surveyed him
+cautiously, and at a convenient distance, croaking, in a broken and
+foreign accent--
+
+"What ho! Prisoner, by queen's grace. Better stop when little door shall
+open. Steps, look thee, for climb; hands and toes; go to."
+
+Gregory now saw that steps, or rather holes, were cut in the sides of
+the pit wherein he had fallen, or rather been entrapped. These he ought
+to have used when the trap-door was let down; and he remembered his
+mistress's caution, to hold fast by the tree. There were, however, no
+means of escape that way, as the door had closed with his descent.
+
+The ugly thing before him was ten times more misshapen than himself; and
+at any other time this flattering consideration would have restored him
+to comparative good-humour.
+
+He was not in the mood now to receive comfort from any source. He felt
+sore and mightily disquieted. Limping aside, he angrily exclaimed--
+
+"Be'st thou the de'il, or the de'il's footman, sir blackamoor? I'd have
+thee tell thy master to admit his guests in a more convenient fashion.
+Hang me, if my bones will not ache for a twelvemonth. My back is almost
+broke, for certain."
+
+Here the other bellowed out into a loud laugh, pointing to Gregory's
+back, then surveying himself, and evidently with congratulation at his
+own more imaginary prepossessing appearance.
+
+"Sir knight," said the black dwarf, "what errand comes to our mighty
+prince?"
+
+"Tut! if it be his infernal kingship ye mean, I bear not messages to one
+of his quality."
+
+"Thee brings writing in thy fist. Go to!"
+
+"From a woman, fallen in love wi' thee, belike. Well, quit me o' woman's
+favours, say I, if this be of 'em."
+
+"Well-a-day, sir page," cried the grinning Ethiop, whose teeth looked
+like a double row of pearls set in a border of carnelian, "my mistress
+be a queen: I do rub the dust on thy ugly nose if that red tongue wag
+more, for make bad speech of her. Go to, clown!"
+
+"Ill betide thee for a blackamoor ape," said Gregory, his courage waxing
+apace when his fears of the supernatural began to subside; "and
+wherefore? Look thee, Mahound, though my mistress sent me to such a
+lady-bird as thou art, Master Oliver shall know on't. Thou hast won her
+with spells and foul necromancie; but I've commandment from him to catch
+all that be poaching on his lands. Thou art i' the mine, too, as I do
+verily guess; therefore I arrest thee i' the king's name, as a lifter of
+his treasure, and a spoiler of our good venison."
+
+Gregory, being stout-limbed, and of a more than ordinary strength for
+his size, proceeded forthwith to execute his threat; but the dwarf, with
+a short shrill scream, gave him a sudden trip, which again laid the
+officious dispenser of justice prostrate, without either loosing the
+torch from his hand, or seeming to use more exertion than would have
+thrown a child.
+
+"Ah, ah, there be quits. Lie still; go to; lick thy paws. Know, dog, I'm
+body to the queen!"
+
+"Body o' me, I think thee be'st liker fist and crupper. I would I had
+thee in a cart at holiday-time, and a rope to thy muzzle," said the
+astonished Gregory. He had dropped his billet in the scuffle, which the
+dwarf seized, opening it without ceremony.
+
+"A message. Good; stay here, garbage; I be back one, two, t'ree," and
+away straddled the black monster along the passage. Turning suddenly,
+before he was aware, into another avenue, leading apparently far into
+the interior, Gregory was left once more in total darkness. He heard the
+sound of retreating footsteps, but not a glimmer was visible, and he
+feared to follow lest he might be entangled in some inextricable
+labyrinth. He recollected to have heard a vague sort of tradition, that
+a subterraneous passage once led from the hall to the Ribble bank,
+whereby the miners had in former days kept their operations secret.
+
+These were the haunts, too, of poachers and deer-stalkers, who made use
+of such hiding-places to screen their nocturnal depredations. He might
+be gotten unknowingly into one of their retreats, and he knew the
+character of such men too well to venture farther into their privy
+places without leave. But it was strange this ugly and insane thing
+should be kept here. Its outlandish accent, too, as far as Gregory could
+distinguish, was still more unaccountable; and that his young mistress
+should hold any intercourse with such a misshapen mockery of the human
+form was a mystery only to be resolved by a woman! After all, his first
+conjecture might be true, and this delicate sprite the ministering demon
+to some magician who brooded over the treasure.
+
+He grew more timorous in the dark. His own breathing startled him. He
+revolved a thousand plans of escape; but how was it possible to climb to
+the pit-mouth without help, and in total darkness? The door, too, would
+probably defy his attempts to remove it. Suspense was not to be endured.
+He would have been glad to see the ugly dwarf again, rather than remain
+in his present evil case.
+
+He now tried to grope out his way, from that sort of undefinable feeling
+which leads a person to identify change of place with improvement in
+condition.
+
+Ere he had gone many yards from the spot, however, he saw a light, and
+presently the flaming torch was visible, with the ugly form he desired.
+
+"Sir messenger, allez. Make scrape and go backward. Bah! What for make
+lady chuse ugly lout as thee for page?--not know, not inquire. Up, this
+way; now mind the steps. Bah, not that, fool!"
+
+With some difficulty Gregory was initiated into the mysteries of the
+ascent. The torch was brandished high above his head, and with fear and
+trepidation he prepared to obey.
+
+"But, master sooty-paws, my mistress will be a-wanting of some token;
+some reply. Hast thou no memory of her sweet favours?"
+
+"Begone, slave-dog, begone! Say we be snug as the fox that will keep in
+the hole when dogs go hunt. We not go up again till lady sends leave. Go
+to!"
+
+Gregory mounted with great difficulty. When he approached the mouth,
+looking upward for some mode of exit, he saw the trap-door slowly open,
+and he leapt forth into the free air; the cool atmosphere and the quiet
+moonlight again upon his path. He soon cleared the bushes, and once more
+was on his way to the house. Elizabeth met him at the gate.
+
+"What ho, sirrah!" said she, "hast thou been loitering with my message?
+I left my chamber to look out for thee. What answer? Quick."
+
+"Why, forsooth, 'tis not easy to say, methinks, for such jabber is hard
+to interpret. By my lady's leave, I think"--
+
+Here he paused; but Elizabeth was impatient for the expected reply.
+"Softly, softly, mistress. I but thought your worship were ill bestowed
+on yonder ugly image."
+
+"Tut, I'm not i' the humour for thine. What message, simpleton?"
+
+"None, good mistress; but that they be snug until further orders."
+
+"'Tis well; to rest; but hark thee, knave, be honest and discreet; thou
+shall win both gold and great honours thereby."
+
+"What! shall I ha' my share o' the treasure?" inquired Gregory, his eyes
+glistening in the broad moonlight.
+
+"What treasure, thou greedy gled?"
+
+"Why they say 'tis a mine royal, and"--
+
+"How! knowest thou our secret?"
+
+"Ay, a body may quess. I've not found the road to the silver mine for
+nought. If I get my grip on't, the king may whistle for his share
+belike."
+
+"The king! what knowest thou of the king?" said the maiden sharply.
+
+"Eh! lady, I know not on him forsooth. Marry it would be hard to say who
+that be now-a-days; for the clerk towed me"--
+
+"Peace! whom sawest thou?"
+
+"Why the ugliest brute, saving your presence, lady, that my two een ever
+lippened on."
+
+"None else?"
+
+"No, no; I warrant ye, the miners wouldna care to let me get a glint o'
+the gowd. I only had a look at the hobgoblin, who they have set, I
+guess, to watch the treasure."
+
+"Oh! I see,--ay, truly," said the maiden thoughtfully; "the mine is
+guarded, therefore be wary, and reveal not the secret, lest he crush
+thee. Remember," said she at parting, "remember the demon of the cave.
+One word, and he will grind thy bones to grist."
+
+Gregory did remember the power of this mysterious being, who, he began
+to fancy, partook more of the supernatural than he had formerly
+imagined.
+
+Wearied with watching, he slept soundly, but his dreams were of wizards
+and enchanters; heaps of gold and fairy palaces, wherein he roved
+through glittering halls of illimitable extent, until morning dissipated
+the illusion.
+
+Some weeks passed on, during which, at times, Gregory was employed by
+his mistress, doubtless to propitiate this greedy monster, in conveying
+food secretly to the mouth of the chasm. He did not usually wait for his
+appearance, but ran off with all convenient speed when his errand was
+accomplished. Still his hankering for the treasure seemed to increase
+with every visit. He oft invented some plan for outwitting the demon,
+thereby securing to himself the product of the mine. Some of these
+devices would doubtless have been accomplished had not fear prevented
+the attempt. He had no wish to encounter again the hostility of that
+fearful thing in its unhallowed abode.
+
+His mistress, however, would, at some period or another, no doubt, be in
+possession of all the wealth in the cave, and he should then expect a
+handsome share. He had heard, in old legends, marvellous accounts of
+ladies marrying with these accursed dwarfs for gold, and if he waited
+patiently he might perchance have the best of the spoil.
+
+He brooded on this imagination so long that he became fully convinced
+of its truth; but still the golden egg was long in hatching.
+
+One night he thought he would watch a while. He had just left a large
+barley-cake and some cheese, a bowl of furmety, and a dish of fruit.
+
+"This monster," thought he, "devours more victuals than the worth of his
+ugly carcase."
+
+He hid himself behind a tree, when presently he heard a rustling behind
+him. Ere he could retreat he was seized with a rude grasp, and the gruff
+accents of his master were heard angrily exclaiming--
+
+"How now, sir knave?--What mischief art thou plotting this blessed
+night? Answer me. No equivocation. If thou dost serve me with a lie in
+thy mouth I'll have thee whipt until thou shall wish the life were out
+o' thee."
+
+Gregory fell on his knees and swore roundly that he would tell the
+truth.
+
+"Quick, hound; I have caught thee lurching here at last. I long thought
+thou hadst some knavery agoing. What meanest thou?"
+
+Gregory pointed towards the provision which was lying hard by.
+
+"Eh, sirrah! what have we hear?" said his master, curiously examining
+the dainties. "Why, thou cormorant, thou greedy kite, is't not enough to
+consume victuals and provender under my own roof, but thou must guttle
+'em here too? I warrant there be other company to the work, other
+grinders at the mill. Now, horrible villain, thou dost smell fearfully
+o' the stocks!"
+
+"O master, forgive me!--It was mistress that sent me with the stuff, as
+I hope the Virgin and St Gregory may be my intercessors."
+
+"Thy mistress!--and for whom?"
+
+"Why, there's a hole close by, as I've good cause to remember."
+
+"Well, sirrah, and what then?"
+
+"As ugly a devilkin lives there as ever put paw and breech upon hidden
+treasure. 'Tis the mine, master, that I mean."
+
+"The mine! What knowest thou of the mine?"
+
+"I've been there, and"--
+
+Here he related his former adventure; at the hearing of which Oliver
+Tempest fell into a marvellous study.
+
+"Hark thee," said he, after a long silence; "I pardon thee on one
+condition, which is, that thou take another message."
+
+Here the terrified Gregory broke forth into unequivocal exclamations of
+agony and alarm.
+
+"Peace," said his master, "and listen; thou must carry it as from my
+daughter. I suspect there's treason lurks i' that hole."
+
+"Ay, doubtless," said Gregory: "for the neibours say 'tis treason to
+hide a mine royal."
+
+"A mine royal! Ay, knave, I do suspect it to be so. By my troth, I 'll
+ferret out the foulmarts either by force or guile. And yet force would
+avail little. If they have the clue we might attempt to follow them in
+vain through its labyrinths, they would inevitably escape, and I should
+lose the reward. Hark thee. Stay here and I'll fetch the writing for the
+message. Stir not for thy life. Shouldst thou betray me I'll have thy
+crooked bones ground in a mill to thicken pigs' gruel."
+
+Fearful was the dilemma; but Gregory durst not budge.
+
+The night grew dark and stormy, the wind rose, loud gusts shaking down
+the dying leaves, and howling through the wide extent of the forest. The
+moan of the river came on like the agony of some tortured spirit. The
+sound seemed to creep closer to his ear; and Gregory thought some evil
+thing was haunting him for intruding into these unhallowed mysteries.
+
+He was horribly alarmed at the idea of another visit to the cave, but he
+durst not disobey. He now heard a rustling in the bushes by the cavern's
+mouth. He saw, or fancied he saw, something rise therefrom and suddenly
+disappear. It was the demon, doubtless, retiring with his prey. He
+scarcely dared to breathe lest the hobgoblin should observe and seize
+him likewise. But his presence was unnoticed. He, however, thought that
+the blast grew louder, and a moan more melancholy and appalling arose
+from the river. Again Oliver Tempest was at his side.
+
+"Take this, and do thy bidding." He thrust the billet into his hand,
+which the unfortunate recipient might not refuse.
+
+Trembling in every limb, he approached the place of concealment; but he
+was too wary now to let go his hold of the fallen trunk.
+
+He whistled thrice, and the ground again seemed to give way. A light
+glared from beneath, and he cautiously descended the pit.
+
+The grim porter was waiting for him below. He fell as though rushing
+into the very jaws of the monster, who was but whetting his tusks ere he
+should devour him.
+
+"Here again!" croaked the ugly dwarf; "what brings thy long legs back
+from Christendom?"
+
+"I know not, master; but if you are i' the humour to read, I've a scrap
+in my pouch at your high mightiness' service."
+
+Gregory paid more deference to him now than aforetime, having conceived
+a most profound respect for his attributes, both physical and mental,
+since his former visit.
+
+"He is himself either some wondrous enchanter," thought he, "or, at any
+rate, minister or familiar to some mighty wizard, who hath his
+dwelling-place in this subterraneous abode."
+
+"I have a message here to my lord," said he aloud, handing him the
+billet at arm's length, with a mighty show of deference and respect. The
+uncourteous dwarf took the writing, and left Gregory in darkness again
+to await his return. He shook at every joint, while the minutes seemed
+an age. Again the light flickered on the damp walls, and the mysterious
+being approached. He addressed the envoy with his usual grin of
+contempt.
+
+"Tell the lady, my master be glad. He will leap from his prison by
+to-morrow, as she say, and appear at dinner."
+
+"The dickons he will," said Gregory, as he clambered up the ascent, not
+without imminent jeopardy, so anxious was he to escape.
+
+"This is a fearful message to master," thought he, as he leapt out
+joyfully into the buoyant air: "but at any rate I'll now be quit o' the
+job." And the messenger gave his report, for Oliver Tempest was
+impatiently awaiting his return.
+
+"'Tis well," said he; "and now, hark thee, should one syllable of this
+night's business bubble through thy lips, thou hadst better have stayed
+in the paws of the hobgoblin. Away!"
+
+Gregory needed no second invitation, but scampered home with great
+despatch, leaving his master to grope out the way as he thought proper.
+
+There was more bustle and preparation for dinner than usual on the
+morrow. Oliver Tempest had sent messengers to Bashall and Waddow; but
+the guests had not made their appearance. About noon the hall-table was
+furnished with a few whittles and well-scoured trenchers. Bright pewter
+cups and ale-flagons were set in rows on a side-table, and on the
+kitchen hearth lay a savoury chine of pork and pease-pudding. In the
+great boiling pot, hung on a crook over the fire, bubbled a score of
+hard dumplings, and in the broth reposed a huge piece of beef--these
+dainties being usually served in the following order--broth, dumpling,
+beef, according to the old distich--
+
+    "No broth, no ba';
+    No ba', no meat at a'."
+
+Dame Joan of Waddington was the presiding genius of the feast, the
+conduit-pipe through which flowed the full stream of daily bounty,
+dispensing every blessing, even the most minute. In that golden age of
+domestic discipline it was not beneath the dignity of a careful
+housewife to attend and take the lead in all culinary arrangements.
+
+The master strode to and fro in the hall, and Elizabeth was humming at
+her wheel. He looked anxious and ill at ease, often casting a furtive
+glance towards the entrance, and occasionally a side-look at his
+daughter. She sometimes watched her father's eye, as though she had
+caught his restless apprehensions, and would have inquired the cause of
+his uneasiness. Suddenly a loud bay from a favourite hound that was
+dozing on the hearth announced the approach of a stranger. Oliver
+advanced with a quick step into the courtyard, and soon re-entered
+leading in a middle-sized, middle-aged personage, slightly formed, whose
+pale and saintly features looked haggard and apprehensive, while his eye
+wavered to and fro, less perhaps with curiosity than suspicion.
+
+He was wrapped in a grey cloak; and a leathern jerkin, barely meeting in
+front, displayed a considerable breadth of under garment in the space
+between hose and doublet. These were fastened together with tags or
+points, superseding the use of wooden skewers, with which latter mode of
+suspension not a few of our country yeomen were in those days supplied.
+His legs were protected by boots of fine brown Spanish leather, lined
+with deer-skin, tanned with the fur on, and buttoned from the ankle to
+the knee. He had gloves of the same material, reaching to the elbow when
+drawn up, but now turned down with the fur outwards. The hands and feet
+were remarkably small, but well shapen. A low grey cap of coarse
+woollen completed the costume of this singular visitor. There was, at
+times, in the expression of his eye, an indescribable mixture of
+imbecility and enthusiasm, as though the spirit of some Eastern fakir
+had reanimated a living body. A gleam of almost supernatural
+intelligence was mingled with an expression of fatuity, that in less
+enlightened ages would have invested him with the dangerous reputation
+of priest or prophet in the eyes of the multitude.
+
+Oliver Tempest led the way with great care and formality. To a keen-eyed
+observer, though, his courtesy would have appeared over acted and
+fulsome; but the object of his assiduities seemed to pay him little
+attention, further than by a vacant smile that struggled around the
+corners of his melancholy and placid mouth.
+
+Dame Joan Tempest now came forth, bending thrice in a deep and formal
+acknowledgment. The stranger stayed her speech with a look of great
+benignity.
+
+"I know thy words are what our kindness would interpret, and I thank
+thee. Your hospitality shall not lose its savour in my remembrance, when
+England hath grown weary of her guilt,--when the cry of the widow and
+the fatherless shall have prevailed. I am hunted like a partridge on the
+mountains; but, by the help of my God, I shall yet escape from the
+noisome pit, and from the snares of the fowler."
+
+Yet the look which accompanied this prediction seemed incredulous of its
+purport. He heaved a deep sigh, and his eyes were suddenly bent on the
+ground. Being introduced into the hall, the seat of honour was assigned
+him at the table.
+
+Elizabeth, when she saw him, uttered an ill-suppressed exclamation of
+surprise, and her pale countenance grew almost ghastly. Her lips were
+bloodless, quivering with terror and dismay. Agony was depicted on her
+brow--that agony which leaves the spirit without support to struggle
+with unknown, undefined, uncomprehended evil. Not a word escaped her;
+she hurried out of the hall, as she thought, without observation; but
+this sudden movement did not escape the eye of her father. Triumph sat
+on his brow; and his cheek seemed flushed with joy at the result of his
+stratagem.
+
+The servitors appeared; and the smoking victuals were disposed in their
+due order. The joints were placed at the upper end of the board, while
+broth and pottage steamed out their savoury fumes from the lower end of
+the table. At some distance below the master and his dame sat the male
+domestics, then the females, who occupied the lower places at the feast,
+except two, who waited on the rest.
+
+The master blessed the meal, the whole company standing. The broth was
+served round to the lower forms, and the meat and dainties to the
+higher; but Elizabeth was still absent.
+
+When she left the hall it was for the purpose of speaking to Gregory,
+whom she found skulking and peeping about the premises.
+
+"Gregory, why art thou absent from thy nooning?" inquired Elizabeth,
+with a suspicious and scrutinising glance.
+
+"I'm not o'er careful to bide i' the house just now. Is there aught come
+that--that"--Here he stammered and looked round, confirming the
+suspicions of the inquirer.
+
+"Gregory, thou art a traitor; but thou shalt not escape thy reward. I'll
+have thee hung--ay, villain, beyond the reach of aught but crows and
+kites."
+
+"Whoy, mistress, I'd leifer be hung nor stifled to death wi' brimstone
+and bad humours."
+
+"None o' thy quiddities, thou maker of long lies and quick legs.
+Confess, or I'll"--
+
+"Whoy, look ye, mistress, you've been kind, and pulled me out of many an
+ugly ditch."
+
+"Why dost thou hesitate, knave? I'm glad thy memory is not so
+treacherous as thy tongue."
+
+"Nay, mistress, I've no notion to sup brose wi' t' old one: those that
+dinner wi' him he may happen ask to supper; and he'd need have a long
+whittle that cuts crumbs wi' the de'il."
+
+"Art thou at thy riddles again? Speak in sober similitudes, if thou
+canst, sirrah."
+
+"Your father sent me on a message to the little devilkin last night. I
+was loth enough to the job; but he catched me as I went wi' the
+victuals."
+
+"A message!--and to what purport?"
+
+"Nay, that I know not. The invitation was conveyed in a scrap of
+writing, and I'm not gifted in clerkship an' such like matters."
+
+A ray of intelligence now burst upon her. She saw the imminent danger
+which threatened the fugitive, who had been hitherto concealed
+principally by her contrivances. Gregory watched the rapid and changing
+hues alternating on her cheek. She saw the full extent of the emergency;
+and, though her father was the traitor, she hesitated not in that trying
+moment.
+
+No time was to be lost, and measures were immediately taken to
+countervail these designs.
+
+"What answer sent he?" she hastily inquired.
+
+"The de'il's buckie said his master would be at the hall by dinner-time;
+and I'll not be one o' the guests where old Clootie has the pick o' the
+table."
+
+"Thou witless runnion, haste, or we are lost! It is the king! I would I
+had trusted thee before with the secret. Mayhap thy wit would have been
+without obscuration. Supernatural terrors have taken thy reason
+prisoner. Haste, nor look behind thee until thou art under the eaves of
+Bashall. This to my cousin, Edmund Talbot; he is honest, or my wishes
+themselves are turned traitors," said the maiden wistfully. She scrawled
+but one line, with which Gregory departed on his errand.
+
+Oliver Tempest grew uneasy at his daughter's absence. He inquired the
+cause, but all were alike ignorant. The king inquired too, with some
+surprise; and a messenger was despatched with a close whisper in his
+ear.
+
+The meal was nigh finished, when all eyes were turned towards the
+entrance. A little blackamoor page came waddling in. He made no sign nor
+obeisance, but took his station, without speaking, behind his master's
+chair.
+
+"Why, how now, my trusty squire?" said the disguised monarch; "thou wast
+not bidden to this feast."
+
+The dwarf cast a scowling glance at the master of the house, and he
+replied, while a hideous grin dilated his thick stubborn features--
+
+"This be goodly wassail, methinks. I am weary of lurching and
+torchlight."
+
+"Tempest," said the king, "I would crave grace for this follower of
+mine. He is somewhat fearsome and forbidding, but of an unwearied
+fidelity."
+
+"Troth," said Tempest, still wishful to maintain the king's incognito,
+"the Turks having now taken Byzantium, the great bulwark of Christendom,
+I did fear me that the first of the tribe from that great army of
+locusts had descended upon us."
+
+"Fear not," said the unfortunate monarch, with a smile; "this poor
+innocent will do no ill. His mistress brought him for me a present from
+her father's court; and, to say the truth, he has been a great solace in
+my trouble. He hath not forsaken me when they who fattened on my
+bounty--who dipped their hands with me in the dish--have been the first
+to betray me. The knave is shrewd and playful, but of an incredible
+strength, being, as ye may observe, double-jointed. Madoc, let them
+behold some token of thy power."
+
+The cunning rogue obeyed in a twinkling. He seized the host's chair with
+one hand, lifting its occupant without difficulty from the ground. With
+the other he laid hold on him by the throat, and would certainly have
+strangled him but for the king.
+
+The assault was so sudden and unexpected that the domestics stood still
+a moment, as though rendered powerless by surprise.
+
+The next instant they all fled pell-mell out of the hall, every one
+struggling to be foremost, apprehending that the great personification
+of all evil was there, bodily, behind them, and in the very act of
+flying off with their master.
+
+In vain Joan shouted after the cowardly villains; her threats but
+increased their speed.
+
+"Fly, King Henry," cried the dwarf, in a voice that sounded like the
+roar of some infuriated beast; "the rascal curs are barking; the stag is
+in the net. This traitor"--Here he became at a loss for words; but his
+gesticulations were more vehement. "Fly!" at length he shouted, in a
+louder voice than before; "I've seen sword and armour glittering in the
+forest."
+
+But the king was irresolute, as much amazed as any of the rest. He saw
+the imminent danger of his host, whose face was blackening above the
+grip of this fierce antagonist, and he cried out--
+
+"Leave go, Madoc; let the curs bark, we fear them not in this good
+house. Let go, I command thee."
+
+With a look of pity and of scorn the savage loosened his hold, saying--
+
+"Thou be'st not king now; but Henry with the beads and breviary; and
+here come thy tormentors."
+
+A loud whistle rang through the hall, and in burst a band of armed men,
+led on by Sir Thomas Talbot of Bashall, and his oldest son of the same
+name, together with Sir James Harrington.
+
+Tempest, recovered from his gripe, made a furious dart at the king; but
+ere he had accomplished his purpose, Edmund Talbot rushed between, at
+the peril of his life, opening a way for the terrified monarch through
+the band that had nearly surrounded him.
+
+The king fled through the passage made by his deliverer; and the dwarf,
+keeping his enemies at bay, heroically and effectually covered his
+retreat.
+
+"Edmund Talbot, art thou traitor to thy kin?" said Sir Thomas, from the
+crowd. "Let me pass; 'tis thy father commands thee. 'Tis not thy king,
+he is a coward and a usurper."
+
+"I care not," said the retreating and faithful Edmund. "My arm shall not
+compass with traitors. Cowards attack unarmed men at their meals."
+
+"Then take thy reward." It was the eldest brother of Edmund who said
+this, whilst he aimed a terrific blow; but the dwarf caught his arm ere
+it descended, and a swinging stroke from a missile which he had picked
+up in the fray would have settled accounts between the heir of Bashall
+and posterity had he not stepped aside.
+
+This unequal contest, however, could not long continue, though time, the
+principal object, was gained, and the king was fast hastening again
+towards the cavern. In the courtyard he met Elizabeth, who implored him
+to step aside into another place of concealment; but he was too much
+terrified to comprehend her meaning. Fear seemed to have bewildered him,
+and the poor persecuted monarch sped on to his own destruction. In the
+hurry and uncertainty of his flight, he unfortunately took the wrong
+path, which led by a circuitous route to the ford; and, as he stepped
+out of the wood, two of his enemies, having broken through the gallant
+defence of his adherents, had already gained, and were guarding, the
+stepping-stones over the river, called "Brunckerley Hippens." Terrified,
+he flew back into the wood, but was immediately followed; and again his
+evil destiny seemed to prevail. He took another path, which led him back
+to the ford. Here he crossed, and, whilst leaping with difficulty over
+the stones, the pursuers came in full view. Having gained the Lancashire
+side, he fled into the wood, but his enemies were now too close upon him
+for escape, and the royal captive was taken, bound, and conveyed to
+Bashall. Many cruel indignities were heaped upon him; and he was
+conveyed to London in the most piteous plight, on horseback, with his
+legs tied to the stirrups. Ere he departed, it is said that he delivered
+a singular prediction--to wit, that nine generations of the Talbot
+family, in succession, should consist of a wise and a weak man by turns,
+after which the name should be lost.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[54] Whitaker's _Craven_.
+
+[55] Pennant.
+
+[56] _Hist. Whalley_.
+
+[57] Webster, in his _Metallographia_, mentions a field called Skilhorn,
+in the township of Rivington-within-Craven, "belonging to one Mr Pudsay,
+an ancient esquire, and owner of Bolton Hall, juxta Bolland; who, in the
+reign of Queen Elizabeth, did get good store of silver-ore, and convert
+it to his own use, or rather coined it, as many do believe, there being
+many shillings marked with an escallop, which the people of that country
+call Pudsay shillings to this day. But whether way soever it was, he
+procured his pardon for it, and had it, as I am certified from the
+mouths of those who had seen it." Webster further adds: "While old Basby
+(a chemist) was with me, I procured some of the ore, which yielded after
+the rate of twenty-six pounds of silver per ton. Since then, good store
+of lead has been gotten; but I never could procure any more of the sort
+formerly gotten; the miners being so cunning, that if they meet with any
+vein that contains so much ore as will make it a myne royall, they will
+not discover it."
+
+Dr Whitaker, in his _History of Craven,_ says: "The following papers,
+lately communicated to me from the evidences of the Pudsays, put the
+matter out of doubt:--'Case of a myne royall. Although the gold or
+silver contained in the base metalls of a mine in the land of a subject
+be of less value than the baser metall, yet if gold and silver doe
+countervaile the charge of refining, or bee of more value than the baser
+metall spent in refining itt, this is a myne royall, and _as wel the
+base metall_ as the gold and silver in it, belongs to the crown.
+
+"'Edw. Herbert, Attorney-General. Oliver St John, Solicitor-General. Orl.
+Bridgman. Joh. Glanvill. Jeoffry Palmer. Tho. Lane. Jo. Maynard. Hdw.
+Hyde. J. Glynn. Harbottle Grimstone,' &c.
+
+"So favourable at that time were the opinions of the most constitutional
+lawyers (for such were the greater part of these illustrious names) to
+the prerogative. But the law on this head has been very wisely altered
+by two statutes of William and Mary.--Blackstone, iv. 295.
+
+"The other paper is of later date:--'To the King's most excellent
+Majestie. The humble petition of Ambrose Pudsay, Esq., sheweth, that
+your petitioner having suffered much by imprisonment, plunder, &c., for
+his bounden loyalty, and having many years concealed a myne royall, in
+Craven, in Yorkshire, prayeth a patent for digging and refining the
+same.'"
+
+[58] _Hist, of Whalley_, p. 504.
+
+[59] This lady, whose attractions or good fortune must have been
+uncommon, says the historian of Craven, was daughter to Henry Pudsay of
+Bolton. She married, first, Sir Thomas Talbot of Bashall, who died 13
+Henry VII.; after which she became the second wife of Henry, Lord
+Clifford, the shepherd; and, after his decease, by the procurement of
+Henry VIII., gave her hand to Richard Grey, youngest son of Thomas,
+Marquis of Dorset.
+
+END OF VOL. I.
+
+Printed by Ballantyne and Company Edinburgh and London
+
+
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2), by
+John Roby</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2)</p>
+<p>Author: John Roby</p>
+<p>Release Date: March 7, 2005  [eBook #15271]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRADITIONS OF LANCASHIRE, VOLUME 1 (OF 2)***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, Charles Aldarondo,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<h1><!-- Page -26 --><a name="Page_-26" id="Page_-26" ></a></h1>
+
+<p class="blockquote">&quot;I know I have herein made myself subject unto a world of judges, and<!-- Page -25 --><a name="Page_-25" id="Page_-25" ></a>
+am likest to receive most controulment of such as are least able to
+sentence me. Well I wote that the works of no writers have appeared to
+the world in a more curious age than this; and that, therefore, the more
+circumspection and wariness is required in the publishing of anything
+that must endure so many sharp sights and censures. The consideration
+whereof, as it hath made me all the more needy not to displease any, to
+hath it given not the less hope of pleasing all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="author">VERSTEGAN, <i>Rest. dec. Ant.</i></p>
+
+<div class="center">
+<img src="images/01.png" width="300" height="402" alt="JOHN ROBY" title="" /><br />
+<b>JOHN ROBY</b>
+<!-- Page -24 --><a name="Page_-24" id="Page_-24" ></a></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><!-- Page -23 --><a name="Page_-23" id="Page_-23" ></a>TRADITIONS</h2>
+
+<h2>OF</h2>
+
+<h2>LANCASHIRE.</h2>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h2>JOHN ROBY, M.R.S.L.</h2>
+
+<h4><i>ILLUSTRATED BY ENGRAVINGS ON STEEL AND WOOD</i>.</h4>
+
+<h3>IN TWO VOLUMES.</h3>
+
+<h2>VOL. I.</h2>
+
+
+
+<h3>Fifth Edition.</h3>
+
+
+<h2>LONDON:</h2>
+
+<h3>GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS,</h3>
+
+<h4>MANCHESTER: L.C. GENT.</h4>
+
+<h5>1872.</h5>
+
+<p class="center"><!-- Page -22 --><a name="Page_-22" id="Page_-22" ></a>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2><!-- Page -21 --><a name="Page_-21" id="Page_-21" ></a>CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.</h2>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ADVERTISEMENT_TO_THE_FIFTH_EDITION">ADVERTISEMENT TO FIFTH EDITION</a></td><td align='left'>IX</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_PUBLISHERS_PREFACE_TO_FOURTH_EDITION">PUBLISHERS' PREFACE TO FOURTH EDITION</a></td><td align='left'>X</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#MEMOIR_OF_THE_AUTHOR5">MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR</a></td><td align='left'>XII</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#PREFACE_TO_THE_FIRST_SERIES">PREFACE TO FIRST SERIES</a></td><td align='left'>XVI</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#PREFACE_TO_THE_SECOND_SERIES">PREFACE TO SECOND SERIES</a></td><td align='left'>XVIII</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#INTRODUCTION_TO_THE_SECOND_SERIES">INTRODUCTION TO SECOND SERIES</a></td><td align='left'>XIX</td></tr></table>
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>TRADITIONS.</h3>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#SIR_TARQUIN">SIR TARQUIN</a></td><td align='left'>1</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_GOBLIN_BUILDERS">THE GOBLIN BUILDERS</a></td><td align='left'>11</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#MABS_CROSS">MAB'S CROSS</a></td><td align='left'>25</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_PRIOR_OF_BURSCOUGH">THE PRIOR OF BURSCOUGH</a></td><td align='left'>52</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_EAGLE_AND_CHILD">THE EAGLE AND CHILD</a></td><td align='left'>72</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_BLACK_KNIGHT_OF_ASHTON">THE BLACK KNIGHT OF ASHTON</a></td><td align='left'>95</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#FAIR_ELLEN_OF_RADCLIFFE">FAIR ELLEN OF RADCLIFFE</a></td><td align='left'>106</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_ABBOT_OF_WHALLEY">THE ABBOT OF WHALLEY</a></td><td align='left'>111</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#SIR_EDWARD_STANLEY">SIR EDWARD STANLEY</a></td><td align='left'>137</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#GEORGE_MARSH_THE_MARTYR">GEORGE MARSH, THE MARTYR</a></td><td align='left'>153</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#DR_DEE_THE_ASTROLOGER">DR DEE, THE ASTROLOGER</a></td><td align='left'>169</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_SEER">THE SEER</a></td><td align='left'>198</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_EARL_OF_TYRONE">THE EARL OF TYRONE</a></td><td align='left'>220</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#HOGHTON_TOWER">HOGHTON TOWER</a></td><td align='left'>247</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_LANCASHIRE_WITCHES">THE LANCASHIRE WITCHES</a></td><td align='left'>280</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#SIEGE_OF_LATHOM">SIEGE OF LATHOM</a></td><td align='left'>311</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#RAVEN_CASTLE">RAVEN CASTLE</a></td><td align='left'>342</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_PHANTOM_VOICE">THE PHANTOM VOICE</a></td><td align='left'>363</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_BAR_GAIST">THE BAR-GAIST</a></td><td align='left'>376</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_HAUNTED_MANOR_HOUSE">THE HAUNTED MANOR-HOUSE</a></td><td align='left'>385</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CLITHEROE_CASTLE">CLITHEROE CASTLE</a></td><td align='left'>402</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_GREY_MAN_OF_THE_WOOD">THE GREY MAN OF THE WOOD</a></td><td align='left'>439</td></tr></table>
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><!-- Page -20 --><a name="Page_-20" id="Page_-20" ></a>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#Page_25">MAB'S CROSS, WIGAN</a></td><td align='left'><i>To face page</i></td><td align='left'>25</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#Page_55">BURSCOUGH ABBEY</a></td><td align='left'>52</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#Page_111">RADCLIFFE TOWER</a></td><td align='left'>106</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#Page_118">WHALLEY ABBEY</a></td><td align='left'>111</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#Page_146">HORNBY CASTLE</a></td><td align='left'>137</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#Page_219">COLLEGIATE CHURCH, MANCHESTER</a></td><td align='left'>208</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#Page_232">TYRONE'S BED, NEAR ROCHDALE</a></td><td align='left'>220</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#Page_262">HOGHTON TOWER</a></td><td align='left'>247</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#Page_301">EAGLE CRAG, VALE OF TODMORDEN</a></td><td align='left'>284</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#Page_330">LATHOM HOUSE</a></td><td align='left'>311</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#Page_384">SOUTH PORT</a></td><td align='left'>363</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#Page_408">INCE-HALL, NEAR WIGAN</a></td><td align='left'>385</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#Page_426">CLITHEROE CASTLE</a></td><td align='left'>402</td></tr></table>
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="ADVERTISEMENT_TO_THE_FIFTH_EDITION" id="ADVERTISEMENT_TO_THE_FIFTH_EDITION" ></a><!-- Page -19 --><a name="Page_-19" id="Page_-19" ></a>ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIFTH EDITION.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The Fourth Edition of the &quot;TRADITIONS OF LANCASHIRE&quot; was published five
+years ago, and the whole of the impression was ordered from the
+publishers before it had left the printers' hands. Owing to the
+difficulty in obtaining copies, it has been suggested that a re-issue,
+in a cheap form, is a desideratum, and the present volumes are the
+result. This is the only Complete Edition (except the Fourth, from which
+it is an unabridged reprint), of Roby's Traditions&mdash;several Legendary
+Tales being incorporated which were not included in any of the earlier
+copies of the work.</p>
+
+<p class="date"><i>November</i> 1871.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_PUBLISHERS_PREFACE_TO_FOURTH_EDITION" id="THE_PUBLISHERS_PREFACE_TO_FOURTH_EDITION" ></a><!-- Page -18 --><a name="Page_-18" id="Page_-18" ></a>THE PUBLISHERS' PREFACE TO FOURTH EDITION.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Roby's &quot;TRADITIONS OF LANCASHIRE&quot; having long been out of print&mdash;stray
+copies commanding high prices&mdash;it has been determined to republish the
+whole in a more compact and less costly form. This, the fourth and the
+<i>only complete edition</i>, includes the <i>First</i> Series of twenty tales,
+published in two volumes (1829, demy 8vo, &pound;2, 2s.; royal 8vo, with
+proofs and etchings, &pound;4, 4s.); the <i>Second</i> Series, also of twenty
+tales, in two volumes (1831, 8vo, &pound;2, 2s., &amp;c.); and three additional
+stories from his <i>Legendary and Poetical Remains</i>, first published after
+his death (1854, post 8vo, 10s. 6d.)<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1" ></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> In the two volumes now presented
+the reader will possess not only the whole of the contents of both
+series, in four volumes, at one-fourth of the price of the original
+publication, but also three additional stories from the posthumous
+volume, with a memoir, a portrait, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>From deference to a strongly-expressed feeling that the work should be
+printed without any abridgment, omission, or alteration, and the text
+preserved in its full integrity, it has been decided to reprint it
+entire; and consequently various inaccuracies in the original editions
+have been left untouched. Two or three of the most important may be
+corrected here.</p>
+
+<p>In the tale of &quot;The Dead Man's Hand,&quot; Mr Roby seems to have been led by
+false information into some errors reflecting on the character and
+memory of a devout and devoted Roman Catholic priest, known as Father
+Arrowsmith. Mr Roby states that he was executed at Lancaster &quot;in the
+reign of William III.;&quot; that &quot;when about to suffer he desired his right
+hand might be cut off, assuring the bystanders that it would have power
+to work miraculous cures on those who had faith to believe in its
+efficacy,&quot; and, denying that Father Arrowsmith suffered on account of
+religion, Mr Roby adds that &quot;having been found guilty of a misdemeanour,
+in all probability this story of his martyrdom and miraculous
+attestation to the truth of the cause for which he suffered, was
+contrived <!-- Page -17 --><a name="Page_-17" id="Page_-17" ></a>for the purpose of preventing any scandal that might have
+come upon the Church through the delinquency of an unworthy member.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>What, then, are the facts, as far as they have been investigated? The
+Father Edmund Arrowsmith who suffered death at Lancaster was born at
+Haydock in Lancashire<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2" ></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> in 1585, and he suffered death in August 1628
+(4th Charles I.), sixty years before William III. ascended the English
+throne. The mode of execution was not that of capital punishment for the
+offence committed, but rather that imposed by the laws for treason and
+for exercising the functions of a Roman Catholic priest. He was hanged,
+drawn, and quartered, and his head and quarters were fixed upon poles on
+Lancaster Castle. It was in this dismemberment that the hand became
+separated, and it was secretly carried away by some sorrowing member of
+his communion, and its supposed curative power was afterwards discovered
+and made known.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3" ></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> Mr Roby cites no authority for this contradiction of
+the original tradition. The judge who presided at the trial was Sir
+Henry Yelverton of the Common Pleas, who died on the 24th January 1629.</p>
+
+<p>In the Tradition of &quot;The Dule upo' Dun,&quot; Mr Roby states that a
+public-house having that sign stood at the entrance of a small village
+on the right of the highway to Gisburn, and barely three miles from
+Clitheroe. When Mr Roby wrote the public-house had been long pulled
+down; it had ceased to be an inn at a period beyond living memory;
+though the ancient house, converted into two mean, thatched cottages,
+stood until about forty years ago. But the site of the house is in
+Clitheroe itself, little more than half a mile from the centre of the
+town, and on the road, not to Gisburn, but to Waddington.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4" ></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p>It only remains to add that the illustrations to the present edition
+comprise not only all the beautiful plates (engraved by Edward Finden,
+from drawings by George Pickering) of the original edition, which have
+been much admired as picturesque works of art, but also all the
+wood-engravings (by Williams, after designs by Frank Howard) which have
+appeared in any former edition, and which constituted the sole
+embellishments of the three-volume editions. To these is now first added
+the fine portrait of Mr Roby from the posthumous volume.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The First Series includes all the Traditions beginning with
+&quot;Sir Tarquin&quot; and ending with &quot;The Haunted Manor-House;&quot; the Second
+Series comprises all the Tales from &quot;Clitheroe Castle&quot; to &quot;Rivington
+Pike,&quot; both included; and the three Tales now first incorporated
+are&mdash;&quot;Mother Red-Cap, or the Rosicrucians;&quot; &quot;The Death Painter, or the
+Skeleton's Bride;&quot; and &quot;The Crystal Goblet.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> His mother was a daughter of the old Lancashire family of
+Gerard of Bryn.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> These dates and facts will be found in the <i>Missionary
+Priests</i> of Bishop Challoner, who wrote about 1740 (2 vols. 8vo.,
+Manchester, 1741-2), naming as his authority a manuscript history of the
+trial, and a printed account of it published in 1629. His statements are
+confirmed by independent testimony. See Henry More's <i>Historia-Provinci&aelig;
+Anglica&aelig; Societatis Jesu</i>, book x. (sm. fol. St Omer's, 1660). Also
+Tanner's <i>Societas Jesu</i>, &amp;c., p. 99 (sm. fol. Prague, 1675). Neither
+Challoner nor the MS. account, nor either of the authors just quoted,
+says one word of Father Arrowsmith's alleged speech about the hand.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> See Mr Wm. Dobson's <i>Rambles by the Ribble</i>, 1st Series, p.
+137.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="MEMOIR_OF_THE_AUTHOR5" id="MEMOIR_OF_THE_AUTHOR5" ></a><!-- Page -16 --><a name="Page_-16" id="Page_-16" ></a>MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5" ></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></h2>
+
+
+<p>The late John Roby was born at Wigan on the 5th January 1793. From his
+father, Nehemiah Roby, who was for many years Master of the
+Grammar-School at Haigh, near Wigan, he inherited a good constitution
+and unbended principles of honour and integrity. From the family of his
+mother, Mary Aspall, he derived the quick, impressible temperament of
+genius, and the love of humour which so conspicuously marks the
+Lancashire character. He was the youngest child. His thirst for
+knowledge was early and strongly manifested. Being once told in
+childhood not to be so inquisitive, his appeal ever after was,
+&quot;<i>Inquisitive</i> wants to know.&quot; As he grew up into boyhood, surrounded by
+objects to which tradition had assigned her marvellous stories, they
+sank silently but indelibly into his mind. In his immediate vicinity
+were Haigh Hall and Mab's Cross, the scenes of Lady Mabel's sufferings
+and penance&mdash;the subject of one of his earliest tales. Almost within
+sight of the windows lay the fine range of hills of which Rivington Pike
+is a spur. In after-life he recalled with pleasure the many sports in
+that district which were the haunts of his early days, and the scenes of
+the legends he afterwards embodied. While yet a child he regularly took
+the organ in a chapel at Wigan during the Sunday service. He also early
+excelled in drawing, and after he had commenced the avocations of a
+banker the use of the pencil was a favourite recreation. His first prose
+composition, at the age of fifteen years, took a prize in a periodical
+for the best essay on a prescribed subject, by young persons under a
+specified age. Thus encouraged, poetry, essay, tale, were all tried, and
+with success. In his eighteenth or nineteenth year he received a silver
+snuff-box, inscribed, &quot;The gift of the Philosophic Society, Wigan, to
+their esteemed lecturer and worthy member.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Mr Roby first appeared before the public as a poet; publishing in 1815,
+&quot;Sir Bertram, a poem in six cantos.&quot; Another poem quickly followed,
+entitled &quot;Lorenzo, a tale of Redemption.&quot; In 1816, he <!-- Page -15 --><a name="Page_-15" id="Page_-15" ></a>married Ann, the
+youngest daughter of James and Dorothy Bealey, of Derrikens, near
+Blackburn, by whom he had nine children, three of whom died in their
+infancy. His next publication was &quot;The Duke of Mantua,&quot; a tragedy, which
+appeared in 1823, passed through three or four editions in a short time,
+and after being long out of print, was included in the posthumous volume
+of <i>Legendary Remains</i>. In the summer of that year he made an excursion
+in Scotland, visiting &quot;the bonnie braes o' Yarrow&quot; in company with James
+Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd. The literary leisure of the next six years
+was occupied in collecting materials for the <i>Traditions of Lancashire</i>,
+and in weaving these into tales of romantic interest. In this task he
+received the most courteous assistance from several representatives of
+noble houses connected with the traditions of the county; particularly
+from the late Earl and Countess of Crawford and Balcarres, and also from
+the late Earl of Derby.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>first</i> series of <i>The Traditions of Lancashire</i> appeared in 1829,
+in two volumes (including twenty tales), illustrated by plates. The
+reception of the work equalled Mr Roby's most sanguine expectations; and
+a second edition was called for within twelve months. The late Sir
+Francis Palgrave, in a letter to Mr Roby, dated 26th October 1829, thus
+estimates the work:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&quot;As compositions, the extreme beauty of your style, and the skill
+     which you have shown in working up the rude materials, must entitle
+     them to the highest rank in the class of work to which they
+     belong.... You have made such a valuable addition, not only to
+     English literature, but to English topography, by your
+     collection&mdash;for these popular traditions form, or ought to form, an
+     important feature in topographical history&mdash;that it is to be hoped
+     you will not stop with the present volumes.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<p>The <i>second</i> series of the &quot;Traditions,&quot; consisting also of two volumes
+(including twenty tales), uniform with the first, was published in 1831,
+and met with similar success. Both series were reviewed in the most
+cordial manner by the leading periodicals of the day; while they were
+more than once quoted by Sir Walter Scott, who characterised the whole
+as an elegant work. In the production of these tales, Mr Roby's practice
+was to make himself master of the historical groundwork of the story,
+and as far as possible of the manners and customs of the period, and
+then to commence composition, with Fosbroke's <i>Encyclopedia of
+Antiquities</i> at hand, for accuracy of costume, &amp;c. He always gave the
+credit of his style, which the <i>Westminster Review</i> termed &quot;a very model
+of good Saxon,&quot; to his native county, the force and energy of whose
+dialect arises mainly from the prevalence of the Teutonic element. &quot;The
+thought digs out the word,&quot; was his favourite saying, when the exact
+expression he wanted did not at once occur. In these &quot;Traditions&quot; his
+great creative power is conspicuous; about two hundred <!-- Page -14 --><a name="Page_-14" id="Page_-14" ></a>different
+characters are introduced, no one of which reminds the reader of
+another, while there is abundant diversity of both heroic and comic
+incident and adventure. A gentleman, after reading the &quot;Traditions,&quot;
+remarked that for invention he scarcely knew Mr Roby's equal. All these
+characters, it should be stated, are creations: not one is an idealised
+portrait. The short vivid descriptions of scenery scattered throughout
+are admirable. Each tale is, in fact, a cabinet picture, combining
+history and romance with landscape. Mr Roby excelled in depicting the
+supernatural; and one German reviewer declared his story of Rivington
+Pike to be &quot;the only authentic tale of demoniacal possession the English
+have.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In 1832, Mr Roby visited the English lakes, and recorded his impressions
+in lively sketches both with pen and pencil. In the spring of 1837, he
+made a rapid tour on the Continent, the notes and illustrative sketches
+of which were published in two volumes, under the title of <i>Seven Weeks
+in Belgium, Switzerland, Lombardy, Piedmont, Savoy, &amp;c.</i> In 1840, Mr
+Roby again visited the Continent by a different route, making notes and
+sketches of what he saw. At the close of the year, he was engaged in
+preparing a new edition of the &quot;Traditions,&quot; in a less expensive form.
+It was published in three volumes, as the first of a series of Popular
+Traditions of England; his intention being to follow up those of
+Lancashire with similar legends of Yorkshire, for which he wrote a few
+tales, which appeared in Blackwood's and Eraser's Magazines.</p>
+
+<p>The principal literary occupation of the next four years appears to have
+been the preparation and delivery of lectures on various subjects in
+connection with literary and mechanics' institutions. In 1844, his
+health gave way, and for years he suffered severely. As a last resource
+he tried the water-cure at Malvern in the spring of 1847, and with
+complete success. In the summer of 1849, he again married&mdash;the lady who
+survived him, and to whose &quot;sketch of his life&quot; we are largely indebted
+in this brief memoir. In the two short years following this
+marriage&mdash;the two last of his life&mdash;he was busily engaged in writing and
+delivering lectures, visiting places which form the scenes of some of
+his latest legends, and in the composition of a series of tales intended
+to illustrate the influence of Christianity in successive periods, a
+century apart. Deferring that for the fourth century, he wrote six,
+bringing the series down to the close of the seventh century; when he
+determined on visiting Scotland. With his wife and daughter he embarked
+at Liverpool on board the steamer <i>Orion</i> for Glasgow, which ill-fated
+vessel struck on some rocks about one o'clock in the morning of the 18th
+June 1850, and went down. Mrs and Miss Roby were rescued after having
+been some time in the water, but of the husband and father only the
+corpse was recovered, and <!-- Page -13 --><a name="Page_-13" id="Page_-13" ></a>his remains were laid in his family grave in
+the burial-ground of the Independent Chapel, Rochdale, on Saturday, the
+22d of that month.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Roby was not more remarkable for his numerous and varied talents than
+for his warm and affectionate heart, rich imagination, great love of
+humour, and deep and earnest piety. He was a facile versifier, an
+elegant prose writer, an able botanist and physiologist. Possessing a
+fine ear, rich voice, and great musical taste, he not only took his
+vocal share in part-song, but wrote several melodies, which have been
+published. In one species of rapid mental calculation, or rather
+combination of figures&mdash;giving in an instant the sum of a double column
+of twenty figures in each row, or a square of six figures&mdash;he far
+excelled Bidder, the calculating boy. He was a skilful draughtsman, a
+clever mimic and ventriloquist, an excellent <i>raconteur</i>, an
+accomplished conversationist, ever fascinating in the select social
+circle, and always &quot;tender and wise&quot; in that of home. He was a man of
+genuine benevolence, a cordial friend, an affectionate husband and
+father, and a humble and devout Christian. His family crest was a garb
+or wheat-sheaf, with the motto, &quot;I am ready;&quot; and in his case&mdash;though
+his death was sudden and unexpected&mdash;illness and bereavement, mental and
+physical suffering&mdash;in short, the chastenings and discipline of life,
+had done their work. His &quot;sheaf&quot; was &quot;ready for the garner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="date"><i>October</i> 1866.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> This Memoir has been almost wholly derived from the &quot;Sketch
+of the Literary Life and Character of John Roby,&quot; written by his widow,
+and occupying 117 pages of the posthumous volume of his <i>Legendary and
+Poetical Remains</i>.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PREFACE_TO_THE_FIRST_SERIES" id="PREFACE_TO_THE_FIRST_SERIES" ></a><!-- Page -12 --><a name="Page_-12" id="Page_-12" ></a>PREFACE TO THE FIRST SERIES.</h2>
+
+
+<p>A preface is rarely needed, generally intrusive, and always
+tiresome&mdash;seldom read, more seldom desiderated: a piece of egotism at
+best, where the author, speaking of himself, has the less chance of
+being listened to. Yet&mdash;and what speaker does not think he ought to be
+heard?&mdash;the author conceives there may be some necessity, some reason,
+why he should step forward for the purpose of explaining his views in
+connection with the character and design of the following pages.</p>
+
+<p>In the northern counties, and more particularly in Lancashire, the great
+arena of the STANLEYS during the civil wars&mdash;where the progress and
+successful issue of his cause was but too confidently anticipated by
+CHARLES STUART, and the scene especially of those strange and unholy
+proceedings in which the &quot;Lancashire witches&quot; rendered themselves so
+famous&mdash;it may readily be imagined that a number of interesting legends,
+anecdotes, and scraps of family history, are floating about, hitherto
+preserved chiefly in the shape of oral tradition. The antiquary, in most
+instances, rejects the information that does not present itself in the
+form of an authentic and well-attested fact; and legendary lore, in
+particular, he throws aside as worthless and unprofitable. The author of
+the &quot;TRADITIONS OF LANCASHIRE,&quot; in leaving the dry and heraldic
+pedigrees which unfortunately constitute the great bulk of those works
+that bear the name of county histories, enters on the more entertaining,
+though sometimes apocryphal narratives, which exemplify and embellish
+the records of our forefathers.</p>
+
+<p>A native of Lancashire, and residing there during the greater part of
+his life, he has been enabled to collect a mass of local traditions, now
+fast dying from the memories of the inhabitants. It is his object to
+perpetuate these interesting relics of the past, and to present them in
+a form that may be generally acceptable, divested of the dust and dross
+in which the originals are but too often disfigured, so as to appear
+worthless and uninviting.</p>
+
+<p>Tradition is not an unacceptable source of historical inquiry; and the
+writer who disdains to follow these glimmerings of truth will often find
+himself in the dark, with nothing but his own opinions&mdash;the smouldering
+vapour of his own imagination&mdash;to guide him in the search.</p>
+
+<p>The following extract from a German writer on the subject sufficiently
+exemplifies and illustrates the design the author has generally had
+before him in the composition and arrangement of the following
+legends:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Simple and unimportant as the subject may at first appear, it will be
+found, upon a nearer view, well worth the attention of philosophical and
+historical inquirers. All genuine, popular Tales, arranged with local
+and national reference, cannot fail to throw light upon contemporary
+events in history, upon the progressive cultivation of society, and
+<!-- Page -11 --><a name="Page_-11" id="Page_-11" ></a>upon the prevailing modes of thinking in every age. Though not
+consisting of a recital of bare facts, they are in most instances
+founded upon fact, and in so far connected with history, which
+occasionally, indeed, borrows from, and as often reflects light upon,
+these familiar annals, these more private and interesting casualties of
+human life.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is thus that popular tradition, connected with all that is most
+interesting in human history and human action, upon a national scale&mdash;a
+mirror reflecting the people's past worth and wisdom&mdash;invariably
+possesses so deep a hold upon its affections, and offers so many
+instructive hints to the man of the world, to the statesman, the
+citizen, and the peasant.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signs of approaching changes, no less in manners than in states, may
+likewise be traced, floating down this popular current of opinions,
+fertilising the seeds scattered by a past generation, and marking by its
+ebbs and flows the state of the political atmosphere, and the distant
+gathering of the storm.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;National traditions further serve to throw light upon ancient and
+modern mythology; and in many instances they are known to preserve
+traces of their fabulous descent, as will clearly appear in some of the
+following selections. It is the same with those of all nations, whether
+of eastern or western origin, Greek, Scythian, or Kamtschatkan. And
+hence, among every people just emerged out of a state of barbarism, the
+same causes lead to the production of similar compositions; and a chain
+of connection is thus established between the fables of different
+nations, only varied by clime and custom, sufficient to prove, not
+merely a degree of harmony, but secret interchanges and communications.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A record of the freaks of such airy beings, glancing through the mists
+of national superstition, would prove little inferior in poetical
+interest and association to the fanciful creations of the Greek
+mythology. The truth is, they are of one family, and we often discover
+allusions to the beautiful fable of Psyche or the story of Midas;
+sometimes with the addition, that the latter was obliged to admit his
+barber into his uncomfortable secret. Odin and Jupiter are brothers, if
+not the same person; and the northern Hercules is often represented as
+drawing a strong man by almost invisible threads, which pass from his
+tongue round the limbs of the victim, thereby symbolising the power of
+eloquence. Several incidents in the following tales will be recognised
+by those conversant with Scandinavian literature, thus adding another
+link to the chain of certainty which unites the human race, or at any
+rate that part of it from which Europe was originally peopled, in one
+original tribe or family.</p>
+
+<p>A work of this nature, embodying the material of our own island
+traditions, has not yet been attempted; and the writer confidently hopes
+that these tales may be found fully capable of awakening and sustaining
+the peculiar and high-wrought interest inherent in the legends of our
+continental neighbours. Should they fail of producing this effect, he
+requests that it may be attributed rather to his want of power to
+conjure up the spirits of past ages, than to any want of capabilities in
+the subjects he has chosen to introduce.</p>
+
+<p>To the local and to the general reader&mdash;to the antiquary and the
+uninitiated&mdash;to the admirers of the fine arts and embellishments of our
+<!-- Page -10 --><a name="Page_-10" id="Page_-10" ></a>literature, he hopes his labours will prove acceptable; and should the
+plan succeed, not Lancashire alone, but the other counties, may in their
+turn become the subject of similar illustrations. The tales are arranged
+chronologically, forming a somewhat irregular series from the earliest
+records to those of a comparatively modern date. They may in point of
+style appear at the commencement stiff and stalwart, like the chiselled
+warriors, whose deeds are generally enveloped in a rude narrative, hard
+and ponderous as their gaunt and grisly effigies. The events, however,
+as the author has found them, gradually assimilate with the familiar
+aspects and everyday affections of our nature&mdash;subsiding from the stern
+and repulsive character of a barbarous age into the usual forms and
+modes of feeling incident to humanity&mdash;as some cold and barren region,
+where one stunted blade of affection can scarce find shelter, gradually
+opens Out into the quiet glades and lowly habitudes of ordinary
+existence.</p>
+
+<p>The author disclaims all pretensions to superior knowledge. He would not
+even arrogate to himself the name of antiquary. Some of the incidents
+are perhaps well known, being merely put into a novel and more popular
+shape. The spectator is here placed upon an eminence where the scenes
+assume a new aspect, new combinations of beauty and grandeur being the
+result of the vantage ground he has obtained. Nothing more is attempted
+than what others, with the same opportunities, might have done as
+well&mdash;perhaps better. When Columbus broke the egg&mdash;if we may be excused
+the arrogance of the simile&mdash;all that were present could have done the
+same; and some, no doubt, might have performed the operation more
+dexterously.</p>
+
+<p class="date"><i>1st October</i> 1829.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PREFACE_TO_THE_SECOND_SERIES" id="PREFACE_TO_THE_SECOND_SERIES" ></a>PREFACE TO THE SECOND SERIES.</h2>
+
+
+<p>In presenting another and concluding series of Lancashire Traditions to
+the public, the author has to express his thanks for the indulgence he
+has received, and the spirit of candour and kindness with which this
+attempt to illustrate in a novel manner the legends of his native county
+has been viewed by the periodical press.</p>
+
+<p>To his numerous readers, in the capacity of an author, he would say
+Farewell, did not the &quot;everlasting adieus,&quot; everlastingly repeated, warn
+him that he might at some future time be subject to the same infirmity,
+only rendered more conspicuous by weakness and irresolution.</p>
+
+<p class="date">Rochdale, <i>October</i> 1831.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="INTRODUCTION_TO_THE_SECOND_SERIES" id="INTRODUCTION_TO_THE_SECOND_SERIES" ></a><!-- Page -9 --><a name="Page_-9" id="Page_-9" ></a>INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND SERIES.</h2>
+
+
+<p>No method has yet been discovered for preserving the recollection of
+human actions and events precisely as they have occurred, whole and
+unimpaired, in all their truth and reality. Time is an able teacher of
+causes and qualities, but he setteth little store by names and persons,
+or the mould and fashion of their deeds. The pyramids have outlived the
+very names of their builders. &quot;Oblivion,&quot; says Sir Thomas Browne,
+&quot;blindly scatters her poppies. Time has spared the epitaph of Adrian's
+horse&mdash;confounded that of himself!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Few things are so durable as the memory of those mischiefs and
+oppressions which Time has bequeathed to mankind. The names of
+conquerors and tyrants have been faithfully preserved, while those from
+whom have originated the most useful and beneficial discoveries are
+entirely unknown, or left to perish in darkness and uncertainty. We
+should not have known that Lucullus brought cherries from the banks of
+the Phasis but through the details of massacre and spoliation&mdash;the
+splendid barbarities of a Roman triumph. In some instances Time displays
+a fondness and a caprice in which the gloomiest tyranny is seen
+occasionally to indulge. The unlettered Arab cherishes the memory of his
+line. He traces it unerringly to a remoter origin than could be claimed
+or identified by the most ancient princes of Europe. In many instances
+he could give a clearer and a higher genealogy to his horse. But that
+which Time herself would spare, the critic and the historian would
+demolish. The northern barbarians are accused of an exterminating
+hostility to learning. It never was half so bitter as the warfare which
+learning displays against everything of which she herself is not the
+author. A living historian has denied that the poems of Ossian had any
+existence save in the conceptions of Macpherson, because he
+condescendingly informs us, &quot;Before the invention or introduction of
+letters, human memory is incapable of any faithful record which may be
+transmitted from age to age.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The account which Macpherson gave may be a fiction, but it is admitted
+by those who know the native Scotch and Irish tongues, and have dwelt
+where no other language is spoken, that there are poems which have been
+transmitted from generation to generation (orally it must be, since
+letters are either entirely unknown or are comparatively of recent
+introduction), the machinery of which prove them to have <!-- Page -8 --><a name="Page_-8" id="Page_-8" ></a>been invented
+about the time when Christianity was first preached in these islands.</p>
+
+<p>Tradition may well be named the eldest daughter of Time, and
+nursing-mother of the Muses&mdash;the fruitful parent of that very learning
+which would, in the cruel spirit of its pedantry and malice, make her
+the sacrifice while it lays claim to the inheritance. What is learning
+but a laborious, often ill-drawn, and almost invariably partial
+deduction from facts which tradition has first collected? When we
+consider in whose hands learning has been, almost ever since its
+creation; the uses which have been made of it by priests and
+politicians; by poets, orators, and flatterers; by controversialists and
+designing historians;&mdash;how commonly has it been perverted to abuse the
+very senses of mankind, and to give a bias to their thoughts and
+feelings, only to mislead and to betray! Let the evidence be well
+compared, and a view taken of the respective amounts of doubt and
+certainty which appertain to human history as it appears in written
+records; and it will be seen that, to verify any given fact, so as to
+prevent the possibility of doubt, we must throw aside our reverence for
+the scholar's pen and the midnight lamp, which seem, like the faculty of
+speech, only given to men, as the witty Frenchman observed, &quot;to conceal
+their thoughts.&quot; This comparative process is precisely what has been
+adopted by M.L. Petit Radel in his new theory upon the origin of Greece.
+&quot;Not satisfied with the mythological equivocation and contradictory
+statements which till now have perplexed the question, after a residence
+of ten years this learned man returns with a new theory, which would
+destroy all our received ideas, and carry the civilisation and cradle of
+the Greeks much beyond the time and place that have till now been
+supposed. It is their very architecture that M. Petit Radel
+interrogates, and its passive testimony serves as a basis to his system.
+He has visited, compared, and meditated on the unequivocal vestiges of
+more than one hundred and fifty antique citadels, altogether neglected
+by the Greek and Roman authors. Their form and construction serve him,
+with the aid of ingenious reasoning, to prove that Greece was civilised
+a long time before the arrival of the Egyptian colonies. He does not
+despair of tracing back the descent of the Greeks to the Hyperborean
+nations, always by the analogy of their structures, which, by a singular
+identity, are found also among the Phoenicians. The Institute have
+pronounced the following judgment upon his theory:&mdash;'If the developments
+which remain to be given to us suffice to gain the votes of the learned,
+and induce them to adopt this theory as demonstrated truth, M. L. Petit
+Radel may flatter himself with having made in history a discovery truly
+worthy to occupy a place in the progress of human genius.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Thus the very time in which a living historian of England has chosen to
+inflict an impotent blow, from the leaden sceptre of Johnsonian
+criticism, upon all facts which claim an existence anterior to the
+invention of books, appears pregnant with a discovery of a method of
+investigating the most remote eras, which presupposes an inherent spirit
+of fallacy and falsehood in all written records of their existence.</p>
+
+<p>About three hundred years after the era of the Olympiads, the first date
+of authentic history, Herodotus astonished his countrymen by the
+writings he brought forth. Who kept the records out of which his <!-- Page -7 --><a name="Page_-7" id="Page_-7" ></a>work
+was elaborated ere he was ready to stamp the facts with the only seal
+which our modern historians will acknowledge or allow? Tradition
+doubtless was his guide, which the learned themselves complain of as the
+source of what they term his errors and his fables. But the voice of
+tradition has often reinstated his claims to our belief, where it had
+been suspended either by ignorance or pretensions to superior knowledge.
+A modern traveller found, in one of the isles of the Grecian
+Archipelago, undoubted vestiges of a state of society similar to that of
+the Amazons. The order of the sexes was wholly inverted. The wife ruled
+the husband, and his and her kindred, with uncontrolled and unsparing
+rigour, sanctioned and even commanded by the laws. Yet the very
+existence of any such people as the Amazons of ancient history has not
+only been questioned, but denied. Learning has proved it to be
+impossible.</p>
+
+<p>The Marquess of Hastings told the Rev. Mr Swan, chaplain of the
+Cambrian, that he had found the germ of fact from which many of the most
+incredible tales in ancient history had grown during his stay in India.
+One instance only we would relate. A Grecian author mentions a people
+who had only one leg. An embassy from the interior was conducted into
+the presence of the viceroy, and he could by no persuasion prevail upon
+the obsequious minister to use more than one of his legs, though he
+stood during the whole of a protracted audience.</p>
+
+<p>But there are other forces now drawing into the field to support the
+long-neglected claims of tradition. Etymology, which professed to settle
+doubts by an appeal to the elementary sounds of words, was banished from
+the politer and more influential circles of English learning by a decree
+as arbitrary as that pronounced on the poems of Ossian. It has come back
+with a new commission and under a new title;&mdash;Ethnography is the name
+given by our continental neighbours to this new science, which, in its
+future developments, may bring to light some of the most obscure and
+important circumstances affecting the human race, from its origin
+through every succeeding epoch of its existence. The distinguishing
+object of this inquiry is to identify the fortunes, migrations, and
+changes of the human family as to situation, policy, religion,
+agriculture, and arts, by comparing the terms supplied by or introduced
+into the language of any one country with the names of the same objects
+in every other. There would be no such thing as chance in nature could
+we know the laws which determine every separate accident. In like manner
+there will scarcely be any doubt respecting the primitive history of man
+when this new science shall have accumulated and revealed all the
+treasures which it may be enabled to appropriate. An agreement in the
+primitive term which any object of cultivation, physical or moral, bears
+among many different tribes, spread over many and far-distant regions,
+will be considered as the best evidence of one common origin.
+Disagreement in a similar case, accompanied with a great variety of
+terms of considerable dissonance, will be equally conclusive as to the
+object being indigenous or of a multifarious origin.</p>
+
+<p>Already has Balbi, in his Ethnographic Atlas, given us a list of names
+and coincidences to an extent truly astonishing. Yet what is this, in
+fact, but a judicious use of Bacon's old but much-neglected rule of
+questioning nature about facts instead of theories&mdash;examining evidences
+ere rhetoric had made language one vast heap of implied falsehood?</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page -6 --><a name="Page_-6" id="Page_-6" ></a>In a court of inquiry we examine witnesses as to facts, not opinions.
+But the historian reads mankind in cities; the philosopher in the
+clouds. He who is anxious for the truth should look abroad on the plains
+or in the woods, where man's first prerogative, the giving of names, was
+exercised. His knowledge of nature must be wretchedly imperfect who
+thinks that no grand outline of truth can possibly exist in the dim
+records of human recollection ere the pen of the scholar was employed to
+depict the scenes that opinion or prejudice had created. How many pages
+of Clarendon's, Hume's, or even Robertson's history would be cancelled
+if we had access to all the recollections of each event, and the
+evidence of the unlettered vulgar who had witnessed the fact brought to
+our notice, even through the mouthpiece of tradition!</p>
+
+<p>There is more truth than comes to the surface in that speech put into
+the lips of the father of lies by a late poet, where he says&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&quot;The Bible's your book&mdash;history mine.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<p>Savigny makes the same charge against one class of historians in his own
+country:&mdash;&quot;However discordant,&quot; says he, &quot;their other doctrines may
+appear, they agree in the practice of adopting each a particular system,
+and in viewing all historical evidence as so many proofs of its truth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Were it not for that contempt we have already noticed as the offspring
+of pride and dogmatism, and which, in the administration of the republic
+of letters, has been entertained and openly proclaimed for every kind of
+history except that which its own acts may have originated, we should
+have been in possession of thousands of facts and notions now overlaid
+and lost irrecoverably to the philosopher and the historian.</p>
+
+<p>The origin and the progress of nations, next after the school divinity
+of the Middle Ages, has occasioned the most copious outpouring of
+conjectural criticism. The simple mode of research suggested by the
+works of Verstegan, Camden, and Spelman would, long before this time,
+have made the early history of the British tribes as clear as it is now
+obscure. Analogies in the primary sounds of each dialect; similarity or
+difference in regard to objects of the first, or of a common necessity;
+rules or laws for the succession of property, which are as various as
+the tribes which overran the empire; the nature, agreement, or
+dissimilarity in religious worship with those vestiges of its ritual and
+celebration which, by the &quot;pious frauds&quot; and connivance of the early
+church, still lurk in the pastimes of our rural districts:&mdash;the new
+science of which we have spoken, by taking cognisance of these and all
+other existing sources of legitimate investigation, will settle the
+source and affinities of nations upon a plan as much superior to that of
+Grotius and his school as fact and reason exceed the guess-work of the
+theorist and the historian. Meantime we would cite a few examples that
+illustrate and bear more particularly on the subject to which our
+inquiries have been directed.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing seems at first sight more difficult than to establish a
+community of origin between the gods of Olympus and those of the
+Scandinavian mythology. The attempt has often been made, and each time
+with increased success. Observe the process adopted in this interesting
+inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Every country in Europe has invested its popular fictions with the
+<!-- Page -5 --><a name="Page_-5" id="Page_-5" ></a>same common marvels&mdash;all acknowledge the agency of the lifeless
+productions of nature; the intervention of the same supernatural
+machinery; the existence of elves, fairies, dwarfs, giants, witches, and
+enchanters; the use of spells, charms, and amulets, and all those
+highly-gifted objects, of whatever form or name, whose attributes refute
+every principle of human experience, which are to conceal the
+possessor's person, annihilate the bounds of space, or command a
+gratification of all our wishes. These are the constantly-recurring
+types which embellish the popular tale: which have been transferred to
+the more laboured pages of romance; and which, far from owing their
+first appearance in Europe to the Arabic conquest of Spain, or the
+migrations of Odin to Scandinavia, are known to have been current on its
+eastern verge long anterior to the era of legitimate history. The
+Nereids of antiquity, the daughters of the 'sea-born seer,' are
+evidently the same with the mermaids of the British and northern shores.
+The inhabitants of both are fixed in crystal caves or coral palaces
+beneath the waters of the ocean; they are alike distinguished for their
+partialities to the human race, and their prophetic powers in disclosing
+the events of futurity. The Naiads differ only in name from the Nixen of
+Germany and Scandinavia (Nisser), or the water-elves of our countrymen.
+&AElig;lfric and the Norn&aelig;, who wove the web of life, and sang the fortunes of
+the illustrious Helga, are but the same companions who attended Ilithyia
+at the births of Iamos and Hercules,&quot; the venerable Parc&aelig; of antiquity.</p>
+
+<p>The Russian Rusalkis are of the same family. The man-in-the-moon has
+found a circulation throughout the world. &quot;The clash of elements in the
+thunder-storm was ascribed in Hellas to the rolling chariot-wheels of
+Jove, and in the Scandinavian mythology to the ponderous waggon of the
+Norwegian Thor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>To the above extract, which is taken from the excellent preface by the
+editor to Wharton's <i>History of English Poetry</i>, may be added the number
+of high peaks bearing the name of Tor or Thor, seen more especially on
+both coasts of Devonshire, and which are supposed to signalise the
+places of his worship.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6" ></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> From the same source may be derived affinities
+equally strong between the Highland Urisks, the Russian Leschies, the
+Pomeranian or Wendish Berstucs, and the Panes and Panisci who presided
+over the fields and forests of Arcadia. The mountains of Germany and
+Scandinavia are under the governance of a set of metallurgic divinities,
+who agree with the Cabiri, Heph&aelig;sti, Telchines, and Id&aelig;an Dactyli. The
+Brownies and Fairies are of the same kindred as the Lares of Latium.
+&quot;The English Puck, the Scottish Bogle, the French Esprit Follet, or
+Goblin, the Gobelinus of monkish Latinity, and the German Kobold, are
+only varied names for the Grecian Kobalus, whose sole delight consisted
+in perplexing the human race, and calling up those harmless terrors that
+constantly hover round the minds of the timid.&quot; &quot;The English and
+Scottish terms, '<i>Puck,' 'Bogle'</i>, are the same as the German 'Spuk' and
+the Danish 'Spogelse,' without the sibilant aspiration. These words are
+general names for any kind of spirit, and correspond to the 'pouk' of
+Piers Ploughman. In Danish <!-- Page -4 --><a name="Page_-4" id="Page_-4" ></a>'spog' means a joke, trick, or prank, and
+hence the character of Robin Goodfellow. In Iceland Puki is regarded as
+an evil sprite; and in the language of that country, 'at pukra' means
+both to make a murmuring noise and to steal clandestinely. The names of
+these spirits seem to have originated in their boisterous
+temper&mdash;'spuken,' Germ. to make a noise: 'spog,' Dan. obstreperous
+mirth; 'pukke,' Dan. to boast, scold. The Germans use 'pochin' in the
+same figurative sense, though literally it means to strike, beat; and is
+the same with our <i>poke</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>However varied in name, the persons and attributes of these immaterial
+beings have no variance which will not readily be accounted for by the
+difference of climate, territorial surface, and any priority that one
+tribe had gained over another in the march of mind. The relics of such a
+system were much more abundant half-a-century ago, and many a tale of
+love and violence, garnished with the machinery of that <i>mythos</i>, might
+have been gleaned from the unwritten learning of the people. Who would
+expect to find amongst the rudest of the Irish peasantry&mdash;whose
+ancestors never knew the use of letters, and by whom, even down to
+living generations, the English tongue has not been spoken&mdash;a number of
+fictions, amongst the rest the tale of Cupid and Psyche&mdash;closely
+corresponding to that of the Greeks?<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7" ></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> Who that has been a child does
+not recollect the untiring delight with which he listened to those
+ingenious arithmetical progressions, reduced to poetry, called &quot;<i>The
+House that Jack built</i>,&quot; and the perils of &quot;<i>The Old Woman with the
+Pig</i>?&quot; Few even of those in riper years would suspect their Eastern
+origin. In the <i>Sepher Haggadah</i> there is an ancient parabolical hymn,
+in the Chaldee language, sung by the Jews at the feast of the Passover,
+and commemorative of the principal events in the history of that people.
+For the following literal translation we are indebted to Dr Henderson,
+the celebrated orientalist:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;1. <i>A kid, a kid</i> my father bought,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">For two pieces of money.<br /></span>
+<span class="i41">A kid, a kid.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;2. Then came <i>the cat</i>, and ate the kid,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That my father bought,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">For two pieces of money.<br /></span>
+<span class="i41">A kid, a kid.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;<!-- Page -3 --><a name="Page_-3" id="Page_-3" ></a>3. Then came <i>the dog</i>, and bit the cat,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That ate the kid,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That my father bought,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">For two pieces of money.<br /></span>
+<span class="i41">A kid, a kid.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;4. Then came <i>the staff</i>, and beat the dog,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That bit the cat,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That ate the kid,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That my father bought,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">For two pieces of money.<br /></span>
+<span class="i41">A kid, a kid.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;5. Then came <i>the fire</i>, and burnt the staff,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That beat the dog,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That bit the cat,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That ate the kid,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That my father bought,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">For two pieces of money.<br /></span>
+<span class="i41">A kid, a kid.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;6. Then came <i>the water</i>, and quenched the fire,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That burnt the staff,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That beat the dog,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That bit the cat,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That ate the kid,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That my father bought,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">For two pieces of money.<br /></span>
+<span class="i41">A kid, a kid.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;7. Then came <i>the ox</i>, and drank the water,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That quenched the fire,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That burnt the staff,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That beat the dog,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That bit the cat,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That ate the kid,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That my father bought,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">For two pieces of money.<br /></span>
+<span class="i41">A kid, a kid.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;8. Then came <i>the butcher</i>, and slew the ox,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That drank the water,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That quenched the fire,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That burnt the staff,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That beat the dog,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That bit the cat,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That ate the kid,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That my father bought,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">For two pieces of money,<br /></span>
+<span class="i41">A kid, a kid.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;9. Then came <i>the angel of death</i>, and killed the butcher,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That slew the ox.<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That drank the water,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That quenched the fire,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That burnt the staff,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That beat the dog,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That bit the cat,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That ate the kid,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That my father bought,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">For two pieces of money.<br /></span>
+<span class="i41">A kid, a kid.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;10. Then came <i>the Holy One</i>, blessed be He!<br /></span>
+<span class="i5">And killed the angel of death,<br /></span>
+<span class="i5">That killed the butcher,<br /></span>
+<span><!-- Page -2 --><a name="Page_-2" id="Page_-2" ></a>That slew the ox,<br /></span>
+<span class="i5">That drank the water,<br /></span>
+<span class="i5">That quenched the fire,<br /></span>
+<span class="i5">That burnt the staff,<br /></span>
+<span class="i5">That beat the dog,<br /></span>
+<span class="i5">That bit the cat,<br /></span>
+<span class="i5">That ate the kid,<br /></span>
+<span class="i5">That my father bought,<br /></span>
+<span class="i5">For two pieces of money.<br /></span>
+<span class="i41">A kid, a kid.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The following is the interpretation by P.N. Leberecht, Leipzig, 1731.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;1.&mdash;The kid, which was one of the pure animals, denotes the Hebrews.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The father, by whom it was purchased, is Jehovah, who represents
+himself as sustaining this relation to the Hebrew people.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The two pieces of money signify Moses and Aaron, through whose
+mediation the Hebrews were brought out of Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;2.&mdash;The cat denotes the Assyrians, by whom the ten tribes were carried
+into captivity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;3.&mdash;The dog is symbolical of the Babylonians.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;4.&mdash;The staff signifies the Persians.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;5.&mdash;The fire indicates the Grecian empire under Alexander the Great.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;6.&mdash;The water betokens the Roman, or the fourth of the great monarchies
+to whose dominion the Jews were subjected.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;7&mdash;- The ox is a symbol of the Saracens, who subdued Palestine, and
+brought it under the caliphate.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;8.&mdash;The butcher that killed the ox denotes the Crusaders, by whom the
+Holy Land was wrested out of the hands of the Saracens.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;9.&mdash;The angel of death signifies the Turkish power, by which the land
+of Palestine was taken from the Franks, and to which it is still
+subject.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;10.&mdash;The commencement of the tenth stanza is designed to show that God
+will take signal vengeance on the Turks, immediately after whose
+overthrow the Jews are to be restored to their own land, and live under
+the government of their long-expected Messiah.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>To return to illustrations less remote, and of a more familiar nature:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>An ill-bred. Londoner calls a shilling a <i>hog</i>, and half-a-crown a
+<i>bull</i>. He little knows what havoc he is making with our modern
+theorists, who assert that nothing is worthy of belief, or ought to be
+relied upon, before the era of &quot;legitimate&quot; or written &quot;history.&quot; These
+terms corroborate and identify themselves with the most ancient of
+traditionary customs, long ere princes had monopolised the surface of
+coined money with their own images and superscriptions. They are
+identical with the very name of money among the early Romans, which was
+<i>pecunia</i>, from <i>pecus</i>, a flock. Among the same people, it is well
+known, the word <i>stipulatio</i> signified the striking of a bargain, which
+was done by placing two straws, <i>stipes</i>, one across the other. The same
+mode is practised to this day in the Isle of Man, existing, in all
+probability, from a period earlier than the foundation of Rome itself.
+Is the coincidence <!-- Page -1 --><a name="Page_-1" id="Page_-1" ></a>accidental or traditional? If the latter, what a
+history it tells of the migration of the species!</p>
+
+<p>How much might be written of amulets, cups, and horns of magical power,
+from the divining cup of Genesis to the Amalthean horns, and the goblet
+of Oberon, which he gave to Huon of Bordeaux, the supernatural power of
+which, passing into an hundred shapes of fiction, may be found in our
+baronial halls&mdash;a pledge, to a certain extent, like the invulnerability
+of Achilles, of the good fortune of its possessor. It is wonderful that
+Shakespeare, who is so happy in the verisimilitude of his fairy lore,
+and so apt to embellish his plot with its mythology, should not have
+thought of causing the king-making Earl of Warwick to lose the horn of
+that prodigious cow&mdash;no doubt one of those guardian pledges bestowed
+upon his family&mdash;by way of presage to his fall. Deer's antlers, there
+can be little doubt, were placed in the halls of our forefathers, a
+votive offering to the Diana of the Scandinavian Pantheon; as it was the
+custom in like manner to ornament the temples with the heads of
+sacrificial victims in the Greek and Roman worship. The eagerness of our
+sportsmen for the &quot;brush,&quot; as the first trophy in the chase, has in all
+probability originated from the same propitiatory notion.</p>
+
+<p>Few would expect to meet with fragments of the worship of Juno in the
+racing of country girls for an inner garment, and the hunting of the pig
+with his tail greased; yet practised, but rapidly becoming obsolete, in
+wakes and other pastimes from Scotland to the Land's End.</p>
+
+<p>Thus far we have examined tradition by the test of positive experience.
+There is still a gleaning of poetry which might be culled, in some few
+districts, from the &quot;lyre of the unlettered muse.&quot; There are songs
+scattered up and down our own and the neighbouring counties among the
+population least affected by the spread of literature which are of great
+antiquity, and are not to be found in any books or writings now extant.
+A few of these might be gathered in; while to some, who love the tone
+and humour of the old ballads, they would be an acquisition of great
+value. But the intercourse between master and man, between town and
+country, and even amongst the learned themselves, becomes so cold and
+repulsive, either from increasing refinement or reserve, that there
+seems little hope of our finding any one who will take the trouble to
+collect them, or a sufficient number of real admirers of these relics
+who would come forward to ensure a suitable reward for the labour. We
+are sorely disgraced among foreigners for inattention to the course and
+progress of our own learning. No work exists, like those which
+illustrate and embellish the French, Italian, and German literature,
+which professes to give a summary view of its history. The knowledge of
+its antiquities, its customs, manners, laws, modes of feeling, and
+pursuits, except in the instances before mentioned, and a few other
+praiseworthy exceptions, have been shamefully obscured by an eagerness
+for supporting a system, the ridiculous rivalry of pretence, and by the
+discredit thrown upon such labours by modern pedantry. A new version of
+Camden, rectified by all the discoveries subsequent to his time;&mdash;that
+which is found useless or erroneous left out, and the work enlightened
+by new researches, entered into by a number of inquirers equal in all
+respects to the task, and exerted over every part of the country, would
+very much aid the cause of learning and the future progress of our
+knowledge.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 0 --><a name="Page_0" id="Page_0" ></a>The following traditions, we would fain hope, will not be found quite
+destitute of utility. They are some addition to our existing stock of
+knowledge, either as illustrating English history, manners, and customs
+now obsolete, or as a collection of legends, having truth for their
+basis, however disfigured in their transmission through various
+modifications of error, the natural obscurity arising from distance, and
+the distorted media through which they must necessarily be viewed.
+Perhaps a main source of this inaccuracy arises from the many and
+heterogeneous uses to which the breakings up, the fragments of tradition
+have been subjected and applied. Like those detached yet beautiful
+remnants of antiquity, built up with other and absolutely worthless
+materials in the rude structures of the barbarian by whom they have been
+disfigured, traditions are generally presented to us torn from their
+original connection with edifices once renowned for beauty and
+magnificence. It is our wish, as it has been our aim, to rescue these
+ruins from degradation and decay. Gathered from many an uninviting heap
+of chaotic matter, they are now presented in a different form, and under
+a more popular aspect. We cannot pretend to say that we have invariably
+assigned to them their true origin, or that their real character and
+position have been ascertained. Still, we would hope, that, as relics of
+the past rescued from the oblivion to which they were inevitably
+hastening, they are not either an uninteresting or inelegant addition to
+the literature of our country.<!-- Page 1 --><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1" ></a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> &quot;They worshipped fire as the representative of the Deity,
+which they kept continually burning on the tops of their highest
+mountains.&quot;&mdash;<i>Foreign Quarterly Review</i>, No. XV.: Art. &quot;Popular Poetry,&quot;
+p. 77.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> That Ireland has not always presented so degrading and
+uncivilised an aspect as now exists in that unhappy country, there is
+abundant testimony to convince the most incredulous. Camden, an author
+by no means partial on this score, says:&mdash;&quot;The Irish scholars of St.
+Patrick profited so notably in Christianity that, in the succeeding age,
+Ireland was termed '<i>Sanctorum Patria</i>.'&quot; Their monks so excelled in
+learning and piety, that they sent whole flocks of most holy men into
+all parts of Europe, &quot;who were founders of the most eminent monasteries
+both there and in Britain.&quot;
+</p><p>
+&quot;A residence in Ireland,&quot; says a learned British writer, &quot;like a
+residence now at an university, was considered as almost essential to
+establish a literary character.&quot; By common consent, and as a mark of
+pre-eminence, Ireland obtained the title of <i>Insula Sanctorum et
+Doctorum</i>.
+</p><p>
+At the Council of Constance, in 1417, the ambassadors from England were
+not allowed to rank or take any place as the ambassadors of a nation.
+The point being argued and conceded, that they were tributaries only to
+the Germans, &quot;they claimed their rank from Henry being monarch of
+Ireland only, and it was accordingly granted.&quot;&mdash;<i>O'Halloran</i>.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="SIR_TARQUIN" id="SIR_TARQUIN" ></a>SIR TARQUIN.</h2>
+
+<div class="center">
+<img src="images/02.png" width="600" height="459" alt="SIR TARQUIN." title="" />
+</div>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Within this ancient British land,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">In Lancashire I understand,<br /></span>
+<span>Near Manchester there lived a knight of fame,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Of a prodigious strength and might,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Who vanquished many a worthy knight;<br /></span>
+<span>A giant great, and Tarquin was his name.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="author"><i>Ballad of Sir Tarquin</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>As it is our intention to arrange these traditions in chronological
+order, we begin with the earliest upon record, the overthrow of the
+giant Tarquin, near Manchester, by Sir Lancelot of the Lake, who was
+supposed to bear rule over the western part of Lancashire.</p>
+
+<p>An old ballad commemorates the achievement; and many other relics of
+this tradition still exist, one of which, a rude carving on a ceiling in
+the College at Manchester, represents the giant Tarquin at his morning's
+repast; it being fabled that he devoured a child daily at this meal. The
+legs of the infant are seen sprawling out of his mouth in a most
+unseemly fashion. Some have supposed that Tarquin was but a symbol or
+personification of the Roman army, and his castle the Roman station in
+this neighbourhood.</p>
+
+<p>The following extract is from Dr Hibbert's pamphlet on the subject:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Upon the site of Castlefield, near Manchester, was originally erected a
+British fortress by the Sistuntii, the earliest possessors of
+Lancashire, comprising an area of twelve acres. It would possess on the
+south, south-east, and south-west, every advantage, from the winding of
+the River <!-- Page 2 --><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2" ></a>Medlock, and on its west, from the lofty banks which
+overlooked an impenetrable morass. By the artificial aid, therefore, of
+a ditch and a rampart on its east and north sides, this place was
+rendered a fortress of no inconsiderable importance. This fell
+afterwards into the hands of the Brigantes, the ancient inhabitants of
+Durham, York, and Westmoreland. Upon the invasion of the Romans,
+Cereales, their general, attacked the proper Brigantes of Yorkshire and
+Durham, and freed the Sistuntii of Lancashire from their dominion, but
+reserved the former to incur the Roman yoke. In A.D. 79, this British
+hold was changed into a Roman castrum, garrisoned by the first Frisian
+cohort, who erected from the old materials a new fort on the Roman
+construction, part of the vallum remaining to this day. New roads were
+made, and the British were invited to form themselves into the little
+communities of cities, to check the spirit of independence kept alive in
+the uncivilised abodes of deserted forests. The Romans possessed the
+fortress for nearly 300 years, when they were summoned away to form part
+of the army intended to repel the myriads of barbarians that threatened
+to overrun Europe.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By contributing to their refinement, and protecting them from the
+inroads of the Picts and Scots, the Romans were regarded in a friendly
+light by the ancient inhabitants, and their departure was much
+regretted. It became necessary, however, that the Britons should elect a
+chief from their own nation. Their military positions were strengthened;
+and as the Roman model of a fortress did not suit their military taste,
+instead of one encircled with walls only seven or eight feet high, and
+furnishing merely pavilions for soldiers within, they preferred
+erecting, on the sites of stations, large buildings of stone, whose
+chambers should contain more convenient barracks for the garrison. An
+infinite number of these castles existed within a century after the
+departure of the Romans, of which our Castle at Manchester was one,
+carried to a great height, erected in a good taste, secured at the
+entrances with gates, and flanked at the sides with towers.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Britons, however, unable of themselves to cope with their foes,
+imprudently invited the Saxons, who, after subduing the Caledonians,
+laid waste the country of the Britons with fire and sword. The Castle of
+Manchester surrendered A.D. 488.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<p>We have endeavoured to preserve the character and manner of the ancient
+chroniclers, and even their fanciful etymologies, in the following
+record, of which the quaint but not inelegant style, in some measure,
+almost unavoidably adapts itself to the subject.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Sir Lancelot of the Lake, as it is related by the older chronicles, was
+the son of Ban, King of Benoit, in Brittany. Flying from his castle,
+then straitly besieged, the fugitive king saw it in flames, and soon
+after expired with grief. His queen, Helen, fruitlessly <!-- Page 3 --><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3" ></a>attempting to
+save his life, abandoned for a while her infant son Lancelot. Returning,
+she discovered him in the arms of the nymph Vivian, the mistress of
+Merlin, who on her approach sprung with the child into a deep lake and
+disappeared. This lake is held by some to be the lake Linius, a wide
+insular water near the sea-coast, in the regions of Linius or &quot;The
+Lake;&quot; now called Martin Mere or <i>Mar-tain-moir,</i> &quot;a water like the
+sea.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The nymph educated the infant at her court, fabulously said to have been
+held in the subterraneous caverns of this lake, and from hence he was
+styled Lancelot du Lac.</p>
+
+<p>At the age of eighteen the fairy conveyed him to the camp of King
+Arthur, who was then waging a fierce and exterminating warfare with the
+Saxons. Here the young warrior was invested with the badge of
+knighthood. His person, accomplishments, and unparalleled bravery,
+having won the heart of many a fair dame in this splendid abode of
+chivalry and romance, his name and renown filled the land, where he was
+throughout acknowledged as chief of &quot;The Knights of the Round Table.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The name of Lancelot is derived from history, and is an appellation
+truly British, signifying royalty, <i>Lanc</i> being the Celtic term for a
+spear, and <i>lod</i> or <i>lot</i> implying a people. Hence the name of
+Lancelot's shire, or Lancashire. From the foregoing it is supposed that
+he resided in the region of Linius, and that he was the monarch of these
+parts, being ruler over the whole, or the greater part, of what is now
+called Lancashire.</p>
+
+<p>Arthur, king of the Silures, being selected by Ambrosius for the command
+of the army, he defeated the Saxons in twelve pitched battles. Four of
+these were obtained, as related by Nennius, on the river called
+Duglas,<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8" ></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> or Douglas, a little stream which runneth, as we are further
+told, in the region of Linius. On reference, it will be found that this
+river passes through a great portion of the western side of Lancashire,
+and pretty accurately fixes the position here described.</p>
+
+<p>Three of these great victories were gotten near Wigan, and the other is
+currently reported to have been achieved near Black <!-- Page 4 --><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4" ></a>rod, close to a
+Roman station, then probably fortified, and remaining as a place of some
+strength, and in possession of the Saxon invaders. Here, according to
+rude legends, &quot;the River Duglas ran with blood to Wigan three days.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was during one of the brief intervals of rest that sometimes occurred
+in the prosecution of these achievements that the following incident is
+reported to have happened. Being a passage of some note, and the
+earliest tradition of the county upon record, we have chosen it as the
+commencement of a work principally derived from traditionary history.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Tarquin, a cruel and treacherous knight of gigantic stature and
+prodigious strength, had, as the story is currently told, his dwelling
+in a well-fortified castle nigh to Manchester, on the site of what is
+yet known by the name of Castle-field. It was a place of great strength,
+surrounded by vast ramparts, and flanked at the corners with high and
+stately towers.</p>
+
+<p>He had by treachery gained possession of the fortress, treating the
+owner, who was a British knight of no mean condition, with great cruelty
+and rigour. This doughty Saxon, Sir Tarquin, had, along with many of his
+nation, been invited over in aid of the Britons against their neighbours
+the Picts and Scots. These being driven back, their false allies
+treacherously made war upon their friends, laying waste the country with
+fire and sword. Then arose that noble brotherhood, &quot;The Knights of the
+Round Table,&quot; who, having sworn to avenge the wrongs of their country,
+began to harass the intruders, and to drive them from their ill-gotten
+possessions.</p>
+
+<p>The Saxons were no less vigilant; but many of their most puissant
+knights were slain or imprisoned during these encounters.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Tarquin could boast of no mean success;&mdash;threescore knights and
+four, it is said, were held in thrall by this uncourteous chieftain.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Lancelot having, as the ballad quaintly expresses it,</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;A mighty giant just pulled down,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Who lived near Shrewsbury's fair town;<br /></span>
+<span>With his keen sword his life away did take.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>This giant knight was called Sir Carados; and Sir Lancelot, when about
+betaking himself to these and similar recreations, did hear doleful
+tidings out of Lancashire, how that Sir Tarquin was playing the eagle in
+the hawk's eyrie, amongst his brethren <!-- Page 5 --><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5" ></a>and companions. From Winchester
+he rode in great haste, succouring not a few distressed damsels and
+performing many other notable exploits by the way, &quot;until he came to a
+vast desert,&quot; &quot;frequented by none save those whom ill fortune had
+permitted to wander therein.&quot; Sir Tarquin, like the dragon of yore,
+entailed a desert round his dwelling: so fierce and rapacious was he
+that no man durst live beside him, save that he held his life and
+property of too mean account, and too worthless for the taking.</p>
+
+<p>The knight was pricking on his way through this almost pathless
+wilderness, when he espied a damsel of such inexpressible and ravishing
+beauty that none might behold her without the most heart-stirring
+delight and admiration. To this maiden did Sir Lancelot address himself,
+but she hid her face and fell a-weeping. He then inquired the cause of
+her dolour, when she bade him flee, for his life was in great jeopardy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, Sir Knight!&quot; uncovering her face as she spoke, &quot;the giant Tarquin
+liveth hereabout, and thou wert as good as dead should he espy thee so
+near his castle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What!&quot; said the knight, &quot;and shall Sir Lancelot of the Lake flee before
+this false and cruel tyrant? To this purpose am I come, that I may slay
+and make an end of him at once, and deliver the captives.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Art thou, indeed, Sir Lancelot?&quot; said the damsel, joy suddenly starting
+through her tears; &quot;then is our deliverance nearer than we hoped for.
+Thy fame is gone before thee into all countries, and thy might and thy
+prowess, it is said, none may withstand. This evil one, Sir Tarquin,
+hath taken captive my true knight, who, through my cruelty, betook
+himself to this adventure, and now lieth in chains and foul ignominy,
+without hope of release, until death break off his fetters.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Beshrew me,&quot; said Lancelot, &quot;but I will deliver him presently, and cut
+off the foul tyrant's head, or lose mine own by the attempt.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Then did he follow the maiden to a river's brink, near to where, as
+tradition still reports, now stand the Knott Mills. Having mounted her
+before him on his steed, she pointed out a path over the ford, beyond
+which he soon espied the castle, a vast and stately building of rugged
+stone, like a huge crown upon the hill-top, which presented a gentle
+ascent from the stream.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 6 --><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6" ></a>Now did Sir Lancelot alight, as well to assist his companion as to
+bethink himself what course to pursue; but the damsel showed him a high
+tree, about a stone's-throw from the ditch before the castle, whereon
+hung a goodly array of accoutrements, with many fair and costly shields,
+on which were displayed a variety of gay and fanciful devices. These
+were the property of the knights then held in durance by Sir Tarquin.
+Below them all hung a copper basin, on which was carved in Latin the
+following inscription, translated thus&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Who valueth not his life a whit,<br /></span>
+<span>Let him this magic basin hit.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>This so enraged Sir Lancelot that he drove at the vessel violently with
+his spear, piercing it through and through, so vigorous was the assault.
+The clangour was loud, and anxiously did the knight await for some reply
+to his summons. Yet there was no answer, nor was there any stir about
+the walls or outworks. It seemed as though Sir Tarquin was his own
+castellan, skulking here alone, like the cunning spider watching for his
+prey.</p>
+
+<p>Silence, with her vast and unmoving wings, appeared to brood over the
+place; and echo, that gave back their summons from the walls, seemed to
+labour for utterance through the void by which they were encompassed. A
+stillness so appalling might needs discourage the hot and fiery purpose
+of Sir Lancelot, who, unused but to the rude clash of arms, and the
+m&ecirc;l&eacute;e of the battle, did marvel exceedingly at this forbearance of the
+enemy. But he still rode round about the fortress, expecting that some
+one should come forth to inquire his business, and this did he, to and
+fro, for a long space. As he was just minded to return from so fruitless
+an adventure, he saw a cloud of dust at some distance, and presently he
+beheld a knight galloping furiously towards him. Coming nigh, Sir
+Lancelot was aware that a captive knight lay before him, bound hand and
+foot, bleeding and sore wounded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Villain!&quot; cried Sir Lancelot, &quot;and unworthy the name of a true and
+loyal knight, how darest thou do this insult and contumely to an enemy,
+who, though fallen, is yet thine equal? I will make thee rue this foul
+despite, and avenge the wrongs of my brethren of the Round Table.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If thou be for so brave a meal,&quot; said Tarquin, &quot;thou shalt have thy
+fill, and that speedily. I will first cut off thy head, and <!-- Page 7 --><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7" ></a>then serve
+up thy carcase to the Round Table; for both that and thee I do utterly
+defy!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is over-dainty food for thy sending,&quot; replied Sir Lancelot
+hastily, and with that they couched their spears. The first rush was
+over, but man and horse had withstood the shock. Again they fell back,
+measuring the distance with an eager and impetuous glance, and again
+they rushed on, as if to overwhelm each other by main strength, when, as
+fortune would have it, their lances shivered, both of them at once, in
+the rebound. The end of Sir Lancelot's spear, as it broke, struck his
+adversary's steed on the shoulder, and caused him to fall suddenly, as
+if sore wounded. Sir Tarquin leaped nimbly from off his back; which Sir
+Lancelot espying, he cried out&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now will I show thee the like courtesy; for, by mine honour and the
+faith of a true knight, I will not slay thee at this foul advantage.&quot;
+Alighting with haste, they betook themselves to their swords, each
+guarding the opposite attack warily with his shield. That of Sir Tarquin
+was framed of a bull's hide, stoutly held together with thongs, and, in
+truth, seemed well-nigh impenetrable; whilst the shield of his opponent,
+being of more brittle stuff, did seem as though it would have cloven
+asunder with the desperate strokes of Sir Tarquin's sword. Nothing
+daunted, Sir Lancelot brake ofttimes through his adversary's guard, and
+smote him once until the blood trickled down amain. At this sight, Sir
+Tarquin waxed ten times more fierce; and summoning all his strength for
+the blow, wrought so lustily on the head of Sir Lancelot that he began
+to reel; which Tarquin observing, by a side blow struck the sword from
+out his hand, with so sharp and dexterous a jerk that it shivered into a
+thousand fragments.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now yield thee, Sir Knight, or thou diest;&quot; and with that the cruel
+monster sprang upon him to accomplish his end. Still Sir Lancelot would
+not yield, nor sue to him for quarter, but flew on his enemy like the
+ravening wolf to his prey. Then were they seen hurtling together like
+wild bulls&mdash;Sir Lancelot holding fast his adversary's sword, so that in
+vain he attempted to make a thrust therewith.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou discourteous churl! give me but the vantage of a weapon like thine
+own, and I will fight thee honestly and without flinching.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, Sir Knight of the Round Table, but this were a merry deed withal,
+to help thee unto that wherewith I might perchance <!-- Page 8 --><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8" ></a>mount some goodly
+bough for the crows to peck at,&quot; replied Tarquin. Terrible and unceasing
+was the struggle; but in vain the giant knight attempted to regain the
+use of his sword. Then Sir Lancelot, with a wary eye, finding no hope of
+his life save in the use or accomplishment of some notable stratagem,
+bethought him of the attempt to throw his adversary by a sudden feint.
+To this end he pressed against him heavily and with his whole might,
+then darting suddenly aside, Sir Tarquin fell to the ground with a loud
+cry; which Sir Lancelot espying, leapt joyfully upon him, thinking to
+overcome his enemy; but the latter, too cunning to be thus caught at
+unawares, kept his sword firmly holden, and his enemy was still
+unprovided with the means of defence. Now did Sir Lancelot begin to
+doubt what course he should pursue, when suddenly the damsel, who,
+having bound up the wounds of the captive knight as he lay, and now sat
+a little way off watching the event, cried out with a shrill voice&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sir Knight, the tree:&mdash;a goodly bough for the gathering.&quot; Then did Sir
+Lancelot remember the weapons that were there, along with the shields
+and the body-armour of the knights Sir Tarquin had vanquished. Starting
+up, ere his enemy had recovered himself, he snatched a broad falchion
+from the bough, and again defied him to the combat. But the fight was
+fiercer than before; so that being sore wounded, and the day exceeding
+hot, they were after a season fain to pause for breath.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art the bravest knight I ever encountered,&quot; said Sir Tarquin, &quot;and
+I would crave thy country and thy name; for, by my troth and the honour
+of my gods, I will give thee thy request on one condition, and release
+thy brethren of the Round Table; for why should two knights of such pith
+and prowess slay each other in one day?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what is thy condition?&quot; inquired Sir Lancelot.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There liveth but one, either in Christendom or Heathenesse, unto whom I
+may not grant this parley; for him have I sworn to kill,&quot; said Sir
+Tarquin.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis well,&quot; replied the other; &quot;but what name or cognisance hath he?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His name is Lancelot of the Lake!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Behold him!&quot; was the reply; Sir Lancelot at the same time brandishing
+his weapon with a shout of defiance.</p>
+
+<p>When Sir Tarquin heard this he gnashed his teeth for very rage.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 9 --><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9" ></a>Now one of us must die,&quot; said he. &quot;Thou slewest my brother Sir Carados
+at Shrewsbury, and I have sworn to avenge his defeat. Thou diest. Not
+all the gods of thy fathers shall deliver thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>So to it they went with more heat and fury than ever; and a marvel was
+it to behold, for each blow did seem as it would have cleft the other in
+twain, so deadly was the strife and hatred between them.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Lancelot pressed hard upon his foe, though himself grievously
+wounded, and in all likelihood would have won the fight, but, as
+ill-luck would have it, when dealing a blow mighty enough to fell the
+stoutest oak in Christendom, he missed his aim, and with that stumbled
+to the ground. Then did Sir Tarquin shout for joy, and would have made
+an end of him, but that Sir Lancelot, as he lay, aimed a deadly thrust
+below his enemy's shield where he was left unguarded, and quickly turned
+his joy into tribulation; for Sir Tarquin, though not mortally wounded,
+drew back and cried out lustily for pain, the which Sir Lancelot
+hearing, he leapt again to his feet, still eager and impatient for the
+strife.</p>
+
+<p>The contest was again doubtful, neither of them showing any disposition
+to yield, or in any wise to abate the rigour of the conflict. Night,
+too, was coming on apace, and seemed like enough to pitch her tent over
+them, ere the issue was decided. But an event now fell out which,
+unexpectedly enough, terminated this adventure. From some cause arising
+out of the haste and rapidity of the strokes, one of these so chanced,
+that both their swords were suddenly driven from out of their right
+hands; stooping together, by some subtlety or mistake, they exchanged
+weapons. Then did Sir Lancelot soon find his strength to increase,
+whilst his adversary's vigour began to abate; and in the end Sir
+Lancelot slew him, and with his own sword cut off his head. He then
+perceived that the giant's great strength was by virtue of his sword;
+and that it was through his wicked enchantments therewith he had been
+able to overcome, and had wrought such disgrace on the Knights of the
+Round Table. Sir Lancelot forthwith took the keys from the giant's
+girdle, and proceeded to the release of the captive knights, first
+unbinding the prisoner, who yet lay in a piteous swoon hard by. But
+there was a great outcry and lamentation when that he saw his own
+brother Sir Erclos in this doleful case; for it was he <!-- Page 10 --><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10" ></a>whom the cruel
+Tarquin was leading captive when he met the just reward of his misdeeds.</p>
+
+<p>After administering to his relief, Sir Lancelot rode up to the
+castle-gate, but found no entrance thereby. The drawbridge was raised,
+and he sought in vain the means of giving the appointed signal for its
+descent.</p>
+
+<p>But the damsel showed him a secret place where hung a little horn. On
+this he blew a sharp and ringing blast, when the bridge presently began
+to lower, and instantly to adjust itself across the moat; whereon,
+hastening, he unlocked the gate. But here he had nigh fallen into a
+subtle snare, by reason of an ugly dwarf that was concealed in a side
+niche of the wall. He was armed with a ponderous mace; and had not the
+maiden drawn Sir Lancelot aside by main force, he would have been
+crushed in its descent, the dwarf aiming a deadly blow at him as he
+passed. It fell, instead, with a loud crash on the pavement, and broke
+into a thousand fragments. Thereupon, Sir Lancelot smote him with the
+giant's sword, and hewed the mischievous monster asunder without mercy.
+Turning towards the damsel, he beheld her form suddenly change, and she
+vanished from his sight: then was he aware that it had been the nymph
+Vivian who accompanied him through the enchantments he had so happily
+subdued. He soon released his brethren, and great was the joy at the
+Round Table when the Knights returned to the banquet.</p>
+
+
+<p>Thus endeth the chronicle of Sir Tarquin, still a notable tradition in
+these parts, the remains of his castle being shown to this day.<!-- Page 11 --><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11" ></a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Du-glass, &quot;the becoming, the seemly, green,&quot; described by
+Camden as &quot;a small brook, running with an easy and still stream;&quot; which
+conveys a good idea of the word <i>Du</i>. The Du-glass empties itself into
+the estuary called by Ptolemy <i>Bellesama, Belless-aman-e;</i> pronounced
+Violish-anne,<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9" ></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> the literal meaning of which is, that the &quot;mouth of the
+river only is for ships;&quot; <i>i.e.</i>, that the rivers which form the haven
+are not navigable.&mdash;<i>Chronicles of Eri.&mdash;O'Connor.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Ballyshannon is evidently a very slight corruption of this
+term.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_GOBLIN_BUILDERS" id="THE_GOBLIN_BUILDERS" ></a>THE GOBLIN BUILDERS.</h2>
+
+<div class="center">
+<img src="images/03.png" width="600" height="586" alt="THE GOBLIN BUILDERS." title="" />
+</div>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;By well and rills, in meadows green,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">We nightly dance our heyday guise;<br /></span>
+<span>And to our fairy king and queen<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">We chant our moonlight minstrelsies.<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">When larks 'gin sing,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Away we fling,<br /></span>
+<span>And babes new-born we steal as we go,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">And elf in bed<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">We leave instead,<br /></span>
+<span>And wend us laughing, ho, ho, ho!&quot;&mdash;BEN JONSON.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The story which serves for the basis of the following legend will be
+easily recognised in the neighbourhood where the transactions are said
+to have occurred, though probably not known beyond its immediate
+locality.</p>
+
+<p>The accessories are gathered from a number of sources: and the great
+difficulty the author has had to encounter in getting at what he
+conceives the real state and character of the time, together with the
+<!-- Page 12 --><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12" ></a>history of contemporary individuals and events, so as to give a natural
+picture of the manners and customs of that remote era, can be known by
+those only who have entered into pursuits of this nature. In this and in
+the succeeding legends he has attempted to illustrate and portray the
+customs of that particular epoch to which they relate, as well as to
+detail the events on which they are founded.</p>
+
+<p>It may be interesting to notice that a similar exploit is recorded in
+the Scandinavian Legends, and may be traced, under many variations of
+circumstances and events, in the Icelandic, Danish, and Norwegian
+poetry, affording another intimation of the source from whence our
+popular mythology is derived.</p>
+
+
+<p>Towards the latter end of the reign of William, the Norman conqueror,
+Gamel, the Saxon Thane, Lord of Recedham or &quot;Rached,&quot; being left in the
+quiet possession of his lands and privileges by the usurper, &quot;minded,&quot;
+as the phrase then was, &quot;for the fear of God and the salvation of his
+immortal soul, to build a chapel unto St Chadde,&quot; nigh to the banks of
+the Rache or Roach. For this pious use a convenient place was set apart,
+lying on the north bank of the river, in a low and sheltered spot now
+called &quot;The Newgate.&quot; Piles of timber and huge stones were gathered
+thither in the most unwonted profusion; insomuch, that the building
+seemed destined for some more ambitious display than the humble edifices
+called churches then exhibited, of which but few existed in the
+surrounding districts.</p>
+
+<p>The foundations were laid. The loose and spongy nature of the soil
+required heavy stakes to be driven, upon and between which were laid
+several courses of rubble-stone, ready to receive the grouting or
+cement. Yet in one night was the whole mass conveyed, without the loss
+of a single stone, to the summit of a steep hill on the opposite bank,
+and apparently without any visible marks or signs betokening the agents
+or means employed for its removal. It did seem as though their pathway
+had been the viewless air, so silently was all track obliterated. Great
+was the consternation that spread among the indwellers of the four
+several clusters of cabins dignified by the appellation of villages, and
+bearing, with their appendages, the names of Castletown, Spoddenland,
+Honorsfield, and Buckland. With dismay and horror this profanation was
+witnessed. The lord, more especially, became indignant. This daring
+presumption&mdash;this wilful outrage, so like bidding defiance to his power,
+<!-- Page 13 --><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13" ></a>bearding the lion even in his den, was deemed an offence calling for
+signal vengeance upon the perpetrators.</p>
+
+<p>At the cross in Honorsfield a proclamation was recited, to the intent,
+that unless the offending parties were forthwith given up to meet the
+punishment that might be awarded to their misdeeds, a heavy mulct would
+follow, and the unfortunate villains and <i>bordarii</i> be subject to such
+further infliction as might still seem wanting to assuage their lord's
+displeasure. Now this was a grievous disaster to the unhappy vassals,
+seeing that none could safely or truly accuse his neighbour. All were
+agreed that human agency had no share in the work. The wiser part threw
+out a shrewd suspicion, that the old deities whom their forefathers had
+worshipped, and whose altars had been thrown down and their sacrifices
+forbidden, had burst the thraldom in which they were aforetime held by
+the Christian priests, and were now brooding a fearful revenge for the
+many insults they had endured. But the decree from the lord was hasty,
+and the command urgent; so that a council was holden for the devising of
+some plan for their relief.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh de Chadwycke and John de Spotland were subordinate lords, or
+feudatories, holding fortified dwellings, castelets, or peels, in the
+manor of Rochdale; the former had builded his rude mansion of massive
+timber, for the double purpose of habitation and defence, on a bold
+eminence, forming a steep bank of the river, about a mile from the
+Thane's castle. Claiming a relationship to the lord, he was in some
+measure privileged above his friend De Spotland, yet was the latter a
+personage of considerable power and influence at the manor court. To
+these men when their aid was necessary, either as counsellors or
+intercessors, did the inhabitants generally repair.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh de Chadwycke was a man of mild and grave deportment, but politic
+withal, and wary of counsel. John de Spotland was of a more bold and
+open temper. De Chadwycke suggested a submissive application to the
+Thane, with a pledge that all possible diligence should be used for the
+fulfilment of his demands. John urged the removal of the materials with
+all expedition to their original site, a watch being set to discover the
+delinquents, should they again presume to lay hands on the stuff. The
+wisdom and propriety of the latter precaution was undisputed; but no one
+seemed willing to undergo the terrible ordeal, each declining the office
+in deference to his <!-- Page 14 --><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14" ></a>more privileged neighbour. No wonder at their
+reluctance to so unequal a contest. To be strangled or torn limb from
+limb was the slightest punishment that could be expected for this daring
+profanation; yet, unless they had witnesses, bodily, to these diabolical
+exploits, it were needless to attempt excusing themselves before the
+haughty chieftain. He would visit with fearful severity all their
+endeavours to deceive, nor would he credit their belief, unless it were
+confirmed by the testimony of an eye-witness. How to procure this
+desirable source of intelligence was a question that was hourly becoming
+more difficult to solve.</p>
+
+<p>Slow and melancholy was their return, while with fear and hesitation
+they communicated the result.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, shame befall thee, Adam of Wills!&quot; said a stout woman, to one of
+the speakers; &quot;thou wert ever a tough fighter; and the cudgel and ragged
+staff were as glib in thine hands as a beggar's pouch on alms-days. Show
+thy mettle, man. I'll spice thee a jug of barley-drink, an' thou be for
+the bout this time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay,&quot; returned Adam, &quot;I 'll fight Beelzebub if he be aught I can hit;
+but these same boggarts, they say, a blow falls on 'em like rain-drops
+on a mist, or like beating the wind with a corn-flail. I cannot fight
+with naught, as it were.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shame on thee, Hal!&quot; said a shrill-tongued, crooked little body,
+arrayed in a coarse grey hood, and holding a stick, like unto a
+one-handed crutch, of enormous dimensions. &quot;Shame on thee! I would watch
+myself, but the night-wind sits indifferently on my stomach, and I am
+too old now for these moonshine lifts.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She cast her little bleared eyes, half-shut and distilling contempt, on
+the cowardly bystanders.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, if there be not old Cicely,&quot; first went round in a whisper; then a
+deep silence gradually pervaded the assembly.</p>
+
+<p>She had just hobbled down to the cross, and the audience seemed to watch
+her looks with awe and suspicion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What, none o' ye? Come, Uctred, thou shalt shame these big-tongued,
+wide-mouthed boasters.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A short swarthy-looking boy, with a leering and unfavourable
+countenance, here stepped forward, taking his station upon one of the
+steps beside his mother. A notion had gone abroad <!-- Page 15 --><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15" ></a>that the boy was the
+fruit of some unhallowed intercourse with an immortal of the fairy or
+pixy kind, whose illicit amours the old woman had wickedly indulged. She
+too, was thought to bear in some degree a charmed life, and to hold
+communion with intelligences not of the most holy or reputable order.
+The boy was dumb. His lips had, however, at times a slight and tremulous
+movement, which strongly impressed the beholders that some discourse was
+then carrying on between &quot;the dummy,&quot; as he was generally called, and
+his invisible relatives. His whole aspect was singularly painful and
+forbidding. No wonder, in these times of debasing superstition, that his
+person should be looked on with abhorrence, and even a touch from him be
+accounted an evil of no slight import. His mother alone had the power of
+communicating with him, or of understanding his grimaces.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now what will you give me for the use of his pretty eyes this lucky
+night? The Thane will have regard to his testimony, though all that have
+free use of the tongue he holds to be liars and dishonest. Never lied
+this youth by sign or token!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A buzz went through the company, and the dame and her boy again sat down
+to await the issue. All eyes were directed towards them, timidly and by
+stealth, as the consultation grew louder and more continuous.</p>
+
+<p>A pause at length ensued. Some three or four of the group drew towards
+the crone, who sat almost double, her chin resting on the neb of her
+crutch.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now will we give thee two changes of raiment, together with a mess of
+barley-pottage; and every year thou shalt have a penny at Easter, and a
+fat hen at Shrovetide.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good,&quot; said the greedy beldame; &quot;but I'll have a sheep-skin cap for the
+boy, and a horn spoon.&quot; This demand was also granted; after which she
+made signs to the lad, who swung his head to and fro, at the same time
+distorting his features with a wild and terrible rapidity. It was
+evident that he understood the nature of these proceedings. A glance,
+like that of mockery and derision, he cast towards the crowd; and when
+Mother Cicely was returning, he threw back upon them a look of scorn and
+malignity which made the beholders shrink aside with horror.</p>
+
+<p>The people now addressed themselves to the task of replacing the heavy
+materials, and ere night the greater part were with<!-- Page 16 --><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16" ></a>drawn, ready to
+begin with the foundations again on the morrow.</p>
+
+<p>A sort of rude shelter was constructed, wherein Uctred was to keep watch
+until daylight.</p>
+
+<p>The morning came, calm and beautiful over the grey hills; and the
+anxious inhabitants, awake betimes, did each turn his first steps
+towards the river's brink. With horror and amazement they again beheld
+the ground bare. Not a vestige remained, nor was there any trace of the
+boy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is gone to his own,&quot; said they, as a general shudder went through
+the crowd; &quot;and the fairies have gotten him at last.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Every heart seemed quailing with some hidden fear; nor could any means
+at that moment be suggested for their emancipation.</p>
+
+<p>The stones and timber were again found, as before, on the opposite hill.
+Fifty stout men had with difficulty contrived to fetch them from thence
+the day preceding, and twice that number would hardly have sufficed to
+transport them thither. It was not to be gainsayed that a power superior
+to their own was the agent in removals so mysterious. Nothing now
+remained but to acquaint their lord with this second interruption; and
+their diligence in performing this duty, they hoped, might exculpate
+them from the heavy doom they had incurred. Some of the wiser and more
+stout-hearted were chosen to carry these tidings to the Thane, hoping to
+clear themselves from the ban, as well as to return with commands for
+their future proceedings.</p>
+
+<p>Gamel de Recedham, or Rochdale, had his dwelling in the ancient castle
+built by the Romans on the verge of a steep hill jutting into the valley
+of the Roach. It was a place difficult of access, save on the southern
+side, where a wide ditch formed an effectual defence, and over which a
+narrow bridge admitted only two abreast in front of the outer gate. It
+was now, in some places, fast going to decay, but enough remained out of
+its vast bulk to form a dwelling for the Saxon and his followers. It had
+been once fortified throughout; the castle, or keep, being four-square,
+flanked at the corners with stone towers. The lower part of the walls
+was composed of large pebbles mixed with brick, and held together by a
+firm cement. Higher up, and continued to the summit, were alternate rows
+of brick and freestone. The corners were faced with stone, making a very
+formidable appearance when guarded by slingers and throwers of darts,
+who were stationed there only in times of great peril.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 17 --><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17" ></a>Passing the vallum, or outer defence, they ascended a narrow staircase
+outside the keep, where the cringing serfs were admitted by four of the
+lord's Norman bowmen, who ushered them into the audience-chamber. Some
+of the Thane's men were habited in coats of mail, made of small pieces
+of iron, cut round at the bottom, and set on a leathern garment, so as
+to fold over each other like fish-scales, the whole bending with the
+greatest ease, and yet affording a sufficient protection to the wearer.</p>
+
+<p>The chamber of audience was situated at the uppermost part of the keep,
+and great was the apprehension of the intruders, whilst following their
+guides through the winding passages and gloomy staircases leading to the
+inner cell occupied by their chief. The disposition of the armed
+men,&mdash;their warlike habiliments, and the various and uncouth weapons
+which seemed to threaten terror and defiance, were all objects to them
+of apprehension and distrust. The walls of this gloomy apartment were
+lined with thin bricks, ornamentally disposed in herring-bone work,
+after the fashion of the time. The windows, though narrow on the
+outside, were broad and arched within, displaying a rude sort of taste
+in their construction. Round the walls were groups of weapons,
+ostentatiously displayed; two-edged broadswords; long spears, some
+barbed and others flat and broad; shields, the oldest of which were
+large, and had a sharp point projecting from the centre; others, of the
+Norman and more recent fashion, were smaller, and of an oval shape.
+Battle-axes, lances, and javelins, were strewn about in formidable
+profusion. Hauberks, or chain-mail, hung at intervals from the walls,
+looking grim and stalwart from their repose, like the headless trunks of
+the warriors they had once encompassed.</p>
+
+<p>A broad curtain, curiously embroidered, covered one end of the room,
+from behind which crept a page or henchman, in gay attire, his tunic
+glistening with his lord's device.</p>
+
+<p>The serfs bowed with the most abject submission to this representative
+of their lord, who lived in the customary style of barbarous and feudal
+pomp, which the manners of their Norman invaders had rather contributed
+to increase than to diminish.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell thy master,&quot; said their companion, &quot;that some of the folk would
+speak with him, touching the matter by which they are in jeopardy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Smoothing his locks and trimming down his garments, the <!-- Page 18 --><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18" ></a>boy departed.
+It was long or ere the audience was granted; in the meantime, they stood
+trembling and oppressed with an evil foreboding for the result, the
+known hasty and impetuous temper of the Saxon rendering it a matter of
+some doubt, and no small hazard, as to what might be the issue of their
+conference. Suddenly was heard the clanking of armour, and the tramp of
+nailed feet, announcing his approach; the heavy arras was uplifted, and
+Gamel the Thane stood before them. He was richly attired in a loose coat
+reaching down to his ankles; over this was a long robe, fastened over
+both shoulders and on the breast with a silver buckle. The edges were
+trimmed with gold and knots of flowers interwoven with pearls and rare
+stones. On his head he wore a coronet, or rim of gold, enriched with
+jewels; and his bushy hair and grizzled beard looked still more grim and
+forbidding beneath these glittering ornaments. His eyes were quick and
+piercing; his cheeks pale and slightly furrowed. A narrow and retreating
+mouth, firmly drawn in, showed the bent of his disposition to be fierce
+and choleric, and his wrath not easily turned aside. He was accompanied
+by his billmen, together with some half-dozen attendants, clad in shirts
+of chain mail and helmets fitting close to the head. These bore lances
+after the Norman fashion then prevailing over the ruder customs of their
+Saxon predecessors.</p>
+
+<p>The more polished manners of the Norman's court had early pervaded the
+ranks of the nobles; and even the few hereditary Saxon chiefs left in
+possession of their ancient sovereignties, thought their domains cheaply
+purchased by this obsequious show of homage to their king.</p>
+
+<p>The Thane's chief henchman occupied the post of honour, whilst a little
+footpage stood by his master's elbow.</p>
+
+<p>The villains prostrated themselves.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How now!&mdash;Where are the caitiffs I commanded of ye? I vow to the Virgin
+and St Chadde, your own necks shall swing from the tower in their stead,
+should ye fail in that which I require at your hands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The trembling hearers were, afraid to answer&mdash;their lips quivered, and
+each tongue seemed to refuse its office. Gamel proceeded:&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What! come ye to fawn and whine out my purpose? Now will I make your
+chastisement ten times hotter for this intent. Lodge these knaves,
+Nicholas, i' the further dungeon, till they <!-- Page 19 --><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19" ></a>be reprieved by the rogues
+who are yet at large and defying our power:&mdash;they hold it somewhat
+cheap, methinks, when they value it less than the pampering of their own
+wantonness and sport.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nicholas was herald, bedellus, or chief crier, to the lord of the manor,
+his office being to make proclamations at the court and the cross, where
+the use of his capacious lungs was oft in request. He was hangman, too,
+upon occasion, being never so well pleased as when employed in the due
+chastisement of his master's lieges. He was, moreover, a man of infinite
+humour, generally consoling his dear unfortunates under their
+visitations by some coarse and galling jest.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, Adam of Hunersfield, art thou at thy prayers already?&mdash;I'll shrive
+thee quick. Master, shall I give the rogues any victuals? They'll not
+keep else till hanging time;&mdash;best finish now&mdash;needless to waste
+provender.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Give them the prison allowance. But, hark thee, no stripes, Nicholas,&quot;
+said the chief, well aware of his flagellant propensities.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eh!&quot; replied he; &quot;but black cake and dried beans don't mix well i' the
+stomach without riddling.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Peace, sirrah!&quot; replied the chieftain with a frown. Nicholas, though a
+licensed jester and in especial favour, knew there was a boundary beyond
+which he durst not pass; he became silent, therefore, at this command.
+The lamentations of the unwary hostages were loud but unavailing.
+Nicholas prepared his manacles, and was leading them from the chamber,
+when the page whispered in his master's ear.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Stop,&quot; cried the Thane: &quot;know ye aught of the boy who was a-watching
+yesternight?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We know nothing of the lad, as we hope for deliverance,&quot; said the
+terrified rustics.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bring in the woman!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The command was followed by the entrance of Cicely. Leaning on her
+crutch, she bent lowly before the chief.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hast thou any suit or accusation to prefer against these men, as
+touching thy boy?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, my lord!&quot; said the dame, weeping, &quot;I never aforetime knew him
+missing; and he has slept i' the Killer Dane, where the great battle was
+fought below the castle. He has watched i' the 'Thrutch,' where the
+black dog haunts from sunset till cock-crow. He has leapt over the
+fairies' ring and run through the <!-- Page 20 --><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20" ></a>old house at Gozlewood, and no harm
+has befallen him; but he is now ta'en from me,&mdash;cast out, maybe, into
+some noisome pit. The timbers and stones are leapt on to the hill again,
+but my boy is not there!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She wept and wrung her withered hands.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hast thou any witness against these men?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh! my lord, they bribed me with their gifts that I should suffer the
+boy to watch; and I am poor, and I thought he wore a charmed life, and
+the little hoard would be a comfort and a stay in my old age.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast done wickedly in this,&quot; said the lord. &quot;Howbeit, I will keep
+them in the stocks; peradventure it may quicken the wits of their
+outdoor friends to find out the mover of these scurvy pranks. The post
+and timbers would not go up hill unless some knave had holpen to lift
+them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nicholas was departing to the indulgence of his favourite pastime, when
+a loud hubbub was heard without, and presently a fellow was pushed in by
+the pressure of the crowd upon his shoulders; but they drew back, on
+finding the immediate presence of their chief.</p>
+
+<p>This man was accounted the most notorious idler in the neighbourhood,
+hight &quot;Barnulf with the nose.&quot; His eyes looked red and swollen, and his
+senses had become muddled and obtuse with long steeping. Silence was
+immediately enforced, while the assembly anxiously awaited the
+interrogation of this intolerable coveter of barley-drink.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Art thou again at thy freaks?&quot; said the Thane, angrily: &quot;thou hast soon
+forgotten the stocks and the whipping-post on Easter-day. It were well
+that Nicholas should refresh thy memory in this matter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this dreaded name the poor wretch fell on his face.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Please ye, my lord,&quot; said he, hardly raising his head from the floor,
+&quot;I am here but for a witness beliken. I am breeding of no broil, save
+an' my gossip o' yesternight drew me into a tussle with old Split-Feet
+and his company.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He groaned, but not without considerable effort, and his face puckered
+in a heap at the recollection.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What!&mdash;the foul fiend helped thee to thy liquor, I trow?&quot; said Gamel,
+hastily. &quot;Think not to foist thy fooleries upon me. Should I find thee
+with a lie on thy tongue, the hide were as well off thy shoulders. To
+thy speech&mdash;quick, what sawest thou?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 21 --><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21" ></a>I will give it all, withouten a word but what the blessed saints would
+avouch,&quot; said the terrified supplicant, whose once fiery face was now
+blanched, or rather dyed of a dull and various blue.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was wending home from Merland, where I had been helping Dan the smith
+to his luckpenny, when as I took the path-road down yonder unlucky hill
+to the ford, not thinking of the de'il's workmen that had flown off with
+the church the night before, I was whistling, or, it mayhap,
+singing,&mdash;or&mdash;or&mdash;I am not just particular to know how it was, for the
+matter of it; but at any rate I was getting up, having tumbled down the
+steep almost nigh to the bottom, and I thought my eyes had strucken
+fire, for I saw lights frisking and frolicking up and down the hill.
+Then I sat down to watch, and, sure enough, such a puck-fisted rabble,
+without cloak or hosen, I never beheld&mdash;all hurry-scurry up the hill,
+and some of the like were on the gallop down again. They were shouting,
+and mocking, and laughing, like so many stark-mad fools at a May-feast.
+They strid twenty paces at a jump, with burdens that two of the best
+oxen about the manor had not shifted the length of my thumbnail. 'Tis
+some unlucky dream, said I, rubbing the corners of my eyes, and trying
+to pinch myself awake. Just then I saw a crowd of the busiest of 'em
+running up from the river, and making directly towards the steep bank
+below where I sat. They were hurrying a great log of timber, which they
+threw down close beside me, as if to rest ere they mounted. 'My
+friends,'&mdash;what should ail me to talk to 'em I cannot tell,&mdash;'My
+friends, but ye seem to have more work in your hands than wit in your
+noddles&mdash;ye might have spared yourselves the labour, I trow.' With that
+the whole rout turned upon me with a shout and a chattering that would
+have dumbfounded the shrillest tongue in the whole hundred&mdash;the
+mill-wheel was nothing to it. I would have escaped, but my feet were
+holden like as they had been i' the stocks. One, the foremost of the
+crew&mdash;I do think he had a long tail and gaping hoofs, but I was over
+frightened to see very clear&mdash;came with a mocking malicious grin, his
+tongue lolling out, and his eyes glaring and fiend-like.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Pray, good friend,' said he, pulling off a little black bonnet, 'be
+compassionate enough to help us with our load to the hill-top.' Now was
+I terrified beyond measure, insomuch that I made a desperate tug,
+whereby loosening myself, I ran like <!-- Page 22 --><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22" ></a>the wind, the wicked fiends
+following and roaring after me with loud and bitter curses. I jumped
+into the river, in my hurry having missed the ford, and I heard 'em
+still shouting, and, as I thought, pursuing me; but the Virgin and St
+Chadde were my helpers, for when Biddy opened the door in the morning, I
+lay there in a great swoon, with my head bruised, and a hole in my good
+grey cloak.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And so thou comest here a-boasting of thy drunken discoveries,&quot; said
+the Thane. &quot;Thou shalt wish thou hadst not gotten thee so soon from the
+fiend's clutches. A spice of old Nicholas' vocation may not be amiss;
+yet, by way of relish to thy tale&quot;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The agony of the culprit was loud and appalling, but the chief was
+inexorable, until his denunciations were interrupted by a stranger, who
+craved a short respite for the groaning supplicant.</p>
+
+<p>He was meanly clad: a coarse cloak, stained and threadbare, was thrown
+open, showing a close habit of the most ordinary fabric; yet a natural
+and graceful bearing imparted a dignity even to his poor and worthless
+habiliments.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am a stranger, and sore oppressed with long travel. Penury and
+misfortune have been my lot, and I am driven from place to place without
+a home or a morsel of bread. Last night, long after the curfew, I came
+hither, but no <i>hospitium</i> or religious house being near, I sat down by
+the hill-side yonder, until morning should enable me to crave help for
+my hopeless journey. The morning had not dawned ere I awoke&mdash;a loud
+trampling, and a rush of many voices had broken in upon my slumbers. I
+beheld crowds of strange-looking men, laden with terrific burdens. They
+seemed to be eagerly and earnestly at work, under heavier loads than I
+thought mortal man could sustain; the whole space too, as far as the eye
+might carry, seemed alive with them, the flickering of their torches
+forming a scene of almost unimaginable splendour. Right before me were a
+number of these labourers, hauling up a heavy beam from the river;
+others were apparently crossing, laden with materials no less bulky and
+intractable. All were in motion, wriggling along like so many ants on a
+hillock. The party just before me stayed immediately below where I sat,
+watching their proceedings with no little curiosity and amazement. They
+threw down their load,&mdash;then pausing, appeared to view with some
+hesitation the steep bank above them. The <!-- Page 23 --><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23" ></a>foremost of the group now
+came softly towards me. Pulling off his bonnet, with a grave and
+beseeching aspect he craved help to accomplish the ascent. Not then
+dreaming of goblins and their deceitful glamour, I put my shoulder to
+the work with a right good will; and truly it were a marvel to watch the
+tough beam, how it seemed to obey the impulse. I worked with all the
+might I could muster, but it appeared as though little were needful; and
+in a trice we scrambled to the top, when the whole party scampered off,
+leaving me to follow or not, as I chose. I saw something tossed towards
+me, which glistened as it lay at my feet. Stooping, I found a silver
+ring, beauteously bedecked with one glowing crystal. Round the rim is
+formed a quaint legend, bearing a fair device, which some learned clerk
+may perchance decipher.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The stranger drew from his finger a massy ring. A little ferret-eyed
+monk, a transcriber of saints' legends and Saxon chronicles, was
+immediately called. He pronounced the writing heathenish, and of the
+Runic form. A sort of free translation may be given as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;The Norman shall tread on the Saxon's heel,<br /></span>
+<span>And the stranger shall rule o'er England's weal;<br /></span>
+<span>Through castle and hall, by night or by day<br /></span>
+<span>The stranger shall thrive for ever and aye;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">But in Rached, above the rest,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The stranger shall thrive best.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Gamel was troubled and perplexed. The words were prophetic, evidently
+pointing to his own and his country's fate, as well as to the destiny of
+the stranger. He knit his brows, and his very beard coiled upwards with
+the conflict. He appeared loth to allow of a supernatural agency in the
+affair, and yet the testimony and its witness were not to be gainsayed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I had not believed the tale, stranger, if this token had not confirmed
+thy speech:&mdash;verily thou hast a better witness than a fool's tongue to
+thy story. That ill-omened losel may depart. See thou fall not hastily
+into the like offence, else shalt thou smart from Childermas to
+All-hallowtide. Hence! to thy place.&quot; Barnulf awaited not further
+dismissal, glad to escape the scrutiny of Nicholas with a whole skin.</p>
+
+<p>A loud shriek was heard from the court-yard.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My boy!&mdash;Oh, my boy!&quot; cried the almost frantic mother, as she rushed
+into the chamber, leading in Uctred. He had been discovered on removing
+some of the huge piles of timber <!-- Page 24 --><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24" ></a>again from the hill, where, under a
+curiously-supported covering of beams and other rude materials, he lay,
+seemingly asleep. The urchin looked as malicious and froward as ever,
+even when standing before his chief.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And where hast thou been, my pretty bird?&quot; said the old woman, as she
+began her vocabulary of signs. But the boy looked surly and would not
+answer to the signal: he drew down his black swarthy brows, looking
+eagerly and fiercely from behind their bushy curtains. Suddenly, and
+with a fearful yell, he sprang forward, snatching the ring which Gamel
+was then giving back to the stranger. With a wild and hideous laugh,
+which sent a shudder through the assembly, he drew it on his finger. At
+this moment the expression of his countenance began to change, and some
+of the bystanders, over whom fear had probably waved the wand of the
+enchanter, saw his form dilate, and his whole figure expand into almost
+gigantic proportions. A thick haze rolled through the apartment; then
+was heard a wild unearthly shout, and the vision had disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Seize him!&quot; cried Gamel.</p>
+
+<p>The guards, trembling, prepared to execute his commands, but on gaining
+the outworks of the castle, no vestige remained of his appearance, save
+a slight whirlwind of dust, like a mist-wreath curling down the valley,
+which, to their terrified apprehensions, became the chariot of the
+departing demon. Nothing could shake this belief; and in after ages the
+boy was spoken of as a changeling, left by some fairy, whose appointed
+sojourn had been then accomplished, the means for his release being
+fulfilled. Old Cicely became nigh crazed with the loss of her son; but
+Gamel, seriously pondering on these events, sought counsel from the
+&quot;Holy Church.&quot; It was therein resolved that the intended site should be
+removed, and the &quot;<i>unknown</i>&quot; by such removal appeased. The chapel of St
+Chadde was accordingly built on the hill-top, where the church now
+stands, and unto which the foundations had been so marvellously
+conveyed. One hundred and twenty-four steps were dug to accomplish the
+ascent, and enable the good people to go to prayers. Connected with
+these, the tradition still exists; and unto this day it is here
+observed, that <i>&quot;Strangers prosper in the town of Rochdale; but the
+natives are generally unfortunate in their undertakings.&quot;</i></p>
+
+<div class="center"><!-- Page 25 --><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25" ></a><!-- Page 26 --><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26" ></a>
+<img src="images/04.png" width="600" height="391" alt="MAB&#39;S CROSS, WIGAN.
+
+Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden." title="" />
+<b>MAB&#39;S CROSS, WIGAN.<br />
+
+<i>Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw<sup>d</sup> Finden.</i></b>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="MABS_CROSS" id="MABS_CROSS" ></a><!-- Page 27 --><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27" ></a>MAB'S CROSS.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;A pilgrim came from o'er the sea;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4"><i>Benedicite! benedicite!</i><br /></span>
+<span>And he brought a ring to that proud ladye.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">His grave is wide, his grave is deep;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">On that bosom cold he shall quietly sleep:<br /></span>
+<span class="i6"><i>Benedicite!</i>&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>The following extract from the genealogical roll of the Bradshaighs is
+the principal source from whence this tale has originated:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sir William Bradshaighe, second son to Sir John, was a great traveller
+and a souldger, and married to Mabell, daughter and sole heire of Hugh
+Norris de Haghe and Blackrode, and had issue,&quot; &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>Of this Mabel is a story by tradition of undoubted verity, &quot;that
+in Sir Wm. Bradshaghe absence (beinge 10 years away in the holy wars),
+she married a Welsh knight. Sir William, returning from the wars, came
+in a palmer's habitt amongst the poor to Haghe, who, when she saw and
+congetringe that he favoured her former husband, wept, for which the
+knight chastised her; at which Sir William went and made himself known
+to his tenants; in which space the knight fled, but neare to Newton
+Parke Sir William overtook him and sleu him. The said Dame Mabell was
+enjoined by her confessor to doe penances by going onest every week
+barefout and bare legged to a crosse ner Wigan from the Haghe, wilest
+she lived, and is called Mabb ++ to this day; and ther monument lyes in
+Wigan church, as you see them ther portry'd.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Sir William Bradshaigh was outlawed during the space of a year and a day
+for this offence; but he and his lady, it is said, lived happily
+together afterwards until their death. Their effigies on the tomb now
+exist but as rude and unshapely masses; time and whitewash, the two
+great destroyers of our monumental relics, having almost obliterated
+their form, the one by diminishing, and the other by adding to, their
+substance.</p>
+
+<p>That Sir William was at the &quot;Holy Wars,&quot; must, it is evident, be a
+corruption of the story, seeing he was born about the year 1280, ten
+years after the last of these unfortunate expeditions. The first
+croisade was undertaken by Peter the Hermit, 1095; a second, by Louis
+VII of France, 1145; a third, under Richard I of England, 1190; a
+fourth, under Philip II of France, 1204; a fifth, under Louis IX,
+against <!-- Page 28 --><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28" ></a>Egypt, 1248; and the last, under Louis IX., against Tunis,
+where he lost his life, 1270. Consequently, the perpetration of these
+&quot;Holy&quot; murders, which it is supposed were to the amount of two hundred
+millions of human beings, without the acquisition even of Jerusalem to
+the Church, must have ceased ere the birth of our &quot;pilgrim.&quot; That he was
+at &quot;the wars,&quot; however, is pretty certain, but they were nearer home.
+The machinations of that powerful noble, Thomas, Earl of Lancaster,
+together with the disastrous campaign of Edward II. against the Scots,
+are sufficiently important events to account for the long absence of Sir
+William Bradshaigh, who is supposed to have been taken prisoner during
+these unhappy troubles.</p>
+
+<p>Our engraving represents the cross as it exists at present. Some
+attention having been drawn to it of late, we may hope this interesting
+relic will be suffered to remain uninjured, and not be subjected any
+more to those levelling improvements for which this age is so
+distinguished.</p>
+
+<p>In the borough of Wigan, near one of the four gates, called
+Standishgate&mdash;which gates are now removed, and their places occupied by
+some undignified-looking posts called &quot;toll-bars&quot;&mdash;stands a ruined stone
+cross; in appearance, by no means either interesting or remarkable: it
+would scarcely be noticed by a casual observer. Yet to this mean-looking
+memorial of our faith is attached an eventful story, at which</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;The sad might laugh; the merry weep.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>It is a tale of which our brief limits will only allow a rapid sketch.
+This we have thrown together in the dramatic and narrative form, a
+combination more calculated than any other, we believe, to awaken
+attention, and bring forth the subject before the mind with truth and
+distinctness.</p>
+
+<p>One stormy night, in the autumn of the year 1324, mine host of the Merry
+Maypole, a tavern of great resort by the market-cross in the good
+borough of Wigan, was awakened from a laborious slumber. The door which
+opened into a low porch projecting from the thatch, was shaken with a
+vehemence that threatened some fearful catastrophe. Giles, no longer
+able to endure these thundering appeals to his hospitality, desired his
+wife to ascertain the cause of the disturbance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gramercy! An' I be to unlatch for every graceless unthrift that chooses
+to pummel at Giles Dauber's wicket, I shall have but sorry bedding wi'
+an old husband.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Old, quotha!&mdash;Old! I tell thee, dame, that I'm less by a good score of
+winters than Dan o' the higher Wient, when he <!-- Page 29 --><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29" ></a>wed old Simon's
+daughter.&mdash;Humph!&mdash;She was a merry and a buxom lass; but thou&quot;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>How far this interesting dialogue between the tavern-keeper and his
+newly-wedded spouse might have extended it is impossible with any degree
+of accuracy to set forth, inasmuch as another loud and desperate lunge,
+extenuated to an inaudible mutter the testy rejoinder of &quot;Giles o' the
+Maypole;&quot; this being the cognomen by which he was more familiarly
+designated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Anan!&quot; shouted he, &quot;what the&mdash;&mdash; Save us!&quot; he continued in a low
+whisper, crossing himself, &quot;I had nigh slipped an ugly word over my
+tongue; and if it should be&mdash;Dame, I say, get up, and&quot;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, thou hast gotten thee two as nimble legs, by thine own reckoning,
+as any knave i' the borough. I shall e'en keep to my bed, goodman,
+though these guzzle-throats hammer till cock-crow.&mdash;They are at the
+right side of the door, I trow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Now, mine host of the Merry Maypole having taken to himself that last
+and worst of all possible plagues for the remnant of his days, to wit, a
+young and somewhat handsome-looking wife, thought it no less meet than
+reasonable, and no less reasonable than a duty, at all times incumbent,
+that the before-named helpmate should, if need were, get out of bed and
+unlatch the wicket whenever good customers were astir; more particularly
+as the first Dame Dauber, having the fear of a short but tough cudgel
+upon her, did, at certain times and seasons, when there was the
+requisite occasion, leave her liege lord to the enjoyment of his warm
+and luxurious couch, and spread a table for the entertainment of many a
+night-betrayed traveller.</p>
+
+<p>It was the first exigency of the kind, since the marriage of Giles
+Dauber to Madge Newsome of the Deercote, in which the discussion of a
+point so knotty and important had occurred. Giles dreamt not of the vast
+difference that exists in the nature and docility of divers women. He
+heard with a sort of incredulous surprise the first incipient grumblings
+in contravention of his authority; but when these had fairly shaped
+themselves into open defiance, he started agape with wonder. Recovering
+himself, with a stern and portentous silence, he jumped out of bed and
+drew on his doublet and hose. While thoughts of relentless import were
+brooding, he groped his way down the ladder that communicated with the
+lower apartment, for the purpose of ascertaining the quality and
+condition of the stranger. The latter <!-- Page 30 --><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30" ></a>still manifested a noisy
+impatience at being suffered, in so inhospitable a manner, to linger
+without. The night was rainy and tempestuous&mdash;Giles shivered to the
+backbone as he trod on the wheezing rushes strewed over the floor; they
+were yet damp and dirty, by reason of the many visitors who had that
+night loitered long at the Merry Maypole.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Holloa, friend!&mdash;thy name?&quot; shouted Giles, placing his hand on the
+latch.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Open the door, for the love of mercy!&quot; cried a strange voice. Giles
+drew back; he liked not this salutation&mdash;more, by token, from the
+adjurement being for the love of mercy, in lieu of an appeal to the
+tinkling angels that generally lined a traveller's pouch.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Some sturdy beggar or mendicant friar,&quot; thought he, &quot;that knocks at my
+door because the chantry gates are shut. I care not to open my door to
+every losel that knocks,&quot; cried he aloud. &quot;Hence! I know thee not.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Goodman, give me a night's lodging, and I will reward thee&quot;&mdash;the door
+flew open at this intimation&mdash;&quot;with a palmer's benison,&quot; continued the
+stranger, advancing towards the wan embers that yet flickered on the
+hearth. Had Giles awaited the finishing of this sentence ere the latch
+was loosened, some other and more hospitable roof had enjoyed the
+benefit of that night's adventure.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thanks are not over meet for a cool stomach,&quot; growled the disappointed
+tapster; whilst his guest roused the decaying faggots into a faint and
+unsteady blaze.</p>
+
+<p>Giles surveyed the new-comer with no very sanguine prepossessions in his
+behalf. The figure that met his scrutiny was clad in a dark cloak. The
+hood, partly thrown back, showed a somewhat &quot;frosty poll,&quot; though the
+vivacity of a wild and restless eye, peering from under his dark and
+luxuriant brow, would scarcely have betokened an age at which the coming
+winter of life usually scatters these chill warnings of its approach.
+His features were finely moulded. A weather-beaten cheek, mingling with
+a complexion evidently sallow, gave a rich autumnal hue to his visage: a
+slight furrow, extending from the outer angle of the nostril around each
+corner of a narrow and retreating mouth, gave a careless expression of
+scorn to the countenance when at rest; but, as he smiled, this sinister
+aspect disappeared, and the soft gleam of benevolence which succeeded
+<!-- Page 31 --><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31" ></a>looked the brighter from the portentous scowl that had just passed. His
+beard was grey, and of a most reverent equipment, well calculated to
+excite veneration and respect. He was above the middle size: his humble
+garb but ill concealed a majesty of deportment indicating a disposition
+rather to command than to solicit favours. He seated himself on a low
+stool, and honest Giles, whose courage did not feel sufficiently
+invigorated, in the presence of this proud palmer, to dare an open
+warfare, began hostilities covertly, in manner as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What ails ye, to disturb honest folks i' their beds at these hours? You
+might ha' tarried in your last baiting-place&mdash;at any rate till the kye
+were astir. I wonder the guard let you pass at the gate. But since these
+evil days have o'ershadowed the land, every braggart has licence to do
+as he list; and the monks and the friars, with their whole crew of dubs
+and deputies, are the worst of all. Old Cliderhow here, the parson,
+thought to have waged war with his betters; but he was a slight matter
+mistaken: we whipt him up by the heels for his treason.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is Cliderhow alive?&quot; inquired the stranger.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Save us, pilgrim! where had you knowledge of the traitor?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Our good king Edward,&quot; continued the guest, apparently not attending to
+Giles's question in reply, &quot;is still sorely beset with his enemies. Had
+a score of knaves such as Master Cliderhow been hanged long ago, his
+reign had been less burdensome both to prince and people.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's twelve years&mdash;ay, twelve,&quot; said Giles, reckoning the lapse on his
+fingers; &quot;I know it by the great wind that beat down Master Markland's
+barn wall at the Meadows, since Cliderhow's sermon, inciting the whole
+parish to rebellion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know it,&quot; replied the palmer: &quot;he was in prison when I last knew of
+the matter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ay, ay,&quot; returned Giles knowingly; &quot;but threescore marks, disbursed
+discreetly to our good and loyal burgesses, made the doors as easy to
+open as my wicket&mdash;that is, at timely hours, ye understand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is he at large?&quot; inquired the other.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They say he bides at Haigh,&quot; answered Boniface, &quot;roistering it with
+that Welsh knight there, Sir Osmund Neville. I warrant Sir William's
+substance runs gaily down the old parson's throat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Here the palmer threw the hood over his brows. Suddenly he arose:
+striding across the chamber with considerable speed, <!-- Page 32 --><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32" ></a>he twice repeated
+the name of Sir Osmund Neville in a subdued tone, but with a bitterness
+of spirit that ill accorded with the outward habit of meekness which he
+had assumed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Giles Dauber! what keeps ye so long there a-gossiping?&quot; shouted a
+shrill voice from above. It was the vocal substitute of Mistress Dauber,
+who, resolutely determined not to budge at her husband's bidding, had,
+as she lay, listened, but to little purpose. Finding it was no everyday
+guest, she crept to the ladder-head and gave ear for a while; but soon
+discovering it to be an unthrifty sort of intercourse that was going on,
+not likely to bring either gain or good-will to the house, and fearing
+that Giles might fall into some snare from his ready-mouthed opinions
+regarding the unsettled temper and aspect of the time, she thought fit
+to break abruptly on the discourse ere it should lead to some dangerous
+or forbidden subject. He had, however, hit upon a favourite topic, in
+addition to which, he was now evidently loth to leave his guest ere he
+had learnt the nature of his errand to these parts. An &quot;o'er-sea
+pilgrim,&quot; as they were generally styled, was too choice an arrival for a
+petty hostel&mdash;especially in those times, when newspapers and posts were
+not circulating daily and hourly through the land&mdash;to let slip an
+opportunity of inquiring about the king of Scotland, as Robert Bruce was
+then called, or about his majesty, the Sultan Solyman&mdash;two personages
+who were very frequently confounded with each other in mine host's
+political hemisphere, and whose realms formed the great pandemonium
+whence issued all that was dire and disastrous to plague and perplex
+unhappy England.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To bed! to bed!&mdash;Thou art ready enough to rise when thou art not
+bidden. To bed, I say!&quot; angrily shouted the disturbed Benedict.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hast <i>thou</i> a wife?&quot; sternly inquired the pilgrim.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A wife!&mdash;marry have I!&quot; exclaimed Giles; &quot;and here she comes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Finding there was no likelihood of a speedy termination to this
+interview, our hostess of the Maypole conceived it to be a matter of
+duty that she should at least take her full share in the discussions and
+disclosures that might ensue. For this purpose she descended, making a
+deep acknowledgment to the generally supposed sanctity of the pilgrim's
+vocation. So much occupied, however, did he appear by other concernments
+that he scarcely <!-- Page 33 --><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33" ></a>noticed her approach, but continued to pass with hasty
+and irregular steps across the chamber.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By what quality or appearance may Sir Osmund Neville be distinguished?&quot;
+he abruptly inquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A right goodly person, and a brave gentleman! He gave me a sousing
+kiss, and a pair of mittens to boot, the last choosing of knights to the
+parliament,&quot; said the Dame.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hold thy tongue, Madge!&quot; angrily exclaimed Giles. &quot;Good father, heed
+not a woman; they are caught by the lip and the fist, like my lord's
+trencher-man. This Sir Osmund is both lean and ill-favoured. I wonder
+what the Lady Mabel saw above his shoe to wed with an ugly toad spawned
+i' the Welsh marshes. Had ye seen her first husband, Sir William
+Bradshaigh&mdash;rest his soul! he was killed in the wars&mdash;you would have
+marvelled that she drunk the scum after the broth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lady Mabel and Sir Osmund are now at Haigh?&quot; cautiously inquired the
+palmer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have business there, belike?&quot; sharply interrogated the
+indefatigable host.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have slight matters that require my presence at the hall. Does the
+knight go much abroad, or keeps he close house?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, look ye, it is some three months or so since I smelt the fat from
+her ladyship's kitchen. Dan Hardseg smutted my face, and rubbed a
+platterful of barley-dough into my poll, the last peep I had through the
+buttery. I'll bide about my own hearth-flag whilst that limb o' the old
+spit is chief servitor. I do bethink me though, it is long sin' Sir
+Osmund was seen i' the borough. Belike he may have come at the knowledge
+of my misadventure, and careth not to meet the wrath of a patient man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Here the malicious dame burst into a giddy laugh.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thee! why Sir Osmund knoweth not thy crop from thy crupper, nor careth
+he if thy whole carcase were crammed into the dumpling-bag. I'feck, it
+were a rare pastime to see Sir Osmund, the brave Welsh knight, give the
+gutter to Giles of the Merry Maypole.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Giles was speechless with dismay at this aggravating insult; but the
+dame continued:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think, good stranger, the knight does keep house of late. Grim told
+me that last week he was a-sporting once only by way of the higher park;
+and he appears something more soured <!-- Page 34 --><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34" ></a>and moody than usual. If thou
+crave speech with him though, to-morrow being almonsday at the hall, the
+poor have free admission, and thou mayest have a sight of him there:
+peradventure, as thou art strange in these parts, it will be needful
+thou hadst a guide.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And just ready for the job thyself, I'se warrant,&quot; bitterly snarled the
+exasperated husband. The storm, long threatening, was about to burst
+forth; but the palmer, with holy and beseeching words, soothed for
+awhile the angry disputants, at the same time intimating that a guide
+was unnecessary, the situation of the house being sufficiently obvious
+from whatever quarter he might direct his steps.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger seemed not solicitous of repose, and Giles was too sulky to
+inquire his wants. The dame, however, drew a bundle of clean straw from
+a huge heap, and threw it beside the hearth. A coarse and heavy rug,
+over which was thrown a sheep-skin with the wool innermost, constituted
+a warm but homely couch. A horn cup filled with cider and a burnt
+barley-cake were next exhibited, of which the palmer made a healthful,
+if not a sumptuous repast. Giles growled off to the loft above; and the
+dame, caring little for the sequel of her husband's humours, soon found
+a resting-place by his side.</p>
+
+<p>Morning shone brightly and cheerfully through the chinks and crevices of
+both door and lattice; but the pilgrim's couch was yet unsought. His
+vigils had been undisturbed, save when the baying of some vagrant and
+ill-disciplined dogs, or the lusty carol of some valiant yeoman, reeling
+home after a noisy debauch, startled him from a painfully-recurring
+thought, to which, however, the mind involuntarily turned when the
+interruption had ceased.</p>
+
+<p>It was late ere Giles awoke. Breathless with expectation, he hastened
+below, anticipating a rich budget of news from his guest; but he had
+departed.</p>
+
+<p>It was one of those fresh and glittering mornings which autumn alone can
+produce. Keen, pure, and exhilarating, the air seemed all buoyant and
+elastic, tinging the cheeks with ruddy health, and animating the whole
+frame with renewed vigour.</p>
+
+<p>A slight hoar-frost yet lay on the thatched roofs. Calm and undisturbed,
+a gem-like brightness twinkled from every object; whilst the vapours
+that covered them looked not as the shroud, <!-- Page 35 --><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35" ></a>but rather as a pure mantle
+of eider, hiding the fair bosom to which it clung.</p>
+
+<p>The pilgrim entered a narrow street leading to the postern or gate,
+called Standish-gate. In those days it was not, as now, a wide and free
+thoroughfare for man and beast. At the accustomed fairs, toll is, to
+this time, demanded on all cattle changing owners at the several
+outlets, where formerly stood four gates; to wit, Wall-gate, Hall-gate,
+Mill-gate, and Standish-gate. Each gate where the toll-bars now stand
+was once, in good sooth, a heavy barrier of stout beams, thickly studded
+with iron. Through the night they were generally bolted and guarded by a
+company of the mayor's halberdiers. An irregular wall encompassed the
+town, save on the eastern side, where the river Douglas seemed, in the
+eyes of the burghers, to constitute a sufficient defence, a low abbatis
+only screening its banks. The walls were covered, or rather uncovered,
+by a broad ditch: a bridge of rough-hewn planks, at three of the
+entrances before named, allowed a free communication with the suburbs,
+except during seasons of hostility, which unhappily were not rare in
+those days of rapine and rebellion. Before the Mill-gate a wider and
+more substantial structure, mounted on huge wooden props, facilitated a
+passage over the river. This edifice could be raised in cases of siege,
+effectually separating the inhabitants from their enemies.</p>
+
+<p>The first beams of the sun began to peep through the angles of the
+wooden gable fronts, projecting nearly midway across the street,
+streaming athwart the frosty air, and giving a beautifully variegated
+and picturesque appearance to the grotesque vista bounded by the
+Standish-gate.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger paused not; mounting the hill with an alertness and agility
+that scarcely seemed compatible with his age and appearance. On arriving
+at the gate, his garb was a sufficient passport, without the necessity
+of a challenge. Three or four of the guards were loitering and laughing
+on a couple of benches built in a sort of arched recess on each side of
+the gateway. As the pilgrim passed they became silent, bowing reverently
+as he pronounced the accustomed benison.</p>
+
+<p>Outside the barriers, the road lay through an open and uninclosed
+country. It was a matter of but slight moment what line of direction the
+narrow and uneven pathways might describe, provided their termination
+was tolerably accurate; all traffic and <!-- Page 36 --><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36" ></a>intercourse, being necessarily
+limited, was mostly carried on through the medium of saddles and
+horse-furniture.</p>
+
+<p>The most inaccessible part of a hill was the site generally chosen; the
+road ascending and descending in a meandering sort of zig-zig on its
+side. Rarely did our timid ancestors tempt the valley, often preferring
+a roundabout course over a line of hills, if by so doing the perils of
+the lower ground could be avoided.</p>
+
+<p>The pilgrim followed a narrow and beaten track: it was bordered on each
+side by a deep ditch, nearly overgrown with weeds and brambles. He
+traversed the intricate windings of the road with considerable facility;
+but an hour had nearly elapsed ere he gained the brow of an eminence of
+no very conspicuous height, though it commanded a pretty extensive view
+of the country adjacent. From the east, a rich flood of glory blended
+the whole into one broad mass of light, melting away the beauteous
+frost-work, as the rays of morning dissipate the unreal visions that
+have their existence only in darkness and repose. Southward lay the
+borough, distinguishable only by the broad tower of All-Saints rising
+from the mist, as if baseless and suspended. A bell boomed heavily
+through the quiet atmosphere: its long and lingering echoes came on the
+pilgrim's soul like the voice of other years&mdash;of hopes and anticipations
+that had for ever departed.</p>
+
+<p>Westward might be seen a curl of blue smoke from the newly-dignified
+priory at Upholland, recently invested with that honour through the
+grants and intercessions of Sir Robert de Holland, a proud knight in the
+train of Thomas Earl of Lancaster. It was northward that the pilgrim
+turned, with a look of more intense anxiety. The mansion of Haigh stood
+at the extremity of a broad slope, surmounted by shady woods, now fading
+into the warm and luxuriant tints of autumn. Dark and cumbrous turrets,
+projecting from the wings, grimly caught the first gleam of the morning;
+whilst a tower of considerable strength and elevation rose above what
+could only be surmised as the principal gateway. It was apparently
+designed to overlook the whole fabric, serving as a refuge to the
+besieged, and a stronghold in case of attack. Narrow loopholes might be
+traced, irregularly disposed in the heavy masonry; and at the summit
+stood a small turret resembling a large chair, from which, at stated
+occasions, waved the richly-emblazoned escutcheon of the Norris <!-- Page 37 --><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37" ></a>and the
+Bradshaigh. The staff was just visible, but unaccompanied by its
+glittering adjunct. It was this circumstance principally that seemed to
+engage the attention of the stranger. He broke into a loud and
+involuntary exclamation:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sir William's birthday is forgotten!&mdash;That staff opened a rich blossom
+to the breeze ten years agone. It is the day&mdash;the very hour of Sir
+William's birth!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He smote his forehead, scarcely able to contain the violence of his
+emotion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let that day darken!&mdash;let it be cursed with storms and tempest!&mdash;let
+the shadows of death brood over it, and the teeming night bring tenfold
+horrors!&mdash;Yet how calm, how peacefully yonder sun approaches in his
+strength! Nature is the same&mdash;bright, joyous, and unchanging!&mdash;Man, man
+alone, is mutable&mdash;his days are full of mourning and bitterness!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He bowed his head, crouching almost to the dust, in that overwhelming
+agony.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly he was aroused, and in a manner as unceremonious as unexpected.
+A smart blow on the back announced a somewhat uncourteous intruder,
+whilst a loud and discordant laugh struck shrilly on his ear. Starting,
+he beheld a figure of a low and unshapely stature, clothed in a light
+dress, fantastically wrought. A round cap, slouched in front, fitted
+closely to his head, from which depended what the wearer no doubt looked
+upon as a goodly aggregate of ornaments. These consisted of ear-tassels
+and rings of various dimensions, that jingled oddly as he twisted his
+head from side to side with a knowing and important grin. A pair of
+large leathern boots, slipped on for travelling purposes, with ample
+flaps turning down from the knee, formed the lower costume of this
+strange being. Round his neck he wore an iron collar: its import,
+whether in the shape of punishment or decoration, is at this time
+doubtful. A visage of more than ordinary size projected from between a
+pair of shoulders that nearly overlooked the lower rim of his cap. A
+sort of dubious leer was its predominant expression, heightened ever and
+anon by a broad laugh, the eldritch shout of which first announced
+itself to the ear of the pilgrim. Matted and shaggy, the twisted locks
+hung wildly about his brow, whilst a short and frizzled beard served as
+a scanty covering to his chin. A &quot;Sheffield whittle&quot; stuck in his
+baldric; and in a pouch was deposited the remnant of a magnificent
+pasty. <!-- Page 38 --><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38" ></a>From oft and over replenishment this receptacle gaped in a most
+unseemly manner, showing the shattered remains, the crumbling fragments,
+of many a huge mountain of crust.</p>
+
+<p>With arms akimbo stood this prepossessing personage before the pilgrim,
+in all his native rudeness and disorder. The latter tightened his cloak
+about him, and withdrew some three or four paces from his companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nuncle,&quot; said the jester&mdash;for such was in fact his vocation&mdash;&quot;I wonder
+for what property master keeps a fool?&mdash;I bethink me 'tis for his wit:
+more wit and less honesty, though.&quot; The palmer was silent.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Art going to the hall?&quot; continued he. &quot;The fool is whipt there for
+being honest. Have a care, nuncle; if Sir Osmund catch thee, thou hadst
+as good bequeath thy bones to the Pope to make into saint's gear.&mdash;I'm
+very sad, nuncle!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sad!&quot; said the pilgrim; &quot;in good troth, an' thou be sad, the cock of
+the hall yonder is but in sorry plight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis more wholesome to cry to-day,&quot; said the dolorous knave, &quot;knowing
+ye shall laugh to-morrow, than to laugh to-day, and to-morrow's dool
+somehow making your mirth asthmatic:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Be merry to-morrow; to-day, to-day,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Your belly-full fill of grief;<br /></span>
+<span>When sorrow hath supp'd, go play, go play,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">For mirth I wot is brief.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&quot;Ay, grandam, ye are wise; and an old woman's wit best becomes a fool:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;When sorrow hath supp'd, go play, go play,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">For mirth I wot is brief.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>He drew out the last notes into one of those querulous cadences, much in
+vogue as an <i>ad libitum</i> on all fitting occasions: even the sad features
+of the pilgrim were provoked into a smile.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Art bound for the hall?&quot; again inquired the inquisitive hunchback.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, friend&mdash;whither else? Is it not almous-day, and thinkest thou the
+houseless and wandering pilgrim will not share of the largess?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Beggars and friars thrive&mdash;treason and corruption wed, and these be
+their children belike. Hast brought the Lady Mabel her old husband's
+bones from heathenrie?&mdash;her new one is like to leave her nought else,
+poor soul, for her comfort. She'll make her up a saint out o'them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 39 --><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39" ></a>If she has gotten another husband,&quot; said the pilgrim, &quot;the old one's
+bones would have a rare chance of her worship.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The facetious impertinent here gave a sort of incredulous whistle. He
+eyed the palmer with a keen and scrutinising glance, but suddenly
+relapsing into his accustomed manner, he burst into a wild and
+portentous laugh.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I tell thee, if Sir Osmund catch thee carrying so much as a thumb-nail
+of Sir William's carcase, he 'll wring thy neck as wry as the chapel
+weathercock. My lady goes nigh crazed with his ill humours. I warrant
+thee, Sir William's ghost gaily snuffs up the sport. I have watched him
+up and down the old stairs, and once i' the chapel; and he told
+me&quot;&mdash;whispering close to the pilgrim's ear&mdash;&quot;a great secret, nuncle!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ay&mdash;what was that, Motley?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, said he, if so be Sir William comes home again, he'll find his
+wife has got a cuckoo in her nest.&quot; Here he burst from the stranger with
+a malicious shout, and descending a by-path, was soon lost amidst the
+intricacies of a deep wood, skirting the verge of an extensive forest.</p>
+
+<p>The traveller's brow gathered a heavier gloom. With unconscious haste he
+soon gained a gentle ascent, which led by a narrow and deep path to the
+mansion. Nigh to the bridge over the moat stood a blacksmith's hovel,
+conveniently situated for all job-work emanating from the armoury and
+the kitchen, which at that time afforded full exercise for the musical
+propensities of Darby Grimshaw's great anvil. This hut was a general
+resort to all the idlers in the vicinity; Grim, as he was generally
+styled for the sake of abbreviation, discharging the office of &quot;preses,&quot;
+or chief moderator, in all debates held therein. He was a shrewd fellow
+and a bold one. A humorous and inquisitive cunning lurked in the corner
+of his grey and restless eye. His curiosity was insatiable; and as a
+cross-questioner, when fairly at work, for worming out a secret he had
+not his fellow. His brain was a general deposit for odd scraps, and a
+reservoir in which flowed all stray news about the country. He was an
+abstract and chronicle of the time; and could tell you where the Earl of
+Lancaster mustered his forces, the day of their march, and the very
+purposes and projects of that turbulent noble. Even the secrets of my
+lady's bower did not elude the prying of this indefatigable artist; at
+any rate, he had the credit of knowing all that he assumed, which
+amounted very <!-- Page 40 --><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40" ></a>much to the same thing as though his knowledge were
+unlimited: a nod and a wink supplying the place of intelligence, when
+his wondering neophytes grew disagreeably minute in their inquiries.</p>
+
+<p>Towards this abode did the pilgrim bend his steps. A thick smoke hovered
+about the thatch, that appeared very ingeniously adapted for the
+reception and nurture of any stray spark that might happen to find there
+a temporary lodgment. Several times had this Vulcan been burnt out, yet
+the materials were easily replaced; and again and again the hovel arose
+in all its pristine ugliness and disorder.</p>
+
+<p>Darby was just kindling his fire: a merry-making overnight had trenched
+upon morning duties, and daylight found him still stretched on his
+pallet. Subsequent to this a noisy troop from the hall had roused him
+from a profound slumber.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;St George and the Virgin protect thee, honest friend!&quot; said the
+pilgrim, as he stood by an opening, just then performing the functions
+of both door and chimney. Darby's perceptions being much impeded by the
+smoke, he hastily approached the door. His surprise manifested itself
+aloud, yet did he not forget a becoming reverence to the stranger, as he
+invited him into the only apartment, besides his workshop, of which the
+roof could boast. It served for parlour, bedchamber, and kitchen; where
+the presiding deity, Grim's helpmate, carried on her multifarious
+operations.</p>
+
+<p>The officious housewife fetched a joint-stool, first clearing it from
+dust, whilst her husband added a billet to the heap. She was just
+preparing breakfast. A wooden porringer, filled to the brim with new
+milk, in which oatmeal was stirred, a rasher of salted mutton, and a
+large cake of coarse bread, comprised the delicacies of their morning
+repast. To this, however, was added a snatch of cold venison from the
+hall. &quot;But this, you see,&quot; said the old woman, &quot;is not of our own
+killing; St Gregory forbid!&mdash;it comes from Dan there, who has the care
+of the knight's buttery.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Rot him for a churl!&quot; said the smith; &quot;Sir Osmund grudges every mouth
+about him; but&quot;&mdash;and here he looked wondrous knowing&mdash;&quot;he may happen to
+be ousted yet, if Earl Thomas should come by the worst in this cabal.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sir Osmund, I find, is no favourite with his neighbours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hang him!&quot; replied Grim, first looking cautiously into the <!-- Page 41 --><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41" ></a>shop;
+&quot;there's not a man of us but would like to see him and his countrymen
+packed off to-morrow upon ass-panniers. They were spawned from the Welsh
+ditches to help that overgrown Earl against his master. If Sir William
+had been alive I had spoken out without fear. He was a loyal knight and
+a true&mdash;he ever served his country and his king. But I bethink me that
+peradventure ye may have heard of our late master's death, and who knows
+but ye bring some token, pilgrim, to his lady?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast shrewdly guessed&mdash;I bear the last message that Sir William
+sent to his lady; thinkest thou it may be delivered without the knight's
+privity?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Save thee, father! peril betides him who would hazard a message to my
+lady without her husband's leave.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is the Lady Mabel in health?&mdash;and the children?&quot; inquired the stranger.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sorely did she grieve when tidings came of Sir William's death in the
+great battle; but sorer still rues she her wedding with Sir Osmund
+Neville. Poor soul! It would melt the nails out of a rusty horse-shoe to
+see how she moans herself, when she can steal privily to her chamber.
+They say the knight caught her weeping once over some token that
+belonged to Sir William, and he burnt it before her face, ill-treating
+her into the bargain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How came she to wed this churl?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, it's a sorry history!&quot;&mdash;The speaker paused, and it was at the
+pilgrim's entreaty that he thus continued:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Parson Cliderhow had his paw in the mischief. She was in a manner
+forced either to wed, or, in the end, to have found herself and her
+children with never a roof-tree above their heads.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How?&mdash;Sir William did not leave her portionless?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know not; but Sir Osmund had, or pretended he had, got a grant from
+the Earl of Lancaster for possession of all that belonged to Sir
+William, as a reward for his great services; and unless she wed
+him&mdash;why, you may guess what follows, when a lone woman is left in a
+wooer's clutches. I shall never forget their wedding-day; it should
+rather have been her burying, by the look on't. Her long veil was more
+like a winding-sheet than a bride's wimple.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>During this recital the palmer drew his seat closer to the hearth. He
+leant him over his staff, absorbed in that conscious stupor which seems
+at once shut out from all connection with <!-- Page 42 --><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42" ></a>external objects, and yet
+intensely alive to their impressions. Suddenly he rose, tightened his
+sandals, and looking round, appeared as if about to depart.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is our late master's birthday,&quot; said the loquacious informant: &quot;ten
+years ago there was free commons at the hall for man and beast. Now,
+save on almous-days, when some half-dozen doitering old bodies get a
+snatch at the broken meat, not a man of us thrusts his nose into the
+knight's buttery but by stealth. Sir William's banner has not been
+hoisted, as it was wont on this day, since he left, with fifty armed men
+in his train, to help the king, then hard pressed in the Scottish wars.
+Ye may get an alms among the poor to-day, but have an eye to the Welsh
+bowmen: these be the knight's privy guard, and hold not the quality of
+his guests in much respect.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Here the smith's angry garrulity was interrupted by Daniel Hardseg, a
+sort of deputy house-steward, whose duty it was to look after all
+business not immediately connecting itself with any other department in
+the household. He was prime executive in most of the out-door duty, and
+a particular crony at the hovel. His &quot;Hilloa!&quot; was terrific.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, a murrain to thee, goodman Grim, thy fire is colder than my
+halidome; the sun is so high it puts it out, I reckon. Here have I two
+iron pots, a plate from my master's best greaves, and a pair of spurs
+that want piecing, and I'm like to tinker them as I list on a cold
+stithy. Get out, thou&quot;&mdash;Here he became aware of an additional inmate to
+Grim's dwelling; and this discovery for a while checked the copious
+torrent of Dan's eloquence. Shortly, Darby drew him aside, and from
+their looks it might be gathered that some scheme was negotiating for
+the pilgrim's safe admission at the hall. To an entreaty, more
+strenuously urged on the part of our diplomatist, Dan replied, in a
+louder tone&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, look thee, gossip, it were as much as my lugs were
+worth&mdash;but&mdash;I'll e'en try.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We shall hear some news about Sir William, depend on't, an' thou get
+him a word with my lady.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what the better shall I be of that?&mdash;dead men make no porridge
+hot,&quot; simply retorted Dan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go to,&quot; replied the other; &quot;it's but setting Maude on the scent&mdash;I
+warrant thee, she'll sharpen her wits for the work. It will be a
+grievous pity should he depart, and whisper not his <!-- Page 43 --><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43" ></a>message to her
+ladyship. Maude's thin ears, as thou knowest, can catch a whisper, and
+thou wilt soon squeeze the secret out of her; then comes Darby's
+turn&mdash;by to-morrow, at the latest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The news-doting artisan rubbed his dark fists with ecstacy. &quot;Go, knave,&quot;
+said he; &quot;thou art a teasing little varlet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Here Grim seemed ready to hug his comrade in the extremity of his
+delight; but Dan was rather sullen, evidently ruminating on peril and
+mischance, wherein the tempter had no share, though participating in the
+profits of the adventure. Eventually, the stranger was placed under the
+patronage of Daniel Hardseg, who, to do him justice, was well affected
+towards the enterprise he had undertaken.</p>
+
+<p>Passing by a low wall to the north-east of the mansion, they were soon
+hidden by a projecting terrace or platform, which, in cases of siege,
+could be converted into a sort of breastwork to cover the sallies of the
+besieged. At the salient angle of this curtain stood a small postern, to
+which Dan applied a heavy key, and beckoning to his companion, they
+ascended a narrow staircase. A succession of dark passages led to the
+great hall, from which a small arched doorway communicated by a private
+entrance to the chapel. As they passed the half-closed door, a gruff
+voice was heard reciting the appointed service for the day. Dan slept
+cautiously by, and motioned the stranger to tread softly. The latter
+paused, listening with a look of anxiety, and pressed his staff across
+his bosom;&mdash;soon, drawing his hood closer over his brow, he quickly
+followed the retreating footsteps of his companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Praised be old Cliderhow's tough pipe!&quot; said Dan, when fairly out of
+hearing. &quot;Ha, ha!&mdash;sit down, sit down, good father,&quot; opening a
+half-door, as he laughed, and thrusting in the pilgrim; &quot;nobody can hear
+aught besides, when he's fairly agoing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The apartment into which this unceremonious conductor ushered his guest
+was Dan's store-room.</p>
+
+<p>A most whimsical assemblage of materials were here huddled together.
+Pans, wooden bowls, and matters of meaner import, entered into close
+familiarity with broadswords and helmets; boots of home manufacture in
+their primitive clothing; saddles with their housings; knives, and brown
+bottles of coarse pottery, were intermingled with many a grim-looking
+weapon of bloodthirsty aspect. From the walls depended a heterogeneous
+mass <!-- Page 44 --><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44" ></a>of apparel&mdash;cloaks, hats, and body-gear of unimaginable shape and
+appearance. Dan was steward of the wardrobe, or furniture-keeper to most
+of the retainers and other idle appendages to the hall; and as, in those
+days, the sciences dependent on order and classification had not spread
+their beneficial influence through society at large, it frequently
+happened that more time was consumed in rummaging amidst this unexplored
+chaos than would have sufficed to transact the whole affair for which
+any article was required. A round stool in the middle of this
+&quot;<i>Thesaurus&quot;</i>&mdash;the only unoccupied place except the ceiling&mdash;was the
+throne of our friend, Dan Hardseg, when dispensing out his treasures
+with stately munificence;&mdash;on this scanty perch was the stranger duly
+installed, and favoured with a benignant and knowing wink from Dan as he
+departed.</p>
+
+<p>Waiting for the return of his patron, the pilgrim was roused from a fit
+of reverie by the well-remembered greeting of the jester, Humphry
+Lathom, or &quot;Daft Humpy,&quot; as he was mostly called.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eh, nuncle! But if Dan catch thee, he'll be sure to give thee a lift i'
+the stocks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This strange creature cautiously opened the door, and was speedily
+engulfed in all that fearful accumulation of sloth and disorder. By his
+manner, it did not seem to be his first irruption into this vast
+magazine; whilst, from the cautious and fearful glances he from time to
+time cast through the door, it would appear that he had been detected in
+his expeditions, and in all probability punished for the offence. He was
+evidently in search of some object from amidst the various heaps of
+lumber he overthrew; an inarticulate mutter, accompanying every fresh
+attack, indicated impatience and disappointment. Suddenly he exclaimed,
+drawing forth a large roll, with ludicrous expressions of delight&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have thee, now! The buck's horns shall soon butt this great Welsh
+goat from his pen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He opened the banner. It was the pennon of the Bradshaigh, thrown aside
+to rot in dust and decay.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't tell Dan, nuncle, and thou shall see rare sport.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He said this with his usual familiarity of tone; but suddenly putting
+his mouth to the stranger's ear, he whispered. The words were inaudible,
+save to him for whom they were meant; and in an instant he darted from
+the spot, concealing the spoil amidst the folds of his apparel. Shortly
+afterwards Dan made <!-- Page 45 --><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45" ></a>his appearance. With wonder and dismay did he
+behold the ravages committed in his treasure-house&mdash;&quot;confusion worse
+confounded.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Beshrew me, but thou art a restless tenant. I did not tell thee to
+tumble my wardrobe into haycocks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was long a-watching,&quot; said the pilgrim; &quot;and, in good troth, I became
+over curious to know the capacity of thy sty. What tidings from my
+lady's chamber?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A plague on her husband's humours! Maude says it were as much as a
+Jew's thumb were worth to get thee privily to an audience, but she hath
+urged my lady to distribute the alms herself to-day; so betake thee to
+the kitchen; Maude will contrive thou shalt have some token of approach.
+St Anthony! but thou hast bestirred thee bravely; such another guest,
+and I might as well set fire to the whole budget. If thou be'st bent on
+such another rummage in the kitchen, the cook will whack thy pate with
+the spit, holy and hooded though it be.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Dan led the way to this arena of gigantic gastronomy. It was a vast and
+smoky den, such as could only exist in those days of feudal
+magnificence. An immense furnace was fed by huge blocks of wood, which
+the ravening flame seized and in a moment enveloped in its embrace.
+Forms, grisly and indistinct, flitted past this devouring blaze, by the
+sputtering and crackling of which, mingled with the hissing delicacies
+before it, and the shrill scream of the presiding fury, a stranger might
+be warned of his approach to this pandemonium some time ere its wonders
+were visible. The pilgrim seated himself in an accessible corner,
+anxiously awaiting the promised signal.</p>
+
+<p>On a long stone bench lay heaps of broken meat, ready for distribution
+to the groups of mendicants who were now clamouring without the gate.
+From the low and ponderous rafters hung dried mutton, bacon, and deer's
+tongues, wreathed in curls of smoke, that might seem to render an
+introduction to the chimney unnecessary for completing their flavour.</p>
+
+<p>It was not long ere a pert waiting-maid approached. She drew up her
+short linsey-woolsey garments from the contaminations beneath her feet.
+Raising her chin, she thus addressed the servitors:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My lady bids ye bring the dole quickly into the great hall&mdash;She attends
+to-day in person. When the bell rings,&quot; looking towards the pilgrim as
+she spoke, &quot;my lady leaves her chamber.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 46 --><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46" ></a>Maude departed with the same supercilious deportment. The bell was
+immediately heard, and the stranger, making the best of his way into the
+hall, found the doors wide open, and an indiscriminate assemblage of
+supplicants, displaying to the best advantage a variety of modes and
+manifestations of distress, unhappily not confined to those unhallowed
+days of wretchedness and misrule. Their chief attention seemed to be
+directed towards a side wicket, in the upper part of which was a slide
+for the more convenient distribution of the accustomed largess, when the
+Lady Mabel did not superintend the apportioning of her beneficence.</p>
+
+<p>It was soon whispered amongst the crowd that she, who had for a
+considerable time kept aloof from all intercourse, would that day
+distribute her own bounty.</p>
+
+<p>The tinkling of the bell ceased, and suddenly the door flew open. Lady
+Mabel and her maidens entered. The crowd fell back as she approached. Of
+a commanding form and deportment, she seemed a being of some superior
+creation; whilst, with slow and majestic steps, she passed on to the
+upper division of the hall, where the dais raised her slightly above the
+multitude.</p>
+
+<p>She was habited in deep mourning: her heavy train swept gracefully over
+the dark pavement; her veil, in cumbrous folds, reached almost to her
+feet, effectually concealing her face from the eyes of the spectators. A
+number of servitors, now entered, bearing the allotted viands, together
+with sundry articles of winter apparel. The upper table was filled, and
+a profound silence showed the awe and respect which her presence
+inspired. She raised her veil. Grief, long subdued, yet deep and
+irremediable, hung heavily on her pallid features, but their form and
+character was untouched by the destroyer. Not a ringlet was visible. Her
+brow, bare and unornamented, threw an air of severe grandeur on her
+whole countenance. Around the lip fell a deeper shade of sorrow; but
+sweet, inexpressibly sweet and touching, was the expression. Though the
+rose had faded, yet, lovelier in decay, it seemed to mingle more
+gracefully with the soft hues by which it was surrounded.</p>
+
+<p>She waved her hand: singly the mendicants approached, proffering their
+simple tale of suffering and privation. To every one she administered
+comfort; consoling the wretched and reproving the careless; but each had
+a share of her bounty ere he withdrew.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 47 --><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47" ></a>The hall was nearly cleared; yet the palmer sat, as if still awaiting
+audience, behind a distant pillar, and deeply pondering, as it might
+seem, the transactions he had witnessed. The last of their suppliants
+had departed ere he rose, bending lowly as he approached. The eye of the
+noble dame suddenly became rivetted on him. She was leaning in front of
+her maidens, beside a richly-carved canopy of state, underneath which,
+on days of feudal hospitality and pomp, presided the master of the
+banquet. Behind, a long and richly-variegated window poured down a
+chequered halo of glory around her form. She seemed an angel of light,
+issuing from that fountain of splendour, and irradiating the whole group
+with her presence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Reverend pilgrim, thy behest?&quot; She said this with a shudder of
+apprehension, as if dreading an answer to her inquiry. The pilgrim spoke
+not, but advanced.</p>
+
+<p>The attendants drew aside. A silence, chill and unbroken as the grave,
+pervaded the assembly. He took from his vest a silver ring. The Lady
+Mabel grasped the well-known signet. With agony the most heartrending
+and intense she exclaimed&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My husband's signet!&mdash;Where?&mdash;Whence came this pledge?&mdash;Speak!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A pause ensued. It was one of those short ages of almost insupportable
+suspense, when the mind, wound up to the keenest susceptibility of
+endurance, seems vibrating on the verge of annihilation,&mdash;as if the next
+pulse would snap its connection with the world for ever.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lady,&quot; the pilgrim answered, in a low sepulchral tone, &quot;it is a bequest
+from thy husband. It was his wife's last pledge&mdash;a seal of unchanging
+fidelity. He bade me seek his dame, and say, 'His last sigh was to
+her&mdash;his last wish to heaven.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lady Mabel listened&mdash;every tone sunk like a barbed arrow to her heart.
+The voice resembled not that of her deceased husband, yet such was the
+deceptive influence arising from the painful irritation which her
+spirits had undergone, that, if reason had not forbidden, her fancy
+would have invested it with supernatural attributes&mdash;listening to it as
+though it were a voice from the tomb.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For the love I bore and yet bear to his most honoured name, tell me&mdash;I
+conjure thee, tell me&mdash;his earthly resting-place. My last pilgrimage
+shall be thither. I will enshrine his hallowed relics, and they shall be
+a pledge of our union where we shall no more part.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 48 --><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48" ></a>The last words were spoken with a solemnity of expression awful and
+thrilling beyond the power of language to convey:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What recks it, lady? thou hast gotten thee another,&quot; said the pilgrim.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Another!&mdash;Oh name him not. Never, never!&mdash;most base, most cruel. He
+took advantage of my bereavement&mdash;a moment of weakness and maternal
+terror. By what long ages of suffering and wretchedness has it been
+repaid! Better I had beheld my babes wasting with hunger, than have
+mated with this unpitying husband for a home and a morsel of bread!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A flush of proud scorn at her own weakness overspread her features. It
+was but momentary. She bade the attendants withdraw. Looking round for
+this purpose, she was aware, for the first time, of the hated presence
+of Roger de Cliderhow, watching, with considerable surprise, for the
+result of this unexpected interview. He departed with the retinue,
+leaving Lady Mabel and the pilgrim for a while unobserved.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art a holy and a heaven-destined man, yet surely thou hast been
+taught to share another's sorrows&mdash;to pour the oil of compassion over
+the wounds of the penitent and broken-hearted.&quot; The lady turned aside
+her head&mdash;she leaned over the chair for support, whilst one hand pressed
+her throbbing temples.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>Mabel Bradshaigh!</i>&quot; It was the voice of Sir William. She started as at
+a summons from the tomb. No other form was visible but that of the
+pilgrim bending over his staff. Her eye wandered wildly around the hall,
+as if she expected some phantom to start from its recesses. A
+richly-fretted screen, behind which the minstrels and lookers-on
+occasionally sat at the festival, stood at the lower end of the
+apartment. A slight rustling was heard; she was about to rush towards
+the spot, when the voice was again audible, and apparently at her side.
+Slowly the hood of the pilgrim was uplifted. He threw off his disguise;
+but oh, how changed was the once athletic form of Sir William
+Bradshaigh! With a wild and piercing shriek she flew towards the
+outstretched arms of her husband; but ere they met, a figure stepped
+between, barring their approach. It was the ungainly person of Sir
+Osmund Neville.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, nay, seek thy leman elsewhere, thou gay palmer. It were a brave
+honour, truly, to graft me with thy favours.&quot; With this brutish speech
+he was proceeding to lay hands on the lady, <!-- Page 49 --><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49" ></a>who stood stupefied in
+amaze, and bereft of power to offer the least resistance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To me this insult! I'll chase thee from thy lair!&quot; exclaimed the
+incensed Sir William.</p>
+
+<p>Roger de Cliderhow at this moment suddenly approached, and in great
+alarm. He whispered Sir Osmund.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis Sir William!&mdash;Thou hast no time for parley. If his coming get
+abroad we are undone. Call thy men hither, and let him be conveyed away
+privily. The dungeon will tell no tales. I'll summon them. If the
+servants get a whisper of the matter, I'll give out he is an impostor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Fearful of encountering the glance of his injured lord, this worthy
+withdrew in great precipitation.</p>
+
+<p>It was but the work of a moment. Sir Osmund had taken the precaution to
+prevent all egress, so that Sir William and his lady were, in fact,
+prisoners, at the mercy and discretion of a cruel and cowardly foe.</p>
+
+<p>Sir William had thrown off his cloak and the remainder of his disguise.
+He now stood proudly erect before the supplanter, who was somewhat
+stunned by this unexpected issue.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I defy thee to the combat; hast thou the grace to give me a weapon, or
+art thou as cowardly as thou art presuming?&quot; tauntingly inquired Sir
+William.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Impostor! wouldst have me believe every wish that folly genders? To the
+proof!&quot; sullenly replied Sir Osmund.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What says the Lady Mabel? Let her decide,&quot; returned the other.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She!&quot; cried the ingrate, with a contemptuous sneer; &quot;her wits are so
+set upon it, that she would worship any ill-favoured lout that should
+call himself her husband.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis false! unblushing as thou art.&quot; The lightning kindled in the
+lady's eye as she spoke. Sir Osmund quailed beneath her glance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Am I mad?&quot; she continued; &quot;ay, if thy wish could have goaded me to it.
+Thou hast heaped on me tortures, indignities, cruel as thy relentless
+nature could devise; but I have been spared for this!&quot; Her lips
+quivered. Shuddering, she spoke with amazing energy and distinctness. &quot;I
+<i>have</i> repented, day and night, but they were unavailing tears. Oh, if I
+have wronged thee&quot;&mdash;she covered her face with her hands&mdash;&quot;it was not
+even in thought that I grew unfaithful to thy trust. My babes, in a
+<!-- Page 50 --><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50" ></a>moment of weakness I looked on them, smiling as they lay. I could not
+dash the cup from their lips ere they had well nigh tasted. I could not
+behold them so soon doomed to misery and want.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She made a convulsive effort to repress her sobs.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can years of suffering atone for my crime?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She drew back as she continued, &quot;I abhor, I loathe the very existence I
+am forced to prolong. The cloister alone can hide my wretchedness and my
+shame.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I forgive thee: nay, shrink not from my embrace,&quot; cried the distracted
+Sir William; &quot;I blame thee not in my regret. Pure, and as free from
+guilt as when first I knew thee, do I now receive thee to my arms.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Sir Osmund smiled in contempt; at the same time casting a furtive glance
+towards the side entrance, where, true to his word, Roger De Cliderhow
+had summoned a guard of Welsh bowmen, their master's accomplices in many
+a deed of violence and rapine.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Osmund heard their approach. He cautiously undrew the bolts, and,
+pointing to his foe with a signal they but too well understood, the
+latter was immediately seized, and with such rapidity, that almost
+before Sir William was aware of their design, he found himself a
+prisoner and incapable of resistance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Traitor, thou wilt rue this foul despite! I here proclaim thee a craven
+knight and a dastard!&quot; exclaimed Sir William.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;False pilgrim,&quot; growled his adversary, &quot;didst think to foist thy
+fooleries upon me! The dungeon walls will give thee a patient hearing.
+Boast to them of thy descent, and when they acknowledge thee, so will I.
+Guards, to your duty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lady Mabel, with a loud and appalling shriek, fell senseless on the
+pavement.</p>
+
+<p>In vain did Sir William endeavour to free himself from the rude grasp of
+his conductors. He was hurried along, nor did there appear the remotest
+possibility of escape. Just as they turned into a sort of corridor,
+leading to the passages more immediately connected with the place of
+their destination, they encountered Humphry Lathom. The same
+half-stupid, half-knavish expression of face was now lighted up by a
+grin of apparently inexplicable amazement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eh, nuncle,&quot; said he, stroking his beard, &quot;but you're in mighty grace.
+The Welshman always mounts his he-goats for guard on them he delighteth
+to honour.&quot; With one of his more <!-- Page 51 --><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51" ></a>than ordinarily elvish and malicious
+shouts he scampered past the enraged sentinels, and was heard rapidly
+ascending the steps of the great tower, beneath the massive foundations
+of which lay the dark and cheerless abode so unexpectedly destined for
+the reception of its owner.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst these occurrences were passing within the walls Grim's curiosity
+was in prodigious exercise without. His anxiety increased in a compound
+ratio with the time elapsed, and inversely as the hope of intelligence
+was decreasing. Every spare moment his eye was directed towards the
+hall; but no tidings came, no scout, no messenger from the scene of
+action, from whom the slightest inkling of the result could be gathered.
+It seemed as though all intercourse had ceased, all transit and
+communication were cut off. It was mighty strange! some rare doings were
+afloat, no doubt, and not a soul would remember honest Grim in his
+thrall. He tied and untied his apron, beat the iron when it was cool,
+and let it cool when it was hot. &quot;It will be noon presently.&quot; He looked
+at the sun; it seemed to have crept backward for the last half-hour: at
+any rate, he was morally certain that useful appendage to this great and
+troublesome world had stood still, if not retrograded. The mendicants
+were all gone&mdash;no tidings to be gained from them&mdash;matters were more than
+usually contrary and provoking&mdash;and if it had not been for some recent
+disgrace which his prying disposition had occasioned at the hall, he
+would long ago have satisfied himself by a personal inquiry into the
+present posture of affairs.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hope deferred&quot; was just on the point of being attended with the usual
+consequences, when, taking another peep through a crevice, constructed
+for putting into effect a more efficient system of examination, he
+beheld a phenomenon as unlooked for as it was incomprehensible. He
+rubbed his eyes, strongly persuaded that some rigorous discipline was
+necessary. He pinched his fingers, shook himself&mdash;was he really awake?
+or&mdash;he took another peep, still it was there; nor crossings,
+ejaculations, nor other established contrivances had any effect. The
+vision that caused all this disturbance was the great banner of the
+Bradshaigh on the tower, curling full and stately in the breeze. Wonders
+and misfortunes rarely come unattended. Grim's appetite for the
+marvellous was now in danger of suffering as much from repletion as
+before from inanity, and he had just summoned his dame for a special
+council, when his <!-- Page 52 --><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52" ></a>ears were assailed by a furious ding-dong. Stroke
+upon stroke, huge, heavy, and unceasing, followed each other in rapid
+succession. It was the great bell, used only on occasions of emergency
+and importance, the hoarse tongue of which had been silent since the day
+of Sir William's departure. There was no time to waste in conjecture.
+Grim rushed from his dwelling. Convinced that some catastrophe was at
+hand, his intention was to climb the hill behind his little hovel, in
+order to reconnoitre the premises with greater facility. Sallying forth,
+he saw numbers of the peasantry on the same errand. All was bustle and
+inquiry; each giving his neighbour credit for the possession of some
+intelligence whereby the mystery might be unravelled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sir William cannot have returned!&quot; said one.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No,&quot; replied another, &quot;or the buck would soon butt the Welshman out of
+his stall.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ha, ha!&quot; said a neighbouring gossip, &quot;those horns are big enough,&quot;
+pointing to the device upon the banner&mdash;a buck <i>passant</i>.</p>
+
+<p>As they drew nearer to the great gate the bell had ceased, when suddenly
+appeared, perched on a corner of the tower, the well-known form of &quot;Daft
+Humpy.&quot; He threw up his cap, caught it, and whirled it round his head
+with every demonstration of joyous extravagance. &quot;Hurrah!&quot; shouted he,
+with a distinct and shrill enunciation, which might be heard to the very
+extremities of the crowd. &quot;Hurrah for Sir William Bradshaigh!&mdash;he is
+come again!&mdash;hurrah, neighbours!&mdash;in, in!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He ran round the battlements with unceasing vociferation. On hearing
+this news, numbers entered the gate pell-mell, carrying with them some
+who would fain have acted with more discretion, by watching the issue
+warily and out of harm's way. Of this class was our stout-fisted friend
+Darby Grim, who, though of a well-composed valour when fairly tested,
+was yet slow to move, and cared not to thrust his fingers uselessly into
+a broil.</p>
+
+<p>The first party that entered was met by Humphry.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pick-axes and spades!&quot; cried he, flourishing a stout staff. &quot;To the
+dungeon!&mdash;come along, come along!&quot; So far from accelerating their speed,
+this address seemed at once to suspend all further progress. They gazed
+at each other; none wist what to do, naturally not overburdened with
+confidence in the discretion of their guide. Suddenly checking himself,
+he stood as erect as the nature of his form would admit, before the
+astonished auditors.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 53 --><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53" ></a>Ye lazy caterpillars! ye cowardly scum of humanity! if ye follow me
+not, I'll rouse the Welsh bull-dogs. Sir Osmund hath ta'en him to the
+dungeon, I tell ye; and who is there that will not lend a hand to the
+rescue of Sir William Bradshaigh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Grim was among the foremost of the invading army; on hearing this news,
+a latent spark enkindled his courage most opportunely into a blaze.
+Seizing a cudgel, he brandished it in front of his comrades, like one
+half-frantic, crying, &quot;It is, it is; I have seen him this blessed
+day!&mdash;Hurrah for Sir William!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hurrah!&quot; shouted the crowd, whose courage, augmenting with their
+numbers, soon manifested itself in an immediate attack on the cell,
+whence they speedily extricated their lord. Intoxicated with joy, they
+vowed a summary vengeance on the discourteous knight who had so vilely
+entreated him.</p>
+
+<p>Sir William's first care was for the rescue of his lady. She almost
+forgot her own sorrows on witnessing his joy when once more folding the
+children to his embrace. A short interval elapsed ere he sought his
+adversary; but he had fled, along with his unworthy followers. Such was
+the wrong Sir William had suffered, that his yet untamed spirit deemed
+it an offence too foul to be expiated by aught but the blood of his
+merciless foe. Armed, and with but few attendants, he hotly pursued him,
+and, as old chronicles tell, at a place called Newton, he overtook and
+slew him in single combat. Returning in safety, he lived happily with
+his lady to a good old age. They lie buried in the chancel of All
+Saints, Wigan, where, carved on the tomb, their effigies still exist,
+the rarest of the monumental antiquities in that ancient edifice.</p>
+
+<p>The Lady Mabel's spirit had been too sorely wounded to recover its
+tranquillity. For the purpose of what was then deemed an expiation to
+her unintentional offence, she performed a weekly penance, going
+barefooted from Haigh to a place outside the walls at Wigan, where a
+stone cross was erected, which bears to this day the name of &quot;MAB'S
+CROSS.&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_PRIOR_OF_BURSCOUGH" id="THE_PRIOR_OF_BURSCOUGH" ></a><!-- Page 54 --><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54" ></a>THE PRIOR OF BURSCOUGH.</h2>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Quhere are ye boun, ye bold prior,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">With that ladye on your knee?&quot;<br /></span>
+<span>&quot;I'm boun to the hills, I'm boun to the dales,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">I'm boun to the grey priory.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="author"><i>Old Ballad. M.S.</i></p>
+
+<p>Of the once renowned priory of Burscough, only two pillars, belonging to
+the centre arch of the church, are now remaining. It is situated about
+two miles from Ormskirk, on the Preston road, in a level district of
+great compass renowned for its fertility. The extensive manor and living
+of Ormskirk formerly belonged to this priory. The charter of King Edward
+II., &quot;reciting and confirming the grants of the donors,&quot; with a
+confirmation of the charter by which &quot;the prior and convent of
+Burscough, and their successors for ever, shall have one market every
+week on Thursday, at their manor of Ormskirk, and likewise one fair
+every year, of five days' continuance,&quot; is still preserved in the office
+of the Duchy of Lancaster.</p>
+
+<p>This religious house was founded for Black Canons by Robert Fitzhenry,
+Lord of Latham of Lathom, in the reign of Richard I. It was formerly the
+burial-place of the Earls of Derby; but many of the coffins have been
+removed to their vault in the church at Ormskirk, built by Edward, the
+third Earl, great grandson of Thomas, first Earl of Derby, who had the
+honour of crowning Henry VII. at Bosworth Field with the coronet torn
+from the brows of the slain tyrant.</p>
+
+<p>The main fact of the following tradition may be found in the Calend.
+Rotulo. Patents, fol. 155, art. 13, containing the free pardon granted
+by Edward III. to the atrocious murderer of Michael de Poininges and
+Thomas le Clarke, after the rape he had committed on Margaret de la
+Bech.</p>
+
+<p>At the Dissolution, this priory had a superior, five monks, and forty
+servants. The last prior was John Barton, who surrendered the living,
+and subscribed to the King's supremacy. He was surviving as late as the
+year 1553.</p>
+
+<div class="center">
+<!-- Page 55 --><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55" ></a><img src="images/05.png" width="600" height="405" alt="BURSCOUGH ABBEY.
+
+Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden" title="" />
+<b>BURSCOUGH ABBEY.<br />
+
+<i>Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw<sup>d</sup> Finden</i></b>
+</div>
+
+<p>That curious structure, the church at Ormskirk, having two steeples, a
+tower and spire, contiguous to each other, is briefly glanced at in the
+tradition. This circumstance, according to some accounts, was occasioned
+by the removal of part of the bells from Burscough at the dissolution of
+the monasteries, when the existing spire steeple was found to be not
+sufficiently capacious. The tenor bell, said to have been the <!-- Page 56 --><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56" ></a><!-- Page 57 --><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57" ></a>third
+bell, at Burscough, bears some apparent proof of its translation. Round
+the circle, below the ear, is the following inscription in black letter,
+except the initials of the founder:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;J. S. * de Burscough * Armig. * et * e * vr. * me fecerunt in honorem
+Trinitatis * R.B. 1497.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>About half-way down the bell is another date, 1576.</p>
+
+<p>Where each asterisk is marked are the <i>rose, portcullis</i>, and <i>fleur de
+lis</i>. Beneath the inscription a neat border is cast, filled up in the
+centre with the <i>rose, portcullis</i>, and <i>fleur de lis</i>, repeated so as
+to occupy the whole circumference of the bell. We have been thus
+particular in our description, as it may not be uninteresting to pursue
+this inquiry, connected as it is with some important historical facts,
+not irrelevant to the subject.</p>
+
+<p>The following remarks may preclude any further observations of our
+own:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The <i>red rose</i> is well known to have been the favourite emblem of the
+house of Lancaster, from whom Henry VII. was descended, and through whom
+he gloried in claiming his title to the throne.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His mother, Margaret Countess of Richmond, then Countess of Derby, was
+sole daughter and heiress of the Duke of Somerset,<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10" ></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> who bore the
+<i>portcullis</i> as an heraldic distinction. This nobleman was descended
+from John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and Henry had a right to the
+honourable bearings of his royal ancestors. Hence the '<i>rose and
+portcullis</i>' were favourite badges of this monarch, as peculiarly
+belonging to the house of Lancaster. The '<i>fleur de lis</i>' is the emblem
+of France; and, independently of the arms of that kingdom being
+quartered at that time, and till very lately, with the royal arms of
+England, Henry had a right to assume this distinction also, as being the
+grandson of Sir Owen Tudor and Catherine of France, relict of Henry V.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The first date, also 1497, refers to a very important period in
+history, as connected with the Derby family. Two short years before, the
+great, the brave Sir William Stanley, who, of his own power and
+interest, raised and brought 3000 horse and foot to the rescue of his
+prince, when his life, his honour, and his hopes of a throne were at
+stake; who contributed to his victory, and helped to crown him 'King' in
+the field; had, by that very sovereign, been sent to the block, merely
+on account of a doubtful and unguarded expression, reported by a rebel,
+a traitor, and an ungenerous friend. The unhappy monarch, learning too
+late the dire effects of groundless suspicion, paid a visit in the
+following year to his deeply-wounded stepfather, the brother of the
+dauntless hero whom he had so lately sacrificed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 58 --><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58" ></a>It is stated that the King arrived at Knowsley on or about the 24th
+June 1496, and then went to Lathom; whence, after remaining a month with
+his mother the Countess, and the Earl her husband, he returned to
+London.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This brings us within one year of the date on the tenor bell, and I
+cannot help thinking that its emblems have some allusion to the royal
+visit to Knowsley and Lathom. It becomes, however, necessary to attempt
+to account for the second date, 1576, on the same bell. And here we can
+again only conjecture. It is not improbable that the original bell was
+injured; that, prior to breaking up, its inscription and emblems were
+carefully moulded, and a new one cast, with the old metal, in the year
+1576, care being taken that a copy of the inscription, &amp;c., should fill
+the same situation in the present bell, which the originals occupied in
+the former.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11" ></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p>
+
+<p>It may not be deemed irrelevant to mention here a tradition which exists
+relative to the visit of King Henry VII. at Lathom, particularly as it
+does not appear to be generally known.</p>
+
+<p>After the execution of Sir William Stanley, when the King visited
+Lathom, the Earl, when his royal guest had viewed the whole house,
+conducted him up to the leads for a prospect of the country. The Earl's
+fool, who was among the company, observing the King draw near to the
+edge of the leads not guarded with a balustrade, stepped up to the Earl,
+and pointing down to the precipice, said, &quot;<i>Tom, remember Will</i>.&quot; The
+King understood the meaning, and made all haste down stairs, and out of
+the house; and the fool long after seemed mightily concerned that his
+lord had not had courage to take that opportunity of avenging himself
+for the death of his brother.&mdash;<i>Kennett's MSS</i>. 1033. fol. 47.</p>
+
+<p>It was on a still and sultry evening, about the close of summer, in the
+year of grace one thousand three hundred and forty-seven, that a
+solitary traveller was seen hastily descending, by a woodland path, into
+the gloomy thickets that surrounded the neighbouring priory of
+Burscough. The rain-drops were just pattering on the dark leaves above
+him, and the birds were fast hastening to some deeper shelter. The timid
+rabbit, as the stranger passed by, darted into its burrow, and many a
+quiet face gazed on him from beneath a pair of ragged antlers, peeping
+over the fences that guarded the demesne. Here and there a narrow glade
+opened beautifully into the woods, through which might be seen green
+lawns and pastures, with herds of dappled deer stealing silently to
+their covert. The low growl of the distant thunder seemed to come upon
+each living thing like the <!-- Page 59 --><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59" ></a>voice of some invisible spirit, subduing
+with its mysterious speech every power and faculty, with an authority
+superior to all human control.</p>
+
+<p>The traveller hastened on. The pinnacles and stately turrets of the
+priory were just visible through the arched boughs, when, turning into a
+more sequestered path, he observed a female of a wild and uncouth aspect
+standing in the way. She showed no disposition to move as he approached,
+nor did she seem to notice his presence. He stopped, but sufficiently
+near to distinguish the motion of her lips. An unintelligible mutter
+accompanied it. She looked darkly towards the south, beckoning to the
+coming thunder, and pointing, as though she would guide its course,
+towards the grey walls of the priory.</p>
+
+<p>She was dressed in a dark-coloured corset fitting close to the body, and
+a hood of the same materials. Her hair was a deep jet, and fantastically
+twisted about her face. She was of low stature, but not bowed by
+decrepitude or age. Her cheek was hollow, and her complexion swarthy,
+but her eye grew unnaturally bright, blazing out with a fierceness,
+intense as though the fire within were visible through these chinks and
+crevices of the soul's tenement.</p>
+
+<p>Though the storm was rapidly approaching she still kept her place,
+unawed by the rude elements, and seeming to surfer but little
+inconvenience from the shower, now descending with great vigour. The
+path was narrow, and a thick underwood skirted the road, so that for the
+stranger to pass was impossible, unless his opponent chose to take up a
+more favourable position. But the sudden burst of a terrific
+thunder-clap, which seemed to roll in a continuous peal above them, made
+him less ceremonious on this head than the laws of gallantry might
+warrant. He drew nearer to the female, with the intention of seeking a
+passage on that side where the least disturbance would be given.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go not. 'Tis accursed!&quot; said she, as if preparing to dispute the
+attempt.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am a stranger, and hastening for shelter. In troth, 'tis a narrow
+goit that will not let a drowning man through. Prythee, dame, let me
+not, in some wise, seem uncourteous. Yet&quot;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Here he attempted to pass; but she seized him, and with so powerful a
+grasp that for a moment his intention was foiled, so sudden and
+unexpected was the attack. Though of a stout <!-- Page 60 --><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60" ></a>and muscular shape, yet
+was he holden tightly, as if she were exulting in her strength. Either
+malice or madness had given her a vigour of body beyond that of her sex.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Michael de Poininges!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The stranger started at this recognition.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I warn thee! Thinkest thou yon fiend will forward thy mission. Wilt
+thou tear the prey from the jaws of the famished and ravening wolf?
+Beware!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Some score of years had elapsed since De Poininges was a visitor in
+these parts; and he was now upon some sacred mission to the Prior of
+Burscough, Thomas de Litherland, whose great power and reckless
+intrepidity of guilt had won for him a name of no common note, even in
+those ages of privileged injustice and oppression. No bosom but his own,
+at least in that neighbourhood, could have been privy to the business
+which brought him hither; and yet he found a woman casually crossing his
+path, whose knowledge of his errand was but too evident, and whose
+appearance and deportment might well excuse the suspicions he
+entertained as to her familiarity with the EVIL ONE.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go, poor beast! Thou art but fattened for the slaughter!&quot; She said
+this, apparently addressing a stout buck that was sheltering in the
+thicket. De Poininges shuddered, as she looked on him askance, with some
+dubious meaning.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll meet thee at supper-time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This was said with a slow and solemn enunciation, as though some
+terrible warning was intended, yet durst he not question her further;
+and ere he could reply she had disappeared in the recesses of the
+forest.</p>
+
+<p>The rain now poured down in torrents, and De Poininges was fain to
+hasten with all possible expedition towards the porter's gate.</p>
+
+<p>The priory of Burscough had been founded the century preceding, for a
+brotherhood of Black Canons, by Robert Fitzhenry, Lord of Lathom. He
+endowed it with considerable property, emoluments, and alms, and,
+according to the weak superstition of the age, thought thereby to obtain
+pardon and rest for the souls of Henry the Second, John, Earl of
+Moreton, himself, his wife, and all his ancestors; at the same time
+wishing the kingdom of heaven to all persons who would increase the
+gifts, and consigning to the devil and his angels all who should
+impiously infringe on his bequests.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 61 --><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61" ></a>It was dedicated to St Nicholas, and a rude effigy of the saint was
+carved over the south porch of the chapel, with two or three naked
+children at his feet. The building was not large, but the architecture
+was chaste and beautiful, a noble specimen of the early Gothic, then
+superseding the ponderous forms and proportions of the Norman, or rather
+Saxon era. The arches were sharply pointed. The windows, narrow and
+lancet-shaped, were deeply recessed; the slender shafts of the columns
+were carried in clusters to a vast height, surmounted by pinnacles of
+rich and elegant tracery; these gave a light and airy character to the
+whole, highly significant of the buoyant feelings that accompanied so
+wonderful an escape from the heavy trammels of their predecessors.</p>
+
+<p>Craving shelter, De Poininges was admitted without any question, as all
+travellers partook indiscriminately of the general bounty. The religious
+houses in those days were the constituted almonries of the rich and
+great; and through these overflowing channels, for the most part,
+proceeded their liberality and beneficence.</p>
+
+<p>He was ushered into one of the <i>locutories</i>, or parlours, where, his
+business being with the prior, he was desired to wait until an audience
+could be granted.</p>
+
+<p>Prior Thomas, from some cause or other not assigned, held himself at
+that season much estranged and secluded from his brethren. He had seldom
+been seen from his lodgings, except when performing his accustomed
+office in the church. He had not taken his place in the refectory of
+late, the duties of the day being performed by one of the elder canons.</p>
+
+<p>De Poininges, after a short space, was summoned to the prior's chamber.
+In his progress, he passed the door of the refectory where the brethren
+were at supper. It was large and wainscoted, and furnished with an ample
+dresser. Cupboards were let into the wall, and windows opened into the
+kitchen, through which their meal was served.</p>
+
+<p>One of the monks was reading the appointed service from a low pulpit or
+desk. The prior's seat was still vacant. Their way now led through the
+cloisters, and at the opposite side of the quadrangle a portal
+communicated by a long and dark passage with the prior's lodging. This
+was a sort of inferior castellated mansion, with a spacious hall, and a
+smaller dining-chamber immediately adjoining. At the end was a fair
+chapel <!-- Page 62 --><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62" ></a>or oratory. Ascending a flight of stone steps, they came to a
+low door. The conductor knocked, and De Poininges soon found himself in
+the presence of the proud Prior of Burscough. He wore a square cap of
+black stuff, after the fashion of his order. His cloak, or upper
+garment, was of the same colour, trimmed round the bottom with a double
+edging. He reposed on a couch, or oaken settle, and seemed, in some
+measure, either indisposed or unwilling to notice the homage he
+received. His figure was strong and muscular, his complexion dull, and
+almost swarthy. His lips were full, and his aspect rather coarse than
+sensual. His brows were high, and unusually arched; but his eyes were
+downcast, and seldom raised towards the speaker. In speech he was brief
+and interrogative, but impatient under a tardy or inefficient answer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy name, stranger?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Michael de Poininges.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;From whence?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My business concerns you in private. I await your reverence's
+pleasure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The prior motioned the attendants to withdraw.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Proceed. Thy message?&quot; He spoke this with precipitancy, at the same
+time abruptly changing his position.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mine errand is touching one Margaret de la Bech,&quot; said De Poininges,
+seating himself opposite to the prior; &quot;and I am directed to crave your
+help for the clearing away of some loose suspicions regarding her
+concealment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Her concealment!&quot; replied De Litherland, starting up angrily from the
+couch. &quot;Her concealment! They who hide may find. I know not aught of the
+wench, save that she was mad, and drowned herself. But why not inquire
+of Sir Thomas? The maiden was not in my keeping.&quot; He paced the chamber
+haughtily, but with a disturbed and lurid aspect.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yet,&quot; replied the other, &quot;it is well and currently reported, and
+witnesses there be who have already testified as to a fact, that some of
+your men were seen the night of her withdrawal lurking in her path, and
+that screams and other manifestations of the outrage then perpetrated
+were heard in this direction. Not that we deem any blemish can attach to
+your reverence in this matter. Still&quot;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why dost thou hesitate in thy speech?&quot; said the prior, in a voice
+almost inarticulate with choler.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 63 --><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63" ></a>I would say,&quot; answered De Poininges, &quot;that it is our wish, and your
+duty, to search into this dark question, without favour or prejudice;
+and, further, we do reckon that the Prior of Burscough is not without
+the means to discover, and the power to punish, his offending vassals.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And whose evil star guided thee hither with this insolent message?&quot;
+inquired the prior, pale and trembling with rage.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Those whom your reverence may not lightly contemn. I have here a
+warrant from the Council to procure all fitting help and suppliance for
+the bringing up the body of Margaret de la Bech, who is suspected of
+being detained in this neighbourhood, by persons hitherto unknown,
+against her own proper will and consent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The prior paused for a space. A somewhat more placid expression and
+demeanour was the result.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am no stranger,&quot; said he, &quot;to this idle and mischievous rumour. Means
+have been used to discover its likelihood or credibility, but we find it
+to be utterly false and unworthy of our notice. The inventor of these
+tales shall not long escape.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yet hath she been a-missing ever since,&quot; said De Poininges, warily;
+&quot;and in vain hath search been made for the body. And furthermore, we
+have her own expressed apprehension, as it regards one she durst not
+name, and a perilous foreboding of the evil that awaited her. It is to
+this source, yet obscure, I must own, that our inquiries are to be
+directed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tarry here until the morning, and I will then give thee some further
+discourse on the matter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, Sir Prior,&quot; answered De Poininges. &quot;I thank your grace's courtesy,
+but this night I must away to the village or town hereabout, Ormschurch
+I think it be, and there, in all likelihood, I may abide for some days.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The prior bit his lips, but sought not to oppose his intent, further
+than by giving a hint that foul weather was abroad, and of the good
+cheer and dry lodging the priory afforded. De Poininges, however, took
+his way afoot, returning to the town, where his horse and two trusty
+attendants awaited him at the tavern or hostel.</p>
+
+<p>The evening was fair, and the sky clear, save a broad and mountainous
+ridge of clouds piled up towards the north-east, from whence hung a
+black and heavy curtain stretching behind the hills in that direction.
+The sparkling of the sea was visible <!-- Page 64 --><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64" ></a>at intervals behind the low
+sand-hills skirting the coast, giving out, in irregular flashes, the
+rich and glowing radiance it received. A lucid brightness yet lingered
+over the waves, which De Poininges stood for a moment to observe, as he
+gained the brow of the hill near the church. To this edifice was then
+appended a low spire, not exhibiting, as now, the strange anomaly of a
+huge tower by its side, seated there apparently for no other purpose
+than to excite wonder, and to afford the clerk an opportunity of
+illustrating its origin by the following tradition:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Long time ago, two maiden sisters of the name of Orme, the founders of
+this church, disagreed as to the shape of this most important appendage.
+Tower against spire was, in the end, likely to leave the parties without
+a church in answer to their prayers, had not the happy suggestion
+offered itself in the shape of a pair of these campanile structures
+suited to the taste of each.</p>
+
+<p>That the foregoing is an idle and impertinent invention there is little
+need to show, inasmuch as both tower and spire might still have been
+built to satisfy the whim of the old ladies, though placed in the usual
+manner, one serving as a substratum to the other. A more probable
+solution is the following, though it may be as far from the truth:&mdash;At
+the dissolution of the priory of Burscough in the time of our great
+reformer Henry the Eighth&mdash;who, like many modern pretenders to this
+name, was more careful to reform the inaccuracies of others than his
+own&mdash;the bells were removed to Ormskirk; but the small tower beneath the
+spire not being sufficiently capacious, the present square steeple was
+added, and the wonder perpetuated to this day.</p>
+
+<p>De Poininges, on crossing the churchyard, met there a personage of no
+less note than Thomas the Clerk, or Thomas le Clerke, retiring from some
+official duties, arrayed in his white surplice and little quaint
+skull-cap. He was a merry wight, and in great favour with the parish
+wives. He could bleed and shave the sconce; draw out bonds and
+quittances; thus uniting three of the professions in his own proper
+person. He was prime mover in the May games, and the feast of fools.
+Morris, Moriscoe, or Moorish dancers, there is good reason for
+supposing, were not then introduced, though by some said to have been
+brought into England in the sixth year of Edward III., when John of
+Gaunt returned from Spain; but few traces of it are found earlier than
+Henry VII., so that it is more probable we had them from our Gallic
+neighbours, or even from the Flemings.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 65 --><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65" ></a>He could dance, too, and play on the rebeck and citerne, this being a
+common amusement with the customers during the time they were in waiting
+at the barbers' shops, as newspapers were not then at hand to sustain
+this difficult office. He was of a dainty person; clad mostly in a
+kirtle of light watchet-colour, thick set with loose points. His hosen
+were grey, mingled with black, and his shoes were belayed with knots and
+ornaments, of which, and his other stray gear, he was not a little
+proud.</p>
+
+<p>This Thomas was used to go about with a censer, on a Sunday, as Chaucer
+hath it,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Censing the wives of the parish feast.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Absalom, that pink of clerkly portraiture, seemed but a fair prototype
+of this individual, Geoffrey Chaucer at this time being a setter forth
+of rhymes and other matters for the ticklish ears of sundry well-fed and
+frolicksome idlers about the court of King Edward.</p>
+
+<p>The merry knave of whom we speak was, however, in happy ignorance of all
+courtly fashions. Provided he obtained his Sunday contributions, and his
+Christmas loaf, and his eggs at Easter, little wot he how the world went
+round. He was a frequent visitor at the tavern, and De Poininges had
+already been distinguished by his especial notice.</p>
+
+<p>From his character, and the means of information arising out of his
+multifarious occupations, De Poininges expected that some of the
+intelligence he was in search of might be gathered from this source.</p>
+
+<p>The petty hostelry was now in sight, a projecting bush denoting the
+vintner's residence. The house was but thinly attended, though clean
+rushes and a blazing billet bespoke comfort and good cheer. De Poininges
+and his companion turned aside into a smaller chamber, where mine host
+was speedily summoned for a flagon of stout liquor. This being supplied,
+they addressed themselves to the wooden utensil with right goodwill; and
+as the draughts began to quicken, so did the clerk's tongue not fail to
+wag the faster. De Poininges adroitly shifted the discourse upon the
+business of which he was in quest, whenever there was a tendency to
+diverge, no rare occurrence, Thomas being somewhat loth for a while to
+converse on the subject. The liquor, however, and his own garrulous
+propensities, soon <!-- Page 66 --><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66" ></a>slipped open the budget, and scraps of intelligence
+tumbled out which De Poininges did not fail to lay hold of as hints for
+another line of examination.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I reckon so, at any rate, and so said Geoffrey,&quot; replied the clerk,
+after a pause, subsequent to some close question.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sir Thomas, the Lord of Lathom, as you may have heard, he is a
+good-hearted soul, and this Margaret de la Bech was companion to his
+daughter Isabel. She was ever held as a dame of good family and descent,
+though a stranger in these parts. Then she was passing fair, so that
+both squire and gentleman, as they looked on her, were nigh devoured
+with love. They say, too, her conditions were gentle and winsome as a
+child; and&quot;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good,&quot; said De Poininges, who found he was slipping away from the main
+subject. &quot;But hath not Sir Thomas made some apparent search since her
+disappearance from the hall?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Save the mark&mdash;she was drowned in the moat. So say the gossips,&quot; said
+the clerk, looking askance. &quot;Her hood and mantle were on the brink&mdash;but
+her body! why, it never jumped out again to look for them&mdash;that's all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But did no one look for the body?&quot; carelessly inquired De Poininges.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The knight groped diligently in the castle ditch for many days; but
+light fishes make light nets, as we say. There was no corpse to be
+found, and many an Ave Maria has been said for her soul.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What cause was then assigned for this fearful deed?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis said she was in love, and went mad! I wot she was ever sighing and
+rambling about the house, and would seldom venture out alone, looking as
+though she were in jeopardy, and dreaded some hidden danger.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thinkest thou, friend, that some hidden danger might not be the cause;
+and this show of her drowning but a feint or device that should turn
+aside the current of their inquiry?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The clerk looked anxious and uneasy, sore puzzled, as it might seem, to
+shape out an answer. At length, finding that the question could not be
+evaded, he proceeded with much hesitation as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Safe as my Lord Cardinal at his prayers&mdash;she is dead though; for I
+heard her wraith wailing and shrieking up the woods that night as I
+stood in the priory close. It seemed like, <!-- Page 67 --><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67" ></a>as it were, making its way
+through the air from Lathom, for the smell of consecration, I reckon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go on,&quot; said De Poininges, whose wits were shrewdly beginning to gather
+intelligence from these furtive attempts at concealment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well-a-day,&quot; continued the clerk, draining an ample potation, &quot;I've
+heard strange noises thereabout; and the big building there, men say, is
+haunted by the ghost.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where is the building thou speakest of?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The large granary beyond the postern leading from the prior's house
+towards the mill. I have not passed thereby since St Mark's vigil, and
+then it came.&quot; Here he looked round, stealing a whisper across the
+bench&mdash;&quot;I heard it: there was a moaning and a singing by turns; but the
+wind was loud, so that I could scarcely hear, though when I spake of it
+to old Geoffrey the gardener, he said the prior had laid a ghost, and it
+was kept there upon prayer and penance for a long season. Now, stranger,
+thou mayest guess it was no fault of mine if from this hour I passed the
+granary after sunset. The ghost and I have ever kept ourselves pretty
+far apart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Canst show me this same ghostly dungeon?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ay, can I, in broad daylight; but&quot;&mdash;.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Peradventure thou canst show me the path, or the clue to it; and I
+warrant me the right scent will lie at the end on't.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And pray, good master, wherefore may your curious nose be so mightily
+set upon this same adventure?&quot; said the clerk, his little red and
+ferrety eyes peering very provokingly into those of his opposite
+neighbour. Now, De Poininges was not for the moment prepared to satisfy
+this unexpected inquiry, but his presence of mind did not forsake him.
+Rightly guessing his friend's character&mdash;a compound in universal esteem,
+to wit, fool and knave&mdash;he drew from his pouch a couple of bright ship
+nobles, then but newly coined, which effectually diverted the prying
+looks of Thomas le Clerke.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, look ye,&quot; said the latter, as the coin jingled in his bag, &quot;I was
+ever held in good repute as a guide, and can make my way blindfold over
+the bogs and mosses hereabout; and I would pilot thee to the place
+yonder, if my fealty to the prior&mdash;that is&mdash;if&mdash;I mean&mdash;though I was
+never a groat the richer for his bounty; yet he may not like strangers
+to pry into his garners and store-houses, especially in these evil
+times, when every cur begins to <!-- Page 68 --><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68" ></a>yelp at the heels of our bountiful
+mother; and every beast to bray out its reproaches at her great wealth
+and possessions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>De Poininges was more and more convinced that his neighbour knew more of
+the matter than he durst tell; but it seemed expedient to conceal his
+suspicions for the present. In the end it was agreed that the cunning
+clerk should accompany him so far as to point out the situation; but on
+no account would he consent to keep watch during the absence of De
+Poininges. The latter assented to this arrangement, secretly resolving
+to dictate other terms where his will should both command and be obeyed.</p>
+
+<p>They immediately set out on horseback, followed by the servants, to whom
+De Poininges had given a private signal.</p>
+
+<p>The moon had risen. One bright star hung like a &quot;jewel in an Ethiop's
+ear&quot; in the dark sky above the sun's track, which at this season sweeps
+like a lucid zone, dividing day from night, round the northern horizon.
+Such a time of purity and brightness often succeeds the sultry and
+oppressive languor of the day, especially when refreshed by the passing
+storm; the air so clear that objects press, as it were, upon the
+eyeballs, affecting the sight as though they were almost palpable to the
+touch. The dews had not descended, but the leaves were still wet. Big
+drops glittered in the moonlight, pouring a copious shower on the
+travellers as they passed. The clerk began a low chant, humming and
+whistling by turns: this gradually grew more audible, until the full
+burst of the &quot;<i>Miserere</i>&quot; commenced, richly adorned with his own
+original quavers. So enamoured was he of his qualifications in this
+respect that he was fairly getting through high mass, when, midway in a
+ravishing &quot;<i>Benedictus</i>&quot; he made a sudden halt.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is that creeping behind the bushes there?&quot; inquired he, in a sort
+of half-whisper to his companion. De Poininges looked in the direction
+pointed out, and thought he saw something, dark and mysterious, moving
+between the boughs on his left. He stopped, but the object, whatever its
+nature, had disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>Sore alarmed was the timid chorister; but though his melodies had
+ceased, a plentiful supply of credos and paternosters were at hand to
+supply their place. Crossing himself with a great show of sanctity, he
+moved on with much caution, his deep hoarse voice having subsided into a
+husky and abrupt whisper, often <!-- Page 69 --><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69" ></a>interrupted when objects the most
+trivial arrested his glance and aroused his suspicions.</p>
+
+<p>They arrived without molestation at an enclosure about a mile distant
+from the priory. Here they alighted, leaving the horses to the care of
+their attendants. Turning the angle made by a low wall, they observed a
+footpath, which the clerk pointed out as the shortest and most
+convenient course to their destination. Soon the east end of the priory
+chapel was visible, basking in the broad light of the harvest moon, then
+riding up full and unclouded towards her zenith. Buttress and oriel were
+weltering in her beam, and the feathery pinnacles sprang out sharp and
+clear into the blue sky. The shadows were thrown back in masses deep and
+unbroken, more huge in proportion to the unknown depths through which
+the eye could not penetrate.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There&mdash;again! 'Tis a footstep on our track!&quot; said the clerk, abruptly
+breaking upon the reverie of his companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis but the tread of the roused deer; man's bolder footstep falls not
+so lightly,&quot; was the reply; but this did not quiet the apprehensions of
+the querist, whose terrors were again stealing upon him. Their path was
+up a little glen, down which the mill-stream, now released from its
+daily toil, brawled happily along, as if rejoicing in its freedom. Near
+the mill, on a point of land formed by an abrupt bend of the stream,
+stood the storehouse or grange. It was an ample structure, serving at
+times for purposes not immediately connected with its original design. A
+small chamber was devoted to the poorer sort of travellers, who craved a
+night's lodging on their journey. Beneath was a place of confinement,
+for the refractory vassals and serfs, when labouring under their
+master's displeasure. It was here the garrulous clerk said he had been
+scared by the ghost, and his reluctance to proceed evidently increased
+as he drew nearer. He did not fail to point out the spot, but resolutely
+refused to budge a step farther.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We had best return,&quot; said he; &quot;I have told thee what I know of the
+matter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what should scare thee so mightily, friend,&quot; said De Poininges,
+&quot;from out the prior's grange? Methinks, these ghosts of thine had a
+provident eye to their bellies. These haunters to the granary had less
+objection to the victuals than to a snuff of the wind before cock-crow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know not,&quot; replied Amen, rather doggedly; &quot;'tis all I heard, <!-- Page 70 --><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70" ></a>though
+there be more that live hereabout than the prior and his monks, I trow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast been here ofttimes o' nights?&quot; carelessly inquired the other.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have, upon some chance occasion it may be; but since that ugly noise
+got wind, to which my own ears bear testimony, I was not over-curious to
+pass within hearing, though it were only the rogues, some said, that
+were mulcting the flour-sacks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But thou knowest there was a hint dropped a while ago at the hostel,
+that the maiden, whom thou hast now forgotten, methinks, had some
+connection with this marvellous tale of thine; and now, it seems, I am
+to believe 'tis but the knaves or the rats purloining the prior's corn!
+Hark thee, friend,&quot; said De Poininges, in a stern tone, &quot;no more
+evasion: no turn or equivocation shall serve thee: out with it, and lead
+on, or&quot;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>A bright flash from his falchion here revealed the peril that he
+threatened.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>Miserere mei</i>&mdash;Oh,&mdash;<i>Salve et!</i>&quot;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Silence, knave, and pass quickly; but remember, if I catch thee
+devising any sleight or shuffle, this sharp point shall quicken thee to
+thy work. It may prove mighty efficacious, too, as a restorative for a
+lapsed memory.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll tell thee all!&mdash;but&mdash;hold that weapon a little back, I prithee.
+Nay&mdash;nay, thou wouldest not compass a poor man's death in such haste.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lead on, then, but be discreet,&quot; said De Poininges, softly, at the same
+time pushing him forward at his sword's point.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here is some help to mine errand, or my craft fails me this bout.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>After many qualms and wry faces, De Poininges, by piecemeal, acquired
+the following intelligence:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>One night, this honest clerk being with a friend on a predatory
+excursion to the prior's storehouse, they heard a muffled shriek and a
+sharp scuffle at some distance. Being outside the building, and fearing
+detection, they ran to hide themselves under a detached shed, used as a
+depository for firewood and stray lumber. Towards this spot, however,
+the other parties were evidently approaching. Presently three or four
+men, whom they judged to be the prior's servants, came nigh, bearing a
+female. They entered into the shed, and proceeded to remove a large heap
+of turf. Underneath seemed to be one of those <!-- Page 71 --><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71" ></a>subterraneous
+communications generally contrived as a retreat in times of peril; at
+any rate, they disappeared through the opening, and the clerk and his
+worthy associate effected their escape unobserved.</p>
+
+<p>Fear of detection, and of the terrible retribution that would follow,
+hitherto kept the secret undivulged. There could be little doubt that
+this female was Margaret de la Bech; and her person, whether living or
+dead, had become a victim to the well-known lawless disposition of the
+prior.</p>
+
+<p>They were now at the entrance to a low gateway, from which a short path
+to the left led them directly towards the spot. Entering the shed, they
+commenced a diligent search; but the terror and confusion of the clerk
+had prevented such accuracy of observation as could enable him to
+discover the opening, which they in vain attempted to find, groping
+their way suspiciously in the dark.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Softly, softly!&quot; said the clerk, listening. A low murmur came from the
+opposite corner, like the muttering of one holding audible communion
+with his own spirit. De Poininges listened too, and he fancied it was a
+female voice. Presently he heard one of those wild and uncouth ditties,
+a sort of chant or monotonous song, which, to the terrified
+psalm-singer, sounded like the death-wail of some unfortunate ghost.</p>
+
+<p>The following words only became sufficiently distinct:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;The sunbeam came on a billow of flame,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">But its light, like thine, is done:<br /></span>
+<span>Life's tangled coil, with all its toil,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Is broken ere 'tis run.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;The kite may love the timid dove,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The hawk be the raven's guest;<br /></span>
+<span>But none shall dare that hawk to scare<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">From his dark and cloud-wreathed nest!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Wail on, ye fond maidens,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Death lurks in the cloud;<br /></span>
+<span>The storm and the billow<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Are weaving a shroud:<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;There's a wail on the wind;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Ere its track on the main,<br /></span>
+<span>A light shall be quenched,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Ne'er to kindle again!&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&quot;Surely I have heard that voice aforetime,&quot; thought De Poininges. It was
+too peculiar for him to mistake. The woman had loitered in his path a
+few hours before. It seemed her brain was somewhat disturbed: a wanderer
+and an outcast in <!-- Page 72 --><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72" ></a>consequence, she had here taken shelter ofttimes for
+the night. He determined to accost her; a feeling of deference prompted
+him, a superstitious notion, arising from an idea then prevalent, that a
+superior light was granted to those individuals in whom the light of
+reason was extinct. He approached with caution, much to the terror and
+distress of his companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is crazy Isabel,&quot; said he, &quot;and the dark spirit is upon her!&quot; But De
+Poininges was not in a mood to feel scared with this intimation. The way
+was intricate, and he stumbled over a heap of dried fuel. The noise
+seemed to arrest her attention for a moment; but she again commenced her
+song, paying little heed to this interruption. On recovering his
+position, he was about to speak, when, to his great surprise, she thus
+accosted him:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have tarried long for thee. Haste&mdash;equip for the battle,&mdash;and then,</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;'My merry men all,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Round the greenwood tree,<br /></span>
+<span>How gallant to ride<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">With a gay ladye.'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&quot;I am crazed, belike. Good wot; but I can ride o'er the neck of a proud
+prior.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;'And the moon shone clear<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">In the blue heavens, where<br /></span>
+<span>The stars twinkle through her veil of light:&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">There they gave me a merry shooting star,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And I rolled round the wain with my golden car,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">But I leapt on the lightning's flash, beside<br /></span>
+<span>The queen of this murky night!'&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&quot;Crazed, indeed!&quot; thought De Poininges.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hush,&quot; said she: &quot;I'll tell thee a secret.&quot; She drew a light from some
+concealed recess, and flashing it full in the face of the intruder,
+seemed to enjoy the effect wonderfully. On a sudden her brow wrinkled,
+and the dark billows came over her spirit as she exclaimed&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But,</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;'Thou hast work to do,<br /></span>
+<span>Or we may rue<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The thieving trade.'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&quot;Go to&mdash;I must be calm. The spirit goeth forth, and I may not wander
+again. But my poor head: it burns here&mdash;here!&quot; And she put her hand
+tenderly on that of De Poininges, raising it to her brow, which throbbed
+violently. She started back, as from some sudden recollection, gazing
+intently on his countenance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 73 --><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73" ></a>I know it&mdash;the vision tarrieth not. Now,&quot; she said&mdash;crossing herself
+with great solemnity, and with apparent composure, as if all trace of
+her malady had disappeared&mdash;&quot;we must away. Follow; yet will I first set
+yon rogue to watch.&quot; She sought the terrified man of canticles, and,
+speaking in a low tone, raised her hand as though with some terrible
+denunciation in case of disobedience. Immediately she returned, and,
+pointing to a heap of loose stuff, began to throw it aside.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here&mdash;here!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But De Poininges hesitated, thinking it a somewhat dubious adventure to
+follow a mad woman, it might be, in quest of her wits. Seeing his
+unwillingness to proceed, she whispered something in his ear which
+wrought a marvellous change. He looked as if petrified with wonder, but
+he followed now without shrinking. They entered by a narrow door,
+curiously concealed. On its closing after them, De Poininges and his
+companion seemed shut out from the world,&mdash;as if the link were suddenly
+broken which bound them to earth and its connections.</p>
+
+<p>The first sensation was that of dullness and damp, accompanied by a
+mouldering vapour, like that from the charnel-house or the grave. Their
+way was down a winding and broken staircase; at the bottom a straight
+passage led them on to a considerable distance. Damps oozing from the
+walls made the path more and more tiresome and slippery as they
+proceeded. Shortly it became channelled with slime, and absolutely
+loathsome. The bloated reptile crawled across their path; and De
+Poininges beheld stone coffins piled on each side of the vault. Passing
+these, another flight of steps brought them to a low archway, at the
+extremity of which a grated door, now unbarred, led into a cell
+seemingly contrived as a place of punishment for the refractory or
+sinning brethren, who might be doomed to darkness and solitude as an
+expiation of their offence. The only furniture it contained was a
+wretched pallet, on which, as the light flashed doubtfully, De Poininges
+thought he beheld a female. He snatched the light, and eagerly bent over
+the couch. With a shout of joy he exclaimed&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Be praised, ye saints, 'tis she!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was the wasted and squalid form of Margaret de la Bech. She raised
+her eyes towards him, but they were vacant and wandering. It was soon
+evident that her reason was impaired, and the spirit still inhabiting
+that lovely tenement was irrevoc<!-- Page 74 --><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74" ></a>ably obscured. Cruel had been her
+sufferings. Crimes too foul to name&mdash;but we draw a veil over the
+harrowing recital! When the last horrible act was consummated the light
+of her soul was put out, and her consciousness extinguished.</p>
+
+<p>To meet thus! A living inhumation, where the body exists but as the
+spirit's sepulchre! It were better they had been consigned to oblivion,
+shut up and perishing in the dark womb of the grave. The cry of
+vengeance had gone up, but was offered in vain for a season. The present
+period of existence was not allotted for its fulfilment. It was
+permitted to this monster that he should yet triumph unpunished&mdash;his
+measure of iniquity was not yet full.</p>
+
+<p>The limbs of the unconscious sufferer were pinioned:&mdash;the fiend-like
+mercy of her tormentors prevented her own hands from becoming the
+instruments of her release. De Poininges restored her to freedom; but
+alas! she knew it not. The thick veil which Heaven's mercy drew upon her
+spirit rendered her insensible to outward impressions. He raised her in
+his arms, bearing her forth from that loathed scene of darkness and
+disgrace; and when the pure breath of the skies once more blew upon her,
+it seemed as though it awakened up a faint glimmer in the dying lamp.
+She looked round with eagerness, and De Poininges thought some ray of
+intelligence began to brighten, as objects again appeared to develop
+their hidden trains of association on the memory; but the light was
+mercifully extinguished ere she could discover the fearful realities of
+her despair, and she again relapsed into hopeless and utter inanity.</p>
+
+<p>They were still loitering in the little shed, the clerk groaning out a
+sad and mournful chant. De Poininges appeared unable to arouse himself
+to the exigencies of the moment, when Isabel, wildly waving her torch
+towards the entrance, cried&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To horse&mdash;to horse! They will be here presently. Already has the raven
+snuffed your carcase&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;'But the bolt whistled through<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The heavens blue,<br /></span>
+<span>And Sir Lionel lay on the battle-field.'&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>She seemed to hearken, as though in apprehension of approaching
+footsteps. De Poininges, roused from this dangerous stupor, prepared to
+escape ere the prior's emissaries had intelligence of her removal.</p>
+
+<p>They had passed the rivulet in safety, and had just gained the <!-- Page 75 --><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75" ></a>wood
+near to where the attendants lay in wait with the horses, when an arrow
+whizzed past De Poininges. For him the shaft was intended, but its
+destiny was otherwise&mdash;the unfortunate chanter lay stretched on the
+ground in his last agony. De Poininges flew on with redoubled speed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Treachery!&quot; he cried. His men knew the signal, and galloped towards
+him; but their aid was too late. A shack-bolt, aimed with a sure hand,
+pierced him at this moment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Take her&mdash;Margaret de la Bech! The prior&mdash;a murderer&mdash;ravisher! Fly
+to&quot;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The remaining words fell unuttered. His faithful attendants bore off the
+lifeless body, together with the hapless Margaret, who was soon placed
+in safety, far from the relentless fangs of the Prior of Burscough.</p>
+
+<p>Fearful and undeniable was the testimony and accusation they brought,
+but in vain. No effort was spared to bring upon this monster the just
+recompense of his crime; yet, from the great scandal which a public
+execution must have drawn upon the Church, but more especially from the
+great influence he possessed amongst the nobles and chief dignitaries of
+the land, not only did he escape unpunished, but he received the king's
+most gracious pardon, in the twenty-first year of Edward the Third: so
+true are the following words from an historian of that reign:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;These men had so entrenched themselves in privileges and immunities,
+and so openly challenged an exemption from all secular jurisdiction,
+that no civil penalty could be inflicted on them for any malversation in
+office, and even treason itself was declared to be no canonical
+offence.&quot;<!-- Page 76 --><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76" ></a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> <i>Beaufort</i>, Duke of Somerset. Somerset, Duke of Beaufort,
+now bears the <i>portcullis</i> for his crest. There is an engraving by
+Vertue, from a painting in the royal collection at Kensington Palace by
+Maubeugius in 1496, of the three children of Henry VII. and Elizabeth
+his queen, <i>Prince Henry, Prince Arthur</i>, and <i>Princess Margaret,</i> which
+is ornamented at the top with the <i>portcullis</i> surmounted with roses.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Glazebrook's Southport.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_EAGLE_AND_CHILD" id="THE_EAGLE_AND_CHILD" ></a>THE EAGLE AND CHILD.</h2>
+<div class="center">
+<img src="images/06.png" width="600" height="367" alt="THE EAGLE AND CHILD." title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">&quot;She's over the muir,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">An' over the border,<br /></span>
+<span>An' ower the blue hills far awa':<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">With her callant, I trow,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">On his saddle-bow,<br /></span>
+<span>While the mist-wreaths around them fa'.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The main facts of the following narrative, lying scattered through a
+wide field of barren inquiry, the author has been at considerable pains
+to collect and arrange in a continuous narrative.</p>
+
+<p>Little needs be said by way of introduction, the traditions here
+interwoven with the general history being mostly of a trivial nature,
+and not at all interfering with the facts developed by the historians
+and rhymers who have illustrated the annals of the house of Stanley.
+These accounts, exaggerated and distorted as they inevitably must have
+been, may yet, in the absence of more authentic testimony, afford a
+pretty accurate glimpse at the real nature of those events, however they
+may have been disguised by fiction and misstatement. Where tradition is
+our only guide we must follow implicitly, satisfied that her taper was
+lighted at the torch of Truth, though it may gleam doubtfully and
+partially through the mists and errors of succeeding ages.</p>
+
+<p>One source from whence we have derived some information, though well
+known to the comparative few who have explored these by-paths of
+history, may not be thought uninteresting to the general reader,
+especially as it is connected with the most eventful portion of our
+narrative.</p>
+
+<p>An ancient metrical account of the Stanleys, Earls of Derby, is
+con<!-- Page 77 --><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77" ></a>tained in some uncouth rhymes, written about the year 1562, by
+Thomas Stanley, Bishop of Sodor and Man,<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12" ></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> and son of that Sir Edward
+Stanley, who, for his valour at Flodden, was created Lord Monteagle.
+There are two copies of these verses in the British Museum: one amongst
+Cole's papers (vol. xxix. page 104), and the other in the Harleian MSS.
+(541). Mr Cole prefaces his transcript with the following notice:&mdash;&quot;The
+History of the family of Stanley, Earls of Derby, wrote in verse about
+the reign of King Henry the Eighth from a MS. now in possession of Lady
+Margaret Stanley, copied for me by a person who has made many mistakes,
+and sent to me by my friend Mr Allen, Rector of Tarporley, in 1758.&mdash;W.
+Cole.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The MS. formerly belonged to Sir John Crewe, of Utkinton, and was given
+by Mr Ardern, in 1757, to Lady Margaret Stanley.</p>
+
+<p>The commencement of this metrical history is occupied in dilating upon
+the pleasure resulting from such an undertaking; and although the flow
+of the verse is not of remarkable smoothness, yet it hardly furnishes an
+apology for Seacome's mistake, who, in his &quot;History of the House of
+Stanley,&quot; printed the first fifty lines as prose. The reverend versifier
+rehearses how Stanley sprang from Audley, and then shows the manner in
+which his ancestors became possessors of Stourton and Hooton. He dwells
+upon the joust betwixt the Admiral of Hainault and Sir John Stanley, the
+second brother of the house of Stanley of Hooton.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13" ></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> Then follows the
+account, more particularly developed in our own story, of the adventures
+and moving accidents which have been liberally used to adorn the
+&quot;Garland&quot; of his descendant William, Earl of Derby. &quot;For many
+generations this was the recognised chronicle of the family, until, in
+the time of James the First, a clergyman of Chester translated the
+rhymes of the Bishop into English, carefully retaining the mistakes of
+the original, and adding long and dull disquisitions of his own.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In the days of our valiant King Edward, while the fame of Cressy and
+Poictiers was fresh and stirring in all true and loyal hearts, while the
+monarchs of two powerful kingdoms <!-- Page 78 --><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78" ></a>were held captive in these realms,
+lived a worthy knight, of whom we had a brief notice in the preceding
+narrative. Sir Thomas Lathom of Lathom was a nobleman of great wealth
+and possessions. According to the Calendarium Rotulorum from the Charter
+Rolls in the Tower, he held lands, besides, in Knouselegh, Childewall,
+Roby, and Aulusargh. In Liverpool, he was proprietor of the tower, a
+structure of but little note until rebuilt and fortified by Sir John
+Stanley during his government in Ireland, of which we shall have more to
+say anon.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Thomas married, in the year 1343, the youngest daughter of Sir Hamon
+Massey of Dunham Massey, in the adjoining county of Chester. Twelve
+years had since that period elapsed at the time when our story begins;
+and though earnestly desiring male issue, that his name and race might
+be perpetuated, yet was the sole fruit of their union hitherto a
+daughter, named Isabel, then just entering on her tenth year. Her
+winning and surpassing comeliness proved no solace to his
+disappointment. He grew moodish and melancholy in the midst of his vast
+wealth; apprehending the utter extinction of his name, and the intrusion
+of a stranger on his birthright. Hopeless of other issue by his own
+lady, he had recourse to unlawful means for this purpose, which procured
+for him a sore chastisement in the end, as our narrative will show.</p>
+
+<p>In that neighbourhood dwelt a comely maiden, the only daughter of a
+substantial yeoman, of the name of Oskatell. This damsel, pleasing the
+amorous fancy of Sir Thomas, fell an easy prey to his arts and
+persuasions. Though concealed from her friends, their too frequent
+intercourse at length became visible in the birth of a son, greatly to
+the joy of the father, who meditated nothing less than to adopt this
+illegitimate babe for the perpetuation of his name. Yet were there
+preliminaries of no mean importance to be adjusted, as all men who have
+wives may well conceive. The lady of Lathom must first be consulted; but
+probabilities were strongly against the supposition that she would
+tamely submit to this infringement on the rights of her child by the
+interposition of a bastard. Nay, she had beforetime hinted that some
+individual of the name, of moderate wealth and good breeding, might in
+time be found for a suitable alliance. Still, the success of his scheme
+was an object that lay deeply at his heart, and he grew more and more
+anxious and perplexed. One evening, as he wandered out disconsolately in
+the <!-- Page 79 --><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79" ></a>company of an old and trusty servant, to whom he had imparted the
+secret, they came to a desert place in the park, nigh to where a pair of
+eagles had from time immemorial built their nests. A project struck him
+which promised fair to realise his wishes. After a multitude of schemes
+subservient to the main purpose had been thrown out and abandoned, the
+whole plot was finally unfolded in the following manner:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>A message was conveyed to the mother overnight, that betimes on the
+following morning the babe, richly clad, should be held in readiness,
+and a trusty servant would forthwith convey him to the hall. She was
+peremptorily forbidden to follow; and in her great joy at this
+announcement, naturally supposing that a more favourable posture of
+affairs had arisen between Sir Thomas and his lady on the subject, she
+cheerfully consented to this unexpected deprivation, confident that it
+was to the furthering of her child's welfare and advancement. The
+infant, smiling, and unconscious of the change, was taken from his
+mother's lap, his swaddling clothes carefully folded together, and
+committed to the care of the aged domestic.</p>
+
+<p>Little was the anxious mother aware of the great peril he had to undergo
+ere the goal which bounded her anticipations was won.</p>
+
+<p>It was the soft twilight of a summer's morning, and the little birds had
+begun to chirp their matins, and the lark to brush the dew from her
+speckled breast, waiting for the first gaze of the sun. The old man
+pressed the infant closer to his bosom as he drew nigh to the steep
+acclivity, the solitary dwelling of the eagle. He kissed the babe; then
+looking round, fearful of intruders, he laid the wicker cradle at the
+foot of the precipice, and sprang into a dark thicket close by, as if to
+watch for the descent of the rapacious bird.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving the child, we turn to Sir Thomas, who on that morning, as was
+his wont, together with his dame, awoke betimes, but he was sooner astir
+and more anxious and bustling than usual. Their custom was, awaking with
+the sun, to begin the day with a quiet stroll about the grounds; and on
+this eventful morning their walk chanced happily towards the eagle's
+nest. Being something farther and more out of their common track, it was
+noticed good-humouredly by the lady, who seemed to possess a more than
+ordinary portion of hilarity <!-- Page 80 --><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80" ></a>on the occasion. Evidently under some
+exciting influence, their walk was unconsciously protracted.</p>
+
+<p>In a gloomy dell, not far from the eyrie, Sir Thomas stood still, in the
+attitude of listening. The lady, too, was silent and alarmed, but no
+intimation of danger was visible. Her own senses, though, seemed to
+gather acuteness,&mdash;a circumstance by no means rare in the vicinity of an
+unusually timid and listening companion, who braces our perceptions to
+the tension of his own. Soon, however, the short and feeble cry of the
+babe was heard, when the knight sprang forward, feigning great
+astonishment at the discovery. Evidently dropped from the talons of the
+bird, it was looked upon as a special gift of Providence, a deposit
+direct from the skies; to have rejected which would have been a heinous
+offence, and an unlawful contravention of the designs of the Giver.
+Accordingly, the infant was taken home and carefully nursed, being
+baptized by the name of Oskatell.</p>
+
+<p>The good lady became surprisingly enamoured of the little foundling,
+believing his adoption was dictated by the will of Heaven; and to this
+decision its father readily acceded. Sir Thomas, to give the greater
+sanction to this supposed miracle, as well as to remove all suspicion of
+fraud from the prying eyes of a censorious world, assumed for his crest
+an eagle on the wing, proper, looking round as though for something she
+had lost.</p>
+
+<p>The child grew in years and stature, being liberally furnished in all
+things according with the dignity he was destined to receive. Sir Thomas
+purposed the sharing of his wealth equally between his children, a
+measure which had the entire concurrence of Lady de Lathom. Though
+younger by some years, Oskatell was generally considered by the world as
+the future husband of Isabella; but Sir Thomas, aware of danger on this
+head, early impressed them with some notion of consanguinity, and
+intimated the impossibility of their union. This prohibition, settling
+on a womanish fancy, might naturally have been expected to operate in a
+manner the reverse of his intention. Yet we do not find from history
+that Isabella ever cherished for him any other sentiments than those
+arising from a sisterly regard.</p>
+
+<p>Growing up to man's estate, he sought the court of King Edward, where,
+though of a peaceable temper, his soul was <!-- Page 81 --><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81" ></a>stirred to participate in
+the gallant feats incident to that scene of martial enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>Isabella was now in the full summer, or, it might be, ripening into the
+rich autumn of her beauty. Her father would by no means have permitted
+her union save with one of the highest rank, to which her gentle blood
+and princely inheritance entitled her. And though not a few hitherto, of
+noble birth and endowments, had sought the honour of her alliance, yet
+her heart was untouched, and in the end her suitors forbore their
+homage.</p>
+
+<p>All the country was now mightily roused with the news of the French
+champion who, together with sundry of his companions in arms, had
+challenged the English nation to match them with the like number at a
+solemn joust and tourney, and of the great gallantry and personal
+accomplishments of Sir John, then Captain Stanley, who had first taken
+up the gauntlet in his country's behalf. The lists were prepared. The
+meeting, by the king's command, was appointed to be holden at
+Winchester, where the royal court was expected to witness this splendid
+achievement. Oskatell, returning home, strongly importuned his sister to
+accompany him to the show, it being then deemed a pleasant recreation
+for many a fair and delicate maiden to view their champions hack and hew
+each other without mercy. Isabella, unceasingly urged to this excursion,
+at length set out for the city of Winchester, followed by a numerous
+train of attendants, where, in due time, they arrived, mingling in the
+bustle and dissipation incident to these festivities.</p>
+
+<p>Young Stanley was the second son of Sir William Stanley, Lord of Stanley
+and Stourton. As a younger branch of the house, he commenced his career,
+it is said, under the command of his relative Lord Audley; but this
+appears something doubtful. The battle of Poictiers, in which Captain
+Stanley is said to have been, was fought in 1357; and here he must have
+battled in petticoats, seeing that his father was but married 26 Edward
+III., and, consequently, making due allowance for accidents and
+irregularities, young Stanley, as the second son, could not then have
+proceeded beyond his third year! a precocity unprecedented, we believe,
+even in the annals of that fighting era. The conflicting statements we
+meet with about this time, both traditionary and recorded, we cannot
+attempt to <!-- Page 82 --><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82" ></a>reconcile. Sufficient information happily exists, however,
+on which no doubt arises; and by the aid of that we proceed with our
+narrative.</p>
+
+<p>Stanley, according to some, having been a great traveller, had improved
+himself diligently in the art of war; and, as the old chronicles
+quaintly relate, &quot;he visited most of the courts of Europe, even as far
+as Constantinople; wherein he made such advances in the school of Mars,
+that his superior skill in arms was generally applauded in every country
+he passed through.&quot; So distinguished and widely-extended a reputation
+for bravery could not fail to provoke the pride and envy of all
+Christendom, whereupon the young Admiral of Hainault, one of the bravest
+men of his time, together with divers gentlemen of the French court,
+defied the whole kingdom to a passage of arms, the result of which
+challenge has been shown.</p>
+
+<p>Great was the confluence and resort to the city of Winchester, it being
+noised abroad as though the king would distinguish the affray by his
+presence; wondrous the stir and bustle of the soldiers, guards, and
+attendants, with hordes of idlers and hangers-on, from the vast array of
+knights and nobles, who came either to see or to share in the
+approaching trial. The splendid banners, the heraldic pomp and barbaric
+grandeur of their retinues, augmenting with every fresh arrival, made
+the streets one ever-moving pageant for many days before the conflict
+began. Isabella had full leisure to observe, from her own lattice, the
+gay and costly garniture, and the glittering appointments of the
+warriors, with the pageants and puerile diversions suited to the taste
+and capacity of the ignorant crowds by which they were followed. The
+king's mummers were arrived, together with many other marvels in the
+shape of puppet-shows and &quot;motions&quot; enacting the &quot;old vice;&quot; Jonas and
+the whale, Nineveh, the Creation, and a thousand unintelligible but
+equally gratifying and instructive devices; one of which, we are told,
+was &quot;four giants, a unicorn, a camel, an ass, a dragon, a hobby-horse,
+and sixteen naked boys!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The crowds attracted by these spectacles were immense, and the city nigh
+choked with the torrents that set in from every quarter.</p>
+
+<p>From the windows of the houses, where lodged the knights appointed to
+the encounter, hung their several coats, richly emblazoned, rousing
+forth many a shout and hurrah, as one and <!-- Page 83 --><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83" ></a>another symbol was recognised
+to be the badge of some favourite chief; but more than all, was the
+young Stanley's escutcheon favoured by the fickle breath of popular
+opinion, which made it needful that a double guard should be mounted
+near his dwelling,&mdash;a precaution, moreover, rendered needful by the many
+tumults among the different partisans and retainers, not always ending
+without bloodshed. The arrival of the king, however, soon changed the
+current of the wondering multitude. Edward was now in his sixty-fourth
+year, and the fiftieth of his reign. Though the decline of his life did
+not correspond with the splendid and noisy scenes which had illustrated
+the earlier periods of his history, yet he still manifested the same
+restless and undaunted spirit, ever considered as the prevailing
+attribute of his character. Towards the close of his career he had the
+mortification to endure the loss of his foreign possessions, having been
+baffled in every attempt to defend them. He felt, too, the decay of his
+authority at home, from the inconstancy and discontents of his subjects.
+Though his earlier years had been spent amid the din and tumult of war
+and the business of the camp, yet was he, at this period, almost wholly
+given up to pleasure and the grossest of sensual indulgences. Alice
+Pierce, to whom he was immoderately attached, had gained an ascendancy
+over him so dangerous that the parliament remonstrated, with a courage
+and firmness worthy of a more enlightened era, and in the end he was
+obliged to remove her from court. Sometimes the spirit of his youth
+awoke; the glory of past ages was stirred up within him; and, like the
+aged war-horse neighing to the shrill note of the trumpet, he greeted
+the approaching tournament with something of his wonted ardour,&mdash;though
+now but an expiring flash, brightening a moment ere it was extinguished.</p>
+
+<p>The day rose calm and unclouded. The thin haze of the morning had
+disappeared, and an atmosphere of more than common brilliancy succeeded.
+Through a great part of the preceding night the armourers had been
+busily employed altering and refitting the equipments, and the dawn had
+already commenced ere their labours were suspended. The lists were
+carefully scrutinised, and all chance of foul play averted. The priests,
+too, had blessed the armour and weapons from magic spells and &quot;foul
+negromancie.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The barriers were built of stout boards, firmly riveted together; the
+royal pavilion being on the southern side, richly <!-- Page 84 --><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84" ></a>canopied and
+embroidered with costly devices. Galleries were provided for the nobles,
+not a few of whom, with their courtly dames, were expected to be
+present.</p>
+
+<p>The lists were sixty paces in length and forty in breadth between the
+platforms on which the knights' tents were erected. The ground within
+was made hard and level, the loose stones and other impediments being
+carefully removed. There were two entrances, east and west, well guarded
+and strongly fenced with wooden-bars about seven feet high, so that a
+horse might not leap over. The tents of the warriors were fancifully
+decorated, every one having his shield newly emblazoned and hung out in
+front, where the pages and esquires watched, guarding vigilantly these
+sacred treasures. Nothing was heard but the hoarse call of the trumpet,
+the clank of mail, and the prancing of horses, pawing and eager for the
+battle.</p>
+
+<p>Long before the appointed hour the whole city was in motion. Isabella,
+too, whose bright eyes had not closed since the first gleam had visited
+her chamber, was early astir. An ugly dream, it is said, troubled her.
+Though of ripe years, yet, as we have noticed before, love had not yet
+aimed his malicious shafts at her bosom, nor even tightened his
+bowstring as she tripped by, defying his power; so that the dream, which
+in others would appear but as the overflowing of a youthful and ardent
+imagination, seemed to her altogether novel and unaccountable, raising
+up new faculties, and endowing her with a train of feelings heretofore
+unknown. No wonder that her looks were betrayers: her whole deportment
+manifested some hidden power controlling her high spirit, insomuch that
+her favourite maiden was fain to abate her morning gossip; yet Isabella
+was not averse to speech, though the words seemed to linger heavily on
+her tongue, losing that lightness and exuberance which betokens the mind
+free from care and oppression.</p>
+
+<p>She had dreamed that in her own wild woods a knight accosted her: she
+attempted to fly, but was withheld by some secret influence. He raised
+his visor, smiling as he bent his knee in token of homage. He was a
+stranger. Grasping her hand, she felt the cold hard pressure of his
+gauntlet. She awoke, and sure enough there was the impression as of some
+mailed hand upon her delicate fingers! While marvelling at this strange
+adventure, a deep slumber again overpowered her, when a graceful
+cavalier, unarmed, was at her side. He raised her <!-- Page 85 --><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85" ></a>hand to his lips, and
+her whole soul responded to the touch. He was about to speak, when her
+father suddenly appeared, with a dark and forbidding aspect. He began to
+chide, and the stranger, with a glance she could not erase from her
+recollection, disappeared. It was this glance which subdued her proud
+spirit to its influence. Her maidenly apprehensions became aroused; she
+attempted, but in vain, to drive away the intruder: the vision haunted
+her deeply&mdash;too deeply for her repose! Marks of some outward impression
+were yet visible on her hand, whether from causes less occult than the
+moving phantasma of the mind, is a question that would resist all our
+powers of solution. In a mood thus admirably fitted for the encountering
+of some marvellous adventure, did she mount her little white palfrey,
+all pranked out and caparisoned for the occasion.</p>
+
+<p>Followed by a train of some length, with Oskatell by her side, the
+daughter of the house of Lathom allured the eyes of not a few as she
+passed on. Many a stately knight bent his head, and many an inquiry was
+directed to the esquires and attendants as she drew near.</p>
+
+<p>The scene of this renowned combat was a spacious plain below the city,
+on the opposite side of the river Itchen. The chalky cliffs, which
+obtained for it the name of Caer Gwint, or the White City, were studded
+with gay and anxious multitudes, whose hopes and fears have long been
+swept off by the waves of passing generations.</p>
+
+<p>Winchester being one of the fixed markets or staples for wool appointed
+by King Edward, the city had risen in power and affluence above its
+neighbours. Yet the plague, by which it was almost depopulated some
+years before, had considerably abated its magnificence. But the favour
+of royalty still clung to it, and Arthur's &quot;Round Table&quot; attested its
+early claims to this distinguishing character&mdash;a monarch's residence.
+The castle, where the Round Table is still shown, was then a building of
+great strength, and, enlivened by the king's presence, displayed many a
+staff and pennon from its stately battlements.</p>
+
+<p>Isabella passed by the fortress just as the trumpets announced the near
+approach of the king down the covered way. The chains of the drawbridge
+were lowered, and presently issued forth the armed retinue of the
+monarch. Isabella and her train were obliged to remain awhile as idle
+spectators.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 86 --><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86" ></a>The king, though old and infirm, yet retained his lofty and commanding
+appearance. His charger was armed with the <i>chanfrons</i> and gamboised
+housings, having thereon the royal arms, and proudly did the conscious
+beast paw and champ, as if rejoicing under his burden.</p>
+
+<p>Edward was dressed in a glittering surcoat of crimson silk, worked with
+lions and <i>fleurs-de-lis.</i> His helmet was cylindrical, surmounted by a
+lion as its crest. Round the rim was a coronet of gold, worked with
+<i>fleurs-de-lis</i> and oak leaves. A gorget and tippet covering the
+shoulders was fastened beneath the chin, giving the head a stiff but
+imposing air of command. He carried a short truncheon, which he wielded
+with great dexterity; yet his armour, though light and of the finest
+temper, seemed more cumbersome to him now than in former days.</p>
+
+<p>The royal standard of England, thus described, was borne before him:&mdash;It
+was from eight to nine yards in length, the ground blue and red,
+containing, in the first division, the lion of England imperially
+crowned. In chief, a coronet of <i>crosses pater</i> and <i>fleurs-de-lis,</i>
+between two clouds irradiated. In base, a cloud between two coronets. In
+the next division the charges were, in chief a coronet, in base an
+irradiated cloud. In the third, the dexter chief and sinister base was
+likewise an irradiated cloud; the sinister and dexter chief a coronet,
+as before. Motto, &quot;Dieu et mon droyt.&quot; The whole of this procession was
+one vast masquerade of pomp, little betokening the frailty and folly
+which it enveloped. Though to all outward show fair and glistening, yet
+was there a heavy gloom brooding over the nation. Prince Edward, the
+flower of chivalry, usually called the Black Prince, from the colour of
+his armour, lay then grievously sick, and the whole hope and welfare of
+the land seemed to hang on his recovery. The known ambition of John of
+Gaunt was a main source of alarm and anxiety. &quot;Edward had, however,&quot;
+says the historian, &quot;declared his grandson heir and successor to the
+crown, and thereby cut off all the hopes of the Duke of Lancaster, if he
+ever had the temerity to entertain any.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Not forgetting his former homage to the sex, the king's eye lingered on
+the form of Isabella, but she drew back, daunted by the ardour of his
+gaze. Oskatell saw the impression she had made, in nowise displeased,
+hoping some ray of royal favour would be reflected to him from the beam
+that already dawned on his companion.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 87 --><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87" ></a>We now pass on to the field, where everything was in readiness for the
+combat. The knights had heard mass and made confession, these being the
+requisite preparatives to the noble deeds they had that day vowed to
+perform. The heralds had made the usual proclamation against the use of
+magic, unlawful charms, and other like devices of the devil, when a loud
+flourish of trumpets announced the approach of Stanley, who first
+entered the lists mounted on a grey charger furnished with the chevron,
+or war-saddle, then of great use in withstanding the terrific shock of
+the assailant, being high up in front, and furnished at the back like an
+arm-chair. He was equipped in a full suit of Italian armour, displaying
+a steel cuirass of exquisite workmanship, deemed at that time a novel
+but elegant style of defence, and destined soon to supersede the
+purpoint or gamboised work called mail. If well tempered, it was found
+to resist the stroke of the lance without being either pierced or bent,
+nor was it liable to be pushed through into the body, as was sometimes
+the case with the &quot;<i>mailles</i>&quot; when the wambas or hoketon was wanting
+underneath. His shield was thus marshalled: argent; on a bend azure,
+three stags' heads cabossed. In the sinister chief, a crescent denoted
+his filiation; underneath was the motto &quot;Augmenter.&quot; The shield itself
+or pavise was large, made of wood covered with skin, and surrounded with
+a broad rim of iron.</p>
+
+<p>He looked gracefully round, first lowering his lance in front of the
+king's pavilion, and afterwards to the fair dames who crowded the
+galleries on each side. Whether from accident or design his eyes rested
+on Isabella with a strong expression of earnestness rather than
+curiosity. Doubtless, the noble representatives of the house of Lathom
+excited no slight interest among the spectators, and the young hero
+might have formed some yet undeveloped anticipations on this head.</p>
+
+<p>She blushed deeply at this public and unexpected notice. The
+recollection of her dream made the full tide of feeling set in at once
+in this direction, much to her consternation and dismay; but when,
+happening to turn hastily round, a silken bandage, loosened by the
+sudden movement from some part of her dress, was carried off by the wind
+and deposited within the lists, she was greatly embarrassed; and her
+confusion was not a little increased as the young gallant with great
+dexterity transferred it to the point of his lance. At this choice of
+his &quot;lady love,&quot; <!-- Page 88 --><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88" ></a>a loud shout arose from the multitude; and Isabella,
+now the object of universal regard, would have retired, but that the
+density of the crowd, and the inconvenient structure of the building,
+rendered it impossible.</p>
+
+<p>Another flourish of trumpets announced the approach of the young Admiral
+of Hainault. His armour was blue and white, beautifully wrought and
+inlaid with silver. His steed was black, having the suit and furniture
+of the war-horse complete. The <i>croupti&egrave;re</i> and <i>estival</i>, together with
+the <i>chanfron</i>, were of the most costly description. A plume of white
+feathers decorated his casque, extending his athletic form into almost
+gigantic proportions.</p>
+
+<p>The needful ceremonies were gone through; a deep and almost breathless
+silence succeeded, like the stillness that precedes the first swing of
+the storm. The trumpets sounded; the sharp click of the lances was heard
+falling into the rest; and the first rush was over. The noise of the
+shock was like the burst of the tempest on the forest boughs. Through
+the dust, the horses were seen to recoil upon their haunches; but as it
+blew heavily away, the warriors had regained their upright position,
+having sustained no injury, save by the shivering of their lances with
+the stroke. A loud shout of applause ensued; and the esquires being at
+hand with fresh weapons, each knight was too eager for the fray to lose
+a moment in requesting the usual signal. Again their coursers' feet
+seemed to spurn the earth. At this onset the French knight bent back in
+his saddle, whether from subtlety or accident was not known, but there
+was a loud clamour; and the Frenchman, recovering himself, spurred on
+his steed with great vigour, perhaps hoping to take his adversary at
+unawares; but the latter, darting aside with agility, the other's lance
+ran full against the boards, and in deep vexation he came back to the
+charge.</p>
+
+<p>Trembling with choler, he hardly restrained himself until the prescribed
+signal; then, as if he would make an end of his opponent, he aimed his
+weapon with a direct thrust towards the heart; but Stanley, confident in
+his own might, was fully prepared for the blow, as the event
+sufficiently proved; for the French knight was seen to reel from his
+saddle, the point of his enemy's lance being driven completely through
+his armour. He rolled backwards on the ground, and so vigorous had been
+the attack, that his horse's back was broken, and they lay <!-- Page 89 --><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89" ></a>together,
+groaning piteously, besmeared with blood and dust, to the sore dismay of
+his companions. Stanley suddenly alighted, and helped the pages to undo
+his armour; but ere his beaver could be unclasped he had fainted by loss
+of blood, and being borne off the field, he shortly afterwards expired.</p>
+
+<p>The king was mightily pleased with this great prowess of the victor,
+insomuch that he knighted him on the spot, and, according to the old
+ballad, gave him goodly manors&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i23">&quot;For his hire,<br /></span>
+<span>Wing, Tring, and Iving, in Buckinghamshire.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>He had so won, likewise, on the hitherto impenetrable disposition of
+Isabella, that when he came to render his homage at her feet, she
+trembled and could scarcely give the customary reply.</p>
+
+<p>Raising his visor, and uncovering his helmet from the grand guard&mdash;a
+plate protecting the left side of the face, shoulder, and breast&mdash;he
+made a lowly obeisance at the gate of his mistress's pavilion, at the
+same time presenting the stolen favour he had now so nobly won. With a
+tremulous hand she bound it round his arm.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, thy chaplet, lady,&quot; shouted a score of tongues from the
+inquisitive spectators. Isabella untied a rich chaplet of goldsmith's
+work, ornamented with rose-garlands, from her hair, and threw it over
+his helmet. Still armed with the gauntlets, which, either through hurry
+or inadvertence, he had neglected to throw aside, as was the general
+courtesy for the occasion, the knight seized her hand, and with a grasp
+gentle for any other occasion, pressed it to his lips. The lady uttered
+a subdued shriek, whether from pain or surprise, it boots not now to
+inquire; mayhap, it was the remembrance of the mailed hand she had felt
+in her dream, and to which her fingers, yet tingling with the pressure,
+bore a sufficient testimony. Sir John bent lowlier than before, with one
+hand on his breast, in token of contrition. A thousand strange fancies,
+shapeless and undefined, rushed by, as the maiden looked on the warrior.
+It was the very crisis of her dream; her heart seemed as though it would
+have leapt the walls of its tenement,&mdash;and she was fain to hide her face
+under the folds of her mantle.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, on my halidome,&quot; said the king, &quot;there be two doves whose cooing
+would be the better for a little honest speech. <!-- Page 90 --><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90" ></a>Poor hearts! it were a
+pity their tongues had bewrayed their desire. Fitz-Walter, summon them
+hither.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The blushing Isabella was conducted to the royal presence, where the
+king was graciously pleased to impress a salute on her rich and glowing
+cheek&mdash;no mean honour from so gracious and gallant a monarch, who,
+though old, was yet accounted a mighty adept in the discernment of
+female beauty, he never being known to suffer contact of the royal lip
+with aught but the fairest and most comely of the sex.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sir John, I commend thee to thy mistress. A dainty choice. She is 'The
+Queen of Beauty' for the day, and to-night we command your presence at
+the banquet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My gracious liege,&quot; said Isabella, pointing to Oskatell, &quot;I have a
+brother; unto his care it is but meet that I entrust myself; and he&quot;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His person and endowments,&quot; interrupted the king, &quot;are not unknown to
+us. I do honour thee by ennobling him; for though our ladies' brightness
+be all too dazzling to receive a glory from us, yet peradventure for
+their sakes our courtesy is vouchsafed. Rise, Sir Oskatell de Lathom.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Again a flourish of trumpets proclaimed the king's favour, who with many
+more gracious speeches won the affection of all who heard him that day.</p>
+
+<p>Several other jousts and &quot;gentle passages&quot; were held, the success of
+which falling principally with the English combatants, the boasting
+pride of France was again humbled before the king, who seemed to renew
+his former victories at this memorable &quot;<i>Tourney of Winchester</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Isabella had bartered years of repose for this brief season of
+intoxicating splendour. The barbed arrow was in her heart, and the more
+she struggled, the more irreclaimable it grew. Doubtless that unlucky
+dream had rendered her more susceptible to the wound.</p>
+
+<p>Dreams have this operation; and whether good or evil, they leave an
+impression that no simple act of the will can efface. It seems to be the
+work of a power superior to our own, for &quot;the less begetteth not the
+greater;&quot; how, then, can the mind originate a train of conceptions, or
+rather creations, superior to itself&mdash;above its own power to control?</p>
+
+<p>But Isabella was too much engrossed by her feelings to attempt their
+solution. She lay restless on her couch, but there <!-- Page 91 --><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91" ></a>was no escape. An
+unquenchable flame was kindled in her soul, that not all the cool
+appliances of reason could subdue. Tomorrow she must depart, and that
+gay pageant vanish as a dream; and yet not like her own dream, for that
+was abiding and indelible. To-morrow the brave knight must withdraw, and
+the &quot;Queen of Beauty,&quot; homaged for a day, give place to another whose
+reign should be as brief and as unenduring. In this distempered mood,
+with a heart all moved to sadness, did the Lady Isabel pass the first
+hours of the following night.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the sharp twang of a citerne was heard in the street below her
+window,&mdash;nothing new in these piping times of love and minstrelsy; but
+so sensitive was the ear now become to exterior impressions, that she
+started, as though expecting a salutation from the midnight rambler. Her
+anticipations were in some measure realised, the minstrel pausing
+beneath her lattice. A wooden balcony projected from it, concealing the
+musician. Isabella threw a light mantle around her, and rousing one of
+her maidens, she opened the window. The rich melody came upon her senses
+through the balmy odour of myrtle boughs and leaves of honeysuckle. The
+chords were touched with a skilful hand, and the prelude, a wild and
+extempore commentary on the ballad, was succeeded by the following
+ditty:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;My ladye love, my ladye love,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The moon through the lift is breaking;<br /></span>
+<span>The sky is bright, and through the night<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The queen of love is waking.<br /></span>
+<span>Yon little star that twinkleth so,<br /></span>
+<span>Fluttering her bright eyes to and fro,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">How doth she chide,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That thou shouldest hide,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">All joyance thus forsaking.<br /></span>
+<span>My ladye love, my ladye love,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The moon through the lift is breaking;<br /></span>
+<span>The sky is bright, and through the night<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The queen of love is waking.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The singer withdrew; and Isabella was convinced, or her eyes were
+befooled by her fancy, that, as he emerged from his concealment, his
+form could be none other than the one her imagination was too familiar
+with to mistake. He, too, had caught a glance of the listeners, for
+presently a folded paper was thrown over the balusters, and the minstrel
+departed. The first light that came through the long low casements
+revealed all that her hopes anticipated. The billet was from Sir John
+Stanley, whose <!-- Page 92 --><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92" ></a>regrets, mingled with vows and protestations of love,
+were to this purport, that he must needs be away before daybreak, on
+urgent business from the king. He sent a sigh and a love-token,
+commending himself to her best thoughts, until he should gain his
+acquittance so far as to visit Lathom.</p>
+
+<p>Passing over the departure, the bustle, and the weariness of a twelve
+days' journey, let us behold the maiden once more in her pretty bower at
+Lathom. How changed! The whole assumed a fresh aspect, thus viewed from
+a different state of the mind. Her favourite spaniel licked her hand,
+but she did not notice his caresses; all about her was as if the wand of
+the enchanter had been there, changing its image, each object calling
+forth a train of sensations heretofore unknown. Even the hangings and
+figured draperies wore a grim and perturbed expression; and Jephtha's
+daughter and the Queen of Sheba looked more dismal and profuse than ever
+from the dusky arras.</p>
+
+<p>She strayed out, as beforetime, into the woods; but their gloom was more
+intense, and the very birds seemed to grow sad with her melancholy
+musings. Their song, that used to be so sprightly, was now subdued and
+mournful, and all their gay and bubbling hilarity was gone. If she
+wandered forth towards evening, the owl hooted in her path, and the
+raven croaked above her. She heard not the light matin of the lark.
+Fancy, stimulated alone by gloomy impressions, laid hold on them only,
+failing to recognise aught but its own image.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Oskatell and her father had often taken counsel together since his
+return. Shortly afterwards, Isabella received a summons to attend Sir
+Thomas in private. What was the precise nature of that interview does
+not appear, save that the lady withdrew to her chamber, and the brow of
+Sir Thomas was for a long space moody and disturbed. Sir John Stanley,
+though of gentle descent, was not endowed with an adequate inheritance,
+at least for the heiress of Lathom, whose extensive possessions, though
+shared by Oskatell, were deemed by Sir Thomas of sufficient magnitude to
+command a connection of higher rank and importance. As a younger brother
+he could have slight pretensions to patrimony, and save the manors, then
+but a slender endowment, just granted by King Edward, his profession as
+a soldier supplied his chief revenue. His exclusive notice of the Lady
+Isabella at the tournament was quickly conveyed to the ear of Sir
+Thomas; and, it was said, the latter <!-- Page 93 --><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93" ></a>had vowed that no portion of
+wealth should descend to his daughter if wedded to Sir John, but that
+the whole should be settled on Sir Oskatell. &quot;The course of true love
+never did run smooth.&quot; That Sir John Stanley had a watchful eye at the
+time to the fortune as well as to the person of Isabella, is by some
+rather freely hinted. This, however, turns out to be an unfounded
+calumny, as the events hereafter unfolded will abundantly demonstrate.</p>
+
+<p>Sir John, after vainly endeavouring to avert this cruel purpose, and to
+win the old man's favour, entered into the service of the king. He hoped
+that some lucky adventure would enable him to appear with more certainty
+of success the next time he played the suitor at Lathom.</p>
+
+<p>Isabella, though sorely importuned to the contrary, remained true to her
+first and only attachment; and Sir Oskatell was likely, in the end, to
+gather to himself the whole of these vast possessions. A disposition to
+this effect she had for some time suspected. His conduct, too, was less
+kindly of late, and he took upon himself an authority more direct and
+unconditional. Indeed, it seemed but too evident that Sir Oskatell was
+looked upon as the ultimate possessor. The maiden pined sorely at her
+lot, and lack of perpetuity in the inheritance. But woman's wits have
+compassed a sea of impossibilities, and will ever continue irresistible
+until their beautiful forms shall no longer irradiate these dull
+mortalities with their presence.</p>
+
+<p>One day an aged minstrel craved admission. Sir Thomas had just retired
+from the banquet. Isabella and the lady of Lathom were at their usual
+employment in their private chamber, plying the needle in &quot;Antres vast,&quot;
+and wildernesses of embroidery, along with the maids. The request was
+granted; soon after which an old man, bending apparently under an
+accumulation of years and infirmities, entered the apartment. There was
+a keen scrutinising restlessness of the eye, stealing through the
+silvery locks about his brow, that but ill accorded with his apparent
+decrepitude.</p>
+
+<p>After a very profound obeisance, which the lady-mother scarcely
+recognised, he addressed himself to his vocation. A mighty indifferent
+prelude succeeded the arrangement of the strings, then a sort of jig,
+accented by the toe and head of the performer. Afterwards he broke into
+a wild and singular extempore, which gradually shaped itself into
+measure and rhythm, <!-- Page 94 --><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94" ></a>at times beautifully varied, and accompanied by the
+voice. We shall attempt a more modern and intelligible version of the
+sentiments he expressed:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Song.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>1.<br /></span>
+<span>&quot;Rich round thy brow are the clusters bright,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And thy tresses are like the plume&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span>The plume of the raven, glossy with light,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Or the ray on the spirit's deep gloom.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>2.<br /></span>
+<span>&quot;As I gaze, the dim echoes of years that are past<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Bring their joys to my bosom in vain;<br /></span>
+<span>For the chords, which their spell once o'er memory cast,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Ne'er shall waken to gladness again!&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&quot;I hold these minstrels now no better than the croaking of your carrion
+crow,&quot; said the elder lady: &quot;these are not like the songs we used to
+hear in hall and bower at Dunham Massey. Then &quot;&mdash;the old lady forgetting
+that her own ears had played her false, and her relish for these
+dainties had departed&mdash;&quot;Then,&quot; raising her voice and gazing round, as
+past scenes recurred to her fancy, &quot;how my young heart would leap at the
+sound of their ditties! and how I long to hear again <i>'Sir Armoric'</i> and
+the '<i>Golden-Legend</i>,' and all about the lady with the swine's snout and
+the silver trough!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Isabella heard not her mother's reminiscences. The minstrel
+engrossed her attention, absorbing her whole thoughts, it might seem,
+with the display of his cunning. Her cheek was flushed, and her lip
+trembled. Some mysterious faculty there was either in the song or the
+performer.</p>
+
+<p>Again he poured forth a strain more touching, and of ravishing
+sweetness:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Song.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>1.<br /></span>
+<span>&quot;Smile on, my love; that sunny smile<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Is light and life and joy to thee;<br /></span>
+<span>But, oh, its glance of witchery the while,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Is maddening, hopeless misery to me.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>2.<br /></span>
+<span>&quot;Another bosom thou mayest bless,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Whose chords shall wake with ecstasy;<br /></span>
+<span>On mine, each thrilling thought thy looks impress<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Wakes but the pang of hopeless destiny.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>3.<br /></span>
+<span>&quot;Smile on, my love; that sunny smile<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Is light and life and joy to thee;<br /></span>
+<span><!-- Page 95 --><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95" ></a>But, oh, its glance of witchery the while,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Is hopeless, maddening misery to me.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>These were burning thoughts from the bosom of age; and had not the old
+lady's perceptions been somewhat obtuse, she might have guessed the
+minstrel's purpose. His despair was not so utterly hopeless and without
+remedy as the purport of his song seemed to forebode&mdash;for the morning
+light saw the bower of Isabella vacant, and her bed undisturbed. She was
+then far over the blue hills into Staffordshire, where another sun saw
+her the wife of Sir John Stanley; immediately after which they departed
+into Ireland.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Thomas threw the reins on the neck of his choler, and, as tradition
+reports, did then disinherit her for ever in favour of Sir Oskatell. How
+far the latter might be privy to this resolve, or whether Sir Thomas,
+goaded on aforetime to the aggrandisement of his name, seized the
+present opportunity only as it served his purpose, both history and
+tradition leave us without the means of deciding. There does, however,
+seem reason to suspect some unfair solicitations practised on Sir
+Thomas, which subsequent occurrences strongly corroborate; but
+particularly the fact, that on his deathbed he solemnly revoked this
+injustice, appointing Sir John Stanley his lawful heir, disinheriting
+Sir Oskatell, save a slight provision hereafter named, and declaring his
+illegitimacy. We would not lightly throw out an accusation of this
+nature; but surely an act of retribution so unsparingly administered
+would not have been put in force, had not past circumstances in some
+measure rendered it just.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now resume our narrative from the date of the tournament; soon
+after which King Edward died, and Sir John Stanley, in the first year of
+his successor, Richard II., was honoured by him with a commission to
+Ireland, for the purpose of assisting in the total reduction of that
+unfortunate kingdom. By his great prudence and success he brought under
+submission the great rebel chiefs, to wit, O'Neal, King of Ulster;
+Rotherick O'Connor, King of Connaught; O'Caral, King of Uriel; O'Rurick,
+King of Meath; Arthur M'Kier, King of Leinster; and O'Brien, King of
+Thomond. In the year 1379, Richard coming in person to Ireland, these
+chieftains did homage to him as their sovereign prince. For his great
+and eminent services on this occasion Sir John had granted to him, by
+patent for life, the manor and lands of Black Castle in that country.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 96 --><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96" ></a>Ten years did Sir John sojourn, by the king's order, in this unquiet
+and troublesome appendage to the English crown. And it may be conceived
+that if true love had any hold on his affections, they were oft
+communing with Isabella, forsaken, as she then thought, by him whom she
+had once too surely trusted. In the tumult of war, and in the
+administration of his high office, no doubt her gentle form would visit
+his spirit, and, like the star of future promise, guide him on to his
+achievements.</p>
+
+<p>About the year 1390, when the return of Henry Duke of Lancaster from his
+banishment, without leave of the king, had caused a sore dismay
+throughout the land, Richard, harassed with the apprehension of danger,
+appointed Sir John Stanley Lord Justice of Ireland for six years. He was
+now able, in some measure, to confer a sufficient dignity on his
+beloved, though not yet equal, in point of wealth, to the wishes of Sir
+Thomas. But feeling desirous to know the state of her disposition
+towards him, he set out in disguise for Lathom, where, as we have before
+stated, he so far prevailed that she became Lady Stanley in spite of all
+the opposition she had endured. Aware of the determination of her
+father, he deemed her love a sufficient recompense, thus fully refuting
+the insinuations that her dower had more charm for him than her person.</p>
+
+<p>Returning to Ireland with his lady, they lived there happily for some
+years.</p>
+
+<p>When Henry of Lancaster was crowned by the title of Henry the Fourth,
+Sir John being still Lord Justice of Ireland, and holding the government
+there in favour of the deposed king, the new monarch, well knowing the
+knight's power, together with his skill and experience, as well in the
+senate as in the field, found means to attach him to the reigning
+interest, and, as a mark of signal favour, granted to him and his heirs
+for ever, by letters patent, many lands there named, lying in the
+westerly part of the county of Chester. Soon afterwards occurred that
+memorable rebellion, when the Welsh blood, boiling to a ferment by the
+hot appliances of one Owen Glendower, an esquire of Wales, and in his
+youth a resident at the Inns of Court in London, kindled the flames of
+intestine war. After he had conspired with the Percies and their
+adherents, together with a large body of the Scotch, these malcontents
+threatened to overthrow the now tottering dominion of King Henry.</p>
+
+<p>The most prompt measures were, however, taken to meet <!-- Page 97 --><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97" ></a>this
+exigency,&mdash;and Sir John Stanley was suddenly called out of Ireland; Sir
+William Stanley, then Lord of Stanley and Stourton, being appointed his
+deputy. Sir John soon applied himself in such earnest to the service of
+the king, his master, that a large and powerful army, headed by Henry
+himself, together with &quot;Prince Harry,&quot; his son, marched against the
+rebels. Near to Shrewsbury the latter were overthrown; Sir John, by his
+great bravery and address, mainly contributing to the success of the
+engagement. His presence was now become of essential service to the
+king, who in consequence appointed his second son, the Duke of
+Clarence&mdash;who claimed the title of Earl of Ulster in right of his
+wife&mdash;Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in his stead, the new governor landing
+at Carlingford on the 2d August 1405.</p>
+
+<p>Sir John obtained, as a favour granted but to few, and those of the
+highest rank, licence from the king to fortify a spacious house he was
+then building at Liverpool, the site whereof was given by Sir Thomas
+Lathom, who, we may now suppose, had in some measure swerved from his
+most unjust purpose, possibly on apprehending the great honours and
+influence that Sir John had already acquired without his aid or
+furtherance. This plot of land, it was said, contained 650 square yards,
+which he held together with several burgage houses and lands in that
+town.</p>
+
+<p>He had full licence to build a castle or house of strength, embattled
+and machicolated, with <i>tenellare</i>, or loop-holes in the walls, and
+other warlike devices, which no subject could undertake without special
+leave from the king.</p>
+
+<p>The Isle of Man was at this time, by Northumberland's rebellion, forfeit
+to the crown. Sir John the same year obtained a grant of it for life,
+and in the year following a re-grant to himself and his heirs for ever,
+with the style and title of &quot;King of Man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It were needless to enumerate all the honours and distinctions heaped in
+such unwonted profusion upon our illustrious hero. It has rarely
+happened that so rapid a career has met with no reverse, for the fickle
+goddess mostly exalts her votaries only to make their downfall the more
+terrible.</p>
+
+<p>Henry dying in 1413, was succeeded by his son Henry V., with whom Sir
+John was held in equal esteem, being again appointed to the government
+of Ireland; but, landing in Dublin, his health was now visibly on the
+wane. Four months <!-- Page 98 --><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98" ></a>afterwards he died at Ardee, to the great grief of
+his family, and the irreparable loss of the nation. He was a rare
+instance wherein a courtier, through four successive reigns, carried
+himself unimpeached, and unsullied by the political vices which were
+then too general to excite reproach. He was truly a knight &quot;<i>sans peur
+et sans reproche</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He left two sons, John and Thomas, and one daughter, whose fortunes, at
+this time, we shall not attempt to follow.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Stanley, his widow, returned to Liverpool with her children, and
+lived there until her death, in the house built by her husband.</p>
+
+<p>Now did the beam of Sir Oskatell's favour, like an April day, suddenly
+change its gaudy and suspicious brightness. Sir Thomas, waning in years
+and ready to depart, began to consider his former misdoings. His
+daughter and her offspring were, by the laws of nature, justly entitled
+to his possessions, which he, reflecting on the great impiety and
+injustice of withholding, bequeathed, with some exceptions, to Lady
+Stanley and her heirs, revealing at the same time the fraud which he had
+practised, and extinguishing for ever the hopes and expectations of Sir
+Oskatell. Yet was he not left entirely destitute: to him and to his
+descendants were reserved, by due process of law, the manors of Irlam
+and Urmston, near Manchester, with divers other valuable inheritances.
+At the same time was given to him the signet of his arms, with the crest
+assumed for his sake, <i>an eagle regardant, proper</i>. It was only
+subsequent to the supplanting of Sir Oskatell that his rivals took the
+present crest, &quot;<i>The Eagle and Child</i>&quot; where the eagle is represented as
+having secured his prey, in token of their triumph over the foundling,
+whom he is preparing to devour. This crest, with the motto &quot;SANS
+CHANGER,&quot; the descendants of Sir John Stanley, the present Earls of
+Derby, continue to hold: the foregoing narrative showing faithfully the
+origin of that singular device.<!-- Page 99 --><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99" ></a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> &quot;Thomas Stanley, Bishop of Man, was a cadet of the noble
+family of the Stanleys, Earls of Derby; and, after he had spent some
+time in this and another university abroad, returned to his native
+country (Lancashire), became rector of Winwick and Wigan therein; as
+also of Badsworth, in the diocese of York, and dignified in the church.
+At length, upon the vacancy of the see of the Isle of Man, he was made
+bishop thereof, but when, I cannot justly say; because he seems to have
+been bishop in the beginning of King Edward VI., and was really bishop
+of that place before the death of Dr Man, whom I have before mentioned
+under the year 1556. This Thomas Stanley paid his last debt to nature in
+the latter end of 1570, having had the character when young of a
+tolerable poet of his time.&quot;&mdash;Wood's <i>Athen&aelig; Oxonienses</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> This extract is from an interesting pamphlet, printed for
+private circulation only, by Thomas Heywood, Esq. of Manchester,
+entitled, &quot;The Earls of Derby, and the Verse Writers and Poets of the
+16th and 17th Centuries.&quot; 1825.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_BLACK_KNIGHT_OF_ASHTON" id="THE_BLACK_KNIGHT_OF_ASHTON" ></a>THE BLACK KNIGHT OF ASHTON.</h2>
+<div class="center">
+<img src="images/07.png" width="600" height="512" alt="THE BLACK KNIGHT OF ASHTON." title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;O Jesu I for Thy mercies' sake,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And for Thy bitter passion,<br /></span>
+<span>Save us from the axe of the Tower,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And from Sir Ralph of Assheton!&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>It would be a curious inquiry to trace the origin of services and other
+customs, paid by tenants to their feudal sovereign. Connected as the
+subject is with the following tradition, it may be worth while if we
+attempt to throw together a few notices on that head. A rose was not a
+very unfrequent acknowledgment. Near to the scene of our story, the
+tenant of a certain farm called Lime Hurst was compelled to bring a rose
+at the feast of St John Baptist. He held other lands; but they were
+subject only to the customary rules of the lordship, such as ploughing,
+harrowing, carting turves from Ashton-moss to the lord's house, leading
+his corn in harvest, &amp;c. This species of service was called boon-work;
+and hence the old adage, &quot;I am served like a boon-shearer.&quot; It, however,
+seems that some trifling present was made in return. In a MS. of
+receipts and disbursements belonging to the Cheethams, kept in the time
+of Charles II., there is an item for moneys paid for gloves to the
+boon-shearers at Clayton Hall, where Humphrey Cheetham, founder of the
+college at Manchester, then resided. The acknowledgment of a rose before
+mentioned might seem to have some allusion to the Knights Hospitallers.
+The estate of Lime Hurst was <!-- Page 100 --><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100" ></a>called John of Jerusalem's land, and the
+tithes and rent, in all probability, once went to the support of that
+order.</p>
+
+<p>In the Ashton pedigree we find a Nicholas Assheton, as it was then
+spelt, who enrolled himself amongst these warrior-monks. It seems not
+improbable that the profits of this estate belonged to him.</p>
+
+<p>The custom of heriotship, however, was the most oppressive, being paid
+and exacted from the parties at a time when they were least able to
+render it. Our tradition will best illustrate this remnant of barbarism,
+to which, even in the customs of the most savage tribes, we should
+scarcely find a parallel.</p>
+
+<p>In the early records of the Ashton family we find that Thomas Stavely,
+or Stayley, held a place called the Bestal by paying one penny at
+Christmas. This Bestal was, perhaps, a place of security or confinement.
+Adjoining the hall yard, the ancient residence of the Ashtons, is an old
+stone building facing the south, now called the Dungeon. It is flanked
+at the east and west corners by small towers with conical stone roofs.
+The wall is pierced by two pointed windows. Judging from its appearance,
+it must have been a place of strength; the name Bestal being probably a
+corruption of Bastile, basilion, or bastilion&mdash;all of which we find
+appropriated to places of this description. Tradition, indeed, says the
+ancient lords of Ashton made this a place of confinement, when the power
+of life and death were at their command. A field near the old hall,
+still called Gallows Meadow, was then used as a place of execution.</p>
+
+<p>Sir John Assheton, in the fifth year of Henry VI., became possessed of
+the manor on payment of one penny annually. He is generally supposed to
+have founded the church about the year 1420. We find him assigning the
+forms or benches to his tenants: the names for whose uses they are
+appointed are all females. From this it may seem that seats in our
+churches were first put up for their convenience. Eighteen forms or
+benches are mentioned for the occupation of one hundred wives and
+widows, who are named, besides their daughters and servant wenches.
+Their husbands had not this privilege, being forced to stand or kneel in
+the aisles, as the service required. In the windows there yet remains a
+considerable quantity of painted glass, but very much mutilated. Three
+or four figures on the north side represent a king, saints, &amp;c. In the
+chancel are the coats and effigies of the Asshetons in armour, kneeling.
+In one part seems to have been portrayed the invention of the Holy Cross
+by St Helen. At whatever period the church was built, the steeple must
+either have been erected afterwards, or have undergone a considerable
+repair in the time of the last Sir Thomas Assheton; for upon the south
+side are the arms of Ashton impaling Stayley. There is a tradition, that
+while the workmen were one day amusing themselves at cards, a female
+unexpectedly presented herself. She asked them to turn up an ace,
+promising, in case of compliance, that she would build several yards of
+the steeple; upon which <!-- Page 101 --><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101" ></a>they fortunately turned up the ace of spades.
+This tale may owe its origin to the following circumstances:&mdash;Upon the
+marriage of Sir Thomas Assheton with the daughter of Ralph Stayley, a
+considerable accumulation of property was the consequence. This might
+induce him to repair the church, and perform sundry other acts of
+charity and beneficence. Whilst the work was going on, Lady Elizabeth
+Assheton, it is not improbable, surprised the builders at their pastime;
+and giving a broad hint that a part of her money was being employed in
+the erection, might desire that her arms should be fixed in the steeple,
+impaled with those of her husband. The shape of an escutcheon, having a
+considerable resemblance to a spade-ace, in all likelihood was the
+origin of the fable.</p>
+
+<p>Sir John Assheton, the founder of the church, is the reputed father of
+Ralph, whom the following tradition commemorates. The origin of &quot;<i>Riding
+the Black Lad</i>&quot; is involved in great obscurity&mdash;some ascribing it to the
+tyranny of Sir Ralph, and others to the following circumstance, which
+may have been fabricated merely to throw off the odium attached to his
+name:&mdash;In the reign of Edward III., one Thomas Assheton fought under
+Queen Philippa in the battle of Neville's Cross. Riding through the
+ranks of the enemy, he bore away the royal standard from the Scotch
+King's tent, who himself was afterwards taken prisoner. King Edward, on
+his return from France, conferred on Thomas the honour of knighthood,
+with the title of Sir Thomas Assheton of Ashton-under-Line. To
+commemorate this singular display of valour, he instituted the custom of
+&quot;Riding the Black Lad&quot; upon Easter Monday at Ashton; leaving the sum of
+ten shillings yearly to support it, together with his own suit of black
+velvet and a coat of mail. Which of these accounts is correct we cannot
+presume to determine. There is, however, sufficient testimony upon
+record to account for the dislike entertained towards the memory of Sir
+Ralph Assheton.</p>
+
+<p>In the town of Ashton-under-Line, or Lime, called in the ancient
+rent-rolls Ashton-sub-Lima, a singular custom prevails. On Easter Monday
+in every year, the ceremony of &quot;Riding the Black Lad&quot; takes place.
+According to some, it is a popular expression of abhorrence towards the
+memory of Sir Ralph Assheton, commonly called <i>The Black Knight</i>, whose
+character and conduct would seem to warrant the odium thus attached to
+his name. The following is a brief account of the ceremony;&mdash;An effigy
+is made of a man in black armour, and this image is deridingly
+emblazoned with some emblem of the occupation of the first couple that
+are married in the course of the year. The Black Boy is then fixed on
+horseback, and after being led in procession round the town, is
+dismounted, made to supply <!-- Page 102 --><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102" ></a>the place of a shooting-butt, and all sorts
+of fire-arms being in requisition for the occasion, he is put to an
+ignominious death. Five shillings per annum are reserved from some
+neighbouring estate for the perpetuation of this absurd custom.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Ralph Assheton was sheriff of York in the reign of Edward IV., and
+knight marshal and lieutenant of the Tower under Richard III., being in
+great esteem with the latter monarch. In the Harleian MSS. annuities are
+mentioned as being granted to him, with divers lordships, and a tun of
+wine yearly. So powerful was his jurisdiction, that a grant was made him
+to the effect, that if in cases of emergency suitable persons could not
+be procured for the trial of delinquents, his own authority should be a
+sufficient warrant for the purpose. Hence, from the nature of his
+office, and the powers that were intrusted to him by the king, and
+probably too from the natural bent of his disposition, arose the popular
+dislike which vented itself in the well-known traditionary distich we
+have taken as our motto.</p>
+
+<p>In those days, when the gentry went little from home, set times of mirth
+and recreation were constantly observed in their spacious and hospitable
+mansions. Yule, or Christmas, was a feast of especial note and
+observance. The great hall was mostly the scene of these boisterous
+festivities; where, from the gallery, the lord of the mansion and his
+family might witness the sports, without being incommoded by the uncouth
+and rustic manners of their guests. It was the custom to invite all who
+were in any way dependent on the proprietor, and who owed him suit and
+service.</p>
+
+<p>The mansion of Sir Ralph had, like those of the neighbouring gentry, its
+lofty and capacious hall. At one end was a gallery resting on the heads
+of three or four gigantic figures carved in oak, perhaps originally
+intended as rude representations of the ancient Caryatides.</p>
+
+<p>The Christmas but one following the elevation of Richard to the throne,
+in the year of our redemption 1483, was a season of unusual severity.
+Many tenants of Sir Ralph were prevented from assembling at the Yule
+feast. A storm had rendered the roads almost impassable, keeping most of
+the aged and infirm from sharing in this glorious pastime.</p>
+
+<p>The Yule-log was larger than ever, and the blaze kept continually on the
+roar. No ordinary scale of consumption could <!-- Page 103 --><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103" ></a>withstand the attacks of
+the enemy, and thaw the icicles from his beard.</p>
+
+<p>The wassail-bowl had gone freely about, and the company&mdash;Hobbe Adamson,
+Hobbe of the Leghes, William the Arrowsmith, Jack the Woodman, Jack the
+Hind, John the Slater, Roger the Baxter, with many others, together with
+divers widows of those who owed service to their lord, clad in their
+holiday costume&mdash;black hoods and brown jackets and petticoats&mdash;were all
+intent upon their pastimes, well charged with fun and frolic. Their
+mirth was, however, generally kept within the bounds of decency and
+moderation by a personage of great importance, called the Lord of
+Misrule, who, though not intolerant of a few coarse and practical jokes
+upon occasion, was yet, in some measure, bound to preserve order and
+decorum on pain of being degraded from his office. To punish the
+refractory, a pair of stone hand-stocks was commonly used, having
+digit-holes for every size, from the paws of the ploughman to the taper
+fingers of my lady's maiden. This instrument was in the especial keeping
+of the dread marshal of these festivities.</p>
+
+<p>The custom of heriotship, or a fine payable on the death of the
+landholder to the feudal lord, was then in most cases rigorously
+exacted. This claim fell with great severity upon widows in poor
+circumstances, who were, in too many instances, thus deprived of their
+only means of subsistence. Then came fees and fines to the holy Church,
+so that the bereaved and disconsolate creature had need to wish herself
+in the dark dwelling beside her husband. Sir David Lindsay may not be
+unaptly quoted in illustration of this subject. His poem called &quot;The
+Monarch&quot; contains the following frightful picture of the exactions and
+enormities committed on these defenceless and unoffending victims of
+their rapacity:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;And also the vicar, as I trow,<br /></span>
+<span>Will not fail to take a cow,<br /></span>
+<span>And uppermost cloths, though babes them an,<br /></span>
+<span>From a poor seely husbandman,<br /></span>
+<span>When he lyes ready to dy,<br /></span>
+<span>Having small children two or three,<br /></span>
+<span>And his three kine withouten mo,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span>The vicar must have one of tho,<br /></span>
+<span>With the gray cloke that covers the bed,<br /></span>
+<span>Howbeit that they be poorly cled;<br /></span>
+<span>And if the wife die on the morn,<br /></span>
+<span>And all the babes should be forlorn,<br /></span>
+<span>The other cow he takes away,<br /></span>
+<span>With her poor cote and petycote gray:<br /></span>
+<span><!-- Page 104 --><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104" ></a>And if within two days or three<br /></span>
+<span>The eldest child shall happen to dy,<br /></span>
+<span>Of the third cow he shall be sure,<br /></span>
+<span>When he hath under his cure;<br /></span>
+<span>And father and mother both dead be,<br /></span>
+<span>Beg must the babes without remedy.<br /></span>
+<span>They hold the corse at the church style,<br /></span>
+<span>And thare it must remain awhile,<br /></span>
+<span>Till they get sufficient surety<br /></span>
+<span>For the church right and duty.<br /></span>
+<span>Then comes the landlord perforce,<br /></span>
+<span>And takes to him the fattest horse;<br /></span>
+<span>Poor labourers would that law were down,<br /></span>
+<span>Which never was founded by reason.<br /></span>
+<span>I heard them say, under confession,<br /></span>
+<span>That this law was brother to oppression.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>As it drew on towards eventide, the mirth increased. The rude legendary
+ballads of Sir Lancelot of the Lake, Beavois of Southampton, Robin Hood,
+The Pindar of Wakefield, and the Friar of Fountain's Abbey, Clim of the
+Clough, Ranulph of Chester, his Exploits in the Holy Land, together with
+the wondrous deeds of war and love performed by Sir Roger of Calverly,
+had been sung and recited to strange and uncouth music. Carols, too,
+were chanted between whiles in a most unreverend fashion. A huge
+Christmas pie, made in the shape of a cratch or cradle, was placed on
+the board. This being accounted a great test of orthodoxy, every one was
+obliged to eat a slice, lest he should be suspected of favouring the
+heretical tenets then spreading widely throughout the land.
+Blind-man's-buff and hot-cockles had each their turn; but the sport that
+seemed to afford the most merriment was a pendulous stick having an
+apple at one end, and on the other a lighted candle, so that the
+unfortunate and liquorish wight who bit at this tempting bait generally
+burnt his nose on the rebound, as the stick bounced to and fro on its
+pivot. The hall was now cleared for the masks. In this play, the Black
+Knight himself generally joined, laughing heartily at and hurrying on
+the mis-haps of the revellers. Many horrible and grotesque-looking
+shapes and disguises soon made their appearance; but one, more
+especially than the rest, excited no slight degree of distress and
+alarm. His antics proved a continual source of annoyance to the rest of
+the company. He singed Will the Arrowsmith's beard, poured a whole
+flagon of hot liquor in the wide hosen of Hobbe Adamson; but the enactor
+of St George in a more especial manner attracted his notice; he crept
+between his legs, and bore him right into the middle of the pig-<!-- Page 105 --><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105" ></a>sty,
+before he could be stayed; from whence the heroic champion of England
+issued, sorely shent with the admixtures and impurities of the place.</p>
+
+<p>This termagant was a little broad-set figure wearing a mask, intended as
+a representation of his Satanic majesty, adorned with a huge pair of
+horns. From it hung a black cloak or shirt, out of which protruded a
+goodly and substantial tail. No one could discover this ruthless
+disturber of their sports. Every attempt was unavailing; he shot through
+their fingers as though they had been greased, and a loud and
+contumelious laugh was the only reward of their exertions.</p>
+
+<p>In the end, a shrewd conjecture went abroad that he was none other than
+some malicious imp of darkness let loose upon their frolics, to disquiet
+and perplex their commemoration of the Blessed Nativity. Yet was it an
+unusual occurrence upon Yule night, when these disturbers were supposed
+to be prevented from walking the earth, being confined for a space to
+their own kingdom. But the desperate character of their lord, who was
+thought to fear neither man nor devil, might in some sort account for
+this unwelcome intrusion.</p>
+
+<p>The guests grew cautious. Whispers and unquiet looks went round, while
+the little devil would ever and anon frisk about, to the great detriment
+and dismay of his companions.</p>
+
+<p>Their lord's presence was anxiously looked for. The ruddy glow of their
+mirth had become dim. Sir Ralph, they hoped, would either unmask this
+mischievous intruder, or eject him from the premises; he having the
+credit of being able to master aught in the shape of either mortal or
+immortal intelligences.</p>
+
+<p>At length he came, clad in his usual suit of black velvet. A swarthy and
+ill-favoured wight he was, with a beard, as the story goes, that would
+have swept off the prickly gorse-bush in its progress. He was received
+with a great show of humility, and all made their best obeisance. But
+this deputy, representative, or vicegerent of &quot;Old Hornie,&quot; he stood
+erect, among the obsequious guests, in a posture not at all either
+respectful or becoming.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, knaves, to your sport. Ye be as doleful as a pack of pedlars with
+a full basket after the fair. I'll make ye play, and be merry too; or,
+e' lady, ye shall taste of the mittens. Dan, give these grim-faced
+varlets a twinge of the gloves there just to make 'em laugh.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>His tyrannous and overbearing temper would even make them merry by
+compulsion. But the terrified hearers did not manifest <!-- Page 106 --><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106" ></a>that intense
+feeling of gratification which this threat was intended to produce. Each
+looked on the face of his neighbour, hoping to find there some
+indication of the felicity which his own had failed to exhibit.</p>
+
+<p>The countenance of their chief grew more dark and portentous. Just as
+they were expecting the full burst of his fury, up trotted the merry
+imp, and irreverently crept behind Sir Ralph. Before their almost
+incredulous eyes did he lay hold on the tail of the knight's cloak, and
+twisting it round his arm, by a sudden jerk he brought this dignified
+personage backwards upon the floor. The oaken beams trembled at this
+unlooked-for invasion of their repose. Deep, deadly, and abominable
+curses, rang through the hall. Livid and ghastly by turns, the knight's
+features wore that ludicrous expression of rage and astonishment more
+easy to conceive than to portray. Volleys of oaths and inarticulate
+sounds burst out from his wrath, almost too big for utterance. When
+reinstated in that posture which is the distinctive characteristic of
+man, he did not attempt to administer his vindictive retribution by
+proxy. Laying hold on a tough cudgel, he gave it one ominous swing,
+describing an arc of sufficient magnitude to have laid an army
+prostrate. He then pursued the luckless emissary of the Evil One,
+roaring and foaming with this unusual exertion. There was now no lack of
+activity. A hawk among the chickens, or a fox in a farm-yard, were
+nothing to it. Sometimes was seen the doughty Sir Ralph driving the
+whole herd before him like a flock of sheep; but the original cause of
+the mischief generally contrived to mingle with the rabble rout, who in
+vain attempted to rid themselves of his company. The knight was not
+over-nice in the just administration of his discipline. Often, when he
+thought himself near enough for its accomplishment, he aimed a terrific
+blow, but shot wide of the mark, bringing down the innocent and
+unoffending victims, who strewed the floor like swaths behind the mower.
+Whenever a lucky individual could disentangle himself from his comrades,
+he darted through the door, and in spite of the storm and pitchy
+darkness without, thought himself too happy in escaping with a few holes
+in his skin. Yet he of the horns and tail, by some chance or another,
+always passed unhurt; a hideous laugh accompanying the adroit
+contrivances by which he eluded the cudgel.</p>
+
+<p>The hall was now but scantily supplied with guests; the runaways and
+wounded having diminished the numbers to some <!-- Page 107 --><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107" ></a>half-score. A parley was
+now sounded by the victorious and pursuing enemy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hold, ye lubberly rascals! Ye scum&mdash;ye recrement&mdash;why do ye run?&quot; said
+the knight, puffing with great vigour. &quot;I say, why run ye!&quot; brandishing
+his club. &quot;Bring hither that limb of Satan, and ye shall depart every
+one to his home. Lay hold of him, I tell ye, and begone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But these terms of capitulation were by no means so easy to accept as
+the proposer imagined.</p>
+
+<p>The first mover of the mischief had gotten himself perched on a
+projecting ledge by the gallery, from whence they were either unable or
+unwilling to dislodge him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How!&quot; said the knight. &quot;Ye are afraid, cowards, I trow. Now will I have
+at thee, for once. I'll spoil thy capering!&quot; This threat was followed by
+a blow aimed at the devoted representative from the infernal court; but
+it failed to dismount him, for he merely shrunk aside, and it was
+rendered harmless. Another and a more contumelious laugh announced this
+failure. Even the Black Knight grew alarmed. The being was surely
+invulnerable. He stayed a moment ere he repeated the attack, when, to
+his unspeakable horror and astonishment, there issued a thin squeaking
+voice from underneath the disguise.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The heriot, Sir Ralph&mdash;the heriot! We'll have a heriot at Easter!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Had a thunderbolt fallen at his feet, the knight could not have been
+more terrified. He let the weapon fall. His hands dropped powerless at
+his side. His countenance was like the darkly rolling sea, strangely
+tossed by some invisible tempest. The cause of this sudden and
+unexpected termination of the assault we will now proceed briefly to
+unfold.</p>
+
+<p>The morning of this day, being the eve of the Blessed Nativity, had been
+employed by the Black Knight in the laudable occupation of visiting a
+poor widow; who, though recently bereaved of her husband, had not
+rendered the customary heriot. Unfortunately, the only valuable she
+possessed was a cow, the produce of which formed the chief support of
+the family; four young children, and a boy of about fourteen, whose
+brains were generally supposed more or less oddly constructed than those
+of his neighbours, depended on this supply for their daily support.
+Cold, bitter cold, was the season, and it had set in with more than
+common severity. Day after day the payment was delayed. Every morning
+the widow and her son fondled <!-- Page 108 --><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108" ></a>the poor beast, as though it were the
+last; but another morning and evening succeeded. Supper could not supply
+the place of breakfast, nor breakfast contend against the wants of
+supper; and how could the already half-famished ones be sustained, when
+their only resource should be taken away?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go down upon your knees, Will, and thank God for another morning's
+meal. It is the eve of our blessed Lord's incarnation, and I think He
+will not leave us to perish in this world, who has made such a bountiful
+provision for our well-being in the next. The knight has not sent for
+the heriot, and I think that He alone who succours the widow and the
+fatherless can have inclined his heart to mercy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely were the thanksgivings finished, when they were alarmed by the
+rapid approach of their persecutor. The door flew open, and in
+thundering accents the Black Knight himself came to make his demand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll have thee to the dungeon, hag, for lack of service. How comes it
+to pass the heriot is not paid!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The widow made no reply. Her heart was full.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;See to it,&quot; continued the pitiless churl; &quot;for if thy quittance be not
+forthcoming, and that in haste, I'll turn thee and thy brats into the
+moor-dikes, where ye may live upon turf and ditch-water if it so please
+ye.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, ha' pity!&quot; But the widow's prayer was vain. The Black Knight was
+never known to hearken either to pity or persuasion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy cow&mdash;thy cow! This night let it be rendered. Sir Ralph Assheton
+never uttered a threat that fell to the ground.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mother,&quot; said the boy, &quot;is this Sir Ralph, our liege lord?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ay, fool,&quot; angrily replied the knight. &quot;And what may thy wits gather by
+the asking?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And will <i>he</i> ever die, mother?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hush, Willy,&quot; said the terrified woman.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay,&quot; returned the leering half-wit, &quot;I was but a-thinking, that if he
+does, may be <i>his</i> master too will want a heriot.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what may be the name of my master?&quot; said Sir Ralph, with a furious
+oath.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The devil,&quot; replied the boy, with apparent unconcern.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ay,&mdash;and what will they give him, dost think?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>Thee!</i>&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Whether the peculiar expression of the lad's face, or the fear<!-- Page 109 --><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109" ></a>less
+indifference of his address, so unusual to that of the crouching slaves
+he generally met with, contributed to the result, we know not; but,
+instead of correcting the boy for his audacity, he hastily departed,
+finally repeating his threat of punishment in case of disobedience.</p>
+
+<p>When Sir Ralph got home, his ill-humour vented itself with more severity
+than usual. On joining the sports, he was at the first somewhat
+startled, on perceiving a representation of the personage which the
+morning's conversation had by no means prepared him to recognise either
+with admiration or respect. Still, as it was nothing out of the common
+usage, he took no apparent notice, farther than by remarking the general
+gloom that prevailed, contrary to the usual course of these festivities.
+Then came the unlooked-for aggression upon his person, provoking his
+already irritated feelings into vehement action. But, when the last
+unfortunate blow had failed in its purpose, appearing to the furious
+knight to have been warded off by a charm, a sudden misgiving came
+across him, which, with the speech of this supposed imp of darkness, so
+strangely alluding to his adventure with the boy, wrought powerfully
+upon his now excited imagination, so that he stood aghast, unable to
+grapple with its terrors. He hastily departed from the hall, leaving the
+enemy in undisputed possession of the field.</p>
+
+<p>What occurred subsequently we are not told, save that on the following
+morning the widow's heriot was sent back, with an ungracious message
+from the knight, showing his unwillingness to restore what terror only
+had wrung from him.</p>
+
+<p>The person who adventured this dangerous personification of the Evil One
+was never known. Whether some bold and benevolent individual,
+interposing on behalf of the fatherless and famishing little ones, or
+some being of a less substantial nature,&mdash;whether one of those immortal
+intelligences of a middle order between earth and heaven, who at that
+time were supposed to take pleasure in tormenting the vicious and
+unworthy,&mdash;is more than our limited capacities can disclose.</p>
+
+<p>It is said that on Easter Monday following the Black Knight died; and
+though probably it had no connection with the circumstances we have
+related, yet was his decease a sufficiently strange event in the
+mysterious chapter of coincidences to warrant this memorial.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="FAIR_ELLEN_OF_RADCLIFFE" id="FAIR_ELLEN_OF_RADCLIFFE" ></a><!-- Page 110 --><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110" ></a>FAIR ELLEN OF RADCLIFFE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>In Percy's Relics, this ballad is called &quot;The Lady Isabella's Tragedy,&quot;
+and is thus introduced:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&quot;This ballad is given from an old black-letter copy in the Pepys
+     Collection, collated with another in the British Museum, H. 263,
+     folio. It is there entitled, 'The Lady Isabella's Tragedy, or the
+     Step-Mother's Cruelty; being a relation of a lamentable and cruel
+     murther, committed on the body of the Lady Isabella, the only
+     daughter to a noble Duke, etc. To the tune of &quot;The Lady's Fall.&quot;'
+     To some copies are annexed eight more modern stanzas, entitled,
+     'The Duchess' and Cook's Lamentation.'&quot;</p></div>
+
+<p>Dr Whitaker says, &quot;The remains of Radcliffe Tower prove it to have been
+a manor-house of the first rank. It has been quadrangular; but two sides
+only remain.&quot; A licence to kernel and embattle shows the date of its
+erection, or rather rebuilding, to be in the fourth year of Henry IV.,
+by James Radcliffe, who, we find by the pedigree, was the eldest son of
+William Radcliffe. He married Joan, daughter to Sir John Tempest of
+Bracewell, in the county of York.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The noble old hall is forty-three feet two inches in length, and in one
+part twenty-six feet, in another twenty-eight feet in width. The two
+massy principals which support the roof are the most curious specimens
+of ancient wood-work I have ever seen. The broadest piece of timber is
+two feet seven inches by ten inches. A wall-plate on the outside of one
+beam, from end to end, measures two feet by ten inches. The walls are
+finished at the square with a moulded cornice of oak.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;At the bottom of the room is a door opening into one of the towers, the
+lower part of which only remains, of massy grout-work, and with three
+arches, each furnished with a funnel or aperture like a chimney. On the
+left side of the hall are the remains of a very curious window-frame of
+oak, wrought in Gothic tracery, but square at top. Near the top of the
+hall, on the right, are the remains of a doorway, opening into what was
+once a staircase, and leading to a large chamber above the kitchen, the
+approach to which was by a door of massy oak, pointed at the top.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Over the high tables of ancient halls (as is the case in some college
+halls at present) it was common to have a small aperture, through which
+the lord or master could inspect, unseen, what was going on below. But
+in this situation at Radcliffe is a ramified window of oaken work,
+opening from the apartment above mentioned, but now closed up.&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="center"><!-- Page 111 --><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111" ></a>
+<img src="images/08.png" width="600" height="419" alt="RADCLIFFE TOWER.
+
+Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden." title="" />
+<b>RADCLIFFE TOWER.<br />
+
+<i>Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw<sup>d</sup> Finden.</i></b>
+</div>
+
+<p><!-- Page 112 --><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112" ></a><!-- Page 113 -->
+<a name="Page_113" id="Page_113" ></a>This consists of eight arches, with
+trefoil-pointed tops, four and
+four, with two narrower apertures above.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To this place and family are attached the tradition and ballad given by
+Dr Percy, under the name of Isabella, but here applied to a Lord Thomas
+and faire Ellenor, father and daughter, whose figures are supposed to be
+graven on a slab in the church, which the common people, concluding, I
+suppose, from its whiteness, that it was meant as an emblem of the
+innocence it is said to cover, have mutilated by breaking off small
+fragments, as amulets for the prevention or cure of disorders.
+Traditions, always erroneous in their circumstances, are yet rarely
+devoid of foundation; and though the pedigrees of Radcliffe exhibit no
+failure of the family by the premature death of an heiress; though the
+last Richard de Radcliffe, who had daughters only, certainly did not
+make 'a scullion-boy the heir of all his land,' when he settled it on
+Radcliffe Baron Fitzwalter; though the blood actually pointed out on the
+kitchen floor, where this Thyestsean banquet is said to have been
+prepared, deserves no more regard than many other stories and
+appearances of the same kind; yet we are not to discard as incredible
+the tradition of a barbarous age, merely because it asserts the
+sacrifice of a young and beautiful heiress to the jealousy or the
+avarice of a stepmother. When this is granted, the story of the pie with
+all its horrors may safely be ascribed to the inventive genius of a
+minstrel. On the whole, Radcliffe is a place which, not only from its
+antiquity and splendour, but from the great families which have branched
+out from it, and the romantic tradition attached to it, can scarcely be
+surveyed without enthusiasm, or quitted without regret.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There is a story of its being haunted by a black dog; but as this
+apparition has never been seen by two persons in company, it may safely
+be ascribed to the genius of fear, quite as creative a power as any
+other faculty of the imagination.</p>
+
+<p>We have thought it best to give the ballad entire, without any
+embellishments of our own. Though not in the best style of these
+metrical romances, it is still of sufficient interest, from its
+connection, to claim a place in the &quot;Traditions&quot; of the county.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>There was a lord of worthy fame,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And a hunting he would ride,<br /></span>
+<span>Attended by a noble traine<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Of gentrye by his side.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>And while he did in chase remaine,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To see both sport and playe,<br /></span>
+<span>His ladye went, as she did feigne,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Unto the church to praye.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span><!-- Page 114 --><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114" ></a>This lord he had a daughter deare,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Whose beauty shone so bright,<br /></span>
+<span>She was beloved both far and neare<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Of many a lord and knight.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>Fair Ellen was this damsel call'd,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">A creature faire was she;<br /></span>
+<span>She was her father's only joye,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">As you shall after see.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>Therefore her cruel stepmother<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Did envye her so much,<br /></span>
+<span>That daye by daye she sought her life,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Her malice it was such.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>She bargain'd with the master-cook,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To take her life awaye;<br /></span>
+<span>And, taking of her daughter's book,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">She thus to her did saye:&mdash;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>Go home, sweet daughter, I thee praye,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Go hasten presentlie;<br /></span>
+<span>And tell unto the master-cook<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">These wordes that I tell thee:<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>And bid him dresse to dinner streight<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">That fair and milk-white doe,<br /></span>
+<span>That in the parke doth shine so bright<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">There's none so faire to showe.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>This ladye, fearing of no harme,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Obey'd her mother's will;<br /></span>
+<span>And presentlye she hasted home,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Her pleasure to fulfil.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>She streight into the kitchen went,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Her message for to tell;<br /></span>
+<span>And there she spied the master-cook,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Who did with malice swell.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span><!-- Page 115 --><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115" ></a>Nowe, master-cook, it must be soe,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Do that which I thee tell:<br /></span>
+<span>You needes must dresse the milk-white doe<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Which you do knowe full well.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>Then streight his cruell bloodye hands<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">He on the ladye layd,<br /></span>
+<span>Who quivering and shaking stands,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">While thus to her he sayd:&mdash;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>Thou art the doe that I must dresse,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">See here, behold my knife;<br /></span>
+<span>For it is pointed, presently<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To ridd thee of thy life.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>Oh then, cried out the scullion-boye,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">As loud as loud might bee,<br /></span>
+<span>Oh save her life, good master-cook,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And make your pyes of mee!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>For pitye's sake, do not destroye<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">My ladye with your knife;<br /></span>
+<span>You know shee is her father's joye,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">For Christe's sake, save her life.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>I will not save her life, he sayd,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Nor make my pyes of thee;<br /></span>
+<span>Yet, if thou dost this deed bewraye,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Thy butcher I will bee.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>Now when this lord he did come home<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">For to'sit downe and eat,<br /></span>
+<span>He called for his daughter deare<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To come and carve his meat.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>Now sit you downe, his ladye say'd,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Oh sit you down to meat;<br /></span>
+<span>Into some nunnery she is gone,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Your daughter deare forget.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span><!-- Page 116 --><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116" ></a>Then solemnlye he made a vowe<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Before the companie,<br /></span>
+<span>That he would neither eat nor drinke<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Until he did her see.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>Oh then bespake the scullion-boye,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">With a loud voice so hye&mdash;If<br /></span>
+<span>now you will your daughter see,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">My lord, cut up that pye:<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>Wherein her flesh is minced small,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And parched with the fire;<br /></span>
+<span>All caused by her stepmother,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Who did her death desire.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>And cursed bee the master-cook,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Oh cursed may he bee!<br /></span>
+<span>I proffer'd him my own heart's blood,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">From death to set her free.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>Then all in blacke this lord did mourne,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And, for his daughter's sake,<br /></span>
+<span>He judged her cruell stepmother<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To be burnt at a stake.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>Likewise he judged the master-cook<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">In boiling lead to stand;<br /></span>
+<span>And made the simple scullion-boye<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The heire of all his land.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="center"><!-- Page 117 --><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117" ></a><!-- Page 118 --><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118" ></a>
+<img src="images/09.png" width="600" height="421" alt="WHALLEY ABBEY.
+
+Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden" title="" />
+<b>WHALLEY ABBEY.<br />
+
+<i>Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw<sup>d</sup> Finden.</i></b>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_ABBOT_OF_WHALLEY" id="THE_ABBOT_OF_WHALLEY" ></a><!-- Page 119 --><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119" ></a>THE ABBOT OF WHALLEY</h2>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Earl Percy there his ancyent spred,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The half moone shining all soe faire;<br /></span>
+<span>The Norton's ancyent had the crosse,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And the five wounds our Lord did beare.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="author">&mdash;<i>The Rising in the North</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The Cistercian Abbey of Whalley was founded by Henry Lacy, Earl of
+Lincoln, who, having given the advowson of the parish to the abbey of
+Stanlaw in Cheshire, the monks procured an appropriation, and removed
+hither in 1296, increasing their number to sixty. The parish church is
+nearly coeval with the introduction of Christianity into the north of
+England. This foundation now became the nucleus of a flourishing
+establishment, &quot;continuing,&quot; as Dr Whitaker informs us, &quot;for two
+centuries and a half, to exercise unbounded charity and hospitality; to
+adorn the site thus chosen with a succession of magnificent buildings;
+to protect the tenants of its ample domains in the enjoyment of
+independence and plenty; to educate and provide for their children; to
+employ, clothe, feed, and pay many labourers, herdsmen, and shepherds;
+to exercise the arts and cultivate the learning of the times; yet
+unfortunately at the expense of the secular incumbents, whose endowments
+they had swallowed up, and whose functions they had degraded into those
+of pensionary vicars or mendicant chaplains.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The ruins of Whalley Abbey are situated in a beautifully-sequestered
+spot on the banks of the Calder, presenting some of the most extensive
+and picturesque remains of antiquity in the county; and the site
+sufficiently exemplifies that peculiar instinct, if it may be so called,
+which guided the monks in their choice of situations. &quot;Though the
+Cistercians affected to plant themselves in the solitude of woods, which
+were to be gradually essarted by the labour of their own hands, and
+though they obtained an exemption from the payment of tithes on that
+specific plea, yet they were excellent judges of the quality of land,
+however concealed, and never set about their laborious task without the
+assurance of an ample recompense.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The following minute account of these ruins is from the pen of the
+historian of Whalley:&mdash;&quot;A copious stream to the south, a moderate
+expanse of rich meadow and pasture around, and an amphitheatre of
+sheltering hills, clad in the verdant covering of their native woods,
+beyond; these were features in the face of Nature which the earlier
+<!-- Page 120 --><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120" ></a>Cistercians courted with instinctive fondness. Where these combined, it
+does not appear that they ever abandoned a situation which they had once
+chosen; and where these were wanting, it is certain they never long or
+willingly remained.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We now proceed to a particular survey of the remains of Whalley Abbey
+as they exist at present. First, then, the whole area of the close,
+containing thirty-six acres, three roods, fourteen poles, is still
+defined by the remains of a broad and deep trench, which surrounded it;
+over this were two approaches to the house, through two strong and
+stately gateways yet remaining. They are constructed in that plain and
+substantial style which characterised the Cistercian houses; a style
+which approximates to that of fortification, and shows that the monks
+did not obtain a licence to kernel and embattle without an end in view.
+Within this area, and on the verge of the Calder, which formed the
+south-west boundary of the close, was the house itself, consisting of
+three quadrangles, besides stables and offices. The first and most
+westerly of these was the cloister-court, of which the nave of the
+conventual church formed the north side; the chapter-house and vestry,
+yet remaining, the east; the dormitory, also remaining, the west; and
+the refectory and kitchens the south. The cloister was of wood,
+supported, as usual, upon corbels, still remaining: the area within was
+the monks' cemetery, and some of the ancient gravestones here are still
+remembered. Against the wall, on the south side of this quadrangle, is a
+wide surbased arch, apparently of Henry the Seventh's time, which has
+evidently contained the lavatory. The groove of the lead pipe which
+conveyed the water is still conspicuous, as is also another for the
+reception of a wooden rail, on which the towels hung. Beyond this court,
+to the east, is another quadrangle area, formed by the choir of the
+church, on one side, the opposite side of the chapter-house, &amp;c., on
+another, a line of ruinous buildings on the third, and a large distinct
+building, itself surrounding a small quadrangle, on the fourth. This
+appears evidently to have been the abbot's lodgings; for which reason,
+as being best adapted to the habits of an ordinary family, it
+immediately became the residence of the Asshetons, and after many
+alterations, and a demolition of its best apartments, particularly a
+gallery nearly one hundred and fifty feet in length, has still several
+good and habitable rooms, and is now preserved with due care by its
+owner. The ancient kitchen, the <i>coquina abbatis</i> of the <i>compotus</i>,
+whence such hecatombs were served up, remains, though roofless, with two
+huge fire-places. On the southern side of this building is a small but
+very picturesque and beautiful rain mantled with ivy, which appears to
+have been a chapel, and was probably the abbot's private oratory. But
+the conventual church itself, which exceeded many cathedrals in extent,
+has been levelled nearly to the foundation. This work of havoc was
+probably an effect of that general panic which seized the lay-owners of
+abbeys, on the attempt made by Queen Mary to restore the monks to their
+cloisters.&mdash;'For now,' says Fuller, 'the <!-- Page 121 --><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121" ></a>edifices of abbeys, which were
+still entire, looked lovingly again on their ancient owners; in
+prevention whereof, such as possessed them for the present plucked out
+their eyes by levelling them to the ground and shaving from them, as
+much as they could, all abbey characters.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;However, in the month of August 1798, permission having been obtained
+from the guardian of the present owner to investigate the foundation by
+digging, a very successful attempt was made to retrieve the whole
+ichnography of the church, of which there were no remains above the
+surface to assist conjecture, or to guide research, but one jamb of the
+west window against the wall of the dormitory, a small portion of the
+south wall of the nave, a fragment of the south transept, and another
+jamb of one of the side chapels eastward from the last. An inequality in
+the ground, eastward from the transept, in an adjoining orchard, showed
+the half-pace into the choir, of which the outline to the north and east
+was also defined in the same manner. Upon these slender data we
+proceeded, first, to investigate the foundations of the columns towards
+the west end; and having ascertained the distance of one from the south
+wall, the width of the south aisle, and consequently of the north,
+followed of course; another digging immediately to the north ascertained
+the width of the middle aisle, and a third, from east to west, gave one
+intercolumnation; the length of the nave being already given by the
+remains of the transept, the number of columns was now proved. A right
+line drawn along the remnant of the south wall, and continued to the
+intersection of the nave and transept, proved the length of the latter
+on the south side, and, consequently, also on the north. The choir
+evidently appeared to have consisted of a presbytery, with two side
+aisles, and four other chapels; two to the north, and as many to the
+south.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The site of the choir being determined, it remained to investigate its
+contents beneath the surface: accordingly, under the high altar, nothing
+appeared but a bed of undisturbed and native sand; but beneath the
+second half-pace, immediately leading up to it, were turned up many
+broken remains of a painted pavement, consisting of small glazed
+floor-tiles, adorned with various devices, and of different forms and
+dimensions. At the foot of the stalls, a narrow rectilinear filleting of
+the same material had bounded the whole. On some was inscribed the word
+MARIE, in Longobardic characters.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This pavement had been deeply bedded in mortar, but was altogether
+displaced, and turned down from one to three feet beneath the surface,
+where several skeletons were found very entire, and in their original
+position, but without any remains of coffins, vestments, or other
+ornaments, as appeared upon a most minute investigation. These, however,
+were, beyond a doubt, the Abbots of Whalley. From the confused state of
+the original pavement, the whole floor of the presbytery, from the foot
+of the stalls, appeared to have been successively covered with
+grave-stones, all of which, however, had been removed, excepting
+frag<!-- Page 122 --><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122" ></a>ments of two: one of these had a groove, once inlaid with a
+filleting of brass, and the other, beneath which lay the skeleton of a
+tall and robust man, had deeply cut upon it the stump of a tree reguled.
+This I conjecture to have been a thorn, intended as a rebus upon the
+name of Christopher Thornber, the fifteenth abbot, who died in 1486. In
+this search we narrowly missed the fragments of the grave-stone of Abbot
+Lindley, which were casually turned up on this very spot, A.D. 1813. On
+one, in the Longobardic character of Edward the Third's time, were the
+letters IOP, and on the other AJ PVIV.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;From these data, slender as they may seem, I arrive at my conclusion,
+thus:&mdash;First, None but abbots were interred in the high choir; secondly,
+The characters cannot be later than the latter end of Edward the Third,
+when the old English black letter was substituted in its place. From the
+foundation to this time three Johns had been Abbots of Whalley;
+Belfield, Topeliffe, and Lindley. The termination of the surname must
+have immediately preceded the word <i>hujus</i>, but the letters AJ can only
+have formed the termination of Lindelai, the old orthography of the
+word.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The remains of the Lacies, wherever deposited, after their removal from
+Stanlaw, had undoubtedly been preserved with religious reverence, and
+enclosed in magnificent tombs. But in these researches there were no
+appearances which justified even a conjecture that we had discovered
+them.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14" ></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p>
+
+<p>John Paslew, the last Abbot of Whalley, appears, by a reference to his
+arms, to have been of the Paslews of Wiswall. The first twenty years
+after his election were passed, like those of his predecessors, in the
+duties of his choir, in the exercise of hospitality, in attention to the
+extensive possessions of his house, or in the improvement of his
+buildings; but a storm was approaching, before which either his
+conscience or his bigotry prevented him from bending, and which
+precipitated his ruin and that of the abbey. The religious houses in
+general were now greatly relaxed in discipline, and many of them
+dreadfully corrupted in morals. What was the state of Whalley must now
+be left to conjecture, though charity should incline us to think no evil
+to those against whom no specific evidence appears. The Pilgrimage of
+Grace was now commenced, and Paslew seems to have been pushed into the
+foremost ranks of the rebellion; when this expedition ended in the
+discomfiture and disgrace of its promoters, every art of submission and
+corruption was vainly employed to ward off the blow. Paslew was
+arraigned for high treason, tried, and condemned, and is supposed to
+have been interred in the north aisle of the parish church, under a
+stone yet remaining; the ignominious part of his sentence being
+remitted, out of respect to his order.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The attainder of an abbot was understood, however rightly, by the crown
+lawyers of that time, to infer a forfeiture of the house; and
+<!-- Page 123 --><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123" ></a>accordingly, without the form of a surrender, the abbey of Whalley,
+with all its appurtenances, was instantly seized into the king's hands;
+and thus fell this ancient foundation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fr. Thomas Holden, younger son of Gilbert Holden, of Holden, gent.,
+was, in all probability, the last surviving monk. On the Dissolution he
+appears to have returned to his native place. In 1550 we meet with his
+name as Sir Thomas Holden, curate of Haslingden; and in 1574 he was
+licensed to the same cure at the metropolitical visitation of Archbishop
+Grindall, held at Preston, by the style of Thomas Holden, clerk, of
+sober life and competent learning. Strange as it may seem, we find the
+last surviving monk of Whalley a Protestant minister, thirty-seven years
+after its dissolution!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was in the dark month of November, when the brown leaves are
+fluttering on the ground, when the wind comes mournfully through the
+bare woods, and the hollow nooks and quiet caves respond with their
+mystic voice, that two travellers were seen loitering up the grand
+avenue that swept nobly through the western embattled gateway of Whalley
+Abbey. The foremost of them wore a low-crowned cap, simply decorated
+with a heron's plume, and a doublet of mulberry-coloured velvet, puffed
+out capaciously at the shoulders. Trunk-hose of a goodly diameter, and
+wide-flapped boots, decorated the lower extremity of his person. On his
+left hand he bore a hooded falcon. The jesses were of crimson and yellow
+silk, its legs fancifully adorned with little bells fastened by rings of
+leather. These made a jingling and dissonant music as it flew, being
+generally tuned one semitone below another, that they might be the more
+sonorous considering their small size. The bearer wore a pair of stout
+leathern mittens, and he carried a long pole to aid him, as it might
+seem, in the chase. His manner bespoke him above the ordinary rank; and
+his garb, from the minute regulations then existing in regard to dress,
+showed at any rate his pretensions to nobility. This proud cavalier was
+followed by one servant only, who carried a capacious wallet, not
+over-well replenished with provision, as was apparent from its long lank
+shape and attenuated proportions. His master's cloak was slung on the
+other shoulder; and his belt displayed some implements that appeared
+alike formidable as means of offence or defence.</p>
+
+<p>Eventide was then drawing on, but it did not appear that the falcon had
+been loosed to the game; the usual tokens of success were wanting&mdash;the
+torn and bloody carcases that marked an <!-- Page 124 --><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124" ></a>abundant sport. Two or three of
+the brethren were sitting on a bench in the gateway. In passing by, the
+foremost of the strangers hastily addressed his follower.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ralph Newcome, plague on thee! hast thou had a call again at the
+wallet? Thou guzzling tinder-throat, thy drouth is never slaked!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Now Ralph, having felt sore oppressed with the weight of sundry leathern
+bottles, loaves, and wedges of cold meat, had taken especial care to
+lighten his back and load his stomach whenever the occasion was urgent.
+His endeavours had not been without success, for the wallet, as we have
+seen, hung from his shoulders, long, narrow, and unfurnished, save with
+the scraps and relics of many a savoury junket.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Coming, master,&quot; was the reply, sufficiently audible for his master's
+ear; the remainder escaped in a sort of grumble, the dregs of his ill
+humour at the interruption.</p>
+
+<p>The sportsman, if such he was, gained a ready admittance into the abbey
+enclosure. Passing round the north transept of the church, he made the
+best of his way to the abbot's house, where Paslew dwelt in great state,
+keeping a separate establishment and a numerous train of domestics and
+officials.</p>
+
+<p>Paslew was in some respects a man of parsimonious habits; and though his
+bounty might now be the better excused, yet in the more prosperous days
+of his dominion he had the character of a selfish and greedy priest,
+whose charity was less than that of his predecessor, and his personal
+expenses double.</p>
+
+<p>Encouraged by the &quot;Pilgrimage of Grace,&quot; as it was then called, headed
+by one Aske, a gentleman of but mean pretensions, who yet possessed the
+art of making himself popular with the vulgar, Paslew, though apparently
+taking no open part in the rebellion, had with his monks repossessed
+their ancient seat, from which they had been driven by the decrees of
+Henry VIII.</p>
+
+<p>The rebel army had their camp at Doncaster, where the Archbishop of York
+and the Lord D'Arcy openly espoused their cause, receiving in great
+state a herald from the king's army, who came to negotiate with these
+dangerous malcontents. They had formed high notions of their own power
+and importance, and entertained sanguine hopes of success, especially
+since the Duke of Norfolk, a supporter of the ancient religion, was
+appointed to the command of the royal forces along with <!-- Page 125 --><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125" ></a>the Earl of
+Shrewsbury. The monks made themselves certain that the result would be a
+complete purification of heresy from the land, or at least that measures
+would be adopted for the purpose of forcing Henry to a restitution of
+their rights. So fully established were they in this opinion, that, as
+we have just seen, some of them took possession of their ancient
+inheritances without the tedious formality of awaiting a fresh grant
+from the king.</p>
+
+<p>The rebel army, being allured by Norfolk with vain promises of
+satisfaction, were now dispersed, though with the understanding that
+another assemblage should take place at a given notice, for which
+purpose beacons were erected at convenient distances throughout the
+north. By these means their forces could again be mustered with the
+greatest security and despatch.</p>
+
+<p>Within this interval our narrative begins. Paslew had received some
+communication from the leaders of the pilgrimage; but he seemed wishful
+to procrastinate, hoping, perhaps, he should be spared the necessity of
+any more direct treasonable demonstrations, by the timely submission of
+the king; yet his aid was of too much importance to be neglected.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger, on his introduction, was received with some ostentation,
+and not a little ceremony. They were evidently unknown to each other;
+but the keen glance of the abbot instantly detected the signal for some
+secret message. Paslew was habited in the Cistercian gown, and scapulary
+of white cloth. His eye was dark, but restless; his lips, drawn in, were
+narrow and compressed, showing the curbed impetuosity of his spirit.
+Either as a churchman or a warrior, he seemed fitted for daring
+enterprise; yet was he of a wary and cautious bearing, a characteristic
+which his monkish education had in all probability thrown over his
+natural temperament. The attendants having departed, the stranger drew
+an unsealed letter from his bosom.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A written message, my lord abbot, from the Abbot of Kirkstall. 'Tis now
+for your reverence's private regard, afterwards at your discretion.&quot; The
+abbot hastily glanced over this piece of quaint and formal latinity,
+occasionally darting a rapid and penetrating look at his visitor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He says not aught regarding so goodly a messenger,&quot; said Paslew,
+carelessly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should have marvelled if he had,&quot; returned the other, <!-- Page 126 --><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126" ></a>with a
+contemptuous smile. &quot;He knew not of so important a personage when that
+epistle was elaborated from his pen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How?&quot; said the abbot, his features gathering into a portentous scowl.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, I beseech your reverence's grace, that you throw off all such
+disturbed apprehensions; for in troth a messenger of my bearing and
+capacity were worth a knight's ransom in these evil days, when the monks
+may not abroad with safety.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Speak out. Remember I have yet the power to punish both insolence and
+treachery.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The abbot's lip curled upwards, pale and quivering with rage, not
+unmixed with apprehension.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Grammercy,&quot; said the stranger, with a provokingly careless expression
+of cool and contemptuous defiance&mdash;&quot;I cry you none&mdash;I am at present
+nameless. To work, to work, lord abbot. Thou hast holden back too long;
+and there is a shrewd suspicion abroad of thine integrity in the good
+cause. Hold!&quot; said he, rising, as the reverend prelate was on the point
+of summoning his attendants; &quot;I am not thy prisoner! Impotent, I would
+crook my finger thus, and thou shouldest crouch at my bidding. Nay,
+these be evil days, I say again; and more strange things may come to
+pass than bearding a lordly abbot in his den!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Great was the astonishment of Paslew. The stranger stood proudly erect;
+his arms were folded, and a withering glance shot from beneath his
+brows. Even John Paslew, unused to a sense of inferiority before his
+fellow-men, felt cowed before him. For the first time, in all
+likelihood, he knew not how or what to answer. The stranger interrupted
+this painful silence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Since the monks are forbidden to be out a-gadding, the cowl and
+scapulary might have found some hindrance over the moors from Kirkstall.
+With my hawk and bearing-pole, I can follow on to the sport without let
+or question.&quot; The latter part of this speech seemed to throw some light
+on the purpose for which this messenger had been selected. Paslew was
+preparing for a further inquiry, when he was again interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I tell thee, a courier of my condition may go free, though nameless.
+But to business&mdash;Norfolk is tampering with our credulity. He thinks to
+gain our time to his advantage: but the work must again be urged
+forward. Yet lack we thy aid. May <!-- Page 127 --><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127" ></a>we depend on its being faithfully
+rendered? We must have no lukewarm allies in the rear of our camp.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The stranger drew from beneath his inner vest a crucifix, with the
+representation of a chalice and of the five wounds of Christ.</p>
+
+<p>Paslew kissed the token, and his suspicions were at rest. But still,
+there was a dubiety and hesitation in his manner displeasing to the
+stranger. He would bind himself to no distinct pledge respecting the
+time of his appearance at the rebel camp; and altogether seemed to
+display either cowardice or a want of cordiality. His guest refusing to
+stay the night, on a pretext of urgent business farther north, departed
+soon after the termination of their interview.</p>
+
+<p>The night was fast closing when the strangers left the abbey. One by one
+the pale stars seemed to start out, as if just lighted up in the blue
+vault. The dark woods threw their giant arms around the sacred domain,
+as though to guard it against unhallowed intrusion. The travellers had
+gained the steep ascent towards the south-east, from whence the river,
+winding down the narrow valley, seemed as if here and there a spark was
+floating on its quiet surface&mdash;the lights, gliding on the opposite
+brink, fell distinct and unbroken upon the stream. The soft voice of the
+current grew strangely audible, in contrast with the deep silence; the
+wind rolling it round to the ear at intervals startling and abrupt.</p>
+
+<p>Preceded by a guide, they had taken the rough mountain road, leading
+from the abbey into the forest of Pendle, the stranger and his servant
+still walking, or rather climbing, for their journey could only be
+accomplished on foot. Having proceeded about two miles on this rugged
+path, they diverged to the left, where the only indication to assist
+their guide was the turf-cutters' track and a few heaps of stones,
+scarcely distinguishable from the common mass, but by an eye accustomed
+to these land-marks. Carefully were they sought for at times, the
+blazing torch carried by their leader being often requisite for the
+search.</p>
+
+<p>They now descended by a narrow and steep ravine, the termination of
+which brought them to a small brook. This they crossed, and again
+commenced a sharp and troublesome ascent. The mighty Pendle rose up
+before them, huge and dark, engrossing half the hemisphere. To this
+point, it seemed, their path was directed. The guide now trimmed his
+torch, the smoke from which had for some time been rather an
+accompaniment <!-- Page 128 --><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128" ></a>than an assistance to their toil, as it caused them to
+loiter at an inconvenient distance, thereby enhancing the difficulties
+they had to encounter. Slow and toilsome was their progress, yet a
+patient continuance in any path will sooner or later lead to the end.
+The brow of the hill seemed rapidly diminishing; the abrupt steep was at
+length gained, when the whole glorious garniture of the heavens,
+uninterrupted, from that majestic height, was suddenly revealed. True,
+it was a November night, but unusually clear and vivid; the stars seemed
+to burn rather than shine, so piercing was their effulgence. The vast
+track of the milky way appeared to span the dark and level platform,
+like the bow of some triumphal arch. They seemed to stand on a huge
+circle, black, bare,&mdash;its verge unapproachable, contrasting deeply with
+the encompassing splendour. Proceeding onwards, a dark speck was
+visible, springing out abruptly from the verge of the horizon. Its bulk
+rapidly increased, their path evidently tending in that direction. A
+shrill whistle from the guide was now answered by a corresponding
+signal. Presently they were challenged by a sentinel.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>Vale</i>&quot; growled out the rough voice of their conductor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it thou, Will?&quot; said the guard. &quot;And what neck art thou fitting for
+the noose; breeding occupation for the hangsman, I trow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not half so ripe as thine own, gossip. Here be two gentles that have
+commission, I guess, to look at the beacons, to see they are in trim and
+properly watched. 'Tis well the guard is set. Holloa, Nicholas Dewhurst,
+bring the flagon. I am wheezing like an old wife's bellows, nigh
+disinherited of my birthright, the free quaffing o' the air. I shall die
+and be canonised.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Will, in his eagerness to attain this glorious end, left his companions
+with the sentinel, who speedily conducted them into a rude hut, erected
+as a temporary shelter to those on the look-out for signals. In this
+narrow shed a lamp was burning. Two of the abbot's servants, stretched
+before a smouldering heap of turf, were scarcely roused by the
+vociferations of Will, as he strode over them in his way to the
+provender. A long pull, and a loud smack, announced the satisfactory
+relish that ensued.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hoa, ye lozel knaves!&mdash;who sleeps when Will's awake?&quot; This reflection
+was accompanied by a smart blow on that part of the recumbent's person
+where it was most conveniently administered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 129 --><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129" ></a>Begone, sot!&quot; was the abrupt reply, not over-abundantly expressive of
+good humour at this disturbance. Will looked again towards the flagon;
+but great was his dismay on beholding it in the very act of disemboguing
+its precious contents into another gulf as insatiable as his own. Ralph
+Newcome, incited thereto by his own discrimination, together with the
+resistless relish of their guide, as soon as the latter had partially
+concluded, took up the subject, and long, powerful, and undeviating were
+the requisitions that he made.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Plague on thy civility!&mdash;A fly will drink from anybody's cup, and so
+will a Yorkshireman,&quot; growled the uncourteous churl.</p>
+
+<p>Ralph had, however, braced himself tightly to the task, and stood with
+an air of dogged defiance, stoutly confronting his accuser,&mdash;though,
+being a man of few words, the principal weight of the argument rested
+upon Will, whose eloquence was with difficulty interrupted on any
+subject.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Peace,&quot; said one of the sleepers, raising himself half-way,&mdash;&quot;I think
+we be like to bide here till our bones rot. There's nought but the same
+dun sky,&mdash;black, black, and unchanging. I should like to see a stiff
+blaze from some quarter. Our bundle, here, would soon be in a low.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hark!&quot; said the other, &quot;'tis something creaking amongst the faggots.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The sentinel rushed out, but the beacon was undisturbed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;St Mary protect us!&mdash;'Tis the same noise I heard last night, and about
+the same hour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The stranger here entered the hut. Enveloped in a huge cloak, he sate
+silent, and apparently inattentive; but the conversation was now abrupt,
+and broken down into short and interrupted whispers.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wish old Hal and his wives were here, with all my heart,&quot; said one:
+&quot;we'd have a rare bonfire. How his fat paunch would swell! But for him
+and his unlucky women, we had been snug in the chimney-corner, snoring
+out psalmody, or helping old Barn'by off with the tit-bits in the
+kitchen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hush!&quot; said his neighbour: &quot;there be the faggots talking again. I think
+they are bewitched.&mdash;Dan, look to them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay,&quot; said Dan, &quot;they may bide awhile for me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The words were scarcely uttered when the building seemed in a blaze.
+Crash upon crash followed. The inmates, stupified with terror, were well
+nigh suffocated ere their astonishment left <!-- Page 130 --><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130" ></a>them the power to escape.
+In the full conviction that the foul fiend had taken him at his word,
+Dan was dragged from the hut, wan, speechless, and gasping with
+affright. Nothing less, too, than a visit from his Satanic majesty in
+person was expected by the terrified rustics.</p>
+
+<p>On gaining the outside, the whole burning mass was before them, one vast
+pyramid of flame. Flakes of blazing matter were hurled into the sky,
+with short and rapid explosions. The roar of the wind through the
+glowing furnace was awful and appalling. Huge and ignited fragments were
+borne away with frightful rapidity. They rode on the rolling volumes of
+smoke like fire-fiends armed with destruction; but the vast reservoir of
+flame still glowed on, apparently undiminished. The curtain of night
+seemed to be suddenly undrawn. Objects the most minute were visible as
+in the broad view of day. The brown heath, the grey and the mossy stone,
+were each distinguishable, but clad alike in one bright and unvarying
+colour, red as the roaring furnace. Soon the great magazine of
+inflammable matter in the interior caught fire, and rolled out in a wide
+mass of light, like the first burst of a volcano.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger stood with apparent unconcern, his back to the flames,
+looking from the brink of the mountain northward, as if on the watch for
+corresponding signals. Soon a bright star hung on the heights above
+Sawley. Increasing in splendour, another broke out on the verge of the
+horizon, marking the site of the camp near Romald's Moor.</p>
+
+<p>Turning towards the south-west, and looking to the right, beyond the
+chain of successive heights that form the vale of Todmorden, he beheld a
+dim spark in the distance, from the summit of Hades Hill, scarcely
+penetrating the mist which hung like a dense cloud in that direction;
+this place and Thieveley Pike forming the connecting-links between
+Pendle Hill and Buckton Castle.</p>
+
+<p>The terrified attendants knew too well the results which would follow
+this unaccountable and irreparable mistake. The whole country would be
+in commotion. Hordes of zealous and fanatic idlers and malcontents would
+repair to the appointed rendezvous, and this premature, and perhaps
+fatal movement, would be attributed to their carelessness. Paslew, not
+over-nice in discriminating their several deserts, would doubtless
+subject them to immediate and condign punishment.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 131 --><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131" ></a>These were thoughts common to each, unquestionable and conclusive; but
+what answer to give, or what excuse to make, was far from being decided
+upon with the same degree of certainty.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We shall be hanged without mercy,&quot; was the dread sum of these
+uncomfortable reflections.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know not what you may be,&quot; said Will; &quot;but I intend to run for it.
+I've an old dame would make a sore disturbance at my death, more
+especially if dangling from the gallows-tree, which of all the trees in
+the wood hath been my aversion ever since I saw Long Tom of the Nab make
+so uncomfortable a shriving from thence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Run, then,&quot; said Nicholas, rather stoutly, and in a tone of more
+confidence than heretofore. &quot;I'll stay my ground this bout; and,
+further, I do propose to commit yon knaves into the holy keeping of our
+four-cornered crib, where they may be indulged in recreations of another
+sort than setting the whole country by the ears. 'Twill save our necks
+to slip theirs into the noose.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This happy suggestion, the whole of these honest and conscientious
+servants of the church were prepared to obey. They might with safety
+accuse the strangers; indeed, it was more than probable they had hit out
+the right source of the mischief; so, marching up boldly to the
+execution of this Christian purpose, they were proceeding to lay hands
+on the foremost of the culprits. At this critical moment he turned
+suddenly round. Perhaps from a prior suspicion of their intentions, or
+from the knavish cast of their countenances, he saw that hostilities
+were in contemplation: at any rate, he seemed to be prepared for the
+event. Will, being the mouthpiece of the party, and accustomed,
+moreover, at times to a precise and methodical manner of delivery, was
+the chief speaker.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sir, we arrest you for high treason. You are charged with firing off
+beacons without our privity or consent, thereby endangering the safety
+of the lord abbot, and the peaceable governing of this realm.&quot; He
+paused, quaking even at his own eloquence; but the stranger made no
+reply, till, throwing aside his cloak, he drew out a hagbut or
+demi-hague as it was sometimes called, being a sort of small harquebuss,
+with its match ready kindled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell the Abbot of Whalley that neither ye nor the whole horde of drones
+and drivellers about his hive, shall take me <!-- Page 132 --><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132" ></a>against my own liberty and
+consent. Hold back! Your first step, is your last, save to your grave! I
+will see the abbot shortly, but not by your grace or assistance.&quot; Saying
+this, he bounded down the steep like the roused deer, in its first pride
+of flight, scorning the chase. The light flashing from his weapons
+marked his form rapidly receding from their grasp.</p>
+
+<p>But Ralph, who, as we may suppose, was minded to imitate the evolutions
+of his master, being it seemed of a more heavy and considerate
+demeanour, paused for a space ere he leapt.</p>
+
+<p>This deliberation was fatal to his enterprise. The enemy, recovering
+from their confusion, seized him in default of his master, and without
+further ado bore him away as a visible acquittance of themselves to the
+abbot. There could be no great harm in throwing the blame of this
+unlucky affair on the companion of the escaped incendiary: besides, it
+would be an effective lesson to him on the danger of keeping bad
+company.</p>
+
+<p>Through bog and brake, over moor and mountain, they hurried on with
+their prisoner, who, dooming them all to &quot;clootie&quot; and his imps, and
+commending himself to Michael, Mary, and a number of his especial
+patrons in the Romish calendar, was urged forward with more than their
+usual speed.</p>
+
+<p>The blaze had ceased to be visible when they came to the last descent
+towards the village. Far and wide the alarm had spread; consternation
+and inquiry were on every countenance. The guards were besieged with
+anxious faces, supplicating intelligence, and much impeded thereby in
+their progress to the abbey.</p>
+
+<p>Outside the gates they found a dense crowd waiting for the news. The
+abbot and his brethren were in close council, expecting every moment the
+arrival of warders from the beacon.</p>
+
+<p>They were hurried into the chapter-house, together with their prisoner,
+who had now taken to the sulks, refusing any reply to the numerous
+inquiries made by the servants who followed, eager for the final
+disclosure.</p>
+
+<p>The room was lighted by a single lamp. Little of the interior was
+visible, save the grim and ascetic faces of the monks who sat nearest to
+the centre of illumination. Their features, in deep masses of alternate
+light and shadow, looked as if carved out, hard and immovable, from the
+oak wainscot. <!-- Page 133 --><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133" ></a>Occasionally, a dull roll of the eye relieved the
+oppressive stillness, and the gazer would look out from the mystic world
+he inhabited, through these loop-holes of sense, into the world of
+sympathies and affections, with which he had long ceased to hold
+communion.</p>
+
+<p>Paslew was standing when they entered. His bushy grey eyebrows threw a
+strange and almost unnatural shade over the deep recesses beneath,
+across which, at times, like the foam swept over the dark billows of the
+spirit, a light and glowing track was visible, marking the powerful
+conflict within.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nicholas Dewhurst and Daniel Haydock.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He shaded his eyes from the light, as he thus addressed the foremost of
+the party who had just entered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;From what quarter was the signal first visible?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My lord,&quot; said Dan, &quot;we are but unworthy of your highness' grace, did
+we not answer truly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Quick!&mdash;Thou art slower to thine answers than thy words. Why tarriest
+thou?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If your highness will pardon&quot;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What?&quot; said Paslew, in a voice that made the culprits quake. &quot;I pardon
+nothing. What means this silence?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Please your reverence,&quot; said Will, now advancing from the rear, his
+rhetorical flourishes somewhat curtailed, and his confidence thereby
+wonderfully abated, &quot;the first signal was our own, lighted by an
+incendiary, to wit, and here we bring him to your highness' reverence
+for judgment. We ordered the rope and the broad beam to be ready by
+daybreak.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It were idle to paint the astonishment and dismay which this short
+narrative produced. Paslew immediately saw the dangers by which he was
+involved. He was, by this desperate and unfortunate act, at once
+committed to the measures from which he had hitherto kept aloof, and he
+must now stand foremost in the cause, or tamely submit to the infuriate
+vengeance which this overt act of rebellion would inevitably hasten. He
+had hoped that, sheltered in this quiet nook, he should escape without
+being made a party in the contest, and rest secure until hotter heads
+and lighter brains had fought the battles that would leave him in
+possession of the spoil. If the king's party were triumphant, he fancied
+that, by seeming to take little or no part in the hostilities then
+abroad, his house might be spared in the general wreck that would ensue;
+but all these schemes <!-- Page 134 --><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134" ></a>of deep-laid policy and ambition were in a moment
+dissipated. No time was to be lost. The whole country would instantly be
+in array, and the beacon-light of Pendle proclaim Paslew as the source
+and instigator of this second rebellion. It would be in vain to stay the
+rising. Some enemy of his house, or some desperate adventurer, wishful
+to further his own schemes at another's expense, was doubtless the
+author of this mischief. The whole was but the discovery of a moment.
+Almost before the dark thought was visible on the brow he cried out&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bring forward the traitor!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Ralph, on the first hearing of this accusation, strode forward, even
+to the table, where sat the awful conclave astonished at his temerity.
+He stood calmly erect, surveying his judges with a countenance scarcely
+moved from its usually hard and stolid expression.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If it be true,&quot; cried he, &quot;as these idlers do aver, I am here to
+answer. If it be false, they must look to it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The abbot frowned at this presumptuous speech.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who art thou?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Marry, an ass ridden by fools.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Knave, see thou be discreet and respectful in thine answers. There be
+whipping-posts for knaves, and stocks for the correction of fools.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, if it be for the matter of my name, I trow, 'tis of an honest
+Christian-like and well-conditioned flavour; comes out of the mouth
+sharp as a beer-spigot. Men call me Ralph.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And from whence?&quot; said the abbot, impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;These knaves of thy breeding can tell best. 'Tis a road I never before
+travelled; and, by your grace's favour, I do not mean to jog on it
+again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is servant to the stranger yeoman whom your worship entertained a
+few hours back, on some private errand,&quot; said one of the auditors.</p>
+
+<p>A sharp guess at the truth raised a slight quiver on the abbot's lip.
+The conversation of the stranger, the anxiety he displayed, with that of
+his brother of Kirkstall, seemed to point out the source and cause of
+his disaster.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, varlet, answer truly, or thou diest,&quot; said Paslew, with a
+significant shake of the finger. &quot;At whose instigation hast thou
+committed this foul treason against our house, and the good prospering
+of this realm?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 135 --><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135" ></a>The deed was not mine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Believe him not, my lord,&mdash;we are upon our testimony,&quot; said the
+accusers.</p>
+
+<p>Ralph, turning aside, met them face to face. He commenced a short but
+shrewd examination, as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You were a-watching, I suppose?&quot; said he, carelessly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ay, were we,&quot; sharply replied three or four ready tongues.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then, how could I fire the beacon without your leave?&quot; A short pause
+evinced their dislike to this question; but Will, more ready than
+discreet, soon summoned assurance to meet the inquiry, thus&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My lord, we had just taken them into the hut, thinking to show them a
+courtesy; but that knave's throat holds more liquor than his mother's
+kneading-trough, or&quot;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If in the hut, how could I set the beacon in a low?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But thou hadst a companion,&quot; hastily shouted Nicholas, finding their
+first position untenable.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And how comes it to pass that ye be taking or guiding thither any
+person, and more particularly wayfarers, whom we know not? How comes it,
+I say, that ye suffer this without my permission?&quot; said the abbot,
+sternly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will was their guide; and we cared not to refuse your reverence's
+messenger.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My messenger!&quot; returned Paslew, with a glance that almost bent them to
+the ground.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Please your highness,&quot; said Will, falling on his knees, &quot;the stranger
+was a-visiting of the beacons, so said he, to know if they were
+carefully watched. He came to me, as with an authority from your
+reverence, and I mounted them up to the guard-house, unwillingly enough.
+'Tis a sore pull for a pair of shanks like mine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The abbot now saw plainly into the machinations by which he had been
+betrayed, and reprimanding his men for their negligence, and so careless
+an observance of his commands, ordered them off severally to the stocks.
+Their lamentations were loud but unavailing, especially when they found
+that Ralph was simply dismissed, for a space, to solitary confinement.</p>
+
+<p>Yet was Paslew still at a loss to determine whence this subtle device
+originated, unless from his brother of Kirkstall, and he resolved to
+question Ralph secretly. It was owing to this pur<!-- Page 136 --><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136" ></a>pose probably that the
+usual summary process of executive justice was not more speedily
+administered.</p>
+
+<p>A great marvel and gossip, as may readily be supposed, now arose
+throughout the whole country. Rumour, with her hundred tongues, flew
+fast, and her wide wings overspread the land. From all quarters,
+conformably to the signal, the levies marched with great rapidity to
+Doncaster, where they found Lord D'Arcy, who seemed to feel, or to
+feign, astonishment at this sudden rising without his orders. One and
+all proclaimed that the appointed signal was from the Abbot of Whalley,
+at whose war-inciting torch the whole line of beacons had been kindled.
+A messenger, however, was soon forwarded to the camp, from Paslew, with
+an explanation of the affair, while at the same time he demanded their
+aid for the discovery and punishment of the offenders. But D'Arcy and
+Aske were too well pleased to see Paslew's crafty and selfish plans
+frustrated, whilst he was irretrievably committed to their cause. Tired
+of waiting the tardy result of negotiations with their sovereign, these
+ambitious spirits were glad to behold their army once more menacing the
+royalist position, hoping it would either quicken or terminate these
+dilatory proceedings. But the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of
+Shrewsbury, at the news of this unexpected rising, were mightily amazed.
+Their plans were at once terminated. Their emissaries had failed to
+bring intelligence previously of the intended gathering. In the midst of
+their dilemma word was brought that the Abbot of Whalley had first
+lighted up the blaze of insurrection. Secretly resolving that this
+meddling priest should sorely rue his mischievous exploit, they again
+found themselves unwillingly obliged to enter into fresh stipulations
+with their adversaries, though determining on delay, if possible, in the
+hope of dividing their leaders, and of extinguishing the rebellion in
+detail.</p>
+
+<p>But we would crave the reader's return to the abbey, where Ralph was
+left in strict durance, and possibly in some danger from the vindictive
+purposes of the abbot.</p>
+
+<p>Early on the following morning he was aroused from a deeptoned and
+laborious stertoration, by a figure that shook him as he lay, in a
+somewhat unceremonious fashion. The intruder was wrapped in a thick
+cloak or tunic, and he stood gruffly erect by the straw couch, whereon
+the prisoner's night-dreams had nestled in their first existence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 137 --><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137" ></a>I marvel thou sleepest so soundly! Thou art the first knave, I trow,
+that hast welcomed these walls with so loud a clarion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what should ail the well-earned slumbers of Ralph Newcome? His
+sleep may be as sound as some of those, mayhap, that have softer beds
+and gayer clothing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But the gallows, man!&mdash;Hast had no glimpse of the noose in thy night
+visions?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Peradventure the hemp is not sown that shall make my collar. When the
+hangsman comes, 'tis time enough to wake; so, I pray thee, bereave not a
+poor man of the only solace the rich cannot purchase from him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art a plain-spoken varlet, and I would but ask thy master's name
+and condition. Answer me straight&mdash;no equivocation, no shuffling or
+evasion shall serve thee; 'tis a stale device now, and will not avail.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And who art thou, friend, that hast such a greedy appetite for men's
+names, thou canst not rest a-bed for the craving of thy stomach?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am the abbot, and thou a prisoner in this good house. Fearful odds,
+methinks, for the strife.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now hark thee, most reverend abbot, my name thou knowest at a
+peradventure: but for the name of my master, as thou callest him, seeing
+it be a notable secret, thou mightest as well go ask his goshawk yonder,
+who, I guess, continues an unworthy prisoner as well as myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll have the truth wrung from thy tongue. Thumbscrews and iron mittens
+will not be denied so easily.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Humph!&quot; said Ralph; &quot;these be rare things for cracking the shell; but,
+for all that, I wot they'll not get at the kernel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What! defiest thou my power?&mdash;in my own custody too?&quot; Paslew grew pale
+with anger; but the impolicy of this proceeding soon suggested itself to
+his wary, though at times impetuous, temper. Yet the stubborn
+disposition of his prisoner resisted alike his cajolements and his
+threats.</p>
+
+<p>In vain were offers of reward multiplied; nor bribe nor entreaty could
+avail. Paslew then left him, threatening to extract by force what milder
+measures had failed to elicit. He had that morning despatched a
+messenger to the rebel chiefs at Doncaster with an explanation of the
+accident, likewise with an assurance <!-- Page 138 --><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138" ></a>of his good wishes to the cause;
+but still he delayed to go in person, or to send his quota of levies.</p>
+
+<p>True, however, to his threats, if not to his promises, towards the close
+of the day he again visited the dungeon. He was accompanied by two grim
+attendants, whom he ordered to wait outside until their services should
+be required.</p>
+
+<p>Ralph was striding lustily, and with evident impatience, over the damp
+floor; yet he scarcely seemed to notice the entrance of the abbot.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How now!&mdash;Hast had aught, by way of special discovery, touching the
+name thou hadst forgotten this morning?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, I have had a notable discovery therein,&quot; said Ralph, still holding
+on his pace diagonally, as heretofore.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And may we graciously participate in the result? Doubtless 'tis a
+comfortable and happy revelation,&quot; said the abbot.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis to beware of three most unlucky things, persons, or properties, I
+trow,&mdash;to wit, a parson's maid, a prior's sow, and an abbot's dinner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what lack they in thy honest esteem?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A parson's maid lacks honesty,&mdash;a prior's sow a litter,&mdash;and an abbot's
+dinner lacks me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Or, rather, thou lackest it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, troth, I am not over-nice in the disposition of vain words; nor
+should I be over-nice in the disposal of some light scraps from your
+reverence's buttery.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast not dined?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Peradventure not at thy cost.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perchance an empty stomach may be the more apt to yield. A full belly
+makes a stout heart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know not. But hasten, I beseech thee. Thy questions over, we may make
+merry together. Nothing less than a full flagon and a prime haunch will
+suffice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Ralph rubbed his hands at the bare idea of these prospective dainties.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wilt thou now disclose the name of thy master?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No,&quot; said Ralph; &quot;and now for dinner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prythee, in what haste?&quot; returned Paslew, with a grin of cruel and
+malicious irony. &quot;There be some slight preliminaries to
+adjust,&mdash;something to season thy haunch and whet thine appetite.&quot; He
+stamped with his foot, and the two attendants entered, bearing
+instruments of uncouth and horrid appearance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 139 --><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139" ></a>Thou mayest spare my bones and thy gimcracks. With all thy screwing,
+thou canst not yet squeeze raindrops from the rock.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I cry thee favour. Thou hast dared the stroke,&mdash;thou hast courted the
+vengeance thou wouldest withstand, but thou shalt yield or break. Seize
+him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Stand back, caitiffs!&quot; said Ralph, with a look of deep and unutterable
+scorn. &quot;But to thee!&mdash;words would fail to express my contempt, my
+derision, my defiance of thy puny power! Read, and skulk back to thy
+cell!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He drew from his doublet a small roll of parchment, which Paslew, with
+unfeigned astonishment and vexation, recognised as a safe warranty from
+the Archbishop of York, wherein the bearer, under whatever manner or
+distinction he might choose to adopt, was charged with a secret mission
+from the leaders of the &quot;<i>Pilgrimage</i>&quot; touching the success and
+wellbeing of the Catholic faith, and the prosperity of the Holy Church.
+All abbots, priests, and others, being true sons of the Church, were
+called on to aid and comfort him in the due exercise of his mission, to
+furnish him with a safe passage, and to obey his bidding without let or
+question.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Herein fail not at your peril!&quot; said Ralph, eyeing the abbot with a
+glance of cool and deliberate scorn.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why was not this protection from his grace given to me before?&quot;
+inquired Paslew, beseechingly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That thy deceit and double-dealing-might be the more manifest.
+Yesternight thou didst refuse thine aid until the beacon of insurrection
+should be kindled. When kindled, and upon thine own ground, too, still
+thou holdest back! But think not to escape!&mdash;Think not to watch in
+safety whilst others work. Whoever wins in this perilous game, thou wilt
+lose. Marked out for destruction, thine own policy will betray thee.
+Choose thee one party, and thou hast yet one chance of safety. But
+double-dealers, such as thou, do ever tumble into the trap baited by
+their own cunning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will his Grace of York expect my presence at the camp?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is needful thou make thy peace either with him or with the king,&quot;
+said Ralph: &quot;yet am I bold to tell thee, that with Harry thine hope of
+reconciliation is past. The news, ere this, hath reached Norfolk's ear,
+and the beacon-light of Pendle, the first blaze and signal of the
+insurrection, denounces the Abbot <!-- Page 140 --><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140" ></a>of Whalley as a ringleader, and as
+having first kindled the torch of rebellion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>With a malicious smile, cruel as the triumph of the fiend at the
+torments of his victim, did this mysterious foe exhibit to him the toils
+that had been, during his unsuspecting security, wound about him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thine only hope is from his grace; go with me, and thou mayest yet
+dwell in safety, and thine house be established.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Paslew saw with dismay the dark gulf which yawned on either hand, and
+the net so craftily prepared to entangle him. His only hope of security,
+however, was a prompt acquiescence in the plan pointed out by the
+stranger, who accordingly engaged to conduct him without delay to the
+appointed rendezvous.</p>
+
+<p>Passing over the difficulties of the journey, the accidents by the way,
+the slips and damages of sumpter-horses, and their often trackless march
+over the hills, let us behold Paslew, after some narrow escapes from the
+royalist forces, taking up his quarters at an obscure lodging hard by
+the town of Doncaster, and nigh to the cantonments of the rebel chiefs,
+whose forces were once more in formidable array, occupying a conspicuous
+position on the left bank of the river Don.</p>
+
+<p>The left wing of the royalist troops was flanked by a deep morass,
+called Potterie Car; and their right protected by the walls of the town.</p>
+
+<p>The morning that followed Paslew's arrival was the time appointed for a
+general attack by the rebels, who considerably outnumbered the more
+disciplined but less zealous army of their sovereign, D'Arcy and his
+associates intending to cross the river by daybreak, with the utmost
+secrecy, hoping to take the royalist forces by surprise.</p>
+
+<p>Paslew arrived alone, just as the consultation of the chiefs was
+breaking up. His companion, Ralph, had left him some hours before, and
+galloped on at full speed, first giving directions as to the course he
+should take, and the measures he was to adopt on his arrival. Conducted
+in due form to the archbishop's presence, Paslew found his grace at
+supper. The repast was sumptuous, and served up in great state. This
+high dignitary seldom stirred but with his kitchen-furniture and service
+for the table, which last was of massy silver, beautifully wrought and
+embellished. His servants were apparelled in all the pomp and insignia
+of office; but he affected great plainness <!-- Page 141 --><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141" ></a>and simplicity, both of
+dress and demeanour. At his right hand sat a stout, muscular figure,
+whom Paslew immediately recognised, with unequivocal demonstrations of
+surprise, to be his umquhile prisoner Ralph Newcome, now habited in a
+plain suit of velvet, and looking like a country gentleman of some rank
+and importance. His manner was, however, coarse and abrupt; and he still
+seemed nothing loth to sustain his full complement of liquor. On the
+left of the archbishop sat his nameless visitor at the abbey, whose
+personal accomplishments he had good cause to remember. Below them sat
+several chiefs of the confederacy, apparently of an inferior rank.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Abbot Paslew,&quot; said his grace, &quot;thou art a tardy, and it may be
+undutiful son. Thine homage to the Church has not been either freely or
+faithfully rendered; yet does she now welcome thee to her embrace, with
+the promise of a free and unconditional forgiveness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ay,&quot; said he of his grace's right hand, &quot;Abbot Paslew was of too great
+weight in the scale of events to be left to choose his own side of the
+balance. I am right fain of his company, and in troth he can use the
+persuasions well,&mdash;the thumbscrews and tight boots upon occasion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Master Aske,&quot; replied the archbishop, &quot;if the sons that our mother hath
+suckled and nourished from her own grace and bounty were every of them
+as true as thou art, who yet receivest not of her temporal favours, then
+would her kingdom be enlarged, and her arms should outstretch to the
+utmost verge and compass of all visible things. But there be evil men
+and seducers abroad, traitors to their altar and their faith.&quot; Here he
+paused, but presently continued, &quot;My friends, though our religion be
+meek and lowly, yet does it not deny to us the comforts but sparingly
+scattered through this vain and perishing world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>His grace here filled a cup of spiced sack, inviting Paslew to partake
+of their humble entertainment. Bewildered and intimidated, he yet obeyed
+with all due reverence and courtesy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Confusion to the heretic king!&quot; cried he on the left of the archbishop,
+filling his glass, and at the same time taking especial note that the
+guests should repeat this bold and startling treason.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lord D'Arcy,&quot; said one of the guests, &quot;thou hast imbibed that wish so
+oft in thy drink, that should the king catch thee he <!-- Page 142 --><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142" ></a>may find it
+branded in thy four quarters, when they are cut up to ornament his
+majesty's posterns.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what might he find on thine, Norton?&quot; said the fiery leader.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A cook's rolling-pin and a mutton pasty.&quot; A loud laugh here announced
+the hit, of which this sally was the bearer, it being levelled directly
+at the well-known propensities of the personage to whom it was
+addressed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come, friends all,&quot; said the archbishop; &quot;let not the gibe and jest go
+round; there be matters of graver import that should occupy us this
+night. To-morrow, let the elements be propitious, and the day is won.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Od's life,&quot; said Aske; &quot;surely the rain will not again prevent us from
+passing the river, as it did in our last campaign.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If it do,&quot; cried a deep and melancholy voice from the lower end of the
+table, &quot;then will I say this Pilgrimage of Grace is the device of man,
+and not of God, and the work will not prosper.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This ominous anticipation seemed to strike terror into the most
+stout-hearted. &quot;Foul fa' the croaking raven!&quot; said Aske. &quot;No good comes
+on't, when the Lord of Ravenswood breaks from his usual silence.
+Mischief follows, safe as the bolt after the flash.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hush! my son,&quot; said the archbishop to this bird of ill-omen; &quot;thou
+speakest unwisely. 'Tis not for us to adjudge the displeasure of Heaven
+upon slight testimonies. He trieth our faith, when the dark cloud
+overshadoweth His mercy. But let us not dishonour this good cause, and
+weaken our hands by indulging in such gloomy anticipations. The night
+showeth little token of a change, and when I was last abroad, the river
+passed on, shallow and murmuring, over the ford.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The guests were fully occupied to a late hour in discussing the plan of
+attack, the occupation of the town, together with subsequent
+arrangements; after which, with mutual anticipations of success, the
+company departed.</p>
+
+<p>Paslew, on retiring to his chamber, though much fatigued, found himself
+unable to sleep. The dark chaos of events brooded heavily upon his
+brain. Feverish and excited, the dread to-morrow seemed already pressing
+on the past, mingling its deep and unseen flood with the full tide of
+existence. The whirl and eddy, created by the conflict, lashed his
+thoughts almost to madness. He grew appalled. The billows blackened as
+they rose. He seemed sinking, overwhelmed in the struggle, and the
+spirit <!-- Page 143 --><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143" ></a>quivered as they passed. He arose, darting an anxious glance
+through the low casement. The moon was riding on the top of a huge
+mountain of clouds towards the north-west. As he gazed they came rapidly
+athwart the heavens, like the wings of some terrible demon visibly
+unfolding. On a sudden the door of his chamber flew open. He started
+forward to meet the intruder, but there was no footstep&mdash;no sound save
+the hurrying gusts that foreran the approaching tempest. Soon like a
+mighty deluge it burst on at once in its full vigour, as though it would
+overwhelm creation once more in immediate ruin. The roll of the river
+answered swiftly to the tempest's voice, now swollen to a huge and
+foaming torrent, rising rapidly over its level banks, and threatening
+devastation on every side. Paslew quaked. Gloomy forebodings crept upon
+him. He beheld in this strange visitation another and a manifest
+interposition of Heaven, fighting against the cause he had unhappily
+espoused. Rest was out of the question, his whole thoughts being
+occupied in the contrivance of measures for his own immediate safety.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning consternation had seized the whole camp. They beheld the
+muddy and turbulent waters before them, again frustrating their hopes,
+levelling their proud schemes, and fighting visibly and irresistibly
+against them, in front of their adversaries. So intimidated were the
+troops, and so convinced that their cause was now hopeless, that not all
+the persuasions and threatenings of their leaders, nor the archbishop's
+promises of an eternal reward, could prevent the breaking up of this
+vast multitude, and the hasty dispersion of the rebel host.</p>
+
+<p>Ere morning Paslew was gone. He liked not the dust from a falling house.
+Weary and alone he came back to his dwelling on the tenth day after his
+departure.</p>
+
+<p>From this time danger and misfortune crowded fast upon that devoted
+house. The dark course of events unfolded with frightful rapidity, and
+Paslew, by many a vain contrivance, sought to avert the king's
+displeasure and his own doom. A relaxation of some measures more than
+ordinarily severe was attempted; and we find, from existing records,
+that a pension of ten marks per annum was granted to Thomas Cromwell,
+the king's secretary and principal visitor,&mdash;whether in the way of bribe
+or fee is not certain.</p>
+
+<p>It shows, however, the humiliating and submissive circumstances to which
+the monks were now reduced. They were <!-- Page 144 --><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144" ></a>indeed fallen from that high
+estate, when kings were their tributaries, and empires too narrow for
+the wide grasp of their ambition. The following is a copy of Thomas
+Cromwell's indulgence, taken from the Townley MSS.:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To all estates due honour and reverence, and to all other commendacioun
+in our Lord everlastyng. Know ye that we John, abbot of ye monasterie of
+our blessed Ladie of Whalley, in Com. Lanc., by ye assente and consente
+of ye convente, have freely granted untoe ye right honourable Mr Tho.
+Cromwell, secretarie, general visitor, and principal official to our
+most sovereign Lord Kyng Hen. VIII., an annual rent or fee of vi: xiii:
+iv: yerele, to be paide at ye nativitie of St John Baptist unto ye saide
+Maister Thomas Cromwell. Wee, ye saide abbot and convent have put to ye
+same our handes and common seale. Yeven at Whalley 1st Jan. 28 Hen.
+VIII.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But every act of submission, every stratagem and advice, had failed to
+ward off the blow. Within ten weeks from the date of this document there
+was neither abbot nor abbey of Whalley.</p>
+
+<p>After the dispersion, imprisonment, and execution of the principal
+leaders of the rebellion, the day of reckoning and retribution was at
+hand. Shrewsbury, by the king's orders, sent a herald with a troop of
+horse, who, taking Paslew, Eastgate, Haydock, and some others of the
+monks prisoners, they were arraigned at Lancaster, and convicted of high
+treason. On the 12th March 1537, Paslew was conveyed back to Whalley for
+execution, where, in a field called the Holehouses, immediately facing
+the house of his birth, a gallows was erected, on which Paslew and
+Eastgate suffered punishment or martyrdom, for the story varies
+according to the bias of the party by whom it is told. Haydock was
+carried to Padiham, and died there the same ignominious death on the day
+following. The monks, driven from their asylum, escaped into France,
+with the exception of a few, who lingered near the scenes of their
+former enjoyments, hovering like departed hopes round the ruin to which
+they clung.</p>
+
+<div class="center"><!-- Page 145 --><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145" ></a><!-- Page 146 --><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146" ></a>
+<img src="images/10.png" width="600" height="411" alt="HORNBY CASTLE.
+
+Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden." title="" />
+<b>HORNBY CASTLE.<br />
+
+<i>Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw<sup>d</sup> Finden.</i></b>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Whitaker's Hist. Whalley.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="SIR_EDWARD_STANLEY" id="SIR_EDWARD_STANLEY" ></a><!-- Page 147 --><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147" ></a>SIR EDWARD STANLEY.</h2>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Why, then, the world's mine oyster,<br /></span>
+<span>Which I with sword will open!&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&quot;God never wrought <i>miracles</i> to convince atheism, because His
+     ordinary works convince it.&quot;&mdash;<i>Bacon</i>.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;No man doubts of a Supreme Being, until, from the consciousness of
+     his provocations, it becomes his interest there should be
+     none.&quot;&mdash;<i>Government of the Tongue.</i></p>
+
+<p>     &quot;Men are atheistical because they are first vicious, and question
+     the <i>truth</i> of Christianity because they hate
+     the <i>practice</i>.&quot;&mdash;<i>South.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>The following will, perhaps, be thought misplaced as a polemical
+subject. But in relating what may be conceived as the true motive that
+incited Sir Edward Stanley to the founding of that beautiful structure
+Hornby Chapel, we may be allowed to show the operation as well as the
+effect&mdash;to trace the steps by which his conversion from an awful and
+demoralising infidelity was accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>We have borrowed some of the arguments from &quot;Leslie's Short Method with
+the Deists,&quot; condensing and illustrating them as the subject seemed to
+require. We hope to be pardoned this freedom; the nature of the question
+would necessarily refer to a range of argument and reply in frequent
+use; and all that we could expect to accomplish was to place the main
+arguments in such a position as to receive the light of some well-known
+and self-evident truth.</p>
+
+<p>The dark transactions to which the &quot;Parson of Slaidburn&quot; obscurely
+refers may be found in Whitaker's &quot;Whalley,&quot; pp. 475, 476.</p>
+
+<p>The same historian remarks in another work,&mdash;&quot;From several hints
+obliquely thrown out by friends as well as enemies, this man appears to
+have been a very wicked person, of a cast and character very uncommon in
+those unreflecting times.&quot; &quot;There certainly was something very
+extraordinary about the man, which, amidst the feodal and knightly
+habits in which young persons of his high rank were then bred, prompted
+him to speculate, however unhappily, on any metaphysical subject. Now,
+whether this abominable persuasion were the cause or the effect of his
+actual guilt,&mdash;whether he had reasoned himself into materialism in order
+to drown the voice of conscience, or fell into the sin of murder because
+he had previously reasoned himself out of all ideas of responsibility,
+does not appear; but his practice, as might have been expected, was
+suited to his principles, and Hornby was too rich a bait to a man who
+hoped for no enjoyment but in the present <!-- Page 148 --><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148" ></a>life, and feared no
+retribution in another. Accordingly, we find him loudly accused of
+having poisoned his brother-in-law, John Harrington, by the agency of a
+servant; and he is suspected also of having, through subornation of
+perjury, proved, or attempted to prove, himself tenant of the honour of
+Hornby.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Sir Edward Stanley, the fifth son of Thomas, first Earl of Derby, early
+received the notice and favour of his sovereign King Henry the Eighth.
+It is said of him, &quot;The camp was his school, and his learning the pike
+and sword.&quot; The king's greeting, when they met, was &quot;<i>Ho! my soldier</i>.&quot;
+Honour floated in his veins, and valour danced in his spirits. At the
+battle of Flodden he commanded the rear of the English army, and was
+attacked by the Earls of Lennox and Argyle, both of whom were slain,
+together with the King of Scots, on that memorable day. Through his
+great bravery and skill he mainly contributed to its success. A sudden
+feint inducing the Scots to descend a hill, their stronghold, an opening
+was caused in their ranks, which Sir Edward Stanley espying, he attacked
+them on the sudden with his Lancashire bowmen. So unexpected an assault
+put them into great disorder, which gave the first hopes of success, and
+kindled fresh courage through the English ranks, ending in the complete
+overthrow and discomfiture of their enemies.</p>
+
+<p>Upon this signal achievement, Sir Edward Stanley, being much advanced
+thereby in the king's favour, received from the hand of his royal master
+a letter of thanks, together with an assurance of some future reward.
+Accordingly, we are told, the year ensuing, the king keeping Whitsuntide
+at Eltham in Kent, Sir Edward being in his train, he commanded that, for
+his valiant acts against the Scots, when he won the hill, and relieved
+the English from their distress, an achievement worthy of his ancestors,
+who bore an eagle on their crest, he should be created Lord Monteagle;
+whereupon he had a special summons to parliament in the same year by the
+title of Baron Stanley, Lord Monteagle.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Twice did he and Sir John Wallop penetrate, with only eight hundred
+men, into the very heart of France, and four times did he and Sir Thomas
+Lovell save Calais,&mdash;the first time by intelligence, the second by
+stratagem, the third by their valour and undaunted courage, and the
+fourth by their unwearied patience and assiduity.&quot; &quot;In the dangerous
+insurrection <!-- Page 149 --><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149" ></a>by Aske and Captain Cobler, his zeal for the prince's
+service and the welfare of his country caused him to outstrip his
+sovereign's commands by putting himself at the head of his troops
+without the king's commission, for which dangerous piece of loyalty he
+asked pardon, and received thanks.&quot; By stirring up jealousy and
+sedition, too, amongst the rebels, he gave his majesty time, by
+pretended treaties, to draw off the most eminent of the faction, and to
+overcome and dissipate the rest. Yet, with all this outward show of
+prosperity, and the bruit of noble deeds so various and multiplied, that
+Fame herself seemed weary of rehearsing them, there were not wanting
+evil reports and dark insinuations against his honour. Foul surmises
+prevailed, especially in the latter part of his life, as to the means by
+which he possessed himself of the estates he then held in right of his
+lady, and those too that he enjoyed through the attainder of her uncle,
+Sir James Harrington. He acknowledged himself a freethinker and a
+materialist, a character of rare occurrence in those ages, showing him
+to be as daring in his opinions as in his pursuits. That the soul of man
+was like the winding up of a watch, and that when the spring was run
+down the man died, and the soul was extinct, are still recorded as his
+expressions. In those days of demoralising ignorance, this open and
+unhesitating opinion might be the means of creating him many dangerous
+and deadly enemies, especially amongst the priesthood, whose office,
+though tending to higher and nobler ends than the mere thralling of
+man's spirit to creeds and systems of secular ambition, was yet but too
+often devoted to this purpose. Every power that human cruelty and
+ingenuity could compass was tried, but happily in vain, to confine the
+free and unfettered spirit for ever in the dark cells of ignorance and
+superstition.</p>
+
+<p>From a number of unconnected accounts respecting this great, if not good
+man, whose virtues even would have been the vices of our own age, we
+find as the most prominent parts of his disposition a thorough contempt
+for the maxims and opinions of the world, and an utter recklessness of
+its censure or esteem. Marrying into the family of the Harringtons, he
+resided the latter part of his life at the Castle of Hornby, where we
+find him engaged in schemes for the most part tending to his own wealth
+and aggrandisement.</p>
+
+<p>The chapel which he built is said to have been vowed at <!-- Page 150 --><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150" ></a>Flodden, but
+this statement is evidently untrue, having no foundation but the
+averments of those who content not themselves with a plain narrative of
+facts, but assume a licence to invent motives agreeable to their own
+folly or caprice. That Sir Edward Stanley made any such vow we cannot
+imagine, much less would he put it into execution. &quot;Let us eat and
+drink, for to-morrow we die,&quot; was the governing principle of his life,
+and the mainspring of his actions. It would be a strange anomaly in the
+records of human opinions to find an edifice reared to perpetuate a
+belief which the founder thought a delusion, a mere system of
+priestcraft and superstition. To this prominent feature in his history
+our attention has been directed, and we think the following tradition
+assigns a better and more plausible motive for the founding of that
+beautiful structure, the chapel at Hornby.</p>
+
+<p>It was by the still light of a cloudless harvest-moon that two men
+appeared to be sauntering up the stream that winds through the vale near
+Hornby. One of them wore a clerical habit, and the other, from his
+dress, seemed to attend in the capacity of a menial. They rested at the
+foot of a steep cliff overhung with firs and copse-wood. The castle,
+upon the summit, with its tall and narrow tower, like a feather stuck in
+its crown, was not visible from where they sat. The moon threw an
+unclouded lustre from her broad full face far away over the wide and
+heavy woods by which they were surrounded. A shallow bend of the stream
+towards the left glittered over its bed like molten silver, issuing from
+a dark and deep pool shaded by the jutting boughs and grim-visaged rocks
+from whence they hung.</p>
+
+<p>The travellers now ascended by a narrow and precipitous path. Their task
+was continued with no little difficulty, by reason of the looseness of
+the soil, and the huge rocks that obstructed their progress. By dint of
+scrambling, rather than walking, they, however, approached to the
+summit, when a light became visible over the hill, growing brighter as
+they ascended. It was the castle turret, where Lord Monteagle generally
+spent the greater part of the night in study. Whatever might be the
+precise nature of his pursuits, they were not supposed to be of the most
+reputable sort.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wizard spells and rites unholy&quot;</p>
+
+<p>were said to occupy these midnight vigils. Often, as that lonely
+<!-- Page 151 --><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151" ></a>watch-tower caught the eye of the benighted peasant, did he cross
+himself, and fancy that shadows were flitting to and fro on the
+trembling and distant beam.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There it is,&quot; said the hindmost person, who was none other than the
+parson of Slaidburn. &quot;That lantern, I think, is unquenchable. Does thy
+master never quit yon burning pinnacle?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;May be,&quot; replied the servant, &quot;he careth not to be oft abroad; and who
+dare thwart his will? 'Troth he had need be of a tough temper that
+should give him speech unquestioned.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They who hold a higher communion reck but little of this frail and
+pitiful dust,&quot; returned the clergyman, after a solemn pause. &quot;It is
+enough that he hath sent for me. I would fain warn him ere he depart,
+else yon walls had not again echoed my footstep.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This confidential domestic spoke not; he was either too much attached to
+his master, or implicated with him, to hazard a remark.</p>
+
+<p>The path was now wider and less difficult of access, leading over a
+pretty knoll, glittering like lode-stars in the dew, beyond which arose
+the huge and cumbrous pile then distinguished as the castle of Hornby.</p>
+
+<p>The barking of some half-dozen hoarse-mouthed dogs announced their
+approach. Passing over the drawbridge, they entered the court-yard, from
+whence a side postern at that time opened a communication to the
+turret-chamber without passing through the main building. A winding
+staircase led them directly to the summit. Soft gleams of moonlight came
+at intervals through the narrow loopholes, being the only help or
+direction whereby to accomplish their ascent. After a tedious gyration,
+which more than once made the hindmost party pause to obtain a respite,
+the guide opened a low door. It swung heavily aside, disclosing a small
+ante-room, destitute of all furniture save a large oaken chest, that
+seemed to be the depository, or &quot;ark,&quot; as it was usually called, for the
+safe keeping of the family archives.</p>
+
+<p>The conductor approaching an opposite door gave a private signal. It
+flew open as if by its own impulse, displaying a chamber of no mean
+dimensions, in which, by the light from a gigantic lamp, was seen a
+figure seated before a table absolutely groaning with piles of books,
+and various apparatus of unknown and won<!-- Page 152 --><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152" ></a>drous import. Instruments of
+unimaginable shape lay in heaps round the apartment; their use it were
+impossible to conjecture. Furnaces, alembics, jars, glass urinals, and
+bottles of all sizes, rendered the chamber perilous of access, save to
+those who were acquainted with the intricacies of this labyrinth. &quot;Sir
+Edward,&quot; as he was yet generally styled, looked full at his visitors as
+they entered. His eye was large and dark, the expression fierce and
+commanding. He was clad in a gown of black silk, covering an inner vest
+of sables. From a broad belt, glittering with costly stones, hung a
+short sword and a pair of pistols richly embossed.</p>
+
+<p>The upper portion of his head was bald; the hair on its sides short and
+frizzly. His beard was of a reddish tinge, trimmed square and bushy,
+beneath which his white ruff seemed to glisten from the sudden contrast.
+His forehead was high and retreating; his face pale, and-his cheek
+hollow and slightly wrinkled. His nose was small, looking ill suited to
+the other features, which were large and strongly-marked. His mouth was
+full, but compressed; and his teeth beautifully white and well shaped.
+When he spoke, they were much exposed, projecting slightly, and tending
+to give an air of ferocity to his countenance.</p>
+
+<p>In stature he was tall and well formed. Proudly upright in his gait and
+attitude, he appeared like one born to be obeyed,&mdash;to rule in whatsoever
+station he occupied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sir Hugh Parker. The parson of Slaidburn is welcome to Hornby,&quot; said
+Lord Monteagle, rising. &quot;It is long since we have met. I claim the
+privilege of old fellowship: give me thy hand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My lord, I am here at your request. Your wishes are commands with my
+poor endeavours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou mayest retire, Maudsley,&quot; said the baron to his servant, motioning
+him to depart. The minister was accommodated with a low stool, made
+vacant for the occasion. Lord Monteagle, closing the book, abruptly
+addressed his visitor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I knew thou wast in the neighbourhood, and I would unravel a few
+arguments with thee; a few quiddities about thy profession. I know thou
+art skilful at thy trade, which, though a vocation having its basis in
+fraud, finding countenance through the weakness and credulity of
+mankind, doth yet hold the commonalty in thrall and terror&mdash;a restraint
+which none other scheme might peradventure impose.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 153 --><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153" ></a>You are too harsh, my lord. I minister not to aught that, my
+conscience disapproves. Being of the Reformed Church, I do not mightily
+affect creeds and opinions. The Bible is the fountain, pure and
+undefiled; its waters fertilise and invigorate the seed of the faith,
+but choke and rot the rampant weeds of error and superstition.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Bible! A forgery: the invention of a cunning priesthood to mask and
+perpetuate their delusions. Prove its falsehoods to be the truth.
+Distinguish me thy revelation from the impostures of Mahomet, the dreams
+of the Sibyls, and the lying oracles of Heathenrie. Oblige me either to
+renounce my reason and the common principles which distinguish truth
+from error, or to admit the proof thou shalt allege, which proof, look
+thee, must be such as no imposture can lay claim to, otherwise it proves
+thy doctrine to be an imposture. If thy religion be true, there <i>must</i>
+be such a proof. For if the Being who gave this revelation which He
+requires all men to receive, have left His own truth destitute of the
+only proof which can distinguish it from an imposture, this will be an
+impeaching of His wisdom, an error in the very outset of the case,
+proving Him not the Allwise, but liable to infirmity and error. This,
+thou seest, will bring our debate within a narrow compass.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nevertheless, I must own the task is hard,&quot; replied the clergyman,
+&quot;because of the blindness and impotency of that same reason of which
+thou vauntest, and the feebleness of our mental sight; for we cannot
+come at any abstract truth whatsoever but by many inferences hanging
+together as by a chain, one link of which, not fully apprehended or made
+fast, loosens the whole, and the argument falls to the ground.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Does the reformed doctrine, too, require a belief in what the hearer
+may not comprehend?&quot; said the baron, scornfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, there is a sufficiency in the evidence, and a fulness in this
+testimony, of which none other history can boast. What book is that, my
+lord?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Anabasis.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By whom?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Surely thou art in j'est. 'Tis Xenophon's.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How? Xenophon!&quot; said the divine; &quot;methinks thou speakest unadvisedly.
+My reason or apprehension knoweth not of such a man, or that he writ
+this book, and yet thou boldly affirmest the history to be true!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 154 --><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154" ></a>I know not that it was ever doubted,&quot; replied the other. &quot;The common
+consent and belief of mankind, the transmission of the record from
+remote ages, are of themselves no mean evidence of its truth. But there
+must have been a time when it was first written, and as he appeals in it
+to facts, to matters which were then of recent occurrence, and to the
+public knowledge and belief of those facts, surely every of these
+statements would have insured detection, especially if put forth at or
+about the time when the events took place. Would it not have been
+madness to appeal to eye-witnesses of transactions which never happened,
+which witnesses were then alive, and could easily have belied such an
+impudent and furtive attempt at imposture? The idea seems almost too
+absurd to refute.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou judgest well. It would be madness and absurdity in the extreme to
+deny the existence of thy historian, or the events to which he refers;
+and yet a record which to thee is of the greatest moment, wherein thine
+own interests are for ever involved, and to the truth of which there is
+much more clear and irrefragable testimony, thou rejectest as a fraud
+and an imposture.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What proof can its promulgers give me of the infallibility of their
+doctrines, even supposing these events to be true?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Miracles, acknowledged to be such, contravening and transcending the
+common course of nature,&mdash;these, I reckon, will be a sufficient warranty
+that the message is from the great Author of all things Himself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I own these are the strongest evidences that I could require, and I
+would admit them if I had witnessed their performance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good. Now to the proof. It is impossible that any simple fact could be
+imposed, or that a number of persons could be made to believe they had
+witnessed such fact, unless it had actually taken place. For instance,
+if I were to assert that I had divided the waters of this river here, in
+the presence of the inhabitants, and that I had once led the whole of
+them over dryshod, the waters standing like a wall on each side, to
+guard their path, appealing to them at the same time in proof of my
+testimony; it would be impossible, I say, to convince those people it
+were true, provided the event had not happened. Every person would be at
+hand to contradict me, and consequently it would be impossible that such
+an imposition could be put upon them against the direct evidence of
+their senses.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Granted,&quot; replied the baron. &quot;But this tale I am not too <!-- Page 155 --><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155" ></a>bold to infer
+might be invented when that generation had passed, when the credulity of
+coming ages might lead men to believe in such foolish and monstrous
+imaginings, like the labours of Hercules, the amours of Jove, and the
+cannibal exploits of Saturn.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, but hear me. Whenever such a story was first promulged, were it
+then stated that not only public monuments remained to attest the event,
+but that public rites and ceremonies were kept up for its express
+commemoration, which rites were to that day continual, and to which
+those writings appealed as evidence attesting the performance of such
+miracles, then must the deceit have been rendered but the more glaring
+and easy of detection, as no such monuments could exist, no rites, no
+ceremonies demonstrating the truth of this appeal could be in
+observance. Thus, if I should now invent the tale about something done
+two thousand odd years ago, a few might, peradventure, be credulous
+enough to believe me; but if I were to say that ever after, even to this
+day, every male had his nose slit and his ears bored in memory of this
+event, it would be absolutely impossible that I should gain credit for
+my story, because the universality of the falsehood being manifest, and
+the attestation thereof visibly untrue, would prove the whole history to
+be false. Such were the rites and customs of the Jews.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But still, rites and observances were practised by the heathen, which
+ceremonies ye acknowledge to have been false and impious, yet their
+followers worshipped and slid their neck into the yoke as readily as thy
+favourite Hebrews, who are proverbially rogues and cheats in the
+estimation even of infidels themselves.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ay, but impostors appeal not to facts, to eye-witnesses of some event,
+confirming and attesting the authority of their mission. Moses could not
+have persuaded half-a-million of persons that he had brought them
+through the Red Sea, fed them forty years with manna in the wilderness,
+and performed many other miracles during their journey, had not the
+facts been well known; and down to this day the rites and ceremonies of
+the Jews are, in consequence, linked to these main facts as securely as
+though we ourselves had formed the first series of the chain,
+eye-witnesses to the miracles they attest. Again, the books of Moses
+expressly represent that they are the great history and <!-- Page 156 --><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156" ></a>transcript of
+the Jewish law, and speak of their being delivered by him and kept in
+the ark from his time; likewise they are commanded to be read at stated
+periods, and to be taught from father to son throughout all generations,
+to the end that no imposition might be practised. In whatever age,
+therefore, after Moses, these forgeries were committed, it were
+impossible they should have been believed&mdash;every one must have known
+they had not even heard of them aforetime, much less been taught all
+these burdensome precepts by their forefathers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Still the cunning and wily priests might have prepared men's minds for
+the discovery, having themselves deposited these writings in the ark.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A manifest impossibility, my lord, and for this plain reason: those
+writings profess to be a book of statutes, the standing law of the land,
+a code of ordinances by which the people had all along been governed.
+Could any person invent a body of statutes for this good realm of
+England, and make it pass upon the nation as the only book of laws which
+they had ever known or observed? Could any man, could any priest, or
+conspiracy of priests, have persuaded the Jews they had owned and obeyed
+these ordinances from the time of Moses, when they had not even so much
+as heard of them in times past?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;These rites, it is most likely, having their origin in the simplest
+occurrences, might still have been practised prior to the forgeries; and
+these books, by allusions to them, deceived the nation, causing it to
+believe they were performed in memory of some miraculous events which
+never happened.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What! Is it possible to persuade men they have kept laws which they
+have not even heard of? If I were to frame some idle story of things
+done a long while ago, and say that our Sabbath was kept holy in
+commemoration of these events&mdash;this I think, my lord, will answer to the
+terms of your assertion. Suppose I made an attempt to persuade the
+people this day was kept holy in memory of Julius C&aelig;sar or Mahomet, and
+that everybody had been circumcised or baptized in their names; that in
+the courts of judicature oaths had been taken on these very writings I
+had fabricated, and which, of necessity, they could not have seen prior
+to my attempt; and that these books likewise contained their laws and
+religion&mdash;ordinances which they had always acknowledged&mdash;is it possible,
+I ask, that such a cheat could for one moment have existed? An impostor
+<!-- Page 157 --><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157" ></a>would not have dared to make any such references, knowing they must
+inevitably have led to the rejection of his testimony.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But surely if this great transaction, the passage of the Red Sea, had
+really happened, and in the way thou hast pointed out, the evidence
+would not have been suffered to rest solely on the frail and uncertain
+records to which thou hast referred. Books of laws, for instance, the
+writings of Mahomet, we know have been forged, as even thou wilt
+acknowledge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;True, but those books refer not to miracles and the testimony of
+eye-witnesses, nor to laws and ordinances handed down from generation to
+generation, even to that time. That Mahomet pretended not to the working
+of miracles, he tells us in the Koran. The ridiculous legends related by
+his followers are rejected as spurious by the scholars and expounders of
+the prophet; and even his converse with the moon, his night journey from
+Mecca to Jerusalem, and from thence to heaven, were not performed before
+witnesses. The same may be said of the absurd exploits related of the
+heathen deities.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But had not the heathen their priests, their public rites and
+sacrifices, equally with the Jews?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They had. But it was not even pretended that these rites commenced at
+the time when the things which they commemorate were said to have
+happened. The Bacchanalia, for example, and other festivals, were
+established long after the fabulous events to which they refer. The
+priests of Juno and Venus were not appointed by those imaginary deities,
+but arose in some after-age, and are therefore no evidence whatever to
+the truth of their worship.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But where is thy proof in the unwritten evidence&mdash;monuments which
+cannot lie, bearing silent but convincing testimony to the truth of
+these miracles?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Twelve stones&quot; it is said, were set up at Gilgal to commemorate the
+passage over Jordan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ay, in thy book we read it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But mark the intention, to which no lying imposture durst have
+referred,&mdash;to the end, it is written, that when the children of those
+who had witnessed this miracle, and their children's children, should
+ask their meaning, it should be told them. Now the miracle for which
+these stones were set up as a memorial by the eye-witnesses themselves,
+could not, as before <!-- Page 158 --><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158" ></a>proved, have been imposed upon the people at the
+time it happened, had it not really occurred.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All this I can safely grant. Yet thou lackest wherewith to conclude
+thine argument.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bear with me, my lord, until I have made an end. Let us suppose, for
+one moment, there was no such miracle wrought as this same passage over
+Jordan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Which supposition of thine I do hold to be the truth as firmly as I
+believe your revelation is an imposture.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And yet if it <i>should</i> be true, my lord?&quot; The minister said this in a
+tone that made the listener start. He bit his lips. But the feeling had
+subsided, as, with a sharp and hurried accent, he exclaimed&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why this pause? I am prepared to listen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;These stones,&quot; continued the divine, &quot;were, of necessity, well known as
+public monuments existing at the time when these writings were first
+rehearsed in the ears of all the people, because they are here referred
+to as testimonials of the event. But supposing them to have been set up
+on some unknown occasion, as you say, and that designing men in
+after-ages invented the book of Joshua, affirming it was written at the
+time of that imaginary event by Joshua himself, adducing this pile of
+stones in evidence of its truth, what is the answer which every one who
+heard it must have made to this witless falsehood? 'We know this pile of
+stones,' they would say; 'but of such an origin as thou hast related we
+have, not heard, nor even of this book of Joshua. Where has it been
+concealed, and from whence was it brought forth? Besides, it solemnly
+inculcates that this miraculous event, our fathers' passage over Jordan,
+should be taught their children and children's children from that day
+forward, who were to be shown and carefully instructed as to the meaning
+and design of this very monument; but of this we have not so much as
+heard, nor has thy history been handed down to us from our forefathers.
+It is a lying testimony, therefore, and we cannot receive it.' Yet do we
+find the children of Israel commemorating, handing down, and instructing
+their children from age to age into the meaning and design of these
+memorials, which instruction must at some time or another have had a
+beginning, having its commencement with the very events to which they
+refer, which events it would then have been impossible to make the
+people believe <!-- Page 159 --><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159" ></a>against the plain evidence of their senses. Is the chain
+complete, my lord?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But what has all this to do with thy religion?&mdash;a system far different,
+methinks, from the primitive institutions of these remote ages.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The self-same reasoning will apply, and in precisely the same mode, to
+the miracles of our Lord and His apostles, together with their
+transmission by records from their times. The histories of the Old and
+New Testaments could not have been received at the time they were
+written, if they had not been true, because the priesthoods of Levi and
+of Christ,&mdash;the observance of the Sabbath, the passover, and
+circumcision,&mdash;the ordinances of baptism and the eucharist, are there
+represented as descending by uninterrupted succession from the time of
+their respective institution. It would have been as impossible to
+persuade men in after-ages that they had been circumcised or baptized,
+had celebrated passovers and Sabbaths under the ministration of a
+certain order of priests, if it were not so, as to make them believe
+they had gone through the seas dryshod, seen the dead raised, and so
+forth. But without such a persuasion neither the law nor gospel could
+have been received.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yet, methinks, if I were the founder of a new religion, and had all the
+stores of Nature and Omnipotence at my command&mdash;those boasted attributes
+of thy Law-giver&mdash;I would not have left it liable to doubt, to the
+sneers and cavils of any one who might question my pretensions, or my
+right to control their belief. The truths of Omnipotence should be clear
+as the sun's beam, and unquestioned as his existence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'If they believe not Moses and the prophets, neither would they believe
+though one should rise from the dead.' 'Tis not for lack of proof; 'tis
+for lack of will. 'Tis not for lack of testimony, one tithe of which
+would have gained a ready assent to any of the drivelling absurdities of
+heathen mythology,&mdash;'tis for lack of inclination; 'tis a wish that these
+revelations may not be true; and where the heart inclines, the judgment
+is easily biassed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;True, 'as the fool thinks.' The proverb is somewhat stale. I marvel
+thou findest not its application to thine own bias, perdie!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;At any rate, if I am fooled, I am none the worse for my <!-- Page 160 --><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160" ></a>belief, if my
+creed be not true; but if man, as thou wouldest fain hope, is like the
+beasts that perish, I am still at quits with thee. And if this dream of
+thine should prove but a dream, and thou shouldest awake&mdash;to the horrors
+of the pit, and the torments of the worm that dieth not!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Peace, thou croaker! I did not send for thee to prophesy, but to prove;
+I would break a lance and hold a tilt at thine argument. Now, I have a
+weapon in reserve which shall break down thy defences&mdash;the web of thy
+reasoning shall vanish. The fear of punishment, and the hope of future
+reward, held out as a bait to the cowardly and the selfish, shall be of
+no avail when the object of my research is accomplished. Hast thou not
+heard of the supreme elixir&mdash;the pabulum of life, which, if a man find,
+he may renew his years, and bid defiance alike to time and the
+destroyer? Then what will become of thy boasted system of opinions,
+begotten by priesthood and nurtured by folly?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And this phantasma, which man has never seen; which exists not upon the
+least shadow of evidence&mdash;which has not even the lowest dictates of
+sense and plausibility in its favour&mdash;on this <i>Ignis fatuus</i>, eluding
+the grasp, and for ever mocking the folly of its pursuers, thou canst
+build thine hopes, because it flatters thy wishes and thy fears?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My fears!&quot; said the Baron, rising: &quot;and who speaks of my <i>fears</i>? I
+would chastise thee, thou insolent priest, wert thou not protected by
+the laws of courtesy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, <i>thy</i> fears, Baron Monteagle,&quot; said this undaunted minister of the
+truth. &quot;Thou wouldest not care to face thy lady's cousin! His blood yet
+crieth from the ground!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And who dares whisper, even to the walls, that I murdered John
+Harrington?&quot; cried the astonished adept, trembling with ill-suppressed
+rage. &quot;Methinks he holdeth his life too cheap who doth let this foul
+suspicion even rest upon his thoughts.&quot; He drew his sword as he spoke;
+but the minister stood undaunted, surveying his adversary with a look of
+pity and commiseration.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Put up thy sword. Thou hast enow of sins to repent thee of without an
+old man's blood added to the number.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How hast thou dared this insult? By my &quot;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, spare your oaths, my lord; they are better unspoken than unkept.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 161 --><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161" ></a>Have I sent for thee to make sport? To gibe and taunt me even to my
+face?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll tell thee for what cause thou didst crave my presence,&quot; replied
+the other, firmly. &quot;Thou hast misgivings lest thine own hopes should not
+be true; lest thou shouldest perchance depart with a lie in thy right
+hand. Thou didst send for me, an unworthy minister to the faith which I
+profess, that by thy subtlety thou mightest deceive thyself; that by
+overthrowing my arguments thine own might be strengthened, for truly
+'tis a comfortable thing to have our opinions confirmed through the
+weakness of an opponent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And daredst thou, with such apprehensions upon thy stomach, to commit
+thyself alone to my mercy and my keeping? Suppose I should reward thee
+according to thine own base suspicions. Understandest thou me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, proud and guilty man, too well! But I fear thee not!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What! holdest thou a charmed life? Thou mayest fall into a broil as
+well as other men. And who shall require thy blood at my hands?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ere I left,&quot; said the divine, warily, &quot;I whispered a word in your
+cousin Beaumont's ear. Should I not return, he will be here anon.
+Peradventure I am not misunderstood. Thou hadst need be careful of my
+life, otherwise thine own may be in jeopardy!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A fierce and terrible brightness, like the lurid flashes from his own
+torment, burst from his eye. The very anger and malice he strove to
+quell made it burn still hotter. His visage gathered blackness, cloud
+hurrying on cloud, like the grim billows of the storm across a glowing
+atmosphere. Rapid was the transition. Rage, apprehension,
+abhorrence,&mdash;all that hate and malignity could express, threw their
+appalling shadows over his features. Still the dark hints uttered by his
+visitor seemed to hold him in check. Chafed, maddened, yet not daring to
+execute the vengeance he desired, he strode through the apartment with
+an uneasy and perturbed gait. He paused at times, darting a look at the
+minister as if about to address him. Suddenly he stood still, nerving
+his spirit to some awful question.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My cousin John Harrington died in his own chamber. In this house, God
+wot. Thou didst shrive him at his last shift, and how sayest thou he was
+poisoned?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 162 --><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162" ></a>I said not aught so plainly; but thou hast spoken out. Behold
+him!&mdash;There!&quot;&mdash;The divine pointed his finger slowly round the apartment.
+&quot;Within a short space he cites thee to that bar where his presence will
+be a swift witness to thy doom!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Had the spirit of the unfortunate heir of Hornby suddenly appeared, the
+Baron could not have followed the movement of the minister's hand with
+greater dismay and astonishment. The strong barrier of guilt seemed
+breaking down. Conscience aroused, as if at once the veil that concealed
+his iniquities had been withdrawn, they rose in all their unmitigated
+horror and enormity. An arrow, drawn at a venture, had pierced the
+joints of the harness. He stood powerless and without defence&mdash;motionless
+as the image of despair. By a strange coincidence a thick white cloud
+seemed to coil itself heavily round the room. Whether to the heated
+imaginations of the disputants this appearance might not present an
+image of the form then visible to their minds, it would be impossible to
+determine. Suffice it to say, the effect was memorable, from whatever
+cause it was produced.</p>
+
+<p>An altered man was the Baron Monteagle. The arguments of this champion
+of the truth had in some measure prepared his mind for its reception.
+Under his ministrations he felt gradually more enlightened. His terrors
+were calmed. Soon afterwards rose that noble structure, the chapel of
+Hornby, bearing on its front the following legend:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center">EDWARDUS STANLEY MILES, DNS. MONTEAGLE, ME FIERI FECIT.</p>
+
+<p>It is recorded that Sir Edward Stanley, Baron Monteagle, died in the
+faith he had once despised; and we trust he has found a place at the
+footstool of that Mercy whose interposition was not solicited in vain.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><!-- Page 163 --><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163" ></a><a name="GEORGE_MARSH_THE_MARTYR" id="GEORGE_MARSH_THE_MARTYR" ></a>GEORGE MARSH, THE MARTYR.</h2>
+<div class="center">
+<img src="images/11.png" width="600" height="387" alt="GEORGE MARSH, THE MARTYR." title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Heavy persecution shall arise<br /></span>
+<span>Of all who in the worship persevere<br /></span>
+<span>Of spirit and truth.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="author">&mdash;<i>Milton</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Smithills or Smethells Hall is situated in a wood, above a small glen,
+two miles and a half from Bolton. The court-gate exhibits nothing
+remarkable in its construction. On the left hand was the principal
+entrance, and a flight of stairs leading from the court. The glass
+casements, and greater part of the ancient front, have been removed,
+giving place to a more comfortable, if not a more pleasing style of
+architecture. The wainscot once displayed a profuse assemblage of
+ornaments, some of which now remain. Amongst them was formerly shown a
+likeness, said to be of King Egbert, though from what cause it should be
+assigned more particularly to that illustrious monarch, it would be
+difficult to conjecture.</p>
+
+<p>In a room called the Green Chamber, it is said that George Marsh, the
+subject of the following history, was examined before Sir Roger Barton.
+In a passage near the door of the dining-room is a cavity, in a flag,
+bearing some resemblance to the print of a man's foot, which is supposed
+to be the place where the holy martyr stamped, to confirm his testimony,
+and which is shown to this day as a memorial of his good confession.</p>
+
+<p>The stone was once removed for a frolic by two or three young men who
+lived in the house. Taking advantage of their parents' absence, they
+cast it into the glen behind the hall. That same night, on retiring to
+rest, the inhabitants were disturbed by many strange and hideous noises.
+Much alarm and inquiry being excited, the offenders confessed, and the
+<!-- Page 164 --><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164" ></a>stone was restored to its place with great reverence and solemnity.
+Some fragments that were broken off upon its removal were carefully
+replaced; after which, according to common report, the noises ceased.</p>
+
+<p>Another story current in <i>the</i> neighbourhood is as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>About the latter end of the year 1732, one Saturday night, a stranger
+sleeping alone in the Green Chamber was much terrified by an apparition.
+He stated that about ten o'clock, as he was preparing for bed, there
+appeared a person before him dressed like a minister, in a white robe
+and bands, with a book in his hand. The stranger getting into bed, saw
+it stand by his bedside for a short time. It then slowly retired out of
+the door, as if going down-stairs, and he saw it no more. This person
+invariably persisted in the same story; and the owner of the estate
+immediately ordered divine service at the chapel on a Sunday, which had
+long been discontinued.</p>
+
+<p>The vaults seem to have been strongly walled and fortified, and were
+most probably used as burying places, many bones having been found when
+digging. There is a tradition that King Egbert founded this place, and
+kept his court here; but no corresponding trace of it occurs in history:
+and we may suppose, from the order of his conquests, that his residence
+would be in the more southern parts of the kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>The situation is secluded, and well calculated for concealment,
+favouring the general opinion that it was the retreat of the famous
+pirate, Sir Andrew Barton, whose exploits and defeat are so beautifully
+told in the old ballad of that name in Percy's Reliques. It is
+surprising that so little should be known of this great and bold man,
+whose conduct had nearly occasioned a war between England and Scotland,
+and whose death, it is supposed, was one of the grievances which led to
+the battle of Flodden.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Up to the time of Henry the Seventh, it appears, the Radcliffes were
+lords of Smethells; but Joan, daughter and sole heir of Sir Ralph
+Radcliffe, having married Robert Barton of Holme, he became in that
+reign seised of the manor and lordship, where his posterity continued,
+until Grace, sole daughter and heir of Thomas Barton, the last male
+heir, was married to Henry, eldest son of the first Lord Fauconberg,
+whose descendant Thomas, in the year 1721, sold the manor, which
+afterwards passed into the hands of the Byrons of Manchester, by whom it
+was sold to Mr Peter Ainsworth of Halliwell, a descendant of the
+Ainsworths of Pleasington, in this county<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15" ></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a>, the present owner.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Smethells is dependent upon the superior manor of Sharpies, the lord of
+which claims from the owner of this place a pair of gilt spurs annually;
+and, by a very singular and inconvenient custom, the unlimited use of
+the cellars at Smethells for a week in every year.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16" ></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p>
+
+<p>At the close of a cold, keen day, about the early part of spring, <!-- Page 165 --><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165" ></a>in
+the year 1554, there came two men across a bleak and barren tract of
+land called Dean Moor, near to Bolton-in-the-Moors. When at some
+distance from the main path, and far from the many by-roads intersecting
+this dreary common, they&mdash;first looking cautiously around, as though
+fearing intruders&mdash;fell on each other's neck and wept. The sun's light
+beamed suddenly through a cleft in the heavy clouds near the horizon,
+along the stunted grass and rushes, stretching far away to many a green
+knoll in the distance, behind which the dark hills and lowering sky
+looked in wild and terrific blackness over the scene. The sun,
+descending fast below the hills towards Blackrode, beamed forth as if to
+cast one short ray of gladness on the world of sorrow he was just
+quitting. Rivington Pike, and the dark chill moors stretching from it
+eastward, were bathed in a wide and stormy burst, of light, like the
+wild and unnatural brightness that sometimes irradiates even the dim
+shadows of despair. A heavy mist lay at their feet, hiding most of the
+intermediate space from the eye of the observer, so that the long line
+of barren hills seemed to start out at once from a sea of vapour, like
+the grim barriers of some gigantic lake. The clouds were following hard
+upon the sun's flight, so that by the time he had disappeared the sky
+was covered with a dense and impervious curtain, rendered darker by the
+rapidity of the change. Chill and eddying gusts rustled over the dreary
+heath; the voice of nature only responding to the chords of sadness and
+of sorrow. The hollow roar of the wind was like the moaning of a
+troubled ocean; a few big drops from the hurrying scud seeming to
+presage an approaching tempest.</p>
+
+<p>The two friends had crept behind a stone wall, built up in a hollow, by
+a stagnant pool, taking but little heed of the darkness and the storm,
+so intent were they upon the subject which engrossed their thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I might flee, Ralph, but it would straightway be said, not that I had
+left my country and my kin alone, but rather that I had deserted the
+faith and doctrine I profess, after having unworthily ministered
+hereabout for a season, which might be an occasion of much scandal, a
+weakening of the faith of my poor flock, and a grievous discouragement
+to those that remain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'A living dog is better than a dead lion,' says the wise man. Besides,
+it is apresumingon His providence, when He opens away for our escape,
+and we, of our own wilfulness and folly, neglect <!-- Page 166 --><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166" ></a>the blessing. 'Do
+thyself no harm.' Provide for thine own life, and run not as the horse
+and mule, that have no understanding, into the very throat of thine
+enemies, and them that seek thine hurt.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The first speaker was a man of plain but comely appearance, habited in a
+coarse doublet buckled about the waist with a leathern girdle. A round
+woollen cap, from beneath which a few straight-combed locks hung about
+his face, gave a quaint and precise aspect to his figure. His features,
+though slightly wrinkled, did not betoken either age or infirmity: but
+his whole appearance indicated a robust and vigorous frame, capable both
+of exertion and endurance. The other individual exhibited a more
+ungainly form and deportment. He had not the same look of benevolence
+and good-will to man which irradiated the features of the first, of whom
+it might be truly said, that his inward affections did mould and
+constrain his outward image into their resemblance, so that meekness and
+benignity shone through his countenance from the ever-glowing spirit of
+love and Christian charity within. There was a sharp and shrewd
+intelligence in the eye of the latter speaker which showed that some
+considerations of selfish and worldly wisdom might, by possibility,
+mingle with his unerring notions of duty. Yet was he a man of great
+piety and worth, and well fitted as a counsellor in times of peril and
+distress.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ralph Bradshaw,&quot; replied the other, &quot;thou hast been my tried friend and
+my stay in this waste and howling wilderness, and I have found thy
+counsel hitherto wholesome and pleasant; but,&quot; continued Marsh, with a
+heavy sigh, &quot;I have not told thee how Sir Roger Barton's servants have
+made diligent search for me in Bolton, and have given strict charge to
+my brother Robert that he should, by to-morrow at the latest, appear
+with me at Smethells, else shall he and my poor mother answer before him
+at their peril. By God's grace, I would not leave these weaklings of the
+flock to suffer for my sake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Leave this matter until thou depart; I will devise some means for their
+relief. I would not have thy life needlessly put in hazard, seeing how
+few men have been raised up like unto thyself, privileged as thou art to
+minister the bread of life to the hungry and famishing poor in this
+barren corner of God's spiritual vineyard.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And yet,&quot; replied Marsh, &quot;I ought with all boldness to <!-- Page 167 --><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167" ></a>confess the
+truth, fearing not to answer for the hope that is in me; and why should
+I refuse to obey the commands of those who are in authority? for the
+magistrate beareth not the sword in vain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Truly, obedience were his right, if so be this were some righteous
+judge raised up of God for the punishment of evil-doers. But, as thou
+well knowest, the justice thou shalt demand will not be rendered: the
+summons thou hast received to answer on doctrinal and disputed points,
+and to argue them before these wicked and crafty men, as touching thy
+belief, are but manifest excuses to get thee into their power, from
+which they mean not to liberate thee but by the fire that shall consume
+thy body, and free it for ever from their murderous gripe. Thou knowest,
+too, that Sir Roger beareth thee a malice, and hath used all subtlety
+that he might have wherewith to seek occasion against thee. Didst thou
+not rebuke him openly for his irreverence, when that he must needs play
+with his puppy, that had its collar full of bells, during God's holy
+service&mdash;that comfortable form of worship established and publicly
+taught in the lifetime of our last good King Edward, and not this
+papistical, idolatrous mass which they now use, to the eternal ruin of
+both soul and body? No mercy shalt thou have at their hands. And doth
+our blessed Master require of us that we give our bodies up to these
+wicked and malignant deceivers, that their devilish pleasure may be
+glutted in torturing and spitefully using us, while they go about
+putting innocent men to cruel and shameful deaths? As soon would He
+require that we should yield our bodies up to Satan and his angels.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know not how to answer thee, Bradshaw, in this matter; but my mind
+misgives me in taking so hasty a departure from our suffering and
+afflicted realm. Yet will we ask counsel of Him who guideth the weak,
+and will not suffer us to be tempted beyond measure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Whereat these persecuted disciples did unite in prayer to that throne
+before which, having finished their earthly warfare, they now stand with
+crowns of victory on their foreheads, purified from this gross
+mortality. Marsh, much comforted by the exercise, doubted not that,
+according to his faith, wisdom and direction would be granted in the way
+he should take.</p>
+
+<p>Hereupon they separated, wishing each other &quot;God speed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Through the darkness and tempest of that fearful night George <!-- Page 168 --><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168" ></a>Marsh
+approached the town, where, in a narrow lane leading from the brow of
+the hill by the church, abode his mother and her youngest son. Raising
+the latch, he saw the old woman alone, seated by the fire, weeping.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Praised be His mercy, thou art yet safe!&quot; said she, clasping her
+withered hands together. &quot;They have again been here to seek for thee,
+and I was fearful thou hadst not escaped their power.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who has been here, and from whence?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Divers of Justice Barton's servants were here again, not an hour ago,
+who have charged thy brother Robert and thy cousin William Marsh to seek
+for thee, and by to-morrow, ere noon, to render thee up at Smethells.
+They are now gone to Atherton, and elsewhere, for aught I know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then may I not tarry here to-night?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, I beseech thee, flee for thy life. In tarrying here shall thou not
+escape; for a man's enemies are now truly those of his own household.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Marsh, after a pause, determined to listen to her advice, and departed.</p>
+
+<p>Cold and weary, he retraced his steps, going beyond Dean Church, where,
+at a friend's house, he staid for the night, &quot;taking ill rest,&quot; as he
+quaintly expresses it in his journal, &quot;and consulting much with myself
+of my trouble.&quot; He expected, or at least hoped, that some intimation
+would be vouchsafed from his Master as touching the way he should
+pursue, but none was granted; and he lay there, full of tossing and
+unquiet, the greater part of the night. On the following morning, at his
+first awaking, which was early, being still in heaviness, and not
+knowing what to do, came another friend to his bedside, who advised him
+that he should in no wise depart, but abide boldly, and confess the
+faith. At these words he felt so convinced, and, as it were, suddenly
+established in his conscience, that he doubted not, as he says, but the
+message was from God. He thenceforth consulted not with flesh and blood,
+but resolved on immediately presenting himself before his persecutors,
+and patiently bearing such cross as it might please Heaven to lay upon
+him.</p>
+
+<p>He arose betimes, and as his custom was, recited the English Litany,
+with other prayers, kneeling by his bedside; after which he prepared to
+go towards Smethells, calling, as he went, <!-- Page 169 --><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169" ></a>at the dwellings of several
+whom he knew, desiring them to pray for him, to commend him to all his
+friends, and to comfort his mother and his little children, for, as he
+then said, he felt assured that they should not see his face any more.
+Taking leave, with many tears and much, sorrow of heart, he came nigh to
+the residence of Sir Roger Barton, a bigoted persecutor, and an avowed
+enemy of the reformed church.</p>
+
+<p>It was about nine o'clock, on a cold and bitter morning, when he came in
+sight of the court-gate. Then surrounded with trees, the mansion itself
+was not visible but within a short distance. This house, now ancient and
+decayed, then existed in all its pomp and magnificence, having only been
+erected, as tradition informs us, some fifty years before, by Sir Andrew
+Barton, a famous pirate or free rover, who was knighted by James III. of
+Scotland for his great bravery. In the third year of Henry the Eighth,
+with two stout vessels called the <i>Lion</i> and The <i>Jenny Perwin</i>, he
+considerably interrupted the navigation on the English coasts. His
+pretence was letters of reprisals granted him against the Portuguese by
+James III. Under colour of this grant, he took ships of all nations,
+alleging that they had Portuguese goods on board. Complaint being made
+to the Privy Council of England, the Earl of Surrey said, &quot;The narrow
+seas should not be infested while he had estate enough to furnish a
+ship, or a son capable of commanding it.&quot; Upon this, two ships were
+immediately fitted out, and commanded by Sir Thomas and Sir Edward
+Howard, sons to the Earl of Surrey, at their own expense, when, having
+been some days at sea, they were separated by a storm, which gave Sir
+Thomas Howard an opportunity of coming up with Sir Andrew Barton in the
+<i>Lion</i>, whom he immediately engaged. The fight was long and doubtful,
+for Barton, being an experienced seaman, and having under him a
+determined crew, made a desperate defence, himself cheering them with a
+boatswain's whistle to his last breath. The loss of their commander,
+however, caused them to submit, on which they received fair quarter and
+good usage. In the meantime, Sir Edward attacked and captured the <i>Jenny
+Perwin</i>, after an obstinate resistance. Both these ships, with as many
+of their crew as were left alive, about one hundred and fifty, were
+brought into the river Thames, on the 2nd of August 1511, as trophies of
+the victory. The prisoners were sent to the Archbishop of York's palace,
+now Whitehall, where they re<!-- Page 170 --><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170" ></a>mained for some time, but were afterwards
+dismissed and sent into Scotland.</p>
+
+<p>James the Fourth having then ascended the Scottish throne, after the
+murder of his predecessor, exceedingly resented this action, and
+instantly sent ambassadors to Henry demanding satisfaction, on which the
+king gave this memorable answer, &quot;That the punishment of pirates was
+never held a breach of peace among princes.&quot; King James, however, was
+still dissatisfied, and from that time was never thoroughly reconciled
+to the English nation.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Andrew was descended from a good family in Scotland, and adopted a
+seafaring life when very young. A motive of concealment might be the
+cause of his erecting a mansion here, the roads being then almost
+impassable; and the extensive woods, which lay in almost every direction
+from this spot, together with its great distance from the sea-side,
+might be additional recommendations in its favour. An opinion exists,
+though now involved in much doubt and obscurity, that his immediate
+descendant was the Sir Roger Barton whom we have already named, and unto
+whom this pious servant of the truth was about to commit himself.</p>
+
+<p>On venturing through the gate, Marsh observed several men standing by a
+door on the left hand, being the principal entrance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What, ho!&quot; said one, &quot;art come to morning prayers?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay,&quot; replied another, &quot;his cap cleaves to a heretic's sconce.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis Marsh,&quot; said the foremost of the group, who proved to be Roger
+Wrinstone, the knight's prime minister, constable, and entrapper of
+heretics. &quot;Now, by my faith,&quot; he continued, &quot;if this wily fox do not
+think, by his coming, to take Justice by the nose, and outface her
+through his impudence. But he will be sore mistaken if he think to
+outwit our master by his cunning. Good friend, thy business?&quot; said
+Wrinstone, cap in hand, addressing the minister scornfully, and
+thrusting his tongue into his cheek, to the great diversion of his
+companions, who, with shouts of laughter, began to ape the buffoonery of
+their leader.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would fain speak with the Justice,&quot; said the stranger, meekly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And suppose I were he,&quot; said Wrinstone, putting himself into an
+attitude of great authority and importance, setting out <!-- Page 171 --><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171" ></a>his paunch, at
+the same time, something like unto the knight himself. Another laugh, or
+rather titter, went through the courtyard at this exploit; a suspicious
+glance, however, was directed towards the casement above, some
+apprehensions evidently existing lest Sir Roger should have been
+eye-witness to the ceremony.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Roger Wrinstone, thy mocking is ill-timed,&quot; said Marsh, with a severe
+and steadfast gaze, which seemed to awe even this unblushing minion of
+intolerance. &quot;If thy master be not arisen, I will tarry awhile his
+worship's leisure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sir Roger is with his priest at confession,&quot; said one, with a shout of
+derision. &quot;Art come to confess him too, Father Marsh?&quot; and with that
+they plucked him by the beard, mocking and ill-treating him. But, filled
+with joy that he was accounted worthy to suffer, he passed from them
+into the great hall, at that period a large and lofty room, which, as
+tradition reports, would have &quot;dined all the monarchs of Europe, and all
+their trains.&quot; It has since been much curtailed of its proportions,
+modern improvements having appropriated it to more useful purposes. The
+wainscots were enriched with choice and beautiful carvings, representing
+bucks' heads, flowers, and portraits of the most distinguished ancestors
+of the family. So numerous and varied were these ornaments, that, it is
+commonly reported, the artist wrought out his apprenticeship in
+executing this grand work, which for minuteness and the astonishing
+number and ingenuity of the devices, perhaps exceeded most of the like
+nature throughout the realm. Amongst other whimsical fancies was a ton
+crossed with a bar, having the cyphers A and B above and below, which
+worthless and absurd pun, a sort of emblematic wit much cultivated by
+our forefathers, indicated the name of the founder, Sir Andrew Barton.</p>
+
+<p>Marsh, on his first entrance, inquired of a servitor if the Justice
+might be spoken with. The menial was bearing off the remains of a
+substantial breakfast, and having a flagon of beer at hand, invited the
+stranger to a hearty draught, saying that he looked tired and in need of
+refreshment; but he meekly put it aside, with due courtesy, still
+standing as he repeated his question. The man departed to make the
+inquiry, when presently followed the constable and his gang, who, seeing
+that the hall was cleared, strode in, rudely seizing Marsh by the
+shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 172 --><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172" ></a>Thou art my prisoner,&quot; said Wrinstone; &quot;I arrest thee in the Queen's
+name.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this moment came running in a little girl, bounding and frolicsome as
+a young fawn from its covert, who, hearing the word prisoner, and seeing
+a man of such a preposessing and benign aspect in custody, immediately
+came up to Wrinstone, and laid hold of the skirts of his doublet,
+saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You shan't, Wrinstone. If he has done amiss, let him go, and I'll give
+thee some plums out of my midlent pasty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The meekness and peaceable demeanour of this unoffending servant of the
+Church had in a moment won the heart of the child, and she pulled him by
+the hand, as if to convey him from the grasp of his persecutor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;May Heaven bless thee, my child, and make thee a blessing!&quot; He lifted
+up his eyes while he thus spake. &quot;Thy nature hath not yet learnt the
+cruel disposition of these tormentors.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It is said that his prayer was heard; and a passage in the subsequent
+history of this little girl may, in all likelihood, find a place in
+another series of our Traditions.</p>
+
+<p>A tear for the first time trembled in the poor man's eye as he looked on
+this tender and compassionate babe. He thought upon his own sufferings,
+and the hard fate of his own little ones. But he soon repressed the
+rising murmur, calmly awaiting the result.</p>
+
+<p>The child still clung to him; nor would she depart, though threatened
+with Sir Roger's displeasure by his deputy. Indeed, she cared little for
+the issue, being fully indulged in all her caprices by the knight, her
+grandfather, who was mightily entertained with her humours. But threats
+and cajolements failing in their effect, they were glad to let this
+wilful creature accompany them to the presence of Sir Roger as the
+dispenser of justice, or rather of his own vindictive will; and to his
+private chamber they were shortly summoned.</p>
+
+<p>Now this distinguished knight was heavy and well-fed, and of a rich and
+rubicund countenance. From over-indulgence he had become unwieldy, being
+propped up in a well-stuffed chair, one leg resting on a low stool, his
+whole frame bloated by indolence and sensuality. He was short-necked and
+full-chested. His eyes, gray and fiery, were almost starting from his
+head, by reason of some obstruction to the free current of the blood in
+<!-- Page 173 --><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173" ></a>that direction. This was accompanied by a wheezing and phlethoric
+cough, which oft troubled him. At his side sat a priest, who had a fair
+smooth face, and a shining head sprinkled over with a few pale-coloured
+locks close cut and combed back with becoming care from his temples. His
+eyes were small and restless, scarcely for an instant keeping to one
+position. He seemed to pay a silent deference to his patron, allowing
+Sir Roger to begin the examination as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So thy relatives have ferreted thee forth at last. Nothing like making
+their kindred in some sort answer for the bodies of these heretics.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I came of my own free consent, and alone, your worship,&quot; replied Marsh;
+&quot;and hope to be honestly dealt with. If I have offended the laws, I am
+here to answer; if not, I claim your protection.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Peace! Will none o' ye stop that fellow's prating? Justice thou shalt
+have, and that speedily, as thou sayest, but not in the way thou couldst
+desire. Look thee!&quot; He fumbled in his pouch as he spake. Drawing out a
+letter, he continued&mdash;&quot;My Lord Derby hath commanded that thou be sent to
+Lathom along with some others who do mightily trouble us, and sow evil
+seed and dissension among the people.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This, please your grace, I deny; and I would know mine accusers, and
+what they allege against me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now this is a brave answer, truly,&quot; replied the Justice. &quot;These rogues
+be all of one tale, pretending that they have done nothing amiss, and
+desiring to know, poor innocents! of what they are accused, as though
+they were ignorant of their own lives and conversation hitherto. Tush!
+it were a needless and an unthrifty throwing out of words to argue the
+matter&mdash;for they are wiser in their own eyes than seven men who can
+render a reason. Do thou question him, and urge him to the test,&quot; said
+Sir Roger, turning to his conscience-keeper.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What art thou?&quot; said the priest, leaning forward for the purpose of a
+more strict examination.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am a minister,&quot; said Marsh. &quot;It is but a short time agone since I
+served a cure hereabouts.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who gave thee orders? Or hast thou indeed received any?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Bishops of London and Lincoln, after that I had diligently studied
+and kept terms aforetime at Cambridge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Humph!&quot; said Sir Roger. &quot;These bishops be of the re<!-- Page 174 --><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174" ></a>formed sect; and, I
+have a notion, will some day or another answer for it before the Queen's
+council.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What knowledge hast thou of these men?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I never saw them but at the time I received ordination.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>After a few more questions of little moment, the priest threw out the
+usual net with which his fraternity were wont to entangle those of
+heretical opinions.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17" ></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is thy belief respecting the sacrament?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is a question of too general and multifarious a nature for a plain
+and faithful answer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are the bread and wine, by virtue of the words pronounced by the
+priest, changed into the body and blood of Christ? And is the sacrament,
+whether reserved or received, the very body and blood of Christ?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am not careful to answer such inquiries, seeing that I am but
+unskilled and unlearned in scholastic disputes. Why do ye ask me these
+hard and unprofitable questions, to bring my body in danger of death,
+and to suck my blood?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We are not blood-suckers, and intend none other than to make thee a
+better man and a good Christian,&quot; said the priest, mightily offended.
+Whereat Roger Wrinstone, in his great zeal and affection for the Holy
+Church, smote Marsh a lusty blow on the mouth, saying&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Answerest thou the priest so? By your worship's leave I will mend his
+ill manners.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The little girl at this rebuke fell a-crying, and her grief became so
+loud that Sir Roger was fain to pacify her by ordering Wrinstone to
+stand farther apart. With red and glistening eyes she looked up and
+smiled at the suffering martyr, who, remembering his own dear babes,
+could scarce refrain from embrac<!-- Page 175 --><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175" ></a>ing her as she clung about him, to the
+great displeasure of Sir Roger.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Answer this reverend and spiritual admonisher, to the true purport and
+bearing of his question,&quot; said Sir Roger, with a mighty affectation of
+sagacity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do believe Christ to be present with His sacrament, inasmuch as He is
+alway with His people to the end of time. But as I am not skilful in
+matters of such nicety, I would ask of this reverend casuist, who is
+more able to answer in questions of such weight than I; who am, as I
+said before, unlearned in disputed points; and truly I am in nothing
+more wishful than to come at a right knowledge and understanding of the
+truth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Say on,&quot; said the priest, something flattered by this modest appeal to
+his opinion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Our Lord took the cup and blessed it, of which He then drank, and
+afterwards His disciples?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes. But this doth not sanction its being sent round to the laity,&quot;
+replied the priest, not aware of the drift and true bearing of the
+inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then He took the bread and brake, and did eat likewise with His
+disciples?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of a truth,&quot; replied the unwary disputant. &quot;For these questions need
+but a plain and simple answer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then,&quot; said Marsh, &quot;of a surety He must have ate and drank
+Himself!&mdash;Nay,&quot; continued he, seeing the priest turn pale with rage and
+vexation, &quot;I can find none other alternative. For, unlearned and
+unpractised as I am; the absurdity of your belief is manifest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art a child of perdition&mdash;an impious and pestilent heretic! Thou
+eatest and drinkest damnation to thyself; and the Holy Church consigns
+all such to the flames, and to the fire of eternal wrath hereafter!&quot;
+roared the infuriate priest, whose choler waxed hotter in proportion as
+he felt unable to withstand the conclusion of his opponent.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For,&quot; as it has been observed, even by some of the most enlightened
+Catholics themselves,<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18" ></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> &quot;theological animosity, so far from being an
+argument of men's conviction in their opposite sects, is a certain proof
+that they have never reached any serious persuasion with regard to these
+sublime subjects. Even those who are most impatient of contradiction in
+other contro<!-- Page 176 --><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176" ></a>versies, are mild and moderate in comparison of polemical
+divines; and whenever a man's knowledge and experience give him a
+perfect assurance in his own opinion, he regards with contempt rather
+than anger the opposition and mistakes of others. But while men
+zealously maintain what they neither clearly comprehend nor entirely
+believe, they are shaken in their imagined faith by the opposite
+persuasion, or even doubts of other men, and vent on their antagonists
+that anger and impatience which is the natural result of this state of
+the understanding.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Master,&quot; cried Wrinstone, &quot;shall I fetch the bridle that we so oft use
+for scolds and ill women?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ay, do, prithee run, Roger,&quot; said the child, hastily, and looking
+towards him, &quot;for my grandfather's priest is like to need it soon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this the worthy professor of Christian charity and good-will, darting
+a furious look at the girl, exclaimed&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sir Roger, beware lest this viper thou art hatching be suffered to
+sting us. Look to it! This minion of thine is not too young either to
+work mischief or to escape its punishment!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Whereupon Sir Roger, mightily afraid of his spiritual guide and granter
+of indulgences, rebuked the offending little one, and ordered her out of
+the room. With some difficulty this command was executed; but the
+disturbance at the door became so loud, that they were fain again to
+admit her, upon a sullen promise that she would behave in a more
+reverent manner to the priest, and refrain from interruption.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Answer me no more with thy deep and devilish sublety,&quot; continued this
+champion of the Catholic faith; &quot;for of a truth the devil doth
+wonderfully aid and abet ye in all disputes touching this holy
+sacrament; but show me thy belief in regard to so wholesome and
+comfortable a doctrine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have answered before, as far as my weak understanding will permit,
+and by God's grace I will not swerve from my profession. A doctrine
+pushed to an absurdity is its own refutation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Then spake one that was standing by, but who had hitherto taken no part
+in the debate.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Truly 'tis a pity that one so proper and well-gifted, and who might
+doubtless gain some profitable appointment, should so foolishly cast
+himself away by holding these dangerous and heretical opinions. Thou
+wilt bring both body and soul into <!-- Page 177 --><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177" ></a>jeopardy thereby. If not for
+thyself, yet for thy children's sake, and for thy kindred, who must
+needs suffer from thy contumacy, return to the communion from which thou
+hast cast thyself out, and to the arms of that compassionate mother who
+is ever ready to receive back her erring but repentant children.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Verily,&quot; replied the martyr, &quot;life, children, brethren, and friends,
+with all the other delights and comforts of this present state, are as
+dear and sweet unto me as unto any other man, and I would be as loath to
+lose them if I might hold them with a good conscience. But seeing I
+cannot do that, I trust God will strengthen me with His Holy Spirit so
+that I may lose all for His sake. For I now hold myself but as a sheep
+appointed to be slain, and patiently to suffer whatsoever cross it may
+please my most merciful Father to lay upon me. But, as God is my
+witness!&quot;&mdash;he seemed to speak with a prophetic denunciation, &quot;from these
+vile ashes shall a fire-brand come that shall consume and destroy
+utterly these bloody men and persecutors of God's inheritance!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>So astonished were the bystanders at his audacity, that they did not so
+much as attempt to stay his tongue or to lay hands upon him, whilst he
+continued, raising his arm in a threatening attitude&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ye killers of the prophets, and destroyers of them whom God hath sent
+unto you!&mdash;Because we reproach you with your evil deeds, and&quot;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Blasphemy?&quot; cried out Sir Roger, who was the first to recover his
+speech: &quot;we will have thy tongue bored for its offence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Away with him!&quot; cried the priest, who seemed nothing loath to begin his
+torments. &quot;Thou shalt to my Lord Derby, and he will know how to deal
+with such a bitter and foul-mouthed heretic.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>All was uproar and confusion. The Justice was even moved from his chair,
+and swore out lustily that by ten o'clock the day following, unless this
+blasphemer were delivered at Lathom, he would imprison the whole family
+of them: such a pestilent fellow being fit, as he said, to infect all
+the parish with the plague of heresy.</p>
+
+<p>Roger Wrinstone and his crew were preparing to drag him down-stairs; but
+the Justice, hobbling on his crutch, preceded them, leaning on the arm
+of his priest. The party, on their <!-- Page 178 --><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178" ></a>entrance into the hall, found
+Marsh's two kinsmen awaiting the event. They soon found that no favour
+was intended.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;See to it, knaves,&quot; bellowed the knight, &quot;that this fellow is delivered
+up to my lord at Lathom by to-morrow, or your own carcases shall answer
+for his.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Then did these poor men pray and beseech their kinsman that he would in
+some wise conform to the religion of his superiors, or find some way of
+escape from a cruel and ignominious death.</p>
+
+<p>But Marsh, standing steadfast before them all, cried out with a loud
+voice&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Between me and them let God witness!&quot; Looking up to heaven, he
+exclaimed, as if with a sudden inspiration&mdash;&quot;If my cause be just, let
+this prayer of thine unworthy servant be heard!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He stamped violently with his foot, and the impression of it, as the
+general notion is, yet remains, to attest the purity of his cause and
+the cruelty and injustice of his persecutors.</p>
+
+<p>To this day may be seen the print of a man's foot in the stone, which by
+many is believed to exist as a memorial of this good confession.</p>
+
+<p>In shape it is much like that of a human foot, except its being rather
+longer than common. In that part where the sole may have rested is a
+small dent, as though a man had stamped vehemently on the soft earth,
+and the weight of his body had borne principally on that place. The
+impression is of a dark-brown or rather reddish hue, and is very
+perceptible when damp or moistened by cleaning.</p>
+
+<p>Marsh's subsequent history is soon told. From Lathom, where he was
+examined before Lord Derby and his council, and found guilty of
+heretical opinions, he was committed to Lancaster, and from thence to
+the ecclesiastical court at Chester, where, after several examinations
+before Dr Cotes, then bishop of this diocese, he was adjudged to the
+stake, and burnt in pursuance of his sentence, at the place of public
+execution near that city, on the 24th April 1555.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Baines' &quot;Lancashire,&quot; p. 540.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Whitaker's &quot;Whalley,&quot; p. 424.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> &quot;The common net at that time,&quot; says Sir Richard Baker,
+&quot;for catching of Protestants was the real presence; and this net was
+used to catch the Lady Elizabeth. That princess showed great prudence in
+concealing her sentiments of religion, in complying with the present
+modes of worship, and in eluding all questions with regard to a subject
+so momentous. Being asked at one time, what she thought of the words of
+Christ, '<i>This is my Body</i>,'&mdash;whether she thought it the true body of
+Christ that was in the sacrament,&mdash;it is said that after some pausing
+she thus answered:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;'Christ was the Word that spake it,<br /></span>
+<span>He took the bread and brake it;<br /></span>
+<span>And what the Word did make it,<br /></span>
+<span><i>That</i> I believe, and take it;'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&quot;which, though it may seem but a slight expression, yet hath in it more
+solidness than at first sight appears; at least, it served her turn at
+that time to escape the net, which by a direct answer she could not have
+done.&quot;&mdash;Baker's <i>Chronicle</i>, p. <i>320</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Cardinal Pole and others.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="DR_DEE_THE_ASTROLOGER" id="DR_DEE_THE_ASTROLOGER" ></a><!-- Page 179 --><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179" ></a>DR DEE, THE ASTROLOGER.</h2>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Dark was the vaulted room of gramarye<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To which the wizard led the gallant knight,<br /></span>
+<span>Save that before a mirror huge and high<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">A hallowed taper shed a glimmering light<br /></span>
+<span>On mystic implements of magic might;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">On cross, and character, and talisman,<br /></span>
+<span>And almagest and altar, nothing bright;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">For fitful was the lustre, pale and wan,<br /></span>
+<span>As watch-light by the bed of some departing man.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="author">&mdash;<i>Lay of the Last Minstrel</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The character of Dee, our English &quot;Faust,&quot; as he is not inaptly called,
+has both been misrepresented and misunderstood. An enthusiast he
+undoubtedly was, but not the drivelling dotard that some of his
+biographers imagine. A man of profound learning, distinguished for
+attainments far beyond the general range of his contemporaries, he, like
+Faustus, and the wisest of human kind, had found out how little he knew;
+had perceived that the great ocean of truth yet lay unexplored before
+him. Pursuing his inquiries to the bound and limit, as he thought, of
+human knowledge, and finding it altogether &quot;vanity,&quot; he had recourse to
+forbidden practices, to experiments through which the occult and hidden
+qualities of nature and spirit should be unveiled and subdued to his own
+will.</p>
+
+<p>Evidently prompted to unhallowed intercourse by pride and ambition, he
+deluded himself with the vain and wicked hope that the God who spurned
+his impious requests would vouchsafe to him a new and peculiar
+revelation. He would not bow to the plain and humbling tenets already
+revealed, but sought another &quot;sign,&quot;&mdash;a miraculous testimony to himself
+alone. Fancying that he was entrusted with a divine mission, he was
+given up to strong delusions that he should believe a lie. He aimed at
+universal knowledge and exhaustless riches; but he died imbecile and a
+beggar!</p>
+
+<p>That he was deceived by Kelly, there is no doubt; and that he was
+sincere, at least in seeking his own promotion and aggrandisement, is
+equally certain; but we would rescue his character from the ridicule
+with which it has been invested. His grasp was greater than his power,
+and he fell, like heroes and conquerors in all ages, unable to execute,
+and overwhelmed with the vastness of his own conceptions.</p>
+
+<p>John Dee was born July 13, 1527, in London. His parents were in <!-- Page 180 --><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180" ></a>good
+circumstances. At an early age (fifteen years) he studied at St John's
+College, Cambridge. His application was intense. For three years, by his
+own account, he only slept four hours every night. Two hours were
+allowed for meals and recreation, and the rest was spent in learning and
+devotion. Five years afterwards he went into the Low Countries, for the
+purpose of conversing with Frisius, Mercator, and others. Returning to
+Cambridge, he was chosen a fellow of Trinity College, then founded by
+Henry the Eighth. His reputation stood very high, and his astronomical
+pursuits, in those days generally connected with astrology, drew upon
+him the imputation of being a conjuror, which character clung to him
+through life. This opinion was much strengthened by an accident which,
+he says, happened soon after his removal from St John's College, and his
+being chosen a fellow of Trinity. &quot;Hereupon,&quot; he continues, &quot;I did set
+forth a Greek comedy of Aristophanes, named in Greek &#7961;&#953;&#961;&#951;&#957;&#951;
+with the performance of the Scarab&aelig;us, or beetle&mdash;his flying up to
+Jupiter's palace with a man and his basket of victuals on her back;
+whereat was great wondering, and many vain reports spread abroad of the
+means how that was effected.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He left England again soon afterwards, distinguishing himself at several
+foreign universities, and attracting the notice of many persons of high
+rank, amongst which were the Duke of Mantua and Don Lewis de la Cerda
+(afterwards Duke of Medina Celi). In 1551 he returned to England, being
+well received by King Edward and his court. A pension of one hundred
+crowns per annum was granted him, which he afterwards exchanged for the
+rectory of Upton-upon-Severn.</p>
+
+<p>In Queen Mary's reign he was accused of some correspondence with the
+Lady Elizabeth's servants, and of practising against the Queen's life by
+enchantments. He was seized and confined, but acquitted of the charge.
+He was then turned over to Bonner, to see if heresy might not be found
+in him. After a tedious prosecution he was set at liberty, August 19,
+1555, by an order of the council.</p>
+
+<p>Upon Queen Elizabeth's accession he was consulted as to a fit day for
+the coronation, and received many splendid promises of preferment, which
+were never realised.</p>
+
+<p>In the spring of the year 1564, he made another journey abroad, when he
+presented to the Emperor Maximilian his book, entitled &quot;Monas
+Hieroglyphica,&quot; printed at Antwerp the same year. He returned to England
+in the summer, producing several learned works, which showed his
+extraordinary skill in the mathematics.</p>
+
+<p>In 1571 he went to Lorraine, where, falling very ill, he was honoured
+with the solicitude of the Queen, who sent two of her physicians, and
+gave him many other proofs of her regard. Upon his return to England he
+now settled himself in his own house at Mortlake in Surrey, where he
+collected a noble library, and prosecuted his studies with great
+dili<!-- Page 181 --><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181" ></a>gence. His collection is said to have consisted of more than four
+thousand books, nearly a fourth part of them manuscripts, which were
+afterwards dispersed and lost. This library, and a great number of
+mathematical and mechanical instruments, were destroyed by the fury of
+the populace in 1583, who, believing him to be a conjuror, and one that
+dealt with the devil, broke into his house, and tore and destroyed the
+fruit of his labours during the forty years preceding.</p>
+
+<p>On the 16th March 1575, Queen Elizabeth, attended by many of her court,
+visited Dr Dee's house to see his library; but having buried his wife
+only a few hours before, he could not entertain her Majesty in the way
+he wished. However, he brought out a glass, the properties of which he
+explained to his royal mistress, hoping to wipe off the aspersion, under
+which he had long laboured, of being a magician.</p>
+
+<p>In 1578 her Majesty being indisposed, Dee was sent abroad to consult
+with some German physicians about the nature of her complaint. But that
+part of his life in which he was most known to the world commenced in
+1581, when his intercourse began with Edward Kelly. This man pretended
+to instruct him how to obtain, by means of certain invocations, an
+intercourse with spirits. Soon afterwards there came to England a Polish
+lord, Albert Laski, palatine of Siradia, a person of great learning. He
+was introduced to Dee by the Earl of Leicester, who was now the doctor's
+chief patron. Becoming acquainted, Laski prevailed with Dee and Kelly to
+accompany him to his own country. They went privately from Mortlake,
+embarking for Holland, from whence they travelled by land through
+Germany into Poland. On the 3d February 1584, they arrived at the castle
+of their patron, where they remained for some time.</p>
+
+<p>They afterwards visited the Emperor Rodolphe at Prague. On the 17th
+April 1585, Laski introduced them to Stephen, king of Poland, at Cracow;
+but this prince treating them very coolly, they returned to the
+emperor's court at Prague, from whence they were banished at the
+instigation of the Pope's nuncio, who represented them as magicians.</p>
+
+<p>The doctor and his companion afterwards found an asylum in the Castle of
+Trebona, belonging to Count William, of Rosenberg, where they lived in
+great splendour for a considerable time. It was said that Kelly had
+succeeded in procuring the powder of projection, by which they were
+furnished with money in profusion; but on referring to the doctor's
+diary, we find the miserable tricks and shifts they resorted to for the
+purpose of keeping up appearances. Kelly, however, it seems, learned
+many secrets from the German chemists, which he did not communicate to
+his patron; and the heart-burnings and jealousies that arose between
+them at length ended in an absolute rupture.</p>
+
+<p>The fame of their adventures was noised through Europe, and Elizabeth,
+in consequence, invited Dee home. He was now separated from Kelly, and
+on the 1st of May 1589, he set out on his return to England. He
+travelled with great pomp, was attended by a guard of horse, and
+<!-- Page 182 --><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182" ></a>besides waggons for his goods, had no less than three coaches for the
+use of his family. He landed at Gravesend on the 23d of November, and on
+the 9th of December was graciously received at Richmond by the Queen. He
+found his house at Mortlake had been pillaged, but he collected the
+scattered remains of his library, and was so successful, by the
+assistance of his friends, as to recover about three-fourths of his
+books, estimating his loss at about &pound;400, He had many friends, and
+received great presents, but was always craving and in want. The Queen
+sent him money from time to time, promising him two hundred angels at
+Christmas. One-half he received, but he gave a broad hint that the Queen
+and himself were defrauded of the rest. He now resolved to apply for
+some settled subsistence, and sent a memorial by the Countess of Warwick
+to her Majesty, earnestly requesting that commissioners might be
+appointed to hear his pretensions and decide upon his claims. Two
+commissioners were accordingly sent to Mortlake, where Dee showed them a
+book containing a distinct account of all the memorable transactions of
+his life, except those which occurred in his Jast journey abroad. He
+detailed to them the injuries, damages, and indignities which he had
+suffered, and humbly supplicated reparation at their hands. The Queen,
+in consequence, sent 100 marks to Mrs Dee, and promises to her husband.
+At length, on December 8th, 1594, he obtained a grant of the
+chancellorship of St Paul's. But this did not answer his expectations,
+upon which he applied to Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury, giving an
+account of all the books he had either written or published. This, with
+other applications, led to his being presented with the wardenship of
+Manchester College, vacant by the removal of Dr William Chaderton to the
+see of Chester. On the 14th of February 1596, he arrived with his family
+in that town, and on the 20th he was installed in his new charge. He
+continued here about seven years, passing his time in a very turbulent
+and unquiet manner. On the 5th of June 1604, he presented a petition to
+King James, earnestly desiring that he might be brought to trial and
+delivered, by a judicial sentence, from those suspicions which his
+astrological and other inquiries had brought upon him. But the King,
+knowing the nature of his studies, was very far from showing him any
+mark of his favour. In November, the same year, he quitted Manchester,
+returning to his house at Mortlake, where he died, old, infirm, and
+forsaken of his friends, being very often obliged to sell some book or
+other to procure a dinner. The following account of Dr Dee's expenses
+from Trebona to London, copied from a statement in his own
+handwriting,<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19" ></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> we have thought too curious to omit:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The charges of my last return from beyond seas, A. 1589, being
+favourably called home by her Majestie from Trebon Castle in Bohemia.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><!-- Page 183 --><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183" ></a>600 lib.</div>
+
+<p>&quot;My journey of remove homeward from Trebon Castle to Staden cost me more
+than 3000 dollars, which we account</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">120 lib.</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Besides the cost of 15 horses wherewith I travelled all that journey;
+of which the 12 which drew my 3 coaches were very good and young
+Hungarian horses, and the other three were Wallachies for the saddles:
+which 15 cost with one another</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">60 lib.</div>
+
+<p>&quot;The three new coaches made purposely for my aforesaid journey, with the
+furniture for the 12 coach-horses, and with the saddles and bridles for
+the rest, cost more than 3 score pounds</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The charge of wains to carry my goods from Trebon to Staden, they being
+two and sometimes three (for more easy and light passage in some
+places), cost above an hundred and ten pounds, which I account (for an
+hundred of it) under my former sum of 600 lib. Under which 600 lib. also
+I do account for the charges of the 24 soldiers, well appointed, which,
+by virtue of the emperor's passport, I took up in my way from Diepholt,
+and again from Oldenburgh; the charges of the six harquebusiers and
+musqueteers, which the Earl of Oldenburgh lent me out of his own
+garrison there: I gave to one with another a dollar a man for the day,
+and their meat and drink full. For at the first, 18 enemies, horsemen,
+well appointed, from Lingen and Wilstrusen, had lain five days attending
+thereabout, to have sett upon me and mine; and at Oldeborch, a Scot (one
+of the garrison) gave me warning of an ill-minded company lying and
+hovering for me in the way which I was to pass, as by a letter may
+appear here present. Of the former danger, the Landgrave of Hesse his
+letters unto me may give some evidence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The charges of the four Swart Ruiters, very well mounted, and appointed
+to attend on me at Staden, from Breme, being honourably and very
+carefully sent unto me by the noble consuls and senators of Breme, and
+that with a friendly farewell (delivered unto me by the speech of one of
+their secretaries at my lodgings) need not be specified here what it
+was. For their going with me in two days to Staden, their abode there,
+and as much homeward, being in all five days' charges, 30 dollars.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This was a very dangerous time to ride abroad in thereabouts, as the
+merchants of Staden can well remember. The excellent learned theologian,
+the superintendent of Breme, Mr D. Chrystopher Berzelius his verses,
+printed the night before that of my going from Breme, and the morning of
+my departure, openly delivered to me partly, and partly distributed to
+the company of students and others attending about to see us set forth,
+and to bid us farewell, may be a <!-- Page 184 --><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184" ></a>memorial of some of my good credit
+grown in that city, and of the day of my coming from it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I will not enlarge my lines to specific what other charges I was at to
+further some of her Majestie's servants at my lying at Breme; as 70
+dollars given or lent to one Conradus Justus Newbrenner; and about 40
+given to gett some letters of great importance brought to our
+sovereign's honorable privy council in due time.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">10 lib.</div>
+
+<p>&quot;The charge of my fraught and passage from Staden to London for my
+goods, myself, my wife, children, and servants</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">796 lib.</div>
+
+<p>&quot;So that the sum total of money, spent and laid out, in and for my
+remove from Trebon to London doth amount to</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">1510 lib.</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Whereby the whole sum of the former damages and losses</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">796 lib.</div>
+
+<p>&quot;And the removing charges doth amount (with the least) to</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">2306 lib.</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Besides the 100 dollars disbursed at Breme for dutiful love to Queen
+and country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>One minor occurrence in the following tradition&mdash;viz., the loss of the
+horse&mdash;is related by Lilly as happening to another of the fraternity;
+but we claim it&mdash;upon grounds too trivial it might be deemed by
+some&mdash;for the &quot;Doctor.&quot; It is not our intention to spoil a good story by
+rejecting what we cannot verify. Sufficient for us that the tale exists;
+though we take the liberty of telling it in our own way.</p>
+
+
+<p>There came a thin spare man one evening to Dr Dee's residence in the
+college at Manchester, where he then dwelt by permission only from the
+Earl of Derby, though living there in the capacity of warden to the
+church.</p>
+
+<p>The college being dissolved in the first of Edward VI. (1547), the
+possessions fell into the hands of that nobleman, who, however, kept
+ministers at his own charge to officiate in the church. Mary refounded
+the establishment, restoring the greater part of the lands, but Lord
+Derby still kept the college house. In 1578 Elizabeth granted a new
+foundation to the college, appointing her own wardens. Dr Dee, being the
+third on the new establishment, was installed with great solemnity on
+the 20th February 1596.</p>
+
+<p>The visitor we have just noticed was muffled in a dark cloak, having a
+wide and ample collar, which he threw over his head, as though anxious
+for concealment. The Doctor, having re<!-- Page 185 --><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185" ></a>tired into his study, was not to
+be disturbed; but the stranger was urgent for admission, while Lettice
+Gostwich, Dee's help-at-all-work, a pert ungracious slattern, was fully
+resolved not to permit his access to her master.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then since nothing else will do,&quot; said the pertinacious intruder,
+&quot;convey me this message&mdash;to wit, a stranger comes to him on business of
+great moment regarding his own welfare and that of the matter or event
+whose <i>corollarium</i> he is now studying.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lettice, wearied through his importunity, and hoping by compliance to
+rid herself from these solicitations, went to the Doctor's private
+chamber, where, having delivered her message through the thumb-hole of
+the latch&mdash;for on no account would he allow of personal intrusion&mdash;to
+her great surprise, he bade her be gone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Show the stranger up-stairs,&quot; said he. &quot;Why hast thou kept him so long
+tarrying?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lettice, with little speed and less good-will, obeyed the Doctor's
+behest, grumbling loud at the capricious and uncertain humours of her
+master.</p>
+
+<p>The visitor was at length ushered into the presence of this celebrated
+scholar and professor of the celestial sciences, whose predictions at
+one period astonished Europe; his presence, like some portentous comet,
+threatening war and disaster, perplexing even emperors and princes, and
+filling them with apprehension and dismay. But Dee was somewhat fallen
+from this high and dangerous celebrity. He was become querulous and
+ill-tempered. Never satisfied with his present condition, but always
+aiming at some greater thing, he generally contrived to lose what he
+already possessed. At one time, to control the destinies and acquire the
+supreme direction of affairs, either as the High Priest or the Grand
+Lama of Europe, was not beyond the compass of his thoughts or the scope
+of his ambition. Now, he was petitioning the Queen for a small increase
+to his worldly pittance, and an opportunity of clearing himself before
+her Majesty's council from the foul and slanderous accusations by which
+he was continually assailed. Yet he had not abandoned his former
+projects. Though failing in his mission aforetime to the Emperor of
+Germany, the King of Poland, and others, to whom he evidently went for
+political purposes, and with offers of his aid, through the
+foreknowledge and spiritual intercourse <!-- Page 186 --><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186" ></a>by which he thought himself
+favoured, yet he still cherished the hope of promotion by such visionary
+follies. That chimera of the imagination, the invention of the
+philosopher's stone, still haunted him, and he did not yet despair of
+one day becoming a ruler among princes, the supreme arbiter and
+depositary of the fate of nations.</p>
+
+<p>The delusions imposed on him by Kelly, his seer and confederate, had so
+impressed him with this belief, that he still purposed going abroad on a
+divine mission, as he called it, and only awaited the auspicious time
+when his spiritual instructors should point out another seer in Kelly's
+room, from whom he had been long separated. Though now in his
+seventy-first year, he was not deterred from making another attempt to
+reach the goal of his ambition. Such is the folly and madness of these
+enthusiasts, that, let them be never so often foiled in their inordinate
+expectations, yet does it in no wise hinder, but, on the contrary, sets
+them more fully on their desire. Casaubon, in his preface to the account
+of Dee's intercourse with spirits, gives a strange instance of their
+infatuation. He says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the days of Martin Luther, there lived one Michael Stifelius, who
+applying to himself some place of the Apocalypse, took upon himself to
+prophesy. He foretold that in the year of the Lord 1533, before the 29th
+of September, the end of the world and Christ's coming to judgment would
+be. He did show so much confidence that, some write, Luther himself was
+somewhat startled at the first. But that day past, he came a second time
+to Luther, with new calculations, and had digested the whole business
+into twenty-two articles, the effect of which was to demonstrate that
+the end of the world would be in October following. But now Luther
+thought that he had had trial enough, and gave so little credit to him,
+that he (though he loved the man) silenced him for a time, which our
+apocalyptical prophet took very ill at his hands, and wondered much at
+his incredulity. Well, that month and some after that over, our prophet
+(who had made no little stir in the country by his prophesying) was cast
+into prison for his obstinacy. After a while Luther visited him,
+thinking by that time to find him of another mind; but so far was he
+from acknowledging his error, that he downright railed at Luther for
+giving him good counsel. And some write, that to his dying day (having
+lived to the age of eighty years) he never recanted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 187 --><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187" ></a>These air-built hopes and projects may in some sort account for the
+readiness with which Dee admitted the stranger after hearing his
+message. It seemed to be the very echo of his own thoughts, floating on
+their dark current, which it quickened by some unknown and mysterious
+impulse.</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor was sitting in a high and curiously-wrought chair, cushioned
+with black leather, gilt and ornamented after the antique fashion. His
+upper garment was of black serge, the neck and breast furred with
+sables. A cap of the same materials concealed his bald and shining head,
+giving his pale shrivelled features a peculiar look of learning and hard
+study. His face was long, and his beard pointed. Age and anxiety were
+indelibly marked upon his lank visage; but his eye was yet undimmed;
+small, keen, and restless, it seemed the image of his own insatiable
+desire, consuming soul and body in the fire and fervour of its
+inordinate and uncontrolled appetite.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy name?&quot; said Dee sharply, as the stranger bowed himself before the
+reputed magician.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bartholomew Hickman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And thy business?&quot; inquired the Doctor, with an inquisitive glance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Since your reverence hath dismissed Kelly, you have been but
+indifferently served in the capacity of seer; mine errand is to this
+purport:&mdash;If we agree for wages, I will serve you; and I doubt not but
+my faculty of seeing will equal that of Master Kelly, provided you have
+a glass whose quality and virtue shall be equivalent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My glass,&quot; replied the Doctor, &quot;is not to be matched throughout the
+world. Even Cornelius Agrippa had not its like; nor was his famous
+mirror fit to compare with it. Hast heard aught of its history?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would listen, Master Dee, for my knowledge thereof is but gathered
+from the vulgar report.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Know then,&quot; said Dee, with an air of great pride and complacency, &quot;that
+my stone was brought by the ministration of angels, in answer to fervent
+and oft-repeated prayer. One night, as I sate with Kelly, discoursing on
+the rise and fall of empires, the setting up and the downfall of
+estates, and many other matters of grave and weighty import, he looked
+uneasy for a while, saying that he felt a strange sensation, and, as it
+were, a heavy weight on his right shoulder, as though something sat
+<!-- Page 188 --><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188" ></a>there. He said a spirit, invisible at that time, was in all likelihood
+hearkening to our discourse, and wished to communicate with us. He then
+spake as though to some one behind him, and listened&mdash;'Sayest thou so'
+said he; 'then will I speedily apprise the Doctor.' He then told me it
+was the angel Uriel, who would bring us a wonderful glass or crystal,
+whereby a seer, properly gifted, would be enabled to see many wonderful
+things; but this surprising faculty I do not possess, by reason of a
+fiery sign not occupying the cusp of my ascendant and medium cosli.
+Edward Kelly was, however, permitted to supply this defect, and I might
+confidently rely, he said, on the truth of those revelations, which I
+was to note down for the benefit of mankind, and the establishing of a
+new dispensation upon the earth. None but good angels could enter into
+this glass, and they would teach me, as he then foretold, many things,
+whereby, gaining great honour and renown, kings and princes should be
+reproved of me, who was raised up for their sakes. At this revelation I
+was exceeding glad, and more so on finding the day following in my study
+this precious gem, which, as I once told the Emperor Rodolph, is of such
+value that no earthly kingdom is worthy to be 'compared to the virtue or
+dignity thereof. I well remember the time,&quot; said Dee, delighting to
+dwell on these recollections: &quot;I was at Prague, the emperor having sent
+for me; I went up to the castle, where, in the <i>Ritterstove</i>, or guard
+chamber, I stayed a little; Octavius Spinola, that was the chamberlain,
+saluted me very courteously, having understood that I was he whom the
+emperor waited for. Returning to the privy-chamber, he came out again,
+leading me by the skirt through the dining-chamber and the
+privy-chamber, where the emperor sat at a table with a great chest and
+standish of silver, and my book and letters before him. Then craved I
+pardon, at his Majesty's hand, for my boldness in sending him my '<i>Monas
+Hieroglyphica</i>,' dedicated to his father; but I did it of the sincere
+and entire good-will that I bare to his father Maximilian, and also unto
+his Majesty. He then thanked me very kindly, saying that he knew of my
+great endowments, and the esteem I had gotten of the learned; of this he
+had been informed by the Spanish ambassador. He said my book was rather
+too hard for his capacity; but he heard I had something to say to him,
+<i>Quod esset pro sua utilitate</i>. 'And so I have,' I replied, looking back
+to see first that we were alone. Hereupon, I began <!-- Page 189 --><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189" ></a>to declare how all
+my lifetime had been spent in learning, and with great pains and cost I
+had come to the best knowledge that man might attain to in this world. I
+had found, too, that no man living, neither any book, was able to teach
+me those truths that I desired and longed for. Therefore I concluded
+within myself to make intercession and prayer to the Giver of all wisdom
+to send unto me knowledge, whereby I might know the nature of His
+creatures, and also enjoy means to use them to His honour and glory. At
+length it pleased God to send me His light&mdash;the angel Uriel, whereby I
+was assured of His merciful and gracious answer. For the space of two
+years and a half, as I told his Majesty, angels had not ceased to
+minister unto me through this wonderful stone, whose history I related.
+Furthermore, I said that I had a message from them unto his, Majesty.
+'The angel of the Lord hath appeared unto me,' I cried, 'and hath
+rebuked you for your sins; if you will hear, and believe me, you shall
+triumph; if you will not hear, the Lord, the God of heaven and earth,
+under whom you breathe and have your being, putteth His foot against
+your breast, and will throw you headlong from your seat.' Moreover, I
+said that if he would listen to me, and take me for his counsellor, his
+kingdom should be established, so that there would be none like unto it
+throughout the world. I was commanded, likewise, to show him the nature
+of the holy vision, and the manner thereof, which he might witness, and
+hear the words, though he could not see the fashion of the creatures in
+the glass. He thanked me, and said that he would thenceforward take me
+to his recommendation and care. Some more promises he used, though I
+could not well understand them, he spake so low. Perceiving, now, that
+he wished to make an end for this time, I made my obeisance and
+departed. But mark the favour of princes!&mdash;through the cabals of some,
+and the intrigues of his favourite and physician, one Doctor Curtz, who
+was fearful of my displacing him,&mdash;in the end I was not only prevented
+from further access to his Majesty, but banished the empire! Go to, go
+to,&quot; said Dee, much troubled at these thoughts, &quot;I am something too much
+affected of these vain impressions, and the pomp of these earthly ones.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He arose, lifting an ebony cabinet on the table, which he unlocked with
+great solemnity. During this operation he fell to muttering many
+prayers; and with an air of great reverence he took out a
+richly-embossed casket, which being opened, there <!-- Page 190 --><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190" ></a>was displayed a fair
+crystal of an egg-shaped form, on which he gazed with a long and silent
+delight.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A treasure beyond all price,&quot; said Bartholomew, eyeing it with rapture.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Even so,&quot; said Dee, &quot;and, by the grace of the Giver, I do hope to
+profit by it. Once it was removed from me. Listen. It was in the little
+chapel, or oratory, next the chambers which Lord William of Rosenberg
+had allotted us in his castle at Trebona. I had set the stone in its
+wonted place upon the table, or altar as we called it, when Kelly saw a
+great flame in the stone, which thing though he told me, I made no end
+of my usual prayer. But suddenly one seemed to come in at the south
+window of the chapel, right opposite to Kelly, while the stone was
+heaved up without hands, and set down again; wonderful to behold. After
+which I saw the man who came in at the window; he had his lower parts in
+a cloud, and, with open arms, flew towards Kelly; at which sight he
+shrunk back, and the creature took up between both hands the stone with
+its frame of gold, and mounted up the way he came. Kelly caught at it,
+but could not touch it; thereupon he was grievously alarmed, and had the
+<i>tremor cordis</i> for a good while after.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20" ></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> This my angelical stone
+being taken away, I was mightily troubled, for the other stones in my
+possession being made through man's skill and device, I had not a safe
+warranty of their virtue, so that I might confidently trust in what they
+should disclose. I was afraid, too, of the intrusion of wicked spirits
+into them, who might impose on me with their delusions. This happened on
+a Friday, being the 24th of April 1587, as I find it recorded in my
+diary. But mark the manner of its return! The following month, on the
+22d day, and on the same day of the week, about four hours post
+meridian, as I and Kelly were walking out through the orchard, down the
+river-side, he saw two little men fighting there furiously with swords;
+and one said to the other, '<i>Thou hast beguiled me</i>.' As I drew near
+they did not abate their heat, but the fray seemed to wax even hotter
+than before. I at length said, '<i>Good friends, let me take up the matter
+between you</i>;' whereupon they stayed, the elder of them saying, '<i>I sent
+a present to thy wife, and this fellow hath taken it away</i>,' With this,
+they again fought until the other was wounded in his thigh, which seemed
+to bleed. Being in great pain, he took out of his bosom something that
+<!-- Page 191 --><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191" ></a>I guessed to be the very treasure that I had lost. '<i>Now will I make
+thee return it</i>,' said the first speaker; with that the other, who was
+wounded, seemed to go suddenly out of sight, but came again ere I could
+answer a word. The elder of them then asked him, saying, '<i>Hast thou
+laid it under the right pillow of the bed where he lay yesternight</i>?'
+With these words they both went towards a willow-tree on the right, by
+the new stairs, which tree seemed to cleave open, and as they went in it
+closed, and I never saw them more. With great haste I returned to my
+chamber, where, lifting up the right pillow, I found my precious stone;
+being greatly rejoiced, together with my wife, who joined me in thanking
+God for its return.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21" ></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p>
+
+<p>&quot;An exceeding comfortable and gracious providence: being preserved, I
+doubt not, from the evil ones,&quot; said Bartholomew Hickman. &quot;But I would
+fain give you a sample of my skill, if so be that you will prepare the
+crystal, charging it with due care and attention.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Then did the Doctor betake himself to the performance of sundry strange
+rites, consisting of many absurd forms and hard speeches, ever and anon
+ejaculating a fervent prayer for success, and a petition against doubt
+and deception. He spread a fair carpet on the table, disposing the
+candlesticks on each side, and a little behind the crystal. This was
+placed upon a cushion of black silk, a crucifix near, and the psalter
+before it, open at the service for the departed. After a profound
+silence for about the space of half an hour, Dee looked towards his
+visitor as if expecting that he should begin. The seer threw off his
+upper garment, and kneeling down, clad only in a short tunic of gray
+cloth, without ruff or belt, he betook himself, though with some
+agitation, to the repeating of a few short Latin prayers, intermingled
+with cabalistical jargon, and scraps of some unknown and uncouth tongue.
+The Doctor gave special heed thereto, hearkening as though not
+over-credulous in the boasted skill of his visitor. Presently the latter
+put his face close to the stone, binding it before his eyes with a white
+napkin, his head still resting on the table. Dee asked him softly, &quot;What
+seest thou?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing,&quot; said Bartholomew.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is the curtain not yet visible in the stone?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I cannot even see the curtain,&quot; replied the seer; &quot;for all is dark.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 192 --><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192" ></a>Then Dee began to pray earnestly that some of his former friends might
+appear, whom he called by many outlandish names, such as <i>Ave, Nalvage,
+Madini</i>, and others. Immediately Bartholomew cried out&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see a glimmer!&mdash;Soft!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor scarcely durst breathe, fearing to interrupt the opening of
+the vision.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see a golden curtain, partly drawn aside.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The charge beginneth to work,&quot; said Dee. &quot;'Tis the very appearance that
+was always vouchsafed to Kelly ere the spirits showed themselves in the
+glass. Note well what thou seest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There appeareth a white cloud, as a curdly vapour wreathing itself
+about a pillar of burning brass, but no creature is visible.&mdash;I hear a
+voice!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mark the words and repeat them steadily,&quot; said the Doctor, who drew
+nearer that he might hear the purport of the revelation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>Sanctum signatum et ad tempus</i>,&quot; said the voice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The sense of this may be understood diversely. By which sense may we be
+guided?&quot; said Dee, as though speaking to some invisible thing within the
+glass. Presently the seer again repeated&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'<i>Sanctum, quia hoc velle suum; sigillatum, quid determinatum ad
+tempus</i>;' the voice ceaseth:&mdash;but these be hard speeches, Master Dee. I
+hear again, '<i>Ad tempus et ad tempus (inquam) quia rerum
+consummatio</i>&mdash;<i>All things are at hand</i>&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;'<i>The seat is prepared.</i><br /></span>
+<span><i>Justice hath determined.</i><br /></span>
+<span><i>The time is short</i>.'&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&quot;Seest thou no creature?&quot; anxiously inquired the Doctor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None. But the pillar openeth as though it were cleft. Now a woman
+cometh forth out of the pedestal, covered with a cloud. I can see her
+face dimly at times through this veil, which seemeth to pass over as a
+thin cloud before the dazzling sun. She standeth as though in a hollow
+shell, glistening with such fair colours that no earthly brightness may
+be comparable to it. She now seemeth to wrap the air about her as a
+garment. She entereth into a thick cloud and disappears. There now
+cometh one like unto a little girl, her hair turned up before, and
+flowing behind in long and bright curls. Her raiment sparkles like unto
+changeable silk, green and red.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 193 --><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193" ></a>'Tis <i>Madini</i>,&quot; said Dee, with great delight. &quot;Note well what she
+sayeth, for she is my good angel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She sitteth down. Her lips move as though she were speaking, but I hear
+nothing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I will speak to her,&quot; said Dee; &quot;for she will answer me through thy
+ministry, if it really be Madini. Art thou Madini, that has appeared to
+me beforetime?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think she answereth,'Yes.' But her voice is very feeble.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would thou shouldest resolve me three things,&quot; said the Doctor, again
+addressing himself towards the glass. &quot;To wit&mdash;Whereto shall I direct my
+journey, and how shall I cause it to prosper? Secondly, I would speedily
+be instructed in that great and heavenly mystery, the powder of
+projection, which I have been oft promised, but never understood aright
+by reason of my feeble apprehensions, or inability to accomplish the
+grand and sublime arcanum. Thirdly, How may I find the treasure which
+was shown to me in a dream three several times; but where it is hidden
+is withheld from me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She says she will answer so far as the will of him that sent her will
+permit; but she hath a short continuance, and her answer must be brief.
+With respect to the country, make thine own choice, and thou shalt be
+directed in it for thy good. The other questions she says she cannot
+solve, but will send one of the seven who bear rule over the seals of
+the metals and their matrix. She hath departed, yet I saw her not. She
+went like a sudden stroke of light; and now there cometh a man clad in
+sober apparel, with an inkhorn at his girdle. He holdeth a pen, as
+though he would write, but his face is veiled.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis a motion that I should bring my tablets,&quot; said the Doctor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now he is writing,&quot; continued the seer. &quot;He showeth me a roll of
+parchment. But the glass becometh dim, and I think that evil spirits are
+troubling us, for the whole seems to waver, like the glowing air over
+the furnace.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor now fell to his prayers, when Bartholomew assured him the
+glass grew brighter, gradually becoming still, like the subsiding of
+waves after some accidental disturbance. He could now see the writing
+distinctly, and the veil was also removed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Give me the words to the very letter,&quot; said Dee earnestly, as he
+prepared to write.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It runs thus:&mdash;'The most noble and divine magister; the <!-- Page 194 --><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194" ></a>beginning and
+continuation of life. Watch well, and gather him so at the highest; for
+in one hour he descendeth or ascendeth from the purpose.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'<i>Take common Audcal, purge and work it by Rlodnr, of four divers
+digestions, continuing the last digestion for fourteen days in one and a
+swift proportion, until it be Dlasod fixed, a most red and luminous
+body, the image of resurrection. Take also Lulo of Red Roxtan, and work
+him through the four fiery degrees, until thou have his Audcal, and then
+gather him. Then double every degree of your Rlodnr, and by the law of
+mixture and conjunction work them diligently together. Notwithstanding
+backward through every degree, multiply the lower and last Rlodnr, his
+due office finished by one degree more than the highest. So doth it
+become Darr, the thing you seek for; a holy, just, glorious, red, and
+dignified Dlasod</i>.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Methinks I have heard this before,&quot; said Dee, &quot;and understood it not. I
+am truly in great perplexity for want of money; but still I understand
+not the purport of these symbols, the which, I beseech thee, now
+vouchsafe to thine unworthy servant.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'See thou take the season,'&quot; said the voice, &quot;'and get her while it is
+yet time. If ye let the harvest pass, ye shall desire to gather and
+shall not be able.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Take pity on mine infirmities, and make it plain,&quot; supplicated the
+Doctor, who now began to fear the usual evasions and disappointments.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Before I go,'&quot; replied the vision, &quot;'I will not be hidden from thee.
+Read thy lesson.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I read, '<i>Take common Audcal</i>' and so on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'What is Audcal?' inquireth the spirit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Alas! I know not; but thou knowest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'It is gold, and Dlasod is sulphur.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Take also, it says, Lulo of Red Roxtan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Roxtan is pure and simple wine in herself, and Lulo is her mother.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is yet in these words no slight ambiguity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Lulo is tartar of red wine, and Audcal is his mercury. Darr, in the
+angelical tongue, is the true name of the stone.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He said before that Audcal was gold,&quot; said Dee, addressing the seer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Be thankful,&quot; replied Bartholomew, &quot;and keep what thou hast received.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 195 --><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195" ></a>The Doctor was for the present satisfied; but a little reflection
+afterwards, and another trial, left him as ignorant and as poor as ever.</p>
+
+<p>He now returned thanks in the Latin tongue, it being his general custom
+at the end of each revelation, or motion, as it was called.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>Deo nostro omnipotenti sit omnis Laus, Honor, Gloria, et Jubilatio.&quot;</i>
+Unto which the seer responded, &quot;Amen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now for the third question.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He goeth to one side,&quot; said Bartholomew, &quot;and the curtain hideth him.
+Now he returneth, leading an old man blindfolded, who answereth him in
+manner following, as though to questions put by the first:&mdash;'It is
+within, and by a garden belonging to the new lodge in Aldport Park. It
+is in three parts or places.' He now seems to pause. Again he
+speaks&mdash;'Many roots and trees do hinder the gathering of it; but if he
+be wise, and understand these things, he may obtain his pleasure. One
+part was laid by Sir James Stanley, the warden, an hundred years ago.
+Another portion was hidden by an aged nun. The remainder was left by the
+Romans, and may be found under the foundations of the castle in the
+park. The time is short, and the treasure guarded; but he shall
+overcome. Listen:&mdash;'<i>Nine with twice seven northerly, and</i> ACER <i>shall
+disappear. The mystical number added to the number enfolding itself;
+this shall be added to its own towards the rising sun. Then turn
+half-round, and note well thy right foot. What thou seest gather, and it
+shall lead thee on to perfection</i>'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ask him the amount or worth of the treasure,&quot; said Dee, whose cupidity
+gloated over the bare thoughts of this vast hoard.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He says, it is 'two thousand and a half, besides odd money.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How? In gold or silver?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'More than three parts thereof are in gold.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Most humbly and heartily do I thank thee, oh&quot;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Dee was opening out another form of thanksgiving, when the seer
+interrupted his hypocritical and blasphemous addresses.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The old man goeth aside, groping his way as though it were dark. Now
+all is dim, and the curtain covereth the stone, by which we are warned
+to retire.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The needful and concluding ceremonies being gone through, the crystal
+was returned to its place. After pondering awhile, the Doctor put many
+questions to his guest about his residence, <!-- Page 196 --><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196" ></a>worldly calling, and so
+forth. He offered him &pound;50 yearly, besides lodging, and a fair proportion
+of gold when the celestial and highest projection should be completed.
+Bartholomew was not hard at making a bargain, and the Doctor began to
+hope that, by a patient waiting and trust in the efficacy of these
+strange delusions, he should at length accomplish his desires.</p>
+
+<p>A low tap at the door again betokened the presence of Lettice, who came
+to announce a warm friend of the Doctor's, one Master Eccleston. On
+being admitted, the latter brought with him a low, ferret-eyed
+personage, whose leering aspect betrayed an inward consciousness of
+great cunning and self-satisfaction therewith. Dee received his guests
+with becoming dignity, inquiring to what good fortune he was indebted
+for their visit.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou mayest remain, Hickman,&quot; said he to his new acquaintance.</p>
+
+<p>Eccleston proceeded to business as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You may readily remember that I once happened a sore mischance&mdash;to wit,
+by losing a horse I had but lately bought, and which, through your good
+offices, kindly and without fee administered, I again got back, to my
+great joy and comfort. I was telling of this but few days agone to a
+friend of mine, one Barnabas Hardcastle, whom I have made bold to bring
+before your reverence. He but laughed at me for my pains, and would in
+no wise believe it, but mark how he was served! Within this hour, he
+tells me that he has lost his mare, and would fain have the like help to
+its recovery.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hast thou lost thy beast?&quot; inquired the Doctor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Verily I have,&quot; said Barnabas, making a respectful acknowledgment to
+the Doctor's dignified address. &quot;It was but this morning she was safe as
+Mancastle is in the dirt, hard by Mr Lever's house yonder, in the
+fields. 'Tis a grievous loss, Master Dee, seeing that I was offered a
+score of pounds for the beast last Martinmas.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor opened his tables, and erected a scheme or figure of the
+heavens, to the very minute when this communication was made. Ere it was
+finished he gave a sharp and shrewd glance at the stranger, saying&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The latter part of the sign Scorpio ascendeth, and it is not safe to
+give judgment. Mars, lord thereof, is in evil aspect with Venus, lady of
+the seventh and sixth likewise, or house of servants. Yet is Mercury
+lord of the tenth, and free from <!-- Page 197 --><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197" ></a>affliction. I will therefore try my
+skill, though I should fail. The beast thou lackest is either taken by a
+servant or lost through his neglect. Stay. The Dragon's Tail, which I
+have just placed, being located in the seventh, thy mare is certainly
+lost, and will never be recovered.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Dee looked earnestly at the man, who, gathering his features into a grin
+of contempt, could scarcely refrain from an unmannerly burst of
+laughter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, o' my troth,&quot; said he, &quot;I was but minded to try the skill of your
+prophet, and to show your folly. The roan mare is safe, and I left her
+but an hour ago with my lad, who is walking her to and fro just out of
+the town-fields by Withy Grove, until I have done mine errand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art a bold man to say so,&quot; replied the Doctor angrily, and with a
+glance as though it were meant to annihilate this contemner of the
+celestial art. &quot;I tell thee she is lost, and shall never be got back: a
+reward thou hast well earned for thy folly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>With a scornful and malicious grin did Master Barnabas receive this
+denunciation, taking his departure with little ceremony, as if fearful
+of some mischance. Eccleston, much scandalised at his friend's
+proceedings, followed him down-stairs, not caring to stay longer with
+the Doctor.</p>
+
+<p>As Bartholomew and he sate discoursing on the future, and forming many
+projects, more particularly about the hidden treasures, without which,
+Dee said, he could not continue his search for the elixir, as he was
+nigh beggared, they heard a swift footstep on the stairs. Presently in
+rushed Eccleston followed by Lettice, who strove to prevent this
+intrusion. The Doctor frowned on his entrance, but, Eccleston,
+breathless and much agitated, could with difficulty declare his errand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hardcastle&mdash;Hardcastle&mdash;I say. He has lost his beast.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, I told him so,&quot; said the Doctor, with great composure.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But he <i>has</i> lost her!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know it,&quot; replied Dee.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have just left him in great anger, swearing by things both visible
+and invisible that he will have his own again; that we are confederate
+in the matter: and that he will cite us both before the chapter or the
+Star-Chamber.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How hath it happened?&quot; said Dee, scrawling listlessly with his pen.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 198 --><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198" ></a>I went with him to the boy, thinking I would see the end on't. By the
+way he did use many taunts and ill-natured speeches about my pursuit
+after the great arcanum, and belief in the celestial sciences; together
+with many unpleasant hints that the money we have expended in the
+adventure will never be got back. Discoursing thus, we came near to the
+place where he expected to find the boy. Sure enough he was there, and
+fast asleep on the ground; but the mare was gone, the bridle being left
+on the lad's arm, which his master banged about his shoulders until he
+awaked. Pray, Master Dee, be pleased to help him to his mare. I owe him
+moneys, for which he, taking advantage of the debt, may put me in
+prison.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The scoffer shall not go unpunished, nor shall he that revileth partake
+of the blessing. Go thy way, and tell him he may not recover his goods.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Eccleston departed with this heavy message, and Bartholomew was again
+left communing with the Doctor.</p>
+
+<p>The matter that still occupied their thoughts was the treasure at
+Aldport Lodge. With this in their possession they might reasonably
+expect that great progress would be made in their search for the
+philosopher's stone and the vivifying elixir. These important articles
+obtained, the hidden secrets of nature would be at their command, and
+their schemes and wishes might then be pursued with the certainty of
+success. The night but one following, at the precise time when the moon
+came to a trine aspect with Saturn and Jupiter, was appointed for the
+discovery. The hour of Saturn commenced five minutes before midnight,
+and the heavenly influences were then singularly disposed in favour of
+their undertaking.</p>
+
+<p>With dazzling anticipations of future prosperity and success they
+separated: one to indulge in dreams so chimerical and vast that even
+Fancy herself drew back, dazzled with her own brightness; the other to
+an obscure lodging in the Old Millgate, where he committed himself to
+the keeping of a straw pallet and a coverlet of which the rats had for
+some time before held undisputed possession.</p>
+
+<p>The night fixed upon for their search proved drizzling and misty.
+Bartholomew, wrapped in a thick cloak, sallied out of a low postern
+towards the college. The path was more dangerous and uneven than at
+present, and many a grim witness of good-fellowship with his clay had
+the red cloth hose of Master <!-- Page 199 --><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199" ></a>Bartholomew Hickman ere he arrived at the
+arched doorway which admitted him into Dee's lodging. We have no means
+of ascertaining with any degree of certainty the musings and ruminations
+of the seer in his progress, not having the power, or skill it may be,
+like unto many profound and praiseworthy historians, who can portray the
+form and colour of the mind as well as the cut and capacity of the
+doublet. Suffice it to say, that he was so fully occupied in conning
+over his errand as not to be aware that a certain malicious personage
+was dodging his steps&mdash;to wit, our worthy owner of the mare, Barnabas
+Hardcastle, who kept a strict watch about the premises, hoping to find
+some clue to the discovery of his beast.</p>
+
+<p>An hour elapsed ere they came forth; the Doctor bearing a covered light,
+and after him the little spare form of Bartholomew Hickham, carrying
+under his cloak sundry implements for the search.</p>
+
+<p>Passing through the churchyard, they turned into the Dean's Gate,
+creeping near the houses, whose overhanging gables poured down a copious
+shower from their dripping eaves. The streets echoed but to the tread of
+these adventurers, and to the howl of a solitary watch-dog roused by
+their approach. They passed the gate without difficulty; the Doctor was
+supposed to have been called forth on clerical duties, and the porter
+accordingly permitted their egress, merely inquiring the probable time
+of their return.</p>
+
+<p>A few straggling houses were built nigh to the ditch and outworks;
+beyond these the way was open towards the park. Here they arrived in due
+time, entering in by a side wicket, which led them round to the back
+part of the house by the gardens.</p>
+
+<p>The proprietorship of the Lodge had latterly fallen to the lot of Edward
+Mosley, by a deed of partition between his brother Oswald Mosley and
+himself, a mercer of great note in Manchester, one Adam Smythe; these
+parties having purchased, jointly, the lands of Nether and Over Aldport
+from Thomas Rowe of Hartford, who had them of Sir Randle Brereton, the
+next purchaser from William, Earl of Derby. The house and grounds, about
+ninety-five acres, of Nether and Over Aldport, formerly belonged to the
+warden of the college for the time being, and were held, by a rent of
+four marks per annum only, from the Lord de la Warre. It was enjoyed
+uninterruptedly by them until the dissolution of this community in the
+first of <!-- Page 200 --><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200" ></a>Edward VI., when it was granted to the Earl of Derby along
+with the rest of the college lands.</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth, however, in the twenty-first year of her reign, granted a new
+foundation to the college: but the Earl of Derby, who still kept
+possession of the college-house and some portion of the lands, suffered
+the warden and ministers for some time to lodge there.</p>
+
+<p>The house at Aldport was moated round, and a drawbridge stood before the
+main entrance. The mansion was built of timber and plaster, with huge
+projecting stone chimneys, gable ends, and deep casements&mdash;a fitting
+residence in those days for rank and nobility.</p>
+
+<p>Outside the moat was an extensive garden, laid out in a sumptuous style,
+beyond which appeared a mound of considerable elevation and extent, the
+site of Mancastle, famous in history as one of the strongholds of the
+Romans, some account of which may be found in the legend of &quot;Sir
+Tarquin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have been thinking,&quot; said Dee, after being silent for a space, &quot;that
+no savour of dishonesty can attach to our appropriation of this great
+treasure, seeing the house and all this fair and goodly inheritance did
+once appertain to the wardens of our college, of which patrimony we have
+been most unjustly deprived by the statute of King Edward. My gracious
+mistress, our Queen, not having reinstated me into this my lawful
+possession, I have made bold to remind her Majesty of our wrongs, and to
+supplicate her clemency thereupon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Bartholomew felt fully satisfied of the right they had to these spoils,
+his conscience being easily quieted on the score of appropriation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The rain becomes heavier, and it is more chill and showery than before.
+The mist, too, is driving north-east,&quot; said the Doctor. &quot;The clouds are
+cumbrous and broken, coiling, as they roll, into huge masses that will
+ere long bring some of the dark Atlantic on their tails. Seest thou not,
+Bartholomew, as though it were a grim pile of hills on the horizon?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see as it might be a heavy wall of clouds gathering about us; and I
+think the wind comes on more fitful and squally. These heavy lunges
+betoken an angry and vicious humour in the air that will not be long in
+bursting.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We shall have it about our ears speedily. We must to work while it is
+yet a-brewing below.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 201 --><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201" ></a>The dark pointed roofs and chimneys of the Lodge might be distinguished
+in grotesque masses, changeless and unvarying, against the ever-shifting
+darkness of the sky. A pale star sometimes looked out as if by stealth,
+but was obscured almost ere its brightness could be developed. The wind,
+as it rushed by, broke into short and irregular gusts, like scouts from
+the main body, betokening its approach. The rain had ceased, save a few
+hasty drops at intervals plashing heavily on the moat.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is that?&quot; said Bartholomew in a whisper, pointing to the water. A
+light had glanced on its surface, and as suddenly had it disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Again!&quot; Dee smiled as he looked upwards to a star just twinkling
+through the cloud. Like some benignant spirit, as it alighted on the
+dark bosom of the moat, the short sharp gust fluttering over, it seemed
+to hover there for a while ere it departed.</p>
+
+<p>Turning out of the path, they approached a thick yew-tree flanking one
+corner of the garden.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think we may climb here, Master Dee, with little risk;&mdash;there seems a
+fair gap beside its trunk.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They scrambled up a high bank, thrusting themselves, with some
+difficulty, through the opening. The Doctor now, looking round, began to
+recite his instructions:&mdash;&quot;'<i>Nine with twice seven northerly, and</i> ACER,
+<i>shall disappear. The mystical number added to the number enfolding
+itself. This shall be added to its own, towards the rising of the sun.
+Then turn half-round, and note well thy right foot;&mdash;what thou seest
+gather, and it shall lead thee on to perfection</i>.' Good; but from what
+point shall we begin to count?&quot; said the divine, in great perplexity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know not,&quot; said Bartholomew, &quot;unless it be from the sycamore tree at
+the opposite corner yonder by the old wall.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou knowest the ground hereabout?&quot; said the Doctor hastily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Peradventure I may,&quot; replied the other. &quot;Being told aforetime of
+treasure that was hidden, I have wandered often, at odd times, round the
+garden.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lead the way, then; it may be this same Acer is the tree of which thou
+speakest. Time passes, and I would not miss this lucky hour for all my
+hopes of preferment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Preceded by his guide, the Doctor soon came within range of a noble
+sycamore that threw out its huge branches in all the pride of a long and
+undisturbed occupation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 202 --><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202" ></a>'Nine with twice seven northerly, and Acer shall disappear.' Shall I
+stride the ground so many steps, or is there a mystic and hidden
+signification couched in these numbers?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know not,&quot; said Bartholomew; &quot;but we had best make the trial.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor, with great earnestness, began to stride out the number
+northerly, but the sycamore did not disappear; its long bare boughs were
+still seen throwing out their leafless and haggard extremities against
+the lowering sky.</p>
+
+<p>They now took counsel, when Bartholomew suggested that, as numbers were
+often used symbolically, they must look elsewhere for a solution. It
+might be the exact number of trees lying between the great sycamore and
+the place signified. &quot;And there they be,&quot; said the seer, pointing to a
+goodly row of small twigs newly planted. &quot;Now count them northerly,
+beginning as at first.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This being done, the Doctor was greatly comforted on finding himself
+fairly soused up to the knees in a deep ditch or drain, from whence all
+appearance of the sycamore was effectually excluded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now,&quot; said the adept, still standing as before, &quot;the mystical number,
+which is three, added to the most excellent number, which I take to be
+three times three, or the number enfolding itself, will make twelve; but
+there be no trees eastward, or towards the rising sun.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then try the steps once more,&quot; said Bartholomew, &quot;and take heed they
+are of the right length,&mdash;proper easy-going steps. Stay, I will count
+them myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Leaving his companion in the ditch, the seer counted forth his number
+with due care, halting at the last step.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now stand in my place, turn half-round, and gather from thy right
+foot.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Dee, having cleared the bog, placed himself in the required position.
+Stooping down, he groped diligently by his right foot, but was aware of
+nothing but a crabbed stump, that resisted every attempt they could use
+for its dislodgment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bring the mattock,&quot; said the Doctor, cautiously uncovering the light.
+But though Bartholomew tugged with great energy, the Doctor helping, it
+was to little purpose, for the stump was immovable.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We had best try the probe.&quot; Saying this, the warder drew <!-- Page 203 --><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203" ></a>forth an
+instrument in shape something like unto a large auger. He could by this
+means easily ascertain if anything hard were below, or any symptons of
+concealed treasure. As they were thus engaged a hollow voice, to their
+terrified apprehensions issuing from the ground, cried out&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hold!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The treasure-hunters came to a full pause. The wind and rain at the same
+time beat so heavily they could not ascertain the sequel to this
+injunction.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis Nargal, the spirit who guards hidden treasures,&quot; said Dee: &quot;we can
+approach him only by prayers and fumigations.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then must we return?&quot; said Bartholomew, apparently unwilling to desist.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hark!&quot; said the Doctor, listening.</p>
+
+<p>They heard a moan, as that of some one in great pain. Presently a faint
+shriek stole through a pause in the blast.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis like the groan of a mandrake,&quot; he continued: &quot;they do ever lament
+and bewail thus when gathered. I doubt not but this tree is of that
+accursed nature.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Again the voice was articulate.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To-morrow thou mayest return at this hour; but I will not yield my
+treasure save thou bring me gold!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who art thou?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am the guardian of the treasure; and</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Gold I have. Bring gold with thee;<br /></span>
+<span>Or thou shalt get no gold from me.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&quot;What is thy demand?&quot; inquired Dee, in a hollow voice, like that of an
+exorcist.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prop thy purse with fifty nobles;&mdash;then dig, and I will tell thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The two worthies were somewhat startled at this demand. It was more than
+their joint forces could muster. Yet two thousand and more broad pieces,
+besides other valuables, which lay there for the gathering, was too
+profitable a return to make them easily give up the adventure.
+Accordingly, after some further questions which the demon as resolutely
+refused to answer, they departed, first replacing the earth and other
+matters they had disturbed, in their former position.</p>
+
+<p>Early on the following morning the eager divine applied to his friend
+Eccleston for another loan, assuring him it was the last; while from the
+produce of the treasure he would be enabled to pay <!-- Page 204 --><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204" ></a>his former advances,
+with a copious interest thereon. The needy expectant was loath to
+furnish him with another supply, though in the end he was prevailed on
+to borrow from his friends, at an exorbitant interest, for one day only.</p>
+
+<p>This important preliminary being arranged, the night was anxiously
+awaited, and though more than usually tardy in its approach, twilight at
+length threw her mantle of grey over the world's cares and perplexities,
+and night, that universal coverlet of all things, whether good or evil,
+did wrap them gently about.</p>
+
+<p>And a night of more loveliness and lustre never was unveiled to the eye
+of mortals.</p>
+
+<p>The stars were walking in brightness&mdash;so clear and sparkling that each
+seemed a ray or an emblem of that ineffably glorious Beam whose
+uncreated splendour no eye can see and live. Those bright clusters that
+we now behold have been the same through all generations, and they have
+seen &quot;all things that are done under the sun.&quot; Fixed as the everlasting
+hills, their bounds and their habitation have been unchanged. The same
+lights were in the heavens when Abraham looked up from the plains of
+Mamre, as now when the Arab and the Ishmaelite are in the desert. The
+bands of Orion are not loosed, nor the sweet influences of the Pleiades
+unbound. The same glittering groups which the patriarch beheld beam
+nightly on our tabernacles. They have shone upon the world's heroes and
+the world's demigods&mdash;bright links in the oblivion of ages. And the
+numerous hosts we gaze upon will present the same glowing and immutable
+forms to cheer and gladden the eyes and hearts of coming generations.</p>
+
+<p>Some feeling of this nature was probably rising in the Doctor's bosom as
+they once more took the open path to Aldport, and he looked on the wide
+hemisphere about him&mdash;the heavens, with their glowing constellations,
+all spread out without an obscurity or an obstruction. He felt for one
+moment the folly and futility of earthly things, and his heart seemed to
+wither in the immensity into which it was plunged.</p>
+
+<p>It was like a faint glimpse of eternity, and he shrunk back from the
+abyss, all his own vast world of thought, feeling, and desire, lost in
+that immeasurable space. But the dazzling dream of ambition again passed
+before him. The portals of universal empire and immortality were thrown
+open. He drove back the <!-- Page 205 --><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205" ></a>unwelcome intruder, but the phantom he pursued
+again fluttered from his grasp.</p>
+
+<p>They had marked the spot on their former visit, and Dee, with the fifty
+gold pieces in his purse, Bartholomew Hickman acting as chief workman,
+began his unholy proceedings: not, however, without some fear of the
+demon whom these moneys were to propitiate. Bartholomew laboured with
+great diligence, but the earth was much easier to remove than before,
+and the old stump soon gave way, making but a slight resistance. This
+was attributed to some charm wrought by the treasure they carried, and
+was looked upon as a favourable omen&mdash;an unloosing of the fetters which
+guarded the deposit. Every spadeful of earth was carefully examined, and
+the probe thrust down anxiously and with great caution. About a yard in
+depth had been taken away when the spade struck upon something hard. The
+strokes were redoubled, and a narrow flag appeared. Raising this
+obstacle they beheld a wooden coffer. Dee sung out a Latin prayer as
+usual; for he failed not to pour out his thanks with great fervour for
+any selfish indulgence that fell in his way, or, as he imagined, was
+granted to him by the special favour of Heaven.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There,&quot; said Bartholomew, raising the box, which from its weight and
+capacity promised a rich reward, &quot;I think we have now what will season
+our labours well. What think you, Master Dee?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But the Doctor was absorbed in visions of future greatness, now bursting
+on him with a glory and rapidity almost painful to contemplate. He
+seized the shrine, scarcely giving his helpmate time to fill up and
+conceal their depredations.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But the fifty pieces&mdash;have you got them safe?&quot; inquired Bartholomew.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They are in my pouch. I do think the demon hath forgotten to demand
+them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fear not, he will be ready enough to ask for his own. What comes o'er
+the devil's back will sooner or later go under his belly!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let us pack and begone,&quot; said the Doctor, fearful of losing his
+treasure.</p>
+
+<p>The box was presently swung over the seer's shoulders, Dee following to
+keep all safe, though not without many apprehensions and misgivings of
+heart. He feared lest the spirit might <!-- Page 206 --><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206" ></a>appear again for his own; or, at
+least, for the fifty pieces of gold, which were his right.</p>
+
+<p>Just as they came to the gap by the yew-tree, and Bartholomew was
+resting against the trunk, a voice from behind them shouted&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Stop!&mdash;What make ye here, ye villains?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Dee turned round and the light flashed upon two armed men, masked, who
+evidently came towards them with no friendly intent.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Put down that box,&quot; said the foremost.</p>
+
+<p>Bartholomew was proceeding to surrender at discretion, but Dee first
+inquired their errand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We can tell ye that in a twinkling,&quot; said the malicious intruders,
+&quot;after we have stepped up to the lodge, and given them a pretty guess at
+the quality of the knaves who be robbing of their garden. Nay, Doctor,
+we take no excuse, unless we take our share of the spoil with it. To
+work, or ye budge not hence without discovery.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This was a provoking interruption&mdash;their all depended on a favourable
+issue to this adventure. Dee therefore offered terms of capitulation as
+follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll give you five-and-twenty gold pieces on the spot if ye will let us
+pass.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Five-and-twenty!&mdash;why, that box may hold five-and-twenty hundred,&quot; said
+the freebooter with a whistle, by way of derision.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps not,&quot; said the Doctor, warily; &quot;it is not yet tried, and may
+not be opened here without risk. Come to my lodgings to-morrow, and we
+will share in the product.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay,&quot; returned the rogue, sharply, &quot;a pullet in the pen is worth a
+hundred in the fen. Come, we will deal kindly with thee: give us fifty,
+and pass on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Dee willingly opened his pouch, and threw the gold into the fellow's
+greasy cap, which he held out for the purpose. Immediately they took to
+their heels and departed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The demon was more kind, and of a different nature from those that do
+generally haunt these hidden treasures,&quot; said the Doctor, as he trudged
+along, following closely at Bartholomew's heels. &quot;If he had not warned
+me to bring the gold, these thieves must needs have opened the box. Had
+they seen the vast hoard which it contains I should not have been
+released for thrice the sum.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 207 --><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207" ></a>With mutual congratulations on their good fortune, and many pious
+thanksgivings on the part of Dee, they arrived, without farther
+molestation, at the college, where Lettice was ill-humouredly awaiting
+their return.</p>
+
+<p>Bartholomew threw down his burden in the study, where the Doctor,
+cautiously guarding against intrusion, wrenched open the chest. His rage
+and agony may be conceived when he found the treasure transformed into a
+heap of stones, bearing the following malicious doggerel on their
+front:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;My mare is lost, but I've the gold;<br /></span>
+<span>My mare is better lost than sold.<br /></span>
+<span>Full fifty pieces, broad and bright,<br /></span>
+<span>My bullies bring me home to-night.<br /></span>
+<span>My trap is baited!&mdash;Springs it well,<br /></span>
+<span>I get the kernel, thou the shell!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&quot;From thy loving,</p>
+
+<p>&quot;BARNABUS HARDCASTLE, <i>Armiger</i>.&quot;<!-- Page 208 --><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208" ></a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> &quot;Johan Glaston,&quot; vol. ii. fol. 535.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> <i>Vide</i> Casaubon's folio concerning Dee's intercourse with
+spirits.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Casaubon.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_SEER" id="THE_SEER" ></a>THE SEER.</h2>
+<div class="center">
+<img src="images/12.png" width="600" height="484" alt="THE SEER." title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">&quot;<i>Petruchio</i>. Pray, have you not a daughter<br /></span>
+<span>Call'd Katharina, fair and virtuous?<br /></span>
+<span class="i2"><i>Baptista</i>. I have a daughter, sir, call'd Katharina,&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="author"><i>Taming of the Shrew, Act II. Scene</i> I.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;What sudden chance is this, quoth he,<br /></span>
+<span>That I to love must subject be,<br /></span>
+<span>Which never thereto would agree,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">But still did it defie?&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="author"><i>King Cophetua and the Beggar-maid.</i></p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Yet she was coy, and would not believe<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">That he did love her so;<br /></span>
+<span>No, nor at any time would she<br /></span>
+<span class="i2"><i>Any countenance to him show</i>.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="author"><i>The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The wonderful exploits of Edward Kelly, one of which is recorded in the
+following narrative, would, if collected, fill a volume of no ordinary
+dimensions. He was for a considerable time the companion and associate
+of John Dee, by courtesy called Doctor, from his great acquirements,
+performing for him the office of seer, a faculty not possessed by Dee,
+who was in consequence obliged to have recourse to Kelly for the
+revelations he has published respecting the world of spirits. These
+curious transactions may be found in Casaubon's work, entitled &quot;A true
+and faithful Relation of what passed for many Years between Dr John <!-- Page 209 --><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209" ></a>Dee
+and some Spirits,&quot;&mdash;opening out another dark page in the history of
+imposture and credulity. Dee says that he was brought into unison with
+Kelly by the mediation of the angel Uriel. Afterwards he found himself
+deceived by him in his opinion that these spirits, which ministered unto
+him, were messengers of the Deity. They had several quarrels
+before-time; but when he found Kelly degenerating into the worst species
+of the magic art for purposes of avarice and fraud, he broke off all
+connection with him, and would never afterwards be seen in his company.
+Kelly, being discountenanced by the Doctor, betook himself to the
+meanest practices of magic, in all which money and the works of the
+devil appear to have been his chief aim. Many wicked and abominable
+transactions are recorded of him. Wever, in his &quot;Funereal Monuments,&quot;
+records that Kelly, in company with one Paul Waring, who acted with him
+in all his conjurations, went to the churchyard of Walton-le-Dale, near
+Preston, where they had information of a person being interred who was
+supposed to have hidden a considerable sum of money, and to have died
+without disclosing where it was deposited. They entered the churchyard
+exactly at midnight, and having had the grave pointed out in the
+preceding day, they opened it and the coffin, exorcising the spirit of
+the deceased until it again animated the body, which rose out of the
+grave and stood upright before them. It not only satisfied their wicked
+desires, it is said, but delivered several strange predictions
+concerning persons in the neighbourhood, which were literally and
+exactly fulfilled.</p>
+
+<p>In &quot;Lilly's Memoirs&quot; we have the following account of him:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Kelly outwent the Doctor&mdash;viz., about the elixir and philosopher's
+stone, which neither he nor his master attained by their own labour and
+industry. It was in this manner Kelly obtained it, as I had it related
+from an ancient minister, who new the certainty thereof from an old
+English merchant resident in Germany, at what time both Kelly and Dee
+were there.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dee and Kelly being on the confines of the emperor's dominions, in a
+city where resided many English merchants, with whom they had much
+familiarity, there happened an old friar to come to Dr Dee's lodging,
+knocking at the door. Dee peeped down the stairs:&mdash;'Kelly,' says he,
+'tell the old man I am not at home.' Kelly did so. The friar said, 'I
+will take another time to wait on him.' Some few days after, he came
+again. Dee ordered Kelly, if it were the same person, to deny him again.
+He did so; at which the friar was very angry. 'Tell thy master I came to
+speak with him and to do him good, because he is a great scholar and
+famous;&mdash;but now tell him, he put forth a book, and dedicated it to the
+emperor. It is called '<i>Monas Hieroglyphicas</i>.' He understands it not. I
+wrote it myself. I came to instruct him therein, and in some other more
+profound things. Do thou, Kelly, come along with me; I will make thee
+more famous than thy master Dee. Kelly was very apprehensive of what the
+friar <!-- Page 210 --><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210" ></a>delivered, and thereupon suddenly retired from Dee, and wholly
+applied unto the friar, and of him either had the elixir ready made, or
+the perfect method of its preparation and making. The poor friar lived a
+very short time after; whether he died a natural death, or was otherwise
+poisoned or made away by Kelly, the merchant who related this did not
+certainly know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kelly was born at Worcester, and had been an apothecary. He had a sister
+who lived there for some time after his death, and who used to exhibit
+some gold made by her brother's projection. &quot;It was vulgarly reported
+that he had a compact with the devil, which he outlived, and was seized
+at midnight by infernal spirits, who carried him off in sight of his
+family, at the instant he was meditating a mischievous design against
+the minister of the parish, with whom he was greatly at enmity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It would have been easy to select a more historical statement of facts
+respecting Kelly; but the following tale, the events of one day only,
+will, we hope, be more interesting to the generality of readers. It
+exhibits a curious display of the intrigues and devices by which these
+impostors acquired an almost unlimited power over the minds of their
+fellow-men. Human credulity once within their grasp, they could wield
+this tremendous engine at their will, directing it either to good or bad
+intents, but more often to purposes of fraud and self-aggrandisement.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>In the ancient and well-thriven town of Manchester formerly dwelt a
+merchant of good repute, Cornelius Ethelstoun by name. Plain dealing and
+an honest countenance withal, had won for him a character of no ordinary
+renown. His friezes were the handsomest; his stuffs and camlets were not
+to be sampled in the market, or even throughout the world; insomuch that
+the courtly dames of Venice, and the cumbrous vrows of Amsterdam and the
+Hague, might be seen flaunting in goodly attire gathered from the
+store-houses of Master Cornelius.</p>
+
+<p>His coffers glittered with broad ducats, and his cabinets with the
+rarest productions of the East. His warehouses were crammed, even to
+satiety, and his trestles groaned under heaps of rich velvets, costly
+brocades, and other profitable returns to his foreign adventures. But,
+alas!&mdash;and whose heart holdeth not communion with that word!&mdash;Cornelius
+was unhappy. He had one daughter, whom &quot;he loved passing well;&quot; yet, as
+common report did acknowledge, the veriest shrew that ever went
+unbridled. In vain did his riches and his revenues increase; in vain was
+plenty poured into his lap, and all that wealth could compass accumulate
+in lavish profusion. Of what <!-- Page 211 --><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211" ></a>avail was this outward and goodly show
+against the cruel and wayward temper of his daughter?</p>
+
+<p>Kate&mdash;by this name we would distinguish her, as veritable historians are
+silent on her sponsorial appellation&mdash;Kate was unhappily fair and
+well-favoured. Her hair was dark as the raven-plume; but her skin, white
+as the purest statuary marble, grew fairer beneath the black and glossy
+wreaths twining gracefully about her neck. Her cheek was bright as the
+first blush of the morning, and ever and anon, as a deeper hue was
+thrown upon its rich but softened radiance, she looked like a vision
+from Mahomet's paradise&mdash;a being nurtured by a warmer sky and fiercer
+suns than our cold climate can sustain. She had lovers, but all approach
+was denied, and, one by one, they stood afar off and gazed. Her pretty
+mouth, lovely even in the proudest glance of petulance and scorn, was so
+oftentimes moulded into the same aspect that it grew puckered and
+contemptuous, rendering her disposition but too manifest; and
+yet&mdash;wouldest thou believe it, gentle reader?&mdash;she was in love!</p>
+
+<p>Now it so fell out that on the very morning from which we date this
+first passage of our history, Cornelius awoke earlier than he was wont.
+His brow wore an aspect of more than ordinary care. It was but too
+evident that his pillow had been disturbed. Thoughts of more than usual
+perplexity had deprived him of his usual measure of repose. His very
+beard looked abrupt and agitated; his dress bore marks of indifference
+and haste. A slight, but tremulous movement of the head, in general but
+barely visible, was now advanced into a decided shake. With a step
+somewhat nimbler than aforetime, he made, as custom had long rendered
+habitual, his first visit to the counting-house.</p>
+
+<p>The unwearied and indefatigable Timothy Dodge sat there, with the same
+crooked spectacles, and, as it might seem, mending the same pen which
+the same knife had nibbed for at least half-a-century. The tripod on
+which rested this grey Sidrophel of accompts looked of the like hard and
+impenetrable material, as though it were grown into his similitude,
+forming but a lower adjunct to his person. It was evident they had not
+parted company for the last twenty years. Nature had formed him awry. A
+boss or hump, of considerable elevation, extended like a huge promontory
+on one shoulder; from the other depended an arm longer by some inches
+than its fellow. As it described a greater arc its activity was
+proportionate. His grey and restless eyes <!-- Page 212 --><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212" ></a>followed the merchant's track
+with unwearied fidelity; yet was he a man full sparing of words&mdash;the
+ever ready &quot;Anon, master,&quot; being the chief burden of his replications.
+It was like the troll of an old ballad&mdash;a sort of inveterate drawl
+tripping unwittingly from the tongue.</p>
+
+<p>The sun was just peeping through the long dim casement as Cornelius
+stepped over the threshold of his sanctuary. In it lay hidden the
+mysteries of many a goodly tome, more precious in his eyes than the
+rarest and richest that Dee's library could boast. No mean value,
+inasmuch as this celebrated scholar and mathematician, who was lately
+appointed warden of the college, had the most costly store of
+book-furniture that individual ever possessed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good morrow, Dodge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The pen was twice nibbed ere the usual rejoinder.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are the camlets arrived from the country?&quot; inquired the merchant.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Anon, master&mdash;this forenoon may be.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is the accompt against Anthony Hardcastle discharged?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No,&quot; ejaculated the grim fixture.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And where is the piece of Genoa velvet Dame Margery looked out
+yesterday for her mistress's wedding-suit? I do bethink me it is a good
+ell too long at the measure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Six ells, three nails, and an odd inch, besides the broad thumbs,&quot;
+replied Timothy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Right:&mdash;she reckoned on a good snip for waste; but let no more be sent
+than the embroiderer calls for.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not a thread,&quot; grunted Dodge.</p>
+
+<p>A pause ensued. Some question was evidently hesitating on the merchant's
+tongue. Twice did his lips move, but the word fell unuttered. The affair
+was, however, finally disposed of as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hast heard of aught, Timothy, touching the private matter that I
+unfolded yesterday?&quot; Cornelius put on as careless an aspect as the
+disquietude of his brow could needs carry, but the inquiry was evidently
+one of no ordinary interest. He twisted the points of his doublet, tied
+and untied the silk cords from his ruff, waiting Dodge's answer in a
+posture not much belying the anxiety he wished to conceal.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, master, an' it were of woman's humours, the old seer himself could
+not unriddle their pranks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 213 --><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213" ></a>Cornelius sighed, making the following hasty reply:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thinkest thou this same seer could not give me a lift from out my
+trouble?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This same seer, I wot,&quot; replied Dodge, &quot;is sore perplexed: some evil
+and mischievous aspect doth afflict the horoscope of the nation&mdash;Mars
+being conjunct with Venus and the Dragon's tail. Now, look to it,
+master, it is no light matter that will move him; but almost or ere I
+showed him the first glimpse of the business he waxed furious, and said
+that he cared not if all the unwed hussies in Christendom were hung up
+in a row, like rats on a string.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is Kate's birthday,&quot; answered the merchant, &quot;to-night being the
+feast of St Bartlemy; but, as thou knowest well, the astrologer that
+cast her figure gave no hope of her amendment should this day pass and
+never a husband. Who would yoke with a colt untamed? O Timothy! it were
+well nigh to make an old man weep. I am a withered trunk. Better had I
+been childless than have this proud wench to trouble mine house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The old man here wept, and it was a grievous thing to see his wrinkled
+cheeks become, as it were, but the sluices and channels of his tears.
+Timothy, too, was something moved from his common posture; and once he
+endeavoured to turn, as though he would hide his face from his master's
+trouble.</p>
+
+<p>He sought to speak, but an evil and husky sort of humour settled in his
+throat, and he waited silently the subsiding of the sorrow he could not
+quell.</p>
+
+<p>Cornelius raised his head: a sudden thought seemed to animate him. A ray
+had penetrated the gloomy envelope of his mind; and he peered through
+the casement intently eyeing the cool atmosphere.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll visit the cunning man myself, Timothy. If he hear me not, then can
+I but return, weeping as I went.&quot; And with this speech he hastily
+departed.</p>
+
+<p>Now on this, the morrow of St Bartlemy, it so happened that Kate also
+arose before the usual hour, and in a mood even more than ordinarily
+strange and untoward. Her maiden was like to find it a task of no slight
+enterprise, the attempt to adorn Kate's pretty person. Not a garment
+would fit. She threw the whole furniture of her clothes-press on a heap,
+and stamped on them for very rage. She looked hideous in her brown
+Venice waistcoat; frightful in her orange tiffany farthingale;&mdash;<!-- Page 214 --><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214" ></a>absolutely
+unbearable in her black velvet hood, wire ruff, and taffety gown. So
+that in the end she was nigh going to bed again in the sulks, had not a
+jacket of crimson satin, with slashed bodice, embroidered in gold twist,
+taken her fancy. Her little steel mirror, not always the object of such
+complacency, did for once reflect a beam of good humour, which so
+bewitched Kate that for the next five minutes she found herself settling
+into the best possible temper in the world.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Give me my kerchief, lace scarf, and green silk hood, and my petticoat
+with the border newly purfled. Hark! 'Tis the bell for prayers. Be quick
+with my pantofles:&mdash;not those, wench&mdash;the yellow silk with silver
+spangles. Now my rings and crystal bracelets. I would not miss early
+matins to-day for the best jewel on an alderman's thumb.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Anon, lady,&quot; replied her waiting-woman, with a sort of pert affectation
+of meekness. But what should cause Kate to be so wonderfully attentive
+to her devotions was a matter on which Janet could have no suspicions,
+or at least would not dare to show them if she had.</p>
+
+<p>Kate, being now attired, tripped forth, accompanied by her maid. As she
+passed the half-closed door of the counting-house, Timothy, with one of
+his most leaden looks, full of unmeaning, stood edgeways in the opening,
+his lower side in advance, with the long arm ready for action.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fair mistress, Master Kelly would fain have a token to-day. He hath
+sent you a rare device!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what the better shall I be of his mummeries?&quot; hastily replied the
+lady. Timothy drew from his large leathern purse a curiously-twisted
+ribband.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He twined this knot for your comfort. Throw it over your left shoulder,
+and it shall write the first letter of your gallant's name. A cypher of
+rare workmanship.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Kate, apparently in anger, snatched the magic ribband, and, peradventure
+it might be from none other design than to rid herself of the mystical
+love-knot, but she tossed it from her with an air of great contumely,
+when, by some disagreeable and untoward accident, it chanced to fly over
+the self-same shoulder to which Timothy had referred. He made no reply,
+but followed the token with his little grey eyes, apparently without any
+sort of aim or concernment. Kate's eyes followed too; but verily it were
+a marvellous thing to behold how the ribband shaped itself <!-- Page 215 --><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215" ></a>as it fell,
+and yet to see how she stamped and stormed. Quick as the burst of her
+proud temper she kicked aside the bauble, but not until the curl of the
+letter had been sufficiently manifest. Timothy drew back into his den,
+leaving the fair maid to the indulgence of her humours. But in the end
+Kate's wrath was not over-difficult to assuage. With an air somewhat
+dubious and disturbed she hastily thrust the token behind her stomacher
+and departed.</p>
+
+<p>The merchant's house being nigh unto the market cross, Kate's
+prettily-spangled feet were soon safely conducted over the low
+stepping-stones placed at convenient distances for the transit of
+foot-passengers through the unpaved streets. Near a sort of style,
+guarding the entrance to the churchyard, rose an immense pile of
+buildings, cumbrous and uncouth. These were built something in the
+fashion of an inverted pyramid; to wit, the smaller area occupying the
+basement, and the larger spreading out into the topmost story. As she
+turned the corner of this vast hive of habitation&mdash;for many families
+were located therein&mdash;a gay cavalier, sumptuously attired, swept round
+at the same moment. Man and maid stood still for one instant. With
+unpropitious courtesy, an unlucky gust turned aside Kate's veil of real
+Flanders point; and the two innocents, like silly sheep, were staring
+into each other's eyes without either apology or rebuke. It did seem as
+though Kate were not without knowledge of the courtly beau: a rich and
+glowing vermilion came across her neck and face, like the gorgeous blush
+of evening upon the cold bosom of a snow-cloud. But the youth eyed her
+with a cool and deliberate glance, stepping aside carelessly as he
+passed by. She seemed to writhe with some concealed anguish; yet her lip
+curled proudly, and her bosom heaved, as though striving to throw off,
+with one last and desperate struggle, the oppression that she endured.
+In this disturbed and unquiet frame did Kate pass on to her orisons.</p>
+
+<p>It may be needful to pause for a brief space in our narrative, whilst we
+give some account of this goodly spark who had so unexpectedly, as it
+might seem, unfitted the lady for the due exercise of her morning
+devotions.</p>
+
+<p>His dress was elegant and becoming, and of the most costly materials.
+His hat was high and tapering, encircled by a rich band of gold and rare
+stones. It was further ornamented by a black feather, drooping gently
+towards the left shoulder. The <!-- Page 216 --><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216" ></a>brim was rather narrow; but then a
+profusion of curls fell from beneath, partly hiding his lace collar of
+beautiful workmanship and of the newest device. His beard was small and
+pointed; and his whiskers displayed that graceful wave peculiar to the
+high-bred gallants of the age. His neck was long, and the elegant
+disposal of his head would have turned giddy the heads of half the dames
+in the Queen's court. He wore a crimson cloak, richly embroidered: this
+was lined throughout with blue silk, and thrown negligently on one side.
+His doublet was grey, with slit sleeves; the arm parts, towards the
+shoulder, wide and slashed;&mdash;but who shall convey an adequate idea of
+the brilliant green breeches, tied far below the knee with yellow
+ribbands, red cloth hose, and great shoe-roses? For ourselves we own our
+incompetence, and proceed, glancing next at his goodly person. In size
+he was not tall nor unwieldy, but of a reasonable stature, such as
+denotes health, activity, and a frame capable of great endurance. He
+stepped proudly along, his very gait indicating superiority.</p>
+
+<p>The town gallants looked on his person with envy, and on his light
+rapier with mistrust. In sooth, he was a proper man for stealing a
+lady's heart, either in hall or bower. Many had been his victims;&mdash;many
+were then in the last extremities of love. But of him it was currently
+spoken that he had never yet been subjected to its influence.</p>
+
+<p>There be divers modes of falling into love. Some slip in through means
+of themselves; to wit, from sheer vanity, being never so well pleased as
+when they are the objects of admiration. Some from sheer contradiction,
+and from the well-known tendency of extremes to meet. Some, for very
+idlesse; and some for very love. But in none of these modes had the boy
+Cupid made arrow-holes through the heart of our illustrious hero; for,
+as we before intimated, no yielding place did seem visible, as the
+common discourse testified. How far this report was true the sequel of
+our history will set forth.</p>
+
+<p>Now, this gay gallant being the wonder and admiration of the whole
+place, many were the unthrifty hours spent in such profitless discourse
+by the wives and daughters of the townsfolk, to the great discomfort and
+discredit of their liege lords. He was at present abiding in the
+college, where John Dee had apartments distinct from the warden's house,
+along with his former coadjutor and seer, Edward Kelly. Since the last
+quar<!-- Page 217 --><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217" ></a>rel between these two confederates, they had long been estranged;
+but Kelly had recently come for a season to visit his old master: when
+the Doctor returned from Trebona, in Bohemia, whence he had been invited
+back to his own country by Queen Elizabeth, he having received great
+honours and emoluments from foreign princes. This youth, being son to
+the governor of the castle at Trebona, was about to travel for his
+improvement and understanding in foreign manners. At the suit of his
+parents, Dee undertook the charge of his education and safe return.
+Since then young Rodolf had generally resided under Dr Dee's roof, and
+accompanied him on his accession to the wardenship. His accent was
+decidedly foreign, though he had resided some years in Britain, but not
+sufficiently so for Mancestrian ears to distinguish it from a sort of
+lisping euphuism then fashionable at court and amongst the higher ranks
+of society. An appearance of mystery was connected with his person. His
+birthplace and condition were not generally divulged, and though of an
+open and gallant bearing, yet on this head he was not very
+communicative. Mystery begets wonder and excitement&mdash;a sort of interest
+usually attached to subjects not easily understood. When it emanates
+from an object capable of enthralling the affections, this feeling soon
+kindles admiration, and admiration ripens into love. No wonder, then, if
+all tender and compassionate dames were ready to open upon him their
+dread artillery of sighs and glances, and the more especially as it soon
+began to be manifest that success was nigh hopeless. The heart
+entrenched, the wearer was impenetrable.</p>
+
+<p>Kate's oddly-assorted brain had not failed to run a-rambling at times
+after the gallant stranger. He had heard much of her beauty, and
+likewise of her uncertain humours. Each fancied the opposite party
+impregnable; and this alone, if none other motive had arisen, formed a
+sufficiently strong temptation to begin the attack. Kate was
+particularly punctual at church, and once or twice he caught an
+equivocating glance towards the warden's seat, and he really did at
+times fancy he should like to play at &quot;<i>taming the shrew</i>.&quot; Kate was
+sure the stranger slighted her. He treated her, and her only, with an
+air of neglect she could not altogether account for, and she was in
+month's mind to make the young cavalier crouch at her feet. How this was
+to be contrived could only be guessed at by a woman, and we will not let
+the reader into all the secrets of Kate's sanctuary. Suffice it to say,
+that in so harmlessly at<!-- Page 218 --><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218" ></a>tempting to beguile her prey into the snare,
+the lady fell over head and ears into it herself. In a word Kate was in
+love! And this was the more grievous, inasmuch as her lofty bearing
+hitherto would not allow her to whisper the matter even to her own
+bosom; and the pent-up and smothering flame was making sad havoc with
+poor Kate's repose.</p>
+
+<p>She had ofttimes suspected the state of her heart; but instead of
+sighing, pining, and twanging her guitar to love-sick ditties, she would
+fly into so violent a rage at her own folly that nothing might quell the
+disturbance until fairly worn out by its own vehemency. No one suspected
+the truth&mdash;yes, one forsooth&mdash;gentle reader, canst thou guess? It was no
+less a personage than our one-shouldered friend Timothy Dodge! How the
+cunning rogue had contrived to get at the secret is more than we dare
+tell. Sure enough he had it; and as certain too that another should be
+privy to the fact&mdash;to wit, Edward Kelly the seer. Dodge was a fitting
+tool for this intriguer, and well able to help him out at a pinch.</p>
+
+<p>Affairs were in this position when our story commenced. Rodolf had
+formidable auxiliaries at hand, had he been disposed to make the attack;
+but his stay was now short&mdash;Kate was petulant and perverse&mdash;the siege
+might be tedious. Just on the verge of relinquishing he met Kate, as we
+have before seen, going to church. He caught her for the once completely
+off her guard, and the rich blush that ensued set a crowd of odd fancies
+jingling through his brain. It was just as the old chimes were ringing
+their doleful chant from the steeple, but these hindered not a whit the
+other changes that were set agoing. Not aware of the alteration in his
+course, he was much amazed when he found himself striding somewhat
+irreverently down the great aisle of the church, towards the choir, from
+whence the low chanting of the psalms announced that service was already
+begun.</p>
+
+<p>It was the opening of a bright autumnal day. The softened lights
+streamed playfully athwart the grim and shadowy masses that lay on the
+chequered pavement, like the smiles of infancy sporting on the dark
+bosom of the tomb. The screen formed a rich foreground, in half-shadow,
+before the east window. The first beam of the morning, clothed in
+tenfold brightness, burst through the variegated tracery. Prophets,
+saints, and martyrs shone there, gloriously portrayed in heaven's own
+light.</p>
+
+<p>Rodolf approached the small door leading into the choir,</p>
+
+<div class="center"><!-- Page 219 --><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219" ></a>
+<img src="images/13.png" width="600" height="859" alt="COLLEGIATE CHURCH, MANCHESTER.
+
+Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden" title="" />
+<b>COLLEGIATE CHURCH, MANCHESTER.<br />
+
+<i>Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw<sup>d</sup> Finden.</i></b>
+</div>
+
+<p><!-- Page 220 --><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220" ></a><!-- Page 221 --><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221" ></a>when his vacant eye almost unconsciously alighted on a female form
+kneeling just within the recess. A ray, from her patron saint belike,
+darting through the eastern oriel, came full upon her dark and glowing
+eye. She turned towards the stranger, but in a moment her head was bent
+as lowly as before, and the ray had lost its power. Rodolf suddenly
+retreated. Passing through a side door, he left the church, directing
+his steps towards the low and dark corridors of the college. Near the
+entrance to his chamber, on a narrow bench, sate a well-caparisoned page
+tuning his lute. His attire was costly, and his raiment all redolent
+with the most fragrant perfume. This youth, when very young, was sent
+over as the companion, or rather at that time as the playmate of his
+master. He was now dignified with the honourable title of page, and his
+affection for Rodolf was unbounded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Boy,&quot; said the cavalier, something moodily, &quot;come into the chamber.
+Stay&mdash;fetch me a sack-posset, prythee. I am oppressed, and weary with my
+morning's ramble.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Now the boy did marvel much at his master's sudden return, but more
+especially at the great fatigue consequent on that short
+interval;&mdash;knowing, too, that a particularly copious and substantial
+breakfast had anticipated his departure.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And yet, Altdorff, I am not in a mood for much drink. Give us a touch
+of those chords. I feel sad at times, and vapourish.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They entered into a well-furnished apartment. The ceiling was composed
+of cross-beams curiously wrought. On one of these was represented a grim
+head in the act of devouring a child&mdash;which tradition affirmed was the
+great giant Tarquin at his morning's repast. The room was fitted up with
+cumbrous elegance. A few pieces of faded tapestry covered one side of
+the apartment. In a recess stood a tester bed, ornamented with black
+velvet, together with curtains of black stuff and a figured coverlet. A
+wainscot cupboard displayed its curiously-carved doors, near to which
+hung two pictures, or tables as they were called, representing the fair
+Lucretia and Mary Magdalen. A backgammon-board lay on the window-seat;
+three shining tall-backed, oaken chairs, with a table of the same
+well-wrought material, and irons beautifully embossed, and a striped
+Turkey rug, formed a sumptuous catalogue, when we consider the manner of
+furnishing that generally prevailed in those days.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 222 --><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222" ></a>The page sat on a corner seat beneath the window. He struck a few wild
+chords.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not that&mdash;not that, good Altdorff. It bids one linger too much of
+home-longings.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Here the boy's eyes glistened, and a tremulous motion of the lip showed
+how his heart bounded at the word.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prythee, give us the song thou wast conning yesterday.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The page began with a low prelude, but was again interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, 'tis not thus. Give me that wild love-ditty thou knowest so well.
+I did use to bid thee be silent when thou wouldest have worried mine
+ears with it. But in sooth the morning looks so languishing and tender
+that it constrains the bosom, I verily think, to its own softness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The page seemed to throw his whole soul into the wild melody which
+followed this request. We give it, with a few verbal alterations, as
+follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<h4>SONG.</h4>
+
+<p>1.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">Fair star, that beamest<br /></span>
+<span class="i6">In my ladye's bower,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Pale ray, that streamest<br /></span>
+<span class="i6">In her lonely tower;<br /></span>
+<span>Bright cloud, when like the eye of Heaven<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Floating in depths of azure light,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Let me but on her beauty gaze<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Like ye unchidden. Day and night<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">I'd watch, till no intruding rays<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Should bless my sight.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>2.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">Fond breeze, that rovest<br /></span>
+<span class="i6">Where my ladye strays,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Odours thou lovest<br /></span>
+<span class="i6">Wafting to her praise;<br /></span>
+<span>Lone brook, that with soft music bubblest,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Chaining her soul to harmony;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Let me but round her presence steal<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Like ye unseen, a breath I'd be,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Content none other joy to feel<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Than circling thee!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&quot;In good sooth, thou canst govern the cadence well. Thou hast more skill
+of love than thine age befits. But, mayhap, 'tis thy vocation, boy. Hast
+thou had visitors betimes this morning!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None, good master, but Kelly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What of him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 223 --><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223" ></a>Some business that waited your return. I thought you had knowledge of
+the matter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are there any clients astir so early at his chamber, thinkest thou?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None, save the rich merchant that dwells hard by, Cornelius
+Ethelstoun.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Cornelius!&quot; repeated the cavalier, in a disturbed and inquiring
+tone&mdash;&quot;hath he departed?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, I heard not his footsteps since I watched the old man tapping
+warily at the prophet's door.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Rodolf hastily replaced his hat, and his short and impatient rap was
+heard at the seer's chamber.</p>
+
+<p>It occupied the north-eastern angle of the building, in the gloomiest
+part of the house; overlooking, on one side, a small courtyard,
+barricadoed by walls and battlements of stout masonry, along which were
+ridges of long rank grass waving in all the pride of uncropped
+luxuriance. Another window overlooked the dark-flowing Irk, lazily
+rolling beneath the perpendicular rock on which the college was
+built&mdash;the very site of the once formidable station of Mancunium, the
+heart and centre of the Roman power in that vast district.</p>
+
+<p>No answer being rendered to this hasty summons, Rodolf raised the latch,
+but marvelled not a little when he beheld the room apparently deserted.
+Voices were, however, heard in the inner apartment. Ere he could well
+draw back the door slowly opened, nor could he avoid hearing the
+following termination to some weighty conference.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An hundred broad pieces&mdash;good! Ere night, thou sayest?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ere the curfew,&quot; replied Cornelius.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look thee&mdash;'tis but a slender space for mine art to work, and&quot;&mdash;The
+seer, as he uttered this with great solemnity, entered the antechamber.
+The gallant stood there, just meditating a retreat. A flush of anger and
+confusion passed for a moment over Kelly's visage. Quickly recovering
+his self-possession, with a severe aspect, he stood before the intruder.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Art come to listen or to watch?&quot; abruptly interrogated the seer. &quot;Both
+be rare accomplishments truly for a youth of thy breeding.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, good Master Kelly; I came but at thy bidding, and mine ears are
+not the heavier or the wiser for what they have heard, I trow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 224 --><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224" ></a>I thought thee safe at morning prayers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay,&quot; replied Rodolf. &quot;There be too many bright eyes and blushing
+cheeks for the seasoning of a man's devotions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Cornelius, thou mayest retire. What mine art can compass shall not be
+lacking at thy need.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The merchant, with a profound obeisance, withdrew. The seer adjusted his
+beard, carefully brushed the down from his velvet cap, and sate for a
+while as if abstracted from all outward intercourse. His keen quick eye
+became fixed, its lustre imperceptibly waning. A cloud seemed to pass
+gradually over his sharp features, until their expression was absorbed,
+giving place to a look of mere lifeless inanity. A spectator might have
+fancied himself gazing at a sage of some remote era, conjured up from
+his dark resting-place. The wand of death seemed to have withered his
+shrunk visage for ages under the dim shadow of the grave.</p>
+
+<p>Rodolf, aware that he was not to be interrupted when the gift was upon
+him, waited patiently the result of the seer's revelations. A
+considerable time had elapsed when the cloud began to roll away. His
+features gradually reassumed the attributes of life, as each separately
+felt the returning animation. His eyes rested full on the cavalier.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have had a vision, Rodolf.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To me is it not spoken?&quot; inquired he.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yea, to thee!&quot; The seer said this in a tone so hollow and energetic,
+and with a look of such thrilling awe, that even Rodolf shuddered. He
+seemed to feel his glance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Listen. The spirit warned me thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;'The stranger that hither comes o'er the broad sea<br /></span>
+<span>Shall wed on the night of St Bartlemy.'&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, Master Kelly, thine art faileth this once, forsooth. To-night is
+the saint's vigil, yet lurk I not in the beam of a woman's favour; and
+ere another year I may be cured of the simples at my father's dwelling
+in the old castle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The vision hath spoken, and it setteth not forth idle tales. Come to me
+anon, I will anoint and prepare my beryl and my divining mirror. Thou
+shall thyself behold some of the mysteries touching which I have warned
+thee beforetime. About noon return to my chamber.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Rodolf withdrew into his own apartment. His countenance looked anxious
+and disturbed. He sat down, but his restless<!-- Page 225 --><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225" ></a>ness seemed to increase.
+His posture was not the most easy and graceful that might be desired,
+nor calculated to set off his personal advantages, though now become the
+more needful, if, as the seer predicted, he should wive ere
+night&mdash;albeit his bride were yet unsought&mdash;nor wooed, nor won! Nothing
+could be more destructive to that easy self-satisfaction, that seductive
+and insinuating carriage, so essential to the fine gentleman of every
+age. There was a sort of angular irregularity in his movements, neither
+pleasant nor becoming; and his agitation so far overcame his better
+breeding that he really did cram his beard between at least three of his
+fingers. His rapier had, moreover, poked its way through his cloak, and
+the bright shoe-roses were nigh ruined, from the sudden crossings and
+disarrangements they had undergone. A considerable time had now elapsed;
+in the meanwhile his impatience had risen to an alarming height,
+insomuch that we would not have answered for the safety of his red cloth
+hose and silken doublet, had not noon been happily announced.</p>
+
+<p>Raising the latch of the seer's chamber with considerable eagerness, he
+found the room completely dark. An unseen hand led him to a seat. Soon
+he heard a low murmuring chant, as though from voices at a remote
+distance. By degrees the words grew more articulate, shaping themselves
+into the same quaint distich that Kelly had repeated,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;The stranger that hither comes o'er the broad sea<br /></span>
+<span>Shall wed on the night of St Bartlemy.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>This was answered in a voice of considerable pathos; a burst of soft
+music filling up the interval. Gradually the eye began to feel sensible
+of the presence of surrounding objects, though in the ordinary way
+nothing could be distinguished; a faculty peculiarly sensitive with the
+loss of sight, and not quite dormant in the general mass of mankind. A
+faint gleam was soon perceptible, like the first blush of morning,
+apparently on the opposite side of the chamber. Becoming brighter,
+flashes of a dim, rainbow-coloured light crept slowly by, like the
+aurora sweeping over an illuminated cloud. Suddenly he saw, or his eyes
+deceived him, a female form shaping itself from these chaotic elements.
+But it was observed only during the short intervals when the beams
+seemed to kindle with unusual brightness. Every flash, however, rendered
+the appearance more distinct. Dazzled and bewildered, the heated senses
+were <!-- Page 226 --><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226" ></a>become the victims of their own credulity, the mind receiving back
+its own reactions. Taking its impression probably from the occurrences
+of the morning, the eye rapidly moulded the figure into the likeness of
+Kate. Her eyes were turned upon him, beaming with that soft and melting
+expression he had so recently beheld. It was but momentary, or he could
+have persuaded himself that she looked on him with an air the most
+tender and compassionate. Never did fancy portray her in a form so
+lovely. Deep and indelible was the impression; and though it might be</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;The imagination<br /></span>
+<span>Become impregnate with her own desire,&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>yet she had performed her office well. Not all the realities, all the
+blandishments that woman ever displayed, even the most resistless, could
+have wrought half so dexterously or gained such swift access to the
+heart. The vision faded, and a momentary darkness ensued. Suddenly a
+blaze of light irradiated the apartment. Rodolf beheld, for one short
+glimpse, a Gothic hall. Kate was there, and a lover kneeling at her
+feet. Madness seized him, agonising and intense. In vain he sought the
+features of his tormentor; the vision had departed, and with it his
+repose.</p>
+
+<p>A new and overwhelming emotion had overpowered him. It arose with the
+speed and impetuosity of a whirlwind. All just and sober anticipations,
+reflections, possibilities, and a thousand calm resolves, were swept as
+bubbles before the full burst of the torrent.</p>
+
+<p>His first impulse was to seek his mistress. But&mdash;she had another lover!
+The bare possibility of this event came o'er his bosom like the icy
+chill of the grave. He shuddered as it passed; but the pang was too keen
+to return with the same intensity.</p>
+
+<p>Soon a low murmur, like the distant sough of the wind, gradually
+approached. A faint light flashed through the chamber. He saw his own
+wild woods and the distant castle. It was just visible, dimly outlined
+on the horizon, as he had last beheld it in the cold grey beam that
+accompanied his departure. It arose tranquilly on his spirit. The voice
+of other years visited his soul. His eyes filled&mdash;he could have wept in
+the very overflowing of his delight. He dashed his hand across his
+forehead; but the pageant had disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>Daylight once more shone into the apartment; but nothing <!-- Page 227 --><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227" ></a>was discerned,
+save a dark curtain concealing one extremity of the room, and the seer
+sitting at his elbow.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Boy, what sawest thou?&quot; said Kelly, not raising his head as he spoke,
+but intently poring over a grim volume of cabalistic symbols.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In troth, I am hard put to it, Master Kelly. The maid I have just seen
+is accounted the veriest shrew in the parish, and one whom no man may
+approach with a safe warranty. I am like to lose all hope of wiving, if
+this be the maiden I am to woo. And yet&quot;&mdash;The form of the comely suitor
+he had seen kneeling at her feet just then flashed on his mind, yet
+cared he not to show the seer how much the phantom had disturbed him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Idle tales?&quot; said Kelly. &quot;I wot not but half the gay gallants in the
+town would give the best jewel in their caps to have one sweet look, one
+pretty smile from her cruel mouth. 'Tis but the report of those whom she
+hath slighted with loathing and contempt, that hath raised this
+apprehension in her disfavour. The churls know not what is hidden
+beneath this outward habit of her perverse nature, and she careth not to
+discover. Should some youth of noble bearing and condition but woo her
+as she deserves, thou shouldest see her tamed, ay, and loving too, as
+the very idol of her worship, or I would forfeit my best gift.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But she hath a lover!&quot; said Rodolf, gravely.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Peradventure she hath, but not of her own choosing, or mine art fails
+me. Look, this figure is the horoscope of her birth. Thou hast some
+knowledge of the celestial sciences. The directions are so close worked
+that should this night pass and Kate go unwed&mdash;indicated by Venus coming
+to a trine of the sun on the cusp of the seventh house, she will refuse
+all her suitors, and her whole patrimony pass into the hands of a
+stranger; but&quot;&mdash;he raised his voice with a solemn and emphatic
+enunciation&mdash;&quot;to-night! look to it! If not thine she may be another's.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The listener's brain seemed on a whirl; thought hurrying on thought,
+until the mind lost all power of discrimination. The succession of
+images was too rapid. All individuality was gone. He felt as though not
+one idea was left out of the busy crowd on which to rest his own
+identity. He seemed a mere passive existence, unable either to execute
+the functions of thought or volition.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go, for a brief space. Thou mayest return at sunset. Yet&quot;&mdash;the seer
+fixed a penetrating glance on the youth as he retired&mdash;<!-- Page 228 --><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228" ></a>&quot;go not nigh the
+merchant's dwelling, unless thou wouldest mar thy fortune.
+To-night&mdash;remember!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In the dim solitude of his chamber Rodolf sought in vain to allay the
+feverish excitement he had endured. He seemed left to the sport and
+caprice of a power he could not control. The coursers of the imagination
+grew wilder with restraint: he recklessly flung the reins upon their
+neck; but this did not tire their impetuosity. His brain glowed like a
+furnace; he seemed hastening fast on to the verge of either folly or
+madness. He threw himself on the couch, when the voice of Altdorff came
+like a winged harmony upon his spirit. The page was seated in the narrow
+cloisters,&mdash;the lute, his untiring companion, enticing a few chords from
+his touch, playful and gentle as the feelings that awaked them; some old
+and quaint chant, scarce worth the telling, but cherished in the heart's
+inmost shrine, from the hallowed nature of its associations. A deep
+slumber crept heavily on the cavalier, but the merchant's daughter still
+haunted him: sometimes snatched away from his embrace just as a rosy
+smile was kindling on her lips; at others, she met him with frowns and
+menace, but ere he could speak to her she had disappeared. Then was he
+tottering on the battlements of some old turret, when a storm arose, the
+maiden crept to his side, but in an instant, with a hideous crash, she
+was borne away by the rude grasp of the tempest. He awoke, with a
+mortifying discovery that the crash had been of a somewhat less
+equivocal nature. A cabinet of costly workmanship lay overturned at his
+feet, and a rich vase, breathing odours, strewed the floor in a thousand
+fragments.</p>
+
+<p>The noise brought up several of the college servitors; to rid himself
+from the annoyance he ascended the roof, then protected by low
+battlements, and leaded, so that a person might walk round the building
+and pursue his meditations without interruption.</p>
+
+<p>On this day, teeming with events, Dr Dee had been too closely engaged in
+parish duties to give heed to these love fancies, and even had he been
+ever so free to exercise his judgment in the matter, it is more than
+likely Rodolf would not have opened to him the proceedings then afoot.
+He well knew that the Doctor yet bore no good-will to Kelly, and might
+possibly thwart his designs, to the undoing of any good purposed by the
+strange transactions that had already occurred; <!-- Page 229 --><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229" ></a>he resolved, therefore,
+to let this day pass, ere he opened his lips on the subject. But how to
+while away the hours until evening was a most embarrassing problem.
+Sleep he had tried, but he found no wish to repeat the experiment;
+reading was just then foreign to his humour; mathematics must, that day,
+go unstudied. After beating time to at least a dozen strange metres, he
+hit upon the happy contrivance of writing a love-song, as a kind of
+expedient to restore the equilibrium. He was rather unskilled at the
+work; but the pen becomes eloquent when the soul moves it. We will,
+however, leave him at this thrifty employment, having no design, gentle
+reader, to make the occasion as wearisome to thee as to himself. Having
+the power to annihilate both time and space, let us watch the round sun,
+as he threw his last look, that evening, on the scene of this marvellous
+history. The old walls of the college, and the church tower, were
+invested with a gorgeous apparel of light, as though illumined for some
+gay festival, some season of rejoicing, when gladness shines out visibly
+in the shape of bonfires and torches. But few moments elapsed, ere the
+love-sick youth was again admitted into the dark interior of the seer's
+dwelling.</p>
+
+<p>A voice whispered in his ear&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not a word, hardly a breath, as thou wouldest thrive in thy pursuit.
+There be spirits abroad, not of earth, nor air. Be silent and discreet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A ray suddenly darted across the room. Again the voice was at his ear:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hold thine eye to the crevice when the light enters, and mark well what
+thou beholdest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Again he saw his mistress, apparently in a vaulted chamber, lighted by a
+single lamp: she sat as if anxious and disturbed, her cheek pale and
+flushed by turns, whilst her eye wandered hurriedly around the room.
+Some one approached; it was the seer. Rodolf heard him speak.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maiden, hast thou a lover?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The sound seemed scarcely akin to that of human speech. It rose heavily
+and deep, as from the charnel-house, as if the grim and cold jaws of the
+grave could utter a voice,&mdash;the dreary echoes of the tomb! The seer's
+lips were motionless, whilst he thus continued in the same sepulchral
+tone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know thou hast. 'Tis here thy love would tend.&quot; He <!-- Page 230 --><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230" ></a>drew a richly-set
+miniature from his bosom. It was mounted in so peculiar a fashion that
+Rodolf started back with the first emotion of surprise. The miniature
+was his own; a gem newly from the artist, and which he had left, as he
+thought, in safe custody a short time ago. The voice again whispered in
+his ear, &quot;Beware.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He subdued the expression of wonder just rising on his lip, watching the
+issue with increased interest.</p>
+
+<p>Kate covered her face. She had just glanced at the picture, and her
+proud bosom heaved almost to bursting.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look, disdainful woman! and though thy bosom be formed for love, yet
+wouldest thou spurn it from thee. I <i>know</i> thou lovest him. Nay, chide
+not; thy brow cannot blast me with its thunders. Go to. I could, by mine
+art, so humble thee, set thy love so exquisitely on its desire, that
+thou shouldest lay thy proud womanhood aside&mdash;sue and crouch, even if
+'twere for blows, like a tame spaniel! I have thee in my power, and were
+not the natural bent of thy dispositions kind and noblehearted, yet sore
+beset, and, as it were, overwhelmed by thy curst humours, I had now cast
+my spells about thee&mdash;ay, stricken thee to the dust! Shake off these
+bonds that enthral thy better spirit, and let not that beautiful fabric
+play the hypocrite any longer. Why should so fair a temple be the
+dwelling of a demon?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A deep sob here told that kindlier feelings were at work; that nature
+was beginning to assert her prerogative, and that the common sympathies,
+the tender attributes, of woman were not extinguished.</p>
+
+<p>The struggle was short, but severe. With difficulty she repressed the
+outburst of her grief as she spoke.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A woman still! 'Tis the garb nature put on. I have wrapped a sterner
+garment about me.&quot; A long and bitter sob here betrayed the violent
+warfare within. It was but for a moment. Affecting contempt for her own
+weakness, she exclaimed&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Throw it off? Expose me defenceless to his proud contumely? Even now
+the cold glance of indifference hath pierced it through!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Here she arose proudly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what thinkest thou, if I were to stand unarmed, uncovered, before
+his unfeeling gaze?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 231 --><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231" ></a>He loves thee,&quot; hastily rejoined the seer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Me!&mdash;as soon that bauble learn to love as&quot;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Say but one word, and I will bow him at thy feet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis well thou mockest me thus. To worm out my secret, perchance.&mdash;For
+this didst thou crave my presence? Let me be gone!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou shalt say 'Yes,' Kate, ere thou depart!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The curtain which divided the apartment suddenly flew aside. The
+astonished lover beheld his mistress:&mdash;not the unreal phantom he had
+imagined, but a being substantial in quality, and of a nature like his
+own, though gentler than his fondest anticipations.</p>
+
+<p>The seer departed: but in the end the lovers were not displeased at
+being betrayed into a mutual expression of their regard.</p>
+
+<p>The operation of the heavenly influences was, in these days, a doctrine
+that obtained almost universal credit; and it would have been looked
+upon as a daring piece of presumption to baffle the prophetic
+signification of the stars.</p>
+
+<p>On that same night, being the eve of St Bartholomew, they were
+married:&mdash;thus adding one more to the numerous instances on record,
+where a belief in the prediction has been the means of its
+accomplishment.</p>
+
+<p>The remainder of Kate's history, and how she crossed the sea,
+accompanied by her husband, into the wilds of Bohemia, living there for
+a space; and how she afterwards returned into her own land, will be set
+forth at some more fitting opportunity.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_EARL_OF_TYRONE" id="THE_EARL_OF_TYRONE" ></a><!-- Page 232 --><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232" ></a>THE EARL OF TYRONE.</h2>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Still the fairest are his fuell,<br /></span>
+<span>When his days are to be cruell;<br /></span>
+<span>Lovers' hearts are all his food,<br /></span>
+<span>And his baths their warmest blood;<br /></span>
+<span>Nought but wounds his hands doth season,<br /></span>
+<span>And he hates none like to reason.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="author"><i>A Hue and Cry after Cupid</i>.&mdash;Ben Jonson.</p>
+
+<p>The dark and romantic history of the Earl of Tyrone would of itself
+occupy a larger space than these volumes afford. The following episode,
+connected with his concealment in the neighbourhood of Rochdale, the
+author does not presume to bring forward as a fact. Yet there are good
+reasons for supposing that it formed an important era in his life, and
+was followed very soon after by the Queen's pardon. The importance of
+this measure may be conceived, when by some Elizabeth's depression, and
+the profound melancholy she exhibited in her latter hours, were
+attributed to this source. It is said that she repented of having
+pronounced his forgiveness; that having always resolved to bring him to
+condign punishment, she could receive no satisfaction from his
+submission; while the advantages of her high estate, and all the glories
+of a prosperous reign, were unable to alleviate her disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>The following is a brief sketch of his life, extracted from
+generally-received authorities.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh O'Neale was nephew to Shan O'Neale, or the Great O'Neale, as he was
+more commonly called, well known for his eminent courage, a virtue much
+esteemed by the half-civilised hordes whom he commanded. He was created
+Earl of Tyrone by the Queen; but disliking this servitude, and wishful
+to liberate his country from the English yoke, he entered into a
+correspondence with Spain; procured from thence a supply of arms and
+ammunition; and having united many of the Irish chiefs in a dependence
+upon himself, he began to be regarded as a formidable enemy.</p>
+
+<div class="center">
+<img src="images/14.png" width="600" height="399" alt="TYRONE'S BED, NEAR ROCHDALE.
+
+Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden" title="" />
+<b>TYRONE'S BED, NEAR ROCHDALE.<br />
+
+<i>Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw<sup>d</sup> Finden.</i></b>
+</div>
+
+<p>The English found much difficulty in pursuing the rebels into the bogs,
+woods, and other fastnesses to which they retreated. Sir John Norris,
+who commanded the English army, was rendered thereby more willing to
+hearken to the proposals made by Tyrone, and the war was spun out by
+these artifices for some years. Sir John dying, as was reported, of
+vexation and discontent, was succeeded by Sir Henry Bagnall. &quot;He
+ad<!-- Page 233 --><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233" ></a><!-- Page 234 --><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234" ></a><!-- Page 235 --><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235" ></a>vanced to the relief at Blackwater, then besieged by the enemy, but
+was surrounded in disadvantageous ground. His soldiers, discouraged by
+part of their powder accidentally taking fire, were put to flight; and
+though the pursuit was stopped by Montacute, who commanded the English
+horse, fifteen hundred men, together with the general himself, were left
+dead upon the spot. This victory so unusual to the Irish, roused their
+courage, supplied them with arms and munitions of war, and raised the
+renown of Tyrone, who was hailed as deliverer of his country and patron
+of Irish liberty.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22" ></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p>
+
+<p>The unfortunate Essex was afterwards appointed to the command; but his
+troops were so terrified at the reputation of Tyrone that many of them
+counterfeited sickness, and others deserted, fearful of encountering the
+forces of that daring chief. Finding himself in a great measure
+deserted, &quot;he hearkened to a message from Tyrone, who desired a
+conference; and a plain near the two camps was appointed for this
+purpose. The two generals met without any attendants. A river ran
+between them, into which Tyrone entered to his saddle-girth, but Essex
+stood on the opposite bank.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this meeting where &quot;Tyrone behaved with great submission to the
+lord-lieutenant, a cessation of arms was agreed on.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23" ></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> Essex also
+received a proposal of peace, into which Tyrone had inserted many
+unreasonable and exorbitant conditions; and there appeared afterwards
+some reason to suspect that the former had commenced a very
+unjustifiable correspondence with the enemy.&quot; From this time the beam of
+Essex's favour was obscured, the issue terminating in his death and
+disgrace. In the meantime, Tyrone had thought proper to break the trace,
+&quot;and joining with O'Donnel and others, overran almost the whole kingdom.
+He pretended to be the champion of the Catholic faith, and openly
+exulted in the present of a phoenix plume, which Clement VIII., in order
+to encourage him in the prosecution of so good a cause, had consecrated,
+and conferred upon him.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24" ></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> Essex being recalled, the Queen appointed
+Mountjoy as lord-deputy. &quot;He found the island in a desperate condition;
+but being a man of capacity and vigour, he immediately advanced against
+Tyrone in Ulster. He penetrated into the heart of that country, the
+chief seat of the rebels. He fortified Derry and Mount Norris. He chased
+them from the field, and obliged them again to shelter in woods and
+morasses; and by these promising enterprises he gave new life to the
+Queen's authority throughout the island.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Tyrone, however, still boasted that he was certain of receiving the
+promised aid from Spain; &quot;and everything was put in condition for
+resisting the Spanish invasion, which was daily expected. The deputy,
+informed of the danger to which the southern provinces were exposed,
+left the prosecution of the war against Tyrone, who was now reduced to
+great extremities, and marched with his army into Munster.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;At last the Spaniards, under Don Juan d'Aquila, arrived at Kinsale;
+<!-- Page 236 --><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236" ></a>and Sir Richard Piercy, who commanded in the town with a small garrison
+of one hundred and fifty men, found himself obliged to abandon it on
+their appearance. These invaders amounted to four thousand, and the
+Irish discovered a strong propensity to join them, in order to free
+themselves from the English government, with which they were extremely
+discontented. One chief ground of their complaint was the introduction
+of trials by jury,<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25" ></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> an institution abhorred by that people, though
+nothing contributes more to the support of that equity and liberty for
+which the English laws are so justly celebrated. The Irish also bore a
+great favour to the Spaniards, having entertained the opinion that they
+themselves were descended from that nation; and their attachment to the
+Catholic religion proved a new cause of affection for the invaders.
+D'Aquila assumed the title of general in this '<i>holy war</i>,' for the
+preservation of the faith in Ireland; and he endeavoured to persuade the
+people that Elizabeth was, by several bulls of the Pope, deprived of her
+crown; that her subjects were absolved from their oaths of religion, and
+that the Spaniards were come to deliver the Irish from the dominion of
+the devil.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26" ></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> Mountjoy found it necessary to act with vigour, in order
+to prevent a total insurrection of the Irish; and having collected his
+forces, he formed the siege of Kinsale by land, while Sir Richard
+Levison, with a small squadron, blockaded it by sea. He had no sooner
+begun his operations than he heard of the arrival of another body of two
+thousand Spaniards under the command of Alphonso Ocampo, who had taken
+possession of Baltimore and Berehaven; and he was obliged to detach Sir
+George Carew to oppose their progress. Tyrone, meanwhile, with Randal,
+MacSurley Tirel, Baron of Kelly, and other chieftains of the Irish, had
+joined Ocampo with all their forces, and were marching to the relief of
+Kinsale. The deputy, informed of their designs by intercepted letters,
+made preparations to receive them; and being reinforced by Levison with
+six hundred marines, he posted his troops on an advantageous ground
+which lay on the passage of the enemy, leaving some cavalry to prevent a
+sally from D'Aquila and the Spanish garrison. When Tyrone, with a
+detachment of Irish and Spaniards, approached, he was surprised to find
+the English so well posted and ranged for battle, and he immediately
+sounded a retreat; but the deputy gave orders to pursue him, and having
+thrown these advanced troops into confusion, he followed them to the
+main body, which he also attacked and put to flight, with the slaughter
+of twelve hundred men.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27" ></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> Ocampo was taken prisoner; Tyrone fled into
+Ulster; O'Donnel made his escape into Spain; and D'Aquila, finding
+himself reduced to the greatest difficulties, was obliged to capitulate
+upon such terms as the deputy prescribed to him. He surrendered Kinsale
+and Baltimore, and agreed to evacuate the kingdom. This great blow,
+joined to other successes gained by Wilmot, governor of Kerry, and by
+Roger and Gavin Harvey, threw the rebels into dismay, and gave a
+prospect of the final reduction of Ireland.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 237 --><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237" ></a>The remaining part of Tyrone's history may be gathered from the
+narrative.</p>
+
+<p>Among other memorable incidents illustrative of his character, it is
+said that Tyrone, appearing in person to execute a treaty, immediately
+on the issue of some sanguinary engagement, was requested to sign the
+terms. &quot;Here is my signature,&quot; said he, laying his bloody hand on the
+deed: &quot;'tis the mark of the Kings of Ulster.&quot; Hence, tradition gravely
+asserts was the origin of &quot;the bloody hand,&quot; the arms of Ulster! That
+such a derivation is fabulous we need not attempt to prove.</p>
+
+<p>What a paradox is love!&mdash;the most selfish and yet the most disinterested
+of the passions; the gentlest and yet the most terrible of impulses that
+can agitate the human bosom; the most ennobling and the most humble; the
+most enduring and the most transient; slow as the most subtle venom to
+its work, yet impetuous in its career as the tornado or the whirlwind;
+sportive as the smile of infancy, and appalling as the maniac's shriek,
+or the laugh of his tormentor. 'Tis a joy nursed in the warm glow of
+hope; but who shall reveal the depths of its despair? 'Twas given to man
+as his best boon&mdash;his most precious gift; but his own hands polluted the
+shrine&mdash;marred the beauteous and holy deposit. The loveliest image was
+then smitten with deformity, and that passion, the highest and noblest
+that could animate his bosom, became the bane of his happiness, the
+destroyer of his peace, and the source whence every attribute of woe
+hath sprung to afflict and darken the frail hopes of humanity. This may
+be the dark side of the picture; but unless the breath of heaven
+sanctify even the purest affections of our nature, they are a withering
+blast, blighting its fairest verdure&mdash;a torment and a curse!</p>
+
+<p>The following narrative, floating but indistinctly on the author's
+memory, and in all probability attached to other names in localities
+widely apart, is yet, he believes, true as to the more important
+particulars. The site of a few cottages in a romantic dell in the
+neighbourhood of Rochdale is still associated with the memory of the
+unfortunate Earl of Tyrone. It is yet called &quot;Tyrone's Bed.&quot; In history,
+this noble chief is depicted in colours the most hideous and detestable;
+but if the lion had been the painter, we should have had to contemplate
+a different portrait. By his countrymen he was held in the most profound
+reverence and respect. Beloved by all, he was hailed as the expected
+deliverer of his native land from wrong and oppression. <!-- Page 238 --><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238" ></a>The most
+bigoted of his persecutors cannot deny that oppression, the most foul
+and inhuman, did exist; and the men who took up arms for the rescue of
+their brethren may be pitied, if not pardoned, for their noble,
+elevated, and enduring spirit. Let us not be misunderstood as the
+advocates of rebellion; but surely there are occasions when the galling
+yoke of oppression may be too heavy to sustain&mdash;when the crushed reptile
+may, writhing, turn against him who tramples on it. Let us not do this
+wrong, even to our enemies, by refusing to admire in them the
+disinterestedness and magnanimity which in others would have insured our
+admiration and applause.</p>
+
+<p>About a mile from the spot we have just named stood the ancient mansion
+of Grizlehurst. Surrounded on every side by dark and almost trackless
+woods, sprung through a long line of ancestry from primeval forests, it
+reposed in undisturbed seclusion, still and majestic as the proud swan
+that basked upon the dark lake before it, secure from intrusion and
+alarm. Gable-ends and long casements broke the low piebald front into a
+variety of detail&mdash;a-combination of effect throwing an air of
+picturesque beauty on the whole, which not all the flimsy and frittered
+&quot;Gothic&quot; can convey to the mansions of modern antiques. For the timber
+employed in its erection a forest must have been laid prostrate. Huge
+arched fire-places; chimney-pieces carved with armorial bearings; oak
+tables absolutely joisted to sustain their vast bulk; bedsteads that
+would not have groaned with the weight of a Titan;&mdash;the whole intended
+to oppose a ponderous resistance to the ravages of time and fashion. Not
+a vestige is left. Those laughing halls echo no more with the loud and
+boisterous revel; the music of the &quot;many twinkling&quot; feet is gone;
+scarcely a stone is left upon its fellow; a few straggling trees alone
+mark the site. The beech and willow are waving o'er its hearth! Who
+would build for the destroyer? And yet man, with the end of these
+vanities in prospect, daily, hourly still builds on; his schemes and his
+projects extending through the long vista of succeeding ages, as though
+his dwelling were eternal, and his own fabric should survive the ruin
+and the doom of all!</p>
+
+<p>A long train of ancestors bearing the name of Holt occupied this
+dwelling as the family mansion. The manor of Spotland, forfeited by the
+rebellion of Paslew, Abbot of Whalley, was granted by Henry the Eighth
+to Thomas Holt, afterwards <!-- Page 239 --><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239" ></a>knighted in Scotland by Edward, Earl of
+Hertford, in the thirty-sixth year of the reign of that monarch. The
+present possessor of the same name, grandson to Sir Thomas, resided at
+Grislehurst during the latter part of Elizabeth's reign and that of
+James. He married Constance, the daughter of Sir Edward Littleton of
+Pillaton Hall, Stafford. One son, Francis, and a daughter named
+Constance, were the fruit of this union. At the commencement of our
+narrative he had been for some years a widower, and his son was then
+absent on foreign travel.</p>
+
+<p>It was in the memorable year 1603, the last of Elizabeth. The rebellion
+in Ireland had been smothered, if not extinguished; and the great
+O'Neale, Earl of Tyrone and King of Ulster, together with many other
+chiefs, were forced to remain concealed in woods and morasses. Outlawed
+and outcast, some of them crossed over into England, remaining there
+until pardoned by the Queen.</p>
+
+<p>Constance was now in her nineteenth year. Bright as her own morn of
+life, she had seen but few clouds in that season of hope and delight.
+Sorrow was to her scarce known, save in the nursery tales and wild
+ballads of the surrounding district. When the glowing morn was overcast,
+she was unprepared, unfitted for the change. The storm came, and the
+little sum of her happiness, launched on this frail and perishing bark,
+was wrecked without a struggle!</p>
+
+<p>One evening, in the full glare of a dazzling sunset, the light streaming
+like a shower through the dark foliage of the valley, she had loitered,
+along with her old nurse, in the dell to which we have before alluded.
+The glowing atmosphere was just fading into the dewy tint which betokens
+a fair morrow. To enjoy a more extended gaze upon the clouds, those
+gorgeous vestures of the sun, Constance had ascended, by a winding path,
+to the edge of a steep cliff overhanging the river. She stood for some
+minutes looking towards the west, unconscious of the loose and slippery
+nature of the materials beneath her feet, and of her near approach to
+the brink. On a sudden the ground gave way, and she was precipitated
+headlong into the river! Nurse Agnes, who stood below, watching her
+young mistress, not without apprehension as to the consequences of her
+temerity, was stricken motionless with horror. There seemed to be no
+help. Fast receding from all hope of succour, Constance was borne
+rapidly down the stream. Suddenly, with <!-- Page 240 --><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240" ></a>the swiftness of a deer from
+the brake, a figure bounded from an opposite thicket. He seemed scarcely
+to leave his footmarks on the long herbage ere he gained the river's
+brink. Plunging into the current he succeeded in rescuing the maiden
+from her perilous condition. He laid her gently on the bank, beckoning
+to her attendant, and was speedily out of sight. The aged Agnes, with
+trembling hands, relieved Constance by loosening the folds from her
+throat; and almost ere she had wrung out the water from the raven locks
+of her inanimate mistress, the stranger returned. He carried a cordial,
+with which he moistened her lips; the old woman chafed her temples,
+resorting to the usual modes of resuscitation then in practice; and in
+the end, Constance opened her eyes. A heavy sob accompanied this effort.
+She looked wildly round, when she met the deep gaze of the stranger.
+With a faint shriek, she hid her face in the bosom of her attendant,
+who, overjoyed at her recovery, could scarcely refrain from falling at
+the feet of her deliverer. She turned to express her thanks, but he was
+gone.</p>
+
+<p>It was not long ere several domestics, alarmed at their absence, came in
+search; and Constance, borne gently along, was soon restored to her
+anxious parent. But he looked thoughtful and disturbed when the
+stranger's person was described, evidently averse to hold any
+communication on the subject. Nurse Agnes grew eloquent in his praise,
+until the following conversation that same evening in the kitchen turned
+aside the current of her opinions.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A rough grey cloak, gossip, thou sayest?&quot; again inquired a
+hard-featured hind from the chimney-corner.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I tell thee a cloak, and a cap turned up in front. He doused it off
+nobly, and took to the water like a spaniel!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, 'tis the wild man of the woods!&quot; said another listener, who had
+hitherto been silent, but whose remark seemed to strike terror into the
+whole group. They looked round as if anticipating a visit from this
+fearful personage. Dame Agnes crossed herself, and muttered her prayers
+with great despatch; something was at length audible and articulate, as
+follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mercy on me! my days are numbered. If it should indeed be this
+incarnate,&mdash;forgive the thought!&mdash;we are all dead creatures. The very
+horses and kine stagger, and fall into fits at times, when they come
+home, and it is all along of <!-- Page 241 --><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241" ></a>'em having seen or smelt the brimstone
+from the pit. Davy had two died last week, and he was sure they had
+either seen the deil or his deputy,&mdash;this same grey man of the woods.
+Woe's me that I should ha' lived to behold this child of perdition!&quot; The
+old woman here gave way to an outburst of sorrow, that prevented any
+further disclosures.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is about a three month agone since this same wild man was first
+seen,&quot; said the old seneschal, whose office, though of little use, was
+still filled up in the more ancient establishments. &quot;I saw him myself
+once, but I shook until the very flesh seemed to crawl over my bones.
+They say he neither eats nor drinks, but is kept alive in the body by
+glamour and witchcraft. He'll stay here until his time is done, and then
+his tormentors will fetch him to his prison-house again. Ye should not
+have tarried in the wood after sunset.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That would I not,&quot; sharply replied Agnes; &quot;but the child, poor thing,
+would look at the daylight as it lingered on the hill-top, and I thought
+no harm in't.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Like enough. He dares not abroad, if so much as the value or size of my
+thumb-nail of the sun's rim were left above the hill!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come, Gaffer, strike up a merry trowl,&quot; said a thin, squeaking voice,
+from a personage almost hidden behind a copious supper of broken meat
+and pastry. But whether the party thus addressed was too much alarmed to
+let the current of his spirit run bubbling from the spring of either
+mirth or minstrelsy, or he was too deeply buried in his own thoughts, it
+were needless to inquire. The request for a while passed by unheeded.</p>
+
+<p>Gaffer Gee was the ballad-monger of the whole district. He kept on a
+comfortable and vagabond sort of existence, by visiting the different
+mansions where good cheer was to be had, and where he was generally a
+welcome guest, both in bower and hall. His legendary lore seemed
+inexhaustible; and, indeed, his memory was like an old chest full of
+scraps continually rummaged. He knew all the scandal and family secrets
+throughout the parish, and had a quick eye at detecting either a love
+affair or a feud. He composed a number of the wild ballads that he sang
+or recited, or at least put them into that jingling and quaint rhythm,
+acquired by habitual intercourse with the phraseology peculiar to these
+popular descants. <!-- Page 242 --><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242" ></a>On hearing a story he could readily shape it into
+verse, extempore, too, upon occasion; and many were the jokes that
+rebounded from his theme, whether in hall or kitchen. It was pleasant to
+watch his little grey eye, and the twinkling lashes, as they rose and
+fell, varying the expression of his lips. A slight lisp gave an air of
+simplicity to his ditties, which never failed to charm his auditors. He
+could throw the simplest expression over his features, which made the
+keen edge of his rebukes infinitely more cutting and effective. But the
+prevailing tone of feeling in him was sad and oppressive. These
+wandering minstrels had, from remote ages, been held as seers, and a
+peep into futurity was often supposed to accompany their poetical
+inspirations&mdash;a superstition not confined to any particular locality,
+but obtaining a widely disseminated belief in all climes and nations
+where imagination assumes her sway, and dares to assert her power.</p>
+
+<p>After a short space, and without any invitation, the ballad-maker, like
+some Pythian priestess on her tripod, began to exhibit manifestations of
+the <i>afflatus</i>. The spirit of song seemed to be stealing upon him, and
+in a moment the listening auditory were still. In substance, he half
+recited, half sung, the following ballad:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;'Maiden, braid those tresses bright,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Wreathe thy ringlets from the blast;<br /></span>
+<span>Why those locks of curling light<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Heedless to the rude winds cast?<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;'Maiden, why that darkened brow?<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">From those eyes, once dimmed with weeping,<br /></span>
+<span>Lurid gleams are gathering now,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">O'er their pale wan shadows creeping.'<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Silent still the maid passed by,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Near nor voice nor footstep came.<br /></span>
+<span>Sudden cleaving earth and sky,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Flashed a brand of arrowy flame!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;'Maiden, turn that gaze on me,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Onwards why so madly bent?'<br /></span>
+<span>Still no stay, no pause made she<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Through that kindling element.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Now, the midnight chant is stealing,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Mass and requiem breathing near;<br /></span>
+<span>Hushed the blast, as if revealing<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Sounds to earth that Heaven might hear.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;From yon pile, soft voices swelling<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Dirge and anthem for the dead;&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span>Demon shrieks, their lost doom yelling,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Tend Lord Rudolph's dying bed.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Holy men, with song and prayer,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Fain would shrive the passing soul;<br /></span>
+<span>Fiend-like whispers, to his ear.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Winds, in muttering curses, roll.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Ere his last lone shuddering cry,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To his couch the maiden came;<br /></span>
+<span>On his breast she silently<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Bent an eye of ravening flame.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;One wild shriek the sufferer sent,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Ere life's last frail link might sever;<br /></span>
+<span>Laughed the maiden, as she leant<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">O'er that form, to cling for ever.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Closer to his heart she pressed;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Scorched, the quivering flesh recoiled;<br /></span>
+<span>Unconsumed his burning breast,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">While that grim tormentor smiled.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;<!-- Page 243 --><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243" ></a>'Now revenge!' the maiden cried,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">'I have bartered heaven for this;<br /></span>
+<span>Mine thou art, proud Rudolph's bride,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Mine, by this last demon kiss.'<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Tower, and battlement, and hall,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Scathed as with the thunder-stroke,<br /></span>
+<span>Flashed through midnight's dusky pall,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Twined in wreaths of livid smoke.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;O'er that gulph of yawning flame<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Horrid shapes are hovering;<br /></span>
+<span>Monstrous forms, of hideous name,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To the bridal-bed they bring.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;'They come!&mdash;they come!' their frantic yell.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">On a wave of billowy light<br /></span>
+<span>Sudden rose (so marvellers tell)<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The maiden and her traitor knight.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;The moon looks bright on Rudolph's towers,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The breeze laughs lightly by,<br /></span>
+<span>But dark and silent sleep the hours,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The lone brook murmuring nigh.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;The lank weed waves round thy domain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The fox creeps to thy gate;<br /></span>
+<span>Dark is thy dwelling, proud chieftain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Thy halls are desolate!&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The legend we have thus rendered. His own idiom and versification, as we
+have already observed, were of a more unintelligible sort, though better
+suited, perhaps, to the fashion of the time and the capacity of his
+hearers.</p>
+
+<p>But a gloom still pervaded the once cheerful hearth, and the night wore
+on without the usual symptoms of mirth and hilarity.</p>
+
+<p>Holt of Grislehurst held the manorial rights, and was feudal lord over a
+widely-extended domain, the manor of Spotland descending to him by
+succession from his grandfather. His character was that of a quiet,
+unostentatious country gentleman; but withal of a proud spirit, not
+brooking either insult or neglect. This night, an unaccountable
+depression stole upon him. He strode rapidly across the chamber, moody
+and alone. The taper was nigh extinguished; the wasted billet grew pale,
+a few sparks starting up the chimney, as the wind roared in short and
+hasty gusts round the dwelling. The old family portraits seemed to flit
+from their dark panels, wavering with the tremulous motion of the blaze.</p>
+
+<p>Holt was still pacing the chamber with a disturbed and agitated step. A
+few words, rapid and unconnected, fell from his lips.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Rebel!&mdash;Outcast! I cannot betray thee!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Betray me!&quot; echoed a voice from behind. Turning, the speaker stood
+before him. It was the athletic form of the stranger, wrapped in his
+grey cloak and cap of coarse felt, plumed from the falcon's wing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And who speaks the word that shall betray me? A king,&mdash;a fugitive! Yet,
+not all the means that treachery can com<!-- Page 244 --><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244" ></a>pass shall trammel one hair
+upon this brow without my privity or consent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Comest thou like the sharp wind into my dwelling?&quot; inquired Holt, in a
+voice tremulous with amazement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Free as the unconfined air; yet fettered by a lighter bond,&mdash;a woman's
+love!&quot; returned the intruder. &quot;Thou hast a daughter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Lord of Grislehurst grew pale at these words. Some terrific meaning
+clung to them. After a short pause the stranger continued:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thus speak the legends of Tigernach, and the bards of Ulster, rapt into
+visions of the future:&mdash;'<i>When a king of Erin shall flee at the voice of
+a woman, then shall the distaff and spindle conquer whom the sword and
+buckler shall not subdue</i>.' That woman is yon heretic queen. A usurper,
+an intruder on our birthright. Never were the O'Neales conquered but by
+woman! I have lingered here when the war-cry hath rung from the shores
+of my country. Again the shout hath come, and the impatient chiefs wait
+for my return. But&quot;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The warrior seemed to writhe during the conflict. His hands were
+clenched, and every muscle stiffened with agony. Scorn at his own
+weakness, and dread, horrible undefinable dread, as he felt the
+omnipotent power mastering his proud spirit. The man who would have
+laughed at the shaking of a spear, and the loud rush of the battle,
+quailed before a woman's hate and a woman's love.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what is thy request to-night?&quot; said Holt.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger answered in a voice of thunder&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy daughter!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Tyrone, for it was he, seemed nigh choking with the emotion he sought to
+suppress.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay,&quot; he continued, &quot;it must not be. Oh! did I love her less, she had
+been mine!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thine?&quot; suddenly retorted her father, somewhat scornfully. &quot;And who
+gave thee this power over woman's spirit? Thou hast not even had speech
+of her, much less the means to win her favour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>An almost supernatural expression seemed to gather on the features of
+the chieftain. His eye, rolling through the vista of past years, began
+to pause, appalled as it approached the dark threshold of the future. He
+appeared lost to the presence of <!-- Page 245 --><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245" ></a>surrounding objects, as he thus
+exclaimed with a terrific solemnity&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When the dark-browed Norah nursed me on her lap, and her eye, though
+dark to outward sense, saw through the dim veil of destiny, it was thus
+she sung as she guarded my slumbers, and the hated Sassenach was in the
+hall:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;'Rest thee, baby! light and darkness<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Mingling o'er thy path shall play;<br /></span>
+<span>Hope shall flee when thou pursuest,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Lost amid life's trackless way.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;'Rest thee, baby! woman's breast<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Thou shalt darken o'er with woe;<br /></span>
+<span>None thou lookest on or lovest,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Joy or hope hereafter know.<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Many a maid thy glance shall rue,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Where it smites it shall subdue.'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&quot;It was an evil hour, old man, when I looked upon thy daughter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Holt, though of a stout and resolute temper, was yet daunted by this
+bold and unlooked-for address. He trembled as he gazed on the mysterious
+being before him, gifted, as it seemed, with some supernatural
+endowments. His unaccountable appearance, the nature of his
+communications, together with his manner and abrupt mode of speech,
+would have shaken many a firmer heart unprepared for these disclosures.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is thy business with me?&quot; he inquired, with some hesitation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To warn thee;&mdash;to warn thy daughter. She hath seen me. Ay, to-night.
+And how runs the prophecy? Let her beware. I have looked on her
+beforetime. Looked on her! ay, until these glowing orbs have become dim,
+dazzled with excess of brightness. I have looked on her till this stern
+bosom hath become softer than the bubbling wax to her impression; but I
+was concealed, and the maiden passed unharmed by the curse. To-night I
+have saved her life. A resistless impulse! And she hath looked on me.&quot;
+He smote his brow, groaning aloud in the agony he endured.</p>
+
+<p>It may be supposed this revelation did not allay the apprehensions of
+the listener. Bewildered and agitated, he turned towards the window. The
+pale moon was glimmering through the quiet leaves, and he saw a dark and
+muffled figure in the avenue. It was stationary for a while; it then
+slowly moved towards the adjoining thicket and was lost to his view.
+Holt turned to address his visitor, but he had disappeared. It was like
+the <!-- Page 246 --><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246" ></a>passing of a troubled dream, vague and indistinct, but fraught with
+horrible conceptions. A cloud seemed to gather on his spirit, teeming
+with some terrible but unknown doom. Its nature even imagination failed
+to conjecture. His first impulse was to visit his daughter. He found the
+careful nurse by her bedside. As he entered the room, Agnes raised one
+finger to her lips, in token of silence. The anxious father bent over
+his child. Her sleep was heavy, and her countenance flushed. A tremor
+passed over her features. A groan succeeded. Suddenly she started up.
+With a look of anguish he could never forget, she cried&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Help! O my father!&quot; She clung around his neck. In vain he endeavoured
+to soothe her. She sobbed aloud, as if her heart were breaking. But she
+never told that dream, though her haggard looks, when morning rose on
+her anxious and pallid countenance, showed the disturbance it had
+created.</p>
+
+<p>Days and weeks passed by. The intrusion of the bold outlaw was nigh
+forgotten. The father's apprehensions had in some degree subsided, but
+Constance did not resume her wonted serenity. Her earliest recollections
+were those of the old nursery rhymes, with which Agnes had not failed to
+store her memory. But the giant killers and their champions now failed
+to interest and excite. Other feelings than those of terror and of
+wonder were in operation, requiring a fresh class of stimulants for
+their support&mdash;tales of chivalry and of love, that all-enduring passion,
+where maidens and their lovers sighed for twice seven years, and all too
+brief a trial of their truth and constancy! As she listened, her soul
+seemed to hang on the minstrel's tongue; that erratic troubadour, Gaffer
+Gee, being a welcome and frequent visitor at Grislehurst.</p>
+
+<p>One night he had tarried late in the little chamber, where she was wont
+to give him audience. She seemed more wishful to protract his stay than
+heretofore.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now for the ballad of Sir Bertine, the famous Lancashire knight, who
+was killed at St Alban's, fighting for the glorious red rose of
+Lancaster.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nothing loth, he commenced the following ditty:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;The brave Sir Bartine Entwisel<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Hath donned his coat of steel,<br /></span>
+<span>And left his hall and stately home,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To fight for Englond's weal.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;To fight for Englond's weal, I trow,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And good King Harry's right,<br /></span>
+<span>His loyal heart was warm and true,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">His sword and buckler bright.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;That sword once felt the craven foe,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Its hilt was black with gore,<br /></span>
+<span>And many a mother's son did rue<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">His might at Agincourt.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;<!-- Page 247 --><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247" ></a>And now he stately steps his hall,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">'A summons from the king?<br /></span>
+<span>My armour bright, my casque and plume,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">My sword and buckler bring.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;'Blow, warder, blow. Thy horn is shrill,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">My liegemen hither call,<br /></span>
+<span>For I must away to the south countrie,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And spears and lances all.'<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;'Oh, go not to the south countrie!'<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">His lady weeping said;<br /></span>
+<span>'Oh, go not to the battle-field,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">For I dreamed of the waters red!'<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;'Oh, go not to the south countrie!'<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Cried out his daughter dear;<br /></span>
+<span>'Oh, go not to the bloody fight,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">For I dreamed of the waters clear!'<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Sir Bertine raised his dark visor,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And he kissed his fond lady;<br /></span>
+<span>'I must away to the wars and fight<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">For our king in jeopardy!'<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;The lady gat her to the tower,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">She clomb the battlement;<br /></span>
+<span>She watched and greet, while through the woods<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The glittering falchions went.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;The wind was high, the storm grew loud,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Fierce rose the billowy sea;<br /></span>
+<span>When from Sir Bertine's lordly tower<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The bell boomed heavily!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;'O mother dear, what bodes that speech<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">From yonder iron tongue?'<br /></span>
+<span>''Tis but the rude, rude blast, my love,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">That idle bell hath swung.'<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Upon the rattling casement still<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The beating rain fell fast;<br /></span>
+<span>When creeping fingers wandering thrice<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Across that window passed.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;'O mother dear, what means that sound<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Upon the lattice nigh?'<br /></span>
+<span>''Tis but the cold, cold arrowy sleet,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">That hurtles in the sky.'<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;The blast was still&mdash;a pause more dread<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Ne'er terror felt&mdash;when, lo!<br /></span>
+<span>An armed footstep on the stair<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Clanked heavily and slow.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Up flew the latch and tirling-pin,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Wide swung the grated door,<br /></span>
+<span>Then came a solemn stately tread<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Upon the quaking floor!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;A shudder through the building ran,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">A chill and icy blast;<br /></span>
+<span>A moan, as though in agony<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Some viewless spirit passed!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;'O mother dear, my heart is froze,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">My limbs are stark and cold.'<br /></span>
+<span>Her mother spake not, for again<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">That turret bell hath tolled.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Three days passed by. At eventide<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">There came an aged man,<br /></span>
+<span>He bent him low before the dame,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">His wrinkled cheek was wan.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;'Now, speak, thou evil messenger,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Thy tidings show to me.'<br /></span>
+<span>That aged man, nor look vouchsafed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Nor ever a word spake he.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;'What bringest thou?' the lady said,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">'I charge thee by the rood.'<br /></span>
+<span>He drew a signet from his hand,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">'Twas speckled o'er with blood.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;'Thy husband's grave is wide and deep.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">In St Alban's priory<br /></span>
+<span>His body lies, but on his soul<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Christ Jesus have mercy!'&quot;<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28" ></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><!-- Page 248 --><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248" ></a>Scarcely had the last solemn supplication been uttered, when the latch
+of the chamber was raised. The door flew open, and the outlaw, in his
+dark grey cap and cloak, stood before them. Constance was too much
+alarmed to utter a word. She clung to her companion with the agony of
+one grasping at the most fragile support for life and safety.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, maiden, I would not harm thee,&quot; said the intruder, in a voice so
+musical and sad, that it seemed to drop into the listener's ear like a
+gush of harmony, or a sweet and melancholy chime wakening up the heart's
+most endeared and hallowed associations. His features were nobly formed.
+His eye, large and bright, of the purest grey; the lashes, like a cloud,
+covering and tempering their lustre. A touch of sadness rested on his
+lips. They seemed to speak of suffering and endurance, as if the soul's
+deepest agony would not have cast a word across their barriers.
+Constance for a moment raised her eyes, but they were suddenly
+withdrawn, overflowing with some powerful emotion. He still gazed, but
+one proud effort broke the fixed intensity of his glance, and his tongue
+resumed its office.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maiden, I am pursued. The foe are on my track. My retreat is
+discovered, and unless thou wilt vouchsafe to me a hiding-place, I am in
+their power. The Earl of Tyrone&mdash;nay, I scorn the title&mdash;'tis the King
+of Ulster that stands before thee. I would not crouch thus for my own
+life, were it not for my country. Her stay, her sustenance, is in thy
+keeping.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Never did wretchedness and misfortune sue in vain to woman's ear.
+Constance forgot her weakness and timidity. She saw not her own danger.
+A fellow-being craved help and succour; all other feelings gave place,
+and she seemed animated with a new impulse. She looked on the minstrel,
+as if to ascertain his fidelity. It was evident, however, that no
+apprehension need be entertained, this personage seeming to manifest no
+slight solicitude for the safety of the unfortunate chief.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The old lead mine, in the Cleuch,&quot; whispered he.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, it must be in the house,&quot; replied Constance, with a glance of
+forethought beyond her years. &quot;The pursuers will not search this loyal
+house for treason!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As was the case in most mansions belonging to families of rank and
+importance, a room was contrived for purposes of special concealment,
+where persons or property could be stowed in case of danger. A heavy
+stack of chimneys was enlarged <!-- Page 249 --><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249" ></a>so as to admit of a small apartment,
+inconvenient enough in other respects, yet well adapted as a temporary
+hiding-place.</p>
+
+<p>Hither, through secluded passages, the careful Constance conducted her
+guest, who had so strangely thrown himself, with unhesitating
+confidence, upon her generosity and protection. The proud representative
+of a kingly race was rescued by a woman from ignominy and death. Some
+feeling of this nature probably overpowered him. As he bade her good
+night, his voice faltered, and he passed his hand suddenly athwart his
+brow. Constance, having fulfilled this sacred duty, shrank from any
+further intercourse, and hastened to her chamber. It was long ere she
+could sleep; portentous dreams then brooded over her slumbers. The
+terrible vision was repeated, and she awoke, but not to her wonted
+cheerfulness.</p>
+
+<p>How strange, how mysterious, the mechanism of the human heart! The
+feelings glide insensibly into each other, changing their hue and
+character imperceptibly, as the colours on the evening cloud. Protection
+awakens kindness, kindness pity, and pity love. Love, the more
+dangerous, too, the process being unperceived, insidiously disguised
+under other names, and under the finest sympathies and affections of our
+nature.</p>
+
+<p>With a step light and noiseless as that of her favourite spaniel who
+crept behind her, did Constance make an early visit to ascertain the
+safety of her prisoner. His retreat was unmolested. The pursuit was for
+the present evaded, and his enemies thrown out in their track. It was
+needful, however, that he should remain for a few days in his present
+concealment, prior to the attempt by which he purposed to regain his
+native country.</p>
+
+<p>Constance loved the moonlight. The broad glare of day is so garish and
+extravagant. Besides, there is a restlessness and a buz no human being,
+at least no sensible human being, can endure. Everything is on the stir.
+Every creature, however paltry and insignificant, whether moth, mote, or
+atom, seems busy. Whereas, one serene soft gaze of the moon appears to
+allay nature's universal disquiet. The calm and mellow placidity of her
+look, so heavenly and undisturbed, lulls the soul, and subdues its
+operations to her influence.</p>
+
+<p>Constance, we may suppose, accidentally wandered by the end of the
+building, where, in the huge buttress of chimneys, a narrow crevice
+admitted light into the chamber occupied by the fugitive. At times,
+perhaps unconsciously, her eye wandered <!-- Page 250 --><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250" ></a>from the moon to this dreary
+abode; where it lingered longest is more than we dare tell. She drew
+nigh to the dark margin of the pond. The white swans were sleeping in
+the sedge. At her approach they fluttered clumsily to their element;
+there, the symbols of elegance and grace, like wreaths of sea-foam on
+its surface, they glided on, apparently without an impulse or an effort.
+She was gazing on them when a rustle amongst the willows on her left
+arrested her attention. Soon the mysterious and almost omnipresent form
+of Tyrone stood before her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I must away, maiden&mdash;Constance!&quot; His voice was mournful as the last
+faint sound of the evening bell upon the waters.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why art thou here?&quot; She said this in a tone of mingled anxiety and
+surprise.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here? Too long have I lingered in these woods and around thy dwelling,
+Constance. But I must begone&mdash;for ever!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For ever?&quot; cried the perplexed girl, forgetful of all but the dread
+thought of that for ever!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ay, for ever? Why should I stay?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This question, alas! she could not answer, but stood gazing on the dark
+water, and on the silver waves which the bright swans had rippled over
+the pool. Though she saw them not, yet the scene mingled itself
+insensibly with the feelings then swelling in her bosom; and these
+recurrent circumstances, in subsequent periods of her existence, never
+failed to bring the same dark tide of thought over the soul with vivid
+and agonising distinctness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maiden, beware!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Constance turned towards him:&mdash;the moonlight fell on his brow: the dark
+curls swept nobly out from their broad shadows twining luxuriantly about
+his cheek. His eyes were fixed on her, with an eagerness and an anguish
+in their expression the most absorbing and intense.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have loved thee. Ay, if it be love to live whole nights on the memory
+of a glance,&mdash;on a smile,&mdash;on the indelible impress of thy form.
+Here,&mdash;here! But no living thing that I have loved;&mdash;no being that e'er
+looked on me with kindliness and favour, that has not been marked out
+for destruction. Oh, that those eyes had ne'er looked upon me! Thou wert
+happy, and I have lingered on thy footstep till I have dragged thee to
+the same gulph where all hope&mdash;all joy that e'er stole in upon my dark
+path, must perish.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh! do not foretaste thy misery thus,&quot; cried Constance. &quot;<!-- Page 251 --><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251" ></a>The cruel
+sufferings thou hast undergone make thee apprehensive of evil. But how
+can <i>thy</i> fate control my destiny?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How, I know not,&quot; said Tyrone, &quot;save that it shall bring the same
+clouds, in unmitigated darkness, about thy path. Dost thou love me? Nay,
+start not. Stay not!&quot; cried he, making way for the maiden to pass. But
+Constance seemed unable to move,&mdash;terrified and speechless.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perchance, thou knowest it not, but thou wouldest love me as a woman
+loves;&mdash;ay, beyond even the verge and extremity of hope! Even now the
+poison rankles in thy bosom. Hark!&mdash;'tis the doom yon glorious
+intelligences denounced from that glittering vault, when they proclaimed
+my birth!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He repeated the prediction as aforetime, with a deep, solemn
+intonation:&mdash;the maiden's blood seemed to curdle with horror. A pause of
+bewildering and mysterious terror followed. One brief minute in the
+lapse of time,&mdash;but an age in the records of thought! Constance, fearful
+of looking on the dark billows of the spirit, sought to avert her
+glance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art an exile, and misfortune prompted me to thy succour; thou hast
+won my pity, stranger.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Beshrew me, 'tis a wary and subtle deceiver, this same casuist love.
+Believe him not!&quot; said he, in a burst and agony of soul that made
+Constance tremble. &quot;He would lead thee veiled to the very brink of the
+precipice, then snatch the shelter from thine eyes and bid thee leap!
+Nay, 'tis not pride,&mdash;'tis the doom, the curse of my birthright that is
+upon me. Maiden! I will but strike to thine heart, and then&mdash;poor soul!&quot;
+He shuddered; his voice grew tremulous and convulsed. &quot;The stricken one
+shall fall. Hark! the hounds are again upon my track!&quot; The
+well-practised ear of the hunted fugitive could discern the approach of
+footsteps long before they were audible to an ordinary listener:&mdash;his
+eye and ear seemed on the stretch;&mdash;his head bent forward in the same
+direction;&mdash;he breathed not. Even Constance seemed to suspend the
+current of her own thoughts at this interruption.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They are approaching. In all likelihood 'tis a posse from the sheriff.&quot;
+Again he listened. &quot;They are armed. Nay, then, Tyrone thou must to
+cover: thou canst not flee. Point not to the hiding-place I have left.
+If, as I suspect, they bring a warrant of search, thy father's life may
+be in jeopardy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where,&mdash;oh, where?&quot; said Constance, forgetful of all con<!-- Page 252 --><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252" ></a>sequences, in
+her anxiety for her father's fate and that of the illustrious stranger.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In thy chamber, lady.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She drew back in dismay.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay,&quot; continued he, guessing at the cause of her alarm. &quot;They will not
+care to scrutinise for me there with much exactness; and, by the faith
+of my fathers, I will not wrong thee!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a frankness, an open and undisguised freedom of manner, in
+this address, which assured her. Her confidence returned, and she
+committed herself promptly to the issue. She felt her soul expand with
+the desire of contributing to his ultimate escape. All the ardour of her
+nature was concentrated in this generous and self-devoted feeling. Too
+innocent for suspicion she seemed to rise above its influence.</p>
+
+<p>Silently, and with due caution, she led the unfortunate Earl to her own
+chamber, where, in a recess opening through the bed's head into the
+arras, he seemed secure from discovery.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely was this arrangement completed, ere a thundering knock
+announced the visitor. It was an officer of justice, attended by some
+half-dozen followers, who watched every avenue to the house whilst his
+message was delivered within.</p>
+
+<p>This official delivered into the hands of Holt a warrant for the
+apprehension of O'Neale, Earl of Tyrone, a traitor, then suspected of
+being harboured in the mansion of Grislehurst, whom the occupier was
+commanded, on pain of being treated as an accomplice, to deliver into
+the hands of justice, for the due administering of those pains and
+penalties which were attached to his crime.</p>
+
+<p>The loyal owner, fired with indignation at this foul charge, rebutting
+the accusation with contempt.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;However loth,&quot; said the messenger, &quot;I must execute mine office; and,
+seeing this first mission hath failed in its purpose, I have here a
+warrant of search. Mine orders are imperative.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I tell thee I have no plotters lurking here. Search and welcome;&mdash;but
+if thou findest aught in this house that smells of treason, the Queen
+may blot out my escutcheon. I'll dismount the <i>pheon</i>. The arrow-head
+shall return to its quiver. 'Twas honestly won, and, by our lady's
+grace, it shall be honestly worn!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We must obey,&quot; said the officer; &quot;it shall be done with all courtesy
+and despatch.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 253 --><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253" ></a>Holt bit his lips with rage and vexation. From the suspicion of
+harbouring and aiding the traitor Tyrone, his known loyalty and good
+faith should have protected him. He hoped, however, to throw back on the
+author of this foul slander the disgrace attached to it. Smothering his
+wrath, and brooding over its gratification, he accompanied the
+messenger, who, placing an additional guard at the main entrance,
+proceeded with a wary eye to the search. He carefully scrutinised the
+shape of the rooms, striking the walls and wainscots, measuring the
+capacity of the chambers, that no space might be left unaccounted for
+either in one way or another. The concealed apartment in the
+chimney-range did not escape his examination. Closets, cupboards,
+folding-doors,&mdash;even the family pictures were turned aside, lest some
+strategem should lurk behind.</p>
+
+<p>Holt, with a look of malicious satisfaction, beheld every fresh
+disappointment, which he followed with undisguised expressions of
+ill-will.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now for the women's apartments,&quot; said the officer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have but one daughter. Dost fancy that treason may be stitched in her
+petticoat? Thinkest thou she would hide this invisible gallant in her
+bedchamber? 'Sdeath, that it should ha' come to this! But I'll have my
+revenge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would fain spare thee from this contumely, but&quot;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But what?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I must search the house through; and though I doubt not now that our
+information is false, yet I may not disobey the mandate I have
+received.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is this thy courtesy?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My courtesy must yet consist with the true and honest discharge of mine
+office. I wait not further parley.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A short gallery communicated from the stairhead to the private chamber
+of Constance. They met her outside the door; and the timid girl grew
+pale as she beheld the officer led on by her father.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Constance,&quot; cried he, &quot;thy chamber smacks of treason: it must be purged
+from this suspicion. This mousing owl will search the crannies even of a
+woman's wits ere he sate his appetite for discovery. Hast aught plotting
+in the hem of thy purfle, or in thy holiday ruff and fardingale? Come
+with us, wench;&mdash;the gallant Earl of Tyrone would sport himself bravely
+in thy bedchamber, pretty innocent!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 254 --><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254" ></a>If my gallantry were akin to mine office,&mdash;then, lady, would I spare
+thy bosom and mine own nature this extremity. Believe me, thou shall
+suffer no rudeness at my hands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The officer bowed low, observing her confusion and distress.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go with, us,&quot; said her father, &quot;and leave not until our search is over.
+Mayhap he may find a lover in thy shoe, or in the wrinkles of thy
+rose-tie.&quot; He entered the chamber as he said this. It was a little room,
+tricked out with great elegance and beauty. Indian cabinets were there,
+and other costly ornaments, inlaid with ivory and pearl, in the
+arrangement of which, and of the other furniture, considerable taste was
+displayed. A lute lay in one corner;&mdash;tambour-work and embroidery
+occupied a recess near the window;&mdash;the clothes' presses showed their
+contents neatly folded, and carefully set out to the best advantage.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'faith, wench, thy chamber seems well fitted for so goodly a brace of
+guests&mdash;not a thread awry. Everything in trim order for thy gallants,
+mayhap. Thou hast not been at thy studies of late.&mdash;I have seen its
+interior in somewhat less orderly fashion. I marvel if it might not be
+pranked out for our coming. Now, to work, sir:&mdash;where does thy grubbing
+begin?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Constance posted herself in a gloomy corner, where she could watch their
+proceedings almost unperceived. She hoped that in her chamber the search
+would not be so strict as in situations of more likelihood and
+probability for concealment. At any rate, the common feelings of
+delicacy and respect,&mdash;not quite extinct, she observed, even in this
+purveyor of justice,&mdash;would prevent any very exact and dangerous
+scrutiny. Nor was she deceived. He merely felt round the walls, opened
+the presses and closets, but did not disturb the bed furniture. He was
+retiring from the search, when her father scornfully taunted him with
+the ill success of his mission.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wonder thou hast not tumbled the bed topsy-turvy. I am glad to see
+thou hast yet some grace and manners in thy vocation. Now, Sir
+Messenger, to requite thee for this thy courtesy and forbearance, I will
+show thee a secret tabernacle, which all thy prying has not been able to
+discover.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Saying this he approached the bed: a spring was concealed in one of the
+posts communicating with the secret door behind which Tyrone was hidden.
+As he turned aside the drapery to ascertain precisely its situation,
+Constance, no longer able to <!-- Page 255 --><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255" ></a>control her apprehension of discovery,
+rushed before him. Her terror, for the time, threw her completely from
+her guard.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do not, my father:&mdash;he must not look there. For my sake, oh, spare
+<i>this</i>&quot;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>She was silent:&mdash;her lips grew deadly pale; and she leaned against the
+pillar for support. The officer's suspicions were awakened, and he gave
+a shrewd guess at the truth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, fair dame,&quot; he cried: &quot;it is but an ungracious office to thwart a
+lady of her will, but I must see what lurks in that same secret recess.
+Master Holt, I prythee help me to a peep behind the curtain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Holt was too much astonished to comply. What could exist there to
+excite his daughter's apprehensions so powerfully, puzzled him greatly.
+He had not a thought, the most remote, that could affect her
+fidelity;&mdash;yet he hesitated. The officer, in a more peremptory tone,
+demanded admission. Rousing from his stupor, and mortified at the folly
+of these girlish fancies, he struck the spring: in a trice, a portion of
+the bed's head flew open, displaying a dark chasm beyond. Swift as
+thought the officer darted through the aperture; but the door was
+immediately shut, and with great violence. A scuffle was heard within,
+but not a word was spoken. Holt, in doubt and consternation gazed with a
+wild and terrific aspect on the devoted Constance, who, covering her
+face, sought to avoid seeing the expected result of her imprudence. Her
+father now listened. There was a dread suspense in his look more fearful
+than even the most violent outburst of his wrath. He seemed every moment
+to expect some irrefragable proof,&mdash;some visible and overwhelming
+conviction of his daughter's infamy. The door was still closed. Groans
+were plainly audible, telling of some terrible strife within. Suddenly
+these indications ceased. Holt shuddered. He fancied some foul act was
+perpetrating&mdash;perhaps even now consummated&mdash;under his own roof; and
+swift would be the vengeance required at his hands. Constance, too,
+seemed to apprehend the commission of some deadly crime, as she threw
+herself imploringly before her father.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Save them,&mdash;oh, save them!&mdash;their strife is mortal!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He shook her from him with a glance of abhorrence, and the maiden fell
+heavily on the floor. He was preparing to enter when the door flew open,
+and a form rushed through in the gaudy apparel of the officer. He leaped
+on the floor, and, ere <!-- Page 256 --><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256" ></a>Holt could utter a word, he heard him descending
+the stairs with great precipitation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Whom hast thou concealed in thy bedchamber?&quot; inquired the almost
+frantic father. Constance sat on the ground, her head resting on the
+chair beside which she had fallen. She wept not, but her heart was full
+even to bursting.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is the name of thy paramour?&mdash;Thou hast been somewhat eager,
+methinks, to accomplish thine own and a father's disgrace?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This cutting address roused her. She replied, but in a firm tone&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A stranger,&mdash;an exile. Misfortune appeals not to woman's heart
+unalleviated. He threw himself on my protection; and where the feelings
+own no taint, their purity is not sullied,&mdash;even in a lady's
+bedchamber!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A glance of insulted pride passed over her beautifully-formed features.
+It was but for a moment. The agony of her spirit soon drank up the
+slender rill her feelings had gushed forth, and she stood withered and
+drooping before the angry frown of her father.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Surely, 'tis not the rebel Tyrone that my daughter harbours in the
+privacy of her chamber? Speak!&mdash;Nay, then hast thou indeed brought an
+old man's grey hairs to the grave in sorrow! Treason!&mdash;Oh, that I have
+lived for this,&mdash;and my own flesh and blood hath done it. Out of my
+sight, unnatural monster. Dare not to crawl again across my path, lest I
+kill thee!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;O my father! I am indeed innocent.&quot; She again threw herself at his
+feet, but he spurned her from him as though he loathed her beyond
+endurance. Boiling and maddened with rage at the presumption of this
+daring rebel, Holt, forgetful of his own danger, seized the light. He
+burst open the secret door; but what was his astonishment on beholding,
+not the hated form of Tyrone, but the officer of justice himself,
+gagged, pinioned, and deprived of his outer dress. The cap and mantle of
+Tyrone, by his side, told too plainly of the daring and dangerous
+exploit by which his escape had been effected.</p>
+
+<p>The outlaw, soon after his enlargement, finding that the cause he had
+espoused was hopeless, and that matters were at the last extremity in
+his own fate, and that of his unhappy country,&mdash;fearful, too, of drawing
+the innocent Constance and her father into the deep vortex of his own
+ruin,&mdash;made all haste to the <!-- Page 257 --><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257" ></a>capital, where, through the powerful
+interest excited in his behalf, aided by his well-known valour and the
+influence he was known to possess amongst his countrymen, he received a
+free pardon from the Queen.</p>
+
+<p>Yet his thoughts lingered on the remembrance of her to whose heroic and
+confiding spirit he owed his safety. Never had his proud bosom been so
+enthralled. Though nurtured in camps, amid the din of arms, and the
+shout of the battle, yet his knowledge of the female heart was almost
+intuitive. He had loved more than once, but in every case the attachment
+ended unhappily, terminating either by the death of the object or by
+some calamity his own evil fate had unavoidably brought upon its victim.
+Though fearful the same operation of his destiny would ensue, and that
+misery and misfortune would still follow the current of his affections,
+yet he resolved to behold once more the maiden he loved with an ardour
+almost surpassing his own belief.</p>
+
+<p>One cold dull morning, towards the wane of the year, when the heavy
+drops lay long on the rank herbage; no sunbeam yet loitering through the
+damp chill atmosphere, but the sky one wide and unvarying expanse&mdash;a sea
+of cloud&mdash;here and there a black scud passing over, like a dim bark
+sweeping across the bosom of that &quot;waveless deep,&quot; a stranger stood by a
+low wicket near the mansion of Grislehurst. He looked wistfully at the
+gloomy windows, unlighted by a single reflection from without, like the
+rayless night of his own soul:&mdash;they were mostly closed. A mysterious
+and unusual stillness prevailed. The brown leaves fluttered about,
+unswept from the dreary avenues. Decayed branches obstructed the paths;
+and every object wore a look of wretchedness and dilapidation. The only
+sign of occupancy and life was one grey wreath of smoke, curling heavily
+from its vent, as if oppressed with the gloom by which it was
+surrounded. The melancholy note of the redbreast was the only living
+sound, as the bird came hopping towards him with its usual air of
+familiarity and respect. Enveloped in a military cloak, and in his cap a
+dark feather drooping gently over his proud features, the stranger
+slowly approached the house: a side-door stood partly open. He entered.
+A narrow passage led into the hall. No embers brightened the huge
+chimney. The table showed no relics of the feast,&mdash;no tokens of the past
+night's revel. The deer's antlers still hung over the master's place at
+the board, <!-- Page 258 --><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258" ></a>but the oaken chair was gone. Dust and desertion had played
+strange antics in these &quot;high places.&quot; The busy spider had wreathed her
+dingy festoons in mockery over the pomp she degraded.</p>
+
+<p>He listened, but there was no sound, save the last faint echo of his
+footstep. Turning towards the staircase, a beautiful spaniel, a sort of
+privileged favourite of Constance, came, with a deep growl, as if to
+warn away the intruder. But the sagacious animal suddenly fawned upon
+him, and with a low whine ascended the stairs, looking back wistfully,
+as though inviting him to follow.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely knowing why, or bestowing one thought on the nature of his
+intrusion, he ascended. The place seemed familiar to him. He entered a
+narrow gallery, where he paused, overcome by some sudden and
+overwhelming emotion. The dog stood too, looking back with a low and
+sorrowful whine. With a sudden effort he grappled with and shook off the
+dark spirit that threatened to overpower him. A low murmur was heard
+apparently from a chamber at no great distance. Without reflecting a
+moment on the impropriety of his situation, he hastily approached the
+door. His guide, with a look of almost irresistible persuasion, implored
+him to enter.</p>
+
+<p>It was the chamber of Constance. A female was kneeling by the bed, too
+much absorbed to be conscious of his approach: she was in the attitude
+of prayer. He recognised the old nurse,&mdash;her eye glistening in the
+fervour of devotion, whilst pouring forth, to her FATHER in secret, the
+agony of soul that words are too feeble to express.</p>
+
+<p>Bending over the bed, as if for the support of some frail victim of
+disease, he beheld the lord of the mansion. His look was wild and
+haggard;&mdash;no moisture floated over his eyeballs: they were glazed and
+motionless; arid as the hot desert,&mdash;no refreshing rain dropped from
+their burning orbs, dimmed with the shadows of despair.</p>
+
+<p>Stretched on the bed, her pale cheek resting on the bosom of her father,
+lay the yet beauteous form of Constance Holt. A hectic flush at times
+passed across her features. Her lip, shrunk and parched with the fever
+that consumed her, was moistened by an attendant with unremitting and
+unwearied assiduity; her eye often rose in tenderness on her parent, as
+if anxious to impart to him the consolation she enjoyed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 259 --><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259" ></a>Oh, I am happy, my father!&quot; Here a sudden change was visible,&mdash;some
+chord of sorrow was touched, and it vibrated to her soul.</p>
+
+<p>Her father spoke not.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I <i>have</i> loved!&mdash;Oh, faithfully. But, now&mdash;let me die without a murmur
+to Thee, or one wish but Thy will, and I am happy!&quot; She raised her soft
+and streaming eyes towards the throne of that Mercy she addressed. The
+cloud passed, but she sank back on her pillow, exhausted with the
+conflict. Her father bent over her in silent terror, anticipating the
+last struggle. Suddenly he exclaimed, as if to call back the yet
+lingering spirit:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Live, my Constance! Could I save thee, thou blighted bud&mdash;blighted by
+my&quot;&mdash;His lip grew pale; he struck his forehead, and a groan like the
+last expiring throe of nature escaped him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Would the destroyer of my peace were here!&mdash;'Tis too late&mdash;or I would
+not now forbid thy love. But he was a traitor, a rebel&mdash;else&quot;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Constance gradually revived from her insensibility. A sudden flash from
+the departing spirit seemed to have animated her&mdash;a new and vehement
+energy, which strangely contrasted with her weak and debilitated frame.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have seen him,&quot; she cried. &quot;Oh, methought his form passed before
+me;&mdash;but it is gone!&quot; She looked eagerly round the apartment; other eyes
+involuntarily followed,&mdash;but no living object could be distinguished
+through the chill and oppressive gloom that brooded over that chamber of
+death.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was a vision&mdash;a shadowy messenger from the tomb. Yet, once more if I
+might see him&mdash;ere I die.&quot; A deep sob, succeeded by a rapid gush of
+tears, relieved her; but it told of the powerful and all-pervading
+passion not yet extinguished in her breast.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We shall meet!&quot; again she raised her eyes towards that throne to which
+the sigh of the sufferer never ascended in vain.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, my own&mdash;my loved Constance, now!&quot; cried the stranger, rushing from
+his concealment. He clasped her in his arms. A gleam, like sunlight
+across the wave, shot athwart the shadow that was gathering on her eye.
+It seemed the forerunner of a change. The anxious father forbore to
+<!-- Page 260 --><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260" ></a>speak, but he looked on his daughter with an agony that seemed to
+threaten either reason or existence. Constance gazed on her lover, but
+her eye gradually became more dim. Her band relaxed in his grasp, yet
+her features wore a look of serenity and happiness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;O most merciful Father! Thou hast heard my prayer, through Him whose
+merits have found me a place in that glory to which I come. Be merciful
+to him whose love is true as mine own, and faithful unto death. Tyrone,
+we meet again!&mdash;Oh, how have I prayed for thee!&quot; Her eyes seemed to
+brighten even in this world with the glories of another.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Farewell!&mdash;I hear the hymns of yon ransomed ones around the throne.
+They beckon my spirit from these dark places of sorrow. Now&mdash;farewell!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She cast one look towards her lover: it was the last glimpse of earth.
+The next moment her gaze was on the brightness of that world whence
+sorrow and sighing flee away. So sudden was the transition, that the
+first smile of the disembodied spirit seemed to linger on the abode she
+had left, like the evening cloud, reflecting the glories of another sky,
+ere it fades for ever into the darkness and solitude of night.</p>
+
+<div class="center"><!-- Page 261 --><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261" ></a><!-- Page 262 --><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262" ></a>
+<img src="images/15.png" width="600" height="432" alt="HOGHTON TOWER.
+
+Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden." title="" />
+<b>HOGHTON TOWER.<br />
+
+<i>Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw<sup>d</sup> Finden.</i></b>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Cox, p. 415.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Sydney's Letters.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Camden.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Camden.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Camden, p. 645.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Winwood, vol. i. p. 369.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> In the parish church of St Chad, Rochdale, is a marble
+tablet, erected by John Entwisle, Esquire, a descendant of Sir Bertine,
+on which is the following inscription:&mdash;
+</p><p>
+&quot;To perpetuate a memorial in the church of St Alban's (perished by
+time), this marble is here placed to the memory of a gallant and loyal
+man, Sir Bertine Entwisel, Knight, Viscount and Baron of Brybeke, in
+Normandy, and some time Bailiff of Constantin, in which office he
+succeeded his father-in-law, Sir John Ashton, whose daughter Lucy first
+married Sir Richard le Byron, an ancestor of the Lord Byrons, Barons of
+Rochdale, and, secondly, Sir Bertine Entwisel, who, after performing
+repeated acts of valour in the service of his sovereigns, Henry V. and
+VI., more particularly at Agincourt, was killed in the first battle of
+St Alban's, and on his tomb was recorded in brass the following
+inscription:&mdash;
+</p><p>
+&quot;'Here lyth Syr Bertine Entwisel, Knighte, which was born in
+Lancastershyre, and was Viscount and Baron of Brybeke in Normandy, and
+Bailiff of Constantin, who died fighting on King Henry VI. party, 28th
+May, 1455.
+</p><p>
+&quot;'<i>On whose sowl Jesu have mercy!</i>'&quot;</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="HOGHTON_TOWER" id="HOGHTON_TOWER" ></a><!-- Page 263 --><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263" ></a>HOGHTON TOWER.</h2>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Pastime with good company<br /></span>
+<span>I love, and shall until I die;<br /></span>
+<span>Grudge so will, but none deny;<br /></span>
+<span>So God be pleased, so live will I.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">For my pastance,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Hunt, sing, and dance,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">My heart is set;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">All godly sport,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To my comfort,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Who shall me let!&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="author"><i>The Kinges Balade.</i></p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;God gives not kings the style of gods in vain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">For on his throne his sceptre do they sway;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And, as their subjects ought them to obey,<br /></span>
+<span>So kings should feare and serve their God againe.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="author"><i>King James to his Son Prince Henry</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The ancient castle denominated Hoghton Tower stands on the summit of a
+hill, formerly shrouded with trees, four miles and a half west of
+Blackburn. It was erected by Sir Thomas Hoghton, in the beginning of
+Elizabeth's reign. It remained for several generations the principal
+seat of the Hoghton family; and after part of it had been blown up by
+accident, when garrisoned for Charles the First, the injury was
+repaired. The family have now removed to Walton Hall; and Hoghton Tower
+is left to decay, two poor families inhabiting the south wing only. A
+ponderous gateway, immediately under the centre tower, leads to the
+quadrangular courtyard, capable of holding six hundred men. The noble
+embattled tower, forming the west front, with its two minor square
+towers, serve as appendages to the north and south wing, and are united
+by low walls. Within the courtyard, a noble flight of steps leads to the
+middle quadripartite, similar in aspect to Stonyhurst College, the
+ancient residence of the Sherbornes. This middle pile contains large
+staircases, branching out to long galleries, into which the several
+chambers open. One chamber, still called James the First's room, is
+considered 'most worthy of notice;' it has two square windows in both
+north and south, is beautifully wainscoted, and contains some old
+furniture. A fine prospect is gained from this ancient and sequestered
+abode: the pretty village of Walton-le-dale, delightfully situate in a
+valley, the improving town of Preston, and the single-coned Nase Point
+presenting itself <!-- Page 264 --><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264" ></a>majestically in the distance. The gentle river Darwen
+pursues its placid course among the enclosures at the base of the hill.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The above description, extracted from Nichols's <i>Royal Progresses of
+James the First</i>, and likewise the particulars scattered through the
+following tale, will, we hope, convey to the reader a pretty accurate
+idea of this noble but deserted mansion.</p>
+
+<p>A petition, which was presented here (some say at Meyerscough) to King
+James, by a great number of Lancashire peasants, tradesmen, and
+servants, requesting that they might be allowed to take their diversions
+(as of old accustomed) after divine service on Sundays, is said to have
+been the origin of the <i>Book of Sports</i>, soon after promulgated by royal
+authority. James being persuaded those were Puritans who forbade such
+diversions, and that they were Jewishly inclined, because they affected
+to call Sunday the Sabbath, recommended that diverting exercises should
+be used after evening prayer, and ordered the book to be read publicly
+in all churches; and such ministers as refused to obey the injunction
+were threatened with severe punishment in the High Commission Court.
+This legal violation of the day which is unequivocally the Christian
+Sabbath, roused at the time the indignation of the seriously disposed,
+and has been frequently reprobated by historians. Foremost of its
+opposers, and eminent in example, stands the virtuous and firm
+Archbishop Abbot, who, being at Croydon the day it was ordered to be
+read in churches, flatly forbade it to be read there; which the King was
+pleased to wink at, notwithstanding the daily endeavours that were used
+to irritate the King against him. The <i>Book of Sports</i> is not, however,
+without its apologists among modern writers. The following are Mr
+D'Israeli's remarks on the subject:&mdash;&quot;The King found the people in
+Lancashire discontented, from the unusual deprivation of their popular
+recreations on Sundays and holidays after the church service: 'With our
+own ears we heard the general complaint of our people.' The Catholic
+priests were busily insinuating among the lower orders that the Reformed
+religion was a sullen deprivation of all mirth and social amusements,
+and thus 'turning the people's hearts.' But while they were denied what
+the King terms 'lawful recreations' (which are enumerated to consist of
+dancing, archery, leaping, vaulting, May-games, Whitsun-ales,
+morris-dances, and the setting up of Maypoles, and other manly sports),
+they had substituted some vicious ones. Alehouses were more frequented,
+drunkenness more general, tale-mongery and sedition, the vices of
+sedentary idleness, prevailed, while a fanatical gloom was spreading
+over the country. The King, whose gaiety of temper instantly sympathised
+with the multitude, being perhaps alarmed at this new shape which
+Puritanism was assuming, published the <i>Book of Sports</i>, which soon
+obtained the contemptuous name of 'The Dancing Book'&quot; (<i>Life of James</i>,
+p. 135). In reply to this view of the subject we shall, for the present,
+conclude with Dr Whitaker's remark, that &quot;The King was little aware of
+the effects which the ill-judged licence was likely to pro<!-- Page 265 --><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265" ></a>duce on the
+common people. The relics of it are hardly worn out to this day; and
+there is scarcely a Sunday evening in any village of the county of
+Lancaster which does not exhibit symptoms of obedience to the injunction
+of honest 'recreation.'&quot;&mdash;<i>Royal Progresses of James I</i>.</p>
+
+<p>On the 15th of August, in the year 1617, a day memorable for its heat
+and brightness, and for the more enduring glory shed over this remote
+corner of our rejoicing and gladdened realm, came forth King James, from
+the southern gate of his loyal borough of Preston, in a gilded and
+unwieldy caroche, something abated of its lustre by reason of long
+service and the many vicissitudes attending his Majesty's &quot;progresses,&quot;
+which he underwent to the great comfort and well-being of his dominions.</p>
+
+<p>It were needless to set forth the mighty state in which this war-hating
+monarch, this &quot;vicegerent of Divinity,&quot; departed&mdash;or the great error and
+agitation of Mr Breares, the lawyer, when he made a marvellous proper
+speech at the town-cross&mdash;wiping his forehead thrice, and his mouth
+barely once. Nor shall we dilate upon the distress, and dazzling silk
+doublets of the mayor and aldermen of this proud and thrice-happy
+borough&mdash;nor how they knelt to the soft salute of his Majesty's hand.
+Our whole book were a space too brief, and a region too inglorious, for
+the wide pomp and paraphernalia of the time; and how the bailiff rode,
+and the mace-bearer guarded the caroche, it were presumption, an
+offensive compound of ignorance and pride, to attempt the portraiture.
+Suffice it to say, they wore mulberry-coloured taffeta gowns, carried
+white staves and foot-cloths, and were preceded by twenty-four stout
+yeomen riding before the king, with fringed javelins, unto a place
+beyond Walton, where they departed. Our object is to notice matters of
+less magnitude and splendour; occurrences then too trivial to guide the
+pen of the chronicler, lost beneath the blaze and effulgence that
+followed on the track of this pageant-loving king. Scraps, which the
+pomps and vanities of those days would have degraded, we thus snatch
+from oblivion; a preservation more worthy, and an occupation more
+useful, we hope, than to hand down to admiring ages the colour and cut
+of taffeta or brocade.</p>
+
+<p>This &quot;wisest&quot; of earthly kings was an ill-spoiled compound of qualities,
+the types of which existed in his monitor and his <!-- Page 266 --><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266" ></a>preceptor; two great
+men, whom history has not failed to distinguish&mdash;Archie Armstrong and
+George Buchanan&mdash;the wit and the scholar, which in him became the
+representatives of two much more useful and esteemed qualities&mdash;fool and
+pedant!</p>
+
+<p>Attended by his favourite Buckingham and a numerous train of officials,
+he &quot;progressed&quot; upon the road to Hoghton Tower, the spacious and
+splendid dwelling of Sir Richard Hoghton, the first baronet of that
+family, whose guest he was to continue for a space, to the great envy
+and admiration of the whole neighbourhood.</p>
+
+<p>As they came nigh the Tower, nothing could be conceived more beautiful
+or picturesque. Its embattled-gateway, bartizans, and battlements,
+crowning the summit of a bold and commanding eminence, became brightly
+illuminated, flashing against grim and shapeless masses of cloud, the
+shattered relics of a storm, that was rolling away in the distance.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the neighbouring gentry were in attendance, not disdaining to
+wear, out of grace and courtesy to Sir Richard Hoghton, the livery of
+their thrice-honoured entertainer.</p>
+
+<p>The king's train alone were very numerous, amongst whom appeared Lord
+Zouch, Constable of Dover Castle, and Sir George Goring, Lieutenant of
+the Gentlemen Pensioners.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29" ></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> With the latter rode Sir John Finett,<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30" ></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a>
+Assistant Master of the Ceremonies, but who acted the chief part in this
+important office during the king's journey; two worthies, of whom it
+might be said, that for tempering of the king's humour, and aptness in
+ministering to his delights, their like could scarcely <!-- Page 267 --><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267" ></a>have been found.
+Such nights of feasting and dancing, such days of hawking, hunting, and
+horse-racing, had never before gladdened the heart of &quot;Merry Englonde,&quot;
+or England's monarchs. It seemed as if the whole realm were given up to
+idolatry and dissipation. The idol pleasure was worshipped with such
+ardour and devotion, that all ranks were striving to outdo each other in
+tinsel, trumpery, and deeds of worthlessness and folly.</p>
+
+<p>The king loved such disguises and representations as were witty and
+sudden; the more ridiculous, and to him the more pleasant. This vain and
+frivolous humour might seem unworthy and unbecoming in so great a
+prince, whose profundity of wisdom had well entitled him to the
+appellation of &quot;our English Solomon,&quot; did we not call to remembrance
+that the greatest of men have not disdained to be children in their
+sports; the deepest dispositions of the mind seeming to require the
+lightest and most frivolous recreations.</p>
+
+<p>These worthy purveyors to the king's pleasure were of a temper and
+capacity widely different. Sir George Goring was caustic and severe; Sir
+John Finett pleasant and social, delighting in nothing so much as in the
+happiness and gratification of his friends. But the natural disposition
+of his thoughts was wild and melancholic, taking its hue from some early
+impression, that was now fading in doubt and disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>The full burst of his hilarity floated joyously on the surface, and his
+loud mirth, blunting the keen edge of his own feelings, became the more
+exhilarating in proportion to their acuteness. He had the warm blood of
+the Italian in his veins, being descended from an ancient family of
+Sienna; and his rich brown cheek and darkly-speaking eye belied not the
+land of his origin. Goring was fat and swarthy: his nose small and
+supercilious, and his eye grey and piercing. He cared not whom he
+wounded, provided the shafts he drew were well pointed; and his wit
+quick and well-aimed, causing the king to laugh, and his victim to
+writhe during their operation.</p>
+
+<p>As the monarch sate discoursing with the Duke of Buckingham, being sore
+heated, he threw open the windows of his coach, from whence he
+occasionally obtruded his wise head for a survey, and a visit from some
+vagrant and silly breeze, if any were abroad. The roads admitted not of
+aught but the gentlest paces, and the great clamour and cloud about the
+procession <!-- Page 268 --><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268" ></a>made the dust and heat excessively annoying; whereupon the
+king, it is said, did apply a very uncourteous epithet to some of his
+loving subjects, who came too close upon his person, which, though not
+generally averse to being gazed at, was in too warm an atmosphere at
+present for enjoying these kingly exhibitions.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;O' my saul, that meikle stane would build a bra' chappin-block for my
+Lord Provost,&quot; said royalty, its head again stationed at the window,
+surveying with solemn curiosity an egg-shaped stone of the boulder sort,
+which, sure enough, was of a remarkable bigness, though not of that
+rarity or infrequence that should have drawn forth the wonder of a king.
+His native dialect he generally employed on jocose and familiar
+subjects. In affairs of importance he affected the use of the English
+tongue, which he spoke with great formality and pomp.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Stop,&quot; said he. &quot;There be <i>liter&aelig;</i> or letters thereon. Unto what
+purport?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But no one could resolve him as to the use of the stone, or the purport
+of the writing. His worthy host protested that the wonder had never
+before been observed. It was doubtless some miracle worked for the
+occasion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But the <i>scriptum</i> or writing will set forth the motive or argument
+thereto. The letters be goodly and well-shapen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Many voices recited the inscription, forming the following ill-spelled
+line.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;<i>Torne me o're, an I'le tel thee plaine</i>.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The well-known childish curiosity of the monarch would not permit him to
+go away unsatisfied. The day was hot, and the stone was heavy; but a
+long and laborious toil brought to light the following satisfactory
+intelligence,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;<i>Hot porritch softens hard butter-cakes,</i><br /></span>
+<span><i>So torne me o'er again</i>&quot;<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31" ></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&quot;And o' my saul,&quot; said the king, &quot;ye shall gang roun' to yere place
+again; for sa meikle as these country gowks mauna ken the riddle without
+the labour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>So the &quot;muckle stane&quot; was replaced for the next comer who had strength
+and curiosity enough to unriddle the sphinx.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 269 --><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269" ></a>But James did not relish fooleries wherein he was the butt. Whether it
+was devised by some wicked rhymester and contemner of royalty in the
+neighbourhood, or placed there by some of the wits of his own company,
+was never ascertained, though he challenged them at random, and swore
+lustily that he would know the originator of this piece of folly and
+impertinence.</p>
+
+<p>As the king drew nigh to the avenue, there presently issued forth a
+goodly flourish of trumpets, which made the women caper and the horses
+prance. Sir Richard Hoghton rode with the king; but his son Sir Gilbert
+met his Majesty with a great retinue, clad mostly after the same
+fashion; many of the neighbouring gentry, as we have before observed,
+not disdaining to put on Sir Richard's gowns and liveries, to swell the
+pomp and magnificence of that memorable occasion.</p>
+
+<p>The javelin-bearers rode two and two: halting at his Majesty's approach,
+they formed an avenue, through which Sir Gilbert, sumptuously attired,
+went forth to salute the king. His cloak and hose were all glistening
+and spangled with embroidery; his vest was cloth of gold, enriched with
+rare and costly stones; his shirt-bands and ruffles were worked in
+silver; and his gloves, Spanish, breathing out the choicest perfume; his
+hat was of French murrey, the brims thick set with gold twist and
+spangles; round it was a band of goldsmith's work, looped with a crystal
+button.</p>
+
+<p>On approaching the monarch he gracefully alighted; whereupon James
+commanded that the carriage should be stayed, thrusting out his hand in
+a very gracious sort to this worthy knight, who, on his knees, received
+the blessing.</p>
+
+<p>His Majesty then took horse, assisted by Buckingham, who held the
+stirrup. But the king's peculiar and unsteady vaulting was much noticed.
+Many of the bystanders, not aware of his Majesty's dislike to these
+equestrian feats, marvelled not a little at the motion of his leg, and
+the disturbed and uneasy position he assumed. The pathway up the avenue
+was laid with purple velvet, on which the glittering cavalcade, horse
+and foot, formed a noble pageant, whose pomp was almost dazzling to
+behold. The carriages took another path opened for the occasion. The
+whole area in front of the Tower teemed with multitudes, whose shouts
+and huzzas made the very hills and echoes loyal, while they rang with
+acclamations to their sovereign. Presently issued forth from the middle
+gateway two curiously-<!-- Page 270 --><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270" ></a>attired figures, bearing emblems to indicate
+their character and design. There were living allegories, represented by
+the house-steward and Hobbe Handycap, the forester or tienman, keeper of
+vert and venison, a &quot;ryghte merrie knave,&quot; and one foremost in all
+pastimes and &quot;honest recreations;&quot; a great promoter and performer of
+May-games, morris-dancing, and the like. These figures were to be
+conceived as household gods, the tutelary deities of Hoghton. The first
+spokesman was clad in a purple taffeta mantle; in one hand was a
+palm-tree branch, on his head a garland of the like sort, and in the
+other hand he carried a dog.</p>
+
+<p>King James accustomed to, and expecting these mummeries, made a full
+stop, when, forthwith, began the purple mantle as follows&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;This day, great Kinge, for government admired,<br /></span>
+<span>Which these thy subjects have so much desired,<br /></span>
+<span>Shall be kept holy in their heart's best treasure,<br /></span>
+<span>And vowed to James, as is this month to C&aelig;sar;&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>with a good score of lines besides, of the like brevity and metre. In
+them he was said to be greater even than the immortal gods themselves,
+seeing that they came to render their homage unto him, together with all
+things else over which they bare rule, even as the greater doth include
+the less.</p>
+
+<p>Then spake Hobbe, the deity of the chase:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Greatest of mortals!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But he was presently nonplussed, and the steward stept forth to his
+relief, reciting how that the glorious beams from his Majesty's person
+had stricken dumb this weaker divinity. Having finished, the heat being
+intense, and they mightily encumbered with garments, did presently turn
+their backs on the king's majesty, making all speed towards the gateway
+for shelter. This breach of good manners was not unnoticed by the
+monarch, who said, wittily, we suppose, for it was much applauded, that
+these gods were not of High Olympus, but of the nether sort, inasmuch as
+they had turned tail upon their subject.</p>
+
+<p>James and his company, passing through the ponderous and embattled
+gateway, entered into the great quadrangle, an area, it is reported, of
+sufficient size to contain six hundred men. Here he alighted, and was
+conducted in great state to the oaken chamber, where, royalty being very
+hot, a tankard of Rhenish wine, mingled with rosewater, was handed to
+him; of this he partook but sparingly, calling to Buckingham for a cup
+of muscadine and eggs.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 271 --><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271" ></a>Goring and Finett were not idle, but each of them fully employed in
+their respective vocations. Sir John had been pierced by a pair of dark
+eyes from the crowd upon the staircase, and Goring was making all haste
+for the royal hunt, his Majesty having signified that he would on that
+same evening kill a stag. James was, generally, as quick to resolve as
+he was impotent to execute; vacillating, and without any fixed purpose,
+in matters that required decision and promptitude of action.</p>
+
+<p>With his usual pusillanimity the king went through the business of the
+hunt, the deer being literally driven into the very teeth of the dogs.
+An hour having been thus occupied, he commanded that they should return,
+highly satisfied with his own skill and intrepidity. Ascending the hill
+with his favourite, Goring, and discoursing pleasantly on this noble
+pastime, the king turned round on the sudden, as though recollecting
+something he had lost.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What! Jack Finett. Quhere? quhere, I say, is my Sienna balsam?&quot; said
+he, laying a deep emphasis on the guttural. This sally was acknowledged
+with delight by the courtiers. But &quot;Jack&quot; had not been seen or even
+remembered. Some trick or device was doubtless intended, and the king
+held himself in readiness for the expected surprise; but none was
+forthcoming. No magazine of mirth exploded; no mine was sprung; and
+James entered into his chamber without any visible expression of
+jocoseness issuing from the fertile brains of Sir John Finett. The
+irritation produced by his absence seemed to arise, not from any need of
+him, but from that tormenting desire which mortals universally feel for
+the possession of objects beyond their reach. Search was commanded for
+the truant, unsuccessfully; and supper was begun.</p>
+
+<p>The eastern side of the hill on which the tower is built is bold and
+rugged, being steep and difficult of access. At its base the Darwen
+forces itself through a narrow channel, its waters tumbling over huge
+heaps of rock, and reeling in mazy eddies to the echo of their own
+voice. The river seems to have worked itself a passage through the
+chasm; and the boiling and noisy torrent, struggling to free itself from
+observation, foams and bellows like the gorge of a whirlpool, from
+whence originates its name, &quot;The Orr,&quot; not unlike in sound to the effect
+that is here produced.</p>
+
+<p>On the opposite shore the rock is nearly perpendicular, the <!-- Page 272 --><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272" ></a>dog-rose
+and the bramble hiding its crevices, and the crawling campanula
+wreathing its bright bells about the sterile front, from which its
+sustenance was derived, like youth clinging to the cold and insensate
+bosom of age. The declivity sloping abruptly from the tower was then
+covered with a wild and luxuriant underwood, stunted ash and hazel twigs
+thinly occupying a succession of ridges to the summit. Here and there a
+straggling oak threw its ungraceful outline over a narrow path, winding
+immediately under the base of the hill,&mdash;its bare roots undermined by
+oozings from above, and giving way to the slow but certain operation of
+the destroyer. From the heat and dryness of the season the torrent was
+much diminished, rushing into a succession of deep pools, which the full
+free light of heaven had scarcely ever visited. Now dimly seen through
+the hot gleams of a summer evening, they seemed wavering in the lurid
+reflection from surrounding objects.</p>
+
+<p>Up this narrow gorge had strayed Sir John Finett with a companion, too
+busily engaged, it might seem, in their own converse to note the lapse
+of time, and the probable consequences of the king's displeasure.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fair lady,&quot; said the gay cavalier, &quot;I am not more bold than my vocation
+holdeth meet. Your cousin, at Myerscough, was so liberal of his own
+suit, and my countenance therein, that he hath entrusted this
+love-billet to my keeping, warning me that I should let none but
+yourself be privy to its delivery.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Would that my cousin had eschewed letter-writing! I am averse to his
+suit, and yet he ceaseth not to vex me continually with his drivelling
+ditties. His ballad-mongering to these 'eyne' alone would set up one of
+your court rhymesters for a twelvemonth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yet may aversion cease, and your mislikings be not over difficult to
+assuage,&quot; said the courtier.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I doubt not but Sir John Finett speaks of the capricious and changeable
+humours he hath witnessed;&mdash;our country fashion holdeth not so lightly
+by its affection or disfavour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then there be doubtless of those stout vessels that shall never leak
+out a lady's favour. That this lot were mine!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Sir John, perhaps unconsciously, threw his dark eyes full upon the lady,
+who blushed deeply; but the gloom concealed this outward show of
+feeling, too unformed and indefinite for thought. She spoke not; but the
+knight, under cover of his <!-- Page 273 --><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273" ></a>errand, continued the discourse without
+awakening her alarm. He excelled in that specious, though apparently
+heedless raillery, which is so apt to slip without suspicion into a
+lady's ear; and he could ply his suit, under this disguise, with such
+seeming artlessness and unconcern, that a lodgement in the citadel was
+sometimes effected ere the garrison was aware of the intrusion.</p>
+
+<p>This fair dame, Grace Gerard, was of gentle blood, a daughter of the
+Gerards of Ashton Hall, near Lancaster. At the earnest solicitations of
+the Hoghton family, she was induced to remain a guest with them during
+the royal visit. Of a sweet and excellent temper, her form and face were
+its very image and counterpart. The world was to her untried&mdash;fresh,
+fair, unblemished&mdash;she looked upon it as though she were newly alighted
+on &quot;some heaven-kissing hill,&quot; from whence the whole round of life's
+journey was blent and mingled with the glowing beam that now encompassed
+her. Alas! that youth should so soon pluck and eat of the &quot;Tree of
+Knowledge!&quot; that a nearer approach should dissipate the illusion! that
+our path, as it winds through those scenes we have looked on from afar
+in the light of our imagination, should at every step discover the
+tracks of misery,&mdash;a world of wretchedness and of woe!</p>
+
+<p>Sir John, with all his faults, inseparable it may be from the society
+into which he had been thrown, was not vicious. Loving and beloved, he
+existed but as the object of woman's regard. This foible he indulged not
+farther. But many a bright eye waxed dim,&mdash;many a fond heart was
+withered, in the first spring-tide of its affection.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now that I have granted you this audience for my cousin's sake, and
+given him my reply, it is needful that we return. Besides, the night is
+coming on. The king and the feast demand your presence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, thou cruel tyrant, tell me not of my chain. The king's humour I
+can control, but&quot;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Presume not on the favour of princes; an ancient but wholesome
+caution,&quot; said the maiden, laughing at Sir John, who, for the first
+time, seemed to be aware of his duty, and was puzzling his brains for an
+excuse.</p>
+
+<p>The bell now rang out lustily from the Tower, increasing the knight's
+perplexity. The innocent cause of this delay only laughed at his
+concern, singing, as though to herself&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"><!-- Page 274 --><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274" ></a>
+<span>&quot;'The bell has been rung, and the mass hath been sung,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And the feast eat merrily,<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Merrily!'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&quot;and the king's master of the ceremonies absent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The aspect of affairs was now more serious than he had anticipated.
+Supper was indeed commencing. Some scheme or witty device must be hit
+upon,&mdash;speedily too, or the king's displeasure might be difficult to
+assuage.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But for thy bright eyes and fair speech, my lady Grace, I had not been
+amissing from my duty.&quot; He looked thoughtful, and it was the maiden's
+turn to rally.</p>
+
+<p>They ascended the hill by a short but steep path. As they approached the
+summit, he seemed to awake from a deep reverie.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now have you granted me an audience for a lover's sake&mdash;to-morrow, let
+me be the ambassador for another.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have no lovers from whom I would care to be honoured with an
+embassy!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None?&quot; said the knight, peering curiously, as if he would penetrate the
+folds of a real Flanders scarf she had thrown carelessly about her
+head&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;'Then will I be thy lover true,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And thou my beauteous queene,'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&quot;through these gay festivities. But mark me!&quot;&mdash;He became serious on the
+sudden. The expression of his eye, from its general character of assumed
+gaiety, was changed into that of tenderness and respect. &quot;Mark me, lady,
+I would be spared the horror of a rival. Will you be my partner in these
+pageantries&mdash;my mistress unto whom I may render mine homage and my
+trust?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis a brave speech, Sir John,&quot; cried the lady, as though wishful to
+divert the subject. &quot;My cousin tells me that you are a knight of great
+courage and renown, but he sayeth not aught of your disposition to
+outrival him in heroics. Good-bye&mdash;a promise made is a promise broken;
+therefore, I'll offer none. I meet you not to-night at the feast, having
+obtained mine excuse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Saying this, she bounded from him ere he was aware, and was speedily out
+of sight.</p>
+
+<p>He was not a little chagrined at her abrupt departure; yet her very
+carelessness, and the open simplicity of her manner, only served to fix
+her the more deeply in his thoughts. But a problem of greater difficulty
+was to be resolved than how to fix <!-- Page 275 --><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275" ></a>the chameleon hue of woman's
+thought. He had a king to pacify&mdash;wayward as a child, fickle as a lady's
+favour. Unless he could acquit himself by some witty quibble or device,
+he might bid adieu to the gaieties over which he presided. The time was
+short, and his wit must needs be ambling. As he passed through the
+court, revolving many plans for his deliverance, he was aware of a loud
+dispute between the two household divinities we have before noticed.
+Words were nigh being exchanged for blows, but they were stayed out of
+respect to the intruder.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving Sir John to confer with those doughty disputants, let us follow
+the king to supper. Space forbids that we describe the wonders of this
+feast, and the dainties that were provided&mdash;how the swans were roasted,
+and the herons eaten cold&mdash;how pies were baked of the red deer, and the
+wild boar, not a whit too small for the reception of any moderate-sized
+Christian subject of his Majesty's. There were turkeys, quails, poults,
+and plovers; but of pheasants only two, and one for the king. The
+greatest triumph, however, was reserved for the confections; an
+artificial hen was here served of puff-paste; her wings displayed,
+sitting upon eggs of the same materials. In each of these was enclosed a
+fat lark roasted, and seasoned with pepper and ambergris.</p>
+
+<p>They sat down, but the master of the ceremonies was still absent;
+whereupon the king, much distempered thereby, called out to Sir George
+Goring&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Our mummer and our dancer being departed&mdash;whilk thing, aforetime, we
+did maist righteously inhibit&mdash;thinkest thou, he may not henceforth
+eschew our service?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My liege, your Grace's commands were to seek him a full hour agone, but
+the scared deer hath taken to covert. He was, peradventure, afraid of
+the hunting, and liketh his own neck better than the sport. He careth
+not, methinks, to show his face that turns big back on his comrade's
+peril.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;May be,&quot; said Buckingham, &quot;your Majesty's favour is not so winsome as a
+lady's cheek. I would wager my cap, Jack Finett hath found a smoother
+tongue, but a harder service, than your Majesty's.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;O' my saul,&mdash;if I thought so,&quot; said the monarch, as he threw down a
+spoonful of buttered pease, &quot;I would send him to the Tower, and he
+should write a book on Hercules his distaff.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 276 --><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276" ></a>Or Omphale's spindle,&quot; said a voice at the lower end of the hall,
+which, issuing from a mask, closely fitted, sounded wondrously hollow
+and portentous. A profound silence ensued&mdash;all eyes being turned towards
+the speaker, who was no less a personage than the first household god,
+attired in his proper suit. He approached the king's table, waving his
+hand in token of attention&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;The knight ye speak of, mark me well,<br /></span>
+<span>I've just drawn from the castle-well!&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&quot;Mercy on us,&quot; cried Sir Richard Hoghton. &quot;The draw-well is more than
+eighty yards deep. Thou art a lying deity, and shalt be banished from
+this bright Olympus.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But the deity, nothing abashed, thus continued&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;How came he thus, I dare not tell;<br /></span>
+<span>My brother may the mystery dispel.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>He stooped down&mdash;rising again to the astonished eyes of the fair dames
+and nobles at the upper bench, in the forester's habit of Kendal green,
+with cloak and doublet of the same colour.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's now?&quot; said James. &quot;Witchery and fause negromancie, o' my troth.
+'Tis treason, Sir Richard, to use glamour in the king's presence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But the sylvan god continued in the doggerel of his predecessor&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Sir John to be forgiven would hope;<br /></span>
+<span>He had been drowned, but for the rope!&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&quot;Ay,&quot; said the king, chuckling at this opportunity, purposely given, for
+a display of his wit&mdash;&quot;he'll be hanged&mdash;na doot, na doot.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prythee, Sylvanus, or whatever thou be, bring Sir John hither, that he
+may dry his web in the hot sunshine of a lady's glance,&quot; said Villiers,
+with an ill-suppressed sneer.</p>
+
+<p>Again this Proteus was transformed. Doffing his habit, Sir John Finett
+stood confessed before them. He knelt penitently before the king, humbly
+assuring his Majesty that he had been preparing this device, and many
+others, to please and surprise him; but that, through the bungling of
+some, and the bashfulness of others, he was obliged to enact the parts
+himself. This excuse the king was graciously pleased to accept,
+commending him for his great diligence and zeal.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 277 --><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277" ></a>The night now wore on with much outward show of mirth and revelry; but
+the king went early to rest, purposing to rise betimes.</p>
+
+<p>On the following day he went out again with a great company, and killed
+a brace of stags, which mighty achievement, by authentic record, we find
+was accomplished before dinner&mdash;the king alone being able to bring down
+the venison.</p>
+
+<p>We willingly pass over this day's banquet; nor do we care to chronicle
+the feats of Morris the head-cook, and his deputies of the ranges and
+the pastries. The boiling and roasting of poults and pullets, and the
+construction of comfits and confections, we consign to everlasting
+oblivion.</p>
+
+<p>When the king rose from table, about four o'clock, as we find it in the
+private journal of one present, he purposed to view the alum-mines,
+about two miles distant from the Tower; but, being eager for the sport,
+he went forth again a-hunting. He shot at a stag and missed. The next
+bolt broke the thigh-bone, and the dog being long in coming, Lord
+Compton despatched the poor beast, whereby his capture was effected. We
+forbear to dwell on this, and much more of the like interest, returning
+with the king to supper, where the beauteous Grace Gerard was present,
+and Sir John Finett, her true knight and devoted slave. Dr Morton, then
+Bishop of Chester, was chaplain, doling out a long Latin grace with
+great unction.</p>
+
+<p>The music had ceased, the second course being just served, when a signal
+was given for the king's pledge.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let each one pledge the fairest,&quot; cried the royal toast-master, moved
+to some unwonted gallantry by approximation with the fair and lusty
+dames about his person. For it hath been wittily if not wickedly said by
+a popular writer in another place that James was in all things like unto
+Solomon, save in the matter of women.</p>
+
+<p>Now was there a brave stir throughout the assembly. Such pledging of
+mistresses and challenging of cups, that nothing could be like unto it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To the bright eyes and peerless grace of the lady Grace Gerard,&quot; said
+Sir John Finett, draining his goblet to the uttermost;&mdash;and the maiden's
+cheek glowed like a furnace.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Said I not that he could win a lady's grace sooner than a monarch's
+disfavour? Nay, your Majesty, I but meant that Sir John conveys the
+fairest eyes and the warmest hearts into his own <!-- Page 278 --><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278" ></a>keeping, like an
+<i>Ochus-Bochus</i>,&quot; said Buckingham, looking envious at the distinction he
+had gained.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see plainly that Truth is hidden in a well,&quot; said Goring, drily.</p>
+
+<p>Sir John Finett, courtier and dissembler as he was, could scarcely hide
+the truth of this sally. But he quickly recovered his self-possession
+ere the king's eye could detect a change. Yet did he not escape the
+vigilance of his two friends, who suspected the real cause of his
+absence on the preceding night.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou shalt be her true knight to-morrow, and she shall be queen of our
+sports,&quot; said the king, graciously extending his hand to the blushing
+maiden.</p>
+
+<p>But this speech pleased not some of the courtiers, and Buckingham,
+having his eye on this fair flower, secretly resolved that Sir John
+should not enjoy its fragrance unmolested.</p>
+
+<p>On the following morning, being Sunday, there came a great company of
+peasants and handicraftsmen&mdash;notorious idlers about the parish&mdash;with a
+petition, wherein it was shown that the loyal and peaceable inhabitants
+of Lancashire had been long hindered of their usual diversions on
+Sundays and other holidays by the rigour of Puritans, Precisians, and
+such like folk,<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32" ></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> who, being enemies to all innocent and lawful mirth,
+did mightily begrudge and maliciously restrain their use. These
+petitioners, therefore, prayed his Majesty, &quot;that he would not forbid
+their exercising of all honest and lawful recreation, such as dancing of
+men and women, archery, running, leaping, and vaulting; nor prohibit the
+use of May-games, May-poles, morris-dances, and other like lawful
+sports, so that the same should not impediment or cause neglect of
+divine service.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The ground of this complaint was laid in the time of Elizabeth, who, in
+order to reform the manners of the people, instituted a high commission
+in the year 1579. The commissioners were Henry Earl of Derby, Henry Earl
+of Huntingdon, William Lord Bishop of Chester, and others. At their
+sittings, which were held in Manchester, they issued orders throughout
+the county against &quot;pipers and minstrels playing, making, and
+frequenting bear-baiting and bull-baiting on the Sabbath days, or upon
+any other days in time of divine service, and also against superstitious
+ringing of bells, wakes, and common feasts; drunken<!-- Page 279 --><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279" ></a>ness, gaming, and
+other vicious and unprofitable pursuits.&quot; These restrictions the royal
+pedant thought incompatible with the public weal, and graciously
+answered the petitioners in such-wise that he would have these
+over-righteous zealots rebuked; that it was a misuse of their authority;
+and that he would not only grant the humble request of his subjects,
+but, on that very evening he would have a masque and an allegory, with
+dancing and other like diversions, by the lords and other nobility there
+present.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the origin of the famous <i>Book of Sports</i>. His Majesty, on
+returning to the capital, issued a proclamation,<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33" ></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> stating&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That in his progress through Lancashire he found it necessary to rebuke
+some Puritans and precise people, and took order that the said unlawful
+carriage should not be used by any of them hereafter, in the prohibiting
+and unlawfully punishing his good people, for using their lawful
+recreations and honest exercises upon Sundays, after divine service.&quot;
+&quot;His Majesty further saw that his loyal subjects in all other parts of
+the kingdom did suffer in the same kind, though not, perhaps, in the
+same degree as in Lancashire; and he did therefore, in his princely
+wisdom, publish a declaration to all his loving subjects concerning
+lawful sports to be used on Sundays and festivals.&quot;&mdash;Published by his
+royal command in the year 1618, under the title of the <i>Book of Sports</i>.
+The royal visit to Lancashire proved ultimately of more importance to
+the civil and ecclesiastical establishments of the kingdom than could
+have been anticipated either by the king or his subjects. This infamous
+<i>Book of Sports</i> formed the first link in that mysterious chain of
+events, ending in the downfall of the Stuarts, and their exile and
+expulsion from the throne.</p>
+
+<p>The gladsome tidings having been communicated to the petitioners, with
+one accord they galloped off, shouting and huzzaing, to the great
+annoyance of all peaceable and sober-minded persons, and the great
+dishonour of that holy day.</p>
+
+<p>The king attended divine service at the chapel, where Dr Morton
+preached, commanding and exhorting to an obedience well pleasing to
+their Maker; inasmuch as it was rendered to the vicegerent of heaven,
+the high and mighty and puissant James, defender of the Faith, and so
+forth. After this com<!-- Page 280 --><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280" ></a>fortable and gracious doctrine, there was a
+rush-bearing<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34" ></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> and a piping before the king in the great quadrangle.
+Robin Hood and Maid Marian, with the fool and hobby-horse, were,
+doubtless, enacted to the jingling of morris-dancers and other
+profanities.</p>
+
+<p>These fooleries put the king into such good humour that he was more
+witty in his speech than ordinary. Some of these sayings have been
+recorded, and amongst the rest that well-known quibble which has been
+the origin of an absurd mistake, still current through the county,
+respecting the sirloin. It is said to have been knighted there by his
+Majesty, who found, such were his knight-making propensities, that other
+subjects were exhausted.</p>
+
+<p>The occasion, as far as we have been able to gather, was thus:&mdash;Whilst
+he sat at meat, casting his eyes upon a noble <i>surloin</i> at the lower end
+of the table, he cried out&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bring hither that <i>surloin</i>, sirrah, for 'tis worthy of a more
+honourable post, being, as I may say, not <i>surloin</i> but <i>sirloin</i>, the
+noblest joint of all;&quot; which ridiculous and desperate pun raised the
+wisdom and reputation of England's Solomon to the highest.</p>
+
+<p>Great was the stir and preparation for the evening masque; a pageant
+containing many allegories and devices; dancing and merry games, with
+all other &quot;lawful recreations and honest amusements.&quot; Little heed was
+given, we fear, to their Maker's service, these vain follies running in
+the heads and filling the thoughts of the few who chose to attend in the
+chapel; the greater portion were preparing for the entertainment, into
+which service they entered heartily, and without grudge.</p>
+
+<p>Sir George Goring and Sir John Finett were verily indefatigable on the
+occasion, drilling and marshalling men, women, and children; conning
+their lessons, and correcting the awkward and ridiculous movements and
+mistakes of their pupils. <!-- Page 281 --><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281" ></a>Hobbe and the house steward were the foremost
+in their parts, having important functions allotted to them; one to
+grunt and howl in the similitude of a huge bear, and the other to roar
+in lieu of a lion, before the &quot;<i>Bower of Beautie</i>&quot; for such was the
+title or motto of the pageant. Nor was Sir John lacking in due homage to
+his mistress; she was appointed to enact &quot;The Queen of Beautie.&quot; It was
+after much solicitation that she consented, receiving with great gravity
+and attention the instructions of her accomplished preceptor.</p>
+
+<p>The day was nigh spent and the sun fast sinking on the ocean, now
+waiting with a chariot of flame to conduct him to other skies.</p>
+
+<p>Grace was just finishing her toilet, and her maid adjusting the last
+plait in her head-dress, when a low and guarded knock announced a
+visitor. The door was slightly opened, when a messenger threw in a gay
+billet and departed. It was superscribed thus:&mdash;&quot;<i>To the Fairest,
+These</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>With a quickened pulse and a tremulous hand, she glanced over the page,
+elaborately penned as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&quot;The Bower of Beautie hath a snake; beware that he come not nigh
+     thee, for his tooth has venom, and his tail a sting.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;From the mask with the black visard and silver mantle.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;THESE.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<p>She had barely finished the perusal, when there came tripping in the
+page of Sir John Finett, carrying a sealed billet redolent with the most
+costly perfume. The superscription was precisely similar, and nearly in
+the same hand:&mdash;&quot;To the Fairest, These.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She hastily broke open the packet.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&quot;Beauteous and most matchless queen! jealous of thy coming, the orb
+     of day hasteneth to hide himself in Thetis's lap. He leaveth thee
+     our luminary in his stead, whose twin stars shall so outmimic day
+     that his brightness shall not be remembered. Truly am I in great
+     heaviness and sorrow, seeing that I cannot be with you in the
+     opening of the pageant, by reason of mine office, and my duty to
+     the king. Yet will I not leave you without a protector. My trusty
+     friend Weldon will enact your faithful knighte. He weareth a black
+     visard and mantle of spotted silver, and will accompany you to the
+     bower, from whence he delivereth the queene and her distressed
+     damsels out of durance. When the dancing begins, expect me.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;THINE.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<p>Little space was left for deliberation. The bell rang out its <!-- Page 282 --><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282" ></a>signal
+for the actors to arrange themselves; hearing which, she thrust the
+billets behind her stomacher, and hastened to the great court, where, on
+a platform supported by four wheels, was builded a sort of hut,
+decorated in a tawdry and fanciful style, and yeleped &quot;The Bower of
+Beautie.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Into this bower the queen was to be conducted, but the uproar and
+confusion was indescribable; strange and antic figures hurrying to and
+fro, seeking their companions, and crying lustily for their places. Sir
+John Finett and Sir George Goring fulfilled the office of whippers-in,
+attempting to establish order out of these undisciplined elements. Grace
+drew back; but suddenly there came forth an armed knight from the bower
+towards her, wearing a black visor and a mantle of spotted silver,
+courteously beseeching her that she would accompany him to her station.
+A great curtain of figured arras hung in front, concealing the interior,
+where the queen and her maidens were supposed to be held captive. Grace
+stepped into this temporary confinement, in which were four other ladies
+masked, who graciously saluted their queen. The black-faced visor having
+seated himself, the arras was again let down; when several men,
+bedizened with ribands and nosegays, wheeled off the vehicle to its
+destination on the green.</p>
+
+<p>The bower was garnished with roses, gilliflowers, pinks, and odoriferous
+herbs. Garlands of artificial flowers were interspersed; likewise
+imitations in satin, silk, and gold, of various trees, herbs, and
+fruits, not to be found in those parts. All this had been accomplished
+with great pains by the ladies of the queen's mimic court, Sir John
+Finett superintending &quot;<i>The Bower of Beautie</i>,&quot; as his peculiar
+province. To Sir George Goring were allotted the bears, satyrs, imps,
+angels, gods, and other like rabble, who were taught with much labour
+and difficulty, in so short a space, their several parts.</p>
+
+<p>Sir John Finett had received a mandate to be near the king during the
+acts, that he might be instructed in their several uses and designs,
+Buckingham having signified his wish to sport a mask on the occasion;
+Sir John, therefore, much to his regret, was completely debarred from
+approaching his mistress.</p>
+
+<p>The king's coming was announced by a flourish of trumpets, and a loud
+bray from the delighted multitude, who sent up a shout that shook the
+very foundations.</p>
+
+<p>Under a pavilion of crimson cloth, decked with fringes and <!-- Page 283 --><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283" ></a>valences of
+gold, walked forth the monarch. He leaned familiarly on the arm of his
+host, who, together with Sir John Finett, was in immediate attendance.
+After the king's train had passed, came a troop of morris-dancers, and
+the hobby-horse, who frolicked in a most ungainly fashion round the
+Bower of Beautie, kissing hands, and making many salutations towards
+their enthralled queen. Next came out a bear and a lion, accompanied by
+a thing intended to represent an ape, whose office it was to torment
+these grave animals with his tricks. But so encumbered were they in
+their disguise,&mdash;a heavy covering of bucks' skins and long wool,&mdash;that
+they had much ado to keep on their clothes, while attempting to resent
+the indignities they endured.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hang thee, Will&mdash;keep thy paws off my tail,&quot; said lion: &quot;Dost not see I
+shall be uncovered before the king?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll baste thine hide,&quot; said bear, &quot;if thou meddlest any more with
+mine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The ape had settled himself on the back of this august-looking animal,
+from whence he was suddenly dislodged, much to the delight and
+entertainment of the king, who laughed heartily at his disaster. The
+ravenous animals were on their way to the bower, there to watch for the
+captives, making great demonstrations all the while of their
+bloodthirsty intent.</p>
+
+<p>Bear and lion accordingly squatted down before it, making as though they
+would gladly have been at supper on the fair carcases of those within.
+Anon comes a mighty magician, with a long beard, and a wand of some ells
+in extent, purposing to effect the deliverance of the captives; but the
+beasts rushed upon him, and in a trice brought him to the ground. At
+this juncture the Silver Knight&mdash;showing thereby the superiority of true
+valour over false gramarye&mdash;should have issued from the bower, rescued
+the magician, and slain the beasts, opening a way for the escape of
+these imprisoned damsels, who were to come forth dancing, and
+representing a fair masque before the king;&mdash;but the magician remained
+unrescued, while bear and lion lay growling for a long space, not
+knowing what else to do. They looked about wistfully, not choosing to
+feast on their prostrate victim. At last, finding no change in the
+posture of affairs, they fairly stood erect, much to the marvel and
+amusement of the spectators, running off on their hind legs amid the
+shouts and derision of the assembly.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 284 --><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284" ></a>Sir John, apprehending some mistake, left the king for a moment to see
+how matters stood; but Goring had lifted up the arras, and, lo! the
+knight with the black visor and mantle of silver was not there, neither
+was the Queen of Beauty in her bower. The four disconsolate maidens
+still sat waiting for their cue, and expecting release. This was an
+unlooked-for disaster. The pageant was at a stand. On inquiry, the
+maidens told how that the gallant knight and the peerless queen had
+departed before the king's arrival, saying they would return anon.</p>
+
+<p>Sir John was bewildered and alarmed. The Silver Knight was trusty, and
+no suspicion crossed him from that source; yet was their absence wholly
+unaccountable. The king, seeing some mistake in the unravelling or
+conception of the plot, good-naturedly commanded the minstrels to strike
+up a favourite tune; at the hearing of which a number of masks
+immediately mustered to begin dancing in the soft and dewy twilight.
+Amongst the rest came in Buckingham, negligently attired, and without
+his visor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I thought thee hidden amongst the maskers,&quot; said the king.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ay, my liege, a short space;&mdash;but the night is hot, and I am something
+distempered and weary in this turmoil.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Buckingham looked flushed and agitated, strangely differing from his
+usual manner. It was not unobserved by the king, who attributed the
+change to illness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou shalt continue about our person,&quot; said the monarch. &quot;Jack, see to
+the sports:&mdash;the pageant hath suffered greatly from thine absence. I do
+think the Queen of Beauty hath played thee false.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Buckingham took his usual station by the king; and Sir John Finett, in
+great dolour, went forth in search of his mistress. He questioned the
+guests diligently, but could gain no further tidings, save that she had
+been seen by many in company with the Silver Knight. Every minute added
+to his uneasiness: thoughts of a wild and terrible import haunted him.
+In vain he tried to shake off these intruders&mdash;they came like shadows,
+horrible and indistinct. His naturally sensitive and sanguine
+temperament, as prone to the anticipation of evil as of delight, was a
+curse, and not a blessing. Departed hopes may fling a deeper shadow even
+on the brow of Despair!&mdash;and rayless was the night which visited his
+spirit. It was now too evident&mdash;for he was no novice in the
+science&mdash;that his admiration had <!-- Page 285 --><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285" ></a>awakened one dormant but hallowed
+affection, long lulled in the soft lap of pleasure. The maiden, with
+whom it was his sole aim to pass a few hours of pleasantry and
+amusement, had enthralled him by so sudden a spell, that he was more
+than half inclined to believe in the boasted skill and exploits of the
+sex, which has rendered Lancashire so famous. Her unaccountable absence
+impressed itself strangely upon his thoughts. He was in love!&mdash;and he
+writhed at the discovery; but he would have given worlds just then to
+have proclaimed it at his mistress's feet.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely conscious how the night wore on, he was obliged to act his
+part. Supper was announced; and he took his station where he could see
+the guests unmask as they entered to the banquet.</p>
+
+<p>The tables were nearly filled, but the Silver Knight and his fair lady
+were still absent. Grace Gerard is doubtless in her own chamber, was the
+host's reply to some inquiry from Sir John:&mdash;she had craved excuse from
+some slight indisposition. But this did not satisfy him to whom it was
+addressed: he suspected her chamber would be found unoccupied;&mdash;his
+heart felt wasted and desolate;&mdash;it was as if the whole fair face of
+nature were blotted out,&mdash;the light being gone which rendered it
+visible.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What ho!&quot; said the king, &quot;bring my Sienna knight a cup of hot sack and
+a merry-thought, for he seems melancholic and watchful&mdash;a wary eye, but
+a silent tongue. Sir John, are your wits a wool-gathering with your
+queen?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am in my widowhood, most gracious prince,&mdash;my queen having departed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;More fool thou, to fling thy heart after thy wits. Come, honest Jack,
+we'll have some minstrelsy after the feast,&mdash;a merry troll and a short
+one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Sir John was well skilled in handling the lute and rebeck. He had been
+early trained to their use; and many a kind glance and tender word he
+had won thereby.</p>
+
+<p>The feast was over, and those hushed halls thrilled to the following
+ditty:&mdash;</p>
+
+
+<p>I.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;They bade me sing, they bade me smile,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">They bade my heart be gay;<br /></span>
+<span>They called my spirit forth, to while<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The laughing hours away.<br /></span>
+<span><!-- Page 286 --><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286" ></a>I've sung, I've smiled: where'er my path<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Mirth's dazzling meteors shine:<br /></span>
+<span>All hearts have owned its magic power,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And all are glad but mine.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>II.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;I've soothed the darkest surge of woe,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And many a bosom blessed;<br /></span>
+<span>Forbade the sufferer's tear to flow,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And brought the weary rest:<br /></span>
+<span>I've poured upon the bleeding heart<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The balm of Hope,&mdash;the shrine<br /></span>
+<span>Where holier, happier thoughts shall dwell;&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">But who shall gladden mine?<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>III.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Forgive; 'tis but one short complaint,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">One pang I would reveal:<br /></span>
+<span>The wretch upon the torturing rack<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Is not forbid to feel!<br /></span>
+<span>Then laugh,&mdash;let merry hearts to-night<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Their brightest wreaths entwine:<br /></span>
+<span>The flowers that bloom on every breast<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Will, withering, fade on mine!&quot;<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35" ></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Many were the bright eyes glittering on him through their long silken
+lashes; but Sir John looked downward,&mdash;diligently noting something
+extraordinary in the disposition of his shoe-roses, or in the tie of his
+garter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One raven will set another croaking,&quot; said Sir George.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That we may escape a concert so detestable,&quot; cried out Buckingham, &quot;let
+Sir John Finett follow me, and we will reel with our fair dames, until
+cares whirl off like sling-stones.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And may he that tires first fiddle the witches' jig,&quot; said the sapient
+king.</p>
+
+<p>A burst of harsh music followed, and Sir John's feebly tinkling strings
+were thrown aside. Never had he wished so anxiously for one short hour
+of quietness; and right fain he was when the king retired to his
+chamber. His duties for that day were over, and he strolled out from the
+hot and oppressive atmosphere into a calm quiet moonlight. The cool
+breeze came like a healing balm upon his spirit, the soft dew fell upon
+his cheek,&mdash;but the fire in his veins burnt fiercely. His mistress's
+form, her face, the sweet influence of her smile, were fixed indelibly
+on his heart. Away from the bustle and cares of office,&mdash;which, like
+waves on the surface, for a while effaced their <!-- Page 287 --><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287" ></a>image,&mdash;the whole
+beauteous impression was revealed before him in all its loveliness and
+truth. His heart bounded at the thought:&mdash;it was but for a moment. Again
+he stood, hopeless and desolate, gazing upon the soft mist-wreath in the
+valley, as though expecting it would render up the form of his beloved.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the short swift steps of a steed were heard hurrying up the
+avenue. A horseman approached the gateway: it was his friend, the
+<i>soi-disant</i> knight of the silver mantle!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How now, Weldon!<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36" ></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a>&mdash;whither have thy unlucky familiars carried thee?
+Hast thou bestridden the enchanted horse, or wert thou bidden to a
+witch-feast?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have been to Myerscough with your message,&mdash;and the pains I have had
+for my labour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My message!&quot; said Sir John, with amazement: &quot;I sent thee on no other
+errand than to guard the lady, whom thou hast either made away with or
+she hath slipped from thine hold.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are pleasant, Sir John. Your tricks are well enough in court-hours.
+Come, be serious, and tell me thou hast had a fool's errand out of me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I never was more serious in my life, Weldon, I do vouch, as my head
+shall swing safely on its pivot. But who gave thee a message&mdash;and to
+whom?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To our fair hostess at Myerscough. Thy page thrust a scrap of writing
+into my hand after prayers. The request was, that I should see the
+accompanying billet safely delivered, and with mine own hand, without
+loss of time. It was one of your curiously-folded fantastic
+love-billets, as I thought. Knowing I could well be spared hence, I
+immediately took horse, and came in a bath of foam to the lady; but when
+she opened her pretty token, she drew herself erect with great majesty.
+'Tell Sir John Finett,' said she, 'that when he next sends thee forth on
+his fooleries, to choose another butt; to shoot his arrows where they
+will stick, or his goose-feathers may fly back again.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Horror almost deprived Sir John of utterance. That some <!-- Page 288 --><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288" ></a>foul play had
+been meditated, and in all probability accomplished, was but too plain;
+but how, or by whom, was inscrutable as ever.</p>
+
+<p>The page was straitly questioned; but he merely said that his message
+was given him by some person he did not recognise in the crowd at the
+chapel-doors, who said he was to seek Weldon forthwith, and deliver him
+the papers from his master. What course to adopt, or where to begin
+their search, were questions alike embarrassing and impossible to
+answer. In the end they determined to lay the matter before the king on
+the morrow.</p>
+
+<p>It may be needful to go back a short space to &quot;The Bower of Beautie,&quot;
+wherein the knight of the silver mantle, having safely ensconced
+himself, as the reader may remember, the arras was let down; after
+which, being wheeled away to their destination, they were to await for
+the commencement of the masque. But the Silver Knight, lifting up the
+curtain, observed they were much too early for the performance, and
+courteously entreated the lady that she would alight. The evening was
+hot, and the bower close and oppressive. An hour might, in all
+probability, elapse ere their presence would be required. Grace,
+trusting to her companion, quitted the car, strolling out amongst the
+masks. Gradually they left the main crowd, unconsciously approaching the
+steep brow of the hill, where, looking towards the east, they beheld the
+broad red moon swinging out from the blue horizon. The loud hum of the
+revellers came softly and pleasantly on the ear. It was an hour of
+quietness and delight&mdash;a few hasty, happy moments snatched from these
+gaudy hours&mdash;the pomp and circumstance of life. Would that Sir John had
+been here in lieu of his friend! thought Grace. No, she did not think
+so, but she felt as though such a thought might have been nursed into
+being with little effort. They were now stealing down the hill, and the
+dark waters of the Orr were leaping and bubbling at their feet.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We must return,&quot; said the maiden, looking up, alarmed at seeing, for
+the first time, that they were cut off from all connection and
+intercourse with their companions. Her attendant was a perfect stranger,
+except in name, and though counselled to rely implicity on his care by
+the master of the ceremonies himself, she felt her situation
+embarrassing and unpleasant.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And why must we return?&quot; said the mask. The tone <!-- Page 289 --><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289" ></a>startled her; its
+expression was now soft and beseeching, as though he had before spoken
+in a masked voice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why!&quot; said she, looking as though she would have pierced through his
+disguise.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, whet not thy glance so keenly. I am not what I seem, and yet am
+not unseemly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your jests had been better timed had they taken a fitter season. I must
+hence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go not, my beauteous queen,&quot; said the stranger, taking her hand, which
+she dashed from her with indignation and alarm. She was darting up the
+crag, but was again detained.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I will worship thee:&mdash;thou shall be my star&mdash;the axle of my thoughts.
+All&quot;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Unhand me, sir, or I'll call those who have the power to punish as well
+as to humble thy presumption!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Whom wilt thou call, my pretty lamb? The wolf? The snake is scotched in
+the bower, and I but beseech thy gratitude. How that look of scorn
+becomes thee! Pout not so, my queen, or thou wilt indeed make an excuse
+for my rudeness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How? Again this insult! Begone, or thou shalt rue that ever thy thought
+escaped thy tongue. I'll report thee to thy betters.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My betters! and who be they, maiden? Thou knowest me not, <i>perdie</i>.
+Hath not Sir John Finett shorn his love-locks and eschewed thy service
+after leaving thy bower the other night?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This taunt raised her indignation to a blaze&mdash;her bosom swelled at the
+rebuke.</p>
+
+<p>Still he retained her hand&mdash;with the other she clung to a withered tree,
+whose roots held insecurely by the rock. Making another effort, she
+sprang from his grasp; but the tree was rent from its hold, and she fell
+with it to the edge of the precipice. Ere the Silver Knight could
+interpose, a faint shriek announced her descent: a swift crash was heard
+amongst the boughs and underwood&mdash;a groan and a rebound. He saw her
+disappear behind a crag. Then came one thrilling moment of terror, one
+brief pause in that death-like stillness, and a heavy plunge was heard
+in the gulf below! He listened&mdash;his perceptions grew more acute&mdash;eye and
+ear so painfully susceptible, and their sensibility so keen, that the
+mind scarcely distinguished its own reactions from realities&mdash;from
+outward impressions on the <!-- Page 290 --><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290" ></a>sense. He thought he heard the gurgle and
+the death-throe. Then the pale face of the maiden seemed to spring out
+from the abyss. He rushed down the precipice. Entangled in the copsewood
+and bushes, some time elapsed ere he gained the narrow path below. He
+soon found, as in most other situations, the shortest road the
+longest&mdash;that the beaten track would have brought him quicker to his
+destination; but these nice calculations were forgotten. All pranked out
+and bedizened as he was, the puissant knight plunged into the gulf; but
+his exertions were fruitless, and he gave up the search. His love for
+the maiden living and breathing did not prompt him to drown himself for
+her corpse. With hasty steps he regained the Tower, where he doffed his
+dripping garments unobserved.</p>
+
+<p>Sir John Finett, by advice from his friend Weldon, determined on
+acquainting their host with the lady's disappearance. They had a shrewd
+suspicion that Buckingham was the contriver of this daring outrage;
+though from his great power, influence, and audacity, they had
+everything to fear and but little to hope from the result. Yet no time
+should be lost in the attempt.</p>
+
+<p>As they entered the hall, Sir Gilbert Hoghton and several of the guests
+were still making merry after the feast. Calling him aside, they
+communicated the dismal tidings.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Grace Gerard amissing, say ye?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis even so,&quot; said Sir John; &quot;we have yet no clue to the search; but
+this night shall not pass without the attempt, at any rate. In the
+morning we will to the king with our complaint.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Boy,&quot; said the baronet to his little henchman, &quot;go to the woman's
+suite, and rouse Grace Gerard's maid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The woman was in the kitchen some half hour agone, conveying her
+mistress a warm draught, or some such puling diet,&quot; said the page.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Haste,&quot; cried Sir John impatiently, marvelling at this unexpected
+intelligence,&mdash;&quot;the lad is blinded by some misapprehension. I'll forfeit
+my best jewel she is not in her chamber. This interlude works i' the
+plot&mdash;part of the trickery now enacting.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But the page made a quick return.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What news?&quot; said Finett.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The lady is gone to rest; something discomposed, though, and out of
+spirits. So says her maiden, whom I would have <!-- Page 291 --><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291" ></a>questioned more
+straitly, but she rebuked me sharply for my impertinence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pray you send and question her,&quot; said Sir John.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay,&quot; returned Sir Gilbert, smiling, &quot;I'll be bound the lady is safe;
+and her maiden has other guess-matters to look to than letting out the
+secrets of her mistress's chamber.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They were obliged to rest satisfied, or rather unsatisfied, with this
+answer. But the mystery was more and more inexplicable. Either some
+laughable mistake or some deep-laid villany was intended. Sir John dared
+not pursue the subject to this extremity. He felt assured of her purity
+and honour. Her manners, so confiding and unsuspicious, showed a heart
+unacquainted with guile.</p>
+
+<p>After a sleepless night Sir John arose, feverish and unrefreshed. He
+threw open the window of his chamber, which looked into the courtyard.
+Near a side postern stood a grey palfrey, caparisoned for a lady's use,
+and impatiently awaiting its burden. The hour was too early for morning
+rambles, but the beast was evidently equipped for a journey. Two other
+steeds were now led forth, as if for the attendants. He caught a glimpse
+of Grace Gerard's maid, who seemed, by her dress, to be of the party
+whose movements he was so anxious to ascertain. He suspected this sudden
+departure was for the purpose of escaping without his observance. He
+hurried towards the stairs: just entering the corridor, he met Grace
+Gerard. She was evidently confused at his appearance. It was but for a
+moment; her spirit grappled with the occasion; and she replied firmly,
+and with becoming dignity, to his questions.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Whither away, our beauteous queen?&quot; said he, bowing almost to the
+ground. &quot;Are you bound for some isle of the Western Ind, getting the
+start of Phoebus in his nightly race to those gem-bearing climes?
+Methinks the sun is departing from us, though but just risen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis my purpose to depart, Sir John. This clime is too bright, and its
+beams too fervid, for a lady's eye.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One word in sober speech:&mdash;Wherefore?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know your question, Sir John. Time hastens, and I reply. Your knight
+of the silver mantle I proclaim a recreant, as treacherous as he is
+base. Sir John, for my&mdash;no, for your own sake&quot;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 292 --><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292" ></a>Another stole into his place,&quot; said he, interrupting her with great
+eagerness. &quot;A base-born changeling!&mdash;some villain, who, under this
+disguise, abused our honourable intent; but say, peerless princess, to
+whose prowess we owe your rescue.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis my first venture into the unhallowed limits of your licentious
+court; and through the grace that hath preserved me harmless, I here
+resolve it shall be my last. By your instructions, Sir John, I relied
+implicitly on the protection of your friend. He would fain have abused
+his trust, but I escaped from the offered insult. Struggling to free my
+hand from his grasp, by yonder hill-side, I lost my footing. I fell down
+the steep unhurt. Fear lent me unwonted strength, and I escaped unseen,
+round the narrow pathway. My discourteous knight thought, doubtless, I
+had tumbled into the roaring abyss; for the night mist hung below, and I
+heard a huge fragment of rock, loosened in my descent, plunge into the
+dimly-rolling waters. Now, hear me: my resolve is taken, and no earthly
+influence or persuasion shall stay me. 1 was bewildered, yet flattered
+by your follies: foolish and thoughtless enough to frolic and flutter on
+the very brink of a precipice. I was dazzled by the glittering but
+dangerous excitement. Conscience spoke, but I durst not listen. My
+course of life hitherto has been through scenes of gentleness and peace,
+and I could not look on your bustle and dissipation without alarm. Yet
+was I persuaded to mingle in your sports yesterday&mdash;that day hallowed by
+the last fiat of its Creator, wherein the soul, freed awhile from the
+cares of earth, may prostrate itself in homage before Him who said, 'It
+is mine!' Justly punished for trifling with my better thoughts, my
+escape shall not be without its acknowledgment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Sir John was silent. She stood before him like some purer, brighter
+thing than could be deemed akin to this polluted earth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Those siren waves were bearing me on to the gulf where&quot;&mdash;She paused a
+moment, shuddering at the dark retrospect of the past. &quot;Where all your
+pomp and pageantry will be overwhelmed, and yourselves, for ever, in the
+same irretrievable ruin!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Sir John looked uneasy, and his eye wandered, as if in search of some
+object wherewith to throw off these gloomy anticipations. The maiden
+again spoke:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It seemed as though a veil, invisible heretofore, were suddenly
+<!-- Page 293 --><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293" ></a>undrawn. The glory and the baseness, the splendour and the pollution,
+were at once revealed. The hand unseen had drawn it aside. I would now
+shun&mdash;I hope for ever&mdash;- these paths of folly; and I bid farewell to
+your pleasures without a murmur or a regret.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Sir John, courtier though he was, ardently and willingly rendering
+homage at the shrine of pleasure and dissipation, was awe-struck.
+Conscience echoed a fearful response; and he shrank before the reproof
+he could not shun.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Without regret!&quot; said he, faltering and abashed. &quot;I had hoped&mdash;perhaps
+wished&mdash;but it was too presumptuous. My purest thoughts would have
+sullied so pure a shrine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Stay, Sir John; though the confession be humbling to a maiden's pride,
+yet my heart tells me 'tis the last time we meet; and it is the only
+acknowledgment,&mdash;I render it to your honesty and good faith.&quot; Her voice
+grew hesitating and tremulous. &quot;There was a tendril twining about my
+heart; but it is wrung off, and I am again&mdash;alone!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her heart was full, and her whole frame convulsed by some overpowering
+emotion. An adieu died upon her lips; but she resolutely refused any
+further communication. Hastening to the courtyard, she mounted her
+little white palfry, and quitted for ever those fascinating and
+dangerous allurements, which, having once felt, few have had the power
+to withstand.</p>
+
+<p>We need scarcely add, that, amid the gaieties and splendours by which
+the lover was enthralled, the recollection of Grace Gerard sometimes
+mingled in the revelries of this votary of pleasure. It often came as a
+warning and a rebuke. By degrees the impression grew less powerful. Each
+succeeding wave from the ever-tossing ocean left the traces less
+distinct, until they were overwhelmed in the dull tide of oblivion.</p>
+
+
+<h4><!-- Page 294 --><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294" ></a>NOTE ON THE BALLAD, p. 269.</h4>
+
+<p>The <i>music</i> to these words is <i>traditionary</i>, if we may be allowed the
+expression. It is one of the many wild and characteristic melodies
+floating about, perhaps unappropriated, on the popular breath, varied
+indefinitely according to the humour of the performer. The author has
+listened to several of these ditties; some of them he thinks peculiar to
+this and the neighbouring counties. They are generally sung by the
+labouring classes, and would, in many cases, defy any attempt to commit
+them to writing, being apparently founded upon a ratio of tones and
+semitones at variance with our diatonic scale. From this we might almost
+be led to imagine some truth in the theory that the ancients had
+different scales peculiar to their different moods: a theory which,
+however impossible it may be considered, is not without its advocates,
+who will perhaps not be displeased to find here some slight confirmation
+of their opinions. Yet in these songs the prevailing character of the
+minor key may generally be detected, which, from its being imperfect,
+and probably vitiated by the mistakes of these rustic melodists, may
+give a colour to the notion of a change in the scale.</p>
+
+<p>The great antiquity of these melodies is unquestionable, and it would be
+an interesting inquiry to trace them back through remote ages, perhaps
+to the Jewish temple and the tent of the patriarchs. The author has
+found in them a strong resemblance to the Hebrew music, sounds which,
+since the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, and the destruction of their
+temple, 606 B.C., and in consequence of musical instruments being
+afterwards forbidden, they have clung to with increased tenacity,
+preserving their ancient melodies, and bequeathing them by memory from
+one generation to another with the same jealous care that a miser would
+his treasure, and as the last melancholy relics of a &quot;kingdom passed
+away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Algarotti says, &quot;Those airs alone remain for ever engraven on the memory
+of the public, that paint images to the mind, or express the passions,
+and are for that reason called the speaking airs, because more congenial
+to nature, which can never be justly imitated but by a beautiful
+simplicity, that will always bear away the palm from the most laboured
+refinement of art.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The author has ventured to give the following air, which he fancies
+would almost suggest the words of the song to which Sir John Finett is
+supposed to have appropriated it. As we have before mentioned, the tune
+is traditionary, possessing some of the peculiar characteristics we have
+described. It bears a considerable resemblance to the ancient Jewish
+music, and likewise to the airs generally given to the little snatches
+of old ballads in Shakespeare's plays, which are supposed to have been
+handed down successively from the performers in his time; being then
+probably &quot;household&quot; music more ancient than the ballads themselves.
+This opinion seems warranted by the poet himself in that beautiful
+allusion, with which he introduces one of the songs of the <i>Clown</i>, in
+Twelfth Night&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Mark it, Cesario; it is old and plain:<br /></span>
+<span>The spinsters and the knitters in the sun,<br /></span>
+<span>And the free maids that weave their thread with bones,<br /></span>
+<span>Do use to chant it; it is silly sooth,<br /></span>
+<span>And dallies with the innocence of love<br /></span>
+<span>Like the old age.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="center"><!-- Page 295 --><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295" ></a>
+<img src="images/16.png" width="600" height="791" alt="Music" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<h4>HOGHTON TOWER.</h4>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>They bade me sing, they bade my smile,<br /></span>
+<span>They bade my heart be gay;<br /></span>
+<span>They called my spirit forth to while<br /></span>
+<span>The laughing hours away.<br /></span>
+<span>I've sung, I've smiled: where'er my path<br /></span>
+<span>Mirth's dazzling meteors shine;<br /></span>
+<span>All hearts have owned its magic power,<br /></span>
+<span>And all are glad but mine.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> &quot;Sir George Goring, of Hurst Pierrepoint, in Sussex,
+representative of a junior line of the respectable family of Goring,
+which maintains its importance in that county, was bred at Court, under
+the care of his father, one of Elizabeth's Gentlemen Pensioners; was
+knighted May 29, 1608; in 1610, occurs as Gentleman in Ordinary of the
+Bedchamber to Prince Henry; and now accompanied the king to Scotland as
+Lieutenant of his Gentlemen Pensioners. He was recommended to James
+equally by his sagacity and a peculiar jocularity of humour, and became
+the king's familiar companion.&quot;&mdash;Nichols's <i>Royal Progresses</i>, vol. iii.
+p. 256.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Sir John Finett, says Anthony &agrave; Wood (Fasti by Bliss, vol.
+i. col, 492), was son of Sir Robert Finett, of Soulton, near Dover, in
+Kent, son and heir of Sir Thomas, son and heir of John Finett, of
+Sienna, in Italy (where his name is ancient), who came into England in
+quality of servant to Cardinal Campegius, and married a maid of honour
+to Queen Katharine. &quot;Sir John was always bred in the Court, where by his
+wit, innocent mirth, and great skill in composing songs, he pleased
+James the First very much. He was sent into France in 1614, about
+matters of public concern, and in the year after received the honour of
+knighthood at Whitehall; about which time (or rather about 1612) he was
+made assistant to the master of the ceremonies, with the reversion of
+that place.&quot;&mdash;Nichols's <i>Progresses</i>, vol. iii. p. 133.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> This stone, the author has been told, was in existence
+less than a century ago, though not in the precise situation above
+alluded to. He has heard the disappointment of the curious passers-by
+told with considerable humour; they, however, generally took care to
+replace the stone with its word of promise before the eye, that the next
+comer might bestow the same labour for the like result.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> Some say this petition was presented at Myerscough, but we
+incline to the opinion here given.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Royal proclamation, May 21, 1618.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> This ceremony was formerly used for the conveyance of
+rushes intended to be strewed in the church upon the clay floors between
+the benches. It is now generally known but as an unmeaning pageant still
+practised in the northern and eastern parts of Lancashire, for the
+purpose of levying contributions on the inhabitants. An immense banner,
+of silk adorned with tinsel and gay devices, precedes the rush-cart,
+wherein the rushes, neatly woven and smooth cut, are piled up and
+decorated with flowers and ribands, in rustic taste. The cart, thus
+laden, is drawn round to the dwellings of the principal inhabitants, by
+morris-dancers, who perform an uncouth dance, attended by a man in
+motley attire, a sort of nondescript, made up of the ancient fool and
+Maid Marian. This personage jingles a horse-collar hung with bells,
+which forms not an unsuitable accompaniment to the ceremony.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> See Note at the end.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> This person is supposed to be the writer of a curious
+satire (Harl. MSS. 5191), called a Description of Scotland. Welden's
+name is not attached to it in the MS., but it is duly ascribed to him by
+Sir Walter Scott, in his description of Holyrood Chapel, in the
+<i>Antiquities of Scotland</i>. Sir Anthony Weldon accompanied the king into
+Scotland; but that he returned with him is not so certain, one of his
+letters saying he should return by sea. By this, however, may be
+understood his return to the court at Edinburgh, having had leave of
+absence to visit his friends in London.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_LANCASHIRE_WITCHES" id="THE_LANCASHIRE_WITCHES" ></a><!-- Page 296 --><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296" ></a>THE LANCASHIRE WITCHES.</h2>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;More swift than lightning can I flye<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">About this aery welkin soone;<br /></span>
+<span>And, in a minute's space, descrye<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Each thing that's done below the moone.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="author">&mdash;BEN JONSON.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&quot;When I consider whether there are such persons as <i>witches</i>, my
+     mind is divided: I believe, in general, that there is such a thing
+     as witchcraft, but can give no credit to any particular instance of
+     it.&quot;&mdash;ADDISON.</p></div>
+
+<p>The term witchcraft, says the historian of Whalley, is now &quot;transferred
+to a gentler species of fascination, which my fair countrywomen still
+continue to exert in full force, without any apprehension of the county
+magistrates, or even of the king in council.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Far different was the application in days of old. The common parish
+witch is thus described by a contemporary writer, as an old woman &quot;with
+a wrinkled face, a furred brow, a hairy lip, a gobber tooth, a squint
+eye, a squeaking voice, or a scolding tongue; having a rugged coat on
+her back, a skull-cap on her head, a spindle in her hand, and a dog or
+cat by her side.&quot; Such was the witch of real life when this superstition
+was so prevalent in our own neighbourhood, and even throughout England.
+From the beginning of the reign of James the First to the concluding
+part of the reign of James the Second, it may be considered as having
+attained the zenith of its popularity. &quot;Witchcraft and kingcraft both
+came in with the Stuarts and went out with them.&quot; It was as if his
+<i>infernal</i> majesty had taken a lesson from his <i>sacred</i> majesty, and
+issued a book of sports for his loyal subjects. &quot;The Revolution put to
+rights the faith of the country as well as its constitution.&quot; &quot;The laws
+were more liberally interpreted and rationally administered. The trade
+of witch-finding ceased to be reputable or profitable;&quot; and that silly
+compilation, the &quot;Demonology&quot; of James, which, with the severe laws
+enacted against witchcraft by Henry the Eighth and Elizabeth, had
+conjured up more witches and familiars than they could quell, was
+consigned to the book-worm and the dust. It is said in the Arabian
+tales, that Solomon sent out of his kingdom all the demons that he could
+lay his hands on, packed them up in a brazen vessel, and cast them into
+the sea. But James, &quot;our English Solomon,&quot; &quot;imported by his book all
+that were flying about Europe, to plague the country, which was
+sufficiently plagued already in such a sovereign.&quot; This sapient ruler,
+<!-- Page 297 --><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297" ></a>who, it is said, &quot;taught divinity like a king, and made laws like a
+priest,&quot; in the first year of his reign made it felony to suckle imps,
+&amp;c. This statute, which was repealed March 24th, 1736, describes
+offences declared felonious, thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One that shall use, practise, or exercise any invocation or conjuration
+of any evil or wicked spirit, or consult, covenant with, entertain or
+employ, feed or reward, any evil or wicked spirit, to or for any intent
+or purpose; or take up any dead man, woman, or child, out of his, her,
+or their grave, or any other place where the dead body resteth; or the
+skin, bone, or other part of any dead person, to be employed or used in
+any manner of witchcraft, sorcery, charm, or enchantment; or shall
+practise or exercise any witchcraft, &amp;c., whereby any person shall be
+killed, destroyed, wasted, consumed, pined, or lamed in his or her body,
+or any part thereof: such offenders, duly and lawfully convicted and
+attainted, shall suffer death.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As might be expected, witchcraft so increased in consequence of these
+denunciations, that, &quot;in the course of fifty years following the passing
+of this act, besides a great number of single indictments and
+executions, fifteen were brought to trial at Lancaster in 1612, and
+twelve condemned; in 1622, six were tried at York; 1634, seventeen
+condemned at Lancaster; 1644, sixteen were executed at Yarmouth; 1645,
+fifteen condemned at Chelmsford, and hanged; in the same and following
+year, about forty at Bury in Suffolk; twenty more in the county, and
+many in Huntingdon; and (according to the estimate of Ady) some
+thousands were burned in Scotland.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Popular hatred rendered the existence of a reputed witch so miserable,
+that persons bearing that stigma often courted death in despair,
+confessing to crimes which they had never committed, for the purpose of
+ridding themselves of persecution.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One of the latest convictions was that of Amy Duny and Rose Cullender,
+before Sir Matthew Hale at Bury, in 1664. They were executed, and died
+maintaining their innocence.&quot; Their execution was a foul blot upon his
+name, as it is scarcely to be doubted but that they were the victims of
+imposture. It was clearly ascertained by experiments in the judge's
+presence, that the children who pretended to be bewitched, when their
+eyes were covered, played off their fits and contortions at the touch of
+some other person, mistaking it for that of the accused, yet &quot;he charged
+the jury without summing up the evidence, dwelling only upon the
+certainty of the fact that there were witches, for which he appealed to
+the Scriptures, and, as he said, to 'the wisdom of all nations;' and the
+jury having convicted, the next morning left them for execution.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But we proceed with a few explanatory notices respecting that portion of
+the history of this superstition, which will be found interwoven with
+the traditionary matter in our text.</p>
+
+<p>A number of persons, inhabitants of Pendle Forest, were apprehended <!-- Page 298 --><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298" ></a>in
+the year 1633, upon the evidence of Edmund Robinson, a boy about eleven
+years old, who deposed before two of his Majesty's justices at Padiham,
+that on All-Saints'-day he was getting &quot;bulloes,&quot; when he saw two
+greyhounds&mdash;a black one and a brown one&mdash;come running over the field
+towards him. When they came nigh they fawned on him, and he supposed
+they belonged to some of the neighbours. He expected presently that some
+one would follow; but seeing no one, he took them by a string which they
+had tied to their collars, and thought he would hunt with them.
+Presently a hare sprang up near to him, and he cried &quot;Loo, loo,&quot; but the
+dogs would not run. Whereupon he grew angry, and tied them to a bush for
+the purpose of chastising them, but instead of the black greyhound he
+now beheld a woman, the wife of one Dickisson, a neighbour; the other
+was transformed into a little boy. At this sight he was much afraid, and
+would have fled; but the woman stayed him and offered him a piece of
+silver like a shilling if he would hold his peace. But he refused the
+bribe; whereupon she pulled out a bridle and threw it over the little
+boy's head, who was her familiar, and immediately he became a white
+horse. The witch then took the deponent before her, and away they
+galloped to a place called Malkin Tower, by the Hoarstones at Pendle. He
+there beheld many persons appear in like fashion; and a great feast was
+prepared, which he saw, and was invited to partake, but he refused.
+Spying an opportunity, he stole away, and ran towards home. But some of
+the company pursued him until he came to a narrow place called &quot;the
+Boggard-hole,&quot; where he met two horsemen; seeing which, his tormentors
+left off following him. He further said, that on a certain day he saw a
+neighbour's wife, of the name of Loynd, sitting upon a cross piece of
+wood within the chimney of his father's dwelling-house. He called to
+her, saying, &quot;Come down, thou Loynd wife,&quot; and immediately she went up
+out of sight. Likewise upon the evening of All-Saints before-named, his
+father sent him to seal up the kine, when, coming through a certain
+field, he met a boy who began to quarrel with him, and they fought until
+his face and ears were bloody. Looking down, he saw the boy had cloven
+feet, and away he ran. It was now nearly dark; but he descried at a
+distance a light like a lantern. Thinking this was carried by some of
+his friends, he made all haste towards it, and saw a woman standing on a
+bridge, whom he knew to be Loynd's wife; turning from her he again met
+with the boy, who gave him a heavy blow on the back, after which he
+escaped. On being asked the names of the women he saw at the feast, he
+mentioned seventeen persons, all of whom were committed to Lancaster for
+trial. They were found guilty, and sentenced to be executed. The judge,
+however, respited them, and reported the case to the king in council.</p>
+
+<p>The celebrated John Webster, author of <i>The Discovery of Pretended
+Witchcraft</i>, afterwards took this young witch-finder in hand. He says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This said boy was brought into the church at Kildwick (in Craven), a
+large parish church, where I, being curate there, was preaching in the
+<!-- Page 299 --><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299" ></a>afternoon, and was set upon a stall to look about him, which moved some
+little disturbance in the congregation for a while. After prayers, I,
+inquiring what the matter was, the people told me it was the boy that
+discovered witches; upon which I went to the house where he was to stay
+all night, where I found him, and two very unlikely persons that did
+conduct him, and manage the business.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I desired to have some discourse with the boy in private; but that they
+utterly refused. Then, in the presence of a great many people, I took
+the boy near me, and said, 'Good boy, tell me truly and in earnest,
+didst thou see and hear such strange things of the meeting of witches as
+is reported by many that thou didst relate?'&mdash;But the two men, not
+giving the boy leave to answer, did pluck him from me, and said he had
+been examined by two <i>able</i> justices of the peace, <i>and they did never
+ask him such a question</i>. To whom I replied, the persons accused had the
+more wrong. As the laws of England, and the opinions of mankind then
+stood, a mad dog in the midst of a congregation would not have been more
+dangerous than this wicked and mischievous boy, who, looking around him,
+could, according to his own caprice, put any one or more of the people
+in peril of tortures or of death.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Four of the accused only were sent to London, and examined by the king
+in person. In the end they were set at liberty, but not from the
+sagacity of the examiners,&mdash;the boy Robinson having confessed that he
+was suborned to give false evidence against them. One of these poor
+creatures, strange to say, had confessed the crime with which she was
+charged. In the Bodl. Lib. Dods. MSS. v.61, p.47, is the confession
+itself, wherein she gives a circumstantial and minute account of the
+transactions which took place between her and a familiar whom she calls
+Mamilian, describing the meetings, feasts, and all the usual routine of
+witchery and possession.&mdash;(See Whitaker's <i>Whalley</i>.)</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PART_FIRST" id="PART_FIRST" ></a>PART FIRST.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The mill went merrily round, and Giles the miller sang and whistled from
+morning to noon, and from noon till evening, save when the mulcting-dish
+was about to be embowelled in the best sack; a business too serious for
+such levity, requiring careful and deliberate thought.</p>
+
+<p>Goody Dickisson, the miller's wife, was a fat, round, pursy dame, of
+some forty years' travel through this wilderness of sorrow, and a
+decent, honest, sober, and well-conditioned housewife she was; cleanly,
+thrifty, and had an excellent cheesepress, which the whole neighbourhood
+could testify.</p>
+
+<p>But the days of man's happiness are numbered, and woman's too, as the
+following narrative will set forth.</p>
+
+<p>The mill had stood, for ages it may be, at the foot of a wild <!-- Page 300 --><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300" ></a>and steep
+cliff, forming the eastern extremity of the dreary range of
+Cliviger;<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37" ></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> an elevated mountainous pass, from whence the waters
+descend both to the eastern and western seas. Upon those almost
+inaccessible crags the rock-eagle and falcon built their nests, unscared
+by the herdsmen, who in vain attempted their destruction. Through this
+pass, the very gorge of the English Apennines, the Calder,<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38" ></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> a rapid
+and narrow torrent, brought an unfailing supply of grist to the
+ever-going hopper of Giles Dickisson.</p>
+
+<p>Not far from this happy abode, in the innermost part of the gorge, where
+the rocks of Lancashire and Yorkshire frown in close but harmless
+proximity, at an immense height,&mdash;the road and this narrow cleft only
+separating their barriers,&mdash;rises a crag of a singular shape, jutting
+far out from the almost perpendicular strata beneath. Its form is
+precisely that of a gigantic helmet, hammered out by the fanciful artist
+into the likeness of an eagle, its wings partly outstretched, and its
+beak&mdash;the point of the crag&mdash;overshadowing the grim head of some gaunt
+warrior. With but little aid from the imagination, the whole features
+may be discerned; hence it was denominated, &quot;<i>The Eagle Crag</i>.&quot; But
+another appellation, more awful and mysterious, might be attached to
+it&mdash;a reminiscence of those &quot;deeds without a name,&quot; which have rendered
+this district of Lancashire so fearfully notorious&mdash;&quot;The witches'
+horse-block.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The narrow pass we have described opens out into a succession of
+picturesque valleys, abounding in waterfalls of considerable depth and
+beauty, and expanding towards the north in tracts of fertile
+pasture-ground to the base of Pendle, well known as the reputed scene of
+those mysteries in which &quot;the witches of Pendle&quot; acted so conspicuous a
+part.</p>
+
+<p>Towards the close of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth
+century, the fame, or rather the infamy, of witchcraft, infested this
+once peaceful and sequestered district. The crag we have just noticed
+was, no doubt, to the apprehensions of the simple-hearted peasant, oft
+visited by the unhallowed feet of weirds and witches pluming themselves
+for flight to the great rendezvous at Malkin Tower, by the side of &quot;the
+mighty Pendle.&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="center"><!-- Page 301 --><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301" ></a>
+<img src="images/17.png" width="600" height="855" alt="EAGLE CRAG, VALE OF TODMORDEN.
+
+Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden." title="" />
+<b>EAGLE CRAG, VALE OF TODMORDEN.<br />
+
+<i>Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw<sup>d</sup> Finden.</i></b>
+</div>
+
+<p><!-- Page 302 --><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302" ></a><!-- Page 303 --><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303" ></a>Little did our country deserve, in those days, the name of &quot;Merry
+England.&quot; Plague or the most noisome pestilence would have been a
+visitation of mercy compared to the miseries caused by so dark a
+superstition. &quot;Even he who lived remote from the scene of this spiritual
+warfare, though few such there could be, so rapidly was it transferred
+from county to county to the remotest districts;&mdash;he, in whose vicinity
+no one was suspected of dealing with the foul fiend, whose children,
+cattle, or neighbours, showed no symptoms of being marks for those fiery
+darts which often struck from a distance, yet would he not escape a sort
+of epidemic gloom, a vague apprehension of the mischief which might be.
+The atmosphere he breathed would come to him thick with foul fancies; he
+would ever be hearing or telling some wild and melancholy tale of crime
+and punishment. His best feelings and enjoyments would be dashed with
+bitterness, suspicion, and terror, as he reflected that, though
+uninvaded, yet these were at the mercy of malignant fellow-mortals,
+leagued with more malignant spirits, the laws and limits of whose
+operations were wholly undefinable.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What must have been his feelings on whom the evil eye had
+glared,&mdash;against whom the spell had been pronounced; on whom misfortunes
+came thick and fast, by flood and field, at home and abroad, in business
+and in pleasure; whose cattle died, whose crops were blighted, and about
+whose bed and board, invisible, unwelcome, and mischievous guests held
+their revels; who saw not in his calamities the results of ignorance and
+error, to be averted by caution, nor the inflictions of Heaven to be
+borne with resignation, but was the victim of a compact, in which his
+disasters were part of the price paid by the powers of darkness for an
+immortal soul! He who pined in consumption supposed that his own waxen
+effigy was revolving and melting at the charmed fire; the changes of his
+sensations told him when wanton cruelty damped the flame, to waste it
+lingeringly, or roused it in the impatience of revenge: and when came
+those sharp and shooting pains, the hags were thrusting in their
+bodkins, and their laugh rang in his ears: they sat upon his breast
+asleep,&mdash;he awoke gasping, and, as he started up, he saw them melting
+into air. Yet more miserable was the wight whom the fiends were
+commissioned bodily to possess;&mdash;with whose breathing frame an infernal
+substance was incorporate and almost identified;&mdash;whose thoughts were
+sufferings, <!-- Page 304 --><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304" ></a>and his words involuntary blasphemies. Can we wonder that
+all this was not borne passively;&mdash;that its authors were hunted out,
+even, if needful, by their own charms;&mdash;that suspicion grew into
+conviction, and conviction demanded vengeance;&mdash;that it was deemed a
+duty to hold them up to public hatred, and drag them to the bar of
+public justice;&mdash;and that their blood was eagerly thirsted after, of
+which the shedding was often believed not merely a righteous
+retribution, but the only efficient relief for the sufferers?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The notion of witchcraft was no innocent and romantic superstition, no
+scion of an elegant mythology, but was altogether vulgar, repulsive,
+bloody, and loathsome. It was a foul ulcer on the face of humanity.
+Other vagaries of the mind have been associated with lofty or with
+gentle feelings;&mdash;they have belonged more to sportiveness than to
+criminality;&mdash;they are the poetry interspersed on the pages of the
+history of opinions;&mdash;they seem to be dreams of sleeping reason, and not
+the putrescence of its mouldering carcase; but this has no bright side,
+no redeeming quality whatever.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39" ></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p>
+
+<p>The human body is not more liable to contagion than is that faculty of
+the mind which is called imagination. That many of the accused believed
+in their crime, we have sufficient evidence in their own voluntary
+confessions, as well as in the traditions handed down to us on this
+subject. Both knavery and delusion were at work, as the following
+incidents will abundantly manifest. They have been selected from a wide
+range of materials on this important topic, as illustrating the varied
+operations of the same delusion on different orders and grades of
+mind,&mdash;the temptations warily suited to each disposition, all tending to
+the same crime, and ultimately to the same punishment.</p>
+
+<p>Our lusty miller had no children: it was a secret source of grief and
+anxiety to his dame, and many an hour of repining and discontent was the
+consequence. Yet Giles Dickisson's song was none the heavier; and if his
+wheel went merrily round, his spirits whirled with it, and danced and
+frolicked in the sunshine of good humour, like the spray and sparkle
+from his own mill-race. But a change was gathering on his wife's
+countenance: her grief grew sullen; her aspect stern and
+forbidding:&mdash;some hidden purpose was maturing: she seldom spoke <!-- Page 305 --><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305" ></a>to her
+husband. When addressed, she seemed to arouse from a sort of stupor,
+unwillingly forcing a reply. &quot;She is bewitched,&quot; thought Giles. He had
+his suspicions; but he could not confidently point out the source of the
+mischief.</p>
+
+<p>One evening, as Goody Dickisson was sitting alone, pondering and
+discontented, there came in one Mal Spencer, a dark and scowling hag, to
+whom Giles bore no good-will. He had beforetime forbidden his wife to
+hold any intercourse with this witch-woman, who was an object generally
+of suspicion and mistrust. If the &quot;evil eye&quot; can be supposed to inhabit
+a human frame, this old woman had an undisputed claim to its possession.
+This night, however, old Molly came hobbling in without further ceremony
+than a &quot;Good e'en, thou Dickisson wife,&quot; and took her seat opposite the
+dame in the miller's own chair. &quot;Aroynt thee, witch,&quot; should have been
+returned to such an ill-omened salute; but the miller's wife was either
+unwilling or unable to utter this well-known preservative against the
+malice of the Evil Ones.</p>
+
+<p>The horse-shoe had been taken down from the door, and the blessed herb,
+moly, was incautiously thrown aside; neither had Goody Dickisson offered
+up the usual petition that evening, to be defended from the snares of
+the devil. Her discontent was too great, and she was in a fitter mood
+for murmuring than prayer.</p>
+
+<p>Leaning her long thin chin upon a little crutch, and throwing her
+bleared eyes full upon the dame, old Molly abruptly exclaimed, in a
+voice like the croaking of a raven&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast asked for children, but they are denied thee. What said I to
+thee, Goody Dickisson, in the clough yonder, by the hollow trunk of the
+oak? Rememberest thou, when thou saidest thou wouldst pawn thy body for
+the wish of thy soul?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Dame Dickisson waxed pale, and her knees shook; but the hag went on.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Worship the master I serve, and thou shalt have thy desire&mdash;ay and
+more!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;More!&mdash;What meanest thou?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come to the feast, as I have bidden thee. If thou likest not the savour
+of our company, thou shalt depart, and without harm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But who shall give me a safe conduct that I come back, <!-- Page 306 --><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306" ></a>and harmless as
+I went? Once in your possession, methinks&quot;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What!&quot; shouted the beldame, with a look of dark and devilish
+malignity:&mdash;&quot;the word of a prince! Shall Goody Dickisson, the miller's
+wife, hold it in distrust? Go, poor fool, and chew thy bitterness, and
+bake thy bannocks, and fret thy old husband until thy writhen flesh rot
+from thy bones, and thou gnawest them for malice and vexation. Is it not
+glorious to ride on the wind&mdash;to mount the stars&mdash;to kiss the moon
+through the dark rolling clouds, when the blast scatters them in its
+might? To ride unharmed on their huge peaks tipped with thunder? To be
+for ever young in desire and enjoyment, though old and haggard, and bent
+double with age and infirmities? To have our wish and our revenge&mdash;ay,
+and the bodies of our enemies wasting before our spells, like wax to the
+flame? But go, sneak and drivel, and mind thy meal and barley-cakes, and
+go childless to thy grave.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She rose as if to depart; but Goody Dickisson's evil destiny prevailed,
+and she promised to attend the feast, with this condition only, that no
+harm should befall her, nor force nor entreaty should be used to win her
+consent to join their confederacy. But she returned not from that
+unhallowed assembly until body and soul were for ever under the dominion
+of the destroyer.</p>
+
+<p>The mill went merrily on no more, and the miller's song was still. He
+looked a heavy and a doomed man. Strange suspicions haunted him. His
+wife's ill-humour he could have borne; but her very laugh now made him
+tremble: it was as if the functions of mind and body were animated by a
+being distinct from herself. Her countenance showed not that her
+thoughts mingled in either mirth or misery, except at times, when
+terrible convulsions seemed to pass over like the sudden roll of the
+sea, tossed by some unseen and subterraneous tempest. The neighbours
+began to shun his dwelling. His presence was the signal for stolen looks
+and portentous whispers. To church his wife never came; but the bench,
+her usual sitting-place, was deserted. At the church-doors, after
+sermon, when the price of grain, the weather, and other marketable
+commodities were discussed and settled, Giles was evidently an object of
+avoidance, and left to trudge home alone to his own cheerless and gloomy
+hearth.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 307 --><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307" ></a>Dick Hargreave's only cow was bewitched. The most effectual and
+approved method of ascertaining under whose spell she laboured was as
+follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The next Friday, a pair of breeches was thrown over the cow's horns; she
+was then driven from the shippen with a stout cudgel. The place to which
+she directed her flight was carefully watched, for there assuredly must
+dwell the witch. To the great horror and dismay of Giles Dickisson, the
+cow came bellowing down the lane, tail up, in great terror&mdash;telling, as
+plain as beast could speak, of her distress, until she came to a full
+pause, middle deep in his own mill-dam. This was a direct confirmation
+to his suspicions; but the following was a more undeniable proof, if
+need were, of his wife's dishonest confederacy with the powers of
+darkness.</p>
+
+<p>One morning, ere his servant-man Robin had taken the grey mare from the
+stable, Giles awoke early, and found his wife had not lain by his side.
+He had beforetime felt half roused in the night from a deep but uneasy
+slumber; but he was too heavy and bewildered to recollect himself, and
+sleep again overcame him ere he could satisfy his doubts. He had either
+dreamt, or fancied he had dreamt, that his wife was, at some seasons,
+away for a whole night together, and he was rendered insensible by her
+spells. This morning, however, he awoke before the usual time, probably
+from some failure in the charm, and he met her as she was ascending the
+stairs. Something like alarm or confusion was manifest. She had been to
+look after the cattle, she stammered out, scolding Robin for an idle
+lout to lie a-bed so long. The stable-door was open. With an aching
+heart, he went in. The grey mare was in a bath of foam, panting and
+distressed as though from some recent journey. Whilst pondering on this
+strange occurrence, Robin came in. His master taxed him with dishonesty.
+After much ado, he confessed that his mistress had many times of late
+borrowed the mare for a night, always returning before the good man
+awoke. Giles was too full of trouble to rate Robin as he deserved,
+contenting himself with many admonitions and instructions how to act in
+the next emergency.</p>
+
+<p>Not many nights after, as Robin was late in the stable, his mistress
+came with the usual request, and her magic bridle in her hand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 308 --><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308" ></a>Now, good Robin, the cream is in the bowl, and the beer behind the
+spigot, and my good man is in bed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Whither away, mistress?&quot; said Robin, diligently whisping down and
+soothing the mare, who trembled from head to foot when she heard her
+mistress's voice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For a journey, Robin. I have business at Colne; but I will not fail to
+come back again before sunrise.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ay, mistress, this is always your tale; but measter catched her in a
+woundy heat last time, and will not let her go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But, Robin, she shall be in the stable and dry two hours before my old
+churl gets up.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But measter says she maunna go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast told him, then,&mdash;and a murrain light on thee!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>With eyes glistening like witch-fires, did the dame bestow her malison.
+Robin half-repented his refusal; but he was stubborn, and his courage
+not easily shaken. Besides, he had bragged at the last Michaelmas feast
+that he cared not a rush for never a witch in the parish. He had an
+<i>Agnus Dei</i> in his bosom, and a leaf from the holy herb in his clogs;
+and what recked he of spells and incantations? Furthermore, he had a
+waistcoat of proof given to him by his grandmother.<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40" ></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p>
+
+<p>&quot;Since thou hast denied me the mare, I'll take thee in her place.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Robin felt in his bosom for the <i>Agnus Dei</i> cake, but it was gone!&mdash;He
+had thrown of his waistcoat, too, for the work, and his clogs were lying
+under the rack. Before he could furnish himself with these
+counter-charms, Goody Dickisson threw the bridle upon him, using these
+portentous words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Horse, horse, see thou be;<br /></span>
+<span>And where I point thee carry me.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Swift as the rush of the wind, Robin felt their power. His nature
+changed: he grew more agile and capacious; and without further ado,
+found Goody upon his back, and his own shanks at an ambling gallop on
+the high-road to Pendle. He panted and grew weary, but she urged him on
+with an unsparing hand, <!-- Page 309 --><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309" ></a>lashing and spurring with all her might, until
+at last poor Robin, unused to such expedition, flagged and could
+scarcely crawl. But needs must when the witches drive. Rest and despite
+were denied, until, almost dead with toil and terror, he halted in one
+of the steep gullies of Pendle near to Malkin Tower.</p>
+
+<p>It was an old grey-headed ruin, solitary and uninhabited. The cold
+October wind whistled through its joints and crannies;&mdash;the walls were
+studded with bright patches of moss and lichen;&mdash;darkness and desolation
+brooded over it, unbroken by aught but the cry of the moor-fowl and the
+stealthy prowl of the weasel and wild cat.</p>
+
+<p>But this lonesome and time-hallowed ruin was now lit up as for some gay
+festival; lights were flickering through the crevices, and the coming of
+the guests, each mounted on her enchanted steed, was accompanied by loud
+and fiend-like acclamations. Shrieks and howlings were borne from afar
+upon the blast. Unhallowed words and unutterable curses came on the
+hollow wind. Forms of indescribable and abominable shape flitted through
+the troubled elements. Robin, trembling all over with fright and
+fatigue, was told by his mistress to graze where he could, while she
+went into the feast:&mdash;&quot;Make good use of thy time, for in two hours I
+shall mount thee back again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This was poor sustenance for Robin's stomach,&mdash;furze and heath were not
+at all to his mind, and he peeped about for a quiet resting-place. Here
+he was kicked and bitten by others of the herd; several of them were in
+the like pitiable condition with himself; but some were really of the
+brute kind, and these fared the best and were better mannered than most
+of their human companions. Often did our unfortunate hero wish himself
+in their place. Having little else to do, he was prompted by curiosity
+to approach the building, from whence the loud din of mirth and revelry
+grated harshly on his ears. A long chink disclosed to him some part of
+the mysteries within. There sat on the floor a great company of witches,
+feasting and cramming with all their might. An elderly gentleman of a
+grave and respectable deportment, clad in black doublet and hosen, sat
+on a stone-heap at the head, from whence he dealt out the delicacies
+with due care and attention. This was a mortifying sight to a hungry
+stomach, and Robin's humanity yearned at the display. After the first
+emotions had a little subsided, he found himself at leisure to examine
+the faces of the opposite guests, <!-- Page 310 --><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310" ></a>and he recognised several dames of
+his acquaintance, feasting right merrily at the witches' board. Either
+his fears and &quot;thick-coming fancies&quot; deceived him, or, as he afterwards
+declared, he saw nearly the whole of the neighbourhood at the assembly.</p>
+
+<p>Presently it seemed as if the first course were ended, and the floor
+cleared by invisible hands in a twinkling.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now pull,&quot; said the grave personage in black.</p>
+
+<p>Many ropes hung from the roof. These the women began to pull furiously,
+when down came pies, puddings, milk, cream, and rare wines, which they
+caught in wooden bowls; likewise sweet-meats and all manner of dainties,
+which made Robin's mouth to water so at the sight that he could bear it
+no longer. Intending to groan, he involuntarily uttered a loud neigh,
+which so alarmed the company that the lights were extinguished, and the
+guests sallied out, each immediately bestriding her steed, and setting
+forth at full gallop, save Goody Dickisson, who, in attempting to mount
+Robin, met with a sore mishap. Recollecting the charm which operated
+upon him, he gave his head a sudden fling: as good luck would have it,
+the bridle became entangled about her neck. His speech now came again,
+and he cried out&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Mare, mare, see thou be;<br /></span>
+<span>And where I point thee carry me.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Suddenly she was metamorphosed, and Robin in his turn bestrode the
+witch. He spared her not, as will readily be imagined, until he had her
+safe in her own stable before break of day. Leaving her there with the
+bridle about her neck, he entered the house, hungry and jaded. Soon he
+heard Giles coming down-stairs in a great hurry&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How now, sirrah!&quot; cried the incensed miller; &quot;did I not tell thee to
+forbid thy mistress the mare?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, master,&quot; replied Robin, scratching his head, &quot;and so I have&mdash;the
+beast hasna' been ridden sin' ye backed her on Friday.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art a lying hound to look me in the face and say so. Thy mistress
+hath been out again last night upon her old errands&mdash;I found it out when
+I awaked.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what's the matter of that?&quot; said Robin, with great alacrity. &quot;Ye
+may go see, master, an' ye liken&mdash;the mare's as dry as our meal-tub, and
+as brisk as bottled ale.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Giles turned angrily away from him towards the stable, <!-- Page 311 --><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311" ></a>tightening a
+tough cudgel in his grasp, with which he intended to belabour the
+unfortunate hind on his return. Nor was he long absent&mdash;Robin had
+scarcely swallowed a mouthful of hot porridge when his master thus
+accosted him&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, thou hob thrust, no good can come where thy fingers are
+a-meddling; there is another jade besides mine own tied to the rack, not
+worth a groat. Dost let thy neighbours lift my oats and provender?
+Better turn my mill into a spital for horses, and nourish all the
+worn-out kibboes i' the parish!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, measter, the beast is yours; and ye ha' foun' her bed and
+provender these twenty years.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll cudgel that lying spirit out o' thee,&quot; said Giles, wetting his
+hands for a firm grasp at the stick.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hold, master!&quot; said Robin, stepping aside; &quot;she has cost you more
+currying than all the combs in the stable are worth. Step in and take
+off the bridle, and then say whose beast she is, and who hath most right
+to her, you or your neighbours. But mind, when the bridle is off her
+neck, she slip it not on to yours; for if she do you are a gone man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Giles stayed not, but ran with great haste into the stable. The tired
+beast could scarcely stand; but he pulled off the bridle, and&mdash;as Robin
+told the tale&mdash;his own spouse immediately stood confessed before him!</p>
+
+<p>Here we pause. In the next part we shall rapidly sketch another of the
+traditions current on this strange subject. It will but be a brief and
+shadowy outline: space forbids us to dilate: the whole volume would not
+contain the stories that tradition attributes to the prevalence of this
+unnatural and revolting, though, it may be, imaginary crime.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a><img src="images/18.png" width="100" height="18" alt="Clyfrigrcype" title="" />, or <i>the rocky district</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Col-dwr, or <i>narrow water</i>. See Whitaker's etymology of
+the word (<i>Hist. of Manchester</i>).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> See an able article on this subject in the <i>Retrospective
+Review</i>, vol. v. part i.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> &quot;On Christmas daie at night, a threed must be sponne of
+flax, by a little virgine girl, in the name of the divell; and it must
+be by her woven, and also wrought with the needle. On the breste or fore
+part thereof must be made, with needlework, two heads; on the head of
+the right side must be a hat, and a long beard,&mdash;the left head must have
+on a crown, and it must be so horrible that it maie resemble Belzebub;
+and on each side of the wastcote must be made a crosse.&quot;&mdash;<i>Discoverie of
+Witchcraft</i>, by Reginald Scott, 1584.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PART_SECOND" id="PART_SECOND" ></a>PART SECOND.</h2>
+
+
+<p>On the verge of the Castle Clough, a deep and winding dingle, once
+shaded with venerable oaks, are the small remains of the Castle of
+Hapton, the seat of its ancient lords, and, till the erection of Hapton
+Tower, the occasional residence of the De la Leghs and Townleys. Hapton
+Tower is now destroyed to its foundation. It was a large square
+building, and about a hundred years ago presented the remains of three
+cylindrical towers <!-- Page 312 --><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312" ></a>with conical basements. It also appears to have had
+two principal entrances opposite to each other, with a thorough lobby
+between, and seems not to have been built in the usual form,&mdash;that of a
+quadrangle. It was erected about the year 1510, and was inhabited until
+1667. The family-name of the nobleman&mdash;for such he appears to have
+been&mdash;of whom the following story is told, we have no means of
+ascertaining. That he was an occasional resident or visitor at the Tower
+is but surmise. During the period of these dark transactions we find
+that the mansion was inhabited by Jane Assheton, relict of Richard
+Townley, who died in the year 1637. Whoever he might be, the following
+horrible event, arising out of this superstition, attaches to his
+memory. Whether it can be attributed to the operations of a mind just
+bordering on insanity, and highly wrought upon by existing
+delusions,&mdash;or must be classed amongst the proofs, so abundantly
+furnished by all believers in the reality of witchcraft and demoniacal
+possession, our readers must determine as we unfold the tale.</p>
+
+<p>Lord William had seen, and had openly vowed to win, the proud maiden of
+Bernshaw Tower. He did win her, but he did not woo her. A dark and
+appalling secret was connected with their union, which we shall briefly
+develop.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Sibyl, &quot;the proud maiden of Bernshaw,&quot; was from her youth the
+creature of impulse and imagination&mdash;a child of nature and romance. She
+roved unchecked through the green valleys and among the glens and
+moorlands of her native hills; every nook and streamlet was associated
+with some hidden thought &quot;too deep for tears,&quot; until Nature became her
+god,&mdash;the hills and fastnesses, the trackless wilds and mountains, her
+companions. With them alone she held communion; and as she watched the
+soft shadows and the white clouds take their quiet path upon the hills,
+she beheld in them the symbols of her own ideas,&mdash;the images and
+reflections,&mdash;the hidden world within her made visible. She felt no
+sympathy with the realities&mdash;the commonplaces of life; her thoughts were
+too aspiring for earth, yet found not their resting-place in heaven! It
+was no grovelling, degrading superstition which actuated her: she sighed
+for powers above her species,&mdash;she aspired to hold intercourse with
+beings of a superior nature. She would gaze for hours in wild delirium
+on the blue sky and starry vault, and wish she were freed from the base
+encumbrances of <!-- Page 313 --><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313" ></a>earth, that she might shine out among those glorious
+intelligences in regions without a shadow or a cloud. Imagination was
+her solace and her curse; she flew to it for relief as the drunkard to
+his cup, sparkling and intoxicating for a while, but its dregs were
+bitterness and despair. Soon her world of imagination began to quicken;
+and, as the wind came sighing through her dark ringlets, or rustling
+over the dry grass and heather bushes at her side, she thought a spirit
+spoke, or a celestial messenger crossed her path. The unholy rites of
+the witches were familiar to her ear, but she spurned their vulgar and
+low ambition; she panted for communion with beings more
+exalted&mdash;demigods and immortals, of whom she had heard as having been
+translated to those happier skies, forming the glorious constellations
+she beheld. Sometimes fancies wild and horrible assaulted her; she then
+shut herself for days in her own chamber, and was heard as though in
+converse with invisible things. When freed from this hallucination,
+agony was marked on her brow, and her cheek was more than usually pale
+and collapsed. She would then wander forth again:&mdash;the mountain-breeze
+reanimated her spirits, and imagination again became pleasant unto her.
+She heard the wild swans winging their way above her, and she thought of
+the wild hunters and the spectre-horseman:<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41" ></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> the short wail of the
+curlew, the call of the moor-cock and plover, was the voice of her
+beloved. To her all nature wore a charmed life: earth and sky were but
+creatures formed for her use, and the ministers of her pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>The Tower of Bernshaw was a small fortified house in the pass over the
+hills from Burnley to Todmorden. It stood within a short distance from
+the Eagle Crag; and the Lady Sibyl would often climb to the utmost verge
+of that overhanging peak, looking from its dizzy height until her soul
+expanded, and her thoughts took their flight through those dim regions
+where the eye could not penetrate.</p>
+
+<p>One evening she had lingered longer than usual: she felt unwilling to
+depart&mdash;to meet again the dull and wearisome realities of life&mdash;the
+petty cares that interest and animate mankind. She loathed her own form
+and her own species:&mdash;earth <!-- Page 314 --><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314" ></a>was too narrow for her desire, and she
+almost longed to burst its barriers. In the deep agony of her spirit she
+cried aloud&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Would that my path, like yon clouds, were on the wind, and my
+dwelling-place in their bosom!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A soft breeze came suddenly towards her, rustling the dry heath as it
+swept along. The grass bent beneath its footsteps, and it seemed to die
+away in articulate murmurs at her feet. Terror crept upon her, her bosom
+thrilled, and her whole frame was pervaded by some subtle and mysterious
+influence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who art thou?&quot; she whispered, as though to some invisible agent. She
+listened, but there was no reply; the same soft wind suddenly arose, and
+crept to her bosom.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who art thou?&quot; she inquired again, but in a louder tone. The breeze
+again flapped its wings, mantling upwards from where it lay, as if
+nestled on her breast. It mounted lightly to her cheek, but it felt
+hot&mdash;almost scorching&mdash;when the maiden cried out as before. It fluttered
+on her ear, and she thought there came a whisper&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am thy good spirit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, tell me,&quot; she cried with vehemence: &quot;show me who thou art!&quot;&mdash;a mist
+curled round her, and a lambent flame, like the soft lightning of a
+summer's night, shot from it. She saw a form, glorious but indistinct,
+and the flashes grew paler every moment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Leave me not,&quot; she cried; &quot;I will be thine!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Then the cloud passed away, and a being stood before her, mightier and
+more stately than the sons of men. A burning fillet was on his brow, and
+his eyes glowed with an ever-restless flame.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maiden, I come at thy wish. Speak!&mdash;what is thy desire.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let thought be motion;&mdash;let my will only be the boundary of my power,&quot;
+said she, nothing daunted; for her mind had become too familiar with
+invisible fancies, and her ambition too boundless to feel either awe or
+alarm. Immediately she felt as though she were sweeping through the
+trackless air,&mdash;she heard the rush of mighty wings cleaving the
+sky,&mdash;she thought the whole world lay at her feet, and the kingdoms of
+the earth moved on like a mighty pageant. Then did the vision change.
+Objects began to waver and grow dim, as if passing through a mist; and
+she found herself again upon that lonely crag, and her conductor at her
+side. He grasped her hand: she felt his <!-- Page 315 --><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315" ></a>burning touch, and a sudden
+smart as though she were stung&mdash;a drop of blood hung on her finger. He
+unbound the burning fillet, and she saw as though it were a glimpse of
+that unquenchable, unconsuming flame that devoured him. He took the
+blood and wrote upon her brow. The agony was intense, and a faint shriek
+escaped her. He spoke, but the sound rang in her ears like the knell of
+hopes for ever departed.</p>
+
+<p>For words of such presumptuous blasphemy, tradition must be voiceless.
+The demon looked upwards; but, as if blasted by some withering sight,
+his eyes were suddenly withdrawn.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>What homage was exacted, let no one seek to know.</p>
+
+<p>After a pause, the deceiver again addressed her; and his form changed as
+he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One day in the year alone thou shalt be subject to mischance. It is the
+feast of All-Hallows, when the witches meet to renew their vows. On this
+night thou must be as they, and must join their company. Still thou
+mayest hide thyself under any form thou shalt choose; but it shall abide
+upon thee until midnight. Till then thy spells are powerless. On no
+other day shall harm befall thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The maiden felt her pride dilate:&mdash;her weak and common nature she
+thought was no longer a degradation; she seemed as though she could
+bound through infinite space. Already was she invested with the
+attributes of immateriality, when she awoke!&mdash;and in her own chamber,
+whither the servants had conveyed her from the crag an hour before,
+having found her asleep, or in a swoon, upon the verge of the precipice.
+She looked at her hand; the sharp wound was there, and she felt her brow
+tingle as if to remind her of that irrevocable pledge.</p>
+
+<p>Lord William sued in vain to the maid of Bernshaw Tower. She repulsed
+him with scorn and contumely. He vowed that he would win her, though the
+powers of darkness withstood the attempt. To accomplish this impious
+purpose, he sought Mause, the witch's dwelling. It was a dreary hut,
+built in a rocky cleft, shunned by all as the abode of wicked and
+malignant spirits, which the dame kept and nursed as familiars, for the
+fulfilment of her malicious will.</p>
+
+<p>The night was dark and heavy when Lord William tied his steed to a rude
+gate that guarded the entrance to the witch's den. He raised the latch,
+but there was no light within.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 316 --><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316" ></a>Holloa!&quot; cried the courageous intruder; but all was dark and silent as
+before. Just as he was about to depart he thought he heard a rustling
+near him, and presently the croaking voice of the hag close at his ear.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lord William,&quot; said she, &quot;thou art a bold man to come hither after
+nightfall.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He felt something startled, but he swerved not from his purpose.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can'st help me to a bride, Mother Helston?&quot; cried he, in a firm voice;
+&quot;for I feel mightily constrained to wed!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is the doomed maiden of Bernshaw a bride fit for Lord William's bosom?&quot;
+said the invisible sorceress.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Give me some charm to win her consent,&mdash;I care not for the rest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Charm!&quot; replied the beldame, with a screech that made Lord William
+start back. &quot;Spells have I none that can bind her. I would she were in
+my power; but she hath spell for spell. Nought would avail thee, for she
+is beyond my reach; her power would baffle mine?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is she too tainted with the iniquity that is abroad?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I tell thee yea; and my spirit must bow to hers. Wouldst wed her
+now&mdash;fond, feeble-hearted mortal?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lord William was silent; but the beautiful form of the maiden seemed to
+pass before him, and he loved her with such overmastering vehemence that
+if Satan himself had stood in the gap he would not have shrunk from his
+purpose.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mause Helston,&quot; said the lover, &quot;if thou wilt help me at this bout, I
+will not draw back. I dare wed her though she were twice the thing thou
+fearest. Tell me how her spell works,&mdash;I will countervail it,&mdash;- I will
+break that accursed charm, and she shall be my bride!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For a while there was no reply; but he heard a muttering as though some
+consultation were going on.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Listen, Lord William,&quot; she spoke aloud. &quot;Ay, thou wilt listen to thine
+own jeopardy! Once in the year&mdash;'tis on the night of All-Hallows&mdash;she
+may be overcome. But it is a perilous attempt!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I care not. Point out the way, and I will ride it rough-shod!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The beldame arose from her couch, and struck a light. Ere they separated
+the morning dawned high above the grey hills. <!-- Page 317 --><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317" ></a>Many rites and
+incantations were performed, of which we forbear the disgusting recital.
+The instructions he received were never divulged; the secrets of that
+night were never known; but an altered man was Lord William when he came
+back to Hapton Tower.</p>
+
+<p>On All-Hallows' day, with a numerous train, he went forth a-hunting. His
+hounds were the fleetest from Calder to Calder; and his horns the
+shrillest through the wide forests of Accrington and Rossendale. But on
+that morning a strange hound joined the pack that outstripped them all.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Blow,&quot; cried Lord William, &quot;till the loud echoes ring, and the fleet
+hounds o'ertake yon grizzled mongrel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Both horses and dogs were driven to their utmost speed, but the strange
+hound still kept ahead. Over moor and fell they still rushed on, the
+hounds in full cry, though as yet guided only by the scent, the object
+of their pursuit not being visible. Suddenly a white doe was seen,
+distant a few yards only, and bounding away from them at full speed. She
+might have risen out of the ground, so immediate was her appearance. On
+they went in full view, but the deer was swift, and she seemed to wind
+and double with great dexterity. Her bearing was evidently towards the
+steep crags on the east. They passed the Tower of Bernshaw, and were
+fast approaching the verge of that tremendous precipice, the &quot;Eagle
+Crag.&quot; Horse and rider must inevitably perish if they follow. But Lord
+William slackened not in the pursuit; and the deer flew straight as an
+arrow to its mark,&mdash;the very point where the crag jutted out over the
+gulf below. The huntsmen drew back in terror; the dogs were still in
+chase, though at some distance behind;&mdash;Lord William only and the
+strange hound were close upon her track. Beyond the crag nothing was
+visible but cloud and sky, showing the fearful height and abruptness of
+the descent. One moment, and the gulf must be shot:&mdash;his brain felt
+dizzy, but his heart was resolute.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mause, my wench,&quot; said he, &quot;my neck or thine!&mdash;Hie thee; if she's over,
+we are lost!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lord William's steed followed in the hound's footsteps to a hair. The
+deer was almost within her last spring, when the hound, with a loud
+yell, doubled her, scarcely a yard's breadth from the long bare neb of
+that fearful peak, and she turned with inconceivable speed so near the
+verge that Lord William, <!-- Page 318 --><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318" ></a>in wheeling round, heard a fragment of rock,
+loosened by the stroke from his horse's hoof, roll down the precipice
+with a frightful crash. The sudden whirl had nearly brought him to the
+ground, but he recovered his position with great adroitness. A loud
+shriek announced the capture. The cruel hound held the deer by the
+throat, and they were struggling together on the green earth. With
+threats and curses he lashed away the ferocious beast, who growled
+fiercely at being driven from her prey. With looks of sullenness and
+menace, she scampered off, leaving Lord William to secure the victim. He
+drew a silken noose from his saddle-bow, and threw it over the panting
+deer, who followed quietly on to his dwelling at Hapton Tower.</p>
+
+<p>At midnight there was heard a wild and unearthly shriek from the high
+turret, so pitiful and shrill that the inmates awoke in great alarm. The
+loud roar of the wind came on like a thunder-clap. The tempest flapped
+its wings, and its giant arms rocked the turret like a cradle. At this
+hour Lord William, with a wild and haggard eye, left his chamber. The
+last stroke of the midnight bell trembled on his ear as he entered the
+western tower. A maiden sat there, a silken noose was about her head,
+and she sobbed loud and heavily. She wrung her white hands at his
+approach.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy spells have been o'ermastered. Henceforth I renounce these unholy
+rites; I would not pass nights of horror and days of dread any longer.
+Maiden, thou art in my power. Unless thou wilt be mine,&mdash;renouncing
+thine impious vows,&mdash;for ever shunning thy detested arts,&mdash;breaking that
+accursed chain the enemy has wound about thee,&mdash;I will deliver thee up
+to thy tormentors, and those that seek thy destruction. This done, and
+thou art free.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The maiden threw her snake-like glance upon him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Alas!&quot; she cried, &quot;I am not free. This magic noose! remove it, and my
+promise shall be without constraint.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, thou arch-deceiver,&mdash;deceiver of thine own self, and plotter of
+thine own ruin,&mdash;I would save thee from thy doom. Promise, renounce, and
+for ever forswear thy vows. The priest will absolve thee; it must be
+done ere I unbind that chain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I promise,&quot; said the maiden, after a deep and unbroken silence. &quot;I have
+not been happy since I knew their power. I may yet worship this fair
+earth and yon boundless sky. This heart would be void without an object
+and a possession!&quot;</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 319 --><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319" ></a>She shed no tear until the holy man, with awful and solemn
+denunciations, exorcised the unclean spirit to whom she was bound. He
+admonished her, as a repentant wanderer from the flock, to shun the
+perils of presumption, reminding her that HE, of whom it is written that
+He was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be <i>tempted</i> of the
+devil,&mdash;HE who won for us the victory in that conflict, taught <i>us</i> in
+praying to say, &quot;Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.&quot;
+She was rebaptized as one newly born, and committed again to the keeping
+of the Holy Church. Shortly afterwards were united at the altar Lord
+William and Lady Sibyl. He accompanied her to Bernshaw Tower, their
+future residence,&mdash;becoming, in right of his wife, the sole possessor of
+those domains.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> In Lancashire these noises are called the Gabriel
+Ratchets, according to Webster, which seem to be the same with the
+German Rachtvogel or Rachtraven. The word and the superstition are still
+prevalent. Gabriel Ratchets are supposed to be like the sound of puppies
+yelping in the air, and to forebode death or misfortune.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PART_THIRD" id="PART_THIRD" ></a>PART THIRD.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Twelve months were nigh come and gone, and the feast of All-Hallows was
+again at hand. Lord William's bride sat in her lonely bower, but her
+face was pale, and her eyes red with weeping. The tempter had been
+there; and she had not sought for protection against his snares. That
+night she was expected to renew her allegiance to the prince of
+darkness. Those fearful rites must now bind her for ever to his will.
+Such appeared to be her infatuation that it led her to imagine she was
+yet his by right of purchase, without being fully conscious of the
+impiety of that thought. His own power had been promised to her: true,
+she must die; but might she not, a spirit like himself, rove from world
+to world without restraint? She thought&mdash;so perilously rapid was her
+relapse and her delusion&mdash;that his form had again passed before her,
+beautiful as before his transgression!&mdash;&quot;The Son of the Morning!&quot;
+arrayed in the majesty which he had before the world was,&mdash;ere heaven's
+Ruler had hurled him from his throne. Her mental vision was perverted.
+Light and darkness, good and evil, were no longer distinguished. Perhaps
+it was a dream; but the imagination had becomed diseased, and she
+distinguished not its inward operations from outward impressions on the
+sense. Her husband was kind, and loved her with a lover's fondness, but
+she could not return his affection. He saw her unhappy, and he
+administered comfort; but the source of her misery was in himself, and
+she sighed to be free?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 320 --><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320" ></a>Free!&quot;&mdash;she started; the voice was an echo to her thought. It appeared
+to be in the chamber, but she saw no living form. She had vowed to
+renounce the devil and all his works in her rebaptism, before she was
+led to the altar, and how could she face her husband?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He shall not know of our compact.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>These words seemed to be whispered in her ear. She turned aside; but saw
+nothing save the glow of sunset through the lattice, and a wavering
+light upon the floor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would spare him this misery,&quot; she sighed. &quot;Conceal but the secret
+from him, and I am again thine!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the well-known form of her familiar was at her side.</p>
+
+<p>The following day was All-Hallows-e'en, and her allegiance must be
+renewed in the great assembly of his subjects held on that fearful
+night.</p>
+
+<p>It was in the year 1632, a period well known in history as having led
+to the apprehension of a considerable number of persons accused of
+witchcraft. The depositions of these miserable creatures were taken
+before Richard Shuttleworth and John Starkie, two of his Majesty's
+justices of the peace, on the 10th of February 1633; and they were
+committed to Lancaster Castle for trial.</p>
+
+<p>Seventeen of them were found guilty, on evidence suspicious enough under
+ordinary circumstances, but not at all to be wondered at, if we consider
+the feeling and excitement then abroad. Some of the deluded victims
+themselves confessed their crime, giving minute and connected statements
+of their meetings, and the transactions which then took place. Justices
+of the peace, judges, and the highest dignitaries of the realm, firmly
+believed in these reputed sorceries. Even the great Sir Thomas Brown,
+author of the book intended as an exposure of &quot;Vulgar Errors,&quot; gave his
+testimony to the truth and reality of those diabolical delusions. But we
+have little need to wonder at the superstition of past ages, when we
+look at the folly and credulity of our own.</p>
+
+<p>It may, perhaps, be pleasing to learn that the judge who presided at the
+trial respited the convicts, and reported their case to the king in
+council. They were next remitted to Chester, where Bishop Bridgeman,
+certifying his opinion of the matter, four of the accused&mdash;Margaret
+Johnson, Frances Dickisson, <!-- Page 321 --><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321" ></a>Mary Spencer, and the wife of one
+Hargreaves&mdash;were sent to London and examined, first by the king's
+physicians, and afterwards by Charles I. in person. &quot;A stranger scene
+can scarcely be perceived,&quot; says the historian of Whalley; &quot;and it is
+not easy to imagine whether the untaught manners, rude dialect, and
+uncouth appearance of these poor foresters would more astonish the king;
+or his dignity of person and manners, together with the splendid scene
+by which they were surrounded, would overwhelm them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The story made so much noise that plays were written on the subject, and
+enacted. One of them is entitled, &quot;The late Lancashire Witches, a
+well-received Comedy, lately acted at the Globe on the Bank-side, by the
+King's Majesty's Actors. Written by Thomas Haywood and Richard Broom.
+<i>Aut prodesse solent, aut delectare</i>, 1634.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But our element is tradition, especially as illustrating ancient manners
+and superstitions; we therefore give the sequel of our tale as tradition
+hath preserved it.</p>
+
+<p>Giles Dickisson, the merry miller at the Mill Clough, had so taken to
+heart his wife's dishonesty that, as we have before observed, he grew
+fretful and morose. His mill he vowed was infested with a whole legion
+of these &quot;hell-cats,&quot; as they were called; for in this shape they
+presented themselves to the affrighted eyes of the miserable
+yoke-fellow, as he fancied himself, to a limb of Satan. The yells and
+screeches he heard o'nights from these witches and warlocks were
+unbearable; and once or twice, when late at the mill, both he and Robin
+had received some palpable tokens of their presence. Scratches and
+bloody marks were plainly visible, and every hour brought with it some
+new source of annoyance or alarm.</p>
+
+<p>One morning Giles showed himself with a disconsolate face before Lord
+William at the Tower; he could bear his condition no longer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;T'other night,&quot; said he, &quot;the witches set me astride o' t' riggin' o'
+my own house.<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42" ></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> It was a bitter cold time, an' I was nearly perished
+when I wakened. I am weary of my life, and <!-- Page 322 --><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322" ></a>will flit; for this country,
+the deil, I do think, holds in his own special keeping!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Then Robin stept forward, offering to take the mill on his master's
+quittance. He cared not, he said, for all the witch-women in the parish.
+He had &quot;fettled&quot; one of them, and, by his Maker's help, he hoped fairly
+to drive them off the field. The bargain was struck, and Robin that day
+entered into possession.</p>
+
+<p>By a strange coincidence, this transaction happened on the eve of
+All-Hallows before mentioned; and Lord William requested that Robin
+would on that night keep watch. His courage, he said, would help him
+through; and if he could rid the mill of them, the Baron promised him a
+year's rent, and a good largess besides. Robin was fain of the offer,
+and prepared himself for the strife, determined, if possible, to eject
+these ugly vermin from the premises.</p>
+
+<p>On this same night, soon after sunset, the lady of Bernshaw Tower went
+forth, leaving her lord in a deep sleep, the effect, as it was supposed,
+of her own spells. Ere she departed, every symbol or token of grace was
+laid aside;&mdash;her rosary was unbound. She drew a glove from her hand, and
+in it was the bridle ring, which she threw from her,&mdash;when the flame of
+the lamp suddenly expired. It was in her little toilet-chamber, where
+she had paused, that she might pursue her meditations undisturbed. Her
+allegiance must be renewed, and revoked no more; but her pride, that
+darling sin for which she raised her soul, must first suffer. On that
+night she must be guided by the same laws, and subjected to the same
+degrading influence, as her fellow-subjects. At least once a year this
+condition must be fulfilled:&mdash;all rank and distinction being lost, the
+vassals were alike equal in subordination to their chief. On this night,
+too, the rights of initiation were usually administered.</p>
+
+<p>The time drew nigh, and the Lady Sibyl, intending to conceal the glove
+with the sacred symbol, passed her hand on the table where it had
+lain&mdash;but it was gone!</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>In a vast hollow, nearly surrounded by crags and precipices, bare and
+inaccessible, the meeting was assembled, and the lady of the Tower was
+to be restored to their communion. Gliding like a shadow, came in the
+wife of Lord William,&mdash;pale, and her tresses dishevelled, she seemed the
+victim either of disease or insanity.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 323 --><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323" ></a>Under a tottering and blasted pine sat their chief, in a human form;
+his stature lofty and commanding, he appeared as a ruler even in this
+narrow sphere of his dominion. Yet he looked round with a glance of
+mockery and scorn. He was fallen, and he felt degraded; but his aim was
+to mar the glorious image of his Maker, and trample it beneath his feet.</p>
+
+<p>A crowd of miserable and deluded beings came at the beck of their chief,
+each accompanied by her familiar. But the lady of Bernshaw came alone.
+Her act of renouncement had deprived her of this privilege.</p>
+
+<p>The mandate having been proclaimed, and the preliminary rites to this
+fearful act of reprobation performed, the assembly waited for the
+concluding act&mdash;the cruel and appalling trial: one touch of his finger
+was to pass upon her brow,&mdash;the impress, the mark of the beast,&mdash;the
+sign that was to snatch her from the reach of mercy! Her spirit
+shuddered;&mdash;nature shrank from the unholy contact. Once more she looked
+towards that heaven she was about to forfeit,&mdash;and for ever!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For ever!&quot;&mdash;the words rang in her ears; their sound was like the knell
+of her everlasting hope. She started aside, as though she felt a horrid
+and scorching breath upon her cheek, as though she already felt their
+unutterable import in the abysses of woe!</p>
+
+<p>Conscience, long slumbering, seemed to awake; she was seized with the
+anguish of despair! It seemed as though judgment were passed, and she
+was doomed to wander like some rayless orb in the blackness of darkness
+for ever. One fearful undefined form of terror was before her; one
+consciousness of offence ever present; all idea of past and future
+absorbed in one ever-during NOW, she felt that her misery was too heavy
+to sustain. A groan escaped her lips, but it was an appeal to that power
+for deliverance, who is not slow to hear, &quot;nor impotent to save.&quot;
+Suddenly she was roused from some deep and overpowering hallucination;
+the promises of unlimited gratification to every wish prevailed no more,
+the tempter's charm was broken. All was changed; the whole scene seemed
+to vanish; and that form, which once appeared to her like an angel of
+light, fell prostrate, writhing away in terrific and tortuous folds on
+the hissing earth. The crowd scattered with a fearful yell;&mdash;she heard
+a rush of wings, and a loud and dissonant scream,&mdash;and the &quot;Bride of
+Bernshaw&quot; fell senseless to the ground.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 324 --><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324" ></a>We leave the conscience-stricken victim whilst we relate the result of
+Robin's watch-night at the mill.</p>
+
+<p>He lay awake until midnight, but there was no disturbance; nothing was
+heard but the plash of the mill-stream, and the dripping ooze from the
+rocks. His old enemies, no doubt, were intimidated, and he was about
+commencing a snug nap on the idea&mdash;when, lo! there came a great rush of
+wind. He heard it booming on from a vast distance, until it seemed to
+sweep over the building in one wide resistless torrent that might have
+levelled the stoutest edifice;&mdash;yet was the mill unharmed by the attack.
+Then came shrieks and yells, mingled with the most horrid imprecations.
+Swift as thought, there rushed upon him a prodigious company of cats,
+bats, and all manner of hideous things, that scratched and pinched him,
+as he afterwards declared, until his flesh verily &quot;reeked&quot; again.
+Maddened by the torment, he began to lay about him lustily with a long
+whittle which he carried for domestic purposes. They gave back at so
+unexpected a reception. Taking courage thereby, Robin followed, and they
+fled, helter-skelter, like a routed army. Through loop-holes and windows
+went the obscene crew, with such hideous screeches as startled the whole
+neighbourhood. He gave one last desperate lunge as a parting
+remembrance, and felt that his weapon had made a hit. Something fell on
+the floor, but the light was extinguished in the scuffle, and in vain he
+attempted to grope out this trophy of his valour.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've sliced off a leg or a wing,&quot; thought he, &quot;and I may lay hold on it
+in the morning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>All was now quiet, and Robin, to his great comfort, was left without
+further molestation.</p>
+
+<p>Morning dawned bright and cheerful on the grey battlements of Bernshaw
+Tower; the sun came out joyously over the hills; but Lord William walked
+forth with an anxious and gloomy countenance. His wife had feigned
+illness, and the old nurse had tended her through the night in a
+separate chamber. This was the story he had learnt on finding her absent
+when he awoke. Early presenting himself at the door, he was refused
+admission. She was ill&mdash;very ill. The lady was fallen asleep, and might
+not be disturbed: such was the answer he received. Rising over the hill,
+he now saw the gaunt ungainly form of Robin, his new tenant, approaching
+in great haste with a bundle under his arm.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 325 --><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325" ></a>What news from the mill, my stout warrior of the north?&quot; said Lord
+William.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think I payed one on 'em, your worship,&quot; said Robin, taking the
+bundle in his hand. &quot;Not a cat said mew when they felt my whittle.
+Marry, I spoilt their catterwauling: I've cut a rare shive!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How didst fare last night with thy wenches?&quot; inquired the other.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've mended their manners for a while, I guess. As I peeped about
+betimes this morning, I found&mdash;a paw! If cats are bred with hands and
+gowden rings on their fingers, they shall e'en ha' sporting-room i' the
+mill! No bad luck, methinks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Robin uncovered the prize, and drew out a bleeding hand, mangled at the
+wrist, and blackened as if by fire; one finger decorated with a ring,
+which Lord William too plainly recognised. He seized the terrific
+pledge, and, with a look betokening some deadly purpose, hastened to his
+wife's chamber. He demanded admittance in too peremptory a tone for
+denial. His features were still, not a ripple marked the disturbance
+beneath. He stood with a calm and tranquil brow by her bed-side; but she
+read a fearful message in his eye.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fair lady, how farest thou?&mdash;I do fear me thou art ill!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She's sick, and in great danger. You may not disturb her, my lord,&quot;
+said the nurse, attempting to prevent his too near approach;&mdash;&quot;I pray
+you depart; your presence afflicts her sorely.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ay, and so it does,&quot; said Lord William, with a strange and hideous
+laugh. &quot;I pray thee, lady, let me play the doctor,&mdash;hold out thy hand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The lady was still silent. She turned away her head. His glance was too
+withering to endure.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, then, I must constrain thee, dame.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She drew out her hand, which Lord William seized with a violent and
+convulsive grasp.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I fear me 'tis a sickness unto death; small hope of amendment here.
+Give me the other; perchance I may find there more comfort.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, my husband, I cannot;&mdash;I am&mdash;I have no strength.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, thou art grown peevish with thy distemper. Since 'tis so, I must
+e'en force thy stubborn will.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Alas! I cannot.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 326 --><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326" ></a>If not thy hand, show me thy wrist!&mdash;I have here a match to it,
+methinks. O earth&mdash;earth&mdash;hide me in thy womb!&mdash;let the darkness blot me
+out and this blasting testimony for ever!&mdash;Accursed hag, what hast thou
+done?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He seized her by the hair.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What hast thou promised the fiend? Tell me,&mdash;or&quot;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have, oh, I fear I have,&mdash;consented to the compact!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How far doth it bind thee?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My soul&mdash;my better part!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy better part?&mdash;thy worse! A loathsome ulcer, reeking with the stench
+from the pit! Better have given thy body to the stake, than have let in
+one unhallowed desire upon thy soul. How far does thy contract reach?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All interest I can claim. His part that created it I could not give,
+not being mine to yield.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lost! lost! Thou hast, indeed, sold thyself to perdition! I'll purge
+this earth of witchery;&mdash;I'll make their carcases my weapon's
+sheath;&mdash;hence inglorious scabbard!&quot; He flung away the sheath. Twining
+her dark hair about his fingers&mdash;&quot;Die!&mdash;impious, polluted wretch! This
+blessed earth loathes thee,&mdash;the grave's holy sanctuary will cast thee
+out! Yon glorious sun would smite thee should I refrain!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He raised his sword&mdash;a gleam of triumph seemed to flash from her eye, as
+though she were eager for the blow; but the descending weapon was
+stayed, and by no timid hand.</p>
+
+<p>Lord William turned, yet he saw not the cause of its restraint. The lady
+alone seemed to be aware of some unseen intruder, and her eye darkened
+with apprehension. Suddenly she sprang from the couch; a shriek from no
+human agency escaped her, and the spirit seemed to have passed from its
+abode.</p>
+
+<p>Lord William threw himself on her pale and inanimate form.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Farewell!&quot; he cried: &quot;I had thought thee honest!&mdash;Nay, lost spirit, I
+must not say farewell!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He gazed on his once-loved bride with a look of such unutterable
+tenderness that the heart's deep gush burst from his eyes, and he wept
+in that almost unendurable anguish. The sight was too harrowing to
+sustain. He was about to withdraw, when a convulsive tremor passed
+across her features&mdash;a trembling like the undulation of the breeze
+rippling the smooth bosom of <!-- Page 327 --><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327" ></a>the lake; a sigh seemed to labour heavily
+from her breast; her eyes opened; but as though yet struggling under the
+influence of some terrific dream, she cried&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, save me&mdash;save me!&quot; She looked upwards: it was as if the light of
+heaven had suddenly shone in upon her benighted soul.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lost, saidst thou, accursed fiend?&mdash;Never until his power shall yield
+to thine!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Yet she shuddered, as though the appalling shadow were still upon her
+spirit.&mdash;&quot;Nay, 'twas but a dream.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dreams!&quot; cried Lord William, recovering from a look of speechless
+amazement. &quot;Thy dreams are more akin to truth than ever were thy waking
+reveries.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, my Lord, look not so unkindly on me&mdash;I will tell thee all. I
+dreamt that I was possessed, and this body was the dwelling of a demon.
+It was permitted as a punishment for my transgressions; for I had sought
+communion with the fiend. I was the companion of witches&mdash;foul and
+abominable shapes;&mdash;a beastly crew, with whom I was doomed to
+associate. Hellish rites and deeds, too horrible to name, were
+perpetrated. As a witness of my degradation, methought my right hand was
+withered. I feel it still! Yet&mdash;surely 'twas a dream!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She raised her hand, gazing earnestly on it, which, to Lord William's
+amazement, appeared whole as before, save a slight mark round the wrist,
+but the ring was not there.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What can this betide?&quot; said the trembling sufferer. She looked
+suspiciously on this apparent confirmation of her guilt, and then upon
+her husband. &quot;Oh, tell me that I did but dream!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Lord William spoke not.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know it all now!&quot; she said, with a heavy sob. &quot;My crime is punished;
+and I loathe my own form, for it is polluted. Yet the whole has passed
+but as some horrible dream&mdash;and I am free! This tabernacle is cleansed;
+no more shall it be defiled; for to Thee do I render up my trust.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A mild radiance had displaced the wild and unnatural lustre of her eye,
+as she looked up to the mercy she invoked, and was forgiven.</p>
+
+<p>Her spirit was permitted but a brief sojourn in this region of sorrow.
+Ere another sun, her head hung lifeless on Lord William's bosom;&mdash;he had
+pressed her to his heart in token of <!-- Page 328 --><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328" ></a>forgiveness; but he held only the
+cold and clammy shrine&mdash;the idol had departed!</p>
+
+<p>According to the popular solution of this fearful mystery, a demon or
+familiar had reanimated her form while she lay senseless at the sudden
+and unlooked-for dissolution of the witches' assembly. In this shape the
+imp had joined the rendezvous at the mill, and fleeing from the effects
+of Robin's valour, maliciously hoped that Lord William would execute a
+swift vengeance on his erring bride. But his hand was stayed by another
+and more merciful power, and the demon was cast out.</p>
+
+<p>The ring and glove were not found. It was said that Mause Helston had
+taken them as a gage of fealty, and dying about the same period, was
+denied the rites of Christian burial. Hence may have arisen the belief
+which tradition has preserved respecting the Lady Sibyl.</p>
+
+<p>Popular superstition still alleges that her grave was dug where the dark
+&quot;Eagle Crag&quot; shoots out its cold bare peak into the sky. Often, it is
+said, on the eve of All-Hallows, do the hound and the milk-white doe
+meet on the crag&mdash;a spectre huntsman in full chase. The belated peasant
+crosses himself at the sound as he remembers the fate of &quot;The Witch of
+Bernshaw Tower.&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="center"><!-- Page 329 --><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329" ></a><!-- Page 330 --><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330" ></a>
+<img src="images/19.png" width="600" height="422" alt="LATHOM HOUSE AS IT EXISTED BEFORE THE SIEGE, RESTORED
+FROM EXISTING DOCUMENTS.
+
+Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden." title="" />
+<b>LATHOM HOUSE AS IT EXISTED BEFORE THE SIEGE, RESTORED
+FROM EXISTING DOCUMENTS.<br />
+
+<i>Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw<sup>d</sup> Finden.</i></b>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> &quot;Riggin'&quot; or ridging. The hills which divide the counties
+of York and Lancaster are sometimes called &quot;th' riggin',&quot; from their
+being the highest land between the two seas forming part of what is
+called the backbone of England. An individual residing at a place named
+&quot;The Summit,&quot; from its situation, was asked where he lived. &quot;I live at
+th' riggin' o' th' warld, I reckon,&quot; says he; &quot;for th' water fro' t' one
+side o' th' roof fa's to th' east sea, an' t' other to th' west sea.&quot;</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="SIEGE_OF_LATHOM" id="SIEGE_OF_LATHOM" ></a><!-- Page 331 --><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331" ></a>SIEGE OF LATHOM.</h2>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Let me no longer live, she sayd,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Than to my lord I true remain;<br /></span>
+<span>My honour shall not be betray'd<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Until I see my love again.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Oh! blame her not if she was glad<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">When she her lord again had seen.<br /></span>
+<span>Thrice welcome home, my dear, she said,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">A long time absent thou hast been:<br /></span>
+<span>The wars shall never more deprive<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Me of my lord whilst I'm alive.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="author">&mdash;<i>Mirrour for Married Women</i>.</p>
+
+<p>No authentic drawing or representation of Lathom House, we believe,
+exists. The author has, however, had the temerity to present a
+restoration of this renowned edifice, as it appeared before the siege,
+and before &quot;the sequestrators under Cromwell, weary of the slow disposal
+of the building materials by sale, invited the peasants of the hundred
+of West Derby to take away the stones and timbers without any charge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The very numerous documents to which he has had recourse were aided by
+measurements, and a visit to the spot, where he found that a tolerable
+accurate idea might be formed of the situation and extent of the walls
+and towers, together with the main entrance, and the &quot;great Eagle
+Tower.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The accompanying view is taken from a hill above the valley or trench,
+where, it is said, the main army of the besiegers was encamped. It is
+called in the neighbourhood &quot;Cromwell's Trench,&quot; and the engraving may
+serve to convey some idea of that magnificent and princely dwelling,
+which, as the old ballad expresses it, would hold &quot;two kinges, their
+traines and all.&quot; Henry the Seventh, two years after his visit to
+Lathom, restored his palace at Richmond, the same authority tells us,
+&quot;like Lathom Hall in fashion.&quot; The gate-house in the engraving is drawn
+from the description of a carving of the Stanley legend in Manchester
+Collegiate Church, executed in the time of James Stanley, Bishop of Ely.
+From this it appears to have had two octagonal turrets on each side of
+an obtusely-pointed or circular archway with battlements, machicolated
+and pierced for cannon.</p>
+
+<p>The Eagle Tower alone remained when part of the estate was transferred
+to John Lord Ashburnham, on his marriage, in 1714, with Henri<!-- Page 332 --><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332" ></a>etta,
+daughter of William, ninth earl of Derby. Lord Ashburnham sold it to a
+Furness, and he to Sir Thomas Bootle. Not a vestige now exists, and even
+the records of the family are destroyed. &quot;Golforden,&quot; says Mr Heywood,
+in his interesting <i>Notes to a Journal of the Siege of Lathom,</i> &quot;along
+whose banks knights and ladies have a thousand times made resort,
+hearkening to stories as varied as those of Boccaccio;&mdash;the maudlin
+well, where the pilgrim and the lazar devoutly cooled their parched
+lips;&mdash;the mewing-house,&mdash;the training round,&mdash;every appendage to
+antique baronial state,&mdash;all now are changed, and a modern mansion and a
+new possessor fill the place.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This memorable siege, and the heroic defence by Lady Derby, though among
+the most prominent topics in the history of the county, supply but few
+materials which may not be found in records that already exist. Yet
+there are incidents connected with them which the historian has left
+unrecorded; occurrences, it might be, too trivial or too apocryphal for
+his pen. One of the main events in the following narrative, though not
+found amongst written and authenticated records, the author has listened
+to when a child, with a vigorous and greedy appetite for wonder,&mdash;one of
+the earliest and most delightful exercises of the imagination.</p>
+
+<p>We purpose to follow briefly the order of events as they appear in the
+several narratives to which we have had access, interweaving such
+traditionary matter as we have gathered in our researches, thereby
+interrupting and relieving the tediousness of this &quot;thrice-told tale.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lord Derby, from the usual unhappy fatality, or rather from the
+indecision and jealousies prevailing in his Majesty's councils, had been
+commanded to leave the realm, and proceed instantly to the Isle of Man,
+at the precise time when his presence here would have been the most
+serviceable, not only from his great zeal, activity, and loyalty to his
+sovereign, but by reason of the influence he possessed, and the example
+which his noble and valiant bearing had shown throughout the county. His
+house, children, and all other temporal concerns, he left to the care of
+his lady, first making provision, secretly, for their defence, supplying
+her with men, money, and ammunition, that she might not be unprepared in
+case of attack. His lordship's opinion of this disastrous and impolitic
+removal may be gathered from the following hasty expressions. After a
+perusal of the despatches, announcing the king's, or rather the queen's,
+<!-- Page 333 --><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333" ></a>pleasure that he should speedily repair to the Isle of Man, where an
+invasion was apprehended from the Scots,&mdash;speaking to the Lady Derby
+with more than ordinary quickness, he said, &quot;My heart, my enemies have
+now their will, having prevailed with his Majesty to order me to the
+Isle of Man, as a softer banishment from his presence and their malice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This valiant and high-born dame was daughter to Claude, Duke of
+Tremouille, and Charlotte Brabantin de Nassau, daughter of William,
+Prince of Orange, and Charlotte de Bourbon, of the royal house of
+France. By this marriage the Earl of Derby was allied to the French
+kings, the Dukes of Anjou, the Kings of Naples and Sicily, the Kings of
+Spain, and many other of the sovereign princes of Europe. Her father was
+a staunch Huguenot, and a trusty follower of Henry IV. That she did not
+sully the renown acquired by so illustrious a descent, the following
+narrative will abundantly prove.</p>
+
+<p>It was at a special council of the Holy States,<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43" ></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> held at Manchester
+on Saturday the 24th of February 1644, that, after many former debates
+and consultations, the siege of Lathom was concluded upon. The
+parliament troops under Colonel Ashton of Middleton, Colonel Moore of
+Bank-Hall, and Colonel Rigby of Preston, on the same day began their
+march, proceeding by way of Bolton, Wigan, and Standish, under a
+pretence of going into Westmoreland, that the soldiers should not
+presently know of their destination.</p>
+
+<p>Lathom, for magnificence and hospitality, was held in high reputation,
+assuming, in these respects, the attitude of a royal court in the
+northern parts of the kingdom; and the family were regarded with such
+veneration and esteem that the following harmless inversion was familiar
+&quot;as household words:&quot;&mdash;&quot;God save the Earl of Derby and the King;&quot; the
+general feeling and opinion thereby apparent being love to their lord
+and loyalty to their prince.</p>
+
+<p>On the 27th of February the enemy took up their quarters about a mile
+distant from the house. The next day Captain Markland was the bearer of
+a letter to her ladyship from Sir Thomas Fairfax, commander-in-chief of
+the parliamentary forces, and likewise an ordinance of parliament: the
+one requiring that she should surrender the house upon such honourable
+terms as he <!-- Page 334 --><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334" ></a>might propose; and the other setting forth and commending
+the great mercy they had manifested by thus offering to receive the Earl
+of Derby if he would submit himself. But she indignantly refused to
+surrender without the consent and commandment of her lord; and after
+many interviews, to which she assented only to gain time, and to
+complete the provisioning and fortifying of her little garrison, they
+began to find her answers too full of policy and procrastination,
+dangerous to the fidelity of their troops. In the end, seeing she was
+only amusing them by vain pretences, they sent the following as their
+final terms, by Colonel Morgan, commander of the engineers, who had been
+appointed by Sir Thomas Fairfax to conduct the siege:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>1st. &quot;That the Countess of Derby shall have the time she desires, and
+then liberty to transport her arms and goods to the Isle of Man, except
+the cannon, which shall continue there for the defence of the house.</p>
+
+<p>2d. &quot;That her ladyship, by ten o'clock on the morrow, shall disband all
+her soldiers, except her menial servants, and receive an officer and
+forty parliament soldiers for her guard.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Morgan is described as &quot;a litle man short and peremptory, who met with
+staidnes to coole his heat; and had the honor to carry backe this last
+answer&mdash;for her ladyshipp could scrue them to noe more delayes, viz.&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That she refused all their articles, and was truely happy they had
+refused hers, protesting shee had rather hazard her life than offer the
+like again;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That though a woman, and a stranger, divorced from her friends, and
+rob'd of her estate, she was ready to receive their utmost vyolence,
+trusting in God both for protection and deliverance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The next morning they discovered the enemy had been at work about a
+musket-shot from the house, in a sloping ground, where they appeared to
+be forming a breast-work and trench to protect the pioneers&mdash;multitudes
+of country people being every day forced into this laborious service.</p>
+
+<p>The situation of Lathom deserves some notice, it being admirably
+calculated to resist any attack.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was encompassed by a strong wall, two yards thick; upon the walls
+were nine towers, flanking each other, and in every tower six pieces of
+ordnance, that played three one way and three another. Upon the tops of
+these towers were placed the best and choicest marksmen, who usually
+attended the Earl in his sports, as huntsmen, keepers, fowlers, and the
+like, who con<!-- Page 335 --><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335" ></a>tinually kept watch, with screwed guns and long
+fowling-pieces, to the great annoyance and loss of the enemy, especially
+of their commanders, who were frequently killed in the trenches. Without
+the wall was a moat eight yards wide and two yards deep; between the
+wall and the moat was a strong row of palisadoes. A high tower, called
+the Eagle Tower, stood in the midst, surmounting all the rest. The
+gate-house had a strong tower on each side, forming the entrance to the
+first court.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The site of the house seemed to have been formed for a stronghold, or
+place of safety: thus described by Seacome:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&quot;Before the house, to the south and south-west, is a rising ground,
+     so near as to overlook the top of it, from which it falls so quick,
+     that nothing planted against it on those sides can touch it further
+     than the front wall; and on the north and east sides there is
+     another rising ground, even to the edge of the moat.&quot; &quot;The
+     situation of it may be compared to the palm of a man's hand, flat
+     in the middle, and covered with a rising ground, about it, and so
+     near to it, that the enemy, in two years' siege, were never able to
+     raise a battery against it, so as to make a breach in the wall
+     practicable to enter the house by way of storm.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44" ></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>It is said the camp of the besiegers was in a woody dell, near what is
+now called &quot;The Round O Quarry,&quot; about half-a-mile from Lathom. This
+dell is still called &quot;Cromwell's Trench;&quot; and a large and remarkable
+stone, having two circular hollows or holes on its upper surface,
+evidently once containing nodules of iron, is called &quot;Cromwell's
+Stone&quot;&mdash;the country people supposing these holes were used as moulds for
+casting balls during the siege.</p>
+
+<p>The besiegers, however, thought to reduce the place by famine, being
+deceived through the following device of her ladyship's chaplain, the
+Rev. Mr Rutter, a person whom the Earl had left to her assistance, that
+she might be guided by his great skill and prudence:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>During one of the conferences before-named, a captain of the
+parliamentary forces, recognising in the chaplain an old friend, with
+whom he had been educated, and very intimate and familiar aforetime,
+took a secret opportunity of addressing him, hoping to worm out her
+ladyship's secrets; conjuring him, by reason of their former friendship,
+to tell truly upon what ground or confidence she still refused these
+offers, seeing that it was impossible <!-- Page 336 --><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336" ></a>to defend her house against such
+a numerous and well-furnished army as was then encamped in the park.</p>
+
+<p>Rutter, casting his eyes earnestly towards the ramparts, bade his friend
+note their disposition and defence. Her ladyship, as commander-in-chief,
+to prevent any sudden assault, and likewise to awe the enemy by these
+demonstrations, had disposed her soldiers in due order, so that they
+should be seen, under their respective officers, from the main-guard in
+the first court, down to the great hall, where they had left her
+ladyship's council. The rest of her forces she had placed upon the
+walls, and on the tops of the towers, in such manner that they might
+appear both numerous and well-disciplined.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She is in nothing so desirous,&quot; said Rutter, &quot;as that you should waste
+your strength and forces by a sudden assault, wherein you would not fail
+to have the worst of the battle: the place being armed at all points, as
+thou seest, and able to withstand any attack but that of famine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A promise of secresy was exacted, when the wary chaplain pretended to
+unfold her ladyship's plans. He said there was but little provision in
+the place&mdash;that she was oppressed with the number of her soldiers&mdash;that
+she would not be able to subsist more than fourteen days; and she hoped
+to dare them to a sudden onset, not from her own confidence to give them
+a repulse, but knowing that, should they continue the siege, she must
+inevitably be forced to surrender.</p>
+
+<p>The captain, after embracing his friend, and promising faithfully to
+maintain the secret, revealed, as Rutter intended he should, the whole
+of his confidential story to the enemy's council; who, giving credit to
+the tale, laid aside, for the present, all thoughts of an attack, and
+resolved to invest the place in a close and formal siege.</p>
+
+<p>Fourteen days being expired, and they, supposing her provisions were
+nigh spent, and the garrison reduced to the last extremity, sent another
+and more peremptory summons. But during this time her soldiers were
+training, the walls and fortifications were undergoing a thorough
+repair, and the cannon properly served and mounted. The fortress, too,
+was well stocked, and even abundantly stored with provisions, in spite
+of their enemies, who kept a strict watch, but failed to detect the
+source and manner of the supply. She was not without hope, too, of
+relief from the king's troops, whom she daily expected to her
+assistance.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 337 --><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337" ></a>The besiegers finding themselves deceived, their confidence abused, and
+their schemes only serving to the advantage of the opposite party,
+orders were given and preparations made for more offensive measures, by
+drawing a line of circumvallation round the house.</p>
+
+<p>The garrison consisted of 300 men, commanded by the Captains Henry Ogle,
+Edward Chisnall, Edward Rawsthorne, William Farmer, Mullineux Ratcliffe,
+and Richard Fox, assisted in their consultations by William Farrington
+of Werden, Esq., who, for executing the commission of array, and
+attending her ladyship in these troubles, had suffered the seizure of
+all his personal estate and the sequestration of his lands.</p>
+
+<p>There were 150 men each night upon the watch, with the exception of
+sixteen select marksmen out of the whole, who all day kept the towers.</p>
+
+<p>The besieger's army was between two and three thousand, divided into
+tertias of seven or eight hundred men, who watched every third day and
+night. They were commanded by Colonels Egerton, Ashton, Holland, Rigby,
+Moore, and Morgan, with their captains and lieutenants.</p>
+
+<p>After many warlike demonstrations, by which they hoped to intimidate the
+garrison, and after some days spent in fruitless endeavours to bring her
+ladyship, as they said, to a due sense of her condition, they sent one
+Captain Ashurst, &quot;a fair and civil gentleman, of good character,&quot; with
+fresh proposals. But Lady Derby, justly considering these frequent
+treaties and debates were a discouragement to her men, implying weakness
+and a want of confidence in her resources, replied sharply&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That no one should quit the house, but that she would keep it, whilst
+God enabled her, against all the king's enemies; that, in brief, she
+would receive no more messages, but referred them to her lord, scorning
+their malice, and defying their assaults.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As the sequel of a business often depends upon the manner of its
+beginning, to second and confirm this answer the next morning she
+ordered a sally, when Captain Farmer with one hundred foot and
+Lieutenant Kay with twelve horse, their whole cavalry, went forth at
+different gates. Captain Farmer, determining to take them by surprise,
+marched up to the enemy's works without firing a shot; then pouncing
+upon them suddenly in their trenches, he ordered a close and well-aimed
+<!-- Page 338 --><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338" ></a>volley, which quickly made them leave their holes in great disorder.
+Immediately Lieutenant Kay, wheeling round with his horse, took them in
+flank, doing great execution as they fled. There were slain of the enemy
+about thirty men. The spoil was forty muskets, one drum, and six
+prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>The retreat of this little band was skilfully secured by Captain Ogle
+and Captain Rawsthorne, so that not one of the assailants was either
+slain or wounded.</p>
+
+<p>The besiegers were much annoyed with devices, ingeniously contrived by
+the garrison to intimidate them, and hinder and injure their work.
+Hitherto they had not been able to cast up a mound for their ordnance,
+so harassed and occupied were they with these incessant alarms. But
+Rigby, on whom devolved the plan and conduct of the siege, seeing that
+their affairs were in no thriving condition, but that rather they were
+the scoff and jest of the garrison, who daily taunted them from the
+walls, determined at all hazards to raise his cannon. For this purpose a
+considerable number of the peasantry and poorer sort in the
+neighbourhood, and for miles round, were driven like beasts to their
+daily work, labouring unremittingly at the mounds and trenches. At first
+they were sheltered by baskets and hurdles, afterwards by a testudo, or
+wooden house running upon wheels and roofed with thick planks. Still
+many lives were lost in this desperate service. In the end they brought
+up one piece of cannon, amusing themselves like schoolboys at a holiday,
+in practising their harmless reports. The first shot struck the outer
+wall, but it was found proof. Afterwards they aimed higher, intending to
+beat down a pinnacle or turret, but this also passed without damage. The
+last shot, which missed entirely, went over and beyond the buildings,
+burrowing in a field on the other side.</p>
+
+<p>When they had performed this mighty feat they sounded another parley,
+having, as they supposed, mightily beat down the hearts of the besieged.
+Colonel Rigby's chaplain then appeared at the gate with a letter that
+Sir Thomas Fairfax had received from Lord Derby, who was now at Chester,
+on his return from the Isle of Man. In this epistle he desired a free
+and honourable passage for his lady and their children, if she so
+pleased, being unwilling, as he said, to expose them to the uncertain
+hazard of a long siege. His lordship knew not, by reason of his long
+absence, either how his house was provided <!-- Page 339 --><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339" ></a>with ammunition and
+sustenance, or in what condition it might be to withstand the attack. He
+was desirous that the garrison alone should bear the brunt, and that a
+defenceless woman and her children should be rescued from captivity.</p>
+
+<p>Her ladyship replied that she would communicate with the earl, and if he
+should then continue in the same opinion, she would willingly submit to
+his commands; but until this, she would neither yield up the house nor
+abate in her hostility, but would abide by the result. Immediately she
+despatched to his lordship a messenger, conveying him from the house by
+a well-executed sally. The attempt succeeded; but whether he was
+suffered to reach his destination or not we have no means of
+ascertaining. No answer was returned, though some days had elapsed,
+during which the enemy made many fruitless attempts to batter the walls.</p>
+
+<p>They had now mounted the whole of their artillery, including their great
+mortar-piece, at that period looked upon as a most destructive engine,
+casting stones thirteen inches in diameter and eighty pounds weight;
+likewise grenadoes&mdash;hollow balls of iron, filled with powder, and
+lighted by a fusee. These were dangerous intruders, calculated to
+produce great alarm and annoyance, as we shall find in the sequel. The
+mortar was planted only about half a musket-shot from the walls,
+south-west, on a rising ground, from whence the engineer commanded a
+view of the whole buildings.</p>
+
+<p>The work on which it stood was orbicular, with a rampart of two yards
+and a half broad above the ditch. To lessen the destructive effects of
+this dangerous piece of artillery, chosen men were set as guards with
+wet hides and woollen coverlids to quench the flame, had the enemy been
+skilful enough to accomplish their purpose; it being their general
+opinion that to burn the house would be the most effectual means of
+subduing and driving out the garrison. But finding their endeavours met
+with no prosperous return, they bethought them to cast a show of
+religion over these attempts at robbery and rapine, issuing out commands
+to all men well affected towards their success, to co-operate with them
+for the overthrow of the &quot;Babylonish harlot,&quot; by which term some worthy
+disciples of the visible church scrupled not to call the Lady of
+Lathom.<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45" ></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a></p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 340 --><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340" ></a>The following proclamation was sent forth from their headquarters at
+Ormskirk:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&quot;To all ministers and parsons in Lancashire, well-wishers to our
+     successe against Lathom House, these:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;Forasmuch as more than ordinary obstrucc'ons have from the
+     beginning of this p'sent service ag<sup>t</sup> Lathom House interposed our
+     proceedings, and yet still remaine, which cannot otherwise be
+     removed, nor our successe furthered, but onely by devine
+     assistance: it is, therefore, our desires to the ministers and
+     other well-affected persons of this county of Lancaster, in publike
+     manner, as they shall please, to com'end our case to God, that as
+     wee are appoynted to the s<sup>d</sup> employment, soe much tending to the
+     settleing of our p'sent peace in theise parts, soe the Almighty
+     would crowne our weake endeavours with speedy success in the said
+     designe.</p>
+
+<p>     (Signed)</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;RALPH ASHTON.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;JOHN MOORE.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;ORMSKIRK, 5 Ap. 1644.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<p>The four following days were, on their part, consumed in these unholy
+exercises; but the garrison, tired with inaction, resolved to awaken
+them, and turn their thoughts into a more profitable channel.</p>
+
+<p>On Wednesday, the 10th of April, says the MS. journal, &quot;about eleven
+o'clock, Capt<sup>n</sup> Farmer and Capt<sup>n</sup> Mullineux Rattcliffe, Lieu<sup>t</sup> Penckett,
+Lieu<sup>t</sup> Woorrale, w<sup>th</sup> 140 souldiers, sallyed out at a postern gate,
+beate the enemy from all theire worke and batteries, w<sup>ch</sup> were now cast
+up round the house, nailed all theire canon, killed about 50 men, took
+60 armes, one collours, and three drumes, in which acc'on, Capt<sup>n</sup>
+Rattcliffe deserves this remembrance, that w<sup>th</sup> 3 souldiers, the rest of
+his squadron being scattered w<sup>th</sup> execuc'on of the enemy, he cleared two
+sconces, and slew 7 men w<sup>th</sup> his owne hand, Lieu<sup>t</sup> Woorrall, ingageing
+himself in another worke among 50 of the enemy, bare the fury of all,
+till Capt<sup>n</sup> Farmer relieved him, who, to the wonder of us all, came off
+without any dangerous wound.<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46" ></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a>&mdash;The sally-port was that day warded by
+Capt<sup>n</sup> Chisnall, who with fresh men stood ready for succour of ours, had
+they been putt to the extremity; but they bravely marched round the
+works, and came in att the great gates, where Capt<sup>n</sup> Ogle w<sup>th</sup> a p'ty of
+musketeers kept open the passage. Capt<sup>n</sup> Rawstorne hadd the charge of
+the musketeers upon the walls, which hee <!-- Page 341 --><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341" ></a>plac'd to the best advantage
+to vex the enemy in their flight. Capt<sup>n</sup> Foxe, by a collours from the
+Eagle Tower, gave signall when to march and when to retreate, according
+to the motions of the enemy, which hee observed at a distance.&mdash;In all
+this service wee had but one man mortally wounded, and wee tooke onely
+one prisoner, an officer, for intelligence. In former sallyes some
+prisoners were taken, and by exchange releast, Colonel Ashton and Rigby
+promising to sett at liberty as many of the king's freinds, then
+prisoners in Lancaster, Manchester, Preston, and other places proposed
+by her ladishipp. But most unworthily they broke condic'ons, it suiting
+well with their religion neither to observe faith with God nor men; and
+this occasioned a greater slaughter than either her la<sup>pp</sup> or the
+captaynes desired, because wee were in no condic'on to keepe prisoners,
+and knew the co'manders wold never release 'em but upon base or
+dishonorable terms.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Though their cannon had been injured in the spiking, yet were they not
+rendered useless; for the same night they &quot;played a sacre twice,&quot; it is
+said, &quot;to tell us they had cannon that wold speke tho' our men had
+endeavoured to steele up all their lippes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>On the 15th a grenado fell short of the house, in a walk near the chapel
+tower: some pieces of the shell, two inches thick, flew over the wall,
+and were gathered up by the attendants. It was a mighty achievement to
+fire this unwieldy engine, requiring great labour and exertion to fill
+up its mouth when once it had vomited forth its malice. The day after,
+they loaded it with stones: to their great joy, Morgan and his
+bombardiers beheld one of them strike within the body of the house, it
+being always a matter of some uncertainty where the ball might spend
+itself. Indeed, it was said, in derision it might be, that sometimes
+their guns occasioned more damage to the besiegers than to the besieged.</p>
+
+<p>Morgan now set to work, keeping as accurately as he might the head of
+the blatant beast to the same level, and loading it with a grenado. When
+the gunner had finished his task and lighted the fusee, Morgan rubbed
+his hands for joy. Retiring sharply, off went the missile with an
+explosion that shook the whole fabric. When the smoke was gone they
+perceived some trifling damage in an old court, where the bomb, striking
+about half-a-yard into the earth, burst as it rose, much abated of its
+violence; yet it shook down some slight buildings near, but <!-- Page 342 --><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342" ></a>without
+hurting any one, save two women who had their hands scorched as a
+memorial of their presence at the siege of Lathom.</p>
+
+<p>This mortar-piece was like some mighty dragon of old, causing great
+terror in the minds of the soldiers, who knew not how to escape, but
+were in continual fear and watchfulness, dreading the assaults of this
+terrible monster. To allay their apprehensions, and to show their own
+indifference, the captains lodged in the uppermost rooms, behind clay
+walls, when not upon duty; and many other devices were resorted to for
+the purpose of encouraging their troops. One circumstance, however,
+seemed to renew their courage; a gunner opposite, as he was mounting the
+ramparts to see the success of his shot, was slain by a marksman from
+one of the towers. The next day one of their cannoneers was slain
+through the porthole by a skilful hand, which made the enemy more
+cautious than formerly. Yet did they not slacken their endeavours, but
+fired almost incessantly. On the Saturday afternoon they played their
+mortar-piece five times; and in the night twice with stones, and once
+with a grenado, which by the turning of the gunner fell short of the
+house.</p>
+
+<p>On Easter Monday and Tuesday Colonel Rigby must needs gratify the
+country people with some pastime. He had already spent upwards of two
+thousand pounds, and his great pretensions were hitherto unfulfilled.
+Accordingly he ordered his batteries to be directed against the Eagle
+Tower, which, as we have before seen, stood near the centre of the
+buildings, and was the place where Lady Derby and the children usually
+lodged.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We will strike off a horn of the beast, or level one of her hills,&quot;
+said Rigby, as he strode forth early on that morning to the enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Which seven towers be the seven hills of Rome or spiritual Antichrist,&quot;
+said Jackson, his chaplain, who kept near his master, or rather kept his
+master between himself and the Babel that roused his indignation. Morgan
+was just preparing his engines when Rigby approached, cautiously worming
+his way along the trenches, for the marksmen were become unmercifully
+expert by reason of continued practice.</p>
+
+<p>The match was lighted,&mdash;when bounce went the shot, a four-and-twenty
+pounder, against the Eagle Tower.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We will beat the old lady from her perch: I find she hath taken to
+high-roosting of late,&quot; said Morgan, as he watched the despatch and
+destination of his messenger.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 343 --><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343" ></a>The ball had entered into her ladyship's chamber, where she and the
+children were at breakfast. With as little emotion as Charles the
+Twelfth on a like occasion, she merely remarked that since they were
+likely to have disagreeable intruders, she must e'en seek a new lodging.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But,&quot; said she, rising with great dignity, &quot;I will keep my house while
+a building is left above my head.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This mischievous exploit, though an occasion at the time of great
+triumph and exultation to the besiegers, was the main cause of their
+subsequent expulsion and defeat.</p>
+
+<p>We now propose to follow out their operations with more minuteness,
+tracing the consequences of this action to its final result.</p>
+
+<p>That same night some of the garrison, having permission from their
+commanders, annoyed their enemies with strange and noisome alarms,
+during which they contrived to steal some powder, and other necessaries
+of which they were much in want.</p>
+
+<p>Colonels Egerton and Rigby were in close counsel before their tent when
+they beheld a terrible appearance moving towards them,&mdash;looking in the
+dark like the leaders of some mighty army, waving their torches to light
+them to the assault. This frightful apparition was a poor forlorn horse,
+studded with lights fastened to cords, that shook and flickered about in
+so fearful a manner. In this plight he had been turned out of the gates,
+the garrison looking on, with frightful shouts and yells.</p>
+
+<p>The sentinels ran from their posts, crying out that the king's army was
+coming. In an instant all was uproar and confusion, the trenches were
+cleared, and happy was he that came foremost in the rout.</p>
+
+<p>Rigby clasped on his sword-belt which he had doffed for the night.
+Springing on his horse, he met some of the runaways, whom he forced
+back, hoping by their means to stem the main torrent. But, lo! in the
+very height of the panic, appeared another and more direful intruder&mdash;an
+avenue of fire seemed to extend from the walls to their own trench. It
+appeared as though the enemy had by some unaccountable means formed in a
+double line from the fortress, illuminated rank and file as if by
+magic&mdash;flinging their torches by one simultaneous and well-concerted
+movement into the air with great order and regularity.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 344 --><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344" ></a>Had a legion from the puissant army of Beelzebub been approaching,
+their terror could not have been greater. Yet fear kept many from
+escaping, while they knew not which way to run for safety. Rigby in the
+nick of time galloped up to this awful and hostile appearance, crying
+out to his troops that he would soon demolish the bugbear. This saying
+encouraged some of the runaways, who followed him to the combat.
+Approaching within a sword's length, for he was not deficient either in
+hardihood or valour, he made a furious stroke right in the face of this
+flaming apparition, when down it fell, revealing its own harmlessness
+and their cowardice.</p>
+
+<p>Taking advantage of the panic which followed the lighted horse, a few of
+the garrison had thrown a cord covered with matches and other
+combustibles round a tree, close to the enemy's camp; one end was
+fastened near the walls, and the other was quickly carried back after
+being passed round the tree. The whole on being lighted was swung to and
+fro, producing the terrific appearance we have described.</p>
+
+<p>Rigby was greatly mortified at this exploit; it seemed as though they
+were become the jest and laughing-stock of the garrison.</p>
+
+<p>Morgan at this moment galloped up in great dudgeon. The enemy had found
+him a similar employment, he having twice bravely discharged his cannon,
+loaded with cartridge and chain-shot, against two lighted matches thrust
+into balls of clay that were thrown at him from the walls.</p>
+
+<p>The leaders, provoked beyond measure, speedily assembled in council.
+Egerton, who had the most influence, from the beginning had urged milder
+measures, thinking to starve the enemy into submission; but Morgan,
+Rigby, and some others were now red-hot for mischief, smarting from
+their late ridiculous disaster.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what have we gotten by delay?&quot; said Rigby; &quot;we have wearied our
+soldiers, wasted our powder, and emptied our purses; and this proud dame
+still beats and baffles us, casting her gibes in our very teeth which we
+deserve to lose for our pains.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Take thine own course, then,&quot; said Egerton, mildly. &quot;We are brethren,
+serving one cause only; the which, being best served, is best won.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then be to-morrow ours,&quot; said Morgan, with his usual <!-- Page 345 --><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345" ></a>heat and
+impatience. &quot;We will burn them up like a heap of dry faggots. The house,
+though well fenced against our shot, hath yet much inward building of
+wood, and you shall see a pretty bonfire kindled by my bomb-shells&mdash;a
+roaring blaze that shall ride on the welkin between here and Beeston
+Castle!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Whilst thou art plying thy vocation we will scale the walls, and the
+sword shall slay what the fire hath failed to devour,&quot; said Rigby.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fire and sword!&quot; cried Egerton. &quot;Ye are apt at a simile; but, methinks,
+these be your own similitudes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They give their prisoners no quarter,&quot; said Morgan; &quot;and why should we
+sheath the sword when a weapon is at our own throat?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, doubtless they have more mouths to feed than they can conveniently
+supply,&quot; said the more pacific personage. &quot;Living men, to keep them so,
+even though prisoners, require feeding.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Our vengeance is sure, though tardy,&quot; said Rigby, rising in great
+choler. &quot;The blood of these martyrs crieth from the ground. To-morrow!&quot;
+and he breathed a bloody vow, looking fiercely up to heaven in the
+daring and impious attitude of revenge.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We had best give her ladyship another summons; which, if she refuse,
+her blood be upon her own head!&quot; Saying this, Egerton abruptly left the
+council.</p>
+
+<p>On the next morning, which was cold and drizzly, a &quot;pragmatical&quot; drummer
+went out from the nearer trench, beating his drum for a parley, lest his
+person should be dismissed without ceremony to the hungry kites.</p>
+
+<p>Early had he been summoned to Rigby's lodging, where Ashton and Morgan
+were contriving a furious epistle to the contumacious defenders of their
+lives and substance. A summons, couched in no very measured terms, was
+drawn up, to the purport that the fortress should be surrendered, and
+all persons, goods, arms, and munitions therein, to the mercy of
+parliament; and by the next day, before two o'clock, her ladyship to
+return her answer, otherwise at her peril. Their valour grew hotter with
+the reading of this cruel message, which they secretly hoped and
+suspected she would refuse. The drum-major was called in, one Gideon
+Greatbatch by name&mdash;a long, straight-haired, sallow-faced personage, of
+some note among the <!-- Page 346 --><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346" ></a>brethren for zeal and impiety. By this we mean that
+awful and profane use of Scripture phraseology with which many of these
+gifted preachers affected to interlard their everyday discourse,
+attaching a ludicrous solemnity to matters the most trivial and
+unimportant.</p>
+
+<p>In delineating this species of character, unfortunately not extinct in
+our own days, we do not hold it up to ridicule, but to reprehension.
+Irreverence and profanity, under whatever pretext, are without excuse,
+even beneath the mask of holy zeal and ardent devotion.</p>
+
+<p>The man stalked in with little ceremony and less manners. He stood stiff
+and erect, the image of pride engendered by ignorance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis our last,&quot; said Rigby, folding up the message; &quot;and if our arms
+are blessed, as we have hoped, and, it may be, unworthily deserved, ere
+the going down of to-morrow's sun yon strong tower wherein she trusteth
+shall be as smoke; for the hope of the wicked shall perish.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yea, their idols shall fall down; yea, their walls shall be as
+Jericho,&quot; said the drum-major, with a sing-song whine, to sanctify his
+blasphemous allusions, &quot;and shall utterly fall at the sound of&quot;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy two drumsticks, mayhap,&quot; returned Morgan, sharply; for this latter
+personage, though his presence became needful in the camp by reason of
+his reputed skill and bravery, was a great scandal to the real and
+conscientious professors&mdash;of whom not a few had joined the ranks of the
+besiegers&mdash;as well as the hypocritical and designing; some of whom did
+not hesitate to liken him to Achan and the accursed thing, by reason of
+which they were discomfited before their enemies.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thine ungodly speeches, Master Morgan, I would humbly trust, may not be
+as the fuel that, when the fire cometh, shall consume the camp, even the
+righteous with the wicked,&quot; said Gideon, as if shrinking from the
+contact of so unholy a personage.</p>
+
+<p>Morgan replied not to this deprecation, save by swearing&mdash;covertly,
+though it might be&mdash;at the impudence and insubordination of these
+inferior agents, whose disorderly conduct it was necessary to connive
+at, while they were looked upon as saints and prophets&mdash;men from whose
+presence was impiously expected the blessing and protection of heaven.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 347 --><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347" ></a>A loud screaming was heard, and Rigby, darting a furious look through
+the doorway, ordered it to be closed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Another porker!&quot; said he. &quot;I verily think she hath provision behind the
+walls that would last out our siege till doomsday. There is treachery
+somewhere. Have we not heard, morning by morning, the self-same cry?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A whole herd of swine have been martyred in the cause,&quot; said Morgan,
+sneeringly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Every day they have slain a pig,&quot; said the leader of the drums. &quot;Two
+score and eight,&quot; reckoning upon his fingers. &quot;Verily a drove from the
+legion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They knew not that this unfortunate swine, the only one in the garrison,
+was made to perform so uncomfortable a duty every morning to mislead the
+besiegers, and impress them with the idea of a plentiful supply within
+the walls.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Even the rabble about the garrison throw shives of bread into our
+trenches,&quot; said Morgan; &quot;and once or twice I have thought their muskets
+were loaden with peas instead of pellets.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then is our assault the more urgent,&quot; replied Rigby: &quot;delay doth not
+increase her strength. Prince Rupert too, some fair morning, may jump
+between us and head-quarters.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have as many grenadoes,&quot; said Morgan, &quot;as will save his highness the
+trouble. Were he here, I would make him dance the Flemish <i>coranto</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Amalekites shall ye utterly destroy,&quot; said Gideon, with a sudden
+indrawing of the breath, as though he were suffering the pangs and
+throes of possession. &quot;Neither shall ye spare the women and the little
+ones nor the stuff; no, not even a kid for a burnt-offering. Your eye
+shall not spare as Saul spare Agag, whom Samuel hewed in pieces.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Keep thy counsel to light thine own courage. Yon fiery-tempered woman
+will not be over-nice in her respect to thy vocation. Peradventure she
+may dangle thy carcase over the walls in defiance of our summons.&quot;
+Morgan would have rebuked him farther, had not Rigby hastily put the
+message into his hands, and bade him good speed.</p>
+
+<p>With inward but audible murmurs at this unholy connection, for Morgan
+valued not their prayers a rush, Gideon strode forth, his eyes twinkling
+grievously as the drizzling rime came on his face. His long ungainly
+figure, surmounted by a high-peaked hat, was seen cautiously stealing
+through the trenches. Near <!-- Page 348 --><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348" ></a>to the embrasure by Morgan's mortar-piece he
+made a sudden halt. After preparing his drum, he first beat the roll to
+crave attention. He then stepped upon the redoubt, drumming the usual
+signal for a parley. It was soon answered from the walls, and Gideon,
+with much ceremony and importance, arrived with his musical appendage
+before the gate. The requisite formalities being gone through, the
+drawbridge was lowered, and this parliamentary representative was
+speedily admitted through a little wicket into the Babylon which he
+abhorred. His very feet seemed in danger of defilement. He looked as if
+breathing the very atmosphere of pollution; but when ordered to kneel
+down that he might be blindfolded, his spirit rose indignantly at the
+command.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ye be contemners and despisers of our holy heritage. I have not bowed
+the knee to Baal, nor will I worship the beast or they that have his
+name on their foreheads. Do with me as ye list. Ye would cover mine eyes
+that your iniquities may be hidden;&mdash;but ye shall suddenly be destroyed,
+and none shall deliver.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A loud laugh was the answer to this denunciation; for truly it were a
+marvellous thing to hear an ignorant, arrogant drummer, misapply and
+profane the words of Holy Writ, wresting the Scriptures to their
+destruction, if not his own.</p>
+
+<p>In the outer court soldiers were playing at span-counter with silver
+moneys, which Gideon observing, again lifted up the voice of warning and
+rebuke.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But destruction cometh upon them, even as upon a woman in&quot;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Peace, thou spirit of a drum-stick!&quot; cried one of them, and, as though
+he were playing at chuck-farthing, he threw a tester between his teeth;
+for the soldiers had about fifty pounds amongst them in silver coin, but
+it was of no use except as so many counters, which they lent one another
+by handfuls without telling. Sometimes one soldier had won the whole,
+then another; but if they had been heaps of the rarest jewels they had
+been of less worth than pebble-stones.</p>
+
+<p>Gideon's speech was marred in the delivery; thinking he had been hit
+with a stone, he sputtered out the offending morsel; but, seeing the
+coin with the king's image and superscription, he gathered it up again.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This shall be to me for a prey, even a spoil, as Moses <!-- Page 349 --><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349" ></a>spoiled the
+Egyptians.&quot; Saying this Gideon thrust the king's money into his pocket,
+and consented to be blindfolded, as was customary, in order that he
+should not act the spy in his progress. He heard many gates unbarred,
+many sentries challenged, and the pass-words demanded. Indeed the order
+and discipline throughout was of an excellent and well-contrived
+regularity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Make way for the drum!&quot; ran along the avenues, as though he were
+passing through a numerous array of guards and soldiery. At length he
+was safely deposited in a spacious hall used as a guard-room; where his
+conductors delivered him to Captain Ogle, the officer in waiting that
+morning upon her ladyship. Being informed she was at prayers, for, as we
+are told, &quot;her first care was the service of God, which in sermons and
+solemn prayers she daily saw performed,&quot; Gideon lifted up his hands and
+said&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Their new moons and their fasts are an abomination.&quot; He then desired to
+be conducted near the fire, for the double purpose of drying his
+threadbare red coat, and relieving his extreme length by a change of
+position.</p>
+
+<p>He had not waited long ere the signal was given for an audience. Still
+blindfolded, he was led by a circuitous route into a little wainscotted
+chamber lighted by a single bay-window. Here the bandage was taken from
+his eyes, and when the dimness had a little subsided, he beheld that
+heroic lady for the first time whom he had often compared, in no very
+moderate terms, to Jezebel, and many other names equally appropriate. A
+very different person she appeared from what his heated and morbid fancy
+had suggested. Indeed, if she had been the personification of all evil,
+with a demon's foot and a fiend's visage, he had been less surprised
+than to find her with the outward form and attributes of humanity.</p>
+
+<p>She was sitting with the children, before a narrow table covered with
+papers. She wore a black habit, with a white kerchief on her head, and a
+long Flanders veil of rich open work. This she threw back, and Gideon
+beheld a countenance not at all either commanding or heroic, but one to
+which smiles and good-nature would have been most congenial, though a
+shade of anxiety was now thrown over the natural expression of her
+features. Her eye seemed to have forgotten its bland and benevolent
+aspect, and was fixed sharply upon him. For <!-- Page 350 --><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350" ></a>a moment his spiritual
+pride was daunted, and that natural and inherent principle, not extinct
+though often dormant,&mdash;a deference to superiority, whether of intellect
+or station&mdash;rendered him for a while mute and inoffensive. It is even
+said that he made a sort of half-conscious obeisance; but his mind
+misgiving him during the offence, which smote him on the sudden as an
+act of homage and idolatrous veneration, he breathed out a very audible
+prayer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pardon thy servant in this matter, even if I have bowed in the house of
+Rimmon.&quot; As he said this, he threw himself back, lifting his narrow eyes
+towards the ceiling; then thrusting out his hand with the despatch at
+arm's length, he was striding forward, but Ogle intervened ere he had
+made his way to the Countess.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;With all courtesy, friend,&quot; said he, &quot;these communications must proceed
+from the officer on duty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>With great gallantry and respect the captain presented it to his
+mistress.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eye-service and will-worship!&quot; growled Gideon. &quot;'Tis like your vain and
+popish idolatry and the like, through the ministry of saints, even to a
+woman, vain and sinful as yourselves. I would as soon commit my prayers
+to the angel of the bottomless pit!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her ladyship had broken open the seals. Her eye kindled as she spoke&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hadst thy reward were we to hang thee up at the gate.&mdash;Yet art
+thou but a foolish instrument in the hands of this traitor Rigby; and we
+do not punish the weapon, but him that wields it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Now Gideon, finding himself moved by natural heat and choler, and
+mistaking this wrath for a righteous indignation, thought himself surely
+called upon to reprove these unrighteous ones for their iniquities. His
+body fell into the usual disposition for a harangue. His eyes rolled
+upwards, and his whole frame swung to and fro whilst the exhortation was
+preparing. To his great mortification, however, the lady quitted the
+room, leaving word for them to follow her to the hall.</p>
+
+<p>The preacher was greatly chagrined, when his eyes resumed their office,
+to find himself almost thrust out and on his way back to the
+guard-chamber. A number of soldiers and domestics were here assembled.
+Lady Derby, with her chap<!-- Page 351 --><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351" ></a>lain, steward, and captains, ranged on each
+side, stood at the higher end of the chamber.</p>
+
+<p>Silence was commanded, whilst she read aloud the despatch.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And this,&mdash;and this, my answer!&quot; said she, tearing the paper as she
+spoke, and throwing the fragments indignantly from her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell that insolent rebel he shall neither have our persons, our goods,
+nor yet this house. When our strength and provision be spent, we shall
+find a fire more merciful than Rigby; and then, if the providence of God
+prevent it not, my goods and house shall burn in his sight:&mdash;myself,
+children, and soldiers, rather than fall into his hands, will seal our
+religion and loyalty in the same flame!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A loud shout burst through the assembly, who, with one general voice,
+cried out&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We will die for his Majesty and your honour:&mdash;God save the king!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gideon's countenance grew terrible, and he seemed as though suffering
+under some violent excitement. Lifting up his hand, he was about to
+thunder forth anathemas and denunciations, the dealing out of which,
+strange to say, most parties agree in reserving to themselves. Even men
+whose honesty and single-heartedness we cannot doubt&mdash;who have boldly
+defended our rights and liberties against religious tyranny and
+intolerance&mdash;have still arrogated to themselves exclusively the control
+of opinions and modes of belief:&mdash;wielding the terrors of Heaven where
+the arm of Omnipotence can alone be felt; their efforts futile and
+ineffectual, as though a feeble worm were attempting to grasp the
+quiver,&mdash;to launch the bolt and the arrow from the skies.</p>
+
+<p>But Gideon's purpose was again frustrated: the impious idolaters,
+refusing to listen, blindfolded him before he was aware.</p>
+
+<p>But his spirit kindled suddenly, and he cried aloud&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yet shut your eyes wilfully, and go blindfold to your destruction.
+To-morrow these walls in which ye trust, this Egypt in whom your soul
+delighteth, shall be as Sodom. Brimstone and fire shall devour you; and
+they that flee from it shall not escape!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gideon and his threats were, however, speedily thrust out at the gates,
+and the answer transmitted through him was faithfully reported to the
+council.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 352 --><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352" ></a>Though this heroic woman was not daunted, yet she saw her soldiers
+were, at times, dispirited, by reason of the expected succours so long
+delayed. The mortar-piece, too, which, if it had been well managed, was
+sufficient to have laid the fortress in ruins, was an object of daily
+terror and annoyance.</p>
+
+<p>One of the MS. journals states,<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47" ></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> &quot;The little ladyes had stomack to
+digest cannon; but the stoutest souldiers had noe hearts for granadoes,
+and might not they att once free themselves from the continual
+expectac'on of death?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her ladyship was well aware that inactivity is, of all things, the most
+dangerous and dispiriting to the soldier, who, used to the bustle and
+array of camps, doth fear nothing so much as a quiet home and winter
+quarters.</p>
+
+<p>It was needful that something should be done, some decisive blow struck;
+for, according to the historian, &quot;Chaunges of tymes are the most fitt
+for brave attempts, and delayes they are dangerous, where softnes and
+quyetnes draweth more danger than hazarding rashly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A hard choice either to kill or be killed;&quot; but such was their case.
+The Countess therefore proposed that the next morning, a little while
+after daybreak, they should make a sortie; and though ordnance was
+planted against every passage, yet that they should sally forth, and
+stake their all upon one desperate throw.</p>
+
+<p>On the 26th April, about four o'clock, before sunrise, the action
+commenced. Captain Chisnall and Captain Fox, with Lieutenants Brettargh,
+Penketh, Walthew, and Woorrall, were appointed for the service. Captain
+Ogle had the main-guard to secure a retreat at the southern gate, while
+Rawsthorne had the charge of the sally-gate to secure a retreat on the
+eastern side. Captain Ratcliffe had the command of the marksmen and
+musketeers on the walls, while Farmer, with the reserve, stood ready at
+the parade, to relieve any of them in case of necessity. All things
+being ready, Captain Chisnall and two lieutenants issued out at the
+eastern sally-port. The morning favoured their attempt, being wet and
+foggy, so that before he was discovered he got completely under their
+cannon, marching immediately upon the scouts where the enemy had planted
+their great gun.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It cost him a light skirmish to gain the fort; at last hee <!-- Page 353 --><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353" ></a>entered;
+many slayne, some prisoners, and some escaping. Now by the command of
+that battery, the retreate being assured, Capt Foxe seconds him w<sup>th</sup>
+much bravery, beateing upon their trenches from the easterne to the
+south-west point, till hee came to the work w<sup>ch</sup> secur'd the
+morter-peece, w<sup>ch</sup> being guarded w<sup>th</sup> 50 men, hee found sharpe service,
+forceing his way through muskett and cannon, and beateing the enemy out
+of the sconce w<sup>th</sup> stones, his muskett, by reason of the high worke,
+being unserviceable. After a quarter of an houres hard service, his men
+gott the trench and scal'd the rampier, where many of the enemy fledd,
+the rest were slayne. The sconce, thus won, was made good by a squadron
+of musketteers, which much annoyed the enemy, attempting to come upp
+agayne. The 2 maine works thus obtained, the two captaynes w<sup>th</sup> ease
+walked the rest of the round, whilst Mr Broome, w<sup>th</sup> a companye of her
+la<sup>pps</sup> servants and some fresh souldiers, had a care to levell the
+ditch, and by a present devise, with ropes lifting the morter-peece to a
+low dragge, by strength of men drew it into the house, Capt. Ogle
+defending the passage ag<sup>t</sup> another companye of the enemye which play'd
+upon their retreate. The like endeavour was used to gayne theire greate
+gunnes; but lying beyond the ditch, and being of such bulke and weight,
+all our strength could not bringe them off before the whole army had
+fallen upon us; however, our men took tyme to poyson all the cannon
+round, if anything will doe the feate, Capt. Rawstorne still defending
+the first passe ag<sup>t</sup> some offers of the enemy to come up by the wood.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was near the conclusion of this affray, as Mr Broome, the steward,
+and several of his helpers, were encompassing the great dragon which had
+so often vomited forth fire and smoke upon them, intending to carry it
+away captive, that they heard a voice from the breach below:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hold, ye uncircumcised:&mdash;I will make your house desolate, and the glory
+thereof shall be turned into ashes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The mortar was ready charged, and they beheld Gideon, with a lighted
+match, springing towards them. Several of the men drew aside in dismay;
+but as Providence willed it, he was prevented from his purpose, the
+light being struck from his hand, and himself tumbled backwards into a
+deep and muddy ditch, extinguishing both light and life apparently
+together. But he arose, and would have run a tilt at them in this
+un<!-- Page 354 --><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354" ></a>savoury condition, had he not been caught by one of his enemies, who
+waggishly exclaimed&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let us yoke this great Amalekite to the gun. He'll help us well over
+the ditch.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This goodly piece of advice was not neglected; and the unhappy Gideon,
+fastened between two yoke-fellows, was dragged on by main force, the
+hindmost threatening to shoot him if he made any resistance.</p>
+
+<p>In vain did he cry out for vengeance upon them. His gods were deaf&mdash;no
+miracle was wrought for his deliverance; and though he would have called
+down fire from heaven upon his adversaries, the thunders he impiously
+desired died harmless on his own tongue.</p>
+
+<p>We again quote the words of the journal:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This action continued an houre, with the loss of two men on our part,
+who, after they were mortally wounded, still fired upon the enemy, till
+all retreating. What number of the enemy were slain it is not easy to
+guesse. Besides the execuc'on done in their trenches, Capt. Farmours and
+Capt. Rattcliffes reserves, w<sup>th</sup> the best marksmen, played upon them
+from the walls with much slaughter, as they quitt theire holds. Our men
+brought in many armes, three drums, and but five prisoners, preserved by
+Capt. Chisnall to show that he had mercy as well as valour. One of
+theese was an assistant to their engineere, Browne, who discovered to us
+the nature of their trench, in which they had laboured two monthes to
+draw away our water. Theire first designe was to drayne and open our
+springs, not considering theire rise from a higher ground south-east
+from the house, w<sup>ch</sup> must needs supply our deepe well, where-ever they
+suncke their fall: this invenc'on faileing, they bringe up an open
+trench in a worme work, the earth being indented or sawed for the
+securitie of their myners, and the ditch two yards wide and three deepe
+for the fall of the water.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But now neither ditches nor aught els troubled our souldiers, theire
+grand terror, the morter-peece, which had frighted 'em from theire meate
+and sleepe, like a dead lyon, quyetely lying among 'em; everye one had
+his eye and his foote upon him, shouteing and rejoiceing as merrily as
+they used to doe w<sup>th</sup> theire ale and bagpypes. Indeed ev'y one had this
+apprehenc'on of the service, that the maine worke was done, and what was
+yet behind but a meere pastime.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 355 --><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355" ></a>Her la<sup>pp</sup> though not often overcarryed w<sup>th</sup> any light expressions of
+joy, yet religiously sensible of soe great a blessing, and desirous,
+according to her pious disposition, to returne acknowledgements to the
+righte authour, God alone, presently commands her chaplaynes to a
+publike thanksgiving.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The enemy, thus terrifyed with this defeate, durst not venture theire
+workes agayne till midnight; towards morneing removeing some of theire
+cannon, and the next night stealeing away all the rest, save one peece
+for a memorand. This one escapyt nayleing, which the colonells durst not
+venture on itsow ne mount, but planted att a distance, for feare of
+the madmen in the garrison.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One thing may not heere bee omitted: that day that our men gave Rigby
+that shameful defeate, had hee destined for the p'secuteing of his
+utmost cruelty. Hee had invited, as it is now gen'ally confest, all his
+friends, the holy abettors of this mischiefe, to come see the house
+yeelded or burnt, hee haveing purposed to use his morter gunne w<sup>th</sup>
+fireballs or granadoes all afternoone; but her la<sup>pp</sup> before two o'clocke
+(his own tyme) gave him a very skurvy satisfying answ<sup>r</sup>, soe that his
+friends came opportunely to comfort him, who was sicke of shame and
+dishonour, to be routed by a lady and a handfull of men.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This proved a sore disaster to the besiegers. The soldiers, too, began
+to cry out for their pay. The long-expected plunder of Lathom had
+hitherto kept them quiet; but they were now willing to leave this
+precious booty to the next comers, and content themselves with their
+stated allowance.</p>
+
+<p>Rigby, fearful of the crumbling away and dispersion of his army, made
+shift to furnish some small arrears of their pay, declaring that it had
+cost him &pound;2000 of his own moneys during the siege; but how he got such
+great store of gold we are not informed, safe that &quot;he was once a
+lawyer, and a bad one!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Still there were many deserters, escaping even in the open day; not a
+few of them coming over with valuable intelligence to the garrison.</p>
+
+<p>Wearied with duty, and sorely perplexed, Rigby sent for Col. Holland,
+from Manchester, to his assistance. Many days now elapsed, during which
+little happened worth recording on either side. On the 23d May, Captain
+Moseley brought another message to her ladyship, desiring, in terms of
+great courtesy and respect, that she would grant him an interview. He
+was <!-- Page 356 --><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356" ></a>received with great ceremony; for she abated not a whit of the
+dignity belonging to her high birth and station.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Captain Moseley,&quot; said she, having read the summons, commanding her
+that she should yield up the house, together with the ammunition, arms,
+goods, servants, children, and her own person too&mdash;submitting to the
+mercy of parliament, &quot;you are, I understand, an honourable man and a
+soldier.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He bowed with great humility.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would not receive this from any other. But&quot;&mdash;and her lip curled
+proudly as she spoke. &quot;Here seems a slight mistake in the wording of
+your message. They should rather have written <i>cruelty</i> and not
+<i>mercy</i>!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, my lady,&quot; he replied, &quot;the mercy of parliament. Trust me, you will
+not be evil entreated at their hands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The <i>mercies</i> of the wicked are <i>cruel</i>,&quot; said she, quickly, but with
+great composure. &quot;Not that I mean,&quot; she continued, &quot;a wicked parliament,
+of which body I have an honourable and reverend esteem, but wicked
+agents and factors, such as Moore and Rigby, who for the advantage of
+their own interests labour to turn kingdoms into blood and ruin.
+Besides, 'tis dangerous treating when the sword is given into the
+enemies' hand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Most assuredly, madam, as our tractates on the art of war teach
+us,&mdash;which it seems you have not studied in vain,&quot; said Moseley, bowing
+with an air of great deference and gallantry. &quot;Your ladyship is
+commander-in-chief, we hear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My lord being absent. I am left in trust, and cannot listen to treaties
+without his permission.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not to dishonourable overtures, assuredly. But if we agree to your own
+conditions,&mdash;quitting the house in the way it shall seem best to your
+ladyship, as was once the basis of your own propositions, I believe, it
+cannot in this case be a reproach or a breach of trust, but will prevent
+much damage, and be the saving of many lives.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I will not treat without my lord's commands, Captain Moseley, and I
+have listened to you longer than is expedient. It is unjust to myself,
+and these brave defenders, that I appear in any way doubtful of their
+ability and courage. For their sakes, and for my own, I must end this
+parley.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The officer bowed low at this peremptory dismissal, wishing her
+ladyship's resolutions were less firm or her means more ample.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 357 --><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357" ></a>I can but deliver your reply. Yet&quot;&mdash;He hesitated awhile. &quot;There be
+fierce and bloody men about the camp, who would lay down their own lives
+to compass your destruction. It is not in our power to restrain them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One of these flaming zealots is already extinguished: we have him safe
+under cover,&quot; said her ladyship, smiling; &quot;in our own custody, I trow.
+He threatened us with all the plagues of Egypt and that of his own
+tongue to boot,&mdash;the worst that ere visited the garrison. One morning,
+an earthquake would devour us; another, we were to be visited with the
+destruction of Sodom. Some of our men once looked out for the coming
+tempest, and buffeted him well for their disappointment. He seems either
+malignant or insane; but in charity, of which Christian exercise he
+seems utterly ignorant, we suppose the latter. We have therefore made
+his feet fast in the stocks, from whence, I hear, he pronounces his
+anathemas as confidently as though he were armed with the power and
+thunders of the Vatican!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;May I crave the name of this doughty personage?&mdash;We have but too many
+of them amongst us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Verily, 'tis your drum, by whose hands I have had a message heretofore.
+The chances of war have again brought him hither,&mdash;but now a prisoner!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gideon Greatbatch?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The same. We have heard him, with many blasphemous allusions, liken
+himself unto that great one among the judges of Israel,&mdash;and truly he
+seems more fitted to wield the sword than the drum-stick!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your ladyship would perhaps indulge me with an interview. It might
+comfort him to see one from the camp.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Provided that no sinister design or advantage be lurking under this
+request. Yet am I speaking, I would fain hope, to a gentleman and a
+soldier.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Moseley was conducted down a dark flight of steps, damp and slippery.
+The ooze and slime rendered his footing tedious and insecure. Soon he
+recognised the mighty voice of Gideon bellowing forth a triumphant
+psalm. Another stave was just commencing as the door opened, and the
+torch glared lurid and dismally on the iron features and grisly aspect
+of the captive. A pair of rude stocks, through which Gideon's long
+extremities protruded, stood in the middle of the dungeon. He scowled
+terrifically at the intruders; but suddenly resumed his exercise.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 358 --><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358" ></a>Still at thy devotions?&quot; said Moseley; but the moody fanatic
+vouchsafed not to reply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We must wait the finishing of this duty, I fear,&quot; said the captain,
+knowing that interruption would be useless. Silently they awaited the
+conclusion, when Gideon abruptly cried out&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Captain Moseley, are ye, too, cast into this den of lions?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I came hither on an embassage, and I have craved this visit ere I
+depart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hast furnished my breakfast?&quot; inquired this stalwart knight from the
+enchanted wood. &quot;I think your garrison be short of victual, or my&quot;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hold thy tongue, thou piece of ill-contrived impertinence,&quot; said the
+gaoler. &quot;We have victual and drink too; but for such as thou art, it
+were an ill-bestowed morsel. I marvel what can have possessed my lady to
+keep thee alive!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The gaoler drew out from his provision bag a small dark-coloured loaf,
+which he threw at the hungry captive, who, to say the truth, had been
+half-starved since his imprisonment.</p>
+
+<p>Gideon was devouring it greedily without any further notice, when he
+suddenly cried out to his keeper&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where gat ye this coarse stuff? I would not say good-morrow to my dog
+with so crusty a meal.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was tossed over the wall,&quot; replied the gaoler. &quot;Our friends oft
+supply us that way with provision, captain. I picked it up as I came,
+and thought it was too good for thy dainty appetite.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Captain Moseley,&quot; said the hungry drummer, with great earnestness,
+&quot;take this. Break it before thy brethren, and show them how vilely these
+Egyptian task-masters do entreat us in the house of bondage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was something more than usually impressive in his manner. Moseley
+took the loaf as requested; and the gaoler, as if the object before him
+were beneath suspicion, exclaimed with a knowing look&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Had I not brought the manchet myself, and watched thee narrowily, I
+should have guessed thou hadst crammed some secret message therein to
+the camp. But I defy thee, or any of thy batch, to cheat old Gabriel,
+the rogue's butler!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prithee, search,&quot; said Captain Moseley, drawing the loaf from his
+pocket; &quot;thou mayest, peradventure, find treachery in a toothmark, for
+o' my troth they be legibly written.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 359 --><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359" ></a>Nay,&quot; said Gabriel, with great self-importance, &quot;the knave's jaws will
+score no ciphers. I had as lief interpret pot-hooks and ladles.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The captain again thrusting it beneath his belt, promised to show his
+commanders with what coarse fare and severity the prisoners were
+treated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wilt thou that I intercede for thee before the Countess?&quot; he continued;
+&quot;if so be that she would remit thee of this durance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In a voice of thunder spake the incorrigible Gideon&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Intercede!&mdash;I would as lief pray to the saints they should intercede
+with the Virgin Mary. I will rot from this perch piecemeal ere I pray to
+yonder ungodly woman. Yet shall I escape out of their hands, but not by
+mine own might, or mine own strength,&quot; said the lion-hearted captive.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving this indomitable Roundhead to his fate, Moseley returned to the
+camp, reporting the ill success of his mission.</p>
+
+<p>Great part of the day was spent in angry discussion, so that Moseley had
+nigh forgotten his message from Gideon; yet he remembered it ere he left
+the council. Pulling out a coarse bannock, to the great astonishment of
+his auditory, he brake it, relating his interview with the captive. Near
+to where the prisoner had taken his last mouthful, Moseley found a bit
+of crumpled paper. The surprise and dismay of the assembly may be
+conceived after he had read the following billet:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&quot;MY DEAREST HEART,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;With much joy and comfort I send thee news that his Highness
+     Prince Rupert hath gotten a great victory over the rebels at
+     Newark; and I have besought his Majesty that he should march into
+     Lancashire. By two days, at farthest, these enemies who now
+     beleaguer my house shall be cut off. We purpose to come upon them
+     suddenly, so that they shall be taken in their own snare. I have
+     raised &pound;3000 on the jewels conveyed to me from Lathom by the last
+     sally, which sum I purpose giving in largess to the soldiers, that
+     it may quicken them to thy help. My prayers and blessing for thee
+     and the children.&mdash;Thine,</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;DERBY.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<p>This secret intelligence had missed its destination. The gaoler had
+unfortunately picked it up from where some friendly hand had thrown it,
+reserving the curious envelope for Gideon's breakfast, not aware of the
+important message it contained. But the prisoner, more wary than his
+keeper, when he felt the <!-- Page 360 --><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360" ></a>paper between his teeth, rightly judged that
+it was some communication of importance to his enemies, and craftily
+conveyed it, as we have seen, into the hands of Captain Moseley.</p>
+
+<p>No mean act of heroism for a starving man to wrench the food from his
+own jaws,&mdash;a deed we might in vain look for amongst the patriots of our
+own day,&mdash;persons who would sneer at the fanaticism, and, it may be, the
+sincerity of Gideon Greatbatch.</p>
+
+<p>Consternation was visible throughout the assembly. They had all along
+flattered themselves with the expectation that Prince Rupert's army was
+too urgently required for the relief of York, to have caused them any
+disturbance; and, with inward curses on the king for his humanity,
+secret preparations were made for raising the siege.</p>
+
+<p>Though ignorant of the cause, the garrison soon espied an unusual bustle
+in the camp. They were evidently preparing for some exploit. One of the
+spies brought intelligence that two squadrons had departed in the night,
+and that Colonels Moore and Ashton were on their return to Manchester.</p>
+
+<p>On Monday morning, the 27th of May, it was agreed that Captains Ogle and
+Rawsthorne should make a sally. But they found the enemy had been
+beforehand with them, leaving the camp in the utmost terror and
+disorder. Intelligence now arrived that Prince Rupert had entered
+Lancashire by way of Stockport, where the Parliament army, under
+Colonels Duckenfield, Mainwaring, Buckley, and others, had suffered a
+total route. The besiegers had commenced their retreat between twelve
+and one o'clock the preceding night.</p>
+
+<p>Thus ended the first siege of Lathom, after the place had been closely
+beset four months; during which time the garrison lost but six
+men,&mdash;four in the service, and two by negligence and over-daring.</p>
+
+<p>They were, in general, supplied with provisions, her ladyship seeing the
+men's rations duly served. Yet were they not seldom pushed to a sally
+for their dinner; their friends outside, by lights and other appointed
+signals, directing the foragers in their operations.</p>
+
+<p>The enemy shot 107 cannon-balls, 32 stones, and but four grenadoes. By
+their own confession near 100 barrels of gunpowder were spent, part of
+which was in supplies to the garrison, who often replenished their stock
+at the expense of the <!-- Page 361 --><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361" ></a>besiegers. They lost about 500 men, besides
+wounded and prisoners, according to their own returns.</p>
+
+<p>The next day Rigby, with about 3000 men, drew up at Eccleston Green, six
+miles only from Lathom, in great uncertainty which way to march, fearful
+of meeting with Prince Rupert. In the end, imagining that his Highness
+would go through Blackburn or Lancaster to the relief of York, Rigby
+marched off in great haste to Bolton, then a garrison town, and well
+fortified.</p>
+
+<p>The Prince, hearing of their escape, together with Lord Derby,
+immediately turned their forces in this direction, determined to carry
+the place by assault, and revenge the insults and barbarity her ladyship
+had endured. This resolution was terribly accomplished. Sixteen hundred
+of her besiegers lay dead on the place; and twenty-two colours, which
+three days before flourished proudly before the house, were presented to
+her from his Highness by Sir Richard Crane, as a memorial of her
+deliverance, and &quot;a happy remembrance of God's mercy and goodness to her
+and her family.&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> The name assumed by a body of men who met, during the
+wars, in Manchester; and who in energy and power were second only to
+their London brethren.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> &quot;Hist. of the House of Stanley,&quot; p.90.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> One of these sons of violence, Bradshaw of Brazen-nose,
+took occasion, before his patrons at Wigan, to profane the 14th verse of
+the 15th chapter of Jeremiah, from thence proving that Lady Derby was
+the scarlet whore and the whore of Babylon whose walls he made as flat
+and thin as his own discourse.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> Plus animi est inferenti quam periculum
+propulsanti.&mdash;<i>C&aelig;s. Com</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> Harleian MSS. 2043.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="RAVEN_CASTLE" id="RAVEN_CASTLE" ></a><!-- Page 362 --><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362" ></a>RAVEN CASTLE.</h2>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;He bargained with two ruffians strong,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Which were of furious mood,<br /></span>
+<span>That they should take these children young,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And slay them in a wood.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Away then went these pretty babes,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Rejoycing at that tide,<br /></span>
+<span>Rejoycing with a merry minde,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">They should on cock-horse ride.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="author">&mdash;<i>The Children in the Wood</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Situated amid the wild and high moorlands, at whose feet hath stood for
+ages the royal and ducal capital of the county palatine of Lancaster,
+once rose a strong border defence called Raven Castle. Its site only
+remains. This noble and castellated fortress now lies an almost
+undistinguishable heap on the barren moor; the sheep browse above it,
+and the herdsman makes his pillow where warriors and dames once met in
+chivalric pomp, and the chieftain held his feudal and barbaric court.</p>
+
+<p>The point on which it stood is nearly on the line of separation between
+the counties of York and Lancaster. From the southern declivity of the
+hill on the Yorkshire side springs one of the rills which fall into the
+Hodder, a well-known stream, held in great respect by those ambulatory
+gentlemen whose love of society and amusing recreations leads them to
+lay in a stock of patience for life in the pursuit of piscatory
+delights.</p>
+
+<p>This mountainous tract forms part of the forest of Bowland, once ranged
+by numerous herds of deer, and is still under the jurisdiction of a
+master-forester, or bow-bearer, called <i>Parker</i>, which office has been
+held for centuries by a family of that name.</p>
+
+<p>It was in the broad and still moonlight of a spring morning, in the year
+16&mdash;, that two horsemen were ascending by a steep and difficult pass
+through the Trough of Bolland, along the hills and almost pathless wilds
+of the forest. They were apparently of that dubious class called
+&quot;Knights of the Post,&quot;&mdash;highway-<!-- Page 363 --><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363" ></a>men, deer-stealers, or cattle-harriers;
+all and every of which occupations they occasionally followed.</p>
+
+<p>As they passed by the edge of a steep ravine, from which hung a few
+stunted oaks projecting over the gulf, the foremost rider&mdash;for the path
+admitted them not abreast&mdash;turned sharply round on his saddle.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Again!&mdash;Didst thou not see it, Michael?&quot; inquired he, in great alarm.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing, Anthony, as I do follow thee in this honest trade;&mdash;nothing, I
+tell thee, save thine ugly face in this clear moonshine. Prythee, make
+more speed, and thou wilt have the fewer wry mouths to answer for. Thou
+art fool enough to make a man forswear honesty, and rid him of his
+conscience for life. Beshrew me! thou hast got a troublesome tenant;
+either less roguery, or fewer qualms; depend on 't, thou canst not keep
+friends with both.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll go no farther. Old Hildebrand finds some foul business on his
+hands, that he would fain thrust into our fingers. A bad business quits
+best at the beginning; if once we get to the middle, we might as well go
+on, or we may be like old Dick, who swam half-way through the mill-pond,
+and then, being faint-hearted, swam back again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look thee now, thou art a precious ass:&mdash;thou wouldst be a wit without
+brains, and a rogue, ay, a very wicked and unconditional rogue, without
+courage. Tut, that same cowardly rogue, of all unparalleled villains, is
+verily the worst. Your liquorish cat, skulking and scared with a
+windle-straw, is always the biggest thief, and has the cruellest paws,
+for all her demure looks and her plausible condescensions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't care for thy jeers, Michael.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What!&mdash;hast brought thy purpose to an anchor already? 'Tis well. I
+shall on to Raven Castle with all speed, if it were only to inform one
+Hildebrand Wentworth of this sudden qualm. Likewise I may, peradventure,
+remember to tell him of another little qualm thou wast taken with, once
+upon a time, at the sight of a score of his fat beeves; a little bit of
+choice roguery played off upon him by honest Anthony of the tender
+conscience! Look to it, comrade, he shall know of this before thou canst
+convey thy cowardly carcase out of his clutches. An' it be thou goest
+forward&mdash;mum!&mdash;backward! Ha! have I caught thee, my pretty bird?&quot;</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 364 --><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364" ></a>At the conclusion of this speech, with the malice of a fiend urging on
+his hesitating victim to the commission of some loathed act of folly and
+of crime, the speaker lashed on his companion's beast, and they were
+soon past the steepest part of the ascent, on their way to Raven Castle.
+Its present occupier, whom, it appears, they had befriended beforetime,
+in the way of their several callings, had sent for them in haste,
+requiring their aid, it might seem, in some business relative to their
+profession.</p>
+
+<p>For an hour or two they travelled on as fast as the nature of their
+track would permit. Day was just brightening in the east, when, emerging
+from a more than usually intricate path, they pushed through a thick
+archway of boughs. Suddenly a bare knoll presented itself, sloping
+towards a narrow rivulet; beyond, a dark and well-fortified mansion
+stood before them,&mdash;here and there, a turret-shaped chamber, lifting its
+mural crown above the rest, rose clear and erect against a glowing sky,
+now rapidly displacing the grey hues of the morning. The narrow
+battlements rose up, sharp and distinct, but black as their own grim
+recesses, in solemn contrast with the bright and rolling masses from
+behind, breaking into all the gorgeous tints that betoken a heavy and
+lurid atmosphere.</p>
+
+<p>They crossed a narrow bridge, and the clattering of their horses' hoofs
+were soon heard in the courtyard of the castle.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So, masters, if it had not pleased your betters to have built hostels
+and roosting-places on the road, I might have been snug in my blanket
+some hours ago may be.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The personage who thus accosted them was dressed in a plain leathern cap
+and doublet, with a pair of stout hose that would not have disgraced a
+burgher of the first magnitude; his short and frizzled beard was
+curiously twirled and pointed, we may suppose after the fashion of those
+regions; and his manner and appearance was that of some confidential
+menial belonging to the establishment. His whole demeanour had in it an
+air of impertinent authority; his little sharp eyes twinkled in all the
+plenitude of power, and peered in the faces of the travellers as they
+alighted to render him an unwilling salutation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We have made the best of our road, Master Geoffery, since we left our
+quarters in Netherdale. But, in troth, it's a weary way, and a drouthy
+one into the bargain: I have not wet even the tip of this poor beast's
+nose since we started.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 365 --><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365" ></a>Go to; an' the beasts be cared for, thine own muzzle may take its
+chance of a swill. Willy, see to the horses. Now for business. Master
+has been waiting for you these three hours: make what excuse you may.
+Heigh-ho! my old skull will leak out my brains soon with these
+upsittings.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Taking a small lamp from a recess, he commanded the strangers to follow.
+A wide staircase led to the gallery, from whence a number of low doors
+communicated with the chambers or dormitories. Entering a passage from
+an obscure corner, they ascended a winding stair. The huge and terrific
+spars of the intruders struck with a shrill clank on the narrow steps,
+mingled with the grumblings of Master Geoffery Hardpiece; a continual
+muttering was heard from the latter, by way of running accompaniment to
+the directions which, ever and anon, he found it needful to set forth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There&mdash;an ass, a very ass!&mdash;keep thy face from the wall, I tell thee,
+and lift up thy great leathern hoofs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Then came another series of murmurings, mingled with confused and
+rambling sentences.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This stair is like old Giles's horn, it's long a-winding. Now,&mdash;thy
+spurs, is it? Aroynt thee, knave, thou art like to frighten the children
+with their clattering. They are up, and ready for their trip. Alice will
+stitch a pillow to your pummels, and they'll ride bravely, the pretty
+dears. Stop there, I tell ye; I'll just say that you wait his pleasure,
+and return.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Old Hardpiece tapped gently at a small door; it was opened hastily; and
+a few moments only elapsed ere Master Geoffery's cunning face was
+cautiously extended out of the narrow opening. He beckoned to his
+companions, and at once ushered them into a low chamber. A lamp, half
+extinguished, stood on the floor; the walls were nearly bare, and
+streaked in various colours by the moisture filtering from the roof; a
+curiously-carved oak-table, and two or three stone benches comprised the
+furniture of the apartment; a few rusty swords, with two large pistols
+nearly falling from their holsters, hung from the wall. In one corner,
+reposing in decayed dignity, were seen some halberds, with several
+unmatched pairs of mildewed boots; near to the window, or rather
+loop-hole, heaped up in dust and disorder, lay a score or two of rusty
+helmets, their grim appurtenances mostly broken and disjointed.</p>
+
+<p>Pacing to and fro in this audience-chamber appeared a figure <!-- Page 366 --><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366" ></a>of about
+the middle size, attired in a loose open garment. His head was nearly
+bald; a few thin locks only hung from the lower part of his poll; and
+yet his age was not so far advanced as the scanty covering of his
+forehead might seem to intimate. He paused not as they entered; but
+during the greater part of the succeeding interview persevered in the
+same restless and abrupt gait, as though repose were anguish, and it was
+only by a continued change of position that he could soothe the rising
+perturbation of his spirit.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is this your haste, when my commands are most urgent?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He turned sharply upon them as he spoke: his eyes grew wild and keen;
+but at times a heaviness and languor, as if from long watching, seemed
+to oppress them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We could not&quot;&mdash;Michael was stammering out an apology, when thus
+interrupted:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Enough! I know what thou wouldst say. Let thy comrade remain below.
+Geoffery, conduct him to the refectory; Michael abides here. Haste, and
+let refreshments be prepared.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>What was the purport of the conversation that ensued may be surmised
+from the following history.</p>
+
+<p>Old Hardpiece, grumbling the greater part of the way, led his companion
+through a labyrinth of stairs and passages to a small room, where a huge
+flagon of ale, with cold beef and other substantial articles for
+breakfast, were about being displayed. Anthony, nothing loth, threw
+aside his cap, and unbraced his girdle, for the more capacious disposal
+of such savoury and delicious viands. A heavy pull at the tankard again
+brought out Master Geoffery's deep-mouthed oratory. Anthony's tongue
+grew more nimble as his appetite waxed less vigorous; he asked many
+questions about the business which required their presence at Raven
+Castle in such haste.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The orphan children of Sir Henry Fairfax are to be conveyed to some
+place of concealment for a short period. Master says he has had
+intimation of a design on the part of the late Sir Henry's friends to
+seize them perforce. Which act of violence Hildebrand Wentworth, being
+left as their sole guardian, will make all haste to prevent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The children of the late Sir Harry Fairfax who was killed in the wars?&quot;
+inquired Anthony.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ay, ay. Poor things! since their mother drowned herself&quot;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 367 --><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367" ></a>Old Hardpiece here looked round, as though fearing some intrusion. He
+continued in an undertone&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Goody Shelton says she walks in the forest; and that her wraith so
+frightened Humphrey's horse that it would not budge a straw's breadth,
+just beside the great oak in the Broad Holm, before you get into the
+forest on the other side towards Slaidburn.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Anthony was, at this precise moment, cramming the last visible remains
+of a goose-pie into the same place where he had before deposited half
+the good things on the table, anointing his beard with their savoury
+outskirts,&mdash;when suddenly his chin dropped, his face assumed a sort of
+neutral tinge, and his whole form appeared to grow stiff with terror. He
+made several efforts to speak; but the following words only could be
+distinguished:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was sure it would be a ghost!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What!&mdash;a ghost!&mdash;Where!&quot; anxiously inquired Geoffery.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just by the great oak in the Broad Holm, on the other side of the
+forest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What was it like?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I cannot tell; and Michael pretended he did not see it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou canst surely show the appearance it put on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Something, as it might be, like unto a woman, crossed our path twice,
+and within a stone's throw. O Master Geoffery, we be dead men!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Another groan here interrupted their discourse. Master Hardpiece
+muttered some unintelligible prayers, putting on a face of great
+solemnity. Several minutes elapsed, while the following exclamations
+rapidly succeeded each other:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A ghost!&mdash;save us!&mdash;a very ghost! I'll not to Slaidburn again without
+help. Another draught, Anthony; a stiffener to thy courage, mayhap. It's
+now daylight, though,&quot; said he, looking through the casement, &quot;and most
+of us fear only what may be felt, in the day-time at any rate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Anthony took the cup, and, apparently without being aware, drank off the
+contents. He was much invigorated by the draught which seemed to invest
+him with new courage; partly from the recollection that a long daylight
+would intervene between the beginning and the end of his journey, and
+partly because of the sudden rush of spirits to his brain. He arose, and
+assuming a posture more erect, planted his cap in a becoming attitude,
+whilst Geoffery was putting aside the empty vessels into a sort <!-- Page 368 --><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368" ></a>of
+large wooden chalice, for the purpose of a more convenient removal.</p>
+
+<p>Light footsteps were now heard bounding along the passage, and the door
+was suddenly burst open by two rosy-cheeked children; the elder a boy of
+some four or five years' growth, and his sister scarcely a twelvemonth
+younger.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Master Geoffery, Master Geoffery,&quot; lisped one laughing urchin, &quot;hide
+me; there is Alice&mdash;she'll not let me go. We are to ride on two great
+horses; and I shall have a sword, and sister Julia a coach.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Here nurse Alice made her appearance. She had been weeping: tears and
+entreaties were vain. She asked permission to accompany them; but with a
+frown Hildebrand Wentworth had chidden her from his presence. Since the
+loss of her mother, and almost from the time that news had arrived of
+their father's death, which happened a little while before the birth of
+Julia, she had borne a mother's part to her little charge; and had it
+been allowed her, she would gladly have served them without reward.</p>
+
+<p>Fearful of leaving them, she had followed hastily into the room. With a
+searching glance she eyed the stranger for a while; then suddenly
+turning to the children, she addressed them with great seriousness and
+affection.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Harry, you have not repeated your prayer this morning. Do you think God
+will take care of you to-day, if you ask Him not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Here the rebuked boy grew silent; and with a suffused face, ran to his
+nurse. Whilst in her lap, he poured out his morning orison. It was a
+simple but affecting request. Julia knelt also; and Alice, laying a hand
+on each, blessed the children.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;God of their fathers, I commit them to Thy care!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She could say no more; loud sobs checked her utterance; but leaning over
+these little ones, she convulsively clasped them in her embrace.</p>
+
+<p>Old Hardpiece grew unusually busy about matters of no importance, and
+the hard-featured trooper was seen to brush his brows, as though some
+unpleasant suspicions had crossed his brain. He raised his arm as he
+gazed on the children, muttering as he clenched his hand&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If he dare!&quot;&mdash;He then carelessly examined his sword, returning it
+quickly into its sheath, as the weeping Alice drew <!-- Page 369 --><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369" ></a>away the children to
+her own apartment. Old Geoffery now grew more talkative. Leaning his
+chin upon his hand, and his elbow on the table, he thus proceeded:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's four long years come St Barnabas since Sir Harry's death; and my
+lady, rest her soul! went melancholy soon after. Everything was
+bequeathed in trust to my master, Hildebrand Wentworth, a great friend
+of Sir Harry's, and his secretary or purse-bearer, I forget which&mdash;no
+matter&mdash;all the property, I say, was left in trust for Sir Harry's wife
+and children. Hildebrand brought a will from Sir Harry to this effect,
+and poor Lady Fairfax never looked up afterwards. She moped about, and
+would see nobody, and then it was they said she was out of her wits. It
+was not long before her head-gear and mantle were found by the
+river-side just below the old bridge you crossed&mdash;but her body never.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Here the entrance of Michael cut short the old man's discourse.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Belike thou hast not lacked a cup of warm sack, and a whey-posset with
+my master in the west turret,&quot; scoffingly cried Master Geoffery. Michael
+looked surly as he replied&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Old Gabergeon, let us have a draught of thy best, a stirrup-cup.
+Breakfast I have settled with above stairs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Marry take your swill, Mr Saucypate,&quot; tartly replied Geoffery. &quot;And so,
+because you have eaten and drunk with my master, it is 'old Gabergeon;'
+else had it been good Master Hardpiece, or 'if you will, Master
+Geoffery!' Out upon such carrion, say I, that think themselves live meat
+when they are but fly-blown.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Old Geoffery,&quot; said Michael, coolly, &quot;we'll settle our rank at a more
+convenient opportunity. Just now I'll thank thee for the flagon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's in the cupboard,&quot; growled Hardpiece. &quot;Verily these arms would
+tingle. But I am old, and that same Michael but a sorry brute&mdash;no
+beating would mend him. An ass of most vicious propensities; he will
+bite forwards and kick backwards. Friends get the benefit of his teeth,
+and foes the favour of his heels.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Thus did the old man console himself for the rudeness he could not
+restrain. It was not long ere a summons hurried them to the courtyard.
+They found their beasts equipped and ready to depart; Harry and Julia
+looking joyously on, vastly <!-- Page 370 --><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370" ></a>diverted with the horses' accoutrements.
+Hildebrand stood by the gateway, looking moody and anxious for their
+departure; Alice, full of sorrow, attended with some refreshments which
+were stowed into the wallet. The journey was but short, and an hour's
+ride that fine morning, Michael said, would bring them to their
+destination. Hildebrand forbade him to mention the place where he wished
+to conceal the children, lest it should be known to their iniquitous
+relatives. Each horseman, with a child mounted before him, slowly passed
+the outer court, at the entrance of which Alice disappeared. The iron
+tramp of the steeds rang shrilly from underneath the arched gateway;
+Hildebrand stood by the platform; he bade them good speed. Anthony
+passed first; Michael checked his horse for a moment, when Hildebrand
+took the hand of the boy, and pressed it; but one portentous look, as at
+the recognition of some sinister purpose, passed between Michael and the
+old man, unobserved by his colleague. Hildebrand raised his hand above
+his mouth, and slowly whispered&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Remember!&mdash;the gulf underneath the waterfall.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The horsemen departed. Passing the bridge they were just rising over the
+green slope when the children recognised Alice upon her mistress's
+palfrey. They screamed out loudly to her; but she was riding in a
+contrary direction, and soon passed out of their sight.</p>
+
+<p>The narrow glades of the forest suddenly encompassed them. The morning
+was pretty far advanced; the merry birds twittered in their dun covert,
+brushing the dewdrops from the boughs with their restless wings. The
+thrush and blackbird poured forth a more melancholy note; whilst the
+timid rabbit, scared from his morning's meal, rushed by and sought his
+burrow. The wood grew thicker, and the sunbeams that shot previously in
+broad slopes across their path soon became as lines of intensely-chequered
+light piercing the grim shadows beneath. The trees, too, put on a more
+sombre character; and the sward appeared choked with rank and noxious
+weeds. It seemed a path rarely trod, and only to be recognised by
+occasional openings through the underwood.</p>
+
+<p>They travelled for some hours. Michael had taken the lead, and Anthony
+with his prattling charge rode carelessly on. Looking round, the latter
+suddenly checked his horse. A momentary alarm overspread his features as
+he cried&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 371 --><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371" ></a>Michael, you have surely mistaken the path: an hour's ride should have
+brought us to the end of our journey, and our beasts have been footing
+it on since morning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Heed not, comrade; thou wilt soon find we have the right track before
+us. We shall be through the wood presently.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, this is the road to Ingleton, if I mistake not; I hear the roar of
+the Greta.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Right&mdash;we shall be on our road to the old castle shortly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They travelled on more silently than before, until the brawling of the
+torrent they had heard for some time increased with rapid intensity. The
+road now widening, Anthony spurred on his beast by the side of his
+companion, who slackened his pace to afford an opportunity for further
+parley.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Whither are we bound?&quot; inquired Anthony.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where the children will be well cared for.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A dubious expression of countenance, which Anthony but too well
+understood, accompanied these words; and villain was expressed by
+indications too unequivocal to be easily mistaken through every change
+and inflection of his visage. Anthony, though not of the most unsullied
+reputation, and probably habituated to crimes at which humanity might
+shudder, pressed the little victim closer to his breast. The prattle of
+the babe had won his heart: and the morning scene with Alice had
+softened his spirit so that he could have wept when he thought of the
+remorseless nature of his comrade, to whose care the children were
+entrusted.</p>
+
+<p>The roar of the torrent grew louder. Suddenly they entered upon a sort
+of irregular amphitheatre&mdash;woods rising above each other to the very
+summit of the hills by which they were surrounded. A swollen waterfall
+was visible, below which a bare and flattened trunk, whose boughs had
+apparently been but just lopped, was thrown across the torrent. A ruined
+keep or donjon was seen above a line of dark firs, crowning the summit
+of a steep crag that rose abruptly from the river.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is our halfway-house,&quot; said Michael, pointing to the grim
+fortress: &quot;the children are tired, and have need of refreshment. Tarry
+here with the horses whilst I carry them over the bridge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We have refreshments in the wallet&mdash;what need we to loiter yonder?&quot;
+replied Anthony, eyeing the other with an expression of distrust.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 372 --><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372" ></a>The children want rest,&quot; said Michael, &quot;and we shall there find
+shelter from the heat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If rest be needful,&quot; was the reply, &quot;surely this dry sward and these
+overhanging leaves will afford both rest and shelter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The children are in my keeping,&quot; said Michael, fiercely, &quot;and I am not
+to account with thee for my proceedings. Alight, and give me the child.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I will not!&mdash;Michael, I have watched thee, and I know that thou art a
+villain. Ay, draw, I have weapons too, comrade.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Fast and furious grew the combat, during which the terrified children
+made the woods echo with their shrieks. The result was not long
+doubtful. Michael soon proved himself the better swordsman; and his
+antagonist, stumbling from fatigue, broke his own weapon in the fall.
+Defenceless and exposed, the uplifted sword of his adversary was raised
+for his destruction, when suddenly the arm of the ruffian was arrested,
+the weapon snatched from his grasp, and a female figure habited in a
+dark and coarse vestment stood between the combatants. Her brow was
+bare, and her dark full eye beamed on them with a look of pity and of
+anger. Her naturally pale cheek was flushed; but it betrayed not the
+agitation she endured. Erect and unbending she stood before them, and
+the quailing miscreant crouched at her feet.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Away to thy master!&mdash;thy blood, too worthless even for thine own
+steel&quot;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>She hurled away the weapon as she spoke.</p>
+
+<p>Burning with revenge at his late defeat, Anthony flew after the falling
+brand: seizing it, he renewed the attack. Michael fled towards the
+bridge. With the bound of a bereaved tiger Anthony sprung upon his prey.
+Just where the root of the trunk rested on the bank they closed, after a
+desperate lunge parried by the unprotected arm of Michael. It was
+disabled&mdash;but he still clung to his enemy. Anthony strove to disengage
+himself; but the other, aware that life or death depended on the issue
+of that struggle, hung on him with a convulsive tightness that rendered
+the advantage he had gained of no avail. The sword was useless. Anthony
+threw it into the boiling gulf at his feet. Both hands being now free,
+whilst one arm of his opponent hung powerless and bleeding at his side,
+he had greatly the advantage. He wrenched the other arm of Michael <!-- Page 373 --><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373" ></a>from
+its hold, lifted him from his narrow footing-place, and with a malignant
+shout of triumph shook him over the abyss. One startling plunge, and the
+wretch sank in the rolling waters. An agonising yell, and but one,
+escaped him, as he hung quivering over that yawning portal to eternity;
+the next cry was choked by the seethe of the boiling foam. The waves
+whirled him round for a moment like some huge leviathan tossing its
+prey. He sank into its gorge, and the insatiate gulf swallowed him up
+for ever. Anthony drew back. He turned from the horrid scene, with some
+yet lingering tokens of compunction, in the expectation of rejoining his
+companions; but in vain&mdash;the babes and his deliverer had disappeared!</p>
+
+<p>Hildebrand Wentworth had passed the remainder of that day in his own
+chamber. It was a dark lone room, leading out of the turret we have
+before described. Often had he ascended the narrow stair communicating
+with the parapet, and often had he watched the dark woods beneath the
+distant mountain. It was the road taken by his guilty emissaries; and,
+whether on the look-out for signals or for their return, he repeated his
+visits until the blue mists were gathering on the horizon, and
+day&mdash;another day!&mdash;had passed into the bosom of eternity. It was an hour
+of holiness and peace, but heavy and disturbed was the current of his
+thoughts. He sat near a projecting angle of the turret, his head bent
+over the parapet. A female voice was heard beneath, chanting
+monotonously a low and melancholy psalm. Soon the following words were
+distinguished:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Dark as the bounding waters<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">When storm clouds o'er them roll,<br /></span>
+<span>The face of Zion's daughters<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Reveals the troubled soul.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Hildebrand drew his breath, as if labouring under some violent emotion.
+His whole frame was agitated. His lip grew pale as she went on with a
+voice of exultation&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;But joy is sown in sadness,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And hope with anxious fears;<br /></span>
+<span>Yon clouds shall break in gladness.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And doubts dissolve in tears.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Fiends increase their torments at the sight of heaven! Hildebrand threw
+back his cloak,&mdash;with one clenched hand he struck his forehead, and with
+a loud groan he rushed from the spot. He sought rest in the gloom and
+solitude of his chamber; <!-- Page 374 --><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374" ></a>but hours passed on, during which the
+conscience-stricken culprit endured the horrors of accumulated guilt.
+Sometimes he opened the casement, gazing on the dark heavens, until he
+thought they were peopled, and he held converse with unseen and terrible
+things. Inarticulate murmurs broke from his lips. A few words might
+occasionally be distinguished&mdash;&quot;Murder!&mdash;An old man too&mdash;The
+children&mdash;they are at rest!&quot; A gleam of pleasure passed over his haggard
+features.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am now&quot;&mdash;looking round&mdash;&quot;now master of all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All?&quot; breathed a low voice in the chamber.</p>
+
+<p>The cringing wretch was speechless. Sense almost forsook him: horror
+fastened on his spirit, while he turned his eyes, as if by some
+resistless constraint, towards the place from whence the voice had
+issued. Near his couch was a curiously-wrought cabinet inlaid with ivory
+and gems of the most costly workmanship. An heir-loom of the house, it
+was highly valued, and tradition reports that it was one of those spoils
+on which our forefathers cast a longing glance in the wars of the Holy
+Sepulchre. Be this as it may, every document of value connected with the
+family was here deposited. By virtue of the power given to him from the
+dying Sir Henry, though ostensibly for the benefit of his lady and her
+infant offspring, Hildebrand guarded the trust with a jealous eye. No
+one had access to it but himself, nor did he permit any other person
+than old Geoffery, the house-steward, to visit his chamber.</p>
+
+<p>Before this cabinet stood a figure enveloped in a dark robe. Pale,
+deadly pale, were the features, though scarcely discernible in their
+form and outline. The lamp burnt dimly; but with the quickened
+apprehension of guilt he recognised the wan resemblance of Lady Fairfax!</p>
+
+<p>A cry of exhausted anguish escaped him, and he fell senseless on the
+floor.</p>
+
+<p>Morning had risen, casting its bright and cheerful rays into the
+chamber, ere Hildebrand Wentworth awoke. Consciousness but slowly
+returned, and the events of the preceding hours came like shadows upon
+his soul. He stamped thrice, and immediately the vapid countenance of
+Geoffery Hardpiece was before him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come hither, Hardpiece. I am wondrous heavy and ill at ease.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, master, your bed has not been disturbed these two <!-- Page 375 --><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375" ></a>nights.&mdash;How
+should there be anything but an aching head, and complaining bones,
+when&quot;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Hildebrand cast a hasty and confused glance towards the couch as he
+replied&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have matters of moment just now that weigh heavily on my spirit. I
+cannot&quot;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Here was a short pause; he continued, with a slow and tremulous accent&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hope the children are safe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, master,&quot; said Geoffery, &quot;you have sent them out of harm's way, I
+hope; but&mdash;I know not what ails me&mdash;an uneasy night of it I have had
+about them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What hast thou seen?&quot; eagerly demanded Hildebrand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Seen! I have seen nothing, but I have been haunted at all quarters by a
+vast crowd of vexatious busy dreams&mdash;about cut-throats and murderers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who says murderer?&mdash;I will have thee in the stocks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hildebrand attempted to lay hold on him as he spoke; but, accustomed to
+these outbreaks of temper, Master Hardpiece merely stepped on one side,
+still maintaining his usual forward and self-sufficient demeanour.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr Hildebrand Wentworth, when an old servant&quot;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Peace!&quot; interrupted his master,&mdash;&quot;I am chafed beyond endurance.&quot; He
+struck his forehead violently, but suddenly recollecting himself, he
+seized Geoffery by the arm.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What sawest thou last night, knave?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Only dreams, master&mdash;but&quot;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Say on&mdash;what makes thee hesitate?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A messenger arrived last night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A messenger!&mdash;from whence?&quot; eagerly demanded Hildebrand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Unluckily,&quot; said Geoffery, &quot;it was shortly after you had retired for
+the night; I durst not then trouble you with the message. Marry, it's
+not the sort of news one likes to be in a hurry to tell.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go on, varlet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why,&quot; continued the provoking simpleton, looking as if he had to reveal
+unpleasant tidings, and drawing back as he spoke, &quot;the bearer is in the
+train of some herald or pursuivant, come from o'er sea to our court,
+about exchange of prisoners and the like. This man has a message from
+Sir Henry Fairfax.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 376 --><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376" ></a>He lies! I'll have his tongue bored!&quot; furiously cried Hildebrand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, but listen: he says Sir Henry, whom we all thought dead, is now
+alive, and a prisoner in some ugly old German fortress.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>During this recital the astonished Hildebrand clenched his hands, with a
+look of awful and impotent rage. Hardpiece continued&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This coxcomb says he was sent specially by Sir Henry to obtain from you
+some papers of great moment, which will ensure his immediate release. He
+bears Sir Henry's signet, and the knave hath no lack of assurance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Has this fellow had any communication with the menials, Geoffery?&mdash;or
+hast thou done me the service to keep him and his message to thyself?&quot;
+anxiously inquired Hildebrand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, as touching that, Alice, somehow or other,&mdash;for these women are
+always looking to anybody's business but their own,&mdash;wormed out his
+message in part, before I was aware of her drift.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Alice!&mdash;Again has that viper crossed my path?&mdash;Bid the messenger
+attend.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>When Geoffery returned he was followed by a short, muscular-looking
+personage, attired in a foreign garb. A military cloak, and slouched
+hat, garnished with a broad band and feather, gave him altogether an air
+of importance which his bare exterior had not sustained. On entering he
+made a slight obeisance. Hildebrand watched his bearing, as if he would
+have searched him to the heart's core. Not in the least disconcerted,
+the soldier threw himself on a seat. Preliminaries were waived by this
+unceremonious guest, who, speaking evidently in a foreign accent, began
+the interrogatory as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You were the private secretary of Sir Henry Fairfax?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was,&quot; briefly replied Hildebrand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Know you this signet?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do,&quot; again he sullenly answered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was given into my keeping,&quot; said the stranger, &quot;as a token whereby
+Hildebrand Wentworth should, in the due exercise of his fealty and
+trust, commit to my charge certain documents that shall immediately be
+set forth. But first, and briefly, it may be needful to relate the
+manner in which Sir Henry recovered after your departure. On the day
+following the skirmish, wherein Sir Henry was supposed to be mortally
+wounded, he gave <!-- Page 377 --><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377" ></a>unto you, as his most valued and bosom friend, those
+solemn credentials, by which, as a dying man, he invested you with full
+powers to proceed to England, as the sole guardian and protector of his
+beloved wife and their infant offspring. The goods and effects of which
+he died the possessor were vested in your name, I believe, in trust for
+her benefit and the surviving children. I think I am right in this? In
+case of her death, though, I believe the property became yours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It did.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Such was the nature of the wound that his physicians believed a few
+hours only could intervene before his dissolution. He urged your
+immediate departure. Shortly afterwards the whole camp equipage,
+together with the sick and wounded, fell into the hands of his enemies.
+Driven off to a considerable distance up the Rhine at full speed, and
+without any other comforts or necessaries than what his captors could
+supply, his wounds bleeding afresh, and every limb racked with pain, to
+the astonishment of all he speedily recovered; and from that time he has
+remained a close prisoner in the fortress. Not receiving any tidings
+from his native shores, he knows not his loss. Yesternight only I heard
+of Lady Fairfax's most lamentable decease. In a cartel lately arrived
+for negotiating an exchange of prisoners, Sir Henry sends by me,
+secretly, as one of the envoys, a requisition for the papers I have
+before mentioned. His name, by some mistake, perhaps, not being included
+in the lists for exchange, has induced him so to act. The credentials,
+which he will thus be enabled through me to present, will doubtless
+accomplish his release, and restore him to his family and to his home.
+They are papers of great moment, and will set forth claims which cannot
+be overlooked; and I have most minute and special instructions to get
+them laid before the council.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where are these precious documents deposited?&quot; said Hildebrand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An Eastern cabinet of choice and costly workmanship, containing other
+records of great value, stands in Sir Henry's private chamber.&quot; The
+envoy looked round, and his eyes rested on the cabinet. &quot;The outer doors
+being opened, there are seen two ranges of drawers, with their separate
+mountings and compartments, each containing materials of greater or less
+moment. Sir Henry was minute in his directions, lest his lady might be
+bsent; and the innermost secrets of this goodly tabernacle <!-- Page 378 --><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378" ></a>not being
+known, save to themselves, the object of my visit might be retarded.
+With the permission of Hildebrand Wentworth, I will describe minutely
+where he may find this deposit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hildebrand slightly moved his head, and the speaker continued&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;From Sir Henry's description, and the tracings which he drew on the
+floor of his cell, I should conceive that this room contains the object
+of our search. I will recount the memoranda that I made, lest memory
+should be unfaithful. When the third cover is unclosed, in the lowest
+part of the recess on the right hand, beneath a sliding panel, is a
+spring, on touching which the whole flies back, and discovers a rare
+device, beautifully wrought in arabesque relief. So far, in all
+likelihood, you being his confidential secretary, have beheld?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have seen this cunning work thou speakest of. What more?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Embellishing the four corners thereof is the likeness of a hand,
+curiously chased in silver; the second joint on the third finger of the
+lowest of them, on the left, being pressed, the whole picture, by
+marvellous sleight and artifice, riseth up, revealing the treasure of
+which I am in search.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hath Sir Henry sent no written message, that we may know his will in
+this matter?&quot; inquired Hildebrand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is strictly forbidden to a prisoner,&quot; replied the other, &quot;to use
+tablets; but my knowledge of the secret is a sufficient safeguard
+against imposture.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Retire: I will begin the search with all speed. But hold thyself in
+readiness for immediate departure. Thou wilt not have the worse thrift
+for a hasty dismissal.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The stranger withdrew, accompanied by Hardpiece. Hildebrand listened to
+their retreating footsteps; when, like unto one possessed, he stamped,
+and tore his thin grey locks, and cursed&mdash;audibly and bitterly
+cursed&mdash;his destiny.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hast thou escaped?&mdash;when the draught danced and bubbled over my parched
+lips. Fate&mdash;fortune, whatever thou art, I would curse thee!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, he lifted up one clenched hand towards heaven, laden with
+imprecation. And why did not that power, whose vengeance he visibly
+defied, launch a bolt against the impious?&mdash;Why not reader him, in that
+very act, a monument of just and righteous retribution?&mdash;&quot;<i>Shall not the
+Judge of the whole earth do right?</i>&quot; is a master-key that unlocks the
+mysteries <!-- Page 379 --><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379" ></a>and ministrations of Divine Providence, however complicated
+in their nature and obscure in their design.</p>
+
+<p>As the hoary sinner withdrew his hand, suddenly the muscles of his face
+relaxed; a ray of hope had irradiated his spirit&mdash;a gleam of delight
+passed over his pale features. He grew calm, and with a firm step he
+strode across the apartment. He approached the cabinet.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou shalt not escape me now!&quot;&mdash;As he said this, he threw open the
+doors. Hildebrand had often searched this depository, but the place of
+concealment pointed out by the stranger had hitherto escaped his notice.
+He soon detected the stratagem&mdash;the lid flew back; but the papers of
+which he was in search were gone!</p>
+
+<p>The spirit of mischief was again foiled, but his evil genius did not
+forsake him. He sat down, and, for purposes of the blackest malignity,
+forged a series of evidences&mdash;a development of plans and proceedings
+that would at once have branded Sir Henry as a coward and a traitor.
+These letters he sealed up, and calling for the messenger, committed the
+packet into his hands.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have Sir Henry's orders to lay these before the king?&quot; said
+Hildebrand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have,&quot; replied the envoy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then hasten to court, and so good speed. Stay&mdash;when you meet Sir Henry
+Fairfax, offer him an old man's sympathy and condolence. Break the
+matter to him tenderly&mdash;and when he returns&mdash;I say no more. Away, thy
+mission hath need of despatch.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The soldier made a slight inclination of the head as he departed.</p>
+
+<p>Hildebrand Wentworth sat down to reap the fruits of his villany&mdash;a
+harvest of his own planting. The full fruition of it he now seemed ready
+to enjoy; but days and weeks passed by, and still found him feverish and
+anxious. The fate of the children&mdash;whether the work of destruction had
+or had not been accomplished&mdash;was still to him a matter of uncertainty.
+He had often sent in search of the ruffians, but they had not been seen
+at their usual haunts. Guilt whispered that all was not complete.
+Restless and oppressed by undefined and terrible apprehensions, he
+resolved to end his doubts, and, if possible, procure an interview. He
+expected to obtain some clue to their procedings by a visit to the
+tower.</p>
+
+<p>It was not far from the close of a bright summer's day when <!-- Page 380 --><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380" ></a>he gained
+the rude bridge below the waterfall. He shuddered as he looked on the
+narrow trunk and the ever-tossing gulf beneath. The blackness of
+darkness was upon his spirit, and he ran as if some demon had pursued
+him, climbing with almost breathless haste the steep and winding
+staircase that gave access from the bridge to the ruined fortress above.</p>
+
+<p>From the platform a narrow ledge of rock led to the ditch, now dry, and
+nearly filled with fragments from the ruins. He passed the tottering
+arch of the portcullis;&mdash;long weeds choked up the entrance, waving
+drearily as the light breeze went over them. Hildebrand heard not the
+moan of the coming blast. Evening approached, and the thousand shadows
+haunted him,&mdash;grim spectres that crossed his path, crowding upon him
+with anger and menace. From a ruined doorway he ascended a narrow stair,
+and had penetrated far into the interior of that part of the castle
+which, in some measure, remained entire, when, for the first time, he
+seemed startled into a consciousness of his situation. It was an
+appalling scene of solitude and decay. The realities, to which he almost
+instantaneously awoke, might have awed a less guilty spirit than that
+which inhabited the bosom of Hildebrand Wentworth. A long gallery,
+supported by huge pillars, terminated in the distance by a long and
+narrow oriel. On each side, broken but richly-variegated windows threw
+down a many-tinted light, which, oppressed by the dark and caverned
+arches, gave a strange and mysterious character to the grotesque
+reflections hovering on the floor. Narrow streams of light flitted
+across the dense vapours, visible only in their gleam. Involuntarily did
+Hildebrand pass on: impelled as if by some unseen but resistless power,
+he durst not retrace his footsteps. His tread was slow and fearful, as
+he traversed the long and dreary vista. Every sense was now in full
+exercise;&mdash;his faculties becoming more acute by the extremity of terror
+he endured. His ear caught the slightest sound&mdash;his eye, the least
+motion that glimmered across his path. Sometimes a terrific shape seemed
+to glide past: he brushed the cold and clammy damps from his brow, and
+it vanished.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a door opened at the extremity of the gallery, and a faint
+light streamed from the crevice. Voices&mdash;children's voices&mdash;were heard
+in the chamber. He rushed onward. Rage, frantic and uncontrolled,
+possessed him, as he beheld the babes, the intended victims of his
+avarice, in all the bloom of health and innocence, unconscious of
+danger, bounding through the <!-- Page 381 --><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381" ></a>apartment, together with their nurse and
+protector, Alice! Goaded by his insatiate tormentor, he drew a poniard
+from his vest, and rushed on the unoffending objects of his hate. Alice
+shrieked; she attempted to throw herself between them and their foe, but
+was too far off to accomplish her purpose. His arm was too sure, and his
+stroke too sudden. But ere the steel could pierce his victims it was
+arrested. He looked round, and a female figure, loosely enveloped in a
+dark cloak, had rescued them from death. It was the same form that had
+before interposed between them and the fangs of their remorseless enemy.
+Loosened by the sudden spring, her garment flew aside. Hildebrand gazed
+silently, but with a look of horror, too wild and intense to be
+portrayed. He seemed to recognise the intruder&mdash;his lips moved rapidly
+while he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thee!&mdash;whom the waves had swallowed! Have the waters given up their
+dead?&quot;&mdash;he faintly exclaimed, almost gasping for utterance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Monster! canst thou look upon this form,&quot; she cried, &quot;and not wither at
+the sight? But I have done,&quot; she meekly continued: &quot;Heaven hath yet a
+blessing for the innocent;&mdash;but thy cup of iniquity is full. Thy doom is
+at hand. I have trusted Thee, O my Father; and I trust Thee still!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was the much injured and persecuted wife of Sir Henry Fairfax who now
+stood before the abashed miscreant.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Away!&quot; she cried; &quot;to Heaven I leave my vengeance and thy crime.
+Hence&mdash;to thy home! Thine, did I say? Soon, monster, shall thou be
+chased from thy lair, and the wronged victim regain his right.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hildebrand, awed and confounded, retraced his path, brooding over some
+more cunning stratagem to ensure his prey. He had passed the bridge,
+and, on attempting to remount his steed, his attention was directed to a
+cloud of dust, and a pale flash of arms in the evening light. Two
+horsemen drew nigh&mdash;their steeds studded with gouts of foam, and in an
+instant one of them alighted before the traitor. It was Sir Henry
+Fairfax! &quot;Have I caught thee?&quot; cried the knight.&mdash;&quot;What mischief art
+thou here a-perpetrating?&mdash;Seize that villain!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In a moment, Hildebrand was denied all chance of escape.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy machinations are defeated&mdash;thy villanies revealed, and vengeance
+demands a hasty recompense.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hildebrand prostrated himself on the ground in the most abject
+humiliation, and besought mercy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 382 --><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382" ></a>I will not harm thee, wretch,&quot; exclaimed the gallant knight: &quot;to a
+higher power I leave the work of retribution. The ministers of justice
+await thee at my castle. I came hither first to seek my wife!&mdash;Lead the
+way; thou shalt be witness to our meeting&mdash;wife, children, all. Our
+bliss will to thee be misery that the most refined tortures could not
+inflict. On&mdash;on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hildebrand, with imbecile agony, grasped at the very stones for succour.
+He then rushed towards the bridge, and, ere his purpose could be
+anticipated, with one wild yell, precipitated himself into the waters!</p>
+
+<p>A few lines will suffice by way of explanation to this unlooked-for
+termination of their sufferings.</p>
+
+<p>When Lady Fairfax fled from the castle, in order to elude his
+search,&mdash;for Hildebrand had the audacity to threaten by force to make
+her his wife,&mdash;she threw off her cloak and head-dress, laying them on
+the river's brink that it might appear as though she had accomplished
+her own destruction. To the care of the faithful Alice she had committed
+her children, and likewise the secret of her concealment. Alice was in
+continual correspondence with her unfortunate mistress; and great was
+the joy and exultation with which she communicated the arrival of a
+messenger from her lord, whom she had long mourned as dead.
+Providentially, no interview took place between Hildebrand and the
+stranger on the night of his arrival; and sufficient time intervened to
+enable Lady Fairfax to make a desperate attempt, in the hope of gaining
+possession of the papers for which he had been sent. She well knew
+Hildebrand would not relinquish the possession of credentials that might
+ensure his lord's return. It was Lady Fairfax who had alarmed him the
+same night by her appearance in his chamber. She hoped to have found him
+asleep; but was enabled to get possession of the writings through his
+timidity and surprise. With these she met the envoy, as he was returning
+from the castle. Disclosing all the tortuous and daring villany of
+Hildebrand, she committed the real documents to his care, instructing
+him at the same time to lay before her sovereign the narrative of her
+wrongs. Soon was the captivity of Sir Henry terminated; and joy,
+heightened by recollection of the past, and chastened by the severity of
+their misfortunes, attended them through the remainder of their earthly
+career.</p>
+
+<div class="center"><!-- Page 383 --><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383" ></a><!-- Page 384 --><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384" ></a>
+<img src="images/20.png" width="600" height="399" alt="SOUTH PORT.
+
+Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden." title="" />
+<b>SOUTH PORT.<br />
+
+<i>Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw<sup>d</sup> Finden.</i></b>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_PHANTOM_VOICE" id="THE_PHANTOM_VOICE" ></a><!-- Page 385 --><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385" ></a>THE PHANTOM VOICE.</h2>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;He heerde a sunde but noughte he zee.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">No touche upon his fleshe ther came;<br /></span>
+<span>Bot a swedderin witide smote heavilee,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And heavilee brenn'd the fleckerin' flame.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="author"><i>&mdash;Old Ballad</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The following tradition, like some of the preceding legends, has been
+found, under various modifications and disguises, connected with local
+scenery, and attaching itself in the mind of the hearer to well-known
+places and situations with which he may have been familiar.</p>
+
+<p>Southport, a bathing-place of great resort on the Lancashire coast, has
+been pointed out as the scene of the following tragedy, which probably
+occurred long before its salubrity and convenience for sea-bathing had
+rendered this barren tract of sand the site of a populous and thriving
+hamlet. From the mildness and congeniality of the air to persons of weak
+and relaxed habits, it has been not inaptly termed, &quot;The Montpelier of
+England.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But the coast is probably as dangerous for shipping as any round the
+kingdom. The sandbanks extend in a north-westerly direction for at least
+six miles, so as to render the navigation extremely difficult even to
+the natives, and impracticable for strangers. Hence shipwrecks are very
+frequent;&quot; and &quot;in a coming tide, accompanied by a strong westerly wind,
+it is almost impossible for boats to put off or to live in the sea.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It not unfrequently happens that these accidents occur in the
+night-time, in very hazy weather, or at ebb tide. In the latter case it
+is necessary for boats to be taken in carts over the sands down to
+low-water mark, before any assistance can be attempted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If the captain of the vessel be obstinate, and trust to his own skill,
+he increases the danger. When the crews of the vessels take to their own
+boats, and disobey the directions of the Southport pilots, their
+jeopardy is tenfold greater, and their loss almost inevitable.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48" ></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a></p>
+
+<p>Nearly one hundred vessels have been wrecked on this coast within the
+last thirty years, and more than half of them totally lost. Of these
+calamities the particulars are upon record. Which of them may have given
+rise to the events here detailed we have no means of ascertaining.</p>
+
+<p>It was at the close of a bright and memorable evening in <!-- Page 386 --><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386" ></a>October that I
+had carelessly flung the reins upon the neck of my horse, as I traversed
+the bare and almost interminable sands skirting the Lancashire coast.</p>
+
+<p>On my right a succession of low sand-hills, drifted by the partial and
+unsteady blasts, skirted the horizon&mdash;their summits strongly marked upon
+the red and lowering sky in an undulating and scarcely-broken outline.
+Behind them I heard the vast and busy waters rolling on, like the voice
+of the coming tempest. Here and there some rude and solitary hut rose
+above the red hillocks, bare and unprotected: no object of known
+dimensions being near by which its true magnitude might be estimated,
+the eye seemed to exaggerate its form upon the mind in almost gigantic
+proportions. As twilight drew on, the deception increased; and, starting
+occasionally from the influence of some lacerating thought, I beheld,
+perchance, some huge-and turreted fortress, or a pile of misshapen
+battlements, rising beyond the hills like the grim castles of romance,
+or the air-built shadows of fairy-land.... Night was fast closing; I was
+alone, out of the beaten track, amidst a desert and thinly-inhabited
+region; a perfect stranger, I had only the superior sagacity of my steed
+to look to for safety and eventual extrication from this perilous
+labyrinth.</p>
+
+<p>The way, if such it might be called, threading the mazes through a chain
+of low hills, and consisting only of a loose and ever-shifting bed of
+dry sand, grew every moment more and more perplexed. Had it been
+daylight, there appeared no object by which to direct my course,&mdash;no
+mark that might distinguish whether or not my path was in a right line
+or a circle: I seemed to be rambling through a succession of
+amphitheatres formed by the sand-hills, every one so closely resembling
+its neighbour that I could not recognise any decided features on which
+to found that distinction of ideas which philosophers term
+individuality. In almost any other mood of the mind this would have been
+a puzzling and disagreeable dilemma; but at that moment it appeared of
+the least possible consequence to me where the dark labyrinth might
+terminate.</p>
+
+<p>Striving to escape from thought, from recollection, the wild and
+cheerless monotony of my path seemed to convey a desperate stillness to
+the mind, to quench in some measure the fiery outburst of my spirit. It
+was but a deceitful, calm&mdash;the <!-- Page 387 --><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387" ></a>deadening lull of spent anguish: I awoke
+to a keener sense of misery, from which there was no escape.</p>
+
+<p>But it was not to lament over my own griefs that I commenced my story.
+Let the dust of oblivion cover them; I would not pain another by the
+recital. There are sorrows&mdash;short ages of agony&mdash;into the dark origin of
+which none would dare to pry: one heart alone feels, hides, and
+nourishes them for ever!</p>
+
+<p>Night now came on, heavy and dark; not a star twinkled above me; I
+seemed to have left the habitations of men. In whatever direction I
+turned not a light was visible; all fellowship with my kind had
+vanished. No sound broke the unvarying stillness but the heavy plunge of
+my horse's feet and the hollow moan of the sea. Gradually I began to
+rouse from my stupor: awaking, as from a dream, my senses grew rapidly
+conscious of the perils by which I was surrounded. I knew not but some
+hideous gulf awaited me, or the yawning sea, towards which I fancied my
+course tended, was destined to terminate this adventure. It was chiefly,
+however, a feeling of loneliness, a dread, unaccountable in its nature,
+that seemed to haunt me. There was nothing so very uncommon or
+marvellous in my situation; yet the horror I endured is unutterable. The
+demon of fear seemed to possess my frame, and benumbed every faculty. I
+saw, or thought I saw, shapes hideous and indistinct rising before me,
+but so rapidly that I could not trace their form ere they vanished. I
+felt convinced it was the mind that was perturbed, acting outwardly upon
+the senses, rendered more than usually irritable by the alarm and
+excitation they had undergone&mdash;yet I could not shake off the spell. I
+heard a sharp rustling past my ear; I involuntarily raised my hand; but
+nothing met my touch save the damp and chilly hair about my temples. I
+tried to rally myself out of these apprehensions, but in vain: reason
+has little chance of succeeding when fear has gained the ascendency. I
+durst not quicken my pace lest I should meet with some obstruction;
+judging it most prudent to allow my steed to grope out his path in the
+way best suited to his own sagacity. Suddenly he made a dead halt. No
+effort or persuasion could induce him to stir. I was the more surprised
+from knowing his generally docile and manageable temper. He seemed
+immovable, and, moreover, as I thought, in the attitude of listening. I
+too <!-- Page 388 --><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388" ></a>listened eagerly&mdash;intensely; my senses sharpened to the keenest
+perception of sound.</p>
+
+<p>The moan of the sea came on incessantly as before; no other sound could
+be distinguished. Again I tried to urge him forward; but the attempt was
+fruitless. I now fancied that there might be some dangerous gulf or
+precipice just at his feet, and that the faithful animal was unwilling
+to plunge himself and his rider into immediate destruction. I
+dismounted, and with the bridal at arm's length, carefully stepped
+forward a few paces, but I could find no intimation of danger; the same
+deep and level bed of sand seemed to continue onwards, without any
+shelving or declivity whatever. Was the animal possessed? He still
+refused to proceed, but the cause remained inscrutable. A sharp and
+hasty snort, with a snuffing of the wind in the direction of the sea,
+now pointed out the quarter towards which his attention was excited. His
+terror seemed to increase, and with it my own. I knew not what to
+anticipate. He evidently began to tremble, and again I listened. Fancy
+plays strange freaks, or I could have imagined there was something
+audible through the heavy booming of the sea&mdash;a more distinct, and as it
+were, articulate sound&mdash;though manifestly at a considerable distance.
+There was nothing unusual in this&mdash;perhaps the voice of the fisherman
+hauling out his boat, or of some mariner heaving the anchor. But why
+such terror betrayed by the irrational brute, and apparently proceeding
+from this source? for it was manifest that some connection existed
+between the impulses of the sound now undulating on the wind, and the
+alarm of my steed. The cause of all this apprehension soon grew more
+unequivocal&mdash;it was evidently approaching. From the sea there seemed to
+come, at short intervals, a low and lengthened shout, like the voice of
+one crying out for help or succour. Presently the sounds assumed a more
+distinct and definite articulation. &quot;Murder!&mdash;Murder!&quot; were the only
+words that were uttered, but in a tone and with an expression of agony I
+shall never forget. It was not like anything akin to humanity, but an
+unearthly, and, if I may so express it, a sepulchral shriek&mdash;like a
+voice from the grave.</p>
+
+<p>I crept closer to my steed: nature, recoiling from contact with the
+approaching phantom, prompted me thus intuitively to cling to anything
+that had life. I felt a temporary relief, even from the presence of the
+terrified beast, though I could distinctly <!-- Page 389 --><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389" ></a>perceive him shuddering, yet
+fixed to the spot. The voice now came on rapidly; it was but a few paces
+distant. I felt as though I was the sport and prey of thoughts too
+horrible for utterance. Alone, I had to cope with the Evil One;&mdash;or I
+was already, perhaps, the victim of some diabolical agency. The yell was
+close upon my ear; I felt the clammy breath of the grave across my face,
+and the sound swept by. It slowly arose;&mdash;but the agony of the cry was
+more intense,&mdash;more sharp and vehement the shriek of &quot;Murder!&quot; Grown
+bolder, or perhaps more desperate, I cried out, &quot;Where, in the name
+of&mdash;&mdash;?&quot; I had scarcely uttered the words when a loud rushing cleft the
+air, and a crash followed, as though some heavy body had fallen at my
+feet. The horse burst from its bonds, galloping from me at full speed,
+and I stood alone! In this appalling extremity, I approached the object
+of my fears. I bent to the ground; stretching out my hand, my fingers
+rested on the cold and clammy features of a corpse! I well remember the
+deep groan that burst from my lips;&mdash;nature had reached the extremity of
+endurance&mdash;I felt a sudden rush of blood to the heart, and fell beside
+my ghastly companion, equally helpless and insensible.</p>
+
+<p>I have no means of ascertaining the duration of this swoon; but, with
+returning recollection, I again put out my hand, which rested on the
+cold and almost naked carcase beside me. I felt roused by the touch, and
+started on my feet&mdash;the moon at this instant emerging from a mass of
+dark clouds, streamed full on the dead body, pale and blood-stained, the
+features distorted, as if by some terrible death. Fear now prompted me
+to fly: I ran as if the wind had lent me wings&mdash;not daring to look back,
+lest my eyes should again rest on the grisly form I had just left. I
+fled onwards for some time; the moon now enabling me to follow the
+beaten track, which, to my great joy, brought me suddenly, at the turn
+of a high bank, within sight of a cheerful fire gleaming through a
+narrow door, seemingly the entrance to some wayside tavern. Bursts of
+hilarity broke from the interior; the voice of revelry and mirth came
+upon my ear, as though I was just awakening from a dream. It was as if I
+had heard the dead laugh in their cold cerements. As I stepped across
+the threshold, the boisterous roar of mirth made me shudder; and it
+seemed, by the alarm visible in the countenances of the guests, that my
+appearance presented something as terrible to their <!-- Page 390 --><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390" ></a>apprehensions.
+Every eye was fixed on me as I seated myself by a vacant table; and I
+heard whisperings, with suspicious glances occasionally directed towards
+the place where I sat. The company, however, soon began to get the
+better of their consternation, and were evidently not pleased at so
+unseasonable an interruption to their mirth. I found that some
+explanation was necessary as to the cause of my intrusion, and with
+difficulty made them comprehend the nature of my alarm. I craved their
+assistance for the removal of the body; promising, if possible, to
+conduct them to the spot where the miserable victim was thrown. They
+stared at each other during this terrible announcement; and, at the
+conclusion, I found every one giving his neighbour credit for the
+requisite portion of courage, though himself, at the same time,
+declining to participate in the hazards of the undertaking.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Roger towed me 'at he stood i' th' churchyard, wi' shoon-bottoms
+uppermost, looking for the wench he wur to wed through the windows. Ise
+sure he'll make noa bauk at a bogle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Luk thee, Jim, I canna face the dead; but I wunna show my back to a
+live fist, the best and the biggest o' the country-side&mdash;Wilt' smell, my
+lad?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Roger, mortified at this test of his courage, raised his clenched hand
+in a half-threatening attitude. A serious quarrel might have ensued, had
+not a sudden stop been put to the proceedings of the belligerents by an
+interesting girl stepping before me, modestly inquiring where I had left
+the corpse; and offering herself as a companion, if these mighty cowards
+could not muster sufficient courage.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shame on thee, Will!&quot; she cried, directing her speech to a young man
+who sat concealed by the shadow of the projecting chimney;&mdash;&quot;shame on
+thee, I say, to be o'erfaced by two or three hard words. I'se
+ganging,&mdash;follow 'at dare.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Saying this, she took down a huge horn lantern, somewhat dilapidated in
+the outworks, and burnt in various devices, causing a most unprofitable
+privation of light. A bonnet and cloak, hastily thrown on, completed her
+costume; and, surrendering the creaking lantern to my care, she stood
+for a moment contemplating the dingy atmosphere before she stepped forth
+to depart. During these ominous preparations, a smart sailor-looking
+man, whose fear of his mistress' displeasure had prob<!-- Page 391 --><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391" ></a>ably overcome his
+dread of the supernatural, placed himself between me and the maiden, and
+taking her by the arm, crustily told me that if I could point out the
+way, he was prepared to follow;&mdash;rather a puzzling matter for a
+stranger, who scarcely knew whether his way lay right or left from the
+very threshold. Thus admirably qualified for a guide, I agreed to make
+the attempt, being determined to spare no pains, in the hope of
+discovering the object of our search.</p>
+
+<p>Company breeds courage. Several of the guests, finding how matters
+stood, and that the encounter was not likely to be made single-handed,
+volunteered their attendance; so that our retinue was shortly augmented
+to some half-dozen stout fellows. The vanguard was composed of myself
+and the lovers; the rest crept close in our rear, forming their rank as
+broad as the nature of the ground would admit.</p>
+
+<p>Luckily I soon found the jutting bank round which I had turned on my
+first view of the house we had just left. We proceeded in
+silence,&mdash;except that a whisper occasionally arose from one of the
+rearmost individuals talking to his bolder neighbour in front, when
+finding his own courage on the wane. Following for some time what
+appeared to be the traces of recent footsteps, I hoped, yet almost
+feared, that every moment I might stumble on the bleeding corpse. An
+attendant in the rear now gave the alarm,&mdash;something he saw moving on
+our left causing him to make a desperate struggle to get before his
+companions. This produced a universal uproar&mdash;each fighting for
+precedency, and thoroughly determined not to be the last. I soon beheld
+a dark object moving near, and the next minute I was overjoyed to find
+my recreant steed, quietly searching amongst the tufted moss and
+sea-reed for a scanty supper. My associates knew not what to make of
+this discovery. Some of them, I believe, eyed him with deep suspicion;
+and more than one glance was given at his hoofs to see if they were not
+cloven.</p>
+
+<p>Order, however, being re-established, we again set forward with what
+proved a useful auxiliary to our train. We had not travelled far ere I
+was again aware of the peculiar snort by which he manifested his alarm;
+and it was with difficulty I got him onwards a few paces, when he stood
+still, his head drawn back, as if from some object that lay in his path.
+I knew the cause of his terror, and, giving the bridle to one of my
+attend<!-- Page 392 --><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392" ></a>ants, cautiously proceeded, followed by the maiden and her lover;
+who, to do him justice, showed a tolerable share of courage&mdash;at any
+rate, in the presence of his mistress. At length I recognised the spot,
+where, yet unmoved, lay the bleeding carcase. The girl started when she
+beheld the grim features, horribly drawn together and convulsed, as if
+in the last agony. I was obliged to muster the requisite fortitude to
+attempt its removal; and raising it from the sand, with a little
+assistance I placed it across the horse, though not without a most
+determined opposition on the part of the animal. Throwing a cloak over
+the body, we made the best of our way back; and on arriving at the house
+I found that the only vacant apartment where I could deposit my charge
+was a narrow loft over the out-house, the entrance to which was both
+steep and dangerous. With the assistance of my two friends, though with
+considerable difficulty, it was in the end deposited there, upon a
+miserable pallet of straw, over which we threw a tattered blanket. On
+returning, I found the guest-room deserted: the old woman to whom the
+tavern belonged&mdash;the mother, as I afterwards found, of my female
+companion&mdash;was hastily clearing away the drinking utensils, and
+preparing for an immediate removal to the only apartment above-stairs
+which bore the honours of the bedchamber. She kindly offered me the use
+of it for the night; but this sacrifice of comfort I could not allow;
+and throwing my cloak over a narrow bench, I drew it near the fire,
+determining to snatch a brief interval of rest, without robbing the good
+woman and her daughter of their night's repose.</p>
+
+<p>It was now past midnight; sleep was out of the question, as I lay
+ruminating on the mysterious events of the few past hours. The
+extraordinary manner in which the murdered wretch had been committed to
+my care seemed an imperative call upon me to attempt the discovery of
+some foul and horrible crime. With the returning day I resolved to begin
+my inquiries, and I vowed to compass sea and land ere I gave up the
+pursuit. So absorbed was I in the project, that I scarcely noticed the
+storm, now bursting forth in a continuous roll from the sea, until one
+wild gust, that seemed to rush by as if it would have swept the dwelling
+from its seat, put an end to these anticipations. I watched the rattling
+casement, expecting every moment that it would give way, and the
+groaning <!-- Page 393 --><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393" ></a>thatch be rent from its hold. Involuntarily I arose and
+approached the window. It was pitchy dark, and the roar of the sea,
+under the terrific sweep of the tempest, was truly awful. Never had I
+heard so terrible a conflict. I knew not how soon I might be compelled
+to quit this unstable shelter; the very earth shook; and every moment I
+expected the frail tenement would be levelled to its foundations. The
+eddying and unequal pressure of the wind heaped a huge sand-drift
+against the walls, which probably screened them from the full force of
+the blast, acting at the same time as a support to their feeble
+consistency; sand and earthy matter were driven about and tossed against
+the casement, insomuch that I almost anticipated a living inhumation.
+The next gust, however, generally swept off the greater portion of the
+deposit, making way for a fresh torrent, that poured upon the quaking
+roof like the rush of a heavy sea over a ship's bulwarks.</p>
+
+<p>I was not destined to be left companionless in the midst of my alarms.
+The old woman and her daughter, too much terrified to remain quiet, came
+down from their resting-place, which, being close within the thatch, was
+most exposed to the tempest. A light was struck, and the dying embers
+once more kindled into a blaze. The old woman, whom I could not but
+observe with emotions of awe and curiosity, sat cowering over the flame,
+her withered hands half-covering her furrowed and haggard cheeks; a
+starting gleam occasionally lighted up her grey and wasted locks, which,
+matted in wild elf-knots, hung about her temples. Occasionally she would
+turn her head as the wind came hurrying on, and the loud rush of the
+blast went past the dwelling. She seemed to gaze upon it as though
+'twere peopled, and she beheld the &quot;sightless coursers of the air&quot;
+careering on the storm; then, with a mutter and a groan, she again
+covered her face, rocking to and fro to the chant of some wild and
+unintelligible ditty. Her daughter sat nearly motionless, hearkening
+eagerly during the short intervals between the gusts; and as the wind
+came bellowing on, she huddled closer into the chimney-corner, whither
+she had crept for protection.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Such nights are not often known in these parts,&quot; said I, taking
+advantage, as I spoke, of a pause in the warfare without. The old woman
+made no answer; but the daughter, bending forwards, replied slowly and
+with great solemnity:&mdash;&quot;Mother has <!-- Page 394 --><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394" ></a>seen the death-lights dancing upo'
+the black scud: some ha' seen the sun sink down upon the waters that
+winna see him rise again fro' the hill-top.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is your mother a seer, then, my pretty maiden?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ye're but a stranger, I guess, if you know not Bridget o' the Sandy
+Holm&mdash;Save us! she's hearkening again for the&quot;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There!&mdash;Once!&quot; The old woman raised her hands as she spoke, and bent
+her head in an attitude of listening and eager expectation. I listened
+too, but could discover no sound, save the heavy swing of the blast, and
+its receding growl.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Again!&quot; As she said this, Bridget rose from the low stool she had
+occupied, and hobbled towards the window. I thought a signal-gun was
+just then audible, as from some vessel in distress. Ere I could
+communicate this intelligence, another and a nearer roll silenced all
+conjecture. It was indeed but too evident that a vessel was in the
+offing, and rapidly driving towards the shore, from the increasing
+distinctness of the signals.</p>
+
+<p>Old Bridget stood by the window; her dim and anxious eyes peering
+through the casement as if she could discern the fearful and appalling
+spectacle upon the dark billows.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your last!&mdash;your last, poor wretches!&quot; she cried, when a heavy gust
+brought another report with amazing distinctness to the ear. &quot;And now
+the death shriek!&mdash;another and another!&mdash;ye drop into the deep waters,
+and the gulf is not gorged with its prey. Bridget Rimmer, girl and
+woman, has ne'er watched the blue dancers but she has heard the sea-gun
+follow, and seen the red sand decked with the spoil. Wench, take not of
+the prey: 'tis accursed!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The beldame drew back after uttering this anathema, and again resumed
+her station near the hearth.</p>
+
+<p>The storm now seemed to abate, and as if satisfied with the mischief at
+this moment consummating, the wind grew comparatively calm. The gusts
+came by fitfully, like the closing sobs of some fretful and peevish
+babe, not altogether ceasing with the indulgence of its wishes. As I
+stood absorbed in a reverie, the nature of which I cannot now accurately
+determine, the maiden gently touched my arm.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sir, will ye walk to the shore? I'se warrant the neighbours are
+helping, and we may save a life though we canna gie it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She was wrapped in a thick cloak, the hood thrown forward, and the horn
+lantern again put in requisition, fitted up for im<!-- Page 395 --><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395" ></a>mediate service. We
+opened the door with considerable difficulty, and waded slowly through
+the heavy sand-drifts towards the beech. The clouds, shattered and
+driven together in mountainous heaps, were rolling along the sky, a dark
+scud sweeping over their huge tops, here and there partially illuminated
+by the moonbeams: the moon was still obscured, but a wild and faint
+light, usually seen after the breaking up of a storm, just served to
+show the outline of objects not too remote from our sphere of vision.</p>
+
+<p>My companion soon brought me to an opening in the hills which led
+directly down to the beach. Immediately I saw lights before us moving to
+and fro, and the busy hum of voices came upon the wind; forms were
+indistinctly seen hurrying backward and forward upon the very verge of
+the white foam boiling from the huge billows. Hastening to the spot, we
+found a number of fishermen&mdash;their wives assisting in the
+scrutiny&mdash;carefully examining the fragments of wreck which the waves
+were from time to time casting up, and throwing with a heavy lunge upon
+the shore. Either for purposes of plunder, or for the more ostensible
+design of contributing to their preservation, sundry packages were
+occasionally conveyed away, subsequently to an eager examination of
+their contents. My associate ran into the thickest of the group,
+anxiously inquiring as to the fate of the crew, and if any lives had
+been preserved.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I guess,&quot; cried an old hard-featured sinner, &quot;they be where they'll
+need no lookin' after. Last brast o' wind, six weeks agone next St
+Barnaby, I gied my cabin to the lady and her children&mdash;an' the pains I
+waur like to ha' for my labour&mdash;I didn't touch a groat till the parson
+gied me a guinea out o' th' 'scription;&mdash;but I may trot gaily hoam
+to-night. There's no live lumber to stow i' my loft; the fishes ha' the
+pick o' the whole cargo this bout.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Canna we get the boats?&mdash;I can pull an oar thou knows, Darby, wi' the
+best on 'em,&quot; inquired the female.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Boats!&quot; exclaimed Darby; &quot;ne'er a boat would live but wi' keel
+uppermost. I'se not the chap to go to Davy Jones tonight pickled i'
+brine, my pratty Kate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou'rt a greedy glead;&mdash;I'se go ask Simon; but I'll warrant thou'lt be
+hankering after the reward, and the biggest share to thine own
+clutches.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 396 --><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396" ></a>She turned away from the incensed fisherman; and proceeding to a short
+distance, we found a knot of persons gathered around a half-drowned
+wretch who owed his appearance again upon land to having been lashed on
+some lumber which the sea had just cast ashore. Almost fainting from
+cold and exhaustion, he was undergoing a severe questioning from the
+bystanders&mdash;every one wishing to know the name of the ship, whither
+bound, and the whole particulars of the disaster. We just came in time
+for his release; and I soon had the satisfaction to find the poor fellow
+in my quarters, before a comfortable fire, his clothes drying, and his
+benumbed limbs chafed until the circulation was again pretty nigh
+restored. After drinking a tumbler of grog he appeared to recover
+rapidly; and we found on inquiry that he was master of the vessel just
+wrecked on the coast. He shook his head on a further inquiry as to the
+fate of her crew. &quot;A score as good hands,&quot; said he, &quot;are gone to the
+bottom as ever unreefed a clean topsail or hung out a ship's canvas to
+the wind; I saw them all go down as I lashed myself to the jib.&quot; He
+groaned deeply; but speedily assuming a gayer tone, requested a quid and
+a quiet hammock. &quot;My lights are nearly stove in,&mdash;my head hangs as loose
+as a Dutchman's shrouds; a night's sleep will make all taut again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Old Bridget was gone to bed; and unless the sailor chose to occupy the
+straw pallet already in the possession of a guest whose mysterious
+arrival seemed to be the forerunner of nothing but confusion and
+disaster, there did not seem any chance of obtaining a berth save by
+remaining in his present situation. I told him of the dilemma, but Kate
+replied:&mdash;&quot;We can just take the body fro' the bed; it winna tak' harm
+upo' the chest i' the fur nook. The captain will not maybe sleep the
+waur for quiet company.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He did not seem to relish the idea of passing the night even with so
+quiet a companion; but as it seemed the least disagreeable alternative,
+we agreed to pilot him to the chamber and help the miserable pallet to
+change occupants. The corpse we agreed to lay on some clean litter used
+for the bedding of the cattle. We conducted the stranger to his
+dormitory, which was formerly a hay loft, until converted into an
+occasional sleeping-room for the humble applicants who sometimes craved
+a night's lodging at the Sandy Holm.</p>
+
+<p>The only entrance was by a crazy ladder, and so steep, that <!-- Page 397 --><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397" ></a>I was
+afraid our feeble companion would find considerable difficulty in
+climbing to his chamber. It was my intention to have prevented him from
+getting a sight of the ghastly object that occupied his couch; but
+pressing foremost, he ran up the ladder with surprising agility, gaining
+the top ere I had made preparations for the ascent. I mounted
+cautiously, giving him the light whilst I made good my landing; and he
+went directly to the bed. I had set my foot on the floor, and was
+lending a hand to Kate, who had still to contend with the difficulties
+of the way, when I heard a dismal and most appalling shriek. Starting
+round, I beheld the stranger gazing on the couch, his eyeballs almost
+bursting from their sockets, and his countenance distorted with horror
+and amazement. I ran to him as the light dropped from his grasp;
+catching it ere it fell, I perceived his eyes rivetted on the livid and
+terrific features of the corpse. My limbs grew stiff with horror;
+thoughts of strange import crowded on my mind; I knew not how to shape
+them into any definite form, but stood trembling and appalled before the
+dark chaos whence they sprung. Scarcely knowing what I said, still I
+remember the first inquiry that burst from my lips&mdash;&quot;Knowest thou that
+murdered man?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The words were scarcely uttered when the conscience-stricken wretch
+exclaimed, in accents which I shall never forget, &quot;Know him!&mdash;yesterday
+he stood at my helm. I had long borne him an evil grudge, and I brooded
+on revenge. The devil prompted it&mdash;he was at my elbow. It was dark, and
+the fiend's eyes flashed when I aimed the blow. It descended with a
+heavy crash, and the body rolled overboard. He spoke not, save once; it
+was when his hated carcase rose to the surface. I heard a faint moan; it
+rang on my ear like the knell of death; the voice rushed past&mdash;a low
+sepulchral shout; in my ear it echoed with the cry of 'MURDER!'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Little remains to be told; he persisted to the last in this horrible
+confession. He had no wish to live; and the avenging arm of retributive
+justice closed the world and its interests for ever on a wretch who had
+forfeited all claims to its protection&mdash;cast out, and judged unworthy of
+a name and a place amongst his fellow-men.<!-- Page 398 --><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398" ></a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> Glazebrook's Southport.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_BAR_GAIST" id="THE_BAR_GAIST" ></a>THE BAR-GAIST.</h2>
+<div class="center">
+<img src="images/21.png" width="600" height="455" alt="THE BAR-GAIST." title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;From hag-bred Merlin's time have I<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Thus nightly revelled to and fro;<br /></span>
+<span>And for my pranks men call me by<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The name of Robin Goodfellow.<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Fiends, ghosts, and sprites,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Who haunt the nightes,<br /></span>
+<span>The hags and goblins do me know;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">And beldames old<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">My feates have told&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span>So <i>vale, vale</i>; ho, ho, ho!&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="author">&mdash;BEN JONSON.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the northern parts of England,&quot; says Brand, speaking of the popular
+superstitions, &quot;ghost is pronounced <i>gheist</i> and <i>guest</i>. Hence
+<i>barguest</i> or <i>bargheist</i>. Many streets are haunted by a <i>guest</i>, who
+assumes many strange appearances, as a mastiff dog, &amp;c. It is a
+corruption of the Anglo-Saxon <img src="images/22.png" width="35" height="17" alt="jart" title="" />,
+<i>spiritus, anima</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Drake, in his <i>Eboracum</i>, says (p. 7, Appendix), &quot;I have been so
+frightened with stories of the barguest when I was a child, that I
+cannot help throwing away an etymology upon it. I suppose it comes from
+A.S. <img src="images/23.png" width="40" height="19" alt="bupp" title="" />,
+a town, and <img src="images/22.png" width="35" height="17" alt="jart" title="" />, a ghost,
+and so signifies a town sprite. N.B.
+<img src="images/22.png" width="35" height="17" alt="jart" title="" /> is in the
+Belgic and Teutonic softened into gheist and geyst.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The boggart or bar-gaist of the following story resembles the German
+<i>kobold,</i> the Danish <i>nis</i>, and the Scotch <i>brownie</i>; but, above all,
+the Spanish <i>duende</i>, which signifies a spirit or sprite, supposed by
+the vulgar to haunt houses and highways, causing therein much terror and
+confusion. &quot;DUENDE. <i>Espiritu que el vulgo cree que infesta las casas y
+travesea, causando en ellas ruidos y estruendos</i>&quot;&mdash;LEMURES, LARV&AElig;. &quot;To
+appear <!-- Page 399 --><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399" ></a>like a <i>duende</i>,&quot; &quot;to move like a <i>duende</i>&quot; are modes of
+speaking by which it is meant that persons appear in places where they
+are least expected. &quot;To have a <i>duende</i>&quot; signifies that a person's
+imagination is disturbed.</p>
+
+<p>The following curious Spanish &quot;Moral,&quot; the MS. of which has been kindly
+lent to the author by Mr Crofton Croker may not be deemed uninteresting
+as an illustration of the subject. We have accompanied each stanza with
+a parallel translation of our own.</p>
+
+<p>DUENDE ENEMIGO DEL JUEGO.</p>
+
+<p>DUENDE AN ENEMY TO GAMING.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span><i>Cuento Mor&aacute;l.</i><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span><i>A Moral Tale.</i><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Un <i>Duende</i>, grave Se&ntilde;or,<br /></span>
+<span>Que estudi&oacute; la astrologia,<br /></span>
+<span>Se propuso la mania,<br /></span>
+<span>De ser rico jugador.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>A grave and learned Senior, who<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Practised astrology,<br /></span>
+<span>Bethought him by his lucky stars<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">He passing rich would be.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Todos los siete planetas,<br /></span>
+<span>Formaban su gran consejo;<br /></span>
+<span>Y antes de llegar &aacute; viejo,<br /></span>
+<span>Ya no tenia calzetas.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>The planets seven his council made,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">He hugged the glozing cheat;<br /></span>
+<span>But ere the pedant's legs were old,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">No stockings held his feet!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Aburrido y sin dinero,<br /></span>
+<span>Mui tarde se arrepintid,<br /></span>
+<span>Y en un desban se metid<br /></span>
+<span>A llorar su error primero.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>Enraged and disappointed, he<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Waxed sour and melancholy,<br /></span>
+<span>And to a vintner's garret trudged,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">There to bewail his folly.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Por su gran sabidur&iacute;a,<br /></span>
+<span>En duende se corivirti&oacute;,<br /></span>
+<span>Y la guerra declar&oacute;,<br /></span>
+<span>Al arte de fuller&iacute;a.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;I'll have revenge,&quot; he cried, then wrought<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">So wondrous cunningly,<br /></span>
+<span>That in a trice transformed he was,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">A brisk <i>Duende</i> he.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">La vec&iacute;ndad asombrada,<br /></span>
+<span>De sus fuertes alaridos,<br /></span>
+<span>Corriendo despavoridos,<br /></span>
+<span>Abandon an la Posada.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>This pedant, now a &quot;Boggart&quot; made,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">No soul could rest in quiet;<br /></span>
+<span>Nor rogue nor bully was his match<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">For kicking up a riot.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Due&ntilde;o absolute ya el duende,<br /></span>
+<span>De la espantosa mansion,<br /></span>
+<span>Se aunient&oacute; la confusion,<br /></span>
+<span>Y el temor entre la gente.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>At last none dared that garret drear,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">His dwelling, to come nigh;<br /></span>
+<span>Sole master of his attic, he<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Reigned peremptorily.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Pero siendo tan demente<br /></span>
+<span>El hombre que es codicioso,<br /></span>
+<span>No falt&oacute; quien jactancioso,<br /></span>
+<span>Despreciase al se&ntilde;or duende.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>Not so the sharpers, who this house<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Had made their special haunt:<br /></span>
+<span>&quot;Se&ntilde;or Duende!&mdash;Humph!&quot;&mdash;cried they<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">&quot;May suck eggs with his aunt!&quot;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Unos cuantos jugadores,<br /></span>
+<span>Que llaman de profesion,<br /></span>
+<span>Eligieron la mansion<br /></span>
+<span>Para exercer sus primores.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>They and their worthy company,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Of the black-limbed profession,<br /></span>
+<span>Here cheated in a lawful way,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">By that best right&mdash;possession!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Mui luego la compa&ntilde;ia,<br /></span>
+<span>Numerosa vino &aacute; ser,<br /></span>
+<span>Y el que Ilegaba &aacute; perder,<br /></span>
+<span>Contra al duende maldec&iacute;a.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>The crowd increased. Some luckless wight<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">His winnings at an end, he<br /></span>
+<span>Swore by his trumps, 'twas owing to<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">That rascally <i>Duende</i>!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">La confusa griter&iacute;a,<br /></span>
+<span>Pronto al duende incomod&oacute;,<br /></span>
+<span>Y al complot se apareci&oacute;<br /></span>
+<span>Que &aacute;penas, cuarta ten&iacute;a.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>This roused him from his garret, where<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">He heard the daily squabble;<br /></span>
+<span>And lo, in human form, he stands<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Before the shirtless rabble!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span><!-- Page 400 --><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400" ></a>En voz, como chirim&iacute;a,<br /></span>
+<span>Dijoles cort&eacute;s y atento<br /></span>
+<span><i>Que habitaba el aposento</i><br /></span>
+<span><i>Donde su amo existia</i>.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>He squeaked, &quot;Your servant, gentlemen;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">I would not thus intrude,<br /></span>
+<span>'Pon honour, but your conduct is<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">So very-very rude.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2"><i>Que en alta camara fiero,</i><br /></span>
+<span><i>Todo se&ntilde;or, reclamaba</i><br /></span>
+<span><i>El orden, y lo aperaba,</i><br /></span>
+<span><i>Aunque ageno de en fullero</i>.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;My master,&mdash;he who sits up-stairs<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">I mean,&mdash;no jesting, gents,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span>Expects that you'll be quiet, else<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">He'll scold at all events.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">No fue poca la sorpresa,<br /></span>
+<span>Del mensage y la vision;<br /></span>
+<span>Y aun con todo, un temer&oacute;n,<br /></span>
+<span>Quiso de ella hacer presa.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>The gamblers stared, some tumbled down,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Some gaped, some told their prayers<br /></span>
+<span>But one, more daring, swore, i'fack,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">He'd kick the brute down-stairs!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Mas el caso se fustr&oacute;,<br /></span>
+<span>Sin saber como ni cuando,<br /></span>
+<span>Pues por el ayre volando<br /></span>
+<span>Nuestro duende se fug&oacute;.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>But ere he felt th' uplifted foot<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">He 'scaped,&mdash;how none could tell;<br /></span>
+<span>But, sooth it was, this messenger<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">No bodily harm befell!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">El suceso maldec&iacute;an<br /></span>
+<span>Los unos por el temor,<br /></span>
+<span>Y gritaban con furor<br /></span>
+<span>Los que el dinero perd&iacute;an.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>The rogues, who saw him disappear,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Waxed paler than before:<br /></span>
+<span>Some said an <i>Ave</i>; some for fear,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And some for folly, swore.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Vuelve por segunda vez,<br /></span>
+<span>El mensajero, crecido<br /></span>
+<span>Media vara, y atrevido,<br /></span>
+<span>Les dice, menos cort&eacute;s.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>When suddenly amidst them all,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Again the demon stands;<br /></span>
+<span>A full half-yard in stature grown!<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Their business he demands.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2"><i>Que su amo, era absoluto,</i><br /></span>
+<span><i>De aquella encantada casa,</i><br /></span>
+<span><i>Y su paciencia era escasa,</i><br /></span>
+<span><i>Con todo fullero astuto</i>.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;I tell ye, villains, gamblers, thieves!<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">His patience is but small,<br /></span>
+<span>With such as you,&mdash;so master says,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Who master will you all!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2"><i>Que les mandaba salir</i><br /></span>
+<span><i>De aquel lugar, con presteza,</i><br /></span>
+<span><i>Pues de no, su gentileza,</i><br /></span>
+<span><i>Los har&iacute;a consumir</i>.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Out of the house, ye rabble rout!<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Out of the house! I say,<br /></span>
+<span>Or otherwise his honour will<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Consume you utterly!&quot;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Del duendecito quisieron<br /></span>
+<span>Apoderarse valientes,<br /></span>
+<span>Mas se les fu&eacute; entre los dientes,<br /></span>
+<span>Y sin la presa se vieron.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>Thought one, &quot;I'll seize this varlet vile,&quot;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And speedily arose;<br /></span>
+<span>He caught him in his clutch&mdash;the sprite<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Vanished and tweaked his nose!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Ya el temor empez&oacute; &aacute; obrar<br /></span>
+<span>Y entraron las reflexiones,<br /></span>
+<span>Apoyando con varones,<br /></span>
+<span>Que era Duende, &aacute; no dudar.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;San Jerome, save us, we are loo'd<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">If this should be the sprite;<br /></span>
+<span>The big <i>Duende</i>, best we bid<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">His boggartship good night.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Como siempre al jugador,<br /></span>
+<span>Lo sostiene la esperanza,<br /></span>
+<span>Fund&agrave;ron la confianza,<br /></span>
+<span>En que un Duende es vividor.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>But hope, the gambler's enemy,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Beguiled them to their ruin;<br /></span>
+<span>&quot;These ugly sprites, they say, are rich,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Yet yield nought without wooing.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Que su ciencia atrae dinero,<br /></span>
+<span>Y medios paro adquirirlo,<br /></span>
+<span>Y era cuerdo el admitirlo,<br /></span>
+<span>Dandole el lugar primero.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;His skill may help us to repair<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Our cloaks, and eke our breeches;<br /></span>
+<span>Best speak him fair. We'll worship Nick<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">If he but grant us riches!&quot;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Mas el duende que escuchaba<br /></span>
+<span>La trama de los fulleros,<br /></span>
+<span>Quiso en tales caballeros,<br /></span>
+<span><i>Veng&agrave;r,</i> lo que suspiraba.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>The sly <i>Duende</i>, like a mouse,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Hearkening behind the wall,<br /></span>
+<span>Did now resolve he quickly would<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The greedy rogues bemaul<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span><!-- Page 401 --><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401" ></a>En efecto, agigantado,<br /></span>
+<span>Con negro manto tal&aacute;r,<br /></span>
+<span>Cornamenta singular,<br /></span>
+<span>Uf&iacute;as largas y barbado.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>A mighty giant, lo he comes.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Wrapped in a cloak of sable;<br /></span>
+<span>With horns, hoofs, nails, and beard yclad,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">He jumped upon the table!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Un garrote enarbolado<br /></span>
+<span>Y brotando espuma y fuego,<br /></span>
+<span>Les dijo: <i>Yo devo al juego</i><br /></span>
+<span><i>Mi desgracia y este estado.</i><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>A cudgel of some seven years' growth<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">He brandished. Fire and smoke<br /></span>
+<span>Shot from his lips, while thus he spake;&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">&quot;I'll gripe you gambling folk.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2"><i>Los fulleros me han quitado</i><br /></span>
+<span><i>Con mi dinero, la vida,</i><br /></span>
+<span><i>Y pues que sois homicida</i><br /></span>
+<span><i>De todo hombre inocente!</i><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;To gaming my disgrace I owe,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">With money went my wife;<br /></span>
+<span>'Tis such as you the murderers be,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">This night shall end your life!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2"><i>No quede vicho viviente,</i><br /></span>
+<span><i>En toda culta nacion,</i><br /></span>
+<span><i>Que ej&eacute;rza la profesion</i><br /></span>
+<span><i>De fullero y vagamundo</i>.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;In every nation, called refined,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Or gamblers or their wives,<br /></span>
+<span>Or wealthy wight shall ne'er be found,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Who shakes the bones and thrives.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Y dando un grito profundo,<br /></span>
+<span>Su garrote descargando,<br /></span>
+<span>A todos fu&eacute; despachando,<br /></span>
+<span>Sin dejar uno en el mundo.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>With that a loud and horrid yell<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">He gave. And cudgel flew<br /></span>
+<span>Broadside amongst them; when, like vermin, he<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Dispatched the hungry crew!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>No extingui&oacute;, sin duda, el Duende,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Toda la mala semilla,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Pues hay muchos, como el Duende,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Sin camisa, y sin capilla.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>But woe is me, they were not all destroyed.<br /></span>
+<span>For many still, by these cursed arts decoyed,<br /></span>
+<span>Shoeless and shirtless, miserable sinners,<br /></span>
+<span>Are seen, snuffing, with empty wind, their dinners!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>In the <i>Dunske Folkesagen</i> appear one or two circumstances relative to
+the freaks of a <i>nis</i>, the goblin of the Danish popular creed, similar
+to the pranks detailed in our Lancashire legend. Fancy, however sportive
+and playful with materials already in her possession, is of a much less
+creative character than is generally supposed, even by those most
+susceptible to her influence. It is surprising how few are the original
+conceptions that have sprung from the human mind. Popular
+superstitions&mdash;the great mass of them spread over an immense variety of
+surface, climate, manners, and opinions&mdash;might be supposed to exhibit a
+corresponding difference in originality and invention. But here we find
+the same paucity of incidents, varying only in character with the
+climate which gave them birth; the leading features being evidently
+common to each. The Scandinavian and the Hindoo, the European and the
+Asiatic, construct their legends on the same basis; the same stories,
+and even the same train of events, proving their common origin.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Crofton Croker, a name familiar to all lovers of legendary lore, has
+kindly communicated the following tale. In substituting this, in place
+of what the author might have written on the subject, he feels convinced
+that his readers will not feel displeased at the change, and assures
+them it is with real gratification that he presents them with an article
+from the pen of the writer of <i>The Fairy Legends</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Not far from the little-snug smoky village of Blakeley, or <!-- Page 402 --><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402" ></a>Blackley,
+there lies one of the most romantic of dells, rejoicing in a state of
+singular seclusion, and in the oddest of Lancashire names, to wit, the
+&quot;Boggart-hole.&quot; Rich in every requisite for picturesque beauty and
+poetical association, it is impossible for me (who am neither a painter
+nor a poet) to describe this dell as it should be described; and I will
+therefore only beg of thee, gentle reader, who peradventure mayst not
+have lingered in this classical neighbourhood, to fancy a deep, deep
+dell, its steep sides fringed down with hazel and beech, and fern and
+thick undergrowth, and clothed at the bottom with the richest and
+greenest sward in the world. You descend, clinging to the trees, and
+scrambling as best you may,&mdash;and now you stand on haunted ground! Tread
+softly, for this is the Boggart's clough; and see in yonder dark corner,
+and beneath the projecting mossy stone, where that dusky sullen cave
+yawns before us, like a bit of Salvator's best, there lurks the strange
+elf, the sly and mischievous Boggart. Bounce! I see him coming; oh no,
+it was only a hare bounding from her form; there it goes&mdash;there!</p>
+
+<p>I will tell you of some of the pranks of this very Boggart, and how he
+teased and tormented a good farmer's family in a house hard by, and I
+assure you it was a very worthy old lady who told me the story. But
+first, suppose we leave the Boggart's demesne, and pay a visit to the
+theatre of his strange doings.</p>
+
+<p>You see that old farm house about two fields distant, shaded by the
+sycamore-tree: that was the spot which the Boggart or Bar-gaist selected
+for his freaks; there he held his revels, perplexing honest George
+Cheetham&mdash;for that was the farmer's name&mdash;scaring his maids, worrying
+his men, and frightening the poor children out of their seven senses, so
+that at last not even a mouse durst show himself indoors at the farm, as
+he valued his whiskers, five minutes after the clock had struck twelve.</p>
+
+<p>It had long been remarked that whenever a merry tale was told on a
+winter's evening a small shrill voice was heard above all the rest, like
+a baby's penny trumpet, joining in with the laughter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Weel laughed, Boggart, thou'rt a fine little tyke, I'se warrant, if one
+could but just catch glent on thee,&quot; said Robert, the youngest of the
+farmer's sons, early one evening, a little <!-- Page 403 --><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403" ></a>before Christmas, for
+familiarity had made them somewhat bold with their invisible guest. Now,
+though more pleasant stories were told on that night beside the hearth
+than had been told there for the three preceding months, though the fire
+flickered brightly, though all the faces around it were full of mirth
+and happiness, and though everything, it might seem, was there which
+could make even a Boggart enjoy himself, yet the small shrill laugh was
+heard no more that night after little Bob's remark.</p>
+
+<p>Robert, who was a short stout fellow for his age, slept in the same bed
+with his elder brother John, who was reckoned an uncommonly fine and
+tall lad for his years. No sooner had they got fairly to sleep than they
+were roused by the small shrill voice in their room shouting out,
+&quot;Little tyke, indeed! little tyke thysel'. Ho, ho, ho! I'll have my
+laugh now&mdash;Ho, ho, ho!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The room was completely dark, and all in and about the house was so
+still that the sound scared them fearfully. The concluding screech made
+the place echo again;&mdash;but this strange laughter was not necessary to
+prevent little Robert from further sleep, as he found himself one moment
+seized by the feet and pulled to the bottom of the bed, and the next
+moment dragged up again on his pillow. This was no sooner done, than by
+the same invisible power he was pulled down again, and then his head
+would be dragged back, and placed as high as his brother's.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Short and long won't match,&mdash;short and long won't match,&mdash;ho, ho, ho!&quot;
+shouted the well-known voice of the Boggart, between each adjustment of
+little Robert with his tall brother, and thus were they both wearied for
+more than a hundred times; yet so great was their terror, that neither
+Robert nor his brother&mdash;&quot;Long John,&quot; as he ever afterwards was
+called&mdash;dared to stir one inch; and you may well suppose how delighted
+they both were when the first grey light of the morning appeared.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We'st now ha' some rest, happen,&quot; said John, turning on his side in the
+expectation of a good nap, and covering himself up with the bed-clothes,
+which the pulling of Robert so often backwards and forwards had tumbled
+about sadly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Rest!&quot; said the same voice that had plagued them through the night,
+&quot;rest!&mdash;what is rest? Boggart knows no rest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Plague tak' thee for a Boggart!&quot; said the farmer next <!-- Page 404 --><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404" ></a>morning, on
+hearing the strange story from his children: &quot;Plague tak' thee! can thee
+not let the poor things be quiet? But I'll be up with thee, my
+gentleman: so tak' th' chamber an' be hang'd to thee, if thou wilt. Jack
+and little Robert shall sleep o'er the cart-house, and Boggart may rest
+or wriggle as he likes when he is by himsel'.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The move was accordingly made, and the bed of the brothers transferred
+to their new sleeping-room over the cart-house, where they remained for
+some time undisturbed; but his Boggartship having now fairly become the
+possessor of a room at the farm, it would appear, considered himself in
+the light of a privileged inmate, and not, as hitherto, an occasional
+visitor, who merely joined in the general expression of merriment.
+Familiarity, they say, breeds contempt; and now the children's bread and
+butter would be snatched away, or their porringers of bread and
+milk-would be dashed to the ground by an unseen hand; or if the younger
+ones were left alone but for a few minutes, they were sure to be found
+screaming with terror on the return of their nurse. Sometimes, however,
+he would behave himself kindly. The cream was then churned, and the pans
+and kettles scoured without hands. There was one circumstance which was
+remarkable;&mdash;the stairs ascended from the kitchen, a partition of boards
+covered the ends of the steps, and formed a closet beneath the
+staircase. From one of the boards of this partition a large round knot
+was accidentally displaced; and one day the youngest of the children,
+while playing with the shoe-horn, stuck it into this knot-hole. Whether
+or not the aperture had been formed by the Boggart as a peep-hole to
+watch the motions of the family, I cannot pretend to say. Some thought
+it was, for it was called the Boggart's peep-hole; but others said that
+they had remembered it long before the shrill laugh of the Boggart was
+heard in the house. However this may have been, it is certain that the
+horn was ejected with surprising precision at the head of whoever put it
+there; and either in mirth or in anger the horn was darted forth with
+great velocity, and struck the poor child over the ear.</p>
+
+<p>There are few matters upon which parents feel more acutely than that of
+the maltreatment of their offspring; but time, that great soother of all
+things, at length familiarised this dangerous occurrence to every one at
+the farm, and that which at the first was regarded with the utmost
+terror, became a kind of amuse<!-- Page 405 --><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405" ></a>ment with the more thoughtless and daring
+of the family. Often was the horn slipped slyly into the hole, and in
+return it never failed to be flung at the head of some one, but most
+commonly at the person who placed it there. They were used to call this
+pastime, in the provincial dialect, &quot;laking wi' t' Boggart;&quot; that is,
+playing with the Boggart. An old tailor, whom I but faintly remember,
+used to say that the horn was often &quot;pitched&quot; at his head, and at the
+head of his apprentice, whilst seated here on the kitchen table, when
+they went their rounds to work, as is customary with country tailors. At
+length the goblin, not contented with flinging the horn, returned to his
+night persecutions. Heavy steps, as of a person in wooden clogs, were at
+first heard clattering down-stairs in the dead hour of darkness; then
+the pewter and earthern dishes appeared to be dashed on the
+kitchen-floor; though in the morning all remained uninjured on their
+respective shelves. The children generally were marked out as objects of
+dislike by their unearthly tormentor. The curtains of their beds would
+be violently pulled to and fro,&mdash;then a heavy weight, as of a human
+being, would press them nearly to suffocation, from which it was
+impossible to escape. The night, instead of being the time for repose,
+was disturbed with screams and dreadful noises, and thus was the whole
+house alarmed night after night. Things could not long continue in this
+fashion; the farmer and his good dame resolved to leave a place where
+they could no longer expect rest or comfort: and George Cheetham was
+actually following with his wife and family the last load of furniture,
+when they were met by a neighbouring farmer, named John Marshall.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, Georgey, and soa you're leaving th' owd house at last?&quot; said
+Marshall.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Heigh, Johnny, ma lad, I'm in a manner forced to 't, thou sees,&quot;
+replied the other; &quot;for that wearyfu' Boggart torments us soa, we can
+neither rest neet nor day for't. It seems loike to have a malice again't
+young ans,&mdash;an' it ommost kills my poor dame here at thoughts on't, and
+soa thou sees we're forc'd to flitt like.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He had got thus far in his complaint, when, behold, a shrill voice from
+a deep upright churn, the topmost utensil on the cart, called out&mdash;&quot;Ay,
+ay, neighbour, we're flitting, you see.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Od rot thee!&quot; exclaimed George: &quot;if I'd known thou'd <!-- Page 406 --><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406" ></a>been flitting
+too I wadn't ha' stirred a peg. Nay, nay,&mdash;it's to no use, Mally,&quot; he
+continued, turning to his wife, &quot;we may as weel turn back again to th'
+owd house as be tormented in another not so convenient.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They did return; but the Boggart, having from the occurrence ascertained
+the insecurity of his tenure, became less outrageous, and was never more
+guilty of disturbing, in any extraordinary degree, the quiet of the
+family.</p>
+
+<div class="center"><!-- Page 407 --><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407" ></a><!-- Page 408 --><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408" ></a>
+<img src="images/24.png" width="600" height="427" alt="INCE HALL, NEAR WIGAN.
+
+Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden." title="" />
+<b>INCE HALL, NEAR WIGAN.<br />
+
+<i>Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw<sup>d</sup> Finden.</i></b>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_HAUNTED_MANOR_HOUSE" id="THE_HAUNTED_MANOR_HOUSE" ></a><!-- Page 409 --><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409" ></a>THE HAUNTED MANOR-HOUSE.</h2>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;But he was wary wise in all his way,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And well perceived his deceitful sleight;<br /></span>
+<span>No suffered lust his safety to hetray;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">So goodly did beguile the <i>guiler</i> of the prey.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="author">&mdash;SPENSER.</p>
+
+<p>Ince-hall, the subject of our view, stands about a mile from Wigan, on
+the left hand of the high road to Bolton. It is a very conspicuous
+object, its ancient and well-preserved front generally attracting the
+notice and inquiry of travellers.</p>
+
+<p>About a mile to the south-east stands another place of the same name
+once belonging to the Gerards of Bryn. The manor is now the property of
+Charles Walmsley, Esq., of Westwood, near Wigan.</p>
+
+<p>The two mansions are sometimes confounded together in topographical
+inquiries; and the following story, though told of some former
+proprietor of the Ince to which our plate refers, yet, by its title of
+the &quot;Manor-house,&quot; would seem as though intended for the other and
+comparatively less known mansion, the old &quot;Manor-house of Ince,&quot; once
+inhabited by a family of that name. But the same traditions are often
+found connected with localities widely asunder, so that we need not be
+surprised at the mistake which gossips have made in this particular
+instance.</p>
+
+<p>It is, after all, quite uncertain whether the event occurred here or
+not, story-tellers being very apt to fix upon any spot near at hand on
+which to fasten their marvellous narratives, and to give them a stronger
+hold on the listener's imagination.</p>
+
+<p>The story is supposed to be written or related by the chief actor in the
+occurrences arising out of the &quot;Haunted House.&quot; The author has thrown
+the narrative into this form, as he hopes it will vary the style of the
+traditions, and probably give more character and interest to the events
+here detailed than they would retain if told by a third person.</p>
+
+<p>The coach set me down at the entrance to a long and unweeded avenue. A
+double row of beech-trees saluted me, as I passed, with a rich shower of
+wet leaves, and shook their bare arms, growling as the loud sough of the
+wind went through their decayed branches. The old house was before me.
+Its numerous <!-- Page 410 --><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410" ></a>and irregularly-contrived compartments in front were
+streaked in black and white zig-zags&mdash;<i>vandyked</i>, I think, the fairest
+jewels of the creation call this chaste and elegant ornament. It was
+near the close of a dark autumnal day, and a mass of gable-ends stood
+sharp and erect against the wild and lowering sky. Each of these
+pinnacles could once boast of its admired and appropriate ornament&mdash;a
+little weathercock; but they had cast off their gilded plumage for ever,
+and fallen from their high estate, like the once neatly-trimmed mansion
+which I was now visiting. A magpie was perched upon a huge stack of
+chimneys, his black and white plumage rivalling the mottled edifice at
+his feet. Perhaps he was the wraith, the departing vision of the
+decaying fabric; an apparition, insubstantial as the honours and
+dignities of the ancient and revered house of&mdash;&mdash;!</p>
+
+<p>I looked eagerly at the long, low casements: a faint glimmer was
+visible. It proceeded only from the wan reflection of a sickly sunbeam
+behind me, struggling through the cleft of a dark hail-cloud. It was the
+window where in my boyhood I had often peeped at the town-clock through
+my little telescope. There was the nursery chamber, and no wonder that
+it was regarded with feelings of the deepest interest. Here the first
+dawnings of reason broke in upon my soul; the first faint gleams of
+intelligence awakened me from a state of infantine unconsciousness. It
+was here that I first drank eagerly of the fresh rills of knowledge;
+here my imagination, ardent and unrepressed, first plumed its wings for
+flight, and I stepped forth over its threshold into a world long since
+tried, and found as unsatisfying and unreal as the false glimmer that
+now mocked me from the hall of my fathers.</p>
+
+<p>A truce to sentiment!&mdash;I came hither, it may be, for a different
+purpose. A temporary gush will occasionally spring up from the first
+well-head of our affections. However homely and seemingly ill-adapted,
+in outward show and character, for giving birth to those feelings
+generally designated by the epithet romantic, the place where we first
+breathed, where our ideas were first moulded, formed and assimilated, as
+it were, to the condition of the surrounding atmosphere (their very
+shape and colour determined by the medium in which they first sprung)
+the casual recurrence of a scene like this,&mdash;forming part and parcel of
+our very existence, and incorporated with the very fabric of our
+thoughts,&mdash;must, in spite of all subsequent impressions, <!-- Page 411 --><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411" ></a>revive those
+feelings, however long they may have been dormant, with a force and
+vividness which the bare recollection can never excite.</p>
+
+<p>The garden-gate stood open. The initials of my name, still legible,
+appeared rudely carved on the posts&mdash;a boyish propensity which most of
+us have indulged; and I well remember ministering to its gratification
+wherever I durst hazard the experiment, when first initiated into the
+mystery of hewing out these important letters with a rusty pen-knife.</p>
+
+<p>Not a creature was stirring; and the nature of the present occupants,
+whether sylphs, gnomes, or genii, was a question not at all, as it yet
+appeared, in a train for solution. The front door was closed; but, as I
+knew every turn and corner about the house, I made no doubt of soon
+finding out its inmates, if any of them were in the neighbourhood. I
+worked my way through the garden, knee-deep and rank with weed, for the
+purpose of reconnoitring the back-offices. I steered pretty cautiously
+past what memory, that great dealer in hyperbole, had hitherto generally
+contrived to picture as a huge lake&mdash;now, to my astonishment, dwindled
+into a duck-pond&mdash;but not without danger from its slippery margin. It
+still reposed under the shadow of the old cherry-tree, once the
+harbinger of delight, as the returning season gave intimation of another
+bountiful supply of fruit. Its gnarled stump, now stunted and decaying,
+had scarcely one token of life upon its scattered branches. Following a
+narrow walk, nearly obliterated, I entered a paved court. The first
+tramp awoke a train of echoes that seemed as though they had slumbered
+since my departure, and now started from their sleep to greet or to
+admonish the returning truant. Grass in luxuriant tufts, capriciously
+disposed, grew about in large patches. The breeze passed heavily by,
+rustling the dark swathe, and murmuring fitfully as it departed.
+Desolation seemed to have marked the spot for her own&mdash;the grim abode of
+solitude and despair. During twenty years' sojourn in a strange land
+memory had still, with untiring delight, painted the old mansion in all
+its primeval primness and simplicity&mdash;fresh as I had left it, full of
+buoyancy and delight, to take possession of the paradise which
+imagination had created. I had, indeed, been informed that at my
+father's death it became the habitation of a stranger; but no
+intelligence as to its present condition had ever reached me. Being at
+L&mdash;&mdash;, and only some twenty miles distant, I could <!-- Page 412 --><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412" ></a>not resist the
+temptation of once more gazing on the old Manor-house, and of comparing
+its present aspect with that but too faithfully engrafted on my
+recollections. To all appearance the house was tenantless. I tried the
+door of a side kitchen or scullery: it was fastened, but the rusty bolts
+yielded to no very forcible pressure; and I once more penetrated into
+the kitchen, that exhaustless magazine which had furnished ham and eggs,
+greens and bacon, with other sundry and necessary condiments, to the
+progenitors of our race for at least two centuries. A marvellous
+change!&mdash;to me it appeared as if wrought in a moment, so recently had
+memory reinstated the scenes of my youth in all their pristine
+splendour. Now no smoke rolled lazily away from the heavy billet; no
+blaze greeted my sight; no savoury steam regaled the sense. Dark,
+cheerless, cold,&mdash;the long bars emitted no radiance; the hearth unswept,
+on which Growler once panted with heat and fatness.</p>
+
+<p>Though night was fast approaching, I could not resist the temptation of
+once more exploring the deserted chambers, the scene of many a youthful
+frolic. I sprang with reckless facility up the vast staircase. The
+shallow steps were not sufficiently accommodating to my impatience, and
+I leapt rather than ran, with the intention of paying my first visit to
+that <i>cockaigne</i> of childhood, that paradise of little fools&mdash;the
+nursery. How small, dwindled almost into a span, appeared that once
+mighty and almost boundless apartment, every nook of which was a
+separate territory, every drawer and cupboard the boundary of another
+kingdom! three or four strides brought me to the window;&mdash;the broad
+church-tower was still visible, peacefully reposing in the dim and heavy
+twilight. The evening-bell was tolling: what a host of recollections
+were awakened at the sound! Days and hours long forgotten seemed to rise
+up at its voice, like the spirits of the departed sweeping by, awful and
+indistinct. These impressions soon became more vivid; they rushed on
+with greater rapidity: I turned from the window, and was startled at the
+sudden moving of a shadow. It was a faint long-drawn figure of myself on
+the floor and opposite wall. Ashamed of my fears, I was preparing to
+quit the apartment when my attention was arrested by a drawing which I
+had once scrawled, and stuck against the wall with all the ardour of a
+first achievement. It owed its preservation to an unlucky, but
+effectual, contrivance of mine for securing its <!-- Page 413 --><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413" ></a>perpetuity: a
+paste-brush, purloined from the kitchen, had made all fast; and the
+piece, alike impregnable to assaults or siege, withstood every effort
+for its removal. In fact, this could not be accomplished without at the
+same time tearing off a portion from the dingy papering of the room, and
+leaving a disagreeable void, instead of my sprawling performance. With
+the less evil it appeared each succeeding occupant had been contented;
+and the drawing had stood its ground in spite of dust and dilapidation.
+I felt wishful for the possession of so valuable a memorial of past
+exploits. I examined it again and again, but not a single corner
+betrayed symptoms of lesion: it stuck bolt upright; and the dun squat
+figures portrayed on it appeared to leer at me most provokingly. Not a
+slip or tear presented itself as vantage-ground for the projected
+attack; and I had no other resource left of gaining possession than what
+may be denominated the C&aelig;sarean mode. I accordingly took out my knife,
+and commenced operations by cutting out at the same time a portion of
+the ornamental papering from the wall commensurate with the picture. I
+looked upon it with a sort of superstitious reverence; and I have always
+thought that the strong and eager impulse I felt for the possession of
+this hideous daub proceeded from a far different source than mere
+fondness for the memorials of childhood. Be that as it may, I am a firm
+believer in a special Providence; and that, too, as discovered in the
+most trivial as well as the most important concerns of life. It was
+whilst cutting down upon what seemed like wainscoting, over which the
+papering of the room had been laid, that my knife glanced on something
+much harder than the rest. Turning aside my spoils, I saw what through
+the dusk appeared very like the hinge of a concealed door. My curiosity
+was roused, and I made a hasty pull, which at once drew down a mighty
+fragment from the wall, consisting of plaster, paper, and rotten canvas;
+and some minutes elapsed ere the subsiding cloud of dust enabled me to
+discern the <i>terra incognita</i> I had just uncovered. Sure enough there
+was a door, and as surely did the spirit of enterprise prompt me to open
+it. With difficulty I accomplished my purpose; it yielded at length to
+my efforts; but the noise of the half-corroded hinges, grating and
+shrieking on their rusty pivots, may be conceived as sufficiently dismal
+and appalling. I know not if once at least I did not draw back, or let
+go my hold incontinently, as the din &quot;<!-- Page 414 --><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414" ></a>grew long and loud.&quot; I own,
+without hesitation, that I turned away my head from the opening, as it
+became wider and wider at every pull; and it required a considerable
+effort before I could summon the requisite courage to look into the gap.
+My head seemed as difficult to move as the door. I cannot say that I was
+absolutely afraid of ghosts, but I <i>was</i> afraid of a peep from behind
+the door&mdash;afraid of being frightened! At length, with desperate
+boldness, I thrust my head plump into the chasm!</p>
+
+<p>But I was more startled at the noise I had thus produced than by
+anything that was visible. As far as the darkness would permit, I
+explored the interior, which, after all, was neither more nor less than
+a small closet. From what cause it had been shut out from the apartment
+to which it had belonged, it were vain to conjecture. All that was
+really cognisable to the senses presented itself in the shape of a
+shallow recess, some four feet by two, utterly unfurnished, save with
+some inches of accumulated dust and rubbish, that made it a work of
+great peril to grope out the fact of its otherwise absolute emptiness.
+This discovery like many other notable enterprises seemed to lead to
+nothing. I stepped out of my den, reeking with spoils which I would much
+rather have left undisturbed in their dark recesses.</p>
+
+<p>Preparing for my departure, and a visit to my relation in the nearly
+adjoining town, who as yet had no other intimation of my arrival than a
+hasty note, to apprise him that I had once more set foot on English
+ground, and intended to visit him before my return, I stepped again to
+the window. Darkness was fast gathering about me; a heavy scud was
+driven rapidly across the heavens, and the wind wailed in short and
+mournful gusts past the chamber. The avenue was just visible from the
+spot where I stood; and, looking down, I thought I could discern more
+than one dark object moving apparently towards the house. It may be
+readily conceived that I beheld their approach with an interest by no
+means free from apprehension; and it was not long ere two beings, in
+human habiliments, were distinctly seen at a short distance from the
+gate by which I had entered. Feeling myself an intruder, and not being
+very satisfactorily prepared to account for my forcible entry into the
+premises, and the injury I had committed on the property of a stranger,
+I drew hastily aside, determined to effect a retreat whenever and
+wherever it might be in my power. Door and <!-- Page 415 --><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415" ></a>window alternately presented
+themselves for the accomplishment of this unpleasant purpose, but before
+I could satisfy myself as to which was the more eligible offer, as
+doubters generally do contrive it, I lost all chance of availing myself
+of either. &quot;<i>Facilis descensus</i>&quot;&mdash;&quot;Easier in than out&quot;&mdash;&amp;c., occurred to
+me; and many other classical allusions, much more appropriate than
+agreeable. I heard voices and footsteps in the hall. The stairs creaked,
+and it was but too evident they were coming, and that with a most
+unerring and provoking perseverance. Surely, thought I, these gentry
+have noses like the sleuth-hound; and I made no doubt but they would
+undeviatingly follow them into the very scene of my labours; and what
+excuse could I make for the havoc I had committed? I stood stupefied,
+and unable to move. The thoughts of being hauled neck and heels before
+the next justice, on a charge of housebreaking, or what not&mdash;committed
+to prison&mdash;tried, perhaps, and&mdash;the sequel was more than even
+imagination durst conceive. Recoiling in horror from the picture, it was
+with something like instinctive desperation that I flew to the little
+closet, and shut myself in, with all the speed and precision my fears
+would allow. Sure enough the brutes were making the best of their way
+into the chamber, and every moment I expected they would track their
+victim to his hiding-place. After a few moments of inconceivable agony,
+I was relieved at finding from their conversation that no notion was
+entertained, at present, of any witness to their proceedings.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I tell thee, Gilbert, these rusty locks can keep nothing safe. It's but
+some few months since we were here, and thou knowest the doors were all
+fast. The kitchen door-post is now as rotten as touchwood; no bolt will
+fasten it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nail it up,&mdash;nail 'em all up,&quot; growled Gilbert; &quot;nobody'll live here
+now; or else set fire to 't. It'll make a rare bonfire to burn that ugly
+old will in.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A boisterous laugh here broke from the remorseless Gilbert. It fell upon
+my ear as something with which I had once been disagreeably familiar.
+The voice of the first speaker, too, seemed the echo of one that had
+been heard in childhood. A friendly chink permitted me to gain the
+information I sought; there stood my uncle and his trusty familiar. In
+my youth I had contracted a somewhat unaccountable aversion to the
+latter personage. I well remembered his downcast grey eye, <!-- Page 416 --><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416" ></a>deprived of
+its fellow; and the malignant pleasure he took in thwarting and
+disturbing my childish amusements. This prepossessing Cyclop held a
+tinder-box, and was preparing to light a match. My uncle's figure I
+could not mistake: a score of winters had cast their shadows on his brow
+since we had separated; but he still stood as he was wont&mdash;tall, erect,
+and muscular, though age had slightly drooped his proud forehead; and I
+could discern his long-lapped waistcoat somewhat less conspicuous in
+front. He was my mother's brother, and the only surviving relation on
+whom I had any claim. My fears were set at rest, but curiosity stole
+into their place. I felt an irrepressible inclination to watch their
+proceedings, though eaves-dropping was a subterfuge that I abhorred. I
+should, I am confident&mdash;at least I hope so&mdash;have immediately discovered
+myself, had not a single word which I had overheard prevented me. The
+&quot;will&quot; to which they alluded might to me, perhaps, be an object of no
+trivial importance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wish with all my heart it were burnt!&quot; said mine uncle.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The will, or the house?&quot; peevishly retorted Gilbert.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Both!&quot; cried the other, with an emphasis and expression that made me
+tremble.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If we burn the house, the papers will not rise out of it, depend on 't,
+master,&quot; continued Gilbert; &quot;and that box in the next closet will not
+prove like Goody Blake's salamander.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>I began to feel particularly uncomfortable.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wish they had all been burnt long ago,&quot; said mine honest uncle. After
+a pause he went on: &quot;This scapegrace nephew of mine will be here
+shortly. For fear of accidents&mdash;accidents, I say,&mdash;Gilbert&mdash;it were
+better to have all safe. Who knows what may be lurking in the old house,
+to rise up some day as a witness against us! I intend either to pull it
+down or set fire to it. But we'll make sure of the will first.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A rambling jackanapes of a nephew!&quot; said Gilbert; &quot;I hoped the fishes
+had supped on him before now. We never thought, master, he could be
+alive, as he sent no word about his being either alive or dead. But I
+guess,&quot; continued this amiable servant, &quot;he might ha' staid longer, and
+you wouldn't ha' fretted for his company.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Listeners hear no good of themselves; but I determined to reward the old
+villain very shortly for his good wishes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gilbert, when there's work to do thou art always readier <!-- Page 417 --><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417" ></a>with thy
+tongue than with thy fingers. Look! the match has gone out twice,&mdash;leave
+off puffing and fetch the box; I'll manage about the candle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>I began to feel a strange sensation rambling about me. Gilbert left the
+room, however, and I applied myself with redoubled diligence to the
+crevice. My dishonest relation proceeded to revive the expiring sparks;
+the light shone full upon his hard features. It might be fancy, but
+guilt&mdash;broad, legible, remorseless guilt&mdash;seemed to mark every
+inflection of his visage: his brow contracted,&mdash;his eye turned
+cautiously and fearfully round the apartment, and more than once it
+rested upon the gap I had made. I saw him strike his hand upon his
+puckered brow, and a stifled groan escaped him; but as if ashamed of his
+better feelings, he clenched it in an attitude of defiance, and listened
+eagerly for the return of his servant. The slow footsteps of Gilbert
+soon announced his approach, and apparently with some heavy burden. He
+threw it on the floor, and I heard a key applied and the rusty wards
+answering to the touch. The business in which they were now engaged was
+out of my limited sphere of vision.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think, master, the damps will soon ding down the old house: look at
+the wall; the paper hangs for all the world like the clerk's wig&mdash;ha,
+ha! If we should burn the house down we'd rid it o' the ghosts. Would
+they stand fire, think you, or be off to cooler quarters?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hush, Gilbert; thou art wicked enough to bring a whole legion about us,
+if any of them are within hearing. I always seemed to treat these
+stories with contempt, but I never could satisfy myself about the noises
+that old Gidlow and his wife heard. Thou knowest he was driven out of
+the house by them. People wondered that I did not come and live here,
+instead of letting it run to ruin. It's pretty generally thought that I
+fear neither man nor devil; but&mdash;oh! here it is; here is the will. I
+care nothing for the rest, provided this be cancelled.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ay, master, they said the ghost never left off scratching as long as
+anybody was in the room. Which room was it, I wonder?&mdash;I never thought
+on't to inquire; but&mdash;- I don't like this a bit. It runs in my head it
+is the very place; and behind that wall, too, where it took up its
+quarters like as it might be just a-back of the paper there. Think you,
+master, the old tyke has pull'd it down wi' scratching?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 418 --><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418" ></a>Gilbert,&quot; said my uncle solemnly, &quot;I don't like these jests of thine.
+Save them, I prithee, for fitter subjects. The will is what we came for.
+Let us dispose of that quietly, and I promise thee I'll never set foot
+here again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke he approached the candle&mdash;it was just within my view&mdash;and
+opened the will that it might yield the more readily to the blaze. I
+watched him evidently preparing to consume a document with which I felt
+convinced my welfare and interests were intimately connected. There was
+not a moment to be lost; but how to get possession was no easy
+contrivance. If I sallied forth to its rescue they might murder me, or
+at least prevent its falling into my hands. This plan could only prolong
+its existence a few moments, and would to a certainty ensure its
+eventual destruction. Gilbert's dissertation on the occupations and
+amusements of the ghosts came very opportunely to my aid, and
+immediately I put into execution what now appeared my only hope of its
+safety. Just as a corner of the paper was entering the flame I gave a
+pretty loud scratch, at the same time anxiously observing the effect it
+might produce. I was overjoyed to find the enemy intimidated at least by
+the first fire. Another volley, and another succeeded, until even the
+sceptical Gilbert was dismayed. My uncle seemed riveted to the spot, his
+hands widely disparted, so that the flame and its destined prey were now
+pretty far asunder. Neither of the culprits spoke; and I hoped that
+little more would be necessary to rout them fairly from the field. As
+yet they did not seem disposed to move; and I was afraid of a rally,
+should reason get the better of their fears.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Rats! rats!&quot; shouted Gilbert. &quot;We'll singe their tails for them.&quot; The
+scratching ceased. Again the paper was approaching to its dreaded
+catastrophe.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>Beware!</i>&quot; I cried, in a deep and sepulchral tone, that startled even
+the utterer. What effect it had produced on my auditory I was left alone
+to conjecture. The candle dropped from the incendiary's grasp, and the
+spoil was left a prey to the bugbear that possessed their imaginations.
+With feelings of unmixed delight, I heard them clear the stairs at a few
+leaps, run through the hall, and soon afterwards a terrific bellow from
+Gilbert announced their descent into the avenue.</p>
+
+<p>Luckily the light was not extinct, and I lost no time in taking
+possession of the document, which I considered of the most <!-- Page 419 --><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419" ></a>importance.
+A number of loose papers, the contents of a huge trunk, were scattered
+about; but my attention was more particularly directed to the paper
+which had been the object of my uncle's visit to the Manor-house. To my
+great joy, this was neither less nor more than my father's will,
+witnessed and sealed in due form, wherein the possessions of my
+ancestors were conveyed, absolutely and unconditionally, without entail,
+unencumbered and unembarrassed, to me and to my assigns. I thought it
+most likely that the papers in and about the trunk might be of use,
+either as corroborative evidence, in case my uncle should choose to
+litigate the point and brand the original document as a forgery, or as a
+direct testimony to the validity of my claim. I was rather puzzled in
+what manner to convey them from the place, so as not to excite
+suspicion, should the two worthies return. I was pretty certain they
+would not leave matters as they now stood when their fears were allayed,
+and daylight would probably impart sufficient courage to induce them to
+repeat their visit. On finding the papers removed, the nature of this
+night's ghostly admonition would immediately be guessed, and measures
+taken to thwart any proceedings which it might be in my power to adopt.
+To prevent discovery, I hit upon the following expedient:&mdash;I sorted out
+the waste paper, a considerable quantity of which served as envelopes to
+the rest, setting fire to it in such a manner that the contents of the
+trunk might appear to have been destroyed by the falling of the candle.
+I succeeded very much to my own satisfaction. Disturbed and agonised as
+my feelings had been during the discovery, the idea of having defeated
+the plan of my iniquitous relative gave a zest to my acquisitions almost
+as great as if I had already taken possession of my paternal
+inheritance.</p>
+
+<p>Before I left the apartment, I poured out my heart in thanksgivings to
+that unseen Power whose hand, I am firmly convinced, brought me thither
+at so critical a moment, to frustrate the schemes and machinations of
+the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>Bundling up the papers, my knowledge of the vicinity enabled me to reach
+a small tavern in the neighbourhood without the risk of being
+recognised. Here I continued two or three days, examining the documents,
+with the assistance of an honest limb of the law from W&mdash;&mdash;. He
+entertained considerable doubts as to the issue of a trial, feeling
+convinced that a forged will would be prepared, if not already in
+existence, and <!-- Page 420 --><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420" ></a>that my relative would not relinquish his fraudulent
+claim should the law be openly appealed to. He strongly recommended that
+proceedings of a different nature should be first tried, in hopes of
+enclosing the villain in his own toils; and these, if successful, would
+save the uncertain and expensive process of a suit. I felt unwilling to
+adopt any mode of attack but that of open warfare, and urged that
+possession of the real will would be sufficient to reinstate me as the
+lawful heir. The man of law smiled. He inquired how I should be able to
+prove that the forgery which my uncle would in all probability produce
+was not the genuine testament; and as the date would inevitably be
+subsequent to the one I held, it would annul any former bequest. As to
+my tale about burning the will, that might or might not be treated as a
+story trumped up for the occasion. I had no witnesses to prove the fact;
+and though appearances were certainly in my favour, yet the case could
+only be decided according to evidence. With great reluctance I consented
+to take a part in the scheme he chalked out for my guidance; and, on the
+third day from my arrival, I walked a few miles and returned to the
+town, that it might appear as if I had only just arrived. On being set
+down at my uncle's I had the satisfaction to find, as far as could be
+gathered from his manner, that he had no idea of my recent sojourn in
+the neighbourhood. Of course the conversation turned on the death of my
+revered parents, and the way in which their property had been disposed
+of.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can only repeat,&quot; continued he, &quot;what I, as the only executor under
+your father's will, was commissioned to inform you at his decease. The
+property was heavily mortgaged before your departure; and its continued
+depression in value, arising from causes that could not have been
+foreseen, left the executor no other alternative but that of giving the
+creditors possession. The will is here,&quot; said he, taking out a paper,
+neatly folded and mounted with red tape, from a bureau. &quot;It is
+necessarily brief, and merely enumerates the names of the mortgagees and
+amounts owing. I was unfortunately the principal creditor, having been a
+considerable loser from my wish to preserve the property inviolate. For
+the credit of the family I paid off the remaining incumbrances, and the
+estate has lapsed to me as the lawful possessor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He placed the document in my hands. I read in it a very <!-- Page 421 --><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421" ></a>technical
+tribute of testamentary gratitude to M&mdash;&mdash; S&mdash;&mdash;, Esq., styled therein
+&quot;beloved brother;&quot; and a slight mention of my name, but no bequest, save
+that of recommending me to the kindness of my relative, in case it
+should please Heaven to send me once more to my native shores. I was
+aware he would be on the watch; guarding, therefore, against any
+expression of my feelings, I eagerly perused the deed, and with a sigh,
+which he would naturally attribute to any cause but the real one, I
+returned it into his hands.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I find,&quot; said he, &quot;from your letter received on the 23d current, that
+you are not making a long stay in this neighbourhood. It is better,
+perhaps, that you should not. The old house is sadly out of repair.
+Three years ago next May, David Gidlow, the tenant under lease from me,
+left it, and I have not yet been able to meet with another occupant
+fully to my satisfaction; indeed, I have some intention of pulling down
+the house and disposing of the materials.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pulling it down!&quot; I exclaimed, with indignation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes; that is, it is so untenantable&mdash;so&mdash;what shall I call it?&mdash;that
+nobody cares to live there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hope it is not haunted?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Haunted!&quot; exclaimed he, surveying me with a severe and scrutinising
+glance. &quot;What should have put that into your head?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>I was afraid I had said too much; and anxious to allay the suspicion I
+saw gathering in his countenance&mdash;&quot;Nay, uncle,&quot; I quickly rejoined; &quot;but
+you seemed so afraid of speaking out upon the matter that I thought
+there must needs be a ghost at the bottom of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As for that,&quot; said he, carelessly; &quot;the foolish farmer and his wife did
+hint something of the sort; but it is well known that I pay no attention
+to such tales. The long and the short of it, I fancy, was, that they
+were tired of their bargain, and wanted me to take it off their hands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Here honest Gilbert entered, to say that Mr L&mdash;&mdash;, the attorney, would
+be glad to have a word with his master.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell Mr L&mdash;&mdash; to walk in. We have no secrets here. Excuse me, nephew;
+this man is one of our lawyers. He has nothing to communicate but what
+you may hear, I dare say. If he should have any private business, you
+can step into the next room.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The attorney entering, I was introduced as nephew to Mr <!-- Page 422 --><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422" ></a>S&mdash;&mdash;, just
+arrived from the Indies, and so forth. Standing, Mr L&mdash;&mdash; made due
+obeisance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sit down; sit down, Mr L&mdash;&mdash;,&quot; cried my uncle. &quot;You need not be bowing
+there for a job. Poor fellow, he has not much left to grease the paws of
+a lawyer. Well, sir, your errand?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>I came, Mr S&mdash;&mdash;, respecting the Manor-house. Perhaps you would not have
+any objections to a tenant!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I cannot say just now. I have had some thoughts of pulling it down.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sir! you would not demolish a building, the growth of centuries&mdash;a
+family mansion&mdash;been in the descent since James's time. It would be
+barbarous. The antiques would be about your ears.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I care nothing for the antiquities; and, moreover, I do not choose to
+let the house. Any further business with me this morning, sir?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing of consequence&mdash;I only came about the house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pray, Mr L&mdash;&mdash;,&quot; said I, &quot;what sort of a tenant have you in view;&mdash;one
+you could recommend? I think my uncle has more regard for the old
+mansion-house than comports with the outrage he threatens. The will
+says, if I read aright, that the house and property may be sold, should
+the executor see fit; but, as to pulling it down, I am sure my father
+never meant anything so deplorable. Allow me another glance at that
+paper.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Please to observe, nephew, that the will makes it mine, and as such I
+have a right to dispose of the whole in such manner as I may deem best.
+If you have any doubts, I refer you to Mr L&mdash;&mdash;, who sits smiling at
+your unlawyer-like opinions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pray allow me one moment,&quot; said the curious attorney. He looked at the
+signature and those of the parties witnessing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Martha S&mdash;&mdash;; your late sister, I presume?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>My uncle nodded assent.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gilbert Hodgon&mdash;your servant?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The same. To what purpose, sir, are these questions?&quot; angrily inquired
+my uncle.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Merely matters of form&mdash;a habit we lawyers cannot easily throw aside
+whenever we get a sight of musty parchments. I hope you will pardon my
+freedom?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh! as for that you are welcome to ask as many questions as you think
+proper; they will be easily answered, I take it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 423 --><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423" ></a>Doubtless,&quot; said the persevering man of words. &quot;Whenever I take up a
+deed, for instance,&mdash;it is just the habit of the thing, Mr S&mdash;&mdash;,&mdash;I
+always look at it as a banker looks at a note. He could not for the life
+of him gather one up without first ascertaining that it was genuine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Genuine!&quot; exclaimed my uncle, thrown off his guard. &quot;You do not suspect
+that I have forged it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Forged it! why, how could that enter your head, Mr S&mdash;&mdash;? I should as
+soon suspect you of forging a bank-note or coining a guinea. Ringing a
+guinea, sir, does not at all imply that the payee suspects the payer to
+be an adept in that ingenious and much-abused art. We should be
+prodigously surprised if the payer were to start up in a tantrum, and
+say, 'Do you suspect me, sir, of having coined it?'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sir, if you came hither for the purpose of insulting <i>me</i>&quot;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I came upon no such business, Mr S&mdash;&mdash;; but, as you seem disposed to be
+captious, I <i>will</i> make free to say, and it would be the opinion of
+ninety-nine hundredths of the profession, that it might possibly have
+been a little more satisfactory to the heir-apparent had the witnesses
+to this, the most solemn and important act of a man's life, been any
+other than, firstly, a defunct sister to the party claiming the whole
+residue: and secondly, Mr Gilbert Hodgon, his servant. Nay, sir,&quot; said
+the pertinacious lawyer, rising, &quot;I do not wish to use more
+circumlocution than is necessary; I have stated my suspicions, and if
+you are an honest man, you can have no objections, at least, to satisfy
+your nephew on the subject, who seems, to say the truth, much astonished
+at our accidental parley.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And pray who made you a ruler and a judge between us?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>I</i> have no business with it, I own; but as you seemed rather angry, I
+made bold to give an opinion on the little technicalities aforesaid. If
+you choose, sir,&quot; addressing himself to me, &quot;the matter is now at rest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course,&quot; I replied, &quot;Mr S&mdash;&mdash; will be ready to give every
+satisfaction that may be required as regards the validity of the
+witnesses. I request, uncle, that you will not lose one moment in
+rebutting these insinuations. For your own sake and mine, it is not
+proper that your conduct should go forth to the world in the shape in
+which this gentleman may think fit to represent it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If he dare speak one word&quot;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, uncle, that is not the way to stop folks' mouth now-a-<!-- Page 424 --><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424" ></a>days.
+Nothing but the actual gag, or a line of conduct that courts no favour
+and requires no concealment, will pass current with the world. I
+request, sir,&quot; addressing myself to the attorney, &quot;that you will not
+leave this house until you have given Mr S&mdash;&mdash; the opportunity of
+clearing himself from any blame in this transaction.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As matters have assumed this posture,&quot; said Mr L&mdash;&mdash;, &quot;I should be
+deficient in respect to the profession of which I have the honour to be
+a member, did I not justify my conduct in the best manner I am able.
+Have I liberty to proceed?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Proceed as you like, you will not prove the testament to be a forgery.
+The signing and witnessing were done in my presence,&quot; said my uncle. He
+rose from his chair, instinctively locked up his bureau; and, if such
+stern features could assume an aspect of still greater asperity, it was
+when the interrogator thus continued:&mdash;&quot;You were, as you observe, Mr
+S&mdash;&mdash;, an eye-witness to the due subscription of this deed. If I am to
+clear myself from the imputation of unjustifiable curiosity, I must beg
+leave to examine yourself and the surviving witness apart, merely as to
+the minuti&aelig; of the circumstances under which it was finally completed:
+for instance, was the late Mr&mdash;&mdash; in bed, or was he sick or well, when
+the deed was executed?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A cadaverous hue stole over the dark features of the culprit; their
+aspect varying and distorted, in which fear and deadly anger painfully
+strove for pre-eminence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And wherefore apart?&quot; said he, with a hideous grin. He stamped suddenly
+on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If that summons be for your servant, you might have saved yourself the
+trouble, sir,&quot; said his tormentor, with great coolness and intrepidity.
+&quot;Gilbert is at my office, whither I sent him on an errand, thinking he
+would be best out of the way for a while. I find, however, that we shall
+have need of him. It is as well, nevertheless, that he is out of the way
+of signals.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A base conspiracy!&quot; roared the infuriated villain. &quot;Nephew, how is
+this? And in my own house,&mdash;bullied&mdash;baited! But I will be revenged&mdash;I
+will.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Here he became exhausted with rage, and sat down. On Mr L&mdash;&mdash; attempting
+to speak, he cried out&mdash;&quot;I will answer no questions, and I defy you.
+Gilbert may say what he likes; but he cannot contradict my words. I'll
+speak none.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 425 --><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425" ></a>These would be strange words, indeed, Mr S&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;, from an innocent
+man. Know you that WILL?&quot; said the lawyer, in a voice of thunder, and at
+the same time exhibiting the real instrument so miraculously preserved
+from destruction. I shall never forget his first look of horror and
+astonishment. Had a spectre risen up, arrayed in all the terrors of the
+prison-house, he could not have exhibited more appalling symptoms of
+unmitigated despair. He shuddered audibly. It was the very crisis of his
+agony. A portentous silence ensued. Some minutes elapsed before it was
+interrupted. Mr L&mdash;&mdash; was the first to break so disagreeable a pause.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr S&mdash;&mdash;, it is useless to carry on this scene of duplicity: neither
+party would be benefited by it. <i>You have forged that deed!</i> We have
+sufficient evidence of your attempt to destroy this document I now hold,
+in the very mansion which your unhallowed hands would, but for the
+direct interposition of Providence, have levelled with the dust. On one
+condition, and on one only, your conduct shall be concealed from the
+knowledge of your fellow-men. The eye of Providence alone has hitherto
+tracked the tortuous course of your villany. On one condition, I say,
+the past is for ever concealed from the eye of the world.&quot; Another
+pause. My uncle groaned in the agony of his spirit. Had his heart's
+blood been at stake, he could not have evinced a greater reluctance than
+he now showed at the thoughts of relinquishing his ill-gotten wealth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Destroy with your own hands that forged testimony of your guilt. Your
+nephew does not wish to bring an old man's grey hairs to an ignominious
+grave.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He took the deed, and, turning aside his head, committed it to the
+flames. He appeared to breathe more freely when it was consumed; but the
+struggle had been too severe even for his unyielding frame, iron-bound
+though it seemed. As he turned trembling from the hearth, he sank into
+his chair, threw his hands over his face, and groaned deeply. The next
+moment he fixed his eyes steadily on me. A glassy brightness suddenly
+shot over them; a dimness followed like the shadows of death. He held
+out his hand; his head bowed; and he bade adieu to the world and its
+interests for ever!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CLITHEROE_CASTLE" id="CLITHEROE_CASTLE" ></a><!-- Page 426 --><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426" ></a>CLITHEROE CASTLE;</h2>
+
+<h3>OR,</h3>
+
+<h2>THE LAST OF THE LACIES.</h2>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">&quot;By that painful way they pass<br /></span>
+<span>Forth to an hill that was both steep and high;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">On top whereof a sacred chapel was,<br /></span>
+<span>And eke a little hermitage thereby.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="author">&mdash;SPENSER'S <i>Fairy Queen</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Clitheroe, <i>the hill ly the-waters</i>, the ancient seat of the Lacies,
+carries back the mind to earlier periods and events&mdash;to a rude and
+barbarous age&mdash;where justice was dispensed, and tribute paid, by the
+feudatories to their lords, whose power, little less than arbitrary, was
+held directly from the crown.</p>
+
+<p>The Lacies came over with the Conqueror; and, on the defection of Robert
+de Poictou, obtained, as their share of the spoil, sixty knights' fees,
+principally in Yorkshire and Lancashire. For the better maintainence of
+their dignity they built two castles, one at Pontefract, the principal
+residence, and another at Clitheroe. A <i>great fee</i>, or great lordship,
+as Pontefract was a possession of the highest order; an honour, or
+seigniory, like Clitheroe, consisting of a number of manors, was the
+next in rank; and these manors were severally held by their subordinate
+lords in dependence on the lord paramount, the lord of the fee or
+honour.</p>
+
+<div class="center">
+<img src="images/25.png" width="600" height="403" alt="CLITHEROE CASTLE.
+
+Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden." title="" />
+<b>CLITHEROE CASTLE.<br />
+
+<i>Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw<sup>d</sup> Finden.</i></b>
+</div>
+
+<p>What was the precise aspect of our county when the Normans possessed
+themselves of the land, it might be deemed an effort of the imagination
+perhaps to portray. &quot;Yet,&quot; says Dr Whitaker, in one of his happier
+moods, &quot;could a curious observer of the present day carry himself nine
+or ten centuries back, and, ranging the summit of Pendle, survey the
+forked Calder on one side, and the bolder margins of Ribble and Hodder
+on the other, instead of populous towns and villages, the castle, the
+old tower-built house, the elegant modern mansion, the artificial
+plantation, the park and pleasure ground, or instead of uninterrupted
+enclosures, which have driven sterility almost to the summit of the
+fells; how great must then have been the contrast, when, ranging either
+at a distance or immediately beneath, his eye must have caught vast
+tracts of forest ground stagnating with bog or darkened by native
+<!-- Page 427 --><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427" ></a><!-- Page 428 --><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428" ></a><!-- Page 429 --><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429" ></a>woods, where the wild ox, the roe, the stag, and the wolf had
+scarcely learned the supremacy of man&mdash;when, directing his view to the
+intermediate spaces, to the windings of the valleys, or the expanse of
+plain beneath, he could only have distinguished a few insulated patches
+of culture, each encircling a village of wretched cabins, among which
+would still be remarked one rude mansion of wood, scarcely equal in
+comfort to a modern cottage, yet then rising proudly eminent above the
+rest, where the Saxon lord, surrounded by his faithful cotarii, enjoyed
+a rude and solitary independence, owning no superior but his sovereign.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This was undoubtedly a state of great simplicity and freedom, such as
+admirers of uncultivated nature may affect to applaud. But although
+revolutions in civil society seldom produce anything better than a
+change of vices, yet surely no wise or good man can lament the
+subversion of Saxon polity for that which followed. Their laws were
+contemptible for imbecility, their habits odious for intemperance; and
+if we can for a moment persuade ourselves that their language has any
+charm, that proceeds less, perhaps, from anything harmonious and
+expressive in itself, or anything valuable in the information it
+conveys, than that it is rare and not of very easy attainment; that it
+forms the rugged basis of our own tongue; and, above all, that we hear
+it loudly echoed in the dialect of our own vulgar. Indeed, the manners
+as well as language of a Lancashire clown often suggest the idea of a
+Saxon peasant; and prove, with respect to remote tracts like these,
+little affected by foreign admixtures, how strong is the power of
+traduction, how faithfully character and propensities may be transmitted
+through more than twenty generations.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Normans were a more polished, a more abstemious people; as scribes
+and architects they were men to whom this district was greatly indebted.
+Our only castle, our oldest remaining churches, our most curious and
+valuable records, are all Norman.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Such was the state of property and manners when the house of Lacy
+became possessed of Blackburnshire.&quot; The simplicity of the Saxon tenures
+was destroyed. A tract of country, which had been parcelled out among
+twenty-eight lords, now became subject to one; and all the intricacies
+of feodal dependence, all the rigours of feodal exaction, wardships,
+reliefs, escheats, &amp;c., were introduced at once. Yet the Saxon lords,
+though dependent, were not in general actually stripped of their fees.
+By successive steps, however, the origin of all landed property within
+the hundred, some later copyholds excepted, is to be traced to voluntary
+concessions from the Lacies, or their successors of the house of
+Lancaster; not grants of pure beneficence, but requiring personal
+service from the owners, and yearly customs or payments, equivalent at
+that time to their value. Their present worth grew out of the operation
+of causes little understood in these ages either by lord or
+vassal&mdash;namely, the certainty of the possession, the diminishing value
+of money, and the perpetuity of the title.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 430 --><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430" ></a>In four generations, or little more than one hundred years, the line of
+the Lacies became extinct; Roger Fitz-Eustace, lord of Halton and
+constable of Chester, coming into possession by right of his grandmother
+Awbrey, uterine sister of Robert de Lacy, the last of this illustrious
+race. Fitz-Eustace, however, took the title of De Lacy; but in the
+fourth descent from him the very name was lost. Henry de Lacy, the last
+and greatest man of his line, dying the 5th February 1310, left one
+daughter only, who had married, during her father's lifetime, Thomas
+Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster&mdash;and carried along with her an
+inheritance even then estimated at 10,000 marks per annum. On the earl's
+attainder, the honour of Clitheroe, with the rest of his possessions,
+were forfeited to the crown. After undergoing many changes while it
+continued a member of the Duchy of Lancaster&mdash;that is, until the
+restoration of Charles II.&mdash;that prince, in consideration of the great
+services of General Monk, whom he created Duke of Albemarle, bestowed it
+upon him and his heirs for ever. Christopher, his son, dying without
+issue, left his estates to his wife, daughter and co-heiress of Henry
+Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle; by her they were bequeathed to her second
+husband, Ralph, Duke of Montague, whose grand-daughter Mary, married
+George, Earl of Cardigan, afterwards Duke of Montague. Elizabeth, his
+daughter, married Henry, Duke of Buccleuch, in whose family the honour
+of Clitheroe is now vested.</p>
+
+<p>Clitheroe Castle is described by Grose as &quot;situated on the summit of a
+conical insulated crag of rugged limestone rock, which suddenly rises
+from a fine vale, in which towards the north, at the distance of
+half-a-mile, runs the Ribble, and a mile to the south stands Pendle
+Hill, which seems to lift its head above the clouds.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In the time of the Commonwealth it was dismantled by order of
+Parliament; the chapel has totally disappeared; and nothing now remains
+but the square keep and some portions of the strong wall by which the
+building was surrounded.<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49" ></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> The tower, though much undermined, remains
+firm as the rock on which it was built, and forms the principal object
+in our engraving.</p>
+
+<p>It was midnight; and the priest was chanting the service and requiem for
+the dead in the little chapel or chantry of St Michael, which was built
+within the walls of Clyderhow or Clitheroe Castle. The <i>Dies ir&aelig;</i> from
+the surrounding worshippers rose in a simple monotone, like the sound of
+some distant river, now caught on the wing of the tempest, and flung far
+away into the dim and distant void, now rushing on the ear in one deep
+gush of harmony&mdash;the voice of Nature, as if her thousand tongues were
+blended in one universal peal of praise and adoration to <!-- Page 431 --><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431" ></a>the great
+Power that called her into being. Many a heart quailed with
+apprehension, many a bosom was oppressed with doubtful and anxious
+forebodings. Robert de Lacy, the last of this illustrious race, fourth
+in descent from Ilbert de Lacy, on whom the Conqueror bestowed the great
+fee of Pontefract, the owner of twenty-eight manors and lord of the
+honour of Clitheroe, was no longer numbered with the living; and here in
+the chapel of this lone fortress, before the dim altar, all that
+remained of this powerful baron, the clay no longer instinct with
+spirit, was soon to be enveloped in the dust, the darkness, and the
+degradation of its kindred earth.</p>
+
+<p>Many circumstances rendered this scene more than usually solemn and
+affecting. Robert de Lacy had died without issue to inherit these
+princely domains, the feudal inheritance of a family whose power had so
+wide a grasp, that it was currently said the Lacies might pass from
+Clitheroe Castle to their fortress at Pontefract, a journey of some
+fifty miles, and rest in a house or hostelrie of their own at every
+pause during their progress.</p>
+
+<p>With him ended the male line of this great family. Failing in issue, he
+had devised all these vast estates to Awbrey, his uterine sister,
+daughter of Robert de Lizours, married to Richard Fitz-Eustace, lord of
+Halton and constable of Chester.</p>
+
+<p>Thus ended the last of his race; and the inheritance had passed to a
+stranger.</p>
+
+<p>The surrounding worshippers were mostly domestics and retainers of the
+family, save Robert de Whalley, the dean of that ancient church,
+supposed to have been founded by Augustine or Paulinus in the seventh
+century, and then called &quot;The White Church under the Leigh.&quot; No tidings
+had been heard from the Fitz-Eustace at Halton, and in two days the body
+was to be carried forth on its last pilgrimage to Kirkstall Abbey,
+founded by Henry de Lacy, father of the deceased, about forty years
+prior to this event.</p>
+
+<p>The beginning of February, in the year 1193, when our story commences,
+was an epoch memorable for the base and treacherous captivity of Richard
+Coeur de Lion by the Duke of Austria; and for the equally base and
+treacherous, but short-lived, usurpation of John, the brother of our
+illustrious crusader. The nation was involved in great trouble and
+dismay. The best blood of England and the flower of her nobility had
+perished on the deserts of Palestine, or were pining there in hopeless
+<!-- Page 432 --><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432" ></a>captivity. The house of Fitz-Eustace, into whose possession the estates
+of the Lacies were now merged, had themselves been shorn of a goodly
+scion or two from the family tree during these &quot;holy wars.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Richard Fitz-Eustace, the husband of Awbrey, died about the 24 Hen. II.
+(1178), leaving one son, John, who founded the Cistercian Abbey of
+Stanlaw in Cheshire, the present establishment of Whalley. He was slain
+at Tyre in the crusade, A.D. 1190, the second of the reign of Richard
+I., leaving issue, Richard a leper, and Roger, who followed his father
+to the Holy Land, but of whose fate no tidings had been heard since his
+departure thence on his return to Europe. Besides these were two sons,
+Eustace and Peter, and a daughter named Alice.</p>
+
+<p>Roger Fitz-Eustace and his friend William de Bellamonte&mdash;from whom are
+descended the Beaumonts of Whitley-Beaumont, in Yorkshire&mdash;had fought
+side by side at the memorable siege of Acre; but whether alive or dead
+the certainty was not yet known, though there might be good grounds for
+the apprehension generally entertained, that they were held in captivity
+by infidels or by princes miscalled Christian, the bitterest enemies to
+the faith they professed.</p>
+
+<p>Clitheroe Castle was built by Roger de Poictou, or, as he is otherwise
+called, Roger Pictavensis, of a noble family in Normandy, and related to
+the Conqueror. He led the centre of William's army at the battle of
+Hastings. King William having given him all the lands between the Mersey
+and the Ribble, he built several castles and fortresses therein,
+providing largely for his followers, from whom are descended many
+families who are still in possession of manors and estates originally
+granted by this unfortunate relative of the Conqueror. He was twice
+deprived of his honours, many of them being escheated to the crown,
+while Clitheroe Castle, together with the great fee of Pontefract, was
+bestowed on Ilbert de Lacy, a Norman follower of William.</p>
+
+<p>In a country not abounding with strong positions, an insulated conical
+rock of limestone rising out of the fertile plain between Penhull
+(Pendle) and the Ribble would naturally attract the attention of the
+invaders. Here, therefore, we find a fortress erected even earlier than
+the castle at Lancaster. The summit of this rock was not sufficiently
+extensive to admit of a spacious building, and probably nothing more was
+at first <!-- Page 433 --><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433" ></a>intended than a temporary retreat and defence from the
+predatory incursions of the Scots. The structure was, however, gradually
+enlarged, and became one of the chief residences of the Lacies. A lofty
+flanking wall ran along the brink of the rock, enclosing the keep and
+adjoining buildings, likewise the chapel of St Michael, coeval with the
+foundation of the castle, and forming part of it, being amply endowed by
+the founder, and license procured from the Dean of Whalley for the
+purpose of having divine service performed and the sacraments
+administered therein, to the household servants, foresters, and
+shepherds, who occupied these extensive and thinly-inhabited domains.</p>
+
+<p>In this little sanctuary now lay the remains of its lord. The cold
+February sleet pattered fitfully against the narrow panes; and the
+shivering mourners muffled themselves in their dark hoods, while they
+knelt devoutly on the hard bare pavement of the chapel. Oliver de
+Worsthorn, the old seneschal, knelt at the foot of the bier; his white
+locks covered his thin features like a veil, hiding their intense and
+heart-withering expression. He felt without a stay or helper in his last
+hours&mdash;a sapless, worthless stem in this wilderness of sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>Robert, the Dean of Whalley, attended as chief mourner. Being descended
+from a distant branch of the Lacies, he had long thrown a covetous
+glance towards the inheritance. A frequent guest at the castle, he had
+been useful as an auxiliary in the management and control of the secular
+concerns; the spiritual interests of its head were in the keeping of
+another and more powerful agent, little suspected by the dean of
+applying the influence he had acquired to purposes of secular
+aggrandisement.</p>
+
+<p>It may not be deemed irrelevant that we give a brief outline of the
+constitution or office of dean, as then held by the incumbents of
+Whalley. The beautiful abbey, now in ruins, was not as yet built. Some
+Saxon lord of <img src="images/26.png" width="60" height="18" alt="Dpaellej" title="" />
+had, about the seventh century,
+founded a parish church, dedicated to All Saints, called The White
+Church under the Leigh. The first erection was of wood, many years
+afterwards replaced by a plain building of stone. The rectors or deans
+were also lords of the town, and married men, who held it not by
+presentation from the patron, but as their own patrimonial estate, the
+succession being hereditary. In this manner the deanery of Whalley was
+<!-- Page 434 --><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434" ></a>continued until the Lateran Council, in the year 1215, which, by
+finally prohibiting the marriage of ecclesiastics, put an end to this
+order of hereditary succession, and occasioned a resignation of the
+patronage to the chief lord of the fee, after which the church of
+Whalley sunk, by two successive appropriations, into an impoverished
+vicarage.</p>
+
+<p>Long before the Conquest the advowson had become far more valuable than
+the manor, and the lords, who were also patrons, saw the advantage and
+convenience of qualifying themselves by inferior orders for holding so
+rich a benefice; and thus the manor itself in time ceased to be
+considered as a lay fee, and became confounded with the glebe of the
+church.<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50" ></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a></p>
+
+<p>The office of dean, at the period in which our history commences, had
+for centuries been considered as a dignity rather secular than
+ecclesiastical, and the pursuits of the incumbent had doubtless
+assimilated generally with those of his lay associates. Indeed, it is
+recorded that Dean Liulphus, in the reign of Canute, had the name of
+Cutwulph, from having cut off a wolf's tail whilst hunting in the
+forest of Rossendale, at a place called Ledmesgreve, or more properly
+Deansgreve. Like many other ancient and dignified ecclesiastics, they
+were mighty hunters, enjoying their privileges unmolested through a vast
+region of forest land then unenclosed, and were only inferior in
+jurisdiction to the feudal lords of these domains. &quot;On the whole, then,
+it appears,&quot; says Dr Whitaker, &quot;that the Dean of Whalley was compounded
+of patron, incumbent, ordinary, and lord of the manor; an assemblage
+which may possibly have met in later times, and in some places of exempt
+jurisdiction, but at that time probably an <i>unique</i> in the history of
+the English church.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Robert de Whalley, the incumbent before named, was not a whit behind his
+progenitors in that laudable exercise of worldly wisdom and forethought,
+as it regarded matters of a temporal and transitory nature. His bearing
+was proud, and his aspect keen; his form was muscular, and more fitted
+for some hardy and rigorous exercise than for the generally self-denying
+and peaceful offices of the Catholic Church. In his youth he had the
+reputation of being much disposed to gallantry; and the same proneness
+to intrigue was yet manifest, though employed in pursuits of a less
+transitory nature. His disappointment was, <!-- Page 435 --><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435" ></a>in consequence, greatly
+augmented when these long-coveted possessions were given to another, and
+his ambitious dreams dissipated. Yet was he not without hope that the
+succession of the Fitz-Eustace family might be frustrated. The leper
+would of necessity be passed over, and, Roger being either dead or in
+captivity, the revenues and usurpation of this distant and almost
+inaccessible territory might still be enjoyed without molestation or
+inquiry. Such were the meditations of this plotting ecclesiastic, as he
+knelt before the altar in that solemn hour, in the chapel of &quot;<i>St
+Michael in Castro</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The walls of the chapel, or rather chantry, were smeared with black; and
+in front of the screen were portrayed uncouth representations of the
+arms and insignia of the deceased. A pall was thrown over the body, and
+a plate of salt, as an emblem of incorruptibility, placed on the
+corpse&mdash;a heathenish custom borrowed from the Druids. The candles burnt
+dimly at the little altar, and the cold and bitter wind threw the
+shadows in many a grotesque and startling shape on the dark bare walls
+which enclosed them. It was an hour and a scene that superstition might
+have chosen for manifesting her power; and many an anxious glance was
+thrown towards the dark recesses out of which imagination was ready to
+conjure some grim spectre, invested with all the horrors that monkish
+legends had created. The priest who officiated was an unbeneficed
+clergyman, long known as an inmate of the castle. He was of a quiet and
+inoffensive disposition, but much attached to his lord; often during the
+service grief stayed his utterance, and he mingled his loud sobs with
+those of the surrounding worshippers.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>dirage</i> was concluded, and vespers for the dead were now commencing
+with the &quot;<i>Placebo Domino</i>.&quot; The priest with his loud rich voice sang or
+recited the anthem, and the attendants gave the response in a low and
+muttering sound. Just as he was beginning the fumigation with a sign of
+the cross, to drive away demons and unclean spirits from the body,
+suddenly a loud, deep, and startling blast was heard from the horn at
+the outer gate. The whole assembly started up from their devotions, and
+every eye was turned towards the dean, as though to watch and take the
+colour of their proceedings from those of his reverence. He lifted his
+eyes from the corpse, which lay with the face and shoulders uncovered;
+and, as if startled from some bewildering reverie, cried aloud&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 436 --><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436" ></a>What untimely visitor art thou, disturbing the sad offices of the
+dead?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He paused, as though the sound of his own voice had disturbed him; while
+wrapping himself in his cloak, he hastily approached Oliver, who stood
+irresolute, not knowing how to act in this unexpected emergency. De
+Whalley pointed towards the door, and the seneschal prepared to obey,
+accompanied by the porter with a light, and one or two attendants.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately outside the chapel the way led down a steep angle of the
+rock, which Oliver, by dint of much use and experience, descended
+without any apparent difficulty, save what arose from the slippery state
+of the path, which rendered the footing more than usually precarious and
+uncertain.</p>
+
+<p>Again, the blast brayed forth a louder and more impatient summons,
+startling the echoes from their midnight slumber, while the deep woods
+answered from a thousand unseen recesses.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hang thee for a saucy loon, whoever thou be! I'll warrant thee as much
+impudence in thy face as wind i' thy muzzle,&quot; said the disturbed
+seneschal. &quot;Tarry a while, Hugo; ope not the gate without a parley,
+despite the knave's untimely summons.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Oliver, hobbling onward, reached the wicket, just then occupied by
+Hugo's broad and curious face prying out cautiously into the misty and
+unintelligible void, without being a whit the wiser for his scrutiny.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What a plague do ye keep honest men a-waiting for at the gate,&quot; said a
+gruff voice from the pitchy darkness without, &quot;in a night that would
+make a soul wish for a dip into purgatory, just by way of a warming?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hush,&quot; said Oliver, who was a true son of the Church, and moreover,
+being fresh from the services appointed for the recovery of poor souls
+from this untoward place, felt the remark of the stranger as peculiarly
+impious and full of blasphemy&mdash;&quot;Hush! thou bold-faced scorner, and learn
+to furbish thy wit from some other armoury; we like not such unholy
+jests&mdash;firebrands thrown in sport! Thy business, friend?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Open the gate, good master priest-poke,&quot; said the other, in a tone of
+authority.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not until thou showest thine errand,&quot; said the equally imperative
+interrogator within; who, having the unequivocal and somewhat ponderous
+advantage of a pair of stout-built and well-furnished gates to back, or
+rather face, him in the controversy, <!-- Page 437 --><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437" ></a>was consequently in a fair way for
+keeping on the strong side of the argument.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, o' my troth, but ye be a pair of rude curs, barking from a warm
+kennel at your betters, who are shivering in the cold, without so much
+as a bone to pick, or a wisp of straw to their tails! Well, well, 'tis
+soon said; every dog, you know,&mdash;and 'twill be my turn soon. I come
+hither from the castle at Halton, where my Lady Fitz-Eustace would lay
+your curs' noses to the grinding-stone; but, rest her soul, she will not
+long be above ground, I trow. Know then, masters, I am her seneschal,
+whom she sends with a goodly train to the burying. Quick, old goat-face,
+or we will singe thy beard to light thee to our discovery.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The gates were immediately unbolted at this command, opening wide before
+so dignified a personage, who, as the representative of the
+Fitz-Eustace, was evidently impressed with a sufficient sense of his own
+importance, while he and his attendants rode through the grim Norman
+arch into the courtyard. The uppermost extreme of this illustrious
+functionary was surmounted with a sort of Phrygian-shaped bonnet or cap,
+made of deerskin, suitably ornamented. A mantle or cloak of a dark
+mulberry colour, fancifully embroidered on the hem, was clasped upon one
+shoulder by a silver buckle. Underneath was a short upper riding-tunic
+made of coarse woollen, partly covering an under-vest made of finer
+materials. A leathern girdle was buckled round his loins, having sundry
+implements attached thereto, requisite during the performance of so long
+a journey through a thinly-inhabited region. The upper garment scarcely
+covered the knee, over which stockings of red cloth were seen, reaching
+half-way up the thigh; round the leg were bandages or cross-garterings
+well bespattered with mud; low boots or buskins protected the feet and
+ankles; to these spurs were fastened, the head being spear-shaped and
+something crooked in the shank. His beard was forked, and this
+appendage, apparently the result of a careful and anxious cultivation,
+he occasionally twisted with one hand whilst speaking. He carried a
+lance, or rather hunting-spear, which he wielded with an air of great
+formality and display; his followers were likewise furnished each of
+them with a cloak and tunic, and a conical cap of coarse felt tied under
+the chin with a leathern band: a girdle of the same material was buckled
+round the <!-- Page 438 --><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438" ></a>waist, with a scrip and other necessaries for the journey.
+They rode horses of the Welsh breed, small and stout-built; spoil
+captured, in all probability, from that rebellious and unruly nation.</p>
+
+<p>The entry of this armed train was more like an act of taking possession
+than that of a peaceable and formal embassage; and the newly-arrived
+seneschal soon began to exercise the office of governor or castellan,
+seizing the reins of government with an iron grasp. He was a square
+carroty-headed personage, about the middle size, and of a ruddy aspect.
+He held an office of trust under the Fitz-Eustace, and, spite of his
+saucy garrulity, in which he indulged on most occasions, he was
+faithful, and would have challenged and immolated any one who had dared
+to question the right of the Fitz-Eustace to precedence before any other
+baron of the land. Long service rendered him more intrusive than would
+have been thought becoming, or even excusable in any other enjoying less
+of his mistress's confidence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, my merry men all,&quot; said this authoritative personage, &quot;a long and
+a weary path have we ridden to-day; and had we not been, as it were,
+lost in your savage wildernesses&mdash;where our guide, whom we forced before
+us by dint of blows and hard usage, could scarce keep us in the right
+track&mdash;we had been here before sunset. Thanks to this saint of yours,
+whosoever he be, for we saw the watchlights at times from the chapel, as
+we guessed, else had we been longer in hitting our mark, and might,
+peradventure, have supped with the wolves on a haunch of venison. Now
+for the stables. What! have ye no knaves hereabout to help our followers
+with the beasts?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Oliver, much troubled at this loquacious and unceremonious address,
+replied with some acrimony&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The household are in the chapel, where it had been better thou hadst
+let us bide, and given the corpse a quiet watchnight&mdash;the vigils for the
+dead are not ended.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go to, master seneschal, for of this post I do adjudge thee, and
+reverence thine office in respect of mine own, but let dead men make
+their own lanterns; we must have supper anyhow, and that right
+speedily.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Oliver, after seeing the gate secured, sent Hugo for help, whilst he led
+the way himself into the hall of this once formidable fortress. It was
+high and gloomy, the fire being apparently <!-- Page 439 --><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439" ></a>extinguished. A step on the
+floor showed where the higher table was placed, prohibiting those
+beneath a certain rank from advancing upon the skirts of their
+superiors; an indispensable precaution, when servants and retainers of
+all sorts ate their meals with the master of the feast. Perches for
+hawks, in form like unto a crutch, were placed behind his chair; for
+these birds were usually taught to sit hoodless in the evening among
+company undisturbed. Hunting-spears, jackets, chain-armour, shields, and
+helmets, decorated the walls; and many a goodly heritage of antlers
+hung, like forest boughs stripped of their verdure. There were two
+oriels furnished with leaning-stones for the convenience of loungers.
+Painted glass filled the higher portions of the windows, representing
+uncouth heads, hands, feet, and bodies of saints, in all the glowing and
+gorgeous magnificence which the beam of heaven can give to colours of
+more than earthly brightness, though disposed in forms of more than
+childish absurdity.</p>
+
+<p>The hall, the usual rendezvous of the household, was now deserted for
+the dread solemnities of that cheerless night. But the stranger was much
+discouraged by reason of the coldness and gloom, shivering audibly at
+the comfortless appearance that was before him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;St Martin's malison light on ye&mdash;fire, billets, and all&mdash;I've seen
+nothing like to warm my bare nose and knuckles since we left Halton, two
+long days agone. Verily, to my thinking, there's as much timber burnt
+there daily as ye would pile here for a winter's use.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Prithee come with me into the kitchen, we may have better quarters
+peradventure among the fleshpots,&quot; said Oliver, leading the stranger
+through a small doorway on the left. This <i>coquinus</i> of our ancestors
+was usually placed near the hall, for the convenience of serving. Here,
+through a sliding aperture in the panel, the victuals were transferred
+with safety and despatch. It was built entirely of stone, having a
+conical roof with a turret at the top for the escape of steam and smoke.
+A fire was still burning, provided with a large cauldron suspended on a
+sort of versatile gibbet, by which contrivance it could be withdrawn
+from the flame. Fire-rakes and fire-jacks were laid on the hearth, and
+around the walls were iron pots, trivets, pans, kettles, ladles,
+platters, and other implements of domestic economy. Huge dressers
+displayed symptoms of preparation <!-- Page 440 --><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440" ></a>for to-morrow's necessities, and a
+coarse kitchen-wench was piling fuel on the ever-burning fire.</p>
+
+<p>The envoy, glad to be ensconced so near the blaze, quickly addressed
+himself to the task of improving it by a dexterous use of a huge faggot
+by way of poker. He had thrown off his upper clothing; and the grim
+walls soon reddened with the rising glow. So intent was he on an
+occupation which he evidently enjoyed, that he was not aware when Oliver
+departed, the latter slipping off unobserved to the chapel for the
+purpose of informing the dean of this arrival.</p>
+
+<p>In one part of the kitchen was a long low-roofed recess, accessible only
+by a ladder, wherein dried meats, consisting of bacon, ham, deers'
+tongues, mutton, venison, and other dainties of the like nature, were
+stored. To this inviting receptacle was the attention of our guest more
+especially directed. Without ceremony or invitation he ascended, and
+drawing out a formidable weapon from his belt he commenced a furious
+attack.</p>
+
+<p>Oliver, on his return, found this worthy usurping the functions of both
+cook and consumer of the victual with great assiduity. He was
+accompanied by the dean, who addressed the intruder as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How is it that we have none from the noble house of Fitz-Eustace save
+thou and thy company?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The messenger looked askance from his occupation, disposing of a large
+mouthful of the viands with sufficient deliberation ere he vouchsafed a
+reply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Me and my company! As goodly a band, I trow, as ever put foot to
+stirrup or fist to crupper! yet will I resolve thy question plain as
+Beeston Castle. My lady is old, and her only son died long ago on a
+crusade. Her third grandson, now in the office of constable, is out
+amongst the Welsh&mdash;plague on their fiery blood!&mdash;by reason of the
+absence of his elder brother, Roger, yet abroad in these Holy Wars. Of
+the eldest born, Richard, we know not but that he is deceased. He left
+the castle many years ago, sorely afflicted, for he was a leper. So
+that, peradventure, my lady hath sent the best man she had, inasmuch as
+I am steward and seneschal, being appointed thereto through her
+ladyship's great wisdom and discretion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Here he surveyed himself with an air of indescribable assurance and
+satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And, saving your presence,&quot; continued the deputy, &quot;I come <!-- Page 441 --><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441" ></a>here as
+castellan, or governor, until he whose right it is shall possess it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And how know we that we be not opening our gates and surrendering our
+castle to some losel knave, whose only title may lie on the tip of his
+tongue, and his right on the end of his rapier?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By this token,&quot; said the seneschal haughtily, at the same time drawing
+out a formal instrument, to which was appended the broad seal of the
+ancient house of Fitz-Eustace.</p>
+
+<p>The dean cast his eyes over the document, returning it to the messenger
+without either answer or inquiry, and immediately retired from the
+presence of this usurper on his long-coveted possessions.</p>
+
+<p>Much chagrined by so unexpected an interference, he left the castle,
+even at this untimely hour. Yet his footsteps were not bent towards the
+shadow of his own roof, the deanery at Whalley.</p>
+
+<p>Outside the castle wall, and on the steepest side of the hill, was a
+little hermitage, wherein dwelt one of those reputed saints that dealt
+in miracles and prayers for the benefit of the &quot;true believers.&quot; Many of
+these solitaries were well skilled in craft and intrigue; others,
+doubtless, deceived themselves as well as others in the belief that
+Heaven had granted them the power to suspend and control the operations
+of nature. To this habitation, occupied by one of these holy santons of
+the Church, were the steps of the dean immediately directed. He raised
+the latch as though accustomed to this familiarity. The chamber, a high
+narrow cell, scooped out of the rock, was quite dark; but the voice was
+heard, a deep sepulchral tone, as though issuing from the ground&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Art thou here so soon, De Whalley?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sir Ulphilas,&quot; said the intruder hastily, and with some degree of
+agitation, &quot;canst work miracles now? The Canaanites are come into the
+land to possess it; nor will threatenings and conjurations drive them
+forth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know it,&quot; said the hermit, who, though unseen, had not, it seems,
+been an inattentive observer of the events of the last two hours. A
+light suddenly shot forth, enkindled as if by magic, showing the tall
+gaunt form of the &quot;Holy Hermit of the Rock.&quot; He was dressed in a long
+grey garment of coarse woollen. It was said that he wore an iron corslet
+next his skin, <!-- Page 442 --><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442" ></a>for mortification, it was thought by the vulgar; but
+whether for this purpose, or for one of a more obvious nature, it would
+perhaps be easy to surmise. A girdle of plaited horse-hair encompassed
+his thin attenuated form. His head was uncovered; and he seemed to have
+just risen from his couch, a board or shelf, raised only a few inches
+from the rock on which it lay. His eye was wild, quick, and sparkling;
+but his cheek was deadly pale, and his features collapsed and haggard in
+their expression.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have dreamed a dream,&quot; said the visionary.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And to what end?&quot; inquired his visitor, seating himself with great
+deliberation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, 'twas not a dream,&quot; continued the hermit: &quot;St Michael stood before
+me this blessed night, arrayed as thou seest him portrayed in the glass
+of his holy chapel above. His armour was all bright and glistering, and
+his sword a devouring flame. He flapped his wings thrice ere he
+departed, and said unto me, 'Arise, Ulphilas, and work, for thine hour
+is come!'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what the better am I,&quot; said the irreverent priest, &quot;for this
+saintly revelation? I must work too, or &quot;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hold,&quot; said the hermit, laying his hand on the other's shoulder with
+great solemnity; &quot;speak not unadvisedly with thy lips; there be created
+intelligences within hearing that thou little knowest of.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou didst promise; but verily the substance hath slidden from my
+grasp: whilst I, fond fool, embraced a shadow. Cajoled by thine
+assurance, that my blood should be with the proud current that inherits
+these domains, I forebore, and let thee work. But thou hast been a
+traitor to my cause I do verily suspect, nay, accuse thee of this fraud.
+Thy machinations and thy counsel were the cause. By thine accursed arts
+Robert de Lacy hath left his patrimony to a stranger!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;True, I counselled him thus. What then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I and mine are barred from the inheritance!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shall the word of the Hermit of the Rock fall to the ground? Have I not
+promised that thy blood shall be with those that inherit these domains?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Promises are slender food for an hungry stomach,&quot; cried the unbeliever.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If the promise fail, blame thy dastardly fears, and not my <!-- Page 443 --><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443" ></a>power. Thou
+shalt see the promised land thou shalt not inherit. Thy son shall
+receive the blessing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The dean looked for a moment as though he could have fawned and
+supplicated for a reversion of the decree; but pride or anger had the
+mastery.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And so,&quot; cried he, &quot;thou findest thy predictions run counter to thy
+schemes, perdie; for thou dost mock me in them with a double sense.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How, false one? Have I not wrought for thee? Hath not he, whose corpse
+now resteth in hope, overwhelmed thee with his favours through my
+counsel and contrivance? I owed thee a service, for thou wast my stay
+and sustenance when driven hither an outcast from the haunts of men. But
+thoughtest thou that I should pander to thy lust, and hew out a pathway
+to thy desire?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To me this!&quot; said the covetous intruder, his voice quivering with rage.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, to thee, Robert de Whalley,&quot; replied the hermit: &quot;because thou
+hast not leaped the last height of thine ambition, forsooth&mdash;because
+thou art not lord of these wide domains, through my interest and holy
+communion with the departed&mdash;and because I have not basely sold myself
+to thee, thou art offended. Beware lest the endowment be wrested from
+thy grasp, the glebe and manor pass away from thine inheritance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hadst the privity and counsel of the deceased, and a whisper would
+have made it mine,&quot; said the dean, with great dejection.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Greedy and unblushing as thou art, know it was I who counselled him,
+and the deed is in my keeping. I sent a secret message unto Halton with
+the news, and Roger de Fitz-Eustace will be here anon!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou dreamest; he is in bondage, or slain at Ascalon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He will reappear,&quot; replied the hermit, &quot;and the banner of the
+Fitz-Eustace wave on yonder turret. Hence! ungrateful member of our holy
+communion;&mdash;to thy house, and let an old man rest in peace.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The disappointed priest departed in great haste: terror, of which he
+could not divest himself, and for which he could not account,
+overpowered him in the presence of the hermit. He durst not provoke him
+further; but as he crossed the courtyard again a glimpse of hope shot
+suddenly on his soul.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 444 --><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444" ></a>In thy keeping!&quot; He spoke scarcely above his breath; but the walls
+seemed to give back the sound. He started like some guilty thing at the
+discovery of its crime.</p>
+
+<p>Before morning light on the following day the castle bell began to toll.
+Preparations were making for the conveyance of the last of the Ladies to
+the Abbey of Kirkstall, a journey which would occupy the greater part of
+two successive days. The pathway over the hills was narrow, and the mode
+of conveyance difficult, if not dangerous. A sort of litter was made for
+the corpse, and slung on a pole between two horses, covered, as in a
+bier, with the pall and trappings. A sword of ceremony was carried in
+front; the dean rode immediately before the body, the chanters
+preceding, and a priest with the cross and censer. Behind came the male
+domestics, and the seneschal of Halton with his train.</p>
+
+<p>Psalms were sung at every halting-place, and in the villages through
+which they passed, and torches were kept lighted during the greater part
+of the journey. These were for the purpose of being extinguished in the
+earth that should finally cover the body.</p>
+
+<p>Thus attired, and thus attended, was this once powerful baron conveyed
+to his narrow dwelling-house in the dust.</p>
+
+<p>We will not follow them further, nor detail the pomp of the funeral
+rites, that last mockery of greatness, but return to existing objects
+and events&mdash;man's ever-gnawing ambition; so vast, when living, that the
+whole earth is too narrow for its sphere; when dead, the veriest churl
+hath as wide a possession!</p>
+
+<p>Weeks and months passed away, and the raw February wind grew soft in the
+warm and joyous impulse of another spring. One night, about the hour of
+vespers, two men, habited in monkish apparel, came to the cell of the
+Hermit of the Rock. After the usual salutation they entered, carrying
+with them staff and scrip, as if bent on a long and weary travel.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Whence come ye, and whither bound?&quot; said the hermit, surveying the
+intruders by the light of a solitary lamp that was burning in a niche,
+wherein stood a skull and crucifix, emblems of our faith and our
+mortality.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We are from the Abbey of Stanlaw, on our way to Kirkstall in the
+morning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wherefore abide ye here? There is lodging and better cheer withal in
+the castle above.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 445 --><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445" ></a>We are under a vow, and rest not save on holy ground: we crave thy
+hospitality, therefore, and shelter for the night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is your errand to Kirkstall hidden, or is it an open embassage?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Lady Fitz-Eustace sendeth greeting by our ministry unto the holy
+abbot through our superior at Stanlaw, beseeching that he would make
+diligent inquiry touching the will of Robert de Lacy, once lord of this
+goodly heritage. She hath had news of his demise, and likewise another
+message with an assurance that every of these possessions have been
+devised to the Fitz-Eustace by his last will and testament. Yet this
+writing she has not yet seen, nor knoweth she into whose custody it hath
+been given. Apprehending the great favours which the Cistercian house at
+Kirkstall hath received from the Lacies, and the close intimacy which
+the abbot once enjoyed, she doth conjecture that, in all likelihood, the
+testament is in his keeping.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your journey hath need of none other reference, for the will is in my
+custody.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In thine, Sir Ulphilas?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How! know ye my name already?&quot; said the hermit sharply, and a fierce
+glance shot from under his high and pallid brow.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Holy St Agatha! and has not the fame and sanctity of the Hermit of the
+Rock gone forth to many lands! Where the broad Mersey and the silver Dee
+roll their bright waters, thou art known by thy holiness and thy faith.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And how is our good brother Roger, abbot of your monastery at Stanlaw?&quot;
+inquired the hermit, not deigning to notice their fulsome and flattering
+epithets.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Holy Virgin! how knowest thou his name?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And hath not the fame of your holy abbot, and the sanctity of your
+house, reached us even here?&quot; said the hermit, with a look of scrutiny
+and scorn. The visitors were silent. The hermit seized the lamp, and
+surveyed their persons with much care and deliberation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Holy father,&quot; said the abashed intruders, &quot;we crave thy blessing, and
+moreover a share of thy pittance, for our way hath been long and
+toilsome: since yesterday our journeying hath been over hills and
+through deep forests, infested by wolves and noisome beasts, which we
+had much ado to escape.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The hermit drew a little table from the recess, blowing the <!-- Page 446 --><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446" ></a>wan embers
+until a cheerful blaze flashed brightly through the cell. He then opened
+a cupboard scooped out of the solid rock, and took thence a scrap of
+hard cheese, a barley cake, and a few parched peas, with which the holy
+men commenced their supper. They ate their meal in silence, washing down
+the dainties with a draught from the spring. When the repast was
+finished, one of the brethren thus addressed his host&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what shall be thy message to our holy abbot? Wilt thou send the
+parchments to his grace?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, brethren, that is not my purpose.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Another and a brief pause ensued.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But the message?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Say that the will is here,&quot;&mdash;he looked towards his bosom as he
+spoke,&mdash;&quot;and at the appointed hour it shall be ready. When Roger de
+Fitz-Eustace comes hither, his claim shall be duly certified.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Alas!&quot; said the wayfaring guests, in a tone of deep sorrow and
+apprehension, &quot;he went on a warfare against the infidels.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He will return,&quot; was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Virgin grant him a safe deliverance! but he tarrieth long, and a
+rumour hath lately been abroad that he fell at Ascalon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis false!&quot; cried the hermit, roused to an unexpected burst of wrath.
+His eyes kindled with rage, and he darted a glance at the intruders
+which made them cower and shrink from his rebuke. In a moment he grew
+calm, relapsing into his usual moody and thoughtful attitude. Taking
+courage, they again addressed him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is this thy message to the abbot of Stanlaw? If so, our errand hath but
+a sorry recompense.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what recompense should fall to the lot of miscreants like ye?&quot; said
+the hermit, surveying them with a contemptuous glance. &quot;I hear the sound
+of your master's feet behind ye. Tell Robert, the proud Dean of Whalley,
+that when he sends ye next on so goodly an errand, to see that ye con
+your lesson more carefully, else will ye be known for a couple of errant
+knaves as ever went a-mousing into an owl's nest! Hence, begone!&quot; said
+the hermit, as he drave them from his threshold; and the counterfeit
+monks went back to Whalley in haste, reporting the ill success of their
+mission.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 447 --><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447" ></a>Nevertheless,&quot; said De Whalley, &quot;I have some clue to the search, if
+the glance of his eye, which these varlets have reported, do show truly
+where the treasure is hidden. I will foil the old fox yet with his own
+weapons.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This comfortable reflection, in all probability, moderated his anger at
+the unskilful disposition of his messengers, whom he dismissed with
+little ceremony from his presence.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime the new castellan was exercising his power with
+unsparing and immoderate severity. Oliver de Wortshorn was almost
+heartbroken; the old man suddenly found himself reduced to the condition
+of a mere dependant on the self-will and caprice of this petty tyrant,
+his authority having been usurped, and his office wrested from him, by
+the hand of a stranger. Adam de Dutton<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51" ></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> was the name of this new
+functionary, and he rode it out bravely over the necks of the servants
+and retainers, discharging some, punishing others, and making the whole
+community groan beneath the iron yoke of his oppression. Had there been
+a master-spirit to wield the elements of conspiracy, and unite the
+several members, so as to act from one common impulse, matters were just
+ripe for rebellion.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the morning, after a day of more than ordinary discipline,
+Oliver bent his feeble steps to the hermitage. He laid his complaints
+before the occupier of the cell, who was ever ready to administer aid
+and comfort to the afflicted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Take little heed of the deputy now,&quot; said the holy man, &quot;his master
+will be here anon. I hear the tramp of armed men, with the herald's
+trumpet. I see the red griffin, and the banner of the Fitz-Eustace.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But, holy father, Sir Ulphilas,&quot; replied the ejected steward, &quot;there is
+no peace either by night or day, and we are nigh worn out with his
+waywardness and oppression. If it might be that your reverence would
+come with me, peradventure the churl would grow tame at your presence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The hermit, complying with this importunity, accompanied Oliver to the
+castle.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 448 --><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448" ></a>In the hall Adam de Dutton was about consigning one of the villains,
+for some venial offence, unto the whipping-post and the stocks. The
+accused besought his inexorable judge for some remission of the
+sentence, falling on his knees before him just as the hermit, with great
+solemnity, entered the hall. His face was partly concealed by a large
+hood, and little of his countenance was visible above the long beard
+which flowed over his bosom, and the fire of his eye, which seemed to
+glow through the dark shadows beneath.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Whom bring ye next for our disposal?&quot; inquired the castellan; but there
+was no answer; every eye was directed to the hermit, who came slowly
+forward, standing opposite to, and within a very short distance from,
+the dread arbiter of justice in the castle of the Lacies.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What brings thee to our presence? Back to thy sanctuary; else we may
+deal with thee as with other knaves who live by their wits and the
+witlessness of fools.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What hath this man done amiss?&quot; inquired the hermit, in a tone that
+showed his meekness to be disturbed, and his wrath evidently kindling;
+nor would the thunder be long ere it followed the flash.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is our pleasure!&quot; answered Adam de Dutton, reddening with rage; &quot;and
+furthermore our pleasure is, that thou get thee to thy cell, or, by the
+beard of St Michael, my bowmen shall help thee thither when this fellow
+hath had his allowance at their hands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fool!&quot; cried the hermit, in a voice which struck terror through the
+assembly; and even the judge himself started back with amazement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Begone, child!&quot; said Ulphilas to the culprit; &quot;I dismiss thee of the
+punishment; peradventure thou hast deserved to suffer, but I give to
+this emissary a timely warning thereby.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The criminal was not loth to obey, disappearing speedily without
+hindrance, while the spectators were mute with amazement. The hermit,
+too, was silent before the usurper, who, almost frantic with vexation,
+cried out&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Seize him!&mdash;help, for the Fitz-Eustace!&mdash;treason against our Lady of
+Halton!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Uttering many rapid and incoherent expressions, he approached the
+hermit, who stood unmoved, apparently the only unconcerned spectator in
+the rising tumult. The seneschal's <!-- Page 449 --><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449" ></a>guards were already in motion, but
+Adam was the first who attempted the seizure.</p>
+
+<p>The holy man drew back, as though from some touch of pollution.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hold!&quot; cried he, &quot;one touch and 'tis thy last. Rash fool, thou hast
+provoked this rebuke!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The hand of the seneschal had scarcely been put forth, when, lo! the
+astonished deputy shrank back in dismay. A sudden change came over his
+angry countenance&mdash;a look of surprise mingled with horror, as though he
+could have wished the earth to gape and hide him from the object of his
+apprehensions. He stood trembling, speechless, pale as ashes, expecting
+immediate and condign punishment. So suddenly this change was wrought
+that the spectators fancied it to be some direct interposition from
+heaven; concluding that he was smitten for the sacreligious and profane
+hand he had dared to stretch toward this holy man. Yet was the change
+not so sudden but that a quick-eyed observer, if such were there, might
+have seen the hermit's outer garment loosened for a moment, and a
+significant whisper which the other evidently heard with such visible
+tokens of alarm.</p>
+
+<p>Ulphilas immediately retired to his cell, and from that hour the
+castellan discharged his official duties evidently under the control of
+some overmastering influence or apprehension.</p>
+
+<p>Not long afterwards it was rumoured abroad that tidings had been heard
+from Roger de Fitz-Eustace, who was supposed either to be in captivity
+or to have fallen at the siege of Ascalon.</p>
+
+<p>The king was still detained in prison by the Emperor Henry VI., and it
+was only through the remonstrance of the German princes, and a threat of
+excommunication from the Pope, that Henry, finding he could no longer
+hold him in durance, concluded a treaty for his ransom at the exorbitant
+sum of 150,000 marks, about &pound;300,000 of our money; of which sum
+two-thirds were to be paid before he received his liberty, and
+sixty-seven hostages delivered for the remainder. The captivity of the
+superior lord was one of those cases provided for by the feudal tenures,
+and all vassals were, in that event, obliged to contribute towards his
+ransom. Twenty shillings were therefore levied on each knight's fee
+throughout England; but as this money came in slowly, and was not
+sufficient for <!-- Page 450 --><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450" ></a>the intended purpose, the voluntary zeal of the people
+readily supplied the deficiency.</p>
+
+<p>The churches and monasteries melted down their plate to the amount of
+30,000 marks; the bishops, abbots, and nobles paid a fourth of their
+yearly rent; the parochial clergy contributed a tenth of their tithes;
+and the requisite sum being thus collected, the queen-mother and Walter,
+Archbishop of Rouen, set out with it to Germany, paid the money to the
+emperor and the Duke of Austria at Mentz, delivered to them hostages for
+the remainder, and freed Richard from captivity.<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52" ></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a></p>
+
+<p>During these important negotiations two messengers arrived at Clitheroe,
+who in consequence of the deputy's absence for a season, held a secret
+conference with the Dean of Whalley ere they departed. An order was left
+that the castle should be forthwith in readiness for the reception of
+some distinguished guest. In those days tidings travelled slowly in such
+thinly-populated districts; like the heath-fire, which extends rapidly
+where the fuel is thickly strewn, but is tardy in spreading where it is
+less abundant.</p>
+
+<p>The dean, having received the messengers, took special care that the
+knowledge of their arrival should be kept, if possible, from the ears
+and eyes of Adam de Dutton, who happened for several days at that season
+to be hunting in the forest, where a mighty slaughter of game&mdash;wolves,
+bears, and such like&mdash;was the result; in which dangerous pastime,
+Geoffery, the dean's only son, acted a distinguished part. This bold
+adventurer was accounted the most skilful hunter in the whole range of
+these vast forests, where the venison was so strictly kept that the life
+of a man was held in but little estimation, comparatively, with the care
+and preservation of a beast.</p>
+
+<p>The Deans of Whalley, as we have before seen, were mighty hunters in
+those days; and a wild and picturesque story is told in Dugdale's <i>Mon.
+Angl.</i>. v. i., to which we have before alluded&mdash;to wit, that the
+great-grandfather of the present incumbent, Liwlphus Cutwolph, cut off a
+wolf's tail whilst hunting, from which he acquired this surname.
+Geoffery inherited a more than ordinary passion for the chase. With his
+bow and hunting-spear he had been known to spend many days in these deep
+and trackless recesses, where the feet of man rarely trod, and the wild
+roe and the eagle had their almost inacces<!-- Page 451 --><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451" ></a>sible haunts. Adam was often
+his only companion; the seneschal's partiality for the sport having
+rendered these dissimilar spirits more akin than their nature had
+otherwise permitted.</p>
+
+<p>On the evening of a sultry day Ulphilas had thrown himself on his couch,
+when, without warning or intimation, the Dean of Whalley stood beside
+him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The holy hermit hath betaken himself early to his repose. How fareth he
+in this hard cell? 'Tis long since we have met.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Peradventure it might have been longer, had not news travelled to thine
+ear touching the safety of the Fitz-Eustace and his speedy arrival,&quot;
+said the hermit, without so much as turning his eyes toward his visitor.
+Robert de Whalley stood silent and aghast. This was a direct and
+unequivocal testimony to the prescience of the good father, for to no
+ears but his own had the tidings been communicated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou knowest of his return?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, ere the knowledge was thine,&quot; said the hermit carelessly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is little use in secrecy where the very walls possess a tongue;
+and seeing that the first part of mine errand is known, it may be thou
+art as well instructed in the latter, which is the true purport of my
+visit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am,&quot; replied the other quickly, now for the first time fixing his
+eyes on the intruder, &quot;and of the issue too, I trow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah!&quot; said the dean, with a long-drawn exclamation of surprise, and a
+sudden gasp as though he would have held the secret more tightly to his
+bosom; &quot;and who&quot;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, thou art but obeying the impulse of thy nature,&quot; said the hermit,
+musing. &quot;The brutes ye hunt obey their common instinct&mdash;and thou&mdash;Yet
+the ravening wolf and the cunning fox ye follow, and worry to their
+death.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Death!&quot; cried the dean; &quot;what meanest thou?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did I not counsel thee to beware? But thou wilt tumble into thine own
+pitfall. The trap is laid for thine own feet!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The hermit sat on the low couch, and he gazed wildly round the cell as
+though pursuing some object visible only to himself.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Give me the parchments committed to thy trust by De Lacy, and I will
+build a house to thy good saint, enriching it with rare endowments.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou wouldest drive a thrifty bargain with Heaven. Verily <!-- Page 452 --><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452" ></a>thou
+shouldst have the best on 't, though,&quot; replied the hermit, with a
+contemptuous smile.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Truly I could but return to Heaven the bounties that it gave; yet would
+I, peradventure, build, for His honour and glory, to whom all things
+belong, a habitation, the like whereof hath not been seen for
+stateliness and grandeur,&quot; said the dean, with affected reverence and
+humility of spirit.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Others may do that as well as thou.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But will he, whose coming is now at hand, make so costly a sacrifice
+for the welfare of the Church? I will found an abbey, holy father,
+consecrate to thy patron, wherein thou shalt be the ruler. I purpose to
+enrich it with half my possessions, even of those whereby, through thy
+ministry, I do become entitled from the death of Robert de Lacy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Which meaneth, if I but aid thee to rob another of some large and
+goodly inheritance, thou wilt give to Heaven, forsooth, a portion of
+what belongs not to thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Once thou didst promise me thine aid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To robbery and rapine?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have not wronged <i>thee</i>!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nor I&quot;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast; the inheritance is mine; thou hast robbed me of my right,
+but I will regain these lands or perish on them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And so thou mayest, unblushing traitor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Traitor!&mdash;ah! this word to me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, to thee, Robert de Whalley!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art in my power, old man; ere I entered thy cell I left a trusty
+keeper at the door,&quot; cried the dean, with a grin of savage exultation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In thy power!&mdash;never, miscreant.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Give the deed to my keeping, and no harm shall happen thee; refuse, and
+thou art my prisoner. Force may accomplish my wishes without thy
+compliance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The hermit's eyes glistened like twin fires in their hollow recesses. He
+stood erect, confronting his visitor, who, bold in audacity and guilt,
+repeated his demand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Never!&quot; said the hermit.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then die, fond dotard!&quot; cried De Whalley; and, sudden as the
+lightning-stroke, he drew a dagger from his vest, aiming a blow at the
+hermit's bosom; but, marvellous to relate, the steel hardly penetrated
+the folds of his drapery, glancing back <!-- Page 453 --><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453" ></a>with a dull sound, his person
+remaining uninjured. A look of unutterable scorn curled the features of
+the charmed, and apparently invulnerable, being before him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Cowardly assassin!&quot; he cried, &quot;I hold thy threats at less worth than a
+handful of this base dust beneath my feet, and utterly defy thy power. I
+am free as the untrammelled air, and thou mayest as well attempt to
+grasp the shadow or the sunbeam!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Swift as the words he uttered the hermit disappeared! The effect was so
+sudden, aided, in all likelihood, by the dimness and obscurity of the
+cell, that, to the astonished apprehension of De Whalley, Ulphilas had
+made himself more impalpable than the air he breathed, sinking like a
+shadow through the rocky floor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast escaped me, fiend,&quot; said the dean, gnashing his teeth with
+vexation; &quot;but I will overmatch thy spells: with the aid of this good
+hand I may yet retrieve the inheritance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Saying this, he left the cell, and returned to his home at Whalley.</p>
+
+<p>Early on the morrow the hermit entered the hall where Adam de Dutton was
+preparing for another expedition to the forest. The seneschal looked
+uneasy and surprised, but acknowledged his presence with great respect
+and humility.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Adam de Dutton, thou hast other work to do,&quot; cried the holy man, &quot;than
+rambling after these fools i' the forest! Thy lord will be here anon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How! whom meanest thou?&quot; inquired the castellan, with a vacant stare of
+astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Roger de Fitz-Eustace. He is at hand; see thou prepare to meet him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Surely thou mockest, Roger de&quot;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Peace! The last beam of to-morrow's sun shall see the banner of the
+Fitz-Eustace beneath the gate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To-morrow! Why&mdash;how cometh my lord? Surely thou dreamest&mdash;or thy&quot;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Once more I warn thee of his coming; see to his reception, or thy lord
+will be wroth; and Roger with the ready hand was not used to be
+over-nice, or loth in the administering of a rod to a fool's back.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The hermit departed without awaiting the reply.</p>
+
+<p>But great was the stir and tumult in the stronghold of the <!-- Page 454 --><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454" ></a>Lacies on
+that memorable day. The hurrying to and fro of the victuallers and
+cooks&mdash;the clink of armourers and the din of horses prancing in their
+warlike equipments&mdash;kept up an incessant jingle and confusion. A
+watchman was stationed on the keep, whose duty it was to give warning
+when the dust, curling on the wind, should betoken the approach of
+strangers. The guards were set, the gates properly mounted, and the
+drawbridge raised, so that their future lord might be admitted in due
+form to his possession.</p>
+
+<p>The sun went gloriously down towards the wide and distant verge of the
+forest, and the brow of Pendle flung back his burning glance. Nature
+seemed to welter in a wide atmosphere of light, from which there was no
+escape. Panting and oppressed, the hounds lay basking by the wall, and
+the shaggy wolf-dog crept, with slouching gait and lolling tongue, from
+the glare into the shadow of some protecting buttress. The watchman sat
+beneath the low battlements, hardly able to direct his aching eyes
+towards the forest path below the hill. The monotony of this dull and
+weary task was reiterated until the very effort became habitual, and he
+could scarcely recognise or identify any change of object from the
+absorption of his faculties by the listlessness it created. One slight
+curl of dust had already escaped him, another waved softly above the
+trees where the path wound upwards from the valley. Again it was
+visible, and the watchman seemed to awaken as from a lethargy or a
+dream. Strangers were surely approaching, but without retinue, as the
+wreath of dust, from its slight continuance, would seem to intimate.
+Just as he came to this conclusion, two horsemen swept into view, where
+a broad turn of the road was visible, disappearing again rapidly behind
+the arched boughs of the forest.</p>
+
+<p>Bounding almost headlong down the narrow stair, he ran immediately to
+the hall, informing the deputy of what he had seen. Scarce had he
+concluded when a hoarse blast from the horn rang at the outer gate. Adam
+de Button hurried to the postern, where he saw two horsemen, bearing
+unequivocal signs of their allegiance to the renowned constable of
+Chester. They wore what was then considered a great novelty in dress,
+the tabord or <i>supertotus</i>, a sleeveless garment, consisting of only two
+pieces, which hung down before and behind, the sides being left
+open.<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53" ></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> Low-crowned yellow caps covered their heads, <!-- Page 455 --><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455" ></a>and the upper
+tunic was yellow, richly embroidered, reaching only to the knees. They
+wore forked beards, well pointed, and gloves and boots of beautiful
+Spanish leather. Their horses were low, but of an exquisite symmetry,
+and the beasts were pawing and champing before the gate when Adam
+hastened down into the courtyard. These were avant couriers or
+messengers from Roger de Fitz-Eustace, whom they announced as being
+nigh, and to be expected ere nightfall, with his daughter Maud, a maiden
+much renowned for her beauty.</p>
+
+<p>As the sun sank deeper into the gloom of the woods, and the shadows grew
+long on the green and sunny slope of the hill, the wild shrill notes of
+a clarion rung through the forest glades; a distant burst of martial
+music was heard, together with the roll of a drum&mdash;an instrument
+borrowed from the Saracens, and in use only after the crusades.</p>
+
+<p>Now went forth Adam de Dutton and his train bareheaded to meet their
+lord, whom they found riding at a slow pace, conversing familiarly, but
+attentively, with the Dean of Whalley. Behind him came the blushing Maud
+on a beautiful white palfrey, and beside her a comely youth, in a fair
+hunting-suit, the son of De Whalley, who, by his fervid and impassioned
+glances, showed himself apt in other and nobler exercises than the
+upland chase and the forest cover could afford.</p>
+
+<p>Roger de Fitz-Eustace, the terror and scourge of the Welsh, and by them
+called &quot;Hell,&quot; from the great violence and ferocity of his temper, was
+then about forty years old. He was clothed in a light suit of armour,
+the hauberk, with the rings set edgewise, reaching down to the knees.
+His helmet was cylindrical, the <i>avantaille</i>, or face-guard, thrown up.
+He wore a coloured surcoat; a fashion that seems to have originated with
+the Crusaders, not only for the purpose of distinguishing the different
+leaders, but as a veil to protect the armour, so apt to heat excessively
+when exposed to the direct rays of the sun. It was of a violet colour,
+without any distinctive mark or badge. His highly-decorated shield was
+borne behind him, the three garbs and the lions being chiefly
+conspicuous in the marshalling: the former, the original bearing of Hugh
+Lupus, was often used by the constables of Chester, in compliment to
+their chief lord. Its shape was angular, and suspended from the neck by
+a strap called guige or gige, a Norman custom of great antiquity. A huge
+broadsword was carried by his armour-bearer, the person <!-- Page 456 --><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456" ></a>of the chief
+being without any further means of impediment or defence than a French
+stabbing sword, fastened on one side of his pommel, and a stout
+battle-axe on the other. The horse was decorated with great and costly
+profusion. At a short distance rode William de Bellomonte, the baron's
+inseparable companion. A small train of archers and cross-bowmen brought
+up the rear of the escort, save the baggage and sumpter horses, laden
+not only with provisions but cooking utensils, and even with furniture
+for the household. In those days it was a matter both of economy and
+necessity for the occupants or lords of several castles to travel with
+accompaniments of this sort; though possessing many residences, most of
+them had the means and even conveniences only for the furnishing of one.</p>
+
+<p>The seneschal and his train alighted, doing homage to their lord, who
+was conducted with great pomp and ceremony into the fortress, now lapsed
+for ever from the blood and succession of the Lacies; yet Roger de
+Fitz-Eustace and his descendants, probably in commemoration of the
+source whence originated their great honours and endowments, were ever
+afterwards styled by the surname of De Lacy; and, strange as it may
+appear, his father, John, constable of Chester, who died fifteen years
+previously to this event, and who founded the Cistercian abbey of
+Stanlaw, the parent establishment of Whalley, though he had not the
+slightest pretensions to the name of Lacy, was popularly invested with
+the name. It is still more singular that the mistake should have been
+committed by Henry de Lacy, the last of the line of the Fitz-Eustace,
+third in descent from Roger, in the foundation-charter of Whalley Abbey,
+where he expressly styles his ancestor &quot;Joh. de Lacy, Const. Cest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Accompanied by her father and her female attendants, the &quot;gentle&quot; maiden
+entered the hall. She was stately and beautifully formed, with little
+show of her lineage except the high forehead and well-formed nose of the
+Fitz-Eustace. She was enveloped from head to foot in a long gown or
+habit; over this was cast a richly-embroidered purple silk surcoat or
+cloak, embellished with those ephemeral absurdities called
+pocketing-sleeves. These hung from the wrists almost to the ground,
+showing an opening or pocket which might have supplied the place of a
+lady's arm-bag in our own era. A wimple or peplus was thrown over the
+head; a sort of hood, which, instead of covering the shoulders, was
+brought round the neck beneath <!-- Page 457 --><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457" ></a>the chin like a warrior's gorget, giving
+an exceedingly stiff and muffled appearance to the upper part of the
+figure.</p>
+
+<p>Geoffery was unremitting in his attentions, and his father seemed as
+assiduous in his court to the fierce Crusader, who listened intently to
+some private intelligence which the dean was evidently much interested
+in communicating. The following were the only words that could be
+distinguished at the dismissal of the courteous De Whalley, as he
+retired a few paces ere he departed:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To-morrow be it,&quot; said Fitz-Eustace, &quot;after matins, and we will hear
+thee further in this matter: let him then be conveyed to our presence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The dean retired, but at dawn he was again present in the chantry of St
+Michael, within the castle.</p>
+
+<p>Fierce came the beams of the morning sun through the eastern oriel of
+the hall, and the guards and retainers of this feudal fortress were
+waiting the appearance of their lord. Lounging idly at the great
+entrance were those more immediately in attendance on their chief, some
+playing at <i>merelles</i>, or nine-men's morris; others tilting with mimic
+arms, and twanging the bowstring. The pikemen were drawn up in the
+courtyard, awaiting orders from their superior. Their glittering weapons
+flung back the morning light in sharp flashes to the sky; while on the
+tower the dark pennon hung motionless and drooping in the sultry air.</p>
+
+<p>The news of his arrival had drawn hither not a few of the surrounding
+peasantry to gaze upon the pomp and to pay homage at the court of their
+feudal lord; and a crowd of idlers was accumulating beneath the walls of
+the fortress.</p>
+
+<p>The breakfast meal being over, the baron entered through a side door
+behind a rude bench, overhung with faded drapery, which formed an
+elevation for the chief. His cheek was scorched and darkened with the
+burning suns of Palestine, while his beard seemed to have been whitened
+in that fiery clime. He was now habited in a rich purple cope or gown,
+fitting close, without sleeves or armholes, and embellished with a deep
+gold-coloured border, the Anglo-Saxon mantle being now discarded by
+persons of distinction. The tunic underneath was of scarlet, bordered
+with real ermine, which, together with the low square cap or coronet
+that he wore, gave him something of a regal appearance. A leash of
+hounds crouched at <!-- Page 458 --><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458" ></a>his feet. Before and below him the heralds and
+officers of the household arranged themselves, amongst whom Adam de
+Dutton was conspicuous by his ludicrously-solemn attitude and
+appearance. The whole scene had the aspect of a military tribunal,
+especially when Roger de Lacy (by which name we shall now distinguish
+him) ordered that silence should be proclaimed, and that the Dean of
+Whalley should be summoned to his presence.</p>
+
+<p>Robert de Whalley immediately presented himself, with arms folded, and
+an air of great ceremony in his behaviour.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou hast been prompt to our bidding; the lark, I trow, had but newly
+risen from her bed ere thou wast away from thine,&quot; said the baron.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Three weary miles through this grim forest is good speed ere matins;
+but I knew the occasion was urgent, and my lord's commands admit not of
+delay. The palfrey which you so pleasantly noted yestereen is the sole
+companion of my pilgrimages to and fro for the good of this noble house.
+I did offer prayers for the soul of the deceased ere matins this
+morning, in the chapel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hast heard aught of, or communicated with, the traitor thou didst
+denounce to me privily yesterday?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Being holden as one of great sanctity, by common report, peradventure
+it were dangerous to lay hands on him without an express warranty from
+our chief.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He shall be summoned to our court. Adam de Dutton&quot;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Stay, my lord,&quot; said the wily dean. &quot;I would, with all due submission,
+urge that caution were best in this matter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Caution, De Whalley! and to what end? Are not the Lacies able to
+execute as well as to command? or is the lax ministration of justice now
+complained of throughout the realm prevailing here also? By the beard of
+Hugh Lupus, I will be heard, and obeyed too!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In good sooth, my lord, I see nor let nor hindrance in this matter,
+provided that he whom we seek were of such ordinary capacities that be
+common to flesh and blood, and subject to the same laws; but when we
+have to cope with the devil, we must use his subtilty. Pardon me, my
+lord,&quot; continued the accuser, seeing symptoms of impatience gathering on
+the brow of the haughty chieftain, &quot;though I am plain of speech, yet is
+it the more easily understood. This delinquent of whom we speak <!-- Page 459 --><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459" ></a>hath
+not, as the general report testifieth, the same nature and existence as
+our own. He useth magic&mdash;I have credible testimony thereto, my
+lord;&mdash;and anointeth his body so that it shall be invisible. The free
+unconfined air is not more accessible to the scared bird than rocks and
+walls are to this impalpable mockery of our form; and yet he may be
+dealt with.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Troth, a man of many faculties. How came he thus?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The vulgar do imagine that by dint of great maceration and humility, by
+prayer and fasting, he hath attained communion with angels; but I
+suspect they be those of the bottomless pit!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And why should he withhold the deed?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know not, save that he purposeth by fraud and subtilty to cast these
+fair possessions into the treasury of the holy church, and build an
+abbey hereabout, the like whereof hath not been seen for glory and
+magnificence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Doth he then deny our right to the inheritance? The Lady Fitz-Eustace
+had a fair copy of the deed, purporting to be sent by the holy confessor
+who shrived the testator in his extremity. But how hath this canting
+hermit gotten the writing into his possession?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know not, my lord, unless it be that the like arts have enabled him
+to appropriate it by other means than those of honesty and good faith.
+But give me a band of men, together with leave so to deal with him as I
+shall see fit, and I trust ere long to render a good account of the
+matter. I will come upon him unawares, ere he can render his body
+inaccessible, and lay hold of the traitor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Traitor!&quot; echoed a voice from behind a screen at the lower extremity of
+the hall. Every eye was turned in that direction; when lo! the hermit
+himself, the end and object of their deliberations, stalked forth,
+unquestioned and unobstructed.</p>
+
+<p>The baron rose, and his grim eyebrows were fiercely knit and contracted.
+He looked inquiringly towards the dean, who, for a moment, was
+confounded by this unexpected event. Yet his presence of mind and
+fertility of expedient did not forsake him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let him be instantly bound, my lord,&quot; whispered De Whalley, &quot;and holden
+by main force, or he will escape like a limed bird from the twigs. Let
+him be led forthwith to the dungeon, where I myself will question him.
+It is not fitting that this plotter should practise devilish devices
+upon our assembly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 460 --><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460" ></a>At a signal from their chief the soldiers surrounded him; but the
+hermit, whose features were still hidden by the cowl, took hold of the
+foremost, and with an incredible strength, dashed him to the ground. The
+others drew back intimidated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Treason, my lord, treason!&quot; cried the dean; &quot;you behold him even in
+your presence exercising forbidden arts. Away with him to the dungeon!
+Guards, do your office.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Miscreant, beware!&quot; said the hermit. De Whalley, though bold and
+generally undaunted, started back at the sound.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What, this lawless intromission to our face, and in our council too?&quot;
+cried the baron. &quot;Seize that hooded kite, knaves, or I will hang every
+one o' ye on the Furca ere the sun be two hours older!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Roger de Lacy, in a threatening attitude, approached the guards, who now
+environed the hermit, using more caution than before. Suddenly they
+rushed upon him, and he was pinioned ere he could make the least
+resistance.</p>
+
+<p>At this moment, so anxiously hoped for and expected by the dean, the
+latter pushed towards him. Thrusting his hand into the hermit's bosom,
+the long-coveted parchment was in his grasp, and in a twinkling it was
+conveyed to his own.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How now!&quot; cried the baron, &quot;wherefore in such haste? I trow the deed is
+ours!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>With a great show of obedience and respect he drew the parchment again
+from beneath his robe, and holding it cautiously beside him, exclaimed&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My lord, ere this be read is it not prudent that we convey the traitor
+to the dungeon, lest by his subtilty the writing be wrested from our
+grasp?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The hermit, yet held in close custody of the guards, cried with a loud
+voice&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who is the traitor let the walls of my cell bear witness, when they
+heard him offer a heavy bribe that this, the only evidence to the right
+of the Fitz-Eustace, might be destroyed!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fatherest thou the accursed progeny of thine avarice upon me?&quot; cried
+the dean, apparently indignant at so unjust an accusation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Give me the roll,&quot; said the constable, &quot;and we will confront him by
+what he would have withheld. After we have made our own right secure, we
+adjudge him to his deserts.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The dean was obliged, however unwillingly, to obey; hand<!-- Page 461 --><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461" ></a>ing forward the
+parchment, which Roger de Lacy unfolded in the presence of the hermit.
+But it would be impossible to describe the consternation of the
+chieftain when he read therein a formal grant, bequeathing the whole of
+these vast possessions to Robert de Whalley and his heirs for ever.</p>
+
+<p>The dean, apparently with surprise, and a well-feigned indignation at
+the fraud which the hermit intended to have put upon him, exclaimed&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I had a grievous suspicion long ago that this hoary hypocrite would
+play me false; and indeed his great unwillingness to show the deed led
+me to think that he meditated some deadly wrong.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But wherefore,&quot; inquired the chieftain, &quot;should there be messengers to
+Halton with news and credentials so explicit that the estate was left
+without let or encumbrance to the Lady Fitz-Eustace? A web of mystery is
+here which we will speedily unravel. Who gave thee this deed? and
+wherefore shouldest thou conceal it?&quot; said he, addressing the hermit.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Roger de Fitz-Eustace,&quot; replied the prisoner, &quot;thine honour is abused.
+That lying instrument was never in my charge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why hast thou refused to render up the deed?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lest it should fall into the hands of robbers, and thou shouldest be
+cheated of thine inheritance. This traitor hath long had an eye to the
+possession.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis his,&quot; returned the constable, sternly, &quot;by this good title.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis a fraud&mdash;a base attempt put forth by this cut-purse to wrest it
+from thee. Search him, and if thou findest not another, and of a
+different tenor, hidden about his goodly person, let me die a traitor's
+death.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see not that our power hath need of such a pleasant exercise. Thou
+art accused by him of treachery; and verily 'tis a vain attempt to rid
+thee of the charge to throw back the accusation upon him thou hast
+wronged.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My Lord de Fitz-Eustace,&quot; said the dean,&mdash;but Roger looked displeased
+at this style and address, reminding him so soon of the departure of his
+lately-assumed title De Lacy,&mdash;&quot;your ear and mine have been too long
+abused by this plotting wizard. He is now subject to my authority.
+Hereby do I assume my rights, and arraign the culprit before my
+tribunal.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 462 --><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462" ></a>The ambitious churchman approached the judgment-seat, whereon he was
+just ascending; but the hermit, with a desperate effort, burst from his
+bonds, and ere the guards could arrest him, he had grasped his adversary
+by the throat.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Traitor, I warned thee beforetime. Now will I unrobe thy villany to its
+very nakedness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The hermit, thrusting one hand beneath the garment of his victim, drew
+forth the real deed, which had been dexterously exchanged by the wily
+priest for his own fraudulent imposture. He then loosened his grasp, and
+placed the real instrument in the hands of the baron.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis a forgery&mdash;- a base disposal of my rights,&quot; roared out the
+infuriate and detected hypocrite.</p>
+
+<p>But Roger de Lacy immediately saw that the deed was to a similar purport
+with the copy which had been sent by some unknown hand, immediately on
+the death of the testator, to Halton Castle.</p>
+
+<p>With a look of devouring and terrible indignation he cried out&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Though thou wert the holy pontiff himself, and all the terrors of the
+Church were at thy command, thou shouldst not escape my vengeance, thou
+daring priest! To the Furca!&mdash;his offence is repugnant to my
+nostrils&mdash;'tis rank with treason!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hold!&quot; cried the mysterious hermit; &quot;I have promised him protection,
+nor shall the promise be foregone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou!&quot; cried the warrior, with unfeigned astonishment; &quot;and who art
+thou that seemest here the arbiter of destiny, whether good or evil?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A sinful but heaven-destined man,&quot; replied the hermit, meekly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Our vengeance slumbereth not,&quot; said the chief; &quot;the sentence is gone
+forth, and he dies ere sunset.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not so,&quot; replied the hermit, again assuming the attitude of command.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By the beard of Hugh Lupus, he dieth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He doth, but not by thy decree.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How! methinks the fever of disloyalty hath seized you all: the
+infection hath so tainted your nature that a skilful leech, whom I
+employ in cases of emergency, will be of service&mdash;my headsman, or
+hangman, as shall seem most fitting. He dies, I tell thee, though the
+saints themselves were interceding.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 463 --><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463" ></a>I have promised,&quot; said the hermit again, with the confidence of
+careless superiority.</p>
+
+<p>Adam de Dutton, who had hitherto been waiting anxiously for an
+opportunity to communicate with his lord, now whispered something in his
+ear.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How!&quot; said the bewildered chieftain; &quot;'tis said thou wearest the badge
+of our house, and art thyself under some surreptitious disguise.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wear no disguise,&quot; returned the hermit calmly; &quot;what thou seest is my
+badge, and will be, Heaven permitting, until I die.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who art thou?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A sinful mortal like thyself; but worn down with long vigils and
+maceration. Lord of as wide inheritance as thou, and yet a tenant only
+in a narrow cell!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou speakest riddles;&mdash;thy meaning?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was an outcast, though heir to a vast heritage. I vowed that if He,
+whose prerogative it is, would cleanse me from my stains, my life should
+thenceforth be His, and consecrate to Heaven. I was a leper; but my
+prayer was heard. I washed in yonder holy well which gushes from the
+rock, whose virtues had been reported to me. Washing daily, with faith
+and prayer, I was healed. I found close by a convenient hermitage; and
+many caverns and secret chambers, with hidden passages and
+communications, had been dug therefrom, by which I could pass to and
+fro, and thus visit the castle unseen. I was the confessor and companion
+of Robert de Lacy. At my desire, he left the whole of his domains to the
+Fitz-Eustace. But thou art not the eldest-born of thy father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My eldest brother has long been dead. He was a leper; his cruel disease
+drove him from the haunts of men. The last we knew of him, he went forth
+with cup and clapper as they are wont. Soon after news arrived of his
+decease.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Was he not driven forth by rude and cruel taunts, the rather?&quot; said the
+hermit, gazing with unaverted eye on the haughty chieftain. &quot;This noble
+birth and heritage are mine! Behold, 'tis thus I repay your injustice!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He threw off his cloak; underneath appeared a complete suit of proof
+armour, and a surcoat, on which was emblazoned the badge of the
+Fitz-Eustace.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am Richard Fitz-Eustace, thine elder brother! Nay, put off that brow
+of discontent. I claim not my birthright; the <!-- Page 464 --><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464" ></a>vows of Heaven are upon
+me, and to thee and thine will this good inheritance devolve. One right
+only do I claim&mdash;this prisoner is free. Was he not my stay and
+sustenance when the fiat of Heaven guided me hither? He sheltered me,
+and had pity on mine infirmity. Moreover, he had some well-founded
+expectancy towards these domains, by reason of kindred to the Lacies,
+had they not been devised by will to the Fitz-Eustace. His blood is
+noble as our own. He thinks there is injustice in the deed, but not to
+him shall the atonement come. Thou hast a daughter, and my prescience
+hath this consequence, that by her this rankling wound shall be healed.
+If so be that he have found favour in her sight, let her and the son of
+this ambitious priest be joined together in the bonds of holy wedlock;
+for my word is gone forth&mdash;his blood mingles with ours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The whole assembly were aghast with this thrilling discovery. The baron
+would have embraced his brother; but the gloomy ascetic forbade. He left
+the hall, returned to his cell, and but a short period elapsed ere the
+grave he had prepared with his own hands was closed over his corpse&mdash;the
+period of his sojourn having been shortened, no doubt, by the
+austerities and mortifications he deemed himself called upon to endure.</p>
+
+<p>Maud was shortly afterwards united to Geoffery de Whalley, unto whom her
+father granted the Villa de Tunley or Townley, and the manor of
+Coldcoats, with Snodworth, as a marriage portion. From them is descended
+the present owner of Townley, nephew to that celebrated scholar and
+antiquary, Charles Townley, the twenty-ninth in descent from
+Spartlingus, the first Dean of Whalley upon record. The latter was
+predecessor to Cutwulph, whose exploits in the days of Canute we have
+before noticed.</p>
+
+<p>Soon afterwards died Robert de Whalley, his departure hastened, it is
+said, by grief and chagrin at the loss of these long-coveted
+possessions.</p>
+
+<p>Roger de Lacy died 1st October A.D. 1211, after a long and active life,
+spent between his arduous wars and invasions of the Welsh, and his no
+less arduous journeyings to and fro between the castles of Clitheroe and
+Pontefract, where he spent the latter part of his days. He was succeeded
+by John de Lacy, his eldest son, who, by marriage with Margaret,
+daughter and co-heiress of Robert, son of De Quincy, Earl of Winchester,
+became Earl of Lincoln by patent from Henry III., the monarch having
+re-granted this title to him and his heirs for ever.<!-- Page 465 --><a name="Page_465" id="Page_465" ></a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> Baines's <i>Lancashire</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> Whitaker's <i>History of Whalley</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> At the commencement of a list of &quot;<i>Senescalli de
+Blackburnshire,</i>&quot; occurs the name of &quot;<i>Adam de Dutton, temp. Rog. et
+Joh. de Lacy</i>.&quot; Dr Whitaker says: &quot;This Adam de Dutton is one of the
+witnesses to the foundation-charter of Stanlaw, A.D. 1178; and a Dominus
+Adam occurs as steward in the charters of John de Lacy, who succeeded
+Roger A.D. 1211; so that, if both these names design the same person,
+which I believe, he must have held the office of seneschal at least
+thirty-three years.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> Hume.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> Like the knave on playing-cards, who is still depicted in
+this dress.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_GREY_MAN_OF_THE_WOOD" id="THE_GREY_MAN_OF_THE_WOOD" ></a>THE GREY MAN OF THE WOOD;</h2>
+
+<h3>OR,</h3>
+
+<h2>THE SECRET MINE.</h2>
+
+<div class="center">
+<img src="images/27.png" width="600" height="502" alt="THE GREY MAN OF THE WOOD; OR, THE SECRET MINE." title="" />
+<b>THE GREY MAN OF THE WOOD; OR, THE SECRET MINE.</b>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;<i>Humph</i>. Say, what art thou that talk'st of kings and queens?<br /></span>
+<span class="i2"><i>K. Hen</i>. More than I seem, and less than I was born to;<br /></span>
+<span>A man at least, for less I should not be;<br /></span>
+<span>And men may talk of kings, and why not I?<br /></span>
+<span class="i2"><i>Humph</i>. Ay, but thou talk'st as if thou wert a king.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2"><i>K. Hen</i>, Why, so I am, in mind, and that's enough.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2"><i>Humph</i>. But if thou be a king, where is thy crown?&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="author">&mdash;<i>King Henry VI</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Waddington Hall, the site of the following legend, says Pennant, &quot;is a
+stone house, with some small ancient windows, and a narrow winding
+staircase within, now inhabited by several poor families; yet it
+formerly gave shelter to a royal guest. The meek usurper, Henry VI.,
+after the battle of Hexham, in 1463, was conveyed into this county,
+where he was concealed by his vassals for an entire twelvemonth,
+notwithstanding the most diligent search was made after him. At length
+he was surprised at dinner at Waddington Hall, and taken near Bungerley
+Hippingstones in Clitherwood. The account which Leland gives from an
+ancient chronicle concurs with the tradition of the country, that he was
+<!-- Page 466 --><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466" ></a>deceived&mdash;<i>i.e.</i> betrayed&mdash;by Thomas Talbot, son and heir to Sir Edmund
+Talbot, of Bashal, and John his cousin, of Colebry. The house was beset;
+but the king found means to get out, ran across the fields below Waddow
+Hall, and passed the Ribble, on the stepping-stones, into a wood on the
+Lancashire side, called Christian Pightle, but being closely pursued,
+was there taken. From hence he was carried to London, in the most
+piteous manner, on horseback, with his legs tied to the stirrups. Rymer
+has preserved the grant of a reward for this service, of the estates of
+Sir Richard Tunstall, a Lancastrian, to Sir James Harrington, by Edward
+IV., dated from Westminster, July 9th, 1465.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At that time Waddington belonged to the Tempests, who inherited it by
+virtue of the marriage of their ancestor, Sir Roger, in the reign of
+Edward I., with Alice, daughter and heiress of Walter de Waddington. An
+alliance had just been made between the Tempests and the Talbots. It may
+be presumed, that in order to save their estates (which they afterward
+were suffered quietly to possess), they agreed with Sir James to give up
+the saintly monarch, which was the reason that the latter had the reward
+for what the grant calls &quot;his great and laborious diligence in taking
+our great traitor and rebel, Henry, lately called Henry VI.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Far different was the conduct of Sir Ralph Pudsey, of Bolton Hall, where
+the king was concealed for some months prior to his appearance at
+Waddington. Quitting Bolton, probably from some apprehension that his
+retreat was in danger of being discovered, he left behind him the
+well-known relics which are still shown to the curious. These are a pair
+of boots, a pair of gloves, and a spoon. The boots are of fine brown
+Spanish leather, lined with deer-skin, tanned with the fur on; about the
+ankles is a kind of wadding under the lining, to keep out wet. They have
+been fastened by buttons from the ankle to the knee; the feet are
+remarkably small (little more than eight inches long); the toes round,
+and the soles, where they join to the heel, contracted to less than an
+inch in diameter.</p>
+
+<p>The gloves are of the same material, and have the same lining; they
+reach up, like women's gloves, to the elbow; but have been occasionally
+turned down, with deer-skin outward. The hands are exactly proportioned
+to the feet, and not larger than those of a middle-sized woman. In an
+age when the habits of the great, in peace as well as war, required
+perpetual exertions of bodily strength, this unhappy prince must have
+been equally contemptible from corporeal and from mental imbecility.<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54" ></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a></p>
+
+<p>A well adjoining to Bolton Hall still retains his name. He is said to
+have ordered it to be dug and walled round for a bath; and it is much
+venerated by the country people to this day, who fancy that many
+remarkable cures have been wrought there.</p>
+
+<p>It is not generally recorded that the science of alchemy was much
+<!-- Page 467 --><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467" ></a>encouraged by the royal visionary. Though he had commissioned three
+adepts to make the precious metals, and had not received any returns,
+his credulity remained unshaken, and he issued a pompous grant in favour
+of three other alchemists, who boasted that they could not only
+transmute metals, but could impart perpetual youth, with unimpaired
+powers both of mind and body, by means of a specific called the <i>Mother
+and Queen of Medicines, the Celestial Glory, the Quintessence or Elixir
+of Life.</i> In favour of these &quot;three lovers of the truth, and haters of
+deception,&quot; as they styled themselves, Henry dispensed with the law
+passed by his grandfather, Henry IV., against the undue multiplication
+of gold and silver, and empowered them to transmute the precious metals.
+This extraordinary commission had the sanction of Parliament; and two
+out of the three adepts were the heads of Lancashire families&mdash;viz., Sir
+Thomas Ashton of Ashton, and Sir Edmund Trafford of Trafford. These
+worthy knights obtained a patent for changing metals, 24 Hen. VI. The
+philosophers, probably imposing upon themselves as well as others, kept
+the king's expectation wound up to the highest pitch; and in the
+following year he actually informed his people that the happy hour was
+approaching when, by means of the <i>stone</i>, he should <i>be able to pay off
+his debts</i><a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55" ></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a></p>
+
+<p>With regard to the prophecy or denunciation made by him against the
+Talbots, recorded in our legend, Dr Whitaker observes,&mdash;&quot;Something like
+these hereditary alternations of sense and folly might have happened,
+and have given rise to a prophecy fabricated after the event; a real
+prediction to this effect would have negatived the words of
+Solomon,&mdash;'Yea, I have hated all my labour which I had taken under the
+sun; because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me; and
+who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool?'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This, however, is not the only instance in which Henry is reported to
+have displayed that singular faculty, the <i>Vaticinium Stultorum</i>.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56" ></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a></p>
+
+<p>In 798, this place was noted for the defeat of Wada, the Saxon chief, by
+Aldred, king of Northumberland. He was one of the petty princes who
+joined the murderers of King Ethelred. After this overthrow he fled to
+his castle, on a hill near Whitby, and dying, was interred not far from
+the place. Two great pillars, about twelve feet asunder, mark the spot,
+and still bear the name of &quot;Wada's Grave.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was on a bright and glorious summer evening, in the year 1464, while
+the red glare of sunset was still in the west, and a wide blush of
+purple passed rapidly over the distant fell and the blue and heath-clad
+mountain, that a group of labourers were returning from their daily toil
+through the forest glades that skirt the broad and beautiful Ribble
+below Waddow. Some of them were of that class called hinds, paying the
+rents of their <!-- Page 468 --><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468" ></a>little homesteads by stated periods of service allotted
+to each; in this respect differing but little from the serfs and
+villains of a more remote era, their toil not a whit less irksome,
+though their liberty, in name at least, was less under the control and
+caprice of their lord.</p>
+
+<p>Two of the peasants loitered considerably behind the rest, seemingly
+engrossed by a conversation too interesting or too important for the
+ears of their companions. The elder of the speakers was clad in a coarse
+woollen doublet; a belt of untanned leather girt his form; and on his
+head was a cap of grey felt, without either rim or band. His gait was
+heavy and slouching. Strong, tall, and muscular, he stooped
+considerably; but less through age and infirmity than from the laborious
+nature of his occupations. His companion, younger and more vivacious,
+was distinguished by a goodly and well-thriven hump, and by that fulness
+and projection of the chest which usually characterise this species of
+deformity. His long arms nearly trailed to the ground as he walked; huge
+and sprawling, they seemed to have been originally intended as an
+attachment to a frame of much more gigantic proportions. His face had
+that peculiar form and expression which always, more or less, accompany
+this kind of malformation. Wide, large, angular; the chin sharp and
+projecting, supported on the breast; the whole head scarcely rivalling
+the shoulders in height and obliquity. His disposition was evidently
+wayward and irascible, and a keen satirical humour lurked in every line
+of his pallid visage; generally at war with his species, and ready to
+act on the defensive; snarling whenever he was approached, and always
+anticipating gibe and insult from his fellows.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Weary, weary,&mdash;ay, as a tom-fool at a holiday feast,&quot; said the
+hunchback to his companion. &quot;Spade and axe have I lifted these twenty
+years, and what the better am I o' the labour? A groat's worth of wit is
+worth a pound o' sweat,' as my dame says. I'll turn pedlar some o' these
+days, and lie, and cheat, and sell.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ay, Gregory,&quot; interrupted the other, &quot;thee'd sell thy own paws, if so
+be they'd fetch a groat i' the market; but then, I warrant, the dame at
+the hall would lack her henchman at the churn.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tut! I care for nought living but my worthless carcase,&quot; replied the
+hunchback, surveying his own person. &quot;Why <!-- Page 469 --><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469" ></a>should I? there's nought
+living that cares for me. Sure as fate, if a' waur dead beside, we'd ha'
+curran' baws i' the pot every day. What a murrain is it to this hungry
+maw whether Ned Talbot, or Joe Tempest, or any other knave o' the pack,
+tumbles into his berth, or is put to bed wi' the shovel, a day sooner or
+later. He maun budge some time. Faugh! how I hate your whining&mdash;your
+cat-a-whisker'd faces, purring and mewling, while parson Pudsay says
+grace over the cold carrion; he cares not if it waur hash'd and stew'd
+i' purgatory, so that he gets the shrift-money. Out upon't, Ralph, out
+upon it! this mattock should delve a' the graves i' the parish, if I
+could get a tester more i' my fist.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou murdering tyke! wouldst dig my grave?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ay,&quot; shouted Gregory with a grin, displaying a huge double crescent of
+white teeth, portals to a gulf, grim, hideous, and insatiable; &quot;ay, for
+St Peter's penny.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And leave me to knock at the gate, and never a doit to pay the porter?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou shouldst cry and howl till doomsday, though my pouch had the
+keeping of a whole congregation of angels.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Keep out o' my way, cub&mdash;unlicked brute!&quot; cried the infuriate Ralph;
+&quot;keep back, I say, or I may send thee first on thine errand to St Peter.
+Take that, knave, and&quot;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>But the malicious hunchback stepped aside, and the blow, aimed with a
+hearty curse at this provoking lump of deformity, fell with a murderous
+force upon a writhen stem, which bore witness to the willing disposition
+with which the stroke was dealt. Gregory was laughing and mocking all
+the while at the impotent wrath of his companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A groat's worth for a penny, I'm not yet boun' for St Peter's blessing,
+though, old crump-face!&quot; cried the learing impertinent, one thumb
+between his teeth, and the little finger thrust out in its most
+expressive form of derision and contempt.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hush&mdash;softly, prithee,&quot; said the offended party, his anger all at once
+under the influence of a more powerful feeling. He stood still, in the
+attitude of listening, earnestly bending forward with great solicitude
+and attention.</p>
+
+<p>He pointed to some object just visible through the arches of the wood,
+in the dim twilight.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is the grey man o' the mine again, as I live, Gregory; we'd best
+turn back, for our companions are gone out of hear<!-- Page 470 --><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470" ></a>ing.&quot; The terrified
+rustic was preparing for immediate flight, but Gregory caught him by the
+belt.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How now! stand to thy ground, man,&quot; said he; &quot;I've had speech at him
+not long ago. We came upon one another suddenly, to be sure, and I could
+not well escape, so I stood still. He did the same, shook his pale and
+saintly face, and, with a wave o' the hand, bade me pass on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But look thee,&quot; replied the other, &quot;I'm bodily certain he walks without
+a shadow at his tail. See at that big tree there; why, the boughs bend
+before he touches 'em, like as they were stricken wi' the wind. I
+declare if the very trees don't step aside as if they're afraid of him.
+I'll not tarry here, good man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Disengaging himself from the other's gripe, Ralph ran through the wood
+in an opposite direction, and was soon out of sight. A loud shout from
+Gregory followed him as he fled, which only served to quicken his speed;
+and the hunchback was left alone. The figure which was the moving cause
+of this cowardly apprehension almost immediately disappeared behind a
+projecting crag, at the base of which grew a thick skirting of
+underwood; but Gregory pursued cautiously in the same direction. He had
+heard strange stories of demons guarding heaps of treasure; and it was
+currently reported that in former times a mine had been secretly worked
+in these parts for fear of discovery; all mines yielding gold and
+silver, so as to leave a profit from the working, being considered as
+&quot;mines royal,&quot; and regarded as the property of the king.<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57" ></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> Gregory's
+prevailing sin was avarice; and oftentimes this vice put on the
+appearance of courage, by rendering him daring for its gratification,
+though <!-- Page 471 --><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471" ></a>at heart a coward. He thought that if the treasure were once
+within his grasp neither man nor demon should regain it.</p>
+
+<p>For a short time past this part of the forest had been commonly reported
+as the haunt of a spectre, in the likeness of a man clad in grey
+apparel, who by some was supposed to be an impalpable exhalation from a
+concealed mine existing in the neighbourhood. It is well known that
+these places are generally guarded by some covetous demon, who, though
+unable to apply the treasures to their proper use, yet strives to hinder
+any one else from gaining possession.</p>
+
+<p>Gregory had once encountered it unexpectedly, face to face, but he did
+not then follow&mdash;surprise and timidity preventing him. He, however,
+resolved that, should another opportunity occur, he would track the
+spectre to its haunt, and by that means find out the opening and
+situation of the mine.</p>
+
+<p>He now crept slowly towards the crag, behind which the figure had
+retired. Looking cautiously round the point, he again saw the dim
+spectral form only a few yards distant. Suddenly he heard a low whistle,
+and the next moment the mysterious figure had disappeared&mdash;not a vestige
+could be traced. He thrust his huge head between the boughs for a more
+uninterrupted survey, but nothing was seen, save the bare escarpment of
+the rock, and the low bushes, behind which the phantom had, a moment
+before, been visible. Though somewhat daunted, he crept closer to the
+spot, but darkness was fast closing around him, and the search was
+fruitless.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Humph!&quot; said the disappointed treasure-hunter audibly; &quot;daylight and a
+stout pole may probe the mystery to the bottom. I'll mark this spot.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 472 --><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472" ></a>Mark this spot,&quot; said another voice at some distance, repeating his
+words like an echo. The rock was certainly within &quot;striking distance,&quot;
+and it might have been this accident which lent its aid to the delusion.</p>
+
+<p>Gregory could not withstand so apparently supernatural an occurrence. He
+took to his heels, driven fairly off the field; nor did he look behind
+him until safely entrenched before a blazing fire in the kitchen at
+Waddington Hall.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Out, ill-favoured hound!&quot; said a serving wench, who was stirring a
+blubbering mess of porridge for supper. But Gregory was not in the
+humour to reply: he sat with one long lean hand under his chin, the
+other hung down listlessly to his heels, which were drawn securely under
+the stool on which he sat. His thoughts were not on the victuals, though
+by long use and instinct his eyes were turned in that direction.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thee art ever hankering after the brose, thou greedy churl!&quot; continued
+the wench, wishful to goad him on to some intemperate reply.</p>
+
+<p>But Gregory was still silent. At this unwonted lack of discourse, Janet,
+who generally contrived to bring his long tongue into exercise, was not
+a little astonished. It needed no great wit, any time, to set him
+a-grumbling; for neither kind word nor civil speech had he for kith or
+kin, for man or maid.</p>
+
+<p>Looking steadfastly towards him, she struck her dark broad fists upon
+her hips, and, in a loud and contemptuous laugh, abruptly startled the
+cynic from his studies. He eyed her with a grin of malice and vexation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou she-ape, I wonder what first ye'arn made for; the plague o' both
+man and beast,&mdash;the worst plague that e'er Pharaoh waur punished wi'.
+Screech on; I'll ha' my think out, spite o' thy caterwauling.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art a precious wonder, Master Crab. Squirt thy verjuice, when thou
+art roasting, some other way. I wonder what man-ape thy mother watch'd
+i' the breeding. She had been special fond o' children, I bethink me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what knowest thou o' my dame's humours, thou curl-crop vixen?&quot; said
+Gregory, unwarily drawn forth again from his taciturnity. &quot;How should
+her inclinations be subject to thy knowledge?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She rear'd thee!&quot; was the reply.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 473 --><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473" ></a>Two other hinds belonging to the household, who were watching the issue
+of the contest, here joined in a loud clamour at the victory; and
+Gregory, dogged with baiting, became silent, scowling defiance at his
+foe.</p>
+
+<p>Waddington Hall was at that period a building of great antiquity.
+Crooks, or great heavy arched timbers, ascending from the ground to the
+roof, formed the principal framework of the edifice, not unlike the
+inverted hull of some stately ship. The whole dwelling consisted of a
+thorough lobby and a hall, with a parlour beyond it, on one side, and
+the kitchens and offices on the other. The windows were narrow, scarcely
+more than a few inches wide, and, in all probability, not originally
+intended to contain glass.</p>
+
+<p>The chimneys and fireplaces were wide and open; the apartments, except
+the hall, low, narrow, and inconvenient, divided by partitions of oak,
+clumsy, and ill-carved with many strange and uncouth devices. The hall
+was, on the right of the entrance, lighted by one long low window; a
+massy table stood beneath. The fireplace was on the opposite side,
+occupying nearly the whole breadth of the chamber. A screen of wainscot
+partitioned off the lobby, carved in panels of grotesque workmanship.
+Beyond the hall was the parlour, furnished as usual with an oaken
+bedstead, standing upon a ground-floor paved with stone. In this
+dormitory, the timbers of which were of gigantic proportions, slept
+Master Oliver and Mistress Joan Tempest,&mdash;the latter not a little given
+to that species of uxorious domination which most wives, when they apply
+themselves heartily to its acquisition, rarely fail to usurp.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here,&quot; says Dr Whitaker (this being the general style of building for
+centuries, and scarcely, if at all, deviated from),&mdash;&quot;here the first
+offspring of our forefathers saw the light; and here too, without a wish
+to change their habits, fathers and sons in succession resigned their
+breath. It is not unusual to see one of these apartments now transformed
+into a modern drawing-room, where a thoughtful mind can scarcely forbear
+comparing the past and present,&mdash;the spindled frippery of modern
+furniture, the frail but elegant apparatus of a tea-table, the general
+decorum, the equal absence of everything to afflict or to transport,
+with what has been heard, or seen, or felt, within the same walls,&mdash;-
+the logs of oak, the clumsy utensils, and, above all, the tumultuous
+scenes of joy or sorrow, <!-- Page 474 --><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474" ></a>called forth, perhaps, by the birth of an
+heir, or the death of an husband, in minds little accustomed to restrain
+the ebullitions of passion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Their system of life was that of domestic economy in perfection.
+Occupying large portions of his own domains; working his land by oxen;
+fattening the aged, and rearing a constant supply of young ones; growing
+his own oats, barley, and sometimes wheat; making his own malt, and
+furnished often with kilns for the drying of corn at home, the master
+had pleasing occupation in his farm, and his cottagers regular
+employment under him. To these operations the high troughs, great
+garners and chests, yet remaining, bear faithful witness. Within, the
+mistress, her maid-servants, and daughters, were occupied in spinning
+flax for the linen of the family, which was woven at home. Cloth, if not
+always manufactured out of their own wool, was purchased by wholesale,
+and made up into clothes at home also.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58" ></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a></p>
+
+<p>This is a true picture of the simple habits of our ancestors, and will
+apply, with little variation, to the scene before us.</p>
+
+<p>Here might be seen the carved &quot;armoury,&quot;&mdash;the wardrobe, bright, clean,
+and even magnificent. On the huge rafters hung their usual store of
+dried hams, beef, mutton, and flitches of bacon. In the store-room,
+great chests were filled to the brim with oatmeal and flour. All wore
+the aspect of plenty, and an hospitality that feared neither want nor
+diminution.</p>
+
+<p>In one corner of the hall at Waddington sat Mistress Joan, her only
+daughter Elizabeth, and two or three female domestics.</p>
+
+<p>They had been spinning, trolling out the while their country ditties
+with great pathos and simplicity.</p>
+
+<p>Being nigh supper-time, the group were just loitering in the twilight
+ere they separated for the meal.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come, Elizabeth,&quot; said her mother, &quot;lay thy gear aside; the
+strawberries are in the bowl, and the milk is served. Supper and to bed,
+and a brisk nap while morning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The dame who addressed her was a perfect specimen of the good housewife
+in the fifteenth century. She wore a quilted woollen gown, open before,
+with pendant sleeves, and a long narrow train; a corset, fitted close to
+the body, unto which the petticoats were attached, and a boddice laced
+outside. She wore the horned head-dress so fashionable towards the close
+of <!-- Page 475 --><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475" ></a>the fourteenth century, and at that time still in use, giving the
+head and face no slight resemblance to the ace of hearts. An apron was
+tied on with great care, ornamented with embroidery of the preceding
+century. Her complexion, was dark but clear, and her eyebrows high and
+well-arched. Her mouth was drawn in, raised slightly on one side,&mdash;a
+conformation more particularly apparent when engaged in scolding the
+maids, or in other similar but indispensable occupations.</p>
+
+<p>Her gait was firm, and her person upright. Her age&mdash;ungallant historians
+we must be&mdash;was verging closely upon sixty; yet her hair, turned crisp
+and full behind her head-dress, showed slight symptoms of the chill
+which hoar and frosty age, sooner or later, never fails to impart.</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth Tempest was young, but of a staid and temperate aspect, almost
+approaching to that of melancholic. Her complexion, pale and sallow; her
+eye full, dark, and commanding, though occasionally more languor was on
+it than eyes of that colour are wont to express. She wore a long jacket
+of russet colour, and a crimson boddice. Her hair, turned back from her
+brow, hung in dark heavy ringlets below the neck, which, though not of
+alabaster, was exquisitely modelled. In person she was tall and
+well-shapen, and her whole manner displayed a mind of no ordinary
+proportions. She was well-skilled in household duties, her mother having
+an especial desire that her daughter should be as notable and thrifty as
+herself in domestic arrangements.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Elizabeth,&quot; or &quot;Elspet,&quot; as she was indiscriminately called, cared
+little about her reputation touching these important functions. She
+could sing most of the wild legendary ballads of the time; her rich full
+voice had in it a sadness ravishingly tender and expressive, more akin
+to woe, and the deep untold agony of the spirit, than to lightness and
+mirth, in which she rarely indulged.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Give us one of thy ditties ere supper,&quot; said the dame, who was just
+then laying aside her implements in the work-press. &quot;I wonder thy father
+does not return. The roofs of Bashall ring with louder cheer than our
+own, I trow. He is playing truant for the nonce, which is dangerous play
+at best.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is he now at our cousin Talbot's?&quot; inquired the maiden, with a look of
+more than ordinary interest.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 476 --><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476" ></a>If he be not on the way back again,&quot; returned the dame, as though
+wishful to repress inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The woods are not safe so late and alone. Comes he alone, mother?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Alone! Ay,&mdash;and why spierest thou?&quot; The dame looked wistfully, though
+but for a moment, on her daughter; then changing her tone, as if to
+recommend a change of subject, she cried&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come, ha' done, Elspet; we will wait no longer than grace be said. Now
+to thy song.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The maiden began as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>1.<br /></span>
+<span>&quot;There sits three ravens on yon tree,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Heigho!<br /></span>
+<span>There sits three ravens on yon tree,<br /></span>
+<span>As black, as black, as they can be.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Heigho, the derry, derry, down, heigho.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>2.<br /></span>
+<span>&quot;Says the first raven to the other,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Heigho!<br /></span>
+<span>Says the first raven to the other,<br /></span>
+<span>'We'll go and eat our feast together.'<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Heigho, &amp;c.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>3.<br /></span>
+<span>&quot;'It's down in yonder grass-grown field,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Heigho!<br /></span>
+<span>It's down in yonder grass-grown field,<br /></span>
+<span>There lies a dead knight just new killed.'<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Heigho, &amp;c.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>4.<br /></span>
+<span>&quot;There came a lady full of woe,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Heigho!<br /></span>
+<span>There came a lady full of woe,<br /></span>
+<span>And her hands she wrung, and her tears did flow.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Heigho, &amp;c.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>5.<br /></span>
+<span>&quot;She saw the red blood from his side,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Heigho!<br /></span>
+<span>She saw the red blood from his side,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span>'And it was for me my true love died!'<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Heigho, &amp;c.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>6.<br /></span>
+<span>&quot;'Oh, cruel was my brother's sword,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Heigho!<br /></span>
+<span>Oh, cruel, cruel, was his sword,<br /></span>
+<span>But sharper the edge of one scornful word.'<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Heigho, &amp;c.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>7.<br /></span>
+<span>She laid her on his bosom cold,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Heigho!<br /></span>
+<span>She laid her on his bosom cold,<br /></span>
+<span>While adown his cheek her tears they rolled.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Heigho, &amp;c.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>8.<br /></span>
+<span>&quot;No word she spake, but one sob gave she,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Heigho!<br /></span>
+<span>No word she spake, but one sob gave she:<br /></span>
+<span>Said the ravens, 'Another feast have we,<br /></span>
+<span>And long shall thy rest and thy slumbers be.'<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Heigho, the derry, derry, down, heigho!&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>At the concluding stanza in walked Oliver Tempest, who, as if to avoid
+notice, sat down, without uttering a word, in a dark corner at the
+opposite side of the hall. He looked moody, and wishful to be alone.
+Joan, for a while, forbore to interrupt his reverie, and the females
+finished their evening repast in silence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is Sir Thomas Talbot yet returned from the Harringtons?&quot; <!-- Page 477 --><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477" ></a>inquired the
+dame soon after, with an air of assumed carelessness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He returned an hour only ere I departed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Another pause ensued.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And his son Thomas, comes he back from the Pudsays of Bolton? Does the
+gentle Florence<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59" ></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> look on him kindly, or is the wedding yet delayed?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know not,&quot; was the brief reply. After a short pause he
+continued&mdash;&quot;The wanderer has left Bolton, I learn, and, 'tis said, he
+bides at Whalley.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Here he cast a furtive look at the domestics, and then at his wife, as
+though wishful to ascertain if others had understood this intimation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, some do boldly affirm that he has been seen i' these very woods,&quot;
+continued he, lowering his voice to a whisper.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Which Heaven forefend!&quot; said the wary dame. &quot;I would not that he should
+draw us down with him to the same gulf wherein his fortune is
+o'erwhelmed. No luck that woman ever brought him from o'er sea, and now
+she's gone&quot;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They say that she hath escaped to Flanders,&quot; said Oliver, hastily
+interrupting her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wish he had been so fortunate,&quot; said the dame; &quot;what says our cousin
+Talbot?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hush, dame; our plans are not yet ripe. But more of this anon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth listened with more interest than usual. Every word was eagerly
+devoured, and with the last sentence she could not forbear inquiring&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And Edmund?&mdash;surely Edmund Talbot is not&quot;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What?&quot; sternly inquired her father; &quot;what knowest thou of&mdash;? Said I
+aught whereby thou shouldst suspect us?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hush, thou foolish one,&quot; said the more cautious dame; &quot;thy thought
+alone was privy to it, and so no more. There be others listening.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The moonbeams now crept softly into the chambers, whither, too, crept
+the weary household; the master and his wife <!-- Page 478 --><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478" ></a>remaining for a short time
+together in the hall, apparently in earnest discussion. But Elizabeth
+retired not to her couch. She passed softly through the courtyard,
+looking round as though in search of some individual. This proved to be
+the hunchback Gregory, whom she found esconced behind a peat-stack in
+marvellous profundity of thought. With a soft step, and one finger
+raised to her lips, she gently tapped him upon the shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>Looking round, he saw her gesture and was silent.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gregory, art thou honest?&quot; she inquired, in a whisper.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, an' it be, Mistress Elspeth, when it suits with my discretion;
+that is, if discretion be none the worse for it, eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou art ever so, Gregory; and yet&quot;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If ye want honesty, eschew a knave, and catch a fool by the cap. None
+but fools worry and distemper themselves with this same pale-faced
+whining jade, that will leave 'em i' the lurch at a pinch, Dame Honesty,
+forsooth. More wit, more wisdom; and there is a plentiful lack of wit in
+your honest folk,&quot; continued the cynic, as though pursuing a train of
+thought to its ultimate development.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gregory, thou art not the rogue thee seems. I think beneath that rough
+and captious speech there lurks more honesty than thou art willing to
+acknowledge. Thou hast been angered with baiting until thou wouldst run
+at every dog that comes into the paddock, though he fawned on thee, and
+were never so trusty and well-behaved.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gregory was silent. He looked upwards to the bright moon and the
+quenched orbs that lay about her path. Again Elizabeth whispered, first
+looking cautiously around&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wilt do me a service?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ay, for hire,&quot; he quickly answered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If thine errand is done faithfully, thou mayest get more largess than
+thou dream'st of.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ye want a spoon belike, that ye soil not your delicate fingers?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ay, Gregory, an' thou wilt, we 'll first use thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And then the spoon shall be broken, I trow. Well, if I am a spoon, I'll
+be a golden one, and I shall be worth something when I'm done with.
+Understand ye this, fair mistress?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, knave; and thou shalt have thy reward.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What! I shall swing the highest, eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 479 --><a name="Page_479" id="Page_479" ></a>Peace; I want a messenger. Take this.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not treason, I trow,&quot; said Gregory, as he eyed the billet with a
+curious but hesitating glance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go by the nearer path to the wood. Where the road divides to the ford
+and the farther pastures; take the latter, then turn to the right, where
+the old fir-tree rises above the rock. Walk carefully through the bushes
+at the base of the crag. Near unto a sharp angle of the rock thy path
+will be stayed by a fallen tree. Grasp this with both hands, and whistle
+thrice. I know thou canst be trusty and discreet. Yet remember thy life
+is in my power shouldst thou fail.&quot; She paused, pointing significantly
+at the billet. &quot;Now hasten. Bring back, and to me only, what shall be
+committed to thy care. I will expect thee at my window by midnight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Now it so happened that this precise spot was identified to Gregory's
+apprehensions with the very place where his attention had that night
+been directed by the mysterious disappearance of the grey man of the
+mine. He would certainly have preferred making his second visit by
+daylight; but needs must when a woman drives, especially when that woman
+is a mistress, and gold is the goad. Besides he might perchance get a
+glimpse of the treasure; and his pockets were wide and his gripe close.
+Thus stimulated to the adventure, he addressed himself to perform her
+behest.</p>
+
+<p>The night was singularly clear, and the shadows lay on his path, still
+and beautifully distinct. As he hastened onwards the wood grew darker
+and more impervious. Here and there the moonbeams crept fantastically
+through the boughs, like fairy lamps glimmering on his path. Sometimes,
+preternaturally bright, the wood seemed lit up as though for some magic
+festival. He followed the directions he had received, pausing not until
+he saw the dark fir-tree rearing its broad crest and gigantic arms into
+the clear and twinkling heaven. It looked like the guardian genius of
+the place,&mdash;a huge monster lifting its terrific head, as though to watch
+and warn away intruders. Beside this was the rock where his adventure
+must terminate.</p>
+
+<p>With more of desperation than courage he scrambled through the bushes.
+Not daring to look behind him&mdash;for he felt as though his steps were
+dogged, an idea for which he could not account&mdash;he made his way with
+difficulty by the crag until he <!-- Page 480 --><a name="Page_480" id="Page_480" ></a>came to a fallen tree that had
+apparently tumbled from the rock. Laying hold of the trunk he whistled
+faintly. It was answered; an echo, or something even more indistinct,
+gave back the sound. His heart misgave him; but he stood committed to
+the task, and durst not withdraw. Again he whistled, but louder than
+before, and again it was repeated. With feelings akin to those of the
+condemned wretch when he drops the fatal handkerchief, he sounded the
+last note of the signal. His breath was suspended. Suddenly he felt the
+ground give way beneath his feet, and he was precipitated into a chasm,
+dark, and by no means soft at the nether extremity.</p>
+
+<p>This was a reception for which he was not prepared. He had sustained a
+severe shock; but luckily his bones were whole. Recovering from his
+alarm, he heard a low jabbering noise, and presently a light, which, it
+seems, had been extinguished by his clumsiness, was again approaching.</p>
+
+<p>The intruder saw, with indescribable horror, a hideous black dwarf
+bearing a torch. He was dressed in the Eastern fashion. A soiled turban,
+torn and dilapidated, and a vest of crimson, showed symptoms of former
+splendour that no art could restore. This mysterious being came near,
+muttering some uncouth and unintelligible jargon; while the unfortunate
+captive, caught like a wolf in a trap, looked round in vain for some
+outlet whereby to escape. The only passage, except the hole through
+which he had tumbled, was completely filled by the broad, unwieldy lump
+of deformity that was coming towards him. The latter now surveyed him
+cautiously, and at a convenient distance, croaking, in a broken and
+foreign accent&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What ho! Prisoner, by queen's grace. Better stop when little door shall
+open. Steps, look thee, for climb; hands and toes; go to.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gregory now saw that steps, or rather holes, were cut in the sides of
+the pit wherein he had fallen, or rather been entrapped. These he ought
+to have used when the trap-door was let down; and he remembered his
+mistress's caution, to hold fast by the tree. There were, however, no
+means of escape that way, as the door had closed with his descent.</p>
+
+<p>The ugly thing before him was ten times more misshapen than himself; and
+at any other time this flattering consideration would have restored him
+to comparative good-humour.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 481 --><a name="Page_481" id="Page_481" ></a>He was not in the mood now to receive comfort from any source. He felt
+sore and mightily disquieted. Limping aside, he angrily exclaimed&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Be'st thou the de'il, or the de'il's footman, sir blackamoor? I'd have
+thee tell thy master to admit his guests in a more convenient fashion.
+Hang me, if my bones will not ache for a twelvemonth. My back is almost
+broke, for certain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Here the other bellowed out into a loud laugh, pointing to Gregory's
+back, then surveying himself, and evidently with congratulation at his
+own more imaginary prepossessing appearance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sir knight,&quot; said the black dwarf, &quot;what errand comes to our mighty
+prince?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tut! if it be his infernal kingship ye mean, I bear not messages to one
+of his quality.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thee brings writing in thy fist. Go to!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;From a woman, fallen in love wi' thee, belike. Well, quit me o' woman's
+favours, say I, if this be of 'em.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well-a-day, sir page,&quot; cried the grinning Ethiop, whose teeth looked
+like a double row of pearls set in a border of carnelian, &quot;my mistress
+be a queen: I do rub the dust on thy ugly nose if that red tongue wag
+more, for make bad speech of her. Go to, clown!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ill betide thee for a blackamoor ape,&quot; said Gregory, his courage waxing
+apace when his fears of the supernatural began to subside; &quot;and
+wherefore? Look thee, Mahound, though my mistress sent me to such a
+lady-bird as thou art, Master Oliver shall know on't. Thou hast won her
+with spells and foul necromancie; but I've commandment from him to catch
+all that be poaching on his lands. Thou art i' the mine, too, as I do
+verily guess; therefore I arrest thee i' the king's name, as a lifter of
+his treasure, and a spoiler of our good venison.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gregory, being stout-limbed, and of a more than ordinary strength for
+his size, proceeded forthwith to execute his threat; but the dwarf, with
+a short shrill scream, gave him a sudden trip, which again laid the
+officious dispenser of justice prostrate, without either loosing the
+torch from his hand, or seeming to use more exertion than would have
+thrown a child.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah, ah, there be quits. Lie still; go to; lick thy paws. Know, dog, I'm
+body to the queen!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Body o' me, I think thee be'st liker fist and crupper. I <!-- Page 482 --><a name="Page_482" id="Page_482" ></a>would I had
+thee in a cart at holiday-time, and a rope to thy muzzle,&quot; said the
+astonished Gregory. He had dropped his billet in the scuffle, which the
+dwarf seized, opening it without ceremony.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A message. Good; stay here, garbage; I be back one, two, t'ree,&quot; and
+away straddled the black monster along the passage. Turning suddenly,
+before he was aware, into another avenue, leading apparently far into
+the interior, Gregory was left once more in total darkness. He heard the
+sound of retreating footsteps, but not a glimmer was visible, and he
+feared to follow lest he might be entangled in some inextricable
+labyrinth. He recollected to have heard a vague sort of tradition, that
+a subterraneous passage once led from the hall to the Ribble bank,
+whereby the miners had in former days kept their operations secret.</p>
+
+<p>These were the haunts, too, of poachers and deer-stalkers, who made use
+of such hiding-places to screen their nocturnal depredations. He might
+be gotten unknowingly into one of their retreats, and he knew the
+character of such men too well to venture farther into their privy
+places without leave. But it was strange this ugly and insane thing
+should be kept here. Its outlandish accent, too, as far as Gregory could
+distinguish, was still more unaccountable; and that his young mistress
+should hold any intercourse with such a misshapen mockery of the human
+form was a mystery only to be resolved by a woman! After all, his first
+conjecture might be true, and this delicate sprite the ministering demon
+to some magician who brooded over the treasure.</p>
+
+<p>He grew more timorous in the dark. His own breathing startled him. He
+revolved a thousand plans of escape; but how was it possible to climb to
+the pit-mouth without help, and in total darkness? The door, too, would
+probably defy his attempts to remove it. Suspense was not to be endured.
+He would have been glad to see the ugly dwarf again, rather than remain
+in his present evil case.</p>
+
+<p>He now tried to grope out his way, from that sort of undefinable feeling
+which leads a person to identify change of place with improvement in
+condition.</p>
+
+<p>Ere he had gone many yards from the spot, however, he saw a light, and
+presently the flaming torch was visible, with the ugly form he desired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 483 --><a name="Page_483" id="Page_483" ></a>Sir messenger, allez. Make scrape and go backward. Bah! What for make
+lady chuse ugly lout as thee for page?&mdash;not know, not inquire. Up, this
+way; now mind the steps. Bah, not that, fool!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>With some difficulty Gregory was initiated into the mysteries of the
+ascent. The torch was brandished high above his head, and with fear and
+trepidation he prepared to obey.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But, master sooty-paws, my mistress will be a-wanting of some token;
+some reply. Hast thou no memory of her sweet favours?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Begone, slave-dog, begone! Say we be snug as the fox that will keep in
+the hole when dogs go hunt. We not go up again till lady sends leave. Go
+to!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gregory mounted with great difficulty. When he approached the mouth,
+looking upward for some mode of exit, he saw the trap-door slowly open,
+and he leapt forth into the free air; the cool atmosphere and the quiet
+moonlight again upon his path. He soon cleared the bushes, and once more
+was on his way to the house. Elizabeth met him at the gate.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What ho, sirrah!&quot; said she, &quot;hast thou been loitering with my message?
+I left my chamber to look out for thee. What answer? Quick.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, forsooth, 'tis not easy to say, methinks, for such jabber is hard
+to interpret. By my lady's leave, I think&quot;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Here he paused; but Elizabeth was impatient for the expected reply.
+&quot;Softly, softly, mistress. I but thought your worship were ill bestowed
+on yonder ugly image.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tut, I'm not i' the humour for thine. What message, simpleton?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None, good mistress; but that they be snug until further orders.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis well; to rest; but hark thee, knave, be honest and discreet; thou
+shall win both gold and great honours thereby.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What! shall I ha' my share o' the treasure?&quot; inquired Gregory, his eyes
+glistening in the broad moonlight.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What treasure, thou greedy gled?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why they say 'tis a mine royal, and&quot;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How! knowest thou our secret?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ay, a body may quess. I've not found the road to the silver mine for
+nought. If I get my grip on't, the king may whistle for his share
+belike.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 484 --><a name="Page_484" id="Page_484" ></a>The king! what knowest thou of the king?&quot; said the maiden sharply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eh! lady, I know not on him forsooth. Marry it would be hard to say who
+that be now-a-days; for the clerk towed me&quot;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Peace! whom sawest thou?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why the ugliest brute, saving your presence, lady, that my two een ever
+lippened on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None else?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, no; I warrant ye, the miners wouldna care to let me get a glint o'
+the gowd. I only had a look at the hobgoblin, who they have set, I
+guess, to watch the treasure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh! I see,&mdash;ay, truly,&quot; said the maiden thoughtfully; &quot;the mine is
+guarded, therefore be wary, and reveal not the secret, lest he crush
+thee. Remember,&quot; said she at parting, &quot;remember the demon of the cave.
+One word, and he will grind thy bones to grist.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gregory did remember the power of this mysterious being, who, he began
+to fancy, partook more of the supernatural than he had formerly
+imagined.</p>
+
+<p>Wearied with watching, he slept soundly, but his dreams were of wizards
+and enchanters; heaps of gold and fairy palaces, wherein he roved
+through glittering halls of illimitable extent, until morning dissipated
+the illusion.</p>
+
+<p>Some weeks passed on, during which, at times, Gregory was employed by
+his mistress, doubtless to propitiate this greedy monster, in conveying
+food secretly to the mouth of the chasm. He did not usually wait for his
+appearance, but ran off with all convenient speed when his errand was
+accomplished. Still his hankering for the treasure seemed to increase
+with every visit. He oft invented some plan for outwitting the demon,
+thereby securing to himself the product of the mine. Some of these
+devices would doubtless have been accomplished had not fear prevented
+the attempt. He had no wish to encounter again the hostility of that
+fearful thing in its unhallowed abode.</p>
+
+<p>His mistress, however, would, at some period or another, no doubt, be in
+possession of all the wealth in the cave, and he should then expect a
+handsome share. He had heard, in old legends, marvellous accounts of
+ladies marrying with these accursed dwarfs for gold, and if he waited
+patiently he might perchance have the best of the spoil.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 485 --><a name="Page_485" id="Page_485" ></a>He brooded on this imagination so long that he became fully convinced
+of its truth; but still the golden egg was long in hatching.</p>
+
+<p>One night he thought he would watch a while. He had just left a large
+barley-cake and some cheese, a bowl of furmety, and a dish of fruit.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This monster,&quot; thought he, &quot;devours more victuals than the worth of his
+ugly carcase.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He hid himself behind a tree, when presently he heard a rustling behind
+him. Ere he could retreat he was seized with a rude grasp, and the gruff
+accents of his master were heard angrily exclaiming&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How now, sir knave?&mdash;What mischief art thou plotting this blessed
+night? Answer me. No equivocation. If thou dost serve me with a lie in
+thy mouth I'll have thee whipt until thou shall wish the life were out
+o' thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gregory fell on his knees and swore roundly that he would tell the
+truth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Quick, hound; I have caught thee lurching here at last. I long thought
+thou hadst some knavery agoing. What meanest thou?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gregory pointed towards the provision which was lying hard by.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eh, sirrah! what have we hear?&quot; said his master, curiously examining
+the dainties. &quot;Why, thou cormorant, thou greedy kite, is't not enough to
+consume victuals and provender under my own roof, but thou must guttle
+'em here too? I warrant there be other company to the work, other
+grinders at the mill. Now, horrible villain, thou dost smell fearfully
+o' the stocks!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;O master, forgive me!&mdash;It was mistress that sent me with the stuff, as
+I hope the Virgin and St Gregory may be my intercessors.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy mistress!&mdash;and for whom?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, there's a hole close by, as I've good cause to remember.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, sirrah, and what then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As ugly a devilkin lives there as ever put paw and breech upon hidden
+treasure. 'Tis the mine, master, that I mean.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The mine! What knowest thou of the mine?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've been there, and&quot;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 486 --><a name="Page_486" id="Page_486" ></a>Here he related his former adventure; at the hearing of which Oliver
+Tempest fell into a marvellous study.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hark thee,&quot; said he, after a long silence; &quot;I pardon thee on one
+condition, which is, that thou take another message.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Here the terrified Gregory broke forth into unequivocal exclamations of
+agony and alarm.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Peace,&quot; said his master, &quot;and listen; thou must carry it as from my
+daughter. I suspect there's treason lurks i' that hole.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ay, doubtless,&quot; said Gregory: &quot;for the neibours say 'tis treason to
+hide a mine royal.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A mine royal! Ay, knave, I do suspect it to be so. By my troth, I 'll
+ferret out the foulmarts either by force or guile. And yet force would
+avail little. If they have the clue we might attempt to follow them in
+vain through its labyrinths, they would inevitably escape, and I should
+lose the reward. Hark thee. Stay here and I'll fetch the writing for the
+message. Stir not for thy life. Shouldst thou betray me I'll have thy
+crooked bones ground in a mill to thicken pigs' gruel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Fearful was the dilemma; but Gregory durst not budge.</p>
+
+<p>The night grew dark and stormy, the wind rose, loud gusts shaking down
+the dying leaves, and howling through the wide extent of the forest. The
+moan of the river came on like the agony of some tortured spirit. The
+sound seemed to creep closer to his ear; and Gregory thought some evil
+thing was haunting him for intruding into these unhallowed mysteries.</p>
+
+<p>He was horribly alarmed at the idea of another visit to the cave, but he
+durst not disobey. He now heard a rustling in the bushes by the cavern's
+mouth. He saw, or fancied he saw, something rise therefrom and suddenly
+disappear. It was the demon, doubtless, retiring with his prey. He
+scarcely dared to breathe lest the hobgoblin should observe and seize
+him likewise. But his presence was unnoticed. He, however, thought that
+the blast grew louder, and a moan more melancholy and appalling arose
+from the river. Again Oliver Tempest was at his side.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Take this, and do thy bidding.&quot; He thrust the billet into his hand,
+which the unfortunate recipient might not refuse.</p>
+
+<p>Trembling in every limb, he approached the place of concealment; but he
+was too wary now to let go his hold of the fallen trunk.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 487 --><a name="Page_487" id="Page_487" ></a>He whistled thrice, and the ground again seemed to give way. A light
+glared from beneath, and he cautiously descended the pit.</p>
+
+<p>The grim porter was waiting for him below. He fell as though rushing
+into the very jaws of the monster, who was but whetting his tusks ere he
+should devour him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here again!&quot; croaked the ugly dwarf; &quot;what brings thy long legs back
+from Christendom?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know not, master; but if you are i' the humour to read, I've a scrap
+in my pouch at your high mightiness' service.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gregory paid more deference to him now than aforetime, having conceived
+a most profound respect for his attributes, both physical and mental,
+since his former visit.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is himself either some wondrous enchanter,&quot; thought he, &quot;or, at any
+rate, minister or familiar to some mighty wizard, who hath his
+dwelling-place in this subterraneous abode.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have a message here to my lord,&quot; said he aloud, handing him the
+billet at arm's length, with a mighty show of deference and respect. The
+uncourteous dwarf took the writing, and left Gregory in darkness again
+to await his return. He shook at every joint, while the minutes seemed
+an age. Again the light flickered on the damp walls, and the mysterious
+being approached. He addressed the envoy with his usual grin of
+contempt.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell the lady, my master be glad. He will leap from his prison by
+to-morrow, as she say, and appear at dinner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The dickons he will,&quot; said Gregory, as he clambered up the ascent, not
+without imminent jeopardy, so anxious was he to escape.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is a fearful message to master,&quot; thought he, as he leapt out
+joyfully into the buoyant air: &quot;but at any rate I'll now be quit o' the
+job.&quot; And the messenger gave his report, for Oliver Tempest was
+impatiently awaiting his return.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis well,&quot; said he; &quot;and now, hark thee, should one syllable of this
+night's business bubble through thy lips, thou hadst better have stayed
+in the paws of the hobgoblin. Away!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Gregory needed no second invitation, but scampered home with great
+despatch, leaving his master to grope out the way as he thought proper.</p>
+
+<p>There was more bustle and preparation for dinner than usual on the
+morrow. Oliver Tempest had sent messengers to Bashall and Waddow; but
+the guests had not made their appearance. <!-- Page 488 --><a name="Page_488" id="Page_488" ></a>About noon the hall-table was
+furnished with a few whittles and well-scoured trenchers. Bright pewter
+cups and ale-flagons were set in rows on a side-table, and on the
+kitchen hearth lay a savoury chine of pork and pease-pudding. In the
+great boiling pot, hung on a crook over the fire, bubbled a score of
+hard dumplings, and in the broth reposed a huge piece of beef&mdash;these
+dainties being usually served in the following order&mdash;broth, dumpling,
+beef, according to the old distich&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;No broth, no ba';<br /></span>
+<span>No ba', no meat at a'.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Dame Joan of Waddington was the presiding genius of the feast, the
+conduit-pipe through which flowed the full stream of daily bounty,
+dispensing every blessing, even the most minute. In that golden age of
+domestic discipline it was not beneath the dignity of a careful
+housewife to attend and take the lead in all culinary arrangements.</p>
+
+<p>The master strode to and fro in the hall, and Elizabeth was humming at
+her wheel. He looked anxious and ill at ease, often casting a furtive
+glance towards the entrance, and occasionally a side-look at his
+daughter. She sometimes watched her father's eye, as though she had
+caught his restless apprehensions, and would have inquired the cause of
+his uneasiness. Suddenly a loud bay from a favourite hound that was
+dozing on the hearth announced the approach of a stranger. Oliver
+advanced with a quick step into the courtyard, and soon re-entered
+leading in a middle-sized, middle-aged personage, slightly formed, whose
+pale and saintly features looked haggard and apprehensive, while his eye
+wavered to and fro, less perhaps with curiosity than suspicion.</p>
+
+<p>He was wrapped in a grey cloak; and a leathern jerkin, barely meeting in
+front, displayed a considerable breadth of under garment in the space
+between hose and doublet. These were fastened together with tags or
+points, superseding the use of wooden skewers, with which latter mode of
+suspension not a few of our country yeomen were in those days supplied.
+His legs were protected by boots of fine brown Spanish leather, lined
+with deer-skin, tanned with the fur on, and buttoned from the ankle to
+the knee. He had gloves of the same material, reaching to the elbow when
+drawn up, but now turned down with the fur outwards. The hands and feet
+were remarkably small, <!-- Page 489 --><a name="Page_489" id="Page_489" ></a>but well shapen. A low grey cap of coarse
+woollen completed the costume of this singular visitor. There was, at
+times, in the expression of his eye, an indescribable mixture of
+imbecility and enthusiasm, as though the spirit of some Eastern fakir
+had reanimated a living body. A gleam of almost supernatural
+intelligence was mingled with an expression of fatuity, that in less
+enlightened ages would have invested him with the dangerous reputation
+of priest or prophet in the eyes of the multitude.</p>
+
+<p>Oliver Tempest led the way with great care and formality. To a keen-eyed
+observer, though, his courtesy would have appeared over acted and
+fulsome; but the object of his assiduities seemed to pay him little
+attention, further than by a vacant smile that struggled around the
+corners of his melancholy and placid mouth.</p>
+
+<p>Dame Joan Tempest now came forth, bending thrice in a deep and formal
+acknowledgment. The stranger stayed her speech with a look of great
+benignity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know thy words are what our kindness would interpret, and I thank
+thee. Your hospitality shall not lose its savour in my remembrance, when
+England hath grown weary of her guilt,&mdash;when the cry of the widow and
+the fatherless shall have prevailed. I am hunted like a partridge on the
+mountains; but, by the help of my God, I shall yet escape from the
+noisome pit, and from the snares of the fowler.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Yet the look which accompanied this prediction seemed incredulous of its
+purport. He heaved a deep sigh, and his eyes were suddenly bent on the
+ground. Being introduced into the hall, the seat of honour was assigned
+him at the table.</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth, when she saw him, uttered an ill-suppressed exclamation of
+surprise, and her pale countenance grew almost ghastly. Her lips were
+bloodless, quivering with terror and dismay. Agony was depicted on her
+brow&mdash;that agony which leaves the spirit without support to struggle
+with unknown, undefined, uncomprehended evil. Not a word escaped her;
+she hurried out of the hall, as she thought, without observation; but
+this sudden movement did not escape the eye of her father. Triumph sat
+on his brow; and his cheek seemed flushed with joy at the result of his
+stratagem.</p>
+
+<p>The servitors appeared; and the smoking victuals were disposed in their
+due order. The joints were placed at the upper end of the board, while
+broth and pottage steamed out their <!-- Page 490 --><a name="Page_490" id="Page_490" ></a>savoury fumes from the lower end of
+the table. At some distance below the master and his dame sat the male
+domestics, then the females, who occupied the lower places at the feast,
+except two, who waited on the rest.</p>
+
+<p>The master blessed the meal, the whole company standing. The broth was
+served round to the lower forms, and the meat and dainties to the
+higher; but Elizabeth was still absent.</p>
+
+<p>When she left the hall it was for the purpose of speaking to Gregory,
+whom she found skulking and peeping about the premises.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gregory, why art thou absent from thy nooning?&quot; inquired Elizabeth,
+with a suspicious and scrutinising glance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm not o'er careful to bide i' the house just now. Is there aught come
+that&mdash;that&quot;&mdash;Here he stammered and looked round, confirming the
+suspicions of the inquirer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gregory, thou art a traitor; but thou shalt not escape thy reward. I'll
+have thee hung&mdash;ay, villain, beyond the reach of aught but crows and
+kites.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Whoy, mistress, I'd leifer be hung nor stifled to death wi' brimstone
+and bad humours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None o' thy quiddities, thou maker of long lies and quick legs.
+Confess, or I'll&quot;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Whoy, look ye, mistress, you've been kind, and pulled me out of many an
+ugly ditch.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why dost thou hesitate, knave? I'm glad thy memory is not so
+treacherous as thy tongue.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, mistress, I've no notion to sup brose wi' t' old one: those that
+dinner wi' him he may happen ask to supper; and he'd need have a long
+whittle that cuts crumbs wi' the de'il.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Art thou at thy riddles again? Speak in sober similitudes, if thou
+canst, sirrah.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your father sent me on a message to the little devilkin last night. I
+was loth enough to the job; but he catched me as I went wi' the
+victuals.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A message!&mdash;and to what purport?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nay, that I know not. The invitation was conveyed in a scrap of
+writing, and I'm not gifted in clerkship an' such like matters.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A ray of intelligence now burst upon her. She saw the imminent danger
+which threatened the fugitive, who had been <!-- Page 491 --><a name="Page_491" id="Page_491" ></a>hitherto concealed
+principally by her contrivances. Gregory watched the rapid and changing
+hues alternating on her cheek. She saw the full extent of the emergency;
+and, though her father was the traitor, she hesitated not in that trying
+moment.</p>
+
+<p>No time was to be lost, and measures were immediately taken to
+countervail these designs.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What answer sent he?&quot; she hastily inquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The de'il's buckie said his master would be at the hall by dinner-time;
+and I'll not be one o' the guests where old Clootie has the pick o' the
+table.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou witless runnion, haste, or we are lost! It is the king! I would I
+had trusted thee before with the secret. Mayhap thy wit would have been
+without obscuration. Supernatural terrors have taken thy reason
+prisoner. Haste, nor look behind thee until thou art under the eaves of
+Bashall. This to my cousin, Edmund Talbot; he is honest, or my wishes
+themselves are turned traitors,&quot; said the maiden wistfully. She scrawled
+but one line, with which Gregory departed on his errand.</p>
+
+<p>Oliver Tempest grew uneasy at his daughter's absence. He inquired the
+cause, but all were alike ignorant. The king inquired too, with some
+surprise; and a messenger was despatched with a close whisper in his
+ear.</p>
+
+<p>The meal was nigh finished, when all eyes were turned towards the
+entrance. A little blackamoor page came waddling in. He made no sign nor
+obeisance, but took his station, without speaking, behind his master's
+chair.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, how now, my trusty squire?&quot; said the disguised monarch; &quot;thou wast
+not bidden to this feast.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The dwarf cast a scowling glance at the master of the house, and he
+replied, while a hideous grin dilated his thick stubborn features&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This be goodly wassail, methinks. I am weary of lurching and
+torchlight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tempest,&quot; said the king, &quot;I would crave grace for this follower of
+mine. He is somewhat fearsome and forbidding, but of an unwearied
+fidelity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Troth,&quot; said Tempest, still wishful to maintain the king's incognito,
+&quot;the Turks having now taken Byzantium, the great bulwark of Christendom,
+I did fear me that the first of the tribe from that great army of
+locusts had descended upon us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<!-- Page 492 --><a name="Page_492" id="Page_492" ></a>Fear not,&quot; said the unfortunate monarch, with a smile; &quot;this poor
+innocent will do no ill. His mistress brought him for me a present from
+her father's court; and, to say the truth, he has been a great solace in
+my trouble. He hath not forsaken me when they who fattened on my
+bounty&mdash;who dipped their hands with me in the dish&mdash;have been the first
+to betray me. The knave is shrewd and playful, but of an incredible
+strength, being, as ye may observe, double-jointed. Madoc, let them
+behold some token of thy power.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The cunning rogue obeyed in a twinkling. He seized the host's chair with
+one hand, lifting its occupant without difficulty from the ground. With
+the other he laid hold on him by the throat, and would certainly have
+strangled him but for the king.</p>
+
+<p>The assault was so sudden and unexpected that the domestics stood still
+a moment, as though rendered powerless by surprise.</p>
+
+<p>The next instant they all fled pell-mell out of the hall, every one
+struggling to be foremost, apprehending that the great personification
+of all evil was there, bodily, behind them, and in the very act of
+flying off with their master.</p>
+
+<p>In vain Joan shouted after the cowardly villains; her threats but
+increased their speed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fly, King Henry,&quot; cried the dwarf, in a voice that sounded like the
+roar of some infuriated beast; &quot;the rascal curs are barking; the stag is
+in the net. This traitor&quot;&mdash;Here he became at a loss for words; but his
+gesticulations were more vehement. &quot;Fly!&quot; at length he shouted, in a
+louder voice than before; &quot;I've seen sword and armour glittering in the
+forest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But the king was irresolute, as much amazed as any of the rest. He saw
+the imminent danger of his host, whose face was blackening above the
+grip of this fierce antagonist, and he cried out&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Leave go, Madoc; let the curs bark, we fear them not in this good
+house. Let go, I command thee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>With a look of pity and of scorn the savage loosened his hold, saying&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thou be'st not king now; but Henry with the beads and breviary; and
+here come thy tormentors.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A loud whistle rang through the hall, and in burst a band of armed men,
+led on by Sir Thomas Talbot of Bashall, and his <!-- Page 493 --><a name="Page_493" id="Page_493" ></a>oldest son of the same
+name, together with Sir James Harrington.</p>
+
+<p>Tempest, recovered from his gripe, made a furious dart at the king; but
+ere he had accomplished his purpose, Edmund Talbot rushed between, at
+the peril of his life, opening a way for the terrified monarch through
+the band that had nearly surrounded him.</p>
+
+<p>The king fled through the passage made by his deliverer; and the dwarf,
+keeping his enemies at bay, heroically and effectually covered his
+retreat.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Edmund Talbot, art thou traitor to thy kin?&quot; said Sir Thomas, from the
+crowd. &quot;Let me pass; 'tis thy father commands thee. 'Tis not thy king,
+he is a coward and a usurper.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I care not,&quot; said the retreating and faithful Edmund. &quot;My arm shall not
+compass with traitors. Cowards attack unarmed men at their meals.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then take thy reward.&quot; It was the eldest brother of Edmund who said
+this, whilst he aimed a terrific blow; but the dwarf caught his arm ere
+it descended, and a swinging stroke from a missile which he had picked
+up in the fray would have settled accounts between the heir of Bashall
+and posterity had he not stepped aside.</p>
+
+<p>This unequal contest, however, could not long continue, though time, the
+principal object, was gained, and the king was fast hastening again
+towards the cavern. In the courtyard he met Elizabeth, who implored him
+to step aside into another place of concealment; but he was too much
+terrified to comprehend her meaning. Fear seemed to have bewildered him,
+and the poor persecuted monarch sped on to his own destruction. In the
+hurry and uncertainty of his flight, he unfortunately took the wrong
+path, which led by a circuitous route to the ford; and, as he stepped
+out of the wood, two of his enemies, having broken through the gallant
+defence of his adherents, had already gained, and were guarding, the
+stepping-stones over the river, called &quot;Brunckerley Hippens.&quot; Terrified,
+he flew back into the wood, but was immediately followed; and again his
+evil destiny seemed to prevail. He took another path, which led him back
+to the ford. Here he crossed, and, whilst leaping with difficulty over
+the stones, the pursuers came in full view. Having gained the Lancashire
+side, he fled into the wood, but his enemies were now too close upon him
+for escape, <!-- Page 494 --><a name="Page_494" id="Page_494" ></a>and the royal captive was taken, bound, and conveyed to
+Bashall. Many cruel indignities were heaped upon him; and he was
+conveyed to London in the most piteous plight, on horseback, with his
+legs tied to the stirrups. Ere he departed, it is said that he delivered
+a singular prediction&mdash;to wit, that nine generations of the Talbot
+family, in succession, should consist of a wise and a weak man by turns,
+after which the name should be lost.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> Whitaker's <i>Craven</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> Pennant.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> <i>Hist. Whalley</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> Webster, in his <i>Metallographia</i>, mentions a field called
+Skilhorn, in the township of Rivington-within-Craven, &quot;belonging to one
+Mr Pudsay, an ancient esquire, and owner of Bolton Hall, juxta Bolland;
+who, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, did get good store of silver-ore,
+and convert it to his own use, or rather coined it, as many do believe,
+there being many shillings marked with an escallop, which the people of
+that country call Pudsay shillings to this day. But whether way soever
+it was, he procured his pardon for it, and had it, as I am certified
+from the mouths of those who had seen it.&quot; Webster further adds: &quot;While
+old Basby (a chemist) was with me, I procured some of the ore, which
+yielded after the rate of twenty-six pounds of silver per ton. Since
+then, good store of lead has been gotten; but I never could procure any
+more of the sort formerly gotten; the miners being so cunning, that if
+they meet with any vein that contains so much ore as will make it a myne
+royall, they will not discover it.&quot;
+</p><p>
+Dr Whitaker, in his <i>History of Craven,</i> says: &quot;The following papers,
+lately communicated to me from the evidences of the Pudsays, put the
+matter out of doubt:&mdash;'Case of a myne royall. Although the gold or
+silver contained in the base metalls of a mine in the land of a subject
+be of less value than the baser metall, yet if gold and silver doe
+countervaile the charge of refining, or bee of more value than the baser
+metall spent in refining itt, this is a myne royall, and <i>as wel the
+base metall</i> as the gold and silver in it, belongs to the crown.
+</p>
+<p>
+&quot;'Edw. Herbert, Attorney-General.<br />
+Oliver St John, Solicitor-General.<br />
+Orl. Bridgman.<br />
+Joh. Glanvill.<br />
+Jeoffry Palmer.<br />
+Tho. Lane.<br />
+Jo. Maynard.<br />
+Hdw. Hyde.<br />
+J. Glynn.<br />
+Harbottle Grimstone,' &amp;c.
+</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So favourable at that time were the opinions of the most constitutional
+lawyers (for such were the greater part of these illustrious names) to
+the prerogative. But the law on this head has been very wisely altered
+by two statutes of William and Mary.&mdash;Blackstone, iv. 295.
+</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The other paper is of later date:&mdash;'To the King's most excellent
+Majestie. The humble petition of Ambrose Pudsay, Esq., sheweth, that
+your petitioner having suffered much by imprisonment, plunder, &amp;c., for
+his bounden loyalty, and having many years concealed a myne royall, in
+Craven, in Yorkshire, prayeth a patent for digging and refining the
+same.'&quot;</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> <i>Hist, of Whalley</i>, p. 504.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59" ></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> This lady, whose attractions or good fortune must have
+been uncommon, says the historian of Craven, was daughter to Henry
+Pudsay of Bolton. She married, first, Sir Thomas Talbot of Bashall, who
+died 13 Henry VII.; after which she became the second wife of Henry,
+Lord Clifford, the shepherd; and, after his decease, by the procurement
+of Henry VIII., gave her hand to Richard Grey, youngest son of Thomas,
+Marquis of Dorset.</p></div></div>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<h3>END OF VOL. I.</h3>
+
+<h5>Printed by Ballantyne and Company Edinburgh and London</h5>
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@@ -0,0 +1,22217 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2), by
+John Roby
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2)
+
+Author: John Roby
+
+Release Date: March 7, 2005  [eBook #15271]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRADITIONS OF LANCASHIRE, VOLUME 1
+(OF 2)***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, Charles Aldarondo, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 15271-h.htm or 15271-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/2/7/15271/15271-h/15271-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/2/7/15271/15271-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+"I know I have herein made myself subject unto a world of judges, and
+am likest to receive most controulment of such as are least able to
+sentence me. Well I wote that the works of no writers have appeared to
+the world in a more curious age than this; and that, therefore, the more
+circumspection and wariness is required in the publishing of anything
+that must endure so many sharp sights and censures. The consideration
+whereof, as it hath made me all the more needy not to displease any, to
+hath it given not the less hope of pleasing all."
+
+VERSTEGAN, _Rest. dec. Ant._
+
+
+
+[Illustration: JOHN ROBY]
+
+
+
+TRADITIONS OF LANCASHIRE
+
+by
+
+JOHN ROBY, M.R.S.L.
+
+Illustrated by Engravings on Steel and Wood
+
+In Two Volumes
+
+VOL. I.
+
+Fifth Edition.
+
+
+London:
+George Routledge and Sons,
+Manchester: L.C. Gent.
+
+1872
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
+
+
+ADVERTISEMENT TO FIFTH EDITION
+
+PUBLISHERS' PREFACE TO FOURTH EDITION
+
+MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR
+
+PREFACE TO FIRST SERIES
+
+PREFACE TO SECOND SERIES
+
+INTRODUCTION TO SECOND SERIES
+
+
+TRADITIONS
+
+SIR TARQUIN
+
+THE GOBLIN BUILDERS
+
+MAB'S CROSS
+
+THE PRIOR OF BURSCOUGH
+
+THE EAGLE AND CHILD
+
+THE BLACK KNIGHT OF ASHTON
+
+FAIR ELLEN OF RADCLIFFE
+
+THE ABBOT OF WHALLEY
+
+SIR EDWARD STANLEY
+
+GEORGE MARSH, THE MARTYR
+
+DR DEE, THE ASTROLOGER
+
+THE SEER
+
+THE EARL OF TYRONE
+
+HOGHTON TOWER
+
+THE LANCASHIRE WITCHES
+
+SIEGE OF LATHOM
+
+RAVEN CASTLE
+
+THE PHANTOM VOICE
+
+THE BAR-GAIST
+
+THE HAUNTED MANOR-HOUSE
+
+CLITHEROE CASTLE
+
+THE GREY MAN OF THE WOOD
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+MAB'S CROSS, WIGAN
+
+BURSCOUGH ABBEY
+
+RADCLIFFE TOWER
+
+WHALLEY ABBEY
+
+HORNBY CASTLE
+
+COLLEGIATE CHURCH, MANCHESTER
+
+TYRONE'S BED, NEAR ROCHDALE
+
+HOGHTON TOWER
+
+EAGLE CRAG, VALE OF TODMORDEN
+
+LATHOM HOUSE
+
+SOUTH PORT
+
+INCE-HALL, NEAR WIGAN
+
+CLITHEROE CASTLE
+
+
+
+
+ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIFTH EDITION.
+
+
+The Fourth Edition of the "TRADITIONS OF LANCASHIRE" was published five
+years ago, and the whole of the impression was ordered from the
+publishers before it had left the printers' hands. Owing to the
+difficulty in obtaining copies, it has been suggested that a re-issue,
+in a cheap form, is a desideratum, and the present volumes are the
+result. This is the only Complete Edition (except the Fourth, from which
+it is an unabridged reprint), of Roby's Traditions--several Legendary
+Tales being incorporated which were not included in any of the earlier
+copies of the work.
+
+_November_ 1871.
+
+
+
+
+THE PUBLISHERS' PREFACE TO FOURTH EDITION.
+
+
+Roby's "TRADITIONS OF LANCASHIRE" having long been out of print--stray
+copies commanding high prices--it has been determined to republish the
+whole in a more compact and less costly form. This, the fourth and the
+_only complete edition_, includes the _First_ Series of twenty tales,
+published in two volumes (1829, demy 8vo, L2, 2s.; royal 8vo, with
+proofs and etchings, L4, 4s.); the _Second_ Series, also of twenty
+tales, in two volumes (1831, 8vo, L2, 2s., &c.); and three additional
+stories from his _Legendary and Poetical Remains_, first published after
+his death (1854, post 8vo, 10s. 6d.)[1] In the two volumes now presented
+the reader will possess not only the whole of the contents of both
+series, in four volumes, at one-fourth of the price of the original
+publication, but also three additional stories from the posthumous
+volume, with a memoir, a portrait, &c.
+
+From deference to a strongly-expressed feeling that the work should be
+printed without any abridgment, omission, or alteration, and the text
+preserved in its full integrity, it has been decided to reprint it
+entire; and consequently various inaccuracies in the original editions
+have been left untouched. Two or three of the most important may be
+corrected here.
+
+In the tale of "The Dead Man's Hand," Mr Roby seems to have been led by
+false information into some errors reflecting on the character and
+memory of a devout and devoted Roman Catholic priest, known as Father
+Arrowsmith. Mr Roby states that he was executed at Lancaster "in the
+reign of William III.;" that "when about to suffer he desired his right
+hand might be cut off, assuring the bystanders that it would have power
+to work miraculous cures on those who had faith to believe in its
+efficacy," and, denying that Father Arrowsmith suffered on account of
+religion, Mr Roby adds that "having been found guilty of a misdemeanour,
+in all probability this story of his martyrdom and miraculous
+attestation to the truth of the cause for which he suffered, was
+contrived for the purpose of preventing any scandal that might have
+come upon the Church through the delinquency of an unworthy member."
+
+What, then, are the facts, as far as they have been investigated? The
+Father Edmund Arrowsmith who suffered death at Lancaster was born at
+Haydock in Lancashire[2] in 1585, and he suffered death in August 1628
+(4th Charles I.), sixty years before William III. ascended the English
+throne. The mode of execution was not that of capital punishment for the
+offence committed, but rather that imposed by the laws for treason and
+for exercising the functions of a Roman Catholic priest. He was hanged,
+drawn, and quartered, and his head and quarters were fixed upon poles on
+Lancaster Castle. It was in this dismemberment that the hand became
+separated, and it was secretly carried away by some sorrowing member of
+his communion, and its supposed curative power was afterwards discovered
+and made known.[3] Mr Roby cites no authority for this contradiction of
+the original tradition. The judge who presided at the trial was Sir
+Henry Yelverton of the Common Pleas, who died on the 24th January 1629.
+
+In the Tradition of "The Dule upo' Dun," Mr Roby states that a
+public-house having that sign stood at the entrance of a small village
+on the right of the highway to Gisburn, and barely three miles from
+Clitheroe. When Mr Roby wrote the public-house had been long pulled
+down; it had ceased to be an inn at a period beyond living memory;
+though the ancient house, converted into two mean, thatched cottages,
+stood until about forty years ago. But the site of the house is in
+Clitheroe itself, little more than half a mile from the centre of the
+town, and on the road, not to Gisburn, but to Waddington.[4]
+
+It only remains to add that the illustrations to the present edition
+comprise not only all the beautiful plates (engraved by Edward Finden,
+from drawings by George Pickering) of the original edition, which have
+been much admired as picturesque works of art, but also all the
+wood-engravings (by Williams, after designs by Frank Howard) which have
+appeared in any former edition, and which constituted the sole
+embellishments of the three-volume editions. To these is now first added
+the fine portrait of Mr Roby from the posthumous volume.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] The First Series includes all the Traditions beginning with "Sir
+Tarquin" and ending with "The Haunted Manor-House;" the Second Series
+comprises all the Tales from "Clitheroe Castle" to "Rivington Pike,"
+both included; and the three Tales now first incorporated are--"Mother
+Red-Cap, or the Rosicrucians;" "The Death Painter, or the Skeleton's
+Bride;" and "The Crystal Goblet."
+
+[2] His mother was a daughter of the old Lancashire family of Gerard of
+Bryn.
+
+[3] These dates and facts will be found in the _Missionary Priests_ of
+Bishop Challoner, who wrote about 1740 (2 vols. 8vo., Manchester,
+1741-2), naming as his authority a manuscript history of the trial, and
+a printed account of it published in 1629. His statements are confirmed
+by independent testimony. See Henry More's _Historia-Provinciae Anglicaae
+Societatis Jesu_, book x. (sm. fol. St Omer's, 1660). Also Tanner's
+_Societas Jesu_, &c., p. 99 (sm. fol. Prague, 1675). Neither Challoner
+nor the MS. account, nor either of the authors just quoted, says one
+word of Father Arrowsmith's alleged speech about the hand.
+
+[4] See Mr Wm. Dobson's _Rambles by the Ribble_, 1st Series, p. 137.
+
+
+
+
+MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.[5]
+
+
+The late John Roby was born at Wigan on the 5th January 1793. From his
+father, Nehemiah Roby, who was for many years Master of the
+Grammar-School at Haigh, near Wigan, he inherited a good constitution
+and unbended principles of honour and integrity. From the family of his
+mother, Mary Aspall, he derived the quick, impressible temperament of
+genius, and the love of humour which so conspicuously marks the
+Lancashire character. He was the youngest child. His thirst for
+knowledge was early and strongly manifested. Being once told in
+childhood not to be so inquisitive, his appeal ever after was,
+"_Inquisitive_ wants to know." As he grew up into boyhood, surrounded by
+objects to which tradition had assigned her marvellous stories, they
+sank silently but indelibly into his mind. In his immediate vicinity
+were Haigh Hall and Mab's Cross, the scenes of Lady Mabel's sufferings
+and penance--the subject of one of his earliest tales. Almost within
+sight of the windows lay the fine range of hills of which Rivington Pike
+is a spur. In after-life he recalled with pleasure the many sports in
+that district which were the haunts of his early days, and the scenes of
+the legends he afterwards embodied. While yet a child he regularly took
+the organ in a chapel at Wigan during the Sunday service. He also early
+excelled in drawing, and after he had commenced the avocations of a
+banker the use of the pencil was a favourite recreation. His first prose
+composition, at the age of fifteen years, took a prize in a periodical
+for the best essay on a prescribed subject, by young persons under a
+specified age. Thus encouraged, poetry, essay, tale, were all tried, and
+with success. In his eighteenth or nineteenth year he received a silver
+snuff-box, inscribed, "The gift of the Philosophic Society, Wigan, to
+their esteemed lecturer and worthy member."
+
+Mr Roby first appeared before the public as a poet; publishing in 1815,
+"Sir Bertram, a poem in six cantos." Another poem quickly followed,
+entitled "Lorenzo, a tale of Redemption." In 1816, he married Ann, the
+youngest daughter of James and Dorothy Bealey, of Derrikens, near
+Blackburn, by whom he had nine children, three of whom died in their
+infancy. His next publication was "The Duke of Mantua," a tragedy, which
+appeared in 1823, passed through three or four editions in a short time,
+and after being long out of print, was included in the posthumous volume
+of _Legendary Remains_. In the summer of that year he made an excursion
+in Scotland, visiting "the bonnie braes o' Yarrow" in company with James
+Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd. The literary leisure of the next six years
+was occupied in collecting materials for the _Traditions of Lancashire_,
+and in weaving these into tales of romantic interest. In this task he
+received the most courteous assistance from several representatives of
+noble houses connected with the traditions of the county; particularly
+from the late Earl and Countess of Crawford and Balcarres, and also from
+the late Earl of Derby.
+
+The _first_ series of _The Traditions of Lancashire_ appeared in 1829,
+in two volumes (including twenty tales), illustrated by plates. The
+reception of the work equalled Mr Roby's most sanguine expectations; and
+a second edition was called for within twelve months. The late Sir
+Francis Palgrave, in a letter to Mr Roby, dated 26th October 1829, thus
+estimates the work:--
+
+     "As compositions, the extreme beauty of your style, and the skill
+     which you have shown in working up the rude materials, must entitle
+     them to the highest rank in the class of work to which they
+     belong.... You have made such a valuable addition, not only to
+     English literature, but to English topography, by your
+     collection--for these popular traditions form, or ought to form, an
+     important feature in topographical history--that it is to be hoped
+     you will not stop with the present volumes."
+
+The _second_ series of the "Traditions," consisting also of two volumes
+(including twenty tales), uniform with the first, was published in 1831,
+and met with similar success. Both series were reviewed in the most
+cordial manner by the leading periodicals of the day; while they were
+more than once quoted by Sir Walter Scott, who characterised the whole
+as an elegant work. In the production of these tales, Mr Roby's practice
+was to make himself master of the historical groundwork of the story,
+and as far as possible of the manners and customs of the period, and
+then to commence composition, with Fosbroke's _Encyclopedia of
+Antiquities_ at hand, for accuracy of costume, &c. He always gave the
+credit of his style, which the _Westminster Review_ termed "a very model
+of good Saxon," to his native county, the force and energy of whose
+dialect arises mainly from the prevalence of the Teutonic element. "The
+thought digs out the word," was his favourite saying, when the exact
+expression he wanted did not at once occur. In these "Traditions" his
+great creative power is conspicuous; about two hundred different
+characters are introduced, no one of which reminds the reader of
+another, while there is abundant diversity of both heroic and comic
+incident and adventure. A gentleman, after reading the "Traditions,"
+remarked that for invention he scarcely knew Mr Roby's equal. All these
+characters, it should be stated, are creations: not one is an idealised
+portrait. The short vivid descriptions of scenery scattered throughout
+are admirable. Each tale is, in fact, a cabinet picture, combining
+history and romance with landscape. Mr Roby excelled in depicting the
+supernatural; and one German reviewer declared his story of Rivington
+Pike to be "the only authentic tale of demoniacal possession the English
+have."
+
+In 1832, Mr Roby visited the English lakes, and recorded his impressions
+in lively sketches both with pen and pencil. In the spring of 1837, he
+made a rapid tour on the Continent, the notes and illustrative sketches
+of which were published in two volumes, under the title of _Seven Weeks
+in Belgium, Switzerland, Lombardy, Piedmont, Savoy, &c._ In 1840, Mr
+Roby again visited the Continent by a different route, making notes and
+sketches of what he saw. At the close of the year, he was engaged in
+preparing a new edition of the "Traditions," in a less expensive form.
+It was published in three volumes, as the first of a series of Popular
+Traditions of England; his intention being to follow up those of
+Lancashire with similar legends of Yorkshire, for which he wrote a few
+tales, which appeared in Blackwood's and Eraser's Magazines.
+
+The principal literary occupation of the next four years appears to have
+been the preparation and delivery of lectures on various subjects in
+connection with literary and mechanics' institutions. In 1844, his
+health gave way, and for years he suffered severely. As a last resource
+he tried the water-cure at Malvern in the spring of 1847, and with
+complete success. In the summer of 1849, he again married--the lady who
+survived him, and to whose "sketch of his life" we are largely indebted
+in this brief memoir. In the two short years following this
+marriage--the two last of his life--he was busily engaged in writing and
+delivering lectures, visiting places which form the scenes of some of
+his latest legends, and in the composition of a series of tales intended
+to illustrate the influence of Christianity in successive periods, a
+century apart. Deferring that for the fourth century, he wrote six,
+bringing the series down to the close of the seventh century; when he
+determined on visiting Scotland. With his wife and daughter he embarked
+at Liverpool on board the steamer _Orion_ for Glasgow, which ill-fated
+vessel struck on some rocks about one o'clock in the morning of the 18th
+June 1850, and went down. Mrs and Miss Roby were rescued after having
+been some time in the water, but of the husband and father only the
+corpse was recovered, and his remains were laid in his family grave in
+the burial-ground of the Independent Chapel, Rochdale, on Saturday, the
+22d of that month.
+
+Mr Roby was not more remarkable for his numerous and varied talents than
+for his warm and affectionate heart, rich imagination, great love of
+humour, and deep and earnest piety. He was a facile versifier, an
+elegant prose writer, an able botanist and physiologist. Possessing a
+fine ear, rich voice, and great musical taste, he not only took his
+vocal share in part-song, but wrote several melodies, which have been
+published. In one species of rapid mental calculation, or rather
+combination of figures--giving in an instant the sum of a double column
+of twenty figures in each row, or a square of six figures--he far
+excelled Bidder, the calculating boy. He was a skilful draughtsman, a
+clever mimic and ventriloquist, an excellent _raconteur_, an
+accomplished conversationist, ever fascinating in the select social
+circle, and always "tender and wise" in that of home. He was a man of
+genuine benevolence, a cordial friend, an affectionate husband and
+father, and a humble and devout Christian. His family crest was a garb
+or wheat-sheaf, with the motto, "I am ready;" and in his case--though
+his death was sudden and unexpected--illness and bereavement, mental and
+physical suffering--in short, the chastenings and discipline of life,
+had done their work. His "sheaf" was "ready for the garner."
+
+_October_ 1866.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[5] This Memoir has been almost wholly derived from the "Sketch of the
+Literary Life and Character of John Roby," written by his widow, and
+occupying 117 pages of the posthumous volume of his _Legendary and
+Poetical Remains_.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO THE FIRST SERIES.
+
+
+A preface is rarely needed, generally intrusive, and always
+tiresome--seldom read, more seldom desiderated: a piece of egotism at
+best, where the author, speaking of himself, has the less chance of
+being listened to. Yet--and what speaker does not think he ought to be
+heard?--the author conceives there may be some necessity, some reason,
+why he should step forward for the purpose of explaining his views in
+connection with the character and design of the following pages.
+
+In the northern counties, and more particularly in Lancashire, the great
+arena of the STANLEYS during the civil wars--where the progress and
+successful issue of his cause was but too confidently anticipated by
+CHARLES STUART, and the scene especially of those strange and unholy
+proceedings in which the "Lancashire witches" rendered themselves so
+famous--it may readily be imagined that a number of interesting legends,
+anecdotes, and scraps of family history, are floating about, hitherto
+preserved chiefly in the shape of oral tradition. The antiquary, in most
+instances, rejects the information that does not present itself in the
+form of an authentic and well-attested fact; and legendary lore, in
+particular, he throws aside as worthless and unprofitable. The author of
+the "TRADITIONS OF LANCASHIRE," in leaving the dry and heraldic
+pedigrees which unfortunately constitute the great bulk of those works
+that bear the name of county histories, enters on the more entertaining,
+though sometimes apocryphal narratives, which exemplify and embellish
+the records of our forefathers.
+
+A native of Lancashire, and residing there during the greater part of
+his life, he has been enabled to collect a mass of local traditions, now
+fast dying from the memories of the inhabitants. It is his object to
+perpetuate these interesting relics of the past, and to present them in
+a form that may be generally acceptable, divested of the dust and dross
+in which the originals are but too often disfigured, so as to appear
+worthless and uninviting.
+
+Tradition is not an unacceptable source of historical inquiry; and the
+writer who disdains to follow these glimmerings of truth will often find
+himself in the dark, with nothing but his own opinions--the smouldering
+vapour of his own imagination--to guide him in the search.
+
+The following extract from a German writer on the subject sufficiently
+exemplifies and illustrates the design the author has generally had
+before him in the composition and arrangement of the following
+legends:--
+
+"Simple and unimportant as the subject may at first appear, it will be
+found, upon a nearer view, well worth the attention of philosophical and
+historical inquirers. All genuine, popular Tales, arranged with local
+and national reference, cannot fail to throw light upon contemporary
+events in history, upon the progressive cultivation of society, and
+upon the prevailing modes of thinking in every age. Though not
+consisting of a recital of bare facts, they are in most instances
+founded upon fact, and in so far connected with history, which
+occasionally, indeed, borrows from, and as often reflects light upon,
+these familiar annals, these more private and interesting casualties of
+human life.
+
+"It is thus that popular tradition, connected with all that is most
+interesting in human history and human action, upon a national scale--a
+mirror reflecting the people's past worth and wisdom--invariably
+possesses so deep a hold upon its affections, and offers so many
+instructive hints to the man of the world, to the statesman, the
+citizen, and the peasant.
+
+"Signs of approaching changes, no less in manners than in states, may
+likewise be traced, floating down this popular current of opinions,
+fertilising the seeds scattered by a past generation, and marking by its
+ebbs and flows the state of the political atmosphere, and the distant
+gathering of the storm.
+
+"National traditions further serve to throw light upon ancient and
+modern mythology; and in many instances they are known to preserve
+traces of their fabulous descent, as will clearly appear in some of the
+following selections. It is the same with those of all nations, whether
+of eastern or western origin, Greek, Scythian, or Kamtschatkan. And
+hence, among every people just emerged out of a state of barbarism, the
+same causes lead to the production of similar compositions; and a chain
+of connection is thus established between the fables of different
+nations, only varied by clime and custom, sufficient to prove, not
+merely a degree of harmony, but secret interchanges and communications."
+
+A record of the freaks of such airy beings, glancing through the mists
+of national superstition, would prove little inferior in poetical
+interest and association to the fanciful creations of the Greek
+mythology. The truth is, they are of one family, and we often discover
+allusions to the beautiful fable of Psyche or the story of Midas;
+sometimes with the addition, that the latter was obliged to admit his
+barber into his uncomfortable secret. Odin and Jupiter are brothers, if
+not the same person; and the northern Hercules is often represented as
+drawing a strong man by almost invisible threads, which pass from his
+tongue round the limbs of the victim, thereby symbolising the power of
+eloquence. Several incidents in the following tales will be recognised
+by those conversant with Scandinavian literature, thus adding another
+link to the chain of certainty which unites the human race, or at any
+rate that part of it from which Europe was originally peopled, in one
+original tribe or family.
+
+A work of this nature, embodying the material of our own island
+traditions, has not yet been attempted; and the writer confidently hopes
+that these tales may be found fully capable of awakening and sustaining
+the peculiar and high-wrought interest inherent in the legends of our
+continental neighbours. Should they fail of producing this effect, he
+requests that it may be attributed rather to his want of power to
+conjure up the spirits of past ages, than to any want of capabilities in
+the subjects he has chosen to introduce.
+
+To the local and to the general reader--to the antiquary and the
+uninitiated--to the admirers of the fine arts and embellishments of our
+literature, he hopes his labours will prove acceptable; and should the
+plan succeed, not Lancashire alone, but the other counties, may in their
+turn become the subject of similar illustrations. The tales are arranged
+chronologically, forming a somewhat irregular series from the earliest
+records to those of a comparatively modern date. They may in point of
+style appear at the commencement stiff and stalwart, like the chiselled
+warriors, whose deeds are generally enveloped in a rude narrative, hard
+and ponderous as their gaunt and grisly effigies. The events, however,
+as the author has found them, gradually assimilate with the familiar
+aspects and everyday affections of our nature--subsiding from the stern
+and repulsive character of a barbarous age into the usual forms and
+modes of feeling incident to humanity--as some cold and barren region,
+where one stunted blade of affection can scarce find shelter, gradually
+opens Out into the quiet glades and lowly habitudes of ordinary
+existence.
+
+The author disclaims all pretensions to superior knowledge. He would not
+even arrogate to himself the name of antiquary. Some of the incidents
+are perhaps well known, being merely put into a novel and more popular
+shape. The spectator is here placed upon an eminence where the scenes
+assume a new aspect, new combinations of beauty and grandeur being the
+result of the vantage ground he has obtained. Nothing more is attempted
+than what others, with the same opportunities, might have done as
+well--perhaps better. When Columbus broke the egg--if we may be excused
+the arrogance of the simile--all that were present could have done the
+same; and some, no doubt, might have performed the operation more
+dexterously.
+
+_1st October_ 1829.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO THE SECOND SERIES.
+
+
+In presenting another and concluding series of Lancashire Traditions to
+the public, the author has to express his thanks for the indulgence he
+has received, and the spirit of candour and kindness with which this
+attempt to illustrate in a novel manner the legends of his native county
+has been viewed by the periodical press.
+
+To his numerous readers, in the capacity of an author, he would say
+Farewell, did not the "everlasting adieus," everlastingly repeated, warn
+him that he might at some future time be subject to the same infirmity,
+only rendered more conspicuous by weakness and irresolution.
+
+Rochdale, _October_ 1831.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND SERIES.
+
+
+No method has yet been discovered for preserving the recollection of
+human actions and events precisely as they have occurred, whole and
+unimpaired, in all their truth and reality. Time is an able teacher of
+causes and qualities, but he setteth little store by names and persons,
+or the mould and fashion of their deeds. The pyramids have outlived the
+very names of their builders. "Oblivion," says Sir Thomas Browne,
+"blindly scatters her poppies. Time has spared the epitaph of Adrian's
+horse--confounded that of himself!"
+
+Few things are so durable as the memory of those mischiefs and
+oppressions which Time has bequeathed to mankind. The names of
+conquerors and tyrants have been faithfully preserved, while those from
+whom have originated the most useful and beneficial discoveries are
+entirely unknown, or left to perish in darkness and uncertainty. We
+should not have known that Lucullus brought cherries from the banks of
+the Phasis but through the details of massacre and spoliation--the
+splendid barbarities of a Roman triumph. In some instances Time displays
+a fondness and a caprice in which the gloomiest tyranny is seen
+occasionally to indulge. The unlettered Arab cherishes the memory of his
+line. He traces it unerringly to a remoter origin than could be claimed
+or identified by the most ancient princes of Europe. In many instances
+he could give a clearer and a higher genealogy to his horse. But that
+which Time herself would spare, the critic and the historian would
+demolish. The northern barbarians are accused of an exterminating
+hostility to learning. It never was half so bitter as the warfare which
+learning displays against everything of which she herself is not the
+author. A living historian has denied that the poems of Ossian had any
+existence save in the conceptions of Macpherson, because he
+condescendingly informs us, "Before the invention or introduction of
+letters, human memory is incapable of any faithful record which may be
+transmitted from age to age."
+
+The account which Macpherson gave may be a fiction, but it is admitted
+by those who know the native Scotch and Irish tongues, and have dwelt
+where no other language is spoken, that there are poems which have been
+transmitted from generation to generation (orally it must be, since
+letters are either entirely unknown or are comparatively of recent
+introduction), the machinery of which prove them to have been invented
+about the time when Christianity was first preached in these islands.
+
+Tradition may well be named the eldest daughter of Time, and
+nursing-mother of the Muses--the fruitful parent of that very learning
+which would, in the cruel spirit of its pedantry and malice, make her
+the sacrifice while it lays claim to the inheritance. What is learning
+but a laborious, often ill-drawn, and almost invariably partial
+deduction from facts which tradition has first collected? When we
+consider in whose hands learning has been, almost ever since its
+creation; the uses which have been made of it by priests and
+politicians; by poets, orators, and flatterers; by controversialists and
+designing historians;--how commonly has it been perverted to abuse the
+very senses of mankind, and to give a bias to their thoughts and
+feelings, only to mislead and to betray! Let the evidence be well
+compared, and a view taken of the respective amounts of doubt and
+certainty which appertain to human history as it appears in written
+records; and it will be seen that, to verify any given fact, so as to
+prevent the possibility of doubt, we must throw aside our reverence for
+the scholar's pen and the midnight lamp, which seem, like the faculty of
+speech, only given to men, as the witty Frenchman observed, "to conceal
+their thoughts." This comparative process is precisely what has been
+adopted by M.L. Petit Radel in his new theory upon the origin of Greece.
+"Not satisfied with the mythological equivocation and contradictory
+statements which till now have perplexed the question, after a residence
+of ten years this learned man returns with a new theory, which would
+destroy all our received ideas, and carry the civilisation and cradle of
+the Greeks much beyond the time and place that have till now been
+supposed. It is their very architecture that M. Petit Radel
+interrogates, and its passive testimony serves as a basis to his system.
+He has visited, compared, and meditated on the unequivocal vestiges of
+more than one hundred and fifty antique citadels, altogether neglected
+by the Greek and Roman authors. Their form and construction serve him,
+with the aid of ingenious reasoning, to prove that Greece was civilised
+a long time before the arrival of the Egyptian colonies. He does not
+despair of tracing back the descent of the Greeks to the Hyperborean
+nations, always by the analogy of their structures, which, by a singular
+identity, are found also among the Phoenicians. The Institute have
+pronounced the following judgment upon his theory:--'If the developments
+which remain to be given to us suffice to gain the votes of the learned,
+and induce them to adopt this theory as demonstrated truth, M.L. Petit
+Radel may flatter himself with having made in history a discovery truly
+worthy to occupy a place in the progress of human genius.'"
+
+Thus the very time in which a living historian of England has chosen to
+inflict an impotent blow, from the leaden sceptre of Johnsonian
+criticism, upon all facts which claim an existence anterior to the
+invention of books, appears pregnant with a discovery of a method of
+investigating the most remote eras, which presupposes an inherent spirit
+of fallacy and falsehood in all written records of their existence.
+
+About three hundred years after the era of the Olympiads, the first date
+of authentic history, Herodotus astonished his countrymen by the
+writings he brought forth. Who kept the records out of which his work
+was elaborated ere he was ready to stamp the facts with the only seal
+which our modern historians will acknowledge or allow? Tradition
+doubtless was his guide, which the learned themselves complain of as the
+source of what they term his errors and his fables. But the voice of
+tradition has often reinstated his claims to our belief, where it had
+been suspended either by ignorance or pretensions to superior knowledge.
+A modern traveller found, in one of the isles of the Grecian
+Archipelago, undoubted vestiges of a state of society similar to that of
+the Amazons. The order of the sexes was wholly inverted. The wife ruled
+the husband, and his and her kindred, with uncontrolled and unsparing
+rigour, sanctioned and even commanded by the laws. Yet the very
+existence of any such people as the Amazons of ancient history has not
+only been questioned, but denied. Learning has proved it to be
+impossible.
+
+The Marquess of Hastings told the Rev. Mr Swan, chaplain of the
+Cambrian, that he had found the germ of fact from which many of the most
+incredible tales in ancient history had grown during his stay in India.
+One instance only we would relate. A Grecian author mentions a people
+who had only one leg. An embassy from the interior was conducted into
+the presence of the viceroy, and he could by no persuasion prevail upon
+the obsequious minister to use more than one of his legs, though he
+stood during the whole of a protracted audience.
+
+But there are other forces now drawing into the field to support the
+long-neglected claims of tradition. Etymology, which professed to settle
+doubts by an appeal to the elementary sounds of words, was banished from
+the politer and more influential circles of English learning by a decree
+as arbitrary as that pronounced on the poems of Ossian. It has come back
+with a new commission and under a new title;--Ethnography is the name
+given by our continental neighbours to this new science, which, in its
+future developments, may bring to light some of the most obscure and
+important circumstances affecting the human race, from its origin
+through every succeeding epoch of its existence. The distinguishing
+object of this inquiry is to identify the fortunes, migrations, and
+changes of the human family as to situation, policy, religion,
+agriculture, and arts, by comparing the terms supplied by or introduced
+into the language of any one country with the names of the same objects
+in every other. There would be no such thing as chance in nature could
+we know the laws which determine every separate accident. In like manner
+there will scarcely be any doubt respecting the primitive history of man
+when this new science shall have accumulated and revealed all the
+treasures which it may be enabled to appropriate. An agreement in the
+primitive term which any object of cultivation, physical or moral, bears
+among many different tribes, spread over many and far-distant regions,
+will be considered as the best evidence of one common origin.
+Disagreement in a similar case, accompanied with a great variety of
+terms of considerable dissonance, will be equally conclusive as to the
+object being indigenous or of a multifarious origin.
+
+Already has Balbi, in his Ethnographic Atlas, given us a list of names
+and coincidences to an extent truly astonishing. Yet what is this, in
+fact, but a judicious use of Bacon's old but much-neglected rule of
+questioning nature about facts instead of theories--examining evidences
+ere rhetoric had made language one vast heap of implied falsehood?
+
+In a court of inquiry we examine witnesses as to facts, not opinions.
+But the historian reads mankind in cities; the philosopher in the
+clouds. He who is anxious for the truth should look abroad on the plains
+or in the woods, where man's first prerogative, the giving of names, was
+exercised. His knowledge of nature must be wretchedly imperfect who
+thinks that no grand outline of truth can possibly exist in the dim
+records of human recollection ere the pen of the scholar was employed to
+depict the scenes that opinion or prejudice had created. How many pages
+of Clarendon's, Hume's, or even Robertson's history would be cancelled
+if we had access to all the recollections of each event, and the
+evidence of the unlettered vulgar who had witnessed the fact brought to
+our notice, even through the mouthpiece of tradition!
+
+There is more truth than comes to the surface in that speech put into
+the lips of the father of lies by a late poet, where he says--
+
+     "The Bible's your book--history mine."
+
+Savigny makes the same charge against one class of historians in his own
+country:--"However discordant," says he, "their other doctrines may
+appear, they agree in the practice of adopting each a particular system,
+and in viewing all historical evidence as so many proofs of its truth."
+
+Were it not for that contempt we have already noticed as the offspring
+of pride and dogmatism, and which, in the administration of the republic
+of letters, has been entertained and openly proclaimed for every kind of
+history except that which its own acts may have originated, we should
+have been in possession of thousands of facts and notions now overlaid
+and lost irrecoverably to the philosopher and the historian.
+
+The origin and the progress of nations, next after the school divinity
+of the Middle Ages, has occasioned the most copious outpouring of
+conjectural criticism. The simple mode of research suggested by the
+works of Verstegan, Camden, and Spelman would, long before this time,
+have made the early history of the British tribes as clear as it is now
+obscure. Analogies in the primary sounds of each dialect; similarity or
+difference in regard to objects of the first, or of a common necessity;
+rules or laws for the succession of property, which are as various as
+the tribes which overran the empire; the nature, agreement, or
+dissimilarity in religious worship with those vestiges of its ritual and
+celebration which, by the "pious frauds" and connivance of the early
+church, still lurk in the pastimes of our rural districts:--the new
+science of which we have spoken, by taking cognisance of these and all
+other existing sources of legitimate investigation, will settle the
+source and affinities of nations upon a plan as much superior to that of
+Grotius and his school as fact and reason exceed the guess-work of the
+theorist and the historian. Meantime we would cite a few examples that
+illustrate and bear more particularly on the subject to which our
+inquiries have been directed.
+
+Nothing seems at first sight more difficult than to establish a
+community of origin between the gods of Olympus and those of the
+Scandinavian mythology. The attempt has often been made, and each time
+with increased success. Observe the process adopted in this interesting
+inquiry.
+
+"Every country in Europe has invested its popular fictions with the
+same common marvels--all acknowledge the agency of the lifeless
+productions of nature; the intervention of the same supernatural
+machinery; the existence of elves, fairies, dwarfs, giants, witches, and
+enchanters; the use of spells, charms, and amulets, and all those
+highly-gifted objects, of whatever form or name, whose attributes refute
+every principle of human experience, which are to conceal the
+possessor's person, annihilate the bounds of space, or command a
+gratification of all our wishes. These are the constantly-recurring
+types which embellish the popular tale: which have been transferred to
+the more laboured pages of romance; and which, far from owing their
+first appearance in Europe to the Arabic conquest of Spain, or the
+migrations of Odin to Scandinavia, are known to have been current on its
+eastern verge long anterior to the era of legitimate history. The
+Nereids of antiquity, the daughters of the 'sea-born seer,' are
+evidently the same with the mermaids of the British and northern shores.
+The inhabitants of both are fixed in crystal caves or coral palaces
+beneath the waters of the ocean; they are alike distinguished for their
+partialities to the human race, and their prophetic powers in disclosing
+the events of futurity. The Naiads differ only in name from the Nixen of
+Germany and Scandinavia (Nisser), or the water-elves of our countrymen.
+AElfric and the Nornae, who wove the web of life, and sang the fortunes of
+the illustrious Helga, are but the same companions who attended Ilithyia
+at the births of Iamos and Hercules," the venerable Parcae of antiquity.
+
+The Russian Rusalkis are of the same family. The man-in-the-moon has
+found a circulation throughout the world. "The clash of elements in the
+thunder-storm was ascribed in Hellas to the rolling chariot-wheels of
+Jove, and in the Scandinavian mythology to the ponderous waggon of the
+Norwegian Thor."
+
+To the above extract, which is taken from the excellent preface by the
+editor to Wharton's _History of English Poetry_, may be added the number
+of high peaks bearing the name of Tor or Thor, seen more especially on
+both coasts of Devonshire, and which are supposed to signalise the
+places of his worship.[6] From the same source may be derived affinities
+equally strong between the Highland Urisks, the Russian Leschies, the
+Pomeranian or Wendish Berstucs, and the Panes and Panisci who presided
+over the fields and forests of Arcadia. The mountains of Germany and
+Scandinavia are under the governance of a set of metallurgic divinities,
+who agree with the Cabiri, Hephaesti, Telchines, and Idaean Dactyli. The
+Brownies and Fairies are of the same kindred as the Lares of Latium.
+"The English Puck, the Scottish Bogle, the French Esprit Follet, or
+Goblin, the Gobelinus of monkish Latinity, and the German Kobold, are
+only varied names for the Grecian Kobalus, whose sole delight consisted
+in perplexing the human race, and calling up those harmless terrors that
+constantly hover round the minds of the timid." "The English and
+Scottish terms, '_Puck,' 'Bogle'_, are the same as the German 'Spuk' and
+the Danish 'Spogelse,' without the sibilant aspiration. These words are
+general names for any kind of spirit, and correspond to the 'pouk' of
+Piers Ploughman. In Danish 'spog' means a joke, trick, or prank, and
+hence the character of Robin Goodfellow. In Iceland Puki is regarded as
+an evil sprite; and in the language of that country, 'at pukra' means
+both to make a murmuring noise and to steal clandestinely. The names of
+these spirits seem to have originated in their boisterous
+temper--'spuken,' Germ. to make a noise: 'spog,' Dan. obstreperous
+mirth; 'pukke,' Dan. to boast, scold. The Germans use 'pochin' in the
+same figurative sense, though literally it means to strike, beat; and is
+the same with our _poke_."
+
+However varied in name, the persons and attributes of these immaterial
+beings have no variance which will not readily be accounted for by the
+difference of climate, territorial surface, and any priority that one
+tribe had gained over another in the march of mind. The relics of such a
+system were much more abundant half-a-century ago, and many a tale of
+love and violence, garnished with the machinery of that _mythos_, might
+have been gleaned from the unwritten learning of the people. Who would
+expect to find amongst the rudest of the Irish peasantry--whose
+ancestors never knew the use of letters, and by whom, even down to
+living generations, the English tongue has not been spoken--a number of
+fictions, amongst the rest the tale of Cupid and Psyche--closely
+corresponding to that of the Greeks?[7] Who that has been a child does
+not recollect the untiring delight with which he listened to those
+ingenious arithmetical progressions, reduced to poetry, called "_The
+House that Jack built_," and the perils of "_The Old Woman with the
+Pig_?" Few even of those in riper years would suspect their Eastern
+origin. In the _Sepher Haggadah_ there is an ancient parabolical hymn,
+in the Chaldee language, sung by the Jews at the feast of the Passover,
+and commemorative of the principal events in the history of that people.
+For the following literal translation we are indebted to Dr Henderson,
+the celebrated orientalist:--
+
+    "1. _A kid, a kid_ my father bought,
+        For two pieces of money.
+                                             A kid, a kid.
+
+    "2. Then came _the cat_, and ate the kid,
+        That my father bought,
+        For two pieces of money.
+                                             A kid, a kid.
+
+    "3. Then came _the dog_, and bit the cat,
+        That ate the kid,
+        That my father bought,
+        For two pieces of money.
+                                             A kid, a kid.
+
+    "4. Then came _the staff_, and beat the dog,
+        That bit the cat,
+        That ate the kid,
+        That my father bought,
+        For two pieces of money.
+                                             A kid, a kid.
+
+    "5. Then came _the fire_, and burnt the staff,
+        That beat the dog,
+        That bit the cat,
+        That ate the kid,
+        That my father bought,
+        For two pieces of money.
+                                             A kid, a kid.
+
+    "6. Then came _the water_, and quenched the fire,
+        That burnt the staff,
+        That beat the dog,
+        That bit the cat,
+        That ate the kid,
+        That my father bought,
+        For two pieces of money.
+                                             A kid, a kid.
+
+    "7. Then came _the ox_, and drank the water,
+        That quenched the fire,
+        That burnt the staff,
+        That beat the dog,
+        That bit the cat,
+        That ate the kid,
+        That my father bought,
+        For two pieces of money.
+                                             A kid, a kid.
+
+    "8. Then came _the butcher_, and slew the ox,
+        That drank the water,
+        That quenched the fire,
+        That burnt the staff,
+        That beat the dog,
+        That bit the cat,
+        That ate the kid,
+        That my father bought,
+        For two pieces of money,
+                                             A kid, a kid.
+
+    "9. Then came _the angel of death_, and killed the butcher,
+        That slew the ox.
+        That drank the water,
+        That quenched the fire,
+        That burnt the staff,
+        That beat the dog,
+        That bit the cat,
+        That ate the kid,
+        That my father bought,
+        For two pieces of money.
+                                             A kid, a kid.
+
+    "10. Then came _the Holy One_, blessed be He!
+         And killed the angel of death,
+         That killed the butcher,
+    That slew the ox,
+         That drank the water,
+         That quenched the fire,
+         That burnt the staff,
+         That beat the dog,
+         That bit the cat,
+         That ate the kid,
+         That my father bought,
+         For two pieces of money.
+                                             A kid, a kid."
+
+The following is the interpretation by P.N. Leberecht, Leipzig, 1731.
+
+"1.--The kid, which was one of the pure animals, denotes the Hebrews.
+
+"The father, by whom it was purchased, is Jehovah, who represents
+himself as sustaining this relation to the Hebrew people.
+
+"The two pieces of money signify Moses and Aaron, through whose
+mediation the Hebrews were brought out of Egypt.
+
+"2.--The cat denotes the Assyrians, by whom the ten tribes were carried
+into captivity.
+
+"3.--The dog is symbolical of the Babylonians.
+
+"4.--The staff signifies the Persians.
+
+"5.--The fire indicates the Grecian empire under Alexander the Great.
+
+"6.--The water betokens the Roman, or the fourth of the great monarchies
+to whose dominion the Jews were subjected.
+
+"7--- The ox is a symbol of the Saracens, who subdued Palestine, and
+brought it under the caliphate.
+
+"8.--The butcher that killed the ox denotes the Crusaders, by whom the
+Holy Land was wrested out of the hands of the Saracens.
+
+"9.--The angel of death signifies the Turkish power, by which the land
+of Palestine was taken from the Franks, and to which it is still
+subject.
+
+"10.--The commencement of the tenth stanza is designed to show that God
+will take signal vengeance on the Turks, immediately after whose
+overthrow the Jews are to be restored to their own land, and live under
+the government of their long-expected Messiah."
+
+To return to illustrations less remote, and of a more familiar nature:--
+
+An ill-bred. Londoner calls a shilling a _hog_, and half-a-crown a
+_bull_. He little knows what havoc he is making with our modern
+theorists, who assert that nothing is worthy of belief, or ought to be
+relied upon, before the era of "legitimate" or written "history." These
+terms corroborate and identify themselves with the most ancient of
+traditionary customs, long ere princes had monopolised the surface of
+coined money with their own images and superscriptions. They are
+identical with the very name of money among the early Romans, which was
+_pecunia_, from _pecus_, a flock. Among the same people, it is well
+known, the word _stipulatio_ signified the striking of a bargain, which
+was done by placing two straws, _stipes_, one across the other. The same
+mode is practised to this day in the Isle of Man, existing, in all
+probability, from a period earlier than the foundation of Rome itself.
+Is the coincidence accidental or traditional? If the latter, what a
+history it tells of the migration of the species!
+
+How much might be written of amulets, cups, and horns of magical power,
+from the divining cup of Genesis to the Amalthean horns, and the goblet
+of Oberon, which he gave to Huon of Bordeaux, the supernatural power of
+which, passing into an hundred shapes of fiction, may be found in our
+baronial halls--a pledge, to a certain extent, like the invulnerability
+of Achilles, of the good fortune of its possessor. It is wonderful that
+Shakespeare, who is so happy in the verisimilitude of his fairy lore,
+and so apt to embellish his plot with its mythology, should not have
+thought of causing the king-making Earl of Warwick to lose the horn of
+that prodigious cow--no doubt one of those guardian pledges bestowed
+upon his family--by way of presage to his fall. Deer's antlers, there
+can be little doubt, were placed in the halls of our forefathers, a
+votive offering to the Diana of the Scandinavian Pantheon; as it was the
+custom in like manner to ornament the temples with the heads of
+sacrificial victims in the Greek and Roman worship. The eagerness of our
+sportsmen for the "brush," as the first trophy in the chase, has in all
+probability originated from the same propitiatory notion.
+
+Few would expect to meet with fragments of the worship of Juno in the
+racing of country girls for an inner garment, and the hunting of the pig
+with his tail greased; yet practised, but rapidly becoming obsolete, in
+wakes and other pastimes from Scotland to the Land's End.
+
+Thus far we have examined tradition by the test of positive experience.
+There is still a gleaning of poetry which might be culled, in some few
+districts, from the "lyre of the unlettered muse." There are songs
+scattered up and down our own and the neighbouring counties among the
+population least affected by the spread of literature which are of great
+antiquity, and are not to be found in any books or writings now extant.
+A few of these might be gathered in; while to some, who love the tone
+and humour of the old ballads, they would be an acquisition of great
+value. But the intercourse between master and man, between town and
+country, and even amongst the learned themselves, becomes so cold and
+repulsive, either from increasing refinement or reserve, that there
+seems little hope of our finding any one who will take the trouble to
+collect them, or a sufficient number of real admirers of these relics
+who would come forward to ensure a suitable reward for the labour. We
+are sorely disgraced among foreigners for inattention to the course and
+progress of our own learning. No work exists, like those which
+illustrate and embellish the French, Italian, and German literature,
+which professes to give a summary view of its history. The knowledge of
+its antiquities, its customs, manners, laws, modes of feeling, and
+pursuits, except in the instances before mentioned, and a few other
+praiseworthy exceptions, have been shamefully obscured by an eagerness
+for supporting a system, the ridiculous rivalry of pretence, and by the
+discredit thrown upon such labours by modern pedantry. A new version of
+Camden, rectified by all the discoveries subsequent to his time;--that
+which is found useless or erroneous left out, and the work enlightened
+by new researches, entered into by a number of inquirers equal in all
+respects to the task, and exerted over every part of the country, would
+very much aid the cause of learning and the future progress of our
+knowledge.
+
+The following traditions, we would fain hope, will not be found quite
+destitute of utility. They are some addition to our existing stock of
+knowledge, either as illustrating English history, manners, and customs
+now obsolete, or as a collection of legends, having truth for their
+basis, however disfigured in their transmission through various
+modifications of error, the natural obscurity arising from distance, and
+the distorted media through which they must necessarily be viewed.
+Perhaps a main source of this inaccuracy arises from the many and
+heterogeneous uses to which the breakings up, the fragments of tradition
+have been subjected and applied. Like those detached yet beautiful
+remnants of antiquity, built up with other and absolutely worthless
+materials in the rude structures of the barbarian by whom they have been
+disfigured, traditions are generally presented to us torn from their
+original connection with edifices once renowned for beauty and
+magnificence. It is our wish, as it has been our aim, to rescue these
+ruins from degradation and decay. Gathered from many an uninviting heap
+of chaotic matter, they are now presented in a different form, and under
+a more popular aspect. We cannot pretend to say that we have invariably
+assigned to them their true origin, or that their real character and
+position have been ascertained. Still, we would hope, that, as relics of
+the past rescued from the oblivion to which they were inevitably
+hastening, they are not either an uninteresting or inelegant addition to
+the literature of our country.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[6] "They worshipped fire as the representative of the Deity,
+which they kept continually burning on the tops of their highest
+mountains."--_Foreign Quarterly Review_, No. XV.: Art. "Popular Poetry,"
+p. 77.
+
+[7] That Ireland has not always presented so degrading and uncivilised
+an aspect as now exists in that unhappy country, there is abundant
+testimony to convince the most incredulous. Camden, an author by no
+means partial on this score, says:--"The Irish scholars of St. Patrick
+profited so notably in Christianity that, in the succeeding age, Ireland
+was termed '_Sanctorum Patria_.'" Their monks so excelled in learning
+and piety, that they sent whole flocks of most holy men into all parts
+of Europe, "who were founders of the most eminent monasteries both there
+and in Britain."
+
+"A residence in Ireland," says a learned British writer, "like a
+residence now at an university, was considered as almost essential to
+establish a literary character." By common consent, and as a mark of
+pre-eminence, Ireland obtained the title of _Insula Sanctorum et
+Doctorum_.
+
+At the Council of Constance, in 1417, the ambassadors from England were
+not allowed to rank or take any place as the ambassadors of a nation.
+The point being argued and conceded, that they were tributaries only to
+the Germans, "they claimed their rank from Henry being monarch of
+Ireland only, and it was accordingly granted."--_O'Halloran_.
+
+[Illustration: SIR TARQUIN.]
+
+
+
+
+SIR TARQUIN.
+
+    "Within this ancient British land,
+      In Lancashire I understand,
+    Near Manchester there lived a knight of fame,
+      Of a prodigious strength and might,
+      Who vanquished many a worthy knight;
+    A giant great, and Tarquin was his name."
+
+_Ballad of Sir Tarquin_.
+
+
+As it is our intention to arrange these traditions in chronological
+order, we begin with the earliest upon record, the overthrow of the
+giant Tarquin, near Manchester, by Sir Lancelot of the Lake, who was
+supposed to bear rule over the western part of Lancashire.
+
+An old ballad commemorates the achievement; and many other relics of
+this tradition still exist, one of which, a rude carving on a ceiling in
+the College at Manchester, represents the giant Tarquin at his morning's
+repast; it being fabled that he devoured a child daily at this meal. The
+legs of the infant are seen sprawling out of his mouth in a most
+unseemly fashion. Some have supposed that Tarquin was but a symbol or
+personification of the Roman army, and his castle the Roman station in
+this neighbourhood.
+
+The following extract is from Dr Hibbert's pamphlet on the subject:--
+
+"Upon the site of Castlefield, near Manchester, was originally erected a
+British fortress by the Sistuntii, the earliest possessors of
+Lancashire, comprising an area of twelve acres. It would possess on the
+south, south-east, and south-west, every advantage, from the winding of
+the River Medlock, and on its west, from the lofty banks which
+overlooked an impenetrable morass. By the artificial aid, therefore, of
+a ditch and a rampart on its east and north sides, this place was
+rendered a fortress of no inconsiderable importance. This fell
+afterwards into the hands of the Brigantes, the ancient inhabitants of
+Durham, York, and Westmoreland. Upon the invasion of the Romans,
+Cereales, their general, attacked the proper Brigantes of Yorkshire and
+Durham, and freed the Sistuntii of Lancashire from their dominion, but
+reserved the former to incur the Roman yoke. In A.D. 79, this British
+hold was changed into a Roman castrum, garrisoned by the first Frisian
+cohort, who erected from the old materials a new fort on the Roman
+construction, part of the vallum remaining to this day. New roads were
+made, and the British were invited to form themselves into the little
+communities of cities, to check the spirit of independence kept alive in
+the uncivilised abodes of deserted forests. The Romans possessed the
+fortress for nearly 300 years, when they were summoned away to form part
+of the army intended to repel the myriads of barbarians that threatened
+to overrun Europe.
+
+"By contributing to their refinement, and protecting them from the
+inroads of the Picts and Scots, the Romans were regarded in a friendly
+light by the ancient inhabitants, and their departure was much
+regretted. It became necessary, however, that the Britons should elect a
+chief from their own nation. Their military positions were strengthened;
+and as the Roman model of a fortress did not suit their military taste,
+instead of one encircled with walls only seven or eight feet high, and
+furnishing merely pavilions for soldiers within, they preferred
+erecting, on the sites of stations, large buildings of stone, whose
+chambers should contain more convenient barracks for the garrison. An
+infinite number of these castles existed within a century after the
+departure of the Romans, of which our Castle at Manchester was one,
+carried to a great height, erected in a good taste, secured at the
+entrances with gates, and flanked at the sides with towers.
+
+"The Britons, however, unable of themselves to cope with their foes,
+imprudently invited the Saxons, who, after subduing the Caledonians,
+laid waste the country of the Britons with fire and sword. The Castle of
+Manchester surrendered A.D. 488."
+
+
+We have endeavoured to preserve the character and manner of the ancient
+chroniclers, and even their fanciful etymologies, in the following
+record, of which the quaint but not inelegant style, in some measure,
+almost unavoidably adapts itself to the subject.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Sir Lancelot of the Lake, as it is related by the older chronicles, was
+the son of Ban, King of Benoit, in Brittany. Flying from his castle,
+then straitly besieged, the fugitive king saw it in flames, and soon
+after expired with grief. His queen, Helen, fruitlessly attempting to
+save his life, abandoned for a while her infant son Lancelot. Returning,
+she discovered him in the arms of the nymph Vivian, the mistress of
+Merlin, who on her approach sprung with the child into a deep lake and
+disappeared. This lake is held by some to be the lake Linius, a wide
+insular water near the sea-coast, in the regions of Linius or "The
+Lake;" now called Martin Mere or _Mar-tain-moir,_ "a water like the
+sea."
+
+The nymph educated the infant at her court, fabulously said to have been
+held in the subterraneous caverns of this lake, and from hence he was
+styled Lancelot du Lac.
+
+At the age of eighteen the fairy conveyed him to the camp of King
+Arthur, who was then waging a fierce and exterminating warfare with the
+Saxons. Here the young warrior was invested with the badge of
+knighthood. His person, accomplishments, and unparalleled bravery,
+having won the heart of many a fair dame in this splendid abode of
+chivalry and romance, his name and renown filled the land, where he was
+throughout acknowledged as chief of "The Knights of the Round Table."
+
+The name of Lancelot is derived from history, and is an appellation
+truly British, signifying royalty, _Lanc_ being the Celtic term for a
+spear, and _lod_ or _lot_ implying a people. Hence the name of
+Lancelot's shire, or Lancashire. From the foregoing it is supposed that
+he resided in the region of Linius, and that he was the monarch of these
+parts, being ruler over the whole, or the greater part, of what is now
+called Lancashire.
+
+Arthur, king of the Silures, being selected by Ambrosius for the command
+of the army, he defeated the Saxons in twelve pitched battles. Four of
+these were obtained, as related by Nennius, on the river called
+Duglas,[8] or Douglas, a little stream which runneth, as we are further
+told, in the region of Linius. On reference, it will be found that this
+river passes through a great portion of the western side of Lancashire,
+and pretty accurately fixes the position here described.
+
+Three of these great victories were gotten near Wigan, and the other is
+currently reported to have been achieved near Black rod, close to a
+Roman station, then probably fortified, and remaining as a place of some
+strength, and in possession of the Saxon invaders. Here, according to
+rude legends, "the River Duglas ran with blood to Wigan three days."
+
+It was during one of the brief intervals of rest that sometimes occurred
+in the prosecution of these achievements that the following incident is
+reported to have happened. Being a passage of some note, and the
+earliest tradition of the county upon record, we have chosen it as the
+commencement of a work principally derived from traditionary history.
+
+Sir Tarquin, a cruel and treacherous knight of gigantic stature and
+prodigious strength, had, as the story is currently told, his dwelling
+in a well-fortified castle nigh to Manchester, on the site of what is
+yet known by the name of Castle-field. It was a place of great strength,
+surrounded by vast ramparts, and flanked at the corners with high and
+stately towers.
+
+He had by treachery gained possession of the fortress, treating the
+owner, who was a British knight of no mean condition, with great cruelty
+and rigour. This doughty Saxon, Sir Tarquin, had, along with many of his
+nation, been invited over in aid of the Britons against their neighbours
+the Picts and Scots. These being driven back, their false allies
+treacherously made war upon their friends, laying waste the country with
+fire and sword. Then arose that noble brotherhood, "The Knights of the
+Round Table," who, having sworn to avenge the wrongs of their country,
+began to harass the intruders, and to drive them from their ill-gotten
+possessions.
+
+The Saxons were no less vigilant; but many of their most puissant
+knights were slain or imprisoned during these encounters.
+
+Sir Tarquin could boast of no mean success;--threescore knights and
+four, it is said, were held in thrall by this uncourteous chieftain.
+
+Sir Lancelot having, as the ballad quaintly expresses it,
+
+    "A mighty giant just pulled down,
+      Who lived near Shrewsbury's fair town;
+    With his keen sword his life away did take."
+
+This giant knight was called Sir Carados; and Sir Lancelot, when about
+betaking himself to these and similar recreations, did hear doleful
+tidings out of Lancashire, how that Sir Tarquin was playing the eagle in
+the hawk's eyrie, amongst his brethren and companions. From Winchester
+he rode in great haste, succouring not a few distressed damsels and
+performing many other notable exploits by the way, "until he came to a
+vast desert," "frequented by none save those whom ill fortune had
+permitted to wander therein." Sir Tarquin, like the dragon of yore,
+entailed a desert round his dwelling: so fierce and rapacious was he
+that no man durst live beside him, save that he held his life and
+property of too mean account, and too worthless for the taking.
+
+The knight was pricking on his way through this almost pathless
+wilderness, when he espied a damsel of such inexpressible and ravishing
+beauty that none might behold her without the most heart-stirring
+delight and admiration. To this maiden did Sir Lancelot address himself,
+but she hid her face and fell a-weeping. He then inquired the cause of
+her dolour, when she bade him flee, for his life was in great jeopardy.
+
+"Oh, Sir Knight!" uncovering her face as she spoke, "the giant Tarquin
+liveth hereabout, and thou wert as good as dead should he espy thee so
+near his castle."
+
+"What!" said the knight, "and shall Sir Lancelot of the Lake flee before
+this false and cruel tyrant? To this purpose am I come, that I may slay
+and make an end of him at once, and deliver the captives."
+
+"Art thou, indeed, Sir Lancelot?" said the damsel, joy suddenly starting
+through her tears; "then is our deliverance nearer than we hoped for.
+Thy fame is gone before thee into all countries, and thy might and thy
+prowess, it is said, none may withstand. This evil one, Sir Tarquin,
+hath taken captive my true knight, who, through my cruelty, betook
+himself to this adventure, and now lieth in chains and foul ignominy,
+without hope of release, until death break off his fetters."
+
+"Beshrew me," said Lancelot, "but I will deliver him presently, and cut
+off the foul tyrant's head, or lose mine own by the attempt."
+
+Then did he follow the maiden to a river's brink, near to where, as
+tradition still reports, now stand the Knott Mills. Having mounted her
+before him on his steed, she pointed out a path over the ford, beyond
+which he soon espied the castle, a vast and stately building of rugged
+stone, like a huge crown upon the hill-top, which presented a gentle
+ascent from the stream.
+
+Now did Sir Lancelot alight, as well to assist his companion as to
+bethink himself what course to pursue; but the damsel showed him a high
+tree, about a stone's-throw from the ditch before the castle, whereon
+hung a goodly array of accoutrements, with many fair and costly shields,
+on which were displayed a variety of gay and fanciful devices. These
+were the property of the knights then held in durance by Sir Tarquin.
+Below them all hung a copper basin, on which was carved in Latin the
+following inscription, translated thus--
+
+    "Who valueth not his life a whit,
+    Let him this magic basin hit."
+
+This so enraged Sir Lancelot that he drove at the vessel violently with
+his spear, piercing it through and through, so vigorous was the assault.
+The clangour was loud, and anxiously did the knight await for some reply
+to his summons. Yet there was no answer, nor was there any stir about
+the walls or outworks. It seemed as though Sir Tarquin was his own
+castellan, skulking here alone, like the cunning spider watching for his
+prey.
+
+Silence, with her vast and unmoving wings, appeared to brood over the
+place; and echo, that gave back their summons from the walls, seemed to
+labour for utterance through the void by which they were encompassed. A
+stillness so appalling might needs discourage the hot and fiery purpose
+of Sir Lancelot, who, unused but to the rude clash of arms, and the
+melee of the battle, did marvel exceedingly at this forbearance of the
+enemy. But he still rode round about the fortress, expecting that some
+one should come forth to inquire his business, and this did he, to and
+fro, for a long space. As he was just minded to return from so fruitless
+an adventure, he saw a cloud of dust at some distance, and presently he
+beheld a knight galloping furiously towards him. Coming nigh, Sir
+Lancelot was aware that a captive knight lay before him, bound hand and
+foot, bleeding and sore wounded.
+
+"Villain!" cried Sir Lancelot, "and unworthy the name of a true and
+loyal knight, how darest thou do this insult and contumely to an enemy,
+who, though fallen, is yet thine equal? I will make thee rue this foul
+despite, and avenge the wrongs of my brethren of the Round Table."
+
+"If thou be for so brave a meal," said Tarquin, "thou shalt have thy
+fill, and that speedily. I will first cut off thy head, and then serve
+up thy carcase to the Round Table; for both that and thee I do utterly
+defy!"
+
+"This is over-dainty food for thy sending," replied Sir Lancelot
+hastily, and with that they couched their spears. The first rush was
+over, but man and horse had withstood the shock. Again they fell back,
+measuring the distance with an eager and impetuous glance, and again
+they rushed on, as if to overwhelm each other by main strength, when, as
+fortune would have it, their lances shivered, both of them at once, in
+the rebound. The end of Sir Lancelot's spear, as it broke, struck his
+adversary's steed on the shoulder, and caused him to fall suddenly, as
+if sore wounded. Sir Tarquin leaped nimbly from off his back; which Sir
+Lancelot espying, he cried out--
+
+"Now will I show thee the like courtesy; for, by mine honour and the
+faith of a true knight, I will not slay thee at this foul advantage."
+Alighting with haste, they betook themselves to their swords, each
+guarding the opposite attack warily with his shield. That of Sir Tarquin
+was framed of a bull's hide, stoutly held together with thongs, and, in
+truth, seemed well-nigh impenetrable; whilst the shield of his opponent,
+being of more brittle stuff, did seem as though it would have cloven
+asunder with the desperate strokes of Sir Tarquin's sword. Nothing
+daunted, Sir Lancelot brake ofttimes through his adversary's guard, and
+smote him once until the blood trickled down amain. At this sight, Sir
+Tarquin waxed ten times more fierce; and summoning all his strength for
+the blow, wrought so lustily on the head of Sir Lancelot that he began
+to reel; which Tarquin observing, by a side blow struck the sword from
+out his hand, with so sharp and dexterous a jerk that it shivered into a
+thousand fragments.
+
+"Now yield thee, Sir Knight, or thou diest;" and with that the cruel
+monster sprang upon him to accomplish his end. Still Sir Lancelot would
+not yield, nor sue to him for quarter, but flew on his enemy like the
+ravening wolf to his prey. Then were they seen hurtling together like
+wild bulls--Sir Lancelot holding fast his adversary's sword, so that in
+vain he attempted to make a thrust therewith.
+
+"Thou discourteous churl! give me but the vantage of a weapon like thine
+own, and I will fight thee honestly and without flinching."
+
+"Nay, Sir Knight of the Round Table, but this were a merry deed withal,
+to help thee unto that wherewith I might perchance mount some goodly
+bough for the crows to peck at," replied Tarquin. Terrible and unceasing
+was the struggle; but in vain the giant knight attempted to regain the
+use of his sword. Then Sir Lancelot, with a wary eye, finding no hope of
+his life save in the use or accomplishment of some notable stratagem,
+bethought him of the attempt to throw his adversary by a sudden feint.
+To this end he pressed against him heavily and with his whole might,
+then darting suddenly aside, Sir Tarquin fell to the ground with a loud
+cry; which Sir Lancelot espying, leapt joyfully upon him, thinking to
+overcome his enemy; but the latter, too cunning to be thus caught at
+unawares, kept his sword firmly holden, and his enemy was still
+unprovided with the means of defence. Now did Sir Lancelot begin to
+doubt what course he should pursue, when suddenly the damsel, who,
+having bound up the wounds of the captive knight as he lay, and now sat
+a little way off watching the event, cried out with a shrill voice--
+
+"Sir Knight, the tree:--a goodly bough for the gathering." Then did Sir
+Lancelot remember the weapons that were there, along with the shields
+and the body-armour of the knights Sir Tarquin had vanquished. Starting
+up, ere his enemy had recovered himself, he snatched a broad falchion
+from the bough, and again defied him to the combat. But the fight was
+fiercer than before; so that being sore wounded, and the day exceeding
+hot, they were after a season fain to pause for breath.
+
+"Thou art the bravest knight I ever encountered," said Sir Tarquin, "and
+I would crave thy country and thy name; for, by my troth and the honour
+of my gods, I will give thee thy request on one condition, and release
+thy brethren of the Round Table; for why should two knights of such pith
+and prowess slay each other in one day?"
+
+"And what is thy condition?" inquired Sir Lancelot.
+
+"There liveth but one, either in Christendom or Heathenesse, unto whom I
+may not grant this parley; for him have I sworn to kill," said Sir
+Tarquin.
+
+"'Tis well," replied the other; "but what name or cognisance hath he?"
+
+"His name is Lancelot of the Lake!"
+
+"Behold him!" was the reply; Sir Lancelot at the same time brandishing
+his weapon with a shout of defiance.
+
+When Sir Tarquin heard this he gnashed his teeth for very rage.
+
+"Now one of us must die," said he. "Thou slewest my brother Sir Carados
+at Shrewsbury, and I have sworn to avenge his defeat. Thou diest. Not
+all the gods of thy fathers shall deliver thee."
+
+So to it they went with more heat and fury than ever; and a marvel was
+it to behold, for each blow did seem as it would have cleft the other in
+twain, so deadly was the strife and hatred between them.
+
+Sir Lancelot pressed hard upon his foe, though himself grievously
+wounded, and in all likelihood would have won the fight, but, as
+ill-luck would have it, when dealing a blow mighty enough to fell the
+stoutest oak in Christendom, he missed his aim, and with that stumbled
+to the ground. Then did Sir Tarquin shout for joy, and would have made
+an end of him, but that Sir Lancelot, as he lay, aimed a deadly thrust
+below his enemy's shield where he was left unguarded, and quickly turned
+his joy into tribulation; for Sir Tarquin, though not mortally wounded,
+drew back and cried out lustily for pain, the which Sir Lancelot
+hearing, he leapt again to his feet, still eager and impatient for the
+strife.
+
+The contest was again doubtful, neither of them showing any disposition
+to yield, or in any wise to abate the rigour of the conflict. Night,
+too, was coming on apace, and seemed like enough to pitch her tent over
+them, ere the issue was decided. But an event now fell out which,
+unexpectedly enough, terminated this adventure. From some cause arising
+out of the haste and rapidity of the strokes, one of these so chanced,
+that both their swords were suddenly driven from out of their right
+hands; stooping together, by some subtlety or mistake, they exchanged
+weapons. Then did Sir Lancelot soon find his strength to increase,
+whilst his adversary's vigour began to abate; and in the end Sir
+Lancelot slew him, and with his own sword cut off his head. He then
+perceived that the giant's great strength was by virtue of his sword;
+and that it was through his wicked enchantments therewith he had been
+able to overcome, and had wrought such disgrace on the Knights of the
+Round Table. Sir Lancelot forthwith took the keys from the giant's
+girdle, and proceeded to the release of the captive knights, first
+unbinding the prisoner, who yet lay in a piteous swoon hard by. But
+there was a great outcry and lamentation when that he saw his own
+brother Sir Erclos in this doleful case; for it was he whom the cruel
+Tarquin was leading captive when he met the just reward of his misdeeds.
+
+After administering to his relief, Sir Lancelot rode up to the
+castle-gate, but found no entrance thereby. The drawbridge was raised,
+and he sought in vain the means of giving the appointed signal for its
+descent.
+
+But the damsel showed him a secret place where hung a little horn. On
+this he blew a sharp and ringing blast, when the bridge presently began
+to lower, and instantly to adjust itself across the moat; whereon,
+hastening, he unlocked the gate. But here he had nigh fallen into a
+subtle snare, by reason of an ugly dwarf that was concealed in a side
+niche of the wall. He was armed with a ponderous mace; and had not the
+maiden drawn Sir Lancelot aside by main force, he would have been
+crushed in its descent, the dwarf aiming a deadly blow at him as he
+passed. It fell, instead, with a loud crash on the pavement, and broke
+into a thousand fragments. Thereupon, Sir Lancelot smote him with the
+giant's sword, and hewed the mischievous monster asunder without mercy.
+Turning towards the damsel, he beheld her form suddenly change, and she
+vanished from his sight: then was he aware that it had been the nymph
+Vivian who accompanied him through the enchantments he had so happily
+subdued. He soon released his brethren, and great was the joy at the
+Round Table when the Knights returned to the banquet.
+
+
+Thus endeth the chronicle of Sir Tarquin, still a notable tradition in
+these parts, the remains of his castle being shown to this day.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[8] Du-glass, "the becoming, the seemly, green," described by Camden as
+"a small brook, running with an easy and still stream;" which conveys a
+good idea of the word _Du_. The Du-glass empties itself into the estuary
+called by Ptolemy _Bellesama, Belless-aman-e;_ pronounced
+Violish-anne,[9] the literal meaning of which is, that the "mouth of the
+river only is for ships;" _i.e._, that the rivers which form the haven
+are not navigable.--_Chronicles of Eri.--O'Connor._
+
+[9] Ballyshannon is evidently a very slight corruption of this term.
+
+[Illustration: THE GOBLIN BUILDERS.]
+
+
+
+
+THE GOBLIN BUILDERS.
+
+
+    "By well and rills, in meadows green,
+      We nightly dance our heyday guise;
+    And to our fairy king and queen
+      We chant our moonlight minstrelsies.
+        When larks 'gin sing,
+        Away we fling,
+    And babes new-born we steal as we go,
+        And elf in bed
+        We leave instead,
+    And wend us laughing, ho, ho, ho!"--BEN JONSON.
+
+The story which serves for the basis of the following legend will be
+easily recognised in the neighbourhood where the transactions are said
+to have occurred, though probably not known beyond its immediate
+locality.
+
+The accessories are gathered from a number of sources: and the great
+difficulty the author has had to encounter in getting at what he
+conceives the real state and character of the time, together with the
+history of contemporary individuals and events, so as to give a natural
+picture of the manners and customs of that remote era, can be known by
+those only who have entered into pursuits of this nature. In this and in
+the succeeding legends he has attempted to illustrate and portray the
+customs of that particular epoch to which they relate, as well as to
+detail the events on which they are founded.
+
+It may be interesting to notice that a similar exploit is recorded in
+the Scandinavian Legends, and may be traced, under many variations of
+circumstances and events, in the Icelandic, Danish, and Norwegian
+poetry, affording another intimation of the source from whence our
+popular mythology is derived.
+
+
+Towards the latter end of the reign of William, the Norman conqueror,
+Gamel, the Saxon Thane, Lord of Recedham or "Rached," being left in the
+quiet possession of his lands and privileges by the usurper, "minded,"
+as the phrase then was, "for the fear of God and the salvation of his
+immortal soul, to build a chapel unto St Chadde," nigh to the banks of
+the Rache or Roach. For this pious use a convenient place was set apart,
+lying on the north bank of the river, in a low and sheltered spot now
+called "The Newgate." Piles of timber and huge stones were gathered
+thither in the most unwonted profusion; insomuch, that the building
+seemed destined for some more ambitious display than the humble edifices
+called churches then exhibited, of which but few existed in the
+surrounding districts.
+
+The foundations were laid. The loose and spongy nature of the soil
+required heavy stakes to be driven, upon and between which were laid
+several courses of rubble-stone, ready to receive the grouting or
+cement. Yet in one night was the whole mass conveyed, without the loss
+of a single stone, to the summit of a steep hill on the opposite bank,
+and apparently without any visible marks or signs betokening the agents
+or means employed for its removal. It did seem as though their pathway
+had been the viewless air, so silently was all track obliterated. Great
+was the consternation that spread among the indwellers of the four
+several clusters of cabins dignified by the appellation of villages, and
+bearing, with their appendages, the names of Castletown, Spoddenland,
+Honorsfield, and Buckland. With dismay and horror this profanation was
+witnessed. The lord, more especially, became indignant. This daring
+presumption--this wilful outrage, so like bidding defiance to his power,
+bearding the lion even in his den, was deemed an offence calling for
+signal vengeance upon the perpetrators.
+
+At the cross in Honorsfield a proclamation was recited, to the intent,
+that unless the offending parties were forthwith given up to meet the
+punishment that might be awarded to their misdeeds, a heavy mulct would
+follow, and the unfortunate villains and _bordarii_ be subject to such
+further infliction as might still seem wanting to assuage their lord's
+displeasure. Now this was a grievous disaster to the unhappy vassals,
+seeing that none could safely or truly accuse his neighbour. All were
+agreed that human agency had no share in the work. The wiser part threw
+out a shrewd suspicion, that the old deities whom their forefathers had
+worshipped, and whose altars had been thrown down and their sacrifices
+forbidden, had burst the thraldom in which they were aforetime held by
+the Christian priests, and were now brooding a fearful revenge for the
+many insults they had endured. But the decree from the lord was hasty,
+and the command urgent; so that a council was holden for the devising of
+some plan for their relief.
+
+Hugh de Chadwycke and John de Spotland were subordinate lords, or
+feudatories, holding fortified dwellings, castelets, or peels, in the
+manor of Rochdale; the former had builded his rude mansion of massive
+timber, for the double purpose of habitation and defence, on a bold
+eminence, forming a steep bank of the river, about a mile from the
+Thane's castle. Claiming a relationship to the lord, he was in some
+measure privileged above his friend De Spotland, yet was the latter a
+personage of considerable power and influence at the manor court. To
+these men when their aid was necessary, either as counsellors or
+intercessors, did the inhabitants generally repair.
+
+Hugh de Chadwycke was a man of mild and grave deportment, but politic
+withal, and wary of counsel. John de Spotland was of a more bold and
+open temper. De Chadwycke suggested a submissive application to the
+Thane, with a pledge that all possible diligence should be used for the
+fulfilment of his demands. John urged the removal of the materials with
+all expedition to their original site, a watch being set to discover the
+delinquents, should they again presume to lay hands on the stuff. The
+wisdom and propriety of the latter precaution was undisputed; but no one
+seemed willing to undergo the terrible ordeal, each declining the office
+in deference to his more privileged neighbour. No wonder at their
+reluctance to so unequal a contest. To be strangled or torn limb from
+limb was the slightest punishment that could be expected for this daring
+profanation; yet, unless they had witnesses, bodily, to these diabolical
+exploits, it were needless to attempt excusing themselves before the
+haughty chieftain. He would visit with fearful severity all their
+endeavours to deceive, nor would he credit their belief, unless it were
+confirmed by the testimony of an eye-witness. How to procure this
+desirable source of intelligence was a question that was hourly becoming
+more difficult to solve.
+
+Slow and melancholy was their return, while with fear and hesitation
+they communicated the result.
+
+"Now, shame befall thee, Adam of Wills!" said a stout woman, to one of
+the speakers; "thou wert ever a tough fighter; and the cudgel and ragged
+staff were as glib in thine hands as a beggar's pouch on alms-days. Show
+thy mettle, man. I'll spice thee a jug of barley-drink, an' thou be for
+the bout this time."
+
+"Nay," returned Adam, "I 'll fight Beelzebub if he be aught I can hit;
+but these same boggarts, they say, a blow falls on 'em like rain-drops
+on a mist, or like beating the wind with a corn-flail. I cannot fight
+with naught, as it were."
+
+"Shame on thee, Hal!" said a shrill-tongued, crooked little body,
+arrayed in a coarse grey hood, and holding a stick, like unto a
+one-handed crutch, of enormous dimensions. "Shame on thee! I would watch
+myself, but the night-wind sits indifferently on my stomach, and I am
+too old now for these moonshine lifts."
+
+She cast her little bleared eyes, half-shut and distilling contempt, on
+the cowardly bystanders.
+
+"Now, if there be not old Cicely," first went round in a whisper; then a
+deep silence gradually pervaded the assembly.
+
+She had just hobbled down to the cross, and the audience seemed to watch
+her looks with awe and suspicion.
+
+"What, none o' ye? Come, Uctred, thou shalt shame these big-tongued,
+wide-mouthed boasters."
+
+A short swarthy-looking boy, with a leering and unfavourable
+countenance, here stepped forward, taking his station upon one of the
+steps beside his mother. A notion had gone abroad that the boy was the
+fruit of some unhallowed intercourse with an immortal of the fairy or
+pixy kind, whose illicit amours the old woman had wickedly indulged. She
+too, was thought to bear in some degree a charmed life, and to hold
+communion with intelligences not of the most holy or reputable order.
+The boy was dumb. His lips had, however, at times a slight and tremulous
+movement, which strongly impressed the beholders that some discourse was
+then carrying on between "the dummy," as he was generally called, and
+his invisible relatives. His whole aspect was singularly painful and
+forbidding. No wonder, in these times of debasing superstition, that his
+person should be looked on with abhorrence, and even a touch from him be
+accounted an evil of no slight import. His mother alone had the power of
+communicating with him, or of understanding his grimaces.
+
+"Now what will you give me for the use of his pretty eyes this lucky
+night? The Thane will have regard to his testimony, though all that have
+free use of the tongue he holds to be liars and dishonest. Never lied
+this youth by sign or token!"
+
+A buzz went through the company, and the dame and her boy again sat down
+to await the issue. All eyes were directed towards them, timidly and by
+stealth, as the consultation grew louder and more continuous.
+
+A pause at length ensued. Some three or four of the group drew towards
+the crone, who sat almost double, her chin resting on the neb of her
+crutch.
+
+"Now will we give thee two changes of raiment, together with a mess of
+barley-pottage; and every year thou shalt have a penny at Easter, and a
+fat hen at Shrovetide."
+
+"Good," said the greedy beldame; "but I'll have a sheep-skin cap for the
+boy, and a horn spoon." This demand was also granted; after which she
+made signs to the lad, who swung his head to and fro, at the same time
+distorting his features with a wild and terrible rapidity. It was
+evident that he understood the nature of these proceedings. A glance,
+like that of mockery and derision, he cast towards the crowd; and when
+Mother Cicely was returning, he threw back upon them a look of scorn and
+malignity which made the beholders shrink aside with horror.
+
+The people now addressed themselves to the task of replacing the heavy
+materials, and ere night the greater part were withdrawn, ready to
+begin with the foundations again on the morrow.
+
+A sort of rude shelter was constructed, wherein Uctred was to keep watch
+until daylight.
+
+The morning came, calm and beautiful over the grey hills; and the
+anxious inhabitants, awake betimes, did each turn his first steps
+towards the river's brink. With horror and amazement they again beheld
+the ground bare. Not a vestige remained, nor was there any trace of the
+boy.
+
+"He is gone to his own," said they, as a general shudder went through
+the crowd; "and the fairies have gotten him at last."
+
+Every heart seemed quailing with some hidden fear; nor could any means
+at that moment be suggested for their emancipation.
+
+The stones and timber were again found, as before, on the opposite hill.
+Fifty stout men had with difficulty contrived to fetch them from thence
+the day preceding, and twice that number would hardly have sufficed to
+transport them thither. It was not to be gainsayed that a power superior
+to their own was the agent in removals so mysterious. Nothing now
+remained but to acquaint their lord with this second interruption; and
+their diligence in performing this duty, they hoped, might exculpate
+them from the heavy doom they had incurred. Some of the wiser and more
+stout-hearted were chosen to carry these tidings to the Thane, hoping to
+clear themselves from the ban, as well as to return with commands for
+their future proceedings.
+
+Gamel de Recedham, or Rochdale, had his dwelling in the ancient castle
+built by the Romans on the verge of a steep hill jutting into the valley
+of the Roach. It was a place difficult of access, save on the southern
+side, where a wide ditch formed an effectual defence, and over which a
+narrow bridge admitted only two abreast in front of the outer gate. It
+was now, in some places, fast going to decay, but enough remained out of
+its vast bulk to form a dwelling for the Saxon and his followers. It had
+been once fortified throughout; the castle, or keep, being four-square,
+flanked at the corners with stone towers. The lower part of the walls
+was composed of large pebbles mixed with brick, and held together by a
+firm cement. Higher up, and continued to the summit, were alternate rows
+of brick and freestone. The corners were faced with stone, making a very
+formidable appearance when guarded by slingers and throwers of darts,
+who were stationed there only in times of great peril.
+
+Passing the vallum, or outer defence, they ascended a narrow staircase
+outside the keep, where the cringing serfs were admitted by four of the
+lord's Norman bowmen, who ushered them into the audience-chamber. Some
+of the Thane's men were habited in coats of mail, made of small pieces
+of iron, cut round at the bottom, and set on a leathern garment, so as
+to fold over each other like fish-scales, the whole bending with the
+greatest ease, and yet affording a sufficient protection to the wearer.
+
+The chamber of audience was situated at the uppermost part of the keep,
+and great was the apprehension of the intruders, whilst following their
+guides through the winding passages and gloomy staircases leading to the
+inner cell occupied by their chief. The disposition of the armed
+men,--their warlike habiliments, and the various and uncouth weapons
+which seemed to threaten terror and defiance, were all objects to them
+of apprehension and distrust. The walls of this gloomy apartment were
+lined with thin bricks, ornamentally disposed in herring-bone work,
+after the fashion of the time. The windows, though narrow on the
+outside, were broad and arched within, displaying a rude sort of taste
+in their construction. Round the walls were groups of weapons,
+ostentatiously displayed; two-edged broadswords; long spears, some
+barbed and others flat and broad; shields, the oldest of which were
+large, and had a sharp point projecting from the centre; others, of the
+Norman and more recent fashion, were smaller, and of an oval shape.
+Battle-axes, lances, and javelins, were strewn about in formidable
+profusion. Hauberks, or chain-mail, hung at intervals from the walls,
+looking grim and stalwart from their repose, like the headless trunks of
+the warriors they had once encompassed.
+
+A broad curtain, curiously embroidered, covered one end of the room,
+from behind which crept a page or henchman, in gay attire, his tunic
+glistening with his lord's device.
+
+The serfs bowed with the most abject submission to this representative
+of their lord, who lived in the customary style of barbarous and feudal
+pomp, which the manners of their Norman invaders had rather contributed
+to increase than to diminish.
+
+"Tell thy master," said their companion, "that some of the folk would
+speak with him, touching the matter by which they are in jeopardy."
+
+Smoothing his locks and trimming down his garments, the boy departed.
+It was long or ere the audience was granted; in the meantime, they stood
+trembling and oppressed with an evil foreboding for the result, the
+known hasty and impetuous temper of the Saxon rendering it a matter of
+some doubt, and no small hazard, as to what might be the issue of their
+conference. Suddenly was heard the clanking of armour, and the tramp of
+nailed feet, announcing his approach; the heavy arras was uplifted, and
+Gamel the Thane stood before them. He was richly attired in a loose coat
+reaching down to his ankles; over this was a long robe, fastened over
+both shoulders and on the breast with a silver buckle. The edges were
+trimmed with gold and knots of flowers interwoven with pearls and rare
+stones. On his head he wore a coronet, or rim of gold, enriched with
+jewels; and his bushy hair and grizzled beard looked still more grim and
+forbidding beneath these glittering ornaments. His eyes were quick and
+piercing; his cheeks pale and slightly furrowed. A narrow and retreating
+mouth, firmly drawn in, showed the bent of his disposition to be fierce
+and choleric, and his wrath not easily turned aside. He was accompanied
+by his billmen, together with some half-dozen attendants, clad in shirts
+of chain mail and helmets fitting close to the head. These bore lances
+after the Norman fashion then prevailing over the ruder customs of their
+Saxon predecessors.
+
+The more polished manners of the Norman's court had early pervaded the
+ranks of the nobles; and even the few hereditary Saxon chiefs left in
+possession of their ancient sovereignties, thought their domains cheaply
+purchased by this obsequious show of homage to their king.
+
+The Thane's chief henchman occupied the post of honour, whilst a little
+footpage stood by his master's elbow.
+
+The villains prostrated themselves.
+
+"How now!--Where are the caitiffs I commanded of ye? I vow to the Virgin
+and St Chadde, your own necks shall swing from the tower in their stead,
+should ye fail in that which I require at your hands."
+
+The trembling hearers were, afraid to answer--their lips quivered, and
+each tongue seemed to refuse its office. Gamel proceeded:----
+
+"What! come ye to fawn and whine out my purpose? Now will I make your
+chastisement ten times hotter for this intent. Lodge these knaves,
+Nicholas, i' the further dungeon, till they be reprieved by the rogues
+who are yet at large and defying our power:--they hold it somewhat
+cheap, methinks, when they value it less than the pampering of their own
+wantonness and sport."
+
+Nicholas was herald, bedellus, or chief crier, to the lord of the manor,
+his office being to make proclamations at the court and the cross, where
+the use of his capacious lungs was oft in request. He was hangman, too,
+upon occasion, being never so well pleased as when employed in the due
+chastisement of his master's lieges. He was, moreover, a man of infinite
+humour, generally consoling his dear unfortunates under their
+visitations by some coarse and galling jest.
+
+"Now, Adam of Hunersfield, art thou at thy prayers already?--I'll shrive
+thee quick. Master, shall I give the rogues any victuals? They'll not
+keep else till hanging time;--best finish now--needless to waste
+provender."
+
+"Give them the prison allowance. But, hark thee, no stripes, Nicholas,"
+said the chief, well aware of his flagellant propensities.
+
+"Eh!" replied he; "but black cake and dried beans don't mix well i' the
+stomach without riddling."
+
+"Peace, sirrah!" replied the chieftain with a frown. Nicholas, though a
+licensed jester and in especial favour, knew there was a boundary beyond
+which he durst not pass; he became silent, therefore, at this command.
+The lamentations of the unwary hostages were loud but unavailing.
+Nicholas prepared his manacles, and was leading them from the chamber,
+when the page whispered in his master's ear.
+
+"Stop," cried the Thane: "know ye aught of the boy who was a-watching
+yesternight?"
+
+"We know nothing of the lad, as we hope for deliverance," said the
+terrified rustics.
+
+"Bring in the woman!"
+
+The command was followed by the entrance of Cicely. Leaning on her
+crutch, she bent lowly before the chief.
+
+"Hast thou any suit or accusation to prefer against these men, as
+touching thy boy?"
+
+"Oh, my lord!" said the dame, weeping, "I never aforetime knew him
+missing; and he has slept i' the Killer Dane, where the great battle was
+fought below the castle. He has watched i' the 'Thrutch,' where the
+black dog haunts from sunset till cock-crow. He has leapt over the
+fairies' ring and run through the old house at Gozlewood, and no harm
+has befallen him; but he is now ta'en from me,--cast out, maybe, into
+some noisome pit. The timbers and stones are leapt on to the hill again,
+but my boy is not there!"
+
+She wept and wrung her withered hands.
+
+"Hast thou any witness against these men?"
+
+"Oh! my lord, they bribed me with their gifts that I should suffer the
+boy to watch; and I am poor, and I thought he wore a charmed life, and
+the little hoard would be a comfort and a stay in my old age."
+
+"Thou hast done wickedly in this," said the lord. "Howbeit, I will keep
+them in the stocks; peradventure it may quicken the wits of their
+outdoor friends to find out the mover of these scurvy pranks. The post
+and timbers would not go up hill unless some knave had holpen to lift
+them."
+
+Nicholas was departing to the indulgence of his favourite pastime, when
+a loud hubbub was heard without, and presently a fellow was pushed in by
+the pressure of the crowd upon his shoulders; but they drew back, on
+finding the immediate presence of their chief.
+
+This man was accounted the most notorious idler in the neighbourhood,
+hight "Barnulf with the nose." His eyes looked red and swollen, and his
+senses had become muddled and obtuse with long steeping. Silence was
+immediately enforced, while the assembly anxiously awaited the
+interrogation of this intolerable coveter of barley-drink.
+
+"Art thou again at thy freaks?" said the Thane, angrily: "thou hast soon
+forgotten the stocks and the whipping-post on Easter-day. It were well
+that Nicholas should refresh thy memory in this matter."
+
+At this dreaded name the poor wretch fell on his face.
+
+"Please ye, my lord," said he, hardly raising his head from the floor,
+"I am here but for a witness beliken. I am breeding of no broil, save
+an' my gossip o' yesternight drew me into a tussle with old Split-Feet
+and his company."
+
+He groaned, but not without considerable effort, and his face puckered
+in a heap at the recollection.
+
+"What!--the foul fiend helped thee to thy liquor, I trow?" said Gamel,
+hastily. "Think not to foist thy fooleries upon me. Should I find thee
+with a lie on thy tongue, the hide were as well off thy shoulders. To
+thy speech--quick, what sawest thou?"
+
+"I will give it all, withouten a word but what the blessed saints would
+avouch," said the terrified supplicant, whose once fiery face was now
+blanched, or rather dyed of a dull and various blue.
+
+"I was wending home from Merland, where I had been helping Dan the smith
+to his luckpenny, when as I took the path-road down yonder unlucky hill
+to the ford, not thinking of the de'il's workmen that had flown off with
+the church the night before, I was whistling, or, it mayhap,
+singing,--or--or--I am not just particular to know how it was, for the
+matter of it; but at any rate I was getting up, having tumbled down the
+steep almost nigh to the bottom, and I thought my eyes had strucken
+fire, for I saw lights frisking and frolicking up and down the hill.
+Then I sat down to watch, and, sure enough, such a puck-fisted rabble,
+without cloak or hosen, I never beheld--all hurry-scurry up the hill,
+and some of the like were on the gallop down again. They were shouting,
+and mocking, and laughing, like so many stark-mad fools at a May-feast.
+They strid twenty paces at a jump, with burdens that two of the best
+oxen about the manor had not shifted the length of my thumbnail. 'Tis
+some unlucky dream, said I, rubbing the corners of my eyes, and trying
+to pinch myself awake. Just then I saw a crowd of the busiest of 'em
+running up from the river, and making directly towards the steep bank
+below where I sat. They were hurrying a great log of timber, which they
+threw down close beside me, as if to rest ere they mounted. 'My
+friends,'--what should ail me to talk to 'em I cannot tell,--'My
+friends, but ye seem to have more work in your hands than wit in your
+noddles--ye might have spared yourselves the labour, I trow.' With that
+the whole rout turned upon me with a shout and a chattering that would
+have dumbfounded the shrillest tongue in the whole hundred--the
+mill-wheel was nothing to it. I would have escaped, but my feet were
+holden like as they had been i' the stocks. One, the foremost of the
+crew--I do think he had a long tail and gaping hoofs, but I was over
+frightened to see very clear--came with a mocking malicious grin, his
+tongue lolling out, and his eyes glaring and fiend-like.
+
+"'Pray, good friend,' said he, pulling off a little black bonnet, 'be
+compassionate enough to help us with our load to the hill-top.' Now was
+I terrified beyond measure, insomuch that I made a desperate tug,
+whereby loosening myself, I ran like the wind, the wicked fiends
+following and roaring after me with loud and bitter curses. I jumped
+into the river, in my hurry having missed the ford, and I heard 'em
+still shouting, and, as I thought, pursuing me; but the Virgin and St
+Chadde were my helpers, for when Biddy opened the door in the morning, I
+lay there in a great swoon, with my head bruised, and a hole in my good
+grey cloak."
+
+"And so thou comest here a-boasting of thy drunken discoveries," said
+the Thane. "Thou shalt wish thou hadst not gotten thee so soon from the
+fiend's clutches. A spice of old Nicholas' vocation may not be amiss;
+yet, by way of relish to thy tale"----
+
+The agony of the culprit was loud and appalling, but the chief was
+inexorable, until his denunciations were interrupted by a stranger, who
+craved a short respite for the groaning supplicant.
+
+He was meanly clad: a coarse cloak, stained and threadbare, was thrown
+open, showing a close habit of the most ordinary fabric; yet a natural
+and graceful bearing imparted a dignity even to his poor and worthless
+habiliments.
+
+"I am a stranger, and sore oppressed with long travel. Penury and
+misfortune have been my lot, and I am driven from place to place without
+a home or a morsel of bread. Last night, long after the curfew, I came
+hither, but no _hospitium_ or religious house being near, I sat down by
+the hill-side yonder, until morning should enable me to crave help for
+my hopeless journey. The morning had not dawned ere I awoke--a loud
+trampling, and a rush of many voices had broken in upon my slumbers. I
+beheld crowds of strange-looking men, laden with terrific burdens. They
+seemed to be eagerly and earnestly at work, under heavier loads than I
+thought mortal man could sustain; the whole space too, as far as the eye
+might carry, seemed alive with them, the flickering of their torches
+forming a scene of almost unimaginable splendour. Right before me were a
+number of these labourers, hauling up a heavy beam from the river;
+others were apparently crossing, laden with materials no less bulky and
+intractable. All were in motion, wriggling along like so many ants on a
+hillock. The party just before me stayed immediately below where I sat,
+watching their proceedings with no little curiosity and amazement. They
+threw down their load,--then pausing, appeared to view with some
+hesitation the steep bank above them. The foremost of the group now
+came softly towards me. Pulling off his bonnet, with a grave and
+beseeching aspect he craved help to accomplish the ascent. Not then
+dreaming of goblins and their deceitful glamour, I put my shoulder to
+the work with a right good will; and truly it were a marvel to watch the
+tough beam, how it seemed to obey the impulse. I worked with all the
+might I could muster, but it appeared as though little were needful; and
+in a trice we scrambled to the top, when the whole party scampered off,
+leaving me to follow or not, as I chose. I saw something tossed towards
+me, which glistened as it lay at my feet. Stooping, I found a silver
+ring, beauteously bedecked with one glowing crystal. Round the rim is
+formed a quaint legend, bearing a fair device, which some learned clerk
+may perchance decipher."
+
+The stranger drew from his finger a massy ring. A little ferret-eyed
+monk, a transcriber of saints' legends and Saxon chronicles, was
+immediately called. He pronounced the writing heathenish, and of the
+Runic form. A sort of free translation may be given as follows:--
+
+    "The Norman shall tread on the Saxon's heel,
+    And the stranger shall rule o'er England's weal;
+    Through castle and hall, by night or by day
+    The stranger shall thrive for ever and aye;
+      But in Rached, above the rest,
+      The stranger shall thrive best."
+
+Gamel was troubled and perplexed. The words were prophetic, evidently
+pointing to his own and his country's fate, as well as to the destiny of
+the stranger. He knit his brows, and his very beard coiled upwards with
+the conflict. He appeared loth to allow of a supernatural agency in the
+affair, and yet the testimony and its witness were not to be gainsayed.
+
+"I had not believed the tale, stranger, if this token had not confirmed
+thy speech:--verily thou hast a better witness than a fool's tongue to
+thy story. That ill-omened losel may depart. See thou fall not hastily
+into the like offence, else shalt thou smart from Childermas to
+All-hallowtide. Hence! to thy place." Barnulf awaited not further
+dismissal, glad to escape the scrutiny of Nicholas with a whole skin.
+
+A loud shriek was heard from the court-yard.
+
+"My boy!--Oh, my boy!" cried the almost frantic mother, as she rushed
+into the chamber, leading in Uctred. He had been discovered on removing
+some of the huge piles of timber again from the hill, where, under a
+curiously-supported covering of beams and other rude materials, he lay,
+seemingly asleep. The urchin looked as malicious and froward as ever,
+even when standing before his chief.
+
+"And where hast thou been, my pretty bird?" said the old woman, as she
+began her vocabulary of signs. But the boy looked surly and would not
+answer to the signal: he drew down his black swarthy brows, looking
+eagerly and fiercely from behind their bushy curtains. Suddenly, and
+with a fearful yell, he sprang forward, snatching the ring which Gamel
+was then giving back to the stranger. With a wild and hideous laugh,
+which sent a shudder through the assembly, he drew it on his finger. At
+this moment the expression of his countenance began to change, and some
+of the bystanders, over whom fear had probably waved the wand of the
+enchanter, saw his form dilate, and his whole figure expand into almost
+gigantic proportions. A thick haze rolled through the apartment; then
+was heard a wild unearthly shout, and the vision had disappeared.
+
+"Seize him!" cried Gamel.
+
+The guards, trembling, prepared to execute his commands, but on gaining
+the outworks of the castle, no vestige remained of his appearance, save
+a slight whirlwind of dust, like a mist-wreath curling down the valley,
+which, to their terrified apprehensions, became the chariot of the
+departing demon. Nothing could shake this belief; and in after ages the
+boy was spoken of as a changeling, left by some fairy, whose appointed
+sojourn had been then accomplished, the means for his release being
+fulfilled. Old Cicely became nigh crazed with the loss of her son; but
+Gamel, seriously pondering on these events, sought counsel from the
+"Holy Church." It was therein resolved that the intended site should be
+removed, and the "_unknown_" by such removal appeased. The chapel of St
+Chadde was accordingly built on the hill-top, where the church now
+stands, and unto which the foundations had been so marvellously
+conveyed. One hundred and twenty-four steps were dug to accomplish the
+ascent, and enable the good people to go to prayers. Connected with
+these, the tradition still exists; and unto this day it is here
+observed, that _"Strangers prosper in the town of Rochdale; but the
+natives are generally unfortunate in their undertakings."_
+
+[Illustration: MAB'S CROSS, WIGAN.
+
+_Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden._]
+
+
+
+
+MAB'S CROSS.
+
+    "A pilgrim came from o'er the sea;
+        _Benedicite! benedicite!_
+    And he brought a ring to that proud ladye.
+      His grave is wide, his grave is deep;
+      On that bosom cold he shall quietly sleep:
+          _Benedicite!_"
+
+
+The following extract from the genealogical roll of the Bradshaighs is
+the principal source from whence this tale has originated:--
+
+"Sir William Bradshaighe, second son to Sir John, was a great traveller
+and a souldger, and married to Mabell, daughter and sole heire of Hugh
+Norris de Haghe and Blackrode, and had issue," &c.
+
+Of this Mabel is a story by tradition of undoubted verity, "that in Sir
+Wm. Bradshaghe absence (beinge 10 years away in the holy wars), she
+married a Welsh knight. Sir William, returning from the wars, came in a
+palmer's habitt amongst the poor to Haghe, who, when she saw and
+congetringe that he favoured her former husband, wept, for which the
+knight chastised her; at which Sir William went and made himself known
+to his tenants; in which space the knight fled, but neare to Newton
+Parke Sir William overtook him and sleu him. The said Dame Mabell was
+enjoined by her confessor to doe penances by going onest every week
+barefout and bare legged to a crosse ner Wigan from the Haghe, wilest
+she lived, and is called Mabb ++ to this day; and ther monument lyes in
+Wigan church, as you see them ther portry'd."
+
+Sir William Bradshaigh was outlawed during the space of a year and a day
+for this offence; but he and his lady, it is said, lived happily
+together afterwards until their death. Their effigies on the tomb now
+exist but as rude and unshapely masses; time and whitewash, the two
+great destroyers of our monumental relics, having almost obliterated
+their form, the one by diminishing, and the other by adding to, their
+substance.
+
+That Sir William was at the "Holy Wars," must, it is evident, be a
+corruption of the story, seeing he was born about the year 1280, ten
+years after the last of these unfortunate expeditions. The first
+croisade was undertaken by Peter the Hermit, 1095; a second, by Louis
+VII of France, 1145; a third, under Richard I of England, 1190; a
+fourth, under Philip II of France, 1204; a fifth, under Louis IX,
+against Egypt, 1248; and the last, under Louis IX., against Tunis,
+where he lost his life, 1270. Consequently, the perpetration of these
+"Holy" murders, which it is supposed were to the amount of two hundred
+millions of human beings, without the acquisition even of Jerusalem to
+the Church, must have ceased ere the birth of our "pilgrim." That he was
+at "the wars," however, is pretty certain, but they were nearer home.
+The machinations of that powerful noble, Thomas, Earl of Lancaster,
+together with the disastrous campaign of Edward II. against the Scots,
+are sufficiently important events to account for the long absence of Sir
+William Bradshaigh, who is supposed to have been taken prisoner during
+these unhappy troubles.
+
+Our engraving represents the cross as it exists at present. Some
+attention having been drawn to it of late, we may hope this interesting
+relic will be suffered to remain uninjured, and not be subjected any
+more to those levelling improvements for which this age is so
+distinguished.
+
+In the borough of Wigan, near one of the four gates, called
+Standishgate--which gates are now removed, and their places occupied by
+some undignified-looking posts called "toll-bars"--stands a ruined stone
+cross; in appearance, by no means either interesting or remarkable: it
+would scarcely be noticed by a casual observer. Yet to this mean-looking
+memorial of our faith is attached an eventful story, at which
+
+    "The sad might laugh; the merry weep."
+
+It is a tale of which our brief limits will only allow a rapid sketch.
+This we have thrown together in the dramatic and narrative form, a
+combination more calculated than any other, we believe, to awaken
+attention, and bring forth the subject before the mind with truth and
+distinctness.
+
+One stormy night, in the autumn of the year 1324, mine host of the Merry
+Maypole, a tavern of great resort by the market-cross in the good
+borough of Wigan, was awakened from a laborious slumber. The door which
+opened into a low porch projecting from the thatch, was shaken with a
+vehemence that threatened some fearful catastrophe. Giles, no longer
+able to endure these thundering appeals to his hospitality, desired his
+wife to ascertain the cause of the disturbance.
+
+"Gramercy! An' I be to unlatch for every graceless unthrift that chooses
+to pummel at Giles Dauber's wicket, I shall have but sorry bedding wi'
+an old husband."
+
+"Old, quotha!--Old! I tell thee, dame, that I'm less by a good score of
+winters than Dan o' the higher Wient, when he wed old Simon's
+daughter.--Humph!--She was a merry and a buxom lass; but thou"--
+
+How far this interesting dialogue between the tavern-keeper and his
+newly-wedded spouse might have extended it is impossible with any degree
+of accuracy to set forth, inasmuch as another loud and desperate lunge,
+extenuated to an inaudible mutter the testy rejoinder of "Giles o' the
+Maypole;" this being the cognomen by which he was more familiarly
+designated.
+
+"Anan!" shouted he, "what the---- Save us!" he continued in a low
+whisper, crossing himself, "I had nigh slipped an ugly word over my
+tongue; and if it should be--Dame, I say, get up, and"--
+
+"Nay, thou hast gotten thee two as nimble legs, by thine own reckoning,
+as any knave i' the borough. I shall e'en keep to my bed, goodman,
+though these guzzle-throats hammer till cock-crow.--They are at the
+right side of the door, I trow."
+
+Now, mine host of the Merry Maypole having taken to himself that last
+and worst of all possible plagues for the remnant of his days, to wit, a
+young and somewhat handsome-looking wife, thought it no less meet than
+reasonable, and no less reasonable than a duty, at all times incumbent,
+that the before-named helpmate should, if need were, get out of bed and
+unlatch the wicket whenever good customers were astir; more particularly
+as the first Dame Dauber, having the fear of a short but tough cudgel
+upon her, did, at certain times and seasons, when there was the
+requisite occasion, leave her liege lord to the enjoyment of his warm
+and luxurious couch, and spread a table for the entertainment of many a
+night-betrayed traveller.
+
+It was the first exigency of the kind, since the marriage of Giles
+Dauber to Madge Newsome of the Deercote, in which the discussion of a
+point so knotty and important had occurred. Giles dreamt not of the vast
+difference that exists in the nature and docility of divers women. He
+heard with a sort of incredulous surprise the first incipient grumblings
+in contravention of his authority; but when these had fairly shaped
+themselves into open defiance, he started agape with wonder. Recovering
+himself, with a stern and portentous silence, he jumped out of bed and
+drew on his doublet and hose. While thoughts of relentless import were
+brooding, he groped his way down the ladder that communicated with the
+lower apartment, for the purpose of ascertaining the quality and
+condition of the stranger. The latter still manifested a noisy
+impatience at being suffered, in so inhospitable a manner, to linger
+without. The night was rainy and tempestuous--Giles shivered to the
+backbone as he trod on the wheezing rushes strewed over the floor; they
+were yet damp and dirty, by reason of the many visitors who had that
+night loitered long at the Merry Maypole.
+
+"Holloa, friend!--thy name?" shouted Giles, placing his hand on the
+latch.
+
+"Open the door, for the love of mercy!" cried a strange voice. Giles
+drew back; he liked not this salutation--more, by token, from the
+adjurement being for the love of mercy, in lieu of an appeal to the
+tinkling angels that generally lined a traveller's pouch.
+
+"Some sturdy beggar or mendicant friar," thought he, "that knocks at my
+door because the chantry gates are shut. I care not to open my door to
+every losel that knocks," cried he aloud. "Hence! I know thee not."
+
+"Goodman, give me a night's lodging, and I will reward thee"--the door
+flew open at this intimation--"with a palmer's benison," continued the
+stranger, advancing towards the wan embers that yet flickered on the
+hearth. Had Giles awaited the finishing of this sentence ere the latch
+was loosened, some other and more hospitable roof had enjoyed the
+benefit of that night's adventure.
+
+"Thanks are not over meet for a cool stomach," growled the disappointed
+tapster; whilst his guest roused the decaying faggots into a faint and
+unsteady blaze.
+
+Giles surveyed the new-comer with no very sanguine prepossessions in his
+behalf. The figure that met his scrutiny was clad in a dark cloak. The
+hood, partly thrown back, showed a somewhat "frosty poll," though the
+vivacity of a wild and restless eye, peering from under his dark and
+luxuriant brow, would scarcely have betokened an age at which the coming
+winter of life usually scatters these chill warnings of its approach.
+His features were finely moulded. A weather-beaten cheek, mingling with
+a complexion evidently sallow, gave a rich autumnal hue to his visage: a
+slight furrow, extending from the outer angle of the nostril around each
+corner of a narrow and retreating mouth, gave a careless expression of
+scorn to the countenance when at rest; but, as he smiled, this sinister
+aspect disappeared, and the soft gleam of benevolence which succeeded
+looked the brighter from the portentous scowl that had just passed. His
+beard was grey, and of a most reverent equipment, well calculated to
+excite veneration and respect. He was above the middle size: his humble
+garb but ill concealed a majesty of deportment indicating a disposition
+rather to command than to solicit favours. He seated himself on a low
+stool, and honest Giles, whose courage did not feel sufficiently
+invigorated, in the presence of this proud palmer, to dare an open
+warfare, began hostilities covertly, in manner as follows:--
+
+"What ails ye, to disturb honest folks i' their beds at these hours? You
+might ha' tarried in your last baiting-place--at any rate till the kye
+were astir. I wonder the guard let you pass at the gate. But since these
+evil days have o'ershadowed the land, every braggart has licence to do
+as he list; and the monks and the friars, with their whole crew of dubs
+and deputies, are the worst of all. Old Cliderhow here, the parson,
+thought to have waged war with his betters; but he was a slight matter
+mistaken: we whipt him up by the heels for his treason."
+
+"Is Cliderhow alive?" inquired the stranger.
+
+"Save us, pilgrim! where had you knowledge of the traitor?"
+
+"Our good king Edward," continued the guest, apparently not attending to
+Giles's question in reply, "is still sorely beset with his enemies. Had
+a score of knaves such as Master Cliderhow been hanged long ago, his
+reign had been less burdensome both to prince and people."
+
+"It's twelve years--ay, twelve," said Giles, reckoning the lapse on his
+fingers; "I know it by the great wind that beat down Master Markland's
+barn wall at the Meadows, since Cliderhow's sermon, inciting the whole
+parish to rebellion."
+
+"I know it," replied the palmer: "he was in prison when I last knew of
+the matter."
+
+"Ay, ay," returned Giles knowingly; "but threescore marks, disbursed
+discreetly to our good and loyal burgesses, made the doors as easy to
+open as my wicket--that is, at timely hours, ye understand."
+
+"Is he at large?" inquired the other.
+
+"They say he bides at Haigh," answered Boniface, "roistering it with
+that Welsh knight there, Sir Osmund Neville. I warrant Sir William's
+substance runs gaily down the old parson's throat."
+
+Here the palmer threw the hood over his brows. Suddenly he arose:
+striding across the chamber with considerable speed, he twice repeated
+the name of Sir Osmund Neville in a subdued tone, but with a bitterness
+of spirit that ill accorded with the outward habit of meekness which he
+had assumed.
+
+"Giles Dauber! what keeps ye so long there a-gossiping?" shouted a
+shrill voice from above. It was the vocal substitute of Mistress Dauber,
+who, resolutely determined not to budge at her husband's bidding, had,
+as she lay, listened, but to little purpose. Finding it was no everyday
+guest, she crept to the ladder-head and gave ear for a while; but soon
+discovering it to be an unthrifty sort of intercourse that was going on,
+not likely to bring either gain or good-will to the house, and fearing
+that Giles might fall into some snare from his ready-mouthed opinions
+regarding the unsettled temper and aspect of the time, she thought fit
+to break abruptly on the discourse ere it should lead to some dangerous
+or forbidden subject. He had, however, hit upon a favourite topic, in
+addition to which, he was now evidently loth to leave his guest ere he
+had learnt the nature of his errand to these parts. An "o'er-sea
+pilgrim," as they were generally styled, was too choice an arrival for a
+petty hostel--especially in those times, when newspapers and posts were
+not circulating daily and hourly through the land--to let slip an
+opportunity of inquiring about the king of Scotland, as Robert Bruce was
+then called, or about his majesty, the Sultan Solyman--two personages
+who were very frequently confounded with each other in mine host's
+political hemisphere, and whose realms formed the great pandemonium
+whence issued all that was dire and disastrous to plague and perplex
+unhappy England.
+
+"To bed! to bed!--Thou art ready enough to rise when thou art not
+bidden. To bed, I say!" angrily shouted the disturbed Benedict.
+
+"Hast _thou_ a wife?" sternly inquired the pilgrim.
+
+"A wife!--marry have I!" exclaimed Giles; "and here she comes."
+
+Finding there was no likelihood of a speedy termination to this
+interview, our hostess of the Maypole conceived it to be a matter of
+duty that she should at least take her full share in the discussions and
+disclosures that might ensue. For this purpose she descended, making a
+deep acknowledgment to the generally supposed sanctity of the pilgrim's
+vocation. So much occupied, however, did he appear by other concernments
+that he scarcely noticed her approach, but continued to pass with hasty
+and irregular steps across the chamber.
+
+"By what quality or appearance may Sir Osmund Neville be distinguished?"
+he abruptly inquired.
+
+"A right goodly person, and a brave gentleman! He gave me a sousing
+kiss, and a pair of mittens to boot, the last choosing of knights to the
+parliament," said the Dame.
+
+"Hold thy tongue, Madge!" angrily exclaimed Giles. "Good father, heed
+not a woman; they are caught by the lip and the fist, like my lord's
+trencher-man. This Sir Osmund is both lean and ill-favoured. I wonder
+what the Lady Mabel saw above his shoe to wed with an ugly toad spawned
+i' the Welsh marshes. Had ye seen her first husband, Sir William
+Bradshaigh--rest his soul! he was killed in the wars--you would have
+marvelled that she drunk the scum after the broth."
+
+"Lady Mabel and Sir Osmund are now at Haigh?" cautiously inquired the
+palmer.
+
+"You have business there, belike?" sharply interrogated the
+indefatigable host.
+
+"I have slight matters that require my presence at the hall. Does the
+knight go much abroad, or keeps he close house?"
+
+"Why, look ye, it is some three months or so since I smelt the fat from
+her ladyship's kitchen. Dan Hardseg smutted my face, and rubbed a
+platterful of barley-dough into my poll, the last peep I had through the
+buttery. I'll bide about my own hearth-flag whilst that limb o' the old
+spit is chief servitor. I do bethink me though, it is long sin' Sir
+Osmund was seen i' the borough. Belike he may have come at the knowledge
+of my misadventure, and careth not to meet the wrath of a patient man."
+
+Here the malicious dame burst into a giddy laugh.
+
+"Thee! why Sir Osmund knoweth not thy crop from thy crupper, nor careth
+he if thy whole carcase were crammed into the dumpling-bag. I'feck, it
+were a rare pastime to see Sir Osmund, the brave Welsh knight, give the
+gutter to Giles of the Merry Maypole."
+
+Giles was speechless with dismay at this aggravating insult; but the
+dame continued:--
+
+"I think, good stranger, the knight does keep house of late. Grim told
+me that last week he was a-sporting once only by way of the higher park;
+and he appears something more soured and moody than usual. If thou
+crave speech with him though, to-morrow being almonsday at the hall, the
+poor have free admission, and thou mayest have a sight of him there:
+peradventure, as thou art strange in these parts, it will be needful
+thou hadst a guide."
+
+"And just ready for the job thyself, I'se warrant," bitterly snarled the
+exasperated husband. The storm, long threatening, was about to burst
+forth; but the palmer, with holy and beseeching words, soothed for
+awhile the angry disputants, at the same time intimating that a guide
+was unnecessary, the situation of the house being sufficiently obvious
+from whatever quarter he might direct his steps.
+
+The stranger seemed not solicitous of repose, and Giles was too sulky to
+inquire his wants. The dame, however, drew a bundle of clean straw from
+a huge heap, and threw it beside the hearth. A coarse and heavy rug,
+over which was thrown a sheep-skin with the wool innermost, constituted
+a warm but homely couch. A horn cup filled with cider and a burnt
+barley-cake were next exhibited, of which the palmer made a healthful,
+if not a sumptuous repast. Giles growled off to the loft above; and the
+dame, caring little for the sequel of her husband's humours, soon found
+a resting-place by his side.
+
+Morning shone brightly and cheerfully through the chinks and crevices of
+both door and lattice; but the pilgrim's couch was yet unsought. His
+vigils had been undisturbed, save when the baying of some vagrant and
+ill-disciplined dogs, or the lusty carol of some valiant yeoman, reeling
+home after a noisy debauch, startled him from a painfully-recurring
+thought, to which, however, the mind involuntarily turned when the
+interruption had ceased.
+
+It was late ere Giles awoke. Breathless with expectation, he hastened
+below, anticipating a rich budget of news from his guest; but he had
+departed.
+
+It was one of those fresh and glittering mornings which autumn alone can
+produce. Keen, pure, and exhilarating, the air seemed all buoyant and
+elastic, tinging the cheeks with ruddy health, and animating the whole
+frame with renewed vigour.
+
+A slight hoar-frost yet lay on the thatched roofs. Calm and undisturbed,
+a gem-like brightness twinkled from every object; whilst the vapours
+that covered them looked not as the shroud, but rather as a pure mantle
+of eider, hiding the fair bosom to which it clung.
+
+The pilgrim entered a narrow street leading to the postern or gate,
+called Standish-gate. In those days it was not, as now, a wide and free
+thoroughfare for man and beast. At the accustomed fairs, toll is, to
+this time, demanded on all cattle changing owners at the several
+outlets, where formerly stood four gates; to wit, Wall-gate, Hall-gate,
+Mill-gate, and Standish-gate. Each gate where the toll-bars now stand
+was once, in good sooth, a heavy barrier of stout beams, thickly studded
+with iron. Through the night they were generally bolted and guarded by a
+company of the mayor's halberdiers. An irregular wall encompassed the
+town, save on the eastern side, where the river Douglas seemed, in the
+eyes of the burghers, to constitute a sufficient defence, a low abbatis
+only screening its banks. The walls were covered, or rather uncovered,
+by a broad ditch: a bridge of rough-hewn planks, at three of the
+entrances before named, allowed a free communication with the suburbs,
+except during seasons of hostility, which unhappily were not rare in
+those days of rapine and rebellion. Before the Mill-gate a wider and
+more substantial structure, mounted on huge wooden props, facilitated a
+passage over the river. This edifice could be raised in cases of siege,
+effectually separating the inhabitants from their enemies.
+
+The first beams of the sun began to peep through the angles of the
+wooden gable fronts, projecting nearly midway across the street,
+streaming athwart the frosty air, and giving a beautifully variegated
+and picturesque appearance to the grotesque vista bounded by the
+Standish-gate.
+
+The stranger paused not; mounting the hill with an alertness and agility
+that scarcely seemed compatible with his age and appearance. On arriving
+at the gate, his garb was a sufficient passport, without the necessity
+of a challenge. Three or four of the guards were loitering and laughing
+on a couple of benches built in a sort of arched recess on each side of
+the gateway. As the pilgrim passed they became silent, bowing reverently
+as he pronounced the accustomed benison.
+
+Outside the barriers, the road lay through an open and uninclosed
+country. It was a matter of but slight moment what line of direction the
+narrow and uneven pathways might describe, provided their termination
+was tolerably accurate; all traffic and intercourse, being necessarily
+limited, was mostly carried on through the medium of saddles and
+horse-furniture.
+
+The most inaccessible part of a hill was the site generally chosen; the
+road ascending and descending in a meandering sort of zig-zig on its
+side. Rarely did our timid ancestors tempt the valley, often preferring
+a roundabout course over a line of hills, if by so doing the perils of
+the lower ground could be avoided.
+
+The pilgrim followed a narrow and beaten track: it was bordered on each
+side by a deep ditch, nearly overgrown with weeds and brambles. He
+traversed the intricate windings of the road with considerable facility;
+but an hour had nearly elapsed ere he gained the brow of an eminence of
+no very conspicuous height, though it commanded a pretty extensive view
+of the country adjacent. From the east, a rich flood of glory blended
+the whole into one broad mass of light, melting away the beauteous
+frost-work, as the rays of morning dissipate the unreal visions that
+have their existence only in darkness and repose. Southward lay the
+borough, distinguishable only by the broad tower of All-Saints rising
+from the mist, as if baseless and suspended. A bell boomed heavily
+through the quiet atmosphere: its long and lingering echoes came on the
+pilgrim's soul like the voice of other years--of hopes and anticipations
+that had for ever departed.
+
+Westward might be seen a curl of blue smoke from the newly-dignified
+priory at Upholland, recently invested with that honour through the
+grants and intercessions of Sir Robert de Holland, a proud knight in the
+train of Thomas Earl of Lancaster. It was northward that the pilgrim
+turned, with a look of more intense anxiety. The mansion of Haigh stood
+at the extremity of a broad slope, surmounted by shady woods, now fading
+into the warm and luxuriant tints of autumn. Dark and cumbrous turrets,
+projecting from the wings, grimly caught the first gleam of the morning;
+whilst a tower of considerable strength and elevation rose above what
+could only be surmised as the principal gateway. It was apparently
+designed to overlook the whole fabric, serving as a refuge to the
+besieged, and a stronghold in case of attack. Narrow loopholes might be
+traced, irregularly disposed in the heavy masonry; and at the summit
+stood a small turret resembling a large chair, from which, at stated
+occasions, waved the richly-emblazoned escutcheon of the Norris and the
+Bradshaigh. The staff was just visible, but unaccompanied by its
+glittering adjunct. It was this circumstance principally that seemed to
+engage the attention of the stranger. He broke into a loud and
+involuntary exclamation:--
+
+"Sir William's birthday is forgotten!--That staff opened a rich blossom
+to the breeze ten years agone. It is the day--the very hour of Sir
+William's birth!"
+
+He smote his forehead, scarcely able to contain the violence of his
+emotion.
+
+"Let that day darken!--let it be cursed with storms and tempest!--let
+the shadows of death brood over it, and the teeming night bring tenfold
+horrors!--Yet how calm, how peacefully yonder sun approaches in his
+strength! Nature is the same--bright, joyous, and unchanging!--Man, man
+alone, is mutable--his days are full of mourning and bitterness!"
+
+He bowed his head, crouching almost to the dust, in that overwhelming
+agony.
+
+Suddenly he was aroused, and in a manner as unceremonious as unexpected.
+A smart blow on the back announced a somewhat uncourteous intruder,
+whilst a loud and discordant laugh struck shrilly on his ear. Starting,
+he beheld a figure of a low and unshapely stature, clothed in a light
+dress, fantastically wrought. A round cap, slouched in front, fitted
+closely to his head, from which depended what the wearer no doubt looked
+upon as a goodly aggregate of ornaments. These consisted of ear-tassels
+and rings of various dimensions, that jingled oddly as he twisted his
+head from side to side with a knowing and important grin. A pair of
+large leathern boots, slipped on for travelling purposes, with ample
+flaps turning down from the knee, formed the lower costume of this
+strange being. Round his neck he wore an iron collar: its import,
+whether in the shape of punishment or decoration, is at this time
+doubtful. A visage of more than ordinary size projected from between a
+pair of shoulders that nearly overlooked the lower rim of his cap. A
+sort of dubious leer was its predominant expression, heightened ever and
+anon by a broad laugh, the eldritch shout of which first announced
+itself to the ear of the pilgrim. Matted and shaggy, the twisted locks
+hung wildly about his brow, whilst a short and frizzled beard served as
+a scanty covering to his chin. A "Sheffield whittle" stuck in his
+baldric; and in a pouch was deposited the remnant of a magnificent
+pasty. From oft and over replenishment this receptacle gaped in a most
+unseemly manner, showing the shattered remains, the crumbling fragments,
+of many a huge mountain of crust.
+
+With arms akimbo stood this prepossessing personage before the pilgrim,
+in all his native rudeness and disorder. The latter tightened his cloak
+about him, and withdrew some three or four paces from his companion.
+
+"Nuncle," said the jester--for such was in fact his vocation--"I wonder
+for what property master keeps a fool?--I bethink me 'tis for his wit:
+more wit and less honesty, though." The palmer was silent.
+
+"Art going to the hall?" continued he. "The fool is whipt there for
+being honest. Have a care, nuncle; if Sir Osmund catch thee, thou hadst
+as good bequeath thy bones to the Pope to make into saint's gear.--I'm
+very sad, nuncle!"
+
+"Sad!" said the pilgrim; "in good troth, an' thou be sad, the cock of
+the hall yonder is but in sorry plight."
+
+"'Tis more wholesome to cry to-day," said the dolorous knave, "knowing
+ye shall laugh to-morrow, than to laugh to-day, and to-morrow's dool
+somehow making your mirth asthmatic:
+
+    "Be merry to-morrow; to-day, to-day,
+      Your belly-full fill of grief;
+    When sorrow hath supp'd, go play, go play,
+      For mirth I wot is brief.
+
+"Ay, grandam, ye are wise; and an old woman's wit best becomes a fool:
+
+    "When sorrow hath supp'd, go play, go play,
+      For mirth I wot is brief."
+
+He drew out the last notes into one of those querulous cadences, much in
+vogue as an _ad libitum_ on all fitting occasions: even the sad features
+of the pilgrim were provoked into a smile.
+
+"Art bound for the hall?" again inquired the inquisitive hunchback.
+
+"Yes, friend--whither else? Is it not almous-day, and thinkest thou the
+houseless and wandering pilgrim will not share of the largess?"
+
+"Beggars and friars thrive--treason and corruption wed, and these be
+their children belike. Hast brought the Lady Mabel her old husband's
+bones from heathenrie?--her new one is like to leave her nought else,
+poor soul, for her comfort. She'll make her up a saint out o'them."
+
+"If she has gotten another husband," said the pilgrim, "the old one's
+bones would have a rare chance of her worship."
+
+The facetious impertinent here gave a sort of incredulous whistle. He
+eyed the palmer with a keen and scrutinising glance, but suddenly
+relapsing into his accustomed manner, he burst into a wild and
+portentous laugh.
+
+"I tell thee, if Sir Osmund catch thee carrying so much as a thumb-nail
+of Sir William's carcase, he 'll wring thy neck as wry as the chapel
+weathercock. My lady goes nigh crazed with his ill humours. I warrant
+thee, Sir William's ghost gaily snuffs up the sport. I have watched him
+up and down the old stairs, and once i' the chapel; and he told
+me"--whispering close to the pilgrim's ear--"a great secret, nuncle!"
+
+"Ay--what was that, Motley?"
+
+"Why, said he, if so be Sir William comes home again, he'll find his
+wife has got a cuckoo in her nest." Here he burst from the stranger with
+a malicious shout, and descending a by-path, was soon lost amidst the
+intricacies of a deep wood, skirting the verge of an extensive forest.
+
+The traveller's brow gathered a heavier gloom. With unconscious haste he
+soon gained a gentle ascent, which led by a narrow and deep path to the
+mansion. Nigh to the bridge over the moat stood a blacksmith's hovel,
+conveniently situated for all job-work emanating from the armoury and
+the kitchen, which at that time afforded full exercise for the musical
+propensities of Darby Grimshaw's great anvil. This hut was a general
+resort to all the idlers in the vicinity; Grim, as he was generally
+styled for the sake of abbreviation, discharging the office of "preses,"
+or chief moderator, in all debates held therein. He was a shrewd fellow
+and a bold one. A humorous and inquisitive cunning lurked in the corner
+of his grey and restless eye. His curiosity was insatiable; and as a
+cross-questioner, when fairly at work, for worming out a secret he had
+not his fellow. His brain was a general deposit for odd scraps, and a
+reservoir in which flowed all stray news about the country. He was an
+abstract and chronicle of the time; and could tell you where the Earl of
+Lancaster mustered his forces, the day of their march, and the very
+purposes and projects of that turbulent noble. Even the secrets of my
+lady's bower did not elude the prying of this indefatigable artist; at
+any rate, he had the credit of knowing all that he assumed, which
+amounted very much to the same thing as though his knowledge were
+unlimited: a nod and a wink supplying the place of intelligence, when
+his wondering neophytes grew disagreeably minute in their inquiries.
+
+Towards this abode did the pilgrim bend his steps. A thick smoke hovered
+about the thatch, that appeared very ingeniously adapted for the
+reception and nurture of any stray spark that might happen to find there
+a temporary lodgment. Several times had this Vulcan been burnt out, yet
+the materials were easily replaced; and again and again the hovel arose
+in all its pristine ugliness and disorder.
+
+Darby was just kindling his fire: a merry-making overnight had trenched
+upon morning duties, and daylight found him still stretched on his
+pallet. Subsequent to this a noisy troop from the hall had roused him
+from a profound slumber.
+
+"St George and the Virgin protect thee, honest friend!" said the
+pilgrim, as he stood by an opening, just then performing the functions
+of both door and chimney. Darby's perceptions being much impeded by the
+smoke, he hastily approached the door. His surprise manifested itself
+aloud, yet did he not forget a becoming reverence to the stranger, as he
+invited him into the only apartment, besides his workshop, of which the
+roof could boast. It served for parlour, bedchamber, and kitchen; where
+the presiding deity, Grim's helpmate, carried on her multifarious
+operations.
+
+The officious housewife fetched a joint-stool, first clearing it from
+dust, whilst her husband added a billet to the heap. She was just
+preparing breakfast. A wooden porringer, filled to the brim with new
+milk, in which oatmeal was stirred, a rasher of salted mutton, and a
+large cake of coarse bread, comprised the delicacies of their morning
+repast. To this, however, was added a snatch of cold venison from the
+hall. "But this, you see," said the old woman, "is not of our own
+killing; St Gregory forbid!--it comes from Dan there, who has the care
+of the knight's buttery."
+
+"Rot him for a churl!" said the smith; "Sir Osmund grudges every mouth
+about him; but"--and here he looked wondrous knowing--"he may happen to
+be ousted yet, if Earl Thomas should come by the worst in this cabal."
+
+"Sir Osmund, I find, is no favourite with his neighbours."
+
+"Hang him!" replied Grim, first looking cautiously into the shop;
+"there's not a man of us but would like to see him and his countrymen
+packed off to-morrow upon ass-panniers. They were spawned from the Welsh
+ditches to help that overgrown Earl against his master. If Sir William
+had been alive I had spoken out without fear. He was a loyal knight and
+a true--he ever served his country and his king. But I bethink me that
+peradventure ye may have heard of our late master's death, and who knows
+but ye bring some token, pilgrim, to his lady?"
+
+"Thou hast shrewdly guessed--I bear the last message that Sir William
+sent to his lady; thinkest thou it may be delivered without the knight's
+privity?"
+
+"Save thee, father! peril betides him who would hazard a message to my
+lady without her husband's leave."
+
+"Is the Lady Mabel in health?--and the children?" inquired the stranger.
+
+"Sorely did she grieve when tidings came of Sir William's death in the
+great battle; but sorer still rues she her wedding with Sir Osmund
+Neville. Poor soul! It would melt the nails out of a rusty horse-shoe to
+see how she moans herself, when she can steal privily to her chamber.
+They say the knight caught her weeping once over some token that
+belonged to Sir William, and he burnt it before her face, ill-treating
+her into the bargain."
+
+"How came she to wed this churl?"
+
+"Oh, it's a sorry history!"--The speaker paused, and it was at the
+pilgrim's entreaty that he thus continued:--
+
+"Parson Cliderhow had his paw in the mischief. She was in a manner
+forced either to wed, or, in the end, to have found herself and her
+children with never a roof-tree above their heads."
+
+"How?--Sir William did not leave her portionless?"
+
+"I know not; but Sir Osmund had, or pretended he had, got a grant from
+the Earl of Lancaster for possession of all that belonged to Sir
+William, as a reward for his great services; and unless she wed
+him--why, you may guess what follows, when a lone woman is left in a
+wooer's clutches. I shall never forget their wedding-day; it should
+rather have been her burying, by the look on't. Her long veil was more
+like a winding-sheet than a bride's wimple."
+
+During this recital the palmer drew his seat closer to the hearth. He
+leant him over his staff, absorbed in that conscious stupor which seems
+at once shut out from all connection with external objects, and yet
+intensely alive to their impressions. Suddenly he rose, tightened his
+sandals, and looking round, appeared as if about to depart.
+
+"It is our late master's birthday," said the loquacious informant: "ten
+years ago there was free commons at the hall for man and beast. Now,
+save on almous-days, when some half-dozen doitering old bodies get a
+snatch at the broken meat, not a man of us thrusts his nose into the
+knight's buttery but by stealth. Sir William's banner has not been
+hoisted, as it was wont on this day, since he left, with fifty armed men
+in his train, to help the king, then hard pressed in the Scottish wars.
+Ye may get an alms among the poor to-day, but have an eye to the Welsh
+bowmen: these be the knight's privy guard, and hold not the quality of
+his guests in much respect."
+
+Here the smith's angry garrulity was interrupted by Daniel Hardseg, a
+sort of deputy house-steward, whose duty it was to look after all
+business not immediately connecting itself with any other department in
+the household. He was prime executive in most of the out-door duty, and
+a particular crony at the hovel. His "Hilloa!" was terrific.
+
+"Why, a murrain to thee, goodman Grim, thy fire is colder than my
+halidome; the sun is so high it puts it out, I reckon. Here have I two
+iron pots, a plate from my master's best greaves, and a pair of spurs
+that want piecing, and I'm like to tinker them as I list on a cold
+stithy. Get out, thou"--Here he became aware of an additional inmate to
+Grim's dwelling; and this discovery for a while checked the copious
+torrent of Dan's eloquence. Shortly, Darby drew him aside, and from
+their looks it might be gathered that some scheme was negotiating for
+the pilgrim's safe admission at the hall. To an entreaty, more
+strenuously urged on the part of our diplomatist, Dan replied, in a
+louder tone--
+
+"Why, look thee, gossip, it were as much as my lugs were
+worth--but--I'll e'en try."
+
+"We shall hear some news about Sir William, depend on't, an' thou get
+him a word with my lady."
+
+"And what the better shall I be of that?--dead men make no porridge
+hot," simply retorted Dan.
+
+"Go to," replied the other; "it's but setting Maude on the scent--I
+warrant thee, she'll sharpen her wits for the work. It will be a
+grievous pity should he depart, and whisper not his message to her
+ladyship. Maude's thin ears, as thou knowest, can catch a whisper, and
+thou wilt soon squeeze the secret out of her; then comes Darby's
+turn--by to-morrow, at the latest."
+
+The news-doting artisan rubbed his dark fists with ecstacy. "Go, knave,"
+said he; "thou art a teasing little varlet."
+
+Here Grim seemed ready to hug his comrade in the extremity of his
+delight; but Dan was rather sullen, evidently ruminating on peril and
+mischance, wherein the tempter had no share, though participating in the
+profits of the adventure. Eventually, the stranger was placed under the
+patronage of Daniel Hardseg, who, to do him justice, was well affected
+towards the enterprise he had undertaken.
+
+Passing by a low wall to the north-east of the mansion, they were soon
+hidden by a projecting terrace or platform, which, in cases of siege,
+could be converted into a sort of breastwork to cover the sallies of the
+besieged. At the salient angle of this curtain stood a small postern, to
+which Dan applied a heavy key, and beckoning to his companion, they
+ascended a narrow staircase. A succession of dark passages led to the
+great hall, from which a small arched doorway communicated by a private
+entrance to the chapel. As they passed the half-closed door, a gruff
+voice was heard reciting the appointed service for the day. Dan slept
+cautiously by, and motioned the stranger to tread softly. The latter
+paused, listening with a look of anxiety, and pressed his staff across
+his bosom;--soon, drawing his hood closer over his brow, he quickly
+followed the retreating footsteps of his companion.
+
+"Praised be old Cliderhow's tough pipe!" said Dan, when fairly out of
+hearing. "Ha, ha!--sit down, sit down, good father," opening a
+half-door, as he laughed, and thrusting in the pilgrim; "nobody can hear
+aught besides, when he's fairly agoing."
+
+The apartment into which this unceremonious conductor ushered his guest
+was Dan's store-room.
+
+A most whimsical assemblage of materials were here huddled together.
+Pans, wooden bowls, and matters of meaner import, entered into close
+familiarity with broadswords and helmets; boots of home manufacture in
+their primitive clothing; saddles with their housings; knives, and brown
+bottles of coarse pottery, were intermingled with many a grim-looking
+weapon of bloodthirsty aspect. From the walls depended a heterogeneous
+mass of apparel--cloaks, hats, and body-gear of unimaginable shape and
+appearance. Dan was steward of the wardrobe, or furniture-keeper to most
+of the retainers and other idle appendages to the hall; and as, in those
+days, the sciences dependent on order and classification had not spread
+their beneficial influence through society at large, it frequently
+happened that more time was consumed in rummaging amidst this unexplored
+chaos than would have sufficed to transact the whole affair for which
+any article was required. A round stool in the middle of this
+"_Thesaurus"_--the only unoccupied place except the ceiling--was the
+throne of our friend, Dan Hardseg, when dispensing out his treasures
+with stately munificence;--on this scanty perch was the stranger duly
+installed, and favoured with a benignant and knowing wink from Dan as he
+departed.
+
+Waiting for the return of his patron, the pilgrim was roused from a fit
+of reverie by the well-remembered greeting of the jester, Humphry
+Lathom, or "Daft Humpy," as he was mostly called.
+
+"Eh, nuncle! But if Dan catch thee, he'll be sure to give thee a lift i'
+the stocks."
+
+This strange creature cautiously opened the door, and was speedily
+engulfed in all that fearful accumulation of sloth and disorder. By his
+manner, it did not seem to be his first irruption into this vast
+magazine; whilst, from the cautious and fearful glances he from time to
+time cast through the door, it would appear that he had been detected in
+his expeditions, and in all probability punished for the offence. He was
+evidently in search of some object from amidst the various heaps of
+lumber he overthrew; an inarticulate mutter, accompanying every fresh
+attack, indicated impatience and disappointment. Suddenly he exclaimed,
+drawing forth a large roll, with ludicrous expressions of delight--
+
+"I have thee, now! The buck's horns shall soon butt this great Welsh
+goat from his pen."
+
+He opened the banner. It was the pennon of the Bradshaigh, thrown aside
+to rot in dust and decay.
+
+"Don't tell Dan, nuncle, and thou shall see rare sport."
+
+He said this with his usual familiarity of tone; but suddenly putting
+his mouth to the stranger's ear, he whispered. The words were inaudible,
+save to him for whom they were meant; and in an instant he darted from
+the spot, concealing the spoil amidst the folds of his apparel. Shortly
+afterwards Dan made his appearance. With wonder and dismay did he
+behold the ravages committed in his treasure-house--"confusion worse
+confounded."
+
+"Beshrew me, but thou art a restless tenant. I did not tell thee to
+tumble my wardrobe into haycocks."
+
+"I was long a-watching," said the pilgrim; "and, in good troth, I became
+over curious to know the capacity of thy sty. What tidings from my
+lady's chamber?"
+
+"A plague on her husband's humours! Maude says it were as much as a
+Jew's thumb were worth to get thee privily to an audience, but she hath
+urged my lady to distribute the alms herself to-day; so betake thee to
+the kitchen; Maude will contrive thou shalt have some token of approach.
+St Anthony! but thou hast bestirred thee bravely; such another guest,
+and I might as well set fire to the whole budget. If thou be'st bent on
+such another rummage in the kitchen, the cook will whack thy pate with
+the spit, holy and hooded though it be."
+
+Dan led the way to this arena of gigantic gastronomy. It was a vast and
+smoky den, such as could only exist in those days of feudal
+magnificence. An immense furnace was fed by huge blocks of wood, which
+the ravening flame seized and in a moment enveloped in its embrace.
+Forms, grisly and indistinct, flitted past this devouring blaze, by the
+sputtering and crackling of which, mingled with the hissing delicacies
+before it, and the shrill scream of the presiding fury, a stranger might
+be warned of his approach to this pandemonium some time ere its wonders
+were visible. The pilgrim seated himself in an accessible corner,
+anxiously awaiting the promised signal.
+
+On a long stone bench lay heaps of broken meat, ready for distribution
+to the groups of mendicants who were now clamouring without the gate.
+From the low and ponderous rafters hung dried mutton, bacon, and deer's
+tongues, wreathed in curls of smoke, that might seem to render an
+introduction to the chimney unnecessary for completing their flavour.
+
+It was not long ere a pert waiting-maid approached. She drew up her
+short linsey-woolsey garments from the contaminations beneath her feet.
+Raising her chin, she thus addressed the servitors:--
+
+"My lady bids ye bring the dole quickly into the great hall--She attends
+to-day in person. When the bell rings," looking towards the pilgrim as
+she spoke, "my lady leaves her chamber."
+
+Maude departed with the same supercilious deportment. The bell was
+immediately heard, and the stranger, making the best of his way into the
+hall, found the doors wide open, and an indiscriminate assemblage of
+supplicants, displaying to the best advantage a variety of modes and
+manifestations of distress, unhappily not confined to those unhallowed
+days of wretchedness and misrule. Their chief attention seemed to be
+directed towards a side wicket, in the upper part of which was a slide
+for the more convenient distribution of the accustomed largess, when the
+Lady Mabel did not superintend the apportioning of her beneficence.
+
+It was soon whispered amongst the crowd that she, who had for a
+considerable time kept aloof from all intercourse, would that day
+distribute her own bounty.
+
+The tinkling of the bell ceased, and suddenly the door flew open. Lady
+Mabel and her maidens entered. The crowd fell back as she approached. Of
+a commanding form and deportment, she seemed a being of some superior
+creation; whilst, with slow and majestic steps, she passed on to the
+upper division of the hall, where the dais raised her slightly above the
+multitude.
+
+She was habited in deep mourning: her heavy train swept gracefully over
+the dark pavement; her veil, in cumbrous folds, reached almost to her
+feet, effectually concealing her face from the eyes of the spectators. A
+number of servitors, now entered, bearing the allotted viands, together
+with sundry articles of winter apparel. The upper table was filled, and
+a profound silence showed the awe and respect which her presence
+inspired. She raised her veil. Grief, long subdued, yet deep and
+irremediable, hung heavily on her pallid features, but their form and
+character was untouched by the destroyer. Not a ringlet was visible. Her
+brow, bare and unornamented, threw an air of severe grandeur on her
+whole countenance. Around the lip fell a deeper shade of sorrow; but
+sweet, inexpressibly sweet and touching, was the expression. Though the
+rose had faded, yet, lovelier in decay, it seemed to mingle more
+gracefully with the soft hues by which it was surrounded.
+
+She waved her hand: singly the mendicants approached, proffering their
+simple tale of suffering and privation. To every one she administered
+comfort; consoling the wretched and reproving the careless; but each had
+a share of her bounty ere he withdrew.
+
+The hall was nearly cleared; yet the palmer sat, as if still awaiting
+audience, behind a distant pillar, and deeply pondering, as it might
+seem, the transactions he had witnessed. The last of their suppliants
+had departed ere he rose, bending lowly as he approached. The eye of the
+noble dame suddenly became rivetted on him. She was leaning in front of
+her maidens, beside a richly-carved canopy of state, underneath which,
+on days of feudal hospitality and pomp, presided the master of the
+banquet. Behind, a long and richly-variegated window poured down a
+chequered halo of glory around her form. She seemed an angel of light,
+issuing from that fountain of splendour, and irradiating the whole group
+with her presence.
+
+"Reverend pilgrim, thy behest?" She said this with a shudder of
+apprehension, as if dreading an answer to her inquiry. The pilgrim spoke
+not, but advanced.
+
+The attendants drew aside. A silence, chill and unbroken as the grave,
+pervaded the assembly. He took from his vest a silver ring. The Lady
+Mabel grasped the well-known signet. With agony the most heartrending
+and intense she exclaimed--
+
+"My husband's signet!--Where?--Whence came this pledge?--Speak!"
+
+A pause ensued. It was one of those short ages of almost insupportable
+suspense, when the mind, wound up to the keenest susceptibility of
+endurance, seems vibrating on the verge of annihilation,--as if the next
+pulse would snap its connection with the world for ever.
+
+"Lady," the pilgrim answered, in a low sepulchral tone, "it is a bequest
+from thy husband. It was his wife's last pledge--a seal of unchanging
+fidelity. He bade me seek his dame, and say, 'His last sigh was to
+her--his last wish to heaven.'"
+
+Lady Mabel listened--every tone sunk like a barbed arrow to her heart.
+The voice resembled not that of her deceased husband, yet such was the
+deceptive influence arising from the painful irritation which her
+spirits had undergone, that, if reason had not forbidden, her fancy
+would have invested it with supernatural attributes--listening to it as
+though it were a voice from the tomb.
+
+"For the love I bore and yet bear to his most honoured name, tell me--I
+conjure thee, tell me--his earthly resting-place. My last pilgrimage
+shall be thither. I will enshrine his hallowed relics, and they shall be
+a pledge of our union where we shall no more part."
+
+The last words were spoken with a solemnity of expression awful and
+thrilling beyond the power of language to convey:
+
+"What recks it, lady? thou hast gotten thee another," said the pilgrim.
+
+"Another!--Oh name him not. Never, never!--most base, most cruel. He
+took advantage of my bereavement--a moment of weakness and maternal
+terror. By what long ages of suffering and wretchedness has it been
+repaid! Better I had beheld my babes wasting with hunger, than have
+mated with this unpitying husband for a home and a morsel of bread!"
+
+A flush of proud scorn at her own weakness overspread her features. It
+was but momentary. She bade the attendants withdraw. Looking round for
+this purpose, she was aware, for the first time, of the hated presence
+of Roger de Cliderhow, watching, with considerable surprise, for the
+result of this unexpected interview. He departed with the retinue,
+leaving Lady Mabel and the pilgrim for a while unobserved.
+
+"Thou art a holy and a heaven-destined man, yet surely thou hast been
+taught to share another's sorrows--to pour the oil of compassion over
+the wounds of the penitent and broken-hearted." The lady turned aside
+her head--she leaned over the chair for support, whilst one hand pressed
+her throbbing temples.
+
+"_Mabel Bradshaigh!_" It was the voice of Sir William. She started as at
+a summons from the tomb. No other form was visible but that of the
+pilgrim bending over his staff. Her eye wandered wildly around the hall,
+as if she expected some phantom to start from its recesses. A
+richly-fretted screen, behind which the minstrels and lookers-on
+occasionally sat at the festival, stood at the lower end of the
+apartment. A slight rustling was heard; she was about to rush towards
+the spot, when the voice was again audible, and apparently at her side.
+Slowly the hood of the pilgrim was uplifted. He threw off his disguise;
+but oh, how changed was the once athletic form of Sir William
+Bradshaigh! With a wild and piercing shriek she flew towards the
+outstretched arms of her husband; but ere they met, a figure stepped
+between, barring their approach. It was the ungainly person of Sir
+Osmund Neville.
+
+"Nay, nay, seek thy leman elsewhere, thou gay palmer. It were a brave
+honour, truly, to graft me with thy favours." With this brutish speech
+he was proceeding to lay hands on the lady, who stood stupefied in
+amaze, and bereft of power to offer the least resistance.
+
+"To me this insult! I'll chase thee from thy lair!" exclaimed the
+incensed Sir William.
+
+Roger de Cliderhow at this moment suddenly approached, and in great
+alarm. He whispered Sir Osmund.
+
+"'Tis Sir William!--Thou hast no time for parley. If his coming get
+abroad we are undone. Call thy men hither, and let him be conveyed away
+privily. The dungeon will tell no tales. I'll summon them. If the
+servants get a whisper of the matter, I'll give out he is an impostor."
+
+Fearful of encountering the glance of his injured lord, this worthy
+withdrew in great precipitation.
+
+It was but the work of a moment. Sir Osmund had taken the precaution to
+prevent all egress, so that Sir William and his lady were, in fact,
+prisoners, at the mercy and discretion of a cruel and cowardly foe.
+
+Sir William had thrown off his cloak and the remainder of his disguise.
+He now stood proudly erect before the supplanter, who was somewhat
+stunned by this unexpected issue.
+
+"I defy thee to the combat; hast thou the grace to give me a weapon, or
+art thou as cowardly as thou art presuming?" tauntingly inquired Sir
+William.
+
+"Impostor! wouldst have me believe every wish that folly genders? To the
+proof!" sullenly replied Sir Osmund.
+
+"What says the Lady Mabel? Let her decide," returned the other.
+
+"She!" cried the ingrate, with a contemptuous sneer; "her wits are so
+set upon it, that she would worship any ill-favoured lout that should
+call himself her husband."
+
+"'Tis false! unblushing as thou art." The lightning kindled in the
+lady's eye as she spoke. Sir Osmund quailed beneath her glance.
+
+"Am I mad?" she continued; "ay, if thy wish could have goaded me to it.
+Thou hast heaped on me tortures, indignities, cruel as thy relentless
+nature could devise; but I have been spared for this!" Her lips
+quivered. Shuddering, she spoke with amazing energy and distinctness. "I
+_have_ repented, day and night, but they were unavailing tears. Oh, if I
+have wronged thee"--she covered her face with her hands--"it was not
+even in thought that I grew unfaithful to thy trust. My babes, in a
+moment of weakness I looked on them, smiling as they lay. I could not
+dash the cup from their lips ere they had well nigh tasted. I could not
+behold them so soon doomed to misery and want."
+
+She made a convulsive effort to repress her sobs.
+
+"Can years of suffering atone for my crime?"
+
+She drew back as she continued, "I abhor, I loathe the very existence I
+am forced to prolong. The cloister alone can hide my wretchedness and my
+shame."
+
+"I forgive thee: nay, shrink not from my embrace," cried the distracted
+Sir William; "I blame thee not in my regret. Pure, and as free from
+guilt as when first I knew thee, do I now receive thee to my arms."
+
+Sir Osmund smiled in contempt; at the same time casting a furtive glance
+towards the side entrance, where, true to his word, Roger De Cliderhow
+had summoned a guard of Welsh bowmen, their master's accomplices in many
+a deed of violence and rapine.
+
+Sir Osmund heard their approach. He cautiously undrew the bolts, and,
+pointing to his foe with a signal they but too well understood, the
+latter was immediately seized, and with such rapidity, that almost
+before Sir William was aware of their design, he found himself a
+prisoner and incapable of resistance.
+
+"Traitor, thou wilt rue this foul despite! I here proclaim thee a craven
+knight and a dastard!" exclaimed Sir William.
+
+"False pilgrim," growled his adversary, "didst think to foist thy
+fooleries upon me! The dungeon walls will give thee a patient hearing.
+Boast to them of thy descent, and when they acknowledge thee, so will I.
+Guards, to your duty."
+
+Lady Mabel, with a loud and appalling shriek, fell senseless on the
+pavement.
+
+In vain did Sir William endeavour to free himself from the rude grasp of
+his conductors. He was hurried along, nor did there appear the remotest
+possibility of escape. Just as they turned into a sort of corridor,
+leading to the passages more immediately connected with the place of
+their destination, they encountered Humphry Lathom. The same
+half-stupid, half-knavish expression of face was now lighted up by a
+grin of apparently inexplicable amazement.
+
+"Eh, nuncle," said he, stroking his beard, "but you're in mighty grace.
+The Welshman always mounts his he-goats for guard on them he delighteth
+to honour." With one of his more than ordinarily elvish and malicious
+shouts he scampered past the enraged sentinels, and was heard rapidly
+ascending the steps of the great tower, beneath the massive foundations
+of which lay the dark and cheerless abode so unexpectedly destined for
+the reception of its owner.
+
+Whilst these occurrences were passing within the walls Grim's curiosity
+was in prodigious exercise without. His anxiety increased in a compound
+ratio with the time elapsed, and inversely as the hope of intelligence
+was decreasing. Every spare moment his eye was directed towards the
+hall; but no tidings came, no scout, no messenger from the scene of
+action, from whom the slightest inkling of the result could be gathered.
+It seemed as though all intercourse had ceased, all transit and
+communication were cut off. It was mighty strange! some rare doings were
+afloat, no doubt, and not a soul would remember honest Grim in his
+thrall. He tied and untied his apron, beat the iron when it was cool,
+and let it cool when it was hot. "It will be noon presently." He looked
+at the sun; it seemed to have crept backward for the last half-hour: at
+any rate, he was morally certain that useful appendage to this great and
+troublesome world had stood still, if not retrograded. The mendicants
+were all gone--no tidings to be gained from them--matters were more than
+usually contrary and provoking--and if it had not been for some recent
+disgrace which his prying disposition had occasioned at the hall, he
+would long ago have satisfied himself by a personal inquiry into the
+present posture of affairs.
+
+"Hope deferred" was just on the point of being attended with the usual
+consequences, when, taking another peep through a crevice, constructed
+for putting into effect a more efficient system of examination, he
+beheld a phenomenon as unlooked for as it was incomprehensible. He
+rubbed his eyes, strongly persuaded that some rigorous discipline was
+necessary. He pinched his fingers, shook himself--was he really awake?
+or--he took another peep, still it was there; nor crossings,
+ejaculations, nor other established contrivances had any effect. The
+vision that caused all this disturbance was the great banner of the
+Bradshaigh on the tower, curling full and stately in the breeze. Wonders
+and misfortunes rarely come unattended. Grim's appetite for the
+marvellous was now in danger of suffering as much from repletion as
+before from inanity, and he had just summoned his dame for a special
+council, when his ears were assailed by a furious ding-dong. Stroke
+upon stroke, huge, heavy, and unceasing, followed each other in rapid
+succession. It was the great bell, used only on occasions of emergency
+and importance, the hoarse tongue of which had been silent since the day
+of Sir William's departure. There was no time to waste in conjecture.
+Grim rushed from his dwelling. Convinced that some catastrophe was at
+hand, his intention was to climb the hill behind his little hovel, in
+order to reconnoitre the premises with greater facility. Sallying forth,
+he saw numbers of the peasantry on the same errand. All was bustle and
+inquiry; each giving his neighbour credit for the possession of some
+intelligence whereby the mystery might be unravelled.
+
+"Sir William cannot have returned!" said one.
+
+"No," replied another, "or the buck would soon butt the Welshman out of
+his stall."
+
+"Ha, ha!" said a neighbouring gossip, "those horns are big enough,"
+pointing to the device upon the banner--a buck _passant_.
+
+As they drew nearer to the great gate the bell had ceased, when suddenly
+appeared, perched on a corner of the tower, the well-known form of "Daft
+Humpy." He threw up his cap, caught it, and whirled it round his head
+with every demonstration of joyous extravagance. "Hurrah!" shouted he,
+with a distinct and shrill enunciation, which might be heard to the very
+extremities of the crowd. "Hurrah for Sir William Bradshaigh!--he is
+come again!--hurrah, neighbours!--in, in!"
+
+He ran round the battlements with unceasing vociferation. On hearing
+this news, numbers entered the gate pell-mell, carrying with them some
+who would fain have acted with more discretion, by watching the issue
+warily and out of harm's way. Of this class was our stout-fisted friend
+Darby Grim, who, though of a well-composed valour when fairly tested,
+was yet slow to move, and cared not to thrust his fingers uselessly into
+a broil.
+
+The first party that entered was met by Humphry.
+
+"Pick-axes and spades!" cried he, flourishing a stout staff. "To the
+dungeon!--come along, come along!" So far from accelerating their speed,
+this address seemed at once to suspend all further progress. They gazed
+at each other; none wist what to do, naturally not overburdened with
+confidence in the discretion of their guide. Suddenly checking himself,
+he stood as erect as the nature of his form would admit, before the
+astonished auditors.
+
+"Ye lazy caterpillars! ye cowardly scum of humanity! if ye follow me
+not, I'll rouse the Welsh bull-dogs. Sir Osmund hath ta'en him to the
+dungeon, I tell ye; and who is there that will not lend a hand to the
+rescue of Sir William Bradshaigh?"
+
+Grim was among the foremost of the invading army; on hearing this news,
+a latent spark enkindled his courage most opportunely into a blaze.
+Seizing a cudgel, he brandished it in front of his comrades, like one
+half-frantic, crying, "It is, it is; I have seen him this blessed
+day!--Hurrah for Sir William!"
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted the crowd, whose courage, augmenting with their
+numbers, soon manifested itself in an immediate attack on the cell,
+whence they speedily extricated their lord. Intoxicated with joy, they
+vowed a summary vengeance on the discourteous knight who had so vilely
+entreated him.
+
+Sir William's first care was for the rescue of his lady. She almost
+forgot her own sorrows on witnessing his joy when once more folding the
+children to his embrace. A short interval elapsed ere he sought his
+adversary; but he had fled, along with his unworthy followers. Such was
+the wrong Sir William had suffered, that his yet untamed spirit deemed
+it an offence too foul to be expiated by aught but the blood of his
+merciless foe. Armed, and with but few attendants, he hotly pursued him,
+and, as old chronicles tell, at a place called Newton, he overtook and
+slew him in single combat. Returning in safety, he lived happily with
+his lady to a good old age. They lie buried in the chancel of All
+Saints, Wigan, where, carved on the tomb, their effigies still exist,
+the rarest of the monumental antiquities in that ancient edifice.
+
+The Lady Mabel's spirit had been too sorely wounded to recover its
+tranquillity. For the purpose of what was then deemed an expiation to
+her unintentional offence, she performed a weekly penance, going
+barefooted from Haigh to a place outside the walls at Wigan, where a
+stone cross was erected, which bears to this day the name of "MAB'S
+CROSS."
+
+
+
+
+THE PRIOR OF BURSCOUGH.
+
+
+    "Quhere are ye boun, ye bold prior,
+      With that ladye on your knee?"
+    "I'm boun to the hills, I'm boun to the dales,
+      I'm boun to the grey priory."
+
+_Old Ballad. M.S._
+
+Of the once renowned priory of Burscough, only two pillars, belonging to
+the centre arch of the church, are now remaining. It is situated about
+two miles from Ormskirk, on the Preston road, in a level district of
+great compass renowned for its fertility. The extensive manor and living
+of Ormskirk formerly belonged to this priory. The charter of King Edward
+II., "reciting and confirming the grants of the donors," with a
+confirmation of the charter by which "the prior and convent of
+Burscough, and their successors for ever, shall have one market every
+week on Thursday, at their manor of Ormskirk, and likewise one fair
+every year, of five days' continuance," is still preserved in the office
+of the Duchy of Lancaster.
+
+This religious house was founded for Black Canons by Robert Fitzhenry,
+Lord of Latham of Lathom, in the reign of Richard I. It was formerly the
+burial-place of the Earls of Derby; but many of the coffins have been
+removed to their vault in the church at Ormskirk, built by Edward, the
+third Earl, great grandson of Thomas, first Earl of Derby, who had the
+honour of crowning Henry VII. at Bosworth Field with the coronet torn
+from the brows of the slain tyrant.
+
+The main fact of the following tradition may be found in the Calend.
+Rotulo. Patents, fol. 155, art. 13, containing the free pardon granted
+by Edward III. to the atrocious murderer of Michael de Poininges and
+Thomas le Clarke, after the rape he had committed on Margaret de la
+Bech.
+
+At the Dissolution, this priory had a superior, five monks, and forty
+servants. The last prior was John Barton, who surrendered the living,
+and subscribed to the King's supremacy. He was surviving as late as the
+year 1553.
+
+[Illustration: BURSCOUGH ABBEY.
+
+_Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden._]
+
+That curious structure, the church at Ormskirk, having two steeples, a
+tower and spire, contiguous to each other, is briefly glanced at in the
+tradition. This circumstance, according to some accounts, was occasioned
+by the removal of part of the bells from Burscough at the dissolution of
+the monasteries, when the existing spire steeple was found to be not
+sufficiently capacious. The tenor bell, said to have been the third
+bell, at Burscough, bears some apparent proof of its translation. Round
+the circle, below the ear, is the following inscription in black letter,
+except the initials of the founder:--
+
+"J.S. * de Burscough * Armig. * et * e * vr. * me fecerunt in honorem
+Trinitatis * R.B. 1497."
+
+About half-way down the bell is another date, 1576.
+
+Where each asterisk is marked are the _rose, portcullis_, and _fleur de
+lis_. Beneath the inscription a neat border is cast, filled up in the
+centre with the _rose, portcullis_, and _fleur de lis_, repeated so as
+to occupy the whole circumference of the bell. We have been thus
+particular in our description, as it may not be uninteresting to pursue
+this inquiry, connected as it is with some important historical facts,
+not irrelevant to the subject.
+
+The following remarks may preclude any further observations of our
+own:--
+
+"The _red rose_ is well known to have been the favourite emblem of the
+house of Lancaster, from whom Henry VII. was descended, and through whom
+he gloried in claiming his title to the throne.
+
+"His mother, Margaret Countess of Richmond, then Countess of Derby, was
+sole daughter and heiress of the Duke of Somerset,[10] who bore the
+_portcullis_ as an heraldic distinction. This nobleman was descended
+from John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and Henry had a right to the
+honourable bearings of his royal ancestors. Hence the '_rose and
+portcullis_' were favourite badges of this monarch, as peculiarly
+belonging to the house of Lancaster. The '_fleur de lis_' is the emblem
+of France; and, independently of the arms of that kingdom being
+quartered at that time, and till very lately, with the royal arms of
+England, Henry had a right to assume this distinction also, as being the
+grandson of Sir Owen Tudor and Catherine of France, relict of Henry V.
+
+"The first date, also 1497, refers to a very important period in
+history, as connected with the Derby family. Two short years before, the
+great, the brave Sir William Stanley, who, of his own power and
+interest, raised and brought 3000 horse and foot to the rescue of his
+prince, when his life, his honour, and his hopes of a throne were at
+stake; who contributed to his victory, and helped to crown him 'King' in
+the field; had, by that very sovereign, been sent to the block, merely
+on account of a doubtful and unguarded expression, reported by a rebel,
+a traitor, and an ungenerous friend. The unhappy monarch, learning too
+late the dire effects of groundless suspicion, paid a visit in the
+following year to his deeply-wounded stepfather, the brother of the
+dauntless hero whom he had so lately sacrificed.
+
+"It is stated that the King arrived at Knowsley on or about the 24th
+June 1496, and then went to Lathom; whence, after remaining a month with
+his mother the Countess, and the Earl her husband, he returned to
+London.
+
+"This brings us within one year of the date on the tenor bell, and I
+cannot help thinking that its emblems have some allusion to the royal
+visit to Knowsley and Lathom. It becomes, however, necessary to attempt
+to account for the second date, 1576, on the same bell. And here we can
+again only conjecture. It is not improbable that the original bell was
+injured; that, prior to breaking up, its inscription and emblems were
+carefully moulded, and a new one cast, with the old metal, in the year
+1576, care being taken that a copy of the inscription, &c., should fill
+the same situation in the present bell, which the originals occupied in
+the former."[11]
+
+It may not be deemed irrelevant to mention here a tradition which exists
+relative to the visit of King Henry VII. at Lathom, particularly as it
+does not appear to be generally known.
+
+After the execution of Sir William Stanley, when the King visited
+Lathom, the Earl, when his royal guest had viewed the whole house,
+conducted him up to the leads for a prospect of the country. The Earl's
+fool, who was among the company, observing the King draw near to the
+edge of the leads not guarded with a balustrade, stepped up to the Earl,
+and pointing down to the precipice, said, "_Tom, remember Will_." The
+King understood the meaning, and made all haste down stairs, and out of
+the house; and the fool long after seemed mightily concerned that his
+lord had not had courage to take that opportunity of avenging himself
+for the death of his brother.--_Kennett's MSS_. 1033. fol. 47.
+
+It was on a still and sultry evening, about the close of summer, in the
+year of grace one thousand three hundred and forty-seven, that a
+solitary traveller was seen hastily descending, by a woodland path, into
+the gloomy thickets that surrounded the neighbouring priory of
+Burscough. The rain-drops were just pattering on the dark leaves above
+him, and the birds were fast hastening to some deeper shelter. The timid
+rabbit, as the stranger passed by, darted into its burrow, and many a
+quiet face gazed on him from beneath a pair of ragged antlers, peeping
+over the fences that guarded the demesne. Here and there a narrow glade
+opened beautifully into the woods, through which might be seen green
+lawns and pastures, with herds of dappled deer stealing silently to
+their covert. The low growl of the distant thunder seemed to come upon
+each living thing like the voice of some invisible spirit, subduing
+with its mysterious speech every power and faculty, with an authority
+superior to all human control.
+
+The traveller hastened on. The pinnacles and stately turrets of the
+priory were just visible through the arched boughs, when, turning into a
+more sequestered path, he observed a female of a wild and uncouth aspect
+standing in the way. She showed no disposition to move as he approached,
+nor did she seem to notice his presence. He stopped, but sufficiently
+near to distinguish the motion of her lips. An unintelligible mutter
+accompanied it. She looked darkly towards the south, beckoning to the
+coming thunder, and pointing, as though she would guide its course,
+towards the grey walls of the priory.
+
+She was dressed in a dark-coloured corset fitting close to the body, and
+a hood of the same materials. Her hair was a deep jet, and fantastically
+twisted about her face. She was of low stature, but not bowed by
+decrepitude or age. Her cheek was hollow, and her complexion swarthy,
+but her eye grew unnaturally bright, blazing out with a fierceness,
+intense as though the fire within were visible through these chinks and
+crevices of the soul's tenement.
+
+Though the storm was rapidly approaching she still kept her place,
+unawed by the rude elements, and seeming to surfer but little
+inconvenience from the shower, now descending with great vigour. The
+path was narrow, and a thick underwood skirted the road, so that for the
+stranger to pass was impossible, unless his opponent chose to take up a
+more favourable position. But the sudden burst of a terrific
+thunder-clap, which seemed to roll in a continuous peal above them, made
+him less ceremonious on this head than the laws of gallantry might
+warrant. He drew nearer to the female, with the intention of seeking a
+passage on that side where the least disturbance would be given.
+
+"Go not. 'Tis accursed!" said she, as if preparing to dispute the
+attempt.
+
+"I am a stranger, and hastening for shelter. In troth, 'tis a narrow
+goit that will not let a drowning man through. Prythee, dame, let me
+not, in some wise, seem uncourteous. Yet"----
+
+Here he attempted to pass; but she seized him, and with so powerful a
+grasp that for a moment his intention was foiled, so sudden and
+unexpected was the attack. Though of a stout and muscular shape, yet
+was he holden tightly, as if she were exulting in her strength. Either
+malice or madness had given her a vigour of body beyond that of her sex.
+
+"Michael de Poininges!"
+
+The stranger started at this recognition.
+
+"I warn thee! Thinkest thou yon fiend will forward thy mission. Wilt
+thou tear the prey from the jaws of the famished and ravening wolf?
+Beware!"
+
+Some score of years had elapsed since De Poininges was a visitor in
+these parts; and he was now upon some sacred mission to the Prior of
+Burscough, Thomas de Litherland, whose great power and reckless
+intrepidity of guilt had won for him a name of no common note, even in
+those ages of privileged injustice and oppression. No bosom but his own,
+at least in that neighbourhood, could have been privy to the business
+which brought him hither; and yet he found a woman casually crossing his
+path, whose knowledge of his errand was but too evident, and whose
+appearance and deportment might well excuse the suspicions he
+entertained as to her familiarity with the EVIL ONE.
+
+"Go, poor beast! Thou art but fattened for the slaughter!" She said
+this, apparently addressing a stout buck that was sheltering in the
+thicket. De Poininges shuddered, as she looked on him askance, with some
+dubious meaning.
+
+"I'll meet thee at supper-time."
+
+This was said with a slow and solemn enunciation, as though some
+terrible warning was intended, yet durst he not question her further;
+and ere he could reply she had disappeared in the recesses of the
+forest.
+
+The rain now poured down in torrents, and De Poininges was fain to
+hasten with all possible expedition towards the porter's gate.
+
+The priory of Burscough had been founded the century preceding, for a
+brotherhood of Black Canons, by Robert Fitzhenry, Lord of Lathom. He
+endowed it with considerable property, emoluments, and alms, and,
+according to the weak superstition of the age, thought thereby to obtain
+pardon and rest for the souls of Henry the Second, John, Earl of
+Moreton, himself, his wife, and all his ancestors; at the same time
+wishing the kingdom of heaven to all persons who would increase the
+gifts, and consigning to the devil and his angels all who should
+impiously infringe on his bequests.
+
+It was dedicated to St Nicholas, and a rude effigy of the saint was
+carved over the south porch of the chapel, with two or three naked
+children at his feet. The building was not large, but the architecture
+was chaste and beautiful, a noble specimen of the early Gothic, then
+superseding the ponderous forms and proportions of the Norman, or rather
+Saxon era. The arches were sharply pointed. The windows, narrow and
+lancet-shaped, were deeply recessed; the slender shafts of the columns
+were carried in clusters to a vast height, surmounted by pinnacles of
+rich and elegant tracery; these gave a light and airy character to the
+whole, highly significant of the buoyant feelings that accompanied so
+wonderful an escape from the heavy trammels of their predecessors.
+
+Craving shelter, De Poininges was admitted without any question, as all
+travellers partook indiscriminately of the general bounty. The religious
+houses in those days were the constituted almonries of the rich and
+great; and through these overflowing channels, for the most part,
+proceeded their liberality and beneficence.
+
+He was ushered into one of the _locutories_, or parlours, where, his
+business being with the prior, he was desired to wait until an audience
+could be granted.
+
+Prior Thomas, from some cause or other not assigned, held himself at
+that season much estranged and secluded from his brethren. He had seldom
+been seen from his lodgings, except when performing his accustomed
+office in the church. He had not taken his place in the refectory of
+late, the duties of the day being performed by one of the elder canons.
+
+De Poininges, after a short space, was summoned to the prior's chamber.
+In his progress, he passed the door of the refectory where the brethren
+were at supper. It was large and wainscoted, and furnished with an ample
+dresser. Cupboards were let into the wall, and windows opened into the
+kitchen, through which their meal was served.
+
+One of the monks was reading the appointed service from a low pulpit or
+desk. The prior's seat was still vacant. Their way now led through the
+cloisters, and at the opposite side of the quadrangle a portal
+communicated by a long and dark passage with the prior's lodging. This
+was a sort of inferior castellated mansion, with a spacious hall, and a
+smaller dining-chamber immediately adjoining. At the end was a fair
+chapel or oratory. Ascending a flight of stone steps, they came to a
+low door. The conductor knocked, and De Poininges soon found himself in
+the presence of the proud Prior of Burscough. He wore a square cap of
+black stuff, after the fashion of his order. His cloak, or upper
+garment, was of the same colour, trimmed round the bottom with a double
+edging. He reposed on a couch, or oaken settle, and seemed, in some
+measure, either indisposed or unwilling to notice the homage he
+received. His figure was strong and muscular, his complexion dull, and
+almost swarthy. His lips were full, and his aspect rather coarse than
+sensual. His brows were high, and unusually arched; but his eyes were
+downcast, and seldom raised towards the speaker. In speech he was brief
+and interrogative, but impatient under a tardy or inefficient answer.
+
+"Thy name, stranger?"
+
+"Michael de Poininges."
+
+"From whence?"
+
+"My business concerns you in private. I await your reverence's
+pleasure."
+
+The prior motioned the attendants to withdraw.
+
+"Proceed. Thy message?" He spoke this with precipitancy, at the same
+time abruptly changing his position.
+
+"Mine errand is touching one Margaret de la Bech," said De Poininges,
+seating himself opposite to the prior; "and I am directed to crave your
+help for the clearing away of some loose suspicions regarding her
+concealment."
+
+"Her concealment!" replied De Litherland, starting up angrily from the
+couch. "Her concealment! They who hide may find. I know not aught of the
+wench, save that she was mad, and drowned herself. But why not inquire
+of Sir Thomas? The maiden was not in my keeping." He paced the chamber
+haughtily, but with a disturbed and lurid aspect.
+
+"Yet," replied the other, "it is well and currently reported, and
+witnesses there be who have already testified as to a fact, that some of
+your men were seen the night of her withdrawal lurking in her path, and
+that screams and other manifestations of the outrage then perpetrated
+were heard in this direction. Not that we deem any blemish can attach to
+your reverence in this matter. Still"--
+
+"Why dost thou hesitate in thy speech?" said the prior, in a voice
+almost inarticulate with choler.
+
+"I would say," answered De Poininges, "that it is our wish, and your
+duty, to search into this dark question, without favour or prejudice;
+and, further, we do reckon that the Prior of Burscough is not without
+the means to discover, and the power to punish, his offending vassals."
+
+"And whose evil star guided thee hither with this insolent message?"
+inquired the prior, pale and trembling with rage.
+
+"Those whom your reverence may not lightly contemn. I have here a
+warrant from the Council to procure all fitting help and suppliance for
+the bringing up the body of Margaret de la Bech, who is suspected of
+being detained in this neighbourhood, by persons hitherto unknown,
+against her own proper will and consent."
+
+The prior paused for a space. A somewhat more placid expression and
+demeanour was the result.
+
+"I am no stranger," said he, "to this idle and mischievous rumour. Means
+have been used to discover its likelihood or credibility, but we find it
+to be utterly false and unworthy of our notice. The inventor of these
+tales shall not long escape."
+
+"Yet hath she been a-missing ever since," said De Poininges, warily;
+"and in vain hath search been made for the body. And furthermore, we
+have her own expressed apprehension, as it regards one she durst not
+name, and a perilous foreboding of the evil that awaited her. It is to
+this source, yet obscure, I must own, that our inquiries are to be
+directed."
+
+"Tarry here until the morning, and I will then give thee some further
+discourse on the matter."
+
+"Nay, Sir Prior," answered De Poininges. "I thank your grace's courtesy,
+but this night I must away to the village or town hereabout, Ormschurch
+I think it be, and there, in all likelihood, I may abide for some days."
+
+The prior bit his lips, but sought not to oppose his intent, further
+than by giving a hint that foul weather was abroad, and of the good
+cheer and dry lodging the priory afforded. De Poininges, however, took
+his way afoot, returning to the town, where his horse and two trusty
+attendants awaited him at the tavern or hostel.
+
+The evening was fair, and the sky clear, save a broad and mountainous
+ridge of clouds piled up towards the north-east, from whence hung a
+black and heavy curtain stretching behind the hills in that direction.
+The sparkling of the sea was visible at intervals behind the low
+sand-hills skirting the coast, giving out, in irregular flashes, the
+rich and glowing radiance it received. A lucid brightness yet lingered
+over the waves, which De Poininges stood for a moment to observe, as he
+gained the brow of the hill near the church. To this edifice was then
+appended a low spire, not exhibiting, as now, the strange anomaly of a
+huge tower by its side, seated there apparently for no other purpose
+than to excite wonder, and to afford the clerk an opportunity of
+illustrating its origin by the following tradition:--
+
+Long time ago, two maiden sisters of the name of Orme, the founders of
+this church, disagreed as to the shape of this most important appendage.
+Tower against spire was, in the end, likely to leave the parties without
+a church in answer to their prayers, had not the happy suggestion
+offered itself in the shape of a pair of these campanile structures
+suited to the taste of each.
+
+That the foregoing is an idle and impertinent invention there is little
+need to show, inasmuch as both tower and spire might still have been
+built to satisfy the whim of the old ladies, though placed in the usual
+manner, one serving as a substratum to the other. A more probable
+solution is the following, though it may be as far from the truth:--At
+the dissolution of the priory of Burscough in the time of our great
+reformer Henry the Eighth--who, like many modern pretenders to this
+name, was more careful to reform the inaccuracies of others than his
+own--the bells were removed to Ormskirk; but the small tower beneath the
+spire not being sufficiently capacious, the present square steeple was
+added, and the wonder perpetuated to this day.
+
+De Poininges, on crossing the churchyard, met there a personage of no
+less note than Thomas the Clerk, or Thomas le Clerke, retiring from some
+official duties, arrayed in his white surplice and little quaint
+skull-cap. He was a merry wight, and in great favour with the parish
+wives. He could bleed and shave the sconce; draw out bonds and
+quittances; thus uniting three of the professions in his own proper
+person. He was prime mover in the May games, and the feast of fools.
+Morris, Moriscoe, or Moorish dancers, there is good reason for
+supposing, were not then introduced, though by some said to have been
+brought into England in the sixth year of Edward III., when John of
+Gaunt returned from Spain; but few traces of it are found earlier than
+Henry VII., so that it is more probable we had them from our Gallic
+neighbours, or even from the Flemings.
+
+He could dance, too, and play on the rebeck and citerne, this being a
+common amusement with the customers during the time they were in waiting
+at the barbers' shops, as newspapers were not then at hand to sustain
+this difficult office. He was of a dainty person; clad mostly in a
+kirtle of light watchet-colour, thick set with loose points. His hosen
+were grey, mingled with black, and his shoes were belayed with knots and
+ornaments, of which, and his other stray gear, he was not a little
+proud.
+
+This Thomas was used to go about with a censer, on a Sunday, as Chaucer
+hath it,--
+
+    "Censing the wives of the parish feast."
+
+Absalom, that pink of clerkly portraiture, seemed but a fair prototype
+of this individual, Geoffrey Chaucer at this time being a setter forth
+of rhymes and other matters for the ticklish ears of sundry well-fed and
+frolicksome idlers about the court of King Edward.
+
+The merry knave of whom we speak was, however, in happy ignorance of all
+courtly fashions. Provided he obtained his Sunday contributions, and his
+Christmas loaf, and his eggs at Easter, little wot he how the world went
+round. He was a frequent visitor at the tavern, and De Poininges had
+already been distinguished by his especial notice.
+
+From his character, and the means of information arising out of his
+multifarious occupations, De Poininges expected that some of the
+intelligence he was in search of might be gathered from this source.
+
+The petty hostelry was now in sight, a projecting bush denoting the
+vintner's residence. The house was but thinly attended, though clean
+rushes and a blazing billet bespoke comfort and good cheer. De Poininges
+and his companion turned aside into a smaller chamber, where mine host
+was speedily summoned for a flagon of stout liquor. This being supplied,
+they addressed themselves to the wooden utensil with right goodwill; and
+as the draughts began to quicken, so did the clerk's tongue not fail to
+wag the faster. De Poininges adroitly shifted the discourse upon the
+business of which he was in quest, whenever there was a tendency to
+diverge, no rare occurrence, Thomas being somewhat loth for a while to
+converse on the subject. The liquor, however, and his own garrulous
+propensities, soon slipped open the budget, and scraps of intelligence
+tumbled out which De Poininges did not fail to lay hold of as hints for
+another line of examination.
+
+"I reckon so, at any rate, and so said Geoffrey," replied the clerk,
+after a pause, subsequent to some close question.
+
+"Sir Thomas, the Lord of Lathom, as you may have heard, he is a
+good-hearted soul, and this Margaret de la Bech was companion to his
+daughter Isabel. She was ever held as a dame of good family and descent,
+though a stranger in these parts. Then she was passing fair, so that
+both squire and gentleman, as they looked on her, were nigh devoured
+with love. They say, too, her conditions were gentle and winsome as a
+child; and"--
+
+"Good," said De Poininges, who found he was slipping away from the main
+subject. "But hath not Sir Thomas made some apparent search since her
+disappearance from the hall?"
+
+"Save the mark--she was drowned in the moat. So say the gossips," said
+the clerk, looking askance. "Her hood and mantle were on the brink--but
+her body! why, it never jumped out again to look for them--that's all."
+
+"But did no one look for the body?" carelessly inquired De Poininges.
+
+"The knight groped diligently in the castle ditch for many days; but
+light fishes make light nets, as we say. There was no corpse to be
+found, and many an Ave Maria has been said for her soul."
+
+"What cause was then assigned for this fearful deed?"
+
+"'Tis said she was in love, and went mad! I wot she was ever sighing and
+rambling about the house, and would seldom venture out alone, looking as
+though she were in jeopardy, and dreaded some hidden danger."
+
+"Thinkest thou, friend, that some hidden danger might not be the cause;
+and this show of her drowning but a feint or device that should turn
+aside the current of their inquiry?"
+
+The clerk looked anxious and uneasy, sore puzzled, as it might seem, to
+shape out an answer. At length, finding that the question could not be
+evaded, he proceeded with much hesitation as follows:--
+
+"Safe as my Lord Cardinal at his prayers--she is dead though; for I
+heard her wraith wailing and shrieking up the woods that night as I
+stood in the priory close. It seemed like, as it were, making its way
+through the air from Lathom, for the smell of consecration, I reckon."
+
+"Go on," said De Poininges, whose wits were shrewdly beginning to gather
+intelligence from these furtive attempts at concealment.
+
+"Well-a-day," continued the clerk, draining an ample potation, "I've
+heard strange noises thereabout; and the big building there, men say, is
+haunted by the ghost."
+
+"Where is the building thou speakest of?"
+
+"The large granary beyond the postern leading from the prior's house
+towards the mill. I have not passed thereby since St Mark's vigil, and
+then it came." Here he looked round, stealing a whisper across the
+bench--"I heard it: there was a moaning and a singing by turns; but the
+wind was loud, so that I could scarcely hear, though when I spake of it
+to old Geoffrey the gardener, he said the prior had laid a ghost, and it
+was kept there upon prayer and penance for a long season. Now, stranger,
+thou mayest guess it was no fault of mine if from this hour I passed the
+granary after sunset. The ghost and I have ever kept ourselves pretty
+far apart."
+
+"Canst show me this same ghostly dungeon?"
+
+"Ay, can I, in broad daylight; but"--.
+
+"Peradventure thou canst show me the path, or the clue to it; and I
+warrant me the right scent will lie at the end on't."
+
+"And pray, good master, wherefore may your curious nose be so mightily
+set upon this same adventure?" said the clerk, his little red and
+ferrety eyes peering very provokingly into those of his opposite
+neighbour. Now, De Poininges was not for the moment prepared to satisfy
+this unexpected inquiry, but his presence of mind did not forsake him.
+Rightly guessing his friend's character--a compound in universal esteem,
+to wit, fool and knave--he drew from his pouch a couple of bright ship
+nobles, then but newly coined, which effectually diverted the prying
+looks of Thomas le Clerke.
+
+"Why, look ye," said the latter, as the coin jingled in his bag, "I was
+ever held in good repute as a guide, and can make my way blindfold over
+the bogs and mosses hereabout; and I would pilot thee to the place
+yonder, if my fealty to the prior--that is--if--I mean--though I was
+never a groat the richer for his bounty; yet he may not like strangers
+to pry into his garners and store-houses, especially in these evil
+times, when every cur begins to yelp at the heels of our bountiful
+mother; and every beast to bray out its reproaches at her great wealth
+and possessions."
+
+De Poininges was more and more convinced that his neighbour knew more of
+the matter than he durst tell; but it seemed expedient to conceal his
+suspicions for the present. In the end it was agreed that the cunning
+clerk should accompany him so far as to point out the situation; but on
+no account would he consent to keep watch during the absence of De
+Poininges. The latter assented to this arrangement, secretly resolving
+to dictate other terms where his will should both command and be obeyed.
+
+They immediately set out on horseback, followed by the servants, to whom
+De Poininges had given a private signal.
+
+The moon had risen. One bright star hung like a "jewel in an Ethiop's
+ear" in the dark sky above the sun's track, which at this season sweeps
+like a lucid zone, dividing day from night, round the northern horizon.
+Such a time of purity and brightness often succeeds the sultry and
+oppressive languor of the day, especially when refreshed by the passing
+storm; the air so clear that objects press, as it were, upon the
+eyeballs, affecting the sight as though they were almost palpable to the
+touch. The dews had not descended, but the leaves were still wet. Big
+drops glittered in the moonlight, pouring a copious shower on the
+travellers as they passed. The clerk began a low chant, humming and
+whistling by turns: this gradually grew more audible, until the full
+burst of the "_Miserere_" commenced, richly adorned with his own
+original quavers. So enamoured was he of his qualifications in this
+respect that he was fairly getting through high mass, when, midway in a
+ravishing "_Benedictus_" he made a sudden halt.
+
+"What is that creeping behind the bushes there?" inquired he, in a sort
+of half-whisper to his companion. De Poininges looked in the direction
+pointed out, and thought he saw something, dark and mysterious, moving
+between the boughs on his left. He stopped, but the object, whatever its
+nature, had disappeared.
+
+Sore alarmed was the timid chorister; but though his melodies had
+ceased, a plentiful supply of credos and paternosters were at hand to
+supply their place. Crossing himself with a great show of sanctity, he
+moved on with much caution, his deep hoarse voice having subsided into a
+husky and abrupt whisper, often interrupted when objects the most
+trivial arrested his glance and aroused his suspicions.
+
+They arrived without molestation at an enclosure about a mile distant
+from the priory. Here they alighted, leaving the horses to the care of
+their attendants. Turning the angle made by a low wall, they observed a
+footpath, which the clerk pointed out as the shortest and most
+convenient course to their destination. Soon the east end of the priory
+chapel was visible, basking in the broad light of the harvest moon, then
+riding up full and unclouded towards her zenith. Buttress and oriel were
+weltering in her beam, and the feathery pinnacles sprang out sharp and
+clear into the blue sky. The shadows were thrown back in masses deep and
+unbroken, more huge in proportion to the unknown depths through which
+the eye could not penetrate.
+
+"There--again! 'Tis a footstep on our track!" said the clerk, abruptly
+breaking upon the reverie of his companion.
+
+"'Tis but the tread of the roused deer; man's bolder footstep falls not
+so lightly," was the reply; but this did not quiet the apprehensions of
+the querist, whose terrors were again stealing upon him. Their path was
+up a little glen, down which the mill-stream, now released from its
+daily toil, brawled happily along, as if rejoicing in its freedom. Near
+the mill, on a point of land formed by an abrupt bend of the stream,
+stood the storehouse or grange. It was an ample structure, serving at
+times for purposes not immediately connected with its original design. A
+small chamber was devoted to the poorer sort of travellers, who craved a
+night's lodging on their journey. Beneath was a place of confinement,
+for the refractory vassals and serfs, when labouring under their
+master's displeasure. It was here the garrulous clerk said he had been
+scared by the ghost, and his reluctance to proceed evidently increased
+as he drew nearer. He did not fail to point out the spot, but resolutely
+refused to budge a step farther.
+
+"We had best return," said he; "I have told thee what I know of the
+matter."
+
+"And what should scare thee so mightily, friend," said De Poininges,
+"from out the prior's grange? Methinks, these ghosts of thine had a
+provident eye to their bellies. These haunters to the granary had less
+objection to the victuals than to a snuff of the wind before cock-crow."
+
+"I know not," replied Amen, rather doggedly; "'tis all I heard, though
+there be more that live hereabout than the prior and his monks, I trow."
+
+"Thou hast been here ofttimes o' nights?" carelessly inquired the other.
+
+"I have, upon some chance occasion it may be; but since that ugly noise
+got wind, to which my own ears bear testimony, I was not over-curious to
+pass within hearing, though it were only the rogues, some said, that
+were mulcting the flour-sacks."
+
+"But thou knowest there was a hint dropped a while ago at the hostel,
+that the maiden, whom thou hast now forgotten, methinks, had some
+connection with this marvellous tale of thine; and now, it seems, I am
+to believe 'tis but the knaves or the rats purloining the prior's corn!
+Hark thee, friend," said De Poininges, in a stern tone, "no more
+evasion: no turn or equivocation shall serve thee: out with it, and lead
+on, or"--
+
+A bright flash from his falchion here revealed the peril that he
+threatened.
+
+"_Miserere mei_--Oh,--_Salve et!_"--
+
+"Silence, knave, and pass quickly; but remember, if I catch thee
+devising any sleight or shuffle, this sharp point shall quicken thee to
+thy work. It may prove mighty efficacious, too, as a restorative for a
+lapsed memory."
+
+"I'll tell thee all!--but--hold that weapon a little back, I prithee.
+Nay--nay, thou wouldest not compass a poor man's death in such haste."
+
+"Lead on, then, but be discreet," said De Poininges, softly, at the same
+time pushing him forward at his sword's point.
+
+"Here is some help to mine errand, or my craft fails me this bout."
+
+After many qualms and wry faces, De Poininges, by piecemeal, acquired
+the following intelligence:--
+
+One night, this honest clerk being with a friend on a predatory
+excursion to the prior's storehouse, they heard a muffled shriek and a
+sharp scuffle at some distance. Being outside the building, and fearing
+detection, they ran to hide themselves under a detached shed, used as a
+depository for firewood and stray lumber. Towards this spot, however,
+the other parties were evidently approaching. Presently three or four
+men, whom they judged to be the prior's servants, came nigh, bearing a
+female. They entered into the shed, and proceeded to remove a large heap
+of turf. Underneath seemed to be one of those subterraneous
+communications generally contrived as a retreat in times of peril; at
+any rate, they disappeared through the opening, and the clerk and his
+worthy associate effected their escape unobserved.
+
+Fear of detection, and of the terrible retribution that would follow,
+hitherto kept the secret undivulged. There could be little doubt that
+this female was Margaret de la Bech; and her person, whether living or
+dead, had become a victim to the well-known lawless disposition of the
+prior.
+
+They were now at the entrance to a low gateway, from which a short path
+to the left led them directly towards the spot. Entering the shed, they
+commenced a diligent search; but the terror and confusion of the clerk
+had prevented such accuracy of observation as could enable him to
+discover the opening, which they in vain attempted to find, groping
+their way suspiciously in the dark.
+
+"Softly, softly!" said the clerk, listening. A low murmur came from the
+opposite corner, like the muttering of one holding audible communion
+with his own spirit. De Poininges listened too, and he fancied it was a
+female voice. Presently he heard one of those wild and uncouth ditties,
+a sort of chant or monotonous song, which, to the terrified
+psalm-singer, sounded like the death-wail of some unfortunate ghost.
+
+The following words only became sufficiently distinct:--
+
+    "The sunbeam came on a billow of flame,
+      But its light, like thine, is done:
+    Life's tangled coil, with all its toil,
+      Is broken ere 'tis run.
+
+    "The kite may love the timid dove,
+      The hawk be the raven's guest;
+    But none shall dare that hawk to scare
+      From his dark and cloud-wreathed nest!
+
+    "Wail on, ye fond maidens,
+      Death lurks in the cloud;
+    The storm and the billow
+      Are weaving a shroud:
+
+    "There's a wail on the wind;
+      Ere its track on the main,
+    A light shall be quenched,
+      Ne'er to kindle again!"
+
+"Surely I have heard that voice aforetime," thought De Poininges. It was
+too peculiar for him to mistake. The woman had loitered in his path a
+few hours before. It seemed her brain was somewhat disturbed: a wanderer
+and an outcast in consequence, she had here taken shelter ofttimes for
+the night. He determined to accost her; a feeling of deference prompted
+him, a superstitious notion, arising from an idea then prevalent, that a
+superior light was granted to those individuals in whom the light of
+reason was extinct. He approached with caution, much to the terror and
+distress of his companion.
+
+"It is crazy Isabel," said he, "and the dark spirit is upon her!" But De
+Poininges was not in a mood to feel scared with this intimation. The way
+was intricate, and he stumbled over a heap of dried fuel. The noise
+seemed to arrest her attention for a moment; but she again commenced her
+song, paying little heed to this interruption. On recovering his
+position, he was about to speak, when, to his great surprise, she thus
+accosted him:--
+
+"I have tarried long for thee. Haste--equip for the battle,--and then,
+
+    "'My merry men all,
+      Round the greenwood tree,
+    How gallant to ride
+      With a gay ladye.'
+
+"I am crazed, belike. Good wot; but I can ride o'er the neck of a proud
+prior.
+
+    "'And the moon shone clear
+      In the blue heavens, where
+    The stars twinkle through her veil of light:--
+      There they gave me a merry shooting star,
+      And I rolled round the wain with my golden car,
+      But I leapt on the lightning's flash, beside
+    The queen of this murky night!'"
+
+"Crazed, indeed!" thought De Poininges.
+
+"Hush," said she: "I'll tell thee a secret." She drew a light from some
+concealed recess, and flashing it full in the face of the intruder,
+seemed to enjoy the effect wonderfully. On a sudden her brow wrinkled,
+and the dark billows came over her spirit as she exclaimed--
+
+"But,
+
+    "'Thou hast work to do,
+    Or we may rue
+      The thieving trade.'
+
+"Go to--I must be calm. The spirit goeth forth, and I may not wander
+again. But my poor head: it burns here--here!" And she put her hand
+tenderly on that of De Poininges, raising it to her brow, which throbbed
+violently. She started back, as from some sudden recollection, gazing
+intently on his countenance.
+
+"I know it--the vision tarrieth not. Now," she said--crossing herself
+with great solemnity, and with apparent composure, as if all trace of
+her malady had disappeared--"we must away. Follow; yet will I first set
+yon rogue to watch." She sought the terrified man of canticles, and,
+speaking in a low tone, raised her hand as though with some terrible
+denunciation in case of disobedience. Immediately she returned, and,
+pointing to a heap of loose stuff, began to throw it aside.
+
+"Here--here!"
+
+But De Poininges hesitated, thinking it a somewhat dubious adventure to
+follow a mad woman, it might be, in quest of her wits. Seeing his
+unwillingness to proceed, she whispered something in his ear which
+wrought a marvellous change. He looked as if petrified with wonder, but
+he followed now without shrinking. They entered by a narrow door,
+curiously concealed. On its closing after them, De Poininges and his
+companion seemed shut out from the world,--as if the link were suddenly
+broken which bound them to earth and its connections.
+
+The first sensation was that of dullness and damp, accompanied by a
+mouldering vapour, like that from the charnel-house or the grave. Their
+way was down a winding and broken staircase; at the bottom a straight
+passage led them on to a considerable distance. Damps oozing from the
+walls made the path more and more tiresome and slippery as they
+proceeded. Shortly it became channelled with slime, and absolutely
+loathsome. The bloated reptile crawled across their path; and De
+Poininges beheld stone coffins piled on each side of the vault. Passing
+these, another flight of steps brought them to a low archway, at the
+extremity of which a grated door, now unbarred, led into a cell
+seemingly contrived as a place of punishment for the refractory or
+sinning brethren, who might be doomed to darkness and solitude as an
+expiation of their offence. The only furniture it contained was a
+wretched pallet, on which, as the light flashed doubtfully, De Poininges
+thought he beheld a female. He snatched the light, and eagerly bent over
+the couch. With a shout of joy he exclaimed--
+
+"Be praised, ye saints, 'tis she!"
+
+It was the wasted and squalid form of Margaret de la Bech. She raised
+her eyes towards him, but they were vacant and wandering. It was soon
+evident that her reason was impaired, and the spirit still inhabiting
+that lovely tenement was irrevocably obscured. Cruel had been her
+sufferings. Crimes too foul to name--but we draw a veil over the
+harrowing recital! When the last horrible act was consummated the light
+of her soul was put out, and her consciousness extinguished.
+
+To meet thus! A living inhumation, where the body exists but as the
+spirit's sepulchre! It were better they had been consigned to oblivion,
+shut up and perishing in the dark womb of the grave. The cry of
+vengeance had gone up, but was offered in vain for a season. The present
+period of existence was not allotted for its fulfilment. It was
+permitted to this monster that he should yet triumph unpunished--his
+measure of iniquity was not yet full.
+
+The limbs of the unconscious sufferer were pinioned:--the fiend-like
+mercy of her tormentors prevented her own hands from becoming the
+instruments of her release. De Poininges restored her to freedom; but
+alas! she knew it not. The thick veil which Heaven's mercy drew upon her
+spirit rendered her insensible to outward impressions. He raised her in
+his arms, bearing her forth from that loathed scene of darkness and
+disgrace; and when the pure breath of the skies once more blew upon her,
+it seemed as though it awakened up a faint glimmer in the dying lamp.
+She looked round with eagerness, and De Poininges thought some ray of
+intelligence began to brighten, as objects again appeared to develop
+their hidden trains of association on the memory; but the light was
+mercifully extinguished ere she could discover the fearful realities of
+her despair, and she again relapsed into hopeless and utter inanity.
+
+They were still loitering in the little shed, the clerk groaning out a
+sad and mournful chant. De Poininges appeared unable to arouse himself
+to the exigencies of the moment, when Isabel, wildly waving her torch
+towards the entrance, cried--
+
+"To horse--to horse! They will be here presently. Already has the raven
+snuffed your carcase--
+
+    "'But the bolt whistled through
+      The heavens blue,
+    And Sir Lionel lay on the battle-field.'"
+
+She seemed to hearken, as though in apprehension of approaching
+footsteps. De Poininges, roused from this dangerous stupor, prepared to
+escape ere the prior's emissaries had intelligence of her removal.
+
+They had passed the rivulet in safety, and had just gained the wood
+near to where the attendants lay in wait with the horses, when an arrow
+whizzed past De Poininges. For him the shaft was intended, but its
+destiny was otherwise--the unfortunate chanter lay stretched on the
+ground in his last agony. De Poininges flew on with redoubled speed.
+
+"Treachery!" he cried. His men knew the signal, and galloped towards
+him; but their aid was too late. A shack-bolt, aimed with a sure hand,
+pierced him at this moment.
+
+"Take her--Margaret de la Bech! The prior--a murderer--ravisher! Fly
+to"--
+
+The remaining words fell unuttered. His faithful attendants bore off the
+lifeless body, together with the hapless Margaret, who was soon placed
+in safety, far from the relentless fangs of the Prior of Burscough.
+
+Fearful and undeniable was the testimony and accusation they brought,
+but in vain. No effort was spared to bring upon this monster the just
+recompense of his crime; yet, from the great scandal which a public
+execution must have drawn upon the Church, but more especially from the
+great influence he possessed amongst the nobles and chief dignitaries of
+the land, not only did he escape unpunished, but he received the king's
+most gracious pardon, in the twenty-first year of Edward the Third: so
+true are the following words from an historian of that reign:--
+
+"These men had so entrenched themselves in privileges and immunities,
+and so openly challenged an exemption from all secular jurisdiction,
+that no civil penalty could be inflicted on them for any malversation in
+office, and even treason itself was declared to be no canonical
+offence."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[10] _Beaufort_, Duke of Somerset. Somerset, Duke of Beaufort, now bears
+the _portcullis_ for his crest. There is an engraving by Vertue, from a
+painting in the royal collection at Kensington Palace by Maubeugius in
+1496, of the three children of Henry VII. and Elizabeth his queen,
+_Prince Henry, Prince Arthur_, and _Princess Margaret,_ which is
+ornamented at the top with the _portcullis_ surmounted with roses.
+
+[11] Glazebrook's Southport.
+
+[Illustration: THE EAGLE AND CHILD.]
+
+
+
+
+THE EAGLE AND CHILD.
+
+
+        "She's over the muir,
+        An' over the border,
+    An' ower the blue hills far awa':
+        With her callant, I trow,--
+        On his saddle-bow,
+    While the mist-wreaths around them fa'."
+
+The main facts of the following narrative, lying scattered through a
+wide field of barren inquiry, the author has been at considerable pains
+to collect and arrange in a continuous narrative.
+
+Little needs be said by way of introduction, the traditions here
+interwoven with the general history being mostly of a trivial nature,
+and not at all interfering with the facts developed by the historians
+and rhymers who have illustrated the annals of the house of Stanley.
+These accounts, exaggerated and distorted as they inevitably must have
+been, may yet, in the absence of more authentic testimony, afford a
+pretty accurate glimpse at the real nature of those events, however they
+may have been disguised by fiction and misstatement. Where tradition is
+our only guide we must follow implicitly, satisfied that her taper was
+lighted at the torch of Truth, though it may gleam doubtfully and
+partially through the mists and errors of succeeding ages.
+
+One source from whence we have derived some information, though well
+known to the comparative few who have explored these by-paths of
+history, may not be thought uninteresting to the general reader,
+especially as it is connected with the most eventful portion of our
+narrative.
+
+An ancient metrical account of the Stanleys, Earls of Derby, is
+contained in some uncouth rhymes, written about the year 1562, by
+Thomas Stanley, Bishop of Sodor and Man,[12] and son of that Sir Edward
+Stanley, who, for his valour at Flodden, was created Lord Monteagle.
+There are two copies of these verses in the British Museum: one amongst
+Cole's papers (vol. xxix. page 104), and the other in the Harleian MSS.
+(541). Mr Cole prefaces his transcript with the following notice:--"The
+History of the family of Stanley, Earls of Derby, wrote in verse about
+the reign of King Henry the Eighth from a MS. now in possession of Lady
+Margaret Stanley, copied for me by a person who has made many mistakes,
+and sent to me by my friend Mr Allen, Rector of Tarporley, in 1758.--W.
+Cole."
+
+The MS. formerly belonged to Sir John Crewe, of Utkinton, and was given
+by Mr Ardern, in 1757, to Lady Margaret Stanley.
+
+The commencement of this metrical history is occupied in dilating upon
+the pleasure resulting from such an undertaking; and although the flow
+of the verse is not of remarkable smoothness, yet it hardly furnishes an
+apology for Seacome's mistake, who, in his "History of the House of
+Stanley," printed the first fifty lines as prose. The reverend versifier
+rehearses how Stanley sprang from Audley, and then shows the manner in
+which his ancestors became possessors of Stourton and Hooton. He dwells
+upon the joust betwixt the Admiral of Hainault and Sir John Stanley, the
+second brother of the house of Stanley of Hooton.[13] Then follows the
+account, more particularly developed in our own story, of the adventures
+and moving accidents which have been liberally used to adorn the
+"Garland" of his descendant William, Earl of Derby. "For many
+generations this was the recognised chronicle of the family, until, in
+the time of James the First, a clergyman of Chester translated the
+rhymes of the Bishop into English, carefully retaining the mistakes of
+the original, and adding long and dull disquisitions of his own."
+
+In the days of our valiant King Edward, while the fame of Cressy and
+Poictiers was fresh and stirring in all true and loyal hearts, while the
+monarchs of two powerful kingdoms were held captive in these realms,
+lived a worthy knight, of whom we had a brief notice in the preceding
+narrative. Sir Thomas Lathom of Lathom was a nobleman of great wealth
+and possessions. According to the Calendarium Rotulorum from the Charter
+Rolls in the Tower, he held lands, besides, in Knouselegh, Childewall,
+Roby, and Aulusargh. In Liverpool, he was proprietor of the tower, a
+structure of but little note until rebuilt and fortified by Sir John
+Stanley during his government in Ireland, of which we shall have more to
+say anon.
+
+Sir Thomas married, in the year 1343, the youngest daughter of Sir Hamon
+Massey of Dunham Massey, in the adjoining county of Chester. Twelve
+years had since that period elapsed at the time when our story begins;
+and though earnestly desiring male issue, that his name and race might
+be perpetuated, yet was the sole fruit of their union hitherto a
+daughter, named Isabel, then just entering on her tenth year. Her
+winning and surpassing comeliness proved no solace to his
+disappointment. He grew moodish and melancholy in the midst of his vast
+wealth; apprehending the utter extinction of his name, and the intrusion
+of a stranger on his birthright. Hopeless of other issue by his own
+lady, he had recourse to unlawful means for this purpose, which procured
+for him a sore chastisement in the end, as our narrative will show.
+
+In that neighbourhood dwelt a comely maiden, the only daughter of a
+substantial yeoman, of the name of Oskatell. This damsel, pleasing the
+amorous fancy of Sir Thomas, fell an easy prey to his arts and
+persuasions. Though concealed from her friends, their too frequent
+intercourse at length became visible in the birth of a son, greatly to
+the joy of the father, who meditated nothing less than to adopt this
+illegitimate babe for the perpetuation of his name. Yet were there
+preliminaries of no mean importance to be adjusted, as all men who have
+wives may well conceive. The lady of Lathom must first be consulted; but
+probabilities were strongly against the supposition that she would
+tamely submit to this infringement on the rights of her child by the
+interposition of a bastard. Nay, she had beforetime hinted that some
+individual of the name, of moderate wealth and good breeding, might in
+time be found for a suitable alliance. Still, the success of his scheme
+was an object that lay deeply at his heart, and he grew more and more
+anxious and perplexed. One evening, as he wandered out disconsolately in
+the company of an old and trusty servant, to whom he had imparted the
+secret, they came to a desert place in the park, nigh to where a pair of
+eagles had from time immemorial built their nests. A project struck him
+which promised fair to realise his wishes. After a multitude of schemes
+subservient to the main purpose had been thrown out and abandoned, the
+whole plot was finally unfolded in the following manner:--
+
+A message was conveyed to the mother overnight, that betimes on the
+following morning the babe, richly clad, should be held in readiness,
+and a trusty servant would forthwith convey him to the hall. She was
+peremptorily forbidden to follow; and in her great joy at this
+announcement, naturally supposing that a more favourable posture of
+affairs had arisen between Sir Thomas and his lady on the subject, she
+cheerfully consented to this unexpected deprivation, confident that it
+was to the furthering of her child's welfare and advancement. The
+infant, smiling, and unconscious of the change, was taken from his
+mother's lap, his swaddling clothes carefully folded together, and
+committed to the care of the aged domestic.
+
+Little was the anxious mother aware of the great peril he had to undergo
+ere the goal which bounded her anticipations was won.
+
+It was the soft twilight of a summer's morning, and the little birds had
+begun to chirp their matins, and the lark to brush the dew from her
+speckled breast, waiting for the first gaze of the sun. The old man
+pressed the infant closer to his bosom as he drew nigh to the steep
+acclivity, the solitary dwelling of the eagle. He kissed the babe; then
+looking round, fearful of intruders, he laid the wicker cradle at the
+foot of the precipice, and sprang into a dark thicket close by, as if to
+watch for the descent of the rapacious bird.
+
+Leaving the child, we turn to Sir Thomas, who on that morning, as was
+his wont, together with his dame, awoke betimes, but he was sooner astir
+and more anxious and bustling than usual. Their custom was, awaking with
+the sun, to begin the day with a quiet stroll about the grounds; and on
+this eventful morning their walk chanced happily towards the eagle's
+nest. Being something farther and more out of their common track, it was
+noticed good-humouredly by the lady, who seemed to possess a more than
+ordinary portion of hilarity on the occasion. Evidently under some
+exciting influence, their walk was unconsciously protracted.
+
+In a gloomy dell, not far from the eyrie, Sir Thomas stood still, in the
+attitude of listening. The lady, too, was silent and alarmed, but no
+intimation of danger was visible. Her own senses, though, seemed to
+gather acuteness,--a circumstance by no means rare in the vicinity of an
+unusually timid and listening companion, who braces our perceptions to
+the tension of his own. Soon, however, the short and feeble cry of the
+babe was heard, when the knight sprang forward, feigning great
+astonishment at the discovery. Evidently dropped from the talons of the
+bird, it was looked upon as a special gift of Providence, a deposit
+direct from the skies; to have rejected which would have been a heinous
+offence, and an unlawful contravention of the designs of the Giver.
+Accordingly, the infant was taken home and carefully nursed, being
+baptized by the name of Oskatell.
+
+The good lady became surprisingly enamoured of the little foundling,
+believing his adoption was dictated by the will of Heaven; and to this
+decision its father readily acceded. Sir Thomas, to give the greater
+sanction to this supposed miracle, as well as to remove all suspicion of
+fraud from the prying eyes of a censorious world, assumed for his crest
+an eagle on the wing, proper, looking round as though for something she
+had lost.
+
+The child grew in years and stature, being liberally furnished in all
+things according with the dignity he was destined to receive. Sir Thomas
+purposed the sharing of his wealth equally between his children, a
+measure which had the entire concurrence of Lady de Lathom. Though
+younger by some years, Oskatell was generally considered by the world as
+the future husband of Isabella; but Sir Thomas, aware of danger on this
+head, early impressed them with some notion of consanguinity, and
+intimated the impossibility of their union. This prohibition, settling
+on a womanish fancy, might naturally have been expected to operate in a
+manner the reverse of his intention. Yet we do not find from history
+that Isabella ever cherished for him any other sentiments than those
+arising from a sisterly regard.
+
+Growing up to man's estate, he sought the court of King Edward, where,
+though of a peaceable temper, his soul was stirred to participate in
+the gallant feats incident to that scene of martial enterprise.
+
+Isabella was now in the full summer, or, it might be, ripening into the
+rich autumn of her beauty. Her father would by no means have permitted
+her union save with one of the highest rank, to which her gentle blood
+and princely inheritance entitled her. And though not a few hitherto, of
+noble birth and endowments, had sought the honour of her alliance, yet
+her heart was untouched, and in the end her suitors forbore their
+homage.
+
+All the country was now mightily roused with the news of the French
+champion who, together with sundry of his companions in arms, had
+challenged the English nation to match them with the like number at a
+solemn joust and tourney, and of the great gallantry and personal
+accomplishments of Sir John, then Captain Stanley, who had first taken
+up the gauntlet in his country's behalf. The lists were prepared. The
+meeting, by the king's command, was appointed to be holden at
+Winchester, where the royal court was expected to witness this splendid
+achievement. Oskatell, returning home, strongly importuned his sister to
+accompany him to the show, it being then deemed a pleasant recreation
+for many a fair and delicate maiden to view their champions hack and hew
+each other without mercy. Isabella, unceasingly urged to this excursion,
+at length set out for the city of Winchester, followed by a numerous
+train of attendants, where, in due time, they arrived, mingling in the
+bustle and dissipation incident to these festivities.
+
+Young Stanley was the second son of Sir William Stanley, Lord of Stanley
+and Stourton. As a younger branch of the house, he commenced his career,
+it is said, under the command of his relative Lord Audley; but this
+appears something doubtful. The battle of Poictiers, in which Captain
+Stanley is said to have been, was fought in 1357; and here he must have
+battled in petticoats, seeing that his father was but married 26 Edward
+III., and, consequently, making due allowance for accidents and
+irregularities, young Stanley, as the second son, could not then have
+proceeded beyond his third year! a precocity unprecedented, we believe,
+even in the annals of that fighting era. The conflicting statements we
+meet with about this time, both traditionary and recorded, we cannot
+attempt to reconcile. Sufficient information happily exists, however,
+on which no doubt arises; and by the aid of that we proceed with our
+narrative.
+
+Stanley, according to some, having been a great traveller, had improved
+himself diligently in the art of war; and, as the old chronicles
+quaintly relate, "he visited most of the courts of Europe, even as far
+as Constantinople; wherein he made such advances in the school of Mars,
+that his superior skill in arms was generally applauded in every country
+he passed through." So distinguished and widely-extended a reputation
+for bravery could not fail to provoke the pride and envy of all
+Christendom, whereupon the young Admiral of Hainault, one of the bravest
+men of his time, together with divers gentlemen of the French court,
+defied the whole kingdom to a passage of arms, the result of which
+challenge has been shown.
+
+Great was the confluence and resort to the city of Winchester, it being
+noised abroad as though the king would distinguish the affray by his
+presence; wondrous the stir and bustle of the soldiers, guards, and
+attendants, with hordes of idlers and hangers-on, from the vast array of
+knights and nobles, who came either to see or to share in the
+approaching trial. The splendid banners, the heraldic pomp and barbaric
+grandeur of their retinues, augmenting with every fresh arrival, made
+the streets one ever-moving pageant for many days before the conflict
+began. Isabella had full leisure to observe, from her own lattice, the
+gay and costly garniture, and the glittering appointments of the
+warriors, with the pageants and puerile diversions suited to the taste
+and capacity of the ignorant crowds by which they were followed. The
+king's mummers were arrived, together with many other marvels in the
+shape of puppet-shows and "motions" enacting the "old vice;" Jonas and
+the whale, Nineveh, the Creation, and a thousand unintelligible but
+equally gratifying and instructive devices; one of which, we are told,
+was "four giants, a unicorn, a camel, an ass, a dragon, a hobby-horse,
+and sixteen naked boys!"
+
+The crowds attracted by these spectacles were immense, and the city nigh
+choked with the torrents that set in from every quarter.
+
+From the windows of the houses, where lodged the knights appointed to
+the encounter, hung their several coats, richly emblazoned, rousing
+forth many a shout and hurrah, as one and another symbol was recognised
+to be the badge of some favourite chief; but more than all, was the
+young Stanley's escutcheon favoured by the fickle breath of popular
+opinion, which made it needful that a double guard should be mounted
+near his dwelling,--a precaution, moreover, rendered needful by the many
+tumults among the different partisans and retainers, not always ending
+without bloodshed. The arrival of the king, however, soon changed the
+current of the wondering multitude. Edward was now in his sixty-fourth
+year, and the fiftieth of his reign. Though the decline of his life did
+not correspond with the splendid and noisy scenes which had illustrated
+the earlier periods of his history, yet he still manifested the same
+restless and undaunted spirit, ever considered as the prevailing
+attribute of his character. Towards the close of his career he had the
+mortification to endure the loss of his foreign possessions, having been
+baffled in every attempt to defend them. He felt, too, the decay of his
+authority at home, from the inconstancy and discontents of his subjects.
+Though his earlier years had been spent amid the din and tumult of war
+and the business of the camp, yet was he, at this period, almost wholly
+given up to pleasure and the grossest of sensual indulgences. Alice
+Pierce, to whom he was immoderately attached, had gained an ascendancy
+over him so dangerous that the parliament remonstrated, with a courage
+and firmness worthy of a more enlightened era, and in the end he was
+obliged to remove her from court. Sometimes the spirit of his youth
+awoke; the glory of past ages was stirred up within him; and, like the
+aged war-horse neighing to the shrill note of the trumpet, he greeted
+the approaching tournament with something of his wonted ardour,--though
+now but an expiring flash, brightening a moment ere it was extinguished.
+
+The day rose calm and unclouded. The thin haze of the morning had
+disappeared, and an atmosphere of more than common brilliancy succeeded.
+Through a great part of the preceding night the armourers had been
+busily employed altering and refitting the equipments, and the dawn had
+already commenced ere their labours were suspended. The lists were
+carefully scrutinised, and all chance of foul play averted. The priests,
+too, had blessed the armour and weapons from magic spells and "foul
+negromancie."
+
+The barriers were built of stout boards, firmly riveted together; the
+royal pavilion being on the southern side, richly canopied and
+embroidered with costly devices. Galleries were provided for the nobles,
+not a few of whom, with their courtly dames, were expected to be
+present.
+
+The lists were sixty paces in length and forty in breadth between the
+platforms on which the knights' tents were erected. The ground within
+was made hard and level, the loose stones and other impediments being
+carefully removed. There were two entrances, east and west, well guarded
+and strongly fenced with wooden-bars about seven feet high, so that a
+horse might not leap over. The tents of the warriors were fancifully
+decorated, every one having his shield newly emblazoned and hung out in
+front, where the pages and esquires watched, guarding vigilantly these
+sacred treasures. Nothing was heard but the hoarse call of the trumpet,
+the clank of mail, and the prancing of horses, pawing and eager for the
+battle.
+
+Long before the appointed hour the whole city was in motion. Isabella,
+too, whose bright eyes had not closed since the first gleam had visited
+her chamber, was early astir. An ugly dream, it is said, troubled her.
+Though of ripe years, yet, as we have noticed before, love had not yet
+aimed his malicious shafts at her bosom, nor even tightened his
+bowstring as she tripped by, defying his power; so that the dream, which
+in others would appear but as the overflowing of a youthful and ardent
+imagination, seemed to her altogether novel and unaccountable, raising
+up new faculties, and endowing her with a train of feelings heretofore
+unknown. No wonder that her looks were betrayers: her whole deportment
+manifested some hidden power controlling her high spirit, insomuch that
+her favourite maiden was fain to abate her morning gossip; yet Isabella
+was not averse to speech, though the words seemed to linger heavily on
+her tongue, losing that lightness and exuberance which betokens the mind
+free from care and oppression.
+
+She had dreamed that in her own wild woods a knight accosted her: she
+attempted to fly, but was withheld by some secret influence. He raised
+his visor, smiling as he bent his knee in token of homage. He was a
+stranger. Grasping her hand, she felt the cold hard pressure of his
+gauntlet. She awoke, and sure enough there was the impression as of some
+mailed hand upon her delicate fingers! While marvelling at this strange
+adventure, a deep slumber again overpowered her, when a graceful
+cavalier, unarmed, was at her side. He raised her hand to his lips, and
+her whole soul responded to the touch. He was about to speak, when her
+father suddenly appeared, with a dark and forbidding aspect. He began to
+chide, and the stranger, with a glance she could not erase from her
+recollection, disappeared. It was this glance which subdued her proud
+spirit to its influence. Her maidenly apprehensions became aroused; she
+attempted, but in vain, to drive away the intruder: the vision haunted
+her deeply--too deeply for her repose! Marks of some outward impression
+were yet visible on her hand, whether from causes less occult than the
+moving phantasma of the mind, is a question that would resist all our
+powers of solution. In a mood thus admirably fitted for the encountering
+of some marvellous adventure, did she mount her little white palfrey,
+all pranked out and caparisoned for the occasion.
+
+Followed by a train of some length, with Oskatell by her side, the
+daughter of the house of Lathom allured the eyes of not a few as she
+passed on. Many a stately knight bent his head, and many an inquiry was
+directed to the esquires and attendants as she drew near.
+
+The scene of this renowned combat was a spacious plain below the city,
+on the opposite side of the river Itchen. The chalky cliffs, which
+obtained for it the name of Caer Gwint, or the White City, were studded
+with gay and anxious multitudes, whose hopes and fears have long been
+swept off by the waves of passing generations.
+
+Winchester being one of the fixed markets or staples for wool appointed
+by King Edward, the city had risen in power and affluence above its
+neighbours. Yet the plague, by which it was almost depopulated some
+years before, had considerably abated its magnificence. But the favour
+of royalty still clung to it, and Arthur's "Round Table" attested its
+early claims to this distinguishing character--a monarch's residence.
+The castle, where the Round Table is still shown, was then a building of
+great strength, and, enlivened by the king's presence, displayed many a
+staff and pennon from its stately battlements.
+
+Isabella passed by the fortress just as the trumpets announced the near
+approach of the king down the covered way. The chains of the drawbridge
+were lowered, and presently issued forth the armed retinue of the
+monarch. Isabella and her train were obliged to remain awhile as idle
+spectators.
+
+The king, though old and infirm, yet retained his lofty and commanding
+appearance. His charger was armed with the _chanfrons_ and gamboised
+housings, having thereon the royal arms, and proudly did the conscious
+beast paw and champ, as if rejoicing under his burden.
+
+Edward was dressed in a glittering surcoat of crimson silk, worked with
+lions and _fleurs-de-lis._ His helmet was cylindrical, surmounted by a
+lion as its crest. Round the rim was a coronet of gold, worked with
+_fleurs-de-lis_ and oak leaves. A gorget and tippet covering the
+shoulders was fastened beneath the chin, giving the head a stiff but
+imposing air of command. He carried a short truncheon, which he wielded
+with great dexterity; yet his armour, though light and of the finest
+temper, seemed more cumbersome to him now than in former days.
+
+The royal standard of England, thus described, was borne before him:--It
+was from eight to nine yards in length, the ground blue and red,
+containing, in the first division, the lion of England imperially
+crowned. In chief, a coronet of _crosses pater_ and _fleurs-de-lis,_
+between two clouds irradiated. In base, a cloud between two coronets. In
+the next division the charges were, in chief a coronet, in base an
+irradiated cloud. In the third, the dexter chief and sinister base was
+likewise an irradiated cloud; the sinister and dexter chief a coronet,
+as before. Motto, "Dieu et mon droyt." The whole of this procession was
+one vast masquerade of pomp, little betokening the frailty and folly
+which it enveloped. Though to all outward show fair and glistening, yet
+was there a heavy gloom brooding over the nation. Prince Edward, the
+flower of chivalry, usually called the Black Prince, from the colour of
+his armour, lay then grievously sick, and the whole hope and welfare of
+the land seemed to hang on his recovery. The known ambition of John of
+Gaunt was a main source of alarm and anxiety. "Edward had, however,"
+says the historian, "declared his grandson heir and successor to the
+crown, and thereby cut off all the hopes of the Duke of Lancaster, if he
+ever had the temerity to entertain any."
+
+Not forgetting his former homage to the sex, the king's eye lingered on
+the form of Isabella, but she drew back, daunted by the ardour of his
+gaze. Oskatell saw the impression she had made, in nowise displeased,
+hoping some ray of royal favour would be reflected to him from the beam
+that already dawned on his companion.
+
+We now pass on to the field, where everything was in readiness for the
+combat. The knights had heard mass and made confession, these being the
+requisite preparatives to the noble deeds they had that day vowed to
+perform. The heralds had made the usual proclamation against the use of
+magic, unlawful charms, and other like devices of the devil, when a loud
+flourish of trumpets announced the approach of Stanley, who first
+entered the lists mounted on a grey charger furnished with the chevron,
+or war-saddle, then of great use in withstanding the terrific shock of
+the assailant, being high up in front, and furnished at the back like an
+arm-chair. He was equipped in a full suit of Italian armour, displaying
+a steel cuirass of exquisite workmanship, deemed at that time a novel
+but elegant style of defence, and destined soon to supersede the
+purpoint or gamboised work called mail. If well tempered, it was found
+to resist the stroke of the lance without being either pierced or bent,
+nor was it liable to be pushed through into the body, as was sometimes
+the case with the "_mailles_" when the wambas or hoketon was wanting
+underneath. His shield was thus marshalled: argent; on a bend azure,
+three stags' heads cabossed. In the sinister chief, a crescent denoted
+his filiation; underneath was the motto "Augmenter." The shield itself
+or pavise was large, made of wood covered with skin, and surrounded with
+a broad rim of iron.
+
+He looked gracefully round, first lowering his lance in front of the
+king's pavilion, and afterwards to the fair dames who crowded the
+galleries on each side. Whether from accident or design his eyes rested
+on Isabella with a strong expression of earnestness rather than
+curiosity. Doubtless, the noble representatives of the house of Lathom
+excited no slight interest among the spectators, and the young hero
+might have formed some yet undeveloped anticipations on this head.
+
+She blushed deeply at this public and unexpected notice. The
+recollection of her dream made the full tide of feeling set in at once
+in this direction, much to her consternation and dismay; but when,
+happening to turn hastily round, a silken bandage, loosened by the
+sudden movement from some part of her dress, was carried off by the wind
+and deposited within the lists, she was greatly embarrassed; and her
+confusion was not a little increased as the young gallant with great
+dexterity transferred it to the point of his lance. At this choice of
+his "lady love," a loud shout arose from the multitude; and Isabella,
+now the object of universal regard, would have retired, but that the
+density of the crowd, and the inconvenient structure of the building,
+rendered it impossible.
+
+Another flourish of trumpets announced the approach of the young Admiral
+of Hainault. His armour was blue and white, beautifully wrought and
+inlaid with silver. His steed was black, having the suit and furniture
+of the war-horse complete. The _crouptiere_ and _estival_, together with
+the _chanfron_, were of the most costly description. A plume of white
+feathers decorated his casque, extending his athletic form into almost
+gigantic proportions.
+
+The needful ceremonies were gone through; a deep and almost breathless
+silence succeeded, like the stillness that precedes the first swing of
+the storm. The trumpets sounded; the sharp click of the lances was heard
+falling into the rest; and the first rush was over. The noise of the
+shock was like the burst of the tempest on the forest boughs. Through
+the dust, the horses were seen to recoil upon their haunches; but as it
+blew heavily away, the warriors had regained their upright position,
+having sustained no injury, save by the shivering of their lances with
+the stroke. A loud shout of applause ensued; and the esquires being at
+hand with fresh weapons, each knight was too eager for the fray to lose
+a moment in requesting the usual signal. Again their coursers' feet
+seemed to spurn the earth. At this onset the French knight bent back in
+his saddle, whether from subtlety or accident was not known, but there
+was a loud clamour; and the Frenchman, recovering himself, spurred on
+his steed with great vigour, perhaps hoping to take his adversary at
+unawares; but the latter, darting aside with agility, the other's lance
+ran full against the boards, and in deep vexation he came back to the
+charge.
+
+Trembling with choler, he hardly restrained himself until the prescribed
+signal; then, as if he would make an end of his opponent, he aimed his
+weapon with a direct thrust towards the heart; but Stanley, confident in
+his own might, was fully prepared for the blow, as the event
+sufficiently proved; for the French knight was seen to reel from his
+saddle, the point of his enemy's lance being driven completely through
+his armour. He rolled backwards on the ground, and so vigorous had been
+the attack, that his horse's back was broken, and they lay together,
+groaning piteously, besmeared with blood and dust, to the sore dismay of
+his companions. Stanley suddenly alighted, and helped the pages to undo
+his armour; but ere his beaver could be unclasped he had fainted by loss
+of blood, and being borne off the field, he shortly afterwards expired.
+
+The king was mightily pleased with this great prowess of the victor,
+insomuch that he knighted him on the spot, and, according to the old
+ballad, gave him goodly manors--
+
+                           "For his hire,
+    Wing, Tring, and Iving, in Buckinghamshire."
+
+He had so won, likewise, on the hitherto impenetrable disposition of
+Isabella, that when he came to render his homage at her feet, she
+trembled and could scarcely give the customary reply.
+
+Raising his visor, and uncovering his helmet from the grand guard--a
+plate protecting the left side of the face, shoulder, and breast--he
+made a lowly obeisance at the gate of his mistress's pavilion, at the
+same time presenting the stolen favour he had now so nobly won. With a
+tremulous hand she bound it round his arm.
+
+"Nay, thy chaplet, lady," shouted a score of tongues from the
+inquisitive spectators. Isabella untied a rich chaplet of goldsmith's
+work, ornamented with rose-garlands, from her hair, and threw it over
+his helmet. Still armed with the gauntlets, which, either through hurry
+or inadvertence, he had neglected to throw aside, as was the general
+courtesy for the occasion, the knight seized her hand, and with a grasp
+gentle for any other occasion, pressed it to his lips. The lady uttered
+a subdued shriek, whether from pain or surprise, it boots not now to
+inquire; mayhap, it was the remembrance of the mailed hand she had felt
+in her dream, and to which her fingers, yet tingling with the pressure,
+bore a sufficient testimony. Sir John bent lowlier than before, with one
+hand on his breast, in token of contrition. A thousand strange fancies,
+shapeless and undefined, rushed by, as the maiden looked on the warrior.
+It was the very crisis of her dream; her heart seemed as though it would
+have leapt the walls of its tenement,--and she was fain to hide her face
+under the folds of her mantle.
+
+"Now, on my halidome," said the king, "there be two doves whose cooing
+would be the better for a little honest speech. Poor hearts! it were a
+pity their tongues had bewrayed their desire. Fitz-Walter, summon them
+hither."
+
+The blushing Isabella was conducted to the royal presence, where the
+king was graciously pleased to impress a salute on her rich and glowing
+cheek--no mean honour from so gracious and gallant a monarch, who,
+though old, was yet accounted a mighty adept in the discernment of
+female beauty, he never being known to suffer contact of the royal lip
+with aught but the fairest and most comely of the sex.
+
+"Sir John, I commend thee to thy mistress. A dainty choice. She is 'The
+Queen of Beauty' for the day, and to-night we command your presence at
+the banquet."
+
+"My gracious liege," said Isabella, pointing to Oskatell, "I have a
+brother; unto his care it is but meet that I entrust myself; and he"----
+
+"His person and endowments," interrupted the king, "are not unknown to
+us. I do honour thee by ennobling him; for though our ladies' brightness
+be all too dazzling to receive a glory from us, yet peradventure for
+their sakes our courtesy is vouchsafed. Rise, Sir Oskatell de Lathom."
+
+Again a flourish of trumpets proclaimed the king's favour, who with many
+more gracious speeches won the affection of all who heard him that day.
+
+Several other jousts and "gentle passages" were held, the success of
+which falling principally with the English combatants, the boasting
+pride of France was again humbled before the king, who seemed to renew
+his former victories at this memorable "_Tourney of Winchester_."
+
+But Isabella had bartered years of repose for this brief season of
+intoxicating splendour. The barbed arrow was in her heart, and the more
+she struggled, the more irreclaimable it grew. Doubtless that unlucky
+dream had rendered her more susceptible to the wound.
+
+Dreams have this operation; and whether good or evil, they leave an
+impression that no simple act of the will can efface. It seems to be the
+work of a power superior to our own, for "the less begetteth not the
+greater;" how, then, can the mind originate a train of conceptions, or
+rather creations, superior to itself--above its own power to control?
+
+But Isabella was too much engrossed by her feelings to attempt their
+solution. She lay restless on her couch, but there was no escape. An
+unquenchable flame was kindled in her soul, that not all the cool
+appliances of reason could subdue. Tomorrow she must depart, and that
+gay pageant vanish as a dream; and yet not like her own dream, for that
+was abiding and indelible. To-morrow the brave knight must withdraw, and
+the "Queen of Beauty," homaged for a day, give place to another whose
+reign should be as brief and as unenduring. In this distempered mood,
+with a heart all moved to sadness, did the Lady Isabel pass the first
+hours of the following night.
+
+Suddenly the sharp twang of a citerne was heard in the street below her
+window,--nothing new in these piping times of love and minstrelsy; but
+so sensitive was the ear now become to exterior impressions, that she
+started, as though expecting a salutation from the midnight rambler. Her
+anticipations were in some measure realised, the minstrel pausing
+beneath her lattice. A wooden balcony projected from it, concealing the
+musician. Isabella threw a light mantle around her, and rousing one of
+her maidens, she opened the window. The rich melody came upon her senses
+through the balmy odour of myrtle boughs and leaves of honeysuckle. The
+chords were touched with a skilful hand, and the prelude, a wild and
+extempore commentary on the ballad, was succeeded by the following
+ditty:--
+
+    "My ladye love, my ladye love,
+      The moon through the lift is breaking;
+    The sky is bright, and through the night
+      The queen of love is waking.
+    Yon little star that twinkleth so,
+    Fluttering her bright eyes to and fro,
+        How doth she chide,
+        That thou shouldest hide,
+      All joyance thus forsaking.
+    My ladye love, my ladye love,
+      The moon through the lift is breaking;
+    The sky is bright, and through the night
+      The queen of love is waking."
+
+The singer withdrew; and Isabella was convinced, or her eyes were
+befooled by her fancy, that, as he emerged from his concealment, his
+form could be none other than the one her imagination was too familiar
+with to mistake. He, too, had caught a glance of the listeners, for
+presently a folded paper was thrown over the balusters, and the minstrel
+departed. The first light that came through the long low casements
+revealed all that her hopes anticipated. The billet was from Sir John
+Stanley, whose regrets, mingled with vows and protestations of love,
+were to this purport, that he must needs be away before daybreak, on
+urgent business from the king. He sent a sigh and a love-token,
+commending himself to her best thoughts, until he should gain his
+acquittance so far as to visit Lathom.
+
+Passing over the departure, the bustle, and the weariness of a twelve
+days' journey, let us behold the maiden once more in her pretty bower at
+Lathom. How changed! The whole assumed a fresh aspect, thus viewed from
+a different state of the mind. Her favourite spaniel licked her hand,
+but she did not notice his caresses; all about her was as if the wand of
+the enchanter had been there, changing its image, each object calling
+forth a train of sensations heretofore unknown. Even the hangings and
+figured draperies wore a grim and perturbed expression; and Jephtha's
+daughter and the Queen of Sheba looked more dismal and profuse than ever
+from the dusky arras.
+
+She strayed out, as beforetime, into the woods; but their gloom was more
+intense, and the very birds seemed to grow sad with her melancholy
+musings. Their song, that used to be so sprightly, was now subdued and
+mournful, and all their gay and bubbling hilarity was gone. If she
+wandered forth towards evening, the owl hooted in her path, and the
+raven croaked above her. She heard not the light matin of the lark.
+Fancy, stimulated alone by gloomy impressions, laid hold on them only,
+failing to recognise aught but its own image.
+
+Sir Oskatell and her father had often taken counsel together since his
+return. Shortly afterwards, Isabella received a summons to attend Sir
+Thomas in private. What was the precise nature of that interview does
+not appear, save that the lady withdrew to her chamber, and the brow of
+Sir Thomas was for a long space moody and disturbed. Sir John Stanley,
+though of gentle descent, was not endowed with an adequate inheritance,
+at least for the heiress of Lathom, whose extensive possessions, though
+shared by Oskatell, were deemed by Sir Thomas of sufficient magnitude to
+command a connection of higher rank and importance. As a younger brother
+he could have slight pretensions to patrimony, and save the manors, then
+but a slender endowment, just granted by King Edward, his profession as
+a soldier supplied his chief revenue. His exclusive notice of the Lady
+Isabella at the tournament was quickly conveyed to the ear of Sir
+Thomas; and, it was said, the latter had vowed that no portion of
+wealth should descend to his daughter if wedded to Sir John, but that
+the whole should be settled on Sir Oskatell. "The course of true love
+never did run smooth." That Sir John Stanley had a watchful eye at the
+time to the fortune as well as to the person of Isabella, is by some
+rather freely hinted. This, however, turns out to be an unfounded
+calumny, as the events hereafter unfolded will abundantly demonstrate.
+
+Sir John, after vainly endeavouring to avert this cruel purpose, and to
+win the old man's favour, entered into the service of the king. He hoped
+that some lucky adventure would enable him to appear with more certainty
+of success the next time he played the suitor at Lathom.
+
+Isabella, though sorely importuned to the contrary, remained true to her
+first and only attachment; and Sir Oskatell was likely, in the end, to
+gather to himself the whole of these vast possessions. A disposition to
+this effect she had for some time suspected. His conduct, too, was less
+kindly of late, and he took upon himself an authority more direct and
+unconditional. Indeed, it seemed but too evident that Sir Oskatell was
+looked upon as the ultimate possessor. The maiden pined sorely at her
+lot, and lack of perpetuity in the inheritance. But woman's wits have
+compassed a sea of impossibilities, and will ever continue irresistible
+until their beautiful forms shall no longer irradiate these dull
+mortalities with their presence.
+
+One day an aged minstrel craved admission. Sir Thomas had just retired
+from the banquet. Isabella and the lady of Lathom were at their usual
+employment in their private chamber, plying the needle in "Antres vast,"
+and wildernesses of embroidery, along with the maids. The request was
+granted; soon after which an old man, bending apparently under an
+accumulation of years and infirmities, entered the apartment. There was
+a keen scrutinising restlessness of the eye, stealing through the
+silvery locks about his brow, that but ill accorded with his apparent
+decrepitude.
+
+After a very profound obeisance, which the lady-mother scarcely
+recognised, he addressed himself to his vocation. A mighty indifferent
+prelude succeeded the arrangement of the strings, then a sort of jig,
+accented by the toe and head of the performer. Afterwards he broke into
+a wild and singular extempore, which gradually shaped itself into
+measure and rhythm, at times beautifully varied, and accompanied by the
+voice. We shall attempt a more modern and intelligible version of the
+sentiments he expressed:--
+
+Song.
+
+    1.
+    "Rich round thy brow are the clusters bright,
+      And thy tresses are like the plume--
+    The plume of the raven, glossy with light,
+      Or the ray on the spirit's deep gloom.
+
+    2.
+    "As I gaze, the dim echoes of years that are past
+      Bring their joys to my bosom in vain;
+    For the chords, which their spell once o'er memory cast,
+      Ne'er shall waken to gladness again!"
+
+"I hold these minstrels now no better than the croaking of your carrion
+crow," said the elder lady: "these are not like the songs we used to
+hear in hall and bower at Dunham Massey. Then "--the old lady forgetting
+that her own ears had played her false, and her relish for these
+dainties had departed--"Then," raising her voice and gazing round, as
+past scenes recurred to her fancy, "how my young heart would leap at the
+sound of their ditties! and how I long to hear again _'Sir Armoric'_ and
+the '_Golden-Legend_,' and all about the lady with the swine's snout and
+the silver trough!"
+
+But Isabella heard not her mother's reminiscences. The minstrel
+engrossed her attention, absorbing her whole thoughts, it might seem,
+with the display of his cunning. Her cheek was flushed, and her lip
+trembled. Some mysterious faculty there was either in the song or the
+performer.
+
+Again he poured forth a strain more touching, and of ravishing
+sweetness:--
+
+Song.
+
+    1.
+    "Smile on, my love; that sunny smile
+      Is light and life and joy to thee;
+    But, oh, its glance of witchery the while,
+      Is maddening, hopeless misery to me.
+
+    2.
+    "Another bosom thou mayest bless,
+      Whose chords shall wake with ecstasy;
+    On mine, each thrilling thought thy looks impress
+      Wakes but the pang of hopeless destiny.
+
+    3.
+    "Smile on, my love; that sunny smile
+      Is light and life and joy to thee;
+    But, oh, its glance of witchery the while,
+      Is hopeless, maddening misery to me."
+
+These were burning thoughts from the bosom of age; and had not the old
+lady's perceptions been somewhat obtuse, she might have guessed the
+minstrel's purpose. His despair was not so utterly hopeless and without
+remedy as the purport of his song seemed to forebode--for the morning
+light saw the bower of Isabella vacant, and her bed undisturbed. She was
+then far over the blue hills into Staffordshire, where another sun saw
+her the wife of Sir John Stanley; immediately after which they departed
+into Ireland.
+
+Sir Thomas threw the reins on the neck of his choler, and, as tradition
+reports, did then disinherit her for ever in favour of Sir Oskatell. How
+far the latter might be privy to this resolve, or whether Sir Thomas,
+goaded on aforetime to the aggrandisement of his name, seized the
+present opportunity only as it served his purpose, both history and
+tradition leave us without the means of deciding. There does, however,
+seem reason to suspect some unfair solicitations practised on Sir
+Thomas, which subsequent occurrences strongly corroborate; but
+particularly the fact, that on his deathbed he solemnly revoked this
+injustice, appointing Sir John Stanley his lawful heir, disinheriting
+Sir Oskatell, save a slight provision hereafter named, and declaring his
+illegitimacy. We would not lightly throw out an accusation of this
+nature; but surely an act of retribution so unsparingly administered
+would not have been put in force, had not past circumstances in some
+measure rendered it just.
+
+Let us now resume our narrative from the date of the tournament; soon
+after which King Edward died, and Sir John Stanley, in the first year of
+his successor, Richard II., was honoured by him with a commission to
+Ireland, for the purpose of assisting in the total reduction of that
+unfortunate kingdom. By his great prudence and success he brought under
+submission the great rebel chiefs, to wit, O'Neal, King of Ulster;
+Rotherick O'Connor, King of Connaught; O'Caral, King of Uriel; O'Rurick,
+King of Meath; Arthur M'Kier, King of Leinster; and O'Brien, King of
+Thomond. In the year 1379, Richard coming in person to Ireland, these
+chieftains did homage to him as their sovereign prince. For his great
+and eminent services on this occasion Sir John had granted to him, by
+patent for life, the manor and lands of Black Castle in that country.
+
+Ten years did Sir John sojourn, by the king's order, in this unquiet
+and troublesome appendage to the English crown. And it may be conceived
+that if true love had any hold on his affections, they were oft
+communing with Isabella, forsaken, as she then thought, by him whom she
+had once too surely trusted. In the tumult of war, and in the
+administration of his high office, no doubt her gentle form would visit
+his spirit, and, like the star of future promise, guide him on to his
+achievements.
+
+About the year 1390, when the return of Henry Duke of Lancaster from his
+banishment, without leave of the king, had caused a sore dismay
+throughout the land, Richard, harassed with the apprehension of danger,
+appointed Sir John Stanley Lord Justice of Ireland for six years. He was
+now able, in some measure, to confer a sufficient dignity on his
+beloved, though not yet equal, in point of wealth, to the wishes of Sir
+Thomas. But feeling desirous to know the state of her disposition
+towards him, he set out in disguise for Lathom, where, as we have before
+stated, he so far prevailed that she became Lady Stanley in spite of all
+the opposition she had endured. Aware of the determination of her
+father, he deemed her love a sufficient recompense, thus fully refuting
+the insinuations that her dower had more charm for him than her person.
+
+Returning to Ireland with his lady, they lived there happily for some
+years.
+
+When Henry of Lancaster was crowned by the title of Henry the Fourth,
+Sir John being still Lord Justice of Ireland, and holding the government
+there in favour of the deposed king, the new monarch, well knowing the
+knight's power, together with his skill and experience, as well in the
+senate as in the field, found means to attach him to the reigning
+interest, and, as a mark of signal favour, granted to him and his heirs
+for ever, by letters patent, many lands there named, lying in the
+westerly part of the county of Chester. Soon afterwards occurred that
+memorable rebellion, when the Welsh blood, boiling to a ferment by the
+hot appliances of one Owen Glendower, an esquire of Wales, and in his
+youth a resident at the Inns of Court in London, kindled the flames of
+intestine war. After he had conspired with the Percies and their
+adherents, together with a large body of the Scotch, these malcontents
+threatened to overthrow the now tottering dominion of King Henry.
+
+The most prompt measures were, however, taken to meet this
+exigency,--and Sir John Stanley was suddenly called out of Ireland; Sir
+William Stanley, then Lord of Stanley and Stourton, being appointed his
+deputy. Sir John soon applied himself in such earnest to the service of
+the king, his master, that a large and powerful army, headed by Henry
+himself, together with "Prince Harry," his son, marched against the
+rebels. Near to Shrewsbury the latter were overthrown; Sir John, by his
+great bravery and address, mainly contributing to the success of the
+engagement. His presence was now become of essential service to the
+king, who in consequence appointed his second son, the Duke of
+Clarence--who claimed the title of Earl of Ulster in right of his
+wife--Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in his stead, the new governor landing
+at Carlingford on the 2d August 1405.
+
+Sir John obtained, as a favour granted but to few, and those of the
+highest rank, licence from the king to fortify a spacious house he was
+then building at Liverpool, the site whereof was given by Sir Thomas
+Lathom, who, we may now suppose, had in some measure swerved from his
+most unjust purpose, possibly on apprehending the great honours and
+influence that Sir John had already acquired without his aid or
+furtherance. This plot of land, it was said, contained 650 square yards,
+which he held together with several burgage houses and lands in that
+town.
+
+He had full licence to build a castle or house of strength, embattled
+and machicolated, with _tenellare_, or loop-holes in the walls, and
+other warlike devices, which no subject could undertake without special
+leave from the king.
+
+The Isle of Man was at this time, by Northumberland's rebellion, forfeit
+to the crown. Sir John the same year obtained a grant of it for life,
+and in the year following a re-grant to himself and his heirs for ever,
+with the style and title of "King of Man."
+
+It were needless to enumerate all the honours and distinctions heaped in
+such unwonted profusion upon our illustrious hero. It has rarely
+happened that so rapid a career has met with no reverse, for the fickle
+goddess mostly exalts her votaries only to make their downfall the more
+terrible.
+
+Henry dying in 1413, was succeeded by his son Henry V., with whom Sir
+John was held in equal esteem, being again appointed to the government
+of Ireland; but, landing in Dublin, his health was now visibly on the
+wane. Four months afterwards he died at Ardee, to the great grief of
+his family, and the irreparable loss of the nation. He was a rare
+instance wherein a courtier, through four successive reigns, carried
+himself unimpeached, and unsullied by the political vices which were
+then too general to excite reproach. He was truly a knight "_sans peur
+et sans reproche_."
+
+He left two sons, John and Thomas, and one daughter, whose fortunes, at
+this time, we shall not attempt to follow.
+
+Lady Stanley, his widow, returned to Liverpool with her children, and
+lived there until her death, in the house built by her husband.
+
+Now did the beam of Sir Oskatell's favour, like an April day, suddenly
+change its gaudy and suspicious brightness. Sir Thomas, waning in years
+and ready to depart, began to consider his former misdoings. His
+daughter and her offspring were, by the laws of nature, justly entitled
+to his possessions, which he, reflecting on the great impiety and
+injustice of withholding, bequeathed, with some exceptions, to Lady
+Stanley and her heirs, revealing at the same time the fraud which he had
+practised, and extinguishing for ever the hopes and expectations of Sir
+Oskatell. Yet was he not left entirely destitute: to him and to his
+descendants were reserved, by due process of law, the manors of Irlam
+and Urmston, near Manchester, with divers other valuable inheritances.
+At the same time was given to him the signet of his arms, with the crest
+assumed for his sake, _an eagle regardant, proper_. It was only
+subsequent to the supplanting of Sir Oskatell that his rivals took the
+present crest, "_The Eagle and Child_" where the eagle is represented as
+having secured his prey, in token of their triumph over the foundling,
+whom he is preparing to devour. This crest, with the motto "SANS
+CHANGER," the descendants of Sir John Stanley, the present Earls of
+Derby, continue to hold: the foregoing narrative showing faithfully the
+origin of that singular device.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[12] "Thomas Stanley, Bishop of Man, was a cadet of the noble family of
+the Stanleys, Earls of Derby; and, after he had spent some time in this
+and another university abroad, returned to his native country
+(Lancashire), became rector of Winwick and Wigan therein; as also of
+Badsworth, in the diocese of York, and dignified in the church. At
+length, upon the vacancy of the see of the Isle of Man, he was made
+bishop thereof, but when, I cannot justly say; because he seems to have
+been bishop in the beginning of King Edward VI., and was really bishop
+of that place before the death of Dr Man, whom I have before mentioned
+under the year 1556. This Thomas Stanley paid his last debt to nature in
+the latter end of 1570, having had the character when young of a
+tolerable poet of his time."--Wood's _Athenae Oxonienses_.
+
+[13] This extract is from an interesting pamphlet, printed for private
+circulation only, by Thomas Heywood, Esq. of Manchester, entitled, "The
+Earls of Derby, and the Verse Writers and Poets of the 16th and 17th
+Centuries." 1825.
+
+[Illustration: THE BLACK KNIGHT OF ASHTON.]
+
+
+
+
+THE BLACK KNIGHT OF ASHTON.
+
+
+    "O Jesu I for Thy mercies' sake,
+      And for Thy bitter passion,
+    Save us from the axe of the Tower,
+      And from Sir Ralph of Assheton!"
+
+It would be a curious inquiry to trace the origin of services and other
+customs, paid by tenants to their feudal sovereign. Connected as the
+subject is with the following tradition, it may be worth while if we
+attempt to throw together a few notices on that head. A rose was not a
+very unfrequent acknowledgment. Near to the scene of our story, the
+tenant of a certain farm called Lime Hurst was compelled to bring a rose
+at the feast of St John Baptist. He held other lands; but they were
+subject only to the customary rules of the lordship, such as ploughing,
+harrowing, carting turves from Ashton-moss to the lord's house, leading
+his corn in harvest, &c. This species of service was called boon-work;
+and hence the old adage, "I am served like a boon-shearer." It, however,
+seems that some trifling present was made in return. In a MS. of
+receipts and disbursements belonging to the Cheethams, kept in the time
+of Charles II., there is an item for moneys paid for gloves to the
+boon-shearers at Clayton Hall, where Humphrey Cheetham, founder of the
+college at Manchester, then resided. The acknowledgment of a rose before
+mentioned might seem to have some allusion to the Knights Hospitallers.
+The estate of Lime Hurst was called John of Jerusalem's land, and the
+tithes and rent, in all probability, once went to the support of that
+order.
+
+In the Ashton pedigree we find a Nicholas Assheton, as it was then
+spelt, who enrolled himself amongst these warrior-monks. It seems not
+improbable that the profits of this estate belonged to him.
+
+The custom of heriotship, however, was the most oppressive, being paid
+and exacted from the parties at a time when they were least able to
+render it. Our tradition will best illustrate this remnant of barbarism,
+to which, even in the customs of the most savage tribes, we should
+scarcely find a parallel.
+
+In the early records of the Ashton family we find that Thomas Stavely,
+or Stayley, held a place called the Bestal by paying one penny at
+Christmas. This Bestal was, perhaps, a place of security or confinement.
+Adjoining the hall yard, the ancient residence of the Ashtons, is an old
+stone building facing the south, now called the Dungeon. It is flanked
+at the east and west corners by small towers with conical stone roofs.
+The wall is pierced by two pointed windows. Judging from its appearance,
+it must have been a place of strength; the name Bestal being probably a
+corruption of Bastile, basilion, or bastilion--all of which we find
+appropriated to places of this description. Tradition, indeed, says the
+ancient lords of Ashton made this a place of confinement, when the power
+of life and death were at their command. A field near the old hall,
+still called Gallows Meadow, was then used as a place of execution.
+
+Sir John Assheton, in the fifth year of Henry VI., became possessed of
+the manor on payment of one penny annually. He is generally supposed to
+have founded the church about the year 1420. We find him assigning the
+forms or benches to his tenants: the names for whose uses they are
+appointed are all females. From this it may seem that seats in our
+churches were first put up for their convenience. Eighteen forms or
+benches are mentioned for the occupation of one hundred wives and
+widows, who are named, besides their daughters and servant wenches.
+Their husbands had not this privilege, being forced to stand or kneel in
+the aisles, as the service required. In the windows there yet remains a
+considerable quantity of painted glass, but very much mutilated. Three
+or four figures on the north side represent a king, saints, &c. In the
+chancel are the coats and effigies of the Asshetons in armour, kneeling.
+In one part seems to have been portrayed the invention of the Holy Cross
+by St Helen. At whatever period the church was built, the steeple must
+either have been erected afterwards, or have undergone a considerable
+repair in the time of the last Sir Thomas Assheton; for upon the south
+side are the arms of Ashton impaling Stayley. There is a tradition, that
+while the workmen were one day amusing themselves at cards, a female
+unexpectedly presented herself. She asked them to turn up an ace,
+promising, in case of compliance, that she would build several yards of
+the steeple; upon which they fortunately turned up the ace of spades.
+This tale may owe its origin to the following circumstances:--Upon the
+marriage of Sir Thomas Assheton with the daughter of Ralph Stayley, a
+considerable accumulation of property was the consequence. This might
+induce him to repair the church, and perform sundry other acts of
+charity and beneficence. Whilst the work was going on, Lady Elizabeth
+Assheton, it is not improbable, surprised the builders at their pastime;
+and giving a broad hint that a part of her money was being employed in
+the erection, might desire that her arms should be fixed in the steeple,
+impaled with those of her husband. The shape of an escutcheon, having a
+considerable resemblance to a spade-ace, in all likelihood was the
+origin of the fable.
+
+Sir John Assheton, the founder of the church, is the reputed father of
+Ralph, whom the following tradition commemorates. The origin of "_Riding
+the Black Lad_" is involved in great obscurity--some ascribing it to the
+tyranny of Sir Ralph, and others to the following circumstance, which
+may have been fabricated merely to throw off the odium attached to his
+name:--In the reign of Edward III., one Thomas Assheton fought under
+Queen Philippa in the battle of Neville's Cross. Riding through the
+ranks of the enemy, he bore away the royal standard from the Scotch
+King's tent, who himself was afterwards taken prisoner. King Edward, on
+his return from France, conferred on Thomas the honour of knighthood,
+with the title of Sir Thomas Assheton of Ashton-under-Line. To
+commemorate this singular display of valour, he instituted the custom of
+"Riding the Black Lad" upon Easter Monday at Ashton; leaving the sum of
+ten shillings yearly to support it, together with his own suit of black
+velvet and a coat of mail. Which of these accounts is correct we cannot
+presume to determine. There is, however, sufficient testimony upon
+record to account for the dislike entertained towards the memory of Sir
+Ralph Assheton.
+
+In the town of Ashton-under-Line, or Lime, called in the ancient
+rent-rolls Ashton-sub-Lima, a singular custom prevails. On Easter Monday
+in every year, the ceremony of "Riding the Black Lad" takes place.
+According to some, it is a popular expression of abhorrence towards the
+memory of Sir Ralph Assheton, commonly called _The Black Knight_, whose
+character and conduct would seem to warrant the odium thus attached to
+his name. The following is a brief account of the ceremony;--An effigy
+is made of a man in black armour, and this image is deridingly
+emblazoned with some emblem of the occupation of the first couple that
+are married in the course of the year. The Black Boy is then fixed on
+horseback, and after being led in procession round the town, is
+dismounted, made to supply the place of a shooting-butt, and all sorts
+of fire-arms being in requisition for the occasion, he is put to an
+ignominious death. Five shillings per annum are reserved from some
+neighbouring estate for the perpetuation of this absurd custom.
+
+Sir Ralph Assheton was sheriff of York in the reign of Edward IV., and
+knight marshal and lieutenant of the Tower under Richard III., being in
+great esteem with the latter monarch. In the Harleian MSS. annuities are
+mentioned as being granted to him, with divers lordships, and a tun of
+wine yearly. So powerful was his jurisdiction, that a grant was made him
+to the effect, that if in cases of emergency suitable persons could not
+be procured for the trial of delinquents, his own authority should be a
+sufficient warrant for the purpose. Hence, from the nature of his
+office, and the powers that were intrusted to him by the king, and
+probably too from the natural bent of his disposition, arose the popular
+dislike which vented itself in the well-known traditionary distich we
+have taken as our motto.
+
+In those days, when the gentry went little from home, set times of mirth
+and recreation were constantly observed in their spacious and hospitable
+mansions. Yule, or Christmas, was a feast of especial note and
+observance. The great hall was mostly the scene of these boisterous
+festivities; where, from the gallery, the lord of the mansion and his
+family might witness the sports, without being incommoded by the uncouth
+and rustic manners of their guests. It was the custom to invite all who
+were in any way dependent on the proprietor, and who owed him suit and
+service.
+
+The mansion of Sir Ralph had, like those of the neighbouring gentry, its
+lofty and capacious hall. At one end was a gallery resting on the heads
+of three or four gigantic figures carved in oak, perhaps originally
+intended as rude representations of the ancient Caryatides.
+
+The Christmas but one following the elevation of Richard to the throne,
+in the year of our redemption 1483, was a season of unusual severity.
+Many tenants of Sir Ralph were prevented from assembling at the Yule
+feast. A storm had rendered the roads almost impassable, keeping most of
+the aged and infirm from sharing in this glorious pastime.
+
+The Yule-log was larger than ever, and the blaze kept continually on the
+roar. No ordinary scale of consumption could withstand the attacks of
+the enemy, and thaw the icicles from his beard.
+
+The wassail-bowl had gone freely about, and the company--Hobbe Adamson,
+Hobbe of the Leghes, William the Arrowsmith, Jack the Woodman, Jack the
+Hind, John the Slater, Roger the Baxter, with many others, together with
+divers widows of those who owed service to their lord, clad in their
+holiday costume--black hoods and brown jackets and petticoats--were all
+intent upon their pastimes, well charged with fun and frolic. Their
+mirth was, however, generally kept within the bounds of decency and
+moderation by a personage of great importance, called the Lord of
+Misrule, who, though not intolerant of a few coarse and practical jokes
+upon occasion, was yet, in some measure, bound to preserve order and
+decorum on pain of being degraded from his office. To punish the
+refractory, a pair of stone hand-stocks was commonly used, having
+digit-holes for every size, from the paws of the ploughman to the taper
+fingers of my lady's maiden. This instrument was in the especial keeping
+of the dread marshal of these festivities.
+
+The custom of heriotship, or a fine payable on the death of the
+landholder to the feudal lord, was then in most cases rigorously
+exacted. This claim fell with great severity upon widows in poor
+circumstances, who were, in too many instances, thus deprived of their
+only means of subsistence. Then came fees and fines to the holy Church,
+so that the bereaved and disconsolate creature had need to wish herself
+in the dark dwelling beside her husband. Sir David Lindsay may not be
+unaptly quoted in illustration of this subject. His poem called "The
+Monarch" contains the following frightful picture of the exactions and
+enormities committed on these defenceless and unoffending victims of
+their rapacity:--
+
+    "And also the vicar, as I trow,
+    Will not fail to take a cow,
+    And uppermost cloths, though babes them an,
+    From a poor seely husbandman,
+    When he lyes ready to dy,
+    Having small children two or three,
+    And his three kine withouten mo,--
+    The vicar must have one of tho,
+    With the gray cloke that covers the bed,
+    Howbeit that they be poorly cled;
+    And if the wife die on the morn,
+    And all the babes should be forlorn,
+    The other cow he takes away,
+    With her poor cote and petycote gray:
+    And if within two days or three
+    The eldest child shall happen to dy,
+    Of the third cow he shall be sure,
+    When he hath under his cure;
+    And father and mother both dead be,
+    Beg must the babes without remedy.
+    They hold the corse at the church style,
+    And thare it must remain awhile,
+    Till they get sufficient surety
+    For the church right and duty.
+    Then comes the landlord perforce,
+    And takes to him the fattest horse;
+    Poor labourers would that law were down,
+    Which never was founded by reason.
+    I heard them say, under confession,
+    That this law was brother to oppression."
+
+As it drew on towards eventide, the mirth increased. The rude legendary
+ballads of Sir Lancelot of the Lake, Beavois of Southampton, Robin Hood,
+The Pindar of Wakefield, and the Friar of Fountain's Abbey, Clim of the
+Clough, Ranulph of Chester, his Exploits in the Holy Land, together with
+the wondrous deeds of war and love performed by Sir Roger of Calverly,
+had been sung and recited to strange and uncouth music. Carols, too,
+were chanted between whiles in a most unreverend fashion. A huge
+Christmas pie, made in the shape of a cratch or cradle, was placed on
+the board. This being accounted a great test of orthodoxy, every one was
+obliged to eat a slice, lest he should be suspected of favouring the
+heretical tenets then spreading widely throughout the land.
+Blind-man's-buff and hot-cockles had each their turn; but the sport that
+seemed to afford the most merriment was a pendulous stick having an
+apple at one end, and on the other a lighted candle, so that the
+unfortunate and liquorish wight who bit at this tempting bait generally
+burnt his nose on the rebound, as the stick bounced to and fro on its
+pivot. The hall was now cleared for the masks. In this play, the Black
+Knight himself generally joined, laughing heartily at and hurrying on
+the mis-haps of the revellers. Many horrible and grotesque-looking
+shapes and disguises soon made their appearance; but one, more
+especially than the rest, excited no slight degree of distress and
+alarm. His antics proved a continual source of annoyance to the rest of
+the company. He singed Will the Arrowsmith's beard, poured a whole
+flagon of hot liquor in the wide hosen of Hobbe Adamson; but the enactor
+of St George in a more especial manner attracted his notice; he crept
+between his legs, and bore him right into the middle of the pig-sty,
+before he could be stayed; from whence the heroic champion of England
+issued, sorely shent with the admixtures and impurities of the place.
+
+This termagant was a little broad-set figure wearing a mask, intended as
+a representation of his Satanic majesty, adorned with a huge pair of
+horns. From it hung a black cloak or shirt, out of which protruded a
+goodly and substantial tail. No one could discover this ruthless
+disturber of their sports. Every attempt was unavailing; he shot through
+their fingers as though they had been greased, and a loud and
+contumelious laugh was the only reward of their exertions.
+
+In the end, a shrewd conjecture went abroad that he was none other than
+some malicious imp of darkness let loose upon their frolics, to disquiet
+and perplex their commemoration of the Blessed Nativity. Yet was it an
+unusual occurrence upon Yule night, when these disturbers were supposed
+to be prevented from walking the earth, being confined for a space to
+their own kingdom. But the desperate character of their lord, who was
+thought to fear neither man nor devil, might in some sort account for
+this unwelcome intrusion.
+
+The guests grew cautious. Whispers and unquiet looks went round, while
+the little devil would ever and anon frisk about, to the great detriment
+and dismay of his companions.
+
+Their lord's presence was anxiously looked for. The ruddy glow of their
+mirth had become dim. Sir Ralph, they hoped, would either unmask this
+mischievous intruder, or eject him from the premises; he having the
+credit of being able to master aught in the shape of either mortal or
+immortal intelligences.
+
+At length he came, clad in his usual suit of black velvet. A swarthy and
+ill-favoured wight he was, with a beard, as the story goes, that would
+have swept off the prickly gorse-bush in its progress. He was received
+with a great show of humility, and all made their best obeisance. But
+this deputy, representative, or vicegerent of "Old Hornie," he stood
+erect, among the obsequious guests, in a posture not at all either
+respectful or becoming.
+
+"Now, knaves, to your sport. Ye be as doleful as a pack of pedlars with
+a full basket after the fair. I'll make ye play, and be merry too; or,
+e' lady, ye shall taste of the mittens. Dan, give these grim-faced
+varlets a twinge of the gloves there just to make 'em laugh."
+
+His tyrannous and overbearing temper would even make them merry by
+compulsion. But the terrified hearers did not manifest that intense
+feeling of gratification which this threat was intended to produce. Each
+looked on the face of his neighbour, hoping to find there some
+indication of the felicity which his own had failed to exhibit.
+
+The countenance of their chief grew more dark and portentous. Just as
+they were expecting the full burst of his fury, up trotted the merry
+imp, and irreverently crept behind Sir Ralph. Before their almost
+incredulous eyes did he lay hold on the tail of the knight's cloak, and
+twisting it round his arm, by a sudden jerk he brought this dignified
+personage backwards upon the floor. The oaken beams trembled at this
+unlooked-for invasion of their repose. Deep, deadly, and abominable
+curses, rang through the hall. Livid and ghastly by turns, the knight's
+features wore that ludicrous expression of rage and astonishment more
+easy to conceive than to portray. Volleys of oaths and inarticulate
+sounds burst out from his wrath, almost too big for utterance. When
+reinstated in that posture which is the distinctive characteristic of
+man, he did not attempt to administer his vindictive retribution by
+proxy. Laying hold on a tough cudgel, he gave it one ominous swing,
+describing an arc of sufficient magnitude to have laid an army
+prostrate. He then pursued the luckless emissary of the Evil One,
+roaring and foaming with this unusual exertion. There was now no lack of
+activity. A hawk among the chickens, or a fox in a farm-yard, were
+nothing to it. Sometimes was seen the doughty Sir Ralph driving the
+whole herd before him like a flock of sheep; but the original cause of
+the mischief generally contrived to mingle with the rabble rout, who in
+vain attempted to rid themselves of his company. The knight was not
+over-nice in the just administration of his discipline. Often, when he
+thought himself near enough for its accomplishment, he aimed a terrific
+blow, but shot wide of the mark, bringing down the innocent and
+unoffending victims, who strewed the floor like swaths behind the mower.
+Whenever a lucky individual could disentangle himself from his comrades,
+he darted through the door, and in spite of the storm and pitchy
+darkness without, thought himself too happy in escaping with a few holes
+in his skin. Yet he of the horns and tail, by some chance or another,
+always passed unhurt; a hideous laugh accompanying the adroit
+contrivances by which he eluded the cudgel.
+
+The hall was now but scantily supplied with guests; the runaways and
+wounded having diminished the numbers to some half-score. A parley was
+now sounded by the victorious and pursuing enemy.
+
+"Hold, ye lubberly rascals! Ye scum--ye recrement--why do ye run?" said
+the knight, puffing with great vigour. "I say, why run ye!" brandishing
+his club. "Bring hither that limb of Satan, and ye shall depart every
+one to his home. Lay hold of him, I tell ye, and begone."
+
+But these terms of capitulation were by no means so easy to accept as
+the proposer imagined.
+
+The first mover of the mischief had gotten himself perched on a
+projecting ledge by the gallery, from whence they were either unable or
+unwilling to dislodge him.
+
+"How!" said the knight. "Ye are afraid, cowards, I trow. Now will I have
+at thee, for once. I'll spoil thy capering!" This threat was followed by
+a blow aimed at the devoted representative from the infernal court; but
+it failed to dismount him, for he merely shrunk aside, and it was
+rendered harmless. Another and a more contumelious laugh announced this
+failure. Even the Black Knight grew alarmed. The being was surely
+invulnerable. He stayed a moment ere he repeated the attack, when, to
+his unspeakable horror and astonishment, there issued a thin squeaking
+voice from underneath the disguise.
+
+"The heriot, Sir Ralph--the heriot! We'll have a heriot at Easter!"
+
+Had a thunderbolt fallen at his feet, the knight could not have been
+more terrified. He let the weapon fall. His hands dropped powerless at
+his side. His countenance was like the darkly rolling sea, strangely
+tossed by some invisible tempest. The cause of this sudden and
+unexpected termination of the assault we will now proceed briefly to
+unfold.
+
+The morning of this day, being the eve of the Blessed Nativity, had been
+employed by the Black Knight in the laudable occupation of visiting a
+poor widow; who, though recently bereaved of her husband, had not
+rendered the customary heriot. Unfortunately, the only valuable she
+possessed was a cow, the produce of which formed the chief support of
+the family; four young children, and a boy of about fourteen, whose
+brains were generally supposed more or less oddly constructed than those
+of his neighbours, depended on this supply for their daily support.
+Cold, bitter cold, was the season, and it had set in with more than
+common severity. Day after day the payment was delayed. Every morning
+the widow and her son fondled the poor beast, as though it were the
+last; but another morning and evening succeeded. Supper could not supply
+the place of breakfast, nor breakfast contend against the wants of
+supper; and how could the already half-famished ones be sustained, when
+their only resource should be taken away?
+
+"Go down upon your knees, Will, and thank God for another morning's
+meal. It is the eve of our blessed Lord's incarnation, and I think He
+will not leave us to perish in this world, who has made such a bountiful
+provision for our well-being in the next. The knight has not sent for
+the heriot, and I think that He alone who succours the widow and the
+fatherless can have inclined his heart to mercy."
+
+Scarcely were the thanksgivings finished, when they were alarmed by the
+rapid approach of their persecutor. The door flew open, and in
+thundering accents the Black Knight himself came to make his demand.
+
+"I'll have thee to the dungeon, hag, for lack of service. How comes it
+to pass the heriot is not paid!"
+
+The widow made no reply. Her heart was full.
+
+"See to it," continued the pitiless churl; "for if thy quittance be not
+forthcoming, and that in haste, I'll turn thee and thy brats into the
+moor-dikes, where ye may live upon turf and ditch-water if it so please
+ye."
+
+"Oh, ha' pity!" But the widow's prayer was vain. The Black Knight was
+never known to hearken either to pity or persuasion.
+
+"Thy cow--thy cow! This night let it be rendered. Sir Ralph Assheton
+never uttered a threat that fell to the ground."
+
+"Mother," said the boy, "is this Sir Ralph, our liege lord?"
+
+"Ay, fool," angrily replied the knight. "And what may thy wits gather by
+the asking?"
+
+"And will _he_ ever die, mother?"
+
+"Hush, Willy," said the terrified woman.
+
+"Nay," returned the leering half-wit, "I was but a-thinking, that if he
+does, may be _his_ master too will want a heriot."
+
+"And what may be the name of my master?" said Sir Ralph, with a furious
+oath.
+
+"The devil," replied the boy, with apparent unconcern.
+
+"Ay,--and what will they give him, dost think?"
+
+"_Thee!_"
+
+Whether the peculiar expression of the lad's face, or the fearless
+indifference of his address, so unusual to that of the crouching slaves
+he generally met with, contributed to the result, we know not; but,
+instead of correcting the boy for his audacity, he hastily departed,
+finally repeating his threat of punishment in case of disobedience.
+
+When Sir Ralph got home, his ill-humour vented itself with more severity
+than usual. On joining the sports, he was at the first somewhat
+startled, on perceiving a representation of the personage which the
+morning's conversation had by no means prepared him to recognise either
+with admiration or respect. Still, as it was nothing out of the common
+usage, he took no apparent notice, farther than by remarking the general
+gloom that prevailed, contrary to the usual course of these festivities.
+Then came the unlooked-for aggression upon his person, provoking his
+already irritated feelings into vehement action. But, when the last
+unfortunate blow had failed in its purpose, appearing to the furious
+knight to have been warded off by a charm, a sudden misgiving came
+across him, which, with the speech of this supposed imp of darkness, so
+strangely alluding to his adventure with the boy, wrought powerfully
+upon his now excited imagination, so that he stood aghast, unable to
+grapple with its terrors. He hastily departed from the hall, leaving the
+enemy in undisputed possession of the field.
+
+What occurred subsequently we are not told, save that on the following
+morning the widow's heriot was sent back, with an ungracious message
+from the knight, showing his unwillingness to restore what terror only
+had wrung from him.
+
+The person who adventured this dangerous personification of the Evil One
+was never known. Whether some bold and benevolent individual,
+interposing on behalf of the fatherless and famishing little ones, or
+some being of a less substantial nature,--whether one of those immortal
+intelligences of a middle order between earth and heaven, who at that
+time were supposed to take pleasure in tormenting the vicious and
+unworthy,--is more than our limited capacities can disclose.
+
+It is said that on Easter Monday following the Black Knight died; and
+though probably it had no connection with the circumstances we have
+related, yet was his decease a sufficiently strange event in the
+mysterious chapter of coincidences to warrant this memorial.
+
+
+
+
+FAIR ELLEN OF RADCLIFFE.
+
+
+In Percy's Relics, this ballad is called "The Lady Isabella's Tragedy,"
+and is thus introduced:--
+
+     "This ballad is given from an old black-letter copy in the Pepys
+     Collection, collated with another in the British Museum, H. 263,
+     folio. It is there entitled, 'The Lady Isabella's Tragedy, or the
+     Step-Mother's Cruelty; being a relation of a lamentable and cruel
+     murther, committed on the body of the Lady Isabella, the only
+     daughter to a noble Duke, etc. To the tune of "The Lady's Fall."'
+     To some copies are annexed eight more modern stanzas, entitled,
+     'The Duchess' and Cook's Lamentation.'"
+
+Dr Whitaker says, "The remains of Radcliffe Tower prove it to have been
+a manor-house of the first rank. It has been quadrangular; but two sides
+only remain." A licence to kernel and embattle shows the date of its
+erection, or rather rebuilding, to be in the fourth year of Henry IV.,
+by James Radcliffe, who, we find by the pedigree, was the eldest son of
+William Radcliffe. He married Joan, daughter to Sir John Tempest of
+Bracewell, in the county of York.
+
+"The noble old hall is forty-three feet two inches in length, and in one
+part twenty-six feet, in another twenty-eight feet in width. The two
+massy principals which support the roof are the most curious specimens
+of ancient wood-work I have ever seen. The broadest piece of timber is
+two feet seven inches by ten inches. A wall-plate on the outside of one
+beam, from end to end, measures two feet by ten inches. The walls are
+finished at the square with a moulded cornice of oak.
+
+"At the bottom of the room is a door opening into one of the towers, the
+lower part of which only remains, of massy grout-work, and with three
+arches, each furnished with a funnel or aperture like a chimney. On the
+left side of the hall are the remains of a very curious window-frame of
+oak, wrought in Gothic tracery, but square at top. Near the top of the
+hall, on the right, are the remains of a doorway, opening into what was
+once a staircase, and leading to a large chamber above the kitchen, the
+approach to which was by a door of massy oak, pointed at the top.
+
+"Over the high tables of ancient halls (as is the case in some college
+halls at present) it was common to have a small aperture, through which
+the lord or master could inspect, unseen, what was going on below. But
+in this situation at Radcliffe is a ramified window of oaken work,
+opening from the apartment above mentioned, but now closed up."
+
+[Illustration: RADCLIFFE TOWER.
+
+_Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden._]
+
+This consists of eight arches, with trefoil-pointed tops, four and
+four, with two narrower apertures above.
+
+"To this place and family are attached the tradition and ballad given by
+Dr Percy, under the name of Isabella, but here applied to a Lord Thomas
+and faire Ellenor, father and daughter, whose figures are supposed to be
+graven on a slab in the church, which the common people, concluding, I
+suppose, from its whiteness, that it was meant as an emblem of the
+innocence it is said to cover, have mutilated by breaking off small
+fragments, as amulets for the prevention or cure of disorders.
+Traditions, always erroneous in their circumstances, are yet rarely
+devoid of foundation; and though the pedigrees of Radcliffe exhibit no
+failure of the family by the premature death of an heiress; though the
+last Richard de Radcliffe, who had daughters only, certainly did not
+make 'a scullion-boy the heir of all his land,' when he settled it on
+Radcliffe Baron Fitzwalter; though the blood actually pointed out on the
+kitchen floor, where this Thyestsean banquet is said to have been
+prepared, deserves no more regard than many other stories and
+appearances of the same kind; yet we are not to discard as incredible
+the tradition of a barbarous age, merely because it asserts the
+sacrifice of a young and beautiful heiress to the jealousy or the
+avarice of a stepmother. When this is granted, the story of the pie with
+all its horrors may safely be ascribed to the inventive genius of a
+minstrel. On the whole, Radcliffe is a place which, not only from its
+antiquity and splendour, but from the great families which have branched
+out from it, and the romantic tradition attached to it, can scarcely be
+surveyed without enthusiasm, or quitted without regret."
+
+There is a story of its being haunted by a black dog; but as this
+apparition has never been seen by two persons in company, it may safely
+be ascribed to the genius of fear, quite as creative a power as any
+other faculty of the imagination.
+
+We have thought it best to give the ballad entire, without any
+embellishments of our own. Though not in the best style of these
+metrical romances, it is still of sufficient interest, from its
+connection, to claim a place in the "Traditions" of the county.
+
+    There was a lord of worthy fame,
+      And a hunting he would ride,
+    Attended by a noble traine
+      Of gentrye by his side.
+
+    And while he did in chase remaine,
+      To see both sport and playe,
+    His ladye went, as she did feigne,
+      Unto the church to praye.
+
+    This lord he had a daughter deare,
+      Whose beauty shone so bright,
+    She was beloved both far and neare
+      Of many a lord and knight.
+
+    Fair Ellen was this damsel call'd,
+      A creature faire was she;
+    She was her father's only joye,
+      As you shall after see.
+
+    Therefore her cruel stepmother
+      Did envye her so much,
+    That daye by daye she sought her life,
+      Her malice it was such.
+
+    She bargain'd with the master-cook,
+      To take her life awaye;
+    And, taking of her daughter's book,
+      She thus to her did saye:--
+
+    Go home, sweet daughter, I thee praye,
+      Go hasten presentlie;
+    And tell unto the master-cook
+      These wordes that I tell thee:
+
+    And bid him dresse to dinner streight
+      That fair and milk-white doe,
+    That in the parke doth shine so bright
+      There's none so faire to showe.
+
+    This ladye, fearing of no harme,
+      Obey'd her mother's will;
+    And presentlye she hasted home,
+      Her pleasure to fulfil.
+
+    She streight into the kitchen went,
+      Her message for to tell;
+    And there she spied the master-cook,
+      Who did with malice swell.
+
+    Nowe, master-cook, it must be soe,
+      Do that which I thee tell:
+    You needes must dresse the milk-white doe
+      Which you do knowe full well.
+
+    Then streight his cruell bloodye hands
+      He on the ladye layd,
+    Who quivering and shaking stands,
+      While thus to her he sayd:--
+
+    Thou art the doe that I must dresse,
+      See here, behold my knife;
+    For it is pointed, presently
+      To ridd thee of thy life.
+
+    Oh then, cried out the scullion-boye,
+      As loud as loud might bee,
+    Oh save her life, good master-cook,
+      And make your pyes of mee!
+
+    For pitye's sake, do not destroye
+      My ladye with your knife;
+    You know shee is her father's joye,
+      For Christe's sake, save her life.
+
+    I will not save her life, he sayd,
+      Nor make my pyes of thee;
+    Yet, if thou dost this deed bewraye,
+      Thy butcher I will bee.
+
+    Now when this lord he did come home
+      For to'sit downe and eat,
+    He called for his daughter deare
+      To come and carve his meat.
+
+    Now sit you downe, his ladye say'd,
+      Oh sit you down to meat;
+    Into some nunnery she is gone,
+      Your daughter deare forget.
+
+    Then solemnlye he made a vowe
+      Before the companie,
+    That he would neither eat nor drinke
+      Until he did her see.
+
+    Oh then bespake the scullion-boye,
+      With a loud voice so hye--If
+    now you will your daughter see,
+      My lord, cut up that pye:
+
+    Wherein her flesh is minced small,
+      And parched with the fire;
+    All caused by her stepmother,
+      Who did her death desire.
+
+    And cursed bee the master-cook,
+      Oh cursed may he bee!
+    I proffer'd him my own heart's blood,
+      From death to set her free.
+
+    Then all in blacke this lord did mourne,
+      And, for his daughter's sake,
+    He judged her cruell stepmother
+      To be burnt at a stake.
+
+    Likewise he judged the master-cook
+      In boiling lead to stand;
+    And made the simple scullion-boye
+      The heire of all his land.
+
+[Illustration: WHALLEY ABBEY.
+
+_Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden._]
+
+
+
+
+THE ABBOT OF WHALLEY
+
+
+    "Earl Percy there his ancyent spred,
+      The half moone shining all soe faire;
+    The Norton's ancyent had the crosse,
+      And the five wounds our Lord did beare."
+
+--_The Rising in the North_.
+
+The Cistercian Abbey of Whalley was founded by Henry Lacy, Earl of
+Lincoln, who, having given the advowson of the parish to the abbey of
+Stanlaw in Cheshire, the monks procured an appropriation, and removed
+hither in 1296, increasing their number to sixty. The parish church is
+nearly coeval with the introduction of Christianity into the north of
+England. This foundation now became the nucleus of a flourishing
+establishment, "continuing," as Dr Whitaker informs us, "for two
+centuries and a half, to exercise unbounded charity and hospitality; to
+adorn the site thus chosen with a succession of magnificent buildings;
+to protect the tenants of its ample domains in the enjoyment of
+independence and plenty; to educate and provide for their children; to
+employ, clothe, feed, and pay many labourers, herdsmen, and shepherds;
+to exercise the arts and cultivate the learning of the times; yet
+unfortunately at the expense of the secular incumbents, whose endowments
+they had swallowed up, and whose functions they had degraded into those
+of pensionary vicars or mendicant chaplains."
+
+The ruins of Whalley Abbey are situated in a beautifully-sequestered
+spot on the banks of the Calder, presenting some of the most extensive
+and picturesque remains of antiquity in the county; and the site
+sufficiently exemplifies that peculiar instinct, if it may be so called,
+which guided the monks in their choice of situations. "Though the
+Cistercians affected to plant themselves in the solitude of woods, which
+were to be gradually essarted by the labour of their own hands, and
+though they obtained an exemption from the payment of tithes on that
+specific plea, yet they were excellent judges of the quality of land,
+however concealed, and never set about their laborious task without the
+assurance of an ample recompense."
+
+The following minute account of these ruins is from the pen of the
+historian of Whalley:--"A copious stream to the south, a moderate
+expanse of rich meadow and pasture around, and an amphitheatre of
+sheltering hills, clad in the verdant covering of their native woods,
+beyond; these were features in the face of Nature which the earlier
+Cistercians courted with instinctive fondness. Where these combined, it
+does not appear that they ever abandoned a situation which they had once
+chosen; and where these were wanting, it is certain they never long or
+willingly remained."
+
+"We now proceed to a particular survey of the remains of Whalley Abbey
+as they exist at present. First, then, the whole area of the close,
+containing thirty-six acres, three roods, fourteen poles, is still
+defined by the remains of a broad and deep trench, which surrounded it;
+over this were two approaches to the house, through two strong and
+stately gateways yet remaining. They are constructed in that plain and
+substantial style which characterised the Cistercian houses; a style
+which approximates to that of fortification, and shows that the monks
+did not obtain a licence to kernel and embattle without an end in view.
+Within this area, and on the verge of the Calder, which formed the
+south-west boundary of the close, was the house itself, consisting of
+three quadrangles, besides stables and offices. The first and most
+westerly of these was the cloister-court, of which the nave of the
+conventual church formed the north side; the chapter-house and vestry,
+yet remaining, the east; the dormitory, also remaining, the west; and
+the refectory and kitchens the south. The cloister was of wood,
+supported, as usual, upon corbels, still remaining: the area within was
+the monks' cemetery, and some of the ancient gravestones here are still
+remembered. Against the wall, on the south side of this quadrangle, is a
+wide surbased arch, apparently of Henry the Seventh's time, which has
+evidently contained the lavatory. The groove of the lead pipe which
+conveyed the water is still conspicuous, as is also another for the
+reception of a wooden rail, on which the towels hung. Beyond this court,
+to the east, is another quadrangle area, formed by the choir of the
+church, on one side, the opposite side of the chapter-house, &c., on
+another, a line of ruinous buildings on the third, and a large distinct
+building, itself surrounding a small quadrangle, on the fourth. This
+appears evidently to have been the abbot's lodgings; for which reason,
+as being best adapted to the habits of an ordinary family, it
+immediately became the residence of the Asshetons, and after many
+alterations, and a demolition of its best apartments, particularly a
+gallery nearly one hundred and fifty feet in length, has still several
+good and habitable rooms, and is now preserved with due care by its
+owner. The ancient kitchen, the _coquina abbatis_ of the _compotus_,
+whence such hecatombs were served up, remains, though roofless, with two
+huge fire-places. On the southern side of this building is a small but
+very picturesque and beautiful rain mantled with ivy, which appears to
+have been a chapel, and was probably the abbot's private oratory. But
+the conventual church itself, which exceeded many cathedrals in extent,
+has been levelled nearly to the foundation. This work of havoc was
+probably an effect of that general panic which seized the lay-owners of
+abbeys, on the attempt made by Queen Mary to restore the monks to their
+cloisters.--'For now,' says Fuller, 'the edifices of abbeys, which were
+still entire, looked lovingly again on their ancient owners; in
+prevention whereof, such as possessed them for the present plucked out
+their eyes by levelling them to the ground and shaving from them, as
+much as they could, all abbey characters.'
+
+"However, in the month of August 1798, permission having been obtained
+from the guardian of the present owner to investigate the foundation by
+digging, a very successful attempt was made to retrieve the whole
+ichnography of the church, of which there were no remains above the
+surface to assist conjecture, or to guide research, but one jamb of the
+west window against the wall of the dormitory, a small portion of the
+south wall of the nave, a fragment of the south transept, and another
+jamb of one of the side chapels eastward from the last. An inequality in
+the ground, eastward from the transept, in an adjoining orchard, showed
+the half-pace into the choir, of which the outline to the north and east
+was also defined in the same manner. Upon these slender data we
+proceeded, first, to investigate the foundations of the columns towards
+the west end; and having ascertained the distance of one from the south
+wall, the width of the south aisle, and consequently of the north,
+followed of course; another digging immediately to the north ascertained
+the width of the middle aisle, and a third, from east to west, gave one
+intercolumnation; the length of the nave being already given by the
+remains of the transept, the number of columns was now proved. A right
+line drawn along the remnant of the south wall, and continued to the
+intersection of the nave and transept, proved the length of the latter
+on the south side, and, consequently, also on the north. The choir
+evidently appeared to have consisted of a presbytery, with two side
+aisles, and four other chapels; two to the north, and as many to the
+south.
+
+"The site of the choir being determined, it remained to investigate its
+contents beneath the surface: accordingly, under the high altar, nothing
+appeared but a bed of undisturbed and native sand; but beneath the
+second half-pace, immediately leading up to it, were turned up many
+broken remains of a painted pavement, consisting of small glazed
+floor-tiles, adorned with various devices, and of different forms and
+dimensions. At the foot of the stalls, a narrow rectilinear filleting of
+the same material had bounded the whole. On some was inscribed the word
+MARIE, in Longobardic characters.
+
+"This pavement had been deeply bedded in mortar, but was altogether
+displaced, and turned down from one to three feet beneath the surface,
+where several skeletons were found very entire, and in their original
+position, but without any remains of coffins, vestments, or other
+ornaments, as appeared upon a most minute investigation. These, however,
+were, beyond a doubt, the Abbots of Whalley. From the confused state of
+the original pavement, the whole floor of the presbytery, from the foot
+of the stalls, appeared to have been successively covered with
+grave-stones, all of which, however, had been removed, excepting
+fragments of two: one of these had a groove, once inlaid with a
+filleting of brass, and the other, beneath which lay the skeleton of a
+tall and robust man, had deeply cut upon it the stump of a tree reguled.
+This I conjecture to have been a thorn, intended as a rebus upon the
+name of Christopher Thornber, the fifteenth abbot, who died in 1486. In
+this search we narrowly missed the fragments of the grave-stone of Abbot
+Lindley, which were casually turned up on this very spot, A.D. 1813. On
+one, in the Longobardic character of Edward the Third's time, were the
+letters IOP, and on the other AJ PVIV.
+
+"From these data, slender as they may seem, I arrive at my conclusion,
+thus:--First, None but abbots were interred in the high choir; secondly,
+The characters cannot be later than the latter end of Edward the Third,
+when the old English black letter was substituted in its place. From the
+foundation to this time three Johns had been Abbots of Whalley;
+Belfield, Topeliffe, and Lindley. The termination of the surname must
+have immediately preceded the word _hujus_, but the letters AJ can only
+have formed the termination of Lindelai, the old orthography of the
+word.
+
+"The remains of the Lacies, wherever deposited, after their removal from
+Stanlaw, had undoubtedly been preserved with religious reverence, and
+enclosed in magnificent tombs. But in these researches there were no
+appearances which justified even a conjecture that we had discovered
+them."[14]
+
+John Paslew, the last Abbot of Whalley, appears, by a reference to his
+arms, to have been of the Paslews of Wiswall. The first twenty years
+after his election were passed, like those of his predecessors, in the
+duties of his choir, in the exercise of hospitality, in attention to the
+extensive possessions of his house, or in the improvement of his
+buildings; but a storm was approaching, before which either his
+conscience or his bigotry prevented him from bending, and which
+precipitated his ruin and that of the abbey. The religious houses in
+general were now greatly relaxed in discipline, and many of them
+dreadfully corrupted in morals. What was the state of Whalley must now
+be left to conjecture, though charity should incline us to think no evil
+to those against whom no specific evidence appears. The Pilgrimage of
+Grace was now commenced, and Paslew seems to have been pushed into the
+foremost ranks of the rebellion; when this expedition ended in the
+discomfiture and disgrace of its promoters, every art of submission and
+corruption was vainly employed to ward off the blow. Paslew was
+arraigned for high treason, tried, and condemned, and is supposed to
+have been interred in the north aisle of the parish church, under a
+stone yet remaining; the ignominious part of his sentence being
+remitted, out of respect to his order.
+
+"The attainder of an abbot was understood, however rightly, by the crown
+lawyers of that time, to infer a forfeiture of the house; and
+accordingly, without the form of a surrender, the abbey of Whalley,
+with all its appurtenances, was instantly seized into the king's hands;
+and thus fell this ancient foundation.
+
+"Fr. Thomas Holden, younger son of Gilbert Holden, of Holden, gent.,
+was, in all probability, the last surviving monk. On the Dissolution he
+appears to have returned to his native place. In 1550 we meet with his
+name as Sir Thomas Holden, curate of Haslingden; and in 1574 he was
+licensed to the same cure at the metropolitical visitation of Archbishop
+Grindall, held at Preston, by the style of Thomas Holden, clerk, of
+sober life and competent learning. Strange as it may seem, we find the
+last surviving monk of Whalley a Protestant minister, thirty-seven years
+after its dissolution!"
+
+It was in the dark month of November, when the brown leaves are
+fluttering on the ground, when the wind comes mournfully through the
+bare woods, and the hollow nooks and quiet caves respond with their
+mystic voice, that two travellers were seen loitering up the grand
+avenue that swept nobly through the western embattled gateway of Whalley
+Abbey. The foremost of them wore a low-crowned cap, simply decorated
+with a heron's plume, and a doublet of mulberry-coloured velvet, puffed
+out capaciously at the shoulders. Trunk-hose of a goodly diameter, and
+wide-flapped boots, decorated the lower extremity of his person. On his
+left hand he bore a hooded falcon. The jesses were of crimson and yellow
+silk, its legs fancifully adorned with little bells fastened by rings of
+leather. These made a jingling and dissonant music as it flew, being
+generally tuned one semitone below another, that they might be the more
+sonorous considering their small size. The bearer wore a pair of stout
+leathern mittens, and he carried a long pole to aid him, as it might
+seem, in the chase. His manner bespoke him above the ordinary rank; and
+his garb, from the minute regulations then existing in regard to dress,
+showed at any rate his pretensions to nobility. This proud cavalier was
+followed by one servant only, who carried a capacious wallet, not
+over-well replenished with provision, as was apparent from its long lank
+shape and attenuated proportions. His master's cloak was slung on the
+other shoulder; and his belt displayed some implements that appeared
+alike formidable as means of offence or defence.
+
+Eventide was then drawing on, but it did not appear that the falcon had
+been loosed to the game; the usual tokens of success were wanting--the
+torn and bloody carcases that marked an abundant sport. Two or three of
+the brethren were sitting on a bench in the gateway. In passing by, the
+foremost of the strangers hastily addressed his follower.
+
+"Ralph Newcome, plague on thee! hast thou had a call again at the
+wallet? Thou guzzling tinder-throat, thy drouth is never slaked!"
+
+Now Ralph, having felt sore oppressed with the weight of sundry leathern
+bottles, loaves, and wedges of cold meat, had taken especial care to
+lighten his back and load his stomach whenever the occasion was urgent.
+His endeavours had not been without success, for the wallet, as we have
+seen, hung from his shoulders, long, narrow, and unfurnished, save with
+the scraps and relics of many a savoury junket.
+
+"Coming, master," was the reply, sufficiently audible for his master's
+ear; the remainder escaped in a sort of grumble, the dregs of his ill
+humour at the interruption.
+
+The sportsman, if such he was, gained a ready admittance into the abbey
+enclosure. Passing round the north transept of the church, he made the
+best of his way to the abbot's house, where Paslew dwelt in great state,
+keeping a separate establishment and a numerous train of domestics and
+officials.
+
+Paslew was in some respects a man of parsimonious habits; and though his
+bounty might now be the better excused, yet in the more prosperous days
+of his dominion he had the character of a selfish and greedy priest,
+whose charity was less than that of his predecessor, and his personal
+expenses double.
+
+Encouraged by the "Pilgrimage of Grace," as it was then called, headed
+by one Aske, a gentleman of but mean pretensions, who yet possessed the
+art of making himself popular with the vulgar, Paslew, though apparently
+taking no open part in the rebellion, had with his monks repossessed
+their ancient seat, from which they had been driven by the decrees of
+Henry VIII.
+
+The rebel army had their camp at Doncaster, where the Archbishop of York
+and the Lord D'Arcy openly espoused their cause, receiving in great
+state a herald from the king's army, who came to negotiate with these
+dangerous malcontents. They had formed high notions of their own power
+and importance, and entertained sanguine hopes of success, especially
+since the Duke of Norfolk, a supporter of the ancient religion, was
+appointed to the command of the royal forces along with the Earl of
+Shrewsbury. The monks made themselves certain that the result would be a
+complete purification of heresy from the land, or at least that measures
+would be adopted for the purpose of forcing Henry to a restitution of
+their rights. So fully established were they in this opinion, that, as
+we have just seen, some of them took possession of their ancient
+inheritances without the tedious formality of awaiting a fresh grant
+from the king.
+
+The rebel army, being allured by Norfolk with vain promises of
+satisfaction, were now dispersed, though with the understanding that
+another assemblage should take place at a given notice, for which
+purpose beacons were erected at convenient distances throughout the
+north. By these means their forces could again be mustered with the
+greatest security and despatch.
+
+Within this interval our narrative begins. Paslew had received some
+communication from the leaders of the pilgrimage; but he seemed wishful
+to procrastinate, hoping, perhaps, he should be spared the necessity of
+any more direct treasonable demonstrations, by the timely submission of
+the king; yet his aid was of too much importance to be neglected.
+
+The stranger, on his introduction, was received with some ostentation,
+and not a little ceremony. They were evidently unknown to each other;
+but the keen glance of the abbot instantly detected the signal for some
+secret message. Paslew was habited in the Cistercian gown, and scapulary
+of white cloth. His eye was dark, but restless; his lips, drawn in, were
+narrow and compressed, showing the curbed impetuosity of his spirit.
+Either as a churchman or a warrior, he seemed fitted for daring
+enterprise; yet was he of a wary and cautious bearing, a characteristic
+which his monkish education had in all probability thrown over his
+natural temperament. The attendants having departed, the stranger drew
+an unsealed letter from his bosom.'
+
+"A written message, my lord abbot, from the Abbot of Kirkstall. 'Tis now
+for your reverence's private regard, afterwards at your discretion." The
+abbot hastily glanced over this piece of quaint and formal latinity,
+occasionally darting a rapid and penetrating look at his visitor.
+
+"He says not aught regarding so goodly a messenger," said Paslew,
+carelessly.
+
+"I should have marvelled if he had," returned the other, with a
+contemptuous smile. "He knew not of so important a personage when that
+epistle was elaborated from his pen."
+
+"How?" said the abbot, his features gathering into a portentous scowl.
+
+"Nay, I beseech your reverence's grace, that you throw off all such
+disturbed apprehensions; for in troth a messenger of my bearing and
+capacity were worth a knight's ransom in these evil days, when the monks
+may not abroad with safety."
+
+"Speak out. Remember I have yet the power to punish both insolence and
+treachery."
+
+The abbot's lip curled upwards, pale and quivering with rage, not
+unmixed with apprehension.
+
+"Grammercy," said the stranger, with a provokingly careless expression
+of cool and contemptuous defiance--"I cry you none--I am at present
+nameless. To work, to work, lord abbot. Thou hast holden back too long;
+and there is a shrewd suspicion abroad of thine integrity in the good
+cause. Hold!" said he, rising, as the reverend prelate was on the point
+of summoning his attendants; "I am not thy prisoner! Impotent, I would
+crook my finger thus, and thou shouldest crouch at my bidding. Nay,
+these be evil days, I say again; and more strange things may come to
+pass than bearding a lordly abbot in his den!"
+
+Great was the astonishment of Paslew. The stranger stood proudly erect;
+his arms were folded, and a withering glance shot from beneath his
+brows. Even John Paslew, unused to a sense of inferiority before his
+fellow-men, felt cowed before him. For the first time, in all
+likelihood, he knew not how or what to answer. The stranger interrupted
+this painful silence.
+
+"Since the monks are forbidden to be out a-gadding, the cowl and
+scapulary might have found some hindrance over the moors from Kirkstall.
+With my hawk and bearing-pole, I can follow on to the sport without let
+or question." The latter part of this speech seemed to throw some light
+on the purpose for which this messenger had been selected. Paslew was
+preparing for a further inquiry, when he was again interrupted.
+
+"I tell thee, a courier of my condition may go free, though nameless.
+But to business--Norfolk is tampering with our credulity. He thinks to
+gain our time to his advantage: but the work must again be urged
+forward. Yet lack we thy aid. May we depend on its being faithfully
+rendered? We must have no lukewarm allies in the rear of our camp."
+
+The stranger drew from beneath his inner vest a crucifix, with the
+representation of a chalice and of the five wounds of Christ.
+
+Paslew kissed the token, and his suspicions were at rest. But still,
+there was a dubiety and hesitation in his manner displeasing to the
+stranger. He would bind himself to no distinct pledge respecting the
+time of his appearance at the rebel camp; and altogether seemed to
+display either cowardice or a want of cordiality. His guest refusing to
+stay the night, on a pretext of urgent business farther north, departed
+soon after the termination of their interview.
+
+The night was fast closing when the strangers left the abbey. One by one
+the pale stars seemed to start out, as if just lighted up in the blue
+vault. The dark woods threw their giant arms around the sacred domain,
+as though to guard it against unhallowed intrusion. The travellers had
+gained the steep ascent towards the south-east, from whence the river,
+winding down the narrow valley, seemed as if here and there a spark was
+floating on its quiet surface--the lights, gliding on the opposite
+brink, fell distinct and unbroken upon the stream. The soft voice of the
+current grew strangely audible, in contrast with the deep silence; the
+wind rolling it round to the ear at intervals startling and abrupt.
+
+Preceded by a guide, they had taken the rough mountain road, leading
+from the abbey into the forest of Pendle, the stranger and his servant
+still walking, or rather climbing, for their journey could only be
+accomplished on foot. Having proceeded about two miles on this rugged
+path, they diverged to the left, where the only indication to assist
+their guide was the turf-cutters' track and a few heaps of stones,
+scarcely distinguishable from the common mass, but by an eye accustomed
+to these land-marks. Carefully were they sought for at times, the
+blazing torch carried by their leader being often requisite for the
+search.
+
+They now descended by a narrow and steep ravine, the termination of
+which brought them to a small brook. This they crossed, and again
+commenced a sharp and troublesome ascent. The mighty Pendle rose up
+before them, huge and dark, engrossing half the hemisphere. To this
+point, it seemed, their path was directed. The guide now trimmed his
+torch, the smoke from which had for some time been rather an
+accompaniment than an assistance to their toil, as it caused them to
+loiter at an inconvenient distance, thereby enhancing the difficulties
+they had to encounter. Slow and toilsome was their progress, yet a
+patient continuance in any path will sooner or later lead to the end.
+The brow of the hill seemed rapidly diminishing; the abrupt steep was at
+length gained, when the whole glorious garniture of the heavens,
+uninterrupted, from that majestic height, was suddenly revealed. True,
+it was a November night, but unusually clear and vivid; the stars seemed
+to burn rather than shine, so piercing was their effulgence. The vast
+track of the milky way appeared to span the dark and level platform,
+like the bow of some triumphal arch. They seemed to stand on a huge
+circle, black, bare,--its verge unapproachable, contrasting deeply with
+the encompassing splendour. Proceeding onwards, a dark speck was
+visible, springing out abruptly from the verge of the horizon. Its bulk
+rapidly increased, their path evidently tending in that direction. A
+shrill whistle from the guide was now answered by a corresponding
+signal. Presently they were challenged by a sentinel.
+
+"_Vale_" growled out the rough voice of their conductor.
+
+"Is it thou, Will?" said the guard. "And what neck art thou fitting for
+the noose; breeding occupation for the hangsman, I trow."
+
+"Not half so ripe as thine own, gossip. Here be two gentles that have
+commission, I guess, to look at the beacons, to see they are in trim and
+properly watched. 'Tis well the guard is set. Holloa, Nicholas Dewhurst,
+bring the flagon. I am wheezing like an old wife's bellows, nigh
+disinherited of my birthright, the free quaffing o' the air. I shall die
+and be canonised."
+
+Will, in his eagerness to attain this glorious end, left his companions
+with the sentinel, who speedily conducted them into a rude hut, erected
+as a temporary shelter to those on the look-out for signals. In this
+narrow shed a lamp was burning. Two of the abbot's servants, stretched
+before a smouldering heap of turf, were scarcely roused by the
+vociferations of Will, as he strode over them in his way to the
+provender. A long pull, and a loud smack, announced the satisfactory
+relish that ensued.
+
+"Hoa, ye lozel knaves!--who sleeps when Will's awake?" This reflection
+was accompanied by a smart blow on that part of the recumbent's person
+where it was most conveniently administered.
+
+"Begone, sot!" was the abrupt reply, not over-abundantly expressive of
+good humour at this disturbance. Will looked again towards the flagon;
+but great was his dismay on beholding it in the very act of disemboguing
+its precious contents into another gulf as insatiable as his own. Ralph
+Newcome, incited thereto by his own discrimination, together with the
+resistless relish of their guide, as soon as the latter had partially
+concluded, took up the subject, and long, powerful, and undeviating were
+the requisitions that he made.
+
+"Plague on thy civility!--A fly will drink from anybody's cup, and so
+will a Yorkshireman," growled the uncourteous churl.
+
+Ralph had, however, braced himself tightly to the task, and stood with
+an air of dogged defiance, stoutly confronting his accuser,--though,
+being a man of few words, the principal weight of the argument rested
+upon Will, whose eloquence was with difficulty interrupted on any
+subject.
+
+"Peace," said one of the sleepers, raising himself half-way,--"I think
+we be like to bide here till our bones rot. There's nought but the same
+dun sky,--black, black, and unchanging. I should like to see a stiff
+blaze from some quarter. Our bundle, here, would soon be in a low."
+
+"Hark!" said the other, "'tis something creaking amongst the faggots."
+
+The sentinel rushed out, but the beacon was undisturbed.
+
+"St Mary protect us!--'Tis the same noise I heard last night, and about
+the same hour."
+
+The stranger here entered the hut. Enveloped in a huge cloak, he sate
+silent, and apparently inattentive; but the conversation was now abrupt,
+and broken down into short and interrupted whispers.
+
+"I wish old Hal and his wives were here, with all my heart," said one:
+"we'd have a rare bonfire. How his fat paunch would swell! But for him
+and his unlucky women, we had been snug in the chimney-corner, snoring
+out psalmody, or helping old Barn'by off with the tit-bits in the
+kitchen."
+
+"Hush!" said his neighbour: "there be the faggots talking again. I think
+they are bewitched.--Dan, look to them."
+
+"Nay," said Dan, "they may bide awhile for me."
+
+The words were scarcely uttered when the building seemed in a blaze.
+Crash upon crash followed. The inmates, stupified with terror, were well
+nigh suffocated ere their astonishment left them the power to escape.
+In the full conviction that the foul fiend had taken him at his word,
+Dan was dragged from the hut, wan, speechless, and gasping with
+affright. Nothing less, too, than a visit from his Satanic majesty in
+person was expected by the terrified rustics.
+
+On gaining the outside, the whole burning mass was before them, one vast
+pyramid of flame. Flakes of blazing matter were hurled into the sky,
+with short and rapid explosions. The roar of the wind through the
+glowing furnace was awful and appalling. Huge and ignited fragments were
+borne away with frightful rapidity. They rode on the rolling volumes of
+smoke like fire-fiends armed with destruction; but the vast reservoir of
+flame still glowed on, apparently undiminished. The curtain of night
+seemed to be suddenly undrawn. Objects the most minute were visible as
+in the broad view of day. The brown heath, the grey and the mossy stone,
+were each distinguishable, but clad alike in one bright and unvarying
+colour, red as the roaring furnace. Soon the great magazine of
+inflammable matter in the interior caught fire, and rolled out in a wide
+mass of light, like the first burst of a volcano.
+
+The stranger stood with apparent unconcern, his back to the flames,
+looking from the brink of the mountain northward, as if on the watch for
+corresponding signals. Soon a bright star hung on the heights above
+Sawley. Increasing in splendour, another broke out on the verge of the
+horizon, marking the site of the camp near Romald's Moor.
+
+Turning towards the south-west, and looking to the right, beyond the
+chain of successive heights that form the vale of Todmorden, he beheld a
+dim spark in the distance, from the summit of Hades Hill, scarcely
+penetrating the mist which hung like a dense cloud in that direction;
+this place and Thieveley Pike forming the connecting-links between
+Pendle Hill and Buckton Castle.
+
+The terrified attendants knew too well the results which would follow
+this unaccountable and irreparable mistake. The whole country would be
+in commotion. Hordes of zealous and fanatic idlers and malcontents would
+repair to the appointed rendezvous, and this premature, and perhaps
+fatal movement, would be attributed to their carelessness. Paslew, not
+over-nice in discriminating their several deserts, would doubtless
+subject them to immediate and condign punishment.
+
+These were thoughts common to each, unquestionable and conclusive; but
+what answer to give, or what excuse to make, was far from being decided
+upon with the same degree of certainty.
+
+"We shall be hanged without mercy," was the dread sum of these
+uncomfortable reflections.
+
+"I know not what you may be," said Will; "but I intend to run for it.
+I've an old dame would make a sore disturbance at my death, more
+especially if dangling from the gallows-tree, which of all the trees in
+the wood hath been my aversion ever since I saw Long Tom of the Nab make
+so uncomfortable a shriving from thence."
+
+"Run, then," said Nicholas, rather stoutly, and in a tone of more
+confidence than heretofore. "I'll stay my ground this bout; and,
+further, I do propose to commit yon knaves into the holy keeping of our
+four-cornered crib, where they may be indulged in recreations of another
+sort than setting the whole country by the ears. 'Twill save our necks
+to slip theirs into the noose."
+
+This happy suggestion, the whole of these honest and conscientious
+servants of the church were prepared to obey. They might with safety
+accuse the strangers; indeed, it was more than probable they had hit out
+the right source of the mischief; so, marching up boldly to the
+execution of this Christian purpose, they were proceeding to lay hands
+on the foremost of the culprits. At this critical moment he turned
+suddenly round. Perhaps from a prior suspicion of their intentions, or
+from the knavish cast of their countenances, he saw that hostilities
+were in contemplation: at any rate, he seemed to be prepared for the
+event. Will, being the mouthpiece of the party, and accustomed,
+moreover, at times to a precise and methodical manner of delivery, was
+the chief speaker.
+
+"Sir, we arrest you for high treason. You are charged with firing off
+beacons without our privity or consent, thereby endangering the safety
+of the lord abbot, and the peaceable governing of this realm." He
+paused, quaking even at his own eloquence; but the stranger made no
+reply, till, throwing aside his cloak, he drew out a hagbut or
+demi-hague as it was sometimes called, being a sort of small harquebuss,
+with its match ready kindled.
+
+"Tell the Abbot of Whalley that neither ye nor the whole horde of drones
+and drivellers about his hive, shall take me against my own liberty and
+consent. Hold back! Your first step, is your last, save to your grave! I
+will see the abbot shortly, but not by your grace or assistance." Saying
+this, he bounded down the steep like the roused deer, in its first pride
+of flight, scorning the chase. The light flashing from his weapons
+marked his form rapidly receding from their grasp.
+
+But Ralph, who, as we may suppose, was minded to imitate the evolutions
+of his master, being it seemed of a more heavy and considerate
+demeanour, paused for a space ere he leapt.
+
+This deliberation was fatal to his enterprise. The enemy, recovering
+from their confusion, seized him in default of his master, and without
+further ado bore him away as a visible acquittance of themselves to the
+abbot. There could be no great harm in throwing the blame of this
+unlucky affair on the companion of the escaped incendiary: besides, it
+would be an effective lesson to him on the danger of keeping bad
+company.
+
+Through bog and brake, over moor and mountain, they hurried on with
+their prisoner, who, dooming them all to "clootie" and his imps, and
+commending himself to Michael, Mary, and a number of his especial
+patrons in the Romish calendar, was urged forward with more than their
+usual speed.
+
+The blaze had ceased to be visible when they came to the last descent
+towards the village. Far and wide the alarm had spread; consternation
+and inquiry were on every countenance. The guards were besieged with
+anxious faces, supplicating intelligence, and much impeded thereby in
+their progress to the abbey.
+
+Outside the gates they found a dense crowd waiting for the news. The
+abbot and his brethren were in close council, expecting every moment the
+arrival of warders from the beacon.
+
+They were hurried into the chapter-house, together with their prisoner,
+who had now taken to the sulks, refusing any reply to the numerous
+inquiries made by the servants who followed, eager for the final
+disclosure.
+
+The room was lighted by a single lamp. Little of the interior was
+visible, save the grim and ascetic faces of the monks who sat nearest to
+the centre of illumination. Their features, in deep masses of alternate
+light and shadow, looked as if carved out, hard and immovable, from the
+oak wainscot. Occasionally, a dull roll of the eye relieved the
+oppressive stillness, and the gazer would look out from the mystic world
+he inhabited, through these loop-holes of sense, into the world of
+sympathies and affections, with which he had long ceased to hold
+communion.
+
+Paslew was standing when they entered. His bushy grey eyebrows threw a
+strange and almost unnatural shade over the deep recesses beneath,
+across which, at times, like the foam swept over the dark billows of the
+spirit, a light and glowing track was visible, marking the powerful
+conflict within.
+
+"Nicholas Dewhurst and Daniel Haydock."
+
+He shaded his eyes from the light, as he thus addressed the foremost of
+the party who had just entered.
+
+"From what quarter was the signal first visible?"
+
+"My lord," said Dan, "we are but unworthy of your highness' grace, did
+we not answer truly."
+
+"Quick!--Thou art slower to thine answers than thy words. Why tarriest
+thou?"
+
+"If your highness will pardon"--
+
+"What?" said Paslew, in a voice that made the culprits quake. "I pardon
+nothing. What means this silence?"
+
+"Please your reverence," said Will, now advancing from the rear, his
+rhetorical flourishes somewhat curtailed, and his confidence thereby
+wonderfully abated, "the first signal was our own, lighted by an
+incendiary, to wit, and here we bring him to your highness' reverence
+for judgment. We ordered the rope and the broad beam to be ready by
+daybreak."
+
+It were idle to paint the astonishment and dismay which this short
+narrative produced. Paslew immediately saw the dangers by which he was
+involved. He was, by this desperate and unfortunate act, at once
+committed to the measures from which he had hitherto kept aloof, and he
+must now stand foremost in the cause, or tamely submit to the infuriate
+vengeance which this overt act of rebellion would inevitably hasten. He
+had hoped that, sheltered in this quiet nook, he should escape without
+being made a party in the contest, and rest secure until hotter heads
+and lighter brains had fought the battles that would leave him in
+possession of the spoil. If the king's party were triumphant, he fancied
+that, by seeming to take little or no part in the hostilities then
+abroad, his house might be spared in the general wreck that would ensue;
+but all these schemes of deep-laid policy and ambition were in a moment
+dissipated. No time was to be lost. The whole country would instantly be
+in array, and the beacon-light of Pendle proclaim Paslew as the source
+and instigator of this second rebellion. It would be in vain to stay the
+rising. Some enemy of his house, or some desperate adventurer, wishful
+to further his own schemes at another's expense, was doubtless the
+author of this mischief. The whole was but the discovery of a moment.
+Almost before the dark thought was visible on the brow he cried out--
+
+"Bring forward the traitor!"
+
+But Ralph, on the first hearing of this accusation, strode forward, even
+to the table, where sat the awful conclave astonished at his temerity.
+He stood calmly erect, surveying his judges with a countenance scarcely
+moved from its usually hard and stolid expression.
+
+"If it be true," cried he, "as these idlers do aver, I am here to
+answer. If it be false, they must look to it."
+
+The abbot frowned at this presumptuous speech.
+
+"Who art thou?"
+
+"Marry, an ass ridden by fools."
+
+"Knave, see thou be discreet and respectful in thine answers. There be
+whipping-posts for knaves, and stocks for the correction of fools."
+
+"Why, if it be for the matter of my name, I trow, 'tis of an honest
+Christian-like and well-conditioned flavour; comes out of the mouth
+sharp as a beer-spigot. Men call me Ralph."
+
+"And from whence?" said the abbot, impatiently.
+
+"These knaves of thy breeding can tell best. 'Tis a road I never before
+travelled; and, by your grace's favour, I do not mean to jog on it
+again."
+
+"He is servant to the stranger yeoman whom your worship entertained a
+few hours back, on some private errand," said one of the auditors.
+
+A sharp guess at the truth raised a slight quiver on the abbot's lip.
+The conversation of the stranger, the anxiety he displayed, with that of
+his brother of Kirkstall, seemed to point out the source and cause of
+his disaster.
+
+"Now, varlet, answer truly, or thou diest," said Paslew, with a
+significant shake of the finger. "At whose instigation hast thou
+committed this foul treason against our house, and the good prospering
+of this realm?"
+
+"The deed was not mine."
+
+"Believe him not, my lord,--we are upon our testimony," said the
+accusers.
+
+Ralph, turning aside, met them face to face. He commenced a short but
+shrewd examination, as follows:--
+
+"You were a-watching, I suppose?" said he, carelessly.
+
+"Ay, were we," sharply replied three or four ready tongues.
+
+"Then, how could I fire the beacon without your leave?" A short pause
+evinced their dislike to this question; but Will, more ready than
+discreet, soon summoned assurance to meet the inquiry, thus--
+
+"My lord, we had just taken them into the hut, thinking to show them a
+courtesy; but that knave's throat holds more liquor than his mother's
+kneading-trough, or"--
+
+"If in the hut, how could I set the beacon in a low?"
+
+"But thou hadst a companion," hastily shouted Nicholas, finding their
+first position untenable.
+
+"And how comes it to pass that ye be taking or guiding thither any
+person, and more particularly wayfarers, whom we know not? How comes it,
+I say, that ye suffer this without my permission?" said the abbot,
+sternly.
+
+"Will was their guide; and we cared not to refuse your reverence's
+messenger."
+
+"My messenger!" returned Paslew, with a glance that almost bent them to
+the ground.
+
+"Please your highness," said Will, falling on his knees, "the stranger
+was a-visiting of the beacons, so said he, to know if they were
+carefully watched. He came to me, as with an authority from your
+reverence, and I mounted them up to the guard-house, unwillingly enough.
+'Tis a sore pull for a pair of shanks like mine."
+
+The abbot now saw plainly into the machinations by which he had been
+betrayed, and reprimanding his men for their negligence, and so careless
+an observance of his commands, ordered them off severally to the stocks.
+Their lamentations were loud but unavailing, especially when they found
+that Ralph was simply dismissed, for a space, to solitary confinement.
+
+Yet was Paslew still at a loss to determine whence this subtle device
+originated, unless from his brother of Kirkstall, and he resolved to
+question Ralph secretly. It was owing to this purpose probably that the
+usual summary process of executive justice was not more speedily
+administered.
+
+A great marvel and gossip, as may readily be supposed, now arose
+throughout the whole country. Rumour, with her hundred tongues, flew
+fast, and her wide wings overspread the land. From all quarters,
+conformably to the signal, the levies marched with great rapidity to
+Doncaster, where they found Lord D'Arcy, who seemed to feel, or to
+feign, astonishment at this sudden rising without his orders. One and
+all proclaimed that the appointed signal was from the Abbot of Whalley,
+at whose war-inciting torch the whole line of beacons had been kindled.
+A messenger, however, was soon forwarded to the camp, from Paslew, with
+an explanation of the affair, while at the same time he demanded their
+aid for the discovery and punishment of the offenders. But D'Arcy and
+Aske were too well pleased to see Paslew's crafty and selfish plans
+frustrated, whilst he was irretrievably committed to their cause. Tired
+of waiting the tardy result of negotiations with their sovereign, these
+ambitious spirits were glad to behold their army once more menacing the
+royalist position, hoping it would either quicken or terminate these
+dilatory proceedings. But the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of
+Shrewsbury, at the news of this unexpected rising, were mightily amazed.
+Their plans were at once terminated. Their emissaries had failed to
+bring intelligence previously of the intended gathering. In the midst of
+their dilemma word was brought that the Abbot of Whalley had first
+lighted up the blaze of insurrection. Secretly resolving that this
+meddling priest should sorely rue his mischievous exploit, they again
+found themselves unwillingly obliged to enter into fresh stipulations
+with their adversaries, though determining on delay, if possible, in the
+hope of dividing their leaders, and of extinguishing the rebellion in
+detail.
+
+But we would crave the reader's return to the abbey, where Ralph was
+left in strict durance, and possibly in some danger from the vindictive
+purposes of the abbot.
+
+Early on the following morning he was aroused from a deeptoned and
+laborious stertoration, by a figure that shook him as he lay, in a
+somewhat unceremonious fashion. The intruder was wrapped in a thick
+cloak or tunic, and he stood gruffly erect by the straw couch, whereon
+the prisoner's night-dreams had nestled in their first existence.
+
+"I marvel thou sleepest so soundly! Thou art the first knave, I trow,
+that hast welcomed these walls with so loud a clarion."
+
+"And what should ail the well-earned slumbers of Ralph Newcome? His
+sleep may be as sound as some of those, mayhap, that have softer beds
+and gayer clothing."
+
+"But the gallows, man!--Hast had no glimpse of the noose in thy night
+visions?"
+
+"Peradventure the hemp is not sown that shall make my collar. When the
+hangsman comes, 'tis time enough to wake; so, I pray thee, bereave not a
+poor man of the only solace the rich cannot purchase from him."
+
+"Thou art a plain-spoken varlet, and I would but ask thy master's name
+and condition. Answer me straight--no equivocation, no shuffling or
+evasion shall serve thee; 'tis a stale device now, and will not avail."
+
+"And who art thou, friend, that hast such a greedy appetite for men's
+names, thou canst not rest a-bed for the craving of thy stomach?"
+
+"I am the abbot, and thou a prisoner in this good house. Fearful odds,
+methinks, for the strife."
+
+"Now hark thee, most reverend abbot, my name thou knowest at a
+peradventure: but for the name of my master, as thou callest him, seeing
+it be a notable secret, thou mightest as well go ask his goshawk yonder,
+who, I guess, continues an unworthy prisoner as well as myself."
+
+"I'll have the truth wrung from thy tongue. Thumbscrews and iron mittens
+will not be denied so easily."
+
+"Humph!" said Ralph; "these be rare things for cracking the shell; but,
+for all that, I wot they'll not get at the kernel."
+
+"What! defiest thou my power?--in my own custody too?" Paslew grew pale
+with anger; but the impolicy of this proceeding soon suggested itself to
+his wary, though at times impetuous, temper. Yet the stubborn
+disposition of his prisoner resisted alike his cajolements and his
+threats.
+
+In vain were offers of reward multiplied; nor bribe nor entreaty could
+avail. Paslew then left him, threatening to extract by force what milder
+measures had failed to elicit. He had that morning despatched a
+messenger to the rebel chiefs at Doncaster with an explanation of the
+accident, likewise with an assurance of his good wishes to the cause;
+but still he delayed to go in person, or to send his quota of levies.
+
+True, however, to his threats, if not to his promises, towards the close
+of the day he again visited the dungeon. He was accompanied by two grim
+attendants, whom he ordered to wait outside until their services should
+be required.
+
+Ralph was striding lustily, and with evident impatience, over the damp
+floor; yet he scarcely seemed to notice the entrance of the abbot.
+
+"How now!--Hast had aught, by way of special discovery, touching the
+name thou hadst forgotten this morning?"
+
+"Yes, I have had a notable discovery therein," said Ralph, still holding
+on his pace diagonally, as heretofore.
+
+"And may we graciously participate in the result? Doubtless 'tis a
+comfortable and happy revelation," said the abbot.
+
+"'Tis to beware of three most unlucky things, persons, or properties, I
+trow,--to wit, a parson's maid, a prior's sow, and an abbot's dinner."
+
+"And what lack they in thy honest esteem?"
+
+"A parson's maid lacks honesty,--a prior's sow a litter,--and an abbot's
+dinner lacks me!"
+
+"Or, rather, thou lackest it."
+
+"Why, troth, I am not over-nice in the disposition of vain words; nor
+should I be over-nice in the disposal of some light scraps from your
+reverence's buttery."
+
+"Thou hast not dined?"
+
+"Peradventure not at thy cost."
+
+"Perchance an empty stomach may be the more apt to yield. A full belly
+makes a stout heart."
+
+"I know not. But hasten, I beseech thee. Thy questions over, we may make
+merry together. Nothing less than a full flagon and a prime haunch will
+suffice."
+
+Ralph rubbed his hands at the bare idea of these prospective dainties.
+
+"Wilt thou now disclose the name of thy master?"
+
+"No," said Ralph; "and now for dinner."
+
+"Prythee, in what haste?" returned Paslew, with a grin of cruel and
+malicious irony. "There be some slight preliminaries to
+adjust,--something to season thy haunch and whet thine appetite." He
+stamped with his foot, and the two attendants entered, bearing
+instruments of uncouth and horrid appearance.
+
+"Thou mayest spare my bones and thy gimcracks. With all thy screwing,
+thou canst not yet squeeze raindrops from the rock."
+
+"I cry thee favour. Thou hast dared the stroke,--thou hast courted the
+vengeance thou wouldest withstand, but thou shalt yield or break. Seize
+him."
+
+"Stand back, caitiffs!" said Ralph, with a look of deep and unutterable
+scorn. "But to thee!--words would fail to express my contempt, my
+derision, my defiance of thy puny power! Read, and skulk back to thy
+cell!"
+
+He drew from his doublet a small roll of parchment, which Paslew, with
+unfeigned astonishment and vexation, recognised as a safe warranty from
+the Archbishop of York, wherein the bearer, under whatever manner or
+distinction he might choose to adopt, was charged with a secret mission
+from the leaders of the "_Pilgrimage_" touching the success and
+wellbeing of the Catholic faith, and the prosperity of the Holy Church.
+All abbots, priests, and others, being true sons of the Church, were
+called on to aid and comfort him in the due exercise of his mission, to
+furnish him with a safe passage, and to obey his bidding without let or
+question.
+
+"Herein fail not at your peril!" said Ralph, eyeing the abbot with a
+glance of cool and deliberate scorn.
+
+"Why was not this protection from his grace given to me before?"
+inquired Paslew, beseechingly.
+
+"That thy deceit and double-dealing-might be the more manifest.
+Yesternight thou didst refuse thine aid until the beacon of insurrection
+should be kindled. When kindled, and upon thine own ground, too, still
+thou holdest back! But think not to escape!--Think not to watch in
+safety whilst others work. Whoever wins in this perilous game, thou wilt
+lose. Marked out for destruction, thine own policy will betray thee.
+Choose thee one party, and thou hast yet one chance of safety. But
+double-dealers, such as thou, do ever tumble into the trap baited by
+their own cunning."
+
+"Will his Grace of York expect my presence at the camp?"
+
+"It is needful thou make thy peace either with him or with the king,"
+said Ralph: "yet am I bold to tell thee, that with Harry thine hope of
+reconciliation is past. The news, ere this, hath reached Norfolk's ear,
+and the beacon-light of Pendle, the first blaze and signal of the
+insurrection, denounces the Abbot of Whalley as a ringleader, and as
+having first kindled the torch of rebellion."
+
+With a malicious smile, cruel as the triumph of the fiend at the
+torments of his victim, did this mysterious foe exhibit to him the toils
+that had been, during his unsuspecting security, wound about him.
+
+"Thine only hope is from his grace; go with me, and thou mayest yet
+dwell in safety, and thine house be established."
+
+Paslew saw with dismay the dark gulf which yawned on either hand, and
+the net so craftily prepared to entangle him. His only hope of security,
+however, was a prompt acquiescence in the plan pointed out by the
+stranger, who accordingly engaged to conduct him without delay to the
+appointed rendezvous.
+
+Passing over the difficulties of the journey, the accidents by the way,
+the slips and damages of sumpter-horses, and their often trackless march
+over the hills, let us behold Paslew, after some narrow escapes from the
+royalist forces, taking up his quarters at an obscure lodging hard by
+the town of Doncaster, and nigh to the cantonments of the rebel chiefs,
+whose forces were once more in formidable array, occupying a conspicuous
+position on the left bank of the river Don.
+
+The left wing of the royalist troops was flanked by a deep morass,
+called Potterie Car; and their right protected by the walls of the town.
+
+The morning that followed Paslew's arrival was the time appointed for a
+general attack by the rebels, who considerably outnumbered the more
+disciplined but less zealous army of their sovereign, D'Arcy and his
+associates intending to cross the river by daybreak, with the utmost
+secrecy, hoping to take the royalist forces by surprise.
+
+Paslew arrived alone, just as the consultation of the chiefs was
+breaking up. His companion, Ralph, had left him some hours before, and
+galloped on at full speed, first giving directions as to the course he
+should take, and the measures he was to adopt on his arrival. Conducted
+in due form to the archbishop's presence, Paslew found his grace at
+supper. The repast was sumptuous, and served up in great state. This
+high dignitary seldom stirred but with his kitchen-furniture and service
+for the table, which last was of massy silver, beautifully wrought and
+embellished. His servants were apparelled in all the pomp and insignia
+of office; but he affected great plainness and simplicity, both of
+dress and demeanour. At his right hand sat a stout, muscular figure,
+whom Paslew immediately recognised, with unequivocal demonstrations of
+surprise, to be his umquhile prisoner Ralph Newcome, now habited in a
+plain suit of velvet, and looking like a country gentleman of some rank
+and importance. His manner was, however, coarse and abrupt; and he still
+seemed nothing loth to sustain his full complement of liquor. On the
+left of the archbishop sat his nameless visitor at the abbey, whose
+personal accomplishments he had good cause to remember. Below them sat
+several chiefs of the confederacy, apparently of an inferior rank.
+
+"Abbot Paslew," said his grace, "thou art a tardy, and it may be
+undutiful son. Thine homage to the Church has not been either freely or
+faithfully rendered; yet does she now welcome thee to her embrace, with
+the promise of a free and unconditional forgiveness."
+
+"Ay," said he of his grace's right hand, "Abbot Paslew was of too great
+weight in the scale of events to be left to choose his own side of the
+balance. I am right fain of his company, and in troth he can use the
+persuasions well,--the thumbscrews and tight boots upon occasion."
+
+"Master Aske," replied the archbishop, "if the sons that our mother hath
+suckled and nourished from her own grace and bounty were every of them
+as true as thou art, who yet receivest not of her temporal favours, then
+would her kingdom be enlarged, and her arms should outstretch to the
+utmost verge and compass of all visible things. But there be evil men
+and seducers abroad, traitors to their altar and their faith." Here he
+paused, but presently continued, "My friends, though our religion be
+meek and lowly, yet does it not deny to us the comforts but sparingly
+scattered through this vain and perishing world."
+
+His grace here filled a cup of spiced sack, inviting Paslew to partake
+of their humble entertainment. Bewildered and intimidated, he yet obeyed
+with all due reverence and courtesy.
+
+"Confusion to the heretic king!" cried he on the left of the archbishop,
+filling his glass, and at the same time taking especial note that the
+guests should repeat this bold and startling treason.
+
+"Lord D'Arcy," said one of the guests, "thou hast imbibed that wish so
+oft in thy drink, that should the king catch thee he may find it
+branded in thy four quarters, when they are cut up to ornament his
+majesty's posterns."
+
+"And what might he find on thine, Norton?" said the fiery leader.
+
+"A cook's rolling-pin and a mutton pasty." A loud laugh here announced
+the hit, of which this sally was the bearer, it being levelled directly
+at the well-known propensities of the personage to whom it was
+addressed.
+
+"Come, friends all," said the archbishop; "let not the gibe and jest go
+round; there be matters of graver import that should occupy us this
+night. To-morrow, let the elements be propitious, and the day is won."
+
+"Od's life," said Aske; "surely the rain will not again prevent us from
+passing the river, as it did in our last campaign."
+
+"If it do," cried a deep and melancholy voice from the lower end of the
+table, "then will I say this Pilgrimage of Grace is the device of man,
+and not of God, and the work will not prosper."
+
+This ominous anticipation seemed to strike terror into the most
+stout-hearted. "Foul fa' the croaking raven!" said Aske. "No good comes
+on't, when the Lord of Ravenswood breaks from his usual silence.
+Mischief follows, safe as the bolt after the flash."
+
+"Hush! my son," said the archbishop to this bird of ill-omen; "thou
+speakest unwisely. 'Tis not for us to adjudge the displeasure of Heaven
+upon slight testimonies. He trieth our faith, when the dark cloud
+overshadoweth His mercy. But let us not dishonour this good cause, and
+weaken our hands by indulging in such gloomy anticipations. The night
+showeth little token of a change, and when I was last abroad, the river
+passed on, shallow and murmuring, over the ford."
+
+The guests were fully occupied to a late hour in discussing the plan of
+attack, the occupation of the town, together with subsequent
+arrangements; after which, with mutual anticipations of success, the
+company departed.
+
+Paslew, on retiring to his chamber, though much fatigued, found himself
+unable to sleep. The dark chaos of events brooded heavily upon his
+brain. Feverish and excited, the dread to-morrow seemed already pressing
+on the past, mingling its deep and unseen flood with the full tide of
+existence. The whirl and eddy, created by the conflict, lashed his
+thoughts almost to madness. He grew appalled. The billows blackened as
+they rose. He seemed sinking, overwhelmed in the struggle, and the
+spirit quivered as they passed. He arose, darting an anxious glance
+through the low casement. The moon was riding on the top of a huge
+mountain of clouds towards the north-west. As he gazed they came rapidly
+athwart the heavens, like the wings of some terrible demon visibly
+unfolding. On a sudden the door of his chamber flew open. He started
+forward to meet the intruder, but there was no footstep--no sound save
+the hurrying gusts that foreran the approaching tempest. Soon like a
+mighty deluge it burst on at once in its full vigour, as though it would
+overwhelm creation once more in immediate ruin. The roll of the river
+answered swiftly to the tempest's voice, now swollen to a huge and
+foaming torrent, rising rapidly over its level banks, and threatening
+devastation on every side. Paslew quaked. Gloomy forebodings crept upon
+him. He beheld in this strange visitation another and a manifest
+interposition of Heaven, fighting against the cause he had unhappily
+espoused. Rest was out of the question, his whole thoughts being
+occupied in the contrivance of measures for his own immediate safety.
+
+In the morning consternation had seized the whole camp. They beheld the
+muddy and turbulent waters before them, again frustrating their hopes,
+levelling their proud schemes, and fighting visibly and irresistibly
+against them, in front of their adversaries. So intimidated were the
+troops, and so convinced that their cause was now hopeless, that not all
+the persuasions and threatenings of their leaders, nor the archbishop's
+promises of an eternal reward, could prevent the breaking up of this
+vast multitude, and the hasty dispersion of the rebel host.
+
+Ere morning Paslew was gone. He liked not the dust from a falling house.
+Weary and alone he came back to his dwelling on the tenth day after his
+departure.
+
+From this time danger and misfortune crowded fast upon that devoted
+house. The dark course of events unfolded with frightful rapidity, and
+Paslew, by many a vain contrivance, sought to avert the king's
+displeasure and his own doom. A relaxation of some measures more than
+ordinarily severe was attempted; and we find, from existing records,
+that a pension of ten marks per annum was granted to Thomas Cromwell,
+the king's secretary and principal visitor,--whether in the way of bribe
+or fee is not certain.
+
+It shows, however, the humiliating and submissive circumstances to which
+the monks were now reduced. They were indeed fallen from that high
+estate, when kings were their tributaries, and empires too narrow for
+the wide grasp of their ambition. The following is a copy of Thomas
+Cromwell's indulgence, taken from the Townley MSS.:--
+
+"To all estates due honour and reverence, and to all other commendacioun
+in our Lord everlastyng. Know ye that we John, abbot of ye monasterie of
+our blessed Ladie of Whalley, in Com. Lanc., by ye assente and consente
+of ye convente, have freely granted untoe ye right honourable Mr Tho.
+Cromwell, secretarie, general visitor, and principal official to our
+most sovereign Lord Kyng Hen. VIII., an annual rent or fee of vi: xiii:
+iv: yerele, to be paide at ye nativitie of St John Baptist unto ye saide
+Maister Thomas Cromwell. Wee, ye saide abbot and convent have put to ye
+same our handes and common seale. Yeven at Whalley 1st Jan. 28 Hen.
+VIII."
+
+But every act of submission, every stratagem and advice, had failed to
+ward off the blow. Within ten weeks from the date of this document there
+was neither abbot nor abbey of Whalley.
+
+After the dispersion, imprisonment, and execution of the principal
+leaders of the rebellion, the day of reckoning and retribution was at
+hand. Shrewsbury, by the king's orders, sent a herald with a troop of
+horse, who, taking Paslew, Eastgate, Haydock, and some others of the
+monks prisoners, they were arraigned at Lancaster, and convicted of high
+treason. On the 12th March 1537, Paslew was conveyed back to Whalley for
+execution, where, in a field called the Holehouses, immediately facing
+the house of his birth, a gallows was erected, on which Paslew and
+Eastgate suffered punishment or martyrdom, for the story varies
+according to the bias of the party by whom it is told. Haydock was
+carried to Padiham, and died there the same ignominious death on the day
+following. The monks, driven from their asylum, escaped into France,
+with the exception of a few, who lingered near the scenes of their
+former enjoyments, hovering like departed hopes round the ruin to which
+they clung.
+
+[Illustration: HORNBY CASTLE.
+
+_Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden._]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[14] Whitaker's Hist. Whalley.
+
+
+
+
+SIR EDWARD STANLEY.
+
+
+    "Why, then, the world's mine oyster,
+    Which I with sword will open!"
+
+     "God never wrought _miracles_ to convince atheism, because His
+     ordinary works convince it."--_Bacon_.
+
+     "No man doubts of a Supreme Being, until, from the consciousness of
+     his provocations, it becomes his interest there should be
+     none."--_Government of the Tongue._
+
+     "Men are atheistical because they are first vicious, and question
+     the _truth_ of Christianity because they hate
+     the _practice_."--_South._
+
+The following will, perhaps, be thought misplaced as a polemical
+subject. But in relating what may be conceived as the true motive that
+incited Sir Edward Stanley to the founding of that beautiful structure
+Hornby Chapel, we may be allowed to show the operation as well as the
+effect--to trace the steps by which his conversion from an awful and
+demoralising infidelity was accomplished.
+
+We have borrowed some of the arguments from "Leslie's Short Method with
+the Deists," condensing and illustrating them as the subject seemed to
+require. We hope to be pardoned this freedom; the nature of the question
+would necessarily refer to a range of argument and reply in frequent
+use; and all that we could expect to accomplish was to place the main
+arguments in such a position as to receive the light of some well-known
+and self-evident truth.
+
+The dark transactions to which the "Parson of Slaidburn" obscurely
+refers may be found in Whitaker's "Whalley," pp. 475, 476.
+
+The same historian remarks in another work,--"From several hints
+obliquely thrown out by friends as well as enemies, this man appears to
+have been a very wicked person, of a cast and character very uncommon in
+those unreflecting times." "There certainly was something very
+extraordinary about the man, which, amidst the feodal and knightly
+habits in which young persons of his high rank were then bred, prompted
+him to speculate, however unhappily, on any metaphysical subject. Now,
+whether this abominable persuasion were the cause or the effect of his
+actual guilt,--whether he had reasoned himself into materialism in order
+to drown the voice of conscience, or fell into the sin of murder because
+he had previously reasoned himself out of all ideas of responsibility,
+does not appear; but his practice, as might have been expected, was
+suited to his principles, and Hornby was too rich a bait to a man who
+hoped for no enjoyment but in the present life, and feared no
+retribution in another. Accordingly, we find him loudly accused of
+having poisoned his brother-in-law, John Harrington, by the agency of a
+servant; and he is suspected also of having, through subornation of
+perjury, proved, or attempted to prove, himself tenant of the honour of
+Hornby."
+
+Sir Edward Stanley, the fifth son of Thomas, first Earl of Derby, early
+received the notice and favour of his sovereign King Henry the Eighth.
+It is said of him, "The camp was his school, and his learning the pike
+and sword." The king's greeting, when they met, was "_Ho! my soldier_."
+Honour floated in his veins, and valour danced in his spirits. At the
+battle of Flodden he commanded the rear of the English army, and was
+attacked by the Earls of Lennox and Argyle, both of whom were slain,
+together with the King of Scots, on that memorable day. Through his
+great bravery and skill he mainly contributed to its success. A sudden
+feint inducing the Scots to descend a hill, their stronghold, an opening
+was caused in their ranks, which Sir Edward Stanley espying, he attacked
+them on the sudden with his Lancashire bowmen. So unexpected an assault
+put them into great disorder, which gave the first hopes of success, and
+kindled fresh courage through the English ranks, ending in the complete
+overthrow and discomfiture of their enemies.
+
+Upon this signal achievement, Sir Edward Stanley, being much advanced
+thereby in the king's favour, received from the hand of his royal master
+a letter of thanks, together with an assurance of some future reward.
+Accordingly, we are told, the year ensuing, the king keeping Whitsuntide
+at Eltham in Kent, Sir Edward being in his train, he commanded that, for
+his valiant acts against the Scots, when he won the hill, and relieved
+the English from their distress, an achievement worthy of his ancestors,
+who bore an eagle on their crest, he should be created Lord Monteagle;
+whereupon he had a special summons to parliament in the same year by the
+title of Baron Stanley, Lord Monteagle.
+
+"Twice did he and Sir John Wallop penetrate, with only eight hundred
+men, into the very heart of France, and four times did he and Sir Thomas
+Lovell save Calais,--the first time by intelligence, the second by
+stratagem, the third by their valour and undaunted courage, and the
+fourth by their unwearied patience and assiduity." "In the dangerous
+insurrection by Aske and Captain Cobler, his zeal for the prince's
+service and the welfare of his country caused him to outstrip his
+sovereign's commands by putting himself at the head of his troops
+without the king's commission, for which dangerous piece of loyalty he
+asked pardon, and received thanks." By stirring up jealousy and
+sedition, too, amongst the rebels, he gave his majesty time, by
+pretended treaties, to draw off the most eminent of the faction, and to
+overcome and dissipate the rest. Yet, with all this outward show of
+prosperity, and the bruit of noble deeds so various and multiplied, that
+Fame herself seemed weary of rehearsing them, there were not wanting
+evil reports and dark insinuations against his honour. Foul surmises
+prevailed, especially in the latter part of his life, as to the means by
+which he possessed himself of the estates he then held in right of his
+lady, and those too that he enjoyed through the attainder of her uncle,
+Sir James Harrington. He acknowledged himself a freethinker and a
+materialist, a character of rare occurrence in those ages, showing him
+to be as daring in his opinions as in his pursuits. That the soul of man
+was like the winding up of a watch, and that when the spring was run
+down the man died, and the soul was extinct, are still recorded as his
+expressions. In those days of demoralising ignorance, this open and
+unhesitating opinion might be the means of creating him many dangerous
+and deadly enemies, especially amongst the priesthood, whose office,
+though tending to higher and nobler ends than the mere thralling of
+man's spirit to creeds and systems of secular ambition, was yet but too
+often devoted to this purpose. Every power that human cruelty and
+ingenuity could compass was tried, but happily in vain, to confine the
+free and unfettered spirit for ever in the dark cells of ignorance and
+superstition.
+
+From a number of unconnected accounts respecting this great, if not good
+man, whose virtues even would have been the vices of our own age, we
+find as the most prominent parts of his disposition a thorough contempt
+for the maxims and opinions of the world, and an utter recklessness of
+its censure or esteem. Marrying into the family of the Harringtons, he
+resided the latter part of his life at the Castle of Hornby, where we
+find him engaged in schemes for the most part tending to his own wealth
+and aggrandisement.
+
+The chapel which he built is said to have been vowed at Flodden, but
+this statement is evidently untrue, having no foundation but the
+averments of those who content not themselves with a plain narrative of
+facts, but assume a licence to invent motives agreeable to their own
+folly or caprice. That Sir Edward Stanley made any such vow we cannot
+imagine, much less would he put it into execution. "Let us eat and
+drink, for to-morrow we die," was the governing principle of his life,
+and the mainspring of his actions. It would be a strange anomaly in the
+records of human opinions to find an edifice reared to perpetuate a
+belief which the founder thought a delusion, a mere system of
+priestcraft and superstition. To this prominent feature in his history
+our attention has been directed, and we think the following tradition
+assigns a better and more plausible motive for the founding of that
+beautiful structure, the chapel at Hornby.
+
+It was by the still light of a cloudless harvest-moon that two men
+appeared to be sauntering up the stream that winds through the vale near
+Hornby. One of them wore a clerical habit, and the other, from his
+dress, seemed to attend in the capacity of a menial. They rested at the
+foot of a steep cliff overhung with firs and copse-wood. The castle,
+upon the summit, with its tall and narrow tower, like a feather stuck in
+its crown, was not visible from where they sat. The moon threw an
+unclouded lustre from her broad full face far away over the wide and
+heavy woods by which they were surrounded. A shallow bend of the stream
+towards the left glittered over its bed like molten silver, issuing from
+a dark and deep pool shaded by the jutting boughs and grim-visaged rocks
+from whence they hung.
+
+The travellers now ascended by a narrow and precipitous path. Their task
+was continued with no little difficulty, by reason of the looseness of
+the soil, and the huge rocks that obstructed their progress. By dint of
+scrambling, rather than walking, they, however, approached to the
+summit, when a light became visible over the hill, growing brighter as
+they ascended. It was the castle turret, where Lord Monteagle generally
+spent the greater part of the night in study. Whatever might be the
+precise nature of his pursuits, they were not supposed to be of the most
+reputable sort.
+
+"Wizard spells and rites unholy"
+
+were said to occupy these midnight vigils. Often, as that lonely
+watch-tower caught the eye of the benighted peasant, did he cross
+himself, and fancy that shadows were flitting to and fro on the
+trembling and distant beam.
+
+"There it is," said the hindmost person, who was none other than the
+parson of Slaidburn. "That lantern, I think, is unquenchable. Does thy
+master never quit yon burning pinnacle?"
+
+"May be," replied the servant, "he careth not to be oft abroad; and who
+dare thwart his will? 'Troth he had need be of a tough temper that
+should give him speech unquestioned."
+
+"They who hold a higher communion reck but little of this frail and
+pitiful dust," returned the clergyman, after a solemn pause. "It is
+enough that he hath sent for me. I would fain warn him ere he depart,
+else yon walls had not again echoed my footstep."
+
+This confidential domestic spoke not; he was either too much attached to
+his master, or implicated with him, to hazard a remark.
+
+The path was now wider and less difficult of access, leading over a
+pretty knoll, glittering like lode-stars in the dew, beyond which arose
+the huge and cumbrous pile then distinguished as the castle of Hornby.
+
+The barking of some half-dozen hoarse-mouthed dogs announced their
+approach. Passing over the drawbridge, they entered the court-yard, from
+whence a side postern at that time opened a communication to the
+turret-chamber without passing through the main building. A winding
+staircase led them directly to the summit. Soft gleams of moonlight came
+at intervals through the narrow loopholes, being the only help or
+direction whereby to accomplish their ascent. After a tedious gyration,
+which more than once made the hindmost party pause to obtain a respite,
+the guide opened a low door. It swung heavily aside, disclosing a small
+ante-room, destitute of all furniture save a large oaken chest, that
+seemed to be the depository, or "ark," as it was usually called, for the
+safe keeping of the family archives.
+
+The conductor approaching an opposite door gave a private signal. It
+flew open as if by its own impulse, displaying a chamber of no mean
+dimensions, in which, by the light from a gigantic lamp, was seen a
+figure seated before a table absolutely groaning with piles of books,
+and various apparatus of unknown and wondrous import. Instruments of
+unimaginable shape lay in heaps round the apartment; their use it were
+impossible to conjecture. Furnaces, alembics, jars, glass urinals, and
+bottles of all sizes, rendered the chamber perilous of access, save to
+those who were acquainted with the intricacies of this labyrinth. "Sir
+Edward," as he was yet generally styled, looked full at his visitors as
+they entered. His eye was large and dark, the expression fierce and
+commanding. He was clad in a gown of black silk, covering an inner vest
+of sables. From a broad belt, glittering with costly stones, hung a
+short sword and a pair of pistols richly embossed.
+
+The upper portion of his head was bald; the hair on its sides short and
+frizzly. His beard was of a reddish tinge, trimmed square and bushy,
+beneath which his white ruff seemed to glisten from the sudden contrast.
+His forehead was high and retreating; his face pale, and-his cheek
+hollow and slightly wrinkled. His nose was small, looking ill suited to
+the other features, which were large and strongly-marked. His mouth was
+full, but compressed; and his teeth beautifully white and well shaped.
+When he spoke, they were much exposed, projecting slightly, and tending
+to give an air of ferocity to his countenance.
+
+In stature he was tall and well formed. Proudly upright in his gait and
+attitude, he appeared like one born to be obeyed,--to rule in whatsoever
+station he occupied.
+
+"Sir Hugh Parker. The parson of Slaidburn is welcome to Hornby," said
+Lord Monteagle, rising. "It is long since we have met. I claim the
+privilege of old fellowship: give me thy hand."
+
+"My lord, I am here at your request. Your wishes are commands with my
+poor endeavours."
+
+"Thou mayest retire, Maudsley," said the baron to his servant, motioning
+him to depart. The minister was accommodated with a low stool, made
+vacant for the occasion. Lord Monteagle, closing the book, abruptly
+addressed his visitor.
+
+"I knew thou wast in the neighbourhood, and I would unravel a few
+arguments with thee; a few quiddities about thy profession. I know thou
+art skilful at thy trade, which, though a vocation having its basis in
+fraud, finding countenance through the weakness and credulity of
+mankind, doth yet hold the commonalty in thrall and terror--a restraint
+which none other scheme might peradventure impose."
+
+"You are too harsh, my lord. I minister not to aught that, my
+conscience disapproves. Being of the Reformed Church, I do not mightily
+affect creeds and opinions. The Bible is the fountain, pure and
+undefiled; its waters fertilise and invigorate the seed of the faith,
+but choke and rot the rampant weeds of error and superstition."
+
+"The Bible! A forgery: the invention of a cunning priesthood to mask and
+perpetuate their delusions. Prove its falsehoods to be the truth.
+Distinguish me thy revelation from the impostures of Mahomet, the dreams
+of the Sibyls, and the lying oracles of Heathenrie. Oblige me either to
+renounce my reason and the common principles which distinguish truth
+from error, or to admit the proof thou shalt allege, which proof, look
+thee, must be such as no imposture can lay claim to, otherwise it proves
+thy doctrine to be an imposture. If thy religion be true, there _must_
+be such a proof. For if the Being who gave this revelation which He
+requires all men to receive, have left His own truth destitute of the
+only proof which can distinguish it from an imposture, this will be an
+impeaching of His wisdom, an error in the very outset of the case,
+proving Him not the Allwise, but liable to infirmity and error. This,
+thou seest, will bring our debate within a narrow compass."
+
+"Nevertheless, I must own the task is hard," replied the clergyman,
+"because of the blindness and impotency of that same reason of which
+thou vauntest, and the feebleness of our mental sight; for we cannot
+come at any abstract truth whatsoever but by many inferences hanging
+together as by a chain, one link of which, not fully apprehended or made
+fast, loosens the whole, and the argument falls to the ground."
+
+"Does the reformed doctrine, too, require a belief in what the hearer
+may not comprehend?" said the baron, scornfully.
+
+"Nay, there is a sufficiency in the evidence, and a fulness in this
+testimony, of which none other history can boast. What book is that, my
+lord?"
+
+"The Anabasis."
+
+"By whom?"
+
+"Surely thou art in j'est. 'Tis Xenophon's."
+
+"How? Xenophon!" said the divine; "methinks thou speakest unadvisedly.
+My reason or apprehension knoweth not of such a man, or that he writ
+this book, and yet thou boldly affirmest the history to be true!"
+
+"I know not that it was ever doubted," replied the other. "The common
+consent and belief of mankind, the transmission of the record from
+remote ages, are of themselves no mean evidence of its truth. But there
+must have been a time when it was first written, and as he appeals in it
+to facts, to matters which were then of recent occurrence, and to the
+public knowledge and belief of those facts, surely every of these
+statements would have insured detection, especially if put forth at or
+about the time when the events took place. Would it not have been
+madness to appeal to eye-witnesses of transactions which never happened,
+which witnesses were then alive, and could easily have belied such an
+impudent and furtive attempt at imposture? The idea seems almost too
+absurd to refute."
+
+"Thou judgest well. It would be madness and absurdity in the extreme to
+deny the existence of thy historian, or the events to which he refers;
+and yet a record which to thee is of the greatest moment, wherein thine
+own interests are for ever involved, and to the truth of which there is
+much more clear and irrefragable testimony, thou rejectest as a fraud
+and an imposture."
+
+"What proof can its promulgers give me of the infallibility of their
+doctrines, even supposing these events to be true?"
+
+"Miracles, acknowledged to be such, contravening and transcending the
+common course of nature,--these, I reckon, will be a sufficient warranty
+that the message is from the great Author of all things Himself."
+
+"I own these are the strongest evidences that I could require, and I
+would admit them if I had witnessed their performance."
+
+"Good. Now to the proof. It is impossible that any simple fact could be
+imposed, or that a number of persons could be made to believe they had
+witnessed such fact, unless it had actually taken place. For instance,
+if I were to assert that I had divided the waters of this river here, in
+the presence of the inhabitants, and that I had once led the whole of
+them over dryshod, the waters standing like a wall on each side, to
+guard their path, appealing to them at the same time in proof of my
+testimony; it would be impossible, I say, to convince those people it
+were true, provided the event had not happened. Every person would be at
+hand to contradict me, and consequently it would be impossible that such
+an imposition could be put upon them against the direct evidence of
+their senses."
+
+"Granted," replied the baron. "But this tale I am not too bold to infer
+might be invented when that generation had passed, when the credulity of
+coming ages might lead men to believe in such foolish and monstrous
+imaginings, like the labours of Hercules, the amours of Jove, and the
+cannibal exploits of Saturn."
+
+"Nay, but hear me. Whenever such a story was first promulged, were it
+then stated that not only public monuments remained to attest the event,
+but that public rites and ceremonies were kept up for its express
+commemoration, which rites were to that day continual, and to which
+those writings appealed as evidence attesting the performance of such
+miracles, then must the deceit have been rendered but the more glaring
+and easy of detection, as no such monuments could exist, no rites, no
+ceremonies demonstrating the truth of this appeal could be in
+observance. Thus, if I should now invent the tale about something done
+two thousand odd years ago, a few might, peradventure, be credulous
+enough to believe me; but if I were to say that ever after, even to this
+day, every male had his nose slit and his ears bored in memory of this
+event, it would be absolutely impossible that I should gain credit for
+my story, because the universality of the falsehood being manifest, and
+the attestation thereof visibly untrue, would prove the whole history to
+be false. Such were the rites and customs of the Jews."
+
+"But still, rites and observances were practised by the heathen, which
+ceremonies ye acknowledge to have been false and impious, yet their
+followers worshipped and slid their neck into the yoke as readily as thy
+favourite Hebrews, who are proverbially rogues and cheats in the
+estimation even of infidels themselves."
+
+"Ay, but impostors appeal not to facts, to eye-witnesses of some event,
+confirming and attesting the authority of their mission. Moses could not
+have persuaded half-a-million of persons that he had brought them
+through the Red Sea, fed them forty years with manna in the wilderness,
+and performed many other miracles during their journey, had not the
+facts been well known; and down to this day the rites and ceremonies of
+the Jews are, in consequence, linked to these main facts as securely as
+though we ourselves had formed the first series of the chain,
+eye-witnesses to the miracles they attest. Again, the books of Moses
+expressly represent that they are the great history and transcript of
+the Jewish law, and speak of their being delivered by him and kept in
+the ark from his time; likewise they are commanded to be read at stated
+periods, and to be taught from father to son throughout all generations,
+to the end that no imposition might be practised. In whatever age,
+therefore, after Moses, these forgeries were committed, it were
+impossible they should have been believed--every one must have known
+they had not even heard of them aforetime, much less been taught all
+these burdensome precepts by their forefathers."
+
+"Still the cunning and wily priests might have prepared men's minds for
+the discovery, having themselves deposited these writings in the ark."
+
+"A manifest impossibility, my lord, and for this plain reason: those
+writings profess to be a book of statutes, the standing law of the land,
+a code of ordinances by which the people had all along been governed.
+Could any person invent a body of statutes for this good realm of
+England, and make it pass upon the nation as the only book of laws which
+they had ever known or observed? Could any man, could any priest, or
+conspiracy of priests, have persuaded the Jews they had owned and obeyed
+these ordinances from the time of Moses, when they had not even so much
+as heard of them in times past?"
+
+"These rites, it is most likely, having their origin in the simplest
+occurrences, might still have been practised prior to the forgeries; and
+these books, by allusions to them, deceived the nation, causing it to
+believe they were performed in memory of some miraculous events which
+never happened."
+
+"What! Is it possible to persuade men they have kept laws which they
+have not even heard of? If I were to frame some idle story of things
+done a long while ago, and say that our Sabbath was kept holy in
+commemoration of these events--this I think, my lord, will answer to the
+terms of your assertion. Suppose I made an attempt to persuade the
+people this day was kept holy in memory of Julius Caesar or Mahomet, and
+that everybody had been circumcised or baptized in their names; that in
+the courts of judicature oaths had been taken on these very writings I
+had fabricated, and which, of necessity, they could not have seen prior
+to my attempt; and that these books likewise contained their laws and
+religion--ordinances which they had always acknowledged--is it possible,
+I ask, that such a cheat could for one moment have existed? An impostor
+would not have dared to make any such references, knowing they must
+inevitably have led to the rejection of his testimony."
+
+"But surely if this great transaction, the passage of the Red Sea, had
+really happened, and in the way thou hast pointed out, the evidence
+would not have been suffered to rest solely on the frail and uncertain
+records to which thou hast referred. Books of laws, for instance, the
+writings of Mahomet, we know have been forged, as even thou wilt
+acknowledge."
+
+"True, but those books refer not to miracles and the testimony of
+eye-witnesses, nor to laws and ordinances handed down from generation to
+generation, even to that time. That Mahomet pretended not to the working
+of miracles, he tells us in the Koran. The ridiculous legends related by
+his followers are rejected as spurious by the scholars and expounders of
+the prophet; and even his converse with the moon, his night journey from
+Mecca to Jerusalem, and from thence to heaven, were not performed before
+witnesses. The same may be said of the absurd exploits related of the
+heathen deities."
+
+"But had not the heathen their priests, their public rites and
+sacrifices, equally with the Jews?"
+
+"They had. But it was not even pretended that these rites commenced at
+the time when the things which they commemorate were said to have
+happened. The Bacchanalia, for example, and other festivals, were
+established long after the fabulous events to which they refer. The
+priests of Juno and Venus were not appointed by those imaginary deities,
+but arose in some after-age, and are therefore no evidence whatever to
+the truth of their worship."
+
+"But where is thy proof in the unwritten evidence--monuments which
+cannot lie, bearing silent but convincing testimony to the truth of
+these miracles?"
+
+"Twelve stones" it is said, were set up at Gilgal to commemorate the
+passage over Jordan."
+
+"Ay, in thy book we read it."
+
+"But mark the intention, to which no lying imposture durst have
+referred,--to the end, it is written, that when the children of those
+who had witnessed this miracle, and their children's children, should
+ask their meaning, it should be told them. Now the miracle for which
+these stones were set up as a memorial by the eye-witnesses themselves,
+could not, as before proved, have been imposed upon the people at the
+time it happened, had it not really occurred."
+
+"All this I can safely grant. Yet thou lackest wherewith to conclude
+thine argument."
+
+"Bear with me, my lord, until I have made an end. Let us suppose, for
+one moment, there was no such miracle wrought as this same passage over
+Jordan."
+
+"Which supposition of thine I do hold to be the truth as firmly as I
+believe your revelation is an imposture."
+
+"And yet if it _should_ be true, my lord?" The minister said this in a
+tone that made the listener start. He bit his lips. But the feeling had
+subsided, as, with a sharp and hurried accent, he exclaimed--
+
+"Why this pause? I am prepared to listen."
+
+"These stones," continued the divine, "were, of necessity, well known as
+public monuments existing at the time when these writings were first
+rehearsed in the ears of all the people, because they are here referred
+to as testimonials of the event. But supposing them to have been set up
+on some unknown occasion, as you say, and that designing men in
+after-ages invented the book of Joshua, affirming it was written at the
+time of that imaginary event by Joshua himself, adducing this pile of
+stones in evidence of its truth, what is the answer which every one who
+heard it must have made to this witless falsehood? 'We know this pile of
+stones,' they would say; 'but of such an origin as thou hast related we
+have, not heard, nor even of this book of Joshua. Where has it been
+concealed, and from whence was it brought forth? Besides, it solemnly
+inculcates that this miraculous event, our fathers' passage over Jordan,
+should be taught their children and children's children from that day
+forward, who were to be shown and carefully instructed as to the meaning
+and design of this very monument; but of this we have not so much as
+heard, nor has thy history been handed down to us from our forefathers.
+It is a lying testimony, therefore, and we cannot receive it.' Yet do we
+find the children of Israel commemorating, handing down, and instructing
+their children from age to age into the meaning and design of these
+memorials, which instruction must at some time or another have had a
+beginning, having its commencement with the very events to which they
+refer, which events it would then have been impossible to make the
+people believe against the plain evidence of their senses. Is the chain
+complete, my lord?"
+
+"But what has all this to do with thy religion?--a system far different,
+methinks, from the primitive institutions of these remote ages."
+
+"The self-same reasoning will apply, and in precisely the same mode, to
+the miracles of our Lord and His apostles, together with their
+transmission by records from their times. The histories of the Old and
+New Testaments could not have been received at the time they were
+written, if they had not been true, because the priesthoods of Levi and
+of Christ,--the observance of the Sabbath, the passover, and
+circumcision,--the ordinances of baptism and the eucharist, are there
+represented as descending by uninterrupted succession from the time of
+their respective institution. It would have been as impossible to
+persuade men in after-ages that they had been circumcised or baptized,
+had celebrated passovers and Sabbaths under the ministration of a
+certain order of priests, if it were not so, as to make them believe
+they had gone through the seas dryshod, seen the dead raised, and so
+forth. But without such a persuasion neither the law nor gospel could
+have been received."
+
+"Yet, methinks, if I were the founder of a new religion, and had all the
+stores of Nature and Omnipotence at my command--those boasted attributes
+of thy Law-giver--I would not have left it liable to doubt, to the
+sneers and cavils of any one who might question my pretensions, or my
+right to control their belief. The truths of Omnipotence should be clear
+as the sun's beam, and unquestioned as his existence."
+
+"'If they believe not Moses and the prophets, neither would they believe
+though one should rise from the dead.' 'Tis not for lack of proof; 'tis
+for lack of will. 'Tis not for lack of testimony, one tithe of which
+would have gained a ready assent to any of the drivelling absurdities of
+heathen mythology,--'tis for lack of inclination; 'tis a wish that these
+revelations may not be true; and where the heart inclines, the judgment
+is easily biassed."
+
+"True, 'as the fool thinks.' The proverb is somewhat stale. I marvel
+thou findest not its application to thine own bias, perdie!"
+
+"At any rate, if I am fooled, I am none the worse for my belief, if my
+creed be not true; but if man, as thou wouldest fain hope, is like the
+beasts that perish, I am still at quits with thee. And if this dream of
+thine should prove but a dream, and thou shouldest awake--to the horrors
+of the pit, and the torments of the worm that dieth not!"
+
+"Peace, thou croaker! I did not send for thee to prophesy, but to prove;
+I would break a lance and hold a tilt at thine argument. Now, I have a
+weapon in reserve which shall break down thy defences--the web of thy
+reasoning shall vanish. The fear of punishment, and the hope of future
+reward, held out as a bait to the cowardly and the selfish, shall be of
+no avail when the object of my research is accomplished. Hast thou not
+heard of the supreme elixir--the pabulum of life, which, if a man find,
+he may renew his years, and bid defiance alike to time and the
+destroyer? Then what will become of thy boasted system of opinions,
+begotten by priesthood and nurtured by folly?"
+
+"And this phantasma, which man has never seen; which exists not upon the
+least shadow of evidence--which has not even the lowest dictates of
+sense and plausibility in its favour--on this _Ignis fatuus_, eluding
+the grasp, and for ever mocking the folly of its pursuers, thou canst
+build thine hopes, because it flatters thy wishes and thy fears?"
+
+"My fears!" said the Baron, rising: "and who speaks of my _fears_? I
+would chastise thee, thou insolent priest, wert thou not protected by
+the laws of courtesy."
+
+"Yes, _thy_ fears, Baron Monteagle," said this undaunted minister of the
+truth. "Thou wouldest not care to face thy lady's cousin! His blood yet
+crieth from the ground!"
+
+"And who dares whisper, even to the walls, that I murdered John
+Harrington?" cried the astonished adept, trembling with ill-suppressed
+rage. "Methinks he holdeth his life too cheap who doth let this foul
+suspicion even rest upon his thoughts." He drew his sword as he spoke;
+but the minister stood undaunted, surveying his adversary with a look of
+pity and commiseration.
+
+"Put up thy sword. Thou hast enow of sins to repent thee of without an
+old man's blood added to the number."
+
+"How hast thou dared this insult? By my "----
+
+"Nay, spare your oaths, my lord; they are better unspoken than unkept."
+
+"Have I sent for thee to make sport? To gibe and taunt me even to my
+face?"
+
+"I'll tell thee for what cause thou didst crave my presence," replied
+the other, firmly. "Thou hast misgivings lest thine own hopes should not
+be true; lest thou shouldest perchance depart with a lie in thy right
+hand. Thou didst send for me, an unworthy minister to the faith which I
+profess, that by thy subtlety thou mightest deceive thyself; that by
+overthrowing my arguments thine own might be strengthened, for truly
+'tis a comfortable thing to have our opinions confirmed through the
+weakness of an opponent."
+
+"And daredst thou, with such apprehensions upon thy stomach, to commit
+thyself alone to my mercy and my keeping? Suppose I should reward thee
+according to thine own base suspicions. Understandest thou me?"
+
+"Yes, proud and guilty man, too well! But I fear thee not!"
+
+"What! holdest thou a charmed life? Thou mayest fall into a broil as
+well as other men. And who shall require thy blood at my hands?"
+
+"Ere I left," said the divine, warily, "I whispered a word in your
+cousin Beaumont's ear. Should I not return, he will be here anon.
+Peradventure I am not misunderstood. Thou hadst need be careful of my
+life, otherwise thine own may be in jeopardy!"
+
+A fierce and terrible brightness, like the lurid flashes from his own
+torment, burst from his eye. The very anger and malice he strove to
+quell made it burn still hotter. His visage gathered blackness, cloud
+hurrying on cloud, like the grim billows of the storm across a glowing
+atmosphere. Rapid was the transition. Rage, apprehension,
+abhorrence,--all that hate and malignity could express, threw their
+appalling shadows over his features. Still the dark hints uttered by his
+visitor seemed to hold him in check. Chafed, maddened, yet not daring to
+execute the vengeance he desired, he strode through the apartment with
+an uneasy and perturbed gait. He paused at times, darting a look at the
+minister as if about to address him. Suddenly he stood still, nerving
+his spirit to some awful question.
+
+"My cousin John Harrington died in his own chamber. In this house, God
+wot. Thou didst shrive him at his last shift, and how sayest thou he was
+poisoned?"
+
+"I said not aught so plainly; but thou hast spoken out. Behold
+him!--There!"--The divine pointed his finger slowly round the apartment.
+"Within a short space he cites thee to that bar where his presence will
+be a swift witness to thy doom!"
+
+Had the spirit of the unfortunate heir of Hornby suddenly appeared, the
+Baron could not have followed the movement of the minister's hand with
+greater dismay and astonishment. The strong barrier of guilt seemed
+breaking down. Conscience aroused, as if at once the veil that concealed
+his iniquities had been withdrawn, they rose in all their unmitigated
+horror and enormity. An arrow, drawn at a venture, had pierced the
+joints of the harness. He stood powerless and without defence--motionless
+as the image of despair. By a strange coincidence a thick white cloud
+seemed to coil itself heavily round the room. Whether to the heated
+imaginations of the disputants this appearance might not present an
+image of the form then visible to their minds, it would be impossible to
+determine. Suffice it to say, the effect was memorable, from whatever
+cause it was produced.
+
+An altered man was the Baron Monteagle. The arguments of this champion
+of the truth had in some measure prepared his mind for its reception.
+Under his ministrations he felt gradually more enlightened. His terrors
+were calmed. Soon afterwards rose that noble structure, the chapel of
+Hornby, bearing on its front the following legend:--
+
+EDWARDUS STANLEY MILES, DNS. MONTEAGLE, ME FIERI FECIT.
+
+It is recorded that Sir Edward Stanley, Baron Monteagle, died in the
+faith he had once despised; and we trust he has found a place at the
+footstool of that Mercy whose interposition was not solicited in vain.
+
+[Illustration: GEORGE MARSH, THE MARTYR.]
+
+
+
+
+GEORGE MARSH, THE MARTYR.
+
+
+    "Heavy persecution shall arise
+    Of all who in the worship persevere
+    Of spirit and truth."
+
+--_Milton_.
+
+Smithills or Smethells Hall is situated in a wood, above a small glen,
+two miles and a half from Bolton. The court-gate exhibits nothing
+remarkable in its construction. On the left hand was the principal
+entrance, and a flight of stairs leading from the court. The glass
+casements, and greater part of the ancient front, have been removed,
+giving place to a more comfortable, if not a more pleasing style of
+architecture. The wainscot once displayed a profuse assemblage of
+ornaments, some of which now remain. Amongst them was formerly shown a
+likeness, said to be of King Egbert, though from what cause it should be
+assigned more particularly to that illustrious monarch, it would be
+difficult to conjecture.
+
+In a room called the Green Chamber, it is said that George Marsh, the
+subject of the following history, was examined before Sir Roger Barton.
+In a passage near the door of the dining-room is a cavity, in a flag,
+bearing some resemblance to the print of a man's foot, which is supposed
+to be the place where the holy martyr stamped, to confirm his testimony,
+and which is shown to this day as a memorial of his good confession.
+
+The stone was once removed for a frolic by two or three young men who
+lived in the house. Taking advantage of their parents' absence, they
+cast it into the glen behind the hall. That same night, on retiring to
+rest, the inhabitants were disturbed by many strange and hideous noises.
+Much alarm and inquiry being excited, the offenders confessed, and the
+stone was restored to its place with great reverence and solemnity.
+Some fragments that were broken off upon its removal were carefully
+replaced; after which, according to common report, the noises ceased.
+
+Another story current in _the_ neighbourhood is as follows:--
+
+About the latter end of the year 1732, one Saturday night, a stranger
+sleeping alone in the Green Chamber was much terrified by an apparition.
+He stated that about ten o'clock, as he was preparing for bed, there
+appeared a person before him dressed like a minister, in a white robe
+and bands, with a book in his hand. The stranger getting into bed, saw
+it stand by his bedside for a short time. It then slowly retired out of
+the door, as if going down-stairs, and he saw it no more. This person
+invariably persisted in the same story; and the owner of the estate
+immediately ordered divine service at the chapel on a Sunday, which had
+long been discontinued.
+
+The vaults seem to have been strongly walled and fortified, and were
+most probably used as burying places, many bones having been found when
+digging. There is a tradition that King Egbert founded this place, and
+kept his court here; but no corresponding trace of it occurs in history:
+and we may suppose, from the order of his conquests, that his residence
+would be in the more southern parts of the kingdom.
+
+The situation is secluded, and well calculated for concealment,
+favouring the general opinion that it was the retreat of the famous
+pirate, Sir Andrew Barton, whose exploits and defeat are so beautifully
+told in the old ballad of that name in Percy's Reliques. It is
+surprising that so little should be known of this great and bold man,
+whose conduct had nearly occasioned a war between England and Scotland,
+and whose death, it is supposed, was one of the grievances which led to
+the battle of Flodden.
+
+"Up to the time of Henry the Seventh, it appears, the Radcliffes were
+lords of Smethells; but Joan, daughter and sole heir of Sir Ralph
+Radcliffe, having married Robert Barton of Holme, he became in that
+reign seised of the manor and lordship, where his posterity continued,
+until Grace, sole daughter and heir of Thomas Barton, the last male
+heir, was married to Henry, eldest son of the first Lord Fauconberg,
+whose descendant Thomas, in the year 1721, sold the manor, which
+afterwards passed into the hands of the Byrons of Manchester, by whom it
+was sold to Mr Peter Ainsworth of Halliwell, a descendant of the
+Ainsworths of Pleasington, in this county[15], the present owner.
+
+"Smethells is dependent upon the superior manor of Sharpies, the lord of
+which claims from the owner of this place a pair of gilt spurs annually;
+and, by a very singular and inconvenient custom, the unlimited use of
+the cellars at Smethells for a week in every year."[16]
+
+At the close of a cold, keen day, about the early part of spring, in
+the year 1554, there came two men across a bleak and barren tract of
+land called Dean Moor, near to Bolton-in-the-Moors. When at some
+distance from the main path, and far from the many by-roads intersecting
+this dreary common, they--first looking cautiously around, as though
+fearing intruders--fell on each other's neck and wept. The sun's light
+beamed suddenly through a cleft in the heavy clouds near the horizon,
+along the stunted grass and rushes, stretching far away to many a green
+knoll in the distance, behind which the dark hills and lowering sky
+looked in wild and terrific blackness over the scene. The sun,
+descending fast below the hills towards Blackrode, beamed forth as if to
+cast one short ray of gladness on the world of sorrow he was just
+quitting. Rivington Pike, and the dark chill moors stretching from it
+eastward, were bathed in a wide and stormy burst, of light, like the
+wild and unnatural brightness that sometimes irradiates even the dim
+shadows of despair. A heavy mist lay at their feet, hiding most of the
+intermediate space from the eye of the observer, so that the long line
+of barren hills seemed to start out at once from a sea of vapour, like
+the grim barriers of some gigantic lake. The clouds were following hard
+upon the sun's flight, so that by the time he had disappeared the sky
+was covered with a dense and impervious curtain, rendered darker by the
+rapidity of the change. Chill and eddying gusts rustled over the dreary
+heath; the voice of nature only responding to the chords of sadness and
+of sorrow. The hollow roar of the wind was like the moaning of a
+troubled ocean; a few big drops from the hurrying scud seeming to
+presage an approaching tempest.
+
+The two friends had crept behind a stone wall, built up in a hollow, by
+a stagnant pool, taking but little heed of the darkness and the storm,
+so intent were they upon the subject which engrossed their thoughts.
+
+"I might flee, Ralph, but it would straightway be said, not that I had
+left my country and my kin alone, but rather that I had deserted the
+faith and doctrine I profess, after having unworthily ministered
+hereabout for a season, which might be an occasion of much scandal, a
+weakening of the faith of my poor flock, and a grievous discouragement
+to those that remain."
+
+"'A living dog is better than a dead lion,' says the wise man. Besides,
+it is apresumingon His providence, when He opens away for our escape,
+and we, of our own wilfulness and folly, neglect the blessing. 'Do
+thyself no harm.' Provide for thine own life, and run not as the horse
+and mule, that have no understanding, into the very throat of thine
+enemies, and them that seek thine hurt."
+
+The first speaker was a man of plain but comely appearance, habited in a
+coarse doublet buckled about the waist with a leathern girdle. A round
+woollen cap, from beneath which a few straight-combed locks hung about
+his face, gave a quaint and precise aspect to his figure. His features,
+though slightly wrinkled, did not betoken either age or infirmity: but
+his whole appearance indicated a robust and vigorous frame, capable both
+of exertion and endurance. The other individual exhibited a more
+ungainly form and deportment. He had not the same look of benevolence
+and good-will to man which irradiated the features of the first, of whom
+it might be truly said, that his inward affections did mould and
+constrain his outward image into their resemblance, so that meekness and
+benignity shone through his countenance from the ever-glowing spirit of
+love and Christian charity within. There was a sharp and shrewd
+intelligence in the eye of the latter speaker which showed that some
+considerations of selfish and worldly wisdom might, by possibility,
+mingle with his unerring notions of duty. Yet was he a man of great
+piety and worth, and well fitted as a counsellor in times of peril and
+distress.
+
+"Ralph Bradshaw," replied the other, "thou hast been my tried friend and
+my stay in this waste and howling wilderness, and I have found thy
+counsel hitherto wholesome and pleasant; but," continued Marsh, with a
+heavy sigh, "I have not told thee how Sir Roger Barton's servants have
+made diligent search for me in Bolton, and have given strict charge to
+my brother Robert that he should, by to-morrow at the latest, appear
+with me at Smethells, else shall he and my poor mother answer before him
+at their peril. By God's grace, I would not leave these weaklings of the
+flock to suffer for my sake."
+
+"Leave this matter until thou depart; I will devise some means for their
+relief. I would not have thy life needlessly put in hazard, seeing how
+few men have been raised up like unto thyself, privileged as thou art to
+minister the bread of life to the hungry and famishing poor in this
+barren corner of God's spiritual vineyard."
+
+"And yet," replied Marsh, "I ought with all boldness to confess the
+truth, fearing not to answer for the hope that is in me; and why should
+I refuse to obey the commands of those who are in authority? for the
+magistrate beareth not the sword in vain."
+
+"Truly, obedience were his right, if so be this were some righteous
+judge raised up of God for the punishment of evil-doers. But, as thou
+well knowest, the justice thou shalt demand will not be rendered: the
+summons thou hast received to answer on doctrinal and disputed points,
+and to argue them before these wicked and crafty men, as touching thy
+belief, are but manifest excuses to get thee into their power, from
+which they mean not to liberate thee but by the fire that shall consume
+thy body, and free it for ever from their murderous gripe. Thou knowest,
+too, that Sir Roger beareth thee a malice, and hath used all subtlety
+that he might have wherewith to seek occasion against thee. Didst thou
+not rebuke him openly for his irreverence, when that he must needs play
+with his puppy, that had its collar full of bells, during God's holy
+service--that comfortable form of worship established and publicly
+taught in the lifetime of our last good King Edward, and not this
+papistical, idolatrous mass which they now use, to the eternal ruin of
+both soul and body? No mercy shalt thou have at their hands. And doth
+our blessed Master require of us that we give our bodies up to these
+wicked and malignant deceivers, that their devilish pleasure may be
+glutted in torturing and spitefully using us, while they go about
+putting innocent men to cruel and shameful deaths? As soon would He
+require that we should yield our bodies up to Satan and his angels."
+
+"I know not how to answer thee, Bradshaw, in this matter; but my mind
+misgives me in taking so hasty a departure from our suffering and
+afflicted realm. Yet will we ask counsel of Him who guideth the weak,
+and will not suffer us to be tempted beyond measure."
+
+Whereat these persecuted disciples did unite in prayer to that throne
+before which, having finished their earthly warfare, they now stand with
+crowns of victory on their foreheads, purified from this gross
+mortality. Marsh, much comforted by the exercise, doubted not that,
+according to his faith, wisdom and direction would be granted in the way
+he should take.
+
+Hereupon they separated, wishing each other "God speed."
+
+Through the darkness and tempest of that fearful night George Marsh
+approached the town, where, in a narrow lane leading from the brow of
+the hill by the church, abode his mother and her youngest son. Raising
+the latch, he saw the old woman alone, seated by the fire, weeping.
+
+"Praised be His mercy, thou art yet safe!" said she, clasping her
+withered hands together. "They have again been here to seek for thee,
+and I was fearful thou hadst not escaped their power."
+
+"Who has been here, and from whence?"
+
+"Divers of Justice Barton's servants were here again, not an hour ago,
+who have charged thy brother Robert and thy cousin William Marsh to seek
+for thee, and by to-morrow, ere noon, to render thee up at Smethells.
+They are now gone to Atherton, and elsewhere, for aught I know."
+
+"Then may I not tarry here to-night?"
+
+"Nay, I beseech thee, flee for thy life. In tarrying here shall thou not
+escape; for a man's enemies are now truly those of his own household."
+
+Marsh, after a pause, determined to listen to her advice, and departed.
+
+Cold and weary, he retraced his steps, going beyond Dean Church, where,
+at a friend's house, he staid for the night, "taking ill rest," as he
+quaintly expresses it in his journal, "and consulting much with myself
+of my trouble." He expected, or at least hoped, that some intimation
+would be vouchsafed from his Master as touching the way he should
+pursue, but none was granted; and he lay there, full of tossing and
+unquiet, the greater part of the night. On the following morning, at his
+first awaking, which was early, being still in heaviness, and not
+knowing what to do, came another friend to his bedside, who advised him
+that he should in no wise depart, but abide boldly, and confess the
+faith. At these words he felt so convinced, and, as it were, suddenly
+established in his conscience, that he doubted not, as he says, but the
+message was from God. He thenceforth consulted not with flesh and blood,
+but resolved on immediately presenting himself before his persecutors,
+and patiently bearing such cross as it might please Heaven to lay upon
+him.
+
+He arose betimes, and as his custom was, recited the English Litany,
+with other prayers, kneeling by his bedside; after which he prepared to
+go towards Smethells, calling, as he went, at the dwellings of several
+whom he knew, desiring them to pray for him, to commend him to all his
+friends, and to comfort his mother and his little children, for, as he
+then said, he felt assured that they should not see his face any more.
+Taking leave, with many tears and much, sorrow of heart, he came nigh to
+the residence of Sir Roger Barton, a bigoted persecutor, and an avowed
+enemy of the reformed church.
+
+It was about nine o'clock, on a cold and bitter morning, when he came in
+sight of the court-gate. Then surrounded with trees, the mansion itself
+was not visible but within a short distance. This house, now ancient and
+decayed, then existed in all its pomp and magnificence, having only been
+erected, as tradition informs us, some fifty years before, by Sir Andrew
+Barton, a famous pirate or free rover, who was knighted by James III. of
+Scotland for his great bravery. In the third year of Henry the Eighth,
+with two stout vessels called the _Lion_ and The _Jenny Perwin_, he
+considerably interrupted the navigation on the English coasts. His
+pretence was letters of reprisals granted him against the Portuguese by
+James III. Under colour of this grant, he took ships of all nations,
+alleging that they had Portuguese goods on board. Complaint being made
+to the Privy Council of England, the Earl of Surrey said, "The narrow
+seas should not be infested while he had estate enough to furnish a
+ship, or a son capable of commanding it." Upon this, two ships were
+immediately fitted out, and commanded by Sir Thomas and Sir Edward
+Howard, sons to the Earl of Surrey, at their own expense, when, having
+been some days at sea, they were separated by a storm, which gave Sir
+Thomas Howard an opportunity of coming up with Sir Andrew Barton in the
+_Lion_, whom he immediately engaged. The fight was long and doubtful,
+for Barton, being an experienced seaman, and having under him a
+determined crew, made a desperate defence, himself cheering them with a
+boatswain's whistle to his last breath. The loss of their commander,
+however, caused them to submit, on which they received fair quarter and
+good usage. In the meantime, Sir Edward attacked and captured the _Jenny
+Perwin_, after an obstinate resistance. Both these ships, with as many
+of their crew as were left alive, about one hundred and fifty, were
+brought into the river Thames, on the 2nd of August 1511, as trophies of
+the victory. The prisoners were sent to the Archbishop of York's palace,
+now Whitehall, where they remained for some time, but were afterwards
+dismissed and sent into Scotland.
+
+James the Fourth having then ascended the Scottish throne, after the
+murder of his predecessor, exceedingly resented this action, and
+instantly sent ambassadors to Henry demanding satisfaction, on which the
+king gave this memorable answer, "That the punishment of pirates was
+never held a breach of peace among princes." King James, however, was
+still dissatisfied, and from that time was never thoroughly reconciled
+to the English nation.
+
+Sir Andrew was descended from a good family in Scotland, and adopted a
+seafaring life when very young. A motive of concealment might be the
+cause of his erecting a mansion here, the roads being then almost
+impassable; and the extensive woods, which lay in almost every direction
+from this spot, together with its great distance from the sea-side,
+might be additional recommendations in its favour. An opinion exists,
+though now involved in much doubt and obscurity, that his immediate
+descendant was the Sir Roger Barton whom we have already named, and unto
+whom this pious servant of the truth was about to commit himself.
+
+On venturing through the gate, Marsh observed several men standing by a
+door on the left hand, being the principal entrance.
+
+"What, ho!" said one, "art come to morning prayers?"
+
+"Nay," replied another, "his cap cleaves to a heretic's sconce."
+
+"'Tis Marsh," said the foremost of the group, who proved to be Roger
+Wrinstone, the knight's prime minister, constable, and entrapper of
+heretics. "Now, by my faith," he continued, "if this wily fox do not
+think, by his coming, to take Justice by the nose, and outface her
+through his impudence. But he will be sore mistaken if he think to
+outwit our master by his cunning. Good friend, thy business?" said
+Wrinstone, cap in hand, addressing the minister scornfully, and
+thrusting his tongue into his cheek, to the great diversion of his
+companions, who, with shouts of laughter, began to ape the buffoonery of
+their leader.
+
+"I would fain speak with the Justice," said the stranger, meekly.
+
+"And suppose I were he," said Wrinstone, putting himself into an
+attitude of great authority and importance, setting out his paunch, at
+the same time, something like unto the knight himself. Another laugh, or
+rather titter, went through the courtyard at this exploit; a suspicious
+glance, however, was directed towards the casement above, some
+apprehensions evidently existing lest Sir Roger should have been
+eye-witness to the ceremony.
+
+"Roger Wrinstone, thy mocking is ill-timed," said Marsh, with a severe
+and steadfast gaze, which seemed to awe even this unblushing minion of
+intolerance. "If thy master be not arisen, I will tarry awhile his
+worship's leisure."
+
+"Sir Roger is with his priest at confession," said one, with a shout of
+derision. "Art come to confess him too, Father Marsh?" and with that
+they plucked him by the beard, mocking and ill-treating him. But, filled
+with joy that he was accounted worthy to suffer, he passed from them
+into the great hall, at that period a large and lofty room, which, as
+tradition reports, would have "dined all the monarchs of Europe, and all
+their trains." It has since been much curtailed of its proportions,
+modern improvements having appropriated it to more useful purposes. The
+wainscots were enriched with choice and beautiful carvings, representing
+bucks' heads, flowers, and portraits of the most distinguished ancestors
+of the family. So numerous and varied were these ornaments, that, it is
+commonly reported, the artist wrought out his apprenticeship in
+executing this grand work, which for minuteness and the astonishing
+number and ingenuity of the devices, perhaps exceeded most of the like
+nature throughout the realm. Amongst other whimsical fancies was a ton
+crossed with a bar, having the cyphers A and B above and below, which
+worthless and absurd pun, a sort of emblematic wit much cultivated by
+our forefathers, indicated the name of the founder, Sir Andrew Barton.
+
+Marsh, on his first entrance, inquired of a servitor if the Justice
+might be spoken with. The menial was bearing off the remains of a
+substantial breakfast, and having a flagon of beer at hand, invited the
+stranger to a hearty draught, saying that he looked tired and in need of
+refreshment; but he meekly put it aside, with due courtesy, still
+standing as he repeated his question. The man departed to make the
+inquiry, when presently followed the constable and his gang, who, seeing
+that the hall was cleared, strode in, rudely seizing Marsh by the
+shoulder.
+
+"Thou art my prisoner," said Wrinstone; "I arrest thee in the Queen's
+name."
+
+At this moment came running in a little girl, bounding and frolicsome as
+a young fawn from its covert, who, hearing the word prisoner, and seeing
+a man of such a preposessing and benign aspect in custody, immediately
+came up to Wrinstone, and laid hold of the skirts of his doublet,
+saying,--
+
+"You shan't, Wrinstone. If he has done amiss, let him go, and I'll give
+thee some plums out of my midlent pasty."
+
+The meekness and peaceable demeanour of this unoffending servant of the
+Church had in a moment won the heart of the child, and she pulled him by
+the hand, as if to convey him from the grasp of his persecutor.
+
+"May Heaven bless thee, my child, and make thee a blessing!" He lifted
+up his eyes while he thus spake. "Thy nature hath not yet learnt the
+cruel disposition of these tormentors."
+
+It is said that his prayer was heard; and a passage in the subsequent
+history of this little girl may, in all likelihood, find a place in
+another series of our Traditions.
+
+A tear for the first time trembled in the poor man's eye as he looked on
+this tender and compassionate babe. He thought upon his own sufferings,
+and the hard fate of his own little ones. But he soon repressed the
+rising murmur, calmly awaiting the result.
+
+The child still clung to him; nor would she depart, though threatened
+with Sir Roger's displeasure by his deputy. Indeed, she cared little for
+the issue, being fully indulged in all her caprices by the knight, her
+grandfather, who was mightily entertained with her humours. But threats
+and cajolements failing in their effect, they were glad to let this
+wilful creature accompany them to the presence of Sir Roger as the
+dispenser of justice, or rather of his own vindictive will; and to his
+private chamber they were shortly summoned.
+
+Now this distinguished knight was heavy and well-fed, and of a rich and
+rubicund countenance. From over-indulgence he had become unwieldy, being
+propped up in a well-stuffed chair, one leg resting on a low stool, his
+whole frame bloated by indolence and sensuality. He was short-necked and
+full-chested. His eyes, gray and fiery, were almost starting from his
+head, by reason of some obstruction to the free current of the blood in
+that direction. This was accompanied by a wheezing and phlethoric
+cough, which oft troubled him. At his side sat a priest, who had a fair
+smooth face, and a shining head sprinkled over with a few pale-coloured
+locks close cut and combed back with becoming care from his temples. His
+eyes were small and restless, scarcely for an instant keeping to one
+position. He seemed to pay a silent deference to his patron, allowing
+Sir Roger to begin the examination as follows:--
+
+"So thy relatives have ferreted thee forth at last. Nothing like making
+their kindred in some sort answer for the bodies of these heretics."
+
+"I came of my own free consent, and alone, your worship," replied Marsh;
+"and hope to be honestly dealt with. If I have offended the laws, I am
+here to answer; if not, I claim your protection."
+
+"Peace! Will none o' ye stop that fellow's prating? Justice thou shalt
+have, and that speedily, as thou sayest, but not in the way thou couldst
+desire. Look thee!" He fumbled in his pouch as he spake. Drawing out a
+letter, he continued--"My Lord Derby hath commanded that thou be sent to
+Lathom along with some others who do mightily trouble us, and sow evil
+seed and dissension among the people."
+
+"This, please your grace, I deny; and I would know mine accusers, and
+what they allege against me."
+
+"Now this is a brave answer, truly," replied the Justice. "These rogues
+be all of one tale, pretending that they have done nothing amiss, and
+desiring to know, poor innocents! of what they are accused, as though
+they were ignorant of their own lives and conversation hitherto. Tush!
+it were a needless and an unthrifty throwing out of words to argue the
+matter--for they are wiser in their own eyes than seven men who can
+render a reason. Do thou question him, and urge him to the test," said
+Sir Roger, turning to his conscience-keeper.
+
+"What art thou?" said the priest, leaning forward for the purpose of a
+more strict examination.
+
+"I am a minister," said Marsh. "It is but a short time agone since I
+served a cure hereabouts."
+
+"Who gave thee orders? Or hast thou indeed received any?"
+
+"The Bishops of London and Lincoln, after that I had diligently studied
+and kept terms aforetime at Cambridge."
+
+"Humph!" said Sir Roger. "These bishops be of the reformed sect; and, I
+have a notion, will some day or another answer for it before the Queen's
+council."
+
+"What knowledge hast thou of these men?"
+
+"I never saw them but at the time I received ordination."
+
+After a few more questions of little moment, the priest threw out the
+usual net with which his fraternity were wont to entangle those of
+heretical opinions.[17]
+
+"What is thy belief respecting the sacrament?"
+
+"That is a question of too general and multifarious a nature for a plain
+and faithful answer."
+
+"Are the bread and wine, by virtue of the words pronounced by the
+priest, changed into the body and blood of Christ? And is the sacrament,
+whether reserved or received, the very body and blood of Christ?"
+
+"I am not careful to answer such inquiries, seeing that I am but
+unskilled and unlearned in scholastic disputes. Why do ye ask me these
+hard and unprofitable questions, to bring my body in danger of death,
+and to suck my blood?"
+
+"We are not blood-suckers, and intend none other than to make thee a
+better man and a good Christian," said the priest, mightily offended.
+Whereat Roger Wrinstone, in his great zeal and affection for the Holy
+Church, smote Marsh a lusty blow on the mouth, saying--
+
+"Answerest thou the priest so? By your worship's leave I will mend his
+ill manners."
+
+The little girl at this rebuke fell a-crying, and her grief became so
+loud that Sir Roger was fain to pacify her by ordering Wrinstone to
+stand farther apart. With red and glistening eyes she looked up and
+smiled at the suffering martyr, who, remembering his own dear babes,
+could scarce refrain from embracing her as she clung about him, to the
+great displeasure of Sir Roger.
+
+"Answer this reverend and spiritual admonisher, to the true purport and
+bearing of his question," said Sir Roger, with a mighty affectation of
+sagacity.
+
+"I do believe Christ to be present with His sacrament, inasmuch as He is
+alway with His people to the end of time. But as I am not skilful in
+matters of such nicety, I would ask of this reverend casuist, who is
+more able to answer in questions of such weight than I; who am, as I
+said before, unlearned in disputed points; and truly I am in nothing
+more wishful than to come at a right knowledge and understanding of the
+truth."
+
+"Say on," said the priest, something flattered by this modest appeal to
+his opinion.
+
+"Our Lord took the cup and blessed it, of which He then drank, and
+afterwards His disciples?"
+
+"Yes. But this doth not sanction its being sent round to the laity,"
+replied the priest, not aware of the drift and true bearing of the
+inquiry.
+
+"Then He took the bread and brake, and did eat likewise with His
+disciples?"
+
+"Of a truth," replied the unwary disputant. "For these questions need
+but a plain and simple answer."
+
+"Then," said Marsh, "of a surety He must have ate and drank
+Himself!--Nay," continued he, seeing the priest turn pale with rage and
+vexation, "I can find none other alternative. For, unlearned and
+unpractised as I am; the absurdity of your belief is manifest."
+
+"Thou art a child of perdition--an impious and pestilent heretic! Thou
+eatest and drinkest damnation to thyself; and the Holy Church consigns
+all such to the flames, and to the fire of eternal wrath hereafter!"
+roared the infuriate priest, whose choler waxed hotter in proportion as
+he felt unable to withstand the conclusion of his opponent.
+
+"For," as it has been observed, even by some of the most enlightened
+Catholics themselves,[18] "theological animosity, so far from being an
+argument of men's conviction in their opposite sects, is a certain proof
+that they have never reached any serious persuasion with regard to these
+sublime subjects. Even those who are most impatient of contradiction in
+other controversies, are mild and moderate in comparison of polemical
+divines; and whenever a man's knowledge and experience give him a
+perfect assurance in his own opinion, he regards with contempt rather
+than anger the opposition and mistakes of others. But while men
+zealously maintain what they neither clearly comprehend nor entirely
+believe, they are shaken in their imagined faith by the opposite
+persuasion, or even doubts of other men, and vent on their antagonists
+that anger and impatience which is the natural result of this state of
+the understanding."
+
+"Master," cried Wrinstone, "shall I fetch the bridle that we so oft use
+for scolds and ill women?"
+
+"Ay, do, prithee run, Roger," said the child, hastily, and looking
+towards him, "for my grandfather's priest is like to need it soon."
+
+At this the worthy professor of Christian charity and good-will, darting
+a furious look at the girl, exclaimed--
+
+"Sir Roger, beware lest this viper thou art hatching be suffered to
+sting us. Look to it! This minion of thine is not too young either to
+work mischief or to escape its punishment!"
+
+Whereupon Sir Roger, mightily afraid of his spiritual guide and granter
+of indulgences, rebuked the offending little one, and ordered her out of
+the room. With some difficulty this command was executed; but the
+disturbance at the door became so loud, that they were fain again to
+admit her, upon a sullen promise that she would behave in a more
+reverent manner to the priest, and refrain from interruption.
+
+"Answer me no more with thy deep and devilish sublety," continued this
+champion of the Catholic faith; "for of a truth the devil doth
+wonderfully aid and abet ye in all disputes touching this holy
+sacrament; but show me thy belief in regard to so wholesome and
+comfortable a doctrine."
+
+"I have answered before, as far as my weak understanding will permit,
+and by God's grace I will not swerve from my profession. A doctrine
+pushed to an absurdity is its own refutation."
+
+Then spake one that was standing by, but who had hitherto taken no part
+in the debate.
+
+"Truly 'tis a pity that one so proper and well-gifted, and who might
+doubtless gain some profitable appointment, should so foolishly cast
+himself away by holding these dangerous and heretical opinions. Thou
+wilt bring both body and soul into jeopardy thereby. If not for
+thyself, yet for thy children's sake, and for thy kindred, who must
+needs suffer from thy contumacy, return to the communion from which thou
+hast cast thyself out, and to the arms of that compassionate mother who
+is ever ready to receive back her erring but repentant children."
+
+"Verily," replied the martyr, "life, children, brethren, and friends,
+with all the other delights and comforts of this present state, are as
+dear and sweet unto me as unto any other man, and I would be as loath to
+lose them if I might hold them with a good conscience. But seeing I
+cannot do that, I trust God will strengthen me with His Holy Spirit so
+that I may lose all for His sake. For I now hold myself but as a sheep
+appointed to be slain, and patiently to suffer whatsoever cross it may
+please my most merciful Father to lay upon me. But, as God is my
+witness!"--he seemed to speak with a prophetic denunciation, "from these
+vile ashes shall a fire-brand come that shall consume and destroy
+utterly these bloody men and persecutors of God's inheritance!"
+
+So astonished were the bystanders at his audacity, that they did not so
+much as attempt to stay his tongue or to lay hands upon him, whilst he
+continued, raising his arm in a threatening attitude--
+
+"Ye killers of the prophets, and destroyers of them whom God hath sent
+unto you!--Because we reproach you with your evil deeds, and"--
+
+"Blasphemy?" cried out Sir Roger, who was the first to recover his
+speech: "we will have thy tongue bored for its offence."
+
+"Away with him!" cried the priest, who seemed nothing loath to begin his
+torments. "Thou shalt to my Lord Derby, and he will know how to deal
+with such a bitter and foul-mouthed heretic."
+
+All was uproar and confusion. The Justice was even moved from his chair,
+and swore out lustily that by ten o'clock the day following, unless this
+blasphemer were delivered at Lathom, he would imprison the whole family
+of them: such a pestilent fellow being fit, as he said, to infect all
+the parish with the plague of heresy.
+
+Roger Wrinstone and his crew were preparing to drag him down-stairs; but
+the Justice, hobbling on his crutch, preceded them, leaning on the arm
+of his priest. The party, on their entrance into the hall, found
+Marsh's two kinsmen awaiting the event. They soon found that no favour
+was intended.
+
+"See to it, knaves," bellowed the knight, "that this fellow is delivered
+up to my lord at Lathom by to-morrow, or your own carcases shall answer
+for his."
+
+Then did these poor men pray and beseech their kinsman that he would in
+some wise conform to the religion of his superiors, or find some way of
+escape from a cruel and ignominious death.
+
+But Marsh, standing steadfast before them all, cried out with a loud
+voice--
+
+"Between me and them let God witness!" Looking up to heaven, he
+exclaimed, as if with a sudden inspiration--"If my cause be just, let
+this prayer of thine unworthy servant be heard!"
+
+He stamped violently with his foot, and the impression of it, as the
+general notion is, yet remains, to attest the purity of his cause and
+the cruelty and injustice of his persecutors.
+
+To this day may be seen the print of a man's foot in the stone, which by
+many is believed to exist as a memorial of this good confession.
+
+In shape it is much like that of a human foot, except its being rather
+longer than common. In that part where the sole may have rested is a
+small dent, as though a man had stamped vehemently on the soft earth,
+and the weight of his body had borne principally on that place. The
+impression is of a dark-brown or rather reddish hue, and is very
+perceptible when damp or moistened by cleaning.
+
+Marsh's subsequent history is soon told. From Lathom, where he was
+examined before Lord Derby and his council, and found guilty of
+heretical opinions, he was committed to Lancaster, and from thence to
+the ecclesiastical court at Chester, where, after several examinations
+before Dr Cotes, then bishop of this diocese, he was adjudged to the
+stake, and burnt in pursuance of his sentence, at the place of public
+execution near that city, on the 24th April 1555.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[15] Baines' "Lancashire," p. 540.
+
+[16] Whitaker's "Whalley," p. 424.
+
+[17] "The common net at that time," says Sir Richard Baker, "for
+catching of Protestants was the real presence; and this net was used to
+catch the Lady Elizabeth. That princess showed great prudence in
+concealing her sentiments of religion, in complying with the present
+modes of worship, and in eluding all questions with regard to a subject
+so momentous. Being asked at one time, what she thought of the words of
+Christ, '_This is my Body_,'--whether she thought it the true body of
+Christ that was in the sacrament,--it is said that after some pausing
+she thus answered:--
+
+"'Christ was the Word that spake it, He took the bread and brake it; And
+what the Word did make it, _That_ I believe, and take it;'
+
+"which, though it may seem but a slight expression, yet hath in it more
+solidness than at first sight appears; at least, it served her turn at
+that time to escape the net, which by a direct answer she could not have
+done."--Baker's _Chronicle_, p. _320_.
+
+[18] Cardinal Pole and others.
+
+
+
+
+DR DEE, THE ASTROLOGER.
+
+
+    "Dark was the vaulted room of gramarye
+      To which the wizard led the gallant knight,
+    Save that before a mirror huge and high
+      A hallowed taper shed a glimmering light
+    On mystic implements of magic might;
+      On cross, and character, and talisman,
+    And almagest and altar, nothing bright;
+      For fitful was the lustre, pale and wan,
+    As watch-light by the bed of some departing man."
+
+--_Lay of the Last Minstrel_.
+
+The character of Dee, our English "Faust," as he is not inaptly called,
+has both been misrepresented and misunderstood. An enthusiast he
+undoubtedly was, but not the drivelling dotard that some of his
+biographers imagine. A man of profound learning, distinguished for
+attainments far beyond the general range of his contemporaries, he, like
+Faustus, and the wisest of human kind, had found out how little he knew;
+had perceived that the great ocean of truth yet lay unexplored before
+him. Pursuing his inquiries to the bound and limit, as he thought, of
+human knowledge, and finding it altogether "vanity," he had recourse to
+forbidden practices, to experiments through which the occult and hidden
+qualities of nature and spirit should be unveiled and subdued to his own
+will.
+
+Evidently prompted to unhallowed intercourse by pride and ambition, he
+deluded himself with the vain and wicked hope that the God who spurned
+his impious requests would vouchsafe to him a new and peculiar
+revelation. He would not bow to the plain and humbling tenets already
+revealed, but sought another "sign,"--a miraculous testimony to himself
+alone. Fancying that he was entrusted with a divine mission, he was
+given up to strong delusions that he should believe a lie. He aimed at
+universal knowledge and exhaustless riches; but he died imbecile and a
+beggar!
+
+That he was deceived by Kelly, there is no doubt; and that he was
+sincere, at least in seeking his own promotion and aggrandisement, is
+equally certain; but we would rescue his character from the ridicule
+with which it has been invested. His grasp was greater than his power,
+and he fell, like heroes and conquerors in all ages, unable to execute,
+and overwhelmed with the vastness of his own conceptions.
+
+John Dee was born July 13, 1527, in London. His parents were in good
+circumstances. At an early age (fifteen years) he studied at St John's
+College, Cambridge. His application was intense. For three years, by his
+own account, he only slept four hours every night. Two hours were
+allowed for meals and recreation, and the rest was spent in learning and
+devotion. Five years afterwards he went into the Low Countries, for the
+purpose of conversing with Frisius, Mercator, and others. Returning to
+Cambridge, he was chosen a fellow of Trinity College, then founded by
+Henry the Eighth. His reputation stood very high, and his astronomical
+pursuits, in those days generally connected with astrology, drew upon
+him the imputation of being a conjuror, which character clung to him
+through life. This opinion was much strengthened by an accident which,
+he says, happened soon after his removal from St John's College, and his
+being chosen a fellow of Trinity. "Hereupon," he continues, "I did set
+forth a Greek comedy of Aristophanes, named in Greek [Greek: Heirene]
+with the performance of the Scarabaeus, or beetle--his flying up to
+Jupiter's palace with a man and his basket of victuals on her back;
+whereat was great wondering, and many vain reports spread abroad of the
+means how that was effected."
+
+He left England again soon afterwards, distinguishing himself at several
+foreign universities, and attracting the notice of many persons of high
+rank, amongst which were the Duke of Mantua and Don Lewis de la Cerda
+(afterwards Duke of Medina Celi). In 1551 he returned to England, being
+well received by King Edward and his court. A pension of one hundred
+crowns per annum was granted him, which he afterwards exchanged for the
+rectory of Upton-upon-Severn.
+
+In Queen Mary's reign he was accused of some correspondence with the
+Lady Elizabeth's servants, and of practising against the Queen's life by
+enchantments. He was seized and confined, but acquitted of the charge.
+He was then turned over to Bonner, to see if heresy might not be found
+in him. After a tedious prosecution he was set at liberty, August 19,
+1555, by an order of the council.
+
+Upon Queen Elizabeth's accession he was consulted as to a fit day for
+the coronation, and received many splendid promises of preferment, which
+were never realised.
+
+In the spring of the year 1564, he made another journey abroad, when he
+presented to the Emperor Maximilian his book, entitled "Monas
+Hieroglyphica," printed at Antwerp the same year. He returned to England
+in the summer, producing several learned works, which showed his
+extraordinary skill in the mathematics.
+
+In 1571 he went to Lorraine, where, falling very ill, he was honoured
+with the solicitude of the Queen, who sent two of her physicians, and
+gave him many other proofs of her regard. Upon his return to England he
+now settled himself in his own house at Mortlake in Surrey, where he
+collected a noble library, and prosecuted his studies with great
+diligence. His collection is said to have consisted of more than four
+thousand books, nearly a fourth part of them manuscripts, which were
+afterwards dispersed and lost. This library, and a great number of
+mathematical and mechanical instruments, were destroyed by the fury of
+the populace in 1583, who, believing him to be a conjuror, and one that
+dealt with the devil, broke into his house, and tore and destroyed the
+fruit of his labours during the forty years preceding.
+
+On the 16th March 1575, Queen Elizabeth, attended by many of her court,
+visited Dr Dee's house to see his library; but having buried his wife
+only a few hours before, he could not entertain her Majesty in the way
+he wished. However, he brought out a glass, the properties of which he
+explained to his royal mistress, hoping to wipe off the aspersion, under
+which he had long laboured, of being a magician.
+
+In 1578 her Majesty being indisposed, Dee was sent abroad to consult
+with some German physicians about the nature of her complaint. But that
+part of his life in which he was most known to the world commenced in
+1581, when his intercourse began with Edward Kelly. This man pretended
+to instruct him how to obtain, by means of certain invocations, an
+intercourse with spirits. Soon afterwards there came to England a Polish
+lord, Albert Laski, palatine of Siradia, a person of great learning. He
+was introduced to Dee by the Earl of Leicester, who was now the doctor's
+chief patron. Becoming acquainted, Laski prevailed with Dee and Kelly to
+accompany him to his own country. They went privately from Mortlake,
+embarking for Holland, from whence they travelled by land through
+Germany into Poland. On the 3d February 1584, they arrived at the castle
+of their patron, where they remained for some time.
+
+They afterwards visited the Emperor Rodolphe at Prague. On the 17th
+April 1585, Laski introduced them to Stephen, king of Poland, at Cracow;
+but this prince treating them very coolly, they returned to the
+emperor's court at Prague, from whence they were banished at the
+instigation of the Pope's nuncio, who represented them as magicians.
+
+The doctor and his companion afterwards found an asylum in the Castle of
+Trebona, belonging to Count William, of Rosenberg, where they lived in
+great splendour for a considerable time. It was said that Kelly had
+succeeded in procuring the powder of projection, by which they were
+furnished with money in profusion; but on referring to the doctor's
+diary, we find the miserable tricks and shifts they resorted to for the
+purpose of keeping up appearances. Kelly, however, it seems, learned
+many secrets from the German chemists, which he did not communicate to
+his patron; and the heart-burnings and jealousies that arose between
+them at length ended in an absolute rupture.
+
+The fame of their adventures was noised through Europe, and Elizabeth,
+in consequence, invited Dee home. He was now separated from Kelly, and
+on the 1st of May 1589, he set out on his return to England. He
+travelled with great pomp, was attended by a guard of horse, and
+besides waggons for his goods, had no less than three coaches for the
+use of his family. He landed at Gravesend on the 23d of November, and on
+the 9th of December was graciously received at Richmond by the Queen. He
+found his house at Mortlake had been pillaged, but he collected the
+scattered remains of his library, and was so successful, by the
+assistance of his friends, as to recover about three-fourths of his
+books, estimating his loss at about L400, He had many friends, and
+received great presents, but was always craving and in want. The Queen
+sent him money from time to time, promising him two hundred angels at
+Christmas. One-half he received, but he gave a broad hint that the Queen
+and himself were defrauded of the rest. He now resolved to apply for
+some settled subsistence, and sent a memorial by the Countess of Warwick
+to her Majesty, earnestly requesting that commissioners might be
+appointed to hear his pretensions and decide upon his claims. Two
+commissioners were accordingly sent to Mortlake, where Dee showed them a
+book containing a distinct account of all the memorable transactions of
+his life, except those which occurred in his Jast journey abroad. He
+detailed to them the injuries, damages, and indignities which he had
+suffered, and humbly supplicated reparation at their hands. The Queen,
+in consequence, sent 100 marks to Mrs Dee, and promises to her husband.
+At length, on December 8th, 1594, he obtained a grant of the
+chancellorship of St Paul's. But this did not answer his expectations,
+upon which he applied to Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury, giving an
+account of all the books he had either written or published. This, with
+other applications, led to his being presented with the wardenship of
+Manchester College, vacant by the removal of Dr William Chaderton to the
+see of Chester. On the 14th of February 1596, he arrived with his family
+in that town, and on the 20th he was installed in his new charge. He
+continued here about seven years, passing his time in a very turbulent
+and unquiet manner. On the 5th of June 1604, he presented a petition to
+King James, earnestly desiring that he might be brought to trial and
+delivered, by a judicial sentence, from those suspicions which his
+astrological and other inquiries had brought upon him. But the King,
+knowing the nature of his studies, was very far from showing him any
+mark of his favour. In November, the same year, he quitted Manchester,
+returning to his house at Mortlake, where he died, old, infirm, and
+forsaken of his friends, being very often obliged to sell some book or
+other to procure a dinner. The following account of Dr Dee's expenses
+from Trebona to London, copied from a statement in his own
+handwriting,[19] we have thought too curious to omit:--
+
+"The charges of my last return from beyond seas, A. 1589, being
+favourably called home by her Majestie from Trebon Castle in Bohemia.
+
+[Sidenote: 600 lib.]
+
+"My journey of remove homeward from Trebon Castle to Staden cost me more
+than 3000 dollars, which we account
+
+[Sidenote: 120 lib.]
+
+"Besides the cost of 15 horses wherewith I travelled all that journey;
+of which the 12 which drew my 3 coaches were very good and young
+Hungarian horses, and the other three were Wallachies for the saddles:
+which 15 cost with one another
+
+[Sidenote: 60 lib.]
+
+"The three new coaches made purposely for my aforesaid journey, with the
+furniture for the 12 coach-horses, and with the saddles and bridles for
+the rest, cost more than 3 score pounds
+
+"The charge of wains to carry my goods from Trebon to Staden, they being
+two and sometimes three (for more easy and light passage in some
+places), cost above an hundred and ten pounds, which I account (for an
+hundred of it) under my former sum of 600 lib. Under which 600 lib. also
+I do account for the charges of the 24 soldiers, well appointed, which,
+by virtue of the emperor's passport, I took up in my way from Diepholt,
+and again from Oldenburgh; the charges of the six harquebusiers and
+musqueteers, which the Earl of Oldenburgh lent me out of his own
+garrison there: I gave to one with another a dollar a man for the day,
+and their meat and drink full. For at the first, 18 enemies, horsemen,
+well appointed, from Lingen and Wilstrusen, had lain five days attending
+thereabout, to have sett upon me and mine; and at Oldeborch, a Scot (one
+of the garrison) gave me warning of an ill-minded company lying and
+hovering for me in the way which I was to pass, as by a letter may
+appear here present. Of the former danger, the Landgrave of Hesse his
+letters unto me may give some evidence.
+
+"The charges of the four Swart Ruiters, very well mounted, and appointed
+to attend on me at Staden, from Breme, being honourably and very
+carefully sent unto me by the noble consuls and senators of Breme, and
+that with a friendly farewell (delivered unto me by the speech of one of
+their secretaries at my lodgings) need not be specified here what it
+was. For their going with me in two days to Staden, their abode there,
+and as much homeward, being in all five days' charges, 30 dollars.
+
+"This was a very dangerous time to ride abroad in thereabouts, as the
+merchants of Staden can well remember. The excellent learned theologian,
+the superintendent of Breme, Mr D. Chrystopher Berzelius his verses,
+printed the night before that of my going from Breme, and the morning of
+my departure, openly delivered to me partly, and partly distributed to
+the company of students and others attending about to see us set forth,
+and to bid us farewell, may be a memorial of some of my good credit
+grown in that city, and of the day of my coming from it.
+
+"I will not enlarge my lines to specific what other charges I was at to
+further some of her Majestie's servants at my lying at Breme; as 70
+dollars given or lent to one Conradus Justus Newbrenner; and about 40
+given to gett some letters of great importance brought to our
+sovereign's honorable privy council in due time.
+
+[Sidenote: 10 lib.]
+
+"The charge of my fraught and passage from Staden to London for my
+goods, myself, my wife, children, and servants
+
+[Sidenote: 796 lib.]
+
+"So that the sum total of money, spent and laid out, in and for my
+remove from Trebon to London doth amount to
+
+[Sidenote: 1510 lib.]
+
+"Whereby the whole sum of the former damages and losses
+
+[Sidenote: 796 lib.]
+
+"And the removing charges doth amount (with the least) to
+
+[Sidenote: 2306 lib.]
+
+"Besides the 100 dollars disbursed at Breme for dutiful love to Queen
+and country."
+
+One minor occurrence in the following tradition--viz., the loss of the
+horse--is related by Lilly as happening to another of the fraternity;
+but we claim it--upon grounds too trivial it might be deemed by
+some--for the "Doctor." It is not our intention to spoil a good story by
+rejecting what we cannot verify. Sufficient for us that the tale exists;
+though we take the liberty of telling it in our own way.
+
+
+There came a thin spare man one evening to Dr Dee's residence in the
+college at Manchester, where he then dwelt by permission only from the
+Earl of Derby, though living there in the capacity of warden to the
+church.
+
+The college being dissolved in the first of Edward VI. (1547), the
+possessions fell into the hands of that nobleman, who, however, kept
+ministers at his own charge to officiate in the church. Mary refounded
+the establishment, restoring the greater part of the lands, but Lord
+Derby still kept the college house. In 1578 Elizabeth granted a new
+foundation to the college, appointing her own wardens. Dr Dee, being the
+third on the new establishment, was installed with great solemnity on
+the 20th February 1596.
+
+The visitor we have just noticed was muffled in a dark cloak, having a
+wide and ample collar, which he threw over his head, as though anxious
+for concealment. The Doctor, having retired into his study, was not to
+be disturbed; but the stranger was urgent for admission, while Lettice
+Gostwich, Dee's help-at-all-work, a pert ungracious slattern, was fully
+resolved not to permit his access to her master.
+
+"Then since nothing else will do," said the pertinacious intruder,
+"convey me this message--to wit, a stranger comes to him on business of
+great moment regarding his own welfare and that of the matter or event
+whose _corollarium_ he is now studying."
+
+Lettice, wearied through his importunity, and hoping by compliance to
+rid herself from these solicitations, went to the Doctor's private
+chamber, where, having delivered her message through the thumb-hole of
+the latch--for on no account would he allow of personal intrusion--to
+her great surprise, he bade her be gone.
+
+"Show the stranger up-stairs," said he. "Why hast thou kept him so long
+tarrying?"
+
+Lettice, with little speed and less good-will, obeyed the Doctor's
+behest, grumbling loud at the capricious and uncertain humours of her
+master.
+
+The visitor was at length ushered into the presence of this celebrated
+scholar and professor of the celestial sciences, whose predictions at
+one period astonished Europe; his presence, like some portentous comet,
+threatening war and disaster, perplexing even emperors and princes, and
+filling them with apprehension and dismay. But Dee was somewhat fallen
+from this high and dangerous celebrity. He was become querulous and
+ill-tempered. Never satisfied with his present condition, but always
+aiming at some greater thing, he generally contrived to lose what he
+already possessed. At one time, to control the destinies and acquire the
+supreme direction of affairs, either as the High Priest or the Grand
+Lama of Europe, was not beyond the compass of his thoughts or the scope
+of his ambition. Now, he was petitioning the Queen for a small increase
+to his worldly pittance, and an opportunity of clearing himself before
+her Majesty's council from the foul and slanderous accusations by which
+he was continually assailed. Yet he had not abandoned his former
+projects. Though failing in his mission aforetime to the Emperor of
+Germany, the King of Poland, and others, to whom he evidently went for
+political purposes, and with offers of his aid, through the
+foreknowledge and spiritual intercourse by which he thought himself
+favoured, yet he still cherished the hope of promotion by such visionary
+follies. That chimera of the imagination, the invention of the
+philosopher's stone, still haunted him, and he did not yet despair of
+one day becoming a ruler among princes, the supreme arbiter and
+depositary of the fate of nations.
+
+The delusions imposed on him by Kelly, his seer and confederate, had so
+impressed him with this belief, that he still purposed going abroad on a
+divine mission, as he called it, and only awaited the auspicious time
+when his spiritual instructors should point out another seer in Kelly's
+room, from whom he had been long separated. Though now in his
+seventy-first year, he was not deterred from making another attempt to
+reach the goal of his ambition. Such is the folly and madness of these
+enthusiasts, that, let them be never so often foiled in their inordinate
+expectations, yet does it in no wise hinder, but, on the contrary, sets
+them more fully on their desire. Casaubon, in his preface to the account
+of Dee's intercourse with spirits, gives a strange instance of their
+infatuation. He says:--
+
+"In the days of Martin Luther, there lived one Michael Stifelius, who
+applying to himself some place of the Apocalypse, took upon himself to
+prophesy. He foretold that in the year of the Lord 1533, before the 29th
+of September, the end of the world and Christ's coming to judgment would
+be. He did show so much confidence that, some write, Luther himself was
+somewhat startled at the first. But that day past, he came a second time
+to Luther, with new calculations, and had digested the whole business
+into twenty-two articles, the effect of which was to demonstrate that
+the end of the world would be in October following. But now Luther
+thought that he had had trial enough, and gave so little credit to him,
+that he (though he loved the man) silenced him for a time, which our
+apocalyptical prophet took very ill at his hands, and wondered much at
+his incredulity. Well, that month and some after that over, our prophet
+(who had made no little stir in the country by his prophesying) was cast
+into prison for his obstinacy. After a while Luther visited him,
+thinking by that time to find him of another mind; but so far was he
+from acknowledging his error, that he downright railed at Luther for
+giving him good counsel. And some write, that to his dying day (having
+lived to the age of eighty years) he never recanted."
+
+These air-built hopes and projects may in some sort account for the
+readiness with which Dee admitted the stranger after hearing his
+message. It seemed to be the very echo of his own thoughts, floating on
+their dark current, which it quickened by some unknown and mysterious
+impulse.
+
+The Doctor was sitting in a high and curiously-wrought chair, cushioned
+with black leather, gilt and ornamented after the antique fashion. His
+upper garment was of black serge, the neck and breast furred with
+sables. A cap of the same materials concealed his bald and shining head,
+giving his pale shrivelled features a peculiar look of learning and hard
+study. His face was long, and his beard pointed. Age and anxiety were
+indelibly marked upon his lank visage; but his eye was yet undimmed;
+small, keen, and restless, it seemed the image of his own insatiable
+desire, consuming soul and body in the fire and fervour of its
+inordinate and uncontrolled appetite.
+
+"Thy name?" said Dee sharply, as the stranger bowed himself before the
+reputed magician.
+
+"Bartholomew Hickman."
+
+"And thy business?" inquired the Doctor, with an inquisitive glance.
+
+"Since your reverence hath dismissed Kelly, you have been but
+indifferently served in the capacity of seer; mine errand is to this
+purport:--If we agree for wages, I will serve you; and I doubt not but
+my faculty of seeing will equal that of Master Kelly, provided you have
+a glass whose quality and virtue shall be equivalent."
+
+"My glass," replied the Doctor, "is not to be matched throughout the
+world. Even Cornelius Agrippa had not its like; nor was his famous
+mirror fit to compare with it. Hast heard aught of its history?"
+
+"I would listen, Master Dee, for my knowledge thereof is but gathered
+from the vulgar report."
+
+"Know then," said Dee, with an air of great pride and complacency, "that
+my stone was brought by the ministration of angels, in answer to fervent
+and oft-repeated prayer. One night, as I sate with Kelly, discoursing on
+the rise and fall of empires, the setting up and the downfall of
+estates, and many other matters of grave and weighty import, he looked
+uneasy for a while, saying that he felt a strange sensation, and, as it
+were, a heavy weight on his right shoulder, as though something sat
+there. He said a spirit, invisible at that time, was in all likelihood
+hearkening to our discourse, and wished to communicate with us. He then
+spake as though to some one behind him, and listened--'Sayest thou so'
+said he; 'then will I speedily apprise the Doctor.' He then told me it
+was the angel Uriel, who would bring us a wonderful glass or crystal,
+whereby a seer, properly gifted, would be enabled to see many wonderful
+things; but this surprising faculty I do not possess, by reason of a
+fiery sign not occupying the cusp of my ascendant and medium cosli.
+Edward Kelly was, however, permitted to supply this defect, and I might
+confidently rely, he said, on the truth of those revelations, which I
+was to note down for the benefit of mankind, and the establishing of a
+new dispensation upon the earth. None but good angels could enter into
+this glass, and they would teach me, as he then foretold, many things,
+whereby, gaining great honour and renown, kings and princes should be
+reproved of me, who was raised up for their sakes. At this revelation I
+was exceeding glad, and more so on finding the day following in my study
+this precious gem, which, as I once told the Emperor Rodolph, is of such
+value that no earthly kingdom is worthy to be 'compared to the virtue or
+dignity thereof. I well remember the time," said Dee, delighting to
+dwell on these recollections: "I was at Prague, the emperor having sent
+for me; I went up to the castle, where, in the _Ritterstove_, or guard
+chamber, I stayed a little; Octavius Spinola, that was the chamberlain,
+saluted me very courteously, having understood that I was he whom the
+emperor waited for. Returning to the privy-chamber, he came out again,
+leading me by the skirt through the dining-chamber and the
+privy-chamber, where the emperor sat at a table with a great chest and
+standish of silver, and my book and letters before him. Then craved I
+pardon, at his Majesty's hand, for my boldness in sending him my '_Monas
+Hieroglyphica_,' dedicated to his father; but I did it of the sincere
+and entire good-will that I bare to his father Maximilian, and also unto
+his Majesty. He then thanked me very kindly, saying that he knew of my
+great endowments, and the esteem I had gotten of the learned; of this he
+had been informed by the Spanish ambassador. He said my book was rather
+too hard for his capacity; but he heard I had something to say to him,
+_Quod esset pro sua utilitate_. 'And so I have,' I replied, looking back
+to see first that we were alone. Hereupon, I began to declare how all
+my lifetime had been spent in learning, and with great pains and cost I
+had come to the best knowledge that man might attain to in this world. I
+had found, too, that no man living, neither any book, was able to teach
+me those truths that I desired and longed for. Therefore I concluded
+within myself to make intercession and prayer to the Giver of all wisdom
+to send unto me knowledge, whereby I might know the nature of His
+creatures, and also enjoy means to use them to His honour and glory. At
+length it pleased God to send me His light--the angel Uriel, whereby I
+was assured of His merciful and gracious answer. For the space of two
+years and a half, as I told his Majesty, angels had not ceased to
+minister unto me through this wonderful stone, whose history I related.
+Furthermore, I said that I had a message from them unto his, Majesty.
+'The angel of the Lord hath appeared unto me,' I cried, 'and hath
+rebuked you for your sins; if you will hear, and believe me, you shall
+triumph; if you will not hear, the Lord, the God of heaven and earth,
+under whom you breathe and have your being, putteth His foot against
+your breast, and will throw you headlong from your seat.' Moreover, I
+said that if he would listen to me, and take me for his counsellor, his
+kingdom should be established, so that there would be none like unto it
+throughout the world. I was commanded, likewise, to show him the nature
+of the holy vision, and the manner thereof, which he might witness, and
+hear the words, though he could not see the fashion of the creatures in
+the glass. He thanked me, and said that he would thenceforward take me
+to his recommendation and care. Some more promises he used, though I
+could not well understand them, he spake so low. Perceiving, now, that
+he wished to make an end for this time, I made my obeisance and
+departed. But mark the favour of princes!--through the cabals of some,
+and the intrigues of his favourite and physician, one Doctor Curtz, who
+was fearful of my displacing him,--in the end I was not only prevented
+from further access to his Majesty, but banished the empire! Go to, go
+to," said Dee, much troubled at these thoughts, "I am something too much
+affected of these vain impressions, and the pomp of these earthly ones."
+
+He arose, lifting an ebony cabinet on the table, which he unlocked with
+great solemnity. During this operation he fell to muttering many
+prayers; and with an air of great reverence he took out a
+richly-embossed casket, which being opened, there was displayed a fair
+crystal of an egg-shaped form, on which he gazed with a long and silent
+delight.
+
+"A treasure beyond all price," said Bartholomew, eyeing it with rapture.
+
+"Even so," said Dee, "and, by the grace of the Giver, I do hope to
+profit by it. Once it was removed from me. Listen. It was in the little
+chapel, or oratory, next the chambers which Lord William of Rosenberg
+had allotted us in his castle at Trebona. I had set the stone in its
+wonted place upon the table, or altar as we called it, when Kelly saw a
+great flame in the stone, which thing though he told me, I made no end
+of my usual prayer. But suddenly one seemed to come in at the south
+window of the chapel, right opposite to Kelly, while the stone was
+heaved up without hands, and set down again; wonderful to behold. After
+which I saw the man who came in at the window; he had his lower parts in
+a cloud, and, with open arms, flew towards Kelly; at which sight he
+shrunk back, and the creature took up between both hands the stone with
+its frame of gold, and mounted up the way he came. Kelly caught at it,
+but could not touch it; thereupon he was grievously alarmed, and had the
+_tremor cordis_ for a good while after.[20] This my angelical stone
+being taken away, I was mightily troubled, for the other stones in my
+possession being made through man's skill and device, I had not a safe
+warranty of their virtue, so that I might confidently trust in what they
+should disclose. I was afraid, too, of the intrusion of wicked spirits
+into them, who might impose on me with their delusions. This happened on
+a Friday, being the 24th of April 1587, as I find it recorded in my
+diary. But mark the manner of its return! The following month, on the
+22d day, and on the same day of the week, about four hours post
+meridian, as I and Kelly were walking out through the orchard, down the
+river-side, he saw two little men fighting there furiously with swords;
+and one said to the other, '_Thou hast beguiled me_.' As I drew near
+they did not abate their heat, but the fray seemed to wax even hotter
+than before. I at length said, '_Good friends, let me take up the matter
+between you_;' whereupon they stayed, the elder of them saying, '_I sent
+a present to thy wife, and this fellow hath taken it away_,' With this,
+they again fought until the other was wounded in his thigh, which seemed
+to bleed. Being in great pain, he took out of his bosom something that
+I guessed to be the very treasure that I had lost. '_Now will I make
+thee return it_,' said the first speaker; with that the other, who was
+wounded, seemed to go suddenly out of sight, but came again ere I could
+answer a word. The elder of them then asked him, saying, '_Hast thou
+laid it under the right pillow of the bed where he lay yesternight_?'
+With these words they both went towards a willow-tree on the right, by
+the new stairs, which tree seemed to cleave open, and as they went in it
+closed, and I never saw them more. With great haste I returned to my
+chamber, where, lifting up the right pillow, I found my precious stone;
+being greatly rejoiced, together with my wife, who joined me in thanking
+God for its return."[21]
+
+"An exceeding comfortable and gracious providence: being preserved, I
+doubt not, from the evil ones," said Bartholomew Hickman. "But I would
+fain give you a sample of my skill, if so be that you will prepare the
+crystal, charging it with due care and attention."
+
+Then did the Doctor betake himself to the performance of sundry strange
+rites, consisting of many absurd forms and hard speeches, ever and anon
+ejaculating a fervent prayer for success, and a petition against doubt
+and deception. He spread a fair carpet on the table, disposing the
+candlesticks on each side, and a little behind the crystal. This was
+placed upon a cushion of black silk, a crucifix near, and the psalter
+before it, open at the service for the departed. After a profound
+silence for about the space of half an hour, Dee looked towards his
+visitor as if expecting that he should begin. The seer threw off his
+upper garment, and kneeling down, clad only in a short tunic of gray
+cloth, without ruff or belt, he betook himself, though with some
+agitation, to the repeating of a few short Latin prayers, intermingled
+with cabalistical jargon, and scraps of some unknown and uncouth tongue.
+The Doctor gave special heed thereto, hearkening as though not
+over-credulous in the boasted skill of his visitor. Presently the latter
+put his face close to the stone, binding it before his eyes with a white
+napkin, his head still resting on the table. Dee asked him softly, "What
+seest thou?"
+
+"Nothing," said Bartholomew.
+
+"Is the curtain not yet visible in the stone?"
+
+"I cannot even see the curtain," replied the seer; "for all is dark."
+
+Then Dee began to pray earnestly that some of his former friends might
+appear, whom he called by many outlandish names, such as _Ave, Nalvage,
+Madini_, and others. Immediately Bartholomew cried out--
+
+"I see a glimmer!--Soft!"
+
+The Doctor scarcely durst breathe, fearing to interrupt the opening of
+the vision.
+
+"I see a golden curtain, partly drawn aside."
+
+"The charge beginneth to work," said Dee. "'Tis the very appearance that
+was always vouchsafed to Kelly ere the spirits showed themselves in the
+glass. Note well what thou seest."
+
+"There appeareth a white cloud, as a curdly vapour wreathing itself
+about a pillar of burning brass, but no creature is visible.--I hear a
+voice!"
+
+"Mark the words and repeat them steadily," said the Doctor, who drew
+nearer that he might hear the purport of the revelation.
+
+"_Sanctum signatum et ad tempus_," said the voice.
+
+"The sense of this may be understood diversely. By which sense may we be
+guided?" said Dee, as though speaking to some invisible thing within the
+glass. Presently the seer again repeated--
+
+"'_Sanctum, quia hoc velle suum; sigillatum, quid determinatum ad
+tempus_;' the voice ceaseth:--but these be hard speeches, Master Dee. I
+hear again, '_Ad tempus et ad tempus (inquam) quia rerum
+consummatio_--_All things are at hand_--
+
+    "'_The seat is prepared.
+    Justice hath determined.
+    The time is short_.'"
+
+"Seest thou no creature?" anxiously inquired the Doctor.
+
+"None. But the pillar openeth as though it were cleft. Now a woman
+cometh forth out of the pedestal, covered with a cloud. I can see her
+face dimly at times through this veil, which seemeth to pass over as a
+thin cloud before the dazzling sun. She standeth as though in a hollow
+shell, glistening with such fair colours that no earthly brightness may
+be comparable to it. She now seemeth to wrap the air about her as a
+garment. She entereth into a thick cloud and disappears. There now
+cometh one like unto a little girl, her hair turned up before, and
+flowing behind in long and bright curls. Her raiment sparkles like unto
+changeable silk, green and red."
+
+"'Tis _Madini_," said Dee, with great delight. "Note well what she
+sayeth, for she is my good angel."
+
+"She sitteth down. Her lips move as though she were speaking, but I hear
+nothing."
+
+"I will speak to her," said Dee; "for she will answer me through thy
+ministry, if it really be Madini. Art thou Madini, that has appeared to
+me beforetime?"
+
+"I think she answereth,'Yes.' But her voice is very feeble."
+
+"I would thou shouldest resolve me three things," said the Doctor, again
+addressing himself towards the glass. "To wit--Whereto shall I direct my
+journey, and how shall I cause it to prosper? Secondly, I would speedily
+be instructed in that great and heavenly mystery, the powder of
+projection, which I have been oft promised, but never understood aright
+by reason of my feeble apprehensions, or inability to accomplish the
+grand and sublime arcanum. Thirdly, How may I find the treasure which
+was shown to me in a dream three several times; but where it is hidden
+is withheld from me?"
+
+"She says she will answer so far as the will of him that sent her will
+permit; but she hath a short continuance, and her answer must be brief.
+With respect to the country, make thine own choice, and thou shalt be
+directed in it for thy good. The other questions she says she cannot
+solve, but will send one of the seven who bear rule over the seals of
+the metals and their matrix. She hath departed, yet I saw her not. She
+went like a sudden stroke of light; and now there cometh a man clad in
+sober apparel, with an inkhorn at his girdle. He holdeth a pen, as
+though he would write, but his face is veiled."
+
+"'Tis a motion that I should bring my tablets," said the Doctor.
+
+"Now he is writing," continued the seer. "He showeth me a roll of
+parchment. But the glass becometh dim, and I think that evil spirits are
+troubling us, for the whole seems to waver, like the glowing air over
+the furnace."
+
+The Doctor now fell to his prayers, when Bartholomew assured him the
+glass grew brighter, gradually becoming still, like the subsiding of
+waves after some accidental disturbance. He could now see the writing
+distinctly, and the veil was also removed.
+
+"Give me the words to the very letter," said Dee earnestly, as he
+prepared to write.
+
+"It runs thus:--'The most noble and divine magister; the beginning and
+continuation of life. Watch well, and gather him so at the highest; for
+in one hour he descendeth or ascendeth from the purpose.
+
+"'_Take common Audcal, purge and work it by Rlodnr, of four divers
+digestions, continuing the last digestion for fourteen days in one and a
+swift proportion, until it be Dlasod fixed, a most red and luminous
+body, the image of resurrection. Take also Lulo of Red Roxtan, and work
+him through the four fiery degrees, until thou have his Audcal, and then
+gather him. Then double every degree of your Rlodnr, and by the law of
+mixture and conjunction work them diligently together. Notwithstanding
+backward through every degree, multiply the lower and last Rlodnr, his
+due office finished by one degree more than the highest. So doth it
+become Darr, the thing you seek for; a holy, just, glorious, red, and
+dignified Dlasod_.'"
+
+"Methinks I have heard this before," said Dee, "and understood it not. I
+am truly in great perplexity for want of money; but still I understand
+not the purport of these symbols, the which, I beseech thee, now
+vouchsafe to thine unworthy servant."
+
+"'See thou take the season,'" said the voice, "'and get her while it is
+yet time. If ye let the harvest pass, ye shall desire to gather and
+shall not be able.'"
+
+"Take pity on mine infirmities, and make it plain," supplicated the
+Doctor, who now began to fear the usual evasions and disappointments.
+
+"'Before I go,'" replied the vision, "'I will not be hidden from thee.
+Read thy lesson.'"
+
+"I read, '_Take common Audcal_' and so on."
+
+"'What is Audcal?' inquireth the spirit."
+
+"Alas! I know not; but thou knowest."
+
+"'It is gold, and Dlasod is sulphur.'"
+
+"Take also, it says, Lulo of Red Roxtan."
+
+"'Roxtan is pure and simple wine in herself, and Lulo is her mother.'"
+
+"There is yet in these words no slight ambiguity."
+
+"'Lulo is tartar of red wine, and Audcal is his mercury. Darr, in the
+angelical tongue, is the true name of the stone.'"
+
+"He said before that Audcal was gold," said Dee, addressing the seer.
+
+"Be thankful," replied Bartholomew, "and keep what thou hast received."
+
+The Doctor was for the present satisfied; but a little reflection
+afterwards, and another trial, left him as ignorant and as poor as ever.
+
+He now returned thanks in the Latin tongue, it being his general custom
+at the end of each revelation, or motion, as it was called.
+
+"_Deo nostro omnipotenti sit omnis Laus, Honor, Gloria, et Jubilatio."_
+Unto which the seer responded, "Amen."
+
+"Now for the third question."
+
+"He goeth to one side," said Bartholomew, "and the curtain hideth him.
+Now he returneth, leading an old man blindfolded, who answereth him in
+manner following, as though to questions put by the first:--'It is
+within, and by a garden belonging to the new lodge in Aldport Park. It
+is in three parts or places.' He now seems to pause. Again he
+speaks--'Many roots and trees do hinder the gathering of it; but if he
+be wise, and understand these things, he may obtain his pleasure. One
+part was laid by Sir James Stanley, the warden, an hundred years ago.
+Another portion was hidden by an aged nun. The remainder was left by the
+Romans, and may be found under the foundations of the castle in the
+park. The time is short, and the treasure guarded; but he shall
+overcome. Listen:--'_Nine with twice seven northerly, and_ ACER _shall
+disappear. The mystical number added to the number enfolding itself;
+this shall be added to its own towards the rising sun. Then turn
+half-round, and note well thy right foot. What thou seest gather, and it
+shall lead thee on to perfection_'"
+
+"Ask him the amount or worth of the treasure," said Dee, whose cupidity
+gloated over the bare thoughts of this vast hoard.
+
+"He says, it is 'two thousand and a half, besides odd money.'"
+
+"How? In gold or silver?"
+
+"'More than three parts thereof are in gold.'"
+
+"Most humbly and heartily do I thank thee, oh"----
+
+Dee was opening out another form of thanksgiving, when the seer
+interrupted his hypocritical and blasphemous addresses.
+
+"The old man goeth aside, groping his way as though it were dark. Now
+all is dim, and the curtain covereth the stone, by which we are warned
+to retire."
+
+The needful and concluding ceremonies being gone through, the crystal
+was returned to its place. After pondering awhile, the Doctor put many
+questions to his guest about his residence, worldly calling, and so
+forth. He offered him L50 yearly, besides lodging, and a fair proportion
+of gold when the celestial and highest projection should be completed.
+Bartholomew was not hard at making a bargain, and the Doctor began to
+hope that, by a patient waiting and trust in the efficacy of these
+strange delusions, he should at length accomplish his desires.
+
+A low tap at the door again betokened the presence of Lettice, who came
+to announce a warm friend of the Doctor's, one Master Eccleston. On
+being admitted, the latter brought with him a low, ferret-eyed
+personage, whose leering aspect betrayed an inward consciousness of
+great cunning and self-satisfaction therewith. Dee received his guests
+with becoming dignity, inquiring to what good fortune he was indebted
+for their visit.
+
+"Thou mayest remain, Hickman," said he to his new acquaintance.
+
+Eccleston proceeded to business as follows:--
+
+"You may readily remember that I once happened a sore mischance--to wit,
+by losing a horse I had but lately bought, and which, through your good
+offices, kindly and without fee administered, I again got back, to my
+great joy and comfort. I was telling of this but few days agone to a
+friend of mine, one Barnabas Hardcastle, whom I have made bold to bring
+before your reverence. He but laughed at me for my pains, and would in
+no wise believe it, but mark how he was served! Within this hour, he
+tells me that he has lost his mare, and would fain have the like help to
+its recovery."
+
+"Hast thou lost thy beast?" inquired the Doctor.
+
+"Verily I have," said Barnabas, making a respectful acknowledgment to
+the Doctor's dignified address. "It was but this morning she was safe as
+Mancastle is in the dirt, hard by Mr Lever's house yonder, in the
+fields. 'Tis a grievous loss, Master Dee, seeing that I was offered a
+score of pounds for the beast last Martinmas."
+
+The Doctor opened his tables, and erected a scheme or figure of the
+heavens, to the very minute when this communication was made. Ere it was
+finished he gave a sharp and shrewd glance at the stranger, saying--
+
+"The latter part of the sign Scorpio ascendeth, and it is not safe to
+give judgment. Mars, lord thereof, is in evil aspect with Venus, lady of
+the seventh and sixth likewise, or house of servants. Yet is Mercury
+lord of the tenth, and free from affliction. I will therefore try my
+skill, though I should fail. The beast thou lackest is either taken by a
+servant or lost through his neglect. Stay. The Dragon's Tail, which I
+have just placed, being located in the seventh, thy mare is certainly
+lost, and will never be recovered."
+
+Dee looked earnestly at the man, who, gathering his features into a grin
+of contempt, could scarcely refrain from an unmannerly burst of
+laughter.
+
+"Now, o' my troth," said he, "I was but minded to try the skill of your
+prophet, and to show your folly. The roan mare is safe, and I left her
+but an hour ago with my lad, who is walking her to and fro just out of
+the town-fields by Withy Grove, until I have done mine errand."
+
+"Thou art a bold man to say so," replied the Doctor angrily, and with a
+glance as though it were meant to annihilate this contemner of the
+celestial art. "I tell thee she is lost, and shall never be got back: a
+reward thou hast well earned for thy folly."
+
+With a scornful and malicious grin did Master Barnabas receive this
+denunciation, taking his departure with little ceremony, as if fearful
+of some mischance. Eccleston, much scandalised at his friend's
+proceedings, followed him down-stairs, not caring to stay longer with
+the Doctor.
+
+As Bartholomew and he sate discoursing on the future, and forming many
+projects, more particularly about the hidden treasures, without which,
+Dee said, he could not continue his search for the elixir, as he was
+nigh beggared, they heard a swift footstep on the stairs. Presently in
+rushed Eccleston followed by Lettice, who strove to prevent this
+intrusion. The Doctor frowned on his entrance, but, Eccleston,
+breathless and much agitated, could with difficulty declare his errand.
+
+"Hardcastle--Hardcastle--I say. He has lost his beast."
+
+"Why, I told him so," said the Doctor, with great composure.
+
+"But he _has_ lost her!"
+
+"I know it," replied Dee.
+
+"I have just left him in great anger, swearing by things both visible
+and invisible that he will have his own again; that we are confederate
+in the matter: and that he will cite us both before the chapter or the
+Star-Chamber."
+
+"How hath it happened?" said Dee, scrawling listlessly with his pen.
+
+"I went with him to the boy, thinking I would see the end on't. By the
+way he did use many taunts and ill-natured speeches about my pursuit
+after the great arcanum, and belief in the celestial sciences; together
+with many unpleasant hints that the money we have expended in the
+adventure will never be got back. Discoursing thus, we came near to the
+place where he expected to find the boy. Sure enough he was there, and
+fast asleep on the ground; but the mare was gone, the bridle being left
+on the lad's arm, which his master banged about his shoulders until he
+awaked. Pray, Master Dee, be pleased to help him to his mare. I owe him
+moneys, for which he, taking advantage of the debt, may put me in
+prison."
+
+"The scoffer shall not go unpunished, nor shall he that revileth partake
+of the blessing. Go thy way, and tell him he may not recover his goods."
+
+Eccleston departed with this heavy message, and Bartholomew was again
+left communing with the Doctor.
+
+The matter that still occupied their thoughts was the treasure at
+Aldport Lodge. With this in their possession they might reasonably
+expect that great progress would be made in their search for the
+philosopher's stone and the vivifying elixir. These important articles
+obtained, the hidden secrets of nature would be at their command, and
+their schemes and wishes might then be pursued with the certainty of
+success. The night but one following, at the precise time when the moon
+came to a trine aspect with Saturn and Jupiter, was appointed for the
+discovery. The hour of Saturn commenced five minutes before midnight,
+and the heavenly influences were then singularly disposed in favour of
+their undertaking.
+
+With dazzling anticipations of future prosperity and success they
+separated: one to indulge in dreams so chimerical and vast that even
+Fancy herself drew back, dazzled with her own brightness; the other to
+an obscure lodging in the Old Millgate, where he committed himself to
+the keeping of a straw pallet and a coverlet of which the rats had for
+some time before held undisputed possession.
+
+The night fixed upon for their search proved drizzling and misty.
+Bartholomew, wrapped in a thick cloak, sallied out of a low postern
+towards the college. The path was more dangerous and uneven than at
+present, and many a grim witness of good-fellowship with his clay had
+the red cloth hose of Master Bartholomew Hickman ere he arrived at the
+arched doorway which admitted him into Dee's lodging. We have no means
+of ascertaining with any degree of certainty the musings and ruminations
+of the seer in his progress, not having the power, or skill it may be,
+like unto many profound and praiseworthy historians, who can portray the
+form and colour of the mind as well as the cut and capacity of the
+doublet. Suffice it to say, that he was so fully occupied in conning
+over his errand as not to be aware that a certain malicious personage
+was dodging his steps--to wit, our worthy owner of the mare, Barnabas
+Hardcastle, who kept a strict watch about the premises, hoping to find
+some clue to the discovery of his beast.
+
+An hour elapsed ere they came forth; the Doctor bearing a covered light,
+and after him the little spare form of Bartholomew Hickham, carrying
+under his cloak sundry implements for the search.
+
+Passing through the churchyard, they turned into the Dean's Gate,
+creeping near the houses, whose overhanging gables poured down a copious
+shower from their dripping eaves. The streets echoed but to the tread of
+these adventurers, and to the howl of a solitary watch-dog roused by
+their approach. They passed the gate without difficulty; the Doctor was
+supposed to have been called forth on clerical duties, and the porter
+accordingly permitted their egress, merely inquiring the probable time
+of their return.
+
+A few straggling houses were built nigh to the ditch and outworks;
+beyond these the way was open towards the park. Here they arrived in due
+time, entering in by a side wicket, which led them round to the back
+part of the house by the gardens.
+
+The proprietorship of the Lodge had latterly fallen to the lot of Edward
+Mosley, by a deed of partition between his brother Oswald Mosley and
+himself, a mercer of great note in Manchester, one Adam Smythe; these
+parties having purchased, jointly, the lands of Nether and Over Aldport
+from Thomas Rowe of Hartford, who had them of Sir Randle Brereton, the
+next purchaser from William, Earl of Derby. The house and grounds, about
+ninety-five acres, of Nether and Over Aldport, formerly belonged to the
+warden of the college for the time being, and were held, by a rent of
+four marks per annum only, from the Lord de la Warre. It was enjoyed
+uninterruptedly by them until the dissolution of this community in the
+first of Edward VI., when it was granted to the Earl of Derby along
+with the rest of the college lands.
+
+Elizabeth, however, in the twenty-first year of her reign, granted a new
+foundation to the college: but the Earl of Derby, who still kept
+possession of the college-house and some portion of the lands, suffered
+the warden and ministers for some time to lodge there.
+
+The house at Aldport was moated round, and a drawbridge stood before the
+main entrance. The mansion was built of timber and plaster, with huge
+projecting stone chimneys, gable ends, and deep casements--a fitting
+residence in those days for rank and nobility.
+
+Outside the moat was an extensive garden, laid out in a sumptuous style,
+beyond which appeared a mound of considerable elevation and extent, the
+site of Mancastle, famous in history as one of the strongholds of the
+Romans, some account of which may be found in the legend of "Sir
+Tarquin."
+
+"I have been thinking," said Dee, after being silent for a space, "that
+no savour of dishonesty can attach to our appropriation of this great
+treasure, seeing the house and all this fair and goodly inheritance did
+once appertain to the wardens of our college, of which patrimony we have
+been most unjustly deprived by the statute of King Edward. My gracious
+mistress, our Queen, not having reinstated me into this my lawful
+possession, I have made bold to remind her Majesty of our wrongs, and to
+supplicate her clemency thereupon."
+
+Bartholomew felt fully satisfied of the right they had to these spoils,
+his conscience being easily quieted on the score of appropriation.
+
+"The rain becomes heavier, and it is more chill and showery than before.
+The mist, too, is driving north-east," said the Doctor. "The clouds are
+cumbrous and broken, coiling, as they roll, into huge masses that will
+ere long bring some of the dark Atlantic on their tails. Seest thou not,
+Bartholomew, as though it were a grim pile of hills on the horizon?"
+
+"I see as it might be a heavy wall of clouds gathering about us; and I
+think the wind comes on more fitful and squally. These heavy lunges
+betoken an angry and vicious humour in the air that will not be long in
+bursting."
+
+"We shall have it about our ears speedily. We must to work while it is
+yet a-brewing below."
+
+The dark pointed roofs and chimneys of the Lodge might be distinguished
+in grotesque masses, changeless and unvarying, against the ever-shifting
+darkness of the sky. A pale star sometimes looked out as if by stealth,
+but was obscured almost ere its brightness could be developed. The wind,
+as it rushed by, broke into short and irregular gusts, like scouts from
+the main body, betokening its approach. The rain had ceased, save a few
+hasty drops at intervals plashing heavily on the moat.
+
+"What is that?" said Bartholomew in a whisper, pointing to the water. A
+light had glanced on its surface, and as suddenly had it disappeared.
+
+"Again!" Dee smiled as he looked upwards to a star just twinkling
+through the cloud. Like some benignant spirit, as it alighted on the
+dark bosom of the moat, the short sharp gust fluttering over, it seemed
+to hover there for a while ere it departed.
+
+Turning out of the path, they approached a thick yew-tree flanking one
+corner of the garden.
+
+"I think we may climb here, Master Dee, with little risk;--there seems a
+fair gap beside its trunk."
+
+They scrambled up a high bank, thrusting themselves, with some
+difficulty, through the opening. The Doctor now, looking round, began to
+recite his instructions:--"'_Nine with twice seven northerly, and_ ACER,
+_shall disappear. The mystical number added to the number enfolding
+itself. This shall be added to its own, towards the rising of the sun.
+Then turn half-round, and note well thy right foot;--what thou seest
+gather, and it shall lead thee on to perfection_.' Good; but from what
+point shall we begin to count?" said the divine, in great perplexity.
+
+"I know not," said Bartholomew, "unless it be from the sycamore tree at
+the opposite corner yonder by the old wall."
+
+"Thou knowest the ground hereabout?" said the Doctor hastily.
+
+"Peradventure I may," replied the other. "Being told aforetime of
+treasure that was hidden, I have wandered often, at odd times, round the
+garden."
+
+"Lead the way, then; it may be this same Acer is the tree of which thou
+speakest. Time passes, and I would not miss this lucky hour for all my
+hopes of preferment."
+
+Preceded by his guide, the Doctor soon came within range of a noble
+sycamore that threw out its huge branches in all the pride of a long and
+undisturbed occupation.
+
+"'Nine with twice seven northerly, and Acer shall disappear.' Shall I
+stride the ground so many steps, or is there a mystic and hidden
+signification couched in these numbers?"
+
+"I know not," said Bartholomew; "but we had best make the trial."
+
+The Doctor, with great earnestness, began to stride out the number
+northerly, but the sycamore did not disappear; its long bare boughs were
+still seen throwing out their leafless and haggard extremities against
+the lowering sky.
+
+They now took counsel, when Bartholomew suggested that, as numbers were
+often used symbolically, they must look elsewhere for a solution. It
+might be the exact number of trees lying between the great sycamore and
+the place signified. "And there they be," said the seer, pointing to a
+goodly row of small twigs newly planted. "Now count them northerly,
+beginning as at first."
+
+This being done, the Doctor was greatly comforted on finding himself
+fairly soused up to the knees in a deep ditch or drain, from whence all
+appearance of the sycamore was effectually excluded.
+
+"Now," said the adept, still standing as before, "the mystical number,
+which is three, added to the most excellent number, which I take to be
+three times three, or the number enfolding itself, will make twelve; but
+there be no trees eastward, or towards the rising sun."
+
+"Then try the steps once more," said Bartholomew, "and take heed they
+are of the right length,--proper easy-going steps. Stay, I will count
+them myself."
+
+Leaving his companion in the ditch, the seer counted forth his number
+with due care, halting at the last step.
+
+"Now stand in my place, turn half-round, and gather from thy right
+foot."
+
+Dee, having cleared the bog, placed himself in the required position.
+Stooping down, he groped diligently by his right foot, but was aware of
+nothing but a crabbed stump, that resisted every attempt they could use
+for its dislodgment.
+
+"Bring the mattock," said the Doctor, cautiously uncovering the light.
+But though Bartholomew tugged with great energy, the Doctor helping, it
+was to little purpose, for the stump was immovable.
+
+"We had best try the probe." Saying this, the warder drew forth an
+instrument in shape something like unto a large auger. He could by this
+means easily ascertain if anything hard were below, or any symptons of
+concealed treasure. As they were thus engaged a hollow voice, to their
+terrified apprehensions issuing from the ground, cried out--
+
+"Hold!"
+
+The treasure-hunters came to a full pause. The wind and rain at the same
+time beat so heavily they could not ascertain the sequel to this
+injunction.
+
+"'Tis Nargal, the spirit who guards hidden treasures," said Dee: "we can
+approach him only by prayers and fumigations."
+
+"Then must we return?" said Bartholomew, apparently unwilling to desist.
+
+"Hark!" said the Doctor, listening.
+
+They heard a moan, as that of some one in great pain. Presently a faint
+shriek stole through a pause in the blast.
+
+"'Tis like the groan of a mandrake," he continued: "they do ever lament
+and bewail thus when gathered. I doubt not but this tree is of that
+accursed nature."
+
+Again the voice was articulate.
+
+"To-morrow thou mayest return at this hour; but I will not yield my
+treasure save thou bring me gold!"
+
+"Who art thou?"
+
+"I am the guardian of the treasure; and
+
+    "Gold I have. Bring gold with thee;
+    Or thou shalt get no gold from me."
+
+"What is thy demand?" inquired Dee, in a hollow voice, like that of an
+exorcist.
+
+"Prop thy purse with fifty nobles;--then dig, and I will tell thee."
+
+The two worthies were somewhat startled at this demand. It was more than
+their joint forces could muster. Yet two thousand and more broad pieces,
+besides other valuables, which lay there for the gathering, was too
+profitable a return to make them easily give up the adventure.
+Accordingly, after some further questions which the demon as resolutely
+refused to answer, they departed, first replacing the earth and other
+matters they had disturbed, in their former position.
+
+Early on the following morning the eager divine applied to his friend
+Eccleston for another loan, assuring him it was the last; while from the
+produce of the treasure he would be enabled to pay his former advances,
+with a copious interest thereon. The needy expectant was loath to
+furnish him with another supply, though in the end he was prevailed on
+to borrow from his friends, at an exorbitant interest, for one day only.
+
+This important preliminary being arranged, the night was anxiously
+awaited, and though more than usually tardy in its approach, twilight at
+length threw her mantle of grey over the world's cares and perplexities,
+and night, that universal coverlet of all things, whether good or evil,
+did wrap them gently about.
+
+And a night of more loveliness and lustre never was unveiled to the eye
+of mortals.
+
+The stars were walking in brightness--so clear and sparkling that each
+seemed a ray or an emblem of that ineffably glorious Beam whose
+uncreated splendour no eye can see and live. Those bright clusters that
+we now behold have been the same through all generations, and they have
+seen "all things that are done under the sun." Fixed as the everlasting
+hills, their bounds and their habitation have been unchanged. The same
+lights were in the heavens when Abraham looked up from the plains of
+Mamre, as now when the Arab and the Ishmaelite are in the desert. The
+bands of Orion are not loosed, nor the sweet influences of the Pleiades
+unbound. The same glittering groups which the patriarch beheld beam
+nightly on our tabernacles. They have shone upon the world's heroes and
+the world's demigods--bright links in the oblivion of ages. And the
+numerous hosts we gaze upon will present the same glowing and immutable
+forms to cheer and gladden the eyes and hearts of coming generations.
+
+Some feeling of this nature was probably rising in the Doctor's bosom as
+they once more took the open path to Aldport, and he looked on the wide
+hemisphere about him--the heavens, with their glowing constellations,
+all spread out without an obscurity or an obstruction. He felt for one
+moment the folly and futility of earthly things, and his heart seemed to
+wither in the immensity into which it was plunged.
+
+It was like a faint glimpse of eternity, and he shrunk back from the
+abyss, all his own vast world of thought, feeling, and desire, lost in
+that immeasurable space. But the dazzling dream of ambition again passed
+before him. The portals of universal empire and immortality were thrown
+open. He drove back the unwelcome intruder, but the phantom he pursued
+again fluttered from his grasp.
+
+They had marked the spot on their former visit, and Dee, with the fifty
+gold pieces in his purse, Bartholomew Hickman acting as chief workman,
+began his unholy proceedings: not, however, without some fear of the
+demon whom these moneys were to propitiate. Bartholomew laboured with
+great diligence, but the earth was much easier to remove than before,
+and the old stump soon gave way, making but a slight resistance. This
+was attributed to some charm wrought by the treasure they carried, and
+was looked upon as a favourable omen--an unloosing of the fetters which
+guarded the deposit. Every spadeful of earth was carefully examined, and
+the probe thrust down anxiously and with great caution. About a yard in
+depth had been taken away when the spade struck upon something hard. The
+strokes were redoubled, and a narrow flag appeared. Raising this
+obstacle they beheld a wooden coffer. Dee sung out a Latin prayer as
+usual; for he failed not to pour out his thanks with great fervour for
+any selfish indulgence that fell in his way, or, as he imagined, was
+granted to him by the special favour of Heaven.
+
+"There," said Bartholomew, raising the box, which from its weight and
+capacity promised a rich reward, "I think we have now what will season
+our labours well. What think you, Master Dee?"
+
+But the Doctor was absorbed in visions of future greatness, now bursting
+on him with a glory and rapidity almost painful to contemplate. He
+seized the shrine, scarcely giving his helpmate time to fill up and
+conceal their depredations.
+
+"But the fifty pieces--have you got them safe?" inquired Bartholomew.
+
+"They are in my pouch. I do think the demon hath forgotten to demand
+them."
+
+"Fear not, he will be ready enough to ask for his own. What comes o'er
+the devil's back will sooner or later go under his belly!"
+
+"Let us pack and begone," said the Doctor, fearful of losing his
+treasure.
+
+The box was presently swung over the seer's shoulders, Dee following to
+keep all safe, though not without many apprehensions and misgivings of
+heart. He feared lest the spirit might appear again for his own; or, at
+least, for the fifty pieces of gold, which were his right.
+
+Just as they came to the gap by the yew-tree, and Bartholomew was
+resting against the trunk, a voice from behind them shouted--
+
+"Stop!--What make ye here, ye villains?"
+
+Dee turned round and the light flashed upon two armed men, masked, who
+evidently came towards them with no friendly intent.
+
+"Put down that box," said the foremost.
+
+Bartholomew was proceeding to surrender at discretion, but Dee first
+inquired their errand.
+
+"We can tell ye that in a twinkling," said the malicious intruders,
+"after we have stepped up to the lodge, and given them a pretty guess at
+the quality of the knaves who be robbing of their garden. Nay, Doctor,
+we take no excuse, unless we take our share of the spoil with it. To
+work, or ye budge not hence without discovery."
+
+This was a provoking interruption--their all depended on a favourable
+issue to this adventure. Dee therefore offered terms of capitulation as
+follows:--
+
+"I'll give you five-and-twenty gold pieces on the spot if ye will let us
+pass."
+
+"Five-and-twenty!--why, that box may hold five-and-twenty hundred," said
+the freebooter with a whistle, by way of derision.
+
+"Perhaps not," said the Doctor, warily; "it is not yet tried, and may
+not be opened here without risk. Come to my lodgings to-morrow, and we
+will share in the product."
+
+"Nay," returned the rogue, sharply, "a pullet in the pen is worth a
+hundred in the fen. Come, we will deal kindly with thee: give us fifty,
+and pass on."
+
+Dee willingly opened his pouch, and threw the gold into the fellow's
+greasy cap, which he held out for the purpose. Immediately they took to
+their heels and departed.
+
+"The demon was more kind, and of a different nature from those that do
+generally haunt these hidden treasures," said the Doctor, as he trudged
+along, following closely at Bartholomew's heels. "If he had not warned
+me to bring the gold, these thieves must needs have opened the box. Had
+they seen the vast hoard which it contains I should not have been
+released for thrice the sum."
+
+With mutual congratulations on their good fortune, and many pious
+thanksgivings on the part of Dee, they arrived, without farther
+molestation, at the college, where Lettice was ill-humouredly awaiting
+their return.
+
+Bartholomew threw down his burden in the study, where the Doctor,
+cautiously guarding against intrusion, wrenched open the chest. His rage
+and agony may be conceived when he found the treasure transformed into a
+heap of stones, bearing the following malicious doggerel on their
+front:--
+
+    "My mare is lost, but I've the gold;
+    My mare is better lost than sold.
+    Full fifty pieces, broad and bright,
+    My bullies bring me home to-night.
+    My trap is baited!--Springs it well,
+    I get the kernel, thou the shell!
+
+"From thy loving,
+
+"BARNABUS HARDCASTLE, _Armiger_."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[19] "Johan Glaston," vol. ii. fol. 535.
+
+[20] _Vide_ Casaubon's folio concerning Dee's intercourse with spirits.
+
+[21] Casaubon.
+
+[Illustration: THE SEER.]
+
+
+
+
+THE SEER.
+
+
+      "_Petruchio_. Pray, have you not a daughter
+    Call'd Katharina, fair and virtuous?
+      _Baptista_. I have a daughter, sir, call'd Katharina,"
+
+_Taming of the Shrew, Act II. Scene_ I.
+
+    "What sudden chance is this, quoth he,
+    That I to love must subject be,
+    Which never thereto would agree,
+      But still did it defie?"
+
+_King Cophetua and the Beggar-maid._
+
+    "Yet she was coy, and would not believe
+      That he did love her so;
+    No, nor at any time would she
+      _Any countenance to him show_."
+
+_The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington_.
+
+The wonderful exploits of Edward Kelly, one of which is recorded in the
+following narrative, would, if collected, fill a volume of no ordinary
+dimensions. He was for a considerable time the companion and associate
+of John Dee, by courtesy called Doctor, from his great acquirements,
+performing for him the office of seer, a faculty not possessed by Dee,
+who was in consequence obliged to have recourse to Kelly for the
+revelations he has published respecting the world of spirits. These
+curious transactions may be found in Casaubon's work, entitled "A true
+and faithful Relation of what passed for many Years between Dr John Dee
+and some Spirits,"--opening out another dark page in the history of
+imposture and credulity. Dee says that he was brought into unison with
+Kelly by the mediation of the angel Uriel. Afterwards he found himself
+deceived by him in his opinion that these spirits, which ministered unto
+him, were messengers of the Deity. They had several quarrels
+before-time; but when he found Kelly degenerating into the worst species
+of the magic art for purposes of avarice and fraud, he broke off all
+connection with him, and would never afterwards be seen in his company.
+Kelly, being discountenanced by the Doctor, betook himself to the
+meanest practices of magic, in all which money and the works of the
+devil appear to have been his chief aim. Many wicked and abominable
+transactions are recorded of him. Wever, in his "Funereal Monuments,"
+records that Kelly, in company with one Paul Waring, who acted with him
+in all his conjurations, went to the churchyard of Walton-le-Dale, near
+Preston, where they had information of a person being interred who was
+supposed to have hidden a considerable sum of money, and to have died
+without disclosing where it was deposited. They entered the churchyard
+exactly at midnight, and having had the grave pointed out in the
+preceding day, they opened it and the coffin, exorcising the spirit of
+the deceased until it again animated the body, which rose out of the
+grave and stood upright before them. It not only satisfied their wicked
+desires, it is said, but delivered several strange predictions
+concerning persons in the neighbourhood, which were literally and
+exactly fulfilled.
+
+In "Lilly's Memoirs" we have the following account of him:--
+
+"Kelly outwent the Doctor--viz., about the elixir and philosopher's
+stone, which neither he nor his master attained by their own labour and
+industry. It was in this manner Kelly obtained it, as I had it related
+from an ancient minister, who new the certainty thereof from an old
+English merchant resident in Germany, at what time both Kelly and Dee
+were there.
+
+"Dee and Kelly being on the confines of the emperor's dominions, in a
+city where resided many English merchants, with whom they had much
+familiarity, there happened an old friar to come to Dr Dee's lodging,
+knocking at the door. Dee peeped down the stairs:--'Kelly,' says he,
+'tell the old man I am not at home.' Kelly did so. The friar said, 'I
+will take another time to wait on him.' Some few days after, he came
+again. Dee ordered Kelly, if it were the same person, to deny him again.
+He did so; at which the friar was very angry. 'Tell thy master I came to
+speak with him and to do him good, because he is a great scholar and
+famous;--but now tell him, he put forth a book, and dedicated it to the
+emperor. It is called '_Monas Hieroglyphicas_.' He understands it not. I
+wrote it myself. I came to instruct him therein, and in some other more
+profound things. Do thou, Kelly, come along with me; I will make thee
+more famous than thy master Dee. Kelly was very apprehensive of what the
+friar delivered, and thereupon suddenly retired from Dee, and wholly
+applied unto the friar, and of him either had the elixir ready made, or
+the perfect method of its preparation and making. The poor friar lived a
+very short time after; whether he died a natural death, or was otherwise
+poisoned or made away by Kelly, the merchant who related this did not
+certainly know."
+
+Kelly was born at Worcester, and had been an apothecary. He had a sister
+who lived there for some time after his death, and who used to exhibit
+some gold made by her brother's projection. "It was vulgarly reported
+that he had a compact with the devil, which he outlived, and was seized
+at midnight by infernal spirits, who carried him off in sight of his
+family, at the instant he was meditating a mischievous design against
+the minister of the parish, with whom he was greatly at enmity."
+
+It would have been easy to select a more historical statement of facts
+respecting Kelly; but the following tale, the events of one day only,
+will, we hope, be more interesting to the generality of readers. It
+exhibits a curious display of the intrigues and devices by which these
+impostors acquired an almost unlimited power over the minds of their
+fellow-men. Human credulity once within their grasp, they could wield
+this tremendous engine at their will, directing it either to good or bad
+intents, but more often to purposes of fraud and self-aggrandisement.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the ancient and well-thriven town of Manchester formerly dwelt a
+merchant of good repute, Cornelius Ethelstoun by name. Plain dealing and
+an honest countenance withal, had won for him a character of no ordinary
+renown. His friezes were the handsomest; his stuffs and camlets were not
+to be sampled in the market, or even throughout the world; insomuch that
+the courtly dames of Venice, and the cumbrous vrows of Amsterdam and the
+Hague, might be seen flaunting in goodly attire gathered from the
+store-houses of Master Cornelius.
+
+His coffers glittered with broad ducats, and his cabinets with the
+rarest productions of the East. His warehouses were crammed, even to
+satiety, and his trestles groaned under heaps of rich velvets, costly
+brocades, and other profitable returns to his foreign adventures. But,
+alas!--and whose heart holdeth not communion with that word!--Cornelius
+was unhappy. He had one daughter, whom "he loved passing well;" yet, as
+common report did acknowledge, the veriest shrew that ever went
+unbridled. In vain did his riches and his revenues increase; in vain was
+plenty poured into his lap, and all that wealth could compass accumulate
+in lavish profusion. Of what avail was this outward and goodly show
+against the cruel and wayward temper of his daughter?
+
+Kate--by this name we would distinguish her, as veritable historians are
+silent on her sponsorial appellation--Kate was unhappily fair and
+well-favoured. Her hair was dark as the raven-plume; but her skin, white
+as the purest statuary marble, grew fairer beneath the black and glossy
+wreaths twining gracefully about her neck. Her cheek was bright as the
+first blush of the morning, and ever and anon, as a deeper hue was
+thrown upon its rich but softened radiance, she looked like a vision
+from Mahomet's paradise--a being nurtured by a warmer sky and fiercer
+suns than our cold climate can sustain. She had lovers, but all approach
+was denied, and, one by one, they stood afar off and gazed. Her pretty
+mouth, lovely even in the proudest glance of petulance and scorn, was so
+oftentimes moulded into the same aspect that it grew puckered and
+contemptuous, rendering her disposition but too manifest; and
+yet--wouldest thou believe it, gentle reader?--she was in love!
+
+Now it so fell out that on the very morning from which we date this
+first passage of our history, Cornelius awoke earlier than he was wont.
+His brow wore an aspect of more than ordinary care. It was but too
+evident that his pillow had been disturbed. Thoughts of more than usual
+perplexity had deprived him of his usual measure of repose. His very
+beard looked abrupt and agitated; his dress bore marks of indifference
+and haste. A slight, but tremulous movement of the head, in general but
+barely visible, was now advanced into a decided shake. With a step
+somewhat nimbler than aforetime, he made, as custom had long rendered
+habitual, his first visit to the counting-house.
+
+The unwearied and indefatigable Timothy Dodge sat there, with the same
+crooked spectacles, and, as it might seem, mending the same pen which
+the same knife had nibbed for at least half-a-century. The tripod on
+which rested this grey Sidrophel of accompts looked of the like hard and
+impenetrable material, as though it were grown into his similitude,
+forming but a lower adjunct to his person. It was evident they had not
+parted company for the last twenty years. Nature had formed him awry. A
+boss or hump, of considerable elevation, extended like a huge promontory
+on one shoulder; from the other depended an arm longer by some inches
+than its fellow. As it described a greater arc its activity was
+proportionate. His grey and restless eyes followed the merchant's track
+with unwearied fidelity; yet was he a man full sparing of words--the
+ever ready "Anon, master," being the chief burden of his replications.
+It was like the troll of an old ballad--a sort of inveterate drawl
+tripping unwittingly from the tongue.
+
+The sun was just peeping through the long dim casement as Cornelius
+stepped over the threshold of his sanctuary. In it lay hidden the
+mysteries of many a goodly tome, more precious in his eyes than the
+rarest and richest that Dee's library could boast. No mean value,
+inasmuch as this celebrated scholar and mathematician, who was lately
+appointed warden of the college, had the most costly store of
+book-furniture that individual ever possessed.
+
+"Good morrow, Dodge."
+
+The pen was twice nibbed ere the usual rejoinder.
+
+"Are the camlets arrived from the country?" inquired the merchant.
+
+"Anon, master--this forenoon may be."
+
+"Is the accompt against Anthony Hardcastle discharged?"
+
+"No," ejaculated the grim fixture.
+
+"And where is the piece of Genoa velvet Dame Margery looked out
+yesterday for her mistress's wedding-suit? I do bethink me it is a good
+ell too long at the measure."
+
+"Six ells, three nails, and an odd inch, besides the broad thumbs,"
+replied Timothy.
+
+"Right:--she reckoned on a good snip for waste; but let no more be sent
+than the embroiderer calls for."
+
+"Not a thread," grunted Dodge.
+
+A pause ensued. Some question was evidently hesitating on the merchant's
+tongue. Twice did his lips move, but the word fell unuttered. The affair
+was, however, finally disposed of as follows:--
+
+"Hast heard of aught, Timothy, touching the private matter that I
+unfolded yesterday?" Cornelius put on as careless an aspect as the
+disquietude of his brow could needs carry, but the inquiry was evidently
+one of no ordinary interest. He twisted the points of his doublet, tied
+and untied the silk cords from his ruff, waiting Dodge's answer in a
+posture not much belying the anxiety he wished to conceal.
+
+"Why, master, an' it were of woman's humours, the old seer himself could
+not unriddle their pranks."
+
+Cornelius sighed, making the following hasty reply:--
+
+"Thinkest thou this same seer could not give me a lift from out my
+trouble?"
+
+"This same seer, I wot," replied Dodge, "is sore perplexed: some evil
+and mischievous aspect doth afflict the horoscope of the nation--Mars
+being conjunct with Venus and the Dragon's tail. Now, look to it,
+master, it is no light matter that will move him; but almost or ere I
+showed him the first glimpse of the business he waxed furious, and said
+that he cared not if all the unwed hussies in Christendom were hung up
+in a row, like rats on a string."
+
+"It is Kate's birthday," answered the merchant, "to-night being the
+feast of St Bartlemy; but, as thou knowest well, the astrologer that
+cast her figure gave no hope of her amendment should this day pass and
+never a husband. Who would yoke with a colt untamed? O Timothy! it were
+well nigh to make an old man weep. I am a withered trunk. Better had I
+been childless than have this proud wench to trouble mine house."
+
+The old man here wept, and it was a grievous thing to see his wrinkled
+cheeks become, as it were, but the sluices and channels of his tears.
+Timothy, too, was something moved from his common posture; and once he
+endeavoured to turn, as though he would hide his face from his master's
+trouble.
+
+He sought to speak, but an evil and husky sort of humour settled in his
+throat, and he waited silently the subsiding of the sorrow he could not
+quell.
+
+Cornelius raised his head: a sudden thought seemed to animate him. A ray
+had penetrated the gloomy envelope of his mind; and he peered through
+the casement intently eyeing the cool atmosphere.
+
+"I'll visit the cunning man myself, Timothy. If he hear me not, then can
+I but return, weeping as I went." And with this speech he hastily
+departed.
+
+Now on this, the morrow of St Bartlemy, it so happened that Kate also
+arose before the usual hour, and in a mood even more than ordinarily
+strange and untoward. Her maiden was like to find it a task of no slight
+enterprise, the attempt to adorn Kate's pretty person. Not a garment
+would fit. She threw the whole furniture of her clothes-press on a heap,
+and stamped on them for very rage. She looked hideous in her brown
+Venice waistcoat; frightful in her orange tiffany farthingale;--absolutely
+unbearable in her black velvet hood, wire ruff, and taffety gown. So
+that in the end she was nigh going to bed again in the sulks, had not a
+jacket of crimson satin, with slashed bodice, embroidered in gold twist,
+taken her fancy. Her little steel mirror, not always the object of such
+complacency, did for once reflect a beam of good humour, which so
+bewitched Kate that for the next five minutes she found herself settling
+into the best possible temper in the world.
+
+"Give me my kerchief, lace scarf, and green silk hood, and my petticoat
+with the border newly purfled. Hark! 'Tis the bell for prayers. Be quick
+with my pantofles:--not those, wench--the yellow silk with silver
+spangles. Now my rings and crystal bracelets. I would not miss early
+matins to-day for the best jewel on an alderman's thumb."
+
+"Anon, lady," replied her waiting-woman, with a sort of pert affectation
+of meekness. But what should cause Kate to be so wonderfully attentive
+to her devotions was a matter on which Janet could have no suspicions,
+or at least would not dare to show them if she had.
+
+Kate, being now attired, tripped forth, accompanied by her maid. As she
+passed the half-closed door of the counting-house, Timothy, with one of
+his most leaden looks, full of unmeaning, stood edgeways in the opening,
+his lower side in advance, with the long arm ready for action.
+
+"Fair mistress, Master Kelly would fain have a token to-day. He hath
+sent you a rare device!"
+
+"And what the better shall I be of his mummeries?" hastily replied the
+lady. Timothy drew from his large leathern purse a curiously-twisted
+ribband.
+
+"He twined this knot for your comfort. Throw it over your left shoulder,
+and it shall write the first letter of your gallant's name. A cypher of
+rare workmanship."
+
+Kate, apparently in anger, snatched the magic ribband, and, peradventure
+it might be from none other design than to rid herself of the mystical
+love-knot, but she tossed it from her with an air of great contumely,
+when, by some disagreeable and untoward accident, it chanced to fly over
+the self-same shoulder to which Timothy had referred. He made no reply,
+but followed the token with his little grey eyes, apparently without any
+sort of aim or concernment. Kate's eyes followed too; but verily it were
+a marvellous thing to behold how the ribband shaped itself as it fell,
+and yet to see how she stamped and stormed. Quick as the burst of her
+proud temper she kicked aside the bauble, but not until the curl of the
+letter had been sufficiently manifest. Timothy drew back into his den,
+leaving the fair maid to the indulgence of her humours. But in the end
+Kate's wrath was not over-difficult to assuage. With an air somewhat
+dubious and disturbed she hastily thrust the token behind her stomacher
+and departed.
+
+The merchant's house being nigh unto the market cross, Kate's
+prettily-spangled feet were soon safely conducted over the low
+stepping-stones placed at convenient distances for the transit of
+foot-passengers through the unpaved streets. Near a sort of style,
+guarding the entrance to the churchyard, rose an immense pile of
+buildings, cumbrous and uncouth. These were built something in the
+fashion of an inverted pyramid; to wit, the smaller area occupying the
+basement, and the larger spreading out into the topmost story. As she
+turned the corner of this vast hive of habitation--for many families
+were located therein--a gay cavalier, sumptuously attired, swept round
+at the same moment. Man and maid stood still for one instant. With
+unpropitious courtesy, an unlucky gust turned aside Kate's veil of real
+Flanders point; and the two innocents, like silly sheep, were staring
+into each other's eyes without either apology or rebuke. It did seem as
+though Kate were not without knowledge of the courtly beau: a rich and
+glowing vermilion came across her neck and face, like the gorgeous blush
+of evening upon the cold bosom of a snow-cloud. But the youth eyed her
+with a cool and deliberate glance, stepping aside carelessly as he
+passed by. She seemed to writhe with some concealed anguish; yet her lip
+curled proudly, and her bosom heaved, as though striving to throw off,
+with one last and desperate struggle, the oppression that she endured.
+In this disturbed and unquiet frame did Kate pass on to her orisons.
+
+It may be needful to pause for a brief space in our narrative, whilst we
+give some account of this goodly spark who had so unexpectedly, as it
+might seem, unfitted the lady for the due exercise of her morning
+devotions.
+
+His dress was elegant and becoming, and of the most costly materials.
+His hat was high and tapering, encircled by a rich band of gold and rare
+stones. It was further ornamented by a black feather, drooping gently
+towards the left shoulder. The brim was rather narrow; but then a
+profusion of curls fell from beneath, partly hiding his lace collar of
+beautiful workmanship and of the newest device. His beard was small and
+pointed; and his whiskers displayed that graceful wave peculiar to the
+high-bred gallants of the age. His neck was long, and the elegant
+disposal of his head would have turned giddy the heads of half the dames
+in the Queen's court. He wore a crimson cloak, richly embroidered: this
+was lined throughout with blue silk, and thrown negligently on one side.
+His doublet was grey, with slit sleeves; the arm parts, towards the
+shoulder, wide and slashed;--but who shall convey an adequate idea of
+the brilliant green breeches, tied far below the knee with yellow
+ribbands, red cloth hose, and great shoe-roses? For ourselves we own our
+incompetence, and proceed, glancing next at his goodly person. In size
+he was not tall nor unwieldy, but of a reasonable stature, such as
+denotes health, activity, and a frame capable of great endurance. He
+stepped proudly along, his very gait indicating superiority.
+
+The town gallants looked on his person with envy, and on his light
+rapier with mistrust. In sooth, he was a proper man for stealing a
+lady's heart, either in hall or bower. Many had been his victims;--many
+were then in the last extremities of love. But of him it was currently
+spoken that he had never yet been subjected to its influence.
+
+There be divers modes of falling into love. Some slip in through means
+of themselves; to wit, from sheer vanity, being never so well pleased as
+when they are the objects of admiration. Some from sheer contradiction,
+and from the well-known tendency of extremes to meet. Some, for very
+idlesse; and some for very love. But in none of these modes had the boy
+Cupid made arrow-holes through the heart of our illustrious hero; for,
+as we before intimated, no yielding place did seem visible, as the
+common discourse testified. How far this report was true the sequel of
+our history will set forth.
+
+Now, this gay gallant being the wonder and admiration of the whole
+place, many were the unthrifty hours spent in such profitless discourse
+by the wives and daughters of the townsfolk, to the great discomfort and
+discredit of their liege lords. He was at present abiding in the
+college, where John Dee had apartments distinct from the warden's house,
+along with his former coadjutor and seer, Edward Kelly. Since the last
+quarrel between these two confederates, they had long been estranged;
+but Kelly had recently come for a season to visit his old master: when
+the Doctor returned from Trebona, in Bohemia, whence he had been invited
+back to his own country by Queen Elizabeth, he having received great
+honours and emoluments from foreign princes. This youth, being son to
+the governor of the castle at Trebona, was about to travel for his
+improvement and understanding in foreign manners. At the suit of his
+parents, Dee undertook the charge of his education and safe return.
+Since then young Rodolf had generally resided under Dr Dee's roof, and
+accompanied him on his accession to the wardenship. His accent was
+decidedly foreign, though he had resided some years in Britain, but not
+sufficiently so for Mancestrian ears to distinguish it from a sort of
+lisping euphuism then fashionable at court and amongst the higher ranks
+of society. An appearance of mystery was connected with his person. His
+birthplace and condition were not generally divulged, and though of an
+open and gallant bearing, yet on this head he was not very
+communicative. Mystery begets wonder and excitement--a sort of interest
+usually attached to subjects not easily understood. When it emanates
+from an object capable of enthralling the affections, this feeling soon
+kindles admiration, and admiration ripens into love. No wonder, then, if
+all tender and compassionate dames were ready to open upon him their
+dread artillery of sighs and glances, and the more especially as it soon
+began to be manifest that success was nigh hopeless. The heart
+entrenched, the wearer was impenetrable.
+
+Kate's oddly-assorted brain had not failed to run a-rambling at times
+after the gallant stranger. He had heard much of her beauty, and
+likewise of her uncertain humours. Each fancied the opposite party
+impregnable; and this alone, if none other motive had arisen, formed a
+sufficiently strong temptation to begin the attack. Kate was
+particularly punctual at church, and once or twice he caught an
+equivocating glance towards the warden's seat, and he really did at
+times fancy he should like to play at "_taming the shrew_." Kate was
+sure the stranger slighted her. He treated her, and her only, with an
+air of neglect she could not altogether account for, and she was in
+month's mind to make the young cavalier crouch at her feet. How this was
+to be contrived could only be guessed at by a woman, and we will not let
+the reader into all the secrets of Kate's sanctuary. Suffice it to say,
+that in so harmlessly attempting to beguile her prey into the snare,
+the lady fell over head and ears into it herself. In a word Kate was in
+love! And this was the more grievous, inasmuch as her lofty bearing
+hitherto would not allow her to whisper the matter even to her own
+bosom; and the pent-up and smothering flame was making sad havoc with
+poor Kate's repose.
+
+She had ofttimes suspected the state of her heart; but instead of
+sighing, pining, and twanging her guitar to love-sick ditties, she would
+fly into so violent a rage at her own folly that nothing might quell the
+disturbance until fairly worn out by its own vehemency. No one suspected
+the truth--yes, one forsooth--gentle reader, canst thou guess? It was no
+less a personage than our one-shouldered friend Timothy Dodge! How the
+cunning rogue had contrived to get at the secret is more than we dare
+tell. Sure enough he had it; and as certain too that another should be
+privy to the fact--to wit, Edward Kelly the seer. Dodge was a fitting
+tool for this intriguer, and well able to help him out at a pinch.
+
+Affairs were in this position when our story commenced. Rodolf had
+formidable auxiliaries at hand, had he been disposed to make the attack;
+but his stay was now short--Kate was petulant and perverse--the siege
+might be tedious. Just on the verge of relinquishing he met Kate, as we
+have before seen, going to church. He caught her for the once completely
+off her guard, and the rich blush that ensued set a crowd of odd fancies
+jingling through his brain. It was just as the old chimes were ringing
+their doleful chant from the steeple, but these hindered not a whit the
+other changes that were set agoing. Not aware of the alteration in his
+course, he was much amazed when he found himself striding somewhat
+irreverently down the great aisle of the church, towards the choir, from
+whence the low chanting of the psalms announced that service was already
+begun.
+
+It was the opening of a bright autumnal day. The softened lights
+streamed playfully athwart the grim and shadowy masses that lay on the
+chequered pavement, like the smiles of infancy sporting on the dark
+bosom of the tomb. The screen formed a rich foreground, in half-shadow,
+before the east window. The first beam of the morning, clothed in
+tenfold brightness, burst through the variegated tracery. Prophets,
+saints, and martyrs shone there, gloriously portrayed in heaven's own
+light.
+
+Rodolf approached the small door leading into the choir,
+
+[Illustration: COLLEGIATE CHURCH, MANCHESTER.
+
+_Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden._]
+
+when his vacant eye almost unconsciously alighted on a female form
+kneeling just within the recess. A ray, from her patron saint belike,
+darting through the eastern oriel, came full upon her dark and glowing
+eye. She turned towards the stranger, but in a moment her head was bent
+as lowly as before, and the ray had lost its power. Rodolf suddenly
+retreated. Passing through a side door, he left the church, directing
+his steps towards the low and dark corridors of the college. Near the
+entrance to his chamber, on a narrow bench, sate a well-caparisoned page
+tuning his lute. His attire was costly, and his raiment all redolent
+with the most fragrant perfume. This youth, when very young, was sent
+over as the companion, or rather at that time as the playmate of his
+master. He was now dignified with the honourable title of page, and his
+affection for Rodolf was unbounded.
+
+"Boy," said the cavalier, something moodily, "come into the chamber.
+Stay--fetch me a sack-posset, prythee. I am oppressed, and weary with my
+morning's ramble."
+
+Now the boy did marvel much at his master's sudden return, but more
+especially at the great fatigue consequent on that short
+interval;--knowing, too, that a particularly copious and substantial
+breakfast had anticipated his departure.
+
+"And yet, Altdorff, I am not in a mood for much drink. Give us a touch
+of those chords. I feel sad at times, and vapourish."
+
+They entered into a well-furnished apartment. The ceiling was composed
+of cross-beams curiously wrought. On one of these was represented a grim
+head in the act of devouring a child--which tradition affirmed was the
+great giant Tarquin at his morning's repast. The room was fitted up with
+cumbrous elegance. A few pieces of faded tapestry covered one side of
+the apartment. In a recess stood a tester bed, ornamented with black
+velvet, together with curtains of black stuff and a figured coverlet. A
+wainscot cupboard displayed its curiously-carved doors, near to which
+hung two pictures, or tables as they were called, representing the fair
+Lucretia and Mary Magdalen. A backgammon-board lay on the window-seat;
+three shining tall-backed, oaken chairs, with a table of the same
+well-wrought material, and irons beautifully embossed, and a striped
+Turkey rug, formed a sumptuous catalogue, when we consider the manner of
+furnishing that generally prevailed in those days.
+
+The page sat on a corner seat beneath the window. He struck a few wild
+chords.
+
+"Not that--not that, good Altdorff. It bids one linger too much of
+home-longings."
+
+Here the boy's eyes glistened, and a tremulous motion of the lip showed
+how his heart bounded at the word.
+
+"Prythee, give us the song thou wast conning yesterday."
+
+The page began with a low prelude, but was again interrupted.
+
+"Nay, 'tis not thus. Give me that wild love-ditty thou knowest so well.
+I did use to bid thee be silent when thou wouldest have worried mine
+ears with it. But in sooth the morning looks so languishing and tender
+that it constrains the bosom, I verily think, to its own softness."
+
+The page seemed to throw his whole soul into the wild melody which
+followed this request. We give it, with a few verbal alterations, as
+follows:--
+
+SONG.
+
+1.
+
+        Fair star, that beamest
+          In my ladye's bower,
+        Pale ray, that streamest
+          In her lonely tower;
+    Bright cloud, when like the eye of Heaven
+      Floating in depths of azure light,
+        Let me but on her beauty gaze
+      Like ye unchidden. Day and night
+        I'd watch, till no intruding rays
+            Should bless my sight.
+
+2.
+
+        Fond breeze, that rovest
+          Where my ladye strays,
+        Odours thou lovest
+          Wafting to her praise;
+    Lone brook, that with soft music bubblest,
+      Chaining her soul to harmony;
+        Let me but round her presence steal
+      Like ye unseen, a breath I'd be,
+        Content none other joy to feel
+            Than circling thee!
+
+"In good sooth, thou canst govern the cadence well. Thou hast more skill
+of love than thine age befits. But, mayhap, 'tis thy vocation, boy. Hast
+thou had visitors betimes this morning!"
+
+"None, good master, but Kelly."
+
+"What of him?"
+
+"Some business that waited your return. I thought you had knowledge of
+the matter."
+
+"Are there any clients astir so early at his chamber, thinkest thou?"
+
+"None, save the rich merchant that dwells hard by, Cornelius
+Ethelstoun."
+
+"Cornelius!" repeated the cavalier, in a disturbed and inquiring
+tone--"hath he departed?"
+
+"Nay, I heard not his footsteps since I watched the old man tapping
+warily at the prophet's door."
+
+Rodolf hastily replaced his hat, and his short and impatient rap was
+heard at the seer's chamber.
+
+It occupied the north-eastern angle of the building, in the gloomiest
+part of the house; overlooking, on one side, a small courtyard,
+barricadoed by walls and battlements of stout masonry, along which were
+ridges of long rank grass waving in all the pride of uncropped
+luxuriance. Another window overlooked the dark-flowing Irk, lazily
+rolling beneath the perpendicular rock on which the college was
+built--the very site of the once formidable station of Mancunium, the
+heart and centre of the Roman power in that vast district.
+
+No answer being rendered to this hasty summons, Rodolf raised the latch,
+but marvelled not a little when he beheld the room apparently deserted.
+Voices were, however, heard in the inner apartment. Ere he could well
+draw back the door slowly opened, nor could he avoid hearing the
+following termination to some weighty conference.
+
+"An hundred broad pieces--good! Ere night, thou sayest?"
+
+"Ere the curfew," replied Cornelius.
+
+"Look thee--'tis but a slender space for mine art to work, and"--The
+seer, as he uttered this with great solemnity, entered the antechamber.
+The gallant stood there, just meditating a retreat. A flush of anger and
+confusion passed for a moment over Kelly's visage. Quickly recovering
+his self-possession, with a severe aspect, he stood before the intruder.
+
+"Art come to listen or to watch?" abruptly interrogated the seer. "Both
+be rare accomplishments truly for a youth of thy breeding."
+
+"Nay, good Master Kelly; I came but at thy bidding, and mine ears are
+not the heavier or the wiser for what they have heard, I trow."
+
+"I thought thee safe at morning prayers."
+
+"Nay," replied Rodolf. "There be too many bright eyes and blushing
+cheeks for the seasoning of a man's devotions."
+
+"Cornelius, thou mayest retire. What mine art can compass shall not be
+lacking at thy need."
+
+The merchant, with a profound obeisance, withdrew. The seer adjusted his
+beard, carefully brushed the down from his velvet cap, and sate for a
+while as if abstracted from all outward intercourse. His keen quick eye
+became fixed, its lustre imperceptibly waning. A cloud seemed to pass
+gradually over his sharp features, until their expression was absorbed,
+giving place to a look of mere lifeless inanity. A spectator might have
+fancied himself gazing at a sage of some remote era, conjured up from
+his dark resting-place. The wand of death seemed to have withered his
+shrunk visage for ages under the dim shadow of the grave.
+
+Rodolf, aware that he was not to be interrupted when the gift was upon
+him, waited patiently the result of the seer's revelations. A
+considerable time had elapsed when the cloud began to roll away. His
+features gradually reassumed the attributes of life, as each separately
+felt the returning animation. His eyes rested full on the cavalier.
+
+"I have had a vision, Rodolf."
+
+"To me is it not spoken?" inquired he.
+
+"Yea, to thee!" The seer said this in a tone so hollow and energetic,
+and with a look of such thrilling awe, that even Rodolf shuddered. He
+seemed to feel his glance.
+
+"Listen. The spirit warned me thus:--
+
+    "'The stranger that hither comes o'er the broad sea
+    Shall wed on the night of St Bartlemy.'"
+
+"Nay, Master Kelly, thine art faileth this once, forsooth. To-night is
+the saint's vigil, yet lurk I not in the beam of a woman's favour; and
+ere another year I may be cured of the simples at my father's dwelling
+in the old castle."
+
+"The vision hath spoken, and it setteth not forth idle tales. Come to me
+anon, I will anoint and prepare my beryl and my divining mirror. Thou
+shall thyself behold some of the mysteries touching which I have warned
+thee beforetime. About noon return to my chamber."
+
+Rodolf withdrew into his own apartment. His countenance looked anxious
+and disturbed. He sat down, but his restlessness seemed to increase.
+His posture was not the most easy and graceful that might be desired,
+nor calculated to set off his personal advantages, though now become the
+more needful, if, as the seer predicted, he should wive ere
+night--albeit his bride were yet unsought--nor wooed, nor won! Nothing
+could be more destructive to that easy self-satisfaction, that seductive
+and insinuating carriage, so essential to the fine gentleman of every
+age. There was a sort of angular irregularity in his movements, neither
+pleasant nor becoming; and his agitation so far overcame his better
+breeding that he really did cram his beard between at least three of his
+fingers. His rapier had, moreover, poked its way through his cloak, and
+the bright shoe-roses were nigh ruined, from the sudden crossings and
+disarrangements they had undergone. A considerable time had now elapsed;
+in the meanwhile his impatience had risen to an alarming height,
+insomuch that we would not have answered for the safety of his red cloth
+hose and silken doublet, had not noon been happily announced.
+
+Raising the latch of the seer's chamber with considerable eagerness, he
+found the room completely dark. An unseen hand led him to a seat. Soon
+he heard a low murmuring chant, as though from voices at a remote
+distance. By degrees the words grew more articulate, shaping themselves
+into the same quaint distich that Kelly had repeated,--
+
+    "The stranger that hither comes o'er the broad sea
+    Shall wed on the night of St Bartlemy."
+
+This was answered in a voice of considerable pathos; a burst of soft
+music filling up the interval. Gradually the eye began to feel sensible
+of the presence of surrounding objects, though in the ordinary way
+nothing could be distinguished; a faculty peculiarly sensitive with the
+loss of sight, and not quite dormant in the general mass of mankind. A
+faint gleam was soon perceptible, like the first blush of morning,
+apparently on the opposite side of the chamber. Becoming brighter,
+flashes of a dim, rainbow-coloured light crept slowly by, like the
+aurora sweeping over an illuminated cloud. Suddenly he saw, or his eyes
+deceived him, a female form shaping itself from these chaotic elements.
+But it was observed only during the short intervals when the beams
+seemed to kindle with unusual brightness. Every flash, however, rendered
+the appearance more distinct. Dazzled and bewildered, the heated senses
+were become the victims of their own credulity, the mind receiving back
+its own reactions. Taking its impression probably from the occurrences
+of the morning, the eye rapidly moulded the figure into the likeness of
+Kate. Her eyes were turned upon him, beaming with that soft and melting
+expression he had so recently beheld. It was but momentary, or he could
+have persuaded himself that she looked on him with an air the most
+tender and compassionate. Never did fancy portray her in a form so
+lovely. Deep and indelible was the impression; and though it might be
+
+    "The imagination
+    Become impregnate with her own desire,"
+
+yet she had performed her office well. Not all the realities, all the
+blandishments that woman ever displayed, even the most resistless, could
+have wrought half so dexterously or gained such swift access to the
+heart. The vision faded, and a momentary darkness ensued. Suddenly a
+blaze of light irradiated the apartment. Rodolf beheld, for one short
+glimpse, a Gothic hall. Kate was there, and a lover kneeling at her
+feet. Madness seized him, agonising and intense. In vain he sought the
+features of his tormentor; the vision had departed, and with it his
+repose.
+
+A new and overwhelming emotion had overpowered him. It arose with the
+speed and impetuosity of a whirlwind. All just and sober anticipations,
+reflections, possibilities, and a thousand calm resolves, were swept as
+bubbles before the full burst of the torrent.
+
+His first impulse was to seek his mistress. But--she had another lover!
+The bare possibility of this event came o'er his bosom like the icy
+chill of the grave. He shuddered as it passed; but the pang was too keen
+to return with the same intensity.
+
+Soon a low murmur, like the distant sough of the wind, gradually
+approached. A faint light flashed through the chamber. He saw his own
+wild woods and the distant castle. It was just visible, dimly outlined
+on the horizon, as he had last beheld it in the cold grey beam that
+accompanied his departure. It arose tranquilly on his spirit. The voice
+of other years visited his soul. His eyes filled--he could have wept in
+the very overflowing of his delight. He dashed his hand across his
+forehead; but the pageant had disappeared.
+
+Daylight once more shone into the apartment; but nothing was discerned,
+save a dark curtain concealing one extremity of the room, and the seer
+sitting at his elbow.
+
+"Boy, what sawest thou?" said Kelly, not raising his head as he spoke,
+but intently poring over a grim volume of cabalistic symbols.
+
+"In troth, I am hard put to it, Master Kelly. The maid I have just seen
+is accounted the veriest shrew in the parish, and one whom no man may
+approach with a safe warranty. I am like to lose all hope of wiving, if
+this be the maiden I am to woo. And yet"--The form of the comely suitor
+he had seen kneeling at her feet just then flashed on his mind, yet
+cared he not to show the seer how much the phantom had disturbed him.
+
+"Idle tales?" said Kelly. "I wot not but half the gay gallants in the
+town would give the best jewel in their caps to have one sweet look, one
+pretty smile from her cruel mouth. 'Tis but the report of those whom she
+hath slighted with loathing and contempt, that hath raised this
+apprehension in her disfavour. The churls know not what is hidden
+beneath this outward habit of her perverse nature, and she careth not to
+discover. Should some youth of noble bearing and condition but woo her
+as she deserves, thou shouldest see her tamed, ay, and loving too, as
+the very idol of her worship, or I would forfeit my best gift."
+
+"But she hath a lover!" said Rodolf, gravely.
+
+"Peradventure she hath, but not of her own choosing, or mine art fails
+me. Look, this figure is the horoscope of her birth. Thou hast some
+knowledge of the celestial sciences. The directions are so close worked
+that should this night pass and Kate go unwed--indicated by Venus coming
+to a trine of the sun on the cusp of the seventh house, she will refuse
+all her suitors, and her whole patrimony pass into the hands of a
+stranger; but"--he raised his voice with a solemn and emphatic
+enunciation--"to-night! look to it! If not thine she may be another's."
+
+The listener's brain seemed on a whirl; thought hurrying on thought,
+until the mind lost all power of discrimination. The succession of
+images was too rapid. All individuality was gone. He felt as though not
+one idea was left out of the busy crowd on which to rest his own
+identity. He seemed a mere passive existence, unable either to execute
+the functions of thought or volition.
+
+"Go, for a brief space. Thou mayest return at sunset. Yet"--the seer
+fixed a penetrating glance on the youth as he retired--"go not nigh the
+merchant's dwelling, unless thou wouldest mar thy fortune.
+To-night--remember!"
+
+In the dim solitude of his chamber Rodolf sought in vain to allay the
+feverish excitement he had endured. He seemed left to the sport and
+caprice of a power he could not control. The coursers of the imagination
+grew wilder with restraint: he recklessly flung the reins upon their
+neck; but this did not tire their impetuosity. His brain glowed like a
+furnace; he seemed hastening fast on to the verge of either folly or
+madness. He threw himself on the couch, when the voice of Altdorff came
+like a winged harmony upon his spirit. The page was seated in the narrow
+cloisters,--the lute, his untiring companion, enticing a few chords from
+his touch, playful and gentle as the feelings that awaked them; some old
+and quaint chant, scarce worth the telling, but cherished in the heart's
+inmost shrine, from the hallowed nature of its associations. A deep
+slumber crept heavily on the cavalier, but the merchant's daughter still
+haunted him: sometimes snatched away from his embrace just as a rosy
+smile was kindling on her lips; at others, she met him with frowns and
+menace, but ere he could speak to her she had disappeared. Then was he
+tottering on the battlements of some old turret, when a storm arose, the
+maiden crept to his side, but in an instant, with a hideous crash, she
+was borne away by the rude grasp of the tempest. He awoke, with a
+mortifying discovery that the crash had been of a somewhat less
+equivocal nature. A cabinet of costly workmanship lay overturned at his
+feet, and a rich vase, breathing odours, strewed the floor in a thousand
+fragments.
+
+The noise brought up several of the college servitors; to rid himself
+from the annoyance he ascended the roof, then protected by low
+battlements, and leaded, so that a person might walk round the building
+and pursue his meditations without interruption.
+
+On this day, teeming with events, Dr Dee had been too closely engaged in
+parish duties to give heed to these love fancies, and even had he been
+ever so free to exercise his judgment in the matter, it is more than
+likely Rodolf would not have opened to him the proceedings then afoot.
+He well knew that the Doctor yet bore no good-will to Kelly, and might
+possibly thwart his designs, to the undoing of any good purposed by the
+strange transactions that had already occurred; he resolved, therefore,
+to let this day pass, ere he opened his lips on the subject. But how to
+while away the hours until evening was a most embarrassing problem.
+Sleep he had tried, but he found no wish to repeat the experiment;
+reading was just then foreign to his humour; mathematics must, that day,
+go unstudied. After beating time to at least a dozen strange metres, he
+hit upon the happy contrivance of writing a love-song, as a kind of
+expedient to restore the equilibrium. He was rather unskilled at the
+work; but the pen becomes eloquent when the soul moves it. We will,
+however, leave him at this thrifty employment, having no design, gentle
+reader, to make the occasion as wearisome to thee as to himself. Having
+the power to annihilate both time and space, let us watch the round sun,
+as he threw his last look, that evening, on the scene of this marvellous
+history. The old walls of the college, and the church tower, were
+invested with a gorgeous apparel of light, as though illumined for some
+gay festival, some season of rejoicing, when gladness shines out visibly
+in the shape of bonfires and torches. But few moments elapsed, ere the
+love-sick youth was again admitted into the dark interior of the seer's
+dwelling.
+
+A voice whispered in his ear--
+
+"Not a word, hardly a breath, as thou wouldest thrive in thy pursuit.
+There be spirits abroad, not of earth, nor air. Be silent and discreet."
+
+A ray suddenly darted across the room. Again the voice was at his ear:--
+
+"Hold thine eye to the crevice when the light enters, and mark well what
+thou beholdest."
+
+Again he saw his mistress, apparently in a vaulted chamber, lighted by a
+single lamp: she sat as if anxious and disturbed, her cheek pale and
+flushed by turns, whilst her eye wandered hurriedly around the room.
+Some one approached; it was the seer. Rodolf heard him speak.
+
+"Maiden, hast thou a lover?"
+
+The sound seemed scarcely akin to that of human speech. It rose heavily
+and deep, as from the charnel-house, as if the grim and cold jaws of the
+grave could utter a voice,--the dreary echoes of the tomb! The seer's
+lips were motionless, whilst he thus continued in the same sepulchral
+tone.
+
+"I know thou hast. 'Tis here thy love would tend." He drew a richly-set
+miniature from his bosom. It was mounted in so peculiar a fashion that
+Rodolf started back with the first emotion of surprise. The miniature
+was his own; a gem newly from the artist, and which he had left, as he
+thought, in safe custody a short time ago. The voice again whispered in
+his ear, "Beware."
+
+He subdued the expression of wonder just rising on his lip, watching the
+issue with increased interest.
+
+Kate covered her face. She had just glanced at the picture, and her
+proud bosom heaved almost to bursting.
+
+"Look, disdainful woman! and though thy bosom be formed for love, yet
+wouldest thou spurn it from thee. I _know_ thou lovest him. Nay, chide
+not; thy brow cannot blast me with its thunders. Go to. I could, by mine
+art, so humble thee, set thy love so exquisitely on its desire, that
+thou shouldest lay thy proud womanhood aside--sue and crouch, even if
+'twere for blows, like a tame spaniel! I have thee in my power, and were
+not the natural bent of thy dispositions kind and noblehearted, yet sore
+beset, and, as it were, overwhelmed by thy curst humours, I had now cast
+my spells about thee--ay, stricken thee to the dust! Shake off these
+bonds that enthral thy better spirit, and let not that beautiful fabric
+play the hypocrite any longer. Why should so fair a temple be the
+dwelling of a demon?"
+
+A deep sob here told that kindlier feelings were at work; that nature
+was beginning to assert her prerogative, and that the common sympathies,
+the tender attributes, of woman were not extinguished.
+
+The struggle was short, but severe. With difficulty she repressed the
+outburst of her grief as she spoke.
+
+"A woman still! 'Tis the garb nature put on. I have wrapped a sterner
+garment about me." A long and bitter sob here betrayed the violent
+warfare within. It was but for a moment. Affecting contempt for her own
+weakness, she exclaimed--
+
+"Throw it off? Expose me defenceless to his proud contumely? Even now
+the cold glance of indifference hath pierced it through!"
+
+Here she arose proudly.
+
+"And what thinkest thou, if I were to stand unarmed, uncovered, before
+his unfeeling gaze?"
+
+"He loves thee," hastily rejoined the seer.
+
+"Me!--as soon that bauble learn to love as"----
+
+"Say but one word, and I will bow him at thy feet."
+
+"'Tis well thou mockest me thus. To worm out my secret, perchance.--For
+this didst thou crave my presence? Let me be gone!"
+
+"Thou shalt say 'Yes,' Kate, ere thou depart!"
+
+The curtain which divided the apartment suddenly flew aside. The
+astonished lover beheld his mistress:--not the unreal phantom he had
+imagined, but a being substantial in quality, and of a nature like his
+own, though gentler than his fondest anticipations.
+
+The seer departed: but in the end the lovers were not displeased at
+being betrayed into a mutual expression of their regard.
+
+The operation of the heavenly influences was, in these days, a doctrine
+that obtained almost universal credit; and it would have been looked
+upon as a daring piece of presumption to baffle the prophetic
+signification of the stars.
+
+On that same night, being the eve of St Bartholomew, they were
+married:--thus adding one more to the numerous instances on record,
+where a belief in the prediction has been the means of its
+accomplishment.
+
+The remainder of Kate's history, and how she crossed the sea,
+accompanied by her husband, into the wilds of Bohemia, living there for
+a space; and how she afterwards returned into her own land, will be set
+forth at some more fitting opportunity.
+
+
+
+
+THE EARL OF TYRONE.
+
+
+    "Still the fairest are his fuell,
+    When his days are to be cruell;
+    Lovers' hearts are all his food,
+    And his baths their warmest blood;
+    Nought but wounds his hands doth season,
+    And he hates none like to reason."
+
+_A Hue and Cry after Cupid_.--Ben Jonson.
+
+The dark and romantic history of the Earl of Tyrone would of itself
+occupy a larger space than these volumes afford. The following episode,
+connected with his concealment in the neighbourhood of Rochdale, the
+author does not presume to bring forward as a fact. Yet there are good
+reasons for supposing that it formed an important era in his life, and
+was followed very soon after by the Queen's pardon. The importance of
+this measure may be conceived, when by some Elizabeth's depression, and
+the profound melancholy she exhibited in her latter hours, were
+attributed to this source. It is said that she repented of having
+pronounced his forgiveness; that having always resolved to bring him to
+condign punishment, she could receive no satisfaction from his
+submission; while the advantages of her high estate, and all the glories
+of a prosperous reign, were unable to alleviate her disappointment.
+
+The following is a brief sketch of his life, extracted from
+generally-received authorities.
+
+Hugh O'Neale was nephew to Shan O'Neale, or the Great O'Neale, as he was
+more commonly called, well known for his eminent courage, a virtue much
+esteemed by the half-civilised hordes whom he commanded. He was created
+Earl of Tyrone by the Queen; but disliking this servitude, and wishful
+to liberate his country from the English yoke, he entered into a
+correspondence with Spain; procured from thence a supply of arms and
+ammunition; and having united many of the Irish chiefs in a dependence
+upon himself, he began to be regarded as a formidable enemy.
+
+[Illustration: TYRONE'S BED, NEAR ROCHDALE.
+
+_Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden._]
+
+The English found much difficulty in pursuing the rebels into the bogs,
+woods, and other fastnesses to which they retreated. Sir John Norris,
+who commanded the English army, was rendered thereby more willing to
+hearken to the proposals made by Tyrone, and the war was spun out by
+these artifices for some years. Sir John dying, as was reported, of
+vexation and discontent, was succeeded by Sir Henry Bagnall. "He
+advanced to the relief at Blackwater, then besieged by the enemy, but
+was surrounded in disadvantageous ground. His soldiers, discouraged by
+part of their powder accidentally taking fire, were put to flight; and
+though the pursuit was stopped by Montacute, who commanded the English
+horse, fifteen hundred men, together with the general himself, were left
+dead upon the spot. This victory so unusual to the Irish, roused their
+courage, supplied them with arms and munitions of war, and raised the
+renown of Tyrone, who was hailed as deliverer of his country and patron
+of Irish liberty."[22]
+
+The unfortunate Essex was afterwards appointed to the command; but his
+troops were so terrified at the reputation of Tyrone that many of them
+counterfeited sickness, and others deserted, fearful of encountering the
+forces of that daring chief. Finding himself in a great measure
+deserted, "he hearkened to a message from Tyrone, who desired a
+conference; and a plain near the two camps was appointed for this
+purpose. The two generals met without any attendants. A river ran
+between them, into which Tyrone entered to his saddle-girth, but Essex
+stood on the opposite bank."
+
+At this meeting where "Tyrone behaved with great submission to the
+lord-lieutenant, a cessation of arms was agreed on.[23] Essex also
+received a proposal of peace, into which Tyrone had inserted many
+unreasonable and exorbitant conditions; and there appeared afterwards
+some reason to suspect that the former had commenced a very
+unjustifiable correspondence with the enemy." From this time the beam of
+Essex's favour was obscured, the issue terminating in his death and
+disgrace. In the meantime, Tyrone had thought proper to break the trace,
+"and joining with O'Donnel and others, overran almost the whole kingdom.
+He pretended to be the champion of the Catholic faith, and openly
+exulted in the present of a phoenix plume, which Clement VIII., in order
+to encourage him in the prosecution of so good a cause, had consecrated,
+and conferred upon him."[24] Essex being recalled, the Queen appointed
+Mountjoy as lord-deputy. "He found the island in a desperate condition;
+but being a man of capacity and vigour, he immediately advanced against
+Tyrone in Ulster. He penetrated into the heart of that country, the
+chief seat of the rebels. He fortified Derry and Mount Norris. He chased
+them from the field, and obliged them again to shelter in woods and
+morasses; and by these promising enterprises he gave new life to the
+Queen's authority throughout the island."
+
+Tyrone, however, still boasted that he was certain of receiving the
+promised aid from Spain; "and everything was put in condition for
+resisting the Spanish invasion, which was daily expected. The deputy,
+informed of the danger to which the southern provinces were exposed,
+left the prosecution of the war against Tyrone, who was now reduced to
+great extremities, and marched with his army into Munster."
+
+"At last the Spaniards, under Don Juan d'Aquila, arrived at Kinsale;
+and Sir Richard Piercy, who commanded in the town with a small garrison
+of one hundred and fifty men, found himself obliged to abandon it on
+their appearance. These invaders amounted to four thousand, and the
+Irish discovered a strong propensity to join them, in order to free
+themselves from the English government, with which they were extremely
+discontented. One chief ground of their complaint was the introduction
+of trials by jury,[25] an institution abhorred by that people, though
+nothing contributes more to the support of that equity and liberty for
+which the English laws are so justly celebrated. The Irish also bore a
+great favour to the Spaniards, having entertained the opinion that they
+themselves were descended from that nation; and their attachment to the
+Catholic religion proved a new cause of affection for the invaders.
+D'Aquila assumed the title of general in this '_holy war_,' for the
+preservation of the faith in Ireland; and he endeavoured to persuade the
+people that Elizabeth was, by several bulls of the Pope, deprived of her
+crown; that her subjects were absolved from their oaths of religion, and
+that the Spaniards were come to deliver the Irish from the dominion of
+the devil.[26] Mountjoy found it necessary to act with vigour, in order
+to prevent a total insurrection of the Irish; and having collected his
+forces, he formed the siege of Kinsale by land, while Sir Richard
+Levison, with a small squadron, blockaded it by sea. He had no sooner
+begun his operations than he heard of the arrival of another body of two
+thousand Spaniards under the command of Alphonso Ocampo, who had taken
+possession of Baltimore and Berehaven; and he was obliged to detach Sir
+George Carew to oppose their progress. Tyrone, meanwhile, with Randal,
+MacSurley Tirel, Baron of Kelly, and other chieftains of the Irish, had
+joined Ocampo with all their forces, and were marching to the relief of
+Kinsale. The deputy, informed of their designs by intercepted letters,
+made preparations to receive them; and being reinforced by Levison with
+six hundred marines, he posted his troops on an advantageous ground
+which lay on the passage of the enemy, leaving some cavalry to prevent a
+sally from D'Aquila and the Spanish garrison. When Tyrone, with a
+detachment of Irish and Spaniards, approached, he was surprised to find
+the English so well posted and ranged for battle, and he immediately
+sounded a retreat; but the deputy gave orders to pursue him, and having
+thrown these advanced troops into confusion, he followed them to the
+main body, which he also attacked and put to flight, with the slaughter
+of twelve hundred men.[27] Ocampo was taken prisoner; Tyrone fled into
+Ulster; O'Donnel made his escape into Spain; and D'Aquila, finding
+himself reduced to the greatest difficulties, was obliged to capitulate
+upon such terms as the deputy prescribed to him. He surrendered Kinsale
+and Baltimore, and agreed to evacuate the kingdom. This great blow,
+joined to other successes gained by Wilmot, governor of Kerry, and by
+Roger and Gavin Harvey, threw the rebels into dismay, and gave a
+prospect of the final reduction of Ireland."
+
+The remaining part of Tyrone's history may be gathered from the
+narrative.
+
+Among other memorable incidents illustrative of his character, it is
+said that Tyrone, appearing in person to execute a treaty, immediately
+on the issue of some sanguinary engagement, was requested to sign the
+terms. "Here is my signature," said he, laying his bloody hand on the
+deed: "'tis the mark of the Kings of Ulster." Hence, tradition gravely
+asserts was the origin of "the bloody hand," the arms of Ulster! That
+such a derivation is fabulous we need not attempt to prove.
+
+What a paradox is love!--the most selfish and yet the most disinterested
+of the passions; the gentlest and yet the most terrible of impulses that
+can agitate the human bosom; the most ennobling and the most humble; the
+most enduring and the most transient; slow as the most subtle venom to
+its work, yet impetuous in its career as the tornado or the whirlwind;
+sportive as the smile of infancy, and appalling as the maniac's shriek,
+or the laugh of his tormentor. 'Tis a joy nursed in the warm glow of
+hope; but who shall reveal the depths of its despair? 'Twas given to man
+as his best boon--his most precious gift; but his own hands polluted the
+shrine--marred the beauteous and holy deposit. The loveliest image was
+then smitten with deformity, and that passion, the highest and noblest
+that could animate his bosom, became the bane of his happiness, the
+destroyer of his peace, and the source whence every attribute of woe
+hath sprung to afflict and darken the frail hopes of humanity. This may
+be the dark side of the picture; but unless the breath of heaven
+sanctify even the purest affections of our nature, they are a withering
+blast, blighting its fairest verdure--a torment and a curse!
+
+The following narrative, floating but indistinctly on the author's
+memory, and in all probability attached to other names in localities
+widely apart, is yet, he believes, true as to the more important
+particulars. The site of a few cottages in a romantic dell in the
+neighbourhood of Rochdale is still associated with the memory of the
+unfortunate Earl of Tyrone. It is yet called "Tyrone's Bed." In history,
+this noble chief is depicted in colours the most hideous and detestable;
+but if the lion had been the painter, we should have had to contemplate
+a different portrait. By his countrymen he was held in the most profound
+reverence and respect. Beloved by all, he was hailed as the expected
+deliverer of his native land from wrong and oppression. The most
+bigoted of his persecutors cannot deny that oppression, the most foul
+and inhuman, did exist; and the men who took up arms for the rescue of
+their brethren may be pitied, if not pardoned, for their noble,
+elevated, and enduring spirit. Let us not be misunderstood as the
+advocates of rebellion; but surely there are occasions when the galling
+yoke of oppression may be too heavy to sustain--when the crushed reptile
+may, writhing, turn against him who tramples on it. Let us not do this
+wrong, even to our enemies, by refusing to admire in them the
+disinterestedness and magnanimity which in others would have insured our
+admiration and applause.
+
+About a mile from the spot we have just named stood the ancient mansion
+of Grizlehurst. Surrounded on every side by dark and almost trackless
+woods, sprung through a long line of ancestry from primeval forests, it
+reposed in undisturbed seclusion, still and majestic as the proud swan
+that basked upon the dark lake before it, secure from intrusion and
+alarm. Gable-ends and long casements broke the low piebald front into a
+variety of detail--a-combination of effect throwing an air of
+picturesque beauty on the whole, which not all the flimsy and frittered
+"Gothic" can convey to the mansions of modern antiques. For the timber
+employed in its erection a forest must have been laid prostrate. Huge
+arched fire-places; chimney-pieces carved with armorial bearings; oak
+tables absolutely joisted to sustain their vast bulk; bedsteads that
+would not have groaned with the weight of a Titan;--the whole intended
+to oppose a ponderous resistance to the ravages of time and fashion. Not
+a vestige is left. Those laughing halls echo no more with the loud and
+boisterous revel; the music of the "many twinkling" feet is gone;
+scarcely a stone is left upon its fellow; a few straggling trees alone
+mark the site. The beech and willow are waving o'er its hearth! Who
+would build for the destroyer? And yet man, with the end of these
+vanities in prospect, daily, hourly still builds on; his schemes and his
+projects extending through the long vista of succeeding ages, as though
+his dwelling were eternal, and his own fabric should survive the ruin
+and the doom of all!
+
+A long train of ancestors bearing the name of Holt occupied this
+dwelling as the family mansion. The manor of Spotland, forfeited by the
+rebellion of Paslew, Abbot of Whalley, was granted by Henry the Eighth
+to Thomas Holt, afterwards knighted in Scotland by Edward, Earl of
+Hertford, in the thirty-sixth year of the reign of that monarch. The
+present possessor of the same name, grandson to Sir Thomas, resided at
+Grislehurst during the latter part of Elizabeth's reign and that of
+James. He married Constance, the daughter of Sir Edward Littleton of
+Pillaton Hall, Stafford. One son, Francis, and a daughter named
+Constance, were the fruit of this union. At the commencement of our
+narrative he had been for some years a widower, and his son was then
+absent on foreign travel.
+
+It was in the memorable year 1603, the last of Elizabeth. The rebellion
+in Ireland had been smothered, if not extinguished; and the great
+O'Neale, Earl of Tyrone and King of Ulster, together with many other
+chiefs, were forced to remain concealed in woods and morasses. Outlawed
+and outcast, some of them crossed over into England, remaining there
+until pardoned by the Queen.
+
+Constance was now in her nineteenth year. Bright as her own morn of
+life, she had seen but few clouds in that season of hope and delight.
+Sorrow was to her scarce known, save in the nursery tales and wild
+ballads of the surrounding district. When the glowing morn was overcast,
+she was unprepared, unfitted for the change. The storm came, and the
+little sum of her happiness, launched on this frail and perishing bark,
+was wrecked without a struggle!
+
+One evening, in the full glare of a dazzling sunset, the light streaming
+like a shower through the dark foliage of the valley, she had loitered,
+along with her old nurse, in the dell to which we have before alluded.
+The glowing atmosphere was just fading into the dewy tint which betokens
+a fair morrow. To enjoy a more extended gaze upon the clouds, those
+gorgeous vestures of the sun, Constance had ascended, by a winding path,
+to the edge of a steep cliff overhanging the river. She stood for some
+minutes looking towards the west, unconscious of the loose and slippery
+nature of the materials beneath her feet, and of her near approach to
+the brink. On a sudden the ground gave way, and she was precipitated
+headlong into the river! Nurse Agnes, who stood below, watching her
+young mistress, not without apprehension as to the consequences of her
+temerity, was stricken motionless with horror. There seemed to be no
+help. Fast receding from all hope of succour, Constance was borne
+rapidly down the stream. Suddenly, with the swiftness of a deer from
+the brake, a figure bounded from an opposite thicket. He seemed scarcely
+to leave his footmarks on the long herbage ere he gained the river's
+brink. Plunging into the current he succeeded in rescuing the maiden
+from her perilous condition. He laid her gently on the bank, beckoning
+to her attendant, and was speedily out of sight. The aged Agnes, with
+trembling hands, relieved Constance by loosening the folds from her
+throat; and almost ere she had wrung out the water from the raven locks
+of her inanimate mistress, the stranger returned. He carried a cordial,
+with which he moistened her lips; the old woman chafed her temples,
+resorting to the usual modes of resuscitation then in practice; and in
+the end, Constance opened her eyes. A heavy sob accompanied this effort.
+She looked wildly round, when she met the deep gaze of the stranger.
+With a faint shriek, she hid her face in the bosom of her attendant,
+who, overjoyed at her recovery, could scarcely refrain from falling at
+the feet of her deliverer. She turned to express her thanks, but he was
+gone.
+
+It was not long ere several domestics, alarmed at their absence, came in
+search; and Constance, borne gently along, was soon restored to her
+anxious parent. But he looked thoughtful and disturbed when the
+stranger's person was described, evidently averse to hold any
+communication on the subject. Nurse Agnes grew eloquent in his praise,
+until the following conversation that same evening in the kitchen turned
+aside the current of her opinions.
+
+"A rough grey cloak, gossip, thou sayest?" again inquired a
+hard-featured hind from the chimney-corner.
+
+"I tell thee a cloak, and a cap turned up in front. He doused it off
+nobly, and took to the water like a spaniel!"
+
+"Why, 'tis the wild man of the woods!" said another listener, who had
+hitherto been silent, but whose remark seemed to strike terror into the
+whole group. They looked round as if anticipating a visit from this
+fearful personage. Dame Agnes crossed herself, and muttered her prayers
+with great despatch; something was at length audible and articulate, as
+follows:--
+
+"Mercy on me! my days are numbered. If it should indeed be this
+incarnate,--forgive the thought!--we are all dead creatures. The very
+horses and kine stagger, and fall into fits at times, when they come
+home, and it is all along of 'em having seen or smelt the brimstone
+from the pit. Davy had two died last week, and he was sure they had
+either seen the deil or his deputy,--this same grey man of the woods.
+Woe's me that I should ha' lived to behold this child of perdition!" The
+old woman here gave way to an outburst of sorrow, that prevented any
+further disclosures.
+
+"It is about a three month agone since this same wild man was first
+seen," said the old seneschal, whose office, though of little use, was
+still filled up in the more ancient establishments. "I saw him myself
+once, but I shook until the very flesh seemed to crawl over my bones.
+They say he neither eats nor drinks, but is kept alive in the body by
+glamour and witchcraft. He'll stay here until his time is done, and then
+his tormentors will fetch him to his prison-house again. Ye should not
+have tarried in the wood after sunset."
+
+"That would I not," sharply replied Agnes; "but the child, poor thing,
+would look at the daylight as it lingered on the hill-top, and I thought
+no harm in't."
+
+"Like enough. He dares not abroad, if so much as the value or size of my
+thumb-nail of the sun's rim were left above the hill!"
+
+"Come, Gaffer, strike up a merry trowl," said a thin, squeaking voice,
+from a personage almost hidden behind a copious supper of broken meat
+and pastry. But whether the party thus addressed was too much alarmed to
+let the current of his spirit run bubbling from the spring of either
+mirth or minstrelsy, or he was too deeply buried in his own thoughts, it
+were needless to inquire. The request for a while passed by unheeded.
+
+Gaffer Gee was the ballad-monger of the whole district. He kept on a
+comfortable and vagabond sort of existence, by visiting the different
+mansions where good cheer was to be had, and where he was generally a
+welcome guest, both in bower and hall. His legendary lore seemed
+inexhaustible; and, indeed, his memory was like an old chest full of
+scraps continually rummaged. He knew all the scandal and family secrets
+throughout the parish, and had a quick eye at detecting either a love
+affair or a feud. He composed a number of the wild ballads that he sang
+or recited, or at least put them into that jingling and quaint rhythm,
+acquired by habitual intercourse with the phraseology peculiar to these
+popular descants. On hearing a story he could readily shape it into
+verse, extempore, too, upon occasion; and many were the jokes that
+rebounded from his theme, whether in hall or kitchen. It was pleasant to
+watch his little grey eye, and the twinkling lashes, as they rose and
+fell, varying the expression of his lips. A slight lisp gave an air of
+simplicity to his ditties, which never failed to charm his auditors. He
+could throw the simplest expression over his features, which made the
+keen edge of his rebukes infinitely more cutting and effective. But the
+prevailing tone of feeling in him was sad and oppressive. These
+wandering minstrels had, from remote ages, been held as seers, and a
+peep into futurity was often supposed to accompany their poetical
+inspirations--a superstition not confined to any particular locality,
+but obtaining a widely disseminated belief in all climes and nations
+where imagination assumes her sway, and dares to assert her power.
+
+After a short space, and without any invitation, the ballad-maker, like
+some Pythian priestess on her tripod, began to exhibit manifestations of
+the _afflatus_. The spirit of song seemed to be stealing upon him, and
+in a moment the listening auditory were still. In substance, he half
+recited, half sung, the following ballad:--
+
+    "'Maiden, braid those tresses bright,
+      Wreathe thy ringlets from the blast;
+    Why those locks of curling light
+      Heedless to the rude winds cast?
+
+    "'Maiden, why that darkened brow?
+      From those eyes, once dimmed with weeping,
+    Lurid gleams are gathering now,
+      O'er their pale wan shadows creeping.'
+
+    "Silent still the maid passed by,
+      Near nor voice nor footstep came.
+    Sudden cleaving earth and sky,
+      Flashed a brand of arrowy flame!
+
+    "'Maiden, turn that gaze on me,
+      Onwards why so madly bent?'
+    Still no stay, no pause made she
+      Through that kindling element.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    "Now, the midnight chant is stealing,
+      Mass and requiem breathing near;
+    Hushed the blast, as if revealing
+      Sounds to earth that Heaven might hear.
+
+    "From yon pile, soft voices swelling
+      Dirge and anthem for the dead;--
+    Demon shrieks, their lost doom yelling,
+      Tend Lord Rudolph's dying bed.
+
+    "Holy men, with song and prayer,
+      Fain would shrive the passing soul;
+    Fiend-like whispers, to his ear.
+      Winds, in muttering curses, roll.
+
+    "Ere his last lone shuddering cry,
+      To his couch the maiden came;
+    On his breast she silently
+      Bent an eye of ravening flame.
+
+    "One wild shriek the sufferer sent,
+      Ere life's last frail link might sever;
+    Laughed the maiden, as she leant
+      O'er that form, to cling for ever.
+
+    "Closer to his heart she pressed;
+      Scorched, the quivering flesh recoiled;
+    Unconsumed his burning breast,
+      While that grim tormentor smiled.
+
+    "'Now revenge!' the maiden cried,
+      'I have bartered heaven for this;
+    Mine thou art, proud Rudolph's bride,
+      Mine, by this last demon kiss.'
+
+    "Tower, and battlement, and hall,
+      Scathed as with the thunder-stroke,
+    Flashed through midnight's dusky pall,
+      Twined in wreaths of livid smoke.
+
+    "O'er that gulph of yawning flame
+      Horrid shapes are hovering;
+    Monstrous forms, of hideous name,
+      To the bridal-bed they bring.
+
+    "'They come!--they come!' their frantic yell.
+      On a wave of billowy light
+    Sudden rose (so marvellers tell)
+      The maiden and her traitor knight.
+
+    "The moon looks bright on Rudolph's towers,
+      The breeze laughs lightly by,
+    But dark and silent sleep the hours,
+      The lone brook murmuring nigh.
+
+    "The lank weed waves round thy domain,
+      The fox creeps to thy gate;
+    Dark is thy dwelling, proud chieftain,
+      Thy halls are desolate!"
+
+The legend we have thus rendered. His own idiom and versification, as we
+have already observed, were of a more unintelligible sort, though better
+suited, perhaps, to the fashion of the time and the capacity of his
+hearers.
+
+But a gloom still pervaded the once cheerful hearth, and the night wore
+on without the usual symptoms of mirth and hilarity.
+
+Holt of Grislehurst held the manorial rights, and was feudal lord over a
+widely-extended domain, the manor of Spotland descending to him by
+succession from his grandfather. His character was that of a quiet,
+unostentatious country gentleman; but withal of a proud spirit, not
+brooking either insult or neglect. This night, an unaccountable
+depression stole upon him. He strode rapidly across the chamber, moody
+and alone. The taper was nigh extinguished; the wasted billet grew pale,
+a few sparks starting up the chimney, as the wind roared in short and
+hasty gusts round the dwelling. The old family portraits seemed to flit
+from their dark panels, wavering with the tremulous motion of the blaze.
+
+Holt was still pacing the chamber with a disturbed and agitated step. A
+few words, rapid and unconnected, fell from his lips.
+
+"Rebel!--Outcast! I cannot betray thee!"
+
+"Betray me!" echoed a voice from behind. Turning, the speaker stood
+before him. It was the athletic form of the stranger, wrapped in his
+grey cloak and cap of coarse felt, plumed from the falcon's wing.
+
+"And who speaks the word that shall betray me? A king,--a fugitive! Yet,
+not all the means that treachery can compass shall trammel one hair
+upon this brow without my privity or consent."
+
+"Comest thou like the sharp wind into my dwelling?" inquired Holt, in a
+voice tremulous with amazement.
+
+"Free as the unconfined air; yet fettered by a lighter bond,--a woman's
+love!" returned the intruder. "Thou hast a daughter."
+
+The Lord of Grislehurst grew pale at these words. Some terrific meaning
+clung to them. After a short pause the stranger continued:--
+
+"Thus speak the legends of Tigernach, and the bards of Ulster, rapt into
+visions of the future:--'_When a king of Erin shall flee at the voice of
+a woman, then shall the distaff and spindle conquer whom the sword and
+buckler shall not subdue_.' That woman is yon heretic queen. A usurper,
+an intruder on our birthright. Never were the O'Neales conquered but by
+woman! I have lingered here when the war-cry hath rung from the shores
+of my country. Again the shout hath come, and the impatient chiefs wait
+for my return. But"----
+
+The warrior seemed to writhe during the conflict. His hands were
+clenched, and every muscle stiffened with agony. Scorn at his own
+weakness, and dread, horrible undefinable dread, as he felt the
+omnipotent power mastering his proud spirit. The man who would have
+laughed at the shaking of a spear, and the loud rush of the battle,
+quailed before a woman's hate and a woman's love.
+
+"And what is thy request to-night?" said Holt.
+
+The stranger answered in a voice of thunder--
+
+"Thy daughter!"
+
+Tyrone, for it was he, seemed nigh choking with the emotion he sought to
+suppress.
+
+"Nay," he continued, "it must not be. Oh! did I love her less, she had
+been mine!"
+
+"Thine?" suddenly retorted her father, somewhat scornfully. "And who
+gave thee this power over woman's spirit? Thou hast not even had speech
+of her, much less the means to win her favour."
+
+An almost supernatural expression seemed to gather on the features of
+the chieftain. His eye, rolling through the vista of past years, began
+to pause, appalled as it approached the dark threshold of the future. He
+appeared lost to the presence of surrounding objects, as he thus
+exclaimed with a terrific solemnity--
+
+"When the dark-browed Norah nursed me on her lap, and her eye, though
+dark to outward sense, saw through the dim veil of destiny, it was thus
+she sung as she guarded my slumbers, and the hated Sassenach was in the
+hall:--
+
+    "'Rest thee, baby! light and darkness
+      Mingling o'er thy path shall play;
+    Hope shall flee when thou pursuest,
+      Lost amid life's trackless way.
+
+    "'Rest thee, baby! woman's breast
+      Thou shalt darken o'er with woe;
+    None thou lookest on or lovest,
+      Joy or hope hereafter know.
+        Many a maid thy glance shall rue,
+        Where it smites it shall subdue.'
+
+"It was an evil hour, old man, when I looked upon thy daughter."
+
+Holt, though of a stout and resolute temper, was yet daunted by this
+bold and unlooked-for address. He trembled as he gazed on the mysterious
+being before him, gifted, as it seemed, with some supernatural
+endowments. His unaccountable appearance, the nature of his
+communications, together with his manner and abrupt mode of speech,
+would have shaken many a firmer heart unprepared for these disclosures.
+
+"What is thy business with me?" he inquired, with some hesitation.
+
+"To warn thee;--to warn thy daughter. She hath seen me. Ay, to-night.
+And how runs the prophecy? Let her beware. I have looked on her
+beforetime. Looked on her! ay, until these glowing orbs have become dim,
+dazzled with excess of brightness. I have looked on her till this stern
+bosom hath become softer than the bubbling wax to her impression; but I
+was concealed, and the maiden passed unharmed by the curse. To-night I
+have saved her life. A resistless impulse! And she hath looked on me."
+He smote his brow, groaning aloud in the agony he endured.
+
+It may be supposed this revelation did not allay the apprehensions of
+the listener. Bewildered and agitated, he turned towards the window. The
+pale moon was glimmering through the quiet leaves, and he saw a dark and
+muffled figure in the avenue. It was stationary for a while; it then
+slowly moved towards the adjoining thicket and was lost to his view.
+Holt turned to address his visitor, but he had disappeared. It was like
+the passing of a troubled dream, vague and indistinct, but fraught with
+horrible conceptions. A cloud seemed to gather on his spirit, teeming
+with some terrible but unknown doom. Its nature even imagination failed
+to conjecture. His first impulse was to visit his daughter. He found the
+careful nurse by her bedside. As he entered the room, Agnes raised one
+finger to her lips, in token of silence. The anxious father bent over
+his child. Her sleep was heavy, and her countenance flushed. A tremor
+passed over her features. A groan succeeded. Suddenly she started up.
+With a look of anguish he could never forget, she cried--
+
+"Help! O my father!" She clung around his neck. In vain he endeavoured
+to soothe her. She sobbed aloud, as if her heart were breaking. But she
+never told that dream, though her haggard looks, when morning rose on
+her anxious and pallid countenance, showed the disturbance it had
+created.
+
+Days and weeks passed by. The intrusion of the bold outlaw was nigh
+forgotten. The father's apprehensions had in some degree subsided, but
+Constance did not resume her wonted serenity. Her earliest recollections
+were those of the old nursery rhymes, with which Agnes had not failed to
+store her memory. But the giant killers and their champions now failed
+to interest and excite. Other feelings than those of terror and of
+wonder were in operation, requiring a fresh class of stimulants for
+their support--tales of chivalry and of love, that all-enduring passion,
+where maidens and their lovers sighed for twice seven years, and all too
+brief a trial of their truth and constancy! As she listened, her soul
+seemed to hang on the minstrel's tongue; that erratic troubadour, Gaffer
+Gee, being a welcome and frequent visitor at Grislehurst.
+
+One night he had tarried late in the little chamber, where she was wont
+to give him audience. She seemed more wishful to protract his stay than
+heretofore.
+
+"Now for the ballad of Sir Bertine, the famous Lancashire knight, who
+was killed at St Alban's, fighting for the glorious red rose of
+Lancaster."
+
+Nothing loth, he commenced the following ditty:--
+
+    "The brave Sir Bartine Entwisel
+      Hath donned his coat of steel,
+    And left his hall and stately home,
+      To fight for Englond's weal.
+
+    "To fight for Englond's weal, I trow,
+      And good King Harry's right,
+    His loyal heart was warm and true,
+      His sword and buckler bright.
+
+    "That sword once felt the craven foe,
+      Its hilt was black with gore,
+    And many a mother's son did rue
+      His might at Agincourt.
+
+    "And now he stately steps his hall,
+      'A summons from the king?
+    My armour bright, my casque and plume,
+      My sword and buckler bring.
+
+    "'Blow, warder, blow. Thy horn is shrill,
+      My liegemen hither call,
+    For I must away to the south countrie,
+      And spears and lances all.'
+
+    "'Oh, go not to the south countrie!'
+      His lady weeping said;
+    'Oh, go not to the battle-field,
+      For I dreamed of the waters red!'
+
+    "'Oh, go not to the south countrie!'
+      Cried out his daughter dear;
+    'Oh, go not to the bloody fight,
+      For I dreamed of the waters clear!'
+
+    "Sir Bertine raised his dark visor,
+      And he kissed his fond lady;
+    'I must away to the wars and fight
+      For our king in jeopardy!'
+
+    "The lady gat her to the tower,
+      She clomb the battlement;
+    She watched and greet, while through the woods
+      The glittering falchions went.
+
+    "The wind was high, the storm grew loud,
+      Fierce rose the billowy sea;
+    When from Sir Bertine's lordly tower
+      The bell boomed heavily!
+
+    "'O mother dear, what bodes that speech
+      From yonder iron tongue?'
+    ''Tis but the rude, rude blast, my love,
+      That idle bell hath swung.'
+
+    "Upon the rattling casement still
+      The beating rain fell fast;
+    When creeping fingers wandering thrice
+      Across that window passed.
+
+    "'O mother dear, what means that sound
+      Upon the lattice nigh?'
+    ''Tis but the cold, cold arrowy sleet,
+      That hurtles in the sky.'
+
+    "The blast was still--a pause more dread
+      Ne'er terror felt--when, lo!
+    An armed footstep on the stair
+      Clanked heavily and slow.
+
+    "Up flew the latch and tirling-pin,
+      Wide swung the grated door,
+    Then came a solemn stately tread
+      Upon the quaking floor!
+
+    "A shudder through the building ran,
+      A chill and icy blast;
+    A moan, as though in agony
+      Some viewless spirit passed!
+
+    "'O mother dear, my heart is froze,
+      My limbs are stark and cold.'
+    Her mother spake not, for again
+      That turret bell hath tolled.
+
+    "Three days passed by. At eventide
+      There came an aged man,
+    He bent him low before the dame,
+      His wrinkled cheek was wan.
+
+    "'Now, speak, thou evil messenger,
+      Thy tidings show to me.'
+    That aged man, nor look vouchsafed,
+      Nor ever a word spake he.
+
+    "'What bringest thou?' the lady said,
+      'I charge thee by the rood.'
+    He drew a signet from his hand,
+      'Twas speckled o'er with blood.
+
+    "'Thy husband's grave is wide and deep.
+      In St Alban's priory
+    His body lies, but on his soul
+      Christ Jesus have mercy!'"[28]
+
+Scarcely had the last solemn supplication been uttered, when the latch
+of the chamber was raised. The door flew open, and the outlaw, in his
+dark grey cap and cloak, stood before them. Constance was too much
+alarmed to utter a word. She clung to her companion with the agony of
+one grasping at the most fragile support for life and safety.
+
+"Nay, maiden, I would not harm thee," said the intruder, in a voice so
+musical and sad, that it seemed to drop into the listener's ear like a
+gush of harmony, or a sweet and melancholy chime wakening up the heart's
+most endeared and hallowed associations. His features were nobly formed.
+His eye, large and bright, of the purest grey; the lashes, like a cloud,
+covering and tempering their lustre. A touch of sadness rested on his
+lips. They seemed to speak of suffering and endurance, as if the soul's
+deepest agony would not have cast a word across their barriers.
+Constance for a moment raised her eyes, but they were suddenly
+withdrawn, overflowing with some powerful emotion. He still gazed, but
+one proud effort broke the fixed intensity of his glance, and his tongue
+resumed its office.
+
+"Maiden, I am pursued. The foe are on my track. My retreat is
+discovered, and unless thou wilt vouchsafe to me a hiding-place, I am in
+their power. The Earl of Tyrone--nay, I scorn the title--'tis the King
+of Ulster that stands before thee. I would not crouch thus for my own
+life, were it not for my country. Her stay, her sustenance, is in thy
+keeping."
+
+Never did wretchedness and misfortune sue in vain to woman's ear.
+Constance forgot her weakness and timidity. She saw not her own danger.
+A fellow-being craved help and succour; all other feelings gave place,
+and she seemed animated with a new impulse. She looked on the minstrel,
+as if to ascertain his fidelity. It was evident, however, that no
+apprehension need be entertained, this personage seeming to manifest no
+slight solicitude for the safety of the unfortunate chief.
+
+"The old lead mine, in the Cleuch," whispered he.
+
+"Nay, it must be in the house," replied Constance, with a glance of
+forethought beyond her years. "The pursuers will not search this loyal
+house for treason!"
+
+As was the case in most mansions belonging to families of rank and
+importance, a room was contrived for purposes of special concealment,
+where persons or property could be stowed in case of danger. A heavy
+stack of chimneys was enlarged so as to admit of a small apartment,
+inconvenient enough in other respects, yet well adapted as a temporary
+hiding-place.
+
+Hither, through secluded passages, the careful Constance conducted her
+guest, who had so strangely thrown himself, with unhesitating
+confidence, upon her generosity and protection. The proud representative
+of a kingly race was rescued by a woman from ignominy and death. Some
+feeling of this nature probably overpowered him. As he bade her good
+night, his voice faltered, and he passed his hand suddenly athwart his
+brow. Constance, having fulfilled this sacred duty, shrank from any
+further intercourse, and hastened to her chamber. It was long ere she
+could sleep; portentous dreams then brooded over her slumbers. The
+terrible vision was repeated, and she awoke, but not to her wonted
+cheerfulness.
+
+How strange, how mysterious, the mechanism of the human heart! The
+feelings glide insensibly into each other, changing their hue and
+character imperceptibly, as the colours on the evening cloud. Protection
+awakens kindness, kindness pity, and pity love. Love, the more
+dangerous, too, the process being unperceived, insidiously disguised
+under other names, and under the finest sympathies and affections of our
+nature.
+
+With a step light and noiseless as that of her favourite spaniel who
+crept behind her, did Constance make an early visit to ascertain the
+safety of her prisoner. His retreat was unmolested. The pursuit was for
+the present evaded, and his enemies thrown out in their track. It was
+needful, however, that he should remain for a few days in his present
+concealment, prior to the attempt by which he purposed to regain his
+native country.
+
+Constance loved the moonlight. The broad glare of day is so garish and
+extravagant. Besides, there is a restlessness and a buz no human being,
+at least no sensible human being, can endure. Everything is on the stir.
+Every creature, however paltry and insignificant, whether moth, mote, or
+atom, seems busy. Whereas, one serene soft gaze of the moon appears to
+allay nature's universal disquiet. The calm and mellow placidity of her
+look, so heavenly and undisturbed, lulls the soul, and subdues its
+operations to her influence.
+
+Constance, we may suppose, accidentally wandered by the end of the
+building, where, in the huge buttress of chimneys, a narrow crevice
+admitted light into the chamber occupied by the fugitive. At times,
+perhaps unconsciously, her eye wandered from the moon to this dreary
+abode; where it lingered longest is more than we dare tell. She drew
+nigh to the dark margin of the pond. The white swans were sleeping in
+the sedge. At her approach they fluttered clumsily to their element;
+there, the symbols of elegance and grace, like wreaths of sea-foam on
+its surface, they glided on, apparently without an impulse or an effort.
+She was gazing on them when a rustle amongst the willows on her left
+arrested her attention. Soon the mysterious and almost omnipresent form
+of Tyrone stood before her.
+
+"I must away, maiden--Constance!" His voice was mournful as the last
+faint sound of the evening bell upon the waters.
+
+"Why art thou here?" She said this in a tone of mingled anxiety and
+surprise.
+
+"Here? Too long have I lingered in these woods and around thy dwelling,
+Constance. But I must begone--for ever!"
+
+"For ever?" cried the perplexed girl, forgetful of all but the dread
+thought of that for ever!
+
+"Ay, for ever? Why should I stay?"
+
+This question, alas! she could not answer, but stood gazing on the dark
+water, and on the silver waves which the bright swans had rippled over
+the pool. Though she saw them not, yet the scene mingled itself
+insensibly with the feelings then swelling in her bosom; and these
+recurrent circumstances, in subsequent periods of her existence, never
+failed to bring the same dark tide of thought over the soul with vivid
+and agonising distinctness.
+
+"Maiden, beware!"
+
+Constance turned towards him:--the moonlight fell on his brow: the dark
+curls swept nobly out from their broad shadows twining luxuriantly about
+his cheek. His eyes were fixed on her, with an eagerness and an anguish
+in their expression the most absorbing and intense.
+
+"I have loved thee. Ay, if it be love to live whole nights on the memory
+of a glance,--on a smile,--on the indelible impress of thy form.
+Here,--here! But no living thing that I have loved;--no being that e'er
+looked on me with kindliness and favour, that has not been marked out
+for destruction. Oh, that those eyes had ne'er looked upon me! Thou wert
+happy, and I have lingered on thy footstep till I have dragged thee to
+the same gulph where all hope--all joy that e'er stole in upon my dark
+path, must perish."
+
+"Oh! do not foretaste thy misery thus," cried Constance. "The cruel
+sufferings thou hast undergone make thee apprehensive of evil. But how
+can _thy_ fate control my destiny?"
+
+"How, I know not," said Tyrone, "save that it shall bring the same
+clouds, in unmitigated darkness, about thy path. Dost thou love me? Nay,
+start not. Stay not!" cried he, making way for the maiden to pass. But
+Constance seemed unable to move,--terrified and speechless.
+
+"Perchance, thou knowest it not, but thou wouldest love me as a woman
+loves;--ay, beyond even the verge and extremity of hope! Even now the
+poison rankles in thy bosom. Hark!--'tis the doom yon glorious
+intelligences denounced from that glittering vault, when they proclaimed
+my birth!"
+
+He repeated the prediction as aforetime, with a deep, solemn
+intonation:--the maiden's blood seemed to curdle with horror. A pause of
+bewildering and mysterious terror followed. One brief minute in the
+lapse of time,--but an age in the records of thought! Constance, fearful
+of looking on the dark billows of the spirit, sought to avert her
+glance.
+
+"Thou art an exile, and misfortune prompted me to thy succour; thou hast
+won my pity, stranger."
+
+"Beshrew me, 'tis a wary and subtle deceiver, this same casuist love.
+Believe him not!" said he, in a burst and agony of soul that made
+Constance tremble. "He would lead thee veiled to the very brink of the
+precipice, then snatch the shelter from thine eyes and bid thee leap!
+Nay, 'tis not pride,--'tis the doom, the curse of my birthright that is
+upon me. Maiden! I will but strike to thine heart, and then--poor soul!"
+He shuddered; his voice grew tremulous and convulsed. "The stricken one
+shall fall. Hark! the hounds are again upon my track!" The
+well-practised ear of the hunted fugitive could discern the approach of
+footsteps long before they were audible to an ordinary listener:--his
+eye and ear seemed on the stretch;--his head bent forward in the same
+direction;--he breathed not. Even Constance seemed to suspend the
+current of her own thoughts at this interruption.
+
+"They are approaching. In all likelihood 'tis a posse from the sheriff."
+Again he listened. "They are armed. Nay, then, Tyrone thou must to
+cover: thou canst not flee. Point not to the hiding-place I have left.
+If, as I suspect, they bring a warrant of search, thy father's life may
+be in jeopardy."
+
+"Where,--oh, where?" said Constance, forgetful of all consequences, in
+her anxiety for her father's fate and that of the illustrious stranger.
+
+"In thy chamber, lady."
+
+She drew back in dismay.
+
+"Nay," continued he, guessing at the cause of her alarm. "They will not
+care to scrutinise for me there with much exactness; and, by the faith
+of my fathers, I will not wrong thee!"
+
+There was a frankness, an open and undisguised freedom of manner, in
+this address, which assured her. Her confidence returned, and she
+committed herself promptly to the issue. She felt her soul expand with
+the desire of contributing to his ultimate escape. All the ardour of her
+nature was concentrated in this generous and self-devoted feeling. Too
+innocent for suspicion she seemed to rise above its influence.
+
+Silently, and with due caution, she led the unfortunate Earl to her own
+chamber, where, in a recess opening through the bed's head into the
+arras, he seemed secure from discovery.
+
+Scarcely was this arrangement completed, ere a thundering knock
+announced the visitor. It was an officer of justice, attended by some
+half-dozen followers, who watched every avenue to the house whilst his
+message was delivered within.
+
+This official delivered into the hands of Holt a warrant for the
+apprehension of O'Neale, Earl of Tyrone, a traitor, then suspected of
+being harboured in the mansion of Grislehurst, whom the occupier was
+commanded, on pain of being treated as an accomplice, to deliver into
+the hands of justice, for the due administering of those pains and
+penalties which were attached to his crime.
+
+The loyal owner, fired with indignation at this foul charge, rebutting
+the accusation with contempt.
+
+"However loth," said the messenger, "I must execute mine office; and,
+seeing this first mission hath failed in its purpose, I have here a
+warrant of search. Mine orders are imperative."
+
+"I tell thee I have no plotters lurking here. Search and welcome;--but
+if thou findest aught in this house that smells of treason, the Queen
+may blot out my escutcheon. I'll dismount the _pheon_. The arrow-head
+shall return to its quiver. 'Twas honestly won, and, by our lady's
+grace, it shall be honestly worn!"
+
+"We must obey," said the officer; "it shall be done with all courtesy
+and despatch."
+
+Holt bit his lips with rage and vexation. From the suspicion of
+harbouring and aiding the traitor Tyrone, his known loyalty and good
+faith should have protected him. He hoped, however, to throw back on the
+author of this foul slander the disgrace attached to it. Smothering his
+wrath, and brooding over its gratification, he accompanied the
+messenger, who, placing an additional guard at the main entrance,
+proceeded with a wary eye to the search. He carefully scrutinised the
+shape of the rooms, striking the walls and wainscots, measuring the
+capacity of the chambers, that no space might be left unaccounted for
+either in one way or another. The concealed apartment in the
+chimney-range did not escape his examination. Closets, cupboards,
+folding-doors,--even the family pictures were turned aside, lest some
+strategem should lurk behind.
+
+Holt, with a look of malicious satisfaction, beheld every fresh
+disappointment, which he followed with undisguised expressions of
+ill-will.
+
+"Now for the women's apartments," said the officer.
+
+"I have but one daughter. Dost fancy that treason may be stitched in her
+petticoat? Thinkest thou she would hide this invisible gallant in her
+bedchamber? 'Sdeath, that it should ha' come to this! But I'll have my
+revenge."
+
+"I would fain spare thee from this contumely, but"----
+
+"But what?"
+
+"I must search the house through; and though I doubt not now that our
+information is false, yet I may not disobey the mandate I have
+received."
+
+"Is this thy courtesy?"
+
+"My courtesy must yet consist with the true and honest discharge of mine
+office. I wait not further parley."
+
+A short gallery communicated from the stairhead to the private chamber
+of Constance. They met her outside the door; and the timid girl grew
+pale as she beheld the officer led on by her father.
+
+"Constance," cried he, "thy chamber smacks of treason: it must be purged
+from this suspicion. This mousing owl will search the crannies even of a
+woman's wits ere he sate his appetite for discovery. Hast aught plotting
+in the hem of thy purfle, or in thy holiday ruff and fardingale? Come
+with us, wench;--the gallant Earl of Tyrone would sport himself bravely
+in thy bedchamber, pretty innocent!"
+
+"If my gallantry were akin to mine office,--then, lady, would I spare
+thy bosom and mine own nature this extremity. Believe me, thou shall
+suffer no rudeness at my hands."
+
+The officer bowed low, observing her confusion and distress.
+
+"Go with, us," said her father, "and leave not until our search is over.
+Mayhap he may find a lover in thy shoe, or in the wrinkles of thy
+rose-tie." He entered the chamber as he said this. It was a little room,
+tricked out with great elegance and beauty. Indian cabinets were there,
+and other costly ornaments, inlaid with ivory and pearl, in the
+arrangement of which, and of the other furniture, considerable taste was
+displayed. A lute lay in one corner;--tambour-work and embroidery
+occupied a recess near the window;--the clothes' presses showed their
+contents neatly folded, and carefully set out to the best advantage.
+
+"I'faith, wench, thy chamber seems well fitted for so goodly a brace of
+guests--not a thread awry. Everything in trim order for thy gallants,
+mayhap. Thou hast not been at thy studies of late.--I have seen its
+interior in somewhat less orderly fashion. I marvel if it might not be
+pranked out for our coming. Now, to work, sir:--where does thy grubbing
+begin?"
+
+Constance posted herself in a gloomy corner, where she could watch their
+proceedings almost unperceived. She hoped that in her chamber the search
+would not be so strict as in situations of more likelihood and
+probability for concealment. At any rate, the common feelings of
+delicacy and respect,--not quite extinct, she observed, even in this
+purveyor of justice,--would prevent any very exact and dangerous
+scrutiny. Nor was she deceived. He merely felt round the walls, opened
+the presses and closets, but did not disturb the bed furniture. He was
+retiring from the search, when her father scornfully taunted him with
+the ill success of his mission.
+
+"I wonder thou hast not tumbled the bed topsy-turvy. I am glad to see
+thou hast yet some grace and manners in thy vocation. Now, Sir
+Messenger, to requite thee for this thy courtesy and forbearance, I will
+show thee a secret tabernacle, which all thy prying has not been able to
+discover."
+
+Saying this he approached the bed: a spring was concealed in one of the
+posts communicating with the secret door behind which Tyrone was hidden.
+As he turned aside the drapery to ascertain precisely its situation,
+Constance, no longer able to control her apprehension of discovery,
+rushed before him. Her terror, for the time, threw her completely from
+her guard.
+
+"Do not, my father:--he must not look there. For my sake, oh, spare
+_this_"----
+
+She was silent:--her lips grew deadly pale; and she leaned against the
+pillar for support. The officer's suspicions were awakened, and he gave
+a shrewd guess at the truth.
+
+"Now, fair dame," he cried: "it is but an ungracious office to thwart a
+lady of her will, but I must see what lurks in that same secret recess.
+Master Holt, I prythee help me to a peep behind the curtain."
+
+But Holt was too much astonished to comply. What could exist there to
+excite his daughter's apprehensions so powerfully, puzzled him greatly.
+He had not a thought, the most remote, that could affect her
+fidelity;--yet he hesitated. The officer, in a more peremptory tone,
+demanded admission. Rousing from his stupor, and mortified at the folly
+of these girlish fancies, he struck the spring: in a trice, a portion of
+the bed's head flew open, displaying a dark chasm beyond. Swift as
+thought the officer darted through the aperture; but the door was
+immediately shut, and with great violence. A scuffle was heard within,
+but not a word was spoken. Holt, in doubt and consternation gazed with a
+wild and terrific aspect on the devoted Constance, who, covering her
+face, sought to avoid seeing the expected result of her imprudence. Her
+father now listened. There was a dread suspense in his look more fearful
+than even the most violent outburst of his wrath. He seemed every moment
+to expect some irrefragable proof,--some visible and overwhelming
+conviction of his daughter's infamy. The door was still closed. Groans
+were plainly audible, telling of some terrible strife within. Suddenly
+these indications ceased. Holt shuddered. He fancied some foul act was
+perpetrating--perhaps even now consummated--under his own roof; and
+swift would be the vengeance required at his hands. Constance, too,
+seemed to apprehend the commission of some deadly crime, as she threw
+herself imploringly before her father.
+
+"Save them,--oh, save them!--their strife is mortal!"
+
+He shook her from him with a glance of abhorrence, and the maiden fell
+heavily on the floor. He was preparing to enter when the door flew open,
+and a form rushed through in the gaudy apparel of the officer. He leaped
+on the floor, and, ere Holt could utter a word, he heard him descending
+the stairs with great precipitation.
+
+"Whom hast thou concealed in thy bedchamber?" inquired the almost
+frantic father. Constance sat on the ground, her head resting on the
+chair beside which she had fallen. She wept not, but her heart was full
+even to bursting.
+
+"What is the name of thy paramour?--Thou hast been somewhat eager,
+methinks, to accomplish thine own and a father's disgrace?"
+
+This cutting address roused her. She replied, but in a firm tone--
+
+"A stranger,--an exile. Misfortune appeals not to woman's heart
+unalleviated. He threw himself on my protection; and where the feelings
+own no taint, their purity is not sullied,--even in a lady's
+bedchamber!"
+
+A glance of insulted pride passed over her beautifully-formed features.
+It was but for a moment. The agony of her spirit soon drank up the
+slender rill her feelings had gushed forth, and she stood withered and
+drooping before the angry frown of her father.
+
+"Surely, 'tis not the rebel Tyrone that my daughter harbours in the
+privacy of her chamber? Speak!--Nay, then hast thou indeed brought an
+old man's grey hairs to the grave in sorrow! Treason!--Oh, that I have
+lived for this,--and my own flesh and blood hath done it. Out of my
+sight, unnatural monster. Dare not to crawl again across my path, lest I
+kill thee!"
+
+"O my father! I am indeed innocent." She again threw herself at his
+feet, but he spurned her from him as though he loathed her beyond
+endurance. Boiling and maddened with rage at the presumption of this
+daring rebel, Holt, forgetful of his own danger, seized the light. He
+burst open the secret door; but what was his astonishment on beholding,
+not the hated form of Tyrone, but the officer of justice himself,
+gagged, pinioned, and deprived of his outer dress. The cap and mantle of
+Tyrone, by his side, told too plainly of the daring and dangerous
+exploit by which his escape had been effected.
+
+The outlaw, soon after his enlargement, finding that the cause he had
+espoused was hopeless, and that matters were at the last extremity in
+his own fate, and that of his unhappy country,--fearful, too, of drawing
+the innocent Constance and her father into the deep vortex of his own
+ruin,--made all haste to the capital, where, through the powerful
+interest excited in his behalf, aided by his well-known valour and the
+influence he was known to possess amongst his countrymen, he received a
+free pardon from the Queen.
+
+Yet his thoughts lingered on the remembrance of her to whose heroic and
+confiding spirit he owed his safety. Never had his proud bosom been so
+enthralled. Though nurtured in camps, amid the din of arms, and the
+shout of the battle, yet his knowledge of the female heart was almost
+intuitive. He had loved more than once, but in every case the attachment
+ended unhappily, terminating either by the death of the object or by
+some calamity his own evil fate had unavoidably brought upon its victim.
+Though fearful the same operation of his destiny would ensue, and that
+misery and misfortune would still follow the current of his affections,
+yet he resolved to behold once more the maiden he loved with an ardour
+almost surpassing his own belief.
+
+One cold dull morning, towards the wane of the year, when the heavy
+drops lay long on the rank herbage; no sunbeam yet loitering through the
+damp chill atmosphere, but the sky one wide and unvarying expanse--a sea
+of cloud--here and there a black scud passing over, like a dim bark
+sweeping across the bosom of that "waveless deep," a stranger stood by a
+low wicket near the mansion of Grislehurst. He looked wistfully at the
+gloomy windows, unlighted by a single reflection from without, like the
+rayless night of his own soul:--they were mostly closed. A mysterious
+and unusual stillness prevailed. The brown leaves fluttered about,
+unswept from the dreary avenues. Decayed branches obstructed the paths;
+and every object wore a look of wretchedness and dilapidation. The only
+sign of occupancy and life was one grey wreath of smoke, curling heavily
+from its vent, as if oppressed with the gloom by which it was
+surrounded. The melancholy note of the redbreast was the only living
+sound, as the bird came hopping towards him with its usual air of
+familiarity and respect. Enveloped in a military cloak, and in his cap a
+dark feather drooping gently over his proud features, the stranger
+slowly approached the house: a side-door stood partly open. He entered.
+A narrow passage led into the hall. No embers brightened the huge
+chimney. The table showed no relics of the feast,--no tokens of the past
+night's revel. The deer's antlers still hung over the master's place at
+the board, but the oaken chair was gone. Dust and desertion had played
+strange antics in these "high places." The busy spider had wreathed her
+dingy festoons in mockery over the pomp she degraded.
+
+He listened, but there was no sound, save the last faint echo of his
+footstep. Turning towards the staircase, a beautiful spaniel, a sort of
+privileged favourite of Constance, came, with a deep growl, as if to
+warn away the intruder. But the sagacious animal suddenly fawned upon
+him, and with a low whine ascended the stairs, looking back wistfully,
+as though inviting him to follow.
+
+Scarcely knowing why, or bestowing one thought on the nature of his
+intrusion, he ascended. The place seemed familiar to him. He entered a
+narrow gallery, where he paused, overcome by some sudden and
+overwhelming emotion. The dog stood too, looking back with a low and
+sorrowful whine. With a sudden effort he grappled with and shook off the
+dark spirit that threatened to overpower him. A low murmur was heard
+apparently from a chamber at no great distance. Without reflecting a
+moment on the impropriety of his situation, he hastily approached the
+door. His guide, with a look of almost irresistible persuasion, implored
+him to enter.
+
+It was the chamber of Constance. A female was kneeling by the bed, too
+much absorbed to be conscious of his approach: she was in the attitude
+of prayer. He recognised the old nurse,--her eye glistening in the
+fervour of devotion, whilst pouring forth, to her FATHER in secret, the
+agony of soul that words are too feeble to express.
+
+Bending over the bed, as if for the support of some frail victim of
+disease, he beheld the lord of the mansion. His look was wild and
+haggard;--no moisture floated over his eyeballs: they were glazed and
+motionless; arid as the hot desert,--no refreshing rain dropped from
+their burning orbs, dimmed with the shadows of despair.
+
+Stretched on the bed, her pale cheek resting on the bosom of her father,
+lay the yet beauteous form of Constance Holt. A hectic flush at times
+passed across her features. Her lip, shrunk and parched with the fever
+that consumed her, was moistened by an attendant with unremitting and
+unwearied assiduity; her eye often rose in tenderness on her parent, as
+if anxious to impart to him the consolation she enjoyed.
+
+"Oh, I am happy, my father!" Here a sudden change was visible,--some
+chord of sorrow was touched, and it vibrated to her soul.
+
+Her father spoke not.
+
+"I _have_ loved!--Oh, faithfully. But, now--let me die without a murmur
+to Thee, or one wish but Thy will, and I am happy!" She raised her soft
+and streaming eyes towards the throne of that Mercy she addressed. The
+cloud passed, but she sank back on her pillow, exhausted with the
+conflict. Her father bent over her in silent terror, anticipating the
+last struggle. Suddenly he exclaimed, as if to call back the yet
+lingering spirit:--
+
+"Live, my Constance! Could I save thee, thou blighted bud--blighted by
+my"--His lip grew pale; he struck his forehead, and a groan like the
+last expiring throe of nature escaped him.
+
+"Would the destroyer of my peace were here!--'Tis too late--or I would
+not now forbid thy love. But he was a traitor, a rebel--else"----
+
+Constance gradually revived from her insensibility. A sudden flash from
+the departing spirit seemed to have animated her--a new and vehement
+energy, which strangely contrasted with her weak and debilitated frame.
+
+"I have seen him," she cried. "Oh, methought his form passed before
+me;--but it is gone!" She looked eagerly round the apartment; other eyes
+involuntarily followed,--but no living object could be distinguished
+through the chill and oppressive gloom that brooded over that chamber of
+death.
+
+"It was a vision--a shadowy messenger from the tomb. Yet, once more if I
+might see him--ere I die." A deep sob, succeeded by a rapid gush of
+tears, relieved her; but it told of the powerful and all-pervading
+passion not yet extinguished in her breast.
+
+"We shall meet!" again she raised her eyes towards that throne to which
+the sigh of the sufferer never ascended in vain.
+
+"Yes, my own--my loved Constance, now!" cried the stranger, rushing from
+his concealment. He clasped her in his arms. A gleam, like sunlight
+across the wave, shot athwart the shadow that was gathering on her eye.
+It seemed the forerunner of a change. The anxious father forbore to
+speak, but he looked on his daughter with an agony that seemed to
+threaten either reason or existence. Constance gazed on her lover, but
+her eye gradually became more dim. Her band relaxed in his grasp, yet
+her features wore a look of serenity and happiness.
+
+"O most merciful Father! Thou hast heard my prayer, through Him whose
+merits have found me a place in that glory to which I come. Be merciful
+to him whose love is true as mine own, and faithful unto death. Tyrone,
+we meet again!--Oh, how have I prayed for thee!" Her eyes seemed to
+brighten even in this world with the glories of another.
+
+"Farewell!--I hear the hymns of yon ransomed ones around the throne.
+They beckon my spirit from these dark places of sorrow. Now--farewell!"
+
+She cast one look towards her lover: it was the last glimpse of earth.
+The next moment her gaze was on the brightness of that world whence
+sorrow and sighing flee away. So sudden was the transition, that the
+first smile of the disembodied spirit seemed to linger on the abode she
+had left, like the evening cloud, reflecting the glories of another sky,
+ere it fades for ever into the darkness and solitude of night.
+
+[Illustration: HOGHTON TOWER.
+
+_Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden._]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[22] Cox, p. 415.
+
+[23] Sydney's Letters.
+
+[24] Camden.
+
+[25] Camden.
+
+[26] Camden, p. 645.
+
+[27] Winwood, vol. i. p. 369.
+
+[28] In the parish church of St Chad, Rochdale, is a marble tablet,
+erected by John Entwisle, Esquire, a descendant of Sir Bertine, on which
+is the following inscription:--
+
+"To perpetuate a memorial in the church of St Alban's (perished by
+time), this marble is here placed to the memory of a gallant and loyal
+man, Sir Bertine Entwisel, Knight, Viscount and Baron of Brybeke, in
+Normandy, and some time Bailiff of Constantin, in which office he
+succeeded his father-in-law, Sir John Ashton, whose daughter Lucy first
+married Sir Richard le Byron, an ancestor of the Lord Byrons, Barons of
+Rochdale, and, secondly, Sir Bertine Entwisel, who, after performing
+repeated acts of valour in the service of his sovereigns, Henry V. and
+VI., more particularly at Agincourt, was killed in the first battle of
+St Alban's, and on his tomb was recorded in brass the following
+inscription:--
+
+"'Here lyth Syr Bertine Entwisel, Knighte, which was born in
+Lancastershyre, and was Viscount and Baron of Brybeke in Normandy, and
+Bailiff of Constantin, who died fighting on King Henry VI. party, 28th
+May, 1455.
+
+"'_On whose sowl Jesu have mercy!_'"
+
+
+
+
+HOGHTON TOWER.
+
+
+    "Pastime with good company
+    I love, and shall until I die;
+    Grudge so will, but none deny;
+    So God be pleased, so live will I.
+      For my pastance,
+      Hunt, sing, and dance,
+      My heart is set;
+      All godly sport,
+      To my comfort,
+      Who shall me let!"
+
+_The Kinges Balade._
+
+    "God gives not kings the style of gods in vain,
+      For on his throne his sceptre do they sway;
+      And, as their subjects ought them to obey,
+    So kings should feare and serve their God againe."
+
+_King James to his Son Prince Henry_.
+
+"The ancient castle denominated Hoghton Tower stands on the summit of a
+hill, formerly shrouded with trees, four miles and a half west of
+Blackburn. It was erected by Sir Thomas Hoghton, in the beginning of
+Elizabeth's reign. It remained for several generations the principal
+seat of the Hoghton family; and after part of it had been blown up by
+accident, when garrisoned for Charles the First, the injury was
+repaired. The family have now removed to Walton Hall; and Hoghton Tower
+is left to decay, two poor families inhabiting the south wing only. A
+ponderous gateway, immediately under the centre tower, leads to the
+quadrangular courtyard, capable of holding six hundred men. The noble
+embattled tower, forming the west front, with its two minor square
+towers, serve as appendages to the north and south wing, and are united
+by low walls. Within the courtyard, a noble flight of steps leads to the
+middle quadripartite, similar in aspect to Stonyhurst College, the
+ancient residence of the Sherbornes. This middle pile contains large
+staircases, branching out to long galleries, into which the several
+chambers open. One chamber, still called James the First's room, is
+considered 'most worthy of notice;' it has two square windows in both
+north and south, is beautifully wainscoted, and contains some old
+furniture. A fine prospect is gained from this ancient and sequestered
+abode: the pretty village of Walton-le-dale, delightfully situate in a
+valley, the improving town of Preston, and the single-coned Nase Point
+presenting itself majestically in the distance. The gentle river Darwen
+pursues its placid course among the enclosures at the base of the hill."
+
+The above description, extracted from Nichols's _Royal Progresses of
+James the First_, and likewise the particulars scattered through the
+following tale, will, we hope, convey to the reader a pretty accurate
+idea of this noble but deserted mansion.
+
+A petition, which was presented here (some say at Meyerscough) to King
+James, by a great number of Lancashire peasants, tradesmen, and
+servants, requesting that they might be allowed to take their diversions
+(as of old accustomed) after divine service on Sundays, is said to have
+been the origin of the _Book of Sports_, soon after promulgated by royal
+authority. James being persuaded those were Puritans who forbade such
+diversions, and that they were Jewishly inclined, because they affected
+to call Sunday the Sabbath, recommended that diverting exercises should
+be used after evening prayer, and ordered the book to be read publicly
+in all churches; and such ministers as refused to obey the injunction
+were threatened with severe punishment in the High Commission Court.
+This legal violation of the day which is unequivocally the Christian
+Sabbath, roused at the time the indignation of the seriously disposed,
+and has been frequently reprobated by historians. Foremost of its
+opposers, and eminent in example, stands the virtuous and firm
+Archbishop Abbot, who, being at Croydon the day it was ordered to be
+read in churches, flatly forbade it to be read there; which the King was
+pleased to wink at, notwithstanding the daily endeavours that were used
+to irritate the King against him. The _Book of Sports_ is not, however,
+without its apologists among modern writers. The following are Mr
+D'Israeli's remarks on the subject:--"The King found the people in
+Lancashire discontented, from the unusual deprivation of their popular
+recreations on Sundays and holidays after the church service: 'With our
+own ears we heard the general complaint of our people.' The Catholic
+priests were busily insinuating among the lower orders that the Reformed
+religion was a sullen deprivation of all mirth and social amusements,
+and thus 'turning the people's hearts.' But while they were denied what
+the King terms 'lawful recreations' (which are enumerated to consist of
+dancing, archery, leaping, vaulting, May-games, Whitsun-ales,
+morris-dances, and the setting up of Maypoles, and other manly sports),
+they had substituted some vicious ones. Alehouses were more frequented,
+drunkenness more general, tale-mongery and sedition, the vices of
+sedentary idleness, prevailed, while a fanatical gloom was spreading
+over the country. The King, whose gaiety of temper instantly sympathised
+with the multitude, being perhaps alarmed at this new shape which
+Puritanism was assuming, published the _Book of Sports_, which soon
+obtained the contemptuous name of 'The Dancing Book'" (_Life of James_,
+p. 135). In reply to this view of the subject we shall, for the present,
+conclude with Dr Whitaker's remark, that "The King was little aware of
+the effects which the ill-judged licence was likely to produce on the
+common people. The relics of it are hardly worn out to this day; and
+there is scarcely a Sunday evening in any village of the county of
+Lancaster which does not exhibit symptoms of obedience to the injunction
+of honest 'recreation.'"--_Royal Progresses of James I_.
+
+On the 15th of August, in the year 1617, a day memorable for its heat
+and brightness, and for the more enduring glory shed over this remote
+corner of our rejoicing and gladdened realm, came forth King James, from
+the southern gate of his loyal borough of Preston, in a gilded and
+unwieldy caroche, something abated of its lustre by reason of long
+service and the many vicissitudes attending his Majesty's "progresses,"
+which he underwent to the great comfort and well-being of his dominions.
+
+It were needless to set forth the mighty state in which this war-hating
+monarch, this "vicegerent of Divinity," departed--or the great error and
+agitation of Mr Breares, the lawyer, when he made a marvellous proper
+speech at the town-cross--wiping his forehead thrice, and his mouth
+barely once. Nor shall we dilate upon the distress, and dazzling silk
+doublets of the mayor and aldermen of this proud and thrice-happy
+borough--nor how they knelt to the soft salute of his Majesty's hand.
+Our whole book were a space too brief, and a region too inglorious, for
+the wide pomp and paraphernalia of the time; and how the bailiff rode,
+and the mace-bearer guarded the caroche, it were presumption, an
+offensive compound of ignorance and pride, to attempt the portraiture.
+Suffice it to say, they wore mulberry-coloured taffeta gowns, carried
+white staves and foot-cloths, and were preceded by twenty-four stout
+yeomen riding before the king, with fringed javelins, unto a place
+beyond Walton, where they departed. Our object is to notice matters of
+less magnitude and splendour; occurrences then too trivial to guide the
+pen of the chronicler, lost beneath the blaze and effulgence that
+followed on the track of this pageant-loving king. Scraps, which the
+pomps and vanities of those days would have degraded, we thus snatch
+from oblivion; a preservation more worthy, and an occupation more
+useful, we hope, than to hand down to admiring ages the colour and cut
+of taffeta or brocade.
+
+This "wisest" of earthly kings was an ill-spoiled compound of qualities,
+the types of which existed in his monitor and his preceptor; two great
+men, whom history has not failed to distinguish--Archie Armstrong and
+George Buchanan--the wit and the scholar, which in him became the
+representatives of two much more useful and esteemed qualities--fool and
+pedant!
+
+Attended by his favourite Buckingham and a numerous train of officials,
+he "progressed" upon the road to Hoghton Tower, the spacious and
+splendid dwelling of Sir Richard Hoghton, the first baronet of that
+family, whose guest he was to continue for a space, to the great envy
+and admiration of the whole neighbourhood.
+
+As they came nigh the Tower, nothing could be conceived more beautiful
+or picturesque. Its embattled-gateway, bartizans, and battlements,
+crowning the summit of a bold and commanding eminence, became brightly
+illuminated, flashing against grim and shapeless masses of cloud, the
+shattered relics of a storm, that was rolling away in the distance.
+
+Many of the neighbouring gentry were in attendance, not disdaining to
+wear, out of grace and courtesy to Sir Richard Hoghton, the livery of
+their thrice-honoured entertainer.
+
+The king's train alone were very numerous, amongst whom appeared Lord
+Zouch, Constable of Dover Castle, and Sir George Goring, Lieutenant of
+the Gentlemen Pensioners.[29] With the latter rode Sir John Finett,[30]
+Assistant Master of the Ceremonies, but who acted the chief part in this
+important office during the king's journey; two worthies, of whom it
+might be said, that for tempering of the king's humour, and aptness in
+ministering to his delights, their like could scarcely have been found.
+Such nights of feasting and dancing, such days of hawking, hunting, and
+horse-racing, had never before gladdened the heart of "Merry Englonde,"
+or England's monarchs. It seemed as if the whole realm were given up to
+idolatry and dissipation. The idol pleasure was worshipped with such
+ardour and devotion, that all ranks were striving to outdo each other in
+tinsel, trumpery, and deeds of worthlessness and folly.
+
+The king loved such disguises and representations as were witty and
+sudden; the more ridiculous, and to him the more pleasant. This vain and
+frivolous humour might seem unworthy and unbecoming in so great a
+prince, whose profundity of wisdom had well entitled him to the
+appellation of "our English Solomon," did we not call to remembrance
+that the greatest of men have not disdained to be children in their
+sports; the deepest dispositions of the mind seeming to require the
+lightest and most frivolous recreations.
+
+These worthy purveyors to the king's pleasure were of a temper and
+capacity widely different. Sir George Goring was caustic and severe; Sir
+John Finett pleasant and social, delighting in nothing so much as in the
+happiness and gratification of his friends. But the natural disposition
+of his thoughts was wild and melancholic, taking its hue from some early
+impression, that was now fading in doubt and disappointment.
+
+The full burst of his hilarity floated joyously on the surface, and his
+loud mirth, blunting the keen edge of his own feelings, became the more
+exhilarating in proportion to their acuteness. He had the warm blood of
+the Italian in his veins, being descended from an ancient family of
+Sienna; and his rich brown cheek and darkly-speaking eye belied not the
+land of his origin. Goring was fat and swarthy: his nose small and
+supercilious, and his eye grey and piercing. He cared not whom he
+wounded, provided the shafts he drew were well pointed; and his wit
+quick and well-aimed, causing the king to laugh, and his victim to
+writhe during their operation.
+
+As the monarch sate discoursing with the Duke of Buckingham, being sore
+heated, he threw open the windows of his coach, from whence he
+occasionally obtruded his wise head for a survey, and a visit from some
+vagrant and silly breeze, if any were abroad. The roads admitted not of
+aught but the gentlest paces, and the great clamour and cloud about the
+procession made the dust and heat excessively annoying; whereupon the
+king, it is said, did apply a very uncourteous epithet to some of his
+loving subjects, who came too close upon his person, which, though not
+generally averse to being gazed at, was in too warm an atmosphere at
+present for enjoying these kingly exhibitions.
+
+"O' my saul, that meikle stane would build a bra' chappin-block for my
+Lord Provost," said royalty, its head again stationed at the window,
+surveying with solemn curiosity an egg-shaped stone of the boulder sort,
+which, sure enough, was of a remarkable bigness, though not of that
+rarity or infrequence that should have drawn forth the wonder of a king.
+His native dialect he generally employed on jocose and familiar
+subjects. In affairs of importance he affected the use of the English
+tongue, which he spoke with great formality and pomp.
+
+"Stop," said he. "There be _literae_ or letters thereon. Unto what
+purport?"
+
+But no one could resolve him as to the use of the stone, or the purport
+of the writing. His worthy host protested that the wonder had never
+before been observed. It was doubtless some miracle worked for the
+occasion.
+
+"But the _scriptum_ or writing will set forth the motive or argument
+thereto. The letters be goodly and well-shapen."
+
+Many voices recited the inscription, forming the following ill-spelled
+line.
+
+    "_Torne me o're, an I'le tel thee plaine_."
+
+The well-known childish curiosity of the monarch would not permit him to
+go away unsatisfied. The day was hot, and the stone was heavy; but a
+long and laborious toil brought to light the following satisfactory
+intelligence,--
+
+    "_Hot porritch softens hard butter-cakes,
+    So torne me o'er again_"[31]
+
+"And o' my saul," said the king, "ye shall gang roun' to yere place
+again; for sa meikle as these country gowks mauna ken the riddle without
+the labour."
+
+So the "muckle stane" was replaced for the next comer who had strength
+and curiosity enough to unriddle the sphinx.
+
+But James did not relish fooleries wherein he was the butt. Whether it
+was devised by some wicked rhymester and contemner of royalty in the
+neighbourhood, or placed there by some of the wits of his own company,
+was never ascertained, though he challenged them at random, and swore
+lustily that he would know the originator of this piece of folly and
+impertinence.
+
+As the king drew nigh to the avenue, there presently issued forth a
+goodly flourish of trumpets, which made the women caper and the horses
+prance. Sir Richard Hoghton rode with the king; but his son Sir Gilbert
+met his Majesty with a great retinue, clad mostly after the same
+fashion; many of the neighbouring gentry, as we have before observed,
+not disdaining to put on Sir Richard's gowns and liveries, to swell the
+pomp and magnificence of that memorable occasion.
+
+The javelin-bearers rode two and two: halting at his Majesty's approach,
+they formed an avenue, through which Sir Gilbert, sumptuously attired,
+went forth to salute the king. His cloak and hose were all glistening
+and spangled with embroidery; his vest was cloth of gold, enriched with
+rare and costly stones; his shirt-bands and ruffles were worked in
+silver; and his gloves, Spanish, breathing out the choicest perfume; his
+hat was of French murrey, the brims thick set with gold twist and
+spangles; round it was a band of goldsmith's work, looped with a crystal
+button.
+
+On approaching the monarch he gracefully alighted; whereupon James
+commanded that the carriage should be stayed, thrusting out his hand in
+a very gracious sort to this worthy knight, who, on his knees, received
+the blessing.
+
+His Majesty then took horse, assisted by Buckingham, who held the
+stirrup. But the king's peculiar and unsteady vaulting was much noticed.
+Many of the bystanders, not aware of his Majesty's dislike to these
+equestrian feats, marvelled not a little at the motion of his leg, and
+the disturbed and uneasy position he assumed. The pathway up the avenue
+was laid with purple velvet, on which the glittering cavalcade, horse
+and foot, formed a noble pageant, whose pomp was almost dazzling to
+behold. The carriages took another path opened for the occasion. The
+whole area in front of the Tower teemed with multitudes, whose shouts
+and huzzas made the very hills and echoes loyal, while they rang with
+acclamations to their sovereign. Presently issued forth from the middle
+gateway two curiously-attired figures, bearing emblems to indicate
+their character and design. There were living allegories, represented by
+the house-steward and Hobbe Handycap, the forester or tienman, keeper of
+vert and venison, a "ryghte merrie knave," and one foremost in all
+pastimes and "honest recreations;" a great promoter and performer of
+May-games, morris-dancing, and the like. These figures were to be
+conceived as household gods, the tutelary deities of Hoghton. The first
+spokesman was clad in a purple taffeta mantle; in one hand was a
+palm-tree branch, on his head a garland of the like sort, and in the
+other hand he carried a dog.
+
+King James accustomed to, and expecting these mummeries, made a full
+stop, when, forthwith, began the purple mantle as follows--
+
+    "This day, great Kinge, for government admired,
+    Which these thy subjects have so much desired,
+    Shall be kept holy in their heart's best treasure,
+    And vowed to James, as is this month to Caesar;"
+
+with a good score of lines besides, of the like brevity and metre. In
+them he was said to be greater even than the immortal gods themselves,
+seeing that they came to render their homage unto him, together with all
+things else over which they bare rule, even as the greater doth include
+the less.
+
+Then spake Hobbe, the deity of the chase:--
+
+"Greatest of mortals!"
+
+But he was presently nonplussed, and the steward stept forth to his
+relief, reciting how that the glorious beams from his Majesty's person
+had stricken dumb this weaker divinity. Having finished, the heat being
+intense, and they mightily encumbered with garments, did presently turn
+their backs on the king's majesty, making all speed towards the gateway
+for shelter. This breach of good manners was not unnoticed by the
+monarch, who said, wittily, we suppose, for it was much applauded, that
+these gods were not of High Olympus, but of the nether sort, inasmuch as
+they had turned tail upon their subject.
+
+James and his company, passing through the ponderous and embattled
+gateway, entered into the great quadrangle, an area, it is reported, of
+sufficient size to contain six hundred men. Here he alighted, and was
+conducted in great state to the oaken chamber, where, royalty being very
+hot, a tankard of Rhenish wine, mingled with rosewater, was handed to
+him; of this he partook but sparingly, calling to Buckingham for a cup
+of muscadine and eggs.
+
+Goring and Finett were not idle, but each of them fully employed in
+their respective vocations. Sir John had been pierced by a pair of dark
+eyes from the crowd upon the staircase, and Goring was making all haste
+for the royal hunt, his Majesty having signified that he would on that
+same evening kill a stag. James was, generally, as quick to resolve as
+he was impotent to execute; vacillating, and without any fixed purpose,
+in matters that required decision and promptitude of action.
+
+With his usual pusillanimity the king went through the business of the
+hunt, the deer being literally driven into the very teeth of the dogs.
+An hour having been thus occupied, he commanded that they should return,
+highly satisfied with his own skill and intrepidity. Ascending the hill
+with his favourite, Goring, and discoursing pleasantly on this noble
+pastime, the king turned round on the sudden, as though recollecting
+something he had lost.
+
+"What! Jack Finett. Quhere? quhere, I say, is my Sienna balsam?" said
+he, laying a deep emphasis on the guttural. This sally was acknowledged
+with delight by the courtiers. But "Jack" had not been seen or even
+remembered. Some trick or device was doubtless intended, and the king
+held himself in readiness for the expected surprise; but none was
+forthcoming. No magazine of mirth exploded; no mine was sprung; and
+James entered into his chamber without any visible expression of
+jocoseness issuing from the fertile brains of Sir John Finett. The
+irritation produced by his absence seemed to arise, not from any need of
+him, but from that tormenting desire which mortals universally feel for
+the possession of objects beyond their reach. Search was commanded for
+the truant, unsuccessfully; and supper was begun.
+
+The eastern side of the hill on which the tower is built is bold and
+rugged, being steep and difficult of access. At its base the Darwen
+forces itself through a narrow channel, its waters tumbling over huge
+heaps of rock, and reeling in mazy eddies to the echo of their own
+voice. The river seems to have worked itself a passage through the
+chasm; and the boiling and noisy torrent, struggling to free itself from
+observation, foams and bellows like the gorge of a whirlpool, from
+whence originates its name, "The Orr," not unlike in sound to the effect
+that is here produced.
+
+On the opposite shore the rock is nearly perpendicular, the dog-rose
+and the bramble hiding its crevices, and the crawling campanula
+wreathing its bright bells about the sterile front, from which its
+sustenance was derived, like youth clinging to the cold and insensate
+bosom of age. The declivity sloping abruptly from the tower was then
+covered with a wild and luxuriant underwood, stunted ash and hazel twigs
+thinly occupying a succession of ridges to the summit. Here and there a
+straggling oak threw its ungraceful outline over a narrow path, winding
+immediately under the base of the hill,--its bare roots undermined by
+oozings from above, and giving way to the slow but certain operation of
+the destroyer. From the heat and dryness of the season the torrent was
+much diminished, rushing into a succession of deep pools, which the full
+free light of heaven had scarcely ever visited. Now dimly seen through
+the hot gleams of a summer evening, they seemed wavering in the lurid
+reflection from surrounding objects.
+
+Up this narrow gorge had strayed Sir John Finett with a companion, too
+busily engaged, it might seem, in their own converse to note the lapse
+of time, and the probable consequences of the king's displeasure.
+
+"Fair lady," said the gay cavalier, "I am not more bold than my vocation
+holdeth meet. Your cousin, at Myerscough, was so liberal of his own
+suit, and my countenance therein, that he hath entrusted this
+love-billet to my keeping, warning me that I should let none but
+yourself be privy to its delivery."
+
+"Would that my cousin had eschewed letter-writing! I am averse to his
+suit, and yet he ceaseth not to vex me continually with his drivelling
+ditties. His ballad-mongering to these 'eyne' alone would set up one of
+your court rhymesters for a twelvemonth."
+
+"Yet may aversion cease, and your mislikings be not over difficult to
+assuage," said the courtier.
+
+"I doubt not but Sir John Finett speaks of the capricious and changeable
+humours he hath witnessed;--our country fashion holdeth not so lightly
+by its affection or disfavour."
+
+"Then there be doubtless of those stout vessels that shall never leak
+out a lady's favour. That this lot were mine!"
+
+Sir John, perhaps unconsciously, threw his dark eyes full upon the lady,
+who blushed deeply; but the gloom concealed this outward show of
+feeling, too unformed and indefinite for thought. She spoke not; but the
+knight, under cover of his errand, continued the discourse without
+awakening her alarm. He excelled in that specious, though apparently
+heedless raillery, which is so apt to slip without suspicion into a
+lady's ear; and he could ply his suit, under this disguise, with such
+seeming artlessness and unconcern, that a lodgement in the citadel was
+sometimes effected ere the garrison was aware of the intrusion.
+
+This fair dame, Grace Gerard, was of gentle blood, a daughter of the
+Gerards of Ashton Hall, near Lancaster. At the earnest solicitations of
+the Hoghton family, she was induced to remain a guest with them during
+the royal visit. Of a sweet and excellent temper, her form and face were
+its very image and counterpart. The world was to her untried--fresh,
+fair, unblemished--she looked upon it as though she were newly alighted
+on "some heaven-kissing hill," from whence the whole round of life's
+journey was blent and mingled with the glowing beam that now encompassed
+her. Alas! that youth should so soon pluck and eat of the "Tree of
+Knowledge!" that a nearer approach should dissipate the illusion! that
+our path, as it winds through those scenes we have looked on from afar
+in the light of our imagination, should at every step discover the
+tracks of misery,--a world of wretchedness and of woe!
+
+Sir John, with all his faults, inseparable it may be from the society
+into which he had been thrown, was not vicious. Loving and beloved, he
+existed but as the object of woman's regard. This foible he indulged not
+farther. But many a bright eye waxed dim,--many a fond heart was
+withered, in the first spring-tide of its affection.
+
+"Now that I have granted you this audience for my cousin's sake, and
+given him my reply, it is needful that we return. Besides, the night is
+coming on. The king and the feast demand your presence."
+
+"Nay, thou cruel tyrant, tell me not of my chain. The king's humour I
+can control, but"----
+
+"Presume not on the favour of princes; an ancient but wholesome
+caution," said the maiden, laughing at Sir John, who, for the first
+time, seemed to be aware of his duty, and was puzzling his brains for an
+excuse.
+
+The bell now rang out lustily from the Tower, increasing the knight's
+perplexity. The innocent cause of this delay only laughed at his
+concern, singing, as though to herself--
+
+    "'The bell has been rung, and the mass hath been sung,
+      And the feast eat merrily,
+                        Merrily!'
+
+"and the king's master of the ceremonies absent."
+
+The aspect of affairs was now more serious than he had anticipated.
+Supper was indeed commencing. Some scheme or witty device must be hit
+upon,--speedily too, or the king's displeasure might be difficult to
+assuage.
+
+"But for thy bright eyes and fair speech, my lady Grace, I had not been
+amissing from my duty." He looked thoughtful, and it was the maiden's
+turn to rally.
+
+They ascended the hill by a short but steep path. As they approached the
+summit, he seemed to awake from a deep reverie.
+
+"Now have you granted me an audience for a lover's sake--to-morrow, let
+me be the ambassador for another."
+
+"I have no lovers from whom I would care to be honoured with an
+embassy!"
+
+"None?" said the knight, peering curiously, as if he would penetrate the
+folds of a real Flanders scarf she had thrown carelessly about her
+head--
+
+    "'Then will I be thy lover true,
+      And thou my beauteous queene,'
+
+"through these gay festivities. But mark me!"--He became serious on the
+sudden. The expression of his eye, from its general character of assumed
+gaiety, was changed into that of tenderness and respect. "Mark me, lady,
+I would be spared the horror of a rival. Will you be my partner in these
+pageantries--my mistress unto whom I may render mine homage and my
+trust?"
+
+"'Tis a brave speech, Sir John," cried the lady, as though wishful to
+divert the subject. "My cousin tells me that you are a knight of great
+courage and renown, but he sayeth not aught of your disposition to
+outrival him in heroics. Good-bye--a promise made is a promise broken;
+therefore, I'll offer none. I meet you not to-night at the feast, having
+obtained mine excuse."
+
+Saying this, she bounded from him ere he was aware, and was speedily out
+of sight.
+
+He was not a little chagrined at her abrupt departure; yet her very
+carelessness, and the open simplicity of her manner, only served to fix
+her the more deeply in his thoughts. But a problem of greater difficulty
+was to be resolved than how to fix the chameleon hue of woman's
+thought. He had a king to pacify--wayward as a child, fickle as a lady's
+favour. Unless he could acquit himself by some witty quibble or device,
+he might bid adieu to the gaieties over which he presided. The time was
+short, and his wit must needs be ambling. As he passed through the
+court, revolving many plans for his deliverance, he was aware of a loud
+dispute between the two household divinities we have before noticed.
+Words were nigh being exchanged for blows, but they were stayed out of
+respect to the intruder.
+
+Leaving Sir John to confer with those doughty disputants, let us follow
+the king to supper. Space forbids that we describe the wonders of this
+feast, and the dainties that were provided--how the swans were roasted,
+and the herons eaten cold--how pies were baked of the red deer, and the
+wild boar, not a whit too small for the reception of any moderate-sized
+Christian subject of his Majesty's. There were turkeys, quails, poults,
+and plovers; but of pheasants only two, and one for the king. The
+greatest triumph, however, was reserved for the confections; an
+artificial hen was here served of puff-paste; her wings displayed,
+sitting upon eggs of the same materials. In each of these was enclosed a
+fat lark roasted, and seasoned with pepper and ambergris.
+
+They sat down, but the master of the ceremonies was still absent;
+whereupon the king, much distempered thereby, called out to Sir George
+Goring--
+
+"Our mummer and our dancer being departed--whilk thing, aforetime, we
+did maist righteously inhibit--thinkest thou, he may not henceforth
+eschew our service?"
+
+"My liege, your Grace's commands were to seek him a full hour agone, but
+the scared deer hath taken to covert. He was, peradventure, afraid of
+the hunting, and liketh his own neck better than the sport. He careth
+not, methinks, to show his face that turns big back on his comrade's
+peril."
+
+"May be," said Buckingham, "your Majesty's favour is not so winsome as a
+lady's cheek. I would wager my cap, Jack Finett hath found a smoother
+tongue, but a harder service, than your Majesty's."
+
+"O' my saul,--if I thought so," said the monarch, as he threw down a
+spoonful of buttered pease, "I would send him to the Tower, and he
+should write a book on Hercules his distaff."
+
+"Or Omphale's spindle," said a voice at the lower end of the hall,
+which, issuing from a mask, closely fitted, sounded wondrously hollow
+and portentous. A profound silence ensued--all eyes being turned towards
+the speaker, who was no less a personage than the first household god,
+attired in his proper suit. He approached the king's table, waving his
+hand in token of attention--
+
+    "The knight ye speak of, mark me well,
+    I've just drawn from the castle-well!"
+
+"Mercy on us," cried Sir Richard Hoghton. "The draw-well is more than
+eighty yards deep. Thou art a lying deity, and shalt be banished from
+this bright Olympus."
+
+But the deity, nothing abashed, thus continued--
+
+    "How came he thus, I dare not tell;
+    My brother may the mystery dispel."
+
+He stooped down--rising again to the astonished eyes of the fair dames
+and nobles at the upper bench, in the forester's habit of Kendal green,
+with cloak and doublet of the same colour.
+
+"What's now?" said James. "Witchery and fause negromancie, o' my troth.
+'Tis treason, Sir Richard, to use glamour in the king's presence."
+
+But the sylvan god continued in the doggerel of his predecessor--
+
+    "Sir John to be forgiven would hope;
+    He had been drowned, but for the rope!"
+
+"Ay," said the king, chuckling at this opportunity, purposely given, for
+a display of his wit--"he'll be hanged--na doot, na doot."
+
+"Prythee, Sylvanus, or whatever thou be, bring Sir John hither, that he
+may dry his web in the hot sunshine of a lady's glance," said Villiers,
+with an ill-suppressed sneer.
+
+Again this Proteus was transformed. Doffing his habit, Sir John Finett
+stood confessed before them. He knelt penitently before the king, humbly
+assuring his Majesty that he had been preparing this device, and many
+others, to please and surprise him; but that, through the bungling of
+some, and the bashfulness of others, he was obliged to enact the parts
+himself. This excuse the king was graciously pleased to accept,
+commending him for his great diligence and zeal.
+
+The night now wore on with much outward show of mirth and revelry; but
+the king went early to rest, purposing to rise betimes.
+
+On the following day he went out again with a great company, and killed
+a brace of stags, which mighty achievement, by authentic record, we find
+was accomplished before dinner--the king alone being able to bring down
+the venison.
+
+We willingly pass over this day's banquet; nor do we care to chronicle
+the feats of Morris the head-cook, and his deputies of the ranges and
+the pastries. The boiling and roasting of poults and pullets, and the
+construction of comfits and confections, we consign to everlasting
+oblivion.
+
+When the king rose from table, about four o'clock, as we find it in the
+private journal of one present, he purposed to view the alum-mines,
+about two miles distant from the Tower; but, being eager for the sport,
+he went forth again a-hunting. He shot at a stag and missed. The next
+bolt broke the thigh-bone, and the dog being long in coming, Lord
+Compton despatched the poor beast, whereby his capture was effected. We
+forbear to dwell on this, and much more of the like interest, returning
+with the king to supper, where the beauteous Grace Gerard was present,
+and Sir John Finett, her true knight and devoted slave. Dr Morton, then
+Bishop of Chester, was chaplain, doling out a long Latin grace with
+great unction.
+
+The music had ceased, the second course being just served, when a signal
+was given for the king's pledge.
+
+"Let each one pledge the fairest," cried the royal toast-master, moved
+to some unwonted gallantry by approximation with the fair and lusty
+dames about his person. For it hath been wittily if not wickedly said by
+a popular writer in another place that James was in all things like unto
+Solomon, save in the matter of women.
+
+Now was there a brave stir throughout the assembly. Such pledging of
+mistresses and challenging of cups, that nothing could be like unto it.
+
+"To the bright eyes and peerless grace of the lady Grace Gerard," said
+Sir John Finett, draining his goblet to the uttermost;--and the maiden's
+cheek glowed like a furnace.
+
+"Said I not that he could win a lady's grace sooner than a monarch's
+disfavour? Nay, your Majesty, I but meant that Sir John conveys the
+fairest eyes and the warmest hearts into his own keeping, like an
+_Ochus-Bochus_," said Buckingham, looking envious at the distinction he
+had gained.
+
+"I see plainly that Truth is hidden in a well," said Goring, drily.
+
+Sir John Finett, courtier and dissembler as he was, could scarcely hide
+the truth of this sally. But he quickly recovered his self-possession
+ere the king's eye could detect a change. Yet did he not escape the
+vigilance of his two friends, who suspected the real cause of his
+absence on the preceding night.
+
+"Thou shalt be her true knight to-morrow, and she shall be queen of our
+sports," said the king, graciously extending his hand to the blushing
+maiden.
+
+But this speech pleased not some of the courtiers, and Buckingham,
+having his eye on this fair flower, secretly resolved that Sir John
+should not enjoy its fragrance unmolested.
+
+On the following morning, being Sunday, there came a great company of
+peasants and handicraftsmen--notorious idlers about the parish--with a
+petition, wherein it was shown that the loyal and peaceable inhabitants
+of Lancashire had been long hindered of their usual diversions on
+Sundays and other holidays by the rigour of Puritans, Precisians, and
+such like folk,[32] who, being enemies to all innocent and lawful mirth,
+did mightily begrudge and maliciously restrain their use. These
+petitioners, therefore, prayed his Majesty, "that he would not forbid
+their exercising of all honest and lawful recreation, such as dancing of
+men and women, archery, running, leaping, and vaulting; nor prohibit the
+use of May-games, May-poles, morris-dances, and other like lawful
+sports, so that the same should not impediment or cause neglect of
+divine service."
+
+The ground of this complaint was laid in the time of Elizabeth, who, in
+order to reform the manners of the people, instituted a high commission
+in the year 1579. The commissioners were Henry Earl of Derby, Henry Earl
+of Huntingdon, William Lord Bishop of Chester, and others. At their
+sittings, which were held in Manchester, they issued orders throughout
+the county against "pipers and minstrels playing, making, and
+frequenting bear-baiting and bull-baiting on the Sabbath days, or upon
+any other days in time of divine service, and also against superstitious
+ringing of bells, wakes, and common feasts; drunkenness, gaming, and
+other vicious and unprofitable pursuits." These restrictions the royal
+pedant thought incompatible with the public weal, and graciously
+answered the petitioners in such-wise that he would have these
+over-righteous zealots rebuked; that it was a misuse of their authority;
+and that he would not only grant the humble request of his subjects,
+but, on that very evening he would have a masque and an allegory, with
+dancing and other like diversions, by the lords and other nobility there
+present.
+
+Such was the origin of the famous _Book of Sports_. His Majesty, on
+returning to the capital, issued a proclamation,[33] stating--
+
+"That in his progress through Lancashire he found it necessary to rebuke
+some Puritans and precise people, and took order that the said unlawful
+carriage should not be used by any of them hereafter, in the prohibiting
+and unlawfully punishing his good people, for using their lawful
+recreations and honest exercises upon Sundays, after divine service."
+"His Majesty further saw that his loyal subjects in all other parts of
+the kingdom did suffer in the same kind, though not, perhaps, in the
+same degree as in Lancashire; and he did therefore, in his princely
+wisdom, publish a declaration to all his loving subjects concerning
+lawful sports to be used on Sundays and festivals."--Published by his
+royal command in the year 1618, under the title of the _Book of Sports_.
+The royal visit to Lancashire proved ultimately of more importance to
+the civil and ecclesiastical establishments of the kingdom than could
+have been anticipated either by the king or his subjects. This infamous
+_Book of Sports_ formed the first link in that mysterious chain of
+events, ending in the downfall of the Stuarts, and their exile and
+expulsion from the throne.
+
+The gladsome tidings having been communicated to the petitioners, with
+one accord they galloped off, shouting and huzzaing, to the great
+annoyance of all peaceable and sober-minded persons, and the great
+dishonour of that holy day.
+
+The king attended divine service at the chapel, where Dr Morton
+preached, commanding and exhorting to an obedience well pleasing to
+their Maker; inasmuch as it was rendered to the vicegerent of heaven,
+the high and mighty and puissant James, defender of the Faith, and so
+forth. After this comfortable and gracious doctrine, there was a
+rush-bearing[34] and a piping before the king in the great quadrangle.
+Robin Hood and Maid Marian, with the fool and hobby-horse, were,
+doubtless, enacted to the jingling of morris-dancers and other
+profanities.
+
+These fooleries put the king into such good humour that he was more
+witty in his speech than ordinary. Some of these sayings have been
+recorded, and amongst the rest that well-known quibble which has been
+the origin of an absurd mistake, still current through the county,
+respecting the sirloin. It is said to have been knighted there by his
+Majesty, who found, such were his knight-making propensities, that other
+subjects were exhausted.
+
+The occasion, as far as we have been able to gather, was thus:--Whilst
+he sat at meat, casting his eyes upon a noble _surloin_ at the lower end
+of the table, he cried out--
+
+"Bring hither that _surloin_, sirrah, for 'tis worthy of a more
+honourable post, being, as I may say, not _surloin_ but _sirloin_, the
+noblest joint of all;" which ridiculous and desperate pun raised the
+wisdom and reputation of England's Solomon to the highest.
+
+Great was the stir and preparation for the evening masque; a pageant
+containing many allegories and devices; dancing and merry games, with
+all other "lawful recreations and honest amusements." Little heed was
+given, we fear, to their Maker's service, these vain follies running in
+the heads and filling the thoughts of the few who chose to attend in the
+chapel; the greater portion were preparing for the entertainment, into
+which service they entered heartily, and without grudge.
+
+Sir George Goring and Sir John Finett were verily indefatigable on the
+occasion, drilling and marshalling men, women, and children; conning
+their lessons, and correcting the awkward and ridiculous movements and
+mistakes of their pupils. Hobbe and the house steward were the foremost
+in their parts, having important functions allotted to them; one to
+grunt and howl in the similitude of a huge bear, and the other to roar
+in lieu of a lion, before the "_Bower of Beautie_" for such was the
+title or motto of the pageant. Nor was Sir John lacking in due homage to
+his mistress; she was appointed to enact "The Queen of Beautie." It was
+after much solicitation that she consented, receiving with great gravity
+and attention the instructions of her accomplished preceptor.
+
+The day was nigh spent and the sun fast sinking on the ocean, now
+waiting with a chariot of flame to conduct him to other skies.
+
+Grace was just finishing her toilet, and her maid adjusting the last
+plait in her head-dress, when a low and guarded knock announced a
+visitor. The door was slightly opened, when a messenger threw in a gay
+billet and departed. It was superscribed thus:--"_To the Fairest,
+These_."
+
+With a quickened pulse and a tremulous hand, she glanced over the page,
+elaborately penned as follows:--
+
+     "The Bower of Beautie hath a snake; beware that he come not nigh
+     thee, for his tooth has venom, and his tail a sting.
+
+     "From the mask with the black visard and silver mantle.
+
+     "THESE."
+
+She had barely finished the perusal, when there came tripping in the
+page of Sir John Finett, carrying a sealed billet redolent with the most
+costly perfume. The superscription was precisely similar, and nearly in
+the same hand:--"To the Fairest, These."
+
+She hastily broke open the packet.
+
+     "Beauteous and most matchless queen! jealous of thy coming, the orb
+     of day hasteneth to hide himself in Thetis's lap. He leaveth thee
+     our luminary in his stead, whose twin stars shall so outmimic day
+     that his brightness shall not be remembered. Truly am I in great
+     heaviness and sorrow, seeing that I cannot be with you in the
+     opening of the pageant, by reason of mine office, and my duty to
+     the king. Yet will I not leave you without a protector. My trusty
+     friend Weldon will enact your faithful knighte. He weareth a black
+     visard and mantle of spotted silver, and will accompany you to the
+     bower, from whence he delivereth the queene and her distressed
+     damsels out of durance. When the dancing begins, expect me.
+
+     "THINE."
+
+Little space was left for deliberation. The bell rang out its signal
+for the actors to arrange themselves; hearing which, she thrust the
+billets behind her stomacher, and hastened to the great court, where, on
+a platform supported by four wheels, was builded a sort of hut,
+decorated in a tawdry and fanciful style, and yeleped "The Bower of
+Beautie."
+
+Into this bower the queen was to be conducted, but the uproar and
+confusion was indescribable; strange and antic figures hurrying to and
+fro, seeking their companions, and crying lustily for their places. Sir
+John Finett and Sir George Goring fulfilled the office of whippers-in,
+attempting to establish order out of these undisciplined elements. Grace
+drew back; but suddenly there came forth an armed knight from the bower
+towards her, wearing a black visor and a mantle of spotted silver,
+courteously beseeching her that she would accompany him to her station.
+A great curtain of figured arras hung in front, concealing the interior,
+where the queen and her maidens were supposed to be held captive. Grace
+stepped into this temporary confinement, in which were four other ladies
+masked, who graciously saluted their queen. The black-faced visor having
+seated himself, the arras was again let down; when several men,
+bedizened with ribands and nosegays, wheeled off the vehicle to its
+destination on the green.
+
+The bower was garnished with roses, gilliflowers, pinks, and odoriferous
+herbs. Garlands of artificial flowers were interspersed; likewise
+imitations in satin, silk, and gold, of various trees, herbs, and
+fruits, not to be found in those parts. All this had been accomplished
+with great pains by the ladies of the queen's mimic court, Sir John
+Finett superintending "_The Bower of Beautie_," as his peculiar
+province. To Sir George Goring were allotted the bears, satyrs, imps,
+angels, gods, and other like rabble, who were taught with much labour
+and difficulty, in so short a space, their several parts.
+
+Sir John Finett had received a mandate to be near the king during the
+acts, that he might be instructed in their several uses and designs,
+Buckingham having signified his wish to sport a mask on the occasion;
+Sir John, therefore, much to his regret, was completely debarred from
+approaching his mistress.
+
+The king's coming was announced by a flourish of trumpets, and a loud
+bray from the delighted multitude, who sent up a shout that shook the
+very foundations.
+
+Under a pavilion of crimson cloth, decked with fringes and valences of
+gold, walked forth the monarch. He leaned familiarly on the arm of his
+host, who, together with Sir John Finett, was in immediate attendance.
+After the king's train had passed, came a troop of morris-dancers, and
+the hobby-horse, who frolicked in a most ungainly fashion round the
+Bower of Beautie, kissing hands, and making many salutations towards
+their enthralled queen. Next came out a bear and a lion, accompanied by
+a thing intended to represent an ape, whose office it was to torment
+these grave animals with his tricks. But so encumbered were they in
+their disguise,--a heavy covering of bucks' skins and long wool,--that
+they had much ado to keep on their clothes, while attempting to resent
+the indignities they endured.
+
+"Hang thee, Will--keep thy paws off my tail," said lion: "Dost not see I
+shall be uncovered before the king?"
+
+"I'll baste thine hide," said bear, "if thou meddlest any more with
+mine."
+
+The ape had settled himself on the back of this august-looking animal,
+from whence he was suddenly dislodged, much to the delight and
+entertainment of the king, who laughed heartily at his disaster. The
+ravenous animals were on their way to the bower, there to watch for the
+captives, making great demonstrations all the while of their
+bloodthirsty intent.
+
+Bear and lion accordingly squatted down before it, making as though they
+would gladly have been at supper on the fair carcases of those within.
+Anon comes a mighty magician, with a long beard, and a wand of some ells
+in extent, purposing to effect the deliverance of the captives; but the
+beasts rushed upon him, and in a trice brought him to the ground. At
+this juncture the Silver Knight--showing thereby the superiority of true
+valour over false gramarye--should have issued from the bower, rescued
+the magician, and slain the beasts, opening a way for the escape of
+these imprisoned damsels, who were to come forth dancing, and
+representing a fair masque before the king;--but the magician remained
+unrescued, while bear and lion lay growling for a long space, not
+knowing what else to do. They looked about wistfully, not choosing to
+feast on their prostrate victim. At last, finding no change in the
+posture of affairs, they fairly stood erect, much to the marvel and
+amusement of the spectators, running off on their hind legs amid the
+shouts and derision of the assembly.
+
+Sir John, apprehending some mistake, left the king for a moment to see
+how matters stood; but Goring had lifted up the arras, and, lo! the
+knight with the black visor and mantle of silver was not there, neither
+was the Queen of Beauty in her bower. The four disconsolate maidens
+still sat waiting for their cue, and expecting release. This was an
+unlooked-for disaster. The pageant was at a stand. On inquiry, the
+maidens told how that the gallant knight and the peerless queen had
+departed before the king's arrival, saying they would return anon.
+
+Sir John was bewildered and alarmed. The Silver Knight was trusty, and
+no suspicion crossed him from that source; yet was their absence wholly
+unaccountable. The king, seeing some mistake in the unravelling or
+conception of the plot, good-naturedly commanded the minstrels to strike
+up a favourite tune; at the hearing of which a number of masks
+immediately mustered to begin dancing in the soft and dewy twilight.
+Amongst the rest came in Buckingham, negligently attired, and without
+his visor.
+
+"I thought thee hidden amongst the maskers," said the king.
+
+"Ay, my liege, a short space;--but the night is hot, and I am something
+distempered and weary in this turmoil."
+
+Buckingham looked flushed and agitated, strangely differing from his
+usual manner. It was not unobserved by the king, who attributed the
+change to illness.
+
+"Thou shalt continue about our person," said the monarch. "Jack, see to
+the sports:--the pageant hath suffered greatly from thine absence. I do
+think the Queen of Beauty hath played thee false."
+
+Buckingham took his usual station by the king; and Sir John Finett, in
+great dolour, went forth in search of his mistress. He questioned the
+guests diligently, but could gain no further tidings, save that she had
+been seen by many in company with the Silver Knight. Every minute added
+to his uneasiness: thoughts of a wild and terrible import haunted him.
+In vain he tried to shake off these intruders--they came like shadows,
+horrible and indistinct. His naturally sensitive and sanguine
+temperament, as prone to the anticipation of evil as of delight, was a
+curse, and not a blessing. Departed hopes may fling a deeper shadow even
+on the brow of Despair!--and rayless was the night which visited his
+spirit. It was now too evident--for he was no novice in the
+science--that his admiration had awakened one dormant but hallowed
+affection, long lulled in the soft lap of pleasure. The maiden, with
+whom it was his sole aim to pass a few hours of pleasantry and
+amusement, had enthralled him by so sudden a spell, that he was more
+than half inclined to believe in the boasted skill and exploits of the
+sex, which has rendered Lancashire so famous. Her unaccountable absence
+impressed itself strangely upon his thoughts. He was in love!--and he
+writhed at the discovery; but he would have given worlds just then to
+have proclaimed it at his mistress's feet.
+
+Scarcely conscious how the night wore on, he was obliged to act his
+part. Supper was announced; and he took his station where he could see
+the guests unmask as they entered to the banquet.
+
+The tables were nearly filled, but the Silver Knight and his fair lady
+were still absent. Grace Gerard is doubtless in her own chamber, was the
+host's reply to some inquiry from Sir John:--she had craved excuse from
+some slight indisposition. But this did not satisfy him to whom it was
+addressed: he suspected her chamber would be found unoccupied;--his
+heart felt wasted and desolate;--it was as if the whole fair face of
+nature were blotted out,--the light being gone which rendered it
+visible.
+
+"What ho!" said the king, "bring my Sienna knight a cup of hot sack and
+a merry-thought, for he seems melancholic and watchful--a wary eye, but
+a silent tongue. Sir John, are your wits a wool-gathering with your
+queen?"
+
+"I am in my widowhood, most gracious prince,--my queen having departed."
+
+"More fool thou, to fling thy heart after thy wits. Come, honest Jack,
+we'll have some minstrelsy after the feast,--a merry troll and a short
+one."
+
+Sir John was well skilled in handling the lute and rebeck. He had been
+early trained to their use; and many a kind glance and tender word he
+had won thereby.
+
+The feast was over, and those hushed halls thrilled to the following
+ditty:--
+
+
+I.
+
+    "They bade me sing, they bade me smile,
+      They bade my heart be gay;
+    They called my spirit forth, to while
+      The laughing hours away.
+    I've sung, I've smiled: where'er my path
+      Mirth's dazzling meteors shine:
+    All hearts have owned its magic power,
+      And all are glad but mine.
+
+
+II.
+
+    "I've soothed the darkest surge of woe,
+      And many a bosom blessed;
+    Forbade the sufferer's tear to flow,
+      And brought the weary rest:
+    I've poured upon the bleeding heart
+      The balm of Hope,--the shrine
+    Where holier, happier thoughts shall dwell;--
+      But who shall gladden mine?
+
+
+III.
+
+    "Forgive; 'tis but one short complaint,
+      One pang I would reveal:
+    The wretch upon the torturing rack
+      Is not forbid to feel!
+    Then laugh,--let merry hearts to-night
+      Their brightest wreaths entwine:
+    The flowers that bloom on every breast
+      Will, withering, fade on mine!"[35]
+
+Many were the bright eyes glittering on him through their long silken
+lashes; but Sir John looked downward,--diligently noting something
+extraordinary in the disposition of his shoe-roses, or in the tie of his
+garter.
+
+"One raven will set another croaking," said Sir George.
+
+"That we may escape a concert so detestable," cried out Buckingham, "let
+Sir John Finett follow me, and we will reel with our fair dames, until
+cares whirl off like sling-stones."
+
+"And may he that tires first fiddle the witches' jig," said the sapient
+king.
+
+A burst of harsh music followed, and Sir John's feebly tinkling strings
+were thrown aside. Never had he wished so anxiously for one short hour
+of quietness; and right fain he was when the king retired to his
+chamber. His duties for that day were over, and he strolled out from the
+hot and oppressive atmosphere into a calm quiet moonlight. The cool
+breeze came like a healing balm upon his spirit, the soft dew fell upon
+his cheek,--but the fire in his veins burnt fiercely. His mistress's
+form, her face, the sweet influence of her smile, were fixed indelibly
+on his heart. Away from the bustle and cares of office,--which, like
+waves on the surface, for a while effaced their image,--the whole
+beauteous impression was revealed before him in all its loveliness and
+truth. His heart bounded at the thought:--it was but for a moment. Again
+he stood, hopeless and desolate, gazing upon the soft mist-wreath in the
+valley, as though expecting it would render up the form of his beloved.
+
+Suddenly the short swift steps of a steed were heard hurrying up the
+avenue. A horseman approached the gateway: it was his friend, the
+_soi-disant_ knight of the silver mantle!
+
+"How now, Weldon![36]--whither have thy unlucky familiars carried thee?
+Hast thou bestridden the enchanted horse, or wert thou bidden to a
+witch-feast?"
+
+"I have been to Myerscough with your message,--and the pains I have had
+for my labour."
+
+"My message!" said Sir John, with amazement: "I sent thee on no other
+errand than to guard the lady, whom thou hast either made away with or
+she hath slipped from thine hold."
+
+"You are pleasant, Sir John. Your tricks are well enough in court-hours.
+Come, be serious, and tell me thou hast had a fool's errand out of me."
+
+"I never was more serious in my life, Weldon, I do vouch, as my head
+shall swing safely on its pivot. But who gave thee a message--and to
+whom?"
+
+"To our fair hostess at Myerscough. Thy page thrust a scrap of writing
+into my hand after prayers. The request was, that I should see the
+accompanying billet safely delivered, and with mine own hand, without
+loss of time. It was one of your curiously-folded fantastic
+love-billets, as I thought. Knowing I could well be spared hence, I
+immediately took horse, and came in a bath of foam to the lady; but when
+she opened her pretty token, she drew herself erect with great majesty.
+'Tell Sir John Finett,' said she, 'that when he next sends thee forth on
+his fooleries, to choose another butt; to shoot his arrows where they
+will stick, or his goose-feathers may fly back again.'"
+
+Horror almost deprived Sir John of utterance. That some foul play had
+been meditated, and in all probability accomplished, was but too plain;
+but how, or by whom, was inscrutable as ever.
+
+The page was straitly questioned; but he merely said that his message
+was given him by some person he did not recognise in the crowd at the
+chapel-doors, who said he was to seek Weldon forthwith, and deliver him
+the papers from his master. What course to adopt, or where to begin
+their search, were questions alike embarrassing and impossible to
+answer. In the end they determined to lay the matter before the king on
+the morrow.
+
+It may be needful to go back a short space to "The Bower of Beautie,"
+wherein the knight of the silver mantle, having safely ensconced
+himself, as the reader may remember, the arras was let down; after
+which, being wheeled away to their destination, they were to await for
+the commencement of the masque. But the Silver Knight, lifting up the
+curtain, observed they were much too early for the performance, and
+courteously entreated the lady that she would alight. The evening was
+hot, and the bower close and oppressive. An hour might, in all
+probability, elapse ere their presence would be required. Grace,
+trusting to her companion, quitted the car, strolling out amongst the
+masks. Gradually they left the main crowd, unconsciously approaching the
+steep brow of the hill, where, looking towards the east, they beheld the
+broad red moon swinging out from the blue horizon. The loud hum of the
+revellers came softly and pleasantly on the ear. It was an hour of
+quietness and delight--a few hasty, happy moments snatched from these
+gaudy hours--the pomp and circumstance of life. Would that Sir John had
+been here in lieu of his friend! thought Grace. No, she did not think
+so, but she felt as though such a thought might have been nursed into
+being with little effort. They were now stealing down the hill, and the
+dark waters of the Orr were leaping and bubbling at their feet.
+
+"We must return," said the maiden, looking up, alarmed at seeing, for
+the first time, that they were cut off from all connection and
+intercourse with their companions. Her attendant was a perfect stranger,
+except in name, and though counselled to rely implicity on his care by
+the master of the ceremonies himself, she felt her situation
+embarrassing and unpleasant.
+
+"And why must we return?" said the mask. The tone startled her; its
+expression was now soft and beseeching, as though he had before spoken
+in a masked voice.
+
+"Why!" said she, looking as though she would have pierced through his
+disguise.
+
+"Nay, whet not thy glance so keenly. I am not what I seem, and yet am
+not unseemly."
+
+"Your jests had been better timed had they taken a fitter season. I must
+hence."
+
+"Go not, my beauteous queen," said the stranger, taking her hand, which
+she dashed from her with indignation and alarm. She was darting up the
+crag, but was again detained.
+
+"I will worship thee:--thou shall be my star--the axle of my thoughts.
+All"----
+
+"Unhand me, sir, or I'll call those who have the power to punish as well
+as to humble thy presumption!"
+
+"Whom wilt thou call, my pretty lamb? The wolf? The snake is scotched in
+the bower, and I but beseech thy gratitude. How that look of scorn
+becomes thee! Pout not so, my queen, or thou wilt indeed make an excuse
+for my rudeness."
+
+"How? Again this insult! Begone, or thou shalt rue that ever thy thought
+escaped thy tongue. I'll report thee to thy betters."
+
+"My betters! and who be they, maiden? Thou knowest me not, _perdie_.
+Hath not Sir John Finett shorn his love-locks and eschewed thy service
+after leaving thy bower the other night?"
+
+This taunt raised her indignation to a blaze--her bosom swelled at the
+rebuke.
+
+Still he retained her hand--with the other she clung to a withered tree,
+whose roots held insecurely by the rock. Making another effort, she
+sprang from his grasp; but the tree was rent from its hold, and she fell
+with it to the edge of the precipice. Ere the Silver Knight could
+interpose, a faint shriek announced her descent: a swift crash was heard
+amongst the boughs and underwood--a groan and a rebound. He saw her
+disappear behind a crag. Then came one thrilling moment of terror, one
+brief pause in that death-like stillness, and a heavy plunge was heard
+in the gulf below! He listened--his perceptions grew more acute--eye and
+ear so painfully susceptible, and their sensibility so keen, that the
+mind scarcely distinguished its own reactions from realities--from
+outward impressions on the sense. He thought he heard the gurgle and
+the death-throe. Then the pale face of the maiden seemed to spring out
+from the abyss. He rushed down the precipice. Entangled in the copsewood
+and bushes, some time elapsed ere he gained the narrow path below. He
+soon found, as in most other situations, the shortest road the
+longest--that the beaten track would have brought him quicker to his
+destination; but these nice calculations were forgotten. All pranked out
+and bedizened as he was, the puissant knight plunged into the gulf; but
+his exertions were fruitless, and he gave up the search. His love for
+the maiden living and breathing did not prompt him to drown himself for
+her corpse. With hasty steps he regained the Tower, where he doffed his
+dripping garments unobserved.
+
+Sir John Finett, by advice from his friend Weldon, determined on
+acquainting their host with the lady's disappearance. They had a shrewd
+suspicion that Buckingham was the contriver of this daring outrage;
+though from his great power, influence, and audacity, they had
+everything to fear and but little to hope from the result. Yet no time
+should be lost in the attempt.
+
+As they entered the hall, Sir Gilbert Hoghton and several of the guests
+were still making merry after the feast. Calling him aside, they
+communicated the dismal tidings.
+
+"Grace Gerard amissing, say ye?"
+
+"'Tis even so," said Sir John; "we have yet no clue to the search; but
+this night shall not pass without the attempt, at any rate. In the
+morning we will to the king with our complaint."
+
+"Boy," said the baronet to his little henchman, "go to the woman's
+suite, and rouse Grace Gerard's maid."
+
+"The woman was in the kitchen some half hour agone, conveying her
+mistress a warm draught, or some such puling diet," said the page.
+
+"Haste," cried Sir John impatiently, marvelling at this unexpected
+intelligence,--"the lad is blinded by some misapprehension. I'll forfeit
+my best jewel she is not in her chamber. This interlude works i' the
+plot--part of the trickery now enacting."
+
+But the page made a quick return.
+
+"What news?" said Finett.
+
+"The lady is gone to rest; something discomposed, though, and out of
+spirits. So says her maiden, whom I would have questioned more
+straitly, but she rebuked me sharply for my impertinence."
+
+"Pray you send and question her," said Sir John.
+
+"Nay," returned Sir Gilbert, smiling, "I'll be bound the lady is safe;
+and her maiden has other guess-matters to look to than letting out the
+secrets of her mistress's chamber."
+
+They were obliged to rest satisfied, or rather unsatisfied, with this
+answer. But the mystery was more and more inexplicable. Either some
+laughable mistake or some deep-laid villany was intended. Sir John dared
+not pursue the subject to this extremity. He felt assured of her purity
+and honour. Her manners, so confiding and unsuspicious, showed a heart
+unacquainted with guile.
+
+After a sleepless night Sir John arose, feverish and unrefreshed. He
+threw open the window of his chamber, which looked into the courtyard.
+Near a side postern stood a grey palfrey, caparisoned for a lady's use,
+and impatiently awaiting its burden. The hour was too early for morning
+rambles, but the beast was evidently equipped for a journey. Two other
+steeds were now led forth, as if for the attendants. He caught a glimpse
+of Grace Gerard's maid, who seemed, by her dress, to be of the party
+whose movements he was so anxious to ascertain. He suspected this sudden
+departure was for the purpose of escaping without his observance. He
+hurried towards the stairs: just entering the corridor, he met Grace
+Gerard. She was evidently confused at his appearance. It was but for a
+moment; her spirit grappled with the occasion; and she replied firmly,
+and with becoming dignity, to his questions.
+
+"Whither away, our beauteous queen?" said he, bowing almost to the
+ground. "Are you bound for some isle of the Western Ind, getting the
+start of Phoebus in his nightly race to those gem-bearing climes?
+Methinks the sun is departing from us, though but just risen."
+
+"'Tis my purpose to depart, Sir John. This clime is too bright, and its
+beams too fervid, for a lady's eye."
+
+"One word in sober speech:--Wherefore?"
+
+"I know your question, Sir John. Time hastens, and I reply. Your knight
+of the silver mantle I proclaim a recreant, as treacherous as he is
+base. Sir John, for my--no, for your own sake"----
+
+"Another stole into his place," said he, interrupting her with great
+eagerness. "A base-born changeling!--some villain, who, under this
+disguise, abused our honourable intent; but say, peerless princess, to
+whose prowess we owe your rescue."
+
+"'Tis my first venture into the unhallowed limits of your licentious
+court; and through the grace that hath preserved me harmless, I here
+resolve it shall be my last. By your instructions, Sir John, I relied
+implicitly on the protection of your friend. He would fain have abused
+his trust, but I escaped from the offered insult. Struggling to free my
+hand from his grasp, by yonder hill-side, I lost my footing. I fell down
+the steep unhurt. Fear lent me unwonted strength, and I escaped unseen,
+round the narrow pathway. My discourteous knight thought, doubtless, I
+had tumbled into the roaring abyss; for the night mist hung below, and I
+heard a huge fragment of rock, loosened in my descent, plunge into the
+dimly-rolling waters. Now, hear me: my resolve is taken, and no earthly
+influence or persuasion shall stay me. 1 was bewildered, yet flattered
+by your follies: foolish and thoughtless enough to frolic and flutter on
+the very brink of a precipice. I was dazzled by the glittering but
+dangerous excitement. Conscience spoke, but I durst not listen. My
+course of life hitherto has been through scenes of gentleness and peace,
+and I could not look on your bustle and dissipation without alarm. Yet
+was I persuaded to mingle in your sports yesterday--that day hallowed by
+the last fiat of its Creator, wherein the soul, freed awhile from the
+cares of earth, may prostrate itself in homage before Him who said, 'It
+is mine!' Justly punished for trifling with my better thoughts, my
+escape shall not be without its acknowledgment."
+
+Sir John was silent. She stood before him like some purer, brighter
+thing than could be deemed akin to this polluted earth.
+
+"Those siren waves were bearing me on to the gulf where"--She paused a
+moment, shuddering at the dark retrospect of the past. "Where all your
+pomp and pageantry will be overwhelmed, and yourselves, for ever, in the
+same irretrievable ruin!"
+
+Sir John looked uneasy, and his eye wandered, as if in search of some
+object wherewith to throw off these gloomy anticipations. The maiden
+again spoke:--
+
+"It seemed as though a veil, invisible heretofore, were suddenly
+undrawn. The glory and the baseness, the splendour and the pollution,
+were at once revealed. The hand unseen had drawn it aside. I would now
+shun--I hope for ever--- these paths of folly; and I bid farewell to
+your pleasures without a murmur or a regret."
+
+Sir John, courtier though he was, ardently and willingly rendering
+homage at the shrine of pleasure and dissipation, was awe-struck.
+Conscience echoed a fearful response; and he shrank before the reproof
+he could not shun.
+
+"Without regret!" said he, faltering and abashed. "I had hoped--perhaps
+wished--but it was too presumptuous. My purest thoughts would have
+sullied so pure a shrine."
+
+"Stay, Sir John; though the confession be humbling to a maiden's pride,
+yet my heart tells me 'tis the last time we meet; and it is the only
+acknowledgment,--I render it to your honesty and good faith." Her voice
+grew hesitating and tremulous. "There was a tendril twining about my
+heart; but it is wrung off, and I am again--alone!"
+
+Her heart was full, and her whole frame convulsed by some overpowering
+emotion. An adieu died upon her lips; but she resolutely refused any
+further communication. Hastening to the courtyard, she mounted her
+little white palfry, and quitted for ever those fascinating and
+dangerous allurements, which, having once felt, few have had the power
+to withstand.
+
+We need scarcely add, that, amid the gaieties and splendours by which
+the lover was enthralled, the recollection of Grace Gerard sometimes
+mingled in the revelries of this votary of pleasure. It often came as a
+warning and a rebuke. By degrees the impression grew less powerful. Each
+succeeding wave from the ever-tossing ocean left the traces less
+distinct, until they were overwhelmed in the dull tide of oblivion.
+
+
+NOTE ON THE BALLAD, p. 269.
+
+The _music_ to these words is _traditionary_, if we may be allowed the
+expression. It is one of the many wild and characteristic melodies
+floating about, perhaps unappropriated, on the popular breath, varied
+indefinitely according to the humour of the performer. The author has
+listened to several of these ditties; some of them he thinks peculiar to
+this and the neighbouring counties. They are generally sung by the
+labouring classes, and would, in many cases, defy any attempt to commit
+them to writing, being apparently founded upon a ratio of tones and
+semitones at variance with our diatonic scale. From this we might almost
+be led to imagine some truth in the theory that the ancients had
+different scales peculiar to their different moods: a theory which,
+however impossible it may be considered, is not without its advocates,
+who will perhaps not be displeased to find here some slight confirmation
+of their opinions. Yet in these songs the prevailing character of the
+minor key may generally be detected, which, from its being imperfect,
+and probably vitiated by the mistakes of these rustic melodists, may
+give a colour to the notion of a change in the scale.
+
+The great antiquity of these melodies is unquestionable, and it would be
+an interesting inquiry to trace them back through remote ages, perhaps
+to the Jewish temple and the tent of the patriarchs. The author has
+found in them a strong resemblance to the Hebrew music, sounds which,
+since the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, and the destruction of their
+temple, 606 B.C., and in consequence of musical instruments being
+afterwards forbidden, they have clung to with increased tenacity,
+preserving their ancient melodies, and bequeathing them by memory from
+one generation to another with the same jealous care that a miser would
+his treasure, and as the last melancholy relics of a "kingdom passed
+away."
+
+Algarotti says, "Those airs alone remain for ever engraven on the memory
+of the public, that paint images to the mind, or express the passions,
+and are for that reason called the speaking airs, because more congenial
+to nature, which can never be justly imitated but by a beautiful
+simplicity, that will always bear away the palm from the most laboured
+refinement of art."
+
+The author has ventured to give the following air, which he fancies
+would almost suggest the words of the song to which Sir John Finett is
+supposed to have appropriated it. As we have before mentioned, the tune
+is traditionary, possessing some of the peculiar characteristics we have
+described. It bears a considerable resemblance to the ancient Jewish
+music, and likewise to the airs generally given to the little snatches
+of old ballads in Shakespeare's plays, which are supposed to have been
+handed down successively from the performers in his time; being then
+probably "household" music more ancient than the ballads themselves.
+This opinion seems warranted by the poet himself in that beautiful
+allusion, with which he introduces one of the songs of the _Clown_, in
+Twelfth Night--
+
+    "Mark it, Cesario; it is old and plain:
+    The spinsters and the knitters in the sun,
+    And the free maids that weave their thread with bones,
+    Do use to chant it; it is silly sooth,
+    And dallies with the innocence of love
+    Like the old age."
+
+[Illustration: Music]
+
+HOGHTON TOWER.
+
+    They bade me sing, they bade my smile,
+    They bade my heart be gay;
+    They called my spirit forth to while
+    The laughing hours away.
+    I've sung, I've smiled: where'er my path
+    Mirth's dazzling meteors shine;
+    All hearts have owned its magic power,
+    And all are glad but mine.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[29] "Sir George Goring, of Hurst Pierrepoint, in Sussex, representative
+of a junior line of the respectable family of Goring, which maintains
+its importance in that county, was bred at Court, under the care of his
+father, one of Elizabeth's Gentlemen Pensioners; was knighted May 29,
+1608; in 1610, occurs as Gentleman in Ordinary of the Bedchamber to
+Prince Henry; and now accompanied the king to Scotland as Lieutenant of
+his Gentlemen Pensioners. He was recommended to James equally by his
+sagacity and a peculiar jocularity of humour, and became the king's
+familiar companion."--Nichols's _Royal Progresses_, vol. iii. p. 256.
+
+[30] Sir John Finett, says Anthony a Wood (Fasti by Bliss, vol. i. col,
+492), was son of Sir Robert Finett, of Soulton, near Dover, in Kent, son
+and heir of Sir Thomas, son and heir of John Finett, of Sienna, in Italy
+(where his name is ancient), who came into England in quality of servant
+to Cardinal Campegius, and married a maid of honour to Queen Katharine.
+"Sir John was always bred in the Court, where by his wit, innocent
+mirth, and great skill in composing songs, he pleased James the First
+very much. He was sent into France in 1614, about matters of public
+concern, and in the year after received the honour of knighthood at
+Whitehall; about which time (or rather about 1612) he was made assistant
+to the master of the ceremonies, with the reversion of that
+place."--Nichols's _Progresses_, vol. iii. p. 133.
+
+[31] This stone, the author has been told, was in existence less than a
+century ago, though not in the precise situation above alluded to. He
+has heard the disappointment of the curious passers-by told with
+considerable humour; they, however, generally took care to replace the
+stone with its word of promise before the eye, that the next comer might
+bestow the same labour for the like result.
+
+[32] Some say this petition was presented at Myerscough, but we incline
+to the opinion here given.
+
+[33] Royal proclamation, May 21, 1618.
+
+[34] This ceremony was formerly used for the conveyance of rushes
+intended to be strewed in the church upon the clay floors between the
+benches. It is now generally known but as an unmeaning pageant still
+practised in the northern and eastern parts of Lancashire, for the
+purpose of levying contributions on the inhabitants. An immense banner,
+of silk adorned with tinsel and gay devices, precedes the rush-cart,
+wherein the rushes, neatly woven and smooth cut, are piled up and
+decorated with flowers and ribands, in rustic taste. The cart, thus
+laden, is drawn round to the dwellings of the principal inhabitants, by
+morris-dancers, who perform an uncouth dance, attended by a man in
+motley attire, a sort of nondescript, made up of the ancient fool and
+Maid Marian. This personage jingles a horse-collar hung with bells,
+which forms not an unsuitable accompaniment to the ceremony.
+
+[35] See Note at the end.
+
+[36] This person is supposed to be the writer of a curious satire (Harl.
+MSS. 5191), called a Description of Scotland. Welden's name is not
+attached to it in the MS., but it is duly ascribed to him by Sir Walter
+Scott, in his description of Holyrood Chapel, in the _Antiquities of
+Scotland_. Sir Anthony Weldon accompanied the king into Scotland; but
+that he returned with him is not so certain, one of his letters saying
+he should return by sea. By this, however, may be understood his return
+to the court at Edinburgh, having had leave of absence to visit his
+friends in London.
+
+
+
+
+THE LANCASHIRE WITCHES.
+
+
+    "More swift than lightning can I flye
+      About this aery welkin soone;
+    And, in a minute's space, descrye
+      Each thing that's done below the moone."
+
+--BEN JONSON.
+
+     "When I consider whether there are such persons as _witches_, my
+     mind is divided: I believe, in general, that there is such a thing
+     as witchcraft, but can give no credit to any particular instance of
+     it."--ADDISON.
+
+The term witchcraft, says the historian of Whalley, is now "transferred
+to a gentler species of fascination, which my fair countrywomen still
+continue to exert in full force, without any apprehension of the county
+magistrates, or even of the king in council."
+
+Far different was the application in days of old. The common parish
+witch is thus described by a contemporary writer, as an old woman "with
+a wrinkled face, a furred brow, a hairy lip, a gobber tooth, a squint
+eye, a squeaking voice, or a scolding tongue; having a rugged coat on
+her back, a skull-cap on her head, a spindle in her hand, and a dog or
+cat by her side." Such was the witch of real life when this superstition
+was so prevalent in our own neighbourhood, and even throughout England.
+From the beginning of the reign of James the First to the concluding
+part of the reign of James the Second, it may be considered as having
+attained the zenith of its popularity. "Witchcraft and kingcraft both
+came in with the Stuarts and went out with them." It was as if his
+_infernal_ majesty had taken a lesson from his _sacred_ majesty, and
+issued a book of sports for his loyal subjects. "The Revolution put to
+rights the faith of the country as well as its constitution." "The laws
+were more liberally interpreted and rationally administered. The trade
+of witch-finding ceased to be reputable or profitable;" and that silly
+compilation, the "Demonology" of James, which, with the severe laws
+enacted against witchcraft by Henry the Eighth and Elizabeth, had
+conjured up more witches and familiars than they could quell, was
+consigned to the book-worm and the dust. It is said in the Arabian
+tales, that Solomon sent out of his kingdom all the demons that he could
+lay his hands on, packed them up in a brazen vessel, and cast them into
+the sea. But James, "our English Solomon," "imported by his book all
+that were flying about Europe, to plague the country, which was
+sufficiently plagued already in such a sovereign." This sapient ruler,
+who, it is said, "taught divinity like a king, and made laws like a
+priest," in the first year of his reign made it felony to suckle imps,
+&c. This statute, which was repealed March 24th, 1736, describes
+offences declared felonious, thus:--
+
+"One that shall use, practise, or exercise any invocation or conjuration
+of any evil or wicked spirit, or consult, covenant with, entertain or
+employ, feed or reward, any evil or wicked spirit, to or for any intent
+or purpose; or take up any dead man, woman, or child, out of his, her,
+or their grave, or any other place where the dead body resteth; or the
+skin, bone, or other part of any dead person, to be employed or used in
+any manner of witchcraft, sorcery, charm, or enchantment; or shall
+practise or exercise any witchcraft, &c., whereby any person shall be
+killed, destroyed, wasted, consumed, pined, or lamed in his or her body,
+or any part thereof: such offenders, duly and lawfully convicted and
+attainted, shall suffer death."
+
+As might be expected, witchcraft so increased in consequence of these
+denunciations, that, "in the course of fifty years following the passing
+of this act, besides a great number of single indictments and
+executions, fifteen were brought to trial at Lancaster in 1612, and
+twelve condemned; in 1622, six were tried at York; 1634, seventeen
+condemned at Lancaster; 1644, sixteen were executed at Yarmouth; 1645,
+fifteen condemned at Chelmsford, and hanged; in the same and following
+year, about forty at Bury in Suffolk; twenty more in the county, and
+many in Huntingdon; and (according to the estimate of Ady) some
+thousands were burned in Scotland."
+
+Popular hatred rendered the existence of a reputed witch so miserable,
+that persons bearing that stigma often courted death in despair,
+confessing to crimes which they had never committed, for the purpose of
+ridding themselves of persecution.
+
+"One of the latest convictions was that of Amy Duny and Rose Cullender,
+before Sir Matthew Hale at Bury, in 1664. They were executed, and died
+maintaining their innocence." Their execution was a foul blot upon his
+name, as it is scarcely to be doubted but that they were the victims of
+imposture. It was clearly ascertained by experiments in the judge's
+presence, that the children who pretended to be bewitched, when their
+eyes were covered, played off their fits and contortions at the touch of
+some other person, mistaking it for that of the accused, yet "he charged
+the jury without summing up the evidence, dwelling only upon the
+certainty of the fact that there were witches, for which he appealed to
+the Scriptures, and, as he said, to 'the wisdom of all nations;' and the
+jury having convicted, the next morning left them for execution."
+
+But we proceed with a few explanatory notices respecting that portion of
+the history of this superstition, which will be found interwoven with
+the traditionary matter in our text.
+
+A number of persons, inhabitants of Pendle Forest, were apprehended in
+the year 1633, upon the evidence of Edmund Robinson, a boy about eleven
+years old, who deposed before two of his Majesty's justices at Padiham,
+that on All-Saints'-day he was getting "bulloes," when he saw two
+greyhounds--a black one and a brown one--come running over the field
+towards him. When they came nigh they fawned on him, and he supposed
+they belonged to some of the neighbours. He expected presently that some
+one would follow; but seeing no one, he took them by a string which they
+had tied to their collars, and thought he would hunt with them.
+Presently a hare sprang up near to him, and he cried "Loo, loo," but the
+dogs would not run. Whereupon he grew angry, and tied them to a bush for
+the purpose of chastising them, but instead of the black greyhound he
+now beheld a woman, the wife of one Dickisson, a neighbour; the other
+was transformed into a little boy. At this sight he was much afraid, and
+would have fled; but the woman stayed him and offered him a piece of
+silver like a shilling if he would hold his peace. But he refused the
+bribe; whereupon she pulled out a bridle and threw it over the little
+boy's head, who was her familiar, and immediately he became a white
+horse. The witch then took the deponent before her, and away they
+galloped to a place called Malkin Tower, by the Hoarstones at Pendle. He
+there beheld many persons appear in like fashion; and a great feast was
+prepared, which he saw, and was invited to partake, but he refused.
+Spying an opportunity, he stole away, and ran towards home. But some of
+the company pursued him until he came to a narrow place called "the
+Boggard-hole," where he met two horsemen; seeing which, his tormentors
+left off following him. He further said, that on a certain day he saw a
+neighbour's wife, of the name of Loynd, sitting upon a cross piece of
+wood within the chimney of his father's dwelling-house. He called to
+her, saying, "Come down, thou Loynd wife," and immediately she went up
+out of sight. Likewise upon the evening of All-Saints before-named, his
+father sent him to seal up the kine, when, coming through a certain
+field, he met a boy who began to quarrel with him, and they fought until
+his face and ears were bloody. Looking down, he saw the boy had cloven
+feet, and away he ran. It was now nearly dark; but he descried at a
+distance a light like a lantern. Thinking this was carried by some of
+his friends, he made all haste towards it, and saw a woman standing on a
+bridge, whom he knew to be Loynd's wife; turning from her he again met
+with the boy, who gave him a heavy blow on the back, after which he
+escaped. On being asked the names of the women he saw at the feast, he
+mentioned seventeen persons, all of whom were committed to Lancaster for
+trial. They were found guilty, and sentenced to be executed. The judge,
+however, respited them, and reported the case to the king in council.
+
+The celebrated John Webster, author of _The Discovery of Pretended
+Witchcraft_, afterwards took this young witch-finder in hand. He says:--
+
+"This said boy was brought into the church at Kildwick (in Craven), a
+large parish church, where I, being curate there, was preaching in the
+afternoon, and was set upon a stall to look about him, which moved some
+little disturbance in the congregation for a while. After prayers, I,
+inquiring what the matter was, the people told me it was the boy that
+discovered witches; upon which I went to the house where he was to stay
+all night, where I found him, and two very unlikely persons that did
+conduct him, and manage the business.
+
+"I desired to have some discourse with the boy in private; but that they
+utterly refused. Then, in the presence of a great many people, I took
+the boy near me, and said, 'Good boy, tell me truly and in earnest,
+didst thou see and hear such strange things of the meeting of witches as
+is reported by many that thou didst relate?'--But the two men, not
+giving the boy leave to answer, did pluck him from me, and said he had
+been examined by two _able_ justices of the peace, _and they did never
+ask him such a question_. To whom I replied, the persons accused had the
+more wrong. As the laws of England, and the opinions of mankind then
+stood, a mad dog in the midst of a congregation would not have been more
+dangerous than this wicked and mischievous boy, who, looking around him,
+could, according to his own caprice, put any one or more of the people
+in peril of tortures or of death."
+
+Four of the accused only were sent to London, and examined by the king
+in person. In the end they were set at liberty, but not from the
+sagacity of the examiners,--the boy Robinson having confessed that he
+was suborned to give false evidence against them. One of these poor
+creatures, strange to say, had confessed the crime with which she was
+charged. In the Bodl. Lib. Dods. MSS. v.61, p.47, is the confession
+itself, wherein she gives a circumstantial and minute account of the
+transactions which took place between her and a familiar whom she calls
+Mamilian, describing the meetings, feasts, and all the usual routine of
+witchery and possession.--(See Whitaker's _Whalley_.)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+PART FIRST.
+
+
+The mill went merrily round, and Giles the miller sang and whistled from
+morning to noon, and from noon till evening, save when the mulcting-dish
+was about to be embowelled in the best sack; a business too serious for
+such levity, requiring careful and deliberate thought.
+
+Goody Dickisson, the miller's wife, was a fat, round, pursy dame, of
+some forty years' travel through this wilderness of sorrow, and a
+decent, honest, sober, and well-conditioned housewife she was; cleanly,
+thrifty, and had an excellent cheesepress, which the whole neighbourhood
+could testify.
+
+But the days of man's happiness are numbered, and woman's too, as the
+following narrative will set forth.
+
+The mill had stood, for ages it may be, at the foot of a wild and steep
+cliff, forming the eastern extremity of the dreary range of
+Cliviger;[37] an elevated mountainous pass, from whence the waters
+descend both to the eastern and western seas. Upon those almost
+inaccessible crags the rock-eagle and falcon built their nests, unscared
+by the herdsmen, who in vain attempted their destruction. Through this
+pass, the very gorge of the English Apennines, the Calder,[38] a rapid
+and narrow torrent, brought an unfailing supply of grist to the
+ever-going hopper of Giles Dickisson.
+
+Not far from this happy abode, in the innermost part of the gorge, where
+the rocks of Lancashire and Yorkshire frown in close but harmless
+proximity, at an immense height,--the road and this narrow cleft only
+separating their barriers,--rises a crag of a singular shape, jutting
+far out from the almost perpendicular strata beneath. Its form is
+precisely that of a gigantic helmet, hammered out by the fanciful artist
+into the likeness of an eagle, its wings partly outstretched, and its
+beak--the point of the crag--overshadowing the grim head of some gaunt
+warrior. With but little aid from the imagination, the whole features
+may be discerned; hence it was denominated, "_The Eagle Crag_." But
+another appellation, more awful and mysterious, might be attached to
+it--a reminiscence of those "deeds without a name," which have rendered
+this district of Lancashire so fearfully notorious--"The witches'
+horse-block."
+
+The narrow pass we have described opens out into a succession of
+picturesque valleys, abounding in waterfalls of considerable depth and
+beauty, and expanding towards the north in tracts of fertile
+pasture-ground to the base of Pendle, well known as the reputed scene of
+those mysteries in which "the witches of Pendle" acted so conspicuous a
+part.
+
+Towards the close of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth
+century, the fame, or rather the infamy, of witchcraft, infested this
+once peaceful and sequestered district. The crag we have just noticed
+was, no doubt, to the apprehensions of the simple-hearted peasant, oft
+visited by the unhallowed feet of weirds and witches pluming themselves
+for flight to the great rendezvous at Malkin Tower, by the side of "the
+mighty Pendle."
+
+[Illustration: EAGLE CRAG, VALE OF TODMORDEN.
+
+_Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden._]
+
+Little did our country deserve, in those days, the name of "Merry
+England." Plague or the most noisome pestilence would have been a
+visitation of mercy compared to the miseries caused by so dark a
+superstition. "Even he who lived remote from the scene of this spiritual
+warfare, though few such there could be, so rapidly was it transferred
+from county to county to the remotest districts;--he, in whose vicinity
+no one was suspected of dealing with the foul fiend, whose children,
+cattle, or neighbours, showed no symptoms of being marks for those fiery
+darts which often struck from a distance, yet would he not escape a sort
+of epidemic gloom, a vague apprehension of the mischief which might be.
+The atmosphere he breathed would come to him thick with foul fancies; he
+would ever be hearing or telling some wild and melancholy tale of crime
+and punishment. His best feelings and enjoyments would be dashed with
+bitterness, suspicion, and terror, as he reflected that, though
+uninvaded, yet these were at the mercy of malignant fellow-mortals,
+leagued with more malignant spirits, the laws and limits of whose
+operations were wholly undefinable.
+
+"What must have been his feelings on whom the evil eye had
+glared,--against whom the spell had been pronounced; on whom misfortunes
+came thick and fast, by flood and field, at home and abroad, in business
+and in pleasure; whose cattle died, whose crops were blighted, and about
+whose bed and board, invisible, unwelcome, and mischievous guests held
+their revels; who saw not in his calamities the results of ignorance and
+error, to be averted by caution, nor the inflictions of Heaven to be
+borne with resignation, but was the victim of a compact, in which his
+disasters were part of the price paid by the powers of darkness for an
+immortal soul! He who pined in consumption supposed that his own waxen
+effigy was revolving and melting at the charmed fire; the changes of his
+sensations told him when wanton cruelty damped the flame, to waste it
+lingeringly, or roused it in the impatience of revenge: and when came
+those sharp and shooting pains, the hags were thrusting in their
+bodkins, and their laugh rang in his ears: they sat upon his breast
+asleep,--he awoke gasping, and, as he started up, he saw them melting
+into air. Yet more miserable was the wight whom the fiends were
+commissioned bodily to possess;--with whose breathing frame an infernal
+substance was incorporate and almost identified;--whose thoughts were
+sufferings, and his words involuntary blasphemies. Can we wonder that
+all this was not borne passively;--that its authors were hunted out,
+even, if needful, by their own charms;--that suspicion grew into
+conviction, and conviction demanded vengeance;--that it was deemed a
+duty to hold them up to public hatred, and drag them to the bar of
+public justice;--and that their blood was eagerly thirsted after, of
+which the shedding was often believed not merely a righteous
+retribution, but the only efficient relief for the sufferers?
+
+"The notion of witchcraft was no innocent and romantic superstition, no
+scion of an elegant mythology, but was altogether vulgar, repulsive,
+bloody, and loathsome. It was a foul ulcer on the face of humanity.
+Other vagaries of the mind have been associated with lofty or with
+gentle feelings;--they have belonged more to sportiveness than to
+criminality;--they are the poetry interspersed on the pages of the
+history of opinions;--they seem to be dreams of sleeping reason, and not
+the putrescence of its mouldering carcase; but this has no bright side,
+no redeeming quality whatever."[39]
+
+The human body is not more liable to contagion than is that faculty of
+the mind which is called imagination. That many of the accused believed
+in their crime, we have sufficient evidence in their own voluntary
+confessions, as well as in the traditions handed down to us on this
+subject. Both knavery and delusion were at work, as the following
+incidents will abundantly manifest. They have been selected from a wide
+range of materials on this important topic, as illustrating the varied
+operations of the same delusion on different orders and grades of
+mind,--the temptations warily suited to each disposition, all tending to
+the same crime, and ultimately to the same punishment.
+
+Our lusty miller had no children: it was a secret source of grief and
+anxiety to his dame, and many an hour of repining and discontent was the
+consequence. Yet Giles Dickisson's song was none the heavier; and if his
+wheel went merrily round, his spirits whirled with it, and danced and
+frolicked in the sunshine of good humour, like the spray and sparkle
+from his own mill-race. But a change was gathering on his wife's
+countenance: her grief grew sullen; her aspect stern and
+forbidding:--some hidden purpose was maturing: she seldom spoke to her
+husband. When addressed, she seemed to arouse from a sort of stupor,
+unwillingly forcing a reply. "She is bewitched," thought Giles. He had
+his suspicions; but he could not confidently point out the source of the
+mischief.
+
+One evening, as Goody Dickisson was sitting alone, pondering and
+discontented, there came in one Mal Spencer, a dark and scowling hag, to
+whom Giles bore no good-will. He had beforetime forbidden his wife to
+hold any intercourse with this witch-woman, who was an object generally
+of suspicion and mistrust. If the "evil eye" can be supposed to inhabit
+a human frame, this old woman had an undisputed claim to its possession.
+This night, however, old Molly came hobbling in without further ceremony
+than a "Good e'en, thou Dickisson wife," and took her seat opposite the
+dame in the miller's own chair. "Aroynt thee, witch," should have been
+returned to such an ill-omened salute; but the miller's wife was either
+unwilling or unable to utter this well-known preservative against the
+malice of the Evil Ones.
+
+The horse-shoe had been taken down from the door, and the blessed herb,
+moly, was incautiously thrown aside; neither had Goody Dickisson offered
+up the usual petition that evening, to be defended from the snares of
+the devil. Her discontent was too great, and she was in a fitter mood
+for murmuring than prayer.
+
+Leaning her long thin chin upon a little crutch, and throwing her
+bleared eyes full upon the dame, old Molly abruptly exclaimed, in a
+voice like the croaking of a raven--
+
+"Thou hast asked for children, but they are denied thee. What said I to
+thee, Goody Dickisson, in the clough yonder, by the hollow trunk of the
+oak? Rememberest thou, when thou saidest thou wouldst pawn thy body for
+the wish of thy soul?"
+
+Dame Dickisson waxed pale, and her knees shook; but the hag went on.
+
+"Worship the master I serve, and thou shalt have thy desire--ay and
+more!"
+
+"More!--What meanest thou?"
+
+"Come to the feast, as I have bidden thee. If thou likest not the savour
+of our company, thou shalt depart, and without harm."
+
+"But who shall give me a safe conduct that I come back, and harmless as
+I went? Once in your possession, methinks"----
+
+"What!" shouted the beldame, with a look of dark and devilish
+malignity:--"the word of a prince! Shall Goody Dickisson, the miller's
+wife, hold it in distrust? Go, poor fool, and chew thy bitterness, and
+bake thy bannocks, and fret thy old husband until thy writhen flesh rot
+from thy bones, and thou gnawest them for malice and vexation. Is it not
+glorious to ride on the wind--to mount the stars--to kiss the moon
+through the dark rolling clouds, when the blast scatters them in its
+might? To ride unharmed on their huge peaks tipped with thunder? To be
+for ever young in desire and enjoyment, though old and haggard, and bent
+double with age and infirmities? To have our wish and our revenge--ay,
+and the bodies of our enemies wasting before our spells, like wax to the
+flame? But go, sneak and drivel, and mind thy meal and barley-cakes, and
+go childless to thy grave."
+
+She rose as if to depart; but Goody Dickisson's evil destiny prevailed,
+and she promised to attend the feast, with this condition only, that no
+harm should befall her, nor force nor entreaty should be used to win her
+consent to join their confederacy. But she returned not from that
+unhallowed assembly until body and soul were for ever under the dominion
+of the destroyer.
+
+The mill went merrily on no more, and the miller's song was still. He
+looked a heavy and a doomed man. Strange suspicions haunted him. His
+wife's ill-humour he could have borne; but her very laugh now made him
+tremble: it was as if the functions of mind and body were animated by a
+being distinct from herself. Her countenance showed not that her
+thoughts mingled in either mirth or misery, except at times, when
+terrible convulsions seemed to pass over like the sudden roll of the
+sea, tossed by some unseen and subterraneous tempest. The neighbours
+began to shun his dwelling. His presence was the signal for stolen looks
+and portentous whispers. To church his wife never came; but the bench,
+her usual sitting-place, was deserted. At the church-doors, after
+sermon, when the price of grain, the weather, and other marketable
+commodities were discussed and settled, Giles was evidently an object of
+avoidance, and left to trudge home alone to his own cheerless and gloomy
+hearth.
+
+Dick Hargreave's only cow was bewitched. The most effectual and
+approved method of ascertaining under whose spell she laboured was as
+follows:--
+
+The next Friday, a pair of breeches was thrown over the cow's horns; she
+was then driven from the shippen with a stout cudgel. The place to which
+she directed her flight was carefully watched, for there assuredly must
+dwell the witch. To the great horror and dismay of Giles Dickisson, the
+cow came bellowing down the lane, tail up, in great terror--telling, as
+plain as beast could speak, of her distress, until she came to a full
+pause, middle deep in his own mill-dam. This was a direct confirmation
+to his suspicions; but the following was a more undeniable proof, if
+need were, of his wife's dishonest confederacy with the powers of
+darkness.
+
+One morning, ere his servant-man Robin had taken the grey mare from the
+stable, Giles awoke early, and found his wife had not lain by his side.
+He had beforetime felt half roused in the night from a deep but uneasy
+slumber; but he was too heavy and bewildered to recollect himself, and
+sleep again overcame him ere he could satisfy his doubts. He had either
+dreamt, or fancied he had dreamt, that his wife was, at some seasons,
+away for a whole night together, and he was rendered insensible by her
+spells. This morning, however, he awoke before the usual time, probably
+from some failure in the charm, and he met her as she was ascending the
+stairs. Something like alarm or confusion was manifest. She had been to
+look after the cattle, she stammered out, scolding Robin for an idle
+lout to lie a-bed so long. The stable-door was open. With an aching
+heart, he went in. The grey mare was in a bath of foam, panting and
+distressed as though from some recent journey. Whilst pondering on this
+strange occurrence, Robin came in. His master taxed him with dishonesty.
+After much ado, he confessed that his mistress had many times of late
+borrowed the mare for a night, always returning before the good man
+awoke. Giles was too full of trouble to rate Robin as he deserved,
+contenting himself with many admonitions and instructions how to act in
+the next emergency.
+
+Not many nights after, as Robin was late in the stable, his mistress
+came with the usual request, and her magic bridle in her hand.
+
+"Now, good Robin, the cream is in the bowl, and the beer behind the
+spigot, and my good man is in bed."
+
+"Whither away, mistress?" said Robin, diligently whisping down and
+soothing the mare, who trembled from head to foot when she heard her
+mistress's voice.
+
+"For a journey, Robin. I have business at Colne; but I will not fail to
+come back again before sunrise."
+
+"Ay, mistress, this is always your tale; but measter catched her in a
+woundy heat last time, and will not let her go."
+
+"But, Robin, she shall be in the stable and dry two hours before my old
+churl gets up."
+
+"But measter says she maunna go."
+
+"Thou hast told him, then,--and a murrain light on thee!"
+
+With eyes glistening like witch-fires, did the dame bestow her malison.
+Robin half-repented his refusal; but he was stubborn, and his courage
+not easily shaken. Besides, he had bragged at the last Michaelmas feast
+that he cared not a rush for never a witch in the parish. He had an
+_Agnus Dei_ in his bosom, and a leaf from the holy herb in his clogs;
+and what recked he of spells and incantations? Furthermore, he had a
+waistcoat of proof given to him by his grandmother.[40]
+
+"Since thou hast denied me the mare, I'll take thee in her place."
+
+Robin felt in his bosom for the _Agnus Dei_ cake, but it was gone!--He
+had thrown of his waistcoat, too, for the work, and his clogs were lying
+under the rack. Before he could furnish himself with these
+counter-charms, Goody Dickisson threw the bridle upon him, using these
+portentous words:--
+
+    "Horse, horse, see thou be;
+    And where I point thee carry me."
+
+Swift as the rush of the wind, Robin felt their power. His nature
+changed: he grew more agile and capacious; and without further ado,
+found Goody upon his back, and his own shanks at an ambling gallop on
+the high-road to Pendle. He panted and grew weary, but she urged him on
+with an unsparing hand, lashing and spurring with all her might, until
+at last poor Robin, unused to such expedition, flagged and could
+scarcely crawl. But needs must when the witches drive. Rest and despite
+were denied, until, almost dead with toil and terror, he halted in one
+of the steep gullies of Pendle near to Malkin Tower.
+
+It was an old grey-headed ruin, solitary and uninhabited. The cold
+October wind whistled through its joints and crannies;--the walls were
+studded with bright patches of moss and lichen;--darkness and desolation
+brooded over it, unbroken by aught but the cry of the moor-fowl and the
+stealthy prowl of the weasel and wild cat.
+
+But this lonesome and time-hallowed ruin was now lit up as for some gay
+festival; lights were flickering through the crevices, and the coming of
+the guests, each mounted on her enchanted steed, was accompanied by loud
+and fiend-like acclamations. Shrieks and howlings were borne from afar
+upon the blast. Unhallowed words and unutterable curses came on the
+hollow wind. Forms of indescribable and abominable shape flitted through
+the troubled elements. Robin, trembling all over with fright and
+fatigue, was told by his mistress to graze where he could, while she
+went into the feast:--"Make good use of thy time, for in two hours I
+shall mount thee back again."
+
+This was poor sustenance for Robin's stomach,--furze and heath were not
+at all to his mind, and he peeped about for a quiet resting-place. Here
+he was kicked and bitten by others of the herd; several of them were in
+the like pitiable condition with himself; but some were really of the
+brute kind, and these fared the best and were better mannered than most
+of their human companions. Often did our unfortunate hero wish himself
+in their place. Having little else to do, he was prompted by curiosity
+to approach the building, from whence the loud din of mirth and revelry
+grated harshly on his ears. A long chink disclosed to him some part of
+the mysteries within. There sat on the floor a great company of witches,
+feasting and cramming with all their might. An elderly gentleman of a
+grave and respectable deportment, clad in black doublet and hosen, sat
+on a stone-heap at the head, from whence he dealt out the delicacies
+with due care and attention. This was a mortifying sight to a hungry
+stomach, and Robin's humanity yearned at the display. After the first
+emotions had a little subsided, he found himself at leisure to examine
+the faces of the opposite guests, and he recognised several dames of
+his acquaintance, feasting right merrily at the witches' board. Either
+his fears and "thick-coming fancies" deceived him, or, as he afterwards
+declared, he saw nearly the whole of the neighbourhood at the assembly.
+
+Presently it seemed as if the first course were ended, and the floor
+cleared by invisible hands in a twinkling.
+
+"Now pull," said the grave personage in black.
+
+Many ropes hung from the roof. These the women began to pull furiously,
+when down came pies, puddings, milk, cream, and rare wines, which they
+caught in wooden bowls; likewise sweet-meats and all manner of dainties,
+which made Robin's mouth to water so at the sight that he could bear it
+no longer. Intending to groan, he involuntarily uttered a loud neigh,
+which so alarmed the company that the lights were extinguished, and the
+guests sallied out, each immediately bestriding her steed, and setting
+forth at full gallop, save Goody Dickisson, who, in attempting to mount
+Robin, met with a sore mishap. Recollecting the charm which operated
+upon him, he gave his head a sudden fling: as good luck would have it,
+the bridle became entangled about her neck. His speech now came again,
+and he cried out--
+
+    "Mare, mare, see thou be;
+    And where I point thee carry me."
+
+Suddenly she was metamorphosed, and Robin in his turn bestrode the
+witch. He spared her not, as will readily be imagined, until he had her
+safe in her own stable before break of day. Leaving her there with the
+bridle about her neck, he entered the house, hungry and jaded. Soon he
+heard Giles coming down-stairs in a great hurry--
+
+"How now, sirrah!" cried the incensed miller; "did I not tell thee to
+forbid thy mistress the mare?"
+
+"Why, master," replied Robin, scratching his head, "and so I have--the
+beast hasna' been ridden sin' ye backed her on Friday."
+
+"Thou art a lying hound to look me in the face and say so. Thy mistress
+hath been out again last night upon her old errands--I found it out when
+I awaked."
+
+"And what's the matter of that?" said Robin, with great alacrity. "Ye
+may go see, master, an' ye liken--the mare's as dry as our meal-tub, and
+as brisk as bottled ale."
+
+Giles turned angrily away from him towards the stable, tightening a
+tough cudgel in his grasp, with which he intended to belabour the
+unfortunate hind on his return. Nor was he long absent--Robin had
+scarcely swallowed a mouthful of hot porridge when his master thus
+accosted him--
+
+"Why, thou hob thrust, no good can come where thy fingers are
+a-meddling; there is another jade besides mine own tied to the rack, not
+worth a groat. Dost let thy neighbours lift my oats and provender?
+Better turn my mill into a spital for horses, and nourish all the
+worn-out kibboes i' the parish!"
+
+"Nay, measter, the beast is yours; and ye ha' foun' her bed and
+provender these twenty years."
+
+"I'll cudgel that lying spirit out o' thee," said Giles, wetting his
+hands for a firm grasp at the stick.
+
+"Hold, master!" said Robin, stepping aside; "she has cost you more
+currying than all the combs in the stable are worth. Step in and take
+off the bridle, and then say whose beast she is, and who hath most right
+to her, you or your neighbours. But mind, when the bridle is off her
+neck, she slip it not on to yours; for if she do you are a gone man."
+
+Giles stayed not, but ran with great haste into the stable. The tired
+beast could scarcely stand; but he pulled off the bridle, and--as Robin
+told the tale--his own spouse immediately stood confessed before him!
+
+Here we pause. In the next part we shall rapidly sketch another of the
+traditions current on this strange subject. It will but be a brief and
+shadowy outline: space forbids us to dilate: the whole volume would not
+contain the stories that tradition attributes to the prevalence of this
+unnatural and revolting, though, it may be, imaginary crime.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[37] [Illustration: Clyfrigrcype], or _the rocky district_.
+
+[38] Col-dwr, or _narrow water_. See Whitaker's etymology of the word
+(_Hist. of Manchester_).
+
+[39] See an able article on this subject in the _Retrospective Review_,
+vol. v. part i.
+
+[40] "On Christmas daie at night, a threed must be sponne of flax, by a
+little virgine girl, in the name of the divell; and it must be by her
+woven, and also wrought with the needle. On the breste or fore part
+thereof must be made, with needlework, two heads; on the head of the
+right side must be a hat, and a long beard,--the left head must have on
+a crown, and it must be so horrible that it maie resemble Belzebub; and
+on each side of the wastcote must be made a crosse."--_Discoverie of
+Witchcraft_, by Reginald Scott, 1584.
+
+
+
+
+PART SECOND.
+
+
+On the verge of the Castle Clough, a deep and winding dingle, once
+shaded with venerable oaks, are the small remains of the Castle of
+Hapton, the seat of its ancient lords, and, till the erection of Hapton
+Tower, the occasional residence of the De la Leghs and Townleys. Hapton
+Tower is now destroyed to its foundation. It was a large square
+building, and about a hundred years ago presented the remains of three
+cylindrical towers with conical basements. It also appears to have had
+two principal entrances opposite to each other, with a thorough lobby
+between, and seems not to have been built in the usual form,--that of a
+quadrangle. It was erected about the year 1510, and was inhabited until
+1667. The family-name of the nobleman--for such he appears to have
+been--of whom the following story is told, we have no means of
+ascertaining. That he was an occasional resident or visitor at the Tower
+is but surmise. During the period of these dark transactions we find
+that the mansion was inhabited by Jane Assheton, relict of Richard
+Townley, who died in the year 1637. Whoever he might be, the following
+horrible event, arising out of this superstition, attaches to his
+memory. Whether it can be attributed to the operations of a mind just
+bordering on insanity, and highly wrought upon by existing
+delusions,--or must be classed amongst the proofs, so abundantly
+furnished by all believers in the reality of witchcraft and demoniacal
+possession, our readers must determine as we unfold the tale.
+
+Lord William had seen, and had openly vowed to win, the proud maiden of
+Bernshaw Tower. He did win her, but he did not woo her. A dark and
+appalling secret was connected with their union, which we shall briefly
+develop.
+
+Lady Sibyl, "the proud maiden of Bernshaw," was from her youth the
+creature of impulse and imagination--a child of nature and romance. She
+roved unchecked through the green valleys and among the glens and
+moorlands of her native hills; every nook and streamlet was associated
+with some hidden thought "too deep for tears," until Nature became her
+god,--the hills and fastnesses, the trackless wilds and mountains, her
+companions. With them alone she held communion; and as she watched the
+soft shadows and the white clouds take their quiet path upon the hills,
+she beheld in them the symbols of her own ideas,--the images and
+reflections,--the hidden world within her made visible. She felt no
+sympathy with the realities--the commonplaces of life; her thoughts were
+too aspiring for earth, yet found not their resting-place in heaven! It
+was no grovelling, degrading superstition which actuated her: she sighed
+for powers above her species,--she aspired to hold intercourse with
+beings of a superior nature. She would gaze for hours in wild delirium
+on the blue sky and starry vault, and wish she were freed from the base
+encumbrances of earth, that she might shine out among those glorious
+intelligences in regions without a shadow or a cloud. Imagination was
+her solace and her curse; she flew to it for relief as the drunkard to
+his cup, sparkling and intoxicating for a while, but its dregs were
+bitterness and despair. Soon her world of imagination began to quicken;
+and, as the wind came sighing through her dark ringlets, or rustling
+over the dry grass and heather bushes at her side, she thought a spirit
+spoke, or a celestial messenger crossed her path. The unholy rites of
+the witches were familiar to her ear, but she spurned their vulgar and
+low ambition; she panted for communion with beings more
+exalted--demigods and immortals, of whom she had heard as having been
+translated to those happier skies, forming the glorious constellations
+she beheld. Sometimes fancies wild and horrible assaulted her; she then
+shut herself for days in her own chamber, and was heard as though in
+converse with invisible things. When freed from this hallucination,
+agony was marked on her brow, and her cheek was more than usually pale
+and collapsed. She would then wander forth again:--the mountain-breeze
+reanimated her spirits, and imagination again became pleasant unto her.
+She heard the wild swans winging their way above her, and she thought of
+the wild hunters and the spectre-horseman:[41] the short wail of the
+curlew, the call of the moor-cock and plover, was the voice of her
+beloved. To her all nature wore a charmed life: earth and sky were but
+creatures formed for her use, and the ministers of her pleasure.
+
+The Tower of Bernshaw was a small fortified house in the pass over the
+hills from Burnley to Todmorden. It stood within a short distance from
+the Eagle Crag; and the Lady Sibyl would often climb to the utmost verge
+of that overhanging peak, looking from its dizzy height until her soul
+expanded, and her thoughts took their flight through those dim regions
+where the eye could not penetrate.
+
+One evening she had lingered longer than usual: she felt unwilling to
+depart--to meet again the dull and wearisome realities of life--the
+petty cares that interest and animate mankind. She loathed her own form
+and her own species:--earth was too narrow for her desire, and she
+almost longed to burst its barriers. In the deep agony of her spirit she
+cried aloud--
+
+"Would that my path, like yon clouds, were on the wind, and my
+dwelling-place in their bosom!"
+
+A soft breeze came suddenly towards her, rustling the dry heath as it
+swept along. The grass bent beneath its footsteps, and it seemed to die
+away in articulate murmurs at her feet. Terror crept upon her, her bosom
+thrilled, and her whole frame was pervaded by some subtle and mysterious
+influence.
+
+"Who art thou?" she whispered, as though to some invisible agent. She
+listened, but there was no reply; the same soft wind suddenly arose, and
+crept to her bosom.
+
+"Who art thou?" she inquired again, but in a louder tone. The breeze
+again flapped its wings, mantling upwards from where it lay, as if
+nestled on her breast. It mounted lightly to her cheek, but it felt
+hot--almost scorching--when the maiden cried out as before. It fluttered
+on her ear, and she thought there came a whisper--
+
+"I am thy good spirit."
+
+"Oh, tell me," she cried with vehemence: "show me who thou art!"--a mist
+curled round her, and a lambent flame, like the soft lightning of a
+summer's night, shot from it. She saw a form, glorious but indistinct,
+and the flashes grew paler every moment.
+
+"Leave me not," she cried; "I will be thine!"
+
+Then the cloud passed away, and a being stood before her, mightier and
+more stately than the sons of men. A burning fillet was on his brow, and
+his eyes glowed with an ever-restless flame.
+
+"Maiden, I come at thy wish. Speak!--what is thy desire."
+
+"Let thought be motion;--let my will only be the boundary of my power,"
+said she, nothing daunted; for her mind had become too familiar with
+invisible fancies, and her ambition too boundless to feel either awe or
+alarm. Immediately she felt as though she were sweeping through the
+trackless air,--she heard the rush of mighty wings cleaving the
+sky,--she thought the whole world lay at her feet, and the kingdoms of
+the earth moved on like a mighty pageant. Then did the vision change.
+Objects began to waver and grow dim, as if passing through a mist; and
+she found herself again upon that lonely crag, and her conductor at her
+side. He grasped her hand: she felt his burning touch, and a sudden
+smart as though she were stung--a drop of blood hung on her finger. He
+unbound the burning fillet, and she saw as though it were a glimpse of
+that unquenchable, unconsuming flame that devoured him. He took the
+blood and wrote upon her brow. The agony was intense, and a faint shriek
+escaped her. He spoke, but the sound rang in her ears like the knell of
+hopes for ever departed.
+
+For words of such presumptuous blasphemy, tradition must be voiceless.
+The demon looked upwards; but, as if blasted by some withering sight,
+his eyes were suddenly withdrawn.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+What homage was exacted, let no one seek to know.
+
+After a pause, the deceiver again addressed her; and his form changed as
+he spoke.
+
+"One day in the year alone thou shalt be subject to mischance. It is the
+feast of All-Hallows, when the witches meet to renew their vows. On this
+night thou must be as they, and must join their company. Still thou
+mayest hide thyself under any form thou shalt choose; but it shall abide
+upon thee until midnight. Till then thy spells are powerless. On no
+other day shall harm befall thee."
+
+The maiden felt her pride dilate:--her weak and common nature she
+thought was no longer a degradation; she seemed as though she could
+bound through infinite space. Already was she invested with the
+attributes of immateriality, when she awoke!--and in her own chamber,
+whither the servants had conveyed her from the crag an hour before,
+having found her asleep, or in a swoon, upon the verge of the precipice.
+She looked at her hand; the sharp wound was there, and she felt her brow
+tingle as if to remind her of that irrevocable pledge.
+
+Lord William sued in vain to the maid of Bernshaw Tower. She repulsed
+him with scorn and contumely. He vowed that he would win her, though the
+powers of darkness withstood the attempt. To accomplish this impious
+purpose, he sought Mause, the witch's dwelling. It was a dreary hut,
+built in a rocky cleft, shunned by all as the abode of wicked and
+malignant spirits, which the dame kept and nursed as familiars, for the
+fulfilment of her malicious will.
+
+The night was dark and heavy when Lord William tied his steed to a rude
+gate that guarded the entrance to the witch's den. He raised the latch,
+but there was no light within.
+
+"Holloa!" cried the courageous intruder; but all was dark and silent as
+before. Just as he was about to depart he thought he heard a rustling
+near him, and presently the croaking voice of the hag close at his ear.
+
+"Lord William," said she, "thou art a bold man to come hither after
+nightfall."
+
+He felt something startled, but he swerved not from his purpose.
+
+"Can'st help me to a bride, Mother Helston?" cried he, in a firm voice;
+"for I feel mightily constrained to wed!"
+
+"Is the doomed maiden of Bernshaw a bride fit for Lord William's bosom?"
+said the invisible sorceress.
+
+"Give me some charm to win her consent,--I care not for the rest."
+
+"Charm!" replied the beldame, with a screech that made Lord William
+start back. "Spells have I none that can bind her. I would she were in
+my power; but she hath spell for spell. Nought would avail thee, for she
+is beyond my reach; her power would baffle mine?"
+
+"Is she too tainted with the iniquity that is abroad?"
+
+"I tell thee yea; and my spirit must bow to hers. Wouldst wed her
+now--fond, feeble-hearted mortal?"
+
+Lord William was silent; but the beautiful form of the maiden seemed to
+pass before him, and he loved her with such overmastering vehemence that
+if Satan himself had stood in the gap he would not have shrunk from his
+purpose.
+
+"Mause Helston," said the lover, "if thou wilt help me at this bout, I
+will not draw back. I dare wed her though she were twice the thing thou
+fearest. Tell me how her spell works,--I will countervail it,--- I will
+break that accursed charm, and she shall be my bride!"
+
+For a while there was no reply; but he heard a muttering as though some
+consultation were going on.
+
+"Listen, Lord William," she spoke aloud. "Ay, thou wilt listen to thine
+own jeopardy! Once in the year--'tis on the night of All-Hallows--she
+may be overcome. But it is a perilous attempt!"
+
+"I care not. Point out the way, and I will ride it rough-shod!"
+
+The beldame arose from her couch, and struck a light. Ere they separated
+the morning dawned high above the grey hills. Many rites and
+incantations were performed, of which we forbear the disgusting recital.
+The instructions he received were never divulged; the secrets of that
+night were never known; but an altered man was Lord William when he came
+back to Hapton Tower.
+
+On All-Hallows' day, with a numerous train, he went forth a-hunting. His
+hounds were the fleetest from Calder to Calder; and his horns the
+shrillest through the wide forests of Accrington and Rossendale. But on
+that morning a strange hound joined the pack that outstripped them all.
+
+"Blow," cried Lord William, "till the loud echoes ring, and the fleet
+hounds o'ertake yon grizzled mongrel."
+
+Both horses and dogs were driven to their utmost speed, but the strange
+hound still kept ahead. Over moor and fell they still rushed on, the
+hounds in full cry, though as yet guided only by the scent, the object
+of their pursuit not being visible. Suddenly a white doe was seen,
+distant a few yards only, and bounding away from them at full speed. She
+might have risen out of the ground, so immediate was her appearance. On
+they went in full view, but the deer was swift, and she seemed to wind
+and double with great dexterity. Her bearing was evidently towards the
+steep crags on the east. They passed the Tower of Bernshaw, and were
+fast approaching the verge of that tremendous precipice, the "Eagle
+Crag." Horse and rider must inevitably perish if they follow. But Lord
+William slackened not in the pursuit; and the deer flew straight as an
+arrow to its mark,--the very point where the crag jutted out over the
+gulf below. The huntsmen drew back in terror; the dogs were still in
+chase, though at some distance behind;--Lord William only and the
+strange hound were close upon her track. Beyond the crag nothing was
+visible but cloud and sky, showing the fearful height and abruptness of
+the descent. One moment, and the gulf must be shot:--his brain felt
+dizzy, but his heart was resolute.
+
+"Mause, my wench," said he, "my neck or thine!--Hie thee; if she's over,
+we are lost!"
+
+Lord William's steed followed in the hound's footsteps to a hair. The
+deer was almost within her last spring, when the hound, with a loud
+yell, doubled her, scarcely a yard's breadth from the long bare neb of
+that fearful peak, and she turned with inconceivable speed so near the
+verge that Lord William, in wheeling round, heard a fragment of rock,
+loosened by the stroke from his horse's hoof, roll down the precipice
+with a frightful crash. The sudden whirl had nearly brought him to the
+ground, but he recovered his position with great adroitness. A loud
+shriek announced the capture. The cruel hound held the deer by the
+throat, and they were struggling together on the green earth. With
+threats and curses he lashed away the ferocious beast, who growled
+fiercely at being driven from her prey. With looks of sullenness and
+menace, she scampered off, leaving Lord William to secure the victim. He
+drew a silken noose from his saddle-bow, and threw it over the panting
+deer, who followed quietly on to his dwelling at Hapton Tower.
+
+At midnight there was heard a wild and unearthly shriek from the high
+turret, so pitiful and shrill that the inmates awoke in great alarm. The
+loud roar of the wind came on like a thunder-clap. The tempest flapped
+its wings, and its giant arms rocked the turret like a cradle. At this
+hour Lord William, with a wild and haggard eye, left his chamber. The
+last stroke of the midnight bell trembled on his ear as he entered the
+western tower. A maiden sat there, a silken noose was about her head,
+and she sobbed loud and heavily. She wrung her white hands at his
+approach.
+
+"Thy spells have been o'ermastered. Henceforth I renounce these unholy
+rites; I would not pass nights of horror and days of dread any longer.
+Maiden, thou art in my power. Unless thou wilt be mine,--renouncing
+thine impious vows,--for ever shunning thy detested arts,--breaking that
+accursed chain the enemy has wound about thee,--I will deliver thee up
+to thy tormentors, and those that seek thy destruction. This done, and
+thou art free."
+
+The maiden threw her snake-like glance upon him.
+
+"Alas!" she cried, "I am not free. This magic noose! remove it, and my
+promise shall be without constraint."
+
+"Nay, thou arch-deceiver,--deceiver of thine own self, and plotter of
+thine own ruin,--I would save thee from thy doom. Promise, renounce, and
+for ever forswear thy vows. The priest will absolve thee; it must be
+done ere I unbind that chain."
+
+"I promise," said the maiden, after a deep and unbroken silence. "I have
+not been happy since I knew their power. I may yet worship this fair
+earth and yon boundless sky. This heart would be void without an object
+and a possession!"
+
+She shed no tear until the holy man, with awful and solemn
+denunciations, exorcised the unclean spirit to whom she was bound. He
+admonished her, as a repentant wanderer from the flock, to shun the
+perils of presumption, reminding her that HE, of whom it is written that
+He was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be _tempted_ of the
+devil,--HE who won for us the victory in that conflict, taught _us_ in
+praying to say, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."
+She was rebaptized as one newly born, and committed again to the keeping
+of the Holy Church. Shortly afterwards were united at the altar Lord
+William and Lady Sibyl. He accompanied her to Bernshaw Tower, their
+future residence,--becoming, in right of his wife, the sole possessor of
+those domains.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[41] In Lancashire these noises are called the Gabriel Ratchets,
+according to Webster, which seem to be the same with the German
+Rachtvogel or Rachtraven. The word and the superstition are still
+prevalent. Gabriel Ratchets are supposed to be like the sound of puppies
+yelping in the air, and to forebode death or misfortune.
+
+
+
+
+PART THIRD.
+
+
+Twelve months were nigh come and gone, and the feast of All-Hallows was
+again at hand. Lord William's bride sat in her lonely bower, but her
+face was pale, and her eyes red with weeping. The tempter had been
+there; and she had not sought for protection against his snares. That
+night she was expected to renew her allegiance to the prince of
+darkness. Those fearful rites must now bind her for ever to his will.
+Such appeared to be her infatuation that it led her to imagine she was
+yet his by right of purchase, without being fully conscious of the
+impiety of that thought. His own power had been promised to her: true,
+she must die; but might she not, a spirit like himself, rove from world
+to world without restraint? She thought--so perilously rapid was her
+relapse and her delusion--that his form had again passed before her,
+beautiful as before his transgression!--"The Son of the Morning!"
+arrayed in the majesty which he had before the world was,--ere heaven's
+Ruler had hurled him from his throne. Her mental vision was perverted.
+Light and darkness, good and evil, were no longer distinguished. Perhaps
+it was a dream; but the imagination had becomed diseased, and she
+distinguished not its inward operations from outward impressions on the
+sense. Her husband was kind, and loved her with a lover's fondness, but
+she could not return his affection. He saw her unhappy, and he
+administered comfort; but the source of her misery was in himself, and
+she sighed to be free?
+
+"Free!"--she started; the voice was an echo to her thought. It appeared
+to be in the chamber, but she saw no living form. She had vowed to
+renounce the devil and all his works in her rebaptism, before she was
+led to the altar, and how could she face her husband?
+
+"He shall not know of our compact."
+
+These words seemed to be whispered in her ear. She turned aside; but saw
+nothing save the glow of sunset through the lattice, and a wavering
+light upon the floor.
+
+"I would spare him this misery," she sighed. "Conceal but the secret
+from him, and I am again thine!"
+
+Suddenly the well-known form of her familiar was at her side.
+
+The following day was All-Hallows-e'en, and her allegiance must be
+renewed in the great assembly of his subjects held on that fearful
+night.
+
+It was in the year 1632, a period well known in history as having led
+to the apprehension of a considerable number of persons accused of
+witchcraft. The depositions of these miserable creatures were taken
+before Richard Shuttleworth and John Starkie, two of his Majesty's
+justices of the peace, on the 10th of February 1633; and they were
+committed to Lancaster Castle for trial.
+
+Seventeen of them were found guilty, on evidence suspicious enough under
+ordinary circumstances, but not at all to be wondered at, if we consider
+the feeling and excitement then abroad. Some of the deluded victims
+themselves confessed their crime, giving minute and connected statements
+of their meetings, and the transactions which then took place. Justices
+of the peace, judges, and the highest dignitaries of the realm, firmly
+believed in these reputed sorceries. Even the great Sir Thomas Brown,
+author of the book intended as an exposure of "Vulgar Errors," gave his
+testimony to the truth and reality of those diabolical delusions. But we
+have little need to wonder at the superstition of past ages, when we
+look at the folly and credulity of our own.
+
+It may, perhaps, be pleasing to learn that the judge who presided at the
+trial respited the convicts, and reported their case to the king in
+council. They were next remitted to Chester, where Bishop Bridgeman,
+certifying his opinion of the matter, four of the accused--Margaret
+Johnson, Frances Dickisson, Mary Spencer, and the wife of one
+Hargreaves--were sent to London and examined, first by the king's
+physicians, and afterwards by Charles I. in person. "A stranger scene
+can scarcely be perceived," says the historian of Whalley; "and it is
+not easy to imagine whether the untaught manners, rude dialect, and
+uncouth appearance of these poor foresters would more astonish the king;
+or his dignity of person and manners, together with the splendid scene
+by which they were surrounded, would overwhelm them."
+
+The story made so much noise that plays were written on the subject, and
+enacted. One of them is entitled, "The late Lancashire Witches, a
+well-received Comedy, lately acted at the Globe on the Bank-side, by the
+King's Majesty's Actors. Written by Thomas Haywood and Richard Broom.
+_Aut prodesse solent, aut delectare_, 1634."
+
+But our element is tradition, especially as illustrating ancient manners
+and superstitions; we therefore give the sequel of our tale as tradition
+hath preserved it.
+
+Giles Dickisson, the merry miller at the Mill Clough, had so taken to
+heart his wife's dishonesty that, as we have before observed, he grew
+fretful and morose. His mill he vowed was infested with a whole legion
+of these "hell-cats," as they were called; for in this shape they
+presented themselves to the affrighted eyes of the miserable
+yoke-fellow, as he fancied himself, to a limb of Satan. The yells and
+screeches he heard o'nights from these witches and warlocks were
+unbearable; and once or twice, when late at the mill, both he and Robin
+had received some palpable tokens of their presence. Scratches and
+bloody marks were plainly visible, and every hour brought with it some
+new source of annoyance or alarm.
+
+One morning Giles showed himself with a disconsolate face before Lord
+William at the Tower; he could bear his condition no longer.
+
+"T'other night," said he, "the witches set me astride o' t' riggin' o'
+my own house.[42] It was a bitter cold time, an' I was nearly perished
+when I wakened. I am weary of my life, and will flit; for this country,
+the deil, I do think, holds in his own special keeping!"
+
+Then Robin stept forward, offering to take the mill on his master's
+quittance. He cared not, he said, for all the witch-women in the parish.
+He had "fettled" one of them, and, by his Maker's help, he hoped fairly
+to drive them off the field. The bargain was struck, and Robin that day
+entered into possession.
+
+By a strange coincidence, this transaction happened on the eve of
+All-Hallows before mentioned; and Lord William requested that Robin
+would on that night keep watch. His courage, he said, would help him
+through; and if he could rid the mill of them, the Baron promised him a
+year's rent, and a good largess besides. Robin was fain of the offer,
+and prepared himself for the strife, determined, if possible, to eject
+these ugly vermin from the premises.
+
+On this same night, soon after sunset, the lady of Bernshaw Tower went
+forth, leaving her lord in a deep sleep, the effect, as it was supposed,
+of her own spells. Ere she departed, every symbol or token of grace was
+laid aside;--her rosary was unbound. She drew a glove from her hand, and
+in it was the bridle ring, which she threw from her,--when the flame of
+the lamp suddenly expired. It was in her little toilet-chamber, where
+she had paused, that she might pursue her meditations undisturbed. Her
+allegiance must be renewed, and revoked no more; but her pride, that
+darling sin for which she raised her soul, must first suffer. On that
+night she must be guided by the same laws, and subjected to the same
+degrading influence, as her fellow-subjects. At least once a year this
+condition must be fulfilled:--all rank and distinction being lost, the
+vassals were alike equal in subordination to their chief. On this night,
+too, the rights of initiation were usually administered.
+
+The time drew nigh, and the Lady Sibyl, intending to conceal the glove
+with the sacred symbol, passed her hand on the table where it had
+lain--but it was gone!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In a vast hollow, nearly surrounded by crags and precipices, bare and
+inaccessible, the meeting was assembled, and the lady of the Tower was
+to be restored to their communion. Gliding like a shadow, came in the
+wife of Lord William,--pale, and her tresses dishevelled, she seemed the
+victim either of disease or insanity.
+
+Under a tottering and blasted pine sat their chief, in a human form;
+his stature lofty and commanding, he appeared as a ruler even in this
+narrow sphere of his dominion. Yet he looked round with a glance of
+mockery and scorn. He was fallen, and he felt degraded; but his aim was
+to mar the glorious image of his Maker, and trample it beneath his feet.
+
+A crowd of miserable and deluded beings came at the beck of their chief,
+each accompanied by her familiar. But the lady of Bernshaw came alone.
+Her act of renouncement had deprived her of this privilege.
+
+The mandate having been proclaimed, and the preliminary rites to this
+fearful act of reprobation performed, the assembly waited for the
+concluding act--the cruel and appalling trial: one touch of his finger
+was to pass upon her brow,--the impress, the mark of the beast,--the
+sign that was to snatch her from the reach of mercy! Her spirit
+shuddered;--nature shrank from the unholy contact. Once more she looked
+towards that heaven she was about to forfeit,--and for ever!
+
+"For ever!"--the words rang in her ears; their sound was like the knell
+of her everlasting hope. She started aside, as though she felt a horrid
+and scorching breath upon her cheek, as though she already felt their
+unutterable import in the abysses of woe!
+
+Conscience, long slumbering, seemed to awake; she was seized with the
+anguish of despair! It seemed as though judgment were passed, and she
+was doomed to wander like some rayless orb in the blackness of darkness
+for ever. One fearful undefined form of terror was before her; one
+consciousness of offence ever present; all idea of past and future
+absorbed in one ever-during NOW, she felt that her misery was too heavy
+to sustain. A groan escaped her lips, but it was an appeal to that power
+for deliverance, who is not slow to hear, "nor impotent to save."
+Suddenly she was roused from some deep and overpowering hallucination;
+the promises of unlimited gratification to every wish prevailed no more,
+the tempter's charm was broken. All was changed; the whole scene seemed
+to vanish; and that form, which once appeared to her like an angel of
+light, fell prostrate, writhing away in terrific and tortuous folds on
+the hissing earth. The crowd scattered with a fearful yell;--she heard
+a rush of wings, and a loud and dissonant scream,--and the "Bride of
+Bernshaw" fell senseless to the ground.
+
+We leave the conscience-stricken victim whilst we relate the result of
+Robin's watch-night at the mill.
+
+He lay awake until midnight, but there was no disturbance; nothing was
+heard but the plash of the mill-stream, and the dripping ooze from the
+rocks. His old enemies, no doubt, were intimidated, and he was about
+commencing a snug nap on the idea--when, lo! there came a great rush of
+wind. He heard it booming on from a vast distance, until it seemed to
+sweep over the building in one wide resistless torrent that might have
+levelled the stoutest edifice;--yet was the mill unharmed by the attack.
+Then came shrieks and yells, mingled with the most horrid imprecations.
+Swift as thought, there rushed upon him a prodigious company of cats,
+bats, and all manner of hideous things, that scratched and pinched him,
+as he afterwards declared, until his flesh verily "reeked" again.
+Maddened by the torment, he began to lay about him lustily with a long
+whittle which he carried for domestic purposes. They gave back at so
+unexpected a reception. Taking courage thereby, Robin followed, and they
+fled, helter-skelter, like a routed army. Through loop-holes and windows
+went the obscene crew, with such hideous screeches as startled the whole
+neighbourhood. He gave one last desperate lunge as a parting
+remembrance, and felt that his weapon had made a hit. Something fell on
+the floor, but the light was extinguished in the scuffle, and in vain he
+attempted to grope out this trophy of his valour.
+
+"I've sliced off a leg or a wing," thought he, "and I may lay hold on it
+in the morning."
+
+All was now quiet, and Robin, to his great comfort, was left without
+further molestation.
+
+Morning dawned bright and cheerful on the grey battlements of Bernshaw
+Tower; the sun came out joyously over the hills; but Lord William walked
+forth with an anxious and gloomy countenance. His wife had feigned
+illness, and the old nurse had tended her through the night in a
+separate chamber. This was the story he had learnt on finding her absent
+when he awoke. Early presenting himself at the door, he was refused
+admission. She was ill--very ill. The lady was fallen asleep, and might
+not be disturbed: such was the answer he received. Rising over the hill,
+he now saw the gaunt ungainly form of Robin, his new tenant, approaching
+in great haste with a bundle under his arm.
+
+"What news from the mill, my stout warrior of the north?" said Lord
+William.
+
+"I think I payed one on 'em, your worship," said Robin, taking the
+bundle in his hand. "Not a cat said mew when they felt my whittle.
+Marry, I spoilt their catterwauling: I've cut a rare shive!"
+
+"How didst fare last night with thy wenches?" inquired the other.
+
+"I've mended their manners for a while, I guess. As I peeped about
+betimes this morning, I found--a paw! If cats are bred with hands and
+gowden rings on their fingers, they shall e'en ha' sporting-room i' the
+mill! No bad luck, methinks."
+
+Robin uncovered the prize, and drew out a bleeding hand, mangled at the
+wrist, and blackened as if by fire; one finger decorated with a ring,
+which Lord William too plainly recognised. He seized the terrific
+pledge, and, with a look betokening some deadly purpose, hastened to his
+wife's chamber. He demanded admittance in too peremptory a tone for
+denial. His features were still, not a ripple marked the disturbance
+beneath. He stood with a calm and tranquil brow by her bed-side; but she
+read a fearful message in his eye.
+
+"Fair lady, how farest thou?--I do fear me thou art ill!"
+
+"She's sick, and in great danger. You may not disturb her, my lord,"
+said the nurse, attempting to prevent his too near approach;--"I pray
+you depart; your presence afflicts her sorely."
+
+"Ay, and so it does," said Lord William, with a strange and hideous
+laugh. "I pray thee, lady, let me play the doctor,--hold out thy hand."
+
+The lady was still silent. She turned away her head. His glance was too
+withering to endure.
+
+"Nay, then, I must constrain thee, dame."
+
+She drew out her hand, which Lord William seized with a violent and
+convulsive grasp.
+
+"I fear me 'tis a sickness unto death; small hope of amendment here.
+Give me the other; perchance I may find there more comfort."
+
+"Oh, my husband, I cannot;--I am--I have no strength."
+
+"Why, thou art grown peevish with thy distemper. Since 'tis so, I must
+e'en force thy stubborn will."
+
+"Alas! I cannot."
+
+"If not thy hand, show me thy wrist!--I have here a match to it,
+methinks. O earth--earth--hide me in thy womb!--let the darkness blot me
+out and this blasting testimony for ever!--Accursed hag, what hast thou
+done?"
+
+He seized her by the hair.
+
+"What hast thou promised the fiend? Tell me,--or"--
+
+"I have, oh, I fear I have,--consented to the compact!"
+
+"How far doth it bind thee?"
+
+"My soul--my better part!"
+
+"Thy better part?--thy worse! A loathsome ulcer, reeking with the stench
+from the pit! Better have given thy body to the stake, than have let in
+one unhallowed desire upon thy soul. How far does thy contract reach?"
+
+"All interest I can claim. His part that created it I could not give,
+not being mine to yield."
+
+"Lost! lost! Thou hast, indeed, sold thyself to perdition! I'll purge
+this earth of witchery;--I'll make their carcases my weapon's
+sheath;--hence inglorious scabbard!" He flung away the sheath. Twining
+her dark hair about his fingers--"Die!--impious, polluted wretch! This
+blessed earth loathes thee,--the grave's holy sanctuary will cast thee
+out! Yon glorious sun would smite thee should I refrain!"
+
+He raised his sword--a gleam of triumph seemed to flash from her eye, as
+though she were eager for the blow; but the descending weapon was
+stayed, and by no timid hand.
+
+Lord William turned, yet he saw not the cause of its restraint. The lady
+alone seemed to be aware of some unseen intruder, and her eye darkened
+with apprehension. Suddenly she sprang from the couch; a shriek from no
+human agency escaped her, and the spirit seemed to have passed from its
+abode.
+
+Lord William threw himself on her pale and inanimate form.
+
+"Farewell!" he cried: "I had thought thee honest!--Nay, lost spirit, I
+must not say farewell!"
+
+He gazed on his once-loved bride with a look of such unutterable
+tenderness that the heart's deep gush burst from his eyes, and he wept
+in that almost unendurable anguish. The sight was too harrowing to
+sustain. He was about to withdraw, when a convulsive tremor passed
+across her features--a trembling like the undulation of the breeze
+rippling the smooth bosom of the lake; a sigh seemed to labour heavily
+from her breast; her eyes opened; but as though yet struggling under the
+influence of some terrific dream, she cried--
+
+"Oh, save me--save me!" She looked upwards: it was as if the light of
+heaven had suddenly shone in upon her benighted soul.
+
+"Lost, saidst thou, accursed fiend?--Never until his power shall yield
+to thine!"
+
+Yet she shuddered, as though the appalling shadow were still upon her
+spirit.--"Nay, 'twas but a dream."
+
+"Dreams!" cried Lord William, recovering from a look of speechless
+amazement. "Thy dreams are more akin to truth than ever were thy waking
+reveries."
+
+"Nay, my Lord, look not so unkindly on me--I will tell thee all. I
+dreamt that I was possessed, and this body was the dwelling of a demon.
+It was permitted as a punishment for my transgressions; for I had sought
+communion with the fiend. I was the companion of witches--foul and
+abominable shapes;--a beastly crew, with whom I was doomed to
+associate. Hellish rites and deeds, too horrible to name, were
+perpetrated. As a witness of my degradation, methought my right hand was
+withered. I feel it still! Yet--surely 'twas a dream!"
+
+She raised her hand, gazing earnestly on it, which, to Lord William's
+amazement, appeared whole as before, save a slight mark round the wrist,
+but the ring was not there.
+
+"What can this betide?" said the trembling sufferer. She looked
+suspiciously on this apparent confirmation of her guilt, and then upon
+her husband. "Oh, tell me that I did but dream!"
+
+But Lord William spoke not.
+
+"I know it all now!" she said, with a heavy sob. "My crime is punished;
+and I loathe my own form, for it is polluted. Yet the whole has passed
+but as some horrible dream--and I am free! This tabernacle is cleansed;
+no more shall it be defiled; for to Thee do I render up my trust."
+
+A mild radiance had displaced the wild and unnatural lustre of her eye,
+as she looked up to the mercy she invoked, and was forgiven.
+
+Her spirit was permitted but a brief sojourn in this region of sorrow.
+Ere another sun, her head hung lifeless on Lord William's bosom;--he had
+pressed her to his heart in token of forgiveness; but he held only the
+cold and clammy shrine--the idol had departed!
+
+According to the popular solution of this fearful mystery, a demon or
+familiar had reanimated her form while she lay senseless at the sudden
+and unlooked-for dissolution of the witches' assembly. In this shape the
+imp had joined the rendezvous at the mill, and fleeing from the effects
+of Robin's valour, maliciously hoped that Lord William would execute a
+swift vengeance on his erring bride. But his hand was stayed by another
+and more merciful power, and the demon was cast out.
+
+The ring and glove were not found. It was said that Mause Helston had
+taken them as a gage of fealty, and dying about the same period, was
+denied the rites of Christian burial. Hence may have arisen the belief
+which tradition has preserved respecting the Lady Sibyl.
+
+Popular superstition still alleges that her grave was dug where the dark
+"Eagle Crag" shoots out its cold bare peak into the sky. Often, it is
+said, on the eve of All-Hallows, do the hound and the milk-white doe
+meet on the crag--a spectre huntsman in full chase. The belated peasant
+crosses himself at the sound as he remembers the fate of "The Witch of
+Bernshaw Tower."
+
+[Illustration: LATHOM HOUSE AS IT EXISTED BEFORE THE SIEGE, RESTORED
+FROM EXISTING DOCUMENTS.
+
+_Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden._]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[42] "Riggin'" or ridging. The hills which divide the counties of York
+and Lancaster are sometimes called "th' riggin'," from their being the
+highest land between the two seas forming part of what is called the
+backbone of England. An individual residing at a place named "The
+Summit," from its situation, was asked where he lived. "I live at th'
+riggin' o' th' warld, I reckon," says he; "for th' water fro' t' one
+side o' th' roof fa's to th' east sea, an' t' other to th' west sea."
+
+
+
+
+SIEGE OF LATHOM.
+
+
+    "Let me no longer live, she sayd,
+      Than to my lord I true remain;
+    My honour shall not be betray'd
+      Until I see my love again.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    "Oh! blame her not if she was glad
+      When she her lord again had seen.
+    Thrice welcome home, my dear, she said,--
+      A long time absent thou hast been:
+    The wars shall never more deprive
+      Me of my lord whilst I'm alive."
+
+--_Mirrour for Married Women_.
+
+No authentic drawing or representation of Lathom House, we believe,
+exists. The author has, however, had the temerity to present a
+restoration of this renowned edifice, as it appeared before the siege,
+and before "the sequestrators under Cromwell, weary of the slow disposal
+of the building materials by sale, invited the peasants of the hundred
+of West Derby to take away the stones and timbers without any charge."
+
+The very numerous documents to which he has had recourse were aided by
+measurements, and a visit to the spot, where he found that a tolerable
+accurate idea might be formed of the situation and extent of the walls
+and towers, together with the main entrance, and the "great Eagle
+Tower."
+
+The accompanying view is taken from a hill above the valley or trench,
+where, it is said, the main army of the besiegers was encamped. It is
+called in the neighbourhood "Cromwell's Trench," and the engraving may
+serve to convey some idea of that magnificent and princely dwelling,
+which, as the old ballad expresses it, would hold "two kinges, their
+traines and all." Henry the Seventh, two years after his visit to
+Lathom, restored his palace at Richmond, the same authority tells us,
+"like Lathom Hall in fashion." The gate-house in the engraving is drawn
+from the description of a carving of the Stanley legend in Manchester
+Collegiate Church, executed in the time of James Stanley, Bishop of Ely.
+From this it appears to have had two octagonal turrets on each side of
+an obtusely-pointed or circular archway with battlements, machicolated
+and pierced for cannon.
+
+The Eagle Tower alone remained when part of the estate was transferred
+to John Lord Ashburnham, on his marriage, in 1714, with Henrietta,
+daughter of William, ninth earl of Derby. Lord Ashburnham sold it to a
+Furness, and he to Sir Thomas Bootle. Not a vestige now exists, and even
+the records of the family are destroyed. "Golforden," says Mr Heywood,
+in his interesting _Notes to a Journal of the Siege of Lathom,_ "along
+whose banks knights and ladies have a thousand times made resort,
+hearkening to stories as varied as those of Boccaccio;--the maudlin
+well, where the pilgrim and the lazar devoutly cooled their parched
+lips;--the mewing-house,--the training round,--every appendage to
+antique baronial state,--all now are changed, and a modern mansion and a
+new possessor fill the place."
+
+This memorable siege, and the heroic defence by Lady Derby, though among
+the most prominent topics in the history of the county, supply but few
+materials which may not be found in records that already exist. Yet
+there are incidents connected with them which the historian has left
+unrecorded; occurrences, it might be, too trivial or too apocryphal for
+his pen. One of the main events in the following narrative, though not
+found amongst written and authenticated records, the author has listened
+to when a child, with a vigorous and greedy appetite for wonder,--one of
+the earliest and most delightful exercises of the imagination.
+
+We purpose to follow briefly the order of events as they appear in the
+several narratives to which we have had access, interweaving such
+traditionary matter as we have gathered in our researches, thereby
+interrupting and relieving the tediousness of this "thrice-told tale."
+
+Lord Derby, from the usual unhappy fatality, or rather from the
+indecision and jealousies prevailing in his Majesty's councils, had been
+commanded to leave the realm, and proceed instantly to the Isle of Man,
+at the precise time when his presence here would have been the most
+serviceable, not only from his great zeal, activity, and loyalty to his
+sovereign, but by reason of the influence he possessed, and the example
+which his noble and valiant bearing had shown throughout the county. His
+house, children, and all other temporal concerns, he left to the care of
+his lady, first making provision, secretly, for their defence, supplying
+her with men, money, and ammunition, that she might not be unprepared in
+case of attack. His lordship's opinion of this disastrous and impolitic
+removal may be gathered from the following hasty expressions. After a
+perusal of the despatches, announcing the king's, or rather the queen's,
+pleasure that he should speedily repair to the Isle of Man, where an
+invasion was apprehended from the Scots,--speaking to the Lady Derby
+with more than ordinary quickness, he said, "My heart, my enemies have
+now their will, having prevailed with his Majesty to order me to the
+Isle of Man, as a softer banishment from his presence and their malice."
+
+This valiant and high-born dame was daughter to Claude, Duke of
+Tremouille, and Charlotte Brabantin de Nassau, daughter of William,
+Prince of Orange, and Charlotte de Bourbon, of the royal house of
+France. By this marriage the Earl of Derby was allied to the French
+kings, the Dukes of Anjou, the Kings of Naples and Sicily, the Kings of
+Spain, and many other of the sovereign princes of Europe. Her father was
+a staunch Huguenot, and a trusty follower of Henry IV. That she did not
+sully the renown acquired by so illustrious a descent, the following
+narrative will abundantly prove.
+
+It was at a special council of the Holy States,[43] held at Manchester
+on Saturday the 24th of February 1644, that, after many former debates
+and consultations, the siege of Lathom was concluded upon. The
+parliament troops under Colonel Ashton of Middleton, Colonel Moore of
+Bank-Hall, and Colonel Rigby of Preston, on the same day began their
+march, proceeding by way of Bolton, Wigan, and Standish, under a
+pretence of going into Westmoreland, that the soldiers should not
+presently know of their destination.
+
+Lathom, for magnificence and hospitality, was held in high reputation,
+assuming, in these respects, the attitude of a royal court in the
+northern parts of the kingdom; and the family were regarded with such
+veneration and esteem that the following harmless inversion was familiar
+"as household words:"--"God save the Earl of Derby and the King;" the
+general feeling and opinion thereby apparent being love to their lord
+and loyalty to their prince.
+
+On the 27th of February the enemy took up their quarters about a mile
+distant from the house. The next day Captain Markland was the bearer of
+a letter to her ladyship from Sir Thomas Fairfax, commander-in-chief of
+the parliamentary forces, and likewise an ordinance of parliament: the
+one requiring that she should surrender the house upon such honourable
+terms as he might propose; and the other setting forth and commending
+the great mercy they had manifested by thus offering to receive the Earl
+of Derby if he would submit himself. But she indignantly refused to
+surrender without the consent and commandment of her lord; and after
+many interviews, to which she assented only to gain time, and to
+complete the provisioning and fortifying of her little garrison, they
+began to find her answers too full of policy and procrastination,
+dangerous to the fidelity of their troops. In the end, seeing she was
+only amusing them by vain pretences, they sent the following as their
+final terms, by Colonel Morgan, commander of the engineers, who had been
+appointed by Sir Thomas Fairfax to conduct the siege:--
+
+1st. "That the Countess of Derby shall have the time she desires, and
+then liberty to transport her arms and goods to the Isle of Man, except
+the cannon, which shall continue there for the defence of the house.
+
+2d. "That her ladyship, by ten o'clock on the morrow, shall disband all
+her soldiers, except her menial servants, and receive an officer and
+forty parliament soldiers for her guard."
+
+Morgan is described as "a litle man short and peremptory, who met with
+staidnes to coole his heat; and had the honor to carry backe this last
+answer--for her ladyshipp could scrue them to noe more delayes, viz.--
+
+"That she refused all their articles, and was truely happy they had
+refused hers, protesting shee had rather hazard her life than offer the
+like again;--
+
+"That though a woman, and a stranger, divorced from her friends, and
+rob'd of her estate, she was ready to receive their utmost vyolence,
+trusting in God both for protection and deliverance."
+
+The next morning they discovered the enemy had been at work about a
+musket-shot from the house, in a sloping ground, where they appeared to
+be forming a breast-work and trench to protect the pioneers--multitudes
+of country people being every day forced into this laborious service.
+
+The situation of Lathom deserves some notice, it being admirably
+calculated to resist any attack.
+
+"It was encompassed by a strong wall, two yards thick; upon the walls
+were nine towers, flanking each other, and in every tower six pieces of
+ordnance, that played three one way and three another. Upon the tops of
+these towers were placed the best and choicest marksmen, who usually
+attended the Earl in his sports, as huntsmen, keepers, fowlers, and the
+like, who continually kept watch, with screwed guns and long
+fowling-pieces, to the great annoyance and loss of the enemy, especially
+of their commanders, who were frequently killed in the trenches. Without
+the wall was a moat eight yards wide and two yards deep; between the
+wall and the moat was a strong row of palisadoes. A high tower, called
+the Eagle Tower, stood in the midst, surmounting all the rest. The
+gate-house had a strong tower on each side, forming the entrance to the
+first court."
+
+The site of the house seemed to have been formed for a stronghold, or
+place of safety: thus described by Seacome:--
+
+     "Before the house, to the south and south-west, is a rising ground,
+     so near as to overlook the top of it, from which it falls so quick,
+     that nothing planted against it on those sides can touch it further
+     than the front wall; and on the north and east sides there is
+     another rising ground, even to the edge of the moat." "The
+     situation of it may be compared to the palm of a man's hand, flat
+     in the middle, and covered with a rising ground, about it, and so
+     near to it, that the enemy, in two years' siege, were never able to
+     raise a battery against it, so as to make a breach in the wall
+     practicable to enter the house by way of storm."[44]
+
+It is said the camp of the besiegers was in a woody dell, near what is
+now called "The Round O Quarry," about half-a-mile from Lathom. This
+dell is still called "Cromwell's Trench;" and a large and remarkable
+stone, having two circular hollows or holes on its upper surface,
+evidently once containing nodules of iron, is called "Cromwell's
+Stone"--the country people supposing these holes were used as moulds for
+casting balls during the siege.
+
+The besiegers, however, thought to reduce the place by famine, being
+deceived through the following device of her ladyship's chaplain, the
+Rev. Mr Rutter, a person whom the Earl had left to her assistance, that
+she might be guided by his great skill and prudence:--
+
+During one of the conferences before-named, a captain of the
+parliamentary forces, recognising in the chaplain an old friend, with
+whom he had been educated, and very intimate and familiar aforetime,
+took a secret opportunity of addressing him, hoping to worm out her
+ladyship's secrets; conjuring him, by reason of their former friendship,
+to tell truly upon what ground or confidence she still refused these
+offers, seeing that it was impossible to defend her house against such
+a numerous and well-furnished army as was then encamped in the park.
+
+Rutter, casting his eyes earnestly towards the ramparts, bade his friend
+note their disposition and defence. Her ladyship, as commander-in-chief,
+to prevent any sudden assault, and likewise to awe the enemy by these
+demonstrations, had disposed her soldiers in due order, so that they
+should be seen, under their respective officers, from the main-guard in
+the first court, down to the great hall, where they had left her
+ladyship's council. The rest of her forces she had placed upon the
+walls, and on the tops of the towers, in such manner that they might
+appear both numerous and well-disciplined.
+
+"She is in nothing so desirous," said Rutter, "as that you should waste
+your strength and forces by a sudden assault, wherein you would not fail
+to have the worst of the battle: the place being armed at all points, as
+thou seest, and able to withstand any attack but that of famine."
+
+A promise of secresy was exacted, when the wary chaplain pretended to
+unfold her ladyship's plans. He said there was but little provision in
+the place--that she was oppressed with the number of her soldiers--that
+she would not be able to subsist more than fourteen days; and she hoped
+to dare them to a sudden onset, not from her own confidence to give them
+a repulse, but knowing that, should they continue the siege, she must
+inevitably be forced to surrender.
+
+The captain, after embracing his friend, and promising faithfully to
+maintain the secret, revealed, as Rutter intended he should, the whole
+of his confidential story to the enemy's council; who, giving credit to
+the tale, laid aside, for the present, all thoughts of an attack, and
+resolved to invest the place in a close and formal siege.
+
+Fourteen days being expired, and they, supposing her provisions were
+nigh spent, and the garrison reduced to the last extremity, sent another
+and more peremptory summons. But during this time her soldiers were
+training, the walls and fortifications were undergoing a thorough
+repair, and the cannon properly served and mounted. The fortress, too,
+was well stocked, and even abundantly stored with provisions, in spite
+of their enemies, who kept a strict watch, but failed to detect the
+source and manner of the supply. She was not without hope, too, of
+relief from the king's troops, whom she daily expected to her
+assistance.
+
+The besiegers finding themselves deceived, their confidence abused, and
+their schemes only serving to the advantage of the opposite party,
+orders were given and preparations made for more offensive measures, by
+drawing a line of circumvallation round the house.
+
+The garrison consisted of 300 men, commanded by the Captains Henry Ogle,
+Edward Chisnall, Edward Rawsthorne, William Farmer, Mullineux Ratcliffe,
+and Richard Fox, assisted in their consultations by William Farrington
+of Werden, Esq., who, for executing the commission of array, and
+attending her ladyship in these troubles, had suffered the seizure of
+all his personal estate and the sequestration of his lands.
+
+There were 150 men each night upon the watch, with the exception of
+sixteen select marksmen out of the whole, who all day kept the towers.
+
+The besieger's army was between two and three thousand, divided into
+tertias of seven or eight hundred men, who watched every third day and
+night. They were commanded by Colonels Egerton, Ashton, Holland, Rigby,
+Moore, and Morgan, with their captains and lieutenants.
+
+After many warlike demonstrations, by which they hoped to intimidate the
+garrison, and after some days spent in fruitless endeavours to bring her
+ladyship, as they said, to a due sense of her condition, they sent one
+Captain Ashurst, "a fair and civil gentleman, of good character," with
+fresh proposals. But Lady Derby, justly considering these frequent
+treaties and debates were a discouragement to her men, implying weakness
+and a want of confidence in her resources, replied sharply--
+
+"That no one should quit the house, but that she would keep it, whilst
+God enabled her, against all the king's enemies; that, in brief, she
+would receive no more messages, but referred them to her lord, scorning
+their malice, and defying their assaults."
+
+As the sequel of a business often depends upon the manner of its
+beginning, to second and confirm this answer the next morning she
+ordered a sally, when Captain Farmer with one hundred foot and
+Lieutenant Kay with twelve horse, their whole cavalry, went forth at
+different gates. Captain Farmer, determining to take them by surprise,
+marched up to the enemy's works without firing a shot; then pouncing
+upon them suddenly in their trenches, he ordered a close and well-aimed
+volley, which quickly made them leave their holes in great disorder.
+Immediately Lieutenant Kay, wheeling round with his horse, took them in
+flank, doing great execution as they fled. There were slain of the enemy
+about thirty men. The spoil was forty muskets, one drum, and six
+prisoners.
+
+The retreat of this little band was skilfully secured by Captain Ogle
+and Captain Rawsthorne, so that not one of the assailants was either
+slain or wounded.
+
+The besiegers were much annoyed with devices, ingeniously contrived by
+the garrison to intimidate them, and hinder and injure their work.
+Hitherto they had not been able to cast up a mound for their ordnance,
+so harassed and occupied were they with these incessant alarms. But
+Rigby, on whom devolved the plan and conduct of the siege, seeing that
+their affairs were in no thriving condition, but that rather they were
+the scoff and jest of the garrison, who daily taunted them from the
+walls, determined at all hazards to raise his cannon. For this purpose a
+considerable number of the peasantry and poorer sort in the
+neighbourhood, and for miles round, were driven like beasts to their
+daily work, labouring unremittingly at the mounds and trenches. At first
+they were sheltered by baskets and hurdles, afterwards by a testudo, or
+wooden house running upon wheels and roofed with thick planks. Still
+many lives were lost in this desperate service. In the end they brought
+up one piece of cannon, amusing themselves like schoolboys at a holiday,
+in practising their harmless reports. The first shot struck the outer
+wall, but it was found proof. Afterwards they aimed higher, intending to
+beat down a pinnacle or turret, but this also passed without damage. The
+last shot, which missed entirely, went over and beyond the buildings,
+burrowing in a field on the other side.
+
+When they had performed this mighty feat they sounded another parley,
+having, as they supposed, mightily beat down the hearts of the besieged.
+Colonel Rigby's chaplain then appeared at the gate with a letter that
+Sir Thomas Fairfax had received from Lord Derby, who was now at Chester,
+on his return from the Isle of Man. In this epistle he desired a free
+and honourable passage for his lady and their children, if she so
+pleased, being unwilling, as he said, to expose them to the uncertain
+hazard of a long siege. His lordship knew not, by reason of his long
+absence, either how his house was provided with ammunition and
+sustenance, or in what condition it might be to withstand the attack. He
+was desirous that the garrison alone should bear the brunt, and that a
+defenceless woman and her children should be rescued from captivity.
+
+Her ladyship replied that she would communicate with the earl, and if he
+should then continue in the same opinion, she would willingly submit to
+his commands; but until this, she would neither yield up the house nor
+abate in her hostility, but would abide by the result. Immediately she
+despatched to his lordship a messenger, conveying him from the house by
+a well-executed sally. The attempt succeeded; but whether he was
+suffered to reach his destination or not we have no means of
+ascertaining. No answer was returned, though some days had elapsed,
+during which the enemy made many fruitless attempts to batter the walls.
+
+They had now mounted the whole of their artillery, including their great
+mortar-piece, at that period looked upon as a most destructive engine,
+casting stones thirteen inches in diameter and eighty pounds weight;
+likewise grenadoes--hollow balls of iron, filled with powder, and
+lighted by a fusee. These were dangerous intruders, calculated to
+produce great alarm and annoyance, as we shall find in the sequel. The
+mortar was planted only about half a musket-shot from the walls,
+south-west, on a rising ground, from whence the engineer commanded a
+view of the whole buildings.
+
+The work on which it stood was orbicular, with a rampart of two yards
+and a half broad above the ditch. To lessen the destructive effects of
+this dangerous piece of artillery, chosen men were set as guards with
+wet hides and woollen coverlids to quench the flame, had the enemy been
+skilful enough to accomplish their purpose; it being their general
+opinion that to burn the house would be the most effectual means of
+subduing and driving out the garrison. But finding their endeavours met
+with no prosperous return, they bethought them to cast a show of
+religion over these attempts at robbery and rapine, issuing out commands
+to all men well affected towards their success, to co-operate with them
+for the overthrow of the "Babylonish harlot," by which term some worthy
+disciples of the visible church scrupled not to call the Lady of
+Lathom.[45]
+
+The following proclamation was sent forth from their headquarters at
+Ormskirk:--
+
+     "To all ministers and parsons in Lancashire, well-wishers to our
+     successe against Lathom House, these:--
+
+     "Forasmuch as more than ordinary obstrucc'ons have from the
+     beginning of this p'sent service ag^t Lathom House interposed our
+     proceedings, and yet still remaine, which cannot otherwise be
+     removed, nor our successe furthered, but onely by devine
+     assistance: it is, therefore, our desires to the ministers and
+     other well-affected persons of this county of Lancaster, in publike
+     manner, as they shall please, to com'end our case to God, that as
+     wee are appoynted to the s^d employment, soe much tending to the
+     settleing of our p'sent peace in theise parts, soe the Almighty
+     would crowne our weake endeavours with speedy success in the said
+     designe.
+
+     (Signed)
+
+     "RALPH ASHTON.
+
+     "JOHN MOORE.
+
+     "ORMSKIRK, 5 Ap. 1644."
+
+The four following days were, on their part, consumed in these unholy
+exercises; but the garrison, tired with inaction, resolved to awaken
+them, and turn their thoughts into a more profitable channel.
+
+On Wednesday, the 10th of April, says the MS. journal, "about eleven
+o'clock, Capt^n Farmer and Capt^n Mullineux Rattcliffe, Lieu^t Penckett,
+Lieu^t Woorrale, w^th 140 souldiers, sallyed out at a postern gate,
+beate the enemy from all theire worke and batteries, w^ch were now cast
+up round the house, nailed all theire canon, killed about 50 men, took
+60 armes, one collours, and three drumes, in which acc'on, Capt^n
+Rattcliffe deserves this remembrance, that w^th 3 souldiers, the rest of
+his squadron being scattered w^th execuc'on of the enemy, he cleared two
+sconces, and slew 7 men w^th his owne hand, Lieu^t Woorrall, ingageing
+himself in another worke among 50 of the enemy, bare the fury of all,
+till Capt^n Farmer relieved him, who, to the wonder of us all, came off
+without any dangerous wound.[46]--The sally-port was that day warded by
+Capt^n Chisnall, who with fresh men stood ready for succour of ours, had
+they been putt to the extremity; but they bravely marched round the
+works, and came in att the great gates, where Capt^n Ogle w^th a p'ty of
+musketeers kept open the passage. Capt^n Rawstorne hadd the charge of
+the musketeers upon the walls, which hee plac'd to the best advantage
+to vex the enemy in their flight. Capt^n Foxe, by a collours from the
+Eagle Tower, gave signall when to march and when to retreate, according
+to the motions of the enemy, which hee observed at a distance.--In all
+this service wee had but one man mortally wounded, and wee tooke onely
+one prisoner, an officer, for intelligence. In former sallyes some
+prisoners were taken, and by exchange releast, Colonel Ashton and Rigby
+promising to sett at liberty as many of the king's freinds, then
+prisoners in Lancaster, Manchester, Preston, and other places proposed
+by her ladishipp. But most unworthily they broke condic'ons, it suiting
+well with their religion neither to observe faith with God nor men; and
+this occasioned a greater slaughter than either her la^pp or the
+captaynes desired, because wee were in no condic'on to keepe prisoners,
+and knew the co'manders wold never release 'em but upon base or
+dishonorable terms."
+
+Though their cannon had been injured in the spiking, yet were they not
+rendered useless; for the same night they "played a sacre twice," it is
+said, "to tell us they had cannon that wold speke tho' our men had
+endeavoured to steele up all their lippes."
+
+On the 15th a grenado fell short of the house, in a walk near the chapel
+tower: some pieces of the shell, two inches thick, flew over the wall,
+and were gathered up by the attendants. It was a mighty achievement to
+fire this unwieldy engine, requiring great labour and exertion to fill
+up its mouth when once it had vomited forth its malice. The day after,
+they loaded it with stones: to their great joy, Morgan and his
+bombardiers beheld one of them strike within the body of the house, it
+being always a matter of some uncertainty where the ball might spend
+itself. Indeed, it was said, in derision it might be, that sometimes
+their guns occasioned more damage to the besiegers than to the besieged.
+
+Morgan now set to work, keeping as accurately as he might the head of
+the blatant beast to the same level, and loading it with a grenado. When
+the gunner had finished his task and lighted the fusee, Morgan rubbed
+his hands for joy. Retiring sharply, off went the missile with an
+explosion that shook the whole fabric. When the smoke was gone they
+perceived some trifling damage in an old court, where the bomb, striking
+about half-a-yard into the earth, burst as it rose, much abated of its
+violence; yet it shook down some slight buildings near, but without
+hurting any one, save two women who had their hands scorched as a
+memorial of their presence at the siege of Lathom.
+
+This mortar-piece was like some mighty dragon of old, causing great
+terror in the minds of the soldiers, who knew not how to escape, but
+were in continual fear and watchfulness, dreading the assaults of this
+terrible monster. To allay their apprehensions, and to show their own
+indifference, the captains lodged in the uppermost rooms, behind clay
+walls, when not upon duty; and many other devices were resorted to for
+the purpose of encouraging their troops. One circumstance, however,
+seemed to renew their courage; a gunner opposite, as he was mounting the
+ramparts to see the success of his shot, was slain by a marksman from
+one of the towers. The next day one of their cannoneers was slain
+through the porthole by a skilful hand, which made the enemy more
+cautious than formerly. Yet did they not slacken their endeavours, but
+fired almost incessantly. On the Saturday afternoon they played their
+mortar-piece five times; and in the night twice with stones, and once
+with a grenado, which by the turning of the gunner fell short of the
+house.
+
+On Easter Monday and Tuesday Colonel Rigby must needs gratify the
+country people with some pastime. He had already spent upwards of two
+thousand pounds, and his great pretensions were hitherto unfulfilled.
+Accordingly he ordered his batteries to be directed against the Eagle
+Tower, which, as we have before seen, stood near the centre of the
+buildings, and was the place where Lady Derby and the children usually
+lodged.
+
+"We will strike off a horn of the beast, or level one of her hills,"
+said Rigby, as he strode forth early on that morning to the enterprise.
+
+"Which seven towers be the seven hills of Rome or spiritual Antichrist,"
+said Jackson, his chaplain, who kept near his master, or rather kept his
+master between himself and the Babel that roused his indignation. Morgan
+was just preparing his engines when Rigby approached, cautiously worming
+his way along the trenches, for the marksmen were become unmercifully
+expert by reason of continued practice.
+
+The match was lighted,--when bounce went the shot, a four-and-twenty
+pounder, against the Eagle Tower.
+
+"We will beat the old lady from her perch: I find she hath taken to
+high-roosting of late," said Morgan, as he watched the despatch and
+destination of his messenger.
+
+The ball had entered into her ladyship's chamber, where she and the
+children were at breakfast. With as little emotion as Charles the
+Twelfth on a like occasion, she merely remarked that since they were
+likely to have disagreeable intruders, she must e'en seek a new lodging.
+
+"But," said she, rising with great dignity, "I will keep my house while
+a building is left above my head."
+
+This mischievous exploit, though an occasion at the time of great
+triumph and exultation to the besiegers, was the main cause of their
+subsequent expulsion and defeat.
+
+We now propose to follow out their operations with more minuteness,
+tracing the consequences of this action to its final result.
+
+That same night some of the garrison, having permission from their
+commanders, annoyed their enemies with strange and noisome alarms,
+during which they contrived to steal some powder, and other necessaries
+of which they were much in want.
+
+Colonels Egerton and Rigby were in close counsel before their tent when
+they beheld a terrible appearance moving towards them,--looking in the
+dark like the leaders of some mighty army, waving their torches to light
+them to the assault. This frightful apparition was a poor forlorn horse,
+studded with lights fastened to cords, that shook and flickered about in
+so fearful a manner. In this plight he had been turned out of the gates,
+the garrison looking on, with frightful shouts and yells.
+
+The sentinels ran from their posts, crying out that the king's army was
+coming. In an instant all was uproar and confusion, the trenches were
+cleared, and happy was he that came foremost in the rout.
+
+Rigby clasped on his sword-belt which he had doffed for the night.
+Springing on his horse, he met some of the runaways, whom he forced
+back, hoping by their means to stem the main torrent. But, lo! in the
+very height of the panic, appeared another and more direful intruder--an
+avenue of fire seemed to extend from the walls to their own trench. It
+appeared as though the enemy had by some unaccountable means formed in a
+double line from the fortress, illuminated rank and file as if by
+magic--flinging their torches by one simultaneous and well-concerted
+movement into the air with great order and regularity.
+
+Had a legion from the puissant army of Beelzebub been approaching,
+their terror could not have been greater. Yet fear kept many from
+escaping, while they knew not which way to run for safety. Rigby in the
+nick of time galloped up to this awful and hostile appearance, crying
+out to his troops that he would soon demolish the bugbear. This saying
+encouraged some of the runaways, who followed him to the combat.
+Approaching within a sword's length, for he was not deficient either in
+hardihood or valour, he made a furious stroke right in the face of this
+flaming apparition, when down it fell, revealing its own harmlessness
+and their cowardice.
+
+Taking advantage of the panic which followed the lighted horse, a few of
+the garrison had thrown a cord covered with matches and other
+combustibles round a tree, close to the enemy's camp; one end was
+fastened near the walls, and the other was quickly carried back after
+being passed round the tree. The whole on being lighted was swung to and
+fro, producing the terrific appearance we have described.
+
+Rigby was greatly mortified at this exploit; it seemed as though they
+were become the jest and laughing-stock of the garrison.
+
+Morgan at this moment galloped up in great dudgeon. The enemy had found
+him a similar employment, he having twice bravely discharged his cannon,
+loaded with cartridge and chain-shot, against two lighted matches thrust
+into balls of clay that were thrown at him from the walls.
+
+The leaders, provoked beyond measure, speedily assembled in council.
+Egerton, who had the most influence, from the beginning had urged milder
+measures, thinking to starve the enemy into submission; but Morgan,
+Rigby, and some others were now red-hot for mischief, smarting from
+their late ridiculous disaster.
+
+"And what have we gotten by delay?" said Rigby; "we have wearied our
+soldiers, wasted our powder, and emptied our purses; and this proud dame
+still beats and baffles us, casting her gibes in our very teeth which we
+deserve to lose for our pains."
+
+"Take thine own course, then," said Egerton, mildly. "We are brethren,
+serving one cause only; the which, being best served, is best won."
+
+"Then be to-morrow ours," said Morgan, with his usual heat and
+impatience. "We will burn them up like a heap of dry faggots. The house,
+though well fenced against our shot, hath yet much inward building of
+wood, and you shall see a pretty bonfire kindled by my bomb-shells--a
+roaring blaze that shall ride on the welkin between here and Beeston
+Castle!"
+
+"Whilst thou art plying thy vocation we will scale the walls, and the
+sword shall slay what the fire hath failed to devour," said Rigby.
+
+"Fire and sword!" cried Egerton. "Ye are apt at a simile; but, methinks,
+these be your own similitudes."
+
+"They give their prisoners no quarter," said Morgan; "and why should we
+sheath the sword when a weapon is at our own throat?"
+
+"Why, doubtless they have more mouths to feed than they can conveniently
+supply," said the more pacific personage. "Living men, to keep them so,
+even though prisoners, require feeding."
+
+"Our vengeance is sure, though tardy," said Rigby, rising in great
+choler. "The blood of these martyrs crieth from the ground. To-morrow!"
+and he breathed a bloody vow, looking fiercely up to heaven in the
+daring and impious attitude of revenge.
+
+"We had best give her ladyship another summons; which, if she refuse,
+her blood be upon her own head!" Saying this, Egerton abruptly left the
+council.
+
+On the next morning, which was cold and drizzly, a "pragmatical" drummer
+went out from the nearer trench, beating his drum for a parley, lest his
+person should be dismissed without ceremony to the hungry kites.
+
+Early had he been summoned to Rigby's lodging, where Ashton and Morgan
+were contriving a furious epistle to the contumacious defenders of their
+lives and substance. A summons, couched in no very measured terms, was
+drawn up, to the purport that the fortress should be surrendered, and
+all persons, goods, arms, and munitions therein, to the mercy of
+parliament; and by the next day, before two o'clock, her ladyship to
+return her answer, otherwise at her peril. Their valour grew hotter with
+the reading of this cruel message, which they secretly hoped and
+suspected she would refuse. The drum-major was called in, one Gideon
+Greatbatch by name--a long, straight-haired, sallow-faced personage, of
+some note among the brethren for zeal and impiety. By this we mean that
+awful and profane use of Scripture phraseology with which many of these
+gifted preachers affected to interlard their everyday discourse,
+attaching a ludicrous solemnity to matters the most trivial and
+unimportant.
+
+In delineating this species of character, unfortunately not extinct in
+our own days, we do not hold it up to ridicule, but to reprehension.
+Irreverence and profanity, under whatever pretext, are without excuse,
+even beneath the mask of holy zeal and ardent devotion.
+
+The man stalked in with little ceremony and less manners. He stood stiff
+and erect, the image of pride engendered by ignorance.
+
+"'Tis our last," said Rigby, folding up the message; "and if our arms
+are blessed, as we have hoped, and, it may be, unworthily deserved, ere
+the going down of to-morrow's sun yon strong tower wherein she trusteth
+shall be as smoke; for the hope of the wicked shall perish."
+
+"Yea, their idols shall fall down; yea, their walls shall be as
+Jericho," said the drum-major, with a sing-song whine, to sanctify his
+blasphemous allusions, "and shall utterly fall at the sound of"----
+
+"Thy two drumsticks, mayhap," returned Morgan, sharply; for this latter
+personage, though his presence became needful in the camp by reason of
+his reputed skill and bravery, was a great scandal to the real and
+conscientious professors--of whom not a few had joined the ranks of the
+besiegers--as well as the hypocritical and designing; some of whom did
+not hesitate to liken him to Achan and the accursed thing, by reason of
+which they were discomfited before their enemies.
+
+"Thine ungodly speeches, Master Morgan, I would humbly trust, may not be
+as the fuel that, when the fire cometh, shall consume the camp, even the
+righteous with the wicked," said Gideon, as if shrinking from the
+contact of so unholy a personage.
+
+Morgan replied not to this deprecation, save by swearing--covertly,
+though it might be--at the impudence and insubordination of these
+inferior agents, whose disorderly conduct it was necessary to connive
+at, while they were looked upon as saints and prophets--men from whose
+presence was impiously expected the blessing and protection of heaven.
+
+A loud screaming was heard, and Rigby, darting a furious look through
+the doorway, ordered it to be closed.
+
+"Another porker!" said he. "I verily think she hath provision behind the
+walls that would last out our siege till doomsday. There is treachery
+somewhere. Have we not heard, morning by morning, the self-same cry?"
+
+"A whole herd of swine have been martyred in the cause," said Morgan,
+sneeringly.
+
+"Every day they have slain a pig," said the leader of the drums. "Two
+score and eight," reckoning upon his fingers. "Verily a drove from the
+legion."
+
+They knew not that this unfortunate swine, the only one in the garrison,
+was made to perform so uncomfortable a duty every morning to mislead the
+besiegers, and impress them with the idea of a plentiful supply within
+the walls.
+
+"Even the rabble about the garrison throw shives of bread into our
+trenches," said Morgan; "and once or twice I have thought their muskets
+were loaden with peas instead of pellets."
+
+"Then is our assault the more urgent," replied Rigby: "delay doth not
+increase her strength. Prince Rupert too, some fair morning, may jump
+between us and head-quarters."
+
+"I have as many grenadoes," said Morgan, "as will save his highness the
+trouble. Were he here, I would make him dance the Flemish _coranto_."
+
+"The Amalekites shall ye utterly destroy," said Gideon, with a sudden
+indrawing of the breath, as though he were suffering the pangs and
+throes of possession. "Neither shall ye spare the women and the little
+ones nor the stuff; no, not even a kid for a burnt-offering. Your eye
+shall not spare as Saul spare Agag, whom Samuel hewed in pieces."
+
+"Keep thy counsel to light thine own courage. Yon fiery-tempered woman
+will not be over-nice in her respect to thy vocation. Peradventure she
+may dangle thy carcase over the walls in defiance of our summons."
+Morgan would have rebuked him farther, had not Rigby hastily put the
+message into his hands, and bade him good speed.
+
+With inward but audible murmurs at this unholy connection, for Morgan
+valued not their prayers a rush, Gideon strode forth, his eyes twinkling
+grievously as the drizzling rime came on his face. His long ungainly
+figure, surmounted by a high-peaked hat, was seen cautiously stealing
+through the trenches. Near to the embrasure by Morgan's mortar-piece he
+made a sudden halt. After preparing his drum, he first beat the roll to
+crave attention. He then stepped upon the redoubt, drumming the usual
+signal for a parley. It was soon answered from the walls, and Gideon,
+with much ceremony and importance, arrived with his musical appendage
+before the gate. The requisite formalities being gone through, the
+drawbridge was lowered, and this parliamentary representative was
+speedily admitted through a little wicket into the Babylon which he
+abhorred. His very feet seemed in danger of defilement. He looked as if
+breathing the very atmosphere of pollution; but when ordered to kneel
+down that he might be blindfolded, his spirit rose indignantly at the
+command.
+
+"Ye be contemners and despisers of our holy heritage. I have not bowed
+the knee to Baal, nor will I worship the beast or they that have his
+name on their foreheads. Do with me as ye list. Ye would cover mine eyes
+that your iniquities may be hidden;--but ye shall suddenly be destroyed,
+and none shall deliver."
+
+A loud laugh was the answer to this denunciation; for truly it were a
+marvellous thing to hear an ignorant, arrogant drummer, misapply and
+profane the words of Holy Writ, wresting the Scriptures to their
+destruction, if not his own.
+
+In the outer court soldiers were playing at span-counter with silver
+moneys, which Gideon observing, again lifted up the voice of warning and
+rebuke.
+
+"But destruction cometh upon them, even as upon a woman in"----
+
+"Peace, thou spirit of a drum-stick!" cried one of them, and, as though
+he were playing at chuck-farthing, he threw a tester between his teeth;
+for the soldiers had about fifty pounds amongst them in silver coin, but
+it was of no use except as so many counters, which they lent one another
+by handfuls without telling. Sometimes one soldier had won the whole,
+then another; but if they had been heaps of the rarest jewels they had
+been of less worth than pebble-stones.
+
+Gideon's speech was marred in the delivery; thinking he had been hit
+with a stone, he sputtered out the offending morsel; but, seeing the
+coin with the king's image and superscription, he gathered it up again.
+
+"This shall be to me for a prey, even a spoil, as Moses spoiled the
+Egyptians." Saying this Gideon thrust the king's money into his pocket,
+and consented to be blindfolded, as was customary, in order that he
+should not act the spy in his progress. He heard many gates unbarred,
+many sentries challenged, and the pass-words demanded. Indeed the order
+and discipline throughout was of an excellent and well-contrived
+regularity.
+
+"Make way for the drum!" ran along the avenues, as though he were
+passing through a numerous array of guards and soldiery. At length he
+was safely deposited in a spacious hall used as a guard-room; where his
+conductors delivered him to Captain Ogle, the officer in waiting that
+morning upon her ladyship. Being informed she was at prayers, for, as we
+are told, "her first care was the service of God, which in sermons and
+solemn prayers she daily saw performed," Gideon lifted up his hands and
+said--
+
+"Their new moons and their fasts are an abomination." He then desired to
+be conducted near the fire, for the double purpose of drying his
+threadbare red coat, and relieving his extreme length by a change of
+position.
+
+He had not waited long ere the signal was given for an audience. Still
+blindfolded, he was led by a circuitous route into a little wainscotted
+chamber lighted by a single bay-window. Here the bandage was taken from
+his eyes, and when the dimness had a little subsided, he beheld that
+heroic lady for the first time whom he had often compared, in no very
+moderate terms, to Jezebel, and many other names equally appropriate. A
+very different person she appeared from what his heated and morbid fancy
+had suggested. Indeed, if she had been the personification of all evil,
+with a demon's foot and a fiend's visage, he had been less surprised
+than to find her with the outward form and attributes of humanity.
+
+She was sitting with the children, before a narrow table covered with
+papers. She wore a black habit, with a white kerchief on her head, and a
+long Flanders veil of rich open work. This she threw back, and Gideon
+beheld a countenance not at all either commanding or heroic, but one to
+which smiles and good-nature would have been most congenial, though a
+shade of anxiety was now thrown over the natural expression of her
+features. Her eye seemed to have forgotten its bland and benevolent
+aspect, and was fixed sharply upon him. For a moment his spiritual
+pride was daunted, and that natural and inherent principle, not extinct
+though often dormant,--a deference to superiority, whether of intellect
+or station--rendered him for a while mute and inoffensive. It is even
+said that he made a sort of half-conscious obeisance; but his mind
+misgiving him during the offence, which smote him on the sudden as an
+act of homage and idolatrous veneration, he breathed out a very audible
+prayer.
+
+"Pardon thy servant in this matter, even if I have bowed in the house of
+Rimmon." As he said this, he threw himself back, lifting his narrow eyes
+towards the ceiling; then thrusting out his hand with the despatch at
+arm's length, he was striding forward, but Ogle intervened ere he had
+made his way to the Countess.
+
+"With all courtesy, friend," said he, "these communications must proceed
+from the officer on duty."
+
+With great gallantry and respect the captain presented it to his
+mistress.
+
+"Eye-service and will-worship!" growled Gideon. "'Tis like your vain and
+popish idolatry and the like, through the ministry of saints, even to a
+woman, vain and sinful as yourselves. I would as soon commit my prayers
+to the angel of the bottomless pit!"
+
+Her ladyship had broken open the seals. Her eye kindled as she spoke--
+
+"Thou hadst thy reward were we to hang thee up at the gate.--Yet art
+thou but a foolish instrument in the hands of this traitor Rigby; and we
+do not punish the weapon, but him that wields it."
+
+Now Gideon, finding himself moved by natural heat and choler, and
+mistaking this wrath for a righteous indignation, thought himself surely
+called upon to reprove these unrighteous ones for their iniquities. His
+body fell into the usual disposition for a harangue. His eyes rolled
+upwards, and his whole frame swung to and fro whilst the exhortation was
+preparing. To his great mortification, however, the lady quitted the
+room, leaving word for them to follow her to the hall.
+
+The preacher was greatly chagrined, when his eyes resumed their office,
+to find himself almost thrust out and on his way back to the
+guard-chamber. A number of soldiers and domestics were here assembled.
+Lady Derby, with her chaplain, steward, and captains, ranged on each
+side, stood at the higher end of the chamber.
+
+Silence was commanded, whilst she read aloud the despatch.
+
+"And this,--and this, my answer!" said she, tearing the paper as she
+spoke, and throwing the fragments indignantly from her.
+
+"Tell that insolent rebel he shall neither have our persons, our goods,
+nor yet this house. When our strength and provision be spent, we shall
+find a fire more merciful than Rigby; and then, if the providence of God
+prevent it not, my goods and house shall burn in his sight:--myself,
+children, and soldiers, rather than fall into his hands, will seal our
+religion and loyalty in the same flame!"
+
+A loud shout burst through the assembly, who, with one general voice,
+cried out--
+
+"We will die for his Majesty and your honour:--God save the king!"
+
+Gideon's countenance grew terrible, and he seemed as though suffering
+under some violent excitement. Lifting up his hand, he was about to
+thunder forth anathemas and denunciations, the dealing out of which,
+strange to say, most parties agree in reserving to themselves. Even men
+whose honesty and single-heartedness we cannot doubt--who have boldly
+defended our rights and liberties against religious tyranny and
+intolerance--have still arrogated to themselves exclusively the control
+of opinions and modes of belief:--wielding the terrors of Heaven where
+the arm of Omnipotence can alone be felt; their efforts futile and
+ineffectual, as though a feeble worm were attempting to grasp the
+quiver,--to launch the bolt and the arrow from the skies.
+
+But Gideon's purpose was again frustrated: the impious idolaters,
+refusing to listen, blindfolded him before he was aware.
+
+But his spirit kindled suddenly, and he cried aloud--
+
+"Yet shut your eyes wilfully, and go blindfold to your destruction.
+To-morrow these walls in which ye trust, this Egypt in whom your soul
+delighteth, shall be as Sodom. Brimstone and fire shall devour you; and
+they that flee from it shall not escape!"
+
+Gideon and his threats were, however, speedily thrust out at the gates,
+and the answer transmitted through him was faithfully reported to the
+council.
+
+Though this heroic woman was not daunted, yet she saw her soldiers
+were, at times, dispirited, by reason of the expected succours so long
+delayed. The mortar-piece, too, which, if it had been well managed, was
+sufficient to have laid the fortress in ruins, was an object of daily
+terror and annoyance.
+
+One of the MS. journals states,[47] "The little ladyes had stomack to
+digest cannon; but the stoutest souldiers had noe hearts for granadoes,
+and might not they att once free themselves from the continual
+expectac'on of death?"
+
+Her ladyship was well aware that inactivity is, of all things, the most
+dangerous and dispiriting to the soldier, who, used to the bustle and
+array of camps, doth fear nothing so much as a quiet home and winter
+quarters.
+
+It was needful that something should be done, some decisive blow struck;
+for, according to the historian, "Chaunges of tymes are the most fitt
+for brave attempts, and delayes they are dangerous, where softnes and
+quyetnes draweth more danger than hazarding rashly."
+
+"A hard choice either to kill or be killed;" but such was their case.
+The Countess therefore proposed that the next morning, a little while
+after daybreak, they should make a sortie; and though ordnance was
+planted against every passage, yet that they should sally forth, and
+stake their all upon one desperate throw.
+
+On the 26th April, about four o'clock, before sunrise, the action
+commenced. Captain Chisnall and Captain Fox, with Lieutenants Brettargh,
+Penketh, Walthew, and Woorrall, were appointed for the service. Captain
+Ogle had the main-guard to secure a retreat at the southern gate, while
+Rawsthorne had the charge of the sally-gate to secure a retreat on the
+eastern side. Captain Ratcliffe had the command of the marksmen and
+musketeers on the walls, while Farmer, with the reserve, stood ready at
+the parade, to relieve any of them in case of necessity. All things
+being ready, Captain Chisnall and two lieutenants issued out at the
+eastern sally-port. The morning favoured their attempt, being wet and
+foggy, so that before he was discovered he got completely under their
+cannon, marching immediately upon the scouts where the enemy had planted
+their great gun.
+
+"It cost him a light skirmish to gain the fort; at last hee entered;
+many slayne, some prisoners, and some escaping. Now by the command of
+that battery, the retreate being assured, Capt Foxe seconds him w^th
+much bravery, beateing upon their trenches from the easterne to the
+south-west point, till hee came to the work w^ch secur'd the
+morter-peece, w^ch being guarded w^th 50 men, hee found sharpe service,
+forceing his way through muskett and cannon, and beateing the enemy out
+of the sconce w^th stones, his muskett, by reason of the high worke,
+being unserviceable. After a quarter of an houres hard service, his men
+gott the trench and scal'd the rampier, where many of the enemy fledd,
+the rest were slayne. The sconce, thus won, was made good by a squadron
+of musketteers, which much annoyed the enemy, attempting to come upp
+agayne. The 2 maine works thus obtained, the two captaynes w^th ease
+walked the rest of the round, whilst Mr Broome, w^th a companye of her
+la^pps servants and some fresh souldiers, had a care to levell the
+ditch, and by a present devise, with ropes lifting the morter-peece to a
+low dragge, by strength of men drew it into the house, Capt. Ogle
+defending the passage ag^t another companye of the enemye which play'd
+upon their retreate. The like endeavour was used to gayne theire greate
+gunnes; but lying beyond the ditch, and being of such bulke and weight,
+all our strength could not bringe them off before the whole army had
+fallen upon us; however, our men took tyme to poyson all the cannon
+round, if anything will doe the feate, Capt. Rawstorne still defending
+the first passe ag^t some offers of the enemy to come up by the wood."
+
+It was near the conclusion of this affray, as Mr Broome, the steward,
+and several of his helpers, were encompassing the great dragon which had
+so often vomited forth fire and smoke upon them, intending to carry it
+away captive, that they heard a voice from the breach below:--
+
+"Hold, ye uncircumcised:--I will make your house desolate, and the glory
+thereof shall be turned into ashes."
+
+The mortar was ready charged, and they beheld Gideon, with a lighted
+match, springing towards them. Several of the men drew aside in dismay;
+but as Providence willed it, he was prevented from his purpose, the
+light being struck from his hand, and himself tumbled backwards into a
+deep and muddy ditch, extinguishing both light and life apparently
+together. But he arose, and would have run a tilt at them in this
+unsavoury condition, had he not been caught by one of his enemies, who
+waggishly exclaimed--
+
+"Let us yoke this great Amalekite to the gun. He'll help us well over
+the ditch."
+
+This goodly piece of advice was not neglected; and the unhappy Gideon,
+fastened between two yoke-fellows, was dragged on by main force, the
+hindmost threatening to shoot him if he made any resistance.
+
+In vain did he cry out for vengeance upon them. His gods were deaf--no
+miracle was wrought for his deliverance; and though he would have called
+down fire from heaven upon his adversaries, the thunders he impiously
+desired died harmless on his own tongue.
+
+We again quote the words of the journal:--
+
+"This action continued an houre, with the loss of two men on our part,
+who, after they were mortally wounded, still fired upon the enemy, till
+all retreating. What number of the enemy were slain it is not easy to
+guesse. Besides the execuc'on done in their trenches, Capt. Farmours and
+Capt. Rattcliffes reserves, w^th the best marksmen, played upon them
+from the walls with much slaughter, as they quitt theire holds. Our men
+brought in many armes, three drums, and but five prisoners, preserved by
+Capt. Chisnall to show that he had mercy as well as valour. One of
+theese was an assistant to their engineere, Browne, who discovered to us
+the nature of their trench, in which they had laboured two monthes to
+draw away our water. Theire first designe was to drayne and open our
+springs, not considering theire rise from a higher ground south-east
+from the house, w^ch must needs supply our deepe well, where-ever they
+suncke their fall: this invenc'on faileing, they bringe up an open
+trench in a worme work, the earth being indented or sawed for the
+securitie of their myners, and the ditch two yards wide and three deepe
+for the fall of the water.
+
+"But now neither ditches nor aught els troubled our souldiers, theire
+grand terror, the morter-peece, which had frighted 'em from theire meate
+and sleepe, like a dead lyon, quyetely lying among 'em; everye one had
+his eye and his foote upon him, shouteing and rejoiceing as merrily as
+they used to doe w^th theire ale and bagpypes. Indeed ev'y one had this
+apprehenc'on of the service, that the maine worke was done, and what was
+yet behind but a meere pastime.
+
+"Her la^pp though not often overcarryed w^th any light expressions of
+joy, yet religiously sensible of soe great a blessing, and desirous,
+according to her pious disposition, to returne acknowledgements to the
+righte authour, God alone, presently commands her chaplaynes to a
+publike thanksgiving.
+
+"The enemy, thus terrifyed with this defeate, durst not venture theire
+workes agayne till midnight; towards morneing removeing some of theire
+cannon, and the next night stealeing away all the rest, save one peece
+for a memorand. This one escapyt nayleing, which the colonells durst not
+venture on its owne mount, but planted att a distance, for feare of
+the madmen in the garrison.
+
+"One thing may not heere bee omitted: that day that our men gave Rigby
+that shameful defeate, had hee destined for the p'secuteing of his
+utmost cruelty. Hee had invited, as it is now gen'ally confest, all his
+friends, the holy abettors of this mischiefe, to come see the house
+yeelded or burnt, hee haveing purposed to use his morter gunne w^th
+fireballs or granadoes all afternoone; but her la^pp before two o'clocke
+(his own tyme) gave him a very skurvy satisfying answ^r, soe that his
+friends came opportunely to comfort him, who was sicke of shame and
+dishonour, to be routed by a lady and a handfull of men."
+
+This proved a sore disaster to the besiegers. The soldiers, too, began
+to cry out for their pay. The long-expected plunder of Lathom had
+hitherto kept them quiet; but they were now willing to leave this
+precious booty to the next comers, and content themselves with their
+stated allowance.
+
+Rigby, fearful of the crumbling away and dispersion of his army, made
+shift to furnish some small arrears of their pay, declaring that it had
+cost him L2000 of his own moneys during the siege; but how he got such
+great store of gold we are not informed, safe that "he was once a
+lawyer, and a bad one!"
+
+Still there were many deserters, escaping even in the open day; not a
+few of them coming over with valuable intelligence to the garrison.
+
+Wearied with duty, and sorely perplexed, Rigby sent for Col. Holland,
+from Manchester, to his assistance. Many days now elapsed, during which
+little happened worth recording on either side. On the 23d May, Captain
+Moseley brought another message to her ladyship, desiring, in terms of
+great courtesy and respect, that she would grant him an interview. He
+was received with great ceremony; for she abated not a whit of the
+dignity belonging to her high birth and station.
+
+"Captain Moseley," said she, having read the summons, commanding her
+that she should yield up the house, together with the ammunition, arms,
+goods, servants, children, and her own person too--submitting to the
+mercy of parliament, "you are, I understand, an honourable man and a
+soldier."
+
+He bowed with great humility.
+
+"I would not receive this from any other. But"--and her lip curled
+proudly as she spoke. "Here seems a slight mistake in the wording of
+your message. They should rather have written _cruelty_ and not
+_mercy_!"
+
+"Nay, my lady," he replied, "the mercy of parliament. Trust me, you will
+not be evil entreated at their hands."
+
+"The _mercies_ of the wicked are _cruel_," said she, quickly, but with
+great composure. "Not that I mean," she continued, "a wicked parliament,
+of which body I have an honourable and reverend esteem, but wicked
+agents and factors, such as Moore and Rigby, who for the advantage of
+their own interests labour to turn kingdoms into blood and ruin.
+Besides, 'tis dangerous treating when the sword is given into the
+enemies' hand."
+
+"Most assuredly, madam, as our tractates on the art of war teach
+us,--which it seems you have not studied in vain," said Moseley, bowing
+with an air of great deference and gallantry. "Your ladyship is
+commander-in-chief, we hear."
+
+"My lord being absent. I am left in trust, and cannot listen to treaties
+without his permission."
+
+"Not to dishonourable overtures, assuredly. But if we agree to your own
+conditions,--quitting the house in the way it shall seem best to your
+ladyship, as was once the basis of your own propositions, I believe, it
+cannot in this case be a reproach or a breach of trust, but will prevent
+much damage, and be the saving of many lives."
+
+"I will not treat without my lord's commands, Captain Moseley, and I
+have listened to you longer than is expedient. It is unjust to myself,
+and these brave defenders, that I appear in any way doubtful of their
+ability and courage. For their sakes, and for my own, I must end this
+parley."
+
+The officer bowed low at this peremptory dismissal, wishing her
+ladyship's resolutions were less firm or her means more ample.
+
+"I can but deliver your reply. Yet"--He hesitated awhile. "There be
+fierce and bloody men about the camp, who would lay down their own lives
+to compass your destruction. It is not in our power to restrain them."
+
+"One of these flaming zealots is already extinguished: we have him safe
+under cover," said her ladyship, smiling; "in our own custody, I trow.
+He threatened us with all the plagues of Egypt and that of his own
+tongue to boot,--the worst that ere visited the garrison. One morning,
+an earthquake would devour us; another, we were to be visited with the
+destruction of Sodom. Some of our men once looked out for the coming
+tempest, and buffeted him well for their disappointment. He seems either
+malignant or insane; but in charity, of which Christian exercise he
+seems utterly ignorant, we suppose the latter. We have therefore made
+his feet fast in the stocks, from whence, I hear, he pronounces his
+anathemas as confidently as though he were armed with the power and
+thunders of the Vatican!"
+
+"May I crave the name of this doughty personage?--We have but too many
+of them amongst us."
+
+"Verily, 'tis your drum, by whose hands I have had a message heretofore.
+The chances of war have again brought him hither,--but now a prisoner!"
+
+"Gideon Greatbatch?"
+
+"The same. We have heard him, with many blasphemous allusions, liken
+himself unto that great one among the judges of Israel,--and truly he
+seems more fitted to wield the sword than the drum-stick!"
+
+"Your ladyship would perhaps indulge me with an interview. It might
+comfort him to see one from the camp."
+
+"Provided that no sinister design or advantage be lurking under this
+request. Yet am I speaking, I would fain hope, to a gentleman and a
+soldier."
+
+Moseley was conducted down a dark flight of steps, damp and slippery.
+The ooze and slime rendered his footing tedious and insecure. Soon he
+recognised the mighty voice of Gideon bellowing forth a triumphant
+psalm. Another stave was just commencing as the door opened, and the
+torch glared lurid and dismally on the iron features and grisly aspect
+of the captive. A pair of rude stocks, through which Gideon's long
+extremities protruded, stood in the middle of the dungeon. He scowled
+terrifically at the intruders; but suddenly resumed his exercise.
+
+"Still at thy devotions?" said Moseley; but the moody fanatic
+vouchsafed not to reply.
+
+"We must wait the finishing of this duty, I fear," said the captain,
+knowing that interruption would be useless. Silently they awaited the
+conclusion, when Gideon abruptly cried out--
+
+"Captain Moseley, are ye, too, cast into this den of lions?"
+
+"I came hither on an embassage, and I have craved this visit ere I
+depart."
+
+"Hast furnished my breakfast?" inquired this stalwart knight from the
+enchanted wood. "I think your garrison be short of victual, or my"----
+
+"Hold thy tongue, thou piece of ill-contrived impertinence," said the
+gaoler. "We have victual and drink too; but for such as thou art, it
+were an ill-bestowed morsel. I marvel what can have possessed my lady to
+keep thee alive!"
+
+The gaoler drew out from his provision bag a small dark-coloured loaf,
+which he threw at the hungry captive, who, to say the truth, had been
+half-starved since his imprisonment.
+
+Gideon was devouring it greedily without any further notice, when he
+suddenly cried out to his keeper--
+
+"Where gat ye this coarse stuff? I would not say good-morrow to my dog
+with so crusty a meal."
+
+"It was tossed over the wall," replied the gaoler. "Our friends oft
+supply us that way with provision, captain. I picked it up as I came,
+and thought it was too good for thy dainty appetite."
+
+"Captain Moseley," said the hungry drummer, with great earnestness,
+"take this. Break it before thy brethren, and show them how vilely these
+Egyptian task-masters do entreat us in the house of bondage."
+
+There was something more than usually impressive in his manner. Moseley
+took the loaf as requested; and the gaoler, as if the object before him
+were beneath suspicion, exclaimed with a knowing look--
+
+"Had I not brought the manchet myself, and watched thee narrowily, I
+should have guessed thou hadst crammed some secret message therein to
+the camp. But I defy thee, or any of thy batch, to cheat old Gabriel,
+the rogue's butler!"
+
+"Prithee, search," said Captain Moseley, drawing the loaf from his
+pocket; "thou mayest, peradventure, find treachery in a toothmark, for
+o' my troth they be legibly written."
+
+"Nay," said Gabriel, with great self-importance, "the knave's jaws will
+score no ciphers. I had as lief interpret pot-hooks and ladles."
+
+The captain again thrusting it beneath his belt, promised to show his
+commanders with what coarse fare and severity the prisoners were
+treated.
+
+"Wilt thou that I intercede for thee before the Countess?" he continued;
+"if so be that she would remit thee of this durance."
+
+In a voice of thunder spake the incorrigible Gideon--
+
+"Intercede!--I would as lief pray to the saints they should intercede
+with the Virgin Mary. I will rot from this perch piecemeal ere I pray to
+yonder ungodly woman. Yet shall I escape out of their hands, but not by
+mine own might, or mine own strength," said the lion-hearted captive.
+
+Leaving this indomitable Roundhead to his fate, Moseley returned to the
+camp, reporting the ill success of his mission.
+
+Great part of the day was spent in angry discussion, so that Moseley had
+nigh forgotten his message from Gideon; yet he remembered it ere he left
+the council. Pulling out a coarse bannock, to the great astonishment of
+his auditory, he brake it, relating his interview with the captive. Near
+to where the prisoner had taken his last mouthful, Moseley found a bit
+of crumpled paper. The surprise and dismay of the assembly may be
+conceived after he had read the following billet:--
+
+     "MY DEAREST HEART,--
+
+     "With much joy and comfort I send thee news that his Highness
+     Prince Rupert hath gotten a great victory over the rebels at
+     Newark; and I have besought his Majesty that he should march into
+     Lancashire. By two days, at farthest, these enemies who now
+     beleaguer my house shall be cut off. We purpose to come upon them
+     suddenly, so that they shall be taken in their own snare. I have
+     raised L3000 on the jewels conveyed to me from Lathom by the last
+     sally, which sum I purpose giving in largess to the soldiers, that
+     it may quicken them to thy help. My prayers and blessing for thee
+     and the children.--Thine,
+
+     "DERBY."
+
+This secret intelligence had missed its destination. The gaoler had
+unfortunately picked it up from where some friendly hand had thrown it,
+reserving the curious envelope for Gideon's breakfast, not aware of the
+important message it contained. But the prisoner, more wary than his
+keeper, when he felt the paper between his teeth, rightly judged that
+it was some communication of importance to his enemies, and craftily
+conveyed it, as we have seen, into the hands of Captain Moseley.
+
+No mean act of heroism for a starving man to wrench the food from his
+own jaws,--a deed we might in vain look for amongst the patriots of our
+own day,--persons who would sneer at the fanaticism, and, it may be, the
+sincerity of Gideon Greatbatch.
+
+Consternation was visible throughout the assembly. They had all along
+flattered themselves with the expectation that Prince Rupert's army was
+too urgently required for the relief of York, to have caused them any
+disturbance; and, with inward curses on the king for his humanity,
+secret preparations were made for raising the siege.
+
+Though ignorant of the cause, the garrison soon espied an unusual bustle
+in the camp. They were evidently preparing for some exploit. One of the
+spies brought intelligence that two squadrons had departed in the night,
+and that Colonels Moore and Ashton were on their return to Manchester.
+
+On Monday morning, the 27th of May, it was agreed that Captains Ogle and
+Rawsthorne should make a sally. But they found the enemy had been
+beforehand with them, leaving the camp in the utmost terror and
+disorder. Intelligence now arrived that Prince Rupert had entered
+Lancashire by way of Stockport, where the Parliament army, under
+Colonels Duckenfield, Mainwaring, Buckley, and others, had suffered a
+total route. The besiegers had commenced their retreat between twelve
+and one o'clock the preceding night.
+
+Thus ended the first siege of Lathom, after the place had been closely
+beset four months; during which time the garrison lost but six
+men,--four in the service, and two by negligence and over-daring.
+
+They were, in general, supplied with provisions, her ladyship seeing the
+men's rations duly served. Yet were they not seldom pushed to a sally
+for their dinner; their friends outside, by lights and other appointed
+signals, directing the foragers in their operations.
+
+The enemy shot 107 cannon-balls, 32 stones, and but four grenadoes. By
+their own confession near 100 barrels of gunpowder were spent, part of
+which was in supplies to the garrison, who often replenished their stock
+at the expense of the besiegers. They lost about 500 men, besides
+wounded and prisoners, according to their own returns.
+
+The next day Rigby, with about 3000 men, drew up at Eccleston Green, six
+miles only from Lathom, in great uncertainty which way to march, fearful
+of meeting with Prince Rupert. In the end, imagining that his Highness
+would go through Blackburn or Lancaster to the relief of York, Rigby
+marched off in great haste to Bolton, then a garrison town, and well
+fortified.
+
+The Prince, hearing of their escape, together with Lord Derby,
+immediately turned their forces in this direction, determined to carry
+the place by assault, and revenge the insults and barbarity her ladyship
+had endured. This resolution was terribly accomplished. Sixteen hundred
+of her besiegers lay dead on the place; and twenty-two colours, which
+three days before flourished proudly before the house, were presented to
+her from his Highness by Sir Richard Crane, as a memorial of her
+deliverance, and "a happy remembrance of God's mercy and goodness to her
+and her family."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[43] The name assumed by a body of men who met, during the wars, in
+Manchester; and who in energy and power were second only to their London
+brethren.
+
+[44] "Hist. of the House of Stanley," p.90.
+
+[45] One of these sons of violence, Bradshaw of Brazen-nose, took
+occasion, before his patrons at Wigan, to profane the 14th verse of the
+15th chapter of Jeremiah, from thence proving that Lady Derby was the
+scarlet whore and the whore of Babylon whose walls he made as flat and
+thin as his own discourse.
+
+[46] Plus animi est inferenti quam periculum propulsanti.--_Caes. Com_.
+
+[47] Harleian MSS. 2043.
+
+
+
+
+RAVEN CASTLE.
+
+
+    "He bargained with two ruffians strong,
+      Which were of furious mood,
+    That they should take these children young,
+      And slay them in a wood.
+
+    "Away then went these pretty babes,
+      Rejoycing at that tide,
+    Rejoycing with a merry minde,
+      They should on cock-horse ride."
+
+--_The Children in the Wood_.
+
+Situated amid the wild and high moorlands, at whose feet hath stood for
+ages the royal and ducal capital of the county palatine of Lancaster,
+once rose a strong border defence called Raven Castle. Its site only
+remains. This noble and castellated fortress now lies an almost
+undistinguishable heap on the barren moor; the sheep browse above it,
+and the herdsman makes his pillow where warriors and dames once met in
+chivalric pomp, and the chieftain held his feudal and barbaric court.
+
+The point on which it stood is nearly on the line of separation between
+the counties of York and Lancaster. From the southern declivity of the
+hill on the Yorkshire side springs one of the rills which fall into the
+Hodder, a well-known stream, held in great respect by those ambulatory
+gentlemen whose love of society and amusing recreations leads them to
+lay in a stock of patience for life in the pursuit of piscatory
+delights.
+
+This mountainous tract forms part of the forest of Bowland, once ranged
+by numerous herds of deer, and is still under the jurisdiction of a
+master-forester, or bow-bearer, called _Parker_, which office has been
+held for centuries by a family of that name.
+
+It was in the broad and still moonlight of a spring morning, in the year
+16--, that two horsemen were ascending by a steep and difficult pass
+through the Trough of Bolland, along the hills and almost pathless wilds
+of the forest. They were apparently of that dubious class called
+"Knights of the Post,"--highway-men, deer-stealers, or cattle-harriers;
+all and every of which occupations they occasionally followed.
+
+As they passed by the edge of a steep ravine, from which hung a few
+stunted oaks projecting over the gulf, the foremost rider--for the path
+admitted them not abreast--turned sharply round on his saddle.
+
+"Again!--Didst thou not see it, Michael?" inquired he, in great alarm.
+
+"Nothing, Anthony, as I do follow thee in this honest trade;--nothing, I
+tell thee, save thine ugly face in this clear moonshine. Prythee, make
+more speed, and thou wilt have the fewer wry mouths to answer for. Thou
+art fool enough to make a man forswear honesty, and rid him of his
+conscience for life. Beshrew me! thou hast got a troublesome tenant;
+either less roguery, or fewer qualms; depend on 't, thou canst not keep
+friends with both."
+
+"I'll go no farther. Old Hildebrand finds some foul business on his
+hands, that he would fain thrust into our fingers. A bad business quits
+best at the beginning; if once we get to the middle, we might as well go
+on, or we may be like old Dick, who swam half-way through the mill-pond,
+and then, being faint-hearted, swam back again."
+
+"Look thee now, thou art a precious ass:--thou wouldst be a wit without
+brains, and a rogue, ay, a very wicked and unconditional rogue, without
+courage. Tut, that same cowardly rogue, of all unparalleled villains, is
+verily the worst. Your liquorish cat, skulking and scared with a
+windle-straw, is always the biggest thief, and has the cruellest paws,
+for all her demure looks and her plausible condescensions."
+
+"I don't care for thy jeers, Michael."
+
+"What!--hast brought thy purpose to an anchor already? 'Tis well. I
+shall on to Raven Castle with all speed, if it were only to inform one
+Hildebrand Wentworth of this sudden qualm. Likewise I may, peradventure,
+remember to tell him of another little qualm thou wast taken with, once
+upon a time, at the sight of a score of his fat beeves; a little bit of
+choice roguery played off upon him by honest Anthony of the tender
+conscience! Look to it, comrade, he shall know of this before thou canst
+convey thy cowardly carcase out of his clutches. An' it be thou goest
+forward--mum!--backward! Ha! have I caught thee, my pretty bird?"
+
+At the conclusion of this speech, with the malice of a fiend urging on
+his hesitating victim to the commission of some loathed act of folly and
+of crime, the speaker lashed on his companion's beast, and they were
+soon past the steepest part of the ascent, on their way to Raven Castle.
+Its present occupier, whom, it appears, they had befriended beforetime,
+in the way of their several callings, had sent for them in haste,
+requiring their aid, it might seem, in some business relative to their
+profession.
+
+For an hour or two they travelled on as fast as the nature of their
+track would permit. Day was just brightening in the east, when, emerging
+from a more than usually intricate path, they pushed through a thick
+archway of boughs. Suddenly a bare knoll presented itself, sloping
+towards a narrow rivulet; beyond, a dark and well-fortified mansion
+stood before them,--here and there, a turret-shaped chamber, lifting its
+mural crown above the rest, rose clear and erect against a glowing sky,
+now rapidly displacing the grey hues of the morning. The narrow
+battlements rose up, sharp and distinct, but black as their own grim
+recesses, in solemn contrast with the bright and rolling masses from
+behind, breaking into all the gorgeous tints that betoken a heavy and
+lurid atmosphere.
+
+They crossed a narrow bridge, and the clattering of their horses' hoofs
+were soon heard in the courtyard of the castle.
+
+"So, masters, if it had not pleased your betters to have built hostels
+and roosting-places on the road, I might have been snug in my blanket
+some hours ago may be."
+
+The personage who thus accosted them was dressed in a plain leathern cap
+and doublet, with a pair of stout hose that would not have disgraced a
+burgher of the first magnitude; his short and frizzled beard was
+curiously twirled and pointed, we may suppose after the fashion of those
+regions; and his manner and appearance was that of some confidential
+menial belonging to the establishment. His whole demeanour had in it an
+air of impertinent authority; his little sharp eyes twinkled in all the
+plenitude of power, and peered in the faces of the travellers as they
+alighted to render him an unwilling salutation.
+
+"We have made the best of our road, Master Geoffery, since we left our
+quarters in Netherdale. But, in troth, it's a weary way, and a drouthy
+one into the bargain: I have not wet even the tip of this poor beast's
+nose since we started."
+
+"Go to; an' the beasts be cared for, thine own muzzle may take its
+chance of a swill. Willy, see to the horses. Now for business. Master
+has been waiting for you these three hours: make what excuse you may.
+Heigh-ho! my old skull will leak out my brains soon with these
+upsittings."
+
+Taking a small lamp from a recess, he commanded the strangers to follow.
+A wide staircase led to the gallery, from whence a number of low doors
+communicated with the chambers or dormitories. Entering a passage from
+an obscure corner, they ascended a winding stair. The huge and terrific
+spars of the intruders struck with a shrill clank on the narrow steps,
+mingled with the grumblings of Master Geoffery Hardpiece; a continual
+muttering was heard from the latter, by way of running accompaniment to
+the directions which, ever and anon, he found it needful to set forth.
+
+"There--an ass, a very ass!--keep thy face from the wall, I tell thee,
+and lift up thy great leathern hoofs."
+
+Then came another series of murmurings, mingled with confused and
+rambling sentences.
+
+"This stair is like old Giles's horn, it's long a-winding. Now,--thy
+spurs, is it? Aroynt thee, knave, thou art like to frighten the children
+with their clattering. They are up, and ready for their trip. Alice will
+stitch a pillow to your pummels, and they'll ride bravely, the pretty
+dears. Stop there, I tell ye; I'll just say that you wait his pleasure,
+and return."
+
+Old Hardpiece tapped gently at a small door; it was opened hastily; and
+a few moments only elapsed ere Master Geoffery's cunning face was
+cautiously extended out of the narrow opening. He beckoned to his
+companions, and at once ushered them into a low chamber. A lamp, half
+extinguished, stood on the floor; the walls were nearly bare, and
+streaked in various colours by the moisture filtering from the roof; a
+curiously-carved oak-table, and two or three stone benches comprised the
+furniture of the apartment; a few rusty swords, with two large pistols
+nearly falling from their holsters, hung from the wall. In one corner,
+reposing in decayed dignity, were seen some halberds, with several
+unmatched pairs of mildewed boots; near to the window, or rather
+loop-hole, heaped up in dust and disorder, lay a score or two of rusty
+helmets, their grim appurtenances mostly broken and disjointed.
+
+Pacing to and fro in this audience-chamber appeared a figure of about
+the middle size, attired in a loose open garment. His head was nearly
+bald; a few thin locks only hung from the lower part of his poll; and
+yet his age was not so far advanced as the scanty covering of his
+forehead might seem to intimate. He paused not as they entered; but
+during the greater part of the succeeding interview persevered in the
+same restless and abrupt gait, as though repose were anguish, and it was
+only by a continued change of position that he could soothe the rising
+perturbation of his spirit.
+
+"Is this your haste, when my commands are most urgent?"
+
+He turned sharply upon them as he spoke: his eyes grew wild and keen;
+but at times a heaviness and languor, as if from long watching, seemed
+to oppress them.
+
+"We could not"--Michael was stammering out an apology, when thus
+interrupted:--
+
+"Enough! I know what thou wouldst say. Let thy comrade remain below.
+Geoffery, conduct him to the refectory; Michael abides here. Haste, and
+let refreshments be prepared."
+
+What was the purport of the conversation that ensued may be surmised
+from the following history.
+
+Old Hardpiece, grumbling the greater part of the way, led his companion
+through a labyrinth of stairs and passages to a small room, where a huge
+flagon of ale, with cold beef and other substantial articles for
+breakfast, were about being displayed. Anthony, nothing loth, threw
+aside his cap, and unbraced his girdle, for the more capacious disposal
+of such savoury and delicious viands. A heavy pull at the tankard again
+brought out Master Geoffery's deep-mouthed oratory. Anthony's tongue
+grew more nimble as his appetite waxed less vigorous; he asked many
+questions about the business which required their presence at Raven
+Castle in such haste.
+
+"The orphan children of Sir Henry Fairfax are to be conveyed to some
+place of concealment for a short period. Master says he has had
+intimation of a design on the part of the late Sir Henry's friends to
+seize them perforce. Which act of violence Hildebrand Wentworth, being
+left as their sole guardian, will make all haste to prevent."
+
+"The children of the late Sir Harry Fairfax who was killed in the wars?"
+inquired Anthony.
+
+"Ay, ay. Poor things! since their mother drowned herself"----
+
+Old Hardpiece here looked round, as though fearing some intrusion. He
+continued in an undertone--
+
+"Goody Shelton says she walks in the forest; and that her wraith so
+frightened Humphrey's horse that it would not budge a straw's breadth,
+just beside the great oak in the Broad Holm, before you get into the
+forest on the other side towards Slaidburn."
+
+Anthony was, at this precise moment, cramming the last visible remains
+of a goose-pie into the same place where he had before deposited half
+the good things on the table, anointing his beard with their savoury
+outskirts,--when suddenly his chin dropped, his face assumed a sort of
+neutral tinge, and his whole form appeared to grow stiff with terror. He
+made several efforts to speak; but the following words only could be
+distinguished:--
+
+"I was sure it would be a ghost!"
+
+"What!--a ghost!--Where!" anxiously inquired Geoffery.
+
+"Just by the great oak in the Broad Holm, on the other side of the
+forest."
+
+"What was it like?"
+
+"I cannot tell; and Michael pretended he did not see it!"
+
+"Thou canst surely show the appearance it put on."
+
+"Something, as it might be, like unto a woman, crossed our path twice,
+and within a stone's throw. O Master Geoffery, we be dead men!"
+
+Another groan here interrupted their discourse. Master Hardpiece
+muttered some unintelligible prayers, putting on a face of great
+solemnity. Several minutes elapsed, while the following exclamations
+rapidly succeeded each other:--
+
+"A ghost!--save us!--a very ghost! I'll not to Slaidburn again without
+help. Another draught, Anthony; a stiffener to thy courage, mayhap. It's
+now daylight, though," said he, looking through the casement, "and most
+of us fear only what may be felt, in the day-time at any rate."
+
+Anthony took the cup, and, apparently without being aware, drank off the
+contents. He was much invigorated by the draught which seemed to invest
+him with new courage; partly from the recollection that a long daylight
+would intervene between the beginning and the end of his journey, and
+partly because of the sudden rush of spirits to his brain. He arose, and
+assuming a posture more erect, planted his cap in a becoming attitude,
+whilst Geoffery was putting aside the empty vessels into a sort of
+large wooden chalice, for the purpose of a more convenient removal.
+
+Light footsteps were now heard bounding along the passage, and the door
+was suddenly burst open by two rosy-cheeked children; the elder a boy of
+some four or five years' growth, and his sister scarcely a twelvemonth
+younger.
+
+"Master Geoffery, Master Geoffery," lisped one laughing urchin, "hide
+me; there is Alice--she'll not let me go. We are to ride on two great
+horses; and I shall have a sword, and sister Julia a coach."
+
+Here nurse Alice made her appearance. She had been weeping: tears and
+entreaties were vain. She asked permission to accompany them; but with a
+frown Hildebrand Wentworth had chidden her from his presence. Since the
+loss of her mother, and almost from the time that news had arrived of
+their father's death, which happened a little while before the birth of
+Julia, she had borne a mother's part to her little charge; and had it
+been allowed her, she would gladly have served them without reward.
+
+Fearful of leaving them, she had followed hastily into the room. With a
+searching glance she eyed the stranger for a while; then suddenly
+turning to the children, she addressed them with great seriousness and
+affection.
+
+"Harry, you have not repeated your prayer this morning. Do you think God
+will take care of you to-day, if you ask Him not?"
+
+Here the rebuked boy grew silent; and with a suffused face, ran to his
+nurse. Whilst in her lap, he poured out his morning orison. It was a
+simple but affecting request. Julia knelt also; and Alice, laying a hand
+on each, blessed the children.
+
+"God of their fathers, I commit them to Thy care!"
+
+She could say no more; loud sobs checked her utterance; but leaning over
+these little ones, she convulsively clasped them in her embrace.
+
+Old Hardpiece grew unusually busy about matters of no importance, and
+the hard-featured trooper was seen to brush his brows, as though some
+unpleasant suspicions had crossed his brain. He raised his arm as he
+gazed on the children, muttering as he clenched his hand--
+
+"If he dare!"--He then carelessly examined his sword, returning it
+quickly into its sheath, as the weeping Alice drew away the children to
+her own apartment. Old Geoffery now grew more talkative. Leaning his
+chin upon his hand, and his elbow on the table, he thus proceeded:--
+
+"It's four long years come St Barnabas since Sir Harry's death; and my
+lady, rest her soul! went melancholy soon after. Everything was
+bequeathed in trust to my master, Hildebrand Wentworth, a great friend
+of Sir Harry's, and his secretary or purse-bearer, I forget which--no
+matter--all the property, I say, was left in trust for Sir Harry's wife
+and children. Hildebrand brought a will from Sir Harry to this effect,
+and poor Lady Fairfax never looked up afterwards. She moped about, and
+would see nobody, and then it was they said she was out of her wits. It
+was not long before her head-gear and mantle were found by the
+river-side just below the old bridge you crossed--but her body never."
+
+Here the entrance of Michael cut short the old man's discourse.
+
+"Belike thou hast not lacked a cup of warm sack, and a whey-posset with
+my master in the west turret," scoffingly cried Master Geoffery. Michael
+looked surly as he replied--
+
+"Old Gabergeon, let us have a draught of thy best, a stirrup-cup.
+Breakfast I have settled with above stairs."
+
+"Marry take your swill, Mr Saucypate," tartly replied Geoffery. "And so,
+because you have eaten and drunk with my master, it is 'old Gabergeon;'
+else had it been good Master Hardpiece, or 'if you will, Master
+Geoffery!' Out upon such carrion, say I, that think themselves live meat
+when they are but fly-blown."
+
+"Old Geoffery," said Michael, coolly, "we'll settle our rank at a more
+convenient opportunity. Just now I'll thank thee for the flagon."
+
+"It's in the cupboard," growled Hardpiece. "Verily these arms would
+tingle. But I am old, and that same Michael but a sorry brute--no
+beating would mend him. An ass of most vicious propensities; he will
+bite forwards and kick backwards. Friends get the benefit of his teeth,
+and foes the favour of his heels."
+
+Thus did the old man console himself for the rudeness he could not
+restrain. It was not long ere a summons hurried them to the courtyard.
+They found their beasts equipped and ready to depart; Harry and Julia
+looking joyously on, vastly diverted with the horses' accoutrements.
+Hildebrand stood by the gateway, looking moody and anxious for their
+departure; Alice, full of sorrow, attended with some refreshments which
+were stowed into the wallet. The journey was but short, and an hour's
+ride that fine morning, Michael said, would bring them to their
+destination. Hildebrand forbade him to mention the place where he wished
+to conceal the children, lest it should be known to their iniquitous
+relatives. Each horseman, with a child mounted before him, slowly passed
+the outer court, at the entrance of which Alice disappeared. The iron
+tramp of the steeds rang shrilly from underneath the arched gateway;
+Hildebrand stood by the platform; he bade them good speed. Anthony
+passed first; Michael checked his horse for a moment, when Hildebrand
+took the hand of the boy, and pressed it; but one portentous look, as at
+the recognition of some sinister purpose, passed between Michael and the
+old man, unobserved by his colleague. Hildebrand raised his hand above
+his mouth, and slowly whispered--
+
+"Remember!--the gulf underneath the waterfall."
+
+The horsemen departed. Passing the bridge they were just rising over the
+green slope when the children recognised Alice upon her mistress's
+palfrey. They screamed out loudly to her; but she was riding in a
+contrary direction, and soon passed out of their sight.
+
+The narrow glades of the forest suddenly encompassed them. The morning
+was pretty far advanced; the merry birds twittered in their dun covert,
+brushing the dewdrops from the boughs with their restless wings. The
+thrush and blackbird poured forth a more melancholy note; whilst the
+timid rabbit, scared from his morning's meal, rushed by and sought his
+burrow. The wood grew thicker, and the sunbeams that shot previously in
+broad slopes across their path soon became as lines of intensely-chequered
+light piercing the grim shadows beneath. The trees, too, put on a more
+sombre character; and the sward appeared choked with rank and noxious
+weeds. It seemed a path rarely trod, and only to be recognised by
+occasional openings through the underwood.
+
+They travelled for some hours. Michael had taken the lead, and Anthony
+with his prattling charge rode carelessly on. Looking round, the latter
+suddenly checked his horse. A momentary alarm overspread his features as
+he cried--
+
+"Michael, you have surely mistaken the path: an hour's ride should have
+brought us to the end of our journey, and our beasts have been footing
+it on since morning."
+
+"Heed not, comrade; thou wilt soon find we have the right track before
+us. We shall be through the wood presently."
+
+"Why, this is the road to Ingleton, if I mistake not; I hear the roar of
+the Greta."
+
+"Right--we shall be on our road to the old castle shortly."
+
+They travelled on more silently than before, until the brawling of the
+torrent they had heard for some time increased with rapid intensity. The
+road now widening, Anthony spurred on his beast by the side of his
+companion, who slackened his pace to afford an opportunity for further
+parley.
+
+"Whither are we bound?" inquired Anthony.
+
+"Where the children will be well cared for."
+
+A dubious expression of countenance, which Anthony but too well
+understood, accompanied these words; and villain was expressed by
+indications too unequivocal to be easily mistaken through every change
+and inflection of his visage. Anthony, though not of the most unsullied
+reputation, and probably habituated to crimes at which humanity might
+shudder, pressed the little victim closer to his breast. The prattle of
+the babe had won his heart: and the morning scene with Alice had
+softened his spirit so that he could have wept when he thought of the
+remorseless nature of his comrade, to whose care the children were
+entrusted.
+
+The roar of the torrent grew louder. Suddenly they entered upon a sort
+of irregular amphitheatre--woods rising above each other to the very
+summit of the hills by which they were surrounded. A swollen waterfall
+was visible, below which a bare and flattened trunk, whose boughs had
+apparently been but just lopped, was thrown across the torrent. A ruined
+keep or donjon was seen above a line of dark firs, crowning the summit
+of a steep crag that rose abruptly from the river.
+
+"This is our halfway-house," said Michael, pointing to the grim
+fortress: "the children are tired, and have need of refreshment. Tarry
+here with the horses whilst I carry them over the bridge."
+
+"We have refreshments in the wallet--what need we to loiter yonder?"
+replied Anthony, eyeing the other with an expression of distrust.
+
+"The children want rest," said Michael, "and we shall there find
+shelter from the heat."
+
+"If rest be needful," was the reply, "surely this dry sward and these
+overhanging leaves will afford both rest and shelter."
+
+"The children are in my keeping," said Michael, fiercely, "and I am not
+to account with thee for my proceedings. Alight, and give me the child."
+
+"I will not!--Michael, I have watched thee, and I know that thou art a
+villain. Ay, draw, I have weapons too, comrade."
+
+Fast and furious grew the combat, during which the terrified children
+made the woods echo with their shrieks. The result was not long
+doubtful. Michael soon proved himself the better swordsman; and his
+antagonist, stumbling from fatigue, broke his own weapon in the fall.
+Defenceless and exposed, the uplifted sword of his adversary was raised
+for his destruction, when suddenly the arm of the ruffian was arrested,
+the weapon snatched from his grasp, and a female figure habited in a
+dark and coarse vestment stood between the combatants. Her brow was
+bare, and her dark full eye beamed on them with a look of pity and of
+anger. Her naturally pale cheek was flushed; but it betrayed not the
+agitation she endured. Erect and unbending she stood before them, and
+the quailing miscreant crouched at her feet.
+
+"Away to thy master!--thy blood, too worthless even for thine own
+steel"----
+
+She hurled away the weapon as she spoke.
+
+Burning with revenge at his late defeat, Anthony flew after the falling
+brand: seizing it, he renewed the attack. Michael fled towards the
+bridge. With the bound of a bereaved tiger Anthony sprung upon his prey.
+Just where the root of the trunk rested on the bank they closed, after a
+desperate lunge parried by the unprotected arm of Michael. It was
+disabled--but he still clung to his enemy. Anthony strove to disengage
+himself; but the other, aware that life or death depended on the issue
+of that struggle, hung on him with a convulsive tightness that rendered
+the advantage he had gained of no avail. The sword was useless. Anthony
+threw it into the boiling gulf at his feet. Both hands being now free,
+whilst one arm of his opponent hung powerless and bleeding at his side,
+he had greatly the advantage. He wrenched the other arm of Michael from
+its hold, lifted him from his narrow footing-place, and with a malignant
+shout of triumph shook him over the abyss. One startling plunge, and the
+wretch sank in the rolling waters. An agonising yell, and but one,
+escaped him, as he hung quivering over that yawning portal to eternity;
+the next cry was choked by the seethe of the boiling foam. The waves
+whirled him round for a moment like some huge leviathan tossing its
+prey. He sank into its gorge, and the insatiate gulf swallowed him up
+for ever. Anthony drew back. He turned from the horrid scene, with some
+yet lingering tokens of compunction, in the expectation of rejoining his
+companions; but in vain--the babes and his deliverer had disappeared!
+
+Hildebrand Wentworth had passed the remainder of that day in his own
+chamber. It was a dark lone room, leading out of the turret we have
+before described. Often had he ascended the narrow stair communicating
+with the parapet, and often had he watched the dark woods beneath the
+distant mountain. It was the road taken by his guilty emissaries; and,
+whether on the look-out for signals or for their return, he repeated his
+visits until the blue mists were gathering on the horizon, and
+day--another day!--had passed into the bosom of eternity. It was an hour
+of holiness and peace, but heavy and disturbed was the current of his
+thoughts. He sat near a projecting angle of the turret, his head bent
+over the parapet. A female voice was heard beneath, chanting
+monotonously a low and melancholy psalm. Soon the following words were
+distinguished:--
+
+    "Dark as the bounding waters
+      When storm clouds o'er them roll,
+    The face of Zion's daughters
+      Reveals the troubled soul."
+
+Hildebrand drew his breath, as if labouring under some violent emotion.
+His whole frame was agitated. His lip grew pale as she went on with a
+voice of exultation--
+
+    "But joy is sown in sadness,
+      And hope with anxious fears;
+    Yon clouds shall break in gladness.
+      And doubts dissolve in tears."
+
+Fiends increase their torments at the sight of heaven! Hildebrand threw
+back his cloak,--with one clenched hand he struck his forehead, and with
+a loud groan he rushed from the spot. He sought rest in the gloom and
+solitude of his chamber; but hours passed on, during which the
+conscience-stricken culprit endured the horrors of accumulated guilt.
+Sometimes he opened the casement, gazing on the dark heavens, until he
+thought they were peopled, and he held converse with unseen and terrible
+things. Inarticulate murmurs broke from his lips. A few words might
+occasionally be distinguished--"Murder!--An old man too--The
+children--they are at rest!" A gleam of pleasure passed over his haggard
+features.
+
+"I am now"--looking round--"now master of all."
+
+"All?" breathed a low voice in the chamber.
+
+The cringing wretch was speechless. Sense almost forsook him: horror
+fastened on his spirit, while he turned his eyes, as if by some
+resistless constraint, towards the place from whence the voice had
+issued. Near his couch was a curiously-wrought cabinet inlaid with ivory
+and gems of the most costly workmanship. An heir-loom of the house, it
+was highly valued, and tradition reports that it was one of those spoils
+on which our forefathers cast a longing glance in the wars of the Holy
+Sepulchre. Be this as it may, every document of value connected with the
+family was here deposited. By virtue of the power given to him from the
+dying Sir Henry, though ostensibly for the benefit of his lady and her
+infant offspring, Hildebrand guarded the trust with a jealous eye. No
+one had access to it but himself, nor did he permit any other person
+than old Geoffery, the house-steward, to visit his chamber.
+
+Before this cabinet stood a figure enveloped in a dark robe. Pale,
+deadly pale, were the features, though scarcely discernible in their
+form and outline. The lamp burnt dimly; but with the quickened
+apprehension of guilt he recognised the wan resemblance of Lady Fairfax!
+
+A cry of exhausted anguish escaped him, and he fell senseless on the
+floor.
+
+Morning had risen, casting its bright and cheerful rays into the
+chamber, ere Hildebrand Wentworth awoke. Consciousness but slowly
+returned, and the events of the preceding hours came like shadows upon
+his soul. He stamped thrice, and immediately the vapid countenance of
+Geoffery Hardpiece was before him.
+
+"Come hither, Hardpiece. I am wondrous heavy and ill at ease."
+
+"Why, master, your bed has not been disturbed these two nights.--How
+should there be anything but an aching head, and complaining bones,
+when"----
+
+Hildebrand cast a hasty and confused glance towards the couch as he
+replied--
+
+"I have matters of moment just now that weigh heavily on my spirit. I
+cannot"----
+
+Here was a short pause; he continued, with a slow and tremulous accent--
+
+"I hope the children are safe."
+
+"Why, master," said Geoffery, "you have sent them out of harm's way, I
+hope; but--I know not what ails me--an uneasy night of it I have had
+about them."
+
+"What hast thou seen?" eagerly demanded Hildebrand.
+
+"Seen! I have seen nothing, but I have been haunted at all quarters by a
+vast crowd of vexatious busy dreams--about cut-throats and murderers."
+
+"Who says murderer?--I will have thee in the stocks."
+
+Hildebrand attempted to lay hold on him as he spoke; but, accustomed to
+these outbreaks of temper, Master Hardpiece merely stepped on one side,
+still maintaining his usual forward and self-sufficient demeanour.
+
+"Mr Hildebrand Wentworth, when an old servant"----
+
+"Peace!" interrupted his master,--"I am chafed beyond endurance." He
+struck his forehead violently, but suddenly recollecting himself, he
+seized Geoffery by the arm.
+
+"What sawest thou last night, knave?"
+
+"Only dreams, master--but"----
+
+"Say on--what makes thee hesitate?"
+
+"A messenger arrived last night."
+
+"A messenger!--from whence?" eagerly demanded Hildebrand.
+
+"Unluckily," said Geoffery, "it was shortly after you had retired for
+the night; I durst not then trouble you with the message. Marry, it's
+not the sort of news one likes to be in a hurry to tell."
+
+"Go on, varlet."
+
+"Why," continued the provoking simpleton, looking as if he had to reveal
+unpleasant tidings, and drawing back as he spoke, "the bearer is in the
+train of some herald or pursuivant, come from o'er sea to our court,
+about exchange of prisoners and the like. This man has a message from
+Sir Henry Fairfax."
+
+"He lies! I'll have his tongue bored!" furiously cried Hildebrand.
+
+"Nay, but listen: he says Sir Henry, whom we all thought dead, is now
+alive, and a prisoner in some ugly old German fortress."
+
+During this recital the astonished Hildebrand clenched his hands, with a
+look of awful and impotent rage. Hardpiece continued--
+
+"This coxcomb says he was sent specially by Sir Henry to obtain from you
+some papers of great moment, which will ensure his immediate release. He
+bears Sir Henry's signet, and the knave hath no lack of assurance."
+
+"Has this fellow had any communication with the menials, Geoffery?--or
+hast thou done me the service to keep him and his message to thyself?"
+anxiously inquired Hildebrand.
+
+"Why, as touching that, Alice, somehow or other,--for these women are
+always looking to anybody's business but their own,--wormed out his
+message in part, before I was aware of her drift."
+
+"Alice!--Again has that viper crossed my path?--Bid the messenger
+attend."
+
+When Geoffery returned he was followed by a short, muscular-looking
+personage, attired in a foreign garb. A military cloak, and slouched
+hat, garnished with a broad band and feather, gave him altogether an air
+of importance which his bare exterior had not sustained. On entering he
+made a slight obeisance. Hildebrand watched his bearing, as if he would
+have searched him to the heart's core. Not in the least disconcerted,
+the soldier threw himself on a seat. Preliminaries were waived by this
+unceremonious guest, who, speaking evidently in a foreign accent, began
+the interrogatory as follows:--
+
+"You were the private secretary of Sir Henry Fairfax?"
+
+"I was," briefly replied Hildebrand.
+
+"Know you this signet?"
+
+"I do," again he sullenly answered.
+
+"It was given into my keeping," said the stranger, "as a token whereby
+Hildebrand Wentworth should, in the due exercise of his fealty and
+trust, commit to my charge certain documents that shall immediately be
+set forth. But first, and briefly, it may be needful to relate the
+manner in which Sir Henry recovered after your departure. On the day
+following the skirmish, wherein Sir Henry was supposed to be mortally
+wounded, he gave unto you, as his most valued and bosom friend, those
+solemn credentials, by which, as a dying man, he invested you with full
+powers to proceed to England, as the sole guardian and protector of his
+beloved wife and their infant offspring. The goods and effects of which
+he died the possessor were vested in your name, I believe, in trust for
+her benefit and the surviving children. I think I am right in this? In
+case of her death, though, I believe the property became yours."
+
+"It did."
+
+"Such was the nature of the wound that his physicians believed a few
+hours only could intervene before his dissolution. He urged your
+immediate departure. Shortly afterwards the whole camp equipage,
+together with the sick and wounded, fell into the hands of his enemies.
+Driven off to a considerable distance up the Rhine at full speed, and
+without any other comforts or necessaries than what his captors could
+supply, his wounds bleeding afresh, and every limb racked with pain, to
+the astonishment of all he speedily recovered; and from that time he has
+remained a close prisoner in the fortress. Not receiving any tidings
+from his native shores, he knows not his loss. Yesternight only I heard
+of Lady Fairfax's most lamentable decease. In a cartel lately arrived
+for negotiating an exchange of prisoners, Sir Henry sends by me,
+secretly, as one of the envoys, a requisition for the papers I have
+before mentioned. His name, by some mistake, perhaps, not being included
+in the lists for exchange, has induced him so to act. The credentials,
+which he will thus be enabled through me to present, will doubtless
+accomplish his release, and restore him to his family and to his home.
+They are papers of great moment, and will set forth claims which cannot
+be overlooked; and I have most minute and special instructions to get
+them laid before the council."
+
+"Where are these precious documents deposited?" said Hildebrand.
+
+"An Eastern cabinet of choice and costly workmanship, containing other
+records of great value, stands in Sir Henry's private chamber." The
+envoy looked round, and his eyes rested on the cabinet. "The outer doors
+being opened, there are seen two ranges of drawers, with their separate
+mountings and compartments, each containing materials of greater or less
+moment. Sir Henry was minute in his directions, lest his lady might be
+bsent; and the innermost secrets of this goodly tabernacle not being
+known, save to themselves, the object of my visit might be retarded.
+With the permission of Hildebrand Wentworth, I will describe minutely
+where he may find this deposit."
+
+Hildebrand slightly moved his head, and the speaker continued--
+
+"From Sir Henry's description, and the tracings which he drew on the
+floor of his cell, I should conceive that this room contains the object
+of our search. I will recount the memoranda that I made, lest memory
+should be unfaithful. When the third cover is unclosed, in the lowest
+part of the recess on the right hand, beneath a sliding panel, is a
+spring, on touching which the whole flies back, and discovers a rare
+device, beautifully wrought in arabesque relief. So far, in all
+likelihood, you being his confidential secretary, have beheld?"
+
+"I have seen this cunning work thou speakest of. What more?"
+
+"Embellishing the four corners thereof is the likeness of a hand,
+curiously chased in silver; the second joint on the third finger of the
+lowest of them, on the left, being pressed, the whole picture, by
+marvellous sleight and artifice, riseth up, revealing the treasure of
+which I am in search."
+
+"Hath Sir Henry sent no written message, that we may know his will in
+this matter?" inquired Hildebrand.
+
+"It is strictly forbidden to a prisoner," replied the other, "to use
+tablets; but my knowledge of the secret is a sufficient safeguard
+against imposture."
+
+"Retire: I will begin the search with all speed. But hold thyself in
+readiness for immediate departure. Thou wilt not have the worse thrift
+for a hasty dismissal."
+
+The stranger withdrew, accompanied by Hardpiece. Hildebrand listened to
+their retreating footsteps; when, like unto one possessed, he stamped,
+and tore his thin grey locks, and cursed--audibly and bitterly
+cursed--his destiny.
+
+"Hast thou escaped?--when the draught danced and bubbled over my parched
+lips. Fate--fortune, whatever thou art, I would curse thee!"
+
+As he spoke, he lifted up one clenched hand towards heaven, laden with
+imprecation. And why did not that power, whose vengeance he visibly
+defied, launch a bolt against the impious?--Why not reader him, in that
+very act, a monument of just and righteous retribution?--"_Shall not the
+Judge of the whole earth do right?_" is a master-key that unlocks the
+mysteries and ministrations of Divine Providence, however complicated
+in their nature and obscure in their design.
+
+As the hoary sinner withdrew his hand, suddenly the muscles of his face
+relaxed; a ray of hope had irradiated his spirit--a gleam of delight
+passed over his pale features. He grew calm, and with a firm step he
+strode across the apartment. He approached the cabinet.
+
+"Thou shalt not escape me now!"--As he said this, he threw open the
+doors. Hildebrand had often searched this depository, but the place of
+concealment pointed out by the stranger had hitherto escaped his notice.
+He soon detected the stratagem--the lid flew back; but the papers of
+which he was in search were gone!
+
+The spirit of mischief was again foiled, but his evil genius did not
+forsake him. He sat down, and, for purposes of the blackest malignity,
+forged a series of evidences--a development of plans and proceedings
+that would at once have branded Sir Henry as a coward and a traitor.
+These letters he sealed up, and calling for the messenger, committed the
+packet into his hands.
+
+"You have Sir Henry's orders to lay these before the king?" said
+Hildebrand.
+
+"I have," replied the envoy.
+
+"Then hasten to court, and so good speed. Stay--when you meet Sir Henry
+Fairfax, offer him an old man's sympathy and condolence. Break the
+matter to him tenderly--and when he returns--I say no more. Away, thy
+mission hath need of despatch."
+
+The soldier made a slight inclination of the head as he departed.
+
+Hildebrand Wentworth sat down to reap the fruits of his villany--a
+harvest of his own planting. The full fruition of it he now seemed ready
+to enjoy; but days and weeks passed by, and still found him feverish and
+anxious. The fate of the children--whether the work of destruction had
+or had not been accomplished--was still to him a matter of uncertainty.
+He had often sent in search of the ruffians, but they had not been seen
+at their usual haunts. Guilt whispered that all was not complete.
+Restless and oppressed by undefined and terrible apprehensions, he
+resolved to end his doubts, and, if possible, procure an interview. He
+expected to obtain some clue to their procedings by a visit to the
+tower.
+
+It was not far from the close of a bright summer's day when he gained
+the rude bridge below the waterfall. He shuddered as he looked on the
+narrow trunk and the ever-tossing gulf beneath. The blackness of
+darkness was upon his spirit, and he ran as if some demon had pursued
+him, climbing with almost breathless haste the steep and winding
+staircase that gave access from the bridge to the ruined fortress above.
+
+From the platform a narrow ledge of rock led to the ditch, now dry, and
+nearly filled with fragments from the ruins. He passed the tottering
+arch of the portcullis;--long weeds choked up the entrance, waving
+drearily as the light breeze went over them. Hildebrand heard not the
+moan of the coming blast. Evening approached, and the thousand shadows
+haunted him,--grim spectres that crossed his path, crowding upon him
+with anger and menace. From a ruined doorway he ascended a narrow stair,
+and had penetrated far into the interior of that part of the castle
+which, in some measure, remained entire, when, for the first time, he
+seemed startled into a consciousness of his situation. It was an
+appalling scene of solitude and decay. The realities, to which he almost
+instantaneously awoke, might have awed a less guilty spirit than that
+which inhabited the bosom of Hildebrand Wentworth. A long gallery,
+supported by huge pillars, terminated in the distance by a long and
+narrow oriel. On each side, broken but richly-variegated windows threw
+down a many-tinted light, which, oppressed by the dark and caverned
+arches, gave a strange and mysterious character to the grotesque
+reflections hovering on the floor. Narrow streams of light flitted
+across the dense vapours, visible only in their gleam. Involuntarily did
+Hildebrand pass on: impelled as if by some unseen but resistless power,
+he durst not retrace his footsteps. His tread was slow and fearful, as
+he traversed the long and dreary vista. Every sense was now in full
+exercise;--his faculties becoming more acute by the extremity of terror
+he endured. His ear caught the slightest sound--his eye, the least
+motion that glimmered across his path. Sometimes a terrific shape seemed
+to glide past: he brushed the cold and clammy damps from his brow, and
+it vanished.
+
+Suddenly a door opened at the extremity of the gallery, and a faint
+light streamed from the crevice. Voices--children's voices--were heard
+in the chamber. He rushed onward. Rage, frantic and uncontrolled,
+possessed him, as he beheld the babes, the intended victims of his
+avarice, in all the bloom of health and innocence, unconscious of
+danger, bounding through the apartment, together with their nurse and
+protector, Alice! Goaded by his insatiate tormentor, he drew a poniard
+from his vest, and rushed on the unoffending objects of his hate. Alice
+shrieked; she attempted to throw herself between them and their foe, but
+was too far off to accomplish her purpose. His arm was too sure, and his
+stroke too sudden. But ere the steel could pierce his victims it was
+arrested. He looked round, and a female figure, loosely enveloped in a
+dark cloak, had rescued them from death. It was the same form that had
+before interposed between them and the fangs of their remorseless enemy.
+Loosened by the sudden spring, her garment flew aside. Hildebrand gazed
+silently, but with a look of horror, too wild and intense to be
+portrayed. He seemed to recognise the intruder--his lips moved rapidly
+while he spoke.
+
+"Thee!--whom the waves had swallowed! Have the waters given up their
+dead?"--he faintly exclaimed, almost gasping for utterance.
+
+"Monster! canst thou look upon this form," she cried, "and not wither at
+the sight? But I have done," she meekly continued: "Heaven hath yet a
+blessing for the innocent;--but thy cup of iniquity is full. Thy doom is
+at hand. I have trusted Thee, O my Father; and I trust Thee still!"
+
+It was the much injured and persecuted wife of Sir Henry Fairfax who now
+stood before the abashed miscreant.
+
+"Away!" she cried; "to Heaven I leave my vengeance and thy crime.
+Hence--to thy home! Thine, did I say? Soon, monster, shall thou be
+chased from thy lair, and the wronged victim regain his right."
+
+Hildebrand, awed and confounded, retraced his path, brooding over some
+more cunning stratagem to ensure his prey. He had passed the bridge,
+and, on attempting to remount his steed, his attention was directed to a
+cloud of dust, and a pale flash of arms in the evening light. Two
+horsemen drew nigh--their steeds studded with gouts of foam, and in an
+instant one of them alighted before the traitor. It was Sir Henry
+Fairfax! "Have I caught thee?" cried the knight.--"What mischief art
+thou here a-perpetrating?--Seize that villain!"
+
+In a moment, Hildebrand was denied all chance of escape.
+
+"Thy machinations are defeated--thy villanies revealed, and vengeance
+demands a hasty recompense."
+
+Hildebrand prostrated himself on the ground in the most abject
+humiliation, and besought mercy.
+
+"I will not harm thee, wretch," exclaimed the gallant knight: "to a
+higher power I leave the work of retribution. The ministers of justice
+await thee at my castle. I came hither first to seek my wife!--Lead the
+way; thou shalt be witness to our meeting--wife, children, all. Our
+bliss will to thee be misery that the most refined tortures could not
+inflict. On--on."
+
+Hildebrand, with imbecile agony, grasped at the very stones for succour.
+He then rushed towards the bridge, and, ere his purpose could be
+anticipated, with one wild yell, precipitated himself into the waters!
+
+A few lines will suffice by way of explanation to this unlooked-for
+termination of their sufferings.
+
+When Lady Fairfax fled from the castle, in order to elude his
+search,--for Hildebrand had the audacity to threaten by force to make
+her his wife,--she threw off her cloak and head-dress, laying them on
+the river's brink that it might appear as though she had accomplished
+her own destruction. To the care of the faithful Alice she had committed
+her children, and likewise the secret of her concealment. Alice was in
+continual correspondence with her unfortunate mistress; and great was
+the joy and exultation with which she communicated the arrival of a
+messenger from her lord, whom she had long mourned as dead.
+Providentially, no interview took place between Hildebrand and the
+stranger on the night of his arrival; and sufficient time intervened to
+enable Lady Fairfax to make a desperate attempt, in the hope of gaining
+possession of the papers for which he had been sent. She well knew
+Hildebrand would not relinquish the possession of credentials that might
+ensure his lord's return. It was Lady Fairfax who had alarmed him the
+same night by her appearance in his chamber. She hoped to have found him
+asleep; but was enabled to get possession of the writings through his
+timidity and surprise. With these she met the envoy, as he was returning
+from the castle. Disclosing all the tortuous and daring villany of
+Hildebrand, she committed the real documents to his care, instructing
+him at the same time to lay before her sovereign the narrative of her
+wrongs. Soon was the captivity of Sir Henry terminated; and joy,
+heightened by recollection of the past, and chastened by the severity of
+their misfortunes, attended them through the remainder of their earthly
+career.
+
+[Illustration: SOUTH PORT.
+
+_Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden._]
+
+
+
+
+THE PHANTOM VOICE.
+
+
+    "He heerde a sunde but noughte he zee.
+      No touche upon his fleshe ther came;
+    Bot a swedderin witide smote heavilee,
+      And heavilee brenn'd the fleckerin' flame."
+
+_--Old Ballad_.
+
+The following tradition, like some of the preceding legends, has been
+found, under various modifications and disguises, connected with local
+scenery, and attaching itself in the mind of the hearer to well-known
+places and situations with which he may have been familiar.
+
+Southport, a bathing-place of great resort on the Lancashire coast, has
+been pointed out as the scene of the following tragedy, which probably
+occurred long before its salubrity and convenience for sea-bathing had
+rendered this barren tract of sand the site of a populous and thriving
+hamlet. From the mildness and congeniality of the air to persons of weak
+and relaxed habits, it has been not inaptly termed, "The Montpelier of
+England."
+
+"But the coast is probably as dangerous for shipping as any round the
+kingdom. The sandbanks extend in a north-westerly direction for at least
+six miles, so as to render the navigation extremely difficult even to
+the natives, and impracticable for strangers. Hence shipwrecks are very
+frequent;" and "in a coming tide, accompanied by a strong westerly wind,
+it is almost impossible for boats to put off or to live in the sea."
+
+"It not unfrequently happens that these accidents occur in the
+night-time, in very hazy weather, or at ebb tide. In the latter case it
+is necessary for boats to be taken in carts over the sands down to
+low-water mark, before any assistance can be attempted.
+
+"If the captain of the vessel be obstinate, and trust to his own skill,
+he increases the danger. When the crews of the vessels take to their own
+boats, and disobey the directions of the Southport pilots, their
+jeopardy is tenfold greater, and their loss almost inevitable."[48]
+
+Nearly one hundred vessels have been wrecked on this coast within the
+last thirty years, and more than half of them totally lost. Of these
+calamities the particulars are upon record. Which of them may have given
+rise to the events here detailed we have no means of ascertaining.
+
+It was at the close of a bright and memorable evening in October that I
+had carelessly flung the reins upon the neck of my horse, as I traversed
+the bare and almost interminable sands skirting the Lancashire coast.
+
+On my right a succession of low sand-hills, drifted by the partial and
+unsteady blasts, skirted the horizon--their summits strongly marked upon
+the red and lowering sky in an undulating and scarcely-broken outline.
+Behind them I heard the vast and busy waters rolling on, like the voice
+of the coming tempest. Here and there some rude and solitary hut rose
+above the red hillocks, bare and unprotected: no object of known
+dimensions being near by which its true magnitude might be estimated,
+the eye seemed to exaggerate its form upon the mind in almost gigantic
+proportions. As twilight drew on, the deception increased; and, starting
+occasionally from the influence of some lacerating thought, I beheld,
+perchance, some huge-and turreted fortress, or a pile of misshapen
+battlements, rising beyond the hills like the grim castles of romance,
+or the air-built shadows of fairy-land.... Night was fast closing; I was
+alone, out of the beaten track, amidst a desert and thinly-inhabited
+region; a perfect stranger, I had only the superior sagacity of my steed
+to look to for safety and eventual extrication from this perilous
+labyrinth.
+
+The way, if such it might be called, threading the mazes through a chain
+of low hills, and consisting only of a loose and ever-shifting bed of
+dry sand, grew every moment more and more perplexed. Had it been
+daylight, there appeared no object by which to direct my course,--no
+mark that might distinguish whether or not my path was in a right line
+or a circle: I seemed to be rambling through a succession of
+amphitheatres formed by the sand-hills, every one so closely resembling
+its neighbour that I could not recognise any decided features on which
+to found that distinction of ideas which philosophers term
+individuality. In almost any other mood of the mind this would have been
+a puzzling and disagreeable dilemma; but at that moment it appeared of
+the least possible consequence to me where the dark labyrinth might
+terminate.
+
+Striving to escape from thought, from recollection, the wild and
+cheerless monotony of my path seemed to convey a desperate stillness to
+the mind, to quench in some measure the fiery outburst of my spirit. It
+was but a deceitful, calm--the deadening lull of spent anguish: I awoke
+to a keener sense of misery, from which there was no escape.
+
+But it was not to lament over my own griefs that I commenced my story.
+Let the dust of oblivion cover them; I would not pain another by the
+recital. There are sorrows--short ages of agony--into the dark origin of
+which none would dare to pry: one heart alone feels, hides, and
+nourishes them for ever!
+
+Night now came on, heavy and dark; not a star twinkled above me; I
+seemed to have left the habitations of men. In whatever direction I
+turned not a light was visible; all fellowship with my kind had
+vanished. No sound broke the unvarying stillness but the heavy plunge of
+my horse's feet and the hollow moan of the sea. Gradually I began to
+rouse from my stupor: awaking, as from a dream, my senses grew rapidly
+conscious of the perils by which I was surrounded. I knew not but some
+hideous gulf awaited me, or the yawning sea, towards which I fancied my
+course tended, was destined to terminate this adventure. It was chiefly,
+however, a feeling of loneliness, a dread, unaccountable in its nature,
+that seemed to haunt me. There was nothing so very uncommon or
+marvellous in my situation; yet the horror I endured is unutterable. The
+demon of fear seemed to possess my frame, and benumbed every faculty. I
+saw, or thought I saw, shapes hideous and indistinct rising before me,
+but so rapidly that I could not trace their form ere they vanished. I
+felt convinced it was the mind that was perturbed, acting outwardly upon
+the senses, rendered more than usually irritable by the alarm and
+excitation they had undergone--yet I could not shake off the spell. I
+heard a sharp rustling past my ear; I involuntarily raised my hand; but
+nothing met my touch save the damp and chilly hair about my temples. I
+tried to rally myself out of these apprehensions, but in vain: reason
+has little chance of succeeding when fear has gained the ascendency. I
+durst not quicken my pace lest I should meet with some obstruction;
+judging it most prudent to allow my steed to grope out his path in the
+way best suited to his own sagacity. Suddenly he made a dead halt. No
+effort or persuasion could induce him to stir. I was the more surprised
+from knowing his generally docile and manageable temper. He seemed
+immovable, and, moreover, as I thought, in the attitude of listening. I
+too listened eagerly--intensely; my senses sharpened to the keenest
+perception of sound.
+
+The moan of the sea came on incessantly as before; no other sound could
+be distinguished. Again I tried to urge him forward; but the attempt was
+fruitless. I now fancied that there might be some dangerous gulf or
+precipice just at his feet, and that the faithful animal was unwilling
+to plunge himself and his rider into immediate destruction. I
+dismounted, and with the bridal at arm's length, carefully stepped
+forward a few paces, but I could find no intimation of danger; the same
+deep and level bed of sand seemed to continue onwards, without any
+shelving or declivity whatever. Was the animal possessed? He still
+refused to proceed, but the cause remained inscrutable. A sharp and
+hasty snort, with a snuffing of the wind in the direction of the sea,
+now pointed out the quarter towards which his attention was excited. His
+terror seemed to increase, and with it my own. I knew not what to
+anticipate. He evidently began to tremble, and again I listened. Fancy
+plays strange freaks, or I could have imagined there was something
+audible through the heavy booming of the sea--a more distinct, and as it
+were, articulate sound--though manifestly at a considerable distance.
+There was nothing unusual in this--perhaps the voice of the fisherman
+hauling out his boat, or of some mariner heaving the anchor. But why
+such terror betrayed by the irrational brute, and apparently proceeding
+from this source? for it was manifest that some connection existed
+between the impulses of the sound now undulating on the wind, and the
+alarm of my steed. The cause of all this apprehension soon grew more
+unequivocal--it was evidently approaching. From the sea there seemed to
+come, at short intervals, a low and lengthened shout, like the voice of
+one crying out for help or succour. Presently the sounds assumed a more
+distinct and definite articulation. "Murder!--Murder!" were the only
+words that were uttered, but in a tone and with an expression of agony I
+shall never forget. It was not like anything akin to humanity, but an
+unearthly, and, if I may so express it, a sepulchral shriek--like a
+voice from the grave.
+
+I crept closer to my steed: nature, recoiling from contact with the
+approaching phantom, prompted me thus intuitively to cling to anything
+that had life. I felt a temporary relief, even from the presence of the
+terrified beast, though I could distinctly perceive him shuddering, yet
+fixed to the spot. The voice now came on rapidly; it was but a few paces
+distant. I felt as though I was the sport and prey of thoughts too
+horrible for utterance. Alone, I had to cope with the Evil One;--or I
+was already, perhaps, the victim of some diabolical agency. The yell was
+close upon my ear; I felt the clammy breath of the grave across my face,
+and the sound swept by. It slowly arose;--but the agony of the cry was
+more intense,--more sharp and vehement the shriek of "Murder!" Grown
+bolder, or perhaps more desperate, I cried out, "Where, in the name
+of----?" I had scarcely uttered the words when a loud rushing cleft the
+air, and a crash followed, as though some heavy body had fallen at my
+feet. The horse burst from its bonds, galloping from me at full speed,
+and I stood alone! In this appalling extremity, I approached the object
+of my fears. I bent to the ground; stretching out my hand, my fingers
+rested on the cold and clammy features of a corpse! I well remember the
+deep groan that burst from my lips;--nature had reached the extremity of
+endurance--I felt a sudden rush of blood to the heart, and fell beside
+my ghastly companion, equally helpless and insensible.
+
+I have no means of ascertaining the duration of this swoon; but, with
+returning recollection, I again put out my hand, which rested on the
+cold and almost naked carcase beside me. I felt roused by the touch, and
+started on my feet--the moon at this instant emerging from a mass of
+dark clouds, streamed full on the dead body, pale and blood-stained, the
+features distorted, as if by some terrible death. Fear now prompted me
+to fly: I ran as if the wind had lent me wings--not daring to look back,
+lest my eyes should again rest on the grisly form I had just left. I
+fled onwards for some time; the moon now enabling me to follow the
+beaten track, which, to my great joy, brought me suddenly, at the turn
+of a high bank, within sight of a cheerful fire gleaming through a
+narrow door, seemingly the entrance to some wayside tavern. Bursts of
+hilarity broke from the interior; the voice of revelry and mirth came
+upon my ear, as though I was just awakening from a dream. It was as if I
+had heard the dead laugh in their cold cerements. As I stepped across
+the threshold, the boisterous roar of mirth made me shudder; and it
+seemed, by the alarm visible in the countenances of the guests, that my
+appearance presented something as terrible to their apprehensions.
+Every eye was fixed on me as I seated myself by a vacant table; and I
+heard whisperings, with suspicious glances occasionally directed towards
+the place where I sat. The company, however, soon began to get the
+better of their consternation, and were evidently not pleased at so
+unseasonable an interruption to their mirth. I found that some
+explanation was necessary as to the cause of my intrusion, and with
+difficulty made them comprehend the nature of my alarm. I craved their
+assistance for the removal of the body; promising, if possible, to
+conduct them to the spot where the miserable victim was thrown. They
+stared at each other during this terrible announcement; and, at the
+conclusion, I found every one giving his neighbour credit for the
+requisite portion of courage, though himself, at the same time,
+declining to participate in the hazards of the undertaking.
+
+"Roger towed me 'at he stood i' th' churchyard, wi' shoon-bottoms
+uppermost, looking for the wench he wur to wed through the windows. Ise
+sure he'll make noa bauk at a bogle."
+
+"Luk thee, Jim, I canna face the dead; but I wunna show my back to a
+live fist, the best and the biggest o' the country-side--Wilt' smell, my
+lad?"
+
+Roger, mortified at this test of his courage, raised his clenched hand
+in a half-threatening attitude. A serious quarrel might have ensued, had
+not a sudden stop been put to the proceedings of the belligerents by an
+interesting girl stepping before me, modestly inquiring where I had left
+the corpse; and offering herself as a companion, if these mighty cowards
+could not muster sufficient courage.
+
+"Shame on thee, Will!" she cried, directing her speech to a young man
+who sat concealed by the shadow of the projecting chimney;--"shame on
+thee, I say, to be o'erfaced by two or three hard words. I'se
+ganging,--follow 'at dare."
+
+Saying this, she took down a huge horn lantern, somewhat dilapidated in
+the outworks, and burnt in various devices, causing a most unprofitable
+privation of light. A bonnet and cloak, hastily thrown on, completed her
+costume; and, surrendering the creaking lantern to my care, she stood
+for a moment contemplating the dingy atmosphere before she stepped forth
+to depart. During these ominous preparations, a smart sailor-looking
+man, whose fear of his mistress' displeasure had probably overcome his
+dread of the supernatural, placed himself between me and the maiden, and
+taking her by the arm, crustily told me that if I could point out the
+way, he was prepared to follow;--rather a puzzling matter for a
+stranger, who scarcely knew whether his way lay right or left from the
+very threshold. Thus admirably qualified for a guide, I agreed to make
+the attempt, being determined to spare no pains, in the hope of
+discovering the object of our search.
+
+Company breeds courage. Several of the guests, finding how matters
+stood, and that the encounter was not likely to be made single-handed,
+volunteered their attendance; so that our retinue was shortly augmented
+to some half-dozen stout fellows. The vanguard was composed of myself
+and the lovers; the rest crept close in our rear, forming their rank as
+broad as the nature of the ground would admit.
+
+Luckily I soon found the jutting bank round which I had turned on my
+first view of the house we had just left. We proceeded in
+silence,--except that a whisper occasionally arose from one of the
+rearmost individuals talking to his bolder neighbour in front, when
+finding his own courage on the wane. Following for some time what
+appeared to be the traces of recent footsteps, I hoped, yet almost
+feared, that every moment I might stumble on the bleeding corpse. An
+attendant in the rear now gave the alarm,--something he saw moving on
+our left causing him to make a desperate struggle to get before his
+companions. This produced a universal uproar--each fighting for
+precedency, and thoroughly determined not to be the last. I soon beheld
+a dark object moving near, and the next minute I was overjoyed to find
+my recreant steed, quietly searching amongst the tufted moss and
+sea-reed for a scanty supper. My associates knew not what to make of
+this discovery. Some of them, I believe, eyed him with deep suspicion;
+and more than one glance was given at his hoofs to see if they were not
+cloven.
+
+Order, however, being re-established, we again set forward with what
+proved a useful auxiliary to our train. We had not travelled far ere I
+was again aware of the peculiar snort by which he manifested his alarm;
+and it was with difficulty I got him onwards a few paces, when he stood
+still, his head drawn back, as if from some object that lay in his path.
+I knew the cause of his terror, and, giving the bridle to one of my
+attendants, cautiously proceeded, followed by the maiden and her lover;
+who, to do him justice, showed a tolerable share of courage--at any
+rate, in the presence of his mistress. At length I recognised the spot,
+where, yet unmoved, lay the bleeding carcase. The girl started when she
+beheld the grim features, horribly drawn together and convulsed, as if
+in the last agony. I was obliged to muster the requisite fortitude to
+attempt its removal; and raising it from the sand, with a little
+assistance I placed it across the horse, though not without a most
+determined opposition on the part of the animal. Throwing a cloak over
+the body, we made the best of our way back; and on arriving at the house
+I found that the only vacant apartment where I could deposit my charge
+was a narrow loft over the out-house, the entrance to which was both
+steep and dangerous. With the assistance of my two friends, though with
+considerable difficulty, it was in the end deposited there, upon a
+miserable pallet of straw, over which we threw a tattered blanket. On
+returning, I found the guest-room deserted: the old woman to whom the
+tavern belonged--the mother, as I afterwards found, of my female
+companion--was hastily clearing away the drinking utensils, and
+preparing for an immediate removal to the only apartment above-stairs
+which bore the honours of the bedchamber. She kindly offered me the use
+of it for the night; but this sacrifice of comfort I could not allow;
+and throwing my cloak over a narrow bench, I drew it near the fire,
+determining to snatch a brief interval of rest, without robbing the good
+woman and her daughter of their night's repose.
+
+It was now past midnight; sleep was out of the question, as I lay
+ruminating on the mysterious events of the few past hours. The
+extraordinary manner in which the murdered wretch had been committed to
+my care seemed an imperative call upon me to attempt the discovery of
+some foul and horrible crime. With the returning day I resolved to begin
+my inquiries, and I vowed to compass sea and land ere I gave up the
+pursuit. So absorbed was I in the project, that I scarcely noticed the
+storm, now bursting forth in a continuous roll from the sea, until one
+wild gust, that seemed to rush by as if it would have swept the dwelling
+from its seat, put an end to these anticipations. I watched the rattling
+casement, expecting every moment that it would give way, and the
+groaning thatch be rent from its hold. Involuntarily I arose and
+approached the window. It was pitchy dark, and the roar of the sea,
+under the terrific sweep of the tempest, was truly awful. Never had I
+heard so terrible a conflict. I knew not how soon I might be compelled
+to quit this unstable shelter; the very earth shook; and every moment I
+expected the frail tenement would be levelled to its foundations. The
+eddying and unequal pressure of the wind heaped a huge sand-drift
+against the walls, which probably screened them from the full force of
+the blast, acting at the same time as a support to their feeble
+consistency; sand and earthy matter were driven about and tossed against
+the casement, insomuch that I almost anticipated a living inhumation.
+The next gust, however, generally swept off the greater portion of the
+deposit, making way for a fresh torrent, that poured upon the quaking
+roof like the rush of a heavy sea over a ship's bulwarks.
+
+I was not destined to be left companionless in the midst of my alarms.
+The old woman and her daughter, too much terrified to remain quiet, came
+down from their resting-place, which, being close within the thatch, was
+most exposed to the tempest. A light was struck, and the dying embers
+once more kindled into a blaze. The old woman, whom I could not but
+observe with emotions of awe and curiosity, sat cowering over the flame,
+her withered hands half-covering her furrowed and haggard cheeks; a
+starting gleam occasionally lighted up her grey and wasted locks, which,
+matted in wild elf-knots, hung about her temples. Occasionally she would
+turn her head as the wind came hurrying on, and the loud rush of the
+blast went past the dwelling. She seemed to gaze upon it as though
+'twere peopled, and she beheld the "sightless coursers of the air"
+careering on the storm; then, with a mutter and a groan, she again
+covered her face, rocking to and fro to the chant of some wild and
+unintelligible ditty. Her daughter sat nearly motionless, hearkening
+eagerly during the short intervals between the gusts; and as the wind
+came bellowing on, she huddled closer into the chimney-corner, whither
+she had crept for protection.
+
+"Such nights are not often known in these parts," said I, taking
+advantage, as I spoke, of a pause in the warfare without. The old woman
+made no answer; but the daughter, bending forwards, replied slowly and
+with great solemnity:--"Mother has seen the death-lights dancing upo'
+the black scud: some ha' seen the sun sink down upon the waters that
+winna see him rise again fro' the hill-top."
+
+"Is your mother a seer, then, my pretty maiden?"
+
+"Ye're but a stranger, I guess, if you know not Bridget o' the Sandy
+Holm--Save us! she's hearkening again for the"----
+
+"There!--Once!" The old woman raised her hands as she spoke, and bent
+her head in an attitude of listening and eager expectation. I listened
+too, but could discover no sound, save the heavy swing of the blast, and
+its receding growl."
+
+"Again!" As she said this, Bridget rose from the low stool she had
+occupied, and hobbled towards the window. I thought a signal-gun was
+just then audible, as from some vessel in distress. Ere I could
+communicate this intelligence, another and a nearer roll silenced all
+conjecture. It was indeed but too evident that a vessel was in the
+offing, and rapidly driving towards the shore, from the increasing
+distinctness of the signals.
+
+Old Bridget stood by the window; her dim and anxious eyes peering
+through the casement as if she could discern the fearful and appalling
+spectacle upon the dark billows.
+
+"Your last!--your last, poor wretches!" she cried, when a heavy gust
+brought another report with amazing distinctness to the ear. "And now
+the death shriek!--another and another!--ye drop into the deep waters,
+and the gulf is not gorged with its prey. Bridget Rimmer, girl and
+woman, has ne'er watched the blue dancers but she has heard the sea-gun
+follow, and seen the red sand decked with the spoil. Wench, take not of
+the prey: 'tis accursed!"
+
+The beldame drew back after uttering this anathema, and again resumed
+her station near the hearth.
+
+The storm now seemed to abate, and as if satisfied with the mischief at
+this moment consummating, the wind grew comparatively calm. The gusts
+came by fitfully, like the closing sobs of some fretful and peevish
+babe, not altogether ceasing with the indulgence of its wishes. As I
+stood absorbed in a reverie, the nature of which I cannot now accurately
+determine, the maiden gently touched my arm.
+
+"Sir, will ye walk to the shore? I'se warrant the neighbours are
+helping, and we may save a life though we canna gie it."
+
+She was wrapped in a thick cloak, the hood thrown forward, and the horn
+lantern again put in requisition, fitted up for immediate service. We
+opened the door with considerable difficulty, and waded slowly through
+the heavy sand-drifts towards the beech. The clouds, shattered and
+driven together in mountainous heaps, were rolling along the sky, a dark
+scud sweeping over their huge tops, here and there partially illuminated
+by the moonbeams: the moon was still obscured, but a wild and faint
+light, usually seen after the breaking up of a storm, just served to
+show the outline of objects not too remote from our sphere of vision.
+
+My companion soon brought me to an opening in the hills which led
+directly down to the beach. Immediately I saw lights before us moving to
+and fro, and the busy hum of voices came upon the wind; forms were
+indistinctly seen hurrying backward and forward upon the very verge of
+the white foam boiling from the huge billows. Hastening to the spot, we
+found a number of fishermen--their wives assisting in the
+scrutiny--carefully examining the fragments of wreck which the waves
+were from time to time casting up, and throwing with a heavy lunge upon
+the shore. Either for purposes of plunder, or for the more ostensible
+design of contributing to their preservation, sundry packages were
+occasionally conveyed away, subsequently to an eager examination of
+their contents. My associate ran into the thickest of the group,
+anxiously inquiring as to the fate of the crew, and if any lives had
+been preserved.
+
+"I guess," cried an old hard-featured sinner, "they be where they'll
+need no lookin' after. Last brast o' wind, six weeks agone next St
+Barnaby, I gied my cabin to the lady and her children--an' the pains I
+waur like to ha' for my labour--I didn't touch a groat till the parson
+gied me a guinea out o' th' 'scription;--but I may trot gaily hoam
+to-night. There's no live lumber to stow i' my loft; the fishes ha' the
+pick o' the whole cargo this bout."
+
+"Canna we get the boats?--I can pull an oar thou knows, Darby, wi' the
+best on 'em," inquired the female.
+
+"Boats!" exclaimed Darby; "ne'er a boat would live but wi' keel
+uppermost. I'se not the chap to go to Davy Jones tonight pickled i'
+brine, my pratty Kate."
+
+"Thou'rt a greedy glead;--I'se go ask Simon; but I'll warrant thou'lt be
+hankering after the reward, and the biggest share to thine own
+clutches."
+
+She turned away from the incensed fisherman; and proceeding to a short
+distance, we found a knot of persons gathered around a half-drowned
+wretch who owed his appearance again upon land to having been lashed on
+some lumber which the sea had just cast ashore. Almost fainting from
+cold and exhaustion, he was undergoing a severe questioning from the
+bystanders--every one wishing to know the name of the ship, whither
+bound, and the whole particulars of the disaster. We just came in time
+for his release; and I soon had the satisfaction to find the poor fellow
+in my quarters, before a comfortable fire, his clothes drying, and his
+benumbed limbs chafed until the circulation was again pretty nigh
+restored. After drinking a tumbler of grog he appeared to recover
+rapidly; and we found on inquiry that he was master of the vessel just
+wrecked on the coast. He shook his head on a further inquiry as to the
+fate of her crew. "A score as good hands," said he, "are gone to the
+bottom as ever unreefed a clean topsail or hung out a ship's canvas to
+the wind; I saw them all go down as I lashed myself to the jib." He
+groaned deeply; but speedily assuming a gayer tone, requested a quid and
+a quiet hammock. "My lights are nearly stove in,--my head hangs as loose
+as a Dutchman's shrouds; a night's sleep will make all taut again."
+
+Old Bridget was gone to bed; and unless the sailor chose to occupy the
+straw pallet already in the possession of a guest whose mysterious
+arrival seemed to be the forerunner of nothing but confusion and
+disaster, there did not seem any chance of obtaining a berth save by
+remaining in his present situation. I told him of the dilemma, but Kate
+replied:--"We can just take the body fro' the bed; it winna tak' harm
+upo' the chest i' the fur nook. The captain will not maybe sleep the
+waur for quiet company."
+
+He did not seem to relish the idea of passing the night even with so
+quiet a companion; but as it seemed the least disagreeable alternative,
+we agreed to pilot him to the chamber and help the miserable pallet to
+change occupants. The corpse we agreed to lay on some clean litter used
+for the bedding of the cattle. We conducted the stranger to his
+dormitory, which was formerly a hay loft, until converted into an
+occasional sleeping-room for the humble applicants who sometimes craved
+a night's lodging at the Sandy Holm.
+
+The only entrance was by a crazy ladder, and so steep, that I was
+afraid our feeble companion would find considerable difficulty in
+climbing to his chamber. It was my intention to have prevented him from
+getting a sight of the ghastly object that occupied his couch; but
+pressing foremost, he ran up the ladder with surprising agility, gaining
+the top ere I had made preparations for the ascent. I mounted
+cautiously, giving him the light whilst I made good my landing; and he
+went directly to the bed. I had set my foot on the floor, and was
+lending a hand to Kate, who had still to contend with the difficulties
+of the way, when I heard a dismal and most appalling shriek. Starting
+round, I beheld the stranger gazing on the couch, his eyeballs almost
+bursting from their sockets, and his countenance distorted with horror
+and amazement. I ran to him as the light dropped from his grasp;
+catching it ere it fell, I perceived his eyes rivetted on the livid and
+terrific features of the corpse. My limbs grew stiff with horror;
+thoughts of strange import crowded on my mind; I knew not how to shape
+them into any definite form, but stood trembling and appalled before the
+dark chaos whence they sprung. Scarcely knowing what I said, still I
+remember the first inquiry that burst from my lips--"Knowest thou that
+murdered man?"
+
+The words were scarcely uttered when the conscience-stricken wretch
+exclaimed, in accents which I shall never forget, "Know him!--yesterday
+he stood at my helm. I had long borne him an evil grudge, and I brooded
+on revenge. The devil prompted it--he was at my elbow. It was dark, and
+the fiend's eyes flashed when I aimed the blow. It descended with a
+heavy crash, and the body rolled overboard. He spoke not, save once; it
+was when his hated carcase rose to the surface. I heard a faint moan; it
+rang on my ear like the knell of death; the voice rushed past--a low
+sepulchral shout; in my ear it echoed with the cry of 'MURDER!'"
+
+Little remains to be told; he persisted to the last in this horrible
+confession. He had no wish to live; and the avenging arm of retributive
+justice closed the world and its interests for ever on a wretch who had
+forfeited all claims to its protection--cast out, and judged unworthy of
+a name and a place amongst his fellow-men.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[48] Glazebrook's Southport.
+
+[Illustration: THE BAR-GAIST.]
+
+
+
+
+THE BAR-GAIST.
+
+
+    "From hag-bred Merlin's time have I
+      Thus nightly revelled to and fro;
+    And for my pranks men call me by
+      The name of Robin Goodfellow.
+        Fiends, ghosts, and sprites,
+        Who haunt the nightes,
+    The hags and goblins do me know;
+        And beldames old
+        My feates have told--
+    So _vale, vale_; ho, ho, ho!"
+
+--BEN JONSON.
+
+"In the northern parts of England," says Brand, speaking of the popular
+superstitions, "ghost is pronounced _gheist_ and _guest_. Hence
+_barguest_ or _bargheist_. Many streets are haunted by a _guest_, who
+assumes many strange appearances, as a mastiff dog, &c. It is a
+corruption of the Anglo-Saxon [Illustration: jart], _spiritus, anima_."
+
+Drake, in his _Eboracum_, says (p. 7, Appendix), "I have been so
+frightened with stories of the barguest when I was a child, that I
+cannot help throwing away an etymology upon it. I suppose it comes from
+A.S. [Illustration: bupp], a town, and [Illustration: jart], a ghost,
+and so signifies a town sprite. N.B. [Illustration: jart] is in the
+Belgic and Teutonic softened into gheist and geyst."
+
+The boggart or bar-gaist of the following story resembles the German
+_kobold,_ the Danish _nis_, and the Scotch _brownie_; but, above all,
+the Spanish _duende_, which signifies a spirit or sprite, supposed by
+the vulgar to haunt houses and highways, causing therein much terror and
+confusion. "DUENDE. _Espiritu que el vulgo cree que infesta las casas y
+travesea, causando en ellas ruidos y estruendos_"--LEMURES, LARVAE. "To
+appear like a _duende_," "to move like a _duende_" are modes of
+speaking by which it is meant that persons appear in places where they
+are least expected. "To have a _duende_" signifies that a person's
+imagination is disturbed.
+
+The following curious Spanish "Moral," the MS. of which has been kindly
+lent to the author by Mr Crofton Croker may not be deemed uninteresting
+as an illustration of the subject. We have accompanied each stanza with
+a parallel translation of our own.
+
+DUENDE ENEMIGO DEL JUEGO.
+
+DUENDE AN ENEMY TO GAMING.
+
+    _Cuento Moral._
+
+    _A Moral Tale._
+
+      Un _Duende_, grave Senor,
+    Que estudio la astrologia,
+    Se propuso la mania,
+    De ser rico jugador.
+
+    A grave and learned Senior, who
+      Practised astrology,
+    Bethought him by his lucky stars
+      He passing rich would be.
+
+      Todos los siete planetas,
+    Formaban su gran consejo;
+    Y antes de llegar a viejo,
+    Ya no tenia calzetas.
+
+    The planets seven his council made,
+      He hugged the glozing cheat;
+    But ere the pedant's legs were old,
+      No stockings held his feet!
+
+      Aburrido y sin dinero,
+    Mui tarde se arrepintid,
+    Y en un desban se metid
+    A llorar su error primero.
+
+    Enraged and disappointed, he
+      Waxed sour and melancholy,
+    And to a vintner's garret trudged,
+      There to bewail his folly.
+
+      Por su gran sabiduria,
+    En duende se corivirtio,
+    Y la guerra declaro,
+    Al arte de fulleria.
+
+    "I'll have revenge," he cried, then wrought
+      So wondrous cunningly,
+    That in a trice transformed he was,
+      A brisk _Duende_ he.
+
+      La vecindad asombrada,
+    De sus fuertes alaridos,
+    Corriendo despavoridos,
+    Abandon an la Posada.
+
+    This pedant, now a "Boggart" made,
+      No soul could rest in quiet;
+    Nor rogue nor bully was his match
+      For kicking up a riot.
+
+      Dueno absolute ya el duende,
+    De la espantosa mansion,
+    Se auniento la confusion,
+    Y el temor entre la gente.
+
+    At last none dared that garret drear,
+      His dwelling, to come nigh;
+    Sole master of his attic, he
+      Reigned peremptorily.
+
+      Pero siendo tan demente
+    El hombre que es codicioso,
+    No falto quien jactancioso,
+    Despreciase al senor duende.
+
+    Not so the sharpers, who this house
+      Had made their special haunt:
+    "Senor Duende!--Humph!"--cried they
+      "May suck eggs with his aunt!"
+
+      Unos cuantos jugadores,
+    Que llaman de profesion,
+    Eligieron la mansion
+    Para exercer sus primores.
+
+    They and their worthy company,
+      Of the black-limbed profession,
+    Here cheated in a lawful way,
+      By that best right--possession!
+
+      Mui luego la compania,
+    Numerosa vino a ser,
+    Y el que Ilegaba a perder,
+    Contra al duende maldecia.
+
+    The crowd increased. Some luckless wight
+      His winnings at an end, he
+    Swore by his trumps, 'twas owing to
+      That rascally _Duende_!
+
+      La confusa griteria,
+    Pronto al duende incomodo,
+    Y al complot se aparecio
+    Que apenas, cuarta tenia.
+
+    This roused him from his garret, where
+      He heard the daily squabble;
+    And lo, in human form, he stands
+      Before the shirtless rabble!
+
+    En voz, como chirimia,
+    Dijoles cortes y atento
+    _Que habitaba el aposento_
+    _Donde su amo existia_.
+
+    He squeaked, "Your servant, gentlemen;
+      I would not thus intrude,
+    'Pon honour, but your conduct is
+      So very-very rude.
+
+      _Que en alta camara fiero,_
+    _Todo senor, reclamaba_
+    _El orden, y lo aperaba,_
+    _Aunque ageno de en fullero_.
+
+    "My master,--he who sits up-stairs
+      I mean,--no jesting, gents,--
+    Expects that you'll be quiet, else
+      He'll scold at all events."
+
+      No fue poca la sorpresa,
+    Del mensage y la vision;
+    Y aun con todo, un temeron,
+    Quiso de ella hacer presa.
+
+    The gamblers stared, some tumbled down,
+      Some gaped, some told their prayers
+    But one, more daring, swore, i'fack,
+      He'd kick the brute down-stairs!
+
+      Mas el caso se fustro,
+    Sin saber como ni cuando,
+    Pues por el ayre volando
+    Nuestro duende se fugo.
+
+    But ere he felt th' uplifted foot
+      He 'scaped,--how none could tell;
+    But, sooth it was, this messenger
+      No bodily harm befell!
+
+      El suceso maldecian
+    Los unos por el temor,
+    Y gritaban con furor
+    Los que el dinero perdian.
+
+    The rogues, who saw him disappear,
+      Waxed paler than before:
+    Some said an _Ave_; some for fear,
+      And some for folly, swore.
+
+      Vuelve por segunda vez,
+    El mensajero, crecido
+    Media vara, y atrevido,
+    Les dice, menos cortes.
+
+    When suddenly amidst them all,
+      Again the demon stands;
+    A full half-yard in stature grown!
+      Their business he demands.
+
+      _Que su amo, era absoluto,_
+    _De aquella encantada casa,_
+    _Y su paciencia era escasa,_
+    _Con todo fullero astuto_.
+
+    "I tell ye, villains, gamblers, thieves!
+      His patience is but small,
+    With such as you,--so master says,
+      Who master will you all!
+
+      _Que les mandaba salir_
+    _De aquel lugar, con presteza,_
+    _Pues de no, su gentileza,_
+    _Los haria consumir_.
+
+    "Out of the house, ye rabble rout!
+      Out of the house! I say,
+    Or otherwise his honour will
+      Consume you utterly!"
+
+      Del duendecito quisieron
+    Apoderarse valientes,
+    Mas se les fue entre los dientes,
+    Y sin la presa se vieron.
+
+    Thought one, "I'll seize this varlet vile,"
+      And speedily arose;
+    He caught him in his clutch--the sprite
+      Vanished and tweaked his nose!
+
+      Ya el temor empezo a obrar
+    Y entraron las reflexiones,
+    Apoyando con varones,
+    Que era Duende, a no dudar.
+
+    "San Jerome, save us, we are loo'd
+      If this should be the sprite;
+    The big _Duende_, best we bid
+      His boggartship good night."
+
+      Como siempre al jugador,
+    Lo sostiene la esperanza,
+    Fundaron la confianza,
+    En que un Duende es vividor.
+
+    But hope, the gambler's enemy,
+      Beguiled them to their ruin;
+    "These ugly sprites, they say, are rich,
+      Yet yield nought without wooing.
+
+      Que su ciencia atrae dinero,
+    Y medios paro adquirirlo,
+    Y era cuerdo el admitirlo,
+    Dandole el lugar primero.
+
+    "His skill may help us to repair
+      Our cloaks, and eke our breeches;
+    Best speak him fair. We'll worship Nick
+      If he but grant us riches!"
+
+      Mas el duende que escuchaba
+    La trama de los fulleros,
+    Quiso en tales caballeros,
+    _Vengar,_ lo que suspiraba.
+
+    The sly _Duende_, like a mouse,
+      Hearkening behind the wall,
+    Did now resolve he quickly would
+      The greedy rogues bemaul
+
+    En efecto, agigantado,
+    Con negro manto talar,
+    Cornamenta singular,
+    Ufias largas y barbado.
+
+    A mighty giant, lo he comes.
+      Wrapped in a cloak of sable;
+    With horns, hoofs, nails, and beard yclad,
+      He jumped upon the table!
+
+      Un garrote enarbolado
+    Y brotando espuma y fuego,
+    Les dijo: _Yo devo al juego_
+    _Mi desgracia y este estado._
+
+    A cudgel of some seven years' growth
+      He brandished. Fire and smoke
+    Shot from his lips, while thus he spake;--
+      "I'll gripe you gambling folk.
+
+      _Los fulleros me han quitado_
+    _Con mi dinero, la vida,_
+    _Y pues que sois homicida_
+    _De todo hombre inocente!_
+
+    "To gaming my disgrace I owe,
+      With money went my wife;
+    'Tis such as you the murderers be,--
+      This night shall end your life!
+
+      _No quede vicho viviente,_
+    _En toda culta nacion,_
+    _Que ejerza la profesion_
+    _De fullero y vagamundo_.
+
+    "In every nation, called refined,
+      Or gamblers or their wives,
+    Or wealthy wight shall ne'er be found,
+      Who shakes the bones and thrives."
+
+      Y dando un grito profundo,
+    Su garrote descargando,
+    A todos fue despachando,
+    Sin dejar uno en el mundo.
+
+    With that a loud and horrid yell
+      He gave. And cudgel flew
+    Broadside amongst them; when, like vermin, he
+      Dispatched the hungry crew!
+
+    No extinguio, sin duda, el Duende,
+      Toda la mala semilla,
+      Pues hay muchos, como el Duende,
+      Sin camisa, y sin capilla.
+
+    But woe is me, they were not all destroyed.
+    For many still, by these cursed arts decoyed,
+    Shoeless and shirtless, miserable sinners,
+    Are seen, snuffing, with empty wind, their dinners!
+
+In the _Dunske Folkesagen_ appear one or two circumstances relative to
+the freaks of a _nis_, the goblin of the Danish popular creed, similar
+to the pranks detailed in our Lancashire legend. Fancy, however sportive
+and playful with materials already in her possession, is of a much less
+creative character than is generally supposed, even by those most
+susceptible to her influence. It is surprising how few are the original
+conceptions that have sprung from the human mind. Popular
+superstitions--the great mass of them spread over an immense variety of
+surface, climate, manners, and opinions--might be supposed to exhibit a
+corresponding difference in originality and invention. But here we find
+the same paucity of incidents, varying only in character with the
+climate which gave them birth; the leading features being evidently
+common to each. The Scandinavian and the Hindoo, the European and the
+Asiatic, construct their legends on the same basis; the same stories,
+and even the same train of events, proving their common origin.
+
+Mr Crofton Croker, a name familiar to all lovers of legendary lore, has
+kindly communicated the following tale. In substituting this, in place
+of what the author might have written on the subject, he feels convinced
+that his readers will not feel displeased at the change, and assures
+them it is with real gratification that he presents them with an article
+from the pen of the writer of _The Fairy Legends_.
+
+Not far from the little-snug smoky village of Blakeley, or Blackley,
+there lies one of the most romantic of dells, rejoicing in a state of
+singular seclusion, and in the oddest of Lancashire names, to wit, the
+"Boggart-hole." Rich in every requisite for picturesque beauty and
+poetical association, it is impossible for me (who am neither a painter
+nor a poet) to describe this dell as it should be described; and I will
+therefore only beg of thee, gentle reader, who peradventure mayst not
+have lingered in this classical neighbourhood, to fancy a deep, deep
+dell, its steep sides fringed down with hazel and beech, and fern and
+thick undergrowth, and clothed at the bottom with the richest and
+greenest sward in the world. You descend, clinging to the trees, and
+scrambling as best you may,--and now you stand on haunted ground! Tread
+softly, for this is the Boggart's clough; and see in yonder dark corner,
+and beneath the projecting mossy stone, where that dusky sullen cave
+yawns before us, like a bit of Salvator's best, there lurks the strange
+elf, the sly and mischievous Boggart. Bounce! I see him coming; oh no,
+it was only a hare bounding from her form; there it goes--there!
+
+I will tell you of some of the pranks of this very Boggart, and how he
+teased and tormented a good farmer's family in a house hard by, and I
+assure you it was a very worthy old lady who told me the story. But
+first, suppose we leave the Boggart's demesne, and pay a visit to the
+theatre of his strange doings.
+
+You see that old farm house about two fields distant, shaded by the
+sycamore-tree: that was the spot which the Boggart or Bar-gaist selected
+for his freaks; there he held his revels, perplexing honest George
+Cheetham--for that was the farmer's name--scaring his maids, worrying
+his men, and frightening the poor children out of their seven senses, so
+that at last not even a mouse durst show himself indoors at the farm, as
+he valued his whiskers, five minutes after the clock had struck twelve.
+
+It had long been remarked that whenever a merry tale was told on a
+winter's evening a small shrill voice was heard above all the rest, like
+a baby's penny trumpet, joining in with the laughter.
+
+"Weel laughed, Boggart, thou'rt a fine little tyke, I'se warrant, if one
+could but just catch glent on thee," said Robert, the youngest of the
+farmer's sons, early one evening, a little before Christmas, for
+familiarity had made them somewhat bold with their invisible guest. Now,
+though more pleasant stories were told on that night beside the hearth
+than had been told there for the three preceding months, though the fire
+flickered brightly, though all the faces around it were full of mirth
+and happiness, and though everything, it might seem, was there which
+could make even a Boggart enjoy himself, yet the small shrill laugh was
+heard no more that night after little Bob's remark.
+
+Robert, who was a short stout fellow for his age, slept in the same bed
+with his elder brother John, who was reckoned an uncommonly fine and
+tall lad for his years. No sooner had they got fairly to sleep than they
+were roused by the small shrill voice in their room shouting out,
+"Little tyke, indeed! little tyke thysel'. Ho, ho, ho! I'll have my
+laugh now--Ho, ho, ho!"
+
+The room was completely dark, and all in and about the house was so
+still that the sound scared them fearfully. The concluding screech made
+the place echo again;--but this strange laughter was not necessary to
+prevent little Robert from further sleep, as he found himself one moment
+seized by the feet and pulled to the bottom of the bed, and the next
+moment dragged up again on his pillow. This was no sooner done, than by
+the same invisible power he was pulled down again, and then his head
+would be dragged back, and placed as high as his brother's.
+
+"Short and long won't match,--short and long won't match,--ho, ho, ho!"
+shouted the well-known voice of the Boggart, between each adjustment of
+little Robert with his tall brother, and thus were they both wearied for
+more than a hundred times; yet so great was their terror, that neither
+Robert nor his brother--"Long John," as he ever afterwards was
+called--dared to stir one inch; and you may well suppose how delighted
+they both were when the first grey light of the morning appeared.
+
+"We'st now ha' some rest, happen," said John, turning on his side in the
+expectation of a good nap, and covering himself up with the bed-clothes,
+which the pulling of Robert so often backwards and forwards had tumbled
+about sadly.
+
+"Rest!" said the same voice that had plagued them through the night,
+"rest!--what is rest? Boggart knows no rest."
+
+"Plague tak' thee for a Boggart!" said the farmer next morning, on
+hearing the strange story from his children: "Plague tak' thee! can thee
+not let the poor things be quiet? But I'll be up with thee, my
+gentleman: so tak' th' chamber an' be hang'd to thee, if thou wilt. Jack
+and little Robert shall sleep o'er the cart-house, and Boggart may rest
+or wriggle as he likes when he is by himsel'."
+
+The move was accordingly made, and the bed of the brothers transferred
+to their new sleeping-room over the cart-house, where they remained for
+some time undisturbed; but his Boggartship having now fairly become the
+possessor of a room at the farm, it would appear, considered himself in
+the light of a privileged inmate, and not, as hitherto, an occasional
+visitor, who merely joined in the general expression of merriment.
+Familiarity, they say, breeds contempt; and now the children's bread and
+butter would be snatched away, or their porringers of bread and
+milk-would be dashed to the ground by an unseen hand; or if the younger
+ones were left alone but for a few minutes, they were sure to be found
+screaming with terror on the return of their nurse. Sometimes, however,
+he would behave himself kindly. The cream was then churned, and the pans
+and kettles scoured without hands. There was one circumstance which was
+remarkable;--the stairs ascended from the kitchen, a partition of boards
+covered the ends of the steps, and formed a closet beneath the
+staircase. From one of the boards of this partition a large round knot
+was accidentally displaced; and one day the youngest of the children,
+while playing with the shoe-horn, stuck it into this knot-hole. Whether
+or not the aperture had been formed by the Boggart as a peep-hole to
+watch the motions of the family, I cannot pretend to say. Some thought
+it was, for it was called the Boggart's peep-hole; but others said that
+they had remembered it long before the shrill laugh of the Boggart was
+heard in the house. However this may have been, it is certain that the
+horn was ejected with surprising precision at the head of whoever put it
+there; and either in mirth or in anger the horn was darted forth with
+great velocity, and struck the poor child over the ear.
+
+There are few matters upon which parents feel more acutely than that of
+the maltreatment of their offspring; but time, that great soother of all
+things, at length familiarised this dangerous occurrence to every one at
+the farm, and that which at the first was regarded with the utmost
+terror, became a kind of amusement with the more thoughtless and daring
+of the family. Often was the horn slipped slyly into the hole, and in
+return it never failed to be flung at the head of some one, but most
+commonly at the person who placed it there. They were used to call this
+pastime, in the provincial dialect, "laking wi' t' Boggart;" that is,
+playing with the Boggart. An old tailor, whom I but faintly remember,
+used to say that the horn was often "pitched" at his head, and at the
+head of his apprentice, whilst seated here on the kitchen table, when
+they went their rounds to work, as is customary with country tailors. At
+length the goblin, not contented with flinging the horn, returned to his
+night persecutions. Heavy steps, as of a person in wooden clogs, were at
+first heard clattering down-stairs in the dead hour of darkness; then
+the pewter and earthern dishes appeared to be dashed on the
+kitchen-floor; though in the morning all remained uninjured on their
+respective shelves. The children generally were marked out as objects of
+dislike by their unearthly tormentor. The curtains of their beds would
+be violently pulled to and fro,--then a heavy weight, as of a human
+being, would press them nearly to suffocation, from which it was
+impossible to escape. The night, instead of being the time for repose,
+was disturbed with screams and dreadful noises, and thus was the whole
+house alarmed night after night. Things could not long continue in this
+fashion; the farmer and his good dame resolved to leave a place where
+they could no longer expect rest or comfort: and George Cheetham was
+actually following with his wife and family the last load of furniture,
+when they were met by a neighbouring farmer, named John Marshall.
+
+"Well, Georgey, and soa you're leaving th' owd house at last?" said
+Marshall.
+
+"Heigh, Johnny, ma lad, I'm in a manner forced to 't, thou sees,"
+replied the other; "for that wearyfu' Boggart torments us soa, we can
+neither rest neet nor day for't. It seems loike to have a malice again't
+young ans,--an' it ommost kills my poor dame here at thoughts on't, and
+soa thou sees we're forc'd to flitt like."
+
+He had got thus far in his complaint, when, behold, a shrill voice from
+a deep upright churn, the topmost utensil on the cart, called out--"Ay,
+ay, neighbour, we're flitting, you see."
+
+"'Od rot thee!" exclaimed George: "if I'd known thou'd been flitting
+too I wadn't ha' stirred a peg. Nay, nay,--it's to no use, Mally," he
+continued, turning to his wife, "we may as weel turn back again to th'
+owd house as be tormented in another not so convenient."
+
+They did return; but the Boggart, having from the occurrence ascertained
+the insecurity of his tenure, became less outrageous, and was never more
+guilty of disturbing, in any extraordinary degree, the quiet of the
+family.
+
+[Illustration: INCE HALL, NEAR WIGAN.
+
+_Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden._]
+
+
+
+
+THE HAUNTED MANOR-HOUSE.
+
+
+    "But he was wary wise in all his way,
+      And well perceived his deceitful sleight;
+    No suffered lust his safety to hetray;
+      So goodly did beguile the _guiler_ of the prey."
+
+--SPENSER.
+
+Ince-hall, the subject of our view, stands about a mile from Wigan, on
+the left hand of the high road to Bolton. It is a very conspicuous
+object, its ancient and well-preserved front generally attracting the
+notice and inquiry of travellers.
+
+About a mile to the south-east stands another place of the same name
+once belonging to the Gerards of Bryn. The manor is now the property of
+Charles Walmsley, Esq., of Westwood, near Wigan.
+
+The two mansions are sometimes confounded together in topographical
+inquiries; and the following story, though told of some former
+proprietor of the Ince to which our plate refers, yet, by its title of
+the "Manor-house," would seem as though intended for the other and
+comparatively less known mansion, the old "Manor-house of Ince," once
+inhabited by a family of that name. But the same traditions are often
+found connected with localities widely asunder, so that we need not be
+surprised at the mistake which gossips have made in this particular
+instance.
+
+It is, after all, quite uncertain whether the event occurred here or
+not, story-tellers being very apt to fix upon any spot near at hand on
+which to fasten their marvellous narratives, and to give them a stronger
+hold on the listener's imagination.
+
+The story is supposed to be written or related by the chief actor in the
+occurrences arising out of the "Haunted House." The author has thrown
+the narrative into this form, as he hopes it will vary the style of the
+traditions, and probably give more character and interest to the events
+here detailed than they would retain if told by a third person.
+
+The coach set me down at the entrance to a long and unweeded avenue. A
+double row of beech-trees saluted me, as I passed, with a rich shower of
+wet leaves, and shook their bare arms, growling as the loud sough of the
+wind went through their decayed branches. The old house was before me.
+Its numerous and irregularly-contrived compartments in front were
+streaked in black and white zig-zags--_vandyked_, I think, the fairest
+jewels of the creation call this chaste and elegant ornament. It was
+near the close of a dark autumnal day, and a mass of gable-ends stood
+sharp and erect against the wild and lowering sky. Each of these
+pinnacles could once boast of its admired and appropriate ornament--a
+little weathercock; but they had cast off their gilded plumage for ever,
+and fallen from their high estate, like the once neatly-trimmed mansion
+which I was now visiting. A magpie was perched upon a huge stack of
+chimneys, his black and white plumage rivalling the mottled edifice at
+his feet. Perhaps he was the wraith, the departing vision of the
+decaying fabric; an apparition, insubstantial as the honours and
+dignities of the ancient and revered house of----!
+
+I looked eagerly at the long, low casements: a faint glimmer was
+visible. It proceeded only from the wan reflection of a sickly sunbeam
+behind me, struggling through the cleft of a dark hail-cloud. It was the
+window where in my boyhood I had often peeped at the town-clock through
+my little telescope. There was the nursery chamber, and no wonder that
+it was regarded with feelings of the deepest interest. Here the first
+dawnings of reason broke in upon my soul; the first faint gleams of
+intelligence awakened me from a state of infantine unconsciousness. It
+was here that I first drank eagerly of the fresh rills of knowledge;
+here my imagination, ardent and unrepressed, first plumed its wings for
+flight, and I stepped forth over its threshold into a world long since
+tried, and found as unsatisfying and unreal as the false glimmer that
+now mocked me from the hall of my fathers.
+
+A truce to sentiment!--I came hither, it may be, for a different
+purpose. A temporary gush will occasionally spring up from the first
+well-head of our affections. However homely and seemingly ill-adapted,
+in outward show and character, for giving birth to those feelings
+generally designated by the epithet romantic, the place where we first
+breathed, where our ideas were first moulded, formed and assimilated, as
+it were, to the condition of the surrounding atmosphere (their very
+shape and colour determined by the medium in which they first sprung)
+the casual recurrence of a scene like this,--forming part and parcel of
+our very existence, and incorporated with the very fabric of our
+thoughts,--must, in spite of all subsequent impressions, revive those
+feelings, however long they may have been dormant, with a force and
+vividness which the bare recollection can never excite.
+
+The garden-gate stood open. The initials of my name, still legible,
+appeared rudely carved on the posts--a boyish propensity which most of
+us have indulged; and I well remember ministering to its gratification
+wherever I durst hazard the experiment, when first initiated into the
+mystery of hewing out these important letters with a rusty pen-knife.
+
+Not a creature was stirring; and the nature of the present occupants,
+whether sylphs, gnomes, or genii, was a question not at all, as it yet
+appeared, in a train for solution. The front door was closed; but, as I
+knew every turn and corner about the house, I made no doubt of soon
+finding out its inmates, if any of them were in the neighbourhood. I
+worked my way through the garden, knee-deep and rank with weed, for the
+purpose of reconnoitring the back-offices. I steered pretty cautiously
+past what memory, that great dealer in hyperbole, had hitherto generally
+contrived to picture as a huge lake--now, to my astonishment, dwindled
+into a duck-pond--but not without danger from its slippery margin. It
+still reposed under the shadow of the old cherry-tree, once the
+harbinger of delight, as the returning season gave intimation of another
+bountiful supply of fruit. Its gnarled stump, now stunted and decaying,
+had scarcely one token of life upon its scattered branches. Following a
+narrow walk, nearly obliterated, I entered a paved court. The first
+tramp awoke a train of echoes that seemed as though they had slumbered
+since my departure, and now started from their sleep to greet or to
+admonish the returning truant. Grass in luxuriant tufts, capriciously
+disposed, grew about in large patches. The breeze passed heavily by,
+rustling the dark swathe, and murmuring fitfully as it departed.
+Desolation seemed to have marked the spot for her own--the grim abode of
+solitude and despair. During twenty years' sojourn in a strange land
+memory had still, with untiring delight, painted the old mansion in all
+its primeval primness and simplicity--fresh as I had left it, full of
+buoyancy and delight, to take possession of the paradise which
+imagination had created. I had, indeed, been informed that at my
+father's death it became the habitation of a stranger; but no
+intelligence as to its present condition had ever reached me. Being at
+L----, and only some twenty miles distant, I could not resist the
+temptation of once more gazing on the old Manor-house, and of comparing
+its present aspect with that but too faithfully engrafted on my
+recollections. To all appearance the house was tenantless. I tried the
+door of a side kitchen or scullery: it was fastened, but the rusty bolts
+yielded to no very forcible pressure; and I once more penetrated into
+the kitchen, that exhaustless magazine which had furnished ham and eggs,
+greens and bacon, with other sundry and necessary condiments, to the
+progenitors of our race for at least two centuries. A marvellous
+change!--to me it appeared as if wrought in a moment, so recently had
+memory reinstated the scenes of my youth in all their pristine
+splendour. Now no smoke rolled lazily away from the heavy billet; no
+blaze greeted my sight; no savoury steam regaled the sense. Dark,
+cheerless, cold,--the long bars emitted no radiance; the hearth unswept,
+on which Growler once panted with heat and fatness.
+
+Though night was fast approaching, I could not resist the temptation of
+once more exploring the deserted chambers, the scene of many a youthful
+frolic. I sprang with reckless facility up the vast staircase. The
+shallow steps were not sufficiently accommodating to my impatience, and
+I leapt rather than ran, with the intention of paying my first visit to
+that _cockaigne_ of childhood, that paradise of little fools--the
+nursery. How small, dwindled almost into a span, appeared that once
+mighty and almost boundless apartment, every nook of which was a
+separate territory, every drawer and cupboard the boundary of another
+kingdom! three or four strides brought me to the window;--the broad
+church-tower was still visible, peacefully reposing in the dim and heavy
+twilight. The evening-bell was tolling: what a host of recollections
+were awakened at the sound! Days and hours long forgotten seemed to rise
+up at its voice, like the spirits of the departed sweeping by, awful and
+indistinct. These impressions soon became more vivid; they rushed on
+with greater rapidity: I turned from the window, and was startled at the
+sudden moving of a shadow. It was a faint long-drawn figure of myself on
+the floor and opposite wall. Ashamed of my fears, I was preparing to
+quit the apartment when my attention was arrested by a drawing which I
+had once scrawled, and stuck against the wall with all the ardour of a
+first achievement. It owed its preservation to an unlucky, but
+effectual, contrivance of mine for securing its perpetuity: a
+paste-brush, purloined from the kitchen, had made all fast; and the
+piece, alike impregnable to assaults or siege, withstood every effort
+for its removal. In fact, this could not be accomplished without at the
+same time tearing off a portion from the dingy papering of the room, and
+leaving a disagreeable void, instead of my sprawling performance. With
+the less evil it appeared each succeeding occupant had been contented;
+and the drawing had stood its ground in spite of dust and dilapidation.
+I felt wishful for the possession of so valuable a memorial of past
+exploits. I examined it again and again, but not a single corner
+betrayed symptoms of lesion: it stuck bolt upright; and the dun squat
+figures portrayed on it appeared to leer at me most provokingly. Not a
+slip or tear presented itself as vantage-ground for the projected
+attack; and I had no other resource left of gaining possession than what
+may be denominated the Caesarean mode. I accordingly took out my knife,
+and commenced operations by cutting out at the same time a portion of
+the ornamental papering from the wall commensurate with the picture. I
+looked upon it with a sort of superstitious reverence; and I have always
+thought that the strong and eager impulse I felt for the possession of
+this hideous daub proceeded from a far different source than mere
+fondness for the memorials of childhood. Be that as it may, I am a firm
+believer in a special Providence; and that, too, as discovered in the
+most trivial as well as the most important concerns of life. It was
+whilst cutting down upon what seemed like wainscoting, over which the
+papering of the room had been laid, that my knife glanced on something
+much harder than the rest. Turning aside my spoils, I saw what through
+the dusk appeared very like the hinge of a concealed door. My curiosity
+was roused, and I made a hasty pull, which at once drew down a mighty
+fragment from the wall, consisting of plaster, paper, and rotten canvas;
+and some minutes elapsed ere the subsiding cloud of dust enabled me to
+discern the _terra incognita_ I had just uncovered. Sure enough there
+was a door, and as surely did the spirit of enterprise prompt me to open
+it. With difficulty I accomplished my purpose; it yielded at length to
+my efforts; but the noise of the half-corroded hinges, grating and
+shrieking on their rusty pivots, may be conceived as sufficiently dismal
+and appalling. I know not if once at least I did not draw back, or let
+go my hold incontinently, as the din "grew long and loud." I own,
+without hesitation, that I turned away my head from the opening, as it
+became wider and wider at every pull; and it required a considerable
+effort before I could summon the requisite courage to look into the gap.
+My head seemed as difficult to move as the door. I cannot say that I was
+absolutely afraid of ghosts, but I _was_ afraid of a peep from behind
+the door--afraid of being frightened! At length, with desperate
+boldness, I thrust my head plump into the chasm!
+
+But I was more startled at the noise I had thus produced than by
+anything that was visible. As far as the darkness would permit, I
+explored the interior, which, after all, was neither more nor less than
+a small closet. From what cause it had been shut out from the apartment
+to which it had belonged, it were vain to conjecture. All that was
+really cognisable to the senses presented itself in the shape of a
+shallow recess, some four feet by two, utterly unfurnished, save with
+some inches of accumulated dust and rubbish, that made it a work of
+great peril to grope out the fact of its otherwise absolute emptiness.
+This discovery like many other notable enterprises seemed to lead to
+nothing. I stepped out of my den, reeking with spoils which I would much
+rather have left undisturbed in their dark recesses.
+
+Preparing for my departure, and a visit to my relation in the nearly
+adjoining town, who as yet had no other intimation of my arrival than a
+hasty note, to apprise him that I had once more set foot on English
+ground, and intended to visit him before my return, I stepped again to
+the window. Darkness was fast gathering about me; a heavy scud was
+driven rapidly across the heavens, and the wind wailed in short and
+mournful gusts past the chamber. The avenue was just visible from the
+spot where I stood; and, looking down, I thought I could discern more
+than one dark object moving apparently towards the house. It may be
+readily conceived that I beheld their approach with an interest by no
+means free from apprehension; and it was not long ere two beings, in
+human habiliments, were distinctly seen at a short distance from the
+gate by which I had entered. Feeling myself an intruder, and not being
+very satisfactorily prepared to account for my forcible entry into the
+premises, and the injury I had committed on the property of a stranger,
+I drew hastily aside, determined to effect a retreat whenever and
+wherever it might be in my power. Door and window alternately presented
+themselves for the accomplishment of this unpleasant purpose, but before
+I could satisfy myself as to which was the more eligible offer, as
+doubters generally do contrive it, I lost all chance of availing myself
+of either. "_Facilis descensus_"--"Easier in than out"--&c., occurred to
+me; and many other classical allusions, much more appropriate than
+agreeable. I heard voices and footsteps in the hall. The stairs creaked,
+and it was but too evident they were coming, and that with a most
+unerring and provoking perseverance. Surely, thought I, these gentry
+have noses like the sleuth-hound; and I made no doubt but they would
+undeviatingly follow them into the very scene of my labours; and what
+excuse could I make for the havoc I had committed? I stood stupefied,
+and unable to move. The thoughts of being hauled neck and heels before
+the next justice, on a charge of housebreaking, or what not--committed
+to prison--tried, perhaps, and--the sequel was more than even
+imagination durst conceive. Recoiling in horror from the picture, it was
+with something like instinctive desperation that I flew to the little
+closet, and shut myself in, with all the speed and precision my fears
+would allow. Sure enough the brutes were making the best of their way
+into the chamber, and every moment I expected they would track their
+victim to his hiding-place. After a few moments of inconceivable agony,
+I was relieved at finding from their conversation that no notion was
+entertained, at present, of any witness to their proceedings.
+
+"I tell thee, Gilbert, these rusty locks can keep nothing safe. It's but
+some few months since we were here, and thou knowest the doors were all
+fast. The kitchen door-post is now as rotten as touchwood; no bolt will
+fasten it."
+
+"Nail it up,--nail 'em all up," growled Gilbert; "nobody'll live here
+now; or else set fire to 't. It'll make a rare bonfire to burn that ugly
+old will in."
+
+A boisterous laugh here broke from the remorseless Gilbert. It fell upon
+my ear as something with which I had once been disagreeably familiar.
+The voice of the first speaker, too, seemed the echo of one that had
+been heard in childhood. A friendly chink permitted me to gain the
+information I sought; there stood my uncle and his trusty familiar. In
+my youth I had contracted a somewhat unaccountable aversion to the
+latter personage. I well remembered his downcast grey eye, deprived of
+its fellow; and the malignant pleasure he took in thwarting and
+disturbing my childish amusements. This prepossessing Cyclop held a
+tinder-box, and was preparing to light a match. My uncle's figure I
+could not mistake: a score of winters had cast their shadows on his brow
+since we had separated; but he still stood as he was wont--tall, erect,
+and muscular, though age had slightly drooped his proud forehead; and I
+could discern his long-lapped waistcoat somewhat less conspicuous in
+front. He was my mother's brother, and the only surviving relation on
+whom I had any claim. My fears were set at rest, but curiosity stole
+into their place. I felt an irrepressible inclination to watch their
+proceedings, though eaves-dropping was a subterfuge that I abhorred. I
+should, I am confident--at least I hope so--have immediately discovered
+myself, had not a single word which I had overheard prevented me. The
+"will" to which they alluded might to me, perhaps, be an object of no
+trivial importance.
+
+"I wish with all my heart it were burnt!" said mine uncle.
+
+"The will, or the house?" peevishly retorted Gilbert.
+
+"Both!" cried the other, with an emphasis and expression that made me
+tremble.
+
+"If we burn the house, the papers will not rise out of it, depend on 't,
+master," continued Gilbert; "and that box in the next closet will not
+prove like Goody Blake's salamander."
+
+I began to feel particularly uncomfortable.
+
+"I wish they had all been burnt long ago," said mine honest uncle. After
+a pause he went on: "This scapegrace nephew of mine will be here
+shortly. For fear of accidents--accidents, I say,--Gilbert--it were
+better to have all safe. Who knows what may be lurking in the old house,
+to rise up some day as a witness against us! I intend either to pull it
+down or set fire to it. But we'll make sure of the will first."
+
+"A rambling jackanapes of a nephew!" said Gilbert; "I hoped the fishes
+had supped on him before now. We never thought, master, he could be
+alive, as he sent no word about his being either alive or dead. But I
+guess," continued this amiable servant, "he might ha' staid longer, and
+you wouldn't ha' fretted for his company."
+
+Listeners hear no good of themselves; but I determined to reward the old
+villain very shortly for his good wishes.
+
+"Gilbert, when there's work to do thou art always readier with thy
+tongue than with thy fingers. Look! the match has gone out twice,--leave
+off puffing and fetch the box; I'll manage about the candle."
+
+I began to feel a strange sensation rambling about me. Gilbert left the
+room, however, and I applied myself with redoubled diligence to the
+crevice. My dishonest relation proceeded to revive the expiring sparks;
+the light shone full upon his hard features. It might be fancy, but
+guilt--broad, legible, remorseless guilt--seemed to mark every
+inflection of his visage: his brow contracted,--his eye turned
+cautiously and fearfully round the apartment, and more than once it
+rested upon the gap I had made. I saw him strike his hand upon his
+puckered brow, and a stifled groan escaped him; but as if ashamed of his
+better feelings, he clenched it in an attitude of defiance, and listened
+eagerly for the return of his servant. The slow footsteps of Gilbert
+soon announced his approach, and apparently with some heavy burden. He
+threw it on the floor, and I heard a key applied and the rusty wards
+answering to the touch. The business in which they were now engaged was
+out of my limited sphere of vision.
+
+"I think, master, the damps will soon ding down the old house: look at
+the wall; the paper hangs for all the world like the clerk's wig--ha,
+ha! If we should burn the house down we'd rid it o' the ghosts. Would
+they stand fire, think you, or be off to cooler quarters?"
+
+"Hush, Gilbert; thou art wicked enough to bring a whole legion about us,
+if any of them are within hearing. I always seemed to treat these
+stories with contempt, but I never could satisfy myself about the noises
+that old Gidlow and his wife heard. Thou knowest he was driven out of
+the house by them. People wondered that I did not come and live here,
+instead of letting it run to ruin. It's pretty generally thought that I
+fear neither man nor devil; but--oh! here it is; here is the will. I
+care nothing for the rest, provided this be cancelled."
+
+"Ay, master, they said the ghost never left off scratching as long as
+anybody was in the room. Which room was it, I wonder?--I never thought
+on't to inquire; but--- I don't like this a bit. It runs in my head it
+is the very place; and behind that wall, too, where it took up its
+quarters like as it might be just a-back of the paper there. Think you,
+master, the old tyke has pull'd it down wi' scratching?"
+
+"Gilbert," said my uncle solemnly, "I don't like these jests of thine.
+Save them, I prithee, for fitter subjects. The will is what we came for.
+Let us dispose of that quietly, and I promise thee I'll never set foot
+here again."
+
+As he spoke he approached the candle--it was just within my view--and
+opened the will that it might yield the more readily to the blaze. I
+watched him evidently preparing to consume a document with which I felt
+convinced my welfare and interests were intimately connected. There was
+not a moment to be lost; but how to get possession was no easy
+contrivance. If I sallied forth to its rescue they might murder me, or
+at least prevent its falling into my hands. This plan could only prolong
+its existence a few moments, and would to a certainty ensure its
+eventual destruction. Gilbert's dissertation on the occupations and
+amusements of the ghosts came very opportunely to my aid, and
+immediately I put into execution what now appeared my only hope of its
+safety. Just as a corner of the paper was entering the flame I gave a
+pretty loud scratch, at the same time anxiously observing the effect it
+might produce. I was overjoyed to find the enemy intimidated at least by
+the first fire. Another volley, and another succeeded, until even the
+sceptical Gilbert was dismayed. My uncle seemed riveted to the spot, his
+hands widely disparted, so that the flame and its destined prey were now
+pretty far asunder. Neither of the culprits spoke; and I hoped that
+little more would be necessary to rout them fairly from the field. As
+yet they did not seem disposed to move; and I was afraid of a rally,
+should reason get the better of their fears.
+
+"Rats! rats!" shouted Gilbert. "We'll singe their tails for them." The
+scratching ceased. Again the paper was approaching to its dreaded
+catastrophe.
+
+"_Beware!_" I cried, in a deep and sepulchral tone, that startled even
+the utterer. What effect it had produced on my auditory I was left alone
+to conjecture. The candle dropped from the incendiary's grasp, and the
+spoil was left a prey to the bugbear that possessed their imaginations.
+With feelings of unmixed delight, I heard them clear the stairs at a few
+leaps, run through the hall, and soon afterwards a terrific bellow from
+Gilbert announced their descent into the avenue.
+
+Luckily the light was not extinct, and I lost no time in taking
+possession of the document, which I considered of the most importance.
+A number of loose papers, the contents of a huge trunk, were scattered
+about; but my attention was more particularly directed to the paper
+which had been the object of my uncle's visit to the Manor-house. To my
+great joy, this was neither less nor more than my father's will,
+witnessed and sealed in due form, wherein the possessions of my
+ancestors were conveyed, absolutely and unconditionally, without entail,
+unencumbered and unembarrassed, to me and to my assigns. I thought it
+most likely that the papers in and about the trunk might be of use,
+either as corroborative evidence, in case my uncle should choose to
+litigate the point and brand the original document as a forgery, or as a
+direct testimony to the validity of my claim. I was rather puzzled in
+what manner to convey them from the place, so as not to excite
+suspicion, should the two worthies return. I was pretty certain they
+would not leave matters as they now stood when their fears were allayed,
+and daylight would probably impart sufficient courage to induce them to
+repeat their visit. On finding the papers removed, the nature of this
+night's ghostly admonition would immediately be guessed, and measures
+taken to thwart any proceedings which it might be in my power to adopt.
+To prevent discovery, I hit upon the following expedient:--I sorted out
+the waste paper, a considerable quantity of which served as envelopes to
+the rest, setting fire to it in such a manner that the contents of the
+trunk might appear to have been destroyed by the falling of the candle.
+I succeeded very much to my own satisfaction. Disturbed and agonised as
+my feelings had been during the discovery, the idea of having defeated
+the plan of my iniquitous relative gave a zest to my acquisitions almost
+as great as if I had already taken possession of my paternal
+inheritance.
+
+Before I left the apartment, I poured out my heart in thanksgivings to
+that unseen Power whose hand, I am firmly convinced, brought me thither
+at so critical a moment, to frustrate the schemes and machinations of
+the enemy.
+
+Bundling up the papers, my knowledge of the vicinity enabled me to reach
+a small tavern in the neighbourhood without the risk of being
+recognised. Here I continued two or three days, examining the documents,
+with the assistance of an honest limb of the law from W----. He
+entertained considerable doubts as to the issue of a trial, feeling
+convinced that a forged will would be prepared, if not already in
+existence, and that my relative would not relinquish his fraudulent
+claim should the law be openly appealed to. He strongly recommended that
+proceedings of a different nature should be first tried, in hopes of
+enclosing the villain in his own toils; and these, if successful, would
+save the uncertain and expensive process of a suit. I felt unwilling to
+adopt any mode of attack but that of open warfare, and urged that
+possession of the real will would be sufficient to reinstate me as the
+lawful heir. The man of law smiled. He inquired how I should be able to
+prove that the forgery which my uncle would in all probability produce
+was not the genuine testament; and as the date would inevitably be
+subsequent to the one I held, it would annul any former bequest. As to
+my tale about burning the will, that might or might not be treated as a
+story trumped up for the occasion. I had no witnesses to prove the fact;
+and though appearances were certainly in my favour, yet the case could
+only be decided according to evidence. With great reluctance I consented
+to take a part in the scheme he chalked out for my guidance; and, on the
+third day from my arrival, I walked a few miles and returned to the
+town, that it might appear as if I had only just arrived. On being set
+down at my uncle's I had the satisfaction to find, as far as could be
+gathered from his manner, that he had no idea of my recent sojourn in
+the neighbourhood. Of course the conversation turned on the death of my
+revered parents, and the way in which their property had been disposed
+of.
+
+"I can only repeat," continued he, "what I, as the only executor under
+your father's will, was commissioned to inform you at his decease. The
+property was heavily mortgaged before your departure; and its continued
+depression in value, arising from causes that could not have been
+foreseen, left the executor no other alternative but that of giving the
+creditors possession. The will is here," said he, taking out a paper,
+neatly folded and mounted with red tape, from a bureau. "It is
+necessarily brief, and merely enumerates the names of the mortgagees and
+amounts owing. I was unfortunately the principal creditor, having been a
+considerable loser from my wish to preserve the property inviolate. For
+the credit of the family I paid off the remaining incumbrances, and the
+estate has lapsed to me as the lawful possessor."
+
+He placed the document in my hands. I read in it a very technical
+tribute of testamentary gratitude to M---- S----, Esq., styled therein
+"beloved brother;" and a slight mention of my name, but no bequest, save
+that of recommending me to the kindness of my relative, in case it
+should please Heaven to send me once more to my native shores. I was
+aware he would be on the watch; guarding, therefore, against any
+expression of my feelings, I eagerly perused the deed, and with a sigh,
+which he would naturally attribute to any cause but the real one, I
+returned it into his hands.
+
+"I find," said he, "from your letter received on the 23d current, that
+you are not making a long stay in this neighbourhood. It is better,
+perhaps, that you should not. The old house is sadly out of repair.
+Three years ago next May, David Gidlow, the tenant under lease from me,
+left it, and I have not yet been able to meet with another occupant
+fully to my satisfaction; indeed, I have some intention of pulling down
+the house and disposing of the materials."
+
+"Pulling it down!" I exclaimed, with indignation.
+
+"Yes; that is, it is so untenantable--so--what shall I call it?--that
+nobody cares to live there."
+
+"I hope it is not haunted?"
+
+"Haunted!" exclaimed he, surveying me with a severe and scrutinising
+glance. "What should have put that into your head?"
+
+I was afraid I had said too much; and anxious to allay the suspicion I
+saw gathering in his countenance--"Nay, uncle," I quickly rejoined; "but
+you seemed so afraid of speaking out upon the matter that I thought
+there must needs be a ghost at the bottom of it."
+
+"As for that," said he, carelessly; "the foolish farmer and his wife did
+hint something of the sort; but it is well known that I pay no attention
+to such tales. The long and the short of it, I fancy, was, that they
+were tired of their bargain, and wanted me to take it off their hands."
+
+Here honest Gilbert entered, to say that Mr L----, the attorney, would
+be glad to have a word with his master.
+
+"Tell Mr L---- to walk in. We have no secrets here. Excuse me, nephew;
+this man is one of our lawyers. He has nothing to communicate but what
+you may hear, I dare say. If he should have any private business, you
+can step into the next room."
+
+The attorney entering, I was introduced as nephew to Mr S----, just
+arrived from the Indies, and so forth. Standing, Mr L---- made due
+obeisance.
+
+"Sit down; sit down, Mr L----," cried my uncle. "You need not be bowing
+there for a job. Poor fellow, he has not much left to grease the paws of
+a lawyer. Well, sir, your errand?"
+
+I came, Mr S----, respecting the Manor-house. Perhaps you would not have
+any objections to a tenant!"
+
+"I cannot say just now. I have had some thoughts of pulling it down."
+
+"Sir! you would not demolish a building, the growth of centuries--a
+family mansion--been in the descent since James's time. It would be
+barbarous. The antiques would be about your ears."
+
+"I care nothing for the antiquities; and, moreover, I do not choose to
+let the house. Any further business with me this morning, sir?"
+
+"Nothing of consequence--I only came about the house."
+
+"Pray, Mr L----," said I, "what sort of a tenant have you in view;--one
+you could recommend? I think my uncle has more regard for the old
+mansion-house than comports with the outrage he threatens. The will
+says, if I read aright, that the house and property may be sold, should
+the executor see fit; but, as to pulling it down, I am sure my father
+never meant anything so deplorable. Allow me another glance at that
+paper."
+
+"Please to observe, nephew, that the will makes it mine, and as such I
+have a right to dispose of the whole in such manner as I may deem best.
+If you have any doubts, I refer you to Mr L----, who sits smiling at
+your unlawyer-like opinions."
+
+"Pray allow me one moment," said the curious attorney. He looked at the
+signature and those of the parties witnessing.
+
+"Martha S----; your late sister, I presume?"
+
+My uncle nodded assent.
+
+"Gilbert Hodgon--your servant?"
+
+"The same. To what purpose, sir, are these questions?" angrily inquired
+my uncle.
+
+"Merely matters of form--a habit we lawyers cannot easily throw aside
+whenever we get a sight of musty parchments. I hope you will pardon my
+freedom?"
+
+"Oh! as for that you are welcome to ask as many questions as you think
+proper; they will be easily answered, I take it."
+
+"Doubtless," said the persevering man of words. "Whenever I take up a
+deed, for instance,--it is just the habit of the thing, Mr S----,--I
+always look at it as a banker looks at a note. He could not for the life
+of him gather one up without first ascertaining that it was genuine."
+
+"Genuine!" exclaimed my uncle, thrown off his guard. "You do not suspect
+that I have forged it?"
+
+"Forged it! why, how could that enter your head, Mr S----? I should as
+soon suspect you of forging a bank-note or coining a guinea. Ringing a
+guinea, sir, does not at all imply that the payee suspects the payer to
+be an adept in that ingenious and much-abused art. We should be
+prodigously surprised if the payer were to start up in a tantrum, and
+say, 'Do you suspect me, sir, of having coined it?'"
+
+"Sir, if you came hither for the purpose of insulting _me_"----
+
+"I came upon no such business, Mr S----; but, as you seem disposed to be
+captious, I _will_ make free to say, and it would be the opinion of
+ninety-nine hundredths of the profession, that it might possibly have
+been a little more satisfactory to the heir-apparent had the witnesses
+to this, the most solemn and important act of a man's life, been any
+other than, firstly, a defunct sister to the party claiming the whole
+residue: and secondly, Mr Gilbert Hodgon, his servant. Nay, sir," said
+the pertinacious lawyer, rising, "I do not wish to use more
+circumlocution than is necessary; I have stated my suspicions, and if
+you are an honest man, you can have no objections, at least, to satisfy
+your nephew on the subject, who seems, to say the truth, much astonished
+at our accidental parley."
+
+"And pray who made you a ruler and a judge between us?"
+
+"_I_ have no business with it, I own; but as you seemed rather angry, I
+made bold to give an opinion on the little technicalities aforesaid. If
+you choose, sir," addressing himself to me, "the matter is now at rest."
+
+"Of course," I replied, "Mr S---- will be ready to give every
+satisfaction that may be required as regards the validity of the
+witnesses. I request, uncle, that you will not lose one moment in
+rebutting these insinuations. For your own sake and mine, it is not
+proper that your conduct should go forth to the world in the shape in
+which this gentleman may think fit to represent it."
+
+"If he dare speak one word"----
+
+"Nay, uncle, that is not the way to stop folks' mouth now-a-days.
+Nothing but the actual gag, or a line of conduct that courts no favour
+and requires no concealment, will pass current with the world. I
+request, sir," addressing myself to the attorney, "that you will not
+leave this house until you have given Mr S---- the opportunity of
+clearing himself from any blame in this transaction."
+
+"As matters have assumed this posture," said Mr L----, "I should be
+deficient in respect to the profession of which I have the honour to be
+a member, did I not justify my conduct in the best manner I am able.
+Have I liberty to proceed?"
+
+"Proceed as you like, you will not prove the testament to be a forgery.
+The signing and witnessing were done in my presence," said my uncle. He
+rose from his chair, instinctively locked up his bureau; and, if such
+stern features could assume an aspect of still greater asperity, it was
+when the interrogator thus continued:--"You were, as you observe, Mr
+S----, an eye-witness to the due subscription of this deed. If I am to
+clear myself from the imputation of unjustifiable curiosity, I must beg
+leave to examine yourself and the surviving witness apart, merely as to
+the minutiae of the circumstances under which it was finally completed:
+for instance, was the late Mr---- in bed, or was he sick or well, when
+the deed was executed?"
+
+A cadaverous hue stole over the dark features of the culprit; their
+aspect varying and distorted, in which fear and deadly anger painfully
+strove for pre-eminence.
+
+"And wherefore apart?" said he, with a hideous grin. He stamped suddenly
+on the floor.
+
+"If that summons be for your servant, you might have saved yourself the
+trouble, sir," said his tormentor, with great coolness and intrepidity.
+"Gilbert is at my office, whither I sent him on an errand, thinking he
+would be best out of the way for a while. I find, however, that we shall
+have need of him. It is as well, nevertheless, that he is out of the way
+of signals."
+
+"A base conspiracy!" roared the infuriated villain. "Nephew, how is
+this? And in my own house,--bullied--baited! But I will be revenged--I
+will."
+
+Here he became exhausted with rage, and sat down. On Mr L---- attempting
+to speak, he cried out--"I will answer no questions, and I defy you.
+Gilbert may say what he likes; but he cannot contradict my words. I'll
+speak none."
+
+"These would be strange words, indeed, Mr S------, from an innocent
+man. Know you that WILL?" said the lawyer, in a voice of thunder, and at
+the same time exhibiting the real instrument so miraculously preserved
+from destruction. I shall never forget his first look of horror and
+astonishment. Had a spectre risen up, arrayed in all the terrors of the
+prison-house, he could not have exhibited more appalling symptoms of
+unmitigated despair. He shuddered audibly. It was the very crisis of his
+agony. A portentous silence ensued. Some minutes elapsed before it was
+interrupted. Mr L---- was the first to break so disagreeable a pause.
+
+"Mr S----, it is useless to carry on this scene of duplicity: neither
+party would be benefited by it. _You have forged that deed!_ We have
+sufficient evidence of your attempt to destroy this document I now hold,
+in the very mansion which your unhallowed hands would, but for the
+direct interposition of Providence, have levelled with the dust. On one
+condition, and on one only, your conduct shall be concealed from the
+knowledge of your fellow-men. The eye of Providence alone has hitherto
+tracked the tortuous course of your villany. On one condition, I say,
+the past is for ever concealed from the eye of the world." Another
+pause. My uncle groaned in the agony of his spirit. Had his heart's
+blood been at stake, he could not have evinced a greater reluctance than
+he now showed at the thoughts of relinquishing his ill-gotten wealth.
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Destroy with your own hands that forged testimony of your guilt. Your
+nephew does not wish to bring an old man's grey hairs to an ignominious
+grave."
+
+He took the deed, and, turning aside his head, committed it to the
+flames. He appeared to breathe more freely when it was consumed; but the
+struggle had been too severe even for his unyielding frame, iron-bound
+though it seemed. As he turned trembling from the hearth, he sank into
+his chair, threw his hands over his face, and groaned deeply. The next
+moment he fixed his eyes steadily on me. A glassy brightness suddenly
+shot over them; a dimness followed like the shadows of death. He held
+out his hand; his head bowed; and he bade adieu to the world and its
+interests for ever!
+
+
+
+
+CLITHEROE CASTLE;
+
+OR,
+
+THE LAST OF THE LACIES.
+
+
+      "By that painful way they pass
+    Forth to an hill that was both steep and high;
+      On top whereof a sacred chapel was,
+    And eke a little hermitage thereby."
+
+--SPENSER'S _Fairy Queen_.
+
+Clitheroe, _the hill ly the-waters_, the ancient seat of the Lacies,
+carries back the mind to earlier periods and events--to a rude and
+barbarous age--where justice was dispensed, and tribute paid, by the
+feudatories to their lords, whose power, little less than arbitrary, was
+held directly from the crown.
+
+The Lacies came over with the Conqueror; and, on the defection of Robert
+de Poictou, obtained, as their share of the spoil, sixty knights' fees,
+principally in Yorkshire and Lancashire. For the better maintainence of
+their dignity they built two castles, one at Pontefract, the principal
+residence, and another at Clitheroe. A _great fee_, or great lordship,
+as Pontefract was a possession of the highest order; an honour, or
+seigniory, like Clitheroe, consisting of a number of manors, was the
+next in rank; and these manors were severally held by their subordinate
+lords in dependence on the lord paramount, the lord of the fee or
+honour.
+
+[Illustration: CLITHEROE CASTLE.
+
+_Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden._]
+
+What was the precise aspect of our county when the Normans possessed
+themselves of the land, it might be deemed an effort of the imagination
+perhaps to portray. "Yet," says Dr Whitaker, in one of his happier
+moods, "could a curious observer of the present day carry himself nine
+or ten centuries back, and, ranging the summit of Pendle, survey the
+forked Calder on one side, and the bolder margins of Ribble and Hodder
+on the other, instead of populous towns and villages, the castle, the
+old tower-built house, the elegant modern mansion, the artificial
+plantation, the park and pleasure ground, or instead of uninterrupted
+enclosures, which have driven sterility almost to the summit of the
+fells; how great must then have been the contrast, when, ranging either
+at a distance or immediately beneath, his eye must have caught vast
+tracts of forest ground stagnating with bog or darkened by native
+woods, where the wild ox, the roe, the stag, and the wolf had
+scarcely learned the supremacy of man--when, directing his view to the
+intermediate spaces, to the windings of the valleys, or the expanse of
+plain beneath, he could only have distinguished a few insulated patches
+of culture, each encircling a village of wretched cabins, among which
+would still be remarked one rude mansion of wood, scarcely equal in
+comfort to a modern cottage, yet then rising proudly eminent above the
+rest, where the Saxon lord, surrounded by his faithful cotarii, enjoyed
+a rude and solitary independence, owning no superior but his sovereign.
+
+"This was undoubtedly a state of great simplicity and freedom, such as
+admirers of uncultivated nature may affect to applaud. But although
+revolutions in civil society seldom produce anything better than a
+change of vices, yet surely no wise or good man can lament the
+subversion of Saxon polity for that which followed. Their laws were
+contemptible for imbecility, their habits odious for intemperance; and
+if we can for a moment persuade ourselves that their language has any
+charm, that proceeds less, perhaps, from anything harmonious and
+expressive in itself, or anything valuable in the information it
+conveys, than that it is rare and not of very easy attainment; that it
+forms the rugged basis of our own tongue; and, above all, that we hear
+it loudly echoed in the dialect of our own vulgar. Indeed, the manners
+as well as language of a Lancashire clown often suggest the idea of a
+Saxon peasant; and prove, with respect to remote tracts like these,
+little affected by foreign admixtures, how strong is the power of
+traduction, how faithfully character and propensities may be transmitted
+through more than twenty generations."
+
+The Normans were a more polished, a more abstemious people; as scribes
+and architects they were men to whom this district was greatly indebted.
+Our only castle, our oldest remaining churches, our most curious and
+valuable records, are all Norman.
+
+"Such was the state of property and manners when the house of Lacy
+became possessed of Blackburnshire." The simplicity of the Saxon tenures
+was destroyed. A tract of country, which had been parcelled out among
+twenty-eight lords, now became subject to one; and all the intricacies
+of feodal dependence, all the rigours of feodal exaction, wardships,
+reliefs, escheats, &c., were introduced at once. Yet the Saxon lords,
+though dependent, were not in general actually stripped of their fees.
+By successive steps, however, the origin of all landed property within
+the hundred, some later copyholds excepted, is to be traced to voluntary
+concessions from the Lacies, or their successors of the house of
+Lancaster; not grants of pure beneficence, but requiring personal
+service from the owners, and yearly customs or payments, equivalent at
+that time to their value. Their present worth grew out of the operation
+of causes little understood in these ages either by lord or
+vassal--namely, the certainty of the possession, the diminishing value
+of money, and the perpetuity of the title.
+
+In four generations, or little more than one hundred years, the line of
+the Lacies became extinct; Roger Fitz-Eustace, lord of Halton and
+constable of Chester, coming into possession by right of his grandmother
+Awbrey, uterine sister of Robert de Lacy, the last of this illustrious
+race. Fitz-Eustace, however, took the title of De Lacy; but in the
+fourth descent from him the very name was lost. Henry de Lacy, the last
+and greatest man of his line, dying the 5th February 1310, left one
+daughter only, who had married, during her father's lifetime, Thomas
+Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster--and carried along with her an
+inheritance even then estimated at 10,000 marks per annum. On the earl's
+attainder, the honour of Clitheroe, with the rest of his possessions,
+were forfeited to the crown. After undergoing many changes while it
+continued a member of the Duchy of Lancaster--that is, until the
+restoration of Charles II.--that prince, in consideration of the great
+services of General Monk, whom he created Duke of Albemarle, bestowed it
+upon him and his heirs for ever. Christopher, his son, dying without
+issue, left his estates to his wife, daughter and co-heiress of Henry
+Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle; by her they were bequeathed to her second
+husband, Ralph, Duke of Montague, whose grand-daughter Mary, married
+George, Earl of Cardigan, afterwards Duke of Montague. Elizabeth, his
+daughter, married Henry, Duke of Buccleuch, in whose family the honour
+of Clitheroe is now vested.
+
+Clitheroe Castle is described by Grose as "situated on the summit of a
+conical insulated crag of rugged limestone rock, which suddenly rises
+from a fine vale, in which towards the north, at the distance of
+half-a-mile, runs the Ribble, and a mile to the south stands Pendle
+Hill, which seems to lift its head above the clouds."
+
+In the time of the Commonwealth it was dismantled by order of
+Parliament; the chapel has totally disappeared; and nothing now remains
+but the square keep and some portions of the strong wall by which the
+building was surrounded.[49] The tower, though much undermined, remains
+firm as the rock on which it was built, and forms the principal object
+in our engraving.
+
+It was midnight; and the priest was chanting the service and requiem for
+the dead in the little chapel or chantry of St Michael, which was built
+within the walls of Clyderhow or Clitheroe Castle. The _Dies irae_ from
+the surrounding worshippers rose in a simple monotone, like the sound of
+some distant river, now caught on the wing of the tempest, and flung far
+away into the dim and distant void, now rushing on the ear in one deep
+gush of harmony--the voice of Nature, as if her thousand tongues were
+blended in one universal peal of praise and adoration to the great
+Power that called her into being. Many a heart quailed with
+apprehension, many a bosom was oppressed with doubtful and anxious
+forebodings. Robert de Lacy, the last of this illustrious race, fourth
+in descent from Ilbert de Lacy, on whom the Conqueror bestowed the great
+fee of Pontefract, the owner of twenty-eight manors and lord of the
+honour of Clitheroe, was no longer numbered with the living; and here in
+the chapel of this lone fortress, before the dim altar, all that
+remained of this powerful baron, the clay no longer instinct with
+spirit, was soon to be enveloped in the dust, the darkness, and the
+degradation of its kindred earth.
+
+Many circumstances rendered this scene more than usually solemn and
+affecting. Robert de Lacy had died without issue to inherit these
+princely domains, the feudal inheritance of a family whose power had so
+wide a grasp, that it was currently said the Lacies might pass from
+Clitheroe Castle to their fortress at Pontefract, a journey of some
+fifty miles, and rest in a house or hostelrie of their own at every
+pause during their progress.
+
+With him ended the male line of this great family. Failing in issue, he
+had devised all these vast estates to Awbrey, his uterine sister,
+daughter of Robert de Lizours, married to Richard Fitz-Eustace, lord of
+Halton and constable of Chester.
+
+Thus ended the last of his race; and the inheritance had passed to a
+stranger.
+
+The surrounding worshippers were mostly domestics and retainers of the
+family, save Robert de Whalley, the dean of that ancient church,
+supposed to have been founded by Augustine or Paulinus in the seventh
+century, and then called "The White Church under the Leigh." No tidings
+had been heard from the Fitz-Eustace at Halton, and in two days the body
+was to be carried forth on its last pilgrimage to Kirkstall Abbey,
+founded by Henry de Lacy, father of the deceased, about forty years
+prior to this event.
+
+The beginning of February, in the year 1193, when our story commences,
+was an epoch memorable for the base and treacherous captivity of Richard
+Coeur de Lion by the Duke of Austria; and for the equally base and
+treacherous, but short-lived, usurpation of John, the brother of our
+illustrious crusader. The nation was involved in great trouble and
+dismay. The best blood of England and the flower of her nobility had
+perished on the deserts of Palestine, or were pining there in hopeless
+captivity. The house of Fitz-Eustace, into whose possession the estates
+of the Lacies were now merged, had themselves been shorn of a goodly
+scion or two from the family tree during these "holy wars."
+
+Richard Fitz-Eustace, the husband of Awbrey, died about the 24 Hen. II.
+(1178), leaving one son, John, who founded the Cistercian Abbey of
+Stanlaw in Cheshire, the present establishment of Whalley. He was slain
+at Tyre in the crusade, A.D. 1190, the second of the reign of Richard
+I., leaving issue, Richard a leper, and Roger, who followed his father
+to the Holy Land, but of whose fate no tidings had been heard since his
+departure thence on his return to Europe. Besides these were two sons,
+Eustace and Peter, and a daughter named Alice.
+
+Roger Fitz-Eustace and his friend William de Bellamonte--from whom are
+descended the Beaumonts of Whitley-Beaumont, in Yorkshire--had fought
+side by side at the memorable siege of Acre; but whether alive or dead
+the certainty was not yet known, though there might be good grounds for
+the apprehension generally entertained, that they were held in captivity
+by infidels or by princes miscalled Christian, the bitterest enemies to
+the faith they professed.
+
+Clitheroe Castle was built by Roger de Poictou, or, as he is otherwise
+called, Roger Pictavensis, of a noble family in Normandy, and related to
+the Conqueror. He led the centre of William's army at the battle of
+Hastings. King William having given him all the lands between the Mersey
+and the Ribble, he built several castles and fortresses therein,
+providing largely for his followers, from whom are descended many
+families who are still in possession of manors and estates originally
+granted by this unfortunate relative of the Conqueror. He was twice
+deprived of his honours, many of them being escheated to the crown,
+while Clitheroe Castle, together with the great fee of Pontefract, was
+bestowed on Ilbert de Lacy, a Norman follower of William.
+
+In a country not abounding with strong positions, an insulated conical
+rock of limestone rising out of the fertile plain between Penhull
+(Pendle) and the Ribble would naturally attract the attention of the
+invaders. Here, therefore, we find a fortress erected even earlier than
+the castle at Lancaster. The summit of this rock was not sufficiently
+extensive to admit of a spacious building, and probably nothing more was
+at first intended than a temporary retreat and defence from the
+predatory incursions of the Scots. The structure was, however, gradually
+enlarged, and became one of the chief residences of the Lacies. A lofty
+flanking wall ran along the brink of the rock, enclosing the keep and
+adjoining buildings, likewise the chapel of St Michael, coeval with the
+foundation of the castle, and forming part of it, being amply endowed by
+the founder, and license procured from the Dean of Whalley for the
+purpose of having divine service performed and the sacraments
+administered therein, to the household servants, foresters, and
+shepherds, who occupied these extensive and thinly-inhabited domains.
+
+In this little sanctuary now lay the remains of its lord. The cold
+February sleet pattered fitfully against the narrow panes; and the
+shivering mourners muffled themselves in their dark hoods, while they
+knelt devoutly on the hard bare pavement of the chapel. Oliver de
+Worsthorn, the old seneschal, knelt at the foot of the bier; his white
+locks covered his thin features like a veil, hiding their intense and
+heart-withering expression. He felt without a stay or helper in his last
+hours--a sapless, worthless stem in this wilderness of sorrow.
+
+Robert, the Dean of Whalley, attended as chief mourner. Being descended
+from a distant branch of the Lacies, he had long thrown a covetous
+glance towards the inheritance. A frequent guest at the castle, he had
+been useful as an auxiliary in the management and control of the secular
+concerns; the spiritual interests of its head were in the keeping of
+another and more powerful agent, little suspected by the dean of
+applying the influence he had acquired to purposes of secular
+aggrandisement.
+
+It may not be deemed irrelevant that we give a brief outline of the
+constitution or office of dean, as then held by the incumbents of
+Whalley. The beautiful abbey, now in ruins, was not as yet built. Some
+Saxon lord of [Illustration: Dpaellej] had, about the seventh century,
+founded a parish church, dedicated to All Saints, called The White
+Church under the Leigh. The first erection was of wood, many years
+afterwards replaced by a plain building of stone. The rectors or deans
+were also lords of the town, and married men, who held it not by
+presentation from the patron, but as their own patrimonial estate, the
+succession being hereditary. In this manner the deanery of Whalley was
+continued until the Lateran Council, in the year 1215, which, by
+finally prohibiting the marriage of ecclesiastics, put an end to this
+order of hereditary succession, and occasioned a resignation of the
+patronage to the chief lord of the fee, after which the church of
+Whalley sunk, by two successive appropriations, into an impoverished
+vicarage.
+
+Long before the Conquest the advowson had become far more valuable than
+the manor, and the lords, who were also patrons, saw the advantage and
+convenience of qualifying themselves by inferior orders for holding so
+rich a benefice; and thus the manor itself in time ceased to be
+considered as a lay fee, and became confounded with the glebe of the
+church.[50]
+
+The office of dean, at the period in which our history commences, had
+for centuries been considered as a dignity rather secular than
+ecclesiastical, and the pursuits of the incumbent had doubtless
+assimilated generally with those of his lay associates. Indeed, it is
+recorded that Dean Liulphus, in the reign of Canute, had the name of
+Cutwulph, from having cut off a wolf's tail whilst hunting in the
+forest of Rossendale, at a place called Ledmesgreve, or more properly
+Deansgreve. Like many other ancient and dignified ecclesiastics, they
+were mighty hunters, enjoying their privileges unmolested through a vast
+region of forest land then unenclosed, and were only inferior in
+jurisdiction to the feudal lords of these domains. "On the whole, then,
+it appears," says Dr Whitaker, "that the Dean of Whalley was compounded
+of patron, incumbent, ordinary, and lord of the manor; an assemblage
+which may possibly have met in later times, and in some places of exempt
+jurisdiction, but at that time probably an _unique_ in the history of
+the English church."
+
+Robert de Whalley, the incumbent before named, was not a whit behind his
+progenitors in that laudable exercise of worldly wisdom and forethought,
+as it regarded matters of a temporal and transitory nature. His bearing
+was proud, and his aspect keen; his form was muscular, and more fitted
+for some hardy and rigorous exercise than for the generally self-denying
+and peaceful offices of the Catholic Church. In his youth he had the
+reputation of being much disposed to gallantry; and the same proneness
+to intrigue was yet manifest, though employed in pursuits of a less
+transitory nature. His disappointment was, in consequence, greatly
+augmented when these long-coveted possessions were given to another, and
+his ambitious dreams dissipated. Yet was he not without hope that the
+succession of the Fitz-Eustace family might be frustrated. The leper
+would of necessity be passed over, and, Roger being either dead or in
+captivity, the revenues and usurpation of this distant and almost
+inaccessible territory might still be enjoyed without molestation or
+inquiry. Such were the meditations of this plotting ecclesiastic, as he
+knelt before the altar in that solemn hour, in the chapel of "_St
+Michael in Castro_."
+
+The walls of the chapel, or rather chantry, were smeared with black; and
+in front of the screen were portrayed uncouth representations of the
+arms and insignia of the deceased. A pall was thrown over the body, and
+a plate of salt, as an emblem of incorruptibility, placed on the
+corpse--a heathenish custom borrowed from the Druids. The candles burnt
+dimly at the little altar, and the cold and bitter wind threw the
+shadows in many a grotesque and startling shape on the dark bare walls
+which enclosed them. It was an hour and a scene that superstition might
+have chosen for manifesting her power; and many an anxious glance was
+thrown towards the dark recesses out of which imagination was ready to
+conjure some grim spectre, invested with all the horrors that monkish
+legends had created. The priest who officiated was an unbeneficed
+clergyman, long known as an inmate of the castle. He was of a quiet and
+inoffensive disposition, but much attached to his lord; often during the
+service grief stayed his utterance, and he mingled his loud sobs with
+those of the surrounding worshippers.
+
+The _dirage_ was concluded, and vespers for the dead were now commencing
+with the "_Placebo Domino_." The priest with his loud rich voice sang or
+recited the anthem, and the attendants gave the response in a low and
+muttering sound. Just as he was beginning the fumigation with a sign of
+the cross, to drive away demons and unclean spirits from the body,
+suddenly a loud, deep, and startling blast was heard from the horn at
+the outer gate. The whole assembly started up from their devotions, and
+every eye was turned towards the dean, as though to watch and take the
+colour of their proceedings from those of his reverence. He lifted his
+eyes from the corpse, which lay with the face and shoulders uncovered;
+and, as if startled from some bewildering reverie, cried aloud--
+
+"What untimely visitor art thou, disturbing the sad offices of the
+dead?"
+
+He paused, as though the sound of his own voice had disturbed him; while
+wrapping himself in his cloak, he hastily approached Oliver, who stood
+irresolute, not knowing how to act in this unexpected emergency. De
+Whalley pointed towards the door, and the seneschal prepared to obey,
+accompanied by the porter with a light, and one or two attendants.
+
+Immediately outside the chapel the way led down a steep angle of the
+rock, which Oliver, by dint of much use and experience, descended
+without any apparent difficulty, save what arose from the slippery state
+of the path, which rendered the footing more than usually precarious and
+uncertain.
+
+Again, the blast brayed forth a louder and more impatient summons,
+startling the echoes from their midnight slumber, while the deep woods
+answered from a thousand unseen recesses.
+
+"Hang thee for a saucy loon, whoever thou be! I'll warrant thee as much
+impudence in thy face as wind i' thy muzzle," said the disturbed
+seneschal. "Tarry a while, Hugo; ope not the gate without a parley,
+despite the knave's untimely summons."
+
+Oliver, hobbling onward, reached the wicket, just then occupied by
+Hugo's broad and curious face prying out cautiously into the misty and
+unintelligible void, without being a whit the wiser for his scrutiny.
+
+"What a plague do ye keep honest men a-waiting for at the gate," said a
+gruff voice from the pitchy darkness without, "in a night that would
+make a soul wish for a dip into purgatory, just by way of a warming?"
+
+"Hush," said Oliver, who was a true son of the Church, and moreover,
+being fresh from the services appointed for the recovery of poor souls
+from this untoward place, felt the remark of the stranger as peculiarly
+impious and full of blasphemy--"Hush! thou bold-faced scorner, and learn
+to furbish thy wit from some other armoury; we like not such unholy
+jests--firebrands thrown in sport! Thy business, friend?"
+
+"Open the gate, good master priest-poke," said the other, in a tone of
+authority.
+
+"Not until thou showest thine errand," said the equally imperative
+interrogator within; who, having the unequivocal and somewhat ponderous
+advantage of a pair of stout-built and well-furnished gates to back, or
+rather face, him in the controversy, was consequently in a fair way for
+keeping on the strong side of the argument.
+
+"Now, o' my troth, but ye be a pair of rude curs, barking from a warm
+kennel at your betters, who are shivering in the cold, without so much
+as a bone to pick, or a wisp of straw to their tails! Well, well, 'tis
+soon said; every dog, you know,--and 'twill be my turn soon. I come
+hither from the castle at Halton, where my Lady Fitz-Eustace would lay
+your curs' noses to the grinding-stone; but, rest her soul, she will not
+long be above ground, I trow. Know then, masters, I am her seneschal,
+whom she sends with a goodly train to the burying. Quick, old goat-face,
+or we will singe thy beard to light thee to our discovery."
+
+The gates were immediately unbolted at this command, opening wide before
+so dignified a personage, who, as the representative of the
+Fitz-Eustace, was evidently impressed with a sufficient sense of his own
+importance, while he and his attendants rode through the grim Norman
+arch into the courtyard. The uppermost extreme of this illustrious
+functionary was surmounted with a sort of Phrygian-shaped bonnet or cap,
+made of deerskin, suitably ornamented. A mantle or cloak of a dark
+mulberry colour, fancifully embroidered on the hem, was clasped upon one
+shoulder by a silver buckle. Underneath was a short upper riding-tunic
+made of coarse woollen, partly covering an under-vest made of finer
+materials. A leathern girdle was buckled round his loins, having sundry
+implements attached thereto, requisite during the performance of so long
+a journey through a thinly-inhabited region. The upper garment scarcely
+covered the knee, over which stockings of red cloth were seen, reaching
+half-way up the thigh; round the leg were bandages or cross-garterings
+well bespattered with mud; low boots or buskins protected the feet and
+ankles; to these spurs were fastened, the head being spear-shaped and
+something crooked in the shank. His beard was forked, and this
+appendage, apparently the result of a careful and anxious cultivation,
+he occasionally twisted with one hand whilst speaking. He carried a
+lance, or rather hunting-spear, which he wielded with an air of great
+formality and display; his followers were likewise furnished each of
+them with a cloak and tunic, and a conical cap of coarse felt tied under
+the chin with a leathern band: a girdle of the same material was buckled
+round the waist, with a scrip and other necessaries for the journey.
+They rode horses of the Welsh breed, small and stout-built; spoil
+captured, in all probability, from that rebellious and unruly nation.
+
+The entry of this armed train was more like an act of taking possession
+than that of a peaceable and formal embassage; and the newly-arrived
+seneschal soon began to exercise the office of governor or castellan,
+seizing the reins of government with an iron grasp. He was a square
+carroty-headed personage, about the middle size, and of a ruddy aspect.
+He held an office of trust under the Fitz-Eustace, and, spite of his
+saucy garrulity, in which he indulged on most occasions, he was
+faithful, and would have challenged and immolated any one who had dared
+to question the right of the Fitz-Eustace to precedence before any other
+baron of the land. Long service rendered him more intrusive than would
+have been thought becoming, or even excusable in any other enjoying less
+of his mistress's confidence.
+
+"Now, my merry men all," said this authoritative personage, "a long and
+a weary path have we ridden to-day; and had we not been, as it were,
+lost in your savage wildernesses--where our guide, whom we forced before
+us by dint of blows and hard usage, could scarce keep us in the right
+track--we had been here before sunset. Thanks to this saint of yours,
+whosoever he be, for we saw the watchlights at times from the chapel, as
+we guessed, else had we been longer in hitting our mark, and might,
+peradventure, have supped with the wolves on a haunch of venison. Now
+for the stables. What! have ye no knaves hereabout to help our followers
+with the beasts?"
+
+Oliver, much troubled at this loquacious and unceremonious address,
+replied with some acrimony--
+
+"The household are in the chapel, where it had been better thou hadst
+let us bide, and given the corpse a quiet watchnight--the vigils for the
+dead are not ended."
+
+"Go to, master seneschal, for of this post I do adjudge thee, and
+reverence thine office in respect of mine own, but let dead men make
+their own lanterns; we must have supper anyhow, and that right
+speedily."
+
+Oliver, after seeing the gate secured, sent Hugo for help, whilst he led
+the way himself into the hall of this once formidable fortress. It was
+high and gloomy, the fire being apparently extinguished. A step on the
+floor showed where the higher table was placed, prohibiting those
+beneath a certain rank from advancing upon the skirts of their
+superiors; an indispensable precaution, when servants and retainers of
+all sorts ate their meals with the master of the feast. Perches for
+hawks, in form like unto a crutch, were placed behind his chair; for
+these birds were usually taught to sit hoodless in the evening among
+company undisturbed. Hunting-spears, jackets, chain-armour, shields, and
+helmets, decorated the walls; and many a goodly heritage of antlers
+hung, like forest boughs stripped of their verdure. There were two
+oriels furnished with leaning-stones for the convenience of loungers.
+Painted glass filled the higher portions of the windows, representing
+uncouth heads, hands, feet, and bodies of saints, in all the glowing and
+gorgeous magnificence which the beam of heaven can give to colours of
+more than earthly brightness, though disposed in forms of more than
+childish absurdity.
+
+The hall, the usual rendezvous of the household, was now deserted for
+the dread solemnities of that cheerless night. But the stranger was much
+discouraged by reason of the coldness and gloom, shivering audibly at
+the comfortless appearance that was before him.
+
+"St Martin's malison light on ye--fire, billets, and all--I've seen
+nothing like to warm my bare nose and knuckles since we left Halton, two
+long days agone. Verily, to my thinking, there's as much timber burnt
+there daily as ye would pile here for a winter's use."
+
+"Prithee come with me into the kitchen, we may have better quarters
+peradventure among the fleshpots," said Oliver, leading the stranger
+through a small doorway on the left. This _coquinus_ of our ancestors
+was usually placed near the hall, for the convenience of serving. Here,
+through a sliding aperture in the panel, the victuals were transferred
+with safety and despatch. It was built entirely of stone, having a
+conical roof with a turret at the top for the escape of steam and smoke.
+A fire was still burning, provided with a large cauldron suspended on a
+sort of versatile gibbet, by which contrivance it could be withdrawn
+from the flame. Fire-rakes and fire-jacks were laid on the hearth, and
+around the walls were iron pots, trivets, pans, kettles, ladles,
+platters, and other implements of domestic economy. Huge dressers
+displayed symptoms of preparation for to-morrow's necessities, and a
+coarse kitchen-wench was piling fuel on the ever-burning fire.
+
+The envoy, glad to be ensconced so near the blaze, quickly addressed
+himself to the task of improving it by a dexterous use of a huge faggot
+by way of poker. He had thrown off his upper clothing; and the grim
+walls soon reddened with the rising glow. So intent was he on an
+occupation which he evidently enjoyed, that he was not aware when Oliver
+departed, the latter slipping off unobserved to the chapel for the
+purpose of informing the dean of this arrival.
+
+In one part of the kitchen was a long low-roofed recess, accessible only
+by a ladder, wherein dried meats, consisting of bacon, ham, deers'
+tongues, mutton, venison, and other dainties of the like nature, were
+stored. To this inviting receptacle was the attention of our guest more
+especially directed. Without ceremony or invitation he ascended, and
+drawing out a formidable weapon from his belt he commenced a furious
+attack.
+
+Oliver, on his return, found this worthy usurping the functions of both
+cook and consumer of the victual with great assiduity. He was
+accompanied by the dean, who addressed the intruder as follows:--
+
+"How is it that we have none from the noble house of Fitz-Eustace save
+thou and thy company?"
+
+The messenger looked askance from his occupation, disposing of a large
+mouthful of the viands with sufficient deliberation ere he vouchsafed a
+reply.
+
+"Me and my company! As goodly a band, I trow, as ever put foot to
+stirrup or fist to crupper! yet will I resolve thy question plain as
+Beeston Castle. My lady is old, and her only son died long ago on a
+crusade. Her third grandson, now in the office of constable, is out
+amongst the Welsh--plague on their fiery blood!--by reason of the
+absence of his elder brother, Roger, yet abroad in these Holy Wars. Of
+the eldest born, Richard, we know not but that he is deceased. He left
+the castle many years ago, sorely afflicted, for he was a leper. So
+that, peradventure, my lady hath sent the best man she had, inasmuch as
+I am steward and seneschal, being appointed thereto through her
+ladyship's great wisdom and discretion."
+
+Here he surveyed himself with an air of indescribable assurance and
+satisfaction.
+
+"And, saving your presence," continued the deputy, "I come here as
+castellan, or governor, until he whose right it is shall possess it."
+
+"And how know we that we be not opening our gates and surrendering our
+castle to some losel knave, whose only title may lie on the tip of his
+tongue, and his right on the end of his rapier?"
+
+"By this token," said the seneschal haughtily, at the same time drawing
+out a formal instrument, to which was appended the broad seal of the
+ancient house of Fitz-Eustace.
+
+The dean cast his eyes over the document, returning it to the messenger
+without either answer or inquiry, and immediately retired from the
+presence of this usurper on his long-coveted possessions.
+
+Much chagrined by so unexpected an interference, he left the castle,
+even at this untimely hour. Yet his footsteps were not bent towards the
+shadow of his own roof, the deanery at Whalley.
+
+Outside the castle wall, and on the steepest side of the hill, was a
+little hermitage, wherein dwelt one of those reputed saints that dealt
+in miracles and prayers for the benefit of the "true believers." Many of
+these solitaries were well skilled in craft and intrigue; others,
+doubtless, deceived themselves as well as others in the belief that
+Heaven had granted them the power to suspend and control the operations
+of nature. To this habitation, occupied by one of these holy santons of
+the Church, were the steps of the dean immediately directed. He raised
+the latch as though accustomed to this familiarity. The chamber, a high
+narrow cell, scooped out of the rock, was quite dark; but the voice was
+heard, a deep sepulchral tone, as though issuing from the ground--
+
+"Art thou here so soon, De Whalley?"
+
+"Sir Ulphilas," said the intruder hastily, and with some degree of
+agitation, "canst work miracles now? The Canaanites are come into the
+land to possess it; nor will threatenings and conjurations drive them
+forth."
+
+"I know it," said the hermit, who, though unseen, had not, it seems,
+been an inattentive observer of the events of the last two hours. A
+light suddenly shot forth, enkindled as if by magic, showing the tall
+gaunt form of the "Holy Hermit of the Rock." He was dressed in a long
+grey garment of coarse woollen. It was said that he wore an iron corslet
+next his skin, for mortification, it was thought by the vulgar; but
+whether for this purpose, or for one of a more obvious nature, it would
+perhaps be easy to surmise. A girdle of plaited horse-hair encompassed
+his thin attenuated form. His head was uncovered; and he seemed to have
+just risen from his couch, a board or shelf, raised only a few inches
+from the rock on which it lay. His eye was wild, quick, and sparkling;
+but his cheek was deadly pale, and his features collapsed and haggard in
+their expression.
+
+"I have dreamed a dream," said the visionary.
+
+"And to what end?" inquired his visitor, seating himself with great
+deliberation.
+
+"Nay, 'twas not a dream," continued the hermit: "St Michael stood before
+me this blessed night, arrayed as thou seest him portrayed in the glass
+of his holy chapel above. His armour was all bright and glistering, and
+his sword a devouring flame. He flapped his wings thrice ere he
+departed, and said unto me, 'Arise, Ulphilas, and work, for thine hour
+is come!'"
+
+"And what the better am I," said the irreverent priest, "for this
+saintly revelation? I must work too, or "------
+
+"Hold," said the hermit, laying his hand on the other's shoulder with
+great solemnity; "speak not unadvisedly with thy lips; there be created
+intelligences within hearing that thou little knowest of."
+
+"Thou didst promise; but verily the substance hath slidden from my
+grasp: whilst I, fond fool, embraced a shadow. Cajoled by thine
+assurance, that my blood should be with the proud current that inherits
+these domains, I forebore, and let thee work. But thou hast been a
+traitor to my cause I do verily suspect, nay, accuse thee of this fraud.
+Thy machinations and thy counsel were the cause. By thine accursed arts
+Robert de Lacy hath left his patrimony to a stranger!"
+
+"True, I counselled him thus. What then?"
+
+"I and mine are barred from the inheritance!"
+
+"Shall the word of the Hermit of the Rock fall to the ground? Have I not
+promised that thy blood shall be with those that inherit these domains?"
+
+"Promises are slender food for an hungry stomach," cried the unbeliever.
+
+"If the promise fail, blame thy dastardly fears, and not my power. Thou
+shalt see the promised land thou shalt not inherit. Thy son shall
+receive the blessing."
+
+The dean looked for a moment as though he could have fawned and
+supplicated for a reversion of the decree; but pride or anger had the
+mastery.
+
+"And so," cried he, "thou findest thy predictions run counter to thy
+schemes, perdie; for thou dost mock me in them with a double sense."
+
+"How, false one? Have I not wrought for thee? Hath not he, whose corpse
+now resteth in hope, overwhelmed thee with his favours through my
+counsel and contrivance? I owed thee a service, for thou wast my stay
+and sustenance when driven hither an outcast from the haunts of men. But
+thoughtest thou that I should pander to thy lust, and hew out a pathway
+to thy desire?"
+
+"To me this!" said the covetous intruder, his voice quivering with rage.
+
+"Yes, to thee, Robert de Whalley," replied the hermit: "because thou
+hast not leaped the last height of thine ambition, forsooth--because
+thou art not lord of these wide domains, through my interest and holy
+communion with the departed--and because I have not basely sold myself
+to thee, thou art offended. Beware lest the endowment be wrested from
+thy grasp, the glebe and manor pass away from thine inheritance."
+
+"Thou hadst the privity and counsel of the deceased, and a whisper would
+have made it mine," said the dean, with great dejection.
+
+"Greedy and unblushing as thou art, know it was I who counselled him,
+and the deed is in my keeping. I sent a secret message unto Halton with
+the news, and Roger de Fitz-Eustace will be here anon!"
+
+"Thou dreamest; he is in bondage, or slain at Ascalon."
+
+"He will reappear," replied the hermit, "and the banner of the
+Fitz-Eustace wave on yonder turret. Hence! ungrateful member of our holy
+communion;--to thy house, and let an old man rest in peace."
+
+The disappointed priest departed in great haste: terror, of which he
+could not divest himself, and for which he could not account,
+overpowered him in the presence of the hermit. He durst not provoke him
+further; but as he crossed the courtyard again a glimpse of hope shot
+suddenly on his soul.
+
+"In thy keeping!" He spoke scarcely above his breath; but the walls
+seemed to give back the sound. He started like some guilty thing at the
+discovery of its crime.
+
+Before morning light on the following day the castle bell began to toll.
+Preparations were making for the conveyance of the last of the Ladies to
+the Abbey of Kirkstall, a journey which would occupy the greater part of
+two successive days. The pathway over the hills was narrow, and the mode
+of conveyance difficult, if not dangerous. A sort of litter was made for
+the corpse, and slung on a pole between two horses, covered, as in a
+bier, with the pall and trappings. A sword of ceremony was carried in
+front; the dean rode immediately before the body, the chanters
+preceding, and a priest with the cross and censer. Behind came the male
+domestics, and the seneschal of Halton with his train.
+
+Psalms were sung at every halting-place, and in the villages through
+which they passed, and torches were kept lighted during the greater part
+of the journey. These were for the purpose of being extinguished in the
+earth that should finally cover the body.
+
+Thus attired, and thus attended, was this once powerful baron conveyed
+to his narrow dwelling-house in the dust.
+
+We will not follow them further, nor detail the pomp of the funeral
+rites, that last mockery of greatness, but return to existing objects
+and events--man's ever-gnawing ambition; so vast, when living, that the
+whole earth is too narrow for its sphere; when dead, the veriest churl
+hath as wide a possession!
+
+Weeks and months passed away, and the raw February wind grew soft in the
+warm and joyous impulse of another spring. One night, about the hour of
+vespers, two men, habited in monkish apparel, came to the cell of the
+Hermit of the Rock. After the usual salutation they entered, carrying
+with them staff and scrip, as if bent on a long and weary travel.
+
+"Whence come ye, and whither bound?" said the hermit, surveying the
+intruders by the light of a solitary lamp that was burning in a niche,
+wherein stood a skull and crucifix, emblems of our faith and our
+mortality.
+
+"We are from the Abbey of Stanlaw, on our way to Kirkstall in the
+morning."
+
+"Wherefore abide ye here? There is lodging and better cheer withal in
+the castle above."
+
+"We are under a vow, and rest not save on holy ground: we crave thy
+hospitality, therefore, and shelter for the night."
+
+"Is your errand to Kirkstall hidden, or is it an open embassage?"
+
+"The Lady Fitz-Eustace sendeth greeting by our ministry unto the holy
+abbot through our superior at Stanlaw, beseeching that he would make
+diligent inquiry touching the will of Robert de Lacy, once lord of this
+goodly heritage. She hath had news of his demise, and likewise another
+message with an assurance that every of these possessions have been
+devised to the Fitz-Eustace by his last will and testament. Yet this
+writing she has not yet seen, nor knoweth she into whose custody it hath
+been given. Apprehending the great favours which the Cistercian house at
+Kirkstall hath received from the Lacies, and the close intimacy which
+the abbot once enjoyed, she doth conjecture that, in all likelihood, the
+testament is in his keeping."
+
+"Your journey hath need of none other reference, for the will is in my
+custody."
+
+"In thine, Sir Ulphilas?"
+
+"How! know ye my name already?" said the hermit sharply, and a fierce
+glance shot from under his high and pallid brow.
+
+"Holy St Agatha! and has not the fame and sanctity of the Hermit of the
+Rock gone forth to many lands! Where the broad Mersey and the silver Dee
+roll their bright waters, thou art known by thy holiness and thy faith."
+
+"And how is our good brother Roger, abbot of your monastery at Stanlaw?"
+inquired the hermit, not deigning to notice their fulsome and flattering
+epithets.
+
+"Holy Virgin! how knowest thou his name?"
+
+"And hath not the fame of your holy abbot, and the sanctity of your
+house, reached us even here?" said the hermit, with a look of scrutiny
+and scorn. The visitors were silent. The hermit seized the lamp, and
+surveyed their persons with much care and deliberation.
+
+"Holy father," said the abashed intruders, "we crave thy blessing, and
+moreover a share of thy pittance, for our way hath been long and
+toilsome: since yesterday our journeying hath been over hills and
+through deep forests, infested by wolves and noisome beasts, which we
+had much ado to escape."
+
+The hermit drew a little table from the recess, blowing the wan embers
+until a cheerful blaze flashed brightly through the cell. He then opened
+a cupboard scooped out of the solid rock, and took thence a scrap of
+hard cheese, a barley cake, and a few parched peas, with which the holy
+men commenced their supper. They ate their meal in silence, washing down
+the dainties with a draught from the spring. When the repast was
+finished, one of the brethren thus addressed his host--
+
+"And what shall be thy message to our holy abbot? Wilt thou send the
+parchments to his grace?"
+
+"Nay, brethren, that is not my purpose."
+
+Another and a brief pause ensued.
+
+"But the message?"
+
+"Say that the will is here,"--he looked towards his bosom as he
+spoke,--"and at the appointed hour it shall be ready. When Roger de
+Fitz-Eustace comes hither, his claim shall be duly certified."
+
+"Alas!" said the wayfaring guests, in a tone of deep sorrow and
+apprehension, "he went on a warfare against the infidels."
+
+"He will return," was the reply.
+
+"The Virgin grant him a safe deliverance! but he tarrieth long, and a
+rumour hath lately been abroad that he fell at Ascalon."
+
+"'Tis false!" cried the hermit, roused to an unexpected burst of wrath.
+His eyes kindled with rage, and he darted a glance at the intruders
+which made them cower and shrink from his rebuke. In a moment he grew
+calm, relapsing into his usual moody and thoughtful attitude. Taking
+courage, they again addressed him.
+
+"Is this thy message to the abbot of Stanlaw? If so, our errand hath but
+a sorry recompense."
+
+"And what recompense should fall to the lot of miscreants like ye?" said
+the hermit, surveying them with a contemptuous glance. "I hear the sound
+of your master's feet behind ye. Tell Robert, the proud Dean of Whalley,
+that when he sends ye next on so goodly an errand, to see that ye con
+your lesson more carefully, else will ye be known for a couple of errant
+knaves as ever went a-mousing into an owl's nest! Hence, begone!" said
+the hermit, as he drave them from his threshold; and the counterfeit
+monks went back to Whalley in haste, reporting the ill success of their
+mission.
+
+"Nevertheless," said De Whalley, "I have some clue to the search, if
+the glance of his eye, which these varlets have reported, do show truly
+where the treasure is hidden. I will foil the old fox yet with his own
+weapons."
+
+This comfortable reflection, in all probability, moderated his anger at
+the unskilful disposition of his messengers, whom he dismissed with
+little ceremony from his presence.
+
+In the meantime the new castellan was exercising his power with
+unsparing and immoderate severity. Oliver de Wortshorn was almost
+heartbroken; the old man suddenly found himself reduced to the condition
+of a mere dependant on the self-will and caprice of this petty tyrant,
+his authority having been usurped, and his office wrested from him, by
+the hand of a stranger. Adam de Dutton[51] was the name of this new
+functionary, and he rode it out bravely over the necks of the servants
+and retainers, discharging some, punishing others, and making the whole
+community groan beneath the iron yoke of his oppression. Had there been
+a master-spirit to wield the elements of conspiracy, and unite the
+several members, so as to act from one common impulse, matters were just
+ripe for rebellion.
+
+Early in the morning, after a day of more than ordinary discipline,
+Oliver bent his feeble steps to the hermitage. He laid his complaints
+before the occupier of the cell, who was ever ready to administer aid
+and comfort to the afflicted.
+
+"Take little heed of the deputy now," said the holy man, "his master
+will be here anon. I hear the tramp of armed men, with the herald's
+trumpet. I see the red griffin, and the banner of the Fitz-Eustace."
+
+"But, holy father, Sir Ulphilas," replied the ejected steward, "there is
+no peace either by night or day, and we are nigh worn out with his
+waywardness and oppression. If it might be that your reverence would
+come with me, peradventure the churl would grow tame at your presence."
+
+The hermit, complying with this importunity, accompanied Oliver to the
+castle.
+
+In the hall Adam de Dutton was about consigning one of the villains,
+for some venial offence, unto the whipping-post and the stocks. The
+accused besought his inexorable judge for some remission of the
+sentence, falling on his knees before him just as the hermit, with great
+solemnity, entered the hall. His face was partly concealed by a large
+hood, and little of his countenance was visible above the long beard
+which flowed over his bosom, and the fire of his eye, which seemed to
+glow through the dark shadows beneath.
+
+"Whom bring ye next for our disposal?" inquired the castellan; but there
+was no answer; every eye was directed to the hermit, who came slowly
+forward, standing opposite to, and within a very short distance from,
+the dread arbiter of justice in the castle of the Lacies.
+
+"What brings thee to our presence? Back to thy sanctuary; else we may
+deal with thee as with other knaves who live by their wits and the
+witlessness of fools."
+
+"What hath this man done amiss?" inquired the hermit, in a tone that
+showed his meekness to be disturbed, and his wrath evidently kindling;
+nor would the thunder be long ere it followed the flash.
+
+"It is our pleasure!" answered Adam de Dutton, reddening with rage; "and
+furthermore our pleasure is, that thou get thee to thy cell, or, by the
+beard of St Michael, my bowmen shall help thee thither when this fellow
+hath had his allowance at their hands."
+
+"Fool!" cried the hermit, in a voice which struck terror through the
+assembly; and even the judge himself started back with amazement.
+
+"Begone, child!" said Ulphilas to the culprit; "I dismiss thee of the
+punishment; peradventure thou hast deserved to suffer, but I give to
+this emissary a timely warning thereby."
+
+The criminal was not loth to obey, disappearing speedily without
+hindrance, while the spectators were mute with amazement. The hermit,
+too, was silent before the usurper, who, almost frantic with vexation,
+cried out--
+
+"Seize him!--help, for the Fitz-Eustace!--treason against our Lady of
+Halton!"
+
+Uttering many rapid and incoherent expressions, he approached the
+hermit, who stood unmoved, apparently the only unconcerned spectator in
+the rising tumult. The seneschal's guards were already in motion, but
+Adam was the first who attempted the seizure.
+
+The holy man drew back, as though from some touch of pollution.
+
+"Hold!" cried he, "one touch and 'tis thy last. Rash fool, thou hast
+provoked this rebuke!"
+
+The hand of the seneschal had scarcely been put forth, when, lo! the
+astonished deputy shrank back in dismay. A sudden change came over his
+angry countenance--a look of surprise mingled with horror, as though he
+could have wished the earth to gape and hide him from the object of his
+apprehensions. He stood trembling, speechless, pale as ashes, expecting
+immediate and condign punishment. So suddenly this change was wrought
+that the spectators fancied it to be some direct interposition from
+heaven; concluding that he was smitten for the sacreligious and profane
+hand he had dared to stretch toward this holy man. Yet was the change
+not so sudden but that a quick-eyed observer, if such were there, might
+have seen the hermit's outer garment loosened for a moment, and a
+significant whisper which the other evidently heard with such visible
+tokens of alarm.
+
+Ulphilas immediately retired to his cell, and from that hour the
+castellan discharged his official duties evidently under the control of
+some overmastering influence or apprehension.
+
+Not long afterwards it was rumoured abroad that tidings had been heard
+from Roger de Fitz-Eustace, who was supposed either to be in captivity
+or to have fallen at the siege of Ascalon.
+
+The king was still detained in prison by the Emperor Henry VI., and it
+was only through the remonstrance of the German princes, and a threat of
+excommunication from the Pope, that Henry, finding he could no longer
+hold him in durance, concluded a treaty for his ransom at the exorbitant
+sum of 150,000 marks, about L300,000 of our money; of which sum
+two-thirds were to be paid before he received his liberty, and
+sixty-seven hostages delivered for the remainder. The captivity of the
+superior lord was one of those cases provided for by the feudal tenures,
+and all vassals were, in that event, obliged to contribute towards his
+ransom. Twenty shillings were therefore levied on each knight's fee
+throughout England; but as this money came in slowly, and was not
+sufficient for the intended purpose, the voluntary zeal of the people
+readily supplied the deficiency.
+
+The churches and monasteries melted down their plate to the amount of
+30,000 marks; the bishops, abbots, and nobles paid a fourth of their
+yearly rent; the parochial clergy contributed a tenth of their tithes;
+and the requisite sum being thus collected, the queen-mother and Walter,
+Archbishop of Rouen, set out with it to Germany, paid the money to the
+emperor and the Duke of Austria at Mentz, delivered to them hostages for
+the remainder, and freed Richard from captivity.[52]
+
+During these important negotiations two messengers arrived at Clitheroe,
+who in consequence of the deputy's absence for a season, held a secret
+conference with the Dean of Whalley ere they departed. An order was left
+that the castle should be forthwith in readiness for the reception of
+some distinguished guest. In those days tidings travelled slowly in such
+thinly-populated districts; like the heath-fire, which extends rapidly
+where the fuel is thickly strewn, but is tardy in spreading where it is
+less abundant.
+
+The dean, having received the messengers, took special care that the
+knowledge of their arrival should be kept, if possible, from the ears
+and eyes of Adam de Dutton, who happened for several days at that season
+to be hunting in the forest, where a mighty slaughter of game--wolves,
+bears, and such like--was the result; in which dangerous pastime,
+Geoffery, the dean's only son, acted a distinguished part. This bold
+adventurer was accounted the most skilful hunter in the whole range of
+these vast forests, where the venison was so strictly kept that the life
+of a man was held in but little estimation, comparatively, with the care
+and preservation of a beast.
+
+The Deans of Whalley, as we have before seen, were mighty hunters in
+those days; and a wild and picturesque story is told in Dugdale's _Mon.
+Angl._. v. i., to which we have before alluded--to wit, that the
+great-grandfather of the present incumbent, Liwlphus Cutwolph, cut off a
+wolf's tail whilst hunting, from which he acquired this surname.
+Geoffery inherited a more than ordinary passion for the chase. With his
+bow and hunting-spear he had been known to spend many days in these deep
+and trackless recesses, where the feet of man rarely trod, and the wild
+roe and the eagle had their almost inaccessible haunts. Adam was often
+his only companion; the seneschal's partiality for the sport having
+rendered these dissimilar spirits more akin than their nature had
+otherwise permitted.
+
+On the evening of a sultry day Ulphilas had thrown himself on his couch,
+when, without warning or intimation, the Dean of Whalley stood beside
+him.
+
+"The holy hermit hath betaken himself early to his repose. How fareth he
+in this hard cell? 'Tis long since we have met."
+
+"Peradventure it might have been longer, had not news travelled to thine
+ear touching the safety of the Fitz-Eustace and his speedy arrival,"
+said the hermit, without so much as turning his eyes toward his visitor.
+Robert de Whalley stood silent and aghast. This was a direct and
+unequivocal testimony to the prescience of the good father, for to no
+ears but his own had the tidings been communicated.
+
+"Thou knowest of his return?"
+
+"Yes, ere the knowledge was thine," said the hermit carelessly.
+
+"There is little use in secrecy where the very walls possess a tongue;
+and seeing that the first part of mine errand is known, it may be thou
+art as well instructed in the latter, which is the true purport of my
+visit."
+
+"I am," replied the other quickly, now for the first time fixing his
+eyes on the intruder, "and of the issue too, I trow."
+
+"Ah!" said the dean, with a long-drawn exclamation of surprise, and a
+sudden gasp as though he would have held the secret more tightly to his
+bosom; "and who"--
+
+"Nay, thou art but obeying the impulse of thy nature," said the hermit,
+musing. "The brutes ye hunt obey their common instinct--and thou--Yet
+the ravening wolf and the cunning fox ye follow, and worry to their
+death."
+
+"Death!" cried the dean; "what meanest thou?"
+
+"Did I not counsel thee to beware? But thou wilt tumble into thine own
+pitfall. The trap is laid for thine own feet!"
+
+The hermit sat on the low couch, and he gazed wildly round the cell as
+though pursuing some object visible only to himself.
+
+"Give me the parchments committed to thy trust by De Lacy, and I will
+build a house to thy good saint, enriching it with rare endowments."
+
+"Thou wouldest drive a thrifty bargain with Heaven. Verily thou
+shouldst have the best on 't, though," replied the hermit, with a
+contemptuous smile.
+
+"Truly I could but return to Heaven the bounties that it gave; yet would
+I, peradventure, build, for His honour and glory, to whom all things
+belong, a habitation, the like whereof hath not been seen for
+stateliness and grandeur," said the dean, with affected reverence and
+humility of spirit.
+
+"Others may do that as well as thou."
+
+"But will he, whose coming is now at hand, make so costly a sacrifice
+for the welfare of the Church? I will found an abbey, holy father,
+consecrate to thy patron, wherein thou shalt be the ruler. I purpose to
+enrich it with half my possessions, even of those whereby, through thy
+ministry, I do become entitled from the death of Robert de Lacy."
+
+"Which meaneth, if I but aid thee to rob another of some large and
+goodly inheritance, thou wilt give to Heaven, forsooth, a portion of
+what belongs not to thee."
+
+"Once thou didst promise me thine aid."
+
+"To robbery and rapine?"
+
+"I have not wronged _thee_!"
+
+"Nor I"--
+
+"Thou hast; the inheritance is mine; thou hast robbed me of my right,
+but I will regain these lands or perish on them."
+
+"And so thou mayest, unblushing traitor."
+
+"Traitor!--ah! this word to me?"
+
+"Yes, to thee, Robert de Whalley!"
+
+"Thou art in my power, old man; ere I entered thy cell I left a trusty
+keeper at the door," cried the dean, with a grin of savage exultation.
+
+"In thy power!--never, miscreant."
+
+"Give the deed to my keeping, and no harm shall happen thee; refuse, and
+thou art my prisoner. Force may accomplish my wishes without thy
+compliance."
+
+The hermit's eyes glistened like twin fires in their hollow recesses. He
+stood erect, confronting his visitor, who, bold in audacity and guilt,
+repeated his demand.
+
+"Never!" said the hermit.
+
+"Then die, fond dotard!" cried De Whalley; and, sudden as the
+lightning-stroke, he drew a dagger from his vest, aiming a blow at the
+hermit's bosom; but, marvellous to relate, the steel hardly penetrated
+the folds of his drapery, glancing back with a dull sound, his person
+remaining uninjured. A look of unutterable scorn curled the features of
+the charmed, and apparently invulnerable, being before him.
+
+"Cowardly assassin!" he cried, "I hold thy threats at less worth than a
+handful of this base dust beneath my feet, and utterly defy thy power. I
+am free as the untrammelled air, and thou mayest as well attempt to
+grasp the shadow or the sunbeam!"
+
+Swift as the words he uttered the hermit disappeared! The effect was so
+sudden, aided, in all likelihood, by the dimness and obscurity of the
+cell, that, to the astonished apprehension of De Whalley, Ulphilas had
+made himself more impalpable than the air he breathed, sinking like a
+shadow through the rocky floor.
+
+"Thou hast escaped me, fiend," said the dean, gnashing his teeth with
+vexation; "but I will overmatch thy spells: with the aid of this good
+hand I may yet retrieve the inheritance."
+
+Saying this, he left the cell, and returned to his home at Whalley.
+
+Early on the morrow the hermit entered the hall where Adam de Dutton was
+preparing for another expedition to the forest. The seneschal looked
+uneasy and surprised, but acknowledged his presence with great respect
+and humility.
+
+"Adam de Dutton, thou hast other work to do," cried the holy man, "than
+rambling after these fools i' the forest! Thy lord will be here anon."
+
+"How! whom meanest thou?" inquired the castellan, with a vacant stare of
+astonishment.
+
+"Roger de Fitz-Eustace. He is at hand; see thou prepare to meet him."
+
+"Surely thou mockest, Roger de"--
+
+"Peace! The last beam of to-morrow's sun shall see the banner of the
+Fitz-Eustace beneath the gate."
+
+"To-morrow! Why--how cometh my lord? Surely thou dreamest--or thy"--
+
+"Once more I warn thee of his coming; see to his reception, or thy lord
+will be wroth; and Roger with the ready hand was not used to be
+over-nice, or loth in the administering of a rod to a fool's back."
+
+The hermit departed without awaiting the reply.
+
+But great was the stir and tumult in the stronghold of the Lacies on
+that memorable day. The hurrying to and fro of the victuallers and
+cooks--the clink of armourers and the din of horses prancing in their
+warlike equipments--kept up an incessant jingle and confusion. A
+watchman was stationed on the keep, whose duty it was to give warning
+when the dust, curling on the wind, should betoken the approach of
+strangers. The guards were set, the gates properly mounted, and the
+drawbridge raised, so that their future lord might be admitted in due
+form to his possession.
+
+The sun went gloriously down towards the wide and distant verge of the
+forest, and the brow of Pendle flung back his burning glance. Nature
+seemed to welter in a wide atmosphere of light, from which there was no
+escape. Panting and oppressed, the hounds lay basking by the wall, and
+the shaggy wolf-dog crept, with slouching gait and lolling tongue, from
+the glare into the shadow of some protecting buttress. The watchman sat
+beneath the low battlements, hardly able to direct his aching eyes
+towards the forest path below the hill. The monotony of this dull and
+weary task was reiterated until the very effort became habitual, and he
+could scarcely recognise or identify any change of object from the
+absorption of his faculties by the listlessness it created. One slight
+curl of dust had already escaped him, another waved softly above the
+trees where the path wound upwards from the valley. Again it was
+visible, and the watchman seemed to awaken as from a lethargy or a
+dream. Strangers were surely approaching, but without retinue, as the
+wreath of dust, from its slight continuance, would seem to intimate.
+Just as he came to this conclusion, two horsemen swept into view, where
+a broad turn of the road was visible, disappearing again rapidly behind
+the arched boughs of the forest.
+
+Bounding almost headlong down the narrow stair, he ran immediately to
+the hall, informing the deputy of what he had seen. Scarce had he
+concluded when a hoarse blast from the horn rang at the outer gate. Adam
+de Button hurried to the postern, where he saw two horsemen, bearing
+unequivocal signs of their allegiance to the renowned constable of
+Chester. They wore what was then considered a great novelty in dress,
+the tabord or _supertotus_, a sleeveless garment, consisting of only two
+pieces, which hung down before and behind, the sides being left
+open.[53] Low-crowned yellow caps covered their heads, and the upper
+tunic was yellow, richly embroidered, reaching only to the knees. They
+wore forked beards, well pointed, and gloves and boots of beautiful
+Spanish leather. Their horses were low, but of an exquisite symmetry,
+and the beasts were pawing and champing before the gate when Adam
+hastened down into the courtyard. These were avant couriers or
+messengers from Roger de Fitz-Eustace, whom they announced as being
+nigh, and to be expected ere nightfall, with his daughter Maud, a maiden
+much renowned for her beauty.
+
+As the sun sank deeper into the gloom of the woods, and the shadows grew
+long on the green and sunny slope of the hill, the wild shrill notes of
+a clarion rung through the forest glades; a distant burst of martial
+music was heard, together with the roll of a drum--an instrument
+borrowed from the Saracens, and in use only after the crusades.
+
+Now went forth Adam de Dutton and his train bareheaded to meet their
+lord, whom they found riding at a slow pace, conversing familiarly, but
+attentively, with the Dean of Whalley. Behind him came the blushing Maud
+on a beautiful white palfrey, and beside her a comely youth, in a fair
+hunting-suit, the son of De Whalley, who, by his fervid and impassioned
+glances, showed himself apt in other and nobler exercises than the
+upland chase and the forest cover could afford.
+
+Roger de Fitz-Eustace, the terror and scourge of the Welsh, and by them
+called "Hell," from the great violence and ferocity of his temper, was
+then about forty years old. He was clothed in a light suit of armour,
+the hauberk, with the rings set edgewise, reaching down to the knees.
+His helmet was cylindrical, the _avantaille_, or face-guard, thrown up.
+He wore a coloured surcoat; a fashion that seems to have originated with
+the Crusaders, not only for the purpose of distinguishing the different
+leaders, but as a veil to protect the armour, so apt to heat excessively
+when exposed to the direct rays of the sun. It was of a violet colour,
+without any distinctive mark or badge. His highly-decorated shield was
+borne behind him, the three garbs and the lions being chiefly
+conspicuous in the marshalling: the former, the original bearing of Hugh
+Lupus, was often used by the constables of Chester, in compliment to
+their chief lord. Its shape was angular, and suspended from the neck by
+a strap called guige or gige, a Norman custom of great antiquity. A huge
+broadsword was carried by his armour-bearer, the person of the chief
+being without any further means of impediment or defence than a French
+stabbing sword, fastened on one side of his pommel, and a stout
+battle-axe on the other. The horse was decorated with great and costly
+profusion. At a short distance rode William de Bellomonte, the baron's
+inseparable companion. A small train of archers and cross-bowmen brought
+up the rear of the escort, save the baggage and sumpter horses, laden
+not only with provisions but cooking utensils, and even with furniture
+for the household. In those days it was a matter both of economy and
+necessity for the occupants or lords of several castles to travel with
+accompaniments of this sort; though possessing many residences, most of
+them had the means and even conveniences only for the furnishing of one.
+
+The seneschal and his train alighted, doing homage to their lord, who
+was conducted with great pomp and ceremony into the fortress, now lapsed
+for ever from the blood and succession of the Lacies; yet Roger de
+Fitz-Eustace and his descendants, probably in commemoration of the
+source whence originated their great honours and endowments, were ever
+afterwards styled by the surname of De Lacy; and, strange as it may
+appear, his father, John, constable of Chester, who died fifteen years
+previously to this event, and who founded the Cistercian abbey of
+Stanlaw, the parent establishment of Whalley, though he had not the
+slightest pretensions to the name of Lacy, was popularly invested with
+the name. It is still more singular that the mistake should have been
+committed by Henry de Lacy, the last of the line of the Fitz-Eustace,
+third in descent from Roger, in the foundation-charter of Whalley Abbey,
+where he expressly styles his ancestor "Joh. de Lacy, Const. Cest."
+
+Accompanied by her father and her female attendants, the "gentle" maiden
+entered the hall. She was stately and beautifully formed, with little
+show of her lineage except the high forehead and well-formed nose of the
+Fitz-Eustace. She was enveloped from head to foot in a long gown or
+habit; over this was cast a richly-embroidered purple silk surcoat or
+cloak, embellished with those ephemeral absurdities called
+pocketing-sleeves. These hung from the wrists almost to the ground,
+showing an opening or pocket which might have supplied the place of a
+lady's arm-bag in our own era. A wimple or peplus was thrown over the
+head; a sort of hood, which, instead of covering the shoulders, was
+brought round the neck beneath the chin like a warrior's gorget, giving
+an exceedingly stiff and muffled appearance to the upper part of the
+figure.
+
+Geoffery was unremitting in his attentions, and his father seemed as
+assiduous in his court to the fierce Crusader, who listened intently to
+some private intelligence which the dean was evidently much interested
+in communicating. The following were the only words that could be
+distinguished at the dismissal of the courteous De Whalley, as he
+retired a few paces ere he departed:--
+
+"To-morrow be it," said Fitz-Eustace, "after matins, and we will hear
+thee further in this matter: let him then be conveyed to our presence."
+
+The dean retired, but at dawn he was again present in the chantry of St
+Michael, within the castle.
+
+Fierce came the beams of the morning sun through the eastern oriel of
+the hall, and the guards and retainers of this feudal fortress were
+waiting the appearance of their lord. Lounging idly at the great
+entrance were those more immediately in attendance on their chief, some
+playing at _merelles_, or nine-men's morris; others tilting with mimic
+arms, and twanging the bowstring. The pikemen were drawn up in the
+courtyard, awaiting orders from their superior. Their glittering weapons
+flung back the morning light in sharp flashes to the sky; while on the
+tower the dark pennon hung motionless and drooping in the sultry air.
+
+The news of his arrival had drawn hither not a few of the surrounding
+peasantry to gaze upon the pomp and to pay homage at the court of their
+feudal lord; and a crowd of idlers was accumulating beneath the walls of
+the fortress.
+
+The breakfast meal being over, the baron entered through a side door
+behind a rude bench, overhung with faded drapery, which formed an
+elevation for the chief. His cheek was scorched and darkened with the
+burning suns of Palestine, while his beard seemed to have been whitened
+in that fiery clime. He was now habited in a rich purple cope or gown,
+fitting close, without sleeves or armholes, and embellished with a deep
+gold-coloured border, the Anglo-Saxon mantle being now discarded by
+persons of distinction. The tunic underneath was of scarlet, bordered
+with real ermine, which, together with the low square cap or coronet
+that he wore, gave him something of a regal appearance. A leash of
+hounds crouched at his feet. Before and below him the heralds and
+officers of the household arranged themselves, amongst whom Adam de
+Dutton was conspicuous by his ludicrously-solemn attitude and
+appearance. The whole scene had the aspect of a military tribunal,
+especially when Roger de Lacy (by which name we shall now distinguish
+him) ordered that silence should be proclaimed, and that the Dean of
+Whalley should be summoned to his presence.
+
+Robert de Whalley immediately presented himself, with arms folded, and
+an air of great ceremony in his behaviour.
+
+"Thou hast been prompt to our bidding; the lark, I trow, had but newly
+risen from her bed ere thou wast away from thine," said the baron.
+
+"Three weary miles through this grim forest is good speed ere matins;
+but I knew the occasion was urgent, and my lord's commands admit not of
+delay. The palfrey which you so pleasantly noted yestereen is the sole
+companion of my pilgrimages to and fro for the good of this noble house.
+I did offer prayers for the soul of the deceased ere matins this
+morning, in the chapel."
+
+"Hast heard aught of, or communicated with, the traitor thou didst
+denounce to me privily yesterday?"
+
+"Being holden as one of great sanctity, by common report, peradventure
+it were dangerous to lay hands on him without an express warranty from
+our chief."
+
+"He shall be summoned to our court. Adam de Dutton"--
+
+"Stay, my lord," said the wily dean. "I would, with all due submission,
+urge that caution were best in this matter."
+
+"Caution, De Whalley! and to what end? Are not the Lacies able to
+execute as well as to command? or is the lax ministration of justice now
+complained of throughout the realm prevailing here also? By the beard of
+Hugh Lupus, I will be heard, and obeyed too!"
+
+"In good sooth, my lord, I see nor let nor hindrance in this matter,
+provided that he whom we seek were of such ordinary capacities that be
+common to flesh and blood, and subject to the same laws; but when we
+have to cope with the devil, we must use his subtilty. Pardon me, my
+lord," continued the accuser, seeing symptoms of impatience gathering on
+the brow of the haughty chieftain, "though I am plain of speech, yet is
+it the more easily understood. This delinquent of whom we speak hath
+not, as the general report testifieth, the same nature and existence as
+our own. He useth magic--I have credible testimony thereto, my
+lord;--and anointeth his body so that it shall be invisible. The free
+unconfined air is not more accessible to the scared bird than rocks and
+walls are to this impalpable mockery of our form; and yet he may be
+dealt with."
+
+"Troth, a man of many faculties. How came he thus?"
+
+"The vulgar do imagine that by dint of great maceration and humility, by
+prayer and fasting, he hath attained communion with angels; but I
+suspect they be those of the bottomless pit!"
+
+"And why should he withhold the deed?"
+
+"I know not, save that he purposeth by fraud and subtilty to cast these
+fair possessions into the treasury of the holy church, and build an
+abbey hereabout, the like whereof hath not been seen for glory and
+magnificence."
+
+"Doth he then deny our right to the inheritance? The Lady Fitz-Eustace
+had a fair copy of the deed, purporting to be sent by the holy confessor
+who shrived the testator in his extremity. But how hath this canting
+hermit gotten the writing into his possession?"
+
+"I know not, my lord, unless it be that the like arts have enabled him
+to appropriate it by other means than those of honesty and good faith.
+But give me a band of men, together with leave so to deal with him as I
+shall see fit, and I trust ere long to render a good account of the
+matter. I will come upon him unawares, ere he can render his body
+inaccessible, and lay hold of the traitor."
+
+"Traitor!" echoed a voice from behind a screen at the lower extremity of
+the hall. Every eye was turned in that direction; when lo! the hermit
+himself, the end and object of their deliberations, stalked forth,
+unquestioned and unobstructed.
+
+The baron rose, and his grim eyebrows were fiercely knit and contracted.
+He looked inquiringly towards the dean, who, for a moment, was
+confounded by this unexpected event. Yet his presence of mind and
+fertility of expedient did not forsake him.
+
+"Let him be instantly bound, my lord," whispered De Whalley, "and holden
+by main force, or he will escape like a limed bird from the twigs. Let
+him be led forthwith to the dungeon, where I myself will question him.
+It is not fitting that this plotter should practise devilish devices
+upon our assembly."
+
+At a signal from their chief the soldiers surrounded him; but the
+hermit, whose features were still hidden by the cowl, took hold of the
+foremost, and with an incredible strength, dashed him to the ground. The
+others drew back intimidated.
+
+"Treason, my lord, treason!" cried the dean; "you behold him even in
+your presence exercising forbidden arts. Away with him to the dungeon!
+Guards, do your office."
+
+"Miscreant, beware!" said the hermit. De Whalley, though bold and
+generally undaunted, started back at the sound.
+
+"What, this lawless intromission to our face, and in our council too?"
+cried the baron. "Seize that hooded kite, knaves, or I will hang every
+one o' ye on the Furca ere the sun be two hours older!"
+
+Roger de Lacy, in a threatening attitude, approached the guards, who now
+environed the hermit, using more caution than before. Suddenly they
+rushed upon him, and he was pinioned ere he could make the least
+resistance.
+
+At this moment, so anxiously hoped for and expected by the dean, the
+latter pushed towards him. Thrusting his hand into the hermit's bosom,
+the long-coveted parchment was in his grasp, and in a twinkling it was
+conveyed to his own.
+
+"How now!" cried the baron, "wherefore in such haste? I trow the deed is
+ours!"
+
+With a great show of obedience and respect he drew the parchment again
+from beneath his robe, and holding it cautiously beside him, exclaimed--
+
+"My lord, ere this be read is it not prudent that we convey the traitor
+to the dungeon, lest by his subtilty the writing be wrested from our
+grasp?"
+
+The hermit, yet held in close custody of the guards, cried with a loud
+voice--
+
+"Who is the traitor let the walls of my cell bear witness, when they
+heard him offer a heavy bribe that this, the only evidence to the right
+of the Fitz-Eustace, might be destroyed!"
+
+"Fatherest thou the accursed progeny of thine avarice upon me?" cried
+the dean, apparently indignant at so unjust an accusation.
+
+"Give me the roll," said the constable, "and we will confront him by
+what he would have withheld. After we have made our own right secure, we
+adjudge him to his deserts."
+
+The dean was obliged, however unwillingly, to obey; handing forward the
+parchment, which Roger de Lacy unfolded in the presence of the hermit.
+But it would be impossible to describe the consternation of the
+chieftain when he read therein a formal grant, bequeathing the whole of
+these vast possessions to Robert de Whalley and his heirs for ever.
+
+The dean, apparently with surprise, and a well-feigned indignation at
+the fraud which the hermit intended to have put upon him, exclaimed--
+
+"I had a grievous suspicion long ago that this hoary hypocrite would
+play me false; and indeed his great unwillingness to show the deed led
+me to think that he meditated some deadly wrong."
+
+"But wherefore," inquired the chieftain, "should there be messengers to
+Halton with news and credentials so explicit that the estate was left
+without let or encumbrance to the Lady Fitz-Eustace? A web of mystery is
+here which we will speedily unravel. Who gave thee this deed? and
+wherefore shouldest thou conceal it?" said he, addressing the hermit.
+
+"Roger de Fitz-Eustace," replied the prisoner, "thine honour is abused.
+That lying instrument was never in my charge."
+
+"Why hast thou refused to render up the deed?"
+
+"Lest it should fall into the hands of robbers, and thou shouldest be
+cheated of thine inheritance. This traitor hath long had an eye to the
+possession."
+
+"'Tis his," returned the constable, sternly, "by this good title."
+
+"'Tis a fraud--a base attempt put forth by this cut-purse to wrest it
+from thee. Search him, and if thou findest not another, and of a
+different tenor, hidden about his goodly person, let me die a traitor's
+death."
+
+"I see not that our power hath need of such a pleasant exercise. Thou
+art accused by him of treachery; and verily 'tis a vain attempt to rid
+thee of the charge to throw back the accusation upon him thou hast
+wronged."
+
+"My Lord de Fitz-Eustace," said the dean,--but Roger looked displeased
+at this style and address, reminding him so soon of the departure of his
+lately-assumed title De Lacy,--"your ear and mine have been too long
+abused by this plotting wizard. He is now subject to my authority.
+Hereby do I assume my rights, and arraign the culprit before my
+tribunal."
+
+The ambitious churchman approached the judgment-seat, whereon he was
+just ascending; but the hermit, with a desperate effort, burst from his
+bonds, and ere the guards could arrest him, he had grasped his adversary
+by the throat.
+
+"Traitor, I warned thee beforetime. Now will I unrobe thy villany to its
+very nakedness."
+
+The hermit, thrusting one hand beneath the garment of his victim, drew
+forth the real deed, which had been dexterously exchanged by the wily
+priest for his own fraudulent imposture. He then loosened his grasp, and
+placed the real instrument in the hands of the baron.
+
+"'Tis a forgery--- a base disposal of my rights," roared out the
+infuriate and detected hypocrite.
+
+But Roger de Lacy immediately saw that the deed was to a similar purport
+with the copy which had been sent by some unknown hand, immediately on
+the death of the testator, to Halton Castle.
+
+With a look of devouring and terrible indignation he cried out--
+
+"Though thou wert the holy pontiff himself, and all the terrors of the
+Church were at thy command, thou shouldst not escape my vengeance, thou
+daring priest! To the Furca!--his offence is repugnant to my
+nostrils--'tis rank with treason!"
+
+"Hold!" cried the mysterious hermit; "I have promised him protection,
+nor shall the promise be foregone."
+
+"Thou!" cried the warrior, with unfeigned astonishment; "and who art
+thou that seemest here the arbiter of destiny, whether good or evil?"
+
+"A sinful but heaven-destined man," replied the hermit, meekly.
+
+"Our vengeance slumbereth not," said the chief; "the sentence is gone
+forth, and he dies ere sunset."
+
+"Not so," replied the hermit, again assuming the attitude of command.
+
+"By the beard of Hugh Lupus, he dieth."
+
+"He doth, but not by thy decree."
+
+"How! methinks the fever of disloyalty hath seized you all: the
+infection hath so tainted your nature that a skilful leech, whom I
+employ in cases of emergency, will be of service--my headsman, or
+hangman, as shall seem most fitting. He dies, I tell thee, though the
+saints themselves were interceding."
+
+"I have promised," said the hermit again, with the confidence of
+careless superiority.
+
+Adam de Dutton, who had hitherto been waiting anxiously for an
+opportunity to communicate with his lord, now whispered something in his
+ear.
+
+"How!" said the bewildered chieftain; "'tis said thou wearest the badge
+of our house, and art thyself under some surreptitious disguise."
+
+"I wear no disguise," returned the hermit calmly; "what thou seest is my
+badge, and will be, Heaven permitting, until I die."
+
+"Who art thou?"
+
+"A sinful mortal like thyself; but worn down with long vigils and
+maceration. Lord of as wide inheritance as thou, and yet a tenant only
+in a narrow cell!"
+
+"Thou speakest riddles;--thy meaning?"
+
+"I was an outcast, though heir to a vast heritage. I vowed that if He,
+whose prerogative it is, would cleanse me from my stains, my life should
+thenceforth be His, and consecrate to Heaven. I was a leper; but my
+prayer was heard. I washed in yonder holy well which gushes from the
+rock, whose virtues had been reported to me. Washing daily, with faith
+and prayer, I was healed. I found close by a convenient hermitage; and
+many caverns and secret chambers, with hidden passages and
+communications, had been dug therefrom, by which I could pass to and
+fro, and thus visit the castle unseen. I was the confessor and companion
+of Robert de Lacy. At my desire, he left the whole of his domains to the
+Fitz-Eustace. But thou art not the eldest-born of thy father."
+
+"My eldest brother has long been dead. He was a leper; his cruel disease
+drove him from the haunts of men. The last we knew of him, he went forth
+with cup and clapper as they are wont. Soon after news arrived of his
+decease."
+
+"Was he not driven forth by rude and cruel taunts, the rather?" said the
+hermit, gazing with unaverted eye on the haughty chieftain. "This noble
+birth and heritage are mine! Behold, 'tis thus I repay your injustice!"
+
+He threw off his cloak; underneath appeared a complete suit of proof
+armour, and a surcoat, on which was emblazoned the badge of the
+Fitz-Eustace.
+
+"I am Richard Fitz-Eustace, thine elder brother! Nay, put off that brow
+of discontent. I claim not my birthright; the vows of Heaven are upon
+me, and to thee and thine will this good inheritance devolve. One right
+only do I claim--this prisoner is free. Was he not my stay and
+sustenance when the fiat of Heaven guided me hither? He sheltered me,
+and had pity on mine infirmity. Moreover, he had some well-founded
+expectancy towards these domains, by reason of kindred to the Lacies,
+had they not been devised by will to the Fitz-Eustace. His blood is
+noble as our own. He thinks there is injustice in the deed, but not to
+him shall the atonement come. Thou hast a daughter, and my prescience
+hath this consequence, that by her this rankling wound shall be healed.
+If so be that he have found favour in her sight, let her and the son of
+this ambitious priest be joined together in the bonds of holy wedlock;
+for my word is gone forth--his blood mingles with ours."
+
+The whole assembly were aghast with this thrilling discovery. The baron
+would have embraced his brother; but the gloomy ascetic forbade. He left
+the hall, returned to his cell, and but a short period elapsed ere the
+grave he had prepared with his own hands was closed over his corpse--the
+period of his sojourn having been shortened, no doubt, by the
+austerities and mortifications he deemed himself called upon to endure.
+
+Maud was shortly afterwards united to Geoffery de Whalley, unto whom her
+father granted the Villa de Tunley or Townley, and the manor of
+Coldcoats, with Snodworth, as a marriage portion. From them is descended
+the present owner of Townley, nephew to that celebrated scholar and
+antiquary, Charles Townley, the twenty-ninth in descent from
+Spartlingus, the first Dean of Whalley upon record. The latter was
+predecessor to Cutwulph, whose exploits in the days of Canute we have
+before noticed.
+
+Soon afterwards died Robert de Whalley, his departure hastened, it is
+said, by grief and chagrin at the loss of these long-coveted
+possessions.
+
+Roger de Lacy died 1st October A.D. 1211, after a long and active life,
+spent between his arduous wars and invasions of the Welsh, and his no
+less arduous journeyings to and fro between the castles of Clitheroe and
+Pontefract, where he spent the latter part of his days. He was succeeded
+by John de Lacy, his eldest son, who, by marriage with Margaret,
+daughter and co-heiress of Robert, son of De Quincy, Earl of Winchester,
+became Earl of Lincoln by patent from Henry III., the monarch having
+re-granted this title to him and his heirs for ever.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[49] Baines's _Lancashire_.
+
+[50] Whitaker's _History of Whalley_.
+
+[51] At the commencement of a list of "_Senescalli de Blackburnshire,_"
+occurs the name of "_Adam de Dutton, temp. Rog. et Joh. de Lacy_." Dr
+Whitaker says: "This Adam de Dutton is one of the witnesses to the
+foundation-charter of Stanlaw, A.D. 1178; and a Dominus Adam occurs as
+steward in the charters of John de Lacy, who succeeded Roger A.D. 1211;
+so that, if both these names design the same person, which I believe, he
+must have held the office of seneschal at least thirty-three years."
+
+[52] Hume.
+
+[53] Like the knave on playing-cards, who is still depicted in this
+dress.
+
+[Illustration: THE GREY MAN OF THE WOOD; OR, THE SECRET MINE.]
+
+
+
+
+THE GREY MAN OF THE WOOD;
+
+OR,
+
+THE SECRET MINE.
+
+
+    "_Humph_. Say, what art thou that talk'st of kings and queens?
+      _K. Hen_. More than I seem, and less than I was born to;
+    A man at least, for less I should not be;
+    And men may talk of kings, and why not I?
+      _Humph_. Ay, but thou talk'st as if thou wert a king.
+      _K. Hen_, Why, so I am, in mind, and that's enough.
+      _Humph_. But if thou be a king, where is thy crown?"
+
+--_King Henry VI_.
+
+Waddington Hall, the site of the following legend, says Pennant, "is a
+stone house, with some small ancient windows, and a narrow winding
+staircase within, now inhabited by several poor families; yet it
+formerly gave shelter to a royal guest. The meek usurper, Henry VI.,
+after the battle of Hexham, in 1463, was conveyed into this county,
+where he was concealed by his vassals for an entire twelvemonth,
+notwithstanding the most diligent search was made after him. At length
+he was surprised at dinner at Waddington Hall, and taken near Bungerley
+Hippingstones in Clitherwood. The account which Leland gives from an
+ancient chronicle concurs with the tradition of the country, that he was
+deceived--_i.e._ betrayed--by Thomas Talbot, son and heir to Sir Edmund
+Talbot, of Bashal, and John his cousin, of Colebry. The house was beset;
+but the king found means to get out, ran across the fields below Waddow
+Hall, and passed the Ribble, on the stepping-stones, into a wood on the
+Lancashire side, called Christian Pightle, but being closely pursued,
+was there taken. From hence he was carried to London, in the most
+piteous manner, on horseback, with his legs tied to the stirrups. Rymer
+has preserved the grant of a reward for this service, of the estates of
+Sir Richard Tunstall, a Lancastrian, to Sir James Harrington, by Edward
+IV., dated from Westminster, July 9th, 1465."
+
+At that time Waddington belonged to the Tempests, who inherited it by
+virtue of the marriage of their ancestor, Sir Roger, in the reign of
+Edward I., with Alice, daughter and heiress of Walter de Waddington. An
+alliance had just been made between the Tempests and the Talbots. It may
+be presumed, that in order to save their estates (which they afterward
+were suffered quietly to possess), they agreed with Sir James to give up
+the saintly monarch, which was the reason that the latter had the reward
+for what the grant calls "his great and laborious diligence in taking
+our great traitor and rebel, Henry, lately called Henry VI."
+
+Far different was the conduct of Sir Ralph Pudsey, of Bolton Hall, where
+the king was concealed for some months prior to his appearance at
+Waddington. Quitting Bolton, probably from some apprehension that his
+retreat was in danger of being discovered, he left behind him the
+well-known relics which are still shown to the curious. These are a pair
+of boots, a pair of gloves, and a spoon. The boots are of fine brown
+Spanish leather, lined with deer-skin, tanned with the fur on; about the
+ankles is a kind of wadding under the lining, to keep out wet. They have
+been fastened by buttons from the ankle to the knee; the feet are
+remarkably small (little more than eight inches long); the toes round,
+and the soles, where they join to the heel, contracted to less than an
+inch in diameter.
+
+The gloves are of the same material, and have the same lining; they
+reach up, like women's gloves, to the elbow; but have been occasionally
+turned down, with deer-skin outward. The hands are exactly proportioned
+to the feet, and not larger than those of a middle-sized woman. In an
+age when the habits of the great, in peace as well as war, required
+perpetual exertions of bodily strength, this unhappy prince must have
+been equally contemptible from corporeal and from mental imbecility.[54]
+
+A well adjoining to Bolton Hall still retains his name. He is said to
+have ordered it to be dug and walled round for a bath; and it is much
+venerated by the country people to this day, who fancy that many
+remarkable cures have been wrought there.
+
+It is not generally recorded that the science of alchemy was much
+encouraged by the royal visionary. Though he had commissioned three
+adepts to make the precious metals, and had not received any returns,
+his credulity remained unshaken, and he issued a pompous grant in favour
+of three other alchemists, who boasted that they could not only
+transmute metals, but could impart perpetual youth, with unimpaired
+powers both of mind and body, by means of a specific called the _Mother
+and Queen of Medicines, the Celestial Glory, the Quintessence or Elixir
+of Life._ In favour of these "three lovers of the truth, and haters of
+deception," as they styled themselves, Henry dispensed with the law
+passed by his grandfather, Henry IV., against the undue multiplication
+of gold and silver, and empowered them to transmute the precious metals.
+This extraordinary commission had the sanction of Parliament; and two
+out of the three adepts were the heads of Lancashire families--viz., Sir
+Thomas Ashton of Ashton, and Sir Edmund Trafford of Trafford. These
+worthy knights obtained a patent for changing metals, 24 Hen. VI. The
+philosophers, probably imposing upon themselves as well as others, kept
+the king's expectation wound up to the highest pitch; and in the
+following year he actually informed his people that the happy hour was
+approaching when, by means of the _stone_, he should _be able to pay off
+his debts_[55]
+
+With regard to the prophecy or denunciation made by him against the
+Talbots, recorded in our legend, Dr Whitaker observes,--"Something like
+these hereditary alternations of sense and folly might have happened,
+and have given rise to a prophecy fabricated after the event; a real
+prediction to this effect would have negatived the words of
+Solomon,--'Yea, I have hated all my labour which I had taken under the
+sun; because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me; and
+who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool?'
+
+"This, however, is not the only instance in which Henry is reported to
+have displayed that singular faculty, the _Vaticinium Stultorum_."[56]
+
+In 798, this place was noted for the defeat of Wada, the Saxon chief, by
+Aldred, king of Northumberland. He was one of the petty princes who
+joined the murderers of King Ethelred. After this overthrow he fled to
+his castle, on a hill near Whitby, and dying, was interred not far from
+the place. Two great pillars, about twelve feet asunder, mark the spot,
+and still bear the name of "Wada's Grave."
+
+It was on a bright and glorious summer evening, in the year 1464, while
+the red glare of sunset was still in the west, and a wide blush of
+purple passed rapidly over the distant fell and the blue and heath-clad
+mountain, that a group of labourers were returning from their daily toil
+through the forest glades that skirt the broad and beautiful Ribble
+below Waddow. Some of them were of that class called hinds, paying the
+rents of their little homesteads by stated periods of service allotted
+to each; in this respect differing but little from the serfs and
+villains of a more remote era, their toil not a whit less irksome,
+though their liberty, in name at least, was less under the control and
+caprice of their lord.
+
+Two of the peasants loitered considerably behind the rest, seemingly
+engrossed by a conversation too interesting or too important for the
+ears of their companions. The elder of the speakers was clad in a coarse
+woollen doublet; a belt of untanned leather girt his form; and on his
+head was a cap of grey felt, without either rim or band. His gait was
+heavy and slouching. Strong, tall, and muscular, he stooped
+considerably; but less through age and infirmity than from the laborious
+nature of his occupations. His companion, younger and more vivacious,
+was distinguished by a goodly and well-thriven hump, and by that fulness
+and projection of the chest which usually characterise this species of
+deformity. His long arms nearly trailed to the ground as he walked; huge
+and sprawling, they seemed to have been originally intended as an
+attachment to a frame of much more gigantic proportions. His face had
+that peculiar form and expression which always, more or less, accompany
+this kind of malformation. Wide, large, angular; the chin sharp and
+projecting, supported on the breast; the whole head scarcely rivalling
+the shoulders in height and obliquity. His disposition was evidently
+wayward and irascible, and a keen satirical humour lurked in every line
+of his pallid visage; generally at war with his species, and ready to
+act on the defensive; snarling whenever he was approached, and always
+anticipating gibe and insult from his fellows.
+
+"Weary, weary,--ay, as a tom-fool at a holiday feast," said the
+hunchback to his companion. "Spade and axe have I lifted these twenty
+years, and what the better am I o' the labour? A groat's worth of wit is
+worth a pound o' sweat,' as my dame says. I'll turn pedlar some o' these
+days, and lie, and cheat, and sell."
+
+"Ay, Gregory," interrupted the other, "thee'd sell thy own paws, if so
+be they'd fetch a groat i' the market; but then, I warrant, the dame at
+the hall would lack her henchman at the churn."
+
+"Tut! I care for nought living but my worthless carcase," replied the
+hunchback, surveying his own person. "Why should I? there's nought
+living that cares for me. Sure as fate, if a' waur dead beside, we'd ha'
+curran' baws i' the pot every day. What a murrain is it to this hungry
+maw whether Ned Talbot, or Joe Tempest, or any other knave o' the pack,
+tumbles into his berth, or is put to bed wi' the shovel, a day sooner or
+later. He maun budge some time. Faugh! how I hate your whining--your
+cat-a-whisker'd faces, purring and mewling, while parson Pudsay says
+grace over the cold carrion; he cares not if it waur hash'd and stew'd
+i' purgatory, so that he gets the shrift-money. Out upon't, Ralph, out
+upon it! this mattock should delve a' the graves i' the parish, if I
+could get a tester more i' my fist."
+
+"Thou murdering tyke! wouldst dig my grave?"
+
+"Ay," shouted Gregory with a grin, displaying a huge double crescent of
+white teeth, portals to a gulf, grim, hideous, and insatiable; "ay, for
+St Peter's penny."
+
+"And leave me to knock at the gate, and never a doit to pay the porter?"
+
+"Thou shouldst cry and howl till doomsday, though my pouch had the
+keeping of a whole congregation of angels.
+
+"Keep out o' my way, cub--unlicked brute!" cried the infuriate Ralph;
+"keep back, I say, or I may send thee first on thine errand to St Peter.
+Take that, knave, and"--
+
+But the malicious hunchback stepped aside, and the blow, aimed with a
+hearty curse at this provoking lump of deformity, fell with a murderous
+force upon a writhen stem, which bore witness to the willing disposition
+with which the stroke was dealt. Gregory was laughing and mocking all
+the while at the impotent wrath of his companion.
+
+"A groat's worth for a penny, I'm not yet boun' for St Peter's blessing,
+though, old crump-face!" cried the learing impertinent, one thumb
+between his teeth, and the little finger thrust out in its most
+expressive form of derision and contempt.
+
+"Hush--softly, prithee," said the offended party, his anger all at once
+under the influence of a more powerful feeling. He stood still, in the
+attitude of listening, earnestly bending forward with great solicitude
+and attention.
+
+He pointed to some object just visible through the arches of the wood,
+in the dim twilight.
+
+"There is the grey man o' the mine again, as I live, Gregory; we'd best
+turn back, for our companions are gone out of hearing." The terrified
+rustic was preparing for immediate flight, but Gregory caught him by the
+belt.
+
+"How now! stand to thy ground, man," said he; "I've had speech at him
+not long ago. We came upon one another suddenly, to be sure, and I could
+not well escape, so I stood still. He did the same, shook his pale and
+saintly face, and, with a wave o' the hand, bade me pass on."
+
+"But look thee," replied the other, "I'm bodily certain he walks without
+a shadow at his tail. See at that big tree there; why, the boughs bend
+before he touches 'em, like as they were stricken wi' the wind. I
+declare if the very trees don't step aside as if they're afraid of him.
+I'll not tarry here, good man."
+
+Disengaging himself from the other's gripe, Ralph ran through the wood
+in an opposite direction, and was soon out of sight. A loud shout from
+Gregory followed him as he fled, which only served to quicken his speed;
+and the hunchback was left alone. The figure which was the moving cause
+of this cowardly apprehension almost immediately disappeared behind a
+projecting crag, at the base of which grew a thick skirting of
+underwood; but Gregory pursued cautiously in the same direction. He had
+heard strange stories of demons guarding heaps of treasure; and it was
+currently reported that in former times a mine had been secretly worked
+in these parts for fear of discovery; all mines yielding gold and
+silver, so as to leave a profit from the working, being considered as
+"mines royal," and regarded as the property of the king.[57] Gregory's
+prevailing sin was avarice; and oftentimes this vice put on the
+appearance of courage, by rendering him daring for its gratification,
+though at heart a coward. He thought that if the treasure were once
+within his grasp neither man nor demon should regain it.
+
+For a short time past this part of the forest had been commonly reported
+as the haunt of a spectre, in the likeness of a man clad in grey
+apparel, who by some was supposed to be an impalpable exhalation from a
+concealed mine existing in the neighbourhood. It is well known that
+these places are generally guarded by some covetous demon, who, though
+unable to apply the treasures to their proper use, yet strives to hinder
+any one else from gaining possession.
+
+Gregory had once encountered it unexpectedly, face to face, but he did
+not then follow--surprise and timidity preventing him. He, however,
+resolved that, should another opportunity occur, he would track the
+spectre to its haunt, and by that means find out the opening and
+situation of the mine.
+
+He now crept slowly towards the crag, behind which the figure had
+retired. Looking cautiously round the point, he again saw the dim
+spectral form only a few yards distant. Suddenly he heard a low whistle,
+and the next moment the mysterious figure had disappeared--not a vestige
+could be traced. He thrust his huge head between the boughs for a more
+uninterrupted survey, but nothing was seen, save the bare escarpment of
+the rock, and the low bushes, behind which the phantom had, a moment
+before, been visible. Though somewhat daunted, he crept closer to the
+spot, but darkness was fast closing around him, and the search was
+fruitless.
+
+"Humph!" said the disappointed treasure-hunter audibly; "daylight and a
+stout pole may probe the mystery to the bottom. I'll mark this spot."
+
+"Mark this spot," said another voice at some distance, repeating his
+words like an echo. The rock was certainly within "striking distance,"
+and it might have been this accident which lent its aid to the delusion.
+
+Gregory could not withstand so apparently supernatural an occurrence. He
+took to his heels, driven fairly off the field; nor did he look behind
+him until safely entrenched before a blazing fire in the kitchen at
+Waddington Hall.
+
+"Out, ill-favoured hound!" said a serving wench, who was stirring a
+blubbering mess of porridge for supper. But Gregory was not in the
+humour to reply: he sat with one long lean hand under his chin, the
+other hung down listlessly to his heels, which were drawn securely under
+the stool on which he sat. His thoughts were not on the victuals, though
+by long use and instinct his eyes were turned in that direction.
+
+"Thee art ever hankering after the brose, thou greedy churl!" continued
+the wench, wishful to goad him on to some intemperate reply.
+
+But Gregory was still silent. At this unwonted lack of discourse, Janet,
+who generally contrived to bring his long tongue into exercise, was not
+a little astonished. It needed no great wit, any time, to set him
+a-grumbling; for neither kind word nor civil speech had he for kith or
+kin, for man or maid.
+
+Looking steadfastly towards him, she struck her dark broad fists upon
+her hips, and, in a loud and contemptuous laugh, abruptly startled the
+cynic from his studies. He eyed her with a grin of malice and vexation.
+
+"Thou she-ape, I wonder what first ye'arn made for; the plague o' both
+man and beast,--the worst plague that e'er Pharaoh waur punished wi'.
+Screech on; I'll ha' my think out, spite o' thy caterwauling."
+
+"Thou art a precious wonder, Master Crab. Squirt thy verjuice, when thou
+art roasting, some other way. I wonder what man-ape thy mother watch'd
+i' the breeding. She had been special fond o' children, I bethink me."
+
+"And what knowest thou o' my dame's humours, thou curl-crop vixen?" said
+Gregory, unwarily drawn forth again from his taciturnity. "How should
+her inclinations be subject to thy knowledge?"
+
+"She rear'd thee!" was the reply.
+
+Two other hinds belonging to the household, who were watching the issue
+of the contest, here joined in a loud clamour at the victory; and
+Gregory, dogged with baiting, became silent, scowling defiance at his
+foe.
+
+Waddington Hall was at that period a building of great antiquity.
+Crooks, or great heavy arched timbers, ascending from the ground to the
+roof, formed the principal framework of the edifice, not unlike the
+inverted hull of some stately ship. The whole dwelling consisted of a
+thorough lobby and a hall, with a parlour beyond it, on one side, and
+the kitchens and offices on the other. The windows were narrow, scarcely
+more than a few inches wide, and, in all probability, not originally
+intended to contain glass.
+
+The chimneys and fireplaces were wide and open; the apartments, except
+the hall, low, narrow, and inconvenient, divided by partitions of oak,
+clumsy, and ill-carved with many strange and uncouth devices. The hall
+was, on the right of the entrance, lighted by one long low window; a
+massy table stood beneath. The fireplace was on the opposite side,
+occupying nearly the whole breadth of the chamber. A screen of wainscot
+partitioned off the lobby, carved in panels of grotesque workmanship.
+Beyond the hall was the parlour, furnished as usual with an oaken
+bedstead, standing upon a ground-floor paved with stone. In this
+dormitory, the timbers of which were of gigantic proportions, slept
+Master Oliver and Mistress Joan Tempest,--the latter not a little given
+to that species of uxorious domination which most wives, when they apply
+themselves heartily to its acquisition, rarely fail to usurp.
+
+"Here," says Dr Whitaker (this being the general style of building for
+centuries, and scarcely, if at all, deviated from),--"here the first
+offspring of our forefathers saw the light; and here too, without a wish
+to change their habits, fathers and sons in succession resigned their
+breath. It is not unusual to see one of these apartments now transformed
+into a modern drawing-room, where a thoughtful mind can scarcely forbear
+comparing the past and present,--the spindled frippery of modern
+furniture, the frail but elegant apparatus of a tea-table, the general
+decorum, the equal absence of everything to afflict or to transport,
+with what has been heard, or seen, or felt, within the same walls,---
+the logs of oak, the clumsy utensils, and, above all, the tumultuous
+scenes of joy or sorrow, called forth, perhaps, by the birth of an
+heir, or the death of an husband, in minds little accustomed to restrain
+the ebullitions of passion.
+
+"Their system of life was that of domestic economy in perfection.
+Occupying large portions of his own domains; working his land by oxen;
+fattening the aged, and rearing a constant supply of young ones; growing
+his own oats, barley, and sometimes wheat; making his own malt, and
+furnished often with kilns for the drying of corn at home, the master
+had pleasing occupation in his farm, and his cottagers regular
+employment under him. To these operations the high troughs, great
+garners and chests, yet remaining, bear faithful witness. Within, the
+mistress, her maid-servants, and daughters, were occupied in spinning
+flax for the linen of the family, which was woven at home. Cloth, if not
+always manufactured out of their own wool, was purchased by wholesale,
+and made up into clothes at home also."[58]
+
+This is a true picture of the simple habits of our ancestors, and will
+apply, with little variation, to the scene before us.
+
+Here might be seen the carved "armoury,"--the wardrobe, bright, clean,
+and even magnificent. On the huge rafters hung their usual store of
+dried hams, beef, mutton, and flitches of bacon. In the store-room,
+great chests were filled to the brim with oatmeal and flour. All wore
+the aspect of plenty, and an hospitality that feared neither want nor
+diminution.
+
+In one corner of the hall at Waddington sat Mistress Joan, her only
+daughter Elizabeth, and two or three female domestics.
+
+They had been spinning, trolling out the while their country ditties
+with great pathos and simplicity.
+
+Being nigh supper-time, the group were just loitering in the twilight
+ere they separated for the meal.
+
+"Come, Elizabeth," said her mother, "lay thy gear aside; the
+strawberries are in the bowl, and the milk is served. Supper and to bed,
+and a brisk nap while morning."
+
+The dame who addressed her was a perfect specimen of the good housewife
+in the fifteenth century. She wore a quilted woollen gown, open before,
+with pendant sleeves, and a long narrow train; a corset, fitted close to
+the body, unto which the petticoats were attached, and a boddice laced
+outside. She wore the horned head-dress so fashionable towards the close
+of the fourteenth century, and at that time still in use, giving the
+head and face no slight resemblance to the ace of hearts. An apron was
+tied on with great care, ornamented with embroidery of the preceding
+century. Her complexion, was dark but clear, and her eyebrows high and
+well-arched. Her mouth was drawn in, raised slightly on one side,--a
+conformation more particularly apparent when engaged in scolding the
+maids, or in other similar but indispensable occupations.
+
+Her gait was firm, and her person upright. Her age--ungallant historians
+we must be--was verging closely upon sixty; yet her hair, turned crisp
+and full behind her head-dress, showed slight symptoms of the chill
+which hoar and frosty age, sooner or later, never fails to impart.
+
+Elizabeth Tempest was young, but of a staid and temperate aspect, almost
+approaching to that of melancholic. Her complexion, pale and sallow; her
+eye full, dark, and commanding, though occasionally more languor was on
+it than eyes of that colour are wont to express. She wore a long jacket
+of russet colour, and a crimson boddice. Her hair, turned back from her
+brow, hung in dark heavy ringlets below the neck, which, though not of
+alabaster, was exquisitely modelled. In person she was tall and
+well-shapen, and her whole manner displayed a mind of no ordinary
+proportions. She was well-skilled in household duties, her mother having
+an especial desire that her daughter should be as notable and thrifty as
+herself in domestic arrangements.
+
+"Elizabeth," or "Elspet," as she was indiscriminately called, cared
+little about her reputation touching these important functions. She
+could sing most of the wild legendary ballads of the time; her rich full
+voice had in it a sadness ravishingly tender and expressive, more akin
+to woe, and the deep untold agony of the spirit, than to lightness and
+mirth, in which she rarely indulged.
+
+"Give us one of thy ditties ere supper," said the dame, who was just
+then laying aside her implements in the work-press. "I wonder thy father
+does not return. The roofs of Bashall ring with louder cheer than our
+own, I trow. He is playing truant for the nonce, which is dangerous play
+at best."
+
+"Is he now at our cousin Talbot's?" inquired the maiden, with a look of
+more than ordinary interest.
+
+"If he be not on the way back again," returned the dame, as though
+wishful to repress inquiry.
+
+"The woods are not safe so late and alone. Comes he alone, mother?"
+
+"Alone! Ay,--and why spierest thou?" The dame looked wistfully, though
+but for a moment, on her daughter; then changing her tone, as if to
+recommend a change of subject, she cried--
+
+"Come, ha' done, Elspet; we will wait no longer than grace be said. Now
+to thy song."
+
+The maiden began as follows:--
+
+    1.
+    "There sits three ravens on yon tree,
+        Heigho!
+    There sits three ravens on yon tree,
+    As black, as black, as they can be.
+      Heigho, the derry, derry, down, heigho.
+
+    2.
+    "Says the first raven to the other,
+        Heigho!
+    Says the first raven to the other,
+    'We'll go and eat our feast together.'
+      Heigho, &c.
+
+    3.
+    "'It's down in yonder grass-grown field,
+        Heigho!
+    It's down in yonder grass-grown field,
+    There lies a dead knight just new killed.'
+      Heigho, &c.
+
+    4.
+    "There came a lady full of woe,
+        Heigho!
+    There came a lady full of woe,
+    And her hands she wrung, and her tears did flow.
+      Heigho, &c.
+
+    5.
+    "She saw the red blood from his side,
+        Heigho!
+    She saw the red blood from his side,--
+    'And it was for me my true love died!'
+      Heigho, &c.
+
+    6.
+    "'Oh, cruel was my brother's sword,
+        Heigho!
+    Oh, cruel, cruel, was his sword,
+    But sharper the edge of one scornful word.'
+      Heigho, &c.
+
+    7.
+    She laid her on his bosom cold,
+        Heigho!
+    She laid her on his bosom cold,
+    While adown his cheek her tears they rolled.
+      Heigho, &c.
+
+    8.
+    "No word she spake, but one sob gave she,
+        Heigho!
+    No word she spake, but one sob gave she:
+    Said the ravens, 'Another feast have we,
+    And long shall thy rest and thy slumbers be.'
+      Heigho, the derry, derry, down, heigho!"
+
+At the concluding stanza in walked Oliver Tempest, who, as if to avoid
+notice, sat down, without uttering a word, in a dark corner at the
+opposite side of the hall. He looked moody, and wishful to be alone.
+Joan, for a while, forbore to interrupt his reverie, and the females
+finished their evening repast in silence.
+
+"Is Sir Thomas Talbot yet returned from the Harringtons?" inquired the
+dame soon after, with an air of assumed carelessness.
+
+"He returned an hour only ere I departed."
+
+Another pause ensued.
+
+"And his son Thomas, comes he back from the Pudsays of Bolton? Does the
+gentle Florence[59] look on him kindly, or is the wedding yet delayed?"
+
+"I know not," was the brief reply. After a short pause he
+continued--"The wanderer has left Bolton, I learn, and, 'tis said, he
+bides at Whalley."
+
+Here he cast a furtive look at the domestics, and then at his wife, as
+though wishful to ascertain if others had understood this intimation.
+
+"Nay, some do boldly affirm that he has been seen i' these very woods,"
+continued he, lowering his voice to a whisper.
+
+"Which Heaven forefend!" said the wary dame. "I would not that he should
+draw us down with him to the same gulf wherein his fortune is
+o'erwhelmed. No luck that woman ever brought him from o'er sea, and now
+she's gone"--
+
+"They say that she hath escaped to Flanders," said Oliver, hastily
+interrupting her.
+
+"I wish he had been so fortunate," said the dame; "what says our cousin
+Talbot?"
+
+"Hush, dame; our plans are not yet ripe. But more of this anon."
+
+Elizabeth listened with more interest than usual. Every word was eagerly
+devoured, and with the last sentence she could not forbear inquiring--
+
+"And Edmund?--surely Edmund Talbot is not"--
+
+"What?" sternly inquired her father; "what knowest thou of--? Said I
+aught whereby thou shouldst suspect us?"
+
+"Hush, thou foolish one," said the more cautious dame; "thy thought
+alone was privy to it, and so no more. There be others listening."
+
+The moonbeams now crept softly into the chambers, whither, too, crept
+the weary household; the master and his wife remaining for a short time
+together in the hall, apparently in earnest discussion. But Elizabeth
+retired not to her couch. She passed softly through the courtyard,
+looking round as though in search of some individual. This proved to be
+the hunchback Gregory, whom she found esconced behind a peat-stack in
+marvellous profundity of thought. With a soft step, and one finger
+raised to her lips, she gently tapped him upon the shoulder.
+
+Looking round, he saw her gesture and was silent.
+
+"Gregory, art thou honest?" she inquired, in a whisper.
+
+"Why, an' it be, Mistress Elspeth, when it suits with my discretion;
+that is, if discretion be none the worse for it, eh?"
+
+"Thou art ever so, Gregory; and yet"--
+
+"If ye want honesty, eschew a knave, and catch a fool by the cap. None
+but fools worry and distemper themselves with this same pale-faced
+whining jade, that will leave 'em i' the lurch at a pinch, Dame Honesty,
+forsooth. More wit, more wisdom; and there is a plentiful lack of wit in
+your honest folk," continued the cynic, as though pursuing a train of
+thought to its ultimate development.
+
+"Gregory, thou art not the rogue thee seems. I think beneath that rough
+and captious speech there lurks more honesty than thou art willing to
+acknowledge. Thou hast been angered with baiting until thou wouldst run
+at every dog that comes into the paddock, though he fawned on thee, and
+were never so trusty and well-behaved."
+
+Gregory was silent. He looked upwards to the bright moon and the
+quenched orbs that lay about her path. Again Elizabeth whispered, first
+looking cautiously around--
+
+"Wilt do me a service?"
+
+"Ay, for hire," he quickly answered.
+
+"If thine errand is done faithfully, thou mayest get more largess than
+thou dream'st of."
+
+"Ye want a spoon belike, that ye soil not your delicate fingers?"
+
+"Ay, Gregory, an' thou wilt, we 'll first use thee."
+
+"And then the spoon shall be broken, I trow. Well, if I am a spoon, I'll
+be a golden one, and I shall be worth something when I'm done with.
+Understand ye this, fair mistress?"
+
+"Yes, knave; and thou shalt have thy reward."
+
+"What! I shall swing the highest, eh?"
+
+"Peace; I want a messenger. Take this."
+
+"Not treason, I trow," said Gregory, as he eyed the billet with a
+curious but hesitating glance.
+
+"Go by the nearer path to the wood. Where the road divides to the ford
+and the farther pastures; take the latter, then turn to the right, where
+the old fir-tree rises above the rock. Walk carefully through the bushes
+at the base of the crag. Near unto a sharp angle of the rock thy path
+will be stayed by a fallen tree. Grasp this with both hands, and whistle
+thrice. I know thou canst be trusty and discreet. Yet remember thy life
+is in my power shouldst thou fail." She paused, pointing significantly
+at the billet. "Now hasten. Bring back, and to me only, what shall be
+committed to thy care. I will expect thee at my window by midnight."
+
+Now it so happened that this precise spot was identified to Gregory's
+apprehensions with the very place where his attention had that night
+been directed by the mysterious disappearance of the grey man of the
+mine. He would certainly have preferred making his second visit by
+daylight; but needs must when a woman drives, especially when that woman
+is a mistress, and gold is the goad. Besides he might perchance get a
+glimpse of the treasure; and his pockets were wide and his gripe close.
+Thus stimulated to the adventure, he addressed himself to perform her
+behest.
+
+The night was singularly clear, and the shadows lay on his path, still
+and beautifully distinct. As he hastened onwards the wood grew darker
+and more impervious. Here and there the moonbeams crept fantastically
+through the boughs, like fairy lamps glimmering on his path. Sometimes,
+preternaturally bright, the wood seemed lit up as though for some magic
+festival. He followed the directions he had received, pausing not until
+he saw the dark fir-tree rearing its broad crest and gigantic arms into
+the clear and twinkling heaven. It looked like the guardian genius of
+the place,--a huge monster lifting its terrific head, as though to watch
+and warn away intruders. Beside this was the rock where his adventure
+must terminate.
+
+With more of desperation than courage he scrambled through the bushes.
+Not daring to look behind him--for he felt as though his steps were
+dogged, an idea for which he could not account--he made his way with
+difficulty by the crag until he came to a fallen tree that had
+apparently tumbled from the rock. Laying hold of the trunk he whistled
+faintly. It was answered; an echo, or something even more indistinct,
+gave back the sound. His heart misgave him; but he stood committed to
+the task, and durst not withdraw. Again he whistled, but louder than
+before, and again it was repeated. With feelings akin to those of the
+condemned wretch when he drops the fatal handkerchief, he sounded the
+last note of the signal. His breath was suspended. Suddenly he felt the
+ground give way beneath his feet, and he was precipitated into a chasm,
+dark, and by no means soft at the nether extremity.
+
+This was a reception for which he was not prepared. He had sustained a
+severe shock; but luckily his bones were whole. Recovering from his
+alarm, he heard a low jabbering noise, and presently a light, which, it
+seems, had been extinguished by his clumsiness, was again approaching.
+
+The intruder saw, with indescribable horror, a hideous black dwarf
+bearing a torch. He was dressed in the Eastern fashion. A soiled turban,
+torn and dilapidated, and a vest of crimson, showed symptoms of former
+splendour that no art could restore. This mysterious being came near,
+muttering some uncouth and unintelligible jargon; while the unfortunate
+captive, caught like a wolf in a trap, looked round in vain for some
+outlet whereby to escape. The only passage, except the hole through
+which he had tumbled, was completely filled by the broad, unwieldy lump
+of deformity that was coming towards him. The latter now surveyed him
+cautiously, and at a convenient distance, croaking, in a broken and
+foreign accent--
+
+"What ho! Prisoner, by queen's grace. Better stop when little door shall
+open. Steps, look thee, for climb; hands and toes; go to."
+
+Gregory now saw that steps, or rather holes, were cut in the sides of
+the pit wherein he had fallen, or rather been entrapped. These he ought
+to have used when the trap-door was let down; and he remembered his
+mistress's caution, to hold fast by the tree. There were, however, no
+means of escape that way, as the door had closed with his descent.
+
+The ugly thing before him was ten times more misshapen than himself; and
+at any other time this flattering consideration would have restored him
+to comparative good-humour.
+
+He was not in the mood now to receive comfort from any source. He felt
+sore and mightily disquieted. Limping aside, he angrily exclaimed--
+
+"Be'st thou the de'il, or the de'il's footman, sir blackamoor? I'd have
+thee tell thy master to admit his guests in a more convenient fashion.
+Hang me, if my bones will not ache for a twelvemonth. My back is almost
+broke, for certain."
+
+Here the other bellowed out into a loud laugh, pointing to Gregory's
+back, then surveying himself, and evidently with congratulation at his
+own more imaginary prepossessing appearance.
+
+"Sir knight," said the black dwarf, "what errand comes to our mighty
+prince?"
+
+"Tut! if it be his infernal kingship ye mean, I bear not messages to one
+of his quality."
+
+"Thee brings writing in thy fist. Go to!"
+
+"From a woman, fallen in love wi' thee, belike. Well, quit me o' woman's
+favours, say I, if this be of 'em."
+
+"Well-a-day, sir page," cried the grinning Ethiop, whose teeth looked
+like a double row of pearls set in a border of carnelian, "my mistress
+be a queen: I do rub the dust on thy ugly nose if that red tongue wag
+more, for make bad speech of her. Go to, clown!"
+
+"Ill betide thee for a blackamoor ape," said Gregory, his courage waxing
+apace when his fears of the supernatural began to subside; "and
+wherefore? Look thee, Mahound, though my mistress sent me to such a
+lady-bird as thou art, Master Oliver shall know on't. Thou hast won her
+with spells and foul necromancie; but I've commandment from him to catch
+all that be poaching on his lands. Thou art i' the mine, too, as I do
+verily guess; therefore I arrest thee i' the king's name, as a lifter of
+his treasure, and a spoiler of our good venison."
+
+Gregory, being stout-limbed, and of a more than ordinary strength for
+his size, proceeded forthwith to execute his threat; but the dwarf, with
+a short shrill scream, gave him a sudden trip, which again laid the
+officious dispenser of justice prostrate, without either loosing the
+torch from his hand, or seeming to use more exertion than would have
+thrown a child.
+
+"Ah, ah, there be quits. Lie still; go to; lick thy paws. Know, dog, I'm
+body to the queen!"
+
+"Body o' me, I think thee be'st liker fist and crupper. I would I had
+thee in a cart at holiday-time, and a rope to thy muzzle," said the
+astonished Gregory. He had dropped his billet in the scuffle, which the
+dwarf seized, opening it without ceremony.
+
+"A message. Good; stay here, garbage; I be back one, two, t'ree," and
+away straddled the black monster along the passage. Turning suddenly,
+before he was aware, into another avenue, leading apparently far into
+the interior, Gregory was left once more in total darkness. He heard the
+sound of retreating footsteps, but not a glimmer was visible, and he
+feared to follow lest he might be entangled in some inextricable
+labyrinth. He recollected to have heard a vague sort of tradition, that
+a subterraneous passage once led from the hall to the Ribble bank,
+whereby the miners had in former days kept their operations secret.
+
+These were the haunts, too, of poachers and deer-stalkers, who made use
+of such hiding-places to screen their nocturnal depredations. He might
+be gotten unknowingly into one of their retreats, and he knew the
+character of such men too well to venture farther into their privy
+places without leave. But it was strange this ugly and insane thing
+should be kept here. Its outlandish accent, too, as far as Gregory could
+distinguish, was still more unaccountable; and that his young mistress
+should hold any intercourse with such a misshapen mockery of the human
+form was a mystery only to be resolved by a woman! After all, his first
+conjecture might be true, and this delicate sprite the ministering demon
+to some magician who brooded over the treasure.
+
+He grew more timorous in the dark. His own breathing startled him. He
+revolved a thousand plans of escape; but how was it possible to climb to
+the pit-mouth without help, and in total darkness? The door, too, would
+probably defy his attempts to remove it. Suspense was not to be endured.
+He would have been glad to see the ugly dwarf again, rather than remain
+in his present evil case.
+
+He now tried to grope out his way, from that sort of undefinable feeling
+which leads a person to identify change of place with improvement in
+condition.
+
+Ere he had gone many yards from the spot, however, he saw a light, and
+presently the flaming torch was visible, with the ugly form he desired.
+
+"Sir messenger, allez. Make scrape and go backward. Bah! What for make
+lady chuse ugly lout as thee for page?--not know, not inquire. Up, this
+way; now mind the steps. Bah, not that, fool!"
+
+With some difficulty Gregory was initiated into the mysteries of the
+ascent. The torch was brandished high above his head, and with fear and
+trepidation he prepared to obey.
+
+"But, master sooty-paws, my mistress will be a-wanting of some token;
+some reply. Hast thou no memory of her sweet favours?"
+
+"Begone, slave-dog, begone! Say we be snug as the fox that will keep in
+the hole when dogs go hunt. We not go up again till lady sends leave. Go
+to!"
+
+Gregory mounted with great difficulty. When he approached the mouth,
+looking upward for some mode of exit, he saw the trap-door slowly open,
+and he leapt forth into the free air; the cool atmosphere and the quiet
+moonlight again upon his path. He soon cleared the bushes, and once more
+was on his way to the house. Elizabeth met him at the gate.
+
+"What ho, sirrah!" said she, "hast thou been loitering with my message?
+I left my chamber to look out for thee. What answer? Quick."
+
+"Why, forsooth, 'tis not easy to say, methinks, for such jabber is hard
+to interpret. By my lady's leave, I think"--
+
+Here he paused; but Elizabeth was impatient for the expected reply.
+"Softly, softly, mistress. I but thought your worship were ill bestowed
+on yonder ugly image."
+
+"Tut, I'm not i' the humour for thine. What message, simpleton?"
+
+"None, good mistress; but that they be snug until further orders."
+
+"'Tis well; to rest; but hark thee, knave, be honest and discreet; thou
+shall win both gold and great honours thereby."
+
+"What! shall I ha' my share o' the treasure?" inquired Gregory, his eyes
+glistening in the broad moonlight.
+
+"What treasure, thou greedy gled?"
+
+"Why they say 'tis a mine royal, and"--
+
+"How! knowest thou our secret?"
+
+"Ay, a body may quess. I've not found the road to the silver mine for
+nought. If I get my grip on't, the king may whistle for his share
+belike."
+
+"The king! what knowest thou of the king?" said the maiden sharply.
+
+"Eh! lady, I know not on him forsooth. Marry it would be hard to say who
+that be now-a-days; for the clerk towed me"--
+
+"Peace! whom sawest thou?"
+
+"Why the ugliest brute, saving your presence, lady, that my two een ever
+lippened on."
+
+"None else?"
+
+"No, no; I warrant ye, the miners wouldna care to let me get a glint o'
+the gowd. I only had a look at the hobgoblin, who they have set, I
+guess, to watch the treasure."
+
+"Oh! I see,--ay, truly," said the maiden thoughtfully; "the mine is
+guarded, therefore be wary, and reveal not the secret, lest he crush
+thee. Remember," said she at parting, "remember the demon of the cave.
+One word, and he will grind thy bones to grist."
+
+Gregory did remember the power of this mysterious being, who, he began
+to fancy, partook more of the supernatural than he had formerly
+imagined.
+
+Wearied with watching, he slept soundly, but his dreams were of wizards
+and enchanters; heaps of gold and fairy palaces, wherein he roved
+through glittering halls of illimitable extent, until morning dissipated
+the illusion.
+
+Some weeks passed on, during which, at times, Gregory was employed by
+his mistress, doubtless to propitiate this greedy monster, in conveying
+food secretly to the mouth of the chasm. He did not usually wait for his
+appearance, but ran off with all convenient speed when his errand was
+accomplished. Still his hankering for the treasure seemed to increase
+with every visit. He oft invented some plan for outwitting the demon,
+thereby securing to himself the product of the mine. Some of these
+devices would doubtless have been accomplished had not fear prevented
+the attempt. He had no wish to encounter again the hostility of that
+fearful thing in its unhallowed abode.
+
+His mistress, however, would, at some period or another, no doubt, be in
+possession of all the wealth in the cave, and he should then expect a
+handsome share. He had heard, in old legends, marvellous accounts of
+ladies marrying with these accursed dwarfs for gold, and if he waited
+patiently he might perchance have the best of the spoil.
+
+He brooded on this imagination so long that he became fully convinced
+of its truth; but still the golden egg was long in hatching.
+
+One night he thought he would watch a while. He had just left a large
+barley-cake and some cheese, a bowl of furmety, and a dish of fruit.
+
+"This monster," thought he, "devours more victuals than the worth of his
+ugly carcase."
+
+He hid himself behind a tree, when presently he heard a rustling behind
+him. Ere he could retreat he was seized with a rude grasp, and the gruff
+accents of his master were heard angrily exclaiming--
+
+"How now, sir knave?--What mischief art thou plotting this blessed
+night? Answer me. No equivocation. If thou dost serve me with a lie in
+thy mouth I'll have thee whipt until thou shall wish the life were out
+o' thee."
+
+Gregory fell on his knees and swore roundly that he would tell the
+truth.
+
+"Quick, hound; I have caught thee lurching here at last. I long thought
+thou hadst some knavery agoing. What meanest thou?"
+
+Gregory pointed towards the provision which was lying hard by.
+
+"Eh, sirrah! what have we hear?" said his master, curiously examining
+the dainties. "Why, thou cormorant, thou greedy kite, is't not enough to
+consume victuals and provender under my own roof, but thou must guttle
+'em here too? I warrant there be other company to the work, other
+grinders at the mill. Now, horrible villain, thou dost smell fearfully
+o' the stocks!"
+
+"O master, forgive me!--It was mistress that sent me with the stuff, as
+I hope the Virgin and St Gregory may be my intercessors."
+
+"Thy mistress!--and for whom?"
+
+"Why, there's a hole close by, as I've good cause to remember."
+
+"Well, sirrah, and what then?"
+
+"As ugly a devilkin lives there as ever put paw and breech upon hidden
+treasure. 'Tis the mine, master, that I mean."
+
+"The mine! What knowest thou of the mine?"
+
+"I've been there, and"--
+
+Here he related his former adventure; at the hearing of which Oliver
+Tempest fell into a marvellous study.
+
+"Hark thee," said he, after a long silence; "I pardon thee on one
+condition, which is, that thou take another message."
+
+Here the terrified Gregory broke forth into unequivocal exclamations of
+agony and alarm.
+
+"Peace," said his master, "and listen; thou must carry it as from my
+daughter. I suspect there's treason lurks i' that hole."
+
+"Ay, doubtless," said Gregory: "for the neibours say 'tis treason to
+hide a mine royal."
+
+"A mine royal! Ay, knave, I do suspect it to be so. By my troth, I 'll
+ferret out the foulmarts either by force or guile. And yet force would
+avail little. If they have the clue we might attempt to follow them in
+vain through its labyrinths, they would inevitably escape, and I should
+lose the reward. Hark thee. Stay here and I'll fetch the writing for the
+message. Stir not for thy life. Shouldst thou betray me I'll have thy
+crooked bones ground in a mill to thicken pigs' gruel."
+
+Fearful was the dilemma; but Gregory durst not budge.
+
+The night grew dark and stormy, the wind rose, loud gusts shaking down
+the dying leaves, and howling through the wide extent of the forest. The
+moan of the river came on like the agony of some tortured spirit. The
+sound seemed to creep closer to his ear; and Gregory thought some evil
+thing was haunting him for intruding into these unhallowed mysteries.
+
+He was horribly alarmed at the idea of another visit to the cave, but he
+durst not disobey. He now heard a rustling in the bushes by the cavern's
+mouth. He saw, or fancied he saw, something rise therefrom and suddenly
+disappear. It was the demon, doubtless, retiring with his prey. He
+scarcely dared to breathe lest the hobgoblin should observe and seize
+him likewise. But his presence was unnoticed. He, however, thought that
+the blast grew louder, and a moan more melancholy and appalling arose
+from the river. Again Oliver Tempest was at his side.
+
+"Take this, and do thy bidding." He thrust the billet into his hand,
+which the unfortunate recipient might not refuse.
+
+Trembling in every limb, he approached the place of concealment; but he
+was too wary now to let go his hold of the fallen trunk.
+
+He whistled thrice, and the ground again seemed to give way. A light
+glared from beneath, and he cautiously descended the pit.
+
+The grim porter was waiting for him below. He fell as though rushing
+into the very jaws of the monster, who was but whetting his tusks ere he
+should devour him.
+
+"Here again!" croaked the ugly dwarf; "what brings thy long legs back
+from Christendom?"
+
+"I know not, master; but if you are i' the humour to read, I've a scrap
+in my pouch at your high mightiness' service."
+
+Gregory paid more deference to him now than aforetime, having conceived
+a most profound respect for his attributes, both physical and mental,
+since his former visit.
+
+"He is himself either some wondrous enchanter," thought he, "or, at any
+rate, minister or familiar to some mighty wizard, who hath his
+dwelling-place in this subterraneous abode."
+
+"I have a message here to my lord," said he aloud, handing him the
+billet at arm's length, with a mighty show of deference and respect. The
+uncourteous dwarf took the writing, and left Gregory in darkness again
+to await his return. He shook at every joint, while the minutes seemed
+an age. Again the light flickered on the damp walls, and the mysterious
+being approached. He addressed the envoy with his usual grin of
+contempt.
+
+"Tell the lady, my master be glad. He will leap from his prison by
+to-morrow, as she say, and appear at dinner."
+
+"The dickons he will," said Gregory, as he clambered up the ascent, not
+without imminent jeopardy, so anxious was he to escape.
+
+"This is a fearful message to master," thought he, as he leapt out
+joyfully into the buoyant air: "but at any rate I'll now be quit o' the
+job." And the messenger gave his report, for Oliver Tempest was
+impatiently awaiting his return.
+
+"'Tis well," said he; "and now, hark thee, should one syllable of this
+night's business bubble through thy lips, thou hadst better have stayed
+in the paws of the hobgoblin. Away!"
+
+Gregory needed no second invitation, but scampered home with great
+despatch, leaving his master to grope out the way as he thought proper.
+
+There was more bustle and preparation for dinner than usual on the
+morrow. Oliver Tempest had sent messengers to Bashall and Waddow; but
+the guests had not made their appearance. About noon the hall-table was
+furnished with a few whittles and well-scoured trenchers. Bright pewter
+cups and ale-flagons were set in rows on a side-table, and on the
+kitchen hearth lay a savoury chine of pork and pease-pudding. In the
+great boiling pot, hung on a crook over the fire, bubbled a score of
+hard dumplings, and in the broth reposed a huge piece of beef--these
+dainties being usually served in the following order--broth, dumpling,
+beef, according to the old distich--
+
+    "No broth, no ba';
+    No ba', no meat at a'."
+
+Dame Joan of Waddington was the presiding genius of the feast, the
+conduit-pipe through which flowed the full stream of daily bounty,
+dispensing every blessing, even the most minute. In that golden age of
+domestic discipline it was not beneath the dignity of a careful
+housewife to attend and take the lead in all culinary arrangements.
+
+The master strode to and fro in the hall, and Elizabeth was humming at
+her wheel. He looked anxious and ill at ease, often casting a furtive
+glance towards the entrance, and occasionally a side-look at his
+daughter. She sometimes watched her father's eye, as though she had
+caught his restless apprehensions, and would have inquired the cause of
+his uneasiness. Suddenly a loud bay from a favourite hound that was
+dozing on the hearth announced the approach of a stranger. Oliver
+advanced with a quick step into the courtyard, and soon re-entered
+leading in a middle-sized, middle-aged personage, slightly formed, whose
+pale and saintly features looked haggard and apprehensive, while his eye
+wavered to and fro, less perhaps with curiosity than suspicion.
+
+He was wrapped in a grey cloak; and a leathern jerkin, barely meeting in
+front, displayed a considerable breadth of under garment in the space
+between hose and doublet. These were fastened together with tags or
+points, superseding the use of wooden skewers, with which latter mode of
+suspension not a few of our country yeomen were in those days supplied.
+His legs were protected by boots of fine brown Spanish leather, lined
+with deer-skin, tanned with the fur on, and buttoned from the ankle to
+the knee. He had gloves of the same material, reaching to the elbow when
+drawn up, but now turned down with the fur outwards. The hands and feet
+were remarkably small, but well shapen. A low grey cap of coarse
+woollen completed the costume of this singular visitor. There was, at
+times, in the expression of his eye, an indescribable mixture of
+imbecility and enthusiasm, as though the spirit of some Eastern fakir
+had reanimated a living body. A gleam of almost supernatural
+intelligence was mingled with an expression of fatuity, that in less
+enlightened ages would have invested him with the dangerous reputation
+of priest or prophet in the eyes of the multitude.
+
+Oliver Tempest led the way with great care and formality. To a keen-eyed
+observer, though, his courtesy would have appeared over acted and
+fulsome; but the object of his assiduities seemed to pay him little
+attention, further than by a vacant smile that struggled around the
+corners of his melancholy and placid mouth.
+
+Dame Joan Tempest now came forth, bending thrice in a deep and formal
+acknowledgment. The stranger stayed her speech with a look of great
+benignity.
+
+"I know thy words are what our kindness would interpret, and I thank
+thee. Your hospitality shall not lose its savour in my remembrance, when
+England hath grown weary of her guilt,--when the cry of the widow and
+the fatherless shall have prevailed. I am hunted like a partridge on the
+mountains; but, by the help of my God, I shall yet escape from the
+noisome pit, and from the snares of the fowler."
+
+Yet the look which accompanied this prediction seemed incredulous of its
+purport. He heaved a deep sigh, and his eyes were suddenly bent on the
+ground. Being introduced into the hall, the seat of honour was assigned
+him at the table.
+
+Elizabeth, when she saw him, uttered an ill-suppressed exclamation of
+surprise, and her pale countenance grew almost ghastly. Her lips were
+bloodless, quivering with terror and dismay. Agony was depicted on her
+brow--that agony which leaves the spirit without support to struggle
+with unknown, undefined, uncomprehended evil. Not a word escaped her;
+she hurried out of the hall, as she thought, without observation; but
+this sudden movement did not escape the eye of her father. Triumph sat
+on his brow; and his cheek seemed flushed with joy at the result of his
+stratagem.
+
+The servitors appeared; and the smoking victuals were disposed in their
+due order. The joints were placed at the upper end of the board, while
+broth and pottage steamed out their savoury fumes from the lower end of
+the table. At some distance below the master and his dame sat the male
+domestics, then the females, who occupied the lower places at the feast,
+except two, who waited on the rest.
+
+The master blessed the meal, the whole company standing. The broth was
+served round to the lower forms, and the meat and dainties to the
+higher; but Elizabeth was still absent.
+
+When she left the hall it was for the purpose of speaking to Gregory,
+whom she found skulking and peeping about the premises.
+
+"Gregory, why art thou absent from thy nooning?" inquired Elizabeth,
+with a suspicious and scrutinising glance.
+
+"I'm not o'er careful to bide i' the house just now. Is there aught come
+that--that"--Here he stammered and looked round, confirming the
+suspicions of the inquirer.
+
+"Gregory, thou art a traitor; but thou shalt not escape thy reward. I'll
+have thee hung--ay, villain, beyond the reach of aught but crows and
+kites."
+
+"Whoy, mistress, I'd leifer be hung nor stifled to death wi' brimstone
+and bad humours."
+
+"None o' thy quiddities, thou maker of long lies and quick legs.
+Confess, or I'll"--
+
+"Whoy, look ye, mistress, you've been kind, and pulled me out of many an
+ugly ditch."
+
+"Why dost thou hesitate, knave? I'm glad thy memory is not so
+treacherous as thy tongue."
+
+"Nay, mistress, I've no notion to sup brose wi' t' old one: those that
+dinner wi' him he may happen ask to supper; and he'd need have a long
+whittle that cuts crumbs wi' the de'il."
+
+"Art thou at thy riddles again? Speak in sober similitudes, if thou
+canst, sirrah."
+
+"Your father sent me on a message to the little devilkin last night. I
+was loth enough to the job; but he catched me as I went wi' the
+victuals."
+
+"A message!--and to what purport?"
+
+"Nay, that I know not. The invitation was conveyed in a scrap of
+writing, and I'm not gifted in clerkship an' such like matters."
+
+A ray of intelligence now burst upon her. She saw the imminent danger
+which threatened the fugitive, who had been hitherto concealed
+principally by her contrivances. Gregory watched the rapid and changing
+hues alternating on her cheek. She saw the full extent of the emergency;
+and, though her father was the traitor, she hesitated not in that trying
+moment.
+
+No time was to be lost, and measures were immediately taken to
+countervail these designs.
+
+"What answer sent he?" she hastily inquired.
+
+"The de'il's buckie said his master would be at the hall by dinner-time;
+and I'll not be one o' the guests where old Clootie has the pick o' the
+table."
+
+"Thou witless runnion, haste, or we are lost! It is the king! I would I
+had trusted thee before with the secret. Mayhap thy wit would have been
+without obscuration. Supernatural terrors have taken thy reason
+prisoner. Haste, nor look behind thee until thou art under the eaves of
+Bashall. This to my cousin, Edmund Talbot; he is honest, or my wishes
+themselves are turned traitors," said the maiden wistfully. She scrawled
+but one line, with which Gregory departed on his errand.
+
+Oliver Tempest grew uneasy at his daughter's absence. He inquired the
+cause, but all were alike ignorant. The king inquired too, with some
+surprise; and a messenger was despatched with a close whisper in his
+ear.
+
+The meal was nigh finished, when all eyes were turned towards the
+entrance. A little blackamoor page came waddling in. He made no sign nor
+obeisance, but took his station, without speaking, behind his master's
+chair.
+
+"Why, how now, my trusty squire?" said the disguised monarch; "thou wast
+not bidden to this feast."
+
+The dwarf cast a scowling glance at the master of the house, and he
+replied, while a hideous grin dilated his thick stubborn features--
+
+"This be goodly wassail, methinks. I am weary of lurching and
+torchlight."
+
+"Tempest," said the king, "I would crave grace for this follower of
+mine. He is somewhat fearsome and forbidding, but of an unwearied
+fidelity."
+
+"Troth," said Tempest, still wishful to maintain the king's incognito,
+"the Turks having now taken Byzantium, the great bulwark of Christendom,
+I did fear me that the first of the tribe from that great army of
+locusts had descended upon us."
+
+"Fear not," said the unfortunate monarch, with a smile; "this poor
+innocent will do no ill. His mistress brought him for me a present from
+her father's court; and, to say the truth, he has been a great solace in
+my trouble. He hath not forsaken me when they who fattened on my
+bounty--who dipped their hands with me in the dish--have been the first
+to betray me. The knave is shrewd and playful, but of an incredible
+strength, being, as ye may observe, double-jointed. Madoc, let them
+behold some token of thy power."
+
+The cunning rogue obeyed in a twinkling. He seized the host's chair with
+one hand, lifting its occupant without difficulty from the ground. With
+the other he laid hold on him by the throat, and would certainly have
+strangled him but for the king.
+
+The assault was so sudden and unexpected that the domestics stood still
+a moment, as though rendered powerless by surprise.
+
+The next instant they all fled pell-mell out of the hall, every one
+struggling to be foremost, apprehending that the great personification
+of all evil was there, bodily, behind them, and in the very act of
+flying off with their master.
+
+In vain Joan shouted after the cowardly villains; her threats but
+increased their speed.
+
+"Fly, King Henry," cried the dwarf, in a voice that sounded like the
+roar of some infuriated beast; "the rascal curs are barking; the stag is
+in the net. This traitor"--Here he became at a loss for words; but his
+gesticulations were more vehement. "Fly!" at length he shouted, in a
+louder voice than before; "I've seen sword and armour glittering in the
+forest."
+
+But the king was irresolute, as much amazed as any of the rest. He saw
+the imminent danger of his host, whose face was blackening above the
+grip of this fierce antagonist, and he cried out--
+
+"Leave go, Madoc; let the curs bark, we fear them not in this good
+house. Let go, I command thee."
+
+With a look of pity and of scorn the savage loosened his hold, saying--
+
+"Thou be'st not king now; but Henry with the beads and breviary; and
+here come thy tormentors."
+
+A loud whistle rang through the hall, and in burst a band of armed men,
+led on by Sir Thomas Talbot of Bashall, and his oldest son of the same
+name, together with Sir James Harrington.
+
+Tempest, recovered from his gripe, made a furious dart at the king; but
+ere he had accomplished his purpose, Edmund Talbot rushed between, at
+the peril of his life, opening a way for the terrified monarch through
+the band that had nearly surrounded him.
+
+The king fled through the passage made by his deliverer; and the dwarf,
+keeping his enemies at bay, heroically and effectually covered his
+retreat.
+
+"Edmund Talbot, art thou traitor to thy kin?" said Sir Thomas, from the
+crowd. "Let me pass; 'tis thy father commands thee. 'Tis not thy king,
+he is a coward and a usurper."
+
+"I care not," said the retreating and faithful Edmund. "My arm shall not
+compass with traitors. Cowards attack unarmed men at their meals."
+
+"Then take thy reward." It was the eldest brother of Edmund who said
+this, whilst he aimed a terrific blow; but the dwarf caught his arm ere
+it descended, and a swinging stroke from a missile which he had picked
+up in the fray would have settled accounts between the heir of Bashall
+and posterity had he not stepped aside.
+
+This unequal contest, however, could not long continue, though time, the
+principal object, was gained, and the king was fast hastening again
+towards the cavern. In the courtyard he met Elizabeth, who implored him
+to step aside into another place of concealment; but he was too much
+terrified to comprehend her meaning. Fear seemed to have bewildered him,
+and the poor persecuted monarch sped on to his own destruction. In the
+hurry and uncertainty of his flight, he unfortunately took the wrong
+path, which led by a circuitous route to the ford; and, as he stepped
+out of the wood, two of his enemies, having broken through the gallant
+defence of his adherents, had already gained, and were guarding, the
+stepping-stones over the river, called "Brunckerley Hippens." Terrified,
+he flew back into the wood, but was immediately followed; and again his
+evil destiny seemed to prevail. He took another path, which led him back
+to the ford. Here he crossed, and, whilst leaping with difficulty over
+the stones, the pursuers came in full view. Having gained the Lancashire
+side, he fled into the wood, but his enemies were now too close upon him
+for escape, and the royal captive was taken, bound, and conveyed to
+Bashall. Many cruel indignities were heaped upon him; and he was
+conveyed to London in the most piteous plight, on horseback, with his
+legs tied to the stirrups. Ere he departed, it is said that he delivered
+a singular prediction--to wit, that nine generations of the Talbot
+family, in succession, should consist of a wise and a weak man by turns,
+after which the name should be lost.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[54] Whitaker's _Craven_.
+
+[55] Pennant.
+
+[56] _Hist. Whalley_.
+
+[57] Webster, in his _Metallographia_, mentions a field called Skilhorn,
+in the township of Rivington-within-Craven, "belonging to one Mr Pudsay,
+an ancient esquire, and owner of Bolton Hall, juxta Bolland; who, in the
+reign of Queen Elizabeth, did get good store of silver-ore, and convert
+it to his own use, or rather coined it, as many do believe, there being
+many shillings marked with an escallop, which the people of that country
+call Pudsay shillings to this day. But whether way soever it was, he
+procured his pardon for it, and had it, as I am certified from the
+mouths of those who had seen it." Webster further adds: "While old Basby
+(a chemist) was with me, I procured some of the ore, which yielded after
+the rate of twenty-six pounds of silver per ton. Since then, good store
+of lead has been gotten; but I never could procure any more of the sort
+formerly gotten; the miners being so cunning, that if they meet with any
+vein that contains so much ore as will make it a myne royall, they will
+not discover it."
+
+Dr Whitaker, in his _History of Craven,_ says: "The following papers,
+lately communicated to me from the evidences of the Pudsays, put the
+matter out of doubt:--'Case of a myne royall. Although the gold or
+silver contained in the base metalls of a mine in the land of a subject
+be of less value than the baser metall, yet if gold and silver doe
+countervaile the charge of refining, or bee of more value than the baser
+metall spent in refining itt, this is a myne royall, and _as wel the
+base metall_ as the gold and silver in it, belongs to the crown.
+
+"'Edw. Herbert, Attorney-General. Oliver St John, Solicitor-General. Orl.
+Bridgman. Joh. Glanvill. Jeoffry Palmer. Tho. Lane. Jo. Maynard. Hdw.
+Hyde. J. Glynn. Harbottle Grimstone,' &c.
+
+"So favourable at that time were the opinions of the most constitutional
+lawyers (for such were the greater part of these illustrious names) to
+the prerogative. But the law on this head has been very wisely altered
+by two statutes of William and Mary.--Blackstone, iv. 295.
+
+"The other paper is of later date:--'To the King's most excellent
+Majestie. The humble petition of Ambrose Pudsay, Esq., sheweth, that
+your petitioner having suffered much by imprisonment, plunder, &c., for
+his bounden loyalty, and having many years concealed a myne royall, in
+Craven, in Yorkshire, prayeth a patent for digging and refining the
+same.'"
+
+[58] _Hist, of Whalley_, p. 504.
+
+[59] This lady, whose attractions or good fortune must have been
+uncommon, says the historian of Craven, was daughter to Henry Pudsay of
+Bolton. She married, first, Sir Thomas Talbot of Bashall, who died 13
+Henry VII.; after which she became the second wife of Henry, Lord
+Clifford, the shepherd; and, after his decease, by the procurement of
+Henry VIII., gave her hand to Richard Grey, youngest son of Thomas,
+Marquis of Dorset.
+
+END OF VOL. I.
+
+Printed by Ballantyne and Company Edinburgh and London
+
+
+
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