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diff --git a/old/19697-8.txt b/old/19697-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6e0c787 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/19697-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,22289 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of By What Authority?, by Robert Hugh Benson + +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: By What Authority? + +Author: Robert Hugh Benson + +Release Date: November 2, 2006 [EBook #19697] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BY WHAT AUTHORITY? *** + + + + +Produced by Geoff Horton and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + BY + + WHAT AUTHORITY? + + + + + By + + Robert Hugh Benson + + _Author of_ + + "The Light Invisible," "The King's Achievement," + "A Book of the Love of Jesus," etc. + + + BENIZIGER BROS. + PRINTERS TO THE HOLY APOSTOLIC SEE, + NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO. + + + + + _I wish to acknowledge a great debt of + gratitude to the Reverend Dom Bede + Camm., O.S.B., who kindly read this book + in proof, and made many valuable corrections + and suggestions._ + + ROBERT HUGH BENSON + +_Tremans + Horsted Keynes + October 27, 1904_ + + + + + PENATIBVS · FOCISQVE · CARIS + + NECNON · TRIBVS · CARIORIBVS + + APVD · QVAS · SCRIPSI + + IN · QVARVM · AVRES · LEGI + + A · QVIBVS · ADMONITVS · EMENDAVI + + HVNC · LIBRVM + + D. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + PART I + + +CHAP. PAGE + + I. The Situation 1 + + II. The Hall and the House 8 + + III. London Town 21 + + IV. Mary Corbet 37 + + V. A Rider From London 51 + + VI. Mr. Stewart 64 + + VII. The Door in the Garden Wall 79 + +VIII. The Taking of Mr. Stewart 90 + + IX. Village Justice 99 + + X. A Confessor 108 + + XI. Master Calvin 124 + + XII. A Winding Up 140 + + + PART II + + I. Anthony in London 152 + + II. Some New Lessons 168 + + III. Hubert's Return 183 + + IV. A Counter March 196 + + V. The Coming of the Jesuits 213 + + VI. Some Contrasts 235 + + VII. A Message From the City 252 + +VIII. The Massing-House 267 + + IX. From Fulham to Greenwich 279 + + X. The Appeal to Cæsar 296 + + XI. A Station of the Cross 313 + + XII. A Strife of Tongues 334 + +XIII. The Spiritual Exercises 351 + + XIV. Easter Day 368 + + + PART III + + I. The Coming of Spain 384 + + II. Men of War and Peace 390 + + III. Home-Coming 404 + + IV. Stanfield Place 421 + + V. Joseph Lackington 429 + + VI. A Departure 439 + + VII. Northern Religion 453 + +VIII. In Stanstead Woods 468 + + IX. The Alarm 484 + + X. The Passage To the Garden-house 492 + + XI. The Garden-house 505 + + XII. The Night Ride 521 + +XIII. In Prison 526 + + XIV. An Open Door 541 + + XV. The Rolling of the Stone 552 + + + + + BY WHAT AUTHORITY? + + + + + PART I + + + + + + CHAPTER I + + THE SITUATION + + +To the casual Londoner who lounged, intolerant and impatient, at the +blacksmith's door while a horse was shod, or a cracked spoke mended, +Great Keynes seemed but a poor backwater of a place, compared with the +rush of the Brighton road eight miles to the east from which he had +turned off, or the whirling cauldron of London City, twenty miles to the +north, towards which he was travelling. + +The triangular green, with its stocks and horse-pond, overlooked by the +grey benignant church-tower, seemed a tame exchange for seething +Cheapside and the crowded ways about the Temple or Whitehall; and it was +strange to think that the solemn-faced rustics who stared respectfully at +the gorgeous stranger were of the same human race as the quick-eyed, +voluble townsmen who chattered and laughed and grimaced over the news +that came up daily from the Continent or the North, and was tossed to and +fro, embroidered and discredited alternately, all day long. + +And yet the great waves and movements that, rising in the hearts of kings +and politicians, or in the sudden strokes of Divine Providence, swept +over Europe and England, eventually always rippled up into this placid +country village; and the lives of Master Musgrave, who had retired upon +his earnings, and of old Martin, who cobbled the ploughmen's shoes, were +definitely affected and changed by the plans of far-away Scottish +gentlemen, and the hopes and fears of the inhabitants of South Europe. +Through all the earlier part of Elizabeth's reign, the menace of the +Spanish Empire brooded low on the southern horizon, and a responsive +mutter of storm sounded now and again from the north, where Mary Stuart +reigned over men's hearts, if not their homes; and lovers of secular +England shook their heads and were silent as they thought of their tiny +country, so rent with internal strife, and ringed with danger. + +For Great Keynes, however, as for most English villages and towns at this +time, secular affairs were so deeply and intricately interwoven with +ecclesiastical matters that none dared decide on the one question without +considering its relation to the other; and ecclesiastical affairs, too, +touched them more personally than any other, since every religious change +scored a record of itself presently within the church that was as +familiar to them as their own cottages. + +On none had the religious changes fallen with more severity than on the +Maxwell family that lived in the Hall, at the upper and southern end of +the green. Old Sir Nicholas, though his convictions had survived the +tempest of unrest and trouble that had swept over England, and he had +remained a convinced and a stubborn Catholic, yet his spiritual system +was sore and inflamed within him. To his simple and obstinate soul it was +an irritating puzzle as to how any man could pass from the old to a new +faith, and he had been known to lay his whip across the back of a servant +who had professed a desire to try the new religion. + +His wife, a stately lady, a few years younger than himself, did what she +could to keep her lord quiet, and to save him from incurring by his +indiscretion any further penalties beyond the enforced journeys before +the Commission, and the fines inflicted on all who refused to attend +their parish church. So the old man devoted himself to his estates and +the further improvement of the house and gardens, and to the inculcation +of sound religious principles into the minds of his two sons who were +living at home with their parents; and strove to hold his tongue, and his +hand, in public. + +The elder of these two, Mr. James as he was commonly called, was rather a +mysterious personage to the village, and to such neighbours as they had. +He was often in town, and when at home, although extremely pleasant and +courteous, never talked about himself and seemed to be only very +moderately interested in the estate and the country-life generally. This, +coupled with the fact that he would presumably succeed his father, gave +rise to a good deal of gossip, and even some suspicion. + +His younger brother Hubert was very different; passionately attached to +sport and to outdoor occupations, a fearless rider, and in every way a +kindly, frank lad of about eighteen years old. The fifth member of the +family, Lady Maxwell's sister, Mistress Margaret Torridon, was a +quiet-faced old lady, seldom seen abroad, and round whom, as round her +eldest nephew, hung a certain air of mystery. + +The difficulties of this Catholic family were considerable. Sir Nicholas' +religious sympathies were, of course, wholly with the spiritual side of +Spain, and all that that involved, while his intense love of England gave +him a horror of the Southern Empire that the sturdiest patriot might have +envied. And so with his attitude towards Mary Stuart and her French +background. While his whole soul rose in loathing against the crime of +Darnley's murder, to which many of her enemies proclaimed her accessory, +it was kindled at the thought that in her or her child lately crowned as +James VI. of Scotland, lay the hope of a future Catholic succession; and +this religious sympathy was impassioned by the memory of an interview a +few years ago, when he had kissed that gracious white hand, and looked +into those alluring eyes, and, kneeling, stammered out in broken French +his loyalty and his hopes. Whether it was by her devilish craft as her +enemies said, or her serene and limpid innocence as her friends said, or +by a maddening compound of the two, as later students have said--at least +she had made the heart and confidence of old Sir Nicholas her own. + +But there were troubles more practical than these mental struggles; it +was a misery, beyond describing, to this old man and his wife to see the +church, where once they had worshipped and received the sacraments, given +over to what was, in their opinion, a novel heresy, and the charge of a +schismatic minister. There, in the Maxwell chapel within, lay the bones +of their Catholic ancestors; and there they had knelt to adore and +receive their Saviour; and now for them all was gone, and the light was +gone out in the temple of the Lord. In the days of the previous Rector +matters were not so desperate; it had been their custom to receive from +his hands at the altar-rail of the Church hosts previously consecrated at +the Rectory; for the incumbent had been an old Marian priest who had not +scrupled so to relieve his Catholic sheep of the burden of recusancy, +while he fed his Protestant charges with bread and wine from the +Communion table. But now all that was past, and the entire family was +compelled year by year to slip off into Hampshire shortly before Easter +for their annual duties, and the parish church that their forefathers had +built, endowed and decorated, knew them no more. + +But the present Rector, the Reverend George Dent, was far from a bigot; +and the Papists were more fortunate than perhaps, in their bitterness, +they recognised; for the minister was one of the rising Anglican school, +then strange and unfamiliar, but which has now established itself as the +main representative section of the Church of England. He welcomed the +effect but not the rise of the Reformation, and rejoiced that the +incrustations of error had been removed from the lantern of the faith. +But he no less sincerely deplored the fanaticism of the Puritan and +Genevan faction. He exulted to see England with a church truly her own at +last, adapted to her character, and freed from the avarice and tyranny of +a foreign despot who had assumed prerogatives to which he had no right. +But he reverenced the Episcopate, he wore the prescribed dress, he used +the thick singing-cakes for the Communion, and he longed for the time +when nation and Church should again be one; when the nation should +worship through a Church of her own shaping, and the Church share the +glory and influence of her lusty partner and patron. + +But Mrs. Dent had little sympathy with her husband's views; she had +assimilated the fiery doctrines of the Genevan refugees, and to her mind +her husband was balancing himself to the loss of all dignity and +consistency in an untenable position between the Popish priesthood on the +one side and the Gospel ministry on the other. It was an unbearable +thought to her that through her husband's weak disposition and principles +his chief parishioners should continue to live within a stone's throw of +the Rectory in an assured position of honour, and in personal +friendliness to a minister whose ecclesiastical status and claims they +disregarded. The Rector's position then was difficult and trying, no less +in his own house than elsewhere. + +The third main family in the village was that of the Norrises, who lived +in the Dower House, that stood in its own grounds and gardens a few +hundred yards to the north-west of the village green. The house had +originally been part of the Hall estate; but it had been sold some fifty +years before. The present owner, Mr. Henry Norris, a widower, lived there +with his two children, Isabel and Anthony, and did his best to bring them +up in his own religious principles. He was a devout and cultivated +Puritan, who had been affected by the New Learning in his youth, and had +conformed joyfully to the religious changes that took place in Edward's +reign. He had suffered both anxiety and hardships in Mary's reign, when +he had travelled abroad in the Protestant countries, and made the +acquaintance of many of the foreign reformers--Beza, Calvin, and even the +great Melancthon himself. It was at this time, too, that he had lost his +wife. It had been a great joy to him to hear of the accession of +Elizabeth, and the re-establishment of a religion that was sincerely his +own; and he had returned immediately to England with his two little +children, and settled down once more at the Dower House. Here his whole +time that he could spare from his children was divided between prayer and +the writing of a book on the Eucharist; and as his children grew up he +more and more retired into himself and silence and communing with God, +and devoted himself to his book. It was beginning to be a great happiness +to him to find that his daughter Isabel, now about seventeen years old, +was growing up into active sympathy with his principles, and that the +passion of her soul, as of his, was a tender deep-lying faith towards +God, which could exist independently of outward symbols and ceremonies. +But unlike others of his school he was happy too to notice and encourage +friendly relations between Lady Maxwell and his daughter, since he +recognised the sincere and loving spirit of the old lady beneath her +superstitions, and knew very well that her friendship would do for the +girl what his own love could not. + +The other passion of Isabel's life at present lay in her brother Anthony, +who was about three years younger than herself, and who was just now more +interested in his falcons and pony than in all the religious systems and +human relationships in the world, except perhaps in his friendship for +Hubert, who besides being three or four years older than himself, cared +for the same things. + +And so relations between the Hall and the Dower House were all that they +should be, and the path that ran through the gardens of the one and the +yew hedge and orchard of the other was almost as well trodden as if all +still formed one estate. + +As for the village itself, it was exceedingly difficult to gauge +accurately the theological atmosphere. The Rector despaired of doing so. +It was true that at Easter the entire population, except the Maxwells and +their dependents, received communion in the parish church, or at least +professed their willingness and intention to do so unless prevented by +some accident of the preceding week; but it was impossible to be blind to +the fact that many of the old beliefs lingered on, and that there was +little enthusiasm for the new system. Rumours broke out now and again +that the Catholics were rising in the north; that Elizabeth contemplated +a Spanish or French marriage with a return to the old religion; that Mary +Stuart would yet come to the throne; and with each such report there came +occasionally a burst of joy in unsuspected quarters. Old Martin, for +example, had been overheard, so a zealous neighbour reported, blessing +Our Lady aloud for her mercies when a passing traveller had insisted that +a religious league was in progress of formation between France and Spain, +and that it was only a question of months as to when mass should be said +again in every village church; but then on the following Sunday the +cobbler's voice had been louder than all in the metrical psalm, and on +the Monday he had paid a morning visit to the Rectory to satisfy himself +on the doctrine of Justification, and had gone again, praising God and +not Our Lady, for the godly advice received. + +But again, three years back, just before Mr. Dent had come to the place, +there had been a solemn burning on the village-green of all such +muniments of superstition as had not been previously hidden by the priest +and Sir Nicholas; and in the rejoicings that accompanied this return to +pure religion practically the whole agricultural population had joined. +Some Justices had ridden over from East Grinsted to direct this rustic +reformation, and had reported favourably to the new Rector on his arrival +of the zeal of his flock. The great Rood, they told him, with SS. Mary +and John, four great massy angels, the statue of St. Christopher, the +Vernacle, a brocade set of mass vestments and a purple cope, had perished +in the flames, and there had been no lack of hands to carry faggots; and +now the Rector found it difficult to reconcile the zeal of his +parishioners (which indeed he privately regretted) with the sudden and +unexpected lapses into superstition, such as was Mr. Martin's gratitude +to Our Lady, and others of which he had had experience. + +As regards the secular politics of the outside world, Great Keynes took +but little interest. It was far more a matter of concern whether mass or +morning prayer was performed on Sunday, than whether a German bridegroom +could be found for Elizabeth, or whether she would marry the Duke of +Anjou; and more important than either were the infinitesimal details of +domestic life. Whether Mary was guilty or not, whether her supporters +were rising, whether the shadow of Spain chilled the hearts of men in +London whose affair it was to look after such things; yet the cows must +be milked, and the children washed, and the falcons fed; and it was these +things that formed the foreground of life, whether the sky were stormy or +sunlit. + +And so, as the autumn of '69 crept over the woods in flame and russet, +and the sound of the sickle was in folks' ears, the life at Great Keynes +was far more tranquil than we should fancy who look back on those +stirring days. The village, lying as it did out of the direct route +between any larger towns, was not so much affected by the gallop of the +couriers, or the slow creeping rumours from the Continent, as villages +that lay on lines of frequent communication. So the simple life went on, +and Isabel went about her business in Mrs. Carroll's still-room, and +Anthony rode out with the harriers, and Sir Nicholas told his beads in +his room--all with nearly as much serenity as if Scotland were fairyland +and Spain a dream. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + THE HALL AND THE HOUSE + + +Anthony Norris, who was now about fourteen, went up to King's College, +Cambridge, in October. He was closeted long with his father the night +before he left, and received from him much sound religious advice and +exhortation; and in the morning, after an almost broken-hearted good-bye +from Isabel, he rode out with his servant following on another horse and +leading a packhorse on the saddle of which the falcons swayed and +staggered, and up the curving drive that led round into the village +green. He was a good-hearted and wholesome-minded boy, and left a real +ache behind him in the Dower House. + +Isabel indeed ran up to his room, after she had seen his feathered cap +disappear at a trot through the gate, leaving her father in the hall; and +after shutting and latching the door, threw herself on his bed, and +sobbed her heart out. They had never been long separated before. For the +last three years he had gone over to the Rectory morning by morning to be +instructed by Mr. Dent; but now, although he would never make a great +scholar, his father thought it well to send him up to Cambridge for two +or three years, that he might learn to find his own level in the world. + +Anthony himself was eager to go. If the truth must be told, he fretted a +little against the restraints of even such a moderate Puritan household +as that of his father's. It was a considerable weariness to Anthony to +kneel in the hall on a fresh morning while his father read, even though +with fervour and sincerity, long extracts from "Christian Prayers and +Holy Meditations," collected by the Reverend Henry Bull, when the real +world, as Anthony knew it, laughed and rippled and twinkled outside in +the humming summer air of the lawn and orchard; or to have to listen to +godly discourses, however edifying to elder persons, just at the time +when the ghost-moth was beginning to glimmer in the dusk, and the heavy +trout to suck down his supper in the glooming pool in the meadow below +the house. + +His very sports, too, which his father definitely encouraged, were +obviously displeasing to the grave divines who haunted the house so often +from Saturday to Monday, and spoke of high doctrinal matters at +meal-times, when, so Anthony thought, lighter subjects should prevail. +They were not interested in his horse, and Anthony never felt quite the +same again towards one good minister who in a moment of severity called +Eliza, the glorious peregrine that sat on the boy's wrist and shook her +bells, a "vanity." And so Anthony trotted off happy enough on his way to +Cambridge, of which he had heard much from Mr. Dent; and where, although +there too were divines and theology, there were boys as well who acted +plays, hunted with the hounds, and did not call high-bred hawks +"vanities." + +Isabel was very different. While Anthony was cheerful and active like his +mother who had died in giving him life, she, on the other hand, was quiet +and deep like her father. She was growing up, if not into actual beauty, +at least into grace and dignity: but there were some who thought her +beautiful. She was pale with dark hair, and the great grey eyes of her +father; and she loved and lived in Anthony from the very difference +between them. She frankly could not understand the attraction of sport, +and the things that pleased her brother; she was afraid of the hawks, and +liked to stroke a horse and kiss his soft nose better than to ride him. +But, after all, Anthony liked to watch the towering bird, and to hear and +indeed increase the thunder of the hoofs across the meadows behind the +stomping hawk; and so she did her best to like them too; and she was +often torn two ways by her sympathy for the partridge on the one hand, as +it sped low and swift across the standing corn with that dread shadow +following, and her desire, on the other hand, that Anthony should not be +disappointed. + +But in the deeper things of the spirit, too, there was a wide difference +between them. As Anthony fidgeted and sighed through his chair-back +morning and evening, Isabel's soul soared up to God on the wings of those +sounding phrases. She had inherited all her father's tender piety, and +lived, like him, on the most intimate terms with the spiritual world. And +though, of course, by training she was Puritan, by character she was +Puritan too. As a girl of fourteen she had gone with Anthony to see the +cleansing of the village temple. They had stood together at the west end +of the church a little timid at the sight of that noisy crowd in the +quiet house of prayer; but she had felt no disapproval at that fierce +vindication of truth. Her father had taught her of course that the purest +worship was that which was only spiritual; and while since childhood she +had seen Sunday by Sunday the Great Rood overhead, she had never paid it +any but artistic attention. The men had the ropes round it now, and it +was swaying violently to and fro; and then, even as the children watched, +a tie had given, and the great cross with its pathetic wide-armed figure +had toppled forward towards the nave, and then crashed down on the +pavement. A fanatic ran out and furiously kicked the thorn-crowned head +twice, splintering the hair and the features, and cried out on it as an +idol; and yet Isabel, with all her tenderness, felt nothing more than a +vague regret that a piece of carving so ancient and so delicate should be +broken. + +But when the work was over, and the crowd and Anthony with them had +stamped out, directed by the justices, dragging the figures and the old +vestments with them to the green, she had seen something which touched +her heart much more. She passed up alone under the screen, which they had +spared, to see what had been done in the chancel; and as she went she +heard a sobbing from the corner near the priest's door; and there, +crouched forward on his face, crying and moaning quietly, was the old +priest who had been rector of the church for nearly twenty years. He had +somehow held on in Edward's time in spite of difficulties; had thanked +God and the Court of Heaven with a full heart for the accession of Mary; +had prayed and deprecated the divine wrath at the return of the +Protestant religion with Elizabeth; but yet had somehow managed to keep +the old faith alight for eight years more, sometimes evading, sometimes +resisting, and sometimes conforming to the march of events, in hopes of +better days. But now the blow had fallen, and the old man, too +ill-instructed to hear the accents of new truth in the shouting of that +noisy crowd and the crash of his images, was on his knees before the +altar where he had daily offered the holy sacrifice through all those +troublous years, faithful to what he believed to be God's truth, now +bewailing and moaning the horrors of that day, and, it is to be feared, +unchristianly calling down the vengeance of God upon his faithless flock. +This shocked and touched Isabel far more than the destruction of the +images; and she went forward timidly and said something; but the old man +turned on her a face of such misery and anger that she had run straight +out of the church, and joined Anthony as he danced on the green. + +On the following Sunday the old priest was not there, and a fervent young +minister from London had taken his place, and preached a stirring sermon +on the life and times of Josiah; and Isabel had thanked God on her knees +after the sermon for that He had once more vindicated His awful Name and +cleansed His House for a pure worship. + +But the very centre of Isabel's religion was the love of the Saviour. The +Puritans of those early days were very far from holding a negative or +colourless faith. Not only was their belief delicately dogmatic to +excess; but it all centred round the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And +Isabel had drunk in this faith from her father's lips, and from +devotional books which he gave her, as far back as she could remember +anything. Her love for the Saviour was even romantic and passionate. It +seemed to her that He was as much a part of her life, and of her actual +experience, as Anthony or her father. Certain places in the lanes about, +and certain spots in the garden, were sacred and fragrant to her because +her Lord had met her there. It was indeed a trouble to her sometimes that +she loved Anthony so much; and to her mind it was a less worthy kind of +love altogether; it was kindled and quickened by such little external +details, by the sight of his boyish hand brown with the sun, and scarred +by small sporting accidents, such as the stroke of his bird's beak or +talons, or by the very outline of the pillow where his curly head had +rested only an hour or two ago. Whereas her love for Christ was a deep +and solemn passion that seemed to well not out of His comeliness or even +His marred Face or pierced Hands, but out of His wide encompassing love +that sustained and clasped her at every moment of her conscious attention +to Him, and that woke her soul to ecstasy at moments of high communion. +These two loves, then, one so earthly, one so heavenly, but both so +sweet, every now and then seemed to her to be in slight conflict in her +heart. And lately a third seemed to be rising up out of the plane of +sober and quiet affections such as she felt for her father, and still +further complicating the apparently encountering claims of love to God +and man. + +Isabel grew quieter in a few minutes and lay still, following Anthony +with her imagination along the lane that led to the London road, and then +presently she heard her father calling, and went to the door to listen. + +"Isabel," he said, "come down. Hubert is in the hall." + +She called out that she would be down in a moment; and then going across +to her own room she washed her face and came downstairs. There was a +tall, pleasant-faced lad of about her own age standing near the open door +that led into the garden; and he came forward nervously as she entered. + +"I came back last night, Mistress Isabel," he said, "and heard that +Anthony was going this morning: but I am afraid I am too late." + +She told him that Anthony had just gone. + +"Yes," he said, "I came to say good-bye; but I came by the orchard, and +so we missed one another." + +Isabel asked a word or two about his visit to the North, and they talked +for a few minutes about a rumour that Hubert had heard of a rising on +behalf of Mary: but Hubert was shy and constrained, and Isabel was still +a little tremulous. At last he said he must be going, and then suddenly +remembered a message from his mother. + +"Ah!" he said, "I was forgetting. My mother wants you to come up this +evening, if you have time. Father is away, and my aunt is unwell and is +upstairs." + +Isabel promised she would come. + +"Father is at Chichester," went on Hubert, "before the Commission, but we +do not expect him back till to-morrow." + +A shadow passed across Isabel's face. "I am sorry," she said. + +The fact was that Sir Nicholas had again been summoned for recusancy. It +was an expensive matter to refuse to attend church, and Sir Nicholas +probably paid not less than £200 or £300 a year for the privilege of +worshipping as his conscience bade. + +In the evening Isabel asked her father's leave to be absent after supper, +and then drawing on her hood, walked across in the dusk to the Hall. +Hubert was waiting for her at the boundary door between the two +properties. + +"Father has come back," he said, "but my mother wants you still." They +went on together, passed round the cloister wing to the south of the +house: the bell turret over the inner hall and the crowded roofs stood up +against the stars, as they came up the curving flight of shallow steps +from the garden to the tall doorway that led into the hall. + +It was a pleasant, wide, high room, panelled with fresh oak, and hung +with a little old tapestry here and there, and a few portraits. A +staircase rose out of it to the upper story. It had a fret-ceiling, with +flower-de-luce and rose pendants, and on the walls between the tapestries +hung a few antlers and pieces of armour, morions and breast-plates, with +a pair of pikes or halberds here and there. A fire had been lighted in +the great hearth as the evenings were chilly; and Sir Nicholas was +standing before it, still in his riding-dress, pouring out resentment and +fury to his wife, who sat in a tall chair at her embroidery. She turned +silently and held out a hand to Isabel, who came and stood beside her, +while Hubert went and sat down near his father. Sir Nicholas scarcely +seemed to notice their entrance, beyond glancing up for a moment under +his fierce white eyebrows; but went on growling out his wrath. He was a +fine rosy man, with grey moustache and pointed beard, and a thick head of +hair, and he held in his hand his flat riding cap, and his whip with +which from time to time he cut at his boot. + +"It was monstrous, I told the fellow, that a man should be haled from his +home like this to pay a price for his conscience. The religion of my +father and his father and all our fathers was good enough for me; and why +in God's name should the Catholic have to pay who had never changed his +faith, while every heretic went free? And then to that some stripling of +a clerk told me that a religion that was good enough for the Queen's +Grace should be good enough for her loyal subjects too; but my Lord +silenced him quickly. And then I went at them again; and all my Lord +would do was to nod his head and smile at me as if I were a child; and +then he told me that it was a special Commission all for my sake, and Sir +Arthur's, who was there too, my dear.... Well, well, the end was that I +had to pay for their cursed religion." + +"Sweetheart, sweetheart," said Lady Maxwell, glancing at Isabel. + +"Well, I paid," went on Sir Nicholas, "but I showed them, thank God, what +I was: for as we came out, Sir Arthur and I together, what should we see +but another party coming in, pursuivant and all; and in the mid of them +that priest who was with us last July.--Well, well, we'll leave his name +alone--him that said he was a priest before them all in September; and I +went down on my knees, thank God, and Sir Arthur went down on his, and we +asked his blessing before them all, and he gave it us: and oh! my Lord +was red and white with passion." + +"That was not wise, sweetheart," said Lady Maxwell tranquilly, "the +priest will have suffered for it afterwards." + +"Well, well," grumbled Sir Nicholas, "a man cannot always think, but we +showed them that Catholics were not ashamed of their religion--yes, and +we got the blessing too." + +"Well, but here is supper waiting," said my lady, "and Isabel, too, whom +you have not spoken to yet." + +Sir Nicholas paid no attention. + +"Ah! but that was not all," he went on, savagely striking his boot again, +"at the end of all who should I see but that--that--damned rogue--whom +God reward!"--and he turned and spat into the fire--"Topcliffe. There he +was, bowing to my Lord and the Commissioners. When I think of that man," +he said, "when I think of that man--" and Sir Nicholas' kindly old +passionate face grew pale and lowering with fury, and his eyebrows bent +themselves forward, and his lower lip pushed itself out, and his hand +closed tremblingly on his whip. + +His wife laid down her embroidery and came to him. + +"There, sweetheart," she said, taking his cap and whip. "Now sit down and +have supper, and leave that man to God." + +Sir Nicholas grew quiet again; and after a saying a word or two of +apology to Isabel, left the room to wash before he sat down to supper. + +"Mistress Isabel does not know who Topcliffe is," said Hubert. + +"Hush, my son," said his mother, "your father does not like his name to +be spoken." + +Presently Sir Nicholas returned, and sat down to supper. Gradually his +good nature returned, and he told them what he had seen in Chichester, +and the talk he had heard. How it was reported to his lordship the Bishop +that the old religion was still the religion of the people's hearts--how, +for example, at Lindfield they had all the images and the altar furniture +hidden underground, and at Battle, too; and that the mass could be set up +again at a few hours' notice: and that the chalices had not been melted +down into communion cups according to the orders issued, and so on. And +that at West Grinsted, moreover, the Blessed Sacrament was there +still--praise God--yes, and was going to remain there. He spoke freely +before Isabel, and yet he remembered his courtesy too, and did not abuse +the new-fangled religion, as he thought it, in her presence; or seek in +any way to trouble her mind. If ever in an excess of anger he was carried +away in his talk, his wife would always check him gently; and he would +always respond and apologise to Isabel if he had transgressed good +manners. In fact, he was just a fiery old man who could not change his +religion even at the bidding of his monarch, and could not understand how +what was right twenty years ago was wrong now. + +Isabel herself listened with patience and tenderness, and awe too; +because she loved and honoured this old man in spite of the darkness in +which he still walked. He also told them in lower tones of a rumour that +was persistent at Chichester that the Duke of Norfolk had been imprisoned +by the Queen's orders, and was to be charged with treason; and that he +was at present at Burnham, in Mr. Wentworth's house, under the guard of +Sir Henry Neville. If this was true, as indeed it turned out to be later, +it was another blow to the Catholic cause in England; but Sir Nicholas +was of a sanguine mind, and pooh-poohed the whole affair even while he +related it. + +And so the evening passed in talk. When Sir Nicholas had finished supper, +they all went upstairs to my lady's withdrawing-room on the first floor. +This was always a strange and beautiful room to Isabel. It was panelled +like the room below, but was more delicately furnished, and a tall harp +stood near the window to which my lady sang sometimes in a sweet +tremulous old voice, while Sir Nicholas nodded at the fire. Isabel, too, +had had some lessons here from the old lady; but even this mild vanity +troubled her puritan conscience a little sometimes. Then the room, too, +had curious and attractive things in it. A high niche in the oak over the +fireplace held a slender image of Mary and her Holy Child, and from the +Child's fingers hung a pair of beads. Isabel had a strange sense +sometimes as if this holy couple had taken refuge in that niche when they +were driven from the church; but it seemed to her in her steadier moods +that this was a superstitious fancy, and had the nature of sin. + +This evening the old lady went to her harp, while Isabel sat down near +her in the wide window seat and looked out over the dark lawn, where the +white dial glimmered like a phantom, and thought of Anthony again. Sir +Nicholas went and stretched himself before the fire, and closed his eyes, +for he was old, and tired with his long ride; and Hubert sat down in a +dark corner near him whence he could watch Isabel. After a few rippling +chords my lady began to sing a song by Sir Thomas Wyatt, whom she and Sir +Nicholas had known in their youth; and which she had caused to be set to +music by some foreign chapel master. It was a sorrowful little song, with +the title, "He seeketh comfort in patience," and possibly she chose it on +purpose for this evening. + + "Patience! for I have wrong, + And dare not shew wherein; + Patience shall be my song; + Since truth can nothing win. + Patience then for this fit; + Hereafter comes not yet." + +While she sang, she thought no doubt of the foolish brave courtier who +lacked patience in spite of his singing, and lost his head for it; her +voice shook once or twice: and old Sir Nicholas shook his drowsy head +when she had finished, and said "God rest him," and then fell fast +asleep. + +Then he presently awoke as the others talked in whispers, and joined in +too: and they talked of Anthony, and what he would find at Cambridge; and +of Alderman Marrett, and his house off Cheapside, where Anthony would lie +that night; and of such small and tranquil topics, and left fiercer +questions alone. And so the evening came to an end; and Isabel said +good-night, and went downstairs with Hubert, and out into the garden +again. + +"I am sorry that Sir Nicholas has been so troubled," she said to Hubert, +as they turned the corner of the house together. "Why cannot we leave one +another alone, and each worship God as we think fit?" + +Hubert smiled in the darkness to himself. + +"I am afraid Queen Mary did not think it could be done, either," he said. +"But then, Mistress Isabel," he went on, "I am glad that you feel that +religion should not divide people." + +"Surely not," she said, "so long as they love God." + +"Then you think--" began Hubert, and then stopped. Isabel turned to him. + +"Yes?" she asked. + +"Nothing," said Hubert. + +They had reached the door in the boundary wall by now, and Isabel would +not let him come further with her and bade him good-night. But Hubert +still stood, with his hand on the door, and watched the white figure fade +into the dusk, and listened to the faint rustle of her skirt over the dry +leaves; and then, when he heard at last the door of the Dower House open +and close, he sighed to himself and went home. + +Isabel heard her father call from his room as she passed through the +hall; and went in to him as he sat at his table in his furred gown, with +his books about him, to bid him good-night and receive his blessing. He +lifted his hand for a moment to finish the sentence he was writing, and +she stood watching the quill move and pause and move again over the +paper, in the candlelight, until he laid the pen down, and rose and stood +with his back to the fire, smiling down at her. He was a tall, slender +man, surprisingly upright for his age, with a delicate, bearded, +scholar's face; the little plain ruff round his neck helped to emphasise +the fine sensitiveness of his features; and the hands which he stretched +out to his daughter were thin and veined. + +"Well, my daughter," he said, looking down at her with his kindly grey +eyes so like her own, and holding her hands. + +"Have you had a good evening, sir?" she asked. + +He nodded briskly. + +"And you, child?" he asked. + +"Yes, sir," she said, smiling up at him. + +"And was Sir Nicholas there?" + +She told him what had passed, and how Sir Nicholas had been fined again +for his recusancy; and how Lady Maxwell had sung one of Sir Thomas +Wyatt's songs. + +"And was no one else there?" he asked. + +"Yes, father, Hubert." + +"Ah! And did Hubert come home with you?" + +"Only as far as the gate, father. I would not let him come further." + +Her father said nothing, but still looked steadily down into her eyes for +a moment, and then turned and looked away from her into the fire. + +"You must take care," he said gently. "Remember he is a Papist, born and +bred; and that he has a heart to be broken too." + +She felt herself steadily flushing; and as he turned again towards her, +dropped her eyes. + +"You will be prudent and tender, I know," he added. "I trust you wholly, +Isabel." + +Then he kissed her on the forehead and laid his hand on her head, and +looked up, as the Puritan manner was. + +"May the God of grace bless you, my daughter; and make you faithful to +the end." And then he looked into her eyes again, smiled and nodded; and +she went out, leaving him standing there. + +Mr. Norris had begun to fear that the boy loved Isabel, but as yet he did +not know whether Isabel understood it or even was aware of it. The +marriage difficulties of Catholics and Protestants were scarcely yet +existing; and certainly there was no formulated rule of dealing with +them. Changes of religion were so frequent in those days that +difficulties, when they did arise, easily adjusted themselves. It was +considered, for example, by politicians quite possible at one time that +the Duke of Anjou should conform to the Church of England for the sake of +marrying the Queen: or that he should attend public services with her, +and at the same time have mass and the sacraments in his own private +chapel. Or again, it was open to question whether England as a whole +would not return to the old religion, and Catholicism be the only +tolerated faith. + +But to really religious minds such solutions would not do. It would have +been an intolerable thought to this sincere Puritan, with all his +tolerance, that his daughter should marry a Catholic; such an arrangement +would mean either that she was indifferent to vital religion, or that she +was married to a man whose creed she was bound to abhor and anathematise: +and however willing Mr. Norris might be to meet Papists on terms of +social friendliness, and however much he might respect their personal +characters, yet the thought that the life of any one dear to him should +be irretrievably bound up with all that the Catholic creed involved, was +simply an impossible one. + +Besides all this he had no great opinion of Hubert. He thought he +detected in him a carelessness and want of principle that would make him +hesitate to trust his daughter to him, even if the insuperable barrier of +religion were surmounted. Mr. Norris liked a man to be consistent and +zealous for his creed, even if that creed were dark and +superstitious--and this zeal seemed to him lamentably lacking in Hubert. +More than once he had heard the boy speak of his father with an air of +easy indulgence, that his own opinion interpreted as contempt. + +"I believe my father thinks," he had once said, "that every penny he pays +in fines goes to swell the accidental glory of God." + +And Hubert had been considerably startled and distressed when the elder +man had told him to hold his tongue unless he could speak respectfully of +one to whom he owed nothing but love and honour. This had happened, +however, more than a year ago; and Hubert had forgotten it, no doubt, +even if Mr. Norris had not. + +And as for Isabel. + +It is exceedingly difficult to say quite what place Hubert occupied in +her mind. She certainly did not know herself much more than that she +liked the boy to be near her; to hear his footsteps coming along the path +from the Hall. This morning when her father had called up to her that +Hubert was come, it was not so hard to dry her tears for Anthony's +departure. The clouds had parted a little when she came and found this +tall lad smiling shyly at her in the hall. As she had sat in the window +seat, too, during Lady Maxwell's singing, she was far from unconscious +that Hubert's face was looking at her from the dark corner. And as they +walked back together her simplicity was not quite so transparent as the +boy himself thought. + +Again when her father had begun to speak of him just now, although she +was able to meet his eyes steadily and smilingly, yet it was just an +effort. She had not mentioned Hubert herself, until her father had named +him; and in fact it is probably safe to say that during Hubert's visit to +the north, which had lasted three or four months, he had made greater +progress towards his goal, and had begun to loom larger than ever in the +heart of this serene grey-eyed girl, whom he longed for so irresistibly. + +And now, as Isabel sat on her bed before kneeling to say her prayers, +Hubert was in her mind even more than Anthony. She tried to wonder what +her father meant, and yet only too well she knew that she knew. She had +forgotten to look into Anthony's room where she had cried so bitterly +this morning, and now she sat wide-eyed, and self-questioning as to +whether her heavenly love were as lucid and single as it had been; and +when at last she went down on her knees she entreated the King of Love to +bless not only her father, and her brother Anthony who lay under the +Alderman's roof in far-away London; but Sir Nicholas and Lady Maxwell, +and Mistress Margaret Hallam, and--and--Hubert--and James Maxwell, his +brother; and to bring them out of the darkness of Papistry into the +glorious liberty of the children of the Gospel. + + + + + CHAPTER III + + LONDON TOWN + + +Isabel's visit to London, which had been arranged to take place the +Christmas after Anthony's departure to Cambridge, was full of bewildering +experiences to her. Mr. Norris from time to time had references to look +up in London, and divines to consult as to difficult points in his book +on the Eucharist; and this was a favourable opportunity to see Mr. +Dering, the St. Paul's lecturer; so the two took the opportunity, and +with a couple of servants drove up to the City one day early in December +to the house of Alderman Marrett, the wool merchant, and a friend of Mr. +Norris' father; and for several days both before and after Anthony's +arrival from Cambridge went every afternoon to see the sights. The maze +of narrow streets of high black and white houses with their iron-work +signs, leaning forward as if to whisper to one another, leaving strips of +sky overhead; the strange play of lights and shades after nightfall; the +fantastic groups; the incessant roar and rumble of the crowded +alleys--all the commonplace life of London was like an enchanted picture +to her, opening a glimpse into an existence of which she had known +nothing. + +To live, too, in the whirl of news that poured in day after day borne by +splashed riders and panting horses;--this was very different to the slow +round of country life, with rumours and tales floating in, mellowed by +doubt and lapse of time, like pensive echoes from another world. For +example, morning by morning, as she came downstairs to dinner, there was +the ruddy-faced Alderman with his fresh budget of news of the +north;--Lords Northumberland and Westmoreland with a Catholic force of +several thousands, among which were two cousins of Mrs. Marrett +herself--and the old lady nodded her head dolorously in +corroboration--had marched southwards under the Banner of the Five +Wounds, and tramped through Durham City welcomed by hundreds of the +citizens; the Cathedral had been entered, old Richard Norton with the +banner leading; the new Communion table had been cast out of doors, the +English Bible and Prayer-book torn to shreds, the old altar reverently +carried in from the rubbish heap, the tapers rekindled, and amid +hysterical enthusiasm Mass had been said once more in the old sanctuary. + +Then they had moved south; Lord Sussex was powerless in York; the Queen, +terrified and irresolute, alternately storming and crying; Spain was +about to send ships to Hartlepool to help the rebels; Mary Stuart would +certainly be rescued from her prison at Tutbury. Then Mary had been moved +to Coventry; then came a last flare of frightening tales: York had +fallen; Mary had escaped; Elizabeth was preparing to flee. + +And then one morning the Alderman's face was brighter: it was all a lie, +he said. The revolt had crumbled away; my Lord Sussex was impregnably +fortified in York with guns from Hull; Lord Pembroke was gathering forces +at Windsor; Lords Clinton, Hereford and Warwick were converging towards +York to relieve the siege. And as if to show Isabel it was not a mere +romance, she could see the actual train-bands go by up Cheapside with the +gleam of steel caps and pike-heads, and the mighty tramp of disciplined +feet, and the welcoming roar of the swarming crowds. + +Then as men's hearts grew lighter the tale of chastisement began to be +told, and was not finished till long after Isabel was home again. Green +after green of the windy northern villages was made hideous by the +hanging bodies of the natives, and children hid their faces and ran by +lest they should see what her Grace had done to their father. + +In spite of the Holy Sacrifice, and the piteous banner, and the call to +fight for the faith, the Catholics had hung back and hesitated, and the +catastrophe was complete. + +The religion of London, too, was a revelation to this country girl. She +went one Sunday to St. Paul's Cathedral, pausing with her father before +they went in to see the new restorations and the truncated steeple struck +by lightning eight years before, which in spite of the Queen's angry +urging the citizens had never been able to replace. + +There was a good congregation at the early morning prayer; and the organs +and the singing were to Isabel as the harps and choirs of heaven. The +canticles were sung to Shephard's setting by the men and children of St. +Paul's all in surplices: and the dignitaries wore besides their grey fur +almuces, which had not yet been abolished. The grace and dignity of the +whole service, though to older people who remembered the unreformed +worship a bare and miserable affair, and to Mr. Norris, with his sincere +simplicity and spirituality, a somewhat elaborate and sensuous mode of +honouring God, yet to Isabel was a first glimpse of what the mystery of +worship meant. The dim towering arches, through which the dusty +richly-stained sunbeams poured, the far-away murmurous melodies that +floated down from the glimmering choir, the high thin pealing organ, all +combined to give her a sense of the unfathomable depths of the Divine +Majesty--an element that was lacking in the clear-cut personal Puritan +creed, in spite of the tender associations that made it fragrant for her, +and the love of the Saviour that enlightened and warmed it. The sight of +the crowds outside, too, in the frosty sunlight, gathered round the grey +stone pulpit on the north-east of the Cathedral, and streaming down every +alley and lane, the packed galleries, the gesticulating black figure of +the preacher--this impressed on her an idea of the power of corporate +religion, that hours at her own prayer-desk, or solitary twilight walks +under the Hall pines, or the uneventful divisions of the Rector's village +sermons, had failed to give. + +It was this Sunday in London that awakened her quiet soul from the lonely +companionship of God, to the knowledge of that vast spiritual world of +men of which she was but one tiny cell. Her father observed her quietly +and interestedly as they went home together, but said nothing beyond an +indifferent word or two. He was beginning to realise the serious reality +of her spiritual life, and to dread anything that would even approximate +to coming between her soul and her Saviour. The father and daughter +understood one another, and were content to be silent together. + +Her talks with Mrs. Marrett, too, left their traces on her mind. The +Alderman's wife, for the first time in her life, found her views and +reminiscences listened to as if they were oracles, and she needed little +encouragement to pour them out in profusion. She was especially generous +with her tales of portents and warnings; and the girl was more than once +considerably alarmed by what she heard while the ladies were alone in the +dim firelit parlour on the winter afternoons before the candles were +brought in. + +"When you were a little child, my dear," began the old lady one day, +"there was a great burning made everywhere of all the popish images and +vestments; all but the copes and the altar-cloths that they made into +dresses for the ministers' new wives, and bed-quilts to cover them; and +there were books and banners and sepulchres and even relics. I went out +to see the burning at Paul's, and though I knew it was proper that the +old papistry should go, yet I was uneasy at the way it was done. + +"Well," went on the old lady, glancing about her, "I was sitting in this +very room only a few days after, and the air began to grow dark and +heavy, and all became still. There had been two or three cocks crowing +and answering one another down by the river, and others at a distance; +and they all ceased: and there had been birds chirping in the roof, and +they ceased. And it grew so dark that I laid down my needle and went to +the window, and there at the end of the street over the houses there was +coming a great cloud, with wings like a hawk, I thought; but some said +afterwards that, when they saw it, it had fingers like a man's hand, and +others said it was like a great tower, with battlements. However that may +be, it grew nearer and larger, and it was blue and dark like that curtain +there; and there was no wind to stir it, for the windows had ceased +rattling, and the dust was quiet in the streets; and still it came on +quickly, growing as it came; and then there came a far-away sound, like a +heavy waggon, or, some said, like a deep voice complaining. And I turned +away from the window afraid; and there was the cat, that had been on a +chair, down in the corner, with her back up, staring at the cloud: and +then she began to run round the room like a mad thing, and presently +whisked out of the door when I opened it. And I went to find Mr. Marrett, +and he had not come in, and all the yard was quiet. I could only hear a +horse stamp once or twice in the stable. And then as I saw calling out +for some one to come, the storm broke, and the sky was all one dark cloud +from side to side. For three hours it went on, rolling and clapping, and +the lightning came in through the window that I had darkened and through +the clothes over my head; for I had gone to my bed and rolled myself +round under the clothes. And so it went on--and, my dear--" and Mrs. +Marrett put her head close to Isabel's--"I prayed to our Lady and the +saints, which I had not done since I was married; and asked them to pray +God to keep me safe. And then at the end came a clap of thunder and a +flash of lightning more fearful than all that had gone before; and at +that very moment, so Mr. Marrett told me when he came in, two of the +doors in St. Denys' Church in Fanshawe Street were broken in pieces by +something that crushed them in, and the stone steeple of Allhallow Church +in Bread Street was broken off short, and a part of it killed a dog that +was beneath, and overthrew a man that played with the dog." + +Isabel could hardly restrain a shiver and a glance round the dark old +room, so awful were Mrs. Marrett's face and gestures and loud whispering +tone, as she told this. + +"Ah! but, my dear," she went on, "there was worse happened to poor King +Hal, God rest him--him who began to reform the Church, as they say, and +destroyed the monasteries. All the money that he left for masses for his +soul was carried off with the rest at the change of religion; and that +was bad enough, but this is worse. This is a tale, my dear, that I have +heard my father tell many a time; and I was a young woman myself when it +happened. The King's Grace was threatened by a friar, I think of +Greenwich, that if he laid hands on the monasteries he should be as Ahab +whose blood was licked by dogs in the very place which he took from a +man. Well, the friar was hanged for his pains, and the King lived. And +then at last he died, and was put in a great coffin, and carried through +London; and they put the coffin in an open space in Sion Abbey, which the +King had taken. And in the night there came one to view the coffin, and +to see that all was well. And he came round the corner, and there stood +the great coffin--(for his Grace was a great stout man, my dear)--on +trestles in the moonlight, and beneath it a great black dog that lapped +something: and the dog turned as the man came, and some say, but not my +father, that the dog's eyes were red as coals, and that his mouth and +nostrils smoked, and that he cast no shadow; but (however that may be) +the dog turned and looked and then ran; and the man followed him into a +yard, but when he reached there, there was no dog. And the man went back +to the coffin afraid; and he found the coffin was burst open, and--and--" + +Mrs. Marrett stopped abruptly. Isabel was white and trembling. + +"There, there, my dear. I am a foolish old woman; and I'll tell you no +more." + +Isabel was really terrified, and entreated Mrs. Marrett to tell her +something pleasant to make her forget these horrors; and so she told her +old tales of her youth, and the sights of the city, and the great doings +in Mary's reign; and so the time passed pleasantly till the gentlemen +came home. + +At other times she told her of Elizabeth and the great nobles, and +Isabel's heart beat high at it, and at the promise that before she left +she herself should see the Queen, even if she had to go to Greenwich or +Nonsuch for it. + +"God bless her," said Mrs. Marrett loyally, "she's a woman like ourselves +for all her majesty. And she likes the show and the music too, like us +all. I declare when I see them all a-going down the water to Greenwich, +or to the Tower for a bear-baiting, with the horns blowing and the guns +firing and the banners and the barges and the music, I declare sometimes +I think that heaven itself can be no better, God forgive me! Ah! but I +wish her Grace 'd take a husband; there are many that want her; and then +we could laugh at them all. There's so many against her Grace now who'd +be for her if she had a son of her own. There's Duke Charles whose +picture hangs in her bedroom, they say; and Lord Robert Dudley--there's a +handsome spark, my dear, in his gay coat and his feathers and his ruff, +and his hand on his hip, and his horse and all. I wish she'd take him and +have done with it. And then we'd hear no more of the nasty Spaniards. +There's Don de Silva, for all the world like a monkey with his brown face +and mincing ways and his grand clothes. I declare when Captain Hawkins +came home, just four years ago last Michaelmas, and came up to London +with his men, all laughing and rolling along with the people cheering +them, I could have kissed the man--to think how he had made the brown men +dance and curse and show their white teeth! and to think that the Don had +to ask him to dinner, and grin and chatter as if nought had happened." + +And Mrs. Marrett's good-humoured face broke into mirth at the thought of +the Ambassador's impotence and duplicity. + +Anthony's arrival in London a few days before Christmas removed the one +obstacle to Isabel's satisfaction--that he was not there to share it with +her. The two went about together most of the day under their father's +care, when he was not busy at his book, and saw all that was to be seen. + +One afternoon as they were just leaving the courtyard of the Tower, which +they had been visiting with a special order, a slight reddish-haired man, +who came suddenly out of a doorway of the White Tower, stopped a moment +irresolutely, and then came towards them, bare-headed and bowing. He had +sloping shoulders and a serious-looking mouth, with a reddish beard and +moustache, and had an air of strangely mingled submissiveness and +capability. His voice too, as he spoke, was at once deferential and +decided. + +"I ask your pardon, Mr. Norris," he said. "Perhaps you do not remember +me." + +"I have seen you before," said the other, puzzled for a moment. + +"Yes, sir," said the man, "down at Great Keynes; I was in service at the +Hall, sir." + +"Yes, yes," said Mr. Norris, "I remember you perfectly. Lackington, is it +not?" + +The man bowed again. + +"I left about eight years ago, sir; and by the blessing of God, have +gained a little post under the Government. But I wished to tell you, sir, +that I have been happily led to change my religion. I was a Papist, sir, +you know." + +Mr. Norris congratulated him. + +"I thank you, sir," said Lackington. + +The two children were looking at him; and he turned to them and bowed +again. + +"Mistress Isabel and Master Anthony, sir, is it not?" + +"I remember you," said Isabel a little shyly, "at least, I think so." + +Lackington bowed again as if gratified; and turned to their father. + +"If you are leaving, Mr. Norris, would you allow me to walk with you a +few steps? I have much I would like to ask you of my old master and +mistress." + +The four passed out together; the two children in front; and as they went +Lackington asked most eagerly after the household at the Hall, and +especially after Mr. James, for whom he seemed to have a special +affection. + +"It is rumoured," said Mr. Norris, "that he is going abroad." + +"Indeed, sir," said the servant, with a look of great interest, "I had +heard it too, sir; but did not know whether to believe it." + +Lackington also gave many messages of affection to others of the +household, to Piers the bailiff, and a couple of the foresters: and +finished by entreating Mr. Norris to use him as he would, telling him how +anxious he was to be of service to his friends, and asking to be +entrusted with any little errands or commissions in London that the +country gentleman might wish performed. + +"I shall count it, sir, a privilege," said the servant, "and you shall +find me prompt and discreet." + +One curious incident took place just as Lackington was taking his leave +at the turning down into Wharf Street; a man hurrying eastwards almost +ran against them, and seemed on the point of apologising, but his face +changed suddenly, and he spat furiously on the ground, mumbling +something, and hurried on. Lackington seemed to see nothing. + +"Why did he do that?" interrupted Mr. Norris, astonished. + +"I ask your pardon, sir?" said Lackington interrogatively. + +"That fellow! did you not see him spit at me?" + +"I did not observe it, sir," said the servant; and presently took his +leave. + +"Why did that man spit at you, father?" asked Isabel, when they had come +indoors. + +"I cannot think, my dear; I have never seen him in my life." + +"I think Lackington knew," said Anthony, with a shrewd air. + +"Lackington! Why, Lackington did not even see him." + +"That was just it," said Anthony. + +Anthony's talk about Cambridge during these first evenings in London was +fascinating to Isabel, if not to their father, too. It concerned of +course himself and his immediate friends, and dealt with such subjects as +cock-fighting a good deal; but he spoke also of the public disputations +and the theological champions who crowed and pecked, not unlike cocks +themselves, while the theatre rang with applause and hooting. The sport +was one of the most popular at the universities at this time. But above +all his tales of the Queen's visit a few years before attracted the girl, +for was she not to see the Queen with her own eyes? + +"Oh! father," said the lad, "I would I had been there five years ago +when she came. Master Taylor told me of it. They acted the _Aulularia_, +you know, in King's Chapel on the Sunday evening. Master Taylor took a +part, I forget what; and he told me how she laughed and clapped. And +then there was a great disputation before her, one day, in St. Mary's +Church, and the doctors argued, I forget what about, but Master Taylor +says that of course the Genevans had the best of it; and the Queen +spoke, too, in Latin, though she did not wish to, but my lord of Ely +persuaded her to it; so you see she could not have learned it by heart, +as some said. And she said she would give some great gift to the +University; but Master Taylor says they are still waiting for it; but it +must come soon, you see, because it is the Queen's Grace who has +promised it; but Master Taylor says he hopes she has forgotten it, but +he laughs when I ask him what he means, and says it again." + +"Who is this Master Taylor?" asked his father. + +"Oh! he is a Fellow of King's," said Anthony, "and he told me about the +Provost too. The Provost is half a Papist, they say: he is very old now, +and he has buried all the vessels and the vestments of the Chapel, they +say, somewhere where no one knows; and he hopes the old religion will +come back again some day; and then he will dig them up. But that is +Papistry, and no one wants that at Cambridge. And others say that he is +a Papist altogether, and has a priest in his house sometimes. But I do +not think he can be a Papist, because he was there when the Queen was +there, bowing and smiling, says Master Taylor; and looking on the Queen +so earnestly, as if he worshipped her, says Master Taylor, all the time +the Chancellor was talking to her before they went into the chapel for +the _Te Deum_. But they wished they had kept some of the things, like +the Provost, says Master Taylor, because they were much put to it when +her Grace came down for stuffs to cover the communion-tables and for +surplices, for Cecil said she would be displeased if all was bare and +poor. Is it true, father," asked Anthony, breaking off, "that the Queen +likes popish things, and has a crucifix and tapers on the table in her +chapel?" + +"Ah! my son," said Mr. Norris, smiling, "you must ask one who knows. And +what else happened?" + +"Well," said Anthony, "the best is to come. They had plays, you know, +the _Dido_, and one called _Ezechias_, before the Queen. Oh! and she +sent for one of the boys, they say, and--and kissed him, they say; but I +think that cannot be true." + +"Well, my son, go on!" + +"Oh! and some of them thought they would have one more play before she +went; but she had to go a long journey and left Cambridge before they +could do it, and they went after her to--to Audley End, I think, where +she was to sleep, and a room was made ready, and when all was prepared, +though her Grace was tired, she came in to see the play. Master Taylor +was not there; he said he would rather not act in that one; but he had +the story from one who acted, but no one knew, he said, who wrote the +play. Well, when the Queen's Grace was seated, the actors came on, +dressed, father, dressed"--and Anthony's eyes began to shine with +amusement--"as the Catholic Bishops in the Tower. There was Bonner in his +popish vestments--some they had from St. Benet's--with a staff and his +tall mitre, and a lamb in his arms; and he stared at it and gnashed his +teeth at it as he tramped in; and then came the others, all like bishops, +all in mass-vestments or cloth cut to look like them; and then at the end +came a dog that belonged to one of them, well-trained, with the Popish +Host in his mouth, made large and white, so that all could see what it +was. Well, they thought the Queen would laugh as she was a Protestant, +but no one laughed; some one said something in the room, and a lady cried +out; and then the Queen stood up and scolded the actors, and trounced +them well with her tongue, she did, and said she was displeased; and then +out she went with all her ladies and gentlemen after her, except one or +two servants who put out the lights at once without waiting, and broke +Bonner's staff, and took away the Host, and kicked the dog, and told them +to be off, for the Queen's Grace was angered with them; and so they had +to get back to Cambridge in the dark as well as they might." + +"Oh! the poor boys!" said Mrs. Marrett, "and they did it all to please +her Grace, too." + +"Yes," said the Alderman, "but the Queen thought it enough, I dare say, +to put the Bishops in prison, without allowing boys to make a mock of +them and their faith before her." + +"Yes," said Anthony, "I thought that was it." + +When the Alderman came in a day or two later with the news that Elizabeth +was to come up from Nonsuch the next day, and to pass down Cheapside on +her way to Greenwich, the excitement of Isabel and Anthony was +indescribable. + +Cheapside was joyous to see, as the two, with their father behind them +talking to a minister whose acquaintance he had made, sat at a +first-floor window soon after mid-day, waiting to see the Queen go by. +Many of the people had hung carpets or tapestries, some of taffetas and +cloth-of-gold, out of their balconies and windows, and the very signs +themselves,--fantastic ironwork, with here and there a grotesque beast +rampant, or a bright painting, or an escutcheon;--with the gay, +good-tempered crowds beneath and the strip of frosty blue sky, crossed +by streamers from side to side, shining above the towering eaves and +gables of the houses, all combined to make a scene so astonishing that +it seemed scarcely real to these country children. + +It was yet some time before she was expected; but there came a sudden +stir from the upper end of Cheapside, and then a burst of cheering and +laughter and hoots. Anthony leaned out to see what was coming, but could +make out nothing beyond the head of a horse, and a man driving it from +the seat of a cart, coming slowly down the centre of the road. The +laughter and noise grew louder as the crowds swayed this way and that to +make room. Presently it was seen that behind the cart a little space was +kept, and Anthony made out the grey head of a man at the tail of the +cart, and the face of another a little way behind; then at last, as the +cart jolted past, the two children saw a man stripped to the waist, his +hands tied before him to the cart, his back one red wound; while a +hangman walked behind whirling his thonged whip about his head and +bringing it down now and again on the old man's back. At each lash the +prisoner shrank away, and turned his piteous face, drawn with pain, from +side to side, while the crowd yelled and laughed. + +"What's it for, what's it for?" inquired Anthony, eager and interested. + +A boy leaning from the next window answered him. + +"He said Jesus Christ was not in heaven." + +At that moment a humorist near the cart began to cry out: + +"Way for the King's Grace! Way for the King's Grace!" and the crowd took +the idea instantly: a few men walking with the cart formed lines like +gentlemen ushers, uncovering their heads and all crying out the same +words; and one eager player tried to walk backwards until he was tripped +up. And so the dismal pageant of this red-robed king of anguish went by; +and the hoots and shouts of his heralds died away. Anthony turned to +Isabel, exultant and interested. + +"Why, Isabel," he said, "you look all white. What is it? You know he's a +blasphemer." + +"I know, I know," said Isabel. + +Then suddenly, far away, came the sound of trumpets, and gusts of distant +cheering, like the sound of the wind in thick foliage. Anthony leaned out +again, and an excited murmur broke out once more, as all faces turned +westwards. A moment more, and Anthony caught a flash of colour from the +corner near St. Paul's Churchyard; then the shrill trumpets sounded +nearer, and the cheering broke out at the end, and ran down the street +like a wave of noise. From every window faces leaned out; even on the +roofs and between the high chimney pots were swaying figures. + +Masses of colour now began to emerge, with the glitter of steel, round +the bend of the street, where the winter sunshine fell; and the crowds +began to surge back, and against the houses. At first Anthony could make +out little but two moving rippling lines of light, coming parallel, +pressing the people back; and it was not until they had come opposite the +window that he could make out the steel caps and pikeheads of men in +half-armour, who, marching two and two with a space between them, led the +procession and kept the crowds back. There they went, with immovable +disciplined faces, grounding their pike-butts sharply now and again, +caring nothing for the yelp of pain that sometimes followed. Immediately +behind them came the aldermen in scarlet, on black horses that tossed +their jingling heads as they walked. Anthony watched the solemn faces of +the old gentlemen with a good deal of awe, and presently made out his +friend, Mr. Marrett, who rode near the end, but who was too much +engrossed in the management of his horse to notice the two children who +cried out to him and waved. The serjeants-of-arms followed, and then two +lines again of gentlemen-pensioners walking, bare-headed, carrying wands, +in short cloaks and elaborate ruffs. But the lad saw little of them, for +the splendour of the lords and knights that followed eclipsed them +altogether. The knights came first, in steel armour with raised vizors, +the horses too in armour, moving sedately with a splendid clash of steel, +and twinkling fiercely in the sunshine; and then, after them (and Anthony +drew his breath swiftly) came a blaze of colour and jewels as the great +lords in their cloaks and feathered caps, metal-clasped and gemmed, came +on their splendid long-maned horses; the crowd yelled and cheered, and +great names were tossed to and fro, as the owners passed on, each talking +to his fellow as if unconscious of the tumult and even of the presence of +these shouting thousands. The cry of the trumpets rang out again high and +shattering, as the trumpeters and heralds in rich coat-armour came next; +and Anthony looked a moment, fascinated by the lions and lilies, and the +brightness of the eloquent horns, before he turned his head to see the +Lord Mayor himself, mounted on a great stately white horse, that needed +no management, while his rider bore on a cushion the sceptre. Ah! she was +coming near now. The two saw nothing of the next rider who carried aloft +the glittering Sword of State, for their eyes were fixed on the six +plumed heads of the horses, with grooms and footmen in cassock-coats and +venetian hose, and the great gilt open carriage behind that swayed and +jolted over the cobbles. She was here; she was here; and the loyal crowds +yelled and surged to and fro, and cloths and handkerchiefs flapped and +waved, and caps tossed up and down, as at last the great creaking +carriage came under the window. + +This is what they saw in it. + +A figure of extraordinary dignity, sitting upright and stiff like a pagan +idol, dressed in a magnificent and fantastic purple robe, with a great +double ruff, like a huge collar, behind her head; a long taper waist, +voluminous skirts spread all over the cushions, embroidered with curious +figures and creatures. Over her shoulders, but opened in front so as to +show the ropes of pearls and the blaze of jewels on the stomacher, was a +purple velvet mantle lined with ermine, with pearls sewn into it here and +there. Set far back on her head, over a pile of reddish-yellow hair drawn +tightly back from the forehead, was a hat with curled brims, elaborately +embroidered, with the jewelled outline of a little crown in front, and a +high feather topping all. + +And her face--a long oval, pale and transparent in complexion, with a +sharp chin, and a high forehead; high arched eyebrows, auburn, but a +little darker than her hair; her mouth was small, rising at the corners, +with thin curved lips tightly shut; and her eyes, which were clear in +colour, looked incessantly about her with great liveliness and +good-humour. + +There was something overpowering to these two children who looked, too +awed to cheer, in this formidable figure in the barbaric dress, the +gorgeous climax of a gorgeous pageant. Apart from the physical splendour, +this solitary glittering creature represented so much--it was the +incarnate genius of the laughing, brutal, wanton English nation, that sat +here in the gilded carriage and smiled and glanced with tight lips and +clear eyes. She was like some emblematic giant, moving in a processional +car, as fantastic as itself, dominant and serene above the heads of the +maddened crowds, on to some mysterious destiny. A sovereign, however +personally inglorious, has such a dignity in some measure; and Elizabeth +added to this an exceptional majesty of her own. Henry would not have +been ashamed for this daughter of his. What wonder then that these crowds +were delirious with love and loyalty and an exultant fear, as this +overwhelming personality went by:--this pale-faced tranquil virgin Queen, +passionate, wanton, outspoken and absolutely fearless; with a sufficient +reserve of will to be fickle without weakness; and sufficient grasp of +her aims to be indifferent to her policy; untouched by vital religion; +financially shrewd; inordinately vain. And when this strange dominant +creature, royal by character as by birth, as strong as her father and as +wanton as her mother, sat in ermine and velvet and pearls in a royal +carriage, with shrewd-faced wits, and bright-eyed lovers, and solemn +statesmen, and great nobles, vacuous and gallant, glittering and jingling +before her; and troops of tall ladies in ruff and crimson mantle riding +on white horses behind; and when the fanfares went shattering down the +street, vibrating through the continuous roar of the crowd and the shrill +cries of children and the mellow thunder of church-bells rocking +overhead, and the endless tramp of a thousand feet below; and when the +whole was framed in this fantastic twisted street, blazing with +tapestries and arched with gables and banners, all bathed in glory by the +clear frosty sunshine--it is little wonder that for a few minutes at +least this country boy felt that here at last was the incarnation of his +dreams; and that his heart should exult, with an enthusiasm he could not +interpret, for the cause of a people who could produce such a queen, and +of a queen who could rule such a people; and that his imagination should +be fired with a sudden sense that these were causes for which the +sacrifice of a life would be counted cheap, if they might thereby be +furthered. + +Yet, in this very moment, by one of those mysterious suggestions that +rise from the depth of a soul, the image sprang into his mind, and poised +itself there for an instant, of the grey-haired man who had passed half +an hour ago, sobbing and shrinking at the cart's tail. + + + + + CHAPTER IV + + MARY CORBET + + +The spring that followed the visit to London passed uneventfully at Great +Keynes to all outward appearances; and yet for Isabel they were +significant months. In spite of herself and of the word of warning from +her father, her relations with Hubert continued to draw closer. For one +thing, he had been the first to awaken in her the consciousness that she +was lovable in herself, and the mirror that first tells that to a soul +always has something of the glow of the discovery resting upon it. + +Then again his deference and his chivalrous air had a strange charm. When +Isabel rode out alone with Anthony, she often had to catch the swinging +gate as he rode through after opening it, and do such little things for +herself; but when Hubert was with them there was nothing of that kind. + +And, once more, he appealed to her pity; and this was the most subtle +element of all. There was no doubt that Hubert's relations with his fiery +old father became strained sometimes, and it was extraordinarily sweet to +Isabel to be made a confidant. And yet Hubert never went beyond a certain +point; his wooing was very skilful: and he seemed to be conscious of her +uneasiness almost before she was conscious of it herself, and to relapse +in a moment into frank and brotherly relations again. + +He came in one night after supper, flushed and bright-eyed, and found her +alone in the hall: and broke out immediately, striding up and down as she +sat and watched him. + +"I cannot bear it; there is Mr. Bailey who has been with us all Lent; he +is always interfering in my affairs. And he has no charity. I know I am a +Catholic and that; but when he and my father talk against the +Protestants, Mistress Isabel, I cannot bear it. They were abusing the +Queen to-night--at least," he added, for he had no intention to +exaggerate, "they were saying she was a true daughter of her father; and +sneers of that kind. And I am an Englishman, and her subject; and I said +so; and Mr. Bailey snapped out, 'And you are also a Catholic, my son,' +and then--and then I lost my temper, and said that the Catholic religion +seemed no better than any other for the good it did people; and that the +Rector and Mr. Norris seemed to me as good men as any one; and of course +I meant him and he knew it; and then he told me, before the servants, +that I was speaking against the faith; and then I said I would sooner +speak against the faith than against good Christians; and then he flamed +up scarlet, and I saw I had touched him; and then my father got scarlet +too, and my mother looked at me, and my father told me to leave the table +for an insolent puppy; and I knocked over my chair and stamped out--and +oh! Mistress Isabel, I came straight here." + +And he flung down astride of a chair with his arms on the back, and +dropped his head on to them. + +It would have been difficult for Hubert, even if he had been very clever +indeed, to have made any speech which would have touched Isabel more than +this. There was the subtle suggestion that he had defended the +Protestants for her sake; and there was the open defence of her father, +and defiance of the priests whom she feared and distrusted; there was a +warm generosity and frankness running through it all; and lastly, there +was the sweet flattering implication that he had come to her to be +understood and quieted and comforted. + +Then, when she tried to show her disapproval of his quick temper, and had +succeeded in showing a poorly disguised sympathy instead, he had flung +away again, saying that she had brought him to his senses as usual, and +that he would ask the priest's pardon for his insolence at once; and +Isabel was left standing and looking at the fire, fearing that she was +being wooed, and yet not certain, though she loved it. And then, too, +there was the secret hope that it might be through her that he might +escape from his superstitions, and--and then--and she closed her eyes and +bit her lip for joy and terror. + +She did not know that a few weeks later Hubert had an interview with his +father, of which she was the occasion. Lady Maxwell had gone to her +husband after a good deal of thought and anxiety, and told him what she +feared; asking him to say a word to Hubert. Sir Nicholas had been +startled and furious. It was all the lad's conceit, he said; he had no +real heart at all; he only flattered his vanity in making love; he had no +love for his parents or his faith, and so on. She took his old hand in +her own and held it while she spoke. + +"Sweetheart," she said, "how old were you when you used to come riding to +Overfield? I forget." And there came peace into his angry, puzzled old +eyes, and a gleam of humour. + +"Mistress," he said, "you have not forgotten." For he had been just +eighteen, too. And he took her face in his hands delicately, and kissed +her on the lips. + +"Well, well," he said, "it is hard on the boy; but it must not go on. +Send him to me. Oh! I will be easy with him." + +But the interview was not as simple as he hoped; for Hubert was irritable +and shamefaced; and spoke lightly of the Religion again. + +"After all," he burst out, "there are plenty of good men who have left +the faith. It brings nothing but misery." + +Sir Nicholas' hands began to shake, and his fingers to clench themselves; +but he remembered the lad was in love. + +"My son," he said, "you do not know what you say." + +"I know well enough," said Hubert, with his foot tapping sharply. "I say +that the Catholic religion is a religion of misery and death everywhere. +Look at the Low Countries, sir." + +"I cannot speak of that," said his father; and his son sneered visibly; +"you and I are but laymen; but this I know, and have a right to say, that +to threaten me like that is the act of a--is not worthy of my son. My +dear boy," he said, coming nearer, "you are angry; and, God forgive me! +so am I; but I promised your mother," and again he broke off, "and we +cannot go on with this now. Come again this evening." + +Hubert stood turned away, with his head against the high oak mantelpiece; +and there was silence. + +"Father," he said at last, turning round, "I ask your pardon." + +Sir Nicholas stepped nearer, his eyes suddenly bright with tears, and his +mouth twitching, and held out his hand, which Hubert took. + +"And I was a coward to speak like that--but, but--I will try," went on +the boy. "And I promise to say nothing to her yet, at any rate. Will that +do? And I will go away for a while." + +The father threw his arms round him. + +As the summer drew on and began to fill the gardens and meadows with +wealth, the little Italian garden to the south-west of the Hall was +where my lady spent most of the day. Here she would cause chairs to be +brought out for Mistress Margaret and herself, and a small selection of +devotional books, an orange leather volume powdered all over with +pierced hearts, filled with extracts in a clear brown ink, another book +called _Le Chappellet de Jésus_, while from her girdle beside her +pocket-mirror there always hung an olive-coloured "Hours of the Blessed +Virgin," fastened by a long strip of leather prolonged from the binding. +Here the two old sisters would sit, in the shadow of the yew hedge, +taking it by turns to read and embroider, or talking a little now and +then in quiet voices, with long silences broken only by the hum of +insects in the hot air, or the quick flight of a bird in the tall trees +behind the hedge. + +Here too Isabel often came, also bringing her embroidery; and sat and +talked and watched the wrinkled tranquil faces of the two old ladies, and +envied their peace. Hubert had gone, as he had promised his father, on a +long visit, and was not expected home until at least the autumn. + +"James will be here to-morrow," said Lady Maxwell, suddenly, one hot +afternoon. Isabel looked up in surprise; he had not been at home for so +long; but the thought of his coming was very pleasant to her. + +"And Mary Corbet, too," went on the old lady, "will be here to-morrow or +the day after." + +Isabel asked who this was. + +"She is one of the Queen's ladies, my dear; and a great talker." + +"She is very amusing sometimes," said Mistress Margaret's clear little +voice. + +"And Mr. James will be here to-morrow?" said Isabel. + +"Yes, my child. They always suit one another; and we have known Mary for +years." + +"And is Miss Corbet a Catholic?" + +"Yes, my dear; her Grace seems to like them about her." + +When Isabel went up again to the Hall in the evening, a couple of days +later, she found Mr. James sitting with his mother and aunt in the same +part of the garden. Mr. James, who rose as she came through the yew +archway, and stood waiting to greet her, was a tall, pleasant, +brown-faced man. Isabel noticed as she came up his strong friendly face, +that had something of Hubert's look in it, and felt an immediate sense of +relief from her timidity at meeting this man, whose name, it was said, +was beginning to be known among the poets, and about whom the still more +formidable fact was being repeated, that he was a rising man at Court and +had attracted the Queen's favour. + +As they sat down again together, she noticed, too, his strong delicate +hand in its snowy ruff, for he was always perfectly dressed, as it lay on +his knee; and again thought of Hubert's browner and squarer hand. + +"We were talking, Mistress Isabel, about the play, and the new theatres. +I was at the Blackfriars' only last week. Ah! and I met Buxton there," he +went on, turning to his mother. + +"Dear Henry," said Lady Maxwell. "He told me when I last saw him that he +could never go to London again; his religion was too expensive, he said." + +Mr. James' white teeth glimmered in a smile. + +"He told me he was going to prison next time, instead of paying the fine. +It would be cheaper, he thought." + +"I hear her Grace loves the play," said Mistress Margaret. + +"Indeed she does. I saw her at Whitehall the other day, when the children +of the Chapel Royal were acting; she clapped and called out with delight. +But Mistress Corbet can tell you more than I can--Ah! here she is." + +Isabel looked up, and saw a wonderful figure coming briskly along the +terrace and down the steps that led from the house. Miss Corbet was +dressed with what she herself would have said was a milkmaid's plainness; +but Isabel looked in astonishment at the elaborate ruff and wings of +muslin and lace, the shining peacock gown, the high-piled coils of black +hair, and the twinkling buckled feet. She had a lively bright face, a +little pale, with a high forehead, and black arched brows and dancing +eyes, and a little scarlet mouth that twitched humorously now and then +after speaking. She rustled up, flicking her handkerchief, and exclaiming +against the heat. Isabel was presented to her; she sat down on a settle +Mr. James drew forward for her, with the handkerchief still whisking at +the flies. + +"I am ashamed to come out like this," she began. "Mistress Plesse would +break her heart at my lace. You country ladies have far more sense. I am +the slave of my habits. What were you talking of, that you look so +gravely at me?" + +Mr. James told her. + +"Oh, her Grace!" said Miss Corbet. "Indeed, I think sometimes she is +never off the stage herself. Ah! and what art and passion she shows too!" + +"We are all loyal subjects here," said Mr. James; "tell us what you +mean." + +"I mean what I say," she said. "Never was there one who loved play-acting +more and to occupy the centre of the stage, too. And the throne too, if +there be one," she added. + +Miss Corbet talked always at her audience; she hardly ever looked +directly at any one, but up or down, or even shut her eyes and tilted her +face forward while she talked; and all the while she kept an incessant +movement of her lips or handkerchief, or tapped her foot, or shifted her +position a little. Isabel thought she had never seen any one so restless. + +Then she went on to tell them of the Queen. She was so startlingly frank +that Lady Maxwell again and again looked up as if to interrupt; but she +always came off the thin ice in time. It was abominable gossip; but she +talked with such a genial air of loyal good humour, that it was very +difficult to find fault. Miss Corbet was plainly accustomed to act as +Court Circular, or even as lecturer and show-woman on the most popular +subject in England. + +"But her Grace surpassed herself in acting the tyrant last January; you +would have sworn her really angry. This was how it fell out. I was in the +anteroom one day, waiting for her Grace, when I thought I heard her call. +So I tapped; I got no clear answer, but I heard her voice within, so I +entered. And there was her Majesty, sitting a little apart in a chair by +herself, with the Secretary--poor rat--white-faced at the table, writing +what she bade him, and looking at her, quick and side-ways, like a child +at a lifted rod; and there was her Grace: she had kicked her stool over, +and one shoe had fallen; and she was striking the arm of her chair as she +spoke, and her rings rapped as loud as a drunken watchman. And her face +was all white, and her eyes glaring"--and Mary began to glare and raise +her voice too--"and she was crying out, 'By God's Son, sir, I will have +them hanged. Tell the----' (but I dare not say what she called my Lord +Sussex, but few would have recognised him from what she said)--'tell him +that I will have my will done. These--' (and she called the rebels a name +I dare not tell you)--'these men have risen against me these two months; +and yet they are not hanged. Hang them in their own villages, that their +children may see what treason brings.' All this while I was standing at +the open door, thinking she had called me; but she was as if she saw +nought but the gallows and hell-fire beyond; and I spoke softly to her, +asking what she wished; and she sprang up and ran at me, and struck +me--yes; again and again across the face with her open hand, rings and +all--and I ran out in tears. Yes," went on Miss Corbet in a moment, +dropping her voice, and pensively looking up at nothing, "yes; you would +have said she was really angry, so quick and natural were her movements +and so loud her voice." + +Mr. James' face wrinkled up silently in amusement; and Lady Maxwell +seemed on the point of speaking; but Miss Corbet began again: + +"And to see her Grace act the lover. It was a miracle. You would have +said that our Artemis repented of her coldness; if you had not known it +was but play-acting; or let us say perhaps a rehearsal--if you had seen +what I once saw at Nonsuch. It was on a summer evening; and we were all +on the bowling green, and her Grace was within doors, not to be +disturbed. My Lord Leicester was to come, but we thought had not arrived. +Then I had occasion to go to my room to get a little book I had promised +to show to Caroline; and, thinking no harm, I ran through into the court, +and there stood a horse, his legs apart, all steaming and blowing. Some +courier, said I to myself, and never thought to look at the trappings; +and so I ran upstairs to go to the gallery, across which lay my chamber; +and I came up, and just began to push open the door, when I heard her +Grace's voice beyond, and, by the mercy of God, I stopped; and dared not +close the door again nor go downstairs for fear I should be heard. And +there were two walking within the gallery, her Grace and my lord, and my +lord was all disordered with hard riding, and nearly as spent as his poor +beast below. And her Grace had her arm round his neck, for I saw them +through the chink; and she fondled and pinched his ear, and said over and +over again, 'Robin, my sweet Robin,' and then crooned and moaned at him; +and he, whenever he could fetch a breath--and oh! I promise you he did +blow--murmured back, calling her his queen, which indeed she was, and his +sweetheart and his moon and his star--which she was not: but 'twas all in +the play. Well, again by the favour of God, they did not see how the door +was open and I couched behind it, for the sun was shining level through +the west window in their eyes; but why they did not hear me as I ran +upstairs and opened the door, He only knows--unless my lord was too +sorely out of breath and her Grace too intent upon her play-acting. Well, +I promise you, the acting was so good--he so spent and she so +tender--that I nearly cried out Brava as I saw them; but that I +remembered in time 'twas meant to be a private rehearsal. But I have seen +her Grace act near as passionate a part before the whole company +sometimes." + +The two old ladies seemed not greatly pleased with all this talk; and as +for Isabel she sat silent and overwhelmed. Mary Corbet glanced quickly at +their faces when she had done, and turned a little in her seat. + +"Ah! look at that peacock," she cried out, as a stately bird stepped +delicately out of the shrubbery on to the low wall a little way off, and +stood balancing himself. "He is loyal too, and has come to hear news of +his Queen." + +"He has come to see his cousin from town," said Mr. James, looking at +Miss Corbet's glowing dress, "and to learn of the London fashions." + +Mary got up and curtseyed to the astonished bird, who looked at her with +his head lowered, as he took a high step or two, and then paused again, +with his burnished breast swaying a little from side to side. + +"He invites you to a dance," went on Mr. James gravely, "a pavane." + +Miss Corbet sat down again. + +"I dare not dance a pavane," she said, "with a real peacock." + +"Surely," said Mr. James, with a courtier's air, "you are too pitiful for +him, and too pitiless for us." + +"I dare not," she said again, "for he never ceases to practise." + +"In hopes," said Mr. James, "that one day you will dance it with him." + +And then the two went off into the splendid fantastic nonsense that the +wits loved to talk; that grotesque, exaggerated phrasing made fashionable +by Lyly. It was like a kind of impromptu sword-exercise in an assault of +arms, where the rhythm and the flash and the graceful turns are of more +importance than the actual thrusts received. The two old ladies +embroidered on in silence, but their eyes twinkled, and little wrinkles +flickered about the corners of their lips. But poor Isabel sat +bewildered. It was so elaborate, so empty; she had almost said, so wicked +to take the solemn gift of speech and make it dance this wild fandango; +and as absurdity climbed and capered in a shower of sparks and gleams on +the shoulders of absurdity, and was itself surmounted; and the names of +heathen gods and nymphs and demi-gods and loose-living classical women +whisked across the stage, and were tossed higher and higher, until the +whole mad erection blazed up and went out in a shower of stars and gems +of allusions and phrases, like a flight of rockets, bright and +bewildering at the moment, but leaving a barren darkness and dazzled eyes +behind--the poor little Puritan country child almost cried with +perplexity and annoyance. If the two talkers had looked at one another +and burst into laughter at the end, she would have understood it to be a +joke, though, to her mind, but a poor one. But when they had ended, and +Mary Corbet had risen and then swept down to the ground in a great silent +curtsey, and Mr. James, the grave, sensible gentleman, had solemnly bowed +with his hand on his heart, and his heels together like a Monsieur, and +then she had rustled off in her peacock dress to the house, with her +muslin wings bulging behind her; and no one had laughed or reproved or +explained; it was almost too much, and she looked across to Lady Maxwell +with an appeal in her eyes. + +Mr. James saw it and his face relaxed. + +"You must not take us too seriously, Mistress Isabel," he said in his +kindly way. "It is all part of the game." + +"The game?" she said piteously. + +"Yes," said Mistress Margaret, intent on her embroidery, "the game of +playing at kings and queens and courtiers and ruffs and high-stepping." + +Mr. James' face again broke into his silent laugh. + +"You are acid, dear aunt," he said. + +"But----" began Isabel again. + +"But it is wrong, you think," he interrupted, "to talk such nonsense. +Well, Mistress Isabel, I am not sure you are not right." And the dancing +light in his eyes went out. + +"No, no, no," she cried, distressed. "I did not mean that. Only I did not +understand." + +"I know, I know; and please God you never will." And he looked at her +with such a tender gravity that her eyes fell. + +"Isabel is right," went on Mistress Margaret, in her singularly sweet old +voice; "and you know it, my nephew. It is very well as a pastime, but +some folks make it their business; and that is nothing less than fooling +with the gifts of the good God." + +"Well, aunt Margaret," said James softly, "I shall not have much more of +it. You need not fear for me." + +Lady Maxwell looked quickly at her son for a moment, and down again. He +made an almost imperceptible movement with his head, Mistress Margaret +looked across at him with her tender eyes beaming love and sorrow; and +there fell a little eloquent silence; while Isabel glanced shyly from one +to the other, and wondered what it was all about. + +Miss Mary Corbet stayed a few weeks, as the custom was when travelling +meant so much; but Isabel was scarcely nearer understanding her. She +accepted her, as simple clean souls so often have to accept riddles in +this world, as a mystery that no doubt had a significance, though she +could not recognise it. So she did not exactly dislike or distrust her, +but regarded her silently out of her own candid soul, as one would say a +small fearless bird in a nest must regard the man who thrusts his strange +hot face into her green pleasant world, and tries to make endearing +sounds. For Isabel was very fascinating to Mary Corbet. She had scarcely +ever before been thrown so close to any one so serenely pure. She would +come down to the Dower House again and again at all hours of the day, +rustling along in her silk, and seize upon Isabel in the little upstairs +parlour, or her bedroom, and question her minutely about her ways and +ideas; and she would look at her silently for a minute or two together; +and then suddenly laugh and kiss her--Isabel's transparency was almost as +great a riddle to her as her own obscurity to Isabel. And sometimes she +would throw herself on Isabel's bed, and lie there with her arms behind +her head, to the deplorable ruin of her ruff; with her buckled feet +twitching and tapping; and go on and on talking like a running stream in +the sun that runs for the sheer glitter and tinkle of it, and +accomplishes nothing. But she was more respectful to Isabel's simplicity +than at first, and avoided dangerous edges and treacherous ground in a +manner that surprised herself, telling her of the pageants at Court and +fair exterior of it all, and little about the poisonous conversations and +jests and the corrupt souls that engaged in them. + +She was immensely interested in Isabel's religion. + +"Tell me, child," she said one day, "I cannot understand such a religion. +It is not like the Protestant religion at Court at all. All that the +Protestants do there is to hear sermons--it is all so dismal and noisy. +But here, with you, you have a proper soul. It seems to me that you are +like a little herb-garden, very prim and plain, but living and wholesome +and pleasant to walk in at sunset. And these Protestants that I know are +more like a paved court at noon--all hot and hard and glaring. They give +me the headache. Tell me all about it." + +Of course Isabel could not, though she tried again and again. Her +definitions were as barren as any others. + +"I see," said Mary Corbet one day, sitting up straight and looking at +Isabel. "It is not your religion but you; your religion is as dull as all +the rest. But your soul is sweet, my dear, and the wilderness blossoms +where you set your feet. There is nothing to blush about. It's no credit +to you, but to God." + +Isabel hated this sort of thing. It seemed to her as if her soul was +being dragged out of a cool thicket from the green shadow and the +flowers, and set, stripped, in the high road. + +Another time Miss Corbet spoke yet more plainly. + +"You are a Catholic at heart, my dear; or you would be if you knew what +the Religion was. But your father, good man, has never understood it +himself; and so you don't know it either. What you think about us, my +dear, is as much like the truth as--as--I am like a saint, or you like a +sinner. I'll be bound now that you think us all idolaters!" + +Isabel had to confess that she did think something of the sort. + +"There, now, what did I say? Why haven't either of those two old nuns at +the Hall taught you any better?" + +"They--they don't talk to me about religion." + +"Ah! I see; or the Puritan father would withdraw his lamb from the +wolves. But if they are wolves, my dear, you must confess that they have +the decency to wear sheep's clothing, and that the disguise is +excellent." + +And so it gradually came about that Isabel began to learn an immense deal +about what the Catholics really believed--far more than she had ever +learnt in all her life before from the ladies at the Hall, who were +unwilling to teach her, and her father, who was unable. + +About half-way through Miss Corbet's visit, Anthony came home. At first +he pronounced against her inexorably, dismissing her as nonsense, and as +a fine lady--terms to him interchangeable. Then his condemnation began to +falter, then ceased; then acquittal, and at last commendation succeeded. +For Miss Corbet asked his advice about the dogs, and how to get that +wonderful gloss on their coats that his had; and she asked his help, too, +once or twice and praised his skill, and once asked to feel his muscle. + +And then she was so gallant in ways that appealed to him. She was not in +the least afraid of Eliza. She kissed that ferocious head in spite of the +glare of that steady yellow eye; and yet all with an air of trusting to +Anthony's protection. She tore her silk stocking across the instep in a +bramble and scratched her foot, without even drawing attention to it, as +she followed him along one of his short cuts through the copse; and it +was only by chance that he saw it. And then this gallant girl, so simple +and ignorant as she seemed out of doors, was like a splendid queen +indoors, and was able to hold her own, or rather to soar above all these +elders who were so apt to look over Anthony's head on grave occasions; +and they all had to listen while she talked. In fact, the first time he +saw her at the Hall in all her splendour, he could hardly realise it was +the same girl, till she laughed up at him, and nodded, and said how much +she had enjoyed the afternoon's stroll, and how much she would have to +tell when she got back to Court. In short, so incessant were her poses +and so skilful her manner and tone, and so foolish this poor boy, that in +a very few days, after he had pronounced her to be nonsense, Anthony was +at her feet, hopelessly fascinated by the combination of the glitter and +friendliness of this fine Court lady. To do her justice, she would have +behaved exactly the same to a statue, or even to nothing at all, as a +peacock dances and postures and vibrates his plumes to a kitten; and had +no more deliberate intention of giving pain to anybody than a nightshade +has of poisoning a silly sheep. + +The sublime conceit of a boy of fifteen made him of course think that she +had detected in him a nobility that others overlooked, and so Anthony +began a gorgeous course of day-dreaming, in which he moved as a kind of +king, worshipped and reverenced by this splendid creature, who after a +disillusionment from the empty vanities of a Court life and a Queen's +favour, found at last the lord of her heart in a simple manly young +countryman. These dreams, however, he had the grace and modesty to keep +wholly to himself. + +Mary came down one day and found the two in the garden together. + +"Come, my child," she said, "and you too, Master Anthony, if you can +spare time to escort us; and take me to the church. I want to see it." + +"The church!" said Isabel, "that is locked: we must go to the Rectory." + +"Locked!" exclaimed Mary, "and is that part of the blessed Reformation? +Well, come, at any rate." + +They all went across to the village and down the green towards the +Rectory, whose garden adjoined the churchyard on the south side of the +church. Anthony walked with something of an air in front of the two +ladies. Isabel told her as they went about the Rector and his views. Mary +nodded and smiled and seemed to understand. + +"We will tap at the window," said Anthony, "it is the quickest way." + +They came up towards the study window that looked on to the drive; when +Anthony, who was in front, suddenly recoiled and then laughed. + +"They are at it again," he said. + +The next moment Mary was looking through the window too. The Rector was +sitting in his chair opposite, a small dark, clean-shaven man, but his +face was set with a look of distressed determination, and his lower lip +was sucked in; his eyes were fixed firmly on a tall, slender woman whose +back was turned to the window and who seemed to be declaiming, with +outstretched hand. The Rector suddenly saw the faces at the window. + +"We seem to be interrupting," said Mary coolly, as she turned away. + + + + + CHAPTER V + + A RIDER FROM LONDON + + +"We will walk on, Master Anthony," said Mistress Corbet. "Will you bring +the keys when the Rector and his lady have done?" + +She spoke with a vehement bitterness that made Isabel look at her in +amazement, as the two walked on by the private path to the churchyard +gate. Mary's face was set in a kind of fury, and she went forward with +her chin thrust disdainfully out, biting her lip. Isabel said nothing. + +As they reached the gate they heard steps behind them; and turning saw +the minister and Anthony hastening together. Mr. Dent was in his cassock +and gown and square cap, and carried the keys. His little scholarly face, +with a sharp curved nose like a beak, and dark eyes set rather too close +together, was not unlike a bird's; and a way he had of sudden sharp +movements of his head increased the likeness. Mary looked at him with +scarcely veiled contempt. He glanced at her sharply and uneasily. + +"Mistress Mary Corbet?" he said, interrogatively. + +Mary bowed to him. + +"May we see the church, sir; your church, I should say perhaps; that is, +if we are not disturbing you." + +Mr. Dent made a polite inclination, and opened the gate for them to go +through. Then Mary changed her tactics; and a genial, good-humoured look +came over her face; but Isabel, who glanced at her now and again as they +went round to the porch at the west-end, still felt uneasy. + +As the Rector was unlocking the porch door, Mary surveyed him with a +pleased smile. + +"Why, you look quite like a priest," she said. "Do your bishops, or +whatever you call them, allow that dress? I thought you had done away +with it all." + +Mr. Dent looked at her, but seeing nothing but geniality and interest in +her face, explained elaborately in the porch that he was a Catholic +priest, practically; though the word minister was more commonly used; and +that it was the old Church still, only cleansed from superstitions. Mary +shook her head at him cheerfully, smiling like a happy, puzzled child. + +"It is all too difficult for me," she said. "It cannot be the same +Church, or why should we poor Catholics be so much abused and persecuted? +Besides, what of the Pope?" + +Mr. Dent explained that the Pope was one of the superstitions in +question. + +"Ah! I see you are too sharp for me," said Mary, beaming at him. + +Then they entered the church; and Mary began immediately on a running +comment. + +"How sad that little niche looks," she said. "I suppose Our Lady is in +pieces somewhere on a dunghill. Surely, father--I beg your pardon, Mr. +Dent--it cannot be the same religion if you have knocked Our Lady to +pieces. But then I suppose you would say that she was a superstition, +too. And where is the old altar? Is that broken, too? And is that a +superstition, too? What a number there must have been! And the holy +water, too, I see. But that looks a very nice table up there you have +instead. Ah! And I see you read the new prayers from a new desk outside +the screen, and not from the priest's stall. Was that a superstition too? +And the mass vestments? Has your wife had any of them made up to be +useful? The stoles are no good, I fear; but you could make charming +stomachers out of the chasubles." + +They were walking slowly up the centre aisle now. Mr. Dent had to explain +that the vestments had been burnt on the green. + +"Ah! yes; I see," she said, "and do you wear a surplice, or do you not +like them? I see the chancel roof is all broken--were there angels there +once? I suppose so. But how strange to break them all! Unless they are +superstitions, too? I thought Protestants believed in them; but I see I +was wrong. What _do_ you believe in, Mr. Dent?" she asked, turning large, +bright, perplexed eyes upon him for a moment: but she gave him no time +to answer. + +"Ah!" she cried suddenly, and her voice rang with pain, "there is the +altar-stone." And she went down on her knees at the chancel entrance, +bending down, it seemed, in an agony of devout sorrow and shame; and +kissed with a gentle, lingering reverence the great slab with its five +crosses, set in the ground at the destruction of the altar to show there +was no sanctity attached to it. + +She knelt there a moment or two, her lips moving, and her black eyes cast +up at the great east window, cracked and flawed with stones and poles. +The Puritan boy and girl looked at her with astonishment; they had not +seen this side of her before. + +When she rose from her knees, her eyes seemed bright with tears, and her +voice was tender. + +"Forgive me, Mr. Dent," she said, with a kind of pathetic dignity, +putting out a slender be-ringed hand to him, "but--but you know--for I +think perhaps you have some sympathy for us poor Catholics--you know what +all this means to me." + +She went up into the chancel and looked about her in silence. + +"This was the piscina, Mistress Corbet," said the Rector. + +She nodded her head regretfully, as at some relic of a dead friend; but +said nothing. They came out again presently, and turned through the old +iron gates into what had been the Maxwell chapel. The centre was occupied +by an altar-tomb with Sir Nicholas' parents lying in black stone upon it. +Old Sir James held his right gauntlet in his left hand, and with his +right hand held the right hand of his wife, which was crossed over to +meet it; and the two steady faces gazed upon the disfigured roof. The +altar, where a weekly requiem had been said for them, was gone, and the +footpace and piscina alone showed where it had stood. + +"This was a chantry, of course?" said Mistress Corbet. + +The Rector confessed that it had been so. + +"Ah!" she said mournfully, "the altar is cast out and the priest gone; +but--but--forgive me, sir, the money is here still? But then," she added, +"I suppose the money is not a superstition." + +When they reached the west entrance again she turned and looked up the +aisle again. + +"And the Rood!" she said. "Even Christ crucified is gone. Then, in God's +name what is left?" And her eyes turned fiercely for a moment on the +Rector. + +"At least courtesy and Christian kindness is left, madam," he said +sternly. + +She dropped her eyes and went out; and Isabel and Anthony followed, +startled and ashamed. But Mary had recovered herself as she came on to +the head of the stone stairs, beside which the stump of the churchyard +cross stood; standing there was the same tall, slender woman whose back +they had seen through the window, and who now stood eyeing Mary with +half-dropped lids. Her face was very white, with hard lines from nose to +mouth, and thin, tightly compressed lips. Mary swept her with one look, +and then passed on and down the steps, followed by Isabel and Anthony, as +the Rector came out, locking the church door again behind him. + +As they went up the green, a shrill thin voice began to scold from over +the churchyard wall, and they heard the lower, determined voice of the +minister answering. + +"They are at it again," said Anthony, once more. + +"And what do you mean by that, Master Anthony?" said Mistress Corbet, who +seemed herself again now. + +"She is just a scold," said the lad, "the village-folk hate her." + +"You seem not to love her," said Mary, smiling. + +"Oh! Mistress Corbet, do you know what she said--" and then he broke off, +crimson-faced. + +"She is no friend to Catholics, I suppose," said Mary, seeming to notice +nothing. + +"She is always making mischief," he went on eagerly. "The Rector would be +well enough but for her. He is a good fellow, really." + +"There, there," said Mary, "and you think me a scold, too, I daresay. +Well, you know I cannot bear to see these old churches--well, perhaps I +was--" and then she broke off again, and was silent. + +The brother and sister presently turned back to the Dower House; and Mary +went on, and through the Hall straight into the Italian garden where +Mistress Margaret was sitting alone at her embroidery. + +"My sister has been called away by the housekeeper," she explained, "but +she will be back presently." + +Mary sat down and took up the little tawny book that lay by Lady +Maxwell's chair, and began to turn it over idly while she talked. The old +lady by her seemed to invite confidences. + +"I have been to see the church," said Mary. "The Rector showed it to me. +What a beautiful place it must have been." + +"Ah!" said Mistress Margaret "I only came to live here a few years ago; +so I have never known or loved it like my sister or her husband. They can +hardly bear to enter it now. You know that Sir Nicholas' father and +grandfather are buried in the Maxwell chapel; and it was his father who +gave the furniture of the sanctuary, and the images of Our Lady and Saint +Christopher that they burned on the green." + +"It is terrible," said Mary, a little absently, as she turned the pages +of the book. + +Mistress Margaret looked up. + +"Ah! you have one of my books there," she said. "It is a little +collection I made." + +Miss Corbet turned to the beginning, but only found a seal with an +inscription. + +"But this belonged to a nunnery," she said. + +"Yes," said Mistress Margaret, tranquilly, "and I am a nun." + +Mary looked at her in astonishment. + +"But, but," she began. + +"Yes, Mistress Corbet; we were dispersed in '38; some entered the other +nunneries; and some went to France; but, at last, under circumstances +that I need not trouble you with, I came here under spiritual direction, +and have observed my obligations ever since." + +"And have you always said your offices?" Mary asked astonished. + +"Yes, my dear; by the mercy of God I have never failed yet. I tell you +this of course because you are one of us, and because you have a faithful +heart." Mistress Margaret lifted her great eyes and looked at Mary +tenderly and penetratingly. + +"And this is one of your books?" she asked. + +"Yes, my dear. I was allowed at least to take it away with me. My sister +here is very fond of it." + +Mary opened it again, and began to turn the pages. + +"Is it all in your handwriting, Mistress Torridon?" + +"Yes, my child; I continued writing in it ever since I first entered +religion in 1534; so you see the handwriting changes a little," and she +smiled to herself. + +"Oh, but this is charming," cried Mary, intent on the book. + +"Read it, my dear, aloud." + +Mary read: + + "Let me not rest, O Lord, nor have quiet, + But fill my soul with spiritual travail, + To sing and say, O mercy, Jesu sweet; + Thou my protection art in the battail. + Set thou aside all other apparail; + Let me in thee feel all my affiance. + Treasure of treasures, thou dost most avail. + Grant ere I die shrift, pardon, repentance." + +Her voice trembled a little and ceased. + +"That is from some verses of Dan John Lydgate, I think," said Mistress +Margaret. + +"Here is another," said Mary in a moment or two. + + "Jesu, at thy will, I pray that I may be, + All my heart fulfil with perfect love to thee: + That I have done ill, Jesu forgive thou me: + And suffer me never to spill, Jesu for thy pity." + +"The nuns of Hampole gave me that," said Mistress Margaret. "It is by +Richard Rolle, the hermit." + +"Tell me a little," said Mary Corbet, suddenly laying down the book, +"about the nunnery." + +"Oh, my dear, that is too much to ask; but how happy we were. All was so +still; it used to seem sometimes as if earth were just a dream; and that +we walked in Paradise. Sometimes in the Greater Silence, when we had +spoken no word nor heard one except in God's praise, it used to seem that +if we could but be silent a little longer, and a little more deeply, in +our hearts as well, we should hear them talking in heaven, and the harps; +and the Saviour's soft footsteps. But it was not always like that." + +"You mean," said Mary softly, "that, that--" and she stopped. + +"Oh, it was hard sometimes; but not often. God is so good. But He used +to allow such trouble and darkness and noise to be in our hearts +sometimes--at least in mine. But then of course I was always very wicked. +But sitting in the nymph-hay sometimes on a day like this, as we were +allowed to do; with just tall thin trees like poplars and cypresses round +us: and the stream running through the long grass; and the birds, and the +soft sky and the little breeze; and then peace in our hearts; and the +love of the Saviour round us--it seemed, it seemed as if God had nothing +more to give; or, I should say, as if our hearts had no more space." + +Mary was strangely subdued and quiet. Her little restless movements were +still for once; and her quick, vivacious face was tranquil and a little +awed. + +"Oh, Mistress Margaret, I love to hear you talk like that. Tell me more." + +"Well, my dear, we thought too much about ourselves, I think; and too +little about God and His poor children who were not so happy as we were; +so then the troubles began; and they got nearer and nearer; and at last +the Visitor came. He--he was my brother, my dear, which made it harder; +but he made a good end. I will tell you his story another time. He took +away our great crucifix and our jewelled cope that old Mr. Wickham used +to wear on the Great Festivals; and left us. He turned me out, too; and +another who asked to go, but I went back for a while. And then, my dear, +although we offered everything; our cows and our orchard and our hens, +and all we had, you know how it ended; and one morning in May old Mr. +Wickham said mass for us quite early, before the sun was risen, for the +last time; and,--and he cried, my dear, at the elevation; and--and we +were all crying too I think, and we all received communion together for +the last time--and,--and, then we all went away, leaving just old Dame +Agnes to keep the house until the Commissioner came. And oh, my dear, I +don't think the house ever looked so dear as it did that morning, just as +the sun rose over the roofs, and we were passing out through the meadow +door where we had sat so often, to where the horses were waiting to take +us away." + +Miss Corbet's own eyes were full of tears as the old lady finished: and +she put out her white slender hand, which Mistress Torridon took and +stroked for a moment. + +"Well," she said, "I haven't talked like this for a long while; but I +knew you would understand. My dear, I have watched you while you have +been here this time." + +Mary Corbet smiled a little uneasily. + +"And you have found me out?" she answered smiling. + +"No, no; but I think our Saviour has found you out--or at least He is +drawing very near." + +A slight discomfort made itself felt in Mary's heart. This nun then was +like all the rest, always trying to turn the whole world into monks and +nuns by hints and pretended intuitions into the unseen. + +"And you think I should be a nun too?" she asked, with just a shade of +coolness in her tone. + +"I should suppose not," said Mistress Margaret, tranquilly. "You do not +seem to have a vocation for that, but I should think that our Lord means +you to serve Him where you are. Who knows what you may not accomplish?" + +This was a little disconcerting to Mary Corbet; it was not at all what +she had expected. She did not know what to say; and took up the leather +book again and began to turn over the pages. Mistress Margaret went on +serenely with her embroidery, which she had neglected during the last +sentence or two; and there was silence. + +"Tell me a little more about the nunnery," said Mary in a minute or two, +leaning back in her chair, with the book on her knees. + +"Well, my dear, I scarcely know what to say. It is all far off now like a +childhood. We talked very little; not at all until recreation; except by +signs, and we used to spend a good deal of our time in embroidery. That +is where I learnt this," and she held out her work to Mary for a moment. +It was an exquisite piece of needlework, representing a stag running +open-mouthed through thickets of green twining branches that wrapped +themselves about his horns and feet. Mary had never seen anything quite +like it before. + +"What does it mean?" she asked, looking at it curiously. + +"_Quemadmodum cervus_,"--began Mistress Margaret; "as the hart brayeth +after the waterbrooks,"--and she took the embroidery and began to go on +with it.--"It is the soul, you see, desiring and fleeing to God, while +the things of the world hold her back. Well, you see, it is difficult to +talk about it; for it is the inner life that is the real history of a +convent; the outer things are all plain and simple like all else." + +"Well," said Mary, "is it really true that you were happy?" + +The old lady stopped working a moment and looked up at her. + +"My dear, there is no happiness in the world like it," she said simply. +"I dream sometimes that we are all back there together, and I wake crying +for joy. The other night I dreamed that we were all in the chapel again, +and that it was a spring morning, with the dawn beginning to show the +painted windows, and that all the tapers were burning; and that mass was +beginning. Not one stall was empty; not even old Dame Gertrude, who died +when I was a novice, was lacking, and Mr. Wickham made us a sermon after +the creed, and showed us the crucifix back in its place again; and told +us that we were all good children, and that Our Lord had only sent us +away to see if we would be patient; and that He was now pleased with us, +and had let us come home again; and that we should never have to go away +again; not even when we died; and then I understood that we were in +heaven, and that it was all over; and I burst out into tears in my stall +for happiness; and then I awoke and found myself in bed; but my cheeks +were really wet.--Well, well, perhaps, by the mercy of God it may all +come true some day." + +She spoke so simply that Mary Corbet was amazed; she had always fancied +that the Religious Life was a bitter struggle, worth, indeed, living for +those who could bear it, for the sake of the eternal reward; but it had +scarcely even occurred to her that it was so full of joy in itself; and +she looked up under her brows at the old lady, whose needle had stopped +for a moment. + +A moment after and Lady Maxwell appeared coming down the steps into the +garden; and at her side Anthony, who was dressed ready for riding. + +Old Mistress Margaret had, as she said, been watching Mary Corbet those +last few weeks; and had determined to speak to her plainly. Her instinct +had told her that beneath this flippancy and glitter there was something +that would respond; and she was anxious to leave nothing undone by which +Mary might be awakened to the inner world that was in such danger of +extinction in her soul. It cost the old lady a great effort to break +through her ordinary reserve, but she judged that Mary could only be +reached on her human side, and that there were not many of her friends +whose human sympathy would draw her in the right direction. It is +strange, sometimes, to find that some silent old lady has a power for +sounding human character, which far shrewder persons lack; and this quiet +old nun, so ignorant, one would have said, of the world and of the +motives from which ordinary people act, had managed somehow to touch +springs in this girl's heart that had never been reached before. + +And now as Miss Corbet and Lady Maxwell talked, and Anthony lolled +embarrassed beside them, attempting now and then to join in the +conversation, Mistress Margaret, as she sat a little apart and worked +away at the panting stag dreamed away, smiling quietly to herself, of all +the old scenes that her own conversation had called up into clearer +consciousness; of the pleasant little meadow of the Sussex priory, with +the old apple-trees and the straight box-lined path called the nun's walk +from time immemorial; all lighted with the pleasant afternoon glow, as it +streamed from the west, throwing the slender poplar shadows across the +grass; and of the quiet chatter of the brook as it over-flowed from the +fish ponds at the end of the field and ran through the meadows beyond the +hedge. The cooing of the pigeons as they sunned themselves round the dial +in the centre of this Italian garden and on the roof of the hall helped +on her reminiscences, for there had been a dovecote at the priory. Where +were all her sisters now, those who had sat with her in the same sombre +habits in the garth, with the same sunshine in their hearts? Some she +knew, and thanked God for it, were safe in glory; others were old like +her, but still safe in Holy Religion in France where as yet there was +peace and sanctuary for the servants of the Most High; one or two--and +for these she lifted up her heart in petition as she sat--one or two had +gone back to the world, relinquished everything, and died to grace. Then +the old faces one by one passed before her; old Dame Agnes with her +mumbling lips and her rosy cheeks like wrinkled apples, looking so fresh +and wholesome in the white linen about her face; and then the others one +by one--that white-faced, large-eyed sister who had shown such passionate +devotion at first that they all thought that God was going to raise up a +saint amongst them--ah! God help her--she had sunk back at the +dissolution, from those heights of sanctity towards whose summits she had +set her face, down into the muddy torrent of the world that went roaring +down to the abyss--and who was responsible? There was Dame Avice, the +Sacristan, with her businesslike movements going about the garden, +gathering flowers for the altar, with her queer pursed lips as she +arranged them in her hands with her head a little on one side; how +annoying she used to be sometimes; but how good and tender at heart--God +rest her soul! And there was Mr. Wickham, the old priest who had been +their chaplain for so many years, and who lived in the village parsonage, +waited upon by Tom Downe, that served at the altar too--he who had got +the horses ready when the nuns had to go at last on that far-off May +morning, and had stood there, holding the bridles and trying to hide his +wet face behind the horses; where was Tom now? And Mr. Wickham too--he +had gone to France with some of the nuns; but he had never settled down +there--he couldn't bear the French ways--and besides he had left his +heart behind him buried in the little Sussex priory among the meadows. + +And so the old lady sat, musing; while the light and shadow of +reminiscence moved across her face; and her lips quivered or her eyes +wrinkled up with humour, at the thought of all those old folks with their +faces and their movements and their ways of doing and speaking. Ah! well, +please God, some day her dream would really come true; and they shall all +be gathered again from France and England with their broken hearts mended +and their tears wiped away, and Mr. Wickham himself shall minister to +them and make them sermons, and Tom Downe too shall be there to minister +to him--all in one of the many mansions of which the Saviour spoke. + +And so she heard nothing of the talk of the others; though her sister +looked at her tenderly once or twice; and Mary Corbet chattered and +twitched her buckles in the sun, and Anthony sat embarrassed in the midst +of Paradise; and she knew nothing of where she was nor of what was +happening round her, until Mary Corbet said that it was time for the +horses to be round, and that she must go and get ready and not keep Mr. +James and Mr. Anthony waiting. Then, as she and Anthony went towards the +house, the old lady looked up from the braying stag and found herself +alone with her sister. + +Mistress Margaret waited until the other two disappeared up the steps, +and then spoke. + +"I have told her all, sister," she said, "she can be trusted." + +Lady Maxwell nodded gently. + +"She has a good heart," went on the other, "and our Lord no doubt will +find some work for her to do at Court." + +There was silence again; broken by the gentle little sound of the silk +being drawn through the stuff. + +"You know best, Margaret," said Lady Maxwell. + +Even as she spoke there was the sound of a door thrown violently open and +old Sir Nicholas appeared on the top of the steps, hatless and plainly in +a state of great agitation; beside him stood a courier, covered with the +dust of the white roads, and his face crimson with hard riding. Sir +Nicholas stood there as if dazed, and Lady Maxwell sprang up quickly to +go to him. But a moment after there appeared behind him a little group, +his son James, Miss Corbet and a servant or two; while Anthony hung back; +and Mr. James came up quickly, and took his father by the arm; and +together the little company came down the steps into the still and sunny +garden. + +"What is it?" cried Lady Maxwell, trying to keep her voice under control; +while Mistress Margaret laid her work quietly down, and stood up too. + +"Tell my lady," said Sir Nicholas to the courier, who stood a little +apart. + +"If you please, my lady," he said, as if repeating a lesson, "a Bull of +the Holy Father has been found nailed to the door of the Bishop of +London's palace, deposing Elizabeth and releasing all her subjects from +their allegiance." + +Lady Maxwell went to her husband and took him by the arm gently. + +"What does it mean, sweetheart?" she asked. + +"It means that Catholics must choose between their sovereign and their +God." + +"God have mercy," said a servant behind. + + + + + CHAPTER VI + + MR. STEWART + + +Sir Nicholas' exclamatory sentence was no exaggeration. That terrible +choice of which he spoke, with his old eyes shining with the desire to +make it, did not indeed come so immediately as he anticipated; but it +came none the less. From every point of view the Bull was unfortunate, +though it may have been a necessity; for it marked the declaration of war +between England and the Catholic Church. A gentle appeal had been tried +before; Elizabeth, who, it must be remembered had been crowned during +mass with Catholic ceremonial, and had received the Blessed Sacrament, +had been entreated by the Pope as his "dear daughter in Christ" to return +to the Fold; and now there seemed to him no possibility left but this +ultimatum. + +It is indeed difficult to see what else, from his point of view, he could +have done. To continue to pretend that Elizabeth was his "dear daughter" +would have discredited his fatherly authority in the eyes of the whole +Christian world. He had patiently made an advance towards his wayward +child; and she had repudiated and scorned him. Nothing was left but to +recognise and treat her as an enemy of the Faith, an usurper of spiritual +prerogatives, and an apostate spoiler of churches; to do this might +certainly bring trouble upon others of his less distinguished but more +obedient children, who were in her power; but to pretend that the +suffering thus brought down upon Catholics was unnecessary, and that the +Pope alone was responsible for their persecution, is to be blind to the +fact that Elizabeth had already openly defied and repudiated his +authority, and had begun to do her utmost to coax and compel his children +to be disobedient to their father. + +The shock of the Bull to Elizabeth was considerable; she had not expected +this extreme measure; and it was commonly reported too that France and +Spain were likely now to unite on a religious basis against England; and +that at least one of these Powers had sanctioned the issue of the Bull. +This of course helped greatly to complicate further the already +complicated political position. Steps were taken immediately to +strengthen England's position against Scotland with whom it was now, more +than ever, to be feared that France would co-operate; and the Channel +Fleet was reinforced under Lord Clinton, and placed with respect to +France in what was almost a state of war, while it was already in an +informal state of war with Spain. There was fierce confusion in the Privy +Council. Elizabeth, who at once began to vacillate under the combined +threats of La Mothe, the French ambassador, and the arguments of the +friend of Catholics, Lord Arundel, was counter-threatened with ruin by +Lord Keeper Bacon unless she would throw in her lot finally with the +Protestants and continue her hostility and resistance to the Catholic +Scotch party. But in spite of Bacon Elizabeth's heart failed her, and if +it had not been for the rashness of Mary Stuart's friends, Lord +Southampton and the Bishop of Ross, the Queen might have been induced to +substitute conciliation for severity towards Mary and the Catholic party +generally. Southampton was arrested, and again there followed the further +encouragement of the Protestant camp by the rising fortunes of the +Huguenots and the temporary reverses to French Catholicism; so the +pendulum swung this way and that. Elizabeth's policy changed almost from +day to day. She was tormented with temporal fears of a continental +crusade against her, and by the spiritual terrors of the Pope's Bull; and +her unfathomable fickleness was the despair of her servants. + +Meanwhile in the religious world a furious paper war broke out; and +volleys from both sides followed the solemn roar and crash of _Regnans +in Excelsis_. + +But while the war of words went on, and the theological assaults and +charges were given and received, repulsed or avoided, something practical +must, it was felt, be done immediately; and search was made high and low +for other copies of the Bull. The lawyers in the previous year had fallen +under suspicion of religious unsoundness; judges could not be trusted to +convict Catholics accused of their religion; and counsel was unwilling to +prosecute them; therefore the first inquisition was made in the Inns of +Court; and almost immediately a copy of the Bull was found in the room of +a student in Lincoln's Inn, who upon the rack in the Tower confessed that +he had received it from one John Felton, a Catholic gentleman who lived +upon his property in Southwark. Upon Felton's arrest (for he had not +attempted to escape) he confessed immediately, without pressure, that he +had affixed the Bull to the Bishop of London's gate; but although he was +racked repeatedly he would not incriminate a single person besides +himself; but at his trial would only assert with a joyous confidence that +he was not alone; and that twenty-five peers, six hundred gentlemen, and +thirty thousand commoners were ready to die in the Holy Father's quarrel. +He behaved with astonishing gallantry throughout, and after his +condemnation had been pronounced upon the fourth of August at the +Guildhall, on the charge of high-treason, he sent a diamond ring from his +own finger, of the value of £400, to the Queen to show that he bore her +no personal ill-will. He had been always a steadfast Catholic; his wife +had been maid of honour to Mary and a friend of Elizabeth's. On August +the eighth he suffered the abominable punishment prescribed; he was drawn +on a hurdle to the gate of the Bishop's palace in S. Paul's Churchyard, +where he had affixed the Bull, hanged upon a new gallows, cut down before +he was unconscious, disembowelled and quartered. His name has since been +placed on the roll of the Blessed by the Apostolic See in whose quarrel +he so cheerfully laid down his life. + +News of these and such events continued of course to be eagerly sought +after by the Papists all over the kingdom; and the Maxwells down at Great +Keynes kept in as close touch with the heart of affairs as almost any +private persons in the kingdom out of town. Sir Nicholas was one of those +fiery natures to whom opposition or pressure is as oil to flame. He began +at once to organise his forces and prepare for the struggle that was +bound to come. He established first a kind of private post to London and +to other Catholic houses round; for purposes however of defence rather +than offence, so that if any steps were threatened, he and his friends +might be aware of the danger in time. There was great sorrow at the news +of John Felton's death; and mass was said for his soul almost immediately +in the little oratory at Maxwell Court by one of the concealed priests +who went chiefly between Hampshire and Sussex ministering to the +Catholics of those districts. Mistress Margaret spent longer than ever at +her prayers; Lady Maxwell had all she could do to keep her husband from +some furious act of fanatical retaliation for John Felton's death--some +useless provocation of the authorities; the children at the Dower House +began to come to the Hall less often, not because they were less +welcomed, but because there was a constraint in the air. All seemed +preoccupied; conversations ceased abruptly on their entrance, and fits of +abstraction would fall from time to time upon their kindly hosts. In the +meanwhile, too, the preparations for James Maxwell's departure, which had +already begun to show themselves, were now pushed forward rapidly; and +one morning in the late summer, when Isabel came up to the Hall, she +found that Lady Maxwell was confined to her room and could not be seen +that day; she caught a glimpse of Sir Nicholas' face as he quickly +crossed the entrance hall, that made her draw back from daring to intrude +on such grief; and on inquiry found that Mr. James had ridden away that +morning, and that the servants did not know when to expect him back, nor +what was his destination. + +In other ways also at this time did Sir Nicholas actively help on his +party. Great Keynes was in a convenient position and circumstances for +agents who came across from the Continent. It was sufficiently near +London, yet not so near to the highroad or to London itself as to make +disturbance probable; and its very quietness under the spiritual care of +a moderate minister like Mr. Dent, and its serenity, owing to the secret +sympathy of many of the villagers and neighbours, as well as from the +personal friendship between Sir Nicholas and the master of the Dower +House--an undoubted Protestant--all these circumstances combined to make +Maxwell Hall a favourite halting-place for priests and agents from the +Continent. Strangers on horseback or in carriages, and sometimes even on +foot, would arrive there after nightfall, and leave in a day or two for +London. Its nearness to London enabled them to enter the city at any hour +they thought best after ten or eleven in the forenoon. They came on very +various businesses; some priests even stayed there and made the Hall a +centre for their spiritual ministrations for miles round; others came +with despatches from abroad, some of which were even addressed to great +personages at Court and at the Embassies where much was being done by the +Ambassadors at this time to aid their comrades in the Faith, and to other +leading Catholics; and others again came with pamphlets printed abroad +for distribution in England, some of them indeed seditious, but many of +them purely controversial and hortatory, and with other devotional +articles and books such as it was difficult to obtain in England, and +might not be exposed for public sale in booksellers' shops: Agnus Deis, +beads, hallowed incense and crosses were being sent in large numbers from +abroad, and were eagerly sought after by the Papists in all directions. +It was remarkable that while threatening clouds appeared to be gathering +on all sides over the Catholic cause, yet the deepening peril was +accompanied by a great outburst of religious zeal. It was reported to the +Archbishop that "massing" was greatly on the increase in Kent; and was +attributed, singularly enough, to the Northern Rebellion, which had ended +in disaster for the Papists; but the very fact that such a movement could +take place at all probably heartened many secret sympathisers, who had +hitherto considered themselves almost alone in a heretic population. + +Sir Nicholas came in one day to dinner in a state of great fury. One of +his couriers had just arrived with news from London; and the old man came +in fuming and resentful. + +"What hypocrisy!" he cried out to Lady Maxwell and Mistress Margaret, who +were seated at table. "Not content with persecuting Catholics, they will +not even allow us to say we are persecuted for the faith. Here is the +Lord Keeper declaring in the Star Chamber that no man is to be persecuted +for his private faith, but only for his public acts, and that the Queen's +Grace desires nothing so little as to meddle with any man's conscience. +Then I suppose they would say that hearing mass was a public act and +therefore unlawful; but then how if a man's private faith bids him to +hear mass? Is not that meddling with his private conscience to forbid him +to go to mass? What folly is this? And yet my Lord Keeper and her Grace +are no fools! Then are they worse than fools?" + +Lady Maxwell tried to quiet the old man, for the servants were not out of +the room; and it was terribly rash to speak like that before them; but he +would not be still nor sit down, but raged up and down before the hearth, +growling and breaking out now and again. What especially he could not get +off his mind was that this was the Old Religion that was prescribed. That +England for generations had held the Faith, and that then the Faith and +all that it involved had been declared unlawful, was to him iniquity +unfathomable. He could well understand some new upstart sect being +persecuted, but not the old Religion. He kept on returning to this. + +"Have they so far forgotten the Old Faith as to think it can be held in a +man's private conscience without appearing in his life, like their +miserable damnable new fangled Justification by faith without works? Or +that a man can believe in the blessed sacrament of the altar and yet not +desire to receive it; or in penance and yet not be absolved; or in Peter +and yet not say so, nor be reconciled. You may believe, say they, of +their clemency, what you like; be justified by that; that is enough! +Bah!" + +However mere declaiming against the Government was barren work, and Sir +Nicholas soon saw that; and instead, threw himself with more vigour than +ever into entertaining and forwarding the foreign emissaries. + +Mary Corbet had returned to London by the middle of July; and Hubert was +not yet returned; so Sir Nicholas and the two ladies had the Hall to +themselves. Now it must be confessed that the old man had neither the +nature nor the training for the _rôle_ of a conspirator, even of the +mildest description. He was so exceedingly impulsive, unsuspicious and +passionate that it would have been the height of folly to entrust him +with any weighty secret, if it was possible to dispense with him; but the +Catholics over the water needed stationary agents so grievously; and Sir +Nicholas' name commanded such respect, and his house such conveniences, +that they overlooked the risk involved in making him their confidant, +again and again; besides it need not be said that his honour and fidelity +was beyond reproach; and those qualities after all balance favourably +against a good deal of shrewdness and discretion. He, of course, was +serenely unable to distinguish between sedition and religion; and +entertained political meddlers and ordinary priests with an equal +enthusiasm. It was pathetic to Lady Maxwell to see her simple old husband +shuffling away his papers, and puzzling over cyphers and perpetually +leaving the key of them lying about, and betraying again and again when +he least intended it, by his mysterious becks and nods and glances and +oracular sayings, that some scheme was afoot. She could have helped him +considerably if he had allowed her; but he had an idea that the +capacities of ladies in general went no further than their harps, their +embroidery and their devotions; and besides, he was chivalrously +unwilling that his wife should be in any way privy to business that +involved such risks as this. + +One sunny morning in August he came into her room early just as she was +finishing her prayers, and announced the arrival of an emissary from +abroad. + +"Sweetheart," he said, "will you prepare the east chamber for a young man +whom we will call Mr. Stewart, if you please, who will arrive to-night. +He hopes to be with us until after dusk to-morrow when he will leave; and +I shall be obliged if you will---- No, no, my dear. I will order the +horses myself." + +The old man then bustled off to the stableyard and ordered a saddle-horse +to be taken at once to Cuckfield, accompanied by a groom on another +horse. These were to arrive at the inn and await orders from a stranger +"whom you will call Mr. Stewart, if you please." Mr. Stewart was to +change horses there, and ride on to Maxwell Hall, and Sir Nicholas +further ordered the same two horses and the same groom to be ready the +following evening at about nine o'clock, and to be at "Mr. Stewart's" +orders again as before. + +This behaviour of Sir Nicholas' was of course most culpably indiscreet. A +child could not but have suspected something, and the grooms, who were of +course Catholics, winked merrily at one another when the conspirator's +back was turned, and he had hastened in a transport of zeal and +preoccupation back again to the house to interrupt his wife in her +preparations for the guest. + +That evening "Mr. Stewart" arrived according to arrangements. He was a +slim red-haired man, not above thirty years of age, the kind of man his +enemies would call foxy, with a very courteous and deliberate manner, and +he spoke with a slight Scotch accent. He had the air of doing everything +on purpose. He let his riding-whip fall as he greeted Lady Maxwell in the +entrance hall; but picked it up with such a dignified grace that you +would have sworn he had let it fall for some wise reason of his own. He +had a couple of saddle-bags with him, which he did not let out of his +sight for a moment; even keeping his eye upon them as he met the ladies +and saluted them. They were carried up to the east chamber directly, +their owner following; where supper had been prepared. There was no real +reason, since he arrived with such publicity, why he should not have +supped downstairs, but Sir Nicholas had been peremptory. It was by his +directions also that the arrival had been accomplished in the manner it +had. + +After he had supped, Sir Nicholas receiving the dishes from the servants' +hands at the door of the room with the same air of secrecy and despatch, +his host suggested that he should come to Lady Maxwell's drawing-room, as +the ladies were anxious to see him. Mr. Stewart asked leave to bring a +little valise with him that had travelled in one of the bags, and then +followed his host who preceded him with a shaded light along the gallery. + +When he entered he bowed again profoundly, with a slightly French air, to +the ladies and to the image over the fire; and then seated himself, and +asked leave to open his valise. He did so with their permission, and +displayed to them the numerous devotional articles and books that it +contained. The ladies and Sir Nicholas were delighted, and set aside at +once some new books of devotion, and then they fell to talk. The +Netherlands, from which Mr. Stewart had arrived two days before, on the +east coast, were full at this time of Catholic refugees, under the Duke +of Alva's protection. Here they had been living, some of them even from +Elizabeth's accession, and Sir Nicholas and his ladies had many inquiries +to make about their acquaintances, many of which Mr. Stewart was able to +satisfy, for, from his conversation he was plainly one in the confidence +of Catholics both at home and abroad. And so the evening passed away +quietly. It was thought better by Sir Nicholas that Mr. Stewart should +not be present at the evening devotions that he always conducted for the +household in the dining-hall, unless indeed a priest were present to take +his place; so Mr. Stewart was again conducted with the same secrecy to +the East Chamber; and Sir Nicholas promised at his request to look in on +him again after prayers. When prayers were over, Sir Nicholas went up to +his guest's room, and found him awaiting him in a state of evident +excitement, very unlike the quiet vivacity and good humour he had shown +when with the ladies. + +"Sir Nicholas," he said, standing up, as his host came in, "I have not +told you all my news." And when they were both seated he proceeded: + +"You spoke a few minutes ago, Sir Nicholas, of Dr. Storey; he has been +caught." + +The old man exclaimed with dismay. Mr. Stewart went on: + +"When I left Antwerp, Sir Nicholas, Dr. Storey was in the town. I saw him +myself in the street by the Cathedral only a few hours before I embarked. +He is very old, you know, and lame, worn out with good works, and he was +hobbling down the street on the arm of a young man. When I arrived at +Yarmouth I went out into the streets about a little business I had with a +bookseller, before taking horse. I heard a great commotion down near the +docks, at the entrance of Bridge Street; and hastened down there; and +there I saw pursuivants and seamen and officers all gathered about a +carriage, and keeping back the crowd that was pressing and crying out to +know who the man was; and presently the carriage drove by me, scattering +the crowd, and I could see within; and there sat old Dr. Storey, very +white and ill-looking, but steady and cheerful, whom I had seen the very +day before in Antwerp. Now this is very grievous for Dr. Storey; and I +pray God to deliver him; but surely the Duke and the King of Spain must +move now. They cannot leave him in Cecil's hands; and then, Sir Nicholas, +we must all be ready, for who knows what may happen." + +Sir Nicholas was greatly moved. There was one of the perplexities which +so much harassed all the Papists at this time. It seemed certain that Mr. +Stewart's prediction must be fulfilled. Dr. Storey was a naturalised +subject of King Philip and in the employment of Alva, and he had been +carried off forcibly by the English Government. It afterwards came out +how it had been done. He had been lured away from Antwerp and enticed on +board a trader at Bergen-op-Zoom, by Cecil's agents with the help of a +traitor named Parker, on pretext of finding heretical books there +arriving from England; and as soon as he had set foot on deck he was +hurried below and carried straight off to Yarmouth. Here then was Sir +Nicholas' perplexity. To welcome Spain when she intervened and to work +actively for her, was treason against his country; to act against Spain +was to delay the re-establishment of the Religion--something that +appeared to him very like treason against his faith. Was the dreadful +choice between his sovereign and his God, he wondered as he paced up and +down and questioned Mr. Stewart, even now imminent? + +The whole affair, too, was so formidable and so mysterious that the +hearts of these Catholics and of others in England when they heard the +tale began to fail them. Had the Government then so long an arm and so +keen an eye? And if it was able to hale a man from the shadow of the +Cathedral at Antwerp and the protection of the Duke of Alva into the +hands of pursuivants at Yarmouth within the space of a few hours, who +then was safe? + +And so the two sat late that night in the East Chamber; and laid schemes +and discussed movements and probabilities and the like, until the dawn +began to glimmer through the cracks of the shutters and the birds to +chirp in the eaves; and Sir Nicholas at last carried to bed with him an +anxious and a heavy heart. Mr. Stewart, however, did not seem so greatly +disturbed; possibly because on the one side he had not others dearer to +him than his own life involved in these complex issues: and partly +because he at any rate has not the weight of suspense and indecision that +so drew his host two ways at once, for Mr. Stewart was whole-heartedly +committed already, and knew well how he would act should the choice +present itself between Elizabeth and Philip. + +The following morning Sir Nicholas still would not allow his guest to +come downstairs, and insisted that all his meals should be served in the +East Chamber, while he himself, as before, received the food at the door +and set it before Mr. Stewart. Mr. Stewart was greatly impressed and +touched by the kindness of the old man, although not by his capacity for +conspiracy. He had intended indeed to tell his host far more than he had +done of the movements of political and religious events, for he could not +but believe, before his arrival, that a Catholic so prominent and +influential as Sir Nicholas was becoming by reputation among the refugees +abroad, was a proper person to be entrusted even with the highest +secrets; but after a very little conversation with him the night before, +he had seen how ingenuous the old man was, with his laughable attempts at +secrecy and his lamentable lack of discretion; and so he had contented +himself with general information and gossip, and had really told Sir +Nicholas very little indeed of any importance. + +After dinner Sir Nicholas again conducted his guest to the drawing-room, +where the ladies were ready to receive him. He had obtained Mr. Stewart's +permission the night before to tell his wife and sister-in-law the news +about Dr. Storey; and the four sat for several hours together discussing +the situation. Mr. Stewart was able to tell them too, in greater detail, +the story of Lord Sussex's punitive raid into Scotland in the preceding +April. They had heard of course the main outline of the story with the +kind of embroideries attached that were usual in those days of inaccurate +reporting; but their guest was a Scotchman himself and had had the +stories first-hand in some cases from those rendered homeless by the +raid, who had fled to the Netherlands where he had met them. Briefly the +raid was undertaken on the pretended plea of an invitation from the +"King's men" or adherents of the infant James; but in reality to chastise +Scotland and reduce it to servility. Sussex and Lord Hunsdon in the east, +Lord Scrope on the west, had harried, burnt, and destroyed in the whole +countryside about the Borders. Especially had Tiviotdale suffered. +Altogether it was calculated that Sussex had burned three hundred +villages and blown up fifty castles, and forty more "strong houses," some +of these latter, however, being little more than border peels. Mr. +Stewart's accounts were the more moving in that he spoke in a quiet +delicate tone, and used little picturesque phrases in his speech. + +"Twelve years ago," said Mr. Stewart, "I was at Branxholme myself. It was +a pleasant house, well furnished and appointed; fortified, too, as all +need to be in that country, with sheaves of pikes in all the lower rooms, +and Sir Walter Scott gave me a warm welcome, for I was there on a +business that pleased him. He showed me the gardens and orchards, all +green and sweet, like these of yours, Lady Maxwell. And it seemed to me a +home where a man might be content to spend all his days. Well, my Lord +Sussex has been a visitor there now; and what he has left of the house +would not shelter a cow, nor what is left of the pleasant gardens sustain +her. At least, so one of the Scots told me whom I met in the Netherlands +in June." + +He talked, too, of the extraordinary scenes of romance and chivalry in +which Mary Queen of Scots moved during her captivity under Lord Scrope's +care at Bolton Castle in the previous year. He had met in his travels in +France one of her undistinguished adherents who had managed to get a +position in the castle during her detention there. + +"The country was alive with her worshippers," said Mr. Stewart. "They +swarmed like bees round a hive. In the night voices would be heard crying +out to her Grace out of the darkness round the castle; and when the +guards rode out they would find no man but maybe hear just a laugh or +two. Her men would lie out at night and watch her window (for she would +never go to rest till late), and pray towards it as if it were a light +before the blessed sacrament. When she rode out a-hunting, with her +guards of course about her, and my Lord Scrope or Sir Francis Knollys +never far away, a beggar maybe would be sitting out on the road and ask +an alms; and cry out 'God save your Grace'; but he would be a beggar who +was accustomed to wear silk next his skin except when he went a-begging. +Many young gentlemen there were, yes and old ones too, who would thank +God for a blow or a curse from some foul English trooper for his meat, if +only he might have a look from the Queen's eyes for his grace before +meat. Oh! they would plot too, and scheme and lie awake half the night +spinning their webs, not to catch her Grace indeed, but to get her away +from that old Spider Scrope; and many's the word and the scrap of paper +that would go in to her Grace, right under the very noses of my Lord +Scrope and Sir Francis themselves, as they sat at their chess in the +Queen's chamber. It's a long game of chess that the two Queens are +playing; but thank our Lady and the Saints it's not mate yet--not mate +yet; and the White Queen will win, please God, before the board's +over-turned." + +And he told them, too, of the failure of the Northern Rebellion, and the +wretchedness of the fugitives. + +"They rode over the moors to Liddisdale," he said, "ladies and all, in +bitter weather, wind and snow, day after day, with stories of Clinton's +troopers all about them, and scarcely time for bite or sup or sleep. My +lady Northumberland was so overcome with weariness and sickness that she +could ride no more at last, and had to be left at John-of-the-Side's +house, where she had a little chamber where the snow came in at one +corner, and the rats ran over my lady's face as she lay. My Lords +Northumberland and Westmoreland were in worse case, and spent their +Christmas with no roof over them but what they could find out in the +braes and woods about Harlaw, and no clothes but the foul rags that some +beggar had thrown away, and no food but a bird or a rabbit that they +could pick up here and there, or what their friends could get to them now +and again privately. And then my Lord Northumberland's little daughters +whom he was forced to leave behind at Topcliff--a sweet Christmas they +had! Their money and food was soon spent; they could have scarcely a fire +in that bitter hard season; and God who feeds the ravens alone knows how +they were sustained; and for entertainment to make the time pass merrily, +all they had was to see the hanging of their own servants in scores about +the house, who had served them and their father well; and all their music +at night was the howling of the wind in those heavily laden +Christmas-trees, and the noise of the chains in which the men were +hanged." + +Mr. Stewart's narratives were engrossing to the two ladies and Sir +Nicholas. They had never come so close to the struggles of the Catholics +in the north before; and although the Northern Rebellion had ended so +disastrously, yet it was encouraging, although heartbreaking too, to hear +that delicate women and children were ready gladly to suffer such +miseries if the religious cause that was so dear to them could be thereby +helped. Sir Nicholas, as has been said, was in two minds as to the +lawfulness of rising against a temporal sovereign in defence of religious +liberties. His whole English nature revolted against it, and yet so many +spiritual persons seemed to favour it. His simple conscience was +perplexed. But none the less he could listen with the most intense +interest and sympathy to these tales of these co-religionists of his own, +who were so clearly convinced of their right to rebel in defence of their +faith. + +And so with such stories the August afternoon passed away. It was a +thundery day, which it would have been pleasanter to spend in the garden, +but that, Sir Nicholas said, under the circumstances was not to be +thought of; so they threw the windows wide to catch the least breath of +air; and the smell of the flower-garden came sweetly up and flooded the +low cool room; and so they sat engrossed until the evening. + +Supper was ordered for Mr. Stewart at half-past seven o'clock; and this +meal Sir Nicholas had consented should be laid downstairs in his own +private room opening out of the hall, and that he and his ladies should +sit down to table at the same time. Mr. Stewart went to his room an hour +before to dress for riding, and to superintend the packing of his +saddle-bags; and at half-past seven he was conducted downstairs by Sir +Nicholas who insisted on carrying the saddle-bags with his own hands, and +they found the two ladies waiting for them in the panelled study that had +one window giving upon the terrace that ran along the south of the house +above the garden. When supper had been brought in by Sir Nicholas' own +body-servant, Mr. Boyd, they sat down to supper after a grace from Sir +Nicholas. The horses were ordered for nine o'clock. + + + + + CHAPTER VII + + THE DOOR IN THE GARDEN-WALL + + +On the morning of the day after Mr. Stewart's secret arrival at Maxwell +Hall, the Rector was walking up and down the lawn that adjoined the +churchyard. + +He had never yet wholly recovered from the sneers of Mistress Corbet; the +wounds had healed but had not ceased to smart. How blind these Papists +were, he thought! how prejudiced for the old trifling details of worship! +how ignorant of the vital principles still retained! The old realities of +God and the faith and the Church were with them still, in this village, +he reminded himself; it was only the incrustations of error that had been +removed. Of course the transition was difficult and hearts were sore; but +the Eternal God can be patient. But then, if the discontent of the +Papists smouldered on one side, the fanatical and irresponsible zeal of +the Puritans flared on the other. How difficult, he thought, to steer the +safe middle course! How much cool faith and clearsightedness it needed! +He reminded himself of Archbishop Parker who now held the rudder, and +comforted himself with the thought of his wise moderation in dealing with +excesses, his patient pertinacity among the whirling gusts of passion, +that enabled him to wait upon events to push his schemes, and his tender +knowledge of human nature. + +But in spite of these reassuring facts Mr. Dent was anxious. What could +even the Archbishop do when his suffragans were such poor creatures; and +when Leicester, the strongest man at Court, was a violent Puritan +partisan? The Rector would have been content to bear the troubles of his +own flock and household if he had been confident of the larger cause; but +the vagaries of the Puritans threatened all with ruin. That morning only +he had received a long account from a Fellow of his own college of Corpus +Christi, Cambridge, and a man of the same views as himself, of the +violent controversy raging there at that time. + +"The Professor," wrote his friend, referring to Thomas Cartwright, "is +plastering us all with his Genevan ways. We are all Papists, it seems! +He would have neither bishop nor priest nor archbishop nor dean nor +archdeacon, nor dignitaries at all, but just the plain Godly Minister, as +he names it. Or if he has the bishop and the deacon they are to be the +_Episcopos_ and the _Diaconos_ of the Scripture, and not the Papish +counterfeits! Then it seems that the minister is to be made not by God +but by man--that the people are to make him, not the bishop (as if the +sheep should make the shepherd). Then it appears we are Papists too for +kneeling at the Communion; this he names a 'feeble superstition.' Then he +would have all men reside in their benefices or vacate them; and all that +do not so, it appears, are no better than thieves or robbers. + +"And so he rages on, breathing out this smoky stuff, and all the young +men do run after him, as if he were the very Pillar of Fire to lead them +to Canaan. One day he says there shall be no bishop--and my Lord of Ely +rides through Petty Cury with scarce a man found to doff cap and say 'my +lord' save foolish 'Papists' like myself! Another day he will have no +distinction of apparel; and the young sparks straight dress like +ministers, and the ministers like young sparks. On another he likes not +Saint Peter his day, and none will go to church. He would have us all to +be little Master Calvins, if he could have his way with us. But the +Master of Trinity has sent a complaint to the Council with charges +against him, and has preached against him too. But no word hath yet come +from the Council; and we fear nought will be done; to the sore injury of +Christ His holy Church and the Protestant Religion; and the triumphing of +their pestilent heresies." + +So the caustic divine wrote, and the Rector of Great Keynes was +heavy-hearted as he walked up and down and read. Everywhere it was the +same story; the extreme precisians openly flouted the religion of the +Church of England; submitted to episcopal ordination as a legal necessity +and then mocked at it; refused to wear the prescribed dress, and +repudiated all other distinctions too in meats and days as Judaic +remnants; denounced all forms of worship except those directly sanctioned +by Scripture; in short, they remained in the Church of England and drew +her pay while they scouted her orders and derided her claims. Further, +they cried out as persecuted martyrs whenever it was proposed to insist +that they should observe their obligations. But worse than all, for such +conscientious clergymen as Mr. Dent, was the fact that bishops preferred +such men to livings, and at the same time were energetic against the +Papist party. It was not that there was not an abundance of disciplinary +machinery ready at the bishop's disposal or that the Queen was opposed to +coercion--rather she was always urging them to insist upon conformity; +but it seemed rather to such sober men as the Rector that the principle +of authority had been lost with the rejection of the Papacy, and that +anarchy rather than liberty had prevailed in the National Church. In +darker moments it seemed to him and his friends as if any wild fancy was +tolerated, so long as it did not approximate too closely to the Old +Religion; and they grew sick at heart. + +It was all the more difficult for the Rector, as he had so little +sympathy in the place; his wife did all she could to destroy friendly +relations between the Hall and the Rectory, and openly derided her +husband's prelatical leanings; the Maxwells themselves disregarded his +priestly claims, and the villagers thought of him as an official paid to +promulgate the new State religion. The only house where he found sympathy +and help was the Dower House; and as he paced up and down his garden now, +his little perplexed determined face grew brighter as he made up his mind +to see Mr. Norris again in the afternoon. + +During his meditations he heard, and saw indistinctly, through the +shrubbery that fenced the lawn from the drive, a mounted man ride up to +the Rectory door. He supposed it was some message, and held himself in +readiness to be called into the house, but after a minute or two he heard +the man ride off again down the drive into the village. At dinner he +mentioned it to his wife, who answered rather shortly that it was a +message for her; and he let the matter drop for fear of giving offence; +he was terrified at the thought of provoking more quarrels than were +absolutely necessary. + +Soon after dinner he put on his cap and gown, and to his wife's inquiries +told her where he was going, and that after he had seen Mr. Norris he +would step on down to Comber's, where was a sick body or two, and that +she might expect him back not earlier than five o'clock. She nodded +without speaking, and he went out. She watched him down the drive from +the dining-room window and then went back to her business with an odd +expression. + +Mr. Norris, whom he found already seated at his books again after dinner, +took him out when he had heard his errand, and the two began to walk up +and down together on the raised walk that ran along under a line of pines +a little way from the house. + +The Rector had seldom found his friend more sympathetic and tender; he +knew very well that their intellectual and doctrinal standpoints were +different, but he had not come for anything less than spiritual help, and +that he found. He told him all his heart, and then waited, while the +other, with his thin hands clasped behind his back, and his great grey +eyes cast up at the heavy pines and the tender sky beyond, began to +comfort the minister. + +"You are troubled, my friend," he said, "and I do not wonder at it, by +the turbulence of these times. On all sides are fightings and fears. Of +course I cannot, as you know, regard these matters you have spoken +of--episcopacy, ceremonies at the Communion and the like--in the grave +light in which you see them; but I take it, if I understand you rightly, +that it is the confusion and lack of any authority or respect for +antiquity that is troubling you more. You feel yourself in a sad plight +between these raging waves; tossed to and fro, battered upon by both +sides, forsaken and despised and disregarded. Now, indeed, although I do +not stand quite where you do, yet I see how great the stress must be; +but, if I may say so to a minister, it is just what you regard as your +shame that I regard as your glory. It is the mark of the cross that is on +your life. When our Saviour went to his passion, he went in the same +plight as that in which you go; both Jew and Gentile were against him on +this side and that; his claims were disallowed, his royalty denied; he +was despised and rejected of men. He did not go to his passion as to a +splendid triumph, bearing his pain like some solemn and mysterious +dignity at which the world wondered and was silent; but he went battered +and spat upon, with the sweat and the blood and the spittle running down +his face, contemned by the contemptible, hated by the hateful, rejected +by the outcast, barked upon by the curs; and it was that that made his +passion so bitter. To go to death, however painful, with honour and +applause, or at least with the silence of respect, were easy; it is not +hard to die upon a throne; but to live on a dunghill with Job, that is +bitterness. Now again I must protest that I have no right to speak like +this to a minister, but since you have come to me I must needs say what I +think; and it is this that some wise man once said, 'Fear honour, for +shame is not far off. Covet shame, for honour is surely to follow.' If +that be true of the philosopher, how much more true is it of the +Christian minister whose profession it is to follow the Saviour and to be +made like unto him." + +He said much more of the same kind; and his soft balmy faith soothed the +minister's wounds, and braced his will. The Rector could not help half +envying his friend, living, as it seemed, in this still retreat, apart +from wrangles and controversy, with the peaceful music and sweet +fragrance of the pines, and the Love of God about him. + +When he had finished he asked the Rector to step indoors with him; and +there in his own room took down and read to him a few extracts from the +German mystics that he thought bore upon his case. Finally, to put him at +his ease again, for it seemed an odd reversal that he should be coming +for comfort to his parishioners, Mr. Norris told him about his two +children, and in his turn asked his advice. + +"About Anthony," he said, "I am not at all anxious. I know that the boy +fancies himself in love; and goes sighing about when he is at home; but +he sleeps and eats heartily, for I have observed him; and I think +Mistress Corbet has a good heart and means no harm to him. But about my +daughter I am less satisfied, for I have been watching her closely. She +is quiet and good, and, above all, she loves the Saviour; but how do I +know that her heart is not bleeding within? She has been taught to hold +herself in, and not to show her feelings; and that, I think, is as much a +drawback sometimes as wearing the heart upon the sleeve." + +Mr. Dent suggested sending her away for a visit for a month or two. His +host mused a moment and then said that he himself had thought of that; +and now that his minister said so too, probably, under God, that was what +was needed. The fact that Hubert was expected home soon was an additional +reason; and he had friends in Northampton, he said, to whom he could send +her. "They hold strongly by the Genevan theology there," he said smiling, +"but I think that will do her no harm as a balance to the Popery at +Maxwell Hall." + +They talked a few minutes more, and when the minister rose to take his +leave, Mr. Norris slipped down on his knees as if it was the natural +thing to do and as if the minister were expecting it; and asked his guest +to engage in prayer. It was the first time he had ever done so; probably +because this talk had brought them nearer together spiritually than ever +before. The minister was taken aback, and repeated a collect or two from +the Prayer-book; then they said the Lord's Prayer together, and then Mr. +Norris without any affectation engaged in a short extempore prayer, +asking for light in these dark times and peace in the storm; and begging +the blessing of God upon the village and "upon their shepherd to whom +Thou hast given to drink of the Cup of thy Passion," and upon his own +children, and lastly upon himself, "the chief of sinners and the least of +thy servants that is not worthy to be called thy friend." It touched Mr. +Dent exceedingly, and he was yet more touched and reconciled to the +incident when his host said simply, remaining on his knees, with eyes +closed and his clear cut tranquil face upturned: + +"I ask your blessing, sir." + +The Rector's voice trembled a little as he gave it. And then with real +gratitude and a good deal of sincere emotion he shook his friend's hand, +and rustled out from the cool house into the sunlit garden, greeting +Isabel who was walking up and down outside a little pensively, and took +the field-path that led towards the hamlet where his sick folk were +expecting him. + +As he walked back about five o'clock towards the village he noticed there +was thunder in the air, and was aware of a physical oppression, but in +his heart it was morning and the birds singing. The talk earlier in the +afternoon had shown him how, in the midst of the bitterness of the Cup, +to find the fragrance where the Saviour's lips had rested and that was +joy to him. And again, his true pastor's heart had been gladdened by the +way his ministrations had been received that afternoon. A sour old man +who had always scowled at him for an upstart, in his foolish old desire +to be loyal to the priest who had held the benefice before him, had +melted at last and asked his pardon and God's for having treated him so +ill; and he had prepared the old man for death with great contentment to +them both, and had left him at peace with God and man. On looking back on +it all afterwards he was convinced that God had thus strengthened him for +the trouble that was awaiting him at home. + +He had hardly come into his study when his wife entered with a strange +look, breathing quick and short; she closed the door, and stood near it, +looking at him apprehensively. + +"George," she said, rather sharply and nervously, "you must not be vexed +with me, but----" + +"Well?" he said heavily, and the warmth died out of his heart. He knew +something terrible impended. + +"I have done it for the best," she said, and obstinacy and a kind of +impatient tenderness strove in her eyes as she looked at him. "You must +show yourself a man; it is not fitting that loose ladies of the Court +should mock--" He got up; and his eyes were determined too. + +"Tell me what you have done, woman," he cried. + +She put out her hand as if to hold him still, and her voice rang hard and +thin. + +"I will say my say," she said. "It is not for that that I have done it. +But you are a Gospel-minister, and must be faithful. The Justice is here. +I sent for him." + +"The Justice?" he said blankly; but his heart was beating heavily in his +throat. + +"Mr. Frankland from East Grinsted, with a couple of pursuivants and a +company of servants. There is a popish agent at the Hall, and they are +come to take him." + +The Rector swallowed with difficulty once or twice, and then tried to +speak, but she went on. "And I have promised that you shall take them in +by the side door." + +"I will not!" he cried. + +She held up her hand again for silence, and glanced round at the door. + +"I have given him the key," she said. + +This was the private key, possessed by the incumbent for generations +past, and Sir Nicholas had not withdrawn it from the Protestant Rector. + +"There is no choice," she said. "Oh! George, be a man!" Then she turned +and slipped out. + +He stood perfectly still for a moment; his pulses were racing; he could +not think. He sat down and buried his face in his hands; and gradually +his brain cleared and quieted. Then he realised what it meant, and his +soul rose in blind furious resentment. This was the last straw; it was +the woman's devilish jealousy. But what could he do? The Justice was +here. Could he warn his friends? He clenched his fingers into his hair as +the situation came out clear and hard before his brain. Dear God, what +could he do? + +There were footsteps in the flagged hall, and he raised his head as the +door opened and a portly gentleman in riding-dress came in, followed by +Mrs. Dent. The Rector rose confusedly, but could not speak, and his eyes +wandered round to his wife again and again as she took a chair in the +shadow and sat down. But the magistrate noticed nothing. + +"Aha!" he said, beaming, "You have a wife, sir, that is a jewel. Solomon +never spoke a truer word; an ornament to her husband, he said, I think; +but you as a minister should know better than I, a mere layman"; and his +face creased with mirth. + +What did the red-faced fool mean? thought the Rector. If only he would +not talk so loud! He must think, he must think. What could he do? + +"She was very brisk, sir," the magistrate went on, sitting down, and the +Rector followed his example, sitting too with his back to the window and +his hand to his head. + +Then Mr. Frankland went on with his talk; and the man sat there, still +glancing from time to time mechanically towards his wife, who was there +in the shadow with steady white face and hands in her lap, watching the +two men. The magistrate's voice seemed to the bewildered man to roll on +like a wheel over stones; interminable, grinding, stupefying. What was he +saying? What was that about his wife? She had sent to him the day before, +had she, and told him of the popish agent's coming?--Ah! A dangerous man +was he, a spreader of seditious pamphlets? At least they supposed he was +the man.--Yes, yes, he understood; these fly-by-nights were threateners +of the whole commonwealth; they must be hunted out like vermin--just so; +and he as a minister of the Gospel should be the first to assist.--Just +so, he agreed with all his heart, as a minister of the Gospel. (Yes, but, +dear Lord, what was he to do? This fat man with the face of a butcher +must not be allowed to--) Ah! what was that? He had missed that. Would +Mr. Frankland be so good as to say it again? Yes, yes, he understood now; +the men were posted already. No one suspected anything; they had come by +the bridle path.--Every door? Did he understand that every door of the +Hall was watched? Ah! that was prudent; there was no chance then of any +one sending a warning in? Oh, no, no, he did not dream for a moment that +there was any concealed Catholic who would be likely to do such a thing. +But he only wondered.--Yes, yes, the magistrate was right; one could not +be too careful. Because--ah!--What was that about Sir Nicholas? Yes, yes, +indeed he was a good landlord, and very popular in the village.--Ah! just +so; it had better be done quietly, at the side door. Yes, that was the +one which the key fitted. But, but, he thought perhaps, he had better not +come in, because Sir Nicholas was his friend, and there was no use in +making bad blood.--Oh! not to the house; very well, then, he would come +as far as the yew hedge at--at what time did the magistrate say? At +half-past eight; yes, that would be best as Mr. Frankland said, because +Sir Nicholas had ordered the horses for nine o'clock; so they would come +upon them just at the right time.--How many men, did Mr. Frankland say? +Eight? Oh yes, eight and himself, and--he did not quite follow the plan. +Ah! through the yew hedge on to the terrace and through the south door +into the hall; then if they bolted--they? Surely he had understood the +magistrate to say there was only one? Oh! he had not understood that. Sir +Nicholas too? But why, why? Good God, as a harbourer of priests?--No, but +this fellow was an agent, surely. Well, if the magistrate said so, of +course he was right; but he would have thought himself that Sir Nicholas +might have been left--ah! Well, he would say no more. He quite saw the +magistrate's point now.--No, no, he was no favourer; God forbid! his wife +would speak for him as to that; Marion would bear witness.--Well, well, +he thanked the magistrate for his compliments, and would he proceed with +the plan? By the south door, he was saying, yes, into the hall.--Yes, the +East room was Sir Nicholas' study; or of course they might be supping +upstairs. But it made no difference; no, the magistrate was right about +that. So long as they held the main staircase, and had all the other +doors watched, they were safe to have him.--No, no, the cloister wing +would not be used; they might leave that out of their calculations. +Besides, did not the magistrate say that Marion had seen the lights in +the East wing last night? Yes, well, that settled it.--And the signal? +Oh, he had not caught that; the church bell, was it to be? But what for? +Why did they need a signal? Ah! he understood, for the advance at +half-past eight.--Just so, he would send Thomas up to ring it. Would +Marion kindly see to that?--Yes, indeed, his wife was a woman to be proud +of; such a faithful Protestant; no patience with these seditious rogues +at all. Well, was that all? Was there anything else?--Yes, how dark it +was getting; it must be close on eight o'clock. Thomas had gone, had he? +That was all right.--And had the men everything they wanted?--Well, yes; +although the village did go to bed early it would perhaps be better to +have no lights; because there was no need to rouse suspicion.--Oh! very +well; perhaps it would be better for Mr. Frankland to go and sit with the +men and keep them quiet. And his wife would go, too, just to make sure +they had all they wanted.--Very well, yes; he would wait here in the dark +until he was called. Not more than a quarter of an hour? Thank you, +yes.-- + +Then the door had closed; and the man, left alone, flung himself down in +his chair, and buried his face again in his arms. + +Ah! what was to be done? Nothing, nothing, nothing. And there they were +at the Hall, his neighbours and friends. The kind old Catholic and his +ladies! How would he ever dare to meet their eyes again? But what could +be done? Nothing! + +How far away the afternoon seems; that quiet sunny walk beneath the +pines. His friend is at his books, no doubt, with the silver candles, and +the open pages, and his own neat manuscript growing under his white +scholarly fingers. And Isabel; at her needlework before the fire.--How +peaceful and harmless and sweet it all is! And down there, not fifty +yards away, is the village; every light out by now; and the children and +parents, too, asleep.--Ah! what will the news be when they wake +to-morrow?--And that strange talk this afternoon, of the Saviour and His +Cup of pain, and the squalor and indignity of the Passion! Ah! yes, he +could suffer with Jesus on the Cross, so gladly, on that Tree of +Life--but not with Judas on the Tree of Death! + +And the minister dropped his face lower, over the edge of his desk; and +the hot tears of misery and self-reproach and impotence began to run. +There was no help, no help anywhere. All were against him--even his wife +herself; and his Lord. + +Then with a moan he lifted his hot face into the dusk. + +"Jesus," he cried in his soul, "Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest +that I love Thee." + +There came a tapping on the door; and the door opened an inch. + +"It is time," whispered his wife's voice. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + THE TAKING OF MR. STEWART + + +They were still sitting over the supper-table at the Hall. The sun had +set about the time they had begun, and the twilight had deepened into +dark; but they had not cared to close the shutters as they were to move +so soon. The four candles shone out through the windows, and there still +hung a pale glimmer outside owing to the refraction of light from the +white stones of the terrace. Beyond on the left there sloped away a high +black wall of impenetrable darkness where the yew hedge stood; over that +was the starless sky. Sir Nicholas' study was bright with candlelight, +and the lace and jewels of Lady Maxwell (for her sister wore none) added +a vague pleasant sense of beauty to Mr. Stewart's mind; for he was one +who often fared coarsely and slept hard. He sighed a little to himself as +he looked out over this shining supper-table past the genial smiling face +of Sir Nicholas to the dark outside; and thought how in less than an hour +he would have left the comfort of this house for the grey road and its +hardships again. It was extraordinarily sweet to him (for he was a man of +taste and a natural inclination to luxury) to stay a day or two now and +again at a house like this and mix again with his own equals, instead of +with the rough company of the village inn, or the curious foreign +conspirators with their absence of educated perception and their doubtful +cleanliness. He was a man of domestic instincts and good birth and +breeding, and would have been perfectly at his ease as the master of some +household such as this; with a chapel and a library and a pleasant garden +and estate; spending his days in great leisure and good deeds. And +instead of all this, scarcely by his own choice but by what he would have +called his vocation, he was partly an exile living from hand to mouth in +lodgings and inns, and when he was in his own fatherland, a hunted +fugitive lurking about in unattractive disguises. He sighed again once or +twice. There was silence a moment or two. + +There sounded one note from the church tower a couple of hundred yards +away. Lady Maxwell heard it, and looked suddenly up; she scarcely knew +why, and caught her sister's eyes glancing at her. There was a shade of +uneasiness in them. + +"It is thundery to-night," said Sir Nicholas. Mr. Stewart did not speak. +Lady Maxwell looked up quickly at him as he sat on her right facing the +window; and saw an expression of slight disturbance cross his face. He +was staring out on to the quickly darkening terrace, past Sir Nicholas, +who with pursed lips and a little frown was stripping off his grapes from +the stalk. The look of uneasiness deepened, and the young man half rose +from his chair, and sat down again. + +"What is it, Mr. Stewart?" said Lady Maxwell, and her voice had a ring of +terror in it. Sir Nicholas looked up quickly. + +"Eh, eh?"--he began. + +The young man rose up and recoiled a step, still staring out. + +"I beg your pardon," he said, "but I have just seen several men pass the +window." + +There was a rush of footsteps and a jangle of voices outside in the hall; +and as the four rose up from table, looking at one another, there was a +rattle at the handle outside, the door flew open, and a ruddy +strongly-built man stood there, with a slightly apprehensive air, and +holding a loaded cane a little ostentatiously in his hand; the faces of +several men looked over his shoulder. + +Sir Nicholas' ruddy face had paled, his mouth was half open with dismay, +and he stared almost unintelligently at the magistrate. Mr. Stewart's +hand closed on the handle of a knife that lay beside his plate. + +"In the Queen's name," said Mr. Frankland, and looked from the knife to +the young man's white determined face, and down again. A little sobbing +broke from Lady Maxwell. + +"It is useless, sir," said the magistrate; "Sir Nicholas, persuade your +guest not to make a useless resistance; we are ten to one; the house has +been watched for hours." + +Sir Nicholas took a step forward, his mouth closed and opened again. Lady +Maxwell took a swift rustling step from behind the table, and threw her +arm round the old man's neck. Still none of them spoke. + +"Come in," said the magistrate, turning a little. The men outside filed +in, to the number of half a dozen, and two or three more were left in the +hall. All were armed. Mistress Margaret who had stood up with the rest, +sat down again, and rested her head on her hand; apparently completely at +her ease. + +"I must beg pardon, Lady Maxwell," he went on, "but my duty leaves me no +choice." He turned to the young man, who, on seeing the officers had laid +the knife down again, and now stood, with one hand on the table, rather +pale, but apparently completely self-controlled, looking a little +disdainfully at the magistrate. + +Then Sir Nicholas made a great effort; but his face twitched as he spoke, +and the hand that he lifted to his wife's arm shook with nervousness, and +his voice was cracked and unnatural. + +"Sit down, my dear, sit down.--What is all this?--I do not +understand.--Mr. Frankland, sir, what do you want of me?--And who are all +these gentlemen?--Won't you sit down, Mr. Frankland and take a glass of +wine. Let me make Mr. Stewart known to you." And he lifted a shaking hand +as if to introduce them. + +The magistrate smiled a little on one side of his mouth. + +"It is no use, Sir Nicholas," he said, "this gentleman, I fear, is well +known to some of us already.--No, no, sir," he cried sharply, "the window +is guarded." + +Mr. Stewart, who had looked swiftly and sideways across at the window, +faced the magistrate again. + +"I do not know what you mean, sir," he said. "It was a lad who passed the +window." + +There was a movement outside in the hall; and the magistrate stepped to +the door. + +"Who is there?" he cried out sharply. + +There was a scuffle, and a cry of a boy's voice; and a man appeared, +holding Anthony by the arm. + +Mistress Margaret turned round in her seat; and said in a perfectly +natural voice, "Why, Anthony, my lad!" + +There was a murmur from one or two of the men. + +"Silence," called out the magistrate. "We will finish the other affair +first," and he made a motion to hold Anthony for a moment.--"Now then, do +any of you men know this gentleman?" + +A pursuivant stepped out. + +"Mr. Frankland, sir; I know him under two names--Mr. Chapman and Mr. +Wode. He is a popish agent. I saw him in the company of Dr. Storey in +Antwerp, four months ago." + +Mr. Stewart blew out his lips sharply and contemptuously. + +"Pooh," he said; and then turned to the man and bowed ironically. + +"I congratulate you, my man," he said, in a tone of bitter triumph. "In +April I was in France. Kindly remember this man's words, Mr. Frankland; +they will tell in my favour. For I presume you mean to take me." + +"I will remember them," said the magistrate. + +Mr. Stewart bowed to him; he had completely regained his composure. Then +he turned to Sir Nicholas and Lady Maxwell, who had been watching in a +bewildered silence. + +"I am exceedingly sorry," he said, "for having brought this annoyance on +you, Lady Maxwell; but these men are so sharp that they see nothing but +guilt everywhere. I do not know yet what my crime is. But that can wait. +Sir Nicholas, we should have parted anyhow in half an hour. We shall only +say good-bye here, instead of at the door." + +The magistrate smiled again as before; and half put up his hand to hide +it. + +"I beg your pardon, Mr. Chapman; but you need not part from Sir Nicholas +yet. I fear, Sir Nicholas, that I shall have to trouble you to come with +us." + +Lady Maxwell drew a quick hissing breath; her sister got up swiftly and +went to her, as she sat down in Sir Nicholas' chair, still holding the +old man's hand. + +Sir Nicholas turned to his guest; and his voice broke again and again as +he spoke. + +"Mr. Stewart," he said, "I am sorry that any guest of mine should be +subject to these insults. However, I am glad that I shall have the +pleasure of your company after all. I suppose we ride to East Grinsted," +he added harshly to the magistrate, who bowed to him.--"Then may I have +my servant, sir?" + +"Presently," said Mr. Frankland, and then turned to Anthony, who had been +staring wild-eyed at the scene, "Now who is this?" + +A man answered from the rank. + +"That is Master Anthony Norris, sir." + +"Ah! and who is Master Anthony Norris? A Papist, too?" + +"No, sir," said the man again, "a good Protestant; and the son of Mr. +Norris at the Dower House." + +"Ah!" said the magistrate again, judicially. "And what might you be +wanting here, Master Anthony Norris?" + +Anthony explained that he often came up in the evening, and that he +wanted nothing. The magistrate eyed him a moment or two. + +"Well, I have nothing against you, young gentleman. But I cannot let you +go, till I am safely set out. You might rouse the village. Take him out +till we start," he added to the man who guarded him. + +"Come this way, sir," said the officer; and Anthony presently found +himself sitting on the long oak bench that ran across the western end of +the hall, at the foot of the stairs, and just opposite the door of Sir +Nicholas' room where he had just witnessed that curious startling scene. + +The man who had charge of him stood a little distance off, and did not +trouble him further, and Anthony watched in silence. + +The hall was still dark, except for one candle that had been lighted by +the magistrate's party, and it looked sombre and suggestive of tragedy. +Floor walls and ceiling were all dark oak, and the corners were full of +shadows. A streak of light came out of the slightly opened door opposite, +and a murmur of voices. The rest of the house was quiet; it had all been +arranged and carried out without disturbance. + +Anthony had a very fair idea of what was going forward; he knew of course +that the Catholics were always under suspicion, and now understood +plainly enough from the conversation he had heard that the reddish-haired +young man, standing so alert and cheerful by the table in there, had +somehow precipitated matters. Anthony himself had come up on some +trifling errand, and had run straight into this affair; and now he sat +and wondered resentfully, with his eyes and ears wide open. + +There were men at all the inner doors now; they had slipped in from the +outer entrances as soon as word had reached them that the prisoners were +secured, and only a couple were left outside to prevent the alarm being +raised in the village. These inner sentinels stood motionless at the foot +of the stairs that rose up into the unlighted lobby overhead, at the door +that led to the inner hall and the servants' quarters, and at those that +led to the cloister wing and the garden respectively. + +The murmur of voices went on in the room opposite; and presently a man +slipped out and passed through the sentinels to the door leading to the +kitchens and pantry; he carried a pike in his hand, and was armed with a +steel cap and breast-piece. In a minute he had returned followed by Mr. +Boyd, Sir Nicholas' body-servant; the two passed into the study--and a +moment later the dark inner hall was full of moving figures and rustlings +and whisperings, as the alarmed servants poured up from downstairs. + +Then the study door opened again, and Anthony caught a glimpse of the +lighted room; the two ladies with Sir Nicholas and his guest were seated +at table; there was the figure of an armed man behind Mr. Stewart's +chair, and another behind Lady Maxwell's; then the door closed again as +Mr. Boyd with the magistrate and a constable carrying a candle came out. + +"This way, sir," said the servant; and the three crossed the hall, and +passing close by Anthony, went up the broad oak staircase that led to the +upper rooms. Then the minutes passed away; from upstairs came the noise +of doors opening and shutting, and footsteps passing overhead; from the +inner hall the sound of low talking, and a few sobs now and again from a +frightened maid; from Sir Nicholas' room all was quiet except once when +Mr. Stewart's laugh, high and natural, rang out. Anthony thought of that +strong brisk face he had seen in the candlelight; and wondered how he +could laugh, with death so imminent--and worse than death; and a warmth +of admiration and respect glowed at the lad's heart. The man by Anthony +sighed and shifted his feet. + +"What is it for?" whispered the lad at last. + +"I mustn't speak to you, sir," said the man. + +At last the footsteps overhead came to the top of the stairs. The +magistrate's voice called out sharply and impatiently: + +"Come along, come along"; and the three, all carrying bags and valises +came downstairs again and crossed the hall. Again the door opened as they +went in, leaving the luggage on the floor; and Anthony caught another +glimpse of the four still seated round the table; but Sir Nicholas' head +was bowed upon his hands. + +Then again the door closed; and there was silence. + +Once more it was flung open, and Anthony saw the interior of the room +plainly. The four were standing up, Mr. Stewart was bowing to Lady +Maxwell; the magistrate stood close beside him; then a couple of men +stepped up to the young man's side as he turned away, and the three came +out into the hall and stood waiting by the little heap of luggage. Mr. +Frankland came next, with the man-servant close beside him, and the rest +of the men behind; and the last closed the door and stood by it. There +was a dead silence; Anthony sprang to his feet in uncontrollable +excitement. What was happening? Again the door opened, and the men made +room as Mistress Margaret came out, and the door shut. + +She came swiftly across, with her little air of dignity and confidence, +towards Anthony, who was standing forward. + +"Why, Master Anthony," she said, "dear lad; I did not know they had kept +you," and she took his hand. + +"What is it, what is it?" he whispered sharply. + +"Hush," she said; and the two stood together in silence. + +The moments passed; Anthony could hear the quick thumping beat of his own +heart, and the breathing of Mistress Margaret; but the hall was perfectly +quiet, where the magistrate with the prisoner and his men stood in an +irregular dark group with the candle behind them; and no sound came from +the room beyond. + +Then the handle turned, and a crack of light showed; but no further +sound; then the door opened wide, a flood of light poured out and Sir +Nicholas tottered into the hall. + +"Margaret, Margaret," he cried. "Where are you? Go to her." + +There was a strange moaning sound from the brightly lighted room. The old +lady dropped Anthony's hand and moved swiftly and unfalteringly across, +and once more the door closed behind her. + +There was a sharp word of command from the magistrate, and the sentries +from every door left their posts, and joined the group which, with Sir +Nicholas and his guest and Mr. Boyd in the centre, now passed out through +the garden door. + +The magistrate paused as he saw Anthony standing there alone. + +"I can trust you, young gentleman," he said, "not to give the alarm till +we are gone?" + +Anthony nodded, and the magistrate passed briskly out on to the terrace, +shutting the door behind him; there was a rush of footsteps and a murmur +of voices and the hall was filled with the watching servants. + +As the chorus of exclamations and inquiries broke out, Anthony ran +straight through the crowd to the garden door, and on to the terrace. +They had gone to the left, he supposed, but he hesitated a moment to +listen; then he heard the stamp of horses' feet and the jingle of +saddlery, and saw the glare of torches through the yew hedge; and he +turned quickly and ran along the terrace, past the flood of light that +poured out from the supper room, and down the path that led to the +side-door opposite the Rectory. It was very dark, and he stumbled once or +twice; then he came to the two or three stairs that led down to the door +in the wall, and turned off among the bushes, creeping on hands and feet +till he reached the wall, low on this side, but deep on the other; and +looked over. + +The pursuivants with their men had formed a circle round the two +prisoners, who were already mounted and who sat looking about them as the +luggage was being strapped to their saddles before and behind; the +bridles were lifted forward over the horses' heads, and a couple of the +guard held each rein. The groom who had brought round the two horses for +Mr. Stewart and himself stood white-faced and staring, with his back to +the Rectory wall. The magistrate was just mounting at a little distance +his own horse, which was held by the Rectory boy. Mr. Boyd, it seemed, +was to walk with the men. Two or three torches were burning by now, and +every detail was distinct to Anthony, as he crouched among the dry leaves +and peered down on to the group just beneath. + +Sir Nicholas' face was turned away from him; but his head was sunk on his +breast, and he did not stir or lift it as his horse stamped at the +strapping on of the valise Mr. Boyd had packed for him. Mr. Stewart sat +erect and motionless, and his face as Anthony saw it was confident and +fearless. + +Then suddenly the door in the Rectory wall opposite was flung open, and a +figure in flying black skirts, but hatless, rushed out and through the +guard straight up to the old man's knee. There was a shout from the men +and a movement to pull him off, but the magistrate who was on his horse +and just outside the circle spoke sharply, and the men fell back. + +"Oh, Sir Nicholas, Sir Nicholas," sobbed the minister, his face half +buried in the saddle. Anthony saw his shoulders shaking, and his hands +clutching at the old man's knee. "Forgive me, forgive me." + +There was no answer from Sir Nicholas; he still sat unmoved, his chin on +his breast, as the Rector sobbed and moaned at his stirrup. + +"There, there," said the magistrate decidedly, over the heads of the +guard, "that is enough, Mr. Dent"; and he made a motion with his hand. + +A couple of men took the minister by the shoulders and drew him, still +crying out to Sir Nicholas, outside the group; and he stood there dazed +and groping with his hands. There was a word of command; and the guard +moved off at a sharp walk, with the horses in the centre, and as they +turned, the lad saw in the torchlight the old man's face drawn and +wrinkled with sorrow, and great tears running down it. + +The Rector leaned against his own wall, with his hands over his face; and +Anthony looked at him with growing suspicion and terror as the flare of +the torches on the trees faded, and the noise of the troop died away +round the corner. + + + + + CHAPTER IX + + VILLAGE JUSTICE + + +The village had never known such an awakening as on the morning that +followed Sir Nicholas' arrest. Before seven o'clock every house knew it, +and children ran half-dressed to the outlying hamlets to tell the story. +Very little work was done that day, for the estate was disorganised; and +the men had little heart for work; and there were groups all day on the +green, which formed and re-formed and drifted here and there and +discussed and sifted the evidence. It was soon known that the Rectory +household had had a foremost hand in the affair. The groom, who had been +present at the actual departure of the prisoners had told the story of +the black figure that ran out of the door, and of what was cried at the +old man's knee; and how he had not moved nor spoken in answer; and +Thomas, the Rectory boy, was stopped as he went across the green in the +evening and threatened and encouraged until he told of the stroke on the +church-bell, and the Rectory key, and the little company that had sat all +the afternoon in the kitchen over their ale. He told too how a couple of +hours ago he had been sent across with a note to Lady Maxwell, and that +it had been returned immediately unopened. + +So as night fell, indignation had begun to smoulder fiercely against the +minister, who had not been seen all day; and after dark had fallen the +name "Judas" was cried in at the Rectory door half a dozen times, and a +stone or two from the direction of the churchyard had crashed on the +tiles of the house. + +Mr. Norris had been up all day at the Hall, but he was the only visitor +admitted. All day long the gate-house was kept closed, and the same +message was given to the few horsemen and carriages that came to inquire +after the truth of the report from the Catholic houses round, to the +effect that it was true that Sir Nicholas and a friend had been taken off +to London by the Justice from East Grinsted; and that Lady Maxwell begged +the prayers of her friends for her husband's safe return. + +Anthony had ridden off early with a servant, at his father's wish, to +follow Sir Nicholas and learn any news of him that was possible, to do +him any service he was able, and to return or send a message the next day +down to Great Keynes; and early in the afternoon he returned with the +information that Sir Nicholas was at the Marshalsea, that he was well and +happy, that he sent his wife his dear love, and that she should have a +letter from him before nightfall. He rode straight to the Hall with the +news, full of chastened delight at his official importance, just pausing +to tell a group that was gathered on the green that all was well so far, +and was shown up to Lady Maxwell's own parlour, where he found her, very +quiet and self-controlled, and extremely grateful for his kindness in +riding up to London and back on her account. Anthony explained too that +he had been able to get Sir Nicholas one or two comforts that the prison +did not provide, a pillow and an extra coverlet and some fruit; and he +left her full of gratitude. + +His father had been up to see the ladies two or three times, and in spite +of the difference in religion had prayed with them, and talked a little; +and Lady Maxwell had asked that Isabel might come up to supper and spend +the evening. Mr. Norris promised to send her up, and then added: + +"I am a little anxious, Lady Maxwell, lest the people may show their +anger against the Rector or his wife, about what has happened." + +Lady Maxwell looked startled. + +"They have been speaking of it all day long," he said, "they know +everything; and it seems the Rector is not so much to blame as his wife. +It was she who sent for the magistrate and gave him the key and arranged +it all; he was only brought into it too late to interfere or refuse." + +"Have you seen him?" asked the old lady. + +"I have been both days," he said, "but he will not see me; he is in his +study, locked in." + +"I may have treated him hardly," she said, "I would not open his note; +but at least he consented to help them against his friend." And her old +eyes filled with tears. + +"I fear that is so," said the other sadly. + +"But speak to the people," she said, "I think they love my husband, and +would do nothing to grieve us; tell them that nothing would pain either +of us more than that any should suffer for this. Tell them they must do +nothing, but be patient and pray." + +There was a group still on the green near the pond as Isabel came up to +supper that evening about six o'clock. Her father, who had given Lady +Maxwell's message to the people an hour or two before, had asked her to +go that way and send down a message to him immediately if there seemed to +be any disturbance or threatening of it; but the men were very quiet. Mr. +Musgrave was there, she saw, sitting with his pipe, on the stocks, and +Piers, the young Irish bailiff, was standing near; they all were silent +as the girl came up, and saluted her respectfully as usual; and she saw +no signs of any dangerous element. There were one or two older women with +the men, and others were standing at their open doors on all sides as she +went up. The Rectory gate was locked, and no one was to be seen within. + +Supper was laid in Sir Nicholas' room, as it generally was, and as it had +been two nights ago; and it was very strange to Isabel to know that it +was here that the arrest had taken place; the floor, too, she noticed as +she came in, all about the threshold was scratched and dented by rough +boots. + +Lady Maxwell was very silent and distracted during supper; she made +efforts to talk again and again, and her sister did her best to interest +her and keep her talking; but she always relapsed after a minute or two +into silence again, with long glances round the room, at the Vernacle +over the fireplace, the prie-dieu with the shield of the Five Wounds +above it, and all the things that spoke so keenly of her husband. + +What a strange room it was, too, thought Isabel, with its odd mingling of +the two worlds, with the tapestry of the hawking scene and the stiff +herons and ladies on horseback on one side, and the little shelf of +devotional books on the other; and yet how characteristic of its owner +who fingered his cross-bow or the reins of his horse all day, and his +beads in the evening; and how strange that an old man like Sir Nicholas, +who knew the world, and had as much sense apparently as any one else, +should be willing to sacrifice home and property and even life itself, +for these so plainly empty superstitious things that could not please a +God that was Spirit and Truth! So Isabel thought to herself, with no +bitterness or contempt, but just a simple wonder and amazement, as she +looked at the painted tokens and trinkets. + +It was still daylight when they went upstairs to Lady Maxwell's room +about seven, but the clear southern sky over the yew hedges and the tall +elms where the rooks were circling, was beginning to be flushed with deep +amber and rose. Isabel sat down in the window seat with the sweet air +pouring in and looked out on to the garden with its tiled paths and its +cool green squares of lawn, and the glowing beds at the sides. Over to +her right the cloister court ran out, with its two rows of windows, +bedrooms above with galleries beyond, as she knew, and parlours and +cloisters below; the pleasant tinkle of the fountain in the court came +faintly to her ears across the caw of the rooks about the elms and the +low sounds from the stables and the kitchen behind the house. Otherwise +the evening was very still; the two old ladies were sitting near the +fireplace; Lady Maxwell had taken up her embroidery, and was looking at +it listlessly, and Mistress Margaret had one of her devotional books and +was turning the pages, pausing here and there as she did so. + +Presently she began to read, without a word of introduction, one of the +musings of the old monk John Audeley in his sickness, and as the tender +lines stepped on, that restless jewelled hand grew still. + + "As I lay sick in my languor + In an abbey here by west; + This book I made with great dolour, + When I might not sleep nor rest. + Oft with my prayers my soul I blest, + And said aloud to Heaven's King, + 'I know, O Lord, it is the best + Meekly to take thy visiting. + Else well I wot that I were lorn + (High above all lords be he blest!) + All that thou dost is for the best; + By fault of Thee was no man lost, + That is here of woman born.'" + +And then she read some of Rolle's verses to Jesus, the "friend of all +sick and sorrowful souls," and a meditation of his on the Passion, and +the tranquil thoughts and tender fragrant sorrows soothed the torn +throbbing soul; and Isabel saw the old wrinkled hand rise to her +forehead, and the embroidery, with the needle still in it slipped to the +ground; as the holy Name "like ointment poured forth" gradually brought +its endless miracle and made all sweet and healthful again. + +Outside the daylight was fading; the luminous vault overhead was +deepening to a glowing blue as the sunset contracted on the western +horizon to a few vivid streaks of glory; the room was growing darker +every moment; and Mistress Margaret's voice began to stumble over words. + +The great gilt harp in the corner only gleamed here and there now in +single lines of clear gold where the dying daylight fell on the strings. +The room was full of shadows and the image of the Holy Mother and Child +had darkened into obscurity in their niche. The world was silent now too; +the rooks were gone home and the stir of the household below had ceased; +and in a moment more Mistress Margaret's voice had ceased too, as she +laid the book down. + +Then, as if the world outside had waited for silence before speaking, +there came a murmur of sound from the further side of the house. Isabel +started up; surely there was anger in that low roar from the village; was +it this that her father had feared? Had she been remiss? Lady Maxwell too +sprang up and faced the window with wide large eyes. + +"The letter!" she said; and took a quick step towards the door; but +Mistress Margaret was with her instantly, with her arm about her. + +"Sit down, Mary," she said, "they will bring it at once"; and her sister +obeyed; and she sat waiting and looking towards the door, clasping and +unclasping her hands as they lay on her lap; and Mistress Margaret stood +by her, waiting and watching too. Isabel still stood by the window +listening. Had she been mistaken then? The roar had sunk into silence for +a moment; and there came back the quick beat of a horse's hoofs outside +on the short drive between the gatehouse and the Hall. They were right, +then; and even as she thought it, and as the wife that waited for news of +her husband drew a quick breath and half rose in her seat at the sound of +that shod messenger that bore them, again the roar swelled up louder than +ever; and Isabel sprang down from the low step of the window-seat into +the dusky room where the two sisters waited. + +"What is that? What is that?" she whispered sharply. + +There was a sound of opening doors, and of feet that ran in the house +below; and Lady Maxwell rose up and put out her hand, as a man-servant +dashed in with a letter. + +"My lady," he said panting, and giving it to her, "they are attacking the +Rectory." + +Lady Maxwell, who was half-way to the window now, for light to read her +husband's letter, paused at that. + +"The Rectory?" she said. "Why--Margaret----" then she stopped, and Isabel +close beside her, saw her turn resolutely from the great sealed letter in +her hand to the door, and back again. + +"Jervis told us, my lady; none saw him as he rode through--they were +breaking down the gate." + +Then Lady Maxwell, with a quick movement, lifted the letter to her lips +and kissed it, and thrust it down somewhere out of sight in the folds of +her dress. + +"Come, Margaret," she said. + +Isabel followed them down the stairs and out through the hall-door; and +there, as they came out on to the steps that savage snarling roar swelled +up from the green. There was laughter and hooting mixed with that growl +of anger; but even the laughter was fierce. The gatehouse stood up black +against the glare of torches, and the towers threw great swinging shadows +on the ground and the steps of the Hall. + +Isabel followed the two grey glimmering figures, and was astonished at +the speed with which she had to go. The hoofs of the courier's horse rang +on the cobbles of the stable-yard as they came down towards the +gatehouse, and the two wings of the door were wide-open through which he +had passed just now; but the porter was gone. + +Ah! there was the crowd; but not at the Rectory. On the right the Rectory +gate lay wide open, and a flood of light poured out from the house-door +at the end of the drive. Before them lay the dark turf, swarming with +black figures towards the lower end; and a ceaseless roar came from them. +There were half a dozen torches down there, tossing to and fro; Isabel +saw that the crowd was still moving down towards the stocks and the pond. + +Now the two ladies in front of her were just coming up with the skirts of +the crowd; and there was an exclamation or two of astonishment as the +women and children saw who it was that was coming. Then there came the +furious scream of a man, and the crowd parted, as three men came reeling +out together, two of them trying with all their power to restrain a +fighting, kicking, plunging man in long black skirts, who tore and beat +with his hands. The three ladies stopped for a moment, close together; +and simultaneously the struggling man broke free and dashed back into the +crowd, screaming with anger and misery. + +"Marion, Marion--I am coming--O God!" + +And Isabel saw with a shock of horror that sent her crouching and clinging +close to Mistress Margaret, that it was the Rector. But the two men were +after him and caught him by the shoulders as he disappeared; and as they +turned they faced Lady Maxwell. + +"My lady, my lady," stammered one, "we mean him no harm. We----" But his +voice stopped, as there came a sudden silence, rent by a high terrible +shriek and a splash; followed in a moment by a yell of laughter and +shouting; and Lady Maxwell threw herself into the crowd in front. + +There were a few moments of jostling in the dark, with the reek and press +of the crowd about her; and Isabel found herself on the brink of the +black pond, with Lady Maxwell on one side, and Piers on the other keeping +the crowd back, and a dripping figure moaning and sobbing in the trampled +mud at Lady Maxwell's feet. There was silence enough now, and the ring of +faces opposite stared astonished and open-mouthed at the tall old lady +with her grey veiled head upraised, as she stood there in the torchlight +and rated them in her fearless indignant voice. + +"I am ashamed, ashamed!" cried Lady Maxwell. "I thought you were men. I +thought you loved my husband; and--and me." Her voice broke, and then +once more she cried again. "I am ashamed, ashamed of my village." + +And then she stooped to that heaving figure that had crawled up, and laid +hold tenderly of the arms that were writhed about her feet. + +"Come home, my dear," Isabel heard her whisper. + +It was a strange procession homeward up the trampled turf. The crowd had +broken into groups, and the people were awed and silent as they watched +the four women go back together. Isabel walked a little behind with her +father and Anthony, who had at last been able to come forward through the +press and join them; and a couple of the torchbearers escorted them. In +front went the three, on one side Lady Maxwell, her lace and silk +splashed and spattered with mud, and her white hands black with it, and +on the other the old nun, each with an arm thrown round the woman in the +centre who staggered and sobbed and leaned against them as she went, with +her long hair and her draggled clothes streaming with liquid mud every +step she took. Once they stopped, at a group of three men. The Rector was +sitting up, in his torn dusty cassock, and Isabel saw that one of his +buckled shoes was gone, as he sat on the grass with his feet before him, +but quiet now, with his hands before him, and a dazed stupid look in his +little black eyes that blinked at the light of the torch that was held +over him; he said nothing as he looked at his wife between the two +ladies, but his lips moved, and his eyes wandered for a moment to Lady +Maxwell's face, and then back to his wife. + +"Take him home presently," she said to the men who were with him--and +then passed on again. + +As they got through the gatehouse, Isabel stepped forward to Mistress +Margaret's side. + +"Shall I come?" she whispered; and the nun shook her head; so she with +her father and brother stood there to watch, with the crowd silent and +ashamed behind. The two torchbearers went on and stood by the steps as +the three ladies ascended, leaving black footmarks as they went. The door +was open and faces of servants peeped out, and hands were thrust out to +take the burden from their mistress, but she shook her head, and the +three came in together, and the door closed. + +As the Norrises went back silently, the Rector passed them, with a little +group accompanying him too; he, too, could hardly walk alone, so +exhausted was he with his furious struggles to rescue his wife. + +"Take your sister home," said Mr. Norris to Anthony; and they saw him +slip off and pass his arm through the Rector's, and bend down his +handsome kindly face to the minister's staring eyes and moving lips as he +too led him homewards. + +Even Anthony was hushed and impressed, and hardly spoke a word until he +and Isabel turned off down the little dark lane to the Dower House. + +"We could do nothing," he said, "father and I--until Lady Maxwell came." + +"No," said Isabel softly, "she only could have done it." + + + + + CHAPTER X + + A CONFESSOR + + +Sir Nicholas and the party were lodged at East Grinsted the night of +their arrest, in the magistrate's house. Although he was allowed privacy +in his room, after he had given his word of honour not to attempt an +escape, yet he was allowed no conversation with Mr. Stewart or his own +servant except in the presence of the magistrate or one of the +pursuivants; and Mr. Stewart, since he was personally unknown to the +magistrate, and since the charge against him was graver, was not on any +account allowed to be alone for a moment, even in the room in which he +slept. The following day they all rode on to London, and the two +prisoners were lodged in the Marshalsea. This had been for a long while +the place where Bishop Bonner was confined; and where Catholic prisoners +were often sent immediately after their arrest; and Sir Nicholas at any +rate found to his joy that he had several old friends among the +prisoners. He was confined in a separate room; but by the kindness of his +gaoler whom he bribed profusely as the custom was, through his servant, +he had many opportunities of meeting the others; and even of approaching +the sacraments and hearing mass now and then. + +He began a letter to his wife on the day of his arrival and finished it +the next day which was Saturday, and it was taken down immediately by the +courier who had heard the news and had called at the prison. In fact, he +was allowed a good deal of liberty; although he was watched and his +conversation listened to, a good deal more than he was aware. Mr. +Stewart, however, as he still called himself, was in a much harder case. +The saddle-bags had been opened on his arrival, and incriminating +documents found. Besides the "popish trinkets" they were found to contain +a number of "seditious pamphlets," printed abroad for distribution in +England; for at this time the College at Douai, under its founder Dr. +William Allen, late Principal of St. Mary's Hall, Oxford, was active in +the production of literature; these were chiefly commentaries on the +Bull; as well as exhortations to the Catholics to stand firm and to +persevere in recusancy, and to the schismatic Catholics, as they were +called, to give over attending the services in the parish churches. There +were letters also from Dr. Storey himself, whom the authorities already +had in person under lock and key at the Tower. These were quite +sufficient to make Mr. Stewart a prize; and he also was very shortly +afterwards removed to the Tower. + +Sir Nicholas wrote a letter at least once a week to his wife; but writing +was something of a labour to him; it was exceedingly doubtful to his mind +whether his letters were not opened and read before being handed to the +courier, and as his seal was taken from him his wife could not tell +either. However they seemed to arrive regularly; plainly therefore the +authorities were either satisfied with their contents or else did not +think them worth opening or suppressing. He was quite peremptory that his +wife should not come up to London; it would only increase his distress, +he said; and he liked to think of her at Maxwell Hall; there were other +reasons too that he was prudent enough not to commit to paper, and which +she was prudent enough to guess at, the principal of which was, of +course, that she ought to be there for the entertaining and helping of +other agents or priests who might be in need of shelter. + +The old man got into good spirits again very soon. It pleased him to +think that God had honoured him by imprisonment; and he said as much once +or twice in his letters to his wife. He was also pleased with a sense of +the part he was playing in the _rôle_ of a conspirator; and he underlined +and put signs and exclamation marks all over his letters of which he +thought his wife would understand the significance, but no one else; +whereas in reality the old lady was sorely puzzled by them, and the +authorities who opened the letters generally read them of course like a +printed book. + +One morning about ten days after his arrival the Governor of the prison +looked in with the gaoler, and announced to Sir Nicholas, after greeting +him, that he was to appear before the Council that very day. This, of +course, was what Sir Nicholas desired, and he thanked the Governor +cordially for his good news. + +"They will probably keep you at the Tower, Sir Nicholas," said the +Governor, "and we shall lose you. However, sir, I hope you will be more +comfortable there than we have been able to make you." + +The knight thanked the Governor again, and said good-day to him with +great warmth; for they had been on the best of terms with one another +during his short detention at the Marshalsea. + +The following day Sir Nicholas wrote a long letter to his wife describing +his examination. + +"We are in _royal lodgings_ here at last, sweetheart; Mr. Boyd brought my +luggage over yesterday; and I am settled _for the present_ in a room of +my own in the White Tower; with a prospect over the Court. I was had +before my lords yesterday in the Council-room; we drove hither from the +Marshalsea. There was a bay window in the room. I promise you they got +little enough from me. There was my namesake, Sir Nicholas Bacon, my +lords Leicester and Pembroke, and Mr. Secretary Cecil; Sir James Crofts, +the Controller of the Household, and one or two more; but these were the +principal. I was set before the table on a chair alone with none to guard +me; but with men at the doors I knew very well. My lords were very +courteous to me; though they laughed more than was seemly at such grave +times. They questioned me much as to my religion. Was I a papist? If they +meant by that a _Catholic_, that I was, and thanked God for it every +day--(those nicknames like me not). Was I then a recusant? If by that +they meant, Did I go to their Genevan Hotch-Potch? That I did not nor +never would. I thought to have said a word here about St. Cyprian his +work _De Unitate Ecclesiae_, as F----r X. told me, but they would not let +me speak. Did I know Mr. Chapman? If by that they meant Mr. Stewart, that +I did, and for a courteous God-fearing gentleman too. Was he a Papist, or +a Catholic if I would have it so? That I would not tell them; let them +find that out with their pursuivants and that crew. Did I think +Protestants to be fearers of God? That I did not; they feared nought but +the Queen's Majesty, so it seemed to me. Then they all laughed at once--I +know not why. Then they grew grave; and Mr. Secretary began to ask me +questions, sharp and hard; but I would not be put upon, and answered him +again as he asked. Did I know ought of Dr. Storey? Nothing, said I, save +that he is a good Catholic, and that they had taken him. _He is a +seditious rogue_, said my Lord Pembroke. _That he is not_, said I. Then +they asked me what I thought of the Pope and his Bull, and whether he can +depose princes. I said I thought him to be the Vicar of Christ; and as to +his power to depose princes, that I supposed he could do, if he said so. +Then two or three cried out on me that I had not answered honestly; and +at that I got wrath; and then they laughed again, at least I saw Sir +James Crofts at it. And Mr. Secretary, looking very hard at me asked +whether if Philip sent an armament against Elizabeth to depose her, I +would fight for him or her grace. For neither, said I: I am too old. _For +which then would you pray?_ said they. _For the Queen's Grace_, said I, +_for that she was my sovereign_. This seemed to content them; and they +talked a little among themselves. They had asked me other questions too +as to my way of living; whether I went to mass. They asked me too a +little more about Mr. Stewart. Did I know him to be a seditious rascal? +That I did not, said I. _Then how_, asked they, _did you come to receive +him and his pamphlets?_ Of his pamphlets, said I, I know nothing; I saw +nothing in his bags save beads and a few holy books and such things. (You +see, sweetheart, I did him no injury by saying so, because I knew that +they had his bags themselves.) And I said I had received him because he +was recommended to me by some good friends of mine abroad, and I told +them their names too; for they are safe in Flanders now. + +"And when they had done their questions they talked again for a while; and +I was sent out to the antechamber to refresh myself; and Mr. Secretary +sent a man with me to see that I had all I needed; and we talked together +a little, and he said the Council were in good humour at the taking of +Dr. Storey; and he had never seen them so merry. Then I was had back +again presently; and Mr. Secretary said I was to stay in the Tower; and +that Mr. Boyd was gone already to bring my things. And so after that I +went by water to the Tower, and here I am, sweetheart, well and cheerful, +praise God.... + +"My dearest, I send you my heart's best love. God have you in his holy +keeping." + +The Council treated the old knight very tenderly. They were shrewd enough +to see his character very plainly; and that he was a simple man who knew +nothing of sedition, but only had harboured agents thinking them to be as +guileless as himself. As a matter of fact, Mr. Stewart was an agent of +Dr. Storey's; and was therefore implicated in a number of very grave +charges. This of course was a very serious matter; but both in the +examination of the Council, and in papers in Mr. Stewart's bags, nothing +could be found to implicate Sir Nicholas in any political intrigue at +all. The authorities were unwilling too to put such a man to the torture. +There was always a possibility of public resentment against the torture +of a man for his religion alone; and they were desirous not to arouse +this, since they had many prisoners who would be more productive subjects +of the rack than a plainly simple and loyal old man whose only crime was +his religion. They determined, however, to make an attempt to get a +little more out of Sir Nicholas by a device which would excite no +resentment if it ever transpired, and one which was more suited to the +old man's nature and years. + +Sir Nicholas thus described it to his wife. + +"Last night, my dearest, I had a great honour and consolation. I was +awakened suddenly towards two o'clock in the morning by the door of my +room opening and a man coming in. It was somewhat dark, and I could not +see the man plainly, but I could see that he limped and walked with a +stick, and he breathed hard as he entered. I sat up and demanded of him +who he was and what he wanted; and telling me to be still, he said that +he was Dr. Storey. You may be sure, sweetheart, that I sprang up at that; +but he would not let me rise; and himself sat down beside me. He said +that by the _kindness_ of a gaoler he had been allowed to come; and that +he must not stay with me long; that he had heard of me from his good +friend Mr. Stewart. I asked him how he did, for I heard that he had been +racked; and he said yes, it was true; but that by the mercy of God and +the prayers of the saints he had held his peace and they knew nothing +from him. Then he asked me a great number of questions about the _men I +had entertained_, and where they were now; and he knew many of their +names. Some of them were friends of his own, he said; especially the +priests. We talked a good while, till the morning light began; and then +he said he must be gone or the head gaoler would know of his visit, and +so he went. I wish I could have seen his face, sweetheart, for I think +him a great servant of God; but it was still too dark when he went, and +we dared not have a light for fear it should be seen." + +This was as a matter of fact a ruse of the authorities. It was not Dr. +Storey at all who was admitted to Sir Nicholas' prison, but Parker, who +had betrayed him at Antwerp. It was so successful, for Sir Nicholas told +him all that he knew (which was really nothing at all) that it was +repeated a few months later with richer results; when the conspirator +Baily, hysterical and almost beside himself with the pain of the rack, +under similar circumstances gave up a cypher which was necessary to the +Council in dealing with the correspondence of Mary Stuart. However, Sir +Nicholas never knew the deception, and to the end of his days was proud +that he had actually met the famous Dr. Storey, when they were both +imprisoned in the Tower together, and told his friends of it with +reverent pride when the doctor was hanged a year later. + +Hubert, who had been sent for to take charge of the estate, had come to +London soon after his father's arrival at the Tower; and was allowed an +interview with him in the presence of the Lieutenant. Hubert was greatly +affected; though he could not look upon the imprisonment with the same +solemn exultation as that which his father had; but it made a real +impression upon him to find that he took so patiently this separation +from home and family for the sake of religion. Hubert received +instructions from Sir Nicholas as to the management of the estate, for it +was becoming plain that his father would have to remain in the Tower for +the present; not any longer on a really grave charge, but chiefly because +he was an obstinate recusant and would promise nothing. The law and its +administration at this time were very far apart; the authorities were not +very anxious to search out and punish those who were merely recusants or +refused to take the oath of supremacy; and so Hubert and Mr. Boyd and +other Catholics were able to come and go under the very nose of justice +without any real risk to themselves; but it was another matter to let a +sturdy recusant go from prison who stoutly refused to give any sort of +promise or understanding as to future behaviour. + +Sir Nicholas was had down more than once to further examination before +the Lords Commissioners in the Lieutenant's house; but it was a very tame +and even an amusing affair for all save Sir Nicholas. It was so easy to +provoke him; he was so simple and passionate that they could get almost +anything they wanted out of him by a little adroit baiting; and more than +once his examination formed a welcome and humorous entr'acte between two +real tragedies. Sir Nicholas, of course, never suspected for a moment +that he was affording any amusement to any one. He thought their weary +laughter to be sardonic and ironical, and he looked upon himself as a +very desperate fellow indeed; and wrote glowing accounts of it all to his +wife, full of apostrophic praises to God and the saints, in a hand that +shook with excitement and awe at the thought of the important scenes in +which he played so prominent a part. + +But there was no atmosphere of humour about Mr. Stewart. He had +disappeared from Sir Nicholas' sight on their arrival at the Marshalsea, +and they had not set eyes on one another since; nor could all the +knight's persuasion and offer of bribes make his gaoler consent to take +any message or scrap of paper between them. He would not even answer more +than the simplest inquiries about him,--that he was alive and in the +Tower, and so forth; and Sir Nicholas prayed often and earnestly for that +deliberate and vivacious young man who had so charmed and interested them +all down at Great Keynes, and who had been so mysteriously engulfed by +the sombre majesty of the law. + +"I fear," he wrote to Lady Maxwell, "I fear that _our friend_ must be +sick or dying. But I can hear no news of him; when I am allowed sometimes +to walk in the court or on the leads he is never there. My _attendant_ +Mr. Jakes looks glum and says nothing when I ask him how my friend does. +My dearest, do not forget him in your prayers nor your old loving husband +either." + +One evening late in October Mr. Jakes did not come as usual to bring Sir +Nicholas his supper at five o'clock; the time passed and still he did not +come. This was very unusual. Presently Mrs. Jakes appeared instead, +carrying the food which she set down at the door while she turned the key +behind her. Sir Nicholas rallied her on having turned gaoler; but she +turned on him a face with red eyes and lined with weeping. + +"O Sir Nicholas," she said, for these two were good friends, "what a +wicked place this is! God forgive me for saying so; but they've had that +young man down there since two o'clock; and Jakes is with them to help; +and he told me to come up to you, Sir Nicholas, with your supper, if they +weren't done by five; and if the young gentleman hadn't said what they +wanted." + +Sir Nicholas felt sick. + +"Who is it?" he asked. + +"Why, who but Mr. Stewart?" she said; and then fell weeping again, and +went out forgetting to lock the door behind her in her grief. Sir +Nicholas sat still a moment, sick and shaken; he knew what it meant; but +it had never come so close to him before. He got up presently and went to +the door to listen for he knew not what. But there was no sound but the +moan of the wind up the draughty staircase, and the sound of a prisoner +singing somewhere above him a snatch of a song. He looked out presently, +but there was nothing but the dark well of the staircase disappearing +round to the left, and the glimmer of an oil lamp somewhere from the +depths below him, with wavering shadows as the light was blown about by +the gusts that came up from outside. There was nothing to be done of +course; he closed the door, went back and prayed with all his might for +the young man who was somewhere in this huge building, in his agony. + +Mr. Jakes came up himself within half an hour to see if all was well; but +said nothing of his dreadful employment or of Mr. Stewart; and Sir +Nicholas did not like to ask for fear of getting Mrs. Jakes into trouble. +The gaoler took away the supper things, wished him good-night, went out +and locked the door, apparently without noticing it had been left undone +before. Possibly his mind was too much occupied with what he had been +seeing and doing. And the faithful account of all this went down in due +time to Great Keynes. + +The arrival of the courier at the Hall on Wednesday and Saturday was a +great affair both to the household and to the village. Sir Nicholas sent +his letter generally by the Saturday courier, and the other brought a +kind of bulletin from Mr. Boyd, with sometimes a message or two from his +master. These letters were taken by the ladies first to the study, as if +to an oratory, and Lady Maxwell would read them slowly over to her +sister. And in the evening, when Isabel generally came up for an hour or +two, the girl would be asked to read them slowly all over again to the +two ladies who sat over their embroidery on either side of her, and who +interrupted for the sheer joy of prolonging it. And they would discuss +together the exact significance of all his marks of emphasis and irony; +and the girl would have all she could do sometimes not to feel a disloyal +amusement at the transparency of the devices and the simplicity of the +loving hearts that marvelled at the writer's depth and ingenuity. But she +was none the less deeply impressed by his courageous cheerfulness, and by +the power of a religion that in spite of its obvious weaknesses and +improbabilities yet inspired an old man like Sir Nicholas with so much +fortitude. + +At first, too, a kind of bulletin was always issued on the Sunday and +Thursday mornings, and nailed upon the outside of the gatehouse, so that +any who pleased could come there and get first-hand information; and an +interpreter stood there sometimes, one of the educated younger sons of +Mr. Piers, and read out to the groups from Lady Maxwell's sprawling old +handwriting, news of the master. + +"Sir Nicholas has been had before the Council," he read out one day in a +high complacent voice to the awed listeners, "and has been sent to the +Tower of London." This caused consternation in the village, as it was +supposed by the country-folk, not without excuse, that the Tower was the +antechamber of death; but confidence was restored by the further +announcement a few lines down that "he was well and cheerful." + +Great interest, too, was aroused by more domestic matters. + +"Sir Nicholas," it was proclaimed, "is in a little separate chamber of +his own. Mr. Jakes, his gaoler, seems an honest fellow. Sir Nicholas hath +a little mattress from a friend that Mr. Boyd fetched for him. He has +dinner at eleven and supper at five. Sir Nicholas hopes that all are well +in the village." + +But other changes had followed the old knight's arrest. The furious +indignation in the village against the part that the Rectory had played +in the matter, made it impossible for the Dents to remain there. That the +minister's wife should have been publicly ducked, and that not by a few +blackguards but by the solid fathers and sons with the applause of the +wives and daughters, made her husband's position intolerable, and further +evidence was forthcoming in the behaviour of the people towards the +Rector himself; some boys had guffawed during his sermon on the following +Sunday, when he had ventured on a word or two of penitence as to his +share in the matter, and he was shouted after on his way home. + +Mrs. Dent seemed strangely changed and broken during her stay at the +Hall. She had received a terrible shock, and it was not safe to move her +back to her own house. For the first two or three nights, she would start +from sleep again and again screaming for help and mercy and nothing would +quiet her till she was wide awake and saw in the fire-light the curtained +windows and the bolted door, and the kindly face of an old servant or +Mistress Margaret with her beads in her hand. Isabel, who came up to see +her two or three times, was both startled and affected by the change in +her; and by the extraordinary mood of humility which seemed to have taken +possession of the hard self-righteous Puritan. + +"I begged pardon," she whispered to the girl one evening, sitting up in +bed and staring at her with wide, hard eyes, "I begged pardon of Lady +Maxwell, though I am not fit to speak to her. Do you think she can ever +forgive me? Do you think she can? It was I, you know, who wrought all the +mischief, as I have wrought all the mischief in the village all these +years. She said she did, and she kissed me, and said that our Saviour had +forgiven her much more. But--but do you think she has forgiven me?" And +then again, another night, a day or two before they left the place, she +spoke to Isabel again. + +"Look after the poor bodies," she said, "teach them a little charity; I +have taught them nought but bitterness and malice, so they have but given +me my own back again. I have reaped what I have sown." + +So the Dents slipped off early one morning before the folk were up; and +by the following Sunday, young Mr. Bodder, of whom the Bishop entertained +a high opinion, occupied the little desk outside the chancel arch; and +Great Keynes once more had to thank God and the diocesan that it +possessed a proper minister of its own, and not a mere unordained reader, +which was all that many parishes could obtain. + +Towards the end of September further hints began to arrive, very much +underlined, in the knight's letters, of Mr. Stewart and his sufferings. + +"You remember _our friend_," Isabel read out one Saturday evening, "_not_ +Mr. Stewart." (This puzzled the old ladies sorely till Isabel explained +their lord's artfulness.) "My dearest, I fear the worst for him. I do not +mean apostacy, thank God. But I fear that these _wolves_ have torn him +sadly, in their _dens_." Then followed the story of Mrs. Jakes, with all +its horror, all the greater from the obscurity of the details. + +Isabel put the paper down trembling, as she sat on the rug before the +fire in the parlour upstairs, and thought of the bright-eyed, red-haired +man with his steady mouth and low laugh whom Anthony had described to +her. + +Lady Maxwell posted upon the gatehouse: + +"Sir Nicholas fears that a _friend_ is in sore trouble; he hopes he may +not _yield_." + +Then, after a few days more, a brief notice with a black-line drawn round +it, that ran, in Mr. Bodder's despite: + +"Our _friend_ has passed away. Pray for his soul." + +Sir Nicholas had written in great agitation to this effect. + +"My sweetheart, I have heavy news to-day. There was a great company of +folks below my window to-day, in the Inner Ward, where the road runs up +below the Bloody Tower. It was about nine of the clock. And there was a +horse there whose head I could see; and presently from the Beauchamp +Tower came, as I thought, an old man between two warders; and then I +could not very well see; the men were in my way; but soon the horse went +off, and the men after him; and I could hear the groaning of the crowd +that were waiting for them outside. And when Mr. Jakes brought me my +dinner at eleven of the clock, he told me it was our friend--(think of +it, my dearest--him whom I thought an old man!)--that had been taken off +to Tyburn. And now I need say no more, but bid you pray for his soul." + +Isabel could hardly finish reading it; for she heard a quick sobbing +breath behind her, and felt a wrinkled old hand caressing her hair and +cheek as her voice faltered. + +Meanwhile Hubert was in town. Sir Nicholas had at first intended him to +go down at once and take charge of the estate; but Piers was very +competent, and so his father consented that he should remain in London +until the beginning of October; and this too better suited Mr. Norris' +plans who wished to send Isabel off about the same time to Northampton. + +When Hubert at last did arrive, he soon showed himself extremely capable +and apt for the work. He was out on the estate from morning till night on +his cob, and there was not a man under him from Piers downwards who had +anything but praise for his insight and industry. + +There was in Hubert, too, as there so often is in country-boys who love +and understand the life of the woods and fields, a balancing quality of a +deep vein of sentiment; and this was now consecrated to Isabel Norris. He +had pleasant dreams as he rode home in the autumn evening, under the +sweet keen sky where the harvest moon rose large and yellow over the +hills to his left and shed a strange mystical light that blended in a +kind of chord with the dying daylight. It was at times like that, when +the air was fragrant with the scent of dying leaves, with perhaps a touch +of frost in it, and the cottages one by one opened red glowing eyes in +the dusk, that the boy began to dream of a home of his own and pleasant +domestic joys; of burning logs on the hearth and lighted candles, and a +dear slender figure moving about the room. He used to rehearse to himself +little meetings and partings; look at the roofs of the Dower House +against the primrose sky as he rode up the fields homewards; identify her +window, dark now as she was away; and long for Christmas when she would +be back again. The only shadow over these delightful pictures was the +uncertainty as to the future. Where after all would the home be? For he +was a younger son. He thought about James very often. When he came back +would he live at home? Would it all be James' at his father's death, +these woods and fields and farms and stately house? Would it ever come to +him? And, meanwhile where should he and Isabel live, when the religious +difficulty had been surmounted, as he had no doubt that it would be +sooner or later? + +When he thought of his father now, it was with a continually increasing +respect. He had been inclined to despise him sometimes before, as one of +a simple and uneventful life; but now the red shadow of the Law conferred +dignity. To have been imprisoned in the Tower was a patent of nobility, +adding distinction and gravity to the commonplace. Something of the glory +even rested on Hubert himself as he rode and hawked with other Catholic +boys, whose fathers maybe were equally zealous for the Faith, but less +distinguished by suffering for it. + +Before Anthony went back to Cambridge, he and Hubert went out nearly +every day together with or without their hawks. Anthony was about three +years the younger, and Hubert's additional responsibility for the estate +made the younger boy more in awe of him than the difference in their ages +warranted. Besides, Hubert knew quite as much about sport, and had more +opportunities for indulging his taste for it. There was no heronry at +hand; besides, it was not the breeding time which is the proper season +for this particular sport; so they did not trouble to ride out to one; +but the partridges and hares and rabbits that abounded in the Maxwell +estate gave them plenty of quarreys. They preferred to go out generally +without the falconer, a Dutchman, who had been taken into the service of +Sir Nicholas thirty years before when things had been more prosperous; it +was less embarrassing so; but they would have a lad to carry the "cadge," +and a pony following them to carry the game. They added to the excitement +of the sport by making it a competition between their birds; and flying +them one after another, or sometimes at the same quarry, as in coursing; +but this often led to the birds' crabbing. + +Anthony's peregrine Eliza was almost unapproachable; and the lad was the +more proud of her as he had "made" her himself, as an "eyess" or young +falcon captured as a nestling. But, on the other hand, Hubert's goshawk +Margaret, a fiery little creature, named inappropriately enough after his +tranquil aunt, as a rule did better than Anthony's Isabel, and brought +the scores level again. + +There was one superb day that survived long in Anthony's memory and +conversation; when he had done exceptionally well, when Eliza had +surpassed herself, and even Isabel had acquitted herself with credit. It +was one of those glorious days of wind and sun that occasionally fall in +early October, with a pale turquoise sky overhead, and air that seems to +sparkle and intoxicate like wine. They went out together after dinner +about noon; their ponies and spaniels danced with the joy of life; Lady +Maxwell cried to them from the north terrace to be careful, and pointed +out to Mr. Norris who had dined with them what a graceful seat Hubert +had; and then added politely, but as an obvious afterthought, that +Anthony seemed to manage his pony with great address. The boys turned off +through the village, and soon got on to high ground to the west of the +village and all among the stubble and mustard, with tracts of rich sunlit +country, of meadows and russet woodland below them on every side. Then +the sport began. It seemed as if Eliza could not make a mistake. There +rose a solitary partridge forty yards away with a whirl of wings; (the +coveys were being well broken up by now) Anthony unhooded his bird and +"cast off," with the falconer's cry "Hoo-ha, ha, ha, ha," and up soared +Eliza with the tinkle of bells, on great strokes of those mighty wings, +up, up, behind the partridge that fled low down the wind for his life. +The two ponies were put to the gallop as the peregrine began to "stoop"; +and then down like a plummet she fell with closed wings, "raked" the +quarry with her talons as she passed; recovered herself, and as Anthony +came up holding out the _tabur-stycke_, returned to him and was hooded +and leashed again; and sat there on his gloved wrist with wet claws, just +shivering slightly from her nerves, like the aristocrat she was; while +her master stroked her ashy back and the boy picked up the quarry, +admiring the deep rent before he threw it into the pannier. + +Then Hubert had the next turn; but his falcon missed his first stoop, and +did not strike the quarry till the second attempt, thus scoring one to +Anthony's account. Then the peregrines were put back on the cadge as the +boys got near to a wide meadow in a hollow where the rabbits used to +feed; and the goshawks Margaret and Isabel were taken, each in turn +sitting unhooded on her master's wrist, while they all watched the long +thin grass for the quick movement that marked the passage of a +rabbit;--and then in a moment the bird was cast off. The goshawk would +rise just high enough to see the quarry in the grass, then fly straight +with arched wings and pounces stretched out as she came over the quarry; +then striking him between the shoulders would close with him; and her +master would come up and take her off, throw the rabbit to the +game-carrier; and the other would have the next attempt. + +And so they went on for three or four hours, encouraging their birds, +whooping the death of the quarry, watching with all the sportsman's +keenness the soaring and stooping of the peregrines, the raking off of +the goshawks; listening to the thrilling tinkle of the bells, and taking +back their birds to sit triumphant and complacent on their master's +wrists, when the quarry had been fairly struck, and furious and sullen +when it had eluded them two or three times till their breath left them in +the dizzy rushes, and they "canceliered" or even returned disheartened +and would fly no more till they had forgotten--till at last the shadows +grew long, and the game more wary, and the hawks and ponies tired; and +the boys put up the birds on the cadge, and leashed them to it securely; +and jogged slowly homewards together up the valley road that led to the +village, talking in technical terms of how the merlin's feather must be +"imped" to-morrow; and of the relative merits of the "varvels" or little +silver rings at the end of the jesses through which the leash ran, and +the Dutch swivel that Squire Blackett always used. + +As they got nearer home and the red roofs of the Dower House began to +glow in the ruddy sunlight above the meadows, Hubert began to shift the +conversation round to Isabel, and inquire when she was coming home. +Anthony was rather bored at this turn of the talk; but thought she would +be back by Christmas at the latest; and said that she was at +Northampton--and had Hubert ever seen such courage as Eliza's? But Hubert +would not be put off; but led the talk back again to the girl; and at +last told Anthony under promise of secrecy that he was fond of Isabel, +and wished to make her his wife;--and oh! did Anthony think she cared +really for him. Anthony stared and wondered and had no opinion at all on +the subject; but presently fell in love with the idea that Hubert should +be his brother-in-law and go hawking with him every day; and he added a +private romance of his own in which he and Mary Corbet should be at the +Dower House, with Hubert and Isabel at the Hall; while the elders, his +own father, Sir Nicholas, Mr. James, Lady Maxwell, and Mistress Torridon +had all taken up submissive and complacent attitudes in the middle +distance. + +He was so pensive that evening that his father asked him at supper +whether he had not had a good day; which diverted his thoughts from +Mistress Corbet, and led him away from sentiment on a stream of his own +talk with long backwaters of description of this and that stoop, and of +exactly the points in which he thought the Maxwells' falconer had failed +in the training of Hubert's Jane. + +Hubert found a long letter waiting from his father which Lady Maxwell +gave him to read, with messages to himself in it about the estate, which +brought him down again from the treading of rosy cloud-castles with a +phantom Isabel whither his hawks and the shouting wind and the happy day +had wafted him, down to questions of barns and farm-servants and the +sober realities of harvest. + + + + + CHAPTER XI + + MASTER CALVIN + + +Isabel reached Northampton a day or two before Hubert came back to Great +Keynes. She travelled down with two combined parties going to Leicester +and Nottingham, sleeping at Leighton Buzzard on the way; and on the +evening of the second day reached the house of her father's friend Dr. +Carrington, that stood in the Market Square. + +Her father's intention in sending her to this particular town and +household was to show her how Puritanism, when carried to its extreme, +was as orderly and disciplined a system, and was able to control the +lives of its adherents, as well as the Catholicism whose influence on her +character he found himself beginning to fear. But he wished also that she +should be repelled to some extent by the merciless rigidity she would +find at Northampton, and thus, after an oscillation or two come to rest +in the quiet eclecticism of that middle position which he occupied +himself. + +The town indeed was at this time a miniature Geneva. There was something +in the temper of its inhabitants that made it especially susceptible to +the wave of Puritanism that was sweeping over England. Lollardy had +flourished among them so far back as the reign of Richard II; when the +mayor, as folks told one another with pride, had plucked a mass-priest by +the vestment on the way to the altar in All Saints' Church, and had made +him give over his mummery till the preacher had finished his sermon. + +Dr. Carrington, too, a clean-shaven, blue-eyed, grey-haired man, +churchwarden of Saint Sepulchre's, was a representative of the straitest +views, and desperately in earnest. For him the world ranged itself into +the redeemed and the damned; these two companies were the pivots of life +for him; and every subject of mind or desire was significant only so far +as it bore relations to be immutable decrees of God. But his fierce and +merciless theological insistence was disguised by a real human tenderness +and a marked courtesy of manner; and Isabel found him a kindly and +thoughtful host. + +Yet the mechanical strictness of the household, and the overpowering +sense of the weightiness of life that it conveyed, was a revelation to +Isabel. Dr. Carrington at family prayers was a tremendous figure, as he +kneeled upright at the head of the table in the sombre dining-room; and +it seemed to Isabel in her place that the pitiless all-seeing Presence +that kept such terrifying silence as the Doctor cried on Jehovah, was +almost a different God to that whom she knew in the morning parlour at +home, to whom her father prayed with more familiarity but no less +romance, and who answered in the sunshine that lay on the carpet, and the +shadows of boughs that moved across it, and the chirp of the birds under +the eaves. And all day long she thought she noticed the same difference; +at Great Keynes life was made up of many parts, the love of family, the +country doings, the worship of God, the garden, and the company of the +Hall ladies; and the Presence of God interpenetrated all like light or +fragrance; but here life was lived under the glare of His eye, and +absorption in any detail apart from the consciousness of that +encompassing Presence had the nature of sin. + +On the Saturday after her arrival, as she was walking by the Nen with +Kate Carrington, one of the two girls, she asked her about the crowd of +ministers she had seen in the streets that morning. + +"They have been to the Prophesyings," said Kate. "My father says that +there is no exercise that sanctifies a godly young minister so quickly." + +Kate went on to describe them further. The ministers assembled each +Saturday at nine o'clock, and one of their number gave a short +Bible-reading or lecture. Then all present were invited to join in the +discussion; the less instructed would ask questions, the more experienced +would answer, and debate would run high. Such a method Kate explained, +who herself was a zealous and well instructed Calvinist, was the surest +and swiftest road to truth, for every one held the open Scriptures in his +hand, and interpreted and checked the speakers by the aid of that +infallible guide. + +"But if a man's judgment lead him wrong?" asked Isabel, who professedly +admitted authority to have some place in matters of faith. + +"All must hold the Apostles' Creed first of all," said Kate, "and must +set his name to a paper declaring the Pope to be antichrist, with other +truths upon it." + +Isabel was puzzled; for it seemed now as if Private Judgment were not +supreme among its professors; but she did not care to question further. +It began to dawn upon her presently, however, why the Queen was so fierce +against Prophesyings; for she saw that they exercised that spirit of +exclusiveness, the property of Papist and Puritan alike; which, since it +was the antithesis of the tolerant comprehensiveness of the Church of +England, was also the enemy of the theological peace that Elizabeth was +seeking to impose upon the country; and that it was for that reason that +Papist and Puritan, sundered so far in theology, were united in suffering +for conscience' sake. + +On the Sunday morning Isabel went with Mrs. Carrington and the two girls +to the round Templars' Church of Saint Sepulchre, for the Morning Prayer +at eight o'clock, and then on to St. Peter's for the sermon. It was the +latter function that was important in Puritan eyes; for the word preached +was considered to have an almost sacramental force in the application of +truth and grace to the soul; and crowds of people, with downcast eyes and +in sombre dress, were pouring down the narrow streets from all the +churches round, while the great bell beat out its summons from the Norman +tower. The church was filled from end to end as they came in, meeting Dr. +Carrington at the door, and they all passed up together to the pew +reserved for the churchwarden, close beneath the pulpit. + +As Isabel looked round her, it came upon her very forcibly what she had +begun to notice even at Great Keynes, that the religion preached there +did not fit the church in which it was set forth; and that, though great +efforts had been made to conform the building to the worship. There had +been no half measures at Northampton, for the Puritans had a loathing of +what they called a "mingle-mangle." Altars, footpaces, and piscinæ had +been swept away and all marks of them removed, as well as the rood-loft +and every image in the building; the stained windows had been replaced by +plain glass painted white; the walls had been whitewashed from roof to +floor, and every suspicion of colour erased except where texts of +Scripture ran rigidly across the open wall spaces: "We are not under the +Law, but under Grace," Isabel read opposite her, beneath the clerestory +windows. And, above all, the point to which all lines and eyes converged, +was occupied no longer by the Table but by the tribunal of the Lord. Yet +underneath the disguise the old religion triumphed still. Beneath the +great plain orderly scheme, without depth of shadows, dominated by the +towering place of Proclamation where the crimson-faced herald waited to +begin, the round arches and the elaborate mouldings, and the cool depths +beyond the pillars, all declared that in the God for whom that temple was +built, there was mystery as well as revelation, Love as well as Justice, +condescension as well as Majesty, beauty as well as awfulness, +invitations as well as eternal decrees. + +Isabel looked up presently, as the people still streamed in, and watched +the minister in his rustling Genevan gown, leaning with his elbows on the +Bible that rested open on the great tasselled velvet cushion before him. +Everything about him was on the grand scale; his great hands were clasped +and protruded over the edge of the Book; and his heavy dark face looked +menacingly round on the crowded church; he had the air of a melancholy +giant about to engage in some tragic pleasure. But Isabel's instinctive +dislike began to pass into positive terror so soon as he began to preach. + +When the last comers had found a place, and the talking had stopped, he +presently gave out his text, in a slow thunderous voice, that silenced +the last whispers: + +"What shall we then say to these things? If God be on our side, who can +be against us?" + +There were a few slow sentences, in a deep resonant voice, uttering each +syllable deliberately like the explosion of a far-off gun, and in a +minute or two he was in the thick of Calvin's smoky gospel. Doctrine, +voice, and man were alike terrible and overpowering. + +There lay the great scheme in a few minutes, seen by Isabel as though +through the door of hell, illumined by the glare of the eternal embers. +The huge merciless Will of God stood there before her, disclosed in all +its awfulness, armed with thunders, moving on mighty wheels. The +foreknowledge of God closed the question henceforth, and, if proof were +needed, made predestination plain. There was man's destiny, irrevocably +fixed, iron-bound, changeless and immovable as the laws of God's own +being. Yet over the rigid and awful Face of God, flickered a faint light, +named mercy; and this mercy vindicated its existence by demanding that +some souls should escape the final and endless doom that was the due +reward of every soul conceived and born in enmity against God and under +the frown of His Justice. + +Then, heralded too by wrath, the figure of Jesus began to glimmer through +the thunderclouds; and Isabel lifted her eyes, to look in hope. But He +was not as she had known him in His graciousness, and as He had revealed +Himself to her in tender communion, and among the flowers and under the +clear skies of Sussex. Here, in this echoing world of wrath He stood, +pale and rigid, with lightning in His eyes, and the grim and crimson +Cross behind him; and as powerless as His own Father Himself to save one +poor timid despairing hoping soul against whom the Eternal Decree had +gone forth. Jesus was stern and forbidding here, with the red glare of +wrath on His Face too, instead of the rosy crown of Love upon His +forehead; His mouth was closed with compressed lips which surely would +only open to condemn; not that mouth, quivering and human, that had +smiled and trembled and bent down from the Cross to kiss poor souls that +could not hope, nor help themselves, that had smiled upon Isabel ever +since she had known Him. It was appalling to this gentle maiden soul that +had bloomed and rejoiced so long in the shadow of His healing, to be torn +out of her retreat and set thus under the consuming noonday of the +Justice of this Sun of white-hot Righteousness. + +For, as she listened, it was all so miserably convincing; her own little +essays of intellect and flights of hopeful imagination were caught up and +whirled away in the strong rush of this man's argument; her timid +expectancy that God was really Love, as she understood the word in the +vision of her Saviour's Person,--this was dashed aside as a childish +fancy; the vision of the Father of the Everlasting Arms receded into the +realm of dreams; and instead there lowered overhead in this furious +tempest of wrath a monstrous God with a stony Face and a stonier Heart, +who was eternally either her torment or salvation; and Isabel thought, +and trembled at the blasphemy, that if God were such as this, the one +would be no less agony than the other. Was this man bearing false +witness, not only against his neighbour, but far more awfully, against +his God? But it was too convincing; it was built up on an iron hammered +framework of a great man's intellect and made white hot with another +great man's burning eloquence. But it seemed to Isabel now and again as +if a thunder-voiced virile devil were proclaiming the Gospel of +Everlasting shame. There he bent over the pulpit with flaming face and +great compelling gestures that swayed the congregation, eliciting the +emotions he desired, as the conductor's baton draws out the music (for +the man was a great orator), and he stormed and roared and seemed to +marshal the very powers of the world to come, compelling them by his nod, +and interpreting them by his voice; and below him sat this poor child, +tossed along on his eloquence, like a straw on a flood; and yet hating +and resenting it and struggling to detach herself and disbelieve every +word he spoke. + +As the last sands were running out in his hour-glass, he came to harbour +from this raging sea; and in a few deep resonant sentences, like those +with which he began, he pictured the peace of the ransomed soul, that +knows itself safe in the arms of God; that rejoices, even in this world, +in the Light of His Face and the ecstasy of His embrace; that dwells by +waters of comfort and lies down in the green pastures of the Heavenly +Love; while, round this little island of salvation in an ocean of terror, +the thunders of wrath sound only as the noise of surge on a far-off reef. + +The effect on Isabel was very great. It was far more startling than her +visit to London; there her quiet religion had received high sanction in +the mystery of S. Paul's. But here it was the plainest Calvinism preached +with immense power. The preacher's last words of peace were no peace to +her. If it was necessary to pass those bellowing breakers of wrath to +reach the Happy Country, then she had never reached it yet; she had lived +so far in an illusion; her life had been spent in a fool's paradise, +where the light and warmth and flowers were but artificial after all; and +she knew that she had not the heart to set out again. Though she +recognised dimly the compelling power of this religion, and that it was +one which, if sincerely embraced, would make the smallest details of life +momentous with eternal weight, yet she knew that her soul could never +respond to it, and whether saved or damned that it could only cower in +miserable despair under a Deity that was so sovereign as this. + +So her heart was low and her eyes sad as she followed Mrs. Carrington out +of church. Was this then really the Revelation of the Love of God in the +Person of Jesus Christ? Had all that she knew as the Gospel melted down +into this fiery lump? + +The rest of the day did not alter the impression made on her mind. There +was little talk, or evidence of any human fellowship, in the Carrington +household on the Lord's Day; there was a word or two of grave +commendation on the sermon during dinner; and in the afternoon there was +the Evening Prayer to be attended in St. Sepulchre's followed by an +exposition, and a public catechising on Calvin's questions and answers. +Here the same awful doctrines reappeared, condensed with an icy reality, +even more paralysing than the burning presentation of them in the +morning's sermon. She was spared questions herself, as she was a +stranger; and sat to hear girls of her own age and older men and women +who looked as soft-hearted as herself, utter definitions of the method of +salvation and the being and character of God that compelled the assent of +her intellect, while they jarred with her spiritual experience as +fiercely as brazen trumpets out of tune. + +In the evening there followed further religious exercises in the dark +dining-room, at the close of which Dr. Carrington read one of Mr. +Calvin's Genevan discourses, from his tall chair at the head of the +table. She looked at him at first, and wondered in her heart whether that +man, with his clear gentle voice, and his pleasant old face crowned with +iron-grey hair seen in the mellow candlelight, really believed in the +terrible gospel of the morning; for she heard nothing of the academic +discourse that he was reading now, and presently her eyes wandered away +out of the windows to the pale night sky. There still glimmered a faint +streak of light in the west across the Market Square; it seemed to her as +a kind of mirror of her soul at this moment; the tender daylight had +faded, though she could still discern the token of its presence far away, +and as from behind the bars of a cage; but the night of God's wrath was +fast blotting out the last touch of radiance from her despairing soul. + +Dr. Carrington looked at her with courteous anxiety, but with approval +too, as he held her hand for a moment as she said good-night to him. +There were shadows of weariness and depression under her eyes, and the +corners of her mouth drooped a little; and the doctor's heart stirred +with hope that the Word of God had reached at last this lamb of His who +had been fed too long on milk, and sheltered from the sun; but who was +now coming out, driven it might be, and unhappy, but still on its way to +the plain and wholesome pastures of the Word that lay in the glow of the +unveiled glory of God. + +Isabel in her dark room upstairs was miserable; she stood long at her +window her face pressed against the glass, and looked at the sky, from +which the last streak of light had now died, and longed with all her +might for her own oak room at home, with her prie-dieu and the familiar +things about her; and the pines rustling outside in the sweet night-wind. +It seemed to her as if an irresistible hand had plucked her out from +those loved things and places, and that a penetrating eye were examining +every corner of her soul. In one sense she believed herself nearer to God +than ever before, but it was heartbreaking to find Him like this. She +went to sleep with the same sense of a burdening Presence resting on her +spirit. + +The next morning Dr. Carrington saw her privately and explained to her a +notice that she had not understood when it had been given out in church +the day before. It was to the effect that the quarterly communion would +be administered on the following Sunday, having been transferred that +year from the Sunday after Michaelmas Day, and that she must hold herself +in readiness on the Wednesday afternoon to undergo the examination that +was enforced in every household in Northampton, at the hands of the +Minister and Churchwardens. + +"But you need not fear it, Mistress Norris," he said kindly, seeing her +alarm. "My daughter Kate will tell you all that is needful." + +Kate too told her it would be little more than formal in her case. + +"The minister will not ask you much," she said, "for you are a stranger, +and my father will vouch for you. He will ask you of irresistible grace, +and of the Sacrament." And she gave her a couple of books from which she +might summarise the answers; especially directing her attention to +Calvin's Catechism, telling her that that was the book with which all the +servants and apprentices were obliged to be familiar. + +When Wednesday afternoon came, one by one the members of the household +went before the inquisition that held its court in the dining-room; and +last of all Isabel's turn came. The three gentlemen who sat in the middle +of the long side of the table, with their backs to the light, half rose +and bowed to her as she entered; and requested her to sit opposite to +them. To her relief it was the Minister of St. Sepulchre's who was to +examine her--he who had read the service and discoursed on the Catechism, +not the morning preacher. He was a man who seemed a little ill at ease +himself; he had none of the superb confidence of the preacher; but +appeared to be one to whose natural character this stern _rôle_ was not +altogether congenial. He asked a few very simple questions; as to when +she had last taken the Sacrament; how she would interpret the words, +"This is my Body"; and looked almost grateful when she answered quietly +and without heat. He asked her too three or four of the simpler questions +which Kate had indicated to her; all of which she answered satisfactorily; +and then desired to know whether she was in charity with all men; and +whether she looked to Jesus Christ alone as her one Saviour. Finally he +turned to Dr. Carrington, and wished to know whether Mistress Norris +would come to the sacrament at five or nine o'clock, and Dr. Carrington +answered that she would no doubt wish to come with his own wife and +daughters at nine o'clock; which was the hour for the folks who were +better to do. And so the inquisition ended much to Isabel's relief. + +But this was a very extraordinary experience to her; it gave her a first +glimpse into the rigid discipline that the extreme Puritans wished to see +enforced everywhere; and with it a sense of corporate responsibility that +she had not appreciated before; the congregation meant something to her +now; she was no longer alone with her Lord individually, but understood +that she was part of a body with various functions, and that the care of +her soul was not merely a personal matter for herself, but involved her +minister and the officers of the Church as well. It astonished her to +think that this process was carried out on every individual who lived in +the town in preparation for the sacrament on the following Sunday. + +Isabel, and indeed the whole household, spent the Friday and Saturday in +rigid and severe preparation. No flesh food was eaten on either of the +days; and all the members of the family were supposed to spend several +hours in their own rooms in prayer and meditation. She did not find this +difficult, as she was well practised in solitude and prayer, and she +scarcely left her room all Saturday except for meals. + +"O Lord," Isabel repeated each morning and evening at her bedside during +this week, "the blind dulness of our corrupt nature will not suffer us +sufficiently to weigh these thy most ample benefits, yet, nevertheless, +at the commandment of Jesus Christ our Lord, we present ourselves to this +His table, which He hath left to be used in remembrance of His death +until His coming again, to declare and witness before the world, that by +Him alone we have received liberty and life; that by Him alone dost thou +acknowledge us to be thy children and heirs; that by Him alone we have +entrance to the throne of thy grace; that by Him alone we are possessed +in our spiritual kingdom, to eat and drink at His table, with whom we +have our conversation presently in heaven, and by whom our bodies shall +be raised up again from the dust, and shall be placed with Him in that +endless joy, which Thou, O Father of mercy, hast prepared for thine +elect, before the foundation of the world was laid." + +And so she prepared herself for that tryst with her Beloved in a foreign +land where all was strange and unfamiliar about her: yet He was hourly +drawing nearer, and she cried to Him day by day in these words so +redolent to her with associations of past communions, and of moments of +great spiritual elevation. The very use of the prayer this week was like +a breeze of flowers to one in a wilderness. + +On the Saturday night she ceremoniously washed her feet as her father had +taught her; and lay down happier than she had been for days past, for +to-morrow would bring the Lover of her soul. + +On the Sunday all the household was astir early at their prayers, and +about half-past eight o'clock all, including the servants who had just +returned from the five o'clock service, assembled in the dining-room; the +noise of the feet of those returning from church had ceased on the +pavement of the square outside, and all was quiet except for the solemn +sound of the bells, as Dr. Carrington offered extempore prayer for all +who were fulfilling the Lord's ordinance on that day. And Isabel once +more felt her heart yearn to a God who seemed Love after all. + +St. Sepulchre's was nearly full when they arrived. The mahogany table had +been brought down from the eastern wall to beneath the cupola, and stood +there with a large white cloth, descending almost to the ground on every +side; and a row of silver vessels, flat plates and tall new Communion +cups and flagons, shone upon it. Isabel buried her face in her hands, and +tried to withdraw into the solitude of her own soul; but the noise of the +feet coming and going, and the talking on all sides of her, were terribly +distracting. Presently four ministers entered and Isabel was startled to +see, as she raised her face at the sudden silence, that none of them wore +the prescribed surplice; for she had not been accustomed to the views of +the extreme Puritans to whom this was a remnant of Popery; an indifferent +thing indeed in itself, as they so often maintained; but far from +indifferent when it was imposed by authority. One entered the pulpit; the +other three took their places at the Holy Table; and after a metrical +Psalm sung in the Genevan fashion, the service began. At the proper place +the minister in the pulpit delivered an hour's sermon of the type to +which Isabel was being now introduced for the first time; but bearing +again and again on the point that the sacrament was a confession to the +world of faith in Christ; it was in no sense a sacrificial act towards +God, "as the Papists vainly taught"; this part of the sermon was spoiled, +to Isabel's ears at least, by a flood of disagreeable words poured out +against the popish doctrine; and the end of the sermon consisted of a +searching exhortation to those who contemplated sin, who bore malice, who +were in any way holding aloof from God, "to cast themselves mightily upon +the love of the Redeemer, bewailing their sinful lives, and purposing to +amend them." This act, wrought out in the silence of the soul even now +would transfer the sinner from death unto life; and turn what threatened +to be poison into a "lively and healthful food." Then he turned to those +who came prepared and repentant, hungering and thirsting after the Bread +of Life and the Wine that the Lord had mingled; and congratulated them on +their possession of grace, and on the rich access of sanctification that +would be theirs by a faithful reception of this comfortable sacrament; +and then in half a dozen concluding sentences he preached Christ, as +"food to the hungry; a stream to the thirsty; a rest for the weary. It is +He alone, our dear Redeemer, who openeth the Kingdom of Heaven, to which +may He vouchsafe to bring us for His Name's sake." + +Isabel was astonished to see that the preacher did not descend from the +pulpit after the sermon, but that as soon as he had announced that the +mayor would sit at the Town Hall with the ministers and churchwardens on +the following Thursday to inquire into the cases of all who had not +presented themselves for Communion, he turned and began to busy himself +with the great Bible that lay on the cushion. The service went on, and +the conducting of it was shared among the three ministers standing, one +at the centre of the table which was placed endways, and the others at +the two ends. As the Prayer of Consecration was begun, Isabel hid her +face as she was accustomed to do, for she believed it to be the principal +part of the service, and waited for the silence that in her experience +generally followed the Amen. But a voice immediately began from the +pulpit, and she looked up, startled and distracted. + +"Then Jesus said unto them," pealed out the preacher's voice, "All ye +shall be offended by me this night, for it is written, I will smite the +shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered. But after I am risen, I will +go into Galilee before you." + +Ah! why would not the man stop? Isabel did not want the past Saviour but +the present now; not a dead record but a living experience; above all, +not the minister but the great High Priest Himself. + +"He began to be troubled and in great heaviness, and said unto them, My +soul is very heavy, even unto the death; tarry here and watch." + +The three ministers had communicated by now; and there was a rustle and +clatter of feet as the empty seats in front, hung with houselling cloths, +began to be filled. The murmur of the three voices below as the ministers +passed along with the vessels were drowned by the tale of the Passion +that rang out overhead. + +"Couldest thou not watch one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into +temptation. The spirit indeed is ready, but the flesh is weak." + +It was coming near to Isabel's turn; the Carringtons already were +beginning to move; and in a moment or two she rose and followed them out. +The people were pressing up the aisles; and as she stood waiting her turn +to pass into the white-hung seat, she could not help noticing the +disorder that prevailed; some knelt devoutly, some stood, some sat to +receive the sacred elements; and all the while louder and louder, above +the rustling and the loud whispering of the ministers and the shuffling +of feet, the tale rose and fell on the cadences of the preacher's voice. +Now it was her turn; she was kneeling with palms outstretched and closed +eyes. Ah! would he not be silent for one moment? Could not the reality +speak for itself, and its interpreter be still? Surely the King of Love +needed no herald when Himself was here. + +"And anon in the dawning, the high Priests held a Council with Elders and +the Scribes and the whole Council, and bound Jesus and led Him away." ... + +And so it was over presently, and she was back again in her seat, +distracted and miserable; trying to pray, forcing herself to attend now +to the reader, now to her Saviour with whom she believed herself in +intimate union, and finding nothing but dryness and distraction +everywhere. How interminable it was! She opened her eyes, and what she +saw amazed and absorbed her for a few moments; some were sitting back and +talking; some looking cheerfully about them as if at a public +entertainment; one man especially overwhelmed her imagination; with a +great red face and neck like a butcher, animal and brutal, with a heavy +hanging jowl and little narrow lack-lustre eyes--how bored and depressed +he was by this long obligatory ceremony! Then once more she closed her +eyes in self-reproach at her distractions; here were her lips still +fragrant with the Wine of God, the pressure of her Beloved's arm still +about her; and these were her thoughts, settling like flies, on +everything.... + +When she opened them again the last footsteps were passing down the +aisle, the dripping Cups were being replaced by the ministers, and +covered with napkins, and the tale of Easter was in telling from the +pulpit like the promise of a brighter day. + +"And they said one to another, Who shall roll us away the stone from the +door of the sepulchre? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was +rolled away (for it was a very great one)." + +So read the minister and closed the book; and _Our Father_ began. + +In the evening, when all was over, and the prayers said and the +expounding and catechising finished, in a kind of despair she slipped +away alone, and walked a little by herself in the deepening twilight +beside the river; and again she made effort after effort to catch some +consciousness of grace from this Sacrament Sunday, so rare and so +precious; but an oppression seemed to dwell in the very air. The low +rain-clouds hung over the city, leaden and chill, the path where she +walked was rank with the smell of dead leaves, and the trees and grass +dripped with lifeless moisture. As she goaded and allured alternately her +own fainting soul, it writhed and struggled but could not rise; there was +no pungency of bitterness in her self-reproach, no thrill of joy in her +aspiration; for the hand of Calvin's God lay heavy on the delicate +languid thing. + +She walked back at last in despair over the wet cobblestones of the empty +market square; but as she came near the house, she saw that the square +was not quite empty. A horse stood blowing and steaming before Dr. +Carrington's door, and her own maid and Kate were standing hatless in the +doorway looking up and down the street. Isabel's heart began to beat, and +she walked quicker. In a moment Kate saw her, and began to beckon and +call; and the maid ran to meet her. + +"Mistress Isabel, Mistress Isabel," she cried, "make haste." + +"What is it?" asked the girl, in sick foreboding. + +"There is a man come from Great Keynes," began the maid, but Kate stopped +her. + +"Come in, Mistress Isabel," she said, "my father is waiting for you." + +Dr. Carrington met her at the dining-room door; and his face was tender +and full of emotion. + +"What is it?" whispered the girl sharply. "Anthony?" + +"Dear child," he said, "come in, and be brave." + +There was a man standing in the room with cap and whip in hand, spurred +and splashed from head to foot; Isabel recognised one of the grooms from +the Hall. + +"What is it?" she said again with a piteous sharpness. + +Dr. Carrington laid his hands gently on her shoulders, and looked into +her eyes. + +"It is news of your father," he said, "from Lady Maxwell." + +He paused, and the steady gleam of his eyes strengthened and quieted her, +then he went on deliberately, "The Lord hath given and the Lord hath +taken it." + +He paused as if for an answer, but no answer came; Isabel was staring +white-faced with parted lips into those strong blue eyes of his: and he +finished: + +"Blessed be the name of the Lord." + + + + + CHAPTER XII + + A WINDING-UP + + +The curtained windows on the ground-floor of the Dower House shone red +from within as Isabel and Dr. Carrington, with three or four servants +behind, rode round the curving drive in front late on the Monday evening. +A face peeped from Mrs. Carroll's window as the horse's hoofs sounded on +the gravel, and by the time that Isabel, pale, wet, and worn-out with her +seventy miles' ride, was dismounted, Mistress Margaret herself was at the +door, with Anthony's face at her shoulder, and Mrs. Carroll looking over +the banisters. + +Isabel was not allowed to see her father's body that night, but after she +was in bed, Lady Maxwell herself, who had been sent for when he lay +dying, came down from the Hall, and told her what there was to tell; +while Mistress Margaret and Anthony entertained Dr. Carrington below. + +"Dear child," said the old lady, leaning with her elbow on the bed, and +holding the girl's hand tenderly as she talked, "it was all over in an +hour or two. It was the heart, you know. Mrs. Carroll sent for me +suddenly, on Saturday morning; and by the time I reached him he could not +speak. They had carried him upstairs from his study, where they had found +him; and laid him down on his bed, and--yes, yes--he was in pain, but he +was conscious, and he was praying I think; his lips moved. And I knelt +down by the bed and prayed aloud; he only spoke twice; and, my dear, it +was your name the first time, and the name of His Saviour the second +time. He looked at me, and I could see he was trying to speak; and then +on a sudden he spoke 'Isabel.' And I think he was asking me to take care +of you. And I nodded and said that I would do what I could, and he seemed +satisfied and shut his eyes again. And then presently Mr. Bodder began a +prayer--he had come in a moment before; they could not find him at +first--and then, and then your dear father moved a little and raised his +hand, and the minister stayed; and he was looking up as if he saw +something; and then he said once, 'Jesus' clear and loud; and, and--that +was all, dear child." + +The next morning she and Anthony, with the two old ladies, one of whom +was always with them during these days, went into the darkened oak room +on the first floor, where he had died and now rested. The red curtains +made a pleasant rosy light, and it seemed to the children impossible to +believe that that serene face, scarcely more serene than in life, with +its wide closed lids under the delicate eyebrows, and contented clean-cut +mouth, and the scholarly hands closed on the breast, all in a wealth of +autumn flowers and dark copper-coloured beech leaves, were not the face +and hands of a sleeping man. + +But Isabel did not utterly break down till she saw his study. She drew +the curtains aside herself, and there stood his table; his chair was +beside it, pushed back and sideways as if he had that moment left it; and +on the table itself the books she knew so well. + +In the centre of the table stood his inlaid desk, with the papers lying +upon it, and his quill beside them, as if just laid down; even the +ink-pot was uncovered just as he had left it, as the agony began to lay +its hand upon his heart. She stooped and read the last sentence. + +"This is the great fruit, that unspeakable benefit that they do eat and +drink of that labour and are burden, and come--" and there it stopped; +and the blinding tears rushed into the girl's eyes, as she stooped to +kiss the curved knob of the chair-arm where his dear hand had last +rested. + +When all was over a day or two later the two went up to stay at the Hall, +while the housekeeper was left in charge of the Dower House. Lady Maxwell +and Mistress Margaret had been present at the parish church on the +occasion of the funeral, for the first time ever since the old Marian +priest had left; and had assisted too at the opening of the will, which +was found, tied up and docketed in one of the inner drawers of the inlaid +desk; and before its instructions were complied with, Lady Maxwell wished +to have a word or two with Isabel and Anthony. + +She made an opportunity on the morning of Anthony's departure for +Cambridge, two days after the funeral, when Mistress Margaret was out of +the room, and Hubert had ridden off as usual with Piers, on the affairs +of the estate. + +"My child," said she to Isabel, who was lying back passive and listless +on the window-seat. "What do you think your cousin will direct to be +done? He will scarcely wish you to leave home altogether, to stay with +him. And yet, you understand, he is your guardian." + +Isabel shook her head. + +"We know nothing of him," she said, wearily, "he has never been here." + +"If you have a suggestion to make to him you should decide at once," the +other went on, "the courier is to go on Monday, is he not, Anthony?" + +The boy nodded. + +"But will he not allow us," he said, "to stay at home as usual? +Surely----" + +Lady Maxwell shook her head. + +"And Isabel?" she asked, "who will look after her when you are away?" + +"Mrs. Carroll?" he said interrogatively. + +Again she shook her head. + +"He would never consent," she said, "it would not be right." + +Isabel looked up suddenly, and her eyes brightened a little. + +"Lady Maxwell--" she began, and then stopped, embarrassed. + +"Well, my dear?" + +"What is it, Isabel?" asked Anthony. + +"If it were possible--but, but I could not ask it." + +"If you mean Margaret, my dear"; said the old lady serenely, drawing her +needle carefully through, "it was what I thought myself; but I did not +know if you would care for that. Is that what you meant?" + +"Oh, Lady Maxwell," said the girl, her face lighting up. + +Then the old lady explained that it was not possible to ask them to live +permanently at the Hall, although of course Isabel must do so until an +arrangement had been made; because their father would scarcely have +wished them to be actually inmates of a Catholic house; but that he +plainly had encouraged close relations between the two houses, and +indeed, Lady Maxwell interpreted his mention of his daughter's name, and +his look as he said it, in the sense that he wished those relations to +continue. She thought therefore that there was no reason why their new +guardian's consent should not be asked to Mistress Margaret's coming over +to the Dower House to take charge of Isabel, if the girl wished it. He +had no particular interest in them; he lived a couple of hundred miles +away, and the arrangement would probably save him a great deal of trouble +and inconvenience. + +"But you, Lady Maxwell," Isabel burst out, her face kindled with hope, +for she had dreaded the removal terribly, "you will be lonely here." + +"Dear child," said the old lady, laying down her embroidery, "God has +been gracious to me; and my husband is coming back to me; you need not +fear for me." And she told them, with her old eyes full of happy tears, +how she had had a private word, which they must not repeat, from a +Catholic friend at Court, that all had been decided for Sir Nicholas' +release, though he did not know it himself yet, and that he would be at +home again for Advent. The prison fever was beginning to cause alarm, and +it seemed that a good fine would meet the old knight's case better than +any other execution of justice. + +So then, it was decided; and as Isabel walked out to the gatehouse after +dinner beside Anthony, with her hand on his horse's neck, and as she +watched him at last ride down the village green and disappear round +behind the church, half her sorrow at losing him was swallowed up in the +practical certainty that they would meet again before Christmas in their +old home, and not in a stranger's house in the bleak North country. + +On the following Thursday, Sir Nicholas' weekly letter showed evidence +that the good news of his release had begun to penetrate to him; his wife +longed to tell him all she had heard, but so many jealous eyes were on +the watch for favouritism that she had been strictly forbidden to pass on +her information. However there was little need. + +"I am in hopes," he wrote, "of keeping Christmas in a merrier place than +prison. I do not mean _heaven_," he hastened to add, for fear of alarming +his wife. "Good Mr. Jakes tells me that Sir John is ill to-day, and that +he fears the gaol-fever; and if it is the gaol-fever, sweetheart, which +pray God it may not be _for Sir John's sake_, it will be the fourteenth +case in the Tower; and folks say that we shall all be let home again; but +with another good fine, they say, to keep us poor and humble, and mindful +of the Queen's Majesty her laws. However, dearest, I would gladly pay a +thousand pounds, if I had them, to be home again." + +But there was news at the end of the letter that caused consternation in +one or two hearts, and sent Hubert across, storming and almost crying, to +Isabel, who was taking a turn in the dusk at sunset. She heard his step +beyond the hedge, quick and impatient, and stopped short, hesitating and +wondering. + +He had behaved to her with extraordinary tact and consideration, and she +was very conscious of it. Since her sudden return ten days before from +the visit which had been meant to separate them, he had not spoken a word +to her privately, except a shy sentence or two of condolence, stammered +out with downcast eyes, but which from the simplicity and shortness of +the words had brought up a sob from her heart. She guessed that he knew +why she had been sent to Northampton, and had determined not to take +advantage in any way of her sorrow. Every morning he had disappeared +before she came down, and did not come back till supper, where he sat +silent and apart, and yet, when an occasion offered itself, behaved with +a quick attentive deference that showed her where his thoughts had been. + +Now she stood, wondering and timid, at that hurried insistent step on the +other side of the hedge. As she hesitated, he came quickly through the +doorway and stopped short. + +"Mistress Isabel," he said, with all his reserve gone, and looking at her +imploringly, but with the old familiar air that she loved, "have you +heard? I am to go as soon as my father comes back. Oh! it is a shame!" + +His voice was full of tears, and his eyes were bright and angry. Her +heart leapt up once and then seemed to cease beating. + +"Go?" she said; and even as she spoke knew from her own dismay how dear +that quiet chivalrous presence was to her. + +"Yes," he went on in the same voice. "Oh! I know I should not speak; +and--and especially now at all times; but I could not bear it; nor that +you should think it was my will to go." + +She stood still looking at him. + +"May I walk with you a little," he said, "but--I must not say much--I +promised my father." + +And then as they walked he began to pour it out. + +"It is some old man in Durham," he said, "and I am to see to his estates. +My father will not want me here when he comes back, and, and it is to be +soon. He has had the offer for me; and has written to tell me. There is +no choice." + +She had turned instinctively towards the house, and the high roofs and +chimneys were before them, dark against the luminous sky. + +"No, no," said Hubert, laying his hand on her arm; and at the touch she +thrilled so much that she knew she must not stay, and went forward +resolutely up the steps of the terrace. + +"Ah! let me speak," he said; "I have not troubled you much, Mistress +Isabel." + +She hesitated again a moment. + +"In my father's room," he went on, "and I will bring the letter." + +She nodded and passed into the hall without speaking, and turned to Sir +Nicholas' study; while Hubert's steps dashed up the stairs to his +mother's room. Isabel went in and stood on the hearth in the firelight +that glowed and wavered round the room on the tapestry and the prie-dieu +and the table where Hubert had been sitting and the tall shuttered +windows, leaning her head against the mantelpiece, doubtful and +miserable. + +"Listen," said Hubert, bursting into the room a moment later with the +sheet open in his hand. + +"'Tell Hubert that Lord Arncliffe needs a gentleman to take charge of his +estates; he is too old now himself, and has none to help him. I have had +the offer for Hubert, and have accepted it; he must go as soon as I have +returned. I am sorry to lose the lad, but since James----'" and Hubert +broke off. "I must not read that," he said. + +Isabel still stood, stretching her hands out to the fire, turned a little +away from him. + +"But what can I say?" went on the lad passionately, "I must go; and--and +God knows for how long, five or six years maybe; and I shall come back +and find you--and find you----" and a sob rose up and silenced him. + +"Hubert," she said, turning and looking with a kind of wavering +steadiness into his shadowed eyes, and even then noticing the clean-cut +features and the smooth curve of his jaw with the firelight on it, "you +ought not----" + +"I know, I know; I promised my father; but there are some things I cannot +bear. Of course I do not want you to promise anything; but I thought that +if perhaps you could tell me that you thought--that you thought there +would be no one else; and that when I came back----" + +"Hubert," she said again, resolutely, "it is impossible: our +religions----" + +"But I would do anything, I think. Besides, in five years so much may +happen. You might become a Catholic--or--or, I might come to see that the +Protestant Religion was nearly the same, or as true at least--or--or--so +much might happen.--Can you not tell me anything before I go?" + +A keen ray of hope had pierced her heart as he spoke; and she scarcely +knew what she said. + +"But, Hubert, even if I were to say----" + +He seized her hands and kissed them again and again. + +"Oh! God bless you, Isabel! Now I can go so happily. And I will not speak +of it again; you can trust me; it will not be hard for you." + +She tried to draw her hands away, but he still held them tightly in his +own strong hands, and looked into her face. His eyes were shining. + +"Yes, yes, I know you have promised nothing. I hold you to nothing. You +are as free as ever to do what you will with me. But,"--and he lifted her +hands once more and kissed them, and dropped them; seized his cap and was +gone. + +Isabel was left alone in a tumult of thought and emotion. He had taken +her by storm; she had not guessed how desperately weak she was towards +him, until he had come to her like this in a whirlwind of passion and +stood trembling and almost crying, with the ruddy firelight on his face, +and his eyes burning out of shadow. She felt fascinated still by that +mingling of a boy's weakness and sentiment and of a man's fire and +purpose; and she sank down on her knees before the hearth and looked +wonderingly at her hands which he had kissed so ardently, now transparent +and flaming against the light as if with love. Then as she looked at the +red heart of the fire the sudden leaping of her heart quieted, and there +crept on her a glow of steady desire to lean on the power of this tall +young lover of hers; she was so utterly alone without him it seemed as if +there were no choice left; he had come and claimed her in virtue of the +master-law, and she--how much had she yielded? She had not promised; but +she had shown evidently her real heart in those half dozen words; and he +had interpreted them for her; and she dared not in honesty repudiate his +interpretation. And so she knelt there, clasping and unclasping her +hands, in a whirl of delight and trembling; all the bounds of that sober +inner life seemed for the moment swept away; she almost began to despise +its old coldnesses and limitations. How shadowy after all was the love of +God, compared with this burning tide that was bearing her along on its +bosom!... + +She sank lower and lower into herself among the black draperies, clasping +those slender hands tightly across her breast. + +Suddenly a great log fell with a crash, the red glow turned into leaping +flames; the whole dark room seemed alive with shadows that fled to and +fro, and she knelt upright quickly and looked round her, terrified and +ashamed.--What was she doing here? Was it so soon then that she was +setting aside the will of her father, who trusted and loved her so well, +and who lay out there in the chancel vault? Ah! she had no right here in +this room--Hubert's room now, with his cap and whip lying across the +papers and the estate-book, and his knife and the broken jesses on the +seat of the chair beside her. There was his step overhead again. She must +be gone before he came back. + +There was high excitement on the estate and in the village a week or two +later when the rumour of Sir Nicholas' return was established, and the +paper had been pinned up to the gatehouse stating, in Lady Maxwell's own +handwriting, that he would be back sometime in the week before Advent +Sunday. Reminiscences were exchanged of the glorious day when the old +knight came of age, over forty years ago; of the sports on the green, of +the quintain-tilting for the gentlefolks, and the archery in the meadow +behind the church for the vulgar; of the high mass and the dinner that +followed it. It was rumoured that Mr. Hubert and Mr. Piers had already +selected the ox that was to be roasted whole, and that materials for the +bonfire were in process of collection in the woodyard of the home farm. + +Sir Nicholas' letters became more and more emphatically underlined and +incoherent as the days went on, and Lady Maxwell less and less willing +for Isabel to read them; but the girl often found the old lady hastily +putting away the thin sheets which she had just taken out to read to +herself once again, on which her dear lord had scrawled down his very +heart itself, as if his courting of her were all to do again. + +It was not until the Saturday morning that the courier rode in through +the gatehouse with the news that Sir Nicholas was to be released that +day, and would be down if possible before nightfall. All the men on the +estate were immediately called in and sent home to dress themselves; and +an escort of a dozen grooms and servants led by Hubert and Piers rode out +at once on the north road, with torches ready for kindling, to meet the +party and bring them home; and all other preparations were set forward at +once. + +Towards eight o'clock Lady Maxwell was so anxious and restless that +Isabel slipped out and went down to the gatehouse to look out for herself +if there were any signs of the approach of the party. She went up to one +of the little octagonal towers, and looked out towards the green. + +It was a clear starlight night, but towards the village all was bathed in +the dancing ruddy light of the bonfire. It was burning on a little mound +at the upper end of the green, just below where Isabel stood, and a heavy +curtain of smoke drifted westwards. As she looked down on it she saw +against it the tall black posts of the gigantic jack and the slowly +revolving carcass of the ox; and round about the stirring crowd of the +village folk, their figures black on this side, luminous on that. She +could even make out the cassock and square cap of Mr. Bodder as he moved +among his flock. The rows of houses on either side, bright and clear at +this end, melted away into darkness at the lower end of the green, where +on the right the church tower rose up, blotting out the stars, itself +just touched with ruddy light, and on the top of which, like a large star +itself, burned the torch of the watcher who was looking out towards the +north road. There was a ceaseless hum of noise from the green, pierced by +the shrill cries of the children round the glowing mass of the bonfire, +but there was no disorder, as the barrels that had been rolled out of the +Hall cellars that afternoon still stood untouched beneath the Rectory +garden-wall. Isabel contrasted in her mind this pleasant human tumult +with the angry roaring she had heard from these same country-folk a few +months before, when she had followed Lady Maxwell out to the rescue of +the woman who had injured her; and she wondered at these strange souls, +who attended a Protestant service, but were so fierce and so genial in +their defence and welcome of a Catholic squire. + +As she thought, there was a sudden movement of the light on the church +tower; it tossed violently up and down, and a moment later the jubilant +clangour of the bells broke out. There was a sudden stir in the figures +on the green, and a burst of cheering rose. Isabel strained her eyes +northwards, but the road took a turn beyond the church and she could see +nothing but darkness and low-hung stars and one glimmering window. She +turned instinctively to the house behind her, and there was the door +flung wide, and she could make out the figures of the two ladies against +the brightly lit hall beyond, wrapped like herself, in cloak and hood, +for the night was frosty and cold. + +As she turned once more she heard the clear rattle of trotting hoofs on +the hard road, and a glow began to be visible at the lower dark end of +the village. The cheering rose higher, and the bells were all clashing +together in melodious discord, as in the angle of the road a group of +tossing torches appeared. Then she could make out the horsemen; three +riding together, and the others as escort round them. The crowd had +poured off the grass on to the road by now, and the horses were coming up +between two shouting gesticulating lines which closed after them as they +went. Now she could make out the white hair of Sir Nicholas, as he bowed +bare-headed right and left; and Hubert's feathered cap, on one side of +him, and Mr. Boyd's black hat on the other. They had passed the bonfire +now, and were coming up the avenue, the crowds still streaming after +them, and the church tower bellowing rough music overhead. Isabel leaned +out over the battlements, and saw beneath her the two old ladies waiting +just outside the gate by the horse-block; and then she drew back, her +eyes full of tears, for she saw Sir Nicholas' face as he caught sight of +his wife. + +There was a sudden silence as the horses drew up; and the crowds ceased +shouting, and when Isabel leaned over again Sir Nicholas was on the +horse-block, the two ladies immediately behind him, and the people +pressing forward to hear his voice. It was a very short speech; and +Isabel overhead could not catch more than detached phrases of it, "for +the faith"--"my wife and you all"--"home again"--"my son Hubert +here"--"you and your families"--"the Catholic religion"--"the Queen's +grace"--"God save her Majesty." + +Then again the cheering broke out; and Isabel crossed over to see them +pass up to the house and to the bright door set wide for them, and even +as she watched them go up the steps, and Hubert's figure close behind, +she suddenly dropped her forehead on to the cold battlement, and drew a +sharp breath or two, for she remembered again what it all meant to him +and to herself. + + + + + PART II + + + + + CHAPTER I + + ANTHONY IN LONDON + + +The development of a nation is strangely paralleled by the development of +an individual. There comes in both a period of adolescence, of the +stirring of new powers, of an increase of strength, of the dawn of new +ideals, of the awaking of self-consciousness; contours become defined and +abrupt, awkward and hasty movements succeed to the grace of childhood; +and there is a curious mingling of refinement and brutality, stupidity +and tenderness; the will is subject to whims; it is easily roused and not +so easily quieted. Yet in spite of the attendant discomforts the whole +period is undeniably one of growth. + +The reign of Elizabeth coincided with this stage in the development of +England. The young vigour was beginning to stir--and Hawkins and Drake +taught the world that it was so, and that when England stretched herself +catastrophe abroad must follow. She loved finery and feathers and velvet, +and to see herself on the dramatic stage and to sing her love-songs +there, as a growing maid dresses up and leans on her hand and looks into +her own eyes in the mirror--and Marlowe and Greene and Shakespeare are +witnesses to it. Yet she loved to hang over the arena too and watch the +bear-baiting and see the blood and foam and listen to the snarl of the +hounds, as a lad loves sport and things that minister death. Her policy, +too, under Elizabeth as her genius, was awkward and ill-considered and +capricious, and yet strong and successful in the end, as a growing lad, +while he is clumsier, yet manages to leap higher than a year ago. + +And once more, to carry the parallel still further, during the middle +period of the reign, while the balance of parties and powers remained +much the same, principles and tendencies began to assert themselves more +definitely, just as muscles and sinews begin to appear through the round +contour of the limbs of a growing child. + +Thus, from 1571 to 1577, while there was no startling reversal of +elements in the affairs of England, the entire situation became more +defined. The various parties, though they scarcely changed in their +mutual relations, yet continued to develop swiftly along their respective +lines, growing more pronounced and less inclined to compromise; foreign +enmities and expectations became more acute; plots against the Queen's +life more frequent and serious, and the countermining of them under +Walsingham more patient and skilful; competition and enterprise in trade +more strenuous; Scottish affairs more complicated; movements of revolt +and repression in Ireland more violent. + +What was true of politics was also true of religious matters, for the two +were inextricably mingled. The Puritans daily became more clamorous and +intolerant; their "Exercises" more turbulent, and their demands more +unreasonable and one-sided. The Papists became at once more numerous and +more strict; and the Government measures more stern in consequence. The +act of '71 made it no less a crime than High Treason to reconcile or be +reconciled to the Church of Rome, to give effect to a Papal Bull, to be +in possession of any muniments of superstition, or to declare the Queen a +heretic or schismatic. The Church of England, too, under the wise +guidance of Parker, had begun to shape her course more and more +resolutely along the lines of inclusiveness and moderation; to realise +herself as representing the religious voice of a nation that was widely +divided on matters of faith; and to attempt to include within her fold +every individual that was not an absolute fanatic in the Papist or +Puritan direction. + +Thus, in every department, in home and foreign politics, in art and +literature, and in religious independence, England was rising and shaking +herself free; the last threads that bound her to the Continent were +snapped by the Reformation, and she was standing with her soul, as she +thought, awake and free at last, conscious of her beauty and her +strength, ready to step out at last before the world, as a dominant and +imperious power. + +Anthony Norris had been arrested, like so many others, by the vision of +this young country of his, his mother and mistress, who stood there, +waiting to be served. He had left Cambridge in '73, and for three years +had led a somewhat aimless life; for his guardian allowed him a generous +income out of his father's fortune. He had stayed with Hubert in the +north, had yawned and stretched himself at Great Keynes, had gone to and +fro among friends' houses, and had at last come to the conclusion, to +which he was aided by a chorus of advisers, that he was wasting his time. + +He had begun then to look round him for some occupation, and in the final +choice of it his early religious training had formed a large element. It +had kept alive in him a certain sense of the supernatural, that his +exuberance of physical life might otherwise have crushed; and now as he +looked about to see how he could serve his country, he became aware that +her ecclesiastical character had a certain attraction for him; he had had +indeed an idea of taking Orders; but he had relinquished this by now, +though he still desired if he might to serve the National Church in some +other capacity. There was much in the Church of England to appeal to her +sons; if there was a lack of unity in her faith and policy, yet that was +largely out of sight, and her bearing was gallant and impressive. She had +great wealth, great power and great dignity. The ancient buildings and +revenues were hers; the civil power was at her disposal, and the Queen +was eager to further her influence, and to protect her bishops from the +encroaching power of Parliament, claiming only for the crown the right to +be the point of union for both the secular and ecclesiastical sections of +the nation, and to stamp by her royal approval or annul by her veto the +acts of Parliament and Convocation alike. It seemed then to Anthony's +eyes that the Church of England had a tremendous destiny before her, as +the religious voice of the nation that was beginning to make itself so +dominant in the council of the world, and that there was no limit to the +influence she might exercise by disciplining the exuberant strength of +England, and counteracting by her soberness and self-restraint the +passionate fanaticism of the Latin nations. So little by little in place +of the shadowy individualism that was all that he knew of religion, there +rose before him the vision of a living church, who came forth terrible as +an army with banners, surrounded by all the loyalty that nationalism +could give her, with the Queen herself as her guardian, and great princes +and prelates as her supporters, while at the wheels of her splendid car +walked her hot-blooded chivalrous sons, who served her and spread her +glories by land and sea, not perhaps chiefly for the sake of her +spiritual claims, but because she was bone of their bone; and was no less +zealous than themselves for the name and character of England. + +When, therefore, towards the end of '76, Anthony received the offer of a +position in the household of the Archbishop of Canterbury, through the +recommendation of the father of one of his Cambridge friends, he accepted +it with real gratitude and enthusiasm. + +The post to which he was appointed was that of Gentleman of the Horse. +His actual duties were not very arduous owing to the special +circumstances of Archbishop Grindal; and he had a good deal of time to +himself. Briefly, they were as follows--He had to superintend the Yeoman +of the Horse, and see that he kept full accounts of all the horses in +stable or at pasture, and of all the carriages and harness and the like. +Every morning he had to present himself to the Archbishop and receive +stable-orders for the day, and to receive from the yeoman accounts of the +stables. Every month he examined the books of the yeoman before passing +them on to the steward. His permission too was necessary before any +guest's or stranger's horse might be cared for in the Lambeth stables. + +He was responsible also for all the men and boys connected with the +stable; to engage them, watch their morals and even the performance of +their religious duties, and if necessary report them for dismissal to the +steward of the household. In Archbishop Parker's time this had been a +busy post, as the state observed at Lambeth and Croydon was very +considerable; but Grindal was of a more retiring nature, disliking as was +said, "lordliness"; and although still the household was an immense +affair, in its elaborateness and splendour beyond almost any but royal +households of the present day, still Anthony's duties were far from +heavy. The Archbishop indeed at first dispensed with this office +altogether, and concentrated all the supervision of the stable on the +yeoman, and Anthony was the first and only Gentleman of the Horse that +Archbishop Grindal employed. The disgrace and punishment under which the +Archbishop fell so early in his archiepiscopate made this particular post +easier than it would even otherwise have been; as fewer equipages were +required when the Archbishop was confined to his house, and the +establishment was yet further reduced. + +Ordinarily then his duties were over by eleven o'clock, except when +special arrangements were to be made. He rose early, waited upon the +Archbishop by eight o'clock, and received his orders for the day; then +interviewed the yeoman; sometimes visited the stables to receive +complaints, and was ready by half-past ten to go to the chapel for the +morning prayers with the rest of the household. At eleven he dined at the +Steward's table in the great hall, with the other principal officers of +the household, the chaplain, the secretaries, and the gentlemen ushers, +with guests of lesser degree. This great hall with its two entrances at +the lower end near the gateway, its magnificent hammer-beam roof, its +daïs, its stained glass, was a worthy place of entertainment, and had +been the scene of many great feasts and royal visits in the times of +previous archbishops in favour with the sovereign, and of a splendid +banquet at the beginning of Grindal's occupancy of the see. Now, however, +things were changed. There were seldom many distinguished persons to dine +with the disgraced prelate; and he himself preferred too to entertain +those who could not repay him again, after the precept of the gospel; and +besides the provision for the numerous less important guests who dined +daily at Lambeth, a great tub was set at the lower end of the hall as it +had been in Parker's time, and every day after dinner under the steward's +direction was filled with food from the tables, which was afterwards +distributed at the gate to poor people of the neighbourhood. + +After dinner Anthony's time was often his own, until the evening prayers +at six, followed by supper again spread in the hall. It was necessary for +him always to sleep in the house, unless leave was obtained from the +steward. This gentleman, Mr. John Scot, an Esquire, took a fancy to +Anthony, and was indulgent to him in many ways; and Anthony had, as a +matter of fact, little difficulty in coming and going as he pleased so +soon as his morning duties were done. + +Lambeth House had been lately restored by Parker, and was now a very +beautiful and well-kept place. Among other repairs and buildings he had +re-roofed the great hall that stood just within Morton's gateway; he had +built a long pier into the Thames where the barge could be entered easily +even at low tide; he had rebuilt the famous summerhouse of Cranmer's in +the garden, besides doing many sanitary alterations and repairs; and the +house was well kept up in Grindal's time. + +Anthony soon added a great affection and tenderness to the awe that he +felt for the Archbishop, who was almost from the first a pathetic and +touching figure. When Anthony first entered on his duties in November +'76, he found the Archbishop in his last days of freedom and good favour +with the Queen. Elizabeth, he soon learnt from the gossip of the +household, was as determined to put down the Puritan "prophesyings" as +the popish services; for both alike tended to injure the peace she was +resolved to maintain. Rumours were flying to and fro; the Archbishop was +continually going across the water to confer with his friends and the +Lords of the Council, and messengers came and went all day; and it was +soon evident that the Archbishop did not mean to yield. It was said that +his Grace had sent a letter to her Majesty bidding her not to meddle with +what did not concern her, telling her that she, too, would one day have +to render account before Christ's tribunal, and warning her of God's +anger if she persisted. + +Her Majesty had sworn like a trooper, a royal page said one day as he +lounged over the fire in the guard-room, and had declared that if she was +like Ozeas and Ahab and the rest, as Grindal had said she was, she would +take care that he, at least, should be like Micaiah the son of Imlah, +before she had done with him. Then it began to leak out that Elizabeth +was sending her commands to the bishops direct instead of through their +Metropolitan; and, as the days went by, it became more and more evident +that disgrace was beginning to shadow Lambeth. The barges that drew up at +the watergate were fewer as summer went on, and the long tables in hall +were more and more deserted; even the Archbishop himself seemed silent +and cast down. Anthony used to watch him from his window going up and +down the little walled garden that looked upon the river, with his hands +clasped behind him and his black habit gathered up in them, and his chin +on his breast. He would be longer than ever too in chapel after the +morning prayer, and the company would wait and wonder in the anteroom +till his Grace came in and gave the signal for dinner. And at last the +blow fell. + +On one day in June, Anthony, who had been on a visit to Isabel at Great +Keynes, returned to Lambeth in time for morning prayer and dinner just +before the gates were shut by the porter, having ridden up early with a +couple of grooms. There seemed to him to be an air of constraint abroad +as the guests and members of the household gathered for dinner. There +were no guests of high dignity that day, and the Archbishop sat at his +own table silent and apart. Anthony, from his place at the steward's +table, noticed that he ate very sparingly, and that he appeared even more +preoccupied and distressed than usual. His short-sighted eyes, kind and +brown, surrounded by wrinkles from his habit of peering closely at +everything, seemed full of sadness and perplexity, and his hand fumbled +with his bread continually. Anthony did not like to ask anything of his +neighbours, as there were one or two strangers dining at the steward's +table that day; and the moment dinner was over, and grace had been said +and the Archbishop retired with his little procession preceded by a white +wand, an usher came running back to tell Master Norris that his Grace +desired to see him at once in the inner cloister. + +Anthony hastened round through the court between the hall and the river, +and found the Archbishop walking up and down in his black habit with the +round flapped cap, that, as a Puritan, he preferred to the square +head-dress of the more ecclesiastically-minded clergy, still looking +troubled and cast down, continually stroking his dark forked beard, and +talking to one of his secretaries. Anthony stood at a little distance at +the open side of the court near the river, cap in hand, waiting till the +Archbishop should beckon him. The two went up and down in the shade in +the open court outside the cloisters, where the pump stood, and where the +pulpit had been erected for the Queen's famous visit to his predecessor; +when she had sat in a gallery over the cloister and heard the chaplain's +sermon. On the north rose up the roof of the chapel. The cloisters +themselves were poor buildings--little more than passages with a +continuous row of square windows running along them the height of a man's +head. + +After a few minutes the secretary left the Archbishop with an obeisance, +and hastened into the house through the cloister, and presently the +Archbishop, after a turn or two more with the same grave air, peered +towards Anthony and then called him. + +Anthony immediately came towards him and received orders that half a +dozen horses with grooms should be ready as soon as possible, who were to +receive orders from Mr. Richard Frampton, the secretary; and that three +or four horses more were to be kept saddled till seven o'clock that +evening in case further messages were wanted. + +"And I desire you, Mr. Norris," said the Archbishop, "to let the men +under your charge know that their master is in trouble with the Queen's +Grace; and that they can serve him best by being prompt and obedient." + +Anthony bowed to the Archbishop, and was going to withdraw, but the +Archbishop went on: + +"I will tell you," he said, "for your private ear only at present, that I +have received an order this day from my Lords of the Council, bidding me +to keep to my house for six months; and telling me that I am sequestered +by the Queen's desire. I know not how this will end, but the cause is +that I will not do her Grace's will in the matter of the Exercises, as I +wrote to tell her so; and I am determined, by God's grace, not to yield +in this thing; but to govern the charge committed to me as He gives me +light. That is all, Mr. Norris." + +The whole household was cast into real sorrow by the blow that had fallen +at last on the master; he was "loving and grateful to servants"; and was +free and liberal in domestic matters, and it needed only a hint that he +was in trouble, for his officers and servants to do their utmost for him. + +Anthony's sympathy was further aroused by the knowledge that the Papists, +too, hated the old man, and longed to injure him. There had been a great +increase of Catholics this year; the Archbishop of York had reported that +"a more stiff-necked, wilful, or obstinate people did he never hear of"; +and from Hereford had come a lament that conformity itself was a mockery, +as even the Papists that attended church were a distraction when they got +there, and John Hareley was instanced as "reading so loud upon his Latin +popish primer (that he understands not) that he troubles both minister +and people." In November matters were so serious that the Archbishop felt +himself obliged to take steps to chastise the recusants; and in December +came the news of the execution of Cuthbert Maine at Launceston in +Cornwall. + +How much the Catholics resented this against the Archbishop was brought +to Anthony's notice a day or two later. He was riding back for morning +prayer after an errand in Battersea, one frosty day, and had just come in +sight of Morton's Gateway, when he observed a man standing by it, who +turned and ran, on hearing the horse's footsteps, past Lambeth Church and +disappeared in the direction of the meadows behind Essex House. Anthony +checked his horse, doubtful whether to follow or not, but decided to see +what it was that the man had left pinned to the door. He rode up and +detached it, and found it was a violent and scurrilous attack upon the +Archbishop for his supposed share in the death of the two Papists. It +denounced him as a "bloody pseudo-minister," compared him to Pilate, and +bade him "look to his congregation of lewd and profane persons that he +named the Church of England," for that God would avenge the blood of his +saints speedily upon their murderers. + +Anthony carried it into the hall, and after showing it to Mr. Scot, put +it indignantly into the fire. The steward raised his eyebrows. + +"Why so, Master Norris?" he asked. + +"Why," said Anthony sharply, "you would not have me frame it, and show to +my lord." + +"I am not sure," said the other, "if you desire to injure the Papists. +Such foul nonsense is their best condemnation. It is best to keep +evidence against a traitor, not destroy it. Besides, we might have caught +the knave, and now we cannot," he added, looking at the black shrivelling +sheet half regretfully. + +"It is a mystery to me," said Anthony, "how there can be Papists." + +"Why, they hate England," said the steward, briefly, as the bell rang for +morning prayer. As Anthony followed him along the gallery, he thought +half guiltily of Sir Nicholas and his lady, and wondered whether that was +true of them. But he had no doubt that it was true of Catholics as a +class; they had ceased to be English; the cause of the Pope and the Queen +were irreconcilable; and so the whole incident added more fuel to the hot +flame of patriotism and loyalty that burnt so bright in the lad's soul. + +But it was fanned yet higher by a glimpse he had of Court-life; and he +owed it to Mary Corbet whom he had only seen momentarily in public once +or twice, and never to speak to since her visit to Great Keynes over six +years ago. He had blushed privately and bitten his lip a good many times +in the interval, when he thought of his astonishing infatuation, and yet +the glamour had never wholly faded; and his heart quickened perceptibly +when he opened a note one day, brought by a royal groom, that asked him +to come that very afternoon if he could, to Whitehall Palace, where +Mistress Corbet would be delighted to see him and renew their +acquaintance. + +As he came, punctual to the moment, into the gallery overlooking the +tilt-yard, the afternoon sun was pouring in through the oriel window, and +the yard beyond seemed all a haze of golden light and dust. He heard an +exclamation, as he paused, dazzled, and the servant closed the door +behind him; and there came forward to him in the flood of glory, the same +resplendent figure, all muslin and jewels, that he remembered so well, +with the radiant face, looking scarcely older, with the same dancing eyes +and scarlet lips. All the old charm seemed to envelop him in a moment as +he saluted her with all the courtesy of which he was capable. + +"Ah!" she cried, "how happy I am to see you again--those dear days at +Great Keynes!" And she took both his hands with such ardour that poor +Anthony was almost forced to think that he had never been out of her +thoughts since. + +"How can I serve you, Mistress Corbet?" he asked. + +"Serve me? Why, by talking to me, and telling me of the country. What +does the lad mean? Come and sit here," she said, and she drew him to the +window seat. + +Anthony looked out into the shining haze of the tilt-yard. Some one with +a long pole was struggling violently on the back of a horse, jerking the +reins and cursing audibly. + +"Look at that fool," said Mary, "he thinks his horse as great a dolt as +himself. Chris, Chris," she screamed through her hands--"you sodden ass; +be quieter with the poor beast--soothe him, soothe him. He doesn't know +what you want of him with your foul temper and your pole going like a +windmill about his ears." + +The cursing and jerking ceased, and a red furious face with thick black +beard and hair looked up. But before the rider could speak, Mary went on +again: + +"There now, Chris, he is as quiet as a sheep again. Now take him at it." + +"What does he want?" asked Anthony. "I can scarcely see for the dust." + +"Why, he's practising at the quintain;--ah! ah!" she cried out again, as +the quintain was missed and swung round with a hard buffet on the man's +back as he tore past. "Going to market, Chris? You've got a sturdy +shepherd behind you. Baa, baa, black sheep." + +"Who's that?" asked Anthony, as the tall horseman, as if driven by the +storm of contumely from the window, disappeared towards the stable. + +"Why that's Chris Hatton--whom the Queen calls her sheep, and he's as +silly as one, too, with his fool's face and his bleat and his great eyes. +He trots about after her Grace, too, like a pet lamb. Bah! I'm sick of +him. That's enough of the ass; tell me about Isabel." + +Then they fell to talking about Isabel; and Mary eyed him as he answered +her questions. + +"Then she isn't a Papist, yet?" she asked. + +Anthony's face showed such consternation that she burst out laughing. + +"There, there, there!" she cried. "No harm's done. Then that tall lad, +who was away last time I was there--well, I suppose he's not turned +Protestant?" + +Anthony's face was still more bewildered. + +"Why, my dear lad," she said, "where are your eyes?" + +"Mistress Corbet," he burst out at last, "I do not know what you mean. +Hubert has been in Durham for years. There is no talk----" and he +stopped. + +Mary's face became sedate again. + +"Well, well," she said, "I always was a tattler. It seems I am wrong +again. Forgive me, Master Anthony." + +Anthony was indeed astonished at her fantastic idea. Of course he knew +that Hubert had once been fond of Isabel, but that was years ago, when +they had been all children together. Why, he reflected, he too had been +foolish once--and he blushed a little. + +Then they went on to talk of Great Keynes, Sir Nicholas, and Mr. +Stewart's arrest and death; and Mary asked Anthony to excuse her interest +in such matters, but Papistry had always been her religion, and what +could a poor girl do but believe what she was taught? Then they went on +to speak of more recent affairs, and Mary made him describe to her his +life at Lambeth, and everything he did from the moment he got up to the +moment he went to bed again; and whether the Archbishop was a kind +master, and how long they spent at prayers, and how many courses they had +at dinner; and Anthony grew more and more animated and confidential--she +was so friendly and interested and pretty, as she leaned towards him and +questioned and listened, and the faint scent of violet from her dress +awakened his old memories of her. + +And then at last she approached the subject on which she had chiefly +wished to see him--which was that he should speak to the steward at +Lambeth on behalf of a young man who was to be dismissed, it seemed, from +the Archbishop's service, because his sister had lately turned Papist and +fled to a convent abroad. It was a small matter; and Anthony readily +promised to do his best, and, if necessary, to approach the Archbishop +himself: and Mistress Corbet was profusely grateful. + +They had hardly done talking of the matter, when a trumpet blew suddenly +somewhere away behind the building they were in. Mary held up a white +finger and put her head on one side. + +"That will be the Ambassador," she said. + +Anthony looked at her interrogatively. + +"Why, you country lad!" she said, "come and see." + +She jumped up, and he followed her down the gallery, and along through +interminable corridors and ante-chambers, and up and down the stairs of +this enormous palace; and Anthony grew bewildered and astonished as he +went at the doors on all sides, and the roofs that ranged themselves +every way as he looked out. And at last Mary stopped at a window, and +pointed out. + +The courtyard beneath was alive with colour and movement. In front of the +entrance opposite waited the great gilded state carriage, and another was +just driving away. On one side a dozen ladies on grey horses were drawn +up, to follow behind the Queen when she should come out; and a double row +of liveried servants were standing bare-headed round the empty carriage. +The rest of the court was filled with Spanish and English nobles, +mounted, with their servants on foot; all alike in splendid costumes--the +Spaniards with rich chains about their necks, and tall broad-brimmed hats +decked with stones and pearls, and the Englishmen in feathered buckled +caps and short cloaks thrown back. Two or three trumpeters stood on the +steps of the porch. Anthony did not see much state at Lambeth, and the +splendour and gaiety of this seething courtyard exhilarated him, and he +stared down at it all, fascinated, while Mary Corbet poured out a caustic +commentary: + +"There is the fat fool Chris again, all red with his tilting. I would +like to baa at him again, but I dare not with all these foreign folk. +There is Leicester, that tall man with a bald forehead in the cap with +the red feather, on the white horse behind the carriage--he always keeps +close to the Queen. He is the enemy of your prelate, Master Anthony, you +know.... That is Oxford, just behind him on the chestnut. Yes, look well +at him. He is the prince of the tilt-yard; none can stand against him. +You would say he was at his nine-pins, when he rides against them all.... +And he can do more than tilt. These sweet-washed gloves"--and she flapped +an embroidered pair before Anthony--"these he brought to England. God +bless and reward him for it!" she added fervently.... "I do not see +Burghley. Eh! but he is old and gouty these days; and loves a cushion and +a chair and a bit of flannel better than to kneel before her Grace. You +know, she allows him to sit when he confers with her. But then, she is +ever prone to show mercy to bearded persons.... Ah! there is dear Sidney; +that is a sweet soul. But what does he do here among the stones and +mortar when he has the beeches of Penshurst to walk beneath. He is not so +wise as I thought him.... But I must say I grow weary of his nymphs and +his airs of Olympus. And for myself, I do not see that Flora and +Phoebus and Maia and the rest are a great gain, instead of Our Lady and +Saint Christopher and the court of heaven. But then I am a Papist and not +a heathen, and therefore blind and superstitious. Is that not so, Master +Anthony?... And there is Maitland beside him, with the black velvet cap +and the white feather, and his cross eyes and mouth. Now I wish he were +at Penshurst, or Bath--or better still, at Jericho, for it is further +off. I cannot bear that fellow.... Why, Sussex is going on the water, +too, I see. Now what brings him here? I should have thought his affairs +gave him enough to think of.... There he is, with his groom behind him, +on the other chestnut. I am astonished at him. He is all for this French +marriage, you know. So you may figure to yourself Mendoza's love for him! +They will be like two cats together on the barge; spitting and snarling +softly at one another. Her Grace loves to balance folk like that; first +one stretches his claws, and then the other; then one arches his back and +snarls, and the other scratches his face for him; and then when all is +flying fur and blasphemy, off slips her Grace and does what she will." + +It was an astonishing experience for Anthony. He had stepped out from his +workaday life among the grooms and officers and occasional glimpses of +his lonely old master, into an enchanted region, where great personages +whose very names were luminous with fame, now lived and breathed and +looked cheerful or sullen before his very eyes; and one who knew them in +their daily life stood by him and commented and interpreted them for him. +He listened and stared, dazed with the strangeness of it all. + +Mistress Corbet was proceeding to express her views upon the foreign +element that formed half the pageant, when the shrill music broke out +again in the palace, and the trumpeters on the steps took it up; and a +stir and bustle began. Then out of the porch began to stream a +procession, like a river of colour and jewels, pouring from the foot of +the carved and windowed wall, and eddying in a tumbled pool about the +great gilt carriage;--ushers and footmen and nobles and ladies and pages +in bewildering succession. Anthony pressed his forehead to the glass as +he watched, with little exclamations, and Mary watched him, amused and +interested by his enthusiasm. + +And last moved the great canopy bending and swaying under the doorway, +and beneath it, like two gorgeous butterflies, at the sight of whom all +the standing world fell on its knees, came the pale Elizabeth with her +auburn hair, and the brown-faced Mendoza, side by side; and entered the +carriage with the five plumes atop and the caparisoned horses that +stamped and tossed their jingling heads. The yard was already emptying +fast, _en route_ for Chelsea Stairs; and as soon as the two were seated, +the shrill trumpets blew again, and the halberdiers moved off with the +carriage in the midst, the great nobles going before, and the ladies +behind. The later comers mounted as quickly as possible, as their horses +were brought in from the stable entrance, and clattered away, and in five +minutes the yard was empty, except for a few sentries at their posts, and +a servant or two lounging at the doorway; and as Anthony still stared at +the empty pavement and the carpeted steps, far away from the direction of +the Abbey came the clear call of the horns to tell the loyal folk that +the Queen was coming. + +It was a great inspiration for Anthony. He had seen world-powers +incarnate below him in the glittering rustling figure of the Queen, and +the dark-eyed courtly Ambassador in his orders and jewels at her side. +There they had sat together in one carriage; the huge fiery realm of the +south, whose very name was redolent with passion and adventure and +boundless wealth; and the little self-contained northern kingdom, now +beginning to stretch its hands, and quiver all along its tingling sinews +and veins with fresh adolescent life. And Anthony knew that he was one of +the cells of this young organism; and that in him as well as in Elizabeth +and this sparkling creature at his side ran the fresh red blood of +England. They were all one in the possession of a common life; and his +heart burned as he thought of it. + +After he had parted from Mary he rode back to Westminster, and crossed +the river by the horse-ferry that plied there. And even as he landed and +got his beast, with a deal of stamping and blowing, off the echoing +boards on to the clean gravel again, there came down the reaches of the +river the mellow sound of music across a mile of water, mingled with the +deep rattle of oars, and sparkles of steel and colour glittered from the +far-away royal barges in the autumn sunshine; and the lad thought with +wonder how the two great powers so savagely at war upon the salt sea, +were at peace here, sitting side by side on silken cushions and listening +to the same trumpets of peace upon the flowing river. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + SOME NEW LESSONS + + +The six years that followed Sir Nicholas' return and Hubert's departure +for the North had passed uneventfully at Great Keynes. The old knight had +been profoundly shocked that any Catholic, especially an agent so +valuable as Mr. Stewart, should have found his house a death-trap; and +although he continued receiving his friends and succouring them, he did +so with more real caution and less ostentation of it. His religious zeal +and discretion were further increased by the secret return to the "Old +Religion" of several of his villagers during the period; and a very fair +congregation attended Mass so often as it was said in the cloister wing +of the Hall. The new rector, like his predecessor, was content to let the +squire alone; and unlike him had no wife to make trouble. + +Then, suddenly, in the summer of '77, catastrophes began, headed by the +unexpected return of Hubert, impatient of waiting, and with new plans in +his mind. + +Isabel had been out with Mistress Margaret walking in the dusk one August +evening after supper, on the raised terrace beneath the yews. They had +been listening to the loud snoring of the young owls in the ivy on the +chimney-stack opposite, and had watched the fierce bird slide silently +out of the gloom, white against the blackness, and disappear down among +the meadows. Once Isabel had seen him pause, too, on one of his return +journeys, suspicious of the dim figures beneath, silhouetted on a branch +against the luminous green western sky, with the outline of a mouse with +its hanging tail plain in his crooked claws, before he glided to his nest +again. As Isabel waited she heard the bang of the garden-door, but gave +it no thought, and a moment after Mistress Margaret asked her to fetch a +couple of wraps from the house for them both, as the air had a touch of +chill in it. She came down the lichened steps, crossed the lawn, and +passed into the unlighted hall. As she entered, the door opposite opened, +and for a moment she saw the silhouette of a man's figure against the +bright passage beyond. Her heart suddenly leapt, and stood still. + +"Anthony!" she whispered, in a hush of suspense. + +There was a vibration and a step beside her. + +"Isabel!" said Hubert's voice. And then his arms closed round her for the +first time in her life. She struggled and panted a moment as she felt his +breath on her face; and he released her. She recoiled to the door, and +stood there silent and panting. + +"Oh! Isabel!" he whispered; and again, "Isabel!" + +She put out her hand and grasped the door-post behind her. + +"Oh! Hubert! Why have you come?" + +He came a step nearer and she could see the faint whiteness of his face +in the western glimmer. + +"I cannot wait," he said, "I have been nearly beside myself. I have left +the north--and I cannot wait so long." + +"Well?" she said; and he heard the note of entreaty and anxiety in her +voice. + +"I have my plans," he answered; "I will tell you to-morrow. Where is my +aunt?" + +Isabel heard a step on the gravel outside. + +"She is coming," she said sharply. Hubert melted into the dark, and she +saw the opposite door open and let him out. + +The next day Hubert announced his plans to Sir Nicholas, and a conflict +followed. + +"I cannot go on, sir," he said, "I cannot wait for ever. I am treated +like a servant, too; and you know how miserably I am paid, I have obeyed +you for six years, sir; and now I have thrown up the post and told my +lord to his face that I can bear with him no longer." + +Sir Nicholas' face, as he sat in his upright chair opposite the boy, grew +flushed with passion. + +"It is your accursed temper, sir," he said violently. "I know you of old. +Wait? For what? For the Protestant girl? I told you to put that from your +mind, sir." + +Hubert did not propose as yet to let his father into all his plans. + +"I have not spoken her name, sir, I think. I say I cannot wait for my +fortune; I may be impatient, sir--I do not deny it." + +"Then how do you propose to better it?" sneered his father. + +"In November," said Hubert steadily, looking his father in the eyes, "I +sail with Mr. Drake." + +Sir Nicholas' face grew terrific. He rose, and struck the table twice +with his clenched fist. + +"Then, by God, sir, Mr. Drake may have you now." + +Hubert's face grew white with anger; but he had his temper under control. + +"Then I wish you good-day, sir," and he left the room. + +When the boy had left the house again for London, as he did the same +afternoon, Lady Maxwell tried to soothe the old man. It was impossible, +even for her, to approach him before. + +"Sweetheart," she said tranquilly, as he sat and glowered at his plate +when supper was over and the men had left the room, "sweetheart, we must +have Hubert down here again. He must not sail with Mr. Drake." + +The old man's face flared up again in anger. + +"He may follow his own devices," he cried. "I care not what he does. He +has given up the post that I asked for him; and he comes striding and +ruffling home with his hat cocked and--and----"; his voice became +inarticulate. + +"He is only a boy, sweetheart; with a boy's hot blood--you would sooner +have him like that than a milk-sop. Besides--he is our boy." + +The old man growled. His wife went on: + +"And now that James cannot have the estate, he must have it, as you know, +and carry on the old name." + +"He has disgraced it," burst out the angry old man, "and he is going now +with that damned Protestant to harry Catholics. By the grace of God I +love my country, and would serve her Grace with my heart's blood--but +that my boy should go with Drake----!" and again his voice failed. + +It was a couple of days before she could obtain her husband's leave to +write a conciliatory letter, giving leave to Hubert to go with Drake, if +he had made any positive engagement (because, as she represented to Sir +Nicholas, there was nothing actually wrong or disloyal to the Faith in +it)--but entreating him with much pathos not to leave his old parents so +bitterly. + + * * * * + +"Oh, my dear son," the end of the letter ran, "your father is old; and +God, in whose hand are our days, alone knows how long he will live; and +I, too, my son, am old. So come back to us and be our dear child again. +You must not think too hardly of your father's words to you; he is quick +and hot, as you are, too--but indeed we love you dearly. Your room here +is ready for you; and Piers wants a firm hand now over him, as your +father is so old. So come back, my darling, and make our old hearts glad +again." + +But the weeks passed by, and no answer came, and the old people's hearts +grew sick with suspense; and then, at last, in September the courier +brought a letter, written from Plymouth, which told the mother that it +was too late; that he had in fact engaged himself to Mr. Drake in August +before he had come to Great Keynes at all; and that in honour he must +keep his engagement. He asked pardon of his father for his hastiness; but +it seemed a cold and half-hearted sorrow; and the letter ended by +announcing that the little fleet would sail in November; and that at +present they were busy fitting the ships and engaging the men; and that +there would be no opportunity for him to return to wish them good-bye +before he sailed. It was plain that the lad was angry still. + +Sir Nicholas did not say much; but a silence fell on the house. Lady +Maxwell sent for Isabel, and they had a long interview. The old lady was +astonished at the girl's quietness and resignation. + +Yes, she said, she loved Hubert with all her heart. She had loved him for +a long while. No, she was not angry, only startled. What would she do +about the difference in religion? Could she marry him while one was a +Catholic and the other a Protestant? No, they would never be happy like +that; and she did not know what she would do. She supposed she would wait +and see. Yes, she would wait and see; that was all that could be +done.--And then had come a silent burst of tears, and the girl had sunk +down on her knees and hidden her face in the old lady's lap, and the +wrinkled jewelled old hand passed quietly over the girl's black hair; but +no more had been said, and Isabel presently got up and went home to the +Dower House. + +The autumn went by, and November came, and there was no further word from +Hubert. Then towards the end of November a report reached them from +Anthony at Lambeth that the fleet had sailed; but had put back into +Falmouth after a terrible storm in the Channel. And hope just raised its +head. + +Then one evening after supper Sir Nicholas complained of fever and +restlessness, and went early to bed. In the night he was delirious. +Mistress Margaret hastened up at midnight from the Dower House, and a +groom galloped off to Lindfield before morning to fetch the doctor, and +another to fetch Mr. Barnes, the priest, from Cuckfield. Sir Nicholas was +bled to reduce the fever of the pneumonia that had attacked him. All day +long he was sinking. About eleven o'clock that night he fell asleep, +apparently, and Lady Maxwell, who had watched incessantly, was persuaded +to lie down; but at three o'clock in the morning, on the first of +December, Mistress Margaret awakened her, and together they knelt by the +bedside of the old man. The priest, who had anointed him on the previous +evening, knelt behind, repeating the prayers for the dying. + +Sir Nicholas lay on his back, supported by pillows, under the gloom of +the black old four-posted bed. A wood-fire glowed on the hearth, and the +air was fragrant with the scent of the burning cedar-logs. A crucifix was +in the old man's hands; but his eyes were bright with fever, and his +fingers every now and then relaxed, and then tightened their hold again +on the cool silver of the figure of the crucified Saviour. His lips were +moving tremulously, and his ruddy old face was pale now. + +The priest's voice went on steadily; the struggle was beginning. + +"_Proficiscere, anima christiana, de hoc mundo_.--Go forth, Christian +soul, from this world in the name of God the Father Almighty, who created +thee; in the name of Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, Who suffered +for thee; in the name of the Holy Ghost, who was shed forth upon thee; In +the name of Angels and Archangels; in the name of Thrones and Dominions; +in the name of Principalities and Powers----" + +Suddenly the old man, whose head had been slowly turning from side to +side, ceased his movement, and his open mouth closed; he was looking +steadily at his wife, and a look of recognition came back to his eyes. + +"Sweetheart," he said; and smiled, and died. + + * * * * + +Isabel did not see much of Mistress Margaret for the next few days; she +was constantly with her sister, and when she came to the Dower House now +and then, said little to the girl. There were curious rumours in the +village; strangers came and went continually, and there was a vast +congregation at the funeral, when the body of the old knight was laid to +rest in the Maxwell chapel. The following day the air of mystery +deepened; and young Mrs. Melton whispered to Isabel, with many glances +and becks, that she and her man had seen lights through the chapel +windows at three o'clock that morning. Isabel went into the chapel +presently to visit the grave, and there was a new smear of black on the +east wall as if a taper had been set too near. + +The courier who had been despatched to announce to Hubert that his father +had died and left him master of the Hall and estate, with certain +conditions, returned at the end of the month with the news that the fleet +had sailed again on the thirteenth, and that Hubert was gone with it; so +Lady Maxwell, now more silent and retired than ever, for the present +retained her old position and Mr. Piers took charge of the estate. + +Although Isabel outwardly was very little changed in the last six years, +great movements had been taking place in her soul, and if Hubert had only +known the state of the case, possibly he would not have gone so hastily +with Mr. Drake. + +The close companionship of such an one as Mistress Margaret was doing its +almost inevitable work; and the girl had been learning that behind the +brilliant and even crude surface of the Catholic practice, there lay +still and beautiful depths of devotion which she had scarcely dreamed of. +The old nun's life was a revelation to Isabel; she heard from her bed in +the black winter mornings her footsteps in the next room, and soon learnt +that Mistress Margaret spent at least two hours in prayer before she +appeared at all. Two or three times in the day she knew that she retired +again for the same purpose, and again an hour after she was in bed, there +were the same gentle movements next door. She began to discover, too, +that for the Catholic, as well as for the Puritan, the Person of the +Saviour was the very heart of religion; that her own devotion to Christ +was a very languid flame by the side of the ardent inarticulate passion +of this soul who believed herself His wedded spouse; and that the worship +of the saints and the Blessed Mother instead of distracting the love of +the Christian soul rather seemed to augment it. The King of Love stood, +as she fancied sometimes, to Catholic eyes, in a glow of ineffable +splendour; and the faces of His adoring Court reflected the ruddy glory +on all sides; thus refracting the light of their central Sun, instead of, +as she had thought, obscuring it. + +Other difficulties, too, began to seem oddly unreal and intangible, when +she had looked at them in the light of Mistress Margaret's clear old eyes +and candid face. It was a real event in her inner life when she first +began to understand what the rosary meant to Catholics. Mistress Corbet +had told her what was the actual use of the beads; and how the mysteries +of Christ's life and death were to be pondered over as the various +prayers were said; but it had hitherto seemed to Isabel as if this method +were an elaborate and superstitious substitute for reading the inspired +record of the New Testament. + +She had been sitting out in the little walled garden in front of the +Dower House one morning on an early summer day after her father's death, +and Mistress Margaret had come out in her black dress and stood for a +moment looking at her irresolutely, framed in the dark doorway. Then she +had come slowly across the grass, and Isabel had seen for the first time +in her fingers a string of ivory beads. Mistress Margaret sat down on a +garden chair a little way from her, and let her hands sink into her lap, +still holding the beads. Isabel said nothing, but went on reading. +Presently she looked up again, and the old lady's eyes were half-closed, +and her lips just moving; and the beads passing slowly through her +fingers. She looked almost like a child dreaming, in spite of her +wrinkles and her snowy hair; the pale light of a serene soul lay on her +face. This did not look like the mechanical performance that Isabel had +always associated with the idea of beads. So the minutes passed away; +every time that Isabel looked up there was the little white face with the +long lashes lying on the cheek, and the crown of snowy hair and lace, and +the luminous look of a soul in conscious communion with the unseen. + +When the old lady had finished, she twisted the beads about her fingers +and opened her eyes. Isabel had an impulse to speak. + +"Mistress Margaret," she said, "may I ask you something?" + +"Of course, my darling," the old lady said. + +"I have never seen you use those before--I cannot understand them." + +"What is it," asked the old lady, "that you don't understand?" + +"How can prayers said over and over again like that be any good?" + +Mistress Margaret was silent for a moment. + +"I saw young Mrs. Martin last week," she said, "with her little girl in +her lap. Amy had her arms round her mother's neck, and was being rocked +to and fro; and every time she rocked she said 'Oh, mother.'" + +"But then," said Isabel, after a moment's silence, "she was only a +child." + +"'Except ye become like little children--'" quoted Mistress Margaret +softly--"you see, my Isabel, we are nothing more than children with God +and His Blessed Mother. To say 'Hail Mary, Hail Mary,' is the best way of +telling her how much we love her. And then this string of beads is like +Our Lady's girdle, and her children love to finger it, and whisper to +her. And then we say our paternosters, too; and all the while we are +talking she is shewing us pictures of her dear Child, and we look at all +the great things He did for us, one by one; and then we turn the page and +begin again." + +"I see," said Isabel; and after a moment or two's silence Mistress +Margaret got up and went into the house. + +The girl sat still with her hands clasped round her knee. How strange and +different this religion was to the fiery gospel she had heard last year +at Northampton from the harsh stern preacher, at whose voice a veil +seemed to rend and show a red-hot heaven behind! How tender and simple +this was--like a blue summer's sky with drifting clouds! If only it was +true! If only there were a great Mother whose girdle was of beads strung +together, which dangled into every Christian's hands; whose face bent +down over every Christian's bed; and whose mighty and tender arms that +had held her Son and God were still stretched out beneath her other +children. And Isabel, whose soul yearned for a mother, sighed as she +reminded herself that there was but "one Mediator between God and +man--the man, Christ Jesus." + +And so the time went by, like an outgoing tide, silent and steady. The +old nun did not talk much to the girl about dogmatic religion, for she +was in a difficult position. She was timid certainly of betraying her +faith by silence, but she was also timid of betraying her trust by +speech. Sometimes she felt she had gone too far, sometimes not far +enough; but on the whole her practice was never to suggest questions, but +only to answer them when Isabel asked; and to occupy herself with +affirmative rather than with destructive criticism. More than this she +hesitated to do out of honour for the dead; less than this she dared not +do out of love for God and Isabel. But there were three or four +conversations that she felt were worth waiting for; and the look on +Isabel's face afterwards, and the sudden questions she would ask +sometimes after a fit of silence, made her friend's heart quicken towards +her, and her prayers more fervent. + +The two were sitting together one December day in Isabel's upstairs room +and the girl, who had just come in from a solitary walk, was half +kneeling on the window-seat and drumming her fingers softly on the panes +as she looked out at the red western sky. + +"I used to think," she said, "that Catholics had no spiritual life; but +now it seems to me that in comparison we Puritans have none. You know so +much about the soul, as to what is from God and what from the Evil One; +and we have to grope for ourselves. And yet our Saviour said that His +sheep should know His voice. I do not understand it." And she turned +towards Mistress Margaret who had laid down her work and was listening. + +"Dear child," she said, "if you mean our priests and spiritual writers, +it is because they study it. We believe in the science of the soul; and +we consult our spiritual guides for our soul's health, as the leech for +our body's health." + +"But why must you ask the priest, if the Lord speaks to all alike?" + +"He speaks through the priest, my dear, as He does through the +physician." + +"But why should the priest know better than the people?" pursued Isabel, +intent on her point. + +"Because he tells us what the Church says," said the other smiling, "it +is his business. He need not be any better or cleverer in other respects. +The baker may be a thief or a foolish fellow; but his bread is good." + +"But how do you know," went on Isabel, who thought Mistress Margaret a +little slow to see her point--"how do you know that the Church is right?" + +The old nun considered a moment, and then lifted her embroidery again. + +"Why do you think," she asked, beginning to sew, "that each single soul +that asks God's guidance is right?" + +"Because the Holy Ghost is promised to such," said Isabel wondering. + +"Then is it not likely," went on the other still stitching, "that the +millions of souls who form Holy Church are right, when they all agree +together?" Isabel moved a little impatiently. + +"You see," went on Mistress Margaret, "that is what we Catholics believe +our Saviour meant when He said that the gates of hell should not prevail +against His Church." + +But Isabel was not content. She broke in: + +"But why are not the Scriptures sufficient? They are God's Word." + +The other put down her embroidery again, and smiled up into the girl's +puzzled eyes. + +"Well, my child," she said, "do they seem sufficient, when you look at +Christendom now? If they are so clear, how is it that you have the +Lutherans, and the Anabaptists, and the Family of Love, and the +Calvinists, and the Church of England, all saying they hold to the +Scriptures alone. Nay, nay; the Scriptures are the grammar, and the +Church is the dame that teaches out of it, and she knows so well much +that is not in the grammar, and we name that tradition. But where there +is no dame to teach, the children soon fall a-fighting about the book and +the meaning of it." + +Isabel looked at Mistress Margaret a moment, and then turned back again +to the window in silence. + +At another time they had a word or two about Peter's prerogatives. + +"Surely," said Isabel suddenly, as they walked together in the garden, +"Christ is the one Foundation of the Church, St. Paul tells us so +expressly." + +"Yes, my dear," said the nun, "but then Christ our Lord said: 'Thou art +Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church.' So he who is the only +Good Shepherd, said to Peter, 'Feed My sheep'; and He that is _Clavis +David_ and that openeth and none shutteth said to him, 'I will give +thee the keys, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in +heaven.' That is why we call Peter the Vicar of Christ." + +Isabel raised her eyebrows. + +"Surely, surely----" she began. + +"Yes, my child," said Mistress Margaret, "I know it is new and strange to +you; but it was not to your grandfather or his forbears: to them, as to +me, it is the plain meaning of the words. We Catholics are a simple folk. +We hold that what our Saviour said simply He meant simply: as we do in +the sacred mystery of His Body and Blood. To us, you know," she went on, +smiling, with a hand on the girl's arm, "it seems as if you Protestants +twisted the Word of God against all justice." + +Isabel smiled back at her; but she was puzzled. The point of view was new +to her. And yet again in the garden, a few months later, as they sat out +together on the lawn, the girl opened the same subject. + +"Mistress Margaret," she said, "I have been thinking a great deal; and it +seems very plain when you talk. But you know our great divines could +answer you, though I cannot. My father was no Papist; and Dr. Grindal and +the Bishops are all wise men. How do you answer that?" + +The nun looked silently down at the grass a moment or two. + +"It is the old tale," she said at last, looking up; "we cannot believe +that the babes and sucklings are as likely to be right in such matters as +the wise and prudent--even more likely, if our Saviour's words are to be +believed. Dear child, do you not see that our Lord came to save all men, +and call all men into His Church; and that therefore He must have marked +His Church in such a manner that the most ignorant may perceive it as +easily as the most learned? Learning is very well, and it is the gift of +God; but salvation and grace cannot depend upon it. It needs an architect +to understand why Paul's Church is strong and beautiful, and what makes +it so; but any child or foolish fellow can see that it is so." + +"I do not understand," said Isabel, wrinkling her forehead. + +"Why this--that you are as likely to know the Catholic Church when you +see it, as Dr. Grindal or Dr. Freake, or your dear father himself. Only a +divine can explain about it and understand it, but you and I are as fit +to see it and walk into it, as any of them." + +"But then why are they not all Catholics?" asked Isabel, still +bewildered. + +"Ah!" said the nun, softly, "God alone knows, who reads hearts and calls +whom He will. But learning, at least, has nought to do with it." + +Conversations of this kind that took place now and then between the two +were sufficient to show Mistress Margaret, like tiny bubbles on the +surface of a clear stream, the swift movement of this limpid soul that +she loved so well. But on the other hand, all the girl's past life, and +most sacred and dear associations, were in conflict with this movement; +the memory of her quiet, wise father rose and reproached her sometimes; +Anthony's enthusiastic talk, when he came down from Lambeth, on the +glorious destinies of the Church of England, of her gallant protest +against the corruptions of the West, and of her future unique position in +Christendom as the National Church of the most progressive country--all +this caused her to shrink back terrified from the bourne to which she was +drifting, and from the breach that must follow with her brother. But +above all else that caused her pain was the shocking suspicion that her +love for Hubert perhaps was influencing her, and that she was living in +gross self-deception as to the sincerity of her motives. + +This culminated at last in a scene that seriously startled the old nun; +it took place one summer night after Hubert's departure in Mr. Drake's +expedition. Mistress Margaret had seen Isabel to her room, and an hour +later had finished her night-office and was thinking of preparing herself +to bed, when there was a hurried tap at the door, and Isabel came quickly +in, her face pale and miserable, her great grey eyes full of trouble and +distraction, and her hair on her shoulders. + +"My dear child," said the nun, "what is it?" + +Isabel closed the door and stood looking at her, with her lips parted. + +"How can I know, Mistress Margaret," she said, in the voice of a +sleep-walker, "whether this is the voice of God or of my own wicked self? +No, no," she went on, as the other came towards her, frightened, "let me +tell you. I must speak." + +"Yes, my child, you shall; but come and sit down first," and she drew her +to a chair and set her in it, and threw a wrap over her knees and feet; +and sat down beside her, and took one of her hands, and held it between +her own. + +"Now then, Isabel, what is it?" + +"I have been thinking over it all so long," began the girl, in the same +tremulous voice, with her eyes fixed on the nun's face, "and to-night in +bed I could not bear it any longer. You see, I love Hubert, and I used to +think I loved our Saviour too; but now I do not know. It seems as if He +was leading me to the Catholic Church; all is so much more plain and easy +there--it seems--it seems--to make sense in the Catholic Church; and all +the rest of us are wandering in the dark. But if I become a Catholic, you +see, I can marry Hubert then; and I cannot help thinking of that; and +wanting to marry him. But then perhaps that is the reason that I think I +see it all so plainly; just because I want to see it plainly. And what am +I to do? Why will not our Lord shew me my own heart and what is His +Will?" + +Mistress Margaret shook her head gently. + +"Dear child," she said, "our Saviour loves you and wishes to make you +happy. Do you not think that perhaps He is helping you and making it easy +in this way, by drawing you to His Church through Hubert. Why should not +both be His Will? that you should become a Catholic and marry Hubert as +well?" + +"Yes," said Isabel, "but how can I tell?" + +"There is only one thing to be done," went on the old lady, "be quite +simple and quiet. Whenever your soul begins to be disturbed and anxious, +put yourself in His Hands, and refuse to decide for yourself. It is so +easy, so easy." + +"But why should I be so anxious and disturbed, if it were not our Lord +speaking and warning me?" + +"In the Catholic Church," said Mistress Margaret, "we know well about all +those movements of the soul; and we call them scruples. You must resist +them, dear child, like temptations. We are told that if a soul is in +grace and desires to serve God, then whenever our Lord speaks it is to +bring sweetness with Him; and when it is the evil one, he brings +disturbance. And that is why I am sure that these questionings are not +from God. You feel stifled, is it not so, when you try to pray? and all +seems empty of God; the waves and storms are going over you. But lie +still and be content; and refuse to be disturbed; and you will soon be at +peace again and see the light clearly." + +Mistress Margaret found herself speaking simply in short words and +sentences as to a child. She had seen that for a long while past the +clouds had been gathering over Isabel, and that her soul was at present +completely overcast and unable to perceive or decide anything clearly; +and so she gave her this simple advice, and did her utmost to soothe her, +knowing that such a clean soul would not be kept long in the dark. + +She knelt down with Isabel presently and prayed aloud with her, in a +quiet even voice; a patch of moonlight lay on the floor, and something of +its white serenity seemed to be in the old nun's tones as she entreated +the merciful Lord to bid peace again to this anxious soul, and let her +see light again through the dark. + +And when she had taken Isabel back again to her own room at last, and had +seen her safely into bed, and kissed her good-night, already the girl's +face was quieter as it lay on the pillow, and the lines were smoothed out +of her forehead. + +"God bless you!" said Mistress Margaret. + + + + + CHAPTER III + + HUBERT'S RETURN + + +After the sailing of Mr. Drake's expedition, the friends of the adventurers +had to wait in patience for several months before news arrived. Then the +_Elizabeth_, under the command of Mr. Winter, which had been separated +from Mr. Drake's _Pelican_ in a gale off the south-west coast of America, +returned to England, bringing the news of Mr. Doughty's execution for +desertion; but of the _Pelican_ herself there was no further news until +complaints arrived from the Viceroy of New Spain of Mr. Drake's ravages +up the west coast. Then silence again fell for eighteen months. + +Anthony had followed the fortunes of the _Pelican_, in which Hubert had +sailed, with a great deal of interest: and it was with real relief that +after the burst of joy in London at the news of her safe return to +Plymouth with an incalculable amount of plunder, he had word from Lady +Maxwell that she hoped he would come down at once to Great Keynes, and +help to welcome Hubert home. He was not able to go at once, for his +duties detained him; but a couple of days after the Hall had welcomed its +new master, Anthony was at the Dower House again with Isabel. He found +her extraordinarily bright and vivacious, and was delighted at the +change, for he had been troubled the last time he had seen her a few +months before, at her silence and listlessness; but her face was radiant +now, as she threw herself into his arms at the door, and told him that +they were all to go to supper that night at the Hall; and that Hubert had +been keeping his best stories on purpose for his return. She showed him, +when they got up to his room at last, little things Hubert had given +her--carved nuts, a Spanish coin or two, and an ingot of gold--but of +which she would say nothing, but only laugh and nod her head. + +Hubert, too, when he saw him that evening seemed full of the same sort of +half-suppressed happiness that shone out now and again suddenly. There he +sat, for hours after supper that night, broader and more sunburnt than +ever, with his brilliant eyes glancing round as he talked, and his sinewy +man's hand, in the delicate creamy ruff, making little explanatory +movements, and drawing a map once or twice in spilled wine on the +polished oak; the three ladies sat forward and watched him breathlessly, +or leaned back and sighed as each tale ended, and Anthony found himself, +too, carried away with enthusiasm again and again, as he looked at this +gallant sea-dog in his gold chain and satin and jewels, and listened to +his stories. + +"It was bitter cold," said Hubert in his strong voice, telling them of +Mr. Doughty's death, "on the morning itself: and snow lay on the decks +when we rose. Mr. Fletcher had prepared a table in the poop-cabin, with a +white cloth and bread and wine; and at nine of the clock we were all +assembled where we might see into the cabin: and Mr. Fletcher said the +Communion service, and Mr. Drake and Mr. Doughty received the sacrament +there at his hands. Some of Mr. Doughty's men had all they could do to +keep back their tears; for you know, mother, they were good friends. And +then when it was done, we made two lines down the deck to where the block +stood by the main-mast; and the two came down together; and they kissed +one another there. And Mr. Doughty spoke to the men, and bade them pray +for the Queen's Grace with him; and they did. And then he and Mr. Drake +put off their doublets, and Mr. Doughty knelt at the block, and said +another prayer or two, and then laid his head down, and he was shivering +a little with cold, and then, when he gave the sign, Mr. Drake----" and +Hubert brought the edge of his hand down sharply, and the glasses rang, +and the ladies drew quick hissing breaths; and Lady Maxwell put her hand +on her son's arm, as he looked round on all their faces. + +Then he told them of the expedition up the west coast, and of the towns +they sacked; and the opulent names rolled oddly off his tongue, and +seemed to bring a whiff of southern scent into this panelled English +room,--Valparaiso, Tarapaca, and Arica--; and of the capture of the +_Cacafuego_ off Quibdo; and of the enormous treasure they took, the +great golden crucifix with emeralds of the size of pigeon's eggs, and the +chests of pearls, and the twenty-six tons of silver, and the wedges of +pure gold from the Peruvian galleon, and of the golden falcon from the +Chinese trader that they captured south of Guatulco. And he described the +search up the coast for the passage eastwards that never existed; and of +Drake's superb resolve to return westwards instead, by the Moluccas; and +how they stayed at Ternate, south of Celebes, and coasted along Java +seeking a passage, and found it in the Sunda straits, and broke out from +the treacherous islands into the open sea; crossed to Africa, rounded the +Cape of Good Hope; came up the west coast, touching at Sierra Leone, and +so home again along the Spanish and French coasts, to Plymouth Sound and +the pealing of Plymouth bells. + +And he broke out into something very like eloquence when he spoke of +Drake. + +"Never was such a captain," he cried, "with his little stiff beard and +his obstinate eyes. I have seen him stand on the poop, when the arrows +were like hail on the deck, with one finger in the ring round his +neck,--so": and Hubert thrust a tanned finger into a link of his chain, +and lifted his chin, "just making little signs to the steersman, with his +hand behind his back, to bring the ship nearer to the Spaniard; as cool, +I tell you, as cool as if he were playing merelles. Oh! and then when we +boarded, out came his finger from his ring; and there was none that +struck so true and fierce; and all in silence too, without an oath or a +cry or a word; except maybe to give an order. But he was very sharp with +all that angered him. When we sighted the _Madre di Dios_, I ran into +his cabin to tell him of it, without saluting, so full was my head of +the chase. And he looked at me like ice; and then roared at me to know +where my manners were, and bade me go out and enter again properly, +before he would hear my news; and then I heard him rating the man that +stood at his door for letting me pass in that state. At his dinner, too, +which he took alone, there were always trumpets to blow, as when her +Grace dines. When he laughed it seemed as if he did it with a grave face. +There was a piece of grand fooling when we got out from among those weary +Indian islands; where the great crabs be, and flies that burn in the +dark, as I told you. Mr. Fletcher, the minister, played the coward one +night when we ran aground; and bade us think of our sins and our immortal +souls, instead of urging us to be smart about the ship; and he did it, +too, not as Mr. Drake might do, but in such a melancholy voice as if we +were all at our last hour; so when we were free of our trouble, and out +on the main again, we were all called by the drum to the forecastle, and +there Mr. Drake sat on a sea-chest as solemn as a judge, so that not a +man durst laugh, with a pair of pantoufles in his hand; and Mr. Fletcher +was brought before him, trying to smile as if 'twas a jest for him too, +between two guards; and there he was arraigned; and the witnesses were +called; and Tom Moore said how he was tapped on the shoulder by Mr. +Fletcher as he was getting a pick from the hold; and how he was as white +as a ghost and bade him think on Mr. Doughty, how there was no mercy for +him when he needed it, and so there would be none for us--and then other +witnesses came, and then Mr. Fletcher tried to make his defence, saying +how it was the part of a minister to bid men think on their souls; but +'twas no good. Mr. Drake declared him guilty; and sentenced him to be +kept in irons till he repented of that his cowardice; and then, which was +the cream of the joke, since the prisoner was a minister, Mr. Drake +declared him excommunicate, and cut off from the Church of God, and given +over to the devil. And he was put in irons, too, for a while; so 'twas +not all a joke." + +"And what is Mr. Drake doing now?" asked Lady Maxwell. + +"Oh! Drake is in London," said Hubert. "Ah! yes, and you must all come to +Deptford when her Grace is going to be there. Anthony, lad, you'll come?" + +Anthony said he would certainly do his best; and Isabel put out her hand +to her brother, and beamed at him; and then turned to look at Hubert +again. + +"And what are you to do next?" asked Mistress Margaret. + +"Well," he said, "I am to go to Plymouth again presently, to help to get +the treasure out of the ships; and I must be there, too, for the spring +and summer, for Drake wants me to help him with his new expedition." + +"But you are not going with him again, my son?" said his mother quickly. + +Hubert put out his hand to her. + +"No, no," he said, "I have written to tell him I cannot. I must take my +father's place here. He will understand"; and he gave one swift glance at +Isabel, and her eyes fell. + +Anthony was obliged to return to Lambeth after a day or two, and he +carried with him a heart full of admiration and enthusiasm for his +friend. He had wondered once or twice, too, as his eyes fell on Isabel, +whether there was anything in what Mistress Corbet had said; but he dared +not speak to her, and still less to Hubert, unless his confidence was +first sought. + +The visit to Deptford, which took place a week or two later, gave an +additional spurt to Anthony's nationalism. London was all on fire at the +return of the buccaneers, and as Anthony rode down the south bank of the +river from Lambeth to join the others at the inn, the three miles of +river beyond London Bridge were an inspiriting sight in the bright winter +sunshine, crowded with craft of all kinds, bright with bunting, that were +making their way down to the naval triumph. The road, too, was thick with +vehicles and pedestrians. + +It was still early when he met his party at the inn, and Hubert took them +immediately to see the _Pelican_ that was drawn up in a little creek on +the south bank. Mistress Margaret had not come, so the four went together +all over the ship that had been for these years the perilous home of this +sunburnt lad they all loved so well. Hubert pointed out Drake's own cabin +at the poop, with its stern-windows, where the last sacrament of the two +friends had been celebrated; and where Drake himself had eaten in royal +fashion to the sound of trumpets and slept with all-night sentries at his +door. He showed them too his own cabin, where he had lived with three +more officers, and the upper poop-deck where Drake would sit hour after +hour with his spy-glass, ranging the horizons for treasure-ships. And he +showed them, too, the high forecastle, and the men's quarters; and Isabel +fingered delicately the touch-holes of the very guns that had roared and +snapped so fiercely at the Dons; and they peered down into the dark empty +hold where the treasure-chests had lain, and up at the three masts and +the rigging that had borne so long the swift wings of the _Pelican_. And +they heard the hiss and rattle of the ropes as Hubert ordered a man to +run up a flag to show them how it was done; and they smelled the strange +tarry briny smell of a sea-going ship. + +"You are not tired?" Anthony said to his sister, as they walked back to +the inn from which they were to see the spectacle. She shook her head +happily; and Anthony, looking at her, once more questioned himself +whether Mistress Corbet were right or not. + +When they had settled down at last to their window, the crowds were +gathering thicker every moment about the entrance to the ship, which lay +in the creek perhaps a hundred yards from the inn, and on the road along +which the Queen was to come from Greenwich. Anthony felt his whole heart +go out in sympathy to these joyous shouting folk beneath, who were here +to celebrate the gallant pluck of a little bearded man and his followers, +who for the moment stood for England, and in whose presence just now the +Queen herself must take second place. Even the quacks and salesmen who +were busy in their booths all round used patriotism to push their +bargains. + +"Spanish ointment, Spanish ointment!" bellowed a red-faced herbalist in a +doctor's gown, just below the window. "The Dons know what's best for +wounds and knocks after Frankie Drake's visit"; and the crowd laughed and +bought up his boxes. And another drove a roaring business in green glass +beads, reported to be the exact size of the emeralds taken from the +_Cacafuego_; and others sold little models of the _Pelican_, warranted to +frighten away Dons and all other kinds of devils from the house that +possessed one. Isabel laughed with pleasure, and sent Anthony down to buy +one for her. + +But perhaps more than all else the sight of the seamen themselves stirred +his heart. Most of them, officers as well as men, were dressed with +absurd extravagance, for the prize-money, even after the deduction of the +Queen's lion-share, had been immense, but beneath their plumed and +jewel-buckled caps, brown faces looked out, alert and capable, with tight +lips and bright, puckered eyes, with something of the terrier in their +expression. There they swaggered along with a slight roll in their walk, +by ones or twos, through the crowd that formed lanes to let them pass, +and surged along in their wake, shouting after them and clapping them on +the back. Anthony watched them eagerly as they made their way from all +directions to where the _Pelican_ lay; for it was close on noon. Then +from far away came the boom of the Tower guns, and then the nearer crash +of those that guarded the dockyard; and last the deafening roar of the +_Pelican_ broadside; and then the smoke rose and drifted in a heavy veil +in the keen frosty air over the cheering crowds. When it lifted again, +there was the flash of gold and colour from the Greenwich road, and the +high braying of the trumpets pierced the roaring welcome of the people. +But the watchers at the windows could see no more over the heads of the +crowd than the plumes of the royal carriage, as the Queen dismounted, and +a momentary glimpse of her figure and the group round her as she passed +on to the deck of the _Pelican_ and went immediately below to the +banquet, while the parish church bells pealed a welcome. + +Lady Maxwell insisted that Isabel should now dine, as there would be no +more to be seen till the Queen should come up on deck again. + +Of the actual ceremony of the knighting of Mr. Drake they had a very fair +view, though the figures were little and far away. The first intimation +they had that the banquet was over was the sight of the scarlet-clad +yeomen emerging one by one up the little hatchway that led below. The +halberdiers lined the decks already, with their weapons flashing in long +curved lines; and by the time that the trumpets began to sound to show +that the Queen was on her way from below, the decks were one dense mass +of colour and steel, with a lane left to the foot of the poop-stairs by +which she would ascend. Then at last the two figures appeared, the Queen +radiant in cloth of gold, and Mr. Drake, alert and brisk, in his Court +suit and sword. There was silence from the crowd as the adventurer knelt +before the Queen, and Anthony held his breath with excitement as he +caught the flash of the slender sword that an officer had put into the +Queen's hand; and then an inconceivable noise broke out as Sir Francis +Drake stood up. The crowd was one open mouth, shouting, the church bells +burst into peals overhead, answered by the roll of drums from the deck +and the blare of trumpets; and then the whole din sank into nothingness +for a moment under the heart-shaking crash of the ship's broadside, +echoed instantly by the deeper roar of the dockyard guns, and answered +after a moment or two from far away by the dull boom from the Tower. And +Anthony leaned yet further from the window and added his voice to the +tumult. + +As he rode back alone to Lambeth, after parting with the others at London +Bridge, for they intended to go down home again that night, he was +glowing with national zeal. He had seen not only royalty and magnificence +but an apotheosis of character that day. There in the little trim figure +with the curly hair kneeling before the Queen was England at its +best--England that sent two ships against an empire; and it was the +Church that claimed Sir Francis Drake as a son, and indeed a devoted one, +in a sense, that Anthony himself was serving here at Lambeth, and for +which he felt a real and fervent enthusiasm. + +He was surprised a couple of days later to receive a note in Lady +Maxwell's handwriting, brought up by a special messenger from the Hall. + +"There is a friend of mine," she wrote, "to come to Lambeth House +presently, he tells me, to be kept a day or two in ward before he is sent +to Wisbeach. He is a Catholic, named Mr. Henry Buxton, who showed me +great love during the sorrow of my dear husband's death; and I write to +you to show kindness to him, and to get him a good bed, and all that may +comfort him: for I know not whether Lambeth Prison is easy or hard; but I +hope perhaps that since my Lord Archbishop is a prisoner himself he has +pity on such as are so too; and so my pains be in vain. However, if you +will see Mr. Buxton at least, and have some talk with him, and show him +this letter, it will cheer him perhaps to see a friend's face." + +Anthony of course made inquiries at once, and found that Mr. Buxton was +to arrive on the following afternoon. It was the custom to send prisoners +occasionally to Lambeth, more particularly those more distinguished, or +who, it was hoped, could be persuaded to friendly conference. Mr. Buxton, +however, was thought to be incorrigible, and was only sent there because +there was some delay in the preparations for his reception at Wisbeach, +which since the previous year had been used as an overflow prison for +Papists. + +On the evening of the next day, which was Friday, Anthony went straight +out from the Hall after supper to the gateway prison, and found Mr. +Buxton at a fish supper in the little prison in the outer part of the +eastern tower. He introduced himself, but found it necessary to show Lady +Maxwell's letter before the prisoner was satisfied as to his identity. + +"You must pardon me, Mr. Norris," he said, when he had read the letter +and asked a question or two, "but we poor Papists are bound to be shy. +Why, in this very room," he went on, pointing to the inner corner away +from the door, and smiling, "for aught I know a man sits now to hear us." + +Anthony was considerably astonished to see this stranger point so +confidently to the hiding-hole, where indeed the warder used to sit +sometimes behind a brick partition, to listen to the talk of the +prisoners; and showed his surprise. + +"Ah, Mr. Norris," the other said, "we Papists are bound to be well +informed; or else where were our lives? But come, sir, let us sit down." + +Anthony apologised for interrupting him at his supper, and offered to +come again, but Mr. Buxton begged him not to leave, as he had nearly +finished. So Anthony sat down, and observed the prison and the prisoner. +It was fairly well provided with necessaries: a good straw bed lay in one +corner on trestles; and washing utensils stood at the further wall; and +there was an oil lamp that hung high up from an iron pin. The prisoner's +luggage lay still half unpacked on the floor, and a row of pegs held a +hat and a cloak. Mr. Buxton himself was a dark-haired man with a short +beard and merry bright eyes; and was dressed soberly as a gentleman; and +behaved himself with courtesy and assurance. But it was a queer place +with this flickering lamp, thought Anthony, for a gentleman to be eating +his supper in. When Mr. Buxton had finished his dish of roach and a +tankard of ale, he looked up at Anthony, smiling. + +"My lord knows the ways of Catholics, then," he said, pointing to the +bones on his plate. + +Anthony explained that the Protestants observed the Friday abstinence, +too. + +"Ah yes," said the other, "I was forgetting the Queen's late injunctions. +Let us see; how did it run? 'The same is not required for any liking of +Papish Superstitions or Ceremonies (is it?) hitherto used, which utterly +are to be detested of all Christian folk'; (no, the last word or two is a +gloss), 'but only to maintain the mariners in this land, and to set men +a-fishing.' That is the sense of it, is it not, sir? You fast, that is, +not for heavenly reasons, which were a foolish and Papish thing to do; +but for earthly reasons, which is a reasonable and Protestant thing to +do." + +Anthony might have taken this assault a little amiss, if he had not seen +a laughing light in his companion's eyes; and remembered, too, that +imprisonment is apt to breed a little bitterness. So he smiled back at +him. Then soon they fell to talking of Lady Maxwell and Great Keynes, +where it seemed that Mr. Buxton had stayed more than once. + +"I knew Sir Nicholas well," he said, "God rest his soul. It seems to me +he is one of those whose life continually gave the lie to men who say +that a Catholic can be no true Englishman. There never beat a more loyal +heart than his." + +Anthony agreed; but asked if it were not true that Catholics were in +difficulties sometimes as to the proper authority to be obeyed--the Pope +or the Prince. + +"It is true," said the other, "or it might be. Yet the principle is +clear, _Date Cæsari quae sunt Cæsaris_. The difficulty lies but in the +application of the maxim." + +"But with us," said Anthony--"Church of England folk,--there hardly can +be ever any such difficulty; for the Prince of the State is the Governor +of the Church as well." + +"I take your point," said Mr. Buxton. "You mean that a National Church is +better, for that spiritual and temporal authorities are then at one." + +"Just so," said Anthony, beginning to warm to his favourite theme. "The +Church is the nation regarded as religious. When England wars on land it +is through her army, which is herself under arms; when on sea she embarks +in the navy; and in the warfare with spiritual powers, it is through her +Church. And surely in this way the Church must always be the Church of +the people. The Englishman and the Spaniard are like cat and dog; they +like not the same food nor the same kind of coat; I hear that their +buildings are not like ours; their language, nay, their faces and minds, +are not like ours. Then why should be their prayers and their religion? I +quarrel with no foreigner's faith; it is God who made us so." + +Anthony stopped, breathless with his unusual eloquence; but it was the +subject that lay nearest to his heart at present, and he found no lack of +words. The prisoner had watched him with twinkling eyes, nodding his head +as if in agreement; and when he had finished his little speech, nodded +again in meditative silence. + +"It is complete," he answered, "complete. And as a theory would be +convincing; and I envy you, Master Norris, for you stand on the top of +the wave. That is what England holds. But, my dear sir, Christ our Lord +refused such a kingdom as that. My kingdom, He said, is not of this +world--is not, that is, ruled by the world's divisions and systems. You +have described Babel,--every nation with its own language. But it was to +undo Babel and to build one spiritual city that our Saviour came down, +and sent the Holy Ghost to make the Church at Pentecost out of Arabians +and Medes and Elamites--to break down the partition-walls, as the apostle +tells us,--that there be neither Jew nor Greek, barbarian nor +Scythian--and to establish one vast kingdom (which for that very reason +we name Catholic), to destroy differences between nation and nation, by +lifting each to be of the People of God--to pull down Babel, the City of +Confusion, and build Jerusalem the City of Peace. Dear God!" cried Mr. +Buxton, rising in his excitement, and standing over Anthony, who looked +at him astonished and bewildered. "You and your England would parcel out +the Kingdom of heaven into national Churches, as you name them--among all +the kingdoms of the world; and yet you call yourselves the servants of +Him who came to do just the opposite--yes, and who will do it, in spite +of you, and make the kingdoms of this world, instead, the Kingdom of our +Lord and of His Christ. Why, if each nation is to have her Church, why +not each county and each town--yes, and each separate soul, too; for all +are different! Nay, nay, Master Norris, you are blinded by the Prince of +this world. He is shewing you even now from an high mountain the kingdoms +of this world and the glory of them: lift your eyes, dear lad, to the +hills from whence cometh your help; those hills higher than the mountain +where you stand; and see the new Jerusalem, and the glory of her, coming +down from God to dwell with men." + +Mr. Buxton stood, his eyes blazing, plainly carried away wholly by +enthusiasm; and Anthony, in spite of himself, could not be angry. He +moistened his lips once or twice. + +"Well, sir; of course I hold with what you say, in one sense; but it is +not come yet; and never will, till our Lord comes back to make all +plain." + +"Not come yet?" cried the other, "Not come yet! Why, what is the one Holy +Catholic and Apostolic Church but that? There you have one visible +kingdom, gathered out of every nation and tongue and people, as the +apostle said. I have a little estate in France, Master Norris, where I go +sometimes; and there are folk in their wooden shoes, talking a different +human tongue to me, but, thank God! the same divine one--of contrition +and adoration and prayer. There we have the same mass, the same +priesthood, the same blessed sacrament and the same Faith, as in my own +little oratory at Stanfield. Go to Spain, Africa, Rome, India; wherever +Christ is preached; there is the Church as it is here--the City of Peace. +And as for you and your Church! with whom do you hold communion?" + +This stung Anthony, and he answered impulsively. + +"In Geneva and Frankfort, at least, there are folk who speak the same +divine tongue, as you call it, as we do; they and we are agreed in +matters of faith." + +"Indeed," said Mr. Burton sharply, "then what becomes of your +Nationalism, and the varied temperaments that you told me God had made?" + +Anthony bit his lip; he had overshot his mark. But the other swept on; +and as he talked began to step up and down the little room, in a kind of +rhapsody. + +"Is it possible?" he cried, "that men should be so blind as to prefer the +little divided companies they name National Churches--all confusion and +denial--to that glorious kingdom that Christ bought with his own dear +blood, and has built upon Peter, against which the gates of hell shall +not prevail. Yes, I know it is a flattering and a pleasant thought that +this little nation should have her own Church; and it is humbling and +bitter that England should be called to submit to a foreign potentate in +the affairs of faith--Nay, cry they like the Jews of old, not Christ but +Barabbas--we will not have this Man to reign over us. And yet this is +God's will and not that. Mark me, Mr. Norris, what you hope will never +come to be--the Liar will not keep his word--you shall not have that +National Church that you desire: as you have dealt, so will it be dealt +to you: as you have rejected, so will you be rejected. England herself +will cast you off: your religious folk will break into a hundred +divisions. Even now your Puritans mock at your prelates--so soon! And if +they do thus now, what will they do hereafter? You have cast away +Authority, and authority shall forsake you. Behold your house is left +unto you desolate." + +"Forgive me, Mr. Norris," he added after a pause, "if I have been +discourteous, and have forgotten my manners; but--but I would, as the +apostle said, that you were altogether as I am, except these bonds." + + + + + CHAPTER IV + + A COUNTER-MARCH + + +Isabel was sitting out alone in the Italian garden at the Hall, one +afternoon in the summer following the visit to Deptford. Hubert was down +at Plymouth, assisting in the preparations for the expedition that Drake +hoped to conduct against Spain. The two countries were technically at +peace, but the object with which he was going out, with the moral and +financial support of the Queen, was a corporate demonstration against +Spain, of French, Portuguese, and English ships under the main command of +Don Antonio, the Portuguese pretender; it was proposed to occupy Terceira +in the Azores; and Drake and Hawkins entertained the highest hopes of +laying their hands on further plunder. + +She was leaning back in her seat, with her hands behind her head, +thinking over her relations with Hubert. When he had been at home at the +end of the previous year, he had apparently taken it for granted that the +marriage would be celebrated; he had given her the gold nugget, that she +had showed Anthony, telling her he had brought it home for the +wedding-ring; and she understood that he was to come for his final answer +as soon as his work at Plymouth was over. But not a word of explanation +had passed between them on the religious difficulty. He had silenced her +emphatically and kindly once when she had approached it; and she gathered +from his manner that he suspected the direction in which her mind was +turning and was generously unwilling for her to commit herself an inch +further than she saw. Else whence came his assurance? And, for herself, +things were indeed becoming plain: she wondered why she had hesitated so +long, why she was still hesitating; the cup was brimming above the edge; +it needed but a faint touch of stimulus to precipitate all. + +And so Isabel lay back and pondered, with a touch of happy impatience at +the workings of her own soul; for she dared not act without the final +touch of conviction. Mistress Margaret had taught her that the swiftest +flight of the soul was when there was least movement, when the soul knew +how to throw itself with that supreme effort of cessation into the Hands +of God, that He might bear it along: when, after informing the intellect +and seeking by prayer for God's bounty, the humble client of Heaven +waited with uplifted eyes and ready heart until God should answer. And so +she waited, knowing that the gift was at hand, yet not daring to snatch +it. But, in the meanwhile, her imagination at least might act without +restraint; so she sent it out, like a bird from the Ark, to bring her the +earnest of peace. There, in the cloister-wing, somewhere, lay the chapel, +where she and Hubert would kneel together;--somewhere beneath that grey +roof. That was the terrace where she would walk one day as one who has a +right there. Which of these windows would be hers? Not Lady Maxwell's, of +course; she must keep that.... Ah! how good God was! + +The tall door on to the terrace opened, and Mistress Margaret peered out +with a letter in her hand. Isabel called to her; and the old nun came +down the steps into the garden. Why did she walk so falteringly, the girl +wondered, as if she could not see? What was it? What was it? + +Isabel rose to her feet, startled, as the nun with bent head came up the +path. "What is it, Mistress Margaret?" + +The other tried to smile at her, but her lips were trembling too much; +and the girl saw that her eyes were brimming with tears. She put the +letter into her hand. + +Isabel lifted it in an agony of suspense; and saw her name, in Hubert's +handwriting. + +"What is it?" she said again, white to the lips. + +The old lady as she turned away glanced at her; and Isabel saw that her +face was all twitching with the effort to keep back her tears. The girl +had never seen her like that before, even at Sir Nicholas' death. Was +there anything, she wondered as she looked, worse than death? But she was +too dazed by the sight to speak, and Mistress Margaret went slowly back +to the house unquestioned. + +Isabel turned the letter over once or twice; and then sat down and opened +it. It was all in Hubert's sprawling handwriting, and was dated from +Plymouth. + +It gave her news first about the squadron; saying how Don Antonio had +left London for Plymouth, and was expected daily; and then followed this +paragraph: + +"And now, dearest Isabel, I have such good news to give you. _I have +turned Protestant_; and there is no reason why we should not be married +as soon as I return. I know this will make you happy to think that our +religions are no longer different. I have thought of this so long; but +would not tell you before for fear of disappointing you. Sir Francis +Drake's religion seems to me the best; it is the religion of all the +'sea-dogs' as they name us; and of the Queen's Grace, and it will be soon +of all England; and more than all it is the religion of my dearest +mistress and love. I do not, of course, know very much of it as yet; but +good Mr. Collins here has shown me the superstitions of Popery; and I +hope now to be justified by faith without works as the gospel teaches. I +fear that my mother and aunt will be much distressed by this news; I have +written, too, to tell them of it. You must comfort them, dear love; and +perhaps some day they, too, will see as we do." Then followed a few +messages, and loving phrases, and the letter ended. + +Isabel laid it down beside her on the low stone wall; and looked round +her with eyes that saw nothing. There was the grey old house before her, +and the terrace, and the cloister-wing to the left, and the hot sunshine +lay on it all, and drew out scents and colours from the flower-beds, and +joy from the insects that danced in the trembling air; and it all meant +nothing to her; like a picture when the page is turned over it. Five +minutes ago she was regarding her life and seeing how the Grace of God +was slowly sorting out its elements from chaos to order--the road was +unwinding itself before her eyes as she trod on it day by day--now a hand +had swept all back into disorder, and the path was hidden by the ruins. + +Then gradually one thought detached itself, and burned before her, vivid +and startling; and in all its terrible reality slipped between her and +the visible world on which she was staring. It was this: to embrace the +Catholic Faith meant the renouncing of Hubert. As a Protestant she might +conceivably have married a Catholic; as a Catholic it was inconceivable +that she should marry an apostate. + +Then she read the letter through again carefully and slowly; and was +astonished at the unreality of Hubert's words about Romish superstition +and gospel simplicity. She tried hard to silence her thoughts; but two +reasons for Hubert's change of religion rose up and insisted on making +themselves felt; it was that he might be more in unity with the +buccaneers whom he admired; second, that there might be no obstacle to +their marriage. And what then, she asked, was the quality of the heart he +had given her? + +Then, in a flash of intuition, she perceived that a struggle lay before +her, compared with which all her previous spiritual conflicts were as +child's play; and that there was no avoiding it. The vision passed, and +she rose and went indoors to find the desolate mother whose boy had lost +the Faith. + +A month or two of misery went by. For Lady Maxwell they passed with +recurring gusts of heart-broken sorrow and of agonies of prayer for her +apostate son. Mistress Margaret was at the Hall all day, soothing, +encouraging, even distracting her sister by all the means in her power. +The mother wrote one passionate wail to her son, appealing to all that +she thought he held dear, even yet to return to the Faith for which his +father had suffered and in which he had died; but a short answer only +returned, saying it was impossible to make his defence in a letter, and +expressing pious hopes that she, too, one day would be as he was; the +same courier brought a letter to Isabel, in which he expressed his wonder +that she had not answered his former one. + +And as for Isabel, she had to pass through this valley of darkness alone. +Anthony was in London; and even if he had been with her could not have +helped her under these circumstances; her father was dead--she thanked +God for that now--and Mistress Margaret seemed absorbed in her sister's +grief. And so the girl fought with devils alone. The arguments for +Catholicism burned pitilessly clear now; every line and feature in them +stood out distinct and hard. Catholicism, it appeared to her, alone had +the marks of the Bride, visible unity, visible Catholicity, visible +Apostolicity, visible Sanctity;--there they were, the seals of the most +High God. She flung herself back furiously into the Protestantism from +which she had been emerging; there burned in the dark before her the +marks of the Beast, visible disunion, visible nationalism, visible +Erastianism, visible gulfs where holiness should be: that system in which +now she could never find rest again glared at her in all its unconvincing +incoherence, its lack of spirituality, its adulterous union with the +civil power instead of the pure wedlock of the Spouse of Christ. She +wondered once more how she dared to have hesitated so long; or dared to +hesitate still. + +On the theological side intellectual arguments of this kind started out, +strong and irrefutable; her emotional drawings towards Catholicism for +the present retired. Feelings might have been disregarded or discredited +by a strong effort of the will; these apparently cold phenomena that +presented themselves to her intellect, could not be thus dealt with. Yet, +strangely enough, even now she would not throw herself resolutely into +Catholicism: the fierce stimulus instead of precipitating the crisis, +petrified it. More than once she started up from her knees in her own +dark room, resolved to awaken the nun and tell her she would wait no +longer, but would turn Catholic at once and have finished with the misery +of suspense: and even as she moved to the door her will found itself +against an impenetrable wall. + +And then on the other side all her human nature cried out for +Hubert--Hubert--Hubert. There he stood by her in fancy, day and night, +that chivalrous, courteous lad, who had been loyal to her so long; had +waited so patiently; had run to her with such dear impatience; who was so +wholesome, so strong, so humble to her; so quick to understand her wants, +so eager to fulfil them; so bound to her by associations; so fit a mate +for the very differences between them. And now these two claims were no +longer compatible; in his very love for her he had ended that +possibility. All those old dreams; the little scenes she had rehearsed, +of their first mass, their first communion together; their walks in the +twilight; their rides over the hills; the new ties that were to draw the +old ladies at the Hall and herself so close together--all this was +changed; some of those dreams were now for ever impossible, others only +possible on terms that she trembled even to think of. Perhaps it was +worst of all to reflect that she was in some measure responsible for his +change of religion; she fancied that it was through her slowness to +respond to light, her delaying to confide in him, that he had been driven +through impatience to take this step. And so week after week went by and +she dared not answer his letter. + +The old ladies, too, were sorely puzzled at her. It was impossible for +them to know how far her religion was changing. She had kept up the same +reserve towards them lately as towards Hubert, chiefly because she feared +to disappoint them; and so after an attempt to tell each other a little +of their mutual sympathy, the three women were silent on the subject of +the lad who was so much to them all. + +She began to show her state a little in her movements and appearance. She +was languid, soon tired and dispirited; she would go for short, lonely +walks, and fall asleep in her chair worn out when she came in. Her grey +eyes looked longer and darker; her eyelids and the corners of her mouth +began to droop a little. + +Then in October he came home. + +Isabel had been out a long afternoon walk by herself through the +reddening woods. They had never, since the first awakening of the +consciousness of beauty in her, meant so little to her as now. It +appeared as if that keen unity of a life common to her and all living +things had been broken or obscured; and that she walked in an isolation +all the more terrible in that she was surrounded by the dumb presence of +what she loved. Last year the quick chattering cry of the blackbird, the +evening mists over the meadows, the stir of the fading life of the woods, +the rustling scamper of the rabbit over the dead leaves, the solemn call +of the homing rooks--all this, only last year, went to make up the sweet +natural atmosphere in which her spirit moved and breathed at ease. Now +she was excommunicate from that pleasant friendship, banned by nature and +forgotten by the God who made it and was immanent within it. Her +relations to the Saviour, who only such a short time ago had been the +Person round whom all the joys of life had centred, from whom they +radiated, and to whom she referred them all--these relations had begun to +be obscured by her love for Hubert, and now had vanished altogether. She +had regarded her earthly and her heavenly lover as two persons, each of +whom had certain claims upon her heart, and each of whom she had hoped to +satisfy in different ways; instead of identifying the two, and serving +each not apart from, but in the other. And it now seemed to her that she +was making experience of a Divine jealousy that would suffer her to be +satisfied neither with God nor man. Her soul was exhausted by internal +conflict, by the swift alternations of attraction and repulsion between +the poles of her supernatural and natural life; so that when it turned +wearily from self to what lay outside, it was not even capable, as +before, of making that supreme effort of cessation of effort which was +necessary to its peace. It seemed to her that she was self-poised in +emptiness, and could neither touch heaven or earth--crucified so high +that she could not rest on earth, so low that she could not reach to +heaven. + +She came in weary and dispirited as the candles were being lighted in her +sitting-room upstairs; but she saw the gleam of them from the garden with +no sense of a welcoming brightness. She passed from the garden into the +door of the hall which was still dark, as the fire had nearly burned +itself out. As she entered the door opposite opened, and once more she +saw the silhouette of a man's figure against the lighted passage beyond; +and again she stopped frightened, and whispered "Anthony." + +There was a momentary pause as the door closed and all was dark again; +and then she heard Hubert's voice say her name; and felt herself wrapped +once more in his arms. For a moment she clung to him with furious +longing. Ah! this is a tangible thing, she felt, this clasp; the faint +cleanly smell of his rough frieze dress refreshed her like wine, and she +kissed his sleeve passionately. And the wide gulf between them yawned +again; and her spirit sickened at the sight of it. + +"Oh! Hubert, Hubert!" she said. + +She felt herself half carried to a high chair beside the fire-place and +set down there; then he re-arranged the logs on the hearth, so that the +flames began to leap again, showing his strong hands and keen clear-cut +face; then he turned on his knees, seized her two hands in his own, and +lifted them to his lips; then laid them down again on her knee, still +holding them; and so remained. + +"Oh! Isabel," he said, "why did you not write?" + +She was silent as one who stares fascinated down a precipice. + +"It is all over," he went on in a moment, "with the expedition. The +Queen's Grace has finally refused us leave to go--and I have come back to +you, Isabel." + +How strong and pleasant he looked in this leaping fire-light! how real! +and she was hesitating between this warm human reality and the chilly +possibilities of an invisible truth. Her hands tightened instinctively +within his, and then relaxed. + +"I have been so wretched," she said piteously. + +"Ah! my dear," and he threw an arm round her neck and drew her face down +to his, "but that is over now." She sat back again; and then an access of +purpose poured into her and braced her will to an effort. + +"No, no," she began, "I must tell you. I was afraid to write. Hubert, I +must wait a little longer. I--I do not know what I believe." + +He looked at her, puzzled. + +"What do you mean, dearest?' + +"I have been so much puzzled lately--thinking so much--and--and--I am +sorry you have become a Protestant. It makes all so hard." + +"My dear, this is--I do not understand." + +"I have been thinking," went on Isabel bravely, "whether perhaps the +Catholic Church is not right after all." + +Hubert loosed her hands and stood up. She crouched into the shadow of the +interior of the high chair, and looked up at him, terrified. His cheek +twitched a little. + +"Isabel, this is foolishness. I know what the Catholic faith is. It is +not true; I have been through it all." + +He was speaking nervously and abruptly. She said nothing. Then he +suddenly dropped on his knees himself. + +"My dearest, I understand. You were doing this for me. I quite +understand. It is what I too----" and then he stopped. + +"I know, I know," she cried piteously. "It is just what I have feared so +terribly--that--that our love has been blinding us both. And yet, what +are we to do, what are we to do? Oh! God--Hubert, help me." + +Then he began to speak in a low emphatic voice, holding her hands, +delicately stroking one of them now and again, and playing with her +fingers. She watched his curly head in the firelight as he talked, and +his keen face as he looked up. + +"It is all plain to me," he said, caressingly. "You have been living here +with my aunt, a dear old saint; and she has been talking and telling you +all about the Catholic religion, and making it seem all true and good. +And you, my dear child, have been thinking of me sometimes, and loving me +a little, is it not so? and longing that religion should not separate us; +and so you began to wish it was true; and then to hope it was; and at +last you have begun to think it is. But it is not your true sweet self +that believes it. Ah! you know in your heart of hearts, as I have known +so long, that it is not true; that it is made up by priests and nuns; and +it is very beautiful, I know, my dearest, but it is only a lovely tale; +and you must not spoil all for the sake of a tale. And I have been +gradually led to the light; it was your--" and his voice faltered--"your +prayers that helped me to it. I have longed to understand what it was +that made you so sweet and so happy; and now I know; it is your own +simple pure religion; and--and--it is so much more sensible, so much more +likely to be true than the Catholic religion. It is all in the Bible you +see; so plain, as Mr. Collins has showed me. And so, my dear love, I have +come to believe it too; and you must put all these fancies out of your +head, these dreams; though I love you, I love you," and he kissed her +hand again, "for wishing to believe them for my sake--and--and we will be +married before Christmas; and we will have our own fairy-tale, but it +shall be a true one." + +This was terrible to Isabel. It seemed as if her own haunting thought +that she was sacrificing a dream to reality had become incarnate in her +lover and was speaking through his lips. And yet in its very incarnation, +it seemed to reveal its weakness rather than its strength. As a dark +suggestion the thought was mighty; embodied in actual language it seemed +to shrink a little. But then, on the other hand--and so the interior +conflict began to rage again. + +She made a movement as if to stand up; but he pressed her back into the +chair. + +"No, my dearest, you shall be a prisoner until you give your parole." + +Twice Isabel made an effort to speak; but no sound came. It seemed as if +the raging strife of thoughts deafened and paralysed her. + +"Now, Isabel," said Hubert. + +"I cannot, I cannot," she cried desperately, "you must give me time. It +is too sudden, your returning like this. You must give me time. I do not +know what I believe. Oh, dear God, help me." + +"Isabel, promise! promise! Before Christmas! I thought it was all to be +so happy, when I came in through the garden just now. My mother will +hardly speak to me; and I came to you, Isabel, as I always did; I felt so +sure you would be good to me; and tell me that you would always love me, +now that I had given up my religion for love of you. And now----" and +Hubert's voice ended in a sob. + +Her heart seemed rent across, and she drew a sobbing sigh. Hubert heard +it, and caught at her hands again as he knelt. + +"Isabel, promise, promise." + +Then there came that gust of purpose into her heart again; she made a +determined effort and stood up; and Hubert rose and stood opposite her. + +"You must not ask me," she said, bravely. "It would be wicked to decide +yet. I cannot see anything clearly. I do not know what I believe, nor +where I stand. You must give me time." + +There was a dead silence. His face was so much in shadow that she could +not tell what he was thinking. He was standing perfectly still. + +"Then that is all the answer you will give me?" he said, in a perfectly +even voice. + +Isabel bowed her head. + +"Then--then I wish you good-night, Mistress Norris," and he bowed to her, +caught up his cap and went out. + +She could not believe it for a moment, and caught her breath to cry out +after him as the door closed; but she heard his step on the stone +pavement outside, the crunch of the gravel, and he was gone. Then she +went and leaned her head against the curved mantelshelf and stared into +the logs that his hands had piled together. + +This, then, she thought, was the work of religion; the end of all her +aspirations and efforts, that God should mock them by bringing love into +their life, and then when they caught at it and thanked him for it, it +was whisked away again, and left their hands empty. Was this the Father +of Love in whom she had been taught to believe, who treated His children +like this? And so the bitter thoughts went on; and yet she knew in her +heart that she was powerless; that she could not go to the door and call +Hubert and promise what he asked. A great Force had laid hold of her, it +might be benevolent or not--at this moment she thought not--but it was +irresistible; and she must bow her head and obey. + +And even as she thought that, the door opened again, and there was +Hubert. He came in two quick steps across the room to her, and then +stopped suddenly. + +"Mistress Isabel," he asked, "can you forgive me? I was a brute just now. +I do not ask for your promise. I leave it all in your hands. Do with me +what you will. But--but, if you could tell me how long you think it will +be before you know----" + +He had touched the right note. Isabel's heart gave a leap of sorrow and +sympathy. "Oh, Hubert," she said brokenly, "I am so sorry; but I promise +I will tell you--by Easter?" and her tone was interrogative. + +"Yes, yes," said Hubert. He looked at her in silence, and she saw strange +lines quivering at the corners of his mouth, and his eyes large and +brilliant in the firelight. Then the two drew together, and he took her +in his arms strongly and passionately. + + * * * * + +There was a scene that night between the mother and son. Mistress +Margaret had gone back to the Dower House for supper; and Lady Maxwell +and Hubert were supping in Sir Nicholas' old study that would soon be +arranged for Hubert now that he had returned for good. They had been very +silent during the meal, while the servants were in the room, talking only +of little village affairs and of the estate, and of the cancelling of the +proposed expedition. Hubert had explained to his mother that it was +generally believed that Elizabeth had never seriously intended the +English ships to sail, but that she only wished to draw Spain's attention +off herself by setting up complications between that country and France; +and when she had succeeded in this by managing to get the French squadron +safe at Terceira, she then withdrew her permission to Drake and Hawkins, +and thus escaped from the quarrel altogether. But it was a poor makeshift +for conversation. + +When the servants had withdrawn, a silence fell. Presently Hubert looked +across the table between the silver branched candlesticks. + +"Mother," he said, "of course I know what you are thinking. But I cannot +consent to go through all the arguments; I am weary of them. Neither will +I see Mr. Barnes to-morrow at Cuckfield or here. I am satisfied with my +position." + +"My son," said Lady Maxwell with dignity, "I do not think I have spoken +that priest's name; or indeed any." + +"Well," said Hubert, impatiently, "at any rate I will not see him. But I +wish to say a few words about this house. We must have our positions +clear. My father left to your use, did he not, the whole of the +cloister-wing? I am delighted, dear mother, that he did so. You will be +happy there I know; and of course I need not say that I hope you will +keep your old room overhead as well; and, indeed, use the whole house as +you have always done. I shall be grateful if you will superintend it all, +as before--at least, until a new mistress comes." + +"Thank you, my son." + +"I will speak of that in a moment," he went on, looking steadily at the +table-cloth; "but there was a word I wished to say first. I am now a +loyal subject of her Grace in all things; in religion as in all else. +And--and I fear I cannot continue to entertain seminary priests as my +father used to do. My--my conscience will not allow that. But of course, +mother, I need not say that you are at perfect liberty to do what you +will in the cloister-wing; I shall ask no questions; and I shall set no +traps or spies. But I must ask that the priests do not come into this +part of the house, nor walk in the garden. Fortunately you have a lawn in +the cloister; so that they need not lack fresh air or exercise." + +"You need not fear, Hubert," said his mother, "I will not embarrass you. +You shall be in no danger." + +"I think you need not have said that, mother; I am not usually thought a +coward." + +Lady Maxwell flushed a little, and began to finger her silver knife. + +"However," Hubert went on, "I thought it best to say that. The chapel, +you see, is in that wing; and you have that lawn; and--and I do not think +I am treating you hardly." + +"And is your brother James not to come?" asked his mother. + +"I have thought much over that," said Hubert; "and although it is hard to +say it, I think he had better not come to my part of the house--at least +not when I am here; I must know nothing of it. You must do what you think +well when I am away, about him and others too. It is very difficult for +me, mother; please do not add to the difficulty." + +"You need not fear," said Lady Maxwell steadily; "you shall not be +troubled with any Catholics besides ourselves." + +"Then that is arranged," said the lad. "And now there is a word more. +What have you been doing to Isabel?" And he looked sharply across the +table. His mother's eyes met his fearlessly. + +"I do not understand you," she said. + +"Mother, you must know what I mean. You have seen her continually." + +"I have told you, my son, that I do not know." + +"Why," burst out Hubert, "she is half a Catholic." + +"Thank God," said his mother. + +"Ah! yes; you thank God, I know; but whom am I to thank for it?" + +"I would that you could thank Him too." + +Hubert made a sharp sound of disgust. + +"Ah! yes," he said scornfully, "I knew it; _Non nobis Domine_, and the +rest." + +"Hubert," said Lady Maxwell, "I do not think you mean to insult me in +this house; but either that is an insult, or else I misunderstood you +wholly, and must ask your pardon for it." + +"Well," he said, in a harsh voice, "I will make myself plain. I believe +that it is through the influence of you and Aunt Margaret that this has +been brought about." + +At the moment he spoke the door opened. + +"Come in, Margaret," said her sister, "this concerns you." + +The old nun came across to Hubert with her anxious sweet face; and put +her old hand tenderly on his black satin sleeve as he sat and wrenched at +a nut between his fingers. + +"Hubert, dear boy," she said, "what is all this? Will you tell me?" + +Hubert rose, a little ashamed of himself, and went to the door and closed +it; and then drew out a chair for his aunt, and put a wine-glass for her. + +"Sit down, aunt," he said, and pushed the decanter towards her. + +"I have just left Isabel," she said, "she is very unhappy about +something. You saw her this evening, dear lad?" + +"Yes," said Hubert, heavily, looking down at the table and taking up +another nut, "and it is of that that I have been speaking. Who has made +her unhappy?" + +"I had hoped you would tell us that," said Mistress Margaret; "I came up +to ask you." + +"My son has done us--me--the honour----" began Lady Maxwell; but Hubert +broke in: + +"I left Isabel here last Christmas happy and a Protestant. I have come +back here now to find her unhappy and half a Catholic, if not +more--and----" + +"Oh! are you sure?" asked Mistress Margaret, her eyes shining. "Thank +God, if it be so!" + +"Sure?" said Hubert, "why she will not marry me; at least not yet." + +"Oh, poor lad," she said tenderly, "to have lost both God and Isabel." + +Hubert turned on her savagely. But the old nun's eyes were steady and +serene. + +"Poor lad!" she said again. + +Hubert looked down again; his lip wrinkled up in a little sneer. + +"As far as I am concerned," he said, "I can understand your not caring, +but I am astonished at this response of yours to her father's +confidence!" + +Lady Maxwell grew white to the lips. + +"I have told you," she began--"but you do not seem to believe it--that I +have had nothing to do, so far as I know, with her conversion, +which"--and she raised her voice bravely--"I pray God to accomplish. She +has, of course, asked me questions now and then; and I have answered +them--that is all." + +"And I," said Mistress Margaret, "plead guilty to the same charge, and to +no other. You are not yourself, dear boy, at present; and indeed I do not +wonder at it; and I pray God to help you; but you are not yourself, or +you would not speak like this to your mother." + +Hubert rose to his feet; his face was white under the tan, and the ruffle +round his wrist trembled as he leaned heavily with his fingers on the +table. + +"I am only a plain Protestant now," he said bitterly, "and I have been +with Protestants so long that I have forgotten Catholic ways; but----" + +"Stay, Hubert," said his mother, "do not finish that. You will be sorry +for it presently, if you do. Come, Margaret." And she moved towards the +door; her son went quickly past and opened it. + +"Nay, nay," said the nun. "Do you be going, Mary. Let me stay with the +lad, and we will come to you presently." Lady Maxwell bowed her head and +passed out, and Hubert closed the door. + +Mistress Margaret looked down on the table. + +"You have given me a glass, dear boy; but no wine in it." + +Hubert took a couple of quick steps back, and faced her. + +"It is no use, it is no use," he burst out, and his voice was broken with +emotion, "you cannot turn me like that. Oh, what have you done with my +Isabel?" He put out his hand and seized her arm. "Give her back to me, +Aunt Margaret; give her back to me." + +He dropped into his seat and hid his face on his arm; and there was a sob +or two. + +"Sit up and be a man, Hubert," broke in Mistress Margaret's voice, clear +and cool. + +He looked up in amazement with wet indignant eyes. She was looking at +him, smiling tenderly. + +"And now, for the second time, give me half a glass of wine, dear boy." + +He poured it out, bewildered at her self-control. + +"For a man that has been round the world," she said, "you are but a +foolish child." + +"What do you mean?" + +"Have you never thought of a way of yet winning Isabel," she asked. + +"What do you mean?" he repeated. + +"Why, come back to the Church, dear lad; and make your mother and me +happy again, and marry Isabel, and save your own soul." + +"Aunt Margaret," he cried, "it is impossible. I have truly lost my faith +in the Catholic religion; and--and--you would not have me a hypocrite." + +"Ah! ah!" said the nun, "you cannot tell yet. Please God it may come +back. Oh! dear boy, in your heart you know it is true." + +"Before God, in my heart I know that it is not true." + +"No, no, no," she said; but the light died out of her eyes, and she +stretched a tremulous hand. + +"Yes, Aunt Margaret, it is so. For years and years I have been doubting; +but I kept on just because it seemed to me the best religion; and--and I +would not be driven out of it by her Grace's laws against my will, like a +dog stoned from his kennel." + +"But you are only a lad still," she said piteously. He laughed a little. + +"But I have had the gift of reason and discretion nearly twenty years, a +priest would tell me. Besides, Aunt Margaret, I could not be such a--a +cur--as to come back without believing. I could never look Isabel in the +eyes again." + +"Well, well," said the old lady, "let us wait and see. Do you intend to +be here now for a while?" + +"Not while Isabel is like this," he said. "I could not. I must go away +for a while, and then come back and ask her again." + +"When will she decide?" + +"She told me by next Easter," said Hubert. "Oh, Aunt Margaret, pray for +us both." + +The light began to glimmer again in her eyes. + +"There, dear boy," she said, "you see you believe in prayer still." + +"But, aunt," said Hubert, "why should I not? Protestants pray." + +"Well, well," said the old nun again. "Now you must come to your mother; +and--and be good to her." + + + + + CHAPTER V + + THE COMING OF THE JESUITS + + +The effect on Anthony of Mr. Buxton's conversation was very considerable. +He had managed to keep his temper very well during the actual interview; +but he broke out alone afterwards, at first with an angry contempt. The +absurd arrogance of the man made him furious--the arrogance that had +puffed away England and its ambitions and its vigour--palpable evidences +of life and reality, and further of God's blessing--in favour of a +miserable Latin nation which had the presumption to claim the possession +of Peter's Chair and of the person of the Vicar of Christ! Test it, said +the young man to himself, by the ancient Fathers and Councils that Dr. +Jewel quoted so learnedly, and the preposterous claim crumbled to dust. +Test it, yet again, by the finger of Providence; and God Himself +proclaimed that the pretensions of the spiritual kingdom, of which the +prisoner in the cell had bragged, are but a blasphemous fable. And +Anthony reminded himself of the events of the previous year. + +Three great assaults had been made by the Papists to win back England to +the old Religion. Dr. William Allen, the founder of Douai College, had +already for the last seven or eight years been pouring seminary priests +into England, and over a hundred and twenty were at work among their +countrymen, preparing the grand attack. This was made in three quarters +at once. + +In Scotland it was chiefly political, and Anthony thought, with a bitter +contempt, of the Count d'Aubigny, Esmé Stuart, who was supposed to be an +emissary of the Jesuits; how he had plotted with ecclesiastics and +nobles, and professed Protestantism to further his ends; and of all the +stories of his duplicity and evil-living, told round the guard-room fire. + +In Ireland the attempt was little else than ludicrous. Anthony laughed +fiercely to himself as he pictured the landing of the treacherous fools +at Dingle, of Sir James FitzMaurice and his lady, very wretched and giddy +after their voyage, and the barefooted friars, and Dr. Sanders, and the +banner so solemnly consecrated; and of the sands of Smerwick, when all +was over a year later, and the six hundred bodies, men and women who had +preferred Mr. Buxton's spiritual kingdom to Elizabeth's kindly rule, +stripped and laid out in rows, like dead game, for Lord Grey de Wilton to +reckon them by. + +But his heart sank a little as he remembered the third method of attack, +and of the coming of the Jesuits. By last July all London knew that they +were here, and men's hearts were shaken with apprehension. They reminded +one another of the April earthquake that had tolled the great Westminster +bell, and thrown down stones from the churches. One of the Lambeth +guards, a native of Blunsdon, in Wiltshire, had told Anthony himself that +a pack of hell-hounds had been heard there, in full cry after a ghostly +quarry. Phantom ships had been seen from Bodmin attacking a phantom +castle that rode over the waves off the Cornish coast. An old woman of +Blasedon had given birth to a huge-headed monster with the mouth of a +mouse, eight legs, and a tail; and, worse than all, it was whispered in +the Somersetshire inns that three companies of black-robed men, sixty in +number, had been seen, coming and going overhead in the gloom. These two +strange emissaries, Fathers Persons and Campion--how they appealed to the +imagination, lurking under a hundred disguises, now of servants, now of +gentlemen of means and position! It was known that they were still in +England, going about doing good, their friends said who knew them; +stirring up the people, their enemies said who were searching for them. +Anthony had seen with his own eyes some of the papers connected with +their presence--that containing a statement of their objects in coming, +namely, that they were spiritual not political agents, seeking recruits +for Christ and for none else; Campion's "Challenge and Brag," offering to +meet any English Divine on equal terms in a public disputation; besides +one or two of the controversial pamphlets, purporting to be printed at +Douai, but really emanating from a private printing-press in England, as +the Government experts had discovered from an examination of the +water-marks of the paper employed. + +Yet as the weeks went by, and his first resentment cooled, Mr. Buxton's +arguments more and more sank home, for they had touched the very point +where Anthony had reckoned that his own strength lay. He had never before +heard Nationalism and Catholicism placed in such flat antithesis. In +fact, he had never before really heard the statement of the Catholic +position; and his fierce contempt gradually melted into respect. Both +theories had a concrete air of reality about them; his own imaged itself +under the symbols of England's power; the National Church appealed to him +so far as it represented the spiritual side of the English people; and +Mr. Buxton's conception appealed to him from its very audacity. This +great spiritual kingdom, striding on its way, trampling down the barriers +of temperament and nationality, disregarding all earthly limitations and +artificial restraints, imperiously dominating the world in spite of the +world's struggles and resentment--this, after all, as he thought over it, +was--well--was a new aspect of affairs. The coming of the Jesuits, too, +emphasised the appeal: here were two men, as the world itself confessed, +of exceptional ability--for Campion had been a famous Oxford orator, and +Persons a Fellow of Balliol--choosing, under a free-will obedience, first +a life of exile, and then one of daily peril and apprehension, the very +thought of which burdened the imagination with horror; hunted like +vermin, sleeping and faring hard, their very names detested by the +majority of their countrymen, with the shadow of the gallows moving with +them, and the reek of the hangman's cauldron continually in their +nostrils--and for what? For Mr. Buxton's spiritual kingdom! Well, Anthony +thought to himself as the weeks went by and his new thoughts sank deeper, +if it is all a superstitious dream, at least it is a noble one! + +What, too, was the answer, he asked himself, that England gave to Father +Campion's challenge, and the defence that the Government was preparing +against the spiritual weapons of the Jesuits? New prisons at Framingham +and Battersea; new penalties enacted by Parliament; and, above all, the +unanswerable argument of the rack, and the gallows finally to close the +discussion. And what of the army that was being set in array against the +priests, and that was even now beginning to scour the country round +Berkshire, Oxfordshire, and London? Anthony had to confess to himself +that they were queer allies for the servants of Christ; for traitors, +liars, and informers were among the most trusted Government agents. + +In short, as the spring drew on, Anthony was not wholly happy. Again and +again in his own room he studied a little manuscript translation of +Father Campion's "Ten Reasons," that had been taken from a popish +prisoner, and that a friend had given him; and as he read its exultant +rhetoric, he wondered whether the writer was indeed as insincere and +treacherous as Mr. Scot declared. There seemed in the paper a reckless +outspokenness, calculated rather to irritate than deceive. + +"I turn to the Sacraments," he read, "none, none, not two, not one, O +holy Christ, have they left. Their very bread is poison. Their baptism, +though it be true, yet in their judgment is nothing. It is not the saving +water! It is not the channel of Grace! It brings not Christ's merits to +us! It is but a sign of salvation!" And again the writer cried to +Elizabeth to return to the ancient Religion, and to be in truth what she +was in name, the Defender of the Faith. + +"'Kings shall be thy nursing fathers,' thus Isaiah sang, 'and Queens thy +nursing mothers.' Listen, Elizabeth, most Mighty Queen! To thee the great +Prophet sings! He teaches thee thy part. Join then thyself to these +princes!... O Elizabeth, a day, a day shall come that shall show thee +clearly which have loved thee the better, the Society of Jesus or Luther's +brood!" + +What arrogance, thought Anthony to himself, and what assurance too! + +Meanwhile in the outer world things were not reassuring to the friends of +the Government: it was true that half a dozen priests had been captured +and examined by torture, and that Sir George Peckham himself, who was +known to have harboured Campion, had been committed to the Marshalsea; +but yet the Jesuits' influence was steadily on the increase. More and +more severe penalties had been lately enacted; it was now declared to be +high treason to reconcile or be reconciled to the Church of Rome; +overwhelming losses in fortune as well as liberty were threatened against +all who said or heard Mass or refused to attend the services of the +Establishment; but, as was discovered from papers that fell from time to +time into the hands of the Government agents, the only answer of the +priests was to inveigh more strenuously against even occasional +conformity, declaring it to be the mortal sin of schism, if not of +apostasy, to put in an appearance under any circumstances, except those +of actual physical compulsion, at the worship in the parish churches. +Worse than all, too, was the fact that this severe gospel began to +prevail; recusancy was reported to be on the increase in all parts of the +country; and many of the old aristocracy began to return to the faith of +their fathers: Lords Arundel, Oxford, Vaux, Henry Howard, and Sir Francis +Southwell were all beginning to fall under the suspicion of the shrewdest +Government spies. + +The excitement at Lambeth ran higher day by day as the summer drew on; +the net was being gradually contracted in the home counties; spies were +reported to be everywhere, in inns, in the servants' quarters of +gentlemen's houses, lounging at cross roads and on village greens. +Campion's name was in every mouth. Now they were on his footsteps, it was +said; now he was taken; now he was gone back to France; now he was in +London; now in Lancashire; and each rumour in turn corrected its +predecessor. + +Anthony shared to the full in the excitement; the figure of the quarry, +after which so many hawks were abroad, appealed to his imagination. He +dreamed of him at night, once as a crafty-looking man with narrow eyes +and stooping shoulders, that skulked and ran from shadow to shadow across +a moonlit country; once as a ruddy-faced middle-aged gentleman riding +down a crowded street; and several times as a kind of double of Mr. +Stewart, whom he had never forgotten, since he had watched him in the +little room of Maxwell Hall, gallant and alert among his enemies. + +At last one day in July, as it drew on towards evening, and as Anthony +was looking over the stable-accounts in his little office beyond the +Presence Chamber, a buzz of talk and footsteps broke out in the court +below; and a moment later the Archbishop's body-servant ran in to say +that his Grace wished to see Mr. Norris at once in the gallery that +opened out of the guard-room. + +"And I think it is about the Jesuits, sir," added the man, evidently +excited. + +Anthony ran down at once and found his master pacing up and down, with a +courier waiting near the steps at the lower end that led to Chichele's +tower. The Archbishop stopped by a window, emblazoned with Cardinal +Pole's emblem, and beckoned to him. + +"See here, Master Norris," he said, "I have received news that Campion is +at last taken: it may well be false, as so often before; but take horse, +if you please, and ride into the city and find the truth for me. I will +not send a groom; they believe the maddest tales. You are at liberty?" he +added courteously. + +"Yes, your Grace, I will ride immediately." + +As he rode down the river-bank towards London Bridge ten minutes later, +he could not help feeling some dismay as well as excitement at the news +he was to verify. And yet what other end was possible? But what a doom +for the brilliant Oxford orator, even though he had counted the cost! + +Streams of excited people were pouring across the bridge into the city; +Campion's name was on every tongue; and Anthony, as he passed under the +high gate, noticed a man point up at the grim spiked heads above it, and +laugh to his companion. There seemed little doubt, from the unanimity of +those whom he questioned, that the rumour was true; and some even said +that the Jesuit was actually passing down Cheapside on his way to the +Tower. When at last Anthony came to the thoroughfare the crowd was as +dense as for a royal progress. He checked his horse at the door of an +inn-yard, and asked an ostler that stood there what it was all about. + +"It is Campion, the Jesuit, sir," said the man. "He has been taken at +Lyford, and is passing here presently." + +The man had hardly finished speaking when a yell came from the end of the +street, and groans and hoots ran down the crowd. Anthony turned in his +saddle, and saw a great stir and movement, and then horses' and men's +heads moving slowly down over the seething surface of the crowd, as if +swimming in a rough sea. He could make little out, as the company came +towards him, but the faces of the officers and pursuivants who rode in +the front rank, four or five abreast; then followed the faces of three or +four others, also riding between guards, and Anthony looked eagerly at +them; but they were simple faces enough, a little pale and quiet; one was +like a farmer's, ruddy and bearded;--surely Campion could not be among +those! Then more and more, riding two and two, with a couple of armed +guards with each pair; some looked like country-men or servants, some +like gentlemen, and one or two might be priests; but the crowd seemed to +pay them no attention beyond a glance or two. Ah! what was this coming +behind? + +There was a space behind the last row of guards, and then came a separate +troop riding all together, of half a dozen men at least, and one in the +centre, with something white in his hat. The ferment round this group was +tremendous; men were leaping up and yelling, like hounds round a carted +stag; clubs shot up menacingly, and a storm of ceaseless execration raged +outside the compact square of guards who sat alert and ready to beat off +an attack. Once a horse kicked fiercely as a man sprang to his +hind-quarters, and there was a scream of pain and a burst of laughing. + +Anthony sat trembling with excitement as the first group had passed, and +this second began to come opposite the entrance where he sat. This then +was the man! + +The rider in the centre sat his horse somewhat stiffly, and Anthony saw +that his elbows were bound behind his back, and his hands in front; the +reins were drawn over his horse's head and a pursuivant held them on +either side. The man was dressed as a layman, in a plumed hat and a buff +jerkin, such as soldiers or plain country-gentlemen might use; and in the +hat was a great paper with an inscription. Anthony spelt it out. + +"Campion, the Seditious Jesuit." + +Then he looked at the man's face. + +It was a comely refined face, a little pale but perfectly serene: his +pointed dark brown beard and moustache were carefully trimmed; and his +large passionate eyes looked cheerfully about him. Anthony stared at him, +wholly fascinated; for above the romance that hung about the hunted +priest and the glamour of the dreaded Society which he represented, there +was a chivalrous fearless look in his face that drew the heart of the +young man almost irresistibly. At least he did not look like the skulking +knave at whom all the world was sneering, and of whom Anthony had dreamt +so vividly a few nights before. + +The storm of execration from the faces below, and the faces crowding at +the windows, seemed to affect him not at all; and he looked from side to +side as if they were cheering him rather than crying against him. Once +his eyes met Anthony's and rested on them for a moment; and a strange +thrill ran through him and he shivered sharply. + + * * * * + +And yet he felt, too, a distinct and irresistible movement of attraction +towards this felon who was riding towards his agony and passion; and he +was conscious at the same time of that curious touch of wonder that he +had felt years before towards the man whipped at the cart's tail, as to +whether the solitary criminal were not in the right, and the clamorous +accusers in the wrong. Campion in a moment had passed on and turned his +head. + +In that moment, too, Anthony caught a sudden clear instantaneous +impression of a group of faces in the window opposite. There were a +couple of men in front, stout city personages no doubt, with crimson +faces and open mouths cursing the traitorous Papist and the crafty +vagrant fox trapped at last; but between them, looking over their +shoulders, was a woman's face in which Anthony saw the most intense +struggle of emotions. The face was quite white, the lips parted, the eyes +straining, and sorrow and compassion were in every line, as she watched +the cheerful priest among his warders; and yet there rested on it, too, a +strange light as of triumph. It was the face of one who sees victory even +at the hour of supremest failure. In an instant more the face had +withdrawn itself into the darkness of the room. + +When the crowds had surged down the street in the direction of the Tower, +yelling in derision as Campion saluted the lately defaced Cheapside +Cross, Anthony guided his horse out through the dispersing groups, +realising as he did so, with a touch of astonishment at the coincidence, +that he had been standing almost immediately under the window whence he +and Isabel had leaned out so many years before. + + * * * * + +The sun was going down behind the Abbey as he rode up towards Lambeth, +and the sky above and the river beneath were as molten gold. The Abbey +itself, with Westminster Hall and the Houses of Parliament below, stood +up like mystical palaces against the sunset; and it seemed to Anthony as +he rode, as if God Himself were illustrating in glorious illumination the +closing pages of that human life of which a glimpse had opened to him in +Cheapside. It did not appear to him as it had done in the days of his +boyish love as if heaven and earth were a stage for himself to walk and +pose upon; but he felt intensely now the dominating power of the +personality of the priest; and that he himself was no more than a +spectator of this act of a tragedy of which the priest was both hero and +victim, and for which this evening glory formed so radiant a scene. The +old intellectual arguments against the cause that the priest represented +for the moment were drowned in this flood of splendour. When he arrived +at Lambeth and had reached the Archbishop's presence, he told him the +news briefly, and went to his room full of thought and perplexity. + +In a few days the story of Campion's arrest was known far and wide. It +had been made possible by the folly of one Catholic and the treachery of +another; and when Anthony heard it, he was stirred still more by the +contrast between the Jesuit and his pursuers. The priest had returned to +the moated grange at Lyford, after having already paid as long a visit +there as was prudent, owing to the solicitations of a number of gentlemen +who had ridden after him and his companion, and who wished to hear his +eloquence. He had returned there again, said mass on the Sunday morning, +and preached afterwards, from a chair set before the altar, a sermon on +the tears of the Saviour over apostate Jerusalem. But a false disciple +had been present who had come in search of one Payne; and this man, known +afterwards by the Catholics as Judas Eliot or Eliot Iscariot, had +gathered a number of constables and placed them about the manor-house; +and before the sermon was over he went out quickly from the table of the +Lord, the house was immediately surrounded, and the alarm was raised by a +watcher placed in one of the turrets after Eliot's suspicious departure. +The three priests present, Campion and two others, were hurried into a +hiding-hole over the stairs. The officers entered, searched, and found +nothing; and were actually retiring, when Eliot succeeded in persuading +them to try again; they searched again till dark, and still found +nothing. Mrs. Yate encouraged them to stay the night in the house, and +entertained them with ale; and then when all was quiet, insisted on +hearing some parting words from her eloquent guest. He came out into the +room where she had chosen to spend the night until the officers were +gone; and the rest of the Catholics, some Brigittine nuns and others, met +there through private passages and listened to him for the last time. As +the company was dispersing one of the priests stumbled and fell, making a +noise that roused the sentry outside. Again the house was searched, and +again with no success. In despair they were leaving it, when Jenkins, +Eliot's companion, who was coming downstairs with a servant of the house, +beat with his stick on the wall, saying that they had not searched there. +It was noticed that the servant showed signs of agitation; and men were +fetched to the spot; the wall was beaten in and the three priests were +found together, having mutually shriven one another, and made themselves +ready for death. + +Campion was taken out and sent first to the Sheriff of Berkshire, and +then on towards London on the following day. + + * * * * + +The summer days went by, and every day brought its fresh rumour about +Campion. Sir Owen Hopton, Governor of the Tower, who at first had +committed his prisoner to Little-Ease, now began to treat him with more +honour; he talked, too, mysteriously, of secret interviews and promises +and understandings; and gradually it began to get about that Campion was +yielding to kindness; that he had seen the Queen; that he was to recant +at Paul's Cross; and even that he was to have the See of Canterbury. This +last rumour caused great indignation at Lambeth, and Anthony was more +pressed than ever to get what authentic news he could of the Jesuit. Then +at the beginning of August came a burst of new tales; he had been racked, +it was said, and had given up a number of names; and as the month went by +more and more details, authentic and otherwise, were published. Those +favourably inclined to the Catholics were divided in opinion; some feared +that he had indeed yielded to an excess of agony; others, and these +proved to be in the right when the truth came out, that he had only given +up names which were already known to the authorities; though even for +this he asked public pardon on the scaffold. + +Towards the end of August the Archbishop again sent expressly for Anthony +and bade him accompany his chaplain on the following day to the Tower, to +be present at the public disputation that was to take place between +English divines and the Jesuit. + +"Now he will have the chance he craved for," said Grindal. "He hath +bragged that he would meet any and all in dispute, and now the Queen's +clemency hath granted it him." + +On the following day in the early morning sunshine the minister and +Anthony rode down together to the Tower, where they arrived a few minutes +before eight o'clock, and were passed through up the stairs into St. +John's chapel to the seats reserved for them. + +It was indeed true that the authorities had determined to give Campion +his chance, but they had also determined to make it as small as possible. +He was not even told that the discussion was to take place until the +morning of its occasion, and he was allowed no opportunity for developing +his own theological position; the entire conduct of the debate was in the +hands of his adversaries; he might only parry, seldom riposte, and never +attack. + +When Anthony found himself in his seat he looked round the chapel. Almost +immediately opposite him, on a raised platform against a pillar, stood +two high seats occupied by Deans Nowell and Day, who were to conduct the +disputation, and who were now talking with their heads together while a +secretary was arranging a great heap of books on the table before them. +On either side, east and west, stretched chairs for the divines that were +to support them in debate, should they need it; and the platform on which +Anthony himself had a chair was filled with a crowd of clergy and +courtiers laughing and chatting together. A little table, also heaped +with books, with seats for the notaries, stood in the centre of the nave, +and not far from it were a number of little wooden stools which the +prisoners were to occupy. Plainly they were to be allowed no advisers and +no books; even the physical support of table and chairs was denied to +them in spite of their weary racked bodies. The chapel, bright with the +morning sunlight that streamed in through the east windows of the bare +Norman sanctuary, hummed with the talk and laughter of those who had come +to see the priest-baiting and the vindication of the Protestant Religion; +though, as Anthony looked round, he saw here and there an anxious or a +downcast face of some unknown friend of the Papists. + +He himself was far from easy in his mind. He had been studying Campion's +"Ten Reasons" more earnestly than ever, and was amazed to find that the +very authorities to which Dr. Jewel deferred, namely, the Scriptures +interpreted by Fathers and Councils and illustrated by History, were +exactly Campion's authorities, too; and that the Jesuit's appeal to them +was no less confident than the Protestant's. That fact had, of course, +suggested the thought that if there were no further living authority in +existence to decide between these two scholars, Christendom was in a poor +position. When doctors differed, where was the layman to turn? To his own +private judgment, said the Protestant. But then Campion's private +judgment led him to submit to the Catholic claim! This then at present +weighed heavily on Anthony's mind. Was there or was there not an +authority on earth capable of declaring to him the Revelation of God? For +the first time he was beginning to feel a logical and spiritual necessity +for an infallible external Judge in matters of faith; and that the +Catholic Church was the only system that professed to supply it. The +question of the existence of such an authority was, with the doctrine of +justification, one of those subjects continually in men's minds and +conversations, and to Anthony, unlike others, it appeared more +fundamental even than its companion. All else seemed secondary. +Indulgences, the Mass, Absolution, the Worship of Mary and the +Saints--all these must stand or fall on God's authority made known to +man. The one question for him was, Where was that authority to be +certainly found? + +There came the ringing tramp of footsteps; the buzz of talk ceased and +then broke out again, as the prisoners, with all eyes bent upon them, +surrounded by a strong guard of pikemen, were seen advancing up the +chapel from the north-west door towards the stools set ready for them. +Anthony had no eyes but for Campion who limped in front, supported on +either side by a warder. He could scarcely believe at first that this was +the same priest who had ridden so bravely down Cheapside. Now he was +bent, and walked like an old broken man; his face was deathly pale, with +shadows and lines about his eyes, and his head trembled a little. There +were one or two exclamations of pity, for all knew what had caused the +change; and Anthony heard an undertone moan of sorrow and anger from some +one in a seat behind him. + +The prisoners sat down; and the guards went to their places. Campion took +his seat in front, and turned immediately from side to side, running his +dark eyes along the faces to see where were his adversaries; and once +more Anthony met his eyes, and thrilled at it. Through the pallor and +pain of his face, the same chivalrous spirit looked out and called for +homage and love, that years ago at Oxford had made young men, mockingly +nicknamed after their leader, to desire his praise more passionately than +anything on earth, and even to imitate his manners and dress and gait, +for very loyalty and devotion. Anthony could not take his eyes off him; +he watched the clear-cut profile of his face thrown fearlessly forward, +waited in tense expectation to hear him speak, and paid no attention to +the whisperings of the chaplain beside him. + + * * * * + +Presently the debate began. It was opened by Dean Nowell from his high +seat, who assured Father Campion of the disinterested motives of himself +and his reverend friends in holding this disputation. It was, after all, +only what the priest had demanded; and they trusted by God's grace that +they would do him good and help him to see the truth. There was no +unfairness, said the Dean, who seemed to think that some apology was +needed, in taking him thus unprepared, since the subject of debate would +be none other than Campion's own book. The Jesuit looked up, nodded his +head, and smiled. + +"I thank you, Mr. Dean," he said, in his deep resonant voice, and there +fell a dead hush as he spoke. "I thank you for desiring to do me good, +and to take up my challenge; but I must say that I would I had understood +of your coming, that I might have made myself ready." + +Campion's voice thrilled strangely through Anthony, as the glance from +his eyes had done. It was so assured, so strong and delicate an +instrument, and so supremely at its owner's command, that it was hardly +less persuasive than his personality and his learning that made +themselves apparent during the day. And Anthony was not alone in his +impressions of the Jesuit. Lord Arundel afterwards attributed his +conversion to Campion's share in the discussions. Again and again during +the day a murmur of applause followed some of the priest's clean-cut +speeches and arguments, and a murmur of disapproval the fierce thrusts +and taunts of his opponents; and by the end of the day's debate, so +marked was the change of attitude of the crowd that had come to triumph +over the Papist, and so manifest their sympathy with the prisoners, that +it was thought advisable to exclude the public from the subsequent +discussions. + +On this first day, all manner of subjects were touched upon, such as the +comparative leniency of Catholic and Protestant governments, the position +of Luther with regard to the Epistle of St. James, and other matters +comparatively unimportant, in the discussion of which a great deal of +time was wasted. Campion entreated his opponents to leave such minor +questions alone, and to come to doctrinal matters; but they preferred to +keep to details rather than to principles, and the priest had scarcely +any opportunity to state his positive position at all. The only doctrinal +matter seriously touched upon was that of Justification by Faith; and +texts were flung to and fro without any great result. "We are justified +by faith," cried one side. "Though I have all faith and have not charity, +I am nothing," cried the other. The effect on Anthony of this day's +debate arose rather from the victorious personality of the priest than +from his arguments. His gaiety, too, was in strange contrast to the +solemn Puritanism of his enemies. For instance, he was on the point that +Councils might err in matters of fact, but that the Scriptures could not. + +"As for example," he said, his eyes twinkling out of his drawn face, "I +am bound under pain of damnation to believe that Toby's dog had a tail, +because it is written, he wagged it." + +The Deans looked sternly at him, as the audience laughed. + +"Now, now," said one of them, "it becomes not to deal so triflingly with +matters of weight." + +Campion dropped his eyes, demurely, as if reproved. + +"Why, then," he said, "if this example like you not, take another. I must +believe that Saint Paul had a cloak, because he willeth Timothy to bring +it with him." + +Again the crowd laughed; and Anthony laughed, too, with a strange sob in +his throat at the gallant foolery, which, after all, was as much to the +point as a deal that the Deans were saying. + +But the second day's debate, held in Hopton's Hall, was on more vital +matters; and Anthony again and again found himself leaning forward +breathlessly, as Drs. Goode and Fulke on the one side, and Campion on the +other, respectively attacked and defended the Doctrine of the Visible +Church; for this, for Anthony, was one of the crucial points of the +dispute between Catholicism and Protestantism. Anthony believed already +that the Church was one; and if it was visible, surely, he thought to +himself, it must be visibly one; and in that case, it is evident where +that Church is to be found. But if it is invisible, it may be invisibly +one, and then as far as that matter is concerned, he may rest in the +Church of England. If not--and then he recoiled from the gulf that +opened. + +"It must be an essential mark of the Church," said Campion, "and such a +quality as is inseparable. It must be visible, as fire is hot, and water +moist." + +Goode answered that when Christ was taken and the Apostles fled, then at +least the Church was invisible; and if then, why not always? + +"It was a Church inchoate," answered the priest, "beginning, not +perfect." + +But Goode continued to insist that the true Church is known only to God, +and therefore invisible. + +"There are many wolves within," he said, "and many sheep without." + +"I know not who is elect," retorted Campion, "but I know who is a +Catholic." + +"Only the elect are of the Church," said Goode. + +"I say that both good and evil are of the visible Church," answered the +other. + +"To be elect or true members of Christ is one thing," went on Goode, "and +to be in the visible Church is another." + + * * * * + +As the talk went on, Anthony began to see where the confusion lay. The +Protestants were anxious to prove that membership in a visible body did +not ensure salvation but then the Catholics never claimed that it did; +the question was: Did or did not Christ intend there to be a visible +Church, membership in which should be the normal though not the +infallible means of salvation? + +They presently got on to the _a priori_ point as to whether a visible +Church would seem to be a necessity. + +"There is a perpetual commandment," said the priest, "in Matthew +eighteen--'Tell the Church'; but that cannot be unless the Church is +visible; _ergo_, the visibility of the Church is continual." + +"When there is an established Church," said Goode, "this remedy is to be +sought for. But this cannot be always had." + +"The disease is continual," answered Campion; "_ergo_ the remedy must be +continual." Then he left the _a priori_ ground and entered theirs. "To +whom should I have gone," he cried, "before Luther's time? What prelates +should I have made my complaint unto in those days? Where was your Church +nine hundred years ago? Whose were John Huss, Jerome of Prague, the +Waldenses? Were they yours?" Then he turned scornfully to Fulke, "Help +him, Master Doctor." + +And Fulke repeated Goode's assertion, that valuable as the remedy is, it +cannot always be had. + +Anthony sat back, puzzled. Both sides seemed right. Persecution must +often hinder the full privileges of Church membership and the exercise of +discipline. Yet the question was, What was Christ's intention? Was it +that the Church should be visible? It seemed that even the ministers +allowed that, now. And if so, why then the Catholic's claim that Christ's +intention had never been wholly frustrated, but that a visible unity was +to be found amongst themselves--surely this was easier to believe than +the Protestant theory that the Church which had been visible for fifteen +centuries was not really the Church at all; but that the true Church had +been invisible--in spite of Christ's intention--during all that period, +and was now to be found only in small separated bodies scattered here and +there. How of the prevailing of the gates of hell, if that were allowed +to be true? + + * * * * + +At two o'clock they reassembled for the afternoon conference; and now +they got even closer to the heart of the matter, for the subject was to +be, whether the Church could err? + +Fulke asserted that it could, and did; and made a syllogism: + +"Whatsoever error is incident to every member, is incident to the whole. +But it is incident to every member to err; _ergo_, to the whole." + +"I deny both _major_ and _minor_," said Campion quietly. "Every man may +err, but not the whole gathered together; for the whole hath a promise, +but so hath not every particular man." + +Fulke denied this stoutly, and beat on the table. + +"Every member hath the spirit of Christ," he said, "which is the spirit +of truth; and therefore hath the same promise that the whole hath." + +"Why, then," said Campion, smiling, "there should be no heretics." + +"Yes," answered Fulke, "heretics may be within the Church, but not of the +Church." + +And so they found themselves back again where they started from. + +Anthony sat back on the oak bench and sighed, and glanced round at the +interested faces of the theologians and the yawns of the amateurs, as the +debate rolled on over the old ground, and touched on free will, and +grace, and infant baptism; until the Lieutenant interposed: + +"Master Doctors," he said, with a judicial air, "the question that was +appointed before dinner was, whether the visible Church may err"--to +which Goode retorted that the digressions were all Campion's fault. + +Then the debate took the form of contradictions. + +"Whatsoever congregation doth err in matters of faith," said Goode, "is +not the true Church; but the Church of Rome erreth in matters of faith; +_ergo_, it is not the true Church." + +"I deny your _minor_," said Campion, "the Church of Rome hath not erred." +Then the same process was repeated over the Council of Trent; and the +debate whirled off once more into details and irrelevancies about imputed +righteousness, and the denial of the Cup to the laity. + +Again the audience grew restless. They had not come there, most of them, +to listen to theological minutiæ, but to see sport; and this interminable +chopping of words that resulted in nothing bored them profoundly. A +murmur of conversation began to buzz on all sides. + +Campion was in despair. + +"Thus shall we run into all questions," he cried hopelessly, "and then we +shall have done this time twelve months." + +But Fulke would not let him be; but pressed on a question about the +Council of Nice. + +"Now we shall have the matter of images," sighed Campion. + +"You are _nimis acutus_," retorted Fulke, "you will leap over the stile +or ever you come to it. I mean not to speak of images." + +And so with a few more irrelevancies the debate ended. + +The third debate in September (on the twenty-third), at which Anthony was +again present, was on the subject of the Real Presence in the Blessed +Sacrament. + +Fulke was in an evil temper, since it was common talk that Campion had +had the best of the argument on the eighteenth. + +"The other day," he said, "when we had some hope of your conversion, we +forbare you much, and suffered you to discourse; but now that we see you +are an obstinate heretic, and seek to cover the light of the truth with +multitude of words, we mean not to allow you such large discourses as we +did." + +"You are very imperious to-day," answered Campion serenely, "whatsoever +the matter is. I am the Queen's prisoner, and none of yours." + +"Not a whit imperious," said Fulke angrily,--"though I will exact of you +to keep the right order of disputation." + +Then the argument began. It soon became plain to Anthony that it was +possible to take the Scripture in two senses, literally and +metaphorically. The sacrament either was literally Christ's body, or it +was not. Who then was to decide? Father Campion said it meant the one; +Dr. Fulke the other. Could it be possible that Christ should leave His +people in doubt as to such a thing? Surely not, thought Anthony. Well, +then, where is the arbiter? Father Campion says, The Church; Dr. Fulke +says, The Scripture. But that is a circular argument, for the question to +be decided is: What does the Scripture mean? for it may mean at least two +things, at least so it would seem. Here then he found himself face to +face with the claims of the Church of Rome to be that arbiter; and his +heart began to grow sick with apprehension as he saw how that Church +supplied exactly what was demanded by the circumstances of the case--that +is, an infallible living guide as to the meaning of God's Revelation. The +simplicity of her claim appalled him. + +He did not follow the argument closely, since it seemed to him but a +secondary question now; though he heard one or two sentences. At one +point Campion was explaining what the Church meant by substance. It was +that which transcended the senses. + +"Are you not Dr. Fulke?" he said. "And yet I see nothing but your colour +and exterior form. The substance of Dr. Fulke cannot be seen." + +"I will not vouchsafe to reply upon this answer," snarled Fulke, whose +temper had not been improved by the debate--"too childish for a +sophister!" + +Then followed interminable syllogisms, of which Campion would not accept +the premises; and no real progress was made. The Jesuit tried to explain +the doctrine that the wicked may be said not to eat the Body in the +Sacrament, because they receive not the virtue of It, though they receive +the Thing; but Fulke would not hear him. The distinction was new to +Anthony, with his puritan training, and he sat pondering it while the +debate passed on. + +The afternoon discussion, too, was to little purpose. More and more +Anthony, and others with him, began to see that the heart of the matter +was the authority of the Church; and that unless that was settled, all +other debate was beside the point; and the importance of this was brought +out for him more clearly than ever on the 27th of the month, when the +fourth and last debate took place, and on the subject of the sufficiency +of the Scriptures unto salvation. + +Mr. Charke, who had now succeeded as disputant, began with extempore +prayer, in which as usual the priest refused to join, praying and +crossing himself apart. + +Mr. Walker then opened the disputation with a pompous and insolent speech +about "one Campion," an "unnatural man to his country, degenerated from +an Englishman, an apostate in religion, a fugitive from this realm, +unloyal to his prince." Campion sat with his eyes cast down, until the +minister had done. + +Then the discussion began. The priest pointed out that Protestants were +not even decided as to what were Scriptures and what were not, since +Luther rejected three epistles in the New Testament; therefore, he +argued, the Church is necessary as a guide, first of all, to tell men +what is Scripture. Walker evaded by saying he was not a Lutheran but a +Christian; and then the talk turned on to apocryphal books. But it was +not possible to evade long, and the Jesuit soon touched his opponent. + +"To leave a door to traditions," he said, "which the Holy Ghost may +deliver to the true Church, is both manifest and seen: as in the Baptism +of infants, the Holy Ghost proceeding from Father to Son, and such other +things mentioned, which are delivered by tradition. Prove these directly +by the Scripture if you can!" + +Charke answered by the analogy of circumcision which infants received, +and by quoting Christ's words as to "sending" of the Comforter; and they +were soon deep in detailed argument; but once more Anthony saw that it +was all a question of the interpretation of Scripture; and, therefore, +that it would seem that an authoritative interpreter was necessary--and +where could such be found save in an infallible living Voice? And once +more a question of Campion's drove the point home. + +"Was all Scripture written when the Apostles first taught?" And Charke +dared not answer yes. + +The afternoon's debate concerned justification by faith, and this, more +than ever, seemed to Anthony a secondary matter, now that he was +realising what the claim of a living authority meant; and he sat back, +only interested in watching the priest's face, so controlled yet so +transparent in its simplicity and steadfastness, as he listened to the +ministers' brutal taunts and insolence, and dealt his quiet skilful +parries and ripostes to their incessant assaults. At last the Lieutenant +struck the table with his hand, and intimated that the time was past, and +after a long prayer by Mr. Walker, the prisoners were led back to their +cells. + +As Anthony rode back alone in the evening sunlight, he was as one who +was seeing a vision. There was indeed a vision before him, that had +been taking shape gradually, detail by detail, during these last months, +and ousting the old one; and which now, terribly emphasised by Campion's +arguments and illuminated by the fire of his personality, towered up +imperious, consistent, dominating--and across her brow her title, The +Catholic Church. Far above all the melting cloudland of theory she +moved, a stupendous fact; living, in contrast with the dead past to +which her enemies cried in vain; eloquent when other systems were dumb; +authoritative when they hesitated; steady when they reeled and fell. +About her throne dwelt her children, from every race and age, secure in +her protection, and wise with her knowledge, when other men faltered and +questioned and doubted: and as Anthony looked up and saw her for the +first time, he recognised her as the Mistress and Mother of his soul; and +although the blinding clouds of argument and theory and self-distrust +rushed down on him again and filled his eyes with dust, yet he knew he +had seen her face in very truth, and that the memory of that vision could +never again wholly leave him. + + + + + CHAPTER VI + + SOME CONTRASTS + + +In the Lambeth household the autumn passed by uneventfully. The rigour of +the Archbishop's confinement had been mitigated, and he had been allowed +now and again to visit his palace at Croydon; but his inactivity still +continued as the sequestration was not removed; Elizabeth had refused to +listen to the petition of Convocation in '80 for his reinstatement. +Anthony went down to the old palace once or twice with him; and was +brought closer to him in many ways; and his affection and tenderness +towards his master continually increased. Grindal was a pathetic figure +at this time, with few friends, in poor health, out of favour with the +Queen, who had disregarded his existence; and now his afflictions were +rendered more heavy than ever by the blindness that was creeping over +him. The Archbishop, too, in his loneliness and sorrow, was drawn closer +to his young officer than ever before; and gradually got to rely upon him +in many little ways. He would often walk with Anthony in the gardens at +Lambeth, leaning upon his arm, talking to him of his beloved flowers and +herbs which he was now almost too blind to see; telling him queer facts +about the properties of plants; and even attempting to teach him a little +irrelevant botany now and then. + +They were walking up and down together, soon after Campion's arrest, one +August morning before prayers in a little walled garden on the river that +Grindal had laid out with great care in earlier years. + +"Ah," said the old man, "I am too blind to see my flowers now, Mr. +Norris; but I love them none the less; and I know their places. Now +there," he went on, pointing with his stick, "there I think grows my +mastick or marum; perhaps I smell it, however. What is that flower like, +Mr. Norris?" + +Anthony looked at it, and described its little white flower and its +leaves. + +"That is it," said the Archbishop, "I thought my memory served me. It is +a kind of marjoram, and it has many virtues, against cramps, convulsions +and venomous bites--so Galen tells us." Then he went on to talk of the +simple old plants that he loved best; of the two kinds of basil that he +always had in his garden; and how good it was mixed in sack against the +headache; and the male penny-royal, and how well it had served him once +when he had great internal trouble. + +"Mr. Gerrard was here a week or two ago, Mr. Norris, when you were down +at Croydon for me. He is my Lord Burghley's man; he oversees his gardens +at Wimbledon House, and in the country. He was telling me of a rascal he +had seen at a fair, who burned henbane and made folks with the toothache +breathe in the fumes; and then feigned to draw a worm forth from the +aching tooth; but it was no worm at all, but a lute string that he held +ready in his hand. There are sad rascals abroad, Mr. Norris." + +The old man waxed eloquent when they came to the iris bed. + +"Ah! Mr. Norris, the flowers-de-luce are over by now, I fear; but what +wonderful creatures of God they are, with their great handsome heads and +their cool flags. I love to hear a bed of them rustle all together and +shake their spears and nod their banners like an army in array. And then +they are not only for show. Apuleius says that they are good against the +gout. I asked Mr. Gerrard whether my lord had tried them; but he said no, +he would not." + +At the violet bed he was yet more emphatic. + +"I think, Mr. Norris, I love these the best of all. They are lowly +creatures; but how sweet! and like other lowly creatures exalted by their +Maker to do great things as his handmaidens. The leaves are good against +inflammations, and the flowers against ague and hoarseness as well. And +then there is oil-of-violets, as you know; and violet-syrup and +sugar-violet; then they are good for blisters; garlands of them were an +ancient cure for the headache, as I think Dioscorides tells us. And they +are the best of all cures for some children's ailments." + +And so they walked up and down together; the Archbishop talking quietly +on and on; and helping quite unknown to himself by his tender irrelevant +old man's talk to soothe the fever of unrest and anxiety that was +beginning to torment Anthony so much now. His conversation, like the very +flowers he loved to speak of, was "good against inflammations." + +Anthony came to him one morning, thinking to please him, and brought him +a root that he had bought from a travelling pedlar just outside the +gateway. + +"This is a mandrake root, your Grace; I heard you speak of it the other +day." + +The Archbishop took it, smiling, felt it carefully, peered at it a minute +or two. "No, my son," he said, "I fear you have met a knave. This is +briony-root carved like a mandrake into the shape of a man's legs. It is +worthless, I fear; but I thank you for the kind thought, Mr. Norris," and +he gave the root back to him. "And the stories we hear of the mandrake, I +fear, are fables, too. Some say that they only grow beneath gallows from +that which falls there; that the male grows from the corruption of a +man's body; and the female from that of a woman's; but that is surely a +lie, and a foul one, too. And then folks say that to draw it up means +death; and that the mandrake screams terribly as it comes up; and so they +bid us tie a dog to it, and then drive the dog from it so as to draw it +up so. I asked Mr. Baker, the chirurgeon in the household of my Lord +Oxford, the other day, about that; and he said that such tales be but +doltish dreams and old wives' fables. But the true mandrake is a clean +and wholesome plant. The true ointment Populeon should have the juice of +the leaves in it; and the root boiled and strained causes drowsiness. It +hath a predominate cold faculty, Galen saith; but its true home is not in +England at all. It comes from Mount Garganus in Apulia." + +It was pathetic, Anthony thought sometimes, that this old prelate should +be living so far from the movements of the time, owing to no fault of his +own. During these months the great tragedy of Campion's passion was +proceeding a couple of miles away; but the Archbishop thought less of it +than of the death of an old tree. The only thing from the outside world +that seemed to ruffle him was the behaviour of the Puritans. Anthony was +passing through "le velvet-room" one afternoon when he heard voices in +the Presence Chamber beyond; and almost immediately heard the Archbishop, +who had recognised his step, call his name. He went in and found him with +a stranger in a dark sober dress. + +"Take this gentleman to Mr. Scot," he said, "and ask him to give him some +refreshment; for that he must be gone directly." + +When Anthony had taken the gentleman to the steward, he returned to the +Archbishop for any further instructions about him. + +"No, Mr. Norris, my business is done with him. He comes from my lord of +Norwich, and must be returning this evening. If you are not occupied, Mr. +Norris, will you give me your arm into the garden?" + +They went out by the vestry-door into the little cloisters, and skirting +the end of the creek that ran up by Chichele's water-tower began to pace +up and down the part of the garden that looked over the river. + +"My lord has sent to know if I know aught of one Robert Browne, with whom +he is having trouble. This Mr. Browne has lately come from Cambridge, and +so my lord thought I might know something of him; but I do not. This +gentleman has been saying some wild and foolish things, I fear; and +desires that every church should be free of all others; and should +appoint its own minister, and rule its own affairs without interference, +and that prophesyings should be without restraint. Now, you know, Mr. +Norris, I have always tried to serve that party, and support them in +their gospel religion; but this goes too far. Where were any governance +at all, if all this were to come about? where were the Rule of Faith? the +power of discipline? Nay, where were the unity for which our Saviour +prayed? It liketh me not. Good Dr. Freake, as his messenger tells me, +feels as I do about this; and desires to restrain Mr. Browne, but he is +so hot he will not be restrained; and besides, he is some kin to my Lord +Burghley, so I fear his mouth will be hard to stop." + +Anthony could not help thinking of Mr. Buxton's prediction that the +Church of England had so repudiated authority, that in turn her own would +one day be repudiated. + +"A Papist prisoner, your Grace," he said, "said to me the other day that +this would be sure to come: that the whole principle of Church authority +had been destroyed in England; and that the Church of England would more +and more be deserted by her children; for that there was no necessary +centre of unity left, now that Peter was denied." + +"It is what a Papist is bound to say," replied the Archbishop; "but it is +easy to prophesy, when fulfilment may be far away. Indeed, I think we +shall have trouble with some of these zealous men; and the Queen's Grace +was surely right in desiring some restraint to be put upon the Exercises. +But it is mere angry raving to say that the Church of England will lose +the allegiance of her children." + +Anthony could not feel convinced that events bore out the Archbishop's +assertion. Everywhere the Puritans were becoming more outrageously +disloyal. There were everywhere signs of disaffection and revolt against +the authorities of the Establishment, even on the part of the most +sincere and earnest men, many of whom were looking forward to the day +when the last rags of popery should be cast away, and formal +Presbyterianism inaugurated in the Church of England. Episcopal +Ordination was more and more being regarded as a merely civil +requirement, but conveying no ministerial commission; recognition by the +congregation with the laying on of the hands of the presbyterate was the +only ordination they allowed as apostolic. + +Anthony said a word to the Archbishop about this. + +"You must not be too strict," said the old man. "Both views can be +supported by the Scriptures; and although the Church of England at +present recognises only Episcopal Ordination within her own borders, she +does not dare to deny, as the Papists fondly do, that other rites may not +be as efficacious as her own. That, surely, Master Norris, is in +accordance with the mind of Christ that hath the spirit of liberty." + +Much as Anthony loved the old man and his gentle charity, this doctrinal +position as stated by the chief pastor of the Church of England scarcely +served to establish his troubled allegiance. + +During these autumn months, too, both between and after the disputations +in the Tower, the image of Campion had been much in his thoughts. +Everywhere, except among the irreconcilables, the Jesuit was being well +spoken of: his eloquence, his humour, and his apparent sincerity were +being greatly commented on in London and elsewhere. Anthony, as has been +seen, was being deeply affected on both sides of his nature; the shrewd +wit of the other was in conflict with his own intellectual convictions, +and this magnetic personality was laying siege to his heart. And now the +last scene of the tragedy, more affecting than all, was close at hand. + +Anthony was present first at the trial in Westminster Hall, which took +place during November, and was more than ever moved by what he saw and +heard there. The priest, as even his opponents confessed, had by now "won +a marvellously good report, to be such a man as his like was not to be +found, either for life, learning, or any other quality which might +beautify a man." And now here he stood at the bar, paler than ever, so +numbed with racking that he could not lift his hand to plead--that supple +musician's hand of his, once so skilful on the lute--so that Mr. Sherwin +had to lift it for him out of the furred cuff in which he had wrapped it, +kissing it tenderly as he did so, in reverence for its sufferings; and he +saw, too, the sleek face of Eliot, in his red yeoman's coat, as he stood +chatting at the back, like another Barabbas whom the people preferred to +the servant of the Crucified. And, above all, he heard Campion's stirring +defence, spoken in that same resonant sweet voice, though it broke now +and then through weakness, in spite of the unconquerable purpose and +cheerfulness that showed in his great brown eyes, and round his delicate +humorous mouth. It was indeed an astonishing combination of sincerity and +eloquence, and even humour, that was brought to bear on the jury, and all +in vain, during those days. + +"If you want to dispute as though you were in the schools," cried one of +the court, when he found himself out of his depth, "you are only proving +yourself a fool." + +"I pray God," said Campion, while his eyes twinkled, "I pray God make us +both sages." And, in spite of the tragedy of the day, a little hum of +laughter ran round the audience. + +"If a sheep were stolen," he argued again, in answer to the presupposition +that since some Catholics were traitors, therefore these were--"and a +whole family called in question for the same, were it good manner of +proceeding for the accusers to say 'Your great grandfathers and fathers +and sisters and kinsfolk all loved mutton; _ergo_, you have stolen the +sheep'?" + +Again, in answer to the charge that he and his companions had conspired +abroad, he said, + +"As for the accusation that we plotted treason at Rheims, reflect, my +lords, how just this charge is! For see! First we never met there at all; +then, many of us have never been at Rheims at all; finally, we were never +in our lives all together, except at this hour and in prison." + +Anthony heard, too, Campion expose the attempt that was made to shift the +charge from religion to treason. + +"There was offer made to us," he cried indignantly, "that if we would +come to the church to hear sermons and the word preached, we should be +set at large and at liberty; so Pascall and Nicholls"--(two apostates) +"otherwise as culpable in all offences as we, upon coming to church were +received to grace and had their pardon granted; whereas, if they had been +so happy as to have persevered to the end, they had been partakers of our +calamities. So that our religion was cause of our imprisonment, and _ex +consequenti_, of our condemnation." + +The Queen's Counsel tried to make out that certain secrets that Campion, +in an intercepted letter, had sworn not to reveal, must be treasonable or +he would not so greatly fear their publication. To this the priest made a +stately defence of his office, and declaration of his staunchness. He +showed how by his calling as a priest he was bound to secrecy in matters +heard in confession, and that these secret matters were of this nature. + +"These were the hidden matters," he said, "these were the secrets, to the +revealing whereof I cannot nor will not be brought, come rack, come +rope!" + +And again, when Sergeant Anderson interpreted a phrase of Campion's +referring to the great day to which he looked forward, as meaning the day +of a foreign papal invasion, the prisoner cried in a loud voice: + +"O Judas, Judas! No other day was in my mind, I protest, than that +wherein it should please God to make a restitution of faith and religion. +Whereupon, as in every pulpit every Protestant doth, I pronounced a great +day, not wherein any temporal potentate should minister, but wherein the +terrible Judge should reveal all men's consciences, and try every man of +each kind of religion. This is the day of change, this is the great day +which I threatened; comfortable to the well-behaving, and terrible to all +heretics. Any other day but this, God knows I meant not." + +Then, after the other prisoners had pleaded, Campion delivered a final +defence to the jury, with a solemnity that seemed to belong to a judge +rather than a criminal. The babble of tongues that had continued most of +the day was hushed to a profound silence in court as he stood and spoke, +for the sincerity and simplicity of the priest were evident to all, and +combined with his eloquence and his strange attractive personality, +dominated all but those whose minds were already made up before entering +the court. + +"What charge this day you sustain," began the priest, in a steady low +voice, with his searching eyes bent on the faces before him, "and what +account you are to render at the dreadful Day of Judgment, whereof I +could wish this also were a mirror, I trust there is not one of you but +knoweth. I doubt not but in like manner you forecast how dear the +innocent is to God, and at what price He holdeth man's blood. Here we are +accused and impleaded to the death,"--he began to raise his voice a +little--"here you do receive our lives into your custody; here must be +your device, either to restore them or condemn them. We have no whither +to appeal but to your consciences; we have no friends to make there but +your heeds and discretions." Then he touched briefly on the evidence, +showing how faulty and circumstantial it was, and urged them to remember +that a man's life by the very constitution of the realm must not be +sacrificed to mere probabilities or presumptions; then he showed the +untrustworthiness of his accusers, how one had confessed himself a +murderer, and how another was an atheist. Then he ended with a word or +two of appeal. + +"God give you grace," he cried, "to weigh our causes aright, and have +respect to your own consciences; and so I will keep the jury no longer. I +commit the rest to God, and our convictions to your good discretions." + +When the jury had retired, and all the judges but one had left the bench +until the jury should return, Anthony sat back in his place, his heart +beating and his eyes looking restlessly now on the prisoners, now on the +door where the jury had gone out, and now on Judge Ayloff, whom he knew a +little, and who sat only a few feet away from him on one side. He could +hear the lawyers sitting below the judge talking among themselves; and +presently one of them leaned over to him. + +"Good-day, Mr. Norris," he said, "you have come to see an acquittal, I +doubt not. No man can be in two minds after what we have heard; at least +concerning Mr. Campion. We all think so, here, at any rate." + +The lawyer was going on to say a word or two more as to the priest's +eloquence, when there was a sharp exclamation from the judge. Anthony +looked up and saw Judge Ayloff staring at his hand, turning it over while +he held his glove in the other; and Anthony saw to his surprise that the +fingers were all blood-stained. One or two gentlemen near him turned and +looked, too, as the judge, still staring and growing a little pale, wiped +the blood quickly away with the glove; but the fingers grew crimson again +immediately. + +"'S'Body!" said Ayloff, half to himself; "'tis strange, there is no +wound." A moment later, looking up, he saw many of his neighbours +glancing curiously at his hand and his pale face, and hastily thrust on +his glove again; and immediately after the jury returned, and the judges +filed in to take their places. Anthony's attention was drawn off again, +and the buzz of talk in the court was followed again by a deep silence. + +The verdict of _Guilty_ was uttered, as had been pre-arranged, and the +Queen's Counsel demanded sentence. + +"Campion and the rest," said Chief Justice Wray, "What can you say why +you should not die?" + +Then Campion, still steady and resolute, made his last useless appeal. + +"It was not our death that ever we feared. But we knew that we were not +lords of our own lives, and therefore for want of answer would not be +guilty of our own deaths. The only thing that we have now to say is, that +if our religion do make us traitors, we are worthy to be condemned; but +otherwise are and have been true subjects as ever the Queen had. In +condemning us, you condemn all your own ancestors," and as he said this, +his voice began to rise, and he glanced steadily and mournfully round at +the staring faces about him, "all the ancient priests, bishops, and +kings--all that was once the glory of England, the island of saints, and +the most devoted child of the See of Peter." Then, as he went on, he +flung out his wrenched hands, and his voice rang with indignant defiance. +"For what have we taught," he cried, "however you may qualify it with the +odious name of treason, that they did not uniformly teach? To be +condemned with these old lights--not of England only, but of the +world--by their degenerate descendants, is both gladness and glory to +us." Then, with a superb gesture, he sent his voice pealing through the +hall: "God lives, posterity will live; their judgment is not so liable to +corruption as that of those who are now about to sentence us to death." + +There was a burst of murmurous applause as he ended, which stilled +immediately, as the Chief Justice began to deliver sentence. But when the +horrible details of his execution had been enumerated, and the formula +had ended, it was the prisoner's turn to applaud:-- + +"_Te Deum laudamus!_" cried Campion; "_Te Dominum confitemur._" + +"_Haec est dies_," shouted Sherwin, "_quam fecit Dominus; exultemus et +laetemur in illâ_": and so with the thanksgiving and joy of the condemned +criminals, the mock-trial ended. + +When Anthony rode down silently and alone in the rain that December +morning a few days later, to see the end, he found a vast silent crowd +assembled on Tower Hill and round the gateway, where the four horses were +waiting, each pair harnessed to a hurdle laid flat on the ground. He +would not go in, for he could scarcely trust himself to speak, so great +was his horror of the crime that was to be committed; so he backed his +horse against the wall, and waited over an hour in silence, scarcely +hearing the murmurs of impatience that rolled round the great crowd from +time to time, absorbed in his own thoughts. Here was the climax of these +days of misery and self-questioning that had passed since the trial in +Westminster Hall. It was no use, he argued to himself, to pretend +otherwise. These three men of God were to die for their religion--and a +religion too which was gradually detaching itself to his view from the +mists and clouds that hid it, as the one great reality and truth of God's +Revelation to man. He had come, he knew, to see not an execution but a +martyrdom. + +There was a trampling from within, the bolts creaked, and the gate rolled +back; a company of halberdiers emerged, and in their midst the three +priests in laymen's dress; behind followed a few men on horseback, with a +little company of ministers, bible in hand; and then a rabble of officers +and pursuivants. Anthony edged his horse in among the others, as the +crowd fell back, and took up his place in the second rank of riders +between a gentleman of his acquaintance who made room for him on the one +side, and Sir Francis Knowles on the other, and behind the Tower +officials. + +Then, once more he heard that ringing bass voice whose first sound +silenced the murmurs of the surging excited crowd. + +"God save you all, gentlemen! God bless you and make you all good +Catholics." + +Then, as the priest turned to kneel towards the east, he saw his face +paler than ever now, after his long fast in preparation for death. The +rain was still falling as Campion in his frieze gown knelt in the mud. +There was silence as he prayed, and as he ended aloud by commending his +soul to God. + +"_In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum._" + + * * * * + +The three were secured to the hurdles, Briant and Sherwin on the one, +Campion on the other, all lying on their backs, with their feet towards +the horse's heels. The word to start was given by Sir Owen Hopton who +rode with Charke, the preacher of Gray's Inn, in the front rank; the +lashed horses plunged forward, with the jolting hurdles spattering mud +behind them; and the dismal pageant began to move forward through the +crowd on that way of sorrows. There was a ceaseless roar and babble of +voices as they went. Charke, in his minister's dress, able now to declaim +without fear of reply, was hardly silent for a moment from mocking and +rebuking the prisoners, and making pompous speeches to the people. + +"See here," he cried, "these rogueing popish priests, laid by the +heels--aye, by the heels--at last; in spite of their tricks and turns. +See this fellow in his frieze gown, dead to the world as he brags; and +know how he skulked and hid in his disguises till her Majesty's servants +plucked him forth! We will disguise him, we will disguise him, ere we +have done with him, that his own mother should not know him. Ha, now! +Campion, do you hear me?" + +And so the harsh voice rang out over the crowd that tramped alongside, +and up to the faces that filled every window; while the ministers below +kept up a ceaseless murmur of adjuration and entreaty and threatening, +with a turning of leaves of their bibles, and bursts of prayer, over the +three heads that jolted and rocked at their feet over the cobblestones +and through the mud. The friends of the prisoners walked as near to them +as they dared, and their lips moved continually in prayer. + +Every now and then as Anthony craned his head, he could see Campion's +face, with closed eyes and moving lips that smiled again and again, all +spattered and dripping with filth; and once he saw a gentleman walking +beside him fearlessly stoop down and wipe the priest's face with a +handkerchief. Presently they had passed up Cheapside and reached Newgate; +in a niche in the archway itself stood a figure of the Mother of God +looking compassionately down; and as Campion's hurdle passed beneath it, +her servant wrenched himself a few inches up in his bonds and bowed to +his glorious Queen; and then laid himself down quietly again, as a chorus +of lament rose from the ministers over his superstition and obstinate +idolatry that seemed as if it would last even to death; and Charke too, +who had become somewhat more silent, broke out again into revilings. + + * * * * + +The crowd at Tyburn was vast beyond all reckoning. Outside the gate it +stretched on every side, under the elms, a few were even in the branches, +along the sides of the stream; everywhere was a sea of heads, out of +which, on a little eminence like another Calvary, rose up the tall posts +of the three-cornered gallows, on which the martyrs were to suffer. As +the hurdles came slowly under the gate, the sun broke out for the first +time; and as the horses that drew the hurdles came round towards the +carts that stood near the gallows and the platform on which the +quartering block stood, a murmur began that ran through the crowd from +those nearest the martyrs.--"But they are laughing, they are laughing!" + +The crowd gave a surge to and fro as the horses drew up, and Anthony +reined his own beast back among the people, so that he was just opposite +the beam on which the three new ropes were already hanging, and beneath +which was standing a cart with the back taken out. In the cart waited a +dreadful figure in a tight-fitting dress, sinewy arms bare to the +shoulder, and a butcher's knife at his leather girdle. A little distance +away stood the hateful cauldron, bubbling fiercely, with black smoke +pouring from under it: the platform with the block and quartering-axe +stood beneath the gallows; and round this now stood the officers, with +Norton the rack-master, and Sir Owen Hopton and the rest, and the three +priests, with the soldiers forming a circle to keep the crowd back. + +The hangman stooped as Anthony looked, and a moment later Campion stood +beside him on the cart, pale, mud-splashed, but with the same serene +smile; his great brown eyes shone as they looked out over the wide +heaving sea of heads, from which a deep heart-shaking murmur rose as the +famous priest appeared. Anthony could see every detail of what went on; +the hangman took the noose that hung from above, and slipped it over the +prisoner's head, and drew it close round his neck; and then himself +slipped down from the cart, and stood with the others, still well above +the heads of the crowd, but leaving the priest standing higher yet on the +cart, silhouetted, rope and all, framed in the posts and cross-beam, from +which two more ropes hung dangling against the driving clouds and blue +sky over London city. + + * * * * + +Campion waited perfectly motionless for the murmur of innumerable voices +to die down; and Anthony, fascinated and afraid beneath that overpowering +serenity, watched him turn his head slowly from side to side with a +"majestical countenance," as his enemies confessed, as if he were on the +point of speaking. Silence seemed to radiate out from him, spreading like +a ripple, outwards, until the furthest outskirts of that huge crowd was +motionless and quiet; and then without apparent effort, his voice began +to peal out. + + * * * * + +"'_Spectaculum facti sumus Deo, angelis et hominibus._' These are the +words of Saint Paul, Englished thus, 'We are made a spectacle or sight +unto God, unto His angels, and unto men';--verified this day in me, who +am here a spectacle unto my Lord God, a spectacle unto His angels, and +unto you men, satisfying myself to die as becometh a true Christian and +Catholic man." + +He was interrupted by cries from the gentlemen beneath, and turned a +little, looking down to see what they wished. + +"You are not here to preach to the people," said Sir Francis Knowles, +angrily, "but to confess yourself a traitor." + +Campion smiled and shook his head. + +"No, no," he said: and then looking up and raising his voice,--"as to the +treasons which have been laid to my charge, and for which I am come here +to suffer, I desire you all to bear witness with me, that I am thereof +altogether innocent." + +There was a chorus of anger from the gentlemen, and one of them called up +something that Anthony could not hear. Campion raised his eyebrows. + +"Well, my lord," he cried aloud, and his voice instantly silenced again +the noisy buzz of talk, "I am a Catholic man and a priest: in that faith +have I lived, and in that faith do I intend to die. If you esteem my +religion treason, then am I guilty; as for other treason, I never +committed any, God is my judge. But you have now what you desire. I +beseech you to have patience, and suffer me to speak a word or two for +discharge of my conscience." + +There was a furious burst of refusals from the officers. + +"Well," said Campion, at last, looking straight out over the crowd, "it +seems I may not speak; but this only will I say; that I am wholly +innocent of all treason and conspiracy, as God is my judge; and I beseech +you to credit me, for it is my last answer upon my death and soul. As for +the jury I do not blame them, for they were ignorant men and easily +deceived. I forgive all who have compassed my death or wronged me in any +whit, as I hope to be forgiven; and I ask the forgiveness of all those +whose names I spoke upon the rack." + +Then he said a word or two more of explanation, such as he had said +during his trial, for the sake of those Catholics whom this a concession +of his had scandalised, telling them that he had had the promise of the +Council that no harm should come to those whose names he revealed; and +then was silent again, closing his eyes; and Anthony, as he watched him, +saw his lips moving once more in prayer. + +Then a harsh loud voice from behind the cart began to proclaim that the +Queen punished no man for religion but only for treason. A fierce murmur +of disagreement and protest began to rise from the crowd; and Anthony +turning saw the faces of many near him frowning and pursing their lips, +and there was a shout or two of denial here and there. The harsh voice +ceased, and another began: + +"Now, Mr. Campion," it cried, "tell us, What of the Pope? Do you renounce +him?" + +Campion opened his eyes and looked round. + +"I am a Catholic," he said simply; and closed his eyes again for prayer, +as the voice cried brutally: + +"In your Catholicism all treason is contained." + +Again a murmur from the crowd. + +Then a new voice from the black group of ministers called out: + +"Mr. Campion, Mr. Campion, leave that popish stuff, and say, 'Christ have +mercy on me.'" + +Again the priest opened his eyes. + +"You and I are not one in religion, sir, wherefore I pray you content +yourself. I bar none of prayer, but I only desire them of the household +of faith to pray with me; and in mine agony to say one creed." + +Again he closed his eyes. + +"_Pater noster qui es in cælis._"... + +"Pray in English, pray in English!" shouted a voice from the minister's +group. + +Once more the priest opened his eyes; and, in spite of the badgering, his +eyes shone with humour and his mouth broke into smiles, so that a great +sob of pity and love broke from Anthony. + +"I will pray to God in a language that both He and I well understand." + +"Ask her Grace's forgiveness, Mr. Campion, and pray for her, if you be +her true subject." + +"Wherein have I offended her? In this I am innocent. This is my last +speech; in this give me credit--I have and do pray for her." + +"Aha! but which queen?--for Elizabeth?" + +"Ay, for Elizabeth, your queen and my queen, unto whom I wish a long +quiet reign with all prosperity." + + * * * * + +There was the crack of a whip, the scuffle of a horse's feet, a rippling +movement over the crowd, and a great murmured roar, like the roar of the +waves on a pebbly beach, as the horse's head began to move forward; and +the priest's figure to sway and stagger on the jolting cart. Anthony shut +his eyes, and the murmur and cries of the crowd grew louder and louder. +Once more the deep sweet voice rang out, loud and penetrating: + +"I die a true Catholic...." + +Anthony kept his eyes closed, and his head bent, as great sobs began to +break up out of his heart.... + +Ah! he was in his agony now! that sudden cry and silence from the crowd +showed it. What was it he had asked? one creed?-- + +"I believe in God the Father Almighty." ... + +The soft heavy murmur of the crowd rose and fell. Catholics were praying +all round him, reckless with love and pity: + +"Jesu, Jesu, save him! Be to him a Jesus!"... + +"Mary pray! Mary pray!"... + +"_Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem._"... + +"_Passus sub Pontio Pilato._"... + +"Crucified dead and buried."... + +"The forgiveness of sins."... + +"And the Life Everlasting."... + + * * * * + +Anthony dropped his face forward on to his horse's mane. + + + + + CHAPTER VII + + A MESSAGE FROM THE CITY + + +Sir Francis Walsingham sat in his private room a month after Father +Campion's death. + +He had settled down again now to his work which had been so grievously +interrupted by his mission to France in connection with a new treaty +between that country and England in the previous year. The secret +detective service that he had inaugurated in England chiefly for the +protection of the Queen's person was a vast and complicated business, and +the superintendence of this, in addition to the other affairs of his +office, made him an exceedingly busy man. England was honeycombed with +mines and countermines both in the political and the religious world, and +it needed all this man's brilliant and trained faculties to keep abreast +with them. His spies and agents were everywhere; and not only in England: +they circled round Mary of Scotland like flies round a wounded creature, +seeking to settle and penetrate wherever an opening showed itself. These +Scottish troubles would have been enough for any ordinary man; but +Walsingham was indefatigable, and his agents were in every prison, +lurking round corridors in private houses, found alike in thieves' +kitchens and at gentlemen's tables. + +Just at present Walsingham was anxious to give all the attention he could +to Scottish affairs; and on this wet dreary Thursday morning in January +as he sat before his bureau, he was meditating how to deal with an affair +that had come to him from the heart of London, and how if possible to +shift the conduct of it on to other shoulders. + +He sat and drummed his fingers on the desk, and stared meditatively at +the pigeon-holes before him. His was an interesting face, with large, +melancholy, and almost fanatical eyes, and a poet's mouth and forehead; +but it was probably exactly his imaginative faculties that enabled him to +picture public affairs from the points of view of the very various +persons concerned in them; and thereby to cope with the complications +arising out of these conflicting interests. + +He stroked his pointed beard once or twice, and then struck a hand-bell +at his side; and a servant entered. + +"If Mr. Lackington is below," he said, "show him here immediately," and +the servant went out. + +Lackington, sometime servant to Sir Nicholas Maxwell, had entered Sir +Francis' service instead, at the same time that he had exchanged the +Catholic for the Protestant religion; and he was now one of his most +trusted agents. But he had been in so many matters connected with +recusancy, that a large number of the papists in London were beginning to +know him by sight; and the affairs were becoming more and more scarce in +which he could be employed among Catholics with any hope of success. It +was his custom to call morning by morning at Sir Francis' office and +receive his instructions; and just now he had returned from business in +the country. Presently he entered, closing the door behind him, and bowed +profoundly to his master. + +"I have a matter on hand, Lackington," said Sir Francis, without looking +at him, and without any salutation beyond a glance and a nod as he +entered,--"a matter which I have not leisure to look into, as it is not, +I think, anything more than mere religion; but which might, I think, +repay you for your trouble, if you can manage it in any way. But it is a +troublesome business. These are the facts. + +"No. 3 Newman's Court, in the City, has been a suspected house for some +while. I have had it watched, and there is no doubt that the papists use +it. I thought at first that the Scots were mixed up with it; but that is +not so. Yesterday, a boy of twelve years old, left the house in the +afternoon, and was followed to a number of houses, of which I will give +you the list presently; and was finally arrested in Paul's Churchyard and +brought here. I frightened him with talk of the rack; and I think I have +the truth out of him now; I have tested him in the usual ways--and all +that I can find is that the house is used for mass now and then; and that +he was going to the papists' houses yesterday to bid them come for next +Sunday morning. But he was stopped too soon: he had not yet told the +priest to come. Now unless the priest is told to-night by one whom he +trusts, there will be no mass on Sunday, and the nest of papists will +escape us. It is of no use to send the boy; as he will betray all by his +behaviour, even if we frighten him into saying what we wish to the +priest. I suppose it is of no use your going to the priest and feigning +to be a Catholic messenger; and I cannot at this moment see what is to be +done. If there were anything beyond mere religion in this, I would spare +no pains to hunt them out; but it is not worth my while. Yet there is the +reward; and if you think that you can do anything, you can have it for +your pains. I can spare you till Monday, and of course you shall have +what men you will to surround the house and take them at mass, if you can +but get the priest there." + +"Thank you, sir," said Lackington deferentially. "Have I your honour's +leave to see the boy in your presence?" + +Walsingham struck the bell again. + +"Bring the lad that is locked in the steward's parlour," he said, when +the servant appeared.--"Sit down, Lackington, and examine him when he +comes." + +And Sir Francis took down some papers from a pigeon-hole, sorted out one +or two, and saying, "Here are his statements," handed them to the agent; +who began to glance through them at once. Walsingham then turned to his +table again and began to go on with his letters. + +In a moment or two the door opened, and a little lad of twelve years old, +came in, followed by the servant. + +"That will do," said Walsingham, without looking up; "You can leave him +here," and the servant went out. The boy stood back against the wall by +the door, his face was white and his eyes full of horror, and he looked +in a dazed way at the two men. + +"What is your name, boy?" began Lackington in a sharp, judicial tone. + +"John Belton," said the lad in a tremulous voice. + +"And you are a little papist?" asked the agent. + +"No sir; a Protestant." + +"Then how is it that you go on errands for papists?" + +"I am a servant, sir," said the boy imploringly. + +Lackington turned the papers over for a moment or two. + +"Now you know," he began again in a threatening voice, "that this +gentleman has power to put you on the rack; you know what that is?" + +The boy nodded in mute white-faced terror. + +"Well, now, he will hear all you say; and will know whether you say the +truth or not. Now tell me if you still hold to what you said yesterday." + +And then Lackington with the aid of the papers ran quickly over the story +that Sir Francis had related. "Now do you mean to tell me, John Belton," +he added, "that you, a Protestant, and a lad of twelve, are employed on +this work by papists, to gather them for mass?" + +The boy looked at him with the same earnest horror. + +"Yes, sir, yes, sir," he said, and there was a piteous sob in his voice. +"Indeed it is all true: but I do not often go on these messages for my +master. Mr. Roger generally goes: but he is sick." + +"Oho!" said Lackington, "you did not say that yesterday." + +The boy was terrified. + +"No, sir," he cried out miserably, "the gentleman did not ask me." + +"Well, who is Mr. Roger? What is he like?" + +"He is my master's servant, sir; and he wears a patch over his eye; and +stutters a little in his speech." + +These kinds of details were plainly beyond a frightened lad's power of +invention, and Lackington was more satisfied. + +"And what was the message that you were to give to the folk and the +priest?" + +"Please, sir, 'Come, for all things are now ready.'" + +This was such a queer answer that Lackington gave an incredulous +exclamation. + +"It is probably true," said Sir Francis, without looking up from his +letters; "I have come across the same kind of cypher, at least once +before." + +"Thank you, sir," said the agent. "And now, my boy, tell me this. How did +you know what it meant?" + +"Please, sir," said the lad, a little encouraged by the kinder tone, "I +have noticed that twice before when Mr. Roger could not go, and I was +sent with the same message, all the folks and the priest came on the next +Sunday; and I think that it means that all is safe, and that they can +come." + +"You are a sharp lad," said the spy approvingly. "I am satisfied with +you." + +"Then, sir, may I go home?" asked the boy with hopeful entreaty in his +voice. + +"Nay, nay," said the other, "I have not done with you yet. Answer me some +more questions. Why did you not go to the priest first?" + +"Because I was bidden to go to him last," said the boy. "If I had been to +all the other houses by five o'clock last night, then I was to meet the +priest at Papists' Corner in Paul's Church. But if I had not done +them--as I had not,--then I was to see the priest to-night at the same +place." + +Lackington mused a moment. + +"What is the priest's name?" he asked. + +"Please, sir, Mr. Arthur Oldham." + +The agent gave a sudden start and a keen glance at the boy, and then +smiled to himself; then he meditated, and bit his nails once or twice. + +"And when was Mr. Roger taken ill?" + +"He slipped down at the door of his lodging and hurt his foot, at +dinner-time yesterday; and he could not walk." + +"His lodging? Then he does not sleep in the house?" + +"No sir; he sleeps in Stafford Alley, round the corner." + +"And where do you live?" + +"Please, sir, I go home to my mother nearly every night; but not always." + +"And where does your mother live?" + +"Please, sir, at 4 Bell's Lane." + +Lackington remained deep in thought, and looked at the boy steadily for a +minute or two. + +"Now, sir; may I go?" he asked eagerly. + +Lackington paid no attention, and he repeated his question. The agent +still did not seem to hear him, but turned to Sir Francis, who was still +at his letters. + +"That is all, sir, for the present," he said. "May the boy be kept here +till Monday?" + +The lad broke out into wailing; but Lackington turned on him a face so +savage that his whimpers died away into horror-stricken silence. + +"As you will," said Sir Francis, pausing for a moment in his writing, and +striking the bell again; and, on the servant's appearance, gave orders +that John Belton should be taken again to the steward's parlour until +further directions were received. The boy went sobbing out and down the +passage again under the servant's charge, and the door closed. + +"And the mother?" asked Walsingham abruptly, pausing with pen upraised. + +"With your permission, sir, I will tell her that her boy is in trouble, +and that if his master sends to inquire for him, she is to say he is sick +upstairs." + +"And you will report to me on Monday?" + +"Yes, sir; by then I shall hope to have taken the crew." + +Sir Francis nodded his head sharply, and the pen began to fly over the +paper again; as Lackington slipped out. + + * * * * + +Anthony Norris was passing through the court of Lambeth House in the +afternoon of the same day, when the porter came to him and said there was +a child waiting in the Lodge with a note for him; and would Master Norris +kindly come to see her. He found a little girl on the bench by the gate, +who stood up and curtseyed as the grand gentleman came striding in; and +handed him a note which he opened at once and read. + +"For the love of God," the note ran, "come and aid one who can be of +service to a friend: follow the little maid Master Norris, and she will +bring you to me. If you have any friends at _Great Keynes_, for the love +you bear to them, come quickly." + +Anthony turned the note over; it was unsigned, and undated. On his +inquiry further from the little girl, she said she knew nothing about the +writer; but that a gentleman had given her the note and told her to bring +it to Master Anthony Norris at Lambeth House; and that she was to take +him to a house that she knew in the city; she did not know the name of +the house, she said. + +It was all very strange, thought Anthony, but evidently here was some one +who knew about him; the reference to Great Keynes made him think uneasily +of Isabel and wonder whether any harm had happened to her, or whether any +danger threatened. He stood musing with the note between his fingers, and +then told the child to go straight down to Paul's Cross and await him +there, and he would follow immediately. The child ran off, and Anthony +went round to the stables to get his horse. He rode straight down to the +city and put up his horse in the Bishop's stables, and then went round +with his riding-whip in his hand to Paul's Cross. + +It was a dull miserable afternoon, beginning to close in with a fine rain +falling, and very few people were about; and he found the child crouched +up against the pulpit in an attempt to keep dry. + +"Come," he said kindly, "I am ready; show me the way." + +The child led him along by the Cathedral through the churchyard, and then +by winding passages, where Anthony kept a good look-out at the corners; +for a stab in the back was no uncommon thing for a well-dressed gentleman +off his guard. The houses overhead leaned so nearly together that the +darkening sky disappeared altogether now and then; at one spot Anthony +caught a glimpse high up of Bow Church spire; and after a corner or two +the child stopped before a doorway in a little flagged court. + +"It is here," she said; and before Anthony could stop her she had slipped +away and disappeared through a passage. He looked at the house. It was a +tumble-down place; the door was heavily studded with nails, and gave a +most respectable air to the house: the leaded windows were just over his +head, and tightly closed. There was an air of mute discretion and silence +about the place that roused a vague discomfort in Anthony's mind; he +slipped his right hand into his belt and satisfied himself that the hilt +of his knife was within reach. Overhead the hanging windows and eaves +bulged out on all sides; but there was no one to be seen; it seemed a +place that had slipped into a backwater of the humming stream of the +city. The fine rain still falling added to the dismal aspect of the +little court. He looked round once more; and then rapped sharply at the +door to which the child had pointed. + +There was silence for at least a minute; then as he was about to knock +again there was a faint sound overhead, and he looked up in time to see a +face swiftly withdrawn from one of the windows. Evidently an occupant of +the house had been examining the visitor. Then shuffling footsteps came +along a passage within, and a light shone under the door. There was a +noise of bolts being withdrawn, and the rattle of a chain; and then the +handle turned and the door opened slowly inwards, and an old woman stood +there holding an oil lamp over her head. This was not very formidable at +any rate. + +"I have been bidden to come here," he said, "by a letter delivered to me +an hour ago." + +"Ah," said the old woman, and looked at him peeringly, "then you are for +Mr. Roger?" + +"I daresay," said Anthony, a little sharply. He was not accustomed to be +treated like this. The old woman still looked at him suspiciously; and +then, as Anthony made a movement of impatience, she stepped back. + +"Come in, sir," she said. + +He stepped in, and she closed and fastened the door again behind him; and +then, holding the oil-lamp high over her head, she advanced in her +slippers towards the staircase, and Anthony followed. On the stairs she +turned once to see if he was coming, and beckoned him on with a movement +of her head. Anthony looked about him as he went up: there was nothing +remarkable or suspicious about the house in any way. It was cleaner than +he had been led to expect by its outside aspect; wainscoted to the +ceiling with oak; and the stairs were strong and well made. It was +plainly a very tolerably respectable place; and Anthony began to think +from its appearance that he had been admitted at the back door of some +well-to-do house off Cheapside. The banisters were carved with some +distinction; and there were the rudimentary elements of linen-pattern +design on the panels that lined the opposite walls up to the height of +the banisters. The woman went up and up, slowly, panting a little; at +each landing she turned and glanced back to see that her companion was +following: all the doors that they passed were discreetly shut; and the +house was perfectly dark except for the flickering light of the woman's +lamp, and silent except for the noise of the footsteps and the rush of a +mouse now and then behind the woodwork. + +At the third landing she stopped, and came close up to Anthony. + +"That is the door," she whispered hoarsely; and pointed with her thumb +towards a doorway that was opposite the staircase. "Ask for Master +Roger." + +And then without saying any more, she set the lamp down on the flat head +of the top banister and herself began to shuffle downstairs again into +the dark house. + +Anthony stood still a moment, his heart beating a little. What was this +strange errand? and Isabel! what had she to do with this house buried +away in the courts of the great city? As he waited he heard a door close +somewhere behind him, and the shuffling footsteps had ceased. He touched +the hilt of his knife once again to give himself courage; and then walked +slowly across and rapped on the door. Instantly a voice full of trembling +expectancy, cried to him to come in; he turned the handle and stepped +into the fire-lit room. + +It was extremely poorly furnished; a rickety table stood in the centre +with a book or two and a basin with a plate, a saucepan hissed and +bubbled on the fire; in the corner near the window stood a poor bed; and +to this Anthony's attention was immediately directed by a voice that +called out hoarsely: + +"Thank God, sir, thank God, sir, you have come! I feared you would not." + +Anthony stepped towards it wondering and expectant, but reassured. Lying +in the bed, with clothes drawn up to the chin was the figure of a man. +There was no light in the room, save that given by the leaping flames on +the hearth; and Anthony could only make out the face of a man with a +patch over one eye; the man stretched a hand over the bed clothes as he +came near, and Anthony took it, a little astonished, and received a +strong trembling grip of apparent excitement and relief: "Thank God, +sir!" the man said again, "but there is not too much time." + +"How can I serve you?" said Anthony, sitting on a chair near the bedside. +"Your letter spoke of friends at Great Keynes. What did you mean by +that?" + +"Is the d-door closed, sir?" asked the man anxiously; stuttering a little +as he spoke. + +Anthony stepped up and closed it firmly; and then came back and sat down +again. + +"Well then, sir; I believe you are a friend of the priest Mr. +M-Maxwell's." + +Anthony shook his head. + +"There is no priest of that name that I know." + +"Ah," cried the man, and his voice shook, "have I said too much? You are +Mr. Anthony Norris of the Dower House, and of the Archbishop's +household?"... + +"I am," said Anthony, "but yet----" + +"Well, well," said the man, "I must go forward now. He whom you know as +Mr. James Maxwell is a Catholic p-priest, known to many under the name of +Mr. Arthur Oldham. He is in sore d-danger." + +Anthony was silent through sheer astonishment. This then was the secret +of the mystery that had hung round Mr. James so long. The few times he +had met him in town since his return, it had been on the tip of his +tongue to ask what he did there, and why Hubert was to be master of the +Hall; but there was something in Mr. James' manner that made the asking +of such a question appear an impossible liberty; and it had remained +unasked. + +"Well," said the man in bed, in anxious terror, "there is no mistake, is +there?" + +"I said nothing," said Anthony, "for astonishment; I had no idea that he +was a priest. And how can I serve him?" + +"He is in sore danger," said the man, and again and again there came the +stutter. "Now I am a Catholic: you see how much I t-trust you sir. I am +the only one in this house. I was entrusted with a m-message to Mr. +Maxwell to put him on his guard against a danger that threatens him. I +was to meet him this very evening at five of the clock; and this +afternoon as I left my room, I slipped and so hurt my foot that I cannot +put it to the ground. I dared not send a l-letter to Mr. Maxwell, for +fear the child should be followed; I dared not send to another Catholic; +nor indeed did I know where to find one whom Mr. M-Maxwell would know and +trust, as he is new to us here; but I had heard him speak of his friend +Mr. Anthony Norris, who was at Lambeth House; and I determined, sir, to +send the child to you; and ask you to do this service for your friend; +for an officer of the Archbishop's household is beyond suspicion. N-now, +sir, will you do this service? If you do it not, I know not where to turn +for help." + +Anthony was silent. He felt a little uneasy. Supposing that there was +sedition mixed up in this! How could he trust the man's story? How could +he be certain in fact that he was a Catholic at all? He looked at him +keenly in the fire-light. The man's one eye shone in deep anxiety, and +his forehead was wrinkled; and he passed his hand nervously over his +mouth again and again. + +"How can I tell," said Anthony, "that all this is true?" + +The man with an impatient movement unfastened his shirt at the neck and +drew up on a string that was round his neck a little leather case. + +"Th-there, sir," he stammered, drawing the string over his head. "T-take +that to the fire and see what it is." + +Anthony took it curiously, and holding it close to the fire drew off the +little case; there was the wax medal stamped with the lamb, called +_Agnus Dei_. + +"Th-there," cried the man from the bed, "now I have p-put myself in your +hands--and if more is w-wanted----" and as Anthony came back holding the +medal, the man fumbled beneath the pillow and drew out a rosary. + +"N-now, sir, do you believe me?" + +It was felony to possess these things and Anthony had no more doubts. + +"Yes," he said, "and I ask your pardon." And he gave back the _Agnus +Dei_. "But there is no sedition in this?" + +"N-none, sir, I give you my word," said the man, apparently greatly +relieved, and sinking back on his pillow. "I will tell you all, and you +can judge for yourself; but you will promise to be secret." And when +Anthony had given his word, he went on. + +"M-Mass was to have been said in Newman's Court on Sunday, at number 3, +but that c-cursed spy Walsingham, hath had wind of it. His men have been +lurking round there; and it is not safe. However, there is no need to say +that to Mr. Maxwell; he will understand enough if you will give him a +message of half a dozen words from me,--Mr. Roger. You can tell him that +you saw me, if you wish to. But ah! sir, you give me your word to say no +more to any one, not even to Mr. Maxwell himself, for it is in a public +place. And then I will tell you the p-place and the m-message; but we +must be swift, because the time is near; it is at five of the clock that +he will look for a messenger." + +"I give you my word," said Anthony. + +"Well, sir, the place is Papists' Corner in the Cathedral, and the words +are these, 'Come, for all things are now ready.' You know sir, that we +Catholics go in fear of our lives, and like the poor hares have to double +and turn if we would escape. If any overhears that message, he will never +know it to be a warning. And it was for that that I asked your word to +say no more than your message, with just the word that you had seen me +yourself. You may tell him, of course sir, that Mr. Roger had a patch +over his eye and st-stuttered a little in his speech; and he will know it +is from me then. Now, sir, will you tell me what the message is, and the +place, to be sure that you know them; and then, sir, it will be time to +go; and God bless you, sir. God bless you for your kindness to us poor +papists!" + +The man seized Anthony's gloved hand and kissed it fervently once or +twice. + +Anthony repeated his instructions carefully. He was more touched than he +cared to show by the evident gratitude and relief of this poor terrified +Catholic. + +"Th-that is right, sir; that is right; and now, sir, if you please, be +gone at once; or the Father will have left the Cathedral. The child will +be in the court below to show you the way out to the churchyard. God +bless you, sir; and reward you for your kindness!" + +And as Anthony went out of the room he heard benedictions mingled with +sobs following him. The woman was nowhere to be seen; so he took the +oil-lamp from the landing, and found his way downstairs again, unfastened +the front door, and went out, leaving the lamp on the floor. The child +was leaning against the wall opposite; he could just see the glimmer of +her face in the heavy dusk. + +"Come, my child," he said, "show me the way to the churchyard." + +She came forward, and he began to follow her out of the little flagged +court. He turned round as he left the court and saw high up against the +blackness overhead a square of window lighted with a glow from within; +and simultaneously there came the sound of bolts being shut in the door +that he had just left. Evidently the old woman had been on the watch, and +was now barring the door behind him. + +It wanted courage to do as Anthony was doing, but he was not lacking in +that; it was not a small matter to go to Papists' Corner and give a +warning to a Catholic priest: but firstly, James Maxwell was his friend, +and in danger: secondly, Anthony had no sympathy with religious +persecution; and thirdly, as has been seen, the last year had made a +really deep impression upon him: he was more favourably inclined to the +Catholic cause than he had ever imagined to be possible. + +As he followed the child through the labyrinth of passages, passing every +now and then the lighted front of a house, or a little group of idlers +(for the rain had now ceased) who stared to see this gentleman in such +company, his head was whirling with questions and conjectures. Was it not +after all a dishonourable act to the Archbishop in whose service he was, +thus to take the side of the Papists? But that it was too late to +consider now.--How strange that James Maxwell was a priest! That of +course accounted at once for his long absence, no doubt in the seminary +abroad, and his ultimate return, and for Hubert's inheriting the estates. +And then he passed on to reflect as he had done a hundred times before on +this wonderful Religion that allured men from home and wealth and +friends, and sent them rejoicing to penury, suspicion, hatred, peril, and +death itself, for the kingdom of heaven's sake. + +Suddenly he found himself in the open space opposite the Cathedral--the +child had again disappeared. + +It was less dark here; the leaden sky overhead still glimmered with a +pale sunset light; and many house-windows shone out from within. He +passed round the south side of the Cathedral, and entered the western +door. The building was full of deep gloom only pricked here and there by +an oil-lamp or two that would presently be extinguished when the +Cathedral was closed. The air was full of a faint sound, made up from +echoes of the outside world and the footsteps of a few people who still +lingered in groups here and there in the aisles, and talked among +themselves. The columns rose up in slender bundles and faded into the +pale gloom overhead; as he crossed the nave on the way to Papists' Corner +far away to the east rose the dark carving of the stalls against the +glimmering stone beyond. It was like some vast hall of the dead; the +noise of the footsteps seemed like an insolent intrusion on this temple +of silence; and the religious stillness had an active and sombre +character of its own more eloquent and impressive than all the tumult +that man could make. + +As Anthony came to Papists' Corner he saw a very tall solitary figure +passing slowly from east to west; it was too dark to distinguish faces; +so he went towards it, so that at the next turn they would meet face to +face. When he was within two or three steps the man before him turned +abruptly; and Anthony immediately put out his hand smiling. + +"Mr. Arthur Oldham," he said. + +The man started and peered curiously through the gloom at him. + +"Why Anthony!" he exclaimed, and took his hand, "what is your business +here?" And they began slowly to walk westwards together. + +"I am come to meet Mr. Oldham," he said, "and to give him a message; and +this is it, 'Come, for all things are now ready!'" + +"My dear boy," said James, stopping short, "you must forgive me; but what +in the world do you mean by that?" + +"I come from Mr. Roger," said Anthony, "you need not be afraid. He has +had an accident and sent for me." + +"Mr. Roger?" said James interrogatively. + +"Yes," said Anthony, "he hath a patch over one eye; and stutters +somewhat." + +James gave a sigh of relief. + +"My dear boy," he said, "I cannot thank you enough. You know what it +means then?" + +"Why, yes," said Anthony. + +"And you a Protestant, and in the Archbishop's household?" + +"Why, yes," said Anthony, "and a Christian and your friend." + +"God bless you, Anthony," said the priest; and took his hand and pressed +it. + +They were passing out now under the west door, and stood together for a +moment looking at the lights down Ludgate Hill. The houses about Amen +Court stood up against the sky to their right. + +"I must not stay," said Anthony, "I must fetch my horse and be back at +Lambeth for evening prayers at six. He is stabled at the Palace here." + +"Well, well," said the priest, "I thank God that there are true hearts +like yours. God bless you again my dear boy--and--and make you one of us +some day!" + +Anthony smiled at him a little tremulously, for the gratitude and the +blessing of this man was dear to him; and after another hand grasp, he +turned away to the right, leaving the priest still half under the shadow +of the door looking after him. + +He had done his errand promptly and discreetly. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + THE MASSING-HOUSE + + +Newman's Court lay dark and silent under the stars on Sunday morning a +little after four o'clock. The gloomy weather of the last three or four +days had passed off in heavy battalions of sullen sunset clouds on the +preceding evening, and the air was full of frost. By midnight thin ice +was lying everywhere; pendants of it were beginning to form on the +overhanging eaves; and streaks of it between the cobble-stones that paved +the court. The great city lay in a frosty stillness as of death. + +The patrol passed along Cheapside forty yards away from the entrance of +the court, a little after three o'clock; and a watchman had cried out +half an hour later, that it was a clear night; and then he too had gone +his way. The court itself was a little rectangular enclosure with two +entrances, one to the north beneath the arch of a stable that gave on to +Newman's Passage, which in its turn opened on to St. Giles' Lane that led +to Cheapside; the other, at the further end of the long right-hand side, +led by a labyrinth of passages down in the direction of the wharfs to the +west of London Bridge. There were three houses to the left of the +entrance from Newman's Passage; the back of a ware-house faced them on +the other long side with the door beyond; and the other two sides were +respectively formed by the archway of the stable with a loft over it, and +a blank high wall at the opposite end. + +A few minutes after four o'clock the figure of a woman suddenly appeared +soundlessly in the arch under the stables; and after standing there a +moment advanced along the front of the houses till she reached the third +door. She stood here a moment in silence, listening and looking towards +the doorway opposite, and then rapped gently with her finger-nail eleven +or twelve times. Almost immediately the door opened, showing only +darkness within; she stepped in, and it closed silently behind her. Then +the minutes slipped away again in undisturbed silence. At about twenty +minutes to five the figure of a very tall man dressed as a layman slipped +in through the door that led towards the river, and advanced to the door +where he tapped in the same manner as the woman before him, and was +admitted at once. After that people began to come more frequently, some +hesitating and looking about them as they entered the court, some +slipping straight through without a pause, and going to the door, which +opened and shut noiselessly as each tapped and was admitted. Sometimes +two or three would come together, sometimes singly; but by five o'clock +about twenty or thirty persons had come and been engulfed by the +blackness that showed each time the door opened; while no glimmer of +light from any of the windows betrayed the presence of any living soul +within. At five o'clock the stream stopped. The little court lay as +silent under the stars again as an hour before. It was a night of +breathless stillness; there was no dripping from the eaves; no sound of +wheels or hoofs from the city; only once or twice came the long howl of a +dog across the roofs. + +Ten minutes passed away. + +Then without a sound a face appeared like a pale floating patch in the +dark door that opened on to the court. It remained hung like a mask in +the darkness for at least a minute; and then a man stepped through on to +the cobblestones. Something on his head glimmered sharply in the +starlight; and there was the same sparkle at the end of a pole that he +carried in his hand; he turned and nodded; and three or four men appeared +behind him. + +Then out of the darkness of the archway at the other end of the court +appeared a similar group. Once a man slipped on the frozen stones and +cursed under his breath, and the leader turned on him with a fierce +indrawing of his breath; but no word was spoken. + +Then through both entrances streamed dark figures, each with a steely +glitter on head and breast, and with something that shone in their hands; +till the little court seemed half full of armed men; but the silence was +still formidable in its depth. + +The two leaders came together to the door of the third house, and their +heads were together; and a few sibilant consonants escaped them. The +breath of the men that stood out under the starlight went up like smoke +in the air. It was now a quarter-past five. + +Three notes of a hand-bell sounded behind the house; and then, without +any further attempt at silence, the man who had entered the court first +advanced to the door and struck three or four thundering blows on it with +a mace, and shouted in a resonant voice: + +"Open in the Queen's Name." + +The men relaxed their cautious attitudes, and some grounded their +weapons; others began to talk in low voices; a small party advanced +nearer their leaders with weapons, axes and halberds, uplifted. + +By now the blows were thundering on the door; and the same shattering +voice cried again and again: + +"Open in the Queen's name; open in the Queen's name!" + +The middle house of the three was unoccupied; but the windows of the +house next the stable, and the windows in the loft over the archway, +where the stable-boys slept, suddenly were illuminated; latches were +lifted, the windows thrust open and heads out of them. + +Then one or two more pursuivants came up the dark passage bearing flaming +torches with them. A figure appeared on the top of the blank wall at the +end, and pointed and shouted. The stable-boys in a moment more appeared +in their archway, and one or two persons came out of the house next the +stable, queerly habited in cloaks and hats over their night-attire. + + * * * * + +The din was now tremendous; the questions and answers shouted to and fro +were scarcely audible under the thunder that pealed from the battered +door; a party had advanced to it and were raining blows upon the lock and +hinges. The court was full of a ruddy glare that blazed on the +half-armour and pikes of the men, and the bellowing and the crashes and +the smoke together went up into the night air as from the infernal pit. +It was a hellish transformation from the deathly stillness of a few +minutes--a massacre of the sweet night silence. And yet the house where +the little silent stream of dark figures had been swallowed up rose up +high above the smoky cauldron, black, dark, and irresponsive. + + * * * * + +There rose a shrill howling from behind the house, and the figure on the +top of the wall capered and gesticulated again. Then footsteps came +running up the passage, and a pursuivant thrust his way through to the +leaders; and, in a moment or two, above the din a sharp word was given, +and three or four men hurried out through the doorway by which the man +had come. Almost at the same moment the hinges of the door gave way, the +whole crashed inwards, and the attacking party poured into the dark +entrance hall beyond. By this time the noise had wakened many in the +houses round, and lights were beginning to shine from the high windows +invisible before, and a concourse of people to press in from all sides. +The approaches had all been guarded, but at the crash of the door some of +the sentries round the nearer corners hurried into the court, and the +crowd poured after them; and by the time that the officers and men had +disappeared into the house, their places had been filled by the +spectators, and the little court was again full of a swaying, seething, +shouting mass of men, with a few women with hoods and cloaks among +them--inquiries and information were yelled to and fro. + +"It was a nest of papists--a wasp's nest was being smoked out--what harm +had they done?--It was a murder; two women had had their throats +cut.--No, no; it was a papists' den--a massing-house.--Well, God save her +Grace and rid her of her enemies. With these damned Spaniards everywhere, +England was going to ruin.--They had escaped at the back. No; they tried +that way, but it was guarded.--There were over fifty papists, some said, +in that house.--It was a plot. Mary was mixed up in it. The Queen was to +be blown up with powder, like poor Darnley. The barrels were all stored +there.--No, no, no! it was nothing but a massing-house.--Who was the +priest?--Well, they would see him at Tyburn on a hurdle; and serve him +right with his treasonable mummery.--No, no! they had had enough of +blood.--Campion had died like a man; and an Englishman too--praying for +his Queen."--The incessant battle and roar went up. + + * * * * + +Meanwhile lights were beginning to shine everywhere in the dark house. A +man with a torch was standing in a smoky glare half way up the stairs +seen through the door, and the interior of the plain hall was +illuminated. Then the leaded panes overhead were beginning to shine out. +Steel caps moved to and fro; gigantic shadows wavered; the shadow of a +halberd head went across a curtain at one of the lower windows. + +A crimson-faced man threw open a window and shouted instructions to the +sentry left at the door, who in answer shook his head and pointed to the +bellowing crowd; the man at the window made a furious gesture and +disappeared. The illumination began to climb higher and higher as the +searchers mounted from floor to floor; thin smoke began to go up from one +or two of the chimneys in the frosty air;--they were lighting straw to +bring down any fugitives concealed in the chimneys. Then the sound of +heavy blows began to ring out; they were testing the walls everywhere for +hiding-holes; there was a sound of rending wood as the flooring was torn +up. Then over the parapet against the stairs looked a steel-crowned face +of a pursuivant. The crowd below yelled and pointed at first, thinking he +was a fugitive; but he grinned down at them and disappeared. + +Then at last came an exultant shout; then a breathless silence; then the +crowd began to question and answer again. + +"They had caught the priest!--No, the priest had escaped,--damn him!--It +was half a dozen women. No, no! they had had the women ten minutes ago in +a room at the back.--What fools these pursuivants were!--They had found +the chapel and the altar.--What a show it would all make at the +trial!--Ah! ah! it was the priest after all." + + * * * * + +Those nearest the door saw the man with the torch on the stairs stand +back a little; and then a dismal little procession began to appear round +the turn. + +First came a couple of armed men, looking behind them every now and then; +then a group of half a dozen women, whom they had found almost +immediately, but had been keeping for the last few minutes in a room +upstairs; then a couple more men. Then there was a little space; and then +more constables and more prisoners. Each male prisoner was guarded by two +men; the women were in groups. All these came out to the court. The crowd +began to sway back against the walls, pointing and crying out; and a lane +with living walls was formed towards the archway that opened into +Newman's Passage. + +When the last pursuivants who brought up the rear had reached the door, +an officer, who had been leaning from a first-floor window with the pale +face of Lackington peering over his shoulder, gave a sharp order; and the +procession halted. The women, numbering fourteen or fifteen, were placed +in a group with some eight men in hollow square round them; then came a +dozen men, each with a pursuivant on either side. But plainly they were +not all come; they were still waiting for something; the officer and +Lackington disappeared from the window; and for a moment too, the crowd +was quiet. + +A murmur of excitement began to rise again, as another group was seen +descending the stairs within. The officer came first, looking back and +talking as he came; then followed two pursuivants with halberds, and +immediately behind them, followed by yet two men, walked James Maxwell in +crimson vestments all disordered, with his hands behind him, and his +comely head towering above the heads of the guard. The crowd surged +forward, yelling; and the men at the door grounded their halberds sharply +on the feet of the front row of spectators. As the priest reached the +door, a shrill cry either from a boy or a woman pierced the roaring of +the mob. "God bless you, father," and as he heard it he turned and smiled +serenely. His face was white, and there was a little trickle of blood run +down across it from some wound in his head. The rest of the prisoners +turned towards him as he came out; and again he smiled and nodded at +them. And so the Catholics with their priest stood a moment in that +deafening tumult of revilings, before the officer gave the word to +advance. + +Then the procession set forward through the archway; the crowd pressing +back before them, like the recoil of a wave, and surging after them again +in the wake. High over the heads of all moved the steel halberds, shining +like grim emblems of power; the torches tossed up and down and threw +monstrous stalking shadows on the walls as they passed; the steel caps +edged the procession like an impenetrable hedge; and last moved the +crimson-clad priest, as if in some church function, but with a bristling +barrier about him; then came the mob, pouring along the narrow passages, +jostling, cursing, reviling, swelled every moment by new arrivals dashing +down the alleys and courts that gave on the thoroughfare; and so with +tramp and ring of steel the pageant went forward on its way of sorrows. + + * * * * + +Before six o'clock Newman's Court was empty again, except for one armed +figure that stood before the shattered door of No. 3 to guard it. Inside +the house was dark again except in one room high up where the altar had +stood. Here the thick curtains against the glass had been torn down, and +the window was illuminated; every now and again the shadows on the +ceiling stirred a little as if the candle was being moved; and once the +window opened and a pale smooth face looked out for a moment, and then +withdrew again. Then the light disappeared altogether; and presently +shone out in another room on the same floor; then again after an half an +hour or so it was darkened; and again reappeared on the floor below. And +so it went on from room to room; until the noises of the waking city +began, and the stars paled and expired. Over the smokeless town the sky +began to glow clear and brilliant. The crowing of cocks awoke here and +there; a church bell or two began to sound far away over the roofs. The +pale blue overhead grew more and more luminous; the candle went out on +the first floor; the steel-clad man stretched himself and looked at the +growing dawn. + +A step was heard on the stairs, and Lackington came down, carrying a +small valise apparently full to bursting. He looked paler than usual; and +a little hollow-eyed for want of sleep. He came out and stood by the +soldier, and looked about him. Everywhere the court showed signs of the +night's tumult. Crumbled ice from broken icicles and trampled frozen +pools lay powdered on the stones. Here and there on the walls were great +smears of black from the torches, and even one or two torn bits of stuff +and a crushed hat marked where the pressure had been fiercest. Most +eloquent of all was the splintered door behind him, still held fast by +one stout bolt, but leaning crookedly against the dinted wall of the +interior. + +"A good night's work, friend," said Lackington to the man. "Another hive +taken, and here"--and he tapped his valise--"here I bear the best of the +honey." + +The soldier looked heavily at the bag. He was tired too; and he did not +care for this kind of work. + +"Well," said Lackington again, "I must be getting home safe. Keep the +door; you shall be relieved in one hour." + +The soldier nodded at him; but still said nothing; and Lackington lifted +the valise and went off too under the archway. + + * * * * + +That same morning Lady Maxwell in her room in the Hall at Great Keynes +awoke early before dawn with a start. She had had a dream but could not +remember what it was, except that her son James was in it, and seemed to +be in trouble. He was calling on her to save him, she thought, and awoke +at the sound of his voice. She often dreamt of him at this time; for the +life of a seminary priest was laid with snares and dangers. But this +dream seemed worse than all. + +She struck a light, and looked timidly round the room; it seemed still +ringing with his voice. A great tapestry in a frame hung over the +mantelpiece, Actæon followed by his hounds; the hunter panted as he ran, +and was looking back over his shoulder; and the long-jawed dogs streamed +behind him down a little hill. + +So strong was the dream upon the old lady that she felt restless, and +presently got up and went to the window and opened a shutter to look out. +A white statue or two beyond the terrace glimmered in the dusk, and the +stars were bright in the clear frosty night overhead. She closed the +shutter and went back again to bed; but could not sleep. Again and again +as she was dozing off, something would startle her wide awake again: +sometimes it was a glimpse of James' face; sometimes he seemed to be +hurrying away from her down an endless passage with closed doors; he was +dressed in something crimson. She tried to cry out, her voice would not +rise above a whisper. Sometimes it was the dream of his voice; and once +she started up crying out, "I am coming, my son." Then at last she awoke +again at the sound of footsteps coming along the corridor outside; and +stared fearfully at the door to see what would enter. But it was only the +maid come to call her mistress. Lady Maxwell watched her as she opened +the shutters that now glimmered through their cracks, and let a great +flood of light into the room from the clear shining morning outside. + +"It is a frosty morning, my lady," said the maid. + +"Send one of the men down to Mistress Torridon," said Lady Maxwell, "and +ask her to come here as soon as it is convenient. Say I am well; but +would like to see her when she can come." + +There was no priest in the house that Sunday, so there could be no mass; +and on these occasions Mistress Margaret usually stayed at the Dower +House until after dinner; but this morning she came up within half an +hour of receiving the message. + +She did not pretend to despise her sister's terror, or call it +superstitious. + +"Mary," she said, taking her sister's jewelled old fingers into her own +two hands, "we must leave all this to the good God. It may mean much, or +little, or nothing. He only knows; but at least we may pray. Let me tell +Isabel; a child's prayers are mighty with Him; and she has the soul of a +little child still." + +So Isabel was told; and after church she came up to dine at the Hall and +spend the day there; for Lady Maxwell was thoroughly nervous and upset: +she trembled at the sound of footsteps, and cried out when one of the men +came into the room suddenly. + +Isabel went again to evening prayer at three o'clock; but could not keep +her thoughts off the strange nervous horror at the Hall, though it seemed +to rest on no better foundation than the waking dreams of an old +lady--and her mind strayed away continually from the darkening chapel in +which she sat, so near where Sir Nicholas himself lay, to the upstairs +parlour where the widow sat shaken and trembling at her own curious +fancies about her dear son. + +Mr. Bodder's sermon came to an end at last; and Isabel was able to get +away, and hurry back to the Hall. She found the old ladies as she had +left them in the little drawing-room, Lady Maxwell sitting on the +window-seat near the harp, preoccupied and apparently listening for +something she knew not what. Mistress Margaret was sitting in a tall +padded porter's chair reading aloud from an old English mystic, but her +sister was paying no attention, and looked strangely at the girl as she +came in. Isabel sat down near the fire and listened; and as she listened +the memory of that other day, years ago, came to her when she sat once +before with these two ladies in the same room, and Mistress Margaret read +to them, and the letter came from Sir Nicholas; and then the sudden +clamour from the village. So now she sat with terror darkening over her, +glancing now and again at that white expectant face, and herself +listening for the first far-away rumour of the dreadful interruption that +she now knew must come. + +"The Goodness of God," read the old nun, "is the highest prayer, and it +cometh down to the lowest part of our need. It quickeneth our soul and +bringeth it on life, and maketh it for to waxen in grace and virtue. It +is nearest in nature; and readiest in grace: for it is the same grace +that the soul seeketh, and ever shall seek till we know verily that He +hath us all in Himself enclosed. For he hath no despite of that He hath +made, nor hath He any disdain to serve us at the simplest office that to +our body belongeth in nature, for love of the soul that He hath made to +His own likeness. For as the body is clad in the clothes, and the flesh +in the skin, and the bones in the flesh, and the heart in the whole, so +are we, soul and body, clad in the Goodness of God, and enclosed. Yea, +and more homely; for all these may waste and wear away, but the Goodness +of God is ever whole; and more near to us without any likeness; for truly +our Lover desireth that our soul cleave to Him with all its might, and +that we be evermore cleaving to His goodness. For of all things that +heart may think, this most pleaseth God, and soonest speedeth us. For our +soul is so specially loved of Him that is highest, that it overpasseth +the knowing of all creatures----" + +"Hush," said Lady Maxwell suddenly, on her feet, with a lifted hand. + +There was a breathless silence in the room; Isabel's heart beat thick and +heavy and her eyes grew large with expectancy; it was a windless frosty +night again, and the ivy outside on the wall, and the laurels in the +garden seemed to be silently listening too. + +"Mary, Mary," began her sister, "you----;" but the old lady lifted her +hand a little higher; and silence fell again. + +Then far away in the direction of the London road came the clear beat of +the hoofs of a galloping horse. + +Lady Maxwell bowed her head, and her hand slowly sank to her side. The +other two stood up and remained still while the beat of the hoofs grew +and grew in intensity on the frozen road. + +"The front door," said Lady Maxwell. + +Mistress Margaret slipped from the room and went downstairs; Isabel took +a step or two forward, but was checked by the old lady's uplifted hand +again. And again there was a breathless silence, save for the beat of the +hoofs now close and imminent. + +A moment later the front door was opened, and a great flood of cold air +swept up the passages; the portrait of Sir Nicholas in the hall +downstairs, lifted and rattled against the wall. Then came the clatter on +the paved court; and the sound of a horse suddenly checked with the +slipping up of hoofs and the jingle and rattle of chains and stirrups. +There were voices in the hall below, and a man's deep tones; then came +steps ascending. + +Lady Maxwell still stood perfectly rigid by the window, waiting, and +Isabel stared with white face and great open eyes at the door; outside, +the flame of a lamp on the wall was blowing about furiously in the +draught. + +Then a stranger stepped into the room; evidently a gentleman; he bowed to +the two ladies, and stood, with the rime on his boots and a whip in his +hand, a little exhausted and disordered by hard riding. + +"Lady Maxwell?" he said. + +Lady Maxwell bowed a little. + +"I come with news of your son, madam, the priest; he is alive and well; +but he is in trouble. He was taken this morning in his mass-vestments; +and is in the Marshalsea." + +Lady Maxwell's lips moved a little; but no sound came. + +"He was betrayed, madam, by a friend. He and thirty other Catholics were +taken all together at mass." + +Then Lady Maxwell spoke; and her voice was dead and hard. + +"The friend, sir! What was his name?" + +"The traitor's name, madam, is Anthony Norris." + +The room turned suddenly dark to Isabel's eyes; and she put up her hand +and tore at the collar round her throat. + +"Oh no, no, no, no!" she cried, and tottered a step or two forward and +stood swaying. + +Lady Maxwell looked from one to another with eyes that seemed to see +nothing; and her lips stirred again. + +Mistress Margaret who had followed the stranger up, and who stood now +behind him at the door, came forward to Isabel with a little cry, with +her hands trembling before her. But before she could reach her, Lady +Maxwell herself came swiftly forward, her head thrown back, and her arms +stretched out towards the girl, who still stood dazed and swaying more +and more. + +"My poor, poor child!" said Lady Maxwell; and caught her as she fell. + + + + + CHAPTER IX + + FROM FULHAM TO GREENWICH + + +Anthony in London, strangely enough, heard nothing of the arrest on the +Sunday, except a rumour at supper that some Papists had been taken. It +had sufficient effect on his mind to make him congratulate himself that +he had been able to warn his friend last week. + +At dinner on Monday there were a few guests; and among them, one Sir +Richard Barkley, afterwards Lieutenant of the Tower. He sat at the +Archbishop's table, but Anthony's place, on the steward's left hand, +brought him very close to the end of the first table where Sir Richard +sat. Dinner was half way through, when Mr. Scot who was talking to +Anthony, was suddenly silent and lifted his hand as if to check the +conversation a moment. + +"I saw them myself," said Sir Richard's voice just behind. + +"What is it?" whispered Anthony. + +"The Catholics," answered the steward. + +"They were taken in Newman's Court, off Cheapside," went on the voice, +"nearly thirty, with one of their priests, at mass, in his trinkets +too--Oldham his name is." + +There was a sudden crash of a chair fallen backwards, and Anthony was +standing by the officer. + +"I beg your pardon, Sir Richard Barkley," he said;--and a dead silence +fell in the hall.--"But is that the name of the priest that was taken +yesterday?" + +Sir Richard looked astonished at the apparent insolence of this young +official. + +"Yes, sir," he said shortly. + +"Then, then,----" began Anthony; but stopped; bowed low to the Archbishop +and went straight out of the hall. + + * * * * + +Mr. Scot was waiting for him in the hall when he returned late that +night. Anthony's face was white and distracted; he came in and stood by +the fire, and stared at him with a dazed air. + +"You are to come to his Grace," said the steward, looking at him in +silence. + +Anthony nodded without speaking, and turned away. + +"Then you cannot tell me anything?" said Mr. Scot. The other shook his +head impatiently, and walked towards the inner door. + +The Archbishop was sincerely shocked at the sight of his young officer, +as he came in and stood before the table, staring with bewildered eyes, +with his dress splashed and disordered, and his hands still holding the +whip and gloves. He made him sit down at once, and after Anthony had +drunk a glass of wine, he made him tell his story and what he had done +that day. + +He had been to the Marshalsea; it was true Mr. Oldham was there, and had +been examined. Mr. Young had conducted it.--The house at Newman's Court +was guarded: the house behind Bow Church was barred and shut up, and the +people seemed gone away.--He could not get a word through to Mr. Oldham, +though he had tried heavy bribery.--And that was all. + +Anthony spoke with the same dazed air, in short broken sentences; but +became more himself as the wine and the fire warmed him; and by the time +he had finished he had recovered himself enough to entreat the Archbishop +to help him. + +"It is useless," said the old man. "What can I do? I have no power. +And--and he is a popish priest! How can I interfere?" + +"My lord," cried Anthony desperately, flushed and entreating, "all has +been done through treachery. Do you not see it? I have been a brainless +fool. That man behind Bow Church was a spy. For Christ's sake help us, +my lord!" + +Grindal looked into the lad's great bright eyes; sighed; and threw out +his hands despairingly. + +"It is useless; indeed it is useless, Mr. Norris. But I will tell you all +that I can do. I will give you to-morrow a letter to Sir Francis +Walsingham. I was with him abroad as you know, in the popish times of +Mary: and he is still in some sort a friend of mine--but you must +remember that he is a strong Protestant; and I do not suppose that he +will help you. Now go to bed, dear lad; you are worn out." + +Anthony knelt for the old man's blessing, and left the room. + + * * * * + +The interview next day was more formidable than he had expected. He was +at the Secretary's house by ten o'clock, and waited below while the +Archbishop's letter was taken up. The servant came back in a few minutes, +and asked him to follow; and in an agony of anxiety, but with a clear +head again this morning, and every faculty tense, he went upstairs after +him, and was ushered into the room where Walsingham sat at a table. + +There was silence as the two bowed, but Sir Francis did not offer to +rise, but sat with the Archbishop's letter in his hand, glancing through +it again, as the other stood and waited. + +"I understand," said the Secretary at last, and his voice was dry and +unsympathetic,--"I understand, from his Grace's letter, that you desire +to aid a popish priest called Oldham or Maxwell, arrested at mass on +Sunday morning in Newman's Court. If you will be so good as to tell me in +what way you desire to aid him, I can be more plain in my answer. You do +not desire, I hope, Mr. Norris, anything but justice and a fair trial for +your friend?" + +Anthony cleared his throat before answering. + +"I--he is my friend, as you say, Sir Francis; and--and he hath been +caught by foul means. I myself was used, as I have little doubt, in his +capture. Surely there is no justice, sir, in betraying a man by means of +his friend." And Anthony described the ruse that had brought it all +about. + +Sir Francis listened to him coldly; but there came the faintest spark of +amusement into his large sad eyes. + +"Surely, Mr. Norris," he said, "it was somewhat simple; and I have no +doubt at all that it all is as you say; and that the poor stuttering +cripple with a patch was as sound and had as good sight and power of +speech as you and I; but the plan was, it seems, if you will forgive me, +not so simple as yourself. It would be passing strange, surely that the +man, if a friend of the priest's, could find no Catholic to take his +message; but not at all strange if he were his enemy. I do not think +sincerely, sir, that it would have deceived me. But that is not now the +point. He is taken now, fairly or foully, and--what was it you wished me +to do?" + +"I hoped," said Anthony, in rising indignation at this insolence, "that +you would help me in some way to undo this foul unjustice. Surely, sir, +it cannot be right to take advantage of such knavish tricks." + +"Good Mr. Norris," said the Secretary, "we are not playing a game, with +rules that must not be broken, but we are trying to serve justice"--his +voice rose a little in sincere enthusiasm--"and to put down all false +practices, whether in religion or state, against God or the prince. +Surely the point for you and me is not, ought this gentleman to have been +taken in the manner he was; but being taken, is he innocent or guilty?" + +"Then you will not help me?" + +"I will certainly not help you to defeat justice," said the other. "Mr. +Norris, you are a young man; and while your friendship does your heart +credit, your manner of forwarding its claims does not equally commend +your head. I counsel you to be wary in your speech and actions; or they +may bring you into trouble some day yourself. After all, as no doubt your +friends have told you, you played what, as a minister of the Crown, I +must call a knave's part in attempting to save this popish traitor, +although by God's Providence, you were frustrated. But it is indeed going +too far to beg me to assist you. I have never heard of such audacity!" + +Anthony left the house in a fury. It was true, as the Archbishop had +said, that Sir Francis Walsingham was a convinced Protestant; but he had +expected to find in him some indignation at the methods by which the +priest had been captured; and some desire to make compensation for it. + +He went again to the Marshalsea; and now heard that James had been +removed to the Tower, with one or two of the Catholics who had been in +trouble before. This was serious news; for to be transferred to the Tower +was often but the prelude to torture or death. He went on there, however, +and tried again to gain admittance, but it was refused, and the +doorkeeper would not even consent to take a message in. Mr. Oldham, he +said, was being straitly kept, and it would be as much as his place was +worth to admit any communication to him without an order from the +Council. + +When Anthony got back to Lambeth after this fruitless day, he found an +imploring note from Isabel awaiting him; and one of the grooms from the +Hall to take his answer back. + +"Write back at once, dear Anthony," she wrote, "and explain this terrible +thing, for I know well that you could not do what has been told us of +you. But tell us what has happened, that we may know what to think. Poor +Lady Maxwell is in the distress you may imagine; not knowing what will +come to Mr. James. She will come to London, I think, this week. Write at +once now, my Anthony, and tell us all." + +Anthony scribbled a few lines, saying how he had been deceived; and +asking her to explain the circumstances to Lady Maxwell, who no doubt +would communicate them to her son as soon as was possible; he added that +he had so far failed to get a message through the gaoler. He gave the +note himself to the groom; telling him to deliver it straight into +Isabel's hands, and then went to bed. + +In the morning he reported to the Archbishop what had taken place. + +"I feared it would be so," Grindal said. "There is nothing to be done but +to commit your friend into God's hands, and leave him there." + +"My Lord," said Anthony, "I cannot leave it like that. I will go and see +my lord bishop to-day; and then, if he can do nothing to help, I will +even see the Queen's Grace herself." + +Grindal threw up his hands with a gesture of dismay. + +"That will ruin all," he said. "An officer of mine could do nothing but +anger her Grace." + +"I must do my best," said Anthony; "it was through my folly he is in +prison, and I could never rest if I left one single thing undone." + +Just as Anthony was leaving the house, a servant in the royal livery +dashed up to the gate; and the porter ran out after Anthony to call him +back. The man delivered to him a letter which he opened then and there. +It was from Mistress Corbet. + +"What can be done," the letter ran, "for poor Mr. James? I have heard a +tale of you from a Catholic, which I know is a black lie. I am sure that +even now you will be doing all you can to save your friend. I told the +man that told me, that he lied and that I knew you for an honest +gentleman. But come, dear Mr. Anthony; and we will do what we can between +us. Her Grace noticed this morning that I had been weeping; I put her off +with excuses that she knows to be excuses; and she is so curious that she +will not rest till she knows the cause. Come after dinner to-day; we are +at Greenwich now; and we will see what may be done. It may even be +needful for you to see her Grace yourself, and tell her the story. Your +loving friend, Mary Corbet." + +Anthony gave a message to the royal groom, to tell Mistress Corbet that +he would do as she said, and then rode off immediately to the city. There +was another disappointing delay as the Bishop was at Fulham; and thither +he rode directly through the frosty streets under the keen morning +sunshine, fretting at the further delay. + +He had often had occasion to see the Bishop before, and Aylmer had taken +something of a liking to this staunch young churchman; and now as the +young man came hurrying across the grass under the elms, the Bishop, who +was walking in his garden in his furs and flapped cap, noticed his +anxious eyes and troubled face, and smiled at him kindly, wondering what +he had come about. The two began to walk up and down together. The +sunshine was beginning to melt the surface of the ground, and the birds +were busy with breakfast-hunting. + +"Look at that little fellow!" cried the Bishop, pointing to a thrush on +the lawn, "he knows his craft." + +The thrush had just rapped several times with his beak at a worm's earth, +and was waiting with his head sideways watching. + +"Aha!" cried the Bishop again, "he has him." The thrush had seized the +worm who had come up to investigate the noise, and was now staggering +backwards, bracing himself, and tugging at the poor worm, who, in a +moment more was dragged out and swallowed. + +"My lord," said Anthony, "I came to ask your pity for one who was +betrayed by like treachery." + +The Bishop looked astonished, and asked for the story; but when he heard +who it was that had been taken, and under what circumstances, the +kindliness died out of his eyes. He shook his head severely when Anthony +had done. + +"It is useless coming to me, sir," he said. "You know what I think. To be +ordained beyond the seas and to exercise priestly functions in England is +now a crime. It is useless to pretend anything else. It is revolt against +the Queen's Grace and the peace of the realm. And I must confess I am +astonished at you, Mr. Norris, thinking that anything ought to be done to +shield a criminal, and still more astonished that you should think I +would aid you in that. I tell you plainly that I am glad that the fellow +is caught, for that I think there will be presently one less fire-brand +in England. I know it is easy to cry out against persecution and +injustice; that is ever the shallow cry of the mob; but this is not a +religious persecution, as you yourself very well know. It is because the +Roman Church interferes with the peace of the realm and the Queen's +authority that its ordinances are forbidden; we do not seek to touch a +man's private opinions. However, you know all that as well as I." + +Anthony was raging now with anger. + +"I am not so sure, my lord, as I was," he said. "I had hoped from your +lordship at any rate to find sympathy for the base trick whereby my +friend was snared; and I find it now hard to trust the judgment of any +who do not feel as I do about it." + +"That is insolence, Mr. Norris," said Aylmer, stopping in his walk and +turning upon him his cold half-shut eyes, "and I will not suffer it." + +"Then, my lord, I had better begone to her Grace at once." + +"To her Grace!" exclaimed the Bishop. + +"_Appello Cæsarem_," said Anthony, and was gone again. + + * * * * + +As Anthony came into the courtyard of Greenwich Palace an hour or two +later he found it humming with movement and noise. Cooks were going to +and fro with dishes, as dinner was only just ending; servants in the +royal livery were dashing across with messages; a few great hounds for +the afternoon's baiting were in a group near one of the gateways, +snuffing the smell of cookery, and howling hungrily now and again. + +Anthony stopped one of the men, and sent him with a message to Mistress +Corbet; and the servant presently returned, saying that the Court was +just rising from dinner, and Mistress Corbet would see him in a parlour +directly, if the gentleman would kindly follow him. A groom took his +horse off to the stable, and Anthony himself followed the servant to a +little oak-parlour looking on to a lawn with a yew hedge and a dial. He +felt as one moving in a dream, bewildered by the rush of interviews, and +oppressed by the awful burden that he bore at his heart. Nothing any +longer seemed strange; and he scarcely gave a thought to what it meant +when he heard the sound of trumpets in the court, as the Queen left the +Hall. In five minutes more Mistress Corbet burst into the room; and her +anxious look broke into tenderness at the sight of the misery in the +lad's face. + +"Oh, Master Anthony," she cried, seizing his hand, "thank God you are +here. And now what is to be done for him?" + +They sat down together in the window-seat. Mary was dressed in an +elaborate rose-coloured costume; but her pretty lips were pale, and her +eyes looked distressed and heavy. + +"I have hardly slept," she said, "since Saturday night. Tell me all that +you know." + +Anthony told her the whole story, mechanically and miserably. + +"Ah," she said, "that was how it was. I understand it now. And what can +we do? You know, of course, that he has been questioned in the Tower." + +Anthony turned suddenly white and sick. + +"Not the--not the----" he began, falteringly. + +She nodded at him mutely with large eyes and compressed lips. + +"Oh, my God," said Anthony; and then again, "O God." + +She took up one of his brown young hands and pressed it gently between +her white slender ones. + +"I know," she said, "I know; he is a gallant gentleman." + +Anthony stood up shaking; and sat down again. The horror had goaded him +into clearer consciousness. + +"Ah! what can we do?" he said brokenly. "Let me see the Queen. She will +be merciful." + +"You must trust to me in this," said Mary, "I know her; and I know that +to go to her now would be madness. She is in a fury with Pinart to-day at +something that has passed about the Duke. You know Monsieur is here; she +kissed him the other day, and the Lord only knows whether she will marry +him or not. You must wait a day or two; and be ready when I tell you." + +"But," stammered Anthony, "every hour we wait, he suffers." + +"Oh, you cannot tell that," said Mary, "they give them a long rest +sometimes; and it was only yesterday that he was questioned." + +Anthony sat silently staring out on the fresh lawn; there was still a +patch of frost under the shadow of the hedge he noticed. + +"Wait here a moment," said Mary, looking at him; and she got up and went +out. + +Anthony still sat staring and thinking of the horror. Presently Mary was +at his side again with a tall venetian wine-glass brimming with white +wine. + +"Here," she said, "drink this,"--and then--"have you dined to-day?" + +"There was not time," said Anthony. + +She frowned at him almost fiercely. + +"And you come here fasting," she said, "to face the Queen! You foolish +boy; you know nothing. Wait here," she added imperiously, and again she +left the room. + +Anthony still stared out of doors, twisting the empty glass in his hand; +until again came her step and the rustle of her dress. She took the glass +from him and put it down. A servant had followed her back into the room +in a minute or two with a dish of meat and some bread; he set it on the +table, and went out. + +"Now," said Mary, "sit down and eat before you speak another word." And +Anthony obeyed. The servant presently returned with some fruit, and again +left them. All the while Anthony was eating, Mary sat by him and told him +how she had heard the whole story from another Catholic at court; and how +the Queen had questioned her closely the night before, as to what the +marks of tears meant on her cheeks. + +"It was when I heard of the racking," explained Mary, "I could not help +it. I went up to my room and cried and cried. But I would not tell her +Grace that: it would have been of no use; so I said I had a headache; +but I said it in such a way as to prepare her for more. She has not +questioned me again to-day; she is too full of anger and of the +bear-baiting; but she will--she will. She never forgets; and then Mr. +Anthony, it must be you to tell her. You are a pleasant-faced young man, +sir, and she likes such as that. And you must be both forward and modest +with her. She loves boldness, but hates rudeness. That is why Chris is so +beloved by her. He is a fool, but he is a handsome fool, and a forward +fool, and withal a tender fool; and sighs and cries, and calls her his +Goddess; and says how he takes to his bed when she is not there, which of +course is true. The other day he came to her, white-faced, sobbing like +a frightened child, about the ring she had given Monsieur _le petit +grenouille_. And oh, she was so tender with him. And so, Mr. Anthony, you +must not be just forward with her, and frown at her and call her Jezebel +and tyrant, as you would like to do; but you must call her Cleopatra, and +Diana as well. Forward and backward all in one; that is the way she loves +to be wooed. She is a woman, remember that." + +"I must just let my heart speak," said Anthony, "I cannot twist and +turn." + +"Yes, yes," said Mary, "that is what I mean; but mind that it is your +heart." + +They went on talking a little longer; when suddenly the trumpets pealed +out again. Mary rose with a look of consternation. + +"I must fly," she said, "her Grace will be starting for the pit directly; +and I must be there. Do you follow, Mr. Anthony; I will speak to a +servant in the court about you." And in a moment she was gone. + +When Anthony had finished the fruit and wine, he felt considerably +refreshed; and after waiting a few minutes, went out into the court +again, which he found almost deserted, except for a servant or two. One +of these came up to him, and said respectfully that Mistress Corbet had +left instructions that Mr. Norris was to be taken to the bear-pit; so +Anthony followed him through the palace to the back. + + * * * * + +It was a startlingly beautiful sight that his eyes fell upon when he came +up the wooden stairs on to the stage that ran round the arena where the +sport was just beginning. It was an amphitheatre, perhaps forty yards +across; and the seats round it were filled with the most brilliant +costumes, many of which blazed with jewels. Hanging over the top of the +palisade were rich stuffs and tapestries. The Queen herself no doubt with +Alençon was seated somewhere to the right, as Anthony could see by the +canopy, with the arms of England and France embroidered upon its front; +but he was too near to her to be able to catch even a glimpse of her face +or figure. The awning overhead was furled, as the day was so fine, and +the winter sunshine poured down on the dresses and jewels. All the Court +was there; and Anthony recognised many great nobles here and there in the +specially reserved seats. A ceaseless clangour of trumpets and cymbals +filled the air, and drowned not only the conversation but the terrific +noise from the arena where half a dozen great dogs, furious with hunger +and excited as much by the crowds and the brazen music overhead as by the +presence of their fierce adversary, were baiting a huge bear chained to a +ring in the centre of the sand. + +Anthony's heart sank a little as he noticed the ladies of the Court +applauding and laughing at the abominable scene below, no doubt in +imitation of their mistress who loved this fierce sport; and as he +thought of the kind of heart to which he would have to appeal presently. + +So through the winter afternoon the bouts went on; the band answered with +harsh chords the death of the dogs one by one, and welcomed the collapse +of the bear with a strident bellowing passage on the great horns and +drums; and by the time it was over and the spectators rose to their feet, +Anthony's hopes were lower than ever. Can there be any compassion left, +he wondered, in a woman to whom such an afternoon was nothing more than a +charming entertainment? + +By the time he was able to get out of his seat and return to the +courtyard, the procession had again disappeared, but he was escorted by +the same servant to the parlour again, where Mistress Corbet presently +rustled in. + +"You must stay to-night," she said, "as late as possible. I wish you +could sleep here; but we are so crowded with these Frenchmen and +Hollanders that there is not a bed empty. The Queen is in better humour, +and if the play goes well, it may be that a word said even to-night might +reach her heart. I will tell you when it is over. You must be present. I +will send you supper here directly." + +Anthony inquired as to his dress. + +"Nay, nay," said Mistress Corbet, "that will do very well; it is sober +and quiet, and a little splashed: it will appear that you came in such +haste that you could not change it. Her Grace likes to see a man hot and +in a hurry sometimes; and not always like a peacock in the shade.--And, +Master Anthony, it suits you very well." + +He asked what time the play would be over, and that his horse might be +saddled ready for him when he should want it; and Mary promised to see to +it. + +He felt much more himself as he supped alone in the parlour. The +bewilderment had passed; the courage and spirit of Mary had infected his +own, and the stirring strange life of the palace had distracted him from +that dreadful brooding into which he had at first sunk. + +When he had finished supper he sat in the window seat, pondering and +praying too that the fierce heart of the Queen might be melted, and that +God would give him words to say. + +There was much else too that he thought over, as he sat and watched the +illuminated windows round the little lawn on which his own looked, and +heard the distant clash of music from the Hall where the Queen was +supping in state. He thought of Mary and of her gay and tender nature; +and of his own boyish love for her. That indeed had gone, or rather had +been transfigured into a brotherly honour and respect. Both she and he, +he was beginning to feel, had a more majestic task before them than +marrying and giving in marriage. The religion which made this woman what +she was, pure and upright in a luxurious and treacherous Court, tender +among hard hearts, sympathetic in the midst of selfish lives--this +Religion was beginning to draw this young man with almost irresistible +power. Mary herself was doing her part bravely, witnessing in a +Protestant Court to the power of the Catholic Faith in her own life; and +he, what was he doing? These last three days were working miracles in +him. The way he had been received by Walsingham and Aylmer, their +apparent inability to see his point of view on this foul bit of +treachery, the whole method of the Government of the day;--and above all +the picture that was floating now before his eyes over the dark lawn, of +the little cell in the Tower and the silent wrenched figure lying upon +the straw--the "gallant gentleman" as Mary had called him, who had +reckoned all this price up before he embarked on the life of a priest, +and was even now paying it gladly and thankfully, no doubt--all this +deepened the previous impressions that Anthony's mind had received; and +as he sat here amid the stir of the royal palace, again and again a +vision moved before him, of himself as a Catholic, and perhaps---- But +Isabel! What of Isabel? And at the thought of her he rose and walked to +and fro. + + * * * * + +Presently the servant came again to take Anthony to the Presence Chamber, +where the play was to take place. + +"I understand, sir, from Mistress Corbet," said the man, closing the door +of the parlour a moment, "that you are come about Mr. Maxwell. I am a +Catholic, too, sir, and may I say, sir, God bless and prosper you in +this.--I--I beg your pardon, sir, will you follow me?" + +The room was full at the lower end where Anthony had to stand, as he was +not in Court dress; and he could see really nothing of the play, and hear +very little either. The children of Paul's were acting some classical +play which he did not know: all he could do was to catch a glimpse now +and again of the protruding stage, with the curtains at the back, and the +glitter of the armour that the boys wore; and hear the songs that were +accompanied by a little string band, and the clash of the brass at the +more martial moments. The Queen and the Duke, he could see, sat together +immediately opposite the stage, on raised seats under a canopy; a group +of halberdiers guarded them, and another small company of them was ranged +at the sides of the stage. Anthony could see little more than this, and +could hear only isolated sentences here and there, so broken was the +piece by the talking and laughing around him. But he did not like to move +as Mistress Corbet had told him to be present, so he stood there +listening to the undertone talk about him, and watching the faces. What +he did see of the play did not rouse him to any great enthusiasm. His +heart was too heavy with his errand, and it seemed to him that the +occasional glimpses he caught of the stage showed him a very tiresome +hero, dressed in velvet doubled and hose and steel cap, strangely +unconvincing, who spoke his lines pompously, and was as unsatisfactory as +the slender shrill-voiced boy who, representing a woman of marvellous +beauty and allurement, was supposed to fire the conqueror's blood with +passion. + +At last it ended; and an "orator" in apparel of cloth of gold, spoke a +kind of special epilogue in rhyming metre in praise of the Virgin Queen, +and then retired bowing. + +Immediately there was a general movement; the brass instruments began to +blare out, and an usher at the door desired those who were blocking the +way to step aside to make way for the Queen's procession, which would +shortly pass out. Anthony himself went outside with one or two more, and +then stood aside waiting. + +There was a pause and then a hush; and the sound of a high rating woman's +voice, followed by a murmur of laughter. + +In a moment more the door was flung open again, and to Anthony's surprise +Mistress Corbet came rustling out, as the people stepped back to make +room. Her eyes fell on Anthony near the door, and she beckoned him to +follow, and he went down the corridor after her, followed her silently +along a passage or two, wondering why she did not speak, and then came +after her into the same little oak parlour where he had supped. A servant +followed them immediately with lighted candles which he set down and +retired. + +Anthony looked at Mistress Corbet, and saw all across her pale cheek the +fiery mark of the five fingers of a hand, and saw too that her eyes were +full of tears, and that her breath came unevenly. + +"It is no use to-night," she said, with a sob in her voice; "her Grace is +angry with me." + +"And, and----" began Anthony in amazement. + +"And she struck me," said Mary, struggling bravely to smile. "It was all +my fault,"--and a bright tear or two ran down on to her delicate lace. "I +was sitting near her Grace, and I could not keep my mind off poor James +Maxwell; and I suppose I looked grave, because when the play was over, +she beckoned me up, and--and asked how I liked it, and why I looked so +solemn--for she would know--was it for _Scipio Africanus_, or some other +man? And--and I was silent; and Alençon, that little frog-man burst out +laughing and said to her Grace something--something shameful--in +French--but I understood, and gave him a look; and her Grace saw it, and, +and struck me here, before all the Court, and bade me begone." + +"Oh! it is shameful," said Anthony, furiously, his own eyes bright too, +at the sight of this gallant girl and her humiliation. + +"You cannot stay here, Mistress Corbet. This is the second time at least, +is it not?" + +"Ah! but I must stay," she said, "or who will speak for the Catholics? +But now it is useless to think of seeing her Grace to-night. Yet +to-morrow, maybe, she will be sorry,--she often is--and will want to make +amends; and then will be our time, so you must be here to-morrow by +dinner-time at least." + +"Oh, Mistress Corbet," said the boy, "I wish I could do something." + +"You dear lad!" said Mary, and then indeed the tears ran down. + + * * * * + +Anthony rode back to Lambeth under the stars, anxious and dispirited, and +all night long dreamed of pageants and progresses that blocked the street +down which he must ride to rescue James. The brazen trumpets rang out +whenever he called for help or tried to explain his errand; and Elizabeth +rode by, bowing and smiling to all save him. + + * * * * + +The next day he was at Greenwich again by dinner-time, and again dined by +himself in the oak parlour, waited upon by the Catholic servant. He was +just finishing his meal when in sailed Mary, beaming. + +"I told you so," she said delightedly, "the Queen is sorry. She pinched +my ear just now, and smiled at me, and bade me come to her in her private +parlour in half an hour; and I shall put my petition then; so be ready, +Master Anthony, be ready and of a good courage; for, please God, we shall +save him yet." + +Anthony looked at her, white and scared. + +"What shall I say?" he said. + +"Speak from your heart, sir, as you did to me yesterday. Be bold, yet not +overbold. Tell her plainly that he is your friend; and that it was +through your action he was betrayed. Say that you love the man. She likes +loyalty.--Say he is a fine upstanding fellow, over six feet in height, +with a good leg. She likes a good leg.--Say that he has not a wife, and +will never have one. Wives and husbands like her not--in spite of _le +petit grenouille_.--And look straight in her face, Master Anthony, as you +looked in mine yesterday when I was a cry-baby. She likes men to do +that.--And then look away as if dazzled by her radiancy. She likes that +even more." + +Anthony looked so bewildered by these instructions that Mary laughed in +his face. + +"Here then, poor lad," she said, "I will tell you in a word. Tell the +truth and be a man;--a man! She likes that best of all; though she likes +sheep too, such as Chris Hatton, and frogs like the Duke, and apes like +the little Spaniard, and chattering dancing monkeys like the +Frenchman--and--and devils, like Walshingham. But do you be a man and +risk it. I know you can manage that." And Mary smiled at him so +cheerfully, that Anthony felt heartened. + +"There," she said, "now you look like one. But you must have some more +wine first, I will send it in as I go. And now I must go. Wait here for +the message." She gave him her hand, and he kissed it, and she went out, +nodding and smiling over her shoulder. + +Anthony sat miserably on the window-seat. + +Ah! so much depended on him now. The Queen was in a good humour, and such +a chance might never occur again;--and meantime James Maxwell waited in +the Tower. + +The minutes passed; steps came and went in the passage outside; and +Anthony's heart leaped into his mouth at each sound. Once the door +opened, and Anthony sprang to his feet trembling. But it was only the +servant with the wine. Anthony took it--a fiery Italian wine, and drew a +long draught that sent his blood coursing through his veins, and set his +heart a-beating strongly again. And even as he set the cup down, the door +was open again, and a bowing page was there. + +"May it please you, sir, the Queen's Grace has sent me for you." + +Anthony got up, swallowed in his throat once or twice, and motioned to +go; the boy went out and Anthony followed. + +They went down a corridor or two, passing a sentry who let the well-known +page and the gentleman pass without challenging; ascended a twisted oak +staircase, went along a gallery, with stained glass of heraldic emblems +in the windows, and paused before a door. The page, before knocking, +turned and looked meaningly at Anthony, who stood with every pulse in his +body racing; then the boy knocked, opened the door; Anthony entered, and +the door closed behind him. + + + + + CHAPTER X + + THE APPEAL TO CÆSAR + + +The room was full of sunshine that poured in through two tall windows +opposite, upon a motionless figure that sat in a high carved chair by the +table, and watched the door. This figure dominated the whole room: the +lad as he dropped on his knees, was conscious of eyes watching him from +behind the chair, of tapestried walls, and a lute that lay on the table, +but all those things were but trifling accessories to that scarlet +central figure with a burnished halo of auburn hair round a shadowed +face. + + * * * * + +There was complete silence for a moment or two; a hound bayed in the +court outside, and there came a far-away bang of a door somewhere in the +palace. There was a rustle of silk that set every nerve of his body +thrilling, and then a clear hard penetrating voice spoke two words. + +"Well, sir?" + +Anthony drew a breath, and swallowed in his throat. + +"Your Grace," he said, and lifted his eyes for a moment, and dropped them +again. But in the glimpse every detail stamped itself clear on his +imagination. There she sat in vivid scarlet and cloth of gold, radiating +light; with high puffed sleeves; an immense ruff fringed with lace. The +narrow eyes were fixed on him, and as he now waited again, he knew that +they were running up and down his figure, his dark splashed hose and his +tumbled doublet and ruff. + +"You come strangely dressed." + +Anthony drew a quick breath again. + +"My heart is sick," he said. + +There was another slight movement. + +"Well, sir," the voice said again, "you have not told us why you are +here." + +"For justice from my queen," he said, and stopped. "And for mercy from a +woman," he added, scarcely knowing what he said. + +Again Elizabeth stirred in her chair. + +"You taught him that, you wicked girl," she said. + +"No, madam," came Mary's voice from behind, subdued and entreating, "it +is his heart that speaks." + +"Enough, sir," said Elizabeth; "now tell us plainly what you want of us." + +Then Anthony thought it time to be bold. He made a great effort, and the +sense of constraint relaxed a little. + +"I have been, your Grace, to Sir Francis Walsingham, and my lord Bishop +of London, and I can get neither justice nor mercy from either; and so I +come to your Grace, who are their mistress, to teach them manners." + +"Stay," said Elizabeth, "that is insolence to my ministers." + +"So my lord said," answered Anthony frankly, looking into that hard clear +face that was beginning to be lined with age. And he saw that Elizabeth +smiled, and that the face behind the chair nodded at him encouragingly. + +"Well, insolence, go on." + +"It is on behalf of one who has been pronounced a felon and a traitor by +your Grace's laws, that I am pleading; but one who is a very gallant +Christian gentleman as well." + +"Your friend lacks not courage," interrupted Elizabeth to Mary. + +"No, your Grace," said the other, "that has never been considered his +failing." + +Anthony waited, and then the voice spoke again harshly. + +"Go on with the tale, sir. I cannot be here all day." + +"He is a popish priest, your Majesty; and he was taken at mass in his +vestments, and is now in the Tower; and he hath been questioned on the +rack. And, madam, it is piteous to think of it. He is but a young man +still, but passing strong and tall." + +"What has this to do with me, sir?" interrupted the Queen harshly. "I +cannot pardon every proper young priest in the kingdom. What else is +there to be said for him?" + +"He was taken through the foul treachery of a spy, who imposed upon me, +his friend, and caused me all unknowing to say the very words that +brought him into the net." + +And then, more and more, Anthony began to lose his self-consciousness, +and poured out the story from the beginning; telling how he had been +brought up in the same village with James Maxwell; and what a loyal +gentleman he was; and then the story of the trick by which he had been +deceived. As he spoke his whole appearance seemed to change; instead of +the shy and rather clumsy manner with which he had begun, he was now +natural and free; he moved his hands in slight gestures; his blue eyes +looked the Queen fairly in the face; he moved a little forward on his +knees as he pleaded, and he spoke with a passion that astonished both +Mary and himself afterwards when he thought of it, in spite of his short +and broken sentences. He was conscious all the while of an intense +external strain and pressure, as if he were pleading for his life, and +the time was short. Elizabeth relaxed her rigid attitude, and leaned her +chin on her hand and her elbow on the table and watched him, her thin +lips parted, the pearl rope and crown on her head, and the pearl pendants +in her ears moving slightly as she nodded at points in his story. + +"Ah! your Grace," he cried, lifting his open hands towards her a little, +"you have a woman's heart; all your people say so. You cannot allow this +man to be so trapped to his death! Treachery never helped a cause yet. If +your men cannot catch these priests fairly, then a-God's name, let them +not catch them at all! But to use a friend, and make a Judas of him; to +make the very lips that have spoken friendly, speak traitorously; to bait +the trap like that--it is devilish. Let him go, let him go, madam! One +priest more or less cannot overthrow the realm; but one more foul crime +done in the name of justice can bring God's wrath down on the nation. I +hold that a trick like that is far worse than all the disobedience in the +world; nay--how can we cry out against the Jesuits and the plotters, if +we do worse ourselves? Madam, madam, let him go! Oh! I know I cannot +speak as well in this good cause, as some can in a bad cause, but let the +cause speak for itself. I cannot speak, I know." + +"Nay, nay," said Elizabeth softly, "you wrong yourself. You have an +honest face, sir; and that is the best recommendation to me. + +"And so, Minnie," she went on, turning to Mary, "this was your petition, +was it; and this your advocate? Well, you have not chosen badly. Now, you +speak yourself." + +Mary stood a moment silent, and then with a swift movement came round the +arm of the Queen's chair, and threw herself on her knees, with her hands +upon the Queen's left hand as it lay upon the carved boss, and her voice +was as Anthony had never yet heard it, vibrant and full of tears. + +"Oh! madam, madam; this poor lad cannot speak, as he says; and yet his +sad honest face, as your Grace said, is more eloquent than all words. And +think of the silence of the little cell upstairs in the Tower; where a +gallant gentleman lies, all rent and torn with the rack; and,--and how he +listens for the footsteps outside of the tormentors who come to drag him +down again, all aching and heavy with pain, down to that fierce engine in +the dark. And think of his gallant heart, your Grace, how brave it is; +and how he will not yield nor let one name escape him. Ah! not because he +loves not your Grace nor desires to serve you; but because he serves your +Grace best by serving and loving his God first of all.--And think how he +cannot help a sob now and again; and whispers the name of his Saviour, as +the pulleys begin to wrench and twist.--And,--and,--do not forget his +mother, your Grace, down in the country; how she sits and listens and +prays for her dear son; and cannot sleep, and dreams of him when at last +she sleeps, and wakes screaming and crying at the thought of the boy she +bore and nursed in the hands of those harsh devils. And--and, you can +stop it all, your Grace, with one little word; and make that mother's +heart bless your name and pray for you night and morning till she +dies;--and let that gallant son go free, and save his racked body before +it be torn asunder;--and you can make this honest lad's heart happy again +with the thought that he has saved his friend instead of slaying him. +Look you, madam, he has come confessing his fault; saying bravely to your +Grace that he did try to do his friend a service in spite of the laws, +for that he held love to be the highest law. Ah! how many happy souls you +can make with a word; because you are a Queen.--What is it to be a +Queen!--to be able to do all that!--Oh! madam, be pitiful then, and show +mercy as one day you hope to find it." + +Mary spoke with an intense feeling; her voice was one long straining sob +of appeal; and as she ended her tears were beginning to rain down on the +hand she held between her own; she lifted it to her streaming face and +kissed it again and again; and then dropped her forehead upon it, and so +rested in dead silence. + +Elizabeth swallowed in her throat once or twice; and then spoke, and her +voice was a little choked. + +"Well, well, you silly girl.--You plead too well." + +Anthony irresistibly threw his hands out as he knelt. + +"Oh! God bless your Grace!" he said; and then gave a sob or two himself. + +"There, there, you are a pair of children," she said; for Mary was +kissing her hand again and again. "And you are a pretty pair, too," she +added. "Now, now, that is enough, stand up." + +Anthony rose to his feet again and stood there; and Mary went round again +behind the chair. + +"Now, now, you have put me in a sore strait," said Elizabeth; "between +you I scarcely know how to keep my word. They call me fickle enough +already. But Frank Walsingham shall do it for me. He is certainly at the +back of it all, and he shall manage it. It shall be done at once. Call a +page, Minnie." + +Mary Corbet went to the back of the room into the shadow, opened a door +that Anthony had not noticed, and beckoned sharply; in a moment or two a +page was bowing before Elizabeth. + +"Is Sir Francis Walsingham in the palace?" she asked,--"then bring him +here," she ended, as the boy bowed again. + +"And you too," she went on, "shall hear that I keep my word,"--she +pointed towards the door whence the page had come.--"Stand there," she +said, "and leave the door ajar." + +Mary gave Anthony her hand and a radiant smile as they went together. + +"Aha!" said Elizabeth, "not in my presence." + +Anthony flushed with fury in spite of his joy. + + * * * * + +They went in through the door, and found themselves in a tiny panelled +room with a little slit of a window; it was used to place a sentry or a +page within it. There were a couple of chairs, and the two sat down to +wait. + +"Oh, thank God!" whispered Anthony. + +Again the harsh voice rang out from the open door. + +"Now, now, no love-making within there!" + +Mary smiled and laid her finger on her lips. Then there came the ripple +of a lute from the outer room, played not unskilfully. Mary smiled again +and nodded at Anthony. Then, a metallic voice, but clear enough and +tuneful, began to sing a verse of the little love-song of Harrington's, +_Whence comes my love?_ + +It suddenly ceased in the middle of the line, and the voice cried to some +one to come in. + +Anthony could hear the door open and close again, and a movement or two, +which doubtless represented Walsingham's obeisance. Then the Queen's +voice began again, low, thin, and distinct. The two in the inner room +listened breathlessly. + +"I wish a prisoner in the Tower to be released, Sir Francis; without any +talk or to-do. And I desire you to do it for me." + +There was silence, and then Walsingham's deep tones. + +"Your Grace has but to command." + +"His name is James Maxwell, and he is a popish priest." + +A longer silence followed. + +"I do not know if your Grace knows all the circumstances." + +"I do, sir, or I should not interfere." + +"The feeling of the people was very strong." + +"Well, and what of that?" + +"It will be a risk of your Grace's favour with them." + +"Have I not said that my name was not to appear in the matter? And do you +think I fear my people's wrath?" + +There was silence again. + +"Well, Sir Francis, why do you not speak?" + +"I have nothing to say, your Grace." + +"Then it will be done?" + +"I do not see at present how it can be done, but doubtless there is a +way." + +"Then you will find it, sir, immediately," rang out the Queen's metallic +tones. + +(Mary turned and nodded solemnly at Anthony, with pursed lips.) + +"He was questioned on the rack two days ago, your Grace." + +"Have I not said I know all the circumstances? Do you wish me to say it +again?" + +The Queen was plainly getting angry. + +"I ask your pardon, madam; but I only meant that he could not travel +probably, yet awhile. He was on the rack for four hours, I understand." + +(Anthony felt that strange sickness rise again; but Mary laid her cool +hand on his and smiled at him.) + +"Well, well," rasped out Elizabeth, "I do not ask impossibilities." + +"They would cease to be so, madam, if you did." + +(Mary within the little room put her lips to Anthony's ear: + +"Butter!" she whispered.) + +"Well, sir," went on the Queen, "you shall see that he has a physician, +and leave to travel as soon as he will." + +"It shall be done, your Grace." + +"Very well, see to it." + +"I beg your Grace's pardon; but what----" + +"Well, what is it now?" + +"I would wish to know your Grace's pleasure as to the future for Mr. +Maxwell. Is no pledge of good behaviour to be exacted from him?" + +"Of course he says mass again at his peril. Either he must take the oath +at once, or he shall be allowed forty-eight hours' safe-conduct with his +papers for the Continent." + +"Your Grace, indeed I must remonstrate----" + +Then the Queen's wrath burst out; they heard a swift movement, and the +rap of her high heels as she sprang to her feet. + +"By God's Son," she screamed, "am I Queen or not? I have had enough of +your counsel. You presume, sir--" her ringed hand came heavily down on +the table and they heard the lute leap and fall again.--"You presume on +your position, sir. I made you, and I can unmake you, and by God I will, +if I have another word of your counselling. Be gone, and see that it be +done; I will not bid twice." + +There was silence again; and they heard the outer door open and close. + +Anthony's heart was beating wildly. He had sprung to his feet in a +trembling excitement as the Queen had sprung to hers. The mere ring of +that furious royal voice, even without the sight of her pale wrathful +face and blazing eyes that Walsingham looked upon as he backed out from +the presence, was enough to make this lad's whole frame shiver. Mary +apparently was accustomed to this; for she looked up at Anthony, laughing +silently, and shrugged her shoulders. + +Then they heard the Queen's silk draperies rustle and her pearls chink +together as she sank down again and took up her lute and struck the +strings. Then the metallic voice began again, with a little tremor in it, +like the ground-swell after a storm; and she sang the verse through in +which she had been interrupted: + + "Why thus, my love, so kind bespeak + Sweet eye, sweet lip, sweet blushing cheek-- + Yet not a heart to save my pain; + O Venus, take thy gifts again! + Make not so fair to cause our moan, + Or make a heart that's like your own." + +The lute rippled away into silence. + + * * * * + +Mary rose quietly to her feet and nodded to Anthony. + +"Come back, you two!" cried the Queen. + +Mary stepped straight through, the lad behind her. + +"Well," said the Queen, turning to them and showing her black teeth in a +smile. "Have I kept my word?" + +"Ah! your Grace," said Mary, curtseying to the ground, "you have made +some simple loving hearts very happy to-day--I do not mean Sir Francis'." + +The Queen laughed. + +"Come here, child," she said, holding out her glittering hand, "down +here," and Mary sank down on the Queen's footstool, and leaned against +her knee like a child, smiling up into her face; while Elizabeth put her +hand under her chin and kissed her twice on the forehead. + +"There, there," she said caressingly, "have I made amends? Am I a hard +mistress?" + +And she threw her left hand round the girl's neck and began to play with +the diamond pendant in her ear, and to stroke the smooth curve of her +cheek with her flashing fingers. + +Anthony, a little on one side, stood watching and wondering at this silky +tigress who raged so fiercely just now. + +Elizabeth looked up in a moment and saw him. + +"Why, here is the tall lad here still," she said, "eyeing us as if we +were monsters. Have you never yet seen two maidens loving one another, +that you stare so with your great eyes? Aha! Minnie; he would like to be +sitting where I am--is it not so, sir?" + +"I would sooner stand where I am, madam," said Anthony, by a sudden +inspiration, "and look upon your Grace." + +"Why, he is a courtier already," said the Queen. "You have been giving +him lessons, Minnie, you sly girl." + +"A loyal heart makes the best courtier, madam," said Mary, taking the +Queen's hand delicately in her own. + +"And next to looking upon my Grace, Mr. Norris," said Elizabeth, "what do +you best love?" + +"Listening to your Grace," said Anthony, promptly. + +Mary turned and flashed all her teeth upon him in a smile, and her eyes +danced in her head. + +Elizabeth laughed outright. + +"He is an apt pupil," she said to Mary. + +"--You mean the lute, sir?" she added. + +"I mean your Grace's voice, madam. I had forgotten the lute." + +"Ah, a little clumsy!" said the Queen; "not so true a thrust as the +others." + +"It was not for lack of good-will," said poor Anthony blushing a little. +He felt in a kind of dream, fencing in language with this strange mighty +creature in scarlet and pearls, who sat up in her chair and darted +remarks at him, as with a rapier. + +"Aha!" said the Queen, "he is blushing! Look, Minnie!" Mary looked at him +deliberately. Anthony became scarlet at once; and tried a desperate +escape. + +"It is your livery, madam," he said. + +Mary clapped her hands, and glanced at the Queen. + +"Yes, Minnie; he does his mistress credit." + +"Yes, your Grace; but he can do other things besides talk," explained +Mary. + +Anthony felt like a horse being shown off by a skilful dealer, but he was +more at his ease too after his blush. + +"Extend your mercy, madam," he said, "and bid Mistress Corbet hold her +tongue and spare my shame." + +"Silence, sir!" said the Queen. "Go on, Minnie; what else can he do?" + +"Ah! your Grace, he can hawk. Oh! you should see his peregrine;--named +after your Majesty. That shows his loyal heart." + +"I am not sure of the compliment," said the Queen; "hawks are fierce +creatures." + +"It was not for her fierceness," put in Anthony, "that I named her after +your Grace." + +"Why, then, Mr. Norris?" + +"For that she soars so high above all other creatures," said the lad, +"and--and that she never stoops but to conquer." + +Mary gave a sudden triumphant laugh, and glanced up, and Elizabeth tapped +her on the cheek sharply. + +"Be still, bad girl," she said. "You must not prompt during the lesson." + +And so the talk went on. Anthony really acquitted himself with great +credit, considering the extreme strangeness of his position; but such an +intense weight had been lifted off his mind by the Queen's pardon of +James Maxwell, that his nature was alight with a kind of intoxication. + +All his sharpness, such as it was, rose to the surface; and Mary too was +amazed at some of his replies. Elizabeth took it as a matter of course; +she was accustomed to this kind of word-fencing; she did not do it very +well herself: her royalty gave her many advantages which she often +availed herself of; and her address was not to be compared for a moment +with that of some of her courtiers and ladies. But still she was amused +by this slender honest lad who stood there before her in his graceful +splashed dress, and blushed and laughed and parried, and delivered his +point with force, even if not with any extraordinary skill. + +But at last she began to show signs of weariness; and Mary managed to +convey to Anthony that it was time to be off. So he began to make his +adieux. + +"Well," said Elizabeth, "let us see you at supper to-night; and in the +parlours afterwards.--Ah!" she cried, suddenly, "neither of you must say +a word as to how your friend was released. It must remain the act of the +Council. My name must not appear; Walsingham will see to that, and you +must see to it too." + +They both promised sincerely. + +"Well, then, lad," said Elizabeth, and stretched out her hand; and Mary +rose and stood by her. Anthony came up and knelt on the cushion and +received the slender scented ringed hand on his own, and kissed it +ardently in his gratitude. As he released it, it cuffed him gently on the +cheek. + +"There, there!" said Elizabeth, "Minnie has taught you too much, it +seems." + +Anthony backed out of the presence, smiling; and his last glimpse was +once more of the great scarlet-clad figure with the slender waist, and +the priceless pearls, and the haze of muslin behind that crowned auburn +head, and the pale oval face smiling at him with narrow eyes--and all in +a glory of sunshine. + + * * * * + +He did not see Mary Corbet again until evening as she was with the Queen +all the afternoon. Anthony would have wished to return to Lambeth; but it +was impossible, after the command to remain to supper; so he wandered +down along the river bank, rejoicing in the success of his petition; and +wondering whether James had heard of his release yet. + +Of course it was just a fly in the ointment that his own agency in the +matter could never be known. It would have been at least some sort of +compensation for his innocent share in the whole matter of the arrest. +However, he was too happy to feel the sting of it. He felt, of course, +greatly drawn to the Queen for her ready clemency; and yet there was +something repellent about her too in spite of it. He felt in his heart +that it was just a caprice, like her blows and caresses; and then the +assumption of youth sat very ill upon this lean middle-aged woman. He +would have preferred less lute-playing and sprightly innuendo, and more +tenderness and gravity. + + * * * * + +Mary had arranged that a proper Court-suit should be at his disposal for +supper, and a room to himself; so after he had returned at sunset, he +changed his clothes. The white silk suit with the high hosen, the +embroidered doublet with great puffed and slashed sleeves, the short +green-lined cloak, the white cap and feather, and the slender sword with +the jewelled hilt, all became him very well; and he found too that Mary +had provided him with two great emerald brooches of her own, that he +pinned on, one at the fastening of the crisp ruff and the other on his +cap. + +He went to the private chapel for the evening prayer at half-past six; +which was read by one of the chaplains; but there were very few persons +present, and none of any distinction. Religion, except as a department of +politics, was no integral part of Court life. The Queen only occasionally +attended evening-prayer on week days; and just now she was too busy with +the affair of the Duke of Alençon to spend unnecessary time in that +manner. + +When the evening prayer was over he followed the little company into the +long gallery that led towards the hall, through which the Queen's +procession would pass to supper; and there he attached himself to a group +of gentlemen, some of whom he had met at Lambeth. While they were +talking, the clang of trumpets suddenly broke out from the direction of +the Queen's apartments; and all threw themselves on their knees and +remained there. The doors were flung open by servants stationed behind +them; and the wands advanced leading the procession; then came the +trumpeters blowing mightily, with a drum or two beating the step; and +then in endless profusion, servants and guards; gentlemen pensioners +magnificently habited, for they were continually about the Queen's +person; and at last, after an official or two bearing swords, came the +Queen and Alençon together; she in a superb purple toilet with brocaded +underskirt and high-heeled twinkling shoes, and breathing out essences as +she swept by smiling; and he, a pathetic little brown man, pockmarked, +with an ill-shapen nose and a head too large for his undersized body, in +a rich velvet suit sparkling all over with diamonds. + +As they passed Anthony he heard the Duke making some French compliment in +his croaking harsh voice. Behind came the crowd of ladies, nodding, +chattering, rustling; and Anthony had a swift glance of pleasure from +Mistress Corbet as she went by, talking at the top of her voice. + +The company followed on to the hall, behind the distant trumpets, and +Anthony found himself still with his friends somewhere at the lower +end--away from the Queen's table, who sat with Alençon at her side on a +daïs, with the great folks about her. All through supper the most +astonishing noise went on. Everyone was talking loudly; the servants ran +to and fro over the paved floor; there was the loud clatter over the +plates of four hundred persons; and, to crown all, a band in the +musicians' gallery overhead made brazen music all supper-time. Anthony +had enough entertainment himself in looking about the great +banqueting-hall, so magnificently adorned with tapestries and armour and +antlers from the park; and above all by the blaze of gold and silver +plate both on the tables and on the sideboards; and by watching the army +of liveried servants running to and fro incessantly; and the glowing +colours of the dresses of the guests. + +Supper was over at last; and a Latin grace was exquisitely sung in four +parts by boys and men stationed in the musicians' gallery; and then the +Queen's procession went out with the same ceremony as that with which it +had entered. Anthony followed behind, as he had been bidden by the Queen +to the private parlours afterwards; but he presently found his way barred +by a page at the foot of the stairs leading to the Queen's apartments. + +It was in vain that he pleaded his invitation; it was useless, as the +young gentleman had not been informed of it. Anthony asked if he might +see Mistress Corbet. No, that too was impossible; she was gone upstairs +with the Queen's Grace and might not be disturbed. Anthony, in despair, +not however unmixed with relief at escaping a further ordeal, was about +to turn away, leaving the officious young gentleman swaggering on the +stairs like a peacock, when down came Mistress Corbet herself, sailing +down in her splendour, to see what was become of the gentleman of the +Archbishop's house. + +"Why, here you are!" she cried from the landing as she came down, "and +why have you not obeyed the Queen's command?" + +"This young gentleman," said Anthony, indicating the astonished page, +"would not let me proceed." + +"It is unusual, Mistress Corbet," said the boy, "for her Grace's guests +to come without my having received instructions, unless they are great +folk." + +Mistress Corbet came down the last six steps like a stooping hawk, her +wings bulged behind her; and she caught the boy one clean light cuff on +the side of the head. + +"You imp!" she said, "daring to doubt the word of this gentleman. And the +Queen's Grace's own special guest!" + +The boy tried still to stand on his dignity and bar the way, but it was +difficult to be dignified with a ringing head and a scarlet ear. + +"Stand aside," said Mary, stamping her little buckled foot, "this +instant; unless you would be dragged by your red ear before the Queen's +Grace. Come, Master Anthony." + +So the two went upstairs together, and the lad called up after them +bitterly: + +"I beg your pardon, Mistress; I did not recognise he was your gallant." + +"You shall pay for that," hissed Mary over the banisters. + +They went along a passage or two, and the sound of a voice singing to a +virginal began to ring nearer as they went, followed by a burst of +applause. + +"Lady Leicester," whispered Mary; and then she opened the door and they +went in. + +There were three rooms opening on one another with wide entrances, so +that really one long room was the result. They were all three fairly +full; that into which they entered, the first in the row, was occupied by +some gentlemen-pensioners and ladies talking and laughing; some playing +shove-groat, and some of them still applauding the song that had just +ended. The middle room was much the same; and the third, which was a step +higher than the others, was that in which was the Queen, with Lady +Leicester and a few more. Lady Leicester had just finished a song, and +was laying her virginal down. There was a great fire burning in the +middle room, with seats about it, and here Mary Corbet brought Anthony. +Those near him eyed him a little; but his companion was sufficient +warrant of his respectability; and they soon got into talk, which was +suddenly interrupted by the Queen's voice from the next room. + +"Minnie, Minnie, if you can spare a moment from your lad, come and help +us at a dance." + +The Queen was plainly in high good-humour; and Mary got up and went into +the Queen's room. Those round the fire stood up and pushed the seats +back, and the games ceased in the third room; as her Grace needed +spectators and applause. + +Then there arose the rippling of lutes from the ladies in the next room, +in slow swaying measure, with the gentle tap of a drum now and again; and +the _pavane_ began--a stately dignified dance; and among all the ladies +moved the great Queen herself, swaying and bending with much grace and +dignity. It was the strangest thing for Anthony to find himself here, a +raven among all these peacocks, and birds of paradise; and he wondered +at himself and at the strange humour of Providence, as he watched the +shimmer of the dresses and the sparkle of the shoes and jewels, and the +soft clouds of muslin and lace that shivered and rustled as the ladies +stepped; the firelight shone through the wide doorway on this glowing +movement, and groups of candles in sconces within the room increased and +steadied the soft intensity of the light. The soft tingling instruments, +with the slow tap-tap marking the measure like a step, seemed a +translation into chord and melody of this stately tender exercise. And so +this glorious flower-bed, loaded too with a wealth of essences in the +dresses and the sweet-washed gloves, swayed under the wind of the music, +bending and rising together in slow waves and ripples. Then it ceased; +and the silence was broken by a quick storm of applause; while the +dancers waited for the lutes. Then all the instruments broke out together +in quick triple time; the stringed instruments supplying a hasty +throbbing accompaniment, while the shrill flutes began to whistle and the +drums to gallop;--there was yet a pause in the dance, till the Queen made +the first movement;--and then the whole whirled off on the wings of a +_coranto_. + +It was bewildering to Anthony, who had never even dreamed of such a dance +before. He watched first the lower line of the shoes; and the whole +floor, in reality above, and in the mirror of the polished boards below, +seemed scintillating in lines of diamond light; the heavy underskirts of +brocade, puffed satin, and cloth of gold, with glimpses of foamy lace +beneath, whirled and tossed above these flashing vibrations. Then he +looked at the higher strata, and there was a tossing sea of faces and +white throats, borne up as it seemed--now revealed, now hidden--on clouds +of undulating muslin and lace, with sparkles of precious stones set in +ruff and wings and on high piled hair. + +He watched, fascinated, the faces as they appeared and vanished; there +was every imaginable expression; the serious looks of one who took +dancing as a solemn task, and marked her position and considered her +steps; the wild gaiety of another, all white teeth and dimples and eyes, +intoxicated by movement and music and colour, as men are by wine, and +guided and sustained by the furious genius of the dance, rather than by +intention of any kind. There was the courtly self-restraint of one tall +beauty, who danced as a pleasant duty and loved it, but never lost +control of her own bending, slender grace; ah! and there was the oval +face crowned with auburn hair and pearls, the lower lip drawn up under +the black teeth with an effort, till it appeared to snarl, and the ropes +of pearls leaping wildly on her lean purple stomacher. And over all the +grave oak walls and the bright sconces and the taper flames blown about +by the eddying gusts from the whirlpool beneath. + +As Anthony went down the square winding staircase, an hour later when the +evening was over, and the keen winter air poured up to meet him, his +brain was throbbing with the madness of dance and music and whirling +colour. Here, it seemed to him, lay the secret of life. For a few minutes +his old day-dreams came back but in more intoxicating dress. The figure +of Mary Corbet in her rose-coloured silk and her clouds of black hair, +and her jewels and her laughing eyes and scarlet mouth, and her violet +fragrance and her fire--this dominated the boy. As he walked towards the +stables across the starlit court, she seemed to move before him, to hold +out her hands to him, to call him her own dear lad; to invite him out of +the drab-coloured life that lay on all sides, behind and before, up into +a mystic region of jewelled romance, where she and he would live and be +one in the endless music of rippling strings and shrill flutes and the +maddening tap of a little hidden drum. + +But the familiar touch of his own sober suit and the creaking saddle as +he rode home to Lambeth, and the icy wind that sang in the river sedges, +and the wholesome smell of the horse and the touch of the coarse hair at +the shoulder, talked and breathed the old Puritan common sense back to +him again. That warm-painted, melodious world he had left was gaudy +nonsense; and dancing was not the same as living; and Mary Corbet was not +just a rainbow on the foam that would die when the sun went in; but both +she and he together were human souls, redeemed by the death of the +Saviour, with His work to do and no time or energy for folly; and James +Maxwell in the Tower--(thank God, however, not for long!)--James Maxwell +with his wrenched joints and forehead and lips wet with agony, was in the +right; and that lean bitter furious woman in the purple and pearls, who +supped to the blare of trumpets, and danced to the ripple of lutes, +wholly and utterly and eternally in the wrong. + + + + + CHAPTER XI + + A STATION OF THE CROSS + + +Philosophers tell us that the value of existence lies not in the objects +perceived, but in the powers of perception. The tragedy of a child over a +broken doll is not less poignant than the anguish of a worshipper over a +broken idol, or of a king over a ruined realm. Thus the conflict of +Isabel during those past autumn and winter months was no less august than +the pain of the priest on the rack, or the struggle of his innocent +betrayer to rescue him, or the misery of Lady Maxwell over the sorrows +that came to her in such different ways through her two sons. + +Isabel's soul was tender above most souls; and the powers of feeling pain +and of sustaining it were also respectively both acute and strong. The +sense of pressure, or rather of disruption, became intolerable. She was +indeed a soul on the rack; if she had been less conscientious she would +have silenced the voice of Divine Love that seemed to call to her from +the Catholic Church; if she had been less natural and feminine she would +have trampled out of her soul the appeal of the human love of Hubert. As +it was, she was wrenched both ways. Now the cords at one end or the other +would relax a little, and the corresponding relief was almost a shock; +but when she tried to stir and taste the freedom of decision that now +seemed in her reach, they would tighten again with a snap; and she would +find herself back on the torture. To herself she seemed powerless; it +appeared to her, when she reflected on it consciously, that it was merely +a question as to which part of her soul would tear first, as to which +ultimately retained her. She began to be terrified at solitude; the +thought of the coming night, with its long hours of questioning and +torment until the dawn, haunted her during the day. She would read in her +room, or remain at her prayers, in the hopes of distracting herself from +the struggle, until sleep seemed the supreme necessity: then, when she +lay down, sleep would flap its wings in mockery and flit away, leaving +her wide-awake staring at the darkness of the room or of her own eyelids, +until the windows began to glimmer and the cocks to crow from farm +buildings. + +In spite of her first resolve to fight the battle alone, she soon found +herself obliged to tell Mistress Margaret all that was possible; but she +felt that to express her sheer need of Hubert, as she thought it, was +beyond her altogether. How could a nun understand? + +"My darling," said the old lady, "it would not be Calvary without the +darkness; and you cannot have Christ without Calvary. Remember that the +Light of the World makes darkness His secret place; and so you see that +if you were able to feel that any human soul really understood, it would +mean that the darkness was over. I have suffered that Night twice myself; +the third time I think, will be in the valley of death." + +Isabel only half understood her; but it was something to know that others +had tasted the cup too; and that what was so bitter was not necessarily +poisonous. + +At another time as the two were walking together under the pines one +evening, and the girl had again tried to show to the nun the burning +desolation of her soul, Mistress Margaret had suddenly turned. + +"Listen, dear child," she said, "I will tell you a secret. Over there," +and she pointed out to where the sunset glowed behind the tree trunks and +the slope beyond, "over there, in West Grinsted, rests our dear Lord in +the blessed sacrament. His Body lies lonely, neglected and forgotten by +all but half a dozen souls; while twenty years ago all England reverenced +It. Behold and see if there be any sorrow--" and then the nun stopped, as +she saw Isabel's amazed eyes staring at her. + +But it haunted the girl and comforted her now and then. Yet in the +fierceness of her pain she asked herself again and again, was it +true--was it true? Was she sacrificing her life for a dream, a +fairy-story? or was it true that there the body, that had hung on the +cross fifteen hundred years ago, now rested alone, hidden in a silver +pyx, within locked doors for fear of the Jews.--Oh! dear Lord, was it +true? + +Hubert had kept his word, and left the place almost immediately after his +last interview; and was to return at Easter for his final answer. +Christmas had come and gone; and it seemed to her as if even the +tenderest mysteries of the Christian Religion had no touch with her now. +She walked once more in the realm of grace, as in the realm of nature, an +exile from its spirit. All her sensitive powers seemed so absorbed in +interior pain that there was nothing in her to respond to or appreciate +the most keen external impressions. As she awoke and looked up on +Christmas morning early, and saw the frosted panes and the snow lying +like wool on the cross-bars, and heard the Christmas bells peal out in +the listening air; as she came downstairs and the old pleasant acrid +smell of the evergreens met her, and she saw the red berries over each +picture, and the red heart of the wood-fire; nay, as she knelt at the +chancel rails, and tried in her heart to adore the rosy Child in the +manger, and received the sacred symbols of His Flesh and Blood, and +entreated Him to remember His loving-kindness that brought Him down from +heaven--yet the whole was far less real, less intimate to her, than the +sound of Hubert's voice as he had said good-bye two months ago; less real +than one of those darting pangs of thought that fell on her heart all day +like a shower of arrows. + +And then, when the sensitive strings of her soul were stretched to +anguish, a hand dashed across them, striking a wailing discord, and they +did not break. The news of Anthony's treachery, and still more his +silence, performed the incredible, and doubled her pain without breaking +her heart. + +On the Tuesday morning early Lady Maxwell had sent her note by a courier; +bidding him return at once with the answer. The evening had come, and he +had not appeared. The night passed and the morning came; and it was not +till noon that the man at last arrived, saying he had seen Mr. Norris on +the previous evening, and that he had read the note through there and +then, and had said there was no answer. Surely there could be but one +explanation of that--that no answer was possible. + +It could not be said that Isabel actively considered the question and +chose to doubt Anthony rather than to trust him. She was so nearly +passive now, with the struggle she had gone through, that this blow came +on her with the overwhelming effect of an hypnotic suggestion. Her will +did not really accept it, any more than her intellect really weighed it; +but she succumbed to it; and did not even write again, nor question the +man further. Had she done this she might perhaps have found out the +truth, that the man, a stupid rustic with enough shrewdness to lie, but +not enough to lie cleverly, had had his foolish head turned by the buzz +of London town and the splendour of Lambeth stables and the friendliness +of the grooms there, and had got heavily drunk on leaving Anthony; that +the answer which he had put into his hat had very naturally fallen out +and been lost; and that when at last he returned to the country already +eight hours after his time, and found the note was missing, he had +stalwartly lied, hoping that the note was unimportant and that things +would adjust themselves or be forgotten before a day of reckoning should +arrive. + +And so Isabel's power of resistance collapsed under this last blow; and +her soul lay still at last, almost too much tormented to feel. Her last +hope was gone; Anthony had betrayed his friend. + +The week crept by, and Saturday came. She went out soon after dinner to +see a sick body or two in an outlying hamlet; for she had never forgotten +Mrs. Dent's charge, and, with the present minister's approval, still +visited the sick one or two days a week at least. Then towards sunset she +came homewards over some high ground on the outskirts of Ashdown Forest. +The snow that had fallen before Christmas, had melted a week or two ago; +and the frost had broken up; it was a heavy leaden evening, with an angry +glow shining, as through chinks of a wall, from the west towards which +she was going. The village lay before her in the gloom; and lights were +beginning to glimmer here and there. She contrasted in a lifeless way +that pleasant group of warm houses with their suggestions of love and +homeliness with her own desolate self. She passed up through the village +towards the Hall, whither she was going to report on the invalids to Lady +Maxwell; and in the appearance of the houses on either side she thought +there was an unaccustomed air. Several doors stood wide open with the +brightness shining out into the twilight, as if the inhabitants had +suddenly deserted their homes. Others were still dark and cold, although +the evening was drawing on. There was not a moving creature to be seen. +She passed up, wondering a little, through the gatehouse, and turned into +the gravel sweep; and there stopped short at the sight of a great crowd +of men and women and children, assembled in dead silence. Some one was +standing at the entrance-steps, with his head bent as if he were talking +to those nearest him in a low voice. + +As she came up there ran a whisper of her name; the people drew back to +let her through, and she passed, sick with suspense, to the man on the +steps, whom she now recognised as Mr. James' body-servant. His face +looked odd and drawn, she thought. + +"What is it?" she asked in a sharp whisper. + +"Mr. James is here, madam; he is with Lady Maxwell in the cloister-wing. +Will you please to go up?" + +"Mr. James! It is no news about Mr. Anthony--or--or Mr. Hubert!" + +"No, madam." The man hesitated. "Mr. James has been racked, madam." + +The man's voice broke in a great sob as he ended. + +"Ah!" + +She reeled against the post; a man behind caught her and steadied her; +and there was a quick breath of pity from the crowd. + +"Ah, poor thing!" said a woman's voice behind her. + +"I beg your pardon, madam," said the servant. "I should not have----" + +"And--and he is upstairs?" + +"He and my lady are together, madam." + +She looked at him a moment, dazed with the horror of it; and then going +past him, pushed open the door and went through into the inner hall. Here +again she stopped suddenly: it was half full of people, silent and +expectant--the men, the grooms, the maid-servants, and even two or three +farm-men. She heard the rustle of her name from the white faces that +looked at her from the gloom; but none moved; and she crossed the hall +alone, and turned down the lower corridor that led to the cloister-wing. + +At the foot of the staircase she stopped again; her heart drummed in her +ears, as she listened intently with parted lips. There was a profound +silence; the lamp on the stairs had not been lighted, and the terrace +window only let in a pale glimmer. + +It was horrible to her! this secret presence of incarnate pain that +brooded somewhere in the house, this silence of living anguish, worse +than death a thousand times! + +Where was he? What would it look like? Even a scream somewhere would have +relieved her, and snapped the tension of the listening stillness that lay +on her like a shocking nightmare. This lobby with its well-known +doors--the banister on which her fingers rested--the well of the +staircase up which she stared with dilated eyes--all was familiar; and +yet, somewhere in the shadows overhead lurked this formidable Presence of +pain, mute, anguished, terrifying.... + +She longed to run back, to shriek for help; but she dared not: and stood +panting. She went up a couple of steps--stopped, listened to the sick +thumping of her heart--took another step and stopped again; and so, +listening, peering, hesitating, came to the head of the stairs. + +Ah! there was the door, with a line of light beneath it. It was there +that the horror dwelt. She stared at the thin bright line; waited and +listened again for even a moan or a sigh from within, but none came. + +Then with a great effort she stepped forward and tapped. + +There was no answer; but as she listened she heard from within the gentle +tinkle of some liquid running into a bowl, rhythmically, and with pauses. +Then again she tapped, nervously and rapidly, and there was a murmur from +the room; she opened the door softly, pushed it, and took a step into the +room, half closing it behind her. + +There were two candles burning on a table in the middle of the room, and +on the near side of it was a group of three persons.... + +Isabel had seen in one of Mistress Margaret's prayer-books an engraving +of an old Flemish Pietà--a group of the Blessed Mother holding in her +arms the body of her Crucified Son, with the Magdalen on one side, +supporting one of the dead Saviour's hands. Isabel now caught her breath +in a sudden gasp; for here was the scene reproduced before her. + +Lady Maxwell was on a low seat bending forwards; the white cap and ruff +seemed like a veil thrown all about her head and beneath her chin; she +was holding in her arms the body of her son, who seemed to have fainted +as he sat beside her; his head had fallen back against her breast, and +his pointed beard and dark hair and her black dress beyond emphasised the +deathly whiteness of his face on which the candlelight fell; his mouth +was open, like a dead man's. Mistress Margaret was kneeling by his left +hand, holding it over a basin and delicately sponging it; and the whole +air was fragrant and aromatic with some ointment in the water; a long +bandage or two lay on the ground beside the basin. The evening light over +the opposite roofs through the window beyond mingled with the light of +the tapers, throwing a strange radiance over the group. The table on +which the tapers stood looked to Isabel like a stripped altar. + +She stood by the door, her lips parted, motionless; looking with great +eyes from face to face. It was as if the door had given access to another +world where the passion of Christ was being re-enacted. + +Then she sank on her knees, still watching. There was no sound but the +faint ripple of the water into the basin and the quiet breathing of the +three. Lady Maxwell now and then lifted a handkerchief in silence and +passed it across her son's face. Isabel, still staring with great wide +eyes, began to sigh gently to herself. + +"Anthony, Anthony, Anthony!" she whispered. + +"Oh, no, no, no!" she whispered again under her breath. "No, Anthony! you +could not, you could not!" + +Then from the man there came one or two long sighs, ending in a moan that +quavered into silence; he stirred slightly in his mother's arms; and then +in a piteous high voice came the words "_Jesu ... Jesu ... esto mihi +... Jesus_." + +Consciousness was coming back. He fancied himself still on the rack. + +Lady Maxwell said nothing, but gathered him a little closer, and bent her +face lower over him. + +Then again came a long sobbing indrawn breath; James struggled for a +moment; then opened his eyes and saw his mother's face. + +Mistress Margaret had finished with the water; and was now swiftly +manipulating a long strip of white linen. Isabel still sunk on her knees +watched the bandage winding in and out round his wrist, and between his +thumb and forefinger. + +Then he turned his head sharply towards her with a gasp as if in pain; +and his eyes fell on Isabel. + +"Mistress Isabel," he said; and his voice was broken and untuneful. + +Mistress Margaret turned; and smiled at her; and at the sight the +intolerable compression on the girl's heart relaxed. + +"Come, child," she said, "come and help me with his hand. No, no, lie +still," she added; for James was making a movement as if to rise. + +James smiled at her as she came forward; and she saw that his face had a +strange look as if after a long illness. + +"You see, Mistress Isabel," he said, in the same cracked voice, and with +an infinitely pathetic courtesy, "I may not rise." + +Isabel's eyes filled with sudden tears, his attempt at his old manner was +more touching than all else; and she came and knelt beside the old nun. + +"Hold the fingers," she said; and the familiar old voice brought the girl +a stage nearer her normal consciousness again. + +Isabel took the priest's fingers and saw that they were limp and swollen. +The sleeve fell back a little as Mistress Margaret manipulated the +bandage; and the girl saw that the forearm looked shapeless and +discoloured. + +She glanced up in swift terror at his face, but he was looking at his +mother, whose eyes were bent on his; Isabel looked quickly down again. + +"There," said Mistress Margaret, tying the last knot, "it is done." + +Mr. James looked his thanks over his shoulder at her, as she nodded and +smiled before turning to leave the room. + +Isabel sat slowly down and watched them. + +"This is but a flying visit, Mistress Isabel," said James. "I must leave +to-morrow again." + +He had sat up now, and settled himself in his seat, though his mother's +arm was still round him. The voice and the pitiful attempt were terrible +to Isabel. Slowly the consciousness was filtering into her mind of what +all this implied; what it must have been that had turned this tall +self-contained man into this weak creature who lay in his mother's arms, +and fainted at a touch and sobbed. She could say nothing; but could only +look, and breathe, and look. + +Then it suddenly came to her mind that Lady Maxwell had not spoken a +word. She looked at her; that old wrinkled face with its white crown of +hair and lace had a new and tremendous dignity. There was no anxiety in +it; scarcely even grief; but only a still and awful anguish, towering +above ordinary griefs like a mountain above the world; and there was the +supreme peace too that can only accompany a supreme emotion--she seemed +conscious of nothing but her son. + +Isabel could not answer James; and he seemed not to expect it; he had +turned back to his mother again, and they were looking at one another. +Then in a moment Mistress Margaret came back with a glass that she put to +James' lips; and he drank it without a word. She stood looking at the +group an instant or two, and then turned to Isabel. + +"Come downstairs with me, my darling; there is nothing more that we can +do." + +They went out of the room together; the mother and son had not stirred +again; and Mistress Margaret slipped her arm quickly round the girl's +waist, as they went downstairs. + + * * * * + +In the cloister beneath was a pleasant little oak parlour looking out on +to the garden and the long south side of the house. Mistress Margaret +took the little hand-lamp that burned in the cloister itself as they +passed along silently together, and guided the girl through into the +parlour on the left-hand side. There was a tall chair standing before the +hearth, and as Mistress Margaret sat down, drawing the girl with her, +Isabel sank down on the footstool at her feet, and hid her face on the +old nun's knees. + +There was silence for a minute or two. Mistress Margaret set down the +lamp on the table beside her, and passed her hands caressingly over the +girl's hands and hair; but said nothing, until Isabel's whole body heaved +up convulsively once or twice, before she burst into a torrent of +weeping. + +"My darling," said the old lady in a quiet steady voice, "we should thank +God instead of grieving. To think that this house should have given two +confessors to the Church, father and son! Yes, yes, dear child, I know +what you are thinking of, the two dear lads we both love; well, well, we +do not know, we must trust them both to God. It may not be true of +Anthony; and even if it be true--well, he must have thought he was +serving his Queen. And for Hubert----" + +Isabel lifted her face and looked with a dreadful questioning stare. + +"Dear child," said the nun, "do not look like that. Nothing is so bad as +not trusting God." + +"Anthony, Anthony!"... whispered the girl. + +"James told us the same story as the gentleman on Sunday," went on the +nun. "But he said no hard word, and he does not condemn. I know his +heart. He does not know why he is released, nor by whose order: but an +order came to let him go, and his papers with it: and he must be out of +England by Monday morning: so he leaves here to-morrow in the litter in +which he came. He is to say mass to-morrow, if he is able." + +"Mass? Here?" said the girl, in the same sharp whisper; and her sobbing +ceased abruptly. + +"Yes, dear; if he is able to stand and use his hands enough. They have +settled it upstairs." + +Isabel continued to look up in her face wildly. + +"Ah!" said the old nun again. "You must not look like that. Remember that +he thinks those wounds the most precious things in the world--yes--and +his mother too!" + +"I must be at mass," said Isabel; "God means it." + +"Now, now," said Mistress Margaret soothingly, "you do not know what you +are saying." + +"I mean it," said Isabel, with sharp emphasis; "God means it." + +Mistress Margaret took the girl's face between her hands, and looked +steadily down into her wet eyes. Isabel returned the look as steadily. + +"Yes, yes," she said, "as God sees us." + +Then she broke into talk, at first broken and incoherent in language, but +definite and orderly in ideas, and in her interpretations of these last +months. + +Kneeling beside her with her hands clasped on the nun's knee, Isabel told +her all her struggles; disentangling at last in a way that she had never +been able to do before, all the complicated strands of self-will and +guidance and blindness that had so knotted and twisted themselves into +her life. The nun was amazed at the spiritual instinct of this Puritan +child, who ranged her motives so unerringly; dismissing this as of self, +marking this as of God's inspiration, accepting this and rejecting that +element of the circumstances of her life; steering confidently between +the shoals of scrupulous judgment and conscience on the one side, and the +hidden rocks of presumption and despair on the other--these very dangers +that had baffled and perplexed her so long--and tracing out through them +all the clear deep safe channel of God's intention, who had allowed her +to emerge at last from the tortuous and baffling intricacies of character +and circumstance into the wide open sea of His own sovereign Will. + +It seemed to the nun, as Isabel talked, as if it needed just a final +touch of supreme tragedy to loosen and resolve all the complications; and +that this had been supplied by the vision upstairs. There she had seen a +triumphant trophy of another's sorrow and conquest. There was hardly an +element in her own troubles that was not present in that human Pietà +upstairs--treachery--loneliness--sympathy--bereavement--and above all the +supreme sacrificial act of human love subordinated to divine--human love, +purified and transfigured and rendered invincible and immortal by the +very immolation of it at the feet of God--all this that the son and +mother in their welcome of pain had accomplished in the crucifixion of +one and the heart-piercing of the other--this was light opened to the +perplexed, tormented soul of the girl--a radiance poured out of the +darkness of their sorrow and made her way plain before her face. + +"My Isabel," said the old nun, when the girl had finished and was hiding +her face again, "this is of God. Glory to His Name! I must ask James' +leave; and then you must sleep here to-night, for the mass to-morrow." + + * * * * + +The chapel at Maxwell Hall was in the cloister wing; but a stranger +visiting the house would never have suspected it. Opening out of Lady +Maxwell's new sitting-room was a little lobby or landing, about four +yards square, lighted from above; at the further end of it was the door +into her bedroom. This lobby was scarcely more than a broad passage; and +would attract no attention from any passing through it. The only piece of +furniture in it was a great tall old chest as high as a table, that stood +against the inner wall beyond which was the long gallery that looked down +upon the cloister garden. The lobby appeared to be practically as broad +as the two rooms on either side of it; but this was effected by the outer +wall being made to bulge a little; and the inner wall being thinner than +inside the two living-rooms. The deception was further increased by the +two living-rooms being first wainscoted and then hung with thick +tapestry; while the lobby was bare. A curious person who should look in +the chest would find there only an old dress and a few pieces of stuff. +This lobby, however, was the chapel; and through the chest was the +entrance to one of the priest's hiding holes, where also the altar-stone +and the ornaments and the vestments were kept. The bottom of the chest +was in reality hinged in such a way that it would fall, on the proper +pressure being applied in two places at once, sufficiently to allow the +side of the chest against the wall to be pushed aside, which in turn gave +entrance to a little space some two yards long by a yard wide; and here +were kept all the necessaries for divine worship; with room besides for a +couple of men at least to be hidden away. There was also a way from this +hole on to the roof, but it was a difficult and dangerous way; and was +only to be used in case of extreme necessity. + +It was in this lobby that Isabel found herself the next morning kneeling +and waiting for mass. She had been awakened by Mistress Margaret shortly +before four o'clock and told in a whisper to dress herself in the dark; +for it was impossible under the circumstances to tell whether the house +was not watched; and a light seen from outside might conceivably cause +trouble and disturbance. So she had dressed herself and come down from +her room along the passages, so familiar during the day, so sombre and +suggestive now in the black morning with but one shaded light placed at +the angles. Other figures were stealing along too; but she could not tell +who they were in the gloom. Then she had come through the little +sitting-room where the scene of last night had taken place and into the +lobby beyond. + +But the whole place was transformed. + +Over the old chest now hung a picture, that usually was in Lady Maxwell's +room, of the Blessed Mother and her holy Child, in a great carved frame +of some black wood. The chest had become an altar: Isabel could see the +slight elevation in the middle of the long white linen cloth where the +altar-stone lay, and upon that again, at the left corner, a pile of linen +and silk. Upon the altar at the back stood two slender silver +candlesticks with burning tapers in them; and a silver crucifix between +them. The carved wooden panels, representing the sacrifice of Isaac on +the one half and the offering of Melchisedech on the other, served +instead of an embroidered altar-frontal. Against the side wall stood a +little white-covered folding table with the cruets and other necessaries +upon it. + +There were two or three benches across the rest of the lobby; and at +these were kneeling a dozen or more persons, motionless, their faces +downcast. There was a little wind such as blows before the dawn moaning +gently outside; and within was a slight draught that made the taper +flames lean over now and then. + +Isabel took her place beside Mistress Margaret at the front bench; and as +she knelt forward she noticed a space left beyond her for Lady Maxwell. A +moment later there came slow and painful steps through the sitting-room, +and Lady Maxwell came in very slowly with her son leaning on her arm and +on a stick. There was a silence so profound that it seemed to Isabel as +if all had stopped breathing. She could only hear the slow plunging pulse +of her own heart. + +James took his mother across the altar to her place, and left her there, +bowing to her; and then went up to the altar to vest. As he reached it +and paused, a servant slipped out and received the stick from him. The +priest made the sign of the cross, and took up the amice from the +vestments that lay folded on the altar. He was already in his cassock. + +Isabel watched each movement with a deep agonising interest; he was so +frail and broken, so bent in his figure, so slow and feeble in his +movements. He made an attempt to raise the amice but could not, and +turned slightly; and the man from behind stepped up again and lifted it +for him. Then he helped him with each of the vestments, lifted the alb +over his head and tenderly drew the bandaged hands through the sleeves; +knit the girdle round him; gave him the stole to kiss and then placed it +over his neck and crossed the ends beneath the girdle and adjusted the +amice; then he placed the maniple on his left arm, but so tenderly! and +lastly, lifted the great red chasuble and dropped it over his head and +straightened it--and there stood the priest as he had stood last Sunday, +in crimson vestments again; but bowed and thin-faced now. + +Then he began the preparation with the servant who knelt beside him in +his ordinary livery, as server; and Isabel heard the murmur of the Latin +words for the first time. Then he stepped up to the altar, bent slowly +and kissed it and the mass began. + +Isabel had a missal, lent to her by Mistress Margaret; but she hardly +looked at it; so intent was she on that crimson figure and his strange +movements and his low broken voice. It was unlike anything that she had +ever imagined worship to be. Public worship to her had meant hitherto one +of two things--either sitting under a minister and having the word +applied to her soul in the sacrament of the pulpit; or else the saying of +prayers by the minister aloud and distinctly and with expression, so that +the intellect could follow the words, and assent with a hearty Amen. The +minister was a minister to man of the Word of God, an interpreter of His +gospel to man. + +But here was a worship unlike all this in almost every detail. The priest +was addressing God, not man; therefore he did so in a low voice, and in a +tongue as Campion had said on the scaffold "that they both understood." +It was comparatively unimportant whether man followed it word for word, +for (and here the second radical difference lay) the point of the worship +for the people lay, not in an intellectual apprehension of the words, but +in a voluntary assent to and participation in the supreme act to which +the words were indeed necessary but subordinate. It was the thing that +was done; not the words that were said, that was mighty with God. Here, +as these Catholics round Isabel at any rate understood it, and as she too +began to perceive it too, though dimly and obscurely, was the sublime +mystery of the Cross presented to God. As He looked down well pleased +into the silence and darkness of Calvary, and saw there the act +accomplished by which the world was redeemed, so here (this handful of +disciples believed), He looked down into the silence and twilight of this +little lobby, and saw that same mystery accomplished at the hands of one +who in virtue of his participation in the priesthood of the Son of God +was empowered to pronounce these heart-shaking words by which the Body +that hung on Calvary, and the Blood that dripped from it there, were +again spread before His eyes, under the forms of bread and wine. + +Much of this faith of course was still dark to Isabel; but yet she +understood enough; and when the murmur of the priest died to a throbbing +silence, and the worshippers sank in yet more profound adoration, and +then with terrible effort and a quick gasp or two of pain, those wrenched +bandaged hands rose trembling in the air with Something that glimmered +white between them; the Puritan girl too drooped her head, and lifted up +her heart, and entreated the Most High and most Merciful to look down on +the Mystery of Redemption accomplished on earth; and for the sake of the +Well-Beloved to send down His Grace on the Catholic Church; to strengthen +and save the living; to give rest and peace to the dead; and especially +to remember her dear brother Anthony, and Hubert whom she loved; and +Mistress Margaret and Lady Maxwell, and this faithful household: and the +poor battered man before her, who, not only as a priest was made like to +the Eternal Priest, but as a victim too had hung upon a prostrate cross, +fastened by hands and feet; thus bearing on his body for all to see the +marks of the Lord Jesus. + + * * * * + +Lady Maxwell and Mistress Margaret both rose and stepped forward after +the Priest's Communion, and received from those wounded hands the Broken +Body of the Lord. + +And then the mass was presently over; and the server stepped forward +again to assist the priest to unvest, himself lifting each vestment off, +for Father Maxwell was terribly exhausted by now, and laying it on the +altar. Then he helped him to a little footstool in front of him, for him +to kneel and make his thanksgiving. Isabel looked with an odd wonder at +the server; he was the man that she knew so well, who opened the door for +her, and waited at table; but now a strange dignity rested on him as he +moved confidently and reverently about the awful altar, and touched the +vestments that even to her Puritan eyes shone with new sanctity. It +startled her to think of the hidden Catholic life of this house--of these +servants who loved and were familiar with mysteries that she had been +taught to dread and distrust, but before which she too now was to bow her +being in faith and adoration. + +After a minute or two, Mistress Margaret touched Isabel on the arm and +beckoned to her to come up to the altar, which she began immediately to +strip of its ornaments and cloth, having first lit another candle on one +of the benches. Isabel helped her in this with a trembling dread, as all +the others except Lady Maxwell and her son were now gone out silently; +and presently the picture was down, and leaning against the wall; the +ornaments and sacred vessels packed away in their box, with the vestments +and linen in another. Then together they lifted off the heavy altar +stone. Mistress Margaret next laid back the lid of the chest; and put her +hands within, and presently Isabel saw the back of the chest fall back, +apparently into the wall. Mistress Margaret then beckoned to Isabel to +climb into the chest and go through; she did so without much difficulty, +and found herself in the little room behind. There was a stool or two and +some shelves against the wall, with a plate or two upon them and one or +two tools. She received the boxes handed through, and followed Mistress +Margaret's instructions as to where to place them; and when all was done, +she slipped back again through the chest into the lobby. + +The priest and his mother were still in their places, motionless. +Mistress Margaret closed the chest inside and out, beckoned Isabel into +the sitting-room and closed the door behind them. Then she threw her arms +round the girl and kissed her again and again. + +"My own darling," said the nun, with tears in her eyes. "God bless +you--your first mass. Oh! I have prayed for this. And you know all our +secrets now. Now go to your room, and to bed again. It is only a little +after five. You shall see him--James--before he goes. God bless you, my +dear!" + +She watched Isabel down the passage; and then turned back again to where +the other two were still kneeling, to make her own thanksgiving. + +Isabel went to her room as one in a dream. She was soon in bed again, but +could not sleep; the vision of that strange worship she had assisted at; +the pictorial details of it, the glow of the two candles on the shoulders +of the crimson chasuble as the priest bent to kiss the altar or to adore; +the bowed head of the server at his side; the picture overhead with the +Mother and her downcast eyes, and the radiant Child stepping from her +knees to bless the world--all this burned on the darkness. With the least +effort of imagination too she could recall the steady murmur of the +unfamiliar words; hear the rustle of the silken vestment; the stirrings +and breathings of the worshippers in the little room. + +Then in endless course the intellectual side of it all began to present +itself. She had assisted at what the Government called a crime; it was +for that--that collection of strange but surely at least innocent +things--actions, words, material objects--that men and women of the same +flesh and blood as herself were ready to die; and for which others +equally of one nature with herself were ready to put them to death. It +was the mass--the mass--she had seen--she repeated the word to herself, +so sinister, so suggestive, so mighty. Then she began to think again--if +indeed it is possible to say that she had ever ceased to think of him--of +Anthony, who would be so much horrified if he knew; of Hubert, who had +renounced this wonderful worship, and all, she feared, for love of +her--and above all of her father, who had regarded it with such +repugnance:--yes, thought Isabel, but he knows all now. Then she thought +of Mistress Margaret again. After all, the nun had a spiritual life which +in intensity and purity surpassed any she had ever experienced or even +imagined; and yet the heart of it all was the mass. She thought of the +old wrinkled quiet face when she came back to breakfast at the Dower +House: she had soon learnt to read from that face whether mass had been +said that morning or not at the Hall. And Mistress Margaret was only one +of thousands to whom this little set of actions half seen and words half +heard, wrought and said by a man in a curious dress, were more precious +than all meditation and prayer put together. Could the vast +superstructure of prayer and effort and aspiration rest upon a piece of +empty folly such as children or savages might invent? + +Then very naturally, as she began now to get quieter and less excited, +she passed on to the spiritual side of it. + +Had that indeed happened that Mistress Margaret believed--that the very +Body and Blood of her own dear Saviour, Jesus Christ, had in virtue of +His own clear promise--His own clear promise!--become present there under +the hands of His priest? Was it, indeed,--this half-hour action,--the +most august mystery of time, the Lamb eternally slain, presenting Himself +and His Death before the Throne in a tremendous and bloodless +Sacrifice--so august that the very angels can only worship it afar off +and cannot perform it; or was it all a merely childish piece of +blasphemous mummery, as she had been brought up to believe? And then this +Puritan girl, who was beginning to taste the joys of release from her +misery now that she had taken this step, and united a whole-hearted +offering of herself to the perfect Offering of her Lord--now her soul +made its first trembling movement towards a real external authority. "I +believe," she rehearsed to herself, "not because my spiritual experience +tells me that the Mass is true, for it does not; not because the Bible +says so, because it is possible to interpret that in more than one way; +but because that Society which I now propose to treat as Divine--the +Representative of the Incarnate Word--nay, His very mystical Body--tells +me so: and I rely upon that, and rest in her arms, which are the Arms of +the Everlasting, and hang upon her lips, through which the Infallible +Word speaks." + +And so Isabel, in a timid peace at last, from her first act of Catholic +faith, fell asleep. + +She awoke to find the winter sun streaming into her room, and Mistress +Margaret by her bedside. + +"Dear child," said the old lady, "I would not wake you earlier; you have +had such a short night; but James leaves in an hour's time; and it is +just nine o'clock, and I know you wish to see him." + +When she came down half an hour later she found Mistress Margaret waiting +for her outside Lady Maxwell's room. + +"He is in there," she said. "I will tell Mary"; and she slipped in. +Isabel outside heard the murmur of voices, and in a moment more was +beckoned in by the nun. + +James Maxwell was sitting back in a great chair, looking exhausted and +white. His mother, with something of the same look of supreme suffering +and triumph, was standing behind his chair. She smiled gravely and +sweetly at Isabel, as if to encourage her; and went out at the further +door, followed by her sister. + +"Mistress Isabel," said the priest, without any introductory words, in +his broken voice, and motioning her to a seat, "I cannot tell you what +joy it was to see you at mass. Is it too much to hope that you will seek +admission presently to the Catholic Church?" + +Isabel sat with downcast eyes. His tone was a little startling to her. It +was as courteous as ever, but less courtly: there was just the faintest +ring in it, in spite of its weakness, as of one who spoke with authority. + +"I--I thank you, Mr. James," she said. "I wish to hear more at any rate." + +"Yes, Mistress Isabel; and I thank God for it. Mr. Barnes will be the +proper person. My mother will let him know; and I have no doubt that he +will receive you by Easter, and that you can make your First Communion on +that day." + +She bowed her head, wondering a little at his assurance. + +"You will forgive me, I know, if I seem discourteous," went on the +priest, "but I trust you understand the terms on which you come. You come +as a little child, to learn; is it not so? Simply that?" + +She bowed her head again. + +"Then I need not keep you. If you will kneel, I will give you my +blessing." + +She knelt down at once before him, and he blessed her, lifting his +wrenched hand with difficulty and letting it sink quickly down again. + +By an impulse she could not resist she leaned forward on her knees and +took it gently into her two soft hands and kissed it. + +"Oh! forgive him, Mr. Maxwell; I am sure he did not know." And then her +tears poured down. + +"My child," said his voice tenderly, "in any case I not only forgive him, +but I thank him. How could I not? He has brought me love-tokens from my +Lord." + +She kissed his hand again, and stood up; her eyes were blinded with +tears; but they were not all for grief. + +Then Mistress Margaret came in from the inner room, and led the girl out; +and the mother came in once more to her son for the ten minutes before he +was to leave her. + + + + + CHAPTER XII + + A STRIFE OF TONGUES + + +Anthony now settled down rather drearily to the study of religious +controversy. The continual contrasts that seemed forced upon him by the +rival systems of England and Rome (so far as England might be said to +have a coherent system at this time), all tended to show him that there +were these two sharply-divided schemes, each claiming to represent +Christ's Institution, and each exclusive of the other. Was it of Christ's +institution that His Church should be a department of the National Life; +and that the civil prince should be its final arbiter and ruler, however +little he might interfere in its ordinary administration? This was +Elizabeth's idea. Or was the Church, as Mr. Buxton had explained it, a +huge unnational Society, dependent, it must of course be, to some extent +on local circumstances, but essentially unrestricted by limit of +nationality or of racial tendencies? This was the claim of Rome. Of +course an immense number of other arguments circled round this--in fact, +most of the arguments that are familiar to controversialists at the +present day; but the centre of all, to Anthony's mind, as indeed it was +to the mind of the civil and religious authorities of the time, was the +question of supremacy--Elizabeth or Gregory? + +He read a certain number of books; and it will be remembered that he had +followed, with a good deal of intelligence, Campion's arguments. Anthony +was no theologian, and therefore missed perhaps the deep, subtle +arguments; but he had a normal mind, and was able to appreciate and +remember some salient points. + +For example, he was impressed greatly by the negative character of +Protestantism in such books as Nicholl's "Pilgrimage." In this work a man +was held up as a type to be imitated whose whole religion to all +appearances consisted of holding the Pope to be Antichrist, and his +Church the synagogue of Satan, of disliking the doctrines of merit and of +justification by works, of denying the Real Presence, and of holding +nothing but what could be proved to his own satisfaction by the +Scriptures. + +Then he read as much as he could of the great Jewell controversy. This +Bishop of Salisbury, who had, however, recanted his Protestant opinions +under Mary, and resumed them under Elizabeth, had published in 1562 his +"Apology of the Church of England," a work of vast research and learning. +Mr. Harding, who had also had the advantage of having been on both sides, +had answered it; and then the battle was arrayed. It was of course mostly +above Anthony's head; but he gained from what he was able to read of it a +very fair estimate of the conflicting theses, though he probably could +not have stated them intelligibly. He also made acquaintance with another +writer against Jewell,--Rastall; and with one or two of Mr. Willet's +books, the author of "Synopsis Papismi" and "Tretrastylon Papisticum." + +Even more than by paper controversy, however, he was influenced by +history that was so rapidly forming before his eyes. The fact and the +significance of the supremacy of the Queen in religion was impressed upon +him more vividly by her suspension of Grindal than by all the books he +ever read: here was the first ecclesiastic of the realm, a devout, humble +and earnest man, restrained from exercising his great qualities as ruler +and shepherd of his people, by a woman whose religious character +certainly commanded no one's respect, even if her moral life were free +from scandal; and that, not because the Archbishop had been guilty of any +crime or heresy, or was obviously unfitted for his post, but because his +conscientious judgment on a point of Church discipline and liberty +differed from hers; and this state of things was made possible not by an +usurpation of power, but by the deliberately ordered system of the Church +of England. Anthony had at least sufficient penetration to see that this, +as a fundamental principle of religion, however obscured it might be by +subsequent developments, was yet fraught with dangers compared with which +those of papal interference were comparatively trifling--dangers that is, +not so much to earthly peace and prosperity, as to the whole spiritual +nature of the nation's Christianity. + +Yet another argument had begun to suggest itself, bearing upon the same +point, of the relative advantages and dangers of Nationalism. When he had +first entered the Archbishop's service he had been inspired by the +thought that the Church would share in the rising splendour of England; +now he began to wonder whether she could have strength to resist the +rising worldliness that was bound to accompany it. It is scarcely likely +that men on fire with success, whether military or commercial, will be +patient of the restraints of religion. If the Church is independent of +the nation, she can protest and denounce freely; if she is knit closely +to the nation, such rebuke is almost impossible. + +A conversation that Anthony had on this subject at the beginning of +February helped somewhat to clear up this point. + +He was astonished after dinner one day to hear that Mr. Henry Buxton was +at the porter's lodge desiring to see him, and on going out he found that +it was indeed his old acquaintance, the prisoner. + +"Good-day, Master Norris," said the gentleman, with his eyes twinkling; +"you see the mouse has escaped, and is come to call upon the cat." + +Anthony inquired further as to the details of his release. + +"Well, you see," said Mr. Buxton, "they grew a-weary of me. I talked so +loud at them all for one thing; and then you see I was neither priest nor +agent nor conspirator, but only a plain country gentleman: so they took +some hundred or two pounds off me, to make me still plainer; and let me +go. Now, Mr. Norris, will you come and dine with me, and resume our +conversation that was so rudely interrupted by my journey last time? But +then you see her Majesty would take no denial." + +"I have just dined," said Anthony, "but----" + +"Well, I will not ask you to see me dine again, as you did last time; but +will you then sup with me? I am at the 'Running Horse,' Fleet Street, +until to-morrow." + +Anthony accepted gladly; for he had been greatly taken with Mr. Buxton; +and at six o'clock that evening presented himself at the "Running Horse," +and was shown up to a private parlour. + +He found Mr. Buxton in the highest good-humour; he was even now on his +way from Wisbeach, home again to Tonbridge, and was only staying in +London to finish a little business he had. + +Before supper was over, Anthony had laid his difficulties before him. + +"My dear friend," said the other, and his manner became at once sober and +tender, "I thank you deeply for your confidence. After being thought +midway between a knave and a fool for over a year, it is a comfort to be +treated as an honest gentleman again. I hold very strongly with what you +say; it is that, under God, that has kept me steady. As I said to you +last time, Christ's Kingdom is not of this world. Can you imagine, for +example, Saint Peter preaching religious obedience to Nero to be a +Christian's duty? I do not say (God forbid) that her Grace is a Nero, or +even a Poppæa; but there is no particular reason why some successor of +hers should not be. However, Nero or not, the principle is the same. I do +not deny that a National Church may be immensely powerful, may convert +thousands, may number zealous and holy men among her ministers and +adherents--but yet her foundation is insecure. What when the tempest of +God's searching judgments begins to blow? + +"Or, to put it plainer, in a parable, you have seen, I doubt not, a +gallant and his mistress together. So long as she is being wooed by him, +she can command; he sighs and yearns and runs on errands--in short, she +rules him. But when they are wedded--ah me! It is she--if he turns out a +brute, that is--she that stands while my lord plucks off his boots--she +who runs to fetch the tobacco-pipe and lights it and kneels by him. Now I +hold that to wed the body spiritual to the body civil, is to wed a +delicate dame to a brute. He may dress her well, give her jewels, clap +her kindly on the head--but she is under him and no free woman. Ah!"--and +then Mr. Buxton's eyes began to shine as Anthony remembered they had done +before, and his voice to grow solemn,--"and when the spouse is the Bride +of Christ, purchased by His death, what then would be the sin to wed her +to a carnal nation, who shall favour her, it may be, while she looks +young and fair; but when his mood changes, or her appearance, then she is +his slave and his drudge! His will and his whims are her laws; as he +changes, so must she. She has to do his foul work; as she had to do for +King Henry, as she is doing it now for Queen Bess; and as she will always +have to do, God help her, so long as she is wedded to the nation, instead +of being free as the handmaiden and spouse of Christ alone. My faith +would be lost, Mr. Norris, and my heart broken quite, if I were forced to +think the Church of England to be the Church of Christ." + +They talked late that evening in the private baize-curtained parlour on +the third floor. Anthony produced his difficulties one by one, and Mr. +Buxton did his best to deal with them. For example, Anthony remarked on +the fact that there had been no breach of succession as to the edifices +and endowments of the Church; that the sees had been canonically filled, +and even the benefices; and that therefore, like it or not, the Church of +England now was identical with the Pre-Reformation Church. + +"_Distinguo_," said his friend. "Of course she is the successor in one +sense: what you say is very true. It is impossible to put your finger +all along the line of separation. It is a serrated line. The affairs of a +Church and a nation are so vast that that is sure to be so; although if +you insist, I will point to the Supremacy Act of 1559 and the Uniformity +Act of the same year as very clear evidences of a breach with the ancient +order; in the former the governance is shifted from its original owner, +the Vicar of Christ, and placed on Elizabeth; it was that that the +Carthusian Fathers and Sir Thomas More and many others died sooner than +allow: and the latter Act sweeps away all the ancient forms of worship in +favour of a modern one. But I am not careful to insist upon those points; +if you deny or disprove them,--though I do not envy any who attempts +that--yet even then my principle remains, that all that to which the +Church of England has succeeded is the edifices and the endowments; but +that her spirit is wholly new. If a highwayman knocks me down to-morrow, +strips me, clothes himself with my clothes, and rides my horse, he is +certainly my successor in one sense; yet he will be rash if he presents +himself to my wife and sons--though I have none, by the way--as the +proper owner of my house and name." + +"But there is no knocking down in the question," said Anthony. "The +bishops and clergy, or the greater part of them, consented to the +change." + +Mr. Buxton smiled. + +"Very well," he said; "yet the case is not greatly different if the +gentleman threatens me with torture instead, if I do not voluntarily give +him my clothes and my horse. If I were weak and yielded to him, yes, and +made promises of all kinds in my cowardice--yet he would be no nearer +being the true successor of my name and fortune. And if you read her +Grace's Acts, and King Henry's too, you will find that that was precisely +what took place. My dear sir," Mr. Buxton went on, "if you will pardon my +saying it, I am astounded at the effrontery of your authorities who claim +that there was no breach. Your Puritans are wiser; they at least frankly +say that the old was Anti-Christian; that His Holiness (God forgive me +for saying it!), was an usurper: and that the new Genevan theology is the +old gospel brought to light again. That I can understand; and indeed most +of your churchmen think so too; and that there was a new beginning made +with Protestantism. But when her Grace calls herself a Catholic, and +tells the poor Frenchmen that it is the old religion here still: and your +bishops, or one or two of them rather, like Cheyney, I suppose, say so +too--then I am rendered dumb--(if that were possible). If it is the same, +then why, a-God's name, were the altars dragged down, and the screens +burned, and the vestments and the images and the stoups and the pictures +and the ornaments, all swept out? Why, a-God's name, was the old mass +blotted out and this new mingle-mangle brought in, if it be all one? And +for the last time, a-God's name, why is it death to say mass now, if it +be all one? Go, go: Such talk is foolishness, and worse." + +Mr. Buxton was silent for a moment as Anthony eyed him; and then burst +out again. + +"Ah! but worse than all are the folks that stand with one leg on either +stool. We are the old Church, say they;--standing with the Protestant leg +in the air,--therefore let us have the money and the buildings: they are +our right. And then when a poor Catholic says, Then let us have the old +mass, and the old penance and the old images: Nay, nay, nay, they say, +lifting up the Catholic leg and standing on the other, those are Popery; +and we are Protestants; we have made away with all such mummery and +muniments of superstition. And so they go see-sawing to and fro. When you +run at one leg they rest them on the other, and you know not where to +take them." + +And so the talk went on. When the evening was over, and Anthony was +rising to return to Lambeth, Mr. Buxton put his hand on his arm. + +"Good Mr. Norris," he said, "you have been very patient with me. I have +clacked this night like an old wife, and you have borne with me: and now +I ask your pardon again. But I do pray God that He may show you light and +bring you to the true Church; for there is no rest elsewhere." + +Anthony thanked him for his good wishes. + +"Indeed," he said, too, "I am grateful for all that you have said. You +have shown me light, I think, on some things, and I ask your prayers." + +"I go to Stanfield to-morrow," said Mr. Buxton; "it is a pleasant house, +though its master says so, not far from Sir Philip Sidney's: if you would +but come and see me there!" + +"I am getting greatly perplexed," said Anthony, "and I think that in good +faith I cannot stay long with the Archbishop; and if I leave him how +gladly will I come to you for a few days; but it must not be till then." + +"Ah! if you would but make the Spiritual Exercises in my house; I will +provide a conductor; and there is nothing that would resolve your doubts +so quickly." + +Anthony was interested in this; and asked further details as to what +these were. + +"It is too late," said Mr. Buxton, "to tell you to-night. I will write +from Stanfield." + +Mr. Buxton came downstairs with Anthony to see him on to his horse, and +they parted with much good-will; and Anthony rode home with a heavy and +perplexed heart to Lambeth. + + * * * * + +He spent a few days more pondering; and then determined to lay his +difficulties before the Archbishop; and resign his position if Grindal +thought it well. + +He asked for an interview, and the Archbishop appointed an hour in the +afternoon at which he would see him in Cranmer's parlour, the room above +the vestry which formed part of the tower that Archbishop Cranmer had +added to Lambeth House. + +Anthony, walking up and down in the little tiled cloisters by the creek, +a few minutes before the hour fixed, heard organ-music rolling out of the +chapel windows; and went in to see who was playing. He came in through +the vestry, and looking to the west end gallery saw there the back of old +Dr. Tallis, seated at the little positive organ that the late Archbishop +had left in his chapel, and which the present Archbishop had gladly +retained, for he was a great patron of music, and befriended many +musicians when they needed help--Dr. Tallis, as well as Byrd, Morley and +Tye. There were a few persons in the chapel listening, the Reverend Mr. +Wilson, one of the chaplains, being among them; and Anthony thought that +he could not do better than sit here a little and quiet his thoughts, +which were nervous and distracted at the prospect of his coming +interview. He heard voices from overhead, which showed that the +Archbishop was engaged; so he spoke to an usher stationed in the vestry, +telling him that he was ready as soon as the Archbishop could receive +him, and that he would wait in the chapel; and then made his way down to +one of the return stalls at the west end, against the screen, and took +his seat there. + +This February afternoon was growing dark, and the only lights in the +chapel were those in the organ loft; but there was still enough daylight +outside to make the windows visible--those famous windows of Morton's, +which, like those in King's Chapel, Cambridge, combined and interpreted +the Old and New Testaments by an ingenious system of types and antitypes, +in the manner of the "Biblia Pauperum." There was then only a single +subject in each light; and Anthony let his eyes wander musingly to and +fro in the east window from the central figure of the Crucified to the +types on either side, especially to a touching group of the unconscious +Isaac carrying the wood for his own death, as Christ His Cross. Beneath, +instead of the old stately altar glowing with stuffs and precious metals +and jewels which had once been the heart of this beautiful shrine, there +stood now a plain solid wooden table that the Archbishop used for the +Communion. Anthony looked at it, and sighed a little to himself. Did the +altar and the table then mean the same thing? + +Meanwhile the glorious music was rolling overhead in the high vaulted +roof. The old man was extemporising; but his manner was evident even in +that; there was a simple solemn phrase that formed his theme, and round +this adorning and enriching it moved the grave chords. On and on +travelled the melody, like the flow of a broad river; now sliding +steadily through a smiling land of simple harmonies, where dwelt a people +of plain tastes and solid virtues; now passing over shallows where the +sun glanced and played in the brown water among the stones, as light +arpeggio chords rippled up and vanished round about the melody; now +entering a land of mighty stones and caverns where the echoes rang hollow +and resonant, as the counterpoint began to rumble and trip like boulders +far down out of sight, in subaqueous gloom; now rolling out again and +widening, fuller and deeper as it went, moving in great masses towards +the edge of the cataract that lies like a line across the landscape: it +is inevitable now, the crash must come;--a chord or two +pausing,--pausing;--and then the crash, stupendous and sonorous. + +Then on again through elaborate cities where the wits and courtiers +dwell, and stately palaces slide past upon the banks, and barges move +upon its breast, on to the sea--that final full close that embraces and +engulfs all music, all effort, all doubts and questionings, whether in +art or theology, all life of intellect, heart or will--that fathomless +eternal deep from which all comes and to which all returns, that men call +the Love of God. + + * * * * + +Anthony stirred in his seat; he had been here ten minutes, proposing to +take his restless thoughts in hand and quiet them; and, lo! it had been +done for him by the master who sat overhead. Here he, for the moment, +remained, ready for anything--glad to take up the wood and bear it to the +Mount of Sacrifice--content to be carried on in that river of God's Will +to the repose of God's Heart--content to dwell meantime in the echoing +caverns of doubt--in the glancing shadows and lights of an active +life--in his own simple sunlit life in the country--or even to plunge +over the cataract down into the fierce tormented pools in the dark--for +after all the sea lay beyond; and he who commits himself to the river is +bound to reach it. + +He heard a step, and the usher stood by him. + +"His Grace is ready, Master Norris." + +Anthony rose and followed him. + +The Archbishop received him with the greatest kindness. As Anthony came +in he half rose, peering with his half-blind eyes, and smiling and +holding out his hands. + +"Come, Master Norris," he said, "you are always welcome. Sit down;" and +he placed him in a chair at the table close by his own. + +"Now, what is it?" he said kindly; for the old man's heart was a little +anxious at this formal interview that had been requested by this +favourite young officer of his. + +Then Anthony, without any reserve, told him all; tracing out the long +tale of doubt by landmarks that he remembered; mentioning the effect +produced on his mind by the Queen's suspension of the Archbishop, +especially dwelling on the arrest, the examination and the death of +Campion, that had made such a profound impression upon him; upon his own +reading and trains of thought, and the conversations with Mr. Buxton, +though of course he did not mention his name; he ended by saying that he +had little doubt that sooner or later he would be compelled to leave the +communion of the Church of England for that of Rome; and by placing his +resignation in the Archbishop's hands, with many expressions of gratitude +for the unceasing kindness and consideration that he had always received +at his hands. + +There was silence when he had finished. A sliding panel in the wall near +the chapel had been pushed back, and the mellow music of Dr. Tallis +pealed softly in, giving a sweet and melodious background, scarcely +perceived consciously by either of them, and yet probably mellowing and +softening their modes of expression during the whole of the interview. + +"Mr. Norris," said the Archbishop at last, "I first thank you for the +generous confidence you have shown towards me: and I shall put myself +under a further obligation to you by accepting your resignation: and this +I do for both our sakes. For yours, because, as you confess, this action +of the Queen's--(I neither condemn nor excuse it myself)--this action has +influenced your thoughts: therefore you had best be removed from it to a +place where you can judge more quietly. And I accept it for my own sake +too; for several reasons that I need not trouble you with. But in doing +this, I desire you, Mr. Norris, to continue to draw your salary until +Midsummer:--nay, nay, you must let me have my say. You are at liberty to +withdraw as soon as you have wound up your arrangements with Mr. +Somerdine; he will now, as Yeoman of the Horse, have your duties as well +as his own; for I do not intend to have another Gentleman of the Horse. +As regards an increase of salary for him, that can wait until I see him +myself. In any case, Mr. Norris, I think you had better withdraw before +Mid-Lent Sunday. + +"And now for your trouble. I know very well that I cannot be of much +service to you. I am no controversialist. But I must bear my witness. +This Papist with whom you have had talk seems a very plausible fellow. +His arguments sound very plain and good; and yet I think you could prove +anything by them. They seem to me like that openwork embroidery such as +you see on Communion linen sometimes, in which the pattern is formed by +withdrawing certain threads. He has cleverly omitted just those points +that would ruin his argument; and he has made a pretty design. But any +skilful advocate could make any other design by the same methods. He has +not thought fit to deal with such words of our Saviour as what He says on +Tradition; with what the Scriptures say against the worshipping of +angels; with what St. Paul says in his Epistle to the Colossians, in the +second chapter, concerning all those carnal ordinances which were done +away by Christ, but which have been restored by the Pope in his despite; +he does not deal with those terrible words concerning the man of sin and +the mystery of iniquity. In fact, he takes just one word that Christ let +fall about His Kingdom, and builds this great edifice upon it. You might +retort to him in a thousand ways such as these. Bishop Jewell, in his +book, as you know, deals with these questions and many more; far more +fully than it is possible for you and me even to dream of doing. Nay, Mr. +Norris; the only argument I can lay before you is this. There are +difficulties and troubles everywhere; that there are such in the Church +of England, who would care to deny? that there are equally such, aye, and +far more, in the Church of Rome, who would care to deny, either? +Meanwhile, the Providence of God has set you here and not there. Whatever +your difficulties are here, are not of your choosing; but if you fly +there (and I pray God you will not) there they will be. Be content, +Master Norris; indeed you have a goodly heritage; be content with it; +lest losing that you lose all." + +Anthony was greatly touched by this moderate and courteous line that the +Archbishop was taking. He knew well in his heart that the Church of Rome +was, in the eyes of this old man, a false and deceitful body, for whom +there was really nothing to be said. Grindal, in his travels abroad +during the Marian troubles, had been deeply attracted by the Genevan +theology, with whose professors he had never wholly lost touch; and +Anthony guessed what an effort it was costing him, and what a strain it +was on his conscience, thus to combine courtesy with faithfulness to what +he believed to be true. + +Grindal apparently feared he had sacrificed his convictions, for he +presently added: "You know, Mr. Norris, that I think very much worse of +Papistry than I have expressed; but I have refrained because I think that +would not help you; and I desire to do that more than to relieve myself." + +Anthony thanked him for his gentleness; saying that he quite understood +his motives in speaking as he had done, and was deeply obliged to him for +it. + +The Archbishop, however, as indeed were most of the English Divines of +the time, was far more deeply versed in destructive than constructive +theology; and, to Anthony's regret, was presently beginning in that +direction. + +"It is beyond my imagination. Mr. Norris," he said, "that any who have +known the simple Gospel should return to the darkness. See here," he went +on, rising, and fumbling among his books, "I have somewhere here what +they call an Indulgence." + +He searched for a few minutes, and presently shook out of the leaves of +Jewell's book a paper which he peered at, and then pushed over to +Anthony. + +It was a little rectangular paper, some four or five inches long; bearing +a figure of Christ, wounded, with His hands bound together before Him, +and the Cross with the superscription rising behind. In compartments on +either side were instruments of the Passion, the spear, and the reed with +the sponge, with other figures and emblems. Anthony spelt out the +inscription. + +"Read it aloud, Mr. Norris," said the Archbishop. + +"'To them,'" read Anthony, "'that before this image of pity devoutly say +five paternosters, five aves and a credo, piteously beholding these arms +of Christ's Passion, are granted thirty-two thousand seven hundred and +fifty-five years of pardon.'" + +"Now, Mr. Norris," said the Archbishop, "have you considered that it is +to that kind of religion that you are attracted? I will not comment on +it; there is no need." + +"Your Grace," said Anthony slowly, laying the paper down, "I need not +say, I think, that this kind of thing is deeply distasteful to me too. +Your Grace cannot dislike it more than I do. But then I do not understand +it; I do not know what indulgences mean; I only know that were they as +mad and foolish as we Protestants think them, no truthful or good man +could remain a Papist for a day; but then there are many thoughtful and +good men Papists; and I conclude from that that what we think the +indulgences to be, cannot be what they really are. There must be some +other explanation. + +"And again, my lord, may I add this? If I were a Turk I should find many +things in the Christian religion quite as repellent to me; for example, +how can it be just, I should ask, that the death of an innocent man, such +as Christ was, should be my salvation? How, again, is it just that faith +should save? Surely one who has sinned greatly ought to do something +towards his forgiveness, and not merely trust to another. But you, my +lord, would tell me that there are explanations of these difficulties, +and of many more too, of which I should gradually understand more and +more after I was a Christian. Or again, it appears to me even now, +Christian as I am, judging as a plain man, that predestination +contradicts free-will; and no explanation can make them both reasonable. +Yet, by the grace of God, I believe all these doctrines and many more, +not because I understand them, for I do not; but because I believe that +they are part of the Revelation of God. It is just so, too, with the +Roman Catholic Church. I must not take this or that doctrine by itself; +but I must make up my mind whether or no it is the one only Catholic +Church, and then I shall believe all that she teaches, because she +teaches it, and not because I understand it. You must forgive my dulness, +my lord; but I am but a layman, and can only say what I think in simple +words." + +"But we must judge of a Christian body by what that body teaches," said +the Archbishop. "On what other grounds are you drawn to the Papists, +except by what they teach?" + +"Yes, your Grace," said Anthony, "I do judge of the general body of +doctrine, and of the effect upon the soul as a whole; but that is not the +same as taking each small part, and making all hang upon that." + +"Well, Mr. Norris," said the Archbishop, "I do not think we can talk much +more now. It is new to me that these difficulties are upon you. But I +entreat you to talk to me again as often as you will; and to others +also--Dr. Redmayn, Mr. Chambers and others will be happy if they can be +of any service to you in these matters: for few things indeed would +grieve me more than that you should turn Papist." + +Anthony thanked the Archbishop very cordially for his kindness, and, +after receiving his blessing, left his presence. He had two or three more +talks with him before he left, but his difficulties were in no way +resolved. The Archbishop had an essentially Puritan mind, and could not +enter into Anthony's point of view at all. It may be roughly said that +from Grindal's standpoint all turned on the position and responsibility +of the individual towards the body to which he belonged: and that Anthony +rather looked at the corporate side first and the individual second. +Grindal considered, for example, the details of the Catholic religion in +reference to the individual, asking whether he could accept this or that: +Anthony's tendency was rather to consider the general question first, and +to take the difficulties in his stride afterwards. Anthony also had +interviews with the Archdeacon and chaplain whom Grindal had recommended; +but these were of even less service to him, as Dr. Redmayn was so frankly +contemptuous, and Mr. Chambers so ignorant, of the Romish religion that +Anthony felt he could not trust their judgment at all. + +In the meanwhile, during this last fortnight of Anthony's Lambeth life, +he received a letter from Mr. Buxton, explaining what were the Spiritual +Exercises to which he had referred, and entreating Anthony to come and +stay with him at Stanfield. + +"Now come, dear Mr. Norris," he wrote, "as soon as you leave the +Archbishop's service; I will place three or four rooms at your disposal, +if you wish for quiet; for I have more rooms than I know what to do with; +and you shall make the Exercises if you will with some good priest. They +are a wonderful method of meditation and prayer, designed by Ignatius +Loyola (one day doubtless to be declared saint), for the bringing about a +resolution of all doubts and scruples, and so clearing the eye of the +soul that she discerns God's Will, and so strengthening her that she +gladly embraces it. And that surely is what you need just now in your +perplexity." + +The letter went on to describe briefly the method followed, and ended by +entreating him again to come and see him. Anthony answered this by +telling him of his resignation of his post at Lambeth, and accepting his +invitation; and he arranged to spend the last three weeks before Easter +at Stanfield, and to go down there immediately upon leaving Lambeth. He +determined not to go to Great Keynes first, or to see Isabel, lest his +resolution should be weakened. Already, he thought, his motives were +sufficiently mixed and perverted without his further aggravating their +earthly constituents. + +He wrote to his sister, however, telling her of his decision to leave +Lambeth; and adding that he was going to stay with a friend until Easter, +when he hoped to return to the Dower House, and take up his abode there +for the present. He received what he thought a very strange letter in +return, written apparently under excitement strongly restrained. He read +in it a very real affection for himself, but a certain reserve in it too, +and even something of compassion; and there was a sentence in it that +above all others astonished him. + +"J. M. has been here, and is now gone to Douai. Oh! dear brother, some +time no doubt you will tell us all. I feel so certain that there is much +to explain." + +Had she then guessed his part in the priest's release? Anthony wondered; +but at any rate he knew, after his promise to the Queen, that he must not +give her any clue. He was also surprised to hear that James had been to +Great Keynes. He had inquired for him at the Tower on the Monday after +his visit to Greenwich, and had heard that Mr. Maxwell was already gone +out of England. He had not then troubled to write again, as he had no +doubt but that his message to Lady Maxwell, which he had sent in his note +to Isabel, had reached her; and that certainly she, and probably James +too, now knew that he had been an entirely unconscious and innocent +instrument in the priest's arrest. But that note, as has been seen, never +reached its destination. Lady Maxwell did not care to write to the +betrayer of her son; and Isabel on the one hand hoped and believed now +that there was some explanation, but on the other did not wish to ask for +it again, since her first request had been met by silence. + +As the last days of his life at Lambeth were coming to an end, Anthony +began to send off his belongings on pack-horses to Great Keynes; and by +the time that the Saturday before Mid-Lent Sunday arrived, on which he +was to leave, all had gone except his own couple of horses and the bags +containing his personal luggage. + +His last interview with the Archbishop affected him very greatly. + +He found the old man waiting for him, walking up and down Cranmer's +parlour in an empty part of the room, where there was no danger of his +falling. He peered anxiously at Anthony as he entered. + +"Mr. Norris," he said, "you are greatly on my mind. I fear I have not +done my duty to you. My God has taken away the great charge he called me +to years ago, to see if I were fit or not for the smaller charge of mine +own household, and not even that have I ruled well." + +Anthony was deeply moved. + +"My lord," he said, "if I may speak plainly to you, I would say that to +my mind the strongest argument for the Church of England is that she +brings forth piety and goodness such as I have seen here. If it were not +for that, I should no longer be perplexed." + +Grindal held up a deprecating hand. + +"Do not speak so, Mr. Norris. That grieves me. However, I beseech you to +forgive me for all my remissness towards you, and I wish to tell you +that, whatever happens, you shall never cease to have an old man's +prayers. You have been a good and courteous servant to me always--more +than that, you have been my loving friend--I might almost say my son: and +that, in a world that has cast me off and forgotten me, I shall not +easily forget. God bless you, my dear son, and give you His light and +grace." + +When Anthony rode out of the gateway half an hour later, with his servant +and luggage behind him, it was only with the greatest difficulty that he +could keep from tears as he thought of the blind old man, living in +loneliness and undeserved disgrace, whom he was leaving behind him. + + + + + CHAPTER XIII + + THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES + + +Anthony found that Mr. Buxton had seriously underestimated himself in +describing his position as that of a plain country gentleman. Stanfield +was one of the most beautiful houses that he had ever seen. On the day +after his arrival, his host took him all over the house, at his earnest +request, and told him its story; and as they passed from room to room, +again and again Anthony found himself involuntarily exclaiming at the new +and extraordinary beauties of architecture and furniture that revealed +themselves. + +The house itself had been all built in the present reign, before its +owner had got into trouble; and had been fitted throughout on the most +lavish scale, with furniture of German as well as of English manufacture. +Mr. Buxton was a collector of pictures and other objects of art; and his +house contained some of the very finest specimens of painting, bronzes, +enamels, plate and woodwork procurable from the Continent. + +The house was divided into two sections; the chief living rooms were in a +long suite looking to the south on to the gardens, with a corridor on the +north side running the whole length of the house on the ground-floor, +from which a staircase rose to a similar corridor or gallery on the first +floor. The second section of the house was a block of some half-dozen +smallish rooms, with a private staircase of their own, and a private +entrance and little walled garden as well in front. The house was mostly +panelled throughout, and here and there hung pieces of magnificent +tapestry and cloth of arras. All was kept, too, with a care that was +unusual in those days--the finest woodwork was brought to a high polish, +as well as all the brass utensils and steel fire-plates and dogs and such +things. No two rooms were alike; each possessed some marked +characteristic of its own--one bedroom, for example, was distinguished by +its fourpost bed with its paintings on the canopy and head--another, by +its little two-light high window with Adam and Eve in stained glass; +another with a little square-window containing a crucifix, which was +generally concealed by a sliding panel; another by two secret cupboards +over the fire-place, and its recess fitted as an oratory; another by a +magnificent piece of tapestry representing Saint Clara and Saint Thomas +of Aquin, each holding a monstrance, with a third great monstrance in the +centre, supported by angels. + +Downstairs the rooms were on the same scale of magnificence. The +drawing-room had an exquisite wooden ceiling with great pendants +elaborately carved; the dining-room was distinguished by its glass, +containing a collection of coats-of-arms of many of Mr. Buxton's friends +who had paid him visits; the hall by its vast fire-place and the +tapestries that hung round it. + +The exterior premises were scarcely less remarkable; a fine row of +stables, and kennels where greyhounds were kept, stood to the north and +the east of the house; but the wonder of the country was the gardens to +the south. Anthony hardly knew what to say for admiration as he went +slowly through these with his host, on the bright spring morning, after +visiting the house. These were elaborately laid out, and under Mr. +Buxton's personal direction, for he was one of the few people in England +at this time who really understood or cared for the art. His avenue of +small clipped limes running down the main walk of the garden, his +yew-hedges fashioned with battlements and towers; his great garden house +with its vane; his fantastic dial in the fashion of a tall striped pole +surmounted by a dragon;--these were the astonishment of visitors; and it +was freely said that had not Mr. Buxton been exceedingly adroit he would +have paid the penalty of his magnificence and originality by being forced +to receive a royal visit--a favour that would have gone far to +impoverish, if not to ruin him. The chancel of the parish-church +overlooked the west end of his lime-avenue, while the east end of the +garden terminated in a great gateway, of stone posts and wrought iron +gates that looked out to the meadows and farm buildings of the estate, +and up to which some day no doubt a broad carriage drive would be laid +down. But at present the sweep of the meadows was unbroken. + +It was to this beautiful place that Anthony found himself welcomed. His +host took him at once on the evening of his arrival to the west block, +and showed him his bedroom--that with the little cupboards and the +oratory recess; and then, taking him downstairs again, showed him a +charming little oak parlour, which he told him would be altogether at his +private service. + +"And you see," added Mr. Buxton, "in this walled garden in front you can +have complete privacy, and thus can take the air without ever coming to +the rest of the house; to which there is this one entrance on the ground +floor." And then he showed him how the lower end of the long corridor +communicated with the block. + +"The only partners of this west block," he added, "will be the two +priests--Mr. Blake, my chaplain, and Mr. Robert, who is staying with me a +week or two; and who, I hope, will conduct you through the Exercises, as +he is very familiar with them. You will meet them both at supper: of +course they will be both dressed as laymen. The Protestants blamed poor +Campion for that, you know; but had he not gone in disguise, they would +only have hanged him all the sooner. I like not hypocrisy." + +Anthony was greatly impressed by Father Robert when he met him at supper. +He was a tall and big man, who seemed about forty years of age, with a +long square-jawed face, a pointed beard and moustache, and shrewd +penetrating eyes. He seemed to be a man in advance of his time; he was +full of reforms and schemes that seemed to Anthony remarkably to the +point; and they were reforms too quite apart from ecclesiasticism, but +rather such as would be classed in our days under the title of Christian +Socialism. + +For example, he showed a great sympathy for the condition of the poor and +outcast and criminals; and had a number of very practical schemes for +their benefit. + +"Two things," he said, in answer to a question of Anthony's, "I would do +to-morrow if I had the power. First I would allow of long leases for +fifty and a hundred years. Everywhere the soil is becoming impoverished; +each man squeezes out of it as much as he can, and troubles not to feed +the land or to care for it beyond his time. Long leases, I hold, would +remedy this. It would encourage the farmer to look before him and think +of his sons and his sons' sons. And second, I would establish banks for +poor men. There is many a man now a-begging who would be living still in +his own house, if there had been some honest man whom he could have +trusted to keep his money for him, and, maybe, give him something for the +loan of it: for in these days, when there is so much enterprise, money +has become, as it were, a living thing that grows; or at the least a tool +that can be used; and therefore, when it is lent, it is right that the +borrower should pay a little for it. This is not the same as the usury +that Holy Church so rightly condemns: at least, I hold not, though some, +I know, differ from me." + +After supper the talk turned on education: here, too, the priest had his +views. + +"But you are weary of hearing me!" he said, in smiling apology. "You will +think me a schoolmaster." + +"And I pray you to consider me your pupil," said Mr. Buxton. The priest +made a little deprecating gesture. + +"First, then," he said, "I would have a great increase of grammar +schools. It is grievous to think of England as she will be when this +generation grows up: the schooling was not much before; but now she has +lost first the schools that were kept by Religious, and now the teaching +that the chantry-priests used to give. But this perhaps may turn to +advantage; for when the Catholic Religion is re-established in these +realms, she will find how sad her condition is; and, I hope, will remedy +it by a better state of things than before--first, by a great number of +grammar schools where the lads can be well taught for small fees, and +where many scholarships will be endowed; and then, so great will be the +increase of learning, as I hope, that we shall need to have a third +university, to which I should join a third Archbishoprick, for the +greater dignity of both; and all this I should set in the north +somewhere, Durham or Newcastle, maybe." + +He spoke, too, with a good deal of shrewdness of the increase of highway +robbery, and the remedies for it; remarking that, although in other +respects the laws were too severe, in this matter their administration +was too lax; since robbers of gentle birth could generally rely on +pardon. He spoke of the Holy Brotherhood in Spain (with which country he +seemed familiar), and its good results in the putting down of violence. + +Anthony grew more and more impressed by this man's practical sense and +ability; but less drawn to him in consequence as his spiritual guide. He +fancied that true spirituality could scarcely exist in this intensely +practical nature. When supper was over, and the priests had gone back to +their rooms, and his host and he were seated before a wide blazing hearth +in Mr. Buxton's own little room downstairs, he hinted something of the +sort. Mr. Buxton laughed outright. + +"My dear friend," he said, "you do not know these Jesuits (for of course +you have guessed that he is one); their training and efficiency is beyond +all imagining. In a week from now you will be considering how ever Father +Robert can have the heart to eat his dinner or say 'good-day' with such a +spiritual vision and insight as he has. You need not fear. Like the angel +in the Revelation, he will call you up to heaven, hale you to the abyss +and show you things to come. And, though you may not believe it, it is +the man's intense and simple piety that makes him so clear-sighted and +practical; he lives so close to God that God's works and methods, so +perplexing to you and me, are plain to him." + +They went on talking together for a while. Mr. Buxton said that Father +Robert had thought it best for Anthony not to enter Retreat until the +Monday evening; by which time he could have sufficiently familiarised +himself with his new surroundings, so as not to find them a distraction +during his spiritual treatment. Anthony agreed to this. Then they talked +of all kinds of things. His host told him of his neighbours; and +explained how it was that he enjoyed such liberty as he did. + +"You noticed the church, Mr. Norris, did you not, at your arrival, +overlooking the garden? It is a great advantage to me to have it so +close. I can sit in my own garden and hear the Genevan thunders from +within. He preaches so loud that I might, if I wished, hear sermons, and +thus satisfy the law and his Reverence; and at the same time not go +inside an heretical meeting-house, and thus satisfy my own conscience and +His Holiness. But I fear that would not have saved me, had I not the ear +of his Reverence. I will tell you how it was. When the laws began to be +enforced hereabouts, his Reverence came to see me; and sat in that very +chair that you now occupy. + +"'I hear,' said he, cocking his eye at me, 'that her Grace is becoming +strict, and more careful for the souls of her subjects.' + +"I agreed with him, and said I had heard as much. + +"'The fine is twenty pounds a month,' says he, 'for recusancy,' and then +he looks at me again." + +"At first I did not catch his meaning; for, as you have noticed, Mr. +Norris, I am but a dull man in dealing with these sharp and subtle +Protestants: and then all at once it flashed across me. + +"'Yes, your Reverence,' I said, 'and it will be the end of poor gentlemen +like me, unless some kind friend has pity on them. How happy I am in +having you!' I said, 'I have never yet shown my appreciation as I should: +and I propose now to give you, to be applied to what purposes you will, +whether the sustenance of the minister or anything else, the sum of ten +pounds a month; so long as I am not troubled by the Council. Of course, +if I should be fined by the Council, I shall have to drop my appreciation +for six months or so.' + +"Well, Mr. Norris, you will hardly believe it, but the old doctor opened +his mouth and gulped and rolled his eyes, like a trout taking a fly; and +I was never troubled until fifteen months ago, when they got at me in +spite of him. But he has lost, you see, a matter of one hundred and fifty +pounds while I have been at Wisbeach; and I shall not begin to appreciate +him again for another six months; so I do not think I shall be troubled +again." + +Anthony was amazed, and said so. + +"Well," said the other, "I was astonished too; and should never have +dreamt of appreciating him in such a manner unless he had proposed it. I +had a little difficulty with Mr. Blake, who told me that it was a +_libellum_, and that I should be ashamed to pay hush money. But I told +him that he might call it what he pleased, but that I would sooner pay +ten pounds a month and be in peace, than twenty pounds a month and be +perpetually harassed: and Father Robert agrees with me, and so the other +is content now." + +The next day, which was Sunday, passed quietly. Mass was no doubt said +somewhere in the house; though Anthony saw no signs of it. He himself +attended the reverend doctor's ministrations in the morning; and found +him to be what he had been led to expect. + +In the afternoon he walked up and down the lime avenue with Father +Robert, while the evening prayer and sermon rumbled forth through the +broken chancel window; and they talked of the Retreat and the +arrangements. + +"You no doubt think, Mr. Norris," said the priest, "that I shall preach +at you in this Retreat, and endeavour to force you into the Catholic +Church; but I shall do nothing of the kind. The whole object of the +Exercises is to clear away the false motives that darken the soul; to +place the Figure of our Redeemer before the soul as her dear and adorable +Lover and King; and then to kindle and inspire the soul to choose her +course through the grace of God, for the only true final motive of all +perfect action,--that is, the pure Love of God. Of course I believe, with +the consent of my whole being, that the Catholic Church is in the right; +but I shall not for a moment attempt to compel you to accept her. The +final choice, as indeed the Retreat too, must be your free action, not +mine." + +They arranged too the details of the Retreat; and Anthony was shown the +little room beyond Father Robert's bedroom, where the Exercises would be +given; and informed that another gentleman who lived in the neighbourhood +would come in every day for them too, but that he would have his meals +separately, and that Anthony himself would have his own room and the room +beneath entirely at his private disposal, as well as the little walled +garden to walk in. + +The next day Mr. Buxton took Anthony a long ride, to invigorate him for +the Retreat that would begin after supper. Anthony learned to his +astonishment and delight that Mary Corbet was a great friend of Mr. +Buxton's. + +"Why, of course I know her," he said. "I have known her since she was a +tiny girl, and threw her mass-book at the minister's face the first time +he read the morning prayer. God only knows why she was so wroth with the +man for differing from herself on a point that has perplexed the wisest +heads: but at any rate, wroth she was, and bang went her book. I had to +take her out, and she was spitting like a kitten all down the aisle when +the dog puts his head into the basket. + +"'What's that man doing here?' she screamed out; 'where's the altar and +the priest?' And then at the door, as luck would have had it, she saw +that Saint Christopher was gone; and she began bewailing and bemoaning +him until you'd have thought he'd have been bound to come down from +heaven, as he did once across the dark river, and see what in the world +the crying child wanted with him." + + * * * * + +They came about half-way in their ride through the village of Penshurst; +and on reaching the Park turned off under the beeches towards the house. + +"We have not time to go in," said Mr. Buxton, "but I hope you will see +the house sometime; it is a pattern of what a house should be; and has a +pattern master." + +As they came up to the Edwardine Gate-house, a pleasant-faced, +quietly-dressed gentleman came riding out alone. + +"Why, here he is!" said Mr. Buxton, and greeted him with great warmth, +and made Anthony known to him. + +"I am delighted to know Mr. Norris," said Sidney, with that keen friendly +look that was so characteristic of him. "I have heard of him from many +quarters." + +He entreated them to come in; but Mr. Buxton said they had not time; but +would if they might just glance into the great court. So Sidney took them +through the gate-house and pointed out one or two things of interest from +the entrance, the roof of the Great Hall built by Sir John de Pulteney, +the rare tracery in its windows and the fine living-rooms at one side. + +"I thank God for it every day," said Sidney gravely. "I cannot imagine +why He should have given it me. I hope I am not fool enough to disparage +His gifts, and pretend they are nothing: indeed, I love it with all my +heart. I would as soon think of calling my wife ugly or a shrew." + +"That is a good man and a gentleman," said Mr. Buxton, as they rode away +at last in the direction of Leigh after leaving Sidney to branch off +towards Charket, "and I do not know why he is not a Catholic. And he is a +critic and a poet, men say, too." + +"Have you read anything of his?" asked Anthony. + +"Well," said the other, "to tell the truth, I have tried to read some +sheets of his that he wrote for his sister, Lady Pembroke. He calls it +'Arcadia'; I do not know whether it is finished or ever will be. But it +seemed to me wondrous dull. It was full of shepherds and swains and +nymphs, who are perpetually eating collations which Phoebus or sunburnt +Autumn, and the like, provides of his bounty; or any one but God +Almighty; or else they are bathing and surprising one another all day +long. It is all very sweet and exquisite, I know; and the Greece, where +they all live and love one another, must be a very delightful country, as +unlike this world as it is possible to imagine; but it wearies me. I like +plain England and plain folk and plain religion and plain fare; but then +I am a plain man, as I tell you so often." + +As the afternoon sun drew near setting, they came through Tonbridge. + +"Now, what can a man ask more," said Mr. Buxton, as they rode through it, +"than a good town like this? It is not a great place, I know, with solemn +buildings and wide streets; neither is it a glade or a dell; but it is a +good clean English town; and I would not exchange it for Arcadia or +Athens either." + +Stanfield lay about two miles to the west; and on their way out, Mr. +Buxton talked on about the country and its joys and its usefulness. + +"Over there," he said, pointing towards Eridge, "was the first cannon +made in England. I do not know if that is altogether to its credit, but +it at least shows that we are not quite idle and loutish in the country. +Then all about here is the iron; the very stirrups you ride in, Mr. +Norris, most likely came from the ground beneath your feet; but it is sad +to see all the woods cut down for the smelting of it. All these places +for miles about here, and about Great Keynes too, are all named after the +things of forestry and hunting. Buckhurst, Hartfield, Sevenoaks, Forest +Row, and the like, all tell of the country, and will do so long after we +are dead and gone." + +They reached Stanfield, rode past the green and the large piece of water +there, and up the long village street, and turned into the iron gates +beyond the church, just as the dusk fell. + +That evening after supper the Retreat began. The conduct of the Spiritual +Exercises had not reached the elaboration to which they have been +perfected since; nor, in Anthony's case, a layman and a young man, did +Father Robert think fit to apply it even in all the details in which it +would be used for a priest or for one far advanced in the spiritual life; +but it was severe enough. + +Every evening Father Robert indicated the subject of the following day's +meditation; and then after private prayer Anthony retired to his room. He +rose about seven o'clock in the morning, and took a little food at eight; +then shortly before nine the first meditation was given elaborately. The +first examination of conscience was made at eleven; followed by dinner at +half-past. From half-past twelve to half-past one Anthony rested in his +room; then until three he was encouraged to walk in the garden; at three +the meditation was to be recalled point by point in the chapel, followed +by spiritual reading; at five o'clock supper was served; and at half-past +six the meditation was repeated with tremendous emphasis and fervent acts +of devotion; at half-past eight a slight collation was laid in his room; +and at half-past nine the meditation for the following day was given. +Father Robert in his previous talks with Anthony had given him +instructions as to how to occupy his own time, to keep his thoughts fixed +and so forth. He had thought it wise too not to extend the Retreat for +longer than a fortnight; so that it was proposed to end it on Palm +Sunday. Two or three times in the week Anthony rode out by himself; and +Father Robert was always at his service, besides himself coming sometimes +to talk to him when he thought the strain or the monotony was getting too +heavy. + +As for the Exercises themselves, the effect of them on Anthony was beyond +all description. First the circumstances under which they were given were +of the greatest assistance to their effectiveness. There was every aid +that romance and mystery could give. Then it was in a strange and +beautiful house where everything tended to caress the mind out of all +self-consciousness. The little panelled room in which the exercises were +given looked out over the quiet garden, and no sound penetrated there but +the far-off muffled noises of the peaceful village life, the rustle of +the wind in the evergreens, and the occasional coo or soft flapping +flight of a pigeon from the cote in the garden. The room itself was +furnished with two or three faldstools and upright wooden arm-chairs of +tolerable comfort; a table was placed at the further end, on which stood +a realistic Spanish crucifix with two tapers always burning before it; +and a little jar of fragrant herbs. Then there was the continual sense of +slight personal danger that is such a spur to refined natures; here was a +Catholic house, of which every member was strictly subject to penalties, +and above all one of that mysterious Society of Jesus, the very vanguard +of the Catholic army, and of which every member was a picked and trained +champion. Then there was the amazing enthusiasm, experience, and skill of +Father Robert, as he called himself; who knew human nature as an +anatomist knows the structure of the human body; to whom the bewildering +tangle of motives, good, bad and indifferent, in the soul, was as plain +as paths in a garden; who knew what human nature needed, what it could +dispense with, what was its power of resistance; and who had at his +disposal for the storming of the soul an armoury of weapons and engines, +every specimen of which he had tested and wielded over and over again. +Little as Anthony knew it, Father Robert, during the first two days after +his arrival, had occupied himself with sounding and probing the lad's +soul, trying his intellect by questions that scarcely seemed to be so, +taking the temperature of his emotional nature by tales and adroit +remarks, and watching the effect of them; in short, with studying the +soul who had come for his treatment as a careful doctor examines the +health of a new patient before he issues his prescription. And then, +lastly, there were the Exercises themselves, a mighty weapon in any +hands; and all but irresistible when directed by the skill, and inspired +by the enthusiasm and sincere piety of such a man as Father Robert. + +The Exercises fell into three parts, each averaging in Anthony's case +about five days. First came the Purgative Exercises: the object of these +was to cleanse and search out the very recesses of the soul; as fire +separates gold from alloy. + +As Anthony knelt in the little room before the Crucifix day by day, it +seemed to him as if the old conventional limitations and motives of +action and control were rolling back, revealing the realities of the +spiritual world. The Exercises began with an elaborate exposition of the +End of man--which may be roughly defined as the Glory of God attained +through the saving and sanctifying of the individual. Every creature of +God, then, that the soul encounters must be tested by this rule, How far +does the use of it serve for the final end? For it must be used so far, +and no farther. Here then was a diagram of the Exercises, given in +miniature at the beginning. + +Then the great facts that practically all men acknowledge, and upon which +so few act, were brought into play. Hell, Judgment and Death in turn +began to work upon the lad's soul--these monstrous elemental Truths that +underlie all things. As Father Robert's deep vibrating voice spoke, it +appeared to Anthony as if the room, the walls, the house, the world, all +shrank to filmy nothingness before the appalling realities of these +things. In that strange and profound "Exercise of the senses" he heard +the moaning and the blasphemies of the damned, of those rebellious free +wills that have enslaved themselves into eternal bondage by a deliberate +rejection of God--he put out his finger and tasted the bitterness of +their furious tears--the very reek of sin came to his nostrils, of that +corruption that is in existence through sin; nay, he saw the very flaming +hells red with man's wrath against his Maker. + +Then he traced back, under the priest's direction, the Judgment through +which every soul must pass; he saw the dead, great and small, stand +before God; the books, black with blotted shame, were borne forth by the +recording angels and spread before the tribunal. His ears tingled with +that condemning silence of the Judge beyond Whom there is no appeal, from +whose sentence there is no respite, and from whose prison there is no +discharge; and rang with that pealing death-sentence at which the angels +hide their faces, but to which the conscience of the criminal assents +that it is just. His soul looked out at those whirling hosts on either +side, that black cloud going down to despair, that radiant company +hastening to rise to the Uncreated Light in whom there is no darkness at +all--and cried in piteous suspense to know on which side she herself one +day would be. + +Then he came yet one step further back still, and told himself the story +of his death. He saw the little room where he would lie, his bed in one +corner; he saw Isabel beside the bed; he saw himself, white, gasping, +convulsed, upon it--the shadows of the doctor and the priest were upon +the wall--he heard his own quick sobbing breath, he put out his finger +and touched his own forehead wet with the death-dew--he tasted and smelt +the faint sickly atmosphere that hangs about a death chamber; and he +watched the grey shadow of Azrael's wing creep across his face. Then he +saw the sheet and the stiff form beneath it; and knew that they were his +features that were hidden; and that they were his feet that stood up +stark below the covering. Then he visited his own grave, and saw the +month-old grass blowing upon it, and the little cross at the head; then +he dug down through the soil, swept away the earth from his coffin-plate; +drew the screws and lifted the lid.... + +Then he placed sin beneath the white light; dissected it, analysed it, +weighed it and calculated its worth, watched its development in the +congenial surroundings of an innocent soul, that is rich in grace and +leisure and gifts, and saw the astonishing reversal of God's primal law +illustrated in the process of corruption--the fair, sweet, fragrant +creature passing into foulness. He looked carefully at the stages and +modes of sin--venial sins, those tiny ulcers that weaken, poison and +spoil the soul, even if they do not slay it--lukewarmness, that deathly +slumber that engulfs the living thing into gradual death--and, finally, +mortal sin, that one and only wholly hideous thing. He saw the +indescribable sight of a naked soul in mortal sin; he saw how the earth +shrank from it, how nature grew silent at it, how the sun darkened at it, +how hell yelled at it, and the Love of God sickened at it. + +And so, as the purgative days went by, these tempests poured over his +soul, sifted through it, as the sea through a hanging weed, till all that +was not organically part of his life was swept away, and he was left a +simple soul alone with God. Then the second process began. + +To change the metaphor, the canvas was now prepared, scoured, bleached +and stretched. What is the image to be painted upon it? It is the image +of Christ. + +Now Father Robert laid aside his knives and his hammer, and took up his +soft brushes, and began stroke by stroke, with colours beyond imagining, +to lay upon the eager canvas the likeness of an adorable Lover and King. +Anthony watched the portrait grow day by day with increasing wonder. Was +this indeed the Jesus of Nazareth of whom he had read in the Gospels? he +rubbed his eyes and looked; and yet there was no possibility of +mistake,--line for line it was the same. + +But this portrait grew and breathed and moved, and passed through all the +stages of man's life. First it was the Eternal Word in the bosom of the +Father, the Beloved Son who looked in compassion upon the warring world +beneath; and offered Himself to the Father who gave Him through the +Energy of the Blessed Spirit. + +Then it was a silent Maid that he saw waiting upon God, offering herself +with her lily beside her; and in answer on a sudden came the lightning of +Gabriel's appearing, and, lo! the Eternal Word stole upon her down a ray +of glory. And then at last he saw the dear Child born; and as he looked +he was invited to enter the stable; and again he put out his hand and +touched the coarse straw that lay in the manger, and fingered the rough +brown cord that hung from Mary's waist, and smelled the sweet breath of +the cattle, and the burning oil of Joseph's lantern hung against the +wall, and shivered as the night wind shrilled under the ill-fitting door +and awoke the tender Child. + +Then he watched Him grow to boyhood, increasing in wisdom and stature, +Him who was uncreated Wisdom, and in whose Hands are the worlds--followed +Him, loving Him more at every step, to and from the well at Nazareth with +the pitcher on His head: saw Him with blistered hands and aching back in +the carpenter's shop; then at last went south with Him to Jordan; +listened with Him, hungering, to the jackals in the wilderness; rocked +with Him on the high Temple spire; stared with Him at the Empires of all +time, and refused them as a gift. Then he went with Him from miracle to +miracle, laughed with joy at the leper's new skin; wept in sorrow and joy +with the mother at Nain, and the two sisters at Bethany; knelt with Mary +and kissed His feet; went home with Matthew and Zaccheus, and sat at meat +with the merry sinners; and at last began to follow silent and amazed +with face set towards Jerusalem, up the long lonely road from Jericho. + +Then, with love that almost burned his heart, he crouched at the moonlit +door outside and watched the Supper begin. Judas pushed by him, +muttering, and vanished in the shadows of the street. He heard the hush +fall as the Bread was broken and the Red Wine uplifted; and he hid his +face, for he dared not yet look with John upon a glory whose veils were +so thin. Then he followed the silent company through the overhung streets +to the Temple Courts, and down across the white bridge to the garden +door. Then, bolder, he drew near, left the eight and the three and knelt +close to the single Figure, who sobbed and trembled and sweated blood. +Then he heard the clash of weapons and saw the glare of the torches, and +longed to warn Him but could not; saw the bitter shame of the kiss and +the arrest and the flight; and followed to Caiaphas' house; heard the +stinging slap; ran to Pilate's house; saw that polished gentleman yawn +and sneer; saw the clinging thongs and the splashed floor when the +scourging was over; followed on to Calvary; saw the great Cross rise up +at last over the heads of the crowd, and heard the storm of hoots and +laughter and the dry sobs of the few women. Then over his head the sun +grew dull, and the earth rocked and split, as the crosses reeled with +their swinging burdens. Then, as the light came back, and the earth ended +her long shudder, he saw in the evening glow that his Lord was dead. Then +he followed to the tomb; saw the stone set and sealed and the watch +appointed; and went home with Mary and John, and waited. + +Then on Easter morning, wherever his Lord was, he was there too; with +Mary in that unrecorded visit; with the women, with the Apostles; on the +road to Emmaus; on the lake of Galilee; and his heart burned with Christ +at his side, on lake and road and mountain. + +Then at last he stood with the Twelve and saw that end that was so +glorious a beginning; saw that tender sky overhead generate its strange +cloud that was the door of heaven; heard far away the trumpets cry, and +the harps begin to ripple for the new song that the harpers had learned +at last; and then followed with his eyes the Lord whom he had now learned +to know and love as never before, as He passed smiling and blessing into +the heaven from which one day He will return.... + + * * * * + +There, then, as Anthony looked on the canvas, was that living, moving +face and figure. What more could He have done that He did not do? What +perfection could be dreamed of that was not already a thousand times His? + +And when the likeness was finished, and Father Robert stepped aside from +the portrait that he had painted with such tender skill and love, it is +little wonder that this lad threw himself down before that eloquent +vision and cried with Thomas, My Lord and my God! + + * * * * + +Then, very gently, Father Robert led him through those last steps; up +from the Illuminative to the Unitive; from the Incarnate Life with its +warm human interests to that Ineffable Light that seems so chill and +unreal to those who only see it through the clouds of earth, into that +keen icy stillness, where only favoured and long-trained souls can +breathe, up the piercing air of the slopes that lead to the Throne, and +there in the listening silence of heaven, where the voice of adoration +itself is silent through sheer intensity, where all colours return to +whiteness and all sounds to stillness, all forms to essence and all +creation to the Creator, there he let him fall in self-forgetting love +and wonder, breathe out his soul in one ardent all-containing act, and +make his choice. + + + + + CHAPTER XIV + + EASTER DAY + + +Holy Week passed for Anthony like one of those strange dreams in which +the sleeper awakes to find tears on his face, and does not know whether +they are for joy or sorrow. At the end of the Retreat that closed on Palm +Sunday evening, Anthony had made his choice, and told Father Robert. + +It was not the Exercises themselves that were the direct agent, any more +than were the books he had read: the books had cleared away intellectual +difficulties, and the Retreat moral obstacles, and left his soul desiring +the highest, keen to see it, and free to embrace it. The thought that he +would have to tell Isabel appeared to him of course painful and +difficult; but it was swallowed up in the joy of his conversion. He made +an arrangement with Father Robert to be received at Cuckfield on Easter +Eve; so that he might have an opportunity of telling Isabel before he +took the actual step. The priest told him he would give him a letter to +Mr. Barnes, so that he might be received immediately upon his arrival. + +Holy Week, then, was occupied for Anthony in receiving instruction each +morning in the little oak parlour from Father Robert; and in attending +the devotions in the evening with the rest of the household. He also +heard mass each day. + +It was impossible, of course, to carry out the special devotions of the +season with the splendour and elaboration that belonged to them; but +Anthony was greatly impressed by what he saw. The tender reverence with +which the Catholics loved to linger over the details of the Passion, and +to set them like precious jewels in magnificent liturgical settings, and +then to perform these stately heart-broken approaches to God with all the +dignity and solemnity possible, appealed to him in strong contrast to the +cold and loveless services, as he now thought them, of the Established +Church that he had left. + +On the Good Friday evening he was long in the parlour with Father Robert. + +"I am deeply thankful, my son," he said kindly, "that you have been able +to come to a decision. Of course I could have wished you to enter the +Society; but God has not given you a vocation to that apparently. +However, you can do great work for Him as a seminary priest; and I am +exceedingly glad that you will be going to Douai so soon." + +"I must just put my affairs in order at home," he said, "and see what +arrangements my sister will wish to make; and by Midsummer at the latest +I shall hope to be gone." + +"I must be off early to-morrow," said the priest. "I have to be far from +here by to-morrow night, in a house where I shall hope to stay until I, +too, go abroad again. Possibly we may meet at Douai in the autumn. Well, +my son, pray for me." + +Anthony knelt for his blessing, and the priest was gone. + +Presently Mr. Buxton came in and sat down. He was full of delight at the +result of his scheme; and said so again and again. + +"Who could have predicted it?" he cried. "To think that you were visiting +me in prison fifteen months ago; and now this has come about in my house! +Truly the Gospel blessing on your action has not been long on the way! +And that you will be a priest, too! You must come and be my chaplain some +day; if we are both alive and escape the gallows so long. Old Mr. Blake +is sore displeased with me. I am a trial to him, I know. He will hardly +speak to me in my own house; I declare I tremble when I meet him in the +gallery; for fear he will rate me before my servants. I forget what his +last grievance is; but I think it is something to do with a saint that he +wishes me to be devout to; and I do not like her. Of course I do not +doubt her sanctity; but Mr. Blake always confuses veneration and liking. +I yield to none in my veneration for Saint What's-her-name; but I do not +like her; and that is an end of the matter." + +After a little more talk, Mr. Buxton looked at Anthony curiously a moment +or two; and then said: + +"I wonder you have not guessed yet who Father Robert is; for I am sure +you know that that cannot be his real name." + +Anthony looked at him wonderingly. + +"Well, he is in bed now; and will be off early to-morrow; and I have his +leave to tell you. He is Father Persons, of whom you may have heard." + +Anthony stared. + +"Yes," said his host, "the companion of Campion. All the world supposes +him to be in Rome; and I think that not half-a-dozen persons besides +ourselves know where he is; but at this moment, I assure you, Father +Robert Persons, of the Society of Jesus, is asleep (or awake, as the case +may be) in the little tapestry chamber overhead." + +"Now," went on Mr. Buxton, "that you are one of us, I will tell you quite +plainly that Father Robert, as we will continue to call him, is in my +opinion one of the most devout priests that ever said mass; and also one +of the most shrewd men that ever drew breath; but I cannot follow him +everywhere. You will find, Mr. Anthony, that the Catholics in England are +of two kinds: those who seem to have as their motto the text I quoted to +you in Lambeth prison; and who count their duty to Cæsar as scarcely less +important than their direct duty to God. I am one of these: I sincerely +desire above all things to serve her Grace, and I would not, for all the +world, join in any confederacy to dethrone her, for I hold she is my +lawful and true Prince. Then there is another party who would not +hesitate for a moment to take part against their Prince, though I do not +say to the slaying of her, if thereby the Catholic Religion could be +established again in these realms. It is an exceedingly difficult point; +and I understand well how honest and good men can hold that view: for +they say, and rightly, that the Kingdom of God is the first thing in the +world, and while they may not commit sin of course to further it, yet in +things indifferent they must sacrifice all for it; and, they add, it is +indifferent as to who sits on the throne of England; therefore one Prince +may be pushed off it, so long as no crime is committed in the doing of +it, and another seated there; if thereby the Religion may be so +established again. You see the point, Mr. Anthony, no doubt; and how fine +and delicate it is. Well, Father Robert is, I think, of that party; and +so are many of the authorities abroad. Now I tell you all this, and on +this sacred day too, because I may have no other opportunity; and I do +not wish you to be startled or offended after you have become a Catholic. +And I entreat you to be warm and kindly to those who take other views +than your own; for I fear that many troubles lie in front of us of our +own causing: for there are divisions amongst us already: although not at +all of course (for which I thank God) on any of the saving truths of the +Faith." + +Anthony's excitement on hearing Father Robert's real name was very great. +As he lay in bed that night the thought of it all would hardly let him +sleep. He turned to and fro, trying to realise that there, within a dozen +yards of him, lay the famous Jesuit for whose blood all Protestant +England was clamouring. The name of Persons was still sinister and +terrible even to this convert; and he could scarcely associate in his +thoughts all its suggestiveness with that kindly fervent lover of Jesus +Christ who had led him with such skill and tenderness along the way of +the Gospel. Others in England were similarly astonished in later years to +learn that a famous Puritan book of devotions was scarcely other than a +reprint of Father Persons' "Christian Directory." + +The following day about noon, after an affectionate good-bye to his host +and Mr. Blake, Anthony rode out of the iron-wrought gates and down the +village street in the direction of Great Keynes. + +It was a perfect spring-day. Overhead there was a soft blue sky with +translucent clouds floating in it; underfoot and on all sides the mystery +of life was beginning to stir and manifest itself. The last touch of +bitterness had passed from the breeze, and all living growth was making +haste out into the air. The hedges were green with open buds, and +bubbling with the laughter and ecstasy of the birds; the high sloping +overhung Sussex lanes were sweet with violets and primroses; and here and +there under the boughs Anthony saw the blue carpet of bell-flowers +spread. Rabbits whisked in and out of the roots, superintending and +provisioning the crowded nurseries underground; and as Anthony came out, +now and again on the higher and open spaces larks vanished up their airy +spirals of song into the illimitable blue; or hung, visible musical +specks against a fleecy cloud, pouring down their thin cataract of +melody. And as he rode, for every note of music and every glimpse of +colour round him, his own heart poured out pulse after pulse of that +spiritual essence that lies beneath all beauty, and from which all beauty +is formed, to the Maker of all this and the Saviour of himself. There +were set wide before him now the gates of a kingdom, compared to which +this realm of material life round about was but a cramped and wintry +prison after all. + +How long he had lived in the cold and the dark! he thought; kept alive by +the refracted light that stole down the steps to where he sat in the +shadow of death; saved from freezing by the warmth of grace that managed +to survive the chill about him; and all the while the Catholic Church was +glowing and pulsating with grace, close to him and yet unseen; that great +realm full of heavenly sunlight, that was the life of all its +members--that sunlight that had poured down so steadily ever since the +winter had rolled away on Calvary; and that ever since then had been +elaborating and developing into a thousand intricate forms all that was +capable of absorbing it. One by one the great arts had been drawn into +that Kingdom, transformed and immortalised by the vital and miraculous +sap of grace; philosophies, languages, sciences, all in turn were taken +up and sanctified; and now this Puritan soul, thirsty for knowledge and +grace, and so long starved and imprisoned, was entering at last into her +heritage. + +All this was of course but dimly felt in the direct perceptions of +Anthony; but Father Robert had said enough to open something of the +vision, and he himself had sufficient apprehension to make him feel that +the old meagre life was passing away, and a new life of unfathomed +possibilities beginning. As he rode the wilderness appeared to rejoice +and blossom like the rose, as the spring of nature and grace stirred +about and within him; and only an hour or two's ride away lay the very +hills and streams of the Promised Land. + + * * * * + +About half-past three he crossed the London road, and before four o'clock +he rode round to the door of the Dower House, dismounted, telling the +groom to keep his horse saddled. + +He went straight through the hall, calling Isabel as he went, and into +the garden, carrying his flat cap and whip and gloves: and as he came out +beneath the holly tree, there she stood before him on the top of the old +stone garden steps, that rose up between earthen flower-jars to the +yew-walk on the north of the house. He went across the grass smiling, and +as he came saw her face grow whiter and whiter. She was in a dark serge +dress with a plain ruff, and a hood behind it, and her hair was coiled in +great masses on her head. She stood trembling, and he came up and took +her in his arms tenderly and kissed her, for his news would be heavy +presently. + +"Why, Isabel," he said, "you look astonished to see me. But I could not +well send a man, as I had only Geoffrey with me." + +She tried to speak, but could not; and looked so overwhelmed and +terrified that Anthony grew frightened; he saw he must be very gentle. + +"Sit down," he said, drawing her to a seat beside the path at the head of +the steps: "and tell me the news." + +By a great effort she regained her self-control. + +"I did not know when you were coming," she said tremulously. "I was +startled." + +He talked of his journey for a few minutes; and of the kindness of the +friend with whom he had been staying, and the beauty of the house and +grounds, and so on; until she seemed herself again; and the piteous +startled look had died out of her eyes: and then he forced himself to +approach his point; for the horse was waiting saddled; and he must get to +Cuckfield and back by supper if possible. + +He took her hand and played with it gently as he spoke, turning over her +rings. + +"Isabel," he said, "I have news to tell you. It is not bad news--at least +I think not--it is the best thing that has ever come to me yet, by the +grace of God, and so you need not be anxious or frightened. But I am +afraid you may think it bad news. It--it is about religion, Isabel." + +He glanced at her, and saw that terrified look again in her face: she was +staring at him, and her hand in his began to twitch and tremble. + +"Nay, nay," he said, "there is no need to look like that. I have not lost +my faith in God. Rather, I have gained it. Isabel, I am going to be a +Catholic." + +A curious sound broke from her lips; and a look so strange came into her +face that he threw his arm round her, thinking she was going to faint: +and he spoke sharply. + +"Isabel, Isabel, what is there to fear? Look at me!" + +Then a cry broke from her white lips, and she struggled to stand up. + +"No, no, no! you are mocking me. Oh! Anthony, what have I done, that you +should treat me like this?" + +"Mocking!" he said, "before God I am not. My horse is waiting to take me +to the priest." + +"But--but--" she began again. "Oh! then what have you done to James +Maxwell?" + +"James Maxwell! Why? What do you mean? You got my note!" + +"No--no. There was no answer, he said." + +Anthony stared. + +"Why, I wrote--and then Lady Maxwell! Does she not know, and James +himself?" + +Isabel shook her head and looked at him wildly. + +"Well, well, that must wait; one thing at a time," he said. "I _cannot_ +wait now. I must go to Cuckfield. Ah! Isabel, say you understand." + +Once or twice she began to speak, but failed; and sat panting and staring +at him. + +"My darling," he said, "do not look like that: we are both Christians +still: we at least serve the same God. Surely you will not cast me off +for this?" + +"Cast you off?" she said; and she laughed piteously and sharply; and then +was grave again. Then she suddenly cried, + +"Oh, Anthony, swear to me you are not mocking me." + +"My darling," he said, "why should I mock you? I have made the Exercises, +and have been instructed; and I have here a letter to Mr. Barnes from the +priest who has taught me; so that I may be received to-night, and make my +Easter duties: and Geoffrey is still at the door holding Roland to take +me to Cuckfield to-night." + +"To Cuckfield!" she said. "You will not find Mr. Barnes there." + +"Not there! why not? Where shall I find him? How do you know?" + +"Because he is here," she went on in the same strange voice, "at the +Hall." + +"Well," said Anthony, "that saves me a journey. Why is he here?" + +"He is here to say mass to-morrow." + +"Ah!" + +"And--and----" + +"What is it, Isabel?" + +"And--to receive me into the Church to-night." + + * * * * + +The brother and sister walked up and down that soft spring evening after +supper, on the yew-walk; with the whispers and caresses of the scented +breeze about them, the shy dewy eyes of the stars looking down at them +between the tall spires of the evergreens overhead; and in their hearts +the joy of lovers on a wedding-night. + +Anthony had soon told the tale of James Maxwell and Isabel had nearly +knelt to ask her brother's pardon for having ever allowed even the shadow +of a suspicion to darken her heart. Lady Maxwell, too, who had come down +with her sister to see Isabel about some small arrangement, was told; and +she too had been nearly overwhelmed with the joy of knowing that the lad +was innocent, and the grief of having dreamed he could be otherwise, and +at the wholly unexpected news of his conversion; but she had gone at last +back to the Hall to make all ready for the double ceremony of that night, +and the Paschal Feast on the next day. Mistress Margaret was in Isabel's +room, moving about with a candle, and every time that the two reached the +turn at the top of the steps they saw her light glimmering. + +Then Anthony, as they walked under the stars, told Isabel of his great +hope that he, too, one day would be a priest, and serve God and his +countrymen that way. + +"Oh, Anthony," she whispered, and clung to that dear arm that held her +own; terrified for the moment at the memory of what had been the price of +priesthood to James Maxwell. + +"And where shall you be trained for it?" she asked. + +"At Douai: and--Isabel--I think I must go this summer." + +"This summer!" she said. "Why----" and she was silent. + +"Anthony," she went on, "I would like to tell you about Hubert." + +And then the story of the past months came out; she turned away her face +as she talked; and at last she told him how Hubert had come for his +answer, a week before his time. + +"It was on Monday," she said. "I heard him on the stairs, and stood up as +he came in; and he stopped at the door in silence, and I could not bear +to look at him. I could hear him breathing quickly; and then I could not +bear to--think of it all; and I dropped down into my chair again, and hid +my face in my arm and burst into crying. And still he said nothing, but I +felt him come close up to me and kneel down by me; and he put his hand +over mine, and held them tight; and then he whispered in a kind of quick +way: + +"'I will be what you please; Catholic or Protestant, or what you will'; +and I lifted my head and looked at him, because it was dreadful to hear +him--Hubert--say that: and he was whiter than I had ever seen him; and +then--then he began to wrinkle his mouth--you know the way he does when +his horse is pulling or kicking: and then he began to say all kinds of +things: and oh! I was so sorry; because he had behaved so well till +then." + +"What did he say?" asked Anthony quickly. + +"Ah! I have tried to forget," said Isabel. "I do not want to think of him +as he was when he was angry and disappointed. At last he flung out of the +room and down the stairs, and I have not seen him since. But Lady Maxwell +sent for me the same evening an hour later; and told me that she could +not live there any longer. She said that Hubert had ridden off to London; +and would not be down again till Whitsuntide; but that she must be gone +before then. So I am afraid that he said things he ought not; but of +course she did not tell me one word. And she asked me to go with her. +And, and--Anthony, I did not know what to say; because I did not know +what you would do when you heard that I was a Catholic; I was waiting to +tell you when you came home--but now--but now----Oh, Anthony, my +darling!" + +At last the two came indoors. Mistress Margaret met them in the hall. She +looked for a moment at the two; at Anthony in his satin and lace and his +smiling face over his ruff and his steady brown eyes; and Isabel on his +arm, with her clear pale face and bosom and black high-piled hair, and +her velvet and lace, and a rope of pearls. + +"Why," said the old nun, smiling, "you look a pair of lovers." + +Then presently the three went together up to the Hall. + + * * * * + +An hour or two passed away; the Paschal moon was rising high over the +tall yew hedge behind the Italian garden; and the Hall lay beneath it +with silver roofs and vane; and black shadows under the eaves and in the +angles. The tall oriel window of the Hall looking on to the terrace shone +out with candlelight; and the armorial coats of the Maxwells and the +families they had married with glimmered in the upper panes. From the +cloister wing there shone out above the curtains lines of light in Lady +Maxwell's suite of rooms, and the little oak parlour beneath, as well as +from one or two other rooms; but the rest of the house, with the +exception of the great hall and the servants' quarters, was all dark. It +was as if the interior life had shifted westwards, leaving the remainder +desolate. The gardens to the south were silent, for the night breeze had +dropped; and the faint ripple of the fountain within the cloister-court +was the only sound that broke the stillness. And once or twice the sleepy +chirp of a bird nestling by his mate in the deep shrubberies showed that +the life of the spring was beating out of sight. + +And then at last the door in the west angle of the terrace, between the +cloister wing and the front of the house, opened, and a flood of mellow +light poured out on to the flat pavement. A group stood within the little +oaken red-tiled lobby; Lady Maxwell and her sister, slender and dignified +in their dark evening dresses and ruffs; Anthony holding his cap, and +Isabel with a lace shawl over her head, and at the back the white hair +and ruddy face of old Mr. Barnes in his cassock at the bottom of the +stairs. + +As Mistress Margaret opened the door and looked out, Lady Maxwell took +Isabel in her arms and kissed her again and again. Then Anthony took the +old lady's hand and kissed it, but she threw her other hand round him and +kissed him too on the forehead. Then without another word the brother and +sister came out into the moonlight, passed down the side of the cloister +wing, and turning once to salute the group who waited, framed and bathed +in golden light, they turned the corner to the Dower House. Then the door +closed; the oriel window suddenly darkened, and an hour after the lights +in the wing went out, and Maxwell Hall lay silver and grey again in the +moonlight. + +The night passed on. Once Isabel awoke, and saw her windows blue and +mystical and her room full of a dim radiance from the bright night +outside. It was irresistible, and she sprang out of bed and went to the +window across the cool polished oak floor, and leaned with her elbows on +the sill, looking out at the square of lawn and the low ivied wall +beneath, and the tall trees rising beyond ashen-grey and olive-black in +the brilliant glory that poured down from almost directly overhead, for +the Paschal moon was at its height above the house. + +And then suddenly the breathing silence was broken by a ripple of melody, +and another joined and another; and Isabel looked and wondered and +listened, for she had never heard before the music of the mysterious +night-flight of the larks all soaring and singing together when the rest +of the world is asleep. And she listened and wondered as the stream of +song poured down from the wonderful spaces of the sky, rising to far-off +ecstasies as the wheeling world sank yet further with its sleeping +meadows and woods beneath the whirling singers; and then the earth for a +moment turned in its sleep as Isabel listened, and the trees stirred as +one deep breath came across the woods, and a thrush murmured a note or +two beside the drive, and a rabbit suddenly awoke in the field and ran on +to the lawn and sat up and looked at the white figure at the window; and +far away from the direction of Lindfield a stag brayed. + +"So longeth my soul," whispered Isabel to herself. + +Then all grew still again; the trees hushed; the torrent of music, more +tumultuous as it neared the earth, suddenly ceased; and Isabel at the +window leaned further out and held her hands in the bath of light; and +spoke softly into the night: + +"Oh, Lord Jesus, how kind Thou art to me!" + + * * * * + +Then at last the morning came, and Christ was risen beyond a doubt. + +Just before the sun came up, when all the sky was luminous to meet him, +the two again passed up and round the corner, and into the little door in +the angle. There was the same shaded candle or two, for the house was yet +dark within; and they passed up and on together through the sitting-room +into the chapel where each had made a First Confession the night before, +and had together been received into the Catholic Church. Now it was all +fragrant with flowers and herbs; a pair of tall lilies leaned their +delicate heads towards the altar, as if to listen for the soundless +Coming in the Name of the Lord; underfoot all about the altar lay sprigs +of sweet herbs, rosemary, thyme, lavender, bay-leaves; with white +blossoms scattered over them--a soft carpet for the Pierced Feet; not +like those rustling palm-swords over which He rode to death last week. +The black oak chest that supported the altar-stone was glorious in its +vesture of cloth-of-gold; and against the white-hung wall at the back, +behind the silver candlesticks, leaned the gold plate of the house, to do +honour to the King. And presently there stood there the radiant rustling +figure of the Priest, his personality sheathed and obliterated beneath +the splendid symbolism of his vestments, stiff and chinking with jewels +as he moved. + +The glorious Mass of Easter Day began. + +"_Immolatus est Christus. Itaque epulemur_," Saint Paul cried from the +south corner of the altar to the two converts. "Christ our Passover is +sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the feast, but not with the old +leaven." + +"_Quis revolvet nobis lapidem?_" wailed the women. "Who shall roll us +away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?" + +"And when they looked," cried the triumphant Evangelist, "they saw that +the stone was rolled away; for it was very great"--"_erat quippe magnus +valde_." + +Here then they knelt at last, these two come home together, these who had +followed their several paths so resolutely in the dark, not knowing that +the other was near, yet each seeking a hidden Lord, and finding both Him +and one another now in the full and visible glory of His Face--_orto jam +sole_--for the Sun of Righteousness had dawned, and there was healing for +all sorrows in His Wings. + +"_Et credo in unam sanctam Catholicam et Apostolicam Ecclesiam_"--their +hearts cried all together. "I believe at last in a Catholic Church; one, +for it is built on one and its faith is one; holy, for it is the Daughter +of God and the Mother of Saints; Apostolic, for it is guided by the +Prince of Apostles and very Vicar of Christ." + +"_Et exspecto vitam venturi saeculi._" "I look for the life of the world +to come; and I count all things but loss, houses and brethren and sisters +and father and mother and wife and children and lands, when I look to +that everlasting life, and Him Who is the Way to it. _Amen._" + +So from step to step the liturgy moved on with its sonorous and exultant +tramp, and the crowding thoughts forgot themselves, and watched as the +splendid heralds went by; the triumphant trumpets of _Gloria in excelsis_ +had long died away; the proclamation of the names and titles of the Prince +had been made. _Unum Dominum Jesum Christum_; _Filium Dei Unigenitum_; +_Ex Patre natum ante omnia saecula_; _Deum de Deo_; _Lumen de Lumine_; +_Deum Verum de Deo Vero_; _Genitum non factum_; _Consubstantialem Patri._ + +Then His first achievement had been declared; "_Per quem omnia facta +sunt._" + +Then his great and later triumphs; how He had ridden out alone from the +Palace and come down the steep of heaven in quest of His Love; how He had +disguised Himself for her sake; and by the crowning miracle of love, the +mightiest work that Almighty God has ever wrought, He was made man; and +the herald hushed his voice in awe as he declared it, and the people +threw themselves prostrate in honour of this high and lowly Prince; then +was recounted the tale of those victories that looked so bitterly like +failures, and the people held their breath and whispered it too; then in +rising step after step His last conquests were told; how the Black Knight +was overthrown, his castle stormed and his prison burst; and the story of +the triumph of the return and of the Coronation and the Enthronement at +the Father's Right Hand on high. + +The heralds passed on; and mysterious figures came next, bearing +Melchisedech's gifts; shadowing the tremendous event that follows on +behind. + +After a space or two came the first lines of the bodyguard, the heavenly +creatures dimly seen moving through clouds of glory, Angels, Dominations, +Powers, Heavens, Virtues, and blessed Seraphim, all crying out together +to heaven and earth to welcome Him Who comes after in the bright shadow +of the Name of the Lord; and the trumpets peal out for the last time, +"Hosanna in the highest." + +Then a hush fell, and presently in the stillness came riding the great +Personages who stand in heaven about the Throne; first, the Queen Mother +herself, glorious within and without, moving in clothing of wrought gold, +high above all others; then, the great Princes of the Blood Royal, who +are admitted to drink of the King's own Cup, and sit beside Him on their +thrones, Peter and Paul and the rest, with rugged faces and scarred +hands; and with them great mitred figures, Linus, Cletus and Clement, +with their companions. + +And then another space and a tingling silence; the crowds bow down like +corn before the wind, the far-off trumpets are silent; and He comes--He +comes! + +On He moves, treading under foot the laws He has made, yet borne up by +them as on the Sea of Galilee; He Who inhabits eternity at an instant is +made present; He Who transcends space is immanent in material kind; He +Who never leaves the Father's side rests on His white linen carpet, held +yet unconfined; in the midst of the little gold things and embroidery and +candle-flames and lilies, while the fragrance of the herbs rises about +Him. There rests the gracious King, before this bending group; the rest +of the pageant dies into silence and nothingness outside the radiant +circle of His Presence. There is His immediate priest-herald, who has +marked out this halting-place for the Prince, bowing before Him, striving +by gestures to interpret and fulfil the silence that words must always +leave empty; here behind are the adoring human hearts, each looking with +closed eyes into the Face of the Fairest of the children of men, each +crying silently words of adoration, welcome and utter love. + +The moments pass; the court ceremonies are performed. The Virgins that +follow the Lamb, Felicitas, Perpetua, Agatha and the rest step forward +smiling, and take their part; the Eternal Father is invoked again in the +Son's own words; and at length the King, descending yet one further step +of infinite humility, flings back the last vesture of His outward Royalty +and casts Himself in a passion of haste and desire into the still and +invisible depths of these two quivering hearts, made in His own Image, +that lift themselves in an agony of love to meet Him.... + + * * * * + +Meanwhile the Easter morning is deepening outside; the sun is rising +above the yew hedge, and the dew flashes drop by drop into a diamond and +vanishes; the thrush that stirred and murmured last night is pouring out +his song; and the larks that rose into the moonlight are running to and +fro in the long meadow grass. The tall slender lilies that have not been +chosen to grace the sacramental Presence-Chamber, are at least in the +King's own garden, where He walks morning and evening in the cool of the +day; and waiting for those who will have seen Him face to face.... + +And presently they come, the tall lad and his sister, silent and +together, out into the radiant sunlight; and the joy of the morning and +the singing thrush and the jewels of dew and the sweet swaying lilies are +shamed and put to silence by the joy upon their faces and in their +hearts. + + + + + PART III + + + + + CHAPTER I + + THE COMING OF SPAIN + + +The conflict between the Old Faith and the lusty young Nation went +steadily forward after the Jesuit invasion; more and more priests poured +into England; more and more were banished, imprisoned and put to death. +The advent of Father Holt, the Jesuit, to Scotland in 1583 was a signal +for a new outburst of Catholic feeling, which manifested itself not only +in greater devotion to Religion, but, among the ill-instructed and +impatient, in very questionable proceedings. In fact, from this time +onward the Catholic cause suffered greatly from the division of its +supporters into two groups; the religious and the political, as they may +be named. The former entirely repudiated any desire or willingness to +meddle with civil matters; its members desired to be both Catholics and +Englishmen; serving the Pope in matters of Faith and Elizabeth in matters +of civil life; but they suffered greatly from the indiscretions and +fanaticism of the political group. The members of that party frankly +regarded themselves as at war with an usurper and an heretic; and used +warlike methods to gain their ends; plots against the Queen's life were +set on foot; and their promoters were willing enough to die in defence of +the cause. But the civil Government made the fatal mistake of not +distinguishing between the two groups; again and again loyal Englishmen +were tortured and hanged as traitors, because they shared their faith +with conspirators. + +There was one question, however, that was indeed on the borderline, +exceedingly difficult to answer in words, especially for scrupulous +consciences; and that was whether they believed in the Pope's deposing +power; and this question was adroitly and deliberately used by the +Government in doubtful cases to ensure a conviction. But whether or not +it was possible to frame a satisfactory answer in words, yet the accused +were plain enough in their deeds; and when the Armada at length was +launched in '88, there were no more loyal defenders of England than the +persecuted Catholics. Even before this, however, there had appeared signs +of reaction among the Protestants, especially against the torture and +death of Campion and his fellows; and Lord Burghley in '83 attempted to +quiet the people's resentment by his anonymous pamphlet, "Execution of +Justice in England," to which Cardinal Allen presently replied. + +Ireland, which had been profoundly stirred by the military expedition +from the continent in '80, at length was beaten and slashed into +submission again; and the torture and execution of Hurley by martial law, +which Elizabeth directed on account of his appointment to the See of +Cashel, when the judges had pronounced there to be no case against him; +and a massacre on the banks of the Moy in '86 of Scots who had come +across as reinforcements to the Irish;--these were incidents in the black +list of barbarities by which at last a sort of temporary quiet was +brought to Ireland. + +In Scottish affairs, the tangle, unravelled even still, of which Mary +Stuart was the centre, led at last to her death. Walsingham, with +extraordinary skill, managed to tempt her into a dangerous +correspondence, all of which he tapped on the way: he supplied to her in +fact the very instrument--an ingeniously made beer-barrel--through which +the correspondence was made possible, and, after reading all the letters, +forwarded them to their several destinations. When all was ripe he +brought his hand down on a group of zealots, to whose designs Mary was +supposed to be privy; and after their execution, finally succeeded, in +'87, in obtaining Elizabeth's signature to her cousin's death-warrant. +The storm already raging against Elizabeth on the Continent, but fanned +to fury by this execution, ultimately broke in the Spanish Armada in the +following year. + +Meanwhile, at home, the affairs of the Church of England were far from +prosperous. Puritanism was rampant; and a wail of dismay was evoked by +the new demands of a Commission under Whitgift's guidance, in '82, +whereby the Puritan divines were now called upon to assent to the Queen's +Supremacy, the Thirty-nine Articles and the Prayer Book. In spite of the +opposition, however, of Burghley and the Commons, Whitgift, who had by +this time succeeded to Canterbury upon Grindal's death, remained firm; +and a long and dreary dispute began, embittered further by the execution +of Mr. Copping and Mr. Thacker in '83 for issuing seditious books in the +Puritan cause. A characteristic action in this campaign was the issuing +of a Puritan manifesto in '84, consisting of a brief, well-written +pamphlet of a hundred and fifty pages under the title "A Learned +Discourse of Ecclesiastical Government," making the inconsistent claim of +desiring a return to the Primitive and Scriptural model, and at the same +time of advocating an original scheme, "one not yet handled." It was +practically a demand for the Presbyterian system of pastorate and +government. To this Dr. Bridges replies with a tremendous tome of over +fourteen hundred pages, discharged after three years of laborious toil; +and dealing, as the custom then was, line by line, with the Puritan +attack. To this in the following year an anonymous Puritan, under the +name of Martin Marprelate, retorts with a brilliant and sparkling riposte +addressed to "The right puissant and terrible priests, my clergy-masters +of the Convocation-house," in which he mocks bitterly at the prelates, +accusing them of Sabbath-breaking, time-serving, and popery,--calling one +"dumb and duncetical," another "the veriest coxcomb that ever wore velvet +cap," and summing them up generally as "wainscot-faced bishops," "proud, +popish, presumptuous, profane paltry, pestilent, and pernicious +prelates." + +The Archbishop had indeed a difficult team to drive; especially as his +coadjutors were not wholly proof against Martin's jibes. In '84 his +brother of York had been mixed up in a shocking scandal; in '85 the +Bishop of Lichfield was accused of simony; Bishop Aylmer was continually +under suspicion of avarice, dishonesty, vanity and swearing; and the +Bench as a whole was universally reprobated as covetous, stingy and weak. + + * * * * + +In civil matters, England's relation with Spain was her most important +concern. Bitter feeling had been growing steadily between the two +countries ever since Drake's piracies in the Spanish dominions in +America; and a gradually increasing fleet at Cadiz was the outward sign +of it. Now the bitterness was deepened by the arrest of English ships in +the Spanish ports in the early summer of '85, and the swift reprisals of +Drake in the autumn; who intimidated and robbed important towns on the +coast, such as Vigo, where his men behaved with revolting irreverence in +the churches, and Santiago; and then proceeded to visit and spoil S. +Domingo and Carthagena in the Indies. + +Again in '87 Drake obtained the leave of the Queen to harass Spain once +more, and after robbing and burning all the vessels in Cadiz harbour, he +stormed the forts at Faro, destroyed Armada stores at Corunna, and +captured the great treasure-ship _San Felipe_. + +Elizabeth was no doubt encouraged in her apparent recklessness by the +belief that with the Netherlands, which she had been compelled at last to +assist, in a state of revolt, Spain would have little energy for +reprisals upon England; but she grew more and more uneasy when news +continued to arrive in England of the growing preparations for the +Armada; France, too, was now so much involved with internal struggles, as +the Protestant Henry of Navarre was now the heir to her Catholic throne, +that efficacious intervention could no longer be looked for from that +quarter, and it seemed at last as if the gigantic Southern power was +about to inflict punishment upon the little northern kingdom which had +insulted her with impunity so long. + +In the October of '87 certain news arrived in England of the gigantic +preparations being made in Spain and elsewhere: and hearts began to beat, +and tongues to clack, and couriers to gallop. Then as the months went by, +and tidings sifted in, there was something very like consternation in the +country. Men told one another of the huge armament that was on its way, +the vast ships and guns--all bearing down on tiny England, like a bull on +a terrier. They spoke of the religious fervour, like that of a crusade, +that inspired the invasion, and was bringing the flower of the Spanish +nobility against them: the superstitious contrasted their own _Lion_, +_Revenge_, and _Elizabeth Jonas_ with the Spanish _San Felipe_, _San +Matteo_, and _Our Lady of the Rosary_: the more practical thought with +even deeper gloom of the dismal parsimony of the Queen, who dribbled out +stores and powder so reluctantly, and dismissed her seamen at the least +hint of delay. + +Yet, little by little, as midsummer came and went, beacons were gathering +on every hill, ships were approaching efficiency, and troops assembling +at Tilbury under the supremely incompetent command of Lord Leicester. + +Among the smaller seaports on the south coast, Rye was one of the most +active and enthusiastic; the broad shallow bay was alive with +fishing-boats, and the steep cobbled streets of the town were filled all +day with a chattering exultant crowd, cheering every group of seamen that +passed, and that spent long hours at the quay watching the busy life of +the ships, and predicting the great things that should fall when the +Spaniards encountered the townsfolk, should the Armada survive Drake's +onslaught further west. + +About July the twentieth more definite news began to arrive. At least +once a day a courier dashed in through the south-west gate, with news +that all must hold themselves ready to meet the enemy by the end of the +month; labour grew more incessant and excitement more feverish. + +About six o'clock on the evening of the twenty-ninth, as a long row of +powder barrels was in process of shipping down on the quay, the men who +were rolling them suddenly stopped and listened; the line of onlookers +paused in their comments, and turned round. From the town above came an +outburst of cries, followed by the crash of the alarm from the +church-tower. In two minutes the quay was empty. Out of every passage +that gave on to the main street poured excited men and women, some +hysterically laughing, some swearing, some silent and white as they ran. +For across the bay westwards, on a point beyond Winchelsea, in the still +evening air rose up a stream of smoke shaped like a pine-tree, with a red +smouldering root; and immediately afterwards in answer the Ypres tower +behind the town was pouring out a thick drifting cloud that told to the +watchers on Folkestone cliffs that the dreaded and longed-for foe was in +sight of England. + +Then the solemn hours of waiting began to pass. Every day and night there +were watchers, straining their eyes westwards in case the Armada should +attempt to coast along England to force a landing anywhere, and +southwards in case they should pass nearer the French coast on their way +to join the Prince of Parma; but there was little to be seen over that +wide ring of blue sea except single vessels, or now and again +half-a-dozen in company, appearing and fading again on some unknown +quest. The couriers that came in daily could not tell them much; only +that there had been indecisive engagements; that the Spaniards had not +yet attempted a landing anywhere; and that it was supposed that they +would not do so until a union with the force in Flanders had been +effected. + +And so four days of the following week passed; then on Thursday, August +the fourth, within an hour or two after sunrise, the solemn booming of +guns began far away to the south-west; but the hours passed; and before +nightfall all was silent again. + +The suspense was terrible; all night long there were groups parading the +streets, anxiously conjecturing, now despondently, now cheerfully. + +Then once again on the Friday morning a sudden clamour broke out in the +town, and almost simultaneously a pinnace slipped out, spreading her +wings and making for the open sea. A squadron of English ships had been +sighted flying eastwards; and the pinnace was gone to get news. The ships +were watched anxiously by thousands of eyes, and boats put out all along +the coast to inquire; and within two or three hours the pinnace was back +again in Rye harbour, with news that set bells ringing and men shouting. +On Wednesday, the skipper reported, there had been an indecisive +engagement during the dead calm that had prevailed in the Channel; a +couple of Spanish store-vessels had been taken on the following morning, +and a general action had followed, which again had been indecisive; but +in which the English had hardly suffered at all, while it was supposed +that great havoc had been wrought upon the enemy. + +But the best of the news was that the Rye contingent was to set sail at +once, and unite with the English fleet westward of Calais by mid-day on +Saturday. The squadron that had passed was under the command of the +Admiral himself, who was going to Dover for provisions and ammunition, +and would return to his fleet before evening. + +Before many hours were passed, Rye harbour was almost empty, and hundreds +of eyes were watching the ships that carried their husbands and sons and +lovers out into the pale summer haze that hung over the coast of France; +while a few sharp-eyed old mariners on points of vantage muttered to one +another that in the haze there was a patch of white specks to be seen +which betokened the presence of some vast fleet. + +That night the sun set yellow and stormy, and by morning the +cobble-stones of Rye were wet and dripping with storm-showers, and a +swell was beginning to lap and sob against the harbour walls. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + MEN OF WAR AND PEACE + + +The following days passed in terrible suspense for all left behind at +Rye. Every morning all the points of vantage were crowded; the Ypres +tower itself was never deserted day or night; and all the sharpest eyes +in the town were bent continually out over that leaden rolling sea that +faded into haze and storm-cloud in the direction of the French coast. But +there was nothing to be seen on that waste of waters but the single boats +that flew up channel or laboured down it against the squally west wind, +far out at sea. Once or twice fishing-boats put in at Rye; but their +reports were so contradictory and uncertain that they increased rather +than allayed the suspense and misery. Now it was a French boat that +reported the destruction of the _Triumph_; now an Englishman that swore +to having seen Drake kill Medina-Sidonia with his own hand on his poop; +but whatever the news might be, the unrest and excitement ran higher and +higher. St. Clare's chapel in the old parish church of St. Nicholas was +crowded every morning at five o'clock by an excited congregation of +women, who came to beg God's protection on their dear ones struggling out +there somewhere towards the dawn with those cruel Southern monsters. +Especially great was the crowd on the Tuesday morning following the +departure of the ships; for all day on Monday from time to time came a +far-off rolling noise from the direction of Calais; which many declared +to be thunder, with an angry emphasis that betrayed their real opinion. + +When they came out of church that morning, and were streaming down to the +quay as usual to see if any news had come in during the night, a seaman +called to them from a window that a French vessel was just entering the +harbour. + +When the women arrived at the water's edge they found a good crowd +already assembled on the quay, watching the ship beat in against the +north-west wind, which had now set in; but she aroused no particular +comment as she was a well-known boat plying between Boulogne and Rye; and +by seven o'clock she was made fast to the quay. + +There were the usual formalities, stricter than usual during war, to be +gone through before the few passengers were allowed to land: but all was +in order; the officers left the boat, and the passengers came up the +plank, the crowd pressing forward as they came, and questioning them +eagerly. No, there was no certain news, said an Englishman at last, who +looked like a lawyer; it was said at Boulogne the night before that there +had been an engagement further up beyond the Straits; they had all heard +guns; and it was reported by the last cruiser who came in before the boat +left that a Spanish galleasse had run aground and had been claimed by M. +Gourdain, the governor of Calais; but probably, added the shrewd-eyed +man, that was just a piece of their dirty French pride. The crowd smiled +ruefully; and a French officer of the boat who was standing by the +gangway scowled savagely, as the lawyer passed on with a demure face. + +Then there was a pause in the little stream of passengers; and then, out +of the tiny door that led below decks, walking swiftly, and carrying a +long cloak over her arm, came Isabel Norris, in a grey travelling dress, +followed by Anthony and a couple of servants. The crowd fell back for the +lady, who passed straight up through them; but one or two of the men +called out for news to Anthony. He shook his head cheerfully at them. + +"I know no more than that gentleman," he said, nodding towards the +lawyer; and then followed Isabel; and together they made their way up to +the inn. + + * * * * + +Anthony was a good deal changed in the last six years; his beard and +moustache were well grown; and he had a new look of gravity in his brown +eyes; when he had smiled and shaken his head at the eager crowd just now, +showing his white regular teeth, he looked as young as ever; but the +serious look fell on his face again, as he followed Isabel up the steep +little cobbled slope in his buff dress and plumed hat. + +There was not so much apparent change in Isabel; she was a shade graver +too, her walk a little slower and more dignified, and her lips, a little +thinner, had a line of strength in them that was new; and even now as she +was treading English ground again for the first time for six years, the +look of slight abstraction in her eyes that is often the sign of a strong +inner life, was just a touch deeper than it used to be. + +They went up together with scarcely a word; and asked for a private room +and dinner in two hours' time; and a carriage and horses for the servants +to be ready at noon. The landlord, who had met them at the door, shook +his head. + +"The private room, sir, and the dinner--yes, sir--but the horses----" and +he spread his hands out deprecatingly. "There is not one in the stall," +he added. + +Anthony considered a moment. + +"Well, what do you propose? We are willing to stay a day or two, if you +think that by then----" + +"Ah," said the landlord, "to-morrow is another matter. I expect two of my +carriages home to-night, sir, from London; but the horses will not be +able to travel till noon to-morrow." + +"That will do," said Anthony; and he followed Isabel upstairs. + +It was very strange to them both to be back in England after so long. +They had settled down at Douai with the Maxwells; but, almost immediately +on their arrival, Mistress Margaret was sent for by her Superior to the +house of her Order at Brussels; and Lady Maxwell was left alone with +Isabel in a house in the town; for Anthony was in the seminary. + +Then, in '86 Lady Maxwell had died, quite suddenly. Isabel herself had +found her at her prie-dieu in the morning, still in her evening dress; +she was leaning partly against the wall; her wrinkled old hands were +clasped tightly together on a little ivory crucifix, on the top of the +desk; and her snow-white head, with the lace drooping from it like a +bridal veil, was bowed below them. Isabel, who had not dared to move her, +had sent instantly for a little French doctor, who had thrown up his +hands in a kind of devout ecstasy at that wonderful old figure, rigid in +an eternal prayer. The two tall tapers she had lighted eight hours before +were still just alight beside her, and looked strange in the morning +sunshine. + +"Pendant ses oraisons! pendant ses oraisons!" he murmured over and over +again; and then had fallen on his knees and kissed the drooping lace of +her sleeve. + +"Priez pour moi, madame," he whispered to the motionless figure. + +And so the old Catholic who had suffered so much had gone to her rest. +The fact that her son James had been living in the College during her +four years' stay at Douai had been perhaps the greatest possible +consolation to her for being obliged to be out of England; for she saw +him almost daily; and it was he who sang her Requiem. Isabel had then +gone to live with other friends in Douai, until Anthony had been ordained +priest in the June of '88, and was ready to take her to England; and now +the two were bound for Stanfield, where Anthony was to act as chaplain +for the present, as Mr. Buxton had predicted so long before. Old Mr. +Blake had died in the spring of the year, still disapproving of his +patron's liberal notions, and Mr. Buxton had immediately sent a special +messenger all the way to Douai to secure Anthony's services; and had +insisted moreover that Isabel should accompany her brother. They intended +however to call at the Dower House on the way, which had been left under +the charge of old Mrs. Carroll; and renew the memories of their own dear +home. + +They talked little at dinner; and only of general matters, their journey, +the Armada, their joy at getting home again; for they had been expressly +warned by their friends abroad against any indiscreet talk even when they +thought themselves alone, and especially in the seaports, where so +constant a watch was kept for seminary priests. The presence of Isabel, +however, was the greatest protection to Anthony; as it was almost unknown +that a priest should travel with any but male companions. + +Then suddenly, as they were ending dinner, a great clamour broke out in +the town below them; a gun was fired somewhere; and footsteps began to +rush along the narrow street outside. Anthony ran to the window and +called to know what was the matter; but no one paid any attention to him; +and he presently sat down again in despair, and with one or two wistful +looks. + +"I will go immediately," he said to Isabel, "and bring you word." + +A moment after a servant burst into the room. + +"It is a Spanish ship, sir," he said, "a prize--rounding Dungeness." + +In the afternoon, when the first fierce excitement was over, Anthony went +down to the quay. He did not particularly wish to attract attention, and +so he kept himself in the background somewhat; but he had a good view of +her as she lay moored just off the quay, especially when one of the town +guard who had charge of the ropes that kept the crowd back, seeing a +gentleman in the crowd, beckoned him through. + +"Your honour will wish to see the prize?" he said, in hopes of a trifle +for himself; "make way there for the gentleman." + +Anthony thought it better under these circumstances to accept the +invitation, so he gave the man something, and slipped through. On the +quay was a pile of plunder from the ship: a dozen chests carved and +steel-clamped stood together; half-a-dozen barrels of powder; the ship's +bell rested amid a heap of rich clothes and hangings; a silver crucifix +and a couple of lamps with their chains lay tumbled on one side; and a +parson was examining a finely carved mahogany table that stood near. + +He looked up at Anthony. + +"For the church, sir," he said cheerfully. "I shall make application to +her Grace." + +Anthony smiled at him. + +"A holy revenge, sir," he said. + +The ship herself had once been a merchantman brig; so much Anthony could +tell, though he knew little of seamanship; but she had been armed heavily +with deep bulwarks of timber, pierced for a dozen guns on each broadside. +Now, however, she was in a terrible condition. The solid bulwarks were +rent and shattered, as indeed was her whole hull; near the waterline were +nailed sheets of lead, plainly in order to keep the water from entering +the shot-holes; she had only one mast; and that was splintered in more +than one place; a spar had been rigged up on to the stump of the +bowsprit. The high poop such as distinguished the Spanish vessels was in +the same deplorable condition; as well as the figure-head, which +represented a beardless man with a halo behind his head, and which bore +the marks of fierce hacks as well as of shot. + +Anthony read the name,--the _San Juan da Cabellas_. + +From the high quay too he could see down on to the middle decks, and +there was the most shocking sight of all, for the boards and the +mast-stumps and the bulwarks and the ship's furniture were all alike +splashed with blood, some of the deeper pools not even yet dry. It was +evident that the _San Juan_ had not yielded easily. + +Presently Anthony saw an officer approaching, and not wishing to be led +into conversation slipped away again through the crowd to take Isabel the +news. + +The two remained quietly upstairs the rest of the afternoon, listening to +the singing and the shouting in the streets, and watching from their +window the groups that swung and danced to and fro in joy at Rye's +contribution to the defeat of the invaders. When the dusk fell the noise +was louder than ever as the men began to drink more deep, and torches +were continually tossing up and down the steep cobbled streets; the din +reached its climax about half-past nine, when the main body of the +revellers passed up towards the inn, and, as Anthony saw from the window, +finally entered through the archway below; and then all grew tolerably +quiet. Presently Isabel said that she would go to bed, but just before +she left the room, the servant again came in. + +"If you please, sir, Lieutenant Raxham, of the _Seahorse_, is telling the +tale of the capture of the Spanish ship; and the landlord bid me come and +tell you." + +Anthony glanced at Isabel, who nodded at him. + +"Yes; go," she said, "and come up and tell me the news afterwards, if it +is not very late." + +When Anthony came downstairs he found to his annoyance that the place of +honour had been reserved for him in a tall chair next to the landlord's +at the head of the table. The landlord rose to meet his guest. + +"Sit here, sir," he said. "I am glad you have come. And now, Mr. +Raxham----" + +Anthony looked about him with some dismay at this extreme publicity. The +room was full from end to end. They were chiefly soldiers who sat at the +table--heavy-looking rustics from Hawkhurst, Cranbrook and Appledore, in +brigantines and steel caps, who had been sent in by the magistrates to +the nearest seaport to assist in the defence of the coast--a few of them +wore corselets with almain rivets and carried swords, while the +pike-heads of the others rose up here and there above the crowd. The rest +of the room was filled with the townsmen of Rye--those who had been +retained for the defence of the coast, as well as others who for any +physical reason could not serve by sea or land. There was an air of +extraordinary excitement in the room. The faces of the most stolid were +transfigured, for they were gathered to hear of the struggle their own +dear England was making; the sickening pause of those months of waiting +had ended at last; the huge southern monster had risen up over the edge +of the sea, and the panting little country had flown at his throat and +grappled him; and now they were hearing the tale of how deep her fangs +had sunk. + +The crowd laughed and applauded and drew its breath sharply, as one man; +and the silence now and then was startling as the young officer told his +story; although he had few gifts of rhetoric, except a certain vivid +vocabulary. He himself was a lad of eighteen or so, with a pleasant +reckless face, now flushed with drink and excitement, and sparkling eyes; +he was seated in a chair upon the further end of the table, so that all +could hear his story; and he had a cup of huff-cup in his left hand as he +talked, leaving his right hand free to emphasise his points and slap his +leg in a clumsy sort of oratory. His tale was full of little similes, at +which his audience nodded their heads now and then, approvingly. He had +apparently already begun his story, for when Anthony had taken his seat +and silence had been obtained, he went straight on without any further +introduction. + +The landlord leaned over to Anthony. "The _San Juan_," he whispered +behind his hot hairy hand, and nodded at him with meaning eyes. + +"And every time they fired over us," went on the lieutenant, "and we +fired into them; and the only damage they did us was their muskets in the +tops. They killed Tom Dane like that"--there was a swift hiss of breath +from the room; but the officer went straight on--"shot him through the +back as he bent over his gun; and wounded old Harry and a score more; but +all the while, lads, we were a-pounding at them with the broadsides as we +came round, and raking them with the demi-cannon in the poop, +until--well; go you and see the craft as she lies at the quay if you +would know what we did. I tell you, as we came at her once towards the +end, I saw that she was bleeding through her scuppers like a pig, from +the middle deck. They were all packed up there together--sailors and +soldiers and a priest or two; and scarce a ball could pass between the +poop and the forecastle without touching flesh." + +The lad stopped a moment and took a pull at his cup, and a murmur of talk +broke out in the room. Anthony was surprised at his accent and manner of +speaking, and heard afterwards that he was the son of the parson at one +of the inland villages, and had had an education. In a moment he went on. + +"Well--it would be about noon, just before the Admiral came up from +Calais, that the old _Seahorse_ was lost. We came at the dons again as we +had done before, only closer than ever; and just as the captain gave the +word to put her about, a ball from one of their guns which they had +trained down on us, cut old Dick Kemp in half at the helm, and broke the +tiller to splinters." + +"Old Dick?" said a man's voice out of the reeking crowd, "Old Dick?" + +There was a murmur round him, bidding him hold his tongue; and the lad +went on. + +"Well, we drifted nearer and nearer. There was nought to do but to bang +at them; and that we did, by God--and to board her if we touched. Well, I +worked my saker, and saw little else--for the smoke was like a black +sea-fog; and the noise fit to crack your ears. Mine sing yet with it; the +captain was bawling from the poop, and there were a dozen pikemen ready +below; and then on a sudden came the crash; and I looked up and there was +the Spaniards' decks above us, and the poop like a tower, with a grinning +don or two looking down; and there was I looking up the muzzle of a +culverin. I skipped towards the poop, shouting to the men; and the dons +fired their broadside as I went.--God save us from that din! But I knew +the old _Seahorse_ was done this time--the old ship lurched and shook as +the balls tore through her and broke her back; and there was such a yell +as you'll never hear this side of hell. Well--I was on the poop by now, +and the men after me; for you see the poop of the _Seahorse_ was as high +as the middle deck of the Spaniard, and we must board from there or not +at all. Well, lads, there was the captain before me. He had fought cool +till then, as cool as a parson among his roses, with never an oath from +his mouth--but now he was as scarlet as a poppy, and his eyes were like +blue fire, and his mouth jabbered and foamed; he was so hot, you see, at +the loss of his ship. He was dancing to and fro waiting while the poop +swung round on the tide; and the old craft plunged deeper in every wave +that lifted her, but he cared no more for that nor for the musket-balls +from the tops, nor for the brown grinning devils who shook their pikes at +him from the decks, than--than a mad dog cares for a shower of leaves; +but he stamped there and cursed them and damned them as they laughed at +him; and then in a moment the poop touched. + +"Well, lads--" and the lieutenant set his cup down on the table, clapped +his hands on his knees, laughed shortly and nervously once or twice, and +looked round. "Well, lads, I have never seen the like. The captain went +for them like a wild cat; one step on the rail and the next among them; +and was gone like a stone into water"--and the lad clapped his hand on +his thigh. "I saw one face slit up from chin to eye; and another split +across like an apple; and then we were after him. The men were mad, +too--what was left of us; and we poured up on to the decks and left the +old _Seahorse_ to die. Well, we had our work before us--but it was no +good. The dons could do nothing; I was after the captain as he went +through the pack and came out just behind him; there were half a dozen of +them down now; and the noise and the foreign oaths went up like smoke; +and the captain himself was bleeding down one side of his face and +grunting as he cut and stabbed; and I had had a knife through the arm; +but he went up on to the poop; and as I followed, the Spaniards broke and +threw down their arms--they saw 'twas no use, you see. When we reached +the poop-stairs an officer in a blue coat came forward jabbering some +jargon; but the captain would have no parley with him, but flung his dag +clean into the man's face, and over he went backwards--with his damned +high heels in the air." + +There was a sudden murmur of laughter from the room; Anthony glanced off +the lieutenant's grinning ruddy face for a moment, and saw the rows of +listening faces all wrinkled with mirth. + +"Well," went on the lad, "up went the captain, and I after him. Then +there came across the deck, very slow and stately, the Spanish captain +himself, in a fine laced coat and a plumed hat, and he was holding out +his sword by the blade and bowed as we ran towards him, and began some +damned foreign nonsense, with his _Señor_--but the captain would have +none o' that, I tell you he was like Tom o' Bedlam now--so as the Señor +grinned at him with his monkey face and bowed and wagged, the captain +fetched him a slash across the cheek with his sword that cut up into his +head; and that don went spinning across the poop like a morris-man and +brought up against the rail, and then down he came," and the lad dashed +his hand on his thigh again--"as dead as mutton." + +Again came a louder gust of laughter from the room. Anthony half rose in +his chair, and then sat down again. + +"Well," said the lad, "and that was not all. Down he raged again to the +decks and I behind him--I tell you, it was like a butcher's shop--but it +was quieter now--the fighting was over--and the Spaniards were all run +below, except half-a-dozen in the tops; looking down like young rooks at +an archer. There had been a popish priest too with his crucifix in one +hand and his god-almighty in the other, over a dying man as we came up; +but as we came down there he lay in his black gown with a hole through +his heart and his crucifix gone. One of the lads had got it no doubt. +Well, the captain brought up at the main mast. 'God's blood,' he bawled, +'where are the brown devils got to?' Some one told him, and pointed down +the hatch. Well, then I turned sick with my wound and the smell of the +place and all; and I knew nothing more till I found myself sitting on a +dead don, with the captain holding me up and pouring a cordial down my +throat." + +Then talk and laughter broke out in the audience; but the landlord held +up his hand for silence. + +"And what of the others?" he shouted. + +"Dead meat too," said the lad--"the captain went down with a dozen or +more and hunted them out and finished them. There was one, Dick told me +afterwards," and the lieutenant gave a cackle of mirth, "that they hunted +twice round the ship before he jumped over yelling to some popish saint +to help him; but it seems he was deaf, like the old Baal that parson +tells of o' Sundays. The dirty swine to run like that! Well, he's got his +bellyful now of the salt water that he came so far to see. And then the +captain with his own hands trained a robinet that was on the poop on to +the tops; and down the birds came, one by one; for their powder up there +was all shot off." + +"And the _Seahorse_?" said the landlord again. + +There fell a dead silence: all in the room knew that the ship was lost, +but it was terrible to hear it again. The lad's face broke into lines of +grief, and he spoke huskily. + +"Gone down with the dead and wounded; and the rest of the fleet a mile +away." + +Then the lieutenant went on to describe how he himself had been deputed +to bring the _San Juan_ into port with the wounded on board, while the +captain and the rest of the crew by Drake's orders attached themselves to +various vessels that were short-handed, and how the English fleet had +followed what was left of the Spaniards when the fight ended at sunset, +up towards the North Sea. + +When he finished his story there was a tremendous outburst of cheering +and hammering upon the table, and the feet and the pike-butts thundered +on the floor, and a name was cried again and again as the cups were +emptied. + +"God save her Grace and old England!" yelled a slim smooth-faced archer +from Appledore. + +"God send the dons and all her foes to hell!" roared a burly pikeman with +his cup in the air. Then the room shook again as the toasts were drunk +with applauding feet and hands. + +Anthony turned to the landlord, who had just ceased thumping with his +great red fists on the table. + +"What was the captain's name?" he asked, when a slight lull came. + +"Maxwell," said the crimson-faced man. "Hubert Maxwell--one of Drake's +own men." + + * * * * + +When Anthony came upstairs he heard his name called through the door, and +went in to Isabel's room to find her sitting up in bed in the gloom of +the summer night; the party below had broken up, and all was quiet except +for the far-off shouts and hoots of cheerful laughter from the dispersing +groups down among the narrow streets. + +"Well?" she said, as he came in and stood in the doorway. + +"It is just the story of the prize," he said, "and it seems that Hubert +had the taking of it." + +There was silence a moment. Anthony could see her face, a motionless pale +outline, and her arms clasped round her knees as she sat up in bed. + +"Hubert?" she asked in an even voice. + +"Yes, Hubert." + +There was silence a moment. + +"Well?" she said again. + +"He is safe," said Anthony, "and fought gallantly. I will tell you more +to-morrow." + +"Ah!" said Isabel softly; and then lay down again. + +"Good-night, Anthony." + +"Good-night." + +But Anthony dared not tell her the details next day, after all. + + * * * * + +There was still a difficulty about the horses; they had not arrived until +the Wednesday morning, and were greatly exhausted by a long and +troublesome journey; so the travellers consented to postpone their +journey for yet one more day. The weather, which had been thickening, +grew heavier still in the afternoon, and great banks of clouds were +rising out of the west. Anthony started out about four o'clock for a walk +along the coast; and, making a long round in the direction of Lydd, did +not finally return until about seven. As he came in at the north-east of +the town he noticed how empty the streets were, and passed on down in the +direction of the quay. As he turned down the steep street into the +harbour groups began to pour up past him, laughing and exclaiming; and in +a moment more came Isabel walking alone. He looked at her anxiously, for +he saw something had happened. Her quiet face was lit up with some +interior emotion, and her mouth was trembling. + +"The Armada is routed," she said; "and I have seen Hubert." + +The two turned back together and walked silently up to the inn. There she +told him the story. She had been told that Captain Maxwell was come in +the _Elizabeth_, for provisions for Lord Howard Seymour's squadron, to +which his new command was attached; and that he was even now in harbour. +At that she had gone straight down alone. + +"Oh, Anthony!" she cried, "you know how it is with me. I could not help +it. I am not ashamed of it. God Almighty knows all, and is not wrath with +me. So I went down and was in the crowd as he came down again with the +mayor, Mr. Hamon; we all made way for them, and the men cheered +themselves scarlet; but he came down cool and quiet; you know his +way--with his eyes half shut; and--and--he was so brown; and he looks +sad--and he had a great plaister on the left temple. And then he saw me." + +Isabel sprang up, and came up to Anthony and took his hands. "Oh! +Anthony; I was very happy then; because he took off his cap and bowed; +and his face was all lighted; and he took my hand and kissed it--and then +made Mr. Hamon known to me. The crowd laughed and said things--but I did +not care; and he soon silenced them, he looked round so fiercely; and +then I went on board with him--he would have it so--and he showed us +everything--and we sat a little in the cabin; and he told me of his wife +and child. She is the daughter of a Plymouth minister; he knew her when +he was with Drake; and he told me all about her, so you see----" Isabel +broke off; and sat down in the high window seat. "And then he asked me +about you; and I said you were here; and that we were going to stay a +little while with Mr. Buxton of Stanfield--you see I knew we could trust +him; and Mr. Hamon was in the passage just then looking at the guns; and +then a sailor came in to say that all was ready; and so we came away. But +it was so good to see him again; and to know that he was so happy." + +Anthony looked at his sister in astonishment; her quiet manner was gone, +and she was talking again almost like an excited child; and so happily. +It was very strange, he thought. He sat down beside her. + +"Oh, Anthony!" she said, "do you understand? I love him dearly still; and +his wife and child too. God bless them all and keep them!" + +The mystery was still deep to him; and he feared to say what he should +not; so he kissed Isabel silently; and the two sat there together and +looked out over the crowding red roofs to the glowing western sky across +the bay below them. + + + + + CHAPTER III + + HOME-COMING + + +It was a stormy summer evening as the brother and sister rode up between +the last long hills that led to Great Keynes. A south-west wind had been +rising all day, that same wind that was now driving the ruined Armada up +into the fierce North Sea, with the fiercer men behind to bar the return. +But here, twenty miles inland, with the high south-downs to break the +gale, the riders were in comparative quiet, though the great trees +overhead tossed their heavy rustling heads as the gusts struck them now +and again. + +The party had turned off, as the dusk was falling, from the main-road +into bridle-paths that they knew well, and were now approaching the +village through the water meadows on the south-east side along a ride +that would bring them, round the village, direct to the Dower House. In +the gloom Anthony could make out the tall reeds, and the loosestrife and +willowherb against them, that marked the course of the stream where he +had caught trout, as a boy; and against the western sky, as he turned in +his saddle, rose up the high windy hills where he had hawked with Hubert +so many years before. It was a strange thought to him as he rode along +that his very presence here in his own country was an act of high treason +by the law lately passed, and that every day he lived here must be a day +of danger. + +For Isabel, too, it was strange to be riding up again towards the +battlefield of her desires--that battlefield where she had lived for +years in such childish faith and peace without a suspicion of the forces +that were lurking beneath her own quiet nature. But to both of them the +sense of home-coming was stronger than all else--that strange passion for +a particular set of inanimate things--or, at the most, for an association +of ideas--that has no parallel in human emotions; and as they rode up the +darkening valley and the lights of the high windows of the Hall began to +show over the trees on their right, Anthony forgot his treason and Isabel +her conflicts, and both felt a lump rise in the throat, and their hearts +begin to beat quicker with a strange pleasurable pulse, and to Isabel's +eyes at least there rose up great tears of happiness and content; neither +dared speak, but both looked eagerly about at the pool where the Mayflies +used to dance, at the knoll where the pigeons nested, at the little low +bridge beneath which their inch-long boats used to slide sideways into +darkness, and the broad marshy flats where the gorgeous irises grew. + +"How the trees have grown!" said Anthony at last, with an effort; "I +cannot see the lights from the house." + +"Mrs. Carroll will have made ready the first-floor rooms then, on the +south." + +"I am sorry they are not our own," said Anthony. + +"Ah, look! there is the dovecote," cried Isabel. + +They were passing up now behind the farm buildings; and directly +afterwards came round in front of the little walled garden to the west of +the house. + +There was a sudden exclamation from Anthony; and Isabel stared in silent +dismay. The old house rose up before them with its rows of square windows +against the night sky, dark. There was not a glimmer anywhere; even Mrs. +Carroll's own room on the south was dark. They reined their horses in and +stood a moment. + +"Oh, Anthony, Anthony!" cried Isabel suddenly, "what is it? Is there no +one there?" + +Anthony shook his head; and then put his tired beast to a shambling trot +with Isabel silent again with weariness and disappointment behind him. +They passed along outside the low wall, turned the corner of the house +and drew up at the odd little doorway in the angle at the back of the +house. The servants had drawn up behind them, and now pressed up to hold +their horses; and the brother and sister slipped off and went towards the +door. Anthony passed under the little open porch and put his hand out to +the door; it was quite dark underneath the porch, and he felt further and +further, and yet there was no door; his foot struck the step. He felt his +way to the doorposts and groped for the door; but still there was none; +he could feel the panelling of the lobby inside the doorway, and that was +all. He drew back, as one would draw back from a dead face on which one +had laid a hand in the dark. + +"Oh, Anthony!" said Isabel again, "what is it?" She was still outside. + +"Have you a light?" said Anthony hoarsely to the servants. + +The man nearest him bent and fumbled in the saddle-bags, and after what +seemed an interminable while kindled a little bent taper and handed it to +him. As he went towards the porch shading it with his hand, Isabel sprang +past him and went before; and then, as the light fell through the +doorway, stopped in dead and bewildered silence. + +The door was lying on the floor within, shattered and splintered. + +Anthony stepped beside her, and she turned and clung to his arm, and a +sob or two made itself heard. Then they looked about them. The banisters +above them were smashed, and like a cataract, down the stairs lay a +confused heap of crockery, torn embroidery and clothes, books, and broken +furniture. + +Anthony's hand shook so much that the shadows of the broken banisters +waved on the wall above like thin exulting dancers. + +Suddenly Anthony started. + +"Mrs. Carroll," he exclaimed, and he darted upstairs past the ruins into +her two rooms halfway up the flight; and in a minute or two was back with +Isabel. + +"She has escaped," he said in a low voice; and then the two stood looking +about them silently again. The door leading to the cellars on the left +was broken too; and fragments of casks and bottles lay about the steps; +the white wall was splashed with drink, and there was a smell of spirits +in the air. Evidently the stormers had thought themselves worthy of their +hire. + +"Come," he said again; and leaving the entrance lobby, the two passed to +the hall-door and pushed that open and looked. There was the same furious +confusion there; the tapestry was lying tumbled and rent on the +floor--the high oak mantelpiece was shattered, and doleful cracks and +splinters in the panelling all round showed how mad the attack had been; +one of the pillars of the further archway was broken clean off, and the +brickwork showed behind; the pictures had been smashed and added to the +heap of wrecked furniture and broken glass in the middle. + +"Come," he said once more; and the two passed silently through the broken +archway, and going up the other flight of stairs, gradually made the +round of the house. Everywhere it was the same, except in the servants' +attics, where, apparently, the mob had not thought it worth while to go. + +Isabel's own room was the most pitiable of all; the windows had only the +leaden frames left, and those bent and battered; the delicate panelling +was scarred and split by the shower of stones that had poured in through +the window and that now lay in all parts of the room. A painting of her +mother that had hung over her bed was now lying face downwards on the +floor. Isabel turned it over silently; a stone had gone through the face; +and it had been apparently slit too by some sharp instrument. Even the +slender oak bed was smashed in the centre, as if half a dozen men had +jumped upon it at once; and the little prie-dieu near the window had been +deliberately hacked in half. Isabel looked at it all with wide startled +eyes and parted lips; and then suddenly sank down on the wrecked bed +where she had hoped to sleep that night, and began to sob like a child. + +"Ah! I did think--I did think----" she began. + +Anthony stooped and tried to lift her. + +"Come, my darling," he said, "is not this a high honour? _Qui relinquit +domos!_" + +"Oh! why have they done it?" sobbed Isabel. "What harm have we done +them?" and she began to wail. She was thoroughly over-tired and +over-wrought; and Anthony could not find it in his heart to blame her; +but he spoke again bravely. + +"We are Catholics," he said; "that is why they have done it. Do not throw +away this grace that our Lord has given us; embrace it and make it +yours." + +It was the priest that was speaking now; and Isabel turned her face and +looked at him; and then got up and hid her face on his shoulder. + +"Oh, Anthony, help me!" she said; and so stood there, quiet. + + * * * * + +He came down presently to the servants, while Isabel went upstairs to +prepare the rooms in the attics; for it was impossible for them to ride +further that night; so they settled to sleep there, and stable the +horses; and to ride on early the next day, and be out of the village +before the folks were about. Anthony gave directions to the servants, who +were Catholics too, and explained in a word or two what had happened; and +bade them come up to the house as soon as they had fed and watered the +beasts; meanwhile he took the saddle-bags indoors and spread out their +remaining provisions in one of the downstairs rooms; and soon Isabel +joined him. + +"I have made up five beds," she said, and her voice and lips were steady, +and her eyes grave and serene again. + +The five supped together in the wrecked kitchen, a fine room on the east +of the house, supported by a great oak pillar to which the horses of +guests were sometimes attached when the stable was full. + +Isabel managed to make a fire and to boil some soup; but they hung thick +curtains across the shattered windows, and quenched the fire as soon as +the soup was made, for fear that either the light or the smoke from the +chimney should arouse attention. + +When supper was over, and the two men-servants and Isabel's French maid +were washing up in the scullery, Isabel suddenly turned to Anthony as +they sat together near the fireplace. + +"I had forgotten," she said, "what we arranged as we rode up. I must go +and tell her still." + +Anthony looked at her steadily a moment. + +"God keep you," he said. + +She kissed him and took her riding-cloak, drew the hood over her head, +and went out into the dark. + + * * * * + +It was with the keenest relief that, half an hour later, Anthony heard +her footstep again in the red-tiled hall outside. The servants were gone +upstairs by now, and the house was quiet. She came in, and sat by him +again and took his hand. + +"Thank God I went," she said. "I have left her so happy." + +"Tell me all," said Anthony. + +"I went through the garden," said Isabel, "but came round to the front of +the house so that they might not think I came from here. When the servant +came to the door--he was a stranger, and a Protestant no doubt--I said at +once that I brought news of Mr. Maxwell from Rye; and he took me straight +in and asked me to come in while he fetched her woman. Then her woman +came out and took me upstairs, up into Lady Maxwell's old room; and there +she was lying in bed under the great canopy. Oh, Anthony, she is so +pretty! her golden hair was lying out all over the pillow, and her face +is so sweet. She cried out when I came in, and lifted herself on her +elbow; so I just said at once, 'He is safe and well'; and then she went +off into sobs and laughter; so that I had to go and soothe her--her woman +was so foolish and helpless; and very soon she was quiet: and then she +called me her darling, and she kissed me again and again; and told the +woman to go and leave us together; and then she lifted the sheet; and +showed me the face of a little child. Oh Anthony; Hubert's child and +hers, the second, born on Tuesday--only think of that. 'Mercy, I was +going to call her,' she said, 'if I had not heard by to-morrow, but now I +shall call her Victory.'" + +Anthony looked quickly at his sister, with a faint smile in his eyes. + +"And what did you say?" he asked. + +Isabel smiled outright; but her eyes were bright with tears too. + +"'You have guessed,' she said. 'Yes,' I said, 'call her Mercy all the +same,' and she kissed me again, and cried, and said that she would. And +then I told her all about Hubert; and about his little wound; and how +well he looked; and how all the fighting was most likely over; and what +his cabin looked like. And then she suddenly guessed who I was, and asked +me; and I could not deny it, you know; but she promised not to tell. Then +she told me all about the house here; and how she was afraid Hubert had +said something impatient about people who go to foreign parts and leave +their country to be attacked, 'But you know he did not really mean it,' +she said; and of course he did not. Well, the people had remembered that, +and it spread and spread; and when the news of the Armada came last week, +a mob came over from East Grinsted, and they sat drinking and drinking in +the village; and of course Grace could not go out to them; and all the +old people are gone, and the Catholics on the estate--and so at last they +all came out roaring and shouting down the drive, and Mrs. Carroll was +warned and slipped out to the Hall; and she is now gone to Stanfield to +wait for us--and then the crowd broke into the house--but, oh Anthony, +Grace was so sorry, and cried sore to think of us here; and asked us to +come and stay there; but of course I told her we could not: and then I +said a prayer for her; and we kissed one another again; and then I came +away." + +Anthony looked at his sister, and there was honour and pride of her in +his eyes. + + * * * * + +The ride to Stanfield next day was a long affair, at a foot's-pace all +the way: the horses were thoroughly tired with their journey, and they +were obliged to start soon after three o'clock in the morning after a +very insufficient rest; they did not reach Groombridge till nearly ten +o'clock, when they dined, and then rode on towards Tonbridge about noon. +There were heavy hearts to be carried as well. The attempt to welcome the +misery of their home-coming was a bitter effort; all the more bitter for +that it was an entirely unexpected call upon them. During those six years +abroad probably not a day had passed without visions of Great Keynes, and +the pleasant and familiar rooms and garden of their own house, and mental +rehearsals of their return. The shock of the night before too had been +emphasised by the horror of the cold morning light creeping through the +empty windows on to the cruel heaps within. The garden too, seen in the +dim morning, with its trampled lawns and wrecked flower-beds heaped with +withered sunflowers, bell-blossoms and all the rich August growth, with +the earthen flower-bowls smashed, the stone balls on the gate overturned, +and the laurels at the corner uprooted--all this was a horrible pain to +Isabel, to whom the garden was very near as dear and familiar as her own +room. So it was a silent and sorrowful ride; and Anthony's heart rose in +relief as at last up the grey village-street he saw the crowded roofs of +Stanfield Place rise over the churchyard wall. + +Their welcome from Mr. Buxton went far to compensate for all. + +"My dear boy," he said, "or, my dear father, as I should call you in +private, you do not know what happiness is mine to-day. It is a great +thing to have a priest again; but, if you will allow me to say so, it is +a greater to have my friend--and what a sister you have upstairs!" + +They were in Mr. Buxton's own little room on the ground-floor, and Isabel +had gone to rest until supper. + +Anthony told him of the grim surprise that had awaited them at Great +Keynes. "So you must forgive my sister if she is a little sad." + +"Yes, yes," said Mr. Buxton, "I had heard from Mrs. Carroll last night +when she arrived here. But there was no time to warn you. I had expected +you to-day, though Mrs. Carroll did not." + +(Anthony had sent a man straight from Rye to Stanfield.) + +"But Mistress Isabel, as I shall venture to call her, must do what she +can with this house and garden. I need not say how wholly it is hers. And +I shall call you Anthony," he added--"in public, at least. And, for +strangers, you are just here as my guest; and you shall be called +Capell--a sound name; and you shall be Catholics too; though you are no +priest, of course, in public--and you have returned from the Continent. I +hold it is no use to lie when you can be found out. I do not know what +your conscience is, Father Anthony; but, for myself, I count us Catholics +to be _in statu belli_ now; and therefore I shall lie frankly and fully +when there is need; and you may do as you please. Old Mr. Blake used to +bid me prevaricate instead; but that always seemed to me two lies instead +of one--one to the questioning party and the other to myself; and so I +always said to him, but he would not have it so. I wondered he did not +tell me that two negatives made an affirmative; but he was not clever +enough, the good father. So my own custom is to tell one plain lie when +needed, and shame the devil." + +It was pleasant to Anthony to hear his friend talk again, and he said so. +His host's face softened into a great tenderness. + +"Dear lad, I know what you mean. Please God you may find this a happy +home." + +A couple of hours later, when Anthony and Isabel came down together from +their rooms in the old wing, they found Mr. Buxton in his black satin and +lace in the beautiful withdrawing-room on the ground-floor. It was +already past the supper-hour, but their host showed no signs of going +into the hall. At last he apologised. + +"I ask your pardon, Mistress Isabel; but I have a guest come to stay with +me, who only arrived an hour ago; and she is a great lady and must have +her time. Ah! here she is." + +The door was flung open and a radiant vision appeared. The door was a +little way off, and there were no candles near it; but there swelled and +rustled into the room a figure all in blue and gold, with a white +delicate ruff; and diamond buckles shone beneath the rich brocaded +petticoat. Above rose a white bosom and throat scintillating with +diamonds, and a flushed face with scarlet lips, all crowned by piles of +black hair, with black dancing eyes beneath. Still a little in the shadow +this splendid figure swept down with a great curtsey, which Isabel met by +another, while the two gentlemen bowed low; and then, as the stranger +swayed up again into the full light of the sconces, Anthony recognised +Mary Corbet. + +He stood irresolute with happy hesitation; and she came up smiling +brilliantly; and before he could stay her dropped down on one knee and +took his hand and kissed it; just as the man left the room. + +"God bless you, Father Anthony!" she said; and as he looked at her, as +she glanced up, he could not tell whether her eyes shone with tears or +laughter. + +"This is very charming and proper, Mistress Corbet, and like a true +daughter of the Church," put in Mr. Buxton, "but I shall be obliged to +you if you will not in future kiss priests' hands nor call them Father in +the presence of the servants--at least not in my house." + +"Ah!" she said, "you were always prudent. Have you seen his secret +doors?" she went on to Anthony. "The entire Catholic Church might play +hare and hounds with the Holy Father as huntsman and the Cardinals as the +whips, through Mr. Buxton's secret labyrinths." + +"Wait until you are hare, and it is other than Holy Church that is +a-hunting," said Mr. Buxton, "and you will thank God for my labyrinths, +as you call them." + +Then she greeted Isabel with great warmth. + +"Why, my dear," she said, "you are not the little Puritan maiden any +longer. We must have a long talk to-night; and you shall tell me +everything." + +"Mistress Mary is not so greatly changed," said Isabel, smiling. "She +always would be told everything." + +It was strange to Anthony to meet Mary again after so long, and to find +her so little changed, as Isabel had said truly. He himself had passed +through so much since they had last met at Greenwich over six years +ago--his conversion, his foreign sojourn, and, above all, the bewildering +and intoxicating sweetness of his ordination and priestly life. And yet +he felt as close to Mary as ever, knit in a bond of wonderful good +fellowship and brotherhood such as he had never felt to any other in just +that kind and degree. He watched her, warm and content, as she talked +across the polished oak and beneath the gleam of the candles; and +listened, charmed by her air and her talk. + +"There is not so much news of her Grace," she said, "save that she is +turning soldier in her old age. She rode out to Tilbury, you know, the +other day, in steel cuirass and scarlet; out to see her dear Robin and +the army; and her royal face was all smiles and becks, and lord! how the +soldiers cheered! But if you had seen her as I did, in her room when she +first buckled on her armour, and the joints did not fit--yes, and heard +her! there were no smiles to spare then. She lodged at Mr. Rich's, you +know, two nights; but he would be Mr. Poor, I should suppose, by the time +her Grace left him; for he will not see the worth of a shoelace again of +all that he expended on her." + +"You see," remarked Mr. Buxton to Isabel, "how fortunate we are in having +such a friend of her Grace's with us. We hear all the cream of the news, +even though it be a trifle sour sometimes." + +"A lover of her Grace," said Mary, "loves the truth about her, however +bitter. But then I have no secret passages where I may hide from my +sovereign!" + +"The cream can scarce be but sour," said Anthony, "near her Grace: there +is so much thunder in the air." + +"Yes, but the sun came out when you were there, Anthony," put in Isabel, +smiling. + +"But even the light of her glorious countenance is trying," said Mary. +"She is overpowering in thunder and sunshine alike." + +"We have had enough of that metaphor," observed Mr. Buxton. + + * * * * + +Then Anthony had to talk, and tell all the foreign news of Douai and Rome +and Cardinal Allen; and of Father Persons' scheme for a college at +Valladolid. + +"Father Robert is a superb beggar--as he is superb in all things," said +Mr. Buxton. "I dare not think how much he got from me for his college; +and then I do not even approve of his college. His principles are too +logical for me. I have ever had a weakness for the _non sequitur_." + +This led on to the Armada; Anthony told his experience of it; how he had +seen at least the sails of Lord Howard's squadron far away against the +dawn; and this led on again to a sharp discussion when the servants had +left the room. + +"I do not know," said Mary at last; "it is difficult--is not the choice +between God and Elizabeth? If I were a man, why should I not take up arms +to defend my religion? Since I am a woman, why should I not pray for +Philip's success? It is a bitter hard choice, I know; but why need I +prefer my country to my faith? Tell me that, Father Anthony." + +"I can only tell you my private opinion," said Anthony, "and that is, +that both duties may be done. As Mr. Buxton here used to tell me, the +duty to Cæsar is as real as the duty to God. A man is bound to both; for +each has its proper bounds. When either oversteps them it must be +resisted. When Elizabeth bids me deny my faith, I tell her I would sooner +die. When a priest bids me deny my country, I tell him I would sooner be +damned." + +Mary clapped her hands. + +"I like to hear a man talk like that," she cried. "But what of the Holy +Father and his excommunication of her Grace?" + +Anthony looked up at her sharply, and then smiled; Isabel watched him +with a troubled face. + +"Aquinas holds," he said, "that an excommunication of sovereign and +people in a lump is invalid. And until the Holy Father tells me himself +that Aquinas is wrong, I shall continue to think he is right." + +"God-a-mercy!" burst in Mr. Buxton, "what a to-do! Leave it alone until +the choice must be made; and meanwhile say your prayers for Pope and +Queen too, and hear mass and tell your beads and hold your tongue: that +is what I say to myself. Mistress Mary, I will not have my chaplain +heckled; here is his lady sister all a-tremble between heresy and +treason." + +They sat long over the supper-table, talking over the last six years and +the times generally. More than once Mary showed a strange bitterness +against the Queen. At last Mr. Buxton showed his astonishment plainly. + +"I do not understand you," he said. "I know that at heart you are loyal; +and yet one might say you meditated her murder." + +Mary's face grew white with passion and her eyes blazed. + +"Ah!" she hissed, "you do not understand, you say? Then where is your +heart? But then you did not see Mary Stuart die." + +Anthony looked at her, amazed. + +"And you did, Mistress Mary?" he asked. + +Mary bowed, with her lips set tight to check their trembling. + +"I will tell you," she said, "if our host permits"; and she glanced at +him. + +"Then come this way," he said, and they rose from table. + +They went back again to the withdrawing-room; a little cedar-fire had +been kindled under the wide chimney; and the room was full of dancing +shadows. The great plaster-pendants, the roses, the crowns, and the +portcullises on the ceiling seemed to waver in the firelight, for Mr. +Buxton at a sign from Mary blew out the four tapers that were burning in +the sconces. They all sat down in the chairs that were set round the +fire, Mary in a tall porter's chair with flaps that threw a shadow on her +face when she leaned back; and she took a fan in her hand to keep the +fire, or her friends' eyes, from her face should she need it. + +She first told them very briefly of the last months of Mary's life, of +the web that was spun round her by Walsingham's tactics, and her own +friends' efforts, until it was difficult for her to stir hand or foot +without treason, real or pretended, being set in motion somewhere. Then +she described how at Christmas '86 Elizabeth had sent her--Mary +Corbet--as a Catholic, up to the Queen of the Scots at Fotheringay, on a +private mission to attempt to win the prisoner's confidence, and to +persuade her to confess to having been privy to Babington's conspiracy; +and how the Scottish Queen had utterly denied it, even in the most +intimate conversations. Sentence had been already passed, but the warrant +had not been signed; and it never would have been signed, said Mistress +Corbet, if Mary had owned to the crime of which she was accused. + +"Ah! how they insulted her!" cried Mary Corbet indignantly. "She showed +me one day the room where her throne had stood. Now the cloth of state +had been torn down by Sir Amyas Paulet's men, and he himself dared to sit +with his hat on his head in the sovereign's presence! The insolence of +the hound! But the Queen showed me how she had hung a crucifix where her +royal arms used to hang. 'J'appelle,' she said to me, 'de la reine au roi +des rois.'" + +Mistress Corbet went on to tell of the arrival of Walsingham's +brother-in-law, Mr. Beale, with the death-warrant on that February Sunday +evening. + +"I saw his foxy face look sideways up at the windows as he got off his +horse in the courtyard; and I knew that our foes had triumphed. Then the +other bloodhounds began to arrive; my lord of Kent on the Monday and +Shrewsbury on the Tuesday. Then they came in to us after dinner; and they +told her Grace it was to be for next day. I was behind her chair and saw +her hand on the boss of the arm, and it did not stir nor clench; she said +it could not be. She could not believe it of Elizabeth. + +"When she did at last believe it, there was no wild weeping or crying for +mercy; but she set her affairs in order, queenly, and yet sedately too. +She first thought of her soul, and desired that M. de Preau might come to +her and hear her confession; but they would not permit it. They offered +her Dr. Fletcher instead, 'a godly man,' as my lord of Kent called him. +'Je ne m'en doute pas,' she said, smiling. But it was hard not to have a +priest. + +"Then she set her earthly affairs in order when she had examined her soul +and made confession to God without the Dean's assistance. We all supped +together when it was growing late; and I thought, Father Anthony--indeed +I did--of another Supper long ago. Then M. Gorion was sent for to arrange +some messages and gifts; and until two of the clock in the morning we +watched with her or served her as she wrote and gave orders. The court +outside was full of comings and goings. As I passed down the passage I +saw the torches of the visitors that were come to see the end; and once I +heard a hammering from the great hall. Then she went to her bed; and I +think few lay as quiet as she in the castle that night. I was with her +ladies when they waked her before dawn; and it was hard to see that sweet +face on the pillow open its eyes again to what was before her. + +"Then when she was dressed I went in again, and we all went to the +oratory, where she received our Saviour from the golden pyx which the +Holy Father had sent her; for, you see, they would allow no priest to +come near her.... + +"Presently the gentlemen knocked. When we tried to follow we were +prevented; they wished her to die alone among her enemies; but at last +two of the ladies were allowed to go with her. + +"I ran out another way, and sent a message to my Lord Shrewsbury, who +knew me at court. As I waited in the courtyard, the musicians there were +playing 'The Witches' Dirge,' as is done at the burnings--and all to mock +at my queen! At last a halberdier was sent to bring me in." + +Mary Corbet was silent a moment or two and leaned back in her chair; and +the others dared not speak. The strange emotion of her voice and the +stillness of that sparkling figure in the porter's chair affected them +profoundly. Her face was now completely shaded by a fan. + +"It was in the hall, where a great fire was burning on the hearth. The +stage stood at the upper end; all was black. The crowd of gentlemen +filled the hall and all were still and reverent except--except a devil +who laughed as my queen came in, all in black. She was smiling and brave, +and went up the steps and sat on her black throne and looked about her. +The--the _things_ were just in front of her. + +"Then the warrant was read by Beale, and I saw the lords glance at her as +it ended; but there was nought but joyous hope in her face. She looked +now and again gently on the ivory crucifix in her hand, as she listened; +and her lips moved to--to--Him who was delivered to death for her." + +Mary Corbet gave one quick sob, and was silent again for an instant. Then +she went on in a yet lower voice. + +"Dr. Fletcher tried to address her, but he stammered and paused three or +four times; and the queen smiled on him and bade him not trouble himself, +for that she lived and died a Catholic. But they would not let her be; so +she looked on her crucifix and was silent; and even then my lord of Kent +badgered her and told her Christ crucified in her hand would not save +her, except He was engraved on her heart. + +"Then she knelt at her chair and tried to pray softly to herself; but +Fletcher would not have that, and prayed himself, aloud, and all the +gentlemen in the hall began to pray aloud with him. But Mary prayed on in +Latin and English aloud, and prevailed, for all were silent at the end +but she. + +"And at last she kissed the crucifix and cried in a sweet piercing voice, +'As thine arms, O Jesus, were spread upon the Cross, so receive me into +Thy mercy and forgive me my sins!'" + +Again Mistress Corbet was silent; and Anthony drew a long sobbing breath +of pure pity, and Isabel was crying quietly to herself. + +"When the headsmen offered to assist her," went on the low voice, "the +queen smiled at the gentlemen and said that she had never had such grooms +before; and then they let the ladies come up. When they began to help her +with her dress I covered my face--I could not help it. There was such a +stillness now that I could hear her beads chink at her girdle. When I +looked again, she was ready, with her sweet neck uncovered: all round her +was black but the headsman, who wore a white apron over his velvet, and +she, in her beauty, and oh! her face was so fair and delicate and her +eyes so tender and joyous. And as her ladies looked at her, they sobbed +piteously. 'Ne criez vous,' said she. + +"Then she knelt down, and Mistress Mowbray bound her eyes. She smiled +again under the handkerchief. 'Adieu,' she said, and then, 'Au revoir.' + +"Then she said once more a Latin psalm, and then laid her head down, as +on a pillow. + +"'In manus tuas, Domine,' she said." + + * * * * + +Mary Corbet stopped, and leaned forward a little, putting her hand into +her bosom; Anthony looked at her as she drew up a thin silk cord with a +ruby ring attached to it. + +"This was hers," she said simply, and held it out. Each of the Catholics +took it and kissed it reverently, and Mary replaced it. + +"When they lifted her," she added, "a little dog sprang out from her +clothes and yelped. And at that the man near me, who had laughed as she +came in, wept." + + * * * * + +Then the four sat silent in the firelight. + + + + + CHAPTER IV + + STANFIELD PLACE + + +Life at Stanfield Place was wonderfully sweet to Anthony and Isabel after +their exile abroad, for both of them had an intense love of England and +of English ways. The very sight of fair-faced children, and the noise of +their shrill familiar voices from the village street, the depths of the +August woods round them, the English manners of living--all this was +alive with a full deliberate joy to these two. Besides, there was the +unfailing tenderness and gaiety of Mr. Buxton; and at first there was the +pleasant company of Mary Corbet as well. + +There was little or no anxiety resting on any of them. "God was served," +as the celebration of mass was called, each morning in the little room +where Anthony had made the exercises, and the three others were always +present. It was seldom that the room was not filled to over-flowing on +Sundays and holy-days with the household and the neighbouring Catholics. + +Everything was, of course, perfection in the little chapel when it was +furnished; as was all that Mr. Buxton possessed. There was a wonderful +golden crucifix by an unknown artist, that he had picked up in his +travels, that stood upon the altar, with the bird-types of the Saviour at +each of the four ends; a pelican at the top, an eagle on the right +supporting its young which were raising their wings for a flight, on the +left a phoenix amid flames, and at the foot a hen gathering her +chickens under her wings--all the birds had tiny emerald eyes; the figure +on the cross was beautifully wrought, and had rubies in hands and feet +and side. There were also two silver altar-candlesticks designed by +Marrina for the Piccolomini chapel in the church of St. Francis in Siena; +and two more, plainer, for the Elevation. The vestments were exquisite; +those for high festivals were cloth of gold; and the other white ones +were beautifully worked with seed pearls, and jewelled crosses on the +stole and maniple. The other colours, too, were well represented, and +were the work of a famous convent in the south of France. All the other +articles, too, were of silver: the lavabo basin, the bell, the thurible, +the boat and spoon, and the cruets. It was a joy to all the Catholics who +came to see the worship of God carried on with such splendour, when in so +many places even necessaries were scarcely forthcoming. + +There was a little hiding-hole between the chapel and the priest's room, +just of a size to hold the altar furniture and the priests in case of a +sudden alarm; and there were several others in the house too, which Mr. +Buxton had showed to Anthony with a good deal of satisfaction, on the +morning after his arrival. + +"I dared not show them to you the last time you were here," he said, "and +there was no need; but now there must be no delay. I have lately made +some more, too. Now here is one," he said, stopping before the great +carved mantelpiece in the hall. + +He looked round to see that no servant was in the room, and then, +standing on a settee before the fire, touched something above, and a +circular hole large enough for a man to clamber through appeared in the +midst of the tracery. + +"There," he said, "and you will find some cured ham and a candle, with a +few dates within, should you ever have need to step up there--which, pray +God, you may not." + +"What is the secret?" asked Anthony, as the tracery swung back into +place, and his host stepped down. + +"Pull the third roebuck's ears in the coat of arms, or rather push them. +It closes with a spring, and is provided with a bolt. But I do not +recommend that refuge unless it is necessary. In winter it is too hot, +for the chimney passes behind it; and in summer it is too oppressive, for +there is not too much air." + +At the end of the corridor that led in the direction of the little old +rooms where Anthony had slept in his visit, Mr. Buxton stopped before the +portrait of a kindly-looking old gentleman that hung on the wall. + +"Now there is an upright old man you would say; and indeed he was, for he +was my own uncle, and made a godly end of it last year. But now see what +a liar I have made of him!" + +Mr. Buxton put his hand behind the frame, and the whole picture opened +like a door showing a space within where three or four could stand. +Anthony stepped inside and his friend followed him, and after showing him +some clothes hanging against the wall closed the picture after them, +leaving them in the dark. + +"Now see what a sharp-eyed old fellow he is too," whispered his host. +Anthony looked where he was guided, and perceived two pinholes through +which he could see the whole length of the corridor. + +"Through the centre of each eye," whispered his friend. "Is he not shrewd +and secret? And now turn this way." + +Anthony turned round and saw the opposite wall slowly opening; and in a +moment more he stepped out and found himself in the lobby outside the +little room where he had made the exercises six years ago. He heard a +door close softly as he looked about him in astonishment, and on turning +round saw only an innocent-looking set of shelves with a couple of books +and a little pile of paper and packet of quills upon them. + +"There," said Mr. Buxton, "who would suspect Tacitus his history and +Juvenal his satires of guarding the passage of a Christian ecclesiastic +fleeing for his life?" + +Then he showed him the secret, how one shelf had to be drawn out +steadily, and the nail in another pressed simultaneously, and how then +the entire set of shelves swung open. + +Then they went back and he showed him the spring behind the frame of the +picture. + +"You see the advantage of this," he went on: "on the one side you may +flee upstairs, a treasonable skulking cassocked jack-priest with the +lords and the commons and the Queen's Majesty barking at your heels; and +on the other side you may saunter down the gallery without your beard and +in a murrey doublet, a friend of Mr. Buxton's, taking the air and +wondering what the devil all the clamouring be about." + +Then he took him downstairs again and showed him finally the escape of +which he was most proud--the entrance, designed in the cellar-staircase, +to an underground passage from the cellars, which led, he told him, +across to the garden-house beyond the lime-avenue. + +"That is the pride of my heart," he said, "and maybe will be useful some +day; though I pray not. Ah! her Grace and her honest Council are right. +We Papists are a crafty and deceitful folk, Father Anthony." + + * * * * + +The four grew very intimate during those few weeks; they had many +memories and associations in common on which to build up friendship, and +the aid of a common faith and a common peril with which to cement it. The +gracious beauty of the house and the life at Stanfield, too, gilded it +all with a very charming romance. They were all astonished at the easy +intimacy with which they behaved, one to another. + +Mary Corbet was obliged to return to her duties at Court at the beginning +of September; and she had something of an ache at her heart as the time +drew on; for she had fallen once more seriously in love with Isabel. She +said a word of it to Mr. Buxton. They were walking in the lime-avenue +together after dinner on the last day of Mary's visit. + +"You have a good chaplain," she said; "what an honest lad he is! and how +serious and recollected! Please God he at least may escape their claws!" + +"It is often so," said Mr. Buxton, "with those wholesome out-of-door +boys; they grow up into such simple men of God." + +"And Isabel!" said Mary, rustling round upon him as she walked. "What a +great dame she is become! I used to lie on her bed and kick my heels and +laugh at her; but now I would like to say my prayers to her. She is +somewhat like our Lady herself, so grave and serious, and yet so warm and +tender." + +Mr. Buxton nodded sharply. + +"I felt sure you would feel it," he said. + +"Ah! but I knew her when she was just a child; so simple that I loved to +startle her. But now--but now--those two ladies have done wonders with +her. She has all the splendour of Mary Maxwell, and all the softness of +Margaret." + +"Yes," said the other meditatively; "the two ladies have done it--or, the +grace of God." + +Mary looked at him sideways and her lips twitched a little. + +"Yes--or the grace of God, as you say." + +The two laughed into each other's eyes, for they understood one another +well. Presently Mary went on: + +"When you and I fence together at table, she does not turn frigid like so +many holy folk--or peevish and bewildered like stupid folk--but she just +looks at us, and laughs far down in those deep grey eyes of hers. Oh! I +love her!" ended Mary. + +They walked in silence a minute or two. + +"And I think I do," said Mr. Buxton softly. + +"Eh?" exclaimed Mary, "you do what?" She had quite forgotten her last +sentence. + +"It is no matter," he said yet more softly; and would say no more. + +Presently the talk fell on the Maxwells; and came round to Hubert. + +"They say he would be a favourite at Court," said Mary, "had he not a +wife. But her Grace likes not married men. She looked kindly upon him at +Deptford, I know; and I have seen him at Greenwich. You know, of course, +about Isabel?" + +Mr. Buxton shook his head. + +"Why, it was common talk that they would have been man and wife years +ago, had not the fool apostatised." + +Her companion questioned her further, and soon had the whole story out of +her. "But I am thankful," ended Mary, "that it has so ended." + +The next day she went back to Court; and it was with real grief that the +three watched her wonderful plumed riding-hat trot along behind the top +of the churchyard wall, with her woman beside her, and her little +liveried troop of men following at a distance. + +The days passed by, bringing strange tidings to Stanfield. News continued +to reach the Catholics of the good confessions witnessed here and there +in England by priests and laity. At the end of July, three priests, +Garlick, Ludlam and Sympson, had been executed at Derby, and at the end +of August the defeat of the Armada seemed to encourage Elizabeth yet +further, and Mr. Leigh, a priest, with four laymen and Mistress Margaret +Ward, died for their religion at Tyburn. + +By the end of September the news of the hopeless defeat and disappearance +of the Armada had by now been certified over and over again. Terrible +stories had come in during August of that northward flight of all that +was left of the fleet over the plunging North Sea up into the stormy +coast of Scotland; then rumours began of the miseries that were falling +on the Spaniards off Ireland--Catholic Ireland from which they had hoped +so much. There was scarcely a bay or a cape along the west coast where +some ship had not put in, with piteous entreaties for water and aid--and +scarcely a bay or a cape that was not blood-guilty. Along the straight +coast from Sligo Bay westwards, down the west coast, Clew Bay, Connemara, +and haunted Dingle itself, where the Catholic religion under arms had +been so grievously chastened eight years ago--everywhere half-drowned or +half-starved Spaniards, piteously entreating, were stripped and put to +the sword either by the Irish savages or the English gentlemen. The +church-bells were rung in Stanfield and in every English village, and the +flame of national pride and loyalty burned fiercer and higher than ever. + + * * * * + +On the last day of September Isabel, just before dinner in her room, +heard the trot of a couple of horses coming up the short drive, and on +going downstairs almost ran against Hubert as he came from the corridor +into the hall, as the servant ushered him in. + +The two stopped and looked at one another in silence. + +Hubert was flushed with hard riding and looked excited; Isabel's face +showed nothing but pleasure and surprise. The servant too stopped, +hesitating. + +Then Isabel put out her hand, smiling; and her voice was natural and +controlled. + +"Why, Mr. Hubert," she said, "it is you! Come through this way"; and she +nodded to the servant, who went forward and opened the door of the little +parlour and stood back, as Isabel swept by him. + +When the door was closed, and the servant's footsteps had died away, +Hubert, as he stood facing Isabel, spoke at last. + +"Mistress Isabel," he said almost imploringly, "what can I say to you? +Your home has been wrecked; and partly through those wild and foolish +words of mine; and you repay it by that act of kindness to my wife! I am +come to ask your pardon, and to thank you. I only reached home last +night." + +"Ah! that was nothing," said Isabel gently; "and as for the house----" + +"As for the house," he said, "I was not master of myself when I said +those words that Grace told you of; and I entreat you to let me repair +the damage." + +"No, no," she said, "Anthony has given orders; that will all be done." + +"But what can I do then?" he cried passionately; "if you but knew my +sorrow--and--and--more than that, my----" + +Isabel had raised her grave eyes and was looking him full in the face +now; and he stopped abashed. + +"How is Grace, and Mercy?" she asked in perfectly even tones. + +"Oh! Isabel----" he began; and again she looked at him, and then went to +the door. + +"I hear Mr. Buxton," she said; and steps came along through the hall; she +opened the door as he came up. Mr. Buxton stopped abruptly, and the two +men drew themselves up and seemed to stiffen, ever so slightly. A shade +of aggressive contempt came on Hubert's keen brown face that towered up +so near the low oak ceiling; while Mr. Buxton's eyelids just drooped, and +his features seemed to sharpen. There was an unpleasant silence: Isabel +broke it. + +"You remember Master Hubert Maxwell?" she said almost entreatingly. He +smiled kindly at her, but his face hardened again as he turned once more +to Hubert. + +"I remember the gentleman perfectly," he said, "and he no doubt knows me, +and why I cannot ask him to remain and dine with us." + +Hubert smiled brutally. + +"It is the old story of course, the Faith! I must ask your pardon, sir, +for intruding. The difficulty never came into my mind. The truth is that +I have lived so long now among Protestants that I had quite forgotten +what Catholic charity is like!" + +He said this with such extreme bitterness and fury that Isabel put out +her hand instinctively to Mr. Buxton, who smiled at her once more, and +pressed it in his own. Hubert laughed again sharply; his face grew white +under the tan, and his lips wrinkled back once or twice. + +"So, if you can spare me room to pass," he went on in the same tone, "I +will begone to the inn." + +Mr. Buxton stepped aside from the door, and Hubert bowed to Isabel so low +that it was almost an insult in itself, and strode out, his spurs ringing +on the oak boards. + +When he half turned outside the front door to beckon to his groom to +bring up the horses, he became aware that Isabel was beside him. + +"Hubert," she said, "Hubert, I cannot bear this." + +There were tears in her voice, and he could not help turning and looking +at her. Her face, more grave and transparent than ever, was raised to +his; her red down-turned lips were trembling, and her eyes were full of a +great emotion. He turned away again sharply. + +"Hubert," she said again, "I was not born a Catholic, and I do not feel +like Mr. Buxton. And--and I do thank you for coming; and for your desire +to repair the house; and--and will you give my love to Grace?" + +Then he suddenly turned to her with such passion in his eyes that she +shrank back. At the same moment the groom brought up the horses; he +turned and mounted without a word, but his eyes were dim with love and +anger and jealousy. Then he drove his spurs into his great grey mare, and +Isabel watched him dash between the iron gates, with his groom only half +mounted holding back his own plunging horse. Then she went within doors +again. + + + + + CHAPTER V + + JOSEPH LACKINGTON + + +It was a bitter ride back to Great Keynes for Hubert. He had just +returned from watching the fifty vessels, which were all that were left +of the Great Armada, pass the Blaskets, still under the nominal command +of Medina Sidonia, on their miserable return to Spain; and he had come +back as fast as sails could carry him, round the stormy Land's-End up +along the south coast to Rye, where on his arrival he had been almost +worshipped by the rejoicing townsfolk. Yet all through his voyage and +adventures, at any rate since his interview with her at Rye, it had been +the face of Isabel there, and not of Grace, that had glimmered to him in +the dark, and led him from peril to peril. Then, at last, on his arrival +at home, he had heard of the disaster to the Dower House, and his own +unintended share in it; and of Isabel's generous visit to his wife; and +at that he had ordered his horse abruptly over-night and ridden off +without a word of explanation to Grace on the following morning. And he +had been met by a sneering man who would not sit at table with him, and +who was the protector and friend of Isabel. + + * * * * + +He rode up through the village just after dark and in through the +gatehouse up to the steps. A man ran to open the door, and as Hubert came +through told him that a stranger had ridden down from London and had +arrived at mid-day, and that he had been waiting ever since. + +"I gave the gentleman dinner in the cloister parlour, sir; and he is at +supper now," added the man. + +Hubert nodded and pushed through the hall. He heard his name called +timidly from upstairs, and looking up saw his wife's golden head over the +banisters. + +"Well!" he said. + +"Ah, it is you. I am so glad." + +"Who else should it be?" said Hubert, and passed through towards the +cloister wing, and opened the door of the little parlour where Isabel and +Mistress Margaret had sat together years before, the night of Mr. James' +return, and of the girl's decision. + +A stranger rose up hastily as he came in, and bowed with great deference. +Hubert knew his face, but could not remember his name. + +"I ask your pardon, Mr. Maxwell; but your man would take no denial," and +he indicated the supper-table with a steaming dish and a glass jug of +wine ruddy in the candlelight. Hubert looked at him curiously. + +"I know you, sir," he said, "but I cannot put a name to your face." + +"Lackington," said the man with a half smile; "Joseph Lackington." + +Hubert still stared; and then suddenly burst into a short laugh. + +"Why, yes," he said; "I know now. My father's servant." + +The man bowed. + +"Formerly, sir; and now agent to Sir Francis Walsingham," he said, with +something of dignity in his manner. + +Hubert saw the hint, but could not resist a small sneer. + +"Why, I am pleased to see you," he said. "You have come to see your +old--home?" and he threw himself into a chair and stretched his legs to +the blaze, for he was stiff with riding. Lackington instantly sat down +too, for his pride was touched. + +"It was not for that, Mr. Maxwell," he said almost in the tone of an +equal, "but on a mission for Sir Francis." + +Hubert looked at him a moment as he sat there in the candlelight, with +his arm resting easily on the table. He was plainly prosperous, and was +even dressed with some distinction; his reddish beard was trimmed to a +point; his high forehead was respectably white and bald; and his seals +hung from his belt beside his dagger with an air of ease and solidity. +Perhaps he was of some importance; at any rate, Sir Francis Walsingham +was. Hubert sat up a little. + +"A mission to me?" he said. + +Lackington nodded. + +"A few questions on a matter of state." + +He drew from his pouch a paper signed by Sir Francis authorising him as +an agent, for one month, and dated three days back; and handed it to +Hubert. + +"I obtained that from Sir Francis on Monday, as you will see. You can +trust me implicitly." + +"Will the business take long?" asked Hubert, handing the paper back. + +"No, Mr. Maxwell; and I must be gone in an hour in any case. I have to be +at Rye at noon to-morrow; and I must sleep at Mayfield to-night." + +"At Rye," said Hubert, "why I came from there yesterday." + +Lackington bowed again, as if he were quite aware of this; but said +nothing. + +"Then I will sup here," went on Hubert, "and we will talk meantime." + +When a place had been laid for him, he drew his chair round to the table +and began to eat. + +"May I begin at once?" asked Lackington, who had finished. + +Hubert nodded. + +"Then first I believe it to be a fact that you spoke with Mistress Isabel +Morris on board the _Elizabeth_ at Rye on the tenth of August last." + +Hubert had started violently at her name; but did his utmost to gain +outward command of himself again immediately. + +"Well?" he said. + +--"And with Master Anthony Norris, lately made a priest beyond the seas." + +"That is a lie," said Hubert. + +Lackington politely lifted his eyebrows. + +"Indeed?" he said. "That he was made a priest, or that you spoke with +him?" + +"That I know aught of him," said Hubert. His heart was beating furiously. + +Lackington made a note rather ostentatiously; he could see that Hubert +was frightened, and thought that it was because of a possible accusation +of having dealings with a traitor. + +"And as regards Mistress Norris," he said judicially, with his pencil +raised, "you deny having spoken with her?" + +Hubert was thinking furiously. Then he saw that Lackington knew too much +for its being worth his own while to deny it. + +"No, I never denied that," he said, lifting his fork to his mouth; and he +went on eating with a deliberate ease as Lackington again made a note. + +The next question was a home-thrust. + +"Where are they both now?" asked Lackington, looking at him. Hubert's +mind laboured like a mill. + +"I do not know," he said. + +"You swear it?" + +"I swear it." + +"Then Mistress Norris has changed her plans?" said Lackington swiftly. + +"What do you mean by that?" + +"Why she told you where they were going when you met?" said the other in +a remonstrating tone. + +Hubert suddenly saw the game. If the authorities really knew that, it +would have been a useless question. He stared at Lackington with an +admirable vacancy. + +"Indeed she did not," he said. "For aught I know, they--she is in France +again." + +"They?" said Lackington shrewdly. "Then you do know somewhat of the +priest?" + +But Hubert was again too sharp. + +"Only what you told me just now, when you said he was at Rye. I supposed +you were telling the truth." + +Lackington passed his hand smoothly over his mouth and beard, and smiled. +Either Hubert was very sharp or else he had told everything; and he did +not believe him sharp. + +"Thank you, Mr. Maxwell," he said, with a complete dropping of his +judicial manner. "I will not pretend not to be disappointed; but I +believe what you say about France is true; and that it is no use looking +for him further." + +Hubert experienced an extraordinary relief. He had saved Isabel. He drank +off a glass of claret. "Tell me everything," he said. + +"Well," said Lackington, "Mr. Thomas Hamon is my informant. He sent up to +Sir Francis the message that a lady of the name of Norris had been +introduced to him at Rye; because he thought he remembered some stir in +the county several years ago about some reconciliations to Rome connected +with that name. Of course we knew everything about that: and we have our +agents at the seminaries too; so we concluded that she was one of our +birds; the rest, of course, was guesswork. Mr. Norris has certainly left +Douai for England; and he may possibly even now be in England; but from +your information and others', I now believe that Mistress Isabel came +across first, and that she found the country too hot, what with the +Spaniards and all; and that she returned to France at once. Of course +during that dreadful week, Mr. Maxwell, we could not be certain of all +vessels that came and went; so I think she just slipped across again; and +that they are both waiting in France. We shall keep good watch now at the +ports, I can promise you." + +Hubert's emotions were varied during this speech. First shame at having +entirely forgotten the mayor of Rye and his own introduction of Isabel to +him; then astonishment at the methods of Walsingham's agents; and lastly +intense triumph and relief at having put them off Isabel's track. For +Anthony, too, he had nothing but kindly feelings; so, on the whole, he +thought he had done well for his friends. + +The two talked a little longer; Lackington was a stimulating companion +from both his personality and his position; and Hubert found himself +almost sorry when his companion said he must be riding on to Mayfield. As +he walked out with him to the front door, he suddenly thought of Mr. +Buxton again and his reception in the afternoon. They had wandered in +their conversation so far from the Norrises by now that he felt sure he +could speak of him without doing them any harm. So, as they stood on the +steps together, waiting for Lackington's horse to come round, he suddenly +said: + +"Do you know aught of one Buxton, who lives somewhere near Tonbridge, I +think?" + +"Buxton, Buxton?" said the other. + +"I met him in town once," went on Hubert smoothly; "a little man, dark, +with large eyes, and looks somewhat like a Frenchman." + +"Buxton, Buxton?" said the other again. "A Papist, is he not?" + +"Yes," said Hubert, hoping to get some information against him. + +"A friend?" asked Lackington. + +"No," said Hubert with such vehemence that Lackington looked at him. + +"I remember him," he said in a moment; "he was imprisoned at Wisbeach six +or seven years ago. But I do not think he has been in trouble since. You +wish, you wish----?" he went on interrogatively. + +"Nothing," said Hubert; but Lackington saw the hatred in his eyes. + +The horses came round at this moment; and Lackington said good-bye to +Hubert with a touch of the old deference again, and mounted. Hubert +watched him out under the gatehouse-lamp into the night beyond, and then +he went in again, pondering. + +His wife was waiting for him in the hall now--a delicate golden-haired +figure, with pathetic blue eyes turned up to him. She ran to him and took +his arm timidly in her two hands. + +"Oh! I am glad that man has gone, Hubert." + +He looked down at her almost contemptuously. + +"Why, you know nothing of him!" he said. + +"Not much," she said, "but he asked me so many questions." + +Hubert started and looked suddenly at her, in terror. + +"Oh, Hubert!" she said, shrinking back frightened. + +"Questions!" he said, seizing her hands. "Questions of whom?" + +"Of--of--Mistress Isabel Norris," she said, almost crying. + +"And--and--what did you say? Did you tell him?" + +"Oh, Hubert!--I am so sorry--ah! do not look like that." + +"What did you say? What did you say?" he said between his teeth. + +"I--I--told a lie, Hubert; I said I had never seen her." + +Hubert took his wife suddenly in his two arms and kissed her three or +four times. + +"You darling, you darling!" he said; and then stooped and picked her up, +and carried her upstairs, with her head against his cheek, and her tears +running down because he was pleased with her, instead of angry. + +They went upstairs and he set her down softly outside the nursery door. + +"Hush," she said, smiling up at him; and then softly opened the door and +listened, her finger on her lip; there was no sound from within; then she +pushed the door open gently, and the wife and husband went in. + +There was a shaded taper still burning in a high bracket where an image +of the Mother of God had stood in the Catholic days of the house. Hubert +glanced up at it and remembered it, with just a touch at his heart. +Beneath it was a little oak cot, where his four-year-old boy lay +sleeping; the mother went across and bent over it, and Hubert leaned his +brown sinewy hands on the end of the cot and watched him. There his son +lay, with tangled curls on the pillow; his finger was on his lips as if +he bade silence even to thought. Hubert looked up, and just above the +bed, where the crucifix used to hang when he himself had slept in this +nursery, probably on the very same nail, he thought to himself, was a +rusty Spanish spur that he himself had found in a sea-chest of the _San +Juan_. The boy had hung up with a tarry bit of string this emblem of his +father's victory, as a protection while he slept. + +The child stirred in his sleep and murmured as the two watched him. + +"Father's home again," whispered the mother. "It is all well. Go to sleep +again." + +When she looked up again to her husband, he was gone. + + * * * * + +It was not often that Hubert had regrets for the Faith he had lost; but +to-night things had conspired to prick him. There was his rebuff from Mr. +Buxton; there was the sight of Isabel in the dignified grace that he had +noticed so plainly before; there had been the interview with the +ex-Catholic servant, now a spy of the Government, and a remorseless enemy +of all Catholics; and lastly there were the two little external reminders +of the niche and the nail over his son's bed. + +He sat long before the fire in Sir Nicholas' old room, now his own study. +As he lay back and looked about him, how different this all was, too! The +mantelpiece was almost unaltered; the Maxwell devices, two-headed eagles, +hurcheons and saltires, on crowded shields, interlaced with the motto +_Reviresco_, all newly gilded since his own accession to the estate, rose +up in deep shadow and relief; but over it, instead of the little old +picture of the Vernacle that he remembered as a child, hung his own +sword. Was that a sign of progress? he wondered. The tapestry on the east +wall was the same, a hawking scene with herons and ladies in immense +headdresses that he had marvelled at as a boy. But then the books on the +shelves to the right of the door, they were different; there had been old +devotional books in his father's time, mingled strangely with small works +on country life and sports; now the latter only remained, and the nearest +to a devotional book was a volume of a mystical herbalist who identified +plants with virtues, strangely and ingeniously. Then the prie-dieu, where +the beads had hung and the little wooden shield with the Five Wounds +painted upon it--that was gone; and in its place hung a cupboard where he +kept a crossbow and a few tools for it; and old hawk-lures and jesses and +the like. + +Then he lay back again, and thought. + +Had he then behaved unworthily? This old Faith that had been handed down +from father and son for generations; that had been handed to him too as +the most precious heirloom of all--for which his father had so gladly +suffered fines and imprisonment, and risked death--he had thrown it over, +and for what? For Isabel, he confessed to himself; and then the--the +Power that stands behind the visible had cheated him and withdrawn that +for which he had paid over that great price. Was that a reckless and +brutal bargain on his side--to throw over this strange delicate thing +called the Faith for which so many millions had lived and died, all for a +woman's love? A curious kind of family pride in the Faith began to prick +him. After all, was not honour in a manner bound up with it too; and most +of all when such heavy penalties attached themselves to the profession of +it? Was that the moment when he should be the first of his line to +abandon it? + +_Reviresco_--"I renew my springtide." But was not this a strange +grafting--a spur for a crucifix, a crossbow for a place of prayer? +_Reviresco_--There was sap indeed in the old tree; but from what soil did +it draw its strength? + +His heart began to burn with something like shame, as it had burned now +and again at intervals during these past years. Here he lay back in his +father's chair, in his father's room, the first Protestant of the +Maxwells. Then he passed on to a memory. + +As he closed his eyes, he could see even now the chapel upstairs, with +the tapers alight and the stiff figure of the priest in the midst of the +glow; he could smell the flowers on the altar, the June roses strewn on +the floor in the old manner, and their fresh dewy scent mingled with the +fragrance of the rich incense in an intoxicating chord; he could hear the +rustle that emphasised the silence, as his mother rose from his side and +went up for communion, and the breathing of the servants behind him. + +Then for contrast he remembered the whitewashed church where he attended +now with his wife, Sunday by Sunday, the pulpit occupied by the black +figure of the virtuous Mr. Bodder pronouncing his discourse, the great +texts that stood out in their new paint from the walls, the table that +stood out unashamed and sideways in the midst of the chancel. And which +of the two worships was most like God?... + +Then he compared the worshippers in either mode. Well, Drake, his hero, +was a convinced Protestant; the bravest man he had ever met or dreamed +of--fiery, pertinacious, gloriously insolent. He thought of his sailors, +on whom a portion of Drake's spirit fell, their gallantry, their +fearlessness of death and of all that comes after; of Mr. Bodder, who was +now growing middle-aged in the Vicarage--yes, indeed, they were all +admirable in various ways, but were they like Christ? + +On the other hand, his father, in spite of his quick temper, his mother, +brother, aunt, the priests who came and went by night, Isabel--and at +that he stopped: and like a deep voice in his ear rose up the last +tremendous question, What if the Catholic Religion be true after all? And +at that the supernatural began to assert itself. It seemed as if the +empty air were full of this question, rising in intensity and emphasis. +What if it is true? What if it is true? _What if it is true?_ + +He sat bolt upright and looked sharply round the room; the candles burned +steadily in the sconce near the door. The tapestry lifted and dropped +noiselessly in the draught; the dark corners beyond the press and in the +window recesses suggested presences that waited; the wide chimney sighed +suddenly once. + +Was that a voice in his ear just now, or only in his heart? But in either +case---- + +He made an effort to command himself, and looked again steadily round the +room; but there seemed no one there. But what if the old tale be true? In +that case he is not alone in this little oak room, for there is no such +thing as loneliness. In that case he is sitting in full sight of Almighty +God, whom he has insulted; and of the saints whose power he has +repudiated; and of the angels good and bad who have---- Ah! what was +that? There had seemed to come a long sigh somewhere behind him; on his +left surely.--What was it? Some wandering soul? Was it, could it be the +soul of one who had loved him and desired to warn him before it was too +late? Could it have been----and then it came again; and the hair prickled +on his head. + +How deathly still it is, and how cold! Ah! was that a rustle outside; a +tap?... In God's name, who can that be?... + +And then Hubert licked his dry lips and brought them together and smiled +at Grace, who had come down, opening the doors as she came, to see why he +had not come to bed. + +Bah! what a superstitious fool he was, after all! + + + + + CHAPTER VI + + A DEPARTURE + + +The months went by happily at Stanfield; and, however ill went the +fortunes of the Church elsewhere, here at least were peace and +prosperity. Most discouraging news indeed did reach them from time to +time. The severe penalties now enacted against the practice of the +Catholic Religion were being enforced with great vigour, and the weak +members of the body began to fail. Two priests had apostatised at +Chichester earlier in the year, one of them actually at the scaffold on +Broyle Heath; and then in December there were two more recantations at +Paul's Cross. Those Catholics too who threw up the Faith generally became +the most aggressive among the persecutors, to testify to their own +consciences, as well to the Protestants, of the sincerity of their +conversion. + +But in Stanfield the Church flourished, and Anthony had the great +happiness of receiving his first convert in the person of Mr. Rowe, the +young owner of a house called East Maskells, separated from Stanfield +Place by a field-path of under a mile in length, though the road round +was over two; and the comings and goings were frequent now between the +two houses. Mr. Rowe was at present unmarried, and had his aunt to keep +house for him, a tolerant old maiden lady who had conformed placidly to +the Reformed Religion thirty years before, and was now grown content with +it. Several "schismatics" too--as those Catholics were called who +attended their parish church--had waxed bolder, and given up their +conformity to the Establishment; so it was a happy and courageous flock +that gathered Sunday by Sunday at Stanfield Place. + + * * * * + +Just before Christmas, Anthony received a long and affectionate letter +from James Maxwell, who was still at Douai. + +"The Rector will still have me here," he wrote, "and shows me to the +young men as if I were a kind of warrior; which is bad for pride; but +then he humbles me again by telling me I am of more use here as an +example, than I should be in England; and that humbles me again. So I am +content to stay. It is a humbling thing, too, to find young men who can +tell me the history of my arms and legs better than I know it myself. But +the truth is, I can never walk well again--yet _laudetur Jesus +Christus_." + +Then James Maxwell wrote a little about his grief for Hubert; gave a +little news of foreign movements among the Catholics; and finally ended +as follows: + +"At last I understand who your friend was behind Bow Church, who +stuttered and played the Catholic so well. It was our old servant +Lackington; who turned Protestant and entered Walsingham's service. I +hear all this from one P. lately in the same affairs, but now turned to +Christ his service instead; and who has entered here as a student. So +beware of him; he has a pointed beard now, and a bald forehead. I hear, +too, from the same source that he was on your track when you landed, but +now thinks you to be in France. However, he knows of you; so I counsel +you not to abide over long in one place. Perhaps you may go to +Lancashire; that is like heaven itself for Catholics. Their zeal and +piety there are beyond praise; but I hear they somewhat lack priests. God +keep you always, my dear Brother; and may the Queen of Heaven intercede +for you. Pray for me." + + * * * * + +Soon after the New Year, Mary Corbet was able to get away from Court and +come down again to her friends for a month or two at Stanfield. + +During her stay they all had an adventure together at East Maskells. They +had been out a long expedition into the woods one clear frosty day and +rode in just at sunset for an early supper with Mr. Rowe and his aunt. + +They had left their horses at the stable and come in round the back of +the house; so that they missed the servant Miss Rowe had placed at the +front door to warn them, and came straight into the winter-parlour, where +they found Miss Rowe in conversation with an ecclesiastic. There was no +time to retreat; and Anthony in a moment more found himself being +introduced to a minister he had met at Lambeth more than once--the +Reverend Robert Carr, who had held the odd title of "Archbishop's Curate" +and the position of minister in charge of the once collegiate church of +All Saints', Maidstone, ever since the year '59. He had ridden up from +Maidstone for supper and lodging, and was on his way to town. + +Anthony managed to interrupt Miss Rowe before she came to his assumed +name Capell, and remarked rather loudly that he had met Mr. Carr before; +who recognised him too, and greeted him by his real name. + +It was an uncomfortable situation, as Mr. Carr was quite unaware of the +religion of five out of six of those present, and very soon began to give +voice to his views on Papistry. He was an oldish man by now, and of some +importance in Maidstone, where he had been appointed Jurat by the +Corporation, and was a very popular and influential man. + +"The voice of the people," he said in the midst of a conversation on the +national feeling towards Spain, "that is what we must hearken to. Even +sovereigns themselves must come to that some day. They must rule by +obeying; as man does with God's laws in nature." + +"Would you say that, sir, of her Grace?" asked Mary Corbet meekly. + +"I should, madam; though I fear she has injured her power by her +behaviour this year. It was her people who saved her.--Hawkins, who is +now ruined as he says; my lord Howard, who has paid from his own purse +for the meat and drink of her Grace's soldiers, and those who fought with +them; and not her Grace, who saved them; or Leicester, now gone to his +account, who sat at Tilbury and did the bowing and the prancing and the +talking while Hawkins and the rest did the fighting. No, madam, it is the +voice of the people to which we must hearken." + +This was rather confused and dangerous talking too; but here was plainly +a man to be humoured; he looked round him with a suffused face and the +eye of a cock, and a little white plume on his forehead increased his +appearance of pugnacity. + +"It is the same in religion," he said, when all preserved a deferential +silence; "it is that that lies at the root of papist errors. As you know +very well," he went on, turning suddenly on Anthony, "our bishops do +nothing to guide men's minds; they only seem to: they ride atop like the +figure on a cock-horse, but it is the legs beneath that do the work and +the guiding too: now that is right and good; and the Church of England +will prosper so long as she goes like that. But if the bishops try to +rule they will find their mistake. Now the Popish Church is not like +that; she holds that power comes from above, that the Pope guides the +bishops, the bishops the priests, and the priests the people." + +"And the Holy Ghost the Pope; is it not so, sir?" asked Mr. Buxton. + +Mr. Carr turned an eye on him. + +"So they hold, sir," he said after a pause. + +"They think then, sir, that the shepherds guide the sheep?" asked Anthony +humbly. + +Mary Corbet gave a yelp of laughter; but when Mr. Carr looked at her she +was grave and deferential again. Miss Rowe looked entreatingly from face +to face. The minister did not notice Anthony's remark; but swept on again +on what was plainly his favourite theme,--the infallibility of the +people. It was a doctrine that was hardly held yet by any; but the next +century was to see its gradual rise until it reached its climax in the +Puritanism of the Stuart times. It was true, as Mr. Carr said, that +Elizabeth had ruled by obeying; and that the people of England, +encouraged by success in resisting foreign domination, were about to pass +on to the second position of resisting any domination at all. + +Presently he pulled out of his pocket a small printed sheet, and was soon +declaiming from it. It was not very much to the point, except as +illustrating the national spirit which he believed so divine. It was a +ballad describing the tortures which the Spaniards had intended to +inflict upon the heretic English, and began: + + "All you that list to look and see + What profit comes from Spain, + And what the Pope and Spaniards both + Prepared for our gain. + Then turn your eyes and lend your ears + And you shall hear and see + What courteous minds, what gentle hearts, + They bear to thee and me! + +And it ended in the same spirit: + + "Be these the men that are so mild + Whom some so holy call! + The Lord defend our noble Queen + And country from them all!" + +"There!" the minister cried when he had done, "that is what the Papists +are like! Trust me; I know them. I should know one in a moment if he +ventured into this room, by his crafty face. But the Lord will defend His +own Englishmen; nay! He has done so. 'God blew and they were scattered,'" +he ended, quoting from the Armada medal. + + * * * * + +As the four rode home by pairs across the field-path in the frosty +moonlight Mr. Buxton lamented to Anthony the effect of the Armada. + +"The national spirit is higher than ever," he said, "and it will be the +death of Catholicism here for the present. Our country squires, I fear, +faithful Catholics to this time, are beginning to wonder and question. +When will our Catholic kings learn that Christ His Kingdom is not of this +world? Philip has smitten the Faith in England with the weapon which he +drew in its defence, as he thought." + +"I was once of that national spirit myself," said Anthony. + +"I remember you were," said Mr. Buxton, smiling; "and what grace has done +to you it may do to others." + + * * * * + +The spring went by, and in the week after Easter, James' news about +Lancashire was verified by a letter from a friend of Mr. Buxton's, a Mr. +Norreys, the owner of one of the staunch Catholic houses, Speke Hall, on +the bank of the Mersey. + +"Here," he wrote, "by the mercy of God there is no lack of priests, +though there be none to spare; my own chaplain says mass by dispensation +thrice on Sunday; but on the moors the sheep look up and are not fed; and +such patient sheep! I heard but last week of a church where the folk +resort, priest or no, each Sunday to the number of two hundred, and are +led by a lector in devotion, ending with an act of spiritual communion +made all together. These damnable heresies of which the apostle wrote +have not poisoned the springs of sound doctrine; some of us here know +naught yet of Elizabeth and her supremacy, or even of seven-wived Harry +his reformation. Send us then, dear friend, a priest, or at least the +promise of one; lest we perish quite." + +Mr. Buxton had a sore struggle with himself over this letter; but at last +he carried it to Anthony. + +"Read that," he said; and stood waiting. + +Anthony looked up when he had done. + +"I am your chaplain," he said, "but I am God's priest first." + +"Yes, dear lad," said his friend, "I feared you would say so; and I will +say so to Norreys"; and he left the room at once. + +And so at last it came to be arranged that Anthony should leave for +Lancashire at the end of July; and that after his departure Stanfield +should be served occasionally by the priest who lived on the outskirts of +Tonbridge; but the daily mass would have to cease, and that was a sore +trouble to Mr. Buxton. No definite decision could be made as to when +Anthony could return; that must wait until he saw the needs of +Lancashire; but he hoped to be able at least to pay a visit to Stanfield +again in the spring of the following year. + +It was arranged also, of course, that Isabel should accompany her +brother. They were both of large independent means, and could travel in +some dignity; and her presence would be under these circumstances a +protection as well as a comfort to Anthony. It would need very great +sharpness to detect the seminary priest under Anthony's disguise, and +amid the surroundings of his cavalcade of four or five armed servants, a +French maid, and a distinguished-looking lady. + +Yet, in spite of this, Mr. Buxton resolved to do his utmost to prevent +Isabel from going to Lancashire; partly, of course, he disliked the +thought of the dangers and hardships that she was certain to encounter; +but the real motive was that he had fallen very deeply in love with her. +It was her exceptional serenity that seemed to him her greatest charm; +her movements, her face, her grey eyes, the very folds of her dress +seemed to breathe with it; and to one of Mr. Buxton's temperament such a +presence was cool and sweet and strangely fascinating. + +It was now April, and he resolved to devote the next month or two to +preparing her for his proposal; and he wrote frankly to Mary Corbet +telling her how matters stood, entreating her to come down for July and +counsel him. Mary wrote back at once, rather briefly, promising to come; +but not encouraging him greatly. + +"I would I could cheer you more," she wrote; "of course I have not seen +Isabel since January; but, unless she has changed, I do not think she +will marry you. I am writing plainly you see, as you ask in your letter. +But I can still say, God prosper you." + + * * * * + +As the spring went by and the summer came on, Isabel grew yet more +silent. As the evenings began to lengthen out she used to spend much time +before and after supper in walking up and down the clipped lime avenue +between the east end of the church and the great gates that looked over +the meadows across which the stream and the field-path ran towards East +Maskells. Mr. Buxton would watch her sometimes from an upstairs window, +himself unseen, and occasionally would go out and talk with her; but he +found it harder than he used to get on to intimate relations; and he +began to suspect that he had displeased her in some way, and that Mary +Corbet was right. In the afternoon she and Anthony would generally ride +out together, once or twice going round by Penshurst, and their host +would torture himself by his own indecision as regards accompanying them; +sometimes doing so, sometimes refraining, and regretting whichever he +did. More and more he began to look forward to Mary's coming and the +benefit of her advice; and at last, at the end of June, she came. + +Their first evening together was delightful for them all. She was happy +at her escape from Court; her host was happy at the prospect of her +counsel; and all four were happy at being together again. + +They did not meet till supper, and even that was put off an hour, because +Mary had not come, and when she did arrive she was full of excitement. + +"I will tell you all at supper," she said to her host, whom she met in +the hall. "Oh! how late I am!" and she whirled past him and upstairs +without another word. + + * * * * + +"I will first give you the news in brief," she said, when Anthony had +said grace and they were seated, all four of them as before; and the +trumpet-flourish was silent that had announced the approach of the +venison. + +"Mutton's new chaplain, Dr. Bancroft, will be in trouble soon; he hath +been saying favourable things for some of us poor papists, and hath rated +the Precisians soundly. Sir Francis Knollys is wroth with him; but that +is no matter.--Her Grace played at cards till two of the clock this +morning, and that is why I am so desperate sleepy to-night, for I had to +sit up too; and that is a great matter.--Drake and Norris, 'tis said, +have whipped the dons again at Corunna; and the Queen has sworn to pull +my lord Essex his ears for going with them and adventuring his precious +self; and that is no matter at all, but will do him good.--George +Luttrell hath put up a coat of arms in his hall at Dunster, which is a +great matter to him, but to none else;--and I have robbed a highwayman +this day in the beech woods this side of Groombridge." + +"Dear lady," said Mr. Buxton resignedly, as the others looked up +startled, "you are too swift for our dull rustic ears; we will begin at +the end, if you please. Is it true you have robbed an highwayman?" + +"It is perfectly true," she said, and unlatched a ruby brooch, made +heart-shape, from her dress. "There is the plunder," and she held it out +for inspection. + +"Then tell us the tale," said Anthony. + +"It would be five of the clock," said Mary, "as we came through +Groombridge, and then into the woods beyond. I had bidden my knaves ride +on before with my woman; I came down into a dingle where there was a +stream; and, to tell the truth, I had my head down and was a-nodding, +when my horse stopped; and I looked up of a sudden and there was a man on +a bay mare, with a mask to his mouth, a gay green suit, a brown beard +turning grey, and this ruby brooch at his throat; and he had caught my +bridle. I saw him start when I lifted my head, as if he were taken aback. +I said nothing, but he led my horse off the road down among the trees +with a deep little thicket where none could see us. As we went I was +thinking like a windmill; for I knew I had seen the little red brooch +before. + +"When we reached the little open space, I asked him what he wished with +me. + +"'Your purse, madam,' said he. + +"'My woman hath it,' said I. + +"'Your jewels then, madam,' said he. + +"'My woman hath them,' said I, 'save this paste buckle in my hat, to +which you are welcome.' It was diamonds, you know; but I knew he would +not know that. + +"'What a mistake,' I said, 'to stop the mistress and let the maid go +free!' + +"'Nay,' he said, 'I am glad of it; for at least I will have a dance with +the mistress; and I could not with the maid.' + +"'You are welcome to that,' I said, and I slipped off my horse, to humour +him, and even as I slipped off I knew who he was, for although many have +red brooches, and many brown beards turning grey, few have both together; +but I said nothing. And there--will you believe it?--we danced under the +beech-trees like Phyllis and Corydon, or whoever they are that Sidney is +always prating of; or like two fools, I would sooner say. Then when we +had done, I made him a curtsey. + +"'Now you must help me up,' said I, and he mounted me without a word, for +he was a stoutish gallant and somewhat out of breath. And then what did +the fool do but try to kiss me, and as he lifted his arm I snatched the +brooch and put spur to my horse, and as we went up the bank I screamed at +him, 'Claude, you fool, go home to your wife and take shame to yourself.' +And when I was near the road I looked back, and he still stood there all +agape." + +"And what was his name?" asked Anthony. + +"Nay, nay, I have mocked him enough. And I know four Claudes, so you need +not try to guess." + + * * * * + +When supper was over, Mr. Buxton and Mary walked up and down the south +path of the garden between the yews, while the other two sat just outside +the hall window on a seat placed on the tiled terrace that ran round the +house. + +"How I have longed for you to come, Mistress Mary," he said, "and counsel +me of the matter we wrote about. Tell me what to do." + +Mary looked meditatively out to the strip of moon that was rising out to +the east in the June sky. Then she looked tenderly at her friend. + +"I hate to pain you," she said, "but cannot you see that it is +impossible? I may be wrong; but I think her heart is so given to our +Saviour that there is no love of that sort left." + +"Ah, how can you say that?" he cried; "the love of the Saviour does not +hinder earthly love; it purifies and transfigures it." + +"Yes," said Mary gravely, "it is often so--but the love of the true +spouse of Christ is different. That leaves no room for an earthly +bridegroom." + +Mr. Buxton was silent a moment or two. + +"You mean it is the love of the consecrated soul?" + +Mary bowed her head. "But I cannot be sure," she added. + +"Then what shall I do?" he said again, almost piteously; and Mary could +see even in the faint moonlight that his pleasant face was all broken up +and quivering. She laid her hand gently on his arm, and her rings +flashed. + +"You must be very patient," she said, "very full of deference--and grave. +You must not be ardent nor impetuous, but speak slowly and reverently to +her, but at no great length; be plain with her; do not look in her face, +and do not show anxiety or despair or hope. You need not fear that your +love will not be plain to her. Indeed, I think she knows it already." + +"Why, I have not----" he began. + +"I know you have not spoken to her; but I saw that she only looked at you +once during supper, and that was when your face was turned from her; she +does not wish to look you in the eyes." + +"Ah, she hates me," he sighed. + +"Do not be foolish," said Mary, "she honours you, and loves you, and is +grieved for your grief; but I do not think she will marry you." + +"And when shall I speak?" he asked. + +"You must wait; God will make the opportunity--in any case. You must not +attempt to make it. That would terrify her." + +"And you will speak for me." + +Mary smiled at him. + +"Dear friend," she said, "sometimes I think you do not know us at all. Do +you not see that Isabel is greater than all that? What she knows, she +knows. I could tell her nothing." + + * * * * + +The days passed on; the days of the last month of the Norrises' stay at +Stanfield. Half-way through the month came the news of the Oxford +executions. + +"Ah! listen to this," cried Mr. Buxton, coming out to them one evening in +the garden with a letter in his hand. "'Humphrey Prichard,'" he read, +"'made a good end. He protested he was condemned for the Catholic Faith; +that he willingly died for it; that he was a Catholic. One of their +ministers laughed at him, saying he was a poor ignorant fellow who knew +not what it was to be a Catholic. 'I know very well;' said Humphrey, +'though I cannot say it in proper divinity language.' There is the +Religion for you!" went on Mr. Buxton; "all meet there, wise and simple +alike. There is no difference; no scholarship is needed for faith. 'I +know what it is,' cried Humphrey, 'though I cannot explain it!'" + +The news came to Anthony just when he needed it; he felt he had done so +little to teach his flock now he was to leave them; but if he had only +done something to keep alive the fire of faith, he had not lost his time; +and so he went about his spiritual affairs with new heart, encouraging +the wavering, whom he was to leave, warning the over-confident, urging +the hesitating, and saying good-bye to them all. Isabel went with him +sometimes; or sometimes walked or rode with Mary, and was silent for the +most part in public. The master of the house himself did his affairs, and +carried a heavier heart each day. And at last the opportunity came which +Mary had predicted. + +He had come in one evening after a hot ride alone over to Tonbridge on +some business with the priest there; and had dressed for supper +immediately on coming in. + +As there was still nearly an hour before supper, he went out to walk up +and down the same yew-alley near the garden-house where he had walked +with Mary. Anthony and Isabel had returned a little later from East +Maskells, and they too had dressed early. Isabel threw a lace shawl over +her head, and betook herself too to the alley; and there she turned a +corner and almost ran into her host. + +It was, as Mary had said, a God-made opportunity. Neither time nor place +could have been improved. If externals were of any value to this +courtship, all that could have helped was there. The setting of the +picture was perfect; a tall yew-hedge ran down the northern side of the +walk, cut, as Bacon recommended, not fantastically but "with some pretty +pyramids"; a strip of turf separated it from the walk, giving a sense +both of privacy and space; on the south side ran flower-beds in the turf, +with yews and cypresses planted here and there, and an oak paling beyond; +to the east lay the "fair mount," again recommended by the same +authority, but not so high, and with but one ascent; to the west the path +darkened under trees, and over all rose up against the sunset sky the +tall grotesque towers and vanes of the garden-house. The flowers burned +with that ember-like glow which may be seen on summer evenings, and +poured out their scent; the air was sweet and cool, and white moths were +beginning to poise and stir among the blossoms. The two actors on this +scene too were not unworthy of it; his dark velvet and lace with the +glimmer of diamonds here and there, and his delicate bearded clean-cut +face, a little tanned, thrown into relief by the spotless crisp ruff +beneath, and above all his air of strength and refinement and +self-possession--all combined to make him a formidable stormer of a +girl's heart. And as he looked on her--on her clear almost luminous face +and great eyes, shrined in the drooping lace shawl, through which a jewel +or two in her black hair glimmered, her upright slender figure in its +dark sheath, and the hand, white and cool, that held her shawl together +over her breast--he had a pang of hope and despair at once, at the sudden +sense of need of this splendid creature of God to be one with him, and +reign with him over these fair possessions; and of hopelessness at the +thought that anything so perfect could be accomplished in this imperfect +world. + +He turned immediately and walked beside her, and they both knew, in the +silence that followed, that the crisis had come. + +"Mistress Isabel," he said, still looking down as he spoke, and his voice +sounded odd to her ears, "I wonder if you know what I would say to you." + +There came no sound from her, but the rustle of her dress. + +"But I must say it," he went on, "follow what may. It is this. I love you +dearly." + +Her walk faltered beside him, and it seemed as if she would stand still. + +"A moment," he said, and he lifted his white restrained face. "I ask you +to be patient with me. Perhaps I need not say that I have never said this +to any woman before; but more, I have never even thought it. I do not +know how to speak, nor what I should say; beyond this, that since I first +met you at the door across there, a year ago, you have taught me ever +since what love means; and now I am come to you, as to my dear mistress, +with my lesson learnt." + +They were standing together now; he was still turned a little away from +her, and dared not lift his eyes to her face again. Then of a sudden he +felt her hand on his arm for a moment, and he looked up, and saw her eyes +all swimming with sorrow. + +"Dear friend," she said quite simply, "it is impossible--Ah! what can I +say?" + +"Give me a moment more," he said; and they walked on slowly. "I know what +presumption this is; but I will not spin phrases about that. Nor do I ask +what is impossible; but I will only ask leave to teach you in my turn +what love means." + +"Oh! that is the hardest of all to say," she said, "but I know already." + +He did not quite understand, and glanced at her a moment. + +"I once loved too," she whispered. He drew a sharp breath. + +"Forgive me," he said, "I forced that from you." + +"You are never anything but courteous and kind," she said, "and that +makes this harder than all." + +They walked in silence half a dozen steps. + +"Have I distressed you?" he asked, glancing at her again. + +Then she looked full in his face, and her eyes were overflowing. + +"I am grieved for your sorrow," she said, "and at my own unworthiness, +you know that?" + +"I know that you are now and always will be my dear mistress and queen." + +His voice broke altogether as he ended, and he bent and took her hand +delicately in his own, as if it were royal, and kissed it. Then she gave +a great sob and slipped away through the opening in the clipped hedge; +and he was left alone with the dusk and his sorrow. + + * * * * + +A week later Anthony and Isabel were saying good-bye to him in the early +summer morning: the pack-horses had started on before, and there were +just the two saddle-horses at the low oak door, with the servants' +behind. When Mr. Buxton had put Isabel into the saddle, he held her hand +for a moment; Anthony was mounting behind. + +"Mistress Isabel," he whispered; "forgive me; but I find I cannot take +your answer; you will remember that." + +She shook her head without speaking, but dared not even look into his +eyes; though she turned her head as she rode out of the gates for a last +look at the peaked gables and low windows of the house where she had been +so happy. There was still the dark figure motionless against the pale oak +door. + +"Oh, Anthony!" she whispered brokenly, "our Lord asks very much." + + + + + CHAPTER VII + + NORTHERN RELIGION + + +The Northern counties were distinguished among all in England for their +loyalty to the old Faith; and this was owing, no doubt, to the characters +of both the country and the inhabitants;--it was difficult for the +officers of justice to penetrate to the high moorland and deep ravines, +and yet more difficult to prevail with the persons who lived there. +Twenty-two years before the famous Lancashire League had been formed, +under the encouragement of Dr. Allen, afterwards the Cardinal, whose +members pledged themselves to determined recusancy; with the result that +here and there church-doors were closed, and the Book of Common Prayer +utterly refused. Owing partly to Bishop Downman's laxity towards the +recusants, the principles of the League had retained their hold +throughout the county, ever since '68, when ten obstinate Lancastrians +had been haled before the Council, of whom one, the famous Sir John +Southworth himself, suffered imprisonment more than once. + +Anthony and Isabel then found their life in the North very different to +that which they had been living at Stanfield. Near the towns, of course, +precaution was as necessary as anywhere else in England, but once they +had passed up on to the higher moorlands they were able to throw off all +anxiety, as much as if the penal laws of England were not in force there. + +It was pleasant, too, to go, as they did, from great house to great +house, and find the old pre-Reformation life of England in full vigour; +the whole family present at mass so often as it was said, desirous of the +sacraments, and thankful for the opportunities of grace that the arrival +of the priest afforded. Isabel would often stay at such houses a week or +two together, while Anthony made rounds into the valleys and to the +moorland villages round-about; and then the two would travel on together +with their servants to the next village. Anthony's ecclesiastical outfit +was very simple. Among Isabel's dresses lay a brocade vestment that might +easily pass notice if the luggage was searched; and Anthony carried in +his own luggage a little altar-stone, a case with the holy oils, a tiny +chalice and paten, singing-cakes, and a thin vellum-bound Missal and +Ritual in one volume, containing the order of mass, a few votive masses, +and the usual benedictions for holy-water, rue and the like, and the +occasional offices. + +In this manner they first visited many of the famous old Lancashire +houses, some of which still stand, Borwick Hall, Hall-i'-the-Wood, +Lydiate Hall, Thurnham, Blainscow, where Campion had once been so nearly +taken, and others, all of which were provided with secret hiding-places +for the escape of the priest, should a sudden alarm be raised. In none of +them, however, did he find the same elaboration of device as at Stanfield +Place. + +First, however, they went to Speke Hall, the home of Mr. Norreys, on the +banks of the Mersey, a beautiful house of magpie architecture, and +furnished with a remarkable underground passage to the shore of the +Mersey, the scene of Richard Brittain's escape. + +Here they received a very warm welcome. + +"It is as I wrote to Mr. Buxton," said his host on the evening of their +arrival, "in many places in this country any religion other than the +Catholic is unknown. The belief of the Protestant is as strange as that +of the Turk, both utterly detested. I was in Cumberland a few months +back; there in more than one village the old worship goes on as it has +done since Christianity first came to this island. But I hope you will go +up there, now that you have come so far. You would do a great work for +Christ his Church." + +He told him, too, a number of stories of the zeal and constancy shown on +behalf of the Religion; of small squires who were completely ruined by +the fines laid upon them; of old halls that were falling to pieces +through the ruin brought upon their staunch owners; and above all of the +priests that Lancashire had added to the roll of the martyrs--Anderton, +Marsden, and Thompson among others--and of the joy shown when the +glorious news of their victory over death reached the place where they +had been born or where they had ministered. + +"At Preston," he said, "when the news of Mr. Greenaway's death reached +them, they tolled the bells for sorrow. But his old mother ran from her +house to the street when they had broken the news to her: 'Peal them, +peal them!' she cried, 'for I have borne a martyr to God.'" + +He talked, too, of Campion, of his sermons on "The King who went a +journey," and the "Hail, Mary"; and told him of the escape at Blainscow +Hall, where the servant-girl, seeing the pursuivants at hand, pushed the +Jesuit, with quick wit and courage, into the duck-pond, so that he came +out disguised indeed--in green mud--and was mocked at by the very +officers as a clumsy suitor of maidens. + +Anthony's heart warmed within him as he sat and listened to these tales +of patience and gallantry. + +"I would lay down my life to serve such folk," he said; and Isabel looked +with deep-kindled eyes from the one to the other. + +They did not stay more than a day or two at Speke Hall, for, as Mr. +Norreys said, the necessaries of salvation were to be had there already; +but they moved on almost at once northwards, always arriving at some +central point for Saturdays and Sundays, so that the Catholics round +could come in for shrift and housel. In this manner they passed up +through Lancashire, and pushed still northwards, hearing that a priest +was sorely needed, through the corner of Westmoreland, up the Lake +country, through into Cumberland itself. At Kendal, where they stayed two +nights, Anthony received a message that determined him, after +consultation with Isabel, to push on as far as Skiddaw, and to make that +the extreme limit of his journey. He sent the messenger, a wild-looking +North-countryman, back with a verbal answer to that effect, and named a +date when they would arrive. + +It was already dark, two weeks later, when they arrived at the point +where the guide was to meet them, as they had lost their way more than +once already. Here were a couple of men with torches, waiting for them +behind a rock, who had come down from the village, a mile farther on, to +bring them up the difficult stony path that was the only means of access +to it. The track went up a ravine, with a rock-wall rising on their left, +on which the light of the torches shone, and tumbled ground, covered with +heather, falling rapidly away on their right down to a gulf of darkness +whence they could hear the sound of the torrent far below; the path was +uneven, with great stones here and there, and sharp corners in it, and as +they went it was all they could do to keep their tired horses from +stumbling, for a slip would have been dangerous under the circumstances. +The men who led them said little, as it was impossible for a horse and a +man to walk abreast, but Anthony was astonished to see again and again, +as they turned a corner, another man with a torch and some weapon, a +pike, or a sword, start up and salute him, or sometimes a group, with +barefooted boys, and then attach themselves to the procession either +before or behind; until in a short while there was an escort of some +thirty or forty accompanying the cavalcade. At last, as they turned a +corner, the lighted windows of a belfry showed against the dark moor +beyond, and in a moment more, as if there were a watcher set there to +look out for the torches, a peal of five bells clashed out from the +tower; then, as they rose yet higher, the path took a sudden turn and a +dip between two towering rocks, and the whole village lay beneath them, +with lights in every window to welcome the priest, the first that they +had seen for eight months, when the old Marian rector, the elder brother +of the squire, had died. + +It was now late, so Anthony and Isabel were conducted immediately to the +Hall, an old house immediately adjoining the churchyard; and here, too, +the windows were blazing with welcome, and the tall squire, Mr. Brian, +with his wife and children behind, was standing before the bright +hall-door at the top of the steps. The men and boys that had brought them +so far, and were standing in the little court with their torches +uplifted, now threw themselves on their knees to receive the priest's +blessing, before they went home; and Anthony blessed them and thanked +them, and went indoors with his sister, strangely moved and uplifted. + + * * * * + +The two following days were full of hard work and delight for Anthony. He +was to say mass at half-past six next morning, and came out of the house +a little after six o'clock; the sun was just rising to his right over a +shoulder of Skiddaw, which dominated the eastern horizon; and all round +him, stretched against the sky in all directions, were the high purple +moors in the strange dawn-light. Immediately in front of him, not thirty +yards away, stood the church, with its tower, two aisles, and a chapel on +a little promontory of rock which jutted out over the bed of the torrent +along which he had climbed the night before; and to his left lay the +straggling street of the village. All was perfectly still except for the +dash of the stream over the rocks; but from one or two houses a thin +skein of smoke was rising straight into the air. Anthony stood rapt in +delight, and drew long breaths of the cool morning air, laden with +freshness and fragrant with the mellow scent of the heather and the +autumnal smells. + +He was completely taken by surprise when he entered the church, for, for +the first time since he could remember, he saw an English church in its +true glory. It had been built for a priory-church of Holm-Cultram, but +for some reason had never been used as that, and had become simply the +parish church of the village. Across the centre and the northern aisle +ran an elaborate screen, painted in rich colours, and the southern +chapel, which ran eastwards of the porch, was separated in a similar way +from the rest of the church. Over the central screen was the great rood, +with its attendant figures, exquisitely carved and painted; in every +direction, as Anthony looked beyond the screens, gleamed rich windows, +with figures and armorial bearings; here and there tattered banners hung +on the walls; St. Christopher stood on the north wall opposite the door, +to guard from violence all who looked upon him day by day; a little +painting of the Baptist hung on a pillar over against the font, and a +Vernacle by the pulpit; and all round the walls hung little pictures, +that the poor and unlearned might read the story of redemption there. But +the chief glory of all was the solemn high altar, with its riddells +surmounted by taper-bearing gilded angels, with its brocade cloth, and +its painted halpas behind; and above it, before the rich window which +smouldered against the dawn, hung the awful pyx, covered by the white +silk cloth, but empty; waiting for the priest to come and bid the +Shechinah of the Lord to brood there again over this gorgeous throne +beneath, against the brilliant halo of the painted glass behind. + +Anthony knelt a moment and thanked God for bringing him here, and then +passed up into the north aisle, where the image of the Mother of God +presided, as she had done for three hundred years, over her little altar +against the wall. Anthony said his preparation and vested at the altar; +and was astonished to find at least thirty people to hear mass: none, of +course, made their communion, but Anthony, when he had ended, placed the +Body of the Lord once more in the hanging pyx and lit the lamp before it. + +Then all day he sat in the north chapel, with the dash and loud thunder +of the mountain stream entering through the opened panes of the east +window, and the stained sunlight, in gorgeous colours, creeping across +the red tiles at his feet, glowing and fading as the clouds moved over +the sun, while the people came and were shriven; with the exception of an +hour in the middle of the day and half an hour for supper in the evening, +he was incessantly occupied until nine o'clock at night. From the upland +dales all round they streamed in, at news of the priest, and those who +had come from far and were fasting he communicated at once from the +Reserved Sacrament. At last, tired out, but intensely happy, he went back +to the Hall. + +But the next morning was yet more startling. Mass was at eight o'clock, +and by the time Anthony entered the church he found a congregation of +nearly two hundred souls; the village itself did not number above +seventy, but many came in from the country round, and some had stayed all +night in the church-porch. Then, too, he heard the North-country singing +in the old way; all the mass music was sung in three parts, except the +unchanging melody of the creed, which, like the tremendous and unchanging +words themselves, at one time had united the whole of England; but what +stirred Anthony more than all were the ancient hymns sung here and there +during the service, some in Latin, which a few picked voices rendered, +and some in English, to the old lilting tunes which were as much the +growth of the north-country as the heather itself. The "Ave Verum Corpus" +was sung after the Elevation, and Anthony felt that his heart would break +for very joy; as he bent before the Body of his Lord, and the voices +behind him rose and exulted up the aisles, the women's and children's +voices soaring passionately up in the melody, the mellow men's voices +establishing, as it seemed, these ecstatic pinnacles of song on mighty +and immovable foundations. + +Vespers were said at three o'clock, after baptisms and more confessions; +and Anthony was astonished at the number of folk who could answer the +priest. After vespers he made a short sermon, and told the people +something of what he had seen in the South, of the martyrdoms at Tyburn, +and of the constancy of the confessors. + +"'Be thou faithful unto death,'" he said. "So our Saviour bids us, and He +gives us a promise too: 'I will give thee a crown of life.' Beloved, some +day the tide of heresy will creep up these valleys too; and it will bear +many things with it, the scaffold and the gallows and the knife maybe. +And then our Lord will see which are His; then will be the time that +grace will triumph--that those who have used the sacraments with +devotion; that have been careful and penitent with their sins, that have +hungered for the Bread of Life--the Lord shall stand by them and save +them, as He stood by Mr. Sherwin on the rack, and Father Campion on the +scaffold, and Mistress Ward and many more, of whom I have not had time to +tell you. He who bids us be faithful, Himself will be faithful; and He +who wore the crown of thorns will bestow upon us the crown of life." + +Then they sang a hymn to our Lady: + + "Hail be thou, Mary, the mother of Christ," + +and the old swaying tune rocked like a cradle, and the people looked up +towards their Mother's altar as they sang--their Mother who had ruled +them so sweetly and so long--and entreated her in their hearts, who stood +by her Son's Cross, to stand by theirs too should God ever call them to +die upon one. + +The next day Mr. Brian took Anthony a long walk as soon as dinner was +over, across the moors towards the north side of Skiddaw. Anthony found +the old man a delightful and garrulous companion, full of tales of the +countryside, historical, religious, naturalistic, and supernatural. As +they stood on a little eminence and looked back to where the church-tower +pricked out of the deep crack in the moors where it stood, he told him +the tale of the coming of the pursuivants. + +"They first troubled us in '72," he said; "they had not thought it worth +while before to disturb themselves for one old man like my brother, who +was like to die soon; but in April of that year they first sent up their +men. But it was only a pair of pursuivants, for they knew nothing of +the people; they came up, the poor men, to take my brother down to +Cockermouth to answer on his religion to some bench of ministers that sat +there. Well, they met him, in his cassock and square cap, coming out of +the church, where he had just replaced the Most Holy Sacrament after +giving communion to a dying body. 'Heh! are you the minister?' say they. + +"'Heh! I am the priest, if that is what you mean,' he answers back. (He +was a large man, like myself, was my brother.) + +"'Well, come, old man,' say they, 'we must help you down to Cockermouth.' + +"Well, a few words passed; and the end was that he called out to Tim, who +lived just against the church; and told them what was forward. + +"Well, the pursuivants got back to Cockermouth with their lives, but not +much else; and reported to the magistrates that the wild Irish themselves +were little piminy maids compared to the folk they had visited that day. + +"So there was a great to-do, and a deal of talk; and in the next month +they sent up thirty pikemen with an officer and a dozen pursuivants, and +all to take one old priest and his brother. I had been in Kendal in April +when they first came--but they put it all down to me. + +"Well, we were ready for them this time; the bells had been ringing to +call in the folk since six of the clock in the morning; and by +dinner-time, when the soldiers were expected, there was a matter of two +hundred men, I should say, some with scythes and sickles, and some with +staves or shepherds' crooks; the children had been sent down sooner to +stone the men all the way up the path; and by the time that they had +reached the churchyard gate there was not a man of them but had a cut or +a bruise upon him. Then, when they turned the corner, black with wrath, +there were the lads gathered about the church-porch each with his weapon, +and each white and silent, waiting for what should fall. + +"Now you wonder where we were. We were in the church, my brother and I; +for our people had put us there against our will, to keep us safe, they +said. Eh! but I was wroth when Olroyd and the rest pushed me through the +door. However, there we were, locked in; I was up in one window, and my +brother was in the belfry as I thought, each trying to see what was +forward. I saw the two crowds of them, silent and wrathful, with not +twenty yards between them, and a few stones still sailing among the +soldiers now and again; the pikes were being set in array, and our lads +were opening out to let the scythes have free play, when on a sudden I +heard the tinkle of a bell round the outside of the tower, and I climbed +down from my place, and up again to one of the west windows; there was a +fearsome hush outside now, and I could see some of the soldiers in front +were uneasy; they had their eyes off the lads and round the side of the +tower. And then I saw little Dickie Olroyd in his surplice ringing a bell +and bearing a candle, and behind him came my brother, in a purple cope I +had never set eyes on before, with his square cap and a great book, and +his eyes shining out of his head, and his lips opening and mouthing out +Latin; and then he stopped, laid the book reverently on a tombstone, +lifted both hands, and brought them down with the fingers out, and his +eyes larger than ever. I could see the soldiers were ready to break and +scatter, for some were Catholics no doubt, and many more feared the +priest; and then on a sudden my brother caught the candle out of Dickie's +hand, blew it out with a great puff, while Dickie rattled upon the bell, +and then he dashed the smoking candle among the soldiers. The soldiers +broke and fled like hares, out of the churchyard, down the street and +down the path to Cockermouth; the officer tried to stay them, but 'twas +no use; the fear of the Church was upon them, and her Grace herself could +not have prevailed with them. Well, when they let us out, the lads were +all a-trembling too; for my brother's face, they said, was like the +destroying angel; and I was somewhat queer myself, and I was astonished +too; for he was kind-hearted, was my brother, and would not hurt a fly's +body; much less damn his soul; and, after all, the poor soldiers were not +to blame; and 'twas a queer cursing, I thought too, to be done like that; +but maybe 'twas a new papal method. I went round to the north chapel, and +there he was taking off his cope. + +"'Well,' he said to me, 'how did I do it?' + +"'Do it?' I said; 'do it? Why, you've damned those poor lads' souls +eternally. The hand of the Lord was with you,' I said. + +"'Damned them?' said he; 'nonsense! 'Twas only your old herbal that I +read at them; and the cope too, 'twas inside out.'" + + * * * * + +Then the old man told Anthony other stories of his earlier life, how he +had been educated at the university and been at Court in King Henry's +reign and Queen Mary's, but that he had lost heart at Elizabeth's +accession, and retired to his hills, where he could serve God according +to his conscience, and study God's works too, for he was a keen +naturalist. He told Anthony many stories about the deer, and the herds of +wild white hornless cattle that were now practically extinct on the +hills, and of a curious breed of four-horned sheep, skulls of all of +which species hung in his hall, and of the odd drinking-horns that +Anthony had admired the day before. There was one especially that he +talked much of, a buffalo horn on three silver feet fashioned like the +legs of an armed man; round the centre was a filleting inscribed, "_Qui +pugnat contra tres perdet duos_," and there was a cross patée on the +horn, and two other inscriptions, "_Nolite extollere cornu in altu'_" and +"_Qui bibat me adhuc siti'_." Mr. Brian told him it had been brought from +Italy by his grandfather. + +They put up a quantity of grouse and several hares as they walked across +the moor; one of the hares, which had a curious patch of white between +his ears like a little night-cap, startled Mr. Brian so much that he +exclaimed aloud, crossed himself, and stood, a little pale, watching the +hare's head as it bobbed and swerved among the heather. + +"I like it not," he said to Anthony, who inquired what was the matter. +"Satan hath appeared under some such form to many in history. Joachimus +Camerarius, who wrote _de natura dæmonum_, tells, I think, a story of +a hare followed by a fox that ran across the path of a young man who +was riding on a horse, and who started in pursuit. Up and down hills and +dales they went, and soon the fox was no longer there, and the hare grew +larger and blacker as it went; and the young man presently saw that he +was in a country that he knew not; it was all barren and desolate round +him, and the sky grew dark. Then he spurred his horse more furiously, and +he drew nearer and nearer to the great hare that now skipped along like a +stag before him; and then, as he put out his hand to cut the hare down, +the creature sprang into the air and vanished, and the horse fell dead; +and the man was found in his own meadow by his friends, in a swound, with +his horse dead beside him, and trampled marks round and round the field, +and the pug-marks of what seemed like a great tiger beside him, where the +beast had sprung into the air." + +When Mr. Brian found that Anthony was interested in such stories, he told +him plenty of them; especially tales that seemed to join in a strange +unity of life, demons, beasts and men. It was partly, no doubt, his +studies as a naturalist that led him to insist upon points that united +rather than divided the orders of creation; and he told him stories first +from such writers as Michael Verdunus and Petrus Burgottus, who relate +among other marvels how there are ointments by the use of which shepherds +have been known to change themselves into wolves and tear the sheep that +they should have protected; and he quoted to him St. Augustine's own +testimony, to the belief that in Italy certain women were able to change +themselves into heifers through the power of witchcraft. Finally, he told +him one or two tales of his own experience. + +"In the year '63," he said, "before my marriage, I was living alone in +the Hall; I was a young man, and did my best to fear nought but deadly +sin. I was coming back late from Threlkeld, round the south of Skiddaw +that you see over there; and was going with a lantern, for it would be +ten o'clock at night, and the time of year was autumn. I was still a mile +or two from the house, and was saying my beads as I came, for I hold that +is a great protection; when I heard a strange whistling noise, with a +murmur in it, high up overhead in the night. 'It is the birds going +south,' I said to myself, for you know that great flocks fly by night +when the cold begins to set in; but the sound grew louder and more +distinct, and at last I could hear the sound as of words gabbled in a +foreign tongue; and I knew they were no birds, though maybe they had +wings like them. But I knew that a Christened soul in grace has nought to +fear from hell; so I crossed myself and said my beads, and kept my eyes +on the ground, and presently I saw my lights burning in the house, and +heard the roar of the stream, and the gabbling above me ceased, as the +sound of the running water began. But that night I awoke again and again; +and the night seemed hot and close each time, as if a storm was near, but +there was no thunder. Each time I heard the roar of the stream below the +house, and no more. At last, towards the morning, I set my window wide +that looks towards the stream, and leaned out; and there beneath me, +crowded against the wall of the house, as I could see in the growing +light, was a great flock of sheep, with all their heads together towards +the house, as close as a score of dogs could pack them, and they were all +still as death, and their backs were dripping wet; for they had come down +the hills and swum the stream, in order to be near a Christened man and +away from what was abroad that night. + +"My shepherds told me the same that day, that everywhere the sheep had +come down to the houses, as if terrified near to death; and at Keswick, +whither I went the next market-day, they told me the same tale, and that +two men had each found a sheep that could not travel; one had a broken +leg, and the other had been cast; but neither had another mark or wound +or any disease upon him, but that both were lying dead upon Skiddaw; and +the look in the dead eyes, they said, was fit to make a man forget his +manhood." + +Anthony found the old man the most interesting companion possible, and he +persuaded him to accompany him on several of the expeditions that he had +to make to the hamlets and outlying cottages round, in his spiritual +ministrations; and both he and Isabel were sincerely sorry when two +Sundays had passed away, and they had to begin to move south again in +their journeyings. + + * * * * + +And so the autumn passed and winter began, and Anthony was slowly moving +down again, supplying the place of priests who had fallen sick or had +died, visiting many almost inaccessible hamlets, and everywhere +encouraging the waverers and seeking the wanderers, and rejoicing over +the courageous, and bringing opportunities of grace to many who longed +for them. He met many other well-known priests from time to time, and +took counsel with them, but did not have time to become very intimate +with any of them, so great were the demands upon his services. In this +manner he met John Colleton, the canonist, who had returned from his +banishment in '87, but found him a little dull and melancholy, though his +devotion was beyond praise. He met, too, the Jesuit Fathers Edward +Oldcorne and Richard Holtby, the former of whom had lately come from +Hindlip. + +He spent Christmas near Cartmel-in-Furness, and after the new year had +opened, crossed the Ken once more near Beetham, and began to return +slowly down the coast. Everywhere he was deeply touched by the devotion +of the people, who, in spite of long months without a priest, had yet +clung to the observance of their religion so far as was possible, and now +welcomed him like an angel of God; and he had the great happiness too of +reconciling some who, yielding to loneliness and pressure, had conformed +to the Establishment. In these latter cases he was almost startled by the +depth of Catholic convictions that had survived. + +"I never believed it, father," said a young squire to him, near Garstang. +"I knew that it was but a human invention, and not the Gospel that my +fathers held, and that Christ our Saviour brought on earth; but I lost +heart, for that no priest came near us, and I had not had the sacraments +for nearly two years; and I thought that it were better to have some +religion than none at all, so at last I went to church. But there is no +need to talk to me, father, now I have made my confession, for I know +with my whole soul that the Catholic Religion is the true one--and I have +known it all the while, and I thank God and His Blessed Mother, and you, +father, too, for helping me to say so again, and to come back to grace." + +At last, at the beginning of March, Anthony and Isabel found themselves +back again at Speke Hall, warmly welcomed by Mr. Norreys. + +"You have done a good work for the Church, Mr. Capell," said his host, +"and God will reward you and thank you for it Himself, for we cannot." + +"And I thank God," said Anthony, "for the encouragement to faith that the +sight of the faithful North has given to me; and pray Him that I may +carry something of her spirit back with me to the south." + +There were letters waiting for him at Speke Hall, one from Mr. Buxton, +urging them to come back, at least for the present, to Stanfield Place, +so soon as the winter work in the north was over; and another from the +Rector of the College at Douai to the same effect. There was also one +more, written from a little parish in Kent, from a Catholic lady who was +altogether a stranger to him, but who plainly knew all about him, +entreating him to call at her house when he was in the south again; her +husband, she said, had met him once at Stanfield and had been strongly +attracted by him to the Catholic Church, and she believed that if Anthony +would but pay them a visit her husband's conversion would be brought +about. Anthony could not remember the man's name, but Isabel thought that +she did remember some such person at a small private conference that +Anthony had given in Mr. Buxton's house, for the benefit of Catholics and +those who were being drawn towards the Religion. + +The lady, too, gave him instructions as to how he should come from London +to her house, recommending him to cross the Thames at a certain spot that +she described near Greenhithe, and to come on southwards along a route +that she marked for him, to the parish of Stanstead, where she lived. +This, then, was soon arranged, and after letters had been sent off +announcing Anthony's movements, he left Speke Hall with Isabel, about a +fortnight later. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + IN STANSTEAD WOODS + + +On the first day of June, Anthony and Isabel, with their three armed +servants and the French maid behind them, were riding down through +Thurrock to the north bank of the Thames opposite Greenhithe. As they +went Anthony pulled out and studied the letter and the little map that +Mrs. Kirke had sent to guide them. + +"On the right-hand side," she wrote, "when you come to the ferry, stands +a little inn, the 'Sloop,' among trees, with a yard behind it. Mr. +Bender, the host, is one of us; and he will get your horses on board, and +do all things to forward you without attracting attention. Give him some +sign that he may know you for a Catholic, and when you are alone with him +tell him where you are bound." + +There were one or two houses standing near the bank, as they rode down +the lane that led to the river, but they had little difficulty in +identifying the "Sloop," and presently they rode into the yard, and, +leaving their horses with the servants, stepped round into the little +smoky front room of the inn. + +A man, dressed somewhat like a sailor, was sitting behind a table, who +looked up with a dull kind of expectancy and whom Anthony took as the +host; and, in order to identify him and show who he himself was, he took +up a little cake of bread that was lying on a platter on the table, and +broke it as if he would eat. This was one of Father Persons' devices, and +was used among Catholics to signify their religion when they were with +strangers, since it was an action that could rouse no suspicion among +others. The man looked in an unintelligent way at Anthony, who turned +away and rapped upon the door, and as a large heavily-built man came out, +broke it again, and put a piece into his mouth. The man lifted his +eyebrows slightly, and just smiled, and Anthony knew he had found his +friend. + +"Come this way, sir," he said, "and your good lady, too." + +They followed him into the inner room of the house, a kind of little +kitchen, with a fire burning and a pot over it, and one or two barrels of +drink against the wall. A woman was stirring the pot, for it was near +dinner-time, and turned round as the strangers came in. It was plainly an +inn that was of the poorest kind, and that was used almost entirely by +watermen or by travellers who were on their way to cross the ferry. + +"The less said the better," said the man, when he had shut the door. "How +can I serve you, sir?" + +"We wish to take our horses and ourselves across to Greenhithe," said +Anthony, "and Mrs. Kirke, to whom we are going, bade us make ourselves +known to you." + +The man nodded and smiled. + +"Yes, sir, that can be managed directly. The ferry is at the other bank +now, sir; and I will call it across. Shall we say in half an hour, sir; +and, meanwhile, will you and your lady take something?" + +Anthony accepted gladly, as the time was getting on, and ordered dinner +for the servants too, in the outer room. As the landlord was going to the +door, he stopped him. + +"Who is that man in the other room?" he asked. + +The landlord gave a glance at the door, and came back towards Anthony. + +"To tell the truth, sir, I do not know. He is a sailor by appearance, and +he knows the talk; but none of the watermen know him; and he seems to do +nothing. However, sir, there's no harm in him that I can see." + +Anthony told him that he had broken the bread before him, thinking he was +the landlord. The real landlord smiled broadly. + +"Thank God, I am somewhat more of a man than that," for the sailor was +lean and sun-dried. Then once more Mr. Bender went to the door to call +the servants in. + +"Why, the man's gone," he said, and disappeared. Then they heard his +voice again. "But he's left his groat behind him for his drink, so all's +well"; and presently his voice was heard singing as he got the table +ready for the servants. + +In a little more than half an hour the party and the horses were safely +on the broad bargelike ferry, and Mr. Bender was bowing on the bank and +wishing them a prosperous journey, as they began to move out on to the +wide river towards the chalk cliffs and red roofs of Greenhithe that +nestled among the mass of trees on the opposite bank. In less than ten +minutes they were at the pier, and after a little struggle to get the +horses to land, they were mounted and riding up the straight little +street that led up to the higher ground. Just before they turned the +corner they heard far away across the river the horn blown to summon the +ferry-boat once more. + + * * * * + +There were two routes from Greenhithe to Stanstead, the one to the right +through Longfield and Ash, the other to the left through Southfleet and +Nursted. There was very little to choose between them as regards +distance, and Mrs. Kirke had drawn a careful sketch-map with a few notes +as to the characteristics of each route. There were besides, particularly +through the thick woods about Stanstead itself, innumerable cross-paths +intersecting one another in all directions. The travellers had decided at +the inn to take the road through Longfield; since, in spite of other +disadvantages, it was the less frequented of the two, and they were +anxious above all things to avoid attention. Their horses were tired; and +as they had plenty of time before them they proposed to go at a +foot's-pace all the way, and to take between two and three hours to cover +the nine or ten miles between Greenhithe and Stanstead. + +It was a hot afternoon as they passed through Fawkham, and it was +delightful to pass from the white road in under the thick arching trees +just beyond the village. There everything was cool shadow, the insects +sang in the air about them, an early rabbit or two cantered across the +road and disappeared into the thick undergrowth; once the song of the +birds about them suddenly ceased, and through an opening in the green +rustling vault overhead they saw a cruel shape with motionless wings +glide steadily across. + +They did not talk much, but let the reins lie loose; and enjoyed the cool +shadow and the green lights and the fragrant mellow scents of the woods +about them; while their horses slouched along on the turf, switching +their tails and even stopping sometimes for a second in a kind of +desperate greediness to snatch a green juicy mouthful at the side. + +Isabel was thinking of Stanfield, and wondering how the situation would +adjust itself; Mary Corbet would be there, she knew, to meet them; and it +was a comfort to think she could consult her; but what, she asked +herself, would be her relations with the master of the house? + +Suddenly Anthony's horse stepped off the turf on the opposite side of the +road and began to come towards her, and she moved her beast a little to +let him come on the turf beside her. + +"Isabel," said Anthony, "tell me if you hear anything." + +She looked at him, suddenly startled. + +"No, no," he said, "there is nothing to fear; it is probably my fancy; +but listen and tell me." + +She listened intently. There was the creaking of her own saddle, the soft +footfalls of the horses, the hum of the summer woods, and the sound of +the servants' horses behind. + +"No," she said, "there is nothing beyond----" + +"There!" he said suddenly; "now do you hear it?" + +Then she heard plainly the sound either of a man running, or of a horse +walking, somewhere behind them. + +"Yes," she said, "I hear something; but what of it?" + +"It is the third time I have heard it," he said: "once in the woods +behind Longfield, and once just before the little village with the +steepled church." + +The sound had ceased again. + +"It is some one who has come nearly all the way from Greenhithe behind +us. Perhaps they are not following--but again----" + +"They?" she said; "there is only one." + +"There are three," he answered; "at least; the other two are on the turf +at the side--but just before the village I heard all three of them--or +rather certainly more than two--when they were between those two walls +where there was no turf." + +Isabel was staring at him with great frightened eyes. He smiled back at +her tranquilly. + +"Ah, Isabel!" he said, "there is nothing really to fear, in any case." + +"What shall you do?" she asked, making a great effort to control herself. + +"I think we must find out first of all whether they are after us. We must +certainly not ride straight to the Manor Lodge if it is so." + +Then he explained his plan. + +"See here," he said, holding the map before her as he rode, "we shall +come to Fawkham Green in five minutes. Then our proper road leads +straight on to Ash, but we will take the right instead, towards Eynsford. +Meanwhile, I will leave Robert here, hidden by the side of the road, to +see who these men are, and what they look like; and we will ride on +slowly. When they have passed, he will come out and take the road we +should have taken, and he then will turn off to the right too before he +reaches Ash; and by trotting he will easily come up with us at this +corner," and he pointed to it on the map--"and so he will tell us what +kind of men they are; and they will never know that they have been spied +upon; for, by this plan, he will not have to pass them. Is that a good +plot?" and he smiled at her. + +Isabel assented, feeling dazed and overwhelmed. She could hardly bring +her thoughts to a focus, for the fears that had hovered about her ever +since they had left Lancashire and come down to the treacherous south, +had now darted upon her, tearing her heart with terror and blinding her +eyes, and bewildering her with the beating of their wings. + +Anthony quietly called up Robert, and explained the plan. He was a lad of +a Catholic family at Great Keynes, perfectly fearless and perfectly +devoted to the Church and to the priest he served. He nodded his head +briskly with approval as the plan was explained. + +"Of course it may all be nothing," ended Anthony, "and then you will +think me a poor fool?" + +The lad grinned cheerfully. + +"No, sir," he said. + +All this while they had been riding slowly on together, and now the wood +showed signs of coming to an end; so Anthony told the groom to ride fifty +yards into the undergrowth at once, to bandage his horse's eyes, and to +tie him to a tree; and then to creep back himself near the road, so as to +see without being seen. The men who seemed to be following were at least +half a mile behind, so he would have plenty of time. + +Then they all rode on together again, leaving Robert to find his way into +the wood. As they went, Isabel began to question her brother, and Anthony +gave her his views. + +"They have not come up with us, because they know we are four men to +three--if, as I think, they are not more than three--that is one reason; +and another is that they love to track us home before they take us; and +thus take our hosts too as priests' harbourers. Now plainly these men do +not know where we are bound, or they would not follow us so closely. Best +of all, too, they love to catch us at mass for then they have no trouble +in proving their case. I think then that they will not try to take us +till we reach the Manor Lodge; and we must do our best to shake them off +before that. Now the plot I have thought of is this, that--should it +prove as I think it will--we should ride slower than ever, as if our +horses were weary, down the road along which Robert will have come after +he has joined us, and turn down as if to go to Kingsdown, and when we +have gone half a mile, and are well round that sharp corner, double back +to it, and hide all in the wood at the side. They will follow our tracks, +and there are no houses at which they can ask, and there seem no +travellers either on these by-roads, and when they have passed us we +double back at the gallop, and down the next turning, which will bring us +in a couple of miles to Stanstead. There is a maze of roads thereabouts, +and it will be hard if we do not shake them off; for there is not a +house, marked upon the map, at which they can ask after us." + +Isabel did her utmost to understand, but the horror of the pursuit had +overwhelmed her. The quiet woods into which they had passed again after +leaving Fawkham Green now seemed full of menace; the rough road, with the +deep powdery ruts and the grass and fir-needles at the side, no longer +seemed a pleasant path leading home, but a treacherous device to lead +them deeper into danger. The creatures round them, the rabbits, the +pigeons that flapped suddenly out of all the tall trees, the tits that +fluttered on and chirped and fluttered again, all seemed united against +Anthony in some dreadful league. Anthony himself felt all his powers of +observation and device quickened and established. He had lived so long in +the expectation of a time like this, and had rehearsed and mastered the +emotions of terror and suspense so often, that he was ready to meet them; +and gradually his entire self-control and the unmoved tones of his voice +and his serene alert face prevailed upon Isabel; and by the time that +they slowly turned the last curve and saw Robert on his black horse +waiting for them at the corner, her sense of terror and bewilderment had +passed, her heart had ceased that sick thumping, and she, too, was +tranquil and capable. + +Robert wheeled his horse and rode beside Anthony round the sharp corner +to the left up the road along which he had trotted just now. + +"There are three of them, sir," he said in an even, businesslike voice; +"one of them, sir, on a brown mare, but I couldn't see aught of him, sir; +he was on the far side of the track; the second is like a groom on a grey +horse, and the third is dressed like a sailor, sir, on a brown horse." + +"A sailor?" said Anthony; "a lean man, and sunburnt, with a whistle?" + +"I did not see the whistle, sir; but he is as you say." + +This made it certain that it was the man they had seen in the inn +opposite Greenhithe; and also practically certain that he was a spy; for +nothing that Anthony had done could have roused his suspicions except the +breaking of the bread; and that would only be known to one who was deep +in the counsels of the Catholics. All this made the pursuit the more +formidable. + +So Anthony meditated; and presently, calling up the servants behind, +explained the situation and his plan. The French maid showed signs of +hysteria and Isabel had to take her aside and quiet her, while the men +consulted. Then it was arranged, and the servants presently dropped +behind again a few yards, though the maid still rode with Isabel. Then +they came to the road on the right that would have led them to Kingsdown, +and down this they turned. As they went, Anthony kept a good look-out for +a place to turn aside; and a hundred yards from the turning saw what he +wanted. On the left-hand side a little path led into the wood; it was +overgrown with brambles, and looked as if it were now disused. Anthony +gave the word and turned his horse down the entrance, and was followed in +single file by the others. There were thick trees about them on every +side, and, what was far more important, the road they had left at this +point ran higher than usual, and was hard and dry; so the horses' hoofs +as they turned off left no mark that would be noticed. + +After riding thirty or forty yards, Anthony stopped, turned his horse +again, and forced him through the hazels with some difficulty, and the +others again followed in silence through the passage he had made. +Presently Anthony stopped; the branches that had swished their faces as +they rode through now seemed a little higher; and it was possible to sit +here on horseback without any great discomfort. + +"I must see them myself," he whispered to Isabel; and slipped off his +horse, giving the bridle to Robert. + +"Oh! mon Dieu!" moaned the maid; "mon Dieu! Ne partez pas!" + +Anthony looked at her severely. + +"You must be quiet and brave," he said sternly. "You are a Catholic too; +pray, instead of crying." + +Then Isabel saw him slip noiselessly towards the road, which was some +fifty yards away, through the thick growth. + + * * * * + +It was now a breathless afternoon. High overhead the sun blazed in a +cloudless sky, but down here all was cool, green shadow. There was not a +sound to be heard from the woods, beyond the mellow hum of the flies; +Anthony's faint rustlings had ceased; now and then a saddle creaked, or a +horse blew out his nostrils or tossed his head. One of the men wound his +handkerchief silently round a piece of his horse's head-harness that +jingled a little. The maid drew a soft sobbing breath now and then, but +she dared not speak after the priest's rebuke. + +Then suddenly there came another sound to Isabel's ears; she could not +distinguish at first what it was, but it grew nearer, and presently +resolved itself into the fumbling noise of several horses' feet walking +together, twice or three times a stirrup chinked, once she heard a +muffled cough; but no word was spoken. Nearer and nearer it came, until +she could not believe that it was not within five yards of her. Her heart +began again that sick thumping; a fly that she had brushed away again and +again now crawled unheeded over her face, and even on her white parted +lips; but a sob of fear from the maid recalled her, and she turned a +sharp look of warning on her. Then the fumbling noise began to die away: +the men were passing. There was something in their silence that was more +terrible than all else; it reminded her of hounds running on a hot scent. + +Then at last there was silence; then gentle rustlings again over last +year's leaves; and Anthony came back through the hazels. He nodded at her +sharply. + +"Now, quickly," he said, and took his horse by the bridle and began to +lead him out again the way they had come. At the entrance he looked out +first; the road was empty and silent. Then he led his horse clear, and +mounted as the others came out one by one in single file. + +"Now follow close; and watch my hand," he said; and he put his horse to a +quick walk on the soft wayside turf. As the distance widened between them +and the men who were now riding away from them, the walk became a trot, +and then quickly a canter, as the danger of the sound being carried to +their pursuers decreased. + +It seemed to Isabel like some breathless dream as she followed Anthony's +back, watching the motions of his hand as he signed in which direction he +was going to turn next. What was happening, she half wondered to herself, +that she should be riding like this on a spent horse, as if in some +dreadful game, turning abruptly down lanes and rides, out across the high +road, and down again another turn, with the breathing and creaking and +jingling of others behind her? Years ago the two had played +Follow-my-leader on horseback in the woods above Great Keynes. She +remembered this now; and a flood of memories poured across her mind and +diluted the bitterness of this shocking reality. Dear God, what a game! + +Anthony steered with skill and decision. He had been studying the map +with great attention, and even now carried it loose in his hand and +glanced at it from time to time. Above all else he wished to avoid +passing a house, for fear that the searchers might afterwards inquire at +it; and he succeeded perfectly in this, though once or twice he was +obliged to retrace his steps. There was little danger, he knew now, of +the noise of the horses' feet being any guide to those who were +searching, for the high table-land on which they rode was a labyrinth of +lanes and rides, and the trees too served to echo and confuse the noise +they could not altogether avoid making. Twice they passed travellers, one +a farmer on an old grey horse, who stared at this strange hurrying party; +and once a pedlar, laden with his pack, who trudged past, head down. + +Isabel's horse was beginning to strain and pant, and she herself to grow +giddy with heat and weariness, when she saw through the trees an old +farmhouse with latticed windows and a great external chimney, standing in +a square of cultivated ground; and in a moment more the path they were +following turned a corner, and the party drew up at the back of the +house. + +At the noise of the horses' footsteps a door at the back had opened, and +a woman's face looked out and drew back again; and presently from the +front Mrs. Kirke came quickly round. She was tall and slender and +middle-aged, with a somewhat anxious face; but a look of great relief +came over it as she saw Anthony. + +"Thank God you are come," she said; "I feared something had happened." + +Anthony explained the circumstances in a few words. + +"I will ride on gladly, madam, if you think right; but I will ask you in +any case to take my sister in." + +"Why, how can you say that?" she said; "I am a Catholic. Come in, father. +But I fear there is but poor accommodation for the servants." + +"And the horses?" asked Anthony. + +"The barn at the back is got ready for them," she said; "perhaps it would +be well to take them there at once." She called a woman, and sent her to +show the men where to stable the horses, while Anthony and Isabel and the +maid dismounted and came in with her to the house. + +There, they talked over the situation and what was best to be done. Her +husband had ridden over to Wrotham, and she expected him back for supper; +nothing then could be finally settled till he came. In the meantime the +Manor Lodge was probably the safest place in all the woods, Mrs. Kirke +declared; the nearest house was half a mile away, and that was the +Rectory; and the Rector himself was a personal friend and favourable to +Catholics. The Manor Lodge, too, stood well off the road to Wrotham, and +not five strangers appeared there in the year. Fifty men might hunt the +woods for a month and not find it; in fact, Mr. Kirke had taken the house +on account of its privacy, for he was weary, his wife said, of paying her +fines for recusancy; and still more unwilling to pay his own, when that +happy necessity should arrive; for he had now practically made up his +mind to be a Catholic, and only needed a little instruction before being +received. + +"He is a good man, father," she said to Anthony, "and will make a good +Catholic." + +Then she explained about the accommodation. Isabel and the maid would +have to sleep together in the spare room, and Anthony would have the +little dressing-room opening out of it; and the men, she feared, would +have to shake down as well as they could in the loft over the stable in +the barn. + +At seven o'clock Mr. Kirke arrived; and when the situation had been +explained to him, he acquiesced in the plan. He seemed confident that +there was but little danger; and he and Anthony were soon deep in +theological talk. + +Anthony found him excellently instructed already; he had, in fact, even +prepared for his confession; his wife had taught him well; and it was the +prospect of this one good opportunity of being reconciled to the Church +that had precipitated matters and decided him to take the step. He was a +delightful companion, too, intelligent, courageous, humorous and modest, +and Anthony thought his own labour and danger well repaid when, a little +after midnight, he heard his confession and received him into the Church. +It was impossible for Mr. Kirke to receive communion, as he had wished, +for there were wanting some of the necessaries for saying mass; so he +promised to ride across to Stanfield in a week or so, stay the night and +communicate in the morning. + +Then early the next morning a council was held as to the best way for the +party to leave for Stanfield. The men were called up, and their opinions +asked; and gradually step by step a plan was evolved. + +The first requirement was that, if possible, the party should not be +recognisable; the second that they should keep together for mutual +protection; for to separate would very possibly mean the apprehension of +some one of them; the third was that they should avoid so far as was +possible villages and houses and frequented roads. + +Then the first practical suggestion was made by Isabel that the maid +should be left behind, and that Mr. Kirke should bring her on with him to +Stanfield when he came a week later. This he eagerly accepted, and +further offered to keep all the luggage they could spare, take charge of +the men's liveries, and lend them old garments and hats of his own--to +one a cloak, and to another a doublet. In this way, he said, it would +appear to be a pleasure party rather than one of travellers, and, should +they be followed, this would serve to cover their traces. The travelling +by unfrequented roads was more difficult; for that in itself might +attract attention should they actually meet any one. + +Anthony, who had been thinking in silence a moment or two, now broke in. + +"Have you any hawks, Mr. Kirke?" he asked. + +"Only one old peregrine," he said, "past sport." + +"She will do," said Anthony; "and can you borrow another?" + +"There is a merlin at the Rectory," said Mr. Kirke. + +Then Anthony explained his plan, that they should pose as a +hawking-party. Isabel and Robert should each carry a hawk, while he +himself would carry on his wrist an empty leash and hood as if a hawk had +escaped; that they should then all ride together over the open country, +avoiding every road, and that, if they should see any one on the way, +they should inquire whether he had seen an escaped falcon or heard the +tinkle of the bells; and this would enable them to ask the way, should it +be necessary, without arousing suspicion. + +This plan was accepted, and the maid was informed to her great relief +that she might remain behind for a week or so, and then return with Mr. +Kirke after the searchers had left the woods. + +It was a twenty-mile ride to Stanfield; and it was thought safer on the +whole not to remain any longer where they were, as it was impossible to +know whether a shrewd man might not, with the help of a little luck, +stumble upon the house; so, when dinner was over, and the servants had +changed into Mr. Kirke's old suits, and the merlin had been borrowed from +the Rectory for a week's hawking, the horses were brought round and the +party mounted. + +Mr. Kirke and Anthony had spent a long morning together discussing the +route, and it had been decided that it would be best to keep along the +high ridge due west until they were a little beyond Kemsing, which they +would be able to see below them in the valley; and then to strike across +between that village and Otford, and keeping almost due south ride up +through Knole Park; then straight down on the other side into the Weald, +and so past Tonbridge home. + +Mr. Kirke himself insisted on accompanying them on his cob until he had +seen them clear of the woods on the high ground. Both he and his wife +were full of gratitude to Anthony for the risk and trouble he had +undergone, and did their utmost to provide them with all that was +necessary for their disguise. At last, about two o'clock, the five men +and Isabel rode out of the little yard at the back of the Manor Lodge and +plunged into the woods again. + +The afternoon hush rested on the country as they followed Mr. Kirke along +a narrow seldom-used path that led almost straight to the point where it +was decided that they should strike south. In half a dozen places it cut +across lanes, and once across the great high road from Farningham to +Wrotham. As they drew near this, Mr. Kirke, who was riding in front, +checked them. + +"I will go first," he said, "and see if there is danger." + +In a minute he returned. + +"There is a man about a hundred yards up the road asleep on a bank; and +there is a cart coming up from Wrotham: that is all I can see. Perhaps we +had better wait till the cart is gone." + +"And what is the man like?" asked Anthony. + +"He is a beggar, I should say; but has his hat over his eyes." + +They waited till the cart had passed. Anthony dismounted and went to the +entrance of the path and peered out at the man; he was lying, as Mr. +Kirke had said, with his hat over his eyes, perfectly still. Anthony +examined him a minute or two; he was in tattered clothes, and a great +stick and a bundle lay beside him. + +"It is a vagabond," he said, "we can go on." + +The whole party crossed the road, pushing on towards the edge of the high +downs over Kemsing; and presently came to the Ightam road where it began +to run steeply down hill; here, too, Mr. Kirke looked this way and that, +but no one was in sight, and then the whole party crossed; they kept +inside the edge of the wood all the way along the downs for another mile +or so, with the rich sunlit valley seen in glimpses through the trees +here and there, and the Pilgrim's Way lying like a white ribbon a couple +of hundred feet below them, until at last Kemsing Church, with St. +Edith's Chantry at the side, lay below and behind them, and they came out +on to the edge of a great scoop in the hill, like a theatre, and the blue +woods and hills of Surrey showed opposite beyond Otford and Brasted. + +Here they stopped, a little back from the edge, and Mr. Kirke gave them +their last instructions, pointing out Seal across the valley, which they +must leave on their left, skirting the meadows to the west of the church, +and passing up towards Knole beyond. + +"Let the sun be a little on your right," he said, "all the way; and you +will strike the country above Tonbridge." + +Then they said good-bye to one another; Mr. Kirke kissed the priest's +hand in gratitude for what he had done for him, and then turned back +along the edge of the downs, riding this time outside the woods, while +the party led their horses carefully down the steep slope, across the +Pilgrim's Way, and then struck straight out over the meadows to Seal. + +Their plan seemed supremely successful; they met a few countrymen and +lads at their work, who looked a little astonished at first at this great +party riding across country, but more satisfied when Anthony had inquired +of them whether they had seen a falcon or heard his bells. No, they had +not, they said; and went on with their curiosity satisfied. Once, as they +were passing down through a wood on to the Weald, Isabel, who had turned +in her saddle, and was looking back, gave a low cry of alarm. + +"Ah! the man, the man!" she said. + +The others turned quickly, but there was nothing to be seen but the long +straight ride stretching up to against the sky-line three or four hundred +yards behind them. Isabel said she thought she saw a rider pass across +this little opening at the end, framed in leaves; but there were stags +everywhere in the woods here, and it would have been easy to mistake one +for the other at that distance, and with such a momentary glance. + +Once again, nearer Tonbridge, they had a fright. They had followed up a +grass ride into a copse, thinking it would bring them out somewhere, but +it led only to the brink of a deep little stream, where the plank bridge +had been removed, so they were obliged to retrace their steps. As they +re-emerged into the field from the copse, a large heavily-built man on a +brown mare almost rode into them. He was out of breath, and his horse +seemed distressed. Anthony, as usual, immediately asked if he had seen or +heard anything of a falcon. + +"No, indeed, gentlemen," he said, "and have you seen aught of a bitch who +bolted after a hare some half mile back. A greyhound I should be loath to +lose." + +They had not, and said so; and the man, still panting and mopping his +head, thanked them, and asked whether he could be of any service in +directing them, if they were strange to the country; but they thought it +better not to give him any hint of where they were going, so he rode off +presently up the slope across their route and disappeared, whistling for +his dog. + +And so at last, about four o'clock in the afternoon, they saw the church +spire of Stanfield above them on the hill, and knew that they were near +the end of their troubles. Another hundred yards, and there were the +roofs of the old house, and the great iron gates, and the vanes of the +garden-house seen over the clipped limes; and then Mary Corbet and Mr. +Buxton hurrying in from the garden, as they came through the low oak +door, into the dear tapestried hall. + + + + + CHAPTER IX + + THE ALARM + + +A very happy party sat down to supper that evening in Stanfield Place. + +Anthony had taken Mr. Buxton aside privately when the first greetings +were over, and told him all that happened: the alarm at Stanstead; his +device, and the entire peace they had enjoyed ever since. + +"Isabel," he ended, "certainly thought she saw a man behind us once; but +we were among the deer, and it was dusky in the woods; and, for myself, I +think it was but a stag. But, if you think there is danger anywhere, I +will gladly ride on." + +Mr. Buxton clapped him on the shoulder. + +"My dear friend," he said, "take care you do not offend me. I am a slow +fellow, as you know; but even my coarse hide is pricked sometimes. Do not +suggest again that I could permit any priest--and much less my own dear +friend--to leave me when there was danger. But there is none in this +case--you have shaken the rogues off, I make no doubt; and you will just +stay here for the rest of the summer at the very least." + +Anthony said that he agreed with him as to the complete baffling of the +pursuers, but added that Isabel was still a little shaken, and would Mr. +Buxton say a word to her. + +"Why, I will take her round the hiding-holes myself after supper, and +show her how strong and safe we are. We will all go round." + +In the withdrawing-room he said a word or two of reassurance to her +before the others were down. + +"Anthony has told me everything, Mistress Isabel; and I warrant that the +knaves are cursing their stars still on Stanstead hills, twenty miles +from here. You are as safe here as in Greenwich palace. But after supper, +to satisfy you, we will look to our defences. But, believe me, there is +nothing to fear." + +He spoke with such confidence and cheerfulness that Isabel felt her fears +melting, and before supper was over she was ashamed of them, and said so. + +"Nay, nay," said Mr. Buxton, "you shall not escape. You shall see every +one of them for yourself. Mistress Corbet, do you not think that just?" + +"You need a little more honest worldliness, Isabel," said Mary. "I do not +hesitate to say that I believe God saves the priests that have the best +hiding-holes. Now that is not profane, so do not look at me like that." + +"It is the plainest sense," said Anthony, smiling at them both. + +They went the round of them all with candles, and Anthony refreshed his +memory; they visited the little one in the chapel first, then the +cupboard and portrait-door at the top of the corridor, the chamber over +the fireplace in the hall, and lastly, in the wooden cellar-steps they +lifted the edge of the fifth stair from the bottom, so that its front and +the top of the stair below it turned on a hinge and dropped open, leaving +a black space behind: this was the entrance to the passage that led +beneath the garden to the garden-house on the far side of the avenue. + +Mistress Corbet wrinkled her nose at the damp earthy smell that breathed +out of the dark. + +"I am glad I am not a priest," she said. "And I would sooner be buried +dead than alive. And there is a rat there that sorely needs burying." + +"My dear lady!" cried the contriver of the passage indignantly, "her +Grace might sleep there herself and take no harm. There is not even the +whisker of a rat." + +"It is not the whisker that I mind," said Mary, "it is the rest of him." + +Mr. Buxton immediately set his taper down and climbed in. + +"You shall see," he said, "and I in my best satin too!" + +He was inside the stairs now and lying on his back on the smooth board +that backed them. He sidled himself slowly along towards the wall. + +"Press the fourth brick of the fourth row," he said. + +"You remember, Father Anthony?" + +He had reached now what seemed to be the brick wall against which the +ends of the stairs rested; and that closed that end of the cellars +altogether. Anthony leaned in with a candle, and saw how that part of the +wall against his friend's right side slowly turned into the dark as the +fourth brick was pressed, and a little brick-lined passage appeared +beyond. Mr. Buxton edged himself sideways into the passage, and then +stood nearly upright. It was an excellent contrivance. Even if the +searchers should find the chamber beneath the stairs, which was unlikely, +they would never suspect that it was only a blind to a passage beyond. +The door into the passage consisted of a strong oaken door disguised on +the outside by a facing of brick-slabs; all the hinges were within. + +"As sweet as a flower," said the architect, looking about him. His voice +rang muffled and hollow. + +"Then the friends have removed the corpse," said Mary, putting her head +in, "while you were opening the door. There! come out; you will take +cold. I believe you." + +"Are you satisfied?" said Mr. Buxton to Isabel, as they went upstairs +again. + +"What are your outer defences?" asked Mary, before Isabel could answer. + +"You shall see the plan in the hall," said Mr. Buxton. + +He took down the frame that held the plan of the house, and showed them +the outer doors. There was first the low oak front door on the north, +opening on to the little court; this was immensely strong and would stand +battering. Then on the same side farther east, within the stable-court, +there was the servants' door, protected by chains, and an oak bolt that +ran across. On the extreme east end of the house there was a door opening +into the garden from the withdrawing-room, the least strong of all; there +was another on the south side, opposite the front door--that gave on to +the garden; and lastly there was an entrance into the priests' end of the +house, at the extreme west, from the little walled garden where Anthony +had meditated years ago. This walled garden had a very strong door of its +own opening on to the lane between the church and the house. + +"But there are only three ways out, really," said Mr. Buxton, "for the +garden walls are high and strong. There is the way of the walled garden; +the iron-gates across the drive; and through the stable-yard on to the +field-path to East Maskells. All the other gates are kept barred; and +indeed I scarcely know where the keys are." + +"I am bewildered," said Mary. + +"Shall we go round?" he asked. + +"To-morrow," said Mary; "I am tired to-night, and so is this poor child. +Come, we will go to bed." + +Anthony soon went too. Both he and Isabel were tired with the journey and +the strain of anxiety, and it was a keen joy to him to be back again in +his own dear room, with the tapestry of St. Thomas of Aquin and St. Clare +opposite the bed, and the wide curtained bow-window which looked out on +the little walled garden. + + * * * * + +Mr. Buxton was left alone in the great hall below with the two tapers +burning, and the starlight with all the suffused glow of a summer night +making the arms glimmer in the tall windows that looked south. Lower, the +windows were open, and the mellow scents of the June roses, and of the +sweet-satyrian and lavender poured in; the night was very still, but the +faintest breath came from time to time across the meadows and rustled in +the stiff leaves with the noise of a stealthy movement. + +"I will look round," said Mr. Buxton to himself. + +He stepped out immediately into the garden by the hall door, and turned +to the east, passing along the lighted windows. His step sounded on the +tiles, and a face looked out swiftly from Isabel's room overhead; but his +figure was plain in the light from the windows as he came out round the +corner; and the face drew back. He crossed the east end of the house, and +went through a little door into the stable-yard, locking it after him. In +the kennels in the corner came a movement, and a Danish hound came out +silently into the cage before her house, and stood up, like a slender +grey ghost, paws high up in the bars, and whimpered softly to her lord. +He quieted her, and went to the door in the yard that opened on to the +field-path to East Maskells, unbarred it and stepped through. There was a +dry ditch on his left, where nettles quivered in the stirring air; and a +heavy clump of bushes rose beyond, dark and impenetrable. Mr. Buxton +stared straight at these a moment or two, and then out towards East +Maskells. There lay his own meadows, and the cattle and horses secure and +sleeping. Then he stepped back again; barred the door and walked up +through the stable-yard into the front court. There the great iron gates +rose before him, diaphanous-looking and flimsy in the starlight. He went +up to them and shook them; and a loose shield jangled fiercely overhead. +Then he peered through, holding the bars, and saw the familiar patch of +grass beyond the gravel sweep, and the dark cottages over the way. Then +he made his way back to the front door, unlocked it with his private key, +passed through the hall, through a parlour or two into the lower floor of +the priests' quarters; unlocked softly the little door into the walled +garden, and went out on tip-toe once more. Even as he went, Anthony's +light overhead went out. Mr. Buxton went to the garden door, unfastened +it, and stepped out into the road. Above him on his left rose up the +chancel of the parish church, the roofs crowded behind; and immediately +in front was the high-raised churchyard, with the tall irregular wall and +the trees above all, blotting out the stars. + +Then he came back the same way, fastening the doors as he passed, and +reached the hall, where the tapers still burned. He blew out one and took +the other. + +"I suppose I am a fool," he said; "the lad is as safe as in his mother's +arms." And he went upstairs to bed. + + * * * * + +Mary Corbet rose late next morning, and when she came down at last found +the others in the garden. She joined them as they walked in the little +avenue. + +"Have not the priest-hunters arrived?" she asked. "What are they about? +And you, dear Isabel, how did you sleep?" + +Isabel looked a little heavy-eyed. "I did not sleep well," she said. + +"I fear I disturbed her," said Mr. Buxton. "She heard me as I went round +the house." + +"Why did you go round the house?" asked Anthony. + +"I often do," he said shortly. + +"And there was no one?" asked Mary. + +"There was no one." + +"And what would you have done if there had been?" + +"Yes," said Anthony, "what would you have done to warn us all?" + +Mr. Buxton considered. + +"I should have rung the alarm, I think," he said. + +"But I did not know you had one," said Mary. + +Mr. Buxton pointed to a turret peeping between two high gables, above his +own room. + +"And what does it sound like?" + +"It is deep, and has a dash of sourness or shrillness in it. I cannot +describe it. Above all, it is marvellous loud." + +"Then, if we hear it, we shall know the priest-hunters are on us?" asked +Mary. Mr. Buxton bowed. + +"Or that the house is afire," he said, "or that the French or Spanish are +landed." + +To tell the truth, he was just slightly uneasy. Isabel had been far more +silent than he had ever known her, and her nerves were plainly at an +acute tension; she started violently even now, when a servant came out +between two yew-hedges to call Mr. Buxton in. Her alarm had affected him, +and besides, he knew something of the extraordinary skill and patience of +Walsingham's agents, and even the story of the ferry had startled him. +Could it really be, he had wondered as he tossed to and fro in the hot +night, that this innocent priest had thrown off his pursuers so +completely as had appeared? In the morning he had sent down a servant to +the inn to inquire whether anything had been seen or heard of a +disquieting nature; now the servant had come to tell him, as he had +ordered, privately. He went with the man in through the hall-door, +leaving the others to walk in the avenue, and then faced him. + +"Well?" he said sharply. + +"No, sir, there is nothing. There is a party there travelling on to +Brighthelmstone this afternoon, and four drovers who came in last night, +sir; and two gentlemen travelling across country; but they left early +this morning." + +"They left, you say?" + +"They left at eight o'clock, sir." + +Mr. Buxton's attention was attracted to these two gentlemen. + +"Go and find out where they came from," he said, "and let me know after +dinner." + +The man bowed and left the room, and almost immediately the dinner-bell +rang. + +Mary was frankly happy; she loved to be down here in this superb weather +with her friends; she enjoyed this beautiful house with its furniture and +pictures, and even took a certain pleasure in the hiding-holes +themselves; although in this case she was satisfied they would not be +needed. She had heard the tale of the Stanstead woods, and had no shadow +of doubt but that the searchers, if, indeed, they were searchers at all, +were baffled. So at dinner she talked exactly as usual; and the cloud of +slight discomfort that still hung over Isabel grew lighter and lighter as +she listened. The windows of the hall were flung wide, and the warm +summer air poured from the garden into the cool room with its polished +floor, and table decked with roses in silver bowls, with its grave +tapestries stirring on the walls behind the grim visors and pikes that +hung against them. + +The talk turned on music. + +"Ah! I would I had my lute," sighed Mary, "but my woman forgot to bring +it. What a garden to sing in, in the shade of the yews, with the +garden-house behind to make the voice sound better than it is!" + +Mr. Buxton made a complimentary murmur. + +"Thank you," she said, "Master Anthony, you are wool-gathering." + +"Indeed not," he said, "but I was thinking where I had seen a lute. Ah! +it is in the little west parlour." + +"A lute!" cried Mary. "Ah! but I have no music; and I have not the +courage to sing the only song I know, over and over again." + +"But there is music too," said Anthony. + +Mary clapped her hands. + +"When dinner is over," she said, "you and I will go to find it." + +Dinner was over at last, and the four rose. + +"Come," said Mary; while Isabel turned into the garden and Mr. Buxton +went to his room. "We will be with you presently," she cried after +Isabel. + +Then the two went together to the little west parlour, oak-panelled, with +a wide fireplace with the logs in their places, and the latticed windows +with their bottle-end glass, looking upon the walled garden. Anthony +stood on a chair and opened the top window, letting a flood of summer +noises into the room. + +They found the lute music, written over its six lines with the queer F's +and double F's and numerals--all Hebrew to Anthony, but bursting and +blossoming with delicate melodies to Mary's eyes. Then she took up the +lute, and tuned it on her knee, still sitting in a deep lounging-chair, +with her buckled feet before her; while Anthony sat opposite and watched +her supple flashing fingers busy among the strings, and her grave +abstracted look as she listened critically. Then she sounded the strings +in little rippling chords. + +"Ah! it is a sweet old lute," she said. "Put the music before me." + +Anthony propped it on a chair. + +"Is that the right side up?" he asked. + +Mary smiled and nodded, still looking at the music. + +"Now then," she said, and began the prelude. + + * * * * + +Anthony threw himself back in his chair as the delicate tinkling began to +pour out and overscore the soft cooing of a pigeon on the roofs somewhere +and the murmur of bees through the open window. It was an old precise +little love-song from Italy, with a long prelude, suggesting by its +tender minor chords true and restrained love, not passionate but tender, +not despairing but melancholy; it was a love that had for its symbols not +the rose and the lily, but the lavender and thyme--acrid in its +sweetness. The prelude had climbed up by melodious steps to the keynote, +and was now rippling down again after its aspirations. + +Mary stirred herself. + +Ah! now the voice would come in the last chord----when all the music was +first drowned and then ceased, as with crash after crash a great bell, +sonorous and piercing, began to sound from overhead. + + + + + CHAPTER X + + THE PASSAGE TO THE GARDEN-HOUSE + + +The two looked at one another with parted lips, but without a word. Then +both rose simultaneously. Then the bell jangled and ceased; and a crowd +of other noises began; there were shouts, tramplings of hoofs in the +court; shrill voices came over the wall; then a scream or two. Mary +sprang to the door and opened it, and stood there listening. + +Then from the interior of the house came an indescribable din, tramplings +of feet and shouts of anger; then violent blows on woodwork. It came +nearer in a moment of time, as a tide comes in over flat sands, +remorselessly swift. Then Mary with one movement was inside again, and +had locked the door and drawn the bolt. + +"Up there," she said, "it is the only way--they are outside," and she +pointed to the chimney. + +Anthony began to remonstrate. It was intolerable, he felt, to climb up +the chimney like a hunted cat, and he began a word or two. But Mary +seized his arm. + +"You must not be caught," she said, "there are others"; and there came a +confused battering and trampling outside. She pushed him towards the +chimney. Then decision came to him, and he bent his head and stepped upon +the logs laid upon the ashes, crushing them down. + +"Ah! go," said Mary's voice behind him, as the door began to bulge and +creak. There was plainly a tremendous struggle in the little passage +outside. + +Anthony threw his hands up and felt a high ledge in the darkness, gripped +it with his hands and made a huge effort combined of a tug and a spring; +his feet rapped sharply for a moment or two on the iron fire-plate; and +then his knee reached the ledge and he was up. He straightened himself on +the ledge, stood upright and looked down; two white hands with rings on +them were lifting the logs and drawing them out from the ashes, shaking +them and replacing them by others from the wood-basket; and all +deliberately, as if laying a fire. Then her voice came up to him, hushed +but distinct. + +"Go up quickly. I will feign to be burning papers; there will be smoke, +but no sparks. It is green wood." + +Anthony again felt above him, and found two iron half-rings in the +chimney, one above the other; he was in semi-darkness here, but far above +there was a patch of pale smoky light; and all the chimney seemed full of +a murmurous sound. He tugged at the rings and found them secure, and drew +himself up steadily by the higher one, until his knee struck the lower; +then with a great effort he got his knee upon it, then his left foot, and +again straightened himself. Then, as he felt in the darkness once more, +he found a system of rings, one above the other, up the side of the +chimney, by which it was not hard to climb. As he went up he began to +perceive a sharp acrid smell, his eyes smarted and he closed them, but +his throat burned; he climbed fiercely; and then suddenly saw immediately +below him another hearth; he was looking over the fireplate of some other +room. In a moment more he thrust his head over, and drew a long breath of +clear air; then he listened intently. From below still came a murmur of +confusion; but in this room all was quiet. He began to think frantically. +He could not remain in the chimney, it was hopeless; they would soon +light fires, he knew, in all the chimneys, and bring him down. What room +was this? He was bewildered and could not remember. But at least he would +climb into it and try to escape. In a moment more he had lifted himself +over the fireplate and dropped safely on to the hearth of his own +bedroom. + +The fresh air and the familiarity of the room, as he looked round, swept +the confusion out of his brain like a breeze. The thundering and shouting +continued below. Then he went on tip-toe to the door and opened it. Round +to the right was the head of the stairs which led straight into the +little passage where the struggle was going on. He could hear Robert's +voice in the din; plainly there was no way down the stairs. To the left +was the passage that ended in a window, with the chapel door at the left +and the false shelves on the right. He hesitated a moment between the two +hiding-places, and then decided for the cupboard; there was a clean +doublet there; his own was one black smear of soot, and as he thought of +it, he drew off his sooty shoes. His hose were fortunately dark. He +stepped straight out of the door, leaving it just ajar. Even as he left +it there was a thunder of footsteps on the stairs, and he was at the +shelves in a moment, catching a glimpse through the window on his left of +the front court crowded with men and horses. He had opened and shut the +secret door three or four times the evening before, and his hands closed +almost instinctively on the two springs that must be worked +simultaneously. He made the necessary movement, and the shelves with the +wall behind it softly slid open and he sprang in. But as he closed it he +heard one of the two books drop, and an exclamation from the passage he +had just left; then quick steps from the head of the stairs; the steps +clattered past the door and into the chapel opposite and stopped. + +Anthony felt about him in the darkness, found the doublet and lifted it +off the nail; slipped off his own, tearing his ruff as he did so; and +then quickly put on the other. He had no shoes; but that would not be so +noticeable. He had not seriously thought of the possibility of escaping +through the portrait-door, as he felt sure the house would be overrun by +now; but he put his eyes to the pinholes and looked out; and to his +astonishment saw that the gallery was empty. There it lay, with its +Flemish furniture on the right and its row of windows on the left, and +all as tranquil as if there were no fierce tragedy of terror and wrath +raging below. Again decision came to him; by a process of thought so +swift that it was an intuition, he remembered that the fall of the book +outside would concentrate attention on that corner; it could not be long +before the shelves were broken in, and if he did not escape now there +would be no possibility later. Then he unslid the inside bolt, and the +portrait swung open; he closed it behind, and sped on silent shoeless +feet down the polished floor of the gallery. + +Of course the great staircase was hopeless. The hall would be seething +with men. But there was just a chance through the servants' quarters. He +dashed past the head of the stairs, catching a glimpse of heads and +sparkles of steel over the banisters, and through the half-opened door at +the end, finding himself in the men's corridor that was a continuation of +the gallery he had left. On his left rose the head of the back-stairs, +that led first with a double flight to the offices, the pantry, the +buttery and the kitchen, and than, lower still, a single third flight +down to the cellar. + +He looked down the stairs; at the bottom of the first double flight were +a couple of maids, screaming and white-faced, leaning and pressing +against the door, immediately below the one he had just come through +himself. The door was plainly barred as well, for it was now thudding and +cracking with blows that were being showered upon it from the other side. +The maids, it seemed to him, in a panic had locked the door; but that +panic might be his salvation. He dashed down the stairs; the maids +screamed louder than ever when they saw this man, whom they did not +recognise, with blackened face and hands come in noiseless leaps down +towards them; but Anthony put his finger on his lips as he flew past +them; then he dashed open the little door that shut off the +cellar-flight, closed it behind him, and was immediately in the dark. + +Then he groped his way down, feeling the rough brick wall as he went, +till he reached the floor of the cellar. The air was cool and damp here, +and it refreshed him, for he was pouring with sweat. The noise, too, and +confusion which, during his flight, had been reverberating through the +house with a formidable din, now only reached him as a far-away murmur. + +As he counted the four steps up, and then lifted the overhanging edge, +there came upon him irresistibly the contrast between the serene party +here last night, with their tapers and their delicate dresses and Mary's +cool clear-clipped voice--and his own soot-stained person, his desperate +energy and his quick panting and heart-beating. Then the steps dropped +and he slid in; lifted them again as he lay on his back, and heard the +spring catch as they closed. Then he was in silence, too, and comparative +safety. But he dared not rest yet, and edged himself along as he had seen +Mr. Buxton do last night. Which brick was it? "The fourth of the fourth," +he murmured, and counted, and pressed it. Again the door pushed back, and +with a little struggle he was first on his knees, and then on his feet. +Then he swung the door to again behind him. + +Then for the first time he rested; he leaned against the brick-lined side +of the tunnel and passed his blackened hands over his face. Five minutes +ago--yes--certainly not five minutes ago he was lounging in the west +parlour, at the other end of the house, while Mary played the prelude to +an Italian love-song.--What was she doing now? God bless her for her +quick courage!--And Isabel and Buxton--where were they all? How deadly +sick and tired he felt!--Again he passed his hands over his face in the +pitch darkness.--Well, he must push on. + +He turned and began to grope patiently through the blackness--step by +step--feeling the roughness of the bricks beneath with his shoeless feet +before he set them down; once or twice he stepped into a little icy pool, +which had collected through some crack in the vaulting overhead; once, +too, he slipped on a lump of something wet and shapeless; and thought +even then of Mary's suspicions the night before. He pushed on, shivering +now with cold and excitement, through what seemed the interminable +tunnel, until at last his outstretched hands touched wood before him. He +had not seen this end of the passage for nearly two years, and he +wondered if he could remember the method of opening, and gave a gulp of +horror at the thought that he might not. But there had been no reason to +make a secret of the inside of the door, and he presently found a button +and drew it; it creaked rustily, but gave, and the door with another pull +opened inwards, and there was a faint glimmer of light. Then he +remembered that the entrances to the tunnel at either end were exactly on +the same system; and putting out his hands felt the slope of the +underside of the staircase, cutting diagonally across the opening of the +passage. He slid himself on to the boarding sideways, and drew the +brickwork towards him till the spring snapped, and lay there to consider +before he went farther. + +First he ran over in his mind the construction of the garden-house. + +The basement in which he was lying corresponded to the cellar under the +house from which he had come, and ran the whole length of the building, +about forty feet by twenty. It was a large empty chamber, where nothing +of any value was kept. He remembered last time he was here seeing a heap +of tiles in one corner, with a pile of disused poles; pieces of rope, and +old iron in another. The stairs led up through an ordinary trap-door into +what was the ground-floor of the house. This, too, was one immense room, +with four latticed windows looking on to the garden, and one with opaque +glass on to the lane at the back; and a great door, generally kept +locked, for rather more valuable things were kept here, such as the +garden-roller, flower-pots, and the targets for archery. Then a light +staircase led straight up from this room to the next floor, which was +divided into two, both of which, so far as Anthony remembered, were +empty. Mr. Buxton had thought of letting his gardeners sleep there when +he had at first built this immense useless summer-house; but he had +ultimately built a little gardener's cottage adjoining it. The two +fantastic towers that flanked the building held nothing but staircases, +which could be entered by either of the two floors, and which ascended to +tiny rooms with windows on all four sides. + +When Anthony had run over these details as he lay on his back, he pushed +up the stair over his face and let the front of it with the step of the +next swing inwards; the light was stronger now, and poured in, though +still dim, through three half-moon windows, glazed and wired, that just +rose above the level of the ground outside. Then he extricated himself, +closed the steps behind him, and went up the stairs. + +The trap-door at the top was a little stiff, but he soon raised it, and +in a moment more was standing in the ground-floor room of the +garden-house. All round him was much as he remembered it; he first went +to the door and found it securely fastened, as it often was for days +together; he glanced at the windows to assure himself that they were +bottle-glass too, and then went to them to look out. He was fortunate +enough to find the corner of one pane broken away; he put his eye to +this, and there lay a little lawn, with a yew-hedge beyond blotting out +all of the great house opposite except the chimneys,--the house which +even across the whole space of garden hummed like a hive. On the lawn was +a chair, and an orange-bound book lay face down on the grass beside it. +Anthony stared at it; it was the book that he had seen in Isabel's hand +not half an hour ago, as she had gone out into the garden from the hall +to wait until he and Mary joined her with the lute. + +And at that the priest knelt down before the window, covered his face +with his hands, and began to stammer and cry to God: "O God! God! God!" +he said. + + * * * * + +When Mary Corbet had seen Anthony's feet disappear, she already had the +outline of a plan in her mind. To light a fire and pretend to be burning +important papers would serve as an excuse for keeping the door fast; it +would also suggest at least that no one was in the chimney. The ordinary +wood, however, sent up sparks; but she had noticed before a little green +wood in the basket, and knew that this did not do so to the same extent; +so she pulled out the dry wood that Anthony had trodden into the ashes +and substituted the other. Then she had looked round for paper;--the lute +music, that was all. Meantime the door was giving; the noise outside was +terrible; and it was evident that one or two of the servants were +obstructing the passage of the pursuivants. + +When at last the door flew in, there was a fire cracking furiously on the +hearth, and a magnificently dressed lady kneeling before it, crushing +paper into the flames. Half a dozen men now streamed in and more began to +follow, and stood irresolute for a moment, staring at her. From the +resistance they had met with they had been certain that the priest was +here, and this sight perplexed them. A big ruddy man, however, who led +them, sprang across the room, seized Mary Corbet by the shoulders and +whisked her away against the wall, and then dashed the half-burnt paper +out of the grate and began to beat out the flames. + +Mary struggled violently for a moment; but the others were upon her and +held her, and she presently stood quiet. Then she began upon them. + +"You insolent hounds!" she cried, "do you know who I am?" Her cheeks were +scarlet and her eyes blazing; she seemed in a superb fury. + +"Burning treasonable papers," growled the big man from his knees on the +hearth, "that is enough for me." + +"Who are you, sir, that dare to speak to me like that?" + +The man got up; the flames were out now, and he slipped the papers into a +pocket. Mary went on immediately. + +"If I may not burn my own lute music, or keep my door locked, without a +riotous mob of knaves breaking upon me---- Ah! how dare you?" and she +stamped furiously. + +The pursuivant came up close to her, insolently. + +"See here, my lady----" he began. + +The men had fallen back from her a little now that the papers were safe, +and she lifted her ringed hand and struck his ruddy face with all her +might. There was a moment of confusion and laughter as he recoiled. + +"Now will you remember that her Grace's ladies are not to be trifled +with?" + +There was a murmur from the crowded room, and a voice near the door +cried: + +"She says truth, Mr. Nichol. It is Mistress Corbet." + +Nichol had recovered himself, but was furiously angry. + +"Very good, madam, but I have these papers now," he said, "they can still +be read." + +"You blind idiot," hissed Mary, "do you not know lute music when you see +it?" + +"I know that ladies do not burn lute music with locked doors," observed +Nichol bitterly. + +"The more fool you!" screamed Mary, "when you have caught one at it." + +"That will be seen," sneered Mr. Nichol. + +"Not by a damned blind scarlet-faced porpoise!" screamed Mary, apparently +more in a passion than ever, and a burst of laughter came from the men. + +This was too much for Mr. Nichol. This coarse abuse stung him cruelly. + +"God's blood," he bellowed at the room; "take this vixen out and search +the place." And a torrent of oaths drove the crowd about the door out +into the passage again. + +A couple of men took Mary by the fierce ringed hands of hers that still +twitched and clenched, and led her out; she spat insults over her +shoulders as she went. But she had held him in talk as she intended. + +"Now then," roared Nichol again, "search, you dogs!" + +He himself went outside too, and seeing the stairs stamped up them. He +was just in time to see the Tacitus settle down with crumpled pages; +stopped for a moment, bewildered, for it lay in the middle of the +passage; and then rushed at the open door on the left, dashed it open, +and found a little empty room, with a chair or two, and a table--but no +sign of the priest. It was like magic. + +Then out he came once more, and went into Anthony's own room. The great +bed was on his right, the window opposite, the fireplace to the left, and +in the middle lay two sooty shoes. Instinctively he bent and touched +them, and found them warm; then he sprang to the door, still keeping his +face to the room, and shouted for help. + +"He is here, he is here!" he cried. And a thunder of footsteps on the +stairs answered him. + + * * * * + +Meanwhile the men that held Mary followed the others along the passage, +but while the leaders went on and round into the lower corridor, the two +men-at-arms with their prisoner turned aside into the parlour that served +as an ante-chamber to the hall beyond, where they released her. Here, +though it was empty of people, all was in confusion; the table had been +overturned in the struggle that had raged along here between Lackington's +men, who had entered from the front door, and the servants of the house, +who had rushed in from their quarters at the first alarm and intercepted +them. One chair lay on its side, with its splintered carved arm beside +it. As Mary stood a moment looking about her, the door from the hall that +had been closed, again opened, and Isabel came through; and a man's voice +said: + +"You must wait here, madam"; then the door closed behind her. + +"Isabel," said Mary. + +The two looked at one another a moment, but before either spoke again the +door again half-opened, and a voice began to speak, as if its owner still +held the handle. + +"Very well, Lackington, keep him in his room. I will go through here to +Nichol." + +Isabel had drawn a sharp breath as the voice began, and as the door +opened wider she turned and faced it. Then Hubert came in, and recoiled +on the threshold. There fell a complete silence in the room. + +"Hubert," said Isabel after a moment, "what are you doing here?" + +Hubert shut the door abruptly and leaned against it, staring at her; his +face had gone white under the tan. Isabel still looked at him steadily, +and her eyes were eloquent. Then she spoke again, and something in her +voice quickened the beating of Mary's heart as she listened. + +"Hubert, have you forgotten us?" + +Still Hubert stared; then he stood upright. The two men-at-arms were +watching in astonishment. + +"I will see to the ladies," he said abruptly, and waved his hand. They +still hesitated a moment. + +"Go," he said again sharply, and pointed to the door. He was a +magistrate, and responsible; and they turned and went. + +Then Hubert looked at Isabel again. + +"Isabel," he said, "if I had known----" + +"Stay," she interrupted, "there is no time for explanations except mine. +Anthony is in the house; I do not know where. You must save him." + +There was no entreaty or anxiety in her voice; nothing but a supreme +dignity and an assurance that she would be obeyed. + +"But----" he began. The door was opened from the hall, and a little party +of searchers appeared, but halted when the magistrate turned round. + +"Come with me," he said to the two women, "you must have a room kept for +you upstairs," and he held back the door for them to pass. + +Isabel put out her hand to Mary, and the two went out together into the +hall past the men, who stood back to let them through, and Hubert +followed. They turned to the left to the stairs, looking as they went +upon the wild confusion. Above them rose the carved ceiling, and in the +centre of the floor, untouched, by a strange chance, stood the +dinner-table, still laid with silver and fruit and flowers. But all else +was in disarray. The leather screen that had stood by the door into the +entrance hall had been overthrown, and had carried with it a tall +flowering plant that now lay trampled and broken before the hearth. A +couple of chairs lay on their backs between the windows; the rug under +the window was huddled in a heap, and all over the polished boards were +scratches and dents; a broken sword-hilt lay on the floor with a +feathered cap beside it. There were half a dozen men guarding the four +doors; but the rest were gone; and from overhead came tramplings and +shouts as the hunt swept to and fro in the upper floors. + +At the top of the stairs was Mary's room; the two ladies, who had gone +silently upstairs with Hubert behind them, stopped at the door of it. + +"Here, if you please," said Mary. + +Before Hubert could answer, Lackington came down the passage, hurrying +with a drawn sword, and his hat on his head. Isabel did not recognise him +as he stopped and tapped Hubert on the arm familiarly. + +"The prisoners must not be together," he said. + +Hubert drew back his arm and looked the man in the face. + +"They are not prisoners; and they shall be together. Take off your hat, +sir." + +Then, as Lackington drew back astonished, he opened the door. + +"You shall not be disturbed here," he said, and the two went in, and the +door closed behind them. There was a murmur of voices outside the door, +and they heard a name called once or twice, and the sound of footsteps. +Then came a tap, and Hubert stepped in quietly and closed the door. + +"I have placed my own man outside," he said, "and none shall trouble +you--and--Mistress Isabel--I will do my best." Then he bowed and went +out. + + * * * * + +The long miserable afternoon began. They watched through the windows the +sentries going up and down the broad paths between the glowing +flower-beds; and out, over the high iron fence that separated the garden +from the meadows, the crowd of villagers and children watching. + +But the real terror for them both lay in the sounds that came from the +interior of the house. There was a continual tramp of the sentries placed +in every corridor and lobby, and of the messengers that went to and fro. +Then from room after room came the sounds of blows, the rending of +woodwork, and once or twice the crash of glass, as the searchers went +about their work; and at every shout the women shuddered or drew their +breath sharply, for any one of the noises might be the sign of Anthony's +arrest. + +The two had soon talked out every theory in low voices, but they both +agreed that he was still in the house somewhere, and on the upper floor. +It was impossible, they thought, for him to have made his way down. There +were four possibilities, therefore: either he might still be in the +chimney--in that case it was no use hoping; or he was in the chapel-hole; +or in that behind the portrait; or in one last one, in the room next to +their own. The searchers had been there early in the afternoon, but +perhaps had not found it; its entrance was behind the window shutter, and +was contrived in the thickness of the wall. So they talked, these two, +and conjectured and prayed, as the evening drew on; and the sun began to +sink behind the church, and the garden to lie in cool shadow. + +About eight there was a tap at the door, and Hubert came in with a tray +of food in his hands, which he set down. + +"All is in confusion," he said, "but this is the best I can do."--He +broke off. + +"Mistress Isabel," he said, coming nearer to the two as they sat together +in the window-seat, "I can do little; they have found three hiding-holes; +but so far he has escaped. I do what I can to draw them off, but they are +too clever and zealous. If you can tell me more, perhaps I can do more." + +The two were looking at him with startled eyes. + +"Three?" Mary said. + +"Yes, three--and indeed----" He stopped as Isabel got up and came towards +him. + +"Hubert," she said resolutely, "I must tell you. He must be still in the +chimney of the little west parlour. Do what you can." + +"The west parlour!" he said. "That was where Mistress Corbet was burning +the papers?" + +"Yes," said Mary. + +"He is not there," said Hubert; "we have sent a boy up and down it +already." + +"Ah! dear God!" said Mary from the window-seat, "then he has escaped." + +Isabel looked from one to the other and shook her head. + +"It cannot be," she said. "The guards were all round the house before the +alarm rang." + +Hubert nodded, and Mary's face fell. + +"Then is there no way out?" he asked. + +Mary sprang up with shining eyes. + +"He has done it," she said, and threw her arms round Isabel and kissed +her. + +"Well," said Hubert, "what can I do?" + +"You must leave us," said Isabel; "come back later." + +"Then when we have searched the garden-house--why, what is it?" + +A look of such anguish had come into their faces that he stopped amazed. + +"The garden-house!" cried Mary; "no, no, no!" + +"No, no, Hubert, Hubert!" cried Isabel, "you must not go there." + +"Why," he said, "it was I that proposed it; to draw them from the house." + +There came from beneath the windows a sudden tramp of footsteps, and then +Nichol's voice, distinctly heard through the open panes. + +"We cannot wait for him. Come, men." + +"They are going without me," said Hubert; and turned and ran through the +door. + + + + + CHAPTER XI + + THE GARDEN-HOUSE + + +During that long afternoon the master of the house had sat in his own +room, before his table, hearing the ceaseless footsteps and the voices +overhead, and the ring of feet on the tiles outside his window, knowing +that his friend and priest was somewhere in the house, crouching in some +dark little space, listening to the same footsteps and voices as they +came and went by his hiding-place, and that he himself was absolutely +powerless to help. + +He had been overpowered in the first rush as he pealed on the alarm-bell, +to which he had rushed when the groom burst in from the stable-yard +crying that the outer court was full of men. Lackington had then sent him +under guard to his own room, where he had been locked in with an armed +constable to prevent any possibility of escape. In the struggle he had +received a blow on the head which had completely dazed him; all his +resource left him; and he had no desire even to move from his chair. + +Now he sat, with his head on his breast, and his mind going the ceaseless +round of all the possible places where Anthony might be. Little scenes, +too, of startling vividness moved before him, as he sat there with +half-closed eyes--scenes of the imagined arrest--the scuffle as the +portrait was torn away and Anthony burst out in one last desperate +attempt to escape. He saw him under every kind of circumstance--dashing +up stairs and being met at the top by a man with a pike--running and +crouching through the withdrawing-room itself next door--gliding with +burning eyes past the yew-hedges in a rush for the iron gates, only to +find them barred--on horseback with his hands bound and a despairing +uplifted face with pike-heads about him.--So his friend dreamed miserably +on, open-eyed, but between waking and the sleep of exhaustion, until the +crowning vision flashed momentarily before his eyes of the scaffold and +the cauldron with the fire burning and the low gallows over the heads of +the crowd, and the butcher's block and knife; and then he moaned and sat +up and stared about him, and the young pursuivant looked at him +half-apprehensively. + +Towards evening the house grew quieter; once, about six o'clock, there +were voices outside, the door from the hall was unlocked, and a +heavily-built, ruddy man came in with two pikemen, locking the door +behind him. They paid no attention to the prisoner, and he watched them +mechanically as they went round the room, running their eyes up and down +the panelling, and tapping here and there. + +"The room has been searched, sir, already," said the young constable to +the ruddy-faced man, who glanced at him and nodded, and then continued +the scrutiny. They reached the fireplace and the officer reached up and +tapped the wood over the mantelpiece half-a-dozen times. + +"Here," he called, pointing to a spot. + +A pikeman came up, placed the end of his pike into the oak, and leaned +suddenly and heavily upon it: the steel crashed in an inch, and stopped +as it met the stonework behind. The officer made a motion, the pike was +withdrawn, and he stood on tip-toe and put his finger into the splintered +panel. Then he was satisfied and they passed on, still tapping the walls, +and went out of the other door, locking it again behind them. + +An hour later there were voices and steps again, and a door was unlocked +and opened, and Mr. Graves, the Tonbridge magistrate stepped in alone. He +was a pale scholarly-looking man with large eyes, and a weak mouth only +partly covered by his beard. + +"You can go," he said nervously to the constable, "but remain outside." +The young man saluted him and passed out. + +The magistrate looked quickly and sideways at Mr. Buxton as he sat and +looked at him. + +"I am come to tell you," he said, "that we cannot find the priest." He +hesitated and stopped. "We have found several hiding-holes," he went on, +"and they are all empty. I--I hope there is no mistake." + +A little thrill ran through the man who sat in the chair; the lethargy +began to clear from his brain, like a morning mist when a breeze rises; +he sat a little more upright and gripped the arms of his chair; he said +nothing yet, but he felt power and resource flowing back to his brain, +and the pulse in his temples quieted. Why, if the lad had not been taken +yet, he must surely be out of the house. + +"I trust there is no mistake," said the magistrate again nervously. + +"You may well trust so," said the other; "it will be a grievous thing for +you, sir, otherwise." + +"Indeed, Mr. Buxton, I think you know I am no bigot. I was sent for by +Mr. Lackington last night. I could not refuse. It was not my wish----" + +"Yet you have issued your warrant, and are here in person to execute it. +May I inquire how many of my cupboards you have broken into? And I hope +your men are satisfied with my plate." + +"Indeed, sir," said the magistrate, "there has been nothing of that kind. +And as for the cupboards, there were but three----" + +Three!--then the lad is out of the house, thought the other. But where? + +"And I trust you have not spared to break down my servants' rooms, and +the stables as well as pierce all my panelling." + +"There was no need to search the stables, Mr. Buxton; our men were round +the house before we entered. They have been watching the entrances since +eight o'clock last night." + +Mr. Buxton felt bewildered. His instinct had been right, then, the night +before. + +"The party was followed from near Wrotham," went on the magistrate. "The +priest was with them then; and, we suppose, entered the house." + +"You suppose!" snapped the other. "What the devil do you mean by +supposing? You have looked everywhere and cannot find him?" + +The magistrate shrugged his shoulders deprecatingly, as he stood and +stared at the angry man. + +"And the roofs?" added Mr. Buxton sneeringly. + +"They have been thoroughly searched." + +Then there is but one possible theory, he reflected. The lad is in the +garden-house. And what if they search that? + +"Then may I ask what you propose to destroy next, Mr. Graves?" + +He saw that this tone was having its effect on the magistrate, who was +but a half-hearted persecutor, with but feeble convictions and will, as +he knew of old. + +"I--I entreat you not to speak to me like that, sir," he said. "I have +but done my duty." + +Then the other rose from his chair, and his eyes were stern and bright +again and his lips tight. + +"Your duty, sir, seems a strange matter, when it leads you to break into +a friend's house, assault him and his servants and his guests, and +destroy his furniture, in search of a supposed priest whom you have never +even seen. Now, sir, if this matter comes to her Grace's ears, I will not +answer for the consequences; for you know Mistress Corbet, her +lady-in-waiting, is one of my guests.--And, speaking of that, where are +my guests?" + +"The two ladies, Mr. Buxton, are safe and sound upstairs, I assure you." + +The magistrate's voice was trembling. + +"Well, sir, I have one condition to offer you. Either you and your men +withdraw within half an hour from my house and grounds, and leave me and +my two guests to ourselves, or else I lay the whole matter, through +Mistress Corbet, before her Grace." Mr. Buxton beat his hand once on the +table as he ended, and looked with a contemptuous inquiry at the +magistrate. + +But the worm writhed up at the heel. + +"How can you talk like this, sir," he burst out, "as if you had but two +guests?" + +"Two guests? I do not understand you. How should there be more?" + +"Then for whom are the four places laid at table?" he answered +indignantly. + +Mr. Buxton felt a sudden desperate sinking, and he could not answer for a +moment. The magistrate passed his shaking hand over his mouth and beard +once or twice; but the thrust had gone home, and there was no parry or +riposte. He followed it up. + +"Now, sir, be reasonable. I came in here to make terms. We _know_ the +priest has been here. It is certain beyond all question. All that is +uncertain is whether he is here now or escaped. We have searched +thoroughly; we must search again to-morrow; but in the meanwhile, while +you yourself must be under restraint, your guests shall have what liberty +they wish; and you yourself shall have all reasonable comfort and ease. +So--so, if we do not find the priest, I trust that you and--and--Mistress +Corbet will agree to overlook any rashness on my part--and--and let her +Grace remain in ignorance." + +Mr. Buxton had been thinking furiously during this little speech. He saw +the mistake he had made in taking the high line, and his wretched +forgetfulness of the fourth place at table. He must make terms, though it +tasted bitter. + +"Well, Mr. Graves," he said, "I have no wish to be hard upon you. All I +ask is to be out of the house when the search is made, and that the +ladies shall come and go as they please." + +The magistrate leapt at the lure like a trout. + +"Yes, yes, Mr. Buxton, it shall be as you say. And to what house will you +retire?" + +Mr. Buxton appeared to reflect; he tapped on the table with a meditative +finger and looked at the ceiling. + +"It must not be too far away," he said slowly, "and--and the Rector would +scarce like to receive me. Perhaps in--or----Why not my summer-house?" he +added suddenly. + +Mr. Graves' face was irradiated with smiles. + +"Thank you, Mr. Buxton, certainly, it shall be as you say. And where is +the summer-house?" + +"It is across the garden," said the other carelessly. "I wonder you have +not searched it in your zeal." + +"Shall I send a man to prepare it?" asked the magistrate eagerly. "Will +you go there to-night?" + +"Well, shall we go across there together now? I give you my parole," he +added, smiling, and standing up. + +"Indeed,--as you wish. I cannot tell you, sir, how grateful I am. You +have made my duty almost a pleasure, sir." + +They went out together into the hall, Mr. Buxton carrying the key of the +garden-house that he had taken from the drawer of his table; he glanced +ruefully at the wrecked furniture and floor, and his eyes twinkled for a +moment as they rested on the four places at table still undisturbed, and +then met the magistrate's sidelong look. The men were still at the doors, +resting now on chairs or leaning against the wall, with their weapons +beside them; it was weary work this mounting sentry and losing the hunt, +and their faces showed it. The two passed out together into the garden, +and began to walk up the path that led straight across the avenue to +where the high vanes of the garden-house stood up grotesque and towering +against the evening sky, above the black yew-hedges. + +All the while they went Mr. Buxton was thinking out his plan. It was +still incoherent; but, at any rate, it was a step gained to be able to +communicate with Anthony again; and at least the poor lad should have +some supper. And then he smiled to himself with relief as he saw what an +improvement there had been in the situation as it had appeared to him an +hour ago. Why, they would search the house again next day; find no one, +and retire apologising. His occupancy of the garden-house with the +magistrate's full consent would surely secure it from search; and he was +not so well satisfied with the disguised entrance to the passage at this +end as with that in the cellar. + +They reached the door at last. There were three steps going up to it, and +Mr. Buxton went up them, making a good deal of noise as he did so, to +ensure Anthony's hearing him should he be above ground. Then, as if with +great difficulty, he unlocked the door, rattling it, and clicking sharply +with his tongue at its stiffness. + +"You see, Mr. Graves." he said, rather loud, as he opened the door a +little, "my prison will not be a narrow one." He threw the door open, +gave a glance round, and was satisfied. The targets leaned against one +wall, and two rows of flower-pots stood in the corner near where the +window opened into the lane, but there was no sign of occupation. Mr. +Buxton went across, threw the window open and looked out. There was a +steel cap three or four feet below, and a pike-head; and at the sound of +the latch a bearded face looked up. + +"I see you have a sentry there," said Mr. Buxton carelessly. + +"Ah! that is one of Mr. Maxwell's men." + +"Mr. Maxwell's!" said the other, startled. "Is he in this affair too?" + +"Yes; have you not heard? He came from Great Keynes this morning. Mr. +Lackington sent for him." + +Mr. Buxton's face grew dark. + +"Ah yes, I see--a pretty revenge." + +The magistrate was on the point of asking an explanation, for he felt on +the best of terms again now with his prisoner, when there were footsteps +outside and voices; and there stood four constables, with Nichol, Hubert +Maxwell and Lackington in furious debate coming up the path behind. + +They looked up suddenly, and saw the door open and the magistrate and his +prisoner standing in the opening. The four constables stood waiting for +further orders while their three chiefs came up. + +"Now, now, now!" said Mr. Graves peevishly, "what is all this?" + +"We have come to search this house, sir," said Nichol cheerfully. + +"See here, sir," said Hubert, "have you given orders for this?" + +"Enough, enough," said Lackington coolly. "Search, men." + +The pursuivants advanced to the steps. Then Mr. Buxton turned fiercely on +them all. + +"See here!" he cried, and his voice rang out across the garden. "You +bring me here, Mr. Graves, promising me a little peace and quietness, +after your violent and unwarranted attack upon my house to-day. I have +been patient and submissive to all suggestions; I leave my entire house +at your disposal; I promise to lay no complaints before her Grace, so +long as you will let me retire here till it is over--and now your men +persecute me even here. Have you no mind of your own, sir?" he shouted. + +"Really, sir----" began Hubert. + +"And as for you, Mr. Maxwell," went on the other fiercely, "are you not +content with your triumph so far? Cannot you leave me one corner to +myself, or would your revenge be not full enough for you, then?" + +"You mistake me, sir," said Hubert, making a violent effort to control +himself; "I am on your side in this matter." + +"That is what I am beginning to think," said Lackington insolently. + +"You think!" roared Mr. Buxton; "and who the devil are you?" + +"See here, gentlemen," said Mr. Nichol, "what is the dispute? Here is an +empty house, Mr. Buxton tells us; and Mr. Maxwell tells us the same. +Well, then, let these honest fellows run through the empty house; it will +not take ten minutes, and Mr. Buxton and his friend can take the air +meanwhile. A-God's name, let us not dispute over a trifle." + +"Then, a-God's name, let me go to my own house," bellowed Mr. Buxton, +"and these gentlemen can have the empty house to disport themselves in +till doomsday--or till her Grace looks into the matter"; and he made a +motion to run down the steps, but his heart sank. Mr. Graves put out a +deprecating hand and touched his arm; and Mr. Buxton very readily turned +at once with a choleric face! + +"No, no, no!" cried the magistrate. "These gentlemen are here on my +warrant, and they shall not search the place. Mr. Buxton, I entreat you +not to be hasty. Come back, sir." + +Mr. Buxton briskly reascended. + +"Well, then, Mr. Graves, I entreat you to give your orders, and let your +will be known. I am getting hungry for my supper, too, sir. It is already +an hour past my time." + +"Sup in the house, sir," said Mr. Nichol smoothly, "and we shall have +done by then." + +Then Hubert blazed up; he took a step forward. + +"Now, you fellow," he said to Nichol, "hold your damned tongue. Mr. +Graves and I are the magistrates here, and we say that this gentleman +shall sup and sleep here in peace, so you may take your pursuivants +elsewhere." + +Lackington looked up with a smile. + +"No, Mr. Maxwell, I cannot do that. These men are under my orders, and I +shall leave two of them here and send another to keep your fellow company +at the back, We will not disturb Mr. Buxton further to-night; but +to-morrow we shall see." + +Mr. Buxton paid no sort of further attention to him, but turned to the +magistrates. + +"Well, gentlemen, what is your decision?" + +"You shall sleep here in peace, sir," said Mr. Graves resolutely. "I can +promise nothing for to-morrow." + +"Then will you kindly allow one of my men to bring me supper and a couch +of some kind, and I shall be obliged if the ladies may sup with me." + +"That they shall," assented Mr. Graves. "Mr. Maxwell, will you escort +them here?" + +Hubert, who was turning away, nodded and disappeared round the yew-hedge. +Lackington, who had been talking in an undertone to the pursuivants, now +went up another alley with one of them and Mr. Nichol, and disappeared +too in the gathering gloom of the garden. The other two pursuivants +separated and each moved a few steps off and remained just out of sight. +Plainly they were to remain on guard. Mr. Buxton and the magistrate sat +down on a couple of garden-chairs. + +"That is an obstinate fellow, sir," said Mr. Graves. + +"They are certainly both of them very offensive fellows, sir. I was +astonished at your indulgence towards them." + +The magistrate was charmed by this view of the case, and remained talking +with Mr. Buxton until footsteps again were heard, and the two ladies +appeared, with Hubert with them, and a couple of men carrying each a tray +and the other necessaries he had asked for. + +Mr. Buxton and the magistrate rose to meet the ladies and bowed. + +"I cannot tell you," began their host elaborately, "what distress all +this affair has given me. I trust you will forgive any inconvenience you +may have suffered." + +Both Isabel and Mary looked white and strained, but they responded +gallantly; and as the table was being prepared the four talked almost as +if there were no bitter suspense at three of their hearts at least. Mr. +Graves was nervous and uneasy, but did his utmost to propitiate Mary. At +last he was on the point of withdrawing, when Mr. Buxton entreated him to +sup with them. + +"I must not," he said; "I am responsible for your property, Mr. Buxton." + +"Then I understand that these ladies may come and go as they please?" he +asked carelessly. + +"Certainly, sir." + +"Then may I ask too the favour that you will place one of your own men at +the door who can conduct them to the house when they wish to go, and who +can remain and protect me too from any disturbance from either of the two +officious persons who were here just now?" + +Mr. Graves, delighted at this restored confidence, promised to do so, and +took an elaborate leave; and the three sat down to supper; the door was +left open, and they could see through it the garden, over which veil +after veil of darkness was beginning to fall. The servants had lighted +two tapers, and the inside of the great room with its queer furniture of +targets and flower-pots was plainly visible to any walking outside. Once +or twice the figure of a man crossed the strip of light that lay across +the gravel. + +It was a strange supper. They said innocent things to one another in a +tone loud enough for any to hear who cared to be listening, about the +annoyance of it all, the useless damage that had been done, the warmth of +the summer night, and the like, and spoke in low soundless sentences of +what was in all their hearts. + +"That red-faced fellow," said Mary, "would be the better of some manners. +(He is in the passage below, I suppose.)" + +"It is scarce an ennobling life--that of a manhunter," said Mr. Buxton. +("Yes. I am sure of it.") + +"They have broken your little cupboard, I fear." said Mary again. ("Tell +me your plan, if you have one.") + +And so step by step a plan was built up. It had been maturing in Mr. +Buxton's mind gradually after he had learnt the ladies might sup with +him; and little by little he conveyed it to them. He managed to write +down the outline of it as he sat at table, and then passed it to each to +read, and commented on it and answered their questions about it, all in +the same noiseless undertone, with his lips indeed scarcely moving. There +were many additions and alterations made in it as the two ladies worked +upon it too, but by the time supper was over it was tolerably complete. +It seemed, indeed, almost desperate, but the case was desperate. It was +certain that the garden-house would be searched next day; Lackington's +suspicions were plainly roused, and it was too much to hope that +searchers who had found three hiding-places in one afternoon would fail +to find a fourth. It appeared then that it was this plan or none. + +They supped slowly, in order to give time to think out and work out the +scheme, and to foresee any difficulties beyond those they had already +counted on; and it was fully half-past nine before the two ladies rose. +Their host went with them to the door, called up Mr. Graves' man, and +watched them pass down the path out of sight. He stood a minute or two +longer looking across towards the house at the dusky shapes in the garden +and the strip of gravel, grass, and yew that was illuminated from his +open door. Then he spoke to the men that he knew were just out of sight. + +"I am going to bed presently. Kindly do not disturb me." There was no +answer; and he closed the two high doors and bolted them securely. + +He dared not yet do what he wished, for fear of arousing suspicion, so he +went to the other window and looked out into the lane. He could just make +out the glimmer of steel on the opposite bank. + +"Good-night, my man," he called out cheerfully. + +Again there was no answer. There was something sinister in these watching +presences that would not speak, and his heart sank a little as he put-to +the window without closing it. He went next to the pile of rugs and +pillows that his men had brought across, and arranged them in the corner, +just clear of the trap-door. Then he knelt and said his evening prayers, +and here at least was no acting. Then he rose again and took off his +doublet and ruff and shoes so that he was dressed only in a shirt, trunks +and hose. Then he went across to the supper-table, where the tapers still +burned, and blew them out, leaving the room in complete darkness. Then he +went back to his bed, and sat and listened. + +Up to this point he had been aware that probably at least one pair of +eyes had been watching him; for, although the windows were of bottle-end +glass, yet it was exceedingly likely that there would be some clear glass +in them; and, with the tapers burning inside, his movements would all +have been visible to either of Lackington's men who cared to put his eye +to the window. But now he was invisible. Yet, as he thought of it, he +slipped on his doublet again to hide the possible glimmer of his white +shirt. There was the silence of the summer night about him--the silence +only emphasised by its faint sounds. The house was quiet across the +garden, though once or twice he thought he heard a horse stamp. Once +there came a little stifled cough from outside his window; there was the +silky rustle of the faint breeze in the trees outside; and now and again +came the snoring of a young owl in the ivy somewhere overhead. + +He counted five hundred deliberately, to compel himself to wait; and +meanwhile his sub-conscious self laboured at the scheme. Then he glanced +this way and that with wide eyes; his ears sang with intentness of +listening. Then, very softly he shifted his position, and found with his +fingers the ring that lifted the trap-door above the stairs. + +There was no concealment about this, and without any difficulty he lifted +the door with his right hand and leaned it against the wall; then he +looked round again and listened. From below came up the damp earthy +breath of the basement, and he heard a rat scamper suddenly to shelter. +Then he lifted his feet from the rugs and dropped them noiselessly on the +stairs, and supporting himself by his hands on the floor went down a step +or two. Then a stair creaked under his weight; and he stopped in an +agony, hearing only the mad throbbing in his own ears. But all was silent +outside. And so step by step he descended into the cool darkness. He +hesitated as to whether he should close the trap-door or not, there was a +risk either way; but he decided to do so, as he would be obliged to make +some noise in opening the secret doors and communicating with Anthony. At +last his feet touched the earth floor, and he turned as he sat and +counted the steps--the fourth, the fifth, and tapped upon it. There was +no answer; he put his lips to it and whispered sharply: + +"Anthony, Anthony, dear lad." + +Still there was no answer. Then he lifted the lid, and managed to hold +the woodwork below, as he knelt on the third step, so that it descended +noiselessly. He put out his other hand and felt the boards. Anthony had +retired into the passage then, he told himself, as he found the space +empty. He climbed into the hole, pushed himself along and counted the +bricks--the fourth of the fourth--pressed it, and pushed at the door; and +it was fast. + +For the first time a horrible spasm of terror seized him. Had he +forgotten? or was it all a mistake, and Anthony not there? He turned in +his place, put his shoulders against the door and his feet against the +woodwork of the stairs, and pushed steadily; there were one or two loud +creaks, and the door began to yield. Then he knew Anthony was there; a +rush of relief came into his heart--and he turned and whispered again. + +"Anthony, dear lad, Anthony, open quickly; it is I." + +The brickwork slid back and a hand touched his face out of the pitch +darkness of the tunnel. + +"Who is it? Is it you?" came a whisper. + +"It is I, yes. Thank God you are here. I feared----" + +"How could I tell?" came the whisper again. "But what is the news? Are +you escaped?" + +"No, I am a prisoner, and on parole. But there is no time for that. You +must escape--we have a plan--but there is not much time." + +"Why should I not remain here?" + +"They will search to-morrow--and--and this end of the tunnel is not so +well concealed as the other. They would find you. They suspect you are +here, and there are guards round this place." + +There was a movement in the dark. + +"Then why think----" began the whisper. + +"No, no, we have a plan. Mary and Isabel approve. Listen carefully. There +is but one guard at the back here, in the lane. Mary has leave to come +and go now as she pleases--they are afraid of her; she will leave the +house in a few minutes now to ride to East Maskells, with two grooms and +a maid behind one of them. She will ride her own horse. When she has +passed the inn she will bid the groom who has the maid to wait for her, +while she rides down the lane with the other, Robert, to speak to me +through the window. The pursuivant, we suppose, will not forbid that, as +he knows they have supped with me just now. As we talk, Robert will watch +his chance and spring on the pursuivant. As soon as the struggle begins +you will drop from the window; it is but eight feet; and help him to +secure the man and gag him. However much din they make the others cannot +reach the man in time to help, for they will have to come round from the +house, and you will have mounted Robert's horse; and you and Mary +together will gallop down the lane into the road, and then where you +will. We advise East Maskells. I do not suppose there will be any +pursuit. They will have no horses ready. Do you understand it?" + +There was silence a moment; Mr. Buxton could hear Anthony breathing in +the darkness. + +"I do not like it," came the whisper at last; "it seems desperate. A +hundred things may happen. And what of Isabel and you?" + +"Dear friend; I know it is desperate, but not so desperate as your +remaining here would be for us all." + +Again there was silence. + +"What of Robert? How will he escape?" + +"If you escape they will have nothing against Robert; for they can prove +nothing as to your priesthood. But if they catch you here--and they +certainly will, if you remain here--they will probably hang him, for he +fought for you gallantly in the house. And he too will have time to run. +He can run through the door into the meadows. But they will not care for +him if they know you are off." + +Again silence. + +"Well?" whispered Mr. Buxton. + +"Do you wish it?" + +"I think it is the only hope." + +"Then I will do it." + +"Thank God! And now you must come up with me. Put off your shoes." + +"I have none." + +"Then follow, and do not make a sound." + + * * * * + +Very cautiously Mr. Buxton extricated himself; for he had been lying on +his side while he whispered to Anthony; and presently was crouched on the +stairs above, as he heard the stirrings of his friend in the dark below +him. There came the click of the brickwork door; then slow shufflings; +once a thump on the hollow boards that made his heart leap; then after +what seemed an interminable while, came the sound of latching the fifth +stair into its place; and he felt his foot grasped. Then he turned and +ascended slowly on hands and knees, feeling now and again for the +trap-door over him--touched it--raised it, and crawled out on to the +rugs. The room seemed to him comparatively light after the heavy darkness +of the basement, and passage below, and he could make out the +supper-table and the outline of the targets on the opposite wall. Then he +saw a head follow him; then shoulders and body; and Anthony crept out and +sat on the rugs beside him. Their hands met in a trembling grip. + +"Supper, dear lad?" whispered Mr. Buxton, with his mouth to the other's +ear. + +"Yes, I am hungry," came the faintest whisper back. + +Mr. Buxton rose and went on tip-toe to the table, took off some food and +a glass of wine that he had left purposely filled and came back with +them. + +There the two friends sat; Mr. Buxton could just hear the movement of +Anthony's mouth as he ate. The four windows glimmered palely before them, +and once or twice the tall doors rattled faintly as the breeze stirred +them. + +Then suddenly came a sound that made Anthony's hand pause on the way to +his mouth; Mr. Buxton drew a sharp breath; it was the noise of three or +four horses on the road beyond the church. Then they both stood up +without a word, and Mr. Buxton went noiselessly across to the window that +looked on to the lane and remained there, listening. The horses were now +passing down the street, and the noise of their hoofs grew fainter behind +the houses. + +Anthony saw his friend in the twilight beckon, and he went across and +stood by him. Suddenly the hoofs sounded loud and near; and they heard +the pursuivant below stand up from the bank opposite. Then Mary's voice +came distinct and cheerful. + +"How dark it is!" + +The horses were coming down the lane. + + + + + CHAPTER XII + + THE NIGHT-RIDE + + +The sound of hoofs came nearer; Anthony's heart, as he crouched below the +window, ready to spring up and over when the signal was given, beat in +sick thumpings at the base of his throat, but with a fierce excitement +and no fear. His hands clenched and unclenched. Mr. Buxton stood back a +little, waiting; he must feign to be asleep at first. + +Then came suddenly a sharp challenge from the sentry. + +"It is Mistress Corbet," came Mary's cool high tones, "and I desire to +speak with Mr. Buxton." + +The man hesitated. + +"You cannot," he said. + +"Cannot!" she cried; "why, fellow, do you know who I am? And I have just +supped with him." + +There came a sudden sound from the other side of the summer-house, and +both men in the room knew that the guards in the garden were listening. + +"I am sorry, madam, but I have no orders." + +"Then do not presume, you hound," came Mary's voice again, with a ring of +anger. "Ho, there, Mr. Buxton, come to the window." + +"Be ready," he whispered to Anthony. + +"Stand back, madam," said the pursuivant, "or I shall call for help." + +Then Mr. Buxton threw back the window. + +"Who is there?" he asked coolly. ("Stand up Anthony.") + +"It is I, Mr. Buxton, but this insolent dog----" + +"Stand _back_, madam, I say," cried the voice of the guard. Then from the +garden behind came running footsteps and voices; and a red light shone +through the windows behind. + +"Now," whispered the voice over Anthony's head sharply. + +There came a loud shout from the guard, "Help there, help!" + +Anthony put his hands on to the sill and lifted himself easily. The groom +had slipped from his horse while Mary held the bridle, and was advancing +at the guard, and there was something in his hand. The sentry, who was +standing immediately under the window, now dropped his pike point +forward; and as a furious rattling began at the doors on the garden side, +Anthony dropped, and came down astride of the man's neck, who crashed to +the ground. Then the groom was on him too. + +"Leave him to me, sir. Mount." + +The groom's hands were busy with something about the struggling man's +neck: the shouts choked and ceased. + +"You will strangle the man," said Anthony sharply. + +"Nonsense," said Mary; "mount, mount. They are coming." + +Anthony ran to the horse, that was beginning to scurry and plunge; threw +himself across the saddle and caught the reins. + +"Up?" said Mary. + +"Up"; and he slung his right leg over the flank and sat up, as Mary +released the bridle, and dashed off, scattering gravel. + +From the direction of the church came cries and the quick rattle of a +galloping horse. Anthony dashed his shoeless heels into the horse's sides +and leaned forward, and in a moment more was flying down the lane after +Mary. From in front came a shout of warning, with one or two screams, and +then Anthony turned the corner, checking his horse slightly at the angle, +saw a torch somewhere to his right, a group of scared faces, a groom and +woman clinging to him on a plunging horse, and the white road; and then +found himself with loose reins, and flying stirrups, thundering down the +village street, with Mary on her horse not two lengths in front. The roar +of the hoofs behind, and of the little shouting crowd, with the screaming +woman on the horse, died behind him as the wind began to boom in his +ears. Mary was looking round now, and slightly checking her horse as they +neared the bottom of the long village street. In half a dozen strides +Anthony came up on her right. Then the pool gleamed before them just +beyond the fork of the road. + +"Left!" screamed Mary through the roar of the racing air, and turned her +horse off up the road that led round in a wide sweep of two miles to East +Maskells and the woods beyond, and Anthony followed. He had settled down +in the saddle now, and had brought his maddened horse under control; his +feet were in the stirrups, but there was no lessening of the speed. They +had left the last house now, and on either side the black bushes and +heatherland streamed past, with the sudden gleam of water here and there +under the starlight that showed the ditches and holes with which the +ground on either side of the road was honeycombed. + +Then Mary turned her head again, and the words came detached and sharp. + +"They are after us--could not help--horses saddled." + +Anthony turned his head to release one ear from the roar of the air, and +heard the thundering rattle of hoofs in the distance, but even as he +listened it grew fainter. + +"We are gaining!" he shouted. + +Mary nodded, and her teeth gleamed white in a smile. + +"Ours are fresh," she screamed. + +Then there was silence between them again; they had reached a little hill +and eased their horses up it; a heavy fringe of trees crowned it on their +right, black against the stars, and a gleam of light showed the presence +of a house among them. Farther and farther behind them sounded the hoofs; +then they were swaying and rocking again down the slope that led to the +long flat piece of road that ended in the slope up to East Maskells. It +was softer going now and darker too, as there were trees overhead; +pollared willows streamed past them as they went; and twice there was a +snort and a hollow thunder of hoofs as a young sleeping horse awoke and +raced them a few yards in the meadows at the side. Once Anthony's horse +shied at a white post, and drew in front a yard or two; and he heard for +a moment under the rattle the cool gush of the stream that flowed beneath +the road and the scream of a water-fowl as she burst from the reeds. + +A great exultation began to fill Anthony's heart. What a ride this was, +in the glorious summer night--reckless and intoxicating! What a contrast, +this sweet night air streaming past him, this dear world of living +things, his throbbing horse beneath him, the birds and beasts round him, +and this gallant girl swaying and rejoicing too beside him! What a +contrast was all this to that terrible afternoon, only a few hours +away--of suspense and skulking like a rat in a sewer; in a dark, close +passage underground breathing death and silence round him! An escape with +the fresh air in the face and the glorious galloping music of hoofs is +another matter to an escape contrived by holding the breath and fearing +to move in a mean hiding-hole. And as all this flooded in upon him, +incoherently but overpoweringly, he turned and laughed loud with joy. + +They had nearly come to an end of the flat by now. In front of them rose +the high black mass of trees where safety lay; somewhere to the right, +not a quarter of a mile in front, just off the road, lay East Maskells. +They would draw rein, he reflected, when they reached the outer gates, +and listen; and if all was quiet behind them, Mary at least should ask +for shelter. For himself, perhaps it would be safer to ride on into the +woods for the present. He began to move his head as he rode to see if +there were any light in the house before him; it seemed dark; but perhaps +he could not see the house from here. Gradually his horse slackened a +little, as the rise in the ground began, and he tossed the reins once or +twice. + +Then there was a sharp hiss and blow behind him; his horse snorted and +leapt forward, almost unseating him, and then, still snorting with head +raised and jerking, dashed at the slope. There was a cry and a loud +report; he tugged at the reins, but the horse was beside himself, and he +rode fifty yards before he could stop him. Even as he wrenched him into +submission another horse with head up and flying stirrup and reins +thundered past him and disappeared into the woods beyond the house. + +Then, trembling so that he could hardly hold the reins, he urged his +horse back again at a stumbling trot towards what he knew lay at the foot +of the slope, and to meet the tumult that grew in nearness and intensity +up the road along which he had just galloped. + +There was a dark group on the pale road in front of him, twenty yards +this side of the field-path that led from Stanfield Place; he took his +feet from the stirrups as he got near, and in a moment more threw his +right leg forward over the saddle and slipped to the ground. + +He said no word but pushed away the two men, and knelt by Mary, taking +her head on his knee. The men rose and stood looking down at them. + +"Mary," he said, "can you hear me?" + +He bent close over the white face; her hand rose to her breast, and came +away dark. She was shot through the body. Then she pushed him sharply. + +"Go," she whispered, "go." + +"Mary," he said again, "make your confession--quickly. Stand back, you +men." + +They obeyed him; and he bent his ear towards the mouth he could so dimly +see. There was a sob or two--a long moaning breath--and then the murmur +of words, very faint and broken by gulps for breath. He noticed nothing +of the hoofs that dashed up the road and stopped abruptly, and of the +murmur of voices that grew round him; he only heard the gasping whisper, +the words that rose one by one, with pauses and sighs, into his ear.... + +"Is that all?" he said, and a silence fell on all who stood round, now a +complete circle about the priest and the penitent. The pale face moved +slightly in assent; he could see the lips were open, and the breath was +coming short and agonised. + +"... _In nomine Patris_--his hand rose above her and moved cross-ways in +the air--_et Filii et Spiritus Sancti_. _Amen._" + +Then he bent low again and looked; the bosom was still rising and +falling, the shut eyes lifted once and looked at him. Then the lids fell +again. + +"_Benedictio Dei omnipotentis, Patris et Filii et Spiritus sancti, +descendat super te et maneat semper. Amen._" + +Then there fell a silence. A horse blew out its nostrils somewhere behind +and stamped; then a man's voice cried brutally: + +"Now then, is that popish mummery done yet?" + +There was a murmur and stir in the group. But Anthony had risen. + +"That is all," he said. + + + + + CHAPTER XIII + + IN PRISON + + +Anthony found several friends in the Clink prison in Southwark, whither +he was brought up from Stanfield Place after his arrest. + +Life there was very strange, a combination of suffering and extraordinary +relaxation. He had a tiny cell, nine feet by five, with one little window +high up, and for the first month of his imprisonment wore irons; at the +same time his gaoler was so much open to bribery that he always found his +door open on Sunday morning, and was able to shuffle upstairs and say +mass in the cell of Ralph Emerson, once the companion of Campion, and a +lay-brother of the Society of Jesus. There he met a large number of +Catholics--some of whom he had come across in his travels--and he even +ministered the sacraments to others who managed to come in from the +outside. His chief sorrow was that his friend and host had been taken to +the Counter in Wood Street. + +It was a month before he heard all that had happened on the night of his +arrest, and on the previous days: he had been separated at once from his +friends; and although he had heard his guards talking both in the hall +where he had been kept the rest of the night, and during the long hot +ride to London the next day, yet at first he was so bewildered by Mary's +death that what they said made little impression on him. But after he had +been examined both by magistrates and the Commissioners, and very little +evidence was forthcoming, his irons were struck off and he was allowed +much more liberty than before; and at last, to his great joy, Isabel was +admitted to see him. She herself had come straight up to the Marretts' +house, both of whom still lived on in Wharf Street, though old and +infirm; and day by day she attempted to get access to her brother; until +at last, by dint of bribery, she was successful. + +Then she told him the whole story. + + * * * * + +"When we left the garden-house," she said, "we went straight back, and +Mary found Mr. Graves in the parlour off the hall. Oh, Anthony, how she +ordered him about! And how frightened he was of her! The end was that he +sent a message to the stables for her horses to be got ready, as she +said. I went up with her to help her to make ready, and we kissed one +another up there, for, you know, we dared not make as if we said good-bye +downstairs. Then we came down for her to mount; and then we saw what we +had not known before, that all the stable-yard was filled with the men's +horses saddled and bridled. However, we said nothing, except that Mary +asked a man what--what the devil he was looking at, when he stared up at +her as she stood on the block drawing on her gloves before she mounted. +There were one or two torches burning in cressets, and I saw her so +plainly turn the corner down towards the church. + +"Then I went upstairs again, but I could not go to my room, but stood at +the gallery window outside looking down at the court, for I knew that if +there was any danger it would come from there. + +"Then presently I heard a noise, and a shouting, and a man ran in through +the gates to the stable-yard; and, almost directly it seemed, three or +four rode out, at full gallop across the court and down by the church. +The window was open and I could hear the noise down towards the village. +Then more and more came pouring out, and all turned the corner and +galloped; all but one, whose horse slipped and came down with a crash. +Oh, Anthony! how I prayed! + +"Then I saw Mr. Lackington"--Isabel stopped a moment at the name, and +then went on again--"and he was on horseback too in the court; but he was +shouting to two or three more who were just mounting. 'Across the +field--across the field---cut them off!' I could hear it so plainly; and +I saw the stable-gate was open, and they went through, and I could hear +them galloping on the grass. And then I knew what was happening; and I +went back to my room and shut the door." + +Isabel stopped again; and Anthony took her hand softly in his own and +stroked it. Then she went on. + +"Well, I saw them bring you back, from the gallery window--and ran to the +top of the stairs and saw you go through into the hall where the +magistrates were waiting, and the door was shut; and then I went back to +my place at the window--and then presently they brought in Mary. I +reached the bottom of the stairs just as they set her down. And I told +them to bring her upstairs; and they did, and laid her on the bed where +we had sat together all the afternoon.... And I would let no one in: I +did it all myself; and then I set the tapers round her, and put the +crucifix that was round my neck into her fingers, which I had laid on her +breast ... and there she lay on the great bed ... and her face was like a +child's, fast asleep--smiling: and then I kissed her again, and +whispered, 'Thank you, Mary'; for, though I did not know all, I knew +enough, and that it was for you." + +Anthony had thrown his arms on the table and his face was buried in them. +Isabel put out her hand and stroked his curly head gently as she went on, +and told him in the same quiet voice of how Mary had tried to save him by +lashing his horse, as she caught sight of the man waiting at the entrance +of the field-path, and riding in between him and Anthony. The man had +declared in his panic of fear before the magistrates that he had never +dreamt of doing Mistress Corbet an injury, but that she had ridden across +just as he drew the trigger to shoot the priest's horse and stop him that +way. + +When Isabel had finished Anthony still lay with his head on his arms. + +"Why, Anthony, my darling," she said, "what could be more perfect? How +proud I am of you both!" + +She told him, too, how they had been tracked to Stanfield--Lackington had +let it out in his exultation. + +The sailor at Greenhithe was one of his agents--an apostate, like his +master. He had recognised that the party consisted of Catholics by +Anthony's breaking of the bread. He had been placed there to watch the +ferry; and had sent messages at once to Nichol and Lackington. Then the +party had been followed, but had been lost sight of, thanks to Anthony's +ruse. Nichol had then flung out a cordon along the principal roads that +bounded Stanstead Woods on the south; and Lackington, when he arrived a +few hours later, had kept them there all night. The cordon consisted of +idlers and children picked up at Wrotham; and the tramp who feigned to be +asleep had been one of them. When they had passed, he had given the +signal to his nearest neighbour, and had followed them up. Nichol was +soon at the place, and after them; and had followed to Stanfield with +Lackington behind. Then watchers had been set round the house; the +magistrates communicated with; and as soon as Hubert and Mr. Graves had +arrived the assault had been made. Hubert had not been told who the +priest was; but he had leapt at an opportunity to harass Mr. Buxton: he +had been given to understand that Anthony and Isabel were still in the +north. + +"He did not know; indeed he did not," cried Isabel piteously. + +At another time, when she had gained admittance to him, she gave him +messages from the Marretts, who had kept a great affection for the lad, +who had told them tales of College that Christmas time; and she told him +too of the coming of an old friend to see her there. + +"It was poor Mr. Dent," she said; "he looks so old now. His wife died +three years ago; you know he has a city-living and does chaplain's work +at the Tower sometimes; and he is coming to see you, Anthony, and talk to +you." + +Three or four days later he came. + +Anthony was greatly touched at his kindness in coming. He looked +considerably older than his age; his hair had grown thin and grey about +his temples, and the sharp birdlike outline of his face and features +seemed blurred and indeterminate. His creed too, and his whole manner of +looking at things of faith, seemed to have undergone a similar process. +The two had a long talk. + +"I am not going to argue with you, Mr. Norris," he said, "though I still +think your religion wrong. But I have learnt this at least, that the +greatest of all is charity, and if we love the same God, and His Blessed +Son, and one another, I think that is best of all. I have learnt that +from my wife--my dear wife," he added softly. "I used to hold much with +doctrine at one time, and loved to chop arguments; but our Saviour did +not, and so I will not." + +Anthony was delighted that he took this line, for he knew there are some +minds that apparently cannot be loyal to both charity and truth at the +same time, and Mr. Dent's seemed to be one of them; so the two talked of +old times at Great Keynes, and of the folks there, and at last of Hubert. + +"I saw him in the City last week," said Mr. Dent, "and he is a changed +man. He looks ten years older than this time last year; I scarcely know +what has come to him. I know he has thrown up his magistracy, and the +Lindfield parson tells me that the talk is that Mr. Maxwell is going on +another voyage, and leaving his wife and children behind him again." + +Anthony told him gently of Hubert's share in the events at Stanfield, +adding what real and earnest attempts he had made to repair the injury he +had done as soon as he had learnt that it was his friend that was in +hiding. + +"There was no treachery against me, Mr. Dent, you see," he added. + +Mr. Dent pecked a little in the air with pursed lips and eyes fixed on +the ground; and a vision of the pulpit at Great Keynes moved before +Anthony's eyes. + +"Yes, yes, yes," he said; "I understand--I quite understand." + +Before Mr. Dent took his leave he unburdened himself of what he had +really come to say. + +"Master Anthony," he said, standing up and fingering his hat round and +round, "I said I talked no doctrine now; but I must unsay that; and--you +will not think me impertinent if I ask you something?" + +"My dear Mr. Dent----" began the other, standing and smiling too. + +"Thank you, thank you--I felt sure--then it is this: I do not know much +about the Popish religion, though I used to once, and I may be very +mistaken; but I would like you to satisfy me before I go on one point"; +and he fixed his anxious peering eyes on Anthony's face. "Can you say, +Master Anthony, from a full heart, that you fix all your hope and +confidence for salvation in Christ's merits alone?" + +Anthony smiled frankly in his face. + +"Indeed, in none other," he said, "and from a full heart." + +"Ah well," and the birdlike face began to beam and twitch, "and--and +there is nothing of confidence in yourself and your works--and--and there +is no talk of Holy Mary in the matter?" + +Anthony smiled again. He wished to avoid useless controversy. + +"Briefly," he said, "my belief is that I am a very great sinner, that I +deserve eternal hell; but I humbly place all my trust in the Precious +Blood of my Saviour, and in that alone. Does that satisfy you?" + +Mr. Dent's face was breaking into smiles, and at the end he took the +priest's face in his hands and kissed him gently twice on the cheeks. + +"Then, my dear boy, I fear nothing for you. May that salvation you hope +for be yours." And then without a word he was gone. + +Anthony's conscience reproached him a little that he had said nothing of +the Church to the minister; but Mr. Dent had been so peremptory about +doctrine that it was hard for the younger man to say what he would have +wished. He told him, however, plainly on his next visit that he held +whole-heartedly too that the Catholic Church was the treasury of Grace +that Christ had instituted, and added a little speech about his longing +to see his old friend a Catholic too; but Mr. Dent shook his head. The +corners of his eyes wrinkled a little, and a shade of his old fretfulness +passed over his face. + +"Nay, if you talk like that," he said, "I must be gone. I am no +theologian. You must let me alone." + +He gave him news this time of Mr. Buxton. + +"He is in the Counter, as you know," he said, "and is a very bright and +cheerful person, it seems to me. Mistress Isabel asked me to see him and +give her news of him, for she cannot get admittance. He is in a cell, +little and nasty; but he said to me that a Protestant prison was a +Papist's pleasaunce--in fact he said it twice. And he asked very eagerly +after you and Mistress Isabel. He tried, too, to inveigle me into talk of +Peter his prerogative, but I would not have it. It was Lammas Day when I +saw him, and he spoke much of it." + +Anthony asked whether there was anything said of what punishment Mr. +Buxton would suffer. + +"Well," said Mr. Dent, "the Lieutenant of the Tower told me that her +Grace was so sad at the death of Mistress Corbet that she was determined +that no more blood should be shed than was obliged over this matter; and +that Mr. Buxton, he thought, would be but deprived of his estates and +banished; but I know not how that may be. But we shall soon know." + +These weeks of waiting were full of consolation and refreshment to +Anthony: the nervous stress of the life of the seminary priest in +England, full of apprehension and suspense, crowned, as it had been in +his case, by the fierce excitement of the last days of his liberty--all +this had strained and distracted his soul, and the peace of the prison +life, with the certainty that no efforts of his own could help him now, +quieted and strengthened him for the ordeal he foresaw. At this time, +too, he used to spend two or three hours a day in meditation, and found +the greatest benefit in following the tranquil method of prayer +prescribed by Louis de Blois, with whose writings he had made +acquaintance at Douai. Each morning, too, he said a "dry mass," and +during the whole of his imprisonment at the Clink managed to make his +confession at least once a week, and besides his communion at mass on +Sundays, communicated occasionally from the Reserved Sacrament, which he +was able to keep in a neighbouring cell, unknown to his gaoler. + +And so the days went by, as orderly as in a Religious House; he rose at a +fixed hour, observed the greatest exactness in his devotions, and did his +utmost to prevent any visitors being admitted to see him, or any from +another cell coming into his own, until he had finished his first +meditation and said his office. And there began to fall upon him a kind +of mellow peace that rose at times of communion and prayer to a point so +ravishing, that he began to understand that it would not be a light cross +for which such preparatory graces were necessary. + + * * * * + +Towards the middle of September he received intelligence that evidence +had been gathering against him, and that one or two were come from +Lancashire under guard; and that he would be brought before the +Commissioners again immediately. + +Within two days this came about. He was sent for across the water to the +Tower, and after waiting an hour or two with his gaoler downstairs in the +basement of the White Tower, was taken up into the great Hall where the +Council sat. There was a table at the farther end where they were +sitting, and as Anthony looked round he saw through openings all round in +the inner wall the little passage where the sentries walked, and heard +their footfalls. + +The preliminaries of identification and the like had been disposed of at +previous examinations before Mr. Young--a name full of sinister +suggestiveness to the Catholics; and so, after he had been given a seat +at a little distance from the table behind which the Commissioners sat, +he was questioned minutely as to his journey in the North of England. + +"What were you there for, Mr. Norris?" inquired the Secretary of the +Council. + +"I went to see friends, and to do my business." + +"Then that resolves itself into two heads: One, Who are your friends. +Two, What was your business?" + +Now it had been established beyond a doubt at previous examinations that +he was a priest; a student of Douai who had apostatised had positively +identified him; so Anthony answered boldly: + +"My friends were Catholics; and my business was the reconciling of souls +to their Creator." + +"And to the Pope of Rome," put in Wade. + +"Who is Christ's Vicar," continued Anthony. + +"And a pestilent knave," concluded a fiery-faced man whom Anthony did not +know. + +But the Commissioners wanted more than that; it was true that Anthony was +already convicted of high treason in having been ordained beyond the seas +and in exercising his priestly functions in England; but the exacting of +the penalty for religion alone was apt to raise popular resentment; and +it was far preferable in the eyes of the authorities to entangle a priest +in the political net before killing him. So they passed over for the +present his priestly functions and first demanded a list of all the +places where he had stayed in the north. + +"You ask what is impossible," said Anthony, with his eyes on the ground +and his heart beating sharply, for he knew that now peril was near. + +"Well," said Wade, "let us put it another way. We know that you were at +Speke Hall, Blainscow, and other places. I have a list here," and he +tapped the table, "but we want your name to it." + +"Let me see the paper," said Anthony. + +"Nay, nay, tell us first." + +"I cannot sign the paper except I see it," said Anthony, smiling. + +"Give it him," said a voice from the end of the table. + +"Here then," said Wade unwillingly. + +Anthony got up and took the paper from him, and saw one or two places +named where he had not been, and saw that it had been drawn up at any +rate partly on guesswork. + +He put the paper down and went back to his chair and sat down. + +"It is not true," he said, looking steadily at the Secretary; "I cannot +sign it." + +"Do you deny that you have been to any of these places?" inquired Wade +indignantly. + +"The paper is not true," said Anthony again. + +"Well, then, show us what is not true upon it." + +"I cannot." + +"We will find means to persuade you," said the Secretary. + +"If God permits," said Anthony. + +Wade glanced round inquiringly and shrugged his shoulders; one or two +shook their heads. + +"Well, then, we will turn to another point. There are known to have been +certain Jesuit priests in Lancashire in November of last year--do you +deny that, sir?" + +"You ask too much," said Anthony, smiling again; "they may have been +there for aught I know, for I certainly did not see them elsewhere at the +time you mention." + +Wade frowned, but the one at the end laughed loud. + +"He has you there, Wade," he said. + +"This is foolery," said the Secretary. "Well, these two, Father Edward +Oldcorne and Father Holtby were in Lancashire in November; and you, Mr. +Norris, spoke with them then. We wish to know where they are now, and you +must tell us." + +"You have yet to prove that I spoke with them," said Anthony, for the +trap was too transparent. + +"But we know that." + +"That may or may not be; but it is for you to prove it." + +"Nay, for you to tell us." + +"For you to prove it." + +Wade lost his temper. + +"Well, then," he cried, "take this paper and see which of us is in the +right." + +Anthony rose again, wondering what the paper could be, and came towards +the table. He saw it bore a name at the end, and as he advanced saw that +it had an official appearance. Wade still held it; but Anthony took it in +his hand too to steady it, and began to read; but as he read a mist rose +before his eyes, and the paper shook violently. It was a warrant to put +him to the torture. + +Wade laughed a little. + +"Why, see, Mr. Norris, how you tremble at the warrant; what will it be +when you----" + +But a voice murmured "Shame!" and he stopped and stared. + +Anthony passed his hand over his eyes and went back to his chair and sat +down; he saw his knees trembling as he sat, and hated himself for it; but +he cried bravely: + +"The flesh is weak, but, please God, the spirit is willing." + +"Well, then," said Wade again, "must we execute this warrant, or will you +tell us what we would know?" + +"You must do what God permits," said Anthony. + +Wade sat down, throwing the warrant on the table, and began to talk in a +low voice to those who sat next him. Anthony fixed his eyes on the +ground, and did his utmost to keep his thoughts steady. + +Now he realised where he was, and what it all meant. The little door to +the left, behind him, that he had noticed as he came in, was the door of +which he had heard other Catholics speak, that led down to the great +crypt, where so many before him had screamed and fainted and called on +God, from the rack that stood at the foot of the stairs, or from the +pillar with the fixed ring at its summit. + +He had faced all this in his mind again and again, but it was a different +thing to have the horror within arm's length; old phrases he had heard of +the torture rang in his mind--a boast of Norton's, the rackmaster, who +had racked Brian, and which had been repeated from mouth to mouth--that +he had "made Brian a foot longer than God made him"; words of James +Maxwell's that he had let drop at Douai; the remembrance of his limp; and +of Campion's powerlessness to raise his hand when called upon to +swear--all these things crowded on him now; and there seemed to rest on +him a crushing swarm of fearful images and words. He made a great effort, +and closed his eyes, and repeated the holy name of Jesus over and over +again; but the struggle was still fierce when Wade's voice, harsh and +dry, broke in and scattered the confusion of mind that bewildered him. + +"Take the prisoner to a cell; he is not to go back to the Clink." + +Anthony felt a hand on his arm, and the gaoler was looking at him with +compassion. + +"Come, sir," he said. + +Anthony rose feeling heavy and exhausted; but remembered to bow to the +Commissioners, one or two of whom returned it. Then he followed the +gaoler out into the ante-room, who handed him over to one of the Tower +officials. + +"I must leave you here, sir," he said; "but keep a good heart; it will +not be for to-day." + + * * * * + +When Anthony got to his new cell, which was in the Salt Tower, he was +bitterly angry and disappointed with himself. Why, he had turned white +and sick like a child, not at the pain of the rack, not even at the sight +of it, but at the mere warrant! He threw himself on his knees, and bowed +down till his head beat against the boards. + +"O Lord Jesus," he prayed, "give me of Thy Manhood." + + * * * * + +He found that this prison was more rigorous than the Clink; no liberty to +leave the cell could possibly be obtained, and no furniture was provided. +The gaoler, when he had brought up his dinner, asked whether he could +send any message for him for a bed. Anthony gave Isabel's address, +knowing that the authorities were already aware that she was a Catholic, +and indeed she had given bail to come up for trial if called upon, and +that his information could injure neither her nor the Marretts, who were +sound Church of England people; and in the afternoon a mattress and some +clothes arrived for him. + +Anthony noticed at dinner that the knife provided was of a very +inconvenient shape, having a round blunt point, and being sharp only at a +lower part of the blade; and when the keeper came up with his supper he +asked him to bring him another kind. The man looked at him with a queer +expression. + +"What is the matter?" asked Anthony; "cannot you oblige me?" + +The man shook his head. + +"They are the knives that are always given to prisoners under warrant for +torture." + +Anthony did not understand him, and looked at him, puzzled. + +"For fear they should do themselves an injury," added the gaoler. + +Then the same shudder ran over his body again. + +"You mean--you mean...." he began. The gaoler nodded, still looking at +him oddly, and went out; and Anthony sat, with his supper untasted, +staring before him. + + * * * * + +By a kind of violent reaction he had a long happy dream that night. The +fierce emotions of that day had swept over his imagination and scoured it +as with fire, and now the underlying peace rose up and flooded it with +sweetness. + +He thought he was in the north again, high up on a moor, walking with one +who was quite familiar to him, but whose person he could not remember +when he woke; he did not even know whether it was man or woman. It was a +perfect autumn day, he thought, like one of those he had spent there last +year; the heather and the gorse were in flower, and the air was redolent +from their blossoms; he commented on this to the person at his side, who +told him it was always so there. Mile after mile the moor rose and +dipped, and, although Skiddaw was on his right, purple and grey, yet to +his left there was a long curved horizon of sparkling blue sea. It was a +cloudless day overhead, and the air seemed kindling and fresh round him +as it blew across the stretches of heather from the western sea. He +himself felt full of an extraordinary vitality, and the mere movement of +his limbs gave him joy as he went swiftly and easily forward over the +heather. There was the sound of the wind in his ears, and again and again +there came the gush of water from somewhere out of sight--as he had heard +it in the church by Skiddaw. There was no house or building of any kind +within sight, and he felt a great relief in these miles of heath and the +sense of holiday that they gave him. But all the joy round him and in his +heart found their point for him in the person that went with him; this +presence was their centre, as a diamond in a gold ring, or as a throned +figure in a Court circle. All else existed for the sake of this +person;--the heather blossomed and the gorse incensed the air, and the +sea sparkled, and the sky was blue, and the air kindled, and his own +heart warmed and throbbed, for that only. When he tried to see who it +was, there was nothing to see; the presence existed there as a centre in +a sphere, immeasurable and indiscernible; sometimes he thought it was +Mary, sometimes he thought it Henry Buxton, sometimes Isabel--once even +he assured himself it was Mistress Margaret, and once James Maxwell--and +with the very act of identification came indecision again. This +uncertainty waxed into a torment, and yet a sweet torment, as of a lover +who watches his mistress' shuttered house; and this torment swelled yet +higher and deeper until it was so great that it had absorbed the whole +radiant fragrant circle of the hills where he walked; and then came the +blinding knowledge that the Presence was all these persons so dear to +him, and far more; that every tenderness and grace that he had loved in +them--Mary's gallantry and Isabel's serene silence and his friend's +fellowship, and the rest--floated in the translucent depths of it, +stained and irradiated by it, as motes in a sunbeam. + +And then he woke, and it was through tears of pure joy that he saw the +rafters overhead, and the great barred door, and the discoloured wall +above his bed. + + * * * * + +When his gaoler brought him dinner that day it was half an hour earlier +than usual; and when Anthony asked him the reason he said that he did not +know, but that the orders had run so; but that Mr. Norris might take +heart; it was not for the torture, for Mr. Topcliffe, who superintended +it, had told the keeper of the rack-house that nothing would be wanted +that day. + +He had hardly finished dinner when the gaoler came up again and said that +the Lieutenant was waiting for him below, and that he must bring his hat +and cloak. + +Since his arrest he had worn his priest's habit every day, so he now +threw the cloak over his arm and took his hat, and followed the gaoler +down. + +In passing through the court he went by a group of men that were talking +together, and he noticed very especially a tall old man with a grey head, +in a Court suit with a sword, and very lean about the throat, who looked +at him hard as he passed. As he reached the archway where the Lieutenant +was waiting, he turned again and saw the sunken eyes of the old man still +looking after him; when he turned to the gaoler he saw the same odd look +in his face that he had noticed before. + +"Why do you look like that?" he asked. "Who is that old man?" + +"That is Mr. Topcliffe," said the keeper. + +The Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir Richard Barkley, saluted him kindly at +the gate, and begged him to follow him; the keeper still came after and +another stepped out and joined them, and the group of four together +passed out through the Lion's Tower and across the moat to a little +doorway where a closed carriage was waiting. The Lieutenant and Anthony +stepped inside; the two keepers mounted outside; and the carriage set +off. + +Then the Lieutenant turned to the priest. + +"Do you know where you are going, Mr. Norris?" + +"No, sir." + +"You are going to Whitehall to see the Queen's Grace." + + + + + CHAPTER XIV + + AN OPEN DOOR + + +When the carriage reached the palace they were told that the Queen was +not yet come from Greenwich; and they were shown into a little ante-room +next the gallery where the interview was to take place. The Queen, the +Lieutenant told Anthony, was to come up that afternoon passing through +London, and that she had desired to see him on her way through to +Nonsuch; he could not tell him why he was sent for, though he conjectured +it was because of Mistress Corbet's death, and that her Grace wished to +know the details. + +"However," said the Lieutenant, "you now have your opportunity to speak +for yourself, and I think you a very fortunate man, Mr. Norris. Few have +had such a privilege, though I remember that Mr. Campion had it too, +though he made poor use of it." + +Anthony said nothing. His mind was throbbing with memories and +associations. The air of state and luxury in the corridors through which +he had just come, the discreet guarded doors, the servants in the royal +liveries standing here and there, the sense of expectancy that mingled +with the solemn hush of the palace--all served to bring up the figure of +Mary Corbet, whom he had seen so often in these circumstances; and the +thought of her made the peril in which he stood and the hope of escape +from it seem very secondary matters. He walked to the window presently +and looked out upon the little court below, one of the innumerable yards +of that vast palace, and stood staring down on the hound that was chained +there near one of the entrances, and that yawned and blinked in the +autumn sunshine. + +Even as he looked the dog paused in the middle of his stretch and stood +expectant with his ears cocked, a servant dashed bareheaded down a couple +of steps and out through the low archway; and simultaneously Anthony +heard once more the sweet shrill trumpets that told of the Queen's +approach; then there came the roll of drums and the thunder of horses' +feet and the noise of wheels; the trumpets sang out again nearer, and the +rumbling waxed louder as the Queen's cavalcade, out of sight, passed the +entrance of the archway down upon which Anthony looked; and then stilled, +and the palace itself began to hum and stir; a door or two banged in the +distance, feet ran past the door of the ante-room, and the strain of the +trumpets sounded once in the house itself. Then all grew quiet once more, +and Anthony turned from the window and sat down again by the Lieutenant. + +There was silence for a few minutes. The Lieutenant stroked his beard +gently and said a word or two under his breath now and again to Anthony; +once or twice there came the swift rustle of a dress outside as a lady +hurried past; then the sound of a door opening and shutting; then more +silence; then the sound of low talking, and at last the sound of +footsteps going slowly up and down the gallery which adjoined the +ante-room. + +Still the minutes passed, but no summons came. Anthony rose and went to +the window again, for, in spite of himself, this waiting told upon him. +The dog had gone back to his kennel and was lying with his nose just +outside the opening. Anthony wondered vacantly to himself what door it +was that he was guarding, and who lived in the rooms that looked out +beside it. Then suddenly the door from the gallery opened and a page +appeared. + +"The Queen's Grace will see Mr. Norris alone." + +Anthony went towards him, and the page opened the door wide for him to go +through, and then closed it noiselessly behind him, and Anthony was in +the presence. + + * * * * + +It was with a sudden bewilderment that he recognised he was in the same +gallery as that in which he had talked and sat with Mary Corbet. There +were the long tapestries hanging opposite him, with the tall three +windows dividing them, and the suits of steel armour that he remembered. +He even recalled the pattern of the carpet across which Mary Corbet had +come forward to meet him, and that still lay before the tall window at +the end that looked on to the Tilt-yard. The sun was passing round to the +west now, and shone again across the golden haze of the yard through this +great window, with the fragments of stained glass at the top. The memory +leapt into life even as he stepped out and stood for a moment, dazed in +the sunshine, at the door that opened from the ante-room. + +But the figure that turned from the window and faced him was not like +Mary's. It was the figure of an old woman, who looked tall with her +towering head-dress and nodding plume; she was dressed in a great dark +red mantle thrown back on her shoulders, and beneath it was a pale yellow +dress sown all over with queer devices; on the puffed sleeve of the arm +that held the stick was embroidered a great curling snake that shone with +gold thread and jewels in the sunlight, and powdered over the skirt were +representations of human eyes and other devices, embroidered with dark +thread that showed up plainly on the pale ground. So much he saw down one +side of the figure on which the light shone; the rest was to his dazzled +eyes in dark shadow. He went down on his knees at once before this +tremendous figure, seeing the buckled feet that twinkled below the skirt +cut short in front, and remained there. + +There was complete silence for a moment, while he felt the Queen looking +at him, and then the voice he remembered, only older and harsher, now +said: + +"What is all this, Mr. Norris?" + +Anthony looked for a moment and saw the Queen's eyes fixed on him; but he +said nothing, and looked down again. + +"Stand up," said the Queen, not unkindly, "and walk with me." + +Anthony stood up at once, and heard the stiff rustle of her dress and the +tap of her heels and stick on the polished boards as she came towards +him. Then he turned with her down the long gallery. + +Until this moment, ever since he had heard that he was to see the Queen, +he had felt nervous and miserable; but now this had left him, and he felt +at his ease. To be received in this way, in privacy, and to accompany her +up and down the gallery as she took her afternoon exercise was less +embarrassing than the formal interview he had expected. The two walked +the whole length of the gallery without a word, and it was not until they +turned and faced the end that looked on to the Tilt-yard that the Queen +spoke; and her voice was almost tender. + +"I understand that you were with Minnie Corbet when she died," she said. + +"She died for me, your Grace," said Anthony. + +The Queen looked at him sharply. + +"Tell me the tale," she said. + +And Anthony told her the whole story of the escape and the ride; speaking +too for his friend, Mr. Buxton, and of Mary's affection for him. + +"Your Grace," he ended, "it sounds a poor tale of a man that a woman +should die for him so; but I can say with truth that with God's grace I +would have died a hundred deaths to save her." + +The Queen was silent for a good while when the story was over, and +Anthony thought that perhaps she could not speak; but he dared not look +at her. + +Then she spoke very harshly: + +"And you, Mr. Norris, why did you not escape?" + +"Your Grace would not have done so." + +"When I saw that she was dying, I would." + +"Not if you had been a priest, your Grace." + +"What is that?" asked the Queen, suddenly facing him. + +"I am a priest, madam, and she was a Catholic, and my duty was beside +her." + +"Eh?" + +"I shrived her, your Grace, before she died." + +"Why! they did not tell me that." + +Anthony was silent. + +They walked on a few steps, and the Queen stood silent too, looking down +upon the Tilt-yard. Then she turned abruptly, and Anthony turned with +her, and they began to go up and down again. + +"It was gallant of you both," she said shortly. "I love that my people +should be of that sort." Then she paused. "Tell me," she went on, "did +Mary love me?" + +Anthony was silent for a moment. + +"The truth, Mr. Norris," she said. + +"Mistress Corbet was loyalty itself," he answered. + +"Nay, nay, nay, not loyalty but love I asked you of. How did she speak of +me?" + +"Well, your Grace, Mistress Corbet had a shrewd wit, and she used it +freely on friend and foe, but her very sharpness on your Grace, +sometimes, showed her love; for she hated to think you otherwise than +what she deemed the best." + +The Queen stopped full in her walk. + +"That is very pleasantly put," she said; "I told Minnie you were a +courtier." + +Again the two walked on. + +"Then she used her tongue on me?" + +"Your Grace, I have never met one on whom she did not: but her heart was +true." + +"I know that, I know that, Mr. Norris. Tell me something she said." + +Anthony racked his brains for something not too severe. + +"Mistress Corbet once said that the Queen's most disobedient subject was +herself." + +"Eh?" said Elizabeth, stopping in her walk. + +"'Because,' said Mistress Corbet, 'she can never command herself,'" +finished Anthony. + +The Queen looked at Anthony, puzzled a moment; and then chuckled loudly +in her throat. + +"The impertinent minx!" she said, "that was when I had clouted her, no +doubt." + +Again they walked up and down in silence a little while. Anthony began to +wonder whether this was all for which the Queen had sent for him. He was +astonished at his own self-possession; all the trembling awe with which +he had faced the Queen at Greenwich was gone; he had forgotten for the +moment even his own peril; and he felt instead even something of pity for +this passionate old woman, who had aged so quickly, whose favourites one +by one were dropping off, or at the best giving her only an exaggerated +and ridiculous devotion, at the absurdity of which all the world laughed. +Here was this old creature at his side, surrounded by flatterers and +adventurers, advancing through the world in splendid and jewelled +raiment, with trumpets blowing before her, and poets singing her praises, +and crowds applauding in the streets, and sneering in their own houses at +the withered old virgin-Queen who still thought herself a Diana--and all +the while this triumphal progress was at the expense of God's Church, her +car rolled over the bodies of His servants, and her shrunken, gemmed +fingers were red in their blood;--so she advanced, thought Anthony, day +by day towards the black truth and the eternal loneliness of the darkness +that lies outside the realm where Christ only is King. + +Elizabeth broke in suddenly on his thoughts. + +"Now," she said, "and what of you, Mr. Norris?" + +"I am your Grace's servant," he said. + +"I am not so sure of that," said Elizabeth. "If you are my servant, why +are you a priest, contrary to my laws?" + +"Because I am Christ's servant too, your Grace." + +"But Christ's apostle said, 'Obey them that have the rule over you.'" + +"In indifferent matters, madam." + +The Queen frowned and made a little angry sound. + +"I cannot understand you Papists," said the Queen. "What a-God's name do +you want? You have liberty of thought and faith; I desire to inquire into +no man's private opinions. You may worship Ashtaroth if it please you, in +your own hearts; and God looks to the heart, and not to the outer man. +There is a Church with bishops like your own, and ministers; there are +the old churches to worship in--nay, you may find the old ornaments still +in use. We have sacraments as you have; you may seek shrift if you will; +nay, in some manner we have the mass--though we do not call it so--but we +follow Christ's ordinance in the matter, and you can do no more. We have +the Word of God as you have, and we use the same creeds. What more can +the rankest Papist ask? Tell me that, Mr. Norris; for I am a-weary of +your folk." + +The Queen turned and faced him again a moment, and her eyes were peevish +and resentful. + +Presently she went on again. + +"Mr. Campion told me it was the oath that troubled him. He could not take +it, he said. I told the fool that I was not Head of the Church as Christ +was, but only the supreme governor, as the Act declares, in all spiritual +and ecclesiastical things:--I forget how it runs,--but I showed it him, +and asked him whether it were not true; and I asked him too how it was +that Margaret Roper could take the oath, and so many thousands of persons +as full Christian as himself--and he could not answer me." + +The Queen was silent again. Then once more she went on indignantly: + +"It is yourselves that have brought all this trouble on your heads. See +what the Papists have done against me; they have excommunicated me, +deposed me--though in spite of it I still sit on the throne; they have +sent an Armada against me; they have plotted against me, I know not how +many times; and then, when I defend myself and hang a few of the wolves, +lo! they are Christ's flock at once for whom he shed His precious blood, +and His persecuted lambs, and I am Jezebel straightway and Athaliah and +Beelzebub's wife--and I know not what." + +The Queen stopped, out of breath, and looked fiercely at Anthony, who +said nothing. + +"Tell me how you answer that, Mr. Norris?" said the Queen. + +"I dare not deal with such great matters," said Anthony, "for your Grace +knows well that I am but a poor priest that knows nought of state-craft; +but I would like to ask your Highness two questions only. The first is: +whether your Grace had aught to complain of in the conduct of your +Catholic subjects when the Armada was here; and the second, whether there +hath been one actual attempt upon your Grace's life by private persons?" + +"That is not to the purpose," said the Queen peevishly. + +"It was Catholics who fought against me in the Armada, and it was +Catholics who plotted against me at Court." + +"Then there is a difference in Catholics, your Grace," said Anthony. + +"Ah! I see what you would be at." + +"Yes, your Highness; I would rather say, Although they be Catholics they +do these things." + +There was silence again, which Anthony did not dare to break; and the two +walked up the whole length of the gallery without speaking. + +"Well, well," said Elizabeth at last, "but this was not why I sent for +you. We will speak of yourself now, Mr. Norris. I hope you are not an +obstinate fellow. Eh?" + +Anthony said nothing, and the Queen went on. + +"Now, as I have told you, I judge no man's private opinions. You may +believe what you will. Remember that. You may believe what you will; nay, +you may practise your religion so long as it is private and unknown to +me." + +Anthony began to wonder what was coming; but he still said nothing as the +Queen paused. She stood a moment looking down into the empty Tilt-yard +again, and then turned and sat suddenly in a chair that stood beside the +window, and put up a jewelled hand to shield her face, with her elbow on +the arm, while Anthony stood before her. + +"I remember you, Mr. Norris, very well at Greenwich; you spoke up sharply +enough, and you looked me in the eyes now and then as I like a man to do; +and then Minnie loved you, too. I wish to show you kindness for her +sake." + +Anthony's heart began to fail him, for he guessed now what was coming and +the bitter struggle that lay before him. + +"Now, I know well that the Commissioners have had you before them; they +are tiresome busybodies. Walsingham started all that and set them +a-spying and a-defending of my person and the rest of it; but they are +loyal folk, and I suppose they asked you where you had been and with whom +you had stayed, and so on?" + +"They did, your Grace." + +"And you would not tell them, I suppose?" + +"I could not, madam; it would have been against justice and charity to do +so." + +"Well, well, there is no need now, for I mean to take you out of their +hands." + +A great leap of hope made itself felt in Anthony's heart; he did not know +how heavy the apprehension lay on him till this light shone through. + +"They will be wrath with me, I know, and will tell me that they cannot +defend me if I will not help them; but, when all is said, I am Queen. Now +I do not ask you to be a minister of my Church, for that, I think, you +would never be; but I think you would like to be near me--is it not so? +And I wish you to have some post about the Court; I must see what it is +to be." + +Anthony's heart began to sink again as he watched the Queen's face as she +sat tapping a foot softly and looking on the floor as she talked. Those +lines of self-will about the eyes and mouth surely meant something. + +Then she looked up, still with her cheek on her right hand. + +"You do not thank me, Mr. Norris." + +Anthony made a great effort; but he heard his own voice quiver a little. + +"I thank your Grace for your kindly intentions toward me, with all my +heart." + +The Queen seemed satisfied, and looked down again. + +"As to the oath, I will not ask you to take it formally, if you will give +me an assurance of your loyalty." + +"That, your Grace, I give most gladly." + +His heart was beating again in great irregular thumps in his throat; he +had the sensation of swaying to and fro on the edge of a precipice, now +towards safety and now towards death; it was the cruellest pain he had +suffered yet. But how was it possible to have some post at Court without +relinquishing the exercise of his priesthood? He must think it out; what +did the Queen mean? + +"And, of course, you will not be able to say mass again; but I shall not +hinder your hearing it at the Ambassador's whenever you please." + +Ah! it had come; his heart gave a leap and seemed to cease. + +"Your Grace must forgive me, but I cannot consent." + +There was a dead silence; when Anthony looked up, she was staring at him +with the frankest astonishment. + +"Did you think, Mr. Norris, you could be at Court and say mass too +whenever you wished?" Her voice rang harsh and shrill; her anger was +rising. + +"I was not sure what your Grace intended for me." + +"The fellow is mad," she said, still staring at him. "Oh! take care, take +care!" + +"Your Grace knows I intend no insolence." + +"You mean to say, Mr. Norris, that you will not take a pardon and a post +at Court on those terms?" + +Anthony bowed; he could not trust himself to speak, so bitter was the +reaction. + +"But, see man, you fool; if you die as a traitor you will never say mass +again either." + +"But that will not be with my consent, your Grace." + +"And you refuse the pardon?" + +"On those terms, your Grace, I must." + +"Well----" and she was silent a moment, "you are a fool, sir." + +Anthony bowed again. + +"But I like courage.--Well, then, you will not be my servant?" + +"I have ever been that, your Grace; and ever will be." + +"Well, well,--but not at Court?" + +"Ah! your Grace knows I cannot," cried Anthony, and his voice rang +sorrowfully. + +Again there was silence. + +"You must have your way, sir, for poor Minnie's sake; but it passes my +understanding what you mean by it. And let me tell you that not many have +their way with me, rather than mine." + +Again hope leapt up in his heart. The Queen then was not so ungracious. + +He looked up and smiled--and down again. + +"Why, the man's lips are all a-quiver. What ails him?" + +"It is your Grace's kindness." + +"I must say I marvel at it myself," observed Elizabeth. "You near angered +me just now; take care you do not so quite." + +"I would not willingly, as your Grace knows." + +"Then we will end this matter. You give me your assurance of loyalty to +my person." + +"With all my heart, madam," said Anthony eagerly. + +"Then you must get to France within the week. The other too--Buxton--he +loses his estate, but has his life. I am doing much for Minnie's sake." + +"How can I thank your Grace?" + +"And I will cause Sir Richard to give it out that you have taken the +oath. Call him in." + +There was a quick gasp from the priest; and then he cried with agony in +his voice: + +"I cannot, your Grace, I cannot." + +"Cannot call Sir Richard! Why, you are mad, sir!" + +"Cannot consent; I have taken no oath." + +"I know you have not. I do not ask it." + +Elizabeth's voice came short and harsh; her patience was vanishing, and +Anthony knew it and looked at her. She had dropped her hand, and it was +clenching and unclenching on her knee. Her stick slipped on the polished +boards and fell; but she paid it no attention. She was looking straight +at the priest; her high eyebrows were coming down; her mouth was +beginning to mumble a little; he could see in the clear sunlight that +fell on her sideways through the tall window a thousand little wrinkles, +and all seemed alive; the lines at the corners of her eyes and mouth +deepened as he watched. + +"What a-Christ's name do you want, sir?" + +It was like the first mutter of a storm on the horizon; but Anthony knew +it must break. He did not answer. + +"Tell me, sir; what is it now?" + +Anthony drew a long breath and braced his will, but even as he spoke he +knew he was pronouncing his own sentence. + +"I cannot consent to leave the country and let it be given out that I had +taken the oath, your Grace. It would be an apostasy from my faith." + +Elizabeth sprang to her feet without her stick, took one step forward, +and gave Anthony a fierce blow on the cheek with her ringed hand. He +recoiled a step at the shock of it, and stood waiting with his eyes on +the ground. Then the Queen's anger poured out in words. Her eyes burned +with passion out of an ivory-coloured face, and her voice rang high and +harsh, and her hands continually clenched and unclenched as she screamed +at him. + +"God's Body! you are the ungratefullest hound that ever drew breath. I +send for you to my presence, and talk and walk with you like a friend. I +offer you a pardon and you fling it in my face. I offer you a post at +Court and you mock it; you flaunt you in your treasonable livery in my +very face, and laugh at my clemency. You think I am no Queen, but a weak +woman whom you can turn and rule at your will. God's Son! I will show you +which is sovereign. Call Sir Richard in, sir; I will have him in this +instant. Sir Richard, Sir Richard!" she screamed, stamping with fury. + +The door into the ante-room behind opened, and Sir Richard Barkley +appeared, with a face full of apprehension. He knelt at once. + +"Stand up, Sir Richard," she cried, "and look at this man. You know him, +do you not? and I know him now, the insolent dog! But his own mother +shall not in a week. Look at him shaking there, the knave; he will shake +more before I have done with him. Take him back with you, Sir Richard, +and let them have their will of him. His damned pride and insolence shall +be broken. S' Body, I have never been so treated! Take him out, Sir +Richard, take him out, I tell you!" + + + + + CHAPTER XV + + THE ROLLING OF THE STONE + + +It was a week later, and a little before dawn, that Isabel was kneeling +by Anthony's bed in his room in the Tower. The Lieutenant had sent for +her to his lodging the evening before, and she had spent the whole night +with her brother. He had been racked four times in one week, and was +dying. + + * * * * + +The city and the prison were very quiet now; the carts had not yet begun +to roll over the cobble-stones and the last night-wanderers had gone +home. He lay, on the mattress that she had sent in to him, in the corner +of his cell under the window, on his back and very still, covered from +chin to feet with her own fur-lined cloak that she had thrown over him; +his head was on a low pillow, for he could not bear to lie high; his feet +made a little mound under the coverlet, and his arms lay straight at his +side; but all that could be seen of him was his face, pinched and white +now with hollows in his cheeks and dark patches and lines beneath his +closed eyes, and his soft pointed brown beard that just rested on the fur +edging of Isabel's cloak; his lips were drawn tight, but slightly parted, +showing the rim of his white teeth, as if he snarled with pain. + +The only furniture in the room was a single table and chair; the table +was drawn up not far from the bed, and a book or two, with a flask of +cordial and some fragments of food on a plate lay upon it; his cloak and +doublet and ruff lay across the chair and his shoes below it, and a +little linen lay in a pile in another corner; but the clothes in which he +had been tortured the evening before, his shirt and hose, could not be +taken off him and he lay in them still. They had been so soaked with +sweat, that Isabel had found him shivering, and laid her cloak over him, +and now he lay quiet and warm. + +Earlier in the night she had been reading to him, and a taper still +burned in a candlestick on the table; but for the last two hours he had +lain either in a sleep or a swoon, and she had laid the book down and was +watching him. + +He was so motionless that he would have seemed dead except for the steady +rise and fall of a fold in the mantle, and for a sudden muscular twitch +every few minutes. Isabel herself was scarcely less motionless; her face +was clear and pale as it always was, but perfectly serene, and even her +lips did not quiver. She was kneeling and leaning back now, and her hands +were clasped in her lap. There was a proud content in her face; her dear +brother had not uttered one name on the rack except those of the Saviour +and of the Blessed Mother. So the Lieutenant had told her. + +Suddenly his eyes opened and there was nothing but peace in them; and his +lips moved. Isabel leaned forward on her hands and bent her ear to his +mouth till his breath was warm on it, and she could hear the whisper.... + +Then she opened the book that lay face down on the table and began to +read on, from the point at which she had laid it down two hours before. + +"'_Erat autem hora tertia: et crucifixerunt eum._ And it was the third +hour and they crucified him ... And with him they crucify two thieves, +the one on his right hand, and the other on his left. And the scripture +was fulfilled which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors.'" + +Her voice was slow and steady as she read the unfamiliar Latin, still +kneeling, with the book a little raised to catch the candlelight, and her +grave tranquil eyes bent upon it. Only once did her voice falter, and +then she commanded it again immediately; and that, as she read "_Erant +autem et mulieres de longe aspicientes_." "There were also women looking +on afar off." + +And so the tale crept on, minute by minute, and the priest lay with +closed eyes to hear it; until the mocking was complete, and the darkness +of the sixth hour had come and gone, and the Saviour had cried aloud on +His Father, and given up the ghost; and the centurion that stood by had +borne witness. And the great Criminal slept in the garden, in the +sepulchre "wherein was never man yet laid." + +There was a listening silence as the voice ceased without another falter. +Isabel laid the book down and looked at him again; and his eyes opened +languidly. + +He had not yet said more than single words, and even now his voice was so +faint that she had to put her ear close to his mouth. It seemed to her +that his soul had gone into some inner secret chamber of profound peace, +so deep that it was a long and difficult task to send a thought to the +surface through his lips. + +She could just hear him, and she answered clearly and slowly as to a +dazed child, pausing between every word. + +"I cannot get a priest; it is not allowed." + +Still his eyes bent on her; what was it he said? what was it?... + +Then she heard, and began to repeat short acts of contrition clearly and +distinctly, pausing between the phrases, in English, and his eyes closed +as she began: + +"O my Jesus--I am heartily sorry--that I have--crucified thee--by my +sins--Wash my soul--in Thy Precious Blood. O my God--I am sorry--that I +have--displeased Thee--because thou art All-good. I hate all the +sins--that I have done--against Thy Divine Majesty." + +And so phrase after phrase she went on, giving him time to hear and to +make an inner assent of the will; and repeating also other short vocal +prayers that she knew by heart. And so the delicate skein of prayer rose +from the altar where this morning sacrifice lay before God, waiting the +consummation of His acceptance. + +Presently she ended, and he lay again with closed eyes and mute face. +Then again they opened, and she bent down to listen.... + +"It will all be well with me," she answered, raising her head again. +"Mistress Margaret has written from Brussels. I shall go there for a +while.... Yes, Mr. Buxton will take me; next week: he goes to Normandy, +to his estate." + +Again his lips moved and she listened.... + +A faint flush came over her face. She shook her head. + +"I do not know; I think not. I hope to enter Religion.... No, I have not +yet determined.... The Dower House?... Yes, I will sell it.... Yes, to +Hubert, if he wishes it." + +Every word he whispered was such an effort that she had to pause again +and again before he could make her understand; and often she judged more +by the movement of his lips than by any sound that came from him. Now and +then too she lifted her handkerchief, soaked in a strong violet scent, +and passed it over his forehead and lips. She motioned with the flask of +cordial once or twice, but his eyes closed for a negative. + +As she knelt and watched him, her thoughts circled continually in little +flights; to the walled garden of the Dower House in sunshine, and Anthony +running across it in his brown suit, with the wallflowers behind him +against the old red bricks and ivy, and the tall chestnut rising behind; +to the wind-swept hills, with the thistles and the golden-rod, and the +hazel thickets, and Anthony on his pony, sunburnt and voluble, hawk on +wrist, with a light in his eyes; to the warm panelled hall in winter, +with the tapers on the round table, and Anthony flat on his face, with +his feet in the air before the hearth, that glowed and roared up the wide +chimney behind, and his chin on his hands, and a book open before him; +or, farther back even still, to Anthony's little room at the top of the +house, his clothes on a chair, and the boy himself sitting up in bed with +his arms round his knees as she came in to wish him good-night and talk +to him a minute or two. And every time the circling thought came home and +settled again on the sight of that still straight figure lying on the +mattress, against the discoloured bricks, with the light of the taper +glimmering on his thin face and brown hair and beard; and every time her +heart consented that this was the best of all. + +A bird chirped suddenly from some hole in the Tower, once, and then three +or four times; she glanced up at the window and the light of dawn was +beginning. Then, as the minutes went by, the city began to stir itself +from sleep. There came a hollow whine from the Lion-gate fifty yards +away; up from the river came the shout of a waterman; two or three times +a late cock crew; and still the light crept on and broadened. But Anthony +still lay with his eyes closed. + +At last over the cobbles outside a cart rattled, turned a corner and was +silent. Anthony had opened his eyes now and was looking at her again; and +again she bent down to listen; ... and then opened and read again. + +"'_Et cum transisset sabbatum Maria Magdalene et Maria Jacobi et Salome +emerunt aromata, ut venientes ungerent Jesum._' + +"'And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of +James and Salome, had bought sweet spices that they might come and anoint +him.'" + +A slight sound made her look up. Anthony's eyes were kindling and his +lips moved; she bent again and listened.... What was it he said?... + +Yes, it was so, and she smiled and nodded at him: she was reading the +Gospel for Easter Day, the Gospel of the first mass that they had heard +together on that spring morning at Great Keynes, when their Lord had led +them so far round by separate paths to meet one another at His altar. And +now they were met again here. She read on: + +"'_Et valde mane una sabbatorum, veniunt ad monumentum, orto jam +sole._' + +"'Very early they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun; and +they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the +door of the sepulchre? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was +rolled away, for it was very great.'... + +"'... _magnus valde_,'" read Isabel; and looked up again;--and then +closed the book. There was no need to read more. + + * * * * + +She walked across the court half an hour later, just as the sun came up; +and passed out through the Lieutenant's lodging, and out by the narrow +bridge on to the Tower wharf. + +To the left and behind her, as she looked eastwards down the river, lay +the heavy masses of the prison she had left, and the high walls and +turrets were gilded with glory. The broad river itself was one rolling +glory too; the tide was coming in swift and strong and a barge or two +moved upwards, only half seen in the bewildering path of the sun. The air +was cool and keen, and a breeze from the water stirred Isabel's hair as +she stood looking, with the light on her face. It was a cloudless October +morning overhead. Even as she stood a flock of pigeons streamed across +from the south side, swift-flying and bathed in light; and her eyes +followed them a moment or two. + +As she stood there silent, a step came up the wharf from the direction of +St. Katharine's street, and a man came walking quickly towards her. He +did not see who she was until he was close, and then he started and took +off his hat; it was Lackington on his way to some business at the Tower; +but she did not seem to see him. She turned almost immediately and began +to walk westwards, and the glory in her eyes was supreme. And as she went +the day deepened above her. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's By What Authority?, by Robert Hugh Benson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BY WHAT AUTHORITY? *** + +***** This file should be named 19697-8.txt or 19697-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/6/9/19697/ + +Produced by Geoff Horton and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/19697-8.zip b/old/19697-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6e5fea2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/19697-8.zip diff --git a/old/19697.txt b/old/19697.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..019f222 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/19697.txt @@ -0,0 +1,22289 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of By What Authority?, by Robert Hugh Benson + +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: By What Authority? + +Author: Robert Hugh Benson + +Release Date: November 2, 2006 [EBook #19697] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BY WHAT AUTHORITY? *** + + + + +Produced by Geoff Horton and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + BY + + WHAT AUTHORITY? + + + + + By + + Robert Hugh Benson + + _Author of_ + + "The Light Invisible," "The King's Achievement," + "A Book of the Love of Jesus," etc. + + + BENIZIGER BROS. + PRINTERS TO THE HOLY APOSTOLIC SEE, + NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO. + + + + + _I wish to acknowledge a great debt of + gratitude to the Reverend Dom Bede + Camm., O.S.B., who kindly read this book + in proof, and made many valuable corrections + and suggestions._ + + ROBERT HUGH BENSON + +_Tremans + Horsted Keynes + October 27, 1904_ + + + + + PENATIBVS . FOCISQVE . CARIS + + NECNON . TRIBVS . CARIORIBVS + + APVD . QVAS . SCRIPSI + + IN . QVARVM . AVRES . LEGI + + A . QVIBVS . ADMONITVS . EMENDAVI + + HVNC . LIBRVM + + D. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + PART I + + +CHAP. PAGE + + I. The Situation 1 + + II. The Hall and the House 8 + + III. London Town 21 + + IV. Mary Corbet 37 + + V. A Rider From London 51 + + VI. Mr. Stewart 64 + + VII. The Door in the Garden Wall 79 + +VIII. The Taking of Mr. Stewart 90 + + IX. Village Justice 99 + + X. A Confessor 108 + + XI. Master Calvin 124 + + XII. A Winding Up 140 + + + PART II + + I. Anthony in London 152 + + II. Some New Lessons 168 + + III. Hubert's Return 183 + + IV. A Counter March 196 + + V. The Coming of the Jesuits 213 + + VI. Some Contrasts 235 + + VII. A Message From the City 252 + +VIII. The Massing-House 267 + + IX. From Fulham to Greenwich 279 + + X. The Appeal to Caesar 296 + + XI. A Station of the Cross 313 + + XII. A Strife of Tongues 334 + +XIII. The Spiritual Exercises 351 + + XIV. Easter Day 368 + + + PART III + + I. The Coming of Spain 384 + + II. Men of War and Peace 390 + + III. Home-Coming 404 + + IV. Stanfield Place 421 + + V. Joseph Lackington 429 + + VI. A Departure 439 + + VII. Northern Religion 453 + +VIII. In Stanstead Woods 468 + + IX. The Alarm 484 + + X. The Passage To the Garden-house 492 + + XI. The Garden-house 505 + + XII. The Night Ride 521 + +XIII. In Prison 526 + + XIV. An Open Door 541 + + XV. The Rolling of the Stone 552 + + + + + BY WHAT AUTHORITY? + + + + + PART I + + + + + + CHAPTER I + + THE SITUATION + + +To the casual Londoner who lounged, intolerant and impatient, at the +blacksmith's door while a horse was shod, or a cracked spoke mended, +Great Keynes seemed but a poor backwater of a place, compared with the +rush of the Brighton road eight miles to the east from which he had +turned off, or the whirling cauldron of London City, twenty miles to the +north, towards which he was travelling. + +The triangular green, with its stocks and horse-pond, overlooked by the +grey benignant church-tower, seemed a tame exchange for seething +Cheapside and the crowded ways about the Temple or Whitehall; and it was +strange to think that the solemn-faced rustics who stared respectfully at +the gorgeous stranger were of the same human race as the quick-eyed, +voluble townsmen who chattered and laughed and grimaced over the news +that came up daily from the Continent or the North, and was tossed to and +fro, embroidered and discredited alternately, all day long. + +And yet the great waves and movements that, rising in the hearts of kings +and politicians, or in the sudden strokes of Divine Providence, swept +over Europe and England, eventually always rippled up into this placid +country village; and the lives of Master Musgrave, who had retired upon +his earnings, and of old Martin, who cobbled the ploughmen's shoes, were +definitely affected and changed by the plans of far-away Scottish +gentlemen, and the hopes and fears of the inhabitants of South Europe. +Through all the earlier part of Elizabeth's reign, the menace of the +Spanish Empire brooded low on the southern horizon, and a responsive +mutter of storm sounded now and again from the north, where Mary Stuart +reigned over men's hearts, if not their homes; and lovers of secular +England shook their heads and were silent as they thought of their tiny +country, so rent with internal strife, and ringed with danger. + +For Great Keynes, however, as for most English villages and towns at this +time, secular affairs were so deeply and intricately interwoven with +ecclesiastical matters that none dared decide on the one question without +considering its relation to the other; and ecclesiastical affairs, too, +touched them more personally than any other, since every religious change +scored a record of itself presently within the church that was as +familiar to them as their own cottages. + +On none had the religious changes fallen with more severity than on the +Maxwell family that lived in the Hall, at the upper and southern end of +the green. Old Sir Nicholas, though his convictions had survived the +tempest of unrest and trouble that had swept over England, and he had +remained a convinced and a stubborn Catholic, yet his spiritual system +was sore and inflamed within him. To his simple and obstinate soul it was +an irritating puzzle as to how any man could pass from the old to a new +faith, and he had been known to lay his whip across the back of a servant +who had professed a desire to try the new religion. + +His wife, a stately lady, a few years younger than himself, did what she +could to keep her lord quiet, and to save him from incurring by his +indiscretion any further penalties beyond the enforced journeys before +the Commission, and the fines inflicted on all who refused to attend +their parish church. So the old man devoted himself to his estates and +the further improvement of the house and gardens, and to the inculcation +of sound religious principles into the minds of his two sons who were +living at home with their parents; and strove to hold his tongue, and his +hand, in public. + +The elder of these two, Mr. James as he was commonly called, was rather a +mysterious personage to the village, and to such neighbours as they had. +He was often in town, and when at home, although extremely pleasant and +courteous, never talked about himself and seemed to be only very +moderately interested in the estate and the country-life generally. This, +coupled with the fact that he would presumably succeed his father, gave +rise to a good deal of gossip, and even some suspicion. + +His younger brother Hubert was very different; passionately attached to +sport and to outdoor occupations, a fearless rider, and in every way a +kindly, frank lad of about eighteen years old. The fifth member of the +family, Lady Maxwell's sister, Mistress Margaret Torridon, was a +quiet-faced old lady, seldom seen abroad, and round whom, as round her +eldest nephew, hung a certain air of mystery. + +The difficulties of this Catholic family were considerable. Sir Nicholas' +religious sympathies were, of course, wholly with the spiritual side of +Spain, and all that that involved, while his intense love of England gave +him a horror of the Southern Empire that the sturdiest patriot might have +envied. And so with his attitude towards Mary Stuart and her French +background. While his whole soul rose in loathing against the crime of +Darnley's murder, to which many of her enemies proclaimed her accessory, +it was kindled at the thought that in her or her child lately crowned as +James VI. of Scotland, lay the hope of a future Catholic succession; and +this religious sympathy was impassioned by the memory of an interview a +few years ago, when he had kissed that gracious white hand, and looked +into those alluring eyes, and, kneeling, stammered out in broken French +his loyalty and his hopes. Whether it was by her devilish craft as her +enemies said, or her serene and limpid innocence as her friends said, or +by a maddening compound of the two, as later students have said--at least +she had made the heart and confidence of old Sir Nicholas her own. + +But there were troubles more practical than these mental struggles; it +was a misery, beyond describing, to this old man and his wife to see the +church, where once they had worshipped and received the sacraments, given +over to what was, in their opinion, a novel heresy, and the charge of a +schismatic minister. There, in the Maxwell chapel within, lay the bones +of their Catholic ancestors; and there they had knelt to adore and +receive their Saviour; and now for them all was gone, and the light was +gone out in the temple of the Lord. In the days of the previous Rector +matters were not so desperate; it had been their custom to receive from +his hands at the altar-rail of the Church hosts previously consecrated at +the Rectory; for the incumbent had been an old Marian priest who had not +scrupled so to relieve his Catholic sheep of the burden of recusancy, +while he fed his Protestant charges with bread and wine from the +Communion table. But now all that was past, and the entire family was +compelled year by year to slip off into Hampshire shortly before Easter +for their annual duties, and the parish church that their forefathers had +built, endowed and decorated, knew them no more. + +But the present Rector, the Reverend George Dent, was far from a bigot; +and the Papists were more fortunate than perhaps, in their bitterness, +they recognised; for the minister was one of the rising Anglican school, +then strange and unfamiliar, but which has now established itself as the +main representative section of the Church of England. He welcomed the +effect but not the rise of the Reformation, and rejoiced that the +incrustations of error had been removed from the lantern of the faith. +But he no less sincerely deplored the fanaticism of the Puritan and +Genevan faction. He exulted to see England with a church truly her own at +last, adapted to her character, and freed from the avarice and tyranny of +a foreign despot who had assumed prerogatives to which he had no right. +But he reverenced the Episcopate, he wore the prescribed dress, he used +the thick singing-cakes for the Communion, and he longed for the time +when nation and Church should again be one; when the nation should +worship through a Church of her own shaping, and the Church share the +glory and influence of her lusty partner and patron. + +But Mrs. Dent had little sympathy with her husband's views; she had +assimilated the fiery doctrines of the Genevan refugees, and to her mind +her husband was balancing himself to the loss of all dignity and +consistency in an untenable position between the Popish priesthood on the +one side and the Gospel ministry on the other. It was an unbearable +thought to her that through her husband's weak disposition and principles +his chief parishioners should continue to live within a stone's throw of +the Rectory in an assured position of honour, and in personal +friendliness to a minister whose ecclesiastical status and claims they +disregarded. The Rector's position then was difficult and trying, no less +in his own house than elsewhere. + +The third main family in the village was that of the Norrises, who lived +in the Dower House, that stood in its own grounds and gardens a few +hundred yards to the north-west of the village green. The house had +originally been part of the Hall estate; but it had been sold some fifty +years before. The present owner, Mr. Henry Norris, a widower, lived there +with his two children, Isabel and Anthony, and did his best to bring them +up in his own religious principles. He was a devout and cultivated +Puritan, who had been affected by the New Learning in his youth, and had +conformed joyfully to the religious changes that took place in Edward's +reign. He had suffered both anxiety and hardships in Mary's reign, when +he had travelled abroad in the Protestant countries, and made the +acquaintance of many of the foreign reformers--Beza, Calvin, and even the +great Melancthon himself. It was at this time, too, that he had lost his +wife. It had been a great joy to him to hear of the accession of +Elizabeth, and the re-establishment of a religion that was sincerely his +own; and he had returned immediately to England with his two little +children, and settled down once more at the Dower House. Here his whole +time that he could spare from his children was divided between prayer and +the writing of a book on the Eucharist; and as his children grew up he +more and more retired into himself and silence and communing with God, +and devoted himself to his book. It was beginning to be a great happiness +to him to find that his daughter Isabel, now about seventeen years old, +was growing up into active sympathy with his principles, and that the +passion of her soul, as of his, was a tender deep-lying faith towards +God, which could exist independently of outward symbols and ceremonies. +But unlike others of his school he was happy too to notice and encourage +friendly relations between Lady Maxwell and his daughter, since he +recognised the sincere and loving spirit of the old lady beneath her +superstitions, and knew very well that her friendship would do for the +girl what his own love could not. + +The other passion of Isabel's life at present lay in her brother Anthony, +who was about three years younger than herself, and who was just now more +interested in his falcons and pony than in all the religious systems and +human relationships in the world, except perhaps in his friendship for +Hubert, who besides being three or four years older than himself, cared +for the same things. + +And so relations between the Hall and the Dower House were all that they +should be, and the path that ran through the gardens of the one and the +yew hedge and orchard of the other was almost as well trodden as if all +still formed one estate. + +As for the village itself, it was exceedingly difficult to gauge +accurately the theological atmosphere. The Rector despaired of doing so. +It was true that at Easter the entire population, except the Maxwells and +their dependents, received communion in the parish church, or at least +professed their willingness and intention to do so unless prevented by +some accident of the preceding week; but it was impossible to be blind to +the fact that many of the old beliefs lingered on, and that there was +little enthusiasm for the new system. Rumours broke out now and again +that the Catholics were rising in the north; that Elizabeth contemplated +a Spanish or French marriage with a return to the old religion; that Mary +Stuart would yet come to the throne; and with each such report there came +occasionally a burst of joy in unsuspected quarters. Old Martin, for +example, had been overheard, so a zealous neighbour reported, blessing +Our Lady aloud for her mercies when a passing traveller had insisted that +a religious league was in progress of formation between France and Spain, +and that it was only a question of months as to when mass should be said +again in every village church; but then on the following Sunday the +cobbler's voice had been louder than all in the metrical psalm, and on +the Monday he had paid a morning visit to the Rectory to satisfy himself +on the doctrine of Justification, and had gone again, praising God and +not Our Lady, for the godly advice received. + +But again, three years back, just before Mr. Dent had come to the place, +there had been a solemn burning on the village-green of all such +muniments of superstition as had not been previously hidden by the priest +and Sir Nicholas; and in the rejoicings that accompanied this return to +pure religion practically the whole agricultural population had joined. +Some Justices had ridden over from East Grinsted to direct this rustic +reformation, and had reported favourably to the new Rector on his arrival +of the zeal of his flock. The great Rood, they told him, with SS. Mary +and John, four great massy angels, the statue of St. Christopher, the +Vernacle, a brocade set of mass vestments and a purple cope, had perished +in the flames, and there had been no lack of hands to carry faggots; and +now the Rector found it difficult to reconcile the zeal of his +parishioners (which indeed he privately regretted) with the sudden and +unexpected lapses into superstition, such as was Mr. Martin's gratitude +to Our Lady, and others of which he had had experience. + +As regards the secular politics of the outside world, Great Keynes took +but little interest. It was far more a matter of concern whether mass or +morning prayer was performed on Sunday, than whether a German bridegroom +could be found for Elizabeth, or whether she would marry the Duke of +Anjou; and more important than either were the infinitesimal details of +domestic life. Whether Mary was guilty or not, whether her supporters +were rising, whether the shadow of Spain chilled the hearts of men in +London whose affair it was to look after such things; yet the cows must +be milked, and the children washed, and the falcons fed; and it was these +things that formed the foreground of life, whether the sky were stormy or +sunlit. + +And so, as the autumn of '69 crept over the woods in flame and russet, +and the sound of the sickle was in folks' ears, the life at Great Keynes +was far more tranquil than we should fancy who look back on those +stirring days. The village, lying as it did out of the direct route +between any larger towns, was not so much affected by the gallop of the +couriers, or the slow creeping rumours from the Continent, as villages +that lay on lines of frequent communication. So the simple life went on, +and Isabel went about her business in Mrs. Carroll's still-room, and +Anthony rode out with the harriers, and Sir Nicholas told his beads in +his room--all with nearly as much serenity as if Scotland were fairyland +and Spain a dream. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + THE HALL AND THE HOUSE + + +Anthony Norris, who was now about fourteen, went up to King's College, +Cambridge, in October. He was closeted long with his father the night +before he left, and received from him much sound religious advice and +exhortation; and in the morning, after an almost broken-hearted good-bye +from Isabel, he rode out with his servant following on another horse and +leading a packhorse on the saddle of which the falcons swayed and +staggered, and up the curving drive that led round into the village +green. He was a good-hearted and wholesome-minded boy, and left a real +ache behind him in the Dower House. + +Isabel indeed ran up to his room, after she had seen his feathered cap +disappear at a trot through the gate, leaving her father in the hall; and +after shutting and latching the door, threw herself on his bed, and +sobbed her heart out. They had never been long separated before. For the +last three years he had gone over to the Rectory morning by morning to be +instructed by Mr. Dent; but now, although he would never make a great +scholar, his father thought it well to send him up to Cambridge for two +or three years, that he might learn to find his own level in the world. + +Anthony himself was eager to go. If the truth must be told, he fretted a +little against the restraints of even such a moderate Puritan household +as that of his father's. It was a considerable weariness to Anthony to +kneel in the hall on a fresh morning while his father read, even though +with fervour and sincerity, long extracts from "Christian Prayers and +Holy Meditations," collected by the Reverend Henry Bull, when the real +world, as Anthony knew it, laughed and rippled and twinkled outside in +the humming summer air of the lawn and orchard; or to have to listen to +godly discourses, however edifying to elder persons, just at the time +when the ghost-moth was beginning to glimmer in the dusk, and the heavy +trout to suck down his supper in the glooming pool in the meadow below +the house. + +His very sports, too, which his father definitely encouraged, were +obviously displeasing to the grave divines who haunted the house so often +from Saturday to Monday, and spoke of high doctrinal matters at +meal-times, when, so Anthony thought, lighter subjects should prevail. +They were not interested in his horse, and Anthony never felt quite the +same again towards one good minister who in a moment of severity called +Eliza, the glorious peregrine that sat on the boy's wrist and shook her +bells, a "vanity." And so Anthony trotted off happy enough on his way to +Cambridge, of which he had heard much from Mr. Dent; and where, although +there too were divines and theology, there were boys as well who acted +plays, hunted with the hounds, and did not call high-bred hawks +"vanities." + +Isabel was very different. While Anthony was cheerful and active like his +mother who had died in giving him life, she, on the other hand, was quiet +and deep like her father. She was growing up, if not into actual beauty, +at least into grace and dignity: but there were some who thought her +beautiful. She was pale with dark hair, and the great grey eyes of her +father; and she loved and lived in Anthony from the very difference +between them. She frankly could not understand the attraction of sport, +and the things that pleased her brother; she was afraid of the hawks, and +liked to stroke a horse and kiss his soft nose better than to ride him. +But, after all, Anthony liked to watch the towering bird, and to hear and +indeed increase the thunder of the hoofs across the meadows behind the +stomping hawk; and so she did her best to like them too; and she was +often torn two ways by her sympathy for the partridge on the one hand, as +it sped low and swift across the standing corn with that dread shadow +following, and her desire, on the other hand, that Anthony should not be +disappointed. + +But in the deeper things of the spirit, too, there was a wide difference +between them. As Anthony fidgeted and sighed through his chair-back +morning and evening, Isabel's soul soared up to God on the wings of those +sounding phrases. She had inherited all her father's tender piety, and +lived, like him, on the most intimate terms with the spiritual world. And +though, of course, by training she was Puritan, by character she was +Puritan too. As a girl of fourteen she had gone with Anthony to see the +cleansing of the village temple. They had stood together at the west end +of the church a little timid at the sight of that noisy crowd in the +quiet house of prayer; but she had felt no disapproval at that fierce +vindication of truth. Her father had taught her of course that the purest +worship was that which was only spiritual; and while since childhood she +had seen Sunday by Sunday the Great Rood overhead, she had never paid it +any but artistic attention. The men had the ropes round it now, and it +was swaying violently to and fro; and then, even as the children watched, +a tie had given, and the great cross with its pathetic wide-armed figure +had toppled forward towards the nave, and then crashed down on the +pavement. A fanatic ran out and furiously kicked the thorn-crowned head +twice, splintering the hair and the features, and cried out on it as an +idol; and yet Isabel, with all her tenderness, felt nothing more than a +vague regret that a piece of carving so ancient and so delicate should be +broken. + +But when the work was over, and the crowd and Anthony with them had +stamped out, directed by the justices, dragging the figures and the old +vestments with them to the green, she had seen something which touched +her heart much more. She passed up alone under the screen, which they had +spared, to see what had been done in the chancel; and as she went she +heard a sobbing from the corner near the priest's door; and there, +crouched forward on his face, crying and moaning quietly, was the old +priest who had been rector of the church for nearly twenty years. He had +somehow held on in Edward's time in spite of difficulties; had thanked +God and the Court of Heaven with a full heart for the accession of Mary; +had prayed and deprecated the divine wrath at the return of the +Protestant religion with Elizabeth; but yet had somehow managed to keep +the old faith alight for eight years more, sometimes evading, sometimes +resisting, and sometimes conforming to the march of events, in hopes of +better days. But now the blow had fallen, and the old man, too +ill-instructed to hear the accents of new truth in the shouting of that +noisy crowd and the crash of his images, was on his knees before the +altar where he had daily offered the holy sacrifice through all those +troublous years, faithful to what he believed to be God's truth, now +bewailing and moaning the horrors of that day, and, it is to be feared, +unchristianly calling down the vengeance of God upon his faithless flock. +This shocked and touched Isabel far more than the destruction of the +images; and she went forward timidly and said something; but the old man +turned on her a face of such misery and anger that she had run straight +out of the church, and joined Anthony as he danced on the green. + +On the following Sunday the old priest was not there, and a fervent young +minister from London had taken his place, and preached a stirring sermon +on the life and times of Josiah; and Isabel had thanked God on her knees +after the sermon for that He had once more vindicated His awful Name and +cleansed His House for a pure worship. + +But the very centre of Isabel's religion was the love of the Saviour. The +Puritans of those early days were very far from holding a negative or +colourless faith. Not only was their belief delicately dogmatic to +excess; but it all centred round the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And +Isabel had drunk in this faith from her father's lips, and from +devotional books which he gave her, as far back as she could remember +anything. Her love for the Saviour was even romantic and passionate. It +seemed to her that He was as much a part of her life, and of her actual +experience, as Anthony or her father. Certain places in the lanes about, +and certain spots in the garden, were sacred and fragrant to her because +her Lord had met her there. It was indeed a trouble to her sometimes that +she loved Anthony so much; and to her mind it was a less worthy kind of +love altogether; it was kindled and quickened by such little external +details, by the sight of his boyish hand brown with the sun, and scarred +by small sporting accidents, such as the stroke of his bird's beak or +talons, or by the very outline of the pillow where his curly head had +rested only an hour or two ago. Whereas her love for Christ was a deep +and solemn passion that seemed to well not out of His comeliness or even +His marred Face or pierced Hands, but out of His wide encompassing love +that sustained and clasped her at every moment of her conscious attention +to Him, and that woke her soul to ecstasy at moments of high communion. +These two loves, then, one so earthly, one so heavenly, but both so +sweet, every now and then seemed to her to be in slight conflict in her +heart. And lately a third seemed to be rising up out of the plane of +sober and quiet affections such as she felt for her father, and still +further complicating the apparently encountering claims of love to God +and man. + +Isabel grew quieter in a few minutes and lay still, following Anthony +with her imagination along the lane that led to the London road, and then +presently she heard her father calling, and went to the door to listen. + +"Isabel," he said, "come down. Hubert is in the hall." + +She called out that she would be down in a moment; and then going across +to her own room she washed her face and came downstairs. There was a +tall, pleasant-faced lad of about her own age standing near the open door +that led into the garden; and he came forward nervously as she entered. + +"I came back last night, Mistress Isabel," he said, "and heard that +Anthony was going this morning: but I am afraid I am too late." + +She told him that Anthony had just gone. + +"Yes," he said, "I came to say good-bye; but I came by the orchard, and +so we missed one another." + +Isabel asked a word or two about his visit to the North, and they talked +for a few minutes about a rumour that Hubert had heard of a rising on +behalf of Mary: but Hubert was shy and constrained, and Isabel was still +a little tremulous. At last he said he must be going, and then suddenly +remembered a message from his mother. + +"Ah!" he said, "I was forgetting. My mother wants you to come up this +evening, if you have time. Father is away, and my aunt is unwell and is +upstairs." + +Isabel promised she would come. + +"Father is at Chichester," went on Hubert, "before the Commission, but we +do not expect him back till to-morrow." + +A shadow passed across Isabel's face. "I am sorry," she said. + +The fact was that Sir Nicholas had again been summoned for recusancy. It +was an expensive matter to refuse to attend church, and Sir Nicholas +probably paid not less than L200 or L300 a year for the privilege of +worshipping as his conscience bade. + +In the evening Isabel asked her father's leave to be absent after supper, +and then drawing on her hood, walked across in the dusk to the Hall. +Hubert was waiting for her at the boundary door between the two +properties. + +"Father has come back," he said, "but my mother wants you still." They +went on together, passed round the cloister wing to the south of the +house: the bell turret over the inner hall and the crowded roofs stood up +against the stars, as they came up the curving flight of shallow steps +from the garden to the tall doorway that led into the hall. + +It was a pleasant, wide, high room, panelled with fresh oak, and hung +with a little old tapestry here and there, and a few portraits. A +staircase rose out of it to the upper story. It had a fret-ceiling, with +flower-de-luce and rose pendants, and on the walls between the tapestries +hung a few antlers and pieces of armour, morions and breast-plates, with +a pair of pikes or halberds here and there. A fire had been lighted in +the great hearth as the evenings were chilly; and Sir Nicholas was +standing before it, still in his riding-dress, pouring out resentment and +fury to his wife, who sat in a tall chair at her embroidery. She turned +silently and held out a hand to Isabel, who came and stood beside her, +while Hubert went and sat down near his father. Sir Nicholas scarcely +seemed to notice their entrance, beyond glancing up for a moment under +his fierce white eyebrows; but went on growling out his wrath. He was a +fine rosy man, with grey moustache and pointed beard, and a thick head of +hair, and he held in his hand his flat riding cap, and his whip with +which from time to time he cut at his boot. + +"It was monstrous, I told the fellow, that a man should be haled from his +home like this to pay a price for his conscience. The religion of my +father and his father and all our fathers was good enough for me; and why +in God's name should the Catholic have to pay who had never changed his +faith, while every heretic went free? And then to that some stripling of +a clerk told me that a religion that was good enough for the Queen's +Grace should be good enough for her loyal subjects too; but my Lord +silenced him quickly. And then I went at them again; and all my Lord +would do was to nod his head and smile at me as if I were a child; and +then he told me that it was a special Commission all for my sake, and Sir +Arthur's, who was there too, my dear.... Well, well, the end was that I +had to pay for their cursed religion." + +"Sweetheart, sweetheart," said Lady Maxwell, glancing at Isabel. + +"Well, I paid," went on Sir Nicholas, "but I showed them, thank God, what +I was: for as we came out, Sir Arthur and I together, what should we see +but another party coming in, pursuivant and all; and in the mid of them +that priest who was with us last July.--Well, well, we'll leave his name +alone--him that said he was a priest before them all in September; and I +went down on my knees, thank God, and Sir Arthur went down on his, and we +asked his blessing before them all, and he gave it us: and oh! my Lord +was red and white with passion." + +"That was not wise, sweetheart," said Lady Maxwell tranquilly, "the +priest will have suffered for it afterwards." + +"Well, well," grumbled Sir Nicholas, "a man cannot always think, but we +showed them that Catholics were not ashamed of their religion--yes, and +we got the blessing too." + +"Well, but here is supper waiting," said my lady, "and Isabel, too, whom +you have not spoken to yet." + +Sir Nicholas paid no attention. + +"Ah! but that was not all," he went on, savagely striking his boot again, +"at the end of all who should I see but that--that--damned rogue--whom +God reward!"--and he turned and spat into the fire--"Topcliffe. There he +was, bowing to my Lord and the Commissioners. When I think of that man," +he said, "when I think of that man--" and Sir Nicholas' kindly old +passionate face grew pale and lowering with fury, and his eyebrows bent +themselves forward, and his lower lip pushed itself out, and his hand +closed tremblingly on his whip. + +His wife laid down her embroidery and came to him. + +"There, sweetheart," she said, taking his cap and whip. "Now sit down and +have supper, and leave that man to God." + +Sir Nicholas grew quiet again; and after a saying a word or two of +apology to Isabel, left the room to wash before he sat down to supper. + +"Mistress Isabel does not know who Topcliffe is," said Hubert. + +"Hush, my son," said his mother, "your father does not like his name to +be spoken." + +Presently Sir Nicholas returned, and sat down to supper. Gradually his +good nature returned, and he told them what he had seen in Chichester, +and the talk he had heard. How it was reported to his lordship the Bishop +that the old religion was still the religion of the people's hearts--how, +for example, at Lindfield they had all the images and the altar furniture +hidden underground, and at Battle, too; and that the mass could be set up +again at a few hours' notice: and that the chalices had not been melted +down into communion cups according to the orders issued, and so on. And +that at West Grinsted, moreover, the Blessed Sacrament was there +still--praise God--yes, and was going to remain there. He spoke freely +before Isabel, and yet he remembered his courtesy too, and did not abuse +the new-fangled religion, as he thought it, in her presence; or seek in +any way to trouble her mind. If ever in an excess of anger he was carried +away in his talk, his wife would always check him gently; and he would +always respond and apologise to Isabel if he had transgressed good +manners. In fact, he was just a fiery old man who could not change his +religion even at the bidding of his monarch, and could not understand how +what was right twenty years ago was wrong now. + +Isabel herself listened with patience and tenderness, and awe too; +because she loved and honoured this old man in spite of the darkness in +which he still walked. He also told them in lower tones of a rumour that +was persistent at Chichester that the Duke of Norfolk had been imprisoned +by the Queen's orders, and was to be charged with treason; and that he +was at present at Burnham, in Mr. Wentworth's house, under the guard of +Sir Henry Neville. If this was true, as indeed it turned out to be later, +it was another blow to the Catholic cause in England; but Sir Nicholas +was of a sanguine mind, and pooh-poohed the whole affair even while he +related it. + +And so the evening passed in talk. When Sir Nicholas had finished supper, +they all went upstairs to my lady's withdrawing-room on the first floor. +This was always a strange and beautiful room to Isabel. It was panelled +like the room below, but was more delicately furnished, and a tall harp +stood near the window to which my lady sang sometimes in a sweet +tremulous old voice, while Sir Nicholas nodded at the fire. Isabel, too, +had had some lessons here from the old lady; but even this mild vanity +troubled her puritan conscience a little sometimes. Then the room, too, +had curious and attractive things in it. A high niche in the oak over the +fireplace held a slender image of Mary and her Holy Child, and from the +Child's fingers hung a pair of beads. Isabel had a strange sense +sometimes as if this holy couple had taken refuge in that niche when they +were driven from the church; but it seemed to her in her steadier moods +that this was a superstitious fancy, and had the nature of sin. + +This evening the old lady went to her harp, while Isabel sat down near +her in the wide window seat and looked out over the dark lawn, where the +white dial glimmered like a phantom, and thought of Anthony again. Sir +Nicholas went and stretched himself before the fire, and closed his eyes, +for he was old, and tired with his long ride; and Hubert sat down in a +dark corner near him whence he could watch Isabel. After a few rippling +chords my lady began to sing a song by Sir Thomas Wyatt, whom she and Sir +Nicholas had known in their youth; and which she had caused to be set to +music by some foreign chapel master. It was a sorrowful little song, with +the title, "He seeketh comfort in patience," and possibly she chose it on +purpose for this evening. + + "Patience! for I have wrong, + And dare not shew wherein; + Patience shall be my song; + Since truth can nothing win. + Patience then for this fit; + Hereafter comes not yet." + +While she sang, she thought no doubt of the foolish brave courtier who +lacked patience in spite of his singing, and lost his head for it; her +voice shook once or twice: and old Sir Nicholas shook his drowsy head +when she had finished, and said "God rest him," and then fell fast +asleep. + +Then he presently awoke as the others talked in whispers, and joined in +too: and they talked of Anthony, and what he would find at Cambridge; and +of Alderman Marrett, and his house off Cheapside, where Anthony would lie +that night; and of such small and tranquil topics, and left fiercer +questions alone. And so the evening came to an end; and Isabel said +good-night, and went downstairs with Hubert, and out into the garden +again. + +"I am sorry that Sir Nicholas has been so troubled," she said to Hubert, +as they turned the corner of the house together. "Why cannot we leave one +another alone, and each worship God as we think fit?" + +Hubert smiled in the darkness to himself. + +"I am afraid Queen Mary did not think it could be done, either," he said. +"But then, Mistress Isabel," he went on, "I am glad that you feel that +religion should not divide people." + +"Surely not," she said, "so long as they love God." + +"Then you think--" began Hubert, and then stopped. Isabel turned to him. + +"Yes?" she asked. + +"Nothing," said Hubert. + +They had reached the door in the boundary wall by now, and Isabel would +not let him come further with her and bade him good-night. But Hubert +still stood, with his hand on the door, and watched the white figure fade +into the dusk, and listened to the faint rustle of her skirt over the dry +leaves; and then, when he heard at last the door of the Dower House open +and close, he sighed to himself and went home. + +Isabel heard her father call from his room as she passed through the +hall; and went in to him as he sat at his table in his furred gown, with +his books about him, to bid him good-night and receive his blessing. He +lifted his hand for a moment to finish the sentence he was writing, and +she stood watching the quill move and pause and move again over the +paper, in the candlelight, until he laid the pen down, and rose and stood +with his back to the fire, smiling down at her. He was a tall, slender +man, surprisingly upright for his age, with a delicate, bearded, +scholar's face; the little plain ruff round his neck helped to emphasise +the fine sensitiveness of his features; and the hands which he stretched +out to his daughter were thin and veined. + +"Well, my daughter," he said, looking down at her with his kindly grey +eyes so like her own, and holding her hands. + +"Have you had a good evening, sir?" she asked. + +He nodded briskly. + +"And you, child?" he asked. + +"Yes, sir," she said, smiling up at him. + +"And was Sir Nicholas there?" + +She told him what had passed, and how Sir Nicholas had been fined again +for his recusancy; and how Lady Maxwell had sung one of Sir Thomas +Wyatt's songs. + +"And was no one else there?" he asked. + +"Yes, father, Hubert." + +"Ah! And did Hubert come home with you?" + +"Only as far as the gate, father. I would not let him come further." + +Her father said nothing, but still looked steadily down into her eyes for +a moment, and then turned and looked away from her into the fire. + +"You must take care," he said gently. "Remember he is a Papist, born and +bred; and that he has a heart to be broken too." + +She felt herself steadily flushing; and as he turned again towards her, +dropped her eyes. + +"You will be prudent and tender, I know," he added. "I trust you wholly, +Isabel." + +Then he kissed her on the forehead and laid his hand on her head, and +looked up, as the Puritan manner was. + +"May the God of grace bless you, my daughter; and make you faithful to +the end." And then he looked into her eyes again, smiled and nodded; and +she went out, leaving him standing there. + +Mr. Norris had begun to fear that the boy loved Isabel, but as yet he did +not know whether Isabel understood it or even was aware of it. The +marriage difficulties of Catholics and Protestants were scarcely yet +existing; and certainly there was no formulated rule of dealing with +them. Changes of religion were so frequent in those days that +difficulties, when they did arise, easily adjusted themselves. It was +considered, for example, by politicians quite possible at one time that +the Duke of Anjou should conform to the Church of England for the sake of +marrying the Queen: or that he should attend public services with her, +and at the same time have mass and the sacraments in his own private +chapel. Or again, it was open to question whether England as a whole +would not return to the old religion, and Catholicism be the only +tolerated faith. + +But to really religious minds such solutions would not do. It would have +been an intolerable thought to this sincere Puritan, with all his +tolerance, that his daughter should marry a Catholic; such an arrangement +would mean either that she was indifferent to vital religion, or that she +was married to a man whose creed she was bound to abhor and anathematise: +and however willing Mr. Norris might be to meet Papists on terms of +social friendliness, and however much he might respect their personal +characters, yet the thought that the life of any one dear to him should +be irretrievably bound up with all that the Catholic creed involved, was +simply an impossible one. + +Besides all this he had no great opinion of Hubert. He thought he +detected in him a carelessness and want of principle that would make him +hesitate to trust his daughter to him, even if the insuperable barrier of +religion were surmounted. Mr. Norris liked a man to be consistent and +zealous for his creed, even if that creed were dark and +superstitious--and this zeal seemed to him lamentably lacking in Hubert. +More than once he had heard the boy speak of his father with an air of +easy indulgence, that his own opinion interpreted as contempt. + +"I believe my father thinks," he had once said, "that every penny he pays +in fines goes to swell the accidental glory of God." + +And Hubert had been considerably startled and distressed when the elder +man had told him to hold his tongue unless he could speak respectfully of +one to whom he owed nothing but love and honour. This had happened, +however, more than a year ago; and Hubert had forgotten it, no doubt, +even if Mr. Norris had not. + +And as for Isabel. + +It is exceedingly difficult to say quite what place Hubert occupied in +her mind. She certainly did not know herself much more than that she +liked the boy to be near her; to hear his footsteps coming along the path +from the Hall. This morning when her father had called up to her that +Hubert was come, it was not so hard to dry her tears for Anthony's +departure. The clouds had parted a little when she came and found this +tall lad smiling shyly at her in the hall. As she had sat in the window +seat, too, during Lady Maxwell's singing, she was far from unconscious +that Hubert's face was looking at her from the dark corner. And as they +walked back together her simplicity was not quite so transparent as the +boy himself thought. + +Again when her father had begun to speak of him just now, although she +was able to meet his eyes steadily and smilingly, yet it was just an +effort. She had not mentioned Hubert herself, until her father had named +him; and in fact it is probably safe to say that during Hubert's visit to +the north, which had lasted three or four months, he had made greater +progress towards his goal, and had begun to loom larger than ever in the +heart of this serene grey-eyed girl, whom he longed for so irresistibly. + +And now, as Isabel sat on her bed before kneeling to say her prayers, +Hubert was in her mind even more than Anthony. She tried to wonder what +her father meant, and yet only too well she knew that she knew. She had +forgotten to look into Anthony's room where she had cried so bitterly +this morning, and now she sat wide-eyed, and self-questioning as to +whether her heavenly love were as lucid and single as it had been; and +when at last she went down on her knees she entreated the King of Love to +bless not only her father, and her brother Anthony who lay under the +Alderman's roof in far-away London; but Sir Nicholas and Lady Maxwell, +and Mistress Margaret Hallam, and--and--Hubert--and James Maxwell, his +brother; and to bring them out of the darkness of Papistry into the +glorious liberty of the children of the Gospel. + + + + + CHAPTER III + + LONDON TOWN + + +Isabel's visit to London, which had been arranged to take place the +Christmas after Anthony's departure to Cambridge, was full of bewildering +experiences to her. Mr. Norris from time to time had references to look +up in London, and divines to consult as to difficult points in his book +on the Eucharist; and this was a favourable opportunity to see Mr. +Dering, the St. Paul's lecturer; so the two took the opportunity, and +with a couple of servants drove up to the City one day early in December +to the house of Alderman Marrett, the wool merchant, and a friend of Mr. +Norris' father; and for several days both before and after Anthony's +arrival from Cambridge went every afternoon to see the sights. The maze +of narrow streets of high black and white houses with their iron-work +signs, leaning forward as if to whisper to one another, leaving strips of +sky overhead; the strange play of lights and shades after nightfall; the +fantastic groups; the incessant roar and rumble of the crowded +alleys--all the commonplace life of London was like an enchanted picture +to her, opening a glimpse into an existence of which she had known +nothing. + +To live, too, in the whirl of news that poured in day after day borne by +splashed riders and panting horses;--this was very different to the slow +round of country life, with rumours and tales floating in, mellowed by +doubt and lapse of time, like pensive echoes from another world. For +example, morning by morning, as she came downstairs to dinner, there was +the ruddy-faced Alderman with his fresh budget of news of the +north;--Lords Northumberland and Westmoreland with a Catholic force of +several thousands, among which were two cousins of Mrs. Marrett +herself--and the old lady nodded her head dolorously in +corroboration--had marched southwards under the Banner of the Five +Wounds, and tramped through Durham City welcomed by hundreds of the +citizens; the Cathedral had been entered, old Richard Norton with the +banner leading; the new Communion table had been cast out of doors, the +English Bible and Prayer-book torn to shreds, the old altar reverently +carried in from the rubbish heap, the tapers rekindled, and amid +hysterical enthusiasm Mass had been said once more in the old sanctuary. + +Then they had moved south; Lord Sussex was powerless in York; the Queen, +terrified and irresolute, alternately storming and crying; Spain was +about to send ships to Hartlepool to help the rebels; Mary Stuart would +certainly be rescued from her prison at Tutbury. Then Mary had been moved +to Coventry; then came a last flare of frightening tales: York had +fallen; Mary had escaped; Elizabeth was preparing to flee. + +And then one morning the Alderman's face was brighter: it was all a lie, +he said. The revolt had crumbled away; my Lord Sussex was impregnably +fortified in York with guns from Hull; Lord Pembroke was gathering forces +at Windsor; Lords Clinton, Hereford and Warwick were converging towards +York to relieve the siege. And as if to show Isabel it was not a mere +romance, she could see the actual train-bands go by up Cheapside with the +gleam of steel caps and pike-heads, and the mighty tramp of disciplined +feet, and the welcoming roar of the swarming crowds. + +Then as men's hearts grew lighter the tale of chastisement began to be +told, and was not finished till long after Isabel was home again. Green +after green of the windy northern villages was made hideous by the +hanging bodies of the natives, and children hid their faces and ran by +lest they should see what her Grace had done to their father. + +In spite of the Holy Sacrifice, and the piteous banner, and the call to +fight for the faith, the Catholics had hung back and hesitated, and the +catastrophe was complete. + +The religion of London, too, was a revelation to this country girl. She +went one Sunday to St. Paul's Cathedral, pausing with her father before +they went in to see the new restorations and the truncated steeple struck +by lightning eight years before, which in spite of the Queen's angry +urging the citizens had never been able to replace. + +There was a good congregation at the early morning prayer; and the organs +and the singing were to Isabel as the harps and choirs of heaven. The +canticles were sung to Shephard's setting by the men and children of St. +Paul's all in surplices: and the dignitaries wore besides their grey fur +almuces, which had not yet been abolished. The grace and dignity of the +whole service, though to older people who remembered the unreformed +worship a bare and miserable affair, and to Mr. Norris, with his sincere +simplicity and spirituality, a somewhat elaborate and sensuous mode of +honouring God, yet to Isabel was a first glimpse of what the mystery of +worship meant. The dim towering arches, through which the dusty +richly-stained sunbeams poured, the far-away murmurous melodies that +floated down from the glimmering choir, the high thin pealing organ, all +combined to give her a sense of the unfathomable depths of the Divine +Majesty--an element that was lacking in the clear-cut personal Puritan +creed, in spite of the tender associations that made it fragrant for her, +and the love of the Saviour that enlightened and warmed it. The sight of +the crowds outside, too, in the frosty sunlight, gathered round the grey +stone pulpit on the north-east of the Cathedral, and streaming down every +alley and lane, the packed galleries, the gesticulating black figure of +the preacher--this impressed on her an idea of the power of corporate +religion, that hours at her own prayer-desk, or solitary twilight walks +under the Hall pines, or the uneventful divisions of the Rector's village +sermons, had failed to give. + +It was this Sunday in London that awakened her quiet soul from the lonely +companionship of God, to the knowledge of that vast spiritual world of +men of which she was but one tiny cell. Her father observed her quietly +and interestedly as they went home together, but said nothing beyond an +indifferent word or two. He was beginning to realise the serious reality +of her spiritual life, and to dread anything that would even approximate +to coming between her soul and her Saviour. The father and daughter +understood one another, and were content to be silent together. + +Her talks with Mrs. Marrett, too, left their traces on her mind. The +Alderman's wife, for the first time in her life, found her views and +reminiscences listened to as if they were oracles, and she needed little +encouragement to pour them out in profusion. She was especially generous +with her tales of portents and warnings; and the girl was more than once +considerably alarmed by what she heard while the ladies were alone in the +dim firelit parlour on the winter afternoons before the candles were +brought in. + +"When you were a little child, my dear," began the old lady one day, +"there was a great burning made everywhere of all the popish images and +vestments; all but the copes and the altar-cloths that they made into +dresses for the ministers' new wives, and bed-quilts to cover them; and +there were books and banners and sepulchres and even relics. I went out +to see the burning at Paul's, and though I knew it was proper that the +old papistry should go, yet I was uneasy at the way it was done. + +"Well," went on the old lady, glancing about her, "I was sitting in this +very room only a few days after, and the air began to grow dark and +heavy, and all became still. There had been two or three cocks crowing +and answering one another down by the river, and others at a distance; +and they all ceased: and there had been birds chirping in the roof, and +they ceased. And it grew so dark that I laid down my needle and went to +the window, and there at the end of the street over the houses there was +coming a great cloud, with wings like a hawk, I thought; but some said +afterwards that, when they saw it, it had fingers like a man's hand, and +others said it was like a great tower, with battlements. However that may +be, it grew nearer and larger, and it was blue and dark like that curtain +there; and there was no wind to stir it, for the windows had ceased +rattling, and the dust was quiet in the streets; and still it came on +quickly, growing as it came; and then there came a far-away sound, like a +heavy waggon, or, some said, like a deep voice complaining. And I turned +away from the window afraid; and there was the cat, that had been on a +chair, down in the corner, with her back up, staring at the cloud: and +then she began to run round the room like a mad thing, and presently +whisked out of the door when I opened it. And I went to find Mr. Marrett, +and he had not come in, and all the yard was quiet. I could only hear a +horse stamp once or twice in the stable. And then as I saw calling out +for some one to come, the storm broke, and the sky was all one dark cloud +from side to side. For three hours it went on, rolling and clapping, and +the lightning came in through the window that I had darkened and through +the clothes over my head; for I had gone to my bed and rolled myself +round under the clothes. And so it went on--and, my dear--" and Mrs. +Marrett put her head close to Isabel's--"I prayed to our Lady and the +saints, which I had not done since I was married; and asked them to pray +God to keep me safe. And then at the end came a clap of thunder and a +flash of lightning more fearful than all that had gone before; and at +that very moment, so Mr. Marrett told me when he came in, two of the +doors in St. Denys' Church in Fanshawe Street were broken in pieces by +something that crushed them in, and the stone steeple of Allhallow Church +in Bread Street was broken off short, and a part of it killed a dog that +was beneath, and overthrew a man that played with the dog." + +Isabel could hardly restrain a shiver and a glance round the dark old +room, so awful were Mrs. Marrett's face and gestures and loud whispering +tone, as she told this. + +"Ah! but, my dear," she went on, "there was worse happened to poor King +Hal, God rest him--him who began to reform the Church, as they say, and +destroyed the monasteries. All the money that he left for masses for his +soul was carried off with the rest at the change of religion; and that +was bad enough, but this is worse. This is a tale, my dear, that I have +heard my father tell many a time; and I was a young woman myself when it +happened. The King's Grace was threatened by a friar, I think of +Greenwich, that if he laid hands on the monasteries he should be as Ahab +whose blood was licked by dogs in the very place which he took from a +man. Well, the friar was hanged for his pains, and the King lived. And +then at last he died, and was put in a great coffin, and carried through +London; and they put the coffin in an open space in Sion Abbey, which the +King had taken. And in the night there came one to view the coffin, and +to see that all was well. And he came round the corner, and there stood +the great coffin--(for his Grace was a great stout man, my dear)--on +trestles in the moonlight, and beneath it a great black dog that lapped +something: and the dog turned as the man came, and some say, but not my +father, that the dog's eyes were red as coals, and that his mouth and +nostrils smoked, and that he cast no shadow; but (however that may be) +the dog turned and looked and then ran; and the man followed him into a +yard, but when he reached there, there was no dog. And the man went back +to the coffin afraid; and he found the coffin was burst open, and--and--" + +Mrs. Marrett stopped abruptly. Isabel was white and trembling. + +"There, there, my dear. I am a foolish old woman; and I'll tell you no +more." + +Isabel was really terrified, and entreated Mrs. Marrett to tell her +something pleasant to make her forget these horrors; and so she told her +old tales of her youth, and the sights of the city, and the great doings +in Mary's reign; and so the time passed pleasantly till the gentlemen +came home. + +At other times she told her of Elizabeth and the great nobles, and +Isabel's heart beat high at it, and at the promise that before she left +she herself should see the Queen, even if she had to go to Greenwich or +Nonsuch for it. + +"God bless her," said Mrs. Marrett loyally, "she's a woman like ourselves +for all her majesty. And she likes the show and the music too, like us +all. I declare when I see them all a-going down the water to Greenwich, +or to the Tower for a bear-baiting, with the horns blowing and the guns +firing and the banners and the barges and the music, I declare sometimes +I think that heaven itself can be no better, God forgive me! Ah! but I +wish her Grace 'd take a husband; there are many that want her; and then +we could laugh at them all. There's so many against her Grace now who'd +be for her if she had a son of her own. There's Duke Charles whose +picture hangs in her bedroom, they say; and Lord Robert Dudley--there's a +handsome spark, my dear, in his gay coat and his feathers and his ruff, +and his hand on his hip, and his horse and all. I wish she'd take him and +have done with it. And then we'd hear no more of the nasty Spaniards. +There's Don de Silva, for all the world like a monkey with his brown face +and mincing ways and his grand clothes. I declare when Captain Hawkins +came home, just four years ago last Michaelmas, and came up to London +with his men, all laughing and rolling along with the people cheering +them, I could have kissed the man--to think how he had made the brown men +dance and curse and show their white teeth! and to think that the Don had +to ask him to dinner, and grin and chatter as if nought had happened." + +And Mrs. Marrett's good-humoured face broke into mirth at the thought of +the Ambassador's impotence and duplicity. + +Anthony's arrival in London a few days before Christmas removed the one +obstacle to Isabel's satisfaction--that he was not there to share it with +her. The two went about together most of the day under their father's +care, when he was not busy at his book, and saw all that was to be seen. + +One afternoon as they were just leaving the courtyard of the Tower, which +they had been visiting with a special order, a slight reddish-haired man, +who came suddenly out of a doorway of the White Tower, stopped a moment +irresolutely, and then came towards them, bare-headed and bowing. He had +sloping shoulders and a serious-looking mouth, with a reddish beard and +moustache, and had an air of strangely mingled submissiveness and +capability. His voice too, as he spoke, was at once deferential and +decided. + +"I ask your pardon, Mr. Norris," he said. "Perhaps you do not remember +me." + +"I have seen you before," said the other, puzzled for a moment. + +"Yes, sir," said the man, "down at Great Keynes; I was in service at the +Hall, sir." + +"Yes, yes," said Mr. Norris, "I remember you perfectly. Lackington, is it +not?" + +The man bowed again. + +"I left about eight years ago, sir; and by the blessing of God, have +gained a little post under the Government. But I wished to tell you, sir, +that I have been happily led to change my religion. I was a Papist, sir, +you know." + +Mr. Norris congratulated him. + +"I thank you, sir," said Lackington. + +The two children were looking at him; and he turned to them and bowed +again. + +"Mistress Isabel and Master Anthony, sir, is it not?" + +"I remember you," said Isabel a little shyly, "at least, I think so." + +Lackington bowed again as if gratified; and turned to their father. + +"If you are leaving, Mr. Norris, would you allow me to walk with you a +few steps? I have much I would like to ask you of my old master and +mistress." + +The four passed out together; the two children in front; and as they went +Lackington asked most eagerly after the household at the Hall, and +especially after Mr. James, for whom he seemed to have a special +affection. + +"It is rumoured," said Mr. Norris, "that he is going abroad." + +"Indeed, sir," said the servant, with a look of great interest, "I had +heard it too, sir; but did not know whether to believe it." + +Lackington also gave many messages of affection to others of the +household, to Piers the bailiff, and a couple of the foresters: and +finished by entreating Mr. Norris to use him as he would, telling him how +anxious he was to be of service to his friends, and asking to be +entrusted with any little errands or commissions in London that the +country gentleman might wish performed. + +"I shall count it, sir, a privilege," said the servant, "and you shall +find me prompt and discreet." + +One curious incident took place just as Lackington was taking his leave +at the turning down into Wharf Street; a man hurrying eastwards almost +ran against them, and seemed on the point of apologising, but his face +changed suddenly, and he spat furiously on the ground, mumbling +something, and hurried on. Lackington seemed to see nothing. + +"Why did he do that?" interrupted Mr. Norris, astonished. + +"I ask your pardon, sir?" said Lackington interrogatively. + +"That fellow! did you not see him spit at me?" + +"I did not observe it, sir," said the servant; and presently took his +leave. + +"Why did that man spit at you, father?" asked Isabel, when they had come +indoors. + +"I cannot think, my dear; I have never seen him in my life." + +"I think Lackington knew," said Anthony, with a shrewd air. + +"Lackington! Why, Lackington did not even see him." + +"That was just it," said Anthony. + +Anthony's talk about Cambridge during these first evenings in London was +fascinating to Isabel, if not to their father, too. It concerned of +course himself and his immediate friends, and dealt with such subjects as +cock-fighting a good deal; but he spoke also of the public disputations +and the theological champions who crowed and pecked, not unlike cocks +themselves, while the theatre rang with applause and hooting. The sport +was one of the most popular at the universities at this time. But above +all his tales of the Queen's visit a few years before attracted the girl, +for was she not to see the Queen with her own eyes? + +"Oh! father," said the lad, "I would I had been there five years ago +when she came. Master Taylor told me of it. They acted the _Aulularia_, +you know, in King's Chapel on the Sunday evening. Master Taylor took a +part, I forget what; and he told me how she laughed and clapped. And +then there was a great disputation before her, one day, in St. Mary's +Church, and the doctors argued, I forget what about, but Master Taylor +says that of course the Genevans had the best of it; and the Queen +spoke, too, in Latin, though she did not wish to, but my lord of Ely +persuaded her to it; so you see she could not have learned it by heart, +as some said. And she said she would give some great gift to the +University; but Master Taylor says they are still waiting for it; but it +must come soon, you see, because it is the Queen's Grace who has +promised it; but Master Taylor says he hopes she has forgotten it, but +he laughs when I ask him what he means, and says it again." + +"Who is this Master Taylor?" asked his father. + +"Oh! he is a Fellow of King's," said Anthony, "and he told me about the +Provost too. The Provost is half a Papist, they say: he is very old now, +and he has buried all the vessels and the vestments of the Chapel, they +say, somewhere where no one knows; and he hopes the old religion will +come back again some day; and then he will dig them up. But that is +Papistry, and no one wants that at Cambridge. And others say that he is +a Papist altogether, and has a priest in his house sometimes. But I do +not think he can be a Papist, because he was there when the Queen was +there, bowing and smiling, says Master Taylor; and looking on the Queen +so earnestly, as if he worshipped her, says Master Taylor, all the time +the Chancellor was talking to her before they went into the chapel for +the _Te Deum_. But they wished they had kept some of the things, like +the Provost, says Master Taylor, because they were much put to it when +her Grace came down for stuffs to cover the communion-tables and for +surplices, for Cecil said she would be displeased if all was bare and +poor. Is it true, father," asked Anthony, breaking off, "that the Queen +likes popish things, and has a crucifix and tapers on the table in her +chapel?" + +"Ah! my son," said Mr. Norris, smiling, "you must ask one who knows. And +what else happened?" + +"Well," said Anthony, "the best is to come. They had plays, you know, +the _Dido_, and one called _Ezechias_, before the Queen. Oh! and she +sent for one of the boys, they say, and--and kissed him, they say; but I +think that cannot be true." + +"Well, my son, go on!" + +"Oh! and some of them thought they would have one more play before she +went; but she had to go a long journey and left Cambridge before they +could do it, and they went after her to--to Audley End, I think, where +she was to sleep, and a room was made ready, and when all was prepared, +though her Grace was tired, she came in to see the play. Master Taylor +was not there; he said he would rather not act in that one; but he had +the story from one who acted, but no one knew, he said, who wrote the +play. Well, when the Queen's Grace was seated, the actors came on, +dressed, father, dressed"--and Anthony's eyes began to shine with +amusement--"as the Catholic Bishops in the Tower. There was Bonner in his +popish vestments--some they had from St. Benet's--with a staff and his +tall mitre, and a lamb in his arms; and he stared at it and gnashed his +teeth at it as he tramped in; and then came the others, all like bishops, +all in mass-vestments or cloth cut to look like them; and then at the end +came a dog that belonged to one of them, well-trained, with the Popish +Host in his mouth, made large and white, so that all could see what it +was. Well, they thought the Queen would laugh as she was a Protestant, +but no one laughed; some one said something in the room, and a lady cried +out; and then the Queen stood up and scolded the actors, and trounced +them well with her tongue, she did, and said she was displeased; and then +out she went with all her ladies and gentlemen after her, except one or +two servants who put out the lights at once without waiting, and broke +Bonner's staff, and took away the Host, and kicked the dog, and told them +to be off, for the Queen's Grace was angered with them; and so they had +to get back to Cambridge in the dark as well as they might." + +"Oh! the poor boys!" said Mrs. Marrett, "and they did it all to please +her Grace, too." + +"Yes," said the Alderman, "but the Queen thought it enough, I dare say, +to put the Bishops in prison, without allowing boys to make a mock of +them and their faith before her." + +"Yes," said Anthony, "I thought that was it." + +When the Alderman came in a day or two later with the news that Elizabeth +was to come up from Nonsuch the next day, and to pass down Cheapside on +her way to Greenwich, the excitement of Isabel and Anthony was +indescribable. + +Cheapside was joyous to see, as the two, with their father behind them +talking to a minister whose acquaintance he had made, sat at a +first-floor window soon after mid-day, waiting to see the Queen go by. +Many of the people had hung carpets or tapestries, some of taffetas and +cloth-of-gold, out of their balconies and windows, and the very signs +themselves,--fantastic ironwork, with here and there a grotesque beast +rampant, or a bright painting, or an escutcheon;--with the gay, +good-tempered crowds beneath and the strip of frosty blue sky, crossed +by streamers from side to side, shining above the towering eaves and +gables of the houses, all combined to make a scene so astonishing that +it seemed scarcely real to these country children. + +It was yet some time before she was expected; but there came a sudden +stir from the upper end of Cheapside, and then a burst of cheering and +laughter and hoots. Anthony leaned out to see what was coming, but could +make out nothing beyond the head of a horse, and a man driving it from +the seat of a cart, coming slowly down the centre of the road. The +laughter and noise grew louder as the crowds swayed this way and that to +make room. Presently it was seen that behind the cart a little space was +kept, and Anthony made out the grey head of a man at the tail of the +cart, and the face of another a little way behind; then at last, as the +cart jolted past, the two children saw a man stripped to the waist, his +hands tied before him to the cart, his back one red wound; while a +hangman walked behind whirling his thonged whip about his head and +bringing it down now and again on the old man's back. At each lash the +prisoner shrank away, and turned his piteous face, drawn with pain, from +side to side, while the crowd yelled and laughed. + +"What's it for, what's it for?" inquired Anthony, eager and interested. + +A boy leaning from the next window answered him. + +"He said Jesus Christ was not in heaven." + +At that moment a humorist near the cart began to cry out: + +"Way for the King's Grace! Way for the King's Grace!" and the crowd took +the idea instantly: a few men walking with the cart formed lines like +gentlemen ushers, uncovering their heads and all crying out the same +words; and one eager player tried to walk backwards until he was tripped +up. And so the dismal pageant of this red-robed king of anguish went by; +and the hoots and shouts of his heralds died away. Anthony turned to +Isabel, exultant and interested. + +"Why, Isabel," he said, "you look all white. What is it? You know he's a +blasphemer." + +"I know, I know," said Isabel. + +Then suddenly, far away, came the sound of trumpets, and gusts of distant +cheering, like the sound of the wind in thick foliage. Anthony leaned out +again, and an excited murmur broke out once more, as all faces turned +westwards. A moment more, and Anthony caught a flash of colour from the +corner near St. Paul's Churchyard; then the shrill trumpets sounded +nearer, and the cheering broke out at the end, and ran down the street +like a wave of noise. From every window faces leaned out; even on the +roofs and between the high chimney pots were swaying figures. + +Masses of colour now began to emerge, with the glitter of steel, round +the bend of the street, where the winter sunshine fell; and the crowds +began to surge back, and against the houses. At first Anthony could make +out little but two moving rippling lines of light, coming parallel, +pressing the people back; and it was not until they had come opposite the +window that he could make out the steel caps and pikeheads of men in +half-armour, who, marching two and two with a space between them, led the +procession and kept the crowds back. There they went, with immovable +disciplined faces, grounding their pike-butts sharply now and again, +caring nothing for the yelp of pain that sometimes followed. Immediately +behind them came the aldermen in scarlet, on black horses that tossed +their jingling heads as they walked. Anthony watched the solemn faces of +the old gentlemen with a good deal of awe, and presently made out his +friend, Mr. Marrett, who rode near the end, but who was too much +engrossed in the management of his horse to notice the two children who +cried out to him and waved. The serjeants-of-arms followed, and then two +lines again of gentlemen-pensioners walking, bare-headed, carrying wands, +in short cloaks and elaborate ruffs. But the lad saw little of them, for +the splendour of the lords and knights that followed eclipsed them +altogether. The knights came first, in steel armour with raised vizors, +the horses too in armour, moving sedately with a splendid clash of steel, +and twinkling fiercely in the sunshine; and then, after them (and Anthony +drew his breath swiftly) came a blaze of colour and jewels as the great +lords in their cloaks and feathered caps, metal-clasped and gemmed, came +on their splendid long-maned horses; the crowd yelled and cheered, and +great names were tossed to and fro, as the owners passed on, each talking +to his fellow as if unconscious of the tumult and even of the presence of +these shouting thousands. The cry of the trumpets rang out again high and +shattering, as the trumpeters and heralds in rich coat-armour came next; +and Anthony looked a moment, fascinated by the lions and lilies, and the +brightness of the eloquent horns, before he turned his head to see the +Lord Mayor himself, mounted on a great stately white horse, that needed +no management, while his rider bore on a cushion the sceptre. Ah! she was +coming near now. The two saw nothing of the next rider who carried aloft +the glittering Sword of State, for their eyes were fixed on the six +plumed heads of the horses, with grooms and footmen in cassock-coats and +venetian hose, and the great gilt open carriage behind that swayed and +jolted over the cobbles. She was here; she was here; and the loyal crowds +yelled and surged to and fro, and cloths and handkerchiefs flapped and +waved, and caps tossed up and down, as at last the great creaking +carriage came under the window. + +This is what they saw in it. + +A figure of extraordinary dignity, sitting upright and stiff like a pagan +idol, dressed in a magnificent and fantastic purple robe, with a great +double ruff, like a huge collar, behind her head; a long taper waist, +voluminous skirts spread all over the cushions, embroidered with curious +figures and creatures. Over her shoulders, but opened in front so as to +show the ropes of pearls and the blaze of jewels on the stomacher, was a +purple velvet mantle lined with ermine, with pearls sewn into it here and +there. Set far back on her head, over a pile of reddish-yellow hair drawn +tightly back from the forehead, was a hat with curled brims, elaborately +embroidered, with the jewelled outline of a little crown in front, and a +high feather topping all. + +And her face--a long oval, pale and transparent in complexion, with a +sharp chin, and a high forehead; high arched eyebrows, auburn, but a +little darker than her hair; her mouth was small, rising at the corners, +with thin curved lips tightly shut; and her eyes, which were clear in +colour, looked incessantly about her with great liveliness and +good-humour. + +There was something overpowering to these two children who looked, too +awed to cheer, in this formidable figure in the barbaric dress, the +gorgeous climax of a gorgeous pageant. Apart from the physical splendour, +this solitary glittering creature represented so much--it was the +incarnate genius of the laughing, brutal, wanton English nation, that sat +here in the gilded carriage and smiled and glanced with tight lips and +clear eyes. She was like some emblematic giant, moving in a processional +car, as fantastic as itself, dominant and serene above the heads of the +maddened crowds, on to some mysterious destiny. A sovereign, however +personally inglorious, has such a dignity in some measure; and Elizabeth +added to this an exceptional majesty of her own. Henry would not have +been ashamed for this daughter of his. What wonder then that these crowds +were delirious with love and loyalty and an exultant fear, as this +overwhelming personality went by:--this pale-faced tranquil virgin Queen, +passionate, wanton, outspoken and absolutely fearless; with a sufficient +reserve of will to be fickle without weakness; and sufficient grasp of +her aims to be indifferent to her policy; untouched by vital religion; +financially shrewd; inordinately vain. And when this strange dominant +creature, royal by character as by birth, as strong as her father and as +wanton as her mother, sat in ermine and velvet and pearls in a royal +carriage, with shrewd-faced wits, and bright-eyed lovers, and solemn +statesmen, and great nobles, vacuous and gallant, glittering and jingling +before her; and troops of tall ladies in ruff and crimson mantle riding +on white horses behind; and when the fanfares went shattering down the +street, vibrating through the continuous roar of the crowd and the shrill +cries of children and the mellow thunder of church-bells rocking +overhead, and the endless tramp of a thousand feet below; and when the +whole was framed in this fantastic twisted street, blazing with +tapestries and arched with gables and banners, all bathed in glory by the +clear frosty sunshine--it is little wonder that for a few minutes at +least this country boy felt that here at last was the incarnation of his +dreams; and that his heart should exult, with an enthusiasm he could not +interpret, for the cause of a people who could produce such a queen, and +of a queen who could rule such a people; and that his imagination should +be fired with a sudden sense that these were causes for which the +sacrifice of a life would be counted cheap, if they might thereby be +furthered. + +Yet, in this very moment, by one of those mysterious suggestions that +rise from the depth of a soul, the image sprang into his mind, and poised +itself there for an instant, of the grey-haired man who had passed half +an hour ago, sobbing and shrinking at the cart's tail. + + + + + CHAPTER IV + + MARY CORBET + + +The spring that followed the visit to London passed uneventfully at Great +Keynes to all outward appearances; and yet for Isabel they were +significant months. In spite of herself and of the word of warning from +her father, her relations with Hubert continued to draw closer. For one +thing, he had been the first to awaken in her the consciousness that she +was lovable in herself, and the mirror that first tells that to a soul +always has something of the glow of the discovery resting upon it. + +Then again his deference and his chivalrous air had a strange charm. When +Isabel rode out alone with Anthony, she often had to catch the swinging +gate as he rode through after opening it, and do such little things for +herself; but when Hubert was with them there was nothing of that kind. + +And, once more, he appealed to her pity; and this was the most subtle +element of all. There was no doubt that Hubert's relations with his fiery +old father became strained sometimes, and it was extraordinarily sweet to +Isabel to be made a confidant. And yet Hubert never went beyond a certain +point; his wooing was very skilful: and he seemed to be conscious of her +uneasiness almost before she was conscious of it herself, and to relapse +in a moment into frank and brotherly relations again. + +He came in one night after supper, flushed and bright-eyed, and found her +alone in the hall: and broke out immediately, striding up and down as she +sat and watched him. + +"I cannot bear it; there is Mr. Bailey who has been with us all Lent; he +is always interfering in my affairs. And he has no charity. I know I am a +Catholic and that; but when he and my father talk against the +Protestants, Mistress Isabel, I cannot bear it. They were abusing the +Queen to-night--at least," he added, for he had no intention to +exaggerate, "they were saying she was a true daughter of her father; and +sneers of that kind. And I am an Englishman, and her subject; and I said +so; and Mr. Bailey snapped out, 'And you are also a Catholic, my son,' +and then--and then I lost my temper, and said that the Catholic religion +seemed no better than any other for the good it did people; and that the +Rector and Mr. Norris seemed to me as good men as any one; and of course +I meant him and he knew it; and then he told me, before the servants, +that I was speaking against the faith; and then I said I would sooner +speak against the faith than against good Christians; and then he flamed +up scarlet, and I saw I had touched him; and then my father got scarlet +too, and my mother looked at me, and my father told me to leave the table +for an insolent puppy; and I knocked over my chair and stamped out--and +oh! Mistress Isabel, I came straight here." + +And he flung down astride of a chair with his arms on the back, and +dropped his head on to them. + +It would have been difficult for Hubert, even if he had been very clever +indeed, to have made any speech which would have touched Isabel more than +this. There was the subtle suggestion that he had defended the +Protestants for her sake; and there was the open defence of her father, +and defiance of the priests whom she feared and distrusted; there was a +warm generosity and frankness running through it all; and lastly, there +was the sweet flattering implication that he had come to her to be +understood and quieted and comforted. + +Then, when she tried to show her disapproval of his quick temper, and had +succeeded in showing a poorly disguised sympathy instead, he had flung +away again, saying that she had brought him to his senses as usual, and +that he would ask the priest's pardon for his insolence at once; and +Isabel was left standing and looking at the fire, fearing that she was +being wooed, and yet not certain, though she loved it. And then, too, +there was the secret hope that it might be through her that he might +escape from his superstitions, and--and then--and she closed her eyes and +bit her lip for joy and terror. + +She did not know that a few weeks later Hubert had an interview with his +father, of which she was the occasion. Lady Maxwell had gone to her +husband after a good deal of thought and anxiety, and told him what she +feared; asking him to say a word to Hubert. Sir Nicholas had been +startled and furious. It was all the lad's conceit, he said; he had no +real heart at all; he only flattered his vanity in making love; he had no +love for his parents or his faith, and so on. She took his old hand in +her own and held it while she spoke. + +"Sweetheart," she said, "how old were you when you used to come riding to +Overfield? I forget." And there came peace into his angry, puzzled old +eyes, and a gleam of humour. + +"Mistress," he said, "you have not forgotten." For he had been just +eighteen, too. And he took her face in his hands delicately, and kissed +her on the lips. + +"Well, well," he said, "it is hard on the boy; but it must not go on. +Send him to me. Oh! I will be easy with him." + +But the interview was not as simple as he hoped; for Hubert was irritable +and shamefaced; and spoke lightly of the Religion again. + +"After all," he burst out, "there are plenty of good men who have left +the faith. It brings nothing but misery." + +Sir Nicholas' hands began to shake, and his fingers to clench themselves; +but he remembered the lad was in love. + +"My son," he said, "you do not know what you say." + +"I know well enough," said Hubert, with his foot tapping sharply. "I say +that the Catholic religion is a religion of misery and death everywhere. +Look at the Low Countries, sir." + +"I cannot speak of that," said his father; and his son sneered visibly; +"you and I are but laymen; but this I know, and have a right to say, that +to threaten me like that is the act of a--is not worthy of my son. My +dear boy," he said, coming nearer, "you are angry; and, God forgive me! +so am I; but I promised your mother," and again he broke off, "and we +cannot go on with this now. Come again this evening." + +Hubert stood turned away, with his head against the high oak mantelpiece; +and there was silence. + +"Father," he said at last, turning round, "I ask your pardon." + +Sir Nicholas stepped nearer, his eyes suddenly bright with tears, and his +mouth twitching, and held out his hand, which Hubert took. + +"And I was a coward to speak like that--but, but--I will try," went on +the boy. "And I promise to say nothing to her yet, at any rate. Will that +do? And I will go away for a while." + +The father threw his arms round him. + +As the summer drew on and began to fill the gardens and meadows with +wealth, the little Italian garden to the south-west of the Hall was +where my lady spent most of the day. Here she would cause chairs to be +brought out for Mistress Margaret and herself, and a small selection of +devotional books, an orange leather volume powdered all over with +pierced hearts, filled with extracts in a clear brown ink, another book +called _Le Chappellet de Jesus_, while from her girdle beside her +pocket-mirror there always hung an olive-coloured "Hours of the Blessed +Virgin," fastened by a long strip of leather prolonged from the binding. +Here the two old sisters would sit, in the shadow of the yew hedge, +taking it by turns to read and embroider, or talking a little now and +then in quiet voices, with long silences broken only by the hum of +insects in the hot air, or the quick flight of a bird in the tall trees +behind the hedge. + +Here too Isabel often came, also bringing her embroidery; and sat and +talked and watched the wrinkled tranquil faces of the two old ladies, and +envied their peace. Hubert had gone, as he had promised his father, on a +long visit, and was not expected home until at least the autumn. + +"James will be here to-morrow," said Lady Maxwell, suddenly, one hot +afternoon. Isabel looked up in surprise; he had not been at home for so +long; but the thought of his coming was very pleasant to her. + +"And Mary Corbet, too," went on the old lady, "will be here to-morrow or +the day after." + +Isabel asked who this was. + +"She is one of the Queen's ladies, my dear; and a great talker." + +"She is very amusing sometimes," said Mistress Margaret's clear little +voice. + +"And Mr. James will be here to-morrow?" said Isabel. + +"Yes, my child. They always suit one another; and we have known Mary for +years." + +"And is Miss Corbet a Catholic?" + +"Yes, my dear; her Grace seems to like them about her." + +When Isabel went up again to the Hall in the evening, a couple of days +later, she found Mr. James sitting with his mother and aunt in the same +part of the garden. Mr. James, who rose as she came through the yew +archway, and stood waiting to greet her, was a tall, pleasant, +brown-faced man. Isabel noticed as she came up his strong friendly face, +that had something of Hubert's look in it, and felt an immediate sense of +relief from her timidity at meeting this man, whose name, it was said, +was beginning to be known among the poets, and about whom the still more +formidable fact was being repeated, that he was a rising man at Court and +had attracted the Queen's favour. + +As they sat down again together, she noticed, too, his strong delicate +hand in its snowy ruff, for he was always perfectly dressed, as it lay on +his knee; and again thought of Hubert's browner and squarer hand. + +"We were talking, Mistress Isabel, about the play, and the new theatres. +I was at the Blackfriars' only last week. Ah! and I met Buxton there," he +went on, turning to his mother. + +"Dear Henry," said Lady Maxwell. "He told me when I last saw him that he +could never go to London again; his religion was too expensive, he said." + +Mr. James' white teeth glimmered in a smile. + +"He told me he was going to prison next time, instead of paying the fine. +It would be cheaper, he thought." + +"I hear her Grace loves the play," said Mistress Margaret. + +"Indeed she does. I saw her at Whitehall the other day, when the children +of the Chapel Royal were acting; she clapped and called out with delight. +But Mistress Corbet can tell you more than I can--Ah! here she is." + +Isabel looked up, and saw a wonderful figure coming briskly along the +terrace and down the steps that led from the house. Miss Corbet was +dressed with what she herself would have said was a milkmaid's plainness; +but Isabel looked in astonishment at the elaborate ruff and wings of +muslin and lace, the shining peacock gown, the high-piled coils of black +hair, and the twinkling buckled feet. She had a lively bright face, a +little pale, with a high forehead, and black arched brows and dancing +eyes, and a little scarlet mouth that twitched humorously now and then +after speaking. She rustled up, flicking her handkerchief, and exclaiming +against the heat. Isabel was presented to her; she sat down on a settle +Mr. James drew forward for her, with the handkerchief still whisking at +the flies. + +"I am ashamed to come out like this," she began. "Mistress Plesse would +break her heart at my lace. You country ladies have far more sense. I am +the slave of my habits. What were you talking of, that you look so +gravely at me?" + +Mr. James told her. + +"Oh, her Grace!" said Miss Corbet. "Indeed, I think sometimes she is +never off the stage herself. Ah! and what art and passion she shows too!" + +"We are all loyal subjects here," said Mr. James; "tell us what you +mean." + +"I mean what I say," she said. "Never was there one who loved play-acting +more and to occupy the centre of the stage, too. And the throne too, if +there be one," she added. + +Miss Corbet talked always at her audience; she hardly ever looked +directly at any one, but up or down, or even shut her eyes and tilted her +face forward while she talked; and all the while she kept an incessant +movement of her lips or handkerchief, or tapped her foot, or shifted her +position a little. Isabel thought she had never seen any one so restless. + +Then she went on to tell them of the Queen. She was so startlingly frank +that Lady Maxwell again and again looked up as if to interrupt; but she +always came off the thin ice in time. It was abominable gossip; but she +talked with such a genial air of loyal good humour, that it was very +difficult to find fault. Miss Corbet was plainly accustomed to act as +Court Circular, or even as lecturer and show-woman on the most popular +subject in England. + +"But her Grace surpassed herself in acting the tyrant last January; you +would have sworn her really angry. This was how it fell out. I was in the +anteroom one day, waiting for her Grace, when I thought I heard her call. +So I tapped; I got no clear answer, but I heard her voice within, so I +entered. And there was her Majesty, sitting a little apart in a chair by +herself, with the Secretary--poor rat--white-faced at the table, writing +what she bade him, and looking at her, quick and side-ways, like a child +at a lifted rod; and there was her Grace: she had kicked her stool over, +and one shoe had fallen; and she was striking the arm of her chair as she +spoke, and her rings rapped as loud as a drunken watchman. And her face +was all white, and her eyes glaring"--and Mary began to glare and raise +her voice too--"and she was crying out, 'By God's Son, sir, I will have +them hanged. Tell the----' (but I dare not say what she called my Lord +Sussex, but few would have recognised him from what she said)--'tell him +that I will have my will done. These--' (and she called the rebels a name +I dare not tell you)--'these men have risen against me these two months; +and yet they are not hanged. Hang them in their own villages, that their +children may see what treason brings.' All this while I was standing at +the open door, thinking she had called me; but she was as if she saw +nought but the gallows and hell-fire beyond; and I spoke softly to her, +asking what she wished; and she sprang up and ran at me, and struck +me--yes; again and again across the face with her open hand, rings and +all--and I ran out in tears. Yes," went on Miss Corbet in a moment, +dropping her voice, and pensively looking up at nothing, "yes; you would +have said she was really angry, so quick and natural were her movements +and so loud her voice." + +Mr. James' face wrinkled up silently in amusement; and Lady Maxwell +seemed on the point of speaking; but Miss Corbet began again: + +"And to see her Grace act the lover. It was a miracle. You would have +said that our Artemis repented of her coldness; if you had not known it +was but play-acting; or let us say perhaps a rehearsal--if you had seen +what I once saw at Nonsuch. It was on a summer evening; and we were all +on the bowling green, and her Grace was within doors, not to be +disturbed. My Lord Leicester was to come, but we thought had not arrived. +Then I had occasion to go to my room to get a little book I had promised +to show to Caroline; and, thinking no harm, I ran through into the court, +and there stood a horse, his legs apart, all steaming and blowing. Some +courier, said I to myself, and never thought to look at the trappings; +and so I ran upstairs to go to the gallery, across which lay my chamber; +and I came up, and just began to push open the door, when I heard her +Grace's voice beyond, and, by the mercy of God, I stopped; and dared not +close the door again nor go downstairs for fear I should be heard. And +there were two walking within the gallery, her Grace and my lord, and my +lord was all disordered with hard riding, and nearly as spent as his poor +beast below. And her Grace had her arm round his neck, for I saw them +through the chink; and she fondled and pinched his ear, and said over and +over again, 'Robin, my sweet Robin,' and then crooned and moaned at him; +and he, whenever he could fetch a breath--and oh! I promise you he did +blow--murmured back, calling her his queen, which indeed she was, and his +sweetheart and his moon and his star--which she was not: but 'twas all in +the play. Well, again by the favour of God, they did not see how the door +was open and I couched behind it, for the sun was shining level through +the west window in their eyes; but why they did not hear me as I ran +upstairs and opened the door, He only knows--unless my lord was too +sorely out of breath and her Grace too intent upon her play-acting. Well, +I promise you, the acting was so good--he so spent and she so +tender--that I nearly cried out Brava as I saw them; but that I +remembered in time 'twas meant to be a private rehearsal. But I have seen +her Grace act near as passionate a part before the whole company +sometimes." + +The two old ladies seemed not greatly pleased with all this talk; and as +for Isabel she sat silent and overwhelmed. Mary Corbet glanced quickly at +their faces when she had done, and turned a little in her seat. + +"Ah! look at that peacock," she cried out, as a stately bird stepped +delicately out of the shrubbery on to the low wall a little way off, and +stood balancing himself. "He is loyal too, and has come to hear news of +his Queen." + +"He has come to see his cousin from town," said Mr. James, looking at +Miss Corbet's glowing dress, "and to learn of the London fashions." + +Mary got up and curtseyed to the astonished bird, who looked at her with +his head lowered, as he took a high step or two, and then paused again, +with his burnished breast swaying a little from side to side. + +"He invites you to a dance," went on Mr. James gravely, "a pavane." + +Miss Corbet sat down again. + +"I dare not dance a pavane," she said, "with a real peacock." + +"Surely," said Mr. James, with a courtier's air, "you are too pitiful for +him, and too pitiless for us." + +"I dare not," she said again, "for he never ceases to practise." + +"In hopes," said Mr. James, "that one day you will dance it with him." + +And then the two went off into the splendid fantastic nonsense that the +wits loved to talk; that grotesque, exaggerated phrasing made fashionable +by Lyly. It was like a kind of impromptu sword-exercise in an assault of +arms, where the rhythm and the flash and the graceful turns are of more +importance than the actual thrusts received. The two old ladies +embroidered on in silence, but their eyes twinkled, and little wrinkles +flickered about the corners of their lips. But poor Isabel sat +bewildered. It was so elaborate, so empty; she had almost said, so wicked +to take the solemn gift of speech and make it dance this wild fandango; +and as absurdity climbed and capered in a shower of sparks and gleams on +the shoulders of absurdity, and was itself surmounted; and the names of +heathen gods and nymphs and demi-gods and loose-living classical women +whisked across the stage, and were tossed higher and higher, until the +whole mad erection blazed up and went out in a shower of stars and gems +of allusions and phrases, like a flight of rockets, bright and +bewildering at the moment, but leaving a barren darkness and dazzled eyes +behind--the poor little Puritan country child almost cried with +perplexity and annoyance. If the two talkers had looked at one another +and burst into laughter at the end, she would have understood it to be a +joke, though, to her mind, but a poor one. But when they had ended, and +Mary Corbet had risen and then swept down to the ground in a great silent +curtsey, and Mr. James, the grave, sensible gentleman, had solemnly bowed +with his hand on his heart, and his heels together like a Monsieur, and +then she had rustled off in her peacock dress to the house, with her +muslin wings bulging behind her; and no one had laughed or reproved or +explained; it was almost too much, and she looked across to Lady Maxwell +with an appeal in her eyes. + +Mr. James saw it and his face relaxed. + +"You must not take us too seriously, Mistress Isabel," he said in his +kindly way. "It is all part of the game." + +"The game?" she said piteously. + +"Yes," said Mistress Margaret, intent on her embroidery, "the game of +playing at kings and queens and courtiers and ruffs and high-stepping." + +Mr. James' face again broke into his silent laugh. + +"You are acid, dear aunt," he said. + +"But----" began Isabel again. + +"But it is wrong, you think," he interrupted, "to talk such nonsense. +Well, Mistress Isabel, I am not sure you are not right." And the dancing +light in his eyes went out. + +"No, no, no," she cried, distressed. "I did not mean that. Only I did not +understand." + +"I know, I know; and please God you never will." And he looked at her +with such a tender gravity that her eyes fell. + +"Isabel is right," went on Mistress Margaret, in her singularly sweet old +voice; "and you know it, my nephew. It is very well as a pastime, but +some folks make it their business; and that is nothing less than fooling +with the gifts of the good God." + +"Well, aunt Margaret," said James softly, "I shall not have much more of +it. You need not fear for me." + +Lady Maxwell looked quickly at her son for a moment, and down again. He +made an almost imperceptible movement with his head, Mistress Margaret +looked across at him with her tender eyes beaming love and sorrow; and +there fell a little eloquent silence; while Isabel glanced shyly from one +to the other, and wondered what it was all about. + +Miss Mary Corbet stayed a few weeks, as the custom was when travelling +meant so much; but Isabel was scarcely nearer understanding her. She +accepted her, as simple clean souls so often have to accept riddles in +this world, as a mystery that no doubt had a significance, though she +could not recognise it. So she did not exactly dislike or distrust her, +but regarded her silently out of her own candid soul, as one would say a +small fearless bird in a nest must regard the man who thrusts his strange +hot face into her green pleasant world, and tries to make endearing +sounds. For Isabel was very fascinating to Mary Corbet. She had scarcely +ever before been thrown so close to any one so serenely pure. She would +come down to the Dower House again and again at all hours of the day, +rustling along in her silk, and seize upon Isabel in the little upstairs +parlour, or her bedroom, and question her minutely about her ways and +ideas; and she would look at her silently for a minute or two together; +and then suddenly laugh and kiss her--Isabel's transparency was almost as +great a riddle to her as her own obscurity to Isabel. And sometimes she +would throw herself on Isabel's bed, and lie there with her arms behind +her head, to the deplorable ruin of her ruff; with her buckled feet +twitching and tapping; and go on and on talking like a running stream in +the sun that runs for the sheer glitter and tinkle of it, and +accomplishes nothing. But she was more respectful to Isabel's simplicity +than at first, and avoided dangerous edges and treacherous ground in a +manner that surprised herself, telling her of the pageants at Court and +fair exterior of it all, and little about the poisonous conversations and +jests and the corrupt souls that engaged in them. + +She was immensely interested in Isabel's religion. + +"Tell me, child," she said one day, "I cannot understand such a religion. +It is not like the Protestant religion at Court at all. All that the +Protestants do there is to hear sermons--it is all so dismal and noisy. +But here, with you, you have a proper soul. It seems to me that you are +like a little herb-garden, very prim and plain, but living and wholesome +and pleasant to walk in at sunset. And these Protestants that I know are +more like a paved court at noon--all hot and hard and glaring. They give +me the headache. Tell me all about it." + +Of course Isabel could not, though she tried again and again. Her +definitions were as barren as any others. + +"I see," said Mary Corbet one day, sitting up straight and looking at +Isabel. "It is not your religion but you; your religion is as dull as all +the rest. But your soul is sweet, my dear, and the wilderness blossoms +where you set your feet. There is nothing to blush about. It's no credit +to you, but to God." + +Isabel hated this sort of thing. It seemed to her as if her soul was +being dragged out of a cool thicket from the green shadow and the +flowers, and set, stripped, in the high road. + +Another time Miss Corbet spoke yet more plainly. + +"You are a Catholic at heart, my dear; or you would be if you knew what +the Religion was. But your father, good man, has never understood it +himself; and so you don't know it either. What you think about us, my +dear, is as much like the truth as--as--I am like a saint, or you like a +sinner. I'll be bound now that you think us all idolaters!" + +Isabel had to confess that she did think something of the sort. + +"There, now, what did I say? Why haven't either of those two old nuns at +the Hall taught you any better?" + +"They--they don't talk to me about religion." + +"Ah! I see; or the Puritan father would withdraw his lamb from the +wolves. But if they are wolves, my dear, you must confess that they have +the decency to wear sheep's clothing, and that the disguise is +excellent." + +And so it gradually came about that Isabel began to learn an immense deal +about what the Catholics really believed--far more than she had ever +learnt in all her life before from the ladies at the Hall, who were +unwilling to teach her, and her father, who was unable. + +About half-way through Miss Corbet's visit, Anthony came home. At first +he pronounced against her inexorably, dismissing her as nonsense, and as +a fine lady--terms to him interchangeable. Then his condemnation began to +falter, then ceased; then acquittal, and at last commendation succeeded. +For Miss Corbet asked his advice about the dogs, and how to get that +wonderful gloss on their coats that his had; and she asked his help, too, +once or twice and praised his skill, and once asked to feel his muscle. + +And then she was so gallant in ways that appealed to him. She was not in +the least afraid of Eliza. She kissed that ferocious head in spite of the +glare of that steady yellow eye; and yet all with an air of trusting to +Anthony's protection. She tore her silk stocking across the instep in a +bramble and scratched her foot, without even drawing attention to it, as +she followed him along one of his short cuts through the copse; and it +was only by chance that he saw it. And then this gallant girl, so simple +and ignorant as she seemed out of doors, was like a splendid queen +indoors, and was able to hold her own, or rather to soar above all these +elders who were so apt to look over Anthony's head on grave occasions; +and they all had to listen while she talked. In fact, the first time he +saw her at the Hall in all her splendour, he could hardly realise it was +the same girl, till she laughed up at him, and nodded, and said how much +she had enjoyed the afternoon's stroll, and how much she would have to +tell when she got back to Court. In short, so incessant were her poses +and so skilful her manner and tone, and so foolish this poor boy, that in +a very few days, after he had pronounced her to be nonsense, Anthony was +at her feet, hopelessly fascinated by the combination of the glitter and +friendliness of this fine Court lady. To do her justice, she would have +behaved exactly the same to a statue, or even to nothing at all, as a +peacock dances and postures and vibrates his plumes to a kitten; and had +no more deliberate intention of giving pain to anybody than a nightshade +has of poisoning a silly sheep. + +The sublime conceit of a boy of fifteen made him of course think that she +had detected in him a nobility that others overlooked, and so Anthony +began a gorgeous course of day-dreaming, in which he moved as a kind of +king, worshipped and reverenced by this splendid creature, who after a +disillusionment from the empty vanities of a Court life and a Queen's +favour, found at last the lord of her heart in a simple manly young +countryman. These dreams, however, he had the grace and modesty to keep +wholly to himself. + +Mary came down one day and found the two in the garden together. + +"Come, my child," she said, "and you too, Master Anthony, if you can +spare time to escort us; and take me to the church. I want to see it." + +"The church!" said Isabel, "that is locked: we must go to the Rectory." + +"Locked!" exclaimed Mary, "and is that part of the blessed Reformation? +Well, come, at any rate." + +They all went across to the village and down the green towards the +Rectory, whose garden adjoined the churchyard on the south side of the +church. Anthony walked with something of an air in front of the two +ladies. Isabel told her as they went about the Rector and his views. Mary +nodded and smiled and seemed to understand. + +"We will tap at the window," said Anthony, "it is the quickest way." + +They came up towards the study window that looked on to the drive; when +Anthony, who was in front, suddenly recoiled and then laughed. + +"They are at it again," he said. + +The next moment Mary was looking through the window too. The Rector was +sitting in his chair opposite, a small dark, clean-shaven man, but his +face was set with a look of distressed determination, and his lower lip +was sucked in; his eyes were fixed firmly on a tall, slender woman whose +back was turned to the window and who seemed to be declaiming, with +outstretched hand. The Rector suddenly saw the faces at the window. + +"We seem to be interrupting," said Mary coolly, as she turned away. + + + + + CHAPTER V + + A RIDER FROM LONDON + + +"We will walk on, Master Anthony," said Mistress Corbet. "Will you bring +the keys when the Rector and his lady have done?" + +She spoke with a vehement bitterness that made Isabel look at her in +amazement, as the two walked on by the private path to the churchyard +gate. Mary's face was set in a kind of fury, and she went forward with +her chin thrust disdainfully out, biting her lip. Isabel said nothing. + +As they reached the gate they heard steps behind them; and turning saw +the minister and Anthony hastening together. Mr. Dent was in his cassock +and gown and square cap, and carried the keys. His little scholarly face, +with a sharp curved nose like a beak, and dark eyes set rather too close +together, was not unlike a bird's; and a way he had of sudden sharp +movements of his head increased the likeness. Mary looked at him with +scarcely veiled contempt. He glanced at her sharply and uneasily. + +"Mistress Mary Corbet?" he said, interrogatively. + +Mary bowed to him. + +"May we see the church, sir; your church, I should say perhaps; that is, +if we are not disturbing you." + +Mr. Dent made a polite inclination, and opened the gate for them to go +through. Then Mary changed her tactics; and a genial, good-humoured look +came over her face; but Isabel, who glanced at her now and again as they +went round to the porch at the west-end, still felt uneasy. + +As the Rector was unlocking the porch door, Mary surveyed him with a +pleased smile. + +"Why, you look quite like a priest," she said. "Do your bishops, or +whatever you call them, allow that dress? I thought you had done away +with it all." + +Mr. Dent looked at her, but seeing nothing but geniality and interest in +her face, explained elaborately in the porch that he was a Catholic +priest, practically; though the word minister was more commonly used; and +that it was the old Church still, only cleansed from superstitions. Mary +shook her head at him cheerfully, smiling like a happy, puzzled child. + +"It is all too difficult for me," she said. "It cannot be the same +Church, or why should we poor Catholics be so much abused and persecuted? +Besides, what of the Pope?" + +Mr. Dent explained that the Pope was one of the superstitions in +question. + +"Ah! I see you are too sharp for me," said Mary, beaming at him. + +Then they entered the church; and Mary began immediately on a running +comment. + +"How sad that little niche looks," she said. "I suppose Our Lady is in +pieces somewhere on a dunghill. Surely, father--I beg your pardon, Mr. +Dent--it cannot be the same religion if you have knocked Our Lady to +pieces. But then I suppose you would say that she was a superstition, +too. And where is the old altar? Is that broken, too? And is that a +superstition, too? What a number there must have been! And the holy +water, too, I see. But that looks a very nice table up there you have +instead. Ah! And I see you read the new prayers from a new desk outside +the screen, and not from the priest's stall. Was that a superstition too? +And the mass vestments? Has your wife had any of them made up to be +useful? The stoles are no good, I fear; but you could make charming +stomachers out of the chasubles." + +They were walking slowly up the centre aisle now. Mr. Dent had to explain +that the vestments had been burnt on the green. + +"Ah! yes; I see," she said, "and do you wear a surplice, or do you not +like them? I see the chancel roof is all broken--were there angels there +once? I suppose so. But how strange to break them all! Unless they are +superstitions, too? I thought Protestants believed in them; but I see I +was wrong. What _do_ you believe in, Mr. Dent?" she asked, turning large, +bright, perplexed eyes upon him for a moment: but she gave him no time +to answer. + +"Ah!" she cried suddenly, and her voice rang with pain, "there is the +altar-stone." And she went down on her knees at the chancel entrance, +bending down, it seemed, in an agony of devout sorrow and shame; and +kissed with a gentle, lingering reverence the great slab with its five +crosses, set in the ground at the destruction of the altar to show there +was no sanctity attached to it. + +She knelt there a moment or two, her lips moving, and her black eyes cast +up at the great east window, cracked and flawed with stones and poles. +The Puritan boy and girl looked at her with astonishment; they had not +seen this side of her before. + +When she rose from her knees, her eyes seemed bright with tears, and her +voice was tender. + +"Forgive me, Mr. Dent," she said, with a kind of pathetic dignity, +putting out a slender be-ringed hand to him, "but--but you know--for I +think perhaps you have some sympathy for us poor Catholics--you know what +all this means to me." + +She went up into the chancel and looked about her in silence. + +"This was the piscina, Mistress Corbet," said the Rector. + +She nodded her head regretfully, as at some relic of a dead friend; but +said nothing. They came out again presently, and turned through the old +iron gates into what had been the Maxwell chapel. The centre was occupied +by an altar-tomb with Sir Nicholas' parents lying in black stone upon it. +Old Sir James held his right gauntlet in his left hand, and with his +right hand held the right hand of his wife, which was crossed over to +meet it; and the two steady faces gazed upon the disfigured roof. The +altar, where a weekly requiem had been said for them, was gone, and the +footpace and piscina alone showed where it had stood. + +"This was a chantry, of course?" said Mistress Corbet. + +The Rector confessed that it had been so. + +"Ah!" she said mournfully, "the altar is cast out and the priest gone; +but--but--forgive me, sir, the money is here still? But then," she added, +"I suppose the money is not a superstition." + +When they reached the west entrance again she turned and looked up the +aisle again. + +"And the Rood!" she said. "Even Christ crucified is gone. Then, in God's +name what is left?" And her eyes turned fiercely for a moment on the +Rector. + +"At least courtesy and Christian kindness is left, madam," he said +sternly. + +She dropped her eyes and went out; and Isabel and Anthony followed, +startled and ashamed. But Mary had recovered herself as she came on to +the head of the stone stairs, beside which the stump of the churchyard +cross stood; standing there was the same tall, slender woman whose back +they had seen through the window, and who now stood eyeing Mary with +half-dropped lids. Her face was very white, with hard lines from nose to +mouth, and thin, tightly compressed lips. Mary swept her with one look, +and then passed on and down the steps, followed by Isabel and Anthony, as +the Rector came out, locking the church door again behind him. + +As they went up the green, a shrill thin voice began to scold from over +the churchyard wall, and they heard the lower, determined voice of the +minister answering. + +"They are at it again," said Anthony, once more. + +"And what do you mean by that, Master Anthony?" said Mistress Corbet, who +seemed herself again now. + +"She is just a scold," said the lad, "the village-folk hate her." + +"You seem not to love her," said Mary, smiling. + +"Oh! Mistress Corbet, do you know what she said--" and then he broke off, +crimson-faced. + +"She is no friend to Catholics, I suppose," said Mary, seeming to notice +nothing. + +"She is always making mischief," he went on eagerly. "The Rector would be +well enough but for her. He is a good fellow, really." + +"There, there," said Mary, "and you think me a scold, too, I daresay. +Well, you know I cannot bear to see these old churches--well, perhaps I +was--" and then she broke off again, and was silent. + +The brother and sister presently turned back to the Dower House; and Mary +went on, and through the Hall straight into the Italian garden where +Mistress Margaret was sitting alone at her embroidery. + +"My sister has been called away by the housekeeper," she explained, "but +she will be back presently." + +Mary sat down and took up the little tawny book that lay by Lady +Maxwell's chair, and began to turn it over idly while she talked. The old +lady by her seemed to invite confidences. + +"I have been to see the church," said Mary. "The Rector showed it to me. +What a beautiful place it must have been." + +"Ah!" said Mistress Margaret "I only came to live here a few years ago; +so I have never known or loved it like my sister or her husband. They can +hardly bear to enter it now. You know that Sir Nicholas' father and +grandfather are buried in the Maxwell chapel; and it was his father who +gave the furniture of the sanctuary, and the images of Our Lady and Saint +Christopher that they burned on the green." + +"It is terrible," said Mary, a little absently, as she turned the pages +of the book. + +Mistress Margaret looked up. + +"Ah! you have one of my books there," she said. "It is a little +collection I made." + +Miss Corbet turned to the beginning, but only found a seal with an +inscription. + +"But this belonged to a nunnery," she said. + +"Yes," said Mistress Margaret, tranquilly, "and I am a nun." + +Mary looked at her in astonishment. + +"But, but," she began. + +"Yes, Mistress Corbet; we were dispersed in '38; some entered the other +nunneries; and some went to France; but, at last, under circumstances +that I need not trouble you with, I came here under spiritual direction, +and have observed my obligations ever since." + +"And have you always said your offices?" Mary asked astonished. + +"Yes, my dear; by the mercy of God I have never failed yet. I tell you +this of course because you are one of us, and because you have a faithful +heart." Mistress Margaret lifted her great eyes and looked at Mary +tenderly and penetratingly. + +"And this is one of your books?" she asked. + +"Yes, my dear. I was allowed at least to take it away with me. My sister +here is very fond of it." + +Mary opened it again, and began to turn the pages. + +"Is it all in your handwriting, Mistress Torridon?" + +"Yes, my child; I continued writing in it ever since I first entered +religion in 1534; so you see the handwriting changes a little," and she +smiled to herself. + +"Oh, but this is charming," cried Mary, intent on the book. + +"Read it, my dear, aloud." + +Mary read: + + "Let me not rest, O Lord, nor have quiet, + But fill my soul with spiritual travail, + To sing and say, O mercy, Jesu sweet; + Thou my protection art in the battail. + Set thou aside all other apparail; + Let me in thee feel all my affiance. + Treasure of treasures, thou dost most avail. + Grant ere I die shrift, pardon, repentance." + +Her voice trembled a little and ceased. + +"That is from some verses of Dan John Lydgate, I think," said Mistress +Margaret. + +"Here is another," said Mary in a moment or two. + + "Jesu, at thy will, I pray that I may be, + All my heart fulfil with perfect love to thee: + That I have done ill, Jesu forgive thou me: + And suffer me never to spill, Jesu for thy pity." + +"The nuns of Hampole gave me that," said Mistress Margaret. "It is by +Richard Rolle, the hermit." + +"Tell me a little," said Mary Corbet, suddenly laying down the book, +"about the nunnery." + +"Oh, my dear, that is too much to ask; but how happy we were. All was so +still; it used to seem sometimes as if earth were just a dream; and that +we walked in Paradise. Sometimes in the Greater Silence, when we had +spoken no word nor heard one except in God's praise, it used to seem that +if we could but be silent a little longer, and a little more deeply, in +our hearts as well, we should hear them talking in heaven, and the harps; +and the Saviour's soft footsteps. But it was not always like that." + +"You mean," said Mary softly, "that, that--" and she stopped. + +"Oh, it was hard sometimes; but not often. God is so good. But He used +to allow such trouble and darkness and noise to be in our hearts +sometimes--at least in mine. But then of course I was always very wicked. +But sitting in the nymph-hay sometimes on a day like this, as we were +allowed to do; with just tall thin trees like poplars and cypresses round +us: and the stream running through the long grass; and the birds, and the +soft sky and the little breeze; and then peace in our hearts; and the +love of the Saviour round us--it seemed, it seemed as if God had nothing +more to give; or, I should say, as if our hearts had no more space." + +Mary was strangely subdued and quiet. Her little restless movements were +still for once; and her quick, vivacious face was tranquil and a little +awed. + +"Oh, Mistress Margaret, I love to hear you talk like that. Tell me more." + +"Well, my dear, we thought too much about ourselves, I think; and too +little about God and His poor children who were not so happy as we were; +so then the troubles began; and they got nearer and nearer; and at last +the Visitor came. He--he was my brother, my dear, which made it harder; +but he made a good end. I will tell you his story another time. He took +away our great crucifix and our jewelled cope that old Mr. Wickham used +to wear on the Great Festivals; and left us. He turned me out, too; and +another who asked to go, but I went back for a while. And then, my dear, +although we offered everything; our cows and our orchard and our hens, +and all we had, you know how it ended; and one morning in May old Mr. +Wickham said mass for us quite early, before the sun was risen, for the +last time; and,--and he cried, my dear, at the elevation; and--and we +were all crying too I think, and we all received communion together for +the last time--and,--and, then we all went away, leaving just old Dame +Agnes to keep the house until the Commissioner came. And oh, my dear, I +don't think the house ever looked so dear as it did that morning, just as +the sun rose over the roofs, and we were passing out through the meadow +door where we had sat so often, to where the horses were waiting to take +us away." + +Miss Corbet's own eyes were full of tears as the old lady finished: and +she put out her white slender hand, which Mistress Torridon took and +stroked for a moment. + +"Well," she said, "I haven't talked like this for a long while; but I +knew you would understand. My dear, I have watched you while you have +been here this time." + +Mary Corbet smiled a little uneasily. + +"And you have found me out?" she answered smiling. + +"No, no; but I think our Saviour has found you out--or at least He is +drawing very near." + +A slight discomfort made itself felt in Mary's heart. This nun then was +like all the rest, always trying to turn the whole world into monks and +nuns by hints and pretended intuitions into the unseen. + +"And you think I should be a nun too?" she asked, with just a shade of +coolness in her tone. + +"I should suppose not," said Mistress Margaret, tranquilly. "You do not +seem to have a vocation for that, but I should think that our Lord means +you to serve Him where you are. Who knows what you may not accomplish?" + +This was a little disconcerting to Mary Corbet; it was not at all what +she had expected. She did not know what to say; and took up the leather +book again and began to turn over the pages. Mistress Margaret went on +serenely with her embroidery, which she had neglected during the last +sentence or two; and there was silence. + +"Tell me a little more about the nunnery," said Mary in a minute or two, +leaning back in her chair, with the book on her knees. + +"Well, my dear, I scarcely know what to say. It is all far off now like a +childhood. We talked very little; not at all until recreation; except by +signs, and we used to spend a good deal of our time in embroidery. That +is where I learnt this," and she held out her work to Mary for a moment. +It was an exquisite piece of needlework, representing a stag running +open-mouthed through thickets of green twining branches that wrapped +themselves about his horns and feet. Mary had never seen anything quite +like it before. + +"What does it mean?" she asked, looking at it curiously. + +"_Quemadmodum cervus_,"--began Mistress Margaret; "as the hart brayeth +after the waterbrooks,"--and she took the embroidery and began to go on +with it.--"It is the soul, you see, desiring and fleeing to God, while +the things of the world hold her back. Well, you see, it is difficult to +talk about it; for it is the inner life that is the real history of a +convent; the outer things are all plain and simple like all else." + +"Well," said Mary, "is it really true that you were happy?" + +The old lady stopped working a moment and looked up at her. + +"My dear, there is no happiness in the world like it," she said simply. +"I dream sometimes that we are all back there together, and I wake crying +for joy. The other night I dreamed that we were all in the chapel again, +and that it was a spring morning, with the dawn beginning to show the +painted windows, and that all the tapers were burning; and that mass was +beginning. Not one stall was empty; not even old Dame Gertrude, who died +when I was a novice, was lacking, and Mr. Wickham made us a sermon after +the creed, and showed us the crucifix back in its place again; and told +us that we were all good children, and that Our Lord had only sent us +away to see if we would be patient; and that He was now pleased with us, +and had let us come home again; and that we should never have to go away +again; not even when we died; and then I understood that we were in +heaven, and that it was all over; and I burst out into tears in my stall +for happiness; and then I awoke and found myself in bed; but my cheeks +were really wet.--Well, well, perhaps, by the mercy of God it may all +come true some day." + +She spoke so simply that Mary Corbet was amazed; she had always fancied +that the Religious Life was a bitter struggle, worth, indeed, living for +those who could bear it, for the sake of the eternal reward; but it had +scarcely even occurred to her that it was so full of joy in itself; and +she looked up under her brows at the old lady, whose needle had stopped +for a moment. + +A moment after and Lady Maxwell appeared coming down the steps into the +garden; and at her side Anthony, who was dressed ready for riding. + +Old Mistress Margaret had, as she said, been watching Mary Corbet those +last few weeks; and had determined to speak to her plainly. Her instinct +had told her that beneath this flippancy and glitter there was something +that would respond; and she was anxious to leave nothing undone by which +Mary might be awakened to the inner world that was in such danger of +extinction in her soul. It cost the old lady a great effort to break +through her ordinary reserve, but she judged that Mary could only be +reached on her human side, and that there were not many of her friends +whose human sympathy would draw her in the right direction. It is +strange, sometimes, to find that some silent old lady has a power for +sounding human character, which far shrewder persons lack; and this quiet +old nun, so ignorant, one would have said, of the world and of the +motives from which ordinary people act, had managed somehow to touch +springs in this girl's heart that had never been reached before. + +And now as Miss Corbet and Lady Maxwell talked, and Anthony lolled +embarrassed beside them, attempting now and then to join in the +conversation, Mistress Margaret, as she sat a little apart and worked +away at the panting stag dreamed away, smiling quietly to herself, of all +the old scenes that her own conversation had called up into clearer +consciousness; of the pleasant little meadow of the Sussex priory, with +the old apple-trees and the straight box-lined path called the nun's walk +from time immemorial; all lighted with the pleasant afternoon glow, as it +streamed from the west, throwing the slender poplar shadows across the +grass; and of the quiet chatter of the brook as it over-flowed from the +fish ponds at the end of the field and ran through the meadows beyond the +hedge. The cooing of the pigeons as they sunned themselves round the dial +in the centre of this Italian garden and on the roof of the hall helped +on her reminiscences, for there had been a dovecote at the priory. Where +were all her sisters now, those who had sat with her in the same sombre +habits in the garth, with the same sunshine in their hearts? Some she +knew, and thanked God for it, were safe in glory; others were old like +her, but still safe in Holy Religion in France where as yet there was +peace and sanctuary for the servants of the Most High; one or two--and +for these she lifted up her heart in petition as she sat--one or two had +gone back to the world, relinquished everything, and died to grace. Then +the old faces one by one passed before her; old Dame Agnes with her +mumbling lips and her rosy cheeks like wrinkled apples, looking so fresh +and wholesome in the white linen about her face; and then the others one +by one--that white-faced, large-eyed sister who had shown such passionate +devotion at first that they all thought that God was going to raise up a +saint amongst them--ah! God help her--she had sunk back at the +dissolution, from those heights of sanctity towards whose summits she had +set her face, down into the muddy torrent of the world that went roaring +down to the abyss--and who was responsible? There was Dame Avice, the +Sacristan, with her businesslike movements going about the garden, +gathering flowers for the altar, with her queer pursed lips as she +arranged them in her hands with her head a little on one side; how +annoying she used to be sometimes; but how good and tender at heart--God +rest her soul! And there was Mr. Wickham, the old priest who had been +their chaplain for so many years, and who lived in the village parsonage, +waited upon by Tom Downe, that served at the altar too--he who had got +the horses ready when the nuns had to go at last on that far-off May +morning, and had stood there, holding the bridles and trying to hide his +wet face behind the horses; where was Tom now? And Mr. Wickham too--he +had gone to France with some of the nuns; but he had never settled down +there--he couldn't bear the French ways--and besides he had left his +heart behind him buried in the little Sussex priory among the meadows. + +And so the old lady sat, musing; while the light and shadow of +reminiscence moved across her face; and her lips quivered or her eyes +wrinkled up with humour, at the thought of all those old folks with their +faces and their movements and their ways of doing and speaking. Ah! well, +please God, some day her dream would really come true; and they shall all +be gathered again from France and England with their broken hearts mended +and their tears wiped away, and Mr. Wickham himself shall minister to +them and make them sermons, and Tom Downe too shall be there to minister +to him--all in one of the many mansions of which the Saviour spoke. + +And so she heard nothing of the talk of the others; though her sister +looked at her tenderly once or twice; and Mary Corbet chattered and +twitched her buckles in the sun, and Anthony sat embarrassed in the midst +of Paradise; and she knew nothing of where she was nor of what was +happening round her, until Mary Corbet said that it was time for the +horses to be round, and that she must go and get ready and not keep Mr. +James and Mr. Anthony waiting. Then, as she and Anthony went towards the +house, the old lady looked up from the braying stag and found herself +alone with her sister. + +Mistress Margaret waited until the other two disappeared up the steps, +and then spoke. + +"I have told her all, sister," she said, "she can be trusted." + +Lady Maxwell nodded gently. + +"She has a good heart," went on the other, "and our Lord no doubt will +find some work for her to do at Court." + +There was silence again; broken by the gentle little sound of the silk +being drawn through the stuff. + +"You know best, Margaret," said Lady Maxwell. + +Even as she spoke there was the sound of a door thrown violently open and +old Sir Nicholas appeared on the top of the steps, hatless and plainly in +a state of great agitation; beside him stood a courier, covered with the +dust of the white roads, and his face crimson with hard riding. Sir +Nicholas stood there as if dazed, and Lady Maxwell sprang up quickly to +go to him. But a moment after there appeared behind him a little group, +his son James, Miss Corbet and a servant or two; while Anthony hung back; +and Mr. James came up quickly, and took his father by the arm; and +together the little company came down the steps into the still and sunny +garden. + +"What is it?" cried Lady Maxwell, trying to keep her voice under control; +while Mistress Margaret laid her work quietly down, and stood up too. + +"Tell my lady," said Sir Nicholas to the courier, who stood a little +apart. + +"If you please, my lady," he said, as if repeating a lesson, "a Bull of +the Holy Father has been found nailed to the door of the Bishop of +London's palace, deposing Elizabeth and releasing all her subjects from +their allegiance." + +Lady Maxwell went to her husband and took him by the arm gently. + +"What does it mean, sweetheart?" she asked. + +"It means that Catholics must choose between their sovereign and their +God." + +"God have mercy," said a servant behind. + + + + + CHAPTER VI + + MR. STEWART + + +Sir Nicholas' exclamatory sentence was no exaggeration. That terrible +choice of which he spoke, with his old eyes shining with the desire to +make it, did not indeed come so immediately as he anticipated; but it +came none the less. From every point of view the Bull was unfortunate, +though it may have been a necessity; for it marked the declaration of war +between England and the Catholic Church. A gentle appeal had been tried +before; Elizabeth, who, it must be remembered had been crowned during +mass with Catholic ceremonial, and had received the Blessed Sacrament, +had been entreated by the Pope as his "dear daughter in Christ" to return +to the Fold; and now there seemed to him no possibility left but this +ultimatum. + +It is indeed difficult to see what else, from his point of view, he could +have done. To continue to pretend that Elizabeth was his "dear daughter" +would have discredited his fatherly authority in the eyes of the whole +Christian world. He had patiently made an advance towards his wayward +child; and she had repudiated and scorned him. Nothing was left but to +recognise and treat her as an enemy of the Faith, an usurper of spiritual +prerogatives, and an apostate spoiler of churches; to do this might +certainly bring trouble upon others of his less distinguished but more +obedient children, who were in her power; but to pretend that the +suffering thus brought down upon Catholics was unnecessary, and that the +Pope alone was responsible for their persecution, is to be blind to the +fact that Elizabeth had already openly defied and repudiated his +authority, and had begun to do her utmost to coax and compel his children +to be disobedient to their father. + +The shock of the Bull to Elizabeth was considerable; she had not expected +this extreme measure; and it was commonly reported too that France and +Spain were likely now to unite on a religious basis against England; and +that at least one of these Powers had sanctioned the issue of the Bull. +This of course helped greatly to complicate further the already +complicated political position. Steps were taken immediately to +strengthen England's position against Scotland with whom it was now, more +than ever, to be feared that France would co-operate; and the Channel +Fleet was reinforced under Lord Clinton, and placed with respect to +France in what was almost a state of war, while it was already in an +informal state of war with Spain. There was fierce confusion in the Privy +Council. Elizabeth, who at once began to vacillate under the combined +threats of La Mothe, the French ambassador, and the arguments of the +friend of Catholics, Lord Arundel, was counter-threatened with ruin by +Lord Keeper Bacon unless she would throw in her lot finally with the +Protestants and continue her hostility and resistance to the Catholic +Scotch party. But in spite of Bacon Elizabeth's heart failed her, and if +it had not been for the rashness of Mary Stuart's friends, Lord +Southampton and the Bishop of Ross, the Queen might have been induced to +substitute conciliation for severity towards Mary and the Catholic party +generally. Southampton was arrested, and again there followed the further +encouragement of the Protestant camp by the rising fortunes of the +Huguenots and the temporary reverses to French Catholicism; so the +pendulum swung this way and that. Elizabeth's policy changed almost from +day to day. She was tormented with temporal fears of a continental +crusade against her, and by the spiritual terrors of the Pope's Bull; and +her unfathomable fickleness was the despair of her servants. + +Meanwhile in the religious world a furious paper war broke out; and +volleys from both sides followed the solemn roar and crash of _Regnans +in Excelsis_. + +But while the war of words went on, and the theological assaults and +charges were given and received, repulsed or avoided, something practical +must, it was felt, be done immediately; and search was made high and low +for other copies of the Bull. The lawyers in the previous year had fallen +under suspicion of religious unsoundness; judges could not be trusted to +convict Catholics accused of their religion; and counsel was unwilling to +prosecute them; therefore the first inquisition was made in the Inns of +Court; and almost immediately a copy of the Bull was found in the room of +a student in Lincoln's Inn, who upon the rack in the Tower confessed that +he had received it from one John Felton, a Catholic gentleman who lived +upon his property in Southwark. Upon Felton's arrest (for he had not +attempted to escape) he confessed immediately, without pressure, that he +had affixed the Bull to the Bishop of London's gate; but although he was +racked repeatedly he would not incriminate a single person besides +himself; but at his trial would only assert with a joyous confidence that +he was not alone; and that twenty-five peers, six hundred gentlemen, and +thirty thousand commoners were ready to die in the Holy Father's quarrel. +He behaved with astonishing gallantry throughout, and after his +condemnation had been pronounced upon the fourth of August at the +Guildhall, on the charge of high-treason, he sent a diamond ring from his +own finger, of the value of L400, to the Queen to show that he bore her +no personal ill-will. He had been always a steadfast Catholic; his wife +had been maid of honour to Mary and a friend of Elizabeth's. On August +the eighth he suffered the abominable punishment prescribed; he was drawn +on a hurdle to the gate of the Bishop's palace in S. Paul's Churchyard, +where he had affixed the Bull, hanged upon a new gallows, cut down before +he was unconscious, disembowelled and quartered. His name has since been +placed on the roll of the Blessed by the Apostolic See in whose quarrel +he so cheerfully laid down his life. + +News of these and such events continued of course to be eagerly sought +after by the Papists all over the kingdom; and the Maxwells down at Great +Keynes kept in as close touch with the heart of affairs as almost any +private persons in the kingdom out of town. Sir Nicholas was one of those +fiery natures to whom opposition or pressure is as oil to flame. He began +at once to organise his forces and prepare for the struggle that was +bound to come. He established first a kind of private post to London and +to other Catholic houses round; for purposes however of defence rather +than offence, so that if any steps were threatened, he and his friends +might be aware of the danger in time. There was great sorrow at the news +of John Felton's death; and mass was said for his soul almost immediately +in the little oratory at Maxwell Court by one of the concealed priests +who went chiefly between Hampshire and Sussex ministering to the +Catholics of those districts. Mistress Margaret spent longer than ever at +her prayers; Lady Maxwell had all she could do to keep her husband from +some furious act of fanatical retaliation for John Felton's death--some +useless provocation of the authorities; the children at the Dower House +began to come to the Hall less often, not because they were less +welcomed, but because there was a constraint in the air. All seemed +preoccupied; conversations ceased abruptly on their entrance, and fits of +abstraction would fall from time to time upon their kindly hosts. In the +meanwhile, too, the preparations for James Maxwell's departure, which had +already begun to show themselves, were now pushed forward rapidly; and +one morning in the late summer, when Isabel came up to the Hall, she +found that Lady Maxwell was confined to her room and could not be seen +that day; she caught a glimpse of Sir Nicholas' face as he quickly +crossed the entrance hall, that made her draw back from daring to intrude +on such grief; and on inquiry found that Mr. James had ridden away that +morning, and that the servants did not know when to expect him back, nor +what was his destination. + +In other ways also at this time did Sir Nicholas actively help on his +party. Great Keynes was in a convenient position and circumstances for +agents who came across from the Continent. It was sufficiently near +London, yet not so near to the highroad or to London itself as to make +disturbance probable; and its very quietness under the spiritual care of +a moderate minister like Mr. Dent, and its serenity, owing to the secret +sympathy of many of the villagers and neighbours, as well as from the +personal friendship between Sir Nicholas and the master of the Dower +House--an undoubted Protestant--all these circumstances combined to make +Maxwell Hall a favourite halting-place for priests and agents from the +Continent. Strangers on horseback or in carriages, and sometimes even on +foot, would arrive there after nightfall, and leave in a day or two for +London. Its nearness to London enabled them to enter the city at any hour +they thought best after ten or eleven in the forenoon. They came on very +various businesses; some priests even stayed there and made the Hall a +centre for their spiritual ministrations for miles round; others came +with despatches from abroad, some of which were even addressed to great +personages at Court and at the Embassies where much was being done by the +Ambassadors at this time to aid their comrades in the Faith, and to other +leading Catholics; and others again came with pamphlets printed abroad +for distribution in England, some of them indeed seditious, but many of +them purely controversial and hortatory, and with other devotional +articles and books such as it was difficult to obtain in England, and +might not be exposed for public sale in booksellers' shops: Agnus Deis, +beads, hallowed incense and crosses were being sent in large numbers from +abroad, and were eagerly sought after by the Papists in all directions. +It was remarkable that while threatening clouds appeared to be gathering +on all sides over the Catholic cause, yet the deepening peril was +accompanied by a great outburst of religious zeal. It was reported to the +Archbishop that "massing" was greatly on the increase in Kent; and was +attributed, singularly enough, to the Northern Rebellion, which had ended +in disaster for the Papists; but the very fact that such a movement could +take place at all probably heartened many secret sympathisers, who had +hitherto considered themselves almost alone in a heretic population. + +Sir Nicholas came in one day to dinner in a state of great fury. One of +his couriers had just arrived with news from London; and the old man came +in fuming and resentful. + +"What hypocrisy!" he cried out to Lady Maxwell and Mistress Margaret, who +were seated at table. "Not content with persecuting Catholics, they will +not even allow us to say we are persecuted for the faith. Here is the +Lord Keeper declaring in the Star Chamber that no man is to be persecuted +for his private faith, but only for his public acts, and that the Queen's +Grace desires nothing so little as to meddle with any man's conscience. +Then I suppose they would say that hearing mass was a public act and +therefore unlawful; but then how if a man's private faith bids him to +hear mass? Is not that meddling with his private conscience to forbid him +to go to mass? What folly is this? And yet my Lord Keeper and her Grace +are no fools! Then are they worse than fools?" + +Lady Maxwell tried to quiet the old man, for the servants were not out of +the room; and it was terribly rash to speak like that before them; but he +would not be still nor sit down, but raged up and down before the hearth, +growling and breaking out now and again. What especially he could not get +off his mind was that this was the Old Religion that was prescribed. That +England for generations had held the Faith, and that then the Faith and +all that it involved had been declared unlawful, was to him iniquity +unfathomable. He could well understand some new upstart sect being +persecuted, but not the old Religion. He kept on returning to this. + +"Have they so far forgotten the Old Faith as to think it can be held in a +man's private conscience without appearing in his life, like their +miserable damnable new fangled Justification by faith without works? Or +that a man can believe in the blessed sacrament of the altar and yet not +desire to receive it; or in penance and yet not be absolved; or in Peter +and yet not say so, nor be reconciled. You may believe, say they, of +their clemency, what you like; be justified by that; that is enough! +Bah!" + +However mere declaiming against the Government was barren work, and Sir +Nicholas soon saw that; and instead, threw himself with more vigour than +ever into entertaining and forwarding the foreign emissaries. + +Mary Corbet had returned to London by the middle of July; and Hubert was +not yet returned; so Sir Nicholas and the two ladies had the Hall to +themselves. Now it must be confessed that the old man had neither the +nature nor the training for the _role_ of a conspirator, even of the +mildest description. He was so exceedingly impulsive, unsuspicious and +passionate that it would have been the height of folly to entrust him +with any weighty secret, if it was possible to dispense with him; but the +Catholics over the water needed stationary agents so grievously; and Sir +Nicholas' name commanded such respect, and his house such conveniences, +that they overlooked the risk involved in making him their confidant, +again and again; besides it need not be said that his honour and fidelity +was beyond reproach; and those qualities after all balance favourably +against a good deal of shrewdness and discretion. He, of course, was +serenely unable to distinguish between sedition and religion; and +entertained political meddlers and ordinary priests with an equal +enthusiasm. It was pathetic to Lady Maxwell to see her simple old husband +shuffling away his papers, and puzzling over cyphers and perpetually +leaving the key of them lying about, and betraying again and again when +he least intended it, by his mysterious becks and nods and glances and +oracular sayings, that some scheme was afoot. She could have helped him +considerably if he had allowed her; but he had an idea that the +capacities of ladies in general went no further than their harps, their +embroidery and their devotions; and besides, he was chivalrously +unwilling that his wife should be in any way privy to business that +involved such risks as this. + +One sunny morning in August he came into her room early just as she was +finishing her prayers, and announced the arrival of an emissary from +abroad. + +"Sweetheart," he said, "will you prepare the east chamber for a young man +whom we will call Mr. Stewart, if you please, who will arrive to-night. +He hopes to be with us until after dusk to-morrow when he will leave; and +I shall be obliged if you will---- No, no, my dear. I will order the +horses myself." + +The old man then bustled off to the stableyard and ordered a saddle-horse +to be taken at once to Cuckfield, accompanied by a groom on another +horse. These were to arrive at the inn and await orders from a stranger +"whom you will call Mr. Stewart, if you please." Mr. Stewart was to +change horses there, and ride on to Maxwell Hall, and Sir Nicholas +further ordered the same two horses and the same groom to be ready the +following evening at about nine o'clock, and to be at "Mr. Stewart's" +orders again as before. + +This behaviour of Sir Nicholas' was of course most culpably indiscreet. A +child could not but have suspected something, and the grooms, who were of +course Catholics, winked merrily at one another when the conspirator's +back was turned, and he had hastened in a transport of zeal and +preoccupation back again to the house to interrupt his wife in her +preparations for the guest. + +That evening "Mr. Stewart" arrived according to arrangements. He was a +slim red-haired man, not above thirty years of age, the kind of man his +enemies would call foxy, with a very courteous and deliberate manner, and +he spoke with a slight Scotch accent. He had the air of doing everything +on purpose. He let his riding-whip fall as he greeted Lady Maxwell in the +entrance hall; but picked it up with such a dignified grace that you +would have sworn he had let it fall for some wise reason of his own. He +had a couple of saddle-bags with him, which he did not let out of his +sight for a moment; even keeping his eye upon them as he met the ladies +and saluted them. They were carried up to the east chamber directly, +their owner following; where supper had been prepared. There was no real +reason, since he arrived with such publicity, why he should not have +supped downstairs, but Sir Nicholas had been peremptory. It was by his +directions also that the arrival had been accomplished in the manner it +had. + +After he had supped, Sir Nicholas receiving the dishes from the servants' +hands at the door of the room with the same air of secrecy and despatch, +his host suggested that he should come to Lady Maxwell's drawing-room, as +the ladies were anxious to see him. Mr. Stewart asked leave to bring a +little valise with him that had travelled in one of the bags, and then +followed his host who preceded him with a shaded light along the gallery. + +When he entered he bowed again profoundly, with a slightly French air, to +the ladies and to the image over the fire; and then seated himself, and +asked leave to open his valise. He did so with their permission, and +displayed to them the numerous devotional articles and books that it +contained. The ladies and Sir Nicholas were delighted, and set aside at +once some new books of devotion, and then they fell to talk. The +Netherlands, from which Mr. Stewart had arrived two days before, on the +east coast, were full at this time of Catholic refugees, under the Duke +of Alva's protection. Here they had been living, some of them even from +Elizabeth's accession, and Sir Nicholas and his ladies had many inquiries +to make about their acquaintances, many of which Mr. Stewart was able to +satisfy, for, from his conversation he was plainly one in the confidence +of Catholics both at home and abroad. And so the evening passed away +quietly. It was thought better by Sir Nicholas that Mr. Stewart should +not be present at the evening devotions that he always conducted for the +household in the dining-hall, unless indeed a priest were present to take +his place; so Mr. Stewart was again conducted with the same secrecy to +the East Chamber; and Sir Nicholas promised at his request to look in on +him again after prayers. When prayers were over, Sir Nicholas went up to +his guest's room, and found him awaiting him in a state of evident +excitement, very unlike the quiet vivacity and good humour he had shown +when with the ladies. + +"Sir Nicholas," he said, standing up, as his host came in, "I have not +told you all my news." And when they were both seated he proceeded: + +"You spoke a few minutes ago, Sir Nicholas, of Dr. Storey; he has been +caught." + +The old man exclaimed with dismay. Mr. Stewart went on: + +"When I left Antwerp, Sir Nicholas, Dr. Storey was in the town. I saw him +myself in the street by the Cathedral only a few hours before I embarked. +He is very old, you know, and lame, worn out with good works, and he was +hobbling down the street on the arm of a young man. When I arrived at +Yarmouth I went out into the streets about a little business I had with a +bookseller, before taking horse. I heard a great commotion down near the +docks, at the entrance of Bridge Street; and hastened down there; and +there I saw pursuivants and seamen and officers all gathered about a +carriage, and keeping back the crowd that was pressing and crying out to +know who the man was; and presently the carriage drove by me, scattering +the crowd, and I could see within; and there sat old Dr. Storey, very +white and ill-looking, but steady and cheerful, whom I had seen the very +day before in Antwerp. Now this is very grievous for Dr. Storey; and I +pray God to deliver him; but surely the Duke and the King of Spain must +move now. They cannot leave him in Cecil's hands; and then, Sir Nicholas, +we must all be ready, for who knows what may happen." + +Sir Nicholas was greatly moved. There was one of the perplexities which +so much harassed all the Papists at this time. It seemed certain that Mr. +Stewart's prediction must be fulfilled. Dr. Storey was a naturalised +subject of King Philip and in the employment of Alva, and he had been +carried off forcibly by the English Government. It afterwards came out +how it had been done. He had been lured away from Antwerp and enticed on +board a trader at Bergen-op-Zoom, by Cecil's agents with the help of a +traitor named Parker, on pretext of finding heretical books there +arriving from England; and as soon as he had set foot on deck he was +hurried below and carried straight off to Yarmouth. Here then was Sir +Nicholas' perplexity. To welcome Spain when she intervened and to work +actively for her, was treason against his country; to act against Spain +was to delay the re-establishment of the Religion--something that +appeared to him very like treason against his faith. Was the dreadful +choice between his sovereign and his God, he wondered as he paced up and +down and questioned Mr. Stewart, even now imminent? + +The whole affair, too, was so formidable and so mysterious that the +hearts of these Catholics and of others in England when they heard the +tale began to fail them. Had the Government then so long an arm and so +keen an eye? And if it was able to hale a man from the shadow of the +Cathedral at Antwerp and the protection of the Duke of Alva into the +hands of pursuivants at Yarmouth within the space of a few hours, who +then was safe? + +And so the two sat late that night in the East Chamber; and laid schemes +and discussed movements and probabilities and the like, until the dawn +began to glimmer through the cracks of the shutters and the birds to +chirp in the eaves; and Sir Nicholas at last carried to bed with him an +anxious and a heavy heart. Mr. Stewart, however, did not seem so greatly +disturbed; possibly because on the one side he had not others dearer to +him than his own life involved in these complex issues: and partly +because he at any rate has not the weight of suspense and indecision that +so drew his host two ways at once, for Mr. Stewart was whole-heartedly +committed already, and knew well how he would act should the choice +present itself between Elizabeth and Philip. + +The following morning Sir Nicholas still would not allow his guest to +come downstairs, and insisted that all his meals should be served in the +East Chamber, while he himself, as before, received the food at the door +and set it before Mr. Stewart. Mr. Stewart was greatly impressed and +touched by the kindness of the old man, although not by his capacity for +conspiracy. He had intended indeed to tell his host far more than he had +done of the movements of political and religious events, for he could not +but believe, before his arrival, that a Catholic so prominent and +influential as Sir Nicholas was becoming by reputation among the refugees +abroad, was a proper person to be entrusted even with the highest +secrets; but after a very little conversation with him the night before, +he had seen how ingenuous the old man was, with his laughable attempts at +secrecy and his lamentable lack of discretion; and so he had contented +himself with general information and gossip, and had really told Sir +Nicholas very little indeed of any importance. + +After dinner Sir Nicholas again conducted his guest to the drawing-room, +where the ladies were ready to receive him. He had obtained Mr. Stewart's +permission the night before to tell his wife and sister-in-law the news +about Dr. Storey; and the four sat for several hours together discussing +the situation. Mr. Stewart was able to tell them too, in greater detail, +the story of Lord Sussex's punitive raid into Scotland in the preceding +April. They had heard of course the main outline of the story with the +kind of embroideries attached that were usual in those days of inaccurate +reporting; but their guest was a Scotchman himself and had had the +stories first-hand in some cases from those rendered homeless by the +raid, who had fled to the Netherlands where he had met them. Briefly the +raid was undertaken on the pretended plea of an invitation from the +"King's men" or adherents of the infant James; but in reality to chastise +Scotland and reduce it to servility. Sussex and Lord Hunsdon in the east, +Lord Scrope on the west, had harried, burnt, and destroyed in the whole +countryside about the Borders. Especially had Tiviotdale suffered. +Altogether it was calculated that Sussex had burned three hundred +villages and blown up fifty castles, and forty more "strong houses," some +of these latter, however, being little more than border peels. Mr. +Stewart's accounts were the more moving in that he spoke in a quiet +delicate tone, and used little picturesque phrases in his speech. + +"Twelve years ago," said Mr. Stewart, "I was at Branxholme myself. It was +a pleasant house, well furnished and appointed; fortified, too, as all +need to be in that country, with sheaves of pikes in all the lower rooms, +and Sir Walter Scott gave me a warm welcome, for I was there on a +business that pleased him. He showed me the gardens and orchards, all +green and sweet, like these of yours, Lady Maxwell. And it seemed to me a +home where a man might be content to spend all his days. Well, my Lord +Sussex has been a visitor there now; and what he has left of the house +would not shelter a cow, nor what is left of the pleasant gardens sustain +her. At least, so one of the Scots told me whom I met in the Netherlands +in June." + +He talked, too, of the extraordinary scenes of romance and chivalry in +which Mary Queen of Scots moved during her captivity under Lord Scrope's +care at Bolton Castle in the previous year. He had met in his travels in +France one of her undistinguished adherents who had managed to get a +position in the castle during her detention there. + +"The country was alive with her worshippers," said Mr. Stewart. "They +swarmed like bees round a hive. In the night voices would be heard crying +out to her Grace out of the darkness round the castle; and when the +guards rode out they would find no man but maybe hear just a laugh or +two. Her men would lie out at night and watch her window (for she would +never go to rest till late), and pray towards it as if it were a light +before the blessed sacrament. When she rode out a-hunting, with her +guards of course about her, and my Lord Scrope or Sir Francis Knollys +never far away, a beggar maybe would be sitting out on the road and ask +an alms; and cry out 'God save your Grace'; but he would be a beggar who +was accustomed to wear silk next his skin except when he went a-begging. +Many young gentlemen there were, yes and old ones too, who would thank +God for a blow or a curse from some foul English trooper for his meat, if +only he might have a look from the Queen's eyes for his grace before +meat. Oh! they would plot too, and scheme and lie awake half the night +spinning their webs, not to catch her Grace indeed, but to get her away +from that old Spider Scrope; and many's the word and the scrap of paper +that would go in to her Grace, right under the very noses of my Lord +Scrope and Sir Francis themselves, as they sat at their chess in the +Queen's chamber. It's a long game of chess that the two Queens are +playing; but thank our Lady and the Saints it's not mate yet--not mate +yet; and the White Queen will win, please God, before the board's +over-turned." + +And he told them, too, of the failure of the Northern Rebellion, and the +wretchedness of the fugitives. + +"They rode over the moors to Liddisdale," he said, "ladies and all, in +bitter weather, wind and snow, day after day, with stories of Clinton's +troopers all about them, and scarcely time for bite or sup or sleep. My +lady Northumberland was so overcome with weariness and sickness that she +could ride no more at last, and had to be left at John-of-the-Side's +house, where she had a little chamber where the snow came in at one +corner, and the rats ran over my lady's face as she lay. My Lords +Northumberland and Westmoreland were in worse case, and spent their +Christmas with no roof over them but what they could find out in the +braes and woods about Harlaw, and no clothes but the foul rags that some +beggar had thrown away, and no food but a bird or a rabbit that they +could pick up here and there, or what their friends could get to them now +and again privately. And then my Lord Northumberland's little daughters +whom he was forced to leave behind at Topcliff--a sweet Christmas they +had! Their money and food was soon spent; they could have scarcely a fire +in that bitter hard season; and God who feeds the ravens alone knows how +they were sustained; and for entertainment to make the time pass merrily, +all they had was to see the hanging of their own servants in scores about +the house, who had served them and their father well; and all their music +at night was the howling of the wind in those heavily laden +Christmas-trees, and the noise of the chains in which the men were +hanged." + +Mr. Stewart's narratives were engrossing to the two ladies and Sir +Nicholas. They had never come so close to the struggles of the Catholics +in the north before; and although the Northern Rebellion had ended so +disastrously, yet it was encouraging, although heartbreaking too, to hear +that delicate women and children were ready gladly to suffer such +miseries if the religious cause that was so dear to them could be thereby +helped. Sir Nicholas, as has been said, was in two minds as to the +lawfulness of rising against a temporal sovereign in defence of religious +liberties. His whole English nature revolted against it, and yet so many +spiritual persons seemed to favour it. His simple conscience was +perplexed. But none the less he could listen with the most intense +interest and sympathy to these tales of these co-religionists of his own, +who were so clearly convinced of their right to rebel in defence of their +faith. + +And so with such stories the August afternoon passed away. It was a +thundery day, which it would have been pleasanter to spend in the garden, +but that, Sir Nicholas said, under the circumstances was not to be +thought of; so they threw the windows wide to catch the least breath of +air; and the smell of the flower-garden came sweetly up and flooded the +low cool room; and so they sat engrossed until the evening. + +Supper was ordered for Mr. Stewart at half-past seven o'clock; and this +meal Sir Nicholas had consented should be laid downstairs in his own +private room opening out of the hall, and that he and his ladies should +sit down to table at the same time. Mr. Stewart went to his room an hour +before to dress for riding, and to superintend the packing of his +saddle-bags; and at half-past seven he was conducted downstairs by Sir +Nicholas who insisted on carrying the saddle-bags with his own hands, and +they found the two ladies waiting for them in the panelled study that had +one window giving upon the terrace that ran along the south of the house +above the garden. When supper had been brought in by Sir Nicholas' own +body-servant, Mr. Boyd, they sat down to supper after a grace from Sir +Nicholas. The horses were ordered for nine o'clock. + + + + + CHAPTER VII + + THE DOOR IN THE GARDEN-WALL + + +On the morning of the day after Mr. Stewart's secret arrival at Maxwell +Hall, the Rector was walking up and down the lawn that adjoined the +churchyard. + +He had never yet wholly recovered from the sneers of Mistress Corbet; the +wounds had healed but had not ceased to smart. How blind these Papists +were, he thought! how prejudiced for the old trifling details of worship! +how ignorant of the vital principles still retained! The old realities of +God and the faith and the Church were with them still, in this village, +he reminded himself; it was only the incrustations of error that had been +removed. Of course the transition was difficult and hearts were sore; but +the Eternal God can be patient. But then, if the discontent of the +Papists smouldered on one side, the fanatical and irresponsible zeal of +the Puritans flared on the other. How difficult, he thought, to steer the +safe middle course! How much cool faith and clearsightedness it needed! +He reminded himself of Archbishop Parker who now held the rudder, and +comforted himself with the thought of his wise moderation in dealing with +excesses, his patient pertinacity among the whirling gusts of passion, +that enabled him to wait upon events to push his schemes, and his tender +knowledge of human nature. + +But in spite of these reassuring facts Mr. Dent was anxious. What could +even the Archbishop do when his suffragans were such poor creatures; and +when Leicester, the strongest man at Court, was a violent Puritan +partisan? The Rector would have been content to bear the troubles of his +own flock and household if he had been confident of the larger cause; but +the vagaries of the Puritans threatened all with ruin. That morning only +he had received a long account from a Fellow of his own college of Corpus +Christi, Cambridge, and a man of the same views as himself, of the +violent controversy raging there at that time. + +"The Professor," wrote his friend, referring to Thomas Cartwright, "is +plastering us all with his Genevan ways. We are all Papists, it seems! +He would have neither bishop nor priest nor archbishop nor dean nor +archdeacon, nor dignitaries at all, but just the plain Godly Minister, as +he names it. Or if he has the bishop and the deacon they are to be the +_Episcopos_ and the _Diaconos_ of the Scripture, and not the Papish +counterfeits! Then it seems that the minister is to be made not by God +but by man--that the people are to make him, not the bishop (as if the +sheep should make the shepherd). Then it appears we are Papists too for +kneeling at the Communion; this he names a 'feeble superstition.' Then he +would have all men reside in their benefices or vacate them; and all that +do not so, it appears, are no better than thieves or robbers. + +"And so he rages on, breathing out this smoky stuff, and all the young +men do run after him, as if he were the very Pillar of Fire to lead them +to Canaan. One day he says there shall be no bishop--and my Lord of Ely +rides through Petty Cury with scarce a man found to doff cap and say 'my +lord' save foolish 'Papists' like myself! Another day he will have no +distinction of apparel; and the young sparks straight dress like +ministers, and the ministers like young sparks. On another he likes not +Saint Peter his day, and none will go to church. He would have us all to +be little Master Calvins, if he could have his way with us. But the +Master of Trinity has sent a complaint to the Council with charges +against him, and has preached against him too. But no word hath yet come +from the Council; and we fear nought will be done; to the sore injury of +Christ His holy Church and the Protestant Religion; and the triumphing of +their pestilent heresies." + +So the caustic divine wrote, and the Rector of Great Keynes was +heavy-hearted as he walked up and down and read. Everywhere it was the +same story; the extreme precisians openly flouted the religion of the +Church of England; submitted to episcopal ordination as a legal necessity +and then mocked at it; refused to wear the prescribed dress, and +repudiated all other distinctions too in meats and days as Judaic +remnants; denounced all forms of worship except those directly sanctioned +by Scripture; in short, they remained in the Church of England and drew +her pay while they scouted her orders and derided her claims. Further, +they cried out as persecuted martyrs whenever it was proposed to insist +that they should observe their obligations. But worse than all, for such +conscientious clergymen as Mr. Dent, was the fact that bishops preferred +such men to livings, and at the same time were energetic against the +Papist party. It was not that there was not an abundance of disciplinary +machinery ready at the bishop's disposal or that the Queen was opposed to +coercion--rather she was always urging them to insist upon conformity; +but it seemed rather to such sober men as the Rector that the principle +of authority had been lost with the rejection of the Papacy, and that +anarchy rather than liberty had prevailed in the National Church. In +darker moments it seemed to him and his friends as if any wild fancy was +tolerated, so long as it did not approximate too closely to the Old +Religion; and they grew sick at heart. + +It was all the more difficult for the Rector, as he had so little +sympathy in the place; his wife did all she could to destroy friendly +relations between the Hall and the Rectory, and openly derided her +husband's prelatical leanings; the Maxwells themselves disregarded his +priestly claims, and the villagers thought of him as an official paid to +promulgate the new State religion. The only house where he found sympathy +and help was the Dower House; and as he paced up and down his garden now, +his little perplexed determined face grew brighter as he made up his mind +to see Mr. Norris again in the afternoon. + +During his meditations he heard, and saw indistinctly, through the +shrubbery that fenced the lawn from the drive, a mounted man ride up to +the Rectory door. He supposed it was some message, and held himself in +readiness to be called into the house, but after a minute or two he heard +the man ride off again down the drive into the village. At dinner he +mentioned it to his wife, who answered rather shortly that it was a +message for her; and he let the matter drop for fear of giving offence; +he was terrified at the thought of provoking more quarrels than were +absolutely necessary. + +Soon after dinner he put on his cap and gown, and to his wife's inquiries +told her where he was going, and that after he had seen Mr. Norris he +would step on down to Comber's, where was a sick body or two, and that +she might expect him back not earlier than five o'clock. She nodded +without speaking, and he went out. She watched him down the drive from +the dining-room window and then went back to her business with an odd +expression. + +Mr. Norris, whom he found already seated at his books again after dinner, +took him out when he had heard his errand, and the two began to walk up +and down together on the raised walk that ran along under a line of pines +a little way from the house. + +The Rector had seldom found his friend more sympathetic and tender; he +knew very well that their intellectual and doctrinal standpoints were +different, but he had not come for anything less than spiritual help, and +that he found. He told him all his heart, and then waited, while the +other, with his thin hands clasped behind his back, and his great grey +eyes cast up at the heavy pines and the tender sky beyond, began to +comfort the minister. + +"You are troubled, my friend," he said, "and I do not wonder at it, by +the turbulence of these times. On all sides are fightings and fears. Of +course I cannot, as you know, regard these matters you have spoken +of--episcopacy, ceremonies at the Communion and the like--in the grave +light in which you see them; but I take it, if I understand you rightly, +that it is the confusion and lack of any authority or respect for +antiquity that is troubling you more. You feel yourself in a sad plight +between these raging waves; tossed to and fro, battered upon by both +sides, forsaken and despised and disregarded. Now, indeed, although I do +not stand quite where you do, yet I see how great the stress must be; +but, if I may say so to a minister, it is just what you regard as your +shame that I regard as your glory. It is the mark of the cross that is on +your life. When our Saviour went to his passion, he went in the same +plight as that in which you go; both Jew and Gentile were against him on +this side and that; his claims were disallowed, his royalty denied; he +was despised and rejected of men. He did not go to his passion as to a +splendid triumph, bearing his pain like some solemn and mysterious +dignity at which the world wondered and was silent; but he went battered +and spat upon, with the sweat and the blood and the spittle running down +his face, contemned by the contemptible, hated by the hateful, rejected +by the outcast, barked upon by the curs; and it was that that made his +passion so bitter. To go to death, however painful, with honour and +applause, or at least with the silence of respect, were easy; it is not +hard to die upon a throne; but to live on a dunghill with Job, that is +bitterness. Now again I must protest that I have no right to speak like +this to a minister, but since you have come to me I must needs say what I +think; and it is this that some wise man once said, 'Fear honour, for +shame is not far off. Covet shame, for honour is surely to follow.' If +that be true of the philosopher, how much more true is it of the +Christian minister whose profession it is to follow the Saviour and to be +made like unto him." + +He said much more of the same kind; and his soft balmy faith soothed the +minister's wounds, and braced his will. The Rector could not help half +envying his friend, living, as it seemed, in this still retreat, apart +from wrangles and controversy, with the peaceful music and sweet +fragrance of the pines, and the Love of God about him. + +When he had finished he asked the Rector to step indoors with him; and +there in his own room took down and read to him a few extracts from the +German mystics that he thought bore upon his case. Finally, to put him at +his ease again, for it seemed an odd reversal that he should be coming +for comfort to his parishioners, Mr. Norris told him about his two +children, and in his turn asked his advice. + +"About Anthony," he said, "I am not at all anxious. I know that the boy +fancies himself in love; and goes sighing about when he is at home; but +he sleeps and eats heartily, for I have observed him; and I think +Mistress Corbet has a good heart and means no harm to him. But about my +daughter I am less satisfied, for I have been watching her closely. She +is quiet and good, and, above all, she loves the Saviour; but how do I +know that her heart is not bleeding within? She has been taught to hold +herself in, and not to show her feelings; and that, I think, is as much a +drawback sometimes as wearing the heart upon the sleeve." + +Mr. Dent suggested sending her away for a visit for a month or two. His +host mused a moment and then said that he himself had thought of that; +and now that his minister said so too, probably, under God, that was what +was needed. The fact that Hubert was expected home soon was an additional +reason; and he had friends in Northampton, he said, to whom he could send +her. "They hold strongly by the Genevan theology there," he said smiling, +"but I think that will do her no harm as a balance to the Popery at +Maxwell Hall." + +They talked a few minutes more, and when the minister rose to take his +leave, Mr. Norris slipped down on his knees as if it was the natural +thing to do and as if the minister were expecting it; and asked his guest +to engage in prayer. It was the first time he had ever done so; probably +because this talk had brought them nearer together spiritually than ever +before. The minister was taken aback, and repeated a collect or two from +the Prayer-book; then they said the Lord's Prayer together, and then Mr. +Norris without any affectation engaged in a short extempore prayer, +asking for light in these dark times and peace in the storm; and begging +the blessing of God upon the village and "upon their shepherd to whom +Thou hast given to drink of the Cup of thy Passion," and upon his own +children, and lastly upon himself, "the chief of sinners and the least of +thy servants that is not worthy to be called thy friend." It touched Mr. +Dent exceedingly, and he was yet more touched and reconciled to the +incident when his host said simply, remaining on his knees, with eyes +closed and his clear cut tranquil face upturned: + +"I ask your blessing, sir." + +The Rector's voice trembled a little as he gave it. And then with real +gratitude and a good deal of sincere emotion he shook his friend's hand, +and rustled out from the cool house into the sunlit garden, greeting +Isabel who was walking up and down outside a little pensively, and took +the field-path that led towards the hamlet where his sick folk were +expecting him. + +As he walked back about five o'clock towards the village he noticed there +was thunder in the air, and was aware of a physical oppression, but in +his heart it was morning and the birds singing. The talk earlier in the +afternoon had shown him how, in the midst of the bitterness of the Cup, +to find the fragrance where the Saviour's lips had rested and that was +joy to him. And again, his true pastor's heart had been gladdened by the +way his ministrations had been received that afternoon. A sour old man +who had always scowled at him for an upstart, in his foolish old desire +to be loyal to the priest who had held the benefice before him, had +melted at last and asked his pardon and God's for having treated him so +ill; and he had prepared the old man for death with great contentment to +them both, and had left him at peace with God and man. On looking back on +it all afterwards he was convinced that God had thus strengthened him for +the trouble that was awaiting him at home. + +He had hardly come into his study when his wife entered with a strange +look, breathing quick and short; she closed the door, and stood near it, +looking at him apprehensively. + +"George," she said, rather sharply and nervously, "you must not be vexed +with me, but----" + +"Well?" he said heavily, and the warmth died out of his heart. He knew +something terrible impended. + +"I have done it for the best," she said, and obstinacy and a kind of +impatient tenderness strove in her eyes as she looked at him. "You must +show yourself a man; it is not fitting that loose ladies of the Court +should mock--" He got up; and his eyes were determined too. + +"Tell me what you have done, woman," he cried. + +She put out her hand as if to hold him still, and her voice rang hard and +thin. + +"I will say my say," she said. "It is not for that that I have done it. +But you are a Gospel-minister, and must be faithful. The Justice is here. +I sent for him." + +"The Justice?" he said blankly; but his heart was beating heavily in his +throat. + +"Mr. Frankland from East Grinsted, with a couple of pursuivants and a +company of servants. There is a popish agent at the Hall, and they are +come to take him." + +The Rector swallowed with difficulty once or twice, and then tried to +speak, but she went on. "And I have promised that you shall take them in +by the side door." + +"I will not!" he cried. + +She held up her hand again for silence, and glanced round at the door. + +"I have given him the key," she said. + +This was the private key, possessed by the incumbent for generations +past, and Sir Nicholas had not withdrawn it from the Protestant Rector. + +"There is no choice," she said. "Oh! George, be a man!" Then she turned +and slipped out. + +He stood perfectly still for a moment; his pulses were racing; he could +not think. He sat down and buried his face in his hands; and gradually +his brain cleared and quieted. Then he realised what it meant, and his +soul rose in blind furious resentment. This was the last straw; it was +the woman's devilish jealousy. But what could he do? The Justice was +here. Could he warn his friends? He clenched his fingers into his hair as +the situation came out clear and hard before his brain. Dear God, what +could he do? + +There were footsteps in the flagged hall, and he raised his head as the +door opened and a portly gentleman in riding-dress came in, followed by +Mrs. Dent. The Rector rose confusedly, but could not speak, and his eyes +wandered round to his wife again and again as she took a chair in the +shadow and sat down. But the magistrate noticed nothing. + +"Aha!" he said, beaming, "You have a wife, sir, that is a jewel. Solomon +never spoke a truer word; an ornament to her husband, he said, I think; +but you as a minister should know better than I, a mere layman"; and his +face creased with mirth. + +What did the red-faced fool mean? thought the Rector. If only he would +not talk so loud! He must think, he must think. What could he do? + +"She was very brisk, sir," the magistrate went on, sitting down, and the +Rector followed his example, sitting too with his back to the window and +his hand to his head. + +Then Mr. Frankland went on with his talk; and the man sat there, still +glancing from time to time mechanically towards his wife, who was there +in the shadow with steady white face and hands in her lap, watching the +two men. The magistrate's voice seemed to the bewildered man to roll on +like a wheel over stones; interminable, grinding, stupefying. What was he +saying? What was that about his wife? She had sent to him the day before, +had she, and told him of the popish agent's coming?--Ah! A dangerous man +was he, a spreader of seditious pamphlets? At least they supposed he was +the man.--Yes, yes, he understood; these fly-by-nights were threateners +of the whole commonwealth; they must be hunted out like vermin--just so; +and he as a minister of the Gospel should be the first to assist.--Just +so, he agreed with all his heart, as a minister of the Gospel. (Yes, but, +dear Lord, what was he to do? This fat man with the face of a butcher +must not be allowed to--) Ah! what was that? He had missed that. Would +Mr. Frankland be so good as to say it again? Yes, yes, he understood now; +the men were posted already. No one suspected anything; they had come by +the bridle path.--Every door? Did he understand that every door of the +Hall was watched? Ah! that was prudent; there was no chance then of any +one sending a warning in? Oh, no, no, he did not dream for a moment that +there was any concealed Catholic who would be likely to do such a thing. +But he only wondered.--Yes, yes, the magistrate was right; one could not +be too careful. Because--ah!--What was that about Sir Nicholas? Yes, yes, +indeed he was a good landlord, and very popular in the village.--Ah! just +so; it had better be done quietly, at the side door. Yes, that was the +one which the key fitted. But, but, he thought perhaps, he had better not +come in, because Sir Nicholas was his friend, and there was no use in +making bad blood.--Oh! not to the house; very well, then, he would come +as far as the yew hedge at--at what time did the magistrate say? At +half-past eight; yes, that would be best as Mr. Frankland said, because +Sir Nicholas had ordered the horses for nine o'clock; so they would come +upon them just at the right time.--How many men, did Mr. Frankland say? +Eight? Oh yes, eight and himself, and--he did not quite follow the plan. +Ah! through the yew hedge on to the terrace and through the south door +into the hall; then if they bolted--they? Surely he had understood the +magistrate to say there was only one? Oh! he had not understood that. Sir +Nicholas too? But why, why? Good God, as a harbourer of priests?--No, but +this fellow was an agent, surely. Well, if the magistrate said so, of +course he was right; but he would have thought himself that Sir Nicholas +might have been left--ah! Well, he would say no more. He quite saw the +magistrate's point now.--No, no, he was no favourer; God forbid! his wife +would speak for him as to that; Marion would bear witness.--Well, well, +he thanked the magistrate for his compliments, and would he proceed with +the plan? By the south door, he was saying, yes, into the hall.--Yes, the +East room was Sir Nicholas' study; or of course they might be supping +upstairs. But it made no difference; no, the magistrate was right about +that. So long as they held the main staircase, and had all the other +doors watched, they were safe to have him.--No, no, the cloister wing +would not be used; they might leave that out of their calculations. +Besides, did not the magistrate say that Marion had seen the lights in +the East wing last night? Yes, well, that settled it.--And the signal? +Oh, he had not caught that; the church bell, was it to be? But what for? +Why did they need a signal? Ah! he understood, for the advance at +half-past eight.--Just so, he would send Thomas up to ring it. Would +Marion kindly see to that?--Yes, indeed, his wife was a woman to be proud +of; such a faithful Protestant; no patience with these seditious rogues +at all. Well, was that all? Was there anything else?--Yes, how dark it +was getting; it must be close on eight o'clock. Thomas had gone, had he? +That was all right.--And had the men everything they wanted?--Well, yes; +although the village did go to bed early it would perhaps be better to +have no lights; because there was no need to rouse suspicion.--Oh! very +well; perhaps it would be better for Mr. Frankland to go and sit with the +men and keep them quiet. And his wife would go, too, just to make sure +they had all they wanted.--Very well, yes; he would wait here in the dark +until he was called. Not more than a quarter of an hour? Thank you, +yes.-- + +Then the door had closed; and the man, left alone, flung himself down in +his chair, and buried his face again in his arms. + +Ah! what was to be done? Nothing, nothing, nothing. And there they were +at the Hall, his neighbours and friends. The kind old Catholic and his +ladies! How would he ever dare to meet their eyes again? But what could +be done? Nothing! + +How far away the afternoon seems; that quiet sunny walk beneath the +pines. His friend is at his books, no doubt, with the silver candles, and +the open pages, and his own neat manuscript growing under his white +scholarly fingers. And Isabel; at her needlework before the fire.--How +peaceful and harmless and sweet it all is! And down there, not fifty +yards away, is the village; every light out by now; and the children and +parents, too, asleep.--Ah! what will the news be when they wake +to-morrow?--And that strange talk this afternoon, of the Saviour and His +Cup of pain, and the squalor and indignity of the Passion! Ah! yes, he +could suffer with Jesus on the Cross, so gladly, on that Tree of +Life--but not with Judas on the Tree of Death! + +And the minister dropped his face lower, over the edge of his desk; and +the hot tears of misery and self-reproach and impotence began to run. +There was no help, no help anywhere. All were against him--even his wife +herself; and his Lord. + +Then with a moan he lifted his hot face into the dusk. + +"Jesus," he cried in his soul, "Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest +that I love Thee." + +There came a tapping on the door; and the door opened an inch. + +"It is time," whispered his wife's voice. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + THE TAKING OF MR. STEWART + + +They were still sitting over the supper-table at the Hall. The sun had +set about the time they had begun, and the twilight had deepened into +dark; but they had not cared to close the shutters as they were to move +so soon. The four candles shone out through the windows, and there still +hung a pale glimmer outside owing to the refraction of light from the +white stones of the terrace. Beyond on the left there sloped away a high +black wall of impenetrable darkness where the yew hedge stood; over that +was the starless sky. Sir Nicholas' study was bright with candlelight, +and the lace and jewels of Lady Maxwell (for her sister wore none) added +a vague pleasant sense of beauty to Mr. Stewart's mind; for he was one +who often fared coarsely and slept hard. He sighed a little to himself as +he looked out over this shining supper-table past the genial smiling face +of Sir Nicholas to the dark outside; and thought how in less than an hour +he would have left the comfort of this house for the grey road and its +hardships again. It was extraordinarily sweet to him (for he was a man of +taste and a natural inclination to luxury) to stay a day or two now and +again at a house like this and mix again with his own equals, instead of +with the rough company of the village inn, or the curious foreign +conspirators with their absence of educated perception and their doubtful +cleanliness. He was a man of domestic instincts and good birth and +breeding, and would have been perfectly at his ease as the master of some +household such as this; with a chapel and a library and a pleasant garden +and estate; spending his days in great leisure and good deeds. And +instead of all this, scarcely by his own choice but by what he would have +called his vocation, he was partly an exile living from hand to mouth in +lodgings and inns, and when he was in his own fatherland, a hunted +fugitive lurking about in unattractive disguises. He sighed again once or +twice. There was silence a moment or two. + +There sounded one note from the church tower a couple of hundred yards +away. Lady Maxwell heard it, and looked suddenly up; she scarcely knew +why, and caught her sister's eyes glancing at her. There was a shade of +uneasiness in them. + +"It is thundery to-night," said Sir Nicholas. Mr. Stewart did not speak. +Lady Maxwell looked up quickly at him as he sat on her right facing the +window; and saw an expression of slight disturbance cross his face. He +was staring out on to the quickly darkening terrace, past Sir Nicholas, +who with pursed lips and a little frown was stripping off his grapes from +the stalk. The look of uneasiness deepened, and the young man half rose +from his chair, and sat down again. + +"What is it, Mr. Stewart?" said Lady Maxwell, and her voice had a ring of +terror in it. Sir Nicholas looked up quickly. + +"Eh, eh?"--he began. + +The young man rose up and recoiled a step, still staring out. + +"I beg your pardon," he said, "but I have just seen several men pass the +window." + +There was a rush of footsteps and a jangle of voices outside in the hall; +and as the four rose up from table, looking at one another, there was a +rattle at the handle outside, the door flew open, and a ruddy +strongly-built man stood there, with a slightly apprehensive air, and +holding a loaded cane a little ostentatiously in his hand; the faces of +several men looked over his shoulder. + +Sir Nicholas' ruddy face had paled, his mouth was half open with dismay, +and he stared almost unintelligently at the magistrate. Mr. Stewart's +hand closed on the handle of a knife that lay beside his plate. + +"In the Queen's name," said Mr. Frankland, and looked from the knife to +the young man's white determined face, and down again. A little sobbing +broke from Lady Maxwell. + +"It is useless, sir," said the magistrate; "Sir Nicholas, persuade your +guest not to make a useless resistance; we are ten to one; the house has +been watched for hours." + +Sir Nicholas took a step forward, his mouth closed and opened again. Lady +Maxwell took a swift rustling step from behind the table, and threw her +arm round the old man's neck. Still none of them spoke. + +"Come in," said the magistrate, turning a little. The men outside filed +in, to the number of half a dozen, and two or three more were left in the +hall. All were armed. Mistress Margaret who had stood up with the rest, +sat down again, and rested her head on her hand; apparently completely at +her ease. + +"I must beg pardon, Lady Maxwell," he went on, "but my duty leaves me no +choice." He turned to the young man, who, on seeing the officers had laid +the knife down again, and now stood, with one hand on the table, rather +pale, but apparently completely self-controlled, looking a little +disdainfully at the magistrate. + +Then Sir Nicholas made a great effort; but his face twitched as he spoke, +and the hand that he lifted to his wife's arm shook with nervousness, and +his voice was cracked and unnatural. + +"Sit down, my dear, sit down.--What is all this?--I do not +understand.--Mr. Frankland, sir, what do you want of me?--And who are all +these gentlemen?--Won't you sit down, Mr. Frankland and take a glass of +wine. Let me make Mr. Stewart known to you." And he lifted a shaking hand +as if to introduce them. + +The magistrate smiled a little on one side of his mouth. + +"It is no use, Sir Nicholas," he said, "this gentleman, I fear, is well +known to some of us already.--No, no, sir," he cried sharply, "the window +is guarded." + +Mr. Stewart, who had looked swiftly and sideways across at the window, +faced the magistrate again. + +"I do not know what you mean, sir," he said. "It was a lad who passed the +window." + +There was a movement outside in the hall; and the magistrate stepped to +the door. + +"Who is there?" he cried out sharply. + +There was a scuffle, and a cry of a boy's voice; and a man appeared, +holding Anthony by the arm. + +Mistress Margaret turned round in her seat; and said in a perfectly +natural voice, "Why, Anthony, my lad!" + +There was a murmur from one or two of the men. + +"Silence," called out the magistrate. "We will finish the other affair +first," and he made a motion to hold Anthony for a moment.--"Now then, do +any of you men know this gentleman?" + +A pursuivant stepped out. + +"Mr. Frankland, sir; I know him under two names--Mr. Chapman and Mr. +Wode. He is a popish agent. I saw him in the company of Dr. Storey in +Antwerp, four months ago." + +Mr. Stewart blew out his lips sharply and contemptuously. + +"Pooh," he said; and then turned to the man and bowed ironically. + +"I congratulate you, my man," he said, in a tone of bitter triumph. "In +April I was in France. Kindly remember this man's words, Mr. Frankland; +they will tell in my favour. For I presume you mean to take me." + +"I will remember them," said the magistrate. + +Mr. Stewart bowed to him; he had completely regained his composure. Then +he turned to Sir Nicholas and Lady Maxwell, who had been watching in a +bewildered silence. + +"I am exceedingly sorry," he said, "for having brought this annoyance on +you, Lady Maxwell; but these men are so sharp that they see nothing but +guilt everywhere. I do not know yet what my crime is. But that can wait. +Sir Nicholas, we should have parted anyhow in half an hour. We shall only +say good-bye here, instead of at the door." + +The magistrate smiled again as before; and half put up his hand to hide +it. + +"I beg your pardon, Mr. Chapman; but you need not part from Sir Nicholas +yet. I fear, Sir Nicholas, that I shall have to trouble you to come with +us." + +Lady Maxwell drew a quick hissing breath; her sister got up swiftly and +went to her, as she sat down in Sir Nicholas' chair, still holding the +old man's hand. + +Sir Nicholas turned to his guest; and his voice broke again and again as +he spoke. + +"Mr. Stewart," he said, "I am sorry that any guest of mine should be +subject to these insults. However, I am glad that I shall have the +pleasure of your company after all. I suppose we ride to East Grinsted," +he added harshly to the magistrate, who bowed to him.--"Then may I have +my servant, sir?" + +"Presently," said Mr. Frankland, and then turned to Anthony, who had been +staring wild-eyed at the scene, "Now who is this?" + +A man answered from the rank. + +"That is Master Anthony Norris, sir." + +"Ah! and who is Master Anthony Norris? A Papist, too?" + +"No, sir," said the man again, "a good Protestant; and the son of Mr. +Norris at the Dower House." + +"Ah!" said the magistrate again, judicially. "And what might you be +wanting here, Master Anthony Norris?" + +Anthony explained that he often came up in the evening, and that he +wanted nothing. The magistrate eyed him a moment or two. + +"Well, I have nothing against you, young gentleman. But I cannot let you +go, till I am safely set out. You might rouse the village. Take him out +till we start," he added to the man who guarded him. + +"Come this way, sir," said the officer; and Anthony presently found +himself sitting on the long oak bench that ran across the western end of +the hall, at the foot of the stairs, and just opposite the door of Sir +Nicholas' room where he had just witnessed that curious startling scene. + +The man who had charge of him stood a little distance off, and did not +trouble him further, and Anthony watched in silence. + +The hall was still dark, except for one candle that had been lighted by +the magistrate's party, and it looked sombre and suggestive of tragedy. +Floor walls and ceiling were all dark oak, and the corners were full of +shadows. A streak of light came out of the slightly opened door opposite, +and a murmur of voices. The rest of the house was quiet; it had all been +arranged and carried out without disturbance. + +Anthony had a very fair idea of what was going forward; he knew of course +that the Catholics were always under suspicion, and now understood +plainly enough from the conversation he had heard that the reddish-haired +young man, standing so alert and cheerful by the table in there, had +somehow precipitated matters. Anthony himself had come up on some +trifling errand, and had run straight into this affair; and now he sat +and wondered resentfully, with his eyes and ears wide open. + +There were men at all the inner doors now; they had slipped in from the +outer entrances as soon as word had reached them that the prisoners were +secured, and only a couple were left outside to prevent the alarm being +raised in the village. These inner sentinels stood motionless at the foot +of the stairs that rose up into the unlighted lobby overhead, at the door +that led to the inner hall and the servants' quarters, and at those that +led to the cloister wing and the garden respectively. + +The murmur of voices went on in the room opposite; and presently a man +slipped out and passed through the sentinels to the door leading to the +kitchens and pantry; he carried a pike in his hand, and was armed with a +steel cap and breast-piece. In a minute he had returned followed by Mr. +Boyd, Sir Nicholas' body-servant; the two passed into the study--and a +moment later the dark inner hall was full of moving figures and rustlings +and whisperings, as the alarmed servants poured up from downstairs. + +Then the study door opened again, and Anthony caught a glimpse of the +lighted room; the two ladies with Sir Nicholas and his guest were seated +at table; there was the figure of an armed man behind Mr. Stewart's +chair, and another behind Lady Maxwell's; then the door closed again as +Mr. Boyd with the magistrate and a constable carrying a candle came out. + +"This way, sir," said the servant; and the three crossed the hall, and +passing close by Anthony, went up the broad oak staircase that led to the +upper rooms. Then the minutes passed away; from upstairs came the noise +of doors opening and shutting, and footsteps passing overhead; from the +inner hall the sound of low talking, and a few sobs now and again from a +frightened maid; from Sir Nicholas' room all was quiet except once when +Mr. Stewart's laugh, high and natural, rang out. Anthony thought of that +strong brisk face he had seen in the candlelight; and wondered how he +could laugh, with death so imminent--and worse than death; and a warmth +of admiration and respect glowed at the lad's heart. The man by Anthony +sighed and shifted his feet. + +"What is it for?" whispered the lad at last. + +"I mustn't speak to you, sir," said the man. + +At last the footsteps overhead came to the top of the stairs. The +magistrate's voice called out sharply and impatiently: + +"Come along, come along"; and the three, all carrying bags and valises +came downstairs again and crossed the hall. Again the door opened as they +went in, leaving the luggage on the floor; and Anthony caught another +glimpse of the four still seated round the table; but Sir Nicholas' head +was bowed upon his hands. + +Then again the door closed; and there was silence. + +Once more it was flung open, and Anthony saw the interior of the room +plainly. The four were standing up, Mr. Stewart was bowing to Lady +Maxwell; the magistrate stood close beside him; then a couple of men +stepped up to the young man's side as he turned away, and the three came +out into the hall and stood waiting by the little heap of luggage. Mr. +Frankland came next, with the man-servant close beside him, and the rest +of the men behind; and the last closed the door and stood by it. There +was a dead silence; Anthony sprang to his feet in uncontrollable +excitement. What was happening? Again the door opened, and the men made +room as Mistress Margaret came out, and the door shut. + +She came swiftly across, with her little air of dignity and confidence, +towards Anthony, who was standing forward. + +"Why, Master Anthony," she said, "dear lad; I did not know they had kept +you," and she took his hand. + +"What is it, what is it?" he whispered sharply. + +"Hush," she said; and the two stood together in silence. + +The moments passed; Anthony could hear the quick thumping beat of his own +heart, and the breathing of Mistress Margaret; but the hall was perfectly +quiet, where the magistrate with the prisoner and his men stood in an +irregular dark group with the candle behind them; and no sound came from +the room beyond. + +Then the handle turned, and a crack of light showed; but no further +sound; then the door opened wide, a flood of light poured out and Sir +Nicholas tottered into the hall. + +"Margaret, Margaret," he cried. "Where are you? Go to her." + +There was a strange moaning sound from the brightly lighted room. The old +lady dropped Anthony's hand and moved swiftly and unfalteringly across, +and once more the door closed behind her. + +There was a sharp word of command from the magistrate, and the sentries +from every door left their posts, and joined the group which, with Sir +Nicholas and his guest and Mr. Boyd in the centre, now passed out through +the garden door. + +The magistrate paused as he saw Anthony standing there alone. + +"I can trust you, young gentleman," he said, "not to give the alarm till +we are gone?" + +Anthony nodded, and the magistrate passed briskly out on to the terrace, +shutting the door behind him; there was a rush of footsteps and a murmur +of voices and the hall was filled with the watching servants. + +As the chorus of exclamations and inquiries broke out, Anthony ran +straight through the crowd to the garden door, and on to the terrace. +They had gone to the left, he supposed, but he hesitated a moment to +listen; then he heard the stamp of horses' feet and the jingle of +saddlery, and saw the glare of torches through the yew hedge; and he +turned quickly and ran along the terrace, past the flood of light that +poured out from the supper room, and down the path that led to the +side-door opposite the Rectory. It was very dark, and he stumbled once or +twice; then he came to the two or three stairs that led down to the door +in the wall, and turned off among the bushes, creeping on hands and feet +till he reached the wall, low on this side, but deep on the other; and +looked over. + +The pursuivants with their men had formed a circle round the two +prisoners, who were already mounted and who sat looking about them as the +luggage was being strapped to their saddles before and behind; the +bridles were lifted forward over the horses' heads, and a couple of the +guard held each rein. The groom who had brought round the two horses for +Mr. Stewart and himself stood white-faced and staring, with his back to +the Rectory wall. The magistrate was just mounting at a little distance +his own horse, which was held by the Rectory boy. Mr. Boyd, it seemed, +was to walk with the men. Two or three torches were burning by now, and +every detail was distinct to Anthony, as he crouched among the dry leaves +and peered down on to the group just beneath. + +Sir Nicholas' face was turned away from him; but his head was sunk on his +breast, and he did not stir or lift it as his horse stamped at the +strapping on of the valise Mr. Boyd had packed for him. Mr. Stewart sat +erect and motionless, and his face as Anthony saw it was confident and +fearless. + +Then suddenly the door in the Rectory wall opposite was flung open, and a +figure in flying black skirts, but hatless, rushed out and through the +guard straight up to the old man's knee. There was a shout from the men +and a movement to pull him off, but the magistrate who was on his horse +and just outside the circle spoke sharply, and the men fell back. + +"Oh, Sir Nicholas, Sir Nicholas," sobbed the minister, his face half +buried in the saddle. Anthony saw his shoulders shaking, and his hands +clutching at the old man's knee. "Forgive me, forgive me." + +There was no answer from Sir Nicholas; he still sat unmoved, his chin on +his breast, as the Rector sobbed and moaned at his stirrup. + +"There, there," said the magistrate decidedly, over the heads of the +guard, "that is enough, Mr. Dent"; and he made a motion with his hand. + +A couple of men took the minister by the shoulders and drew him, still +crying out to Sir Nicholas, outside the group; and he stood there dazed +and groping with his hands. There was a word of command; and the guard +moved off at a sharp walk, with the horses in the centre, and as they +turned, the lad saw in the torchlight the old man's face drawn and +wrinkled with sorrow, and great tears running down it. + +The Rector leaned against his own wall, with his hands over his face; and +Anthony looked at him with growing suspicion and terror as the flare of +the torches on the trees faded, and the noise of the troop died away +round the corner. + + + + + CHAPTER IX + + VILLAGE JUSTICE + + +The village had never known such an awakening as on the morning that +followed Sir Nicholas' arrest. Before seven o'clock every house knew it, +and children ran half-dressed to the outlying hamlets to tell the story. +Very little work was done that day, for the estate was disorganised; and +the men had little heart for work; and there were groups all day on the +green, which formed and re-formed and drifted here and there and +discussed and sifted the evidence. It was soon known that the Rectory +household had had a foremost hand in the affair. The groom, who had been +present at the actual departure of the prisoners had told the story of +the black figure that ran out of the door, and of what was cried at the +old man's knee; and how he had not moved nor spoken in answer; and +Thomas, the Rectory boy, was stopped as he went across the green in the +evening and threatened and encouraged until he told of the stroke on the +church-bell, and the Rectory key, and the little company that had sat all +the afternoon in the kitchen over their ale. He told too how a couple of +hours ago he had been sent across with a note to Lady Maxwell, and that +it had been returned immediately unopened. + +So as night fell, indignation had begun to smoulder fiercely against the +minister, who had not been seen all day; and after dark had fallen the +name "Judas" was cried in at the Rectory door half a dozen times, and a +stone or two from the direction of the churchyard had crashed on the +tiles of the house. + +Mr. Norris had been up all day at the Hall, but he was the only visitor +admitted. All day long the gate-house was kept closed, and the same +message was given to the few horsemen and carriages that came to inquire +after the truth of the report from the Catholic houses round, to the +effect that it was true that Sir Nicholas and a friend had been taken off +to London by the Justice from East Grinsted; and that Lady Maxwell begged +the prayers of her friends for her husband's safe return. + +Anthony had ridden off early with a servant, at his father's wish, to +follow Sir Nicholas and learn any news of him that was possible, to do +him any service he was able, and to return or send a message the next day +down to Great Keynes; and early in the afternoon he returned with the +information that Sir Nicholas was at the Marshalsea, that he was well and +happy, that he sent his wife his dear love, and that she should have a +letter from him before nightfall. He rode straight to the Hall with the +news, full of chastened delight at his official importance, just pausing +to tell a group that was gathered on the green that all was well so far, +and was shown up to Lady Maxwell's own parlour, where he found her, very +quiet and self-controlled, and extremely grateful for his kindness in +riding up to London and back on her account. Anthony explained too that +he had been able to get Sir Nicholas one or two comforts that the prison +did not provide, a pillow and an extra coverlet and some fruit; and he +left her full of gratitude. + +His father had been up to see the ladies two or three times, and in spite +of the difference in religion had prayed with them, and talked a little; +and Lady Maxwell had asked that Isabel might come up to supper and spend +the evening. Mr. Norris promised to send her up, and then added: + +"I am a little anxious, Lady Maxwell, lest the people may show their +anger against the Rector or his wife, about what has happened." + +Lady Maxwell looked startled. + +"They have been speaking of it all day long," he said, "they know +everything; and it seems the Rector is not so much to blame as his wife. +It was she who sent for the magistrate and gave him the key and arranged +it all; he was only brought into it too late to interfere or refuse." + +"Have you seen him?" asked the old lady. + +"I have been both days," he said, "but he will not see me; he is in his +study, locked in." + +"I may have treated him hardly," she said, "I would not open his note; +but at least he consented to help them against his friend." And her old +eyes filled with tears. + +"I fear that is so," said the other sadly. + +"But speak to the people," she said, "I think they love my husband, and +would do nothing to grieve us; tell them that nothing would pain either +of us more than that any should suffer for this. Tell them they must do +nothing, but be patient and pray." + +There was a group still on the green near the pond as Isabel came up to +supper that evening about six o'clock. Her father, who had given Lady +Maxwell's message to the people an hour or two before, had asked her to +go that way and send down a message to him immediately if there seemed to +be any disturbance or threatening of it; but the men were very quiet. Mr. +Musgrave was there, she saw, sitting with his pipe, on the stocks, and +Piers, the young Irish bailiff, was standing near; they all were silent +as the girl came up, and saluted her respectfully as usual; and she saw +no signs of any dangerous element. There were one or two older women with +the men, and others were standing at their open doors on all sides as she +went up. The Rectory gate was locked, and no one was to be seen within. + +Supper was laid in Sir Nicholas' room, as it generally was, and as it had +been two nights ago; and it was very strange to Isabel to know that it +was here that the arrest had taken place; the floor, too, she noticed as +she came in, all about the threshold was scratched and dented by rough +boots. + +Lady Maxwell was very silent and distracted during supper; she made +efforts to talk again and again, and her sister did her best to interest +her and keep her talking; but she always relapsed after a minute or two +into silence again, with long glances round the room, at the Vernacle +over the fireplace, the prie-dieu with the shield of the Five Wounds +above it, and all the things that spoke so keenly of her husband. + +What a strange room it was, too, thought Isabel, with its odd mingling of +the two worlds, with the tapestry of the hawking scene and the stiff +herons and ladies on horseback on one side, and the little shelf of +devotional books on the other; and yet how characteristic of its owner +who fingered his cross-bow or the reins of his horse all day, and his +beads in the evening; and how strange that an old man like Sir Nicholas, +who knew the world, and had as much sense apparently as any one else, +should be willing to sacrifice home and property and even life itself, +for these so plainly empty superstitious things that could not please a +God that was Spirit and Truth! So Isabel thought to herself, with no +bitterness or contempt, but just a simple wonder and amazement, as she +looked at the painted tokens and trinkets. + +It was still daylight when they went upstairs to Lady Maxwell's room +about seven, but the clear southern sky over the yew hedges and the tall +elms where the rooks were circling, was beginning to be flushed with deep +amber and rose. Isabel sat down in the window seat with the sweet air +pouring in and looked out on to the garden with its tiled paths and its +cool green squares of lawn, and the glowing beds at the sides. Over to +her right the cloister court ran out, with its two rows of windows, +bedrooms above with galleries beyond, as she knew, and parlours and +cloisters below; the pleasant tinkle of the fountain in the court came +faintly to her ears across the caw of the rooks about the elms and the +low sounds from the stables and the kitchen behind the house. Otherwise +the evening was very still; the two old ladies were sitting near the +fireplace; Lady Maxwell had taken up her embroidery, and was looking at +it listlessly, and Mistress Margaret had one of her devotional books and +was turning the pages, pausing here and there as she did so. + +Presently she began to read, without a word of introduction, one of the +musings of the old monk John Audeley in his sickness, and as the tender +lines stepped on, that restless jewelled hand grew still. + + "As I lay sick in my languor + In an abbey here by west; + This book I made with great dolour, + When I might not sleep nor rest. + Oft with my prayers my soul I blest, + And said aloud to Heaven's King, + 'I know, O Lord, it is the best + Meekly to take thy visiting. + Else well I wot that I were lorn + (High above all lords be he blest!) + All that thou dost is for the best; + By fault of Thee was no man lost, + That is here of woman born.'" + +And then she read some of Rolle's verses to Jesus, the "friend of all +sick and sorrowful souls," and a meditation of his on the Passion, and +the tranquil thoughts and tender fragrant sorrows soothed the torn +throbbing soul; and Isabel saw the old wrinkled hand rise to her +forehead, and the embroidery, with the needle still in it slipped to the +ground; as the holy Name "like ointment poured forth" gradually brought +its endless miracle and made all sweet and healthful again. + +Outside the daylight was fading; the luminous vault overhead was +deepening to a glowing blue as the sunset contracted on the western +horizon to a few vivid streaks of glory; the room was growing darker +every moment; and Mistress Margaret's voice began to stumble over words. + +The great gilt harp in the corner only gleamed here and there now in +single lines of clear gold where the dying daylight fell on the strings. +The room was full of shadows and the image of the Holy Mother and Child +had darkened into obscurity in their niche. The world was silent now too; +the rooks were gone home and the stir of the household below had ceased; +and in a moment more Mistress Margaret's voice had ceased too, as she +laid the book down. + +Then, as if the world outside had waited for silence before speaking, +there came a murmur of sound from the further side of the house. Isabel +started up; surely there was anger in that low roar from the village; was +it this that her father had feared? Had she been remiss? Lady Maxwell too +sprang up and faced the window with wide large eyes. + +"The letter!" she said; and took a quick step towards the door; but +Mistress Margaret was with her instantly, with her arm about her. + +"Sit down, Mary," she said, "they will bring it at once"; and her sister +obeyed; and she sat waiting and looking towards the door, clasping and +unclasping her hands as they lay on her lap; and Mistress Margaret stood +by her, waiting and watching too. Isabel still stood by the window +listening. Had she been mistaken then? The roar had sunk into silence for +a moment; and there came back the quick beat of a horse's hoofs outside +on the short drive between the gatehouse and the Hall. They were right, +then; and even as she thought it, and as the wife that waited for news of +her husband drew a quick breath and half rose in her seat at the sound of +that shod messenger that bore them, again the roar swelled up louder than +ever; and Isabel sprang down from the low step of the window-seat into +the dusky room where the two sisters waited. + +"What is that? What is that?" she whispered sharply. + +There was a sound of opening doors, and of feet that ran in the house +below; and Lady Maxwell rose up and put out her hand, as a man-servant +dashed in with a letter. + +"My lady," he said panting, and giving it to her, "they are attacking the +Rectory." + +Lady Maxwell, who was half-way to the window now, for light to read her +husband's letter, paused at that. + +"The Rectory?" she said. "Why--Margaret----" then she stopped, and Isabel +close beside her, saw her turn resolutely from the great sealed letter in +her hand to the door, and back again. + +"Jervis told us, my lady; none saw him as he rode through--they were +breaking down the gate." + +Then Lady Maxwell, with a quick movement, lifted the letter to her lips +and kissed it, and thrust it down somewhere out of sight in the folds of +her dress. + +"Come, Margaret," she said. + +Isabel followed them down the stairs and out through the hall-door; and +there, as they came out on to the steps that savage snarling roar swelled +up from the green. There was laughter and hooting mixed with that growl +of anger; but even the laughter was fierce. The gatehouse stood up black +against the glare of torches, and the towers threw great swinging shadows +on the ground and the steps of the Hall. + +Isabel followed the two grey glimmering figures, and was astonished at +the speed with which she had to go. The hoofs of the courier's horse rang +on the cobbles of the stable-yard as they came down towards the +gatehouse, and the two wings of the door were wide-open through which he +had passed just now; but the porter was gone. + +Ah! there was the crowd; but not at the Rectory. On the right the Rectory +gate lay wide open, and a flood of light poured out from the house-door +at the end of the drive. Before them lay the dark turf, swarming with +black figures towards the lower end; and a ceaseless roar came from them. +There were half a dozen torches down there, tossing to and fro; Isabel +saw that the crowd was still moving down towards the stocks and the pond. + +Now the two ladies in front of her were just coming up with the skirts of +the crowd; and there was an exclamation or two of astonishment as the +women and children saw who it was that was coming. Then there came the +furious scream of a man, and the crowd parted, as three men came reeling +out together, two of them trying with all their power to restrain a +fighting, kicking, plunging man in long black skirts, who tore and beat +with his hands. The three ladies stopped for a moment, close together; +and simultaneously the struggling man broke free and dashed back into the +crowd, screaming with anger and misery. + +"Marion, Marion--I am coming--O God!" + +And Isabel saw with a shock of horror that sent her crouching and clinging +close to Mistress Margaret, that it was the Rector. But the two men were +after him and caught him by the shoulders as he disappeared; and as they +turned they faced Lady Maxwell. + +"My lady, my lady," stammered one, "we mean him no harm. We----" But his +voice stopped, as there came a sudden silence, rent by a high terrible +shriek and a splash; followed in a moment by a yell of laughter and +shouting; and Lady Maxwell threw herself into the crowd in front. + +There were a few moments of jostling in the dark, with the reek and press +of the crowd about her; and Isabel found herself on the brink of the +black pond, with Lady Maxwell on one side, and Piers on the other keeping +the crowd back, and a dripping figure moaning and sobbing in the trampled +mud at Lady Maxwell's feet. There was silence enough now, and the ring of +faces opposite stared astonished and open-mouthed at the tall old lady +with her grey veiled head upraised, as she stood there in the torchlight +and rated them in her fearless indignant voice. + +"I am ashamed, ashamed!" cried Lady Maxwell. "I thought you were men. I +thought you loved my husband; and--and me." Her voice broke, and then +once more she cried again. "I am ashamed, ashamed of my village." + +And then she stooped to that heaving figure that had crawled up, and laid +hold tenderly of the arms that were writhed about her feet. + +"Come home, my dear," Isabel heard her whisper. + +It was a strange procession homeward up the trampled turf. The crowd had +broken into groups, and the people were awed and silent as they watched +the four women go back together. Isabel walked a little behind with her +father and Anthony, who had at last been able to come forward through the +press and join them; and a couple of the torchbearers escorted them. In +front went the three, on one side Lady Maxwell, her lace and silk +splashed and spattered with mud, and her white hands black with it, and +on the other the old nun, each with an arm thrown round the woman in the +centre who staggered and sobbed and leaned against them as she went, with +her long hair and her draggled clothes streaming with liquid mud every +step she took. Once they stopped, at a group of three men. The Rector was +sitting up, in his torn dusty cassock, and Isabel saw that one of his +buckled shoes was gone, as he sat on the grass with his feet before him, +but quiet now, with his hands before him, and a dazed stupid look in his +little black eyes that blinked at the light of the torch that was held +over him; he said nothing as he looked at his wife between the two +ladies, but his lips moved, and his eyes wandered for a moment to Lady +Maxwell's face, and then back to his wife. + +"Take him home presently," she said to the men who were with him--and +then passed on again. + +As they got through the gatehouse, Isabel stepped forward to Mistress +Margaret's side. + +"Shall I come?" she whispered; and the nun shook her head; so she with +her father and brother stood there to watch, with the crowd silent and +ashamed behind. The two torchbearers went on and stood by the steps as +the three ladies ascended, leaving black footmarks as they went. The door +was open and faces of servants peeped out, and hands were thrust out to +take the burden from their mistress, but she shook her head, and the +three came in together, and the door closed. + +As the Norrises went back silently, the Rector passed them, with a little +group accompanying him too; he, too, could hardly walk alone, so +exhausted was he with his furious struggles to rescue his wife. + +"Take your sister home," said Mr. Norris to Anthony; and they saw him +slip off and pass his arm through the Rector's, and bend down his +handsome kindly face to the minister's staring eyes and moving lips as he +too led him homewards. + +Even Anthony was hushed and impressed, and hardly spoke a word until he +and Isabel turned off down the little dark lane to the Dower House. + +"We could do nothing," he said, "father and I--until Lady Maxwell came." + +"No," said Isabel softly, "she only could have done it." + + + + + CHAPTER X + + A CONFESSOR + + +Sir Nicholas and the party were lodged at East Grinsted the night of +their arrest, in the magistrate's house. Although he was allowed privacy +in his room, after he had given his word of honour not to attempt an +escape, yet he was allowed no conversation with Mr. Stewart or his own +servant except in the presence of the magistrate or one of the +pursuivants; and Mr. Stewart, since he was personally unknown to the +magistrate, and since the charge against him was graver, was not on any +account allowed to be alone for a moment, even in the room in which he +slept. The following day they all rode on to London, and the two +prisoners were lodged in the Marshalsea. This had been for a long while +the place where Bishop Bonner was confined; and where Catholic prisoners +were often sent immediately after their arrest; and Sir Nicholas at any +rate found to his joy that he had several old friends among the +prisoners. He was confined in a separate room; but by the kindness of his +gaoler whom he bribed profusely as the custom was, through his servant, +he had many opportunities of meeting the others; and even of approaching +the sacraments and hearing mass now and then. + +He began a letter to his wife on the day of his arrival and finished it +the next day which was Saturday, and it was taken down immediately by the +courier who had heard the news and had called at the prison. In fact, he +was allowed a good deal of liberty; although he was watched and his +conversation listened to, a good deal more than he was aware. Mr. +Stewart, however, as he still called himself, was in a much harder case. +The saddle-bags had been opened on his arrival, and incriminating +documents found. Besides the "popish trinkets" they were found to contain +a number of "seditious pamphlets," printed abroad for distribution in +England; for at this time the College at Douai, under its founder Dr. +William Allen, late Principal of St. Mary's Hall, Oxford, was active in +the production of literature; these were chiefly commentaries on the +Bull; as well as exhortations to the Catholics to stand firm and to +persevere in recusancy, and to the schismatic Catholics, as they were +called, to give over attending the services in the parish churches. There +were letters also from Dr. Storey himself, whom the authorities already +had in person under lock and key at the Tower. These were quite +sufficient to make Mr. Stewart a prize; and he also was very shortly +afterwards removed to the Tower. + +Sir Nicholas wrote a letter at least once a week to his wife; but writing +was something of a labour to him; it was exceedingly doubtful to his mind +whether his letters were not opened and read before being handed to the +courier, and as his seal was taken from him his wife could not tell +either. However they seemed to arrive regularly; plainly therefore the +authorities were either satisfied with their contents or else did not +think them worth opening or suppressing. He was quite peremptory that his +wife should not come up to London; it would only increase his distress, +he said; and he liked to think of her at Maxwell Hall; there were other +reasons too that he was prudent enough not to commit to paper, and which +she was prudent enough to guess at, the principal of which was, of +course, that she ought to be there for the entertaining and helping of +other agents or priests who might be in need of shelter. + +The old man got into good spirits again very soon. It pleased him to +think that God had honoured him by imprisonment; and he said as much once +or twice in his letters to his wife. He was also pleased with a sense of +the part he was playing in the _role_ of a conspirator; and he underlined +and put signs and exclamation marks all over his letters of which he +thought his wife would understand the significance, but no one else; +whereas in reality the old lady was sorely puzzled by them, and the +authorities who opened the letters generally read them of course like a +printed book. + +One morning about ten days after his arrival the Governor of the prison +looked in with the gaoler, and announced to Sir Nicholas, after greeting +him, that he was to appear before the Council that very day. This, of +course, was what Sir Nicholas desired, and he thanked the Governor +cordially for his good news. + +"They will probably keep you at the Tower, Sir Nicholas," said the +Governor, "and we shall lose you. However, sir, I hope you will be more +comfortable there than we have been able to make you." + +The knight thanked the Governor again, and said good-day to him with +great warmth; for they had been on the best of terms with one another +during his short detention at the Marshalsea. + +The following day Sir Nicholas wrote a long letter to his wife describing +his examination. + +"We are in _royal lodgings_ here at last, sweetheart; Mr. Boyd brought my +luggage over yesterday; and I am settled _for the present_ in a room of +my own in the White Tower; with a prospect over the Court. I was had +before my lords yesterday in the Council-room; we drove hither from the +Marshalsea. There was a bay window in the room. I promise you they got +little enough from me. There was my namesake, Sir Nicholas Bacon, my +lords Leicester and Pembroke, and Mr. Secretary Cecil; Sir James Crofts, +the Controller of the Household, and one or two more; but these were the +principal. I was set before the table on a chair alone with none to guard +me; but with men at the doors I knew very well. My lords were very +courteous to me; though they laughed more than was seemly at such grave +times. They questioned me much as to my religion. Was I a papist? If they +meant by that a _Catholic_, that I was, and thanked God for it every +day--(those nicknames like me not). Was I then a recusant? If by that +they meant, Did I go to their Genevan Hotch-Potch? That I did not nor +never would. I thought to have said a word here about St. Cyprian his +work _De Unitate Ecclesiae_, as F----r X. told me, but they would not let +me speak. Did I know Mr. Chapman? If by that they meant Mr. Stewart, that +I did, and for a courteous God-fearing gentleman too. Was he a Papist, or +a Catholic if I would have it so? That I would not tell them; let them +find that out with their pursuivants and that crew. Did I think +Protestants to be fearers of God? That I did not; they feared nought but +the Queen's Majesty, so it seemed to me. Then they all laughed at once--I +know not why. Then they grew grave; and Mr. Secretary began to ask me +questions, sharp and hard; but I would not be put upon, and answered him +again as he asked. Did I know ought of Dr. Storey? Nothing, said I, save +that he is a good Catholic, and that they had taken him. _He is a +seditious rogue_, said my Lord Pembroke. _That he is not_, said I. Then +they asked me what I thought of the Pope and his Bull, and whether he can +depose princes. I said I thought him to be the Vicar of Christ; and as to +his power to depose princes, that I supposed he could do, if he said so. +Then two or three cried out on me that I had not answered honestly; and +at that I got wrath; and then they laughed again, at least I saw Sir +James Crofts at it. And Mr. Secretary, looking very hard at me asked +whether if Philip sent an armament against Elizabeth to depose her, I +would fight for him or her grace. For neither, said I: I am too old. _For +which then would you pray?_ said they. _For the Queen's Grace_, said I, +_for that she was my sovereign_. This seemed to content them; and they +talked a little among themselves. They had asked me other questions too +as to my way of living; whether I went to mass. They asked me too a +little more about Mr. Stewart. Did I know him to be a seditious rascal? +That I did not, said I. _Then how_, asked they, _did you come to receive +him and his pamphlets?_ Of his pamphlets, said I, I know nothing; I saw +nothing in his bags save beads and a few holy books and such things. (You +see, sweetheart, I did him no injury by saying so, because I knew that +they had his bags themselves.) And I said I had received him because he +was recommended to me by some good friends of mine abroad, and I told +them their names too; for they are safe in Flanders now. + +"And when they had done their questions they talked again for a while; and +I was sent out to the antechamber to refresh myself; and Mr. Secretary +sent a man with me to see that I had all I needed; and we talked together +a little, and he said the Council were in good humour at the taking of +Dr. Storey; and he had never seen them so merry. Then I was had back +again presently; and Mr. Secretary said I was to stay in the Tower; and +that Mr. Boyd was gone already to bring my things. And so after that I +went by water to the Tower, and here I am, sweetheart, well and cheerful, +praise God.... + +"My dearest, I send you my heart's best love. God have you in his holy +keeping." + +The Council treated the old knight very tenderly. They were shrewd enough +to see his character very plainly; and that he was a simple man who knew +nothing of sedition, but only had harboured agents thinking them to be as +guileless as himself. As a matter of fact, Mr. Stewart was an agent of +Dr. Storey's; and was therefore implicated in a number of very grave +charges. This of course was a very serious matter; but both in the +examination of the Council, and in papers in Mr. Stewart's bags, nothing +could be found to implicate Sir Nicholas in any political intrigue at +all. The authorities were unwilling too to put such a man to the torture. +There was always a possibility of public resentment against the torture +of a man for his religion alone; and they were desirous not to arouse +this, since they had many prisoners who would be more productive subjects +of the rack than a plainly simple and loyal old man whose only crime was +his religion. They determined, however, to make an attempt to get a +little more out of Sir Nicholas by a device which would excite no +resentment if it ever transpired, and one which was more suited to the +old man's nature and years. + +Sir Nicholas thus described it to his wife. + +"Last night, my dearest, I had a great honour and consolation. I was +awakened suddenly towards two o'clock in the morning by the door of my +room opening and a man coming in. It was somewhat dark, and I could not +see the man plainly, but I could see that he limped and walked with a +stick, and he breathed hard as he entered. I sat up and demanded of him +who he was and what he wanted; and telling me to be still, he said that +he was Dr. Storey. You may be sure, sweetheart, that I sprang up at that; +but he would not let me rise; and himself sat down beside me. He said +that by the _kindness_ of a gaoler he had been allowed to come; and that +he must not stay with me long; that he had heard of me from his good +friend Mr. Stewart. I asked him how he did, for I heard that he had been +racked; and he said yes, it was true; but that by the mercy of God and +the prayers of the saints he had held his peace and they knew nothing +from him. Then he asked me a great number of questions about the _men I +had entertained_, and where they were now; and he knew many of their +names. Some of them were friends of his own, he said; especially the +priests. We talked a good while, till the morning light began; and then +he said he must be gone or the head gaoler would know of his visit, and +so he went. I wish I could have seen his face, sweetheart, for I think +him a great servant of God; but it was still too dark when he went, and +we dared not have a light for fear it should be seen." + +This was as a matter of fact a ruse of the authorities. It was not Dr. +Storey at all who was admitted to Sir Nicholas' prison, but Parker, who +had betrayed him at Antwerp. It was so successful, for Sir Nicholas told +him all that he knew (which was really nothing at all) that it was +repeated a few months later with richer results; when the conspirator +Baily, hysterical and almost beside himself with the pain of the rack, +under similar circumstances gave up a cypher which was necessary to the +Council in dealing with the correspondence of Mary Stuart. However, Sir +Nicholas never knew the deception, and to the end of his days was proud +that he had actually met the famous Dr. Storey, when they were both +imprisoned in the Tower together, and told his friends of it with +reverent pride when the doctor was hanged a year later. + +Hubert, who had been sent for to take charge of the estate, had come to +London soon after his father's arrival at the Tower; and was allowed an +interview with him in the presence of the Lieutenant. Hubert was greatly +affected; though he could not look upon the imprisonment with the same +solemn exultation as that which his father had; but it made a real +impression upon him to find that he took so patiently this separation +from home and family for the sake of religion. Hubert received +instructions from Sir Nicholas as to the management of the estate, for it +was becoming plain that his father would have to remain in the Tower for +the present; not any longer on a really grave charge, but chiefly because +he was an obstinate recusant and would promise nothing. The law and its +administration at this time were very far apart; the authorities were not +very anxious to search out and punish those who were merely recusants or +refused to take the oath of supremacy; and so Hubert and Mr. Boyd and +other Catholics were able to come and go under the very nose of justice +without any real risk to themselves; but it was another matter to let a +sturdy recusant go from prison who stoutly refused to give any sort of +promise or understanding as to future behaviour. + +Sir Nicholas was had down more than once to further examination before +the Lords Commissioners in the Lieutenant's house; but it was a very tame +and even an amusing affair for all save Sir Nicholas. It was so easy to +provoke him; he was so simple and passionate that they could get almost +anything they wanted out of him by a little adroit baiting; and more than +once his examination formed a welcome and humorous entr'acte between two +real tragedies. Sir Nicholas, of course, never suspected for a moment +that he was affording any amusement to any one. He thought their weary +laughter to be sardonic and ironical, and he looked upon himself as a +very desperate fellow indeed; and wrote glowing accounts of it all to his +wife, full of apostrophic praises to God and the saints, in a hand that +shook with excitement and awe at the thought of the important scenes in +which he played so prominent a part. + +But there was no atmosphere of humour about Mr. Stewart. He had +disappeared from Sir Nicholas' sight on their arrival at the Marshalsea, +and they had not set eyes on one another since; nor could all the +knight's persuasion and offer of bribes make his gaoler consent to take +any message or scrap of paper between them. He would not even answer more +than the simplest inquiries about him,--that he was alive and in the +Tower, and so forth; and Sir Nicholas prayed often and earnestly for that +deliberate and vivacious young man who had so charmed and interested them +all down at Great Keynes, and who had been so mysteriously engulfed by +the sombre majesty of the law. + +"I fear," he wrote to Lady Maxwell, "I fear that _our friend_ must be +sick or dying. But I can hear no news of him; when I am allowed sometimes +to walk in the court or on the leads he is never there. My _attendant_ +Mr. Jakes looks glum and says nothing when I ask him how my friend does. +My dearest, do not forget him in your prayers nor your old loving husband +either." + +One evening late in October Mr. Jakes did not come as usual to bring Sir +Nicholas his supper at five o'clock; the time passed and still he did not +come. This was very unusual. Presently Mrs. Jakes appeared instead, +carrying the food which she set down at the door while she turned the key +behind her. Sir Nicholas rallied her on having turned gaoler; but she +turned on him a face with red eyes and lined with weeping. + +"O Sir Nicholas," she said, for these two were good friends, "what a +wicked place this is! God forgive me for saying so; but they've had that +young man down there since two o'clock; and Jakes is with them to help; +and he told me to come up to you, Sir Nicholas, with your supper, if they +weren't done by five; and if the young gentleman hadn't said what they +wanted." + +Sir Nicholas felt sick. + +"Who is it?" he asked. + +"Why, who but Mr. Stewart?" she said; and then fell weeping again, and +went out forgetting to lock the door behind her in her grief. Sir +Nicholas sat still a moment, sick and shaken; he knew what it meant; but +it had never come so close to him before. He got up presently and went to +the door to listen for he knew not what. But there was no sound but the +moan of the wind up the draughty staircase, and the sound of a prisoner +singing somewhere above him a snatch of a song. He looked out presently, +but there was nothing but the dark well of the staircase disappearing +round to the left, and the glimmer of an oil lamp somewhere from the +depths below him, with wavering shadows as the light was blown about by +the gusts that came up from outside. There was nothing to be done of +course; he closed the door, went back and prayed with all his might for +the young man who was somewhere in this huge building, in his agony. + +Mr. Jakes came up himself within half an hour to see if all was well; but +said nothing of his dreadful employment or of Mr. Stewart; and Sir +Nicholas did not like to ask for fear of getting Mrs. Jakes into trouble. +The gaoler took away the supper things, wished him good-night, went out +and locked the door, apparently without noticing it had been left undone +before. Possibly his mind was too much occupied with what he had been +seeing and doing. And the faithful account of all this went down in due +time to Great Keynes. + +The arrival of the courier at the Hall on Wednesday and Saturday was a +great affair both to the household and to the village. Sir Nicholas sent +his letter generally by the Saturday courier, and the other brought a +kind of bulletin from Mr. Boyd, with sometimes a message or two from his +master. These letters were taken by the ladies first to the study, as if +to an oratory, and Lady Maxwell would read them slowly over to her +sister. And in the evening, when Isabel generally came up for an hour or +two, the girl would be asked to read them slowly all over again to the +two ladies who sat over their embroidery on either side of her, and who +interrupted for the sheer joy of prolonging it. And they would discuss +together the exact significance of all his marks of emphasis and irony; +and the girl would have all she could do sometimes not to feel a disloyal +amusement at the transparency of the devices and the simplicity of the +loving hearts that marvelled at the writer's depth and ingenuity. But she +was none the less deeply impressed by his courageous cheerfulness, and by +the power of a religion that in spite of its obvious weaknesses and +improbabilities yet inspired an old man like Sir Nicholas with so much +fortitude. + +At first, too, a kind of bulletin was always issued on the Sunday and +Thursday mornings, and nailed upon the outside of the gatehouse, so that +any who pleased could come there and get first-hand information; and an +interpreter stood there sometimes, one of the educated younger sons of +Mr. Piers, and read out to the groups from Lady Maxwell's sprawling old +handwriting, news of the master. + +"Sir Nicholas has been had before the Council," he read out one day in a +high complacent voice to the awed listeners, "and has been sent to the +Tower of London." This caused consternation in the village, as it was +supposed by the country-folk, not without excuse, that the Tower was the +antechamber of death; but confidence was restored by the further +announcement a few lines down that "he was well and cheerful." + +Great interest, too, was aroused by more domestic matters. + +"Sir Nicholas," it was proclaimed, "is in a little separate chamber of +his own. Mr. Jakes, his gaoler, seems an honest fellow. Sir Nicholas hath +a little mattress from a friend that Mr. Boyd fetched for him. He has +dinner at eleven and supper at five. Sir Nicholas hopes that all are well +in the village." + +But other changes had followed the old knight's arrest. The furious +indignation in the village against the part that the Rectory had played +in the matter, made it impossible for the Dents to remain there. That the +minister's wife should have been publicly ducked, and that not by a few +blackguards but by the solid fathers and sons with the applause of the +wives and daughters, made her husband's position intolerable, and further +evidence was forthcoming in the behaviour of the people towards the +Rector himself; some boys had guffawed during his sermon on the following +Sunday, when he had ventured on a word or two of penitence as to his +share in the matter, and he was shouted after on his way home. + +Mrs. Dent seemed strangely changed and broken during her stay at the +Hall. She had received a terrible shock, and it was not safe to move her +back to her own house. For the first two or three nights, she would start +from sleep again and again screaming for help and mercy and nothing would +quiet her till she was wide awake and saw in the fire-light the curtained +windows and the bolted door, and the kindly face of an old servant or +Mistress Margaret with her beads in her hand. Isabel, who came up to see +her two or three times, was both startled and affected by the change in +her; and by the extraordinary mood of humility which seemed to have taken +possession of the hard self-righteous Puritan. + +"I begged pardon," she whispered to the girl one evening, sitting up in +bed and staring at her with wide, hard eyes, "I begged pardon of Lady +Maxwell, though I am not fit to speak to her. Do you think she can ever +forgive me? Do you think she can? It was I, you know, who wrought all the +mischief, as I have wrought all the mischief in the village all these +years. She said she did, and she kissed me, and said that our Saviour had +forgiven her much more. But--but do you think she has forgiven me?" And +then again, another night, a day or two before they left the place, she +spoke to Isabel again. + +"Look after the poor bodies," she said, "teach them a little charity; I +have taught them nought but bitterness and malice, so they have but given +me my own back again. I have reaped what I have sown." + +So the Dents slipped off early one morning before the folk were up; and +by the following Sunday, young Mr. Bodder, of whom the Bishop entertained +a high opinion, occupied the little desk outside the chancel arch; and +Great Keynes once more had to thank God and the diocesan that it +possessed a proper minister of its own, and not a mere unordained reader, +which was all that many parishes could obtain. + +Towards the end of September further hints began to arrive, very much +underlined, in the knight's letters, of Mr. Stewart and his sufferings. + +"You remember _our friend_," Isabel read out one Saturday evening, "_not_ +Mr. Stewart." (This puzzled the old ladies sorely till Isabel explained +their lord's artfulness.) "My dearest, I fear the worst for him. I do not +mean apostacy, thank God. But I fear that these _wolves_ have torn him +sadly, in their _dens_." Then followed the story of Mrs. Jakes, with all +its horror, all the greater from the obscurity of the details. + +Isabel put the paper down trembling, as she sat on the rug before the +fire in the parlour upstairs, and thought of the bright-eyed, red-haired +man with his steady mouth and low laugh whom Anthony had described to +her. + +Lady Maxwell posted upon the gatehouse: + +"Sir Nicholas fears that a _friend_ is in sore trouble; he hopes he may +not _yield_." + +Then, after a few days more, a brief notice with a black-line drawn round +it, that ran, in Mr. Bodder's despite: + +"Our _friend_ has passed away. Pray for his soul." + +Sir Nicholas had written in great agitation to this effect. + +"My sweetheart, I have heavy news to-day. There was a great company of +folks below my window to-day, in the Inner Ward, where the road runs up +below the Bloody Tower. It was about nine of the clock. And there was a +horse there whose head I could see; and presently from the Beauchamp +Tower came, as I thought, an old man between two warders; and then I +could not very well see; the men were in my way; but soon the horse went +off, and the men after him; and I could hear the groaning of the crowd +that were waiting for them outside. And when Mr. Jakes brought me my +dinner at eleven of the clock, he told me it was our friend--(think of +it, my dearest--him whom I thought an old man!)--that had been taken off +to Tyburn. And now I need say no more, but bid you pray for his soul." + +Isabel could hardly finish reading it; for she heard a quick sobbing +breath behind her, and felt a wrinkled old hand caressing her hair and +cheek as her voice faltered. + +Meanwhile Hubert was in town. Sir Nicholas had at first intended him to +go down at once and take charge of the estate; but Piers was very +competent, and so his father consented that he should remain in London +until the beginning of October; and this too better suited Mr. Norris' +plans who wished to send Isabel off about the same time to Northampton. + +When Hubert at last did arrive, he soon showed himself extremely capable +and apt for the work. He was out on the estate from morning till night on +his cob, and there was not a man under him from Piers downwards who had +anything but praise for his insight and industry. + +There was in Hubert, too, as there so often is in country-boys who love +and understand the life of the woods and fields, a balancing quality of a +deep vein of sentiment; and this was now consecrated to Isabel Norris. He +had pleasant dreams as he rode home in the autumn evening, under the +sweet keen sky where the harvest moon rose large and yellow over the +hills to his left and shed a strange mystical light that blended in a +kind of chord with the dying daylight. It was at times like that, when +the air was fragrant with the scent of dying leaves, with perhaps a touch +of frost in it, and the cottages one by one opened red glowing eyes in +the dusk, that the boy began to dream of a home of his own and pleasant +domestic joys; of burning logs on the hearth and lighted candles, and a +dear slender figure moving about the room. He used to rehearse to himself +little meetings and partings; look at the roofs of the Dower House +against the primrose sky as he rode up the fields homewards; identify her +window, dark now as she was away; and long for Christmas when she would +be back again. The only shadow over these delightful pictures was the +uncertainty as to the future. Where after all would the home be? For he +was a younger son. He thought about James very often. When he came back +would he live at home? Would it all be James' at his father's death, +these woods and fields and farms and stately house? Would it ever come to +him? And, meanwhile where should he and Isabel live, when the religious +difficulty had been surmounted, as he had no doubt that it would be +sooner or later? + +When he thought of his father now, it was with a continually increasing +respect. He had been inclined to despise him sometimes before, as one of +a simple and uneventful life; but now the red shadow of the Law conferred +dignity. To have been imprisoned in the Tower was a patent of nobility, +adding distinction and gravity to the commonplace. Something of the glory +even rested on Hubert himself as he rode and hawked with other Catholic +boys, whose fathers maybe were equally zealous for the Faith, but less +distinguished by suffering for it. + +Before Anthony went back to Cambridge, he and Hubert went out nearly +every day together with or without their hawks. Anthony was about three +years the younger, and Hubert's additional responsibility for the estate +made the younger boy more in awe of him than the difference in their ages +warranted. Besides, Hubert knew quite as much about sport, and had more +opportunities for indulging his taste for it. There was no heronry at +hand; besides, it was not the breeding time which is the proper season +for this particular sport; so they did not trouble to ride out to one; +but the partridges and hares and rabbits that abounded in the Maxwell +estate gave them plenty of quarreys. They preferred to go out generally +without the falconer, a Dutchman, who had been taken into the service of +Sir Nicholas thirty years before when things had been more prosperous; it +was less embarrassing so; but they would have a lad to carry the "cadge," +and a pony following them to carry the game. They added to the excitement +of the sport by making it a competition between their birds; and flying +them one after another, or sometimes at the same quarry, as in coursing; +but this often led to the birds' crabbing. + +Anthony's peregrine Eliza was almost unapproachable; and the lad was the +more proud of her as he had "made" her himself, as an "eyess" or young +falcon captured as a nestling. But, on the other hand, Hubert's goshawk +Margaret, a fiery little creature, named inappropriately enough after his +tranquil aunt, as a rule did better than Anthony's Isabel, and brought +the scores level again. + +There was one superb day that survived long in Anthony's memory and +conversation; when he had done exceptionally well, when Eliza had +surpassed herself, and even Isabel had acquitted herself with credit. It +was one of those glorious days of wind and sun that occasionally fall in +early October, with a pale turquoise sky overhead, and air that seems to +sparkle and intoxicate like wine. They went out together after dinner +about noon; their ponies and spaniels danced with the joy of life; Lady +Maxwell cried to them from the north terrace to be careful, and pointed +out to Mr. Norris who had dined with them what a graceful seat Hubert +had; and then added politely, but as an obvious afterthought, that +Anthony seemed to manage his pony with great address. The boys turned off +through the village, and soon got on to high ground to the west of the +village and all among the stubble and mustard, with tracts of rich sunlit +country, of meadows and russet woodland below them on every side. Then +the sport began. It seemed as if Eliza could not make a mistake. There +rose a solitary partridge forty yards away with a whirl of wings; (the +coveys were being well broken up by now) Anthony unhooded his bird and +"cast off," with the falconer's cry "Hoo-ha, ha, ha, ha," and up soared +Eliza with the tinkle of bells, on great strokes of those mighty wings, +up, up, behind the partridge that fled low down the wind for his life. +The two ponies were put to the gallop as the peregrine began to "stoop"; +and then down like a plummet she fell with closed wings, "raked" the +quarry with her talons as she passed; recovered herself, and as Anthony +came up holding out the _tabur-stycke_, returned to him and was hooded +and leashed again; and sat there on his gloved wrist with wet claws, just +shivering slightly from her nerves, like the aristocrat she was; while +her master stroked her ashy back and the boy picked up the quarry, +admiring the deep rent before he threw it into the pannier. + +Then Hubert had the next turn; but his falcon missed his first stoop, and +did not strike the quarry till the second attempt, thus scoring one to +Anthony's account. Then the peregrines were put back on the cadge as the +boys got near to a wide meadow in a hollow where the rabbits used to +feed; and the goshawks Margaret and Isabel were taken, each in turn +sitting unhooded on her master's wrist, while they all watched the long +thin grass for the quick movement that marked the passage of a +rabbit;--and then in a moment the bird was cast off. The goshawk would +rise just high enough to see the quarry in the grass, then fly straight +with arched wings and pounces stretched out as she came over the quarry; +then striking him between the shoulders would close with him; and her +master would come up and take her off, throw the rabbit to the +game-carrier; and the other would have the next attempt. + +And so they went on for three or four hours, encouraging their birds, +whooping the death of the quarry, watching with all the sportsman's +keenness the soaring and stooping of the peregrines, the raking off of +the goshawks; listening to the thrilling tinkle of the bells, and taking +back their birds to sit triumphant and complacent on their master's +wrists, when the quarry had been fairly struck, and furious and sullen +when it had eluded them two or three times till their breath left them in +the dizzy rushes, and they "canceliered" or even returned disheartened +and would fly no more till they had forgotten--till at last the shadows +grew long, and the game more wary, and the hawks and ponies tired; and +the boys put up the birds on the cadge, and leashed them to it securely; +and jogged slowly homewards together up the valley road that led to the +village, talking in technical terms of how the merlin's feather must be +"imped" to-morrow; and of the relative merits of the "varvels" or little +silver rings at the end of the jesses through which the leash ran, and +the Dutch swivel that Squire Blackett always used. + +As they got nearer home and the red roofs of the Dower House began to +glow in the ruddy sunlight above the meadows, Hubert began to shift the +conversation round to Isabel, and inquire when she was coming home. +Anthony was rather bored at this turn of the talk; but thought she would +be back by Christmas at the latest; and said that she was at +Northampton--and had Hubert ever seen such courage as Eliza's? But Hubert +would not be put off; but led the talk back again to the girl; and at +last told Anthony under promise of secrecy that he was fond of Isabel, +and wished to make her his wife;--and oh! did Anthony think she cared +really for him. Anthony stared and wondered and had no opinion at all on +the subject; but presently fell in love with the idea that Hubert should +be his brother-in-law and go hawking with him every day; and he added a +private romance of his own in which he and Mary Corbet should be at the +Dower House, with Hubert and Isabel at the Hall; while the elders, his +own father, Sir Nicholas, Mr. James, Lady Maxwell, and Mistress Torridon +had all taken up submissive and complacent attitudes in the middle +distance. + +He was so pensive that evening that his father asked him at supper +whether he had not had a good day; which diverted his thoughts from +Mistress Corbet, and led him away from sentiment on a stream of his own +talk with long backwaters of description of this and that stoop, and of +exactly the points in which he thought the Maxwells' falconer had failed +in the training of Hubert's Jane. + +Hubert found a long letter waiting from his father which Lady Maxwell +gave him to read, with messages to himself in it about the estate, which +brought him down again from the treading of rosy cloud-castles with a +phantom Isabel whither his hawks and the shouting wind and the happy day +had wafted him, down to questions of barns and farm-servants and the +sober realities of harvest. + + + + + CHAPTER XI + + MASTER CALVIN + + +Isabel reached Northampton a day or two before Hubert came back to Great +Keynes. She travelled down with two combined parties going to Leicester +and Nottingham, sleeping at Leighton Buzzard on the way; and on the +evening of the second day reached the house of her father's friend Dr. +Carrington, that stood in the Market Square. + +Her father's intention in sending her to this particular town and +household was to show her how Puritanism, when carried to its extreme, +was as orderly and disciplined a system, and was able to control the +lives of its adherents, as well as the Catholicism whose influence on her +character he found himself beginning to fear. But he wished also that she +should be repelled to some extent by the merciless rigidity she would +find at Northampton, and thus, after an oscillation or two come to rest +in the quiet eclecticism of that middle position which he occupied +himself. + +The town indeed was at this time a miniature Geneva. There was something +in the temper of its inhabitants that made it especially susceptible to +the wave of Puritanism that was sweeping over England. Lollardy had +flourished among them so far back as the reign of Richard II; when the +mayor, as folks told one another with pride, had plucked a mass-priest by +the vestment on the way to the altar in All Saints' Church, and had made +him give over his mummery till the preacher had finished his sermon. + +Dr. Carrington, too, a clean-shaven, blue-eyed, grey-haired man, +churchwarden of Saint Sepulchre's, was a representative of the straitest +views, and desperately in earnest. For him the world ranged itself into +the redeemed and the damned; these two companies were the pivots of life +for him; and every subject of mind or desire was significant only so far +as it bore relations to be immutable decrees of God. But his fierce and +merciless theological insistence was disguised by a real human tenderness +and a marked courtesy of manner; and Isabel found him a kindly and +thoughtful host. + +Yet the mechanical strictness of the household, and the overpowering +sense of the weightiness of life that it conveyed, was a revelation to +Isabel. Dr. Carrington at family prayers was a tremendous figure, as he +kneeled upright at the head of the table in the sombre dining-room; and +it seemed to Isabel in her place that the pitiless all-seeing Presence +that kept such terrifying silence as the Doctor cried on Jehovah, was +almost a different God to that whom she knew in the morning parlour at +home, to whom her father prayed with more familiarity but no less +romance, and who answered in the sunshine that lay on the carpet, and the +shadows of boughs that moved across it, and the chirp of the birds under +the eaves. And all day long she thought she noticed the same difference; +at Great Keynes life was made up of many parts, the love of family, the +country doings, the worship of God, the garden, and the company of the +Hall ladies; and the Presence of God interpenetrated all like light or +fragrance; but here life was lived under the glare of His eye, and +absorption in any detail apart from the consciousness of that +encompassing Presence had the nature of sin. + +On the Saturday after her arrival, as she was walking by the Nen with +Kate Carrington, one of the two girls, she asked her about the crowd of +ministers she had seen in the streets that morning. + +"They have been to the Prophesyings," said Kate. "My father says that +there is no exercise that sanctifies a godly young minister so quickly." + +Kate went on to describe them further. The ministers assembled each +Saturday at nine o'clock, and one of their number gave a short +Bible-reading or lecture. Then all present were invited to join in the +discussion; the less instructed would ask questions, the more experienced +would answer, and debate would run high. Such a method Kate explained, +who herself was a zealous and well instructed Calvinist, was the surest +and swiftest road to truth, for every one held the open Scriptures in his +hand, and interpreted and checked the speakers by the aid of that +infallible guide. + +"But if a man's judgment lead him wrong?" asked Isabel, who professedly +admitted authority to have some place in matters of faith. + +"All must hold the Apostles' Creed first of all," said Kate, "and must +set his name to a paper declaring the Pope to be antichrist, with other +truths upon it." + +Isabel was puzzled; for it seemed now as if Private Judgment were not +supreme among its professors; but she did not care to question further. +It began to dawn upon her presently, however, why the Queen was so fierce +against Prophesyings; for she saw that they exercised that spirit of +exclusiveness, the property of Papist and Puritan alike; which, since it +was the antithesis of the tolerant comprehensiveness of the Church of +England, was also the enemy of the theological peace that Elizabeth was +seeking to impose upon the country; and that it was for that reason that +Papist and Puritan, sundered so far in theology, were united in suffering +for conscience' sake. + +On the Sunday morning Isabel went with Mrs. Carrington and the two girls +to the round Templars' Church of Saint Sepulchre, for the Morning Prayer +at eight o'clock, and then on to St. Peter's for the sermon. It was the +latter function that was important in Puritan eyes; for the word preached +was considered to have an almost sacramental force in the application of +truth and grace to the soul; and crowds of people, with downcast eyes and +in sombre dress, were pouring down the narrow streets from all the +churches round, while the great bell beat out its summons from the Norman +tower. The church was filled from end to end as they came in, meeting Dr. +Carrington at the door, and they all passed up together to the pew +reserved for the churchwarden, close beneath the pulpit. + +As Isabel looked round her, it came upon her very forcibly what she had +begun to notice even at Great Keynes, that the religion preached there +did not fit the church in which it was set forth; and that, though great +efforts had been made to conform the building to the worship. There had +been no half measures at Northampton, for the Puritans had a loathing of +what they called a "mingle-mangle." Altars, footpaces, and piscinae had +been swept away and all marks of them removed, as well as the rood-loft +and every image in the building; the stained windows had been replaced by +plain glass painted white; the walls had been whitewashed from roof to +floor, and every suspicion of colour erased except where texts of +Scripture ran rigidly across the open wall spaces: "We are not under the +Law, but under Grace," Isabel read opposite her, beneath the clerestory +windows. And, above all, the point to which all lines and eyes converged, +was occupied no longer by the Table but by the tribunal of the Lord. Yet +underneath the disguise the old religion triumphed still. Beneath the +great plain orderly scheme, without depth of shadows, dominated by the +towering place of Proclamation where the crimson-faced herald waited to +begin, the round arches and the elaborate mouldings, and the cool depths +beyond the pillars, all declared that in the God for whom that temple was +built, there was mystery as well as revelation, Love as well as Justice, +condescension as well as Majesty, beauty as well as awfulness, +invitations as well as eternal decrees. + +Isabel looked up presently, as the people still streamed in, and watched +the minister in his rustling Genevan gown, leaning with his elbows on the +Bible that rested open on the great tasselled velvet cushion before him. +Everything about him was on the grand scale; his great hands were clasped +and protruded over the edge of the Book; and his heavy dark face looked +menacingly round on the crowded church; he had the air of a melancholy +giant about to engage in some tragic pleasure. But Isabel's instinctive +dislike began to pass into positive terror so soon as he began to preach. + +When the last comers had found a place, and the talking had stopped, he +presently gave out his text, in a slow thunderous voice, that silenced +the last whispers: + +"What shall we then say to these things? If God be on our side, who can +be against us?" + +There were a few slow sentences, in a deep resonant voice, uttering each +syllable deliberately like the explosion of a far-off gun, and in a +minute or two he was in the thick of Calvin's smoky gospel. Doctrine, +voice, and man were alike terrible and overpowering. + +There lay the great scheme in a few minutes, seen by Isabel as though +through the door of hell, illumined by the glare of the eternal embers. +The huge merciless Will of God stood there before her, disclosed in all +its awfulness, armed with thunders, moving on mighty wheels. The +foreknowledge of God closed the question henceforth, and, if proof were +needed, made predestination plain. There was man's destiny, irrevocably +fixed, iron-bound, changeless and immovable as the laws of God's own +being. Yet over the rigid and awful Face of God, flickered a faint light, +named mercy; and this mercy vindicated its existence by demanding that +some souls should escape the final and endless doom that was the due +reward of every soul conceived and born in enmity against God and under +the frown of His Justice. + +Then, heralded too by wrath, the figure of Jesus began to glimmer through +the thunderclouds; and Isabel lifted her eyes, to look in hope. But He +was not as she had known him in His graciousness, and as He had revealed +Himself to her in tender communion, and among the flowers and under the +clear skies of Sussex. Here, in this echoing world of wrath He stood, +pale and rigid, with lightning in His eyes, and the grim and crimson +Cross behind him; and as powerless as His own Father Himself to save one +poor timid despairing hoping soul against whom the Eternal Decree had +gone forth. Jesus was stern and forbidding here, with the red glare of +wrath on His Face too, instead of the rosy crown of Love upon His +forehead; His mouth was closed with compressed lips which surely would +only open to condemn; not that mouth, quivering and human, that had +smiled and trembled and bent down from the Cross to kiss poor souls that +could not hope, nor help themselves, that had smiled upon Isabel ever +since she had known Him. It was appalling to this gentle maiden soul that +had bloomed and rejoiced so long in the shadow of His healing, to be torn +out of her retreat and set thus under the consuming noonday of the +Justice of this Sun of white-hot Righteousness. + +For, as she listened, it was all so miserably convincing; her own little +essays of intellect and flights of hopeful imagination were caught up and +whirled away in the strong rush of this man's argument; her timid +expectancy that God was really Love, as she understood the word in the +vision of her Saviour's Person,--this was dashed aside as a childish +fancy; the vision of the Father of the Everlasting Arms receded into the +realm of dreams; and instead there lowered overhead in this furious +tempest of wrath a monstrous God with a stony Face and a stonier Heart, +who was eternally either her torment or salvation; and Isabel thought, +and trembled at the blasphemy, that if God were such as this, the one +would be no less agony than the other. Was this man bearing false +witness, not only against his neighbour, but far more awfully, against +his God? But it was too convincing; it was built up on an iron hammered +framework of a great man's intellect and made white hot with another +great man's burning eloquence. But it seemed to Isabel now and again as +if a thunder-voiced virile devil were proclaiming the Gospel of +Everlasting shame. There he bent over the pulpit with flaming face and +great compelling gestures that swayed the congregation, eliciting the +emotions he desired, as the conductor's baton draws out the music (for +the man was a great orator), and he stormed and roared and seemed to +marshal the very powers of the world to come, compelling them by his nod, +and interpreting them by his voice; and below him sat this poor child, +tossed along on his eloquence, like a straw on a flood; and yet hating +and resenting it and struggling to detach herself and disbelieve every +word he spoke. + +As the last sands were running out in his hour-glass, he came to harbour +from this raging sea; and in a few deep resonant sentences, like those +with which he began, he pictured the peace of the ransomed soul, that +knows itself safe in the arms of God; that rejoices, even in this world, +in the Light of His Face and the ecstasy of His embrace; that dwells by +waters of comfort and lies down in the green pastures of the Heavenly +Love; while, round this little island of salvation in an ocean of terror, +the thunders of wrath sound only as the noise of surge on a far-off reef. + +The effect on Isabel was very great. It was far more startling than her +visit to London; there her quiet religion had received high sanction in +the mystery of S. Paul's. But here it was the plainest Calvinism preached +with immense power. The preacher's last words of peace were no peace to +her. If it was necessary to pass those bellowing breakers of wrath to +reach the Happy Country, then she had never reached it yet; she had lived +so far in an illusion; her life had been spent in a fool's paradise, +where the light and warmth and flowers were but artificial after all; and +she knew that she had not the heart to set out again. Though she +recognised dimly the compelling power of this religion, and that it was +one which, if sincerely embraced, would make the smallest details of life +momentous with eternal weight, yet she knew that her soul could never +respond to it, and whether saved or damned that it could only cower in +miserable despair under a Deity that was so sovereign as this. + +So her heart was low and her eyes sad as she followed Mrs. Carrington out +of church. Was this then really the Revelation of the Love of God in the +Person of Jesus Christ? Had all that she knew as the Gospel melted down +into this fiery lump? + +The rest of the day did not alter the impression made on her mind. There +was little talk, or evidence of any human fellowship, in the Carrington +household on the Lord's Day; there was a word or two of grave +commendation on the sermon during dinner; and in the afternoon there was +the Evening Prayer to be attended in St. Sepulchre's followed by an +exposition, and a public catechising on Calvin's questions and answers. +Here the same awful doctrines reappeared, condensed with an icy reality, +even more paralysing than the burning presentation of them in the +morning's sermon. She was spared questions herself, as she was a +stranger; and sat to hear girls of her own age and older men and women +who looked as soft-hearted as herself, utter definitions of the method of +salvation and the being and character of God that compelled the assent of +her intellect, while they jarred with her spiritual experience as +fiercely as brazen trumpets out of tune. + +In the evening there followed further religious exercises in the dark +dining-room, at the close of which Dr. Carrington read one of Mr. +Calvin's Genevan discourses, from his tall chair at the head of the +table. She looked at him at first, and wondered in her heart whether that +man, with his clear gentle voice, and his pleasant old face crowned with +iron-grey hair seen in the mellow candlelight, really believed in the +terrible gospel of the morning; for she heard nothing of the academic +discourse that he was reading now, and presently her eyes wandered away +out of the windows to the pale night sky. There still glimmered a faint +streak of light in the west across the Market Square; it seemed to her as +a kind of mirror of her soul at this moment; the tender daylight had +faded, though she could still discern the token of its presence far away, +and as from behind the bars of a cage; but the night of God's wrath was +fast blotting out the last touch of radiance from her despairing soul. + +Dr. Carrington looked at her with courteous anxiety, but with approval +too, as he held her hand for a moment as she said good-night to him. +There were shadows of weariness and depression under her eyes, and the +corners of her mouth drooped a little; and the doctor's heart stirred +with hope that the Word of God had reached at last this lamb of His who +had been fed too long on milk, and sheltered from the sun; but who was +now coming out, driven it might be, and unhappy, but still on its way to +the plain and wholesome pastures of the Word that lay in the glow of the +unveiled glory of God. + +Isabel in her dark room upstairs was miserable; she stood long at her +window her face pressed against the glass, and looked at the sky, from +which the last streak of light had now died, and longed with all her +might for her own oak room at home, with her prie-dieu and the familiar +things about her; and the pines rustling outside in the sweet night-wind. +It seemed to her as if an irresistible hand had plucked her out from +those loved things and places, and that a penetrating eye were examining +every corner of her soul. In one sense she believed herself nearer to God +than ever before, but it was heartbreaking to find Him like this. She +went to sleep with the same sense of a burdening Presence resting on her +spirit. + +The next morning Dr. Carrington saw her privately and explained to her a +notice that she had not understood when it had been given out in church +the day before. It was to the effect that the quarterly communion would +be administered on the following Sunday, having been transferred that +year from the Sunday after Michaelmas Day, and that she must hold herself +in readiness on the Wednesday afternoon to undergo the examination that +was enforced in every household in Northampton, at the hands of the +Minister and Churchwardens. + +"But you need not fear it, Mistress Norris," he said kindly, seeing her +alarm. "My daughter Kate will tell you all that is needful." + +Kate too told her it would be little more than formal in her case. + +"The minister will not ask you much," she said, "for you are a stranger, +and my father will vouch for you. He will ask you of irresistible grace, +and of the Sacrament." And she gave her a couple of books from which she +might summarise the answers; especially directing her attention to +Calvin's Catechism, telling her that that was the book with which all the +servants and apprentices were obliged to be familiar. + +When Wednesday afternoon came, one by one the members of the household +went before the inquisition that held its court in the dining-room; and +last of all Isabel's turn came. The three gentlemen who sat in the middle +of the long side of the table, with their backs to the light, half rose +and bowed to her as she entered; and requested her to sit opposite to +them. To her relief it was the Minister of St. Sepulchre's who was to +examine her--he who had read the service and discoursed on the Catechism, +not the morning preacher. He was a man who seemed a little ill at ease +himself; he had none of the superb confidence of the preacher; but +appeared to be one to whose natural character this stern _role_ was not +altogether congenial. He asked a few very simple questions; as to when +she had last taken the Sacrament; how she would interpret the words, +"This is my Body"; and looked almost grateful when she answered quietly +and without heat. He asked her too three or four of the simpler questions +which Kate had indicated to her; all of which she answered satisfactorily; +and then desired to know whether she was in charity with all men; and +whether she looked to Jesus Christ alone as her one Saviour. Finally he +turned to Dr. Carrington, and wished to know whether Mistress Norris +would come to the sacrament at five or nine o'clock, and Dr. Carrington +answered that she would no doubt wish to come with his own wife and +daughters at nine o'clock; which was the hour for the folks who were +better to do. And so the inquisition ended much to Isabel's relief. + +But this was a very extraordinary experience to her; it gave her a first +glimpse into the rigid discipline that the extreme Puritans wished to see +enforced everywhere; and with it a sense of corporate responsibility that +she had not appreciated before; the congregation meant something to her +now; she was no longer alone with her Lord individually, but understood +that she was part of a body with various functions, and that the care of +her soul was not merely a personal matter for herself, but involved her +minister and the officers of the Church as well. It astonished her to +think that this process was carried out on every individual who lived in +the town in preparation for the sacrament on the following Sunday. + +Isabel, and indeed the whole household, spent the Friday and Saturday in +rigid and severe preparation. No flesh food was eaten on either of the +days; and all the members of the family were supposed to spend several +hours in their own rooms in prayer and meditation. She did not find this +difficult, as she was well practised in solitude and prayer, and she +scarcely left her room all Saturday except for meals. + +"O Lord," Isabel repeated each morning and evening at her bedside during +this week, "the blind dulness of our corrupt nature will not suffer us +sufficiently to weigh these thy most ample benefits, yet, nevertheless, +at the commandment of Jesus Christ our Lord, we present ourselves to this +His table, which He hath left to be used in remembrance of His death +until His coming again, to declare and witness before the world, that by +Him alone we have received liberty and life; that by Him alone dost thou +acknowledge us to be thy children and heirs; that by Him alone we have +entrance to the throne of thy grace; that by Him alone we are possessed +in our spiritual kingdom, to eat and drink at His table, with whom we +have our conversation presently in heaven, and by whom our bodies shall +be raised up again from the dust, and shall be placed with Him in that +endless joy, which Thou, O Father of mercy, hast prepared for thine +elect, before the foundation of the world was laid." + +And so she prepared herself for that tryst with her Beloved in a foreign +land where all was strange and unfamiliar about her: yet He was hourly +drawing nearer, and she cried to Him day by day in these words so +redolent to her with associations of past communions, and of moments of +great spiritual elevation. The very use of the prayer this week was like +a breeze of flowers to one in a wilderness. + +On the Saturday night she ceremoniously washed her feet as her father had +taught her; and lay down happier than she had been for days past, for +to-morrow would bring the Lover of her soul. + +On the Sunday all the household was astir early at their prayers, and +about half-past eight o'clock all, including the servants who had just +returned from the five o'clock service, assembled in the dining-room; the +noise of the feet of those returning from church had ceased on the +pavement of the square outside, and all was quiet except for the solemn +sound of the bells, as Dr. Carrington offered extempore prayer for all +who were fulfilling the Lord's ordinance on that day. And Isabel once +more felt her heart yearn to a God who seemed Love after all. + +St. Sepulchre's was nearly full when they arrived. The mahogany table had +been brought down from the eastern wall to beneath the cupola, and stood +there with a large white cloth, descending almost to the ground on every +side; and a row of silver vessels, flat plates and tall new Communion +cups and flagons, shone upon it. Isabel buried her face in her hands, and +tried to withdraw into the solitude of her own soul; but the noise of the +feet coming and going, and the talking on all sides of her, were terribly +distracting. Presently four ministers entered and Isabel was startled to +see, as she raised her face at the sudden silence, that none of them wore +the prescribed surplice; for she had not been accustomed to the views of +the extreme Puritans to whom this was a remnant of Popery; an indifferent +thing indeed in itself, as they so often maintained; but far from +indifferent when it was imposed by authority. One entered the pulpit; the +other three took their places at the Holy Table; and after a metrical +Psalm sung in the Genevan fashion, the service began. At the proper place +the minister in the pulpit delivered an hour's sermon of the type to +which Isabel was being now introduced for the first time; but bearing +again and again on the point that the sacrament was a confession to the +world of faith in Christ; it was in no sense a sacrificial act towards +God, "as the Papists vainly taught"; this part of the sermon was spoiled, +to Isabel's ears at least, by a flood of disagreeable words poured out +against the popish doctrine; and the end of the sermon consisted of a +searching exhortation to those who contemplated sin, who bore malice, who +were in any way holding aloof from God, "to cast themselves mightily upon +the love of the Redeemer, bewailing their sinful lives, and purposing to +amend them." This act, wrought out in the silence of the soul even now +would transfer the sinner from death unto life; and turn what threatened +to be poison into a "lively and healthful food." Then he turned to those +who came prepared and repentant, hungering and thirsting after the Bread +of Life and the Wine that the Lord had mingled; and congratulated them on +their possession of grace, and on the rich access of sanctification that +would be theirs by a faithful reception of this comfortable sacrament; +and then in half a dozen concluding sentences he preached Christ, as +"food to the hungry; a stream to the thirsty; a rest for the weary. It is +He alone, our dear Redeemer, who openeth the Kingdom of Heaven, to which +may He vouchsafe to bring us for His Name's sake." + +Isabel was astonished to see that the preacher did not descend from the +pulpit after the sermon, but that as soon as he had announced that the +mayor would sit at the Town Hall with the ministers and churchwardens on +the following Thursday to inquire into the cases of all who had not +presented themselves for Communion, he turned and began to busy himself +with the great Bible that lay on the cushion. The service went on, and +the conducting of it was shared among the three ministers standing, one +at the centre of the table which was placed endways, and the others at +the two ends. As the Prayer of Consecration was begun, Isabel hid her +face as she was accustomed to do, for she believed it to be the principal +part of the service, and waited for the silence that in her experience +generally followed the Amen. But a voice immediately began from the +pulpit, and she looked up, startled and distracted. + +"Then Jesus said unto them," pealed out the preacher's voice, "All ye +shall be offended by me this night, for it is written, I will smite the +shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered. But after I am risen, I will +go into Galilee before you." + +Ah! why would not the man stop? Isabel did not want the past Saviour but +the present now; not a dead record but a living experience; above all, +not the minister but the great High Priest Himself. + +"He began to be troubled and in great heaviness, and said unto them, My +soul is very heavy, even unto the death; tarry here and watch." + +The three ministers had communicated by now; and there was a rustle and +clatter of feet as the empty seats in front, hung with houselling cloths, +began to be filled. The murmur of the three voices below as the ministers +passed along with the vessels were drowned by the tale of the Passion +that rang out overhead. + +"Couldest thou not watch one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into +temptation. The spirit indeed is ready, but the flesh is weak." + +It was coming near to Isabel's turn; the Carringtons already were +beginning to move; and in a moment or two she rose and followed them out. +The people were pressing up the aisles; and as she stood waiting her turn +to pass into the white-hung seat, she could not help noticing the +disorder that prevailed; some knelt devoutly, some stood, some sat to +receive the sacred elements; and all the while louder and louder, above +the rustling and the loud whispering of the ministers and the shuffling +of feet, the tale rose and fell on the cadences of the preacher's voice. +Now it was her turn; she was kneeling with palms outstretched and closed +eyes. Ah! would he not be silent for one moment? Could not the reality +speak for itself, and its interpreter be still? Surely the King of Love +needed no herald when Himself was here. + +"And anon in the dawning, the high Priests held a Council with Elders and +the Scribes and the whole Council, and bound Jesus and led Him away." ... + +And so it was over presently, and she was back again in her seat, +distracted and miserable; trying to pray, forcing herself to attend now +to the reader, now to her Saviour with whom she believed herself in +intimate union, and finding nothing but dryness and distraction +everywhere. How interminable it was! She opened her eyes, and what she +saw amazed and absorbed her for a few moments; some were sitting back and +talking; some looking cheerfully about them as if at a public +entertainment; one man especially overwhelmed her imagination; with a +great red face and neck like a butcher, animal and brutal, with a heavy +hanging jowl and little narrow lack-lustre eyes--how bored and depressed +he was by this long obligatory ceremony! Then once more she closed her +eyes in self-reproach at her distractions; here were her lips still +fragrant with the Wine of God, the pressure of her Beloved's arm still +about her; and these were her thoughts, settling like flies, on +everything.... + +When she opened them again the last footsteps were passing down the +aisle, the dripping Cups were being replaced by the ministers, and +covered with napkins, and the tale of Easter was in telling from the +pulpit like the promise of a brighter day. + +"And they said one to another, Who shall roll us away the stone from the +door of the sepulchre? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was +rolled away (for it was a very great one)." + +So read the minister and closed the book; and _Our Father_ began. + +In the evening, when all was over, and the prayers said and the +expounding and catechising finished, in a kind of despair she slipped +away alone, and walked a little by herself in the deepening twilight +beside the river; and again she made effort after effort to catch some +consciousness of grace from this Sacrament Sunday, so rare and so +precious; but an oppression seemed to dwell in the very air. The low +rain-clouds hung over the city, leaden and chill, the path where she +walked was rank with the smell of dead leaves, and the trees and grass +dripped with lifeless moisture. As she goaded and allured alternately her +own fainting soul, it writhed and struggled but could not rise; there was +no pungency of bitterness in her self-reproach, no thrill of joy in her +aspiration; for the hand of Calvin's God lay heavy on the delicate +languid thing. + +She walked back at last in despair over the wet cobblestones of the empty +market square; but as she came near the house, she saw that the square +was not quite empty. A horse stood blowing and steaming before Dr. +Carrington's door, and her own maid and Kate were standing hatless in the +doorway looking up and down the street. Isabel's heart began to beat, and +she walked quicker. In a moment Kate saw her, and began to beckon and +call; and the maid ran to meet her. + +"Mistress Isabel, Mistress Isabel," she cried, "make haste." + +"What is it?" asked the girl, in sick foreboding. + +"There is a man come from Great Keynes," began the maid, but Kate stopped +her. + +"Come in, Mistress Isabel," she said, "my father is waiting for you." + +Dr. Carrington met her at the dining-room door; and his face was tender +and full of emotion. + +"What is it?" whispered the girl sharply. "Anthony?" + +"Dear child," he said, "come in, and be brave." + +There was a man standing in the room with cap and whip in hand, spurred +and splashed from head to foot; Isabel recognised one of the grooms from +the Hall. + +"What is it?" she said again with a piteous sharpness. + +Dr. Carrington laid his hands gently on her shoulders, and looked into +her eyes. + +"It is news of your father," he said, "from Lady Maxwell." + +He paused, and the steady gleam of his eyes strengthened and quieted her, +then he went on deliberately, "The Lord hath given and the Lord hath +taken it." + +He paused as if for an answer, but no answer came; Isabel was staring +white-faced with parted lips into those strong blue eyes of his: and he +finished: + +"Blessed be the name of the Lord." + + + + + CHAPTER XII + + A WINDING-UP + + +The curtained windows on the ground-floor of the Dower House shone red +from within as Isabel and Dr. Carrington, with three or four servants +behind, rode round the curving drive in front late on the Monday evening. +A face peeped from Mrs. Carroll's window as the horse's hoofs sounded on +the gravel, and by the time that Isabel, pale, wet, and worn-out with her +seventy miles' ride, was dismounted, Mistress Margaret herself was at the +door, with Anthony's face at her shoulder, and Mrs. Carroll looking over +the banisters. + +Isabel was not allowed to see her father's body that night, but after she +was in bed, Lady Maxwell herself, who had been sent for when he lay +dying, came down from the Hall, and told her what there was to tell; +while Mistress Margaret and Anthony entertained Dr. Carrington below. + +"Dear child," said the old lady, leaning with her elbow on the bed, and +holding the girl's hand tenderly as she talked, "it was all over in an +hour or two. It was the heart, you know. Mrs. Carroll sent for me +suddenly, on Saturday morning; and by the time I reached him he could not +speak. They had carried him upstairs from his study, where they had found +him; and laid him down on his bed, and--yes, yes--he was in pain, but he +was conscious, and he was praying I think; his lips moved. And I knelt +down by the bed and prayed aloud; he only spoke twice; and, my dear, it +was your name the first time, and the name of His Saviour the second +time. He looked at me, and I could see he was trying to speak; and then +on a sudden he spoke 'Isabel.' And I think he was asking me to take care +of you. And I nodded and said that I would do what I could, and he seemed +satisfied and shut his eyes again. And then presently Mr. Bodder began a +prayer--he had come in a moment before; they could not find him at +first--and then, and then your dear father moved a little and raised his +hand, and the minister stayed; and he was looking up as if he saw +something; and then he said once, 'Jesus' clear and loud; and, and--that +was all, dear child." + +The next morning she and Anthony, with the two old ladies, one of whom +was always with them during these days, went into the darkened oak room +on the first floor, where he had died and now rested. The red curtains +made a pleasant rosy light, and it seemed to the children impossible to +believe that that serene face, scarcely more serene than in life, with +its wide closed lids under the delicate eyebrows, and contented clean-cut +mouth, and the scholarly hands closed on the breast, all in a wealth of +autumn flowers and dark copper-coloured beech leaves, were not the face +and hands of a sleeping man. + +But Isabel did not utterly break down till she saw his study. She drew +the curtains aside herself, and there stood his table; his chair was +beside it, pushed back and sideways as if he had that moment left it; and +on the table itself the books she knew so well. + +In the centre of the table stood his inlaid desk, with the papers lying +upon it, and his quill beside them, as if just laid down; even the +ink-pot was uncovered just as he had left it, as the agony began to lay +its hand upon his heart. She stooped and read the last sentence. + +"This is the great fruit, that unspeakable benefit that they do eat and +drink of that labour and are burden, and come--" and there it stopped; +and the blinding tears rushed into the girl's eyes, as she stooped to +kiss the curved knob of the chair-arm where his dear hand had last +rested. + +When all was over a day or two later the two went up to stay at the Hall, +while the housekeeper was left in charge of the Dower House. Lady Maxwell +and Mistress Margaret had been present at the parish church on the +occasion of the funeral, for the first time ever since the old Marian +priest had left; and had assisted too at the opening of the will, which +was found, tied up and docketed in one of the inner drawers of the inlaid +desk; and before its instructions were complied with, Lady Maxwell wished +to have a word or two with Isabel and Anthony. + +She made an opportunity on the morning of Anthony's departure for +Cambridge, two days after the funeral, when Mistress Margaret was out of +the room, and Hubert had ridden off as usual with Piers, on the affairs +of the estate. + +"My child," said she to Isabel, who was lying back passive and listless +on the window-seat. "What do you think your cousin will direct to be +done? He will scarcely wish you to leave home altogether, to stay with +him. And yet, you understand, he is your guardian." + +Isabel shook her head. + +"We know nothing of him," she said, wearily, "he has never been here." + +"If you have a suggestion to make to him you should decide at once," the +other went on, "the courier is to go on Monday, is he not, Anthony?" + +The boy nodded. + +"But will he not allow us," he said, "to stay at home as usual? +Surely----" + +Lady Maxwell shook her head. + +"And Isabel?" she asked, "who will look after her when you are away?" + +"Mrs. Carroll?" he said interrogatively. + +Again she shook her head. + +"He would never consent," she said, "it would not be right." + +Isabel looked up suddenly, and her eyes brightened a little. + +"Lady Maxwell--" she began, and then stopped, embarrassed. + +"Well, my dear?" + +"What is it, Isabel?" asked Anthony. + +"If it were possible--but, but I could not ask it." + +"If you mean Margaret, my dear"; said the old lady serenely, drawing her +needle carefully through, "it was what I thought myself; but I did not +know if you would care for that. Is that what you meant?" + +"Oh, Lady Maxwell," said the girl, her face lighting up. + +Then the old lady explained that it was not possible to ask them to live +permanently at the Hall, although of course Isabel must do so until an +arrangement had been made; because their father would scarcely have +wished them to be actually inmates of a Catholic house; but that he +plainly had encouraged close relations between the two houses, and +indeed, Lady Maxwell interpreted his mention of his daughter's name, and +his look as he said it, in the sense that he wished those relations to +continue. She thought therefore that there was no reason why their new +guardian's consent should not be asked to Mistress Margaret's coming over +to the Dower House to take charge of Isabel, if the girl wished it. He +had no particular interest in them; he lived a couple of hundred miles +away, and the arrangement would probably save him a great deal of trouble +and inconvenience. + +"But you, Lady Maxwell," Isabel burst out, her face kindled with hope, +for she had dreaded the removal terribly, "you will be lonely here." + +"Dear child," said the old lady, laying down her embroidery, "God has +been gracious to me; and my husband is coming back to me; you need not +fear for me." And she told them, with her old eyes full of happy tears, +how she had had a private word, which they must not repeat, from a +Catholic friend at Court, that all had been decided for Sir Nicholas' +release, though he did not know it himself yet, and that he would be at +home again for Advent. The prison fever was beginning to cause alarm, and +it seemed that a good fine would meet the old knight's case better than +any other execution of justice. + +So then, it was decided; and as Isabel walked out to the gatehouse after +dinner beside Anthony, with her hand on his horse's neck, and as she +watched him at last ride down the village green and disappear round +behind the church, half her sorrow at losing him was swallowed up in the +practical certainty that they would meet again before Christmas in their +old home, and not in a stranger's house in the bleak North country. + +On the following Thursday, Sir Nicholas' weekly letter showed evidence +that the good news of his release had begun to penetrate to him; his wife +longed to tell him all she had heard, but so many jealous eyes were on +the watch for favouritism that she had been strictly forbidden to pass on +her information. However there was little need. + +"I am in hopes," he wrote, "of keeping Christmas in a merrier place than +prison. I do not mean _heaven_," he hastened to add, for fear of alarming +his wife. "Good Mr. Jakes tells me that Sir John is ill to-day, and that +he fears the gaol-fever; and if it is the gaol-fever, sweetheart, which +pray God it may not be _for Sir John's sake_, it will be the fourteenth +case in the Tower; and folks say that we shall all be let home again; but +with another good fine, they say, to keep us poor and humble, and mindful +of the Queen's Majesty her laws. However, dearest, I would gladly pay a +thousand pounds, if I had them, to be home again." + +But there was news at the end of the letter that caused consternation in +one or two hearts, and sent Hubert across, storming and almost crying, to +Isabel, who was taking a turn in the dusk at sunset. She heard his step +beyond the hedge, quick and impatient, and stopped short, hesitating and +wondering. + +He had behaved to her with extraordinary tact and consideration, and she +was very conscious of it. Since her sudden return ten days before from +the visit which had been meant to separate them, he had not spoken a word +to her privately, except a shy sentence or two of condolence, stammered +out with downcast eyes, but which from the simplicity and shortness of +the words had brought up a sob from her heart. She guessed that he knew +why she had been sent to Northampton, and had determined not to take +advantage in any way of her sorrow. Every morning he had disappeared +before she came down, and did not come back till supper, where he sat +silent and apart, and yet, when an occasion offered itself, behaved with +a quick attentive deference that showed her where his thoughts had been. + +Now she stood, wondering and timid, at that hurried insistent step on the +other side of the hedge. As she hesitated, he came quickly through the +doorway and stopped short. + +"Mistress Isabel," he said, with all his reserve gone, and looking at her +imploringly, but with the old familiar air that she loved, "have you +heard? I am to go as soon as my father comes back. Oh! it is a shame!" + +His voice was full of tears, and his eyes were bright and angry. Her +heart leapt up once and then seemed to cease beating. + +"Go?" she said; and even as she spoke knew from her own dismay how dear +that quiet chivalrous presence was to her. + +"Yes," he went on in the same voice. "Oh! I know I should not speak; +and--and especially now at all times; but I could not bear it; nor that +you should think it was my will to go." + +She stood still looking at him. + +"May I walk with you a little," he said, "but--I must not say much--I +promised my father." + +And then as they walked he began to pour it out. + +"It is some old man in Durham," he said, "and I am to see to his estates. +My father will not want me here when he comes back, and, and it is to be +soon. He has had the offer for me; and has written to tell me. There is +no choice." + +She had turned instinctively towards the house, and the high roofs and +chimneys were before them, dark against the luminous sky. + +"No, no," said Hubert, laying his hand on her arm; and at the touch she +thrilled so much that she knew she must not stay, and went forward +resolutely up the steps of the terrace. + +"Ah! let me speak," he said; "I have not troubled you much, Mistress +Isabel." + +She hesitated again a moment. + +"In my father's room," he went on, "and I will bring the letter." + +She nodded and passed into the hall without speaking, and turned to Sir +Nicholas' study; while Hubert's steps dashed up the stairs to his +mother's room. Isabel went in and stood on the hearth in the firelight +that glowed and wavered round the room on the tapestry and the prie-dieu +and the table where Hubert had been sitting and the tall shuttered +windows, leaning her head against the mantelpiece, doubtful and +miserable. + +"Listen," said Hubert, bursting into the room a moment later with the +sheet open in his hand. + +"'Tell Hubert that Lord Arncliffe needs a gentleman to take charge of his +estates; he is too old now himself, and has none to help him. I have had +the offer for Hubert, and have accepted it; he must go as soon as I have +returned. I am sorry to lose the lad, but since James----'" and Hubert +broke off. "I must not read that," he said. + +Isabel still stood, stretching her hands out to the fire, turned a little +away from him. + +"But what can I say?" went on the lad passionately, "I must go; and--and +God knows for how long, five or six years maybe; and I shall come back +and find you--and find you----" and a sob rose up and silenced him. + +"Hubert," she said, turning and looking with a kind of wavering +steadiness into his shadowed eyes, and even then noticing the clean-cut +features and the smooth curve of his jaw with the firelight on it, "you +ought not----" + +"I know, I know; I promised my father; but there are some things I cannot +bear. Of course I do not want you to promise anything; but I thought that +if perhaps you could tell me that you thought--that you thought there +would be no one else; and that when I came back----" + +"Hubert," she said again, resolutely, "it is impossible: our +religions----" + +"But I would do anything, I think. Besides, in five years so much may +happen. You might become a Catholic--or--or, I might come to see that the +Protestant Religion was nearly the same, or as true at least--or--or--so +much might happen.--Can you not tell me anything before I go?" + +A keen ray of hope had pierced her heart as he spoke; and she scarcely +knew what she said. + +"But, Hubert, even if I were to say----" + +He seized her hands and kissed them again and again. + +"Oh! God bless you, Isabel! Now I can go so happily. And I will not speak +of it again; you can trust me; it will not be hard for you." + +She tried to draw her hands away, but he still held them tightly in his +own strong hands, and looked into her face. His eyes were shining. + +"Yes, yes, I know you have promised nothing. I hold you to nothing. You +are as free as ever to do what you will with me. But,"--and he lifted her +hands once more and kissed them, and dropped them; seized his cap and was +gone. + +Isabel was left alone in a tumult of thought and emotion. He had taken +her by storm; she had not guessed how desperately weak she was towards +him, until he had come to her like this in a whirlwind of passion and +stood trembling and almost crying, with the ruddy firelight on his face, +and his eyes burning out of shadow. She felt fascinated still by that +mingling of a boy's weakness and sentiment and of a man's fire and +purpose; and she sank down on her knees before the hearth and looked +wonderingly at her hands which he had kissed so ardently, now transparent +and flaming against the light as if with love. Then as she looked at the +red heart of the fire the sudden leaping of her heart quieted, and there +crept on her a glow of steady desire to lean on the power of this tall +young lover of hers; she was so utterly alone without him it seemed as if +there were no choice left; he had come and claimed her in virtue of the +master-law, and she--how much had she yielded? She had not promised; but +she had shown evidently her real heart in those half dozen words; and he +had interpreted them for her; and she dared not in honesty repudiate his +interpretation. And so she knelt there, clasping and unclasping her +hands, in a whirl of delight and trembling; all the bounds of that sober +inner life seemed for the moment swept away; she almost began to despise +its old coldnesses and limitations. How shadowy after all was the love of +God, compared with this burning tide that was bearing her along on its +bosom!... + +She sank lower and lower into herself among the black draperies, clasping +those slender hands tightly across her breast. + +Suddenly a great log fell with a crash, the red glow turned into leaping +flames; the whole dark room seemed alive with shadows that fled to and +fro, and she knelt upright quickly and looked round her, terrified and +ashamed.--What was she doing here? Was it so soon then that she was +setting aside the will of her father, who trusted and loved her so well, +and who lay out there in the chancel vault? Ah! she had no right here in +this room--Hubert's room now, with his cap and whip lying across the +papers and the estate-book, and his knife and the broken jesses on the +seat of the chair beside her. There was his step overhead again. She must +be gone before he came back. + +There was high excitement on the estate and in the village a week or two +later when the rumour of Sir Nicholas' return was established, and the +paper had been pinned up to the gatehouse stating, in Lady Maxwell's own +handwriting, that he would be back sometime in the week before Advent +Sunday. Reminiscences were exchanged of the glorious day when the old +knight came of age, over forty years ago; of the sports on the green, of +the quintain-tilting for the gentlefolks, and the archery in the meadow +behind the church for the vulgar; of the high mass and the dinner that +followed it. It was rumoured that Mr. Hubert and Mr. Piers had already +selected the ox that was to be roasted whole, and that materials for the +bonfire were in process of collection in the woodyard of the home farm. + +Sir Nicholas' letters became more and more emphatically underlined and +incoherent as the days went on, and Lady Maxwell less and less willing +for Isabel to read them; but the girl often found the old lady hastily +putting away the thin sheets which she had just taken out to read to +herself once again, on which her dear lord had scrawled down his very +heart itself, as if his courting of her were all to do again. + +It was not until the Saturday morning that the courier rode in through +the gatehouse with the news that Sir Nicholas was to be released that +day, and would be down if possible before nightfall. All the men on the +estate were immediately called in and sent home to dress themselves; and +an escort of a dozen grooms and servants led by Hubert and Piers rode out +at once on the north road, with torches ready for kindling, to meet the +party and bring them home; and all other preparations were set forward at +once. + +Towards eight o'clock Lady Maxwell was so anxious and restless that +Isabel slipped out and went down to the gatehouse to look out for herself +if there were any signs of the approach of the party. She went up to one +of the little octagonal towers, and looked out towards the green. + +It was a clear starlight night, but towards the village all was bathed in +the dancing ruddy light of the bonfire. It was burning on a little mound +at the upper end of the green, just below where Isabel stood, and a heavy +curtain of smoke drifted westwards. As she looked down on it she saw +against it the tall black posts of the gigantic jack and the slowly +revolving carcass of the ox; and round about the stirring crowd of the +village folk, their figures black on this side, luminous on that. She +could even make out the cassock and square cap of Mr. Bodder as he moved +among his flock. The rows of houses on either side, bright and clear at +this end, melted away into darkness at the lower end of the green, where +on the right the church tower rose up, blotting out the stars, itself +just touched with ruddy light, and on the top of which, like a large star +itself, burned the torch of the watcher who was looking out towards the +north road. There was a ceaseless hum of noise from the green, pierced by +the shrill cries of the children round the glowing mass of the bonfire, +but there was no disorder, as the barrels that had been rolled out of the +Hall cellars that afternoon still stood untouched beneath the Rectory +garden-wall. Isabel contrasted in her mind this pleasant human tumult +with the angry roaring she had heard from these same country-folk a few +months before, when she had followed Lady Maxwell out to the rescue of +the woman who had injured her; and she wondered at these strange souls, +who attended a Protestant service, but were so fierce and so genial in +their defence and welcome of a Catholic squire. + +As she thought, there was a sudden movement of the light on the church +tower; it tossed violently up and down, and a moment later the jubilant +clangour of the bells broke out. There was a sudden stir in the figures +on the green, and a burst of cheering rose. Isabel strained her eyes +northwards, but the road took a turn beyond the church and she could see +nothing but darkness and low-hung stars and one glimmering window. She +turned instinctively to the house behind her, and there was the door +flung wide, and she could make out the figures of the two ladies against +the brightly lit hall beyond, wrapped like herself, in cloak and hood, +for the night was frosty and cold. + +As she turned once more she heard the clear rattle of trotting hoofs on +the hard road, and a glow began to be visible at the lower dark end of +the village. The cheering rose higher, and the bells were all clashing +together in melodious discord, as in the angle of the road a group of +tossing torches appeared. Then she could make out the horsemen; three +riding together, and the others as escort round them. The crowd had +poured off the grass on to the road by now, and the horses were coming up +between two shouting gesticulating lines which closed after them as they +went. Now she could make out the white hair of Sir Nicholas, as he bowed +bare-headed right and left; and Hubert's feathered cap, on one side of +him, and Mr. Boyd's black hat on the other. They had passed the bonfire +now, and were coming up the avenue, the crowds still streaming after +them, and the church tower bellowing rough music overhead. Isabel leaned +out over the battlements, and saw beneath her the two old ladies waiting +just outside the gate by the horse-block; and then she drew back, her +eyes full of tears, for she saw Sir Nicholas' face as he caught sight of +his wife. + +There was a sudden silence as the horses drew up; and the crowds ceased +shouting, and when Isabel leaned over again Sir Nicholas was on the +horse-block, the two ladies immediately behind him, and the people +pressing forward to hear his voice. It was a very short speech; and +Isabel overhead could not catch more than detached phrases of it, "for +the faith"--"my wife and you all"--"home again"--"my son Hubert +here"--"you and your families"--"the Catholic religion"--"the Queen's +grace"--"God save her Majesty." + +Then again the cheering broke out; and Isabel crossed over to see them +pass up to the house and to the bright door set wide for them, and even +as she watched them go up the steps, and Hubert's figure close behind, +she suddenly dropped her forehead on to the cold battlement, and drew a +sharp breath or two, for she remembered again what it all meant to him +and to herself. + + + + + PART II + + + + + CHAPTER I + + ANTHONY IN LONDON + + +The development of a nation is strangely paralleled by the development of +an individual. There comes in both a period of adolescence, of the +stirring of new powers, of an increase of strength, of the dawn of new +ideals, of the awaking of self-consciousness; contours become defined and +abrupt, awkward and hasty movements succeed to the grace of childhood; +and there is a curious mingling of refinement and brutality, stupidity +and tenderness; the will is subject to whims; it is easily roused and not +so easily quieted. Yet in spite of the attendant discomforts the whole +period is undeniably one of growth. + +The reign of Elizabeth coincided with this stage in the development of +England. The young vigour was beginning to stir--and Hawkins and Drake +taught the world that it was so, and that when England stretched herself +catastrophe abroad must follow. She loved finery and feathers and velvet, +and to see herself on the dramatic stage and to sing her love-songs +there, as a growing maid dresses up and leans on her hand and looks into +her own eyes in the mirror--and Marlowe and Greene and Shakespeare are +witnesses to it. Yet she loved to hang over the arena too and watch the +bear-baiting and see the blood and foam and listen to the snarl of the +hounds, as a lad loves sport and things that minister death. Her policy, +too, under Elizabeth as her genius, was awkward and ill-considered and +capricious, and yet strong and successful in the end, as a growing lad, +while he is clumsier, yet manages to leap higher than a year ago. + +And once more, to carry the parallel still further, during the middle +period of the reign, while the balance of parties and powers remained +much the same, principles and tendencies began to assert themselves more +definitely, just as muscles and sinews begin to appear through the round +contour of the limbs of a growing child. + +Thus, from 1571 to 1577, while there was no startling reversal of +elements in the affairs of England, the entire situation became more +defined. The various parties, though they scarcely changed in their +mutual relations, yet continued to develop swiftly along their respective +lines, growing more pronounced and less inclined to compromise; foreign +enmities and expectations became more acute; plots against the Queen's +life more frequent and serious, and the countermining of them under +Walsingham more patient and skilful; competition and enterprise in trade +more strenuous; Scottish affairs more complicated; movements of revolt +and repression in Ireland more violent. + +What was true of politics was also true of religious matters, for the two +were inextricably mingled. The Puritans daily became more clamorous and +intolerant; their "Exercises" more turbulent, and their demands more +unreasonable and one-sided. The Papists became at once more numerous and +more strict; and the Government measures more stern in consequence. The +act of '71 made it no less a crime than High Treason to reconcile or be +reconciled to the Church of Rome, to give effect to a Papal Bull, to be +in possession of any muniments of superstition, or to declare the Queen a +heretic or schismatic. The Church of England, too, under the wise +guidance of Parker, had begun to shape her course more and more +resolutely along the lines of inclusiveness and moderation; to realise +herself as representing the religious voice of a nation that was widely +divided on matters of faith; and to attempt to include within her fold +every individual that was not an absolute fanatic in the Papist or +Puritan direction. + +Thus, in every department, in home and foreign politics, in art and +literature, and in religious independence, England was rising and shaking +herself free; the last threads that bound her to the Continent were +snapped by the Reformation, and she was standing with her soul, as she +thought, awake and free at last, conscious of her beauty and her +strength, ready to step out at last before the world, as a dominant and +imperious power. + +Anthony Norris had been arrested, like so many others, by the vision of +this young country of his, his mother and mistress, who stood there, +waiting to be served. He had left Cambridge in '73, and for three years +had led a somewhat aimless life; for his guardian allowed him a generous +income out of his father's fortune. He had stayed with Hubert in the +north, had yawned and stretched himself at Great Keynes, had gone to and +fro among friends' houses, and had at last come to the conclusion, to +which he was aided by a chorus of advisers, that he was wasting his time. + +He had begun then to look round him for some occupation, and in the final +choice of it his early religious training had formed a large element. It +had kept alive in him a certain sense of the supernatural, that his +exuberance of physical life might otherwise have crushed; and now as he +looked about to see how he could serve his country, he became aware that +her ecclesiastical character had a certain attraction for him; he had had +indeed an idea of taking Orders; but he had relinquished this by now, +though he still desired if he might to serve the National Church in some +other capacity. There was much in the Church of England to appeal to her +sons; if there was a lack of unity in her faith and policy, yet that was +largely out of sight, and her bearing was gallant and impressive. She had +great wealth, great power and great dignity. The ancient buildings and +revenues were hers; the civil power was at her disposal, and the Queen +was eager to further her influence, and to protect her bishops from the +encroaching power of Parliament, claiming only for the crown the right to +be the point of union for both the secular and ecclesiastical sections of +the nation, and to stamp by her royal approval or annul by her veto the +acts of Parliament and Convocation alike. It seemed then to Anthony's +eyes that the Church of England had a tremendous destiny before her, as +the religious voice of the nation that was beginning to make itself so +dominant in the council of the world, and that there was no limit to the +influence she might exercise by disciplining the exuberant strength of +England, and counteracting by her soberness and self-restraint the +passionate fanaticism of the Latin nations. So little by little in place +of the shadowy individualism that was all that he knew of religion, there +rose before him the vision of a living church, who came forth terrible as +an army with banners, surrounded by all the loyalty that nationalism +could give her, with the Queen herself as her guardian, and great princes +and prelates as her supporters, while at the wheels of her splendid car +walked her hot-blooded chivalrous sons, who served her and spread her +glories by land and sea, not perhaps chiefly for the sake of her +spiritual claims, but because she was bone of their bone; and was no less +zealous than themselves for the name and character of England. + +When, therefore, towards the end of '76, Anthony received the offer of a +position in the household of the Archbishop of Canterbury, through the +recommendation of the father of one of his Cambridge friends, he accepted +it with real gratitude and enthusiasm. + +The post to which he was appointed was that of Gentleman of the Horse. +His actual duties were not very arduous owing to the special +circumstances of Archbishop Grindal; and he had a good deal of time to +himself. Briefly, they were as follows--He had to superintend the Yeoman +of the Horse, and see that he kept full accounts of all the horses in +stable or at pasture, and of all the carriages and harness and the like. +Every morning he had to present himself to the Archbishop and receive +stable-orders for the day, and to receive from the yeoman accounts of the +stables. Every month he examined the books of the yeoman before passing +them on to the steward. His permission too was necessary before any +guest's or stranger's horse might be cared for in the Lambeth stables. + +He was responsible also for all the men and boys connected with the +stable; to engage them, watch their morals and even the performance of +their religious duties, and if necessary report them for dismissal to the +steward of the household. In Archbishop Parker's time this had been a +busy post, as the state observed at Lambeth and Croydon was very +considerable; but Grindal was of a more retiring nature, disliking as was +said, "lordliness"; and although still the household was an immense +affair, in its elaborateness and splendour beyond almost any but royal +households of the present day, still Anthony's duties were far from +heavy. The Archbishop indeed at first dispensed with this office +altogether, and concentrated all the supervision of the stable on the +yeoman, and Anthony was the first and only Gentleman of the Horse that +Archbishop Grindal employed. The disgrace and punishment under which the +Archbishop fell so early in his archiepiscopate made this particular post +easier than it would even otherwise have been; as fewer equipages were +required when the Archbishop was confined to his house, and the +establishment was yet further reduced. + +Ordinarily then his duties were over by eleven o'clock, except when +special arrangements were to be made. He rose early, waited upon the +Archbishop by eight o'clock, and received his orders for the day; then +interviewed the yeoman; sometimes visited the stables to receive +complaints, and was ready by half-past ten to go to the chapel for the +morning prayers with the rest of the household. At eleven he dined at the +Steward's table in the great hall, with the other principal officers of +the household, the chaplain, the secretaries, and the gentlemen ushers, +with guests of lesser degree. This great hall with its two entrances at +the lower end near the gateway, its magnificent hammer-beam roof, its +dais, its stained glass, was a worthy place of entertainment, and had +been the scene of many great feasts and royal visits in the times of +previous archbishops in favour with the sovereign, and of a splendid +banquet at the beginning of Grindal's occupancy of the see. Now, however, +things were changed. There were seldom many distinguished persons to dine +with the disgraced prelate; and he himself preferred too to entertain +those who could not repay him again, after the precept of the gospel; and +besides the provision for the numerous less important guests who dined +daily at Lambeth, a great tub was set at the lower end of the hall as it +had been in Parker's time, and every day after dinner under the steward's +direction was filled with food from the tables, which was afterwards +distributed at the gate to poor people of the neighbourhood. + +After dinner Anthony's time was often his own, until the evening prayers +at six, followed by supper again spread in the hall. It was necessary for +him always to sleep in the house, unless leave was obtained from the +steward. This gentleman, Mr. John Scot, an Esquire, took a fancy to +Anthony, and was indulgent to him in many ways; and Anthony had, as a +matter of fact, little difficulty in coming and going as he pleased so +soon as his morning duties were done. + +Lambeth House had been lately restored by Parker, and was now a very +beautiful and well-kept place. Among other repairs and buildings he had +re-roofed the great hall that stood just within Morton's gateway; he had +built a long pier into the Thames where the barge could be entered easily +even at low tide; he had rebuilt the famous summerhouse of Cranmer's in +the garden, besides doing many sanitary alterations and repairs; and the +house was well kept up in Grindal's time. + +Anthony soon added a great affection and tenderness to the awe that he +felt for the Archbishop, who was almost from the first a pathetic and +touching figure. When Anthony first entered on his duties in November +'76, he found the Archbishop in his last days of freedom and good favour +with the Queen. Elizabeth, he soon learnt from the gossip of the +household, was as determined to put down the Puritan "prophesyings" as +the popish services; for both alike tended to injure the peace she was +resolved to maintain. Rumours were flying to and fro; the Archbishop was +continually going across the water to confer with his friends and the +Lords of the Council, and messengers came and went all day; and it was +soon evident that the Archbishop did not mean to yield. It was said that +his Grace had sent a letter to her Majesty bidding her not to meddle with +what did not concern her, telling her that she, too, would one day have +to render account before Christ's tribunal, and warning her of God's +anger if she persisted. + +Her Majesty had sworn like a trooper, a royal page said one day as he +lounged over the fire in the guard-room, and had declared that if she was +like Ozeas and Ahab and the rest, as Grindal had said she was, she would +take care that he, at least, should be like Micaiah the son of Imlah, +before she had done with him. Then it began to leak out that Elizabeth +was sending her commands to the bishops direct instead of through their +Metropolitan; and, as the days went by, it became more and more evident +that disgrace was beginning to shadow Lambeth. The barges that drew up at +the watergate were fewer as summer went on, and the long tables in hall +were more and more deserted; even the Archbishop himself seemed silent +and cast down. Anthony used to watch him from his window going up and +down the little walled garden that looked upon the river, with his hands +clasped behind him and his black habit gathered up in them, and his chin +on his breast. He would be longer than ever too in chapel after the +morning prayer, and the company would wait and wonder in the anteroom +till his Grace came in and gave the signal for dinner. And at last the +blow fell. + +On one day in June, Anthony, who had been on a visit to Isabel at Great +Keynes, returned to Lambeth in time for morning prayer and dinner just +before the gates were shut by the porter, having ridden up early with a +couple of grooms. There seemed to him to be an air of constraint abroad +as the guests and members of the household gathered for dinner. There +were no guests of high dignity that day, and the Archbishop sat at his +own table silent and apart. Anthony, from his place at the steward's +table, noticed that he ate very sparingly, and that he appeared even more +preoccupied and distressed than usual. His short-sighted eyes, kind and +brown, surrounded by wrinkles from his habit of peering closely at +everything, seemed full of sadness and perplexity, and his hand fumbled +with his bread continually. Anthony did not like to ask anything of his +neighbours, as there were one or two strangers dining at the steward's +table that day; and the moment dinner was over, and grace had been said +and the Archbishop retired with his little procession preceded by a white +wand, an usher came running back to tell Master Norris that his Grace +desired to see him at once in the inner cloister. + +Anthony hastened round through the court between the hall and the river, +and found the Archbishop walking up and down in his black habit with the +round flapped cap, that, as a Puritan, he preferred to the square +head-dress of the more ecclesiastically-minded clergy, still looking +troubled and cast down, continually stroking his dark forked beard, and +talking to one of his secretaries. Anthony stood at a little distance at +the open side of the court near the river, cap in hand, waiting till the +Archbishop should beckon him. The two went up and down in the shade in +the open court outside the cloisters, where the pump stood, and where the +pulpit had been erected for the Queen's famous visit to his predecessor; +when she had sat in a gallery over the cloister and heard the chaplain's +sermon. On the north rose up the roof of the chapel. The cloisters +themselves were poor buildings--little more than passages with a +continuous row of square windows running along them the height of a man's +head. + +After a few minutes the secretary left the Archbishop with an obeisance, +and hastened into the house through the cloister, and presently the +Archbishop, after a turn or two more with the same grave air, peered +towards Anthony and then called him. + +Anthony immediately came towards him and received orders that half a +dozen horses with grooms should be ready as soon as possible, who were to +receive orders from Mr. Richard Frampton, the secretary; and that three +or four horses more were to be kept saddled till seven o'clock that +evening in case further messages were wanted. + +"And I desire you, Mr. Norris," said the Archbishop, "to let the men +under your charge know that their master is in trouble with the Queen's +Grace; and that they can serve him best by being prompt and obedient." + +Anthony bowed to the Archbishop, and was going to withdraw, but the +Archbishop went on: + +"I will tell you," he said, "for your private ear only at present, that I +have received an order this day from my Lords of the Council, bidding me +to keep to my house for six months; and telling me that I am sequestered +by the Queen's desire. I know not how this will end, but the cause is +that I will not do her Grace's will in the matter of the Exercises, as I +wrote to tell her so; and I am determined, by God's grace, not to yield +in this thing; but to govern the charge committed to me as He gives me +light. That is all, Mr. Norris." + +The whole household was cast into real sorrow by the blow that had fallen +at last on the master; he was "loving and grateful to servants"; and was +free and liberal in domestic matters, and it needed only a hint that he +was in trouble, for his officers and servants to do their utmost for him. + +Anthony's sympathy was further aroused by the knowledge that the Papists, +too, hated the old man, and longed to injure him. There had been a great +increase of Catholics this year; the Archbishop of York had reported that +"a more stiff-necked, wilful, or obstinate people did he never hear of"; +and from Hereford had come a lament that conformity itself was a mockery, +as even the Papists that attended church were a distraction when they got +there, and John Hareley was instanced as "reading so loud upon his Latin +popish primer (that he understands not) that he troubles both minister +and people." In November matters were so serious that the Archbishop felt +himself obliged to take steps to chastise the recusants; and in December +came the news of the execution of Cuthbert Maine at Launceston in +Cornwall. + +How much the Catholics resented this against the Archbishop was brought +to Anthony's notice a day or two later. He was riding back for morning +prayer after an errand in Battersea, one frosty day, and had just come in +sight of Morton's Gateway, when he observed a man standing by it, who +turned and ran, on hearing the horse's footsteps, past Lambeth Church and +disappeared in the direction of the meadows behind Essex House. Anthony +checked his horse, doubtful whether to follow or not, but decided to see +what it was that the man had left pinned to the door. He rode up and +detached it, and found it was a violent and scurrilous attack upon the +Archbishop for his supposed share in the death of the two Papists. It +denounced him as a "bloody pseudo-minister," compared him to Pilate, and +bade him "look to his congregation of lewd and profane persons that he +named the Church of England," for that God would avenge the blood of his +saints speedily upon their murderers. + +Anthony carried it into the hall, and after showing it to Mr. Scot, put +it indignantly into the fire. The steward raised his eyebrows. + +"Why so, Master Norris?" he asked. + +"Why," said Anthony sharply, "you would not have me frame it, and show to +my lord." + +"I am not sure," said the other, "if you desire to injure the Papists. +Such foul nonsense is their best condemnation. It is best to keep +evidence against a traitor, not destroy it. Besides, we might have caught +the knave, and now we cannot," he added, looking at the black shrivelling +sheet half regretfully. + +"It is a mystery to me," said Anthony, "how there can be Papists." + +"Why, they hate England," said the steward, briefly, as the bell rang for +morning prayer. As Anthony followed him along the gallery, he thought +half guiltily of Sir Nicholas and his lady, and wondered whether that was +true of them. But he had no doubt that it was true of Catholics as a +class; they had ceased to be English; the cause of the Pope and the Queen +were irreconcilable; and so the whole incident added more fuel to the hot +flame of patriotism and loyalty that burnt so bright in the lad's soul. + +But it was fanned yet higher by a glimpse he had of Court-life; and he +owed it to Mary Corbet whom he had only seen momentarily in public once +or twice, and never to speak to since her visit to Great Keynes over six +years ago. He had blushed privately and bitten his lip a good many times +in the interval, when he thought of his astonishing infatuation, and yet +the glamour had never wholly faded; and his heart quickened perceptibly +when he opened a note one day, brought by a royal groom, that asked him +to come that very afternoon if he could, to Whitehall Palace, where +Mistress Corbet would be delighted to see him and renew their +acquaintance. + +As he came, punctual to the moment, into the gallery overlooking the +tilt-yard, the afternoon sun was pouring in through the oriel window, and +the yard beyond seemed all a haze of golden light and dust. He heard an +exclamation, as he paused, dazzled, and the servant closed the door +behind him; and there came forward to him in the flood of glory, the same +resplendent figure, all muslin and jewels, that he remembered so well, +with the radiant face, looking scarcely older, with the same dancing eyes +and scarlet lips. All the old charm seemed to envelop him in a moment as +he saluted her with all the courtesy of which he was capable. + +"Ah!" she cried, "how happy I am to see you again--those dear days at +Great Keynes!" And she took both his hands with such ardour that poor +Anthony was almost forced to think that he had never been out of her +thoughts since. + +"How can I serve you, Mistress Corbet?" he asked. + +"Serve me? Why, by talking to me, and telling me of the country. What +does the lad mean? Come and sit here," she said, and she drew him to the +window seat. + +Anthony looked out into the shining haze of the tilt-yard. Some one with +a long pole was struggling violently on the back of a horse, jerking the +reins and cursing audibly. + +"Look at that fool," said Mary, "he thinks his horse as great a dolt as +himself. Chris, Chris," she screamed through her hands--"you sodden ass; +be quieter with the poor beast--soothe him, soothe him. He doesn't know +what you want of him with your foul temper and your pole going like a +windmill about his ears." + +The cursing and jerking ceased, and a red furious face with thick black +beard and hair looked up. But before the rider could speak, Mary went on +again: + +"There now, Chris, he is as quiet as a sheep again. Now take him at it." + +"What does he want?" asked Anthony. "I can scarcely see for the dust." + +"Why, he's practising at the quintain;--ah! ah!" she cried out again, as +the quintain was missed and swung round with a hard buffet on the man's +back as he tore past. "Going to market, Chris? You've got a sturdy +shepherd behind you. Baa, baa, black sheep." + +"Who's that?" asked Anthony, as the tall horseman, as if driven by the +storm of contumely from the window, disappeared towards the stable. + +"Why that's Chris Hatton--whom the Queen calls her sheep, and he's as +silly as one, too, with his fool's face and his bleat and his great eyes. +He trots about after her Grace, too, like a pet lamb. Bah! I'm sick of +him. That's enough of the ass; tell me about Isabel." + +Then they fell to talking about Isabel; and Mary eyed him as he answered +her questions. + +"Then she isn't a Papist, yet?" she asked. + +Anthony's face showed such consternation that she burst out laughing. + +"There, there, there!" she cried. "No harm's done. Then that tall lad, +who was away last time I was there--well, I suppose he's not turned +Protestant?" + +Anthony's face was still more bewildered. + +"Why, my dear lad," she said, "where are your eyes?" + +"Mistress Corbet," he burst out at last, "I do not know what you mean. +Hubert has been in Durham for years. There is no talk----" and he +stopped. + +Mary's face became sedate again. + +"Well, well," she said, "I always was a tattler. It seems I am wrong +again. Forgive me, Master Anthony." + +Anthony was indeed astonished at her fantastic idea. Of course he knew +that Hubert had once been fond of Isabel, but that was years ago, when +they had been all children together. Why, he reflected, he too had been +foolish once--and he blushed a little. + +Then they went on to talk of Great Keynes, Sir Nicholas, and Mr. +Stewart's arrest and death; and Mary asked Anthony to excuse her interest +in such matters, but Papistry had always been her religion, and what +could a poor girl do but believe what she was taught? Then they went on +to speak of more recent affairs, and Mary made him describe to her his +life at Lambeth, and everything he did from the moment he got up to the +moment he went to bed again; and whether the Archbishop was a kind +master, and how long they spent at prayers, and how many courses they had +at dinner; and Anthony grew more and more animated and confidential--she +was so friendly and interested and pretty, as she leaned towards him and +questioned and listened, and the faint scent of violet from her dress +awakened his old memories of her. + +And then at last she approached the subject on which she had chiefly +wished to see him--which was that he should speak to the steward at +Lambeth on behalf of a young man who was to be dismissed, it seemed, from +the Archbishop's service, because his sister had lately turned Papist and +fled to a convent abroad. It was a small matter; and Anthony readily +promised to do his best, and, if necessary, to approach the Archbishop +himself: and Mistress Corbet was profusely grateful. + +They had hardly done talking of the matter, when a trumpet blew suddenly +somewhere away behind the building they were in. Mary held up a white +finger and put her head on one side. + +"That will be the Ambassador," she said. + +Anthony looked at her interrogatively. + +"Why, you country lad!" she said, "come and see." + +She jumped up, and he followed her down the gallery, and along through +interminable corridors and ante-chambers, and up and down the stairs of +this enormous palace; and Anthony grew bewildered and astonished as he +went at the doors on all sides, and the roofs that ranged themselves +every way as he looked out. And at last Mary stopped at a window, and +pointed out. + +The courtyard beneath was alive with colour and movement. In front of the +entrance opposite waited the great gilded state carriage, and another was +just driving away. On one side a dozen ladies on grey horses were drawn +up, to follow behind the Queen when she should come out; and a double row +of liveried servants were standing bare-headed round the empty carriage. +The rest of the court was filled with Spanish and English nobles, +mounted, with their servants on foot; all alike in splendid costumes--the +Spaniards with rich chains about their necks, and tall broad-brimmed hats +decked with stones and pearls, and the Englishmen in feathered buckled +caps and short cloaks thrown back. Two or three trumpeters stood on the +steps of the porch. Anthony did not see much state at Lambeth, and the +splendour and gaiety of this seething courtyard exhilarated him, and he +stared down at it all, fascinated, while Mary Corbet poured out a caustic +commentary: + +"There is the fat fool Chris again, all red with his tilting. I would +like to baa at him again, but I dare not with all these foreign folk. +There is Leicester, that tall man with a bald forehead in the cap with +the red feather, on the white horse behind the carriage--he always keeps +close to the Queen. He is the enemy of your prelate, Master Anthony, you +know.... That is Oxford, just behind him on the chestnut. Yes, look well +at him. He is the prince of the tilt-yard; none can stand against him. +You would say he was at his nine-pins, when he rides against them all.... +And he can do more than tilt. These sweet-washed gloves"--and she flapped +an embroidered pair before Anthony--"these he brought to England. God +bless and reward him for it!" she added fervently.... "I do not see +Burghley. Eh! but he is old and gouty these days; and loves a cushion and +a chair and a bit of flannel better than to kneel before her Grace. You +know, she allows him to sit when he confers with her. But then, she is +ever prone to show mercy to bearded persons.... Ah! there is dear Sidney; +that is a sweet soul. But what does he do here among the stones and +mortar when he has the beeches of Penshurst to walk beneath. He is not so +wise as I thought him.... But I must say I grow weary of his nymphs and +his airs of Olympus. And for myself, I do not see that Flora and +Phoebus and Maia and the rest are a great gain, instead of Our Lady and +Saint Christopher and the court of heaven. But then I am a Papist and not +a heathen, and therefore blind and superstitious. Is that not so, Master +Anthony?... And there is Maitland beside him, with the black velvet cap +and the white feather, and his cross eyes and mouth. Now I wish he were +at Penshurst, or Bath--or better still, at Jericho, for it is further +off. I cannot bear that fellow.... Why, Sussex is going on the water, +too, I see. Now what brings him here? I should have thought his affairs +gave him enough to think of.... There he is, with his groom behind him, +on the other chestnut. I am astonished at him. He is all for this French +marriage, you know. So you may figure to yourself Mendoza's love for him! +They will be like two cats together on the barge; spitting and snarling +softly at one another. Her Grace loves to balance folk like that; first +one stretches his claws, and then the other; then one arches his back and +snarls, and the other scratches his face for him; and then when all is +flying fur and blasphemy, off slips her Grace and does what she will." + +It was an astonishing experience for Anthony. He had stepped out from his +workaday life among the grooms and officers and occasional glimpses of +his lonely old master, into an enchanted region, where great personages +whose very names were luminous with fame, now lived and breathed and +looked cheerful or sullen before his very eyes; and one who knew them in +their daily life stood by him and commented and interpreted them for him. +He listened and stared, dazed with the strangeness of it all. + +Mistress Corbet was proceeding to express her views upon the foreign +element that formed half the pageant, when the shrill music broke out +again in the palace, and the trumpeters on the steps took it up; and a +stir and bustle began. Then out of the porch began to stream a +procession, like a river of colour and jewels, pouring from the foot of +the carved and windowed wall, and eddying in a tumbled pool about the +great gilt carriage;--ushers and footmen and nobles and ladies and pages +in bewildering succession. Anthony pressed his forehead to the glass as +he watched, with little exclamations, and Mary watched him, amused and +interested by his enthusiasm. + +And last moved the great canopy bending and swaying under the doorway, +and beneath it, like two gorgeous butterflies, at the sight of whom all +the standing world fell on its knees, came the pale Elizabeth with her +auburn hair, and the brown-faced Mendoza, side by side; and entered the +carriage with the five plumes atop and the caparisoned horses that +stamped and tossed their jingling heads. The yard was already emptying +fast, _en route_ for Chelsea Stairs; and as soon as the two were seated, +the shrill trumpets blew again, and the halberdiers moved off with the +carriage in the midst, the great nobles going before, and the ladies +behind. The later comers mounted as quickly as possible, as their horses +were brought in from the stable entrance, and clattered away, and in five +minutes the yard was empty, except for a few sentries at their posts, and +a servant or two lounging at the doorway; and as Anthony still stared at +the empty pavement and the carpeted steps, far away from the direction of +the Abbey came the clear call of the horns to tell the loyal folk that +the Queen was coming. + +It was a great inspiration for Anthony. He had seen world-powers +incarnate below him in the glittering rustling figure of the Queen, and +the dark-eyed courtly Ambassador in his orders and jewels at her side. +There they had sat together in one carriage; the huge fiery realm of the +south, whose very name was redolent with passion and adventure and +boundless wealth; and the little self-contained northern kingdom, now +beginning to stretch its hands, and quiver all along its tingling sinews +and veins with fresh adolescent life. And Anthony knew that he was one of +the cells of this young organism; and that in him as well as in Elizabeth +and this sparkling creature at his side ran the fresh red blood of +England. They were all one in the possession of a common life; and his +heart burned as he thought of it. + +After he had parted from Mary he rode back to Westminster, and crossed +the river by the horse-ferry that plied there. And even as he landed and +got his beast, with a deal of stamping and blowing, off the echoing +boards on to the clean gravel again, there came down the reaches of the +river the mellow sound of music across a mile of water, mingled with the +deep rattle of oars, and sparkles of steel and colour glittered from the +far-away royal barges in the autumn sunshine; and the lad thought with +wonder how the two great powers so savagely at war upon the salt sea, +were at peace here, sitting side by side on silken cushions and listening +to the same trumpets of peace upon the flowing river. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + SOME NEW LESSONS + + +The six years that followed Sir Nicholas' return and Hubert's departure +for the North had passed uneventfully at Great Keynes. The old knight had +been profoundly shocked that any Catholic, especially an agent so +valuable as Mr. Stewart, should have found his house a death-trap; and +although he continued receiving his friends and succouring them, he did +so with more real caution and less ostentation of it. His religious zeal +and discretion were further increased by the secret return to the "Old +Religion" of several of his villagers during the period; and a very fair +congregation attended Mass so often as it was said in the cloister wing +of the Hall. The new rector, like his predecessor, was content to let the +squire alone; and unlike him had no wife to make trouble. + +Then, suddenly, in the summer of '77, catastrophes began, headed by the +unexpected return of Hubert, impatient of waiting, and with new plans in +his mind. + +Isabel had been out with Mistress Margaret walking in the dusk one August +evening after supper, on the raised terrace beneath the yews. They had +been listening to the loud snoring of the young owls in the ivy on the +chimney-stack opposite, and had watched the fierce bird slide silently +out of the gloom, white against the blackness, and disappear down among +the meadows. Once Isabel had seen him pause, too, on one of his return +journeys, suspicious of the dim figures beneath, silhouetted on a branch +against the luminous green western sky, with the outline of a mouse with +its hanging tail plain in his crooked claws, before he glided to his nest +again. As Isabel waited she heard the bang of the garden-door, but gave +it no thought, and a moment after Mistress Margaret asked her to fetch a +couple of wraps from the house for them both, as the air had a touch of +chill in it. She came down the lichened steps, crossed the lawn, and +passed into the unlighted hall. As she entered, the door opposite opened, +and for a moment she saw the silhouette of a man's figure against the +bright passage beyond. Her heart suddenly leapt, and stood still. + +"Anthony!" she whispered, in a hush of suspense. + +There was a vibration and a step beside her. + +"Isabel!" said Hubert's voice. And then his arms closed round her for the +first time in her life. She struggled and panted a moment as she felt his +breath on her face; and he released her. She recoiled to the door, and +stood there silent and panting. + +"Oh! Isabel!" he whispered; and again, "Isabel!" + +She put out her hand and grasped the door-post behind her. + +"Oh! Hubert! Why have you come?" + +He came a step nearer and she could see the faint whiteness of his face +in the western glimmer. + +"I cannot wait," he said, "I have been nearly beside myself. I have left +the north--and I cannot wait so long." + +"Well?" she said; and he heard the note of entreaty and anxiety in her +voice. + +"I have my plans," he answered; "I will tell you to-morrow. Where is my +aunt?" + +Isabel heard a step on the gravel outside. + +"She is coming," she said sharply. Hubert melted into the dark, and she +saw the opposite door open and let him out. + +The next day Hubert announced his plans to Sir Nicholas, and a conflict +followed. + +"I cannot go on, sir," he said, "I cannot wait for ever. I am treated +like a servant, too; and you know how miserably I am paid, I have obeyed +you for six years, sir; and now I have thrown up the post and told my +lord to his face that I can bear with him no longer." + +Sir Nicholas' face, as he sat in his upright chair opposite the boy, grew +flushed with passion. + +"It is your accursed temper, sir," he said violently. "I know you of old. +Wait? For what? For the Protestant girl? I told you to put that from your +mind, sir." + +Hubert did not propose as yet to let his father into all his plans. + +"I have not spoken her name, sir, I think. I say I cannot wait for my +fortune; I may be impatient, sir--I do not deny it." + +"Then how do you propose to better it?" sneered his father. + +"In November," said Hubert steadily, looking his father in the eyes, "I +sail with Mr. Drake." + +Sir Nicholas' face grew terrific. He rose, and struck the table twice +with his clenched fist. + +"Then, by God, sir, Mr. Drake may have you now." + +Hubert's face grew white with anger; but he had his temper under control. + +"Then I wish you good-day, sir," and he left the room. + +When the boy had left the house again for London, as he did the same +afternoon, Lady Maxwell tried to soothe the old man. It was impossible, +even for her, to approach him before. + +"Sweetheart," she said tranquilly, as he sat and glowered at his plate +when supper was over and the men had left the room, "sweetheart, we must +have Hubert down here again. He must not sail with Mr. Drake." + +The old man's face flared up again in anger. + +"He may follow his own devices," he cried. "I care not what he does. He +has given up the post that I asked for him; and he comes striding and +ruffling home with his hat cocked and--and----"; his voice became +inarticulate. + +"He is only a boy, sweetheart; with a boy's hot blood--you would sooner +have him like that than a milk-sop. Besides--he is our boy." + +The old man growled. His wife went on: + +"And now that James cannot have the estate, he must have it, as you know, +and carry on the old name." + +"He has disgraced it," burst out the angry old man, "and he is going now +with that damned Protestant to harry Catholics. By the grace of God I +love my country, and would serve her Grace with my heart's blood--but +that my boy should go with Drake----!" and again his voice failed. + +It was a couple of days before she could obtain her husband's leave to +write a conciliatory letter, giving leave to Hubert to go with Drake, if +he had made any positive engagement (because, as she represented to Sir +Nicholas, there was nothing actually wrong or disloyal to the Faith in +it)--but entreating him with much pathos not to leave his old parents so +bitterly. + + * * * * + +"Oh, my dear son," the end of the letter ran, "your father is old; and +God, in whose hand are our days, alone knows how long he will live; and +I, too, my son, am old. So come back to us and be our dear child again. +You must not think too hardly of your father's words to you; he is quick +and hot, as you are, too--but indeed we love you dearly. Your room here +is ready for you; and Piers wants a firm hand now over him, as your +father is so old. So come back, my darling, and make our old hearts glad +again." + +But the weeks passed by, and no answer came, and the old people's hearts +grew sick with suspense; and then, at last, in September the courier +brought a letter, written from Plymouth, which told the mother that it +was too late; that he had in fact engaged himself to Mr. Drake in August +before he had come to Great Keynes at all; and that in honour he must +keep his engagement. He asked pardon of his father for his hastiness; but +it seemed a cold and half-hearted sorrow; and the letter ended by +announcing that the little fleet would sail in November; and that at +present they were busy fitting the ships and engaging the men; and that +there would be no opportunity for him to return to wish them good-bye +before he sailed. It was plain that the lad was angry still. + +Sir Nicholas did not say much; but a silence fell on the house. Lady +Maxwell sent for Isabel, and they had a long interview. The old lady was +astonished at the girl's quietness and resignation. + +Yes, she said, she loved Hubert with all her heart. She had loved him for +a long while. No, she was not angry, only startled. What would she do +about the difference in religion? Could she marry him while one was a +Catholic and the other a Protestant? No, they would never be happy like +that; and she did not know what she would do. She supposed she would wait +and see. Yes, she would wait and see; that was all that could be +done.--And then had come a silent burst of tears, and the girl had sunk +down on her knees and hidden her face in the old lady's lap, and the +wrinkled jewelled old hand passed quietly over the girl's black hair; but +no more had been said, and Isabel presently got up and went home to the +Dower House. + +The autumn went by, and November came, and there was no further word from +Hubert. Then towards the end of November a report reached them from +Anthony at Lambeth that the fleet had sailed; but had put back into +Falmouth after a terrible storm in the Channel. And hope just raised its +head. + +Then one evening after supper Sir Nicholas complained of fever and +restlessness, and went early to bed. In the night he was delirious. +Mistress Margaret hastened up at midnight from the Dower House, and a +groom galloped off to Lindfield before morning to fetch the doctor, and +another to fetch Mr. Barnes, the priest, from Cuckfield. Sir Nicholas was +bled to reduce the fever of the pneumonia that had attacked him. All day +long he was sinking. About eleven o'clock that night he fell asleep, +apparently, and Lady Maxwell, who had watched incessantly, was persuaded +to lie down; but at three o'clock in the morning, on the first of +December, Mistress Margaret awakened her, and together they knelt by the +bedside of the old man. The priest, who had anointed him on the previous +evening, knelt behind, repeating the prayers for the dying. + +Sir Nicholas lay on his back, supported by pillows, under the gloom of +the black old four-posted bed. A wood-fire glowed on the hearth, and the +air was fragrant with the scent of the burning cedar-logs. A crucifix was +in the old man's hands; but his eyes were bright with fever, and his +fingers every now and then relaxed, and then tightened their hold again +on the cool silver of the figure of the crucified Saviour. His lips were +moving tremulously, and his ruddy old face was pale now. + +The priest's voice went on steadily; the struggle was beginning. + +"_Proficiscere, anima christiana, de hoc mundo_.--Go forth, Christian +soul, from this world in the name of God the Father Almighty, who created +thee; in the name of Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, Who suffered +for thee; in the name of the Holy Ghost, who was shed forth upon thee; In +the name of Angels and Archangels; in the name of Thrones and Dominions; +in the name of Principalities and Powers----" + +Suddenly the old man, whose head had been slowly turning from side to +side, ceased his movement, and his open mouth closed; he was looking +steadily at his wife, and a look of recognition came back to his eyes. + +"Sweetheart," he said; and smiled, and died. + + * * * * + +Isabel did not see much of Mistress Margaret for the next few days; she +was constantly with her sister, and when she came to the Dower House now +and then, said little to the girl. There were curious rumours in the +village; strangers came and went continually, and there was a vast +congregation at the funeral, when the body of the old knight was laid to +rest in the Maxwell chapel. The following day the air of mystery +deepened; and young Mrs. Melton whispered to Isabel, with many glances +and becks, that she and her man had seen lights through the chapel +windows at three o'clock that morning. Isabel went into the chapel +presently to visit the grave, and there was a new smear of black on the +east wall as if a taper had been set too near. + +The courier who had been despatched to announce to Hubert that his father +had died and left him master of the Hall and estate, with certain +conditions, returned at the end of the month with the news that the fleet +had sailed again on the thirteenth, and that Hubert was gone with it; so +Lady Maxwell, now more silent and retired than ever, for the present +retained her old position and Mr. Piers took charge of the estate. + +Although Isabel outwardly was very little changed in the last six years, +great movements had been taking place in her soul, and if Hubert had only +known the state of the case, possibly he would not have gone so hastily +with Mr. Drake. + +The close companionship of such an one as Mistress Margaret was doing its +almost inevitable work; and the girl had been learning that behind the +brilliant and even crude surface of the Catholic practice, there lay +still and beautiful depths of devotion which she had scarcely dreamed of. +The old nun's life was a revelation to Isabel; she heard from her bed in +the black winter mornings her footsteps in the next room, and soon learnt +that Mistress Margaret spent at least two hours in prayer before she +appeared at all. Two or three times in the day she knew that she retired +again for the same purpose, and again an hour after she was in bed, there +were the same gentle movements next door. She began to discover, too, +that for the Catholic, as well as for the Puritan, the Person of the +Saviour was the very heart of religion; that her own devotion to Christ +was a very languid flame by the side of the ardent inarticulate passion +of this soul who believed herself His wedded spouse; and that the worship +of the saints and the Blessed Mother instead of distracting the love of +the Christian soul rather seemed to augment it. The King of Love stood, +as she fancied sometimes, to Catholic eyes, in a glow of ineffable +splendour; and the faces of His adoring Court reflected the ruddy glory +on all sides; thus refracting the light of their central Sun, instead of, +as she had thought, obscuring it. + +Other difficulties, too, began to seem oddly unreal and intangible, when +she had looked at them in the light of Mistress Margaret's clear old eyes +and candid face. It was a real event in her inner life when she first +began to understand what the rosary meant to Catholics. Mistress Corbet +had told her what was the actual use of the beads; and how the mysteries +of Christ's life and death were to be pondered over as the various +prayers were said; but it had hitherto seemed to Isabel as if this method +were an elaborate and superstitious substitute for reading the inspired +record of the New Testament. + +She had been sitting out in the little walled garden in front of the +Dower House one morning on an early summer day after her father's death, +and Mistress Margaret had come out in her black dress and stood for a +moment looking at her irresolutely, framed in the dark doorway. Then she +had come slowly across the grass, and Isabel had seen for the first time +in her fingers a string of ivory beads. Mistress Margaret sat down on a +garden chair a little way from her, and let her hands sink into her lap, +still holding the beads. Isabel said nothing, but went on reading. +Presently she looked up again, and the old lady's eyes were half-closed, +and her lips just moving; and the beads passing slowly through her +fingers. She looked almost like a child dreaming, in spite of her +wrinkles and her snowy hair; the pale light of a serene soul lay on her +face. This did not look like the mechanical performance that Isabel had +always associated with the idea of beads. So the minutes passed away; +every time that Isabel looked up there was the little white face with the +long lashes lying on the cheek, and the crown of snowy hair and lace, and +the luminous look of a soul in conscious communion with the unseen. + +When the old lady had finished, she twisted the beads about her fingers +and opened her eyes. Isabel had an impulse to speak. + +"Mistress Margaret," she said, "may I ask you something?" + +"Of course, my darling," the old lady said. + +"I have never seen you use those before--I cannot understand them." + +"What is it," asked the old lady, "that you don't understand?" + +"How can prayers said over and over again like that be any good?" + +Mistress Margaret was silent for a moment. + +"I saw young Mrs. Martin last week," she said, "with her little girl in +her lap. Amy had her arms round her mother's neck, and was being rocked +to and fro; and every time she rocked she said 'Oh, mother.'" + +"But then," said Isabel, after a moment's silence, "she was only a +child." + +"'Except ye become like little children--'" quoted Mistress Margaret +softly--"you see, my Isabel, we are nothing more than children with God +and His Blessed Mother. To say 'Hail Mary, Hail Mary,' is the best way of +telling her how much we love her. And then this string of beads is like +Our Lady's girdle, and her children love to finger it, and whisper to +her. And then we say our paternosters, too; and all the while we are +talking she is shewing us pictures of her dear Child, and we look at all +the great things He did for us, one by one; and then we turn the page and +begin again." + +"I see," said Isabel; and after a moment or two's silence Mistress +Margaret got up and went into the house. + +The girl sat still with her hands clasped round her knee. How strange and +different this religion was to the fiery gospel she had heard last year +at Northampton from the harsh stern preacher, at whose voice a veil +seemed to rend and show a red-hot heaven behind! How tender and simple +this was--like a blue summer's sky with drifting clouds! If only it was +true! If only there were a great Mother whose girdle was of beads strung +together, which dangled into every Christian's hands; whose face bent +down over every Christian's bed; and whose mighty and tender arms that +had held her Son and God were still stretched out beneath her other +children. And Isabel, whose soul yearned for a mother, sighed as she +reminded herself that there was but "one Mediator between God and +man--the man, Christ Jesus." + +And so the time went by, like an outgoing tide, silent and steady. The +old nun did not talk much to the girl about dogmatic religion, for she +was in a difficult position. She was timid certainly of betraying her +faith by silence, but she was also timid of betraying her trust by +speech. Sometimes she felt she had gone too far, sometimes not far +enough; but on the whole her practice was never to suggest questions, but +only to answer them when Isabel asked; and to occupy herself with +affirmative rather than with destructive criticism. More than this she +hesitated to do out of honour for the dead; less than this she dared not +do out of love for God and Isabel. But there were three or four +conversations that she felt were worth waiting for; and the look on +Isabel's face afterwards, and the sudden questions she would ask +sometimes after a fit of silence, made her friend's heart quicken towards +her, and her prayers more fervent. + +The two were sitting together one December day in Isabel's upstairs room +and the girl, who had just come in from a solitary walk, was half +kneeling on the window-seat and drumming her fingers softly on the panes +as she looked out at the red western sky. + +"I used to think," she said, "that Catholics had no spiritual life; but +now it seems to me that in comparison we Puritans have none. You know so +much about the soul, as to what is from God and what from the Evil One; +and we have to grope for ourselves. And yet our Saviour said that His +sheep should know His voice. I do not understand it." And she turned +towards Mistress Margaret who had laid down her work and was listening. + +"Dear child," she said, "if you mean our priests and spiritual writers, +it is because they study it. We believe in the science of the soul; and +we consult our spiritual guides for our soul's health, as the leech for +our body's health." + +"But why must you ask the priest, if the Lord speaks to all alike?" + +"He speaks through the priest, my dear, as He does through the +physician." + +"But why should the priest know better than the people?" pursued Isabel, +intent on her point. + +"Because he tells us what the Church says," said the other smiling, "it +is his business. He need not be any better or cleverer in other respects. +The baker may be a thief or a foolish fellow; but his bread is good." + +"But how do you know," went on Isabel, who thought Mistress Margaret a +little slow to see her point--"how do you know that the Church is right?" + +The old nun considered a moment, and then lifted her embroidery again. + +"Why do you think," she asked, beginning to sew, "that each single soul +that asks God's guidance is right?" + +"Because the Holy Ghost is promised to such," said Isabel wondering. + +"Then is it not likely," went on the other still stitching, "that the +millions of souls who form Holy Church are right, when they all agree +together?" Isabel moved a little impatiently. + +"You see," went on Mistress Margaret, "that is what we Catholics believe +our Saviour meant when He said that the gates of hell should not prevail +against His Church." + +But Isabel was not content. She broke in: + +"But why are not the Scriptures sufficient? They are God's Word." + +The other put down her embroidery again, and smiled up into the girl's +puzzled eyes. + +"Well, my child," she said, "do they seem sufficient, when you look at +Christendom now? If they are so clear, how is it that you have the +Lutherans, and the Anabaptists, and the Family of Love, and the +Calvinists, and the Church of England, all saying they hold to the +Scriptures alone. Nay, nay; the Scriptures are the grammar, and the +Church is the dame that teaches out of it, and she knows so well much +that is not in the grammar, and we name that tradition. But where there +is no dame to teach, the children soon fall a-fighting about the book and +the meaning of it." + +Isabel looked at Mistress Margaret a moment, and then turned back again +to the window in silence. + +At another time they had a word or two about Peter's prerogatives. + +"Surely," said Isabel suddenly, as they walked together in the garden, +"Christ is the one Foundation of the Church, St. Paul tells us so +expressly." + +"Yes, my dear," said the nun, "but then Christ our Lord said: 'Thou art +Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church.' So he who is the only +Good Shepherd, said to Peter, 'Feed My sheep'; and He that is _Clavis +David_ and that openeth and none shutteth said to him, 'I will give +thee the keys, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in +heaven.' That is why we call Peter the Vicar of Christ." + +Isabel raised her eyebrows. + +"Surely, surely----" she began. + +"Yes, my child," said Mistress Margaret, "I know it is new and strange to +you; but it was not to your grandfather or his forbears: to them, as to +me, it is the plain meaning of the words. We Catholics are a simple folk. +We hold that what our Saviour said simply He meant simply: as we do in +the sacred mystery of His Body and Blood. To us, you know," she went on, +smiling, with a hand on the girl's arm, "it seems as if you Protestants +twisted the Word of God against all justice." + +Isabel smiled back at her; but she was puzzled. The point of view was new +to her. And yet again in the garden, a few months later, as they sat out +together on the lawn, the girl opened the same subject. + +"Mistress Margaret," she said, "I have been thinking a great deal; and it +seems very plain when you talk. But you know our great divines could +answer you, though I cannot. My father was no Papist; and Dr. Grindal and +the Bishops are all wise men. How do you answer that?" + +The nun looked silently down at the grass a moment or two. + +"It is the old tale," she said at last, looking up; "we cannot believe +that the babes and sucklings are as likely to be right in such matters as +the wise and prudent--even more likely, if our Saviour's words are to be +believed. Dear child, do you not see that our Lord came to save all men, +and call all men into His Church; and that therefore He must have marked +His Church in such a manner that the most ignorant may perceive it as +easily as the most learned? Learning is very well, and it is the gift of +God; but salvation and grace cannot depend upon it. It needs an architect +to understand why Paul's Church is strong and beautiful, and what makes +it so; but any child or foolish fellow can see that it is so." + +"I do not understand," said Isabel, wrinkling her forehead. + +"Why this--that you are as likely to know the Catholic Church when you +see it, as Dr. Grindal or Dr. Freake, or your dear father himself. Only a +divine can explain about it and understand it, but you and I are as fit +to see it and walk into it, as any of them." + +"But then why are they not all Catholics?" asked Isabel, still +bewildered. + +"Ah!" said the nun, softly, "God alone knows, who reads hearts and calls +whom He will. But learning, at least, has nought to do with it." + +Conversations of this kind that took place now and then between the two +were sufficient to show Mistress Margaret, like tiny bubbles on the +surface of a clear stream, the swift movement of this limpid soul that +she loved so well. But on the other hand, all the girl's past life, and +most sacred and dear associations, were in conflict with this movement; +the memory of her quiet, wise father rose and reproached her sometimes; +Anthony's enthusiastic talk, when he came down from Lambeth, on the +glorious destinies of the Church of England, of her gallant protest +against the corruptions of the West, and of her future unique position in +Christendom as the National Church of the most progressive country--all +this caused her to shrink back terrified from the bourne to which she was +drifting, and from the breach that must follow with her brother. But +above all else that caused her pain was the shocking suspicion that her +love for Hubert perhaps was influencing her, and that she was living in +gross self-deception as to the sincerity of her motives. + +This culminated at last in a scene that seriously startled the old nun; +it took place one summer night after Hubert's departure in Mr. Drake's +expedition. Mistress Margaret had seen Isabel to her room, and an hour +later had finished her night-office and was thinking of preparing herself +to bed, when there was a hurried tap at the door, and Isabel came quickly +in, her face pale and miserable, her great grey eyes full of trouble and +distraction, and her hair on her shoulders. + +"My dear child," said the nun, "what is it?" + +Isabel closed the door and stood looking at her, with her lips parted. + +"How can I know, Mistress Margaret," she said, in the voice of a +sleep-walker, "whether this is the voice of God or of my own wicked self? +No, no," she went on, as the other came towards her, frightened, "let me +tell you. I must speak." + +"Yes, my child, you shall; but come and sit down first," and she drew her +to a chair and set her in it, and threw a wrap over her knees and feet; +and sat down beside her, and took one of her hands, and held it between +her own. + +"Now then, Isabel, what is it?" + +"I have been thinking over it all so long," began the girl, in the same +tremulous voice, with her eyes fixed on the nun's face, "and to-night in +bed I could not bear it any longer. You see, I love Hubert, and I used to +think I loved our Saviour too; but now I do not know. It seems as if He +was leading me to the Catholic Church; all is so much more plain and easy +there--it seems--it seems--to make sense in the Catholic Church; and all +the rest of us are wandering in the dark. But if I become a Catholic, you +see, I can marry Hubert then; and I cannot help thinking of that; and +wanting to marry him. But then perhaps that is the reason that I think I +see it all so plainly; just because I want to see it plainly. And what am +I to do? Why will not our Lord shew me my own heart and what is His +Will?" + +Mistress Margaret shook her head gently. + +"Dear child," she said, "our Saviour loves you and wishes to make you +happy. Do you not think that perhaps He is helping you and making it easy +in this way, by drawing you to His Church through Hubert. Why should not +both be His Will? that you should become a Catholic and marry Hubert as +well?" + +"Yes," said Isabel, "but how can I tell?" + +"There is only one thing to be done," went on the old lady, "be quite +simple and quiet. Whenever your soul begins to be disturbed and anxious, +put yourself in His Hands, and refuse to decide for yourself. It is so +easy, so easy." + +"But why should I be so anxious and disturbed, if it were not our Lord +speaking and warning me?" + +"In the Catholic Church," said Mistress Margaret, "we know well about all +those movements of the soul; and we call them scruples. You must resist +them, dear child, like temptations. We are told that if a soul is in +grace and desires to serve God, then whenever our Lord speaks it is to +bring sweetness with Him; and when it is the evil one, he brings +disturbance. And that is why I am sure that these questionings are not +from God. You feel stifled, is it not so, when you try to pray? and all +seems empty of God; the waves and storms are going over you. But lie +still and be content; and refuse to be disturbed; and you will soon be at +peace again and see the light clearly." + +Mistress Margaret found herself speaking simply in short words and +sentences as to a child. She had seen that for a long while past the +clouds had been gathering over Isabel, and that her soul was at present +completely overcast and unable to perceive or decide anything clearly; +and so she gave her this simple advice, and did her utmost to soothe her, +knowing that such a clean soul would not be kept long in the dark. + +She knelt down with Isabel presently and prayed aloud with her, in a +quiet even voice; a patch of moonlight lay on the floor, and something of +its white serenity seemed to be in the old nun's tones as she entreated +the merciful Lord to bid peace again to this anxious soul, and let her +see light again through the dark. + +And when she had taken Isabel back again to her own room at last, and had +seen her safely into bed, and kissed her good-night, already the girl's +face was quieter as it lay on the pillow, and the lines were smoothed out +of her forehead. + +"God bless you!" said Mistress Margaret. + + + + + CHAPTER III + + HUBERT'S RETURN + + +After the sailing of Mr. Drake's expedition, the friends of the adventurers +had to wait in patience for several months before news arrived. Then the +_Elizabeth_, under the command of Mr. Winter, which had been separated +from Mr. Drake's _Pelican_ in a gale off the south-west coast of America, +returned to England, bringing the news of Mr. Doughty's execution for +desertion; but of the _Pelican_ herself there was no further news until +complaints arrived from the Viceroy of New Spain of Mr. Drake's ravages +up the west coast. Then silence again fell for eighteen months. + +Anthony had followed the fortunes of the _Pelican_, in which Hubert had +sailed, with a great deal of interest: and it was with real relief that +after the burst of joy in London at the news of her safe return to +Plymouth with an incalculable amount of plunder, he had word from Lady +Maxwell that she hoped he would come down at once to Great Keynes, and +help to welcome Hubert home. He was not able to go at once, for his +duties detained him; but a couple of days after the Hall had welcomed its +new master, Anthony was at the Dower House again with Isabel. He found +her extraordinarily bright and vivacious, and was delighted at the +change, for he had been troubled the last time he had seen her a few +months before, at her silence and listlessness; but her face was radiant +now, as she threw herself into his arms at the door, and told him that +they were all to go to supper that night at the Hall; and that Hubert had +been keeping his best stories on purpose for his return. She showed him, +when they got up to his room at last, little things Hubert had given +her--carved nuts, a Spanish coin or two, and an ingot of gold--but of +which she would say nothing, but only laugh and nod her head. + +Hubert, too, when he saw him that evening seemed full of the same sort of +half-suppressed happiness that shone out now and again suddenly. There he +sat, for hours after supper that night, broader and more sunburnt than +ever, with his brilliant eyes glancing round as he talked, and his sinewy +man's hand, in the delicate creamy ruff, making little explanatory +movements, and drawing a map once or twice in spilled wine on the +polished oak; the three ladies sat forward and watched him breathlessly, +or leaned back and sighed as each tale ended, and Anthony found himself, +too, carried away with enthusiasm again and again, as he looked at this +gallant sea-dog in his gold chain and satin and jewels, and listened to +his stories. + +"It was bitter cold," said Hubert in his strong voice, telling them of +Mr. Doughty's death, "on the morning itself: and snow lay on the decks +when we rose. Mr. Fletcher had prepared a table in the poop-cabin, with a +white cloth and bread and wine; and at nine of the clock we were all +assembled where we might see into the cabin: and Mr. Fletcher said the +Communion service, and Mr. Drake and Mr. Doughty received the sacrament +there at his hands. Some of Mr. Doughty's men had all they could do to +keep back their tears; for you know, mother, they were good friends. And +then when it was done, we made two lines down the deck to where the block +stood by the main-mast; and the two came down together; and they kissed +one another there. And Mr. Doughty spoke to the men, and bade them pray +for the Queen's Grace with him; and they did. And then he and Mr. Drake +put off their doublets, and Mr. Doughty knelt at the block, and said +another prayer or two, and then laid his head down, and he was shivering +a little with cold, and then, when he gave the sign, Mr. Drake----" and +Hubert brought the edge of his hand down sharply, and the glasses rang, +and the ladies drew quick hissing breaths; and Lady Maxwell put her hand +on her son's arm, as he looked round on all their faces. + +Then he told them of the expedition up the west coast, and of the towns +they sacked; and the opulent names rolled oddly off his tongue, and +seemed to bring a whiff of southern scent into this panelled English +room,--Valparaiso, Tarapaca, and Arica--; and of the capture of the +_Cacafuego_ off Quibdo; and of the enormous treasure they took, the +great golden crucifix with emeralds of the size of pigeon's eggs, and the +chests of pearls, and the twenty-six tons of silver, and the wedges of +pure gold from the Peruvian galleon, and of the golden falcon from the +Chinese trader that they captured south of Guatulco. And he described the +search up the coast for the passage eastwards that never existed; and of +Drake's superb resolve to return westwards instead, by the Moluccas; and +how they stayed at Ternate, south of Celebes, and coasted along Java +seeking a passage, and found it in the Sunda straits, and broke out from +the treacherous islands into the open sea; crossed to Africa, rounded the +Cape of Good Hope; came up the west coast, touching at Sierra Leone, and +so home again along the Spanish and French coasts, to Plymouth Sound and +the pealing of Plymouth bells. + +And he broke out into something very like eloquence when he spoke of +Drake. + +"Never was such a captain," he cried, "with his little stiff beard and +his obstinate eyes. I have seen him stand on the poop, when the arrows +were like hail on the deck, with one finger in the ring round his +neck,--so": and Hubert thrust a tanned finger into a link of his chain, +and lifted his chin, "just making little signs to the steersman, with his +hand behind his back, to bring the ship nearer to the Spaniard; as cool, +I tell you, as cool as if he were playing merelles. Oh! and then when we +boarded, out came his finger from his ring; and there was none that +struck so true and fierce; and all in silence too, without an oath or a +cry or a word; except maybe to give an order. But he was very sharp with +all that angered him. When we sighted the _Madre di Dios_, I ran into +his cabin to tell him of it, without saluting, so full was my head of +the chase. And he looked at me like ice; and then roared at me to know +where my manners were, and bade me go out and enter again properly, +before he would hear my news; and then I heard him rating the man that +stood at his door for letting me pass in that state. At his dinner, too, +which he took alone, there were always trumpets to blow, as when her +Grace dines. When he laughed it seemed as if he did it with a grave face. +There was a piece of grand fooling when we got out from among those weary +Indian islands; where the great crabs be, and flies that burn in the +dark, as I told you. Mr. Fletcher, the minister, played the coward one +night when we ran aground; and bade us think of our sins and our immortal +souls, instead of urging us to be smart about the ship; and he did it, +too, not as Mr. Drake might do, but in such a melancholy voice as if we +were all at our last hour; so when we were free of our trouble, and out +on the main again, we were all called by the drum to the forecastle, and +there Mr. Drake sat on a sea-chest as solemn as a judge, so that not a +man durst laugh, with a pair of pantoufles in his hand; and Mr. Fletcher +was brought before him, trying to smile as if 'twas a jest for him too, +between two guards; and there he was arraigned; and the witnesses were +called; and Tom Moore said how he was tapped on the shoulder by Mr. +Fletcher as he was getting a pick from the hold; and how he was as white +as a ghost and bade him think on Mr. Doughty, how there was no mercy for +him when he needed it, and so there would be none for us--and then other +witnesses came, and then Mr. Fletcher tried to make his defence, saying +how it was the part of a minister to bid men think on their souls; but +'twas no good. Mr. Drake declared him guilty; and sentenced him to be +kept in irons till he repented of that his cowardice; and then, which was +the cream of the joke, since the prisoner was a minister, Mr. Drake +declared him excommunicate, and cut off from the Church of God, and given +over to the devil. And he was put in irons, too, for a while; so 'twas +not all a joke." + +"And what is Mr. Drake doing now?" asked Lady Maxwell. + +"Oh! Drake is in London," said Hubert. "Ah! yes, and you must all come to +Deptford when her Grace is going to be there. Anthony, lad, you'll come?" + +Anthony said he would certainly do his best; and Isabel put out her hand +to her brother, and beamed at him; and then turned to look at Hubert +again. + +"And what are you to do next?" asked Mistress Margaret. + +"Well," he said, "I am to go to Plymouth again presently, to help to get +the treasure out of the ships; and I must be there, too, for the spring +and summer, for Drake wants me to help him with his new expedition." + +"But you are not going with him again, my son?" said his mother quickly. + +Hubert put out his hand to her. + +"No, no," he said, "I have written to tell him I cannot. I must take my +father's place here. He will understand"; and he gave one swift glance at +Isabel, and her eyes fell. + +Anthony was obliged to return to Lambeth after a day or two, and he +carried with him a heart full of admiration and enthusiasm for his +friend. He had wondered once or twice, too, as his eyes fell on Isabel, +whether there was anything in what Mistress Corbet had said; but he dared +not speak to her, and still less to Hubert, unless his confidence was +first sought. + +The visit to Deptford, which took place a week or two later, gave an +additional spurt to Anthony's nationalism. London was all on fire at the +return of the buccaneers, and as Anthony rode down the south bank of the +river from Lambeth to join the others at the inn, the three miles of +river beyond London Bridge were an inspiriting sight in the bright winter +sunshine, crowded with craft of all kinds, bright with bunting, that were +making their way down to the naval triumph. The road, too, was thick with +vehicles and pedestrians. + +It was still early when he met his party at the inn, and Hubert took them +immediately to see the _Pelican_ that was drawn up in a little creek on +the south bank. Mistress Margaret had not come, so the four went together +all over the ship that had been for these years the perilous home of this +sunburnt lad they all loved so well. Hubert pointed out Drake's own cabin +at the poop, with its stern-windows, where the last sacrament of the two +friends had been celebrated; and where Drake himself had eaten in royal +fashion to the sound of trumpets and slept with all-night sentries at his +door. He showed them too his own cabin, where he had lived with three +more officers, and the upper poop-deck where Drake would sit hour after +hour with his spy-glass, ranging the horizons for treasure-ships. And he +showed them, too, the high forecastle, and the men's quarters; and Isabel +fingered delicately the touch-holes of the very guns that had roared and +snapped so fiercely at the Dons; and they peered down into the dark empty +hold where the treasure-chests had lain, and up at the three masts and +the rigging that had borne so long the swift wings of the _Pelican_. And +they heard the hiss and rattle of the ropes as Hubert ordered a man to +run up a flag to show them how it was done; and they smelled the strange +tarry briny smell of a sea-going ship. + +"You are not tired?" Anthony said to his sister, as they walked back to +the inn from which they were to see the spectacle. She shook her head +happily; and Anthony, looking at her, once more questioned himself +whether Mistress Corbet were right or not. + +When they had settled down at last to their window, the crowds were +gathering thicker every moment about the entrance to the ship, which lay +in the creek perhaps a hundred yards from the inn, and on the road along +which the Queen was to come from Greenwich. Anthony felt his whole heart +go out in sympathy to these joyous shouting folk beneath, who were here +to celebrate the gallant pluck of a little bearded man and his followers, +who for the moment stood for England, and in whose presence just now the +Queen herself must take second place. Even the quacks and salesmen who +were busy in their booths all round used patriotism to push their +bargains. + +"Spanish ointment, Spanish ointment!" bellowed a red-faced herbalist in a +doctor's gown, just below the window. "The Dons know what's best for +wounds and knocks after Frankie Drake's visit"; and the crowd laughed and +bought up his boxes. And another drove a roaring business in green glass +beads, reported to be the exact size of the emeralds taken from the +_Cacafuego_; and others sold little models of the _Pelican_, warranted to +frighten away Dons and all other kinds of devils from the house that +possessed one. Isabel laughed with pleasure, and sent Anthony down to buy +one for her. + +But perhaps more than all else the sight of the seamen themselves stirred +his heart. Most of them, officers as well as men, were dressed with +absurd extravagance, for the prize-money, even after the deduction of the +Queen's lion-share, had been immense, but beneath their plumed and +jewel-buckled caps, brown faces looked out, alert and capable, with tight +lips and bright, puckered eyes, with something of the terrier in their +expression. There they swaggered along with a slight roll in their walk, +by ones or twos, through the crowd that formed lanes to let them pass, +and surged along in their wake, shouting after them and clapping them on +the back. Anthony watched them eagerly as they made their way from all +directions to where the _Pelican_ lay; for it was close on noon. Then +from far away came the boom of the Tower guns, and then the nearer crash +of those that guarded the dockyard; and last the deafening roar of the +_Pelican_ broadside; and then the smoke rose and drifted in a heavy veil +in the keen frosty air over the cheering crowds. When it lifted again, +there was the flash of gold and colour from the Greenwich road, and the +high braying of the trumpets pierced the roaring welcome of the people. +But the watchers at the windows could see no more over the heads of the +crowd than the plumes of the royal carriage, as the Queen dismounted, and +a momentary glimpse of her figure and the group round her as she passed +on to the deck of the _Pelican_ and went immediately below to the +banquet, while the parish church bells pealed a welcome. + +Lady Maxwell insisted that Isabel should now dine, as there would be no +more to be seen till the Queen should come up on deck again. + +Of the actual ceremony of the knighting of Mr. Drake they had a very fair +view, though the figures were little and far away. The first intimation +they had that the banquet was over was the sight of the scarlet-clad +yeomen emerging one by one up the little hatchway that led below. The +halberdiers lined the decks already, with their weapons flashing in long +curved lines; and by the time that the trumpets began to sound to show +that the Queen was on her way from below, the decks were one dense mass +of colour and steel, with a lane left to the foot of the poop-stairs by +which she would ascend. Then at last the two figures appeared, the Queen +radiant in cloth of gold, and Mr. Drake, alert and brisk, in his Court +suit and sword. There was silence from the crowd as the adventurer knelt +before the Queen, and Anthony held his breath with excitement as he +caught the flash of the slender sword that an officer had put into the +Queen's hand; and then an inconceivable noise broke out as Sir Francis +Drake stood up. The crowd was one open mouth, shouting, the church bells +burst into peals overhead, answered by the roll of drums from the deck +and the blare of trumpets; and then the whole din sank into nothingness +for a moment under the heart-shaking crash of the ship's broadside, +echoed instantly by the deeper roar of the dockyard guns, and answered +after a moment or two from far away by the dull boom from the Tower. And +Anthony leaned yet further from the window and added his voice to the +tumult. + +As he rode back alone to Lambeth, after parting with the others at London +Bridge, for they intended to go down home again that night, he was +glowing with national zeal. He had seen not only royalty and magnificence +but an apotheosis of character that day. There in the little trim figure +with the curly hair kneeling before the Queen was England at its +best--England that sent two ships against an empire; and it was the +Church that claimed Sir Francis Drake as a son, and indeed a devoted one, +in a sense, that Anthony himself was serving here at Lambeth, and for +which he felt a real and fervent enthusiasm. + +He was surprised a couple of days later to receive a note in Lady +Maxwell's handwriting, brought up by a special messenger from the Hall. + +"There is a friend of mine," she wrote, "to come to Lambeth House +presently, he tells me, to be kept a day or two in ward before he is sent +to Wisbeach. He is a Catholic, named Mr. Henry Buxton, who showed me +great love during the sorrow of my dear husband's death; and I write to +you to show kindness to him, and to get him a good bed, and all that may +comfort him: for I know not whether Lambeth Prison is easy or hard; but I +hope perhaps that since my Lord Archbishop is a prisoner himself he has +pity on such as are so too; and so my pains be in vain. However, if you +will see Mr. Buxton at least, and have some talk with him, and show him +this letter, it will cheer him perhaps to see a friend's face." + +Anthony of course made inquiries at once, and found that Mr. Buxton was +to arrive on the following afternoon. It was the custom to send prisoners +occasionally to Lambeth, more particularly those more distinguished, or +who, it was hoped, could be persuaded to friendly conference. Mr. Buxton, +however, was thought to be incorrigible, and was only sent there because +there was some delay in the preparations for his reception at Wisbeach, +which since the previous year had been used as an overflow prison for +Papists. + +On the evening of the next day, which was Friday, Anthony went straight +out from the Hall after supper to the gateway prison, and found Mr. +Buxton at a fish supper in the little prison in the outer part of the +eastern tower. He introduced himself, but found it necessary to show Lady +Maxwell's letter before the prisoner was satisfied as to his identity. + +"You must pardon me, Mr. Norris," he said, when he had read the letter +and asked a question or two, "but we poor Papists are bound to be shy. +Why, in this very room," he went on, pointing to the inner corner away +from the door, and smiling, "for aught I know a man sits now to hear us." + +Anthony was considerably astonished to see this stranger point so +confidently to the hiding-hole, where indeed the warder used to sit +sometimes behind a brick partition, to listen to the talk of the +prisoners; and showed his surprise. + +"Ah, Mr. Norris," the other said, "we Papists are bound to be well +informed; or else where were our lives? But come, sir, let us sit down." + +Anthony apologised for interrupting him at his supper, and offered to +come again, but Mr. Buxton begged him not to leave, as he had nearly +finished. So Anthony sat down, and observed the prison and the prisoner. +It was fairly well provided with necessaries: a good straw bed lay in one +corner on trestles; and washing utensils stood at the further wall; and +there was an oil lamp that hung high up from an iron pin. The prisoner's +luggage lay still half unpacked on the floor, and a row of pegs held a +hat and a cloak. Mr. Buxton himself was a dark-haired man with a short +beard and merry bright eyes; and was dressed soberly as a gentleman; and +behaved himself with courtesy and assurance. But it was a queer place +with this flickering lamp, thought Anthony, for a gentleman to be eating +his supper in. When Mr. Buxton had finished his dish of roach and a +tankard of ale, he looked up at Anthony, smiling. + +"My lord knows the ways of Catholics, then," he said, pointing to the +bones on his plate. + +Anthony explained that the Protestants observed the Friday abstinence, +too. + +"Ah yes," said the other, "I was forgetting the Queen's late injunctions. +Let us see; how did it run? 'The same is not required for any liking of +Papish Superstitions or Ceremonies (is it?) hitherto used, which utterly +are to be detested of all Christian folk'; (no, the last word or two is a +gloss), 'but only to maintain the mariners in this land, and to set men +a-fishing.' That is the sense of it, is it not, sir? You fast, that is, +not for heavenly reasons, which were a foolish and Papish thing to do; +but for earthly reasons, which is a reasonable and Protestant thing to +do." + +Anthony might have taken this assault a little amiss, if he had not seen +a laughing light in his companion's eyes; and remembered, too, that +imprisonment is apt to breed a little bitterness. So he smiled back at +him. Then soon they fell to talking of Lady Maxwell and Great Keynes, +where it seemed that Mr. Buxton had stayed more than once. + +"I knew Sir Nicholas well," he said, "God rest his soul. It seems to me +he is one of those whose life continually gave the lie to men who say +that a Catholic can be no true Englishman. There never beat a more loyal +heart than his." + +Anthony agreed; but asked if it were not true that Catholics were in +difficulties sometimes as to the proper authority to be obeyed--the Pope +or the Prince. + +"It is true," said the other, "or it might be. Yet the principle is +clear, _Date Caesari quae sunt Caesaris_. The difficulty lies but in the +application of the maxim." + +"But with us," said Anthony--"Church of England folk,--there hardly can +be ever any such difficulty; for the Prince of the State is the Governor +of the Church as well." + +"I take your point," said Mr. Buxton. "You mean that a National Church is +better, for that spiritual and temporal authorities are then at one." + +"Just so," said Anthony, beginning to warm to his favourite theme. "The +Church is the nation regarded as religious. When England wars on land it +is through her army, which is herself under arms; when on sea she embarks +in the navy; and in the warfare with spiritual powers, it is through her +Church. And surely in this way the Church must always be the Church of +the people. The Englishman and the Spaniard are like cat and dog; they +like not the same food nor the same kind of coat; I hear that their +buildings are not like ours; their language, nay, their faces and minds, +are not like ours. Then why should be their prayers and their religion? I +quarrel with no foreigner's faith; it is God who made us so." + +Anthony stopped, breathless with his unusual eloquence; but it was the +subject that lay nearest to his heart at present, and he found no lack of +words. The prisoner had watched him with twinkling eyes, nodding his head +as if in agreement; and when he had finished his little speech, nodded +again in meditative silence. + +"It is complete," he answered, "complete. And as a theory would be +convincing; and I envy you, Master Norris, for you stand on the top of +the wave. That is what England holds. But, my dear sir, Christ our Lord +refused such a kingdom as that. My kingdom, He said, is not of this +world--is not, that is, ruled by the world's divisions and systems. You +have described Babel,--every nation with its own language. But it was to +undo Babel and to build one spiritual city that our Saviour came down, +and sent the Holy Ghost to make the Church at Pentecost out of Arabians +and Medes and Elamites--to break down the partition-walls, as the apostle +tells us,--that there be neither Jew nor Greek, barbarian nor +Scythian--and to establish one vast kingdom (which for that very reason +we name Catholic), to destroy differences between nation and nation, by +lifting each to be of the People of God--to pull down Babel, the City of +Confusion, and build Jerusalem the City of Peace. Dear God!" cried Mr. +Buxton, rising in his excitement, and standing over Anthony, who looked +at him astonished and bewildered. "You and your England would parcel out +the Kingdom of heaven into national Churches, as you name them--among all +the kingdoms of the world; and yet you call yourselves the servants of +Him who came to do just the opposite--yes, and who will do it, in spite +of you, and make the kingdoms of this world, instead, the Kingdom of our +Lord and of His Christ. Why, if each nation is to have her Church, why +not each county and each town--yes, and each separate soul, too; for all +are different! Nay, nay, Master Norris, you are blinded by the Prince of +this world. He is shewing you even now from an high mountain the kingdoms +of this world and the glory of them: lift your eyes, dear lad, to the +hills from whence cometh your help; those hills higher than the mountain +where you stand; and see the new Jerusalem, and the glory of her, coming +down from God to dwell with men." + +Mr. Buxton stood, his eyes blazing, plainly carried away wholly by +enthusiasm; and Anthony, in spite of himself, could not be angry. He +moistened his lips once or twice. + +"Well, sir; of course I hold with what you say, in one sense; but it is +not come yet; and never will, till our Lord comes back to make all +plain." + +"Not come yet?" cried the other, "Not come yet! Why, what is the one Holy +Catholic and Apostolic Church but that? There you have one visible +kingdom, gathered out of every nation and tongue and people, as the +apostle said. I have a little estate in France, Master Norris, where I go +sometimes; and there are folk in their wooden shoes, talking a different +human tongue to me, but, thank God! the same divine one--of contrition +and adoration and prayer. There we have the same mass, the same +priesthood, the same blessed sacrament and the same Faith, as in my own +little oratory at Stanfield. Go to Spain, Africa, Rome, India; wherever +Christ is preached; there is the Church as it is here--the City of Peace. +And as for you and your Church! with whom do you hold communion?" + +This stung Anthony, and he answered impulsively. + +"In Geneva and Frankfort, at least, there are folk who speak the same +divine tongue, as you call it, as we do; they and we are agreed in +matters of faith." + +"Indeed," said Mr. Burton sharply, "then what becomes of your +Nationalism, and the varied temperaments that you told me God had made?" + +Anthony bit his lip; he had overshot his mark. But the other swept on; +and as he talked began to step up and down the little room, in a kind of +rhapsody. + +"Is it possible?" he cried, "that men should be so blind as to prefer the +little divided companies they name National Churches--all confusion and +denial--to that glorious kingdom that Christ bought with his own dear +blood, and has built upon Peter, against which the gates of hell shall +not prevail. Yes, I know it is a flattering and a pleasant thought that +this little nation should have her own Church; and it is humbling and +bitter that England should be called to submit to a foreign potentate in +the affairs of faith--Nay, cry they like the Jews of old, not Christ but +Barabbas--we will not have this Man to reign over us. And yet this is +God's will and not that. Mark me, Mr. Norris, what you hope will never +come to be--the Liar will not keep his word--you shall not have that +National Church that you desire: as you have dealt, so will it be dealt +to you: as you have rejected, so will you be rejected. England herself +will cast you off: your religious folk will break into a hundred +divisions. Even now your Puritans mock at your prelates--so soon! And if +they do thus now, what will they do hereafter? You have cast away +Authority, and authority shall forsake you. Behold your house is left +unto you desolate." + +"Forgive me, Mr. Norris," he added after a pause, "if I have been +discourteous, and have forgotten my manners; but--but I would, as the +apostle said, that you were altogether as I am, except these bonds." + + + + + CHAPTER IV + + A COUNTER-MARCH + + +Isabel was sitting out alone in the Italian garden at the Hall, one +afternoon in the summer following the visit to Deptford. Hubert was down +at Plymouth, assisting in the preparations for the expedition that Drake +hoped to conduct against Spain. The two countries were technically at +peace, but the object with which he was going out, with the moral and +financial support of the Queen, was a corporate demonstration against +Spain, of French, Portuguese, and English ships under the main command of +Don Antonio, the Portuguese pretender; it was proposed to occupy Terceira +in the Azores; and Drake and Hawkins entertained the highest hopes of +laying their hands on further plunder. + +She was leaning back in her seat, with her hands behind her head, +thinking over her relations with Hubert. When he had been at home at the +end of the previous year, he had apparently taken it for granted that the +marriage would be celebrated; he had given her the gold nugget, that she +had showed Anthony, telling her he had brought it home for the +wedding-ring; and she understood that he was to come for his final answer +as soon as his work at Plymouth was over. But not a word of explanation +had passed between them on the religious difficulty. He had silenced her +emphatically and kindly once when she had approached it; and she gathered +from his manner that he suspected the direction in which her mind was +turning and was generously unwilling for her to commit herself an inch +further than she saw. Else whence came his assurance? And, for herself, +things were indeed becoming plain: she wondered why she had hesitated so +long, why she was still hesitating; the cup was brimming above the edge; +it needed but a faint touch of stimulus to precipitate all. + +And so Isabel lay back and pondered, with a touch of happy impatience at +the workings of her own soul; for she dared not act without the final +touch of conviction. Mistress Margaret had taught her that the swiftest +flight of the soul was when there was least movement, when the soul knew +how to throw itself with that supreme effort of cessation into the Hands +of God, that He might bear it along: when, after informing the intellect +and seeking by prayer for God's bounty, the humble client of Heaven +waited with uplifted eyes and ready heart until God should answer. And so +she waited, knowing that the gift was at hand, yet not daring to snatch +it. But, in the meanwhile, her imagination at least might act without +restraint; so she sent it out, like a bird from the Ark, to bring her the +earnest of peace. There, in the cloister-wing, somewhere, lay the chapel, +where she and Hubert would kneel together;--somewhere beneath that grey +roof. That was the terrace where she would walk one day as one who has a +right there. Which of these windows would be hers? Not Lady Maxwell's, of +course; she must keep that.... Ah! how good God was! + +The tall door on to the terrace opened, and Mistress Margaret peered out +with a letter in her hand. Isabel called to her; and the old nun came +down the steps into the garden. Why did she walk so falteringly, the girl +wondered, as if she could not see? What was it? What was it? + +Isabel rose to her feet, startled, as the nun with bent head came up the +path. "What is it, Mistress Margaret?" + +The other tried to smile at her, but her lips were trembling too much; +and the girl saw that her eyes were brimming with tears. She put the +letter into her hand. + +Isabel lifted it in an agony of suspense; and saw her name, in Hubert's +handwriting. + +"What is it?" she said again, white to the lips. + +The old lady as she turned away glanced at her; and Isabel saw that her +face was all twitching with the effort to keep back her tears. The girl +had never seen her like that before, even at Sir Nicholas' death. Was +there anything, she wondered as she looked, worse than death? But she was +too dazed by the sight to speak, and Mistress Margaret went slowly back +to the house unquestioned. + +Isabel turned the letter over once or twice; and then sat down and opened +it. It was all in Hubert's sprawling handwriting, and was dated from +Plymouth. + +It gave her news first about the squadron; saying how Don Antonio had +left London for Plymouth, and was expected daily; and then followed this +paragraph: + +"And now, dearest Isabel, I have such good news to give you. _I have +turned Protestant_; and there is no reason why we should not be married +as soon as I return. I know this will make you happy to think that our +religions are no longer different. I have thought of this so long; but +would not tell you before for fear of disappointing you. Sir Francis +Drake's religion seems to me the best; it is the religion of all the +'sea-dogs' as they name us; and of the Queen's Grace, and it will be soon +of all England; and more than all it is the religion of my dearest +mistress and love. I do not, of course, know very much of it as yet; but +good Mr. Collins here has shown me the superstitions of Popery; and I +hope now to be justified by faith without works as the gospel teaches. I +fear that my mother and aunt will be much distressed by this news; I have +written, too, to tell them of it. You must comfort them, dear love; and +perhaps some day they, too, will see as we do." Then followed a few +messages, and loving phrases, and the letter ended. + +Isabel laid it down beside her on the low stone wall; and looked round +her with eyes that saw nothing. There was the grey old house before her, +and the terrace, and the cloister-wing to the left, and the hot sunshine +lay on it all, and drew out scents and colours from the flower-beds, and +joy from the insects that danced in the trembling air; and it all meant +nothing to her; like a picture when the page is turned over it. Five +minutes ago she was regarding her life and seeing how the Grace of God +was slowly sorting out its elements from chaos to order--the road was +unwinding itself before her eyes as she trod on it day by day--now a hand +had swept all back into disorder, and the path was hidden by the ruins. + +Then gradually one thought detached itself, and burned before her, vivid +and startling; and in all its terrible reality slipped between her and +the visible world on which she was staring. It was this: to embrace the +Catholic Faith meant the renouncing of Hubert. As a Protestant she might +conceivably have married a Catholic; as a Catholic it was inconceivable +that she should marry an apostate. + +Then she read the letter through again carefully and slowly; and was +astonished at the unreality of Hubert's words about Romish superstition +and gospel simplicity. She tried hard to silence her thoughts; but two +reasons for Hubert's change of religion rose up and insisted on making +themselves felt; it was that he might be more in unity with the +buccaneers whom he admired; second, that there might be no obstacle to +their marriage. And what then, she asked, was the quality of the heart he +had given her? + +Then, in a flash of intuition, she perceived that a struggle lay before +her, compared with which all her previous spiritual conflicts were as +child's play; and that there was no avoiding it. The vision passed, and +she rose and went indoors to find the desolate mother whose boy had lost +the Faith. + +A month or two of misery went by. For Lady Maxwell they passed with +recurring gusts of heart-broken sorrow and of agonies of prayer for her +apostate son. Mistress Margaret was at the Hall all day, soothing, +encouraging, even distracting her sister by all the means in her power. +The mother wrote one passionate wail to her son, appealing to all that +she thought he held dear, even yet to return to the Faith for which his +father had suffered and in which he had died; but a short answer only +returned, saying it was impossible to make his defence in a letter, and +expressing pious hopes that she, too, one day would be as he was; the +same courier brought a letter to Isabel, in which he expressed his wonder +that she had not answered his former one. + +And as for Isabel, she had to pass through this valley of darkness alone. +Anthony was in London; and even if he had been with her could not have +helped her under these circumstances; her father was dead--she thanked +God for that now--and Mistress Margaret seemed absorbed in her sister's +grief. And so the girl fought with devils alone. The arguments for +Catholicism burned pitilessly clear now; every line and feature in them +stood out distinct and hard. Catholicism, it appeared to her, alone had +the marks of the Bride, visible unity, visible Catholicity, visible +Apostolicity, visible Sanctity;--there they were, the seals of the most +High God. She flung herself back furiously into the Protestantism from +which she had been emerging; there burned in the dark before her the +marks of the Beast, visible disunion, visible nationalism, visible +Erastianism, visible gulfs where holiness should be: that system in which +now she could never find rest again glared at her in all its unconvincing +incoherence, its lack of spirituality, its adulterous union with the +civil power instead of the pure wedlock of the Spouse of Christ. She +wondered once more how she dared to have hesitated so long; or dared to +hesitate still. + +On the theological side intellectual arguments of this kind started out, +strong and irrefutable; her emotional drawings towards Catholicism for +the present retired. Feelings might have been disregarded or discredited +by a strong effort of the will; these apparently cold phenomena that +presented themselves to her intellect, could not be thus dealt with. Yet, +strangely enough, even now she would not throw herself resolutely into +Catholicism: the fierce stimulus instead of precipitating the crisis, +petrified it. More than once she started up from her knees in her own +dark room, resolved to awaken the nun and tell her she would wait no +longer, but would turn Catholic at once and have finished with the misery +of suspense: and even as she moved to the door her will found itself +against an impenetrable wall. + +And then on the other side all her human nature cried out for +Hubert--Hubert--Hubert. There he stood by her in fancy, day and night, +that chivalrous, courteous lad, who had been loyal to her so long; had +waited so patiently; had run to her with such dear impatience; who was so +wholesome, so strong, so humble to her; so quick to understand her wants, +so eager to fulfil them; so bound to her by associations; so fit a mate +for the very differences between them. And now these two claims were no +longer compatible; in his very love for her he had ended that +possibility. All those old dreams; the little scenes she had rehearsed, +of their first mass, their first communion together; their walks in the +twilight; their rides over the hills; the new ties that were to draw the +old ladies at the Hall and herself so close together--all this was +changed; some of those dreams were now for ever impossible, others only +possible on terms that she trembled even to think of. Perhaps it was +worst of all to reflect that she was in some measure responsible for his +change of religion; she fancied that it was through her slowness to +respond to light, her delaying to confide in him, that he had been driven +through impatience to take this step. And so week after week went by and +she dared not answer his letter. + +The old ladies, too, were sorely puzzled at her. It was impossible for +them to know how far her religion was changing. She had kept up the same +reserve towards them lately as towards Hubert, chiefly because she feared +to disappoint them; and so after an attempt to tell each other a little +of their mutual sympathy, the three women were silent on the subject of +the lad who was so much to them all. + +She began to show her state a little in her movements and appearance. She +was languid, soon tired and dispirited; she would go for short, lonely +walks, and fall asleep in her chair worn out when she came in. Her grey +eyes looked longer and darker; her eyelids and the corners of her mouth +began to droop a little. + +Then in October he came home. + +Isabel had been out a long afternoon walk by herself through the +reddening woods. They had never, since the first awakening of the +consciousness of beauty in her, meant so little to her as now. It +appeared as if that keen unity of a life common to her and all living +things had been broken or obscured; and that she walked in an isolation +all the more terrible in that she was surrounded by the dumb presence of +what she loved. Last year the quick chattering cry of the blackbird, the +evening mists over the meadows, the stir of the fading life of the woods, +the rustling scamper of the rabbit over the dead leaves, the solemn call +of the homing rooks--all this, only last year, went to make up the sweet +natural atmosphere in which her spirit moved and breathed at ease. Now +she was excommunicate from that pleasant friendship, banned by nature and +forgotten by the God who made it and was immanent within it. Her +relations to the Saviour, who only such a short time ago had been the +Person round whom all the joys of life had centred, from whom they +radiated, and to whom she referred them all--these relations had begun to +be obscured by her love for Hubert, and now had vanished altogether. She +had regarded her earthly and her heavenly lover as two persons, each of +whom had certain claims upon her heart, and each of whom she had hoped to +satisfy in different ways; instead of identifying the two, and serving +each not apart from, but in the other. And it now seemed to her that she +was making experience of a Divine jealousy that would suffer her to be +satisfied neither with God nor man. Her soul was exhausted by internal +conflict, by the swift alternations of attraction and repulsion between +the poles of her supernatural and natural life; so that when it turned +wearily from self to what lay outside, it was not even capable, as +before, of making that supreme effort of cessation of effort which was +necessary to its peace. It seemed to her that she was self-poised in +emptiness, and could neither touch heaven or earth--crucified so high +that she could not rest on earth, so low that she could not reach to +heaven. + +She came in weary and dispirited as the candles were being lighted in her +sitting-room upstairs; but she saw the gleam of them from the garden with +no sense of a welcoming brightness. She passed from the garden into the +door of the hall which was still dark, as the fire had nearly burned +itself out. As she entered the door opposite opened, and once more she +saw the silhouette of a man's figure against the lighted passage beyond; +and again she stopped frightened, and whispered "Anthony." + +There was a momentary pause as the door closed and all was dark again; +and then she heard Hubert's voice say her name; and felt herself wrapped +once more in his arms. For a moment she clung to him with furious +longing. Ah! this is a tangible thing, she felt, this clasp; the faint +cleanly smell of his rough frieze dress refreshed her like wine, and she +kissed his sleeve passionately. And the wide gulf between them yawned +again; and her spirit sickened at the sight of it. + +"Oh! Hubert, Hubert!" she said. + +She felt herself half carried to a high chair beside the fire-place and +set down there; then he re-arranged the logs on the hearth, so that the +flames began to leap again, showing his strong hands and keen clear-cut +face; then he turned on his knees, seized her two hands in his own, and +lifted them to his lips; then laid them down again on her knee, still +holding them; and so remained. + +"Oh! Isabel," he said, "why did you not write?" + +She was silent as one who stares fascinated down a precipice. + +"It is all over," he went on in a moment, "with the expedition. The +Queen's Grace has finally refused us leave to go--and I have come back to +you, Isabel." + +How strong and pleasant he looked in this leaping fire-light! how real! +and she was hesitating between this warm human reality and the chilly +possibilities of an invisible truth. Her hands tightened instinctively +within his, and then relaxed. + +"I have been so wretched," she said piteously. + +"Ah! my dear," and he threw an arm round her neck and drew her face down +to his, "but that is over now." She sat back again; and then an access of +purpose poured into her and braced her will to an effort. + +"No, no," she began, "I must tell you. I was afraid to write. Hubert, I +must wait a little longer. I--I do not know what I believe." + +He looked at her, puzzled. + +"What do you mean, dearest?' + +"I have been so much puzzled lately--thinking so much--and--and--I am +sorry you have become a Protestant. It makes all so hard." + +"My dear, this is--I do not understand." + +"I have been thinking," went on Isabel bravely, "whether perhaps the +Catholic Church is not right after all." + +Hubert loosed her hands and stood up. She crouched into the shadow of the +interior of the high chair, and looked up at him, terrified. His cheek +twitched a little. + +"Isabel, this is foolishness. I know what the Catholic faith is. It is +not true; I have been through it all." + +He was speaking nervously and abruptly. She said nothing. Then he +suddenly dropped on his knees himself. + +"My dearest, I understand. You were doing this for me. I quite +understand. It is what I too----" and then he stopped. + +"I know, I know," she cried piteously. "It is just what I have feared so +terribly--that--that our love has been blinding us both. And yet, what +are we to do, what are we to do? Oh! God--Hubert, help me." + +Then he began to speak in a low emphatic voice, holding her hands, +delicately stroking one of them now and again, and playing with her +fingers. She watched his curly head in the firelight as he talked, and +his keen face as he looked up. + +"It is all plain to me," he said, caressingly. "You have been living here +with my aunt, a dear old saint; and she has been talking and telling you +all about the Catholic religion, and making it seem all true and good. +And you, my dear child, have been thinking of me sometimes, and loving me +a little, is it not so? and longing that religion should not separate us; +and so you began to wish it was true; and then to hope it was; and at +last you have begun to think it is. But it is not your true sweet self +that believes it. Ah! you know in your heart of hearts, as I have known +so long, that it is not true; that it is made up by priests and nuns; and +it is very beautiful, I know, my dearest, but it is only a lovely tale; +and you must not spoil all for the sake of a tale. And I have been +gradually led to the light; it was your--" and his voice faltered--"your +prayers that helped me to it. I have longed to understand what it was +that made you so sweet and so happy; and now I know; it is your own +simple pure religion; and--and--it is so much more sensible, so much more +likely to be true than the Catholic religion. It is all in the Bible you +see; so plain, as Mr. Collins has showed me. And so, my dear love, I have +come to believe it too; and you must put all these fancies out of your +head, these dreams; though I love you, I love you," and he kissed her +hand again, "for wishing to believe them for my sake--and--and we will be +married before Christmas; and we will have our own fairy-tale, but it +shall be a true one." + +This was terrible to Isabel. It seemed as if her own haunting thought +that she was sacrificing a dream to reality had become incarnate in her +lover and was speaking through his lips. And yet in its very incarnation, +it seemed to reveal its weakness rather than its strength. As a dark +suggestion the thought was mighty; embodied in actual language it seemed +to shrink a little. But then, on the other hand--and so the interior +conflict began to rage again. + +She made a movement as if to stand up; but he pressed her back into the +chair. + +"No, my dearest, you shall be a prisoner until you give your parole." + +Twice Isabel made an effort to speak; but no sound came. It seemed as if +the raging strife of thoughts deafened and paralysed her. + +"Now, Isabel," said Hubert. + +"I cannot, I cannot," she cried desperately, "you must give me time. It +is too sudden, your returning like this. You must give me time. I do not +know what I believe. Oh, dear God, help me." + +"Isabel, promise! promise! Before Christmas! I thought it was all to be +so happy, when I came in through the garden just now. My mother will +hardly speak to me; and I came to you, Isabel, as I always did; I felt so +sure you would be good to me; and tell me that you would always love me, +now that I had given up my religion for love of you. And now----" and +Hubert's voice ended in a sob. + +Her heart seemed rent across, and she drew a sobbing sigh. Hubert heard +it, and caught at her hands again as he knelt. + +"Isabel, promise, promise." + +Then there came that gust of purpose into her heart again; she made a +determined effort and stood up; and Hubert rose and stood opposite her. + +"You must not ask me," she said, bravely. "It would be wicked to decide +yet. I cannot see anything clearly. I do not know what I believe, nor +where I stand. You must give me time." + +There was a dead silence. His face was so much in shadow that she could +not tell what he was thinking. He was standing perfectly still. + +"Then that is all the answer you will give me?" he said, in a perfectly +even voice. + +Isabel bowed her head. + +"Then--then I wish you good-night, Mistress Norris," and he bowed to her, +caught up his cap and went out. + +She could not believe it for a moment, and caught her breath to cry out +after him as the door closed; but she heard his step on the stone +pavement outside, the crunch of the gravel, and he was gone. Then she +went and leaned her head against the curved mantelshelf and stared into +the logs that his hands had piled together. + +This, then, she thought, was the work of religion; the end of all her +aspirations and efforts, that God should mock them by bringing love into +their life, and then when they caught at it and thanked him for it, it +was whisked away again, and left their hands empty. Was this the Father +of Love in whom she had been taught to believe, who treated His children +like this? And so the bitter thoughts went on; and yet she knew in her +heart that she was powerless; that she could not go to the door and call +Hubert and promise what he asked. A great Force had laid hold of her, it +might be benevolent or not--at this moment she thought not--but it was +irresistible; and she must bow her head and obey. + +And even as she thought that, the door opened again, and there was +Hubert. He came in two quick steps across the room to her, and then +stopped suddenly. + +"Mistress Isabel," he asked, "can you forgive me? I was a brute just now. +I do not ask for your promise. I leave it all in your hands. Do with me +what you will. But--but, if you could tell me how long you think it will +be before you know----" + +He had touched the right note. Isabel's heart gave a leap of sorrow and +sympathy. "Oh, Hubert," she said brokenly, "I am so sorry; but I promise +I will tell you--by Easter?" and her tone was interrogative. + +"Yes, yes," said Hubert. He looked at her in silence, and she saw strange +lines quivering at the corners of his mouth, and his eyes large and +brilliant in the firelight. Then the two drew together, and he took her +in his arms strongly and passionately. + + * * * * + +There was a scene that night between the mother and son. Mistress +Margaret had gone back to the Dower House for supper; and Lady Maxwell +and Hubert were supping in Sir Nicholas' old study that would soon be +arranged for Hubert now that he had returned for good. They had been very +silent during the meal, while the servants were in the room, talking only +of little village affairs and of the estate, and of the cancelling of the +proposed expedition. Hubert had explained to his mother that it was +generally believed that Elizabeth had never seriously intended the +English ships to sail, but that she only wished to draw Spain's attention +off herself by setting up complications between that country and France; +and when she had succeeded in this by managing to get the French squadron +safe at Terceira, she then withdrew her permission to Drake and Hawkins, +and thus escaped from the quarrel altogether. But it was a poor makeshift +for conversation. + +When the servants had withdrawn, a silence fell. Presently Hubert looked +across the table between the silver branched candlesticks. + +"Mother," he said, "of course I know what you are thinking. But I cannot +consent to go through all the arguments; I am weary of them. Neither will +I see Mr. Barnes to-morrow at Cuckfield or here. I am satisfied with my +position." + +"My son," said Lady Maxwell with dignity, "I do not think I have spoken +that priest's name; or indeed any." + +"Well," said Hubert, impatiently, "at any rate I will not see him. But I +wish to say a few words about this house. We must have our positions +clear. My father left to your use, did he not, the whole of the +cloister-wing? I am delighted, dear mother, that he did so. You will be +happy there I know; and of course I need not say that I hope you will +keep your old room overhead as well; and, indeed, use the whole house as +you have always done. I shall be grateful if you will superintend it all, +as before--at least, until a new mistress comes." + +"Thank you, my son." + +"I will speak of that in a moment," he went on, looking steadily at the +table-cloth; "but there was a word I wished to say first. I am now a +loyal subject of her Grace in all things; in religion as in all else. +And--and I fear I cannot continue to entertain seminary priests as my +father used to do. My--my conscience will not allow that. But of course, +mother, I need not say that you are at perfect liberty to do what you +will in the cloister-wing; I shall ask no questions; and I shall set no +traps or spies. But I must ask that the priests do not come into this +part of the house, nor walk in the garden. Fortunately you have a lawn in +the cloister; so that they need not lack fresh air or exercise." + +"You need not fear, Hubert," said his mother, "I will not embarrass you. +You shall be in no danger." + +"I think you need not have said that, mother; I am not usually thought a +coward." + +Lady Maxwell flushed a little, and began to finger her silver knife. + +"However," Hubert went on, "I thought it best to say that. The chapel, +you see, is in that wing; and you have that lawn; and--and I do not think +I am treating you hardly." + +"And is your brother James not to come?" asked his mother. + +"I have thought much over that," said Hubert; "and although it is hard to +say it, I think he had better not come to my part of the house--at least +not when I am here; I must know nothing of it. You must do what you think +well when I am away, about him and others too. It is very difficult for +me, mother; please do not add to the difficulty." + +"You need not fear," said Lady Maxwell steadily; "you shall not be +troubled with any Catholics besides ourselves." + +"Then that is arranged," said the lad. "And now there is a word more. +What have you been doing to Isabel?" And he looked sharply across the +table. His mother's eyes met his fearlessly. + +"I do not understand you," she said. + +"Mother, you must know what I mean. You have seen her continually." + +"I have told you, my son, that I do not know." + +"Why," burst out Hubert, "she is half a Catholic." + +"Thank God," said his mother. + +"Ah! yes; you thank God, I know; but whom am I to thank for it?" + +"I would that you could thank Him too." + +Hubert made a sharp sound of disgust. + +"Ah! yes," he said scornfully, "I knew it; _Non nobis Domine_, and the +rest." + +"Hubert," said Lady Maxwell, "I do not think you mean to insult me in +this house; but either that is an insult, or else I misunderstood you +wholly, and must ask your pardon for it." + +"Well," he said, in a harsh voice, "I will make myself plain. I believe +that it is through the influence of you and Aunt Margaret that this has +been brought about." + +At the moment he spoke the door opened. + +"Come in, Margaret," said her sister, "this concerns you." + +The old nun came across to Hubert with her anxious sweet face; and put +her old hand tenderly on his black satin sleeve as he sat and wrenched at +a nut between his fingers. + +"Hubert, dear boy," she said, "what is all this? Will you tell me?" + +Hubert rose, a little ashamed of himself, and went to the door and closed +it; and then drew out a chair for his aunt, and put a wine-glass for her. + +"Sit down, aunt," he said, and pushed the decanter towards her. + +"I have just left Isabel," she said, "she is very unhappy about +something. You saw her this evening, dear lad?" + +"Yes," said Hubert, heavily, looking down at the table and taking up +another nut, "and it is of that that I have been speaking. Who has made +her unhappy?" + +"I had hoped you would tell us that," said Mistress Margaret; "I came up +to ask you." + +"My son has done us--me--the honour----" began Lady Maxwell; but Hubert +broke in: + +"I left Isabel here last Christmas happy and a Protestant. I have come +back here now to find her unhappy and half a Catholic, if not +more--and----" + +"Oh! are you sure?" asked Mistress Margaret, her eyes shining. "Thank +God, if it be so!" + +"Sure?" said Hubert, "why she will not marry me; at least not yet." + +"Oh, poor lad," she said tenderly, "to have lost both God and Isabel." + +Hubert turned on her savagely. But the old nun's eyes were steady and +serene. + +"Poor lad!" she said again. + +Hubert looked down again; his lip wrinkled up in a little sneer. + +"As far as I am concerned," he said, "I can understand your not caring, +but I am astonished at this response of yours to her father's +confidence!" + +Lady Maxwell grew white to the lips. + +"I have told you," she began--"but you do not seem to believe it--that I +have had nothing to do, so far as I know, with her conversion, +which"--and she raised her voice bravely--"I pray God to accomplish. She +has, of course, asked me questions now and then; and I have answered +them--that is all." + +"And I," said Mistress Margaret, "plead guilty to the same charge, and to +no other. You are not yourself, dear boy, at present; and indeed I do not +wonder at it; and I pray God to help you; but you are not yourself, or +you would not speak like this to your mother." + +Hubert rose to his feet; his face was white under the tan, and the ruffle +round his wrist trembled as he leaned heavily with his fingers on the +table. + +"I am only a plain Protestant now," he said bitterly, "and I have been +with Protestants so long that I have forgotten Catholic ways; but----" + +"Stay, Hubert," said his mother, "do not finish that. You will be sorry +for it presently, if you do. Come, Margaret." And she moved towards the +door; her son went quickly past and opened it. + +"Nay, nay," said the nun. "Do you be going, Mary. Let me stay with the +lad, and we will come to you presently." Lady Maxwell bowed her head and +passed out, and Hubert closed the door. + +Mistress Margaret looked down on the table. + +"You have given me a glass, dear boy; but no wine in it." + +Hubert took a couple of quick steps back, and faced her. + +"It is no use, it is no use," he burst out, and his voice was broken with +emotion, "you cannot turn me like that. Oh, what have you done with my +Isabel?" He put out his hand and seized her arm. "Give her back to me, +Aunt Margaret; give her back to me." + +He dropped into his seat and hid his face on his arm; and there was a sob +or two. + +"Sit up and be a man, Hubert," broke in Mistress Margaret's voice, clear +and cool. + +He looked up in amazement with wet indignant eyes. She was looking at +him, smiling tenderly. + +"And now, for the second time, give me half a glass of wine, dear boy." + +He poured it out, bewildered at her self-control. + +"For a man that has been round the world," she said, "you are but a +foolish child." + +"What do you mean?" + +"Have you never thought of a way of yet winning Isabel," she asked. + +"What do you mean?" he repeated. + +"Why, come back to the Church, dear lad; and make your mother and me +happy again, and marry Isabel, and save your own soul." + +"Aunt Margaret," he cried, "it is impossible. I have truly lost my faith +in the Catholic religion; and--and--you would not have me a hypocrite." + +"Ah! ah!" said the nun, "you cannot tell yet. Please God it may come +back. Oh! dear boy, in your heart you know it is true." + +"Before God, in my heart I know that it is not true." + +"No, no, no," she said; but the light died out of her eyes, and she +stretched a tremulous hand. + +"Yes, Aunt Margaret, it is so. For years and years I have been doubting; +but I kept on just because it seemed to me the best religion; and--and I +would not be driven out of it by her Grace's laws against my will, like a +dog stoned from his kennel." + +"But you are only a lad still," she said piteously. He laughed a little. + +"But I have had the gift of reason and discretion nearly twenty years, a +priest would tell me. Besides, Aunt Margaret, I could not be such a--a +cur--as to come back without believing. I could never look Isabel in the +eyes again." + +"Well, well," said the old lady, "let us wait and see. Do you intend to +be here now for a while?" + +"Not while Isabel is like this," he said. "I could not. I must go away +for a while, and then come back and ask her again." + +"When will she decide?" + +"She told me by next Easter," said Hubert. "Oh, Aunt Margaret, pray for +us both." + +The light began to glimmer again in her eyes. + +"There, dear boy," she said, "you see you believe in prayer still." + +"But, aunt," said Hubert, "why should I not? Protestants pray." + +"Well, well," said the old nun again. "Now you must come to your mother; +and--and be good to her." + + + + + CHAPTER V + + THE COMING OF THE JESUITS + + +The effect on Anthony of Mr. Buxton's conversation was very considerable. +He had managed to keep his temper very well during the actual interview; +but he broke out alone afterwards, at first with an angry contempt. The +absurd arrogance of the man made him furious--the arrogance that had +puffed away England and its ambitions and its vigour--palpable evidences +of life and reality, and further of God's blessing--in favour of a +miserable Latin nation which had the presumption to claim the possession +of Peter's Chair and of the person of the Vicar of Christ! Test it, said +the young man to himself, by the ancient Fathers and Councils that Dr. +Jewel quoted so learnedly, and the preposterous claim crumbled to dust. +Test it, yet again, by the finger of Providence; and God Himself +proclaimed that the pretensions of the spiritual kingdom, of which the +prisoner in the cell had bragged, are but a blasphemous fable. And +Anthony reminded himself of the events of the previous year. + +Three great assaults had been made by the Papists to win back England to +the old Religion. Dr. William Allen, the founder of Douai College, had +already for the last seven or eight years been pouring seminary priests +into England, and over a hundred and twenty were at work among their +countrymen, preparing the grand attack. This was made in three quarters +at once. + +In Scotland it was chiefly political, and Anthony thought, with a bitter +contempt, of the Count d'Aubigny, Esme Stuart, who was supposed to be an +emissary of the Jesuits; how he had plotted with ecclesiastics and +nobles, and professed Protestantism to further his ends; and of all the +stories of his duplicity and evil-living, told round the guard-room fire. + +In Ireland the attempt was little else than ludicrous. Anthony laughed +fiercely to himself as he pictured the landing of the treacherous fools +at Dingle, of Sir James FitzMaurice and his lady, very wretched and giddy +after their voyage, and the barefooted friars, and Dr. Sanders, and the +banner so solemnly consecrated; and of the sands of Smerwick, when all +was over a year later, and the six hundred bodies, men and women who had +preferred Mr. Buxton's spiritual kingdom to Elizabeth's kindly rule, +stripped and laid out in rows, like dead game, for Lord Grey de Wilton to +reckon them by. + +But his heart sank a little as he remembered the third method of attack, +and of the coming of the Jesuits. By last July all London knew that they +were here, and men's hearts were shaken with apprehension. They reminded +one another of the April earthquake that had tolled the great Westminster +bell, and thrown down stones from the churches. One of the Lambeth +guards, a native of Blunsdon, in Wiltshire, had told Anthony himself that +a pack of hell-hounds had been heard there, in full cry after a ghostly +quarry. Phantom ships had been seen from Bodmin attacking a phantom +castle that rode over the waves off the Cornish coast. An old woman of +Blasedon had given birth to a huge-headed monster with the mouth of a +mouse, eight legs, and a tail; and, worse than all, it was whispered in +the Somersetshire inns that three companies of black-robed men, sixty in +number, had been seen, coming and going overhead in the gloom. These two +strange emissaries, Fathers Persons and Campion--how they appealed to the +imagination, lurking under a hundred disguises, now of servants, now of +gentlemen of means and position! It was known that they were still in +England, going about doing good, their friends said who knew them; +stirring up the people, their enemies said who were searching for them. +Anthony had seen with his own eyes some of the papers connected with +their presence--that containing a statement of their objects in coming, +namely, that they were spiritual not political agents, seeking recruits +for Christ and for none else; Campion's "Challenge and Brag," offering to +meet any English Divine on equal terms in a public disputation; besides +one or two of the controversial pamphlets, purporting to be printed at +Douai, but really emanating from a private printing-press in England, as +the Government experts had discovered from an examination of the +water-marks of the paper employed. + +Yet as the weeks went by, and his first resentment cooled, Mr. Buxton's +arguments more and more sank home, for they had touched the very point +where Anthony had reckoned that his own strength lay. He had never before +heard Nationalism and Catholicism placed in such flat antithesis. In +fact, he had never before really heard the statement of the Catholic +position; and his fierce contempt gradually melted into respect. Both +theories had a concrete air of reality about them; his own imaged itself +under the symbols of England's power; the National Church appealed to him +so far as it represented the spiritual side of the English people; and +Mr. Buxton's conception appealed to him from its very audacity. This +great spiritual kingdom, striding on its way, trampling down the barriers +of temperament and nationality, disregarding all earthly limitations and +artificial restraints, imperiously dominating the world in spite of the +world's struggles and resentment--this, after all, as he thought over it, +was--well--was a new aspect of affairs. The coming of the Jesuits, too, +emphasised the appeal: here were two men, as the world itself confessed, +of exceptional ability--for Campion had been a famous Oxford orator, and +Persons a Fellow of Balliol--choosing, under a free-will obedience, first +a life of exile, and then one of daily peril and apprehension, the very +thought of which burdened the imagination with horror; hunted like +vermin, sleeping and faring hard, their very names detested by the +majority of their countrymen, with the shadow of the gallows moving with +them, and the reek of the hangman's cauldron continually in their +nostrils--and for what? For Mr. Buxton's spiritual kingdom! Well, Anthony +thought to himself as the weeks went by and his new thoughts sank deeper, +if it is all a superstitious dream, at least it is a noble one! + +What, too, was the answer, he asked himself, that England gave to Father +Campion's challenge, and the defence that the Government was preparing +against the spiritual weapons of the Jesuits? New prisons at Framingham +and Battersea; new penalties enacted by Parliament; and, above all, the +unanswerable argument of the rack, and the gallows finally to close the +discussion. And what of the army that was being set in array against the +priests, and that was even now beginning to scour the country round +Berkshire, Oxfordshire, and London? Anthony had to confess to himself +that they were queer allies for the servants of Christ; for traitors, +liars, and informers were among the most trusted Government agents. + +In short, as the spring drew on, Anthony was not wholly happy. Again and +again in his own room he studied a little manuscript translation of +Father Campion's "Ten Reasons," that had been taken from a popish +prisoner, and that a friend had given him; and as he read its exultant +rhetoric, he wondered whether the writer was indeed as insincere and +treacherous as Mr. Scot declared. There seemed in the paper a reckless +outspokenness, calculated rather to irritate than deceive. + +"I turn to the Sacraments," he read, "none, none, not two, not one, O +holy Christ, have they left. Their very bread is poison. Their baptism, +though it be true, yet in their judgment is nothing. It is not the saving +water! It is not the channel of Grace! It brings not Christ's merits to +us! It is but a sign of salvation!" And again the writer cried to +Elizabeth to return to the ancient Religion, and to be in truth what she +was in name, the Defender of the Faith. + +"'Kings shall be thy nursing fathers,' thus Isaiah sang, 'and Queens thy +nursing mothers.' Listen, Elizabeth, most Mighty Queen! To thee the great +Prophet sings! He teaches thee thy part. Join then thyself to these +princes!... O Elizabeth, a day, a day shall come that shall show thee +clearly which have loved thee the better, the Society of Jesus or Luther's +brood!" + +What arrogance, thought Anthony to himself, and what assurance too! + +Meanwhile in the outer world things were not reassuring to the friends of +the Government: it was true that half a dozen priests had been captured +and examined by torture, and that Sir George Peckham himself, who was +known to have harboured Campion, had been committed to the Marshalsea; +but yet the Jesuits' influence was steadily on the increase. More and +more severe penalties had been lately enacted; it was now declared to be +high treason to reconcile or be reconciled to the Church of Rome; +overwhelming losses in fortune as well as liberty were threatened against +all who said or heard Mass or refused to attend the services of the +Establishment; but, as was discovered from papers that fell from time to +time into the hands of the Government agents, the only answer of the +priests was to inveigh more strenuously against even occasional +conformity, declaring it to be the mortal sin of schism, if not of +apostasy, to put in an appearance under any circumstances, except those +of actual physical compulsion, at the worship in the parish churches. +Worse than all, too, was the fact that this severe gospel began to +prevail; recusancy was reported to be on the increase in all parts of the +country; and many of the old aristocracy began to return to the faith of +their fathers: Lords Arundel, Oxford, Vaux, Henry Howard, and Sir Francis +Southwell were all beginning to fall under the suspicion of the shrewdest +Government spies. + +The excitement at Lambeth ran higher day by day as the summer drew on; +the net was being gradually contracted in the home counties; spies were +reported to be everywhere, in inns, in the servants' quarters of +gentlemen's houses, lounging at cross roads and on village greens. +Campion's name was in every mouth. Now they were on his footsteps, it was +said; now he was taken; now he was gone back to France; now he was in +London; now in Lancashire; and each rumour in turn corrected its +predecessor. + +Anthony shared to the full in the excitement; the figure of the quarry, +after which so many hawks were abroad, appealed to his imagination. He +dreamed of him at night, once as a crafty-looking man with narrow eyes +and stooping shoulders, that skulked and ran from shadow to shadow across +a moonlit country; once as a ruddy-faced middle-aged gentleman riding +down a crowded street; and several times as a kind of double of Mr. +Stewart, whom he had never forgotten, since he had watched him in the +little room of Maxwell Hall, gallant and alert among his enemies. + +At last one day in July, as it drew on towards evening, and as Anthony +was looking over the stable-accounts in his little office beyond the +Presence Chamber, a buzz of talk and footsteps broke out in the court +below; and a moment later the Archbishop's body-servant ran in to say +that his Grace wished to see Mr. Norris at once in the gallery that +opened out of the guard-room. + +"And I think it is about the Jesuits, sir," added the man, evidently +excited. + +Anthony ran down at once and found his master pacing up and down, with a +courier waiting near the steps at the lower end that led to Chichele's +tower. The Archbishop stopped by a window, emblazoned with Cardinal +Pole's emblem, and beckoned to him. + +"See here, Master Norris," he said, "I have received news that Campion is +at last taken: it may well be false, as so often before; but take horse, +if you please, and ride into the city and find the truth for me. I will +not send a groom; they believe the maddest tales. You are at liberty?" he +added courteously. + +"Yes, your Grace, I will ride immediately." + +As he rode down the river-bank towards London Bridge ten minutes later, +he could not help feeling some dismay as well as excitement at the news +he was to verify. And yet what other end was possible? But what a doom +for the brilliant Oxford orator, even though he had counted the cost! + +Streams of excited people were pouring across the bridge into the city; +Campion's name was on every tongue; and Anthony, as he passed under the +high gate, noticed a man point up at the grim spiked heads above it, and +laugh to his companion. There seemed little doubt, from the unanimity of +those whom he questioned, that the rumour was true; and some even said +that the Jesuit was actually passing down Cheapside on his way to the +Tower. When at last Anthony came to the thoroughfare the crowd was as +dense as for a royal progress. He checked his horse at the door of an +inn-yard, and asked an ostler that stood there what it was all about. + +"It is Campion, the Jesuit, sir," said the man. "He has been taken at +Lyford, and is passing here presently." + +The man had hardly finished speaking when a yell came from the end of the +street, and groans and hoots ran down the crowd. Anthony turned in his +saddle, and saw a great stir and movement, and then horses' and men's +heads moving slowly down over the seething surface of the crowd, as if +swimming in a rough sea. He could make little out, as the company came +towards him, but the faces of the officers and pursuivants who rode in +the front rank, four or five abreast; then followed the faces of three or +four others, also riding between guards, and Anthony looked eagerly at +them; but they were simple faces enough, a little pale and quiet; one was +like a farmer's, ruddy and bearded;--surely Campion could not be among +those! Then more and more, riding two and two, with a couple of armed +guards with each pair; some looked like country-men or servants, some +like gentlemen, and one or two might be priests; but the crowd seemed to +pay them no attention beyond a glance or two. Ah! what was this coming +behind? + +There was a space behind the last row of guards, and then came a separate +troop riding all together, of half a dozen men at least, and one in the +centre, with something white in his hat. The ferment round this group was +tremendous; men were leaping up and yelling, like hounds round a carted +stag; clubs shot up menacingly, and a storm of ceaseless execration raged +outside the compact square of guards who sat alert and ready to beat off +an attack. Once a horse kicked fiercely as a man sprang to his +hind-quarters, and there was a scream of pain and a burst of laughing. + +Anthony sat trembling with excitement as the first group had passed, and +this second began to come opposite the entrance where he sat. This then +was the man! + +The rider in the centre sat his horse somewhat stiffly, and Anthony saw +that his elbows were bound behind his back, and his hands in front; the +reins were drawn over his horse's head and a pursuivant held them on +either side. The man was dressed as a layman, in a plumed hat and a buff +jerkin, such as soldiers or plain country-gentlemen might use; and in the +hat was a great paper with an inscription. Anthony spelt it out. + +"Campion, the Seditious Jesuit." + +Then he looked at the man's face. + +It was a comely refined face, a little pale but perfectly serene: his +pointed dark brown beard and moustache were carefully trimmed; and his +large passionate eyes looked cheerfully about him. Anthony stared at him, +wholly fascinated; for above the romance that hung about the hunted +priest and the glamour of the dreaded Society which he represented, there +was a chivalrous fearless look in his face that drew the heart of the +young man almost irresistibly. At least he did not look like the skulking +knave at whom all the world was sneering, and of whom Anthony had dreamt +so vividly a few nights before. + +The storm of execration from the faces below, and the faces crowding at +the windows, seemed to affect him not at all; and he looked from side to +side as if they were cheering him rather than crying against him. Once +his eyes met Anthony's and rested on them for a moment; and a strange +thrill ran through him and he shivered sharply. + + * * * * + +And yet he felt, too, a distinct and irresistible movement of attraction +towards this felon who was riding towards his agony and passion; and he +was conscious at the same time of that curious touch of wonder that he +had felt years before towards the man whipped at the cart's tail, as to +whether the solitary criminal were not in the right, and the clamorous +accusers in the wrong. Campion in a moment had passed on and turned his +head. + +In that moment, too, Anthony caught a sudden clear instantaneous +impression of a group of faces in the window opposite. There were a +couple of men in front, stout city personages no doubt, with crimson +faces and open mouths cursing the traitorous Papist and the crafty +vagrant fox trapped at last; but between them, looking over their +shoulders, was a woman's face in which Anthony saw the most intense +struggle of emotions. The face was quite white, the lips parted, the eyes +straining, and sorrow and compassion were in every line, as she watched +the cheerful priest among his warders; and yet there rested on it, too, a +strange light as of triumph. It was the face of one who sees victory even +at the hour of supremest failure. In an instant more the face had +withdrawn itself into the darkness of the room. + +When the crowds had surged down the street in the direction of the Tower, +yelling in derision as Campion saluted the lately defaced Cheapside +Cross, Anthony guided his horse out through the dispersing groups, +realising as he did so, with a touch of astonishment at the coincidence, +that he had been standing almost immediately under the window whence he +and Isabel had leaned out so many years before. + + * * * * + +The sun was going down behind the Abbey as he rode up towards Lambeth, +and the sky above and the river beneath were as molten gold. The Abbey +itself, with Westminster Hall and the Houses of Parliament below, stood +up like mystical palaces against the sunset; and it seemed to Anthony as +he rode, as if God Himself were illustrating in glorious illumination the +closing pages of that human life of which a glimpse had opened to him in +Cheapside. It did not appear to him as it had done in the days of his +boyish love as if heaven and earth were a stage for himself to walk and +pose upon; but he felt intensely now the dominating power of the +personality of the priest; and that he himself was no more than a +spectator of this act of a tragedy of which the priest was both hero and +victim, and for which this evening glory formed so radiant a scene. The +old intellectual arguments against the cause that the priest represented +for the moment were drowned in this flood of splendour. When he arrived +at Lambeth and had reached the Archbishop's presence, he told him the +news briefly, and went to his room full of thought and perplexity. + +In a few days the story of Campion's arrest was known far and wide. It +had been made possible by the folly of one Catholic and the treachery of +another; and when Anthony heard it, he was stirred still more by the +contrast between the Jesuit and his pursuers. The priest had returned to +the moated grange at Lyford, after having already paid as long a visit +there as was prudent, owing to the solicitations of a number of gentlemen +who had ridden after him and his companion, and who wished to hear his +eloquence. He had returned there again, said mass on the Sunday morning, +and preached afterwards, from a chair set before the altar, a sermon on +the tears of the Saviour over apostate Jerusalem. But a false disciple +had been present who had come in search of one Payne; and this man, known +afterwards by the Catholics as Judas Eliot or Eliot Iscariot, had +gathered a number of constables and placed them about the manor-house; +and before the sermon was over he went out quickly from the table of the +Lord, the house was immediately surrounded, and the alarm was raised by a +watcher placed in one of the turrets after Eliot's suspicious departure. +The three priests present, Campion and two others, were hurried into a +hiding-hole over the stairs. The officers entered, searched, and found +nothing; and were actually retiring, when Eliot succeeded in persuading +them to try again; they searched again till dark, and still found +nothing. Mrs. Yate encouraged them to stay the night in the house, and +entertained them with ale; and then when all was quiet, insisted on +hearing some parting words from her eloquent guest. He came out into the +room where she had chosen to spend the night until the officers were +gone; and the rest of the Catholics, some Brigittine nuns and others, met +there through private passages and listened to him for the last time. As +the company was dispersing one of the priests stumbled and fell, making a +noise that roused the sentry outside. Again the house was searched, and +again with no success. In despair they were leaving it, when Jenkins, +Eliot's companion, who was coming downstairs with a servant of the house, +beat with his stick on the wall, saying that they had not searched there. +It was noticed that the servant showed signs of agitation; and men were +fetched to the spot; the wall was beaten in and the three priests were +found together, having mutually shriven one another, and made themselves +ready for death. + +Campion was taken out and sent first to the Sheriff of Berkshire, and +then on towards London on the following day. + + * * * * + +The summer days went by, and every day brought its fresh rumour about +Campion. Sir Owen Hopton, Governor of the Tower, who at first had +committed his prisoner to Little-Ease, now began to treat him with more +honour; he talked, too, mysteriously, of secret interviews and promises +and understandings; and gradually it began to get about that Campion was +yielding to kindness; that he had seen the Queen; that he was to recant +at Paul's Cross; and even that he was to have the See of Canterbury. This +last rumour caused great indignation at Lambeth, and Anthony was more +pressed than ever to get what authentic news he could of the Jesuit. Then +at the beginning of August came a burst of new tales; he had been racked, +it was said, and had given up a number of names; and as the month went by +more and more details, authentic and otherwise, were published. Those +favourably inclined to the Catholics were divided in opinion; some feared +that he had indeed yielded to an excess of agony; others, and these +proved to be in the right when the truth came out, that he had only given +up names which were already known to the authorities; though even for +this he asked public pardon on the scaffold. + +Towards the end of August the Archbishop again sent expressly for Anthony +and bade him accompany his chaplain on the following day to the Tower, to +be present at the public disputation that was to take place between +English divines and the Jesuit. + +"Now he will have the chance he craved for," said Grindal. "He hath +bragged that he would meet any and all in dispute, and now the Queen's +clemency hath granted it him." + +On the following day in the early morning sunshine the minister and +Anthony rode down together to the Tower, where they arrived a few minutes +before eight o'clock, and were passed through up the stairs into St. +John's chapel to the seats reserved for them. + +It was indeed true that the authorities had determined to give Campion +his chance, but they had also determined to make it as small as possible. +He was not even told that the discussion was to take place until the +morning of its occasion, and he was allowed no opportunity for developing +his own theological position; the entire conduct of the debate was in the +hands of his adversaries; he might only parry, seldom riposte, and never +attack. + +When Anthony found himself in his seat he looked round the chapel. Almost +immediately opposite him, on a raised platform against a pillar, stood +two high seats occupied by Deans Nowell and Day, who were to conduct the +disputation, and who were now talking with their heads together while a +secretary was arranging a great heap of books on the table before them. +On either side, east and west, stretched chairs for the divines that were +to support them in debate, should they need it; and the platform on which +Anthony himself had a chair was filled with a crowd of clergy and +courtiers laughing and chatting together. A little table, also heaped +with books, with seats for the notaries, stood in the centre of the nave, +and not far from it were a number of little wooden stools which the +prisoners were to occupy. Plainly they were to be allowed no advisers and +no books; even the physical support of table and chairs was denied to +them in spite of their weary racked bodies. The chapel, bright with the +morning sunlight that streamed in through the east windows of the bare +Norman sanctuary, hummed with the talk and laughter of those who had come +to see the priest-baiting and the vindication of the Protestant Religion; +though, as Anthony looked round, he saw here and there an anxious or a +downcast face of some unknown friend of the Papists. + +He himself was far from easy in his mind. He had been studying Campion's +"Ten Reasons" more earnestly than ever, and was amazed to find that the +very authorities to which Dr. Jewel deferred, namely, the Scriptures +interpreted by Fathers and Councils and illustrated by History, were +exactly Campion's authorities, too; and that the Jesuit's appeal to them +was no less confident than the Protestant's. That fact had, of course, +suggested the thought that if there were no further living authority in +existence to decide between these two scholars, Christendom was in a poor +position. When doctors differed, where was the layman to turn? To his own +private judgment, said the Protestant. But then Campion's private +judgment led him to submit to the Catholic claim! This then at present +weighed heavily on Anthony's mind. Was there or was there not an +authority on earth capable of declaring to him the Revelation of God? For +the first time he was beginning to feel a logical and spiritual necessity +for an infallible external Judge in matters of faith; and that the +Catholic Church was the only system that professed to supply it. The +question of the existence of such an authority was, with the doctrine of +justification, one of those subjects continually in men's minds and +conversations, and to Anthony, unlike others, it appeared more +fundamental even than its companion. All else seemed secondary. +Indulgences, the Mass, Absolution, the Worship of Mary and the +Saints--all these must stand or fall on God's authority made known to +man. The one question for him was, Where was that authority to be +certainly found? + +There came the ringing tramp of footsteps; the buzz of talk ceased and +then broke out again, as the prisoners, with all eyes bent upon them, +surrounded by a strong guard of pikemen, were seen advancing up the +chapel from the north-west door towards the stools set ready for them. +Anthony had no eyes but for Campion who limped in front, supported on +either side by a warder. He could scarcely believe at first that this was +the same priest who had ridden so bravely down Cheapside. Now he was +bent, and walked like an old broken man; his face was deathly pale, with +shadows and lines about his eyes, and his head trembled a little. There +were one or two exclamations of pity, for all knew what had caused the +change; and Anthony heard an undertone moan of sorrow and anger from some +one in a seat behind him. + +The prisoners sat down; and the guards went to their places. Campion took +his seat in front, and turned immediately from side to side, running his +dark eyes along the faces to see where were his adversaries; and once +more Anthony met his eyes, and thrilled at it. Through the pallor and +pain of his face, the same chivalrous spirit looked out and called for +homage and love, that years ago at Oxford had made young men, mockingly +nicknamed after their leader, to desire his praise more passionately than +anything on earth, and even to imitate his manners and dress and gait, +for very loyalty and devotion. Anthony could not take his eyes off him; +he watched the clear-cut profile of his face thrown fearlessly forward, +waited in tense expectation to hear him speak, and paid no attention to +the whisperings of the chaplain beside him. + + * * * * + +Presently the debate began. It was opened by Dean Nowell from his high +seat, who assured Father Campion of the disinterested motives of himself +and his reverend friends in holding this disputation. It was, after all, +only what the priest had demanded; and they trusted by God's grace that +they would do him good and help him to see the truth. There was no +unfairness, said the Dean, who seemed to think that some apology was +needed, in taking him thus unprepared, since the subject of debate would +be none other than Campion's own book. The Jesuit looked up, nodded his +head, and smiled. + +"I thank you, Mr. Dean," he said, in his deep resonant voice, and there +fell a dead hush as he spoke. "I thank you for desiring to do me good, +and to take up my challenge; but I must say that I would I had understood +of your coming, that I might have made myself ready." + +Campion's voice thrilled strangely through Anthony, as the glance from +his eyes had done. It was so assured, so strong and delicate an +instrument, and so supremely at its owner's command, that it was hardly +less persuasive than his personality and his learning that made +themselves apparent during the day. And Anthony was not alone in his +impressions of the Jesuit. Lord Arundel afterwards attributed his +conversion to Campion's share in the discussions. Again and again during +the day a murmur of applause followed some of the priest's clean-cut +speeches and arguments, and a murmur of disapproval the fierce thrusts +and taunts of his opponents; and by the end of the day's debate, so +marked was the change of attitude of the crowd that had come to triumph +over the Papist, and so manifest their sympathy with the prisoners, that +it was thought advisable to exclude the public from the subsequent +discussions. + +On this first day, all manner of subjects were touched upon, such as the +comparative leniency of Catholic and Protestant governments, the position +of Luther with regard to the Epistle of St. James, and other matters +comparatively unimportant, in the discussion of which a great deal of +time was wasted. Campion entreated his opponents to leave such minor +questions alone, and to come to doctrinal matters; but they preferred to +keep to details rather than to principles, and the priest had scarcely +any opportunity to state his positive position at all. The only doctrinal +matter seriously touched upon was that of Justification by Faith; and +texts were flung to and fro without any great result. "We are justified +by faith," cried one side. "Though I have all faith and have not charity, +I am nothing," cried the other. The effect on Anthony of this day's +debate arose rather from the victorious personality of the priest than +from his arguments. His gaiety, too, was in strange contrast to the +solemn Puritanism of his enemies. For instance, he was on the point that +Councils might err in matters of fact, but that the Scriptures could not. + +"As for example," he said, his eyes twinkling out of his drawn face, "I +am bound under pain of damnation to believe that Toby's dog had a tail, +because it is written, he wagged it." + +The Deans looked sternly at him, as the audience laughed. + +"Now, now," said one of them, "it becomes not to deal so triflingly with +matters of weight." + +Campion dropped his eyes, demurely, as if reproved. + +"Why, then," he said, "if this example like you not, take another. I must +believe that Saint Paul had a cloak, because he willeth Timothy to bring +it with him." + +Again the crowd laughed; and Anthony laughed, too, with a strange sob in +his throat at the gallant foolery, which, after all, was as much to the +point as a deal that the Deans were saying. + +But the second day's debate, held in Hopton's Hall, was on more vital +matters; and Anthony again and again found himself leaning forward +breathlessly, as Drs. Goode and Fulke on the one side, and Campion on the +other, respectively attacked and defended the Doctrine of the Visible +Church; for this, for Anthony, was one of the crucial points of the +dispute between Catholicism and Protestantism. Anthony believed already +that the Church was one; and if it was visible, surely, he thought to +himself, it must be visibly one; and in that case, it is evident where +that Church is to be found. But if it is invisible, it may be invisibly +one, and then as far as that matter is concerned, he may rest in the +Church of England. If not--and then he recoiled from the gulf that +opened. + +"It must be an essential mark of the Church," said Campion, "and such a +quality as is inseparable. It must be visible, as fire is hot, and water +moist." + +Goode answered that when Christ was taken and the Apostles fled, then at +least the Church was invisible; and if then, why not always? + +"It was a Church inchoate," answered the priest, "beginning, not +perfect." + +But Goode continued to insist that the true Church is known only to God, +and therefore invisible. + +"There are many wolves within," he said, "and many sheep without." + +"I know not who is elect," retorted Campion, "but I know who is a +Catholic." + +"Only the elect are of the Church," said Goode. + +"I say that both good and evil are of the visible Church," answered the +other. + +"To be elect or true members of Christ is one thing," went on Goode, "and +to be in the visible Church is another." + + * * * * + +As the talk went on, Anthony began to see where the confusion lay. The +Protestants were anxious to prove that membership in a visible body did +not ensure salvation but then the Catholics never claimed that it did; +the question was: Did or did not Christ intend there to be a visible +Church, membership in which should be the normal though not the +infallible means of salvation? + +They presently got on to the _a priori_ point as to whether a visible +Church would seem to be a necessity. + +"There is a perpetual commandment," said the priest, "in Matthew +eighteen--'Tell the Church'; but that cannot be unless the Church is +visible; _ergo_, the visibility of the Church is continual." + +"When there is an established Church," said Goode, "this remedy is to be +sought for. But this cannot be always had." + +"The disease is continual," answered Campion; "_ergo_ the remedy must be +continual." Then he left the _a priori_ ground and entered theirs. "To +whom should I have gone," he cried, "before Luther's time? What prelates +should I have made my complaint unto in those days? Where was your Church +nine hundred years ago? Whose were John Huss, Jerome of Prague, the +Waldenses? Were they yours?" Then he turned scornfully to Fulke, "Help +him, Master Doctor." + +And Fulke repeated Goode's assertion, that valuable as the remedy is, it +cannot always be had. + +Anthony sat back, puzzled. Both sides seemed right. Persecution must +often hinder the full privileges of Church membership and the exercise of +discipline. Yet the question was, What was Christ's intention? Was it +that the Church should be visible? It seemed that even the ministers +allowed that, now. And if so, why then the Catholic's claim that Christ's +intention had never been wholly frustrated, but that a visible unity was +to be found amongst themselves--surely this was easier to believe than +the Protestant theory that the Church which had been visible for fifteen +centuries was not really the Church at all; but that the true Church had +been invisible--in spite of Christ's intention--during all that period, +and was now to be found only in small separated bodies scattered here and +there. How of the prevailing of the gates of hell, if that were allowed +to be true? + + * * * * + +At two o'clock they reassembled for the afternoon conference; and now +they got even closer to the heart of the matter, for the subject was to +be, whether the Church could err? + +Fulke asserted that it could, and did; and made a syllogism: + +"Whatsoever error is incident to every member, is incident to the whole. +But it is incident to every member to err; _ergo_, to the whole." + +"I deny both _major_ and _minor_," said Campion quietly. "Every man may +err, but not the whole gathered together; for the whole hath a promise, +but so hath not every particular man." + +Fulke denied this stoutly, and beat on the table. + +"Every member hath the spirit of Christ," he said, "which is the spirit +of truth; and therefore hath the same promise that the whole hath." + +"Why, then," said Campion, smiling, "there should be no heretics." + +"Yes," answered Fulke, "heretics may be within the Church, but not of the +Church." + +And so they found themselves back again where they started from. + +Anthony sat back on the oak bench and sighed, and glanced round at the +interested faces of the theologians and the yawns of the amateurs, as the +debate rolled on over the old ground, and touched on free will, and +grace, and infant baptism; until the Lieutenant interposed: + +"Master Doctors," he said, with a judicial air, "the question that was +appointed before dinner was, whether the visible Church may err"--to +which Goode retorted that the digressions were all Campion's fault. + +Then the debate took the form of contradictions. + +"Whatsoever congregation doth err in matters of faith," said Goode, "is +not the true Church; but the Church of Rome erreth in matters of faith; +_ergo_, it is not the true Church." + +"I deny your _minor_," said Campion, "the Church of Rome hath not erred." +Then the same process was repeated over the Council of Trent; and the +debate whirled off once more into details and irrelevancies about imputed +righteousness, and the denial of the Cup to the laity. + +Again the audience grew restless. They had not come there, most of them, +to listen to theological minutiae, but to see sport; and this interminable +chopping of words that resulted in nothing bored them profoundly. A +murmur of conversation began to buzz on all sides. + +Campion was in despair. + +"Thus shall we run into all questions," he cried hopelessly, "and then we +shall have done this time twelve months." + +But Fulke would not let him be; but pressed on a question about the +Council of Nice. + +"Now we shall have the matter of images," sighed Campion. + +"You are _nimis acutus_," retorted Fulke, "you will leap over the stile +or ever you come to it. I mean not to speak of images." + +And so with a few more irrelevancies the debate ended. + +The third debate in September (on the twenty-third), at which Anthony was +again present, was on the subject of the Real Presence in the Blessed +Sacrament. + +Fulke was in an evil temper, since it was common talk that Campion had +had the best of the argument on the eighteenth. + +"The other day," he said, "when we had some hope of your conversion, we +forbare you much, and suffered you to discourse; but now that we see you +are an obstinate heretic, and seek to cover the light of the truth with +multitude of words, we mean not to allow you such large discourses as we +did." + +"You are very imperious to-day," answered Campion serenely, "whatsoever +the matter is. I am the Queen's prisoner, and none of yours." + +"Not a whit imperious," said Fulke angrily,--"though I will exact of you +to keep the right order of disputation." + +Then the argument began. It soon became plain to Anthony that it was +possible to take the Scripture in two senses, literally and +metaphorically. The sacrament either was literally Christ's body, or it +was not. Who then was to decide? Father Campion said it meant the one; +Dr. Fulke the other. Could it be possible that Christ should leave His +people in doubt as to such a thing? Surely not, thought Anthony. Well, +then, where is the arbiter? Father Campion says, The Church; Dr. Fulke +says, The Scripture. But that is a circular argument, for the question to +be decided is: What does the Scripture mean? for it may mean at least two +things, at least so it would seem. Here then he found himself face to +face with the claims of the Church of Rome to be that arbiter; and his +heart began to grow sick with apprehension as he saw how that Church +supplied exactly what was demanded by the circumstances of the case--that +is, an infallible living guide as to the meaning of God's Revelation. The +simplicity of her claim appalled him. + +He did not follow the argument closely, since it seemed to him but a +secondary question now; though he heard one or two sentences. At one +point Campion was explaining what the Church meant by substance. It was +that which transcended the senses. + +"Are you not Dr. Fulke?" he said. "And yet I see nothing but your colour +and exterior form. The substance of Dr. Fulke cannot be seen." + +"I will not vouchsafe to reply upon this answer," snarled Fulke, whose +temper had not been improved by the debate--"too childish for a +sophister!" + +Then followed interminable syllogisms, of which Campion would not accept +the premises; and no real progress was made. The Jesuit tried to explain +the doctrine that the wicked may be said not to eat the Body in the +Sacrament, because they receive not the virtue of It, though they receive +the Thing; but Fulke would not hear him. The distinction was new to +Anthony, with his puritan training, and he sat pondering it while the +debate passed on. + +The afternoon discussion, too, was to little purpose. More and more +Anthony, and others with him, began to see that the heart of the matter +was the authority of the Church; and that unless that was settled, all +other debate was beside the point; and the importance of this was brought +out for him more clearly than ever on the 27th of the month, when the +fourth and last debate took place, and on the subject of the sufficiency +of the Scriptures unto salvation. + +Mr. Charke, who had now succeeded as disputant, began with extempore +prayer, in which as usual the priest refused to join, praying and +crossing himself apart. + +Mr. Walker then opened the disputation with a pompous and insolent speech +about "one Campion," an "unnatural man to his country, degenerated from +an Englishman, an apostate in religion, a fugitive from this realm, +unloyal to his prince." Campion sat with his eyes cast down, until the +minister had done. + +Then the discussion began. The priest pointed out that Protestants were +not even decided as to what were Scriptures and what were not, since +Luther rejected three epistles in the New Testament; therefore, he +argued, the Church is necessary as a guide, first of all, to tell men +what is Scripture. Walker evaded by saying he was not a Lutheran but a +Christian; and then the talk turned on to apocryphal books. But it was +not possible to evade long, and the Jesuit soon touched his opponent. + +"To leave a door to traditions," he said, "which the Holy Ghost may +deliver to the true Church, is both manifest and seen: as in the Baptism +of infants, the Holy Ghost proceeding from Father to Son, and such other +things mentioned, which are delivered by tradition. Prove these directly +by the Scripture if you can!" + +Charke answered by the analogy of circumcision which infants received, +and by quoting Christ's words as to "sending" of the Comforter; and they +were soon deep in detailed argument; but once more Anthony saw that it +was all a question of the interpretation of Scripture; and, therefore, +that it would seem that an authoritative interpreter was necessary--and +where could such be found save in an infallible living Voice? And once +more a question of Campion's drove the point home. + +"Was all Scripture written when the Apostles first taught?" And Charke +dared not answer yes. + +The afternoon's debate concerned justification by faith, and this, more +than ever, seemed to Anthony a secondary matter, now that he was +realising what the claim of a living authority meant; and he sat back, +only interested in watching the priest's face, so controlled yet so +transparent in its simplicity and steadfastness, as he listened to the +ministers' brutal taunts and insolence, and dealt his quiet skilful +parries and ripostes to their incessant assaults. At last the Lieutenant +struck the table with his hand, and intimated that the time was past, and +after a long prayer by Mr. Walker, the prisoners were led back to their +cells. + +As Anthony rode back alone in the evening sunlight, he was as one who +was seeing a vision. There was indeed a vision before him, that had +been taking shape gradually, detail by detail, during these last months, +and ousting the old one; and which now, terribly emphasised by Campion's +arguments and illuminated by the fire of his personality, towered up +imperious, consistent, dominating--and across her brow her title, The +Catholic Church. Far above all the melting cloudland of theory she +moved, a stupendous fact; living, in contrast with the dead past to +which her enemies cried in vain; eloquent when other systems were dumb; +authoritative when they hesitated; steady when they reeled and fell. +About her throne dwelt her children, from every race and age, secure in +her protection, and wise with her knowledge, when other men faltered and +questioned and doubted: and as Anthony looked up and saw her for the +first time, he recognised her as the Mistress and Mother of his soul; and +although the blinding clouds of argument and theory and self-distrust +rushed down on him again and filled his eyes with dust, yet he knew he +had seen her face in very truth, and that the memory of that vision could +never again wholly leave him. + + + + + CHAPTER VI + + SOME CONTRASTS + + +In the Lambeth household the autumn passed by uneventfully. The rigour of +the Archbishop's confinement had been mitigated, and he had been allowed +now and again to visit his palace at Croydon; but his inactivity still +continued as the sequestration was not removed; Elizabeth had refused to +listen to the petition of Convocation in '80 for his reinstatement. +Anthony went down to the old palace once or twice with him; and was +brought closer to him in many ways; and his affection and tenderness +towards his master continually increased. Grindal was a pathetic figure +at this time, with few friends, in poor health, out of favour with the +Queen, who had disregarded his existence; and now his afflictions were +rendered more heavy than ever by the blindness that was creeping over +him. The Archbishop, too, in his loneliness and sorrow, was drawn closer +to his young officer than ever before; and gradually got to rely upon him +in many little ways. He would often walk with Anthony in the gardens at +Lambeth, leaning upon his arm, talking to him of his beloved flowers and +herbs which he was now almost too blind to see; telling him queer facts +about the properties of plants; and even attempting to teach him a little +irrelevant botany now and then. + +They were walking up and down together, soon after Campion's arrest, one +August morning before prayers in a little walled garden on the river that +Grindal had laid out with great care in earlier years. + +"Ah," said the old man, "I am too blind to see my flowers now, Mr. +Norris; but I love them none the less; and I know their places. Now +there," he went on, pointing with his stick, "there I think grows my +mastick or marum; perhaps I smell it, however. What is that flower like, +Mr. Norris?" + +Anthony looked at it, and described its little white flower and its +leaves. + +"That is it," said the Archbishop, "I thought my memory served me. It is +a kind of marjoram, and it has many virtues, against cramps, convulsions +and venomous bites--so Galen tells us." Then he went on to talk of the +simple old plants that he loved best; of the two kinds of basil that he +always had in his garden; and how good it was mixed in sack against the +headache; and the male penny-royal, and how well it had served him once +when he had great internal trouble. + +"Mr. Gerrard was here a week or two ago, Mr. Norris, when you were down +at Croydon for me. He is my Lord Burghley's man; he oversees his gardens +at Wimbledon House, and in the country. He was telling me of a rascal he +had seen at a fair, who burned henbane and made folks with the toothache +breathe in the fumes; and then feigned to draw a worm forth from the +aching tooth; but it was no worm at all, but a lute string that he held +ready in his hand. There are sad rascals abroad, Mr. Norris." + +The old man waxed eloquent when they came to the iris bed. + +"Ah! Mr. Norris, the flowers-de-luce are over by now, I fear; but what +wonderful creatures of God they are, with their great handsome heads and +their cool flags. I love to hear a bed of them rustle all together and +shake their spears and nod their banners like an army in array. And then +they are not only for show. Apuleius says that they are good against the +gout. I asked Mr. Gerrard whether my lord had tried them; but he said no, +he would not." + +At the violet bed he was yet more emphatic. + +"I think, Mr. Norris, I love these the best of all. They are lowly +creatures; but how sweet! and like other lowly creatures exalted by their +Maker to do great things as his handmaidens. The leaves are good against +inflammations, and the flowers against ague and hoarseness as well. And +then there is oil-of-violets, as you know; and violet-syrup and +sugar-violet; then they are good for blisters; garlands of them were an +ancient cure for the headache, as I think Dioscorides tells us. And they +are the best of all cures for some children's ailments." + +And so they walked up and down together; the Archbishop talking quietly +on and on; and helping quite unknown to himself by his tender irrelevant +old man's talk to soothe the fever of unrest and anxiety that was +beginning to torment Anthony so much now. His conversation, like the very +flowers he loved to speak of, was "good against inflammations." + +Anthony came to him one morning, thinking to please him, and brought him +a root that he had bought from a travelling pedlar just outside the +gateway. + +"This is a mandrake root, your Grace; I heard you speak of it the other +day." + +The Archbishop took it, smiling, felt it carefully, peered at it a minute +or two. "No, my son," he said, "I fear you have met a knave. This is +briony-root carved like a mandrake into the shape of a man's legs. It is +worthless, I fear; but I thank you for the kind thought, Mr. Norris," and +he gave the root back to him. "And the stories we hear of the mandrake, I +fear, are fables, too. Some say that they only grow beneath gallows from +that which falls there; that the male grows from the corruption of a +man's body; and the female from that of a woman's; but that is surely a +lie, and a foul one, too. And then folks say that to draw it up means +death; and that the mandrake screams terribly as it comes up; and so they +bid us tie a dog to it, and then drive the dog from it so as to draw it +up so. I asked Mr. Baker, the chirurgeon in the household of my Lord +Oxford, the other day, about that; and he said that such tales be but +doltish dreams and old wives' fables. But the true mandrake is a clean +and wholesome plant. The true ointment Populeon should have the juice of +the leaves in it; and the root boiled and strained causes drowsiness. It +hath a predominate cold faculty, Galen saith; but its true home is not in +England at all. It comes from Mount Garganus in Apulia." + +It was pathetic, Anthony thought sometimes, that this old prelate should +be living so far from the movements of the time, owing to no fault of his +own. During these months the great tragedy of Campion's passion was +proceeding a couple of miles away; but the Archbishop thought less of it +than of the death of an old tree. The only thing from the outside world +that seemed to ruffle him was the behaviour of the Puritans. Anthony was +passing through "le velvet-room" one afternoon when he heard voices in +the Presence Chamber beyond; and almost immediately heard the Archbishop, +who had recognised his step, call his name. He went in and found him with +a stranger in a dark sober dress. + +"Take this gentleman to Mr. Scot," he said, "and ask him to give him some +refreshment; for that he must be gone directly." + +When Anthony had taken the gentleman to the steward, he returned to the +Archbishop for any further instructions about him. + +"No, Mr. Norris, my business is done with him. He comes from my lord of +Norwich, and must be returning this evening. If you are not occupied, Mr. +Norris, will you give me your arm into the garden?" + +They went out by the vestry-door into the little cloisters, and skirting +the end of the creek that ran up by Chichele's water-tower began to pace +up and down the part of the garden that looked over the river. + +"My lord has sent to know if I know aught of one Robert Browne, with whom +he is having trouble. This Mr. Browne has lately come from Cambridge, and +so my lord thought I might know something of him; but I do not. This +gentleman has been saying some wild and foolish things, I fear; and +desires that every church should be free of all others; and should +appoint its own minister, and rule its own affairs without interference, +and that prophesyings should be without restraint. Now, you know, Mr. +Norris, I have always tried to serve that party, and support them in +their gospel religion; but this goes too far. Where were any governance +at all, if all this were to come about? where were the Rule of Faith? the +power of discipline? Nay, where were the unity for which our Saviour +prayed? It liketh me not. Good Dr. Freake, as his messenger tells me, +feels as I do about this; and desires to restrain Mr. Browne, but he is +so hot he will not be restrained; and besides, he is some kin to my Lord +Burghley, so I fear his mouth will be hard to stop." + +Anthony could not help thinking of Mr. Buxton's prediction that the +Church of England had so repudiated authority, that in turn her own would +one day be repudiated. + +"A Papist prisoner, your Grace," he said, "said to me the other day that +this would be sure to come: that the whole principle of Church authority +had been destroyed in England; and that the Church of England would more +and more be deserted by her children; for that there was no necessary +centre of unity left, now that Peter was denied." + +"It is what a Papist is bound to say," replied the Archbishop; "but it is +easy to prophesy, when fulfilment may be far away. Indeed, I think we +shall have trouble with some of these zealous men; and the Queen's Grace +was surely right in desiring some restraint to be put upon the Exercises. +But it is mere angry raving to say that the Church of England will lose +the allegiance of her children." + +Anthony could not feel convinced that events bore out the Archbishop's +assertion. Everywhere the Puritans were becoming more outrageously +disloyal. There were everywhere signs of disaffection and revolt against +the authorities of the Establishment, even on the part of the most +sincere and earnest men, many of whom were looking forward to the day +when the last rags of popery should be cast away, and formal +Presbyterianism inaugurated in the Church of England. Episcopal +Ordination was more and more being regarded as a merely civil +requirement, but conveying no ministerial commission; recognition by the +congregation with the laying on of the hands of the presbyterate was the +only ordination they allowed as apostolic. + +Anthony said a word to the Archbishop about this. + +"You must not be too strict," said the old man. "Both views can be +supported by the Scriptures; and although the Church of England at +present recognises only Episcopal Ordination within her own borders, she +does not dare to deny, as the Papists fondly do, that other rites may not +be as efficacious as her own. That, surely, Master Norris, is in +accordance with the mind of Christ that hath the spirit of liberty." + +Much as Anthony loved the old man and his gentle charity, this doctrinal +position as stated by the chief pastor of the Church of England scarcely +served to establish his troubled allegiance. + +During these autumn months, too, both between and after the disputations +in the Tower, the image of Campion had been much in his thoughts. +Everywhere, except among the irreconcilables, the Jesuit was being well +spoken of: his eloquence, his humour, and his apparent sincerity were +being greatly commented on in London and elsewhere. Anthony, as has been +seen, was being deeply affected on both sides of his nature; the shrewd +wit of the other was in conflict with his own intellectual convictions, +and this magnetic personality was laying siege to his heart. And now the +last scene of the tragedy, more affecting than all, was close at hand. + +Anthony was present first at the trial in Westminster Hall, which took +place during November, and was more than ever moved by what he saw and +heard there. The priest, as even his opponents confessed, had by now "won +a marvellously good report, to be such a man as his like was not to be +found, either for life, learning, or any other quality which might +beautify a man." And now here he stood at the bar, paler than ever, so +numbed with racking that he could not lift his hand to plead--that supple +musician's hand of his, once so skilful on the lute--so that Mr. Sherwin +had to lift it for him out of the furred cuff in which he had wrapped it, +kissing it tenderly as he did so, in reverence for its sufferings; and he +saw, too, the sleek face of Eliot, in his red yeoman's coat, as he stood +chatting at the back, like another Barabbas whom the people preferred to +the servant of the Crucified. And, above all, he heard Campion's stirring +defence, spoken in that same resonant sweet voice, though it broke now +and then through weakness, in spite of the unconquerable purpose and +cheerfulness that showed in his great brown eyes, and round his delicate +humorous mouth. It was indeed an astonishing combination of sincerity and +eloquence, and even humour, that was brought to bear on the jury, and all +in vain, during those days. + +"If you want to dispute as though you were in the schools," cried one of +the court, when he found himself out of his depth, "you are only proving +yourself a fool." + +"I pray God," said Campion, while his eyes twinkled, "I pray God make us +both sages." And, in spite of the tragedy of the day, a little hum of +laughter ran round the audience. + +"If a sheep were stolen," he argued again, in answer to the presupposition +that since some Catholics were traitors, therefore these were--"and a +whole family called in question for the same, were it good manner of +proceeding for the accusers to say 'Your great grandfathers and fathers +and sisters and kinsfolk all loved mutton; _ergo_, you have stolen the +sheep'?" + +Again, in answer to the charge that he and his companions had conspired +abroad, he said, + +"As for the accusation that we plotted treason at Rheims, reflect, my +lords, how just this charge is! For see! First we never met there at all; +then, many of us have never been at Rheims at all; finally, we were never +in our lives all together, except at this hour and in prison." + +Anthony heard, too, Campion expose the attempt that was made to shift the +charge from religion to treason. + +"There was offer made to us," he cried indignantly, "that if we would +come to the church to hear sermons and the word preached, we should be +set at large and at liberty; so Pascall and Nicholls"--(two apostates) +"otherwise as culpable in all offences as we, upon coming to church were +received to grace and had their pardon granted; whereas, if they had been +so happy as to have persevered to the end, they had been partakers of our +calamities. So that our religion was cause of our imprisonment, and _ex +consequenti_, of our condemnation." + +The Queen's Counsel tried to make out that certain secrets that Campion, +in an intercepted letter, had sworn not to reveal, must be treasonable or +he would not so greatly fear their publication. To this the priest made a +stately defence of his office, and declaration of his staunchness. He +showed how by his calling as a priest he was bound to secrecy in matters +heard in confession, and that these secret matters were of this nature. + +"These were the hidden matters," he said, "these were the secrets, to the +revealing whereof I cannot nor will not be brought, come rack, come +rope!" + +And again, when Sergeant Anderson interpreted a phrase of Campion's +referring to the great day to which he looked forward, as meaning the day +of a foreign papal invasion, the prisoner cried in a loud voice: + +"O Judas, Judas! No other day was in my mind, I protest, than that +wherein it should please God to make a restitution of faith and religion. +Whereupon, as in every pulpit every Protestant doth, I pronounced a great +day, not wherein any temporal potentate should minister, but wherein the +terrible Judge should reveal all men's consciences, and try every man of +each kind of religion. This is the day of change, this is the great day +which I threatened; comfortable to the well-behaving, and terrible to all +heretics. Any other day but this, God knows I meant not." + +Then, after the other prisoners had pleaded, Campion delivered a final +defence to the jury, with a solemnity that seemed to belong to a judge +rather than a criminal. The babble of tongues that had continued most of +the day was hushed to a profound silence in court as he stood and spoke, +for the sincerity and simplicity of the priest were evident to all, and +combined with his eloquence and his strange attractive personality, +dominated all but those whose minds were already made up before entering +the court. + +"What charge this day you sustain," began the priest, in a steady low +voice, with his searching eyes bent on the faces before him, "and what +account you are to render at the dreadful Day of Judgment, whereof I +could wish this also were a mirror, I trust there is not one of you but +knoweth. I doubt not but in like manner you forecast how dear the +innocent is to God, and at what price He holdeth man's blood. Here we are +accused and impleaded to the death,"--he began to raise his voice a +little--"here you do receive our lives into your custody; here must be +your device, either to restore them or condemn them. We have no whither +to appeal but to your consciences; we have no friends to make there but +your heeds and discretions." Then he touched briefly on the evidence, +showing how faulty and circumstantial it was, and urged them to remember +that a man's life by the very constitution of the realm must not be +sacrificed to mere probabilities or presumptions; then he showed the +untrustworthiness of his accusers, how one had confessed himself a +murderer, and how another was an atheist. Then he ended with a word or +two of appeal. + +"God give you grace," he cried, "to weigh our causes aright, and have +respect to your own consciences; and so I will keep the jury no longer. I +commit the rest to God, and our convictions to your good discretions." + +When the jury had retired, and all the judges but one had left the bench +until the jury should return, Anthony sat back in his place, his heart +beating and his eyes looking restlessly now on the prisoners, now on the +door where the jury had gone out, and now on Judge Ayloff, whom he knew a +little, and who sat only a few feet away from him on one side. He could +hear the lawyers sitting below the judge talking among themselves; and +presently one of them leaned over to him. + +"Good-day, Mr. Norris," he said, "you have come to see an acquittal, I +doubt not. No man can be in two minds after what we have heard; at least +concerning Mr. Campion. We all think so, here, at any rate." + +The lawyer was going on to say a word or two more as to the priest's +eloquence, when there was a sharp exclamation from the judge. Anthony +looked up and saw Judge Ayloff staring at his hand, turning it over while +he held his glove in the other; and Anthony saw to his surprise that the +fingers were all blood-stained. One or two gentlemen near him turned and +looked, too, as the judge, still staring and growing a little pale, wiped +the blood quickly away with the glove; but the fingers grew crimson again +immediately. + +"'S'Body!" said Ayloff, half to himself; "'tis strange, there is no +wound." A moment later, looking up, he saw many of his neighbours +glancing curiously at his hand and his pale face, and hastily thrust on +his glove again; and immediately after the jury returned, and the judges +filed in to take their places. Anthony's attention was drawn off again, +and the buzz of talk in the court was followed again by a deep silence. + +The verdict of _Guilty_ was uttered, as had been pre-arranged, and the +Queen's Counsel demanded sentence. + +"Campion and the rest," said Chief Justice Wray, "What can you say why +you should not die?" + +Then Campion, still steady and resolute, made his last useless appeal. + +"It was not our death that ever we feared. But we knew that we were not +lords of our own lives, and therefore for want of answer would not be +guilty of our own deaths. The only thing that we have now to say is, that +if our religion do make us traitors, we are worthy to be condemned; but +otherwise are and have been true subjects as ever the Queen had. In +condemning us, you condemn all your own ancestors," and as he said this, +his voice began to rise, and he glanced steadily and mournfully round at +the staring faces about him, "all the ancient priests, bishops, and +kings--all that was once the glory of England, the island of saints, and +the most devoted child of the See of Peter." Then, as he went on, he +flung out his wrenched hands, and his voice rang with indignant defiance. +"For what have we taught," he cried, "however you may qualify it with the +odious name of treason, that they did not uniformly teach? To be +condemned with these old lights--not of England only, but of the +world--by their degenerate descendants, is both gladness and glory to +us." Then, with a superb gesture, he sent his voice pealing through the +hall: "God lives, posterity will live; their judgment is not so liable to +corruption as that of those who are now about to sentence us to death." + +There was a burst of murmurous applause as he ended, which stilled +immediately, as the Chief Justice began to deliver sentence. But when the +horrible details of his execution had been enumerated, and the formula +had ended, it was the prisoner's turn to applaud:-- + +"_Te Deum laudamus!_" cried Campion; "_Te Dominum confitemur._" + +"_Haec est dies_," shouted Sherwin, "_quam fecit Dominus; exultemus et +laetemur in illa_": and so with the thanksgiving and joy of the condemned +criminals, the mock-trial ended. + +When Anthony rode down silently and alone in the rain that December +morning a few days later, to see the end, he found a vast silent crowd +assembled on Tower Hill and round the gateway, where the four horses were +waiting, each pair harnessed to a hurdle laid flat on the ground. He +would not go in, for he could scarcely trust himself to speak, so great +was his horror of the crime that was to be committed; so he backed his +horse against the wall, and waited over an hour in silence, scarcely +hearing the murmurs of impatience that rolled round the great crowd from +time to time, absorbed in his own thoughts. Here was the climax of these +days of misery and self-questioning that had passed since the trial in +Westminster Hall. It was no use, he argued to himself, to pretend +otherwise. These three men of God were to die for their religion--and a +religion too which was gradually detaching itself to his view from the +mists and clouds that hid it, as the one great reality and truth of God's +Revelation to man. He had come, he knew, to see not an execution but a +martyrdom. + +There was a trampling from within, the bolts creaked, and the gate rolled +back; a company of halberdiers emerged, and in their midst the three +priests in laymen's dress; behind followed a few men on horseback, with a +little company of ministers, bible in hand; and then a rabble of officers +and pursuivants. Anthony edged his horse in among the others, as the +crowd fell back, and took up his place in the second rank of riders +between a gentleman of his acquaintance who made room for him on the one +side, and Sir Francis Knowles on the other, and behind the Tower +officials. + +Then, once more he heard that ringing bass voice whose first sound +silenced the murmurs of the surging excited crowd. + +"God save you all, gentlemen! God bless you and make you all good +Catholics." + +Then, as the priest turned to kneel towards the east, he saw his face +paler than ever now, after his long fast in preparation for death. The +rain was still falling as Campion in his frieze gown knelt in the mud. +There was silence as he prayed, and as he ended aloud by commending his +soul to God. + +"_In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum._" + + * * * * + +The three were secured to the hurdles, Briant and Sherwin on the one, +Campion on the other, all lying on their backs, with their feet towards +the horse's heels. The word to start was given by Sir Owen Hopton who +rode with Charke, the preacher of Gray's Inn, in the front rank; the +lashed horses plunged forward, with the jolting hurdles spattering mud +behind them; and the dismal pageant began to move forward through the +crowd on that way of sorrows. There was a ceaseless roar and babble of +voices as they went. Charke, in his minister's dress, able now to declaim +without fear of reply, was hardly silent for a moment from mocking and +rebuking the prisoners, and making pompous speeches to the people. + +"See here," he cried, "these rogueing popish priests, laid by the +heels--aye, by the heels--at last; in spite of their tricks and turns. +See this fellow in his frieze gown, dead to the world as he brags; and +know how he skulked and hid in his disguises till her Majesty's servants +plucked him forth! We will disguise him, we will disguise him, ere we +have done with him, that his own mother should not know him. Ha, now! +Campion, do you hear me?" + +And so the harsh voice rang out over the crowd that tramped alongside, +and up to the faces that filled every window; while the ministers below +kept up a ceaseless murmur of adjuration and entreaty and threatening, +with a turning of leaves of their bibles, and bursts of prayer, over the +three heads that jolted and rocked at their feet over the cobblestones +and through the mud. The friends of the prisoners walked as near to them +as they dared, and their lips moved continually in prayer. + +Every now and then as Anthony craned his head, he could see Campion's +face, with closed eyes and moving lips that smiled again and again, all +spattered and dripping with filth; and once he saw a gentleman walking +beside him fearlessly stoop down and wipe the priest's face with a +handkerchief. Presently they had passed up Cheapside and reached Newgate; +in a niche in the archway itself stood a figure of the Mother of God +looking compassionately down; and as Campion's hurdle passed beneath it, +her servant wrenched himself a few inches up in his bonds and bowed to +his glorious Queen; and then laid himself down quietly again, as a chorus +of lament rose from the ministers over his superstition and obstinate +idolatry that seemed as if it would last even to death; and Charke too, +who had become somewhat more silent, broke out again into revilings. + + * * * * + +The crowd at Tyburn was vast beyond all reckoning. Outside the gate it +stretched on every side, under the elms, a few were even in the branches, +along the sides of the stream; everywhere was a sea of heads, out of +which, on a little eminence like another Calvary, rose up the tall posts +of the three-cornered gallows, on which the martyrs were to suffer. As +the hurdles came slowly under the gate, the sun broke out for the first +time; and as the horses that drew the hurdles came round towards the +carts that stood near the gallows and the platform on which the +quartering block stood, a murmur began that ran through the crowd from +those nearest the martyrs.--"But they are laughing, they are laughing!" + +The crowd gave a surge to and fro as the horses drew up, and Anthony +reined his own beast back among the people, so that he was just opposite +the beam on which the three new ropes were already hanging, and beneath +which was standing a cart with the back taken out. In the cart waited a +dreadful figure in a tight-fitting dress, sinewy arms bare to the +shoulder, and a butcher's knife at his leather girdle. A little distance +away stood the hateful cauldron, bubbling fiercely, with black smoke +pouring from under it: the platform with the block and quartering-axe +stood beneath the gallows; and round this now stood the officers, with +Norton the rack-master, and Sir Owen Hopton and the rest, and the three +priests, with the soldiers forming a circle to keep the crowd back. + +The hangman stooped as Anthony looked, and a moment later Campion stood +beside him on the cart, pale, mud-splashed, but with the same serene +smile; his great brown eyes shone as they looked out over the wide +heaving sea of heads, from which a deep heart-shaking murmur rose as the +famous priest appeared. Anthony could see every detail of what went on; +the hangman took the noose that hung from above, and slipped it over the +prisoner's head, and drew it close round his neck; and then himself +slipped down from the cart, and stood with the others, still well above +the heads of the crowd, but leaving the priest standing higher yet on the +cart, silhouetted, rope and all, framed in the posts and cross-beam, from +which two more ropes hung dangling against the driving clouds and blue +sky over London city. + + * * * * + +Campion waited perfectly motionless for the murmur of innumerable voices +to die down; and Anthony, fascinated and afraid beneath that overpowering +serenity, watched him turn his head slowly from side to side with a +"majestical countenance," as his enemies confessed, as if he were on the +point of speaking. Silence seemed to radiate out from him, spreading like +a ripple, outwards, until the furthest outskirts of that huge crowd was +motionless and quiet; and then without apparent effort, his voice began +to peal out. + + * * * * + +"'_Spectaculum facti sumus Deo, angelis et hominibus._' These are the +words of Saint Paul, Englished thus, 'We are made a spectacle or sight +unto God, unto His angels, and unto men';--verified this day in me, who +am here a spectacle unto my Lord God, a spectacle unto His angels, and +unto you men, satisfying myself to die as becometh a true Christian and +Catholic man." + +He was interrupted by cries from the gentlemen beneath, and turned a +little, looking down to see what they wished. + +"You are not here to preach to the people," said Sir Francis Knowles, +angrily, "but to confess yourself a traitor." + +Campion smiled and shook his head. + +"No, no," he said: and then looking up and raising his voice,--"as to the +treasons which have been laid to my charge, and for which I am come here +to suffer, I desire you all to bear witness with me, that I am thereof +altogether innocent." + +There was a chorus of anger from the gentlemen, and one of them called up +something that Anthony could not hear. Campion raised his eyebrows. + +"Well, my lord," he cried aloud, and his voice instantly silenced again +the noisy buzz of talk, "I am a Catholic man and a priest: in that faith +have I lived, and in that faith do I intend to die. If you esteem my +religion treason, then am I guilty; as for other treason, I never +committed any, God is my judge. But you have now what you desire. I +beseech you to have patience, and suffer me to speak a word or two for +discharge of my conscience." + +There was a furious burst of refusals from the officers. + +"Well," said Campion, at last, looking straight out over the crowd, "it +seems I may not speak; but this only will I say; that I am wholly +innocent of all treason and conspiracy, as God is my judge; and I beseech +you to credit me, for it is my last answer upon my death and soul. As for +the jury I do not blame them, for they were ignorant men and easily +deceived. I forgive all who have compassed my death or wronged me in any +whit, as I hope to be forgiven; and I ask the forgiveness of all those +whose names I spoke upon the rack." + +Then he said a word or two more of explanation, such as he had said +during his trial, for the sake of those Catholics whom this a concession +of his had scandalised, telling them that he had had the promise of the +Council that no harm should come to those whose names he revealed; and +then was silent again, closing his eyes; and Anthony, as he watched him, +saw his lips moving once more in prayer. + +Then a harsh loud voice from behind the cart began to proclaim that the +Queen punished no man for religion but only for treason. A fierce murmur +of disagreement and protest began to rise from the crowd; and Anthony +turning saw the faces of many near him frowning and pursing their lips, +and there was a shout or two of denial here and there. The harsh voice +ceased, and another began: + +"Now, Mr. Campion," it cried, "tell us, What of the Pope? Do you renounce +him?" + +Campion opened his eyes and looked round. + +"I am a Catholic," he said simply; and closed his eyes again for prayer, +as the voice cried brutally: + +"In your Catholicism all treason is contained." + +Again a murmur from the crowd. + +Then a new voice from the black group of ministers called out: + +"Mr. Campion, Mr. Campion, leave that popish stuff, and say, 'Christ have +mercy on me.'" + +Again the priest opened his eyes. + +"You and I are not one in religion, sir, wherefore I pray you content +yourself. I bar none of prayer, but I only desire them of the household +of faith to pray with me; and in mine agony to say one creed." + +Again he closed his eyes. + +"_Pater noster qui es in caelis._"... + +"Pray in English, pray in English!" shouted a voice from the minister's +group. + +Once more the priest opened his eyes; and, in spite of the badgering, his +eyes shone with humour and his mouth broke into smiles, so that a great +sob of pity and love broke from Anthony. + +"I will pray to God in a language that both He and I well understand." + +"Ask her Grace's forgiveness, Mr. Campion, and pray for her, if you be +her true subject." + +"Wherein have I offended her? In this I am innocent. This is my last +speech; in this give me credit--I have and do pray for her." + +"Aha! but which queen?--for Elizabeth?" + +"Ay, for Elizabeth, your queen and my queen, unto whom I wish a long +quiet reign with all prosperity." + + * * * * + +There was the crack of a whip, the scuffle of a horse's feet, a rippling +movement over the crowd, and a great murmured roar, like the roar of the +waves on a pebbly beach, as the horse's head began to move forward; and +the priest's figure to sway and stagger on the jolting cart. Anthony shut +his eyes, and the murmur and cries of the crowd grew louder and louder. +Once more the deep sweet voice rang out, loud and penetrating: + +"I die a true Catholic...." + +Anthony kept his eyes closed, and his head bent, as great sobs began to +break up out of his heart.... + +Ah! he was in his agony now! that sudden cry and silence from the crowd +showed it. What was it he had asked? one creed?-- + +"I believe in God the Father Almighty." ... + +The soft heavy murmur of the crowd rose and fell. Catholics were praying +all round him, reckless with love and pity: + +"Jesu, Jesu, save him! Be to him a Jesus!"... + +"Mary pray! Mary pray!"... + +"_Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem._"... + +"_Passus sub Pontio Pilato._"... + +"Crucified dead and buried."... + +"The forgiveness of sins."... + +"And the Life Everlasting."... + + * * * * + +Anthony dropped his face forward on to his horse's mane. + + + + + CHAPTER VII + + A MESSAGE FROM THE CITY + + +Sir Francis Walsingham sat in his private room a month after Father +Campion's death. + +He had settled down again now to his work which had been so grievously +interrupted by his mission to France in connection with a new treaty +between that country and England in the previous year. The secret +detective service that he had inaugurated in England chiefly for the +protection of the Queen's person was a vast and complicated business, and +the superintendence of this, in addition to the other affairs of his +office, made him an exceedingly busy man. England was honeycombed with +mines and countermines both in the political and the religious world, and +it needed all this man's brilliant and trained faculties to keep abreast +with them. His spies and agents were everywhere; and not only in England: +they circled round Mary of Scotland like flies round a wounded creature, +seeking to settle and penetrate wherever an opening showed itself. These +Scottish troubles would have been enough for any ordinary man; but +Walsingham was indefatigable, and his agents were in every prison, +lurking round corridors in private houses, found alike in thieves' +kitchens and at gentlemen's tables. + +Just at present Walsingham was anxious to give all the attention he could +to Scottish affairs; and on this wet dreary Thursday morning in January +as he sat before his bureau, he was meditating how to deal with an affair +that had come to him from the heart of London, and how if possible to +shift the conduct of it on to other shoulders. + +He sat and drummed his fingers on the desk, and stared meditatively at +the pigeon-holes before him. His was an interesting face, with large, +melancholy, and almost fanatical eyes, and a poet's mouth and forehead; +but it was probably exactly his imaginative faculties that enabled him to +picture public affairs from the points of view of the very various +persons concerned in them; and thereby to cope with the complications +arising out of these conflicting interests. + +He stroked his pointed beard once or twice, and then struck a hand-bell +at his side; and a servant entered. + +"If Mr. Lackington is below," he said, "show him here immediately," and +the servant went out. + +Lackington, sometime servant to Sir Nicholas Maxwell, had entered Sir +Francis' service instead, at the same time that he had exchanged the +Catholic for the Protestant religion; and he was now one of his most +trusted agents. But he had been in so many matters connected with +recusancy, that a large number of the papists in London were beginning to +know him by sight; and the affairs were becoming more and more scarce in +which he could be employed among Catholics with any hope of success. It +was his custom to call morning by morning at Sir Francis' office and +receive his instructions; and just now he had returned from business in +the country. Presently he entered, closing the door behind him, and bowed +profoundly to his master. + +"I have a matter on hand, Lackington," said Sir Francis, without looking +at him, and without any salutation beyond a glance and a nod as he +entered,--"a matter which I have not leisure to look into, as it is not, +I think, anything more than mere religion; but which might, I think, +repay you for your trouble, if you can manage it in any way. But it is a +troublesome business. These are the facts. + +"No. 3 Newman's Court, in the City, has been a suspected house for some +while. I have had it watched, and there is no doubt that the papists use +it. I thought at first that the Scots were mixed up with it; but that is +not so. Yesterday, a boy of twelve years old, left the house in the +afternoon, and was followed to a number of houses, of which I will give +you the list presently; and was finally arrested in Paul's Churchyard and +brought here. I frightened him with talk of the rack; and I think I have +the truth out of him now; I have tested him in the usual ways--and all +that I can find is that the house is used for mass now and then; and that +he was going to the papists' houses yesterday to bid them come for next +Sunday morning. But he was stopped too soon: he had not yet told the +priest to come. Now unless the priest is told to-night by one whom he +trusts, there will be no mass on Sunday, and the nest of papists will +escape us. It is of no use to send the boy; as he will betray all by his +behaviour, even if we frighten him into saying what we wish to the +priest. I suppose it is of no use your going to the priest and feigning +to be a Catholic messenger; and I cannot at this moment see what is to be +done. If there were anything beyond mere religion in this, I would spare +no pains to hunt them out; but it is not worth my while. Yet there is the +reward; and if you think that you can do anything, you can have it for +your pains. I can spare you till Monday, and of course you shall have +what men you will to surround the house and take them at mass, if you can +but get the priest there." + +"Thank you, sir," said Lackington deferentially. "Have I your honour's +leave to see the boy in your presence?" + +Walsingham struck the bell again. + +"Bring the lad that is locked in the steward's parlour," he said, when +the servant appeared.--"Sit down, Lackington, and examine him when he +comes." + +And Sir Francis took down some papers from a pigeon-hole, sorted out one +or two, and saying, "Here are his statements," handed them to the agent; +who began to glance through them at once. Walsingham then turned to his +table again and began to go on with his letters. + +In a moment or two the door opened, and a little lad of twelve years old, +came in, followed by the servant. + +"That will do," said Walsingham, without looking up; "You can leave him +here," and the servant went out. The boy stood back against the wall by +the door, his face was white and his eyes full of horror, and he looked +in a dazed way at the two men. + +"What is your name, boy?" began Lackington in a sharp, judicial tone. + +"John Belton," said the lad in a tremulous voice. + +"And you are a little papist?" asked the agent. + +"No sir; a Protestant." + +"Then how is it that you go on errands for papists?" + +"I am a servant, sir," said the boy imploringly. + +Lackington turned the papers over for a moment or two. + +"Now you know," he began again in a threatening voice, "that this +gentleman has power to put you on the rack; you know what that is?" + +The boy nodded in mute white-faced terror. + +"Well, now, he will hear all you say; and will know whether you say the +truth or not. Now tell me if you still hold to what you said yesterday." + +And then Lackington with the aid of the papers ran quickly over the story +that Sir Francis had related. "Now do you mean to tell me, John Belton," +he added, "that you, a Protestant, and a lad of twelve, are employed on +this work by papists, to gather them for mass?" + +The boy looked at him with the same earnest horror. + +"Yes, sir, yes, sir," he said, and there was a piteous sob in his voice. +"Indeed it is all true: but I do not often go on these messages for my +master. Mr. Roger generally goes: but he is sick." + +"Oho!" said Lackington, "you did not say that yesterday." + +The boy was terrified. + +"No, sir," he cried out miserably, "the gentleman did not ask me." + +"Well, who is Mr. Roger? What is he like?" + +"He is my master's servant, sir; and he wears a patch over his eye; and +stutters a little in his speech." + +These kinds of details were plainly beyond a frightened lad's power of +invention, and Lackington was more satisfied. + +"And what was the message that you were to give to the folk and the +priest?" + +"Please, sir, 'Come, for all things are now ready.'" + +This was such a queer answer that Lackington gave an incredulous +exclamation. + +"It is probably true," said Sir Francis, without looking up from his +letters; "I have come across the same kind of cypher, at least once +before." + +"Thank you, sir," said the agent. "And now, my boy, tell me this. How did +you know what it meant?" + +"Please, sir," said the lad, a little encouraged by the kinder tone, "I +have noticed that twice before when Mr. Roger could not go, and I was +sent with the same message, all the folks and the priest came on the next +Sunday; and I think that it means that all is safe, and that they can +come." + +"You are a sharp lad," said the spy approvingly. "I am satisfied with +you." + +"Then, sir, may I go home?" asked the boy with hopeful entreaty in his +voice. + +"Nay, nay," said the other, "I have not done with you yet. Answer me some +more questions. Why did you not go to the priest first?" + +"Because I was bidden to go to him last," said the boy. "If I had been to +all the other houses by five o'clock last night, then I was to meet the +priest at Papists' Corner in Paul's Church. But if I had not done +them--as I had not,--then I was to see the priest to-night at the same +place." + +Lackington mused a moment. + +"What is the priest's name?" he asked. + +"Please, sir, Mr. Arthur Oldham." + +The agent gave a sudden start and a keen glance at the boy, and then +smiled to himself; then he meditated, and bit his nails once or twice. + +"And when was Mr. Roger taken ill?" + +"He slipped down at the door of his lodging and hurt his foot, at +dinner-time yesterday; and he could not walk." + +"His lodging? Then he does not sleep in the house?" + +"No sir; he sleeps in Stafford Alley, round the corner." + +"And where do you live?" + +"Please, sir, I go home to my mother nearly every night; but not always." + +"And where does your mother live?" + +"Please, sir, at 4 Bell's Lane." + +Lackington remained deep in thought, and looked at the boy steadily for a +minute or two. + +"Now, sir; may I go?" he asked eagerly. + +Lackington paid no attention, and he repeated his question. The agent +still did not seem to hear him, but turned to Sir Francis, who was still +at his letters. + +"That is all, sir, for the present," he said. "May the boy be kept here +till Monday?" + +The lad broke out into wailing; but Lackington turned on him a face so +savage that his whimpers died away into horror-stricken silence. + +"As you will," said Sir Francis, pausing for a moment in his writing, and +striking the bell again; and, on the servant's appearance, gave orders +that John Belton should be taken again to the steward's parlour until +further directions were received. The boy went sobbing out and down the +passage again under the servant's charge, and the door closed. + +"And the mother?" asked Walsingham abruptly, pausing with pen upraised. + +"With your permission, sir, I will tell her that her boy is in trouble, +and that if his master sends to inquire for him, she is to say he is sick +upstairs." + +"And you will report to me on Monday?" + +"Yes, sir; by then I shall hope to have taken the crew." + +Sir Francis nodded his head sharply, and the pen began to fly over the +paper again; as Lackington slipped out. + + * * * * + +Anthony Norris was passing through the court of Lambeth House in the +afternoon of the same day, when the porter came to him and said there was +a child waiting in the Lodge with a note for him; and would Master Norris +kindly come to see her. He found a little girl on the bench by the gate, +who stood up and curtseyed as the grand gentleman came striding in; and +handed him a note which he opened at once and read. + +"For the love of God," the note ran, "come and aid one who can be of +service to a friend: follow the little maid Master Norris, and she will +bring you to me. If you have any friends at _Great Keynes_, for the love +you bear to them, come quickly." + +Anthony turned the note over; it was unsigned, and undated. On his +inquiry further from the little girl, she said she knew nothing about the +writer; but that a gentleman had given her the note and told her to bring +it to Master Anthony Norris at Lambeth House; and that she was to take +him to a house that she knew in the city; she did not know the name of +the house, she said. + +It was all very strange, thought Anthony, but evidently here was some one +who knew about him; the reference to Great Keynes made him think uneasily +of Isabel and wonder whether any harm had happened to her, or whether any +danger threatened. He stood musing with the note between his fingers, and +then told the child to go straight down to Paul's Cross and await him +there, and he would follow immediately. The child ran off, and Anthony +went round to the stables to get his horse. He rode straight down to the +city and put up his horse in the Bishop's stables, and then went round +with his riding-whip in his hand to Paul's Cross. + +It was a dull miserable afternoon, beginning to close in with a fine rain +falling, and very few people were about; and he found the child crouched +up against the pulpit in an attempt to keep dry. + +"Come," he said kindly, "I am ready; show me the way." + +The child led him along by the Cathedral through the churchyard, and then +by winding passages, where Anthony kept a good look-out at the corners; +for a stab in the back was no uncommon thing for a well-dressed gentleman +off his guard. The houses overhead leaned so nearly together that the +darkening sky disappeared altogether now and then; at one spot Anthony +caught a glimpse high up of Bow Church spire; and after a corner or two +the child stopped before a doorway in a little flagged court. + +"It is here," she said; and before Anthony could stop her she had slipped +away and disappeared through a passage. He looked at the house. It was a +tumble-down place; the door was heavily studded with nails, and gave a +most respectable air to the house: the leaded windows were just over his +head, and tightly closed. There was an air of mute discretion and silence +about the place that roused a vague discomfort in Anthony's mind; he +slipped his right hand into his belt and satisfied himself that the hilt +of his knife was within reach. Overhead the hanging windows and eaves +bulged out on all sides; but there was no one to be seen; it seemed a +place that had slipped into a backwater of the humming stream of the +city. The fine rain still falling added to the dismal aspect of the +little court. He looked round once more; and then rapped sharply at the +door to which the child had pointed. + +There was silence for at least a minute; then as he was about to knock +again there was a faint sound overhead, and he looked up in time to see a +face swiftly withdrawn from one of the windows. Evidently an occupant of +the house had been examining the visitor. Then shuffling footsteps came +along a passage within, and a light shone under the door. There was a +noise of bolts being withdrawn, and the rattle of a chain; and then the +handle turned and the door opened slowly inwards, and an old woman stood +there holding an oil lamp over her head. This was not very formidable at +any rate. + +"I have been bidden to come here," he said, "by a letter delivered to me +an hour ago." + +"Ah," said the old woman, and looked at him peeringly, "then you are for +Mr. Roger?" + +"I daresay," said Anthony, a little sharply. He was not accustomed to be +treated like this. The old woman still looked at him suspiciously; and +then, as Anthony made a movement of impatience, she stepped back. + +"Come in, sir," she said. + +He stepped in, and she closed and fastened the door again behind him; and +then, holding the oil-lamp high over her head, she advanced in her +slippers towards the staircase, and Anthony followed. On the stairs she +turned once to see if he was coming, and beckoned him on with a movement +of her head. Anthony looked about him as he went up: there was nothing +remarkable or suspicious about the house in any way. It was cleaner than +he had been led to expect by its outside aspect; wainscoted to the +ceiling with oak; and the stairs were strong and well made. It was +plainly a very tolerably respectable place; and Anthony began to think +from its appearance that he had been admitted at the back door of some +well-to-do house off Cheapside. The banisters were carved with some +distinction; and there were the rudimentary elements of linen-pattern +design on the panels that lined the opposite walls up to the height of +the banisters. The woman went up and up, slowly, panting a little; at +each landing she turned and glanced back to see that her companion was +following: all the doors that they passed were discreetly shut; and the +house was perfectly dark except for the flickering light of the woman's +lamp, and silent except for the noise of the footsteps and the rush of a +mouse now and then behind the woodwork. + +At the third landing she stopped, and came close up to Anthony. + +"That is the door," she whispered hoarsely; and pointed with her thumb +towards a doorway that was opposite the staircase. "Ask for Master +Roger." + +And then without saying any more, she set the lamp down on the flat head +of the top banister and herself began to shuffle downstairs again into +the dark house. + +Anthony stood still a moment, his heart beating a little. What was this +strange errand? and Isabel! what had she to do with this house buried +away in the courts of the great city? As he waited he heard a door close +somewhere behind him, and the shuffling footsteps had ceased. He touched +the hilt of his knife once again to give himself courage; and then walked +slowly across and rapped on the door. Instantly a voice full of trembling +expectancy, cried to him to come in; he turned the handle and stepped +into the fire-lit room. + +It was extremely poorly furnished; a rickety table stood in the centre +with a book or two and a basin with a plate, a saucepan hissed and +bubbled on the fire; in the corner near the window stood a poor bed; and +to this Anthony's attention was immediately directed by a voice that +called out hoarsely: + +"Thank God, sir, thank God, sir, you have come! I feared you would not." + +Anthony stepped towards it wondering and expectant, but reassured. Lying +in the bed, with clothes drawn up to the chin was the figure of a man. +There was no light in the room, save that given by the leaping flames on +the hearth; and Anthony could only make out the face of a man with a +patch over one eye; the man stretched a hand over the bed clothes as he +came near, and Anthony took it, a little astonished, and received a +strong trembling grip of apparent excitement and relief: "Thank God, +sir!" the man said again, "but there is not too much time." + +"How can I serve you?" said Anthony, sitting on a chair near the bedside. +"Your letter spoke of friends at Great Keynes. What did you mean by +that?" + +"Is the d-door closed, sir?" asked the man anxiously; stuttering a little +as he spoke. + +Anthony stepped up and closed it firmly; and then came back and sat down +again. + +"Well then, sir; I believe you are a friend of the priest Mr. +M-Maxwell's." + +Anthony shook his head. + +"There is no priest of that name that I know." + +"Ah," cried the man, and his voice shook, "have I said too much? You are +Mr. Anthony Norris of the Dower House, and of the Archbishop's +household?"... + +"I am," said Anthony, "but yet----" + +"Well, well," said the man, "I must go forward now. He whom you know as +Mr. James Maxwell is a Catholic p-priest, known to many under the name of +Mr. Arthur Oldham. He is in sore d-danger." + +Anthony was silent through sheer astonishment. This then was the secret +of the mystery that had hung round Mr. James so long. The few times he +had met him in town since his return, it had been on the tip of his +tongue to ask what he did there, and why Hubert was to be master of the +Hall; but there was something in Mr. James' manner that made the asking +of such a question appear an impossible liberty; and it had remained +unasked. + +"Well," said the man in bed, in anxious terror, "there is no mistake, is +there?" + +"I said nothing," said Anthony, "for astonishment; I had no idea that he +was a priest. And how can I serve him?" + +"He is in sore danger," said the man, and again and again there came the +stutter. "Now I am a Catholic: you see how much I t-trust you sir. I am +the only one in this house. I was entrusted with a m-message to Mr. +Maxwell to put him on his guard against a danger that threatens him. I +was to meet him this very evening at five of the clock; and this +afternoon as I left my room, I slipped and so hurt my foot that I cannot +put it to the ground. I dared not send a l-letter to Mr. Maxwell, for +fear the child should be followed; I dared not send to another Catholic; +nor indeed did I know where to find one whom Mr. M-Maxwell would know and +trust, as he is new to us here; but I had heard him speak of his friend +Mr. Anthony Norris, who was at Lambeth House; and I determined, sir, to +send the child to you; and ask you to do this service for your friend; +for an officer of the Archbishop's household is beyond suspicion. N-now, +sir, will you do this service? If you do it not, I know not where to turn +for help." + +Anthony was silent. He felt a little uneasy. Supposing that there was +sedition mixed up in this! How could he trust the man's story? How could +he be certain in fact that he was a Catholic at all? He looked at him +keenly in the fire-light. The man's one eye shone in deep anxiety, and +his forehead was wrinkled; and he passed his hand nervously over his +mouth again and again. + +"How can I tell," said Anthony, "that all this is true?" + +The man with an impatient movement unfastened his shirt at the neck and +drew up on a string that was round his neck a little leather case. + +"Th-there, sir," he stammered, drawing the string over his head. "T-take +that to the fire and see what it is." + +Anthony took it curiously, and holding it close to the fire drew off the +little case; there was the wax medal stamped with the lamb, called +_Agnus Dei_. + +"Th-there," cried the man from the bed, "now I have p-put myself in your +hands--and if more is w-wanted----" and as Anthony came back holding the +medal, the man fumbled beneath the pillow and drew out a rosary. + +"N-now, sir, do you believe me?" + +It was felony to possess these things and Anthony had no more doubts. + +"Yes," he said, "and I ask your pardon." And he gave back the _Agnus +Dei_. "But there is no sedition in this?" + +"N-none, sir, I give you my word," said the man, apparently greatly +relieved, and sinking back on his pillow. "I will tell you all, and you +can judge for yourself; but you will promise to be secret." And when +Anthony had given his word, he went on. + +"M-Mass was to have been said in Newman's Court on Sunday, at number 3, +but that c-cursed spy Walsingham, hath had wind of it. His men have been +lurking round there; and it is not safe. However, there is no need to say +that to Mr. Maxwell; he will understand enough if you will give him a +message of half a dozen words from me,--Mr. Roger. You can tell him that +you saw me, if you wish to. But ah! sir, you give me your word to say no +more to any one, not even to Mr. Maxwell himself, for it is in a public +place. And then I will tell you the p-place and the m-message; but we +must be swift, because the time is near; it is at five of the clock that +he will look for a messenger." + +"I give you my word," said Anthony. + +"Well, sir, the place is Papists' Corner in the Cathedral, and the words +are these, 'Come, for all things are now ready.' You know sir, that we +Catholics go in fear of our lives, and like the poor hares have to double +and turn if we would escape. If any overhears that message, he will never +know it to be a warning. And it was for that that I asked your word to +say no more than your message, with just the word that you had seen me +yourself. You may tell him, of course sir, that Mr. Roger had a patch +over his eye and st-stuttered a little in his speech; and he will know it +is from me then. Now, sir, will you tell me what the message is, and the +place, to be sure that you know them; and then, sir, it will be time to +go; and God bless you, sir. God bless you for your kindness to us poor +papists!" + +The man seized Anthony's gloved hand and kissed it fervently once or +twice. + +Anthony repeated his instructions carefully. He was more touched than he +cared to show by the evident gratitude and relief of this poor terrified +Catholic. + +"Th-that is right, sir; that is right; and now, sir, if you please, be +gone at once; or the Father will have left the Cathedral. The child will +be in the court below to show you the way out to the churchyard. God +bless you, sir; and reward you for your kindness!" + +And as Anthony went out of the room he heard benedictions mingled with +sobs following him. The woman was nowhere to be seen; so he took the +oil-lamp from the landing, and found his way downstairs again, unfastened +the front door, and went out, leaving the lamp on the floor. The child +was leaning against the wall opposite; he could just see the glimmer of +her face in the heavy dusk. + +"Come, my child," he said, "show me the way to the churchyard." + +She came forward, and he began to follow her out of the little flagged +court. He turned round as he left the court and saw high up against the +blackness overhead a square of window lighted with a glow from within; +and simultaneously there came the sound of bolts being shut in the door +that he had just left. Evidently the old woman had been on the watch, and +was now barring the door behind him. + +It wanted courage to do as Anthony was doing, but he was not lacking in +that; it was not a small matter to go to Papists' Corner and give a +warning to a Catholic priest: but firstly, James Maxwell was his friend, +and in danger: secondly, Anthony had no sympathy with religious +persecution; and thirdly, as has been seen, the last year had made a +really deep impression upon him: he was more favourably inclined to the +Catholic cause than he had ever imagined to be possible. + +As he followed the child through the labyrinth of passages, passing every +now and then the lighted front of a house, or a little group of idlers +(for the rain had now ceased) who stared to see this gentleman in such +company, his head was whirling with questions and conjectures. Was it not +after all a dishonourable act to the Archbishop in whose service he was, +thus to take the side of the Papists? But that it was too late to +consider now.--How strange that James Maxwell was a priest! That of +course accounted at once for his long absence, no doubt in the seminary +abroad, and his ultimate return, and for Hubert's inheriting the estates. +And then he passed on to reflect as he had done a hundred times before on +this wonderful Religion that allured men from home and wealth and +friends, and sent them rejoicing to penury, suspicion, hatred, peril, and +death itself, for the kingdom of heaven's sake. + +Suddenly he found himself in the open space opposite the Cathedral--the +child had again disappeared. + +It was less dark here; the leaden sky overhead still glimmered with a +pale sunset light; and many house-windows shone out from within. He +passed round the south side of the Cathedral, and entered the western +door. The building was full of deep gloom only pricked here and there by +an oil-lamp or two that would presently be extinguished when the +Cathedral was closed. The air was full of a faint sound, made up from +echoes of the outside world and the footsteps of a few people who still +lingered in groups here and there in the aisles, and talked among +themselves. The columns rose up in slender bundles and faded into the +pale gloom overhead; as he crossed the nave on the way to Papists' Corner +far away to the east rose the dark carving of the stalls against the +glimmering stone beyond. It was like some vast hall of the dead; the +noise of the footsteps seemed like an insolent intrusion on this temple +of silence; and the religious stillness had an active and sombre +character of its own more eloquent and impressive than all the tumult +that man could make. + +As Anthony came to Papists' Corner he saw a very tall solitary figure +passing slowly from east to west; it was too dark to distinguish faces; +so he went towards it, so that at the next turn they would meet face to +face. When he was within two or three steps the man before him turned +abruptly; and Anthony immediately put out his hand smiling. + +"Mr. Arthur Oldham," he said. + +The man started and peered curiously through the gloom at him. + +"Why Anthony!" he exclaimed, and took his hand, "what is your business +here?" And they began slowly to walk westwards together. + +"I am come to meet Mr. Oldham," he said, "and to give him a message; and +this is it, 'Come, for all things are now ready!'" + +"My dear boy," said James, stopping short, "you must forgive me; but what +in the world do you mean by that?" + +"I come from Mr. Roger," said Anthony, "you need not be afraid. He has +had an accident and sent for me." + +"Mr. Roger?" said James interrogatively. + +"Yes," said Anthony, "he hath a patch over one eye; and stutters +somewhat." + +James gave a sigh of relief. + +"My dear boy," he said, "I cannot thank you enough. You know what it +means then?" + +"Why, yes," said Anthony. + +"And you a Protestant, and in the Archbishop's household?" + +"Why, yes," said Anthony, "and a Christian and your friend." + +"God bless you, Anthony," said the priest; and took his hand and pressed +it. + +They were passing out now under the west door, and stood together for a +moment looking at the lights down Ludgate Hill. The houses about Amen +Court stood up against the sky to their right. + +"I must not stay," said Anthony, "I must fetch my horse and be back at +Lambeth for evening prayers at six. He is stabled at the Palace here." + +"Well, well," said the priest, "I thank God that there are true hearts +like yours. God bless you again my dear boy--and--and make you one of us +some day!" + +Anthony smiled at him a little tremulously, for the gratitude and the +blessing of this man was dear to him; and after another hand grasp, he +turned away to the right, leaving the priest still half under the shadow +of the door looking after him. + +He had done his errand promptly and discreetly. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + THE MASSING-HOUSE + + +Newman's Court lay dark and silent under the stars on Sunday morning a +little after four o'clock. The gloomy weather of the last three or four +days had passed off in heavy battalions of sullen sunset clouds on the +preceding evening, and the air was full of frost. By midnight thin ice +was lying everywhere; pendants of it were beginning to form on the +overhanging eaves; and streaks of it between the cobble-stones that paved +the court. The great city lay in a frosty stillness as of death. + +The patrol passed along Cheapside forty yards away from the entrance of +the court, a little after three o'clock; and a watchman had cried out +half an hour later, that it was a clear night; and then he too had gone +his way. The court itself was a little rectangular enclosure with two +entrances, one to the north beneath the arch of a stable that gave on to +Newman's Passage, which in its turn opened on to St. Giles' Lane that led +to Cheapside; the other, at the further end of the long right-hand side, +led by a labyrinth of passages down in the direction of the wharfs to the +west of London Bridge. There were three houses to the left of the +entrance from Newman's Passage; the back of a ware-house faced them on +the other long side with the door beyond; and the other two sides were +respectively formed by the archway of the stable with a loft over it, and +a blank high wall at the opposite end. + +A few minutes after four o'clock the figure of a woman suddenly appeared +soundlessly in the arch under the stables; and after standing there a +moment advanced along the front of the houses till she reached the third +door. She stood here a moment in silence, listening and looking towards +the doorway opposite, and then rapped gently with her finger-nail eleven +or twelve times. Almost immediately the door opened, showing only +darkness within; she stepped in, and it closed silently behind her. Then +the minutes slipped away again in undisturbed silence. At about twenty +minutes to five the figure of a very tall man dressed as a layman slipped +in through the door that led towards the river, and advanced to the door +where he tapped in the same manner as the woman before him, and was +admitted at once. After that people began to come more frequently, some +hesitating and looking about them as they entered the court, some +slipping straight through without a pause, and going to the door, which +opened and shut noiselessly as each tapped and was admitted. Sometimes +two or three would come together, sometimes singly; but by five o'clock +about twenty or thirty persons had come and been engulfed by the +blackness that showed each time the door opened; while no glimmer of +light from any of the windows betrayed the presence of any living soul +within. At five o'clock the stream stopped. The little court lay as +silent under the stars again as an hour before. It was a night of +breathless stillness; there was no dripping from the eaves; no sound of +wheels or hoofs from the city; only once or twice came the long howl of a +dog across the roofs. + +Ten minutes passed away. + +Then without a sound a face appeared like a pale floating patch in the +dark door that opened on to the court. It remained hung like a mask in +the darkness for at least a minute; and then a man stepped through on to +the cobblestones. Something on his head glimmered sharply in the +starlight; and there was the same sparkle at the end of a pole that he +carried in his hand; he turned and nodded; and three or four men appeared +behind him. + +Then out of the darkness of the archway at the other end of the court +appeared a similar group. Once a man slipped on the frozen stones and +cursed under his breath, and the leader turned on him with a fierce +indrawing of his breath; but no word was spoken. + +Then through both entrances streamed dark figures, each with a steely +glitter on head and breast, and with something that shone in their hands; +till the little court seemed half full of armed men; but the silence was +still formidable in its depth. + +The two leaders came together to the door of the third house, and their +heads were together; and a few sibilant consonants escaped them. The +breath of the men that stood out under the starlight went up like smoke +in the air. It was now a quarter-past five. + +Three notes of a hand-bell sounded behind the house; and then, without +any further attempt at silence, the man who had entered the court first +advanced to the door and struck three or four thundering blows on it with +a mace, and shouted in a resonant voice: + +"Open in the Queen's Name." + +The men relaxed their cautious attitudes, and some grounded their +weapons; others began to talk in low voices; a small party advanced +nearer their leaders with weapons, axes and halberds, uplifted. + +By now the blows were thundering on the door; and the same shattering +voice cried again and again: + +"Open in the Queen's name; open in the Queen's name!" + +The middle house of the three was unoccupied; but the windows of the +house next the stable, and the windows in the loft over the archway, +where the stable-boys slept, suddenly were illuminated; latches were +lifted, the windows thrust open and heads out of them. + +Then one or two more pursuivants came up the dark passage bearing flaming +torches with them. A figure appeared on the top of the blank wall at the +end, and pointed and shouted. The stable-boys in a moment more appeared +in their archway, and one or two persons came out of the house next the +stable, queerly habited in cloaks and hats over their night-attire. + + * * * * + +The din was now tremendous; the questions and answers shouted to and fro +were scarcely audible under the thunder that pealed from the battered +door; a party had advanced to it and were raining blows upon the lock and +hinges. The court was full of a ruddy glare that blazed on the +half-armour and pikes of the men, and the bellowing and the crashes and +the smoke together went up into the night air as from the infernal pit. +It was a hellish transformation from the deathly stillness of a few +minutes--a massacre of the sweet night silence. And yet the house where +the little silent stream of dark figures had been swallowed up rose up +high above the smoky cauldron, black, dark, and irresponsive. + + * * * * + +There rose a shrill howling from behind the house, and the figure on the +top of the wall capered and gesticulated again. Then footsteps came +running up the passage, and a pursuivant thrust his way through to the +leaders; and, in a moment or two, above the din a sharp word was given, +and three or four men hurried out through the doorway by which the man +had come. Almost at the same moment the hinges of the door gave way, the +whole crashed inwards, and the attacking party poured into the dark +entrance hall beyond. By this time the noise had wakened many in the +houses round, and lights were beginning to shine from the high windows +invisible before, and a concourse of people to press in from all sides. +The approaches had all been guarded, but at the crash of the door some of +the sentries round the nearer corners hurried into the court, and the +crowd poured after them; and by the time that the officers and men had +disappeared into the house, their places had been filled by the +spectators, and the little court was again full of a swaying, seething, +shouting mass of men, with a few women with hoods and cloaks among +them--inquiries and information were yelled to and fro. + +"It was a nest of papists--a wasp's nest was being smoked out--what harm +had they done?--It was a murder; two women had had their throats +cut.--No, no; it was a papists' den--a massing-house.--Well, God save her +Grace and rid her of her enemies. With these damned Spaniards everywhere, +England was going to ruin.--They had escaped at the back. No; they tried +that way, but it was guarded.--There were over fifty papists, some said, +in that house.--It was a plot. Mary was mixed up in it. The Queen was to +be blown up with powder, like poor Darnley. The barrels were all stored +there.--No, no, no! it was nothing but a massing-house.--Who was the +priest?--Well, they would see him at Tyburn on a hurdle; and serve him +right with his treasonable mummery.--No, no! they had had enough of +blood.--Campion had died like a man; and an Englishman too--praying for +his Queen."--The incessant battle and roar went up. + + * * * * + +Meanwhile lights were beginning to shine everywhere in the dark house. A +man with a torch was standing in a smoky glare half way up the stairs +seen through the door, and the interior of the plain hall was +illuminated. Then the leaded panes overhead were beginning to shine out. +Steel caps moved to and fro; gigantic shadows wavered; the shadow of a +halberd head went across a curtain at one of the lower windows. + +A crimson-faced man threw open a window and shouted instructions to the +sentry left at the door, who in answer shook his head and pointed to the +bellowing crowd; the man at the window made a furious gesture and +disappeared. The illumination began to climb higher and higher as the +searchers mounted from floor to floor; thin smoke began to go up from one +or two of the chimneys in the frosty air;--they were lighting straw to +bring down any fugitives concealed in the chimneys. Then the sound of +heavy blows began to ring out; they were testing the walls everywhere for +hiding-holes; there was a sound of rending wood as the flooring was torn +up. Then over the parapet against the stairs looked a steel-crowned face +of a pursuivant. The crowd below yelled and pointed at first, thinking he +was a fugitive; but he grinned down at them and disappeared. + +Then at last came an exultant shout; then a breathless silence; then the +crowd began to question and answer again. + +"They had caught the priest!--No, the priest had escaped,--damn him!--It +was half a dozen women. No, no! they had had the women ten minutes ago in +a room at the back.--What fools these pursuivants were!--They had found +the chapel and the altar.--What a show it would all make at the +trial!--Ah! ah! it was the priest after all." + + * * * * + +Those nearest the door saw the man with the torch on the stairs stand +back a little; and then a dismal little procession began to appear round +the turn. + +First came a couple of armed men, looking behind them every now and then; +then a group of half a dozen women, whom they had found almost +immediately, but had been keeping for the last few minutes in a room +upstairs; then a couple more men. Then there was a little space; and then +more constables and more prisoners. Each male prisoner was guarded by two +men; the women were in groups. All these came out to the court. The crowd +began to sway back against the walls, pointing and crying out; and a lane +with living walls was formed towards the archway that opened into +Newman's Passage. + +When the last pursuivants who brought up the rear had reached the door, +an officer, who had been leaning from a first-floor window with the pale +face of Lackington peering over his shoulder, gave a sharp order; and the +procession halted. The women, numbering fourteen or fifteen, were placed +in a group with some eight men in hollow square round them; then came a +dozen men, each with a pursuivant on either side. But plainly they were +not all come; they were still waiting for something; the officer and +Lackington disappeared from the window; and for a moment too, the crowd +was quiet. + +A murmur of excitement began to rise again, as another group was seen +descending the stairs within. The officer came first, looking back and +talking as he came; then followed two pursuivants with halberds, and +immediately behind them, followed by yet two men, walked James Maxwell in +crimson vestments all disordered, with his hands behind him, and his +comely head towering above the heads of the guard. The crowd surged +forward, yelling; and the men at the door grounded their halberds sharply +on the feet of the front row of spectators. As the priest reached the +door, a shrill cry either from a boy or a woman pierced the roaring of +the mob. "God bless you, father," and as he heard it he turned and smiled +serenely. His face was white, and there was a little trickle of blood run +down across it from some wound in his head. The rest of the prisoners +turned towards him as he came out; and again he smiled and nodded at +them. And so the Catholics with their priest stood a moment in that +deafening tumult of revilings, before the officer gave the word to +advance. + +Then the procession set forward through the archway; the crowd pressing +back before them, like the recoil of a wave, and surging after them again +in the wake. High over the heads of all moved the steel halberds, shining +like grim emblems of power; the torches tossed up and down and threw +monstrous stalking shadows on the walls as they passed; the steel caps +edged the procession like an impenetrable hedge; and last moved the +crimson-clad priest, as if in some church function, but with a bristling +barrier about him; then came the mob, pouring along the narrow passages, +jostling, cursing, reviling, swelled every moment by new arrivals dashing +down the alleys and courts that gave on the thoroughfare; and so with +tramp and ring of steel the pageant went forward on its way of sorrows. + + * * * * + +Before six o'clock Newman's Court was empty again, except for one armed +figure that stood before the shattered door of No. 3 to guard it. Inside +the house was dark again except in one room high up where the altar had +stood. Here the thick curtains against the glass had been torn down, and +the window was illuminated; every now and again the shadows on the +ceiling stirred a little as if the candle was being moved; and once the +window opened and a pale smooth face looked out for a moment, and then +withdrew again. Then the light disappeared altogether; and presently +shone out in another room on the same floor; then again after an half an +hour or so it was darkened; and again reappeared on the floor below. And +so it went on from room to room; until the noises of the waking city +began, and the stars paled and expired. Over the smokeless town the sky +began to glow clear and brilliant. The crowing of cocks awoke here and +there; a church bell or two began to sound far away over the roofs. The +pale blue overhead grew more and more luminous; the candle went out on +the first floor; the steel-clad man stretched himself and looked at the +growing dawn. + +A step was heard on the stairs, and Lackington came down, carrying a +small valise apparently full to bursting. He looked paler than usual; and +a little hollow-eyed for want of sleep. He came out and stood by the +soldier, and looked about him. Everywhere the court showed signs of the +night's tumult. Crumbled ice from broken icicles and trampled frozen +pools lay powdered on the stones. Here and there on the walls were great +smears of black from the torches, and even one or two torn bits of stuff +and a crushed hat marked where the pressure had been fiercest. Most +eloquent of all was the splintered door behind him, still held fast by +one stout bolt, but leaning crookedly against the dinted wall of the +interior. + +"A good night's work, friend," said Lackington to the man. "Another hive +taken, and here"--and he tapped his valise--"here I bear the best of the +honey." + +The soldier looked heavily at the bag. He was tired too; and he did not +care for this kind of work. + +"Well," said Lackington again, "I must be getting home safe. Keep the +door; you shall be relieved in one hour." + +The soldier nodded at him; but still said nothing; and Lackington lifted +the valise and went off too under the archway. + + * * * * + +That same morning Lady Maxwell in her room in the Hall at Great Keynes +awoke early before dawn with a start. She had had a dream but could not +remember what it was, except that her son James was in it, and seemed to +be in trouble. He was calling on her to save him, she thought, and awoke +at the sound of his voice. She often dreamt of him at this time; for the +life of a seminary priest was laid with snares and dangers. But this +dream seemed worse than all. + +She struck a light, and looked timidly round the room; it seemed still +ringing with his voice. A great tapestry in a frame hung over the +mantelpiece, Actaeon followed by his hounds; the hunter panted as he ran, +and was looking back over his shoulder; and the long-jawed dogs streamed +behind him down a little hill. + +So strong was the dream upon the old lady that she felt restless, and +presently got up and went to the window and opened a shutter to look out. +A white statue or two beyond the terrace glimmered in the dusk, and the +stars were bright in the clear frosty night overhead. She closed the +shutter and went back again to bed; but could not sleep. Again and again +as she was dozing off, something would startle her wide awake again: +sometimes it was a glimpse of James' face; sometimes he seemed to be +hurrying away from her down an endless passage with closed doors; he was +dressed in something crimson. She tried to cry out, her voice would not +rise above a whisper. Sometimes it was the dream of his voice; and once +she started up crying out, "I am coming, my son." Then at last she awoke +again at the sound of footsteps coming along the corridor outside; and +stared fearfully at the door to see what would enter. But it was only the +maid come to call her mistress. Lady Maxwell watched her as she opened +the shutters that now glimmered through their cracks, and let a great +flood of light into the room from the clear shining morning outside. + +"It is a frosty morning, my lady," said the maid. + +"Send one of the men down to Mistress Torridon," said Lady Maxwell, "and +ask her to come here as soon as it is convenient. Say I am well; but +would like to see her when she can come." + +There was no priest in the house that Sunday, so there could be no mass; +and on these occasions Mistress Margaret usually stayed at the Dower +House until after dinner; but this morning she came up within half an +hour of receiving the message. + +She did not pretend to despise her sister's terror, or call it +superstitious. + +"Mary," she said, taking her sister's jewelled old fingers into her own +two hands, "we must leave all this to the good God. It may mean much, or +little, or nothing. He only knows; but at least we may pray. Let me tell +Isabel; a child's prayers are mighty with Him; and she has the soul of a +little child still." + +So Isabel was told; and after church she came up to dine at the Hall and +spend the day there; for Lady Maxwell was thoroughly nervous and upset: +she trembled at the sound of footsteps, and cried out when one of the men +came into the room suddenly. + +Isabel went again to evening prayer at three o'clock; but could not keep +her thoughts off the strange nervous horror at the Hall, though it seemed +to rest on no better foundation than the waking dreams of an old +lady--and her mind strayed away continually from the darkening chapel in +which she sat, so near where Sir Nicholas himself lay, to the upstairs +parlour where the widow sat shaken and trembling at her own curious +fancies about her dear son. + +Mr. Bodder's sermon came to an end at last; and Isabel was able to get +away, and hurry back to the Hall. She found the old ladies as she had +left them in the little drawing-room, Lady Maxwell sitting on the +window-seat near the harp, preoccupied and apparently listening for +something she knew not what. Mistress Margaret was sitting in a tall +padded porter's chair reading aloud from an old English mystic, but her +sister was paying no attention, and looked strangely at the girl as she +came in. Isabel sat down near the fire and listened; and as she listened +the memory of that other day, years ago, came to her when she sat once +before with these two ladies in the same room, and Mistress Margaret read +to them, and the letter came from Sir Nicholas; and then the sudden +clamour from the village. So now she sat with terror darkening over her, +glancing now and again at that white expectant face, and herself +listening for the first far-away rumour of the dreadful interruption that +she now knew must come. + +"The Goodness of God," read the old nun, "is the highest prayer, and it +cometh down to the lowest part of our need. It quickeneth our soul and +bringeth it on life, and maketh it for to waxen in grace and virtue. It +is nearest in nature; and readiest in grace: for it is the same grace +that the soul seeketh, and ever shall seek till we know verily that He +hath us all in Himself enclosed. For he hath no despite of that He hath +made, nor hath He any disdain to serve us at the simplest office that to +our body belongeth in nature, for love of the soul that He hath made to +His own likeness. For as the body is clad in the clothes, and the flesh +in the skin, and the bones in the flesh, and the heart in the whole, so +are we, soul and body, clad in the Goodness of God, and enclosed. Yea, +and more homely; for all these may waste and wear away, but the Goodness +of God is ever whole; and more near to us without any likeness; for truly +our Lover desireth that our soul cleave to Him with all its might, and +that we be evermore cleaving to His goodness. For of all things that +heart may think, this most pleaseth God, and soonest speedeth us. For our +soul is so specially loved of Him that is highest, that it overpasseth +the knowing of all creatures----" + +"Hush," said Lady Maxwell suddenly, on her feet, with a lifted hand. + +There was a breathless silence in the room; Isabel's heart beat thick and +heavy and her eyes grew large with expectancy; it was a windless frosty +night again, and the ivy outside on the wall, and the laurels in the +garden seemed to be silently listening too. + +"Mary, Mary," began her sister, "you----;" but the old lady lifted her +hand a little higher; and silence fell again. + +Then far away in the direction of the London road came the clear beat of +the hoofs of a galloping horse. + +Lady Maxwell bowed her head, and her hand slowly sank to her side. The +other two stood up and remained still while the beat of the hoofs grew +and grew in intensity on the frozen road. + +"The front door," said Lady Maxwell. + +Mistress Margaret slipped from the room and went downstairs; Isabel took +a step or two forward, but was checked by the old lady's uplifted hand +again. And again there was a breathless silence, save for the beat of the +hoofs now close and imminent. + +A moment later the front door was opened, and a great flood of cold air +swept up the passages; the portrait of Sir Nicholas in the hall +downstairs, lifted and rattled against the wall. Then came the clatter on +the paved court; and the sound of a horse suddenly checked with the +slipping up of hoofs and the jingle and rattle of chains and stirrups. +There were voices in the hall below, and a man's deep tones; then came +steps ascending. + +Lady Maxwell still stood perfectly rigid by the window, waiting, and +Isabel stared with white face and great open eyes at the door; outside, +the flame of a lamp on the wall was blowing about furiously in the +draught. + +Then a stranger stepped into the room; evidently a gentleman; he bowed to +the two ladies, and stood, with the rime on his boots and a whip in his +hand, a little exhausted and disordered by hard riding. + +"Lady Maxwell?" he said. + +Lady Maxwell bowed a little. + +"I come with news of your son, madam, the priest; he is alive and well; +but he is in trouble. He was taken this morning in his mass-vestments; +and is in the Marshalsea." + +Lady Maxwell's lips moved a little; but no sound came. + +"He was betrayed, madam, by a friend. He and thirty other Catholics were +taken all together at mass." + +Then Lady Maxwell spoke; and her voice was dead and hard. + +"The friend, sir! What was his name?" + +"The traitor's name, madam, is Anthony Norris." + +The room turned suddenly dark to Isabel's eyes; and she put up her hand +and tore at the collar round her throat. + +"Oh no, no, no, no!" she cried, and tottered a step or two forward and +stood swaying. + +Lady Maxwell looked from one to another with eyes that seemed to see +nothing; and her lips stirred again. + +Mistress Margaret who had followed the stranger up, and who stood now +behind him at the door, came forward to Isabel with a little cry, with +her hands trembling before her. But before she could reach her, Lady +Maxwell herself came swiftly forward, her head thrown back, and her arms +stretched out towards the girl, who still stood dazed and swaying more +and more. + +"My poor, poor child!" said Lady Maxwell; and caught her as she fell. + + + + + CHAPTER IX + + FROM FULHAM TO GREENWICH + + +Anthony in London, strangely enough, heard nothing of the arrest on the +Sunday, except a rumour at supper that some Papists had been taken. It +had sufficient effect on his mind to make him congratulate himself that +he had been able to warn his friend last week. + +At dinner on Monday there were a few guests; and among them, one Sir +Richard Barkley, afterwards Lieutenant of the Tower. He sat at the +Archbishop's table, but Anthony's place, on the steward's left hand, +brought him very close to the end of the first table where Sir Richard +sat. Dinner was half way through, when Mr. Scot who was talking to +Anthony, was suddenly silent and lifted his hand as if to check the +conversation a moment. + +"I saw them myself," said Sir Richard's voice just behind. + +"What is it?" whispered Anthony. + +"The Catholics," answered the steward. + +"They were taken in Newman's Court, off Cheapside," went on the voice, +"nearly thirty, with one of their priests, at mass, in his trinkets +too--Oldham his name is." + +There was a sudden crash of a chair fallen backwards, and Anthony was +standing by the officer. + +"I beg your pardon, Sir Richard Barkley," he said;--and a dead silence +fell in the hall.--"But is that the name of the priest that was taken +yesterday?" + +Sir Richard looked astonished at the apparent insolence of this young +official. + +"Yes, sir," he said shortly. + +"Then, then,----" began Anthony; but stopped; bowed low to the Archbishop +and went straight out of the hall. + + * * * * + +Mr. Scot was waiting for him in the hall when he returned late that +night. Anthony's face was white and distracted; he came in and stood by +the fire, and stared at him with a dazed air. + +"You are to come to his Grace," said the steward, looking at him in +silence. + +Anthony nodded without speaking, and turned away. + +"Then you cannot tell me anything?" said Mr. Scot. The other shook his +head impatiently, and walked towards the inner door. + +The Archbishop was sincerely shocked at the sight of his young officer, +as he came in and stood before the table, staring with bewildered eyes, +with his dress splashed and disordered, and his hands still holding the +whip and gloves. He made him sit down at once, and after Anthony had +drunk a glass of wine, he made him tell his story and what he had done +that day. + +He had been to the Marshalsea; it was true Mr. Oldham was there, and had +been examined. Mr. Young had conducted it.--The house at Newman's Court +was guarded: the house behind Bow Church was barred and shut up, and the +people seemed gone away.--He could not get a word through to Mr. Oldham, +though he had tried heavy bribery.--And that was all. + +Anthony spoke with the same dazed air, in short broken sentences; but +became more himself as the wine and the fire warmed him; and by the time +he had finished he had recovered himself enough to entreat the Archbishop +to help him. + +"It is useless," said the old man. "What can I do? I have no power. +And--and he is a popish priest! How can I interfere?" + +"My lord," cried Anthony desperately, flushed and entreating, "all has +been done through treachery. Do you not see it? I have been a brainless +fool. That man behind Bow Church was a spy. For Christ's sake help us, +my lord!" + +Grindal looked into the lad's great bright eyes; sighed; and threw out +his hands despairingly. + +"It is useless; indeed it is useless, Mr. Norris. But I will tell you all +that I can do. I will give you to-morrow a letter to Sir Francis +Walsingham. I was with him abroad as you know, in the popish times of +Mary: and he is still in some sort a friend of mine--but you must +remember that he is a strong Protestant; and I do not suppose that he +will help you. Now go to bed, dear lad; you are worn out." + +Anthony knelt for the old man's blessing, and left the room. + + * * * * + +The interview next day was more formidable than he had expected. He was +at the Secretary's house by ten o'clock, and waited below while the +Archbishop's letter was taken up. The servant came back in a few minutes, +and asked him to follow; and in an agony of anxiety, but with a clear +head again this morning, and every faculty tense, he went upstairs after +him, and was ushered into the room where Walsingham sat at a table. + +There was silence as the two bowed, but Sir Francis did not offer to +rise, but sat with the Archbishop's letter in his hand, glancing through +it again, as the other stood and waited. + +"I understand," said the Secretary at last, and his voice was dry and +unsympathetic,--"I understand, from his Grace's letter, that you desire +to aid a popish priest called Oldham or Maxwell, arrested at mass on +Sunday morning in Newman's Court. If you will be so good as to tell me in +what way you desire to aid him, I can be more plain in my answer. You do +not desire, I hope, Mr. Norris, anything but justice and a fair trial for +your friend?" + +Anthony cleared his throat before answering. + +"I--he is my friend, as you say, Sir Francis; and--and he hath been +caught by foul means. I myself was used, as I have little doubt, in his +capture. Surely there is no justice, sir, in betraying a man by means of +his friend." And Anthony described the ruse that had brought it all +about. + +Sir Francis listened to him coldly; but there came the faintest spark of +amusement into his large sad eyes. + +"Surely, Mr. Norris," he said, "it was somewhat simple; and I have no +doubt at all that it all is as you say; and that the poor stuttering +cripple with a patch was as sound and had as good sight and power of +speech as you and I; but the plan was, it seems, if you will forgive me, +not so simple as yourself. It would be passing strange, surely that the +man, if a friend of the priest's, could find no Catholic to take his +message; but not at all strange if he were his enemy. I do not think +sincerely, sir, that it would have deceived me. But that is not now the +point. He is taken now, fairly or foully, and--what was it you wished me +to do?" + +"I hoped," said Anthony, in rising indignation at this insolence, "that +you would help me in some way to undo this foul unjustice. Surely, sir, +it cannot be right to take advantage of such knavish tricks." + +"Good Mr. Norris," said the Secretary, "we are not playing a game, with +rules that must not be broken, but we are trying to serve justice"--his +voice rose a little in sincere enthusiasm--"and to put down all false +practices, whether in religion or state, against God or the prince. +Surely the point for you and me is not, ought this gentleman to have been +taken in the manner he was; but being taken, is he innocent or guilty?" + +"Then you will not help me?" + +"I will certainly not help you to defeat justice," said the other. "Mr. +Norris, you are a young man; and while your friendship does your heart +credit, your manner of forwarding its claims does not equally commend +your head. I counsel you to be wary in your speech and actions; or they +may bring you into trouble some day yourself. After all, as no doubt your +friends have told you, you played what, as a minister of the Crown, I +must call a knave's part in attempting to save this popish traitor, +although by God's Providence, you were frustrated. But it is indeed going +too far to beg me to assist you. I have never heard of such audacity!" + +Anthony left the house in a fury. It was true, as the Archbishop had +said, that Sir Francis Walsingham was a convinced Protestant; but he had +expected to find in him some indignation at the methods by which the +priest had been captured; and some desire to make compensation for it. + +He went again to the Marshalsea; and now heard that James had been +removed to the Tower, with one or two of the Catholics who had been in +trouble before. This was serious news; for to be transferred to the Tower +was often but the prelude to torture or death. He went on there, however, +and tried again to gain admittance, but it was refused, and the +doorkeeper would not even consent to take a message in. Mr. Oldham, he +said, was being straitly kept, and it would be as much as his place was +worth to admit any communication to him without an order from the +Council. + +When Anthony got back to Lambeth after this fruitless day, he found an +imploring note from Isabel awaiting him; and one of the grooms from the +Hall to take his answer back. + +"Write back at once, dear Anthony," she wrote, "and explain this terrible +thing, for I know well that you could not do what has been told us of +you. But tell us what has happened, that we may know what to think. Poor +Lady Maxwell is in the distress you may imagine; not knowing what will +come to Mr. James. She will come to London, I think, this week. Write at +once now, my Anthony, and tell us all." + +Anthony scribbled a few lines, saying how he had been deceived; and +asking her to explain the circumstances to Lady Maxwell, who no doubt +would communicate them to her son as soon as was possible; he added that +he had so far failed to get a message through the gaoler. He gave the +note himself to the groom; telling him to deliver it straight into +Isabel's hands, and then went to bed. + +In the morning he reported to the Archbishop what had taken place. + +"I feared it would be so," Grindal said. "There is nothing to be done but +to commit your friend into God's hands, and leave him there." + +"My Lord," said Anthony, "I cannot leave it like that. I will go and see +my lord bishop to-day; and then, if he can do nothing to help, I will +even see the Queen's Grace herself." + +Grindal threw up his hands with a gesture of dismay. + +"That will ruin all," he said. "An officer of mine could do nothing but +anger her Grace." + +"I must do my best," said Anthony; "it was through my folly he is in +prison, and I could never rest if I left one single thing undone." + +Just as Anthony was leaving the house, a servant in the royal livery +dashed up to the gate; and the porter ran out after Anthony to call him +back. The man delivered to him a letter which he opened then and there. +It was from Mistress Corbet. + +"What can be done," the letter ran, "for poor Mr. James? I have heard a +tale of you from a Catholic, which I know is a black lie. I am sure that +even now you will be doing all you can to save your friend. I told the +man that told me, that he lied and that I knew you for an honest +gentleman. But come, dear Mr. Anthony; and we will do what we can between +us. Her Grace noticed this morning that I had been weeping; I put her off +with excuses that she knows to be excuses; and she is so curious that she +will not rest till she knows the cause. Come after dinner to-day; we are +at Greenwich now; and we will see what may be done. It may even be +needful for you to see her Grace yourself, and tell her the story. Your +loving friend, Mary Corbet." + +Anthony gave a message to the royal groom, to tell Mistress Corbet that +he would do as she said, and then rode off immediately to the city. There +was another disappointing delay as the Bishop was at Fulham; and thither +he rode directly through the frosty streets under the keen morning +sunshine, fretting at the further delay. + +He had often had occasion to see the Bishop before, and Aylmer had taken +something of a liking to this staunch young churchman; and now as the +young man came hurrying across the grass under the elms, the Bishop, who +was walking in his garden in his furs and flapped cap, noticed his +anxious eyes and troubled face, and smiled at him kindly, wondering what +he had come about. The two began to walk up and down together. The +sunshine was beginning to melt the surface of the ground, and the birds +were busy with breakfast-hunting. + +"Look at that little fellow!" cried the Bishop, pointing to a thrush on +the lawn, "he knows his craft." + +The thrush had just rapped several times with his beak at a worm's earth, +and was waiting with his head sideways watching. + +"Aha!" cried the Bishop again, "he has him." The thrush had seized the +worm who had come up to investigate the noise, and was now staggering +backwards, bracing himself, and tugging at the poor worm, who, in a +moment more was dragged out and swallowed. + +"My lord," said Anthony, "I came to ask your pity for one who was +betrayed by like treachery." + +The Bishop looked astonished, and asked for the story; but when he heard +who it was that had been taken, and under what circumstances, the +kindliness died out of his eyes. He shook his head severely when Anthony +had done. + +"It is useless coming to me, sir," he said. "You know what I think. To be +ordained beyond the seas and to exercise priestly functions in England is +now a crime. It is useless to pretend anything else. It is revolt against +the Queen's Grace and the peace of the realm. And I must confess I am +astonished at you, Mr. Norris, thinking that anything ought to be done to +shield a criminal, and still more astonished that you should think I +would aid you in that. I tell you plainly that I am glad that the fellow +is caught, for that I think there will be presently one less fire-brand +in England. I know it is easy to cry out against persecution and +injustice; that is ever the shallow cry of the mob; but this is not a +religious persecution, as you yourself very well know. It is because the +Roman Church interferes with the peace of the realm and the Queen's +authority that its ordinances are forbidden; we do not seek to touch a +man's private opinions. However, you know all that as well as I." + +Anthony was raging now with anger. + +"I am not so sure, my lord, as I was," he said. "I had hoped from your +lordship at any rate to find sympathy for the base trick whereby my +friend was snared; and I find it now hard to trust the judgment of any +who do not feel as I do about it." + +"That is insolence, Mr. Norris," said Aylmer, stopping in his walk and +turning upon him his cold half-shut eyes, "and I will not suffer it." + +"Then, my lord, I had better begone to her Grace at once." + +"To her Grace!" exclaimed the Bishop. + +"_Appello Caesarem_," said Anthony, and was gone again. + + * * * * + +As Anthony came into the courtyard of Greenwich Palace an hour or two +later he found it humming with movement and noise. Cooks were going to +and fro with dishes, as dinner was only just ending; servants in the +royal livery were dashing across with messages; a few great hounds for +the afternoon's baiting were in a group near one of the gateways, +snuffing the smell of cookery, and howling hungrily now and again. + +Anthony stopped one of the men, and sent him with a message to Mistress +Corbet; and the servant presently returned, saying that the Court was +just rising from dinner, and Mistress Corbet would see him in a parlour +directly, if the gentleman would kindly follow him. A groom took his +horse off to the stable, and Anthony himself followed the servant to a +little oak-parlour looking on to a lawn with a yew hedge and a dial. He +felt as one moving in a dream, bewildered by the rush of interviews, and +oppressed by the awful burden that he bore at his heart. Nothing any +longer seemed strange; and he scarcely gave a thought to what it meant +when he heard the sound of trumpets in the court, as the Queen left the +Hall. In five minutes more Mistress Corbet burst into the room; and her +anxious look broke into tenderness at the sight of the misery in the +lad's face. + +"Oh, Master Anthony," she cried, seizing his hand, "thank God you are +here. And now what is to be done for him?" + +They sat down together in the window-seat. Mary was dressed in an +elaborate rose-coloured costume; but her pretty lips were pale, and her +eyes looked distressed and heavy. + +"I have hardly slept," she said, "since Saturday night. Tell me all that +you know." + +Anthony told her the whole story, mechanically and miserably. + +"Ah," she said, "that was how it was. I understand it now. And what can +we do? You know, of course, that he has been questioned in the Tower." + +Anthony turned suddenly white and sick. + +"Not the--not the----" he began, falteringly. + +She nodded at him mutely with large eyes and compressed lips. + +"Oh, my God," said Anthony; and then again, "O God." + +She took up one of his brown young hands and pressed it gently between +her white slender ones. + +"I know," she said, "I know; he is a gallant gentleman." + +Anthony stood up shaking; and sat down again. The horror had goaded him +into clearer consciousness. + +"Ah! what can we do?" he said brokenly. "Let me see the Queen. She will +be merciful." + +"You must trust to me in this," said Mary, "I know her; and I know that +to go to her now would be madness. She is in a fury with Pinart to-day at +something that has passed about the Duke. You know Monsieur is here; she +kissed him the other day, and the Lord only knows whether she will marry +him or not. You must wait a day or two; and be ready when I tell you." + +"But," stammered Anthony, "every hour we wait, he suffers." + +"Oh, you cannot tell that," said Mary, "they give them a long rest +sometimes; and it was only yesterday that he was questioned." + +Anthony sat silently staring out on the fresh lawn; there was still a +patch of frost under the shadow of the hedge he noticed. + +"Wait here a moment," said Mary, looking at him; and she got up and went +out. + +Anthony still sat staring and thinking of the horror. Presently Mary was +at his side again with a tall venetian wine-glass brimming with white +wine. + +"Here," she said, "drink this,"--and then--"have you dined to-day?" + +"There was not time," said Anthony. + +She frowned at him almost fiercely. + +"And you come here fasting," she said, "to face the Queen! You foolish +boy; you know nothing. Wait here," she added imperiously, and again she +left the room. + +Anthony still stared out of doors, twisting the empty glass in his hand; +until again came her step and the rustle of her dress. She took the glass +from him and put it down. A servant had followed her back into the room +in a minute or two with a dish of meat and some bread; he set it on the +table, and went out. + +"Now," said Mary, "sit down and eat before you speak another word." And +Anthony obeyed. The servant presently returned with some fruit, and again +left them. All the while Anthony was eating, Mary sat by him and told him +how she had heard the whole story from another Catholic at court; and how +the Queen had questioned her closely the night before, as to what the +marks of tears meant on her cheeks. + +"It was when I heard of the racking," explained Mary, "I could not help +it. I went up to my room and cried and cried. But I would not tell her +Grace that: it would have been of no use; so I said I had a headache; +but I said it in such a way as to prepare her for more. She has not +questioned me again to-day; she is too full of anger and of the +bear-baiting; but she will--she will. She never forgets; and then Mr. +Anthony, it must be you to tell her. You are a pleasant-faced young man, +sir, and she likes such as that. And you must be both forward and modest +with her. She loves boldness, but hates rudeness. That is why Chris is so +beloved by her. He is a fool, but he is a handsome fool, and a forward +fool, and withal a tender fool; and sighs and cries, and calls her his +Goddess; and says how he takes to his bed when she is not there, which of +course is true. The other day he came to her, white-faced, sobbing like +a frightened child, about the ring she had given Monsieur _le petit +grenouille_. And oh, she was so tender with him. And so, Mr. Anthony, you +must not be just forward with her, and frown at her and call her Jezebel +and tyrant, as you would like to do; but you must call her Cleopatra, and +Diana as well. Forward and backward all in one; that is the way she loves +to be wooed. She is a woman, remember that." + +"I must just let my heart speak," said Anthony, "I cannot twist and +turn." + +"Yes, yes," said Mary, "that is what I mean; but mind that it is your +heart." + +They went on talking a little longer; when suddenly the trumpets pealed +out again. Mary rose with a look of consternation. + +"I must fly," she said, "her Grace will be starting for the pit directly; +and I must be there. Do you follow, Mr. Anthony; I will speak to a +servant in the court about you." And in a moment she was gone. + +When Anthony had finished the fruit and wine, he felt considerably +refreshed; and after waiting a few minutes, went out into the court +again, which he found almost deserted, except for a servant or two. One +of these came up to him, and said respectfully that Mistress Corbet had +left instructions that Mr. Norris was to be taken to the bear-pit; so +Anthony followed him through the palace to the back. + + * * * * + +It was a startlingly beautiful sight that his eyes fell upon when he came +up the wooden stairs on to the stage that ran round the arena where the +sport was just beginning. It was an amphitheatre, perhaps forty yards +across; and the seats round it were filled with the most brilliant +costumes, many of which blazed with jewels. Hanging over the top of the +palisade were rich stuffs and tapestries. The Queen herself no doubt with +Alencon was seated somewhere to the right, as Anthony could see by the +canopy, with the arms of England and France embroidered upon its front; +but he was too near to her to be able to catch even a glimpse of her face +or figure. The awning overhead was furled, as the day was so fine, and +the winter sunshine poured down on the dresses and jewels. All the Court +was there; and Anthony recognised many great nobles here and there in the +specially reserved seats. A ceaseless clangour of trumpets and cymbals +filled the air, and drowned not only the conversation but the terrific +noise from the arena where half a dozen great dogs, furious with hunger +and excited as much by the crowds and the brazen music overhead as by the +presence of their fierce adversary, were baiting a huge bear chained to a +ring in the centre of the sand. + +Anthony's heart sank a little as he noticed the ladies of the Court +applauding and laughing at the abominable scene below, no doubt in +imitation of their mistress who loved this fierce sport; and as he +thought of the kind of heart to which he would have to appeal presently. + +So through the winter afternoon the bouts went on; the band answered with +harsh chords the death of the dogs one by one, and welcomed the collapse +of the bear with a strident bellowing passage on the great horns and +drums; and by the time it was over and the spectators rose to their feet, +Anthony's hopes were lower than ever. Can there be any compassion left, +he wondered, in a woman to whom such an afternoon was nothing more than a +charming entertainment? + +By the time he was able to get out of his seat and return to the +courtyard, the procession had again disappeared, but he was escorted by +the same servant to the parlour again, where Mistress Corbet presently +rustled in. + +"You must stay to-night," she said, "as late as possible. I wish you +could sleep here; but we are so crowded with these Frenchmen and +Hollanders that there is not a bed empty. The Queen is in better humour, +and if the play goes well, it may be that a word said even to-night might +reach her heart. I will tell you when it is over. You must be present. I +will send you supper here directly." + +Anthony inquired as to his dress. + +"Nay, nay," said Mistress Corbet, "that will do very well; it is sober +and quiet, and a little splashed: it will appear that you came in such +haste that you could not change it. Her Grace likes to see a man hot and +in a hurry sometimes; and not always like a peacock in the shade.--And, +Master Anthony, it suits you very well." + +He asked what time the play would be over, and that his horse might be +saddled ready for him when he should want it; and Mary promised to see to +it. + +He felt much more himself as he supped alone in the parlour. The +bewilderment had passed; the courage and spirit of Mary had infected his +own, and the stirring strange life of the palace had distracted him from +that dreadful brooding into which he had at first sunk. + +When he had finished supper he sat in the window seat, pondering and +praying too that the fierce heart of the Queen might be melted, and that +God would give him words to say. + +There was much else too that he thought over, as he sat and watched the +illuminated windows round the little lawn on which his own looked, and +heard the distant clash of music from the Hall where the Queen was +supping in state. He thought of Mary and of her gay and tender nature; +and of his own boyish love for her. That indeed had gone, or rather had +been transfigured into a brotherly honour and respect. Both she and he, +he was beginning to feel, had a more majestic task before them than +marrying and giving in marriage. The religion which made this woman what +she was, pure and upright in a luxurious and treacherous Court, tender +among hard hearts, sympathetic in the midst of selfish lives--this +Religion was beginning to draw this young man with almost irresistible +power. Mary herself was doing her part bravely, witnessing in a +Protestant Court to the power of the Catholic Faith in her own life; and +he, what was he doing? These last three days were working miracles in +him. The way he had been received by Walsingham and Aylmer, their +apparent inability to see his point of view on this foul bit of +treachery, the whole method of the Government of the day;--and above all +the picture that was floating now before his eyes over the dark lawn, of +the little cell in the Tower and the silent wrenched figure lying upon +the straw--the "gallant gentleman" as Mary had called him, who had +reckoned all this price up before he embarked on the life of a priest, +and was even now paying it gladly and thankfully, no doubt--all this +deepened the previous impressions that Anthony's mind had received; and +as he sat here amid the stir of the royal palace, again and again a +vision moved before him, of himself as a Catholic, and perhaps---- But +Isabel! What of Isabel? And at the thought of her he rose and walked to +and fro. + + * * * * + +Presently the servant came again to take Anthony to the Presence Chamber, +where the play was to take place. + +"I understand, sir, from Mistress Corbet," said the man, closing the door +of the parlour a moment, "that you are come about Mr. Maxwell. I am a +Catholic, too, sir, and may I say, sir, God bless and prosper you in +this.--I--I beg your pardon, sir, will you follow me?" + +The room was full at the lower end where Anthony had to stand, as he was +not in Court dress; and he could see really nothing of the play, and hear +very little either. The children of Paul's were acting some classical +play which he did not know: all he could do was to catch a glimpse now +and again of the protruding stage, with the curtains at the back, and the +glitter of the armour that the boys wore; and hear the songs that were +accompanied by a little string band, and the clash of the brass at the +more martial moments. The Queen and the Duke, he could see, sat together +immediately opposite the stage, on raised seats under a canopy; a group +of halberdiers guarded them, and another small company of them was ranged +at the sides of the stage. Anthony could see little more than this, and +could hear only isolated sentences here and there, so broken was the +piece by the talking and laughing around him. But he did not like to move +as Mistress Corbet had told him to be present, so he stood there +listening to the undertone talk about him, and watching the faces. What +he did see of the play did not rouse him to any great enthusiasm. His +heart was too heavy with his errand, and it seemed to him that the +occasional glimpses he caught of the stage showed him a very tiresome +hero, dressed in velvet doubled and hose and steel cap, strangely +unconvincing, who spoke his lines pompously, and was as unsatisfactory as +the slender shrill-voiced boy who, representing a woman of marvellous +beauty and allurement, was supposed to fire the conqueror's blood with +passion. + +At last it ended; and an "orator" in apparel of cloth of gold, spoke a +kind of special epilogue in rhyming metre in praise of the Virgin Queen, +and then retired bowing. + +Immediately there was a general movement; the brass instruments began to +blare out, and an usher at the door desired those who were blocking the +way to step aside to make way for the Queen's procession, which would +shortly pass out. Anthony himself went outside with one or two more, and +then stood aside waiting. + +There was a pause and then a hush; and the sound of a high rating woman's +voice, followed by a murmur of laughter. + +In a moment more the door was flung open again, and to Anthony's surprise +Mistress Corbet came rustling out, as the people stepped back to make +room. Her eyes fell on Anthony near the door, and she beckoned him to +follow, and he went down the corridor after her, followed her silently +along a passage or two, wondering why she did not speak, and then came +after her into the same little oak parlour where he had supped. A servant +followed them immediately with lighted candles which he set down and +retired. + +Anthony looked at Mistress Corbet, and saw all across her pale cheek the +fiery mark of the five fingers of a hand, and saw too that her eyes were +full of tears, and that her breath came unevenly. + +"It is no use to-night," she said, with a sob in her voice; "her Grace is +angry with me." + +"And, and----" began Anthony in amazement. + +"And she struck me," said Mary, struggling bravely to smile. "It was all +my fault,"--and a bright tear or two ran down on to her delicate lace. "I +was sitting near her Grace, and I could not keep my mind off poor James +Maxwell; and I suppose I looked grave, because when the play was over, +she beckoned me up, and--and asked how I liked it, and why I looked so +solemn--for she would know--was it for _Scipio Africanus_, or some other +man? And--and I was silent; and Alencon, that little frog-man burst out +laughing and said to her Grace something--something shameful--in +French--but I understood, and gave him a look; and her Grace saw it, and, +and struck me here, before all the Court, and bade me begone." + +"Oh! it is shameful," said Anthony, furiously, his own eyes bright too, +at the sight of this gallant girl and her humiliation. + +"You cannot stay here, Mistress Corbet. This is the second time at least, +is it not?" + +"Ah! but I must stay," she said, "or who will speak for the Catholics? +But now it is useless to think of seeing her Grace to-night. Yet +to-morrow, maybe, she will be sorry,--she often is--and will want to make +amends; and then will be our time, so you must be here to-morrow by +dinner-time at least." + +"Oh, Mistress Corbet," said the boy, "I wish I could do something." + +"You dear lad!" said Mary, and then indeed the tears ran down. + + * * * * + +Anthony rode back to Lambeth under the stars, anxious and dispirited, and +all night long dreamed of pageants and progresses that blocked the street +down which he must ride to rescue James. The brazen trumpets rang out +whenever he called for help or tried to explain his errand; and Elizabeth +rode by, bowing and smiling to all save him. + + * * * * + +The next day he was at Greenwich again by dinner-time, and again dined by +himself in the oak parlour, waited upon by the Catholic servant. He was +just finishing his meal when in sailed Mary, beaming. + +"I told you so," she said delightedly, "the Queen is sorry. She pinched +my ear just now, and smiled at me, and bade me come to her in her private +parlour in half an hour; and I shall put my petition then; so be ready, +Master Anthony, be ready and of a good courage; for, please God, we shall +save him yet." + +Anthony looked at her, white and scared. + +"What shall I say?" he said. + +"Speak from your heart, sir, as you did to me yesterday. Be bold, yet not +overbold. Tell her plainly that he is your friend; and that it was +through your action he was betrayed. Say that you love the man. She likes +loyalty.--Say he is a fine upstanding fellow, over six feet in height, +with a good leg. She likes a good leg.--Say that he has not a wife, and +will never have one. Wives and husbands like her not--in spite of _le +petit grenouille_.--And look straight in her face, Master Anthony, as you +looked in mine yesterday when I was a cry-baby. She likes men to do +that.--And then look away as if dazzled by her radiancy. She likes that +even more." + +Anthony looked so bewildered by these instructions that Mary laughed in +his face. + +"Here then, poor lad," she said, "I will tell you in a word. Tell the +truth and be a man;--a man! She likes that best of all; though she likes +sheep too, such as Chris Hatton, and frogs like the Duke, and apes like +the little Spaniard, and chattering dancing monkeys like the +Frenchman--and--and devils, like Walshingham. But do you be a man and +risk it. I know you can manage that." And Mary smiled at him so +cheerfully, that Anthony felt heartened. + +"There," she said, "now you look like one. But you must have some more +wine first, I will send it in as I go. And now I must go. Wait here for +the message." She gave him her hand, and he kissed it, and she went out, +nodding and smiling over her shoulder. + +Anthony sat miserably on the window-seat. + +Ah! so much depended on him now. The Queen was in a good humour, and such +a chance might never occur again;--and meantime James Maxwell waited in +the Tower. + +The minutes passed; steps came and went in the passage outside; and +Anthony's heart leaped into his mouth at each sound. Once the door +opened, and Anthony sprang to his feet trembling. But it was only the +servant with the wine. Anthony took it--a fiery Italian wine, and drew a +long draught that sent his blood coursing through his veins, and set his +heart a-beating strongly again. And even as he set the cup down, the door +was open again, and a bowing page was there. + +"May it please you, sir, the Queen's Grace has sent me for you." + +Anthony got up, swallowed in his throat once or twice, and motioned to +go; the boy went out and Anthony followed. + +They went down a corridor or two, passing a sentry who let the well-known +page and the gentleman pass without challenging; ascended a twisted oak +staircase, went along a gallery, with stained glass of heraldic emblems +in the windows, and paused before a door. The page, before knocking, +turned and looked meaningly at Anthony, who stood with every pulse in his +body racing; then the boy knocked, opened the door; Anthony entered, and +the door closed behind him. + + + + + CHAPTER X + + THE APPEAL TO CAESAR + + +The room was full of sunshine that poured in through two tall windows +opposite, upon a motionless figure that sat in a high carved chair by the +table, and watched the door. This figure dominated the whole room: the +lad as he dropped on his knees, was conscious of eyes watching him from +behind the chair, of tapestried walls, and a lute that lay on the table, +but all those things were but trifling accessories to that scarlet +central figure with a burnished halo of auburn hair round a shadowed +face. + + * * * * + +There was complete silence for a moment or two; a hound bayed in the +court outside, and there came a far-away bang of a door somewhere in the +palace. There was a rustle of silk that set every nerve of his body +thrilling, and then a clear hard penetrating voice spoke two words. + +"Well, sir?" + +Anthony drew a breath, and swallowed in his throat. + +"Your Grace," he said, and lifted his eyes for a moment, and dropped them +again. But in the glimpse every detail stamped itself clear on his +imagination. There she sat in vivid scarlet and cloth of gold, radiating +light; with high puffed sleeves; an immense ruff fringed with lace. The +narrow eyes were fixed on him, and as he now waited again, he knew that +they were running up and down his figure, his dark splashed hose and his +tumbled doublet and ruff. + +"You come strangely dressed." + +Anthony drew a quick breath again. + +"My heart is sick," he said. + +There was another slight movement. + +"Well, sir," the voice said again, "you have not told us why you are +here." + +"For justice from my queen," he said, and stopped. "And for mercy from a +woman," he added, scarcely knowing what he said. + +Again Elizabeth stirred in her chair. + +"You taught him that, you wicked girl," she said. + +"No, madam," came Mary's voice from behind, subdued and entreating, "it +is his heart that speaks." + +"Enough, sir," said Elizabeth; "now tell us plainly what you want of us." + +Then Anthony thought it time to be bold. He made a great effort, and the +sense of constraint relaxed a little. + +"I have been, your Grace, to Sir Francis Walsingham, and my lord Bishop +of London, and I can get neither justice nor mercy from either; and so I +come to your Grace, who are their mistress, to teach them manners." + +"Stay," said Elizabeth, "that is insolence to my ministers." + +"So my lord said," answered Anthony frankly, looking into that hard clear +face that was beginning to be lined with age. And he saw that Elizabeth +smiled, and that the face behind the chair nodded at him encouragingly. + +"Well, insolence, go on." + +"It is on behalf of one who has been pronounced a felon and a traitor by +your Grace's laws, that I am pleading; but one who is a very gallant +Christian gentleman as well." + +"Your friend lacks not courage," interrupted Elizabeth to Mary. + +"No, your Grace," said the other, "that has never been considered his +failing." + +Anthony waited, and then the voice spoke again harshly. + +"Go on with the tale, sir. I cannot be here all day." + +"He is a popish priest, your Majesty; and he was taken at mass in his +vestments, and is now in the Tower; and he hath been questioned on the +rack. And, madam, it is piteous to think of it. He is but a young man +still, but passing strong and tall." + +"What has this to do with me, sir?" interrupted the Queen harshly. "I +cannot pardon every proper young priest in the kingdom. What else is +there to be said for him?" + +"He was taken through the foul treachery of a spy, who imposed upon me, +his friend, and caused me all unknowing to say the very words that +brought him into the net." + +And then, more and more, Anthony began to lose his self-consciousness, +and poured out the story from the beginning; telling how he had been +brought up in the same village with James Maxwell; and what a loyal +gentleman he was; and then the story of the trick by which he had been +deceived. As he spoke his whole appearance seemed to change; instead of +the shy and rather clumsy manner with which he had begun, he was now +natural and free; he moved his hands in slight gestures; his blue eyes +looked the Queen fairly in the face; he moved a little forward on his +knees as he pleaded, and he spoke with a passion that astonished both +Mary and himself afterwards when he thought of it, in spite of his short +and broken sentences. He was conscious all the while of an intense +external strain and pressure, as if he were pleading for his life, and +the time was short. Elizabeth relaxed her rigid attitude, and leaned her +chin on her hand and her elbow on the table and watched him, her thin +lips parted, the pearl rope and crown on her head, and the pearl pendants +in her ears moving slightly as she nodded at points in his story. + +"Ah! your Grace," he cried, lifting his open hands towards her a little, +"you have a woman's heart; all your people say so. You cannot allow this +man to be so trapped to his death! Treachery never helped a cause yet. If +your men cannot catch these priests fairly, then a-God's name, let them +not catch them at all! But to use a friend, and make a Judas of him; to +make the very lips that have spoken friendly, speak traitorously; to bait +the trap like that--it is devilish. Let him go, let him go, madam! One +priest more or less cannot overthrow the realm; but one more foul crime +done in the name of justice can bring God's wrath down on the nation. I +hold that a trick like that is far worse than all the disobedience in the +world; nay--how can we cry out against the Jesuits and the plotters, if +we do worse ourselves? Madam, madam, let him go! Oh! I know I cannot +speak as well in this good cause, as some can in a bad cause, but let the +cause speak for itself. I cannot speak, I know." + +"Nay, nay," said Elizabeth softly, "you wrong yourself. You have an +honest face, sir; and that is the best recommendation to me. + +"And so, Minnie," she went on, turning to Mary, "this was your petition, +was it; and this your advocate? Well, you have not chosen badly. Now, you +speak yourself." + +Mary stood a moment silent, and then with a swift movement came round the +arm of the Queen's chair, and threw herself on her knees, with her hands +upon the Queen's left hand as it lay upon the carved boss, and her voice +was as Anthony had never yet heard it, vibrant and full of tears. + +"Oh! madam, madam; this poor lad cannot speak, as he says; and yet his +sad honest face, as your Grace said, is more eloquent than all words. And +think of the silence of the little cell upstairs in the Tower; where a +gallant gentleman lies, all rent and torn with the rack; and,--and how he +listens for the footsteps outside of the tormentors who come to drag him +down again, all aching and heavy with pain, down to that fierce engine in +the dark. And think of his gallant heart, your Grace, how brave it is; +and how he will not yield nor let one name escape him. Ah! not because he +loves not your Grace nor desires to serve you; but because he serves your +Grace best by serving and loving his God first of all.--And think how he +cannot help a sob now and again; and whispers the name of his Saviour, as +the pulleys begin to wrench and twist.--And,--and,--do not forget his +mother, your Grace, down in the country; how she sits and listens and +prays for her dear son; and cannot sleep, and dreams of him when at last +she sleeps, and wakes screaming and crying at the thought of the boy she +bore and nursed in the hands of those harsh devils. And--and, you can +stop it all, your Grace, with one little word; and make that mother's +heart bless your name and pray for you night and morning till she +dies;--and let that gallant son go free, and save his racked body before +it be torn asunder;--and you can make this honest lad's heart happy again +with the thought that he has saved his friend instead of slaying him. +Look you, madam, he has come confessing his fault; saying bravely to your +Grace that he did try to do his friend a service in spite of the laws, +for that he held love to be the highest law. Ah! how many happy souls you +can make with a word; because you are a Queen.--What is it to be a +Queen!--to be able to do all that!--Oh! madam, be pitiful then, and show +mercy as one day you hope to find it." + +Mary spoke with an intense feeling; her voice was one long straining sob +of appeal; and as she ended her tears were beginning to rain down on the +hand she held between her own; she lifted it to her streaming face and +kissed it again and again; and then dropped her forehead upon it, and so +rested in dead silence. + +Elizabeth swallowed in her throat once or twice; and then spoke, and her +voice was a little choked. + +"Well, well, you silly girl.--You plead too well." + +Anthony irresistibly threw his hands out as he knelt. + +"Oh! God bless your Grace!" he said; and then gave a sob or two himself. + +"There, there, you are a pair of children," she said; for Mary was +kissing her hand again and again. "And you are a pretty pair, too," she +added. "Now, now, that is enough, stand up." + +Anthony rose to his feet again and stood there; and Mary went round again +behind the chair. + +"Now, now, you have put me in a sore strait," said Elizabeth; "between +you I scarcely know how to keep my word. They call me fickle enough +already. But Frank Walsingham shall do it for me. He is certainly at the +back of it all, and he shall manage it. It shall be done at once. Call a +page, Minnie." + +Mary Corbet went to the back of the room into the shadow, opened a door +that Anthony had not noticed, and beckoned sharply; in a moment or two a +page was bowing before Elizabeth. + +"Is Sir Francis Walsingham in the palace?" she asked,--"then bring him +here," she ended, as the boy bowed again. + +"And you too," she went on, "shall hear that I keep my word,"--she +pointed towards the door whence the page had come.--"Stand there," she +said, "and leave the door ajar." + +Mary gave Anthony her hand and a radiant smile as they went together. + +"Aha!" said Elizabeth, "not in my presence." + +Anthony flushed with fury in spite of his joy. + + * * * * + +They went in through the door, and found themselves in a tiny panelled +room with a little slit of a window; it was used to place a sentry or a +page within it. There were a couple of chairs, and the two sat down to +wait. + +"Oh, thank God!" whispered Anthony. + +Again the harsh voice rang out from the open door. + +"Now, now, no love-making within there!" + +Mary smiled and laid her finger on her lips. Then there came the ripple +of a lute from the outer room, played not unskilfully. Mary smiled again +and nodded at Anthony. Then, a metallic voice, but clear enough and +tuneful, began to sing a verse of the little love-song of Harrington's, +_Whence comes my love?_ + +It suddenly ceased in the middle of the line, and the voice cried to some +one to come in. + +Anthony could hear the door open and close again, and a movement or two, +which doubtless represented Walsingham's obeisance. Then the Queen's +voice began again, low, thin, and distinct. The two in the inner room +listened breathlessly. + +"I wish a prisoner in the Tower to be released, Sir Francis; without any +talk or to-do. And I desire you to do it for me." + +There was silence, and then Walsingham's deep tones. + +"Your Grace has but to command." + +"His name is James Maxwell, and he is a popish priest." + +A longer silence followed. + +"I do not know if your Grace knows all the circumstances." + +"I do, sir, or I should not interfere." + +"The feeling of the people was very strong." + +"Well, and what of that?" + +"It will be a risk of your Grace's favour with them." + +"Have I not said that my name was not to appear in the matter? And do you +think I fear my people's wrath?" + +There was silence again. + +"Well, Sir Francis, why do you not speak?" + +"I have nothing to say, your Grace." + +"Then it will be done?" + +"I do not see at present how it can be done, but doubtless there is a +way." + +"Then you will find it, sir, immediately," rang out the Queen's metallic +tones. + +(Mary turned and nodded solemnly at Anthony, with pursed lips.) + +"He was questioned on the rack two days ago, your Grace." + +"Have I not said I know all the circumstances? Do you wish me to say it +again?" + +The Queen was plainly getting angry. + +"I ask your pardon, madam; but I only meant that he could not travel +probably, yet awhile. He was on the rack for four hours, I understand." + +(Anthony felt that strange sickness rise again; but Mary laid her cool +hand on his and smiled at him.) + +"Well, well," rasped out Elizabeth, "I do not ask impossibilities." + +"They would cease to be so, madam, if you did." + +(Mary within the little room put her lips to Anthony's ear: + +"Butter!" she whispered.) + +"Well, sir," went on the Queen, "you shall see that he has a physician, +and leave to travel as soon as he will." + +"It shall be done, your Grace." + +"Very well, see to it." + +"I beg your Grace's pardon; but what----" + +"Well, what is it now?" + +"I would wish to know your Grace's pleasure as to the future for Mr. +Maxwell. Is no pledge of good behaviour to be exacted from him?" + +"Of course he says mass again at his peril. Either he must take the oath +at once, or he shall be allowed forty-eight hours' safe-conduct with his +papers for the Continent." + +"Your Grace, indeed I must remonstrate----" + +Then the Queen's wrath burst out; they heard a swift movement, and the +rap of her high heels as she sprang to her feet. + +"By God's Son," she screamed, "am I Queen or not? I have had enough of +your counsel. You presume, sir--" her ringed hand came heavily down on +the table and they heard the lute leap and fall again.--"You presume on +your position, sir. I made you, and I can unmake you, and by God I will, +if I have another word of your counselling. Be gone, and see that it be +done; I will not bid twice." + +There was silence again; and they heard the outer door open and close. + +Anthony's heart was beating wildly. He had sprung to his feet in a +trembling excitement as the Queen had sprung to hers. The mere ring of +that furious royal voice, even without the sight of her pale wrathful +face and blazing eyes that Walsingham looked upon as he backed out from +the presence, was enough to make this lad's whole frame shiver. Mary +apparently was accustomed to this; for she looked up at Anthony, laughing +silently, and shrugged her shoulders. + +Then they heard the Queen's silk draperies rustle and her pearls chink +together as she sank down again and took up her lute and struck the +strings. Then the metallic voice began again, with a little tremor in it, +like the ground-swell after a storm; and she sang the verse through in +which she had been interrupted: + + "Why thus, my love, so kind bespeak + Sweet eye, sweet lip, sweet blushing cheek-- + Yet not a heart to save my pain; + O Venus, take thy gifts again! + Make not so fair to cause our moan, + Or make a heart that's like your own." + +The lute rippled away into silence. + + * * * * + +Mary rose quietly to her feet and nodded to Anthony. + +"Come back, you two!" cried the Queen. + +Mary stepped straight through, the lad behind her. + +"Well," said the Queen, turning to them and showing her black teeth in a +smile. "Have I kept my word?" + +"Ah! your Grace," said Mary, curtseying to the ground, "you have made +some simple loving hearts very happy to-day--I do not mean Sir Francis'." + +The Queen laughed. + +"Come here, child," she said, holding out her glittering hand, "down +here," and Mary sank down on the Queen's footstool, and leaned against +her knee like a child, smiling up into her face; while Elizabeth put her +hand under her chin and kissed her twice on the forehead. + +"There, there," she said caressingly, "have I made amends? Am I a hard +mistress?" + +And she threw her left hand round the girl's neck and began to play with +the diamond pendant in her ear, and to stroke the smooth curve of her +cheek with her flashing fingers. + +Anthony, a little on one side, stood watching and wondering at this silky +tigress who raged so fiercely just now. + +Elizabeth looked up in a moment and saw him. + +"Why, here is the tall lad here still," she said, "eyeing us as if we +were monsters. Have you never yet seen two maidens loving one another, +that you stare so with your great eyes? Aha! Minnie; he would like to be +sitting where I am--is it not so, sir?" + +"I would sooner stand where I am, madam," said Anthony, by a sudden +inspiration, "and look upon your Grace." + +"Why, he is a courtier already," said the Queen. "You have been giving +him lessons, Minnie, you sly girl." + +"A loyal heart makes the best courtier, madam," said Mary, taking the +Queen's hand delicately in her own. + +"And next to looking upon my Grace, Mr. Norris," said Elizabeth, "what do +you best love?" + +"Listening to your Grace," said Anthony, promptly. + +Mary turned and flashed all her teeth upon him in a smile, and her eyes +danced in her head. + +Elizabeth laughed outright. + +"He is an apt pupil," she said to Mary. + +"--You mean the lute, sir?" she added. + +"I mean your Grace's voice, madam. I had forgotten the lute." + +"Ah, a little clumsy!" said the Queen; "not so true a thrust as the +others." + +"It was not for lack of good-will," said poor Anthony blushing a little. +He felt in a kind of dream, fencing in language with this strange mighty +creature in scarlet and pearls, who sat up in her chair and darted +remarks at him, as with a rapier. + +"Aha!" said the Queen, "he is blushing! Look, Minnie!" Mary looked at him +deliberately. Anthony became scarlet at once; and tried a desperate +escape. + +"It is your livery, madam," he said. + +Mary clapped her hands, and glanced at the Queen. + +"Yes, Minnie; he does his mistress credit." + +"Yes, your Grace; but he can do other things besides talk," explained +Mary. + +Anthony felt like a horse being shown off by a skilful dealer, but he was +more at his ease too after his blush. + +"Extend your mercy, madam," he said, "and bid Mistress Corbet hold her +tongue and spare my shame." + +"Silence, sir!" said the Queen. "Go on, Minnie; what else can he do?" + +"Ah! your Grace, he can hawk. Oh! you should see his peregrine;--named +after your Majesty. That shows his loyal heart." + +"I am not sure of the compliment," said the Queen; "hawks are fierce +creatures." + +"It was not for her fierceness," put in Anthony, "that I named her after +your Grace." + +"Why, then, Mr. Norris?" + +"For that she soars so high above all other creatures," said the lad, +"and--and that she never stoops but to conquer." + +Mary gave a sudden triumphant laugh, and glanced up, and Elizabeth tapped +her on the cheek sharply. + +"Be still, bad girl," she said. "You must not prompt during the lesson." + +And so the talk went on. Anthony really acquitted himself with great +credit, considering the extreme strangeness of his position; but such an +intense weight had been lifted off his mind by the Queen's pardon of +James Maxwell, that his nature was alight with a kind of intoxication. + +All his sharpness, such as it was, rose to the surface; and Mary too was +amazed at some of his replies. Elizabeth took it as a matter of course; +she was accustomed to this kind of word-fencing; she did not do it very +well herself: her royalty gave her many advantages which she often +availed herself of; and her address was not to be compared for a moment +with that of some of her courtiers and ladies. But still she was amused +by this slender honest lad who stood there before her in his graceful +splashed dress, and blushed and laughed and parried, and delivered his +point with force, even if not with any extraordinary skill. + +But at last she began to show signs of weariness; and Mary managed to +convey to Anthony that it was time to be off. So he began to make his +adieux. + +"Well," said Elizabeth, "let us see you at supper to-night; and in the +parlours afterwards.--Ah!" she cried, suddenly, "neither of you must say +a word as to how your friend was released. It must remain the act of the +Council. My name must not appear; Walsingham will see to that, and you +must see to it too." + +They both promised sincerely. + +"Well, then, lad," said Elizabeth, and stretched out her hand; and Mary +rose and stood by her. Anthony came up and knelt on the cushion and +received the slender scented ringed hand on his own, and kissed it +ardently in his gratitude. As he released it, it cuffed him gently on the +cheek. + +"There, there!" said Elizabeth, "Minnie has taught you too much, it +seems." + +Anthony backed out of the presence, smiling; and his last glimpse was +once more of the great scarlet-clad figure with the slender waist, and +the priceless pearls, and the haze of muslin behind that crowned auburn +head, and the pale oval face smiling at him with narrow eyes--and all in +a glory of sunshine. + + * * * * + +He did not see Mary Corbet again until evening as she was with the Queen +all the afternoon. Anthony would have wished to return to Lambeth; but it +was impossible, after the command to remain to supper; so he wandered +down along the river bank, rejoicing in the success of his petition; and +wondering whether James had heard of his release yet. + +Of course it was just a fly in the ointment that his own agency in the +matter could never be known. It would have been at least some sort of +compensation for his innocent share in the whole matter of the arrest. +However, he was too happy to feel the sting of it. He felt, of course, +greatly drawn to the Queen for her ready clemency; and yet there was +something repellent about her too in spite of it. He felt in his heart +that it was just a caprice, like her blows and caresses; and then the +assumption of youth sat very ill upon this lean middle-aged woman. He +would have preferred less lute-playing and sprightly innuendo, and more +tenderness and gravity. + + * * * * + +Mary had arranged that a proper Court-suit should be at his disposal for +supper, and a room to himself; so after he had returned at sunset, he +changed his clothes. The white silk suit with the high hosen, the +embroidered doublet with great puffed and slashed sleeves, the short +green-lined cloak, the white cap and feather, and the slender sword with +the jewelled hilt, all became him very well; and he found too that Mary +had provided him with two great emerald brooches of her own, that he +pinned on, one at the fastening of the crisp ruff and the other on his +cap. + +He went to the private chapel for the evening prayer at half-past six; +which was read by one of the chaplains; but there were very few persons +present, and none of any distinction. Religion, except as a department of +politics, was no integral part of Court life. The Queen only occasionally +attended evening-prayer on week days; and just now she was too busy with +the affair of the Duke of Alencon to spend unnecessary time in that +manner. + +When the evening prayer was over he followed the little company into the +long gallery that led towards the hall, through which the Queen's +procession would pass to supper; and there he attached himself to a group +of gentlemen, some of whom he had met at Lambeth. While they were +talking, the clang of trumpets suddenly broke out from the direction of +the Queen's apartments; and all threw themselves on their knees and +remained there. The doors were flung open by servants stationed behind +them; and the wands advanced leading the procession; then came the +trumpeters blowing mightily, with a drum or two beating the step; and +then in endless profusion, servants and guards; gentlemen pensioners +magnificently habited, for they were continually about the Queen's +person; and at last, after an official or two bearing swords, came the +Queen and Alencon together; she in a superb purple toilet with brocaded +underskirt and high-heeled twinkling shoes, and breathing out essences as +she swept by smiling; and he, a pathetic little brown man, pockmarked, +with an ill-shapen nose and a head too large for his undersized body, in +a rich velvet suit sparkling all over with diamonds. + +As they passed Anthony he heard the Duke making some French compliment in +his croaking harsh voice. Behind came the crowd of ladies, nodding, +chattering, rustling; and Anthony had a swift glance of pleasure from +Mistress Corbet as she went by, talking at the top of her voice. + +The company followed on to the hall, behind the distant trumpets, and +Anthony found himself still with his friends somewhere at the lower +end--away from the Queen's table, who sat with Alencon at her side on a +dais, with the great folks about her. All through supper the most +astonishing noise went on. Everyone was talking loudly; the servants ran +to and fro over the paved floor; there was the loud clatter over the +plates of four hundred persons; and, to crown all, a band in the +musicians' gallery overhead made brazen music all supper-time. Anthony +had enough entertainment himself in looking about the great +banqueting-hall, so magnificently adorned with tapestries and armour and +antlers from the park; and above all by the blaze of gold and silver +plate both on the tables and on the sideboards; and by watching the army +of liveried servants running to and fro incessantly; and the glowing +colours of the dresses of the guests. + +Supper was over at last; and a Latin grace was exquisitely sung in four +parts by boys and men stationed in the musicians' gallery; and then the +Queen's procession went out with the same ceremony as that with which it +had entered. Anthony followed behind, as he had been bidden by the Queen +to the private parlours afterwards; but he presently found his way barred +by a page at the foot of the stairs leading to the Queen's apartments. + +It was in vain that he pleaded his invitation; it was useless, as the +young gentleman had not been informed of it. Anthony asked if he might +see Mistress Corbet. No, that too was impossible; she was gone upstairs +with the Queen's Grace and might not be disturbed. Anthony, in despair, +not however unmixed with relief at escaping a further ordeal, was about +to turn away, leaving the officious young gentleman swaggering on the +stairs like a peacock, when down came Mistress Corbet herself, sailing +down in her splendour, to see what was become of the gentleman of the +Archbishop's house. + +"Why, here you are!" she cried from the landing as she came down, "and +why have you not obeyed the Queen's command?" + +"This young gentleman," said Anthony, indicating the astonished page, +"would not let me proceed." + +"It is unusual, Mistress Corbet," said the boy, "for her Grace's guests +to come without my having received instructions, unless they are great +folk." + +Mistress Corbet came down the last six steps like a stooping hawk, her +wings bulged behind her; and she caught the boy one clean light cuff on +the side of the head. + +"You imp!" she said, "daring to doubt the word of this gentleman. And the +Queen's Grace's own special guest!" + +The boy tried still to stand on his dignity and bar the way, but it was +difficult to be dignified with a ringing head and a scarlet ear. + +"Stand aside," said Mary, stamping her little buckled foot, "this +instant; unless you would be dragged by your red ear before the Queen's +Grace. Come, Master Anthony." + +So the two went upstairs together, and the lad called up after them +bitterly: + +"I beg your pardon, Mistress; I did not recognise he was your gallant." + +"You shall pay for that," hissed Mary over the banisters. + +They went along a passage or two, and the sound of a voice singing to a +virginal began to ring nearer as they went, followed by a burst of +applause. + +"Lady Leicester," whispered Mary; and then she opened the door and they +went in. + +There were three rooms opening on one another with wide entrances, so +that really one long room was the result. They were all three fairly +full; that into which they entered, the first in the row, was occupied by +some gentlemen-pensioners and ladies talking and laughing; some playing +shove-groat, and some of them still applauding the song that had just +ended. The middle room was much the same; and the third, which was a step +higher than the others, was that in which was the Queen, with Lady +Leicester and a few more. Lady Leicester had just finished a song, and +was laying her virginal down. There was a great fire burning in the +middle room, with seats about it, and here Mary Corbet brought Anthony. +Those near him eyed him a little; but his companion was sufficient +warrant of his respectability; and they soon got into talk, which was +suddenly interrupted by the Queen's voice from the next room. + +"Minnie, Minnie, if you can spare a moment from your lad, come and help +us at a dance." + +The Queen was plainly in high good-humour; and Mary got up and went into +the Queen's room. Those round the fire stood up and pushed the seats +back, and the games ceased in the third room; as her Grace needed +spectators and applause. + +Then there arose the rippling of lutes from the ladies in the next room, +in slow swaying measure, with the gentle tap of a drum now and again; and +the _pavane_ began--a stately dignified dance; and among all the ladies +moved the great Queen herself, swaying and bending with much grace and +dignity. It was the strangest thing for Anthony to find himself here, a +raven among all these peacocks, and birds of paradise; and he wondered +at himself and at the strange humour of Providence, as he watched the +shimmer of the dresses and the sparkle of the shoes and jewels, and the +soft clouds of muslin and lace that shivered and rustled as the ladies +stepped; the firelight shone through the wide doorway on this glowing +movement, and groups of candles in sconces within the room increased and +steadied the soft intensity of the light. The soft tingling instruments, +with the slow tap-tap marking the measure like a step, seemed a +translation into chord and melody of this stately tender exercise. And so +this glorious flower-bed, loaded too with a wealth of essences in the +dresses and the sweet-washed gloves, swayed under the wind of the music, +bending and rising together in slow waves and ripples. Then it ceased; +and the silence was broken by a quick storm of applause; while the +dancers waited for the lutes. Then all the instruments broke out together +in quick triple time; the stringed instruments supplying a hasty +throbbing accompaniment, while the shrill flutes began to whistle and the +drums to gallop;--there was yet a pause in the dance, till the Queen made +the first movement;--and then the whole whirled off on the wings of a +_coranto_. + +It was bewildering to Anthony, who had never even dreamed of such a dance +before. He watched first the lower line of the shoes; and the whole +floor, in reality above, and in the mirror of the polished boards below, +seemed scintillating in lines of diamond light; the heavy underskirts of +brocade, puffed satin, and cloth of gold, with glimpses of foamy lace +beneath, whirled and tossed above these flashing vibrations. Then he +looked at the higher strata, and there was a tossing sea of faces and +white throats, borne up as it seemed--now revealed, now hidden--on clouds +of undulating muslin and lace, with sparkles of precious stones set in +ruff and wings and on high piled hair. + +He watched, fascinated, the faces as they appeared and vanished; there +was every imaginable expression; the serious looks of one who took +dancing as a solemn task, and marked her position and considered her +steps; the wild gaiety of another, all white teeth and dimples and eyes, +intoxicated by movement and music and colour, as men are by wine, and +guided and sustained by the furious genius of the dance, rather than by +intention of any kind. There was the courtly self-restraint of one tall +beauty, who danced as a pleasant duty and loved it, but never lost +control of her own bending, slender grace; ah! and there was the oval +face crowned with auburn hair and pearls, the lower lip drawn up under +the black teeth with an effort, till it appeared to snarl, and the ropes +of pearls leaping wildly on her lean purple stomacher. And over all the +grave oak walls and the bright sconces and the taper flames blown about +by the eddying gusts from the whirlpool beneath. + +As Anthony went down the square winding staircase, an hour later when the +evening was over, and the keen winter air poured up to meet him, his +brain was throbbing with the madness of dance and music and whirling +colour. Here, it seemed to him, lay the secret of life. For a few minutes +his old day-dreams came back but in more intoxicating dress. The figure +of Mary Corbet in her rose-coloured silk and her clouds of black hair, +and her jewels and her laughing eyes and scarlet mouth, and her violet +fragrance and her fire--this dominated the boy. As he walked towards the +stables across the starlit court, she seemed to move before him, to hold +out her hands to him, to call him her own dear lad; to invite him out of +the drab-coloured life that lay on all sides, behind and before, up into +a mystic region of jewelled romance, where she and he would live and be +one in the endless music of rippling strings and shrill flutes and the +maddening tap of a little hidden drum. + +But the familiar touch of his own sober suit and the creaking saddle as +he rode home to Lambeth, and the icy wind that sang in the river sedges, +and the wholesome smell of the horse and the touch of the coarse hair at +the shoulder, talked and breathed the old Puritan common sense back to +him again. That warm-painted, melodious world he had left was gaudy +nonsense; and dancing was not the same as living; and Mary Corbet was not +just a rainbow on the foam that would die when the sun went in; but both +she and he together were human souls, redeemed by the death of the +Saviour, with His work to do and no time or energy for folly; and James +Maxwell in the Tower--(thank God, however, not for long!)--James Maxwell +with his wrenched joints and forehead and lips wet with agony, was in the +right; and that lean bitter furious woman in the purple and pearls, who +supped to the blare of trumpets, and danced to the ripple of lutes, +wholly and utterly and eternally in the wrong. + + + + + CHAPTER XI + + A STATION OF THE CROSS + + +Philosophers tell us that the value of existence lies not in the objects +perceived, but in the powers of perception. The tragedy of a child over a +broken doll is not less poignant than the anguish of a worshipper over a +broken idol, or of a king over a ruined realm. Thus the conflict of +Isabel during those past autumn and winter months was no less august than +the pain of the priest on the rack, or the struggle of his innocent +betrayer to rescue him, or the misery of Lady Maxwell over the sorrows +that came to her in such different ways through her two sons. + +Isabel's soul was tender above most souls; and the powers of feeling pain +and of sustaining it were also respectively both acute and strong. The +sense of pressure, or rather of disruption, became intolerable. She was +indeed a soul on the rack; if she had been less conscientious she would +have silenced the voice of Divine Love that seemed to call to her from +the Catholic Church; if she had been less natural and feminine she would +have trampled out of her soul the appeal of the human love of Hubert. As +it was, she was wrenched both ways. Now the cords at one end or the other +would relax a little, and the corresponding relief was almost a shock; +but when she tried to stir and taste the freedom of decision that now +seemed in her reach, they would tighten again with a snap; and she would +find herself back on the torture. To herself she seemed powerless; it +appeared to her, when she reflected on it consciously, that it was merely +a question as to which part of her soul would tear first, as to which +ultimately retained her. She began to be terrified at solitude; the +thought of the coming night, with its long hours of questioning and +torment until the dawn, haunted her during the day. She would read in her +room, or remain at her prayers, in the hopes of distracting herself from +the struggle, until sleep seemed the supreme necessity: then, when she +lay down, sleep would flap its wings in mockery and flit away, leaving +her wide-awake staring at the darkness of the room or of her own eyelids, +until the windows began to glimmer and the cocks to crow from farm +buildings. + +In spite of her first resolve to fight the battle alone, she soon found +herself obliged to tell Mistress Margaret all that was possible; but she +felt that to express her sheer need of Hubert, as she thought it, was +beyond her altogether. How could a nun understand? + +"My darling," said the old lady, "it would not be Calvary without the +darkness; and you cannot have Christ without Calvary. Remember that the +Light of the World makes darkness His secret place; and so you see that +if you were able to feel that any human soul really understood, it would +mean that the darkness was over. I have suffered that Night twice myself; +the third time I think, will be in the valley of death." + +Isabel only half understood her; but it was something to know that others +had tasted the cup too; and that what was so bitter was not necessarily +poisonous. + +At another time as the two were walking together under the pines one +evening, and the girl had again tried to show to the nun the burning +desolation of her soul, Mistress Margaret had suddenly turned. + +"Listen, dear child," she said, "I will tell you a secret. Over there," +and she pointed out to where the sunset glowed behind the tree trunks and +the slope beyond, "over there, in West Grinsted, rests our dear Lord in +the blessed sacrament. His Body lies lonely, neglected and forgotten by +all but half a dozen souls; while twenty years ago all England reverenced +It. Behold and see if there be any sorrow--" and then the nun stopped, as +she saw Isabel's amazed eyes staring at her. + +But it haunted the girl and comforted her now and then. Yet in the +fierceness of her pain she asked herself again and again, was it +true--was it true? Was she sacrificing her life for a dream, a +fairy-story? or was it true that there the body, that had hung on the +cross fifteen hundred years ago, now rested alone, hidden in a silver +pyx, within locked doors for fear of the Jews.--Oh! dear Lord, was it +true? + +Hubert had kept his word, and left the place almost immediately after his +last interview; and was to return at Easter for his final answer. +Christmas had come and gone; and it seemed to her as if even the +tenderest mysteries of the Christian Religion had no touch with her now. +She walked once more in the realm of grace, as in the realm of nature, an +exile from its spirit. All her sensitive powers seemed so absorbed in +interior pain that there was nothing in her to respond to or appreciate +the most keen external impressions. As she awoke and looked up on +Christmas morning early, and saw the frosted panes and the snow lying +like wool on the cross-bars, and heard the Christmas bells peal out in +the listening air; as she came downstairs and the old pleasant acrid +smell of the evergreens met her, and she saw the red berries over each +picture, and the red heart of the wood-fire; nay, as she knelt at the +chancel rails, and tried in her heart to adore the rosy Child in the +manger, and received the sacred symbols of His Flesh and Blood, and +entreated Him to remember His loving-kindness that brought Him down from +heaven--yet the whole was far less real, less intimate to her, than the +sound of Hubert's voice as he had said good-bye two months ago; less real +than one of those darting pangs of thought that fell on her heart all day +like a shower of arrows. + +And then, when the sensitive strings of her soul were stretched to +anguish, a hand dashed across them, striking a wailing discord, and they +did not break. The news of Anthony's treachery, and still more his +silence, performed the incredible, and doubled her pain without breaking +her heart. + +On the Tuesday morning early Lady Maxwell had sent her note by a courier; +bidding him return at once with the answer. The evening had come, and he +had not appeared. The night passed and the morning came; and it was not +till noon that the man at last arrived, saying he had seen Mr. Norris on +the previous evening, and that he had read the note through there and +then, and had said there was no answer. Surely there could be but one +explanation of that--that no answer was possible. + +It could not be said that Isabel actively considered the question and +chose to doubt Anthony rather than to trust him. She was so nearly +passive now, with the struggle she had gone through, that this blow came +on her with the overwhelming effect of an hypnotic suggestion. Her will +did not really accept it, any more than her intellect really weighed it; +but she succumbed to it; and did not even write again, nor question the +man further. Had she done this she might perhaps have found out the +truth, that the man, a stupid rustic with enough shrewdness to lie, but +not enough to lie cleverly, had had his foolish head turned by the buzz +of London town and the splendour of Lambeth stables and the friendliness +of the grooms there, and had got heavily drunk on leaving Anthony; that +the answer which he had put into his hat had very naturally fallen out +and been lost; and that when at last he returned to the country already +eight hours after his time, and found the note was missing, he had +stalwartly lied, hoping that the note was unimportant and that things +would adjust themselves or be forgotten before a day of reckoning should +arrive. + +And so Isabel's power of resistance collapsed under this last blow; and +her soul lay still at last, almost too much tormented to feel. Her last +hope was gone; Anthony had betrayed his friend. + +The week crept by, and Saturday came. She went out soon after dinner to +see a sick body or two in an outlying hamlet; for she had never forgotten +Mrs. Dent's charge, and, with the present minister's approval, still +visited the sick one or two days a week at least. Then towards sunset she +came homewards over some high ground on the outskirts of Ashdown Forest. +The snow that had fallen before Christmas, had melted a week or two ago; +and the frost had broken up; it was a heavy leaden evening, with an angry +glow shining, as through chinks of a wall, from the west towards which +she was going. The village lay before her in the gloom; and lights were +beginning to glimmer here and there. She contrasted in a lifeless way +that pleasant group of warm houses with their suggestions of love and +homeliness with her own desolate self. She passed up through the village +towards the Hall, whither she was going to report on the invalids to Lady +Maxwell; and in the appearance of the houses on either side she thought +there was an unaccustomed air. Several doors stood wide open with the +brightness shining out into the twilight, as if the inhabitants had +suddenly deserted their homes. Others were still dark and cold, although +the evening was drawing on. There was not a moving creature to be seen. +She passed up, wondering a little, through the gatehouse, and turned into +the gravel sweep; and there stopped short at the sight of a great crowd +of men and women and children, assembled in dead silence. Some one was +standing at the entrance-steps, with his head bent as if he were talking +to those nearest him in a low voice. + +As she came up there ran a whisper of her name; the people drew back to +let her through, and she passed, sick with suspense, to the man on the +steps, whom she now recognised as Mr. James' body-servant. His face +looked odd and drawn, she thought. + +"What is it?" she asked in a sharp whisper. + +"Mr. James is here, madam; he is with Lady Maxwell in the cloister-wing. +Will you please to go up?" + +"Mr. James! It is no news about Mr. Anthony--or--or Mr. Hubert!" + +"No, madam." The man hesitated. "Mr. James has been racked, madam." + +The man's voice broke in a great sob as he ended. + +"Ah!" + +She reeled against the post; a man behind caught her and steadied her; +and there was a quick breath of pity from the crowd. + +"Ah, poor thing!" said a woman's voice behind her. + +"I beg your pardon, madam," said the servant. "I should not have----" + +"And--and he is upstairs?" + +"He and my lady are together, madam." + +She looked at him a moment, dazed with the horror of it; and then going +past him, pushed open the door and went through into the inner hall. Here +again she stopped suddenly: it was half full of people, silent and +expectant--the men, the grooms, the maid-servants, and even two or three +farm-men. She heard the rustle of her name from the white faces that +looked at her from the gloom; but none moved; and she crossed the hall +alone, and turned down the lower corridor that led to the cloister-wing. + +At the foot of the staircase she stopped again; her heart drummed in her +ears, as she listened intently with parted lips. There was a profound +silence; the lamp on the stairs had not been lighted, and the terrace +window only let in a pale glimmer. + +It was horrible to her! this secret presence of incarnate pain that +brooded somewhere in the house, this silence of living anguish, worse +than death a thousand times! + +Where was he? What would it look like? Even a scream somewhere would have +relieved her, and snapped the tension of the listening stillness that lay +on her like a shocking nightmare. This lobby with its well-known +doors--the banister on which her fingers rested--the well of the +staircase up which she stared with dilated eyes--all was familiar; and +yet, somewhere in the shadows overhead lurked this formidable Presence of +pain, mute, anguished, terrifying.... + +She longed to run back, to shriek for help; but she dared not: and stood +panting. She went up a couple of steps--stopped, listened to the sick +thumping of her heart--took another step and stopped again; and so, +listening, peering, hesitating, came to the head of the stairs. + +Ah! there was the door, with a line of light beneath it. It was there +that the horror dwelt. She stared at the thin bright line; waited and +listened again for even a moan or a sigh from within, but none came. + +Then with a great effort she stepped forward and tapped. + +There was no answer; but as she listened she heard from within the gentle +tinkle of some liquid running into a bowl, rhythmically, and with pauses. +Then again she tapped, nervously and rapidly, and there was a murmur from +the room; she opened the door softly, pushed it, and took a step into the +room, half closing it behind her. + +There were two candles burning on a table in the middle of the room, and +on the near side of it was a group of three persons.... + +Isabel had seen in one of Mistress Margaret's prayer-books an engraving +of an old Flemish Pieta--a group of the Blessed Mother holding in her +arms the body of her Crucified Son, with the Magdalen on one side, +supporting one of the dead Saviour's hands. Isabel now caught her breath +in a sudden gasp; for here was the scene reproduced before her. + +Lady Maxwell was on a low seat bending forwards; the white cap and ruff +seemed like a veil thrown all about her head and beneath her chin; she +was holding in her arms the body of her son, who seemed to have fainted +as he sat beside her; his head had fallen back against her breast, and +his pointed beard and dark hair and her black dress beyond emphasised the +deathly whiteness of his face on which the candlelight fell; his mouth +was open, like a dead man's. Mistress Margaret was kneeling by his left +hand, holding it over a basin and delicately sponging it; and the whole +air was fragrant and aromatic with some ointment in the water; a long +bandage or two lay on the ground beside the basin. The evening light over +the opposite roofs through the window beyond mingled with the light of +the tapers, throwing a strange radiance over the group. The table on +which the tapers stood looked to Isabel like a stripped altar. + +She stood by the door, her lips parted, motionless; looking with great +eyes from face to face. It was as if the door had given access to another +world where the passion of Christ was being re-enacted. + +Then she sank on her knees, still watching. There was no sound but the +faint ripple of the water into the basin and the quiet breathing of the +three. Lady Maxwell now and then lifted a handkerchief in silence and +passed it across her son's face. Isabel, still staring with great wide +eyes, began to sigh gently to herself. + +"Anthony, Anthony, Anthony!" she whispered. + +"Oh, no, no, no!" she whispered again under her breath. "No, Anthony! you +could not, you could not!" + +Then from the man there came one or two long sighs, ending in a moan that +quavered into silence; he stirred slightly in his mother's arms; and then +in a piteous high voice came the words "_Jesu ... Jesu ... esto mihi +... Jesus_." + +Consciousness was coming back. He fancied himself still on the rack. + +Lady Maxwell said nothing, but gathered him a little closer, and bent her +face lower over him. + +Then again came a long sobbing indrawn breath; James struggled for a +moment; then opened his eyes and saw his mother's face. + +Mistress Margaret had finished with the water; and was now swiftly +manipulating a long strip of white linen. Isabel still sunk on her knees +watched the bandage winding in and out round his wrist, and between his +thumb and forefinger. + +Then he turned his head sharply towards her with a gasp as if in pain; +and his eyes fell on Isabel. + +"Mistress Isabel," he said; and his voice was broken and untuneful. + +Mistress Margaret turned; and smiled at her; and at the sight the +intolerable compression on the girl's heart relaxed. + +"Come, child," she said, "come and help me with his hand. No, no, lie +still," she added; for James was making a movement as if to rise. + +James smiled at her as she came forward; and she saw that his face had a +strange look as if after a long illness. + +"You see, Mistress Isabel," he said, in the same cracked voice, and with +an infinitely pathetic courtesy, "I may not rise." + +Isabel's eyes filled with sudden tears, his attempt at his old manner was +more touching than all else; and she came and knelt beside the old nun. + +"Hold the fingers," she said; and the familiar old voice brought the girl +a stage nearer her normal consciousness again. + +Isabel took the priest's fingers and saw that they were limp and swollen. +The sleeve fell back a little as Mistress Margaret manipulated the +bandage; and the girl saw that the forearm looked shapeless and +discoloured. + +She glanced up in swift terror at his face, but he was looking at his +mother, whose eyes were bent on his; Isabel looked quickly down again. + +"There," said Mistress Margaret, tying the last knot, "it is done." + +Mr. James looked his thanks over his shoulder at her, as she nodded and +smiled before turning to leave the room. + +Isabel sat slowly down and watched them. + +"This is but a flying visit, Mistress Isabel," said James. "I must leave +to-morrow again." + +He had sat up now, and settled himself in his seat, though his mother's +arm was still round him. The voice and the pitiful attempt were terrible +to Isabel. Slowly the consciousness was filtering into her mind of what +all this implied; what it must have been that had turned this tall +self-contained man into this weak creature who lay in his mother's arms, +and fainted at a touch and sobbed. She could say nothing; but could only +look, and breathe, and look. + +Then it suddenly came to her mind that Lady Maxwell had not spoken a +word. She looked at her; that old wrinkled face with its white crown of +hair and lace had a new and tremendous dignity. There was no anxiety in +it; scarcely even grief; but only a still and awful anguish, towering +above ordinary griefs like a mountain above the world; and there was the +supreme peace too that can only accompany a supreme emotion--she seemed +conscious of nothing but her son. + +Isabel could not answer James; and he seemed not to expect it; he had +turned back to his mother again, and they were looking at one another. +Then in a moment Mistress Margaret came back with a glass that she put to +James' lips; and he drank it without a word. She stood looking at the +group an instant or two, and then turned to Isabel. + +"Come downstairs with me, my darling; there is nothing more that we can +do." + +They went out of the room together; the mother and son had not stirred +again; and Mistress Margaret slipped her arm quickly round the girl's +waist, as they went downstairs. + + * * * * + +In the cloister beneath was a pleasant little oak parlour looking out on +to the garden and the long south side of the house. Mistress Margaret +took the little hand-lamp that burned in the cloister itself as they +passed along silently together, and guided the girl through into the +parlour on the left-hand side. There was a tall chair standing before the +hearth, and as Mistress Margaret sat down, drawing the girl with her, +Isabel sank down on the footstool at her feet, and hid her face on the +old nun's knees. + +There was silence for a minute or two. Mistress Margaret set down the +lamp on the table beside her, and passed her hands caressingly over the +girl's hands and hair; but said nothing, until Isabel's whole body heaved +up convulsively once or twice, before she burst into a torrent of +weeping. + +"My darling," said the old lady in a quiet steady voice, "we should thank +God instead of grieving. To think that this house should have given two +confessors to the Church, father and son! Yes, yes, dear child, I know +what you are thinking of, the two dear lads we both love; well, well, we +do not know, we must trust them both to God. It may not be true of +Anthony; and even if it be true--well, he must have thought he was +serving his Queen. And for Hubert----" + +Isabel lifted her face and looked with a dreadful questioning stare. + +"Dear child," said the nun, "do not look like that. Nothing is so bad as +not trusting God." + +"Anthony, Anthony!"... whispered the girl. + +"James told us the same story as the gentleman on Sunday," went on the +nun. "But he said no hard word, and he does not condemn. I know his +heart. He does not know why he is released, nor by whose order: but an +order came to let him go, and his papers with it: and he must be out of +England by Monday morning: so he leaves here to-morrow in the litter in +which he came. He is to say mass to-morrow, if he is able." + +"Mass? Here?" said the girl, in the same sharp whisper; and her sobbing +ceased abruptly. + +"Yes, dear; if he is able to stand and use his hands enough. They have +settled it upstairs." + +Isabel continued to look up in her face wildly. + +"Ah!" said the old nun again. "You must not look like that. Remember that +he thinks those wounds the most precious things in the world--yes--and +his mother too!" + +"I must be at mass," said Isabel; "God means it." + +"Now, now," said Mistress Margaret soothingly, "you do not know what you +are saying." + +"I mean it," said Isabel, with sharp emphasis; "God means it." + +Mistress Margaret took the girl's face between her hands, and looked +steadily down into her wet eyes. Isabel returned the look as steadily. + +"Yes, yes," she said, "as God sees us." + +Then she broke into talk, at first broken and incoherent in language, but +definite and orderly in ideas, and in her interpretations of these last +months. + +Kneeling beside her with her hands clasped on the nun's knee, Isabel told +her all her struggles; disentangling at last in a way that she had never +been able to do before, all the complicated strands of self-will and +guidance and blindness that had so knotted and twisted themselves into +her life. The nun was amazed at the spiritual instinct of this Puritan +child, who ranged her motives so unerringly; dismissing this as of self, +marking this as of God's inspiration, accepting this and rejecting that +element of the circumstances of her life; steering confidently between +the shoals of scrupulous judgment and conscience on the one side, and the +hidden rocks of presumption and despair on the other--these very dangers +that had baffled and perplexed her so long--and tracing out through them +all the clear deep safe channel of God's intention, who had allowed her +to emerge at last from the tortuous and baffling intricacies of character +and circumstance into the wide open sea of His own sovereign Will. + +It seemed to the nun, as Isabel talked, as if it needed just a final +touch of supreme tragedy to loosen and resolve all the complications; and +that this had been supplied by the vision upstairs. There she had seen a +triumphant trophy of another's sorrow and conquest. There was hardly an +element in her own troubles that was not present in that human Pieta +upstairs--treachery--loneliness--sympathy--bereavement--and above all the +supreme sacrificial act of human love subordinated to divine--human love, +purified and transfigured and rendered invincible and immortal by the +very immolation of it at the feet of God--all this that the son and +mother in their welcome of pain had accomplished in the crucifixion of +one and the heart-piercing of the other--this was light opened to the +perplexed, tormented soul of the girl--a radiance poured out of the +darkness of their sorrow and made her way plain before her face. + +"My Isabel," said the old nun, when the girl had finished and was hiding +her face again, "this is of God. Glory to His Name! I must ask James' +leave; and then you must sleep here to-night, for the mass to-morrow." + + * * * * + +The chapel at Maxwell Hall was in the cloister wing; but a stranger +visiting the house would never have suspected it. Opening out of Lady +Maxwell's new sitting-room was a little lobby or landing, about four +yards square, lighted from above; at the further end of it was the door +into her bedroom. This lobby was scarcely more than a broad passage; and +would attract no attention from any passing through it. The only piece of +furniture in it was a great tall old chest as high as a table, that stood +against the inner wall beyond which was the long gallery that looked down +upon the cloister garden. The lobby appeared to be practically as broad +as the two rooms on either side of it; but this was effected by the outer +wall being made to bulge a little; and the inner wall being thinner than +inside the two living-rooms. The deception was further increased by the +two living-rooms being first wainscoted and then hung with thick +tapestry; while the lobby was bare. A curious person who should look in +the chest would find there only an old dress and a few pieces of stuff. +This lobby, however, was the chapel; and through the chest was the +entrance to one of the priest's hiding holes, where also the altar-stone +and the ornaments and the vestments were kept. The bottom of the chest +was in reality hinged in such a way that it would fall, on the proper +pressure being applied in two places at once, sufficiently to allow the +side of the chest against the wall to be pushed aside, which in turn gave +entrance to a little space some two yards long by a yard wide; and here +were kept all the necessaries for divine worship; with room besides for a +couple of men at least to be hidden away. There was also a way from this +hole on to the roof, but it was a difficult and dangerous way; and was +only to be used in case of extreme necessity. + +It was in this lobby that Isabel found herself the next morning kneeling +and waiting for mass. She had been awakened by Mistress Margaret shortly +before four o'clock and told in a whisper to dress herself in the dark; +for it was impossible under the circumstances to tell whether the house +was not watched; and a light seen from outside might conceivably cause +trouble and disturbance. So she had dressed herself and come down from +her room along the passages, so familiar during the day, so sombre and +suggestive now in the black morning with but one shaded light placed at +the angles. Other figures were stealing along too; but she could not tell +who they were in the gloom. Then she had come through the little +sitting-room where the scene of last night had taken place and into the +lobby beyond. + +But the whole place was transformed. + +Over the old chest now hung a picture, that usually was in Lady Maxwell's +room, of the Blessed Mother and her holy Child, in a great carved frame +of some black wood. The chest had become an altar: Isabel could see the +slight elevation in the middle of the long white linen cloth where the +altar-stone lay, and upon that again, at the left corner, a pile of linen +and silk. Upon the altar at the back stood two slender silver +candlesticks with burning tapers in them; and a silver crucifix between +them. The carved wooden panels, representing the sacrifice of Isaac on +the one half and the offering of Melchisedech on the other, served +instead of an embroidered altar-frontal. Against the side wall stood a +little white-covered folding table with the cruets and other necessaries +upon it. + +There were two or three benches across the rest of the lobby; and at +these were kneeling a dozen or more persons, motionless, their faces +downcast. There was a little wind such as blows before the dawn moaning +gently outside; and within was a slight draught that made the taper +flames lean over now and then. + +Isabel took her place beside Mistress Margaret at the front bench; and as +she knelt forward she noticed a space left beyond her for Lady Maxwell. A +moment later there came slow and painful steps through the sitting-room, +and Lady Maxwell came in very slowly with her son leaning on her arm and +on a stick. There was a silence so profound that it seemed to Isabel as +if all had stopped breathing. She could only hear the slow plunging pulse +of her own heart. + +James took his mother across the altar to her place, and left her there, +bowing to her; and then went up to the altar to vest. As he reached it +and paused, a servant slipped out and received the stick from him. The +priest made the sign of the cross, and took up the amice from the +vestments that lay folded on the altar. He was already in his cassock. + +Isabel watched each movement with a deep agonising interest; he was so +frail and broken, so bent in his figure, so slow and feeble in his +movements. He made an attempt to raise the amice but could not, and +turned slightly; and the man from behind stepped up again and lifted it +for him. Then he helped him with each of the vestments, lifted the alb +over his head and tenderly drew the bandaged hands through the sleeves; +knit the girdle round him; gave him the stole to kiss and then placed it +over his neck and crossed the ends beneath the girdle and adjusted the +amice; then he placed the maniple on his left arm, but so tenderly! and +lastly, lifted the great red chasuble and dropped it over his head and +straightened it--and there stood the priest as he had stood last Sunday, +in crimson vestments again; but bowed and thin-faced now. + +Then he began the preparation with the servant who knelt beside him in +his ordinary livery, as server; and Isabel heard the murmur of the Latin +words for the first time. Then he stepped up to the altar, bent slowly +and kissed it and the mass began. + +Isabel had a missal, lent to her by Mistress Margaret; but she hardly +looked at it; so intent was she on that crimson figure and his strange +movements and his low broken voice. It was unlike anything that she had +ever imagined worship to be. Public worship to her had meant hitherto one +of two things--either sitting under a minister and having the word +applied to her soul in the sacrament of the pulpit; or else the saying of +prayers by the minister aloud and distinctly and with expression, so that +the intellect could follow the words, and assent with a hearty Amen. The +minister was a minister to man of the Word of God, an interpreter of His +gospel to man. + +But here was a worship unlike all this in almost every detail. The priest +was addressing God, not man; therefore he did so in a low voice, and in a +tongue as Campion had said on the scaffold "that they both understood." +It was comparatively unimportant whether man followed it word for word, +for (and here the second radical difference lay) the point of the worship +for the people lay, not in an intellectual apprehension of the words, but +in a voluntary assent to and participation in the supreme act to which +the words were indeed necessary but subordinate. It was the thing that +was done; not the words that were said, that was mighty with God. Here, +as these Catholics round Isabel at any rate understood it, and as she too +began to perceive it too, though dimly and obscurely, was the sublime +mystery of the Cross presented to God. As He looked down well pleased +into the silence and darkness of Calvary, and saw there the act +accomplished by which the world was redeemed, so here (this handful of +disciples believed), He looked down into the silence and twilight of this +little lobby, and saw that same mystery accomplished at the hands of one +who in virtue of his participation in the priesthood of the Son of God +was empowered to pronounce these heart-shaking words by which the Body +that hung on Calvary, and the Blood that dripped from it there, were +again spread before His eyes, under the forms of bread and wine. + +Much of this faith of course was still dark to Isabel; but yet she +understood enough; and when the murmur of the priest died to a throbbing +silence, and the worshippers sank in yet more profound adoration, and +then with terrible effort and a quick gasp or two of pain, those wrenched +bandaged hands rose trembling in the air with Something that glimmered +white between them; the Puritan girl too drooped her head, and lifted up +her heart, and entreated the Most High and most Merciful to look down on +the Mystery of Redemption accomplished on earth; and for the sake of the +Well-Beloved to send down His Grace on the Catholic Church; to strengthen +and save the living; to give rest and peace to the dead; and especially +to remember her dear brother Anthony, and Hubert whom she loved; and +Mistress Margaret and Lady Maxwell, and this faithful household: and the +poor battered man before her, who, not only as a priest was made like to +the Eternal Priest, but as a victim too had hung upon a prostrate cross, +fastened by hands and feet; thus bearing on his body for all to see the +marks of the Lord Jesus. + + * * * * + +Lady Maxwell and Mistress Margaret both rose and stepped forward after +the Priest's Communion, and received from those wounded hands the Broken +Body of the Lord. + +And then the mass was presently over; and the server stepped forward +again to assist the priest to unvest, himself lifting each vestment off, +for Father Maxwell was terribly exhausted by now, and laying it on the +altar. Then he helped him to a little footstool in front of him, for him +to kneel and make his thanksgiving. Isabel looked with an odd wonder at +the server; he was the man that she knew so well, who opened the door for +her, and waited at table; but now a strange dignity rested on him as he +moved confidently and reverently about the awful altar, and touched the +vestments that even to her Puritan eyes shone with new sanctity. It +startled her to think of the hidden Catholic life of this house--of these +servants who loved and were familiar with mysteries that she had been +taught to dread and distrust, but before which she too now was to bow her +being in faith and adoration. + +After a minute or two, Mistress Margaret touched Isabel on the arm and +beckoned to her to come up to the altar, which she began immediately to +strip of its ornaments and cloth, having first lit another candle on one +of the benches. Isabel helped her in this with a trembling dread, as all +the others except Lady Maxwell and her son were now gone out silently; +and presently the picture was down, and leaning against the wall; the +ornaments and sacred vessels packed away in their box, with the vestments +and linen in another. Then together they lifted off the heavy altar +stone. Mistress Margaret next laid back the lid of the chest; and put her +hands within, and presently Isabel saw the back of the chest fall back, +apparently into the wall. Mistress Margaret then beckoned to Isabel to +climb into the chest and go through; she did so without much difficulty, +and found herself in the little room behind. There was a stool or two and +some shelves against the wall, with a plate or two upon them and one or +two tools. She received the boxes handed through, and followed Mistress +Margaret's instructions as to where to place them; and when all was done, +she slipped back again through the chest into the lobby. + +The priest and his mother were still in their places, motionless. +Mistress Margaret closed the chest inside and out, beckoned Isabel into +the sitting-room and closed the door behind them. Then she threw her arms +round the girl and kissed her again and again. + +"My own darling," said the nun, with tears in her eyes. "God bless +you--your first mass. Oh! I have prayed for this. And you know all our +secrets now. Now go to your room, and to bed again. It is only a little +after five. You shall see him--James--before he goes. God bless you, my +dear!" + +She watched Isabel down the passage; and then turned back again to where +the other two were still kneeling, to make her own thanksgiving. + +Isabel went to her room as one in a dream. She was soon in bed again, but +could not sleep; the vision of that strange worship she had assisted at; +the pictorial details of it, the glow of the two candles on the shoulders +of the crimson chasuble as the priest bent to kiss the altar or to adore; +the bowed head of the server at his side; the picture overhead with the +Mother and her downcast eyes, and the radiant Child stepping from her +knees to bless the world--all this burned on the darkness. With the least +effort of imagination too she could recall the steady murmur of the +unfamiliar words; hear the rustle of the silken vestment; the stirrings +and breathings of the worshippers in the little room. + +Then in endless course the intellectual side of it all began to present +itself. She had assisted at what the Government called a crime; it was +for that--that collection of strange but surely at least innocent +things--actions, words, material objects--that men and women of the same +flesh and blood as herself were ready to die; and for which others +equally of one nature with herself were ready to put them to death. It +was the mass--the mass--she had seen--she repeated the word to herself, +so sinister, so suggestive, so mighty. Then she began to think again--if +indeed it is possible to say that she had ever ceased to think of him--of +Anthony, who would be so much horrified if he knew; of Hubert, who had +renounced this wonderful worship, and all, she feared, for love of +her--and above all of her father, who had regarded it with such +repugnance:--yes, thought Isabel, but he knows all now. Then she thought +of Mistress Margaret again. After all, the nun had a spiritual life which +in intensity and purity surpassed any she had ever experienced or even +imagined; and yet the heart of it all was the mass. She thought of the +old wrinkled quiet face when she came back to breakfast at the Dower +House: she had soon learnt to read from that face whether mass had been +said that morning or not at the Hall. And Mistress Margaret was only one +of thousands to whom this little set of actions half seen and words half +heard, wrought and said by a man in a curious dress, were more precious +than all meditation and prayer put together. Could the vast +superstructure of prayer and effort and aspiration rest upon a piece of +empty folly such as children or savages might invent? + +Then very naturally, as she began now to get quieter and less excited, +she passed on to the spiritual side of it. + +Had that indeed happened that Mistress Margaret believed--that the very +Body and Blood of her own dear Saviour, Jesus Christ, had in virtue of +His own clear promise--His own clear promise!--become present there under +the hands of His priest? Was it, indeed,--this half-hour action,--the +most august mystery of time, the Lamb eternally slain, presenting Himself +and His Death before the Throne in a tremendous and bloodless +Sacrifice--so august that the very angels can only worship it afar off +and cannot perform it; or was it all a merely childish piece of +blasphemous mummery, as she had been brought up to believe? And then this +Puritan girl, who was beginning to taste the joys of release from her +misery now that she had taken this step, and united a whole-hearted +offering of herself to the perfect Offering of her Lord--now her soul +made its first trembling movement towards a real external authority. "I +believe," she rehearsed to herself, "not because my spiritual experience +tells me that the Mass is true, for it does not; not because the Bible +says so, because it is possible to interpret that in more than one way; +but because that Society which I now propose to treat as Divine--the +Representative of the Incarnate Word--nay, His very mystical Body--tells +me so: and I rely upon that, and rest in her arms, which are the Arms of +the Everlasting, and hang upon her lips, through which the Infallible +Word speaks." + +And so Isabel, in a timid peace at last, from her first act of Catholic +faith, fell asleep. + +She awoke to find the winter sun streaming into her room, and Mistress +Margaret by her bedside. + +"Dear child," said the old lady, "I would not wake you earlier; you have +had such a short night; but James leaves in an hour's time; and it is +just nine o'clock, and I know you wish to see him." + +When she came down half an hour later she found Mistress Margaret waiting +for her outside Lady Maxwell's room. + +"He is in there," she said. "I will tell Mary"; and she slipped in. +Isabel outside heard the murmur of voices, and in a moment more was +beckoned in by the nun. + +James Maxwell was sitting back in a great chair, looking exhausted and +white. His mother, with something of the same look of supreme suffering +and triumph, was standing behind his chair. She smiled gravely and +sweetly at Isabel, as if to encourage her; and went out at the further +door, followed by her sister. + +"Mistress Isabel," said the priest, without any introductory words, in +his broken voice, and motioning her to a seat, "I cannot tell you what +joy it was to see you at mass. Is it too much to hope that you will seek +admission presently to the Catholic Church?" + +Isabel sat with downcast eyes. His tone was a little startling to her. It +was as courteous as ever, but less courtly: there was just the faintest +ring in it, in spite of its weakness, as of one who spoke with authority. + +"I--I thank you, Mr. James," she said. "I wish to hear more at any rate." + +"Yes, Mistress Isabel; and I thank God for it. Mr. Barnes will be the +proper person. My mother will let him know; and I have no doubt that he +will receive you by Easter, and that you can make your First Communion on +that day." + +She bowed her head, wondering a little at his assurance. + +"You will forgive me, I know, if I seem discourteous," went on the +priest, "but I trust you understand the terms on which you come. You come +as a little child, to learn; is it not so? Simply that?" + +She bowed her head again. + +"Then I need not keep you. If you will kneel, I will give you my +blessing." + +She knelt down at once before him, and he blessed her, lifting his +wrenched hand with difficulty and letting it sink quickly down again. + +By an impulse she could not resist she leaned forward on her knees and +took it gently into her two soft hands and kissed it. + +"Oh! forgive him, Mr. Maxwell; I am sure he did not know." And then her +tears poured down. + +"My child," said his voice tenderly, "in any case I not only forgive him, +but I thank him. How could I not? He has brought me love-tokens from my +Lord." + +She kissed his hand again, and stood up; her eyes were blinded with +tears; but they were not all for grief. + +Then Mistress Margaret came in from the inner room, and led the girl out; +and the mother came in once more to her son for the ten minutes before he +was to leave her. + + + + + CHAPTER XII + + A STRIFE OF TONGUES + + +Anthony now settled down rather drearily to the study of religious +controversy. The continual contrasts that seemed forced upon him by the +rival systems of England and Rome (so far as England might be said to +have a coherent system at this time), all tended to show him that there +were these two sharply-divided schemes, each claiming to represent +Christ's Institution, and each exclusive of the other. Was it of Christ's +institution that His Church should be a department of the National Life; +and that the civil prince should be its final arbiter and ruler, however +little he might interfere in its ordinary administration? This was +Elizabeth's idea. Or was the Church, as Mr. Buxton had explained it, a +huge unnational Society, dependent, it must of course be, to some extent +on local circumstances, but essentially unrestricted by limit of +nationality or of racial tendencies? This was the claim of Rome. Of +course an immense number of other arguments circled round this--in fact, +most of the arguments that are familiar to controversialists at the +present day; but the centre of all, to Anthony's mind, as indeed it was +to the mind of the civil and religious authorities of the time, was the +question of supremacy--Elizabeth or Gregory? + +He read a certain number of books; and it will be remembered that he had +followed, with a good deal of intelligence, Campion's arguments. Anthony +was no theologian, and therefore missed perhaps the deep, subtle +arguments; but he had a normal mind, and was able to appreciate and +remember some salient points. + +For example, he was impressed greatly by the negative character of +Protestantism in such books as Nicholl's "Pilgrimage." In this work a man +was held up as a type to be imitated whose whole religion to all +appearances consisted of holding the Pope to be Antichrist, and his +Church the synagogue of Satan, of disliking the doctrines of merit and of +justification by works, of denying the Real Presence, and of holding +nothing but what could be proved to his own satisfaction by the +Scriptures. + +Then he read as much as he could of the great Jewell controversy. This +Bishop of Salisbury, who had, however, recanted his Protestant opinions +under Mary, and resumed them under Elizabeth, had published in 1562 his +"Apology of the Church of England," a work of vast research and learning. +Mr. Harding, who had also had the advantage of having been on both sides, +had answered it; and then the battle was arrayed. It was of course mostly +above Anthony's head; but he gained from what he was able to read of it a +very fair estimate of the conflicting theses, though he probably could +not have stated them intelligibly. He also made acquaintance with another +writer against Jewell,--Rastall; and with one or two of Mr. Willet's +books, the author of "Synopsis Papismi" and "Tretrastylon Papisticum." + +Even more than by paper controversy, however, he was influenced by +history that was so rapidly forming before his eyes. The fact and the +significance of the supremacy of the Queen in religion was impressed upon +him more vividly by her suspension of Grindal than by all the books he +ever read: here was the first ecclesiastic of the realm, a devout, humble +and earnest man, restrained from exercising his great qualities as ruler +and shepherd of his people, by a woman whose religious character +certainly commanded no one's respect, even if her moral life were free +from scandal; and that, not because the Archbishop had been guilty of any +crime or heresy, or was obviously unfitted for his post, but because his +conscientious judgment on a point of Church discipline and liberty +differed from hers; and this state of things was made possible not by an +usurpation of power, but by the deliberately ordered system of the Church +of England. Anthony had at least sufficient penetration to see that this, +as a fundamental principle of religion, however obscured it might be by +subsequent developments, was yet fraught with dangers compared with which +those of papal interference were comparatively trifling--dangers that is, +not so much to earthly peace and prosperity, as to the whole spiritual +nature of the nation's Christianity. + +Yet another argument had begun to suggest itself, bearing upon the same +point, of the relative advantages and dangers of Nationalism. When he had +first entered the Archbishop's service he had been inspired by the +thought that the Church would share in the rising splendour of England; +now he began to wonder whether she could have strength to resist the +rising worldliness that was bound to accompany it. It is scarcely likely +that men on fire with success, whether military or commercial, will be +patient of the restraints of religion. If the Church is independent of +the nation, she can protest and denounce freely; if she is knit closely +to the nation, such rebuke is almost impossible. + +A conversation that Anthony had on this subject at the beginning of +February helped somewhat to clear up this point. + +He was astonished after dinner one day to hear that Mr. Henry Buxton was +at the porter's lodge desiring to see him, and on going out he found that +it was indeed his old acquaintance, the prisoner. + +"Good-day, Master Norris," said the gentleman, with his eyes twinkling; +"you see the mouse has escaped, and is come to call upon the cat." + +Anthony inquired further as to the details of his release. + +"Well, you see," said Mr. Buxton, "they grew a-weary of me. I talked so +loud at them all for one thing; and then you see I was neither priest nor +agent nor conspirator, but only a plain country gentleman: so they took +some hundred or two pounds off me, to make me still plainer; and let me +go. Now, Mr. Norris, will you come and dine with me, and resume our +conversation that was so rudely interrupted by my journey last time? But +then you see her Majesty would take no denial." + +"I have just dined," said Anthony, "but----" + +"Well, I will not ask you to see me dine again, as you did last time; but +will you then sup with me? I am at the 'Running Horse,' Fleet Street, +until to-morrow." + +Anthony accepted gladly; for he had been greatly taken with Mr. Buxton; +and at six o'clock that evening presented himself at the "Running Horse," +and was shown up to a private parlour. + +He found Mr. Buxton in the highest good-humour; he was even now on his +way from Wisbeach, home again to Tonbridge, and was only staying in +London to finish a little business he had. + +Before supper was over, Anthony had laid his difficulties before him. + +"My dear friend," said the other, and his manner became at once sober and +tender, "I thank you deeply for your confidence. After being thought +midway between a knave and a fool for over a year, it is a comfort to be +treated as an honest gentleman again. I hold very strongly with what you +say; it is that, under God, that has kept me steady. As I said to you +last time, Christ's Kingdom is not of this world. Can you imagine, for +example, Saint Peter preaching religious obedience to Nero to be a +Christian's duty? I do not say (God forbid) that her Grace is a Nero, or +even a Poppaea; but there is no particular reason why some successor of +hers should not be. However, Nero or not, the principle is the same. I do +not deny that a National Church may be immensely powerful, may convert +thousands, may number zealous and holy men among her ministers and +adherents--but yet her foundation is insecure. What when the tempest of +God's searching judgments begins to blow? + +"Or, to put it plainer, in a parable, you have seen, I doubt not, a +gallant and his mistress together. So long as she is being wooed by him, +she can command; he sighs and yearns and runs on errands--in short, she +rules him. But when they are wedded--ah me! It is she--if he turns out a +brute, that is--she that stands while my lord plucks off his boots--she +who runs to fetch the tobacco-pipe and lights it and kneels by him. Now I +hold that to wed the body spiritual to the body civil, is to wed a +delicate dame to a brute. He may dress her well, give her jewels, clap +her kindly on the head--but she is under him and no free woman. Ah!"--and +then Mr. Buxton's eyes began to shine as Anthony remembered they had done +before, and his voice to grow solemn,--"and when the spouse is the Bride +of Christ, purchased by His death, what then would be the sin to wed her +to a carnal nation, who shall favour her, it may be, while she looks +young and fair; but when his mood changes, or her appearance, then she is +his slave and his drudge! His will and his whims are her laws; as he +changes, so must she. She has to do his foul work; as she had to do for +King Henry, as she is doing it now for Queen Bess; and as she will always +have to do, God help her, so long as she is wedded to the nation, instead +of being free as the handmaiden and spouse of Christ alone. My faith +would be lost, Mr. Norris, and my heart broken quite, if I were forced to +think the Church of England to be the Church of Christ." + +They talked late that evening in the private baize-curtained parlour on +the third floor. Anthony produced his difficulties one by one, and Mr. +Buxton did his best to deal with them. For example, Anthony remarked on +the fact that there had been no breach of succession as to the edifices +and endowments of the Church; that the sees had been canonically filled, +and even the benefices; and that therefore, like it or not, the Church of +England now was identical with the Pre-Reformation Church. + +"_Distinguo_," said his friend. "Of course she is the successor in one +sense: what you say is very true. It is impossible to put your finger +all along the line of separation. It is a serrated line. The affairs of a +Church and a nation are so vast that that is sure to be so; although if +you insist, I will point to the Supremacy Act of 1559 and the Uniformity +Act of the same year as very clear evidences of a breach with the ancient +order; in the former the governance is shifted from its original owner, +the Vicar of Christ, and placed on Elizabeth; it was that that the +Carthusian Fathers and Sir Thomas More and many others died sooner than +allow: and the latter Act sweeps away all the ancient forms of worship in +favour of a modern one. But I am not careful to insist upon those points; +if you deny or disprove them,--though I do not envy any who attempts +that--yet even then my principle remains, that all that to which the +Church of England has succeeded is the edifices and the endowments; but +that her spirit is wholly new. If a highwayman knocks me down to-morrow, +strips me, clothes himself with my clothes, and rides my horse, he is +certainly my successor in one sense; yet he will be rash if he presents +himself to my wife and sons--though I have none, by the way--as the +proper owner of my house and name." + +"But there is no knocking down in the question," said Anthony. "The +bishops and clergy, or the greater part of them, consented to the +change." + +Mr. Buxton smiled. + +"Very well," he said; "yet the case is not greatly different if the +gentleman threatens me with torture instead, if I do not voluntarily give +him my clothes and my horse. If I were weak and yielded to him, yes, and +made promises of all kinds in my cowardice--yet he would be no nearer +being the true successor of my name and fortune. And if you read her +Grace's Acts, and King Henry's too, you will find that that was precisely +what took place. My dear sir," Mr. Buxton went on, "if you will pardon my +saying it, I am astounded at the effrontery of your authorities who claim +that there was no breach. Your Puritans are wiser; they at least frankly +say that the old was Anti-Christian; that His Holiness (God forgive me +for saying it!), was an usurper: and that the new Genevan theology is the +old gospel brought to light again. That I can understand; and indeed most +of your churchmen think so too; and that there was a new beginning made +with Protestantism. But when her Grace calls herself a Catholic, and +tells the poor Frenchmen that it is the old religion here still: and your +bishops, or one or two of them rather, like Cheyney, I suppose, say so +too--then I am rendered dumb--(if that were possible). If it is the same, +then why, a-God's name, were the altars dragged down, and the screens +burned, and the vestments and the images and the stoups and the pictures +and the ornaments, all swept out? Why, a-God's name, was the old mass +blotted out and this new mingle-mangle brought in, if it be all one? And +for the last time, a-God's name, why is it death to say mass now, if it +be all one? Go, go: Such talk is foolishness, and worse." + +Mr. Buxton was silent for a moment as Anthony eyed him; and then burst +out again. + +"Ah! but worse than all are the folks that stand with one leg on either +stool. We are the old Church, say they;--standing with the Protestant leg +in the air,--therefore let us have the money and the buildings: they are +our right. And then when a poor Catholic says, Then let us have the old +mass, and the old penance and the old images: Nay, nay, nay, they say, +lifting up the Catholic leg and standing on the other, those are Popery; +and we are Protestants; we have made away with all such mummery and +muniments of superstition. And so they go see-sawing to and fro. When you +run at one leg they rest them on the other, and you know not where to +take them." + +And so the talk went on. When the evening was over, and Anthony was +rising to return to Lambeth, Mr. Buxton put his hand on his arm. + +"Good Mr. Norris," he said, "you have been very patient with me. I have +clacked this night like an old wife, and you have borne with me: and now +I ask your pardon again. But I do pray God that He may show you light and +bring you to the true Church; for there is no rest elsewhere." + +Anthony thanked him for his good wishes. + +"Indeed," he said, too, "I am grateful for all that you have said. You +have shown me light, I think, on some things, and I ask your prayers." + +"I go to Stanfield to-morrow," said Mr. Buxton; "it is a pleasant house, +though its master says so, not far from Sir Philip Sidney's: if you would +but come and see me there!" + +"I am getting greatly perplexed," said Anthony, "and I think that in good +faith I cannot stay long with the Archbishop; and if I leave him how +gladly will I come to you for a few days; but it must not be till then." + +"Ah! if you would but make the Spiritual Exercises in my house; I will +provide a conductor; and there is nothing that would resolve your doubts +so quickly." + +Anthony was interested in this; and asked further details as to what +these were. + +"It is too late," said Mr. Buxton, "to tell you to-night. I will write +from Stanfield." + +Mr. Buxton came downstairs with Anthony to see him on to his horse, and +they parted with much good-will; and Anthony rode home with a heavy and +perplexed heart to Lambeth. + + * * * * + +He spent a few days more pondering; and then determined to lay his +difficulties before the Archbishop; and resign his position if Grindal +thought it well. + +He asked for an interview, and the Archbishop appointed an hour in the +afternoon at which he would see him in Cranmer's parlour, the room above +the vestry which formed part of the tower that Archbishop Cranmer had +added to Lambeth House. + +Anthony, walking up and down in the little tiled cloisters by the creek, +a few minutes before the hour fixed, heard organ-music rolling out of the +chapel windows; and went in to see who was playing. He came in through +the vestry, and looking to the west end gallery saw there the back of old +Dr. Tallis, seated at the little positive organ that the late Archbishop +had left in his chapel, and which the present Archbishop had gladly +retained, for he was a great patron of music, and befriended many +musicians when they needed help--Dr. Tallis, as well as Byrd, Morley and +Tye. There were a few persons in the chapel listening, the Reverend Mr. +Wilson, one of the chaplains, being among them; and Anthony thought that +he could not do better than sit here a little and quiet his thoughts, +which were nervous and distracted at the prospect of his coming +interview. He heard voices from overhead, which showed that the +Archbishop was engaged; so he spoke to an usher stationed in the vestry, +telling him that he was ready as soon as the Archbishop could receive +him, and that he would wait in the chapel; and then made his way down to +one of the return stalls at the west end, against the screen, and took +his seat there. + +This February afternoon was growing dark, and the only lights in the +chapel were those in the organ loft; but there was still enough daylight +outside to make the windows visible--those famous windows of Morton's, +which, like those in King's Chapel, Cambridge, combined and interpreted +the Old and New Testaments by an ingenious system of types and antitypes, +in the manner of the "Biblia Pauperum." There was then only a single +subject in each light; and Anthony let his eyes wander musingly to and +fro in the east window from the central figure of the Crucified to the +types on either side, especially to a touching group of the unconscious +Isaac carrying the wood for his own death, as Christ His Cross. Beneath, +instead of the old stately altar glowing with stuffs and precious metals +and jewels which had once been the heart of this beautiful shrine, there +stood now a plain solid wooden table that the Archbishop used for the +Communion. Anthony looked at it, and sighed a little to himself. Did the +altar and the table then mean the same thing? + +Meanwhile the glorious music was rolling overhead in the high vaulted +roof. The old man was extemporising; but his manner was evident even in +that; there was a simple solemn phrase that formed his theme, and round +this adorning and enriching it moved the grave chords. On and on +travelled the melody, like the flow of a broad river; now sliding +steadily through a smiling land of simple harmonies, where dwelt a people +of plain tastes and solid virtues; now passing over shallows where the +sun glanced and played in the brown water among the stones, as light +arpeggio chords rippled up and vanished round about the melody; now +entering a land of mighty stones and caverns where the echoes rang hollow +and resonant, as the counterpoint began to rumble and trip like boulders +far down out of sight, in subaqueous gloom; now rolling out again and +widening, fuller and deeper as it went, moving in great masses towards +the edge of the cataract that lies like a line across the landscape: it +is inevitable now, the crash must come;--a chord or two +pausing,--pausing;--and then the crash, stupendous and sonorous. + +Then on again through elaborate cities where the wits and courtiers +dwell, and stately palaces slide past upon the banks, and barges move +upon its breast, on to the sea--that final full close that embraces and +engulfs all music, all effort, all doubts and questionings, whether in +art or theology, all life of intellect, heart or will--that fathomless +eternal deep from which all comes and to which all returns, that men call +the Love of God. + + * * * * + +Anthony stirred in his seat; he had been here ten minutes, proposing to +take his restless thoughts in hand and quiet them; and, lo! it had been +done for him by the master who sat overhead. Here he, for the moment, +remained, ready for anything--glad to take up the wood and bear it to the +Mount of Sacrifice--content to be carried on in that river of God's Will +to the repose of God's Heart--content to dwell meantime in the echoing +caverns of doubt--in the glancing shadows and lights of an active +life--in his own simple sunlit life in the country--or even to plunge +over the cataract down into the fierce tormented pools in the dark--for +after all the sea lay beyond; and he who commits himself to the river is +bound to reach it. + +He heard a step, and the usher stood by him. + +"His Grace is ready, Master Norris." + +Anthony rose and followed him. + +The Archbishop received him with the greatest kindness. As Anthony came +in he half rose, peering with his half-blind eyes, and smiling and +holding out his hands. + +"Come, Master Norris," he said, "you are always welcome. Sit down;" and +he placed him in a chair at the table close by his own. + +"Now, what is it?" he said kindly; for the old man's heart was a little +anxious at this formal interview that had been requested by this +favourite young officer of his. + +Then Anthony, without any reserve, told him all; tracing out the long +tale of doubt by landmarks that he remembered; mentioning the effect +produced on his mind by the Queen's suspension of the Archbishop, +especially dwelling on the arrest, the examination and the death of +Campion, that had made such a profound impression upon him; upon his own +reading and trains of thought, and the conversations with Mr. Buxton, +though of course he did not mention his name; he ended by saying that he +had little doubt that sooner or later he would be compelled to leave the +communion of the Church of England for that of Rome; and by placing his +resignation in the Archbishop's hands, with many expressions of gratitude +for the unceasing kindness and consideration that he had always received +at his hands. + +There was silence when he had finished. A sliding panel in the wall near +the chapel had been pushed back, and the mellow music of Dr. Tallis +pealed softly in, giving a sweet and melodious background, scarcely +perceived consciously by either of them, and yet probably mellowing and +softening their modes of expression during the whole of the interview. + +"Mr. Norris," said the Archbishop at last, "I first thank you for the +generous confidence you have shown towards me: and I shall put myself +under a further obligation to you by accepting your resignation: and this +I do for both our sakes. For yours, because, as you confess, this action +of the Queen's--(I neither condemn nor excuse it myself)--this action has +influenced your thoughts: therefore you had best be removed from it to a +place where you can judge more quietly. And I accept it for my own sake +too; for several reasons that I need not trouble you with. But in doing +this, I desire you, Mr. Norris, to continue to draw your salary until +Midsummer:--nay, nay, you must let me have my say. You are at liberty to +withdraw as soon as you have wound up your arrangements with Mr. +Somerdine; he will now, as Yeoman of the Horse, have your duties as well +as his own; for I do not intend to have another Gentleman of the Horse. +As regards an increase of salary for him, that can wait until I see him +myself. In any case, Mr. Norris, I think you had better withdraw before +Mid-Lent Sunday. + +"And now for your trouble. I know very well that I cannot be of much +service to you. I am no controversialist. But I must bear my witness. +This Papist with whom you have had talk seems a very plausible fellow. +His arguments sound very plain and good; and yet I think you could prove +anything by them. They seem to me like that openwork embroidery such as +you see on Communion linen sometimes, in which the pattern is formed by +withdrawing certain threads. He has cleverly omitted just those points +that would ruin his argument; and he has made a pretty design. But any +skilful advocate could make any other design by the same methods. He has +not thought fit to deal with such words of our Saviour as what He says on +Tradition; with what the Scriptures say against the worshipping of +angels; with what St. Paul says in his Epistle to the Colossians, in the +second chapter, concerning all those carnal ordinances which were done +away by Christ, but which have been restored by the Pope in his despite; +he does not deal with those terrible words concerning the man of sin and +the mystery of iniquity. In fact, he takes just one word that Christ let +fall about His Kingdom, and builds this great edifice upon it. You might +retort to him in a thousand ways such as these. Bishop Jewell, in his +book, as you know, deals with these questions and many more; far more +fully than it is possible for you and me even to dream of doing. Nay, Mr. +Norris; the only argument I can lay before you is this. There are +difficulties and troubles everywhere; that there are such in the Church +of England, who would care to deny? that there are equally such, aye, and +far more, in the Church of Rome, who would care to deny, either? +Meanwhile, the Providence of God has set you here and not there. Whatever +your difficulties are here, are not of your choosing; but if you fly +there (and I pray God you will not) there they will be. Be content, +Master Norris; indeed you have a goodly heritage; be content with it; +lest losing that you lose all." + +Anthony was greatly touched by this moderate and courteous line that the +Archbishop was taking. He knew well in his heart that the Church of Rome +was, in the eyes of this old man, a false and deceitful body, for whom +there was really nothing to be said. Grindal, in his travels abroad +during the Marian troubles, had been deeply attracted by the Genevan +theology, with whose professors he had never wholly lost touch; and +Anthony guessed what an effort it was costing him, and what a strain it +was on his conscience, thus to combine courtesy with faithfulness to what +he believed to be true. + +Grindal apparently feared he had sacrificed his convictions, for he +presently added: "You know, Mr. Norris, that I think very much worse of +Papistry than I have expressed; but I have refrained because I think that +would not help you; and I desire to do that more than to relieve myself." + +Anthony thanked him for his gentleness; saying that he quite understood +his motives in speaking as he had done, and was deeply obliged to him for +it. + +The Archbishop, however, as indeed were most of the English Divines of +the time, was far more deeply versed in destructive than constructive +theology; and, to Anthony's regret, was presently beginning in that +direction. + +"It is beyond my imagination. Mr. Norris," he said, "that any who have +known the simple Gospel should return to the darkness. See here," he went +on, rising, and fumbling among his books, "I have somewhere here what +they call an Indulgence." + +He searched for a few minutes, and presently shook out of the leaves of +Jewell's book a paper which he peered at, and then pushed over to +Anthony. + +It was a little rectangular paper, some four or five inches long; bearing +a figure of Christ, wounded, with His hands bound together before Him, +and the Cross with the superscription rising behind. In compartments on +either side were instruments of the Passion, the spear, and the reed with +the sponge, with other figures and emblems. Anthony spelt out the +inscription. + +"Read it aloud, Mr. Norris," said the Archbishop. + +"'To them,'" read Anthony, "'that before this image of pity devoutly say +five paternosters, five aves and a credo, piteously beholding these arms +of Christ's Passion, are granted thirty-two thousand seven hundred and +fifty-five years of pardon.'" + +"Now, Mr. Norris," said the Archbishop, "have you considered that it is +to that kind of religion that you are attracted? I will not comment on +it; there is no need." + +"Your Grace," said Anthony slowly, laying the paper down, "I need not +say, I think, that this kind of thing is deeply distasteful to me too. +Your Grace cannot dislike it more than I do. But then I do not understand +it; I do not know what indulgences mean; I only know that were they as +mad and foolish as we Protestants think them, no truthful or good man +could remain a Papist for a day; but then there are many thoughtful and +good men Papists; and I conclude from that that what we think the +indulgences to be, cannot be what they really are. There must be some +other explanation. + +"And again, my lord, may I add this? If I were a Turk I should find many +things in the Christian religion quite as repellent to me; for example, +how can it be just, I should ask, that the death of an innocent man, such +as Christ was, should be my salvation? How, again, is it just that faith +should save? Surely one who has sinned greatly ought to do something +towards his forgiveness, and not merely trust to another. But you, my +lord, would tell me that there are explanations of these difficulties, +and of many more too, of which I should gradually understand more and +more after I was a Christian. Or again, it appears to me even now, +Christian as I am, judging as a plain man, that predestination +contradicts free-will; and no explanation can make them both reasonable. +Yet, by the grace of God, I believe all these doctrines and many more, +not because I understand them, for I do not; but because I believe that +they are part of the Revelation of God. It is just so, too, with the +Roman Catholic Church. I must not take this or that doctrine by itself; +but I must make up my mind whether or no it is the one only Catholic +Church, and then I shall believe all that she teaches, because she +teaches it, and not because I understand it. You must forgive my dulness, +my lord; but I am but a layman, and can only say what I think in simple +words." + +"But we must judge of a Christian body by what that body teaches," said +the Archbishop. "On what other grounds are you drawn to the Papists, +except by what they teach?" + +"Yes, your Grace," said Anthony, "I do judge of the general body of +doctrine, and of the effect upon the soul as a whole; but that is not the +same as taking each small part, and making all hang upon that." + +"Well, Mr. Norris," said the Archbishop, "I do not think we can talk much +more now. It is new to me that these difficulties are upon you. But I +entreat you to talk to me again as often as you will; and to others +also--Dr. Redmayn, Mr. Chambers and others will be happy if they can be +of any service to you in these matters: for few things indeed would +grieve me more than that you should turn Papist." + +Anthony thanked the Archbishop very cordially for his kindness, and, +after receiving his blessing, left his presence. He had two or three more +talks with him before he left, but his difficulties were in no way +resolved. The Archbishop had an essentially Puritan mind, and could not +enter into Anthony's point of view at all. It may be roughly said that +from Grindal's standpoint all turned on the position and responsibility +of the individual towards the body to which he belonged: and that Anthony +rather looked at the corporate side first and the individual second. +Grindal considered, for example, the details of the Catholic religion in +reference to the individual, asking whether he could accept this or that: +Anthony's tendency was rather to consider the general question first, and +to take the difficulties in his stride afterwards. Anthony also had +interviews with the Archdeacon and chaplain whom Grindal had recommended; +but these were of even less service to him, as Dr. Redmayn was so frankly +contemptuous, and Mr. Chambers so ignorant, of the Romish religion that +Anthony felt he could not trust their judgment at all. + +In the meanwhile, during this last fortnight of Anthony's Lambeth life, +he received a letter from Mr. Buxton, explaining what were the Spiritual +Exercises to which he had referred, and entreating Anthony to come and +stay with him at Stanfield. + +"Now come, dear Mr. Norris," he wrote, "as soon as you leave the +Archbishop's service; I will place three or four rooms at your disposal, +if you wish for quiet; for I have more rooms than I know what to do with; +and you shall make the Exercises if you will with some good priest. They +are a wonderful method of meditation and prayer, designed by Ignatius +Loyola (one day doubtless to be declared saint), for the bringing about a +resolution of all doubts and scruples, and so clearing the eye of the +soul that she discerns God's Will, and so strengthening her that she +gladly embraces it. And that surely is what you need just now in your +perplexity." + +The letter went on to describe briefly the method followed, and ended by +entreating him again to come and see him. Anthony answered this by +telling him of his resignation of his post at Lambeth, and accepting his +invitation; and he arranged to spend the last three weeks before Easter +at Stanfield, and to go down there immediately upon leaving Lambeth. He +determined not to go to Great Keynes first, or to see Isabel, lest his +resolution should be weakened. Already, he thought, his motives were +sufficiently mixed and perverted without his further aggravating their +earthly constituents. + +He wrote to his sister, however, telling her of his decision to leave +Lambeth; and adding that he was going to stay with a friend until Easter, +when he hoped to return to the Dower House, and take up his abode there +for the present. He received what he thought a very strange letter in +return, written apparently under excitement strongly restrained. He read +in it a very real affection for himself, but a certain reserve in it too, +and even something of compassion; and there was a sentence in it that +above all others astonished him. + +"J. M. has been here, and is now gone to Douai. Oh! dear brother, some +time no doubt you will tell us all. I feel so certain that there is much +to explain." + +Had she then guessed his part in the priest's release? Anthony wondered; +but at any rate he knew, after his promise to the Queen, that he must not +give her any clue. He was also surprised to hear that James had been to +Great Keynes. He had inquired for him at the Tower on the Monday after +his visit to Greenwich, and had heard that Mr. Maxwell was already gone +out of England. He had not then troubled to write again, as he had no +doubt but that his message to Lady Maxwell, which he had sent in his note +to Isabel, had reached her; and that certainly she, and probably James +too, now knew that he had been an entirely unconscious and innocent +instrument in the priest's arrest. But that note, as has been seen, never +reached its destination. Lady Maxwell did not care to write to the +betrayer of her son; and Isabel on the one hand hoped and believed now +that there was some explanation, but on the other did not wish to ask for +it again, since her first request had been met by silence. + +As the last days of his life at Lambeth were coming to an end, Anthony +began to send off his belongings on pack-horses to Great Keynes; and by +the time that the Saturday before Mid-Lent Sunday arrived, on which he +was to leave, all had gone except his own couple of horses and the bags +containing his personal luggage. + +His last interview with the Archbishop affected him very greatly. + +He found the old man waiting for him, walking up and down Cranmer's +parlour in an empty part of the room, where there was no danger of his +falling. He peered anxiously at Anthony as he entered. + +"Mr. Norris," he said, "you are greatly on my mind. I fear I have not +done my duty to you. My God has taken away the great charge he called me +to years ago, to see if I were fit or not for the smaller charge of mine +own household, and not even that have I ruled well." + +Anthony was deeply moved. + +"My lord," he said, "if I may speak plainly to you, I would say that to +my mind the strongest argument for the Church of England is that she +brings forth piety and goodness such as I have seen here. If it were not +for that, I should no longer be perplexed." + +Grindal held up a deprecating hand. + +"Do not speak so, Mr. Norris. That grieves me. However, I beseech you to +forgive me for all my remissness towards you, and I wish to tell you +that, whatever happens, you shall never cease to have an old man's +prayers. You have been a good and courteous servant to me always--more +than that, you have been my loving friend--I might almost say my son: and +that, in a world that has cast me off and forgotten me, I shall not +easily forget. God bless you, my dear son, and give you His light and +grace." + +When Anthony rode out of the gateway half an hour later, with his servant +and luggage behind him, it was only with the greatest difficulty that he +could keep from tears as he thought of the blind old man, living in +loneliness and undeserved disgrace, whom he was leaving behind him. + + + + + CHAPTER XIII + + THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES + + +Anthony found that Mr. Buxton had seriously underestimated himself in +describing his position as that of a plain country gentleman. Stanfield +was one of the most beautiful houses that he had ever seen. On the day +after his arrival, his host took him all over the house, at his earnest +request, and told him its story; and as they passed from room to room, +again and again Anthony found himself involuntarily exclaiming at the new +and extraordinary beauties of architecture and furniture that revealed +themselves. + +The house itself had been all built in the present reign, before its +owner had got into trouble; and had been fitted throughout on the most +lavish scale, with furniture of German as well as of English manufacture. +Mr. Buxton was a collector of pictures and other objects of art; and his +house contained some of the very finest specimens of painting, bronzes, +enamels, plate and woodwork procurable from the Continent. + +The house was divided into two sections; the chief living rooms were in a +long suite looking to the south on to the gardens, with a corridor on the +north side running the whole length of the house on the ground-floor, +from which a staircase rose to a similar corridor or gallery on the first +floor. The second section of the house was a block of some half-dozen +smallish rooms, with a private staircase of their own, and a private +entrance and little walled garden as well in front. The house was mostly +panelled throughout, and here and there hung pieces of magnificent +tapestry and cloth of arras. All was kept, too, with a care that was +unusual in those days--the finest woodwork was brought to a high polish, +as well as all the brass utensils and steel fire-plates and dogs and such +things. No two rooms were alike; each possessed some marked +characteristic of its own--one bedroom, for example, was distinguished by +its fourpost bed with its paintings on the canopy and head--another, by +its little two-light high window with Adam and Eve in stained glass; +another with a little square-window containing a crucifix, which was +generally concealed by a sliding panel; another by two secret cupboards +over the fire-place, and its recess fitted as an oratory; another by a +magnificent piece of tapestry representing Saint Clara and Saint Thomas +of Aquin, each holding a monstrance, with a third great monstrance in the +centre, supported by angels. + +Downstairs the rooms were on the same scale of magnificence. The +drawing-room had an exquisite wooden ceiling with great pendants +elaborately carved; the dining-room was distinguished by its glass, +containing a collection of coats-of-arms of many of Mr. Buxton's friends +who had paid him visits; the hall by its vast fire-place and the +tapestries that hung round it. + +The exterior premises were scarcely less remarkable; a fine row of +stables, and kennels where greyhounds were kept, stood to the north and +the east of the house; but the wonder of the country was the gardens to +the south. Anthony hardly knew what to say for admiration as he went +slowly through these with his host, on the bright spring morning, after +visiting the house. These were elaborately laid out, and under Mr. +Buxton's personal direction, for he was one of the few people in England +at this time who really understood or cared for the art. His avenue of +small clipped limes running down the main walk of the garden, his +yew-hedges fashioned with battlements and towers; his great garden house +with its vane; his fantastic dial in the fashion of a tall striped pole +surmounted by a dragon;--these were the astonishment of visitors; and it +was freely said that had not Mr. Buxton been exceedingly adroit he would +have paid the penalty of his magnificence and originality by being forced +to receive a royal visit--a favour that would have gone far to +impoverish, if not to ruin him. The chancel of the parish-church +overlooked the west end of his lime-avenue, while the east end of the +garden terminated in a great gateway, of stone posts and wrought iron +gates that looked out to the meadows and farm buildings of the estate, +and up to which some day no doubt a broad carriage drive would be laid +down. But at present the sweep of the meadows was unbroken. + +It was to this beautiful place that Anthony found himself welcomed. His +host took him at once on the evening of his arrival to the west block, +and showed him his bedroom--that with the little cupboards and the +oratory recess; and then, taking him downstairs again, showed him a +charming little oak parlour, which he told him would be altogether at his +private service. + +"And you see," added Mr. Buxton, "in this walled garden in front you can +have complete privacy, and thus can take the air without ever coming to +the rest of the house; to which there is this one entrance on the ground +floor." And then he showed him how the lower end of the long corridor +communicated with the block. + +"The only partners of this west block," he added, "will be the two +priests--Mr. Blake, my chaplain, and Mr. Robert, who is staying with me a +week or two; and who, I hope, will conduct you through the Exercises, as +he is very familiar with them. You will meet them both at supper: of +course they will be both dressed as laymen. The Protestants blamed poor +Campion for that, you know; but had he not gone in disguise, they would +only have hanged him all the sooner. I like not hypocrisy." + +Anthony was greatly impressed by Father Robert when he met him at supper. +He was a tall and big man, who seemed about forty years of age, with a +long square-jawed face, a pointed beard and moustache, and shrewd +penetrating eyes. He seemed to be a man in advance of his time; he was +full of reforms and schemes that seemed to Anthony remarkably to the +point; and they were reforms too quite apart from ecclesiasticism, but +rather such as would be classed in our days under the title of Christian +Socialism. + +For example, he showed a great sympathy for the condition of the poor and +outcast and criminals; and had a number of very practical schemes for +their benefit. + +"Two things," he said, in answer to a question of Anthony's, "I would do +to-morrow if I had the power. First I would allow of long leases for +fifty and a hundred years. Everywhere the soil is becoming impoverished; +each man squeezes out of it as much as he can, and troubles not to feed +the land or to care for it beyond his time. Long leases, I hold, would +remedy this. It would encourage the farmer to look before him and think +of his sons and his sons' sons. And second, I would establish banks for +poor men. There is many a man now a-begging who would be living still in +his own house, if there had been some honest man whom he could have +trusted to keep his money for him, and, maybe, give him something for the +loan of it: for in these days, when there is so much enterprise, money +has become, as it were, a living thing that grows; or at the least a tool +that can be used; and therefore, when it is lent, it is right that the +borrower should pay a little for it. This is not the same as the usury +that Holy Church so rightly condemns: at least, I hold not, though some, +I know, differ from me." + +After supper the talk turned on education: here, too, the priest had his +views. + +"But you are weary of hearing me!" he said, in smiling apology. "You will +think me a schoolmaster." + +"And I pray you to consider me your pupil," said Mr. Buxton. The priest +made a little deprecating gesture. + +"First, then," he said, "I would have a great increase of grammar +schools. It is grievous to think of England as she will be when this +generation grows up: the schooling was not much before; but now she has +lost first the schools that were kept by Religious, and now the teaching +that the chantry-priests used to give. But this perhaps may turn to +advantage; for when the Catholic Religion is re-established in these +realms, she will find how sad her condition is; and, I hope, will remedy +it by a better state of things than before--first, by a great number of +grammar schools where the lads can be well taught for small fees, and +where many scholarships will be endowed; and then, so great will be the +increase of learning, as I hope, that we shall need to have a third +university, to which I should join a third Archbishoprick, for the +greater dignity of both; and all this I should set in the north +somewhere, Durham or Newcastle, maybe." + +He spoke, too, with a good deal of shrewdness of the increase of highway +robbery, and the remedies for it; remarking that, although in other +respects the laws were too severe, in this matter their administration +was too lax; since robbers of gentle birth could generally rely on +pardon. He spoke of the Holy Brotherhood in Spain (with which country he +seemed familiar), and its good results in the putting down of violence. + +Anthony grew more and more impressed by this man's practical sense and +ability; but less drawn to him in consequence as his spiritual guide. He +fancied that true spirituality could scarcely exist in this intensely +practical nature. When supper was over, and the priests had gone back to +their rooms, and his host and he were seated before a wide blazing hearth +in Mr. Buxton's own little room downstairs, he hinted something of the +sort. Mr. Buxton laughed outright. + +"My dear friend," he said, "you do not know these Jesuits (for of course +you have guessed that he is one); their training and efficiency is beyond +all imagining. In a week from now you will be considering how ever Father +Robert can have the heart to eat his dinner or say 'good-day' with such a +spiritual vision and insight as he has. You need not fear. Like the angel +in the Revelation, he will call you up to heaven, hale you to the abyss +and show you things to come. And, though you may not believe it, it is +the man's intense and simple piety that makes him so clear-sighted and +practical; he lives so close to God that God's works and methods, so +perplexing to you and me, are plain to him." + +They went on talking together for a while. Mr. Buxton said that Father +Robert had thought it best for Anthony not to enter Retreat until the +Monday evening; by which time he could have sufficiently familiarised +himself with his new surroundings, so as not to find them a distraction +during his spiritual treatment. Anthony agreed to this. Then they talked +of all kinds of things. His host told him of his neighbours; and +explained how it was that he enjoyed such liberty as he did. + +"You noticed the church, Mr. Norris, did you not, at your arrival, +overlooking the garden? It is a great advantage to me to have it so +close. I can sit in my own garden and hear the Genevan thunders from +within. He preaches so loud that I might, if I wished, hear sermons, and +thus satisfy the law and his Reverence; and at the same time not go +inside an heretical meeting-house, and thus satisfy my own conscience and +His Holiness. But I fear that would not have saved me, had I not the ear +of his Reverence. I will tell you how it was. When the laws began to be +enforced hereabouts, his Reverence came to see me; and sat in that very +chair that you now occupy. + +"'I hear,' said he, cocking his eye at me, 'that her Grace is becoming +strict, and more careful for the souls of her subjects.' + +"I agreed with him, and said I had heard as much. + +"'The fine is twenty pounds a month,' says he, 'for recusancy,' and then +he looks at me again." + +"At first I did not catch his meaning; for, as you have noticed, Mr. +Norris, I am but a dull man in dealing with these sharp and subtle +Protestants: and then all at once it flashed across me. + +"'Yes, your Reverence,' I said, 'and it will be the end of poor gentlemen +like me, unless some kind friend has pity on them. How happy I am in +having you!' I said, 'I have never yet shown my appreciation as I should: +and I propose now to give you, to be applied to what purposes you will, +whether the sustenance of the minister or anything else, the sum of ten +pounds a month; so long as I am not troubled by the Council. Of course, +if I should be fined by the Council, I shall have to drop my appreciation +for six months or so.' + +"Well, Mr. Norris, you will hardly believe it, but the old doctor opened +his mouth and gulped and rolled his eyes, like a trout taking a fly; and +I was never troubled until fifteen months ago, when they got at me in +spite of him. But he has lost, you see, a matter of one hundred and fifty +pounds while I have been at Wisbeach; and I shall not begin to appreciate +him again for another six months; so I do not think I shall be troubled +again." + +Anthony was amazed, and said so. + +"Well," said the other, "I was astonished too; and should never have +dreamt of appreciating him in such a manner unless he had proposed it. I +had a little difficulty with Mr. Blake, who told me that it was a +_libellum_, and that I should be ashamed to pay hush money. But I told +him that he might call it what he pleased, but that I would sooner pay +ten pounds a month and be in peace, than twenty pounds a month and be +perpetually harassed: and Father Robert agrees with me, and so the other +is content now." + +The next day, which was Sunday, passed quietly. Mass was no doubt said +somewhere in the house; though Anthony saw no signs of it. He himself +attended the reverend doctor's ministrations in the morning; and found +him to be what he had been led to expect. + +In the afternoon he walked up and down the lime avenue with Father +Robert, while the evening prayer and sermon rumbled forth through the +broken chancel window; and they talked of the Retreat and the +arrangements. + +"You no doubt think, Mr. Norris," said the priest, "that I shall preach +at you in this Retreat, and endeavour to force you into the Catholic +Church; but I shall do nothing of the kind. The whole object of the +Exercises is to clear away the false motives that darken the soul; to +place the Figure of our Redeemer before the soul as her dear and adorable +Lover and King; and then to kindle and inspire the soul to choose her +course through the grace of God, for the only true final motive of all +perfect action,--that is, the pure Love of God. Of course I believe, with +the consent of my whole being, that the Catholic Church is in the right; +but I shall not for a moment attempt to compel you to accept her. The +final choice, as indeed the Retreat too, must be your free action, not +mine." + +They arranged too the details of the Retreat; and Anthony was shown the +little room beyond Father Robert's bedroom, where the Exercises would be +given; and informed that another gentleman who lived in the neighbourhood +would come in every day for them too, but that he would have his meals +separately, and that Anthony himself would have his own room and the room +beneath entirely at his private disposal, as well as the little walled +garden to walk in. + +The next day Mr. Buxton took Anthony a long ride, to invigorate him for +the Retreat that would begin after supper. Anthony learned to his +astonishment and delight that Mary Corbet was a great friend of Mr. +Buxton's. + +"Why, of course I know her," he said. "I have known her since she was a +tiny girl, and threw her mass-book at the minister's face the first time +he read the morning prayer. God only knows why she was so wroth with the +man for differing from herself on a point that has perplexed the wisest +heads: but at any rate, wroth she was, and bang went her book. I had to +take her out, and she was spitting like a kitten all down the aisle when +the dog puts his head into the basket. + +"'What's that man doing here?' she screamed out; 'where's the altar and +the priest?' And then at the door, as luck would have had it, she saw +that Saint Christopher was gone; and she began bewailing and bemoaning +him until you'd have thought he'd have been bound to come down from +heaven, as he did once across the dark river, and see what in the world +the crying child wanted with him." + + * * * * + +They came about half-way in their ride through the village of Penshurst; +and on reaching the Park turned off under the beeches towards the house. + +"We have not time to go in," said Mr. Buxton, "but I hope you will see +the house sometime; it is a pattern of what a house should be; and has a +pattern master." + +As they came up to the Edwardine Gate-house, a pleasant-faced, +quietly-dressed gentleman came riding out alone. + +"Why, here he is!" said Mr. Buxton, and greeted him with great warmth, +and made Anthony known to him. + +"I am delighted to know Mr. Norris," said Sidney, with that keen friendly +look that was so characteristic of him. "I have heard of him from many +quarters." + +He entreated them to come in; but Mr. Buxton said they had not time; but +would if they might just glance into the great court. So Sidney took them +through the gate-house and pointed out one or two things of interest from +the entrance, the roof of the Great Hall built by Sir John de Pulteney, +the rare tracery in its windows and the fine living-rooms at one side. + +"I thank God for it every day," said Sidney gravely. "I cannot imagine +why He should have given it me. I hope I am not fool enough to disparage +His gifts, and pretend they are nothing: indeed, I love it with all my +heart. I would as soon think of calling my wife ugly or a shrew." + +"That is a good man and a gentleman," said Mr. Buxton, as they rode away +at last in the direction of Leigh after leaving Sidney to branch off +towards Charket, "and I do not know why he is not a Catholic. And he is a +critic and a poet, men say, too." + +"Have you read anything of his?" asked Anthony. + +"Well," said the other, "to tell the truth, I have tried to read some +sheets of his that he wrote for his sister, Lady Pembroke. He calls it +'Arcadia'; I do not know whether it is finished or ever will be. But it +seemed to me wondrous dull. It was full of shepherds and swains and +nymphs, who are perpetually eating collations which Phoebus or sunburnt +Autumn, and the like, provides of his bounty; or any one but God +Almighty; or else they are bathing and surprising one another all day +long. It is all very sweet and exquisite, I know; and the Greece, where +they all live and love one another, must be a very delightful country, as +unlike this world as it is possible to imagine; but it wearies me. I like +plain England and plain folk and plain religion and plain fare; but then +I am a plain man, as I tell you so often." + +As the afternoon sun drew near setting, they came through Tonbridge. + +"Now, what can a man ask more," said Mr. Buxton, as they rode through it, +"than a good town like this? It is not a great place, I know, with solemn +buildings and wide streets; neither is it a glade or a dell; but it is a +good clean English town; and I would not exchange it for Arcadia or +Athens either." + +Stanfield lay about two miles to the west; and on their way out, Mr. +Buxton talked on about the country and its joys and its usefulness. + +"Over there," he said, pointing towards Eridge, "was the first cannon +made in England. I do not know if that is altogether to its credit, but +it at least shows that we are not quite idle and loutish in the country. +Then all about here is the iron; the very stirrups you ride in, Mr. +Norris, most likely came from the ground beneath your feet; but it is sad +to see all the woods cut down for the smelting of it. All these places +for miles about here, and about Great Keynes too, are all named after the +things of forestry and hunting. Buckhurst, Hartfield, Sevenoaks, Forest +Row, and the like, all tell of the country, and will do so long after we +are dead and gone." + +They reached Stanfield, rode past the green and the large piece of water +there, and up the long village street, and turned into the iron gates +beyond the church, just as the dusk fell. + +That evening after supper the Retreat began. The conduct of the Spiritual +Exercises had not reached the elaboration to which they have been +perfected since; nor, in Anthony's case, a layman and a young man, did +Father Robert think fit to apply it even in all the details in which it +would be used for a priest or for one far advanced in the spiritual life; +but it was severe enough. + +Every evening Father Robert indicated the subject of the following day's +meditation; and then after private prayer Anthony retired to his room. He +rose about seven o'clock in the morning, and took a little food at eight; +then shortly before nine the first meditation was given elaborately. The +first examination of conscience was made at eleven; followed by dinner at +half-past. From half-past twelve to half-past one Anthony rested in his +room; then until three he was encouraged to walk in the garden; at three +the meditation was to be recalled point by point in the chapel, followed +by spiritual reading; at five o'clock supper was served; and at half-past +six the meditation was repeated with tremendous emphasis and fervent acts +of devotion; at half-past eight a slight collation was laid in his room; +and at half-past nine the meditation for the following day was given. +Father Robert in his previous talks with Anthony had given him +instructions as to how to occupy his own time, to keep his thoughts fixed +and so forth. He had thought it wise too not to extend the Retreat for +longer than a fortnight; so that it was proposed to end it on Palm +Sunday. Two or three times in the week Anthony rode out by himself; and +Father Robert was always at his service, besides himself coming sometimes +to talk to him when he thought the strain or the monotony was getting too +heavy. + +As for the Exercises themselves, the effect of them on Anthony was beyond +all description. First the circumstances under which they were given were +of the greatest assistance to their effectiveness. There was every aid +that romance and mystery could give. Then it was in a strange and +beautiful house where everything tended to caress the mind out of all +self-consciousness. The little panelled room in which the exercises were +given looked out over the quiet garden, and no sound penetrated there but +the far-off muffled noises of the peaceful village life, the rustle of +the wind in the evergreens, and the occasional coo or soft flapping +flight of a pigeon from the cote in the garden. The room itself was +furnished with two or three faldstools and upright wooden arm-chairs of +tolerable comfort; a table was placed at the further end, on which stood +a realistic Spanish crucifix with two tapers always burning before it; +and a little jar of fragrant herbs. Then there was the continual sense of +slight personal danger that is such a spur to refined natures; here was a +Catholic house, of which every member was strictly subject to penalties, +and above all one of that mysterious Society of Jesus, the very vanguard +of the Catholic army, and of which every member was a picked and trained +champion. Then there was the amazing enthusiasm, experience, and skill of +Father Robert, as he called himself; who knew human nature as an +anatomist knows the structure of the human body; to whom the bewildering +tangle of motives, good, bad and indifferent, in the soul, was as plain +as paths in a garden; who knew what human nature needed, what it could +dispense with, what was its power of resistance; and who had at his +disposal for the storming of the soul an armoury of weapons and engines, +every specimen of which he had tested and wielded over and over again. +Little as Anthony knew it, Father Robert, during the first two days after +his arrival, had occupied himself with sounding and probing the lad's +soul, trying his intellect by questions that scarcely seemed to be so, +taking the temperature of his emotional nature by tales and adroit +remarks, and watching the effect of them; in short, with studying the +soul who had come for his treatment as a careful doctor examines the +health of a new patient before he issues his prescription. And then, +lastly, there were the Exercises themselves, a mighty weapon in any +hands; and all but irresistible when directed by the skill, and inspired +by the enthusiasm and sincere piety of such a man as Father Robert. + +The Exercises fell into three parts, each averaging in Anthony's case +about five days. First came the Purgative Exercises: the object of these +was to cleanse and search out the very recesses of the soul; as fire +separates gold from alloy. + +As Anthony knelt in the little room before the Crucifix day by day, it +seemed to him as if the old conventional limitations and motives of +action and control were rolling back, revealing the realities of the +spiritual world. The Exercises began with an elaborate exposition of the +End of man--which may be roughly defined as the Glory of God attained +through the saving and sanctifying of the individual. Every creature of +God, then, that the soul encounters must be tested by this rule, How far +does the use of it serve for the final end? For it must be used so far, +and no farther. Here then was a diagram of the Exercises, given in +miniature at the beginning. + +Then the great facts that practically all men acknowledge, and upon which +so few act, were brought into play. Hell, Judgment and Death in turn +began to work upon the lad's soul--these monstrous elemental Truths that +underlie all things. As Father Robert's deep vibrating voice spoke, it +appeared to Anthony as if the room, the walls, the house, the world, all +shrank to filmy nothingness before the appalling realities of these +things. In that strange and profound "Exercise of the senses" he heard +the moaning and the blasphemies of the damned, of those rebellious free +wills that have enslaved themselves into eternal bondage by a deliberate +rejection of God--he put out his finger and tasted the bitterness of +their furious tears--the very reek of sin came to his nostrils, of that +corruption that is in existence through sin; nay, he saw the very flaming +hells red with man's wrath against his Maker. + +Then he traced back, under the priest's direction, the Judgment through +which every soul must pass; he saw the dead, great and small, stand +before God; the books, black with blotted shame, were borne forth by the +recording angels and spread before the tribunal. His ears tingled with +that condemning silence of the Judge beyond Whom there is no appeal, from +whose sentence there is no respite, and from whose prison there is no +discharge; and rang with that pealing death-sentence at which the angels +hide their faces, but to which the conscience of the criminal assents +that it is just. His soul looked out at those whirling hosts on either +side, that black cloud going down to despair, that radiant company +hastening to rise to the Uncreated Light in whom there is no darkness at +all--and cried in piteous suspense to know on which side she herself one +day would be. + +Then he came yet one step further back still, and told himself the story +of his death. He saw the little room where he would lie, his bed in one +corner; he saw Isabel beside the bed; he saw himself, white, gasping, +convulsed, upon it--the shadows of the doctor and the priest were upon +the wall--he heard his own quick sobbing breath, he put out his finger +and touched his own forehead wet with the death-dew--he tasted and smelt +the faint sickly atmosphere that hangs about a death chamber; and he +watched the grey shadow of Azrael's wing creep across his face. Then he +saw the sheet and the stiff form beneath it; and knew that they were his +features that were hidden; and that they were his feet that stood up +stark below the covering. Then he visited his own grave, and saw the +month-old grass blowing upon it, and the little cross at the head; then +he dug down through the soil, swept away the earth from his coffin-plate; +drew the screws and lifted the lid.... + +Then he placed sin beneath the white light; dissected it, analysed it, +weighed it and calculated its worth, watched its development in the +congenial surroundings of an innocent soul, that is rich in grace and +leisure and gifts, and saw the astonishing reversal of God's primal law +illustrated in the process of corruption--the fair, sweet, fragrant +creature passing into foulness. He looked carefully at the stages and +modes of sin--venial sins, those tiny ulcers that weaken, poison and +spoil the soul, even if they do not slay it--lukewarmness, that deathly +slumber that engulfs the living thing into gradual death--and, finally, +mortal sin, that one and only wholly hideous thing. He saw the +indescribable sight of a naked soul in mortal sin; he saw how the earth +shrank from it, how nature grew silent at it, how the sun darkened at it, +how hell yelled at it, and the Love of God sickened at it. + +And so, as the purgative days went by, these tempests poured over his +soul, sifted through it, as the sea through a hanging weed, till all that +was not organically part of his life was swept away, and he was left a +simple soul alone with God. Then the second process began. + +To change the metaphor, the canvas was now prepared, scoured, bleached +and stretched. What is the image to be painted upon it? It is the image +of Christ. + +Now Father Robert laid aside his knives and his hammer, and took up his +soft brushes, and began stroke by stroke, with colours beyond imagining, +to lay upon the eager canvas the likeness of an adorable Lover and King. +Anthony watched the portrait grow day by day with increasing wonder. Was +this indeed the Jesus of Nazareth of whom he had read in the Gospels? he +rubbed his eyes and looked; and yet there was no possibility of +mistake,--line for line it was the same. + +But this portrait grew and breathed and moved, and passed through all the +stages of man's life. First it was the Eternal Word in the bosom of the +Father, the Beloved Son who looked in compassion upon the warring world +beneath; and offered Himself to the Father who gave Him through the +Energy of the Blessed Spirit. + +Then it was a silent Maid that he saw waiting upon God, offering herself +with her lily beside her; and in answer on a sudden came the lightning of +Gabriel's appearing, and, lo! the Eternal Word stole upon her down a ray +of glory. And then at last he saw the dear Child born; and as he looked +he was invited to enter the stable; and again he put out his hand and +touched the coarse straw that lay in the manger, and fingered the rough +brown cord that hung from Mary's waist, and smelled the sweet breath of +the cattle, and the burning oil of Joseph's lantern hung against the +wall, and shivered as the night wind shrilled under the ill-fitting door +and awoke the tender Child. + +Then he watched Him grow to boyhood, increasing in wisdom and stature, +Him who was uncreated Wisdom, and in whose Hands are the worlds--followed +Him, loving Him more at every step, to and from the well at Nazareth with +the pitcher on His head: saw Him with blistered hands and aching back in +the carpenter's shop; then at last went south with Him to Jordan; +listened with Him, hungering, to the jackals in the wilderness; rocked +with Him on the high Temple spire; stared with Him at the Empires of all +time, and refused them as a gift. Then he went with Him from miracle to +miracle, laughed with joy at the leper's new skin; wept in sorrow and joy +with the mother at Nain, and the two sisters at Bethany; knelt with Mary +and kissed His feet; went home with Matthew and Zaccheus, and sat at meat +with the merry sinners; and at last began to follow silent and amazed +with face set towards Jerusalem, up the long lonely road from Jericho. + +Then, with love that almost burned his heart, he crouched at the moonlit +door outside and watched the Supper begin. Judas pushed by him, +muttering, and vanished in the shadows of the street. He heard the hush +fall as the Bread was broken and the Red Wine uplifted; and he hid his +face, for he dared not yet look with John upon a glory whose veils were +so thin. Then he followed the silent company through the overhung streets +to the Temple Courts, and down across the white bridge to the garden +door. Then, bolder, he drew near, left the eight and the three and knelt +close to the single Figure, who sobbed and trembled and sweated blood. +Then he heard the clash of weapons and saw the glare of the torches, and +longed to warn Him but could not; saw the bitter shame of the kiss and +the arrest and the flight; and followed to Caiaphas' house; heard the +stinging slap; ran to Pilate's house; saw that polished gentleman yawn +and sneer; saw the clinging thongs and the splashed floor when the +scourging was over; followed on to Calvary; saw the great Cross rise up +at last over the heads of the crowd, and heard the storm of hoots and +laughter and the dry sobs of the few women. Then over his head the sun +grew dull, and the earth rocked and split, as the crosses reeled with +their swinging burdens. Then, as the light came back, and the earth ended +her long shudder, he saw in the evening glow that his Lord was dead. Then +he followed to the tomb; saw the stone set and sealed and the watch +appointed; and went home with Mary and John, and waited. + +Then on Easter morning, wherever his Lord was, he was there too; with +Mary in that unrecorded visit; with the women, with the Apostles; on the +road to Emmaus; on the lake of Galilee; and his heart burned with Christ +at his side, on lake and road and mountain. + +Then at last he stood with the Twelve and saw that end that was so +glorious a beginning; saw that tender sky overhead generate its strange +cloud that was the door of heaven; heard far away the trumpets cry, and +the harps begin to ripple for the new song that the harpers had learned +at last; and then followed with his eyes the Lord whom he had now learned +to know and love as never before, as He passed smiling and blessing into +the heaven from which one day He will return.... + + * * * * + +There, then, as Anthony looked on the canvas, was that living, moving +face and figure. What more could He have done that He did not do? What +perfection could be dreamed of that was not already a thousand times His? + +And when the likeness was finished, and Father Robert stepped aside from +the portrait that he had painted with such tender skill and love, it is +little wonder that this lad threw himself down before that eloquent +vision and cried with Thomas, My Lord and my God! + + * * * * + +Then, very gently, Father Robert led him through those last steps; up +from the Illuminative to the Unitive; from the Incarnate Life with its +warm human interests to that Ineffable Light that seems so chill and +unreal to those who only see it through the clouds of earth, into that +keen icy stillness, where only favoured and long-trained souls can +breathe, up the piercing air of the slopes that lead to the Throne, and +there in the listening silence of heaven, where the voice of adoration +itself is silent through sheer intensity, where all colours return to +whiteness and all sounds to stillness, all forms to essence and all +creation to the Creator, there he let him fall in self-forgetting love +and wonder, breathe out his soul in one ardent all-containing act, and +make his choice. + + + + + CHAPTER XIV + + EASTER DAY + + +Holy Week passed for Anthony like one of those strange dreams in which +the sleeper awakes to find tears on his face, and does not know whether +they are for joy or sorrow. At the end of the Retreat that closed on Palm +Sunday evening, Anthony had made his choice, and told Father Robert. + +It was not the Exercises themselves that were the direct agent, any more +than were the books he had read: the books had cleared away intellectual +difficulties, and the Retreat moral obstacles, and left his soul desiring +the highest, keen to see it, and free to embrace it. The thought that he +would have to tell Isabel appeared to him of course painful and +difficult; but it was swallowed up in the joy of his conversion. He made +an arrangement with Father Robert to be received at Cuckfield on Easter +Eve; so that he might have an opportunity of telling Isabel before he +took the actual step. The priest told him he would give him a letter to +Mr. Barnes, so that he might be received immediately upon his arrival. + +Holy Week, then, was occupied for Anthony in receiving instruction each +morning in the little oak parlour from Father Robert; and in attending +the devotions in the evening with the rest of the household. He also +heard mass each day. + +It was impossible, of course, to carry out the special devotions of the +season with the splendour and elaboration that belonged to them; but +Anthony was greatly impressed by what he saw. The tender reverence with +which the Catholics loved to linger over the details of the Passion, and +to set them like precious jewels in magnificent liturgical settings, and +then to perform these stately heart-broken approaches to God with all the +dignity and solemnity possible, appealed to him in strong contrast to the +cold and loveless services, as he now thought them, of the Established +Church that he had left. + +On the Good Friday evening he was long in the parlour with Father Robert. + +"I am deeply thankful, my son," he said kindly, "that you have been able +to come to a decision. Of course I could have wished you to enter the +Society; but God has not given you a vocation to that apparently. +However, you can do great work for Him as a seminary priest; and I am +exceedingly glad that you will be going to Douai so soon." + +"I must just put my affairs in order at home," he said, "and see what +arrangements my sister will wish to make; and by Midsummer at the latest +I shall hope to be gone." + +"I must be off early to-morrow," said the priest. "I have to be far from +here by to-morrow night, in a house where I shall hope to stay until I, +too, go abroad again. Possibly we may meet at Douai in the autumn. Well, +my son, pray for me." + +Anthony knelt for his blessing, and the priest was gone. + +Presently Mr. Buxton came in and sat down. He was full of delight at the +result of his scheme; and said so again and again. + +"Who could have predicted it?" he cried. "To think that you were visiting +me in prison fifteen months ago; and now this has come about in my house! +Truly the Gospel blessing on your action has not been long on the way! +And that you will be a priest, too! You must come and be my chaplain some +day; if we are both alive and escape the gallows so long. Old Mr. Blake +is sore displeased with me. I am a trial to him, I know. He will hardly +speak to me in my own house; I declare I tremble when I meet him in the +gallery; for fear he will rate me before my servants. I forget what his +last grievance is; but I think it is something to do with a saint that he +wishes me to be devout to; and I do not like her. Of course I do not +doubt her sanctity; but Mr. Blake always confuses veneration and liking. +I yield to none in my veneration for Saint What's-her-name; but I do not +like her; and that is an end of the matter." + +After a little more talk, Mr. Buxton looked at Anthony curiously a moment +or two; and then said: + +"I wonder you have not guessed yet who Father Robert is; for I am sure +you know that that cannot be his real name." + +Anthony looked at him wonderingly. + +"Well, he is in bed now; and will be off early to-morrow; and I have his +leave to tell you. He is Father Persons, of whom you may have heard." + +Anthony stared. + +"Yes," said his host, "the companion of Campion. All the world supposes +him to be in Rome; and I think that not half-a-dozen persons besides +ourselves know where he is; but at this moment, I assure you, Father +Robert Persons, of the Society of Jesus, is asleep (or awake, as the case +may be) in the little tapestry chamber overhead." + +"Now," went on Mr. Buxton, "that you are one of us, I will tell you quite +plainly that Father Robert, as we will continue to call him, is in my +opinion one of the most devout priests that ever said mass; and also one +of the most shrewd men that ever drew breath; but I cannot follow him +everywhere. You will find, Mr. Anthony, that the Catholics in England are +of two kinds: those who seem to have as their motto the text I quoted to +you in Lambeth prison; and who count their duty to Caesar as scarcely less +important than their direct duty to God. I am one of these: I sincerely +desire above all things to serve her Grace, and I would not, for all the +world, join in any confederacy to dethrone her, for I hold she is my +lawful and true Prince. Then there is another party who would not +hesitate for a moment to take part against their Prince, though I do not +say to the slaying of her, if thereby the Catholic Religion could be +established again in these realms. It is an exceedingly difficult point; +and I understand well how honest and good men can hold that view: for +they say, and rightly, that the Kingdom of God is the first thing in the +world, and while they may not commit sin of course to further it, yet in +things indifferent they must sacrifice all for it; and, they add, it is +indifferent as to who sits on the throne of England; therefore one Prince +may be pushed off it, so long as no crime is committed in the doing of +it, and another seated there; if thereby the Religion may be so +established again. You see the point, Mr. Anthony, no doubt; and how fine +and delicate it is. Well, Father Robert is, I think, of that party; and +so are many of the authorities abroad. Now I tell you all this, and on +this sacred day too, because I may have no other opportunity; and I do +not wish you to be startled or offended after you have become a Catholic. +And I entreat you to be warm and kindly to those who take other views +than your own; for I fear that many troubles lie in front of us of our +own causing: for there are divisions amongst us already: although not at +all of course (for which I thank God) on any of the saving truths of the +Faith." + +Anthony's excitement on hearing Father Robert's real name was very great. +As he lay in bed that night the thought of it all would hardly let him +sleep. He turned to and fro, trying to realise that there, within a dozen +yards of him, lay the famous Jesuit for whose blood all Protestant +England was clamouring. The name of Persons was still sinister and +terrible even to this convert; and he could scarcely associate in his +thoughts all its suggestiveness with that kindly fervent lover of Jesus +Christ who had led him with such skill and tenderness along the way of +the Gospel. Others in England were similarly astonished in later years to +learn that a famous Puritan book of devotions was scarcely other than a +reprint of Father Persons' "Christian Directory." + +The following day about noon, after an affectionate good-bye to his host +and Mr. Blake, Anthony rode out of the iron-wrought gates and down the +village street in the direction of Great Keynes. + +It was a perfect spring-day. Overhead there was a soft blue sky with +translucent clouds floating in it; underfoot and on all sides the mystery +of life was beginning to stir and manifest itself. The last touch of +bitterness had passed from the breeze, and all living growth was making +haste out into the air. The hedges were green with open buds, and +bubbling with the laughter and ecstasy of the birds; the high sloping +overhung Sussex lanes were sweet with violets and primroses; and here and +there under the boughs Anthony saw the blue carpet of bell-flowers +spread. Rabbits whisked in and out of the roots, superintending and +provisioning the crowded nurseries underground; and as Anthony came out, +now and again on the higher and open spaces larks vanished up their airy +spirals of song into the illimitable blue; or hung, visible musical +specks against a fleecy cloud, pouring down their thin cataract of +melody. And as he rode, for every note of music and every glimpse of +colour round him, his own heart poured out pulse after pulse of that +spiritual essence that lies beneath all beauty, and from which all beauty +is formed, to the Maker of all this and the Saviour of himself. There +were set wide before him now the gates of a kingdom, compared to which +this realm of material life round about was but a cramped and wintry +prison after all. + +How long he had lived in the cold and the dark! he thought; kept alive by +the refracted light that stole down the steps to where he sat in the +shadow of death; saved from freezing by the warmth of grace that managed +to survive the chill about him; and all the while the Catholic Church was +glowing and pulsating with grace, close to him and yet unseen; that great +realm full of heavenly sunlight, that was the life of all its +members--that sunlight that had poured down so steadily ever since the +winter had rolled away on Calvary; and that ever since then had been +elaborating and developing into a thousand intricate forms all that was +capable of absorbing it. One by one the great arts had been drawn into +that Kingdom, transformed and immortalised by the vital and miraculous +sap of grace; philosophies, languages, sciences, all in turn were taken +up and sanctified; and now this Puritan soul, thirsty for knowledge and +grace, and so long starved and imprisoned, was entering at last into her +heritage. + +All this was of course but dimly felt in the direct perceptions of +Anthony; but Father Robert had said enough to open something of the +vision, and he himself had sufficient apprehension to make him feel that +the old meagre life was passing away, and a new life of unfathomed +possibilities beginning. As he rode the wilderness appeared to rejoice +and blossom like the rose, as the spring of nature and grace stirred +about and within him; and only an hour or two's ride away lay the very +hills and streams of the Promised Land. + + * * * * + +About half-past three he crossed the London road, and before four o'clock +he rode round to the door of the Dower House, dismounted, telling the +groom to keep his horse saddled. + +He went straight through the hall, calling Isabel as he went, and into +the garden, carrying his flat cap and whip and gloves: and as he came out +beneath the holly tree, there she stood before him on the top of the old +stone garden steps, that rose up between earthen flower-jars to the +yew-walk on the north of the house. He went across the grass smiling, and +as he came saw her face grow whiter and whiter. She was in a dark serge +dress with a plain ruff, and a hood behind it, and her hair was coiled in +great masses on her head. She stood trembling, and he came up and took +her in his arms tenderly and kissed her, for his news would be heavy +presently. + +"Why, Isabel," he said, "you look astonished to see me. But I could not +well send a man, as I had only Geoffrey with me." + +She tried to speak, but could not; and looked so overwhelmed and +terrified that Anthony grew frightened; he saw he must be very gentle. + +"Sit down," he said, drawing her to a seat beside the path at the head of +the steps: "and tell me the news." + +By a great effort she regained her self-control. + +"I did not know when you were coming," she said tremulously. "I was +startled." + +He talked of his journey for a few minutes; and of the kindness of the +friend with whom he had been staying, and the beauty of the house and +grounds, and so on; until she seemed herself again; and the piteous +startled look had died out of her eyes: and then he forced himself to +approach his point; for the horse was waiting saddled; and he must get to +Cuckfield and back by supper if possible. + +He took her hand and played with it gently as he spoke, turning over her +rings. + +"Isabel," he said, "I have news to tell you. It is not bad news--at least +I think not--it is the best thing that has ever come to me yet, by the +grace of God, and so you need not be anxious or frightened. But I am +afraid you may think it bad news. It--it is about religion, Isabel." + +He glanced at her, and saw that terrified look again in her face: she was +staring at him, and her hand in his began to twitch and tremble. + +"Nay, nay," he said, "there is no need to look like that. I have not lost +my faith in God. Rather, I have gained it. Isabel, I am going to be a +Catholic." + +A curious sound broke from her lips; and a look so strange came into her +face that he threw his arm round her, thinking she was going to faint: +and he spoke sharply. + +"Isabel, Isabel, what is there to fear? Look at me!" + +Then a cry broke from her white lips, and she struggled to stand up. + +"No, no, no! you are mocking me. Oh! Anthony, what have I done, that you +should treat me like this?" + +"Mocking!" he said, "before God I am not. My horse is waiting to take me +to the priest." + +"But--but--" she began again. "Oh! then what have you done to James +Maxwell?" + +"James Maxwell! Why? What do you mean? You got my note!" + +"No--no. There was no answer, he said." + +Anthony stared. + +"Why, I wrote--and then Lady Maxwell! Does she not know, and James +himself?" + +Isabel shook her head and looked at him wildly. + +"Well, well, that must wait; one thing at a time," he said. "I _cannot_ +wait now. I must go to Cuckfield. Ah! Isabel, say you understand." + +Once or twice she began to speak, but failed; and sat panting and staring +at him. + +"My darling," he said, "do not look like that: we are both Christians +still: we at least serve the same God. Surely you will not cast me off +for this?" + +"Cast you off?" she said; and she laughed piteously and sharply; and then +was grave again. Then she suddenly cried, + +"Oh, Anthony, swear to me you are not mocking me." + +"My darling," he said, "why should I mock you? I have made the Exercises, +and have been instructed; and I have here a letter to Mr. Barnes from the +priest who has taught me; so that I may be received to-night, and make my +Easter duties: and Geoffrey is still at the door holding Roland to take +me to Cuckfield to-night." + +"To Cuckfield!" she said. "You will not find Mr. Barnes there." + +"Not there! why not? Where shall I find him? How do you know?" + +"Because he is here," she went on in the same strange voice, "at the +Hall." + +"Well," said Anthony, "that saves me a journey. Why is he here?" + +"He is here to say mass to-morrow." + +"Ah!" + +"And--and----" + +"What is it, Isabel?" + +"And--to receive me into the Church to-night." + + * * * * + +The brother and sister walked up and down that soft spring evening after +supper, on the yew-walk; with the whispers and caresses of the scented +breeze about them, the shy dewy eyes of the stars looking down at them +between the tall spires of the evergreens overhead; and in their hearts +the joy of lovers on a wedding-night. + +Anthony had soon told the tale of James Maxwell and Isabel had nearly +knelt to ask her brother's pardon for having ever allowed even the shadow +of a suspicion to darken her heart. Lady Maxwell, too, who had come down +with her sister to see Isabel about some small arrangement, was told; and +she too had been nearly overwhelmed with the joy of knowing that the lad +was innocent, and the grief of having dreamed he could be otherwise, and +at the wholly unexpected news of his conversion; but she had gone at last +back to the Hall to make all ready for the double ceremony of that night, +and the Paschal Feast on the next day. Mistress Margaret was in Isabel's +room, moving about with a candle, and every time that the two reached the +turn at the top of the steps they saw her light glimmering. + +Then Anthony, as they walked under the stars, told Isabel of his great +hope that he, too, one day would be a priest, and serve God and his +countrymen that way. + +"Oh, Anthony," she whispered, and clung to that dear arm that held her +own; terrified for the moment at the memory of what had been the price of +priesthood to James Maxwell. + +"And where shall you be trained for it?" she asked. + +"At Douai: and--Isabel--I think I must go this summer." + +"This summer!" she said. "Why----" and she was silent. + +"Anthony," she went on, "I would like to tell you about Hubert." + +And then the story of the past months came out; she turned away her face +as she talked; and at last she told him how Hubert had come for his +answer, a week before his time. + +"It was on Monday," she said. "I heard him on the stairs, and stood up as +he came in; and he stopped at the door in silence, and I could not bear +to look at him. I could hear him breathing quickly; and then I could not +bear to--think of it all; and I dropped down into my chair again, and hid +my face in my arm and burst into crying. And still he said nothing, but I +felt him come close up to me and kneel down by me; and he put his hand +over mine, and held them tight; and then he whispered in a kind of quick +way: + +"'I will be what you please; Catholic or Protestant, or what you will'; +and I lifted my head and looked at him, because it was dreadful to hear +him--Hubert--say that: and he was whiter than I had ever seen him; and +then--then he began to wrinkle his mouth--you know the way he does when +his horse is pulling or kicking: and then he began to say all kinds of +things: and oh! I was so sorry; because he had behaved so well till +then." + +"What did he say?" asked Anthony quickly. + +"Ah! I have tried to forget," said Isabel. "I do not want to think of him +as he was when he was angry and disappointed. At last he flung out of the +room and down the stairs, and I have not seen him since. But Lady Maxwell +sent for me the same evening an hour later; and told me that she could +not live there any longer. She said that Hubert had ridden off to London; +and would not be down again till Whitsuntide; but that she must be gone +before then. So I am afraid that he said things he ought not; but of +course she did not tell me one word. And she asked me to go with her. +And, and--Anthony, I did not know what to say; because I did not know +what you would do when you heard that I was a Catholic; I was waiting to +tell you when you came home--but now--but now----Oh, Anthony, my +darling!" + +At last the two came indoors. Mistress Margaret met them in the hall. She +looked for a moment at the two; at Anthony in his satin and lace and his +smiling face over his ruff and his steady brown eyes; and Isabel on his +arm, with her clear pale face and bosom and black high-piled hair, and +her velvet and lace, and a rope of pearls. + +"Why," said the old nun, smiling, "you look a pair of lovers." + +Then presently the three went together up to the Hall. + + * * * * + +An hour or two passed away; the Paschal moon was rising high over the +tall yew hedge behind the Italian garden; and the Hall lay beneath it +with silver roofs and vane; and black shadows under the eaves and in the +angles. The tall oriel window of the Hall looking on to the terrace shone +out with candlelight; and the armorial coats of the Maxwells and the +families they had married with glimmered in the upper panes. From the +cloister wing there shone out above the curtains lines of light in Lady +Maxwell's suite of rooms, and the little oak parlour beneath, as well as +from one or two other rooms; but the rest of the house, with the +exception of the great hall and the servants' quarters, was all dark. It +was as if the interior life had shifted westwards, leaving the remainder +desolate. The gardens to the south were silent, for the night breeze had +dropped; and the faint ripple of the fountain within the cloister-court +was the only sound that broke the stillness. And once or twice the sleepy +chirp of a bird nestling by his mate in the deep shrubberies showed that +the life of the spring was beating out of sight. + +And then at last the door in the west angle of the terrace, between the +cloister wing and the front of the house, opened, and a flood of mellow +light poured out on to the flat pavement. A group stood within the little +oaken red-tiled lobby; Lady Maxwell and her sister, slender and dignified +in their dark evening dresses and ruffs; Anthony holding his cap, and +Isabel with a lace shawl over her head, and at the back the white hair +and ruddy face of old Mr. Barnes in his cassock at the bottom of the +stairs. + +As Mistress Margaret opened the door and looked out, Lady Maxwell took +Isabel in her arms and kissed her again and again. Then Anthony took the +old lady's hand and kissed it, but she threw her other hand round him and +kissed him too on the forehead. Then without another word the brother and +sister came out into the moonlight, passed down the side of the cloister +wing, and turning once to salute the group who waited, framed and bathed +in golden light, they turned the corner to the Dower House. Then the door +closed; the oriel window suddenly darkened, and an hour after the lights +in the wing went out, and Maxwell Hall lay silver and grey again in the +moonlight. + +The night passed on. Once Isabel awoke, and saw her windows blue and +mystical and her room full of a dim radiance from the bright night +outside. It was irresistible, and she sprang out of bed and went to the +window across the cool polished oak floor, and leaned with her elbows on +the sill, looking out at the square of lawn and the low ivied wall +beneath, and the tall trees rising beyond ashen-grey and olive-black in +the brilliant glory that poured down from almost directly overhead, for +the Paschal moon was at its height above the house. + +And then suddenly the breathing silence was broken by a ripple of melody, +and another joined and another; and Isabel looked and wondered and +listened, for she had never heard before the music of the mysterious +night-flight of the larks all soaring and singing together when the rest +of the world is asleep. And she listened and wondered as the stream of +song poured down from the wonderful spaces of the sky, rising to far-off +ecstasies as the wheeling world sank yet further with its sleeping +meadows and woods beneath the whirling singers; and then the earth for a +moment turned in its sleep as Isabel listened, and the trees stirred as +one deep breath came across the woods, and a thrush murmured a note or +two beside the drive, and a rabbit suddenly awoke in the field and ran on +to the lawn and sat up and looked at the white figure at the window; and +far away from the direction of Lindfield a stag brayed. + +"So longeth my soul," whispered Isabel to herself. + +Then all grew still again; the trees hushed; the torrent of music, more +tumultuous as it neared the earth, suddenly ceased; and Isabel at the +window leaned further out and held her hands in the bath of light; and +spoke softly into the night: + +"Oh, Lord Jesus, how kind Thou art to me!" + + * * * * + +Then at last the morning came, and Christ was risen beyond a doubt. + +Just before the sun came up, when all the sky was luminous to meet him, +the two again passed up and round the corner, and into the little door in +the angle. There was the same shaded candle or two, for the house was yet +dark within; and they passed up and on together through the sitting-room +into the chapel where each had made a First Confession the night before, +and had together been received into the Catholic Church. Now it was all +fragrant with flowers and herbs; a pair of tall lilies leaned their +delicate heads towards the altar, as if to listen for the soundless +Coming in the Name of the Lord; underfoot all about the altar lay sprigs +of sweet herbs, rosemary, thyme, lavender, bay-leaves; with white +blossoms scattered over them--a soft carpet for the Pierced Feet; not +like those rustling palm-swords over which He rode to death last week. +The black oak chest that supported the altar-stone was glorious in its +vesture of cloth-of-gold; and against the white-hung wall at the back, +behind the silver candlesticks, leaned the gold plate of the house, to do +honour to the King. And presently there stood there the radiant rustling +figure of the Priest, his personality sheathed and obliterated beneath +the splendid symbolism of his vestments, stiff and chinking with jewels +as he moved. + +The glorious Mass of Easter Day began. + +"_Immolatus est Christus. Itaque epulemur_," Saint Paul cried from the +south corner of the altar to the two converts. "Christ our Passover is +sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the feast, but not with the old +leaven." + +"_Quis revolvet nobis lapidem?_" wailed the women. "Who shall roll us +away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?" + +"And when they looked," cried the triumphant Evangelist, "they saw that +the stone was rolled away; for it was very great"--"_erat quippe magnus +valde_." + +Here then they knelt at last, these two come home together, these who had +followed their several paths so resolutely in the dark, not knowing that +the other was near, yet each seeking a hidden Lord, and finding both Him +and one another now in the full and visible glory of His Face--_orto jam +sole_--for the Sun of Righteousness had dawned, and there was healing for +all sorrows in His Wings. + +"_Et credo in unam sanctam Catholicam et Apostolicam Ecclesiam_"--their +hearts cried all together. "I believe at last in a Catholic Church; one, +for it is built on one and its faith is one; holy, for it is the Daughter +of God and the Mother of Saints; Apostolic, for it is guided by the +Prince of Apostles and very Vicar of Christ." + +"_Et exspecto vitam venturi saeculi._" "I look for the life of the world +to come; and I count all things but loss, houses and brethren and sisters +and father and mother and wife and children and lands, when I look to +that everlasting life, and Him Who is the Way to it. _Amen._" + +So from step to step the liturgy moved on with its sonorous and exultant +tramp, and the crowding thoughts forgot themselves, and watched as the +splendid heralds went by; the triumphant trumpets of _Gloria in excelsis_ +had long died away; the proclamation of the names and titles of the Prince +had been made. _Unum Dominum Jesum Christum_; _Filium Dei Unigenitum_; +_Ex Patre natum ante omnia saecula_; _Deum de Deo_; _Lumen de Lumine_; +_Deum Verum de Deo Vero_; _Genitum non factum_; _Consubstantialem Patri._ + +Then His first achievement had been declared; "_Per quem omnia facta +sunt._" + +Then his great and later triumphs; how He had ridden out alone from the +Palace and come down the steep of heaven in quest of His Love; how He had +disguised Himself for her sake; and by the crowning miracle of love, the +mightiest work that Almighty God has ever wrought, He was made man; and +the herald hushed his voice in awe as he declared it, and the people +threw themselves prostrate in honour of this high and lowly Prince; then +was recounted the tale of those victories that looked so bitterly like +failures, and the people held their breath and whispered it too; then in +rising step after step His last conquests were told; how the Black Knight +was overthrown, his castle stormed and his prison burst; and the story of +the triumph of the return and of the Coronation and the Enthronement at +the Father's Right Hand on high. + +The heralds passed on; and mysterious figures came next, bearing +Melchisedech's gifts; shadowing the tremendous event that follows on +behind. + +After a space or two came the first lines of the bodyguard, the heavenly +creatures dimly seen moving through clouds of glory, Angels, Dominations, +Powers, Heavens, Virtues, and blessed Seraphim, all crying out together +to heaven and earth to welcome Him Who comes after in the bright shadow +of the Name of the Lord; and the trumpets peal out for the last time, +"Hosanna in the highest." + +Then a hush fell, and presently in the stillness came riding the great +Personages who stand in heaven about the Throne; first, the Queen Mother +herself, glorious within and without, moving in clothing of wrought gold, +high above all others; then, the great Princes of the Blood Royal, who +are admitted to drink of the King's own Cup, and sit beside Him on their +thrones, Peter and Paul and the rest, with rugged faces and scarred +hands; and with them great mitred figures, Linus, Cletus and Clement, +with their companions. + +And then another space and a tingling silence; the crowds bow down like +corn before the wind, the far-off trumpets are silent; and He comes--He +comes! + +On He moves, treading under foot the laws He has made, yet borne up by +them as on the Sea of Galilee; He Who inhabits eternity at an instant is +made present; He Who transcends space is immanent in material kind; He +Who never leaves the Father's side rests on His white linen carpet, held +yet unconfined; in the midst of the little gold things and embroidery and +candle-flames and lilies, while the fragrance of the herbs rises about +Him. There rests the gracious King, before this bending group; the rest +of the pageant dies into silence and nothingness outside the radiant +circle of His Presence. There is His immediate priest-herald, who has +marked out this halting-place for the Prince, bowing before Him, striving +by gestures to interpret and fulfil the silence that words must always +leave empty; here behind are the adoring human hearts, each looking with +closed eyes into the Face of the Fairest of the children of men, each +crying silently words of adoration, welcome and utter love. + +The moments pass; the court ceremonies are performed. The Virgins that +follow the Lamb, Felicitas, Perpetua, Agatha and the rest step forward +smiling, and take their part; the Eternal Father is invoked again in the +Son's own words; and at length the King, descending yet one further step +of infinite humility, flings back the last vesture of His outward Royalty +and casts Himself in a passion of haste and desire into the still and +invisible depths of these two quivering hearts, made in His own Image, +that lift themselves in an agony of love to meet Him.... + + * * * * + +Meanwhile the Easter morning is deepening outside; the sun is rising +above the yew hedge, and the dew flashes drop by drop into a diamond and +vanishes; the thrush that stirred and murmured last night is pouring out +his song; and the larks that rose into the moonlight are running to and +fro in the long meadow grass. The tall slender lilies that have not been +chosen to grace the sacramental Presence-Chamber, are at least in the +King's own garden, where He walks morning and evening in the cool of the +day; and waiting for those who will have seen Him face to face.... + +And presently they come, the tall lad and his sister, silent and +together, out into the radiant sunlight; and the joy of the morning and +the singing thrush and the jewels of dew and the sweet swaying lilies are +shamed and put to silence by the joy upon their faces and in their +hearts. + + + + + PART III + + + + + CHAPTER I + + THE COMING OF SPAIN + + +The conflict between the Old Faith and the lusty young Nation went +steadily forward after the Jesuit invasion; more and more priests poured +into England; more and more were banished, imprisoned and put to death. +The advent of Father Holt, the Jesuit, to Scotland in 1583 was a signal +for a new outburst of Catholic feeling, which manifested itself not only +in greater devotion to Religion, but, among the ill-instructed and +impatient, in very questionable proceedings. In fact, from this time +onward the Catholic cause suffered greatly from the division of its +supporters into two groups; the religious and the political, as they may +be named. The former entirely repudiated any desire or willingness to +meddle with civil matters; its members desired to be both Catholics and +Englishmen; serving the Pope in matters of Faith and Elizabeth in matters +of civil life; but they suffered greatly from the indiscretions and +fanaticism of the political group. The members of that party frankly +regarded themselves as at war with an usurper and an heretic; and used +warlike methods to gain their ends; plots against the Queen's life were +set on foot; and their promoters were willing enough to die in defence of +the cause. But the civil Government made the fatal mistake of not +distinguishing between the two groups; again and again loyal Englishmen +were tortured and hanged as traitors, because they shared their faith +with conspirators. + +There was one question, however, that was indeed on the borderline, +exceedingly difficult to answer in words, especially for scrupulous +consciences; and that was whether they believed in the Pope's deposing +power; and this question was adroitly and deliberately used by the +Government in doubtful cases to ensure a conviction. But whether or not +it was possible to frame a satisfactory answer in words, yet the accused +were plain enough in their deeds; and when the Armada at length was +launched in '88, there were no more loyal defenders of England than the +persecuted Catholics. Even before this, however, there had appeared signs +of reaction among the Protestants, especially against the torture and +death of Campion and his fellows; and Lord Burghley in '83 attempted to +quiet the people's resentment by his anonymous pamphlet, "Execution of +Justice in England," to which Cardinal Allen presently replied. + +Ireland, which had been profoundly stirred by the military expedition +from the continent in '80, at length was beaten and slashed into +submission again; and the torture and execution of Hurley by martial law, +which Elizabeth directed on account of his appointment to the See of +Cashel, when the judges had pronounced there to be no case against him; +and a massacre on the banks of the Moy in '86 of Scots who had come +across as reinforcements to the Irish;--these were incidents in the black +list of barbarities by which at last a sort of temporary quiet was +brought to Ireland. + +In Scottish affairs, the tangle, unravelled even still, of which Mary +Stuart was the centre, led at last to her death. Walsingham, with +extraordinary skill, managed to tempt her into a dangerous +correspondence, all of which he tapped on the way: he supplied to her in +fact the very instrument--an ingeniously made beer-barrel--through which +the correspondence was made possible, and, after reading all the letters, +forwarded them to their several destinations. When all was ripe he +brought his hand down on a group of zealots, to whose designs Mary was +supposed to be privy; and after their execution, finally succeeded, in +'87, in obtaining Elizabeth's signature to her cousin's death-warrant. +The storm already raging against Elizabeth on the Continent, but fanned +to fury by this execution, ultimately broke in the Spanish Armada in the +following year. + +Meanwhile, at home, the affairs of the Church of England were far from +prosperous. Puritanism was rampant; and a wail of dismay was evoked by +the new demands of a Commission under Whitgift's guidance, in '82, +whereby the Puritan divines were now called upon to assent to the Queen's +Supremacy, the Thirty-nine Articles and the Prayer Book. In spite of the +opposition, however, of Burghley and the Commons, Whitgift, who had by +this time succeeded to Canterbury upon Grindal's death, remained firm; +and a long and dreary dispute began, embittered further by the execution +of Mr. Copping and Mr. Thacker in '83 for issuing seditious books in the +Puritan cause. A characteristic action in this campaign was the issuing +of a Puritan manifesto in '84, consisting of a brief, well-written +pamphlet of a hundred and fifty pages under the title "A Learned +Discourse of Ecclesiastical Government," making the inconsistent claim of +desiring a return to the Primitive and Scriptural model, and at the same +time of advocating an original scheme, "one not yet handled." It was +practically a demand for the Presbyterian system of pastorate and +government. To this Dr. Bridges replies with a tremendous tome of over +fourteen hundred pages, discharged after three years of laborious toil; +and dealing, as the custom then was, line by line, with the Puritan +attack. To this in the following year an anonymous Puritan, under the +name of Martin Marprelate, retorts with a brilliant and sparkling riposte +addressed to "The right puissant and terrible priests, my clergy-masters +of the Convocation-house," in which he mocks bitterly at the prelates, +accusing them of Sabbath-breaking, time-serving, and popery,--calling one +"dumb and duncetical," another "the veriest coxcomb that ever wore velvet +cap," and summing them up generally as "wainscot-faced bishops," "proud, +popish, presumptuous, profane paltry, pestilent, and pernicious +prelates." + +The Archbishop had indeed a difficult team to drive; especially as his +coadjutors were not wholly proof against Martin's jibes. In '84 his +brother of York had been mixed up in a shocking scandal; in '85 the +Bishop of Lichfield was accused of simony; Bishop Aylmer was continually +under suspicion of avarice, dishonesty, vanity and swearing; and the +Bench as a whole was universally reprobated as covetous, stingy and weak. + + * * * * + +In civil matters, England's relation with Spain was her most important +concern. Bitter feeling had been growing steadily between the two +countries ever since Drake's piracies in the Spanish dominions in +America; and a gradually increasing fleet at Cadiz was the outward sign +of it. Now the bitterness was deepened by the arrest of English ships in +the Spanish ports in the early summer of '85, and the swift reprisals of +Drake in the autumn; who intimidated and robbed important towns on the +coast, such as Vigo, where his men behaved with revolting irreverence in +the churches, and Santiago; and then proceeded to visit and spoil S. +Domingo and Carthagena in the Indies. + +Again in '87 Drake obtained the leave of the Queen to harass Spain once +more, and after robbing and burning all the vessels in Cadiz harbour, he +stormed the forts at Faro, destroyed Armada stores at Corunna, and +captured the great treasure-ship _San Felipe_. + +Elizabeth was no doubt encouraged in her apparent recklessness by the +belief that with the Netherlands, which she had been compelled at last to +assist, in a state of revolt, Spain would have little energy for +reprisals upon England; but she grew more and more uneasy when news +continued to arrive in England of the growing preparations for the +Armada; France, too, was now so much involved with internal struggles, as +the Protestant Henry of Navarre was now the heir to her Catholic throne, +that efficacious intervention could no longer be looked for from that +quarter, and it seemed at last as if the gigantic Southern power was +about to inflict punishment upon the little northern kingdom which had +insulted her with impunity so long. + +In the October of '87 certain news arrived in England of the gigantic +preparations being made in Spain and elsewhere: and hearts began to beat, +and tongues to clack, and couriers to gallop. Then as the months went by, +and tidings sifted in, there was something very like consternation in the +country. Men told one another of the huge armament that was on its way, +the vast ships and guns--all bearing down on tiny England, like a bull on +a terrier. They spoke of the religious fervour, like that of a crusade, +that inspired the invasion, and was bringing the flower of the Spanish +nobility against them: the superstitious contrasted their own _Lion_, +_Revenge_, and _Elizabeth Jonas_ with the Spanish _San Felipe_, _San +Matteo_, and _Our Lady of the Rosary_: the more practical thought with +even deeper gloom of the dismal parsimony of the Queen, who dribbled out +stores and powder so reluctantly, and dismissed her seamen at the least +hint of delay. + +Yet, little by little, as midsummer came and went, beacons were gathering +on every hill, ships were approaching efficiency, and troops assembling +at Tilbury under the supremely incompetent command of Lord Leicester. + +Among the smaller seaports on the south coast, Rye was one of the most +active and enthusiastic; the broad shallow bay was alive with +fishing-boats, and the steep cobbled streets of the town were filled all +day with a chattering exultant crowd, cheering every group of seamen that +passed, and that spent long hours at the quay watching the busy life of +the ships, and predicting the great things that should fall when the +Spaniards encountered the townsfolk, should the Armada survive Drake's +onslaught further west. + +About July the twentieth more definite news began to arrive. At least +once a day a courier dashed in through the south-west gate, with news +that all must hold themselves ready to meet the enemy by the end of the +month; labour grew more incessant and excitement more feverish. + +About six o'clock on the evening of the twenty-ninth, as a long row of +powder barrels was in process of shipping down on the quay, the men who +were rolling them suddenly stopped and listened; the line of onlookers +paused in their comments, and turned round. From the town above came an +outburst of cries, followed by the crash of the alarm from the +church-tower. In two minutes the quay was empty. Out of every passage +that gave on to the main street poured excited men and women, some +hysterically laughing, some swearing, some silent and white as they ran. +For across the bay westwards, on a point beyond Winchelsea, in the still +evening air rose up a stream of smoke shaped like a pine-tree, with a red +smouldering root; and immediately afterwards in answer the Ypres tower +behind the town was pouring out a thick drifting cloud that told to the +watchers on Folkestone cliffs that the dreaded and longed-for foe was in +sight of England. + +Then the solemn hours of waiting began to pass. Every day and night there +were watchers, straining their eyes westwards in case the Armada should +attempt to coast along England to force a landing anywhere, and +southwards in case they should pass nearer the French coast on their way +to join the Prince of Parma; but there was little to be seen over that +wide ring of blue sea except single vessels, or now and again +half-a-dozen in company, appearing and fading again on some unknown +quest. The couriers that came in daily could not tell them much; only +that there had been indecisive engagements; that the Spaniards had not +yet attempted a landing anywhere; and that it was supposed that they +would not do so until a union with the force in Flanders had been +effected. + +And so four days of the following week passed; then on Thursday, August +the fourth, within an hour or two after sunrise, the solemn booming of +guns began far away to the south-west; but the hours passed; and before +nightfall all was silent again. + +The suspense was terrible; all night long there were groups parading the +streets, anxiously conjecturing, now despondently, now cheerfully. + +Then once again on the Friday morning a sudden clamour broke out in the +town, and almost simultaneously a pinnace slipped out, spreading her +wings and making for the open sea. A squadron of English ships had been +sighted flying eastwards; and the pinnace was gone to get news. The ships +were watched anxiously by thousands of eyes, and boats put out all along +the coast to inquire; and within two or three hours the pinnace was back +again in Rye harbour, with news that set bells ringing and men shouting. +On Wednesday, the skipper reported, there had been an indecisive +engagement during the dead calm that had prevailed in the Channel; a +couple of Spanish store-vessels had been taken on the following morning, +and a general action had followed, which again had been indecisive; but +in which the English had hardly suffered at all, while it was supposed +that great havoc had been wrought upon the enemy. + +But the best of the news was that the Rye contingent was to set sail at +once, and unite with the English fleet westward of Calais by mid-day on +Saturday. The squadron that had passed was under the command of the +Admiral himself, who was going to Dover for provisions and ammunition, +and would return to his fleet before evening. + +Before many hours were passed, Rye harbour was almost empty, and hundreds +of eyes were watching the ships that carried their husbands and sons and +lovers out into the pale summer haze that hung over the coast of France; +while a few sharp-eyed old mariners on points of vantage muttered to one +another that in the haze there was a patch of white specks to be seen +which betokened the presence of some vast fleet. + +That night the sun set yellow and stormy, and by morning the +cobble-stones of Rye were wet and dripping with storm-showers, and a +swell was beginning to lap and sob against the harbour walls. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + MEN OF WAR AND PEACE + + +The following days passed in terrible suspense for all left behind at +Rye. Every morning all the points of vantage were crowded; the Ypres +tower itself was never deserted day or night; and all the sharpest eyes +in the town were bent continually out over that leaden rolling sea that +faded into haze and storm-cloud in the direction of the French coast. But +there was nothing to be seen on that waste of waters but the single boats +that flew up channel or laboured down it against the squally west wind, +far out at sea. Once or twice fishing-boats put in at Rye; but their +reports were so contradictory and uncertain that they increased rather +than allayed the suspense and misery. Now it was a French boat that +reported the destruction of the _Triumph_; now an Englishman that swore +to having seen Drake kill Medina-Sidonia with his own hand on his poop; +but whatever the news might be, the unrest and excitement ran higher and +higher. St. Clare's chapel in the old parish church of St. Nicholas was +crowded every morning at five o'clock by an excited congregation of +women, who came to beg God's protection on their dear ones struggling out +there somewhere towards the dawn with those cruel Southern monsters. +Especially great was the crowd on the Tuesday morning following the +departure of the ships; for all day on Monday from time to time came a +far-off rolling noise from the direction of Calais; which many declared +to be thunder, with an angry emphasis that betrayed their real opinion. + +When they came out of church that morning, and were streaming down to the +quay as usual to see if any news had come in during the night, a seaman +called to them from a window that a French vessel was just entering the +harbour. + +When the women arrived at the water's edge they found a good crowd +already assembled on the quay, watching the ship beat in against the +north-west wind, which had now set in; but she aroused no particular +comment as she was a well-known boat plying between Boulogne and Rye; and +by seven o'clock she was made fast to the quay. + +There were the usual formalities, stricter than usual during war, to be +gone through before the few passengers were allowed to land: but all was +in order; the officers left the boat, and the passengers came up the +plank, the crowd pressing forward as they came, and questioning them +eagerly. No, there was no certain news, said an Englishman at last, who +looked like a lawyer; it was said at Boulogne the night before that there +had been an engagement further up beyond the Straits; they had all heard +guns; and it was reported by the last cruiser who came in before the boat +left that a Spanish galleasse had run aground and had been claimed by M. +Gourdain, the governor of Calais; but probably, added the shrewd-eyed +man, that was just a piece of their dirty French pride. The crowd smiled +ruefully; and a French officer of the boat who was standing by the +gangway scowled savagely, as the lawyer passed on with a demure face. + +Then there was a pause in the little stream of passengers; and then, out +of the tiny door that led below decks, walking swiftly, and carrying a +long cloak over her arm, came Isabel Norris, in a grey travelling dress, +followed by Anthony and a couple of servants. The crowd fell back for the +lady, who passed straight up through them; but one or two of the men +called out for news to Anthony. He shook his head cheerfully at them. + +"I know no more than that gentleman," he said, nodding towards the +lawyer; and then followed Isabel; and together they made their way up to +the inn. + + * * * * + +Anthony was a good deal changed in the last six years; his beard and +moustache were well grown; and he had a new look of gravity in his brown +eyes; when he had smiled and shaken his head at the eager crowd just now, +showing his white regular teeth, he looked as young as ever; but the +serious look fell on his face again, as he followed Isabel up the steep +little cobbled slope in his buff dress and plumed hat. + +There was not so much apparent change in Isabel; she was a shade graver +too, her walk a little slower and more dignified, and her lips, a little +thinner, had a line of strength in them that was new; and even now as she +was treading English ground again for the first time for six years, the +look of slight abstraction in her eyes that is often the sign of a strong +inner life, was just a touch deeper than it used to be. + +They went up together with scarcely a word; and asked for a private room +and dinner in two hours' time; and a carriage and horses for the servants +to be ready at noon. The landlord, who had met them at the door, shook +his head. + +"The private room, sir, and the dinner--yes, sir--but the horses----" and +he spread his hands out deprecatingly. "There is not one in the stall," +he added. + +Anthony considered a moment. + +"Well, what do you propose? We are willing to stay a day or two, if you +think that by then----" + +"Ah," said the landlord, "to-morrow is another matter. I expect two of my +carriages home to-night, sir, from London; but the horses will not be +able to travel till noon to-morrow." + +"That will do," said Anthony; and he followed Isabel upstairs. + +It was very strange to them both to be back in England after so long. +They had settled down at Douai with the Maxwells; but, almost immediately +on their arrival, Mistress Margaret was sent for by her Superior to the +house of her Order at Brussels; and Lady Maxwell was left alone with +Isabel in a house in the town; for Anthony was in the seminary. + +Then, in '86 Lady Maxwell had died, quite suddenly. Isabel herself had +found her at her prie-dieu in the morning, still in her evening dress; +she was leaning partly against the wall; her wrinkled old hands were +clasped tightly together on a little ivory crucifix, on the top of the +desk; and her snow-white head, with the lace drooping from it like a +bridal veil, was bowed below them. Isabel, who had not dared to move her, +had sent instantly for a little French doctor, who had thrown up his +hands in a kind of devout ecstasy at that wonderful old figure, rigid in +an eternal prayer. The two tall tapers she had lighted eight hours before +were still just alight beside her, and looked strange in the morning +sunshine. + +"Pendant ses oraisons! pendant ses oraisons!" he murmured over and over +again; and then had fallen on his knees and kissed the drooping lace of +her sleeve. + +"Priez pour moi, madame," he whispered to the motionless figure. + +And so the old Catholic who had suffered so much had gone to her rest. +The fact that her son James had been living in the College during her +four years' stay at Douai had been perhaps the greatest possible +consolation to her for being obliged to be out of England; for she saw +him almost daily; and it was he who sang her Requiem. Isabel had then +gone to live with other friends in Douai, until Anthony had been ordained +priest in the June of '88, and was ready to take her to England; and now +the two were bound for Stanfield, where Anthony was to act as chaplain +for the present, as Mr. Buxton had predicted so long before. Old Mr. +Blake had died in the spring of the year, still disapproving of his +patron's liberal notions, and Mr. Buxton had immediately sent a special +messenger all the way to Douai to secure Anthony's services; and had +insisted moreover that Isabel should accompany her brother. They intended +however to call at the Dower House on the way, which had been left under +the charge of old Mrs. Carroll; and renew the memories of their own dear +home. + +They talked little at dinner; and only of general matters, their journey, +the Armada, their joy at getting home again; for they had been expressly +warned by their friends abroad against any indiscreet talk even when they +thought themselves alone, and especially in the seaports, where so +constant a watch was kept for seminary priests. The presence of Isabel, +however, was the greatest protection to Anthony; as it was almost unknown +that a priest should travel with any but male companions. + +Then suddenly, as they were ending dinner, a great clamour broke out in +the town below them; a gun was fired somewhere; and footsteps began to +rush along the narrow street outside. Anthony ran to the window and +called to know what was the matter; but no one paid any attention to him; +and he presently sat down again in despair, and with one or two wistful +looks. + +"I will go immediately," he said to Isabel, "and bring you word." + +A moment after a servant burst into the room. + +"It is a Spanish ship, sir," he said, "a prize--rounding Dungeness." + +In the afternoon, when the first fierce excitement was over, Anthony went +down to the quay. He did not particularly wish to attract attention, and +so he kept himself in the background somewhat; but he had a good view of +her as she lay moored just off the quay, especially when one of the town +guard who had charge of the ropes that kept the crowd back, seeing a +gentleman in the crowd, beckoned him through. + +"Your honour will wish to see the prize?" he said, in hopes of a trifle +for himself; "make way there for the gentleman." + +Anthony thought it better under these circumstances to accept the +invitation, so he gave the man something, and slipped through. On the +quay was a pile of plunder from the ship: a dozen chests carved and +steel-clamped stood together; half-a-dozen barrels of powder; the ship's +bell rested amid a heap of rich clothes and hangings; a silver crucifix +and a couple of lamps with their chains lay tumbled on one side; and a +parson was examining a finely carved mahogany table that stood near. + +He looked up at Anthony. + +"For the church, sir," he said cheerfully. "I shall make application to +her Grace." + +Anthony smiled at him. + +"A holy revenge, sir," he said. + +The ship herself had once been a merchantman brig; so much Anthony could +tell, though he knew little of seamanship; but she had been armed heavily +with deep bulwarks of timber, pierced for a dozen guns on each broadside. +Now, however, she was in a terrible condition. The solid bulwarks were +rent and shattered, as indeed was her whole hull; near the waterline were +nailed sheets of lead, plainly in order to keep the water from entering +the shot-holes; she had only one mast; and that was splintered in more +than one place; a spar had been rigged up on to the stump of the +bowsprit. The high poop such as distinguished the Spanish vessels was in +the same deplorable condition; as well as the figure-head, which +represented a beardless man with a halo behind his head, and which bore +the marks of fierce hacks as well as of shot. + +Anthony read the name,--the _San Juan da Cabellas_. + +From the high quay too he could see down on to the middle decks, and +there was the most shocking sight of all, for the boards and the +mast-stumps and the bulwarks and the ship's furniture were all alike +splashed with blood, some of the deeper pools not even yet dry. It was +evident that the _San Juan_ had not yielded easily. + +Presently Anthony saw an officer approaching, and not wishing to be led +into conversation slipped away again through the crowd to take Isabel the +news. + +The two remained quietly upstairs the rest of the afternoon, listening to +the singing and the shouting in the streets, and watching from their +window the groups that swung and danced to and fro in joy at Rye's +contribution to the defeat of the invaders. When the dusk fell the noise +was louder than ever as the men began to drink more deep, and torches +were continually tossing up and down the steep cobbled streets; the din +reached its climax about half-past nine, when the main body of the +revellers passed up towards the inn, and, as Anthony saw from the window, +finally entered through the archway below; and then all grew tolerably +quiet. Presently Isabel said that she would go to bed, but just before +she left the room, the servant again came in. + +"If you please, sir, Lieutenant Raxham, of the _Seahorse_, is telling the +tale of the capture of the Spanish ship; and the landlord bid me come and +tell you." + +Anthony glanced at Isabel, who nodded at him. + +"Yes; go," she said, "and come up and tell me the news afterwards, if it +is not very late." + +When Anthony came downstairs he found to his annoyance that the place of +honour had been reserved for him in a tall chair next to the landlord's +at the head of the table. The landlord rose to meet his guest. + +"Sit here, sir," he said. "I am glad you have come. And now, Mr. +Raxham----" + +Anthony looked about him with some dismay at this extreme publicity. The +room was full from end to end. They were chiefly soldiers who sat at the +table--heavy-looking rustics from Hawkhurst, Cranbrook and Appledore, in +brigantines and steel caps, who had been sent in by the magistrates to +the nearest seaport to assist in the defence of the coast--a few of them +wore corselets with almain rivets and carried swords, while the +pike-heads of the others rose up here and there above the crowd. The rest +of the room was filled with the townsmen of Rye--those who had been +retained for the defence of the coast, as well as others who for any +physical reason could not serve by sea or land. There was an air of +extraordinary excitement in the room. The faces of the most stolid were +transfigured, for they were gathered to hear of the struggle their own +dear England was making; the sickening pause of those months of waiting +had ended at last; the huge southern monster had risen up over the edge +of the sea, and the panting little country had flown at his throat and +grappled him; and now they were hearing the tale of how deep her fangs +had sunk. + +The crowd laughed and applauded and drew its breath sharply, as one man; +and the silence now and then was startling as the young officer told his +story; although he had few gifts of rhetoric, except a certain vivid +vocabulary. He himself was a lad of eighteen or so, with a pleasant +reckless face, now flushed with drink and excitement, and sparkling eyes; +he was seated in a chair upon the further end of the table, so that all +could hear his story; and he had a cup of huff-cup in his left hand as he +talked, leaving his right hand free to emphasise his points and slap his +leg in a clumsy sort of oratory. His tale was full of little similes, at +which his audience nodded their heads now and then, approvingly. He had +apparently already begun his story, for when Anthony had taken his seat +and silence had been obtained, he went straight on without any further +introduction. + +The landlord leaned over to Anthony. "The _San Juan_," he whispered +behind his hot hairy hand, and nodded at him with meaning eyes. + +"And every time they fired over us," went on the lieutenant, "and we +fired into them; and the only damage they did us was their muskets in the +tops. They killed Tom Dane like that"--there was a swift hiss of breath +from the room; but the officer went straight on--"shot him through the +back as he bent over his gun; and wounded old Harry and a score more; but +all the while, lads, we were a-pounding at them with the broadsides as we +came round, and raking them with the demi-cannon in the poop, +until--well; go you and see the craft as she lies at the quay if you +would know what we did. I tell you, as we came at her once towards the +end, I saw that she was bleeding through her scuppers like a pig, from +the middle deck. They were all packed up there together--sailors and +soldiers and a priest or two; and scarce a ball could pass between the +poop and the forecastle without touching flesh." + +The lad stopped a moment and took a pull at his cup, and a murmur of talk +broke out in the room. Anthony was surprised at his accent and manner of +speaking, and heard afterwards that he was the son of the parson at one +of the inland villages, and had had an education. In a moment he went on. + +"Well--it would be about noon, just before the Admiral came up from +Calais, that the old _Seahorse_ was lost. We came at the dons again as we +had done before, only closer than ever; and just as the captain gave the +word to put her about, a ball from one of their guns which they had +trained down on us, cut old Dick Kemp in half at the helm, and broke the +tiller to splinters." + +"Old Dick?" said a man's voice out of the reeking crowd, "Old Dick?" + +There was a murmur round him, bidding him hold his tongue; and the lad +went on. + +"Well, we drifted nearer and nearer. There was nought to do but to bang +at them; and that we did, by God--and to board her if we touched. Well, I +worked my saker, and saw little else--for the smoke was like a black +sea-fog; and the noise fit to crack your ears. Mine sing yet with it; the +captain was bawling from the poop, and there were a dozen pikemen ready +below; and then on a sudden came the crash; and I looked up and there was +the Spaniards' decks above us, and the poop like a tower, with a grinning +don or two looking down; and there was I looking up the muzzle of a +culverin. I skipped towards the poop, shouting to the men; and the dons +fired their broadside as I went.--God save us from that din! But I knew +the old _Seahorse_ was done this time--the old ship lurched and shook as +the balls tore through her and broke her back; and there was such a yell +as you'll never hear this side of hell. Well--I was on the poop by now, +and the men after me; for you see the poop of the _Seahorse_ was as high +as the middle deck of the Spaniard, and we must board from there or not +at all. Well, lads, there was the captain before me. He had fought cool +till then, as cool as a parson among his roses, with never an oath from +his mouth--but now he was as scarlet as a poppy, and his eyes were like +blue fire, and his mouth jabbered and foamed; he was so hot, you see, at +the loss of his ship. He was dancing to and fro waiting while the poop +swung round on the tide; and the old craft plunged deeper in every wave +that lifted her, but he cared no more for that nor for the musket-balls +from the tops, nor for the brown grinning devils who shook their pikes at +him from the decks, than--than a mad dog cares for a shower of leaves; +but he stamped there and cursed them and damned them as they laughed at +him; and then in a moment the poop touched. + +"Well, lads--" and the lieutenant set his cup down on the table, clapped +his hands on his knees, laughed shortly and nervously once or twice, and +looked round. "Well, lads, I have never seen the like. The captain went +for them like a wild cat; one step on the rail and the next among them; +and was gone like a stone into water"--and the lad clapped his hand on +his thigh. "I saw one face slit up from chin to eye; and another split +across like an apple; and then we were after him. The men were mad, +too--what was left of us; and we poured up on to the decks and left the +old _Seahorse_ to die. Well, we had our work before us--but it was no +good. The dons could do nothing; I was after the captain as he went +through the pack and came out just behind him; there were half a dozen of +them down now; and the noise and the foreign oaths went up like smoke; +and the captain himself was bleeding down one side of his face and +grunting as he cut and stabbed; and I had had a knife through the arm; +but he went up on to the poop; and as I followed, the Spaniards broke and +threw down their arms--they saw 'twas no use, you see. When we reached +the poop-stairs an officer in a blue coat came forward jabbering some +jargon; but the captain would have no parley with him, but flung his dag +clean into the man's face, and over he went backwards--with his damned +high heels in the air." + +There was a sudden murmur of laughter from the room; Anthony glanced off +the lieutenant's grinning ruddy face for a moment, and saw the rows of +listening faces all wrinkled with mirth. + +"Well," went on the lad, "up went the captain, and I after him. Then +there came across the deck, very slow and stately, the Spanish captain +himself, in a fine laced coat and a plumed hat, and he was holding out +his sword by the blade and bowed as we ran towards him, and began some +damned foreign nonsense, with his _Senor_--but the captain would have +none o' that, I tell you he was like Tom o' Bedlam now--so as the Senor +grinned at him with his monkey face and bowed and wagged, the captain +fetched him a slash across the cheek with his sword that cut up into his +head; and that don went spinning across the poop like a morris-man and +brought up against the rail, and then down he came," and the lad dashed +his hand on his thigh again--"as dead as mutton." + +Again came a louder gust of laughter from the room. Anthony half rose in +his chair, and then sat down again. + +"Well," said the lad, "and that was not all. Down he raged again to the +decks and I behind him--I tell you, it was like a butcher's shop--but it +was quieter now--the fighting was over--and the Spaniards were all run +below, except half-a-dozen in the tops; looking down like young rooks at +an archer. There had been a popish priest too with his crucifix in one +hand and his god-almighty in the other, over a dying man as we came up; +but as we came down there he lay in his black gown with a hole through +his heart and his crucifix gone. One of the lads had got it no doubt. +Well, the captain brought up at the main mast. 'God's blood,' he bawled, +'where are the brown devils got to?' Some one told him, and pointed down +the hatch. Well, then I turned sick with my wound and the smell of the +place and all; and I knew nothing more till I found myself sitting on a +dead don, with the captain holding me up and pouring a cordial down my +throat." + +Then talk and laughter broke out in the audience; but the landlord held +up his hand for silence. + +"And what of the others?" he shouted. + +"Dead meat too," said the lad--"the captain went down with a dozen or +more and hunted them out and finished them. There was one, Dick told me +afterwards," and the lieutenant gave a cackle of mirth, "that they hunted +twice round the ship before he jumped over yelling to some popish saint +to help him; but it seems he was deaf, like the old Baal that parson +tells of o' Sundays. The dirty swine to run like that! Well, he's got his +bellyful now of the salt water that he came so far to see. And then the +captain with his own hands trained a robinet that was on the poop on to +the tops; and down the birds came, one by one; for their powder up there +was all shot off." + +"And the _Seahorse_?" said the landlord again. + +There fell a dead silence: all in the room knew that the ship was lost, +but it was terrible to hear it again. The lad's face broke into lines of +grief, and he spoke huskily. + +"Gone down with the dead and wounded; and the rest of the fleet a mile +away." + +Then the lieutenant went on to describe how he himself had been deputed +to bring the _San Juan_ into port with the wounded on board, while the +captain and the rest of the crew by Drake's orders attached themselves to +various vessels that were short-handed, and how the English fleet had +followed what was left of the Spaniards when the fight ended at sunset, +up towards the North Sea. + +When he finished his story there was a tremendous outburst of cheering +and hammering upon the table, and the feet and the pike-butts thundered +on the floor, and a name was cried again and again as the cups were +emptied. + +"God save her Grace and old England!" yelled a slim smooth-faced archer +from Appledore. + +"God send the dons and all her foes to hell!" roared a burly pikeman with +his cup in the air. Then the room shook again as the toasts were drunk +with applauding feet and hands. + +Anthony turned to the landlord, who had just ceased thumping with his +great red fists on the table. + +"What was the captain's name?" he asked, when a slight lull came. + +"Maxwell," said the crimson-faced man. "Hubert Maxwell--one of Drake's +own men." + + * * * * + +When Anthony came upstairs he heard his name called through the door, and +went in to Isabel's room to find her sitting up in bed in the gloom of +the summer night; the party below had broken up, and all was quiet except +for the far-off shouts and hoots of cheerful laughter from the dispersing +groups down among the narrow streets. + +"Well?" she said, as he came in and stood in the doorway. + +"It is just the story of the prize," he said, "and it seems that Hubert +had the taking of it." + +There was silence a moment. Anthony could see her face, a motionless pale +outline, and her arms clasped round her knees as she sat up in bed. + +"Hubert?" she asked in an even voice. + +"Yes, Hubert." + +There was silence a moment. + +"Well?" she said again. + +"He is safe," said Anthony, "and fought gallantly. I will tell you more +to-morrow." + +"Ah!" said Isabel softly; and then lay down again. + +"Good-night, Anthony." + +"Good-night." + +But Anthony dared not tell her the details next day, after all. + + * * * * + +There was still a difficulty about the horses; they had not arrived until +the Wednesday morning, and were greatly exhausted by a long and +troublesome journey; so the travellers consented to postpone their +journey for yet one more day. The weather, which had been thickening, +grew heavier still in the afternoon, and great banks of clouds were +rising out of the west. Anthony started out about four o'clock for a walk +along the coast; and, making a long round in the direction of Lydd, did +not finally return until about seven. As he came in at the north-east of +the town he noticed how empty the streets were, and passed on down in the +direction of the quay. As he turned down the steep street into the +harbour groups began to pour up past him, laughing and exclaiming; and in +a moment more came Isabel walking alone. He looked at her anxiously, for +he saw something had happened. Her quiet face was lit up with some +interior emotion, and her mouth was trembling. + +"The Armada is routed," she said; "and I have seen Hubert." + +The two turned back together and walked silently up to the inn. There she +told him the story. She had been told that Captain Maxwell was come in +the _Elizabeth_, for provisions for Lord Howard Seymour's squadron, to +which his new command was attached; and that he was even now in harbour. +At that she had gone straight down alone. + +"Oh, Anthony!" she cried, "you know how it is with me. I could not help +it. I am not ashamed of it. God Almighty knows all, and is not wrath with +me. So I went down and was in the crowd as he came down again with the +mayor, Mr. Hamon; we all made way for them, and the men cheered +themselves scarlet; but he came down cool and quiet; you know his +way--with his eyes half shut; and--and--he was so brown; and he looks +sad--and he had a great plaister on the left temple. And then he saw me." + +Isabel sprang up, and came up to Anthony and took his hands. "Oh! +Anthony; I was very happy then; because he took off his cap and bowed; +and his face was all lighted; and he took my hand and kissed it--and then +made Mr. Hamon known to me. The crowd laughed and said things--but I did +not care; and he soon silenced them, he looked round so fiercely; and +then I went on board with him--he would have it so--and he showed us +everything--and we sat a little in the cabin; and he told me of his wife +and child. She is the daughter of a Plymouth minister; he knew her when +he was with Drake; and he told me all about her, so you see----" Isabel +broke off; and sat down in the high window seat. "And then he asked me +about you; and I said you were here; and that we were going to stay a +little while with Mr. Buxton of Stanfield--you see I knew we could trust +him; and Mr. Hamon was in the passage just then looking at the guns; and +then a sailor came in to say that all was ready; and so we came away. But +it was so good to see him again; and to know that he was so happy." + +Anthony looked at his sister in astonishment; her quiet manner was gone, +and she was talking again almost like an excited child; and so happily. +It was very strange, he thought. He sat down beside her. + +"Oh, Anthony!" she said, "do you understand? I love him dearly still; and +his wife and child too. God bless them all and keep them!" + +The mystery was still deep to him; and he feared to say what he should +not; so he kissed Isabel silently; and the two sat there together and +looked out over the crowding red roofs to the glowing western sky across +the bay below them. + + + + + CHAPTER III + + HOME-COMING + + +It was a stormy summer evening as the brother and sister rode up between +the last long hills that led to Great Keynes. A south-west wind had been +rising all day, that same wind that was now driving the ruined Armada up +into the fierce North Sea, with the fiercer men behind to bar the return. +But here, twenty miles inland, with the high south-downs to break the +gale, the riders were in comparative quiet, though the great trees +overhead tossed their heavy rustling heads as the gusts struck them now +and again. + +The party had turned off, as the dusk was falling, from the main-road +into bridle-paths that they knew well, and were now approaching the +village through the water meadows on the south-east side along a ride +that would bring them, round the village, direct to the Dower House. In +the gloom Anthony could make out the tall reeds, and the loosestrife and +willowherb against them, that marked the course of the stream where he +had caught trout, as a boy; and against the western sky, as he turned in +his saddle, rose up the high windy hills where he had hawked with Hubert +so many years before. It was a strange thought to him as he rode along +that his very presence here in his own country was an act of high treason +by the law lately passed, and that every day he lived here must be a day +of danger. + +For Isabel, too, it was strange to be riding up again towards the +battlefield of her desires--that battlefield where she had lived for +years in such childish faith and peace without a suspicion of the forces +that were lurking beneath her own quiet nature. But to both of them the +sense of home-coming was stronger than all else--that strange passion for +a particular set of inanimate things--or, at the most, for an association +of ideas--that has no parallel in human emotions; and as they rode up the +darkening valley and the lights of the high windows of the Hall began to +show over the trees on their right, Anthony forgot his treason and Isabel +her conflicts, and both felt a lump rise in the throat, and their hearts +begin to beat quicker with a strange pleasurable pulse, and to Isabel's +eyes at least there rose up great tears of happiness and content; neither +dared speak, but both looked eagerly about at the pool where the Mayflies +used to dance, at the knoll where the pigeons nested, at the little low +bridge beneath which their inch-long boats used to slide sideways into +darkness, and the broad marshy flats where the gorgeous irises grew. + +"How the trees have grown!" said Anthony at last, with an effort; "I +cannot see the lights from the house." + +"Mrs. Carroll will have made ready the first-floor rooms then, on the +south." + +"I am sorry they are not our own," said Anthony. + +"Ah, look! there is the dovecote," cried Isabel. + +They were passing up now behind the farm buildings; and directly +afterwards came round in front of the little walled garden to the west of +the house. + +There was a sudden exclamation from Anthony; and Isabel stared in silent +dismay. The old house rose up before them with its rows of square windows +against the night sky, dark. There was not a glimmer anywhere; even Mrs. +Carroll's own room on the south was dark. They reined their horses in and +stood a moment. + +"Oh, Anthony, Anthony!" cried Isabel suddenly, "what is it? Is there no +one there?" + +Anthony shook his head; and then put his tired beast to a shambling trot +with Isabel silent again with weariness and disappointment behind him. +They passed along outside the low wall, turned the corner of the house +and drew up at the odd little doorway in the angle at the back of the +house. The servants had drawn up behind them, and now pressed up to hold +their horses; and the brother and sister slipped off and went towards the +door. Anthony passed under the little open porch and put his hand out to +the door; it was quite dark underneath the porch, and he felt further and +further, and yet there was no door; his foot struck the step. He felt his +way to the doorposts and groped for the door; but still there was none; +he could feel the panelling of the lobby inside the doorway, and that was +all. He drew back, as one would draw back from a dead face on which one +had laid a hand in the dark. + +"Oh, Anthony!" said Isabel again, "what is it?" She was still outside. + +"Have you a light?" said Anthony hoarsely to the servants. + +The man nearest him bent and fumbled in the saddle-bags, and after what +seemed an interminable while kindled a little bent taper and handed it to +him. As he went towards the porch shading it with his hand, Isabel sprang +past him and went before; and then, as the light fell through the +doorway, stopped in dead and bewildered silence. + +The door was lying on the floor within, shattered and splintered. + +Anthony stepped beside her, and she turned and clung to his arm, and a +sob or two made itself heard. Then they looked about them. The banisters +above them were smashed, and like a cataract, down the stairs lay a +confused heap of crockery, torn embroidery and clothes, books, and broken +furniture. + +Anthony's hand shook so much that the shadows of the broken banisters +waved on the wall above like thin exulting dancers. + +Suddenly Anthony started. + +"Mrs. Carroll," he exclaimed, and he darted upstairs past the ruins into +her two rooms halfway up the flight; and in a minute or two was back with +Isabel. + +"She has escaped," he said in a low voice; and then the two stood looking +about them silently again. The door leading to the cellars on the left +was broken too; and fragments of casks and bottles lay about the steps; +the white wall was splashed with drink, and there was a smell of spirits +in the air. Evidently the stormers had thought themselves worthy of their +hire. + +"Come," he said again; and leaving the entrance lobby, the two passed to +the hall-door and pushed that open and looked. There was the same furious +confusion there; the tapestry was lying tumbled and rent on the +floor--the high oak mantelpiece was shattered, and doleful cracks and +splinters in the panelling all round showed how mad the attack had been; +one of the pillars of the further archway was broken clean off, and the +brickwork showed behind; the pictures had been smashed and added to the +heap of wrecked furniture and broken glass in the middle. + +"Come," he said once more; and the two passed silently through the broken +archway, and going up the other flight of stairs, gradually made the +round of the house. Everywhere it was the same, except in the servants' +attics, where, apparently, the mob had not thought it worth while to go. + +Isabel's own room was the most pitiable of all; the windows had only the +leaden frames left, and those bent and battered; the delicate panelling +was scarred and split by the shower of stones that had poured in through +the window and that now lay in all parts of the room. A painting of her +mother that had hung over her bed was now lying face downwards on the +floor. Isabel turned it over silently; a stone had gone through the face; +and it had been apparently slit too by some sharp instrument. Even the +slender oak bed was smashed in the centre, as if half a dozen men had +jumped upon it at once; and the little prie-dieu near the window had been +deliberately hacked in half. Isabel looked at it all with wide startled +eyes and parted lips; and then suddenly sank down on the wrecked bed +where she had hoped to sleep that night, and began to sob like a child. + +"Ah! I did think--I did think----" she began. + +Anthony stooped and tried to lift her. + +"Come, my darling," he said, "is not this a high honour? _Qui relinquit +domos!_" + +"Oh! why have they done it?" sobbed Isabel. "What harm have we done +them?" and she began to wail. She was thoroughly over-tired and +over-wrought; and Anthony could not find it in his heart to blame her; +but he spoke again bravely. + +"We are Catholics," he said; "that is why they have done it. Do not throw +away this grace that our Lord has given us; embrace it and make it +yours." + +It was the priest that was speaking now; and Isabel turned her face and +looked at him; and then got up and hid her face on his shoulder. + +"Oh, Anthony, help me!" she said; and so stood there, quiet. + + * * * * + +He came down presently to the servants, while Isabel went upstairs to +prepare the rooms in the attics; for it was impossible for them to ride +further that night; so they settled to sleep there, and stable the +horses; and to ride on early the next day, and be out of the village +before the folks were about. Anthony gave directions to the servants, who +were Catholics too, and explained in a word or two what had happened; and +bade them come up to the house as soon as they had fed and watered the +beasts; meanwhile he took the saddle-bags indoors and spread out their +remaining provisions in one of the downstairs rooms; and soon Isabel +joined him. + +"I have made up five beds," she said, and her voice and lips were steady, +and her eyes grave and serene again. + +The five supped together in the wrecked kitchen, a fine room on the east +of the house, supported by a great oak pillar to which the horses of +guests were sometimes attached when the stable was full. + +Isabel managed to make a fire and to boil some soup; but they hung thick +curtains across the shattered windows, and quenched the fire as soon as +the soup was made, for fear that either the light or the smoke from the +chimney should arouse attention. + +When supper was over, and the two men-servants and Isabel's French maid +were washing up in the scullery, Isabel suddenly turned to Anthony as +they sat together near the fireplace. + +"I had forgotten," she said, "what we arranged as we rode up. I must go +and tell her still." + +Anthony looked at her steadily a moment. + +"God keep you," he said. + +She kissed him and took her riding-cloak, drew the hood over her head, +and went out into the dark. + + * * * * + +It was with the keenest relief that, half an hour later, Anthony heard +her footstep again in the red-tiled hall outside. The servants were gone +upstairs by now, and the house was quiet. She came in, and sat by him +again and took his hand. + +"Thank God I went," she said. "I have left her so happy." + +"Tell me all," said Anthony. + +"I went through the garden," said Isabel, "but came round to the front of +the house so that they might not think I came from here. When the servant +came to the door--he was a stranger, and a Protestant no doubt--I said at +once that I brought news of Mr. Maxwell from Rye; and he took me straight +in and asked me to come in while he fetched her woman. Then her woman +came out and took me upstairs, up into Lady Maxwell's old room; and there +she was lying in bed under the great canopy. Oh, Anthony, she is so +pretty! her golden hair was lying out all over the pillow, and her face +is so sweet. She cried out when I came in, and lifted herself on her +elbow; so I just said at once, 'He is safe and well'; and then she went +off into sobs and laughter; so that I had to go and soothe her--her woman +was so foolish and helpless; and very soon she was quiet: and then she +called me her darling, and she kissed me again and again; and told the +woman to go and leave us together; and then she lifted the sheet; and +showed me the face of a little child. Oh Anthony; Hubert's child and +hers, the second, born on Tuesday--only think of that. 'Mercy, I was +going to call her,' she said, 'if I had not heard by to-morrow, but now I +shall call her Victory.'" + +Anthony looked quickly at his sister, with a faint smile in his eyes. + +"And what did you say?" he asked. + +Isabel smiled outright; but her eyes were bright with tears too. + +"'You have guessed,' she said. 'Yes,' I said, 'call her Mercy all the +same,' and she kissed me again, and cried, and said that she would. And +then I told her all about Hubert; and about his little wound; and how +well he looked; and how all the fighting was most likely over; and what +his cabin looked like. And then she suddenly guessed who I was, and asked +me; and I could not deny it, you know; but she promised not to tell. Then +she told me all about the house here; and how she was afraid Hubert had +said something impatient about people who go to foreign parts and leave +their country to be attacked, 'But you know he did not really mean it,' +she said; and of course he did not. Well, the people had remembered that, +and it spread and spread; and when the news of the Armada came last week, +a mob came over from East Grinsted, and they sat drinking and drinking in +the village; and of course Grace could not go out to them; and all the +old people are gone, and the Catholics on the estate--and so at last they +all came out roaring and shouting down the drive, and Mrs. Carroll was +warned and slipped out to the Hall; and she is now gone to Stanfield to +wait for us--and then the crowd broke into the house--but, oh Anthony, +Grace was so sorry, and cried sore to think of us here; and asked us to +come and stay there; but of course I told her we could not: and then I +said a prayer for her; and we kissed one another again; and then I came +away." + +Anthony looked at his sister, and there was honour and pride of her in +his eyes. + + * * * * + +The ride to Stanfield next day was a long affair, at a foot's-pace all +the way: the horses were thoroughly tired with their journey, and they +were obliged to start soon after three o'clock in the morning after a +very insufficient rest; they did not reach Groombridge till nearly ten +o'clock, when they dined, and then rode on towards Tonbridge about noon. +There were heavy hearts to be carried as well. The attempt to welcome the +misery of their home-coming was a bitter effort; all the more bitter for +that it was an entirely unexpected call upon them. During those six years +abroad probably not a day had passed without visions of Great Keynes, and +the pleasant and familiar rooms and garden of their own house, and mental +rehearsals of their return. The shock of the night before too had been +emphasised by the horror of the cold morning light creeping through the +empty windows on to the cruel heaps within. The garden too, seen in the +dim morning, with its trampled lawns and wrecked flower-beds heaped with +withered sunflowers, bell-blossoms and all the rich August growth, with +the earthen flower-bowls smashed, the stone balls on the gate overturned, +and the laurels at the corner uprooted--all this was a horrible pain to +Isabel, to whom the garden was very near as dear and familiar as her own +room. So it was a silent and sorrowful ride; and Anthony's heart rose in +relief as at last up the grey village-street he saw the crowded roofs of +Stanfield Place rise over the churchyard wall. + +Their welcome from Mr. Buxton went far to compensate for all. + +"My dear boy," he said, "or, my dear father, as I should call you in +private, you do not know what happiness is mine to-day. It is a great +thing to have a priest again; but, if you will allow me to say so, it is +a greater to have my friend--and what a sister you have upstairs!" + +They were in Mr. Buxton's own little room on the ground-floor, and Isabel +had gone to rest until supper. + +Anthony told him of the grim surprise that had awaited them at Great +Keynes. "So you must forgive my sister if she is a little sad." + +"Yes, yes," said Mr. Buxton, "I had heard from Mrs. Carroll last night +when she arrived here. But there was no time to warn you. I had expected +you to-day, though Mrs. Carroll did not." + +(Anthony had sent a man straight from Rye to Stanfield.) + +"But Mistress Isabel, as I shall venture to call her, must do what she +can with this house and garden. I need not say how wholly it is hers. And +I shall call you Anthony," he added--"in public, at least. And, for +strangers, you are just here as my guest; and you shall be called +Capell--a sound name; and you shall be Catholics too; though you are no +priest, of course, in public--and you have returned from the Continent. I +hold it is no use to lie when you can be found out. I do not know what +your conscience is, Father Anthony; but, for myself, I count us Catholics +to be _in statu belli_ now; and therefore I shall lie frankly and fully +when there is need; and you may do as you please. Old Mr. Blake used to +bid me prevaricate instead; but that always seemed to me two lies instead +of one--one to the questioning party and the other to myself; and so I +always said to him, but he would not have it so. I wondered he did not +tell me that two negatives made an affirmative; but he was not clever +enough, the good father. So my own custom is to tell one plain lie when +needed, and shame the devil." + +It was pleasant to Anthony to hear his friend talk again, and he said so. +His host's face softened into a great tenderness. + +"Dear lad, I know what you mean. Please God you may find this a happy +home." + +A couple of hours later, when Anthony and Isabel came down together from +their rooms in the old wing, they found Mr. Buxton in his black satin and +lace in the beautiful withdrawing-room on the ground-floor. It was +already past the supper-hour, but their host showed no signs of going +into the hall. At last he apologised. + +"I ask your pardon, Mistress Isabel; but I have a guest come to stay with +me, who only arrived an hour ago; and she is a great lady and must have +her time. Ah! here she is." + +The door was flung open and a radiant vision appeared. The door was a +little way off, and there were no candles near it; but there swelled and +rustled into the room a figure all in blue and gold, with a white +delicate ruff; and diamond buckles shone beneath the rich brocaded +petticoat. Above rose a white bosom and throat scintillating with +diamonds, and a flushed face with scarlet lips, all crowned by piles of +black hair, with black dancing eyes beneath. Still a little in the shadow +this splendid figure swept down with a great curtsey, which Isabel met by +another, while the two gentlemen bowed low; and then, as the stranger +swayed up again into the full light of the sconces, Anthony recognised +Mary Corbet. + +He stood irresolute with happy hesitation; and she came up smiling +brilliantly; and before he could stay her dropped down on one knee and +took his hand and kissed it; just as the man left the room. + +"God bless you, Father Anthony!" she said; and as he looked at her, as +she glanced up, he could not tell whether her eyes shone with tears or +laughter. + +"This is very charming and proper, Mistress Corbet, and like a true +daughter of the Church," put in Mr. Buxton, "but I shall be obliged to +you if you will not in future kiss priests' hands nor call them Father in +the presence of the servants--at least not in my house." + +"Ah!" she said, "you were always prudent. Have you seen his secret +doors?" she went on to Anthony. "The entire Catholic Church might play +hare and hounds with the Holy Father as huntsman and the Cardinals as the +whips, through Mr. Buxton's secret labyrinths." + +"Wait until you are hare, and it is other than Holy Church that is +a-hunting," said Mr. Buxton, "and you will thank God for my labyrinths, +as you call them." + +Then she greeted Isabel with great warmth. + +"Why, my dear," she said, "you are not the little Puritan maiden any +longer. We must have a long talk to-night; and you shall tell me +everything." + +"Mistress Mary is not so greatly changed," said Isabel, smiling. "She +always would be told everything." + +It was strange to Anthony to meet Mary again after so long, and to find +her so little changed, as Isabel had said truly. He himself had passed +through so much since they had last met at Greenwich over six years +ago--his conversion, his foreign sojourn, and, above all, the bewildering +and intoxicating sweetness of his ordination and priestly life. And yet +he felt as close to Mary as ever, knit in a bond of wonderful good +fellowship and brotherhood such as he had never felt to any other in just +that kind and degree. He watched her, warm and content, as she talked +across the polished oak and beneath the gleam of the candles; and +listened, charmed by her air and her talk. + +"There is not so much news of her Grace," she said, "save that she is +turning soldier in her old age. She rode out to Tilbury, you know, the +other day, in steel cuirass and scarlet; out to see her dear Robin and +the army; and her royal face was all smiles and becks, and lord! how the +soldiers cheered! But if you had seen her as I did, in her room when she +first buckled on her armour, and the joints did not fit--yes, and heard +her! there were no smiles to spare then. She lodged at Mr. Rich's, you +know, two nights; but he would be Mr. Poor, I should suppose, by the time +her Grace left him; for he will not see the worth of a shoelace again of +all that he expended on her." + +"You see," remarked Mr. Buxton to Isabel, "how fortunate we are in having +such a friend of her Grace's with us. We hear all the cream of the news, +even though it be a trifle sour sometimes." + +"A lover of her Grace," said Mary, "loves the truth about her, however +bitter. But then I have no secret passages where I may hide from my +sovereign!" + +"The cream can scarce be but sour," said Anthony, "near her Grace: there +is so much thunder in the air." + +"Yes, but the sun came out when you were there, Anthony," put in Isabel, +smiling. + +"But even the light of her glorious countenance is trying," said Mary. +"She is overpowering in thunder and sunshine alike." + +"We have had enough of that metaphor," observed Mr. Buxton. + + * * * * + +Then Anthony had to talk, and tell all the foreign news of Douai and Rome +and Cardinal Allen; and of Father Persons' scheme for a college at +Valladolid. + +"Father Robert is a superb beggar--as he is superb in all things," said +Mr. Buxton. "I dare not think how much he got from me for his college; +and then I do not even approve of his college. His principles are too +logical for me. I have ever had a weakness for the _non sequitur_." + +This led on to the Armada; Anthony told his experience of it; how he had +seen at least the sails of Lord Howard's squadron far away against the +dawn; and this led on again to a sharp discussion when the servants had +left the room. + +"I do not know," said Mary at last; "it is difficult--is not the choice +between God and Elizabeth? If I were a man, why should I not take up arms +to defend my religion? Since I am a woman, why should I not pray for +Philip's success? It is a bitter hard choice, I know; but why need I +prefer my country to my faith? Tell me that, Father Anthony." + +"I can only tell you my private opinion," said Anthony, "and that is, +that both duties may be done. As Mr. Buxton here used to tell me, the +duty to Caesar is as real as the duty to God. A man is bound to both; for +each has its proper bounds. When either oversteps them it must be +resisted. When Elizabeth bids me deny my faith, I tell her I would sooner +die. When a priest bids me deny my country, I tell him I would sooner be +damned." + +Mary clapped her hands. + +"I like to hear a man talk like that," she cried. "But what of the Holy +Father and his excommunication of her Grace?" + +Anthony looked up at her sharply, and then smiled; Isabel watched him +with a troubled face. + +"Aquinas holds," he said, "that an excommunication of sovereign and +people in a lump is invalid. And until the Holy Father tells me himself +that Aquinas is wrong, I shall continue to think he is right." + +"God-a-mercy!" burst in Mr. Buxton, "what a to-do! Leave it alone until +the choice must be made; and meanwhile say your prayers for Pope and +Queen too, and hear mass and tell your beads and hold your tongue: that +is what I say to myself. Mistress Mary, I will not have my chaplain +heckled; here is his lady sister all a-tremble between heresy and +treason." + +They sat long over the supper-table, talking over the last six years and +the times generally. More than once Mary showed a strange bitterness +against the Queen. At last Mr. Buxton showed his astonishment plainly. + +"I do not understand you," he said. "I know that at heart you are loyal; +and yet one might say you meditated her murder." + +Mary's face grew white with passion and her eyes blazed. + +"Ah!" she hissed, "you do not understand, you say? Then where is your +heart? But then you did not see Mary Stuart die." + +Anthony looked at her, amazed. + +"And you did, Mistress Mary?" he asked. + +Mary bowed, with her lips set tight to check their trembling. + +"I will tell you," she said, "if our host permits"; and she glanced at +him. + +"Then come this way," he said, and they rose from table. + +They went back again to the withdrawing-room; a little cedar-fire had +been kindled under the wide chimney; and the room was full of dancing +shadows. The great plaster-pendants, the roses, the crowns, and the +portcullises on the ceiling seemed to waver in the firelight, for Mr. +Buxton at a sign from Mary blew out the four tapers that were burning in +the sconces. They all sat down in the chairs that were set round the +fire, Mary in a tall porter's chair with flaps that threw a shadow on her +face when she leaned back; and she took a fan in her hand to keep the +fire, or her friends' eyes, from her face should she need it. + +She first told them very briefly of the last months of Mary's life, of +the web that was spun round her by Walsingham's tactics, and her own +friends' efforts, until it was difficult for her to stir hand or foot +without treason, real or pretended, being set in motion somewhere. Then +she described how at Christmas '86 Elizabeth had sent her--Mary +Corbet--as a Catholic, up to the Queen of the Scots at Fotheringay, on a +private mission to attempt to win the prisoner's confidence, and to +persuade her to confess to having been privy to Babington's conspiracy; +and how the Scottish Queen had utterly denied it, even in the most +intimate conversations. Sentence had been already passed, but the warrant +had not been signed; and it never would have been signed, said Mistress +Corbet, if Mary had owned to the crime of which she was accused. + +"Ah! how they insulted her!" cried Mary Corbet indignantly. "She showed +me one day the room where her throne had stood. Now the cloth of state +had been torn down by Sir Amyas Paulet's men, and he himself dared to sit +with his hat on his head in the sovereign's presence! The insolence of +the hound! But the Queen showed me how she had hung a crucifix where her +royal arms used to hang. 'J'appelle,' she said to me, 'de la reine au roi +des rois.'" + +Mistress Corbet went on to tell of the arrival of Walsingham's +brother-in-law, Mr. Beale, with the death-warrant on that February Sunday +evening. + +"I saw his foxy face look sideways up at the windows as he got off his +horse in the courtyard; and I knew that our foes had triumphed. Then the +other bloodhounds began to arrive; my lord of Kent on the Monday and +Shrewsbury on the Tuesday. Then they came in to us after dinner; and they +told her Grace it was to be for next day. I was behind her chair and saw +her hand on the boss of the arm, and it did not stir nor clench; she said +it could not be. She could not believe it of Elizabeth. + +"When she did at last believe it, there was no wild weeping or crying for +mercy; but she set her affairs in order, queenly, and yet sedately too. +She first thought of her soul, and desired that M. de Preau might come to +her and hear her confession; but they would not permit it. They offered +her Dr. Fletcher instead, 'a godly man,' as my lord of Kent called him. +'Je ne m'en doute pas,' she said, smiling. But it was hard not to have a +priest. + +"Then she set her earthly affairs in order when she had examined her soul +and made confession to God without the Dean's assistance. We all supped +together when it was growing late; and I thought, Father Anthony--indeed +I did--of another Supper long ago. Then M. Gorion was sent for to arrange +some messages and gifts; and until two of the clock in the morning we +watched with her or served her as she wrote and gave orders. The court +outside was full of comings and goings. As I passed down the passage I +saw the torches of the visitors that were come to see the end; and once I +heard a hammering from the great hall. Then she went to her bed; and I +think few lay as quiet as she in the castle that night. I was with her +ladies when they waked her before dawn; and it was hard to see that sweet +face on the pillow open its eyes again to what was before her. + +"Then when she was dressed I went in again, and we all went to the +oratory, where she received our Saviour from the golden pyx which the +Holy Father had sent her; for, you see, they would allow no priest to +come near her.... + +"Presently the gentlemen knocked. When we tried to follow we were +prevented; they wished her to die alone among her enemies; but at last +two of the ladies were allowed to go with her. + +"I ran out another way, and sent a message to my Lord Shrewsbury, who +knew me at court. As I waited in the courtyard, the musicians there were +playing 'The Witches' Dirge,' as is done at the burnings--and all to mock +at my queen! At last a halberdier was sent to bring me in." + +Mary Corbet was silent a moment or two and leaned back in her chair; and +the others dared not speak. The strange emotion of her voice and the +stillness of that sparkling figure in the porter's chair affected them +profoundly. Her face was now completely shaded by a fan. + +"It was in the hall, where a great fire was burning on the hearth. The +stage stood at the upper end; all was black. The crowd of gentlemen +filled the hall and all were still and reverent except--except a devil +who laughed as my queen came in, all in black. She was smiling and brave, +and went up the steps and sat on her black throne and looked about her. +The--the _things_ were just in front of her. + +"Then the warrant was read by Beale, and I saw the lords glance at her as +it ended; but there was nought but joyous hope in her face. She looked +now and again gently on the ivory crucifix in her hand, as she listened; +and her lips moved to--to--Him who was delivered to death for her." + +Mary Corbet gave one quick sob, and was silent again for an instant. Then +she went on in a yet lower voice. + +"Dr. Fletcher tried to address her, but he stammered and paused three or +four times; and the queen smiled on him and bade him not trouble himself, +for that she lived and died a Catholic. But they would not let her be; so +she looked on her crucifix and was silent; and even then my lord of Kent +badgered her and told her Christ crucified in her hand would not save +her, except He was engraved on her heart. + +"Then she knelt at her chair and tried to pray softly to herself; but +Fletcher would not have that, and prayed himself, aloud, and all the +gentlemen in the hall began to pray aloud with him. But Mary prayed on in +Latin and English aloud, and prevailed, for all were silent at the end +but she. + +"And at last she kissed the crucifix and cried in a sweet piercing voice, +'As thine arms, O Jesus, were spread upon the Cross, so receive me into +Thy mercy and forgive me my sins!'" + +Again Mistress Corbet was silent; and Anthony drew a long sobbing breath +of pure pity, and Isabel was crying quietly to herself. + +"When the headsmen offered to assist her," went on the low voice, "the +queen smiled at the gentlemen and said that she had never had such grooms +before; and then they let the ladies come up. When they began to help her +with her dress I covered my face--I could not help it. There was such a +stillness now that I could hear her beads chink at her girdle. When I +looked again, she was ready, with her sweet neck uncovered: all round her +was black but the headsman, who wore a white apron over his velvet, and +she, in her beauty, and oh! her face was so fair and delicate and her +eyes so tender and joyous. And as her ladies looked at her, they sobbed +piteously. 'Ne criez vous,' said she. + +"Then she knelt down, and Mistress Mowbray bound her eyes. She smiled +again under the handkerchief. 'Adieu,' she said, and then, 'Au revoir.' + +"Then she said once more a Latin psalm, and then laid her head down, as +on a pillow. + +"'In manus tuas, Domine,' she said." + + * * * * + +Mary Corbet stopped, and leaned forward a little, putting her hand into +her bosom; Anthony looked at her as she drew up a thin silk cord with a +ruby ring attached to it. + +"This was hers," she said simply, and held it out. Each of the Catholics +took it and kissed it reverently, and Mary replaced it. + +"When they lifted her," she added, "a little dog sprang out from her +clothes and yelped. And at that the man near me, who had laughed as she +came in, wept." + + * * * * + +Then the four sat silent in the firelight. + + + + + CHAPTER IV + + STANFIELD PLACE + + +Life at Stanfield Place was wonderfully sweet to Anthony and Isabel after +their exile abroad, for both of them had an intense love of England and +of English ways. The very sight of fair-faced children, and the noise of +their shrill familiar voices from the village street, the depths of the +August woods round them, the English manners of living--all this was +alive with a full deliberate joy to these two. Besides, there was the +unfailing tenderness and gaiety of Mr. Buxton; and at first there was the +pleasant company of Mary Corbet as well. + +There was little or no anxiety resting on any of them. "God was served," +as the celebration of mass was called, each morning in the little room +where Anthony had made the exercises, and the three others were always +present. It was seldom that the room was not filled to over-flowing on +Sundays and holy-days with the household and the neighbouring Catholics. + +Everything was, of course, perfection in the little chapel when it was +furnished; as was all that Mr. Buxton possessed. There was a wonderful +golden crucifix by an unknown artist, that he had picked up in his +travels, that stood upon the altar, with the bird-types of the Saviour at +each of the four ends; a pelican at the top, an eagle on the right +supporting its young which were raising their wings for a flight, on the +left a phoenix amid flames, and at the foot a hen gathering her +chickens under her wings--all the birds had tiny emerald eyes; the figure +on the cross was beautifully wrought, and had rubies in hands and feet +and side. There were also two silver altar-candlesticks designed by +Marrina for the Piccolomini chapel in the church of St. Francis in Siena; +and two more, plainer, for the Elevation. The vestments were exquisite; +those for high festivals were cloth of gold; and the other white ones +were beautifully worked with seed pearls, and jewelled crosses on the +stole and maniple. The other colours, too, were well represented, and +were the work of a famous convent in the south of France. All the other +articles, too, were of silver: the lavabo basin, the bell, the thurible, +the boat and spoon, and the cruets. It was a joy to all the Catholics who +came to see the worship of God carried on with such splendour, when in so +many places even necessaries were scarcely forthcoming. + +There was a little hiding-hole between the chapel and the priest's room, +just of a size to hold the altar furniture and the priests in case of a +sudden alarm; and there were several others in the house too, which Mr. +Buxton had showed to Anthony with a good deal of satisfaction, on the +morning after his arrival. + +"I dared not show them to you the last time you were here," he said, "and +there was no need; but now there must be no delay. I have lately made +some more, too. Now here is one," he said, stopping before the great +carved mantelpiece in the hall. + +He looked round to see that no servant was in the room, and then, +standing on a settee before the fire, touched something above, and a +circular hole large enough for a man to clamber through appeared in the +midst of the tracery. + +"There," he said, "and you will find some cured ham and a candle, with a +few dates within, should you ever have need to step up there--which, pray +God, you may not." + +"What is the secret?" asked Anthony, as the tracery swung back into +place, and his host stepped down. + +"Pull the third roebuck's ears in the coat of arms, or rather push them. +It closes with a spring, and is provided with a bolt. But I do not +recommend that refuge unless it is necessary. In winter it is too hot, +for the chimney passes behind it; and in summer it is too oppressive, for +there is not too much air." + +At the end of the corridor that led in the direction of the little old +rooms where Anthony had slept in his visit, Mr. Buxton stopped before the +portrait of a kindly-looking old gentleman that hung on the wall. + +"Now there is an upright old man you would say; and indeed he was, for he +was my own uncle, and made a godly end of it last year. But now see what +a liar I have made of him!" + +Mr. Buxton put his hand behind the frame, and the whole picture opened +like a door showing a space within where three or four could stand. +Anthony stepped inside and his friend followed him, and after showing him +some clothes hanging against the wall closed the picture after them, +leaving them in the dark. + +"Now see what a sharp-eyed old fellow he is too," whispered his host. +Anthony looked where he was guided, and perceived two pinholes through +which he could see the whole length of the corridor. + +"Through the centre of each eye," whispered his friend. "Is he not shrewd +and secret? And now turn this way." + +Anthony turned round and saw the opposite wall slowly opening; and in a +moment more he stepped out and found himself in the lobby outside the +little room where he had made the exercises six years ago. He heard a +door close softly as he looked about him in astonishment, and on turning +round saw only an innocent-looking set of shelves with a couple of books +and a little pile of paper and packet of quills upon them. + +"There," said Mr. Buxton, "who would suspect Tacitus his history and +Juvenal his satires of guarding the passage of a Christian ecclesiastic +fleeing for his life?" + +Then he showed him the secret, how one shelf had to be drawn out +steadily, and the nail in another pressed simultaneously, and how then +the entire set of shelves swung open. + +Then they went back and he showed him the spring behind the frame of the +picture. + +"You see the advantage of this," he went on: "on the one side you may +flee upstairs, a treasonable skulking cassocked jack-priest with the +lords and the commons and the Queen's Majesty barking at your heels; and +on the other side you may saunter down the gallery without your beard and +in a murrey doublet, a friend of Mr. Buxton's, taking the air and +wondering what the devil all the clamouring be about." + +Then he took him downstairs again and showed him finally the escape of +which he was most proud--the entrance, designed in the cellar-staircase, +to an underground passage from the cellars, which led, he told him, +across to the garden-house beyond the lime-avenue. + +"That is the pride of my heart," he said, "and maybe will be useful some +day; though I pray not. Ah! her Grace and her honest Council are right. +We Papists are a crafty and deceitful folk, Father Anthony." + + * * * * + +The four grew very intimate during those few weeks; they had many +memories and associations in common on which to build up friendship, and +the aid of a common faith and a common peril with which to cement it. The +gracious beauty of the house and the life at Stanfield, too, gilded it +all with a very charming romance. They were all astonished at the easy +intimacy with which they behaved, one to another. + +Mary Corbet was obliged to return to her duties at Court at the beginning +of September; and she had something of an ache at her heart as the time +drew on; for she had fallen once more seriously in love with Isabel. She +said a word of it to Mr. Buxton. They were walking in the lime-avenue +together after dinner on the last day of Mary's visit. + +"You have a good chaplain," she said; "what an honest lad he is! and how +serious and recollected! Please God he at least may escape their claws!" + +"It is often so," said Mr. Buxton, "with those wholesome out-of-door +boys; they grow up into such simple men of God." + +"And Isabel!" said Mary, rustling round upon him as she walked. "What a +great dame she is become! I used to lie on her bed and kick my heels and +laugh at her; but now I would like to say my prayers to her. She is +somewhat like our Lady herself, so grave and serious, and yet so warm and +tender." + +Mr. Buxton nodded sharply. + +"I felt sure you would feel it," he said. + +"Ah! but I knew her when she was just a child; so simple that I loved to +startle her. But now--but now--those two ladies have done wonders with +her. She has all the splendour of Mary Maxwell, and all the softness of +Margaret." + +"Yes," said the other meditatively; "the two ladies have done it--or, the +grace of God." + +Mary looked at him sideways and her lips twitched a little. + +"Yes--or the grace of God, as you say." + +The two laughed into each other's eyes, for they understood one another +well. Presently Mary went on: + +"When you and I fence together at table, she does not turn frigid like so +many holy folk--or peevish and bewildered like stupid folk--but she just +looks at us, and laughs far down in those deep grey eyes of hers. Oh! I +love her!" ended Mary. + +They walked in silence a minute or two. + +"And I think I do," said Mr. Buxton softly. + +"Eh?" exclaimed Mary, "you do what?" She had quite forgotten her last +sentence. + +"It is no matter," he said yet more softly; and would say no more. + +Presently the talk fell on the Maxwells; and came round to Hubert. + +"They say he would be a favourite at Court," said Mary, "had he not a +wife. But her Grace likes not married men. She looked kindly upon him at +Deptford, I know; and I have seen him at Greenwich. You know, of course, +about Isabel?" + +Mr. Buxton shook his head. + +"Why, it was common talk that they would have been man and wife years +ago, had not the fool apostatised." + +Her companion questioned her further, and soon had the whole story out of +her. "But I am thankful," ended Mary, "that it has so ended." + +The next day she went back to Court; and it was with real grief that the +three watched her wonderful plumed riding-hat trot along behind the top +of the churchyard wall, with her woman beside her, and her little +liveried troop of men following at a distance. + +The days passed by, bringing strange tidings to Stanfield. News continued +to reach the Catholics of the good confessions witnessed here and there +in England by priests and laity. At the end of July, three priests, +Garlick, Ludlam and Sympson, had been executed at Derby, and at the end +of August the defeat of the Armada seemed to encourage Elizabeth yet +further, and Mr. Leigh, a priest, with four laymen and Mistress Margaret +Ward, died for their religion at Tyburn. + +By the end of September the news of the hopeless defeat and disappearance +of the Armada had by now been certified over and over again. Terrible +stories had come in during August of that northward flight of all that +was left of the fleet over the plunging North Sea up into the stormy +coast of Scotland; then rumours began of the miseries that were falling +on the Spaniards off Ireland--Catholic Ireland from which they had hoped +so much. There was scarcely a bay or a cape along the west coast where +some ship had not put in, with piteous entreaties for water and aid--and +scarcely a bay or a cape that was not blood-guilty. Along the straight +coast from Sligo Bay westwards, down the west coast, Clew Bay, Connemara, +and haunted Dingle itself, where the Catholic religion under arms had +been so grievously chastened eight years ago--everywhere half-drowned or +half-starved Spaniards, piteously entreating, were stripped and put to +the sword either by the Irish savages or the English gentlemen. The +church-bells were rung in Stanfield and in every English village, and the +flame of national pride and loyalty burned fiercer and higher than ever. + + * * * * + +On the last day of September Isabel, just before dinner in her room, +heard the trot of a couple of horses coming up the short drive, and on +going downstairs almost ran against Hubert as he came from the corridor +into the hall, as the servant ushered him in. + +The two stopped and looked at one another in silence. + +Hubert was flushed with hard riding and looked excited; Isabel's face +showed nothing but pleasure and surprise. The servant too stopped, +hesitating. + +Then Isabel put out her hand, smiling; and her voice was natural and +controlled. + +"Why, Mr. Hubert," she said, "it is you! Come through this way"; and she +nodded to the servant, who went forward and opened the door of the little +parlour and stood back, as Isabel swept by him. + +When the door was closed, and the servant's footsteps had died away, +Hubert, as he stood facing Isabel, spoke at last. + +"Mistress Isabel," he said almost imploringly, "what can I say to you? +Your home has been wrecked; and partly through those wild and foolish +words of mine; and you repay it by that act of kindness to my wife! I am +come to ask your pardon, and to thank you. I only reached home last +night." + +"Ah! that was nothing," said Isabel gently; "and as for the house----" + +"As for the house," he said, "I was not master of myself when I said +those words that Grace told you of; and I entreat you to let me repair +the damage." + +"No, no," she said, "Anthony has given orders; that will all be done." + +"But what can I do then?" he cried passionately; "if you but knew my +sorrow--and--and--more than that, my----" + +Isabel had raised her grave eyes and was looking him full in the face +now; and he stopped abashed. + +"How is Grace, and Mercy?" she asked in perfectly even tones. + +"Oh! Isabel----" he began; and again she looked at him, and then went to +the door. + +"I hear Mr. Buxton," she said; and steps came along through the hall; she +opened the door as he came up. Mr. Buxton stopped abruptly, and the two +men drew themselves up and seemed to stiffen, ever so slightly. A shade +of aggressive contempt came on Hubert's keen brown face that towered up +so near the low oak ceiling; while Mr. Buxton's eyelids just drooped, and +his features seemed to sharpen. There was an unpleasant silence: Isabel +broke it. + +"You remember Master Hubert Maxwell?" she said almost entreatingly. He +smiled kindly at her, but his face hardened again as he turned once more +to Hubert. + +"I remember the gentleman perfectly," he said, "and he no doubt knows me, +and why I cannot ask him to remain and dine with us." + +Hubert smiled brutally. + +"It is the old story of course, the Faith! I must ask your pardon, sir, +for intruding. The difficulty never came into my mind. The truth is that +I have lived so long now among Protestants that I had quite forgotten +what Catholic charity is like!" + +He said this with such extreme bitterness and fury that Isabel put out +her hand instinctively to Mr. Buxton, who smiled at her once more, and +pressed it in his own. Hubert laughed again sharply; his face grew white +under the tan, and his lips wrinkled back once or twice. + +"So, if you can spare me room to pass," he went on in the same tone, "I +will begone to the inn." + +Mr. Buxton stepped aside from the door, and Hubert bowed to Isabel so low +that it was almost an insult in itself, and strode out, his spurs ringing +on the oak boards. + +When he half turned outside the front door to beckon to his groom to +bring up the horses, he became aware that Isabel was beside him. + +"Hubert," she said, "Hubert, I cannot bear this." + +There were tears in her voice, and he could not help turning and looking +at her. Her face, more grave and transparent than ever, was raised to +his; her red down-turned lips were trembling, and her eyes were full of a +great emotion. He turned away again sharply. + +"Hubert," she said again, "I was not born a Catholic, and I do not feel +like Mr. Buxton. And--and I do thank you for coming; and for your desire +to repair the house; and--and will you give my love to Grace?" + +Then he suddenly turned to her with such passion in his eyes that she +shrank back. At the same moment the groom brought up the horses; he +turned and mounted without a word, but his eyes were dim with love and +anger and jealousy. Then he drove his spurs into his great grey mare, and +Isabel watched him dash between the iron gates, with his groom only half +mounted holding back his own plunging horse. Then she went within doors +again. + + + + + CHAPTER V + + JOSEPH LACKINGTON + + +It was a bitter ride back to Great Keynes for Hubert. He had just +returned from watching the fifty vessels, which were all that were left +of the Great Armada, pass the Blaskets, still under the nominal command +of Medina Sidonia, on their miserable return to Spain; and he had come +back as fast as sails could carry him, round the stormy Land's-End up +along the south coast to Rye, where on his arrival he had been almost +worshipped by the rejoicing townsfolk. Yet all through his voyage and +adventures, at any rate since his interview with her at Rye, it had been +the face of Isabel there, and not of Grace, that had glimmered to him in +the dark, and led him from peril to peril. Then, at last, on his arrival +at home, he had heard of the disaster to the Dower House, and his own +unintended share in it; and of Isabel's generous visit to his wife; and +at that he had ordered his horse abruptly over-night and ridden off +without a word of explanation to Grace on the following morning. And he +had been met by a sneering man who would not sit at table with him, and +who was the protector and friend of Isabel. + + * * * * + +He rode up through the village just after dark and in through the +gatehouse up to the steps. A man ran to open the door, and as Hubert came +through told him that a stranger had ridden down from London and had +arrived at mid-day, and that he had been waiting ever since. + +"I gave the gentleman dinner in the cloister parlour, sir; and he is at +supper now," added the man. + +Hubert nodded and pushed through the hall. He heard his name called +timidly from upstairs, and looking up saw his wife's golden head over the +banisters. + +"Well!" he said. + +"Ah, it is you. I am so glad." + +"Who else should it be?" said Hubert, and passed through towards the +cloister wing, and opened the door of the little parlour where Isabel and +Mistress Margaret had sat together years before, the night of Mr. James' +return, and of the girl's decision. + +A stranger rose up hastily as he came in, and bowed with great deference. +Hubert knew his face, but could not remember his name. + +"I ask your pardon, Mr. Maxwell; but your man would take no denial," and +he indicated the supper-table with a steaming dish and a glass jug of +wine ruddy in the candlelight. Hubert looked at him curiously. + +"I know you, sir," he said, "but I cannot put a name to your face." + +"Lackington," said the man with a half smile; "Joseph Lackington." + +Hubert still stared; and then suddenly burst into a short laugh. + +"Why, yes," he said; "I know now. My father's servant." + +The man bowed. + +"Formerly, sir; and now agent to Sir Francis Walsingham," he said, with +something of dignity in his manner. + +Hubert saw the hint, but could not resist a small sneer. + +"Why, I am pleased to see you," he said. "You have come to see your +old--home?" and he threw himself into a chair and stretched his legs to +the blaze, for he was stiff with riding. Lackington instantly sat down +too, for his pride was touched. + +"It was not for that, Mr. Maxwell," he said almost in the tone of an +equal, "but on a mission for Sir Francis." + +Hubert looked at him a moment as he sat there in the candlelight, with +his arm resting easily on the table. He was plainly prosperous, and was +even dressed with some distinction; his reddish beard was trimmed to a +point; his high forehead was respectably white and bald; and his seals +hung from his belt beside his dagger with an air of ease and solidity. +Perhaps he was of some importance; at any rate, Sir Francis Walsingham +was. Hubert sat up a little. + +"A mission to me?" he said. + +Lackington nodded. + +"A few questions on a matter of state." + +He drew from his pouch a paper signed by Sir Francis authorising him as +an agent, for one month, and dated three days back; and handed it to +Hubert. + +"I obtained that from Sir Francis on Monday, as you will see. You can +trust me implicitly." + +"Will the business take long?" asked Hubert, handing the paper back. + +"No, Mr. Maxwell; and I must be gone in an hour in any case. I have to be +at Rye at noon to-morrow; and I must sleep at Mayfield to-night." + +"At Rye," said Hubert, "why I came from there yesterday." + +Lackington bowed again, as if he were quite aware of this; but said +nothing. + +"Then I will sup here," went on Hubert, "and we will talk meantime." + +When a place had been laid for him, he drew his chair round to the table +and began to eat. + +"May I begin at once?" asked Lackington, who had finished. + +Hubert nodded. + +"Then first I believe it to be a fact that you spoke with Mistress Isabel +Morris on board the _Elizabeth_ at Rye on the tenth of August last." + +Hubert had started violently at her name; but did his utmost to gain +outward command of himself again immediately. + +"Well?" he said. + +--"And with Master Anthony Norris, lately made a priest beyond the seas." + +"That is a lie," said Hubert. + +Lackington politely lifted his eyebrows. + +"Indeed?" he said. "That he was made a priest, or that you spoke with +him?" + +"That I know aught of him," said Hubert. His heart was beating furiously. + +Lackington made a note rather ostentatiously; he could see that Hubert +was frightened, and thought that it was because of a possible accusation +of having dealings with a traitor. + +"And as regards Mistress Norris," he said judicially, with his pencil +raised, "you deny having spoken with her?" + +Hubert was thinking furiously. Then he saw that Lackington knew too much +for its being worth his own while to deny it. + +"No, I never denied that," he said, lifting his fork to his mouth; and he +went on eating with a deliberate ease as Lackington again made a note. + +The next question was a home-thrust. + +"Where are they both now?" asked Lackington, looking at him. Hubert's +mind laboured like a mill. + +"I do not know," he said. + +"You swear it?" + +"I swear it." + +"Then Mistress Norris has changed her plans?" said Lackington swiftly. + +"What do you mean by that?" + +"Why she told you where they were going when you met?" said the other in +a remonstrating tone. + +Hubert suddenly saw the game. If the authorities really knew that, it +would have been a useless question. He stared at Lackington with an +admirable vacancy. + +"Indeed she did not," he said. "For aught I know, they--she is in France +again." + +"They?" said Lackington shrewdly. "Then you do know somewhat of the +priest?" + +But Hubert was again too sharp. + +"Only what you told me just now, when you said he was at Rye. I supposed +you were telling the truth." + +Lackington passed his hand smoothly over his mouth and beard, and smiled. +Either Hubert was very sharp or else he had told everything; and he did +not believe him sharp. + +"Thank you, Mr. Maxwell," he said, with a complete dropping of his +judicial manner. "I will not pretend not to be disappointed; but I +believe what you say about France is true; and that it is no use looking +for him further." + +Hubert experienced an extraordinary relief. He had saved Isabel. He drank +off a glass of claret. "Tell me everything," he said. + +"Well," said Lackington, "Mr. Thomas Hamon is my informant. He sent up to +Sir Francis the message that a lady of the name of Norris had been +introduced to him at Rye; because he thought he remembered some stir in +the county several years ago about some reconciliations to Rome connected +with that name. Of course we knew everything about that: and we have our +agents at the seminaries too; so we concluded that she was one of our +birds; the rest, of course, was guesswork. Mr. Norris has certainly left +Douai for England; and he may possibly even now be in England; but from +your information and others', I now believe that Mistress Isabel came +across first, and that she found the country too hot, what with the +Spaniards and all; and that she returned to France at once. Of course +during that dreadful week, Mr. Maxwell, we could not be certain of all +vessels that came and went; so I think she just slipped across again; and +that they are both waiting in France. We shall keep good watch now at the +ports, I can promise you." + +Hubert's emotions were varied during this speech. First shame at having +entirely forgotten the mayor of Rye and his own introduction of Isabel to +him; then astonishment at the methods of Walsingham's agents; and lastly +intense triumph and relief at having put them off Isabel's track. For +Anthony, too, he had nothing but kindly feelings; so, on the whole, he +thought he had done well for his friends. + +The two talked a little longer; Lackington was a stimulating companion +from both his personality and his position; and Hubert found himself +almost sorry when his companion said he must be riding on to Mayfield. As +he walked out with him to the front door, he suddenly thought of Mr. +Buxton again and his reception in the afternoon. They had wandered in +their conversation so far from the Norrises by now that he felt sure he +could speak of him without doing them any harm. So, as they stood on the +steps together, waiting for Lackington's horse to come round, he suddenly +said: + +"Do you know aught of one Buxton, who lives somewhere near Tonbridge, I +think?" + +"Buxton, Buxton?" said the other. + +"I met him in town once," went on Hubert smoothly; "a little man, dark, +with large eyes, and looks somewhat like a Frenchman." + +"Buxton, Buxton?" said the other again. "A Papist, is he not?" + +"Yes," said Hubert, hoping to get some information against him. + +"A friend?" asked Lackington. + +"No," said Hubert with such vehemence that Lackington looked at him. + +"I remember him," he said in a moment; "he was imprisoned at Wisbeach six +or seven years ago. But I do not think he has been in trouble since. You +wish, you wish----?" he went on interrogatively. + +"Nothing," said Hubert; but Lackington saw the hatred in his eyes. + +The horses came round at this moment; and Lackington said good-bye to +Hubert with a touch of the old deference again, and mounted. Hubert +watched him out under the gatehouse-lamp into the night beyond, and then +he went in again, pondering. + +His wife was waiting for him in the hall now--a delicate golden-haired +figure, with pathetic blue eyes turned up to him. She ran to him and took +his arm timidly in her two hands. + +"Oh! I am glad that man has gone, Hubert." + +He looked down at her almost contemptuously. + +"Why, you know nothing of him!" he said. + +"Not much," she said, "but he asked me so many questions." + +Hubert started and looked suddenly at her, in terror. + +"Oh, Hubert!" she said, shrinking back frightened. + +"Questions!" he said, seizing her hands. "Questions of whom?" + +"Of--of--Mistress Isabel Norris," she said, almost crying. + +"And--and--what did you say? Did you tell him?" + +"Oh, Hubert!--I am so sorry--ah! do not look like that." + +"What did you say? What did you say?" he said between his teeth. + +"I--I--told a lie, Hubert; I said I had never seen her." + +Hubert took his wife suddenly in his two arms and kissed her three or +four times. + +"You darling, you darling!" he said; and then stooped and picked her up, +and carried her upstairs, with her head against his cheek, and her tears +running down because he was pleased with her, instead of angry. + +They went upstairs and he set her down softly outside the nursery door. + +"Hush," she said, smiling up at him; and then softly opened the door and +listened, her finger on her lip; there was no sound from within; then she +pushed the door open gently, and the wife and husband went in. + +There was a shaded taper still burning in a high bracket where an image +of the Mother of God had stood in the Catholic days of the house. Hubert +glanced up at it and remembered it, with just a touch at his heart. +Beneath it was a little oak cot, where his four-year-old boy lay +sleeping; the mother went across and bent over it, and Hubert leaned his +brown sinewy hands on the end of the cot and watched him. There his son +lay, with tangled curls on the pillow; his finger was on his lips as if +he bade silence even to thought. Hubert looked up, and just above the +bed, where the crucifix used to hang when he himself had slept in this +nursery, probably on the very same nail, he thought to himself, was a +rusty Spanish spur that he himself had found in a sea-chest of the _San +Juan_. The boy had hung up with a tarry bit of string this emblem of his +father's victory, as a protection while he slept. + +The child stirred in his sleep and murmured as the two watched him. + +"Father's home again," whispered the mother. "It is all well. Go to sleep +again." + +When she looked up again to her husband, he was gone. + + * * * * + +It was not often that Hubert had regrets for the Faith he had lost; but +to-night things had conspired to prick him. There was his rebuff from Mr. +Buxton; there was the sight of Isabel in the dignified grace that he had +noticed so plainly before; there had been the interview with the +ex-Catholic servant, now a spy of the Government, and a remorseless enemy +of all Catholics; and lastly there were the two little external reminders +of the niche and the nail over his son's bed. + +He sat long before the fire in Sir Nicholas' old room, now his own study. +As he lay back and looked about him, how different this all was, too! The +mantelpiece was almost unaltered; the Maxwell devices, two-headed eagles, +hurcheons and saltires, on crowded shields, interlaced with the motto +_Reviresco_, all newly gilded since his own accession to the estate, rose +up in deep shadow and relief; but over it, instead of the little old +picture of the Vernacle that he remembered as a child, hung his own +sword. Was that a sign of progress? he wondered. The tapestry on the east +wall was the same, a hawking scene with herons and ladies in immense +headdresses that he had marvelled at as a boy. But then the books on the +shelves to the right of the door, they were different; there had been old +devotional books in his father's time, mingled strangely with small works +on country life and sports; now the latter only remained, and the nearest +to a devotional book was a volume of a mystical herbalist who identified +plants with virtues, strangely and ingeniously. Then the prie-dieu, where +the beads had hung and the little wooden shield with the Five Wounds +painted upon it--that was gone; and in its place hung a cupboard where he +kept a crossbow and a few tools for it; and old hawk-lures and jesses and +the like. + +Then he lay back again, and thought. + +Had he then behaved unworthily? This old Faith that had been handed down +from father and son for generations; that had been handed to him too as +the most precious heirloom of all--for which his father had so gladly +suffered fines and imprisonment, and risked death--he had thrown it over, +and for what? For Isabel, he confessed to himself; and then the--the +Power that stands behind the visible had cheated him and withdrawn that +for which he had paid over that great price. Was that a reckless and +brutal bargain on his side--to throw over this strange delicate thing +called the Faith for which so many millions had lived and died, all for a +woman's love? A curious kind of family pride in the Faith began to prick +him. After all, was not honour in a manner bound up with it too; and most +of all when such heavy penalties attached themselves to the profession of +it? Was that the moment when he should be the first of his line to +abandon it? + +_Reviresco_--"I renew my springtide." But was not this a strange +grafting--a spur for a crucifix, a crossbow for a place of prayer? +_Reviresco_--There was sap indeed in the old tree; but from what soil did +it draw its strength? + +His heart began to burn with something like shame, as it had burned now +and again at intervals during these past years. Here he lay back in his +father's chair, in his father's room, the first Protestant of the +Maxwells. Then he passed on to a memory. + +As he closed his eyes, he could see even now the chapel upstairs, with +the tapers alight and the stiff figure of the priest in the midst of the +glow; he could smell the flowers on the altar, the June roses strewn on +the floor in the old manner, and their fresh dewy scent mingled with the +fragrance of the rich incense in an intoxicating chord; he could hear the +rustle that emphasised the silence, as his mother rose from his side and +went up for communion, and the breathing of the servants behind him. + +Then for contrast he remembered the whitewashed church where he attended +now with his wife, Sunday by Sunday, the pulpit occupied by the black +figure of the virtuous Mr. Bodder pronouncing his discourse, the great +texts that stood out in their new paint from the walls, the table that +stood out unashamed and sideways in the midst of the chancel. And which +of the two worships was most like God?... + +Then he compared the worshippers in either mode. Well, Drake, his hero, +was a convinced Protestant; the bravest man he had ever met or dreamed +of--fiery, pertinacious, gloriously insolent. He thought of his sailors, +on whom a portion of Drake's spirit fell, their gallantry, their +fearlessness of death and of all that comes after; of Mr. Bodder, who was +now growing middle-aged in the Vicarage--yes, indeed, they were all +admirable in various ways, but were they like Christ? + +On the other hand, his father, in spite of his quick temper, his mother, +brother, aunt, the priests who came and went by night, Isabel--and at +that he stopped: and like a deep voice in his ear rose up the last +tremendous question, What if the Catholic Religion be true after all? And +at that the supernatural began to assert itself. It seemed as if the +empty air were full of this question, rising in intensity and emphasis. +What if it is true? What if it is true? _What if it is true?_ + +He sat bolt upright and looked sharply round the room; the candles burned +steadily in the sconce near the door. The tapestry lifted and dropped +noiselessly in the draught; the dark corners beyond the press and in the +window recesses suggested presences that waited; the wide chimney sighed +suddenly once. + +Was that a voice in his ear just now, or only in his heart? But in either +case---- + +He made an effort to command himself, and looked again steadily round the +room; but there seemed no one there. But what if the old tale be true? In +that case he is not alone in this little oak room, for there is no such +thing as loneliness. In that case he is sitting in full sight of Almighty +God, whom he has insulted; and of the saints whose power he has +repudiated; and of the angels good and bad who have---- Ah! what was +that? There had seemed to come a long sigh somewhere behind him; on his +left surely.--What was it? Some wandering soul? Was it, could it be the +soul of one who had loved him and desired to warn him before it was too +late? Could it have been----and then it came again; and the hair prickled +on his head. + +How deathly still it is, and how cold! Ah! was that a rustle outside; a +tap?... In God's name, who can that be?... + +And then Hubert licked his dry lips and brought them together and smiled +at Grace, who had come down, opening the doors as she came, to see why he +had not come to bed. + +Bah! what a superstitious fool he was, after all! + + + + + CHAPTER VI + + A DEPARTURE + + +The months went by happily at Stanfield; and, however ill went the +fortunes of the Church elsewhere, here at least were peace and +prosperity. Most discouraging news indeed did reach them from time to +time. The severe penalties now enacted against the practice of the +Catholic Religion were being enforced with great vigour, and the weak +members of the body began to fail. Two priests had apostatised at +Chichester earlier in the year, one of them actually at the scaffold on +Broyle Heath; and then in December there were two more recantations at +Paul's Cross. Those Catholics too who threw up the Faith generally became +the most aggressive among the persecutors, to testify to their own +consciences, as well to the Protestants, of the sincerity of their +conversion. + +But in Stanfield the Church flourished, and Anthony had the great +happiness of receiving his first convert in the person of Mr. Rowe, the +young owner of a house called East Maskells, separated from Stanfield +Place by a field-path of under a mile in length, though the road round +was over two; and the comings and goings were frequent now between the +two houses. Mr. Rowe was at present unmarried, and had his aunt to keep +house for him, a tolerant old maiden lady who had conformed placidly to +the Reformed Religion thirty years before, and was now grown content with +it. Several "schismatics" too--as those Catholics were called who +attended their parish church--had waxed bolder, and given up their +conformity to the Establishment; so it was a happy and courageous flock +that gathered Sunday by Sunday at Stanfield Place. + + * * * * + +Just before Christmas, Anthony received a long and affectionate letter +from James Maxwell, who was still at Douai. + +"The Rector will still have me here," he wrote, "and shows me to the +young men as if I were a kind of warrior; which is bad for pride; but +then he humbles me again by telling me I am of more use here as an +example, than I should be in England; and that humbles me again. So I am +content to stay. It is a humbling thing, too, to find young men who can +tell me the history of my arms and legs better than I know it myself. But +the truth is, I can never walk well again--yet _laudetur Jesus +Christus_." + +Then James Maxwell wrote a little about his grief for Hubert; gave a +little news of foreign movements among the Catholics; and finally ended +as follows: + +"At last I understand who your friend was behind Bow Church, who +stuttered and played the Catholic so well. It was our old servant +Lackington; who turned Protestant and entered Walsingham's service. I +hear all this from one P. lately in the same affairs, but now turned to +Christ his service instead; and who has entered here as a student. So +beware of him; he has a pointed beard now, and a bald forehead. I hear, +too, from the same source that he was on your track when you landed, but +now thinks you to be in France. However, he knows of you; so I counsel +you not to abide over long in one place. Perhaps you may go to +Lancashire; that is like heaven itself for Catholics. Their zeal and +piety there are beyond praise; but I hear they somewhat lack priests. God +keep you always, my dear Brother; and may the Queen of Heaven intercede +for you. Pray for me." + + * * * * + +Soon after the New Year, Mary Corbet was able to get away from Court and +come down again to her friends for a month or two at Stanfield. + +During her stay they all had an adventure together at East Maskells. They +had been out a long expedition into the woods one clear frosty day and +rode in just at sunset for an early supper with Mr. Rowe and his aunt. + +They had left their horses at the stable and come in round the back of +the house; so that they missed the servant Miss Rowe had placed at the +front door to warn them, and came straight into the winter-parlour, where +they found Miss Rowe in conversation with an ecclesiastic. There was no +time to retreat; and Anthony in a moment more found himself being +introduced to a minister he had met at Lambeth more than once--the +Reverend Robert Carr, who had held the odd title of "Archbishop's Curate" +and the position of minister in charge of the once collegiate church of +All Saints', Maidstone, ever since the year '59. He had ridden up from +Maidstone for supper and lodging, and was on his way to town. + +Anthony managed to interrupt Miss Rowe before she came to his assumed +name Capell, and remarked rather loudly that he had met Mr. Carr before; +who recognised him too, and greeted him by his real name. + +It was an uncomfortable situation, as Mr. Carr was quite unaware of the +religion of five out of six of those present, and very soon began to give +voice to his views on Papistry. He was an oldish man by now, and of some +importance in Maidstone, where he had been appointed Jurat by the +Corporation, and was a very popular and influential man. + +"The voice of the people," he said in the midst of a conversation on the +national feeling towards Spain, "that is what we must hearken to. Even +sovereigns themselves must come to that some day. They must rule by +obeying; as man does with God's laws in nature." + +"Would you say that, sir, of her Grace?" asked Mary Corbet meekly. + +"I should, madam; though I fear she has injured her power by her +behaviour this year. It was her people who saved her.--Hawkins, who is +now ruined as he says; my lord Howard, who has paid from his own purse +for the meat and drink of her Grace's soldiers, and those who fought with +them; and not her Grace, who saved them; or Leicester, now gone to his +account, who sat at Tilbury and did the bowing and the prancing and the +talking while Hawkins and the rest did the fighting. No, madam, it is the +voice of the people to which we must hearken." + +This was rather confused and dangerous talking too; but here was plainly +a man to be humoured; he looked round him with a suffused face and the +eye of a cock, and a little white plume on his forehead increased his +appearance of pugnacity. + +"It is the same in religion," he said, when all preserved a deferential +silence; "it is that that lies at the root of papist errors. As you know +very well," he went on, turning suddenly on Anthony, "our bishops do +nothing to guide men's minds; they only seem to: they ride atop like the +figure on a cock-horse, but it is the legs beneath that do the work and +the guiding too: now that is right and good; and the Church of England +will prosper so long as she goes like that. But if the bishops try to +rule they will find their mistake. Now the Popish Church is not like +that; she holds that power comes from above, that the Pope guides the +bishops, the bishops the priests, and the priests the people." + +"And the Holy Ghost the Pope; is it not so, sir?" asked Mr. Buxton. + +Mr. Carr turned an eye on him. + +"So they hold, sir," he said after a pause. + +"They think then, sir, that the shepherds guide the sheep?" asked Anthony +humbly. + +Mary Corbet gave a yelp of laughter; but when Mr. Carr looked at her she +was grave and deferential again. Miss Rowe looked entreatingly from face +to face. The minister did not notice Anthony's remark; but swept on again +on what was plainly his favourite theme,--the infallibility of the +people. It was a doctrine that was hardly held yet by any; but the next +century was to see its gradual rise until it reached its climax in the +Puritanism of the Stuart times. It was true, as Mr. Carr said, that +Elizabeth had ruled by obeying; and that the people of England, +encouraged by success in resisting foreign domination, were about to pass +on to the second position of resisting any domination at all. + +Presently he pulled out of his pocket a small printed sheet, and was soon +declaiming from it. It was not very much to the point, except as +illustrating the national spirit which he believed so divine. It was a +ballad describing the tortures which the Spaniards had intended to +inflict upon the heretic English, and began: + + "All you that list to look and see + What profit comes from Spain, + And what the Pope and Spaniards both + Prepared for our gain. + Then turn your eyes and lend your ears + And you shall hear and see + What courteous minds, what gentle hearts, + They bear to thee and me! + +And it ended in the same spirit: + + "Be these the men that are so mild + Whom some so holy call! + The Lord defend our noble Queen + And country from them all!" + +"There!" the minister cried when he had done, "that is what the Papists +are like! Trust me; I know them. I should know one in a moment if he +ventured into this room, by his crafty face. But the Lord will defend His +own Englishmen; nay! He has done so. 'God blew and they were scattered,'" +he ended, quoting from the Armada medal. + + * * * * + +As the four rode home by pairs across the field-path in the frosty +moonlight Mr. Buxton lamented to Anthony the effect of the Armada. + +"The national spirit is higher than ever," he said, "and it will be the +death of Catholicism here for the present. Our country squires, I fear, +faithful Catholics to this time, are beginning to wonder and question. +When will our Catholic kings learn that Christ His Kingdom is not of this +world? Philip has smitten the Faith in England with the weapon which he +drew in its defence, as he thought." + +"I was once of that national spirit myself," said Anthony. + +"I remember you were," said Mr. Buxton, smiling; "and what grace has done +to you it may do to others." + + * * * * + +The spring went by, and in the week after Easter, James' news about +Lancashire was verified by a letter from a friend of Mr. Buxton's, a Mr. +Norreys, the owner of one of the staunch Catholic houses, Speke Hall, on +the bank of the Mersey. + +"Here," he wrote, "by the mercy of God there is no lack of priests, +though there be none to spare; my own chaplain says mass by dispensation +thrice on Sunday; but on the moors the sheep look up and are not fed; and +such patient sheep! I heard but last week of a church where the folk +resort, priest or no, each Sunday to the number of two hundred, and are +led by a lector in devotion, ending with an act of spiritual communion +made all together. These damnable heresies of which the apostle wrote +have not poisoned the springs of sound doctrine; some of us here know +naught yet of Elizabeth and her supremacy, or even of seven-wived Harry +his reformation. Send us then, dear friend, a priest, or at least the +promise of one; lest we perish quite." + +Mr. Buxton had a sore struggle with himself over this letter; but at last +he carried it to Anthony. + +"Read that," he said; and stood waiting. + +Anthony looked up when he had done. + +"I am your chaplain," he said, "but I am God's priest first." + +"Yes, dear lad," said his friend, "I feared you would say so; and I will +say so to Norreys"; and he left the room at once. + +And so at last it came to be arranged that Anthony should leave for +Lancashire at the end of July; and that after his departure Stanfield +should be served occasionally by the priest who lived on the outskirts of +Tonbridge; but the daily mass would have to cease, and that was a sore +trouble to Mr. Buxton. No definite decision could be made as to when +Anthony could return; that must wait until he saw the needs of +Lancashire; but he hoped to be able at least to pay a visit to Stanfield +again in the spring of the following year. + +It was arranged also, of course, that Isabel should accompany her +brother. They were both of large independent means, and could travel in +some dignity; and her presence would be under these circumstances a +protection as well as a comfort to Anthony. It would need very great +sharpness to detect the seminary priest under Anthony's disguise, and +amid the surroundings of his cavalcade of four or five armed servants, a +French maid, and a distinguished-looking lady. + +Yet, in spite of this, Mr. Buxton resolved to do his utmost to prevent +Isabel from going to Lancashire; partly, of course, he disliked the +thought of the dangers and hardships that she was certain to encounter; +but the real motive was that he had fallen very deeply in love with her. +It was her exceptional serenity that seemed to him her greatest charm; +her movements, her face, her grey eyes, the very folds of her dress +seemed to breathe with it; and to one of Mr. Buxton's temperament such a +presence was cool and sweet and strangely fascinating. + +It was now April, and he resolved to devote the next month or two to +preparing her for his proposal; and he wrote frankly to Mary Corbet +telling her how matters stood, entreating her to come down for July and +counsel him. Mary wrote back at once, rather briefly, promising to come; +but not encouraging him greatly. + +"I would I could cheer you more," she wrote; "of course I have not seen +Isabel since January; but, unless she has changed, I do not think she +will marry you. I am writing plainly you see, as you ask in your letter. +But I can still say, God prosper you." + + * * * * + +As the spring went by and the summer came on, Isabel grew yet more +silent. As the evenings began to lengthen out she used to spend much time +before and after supper in walking up and down the clipped lime avenue +between the east end of the church and the great gates that looked over +the meadows across which the stream and the field-path ran towards East +Maskells. Mr. Buxton would watch her sometimes from an upstairs window, +himself unseen, and occasionally would go out and talk with her; but he +found it harder than he used to get on to intimate relations; and he +began to suspect that he had displeased her in some way, and that Mary +Corbet was right. In the afternoon she and Anthony would generally ride +out together, once or twice going round by Penshurst, and their host +would torture himself by his own indecision as regards accompanying them; +sometimes doing so, sometimes refraining, and regretting whichever he +did. More and more he began to look forward to Mary's coming and the +benefit of her advice; and at last, at the end of June, she came. + +Their first evening together was delightful for them all. She was happy +at her escape from Court; her host was happy at the prospect of her +counsel; and all four were happy at being together again. + +They did not meet till supper, and even that was put off an hour, because +Mary had not come, and when she did arrive she was full of excitement. + +"I will tell you all at supper," she said to her host, whom she met in +the hall. "Oh! how late I am!" and she whirled past him and upstairs +without another word. + + * * * * + +"I will first give you the news in brief," she said, when Anthony had +said grace and they were seated, all four of them as before; and the +trumpet-flourish was silent that had announced the approach of the +venison. + +"Mutton's new chaplain, Dr. Bancroft, will be in trouble soon; he hath +been saying favourable things for some of us poor papists, and hath rated +the Precisians soundly. Sir Francis Knollys is wroth with him; but that +is no matter.--Her Grace played at cards till two of the clock this +morning, and that is why I am so desperate sleepy to-night, for I had to +sit up too; and that is a great matter.--Drake and Norris, 'tis said, +have whipped the dons again at Corunna; and the Queen has sworn to pull +my lord Essex his ears for going with them and adventuring his precious +self; and that is no matter at all, but will do him good.--George +Luttrell hath put up a coat of arms in his hall at Dunster, which is a +great matter to him, but to none else;--and I have robbed a highwayman +this day in the beech woods this side of Groombridge." + +"Dear lady," said Mr. Buxton resignedly, as the others looked up +startled, "you are too swift for our dull rustic ears; we will begin at +the end, if you please. Is it true you have robbed an highwayman?" + +"It is perfectly true," she said, and unlatched a ruby brooch, made +heart-shape, from her dress. "There is the plunder," and she held it out +for inspection. + +"Then tell us the tale," said Anthony. + +"It would be five of the clock," said Mary, "as we came through +Groombridge, and then into the woods beyond. I had bidden my knaves ride +on before with my woman; I came down into a dingle where there was a +stream; and, to tell the truth, I had my head down and was a-nodding, +when my horse stopped; and I looked up of a sudden and there was a man on +a bay mare, with a mask to his mouth, a gay green suit, a brown beard +turning grey, and this ruby brooch at his throat; and he had caught my +bridle. I saw him start when I lifted my head, as if he were taken aback. +I said nothing, but he led my horse off the road down among the trees +with a deep little thicket where none could see us. As we went I was +thinking like a windmill; for I knew I had seen the little red brooch +before. + +"When we reached the little open space, I asked him what he wished with +me. + +"'Your purse, madam,' said he. + +"'My woman hath it,' said I. + +"'Your jewels then, madam,' said he. + +"'My woman hath them,' said I, 'save this paste buckle in my hat, to +which you are welcome.' It was diamonds, you know; but I knew he would +not know that. + +"'What a mistake,' I said, 'to stop the mistress and let the maid go +free!' + +"'Nay,' he said, 'I am glad of it; for at least I will have a dance with +the mistress; and I could not with the maid.' + +"'You are welcome to that,' I said, and I slipped off my horse, to humour +him, and even as I slipped off I knew who he was, for although many have +red brooches, and many brown beards turning grey, few have both together; +but I said nothing. And there--will you believe it?--we danced under the +beech-trees like Phyllis and Corydon, or whoever they are that Sidney is +always prating of; or like two fools, I would sooner say. Then when we +had done, I made him a curtsey. + +"'Now you must help me up,' said I, and he mounted me without a word, for +he was a stoutish gallant and somewhat out of breath. And then what did +the fool do but try to kiss me, and as he lifted his arm I snatched the +brooch and put spur to my horse, and as we went up the bank I screamed at +him, 'Claude, you fool, go home to your wife and take shame to yourself.' +And when I was near the road I looked back, and he still stood there all +agape." + +"And what was his name?" asked Anthony. + +"Nay, nay, I have mocked him enough. And I know four Claudes, so you need +not try to guess." + + * * * * + +When supper was over, Mr. Buxton and Mary walked up and down the south +path of the garden between the yews, while the other two sat just outside +the hall window on a seat placed on the tiled terrace that ran round the +house. + +"How I have longed for you to come, Mistress Mary," he said, "and counsel +me of the matter we wrote about. Tell me what to do." + +Mary looked meditatively out to the strip of moon that was rising out to +the east in the June sky. Then she looked tenderly at her friend. + +"I hate to pain you," she said, "but cannot you see that it is +impossible? I may be wrong; but I think her heart is so given to our +Saviour that there is no love of that sort left." + +"Ah, how can you say that?" he cried; "the love of the Saviour does not +hinder earthly love; it purifies and transfigures it." + +"Yes," said Mary gravely, "it is often so--but the love of the true +spouse of Christ is different. That leaves no room for an earthly +bridegroom." + +Mr. Buxton was silent a moment or two. + +"You mean it is the love of the consecrated soul?" + +Mary bowed her head. "But I cannot be sure," she added. + +"Then what shall I do?" he said again, almost piteously; and Mary could +see even in the faint moonlight that his pleasant face was all broken up +and quivering. She laid her hand gently on his arm, and her rings +flashed. + +"You must be very patient," she said, "very full of deference--and grave. +You must not be ardent nor impetuous, but speak slowly and reverently to +her, but at no great length; be plain with her; do not look in her face, +and do not show anxiety or despair or hope. You need not fear that your +love will not be plain to her. Indeed, I think she knows it already." + +"Why, I have not----" he began. + +"I know you have not spoken to her; but I saw that she only looked at you +once during supper, and that was when your face was turned from her; she +does not wish to look you in the eyes." + +"Ah, she hates me," he sighed. + +"Do not be foolish," said Mary, "she honours you, and loves you, and is +grieved for your grief; but I do not think she will marry you." + +"And when shall I speak?" he asked. + +"You must wait; God will make the opportunity--in any case. You must not +attempt to make it. That would terrify her." + +"And you will speak for me." + +Mary smiled at him. + +"Dear friend," she said, "sometimes I think you do not know us at all. Do +you not see that Isabel is greater than all that? What she knows, she +knows. I could tell her nothing." + + * * * * + +The days passed on; the days of the last month of the Norrises' stay at +Stanfield. Half-way through the month came the news of the Oxford +executions. + +"Ah! listen to this," cried Mr. Buxton, coming out to them one evening in +the garden with a letter in his hand. "'Humphrey Prichard,'" he read, +"'made a good end. He protested he was condemned for the Catholic Faith; +that he willingly died for it; that he was a Catholic. One of their +ministers laughed at him, saying he was a poor ignorant fellow who knew +not what it was to be a Catholic. 'I know very well;' said Humphrey, +'though I cannot say it in proper divinity language.' There is the +Religion for you!" went on Mr. Buxton; "all meet there, wise and simple +alike. There is no difference; no scholarship is needed for faith. 'I +know what it is,' cried Humphrey, 'though I cannot explain it!'" + +The news came to Anthony just when he needed it; he felt he had done so +little to teach his flock now he was to leave them; but if he had only +done something to keep alive the fire of faith, he had not lost his time; +and so he went about his spiritual affairs with new heart, encouraging +the wavering, whom he was to leave, warning the over-confident, urging +the hesitating, and saying good-bye to them all. Isabel went with him +sometimes; or sometimes walked or rode with Mary, and was silent for the +most part in public. The master of the house himself did his affairs, and +carried a heavier heart each day. And at last the opportunity came which +Mary had predicted. + +He had come in one evening after a hot ride alone over to Tonbridge on +some business with the priest there; and had dressed for supper +immediately on coming in. + +As there was still nearly an hour before supper, he went out to walk up +and down the same yew-alley near the garden-house where he had walked +with Mary. Anthony and Isabel had returned a little later from East +Maskells, and they too had dressed early. Isabel threw a lace shawl over +her head, and betook herself too to the alley; and there she turned a +corner and almost ran into her host. + +It was, as Mary had said, a God-made opportunity. Neither time nor place +could have been improved. If externals were of any value to this +courtship, all that could have helped was there. The setting of the +picture was perfect; a tall yew-hedge ran down the northern side of the +walk, cut, as Bacon recommended, not fantastically but "with some pretty +pyramids"; a strip of turf separated it from the walk, giving a sense +both of privacy and space; on the south side ran flower-beds in the turf, +with yews and cypresses planted here and there, and an oak paling beyond; +to the east lay the "fair mount," again recommended by the same +authority, but not so high, and with but one ascent; to the west the path +darkened under trees, and over all rose up against the sunset sky the +tall grotesque towers and vanes of the garden-house. The flowers burned +with that ember-like glow which may be seen on summer evenings, and +poured out their scent; the air was sweet and cool, and white moths were +beginning to poise and stir among the blossoms. The two actors on this +scene too were not unworthy of it; his dark velvet and lace with the +glimmer of diamonds here and there, and his delicate bearded clean-cut +face, a little tanned, thrown into relief by the spotless crisp ruff +beneath, and above all his air of strength and refinement and +self-possession--all combined to make him a formidable stormer of a +girl's heart. And as he looked on her--on her clear almost luminous face +and great eyes, shrined in the drooping lace shawl, through which a jewel +or two in her black hair glimmered, her upright slender figure in its +dark sheath, and the hand, white and cool, that held her shawl together +over her breast--he had a pang of hope and despair at once, at the sudden +sense of need of this splendid creature of God to be one with him, and +reign with him over these fair possessions; and of hopelessness at the +thought that anything so perfect could be accomplished in this imperfect +world. + +He turned immediately and walked beside her, and they both knew, in the +silence that followed, that the crisis had come. + +"Mistress Isabel," he said, still looking down as he spoke, and his voice +sounded odd to her ears, "I wonder if you know what I would say to you." + +There came no sound from her, but the rustle of her dress. + +"But I must say it," he went on, "follow what may. It is this. I love you +dearly." + +Her walk faltered beside him, and it seemed as if she would stand still. + +"A moment," he said, and he lifted his white restrained face. "I ask you +to be patient with me. Perhaps I need not say that I have never said this +to any woman before; but more, I have never even thought it. I do not +know how to speak, nor what I should say; beyond this, that since I first +met you at the door across there, a year ago, you have taught me ever +since what love means; and now I am come to you, as to my dear mistress, +with my lesson learnt." + +They were standing together now; he was still turned a little away from +her, and dared not lift his eyes to her face again. Then of a sudden he +felt her hand on his arm for a moment, and he looked up, and saw her eyes +all swimming with sorrow. + +"Dear friend," she said quite simply, "it is impossible--Ah! what can I +say?" + +"Give me a moment more," he said; and they walked on slowly. "I know what +presumption this is; but I will not spin phrases about that. Nor do I ask +what is impossible; but I will only ask leave to teach you in my turn +what love means." + +"Oh! that is the hardest of all to say," she said, "but I know already." + +He did not quite understand, and glanced at her a moment. + +"I once loved too," she whispered. He drew a sharp breath. + +"Forgive me," he said, "I forced that from you." + +"You are never anything but courteous and kind," she said, "and that +makes this harder than all." + +They walked in silence half a dozen steps. + +"Have I distressed you?" he asked, glancing at her again. + +Then she looked full in his face, and her eyes were overflowing. + +"I am grieved for your sorrow," she said, "and at my own unworthiness, +you know that?" + +"I know that you are now and always will be my dear mistress and queen." + +His voice broke altogether as he ended, and he bent and took her hand +delicately in his own, as if it were royal, and kissed it. Then she gave +a great sob and slipped away through the opening in the clipped hedge; +and he was left alone with the dusk and his sorrow. + + * * * * + +A week later Anthony and Isabel were saying good-bye to him in the early +summer morning: the pack-horses had started on before, and there were +just the two saddle-horses at the low oak door, with the servants' +behind. When Mr. Buxton had put Isabel into the saddle, he held her hand +for a moment; Anthony was mounting behind. + +"Mistress Isabel," he whispered; "forgive me; but I find I cannot take +your answer; you will remember that." + +She shook her head without speaking, but dared not even look into his +eyes; though she turned her head as she rode out of the gates for a last +look at the peaked gables and low windows of the house where she had been +so happy. There was still the dark figure motionless against the pale oak +door. + +"Oh, Anthony!" she whispered brokenly, "our Lord asks very much." + + + + + CHAPTER VII + + NORTHERN RELIGION + + +The Northern counties were distinguished among all in England for their +loyalty to the old Faith; and this was owing, no doubt, to the characters +of both the country and the inhabitants;--it was difficult for the +officers of justice to penetrate to the high moorland and deep ravines, +and yet more difficult to prevail with the persons who lived there. +Twenty-two years before the famous Lancashire League had been formed, +under the encouragement of Dr. Allen, afterwards the Cardinal, whose +members pledged themselves to determined recusancy; with the result that +here and there church-doors were closed, and the Book of Common Prayer +utterly refused. Owing partly to Bishop Downman's laxity towards the +recusants, the principles of the League had retained their hold +throughout the county, ever since '68, when ten obstinate Lancastrians +had been haled before the Council, of whom one, the famous Sir John +Southworth himself, suffered imprisonment more than once. + +Anthony and Isabel then found their life in the North very different to +that which they had been living at Stanfield. Near the towns, of course, +precaution was as necessary as anywhere else in England, but once they +had passed up on to the higher moorlands they were able to throw off all +anxiety, as much as if the penal laws of England were not in force there. + +It was pleasant, too, to go, as they did, from great house to great +house, and find the old pre-Reformation life of England in full vigour; +the whole family present at mass so often as it was said, desirous of the +sacraments, and thankful for the opportunities of grace that the arrival +of the priest afforded. Isabel would often stay at such houses a week or +two together, while Anthony made rounds into the valleys and to the +moorland villages round-about; and then the two would travel on together +with their servants to the next village. Anthony's ecclesiastical outfit +was very simple. Among Isabel's dresses lay a brocade vestment that might +easily pass notice if the luggage was searched; and Anthony carried in +his own luggage a little altar-stone, a case with the holy oils, a tiny +chalice and paten, singing-cakes, and a thin vellum-bound Missal and +Ritual in one volume, containing the order of mass, a few votive masses, +and the usual benedictions for holy-water, rue and the like, and the +occasional offices. + +In this manner they first visited many of the famous old Lancashire +houses, some of which still stand, Borwick Hall, Hall-i'-the-Wood, +Lydiate Hall, Thurnham, Blainscow, where Campion had once been so nearly +taken, and others, all of which were provided with secret hiding-places +for the escape of the priest, should a sudden alarm be raised. In none of +them, however, did he find the same elaboration of device as at Stanfield +Place. + +First, however, they went to Speke Hall, the home of Mr. Norreys, on the +banks of the Mersey, a beautiful house of magpie architecture, and +furnished with a remarkable underground passage to the shore of the +Mersey, the scene of Richard Brittain's escape. + +Here they received a very warm welcome. + +"It is as I wrote to Mr. Buxton," said his host on the evening of their +arrival, "in many places in this country any religion other than the +Catholic is unknown. The belief of the Protestant is as strange as that +of the Turk, both utterly detested. I was in Cumberland a few months +back; there in more than one village the old worship goes on as it has +done since Christianity first came to this island. But I hope you will go +up there, now that you have come so far. You would do a great work for +Christ his Church." + +He told him, too, a number of stories of the zeal and constancy shown on +behalf of the Religion; of small squires who were completely ruined by +the fines laid upon them; of old halls that were falling to pieces +through the ruin brought upon their staunch owners; and above all of the +priests that Lancashire had added to the roll of the martyrs--Anderton, +Marsden, and Thompson among others--and of the joy shown when the +glorious news of their victory over death reached the place where they +had been born or where they had ministered. + +"At Preston," he said, "when the news of Mr. Greenaway's death reached +them, they tolled the bells for sorrow. But his old mother ran from her +house to the street when they had broken the news to her: 'Peal them, +peal them!' she cried, 'for I have borne a martyr to God.'" + +He talked, too, of Campion, of his sermons on "The King who went a +journey," and the "Hail, Mary"; and told him of the escape at Blainscow +Hall, where the servant-girl, seeing the pursuivants at hand, pushed the +Jesuit, with quick wit and courage, into the duck-pond, so that he came +out disguised indeed--in green mud--and was mocked at by the very +officers as a clumsy suitor of maidens. + +Anthony's heart warmed within him as he sat and listened to these tales +of patience and gallantry. + +"I would lay down my life to serve such folk," he said; and Isabel looked +with deep-kindled eyes from the one to the other. + +They did not stay more than a day or two at Speke Hall, for, as Mr. +Norreys said, the necessaries of salvation were to be had there already; +but they moved on almost at once northwards, always arriving at some +central point for Saturdays and Sundays, so that the Catholics round +could come in for shrift and housel. In this manner they passed up +through Lancashire, and pushed still northwards, hearing that a priest +was sorely needed, through the corner of Westmoreland, up the Lake +country, through into Cumberland itself. At Kendal, where they stayed two +nights, Anthony received a message that determined him, after +consultation with Isabel, to push on as far as Skiddaw, and to make that +the extreme limit of his journey. He sent the messenger, a wild-looking +North-countryman, back with a verbal answer to that effect, and named a +date when they would arrive. + +It was already dark, two weeks later, when they arrived at the point +where the guide was to meet them, as they had lost their way more than +once already. Here were a couple of men with torches, waiting for them +behind a rock, who had come down from the village, a mile farther on, to +bring them up the difficult stony path that was the only means of access +to it. The track went up a ravine, with a rock-wall rising on their left, +on which the light of the torches shone, and tumbled ground, covered with +heather, falling rapidly away on their right down to a gulf of darkness +whence they could hear the sound of the torrent far below; the path was +uneven, with great stones here and there, and sharp corners in it, and as +they went it was all they could do to keep their tired horses from +stumbling, for a slip would have been dangerous under the circumstances. +The men who led them said little, as it was impossible for a horse and a +man to walk abreast, but Anthony was astonished to see again and again, +as they turned a corner, another man with a torch and some weapon, a +pike, or a sword, start up and salute him, or sometimes a group, with +barefooted boys, and then attach themselves to the procession either +before or behind; until in a short while there was an escort of some +thirty or forty accompanying the cavalcade. At last, as they turned a +corner, the lighted windows of a belfry showed against the dark moor +beyond, and in a moment more, as if there were a watcher set there to +look out for the torches, a peal of five bells clashed out from the +tower; then, as they rose yet higher, the path took a sudden turn and a +dip between two towering rocks, and the whole village lay beneath them, +with lights in every window to welcome the priest, the first that they +had seen for eight months, when the old Marian rector, the elder brother +of the squire, had died. + +It was now late, so Anthony and Isabel were conducted immediately to the +Hall, an old house immediately adjoining the churchyard; and here, too, +the windows were blazing with welcome, and the tall squire, Mr. Brian, +with his wife and children behind, was standing before the bright +hall-door at the top of the steps. The men and boys that had brought them +so far, and were standing in the little court with their torches +uplifted, now threw themselves on their knees to receive the priest's +blessing, before they went home; and Anthony blessed them and thanked +them, and went indoors with his sister, strangely moved and uplifted. + + * * * * + +The two following days were full of hard work and delight for Anthony. He +was to say mass at half-past six next morning, and came out of the house +a little after six o'clock; the sun was just rising to his right over a +shoulder of Skiddaw, which dominated the eastern horizon; and all round +him, stretched against the sky in all directions, were the high purple +moors in the strange dawn-light. Immediately in front of him, not thirty +yards away, stood the church, with its tower, two aisles, and a chapel on +a little promontory of rock which jutted out over the bed of the torrent +along which he had climbed the night before; and to his left lay the +straggling street of the village. All was perfectly still except for the +dash of the stream over the rocks; but from one or two houses a thin +skein of smoke was rising straight into the air. Anthony stood rapt in +delight, and drew long breaths of the cool morning air, laden with +freshness and fragrant with the mellow scent of the heather and the +autumnal smells. + +He was completely taken by surprise when he entered the church, for, for +the first time since he could remember, he saw an English church in its +true glory. It had been built for a priory-church of Holm-Cultram, but +for some reason had never been used as that, and had become simply the +parish church of the village. Across the centre and the northern aisle +ran an elaborate screen, painted in rich colours, and the southern +chapel, which ran eastwards of the porch, was separated in a similar way +from the rest of the church. Over the central screen was the great rood, +with its attendant figures, exquisitely carved and painted; in every +direction, as Anthony looked beyond the screens, gleamed rich windows, +with figures and armorial bearings; here and there tattered banners hung +on the walls; St. Christopher stood on the north wall opposite the door, +to guard from violence all who looked upon him day by day; a little +painting of the Baptist hung on a pillar over against the font, and a +Vernacle by the pulpit; and all round the walls hung little pictures, +that the poor and unlearned might read the story of redemption there. But +the chief glory of all was the solemn high altar, with its riddells +surmounted by taper-bearing gilded angels, with its brocade cloth, and +its painted halpas behind; and above it, before the rich window which +smouldered against the dawn, hung the awful pyx, covered by the white +silk cloth, but empty; waiting for the priest to come and bid the +Shechinah of the Lord to brood there again over this gorgeous throne +beneath, against the brilliant halo of the painted glass behind. + +Anthony knelt a moment and thanked God for bringing him here, and then +passed up into the north aisle, where the image of the Mother of God +presided, as she had done for three hundred years, over her little altar +against the wall. Anthony said his preparation and vested at the altar; +and was astonished to find at least thirty people to hear mass: none, of +course, made their communion, but Anthony, when he had ended, placed the +Body of the Lord once more in the hanging pyx and lit the lamp before it. + +Then all day he sat in the north chapel, with the dash and loud thunder +of the mountain stream entering through the opened panes of the east +window, and the stained sunlight, in gorgeous colours, creeping across +the red tiles at his feet, glowing and fading as the clouds moved over +the sun, while the people came and were shriven; with the exception of an +hour in the middle of the day and half an hour for supper in the evening, +he was incessantly occupied until nine o'clock at night. From the upland +dales all round they streamed in, at news of the priest, and those who +had come from far and were fasting he communicated at once from the +Reserved Sacrament. At last, tired out, but intensely happy, he went back +to the Hall. + +But the next morning was yet more startling. Mass was at eight o'clock, +and by the time Anthony entered the church he found a congregation of +nearly two hundred souls; the village itself did not number above +seventy, but many came in from the country round, and some had stayed all +night in the church-porch. Then, too, he heard the North-country singing +in the old way; all the mass music was sung in three parts, except the +unchanging melody of the creed, which, like the tremendous and unchanging +words themselves, at one time had united the whole of England; but what +stirred Anthony more than all were the ancient hymns sung here and there +during the service, some in Latin, which a few picked voices rendered, +and some in English, to the old lilting tunes which were as much the +growth of the north-country as the heather itself. The "Ave Verum Corpus" +was sung after the Elevation, and Anthony felt that his heart would break +for very joy; as he bent before the Body of his Lord, and the voices +behind him rose and exulted up the aisles, the women's and children's +voices soaring passionately up in the melody, the mellow men's voices +establishing, as it seemed, these ecstatic pinnacles of song on mighty +and immovable foundations. + +Vespers were said at three o'clock, after baptisms and more confessions; +and Anthony was astonished at the number of folk who could answer the +priest. After vespers he made a short sermon, and told the people +something of what he had seen in the South, of the martyrdoms at Tyburn, +and of the constancy of the confessors. + +"'Be thou faithful unto death,'" he said. "So our Saviour bids us, and He +gives us a promise too: 'I will give thee a crown of life.' Beloved, some +day the tide of heresy will creep up these valleys too; and it will bear +many things with it, the scaffold and the gallows and the knife maybe. +And then our Lord will see which are His; then will be the time that +grace will triumph--that those who have used the sacraments with +devotion; that have been careful and penitent with their sins, that have +hungered for the Bread of Life--the Lord shall stand by them and save +them, as He stood by Mr. Sherwin on the rack, and Father Campion on the +scaffold, and Mistress Ward and many more, of whom I have not had time to +tell you. He who bids us be faithful, Himself will be faithful; and He +who wore the crown of thorns will bestow upon us the crown of life." + +Then they sang a hymn to our Lady: + + "Hail be thou, Mary, the mother of Christ," + +and the old swaying tune rocked like a cradle, and the people looked up +towards their Mother's altar as they sang--their Mother who had ruled +them so sweetly and so long--and entreated her in their hearts, who stood +by her Son's Cross, to stand by theirs too should God ever call them to +die upon one. + +The next day Mr. Brian took Anthony a long walk as soon as dinner was +over, across the moors towards the north side of Skiddaw. Anthony found +the old man a delightful and garrulous companion, full of tales of the +countryside, historical, religious, naturalistic, and supernatural. As +they stood on a little eminence and looked back to where the church-tower +pricked out of the deep crack in the moors where it stood, he told him +the tale of the coming of the pursuivants. + +"They first troubled us in '72," he said; "they had not thought it worth +while before to disturb themselves for one old man like my brother, who +was like to die soon; but in April of that year they first sent up their +men. But it was only a pair of pursuivants, for they knew nothing of +the people; they came up, the poor men, to take my brother down to +Cockermouth to answer on his religion to some bench of ministers that sat +there. Well, they met him, in his cassock and square cap, coming out of +the church, where he had just replaced the Most Holy Sacrament after +giving communion to a dying body. 'Heh! are you the minister?' say they. + +"'Heh! I am the priest, if that is what you mean,' he answers back. (He +was a large man, like myself, was my brother.) + +"'Well, come, old man,' say they, 'we must help you down to Cockermouth.' + +"Well, a few words passed; and the end was that he called out to Tim, who +lived just against the church; and told them what was forward. + +"Well, the pursuivants got back to Cockermouth with their lives, but not +much else; and reported to the magistrates that the wild Irish themselves +were little piminy maids compared to the folk they had visited that day. + +"So there was a great to-do, and a deal of talk; and in the next month +they sent up thirty pikemen with an officer and a dozen pursuivants, and +all to take one old priest and his brother. I had been in Kendal in April +when they first came--but they put it all down to me. + +"Well, we were ready for them this time; the bells had been ringing to +call in the folk since six of the clock in the morning; and by +dinner-time, when the soldiers were expected, there was a matter of two +hundred men, I should say, some with scythes and sickles, and some with +staves or shepherds' crooks; the children had been sent down sooner to +stone the men all the way up the path; and by the time that they had +reached the churchyard gate there was not a man of them but had a cut or +a bruise upon him. Then, when they turned the corner, black with wrath, +there were the lads gathered about the church-porch each with his weapon, +and each white and silent, waiting for what should fall. + +"Now you wonder where we were. We were in the church, my brother and I; +for our people had put us there against our will, to keep us safe, they +said. Eh! but I was wroth when Olroyd and the rest pushed me through the +door. However, there we were, locked in; I was up in one window, and my +brother was in the belfry as I thought, each trying to see what was +forward. I saw the two crowds of them, silent and wrathful, with not +twenty yards between them, and a few stones still sailing among the +soldiers now and again; the pikes were being set in array, and our lads +were opening out to let the scythes have free play, when on a sudden I +heard the tinkle of a bell round the outside of the tower, and I climbed +down from my place, and up again to one of the west windows; there was a +fearsome hush outside now, and I could see some of the soldiers in front +were uneasy; they had their eyes off the lads and round the side of the +tower. And then I saw little Dickie Olroyd in his surplice ringing a bell +and bearing a candle, and behind him came my brother, in a purple cope I +had never set eyes on before, with his square cap and a great book, and +his eyes shining out of his head, and his lips opening and mouthing out +Latin; and then he stopped, laid the book reverently on a tombstone, +lifted both hands, and brought them down with the fingers out, and his +eyes larger than ever. I could see the soldiers were ready to break and +scatter, for some were Catholics no doubt, and many more feared the +priest; and then on a sudden my brother caught the candle out of Dickie's +hand, blew it out with a great puff, while Dickie rattled upon the bell, +and then he dashed the smoking candle among the soldiers. The soldiers +broke and fled like hares, out of the churchyard, down the street and +down the path to Cockermouth; the officer tried to stay them, but 'twas +no use; the fear of the Church was upon them, and her Grace herself could +not have prevailed with them. Well, when they let us out, the lads were +all a-trembling too; for my brother's face, they said, was like the +destroying angel; and I was somewhat queer myself, and I was astonished +too; for he was kind-hearted, was my brother, and would not hurt a fly's +body; much less damn his soul; and, after all, the poor soldiers were not +to blame; and 'twas a queer cursing, I thought too, to be done like that; +but maybe 'twas a new papal method. I went round to the north chapel, and +there he was taking off his cope. + +"'Well,' he said to me, 'how did I do it?' + +"'Do it?' I said; 'do it? Why, you've damned those poor lads' souls +eternally. The hand of the Lord was with you,' I said. + +"'Damned them?' said he; 'nonsense! 'Twas only your old herbal that I +read at them; and the cope too, 'twas inside out.'" + + * * * * + +Then the old man told Anthony other stories of his earlier life, how he +had been educated at the university and been at Court in King Henry's +reign and Queen Mary's, but that he had lost heart at Elizabeth's +accession, and retired to his hills, where he could serve God according +to his conscience, and study God's works too, for he was a keen +naturalist. He told Anthony many stories about the deer, and the herds of +wild white hornless cattle that were now practically extinct on the +hills, and of a curious breed of four-horned sheep, skulls of all of +which species hung in his hall, and of the odd drinking-horns that +Anthony had admired the day before. There was one especially that he +talked much of, a buffalo horn on three silver feet fashioned like the +legs of an armed man; round the centre was a filleting inscribed, "_Qui +pugnat contra tres perdet duos_," and there was a cross patee on the +horn, and two other inscriptions, "_Nolite extollere cornu in altu'_" and +"_Qui bibat me adhuc siti'_." Mr. Brian told him it had been brought from +Italy by his grandfather. + +They put up a quantity of grouse and several hares as they walked across +the moor; one of the hares, which had a curious patch of white between +his ears like a little night-cap, startled Mr. Brian so much that he +exclaimed aloud, crossed himself, and stood, a little pale, watching the +hare's head as it bobbed and swerved among the heather. + +"I like it not," he said to Anthony, who inquired what was the matter. +"Satan hath appeared under some such form to many in history. Joachimus +Camerarius, who wrote _de natura daemonum_, tells, I think, a story of +a hare followed by a fox that ran across the path of a young man who +was riding on a horse, and who started in pursuit. Up and down hills and +dales they went, and soon the fox was no longer there, and the hare grew +larger and blacker as it went; and the young man presently saw that he +was in a country that he knew not; it was all barren and desolate round +him, and the sky grew dark. Then he spurred his horse more furiously, and +he drew nearer and nearer to the great hare that now skipped along like a +stag before him; and then, as he put out his hand to cut the hare down, +the creature sprang into the air and vanished, and the horse fell dead; +and the man was found in his own meadow by his friends, in a swound, with +his horse dead beside him, and trampled marks round and round the field, +and the pug-marks of what seemed like a great tiger beside him, where the +beast had sprung into the air." + +When Mr. Brian found that Anthony was interested in such stories, he told +him plenty of them; especially tales that seemed to join in a strange +unity of life, demons, beasts and men. It was partly, no doubt, his +studies as a naturalist that led him to insist upon points that united +rather than divided the orders of creation; and he told him stories first +from such writers as Michael Verdunus and Petrus Burgottus, who relate +among other marvels how there are ointments by the use of which shepherds +have been known to change themselves into wolves and tear the sheep that +they should have protected; and he quoted to him St. Augustine's own +testimony, to the belief that in Italy certain women were able to change +themselves into heifers through the power of witchcraft. Finally, he told +him one or two tales of his own experience. + +"In the year '63," he said, "before my marriage, I was living alone in +the Hall; I was a young man, and did my best to fear nought but deadly +sin. I was coming back late from Threlkeld, round the south of Skiddaw +that you see over there; and was going with a lantern, for it would be +ten o'clock at night, and the time of year was autumn. I was still a mile +or two from the house, and was saying my beads as I came, for I hold that +is a great protection; when I heard a strange whistling noise, with a +murmur in it, high up overhead in the night. 'It is the birds going +south,' I said to myself, for you know that great flocks fly by night +when the cold begins to set in; but the sound grew louder and more +distinct, and at last I could hear the sound as of words gabbled in a +foreign tongue; and I knew they were no birds, though maybe they had +wings like them. But I knew that a Christened soul in grace has nought to +fear from hell; so I crossed myself and said my beads, and kept my eyes +on the ground, and presently I saw my lights burning in the house, and +heard the roar of the stream, and the gabbling above me ceased, as the +sound of the running water began. But that night I awoke again and again; +and the night seemed hot and close each time, as if a storm was near, but +there was no thunder. Each time I heard the roar of the stream below the +house, and no more. At last, towards the morning, I set my window wide +that looks towards the stream, and leaned out; and there beneath me, +crowded against the wall of the house, as I could see in the growing +light, was a great flock of sheep, with all their heads together towards +the house, as close as a score of dogs could pack them, and they were all +still as death, and their backs were dripping wet; for they had come down +the hills and swum the stream, in order to be near a Christened man and +away from what was abroad that night. + +"My shepherds told me the same that day, that everywhere the sheep had +come down to the houses, as if terrified near to death; and at Keswick, +whither I went the next market-day, they told me the same tale, and that +two men had each found a sheep that could not travel; one had a broken +leg, and the other had been cast; but neither had another mark or wound +or any disease upon him, but that both were lying dead upon Skiddaw; and +the look in the dead eyes, they said, was fit to make a man forget his +manhood." + +Anthony found the old man the most interesting companion possible, and he +persuaded him to accompany him on several of the expeditions that he had +to make to the hamlets and outlying cottages round, in his spiritual +ministrations; and both he and Isabel were sincerely sorry when two +Sundays had passed away, and they had to begin to move south again in +their journeyings. + + * * * * + +And so the autumn passed and winter began, and Anthony was slowly moving +down again, supplying the place of priests who had fallen sick or had +died, visiting many almost inaccessible hamlets, and everywhere +encouraging the waverers and seeking the wanderers, and rejoicing over +the courageous, and bringing opportunities of grace to many who longed +for them. He met many other well-known priests from time to time, and +took counsel with them, but did not have time to become very intimate +with any of them, so great were the demands upon his services. In this +manner he met John Colleton, the canonist, who had returned from his +banishment in '87, but found him a little dull and melancholy, though his +devotion was beyond praise. He met, too, the Jesuit Fathers Edward +Oldcorne and Richard Holtby, the former of whom had lately come from +Hindlip. + +He spent Christmas near Cartmel-in-Furness, and after the new year had +opened, crossed the Ken once more near Beetham, and began to return +slowly down the coast. Everywhere he was deeply touched by the devotion +of the people, who, in spite of long months without a priest, had yet +clung to the observance of their religion so far as was possible, and now +welcomed him like an angel of God; and he had the great happiness too of +reconciling some who, yielding to loneliness and pressure, had conformed +to the Establishment. In these latter cases he was almost startled by the +depth of Catholic convictions that had survived. + +"I never believed it, father," said a young squire to him, near Garstang. +"I knew that it was but a human invention, and not the Gospel that my +fathers held, and that Christ our Saviour brought on earth; but I lost +heart, for that no priest came near us, and I had not had the sacraments +for nearly two years; and I thought that it were better to have some +religion than none at all, so at last I went to church. But there is no +need to talk to me, father, now I have made my confession, for I know +with my whole soul that the Catholic Religion is the true one--and I have +known it all the while, and I thank God and His Blessed Mother, and you, +father, too, for helping me to say so again, and to come back to grace." + +At last, at the beginning of March, Anthony and Isabel found themselves +back again at Speke Hall, warmly welcomed by Mr. Norreys. + +"You have done a good work for the Church, Mr. Capell," said his host, +"and God will reward you and thank you for it Himself, for we cannot." + +"And I thank God," said Anthony, "for the encouragement to faith that the +sight of the faithful North has given to me; and pray Him that I may +carry something of her spirit back with me to the south." + +There were letters waiting for him at Speke Hall, one from Mr. Buxton, +urging them to come back, at least for the present, to Stanfield Place, +so soon as the winter work in the north was over; and another from the +Rector of the College at Douai to the same effect. There was also one +more, written from a little parish in Kent, from a Catholic lady who was +altogether a stranger to him, but who plainly knew all about him, +entreating him to call at her house when he was in the south again; her +husband, she said, had met him once at Stanfield and had been strongly +attracted by him to the Catholic Church, and she believed that if Anthony +would but pay them a visit her husband's conversion would be brought +about. Anthony could not remember the man's name, but Isabel thought that +she did remember some such person at a small private conference that +Anthony had given in Mr. Buxton's house, for the benefit of Catholics and +those who were being drawn towards the Religion. + +The lady, too, gave him instructions as to how he should come from London +to her house, recommending him to cross the Thames at a certain spot that +she described near Greenhithe, and to come on southwards along a route +that she marked for him, to the parish of Stanstead, where she lived. +This, then, was soon arranged, and after letters had been sent off +announcing Anthony's movements, he left Speke Hall with Isabel, about a +fortnight later. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + IN STANSTEAD WOODS + + +On the first day of June, Anthony and Isabel, with their three armed +servants and the French maid behind them, were riding down through +Thurrock to the north bank of the Thames opposite Greenhithe. As they +went Anthony pulled out and studied the letter and the little map that +Mrs. Kirke had sent to guide them. + +"On the right-hand side," she wrote, "when you come to the ferry, stands +a little inn, the 'Sloop,' among trees, with a yard behind it. Mr. +Bender, the host, is one of us; and he will get your horses on board, and +do all things to forward you without attracting attention. Give him some +sign that he may know you for a Catholic, and when you are alone with him +tell him where you are bound." + +There were one or two houses standing near the bank, as they rode down +the lane that led to the river, but they had little difficulty in +identifying the "Sloop," and presently they rode into the yard, and, +leaving their horses with the servants, stepped round into the little +smoky front room of the inn. + +A man, dressed somewhat like a sailor, was sitting behind a table, who +looked up with a dull kind of expectancy and whom Anthony took as the +host; and, in order to identify him and show who he himself was, he took +up a little cake of bread that was lying on a platter on the table, and +broke it as if he would eat. This was one of Father Persons' devices, and +was used among Catholics to signify their religion when they were with +strangers, since it was an action that could rouse no suspicion among +others. The man looked in an unintelligent way at Anthony, who turned +away and rapped upon the door, and as a large heavily-built man came out, +broke it again, and put a piece into his mouth. The man lifted his +eyebrows slightly, and just smiled, and Anthony knew he had found his +friend. + +"Come this way, sir," he said, "and your good lady, too." + +They followed him into the inner room of the house, a kind of little +kitchen, with a fire burning and a pot over it, and one or two barrels of +drink against the wall. A woman was stirring the pot, for it was near +dinner-time, and turned round as the strangers came in. It was plainly an +inn that was of the poorest kind, and that was used almost entirely by +watermen or by travellers who were on their way to cross the ferry. + +"The less said the better," said the man, when he had shut the door. "How +can I serve you, sir?" + +"We wish to take our horses and ourselves across to Greenhithe," said +Anthony, "and Mrs. Kirke, to whom we are going, bade us make ourselves +known to you." + +The man nodded and smiled. + +"Yes, sir, that can be managed directly. The ferry is at the other bank +now, sir; and I will call it across. Shall we say in half an hour, sir; +and, meanwhile, will you and your lady take something?" + +Anthony accepted gladly, as the time was getting on, and ordered dinner +for the servants too, in the outer room. As the landlord was going to the +door, he stopped him. + +"Who is that man in the other room?" he asked. + +The landlord gave a glance at the door, and came back towards Anthony. + +"To tell the truth, sir, I do not know. He is a sailor by appearance, and +he knows the talk; but none of the watermen know him; and he seems to do +nothing. However, sir, there's no harm in him that I can see." + +Anthony told him that he had broken the bread before him, thinking he was +the landlord. The real landlord smiled broadly. + +"Thank God, I am somewhat more of a man than that," for the sailor was +lean and sun-dried. Then once more Mr. Bender went to the door to call +the servants in. + +"Why, the man's gone," he said, and disappeared. Then they heard his +voice again. "But he's left his groat behind him for his drink, so all's +well"; and presently his voice was heard singing as he got the table +ready for the servants. + +In a little more than half an hour the party and the horses were safely +on the broad bargelike ferry, and Mr. Bender was bowing on the bank and +wishing them a prosperous journey, as they began to move out on to the +wide river towards the chalk cliffs and red roofs of Greenhithe that +nestled among the mass of trees on the opposite bank. In less than ten +minutes they were at the pier, and after a little struggle to get the +horses to land, they were mounted and riding up the straight little +street that led up to the higher ground. Just before they turned the +corner they heard far away across the river the horn blown to summon the +ferry-boat once more. + + * * * * + +There were two routes from Greenhithe to Stanstead, the one to the right +through Longfield and Ash, the other to the left through Southfleet and +Nursted. There was very little to choose between them as regards +distance, and Mrs. Kirke had drawn a careful sketch-map with a few notes +as to the characteristics of each route. There were besides, particularly +through the thick woods about Stanstead itself, innumerable cross-paths +intersecting one another in all directions. The travellers had decided at +the inn to take the road through Longfield; since, in spite of other +disadvantages, it was the less frequented of the two, and they were +anxious above all things to avoid attention. Their horses were tired; and +as they had plenty of time before them they proposed to go at a +foot's-pace all the way, and to take between two and three hours to cover +the nine or ten miles between Greenhithe and Stanstead. + +It was a hot afternoon as they passed through Fawkham, and it was +delightful to pass from the white road in under the thick arching trees +just beyond the village. There everything was cool shadow, the insects +sang in the air about them, an early rabbit or two cantered across the +road and disappeared into the thick undergrowth; once the song of the +birds about them suddenly ceased, and through an opening in the green +rustling vault overhead they saw a cruel shape with motionless wings +glide steadily across. + +They did not talk much, but let the reins lie loose; and enjoyed the cool +shadow and the green lights and the fragrant mellow scents of the woods +about them; while their horses slouched along on the turf, switching +their tails and even stopping sometimes for a second in a kind of +desperate greediness to snatch a green juicy mouthful at the side. + +Isabel was thinking of Stanfield, and wondering how the situation would +adjust itself; Mary Corbet would be there, she knew, to meet them; and it +was a comfort to think she could consult her; but what, she asked +herself, would be her relations with the master of the house? + +Suddenly Anthony's horse stepped off the turf on the opposite side of the +road and began to come towards her, and she moved her beast a little to +let him come on the turf beside her. + +"Isabel," said Anthony, "tell me if you hear anything." + +She looked at him, suddenly startled. + +"No, no," he said, "there is nothing to fear; it is probably my fancy; +but listen and tell me." + +She listened intently. There was the creaking of her own saddle, the soft +footfalls of the horses, the hum of the summer woods, and the sound of +the servants' horses behind. + +"No," she said, "there is nothing beyond----" + +"There!" he said suddenly; "now do you hear it?" + +Then she heard plainly the sound either of a man running, or of a horse +walking, somewhere behind them. + +"Yes," she said, "I hear something; but what of it?" + +"It is the third time I have heard it," he said: "once in the woods +behind Longfield, and once just before the little village with the +steepled church." + +The sound had ceased again. + +"It is some one who has come nearly all the way from Greenhithe behind +us. Perhaps they are not following--but again----" + +"They?" she said; "there is only one." + +"There are three," he answered; "at least; the other two are on the turf +at the side--but just before the village I heard all three of them--or +rather certainly more than two--when they were between those two walls +where there was no turf." + +Isabel was staring at him with great frightened eyes. He smiled back at +her tranquilly. + +"Ah, Isabel!" he said, "there is nothing really to fear, in any case." + +"What shall you do?" she asked, making a great effort to control herself. + +"I think we must find out first of all whether they are after us. We must +certainly not ride straight to the Manor Lodge if it is so." + +Then he explained his plan. + +"See here," he said, holding the map before her as he rode, "we shall +come to Fawkham Green in five minutes. Then our proper road leads +straight on to Ash, but we will take the right instead, towards Eynsford. +Meanwhile, I will leave Robert here, hidden by the side of the road, to +see who these men are, and what they look like; and we will ride on +slowly. When they have passed, he will come out and take the road we +should have taken, and he then will turn off to the right too before he +reaches Ash; and by trotting he will easily come up with us at this +corner," and he pointed to it on the map--"and so he will tell us what +kind of men they are; and they will never know that they have been spied +upon; for, by this plan, he will not have to pass them. Is that a good +plot?" and he smiled at her. + +Isabel assented, feeling dazed and overwhelmed. She could hardly bring +her thoughts to a focus, for the fears that had hovered about her ever +since they had left Lancashire and come down to the treacherous south, +had now darted upon her, tearing her heart with terror and blinding her +eyes, and bewildering her with the beating of their wings. + +Anthony quietly called up Robert, and explained the plan. He was a lad of +a Catholic family at Great Keynes, perfectly fearless and perfectly +devoted to the Church and to the priest he served. He nodded his head +briskly with approval as the plan was explained. + +"Of course it may all be nothing," ended Anthony, "and then you will +think me a poor fool?" + +The lad grinned cheerfully. + +"No, sir," he said. + +All this while they had been riding slowly on together, and now the wood +showed signs of coming to an end; so Anthony told the groom to ride fifty +yards into the undergrowth at once, to bandage his horse's eyes, and to +tie him to a tree; and then to creep back himself near the road, so as to +see without being seen. The men who seemed to be following were at least +half a mile behind, so he would have plenty of time. + +Then they all rode on together again, leaving Robert to find his way into +the wood. As they went, Isabel began to question her brother, and Anthony +gave her his views. + +"They have not come up with us, because they know we are four men to +three--if, as I think, they are not more than three--that is one reason; +and another is that they love to track us home before they take us; and +thus take our hosts too as priests' harbourers. Now plainly these men do +not know where we are bound, or they would not follow us so closely. Best +of all, too, they love to catch us at mass for then they have no trouble +in proving their case. I think then that they will not try to take us +till we reach the Manor Lodge; and we must do our best to shake them off +before that. Now the plot I have thought of is this, that--should it +prove as I think it will--we should ride slower than ever, as if our +horses were weary, down the road along which Robert will have come after +he has joined us, and turn down as if to go to Kingsdown, and when we +have gone half a mile, and are well round that sharp corner, double back +to it, and hide all in the wood at the side. They will follow our tracks, +and there are no houses at which they can ask, and there seem no +travellers either on these by-roads, and when they have passed us we +double back at the gallop, and down the next turning, which will bring us +in a couple of miles to Stanstead. There is a maze of roads thereabouts, +and it will be hard if we do not shake them off; for there is not a +house, marked upon the map, at which they can ask after us." + +Isabel did her utmost to understand, but the horror of the pursuit had +overwhelmed her. The quiet woods into which they had passed again after +leaving Fawkham Green now seemed full of menace; the rough road, with the +deep powdery ruts and the grass and fir-needles at the side, no longer +seemed a pleasant path leading home, but a treacherous device to lead +them deeper into danger. The creatures round them, the rabbits, the +pigeons that flapped suddenly out of all the tall trees, the tits that +fluttered on and chirped and fluttered again, all seemed united against +Anthony in some dreadful league. Anthony himself felt all his powers of +observation and device quickened and established. He had lived so long in +the expectation of a time like this, and had rehearsed and mastered the +emotions of terror and suspense so often, that he was ready to meet them; +and gradually his entire self-control and the unmoved tones of his voice +and his serene alert face prevailed upon Isabel; and by the time that +they slowly turned the last curve and saw Robert on his black horse +waiting for them at the corner, her sense of terror and bewilderment had +passed, her heart had ceased that sick thumping, and she, too, was +tranquil and capable. + +Robert wheeled his horse and rode beside Anthony round the sharp corner +to the left up the road along which he had trotted just now. + +"There are three of them, sir," he said in an even, businesslike voice; +"one of them, sir, on a brown mare, but I couldn't see aught of him, sir; +he was on the far side of the track; the second is like a groom on a grey +horse, and the third is dressed like a sailor, sir, on a brown horse." + +"A sailor?" said Anthony; "a lean man, and sunburnt, with a whistle?" + +"I did not see the whistle, sir; but he is as you say." + +This made it certain that it was the man they had seen in the inn +opposite Greenhithe; and also practically certain that he was a spy; for +nothing that Anthony had done could have roused his suspicions except the +breaking of the bread; and that would only be known to one who was deep +in the counsels of the Catholics. All this made the pursuit the more +formidable. + +So Anthony meditated; and presently, calling up the servants behind, +explained the situation and his plan. The French maid showed signs of +hysteria and Isabel had to take her aside and quiet her, while the men +consulted. Then it was arranged, and the servants presently dropped +behind again a few yards, though the maid still rode with Isabel. Then +they came to the road on the right that would have led them to Kingsdown, +and down this they turned. As they went, Anthony kept a good look-out for +a place to turn aside; and a hundred yards from the turning saw what he +wanted. On the left-hand side a little path led into the wood; it was +overgrown with brambles, and looked as if it were now disused. Anthony +gave the word and turned his horse down the entrance, and was followed in +single file by the others. There were thick trees about them on every +side, and, what was far more important, the road they had left at this +point ran higher than usual, and was hard and dry; so the horses' hoofs +as they turned off left no mark that would be noticed. + +After riding thirty or forty yards, Anthony stopped, turned his horse +again, and forced him through the hazels with some difficulty, and the +others again followed in silence through the passage he had made. +Presently Anthony stopped; the branches that had swished their faces as +they rode through now seemed a little higher; and it was possible to sit +here on horseback without any great discomfort. + +"I must see them myself," he whispered to Isabel; and slipped off his +horse, giving the bridle to Robert. + +"Oh! mon Dieu!" moaned the maid; "mon Dieu! Ne partez pas!" + +Anthony looked at her severely. + +"You must be quiet and brave," he said sternly. "You are a Catholic too; +pray, instead of crying." + +Then Isabel saw him slip noiselessly towards the road, which was some +fifty yards away, through the thick growth. + + * * * * + +It was now a breathless afternoon. High overhead the sun blazed in a +cloudless sky, but down here all was cool, green shadow. There was not a +sound to be heard from the woods, beyond the mellow hum of the flies; +Anthony's faint rustlings had ceased; now and then a saddle creaked, or a +horse blew out his nostrils or tossed his head. One of the men wound his +handkerchief silently round a piece of his horse's head-harness that +jingled a little. The maid drew a soft sobbing breath now and then, but +she dared not speak after the priest's rebuke. + +Then suddenly there came another sound to Isabel's ears; she could not +distinguish at first what it was, but it grew nearer, and presently +resolved itself into the fumbling noise of several horses' feet walking +together, twice or three times a stirrup chinked, once she heard a +muffled cough; but no word was spoken. Nearer and nearer it came, until +she could not believe that it was not within five yards of her. Her heart +began again that sick thumping; a fly that she had brushed away again and +again now crawled unheeded over her face, and even on her white parted +lips; but a sob of fear from the maid recalled her, and she turned a +sharp look of warning on her. Then the fumbling noise began to die away: +the men were passing. There was something in their silence that was more +terrible than all else; it reminded her of hounds running on a hot scent. + +Then at last there was silence; then gentle rustlings again over last +year's leaves; and Anthony came back through the hazels. He nodded at her +sharply. + +"Now, quickly," he said, and took his horse by the bridle and began to +lead him out again the way they had come. At the entrance he looked out +first; the road was empty and silent. Then he led his horse clear, and +mounted as the others came out one by one in single file. + +"Now follow close; and watch my hand," he said; and he put his horse to a +quick walk on the soft wayside turf. As the distance widened between them +and the men who were now riding away from them, the walk became a trot, +and then quickly a canter, as the danger of the sound being carried to +their pursuers decreased. + +It seemed to Isabel like some breathless dream as she followed Anthony's +back, watching the motions of his hand as he signed in which direction he +was going to turn next. What was happening, she half wondered to herself, +that she should be riding like this on a spent horse, as if in some +dreadful game, turning abruptly down lanes and rides, out across the high +road, and down again another turn, with the breathing and creaking and +jingling of others behind her? Years ago the two had played +Follow-my-leader on horseback in the woods above Great Keynes. She +remembered this now; and a flood of memories poured across her mind and +diluted the bitterness of this shocking reality. Dear God, what a game! + +Anthony steered with skill and decision. He had been studying the map +with great attention, and even now carried it loose in his hand and +glanced at it from time to time. Above all else he wished to avoid +passing a house, for fear that the searchers might afterwards inquire at +it; and he succeeded perfectly in this, though once or twice he was +obliged to retrace his steps. There was little danger, he knew now, of +the noise of the horses' feet being any guide to those who were +searching, for the high table-land on which they rode was a labyrinth of +lanes and rides, and the trees too served to echo and confuse the noise +they could not altogether avoid making. Twice they passed travellers, one +a farmer on an old grey horse, who stared at this strange hurrying party; +and once a pedlar, laden with his pack, who trudged past, head down. + +Isabel's horse was beginning to strain and pant, and she herself to grow +giddy with heat and weariness, when she saw through the trees an old +farmhouse with latticed windows and a great external chimney, standing in +a square of cultivated ground; and in a moment more the path they were +following turned a corner, and the party drew up at the back of the +house. + +At the noise of the horses' footsteps a door at the back had opened, and +a woman's face looked out and drew back again; and presently from the +front Mrs. Kirke came quickly round. She was tall and slender and +middle-aged, with a somewhat anxious face; but a look of great relief +came over it as she saw Anthony. + +"Thank God you are come," she said; "I feared something had happened." + +Anthony explained the circumstances in a few words. + +"I will ride on gladly, madam, if you think right; but I will ask you in +any case to take my sister in." + +"Why, how can you say that?" she said; "I am a Catholic. Come in, father. +But I fear there is but poor accommodation for the servants." + +"And the horses?" asked Anthony. + +"The barn at the back is got ready for them," she said; "perhaps it would +be well to take them there at once." She called a woman, and sent her to +show the men where to stable the horses, while Anthony and Isabel and the +maid dismounted and came in with her to the house. + +There, they talked over the situation and what was best to be done. Her +husband had ridden over to Wrotham, and she expected him back for supper; +nothing then could be finally settled till he came. In the meantime the +Manor Lodge was probably the safest place in all the woods, Mrs. Kirke +declared; the nearest house was half a mile away, and that was the +Rectory; and the Rector himself was a personal friend and favourable to +Catholics. The Manor Lodge, too, stood well off the road to Wrotham, and +not five strangers appeared there in the year. Fifty men might hunt the +woods for a month and not find it; in fact, Mr. Kirke had taken the house +on account of its privacy, for he was weary, his wife said, of paying her +fines for recusancy; and still more unwilling to pay his own, when that +happy necessity should arrive; for he had now practically made up his +mind to be a Catholic, and only needed a little instruction before being +received. + +"He is a good man, father," she said to Anthony, "and will make a good +Catholic." + +Then she explained about the accommodation. Isabel and the maid would +have to sleep together in the spare room, and Anthony would have the +little dressing-room opening out of it; and the men, she feared, would +have to shake down as well as they could in the loft over the stable in +the barn. + +At seven o'clock Mr. Kirke arrived; and when the situation had been +explained to him, he acquiesced in the plan. He seemed confident that +there was but little danger; and he and Anthony were soon deep in +theological talk. + +Anthony found him excellently instructed already; he had, in fact, even +prepared for his confession; his wife had taught him well; and it was the +prospect of this one good opportunity of being reconciled to the Church +that had precipitated matters and decided him to take the step. He was a +delightful companion, too, intelligent, courageous, humorous and modest, +and Anthony thought his own labour and danger well repaid when, a little +after midnight, he heard his confession and received him into the Church. +It was impossible for Mr. Kirke to receive communion, as he had wished, +for there were wanting some of the necessaries for saying mass; so he +promised to ride across to Stanfield in a week or so, stay the night and +communicate in the morning. + +Then early the next morning a council was held as to the best way for the +party to leave for Stanfield. The men were called up, and their opinions +asked; and gradually step by step a plan was evolved. + +The first requirement was that, if possible, the party should not be +recognisable; the second that they should keep together for mutual +protection; for to separate would very possibly mean the apprehension of +some one of them; the third was that they should avoid so far as was +possible villages and houses and frequented roads. + +Then the first practical suggestion was made by Isabel that the maid +should be left behind, and that Mr. Kirke should bring her on with him to +Stanfield when he came a week later. This he eagerly accepted, and +further offered to keep all the luggage they could spare, take charge of +the men's liveries, and lend them old garments and hats of his own--to +one a cloak, and to another a doublet. In this way, he said, it would +appear to be a pleasure party rather than one of travellers, and, should +they be followed, this would serve to cover their traces. The travelling +by unfrequented roads was more difficult; for that in itself might +attract attention should they actually meet any one. + +Anthony, who had been thinking in silence a moment or two, now broke in. + +"Have you any hawks, Mr. Kirke?" he asked. + +"Only one old peregrine," he said, "past sport." + +"She will do," said Anthony; "and can you borrow another?" + +"There is a merlin at the Rectory," said Mr. Kirke. + +Then Anthony explained his plan, that they should pose as a +hawking-party. Isabel and Robert should each carry a hawk, while he +himself would carry on his wrist an empty leash and hood as if a hawk had +escaped; that they should then all ride together over the open country, +avoiding every road, and that, if they should see any one on the way, +they should inquire whether he had seen an escaped falcon or heard the +tinkle of the bells; and this would enable them to ask the way, should it +be necessary, without arousing suspicion. + +This plan was accepted, and the maid was informed to her great relief +that she might remain behind for a week or so, and then return with Mr. +Kirke after the searchers had left the woods. + +It was a twenty-mile ride to Stanfield; and it was thought safer on the +whole not to remain any longer where they were, as it was impossible to +know whether a shrewd man might not, with the help of a little luck, +stumble upon the house; so, when dinner was over, and the servants had +changed into Mr. Kirke's old suits, and the merlin had been borrowed from +the Rectory for a week's hawking, the horses were brought round and the +party mounted. + +Mr. Kirke and Anthony had spent a long morning together discussing the +route, and it had been decided that it would be best to keep along the +high ridge due west until they were a little beyond Kemsing, which they +would be able to see below them in the valley; and then to strike across +between that village and Otford, and keeping almost due south ride up +through Knole Park; then straight down on the other side into the Weald, +and so past Tonbridge home. + +Mr. Kirke himself insisted on accompanying them on his cob until he had +seen them clear of the woods on the high ground. Both he and his wife +were full of gratitude to Anthony for the risk and trouble he had +undergone, and did their utmost to provide them with all that was +necessary for their disguise. At last, about two o'clock, the five men +and Isabel rode out of the little yard at the back of the Manor Lodge and +plunged into the woods again. + +The afternoon hush rested on the country as they followed Mr. Kirke along +a narrow seldom-used path that led almost straight to the point where it +was decided that they should strike south. In half a dozen places it cut +across lanes, and once across the great high road from Farningham to +Wrotham. As they drew near this, Mr. Kirke, who was riding in front, +checked them. + +"I will go first," he said, "and see if there is danger." + +In a minute he returned. + +"There is a man about a hundred yards up the road asleep on a bank; and +there is a cart coming up from Wrotham: that is all I can see. Perhaps we +had better wait till the cart is gone." + +"And what is the man like?" asked Anthony. + +"He is a beggar, I should say; but has his hat over his eyes." + +They waited till the cart had passed. Anthony dismounted and went to the +entrance of the path and peered out at the man; he was lying, as Mr. +Kirke had said, with his hat over his eyes, perfectly still. Anthony +examined him a minute or two; he was in tattered clothes, and a great +stick and a bundle lay beside him. + +"It is a vagabond," he said, "we can go on." + +The whole party crossed the road, pushing on towards the edge of the high +downs over Kemsing; and presently came to the Ightam road where it began +to run steeply down hill; here, too, Mr. Kirke looked this way and that, +but no one was in sight, and then the whole party crossed; they kept +inside the edge of the wood all the way along the downs for another mile +or so, with the rich sunlit valley seen in glimpses through the trees +here and there, and the Pilgrim's Way lying like a white ribbon a couple +of hundred feet below them, until at last Kemsing Church, with St. +Edith's Chantry at the side, lay below and behind them, and they came out +on to the edge of a great scoop in the hill, like a theatre, and the blue +woods and hills of Surrey showed opposite beyond Otford and Brasted. + +Here they stopped, a little back from the edge, and Mr. Kirke gave them +their last instructions, pointing out Seal across the valley, which they +must leave on their left, skirting the meadows to the west of the church, +and passing up towards Knole beyond. + +"Let the sun be a little on your right," he said, "all the way; and you +will strike the country above Tonbridge." + +Then they said good-bye to one another; Mr. Kirke kissed the priest's +hand in gratitude for what he had done for him, and then turned back +along the edge of the downs, riding this time outside the woods, while +the party led their horses carefully down the steep slope, across the +Pilgrim's Way, and then struck straight out over the meadows to Seal. + +Their plan seemed supremely successful; they met a few countrymen and +lads at their work, who looked a little astonished at first at this great +party riding across country, but more satisfied when Anthony had inquired +of them whether they had seen a falcon or heard his bells. No, they had +not, they said; and went on with their curiosity satisfied. Once, as they +were passing down through a wood on to the Weald, Isabel, who had turned +in her saddle, and was looking back, gave a low cry of alarm. + +"Ah! the man, the man!" she said. + +The others turned quickly, but there was nothing to be seen but the long +straight ride stretching up to against the sky-line three or four hundred +yards behind them. Isabel said she thought she saw a rider pass across +this little opening at the end, framed in leaves; but there were stags +everywhere in the woods here, and it would have been easy to mistake one +for the other at that distance, and with such a momentary glance. + +Once again, nearer Tonbridge, they had a fright. They had followed up a +grass ride into a copse, thinking it would bring them out somewhere, but +it led only to the brink of a deep little stream, where the plank bridge +had been removed, so they were obliged to retrace their steps. As they +re-emerged into the field from the copse, a large heavily-built man on a +brown mare almost rode into them. He was out of breath, and his horse +seemed distressed. Anthony, as usual, immediately asked if he had seen or +heard anything of a falcon. + +"No, indeed, gentlemen," he said, "and have you seen aught of a bitch who +bolted after a hare some half mile back. A greyhound I should be loath to +lose." + +They had not, and said so; and the man, still panting and mopping his +head, thanked them, and asked whether he could be of any service in +directing them, if they were strange to the country; but they thought it +better not to give him any hint of where they were going, so he rode off +presently up the slope across their route and disappeared, whistling for +his dog. + +And so at last, about four o'clock in the afternoon, they saw the church +spire of Stanfield above them on the hill, and knew that they were near +the end of their troubles. Another hundred yards, and there were the +roofs of the old house, and the great iron gates, and the vanes of the +garden-house seen over the clipped limes; and then Mary Corbet and Mr. +Buxton hurrying in from the garden, as they came through the low oak +door, into the dear tapestried hall. + + + + + CHAPTER IX + + THE ALARM + + +A very happy party sat down to supper that evening in Stanfield Place. + +Anthony had taken Mr. Buxton aside privately when the first greetings +were over, and told him all that happened: the alarm at Stanstead; his +device, and the entire peace they had enjoyed ever since. + +"Isabel," he ended, "certainly thought she saw a man behind us once; but +we were among the deer, and it was dusky in the woods; and, for myself, I +think it was but a stag. But, if you think there is danger anywhere, I +will gladly ride on." + +Mr. Buxton clapped him on the shoulder. + +"My dear friend," he said, "take care you do not offend me. I am a slow +fellow, as you know; but even my coarse hide is pricked sometimes. Do not +suggest again that I could permit any priest--and much less my own dear +friend--to leave me when there was danger. But there is none in this +case--you have shaken the rogues off, I make no doubt; and you will just +stay here for the rest of the summer at the very least." + +Anthony said that he agreed with him as to the complete baffling of the +pursuers, but added that Isabel was still a little shaken, and would Mr. +Buxton say a word to her. + +"Why, I will take her round the hiding-holes myself after supper, and +show her how strong and safe we are. We will all go round." + +In the withdrawing-room he said a word or two of reassurance to her +before the others were down. + +"Anthony has told me everything, Mistress Isabel; and I warrant that the +knaves are cursing their stars still on Stanstead hills, twenty miles +from here. You are as safe here as in Greenwich palace. But after supper, +to satisfy you, we will look to our defences. But, believe me, there is +nothing to fear." + +He spoke with such confidence and cheerfulness that Isabel felt her fears +melting, and before supper was over she was ashamed of them, and said so. + +"Nay, nay," said Mr. Buxton, "you shall not escape. You shall see every +one of them for yourself. Mistress Corbet, do you not think that just?" + +"You need a little more honest worldliness, Isabel," said Mary. "I do not +hesitate to say that I believe God saves the priests that have the best +hiding-holes. Now that is not profane, so do not look at me like that." + +"It is the plainest sense," said Anthony, smiling at them both. + +They went the round of them all with candles, and Anthony refreshed his +memory; they visited the little one in the chapel first, then the +cupboard and portrait-door at the top of the corridor, the chamber over +the fireplace in the hall, and lastly, in the wooden cellar-steps they +lifted the edge of the fifth stair from the bottom, so that its front and +the top of the stair below it turned on a hinge and dropped open, leaving +a black space behind: this was the entrance to the passage that led +beneath the garden to the garden-house on the far side of the avenue. + +Mistress Corbet wrinkled her nose at the damp earthy smell that breathed +out of the dark. + +"I am glad I am not a priest," she said. "And I would sooner be buried +dead than alive. And there is a rat there that sorely needs burying." + +"My dear lady!" cried the contriver of the passage indignantly, "her +Grace might sleep there herself and take no harm. There is not even the +whisker of a rat." + +"It is not the whisker that I mind," said Mary, "it is the rest of him." + +Mr. Buxton immediately set his taper down and climbed in. + +"You shall see," he said, "and I in my best satin too!" + +He was inside the stairs now and lying on his back on the smooth board +that backed them. He sidled himself slowly along towards the wall. + +"Press the fourth brick of the fourth row," he said. + +"You remember, Father Anthony?" + +He had reached now what seemed to be the brick wall against which the +ends of the stairs rested; and that closed that end of the cellars +altogether. Anthony leaned in with a candle, and saw how that part of the +wall against his friend's right side slowly turned into the dark as the +fourth brick was pressed, and a little brick-lined passage appeared +beyond. Mr. Buxton edged himself sideways into the passage, and then +stood nearly upright. It was an excellent contrivance. Even if the +searchers should find the chamber beneath the stairs, which was unlikely, +they would never suspect that it was only a blind to a passage beyond. +The door into the passage consisted of a strong oaken door disguised on +the outside by a facing of brick-slabs; all the hinges were within. + +"As sweet as a flower," said the architect, looking about him. His voice +rang muffled and hollow. + +"Then the friends have removed the corpse," said Mary, putting her head +in, "while you were opening the door. There! come out; you will take +cold. I believe you." + +"Are you satisfied?" said Mr. Buxton to Isabel, as they went upstairs +again. + +"What are your outer defences?" asked Mary, before Isabel could answer. + +"You shall see the plan in the hall," said Mr. Buxton. + +He took down the frame that held the plan of the house, and showed them +the outer doors. There was first the low oak front door on the north, +opening on to the little court; this was immensely strong and would stand +battering. Then on the same side farther east, within the stable-court, +there was the servants' door, protected by chains, and an oak bolt that +ran across. On the extreme east end of the house there was a door opening +into the garden from the withdrawing-room, the least strong of all; there +was another on the south side, opposite the front door--that gave on to +the garden; and lastly there was an entrance into the priests' end of the +house, at the extreme west, from the little walled garden where Anthony +had meditated years ago. This walled garden had a very strong door of its +own opening on to the lane between the church and the house. + +"But there are only three ways out, really," said Mr. Buxton, "for the +garden walls are high and strong. There is the way of the walled garden; +the iron-gates across the drive; and through the stable-yard on to the +field-path to East Maskells. All the other gates are kept barred; and +indeed I scarcely know where the keys are." + +"I am bewildered," said Mary. + +"Shall we go round?" he asked. + +"To-morrow," said Mary; "I am tired to-night, and so is this poor child. +Come, we will go to bed." + +Anthony soon went too. Both he and Isabel were tired with the journey and +the strain of anxiety, and it was a keen joy to him to be back again in +his own dear room, with the tapestry of St. Thomas of Aquin and St. Clare +opposite the bed, and the wide curtained bow-window which looked out on +the little walled garden. + + * * * * + +Mr. Buxton was left alone in the great hall below with the two tapers +burning, and the starlight with all the suffused glow of a summer night +making the arms glimmer in the tall windows that looked south. Lower, the +windows were open, and the mellow scents of the June roses, and of the +sweet-satyrian and lavender poured in; the night was very still, but the +faintest breath came from time to time across the meadows and rustled in +the stiff leaves with the noise of a stealthy movement. + +"I will look round," said Mr. Buxton to himself. + +He stepped out immediately into the garden by the hall door, and turned +to the east, passing along the lighted windows. His step sounded on the +tiles, and a face looked out swiftly from Isabel's room overhead; but his +figure was plain in the light from the windows as he came out round the +corner; and the face drew back. He crossed the east end of the house, and +went through a little door into the stable-yard, locking it after him. In +the kennels in the corner came a movement, and a Danish hound came out +silently into the cage before her house, and stood up, like a slender +grey ghost, paws high up in the bars, and whimpered softly to her lord. +He quieted her, and went to the door in the yard that opened on to the +field-path to East Maskells, unbarred it and stepped through. There was a +dry ditch on his left, where nettles quivered in the stirring air; and a +heavy clump of bushes rose beyond, dark and impenetrable. Mr. Buxton +stared straight at these a moment or two, and then out towards East +Maskells. There lay his own meadows, and the cattle and horses secure and +sleeping. Then he stepped back again; barred the door and walked up +through the stable-yard into the front court. There the great iron gates +rose before him, diaphanous-looking and flimsy in the starlight. He went +up to them and shook them; and a loose shield jangled fiercely overhead. +Then he peered through, holding the bars, and saw the familiar patch of +grass beyond the gravel sweep, and the dark cottages over the way. Then +he made his way back to the front door, unlocked it with his private key, +passed through the hall, through a parlour or two into the lower floor of +the priests' quarters; unlocked softly the little door into the walled +garden, and went out on tip-toe once more. Even as he went, Anthony's +light overhead went out. Mr. Buxton went to the garden door, unfastened +it, and stepped out into the road. Above him on his left rose up the +chancel of the parish church, the roofs crowded behind; and immediately +in front was the high-raised churchyard, with the tall irregular wall and +the trees above all, blotting out the stars. + +Then he came back the same way, fastening the doors as he passed, and +reached the hall, where the tapers still burned. He blew out one and took +the other. + +"I suppose I am a fool," he said; "the lad is as safe as in his mother's +arms." And he went upstairs to bed. + + * * * * + +Mary Corbet rose late next morning, and when she came down at last found +the others in the garden. She joined them as they walked in the little +avenue. + +"Have not the priest-hunters arrived?" she asked. "What are they about? +And you, dear Isabel, how did you sleep?" + +Isabel looked a little heavy-eyed. "I did not sleep well," she said. + +"I fear I disturbed her," said Mr. Buxton. "She heard me as I went round +the house." + +"Why did you go round the house?" asked Anthony. + +"I often do," he said shortly. + +"And there was no one?" asked Mary. + +"There was no one." + +"And what would you have done if there had been?" + +"Yes," said Anthony, "what would you have done to warn us all?" + +Mr. Buxton considered. + +"I should have rung the alarm, I think," he said. + +"But I did not know you had one," said Mary. + +Mr. Buxton pointed to a turret peeping between two high gables, above his +own room. + +"And what does it sound like?" + +"It is deep, and has a dash of sourness or shrillness in it. I cannot +describe it. Above all, it is marvellous loud." + +"Then, if we hear it, we shall know the priest-hunters are on us?" asked +Mary. Mr. Buxton bowed. + +"Or that the house is afire," he said, "or that the French or Spanish are +landed." + +To tell the truth, he was just slightly uneasy. Isabel had been far more +silent than he had ever known her, and her nerves were plainly at an +acute tension; she started violently even now, when a servant came out +between two yew-hedges to call Mr. Buxton in. Her alarm had affected him, +and besides, he knew something of the extraordinary skill and patience of +Walsingham's agents, and even the story of the ferry had startled him. +Could it really be, he had wondered as he tossed to and fro in the hot +night, that this innocent priest had thrown off his pursuers so +completely as had appeared? In the morning he had sent down a servant to +the inn to inquire whether anything had been seen or heard of a +disquieting nature; now the servant had come to tell him, as he had +ordered, privately. He went with the man in through the hall-door, +leaving the others to walk in the avenue, and then faced him. + +"Well?" he said sharply. + +"No, sir, there is nothing. There is a party there travelling on to +Brighthelmstone this afternoon, and four drovers who came in last night, +sir; and two gentlemen travelling across country; but they left early +this morning." + +"They left, you say?" + +"They left at eight o'clock, sir." + +Mr. Buxton's attention was attracted to these two gentlemen. + +"Go and find out where they came from," he said, "and let me know after +dinner." + +The man bowed and left the room, and almost immediately the dinner-bell +rang. + +Mary was frankly happy; she loved to be down here in this superb weather +with her friends; she enjoyed this beautiful house with its furniture and +pictures, and even took a certain pleasure in the hiding-holes +themselves; although in this case she was satisfied they would not be +needed. She had heard the tale of the Stanstead woods, and had no shadow +of doubt but that the searchers, if, indeed, they were searchers at all, +were baffled. So at dinner she talked exactly as usual; and the cloud of +slight discomfort that still hung over Isabel grew lighter and lighter as +she listened. The windows of the hall were flung wide, and the warm +summer air poured from the garden into the cool room with its polished +floor, and table decked with roses in silver bowls, with its grave +tapestries stirring on the walls behind the grim visors and pikes that +hung against them. + +The talk turned on music. + +"Ah! I would I had my lute," sighed Mary, "but my woman forgot to bring +it. What a garden to sing in, in the shade of the yews, with the +garden-house behind to make the voice sound better than it is!" + +Mr. Buxton made a complimentary murmur. + +"Thank you," she said, "Master Anthony, you are wool-gathering." + +"Indeed not," he said, "but I was thinking where I had seen a lute. Ah! +it is in the little west parlour." + +"A lute!" cried Mary. "Ah! but I have no music; and I have not the +courage to sing the only song I know, over and over again." + +"But there is music too," said Anthony. + +Mary clapped her hands. + +"When dinner is over," she said, "you and I will go to find it." + +Dinner was over at last, and the four rose. + +"Come," said Mary; while Isabel turned into the garden and Mr. Buxton +went to his room. "We will be with you presently," she cried after +Isabel. + +Then the two went together to the little west parlour, oak-panelled, with +a wide fireplace with the logs in their places, and the latticed windows +with their bottle-end glass, looking upon the walled garden. Anthony +stood on a chair and opened the top window, letting a flood of summer +noises into the room. + +They found the lute music, written over its six lines with the queer F's +and double F's and numerals--all Hebrew to Anthony, but bursting and +blossoming with delicate melodies to Mary's eyes. Then she took up the +lute, and tuned it on her knee, still sitting in a deep lounging-chair, +with her buckled feet before her; while Anthony sat opposite and watched +her supple flashing fingers busy among the strings, and her grave +abstracted look as she listened critically. Then she sounded the strings +in little rippling chords. + +"Ah! it is a sweet old lute," she said. "Put the music before me." + +Anthony propped it on a chair. + +"Is that the right side up?" he asked. + +Mary smiled and nodded, still looking at the music. + +"Now then," she said, and began the prelude. + + * * * * + +Anthony threw himself back in his chair as the delicate tinkling began to +pour out and overscore the soft cooing of a pigeon on the roofs somewhere +and the murmur of bees through the open window. It was an old precise +little love-song from Italy, with a long prelude, suggesting by its +tender minor chords true and restrained love, not passionate but tender, +not despairing but melancholy; it was a love that had for its symbols not +the rose and the lily, but the lavender and thyme--acrid in its +sweetness. The prelude had climbed up by melodious steps to the keynote, +and was now rippling down again after its aspirations. + +Mary stirred herself. + +Ah! now the voice would come in the last chord----when all the music was +first drowned and then ceased, as with crash after crash a great bell, +sonorous and piercing, began to sound from overhead. + + + + + CHAPTER X + + THE PASSAGE TO THE GARDEN-HOUSE + + +The two looked at one another with parted lips, but without a word. Then +both rose simultaneously. Then the bell jangled and ceased; and a crowd +of other noises began; there were shouts, tramplings of hoofs in the +court; shrill voices came over the wall; then a scream or two. Mary +sprang to the door and opened it, and stood there listening. + +Then from the interior of the house came an indescribable din, tramplings +of feet and shouts of anger; then violent blows on woodwork. It came +nearer in a moment of time, as a tide comes in over flat sands, +remorselessly swift. Then Mary with one movement was inside again, and +had locked the door and drawn the bolt. + +"Up there," she said, "it is the only way--they are outside," and she +pointed to the chimney. + +Anthony began to remonstrate. It was intolerable, he felt, to climb up +the chimney like a hunted cat, and he began a word or two. But Mary +seized his arm. + +"You must not be caught," she said, "there are others"; and there came a +confused battering and trampling outside. She pushed him towards the +chimney. Then decision came to him, and he bent his head and stepped upon +the logs laid upon the ashes, crushing them down. + +"Ah! go," said Mary's voice behind him, as the door began to bulge and +creak. There was plainly a tremendous struggle in the little passage +outside. + +Anthony threw his hands up and felt a high ledge in the darkness, gripped +it with his hands and made a huge effort combined of a tug and a spring; +his feet rapped sharply for a moment or two on the iron fire-plate; and +then his knee reached the ledge and he was up. He straightened himself on +the ledge, stood upright and looked down; two white hands with rings on +them were lifting the logs and drawing them out from the ashes, shaking +them and replacing them by others from the wood-basket; and all +deliberately, as if laying a fire. Then her voice came up to him, hushed +but distinct. + +"Go up quickly. I will feign to be burning papers; there will be smoke, +but no sparks. It is green wood." + +Anthony again felt above him, and found two iron half-rings in the +chimney, one above the other; he was in semi-darkness here, but far above +there was a patch of pale smoky light; and all the chimney seemed full of +a murmurous sound. He tugged at the rings and found them secure, and drew +himself up steadily by the higher one, until his knee struck the lower; +then with a great effort he got his knee upon it, then his left foot, and +again straightened himself. Then, as he felt in the darkness once more, +he found a system of rings, one above the other, up the side of the +chimney, by which it was not hard to climb. As he went up he began to +perceive a sharp acrid smell, his eyes smarted and he closed them, but +his throat burned; he climbed fiercely; and then suddenly saw immediately +below him another hearth; he was looking over the fireplate of some other +room. In a moment more he thrust his head over, and drew a long breath of +clear air; then he listened intently. From below still came a murmur of +confusion; but in this room all was quiet. He began to think frantically. +He could not remain in the chimney, it was hopeless; they would soon +light fires, he knew, in all the chimneys, and bring him down. What room +was this? He was bewildered and could not remember. But at least he would +climb into it and try to escape. In a moment more he had lifted himself +over the fireplate and dropped safely on to the hearth of his own +bedroom. + +The fresh air and the familiarity of the room, as he looked round, swept +the confusion out of his brain like a breeze. The thundering and shouting +continued below. Then he went on tip-toe to the door and opened it. Round +to the right was the head of the stairs which led straight into the +little passage where the struggle was going on. He could hear Robert's +voice in the din; plainly there was no way down the stairs. To the left +was the passage that ended in a window, with the chapel door at the left +and the false shelves on the right. He hesitated a moment between the two +hiding-places, and then decided for the cupboard; there was a clean +doublet there; his own was one black smear of soot, and as he thought of +it, he drew off his sooty shoes. His hose were fortunately dark. He +stepped straight out of the door, leaving it just ajar. Even as he left +it there was a thunder of footsteps on the stairs, and he was at the +shelves in a moment, catching a glimpse through the window on his left of +the front court crowded with men and horses. He had opened and shut the +secret door three or four times the evening before, and his hands closed +almost instinctively on the two springs that must be worked +simultaneously. He made the necessary movement, and the shelves with the +wall behind it softly slid open and he sprang in. But as he closed it he +heard one of the two books drop, and an exclamation from the passage he +had just left; then quick steps from the head of the stairs; the steps +clattered past the door and into the chapel opposite and stopped. + +Anthony felt about him in the darkness, found the doublet and lifted it +off the nail; slipped off his own, tearing his ruff as he did so; and +then quickly put on the other. He had no shoes; but that would not be so +noticeable. He had not seriously thought of the possibility of escaping +through the portrait-door, as he felt sure the house would be overrun by +now; but he put his eyes to the pinholes and looked out; and to his +astonishment saw that the gallery was empty. There it lay, with its +Flemish furniture on the right and its row of windows on the left, and +all as tranquil as if there were no fierce tragedy of terror and wrath +raging below. Again decision came to him; by a process of thought so +swift that it was an intuition, he remembered that the fall of the book +outside would concentrate attention on that corner; it could not be long +before the shelves were broken in, and if he did not escape now there +would be no possibility later. Then he unslid the inside bolt, and the +portrait swung open; he closed it behind, and sped on silent shoeless +feet down the polished floor of the gallery. + +Of course the great staircase was hopeless. The hall would be seething +with men. But there was just a chance through the servants' quarters. He +dashed past the head of the stairs, catching a glimpse of heads and +sparkles of steel over the banisters, and through the half-opened door at +the end, finding himself in the men's corridor that was a continuation of +the gallery he had left. On his left rose the head of the back-stairs, +that led first with a double flight to the offices, the pantry, the +buttery and the kitchen, and than, lower still, a single third flight +down to the cellar. + +He looked down the stairs; at the bottom of the first double flight were +a couple of maids, screaming and white-faced, leaning and pressing +against the door, immediately below the one he had just come through +himself. The door was plainly barred as well, for it was now thudding and +cracking with blows that were being showered upon it from the other side. +The maids, it seemed to him, in a panic had locked the door; but that +panic might be his salvation. He dashed down the stairs; the maids +screamed louder than ever when they saw this man, whom they did not +recognise, with blackened face and hands come in noiseless leaps down +towards them; but Anthony put his finger on his lips as he flew past +them; then he dashed open the little door that shut off the +cellar-flight, closed it behind him, and was immediately in the dark. + +Then he groped his way down, feeling the rough brick wall as he went, +till he reached the floor of the cellar. The air was cool and damp here, +and it refreshed him, for he was pouring with sweat. The noise, too, and +confusion which, during his flight, had been reverberating through the +house with a formidable din, now only reached him as a far-away murmur. + +As he counted the four steps up, and then lifted the overhanging edge, +there came upon him irresistibly the contrast between the serene party +here last night, with their tapers and their delicate dresses and Mary's +cool clear-clipped voice--and his own soot-stained person, his desperate +energy and his quick panting and heart-beating. Then the steps dropped +and he slid in; lifted them again as he lay on his back, and heard the +spring catch as they closed. Then he was in silence, too, and comparative +safety. But he dared not rest yet, and edged himself along as he had seen +Mr. Buxton do last night. Which brick was it? "The fourth of the fourth," +he murmured, and counted, and pressed it. Again the door pushed back, and +with a little struggle he was first on his knees, and then on his feet. +Then he swung the door to again behind him. + +Then for the first time he rested; he leaned against the brick-lined side +of the tunnel and passed his blackened hands over his face. Five minutes +ago--yes--certainly not five minutes ago he was lounging in the west +parlour, at the other end of the house, while Mary played the prelude to +an Italian love-song.--What was she doing now? God bless her for her +quick courage!--And Isabel and Buxton--where were they all? How deadly +sick and tired he felt!--Again he passed his hands over his face in the +pitch darkness.--Well, he must push on. + +He turned and began to grope patiently through the blackness--step by +step--feeling the roughness of the bricks beneath with his shoeless feet +before he set them down; once or twice he stepped into a little icy pool, +which had collected through some crack in the vaulting overhead; once, +too, he slipped on a lump of something wet and shapeless; and thought +even then of Mary's suspicions the night before. He pushed on, shivering +now with cold and excitement, through what seemed the interminable +tunnel, until at last his outstretched hands touched wood before him. He +had not seen this end of the passage for nearly two years, and he +wondered if he could remember the method of opening, and gave a gulp of +horror at the thought that he might not. But there had been no reason to +make a secret of the inside of the door, and he presently found a button +and drew it; it creaked rustily, but gave, and the door with another pull +opened inwards, and there was a faint glimmer of light. Then he +remembered that the entrances to the tunnel at either end were exactly on +the same system; and putting out his hands felt the slope of the +underside of the staircase, cutting diagonally across the opening of the +passage. He slid himself on to the boarding sideways, and drew the +brickwork towards him till the spring snapped, and lay there to consider +before he went farther. + +First he ran over in his mind the construction of the garden-house. + +The basement in which he was lying corresponded to the cellar under the +house from which he had come, and ran the whole length of the building, +about forty feet by twenty. It was a large empty chamber, where nothing +of any value was kept. He remembered last time he was here seeing a heap +of tiles in one corner, with a pile of disused poles; pieces of rope, and +old iron in another. The stairs led up through an ordinary trap-door into +what was the ground-floor of the house. This, too, was one immense room, +with four latticed windows looking on to the garden, and one with opaque +glass on to the lane at the back; and a great door, generally kept +locked, for rather more valuable things were kept here, such as the +garden-roller, flower-pots, and the targets for archery. Then a light +staircase led straight up from this room to the next floor, which was +divided into two, both of which, so far as Anthony remembered, were +empty. Mr. Buxton had thought of letting his gardeners sleep there when +he had at first built this immense useless summer-house; but he had +ultimately built a little gardener's cottage adjoining it. The two +fantastic towers that flanked the building held nothing but staircases, +which could be entered by either of the two floors, and which ascended to +tiny rooms with windows on all four sides. + +When Anthony had run over these details as he lay on his back, he pushed +up the stair over his face and let the front of it with the step of the +next swing inwards; the light was stronger now, and poured in, though +still dim, through three half-moon windows, glazed and wired, that just +rose above the level of the ground outside. Then he extricated himself, +closed the steps behind him, and went up the stairs. + +The trap-door at the top was a little stiff, but he soon raised it, and +in a moment more was standing in the ground-floor room of the +garden-house. All round him was much as he remembered it; he first went +to the door and found it securely fastened, as it often was for days +together; he glanced at the windows to assure himself that they were +bottle-glass too, and then went to them to look out. He was fortunate +enough to find the corner of one pane broken away; he put his eye to +this, and there lay a little lawn, with a yew-hedge beyond blotting out +all of the great house opposite except the chimneys,--the house which +even across the whole space of garden hummed like a hive. On the lawn was +a chair, and an orange-bound book lay face down on the grass beside it. +Anthony stared at it; it was the book that he had seen in Isabel's hand +not half an hour ago, as she had gone out into the garden from the hall +to wait until he and Mary joined her with the lute. + +And at that the priest knelt down before the window, covered his face +with his hands, and began to stammer and cry to God: "O God! God! God!" +he said. + + * * * * + +When Mary Corbet had seen Anthony's feet disappear, she already had the +outline of a plan in her mind. To light a fire and pretend to be burning +important papers would serve as an excuse for keeping the door fast; it +would also suggest at least that no one was in the chimney. The ordinary +wood, however, sent up sparks; but she had noticed before a little green +wood in the basket, and knew that this did not do so to the same extent; +so she pulled out the dry wood that Anthony had trodden into the ashes +and substituted the other. Then she had looked round for paper;--the lute +music, that was all. Meantime the door was giving; the noise outside was +terrible; and it was evident that one or two of the servants were +obstructing the passage of the pursuivants. + +When at last the door flew in, there was a fire cracking furiously on the +hearth, and a magnificently dressed lady kneeling before it, crushing +paper into the flames. Half a dozen men now streamed in and more began to +follow, and stood irresolute for a moment, staring at her. From the +resistance they had met with they had been certain that the priest was +here, and this sight perplexed them. A big ruddy man, however, who led +them, sprang across the room, seized Mary Corbet by the shoulders and +whisked her away against the wall, and then dashed the half-burnt paper +out of the grate and began to beat out the flames. + +Mary struggled violently for a moment; but the others were upon her and +held her, and she presently stood quiet. Then she began upon them. + +"You insolent hounds!" she cried, "do you know who I am?" Her cheeks were +scarlet and her eyes blazing; she seemed in a superb fury. + +"Burning treasonable papers," growled the big man from his knees on the +hearth, "that is enough for me." + +"Who are you, sir, that dare to speak to me like that?" + +The man got up; the flames were out now, and he slipped the papers into a +pocket. Mary went on immediately. + +"If I may not burn my own lute music, or keep my door locked, without a +riotous mob of knaves breaking upon me---- Ah! how dare you?" and she +stamped furiously. + +The pursuivant came up close to her, insolently. + +"See here, my lady----" he began. + +The men had fallen back from her a little now that the papers were safe, +and she lifted her ringed hand and struck his ruddy face with all her +might. There was a moment of confusion and laughter as he recoiled. + +"Now will you remember that her Grace's ladies are not to be trifled +with?" + +There was a murmur from the crowded room, and a voice near the door +cried: + +"She says truth, Mr. Nichol. It is Mistress Corbet." + +Nichol had recovered himself, but was furiously angry. + +"Very good, madam, but I have these papers now," he said, "they can still +be read." + +"You blind idiot," hissed Mary, "do you not know lute music when you see +it?" + +"I know that ladies do not burn lute music with locked doors," observed +Nichol bitterly. + +"The more fool you!" screamed Mary, "when you have caught one at it." + +"That will be seen," sneered Mr. Nichol. + +"Not by a damned blind scarlet-faced porpoise!" screamed Mary, apparently +more in a passion than ever, and a burst of laughter came from the men. + +This was too much for Mr. Nichol. This coarse abuse stung him cruelly. + +"God's blood," he bellowed at the room; "take this vixen out and search +the place." And a torrent of oaths drove the crowd about the door out +into the passage again. + +A couple of men took Mary by the fierce ringed hands of hers that still +twitched and clenched, and led her out; she spat insults over her +shoulders as she went. But she had held him in talk as she intended. + +"Now then," roared Nichol again, "search, you dogs!" + +He himself went outside too, and seeing the stairs stamped up them. He +was just in time to see the Tacitus settle down with crumpled pages; +stopped for a moment, bewildered, for it lay in the middle of the +passage; and then rushed at the open door on the left, dashed it open, +and found a little empty room, with a chair or two, and a table--but no +sign of the priest. It was like magic. + +Then out he came once more, and went into Anthony's own room. The great +bed was on his right, the window opposite, the fireplace to the left, and +in the middle lay two sooty shoes. Instinctively he bent and touched +them, and found them warm; then he sprang to the door, still keeping his +face to the room, and shouted for help. + +"He is here, he is here!" he cried. And a thunder of footsteps on the +stairs answered him. + + * * * * + +Meanwhile the men that held Mary followed the others along the passage, +but while the leaders went on and round into the lower corridor, the two +men-at-arms with their prisoner turned aside into the parlour that served +as an ante-chamber to the hall beyond, where they released her. Here, +though it was empty of people, all was in confusion; the table had been +overturned in the struggle that had raged along here between Lackington's +men, who had entered from the front door, and the servants of the house, +who had rushed in from their quarters at the first alarm and intercepted +them. One chair lay on its side, with its splintered carved arm beside +it. As Mary stood a moment looking about her, the door from the hall that +had been closed, again opened, and Isabel came through; and a man's voice +said: + +"You must wait here, madam"; then the door closed behind her. + +"Isabel," said Mary. + +The two looked at one another a moment, but before either spoke again the +door again half-opened, and a voice began to speak, as if its owner still +held the handle. + +"Very well, Lackington, keep him in his room. I will go through here to +Nichol." + +Isabel had drawn a sharp breath as the voice began, and as the door +opened wider she turned and faced it. Then Hubert came in, and recoiled +on the threshold. There fell a complete silence in the room. + +"Hubert," said Isabel after a moment, "what are you doing here?" + +Hubert shut the door abruptly and leaned against it, staring at her; his +face had gone white under the tan. Isabel still looked at him steadily, +and her eyes were eloquent. Then she spoke again, and something in her +voice quickened the beating of Mary's heart as she listened. + +"Hubert, have you forgotten us?" + +Still Hubert stared; then he stood upright. The two men-at-arms were +watching in astonishment. + +"I will see to the ladies," he said abruptly, and waved his hand. They +still hesitated a moment. + +"Go," he said again sharply, and pointed to the door. He was a +magistrate, and responsible; and they turned and went. + +Then Hubert looked at Isabel again. + +"Isabel," he said, "if I had known----" + +"Stay," she interrupted, "there is no time for explanations except mine. +Anthony is in the house; I do not know where. You must save him." + +There was no entreaty or anxiety in her voice; nothing but a supreme +dignity and an assurance that she would be obeyed. + +"But----" he began. The door was opened from the hall, and a little party +of searchers appeared, but halted when the magistrate turned round. + +"Come with me," he said to the two women, "you must have a room kept for +you upstairs," and he held back the door for them to pass. + +Isabel put out her hand to Mary, and the two went out together into the +hall past the men, who stood back to let them through, and Hubert +followed. They turned to the left to the stairs, looking as they went +upon the wild confusion. Above them rose the carved ceiling, and in the +centre of the floor, untouched, by a strange chance, stood the +dinner-table, still laid with silver and fruit and flowers. But all else +was in disarray. The leather screen that had stood by the door into the +entrance hall had been overthrown, and had carried with it a tall +flowering plant that now lay trampled and broken before the hearth. A +couple of chairs lay on their backs between the windows; the rug under +the window was huddled in a heap, and all over the polished boards were +scratches and dents; a broken sword-hilt lay on the floor with a +feathered cap beside it. There were half a dozen men guarding the four +doors; but the rest were gone; and from overhead came tramplings and +shouts as the hunt swept to and fro in the upper floors. + +At the top of the stairs was Mary's room; the two ladies, who had gone +silently upstairs with Hubert behind them, stopped at the door of it. + +"Here, if you please," said Mary. + +Before Hubert could answer, Lackington came down the passage, hurrying +with a drawn sword, and his hat on his head. Isabel did not recognise him +as he stopped and tapped Hubert on the arm familiarly. + +"The prisoners must not be together," he said. + +Hubert drew back his arm and looked the man in the face. + +"They are not prisoners; and they shall be together. Take off your hat, +sir." + +Then, as Lackington drew back astonished, he opened the door. + +"You shall not be disturbed here," he said, and the two went in, and the +door closed behind them. There was a murmur of voices outside the door, +and they heard a name called once or twice, and the sound of footsteps. +Then came a tap, and Hubert stepped in quietly and closed the door. + +"I have placed my own man outside," he said, "and none shall trouble +you--and--Mistress Isabel--I will do my best." Then he bowed and went +out. + + * * * * + +The long miserable afternoon began. They watched through the windows the +sentries going up and down the broad paths between the glowing +flower-beds; and out, over the high iron fence that separated the garden +from the meadows, the crowd of villagers and children watching. + +But the real terror for them both lay in the sounds that came from the +interior of the house. There was a continual tramp of the sentries placed +in every corridor and lobby, and of the messengers that went to and fro. +Then from room after room came the sounds of blows, the rending of +woodwork, and once or twice the crash of glass, as the searchers went +about their work; and at every shout the women shuddered or drew their +breath sharply, for any one of the noises might be the sign of Anthony's +arrest. + +The two had soon talked out every theory in low voices, but they both +agreed that he was still in the house somewhere, and on the upper floor. +It was impossible, they thought, for him to have made his way down. There +were four possibilities, therefore: either he might still be in the +chimney--in that case it was no use hoping; or he was in the chapel-hole; +or in that behind the portrait; or in one last one, in the room next to +their own. The searchers had been there early in the afternoon, but +perhaps had not found it; its entrance was behind the window shutter, and +was contrived in the thickness of the wall. So they talked, these two, +and conjectured and prayed, as the evening drew on; and the sun began to +sink behind the church, and the garden to lie in cool shadow. + +About eight there was a tap at the door, and Hubert came in with a tray +of food in his hands, which he set down. + +"All is in confusion," he said, "but this is the best I can do."--He +broke off. + +"Mistress Isabel," he said, coming nearer to the two as they sat together +in the window-seat, "I can do little; they have found three hiding-holes; +but so far he has escaped. I do what I can to draw them off, but they are +too clever and zealous. If you can tell me more, perhaps I can do more." + +The two were looking at him with startled eyes. + +"Three?" Mary said. + +"Yes, three--and indeed----" He stopped as Isabel got up and came towards +him. + +"Hubert," she said resolutely, "I must tell you. He must be still in the +chimney of the little west parlour. Do what you can." + +"The west parlour!" he said. "That was where Mistress Corbet was burning +the papers?" + +"Yes," said Mary. + +"He is not there," said Hubert; "we have sent a boy up and down it +already." + +"Ah! dear God!" said Mary from the window-seat, "then he has escaped." + +Isabel looked from one to the other and shook her head. + +"It cannot be," she said. "The guards were all round the house before the +alarm rang." + +Hubert nodded, and Mary's face fell. + +"Then is there no way out?" he asked. + +Mary sprang up with shining eyes. + +"He has done it," she said, and threw her arms round Isabel and kissed +her. + +"Well," said Hubert, "what can I do?" + +"You must leave us," said Isabel; "come back later." + +"Then when we have searched the garden-house--why, what is it?" + +A look of such anguish had come into their faces that he stopped amazed. + +"The garden-house!" cried Mary; "no, no, no!" + +"No, no, Hubert, Hubert!" cried Isabel, "you must not go there." + +"Why," he said, "it was I that proposed it; to draw them from the house." + +There came from beneath the windows a sudden tramp of footsteps, and then +Nichol's voice, distinctly heard through the open panes. + +"We cannot wait for him. Come, men." + +"They are going without me," said Hubert; and turned and ran through the +door. + + + + + CHAPTER XI + + THE GARDEN-HOUSE + + +During that long afternoon the master of the house had sat in his own +room, before his table, hearing the ceaseless footsteps and the voices +overhead, and the ring of feet on the tiles outside his window, knowing +that his friend and priest was somewhere in the house, crouching in some +dark little space, listening to the same footsteps and voices as they +came and went by his hiding-place, and that he himself was absolutely +powerless to help. + +He had been overpowered in the first rush as he pealed on the alarm-bell, +to which he had rushed when the groom burst in from the stable-yard +crying that the outer court was full of men. Lackington had then sent him +under guard to his own room, where he had been locked in with an armed +constable to prevent any possibility of escape. In the struggle he had +received a blow on the head which had completely dazed him; all his +resource left him; and he had no desire even to move from his chair. + +Now he sat, with his head on his breast, and his mind going the ceaseless +round of all the possible places where Anthony might be. Little scenes, +too, of startling vividness moved before him, as he sat there with +half-closed eyes--scenes of the imagined arrest--the scuffle as the +portrait was torn away and Anthony burst out in one last desperate +attempt to escape. He saw him under every kind of circumstance--dashing +up stairs and being met at the top by a man with a pike--running and +crouching through the withdrawing-room itself next door--gliding with +burning eyes past the yew-hedges in a rush for the iron gates, only to +find them barred--on horseback with his hands bound and a despairing +uplifted face with pike-heads about him.--So his friend dreamed miserably +on, open-eyed, but between waking and the sleep of exhaustion, until the +crowning vision flashed momentarily before his eyes of the scaffold and +the cauldron with the fire burning and the low gallows over the heads of +the crowd, and the butcher's block and knife; and then he moaned and sat +up and stared about him, and the young pursuivant looked at him +half-apprehensively. + +Towards evening the house grew quieter; once, about six o'clock, there +were voices outside, the door from the hall was unlocked, and a +heavily-built, ruddy man came in with two pikemen, locking the door +behind him. They paid no attention to the prisoner, and he watched them +mechanically as they went round the room, running their eyes up and down +the panelling, and tapping here and there. + +"The room has been searched, sir, already," said the young constable to +the ruddy-faced man, who glanced at him and nodded, and then continued +the scrutiny. They reached the fireplace and the officer reached up and +tapped the wood over the mantelpiece half-a-dozen times. + +"Here," he called, pointing to a spot. + +A pikeman came up, placed the end of his pike into the oak, and leaned +suddenly and heavily upon it: the steel crashed in an inch, and stopped +as it met the stonework behind. The officer made a motion, the pike was +withdrawn, and he stood on tip-toe and put his finger into the splintered +panel. Then he was satisfied and they passed on, still tapping the walls, +and went out of the other door, locking it again behind them. + +An hour later there were voices and steps again, and a door was unlocked +and opened, and Mr. Graves, the Tonbridge magistrate stepped in alone. He +was a pale scholarly-looking man with large eyes, and a weak mouth only +partly covered by his beard. + +"You can go," he said nervously to the constable, "but remain outside." +The young man saluted him and passed out. + +The magistrate looked quickly and sideways at Mr. Buxton as he sat and +looked at him. + +"I am come to tell you," he said, "that we cannot find the priest." He +hesitated and stopped. "We have found several hiding-holes," he went on, +"and they are all empty. I--I hope there is no mistake." + +A little thrill ran through the man who sat in the chair; the lethargy +began to clear from his brain, like a morning mist when a breeze rises; +he sat a little more upright and gripped the arms of his chair; he said +nothing yet, but he felt power and resource flowing back to his brain, +and the pulse in his temples quieted. Why, if the lad had not been taken +yet, he must surely be out of the house. + +"I trust there is no mistake," said the magistrate again nervously. + +"You may well trust so," said the other; "it will be a grievous thing for +you, sir, otherwise." + +"Indeed, Mr. Buxton, I think you know I am no bigot. I was sent for by +Mr. Lackington last night. I could not refuse. It was not my wish----" + +"Yet you have issued your warrant, and are here in person to execute it. +May I inquire how many of my cupboards you have broken into? And I hope +your men are satisfied with my plate." + +"Indeed, sir," said the magistrate, "there has been nothing of that kind. +And as for the cupboards, there were but three----" + +Three!--then the lad is out of the house, thought the other. But where? + +"And I trust you have not spared to break down my servants' rooms, and +the stables as well as pierce all my panelling." + +"There was no need to search the stables, Mr. Buxton; our men were round +the house before we entered. They have been watching the entrances since +eight o'clock last night." + +Mr. Buxton felt bewildered. His instinct had been right, then, the night +before. + +"The party was followed from near Wrotham," went on the magistrate. "The +priest was with them then; and, we suppose, entered the house." + +"You suppose!" snapped the other. "What the devil do you mean by +supposing? You have looked everywhere and cannot find him?" + +The magistrate shrugged his shoulders deprecatingly, as he stood and +stared at the angry man. + +"And the roofs?" added Mr. Buxton sneeringly. + +"They have been thoroughly searched." + +Then there is but one possible theory, he reflected. The lad is in the +garden-house. And what if they search that? + +"Then may I ask what you propose to destroy next, Mr. Graves?" + +He saw that this tone was having its effect on the magistrate, who was +but a half-hearted persecutor, with but feeble convictions and will, as +he knew of old. + +"I--I entreat you not to speak to me like that, sir," he said. "I have +but done my duty." + +Then the other rose from his chair, and his eyes were stern and bright +again and his lips tight. + +"Your duty, sir, seems a strange matter, when it leads you to break into +a friend's house, assault him and his servants and his guests, and +destroy his furniture, in search of a supposed priest whom you have never +even seen. Now, sir, if this matter comes to her Grace's ears, I will not +answer for the consequences; for you know Mistress Corbet, her +lady-in-waiting, is one of my guests.--And, speaking of that, where are +my guests?" + +"The two ladies, Mr. Buxton, are safe and sound upstairs, I assure you." + +The magistrate's voice was trembling. + +"Well, sir, I have one condition to offer you. Either you and your men +withdraw within half an hour from my house and grounds, and leave me and +my two guests to ourselves, or else I lay the whole matter, through +Mistress Corbet, before her Grace." Mr. Buxton beat his hand once on the +table as he ended, and looked with a contemptuous inquiry at the +magistrate. + +But the worm writhed up at the heel. + +"How can you talk like this, sir," he burst out, "as if you had but two +guests?" + +"Two guests? I do not understand you. How should there be more?" + +"Then for whom are the four places laid at table?" he answered +indignantly. + +Mr. Buxton felt a sudden desperate sinking, and he could not answer for a +moment. The magistrate passed his shaking hand over his mouth and beard +once or twice; but the thrust had gone home, and there was no parry or +riposte. He followed it up. + +"Now, sir, be reasonable. I came in here to make terms. We _know_ the +priest has been here. It is certain beyond all question. All that is +uncertain is whether he is here now or escaped. We have searched +thoroughly; we must search again to-morrow; but in the meanwhile, while +you yourself must be under restraint, your guests shall have what liberty +they wish; and you yourself shall have all reasonable comfort and ease. +So--so, if we do not find the priest, I trust that you and--and--Mistress +Corbet will agree to overlook any rashness on my part--and--and let her +Grace remain in ignorance." + +Mr. Buxton had been thinking furiously during this little speech. He saw +the mistake he had made in taking the high line, and his wretched +forgetfulness of the fourth place at table. He must make terms, though it +tasted bitter. + +"Well, Mr. Graves," he said, "I have no wish to be hard upon you. All I +ask is to be out of the house when the search is made, and that the +ladies shall come and go as they please." + +The magistrate leapt at the lure like a trout. + +"Yes, yes, Mr. Buxton, it shall be as you say. And to what house will you +retire?" + +Mr. Buxton appeared to reflect; he tapped on the table with a meditative +finger and looked at the ceiling. + +"It must not be too far away," he said slowly, "and--and the Rector would +scarce like to receive me. Perhaps in--or----Why not my summer-house?" he +added suddenly. + +Mr. Graves' face was irradiated with smiles. + +"Thank you, Mr. Buxton, certainly, it shall be as you say. And where is +the summer-house?" + +"It is across the garden," said the other carelessly. "I wonder you have +not searched it in your zeal." + +"Shall I send a man to prepare it?" asked the magistrate eagerly. "Will +you go there to-night?" + +"Well, shall we go across there together now? I give you my parole," he +added, smiling, and standing up. + +"Indeed,--as you wish. I cannot tell you, sir, how grateful I am. You +have made my duty almost a pleasure, sir." + +They went out together into the hall, Mr. Buxton carrying the key of the +garden-house that he had taken from the drawer of his table; he glanced +ruefully at the wrecked furniture and floor, and his eyes twinkled for a +moment as they rested on the four places at table still undisturbed, and +then met the magistrate's sidelong look. The men were still at the doors, +resting now on chairs or leaning against the wall, with their weapons +beside them; it was weary work this mounting sentry and losing the hunt, +and their faces showed it. The two passed out together into the garden, +and began to walk up the path that led straight across the avenue to +where the high vanes of the garden-house stood up grotesque and towering +against the evening sky, above the black yew-hedges. + +All the while they went Mr. Buxton was thinking out his plan. It was +still incoherent; but, at any rate, it was a step gained to be able to +communicate with Anthony again; and at least the poor lad should have +some supper. And then he smiled to himself with relief as he saw what an +improvement there had been in the situation as it had appeared to him an +hour ago. Why, they would search the house again next day; find no one, +and retire apologising. His occupancy of the garden-house with the +magistrate's full consent would surely secure it from search; and he was +not so well satisfied with the disguised entrance to the passage at this +end as with that in the cellar. + +They reached the door at last. There were three steps going up to it, and +Mr. Buxton went up them, making a good deal of noise as he did so, to +ensure Anthony's hearing him should he be above ground. Then, as if with +great difficulty, he unlocked the door, rattling it, and clicking sharply +with his tongue at its stiffness. + +"You see, Mr. Graves." he said, rather loud, as he opened the door a +little, "my prison will not be a narrow one." He threw the door open, +gave a glance round, and was satisfied. The targets leaned against one +wall, and two rows of flower-pots stood in the corner near where the +window opened into the lane, but there was no sign of occupation. Mr. +Buxton went across, threw the window open and looked out. There was a +steel cap three or four feet below, and a pike-head; and at the sound of +the latch a bearded face looked up. + +"I see you have a sentry there," said Mr. Buxton carelessly. + +"Ah! that is one of Mr. Maxwell's men." + +"Mr. Maxwell's!" said the other, startled. "Is he in this affair too?" + +"Yes; have you not heard? He came from Great Keynes this morning. Mr. +Lackington sent for him." + +Mr. Buxton's face grew dark. + +"Ah yes, I see--a pretty revenge." + +The magistrate was on the point of asking an explanation, for he felt on +the best of terms again now with his prisoner, when there were footsteps +outside and voices; and there stood four constables, with Nichol, Hubert +Maxwell and Lackington in furious debate coming up the path behind. + +They looked up suddenly, and saw the door open and the magistrate and his +prisoner standing in the opening. The four constables stood waiting for +further orders while their three chiefs came up. + +"Now, now, now!" said Mr. Graves peevishly, "what is all this?" + +"We have come to search this house, sir," said Nichol cheerfully. + +"See here, sir," said Hubert, "have you given orders for this?" + +"Enough, enough," said Lackington coolly. "Search, men." + +The pursuivants advanced to the steps. Then Mr. Buxton turned fiercely on +them all. + +"See here!" he cried, and his voice rang out across the garden. "You +bring me here, Mr. Graves, promising me a little peace and quietness, +after your violent and unwarranted attack upon my house to-day. I have +been patient and submissive to all suggestions; I leave my entire house +at your disposal; I promise to lay no complaints before her Grace, so +long as you will let me retire here till it is over--and now your men +persecute me even here. Have you no mind of your own, sir?" he shouted. + +"Really, sir----" began Hubert. + +"And as for you, Mr. Maxwell," went on the other fiercely, "are you not +content with your triumph so far? Cannot you leave me one corner to +myself, or would your revenge be not full enough for you, then?" + +"You mistake me, sir," said Hubert, making a violent effort to control +himself; "I am on your side in this matter." + +"That is what I am beginning to think," said Lackington insolently. + +"You think!" roared Mr. Buxton; "and who the devil are you?" + +"See here, gentlemen," said Mr. Nichol, "what is the dispute? Here is an +empty house, Mr. Buxton tells us; and Mr. Maxwell tells us the same. +Well, then, let these honest fellows run through the empty house; it will +not take ten minutes, and Mr. Buxton and his friend can take the air +meanwhile. A-God's name, let us not dispute over a trifle." + +"Then, a-God's name, let me go to my own house," bellowed Mr. Buxton, +"and these gentlemen can have the empty house to disport themselves in +till doomsday--or till her Grace looks into the matter"; and he made a +motion to run down the steps, but his heart sank. Mr. Graves put out a +deprecating hand and touched his arm; and Mr. Buxton very readily turned +at once with a choleric face! + +"No, no, no!" cried the magistrate. "These gentlemen are here on my +warrant, and they shall not search the place. Mr. Buxton, I entreat you +not to be hasty. Come back, sir." + +Mr. Buxton briskly reascended. + +"Well, then, Mr. Graves, I entreat you to give your orders, and let your +will be known. I am getting hungry for my supper, too, sir. It is already +an hour past my time." + +"Sup in the house, sir," said Mr. Nichol smoothly, "and we shall have +done by then." + +Then Hubert blazed up; he took a step forward. + +"Now, you fellow," he said to Nichol, "hold your damned tongue. Mr. +Graves and I are the magistrates here, and we say that this gentleman +shall sup and sleep here in peace, so you may take your pursuivants +elsewhere." + +Lackington looked up with a smile. + +"No, Mr. Maxwell, I cannot do that. These men are under my orders, and I +shall leave two of them here and send another to keep your fellow company +at the back, We will not disturb Mr. Buxton further to-night; but +to-morrow we shall see." + +Mr. Buxton paid no sort of further attention to him, but turned to the +magistrates. + +"Well, gentlemen, what is your decision?" + +"You shall sleep here in peace, sir," said Mr. Graves resolutely. "I can +promise nothing for to-morrow." + +"Then will you kindly allow one of my men to bring me supper and a couch +of some kind, and I shall be obliged if the ladies may sup with me." + +"That they shall," assented Mr. Graves. "Mr. Maxwell, will you escort +them here?" + +Hubert, who was turning away, nodded and disappeared round the yew-hedge. +Lackington, who had been talking in an undertone to the pursuivants, now +went up another alley with one of them and Mr. Nichol, and disappeared +too in the gathering gloom of the garden. The other two pursuivants +separated and each moved a few steps off and remained just out of sight. +Plainly they were to remain on guard. Mr. Buxton and the magistrate sat +down on a couple of garden-chairs. + +"That is an obstinate fellow, sir," said Mr. Graves. + +"They are certainly both of them very offensive fellows, sir. I was +astonished at your indulgence towards them." + +The magistrate was charmed by this view of the case, and remained talking +with Mr. Buxton until footsteps again were heard, and the two ladies +appeared, with Hubert with them, and a couple of men carrying each a tray +and the other necessaries he had asked for. + +Mr. Buxton and the magistrate rose to meet the ladies and bowed. + +"I cannot tell you," began their host elaborately, "what distress all +this affair has given me. I trust you will forgive any inconvenience you +may have suffered." + +Both Isabel and Mary looked white and strained, but they responded +gallantly; and as the table was being prepared the four talked almost as +if there were no bitter suspense at three of their hearts at least. Mr. +Graves was nervous and uneasy, but did his utmost to propitiate Mary. At +last he was on the point of withdrawing, when Mr. Buxton entreated him to +sup with them. + +"I must not," he said; "I am responsible for your property, Mr. Buxton." + +"Then I understand that these ladies may come and go as they please?" he +asked carelessly. + +"Certainly, sir." + +"Then may I ask too the favour that you will place one of your own men at +the door who can conduct them to the house when they wish to go, and who +can remain and protect me too from any disturbance from either of the two +officious persons who were here just now?" + +Mr. Graves, delighted at this restored confidence, promised to do so, and +took an elaborate leave; and the three sat down to supper; the door was +left open, and they could see through it the garden, over which veil +after veil of darkness was beginning to fall. The servants had lighted +two tapers, and the inside of the great room with its queer furniture of +targets and flower-pots was plainly visible to any walking outside. Once +or twice the figure of a man crossed the strip of light that lay across +the gravel. + +It was a strange supper. They said innocent things to one another in a +tone loud enough for any to hear who cared to be listening, about the +annoyance of it all, the useless damage that had been done, the warmth of +the summer night, and the like, and spoke in low soundless sentences of +what was in all their hearts. + +"That red-faced fellow," said Mary, "would be the better of some manners. +(He is in the passage below, I suppose.)" + +"It is scarce an ennobling life--that of a manhunter," said Mr. Buxton. +("Yes. I am sure of it.") + +"They have broken your little cupboard, I fear." said Mary again. ("Tell +me your plan, if you have one.") + +And so step by step a plan was built up. It had been maturing in Mr. +Buxton's mind gradually after he had learnt the ladies might sup with +him; and little by little he conveyed it to them. He managed to write +down the outline of it as he sat at table, and then passed it to each to +read, and commented on it and answered their questions about it, all in +the same noiseless undertone, with his lips indeed scarcely moving. There +were many additions and alterations made in it as the two ladies worked +upon it too, but by the time supper was over it was tolerably complete. +It seemed, indeed, almost desperate, but the case was desperate. It was +certain that the garden-house would be searched next day; Lackington's +suspicions were plainly roused, and it was too much to hope that +searchers who had found three hiding-places in one afternoon would fail +to find a fourth. It appeared then that it was this plan or none. + +They supped slowly, in order to give time to think out and work out the +scheme, and to foresee any difficulties beyond those they had already +counted on; and it was fully half-past nine before the two ladies rose. +Their host went with them to the door, called up Mr. Graves' man, and +watched them pass down the path out of sight. He stood a minute or two +longer looking across towards the house at the dusky shapes in the garden +and the strip of gravel, grass, and yew that was illuminated from his +open door. Then he spoke to the men that he knew were just out of sight. + +"I am going to bed presently. Kindly do not disturb me." There was no +answer; and he closed the two high doors and bolted them securely. + +He dared not yet do what he wished, for fear of arousing suspicion, so he +went to the other window and looked out into the lane. He could just make +out the glimmer of steel on the opposite bank. + +"Good-night, my man," he called out cheerfully. + +Again there was no answer. There was something sinister in these watching +presences that would not speak, and his heart sank a little as he put-to +the window without closing it. He went next to the pile of rugs and +pillows that his men had brought across, and arranged them in the corner, +just clear of the trap-door. Then he knelt and said his evening prayers, +and here at least was no acting. Then he rose again and took off his +doublet and ruff and shoes so that he was dressed only in a shirt, trunks +and hose. Then he went across to the supper-table, where the tapers still +burned, and blew them out, leaving the room in complete darkness. Then he +went back to his bed, and sat and listened. + +Up to this point he had been aware that probably at least one pair of +eyes had been watching him; for, although the windows were of bottle-end +glass, yet it was exceedingly likely that there would be some clear glass +in them; and, with the tapers burning inside, his movements would all +have been visible to either of Lackington's men who cared to put his eye +to the window. But now he was invisible. Yet, as he thought of it, he +slipped on his doublet again to hide the possible glimmer of his white +shirt. There was the silence of the summer night about him--the silence +only emphasised by its faint sounds. The house was quiet across the +garden, though once or twice he thought he heard a horse stamp. Once +there came a little stifled cough from outside his window; there was the +silky rustle of the faint breeze in the trees outside; and now and again +came the snoring of a young owl in the ivy somewhere overhead. + +He counted five hundred deliberately, to compel himself to wait; and +meanwhile his sub-conscious self laboured at the scheme. Then he glanced +this way and that with wide eyes; his ears sang with intentness of +listening. Then, very softly he shifted his position, and found with his +fingers the ring that lifted the trap-door above the stairs. + +There was no concealment about this, and without any difficulty he lifted +the door with his right hand and leaned it against the wall; then he +looked round again and listened. From below came up the damp earthy +breath of the basement, and he heard a rat scamper suddenly to shelter. +Then he lifted his feet from the rugs and dropped them noiselessly on the +stairs, and supporting himself by his hands on the floor went down a step +or two. Then a stair creaked under his weight; and he stopped in an +agony, hearing only the mad throbbing in his own ears. But all was silent +outside. And so step by step he descended into the cool darkness. He +hesitated as to whether he should close the trap-door or not, there was a +risk either way; but he decided to do so, as he would be obliged to make +some noise in opening the secret doors and communicating with Anthony. At +last his feet touched the earth floor, and he turned as he sat and +counted the steps--the fourth, the fifth, and tapped upon it. There was +no answer; he put his lips to it and whispered sharply: + +"Anthony, Anthony, dear lad." + +Still there was no answer. Then he lifted the lid, and managed to hold +the woodwork below, as he knelt on the third step, so that it descended +noiselessly. He put out his other hand and felt the boards. Anthony had +retired into the passage then, he told himself, as he found the space +empty. He climbed into the hole, pushed himself along and counted the +bricks--the fourth of the fourth--pressed it, and pushed at the door; and +it was fast. + +For the first time a horrible spasm of terror seized him. Had he +forgotten? or was it all a mistake, and Anthony not there? He turned in +his place, put his shoulders against the door and his feet against the +woodwork of the stairs, and pushed steadily; there were one or two loud +creaks, and the door began to yield. Then he knew Anthony was there; a +rush of relief came into his heart--and he turned and whispered again. + +"Anthony, dear lad, Anthony, open quickly; it is I." + +The brickwork slid back and a hand touched his face out of the pitch +darkness of the tunnel. + +"Who is it? Is it you?" came a whisper. + +"It is I, yes. Thank God you are here. I feared----" + +"How could I tell?" came the whisper again. "But what is the news? Are +you escaped?" + +"No, I am a prisoner, and on parole. But there is no time for that. You +must escape--we have a plan--but there is not much time." + +"Why should I not remain here?" + +"They will search to-morrow--and--and this end of the tunnel is not so +well concealed as the other. They would find you. They suspect you are +here, and there are guards round this place." + +There was a movement in the dark. + +"Then why think----" began the whisper. + +"No, no, we have a plan. Mary and Isabel approve. Listen carefully. There +is but one guard at the back here, in the lane. Mary has leave to come +and go now as she pleases--they are afraid of her; she will leave the +house in a few minutes now to ride to East Maskells, with two grooms and +a maid behind one of them. She will ride her own horse. When she has +passed the inn she will bid the groom who has the maid to wait for her, +while she rides down the lane with the other, Robert, to speak to me +through the window. The pursuivant, we suppose, will not forbid that, as +he knows they have supped with me just now. As we talk, Robert will watch +his chance and spring on the pursuivant. As soon as the struggle begins +you will drop from the window; it is but eight feet; and help him to +secure the man and gag him. However much din they make the others cannot +reach the man in time to help, for they will have to come round from the +house, and you will have mounted Robert's horse; and you and Mary +together will gallop down the lane into the road, and then where you +will. We advise East Maskells. I do not suppose there will be any +pursuit. They will have no horses ready. Do you understand it?" + +There was silence a moment; Mr. Buxton could hear Anthony breathing in +the darkness. + +"I do not like it," came the whisper at last; "it seems desperate. A +hundred things may happen. And what of Isabel and you?" + +"Dear friend; I know it is desperate, but not so desperate as your +remaining here would be for us all." + +Again there was silence. + +"What of Robert? How will he escape?" + +"If you escape they will have nothing against Robert; for they can prove +nothing as to your priesthood. But if they catch you here--and they +certainly will, if you remain here--they will probably hang him, for he +fought for you gallantly in the house. And he too will have time to run. +He can run through the door into the meadows. But they will not care for +him if they know you are off." + +Again silence. + +"Well?" whispered Mr. Buxton. + +"Do you wish it?" + +"I think it is the only hope." + +"Then I will do it." + +"Thank God! And now you must come up with me. Put off your shoes." + +"I have none." + +"Then follow, and do not make a sound." + + * * * * + +Very cautiously Mr. Buxton extricated himself; for he had been lying on +his side while he whispered to Anthony; and presently was crouched on the +stairs above, as he heard the stirrings of his friend in the dark below +him. There came the click of the brickwork door; then slow shufflings; +once a thump on the hollow boards that made his heart leap; then after +what seemed an interminable while, came the sound of latching the fifth +stair into its place; and he felt his foot grasped. Then he turned and +ascended slowly on hands and knees, feeling now and again for the +trap-door over him--touched it--raised it, and crawled out on to the +rugs. The room seemed to him comparatively light after the heavy darkness +of the basement, and passage below, and he could make out the +supper-table and the outline of the targets on the opposite wall. Then he +saw a head follow him; then shoulders and body; and Anthony crept out and +sat on the rugs beside him. Their hands met in a trembling grip. + +"Supper, dear lad?" whispered Mr. Buxton, with his mouth to the other's +ear. + +"Yes, I am hungry," came the faintest whisper back. + +Mr. Buxton rose and went on tip-toe to the table, took off some food and +a glass of wine that he had left purposely filled and came back with +them. + +There the two friends sat; Mr. Buxton could just hear the movement of +Anthony's mouth as he ate. The four windows glimmered palely before them, +and once or twice the tall doors rattled faintly as the breeze stirred +them. + +Then suddenly came a sound that made Anthony's hand pause on the way to +his mouth; Mr. Buxton drew a sharp breath; it was the noise of three or +four horses on the road beyond the church. Then they both stood up +without a word, and Mr. Buxton went noiselessly across to the window that +looked on to the lane and remained there, listening. The horses were now +passing down the street, and the noise of their hoofs grew fainter behind +the houses. + +Anthony saw his friend in the twilight beckon, and he went across and +stood by him. Suddenly the hoofs sounded loud and near; and they heard +the pursuivant below stand up from the bank opposite. Then Mary's voice +came distinct and cheerful. + +"How dark it is!" + +The horses were coming down the lane. + + + + + CHAPTER XII + + THE NIGHT-RIDE + + +The sound of hoofs came nearer; Anthony's heart, as he crouched below the +window, ready to spring up and over when the signal was given, beat in +sick thumpings at the base of his throat, but with a fierce excitement +and no fear. His hands clenched and unclenched. Mr. Buxton stood back a +little, waiting; he must feign to be asleep at first. + +Then came suddenly a sharp challenge from the sentry. + +"It is Mistress Corbet," came Mary's cool high tones, "and I desire to +speak with Mr. Buxton." + +The man hesitated. + +"You cannot," he said. + +"Cannot!" she cried; "why, fellow, do you know who I am? And I have just +supped with him." + +There came a sudden sound from the other side of the summer-house, and +both men in the room knew that the guards in the garden were listening. + +"I am sorry, madam, but I have no orders." + +"Then do not presume, you hound," came Mary's voice again, with a ring of +anger. "Ho, there, Mr. Buxton, come to the window." + +"Be ready," he whispered to Anthony. + +"Stand back, madam," said the pursuivant, "or I shall call for help." + +Then Mr. Buxton threw back the window. + +"Who is there?" he asked coolly. ("Stand up Anthony.") + +"It is I, Mr. Buxton, but this insolent dog----" + +"Stand _back_, madam, I say," cried the voice of the guard. Then from the +garden behind came running footsteps and voices; and a red light shone +through the windows behind. + +"Now," whispered the voice over Anthony's head sharply. + +There came a loud shout from the guard, "Help there, help!" + +Anthony put his hands on to the sill and lifted himself easily. The groom +had slipped from his horse while Mary held the bridle, and was advancing +at the guard, and there was something in his hand. The sentry, who was +standing immediately under the window, now dropped his pike point +forward; and as a furious rattling began at the doors on the garden side, +Anthony dropped, and came down astride of the man's neck, who crashed to +the ground. Then the groom was on him too. + +"Leave him to me, sir. Mount." + +The groom's hands were busy with something about the struggling man's +neck: the shouts choked and ceased. + +"You will strangle the man," said Anthony sharply. + +"Nonsense," said Mary; "mount, mount. They are coming." + +Anthony ran to the horse, that was beginning to scurry and plunge; threw +himself across the saddle and caught the reins. + +"Up?" said Mary. + +"Up"; and he slung his right leg over the flank and sat up, as Mary +released the bridle, and dashed off, scattering gravel. + +From the direction of the church came cries and the quick rattle of a +galloping horse. Anthony dashed his shoeless heels into the horse's sides +and leaned forward, and in a moment more was flying down the lane after +Mary. From in front came a shout of warning, with one or two screams, and +then Anthony turned the corner, checking his horse slightly at the angle, +saw a torch somewhere to his right, a group of scared faces, a groom and +woman clinging to him on a plunging horse, and the white road; and then +found himself with loose reins, and flying stirrups, thundering down the +village street, with Mary on her horse not two lengths in front. The roar +of the hoofs behind, and of the little shouting crowd, with the screaming +woman on the horse, died behind him as the wind began to boom in his +ears. Mary was looking round now, and slightly checking her horse as they +neared the bottom of the long village street. In half a dozen strides +Anthony came up on her right. Then the pool gleamed before them just +beyond the fork of the road. + +"Left!" screamed Mary through the roar of the racing air, and turned her +horse off up the road that led round in a wide sweep of two miles to East +Maskells and the woods beyond, and Anthony followed. He had settled down +in the saddle now, and had brought his maddened horse under control; his +feet were in the stirrups, but there was no lessening of the speed. They +had left the last house now, and on either side the black bushes and +heatherland streamed past, with the sudden gleam of water here and there +under the starlight that showed the ditches and holes with which the +ground on either side of the road was honeycombed. + +Then Mary turned her head again, and the words came detached and sharp. + +"They are after us--could not help--horses saddled." + +Anthony turned his head to release one ear from the roar of the air, and +heard the thundering rattle of hoofs in the distance, but even as he +listened it grew fainter. + +"We are gaining!" he shouted. + +Mary nodded, and her teeth gleamed white in a smile. + +"Ours are fresh," she screamed. + +Then there was silence between them again; they had reached a little hill +and eased their horses up it; a heavy fringe of trees crowned it on their +right, black against the stars, and a gleam of light showed the presence +of a house among them. Farther and farther behind them sounded the hoofs; +then they were swaying and rocking again down the slope that led to the +long flat piece of road that ended in the slope up to East Maskells. It +was softer going now and darker too, as there were trees overhead; +pollared willows streamed past them as they went; and twice there was a +snort and a hollow thunder of hoofs as a young sleeping horse awoke and +raced them a few yards in the meadows at the side. Once Anthony's horse +shied at a white post, and drew in front a yard or two; and he heard for +a moment under the rattle the cool gush of the stream that flowed beneath +the road and the scream of a water-fowl as she burst from the reeds. + +A great exultation began to fill Anthony's heart. What a ride this was, +in the glorious summer night--reckless and intoxicating! What a contrast, +this sweet night air streaming past him, this dear world of living +things, his throbbing horse beneath him, the birds and beasts round him, +and this gallant girl swaying and rejoicing too beside him! What a +contrast was all this to that terrible afternoon, only a few hours +away--of suspense and skulking like a rat in a sewer; in a dark, close +passage underground breathing death and silence round him! An escape with +the fresh air in the face and the glorious galloping music of hoofs is +another matter to an escape contrived by holding the breath and fearing +to move in a mean hiding-hole. And as all this flooded in upon him, +incoherently but overpoweringly, he turned and laughed loud with joy. + +They had nearly come to an end of the flat by now. In front of them rose +the high black mass of trees where safety lay; somewhere to the right, +not a quarter of a mile in front, just off the road, lay East Maskells. +They would draw rein, he reflected, when they reached the outer gates, +and listen; and if all was quiet behind them, Mary at least should ask +for shelter. For himself, perhaps it would be safer to ride on into the +woods for the present. He began to move his head as he rode to see if +there were any light in the house before him; it seemed dark; but perhaps +he could not see the house from here. Gradually his horse slackened a +little, as the rise in the ground began, and he tossed the reins once or +twice. + +Then there was a sharp hiss and blow behind him; his horse snorted and +leapt forward, almost unseating him, and then, still snorting with head +raised and jerking, dashed at the slope. There was a cry and a loud +report; he tugged at the reins, but the horse was beside himself, and he +rode fifty yards before he could stop him. Even as he wrenched him into +submission another horse with head up and flying stirrup and reins +thundered past him and disappeared into the woods beyond the house. + +Then, trembling so that he could hardly hold the reins, he urged his +horse back again at a stumbling trot towards what he knew lay at the foot +of the slope, and to meet the tumult that grew in nearness and intensity +up the road along which he had just galloped. + +There was a dark group on the pale road in front of him, twenty yards +this side of the field-path that led from Stanfield Place; he took his +feet from the stirrups as he got near, and in a moment more threw his +right leg forward over the saddle and slipped to the ground. + +He said no word but pushed away the two men, and knelt by Mary, taking +her head on his knee. The men rose and stood looking down at them. + +"Mary," he said, "can you hear me?" + +He bent close over the white face; her hand rose to her breast, and came +away dark. She was shot through the body. Then she pushed him sharply. + +"Go," she whispered, "go." + +"Mary," he said again, "make your confession--quickly. Stand back, you +men." + +They obeyed him; and he bent his ear towards the mouth he could so dimly +see. There was a sob or two--a long moaning breath--and then the murmur +of words, very faint and broken by gulps for breath. He noticed nothing +of the hoofs that dashed up the road and stopped abruptly, and of the +murmur of voices that grew round him; he only heard the gasping whisper, +the words that rose one by one, with pauses and sighs, into his ear.... + +"Is that all?" he said, and a silence fell on all who stood round, now a +complete circle about the priest and the penitent. The pale face moved +slightly in assent; he could see the lips were open, and the breath was +coming short and agonised. + +"... _In nomine Patris_--his hand rose above her and moved cross-ways in +the air--_et Filii et Spiritus Sancti_. _Amen._" + +Then he bent low again and looked; the bosom was still rising and +falling, the shut eyes lifted once and looked at him. Then the lids fell +again. + +"_Benedictio Dei omnipotentis, Patris et Filii et Spiritus sancti, +descendat super te et maneat semper. Amen._" + +Then there fell a silence. A horse blew out its nostrils somewhere behind +and stamped; then a man's voice cried brutally: + +"Now then, is that popish mummery done yet?" + +There was a murmur and stir in the group. But Anthony had risen. + +"That is all," he said. + + + + + CHAPTER XIII + + IN PRISON + + +Anthony found several friends in the Clink prison in Southwark, whither +he was brought up from Stanfield Place after his arrest. + +Life there was very strange, a combination of suffering and extraordinary +relaxation. He had a tiny cell, nine feet by five, with one little window +high up, and for the first month of his imprisonment wore irons; at the +same time his gaoler was so much open to bribery that he always found his +door open on Sunday morning, and was able to shuffle upstairs and say +mass in the cell of Ralph Emerson, once the companion of Campion, and a +lay-brother of the Society of Jesus. There he met a large number of +Catholics--some of whom he had come across in his travels--and he even +ministered the sacraments to others who managed to come in from the +outside. His chief sorrow was that his friend and host had been taken to +the Counter in Wood Street. + +It was a month before he heard all that had happened on the night of his +arrest, and on the previous days: he had been separated at once from his +friends; and although he had heard his guards talking both in the hall +where he had been kept the rest of the night, and during the long hot +ride to London the next day, yet at first he was so bewildered by Mary's +death that what they said made little impression on him. But after he had +been examined both by magistrates and the Commissioners, and very little +evidence was forthcoming, his irons were struck off and he was allowed +much more liberty than before; and at last, to his great joy, Isabel was +admitted to see him. She herself had come straight up to the Marretts' +house, both of whom still lived on in Wharf Street, though old and +infirm; and day by day she attempted to get access to her brother; until +at last, by dint of bribery, she was successful. + +Then she told him the whole story. + + * * * * + +"When we left the garden-house," she said, "we went straight back, and +Mary found Mr. Graves in the parlour off the hall. Oh, Anthony, how she +ordered him about! And how frightened he was of her! The end was that he +sent a message to the stables for her horses to be got ready, as she +said. I went up with her to help her to make ready, and we kissed one +another up there, for, you know, we dared not make as if we said good-bye +downstairs. Then we came down for her to mount; and then we saw what we +had not known before, that all the stable-yard was filled with the men's +horses saddled and bridled. However, we said nothing, except that Mary +asked a man what--what the devil he was looking at, when he stared up at +her as she stood on the block drawing on her gloves before she mounted. +There were one or two torches burning in cressets, and I saw her so +plainly turn the corner down towards the church. + +"Then I went upstairs again, but I could not go to my room, but stood at +the gallery window outside looking down at the court, for I knew that if +there was any danger it would come from there. + +"Then presently I heard a noise, and a shouting, and a man ran in through +the gates to the stable-yard; and, almost directly it seemed, three or +four rode out, at full gallop across the court and down by the church. +The window was open and I could hear the noise down towards the village. +Then more and more came pouring out, and all turned the corner and +galloped; all but one, whose horse slipped and came down with a crash. +Oh, Anthony! how I prayed! + +"Then I saw Mr. Lackington"--Isabel stopped a moment at the name, and +then went on again--"and he was on horseback too in the court; but he was +shouting to two or three more who were just mounting. 'Across the +field--across the field---cut them off!' I could hear it so plainly; and +I saw the stable-gate was open, and they went through, and I could hear +them galloping on the grass. And then I knew what was happening; and I +went back to my room and shut the door." + +Isabel stopped again; and Anthony took her hand softly in his own and +stroked it. Then she went on. + +"Well, I saw them bring you back, from the gallery window--and ran to the +top of the stairs and saw you go through into the hall where the +magistrates were waiting, and the door was shut; and then I went back to +my place at the window--and then presently they brought in Mary. I +reached the bottom of the stairs just as they set her down. And I told +them to bring her upstairs; and they did, and laid her on the bed where +we had sat together all the afternoon.... And I would let no one in: I +did it all myself; and then I set the tapers round her, and put the +crucifix that was round my neck into her fingers, which I had laid on her +breast ... and there she lay on the great bed ... and her face was like a +child's, fast asleep--smiling: and then I kissed her again, and +whispered, 'Thank you, Mary'; for, though I did not know all, I knew +enough, and that it was for you." + +Anthony had thrown his arms on the table and his face was buried in them. +Isabel put out her hand and stroked his curly head gently as she went on, +and told him in the same quiet voice of how Mary had tried to save him by +lashing his horse, as she caught sight of the man waiting at the entrance +of the field-path, and riding in between him and Anthony. The man had +declared in his panic of fear before the magistrates that he had never +dreamt of doing Mistress Corbet an injury, but that she had ridden across +just as he drew the trigger to shoot the priest's horse and stop him that +way. + +When Isabel had finished Anthony still lay with his head on his arms. + +"Why, Anthony, my darling," she said, "what could be more perfect? How +proud I am of you both!" + +She told him, too, how they had been tracked to Stanfield--Lackington had +let it out in his exultation. + +The sailor at Greenhithe was one of his agents--an apostate, like his +master. He had recognised that the party consisted of Catholics by +Anthony's breaking of the bread. He had been placed there to watch the +ferry; and had sent messages at once to Nichol and Lackington. Then the +party had been followed, but had been lost sight of, thanks to Anthony's +ruse. Nichol had then flung out a cordon along the principal roads that +bounded Stanstead Woods on the south; and Lackington, when he arrived a +few hours later, had kept them there all night. The cordon consisted of +idlers and children picked up at Wrotham; and the tramp who feigned to be +asleep had been one of them. When they had passed, he had given the +signal to his nearest neighbour, and had followed them up. Nichol was +soon at the place, and after them; and had followed to Stanfield with +Lackington behind. Then watchers had been set round the house; the +magistrates communicated with; and as soon as Hubert and Mr. Graves had +arrived the assault had been made. Hubert had not been told who the +priest was; but he had leapt at an opportunity to harass Mr. Buxton: he +had been given to understand that Anthony and Isabel were still in the +north. + +"He did not know; indeed he did not," cried Isabel piteously. + +At another time, when she had gained admittance to him, she gave him +messages from the Marretts, who had kept a great affection for the lad, +who had told them tales of College that Christmas time; and she told him +too of the coming of an old friend to see her there. + +"It was poor Mr. Dent," she said; "he looks so old now. His wife died +three years ago; you know he has a city-living and does chaplain's work +at the Tower sometimes; and he is coming to see you, Anthony, and talk to +you." + +Three or four days later he came. + +Anthony was greatly touched at his kindness in coming. He looked +considerably older than his age; his hair had grown thin and grey about +his temples, and the sharp birdlike outline of his face and features +seemed blurred and indeterminate. His creed too, and his whole manner of +looking at things of faith, seemed to have undergone a similar process. +The two had a long talk. + +"I am not going to argue with you, Mr. Norris," he said, "though I still +think your religion wrong. But I have learnt this at least, that the +greatest of all is charity, and if we love the same God, and His Blessed +Son, and one another, I think that is best of all. I have learnt that +from my wife--my dear wife," he added softly. "I used to hold much with +doctrine at one time, and loved to chop arguments; but our Saviour did +not, and so I will not." + +Anthony was delighted that he took this line, for he knew there are some +minds that apparently cannot be loyal to both charity and truth at the +same time, and Mr. Dent's seemed to be one of them; so the two talked of +old times at Great Keynes, and of the folks there, and at last of Hubert. + +"I saw him in the City last week," said Mr. Dent, "and he is a changed +man. He looks ten years older than this time last year; I scarcely know +what has come to him. I know he has thrown up his magistracy, and the +Lindfield parson tells me that the talk is that Mr. Maxwell is going on +another voyage, and leaving his wife and children behind him again." + +Anthony told him gently of Hubert's share in the events at Stanfield, +adding what real and earnest attempts he had made to repair the injury he +had done as soon as he had learnt that it was his friend that was in +hiding. + +"There was no treachery against me, Mr. Dent, you see," he added. + +Mr. Dent pecked a little in the air with pursed lips and eyes fixed on +the ground; and a vision of the pulpit at Great Keynes moved before +Anthony's eyes. + +"Yes, yes, yes," he said; "I understand--I quite understand." + +Before Mr. Dent took his leave he unburdened himself of what he had +really come to say. + +"Master Anthony," he said, standing up and fingering his hat round and +round, "I said I talked no doctrine now; but I must unsay that; and--you +will not think me impertinent if I ask you something?" + +"My dear Mr. Dent----" began the other, standing and smiling too. + +"Thank you, thank you--I felt sure--then it is this: I do not know much +about the Popish religion, though I used to once, and I may be very +mistaken; but I would like you to satisfy me before I go on one point"; +and he fixed his anxious peering eyes on Anthony's face. "Can you say, +Master Anthony, from a full heart, that you fix all your hope and +confidence for salvation in Christ's merits alone?" + +Anthony smiled frankly in his face. + +"Indeed, in none other," he said, "and from a full heart." + +"Ah well," and the birdlike face began to beam and twitch, "and--and +there is nothing of confidence in yourself and your works--and--and there +is no talk of Holy Mary in the matter?" + +Anthony smiled again. He wished to avoid useless controversy. + +"Briefly," he said, "my belief is that I am a very great sinner, that I +deserve eternal hell; but I humbly place all my trust in the Precious +Blood of my Saviour, and in that alone. Does that satisfy you?" + +Mr. Dent's face was breaking into smiles, and at the end he took the +priest's face in his hands and kissed him gently twice on the cheeks. + +"Then, my dear boy, I fear nothing for you. May that salvation you hope +for be yours." And then without a word he was gone. + +Anthony's conscience reproached him a little that he had said nothing of +the Church to the minister; but Mr. Dent had been so peremptory about +doctrine that it was hard for the younger man to say what he would have +wished. He told him, however, plainly on his next visit that he held +whole-heartedly too that the Catholic Church was the treasury of Grace +that Christ had instituted, and added a little speech about his longing +to see his old friend a Catholic too; but Mr. Dent shook his head. The +corners of his eyes wrinkled a little, and a shade of his old fretfulness +passed over his face. + +"Nay, if you talk like that," he said, "I must be gone. I am no +theologian. You must let me alone." + +He gave him news this time of Mr. Buxton. + +"He is in the Counter, as you know," he said, "and is a very bright and +cheerful person, it seems to me. Mistress Isabel asked me to see him and +give her news of him, for she cannot get admittance. He is in a cell, +little and nasty; but he said to me that a Protestant prison was a +Papist's pleasaunce--in fact he said it twice. And he asked very eagerly +after you and Mistress Isabel. He tried, too, to inveigle me into talk of +Peter his prerogative, but I would not have it. It was Lammas Day when I +saw him, and he spoke much of it." + +Anthony asked whether there was anything said of what punishment Mr. +Buxton would suffer. + +"Well," said Mr. Dent, "the Lieutenant of the Tower told me that her +Grace was so sad at the death of Mistress Corbet that she was determined +that no more blood should be shed than was obliged over this matter; and +that Mr. Buxton, he thought, would be but deprived of his estates and +banished; but I know not how that may be. But we shall soon know." + +These weeks of waiting were full of consolation and refreshment to +Anthony: the nervous stress of the life of the seminary priest in +England, full of apprehension and suspense, crowned, as it had been in +his case, by the fierce excitement of the last days of his liberty--all +this had strained and distracted his soul, and the peace of the prison +life, with the certainty that no efforts of his own could help him now, +quieted and strengthened him for the ordeal he foresaw. At this time, +too, he used to spend two or three hours a day in meditation, and found +the greatest benefit in following the tranquil method of prayer +prescribed by Louis de Blois, with whose writings he had made +acquaintance at Douai. Each morning, too, he said a "dry mass," and +during the whole of his imprisonment at the Clink managed to make his +confession at least once a week, and besides his communion at mass on +Sundays, communicated occasionally from the Reserved Sacrament, which he +was able to keep in a neighbouring cell, unknown to his gaoler. + +And so the days went by, as orderly as in a Religious House; he rose at a +fixed hour, observed the greatest exactness in his devotions, and did his +utmost to prevent any visitors being admitted to see him, or any from +another cell coming into his own, until he had finished his first +meditation and said his office. And there began to fall upon him a kind +of mellow peace that rose at times of communion and prayer to a point so +ravishing, that he began to understand that it would not be a light cross +for which such preparatory graces were necessary. + + * * * * + +Towards the middle of September he received intelligence that evidence +had been gathering against him, and that one or two were come from +Lancashire under guard; and that he would be brought before the +Commissioners again immediately. + +Within two days this came about. He was sent for across the water to the +Tower, and after waiting an hour or two with his gaoler downstairs in the +basement of the White Tower, was taken up into the great Hall where the +Council sat. There was a table at the farther end where they were +sitting, and as Anthony looked round he saw through openings all round in +the inner wall the little passage where the sentries walked, and heard +their footfalls. + +The preliminaries of identification and the like had been disposed of at +previous examinations before Mr. Young--a name full of sinister +suggestiveness to the Catholics; and so, after he had been given a seat +at a little distance from the table behind which the Commissioners sat, +he was questioned minutely as to his journey in the North of England. + +"What were you there for, Mr. Norris?" inquired the Secretary of the +Council. + +"I went to see friends, and to do my business." + +"Then that resolves itself into two heads: One, Who are your friends. +Two, What was your business?" + +Now it had been established beyond a doubt at previous examinations that +he was a priest; a student of Douai who had apostatised had positively +identified him; so Anthony answered boldly: + +"My friends were Catholics; and my business was the reconciling of souls +to their Creator." + +"And to the Pope of Rome," put in Wade. + +"Who is Christ's Vicar," continued Anthony. + +"And a pestilent knave," concluded a fiery-faced man whom Anthony did not +know. + +But the Commissioners wanted more than that; it was true that Anthony was +already convicted of high treason in having been ordained beyond the seas +and in exercising his priestly functions in England; but the exacting of +the penalty for religion alone was apt to raise popular resentment; and +it was far preferable in the eyes of the authorities to entangle a priest +in the political net before killing him. So they passed over for the +present his priestly functions and first demanded a list of all the +places where he had stayed in the north. + +"You ask what is impossible," said Anthony, with his eyes on the ground +and his heart beating sharply, for he knew that now peril was near. + +"Well," said Wade, "let us put it another way. We know that you were at +Speke Hall, Blainscow, and other places. I have a list here," and he +tapped the table, "but we want your name to it." + +"Let me see the paper," said Anthony. + +"Nay, nay, tell us first." + +"I cannot sign the paper except I see it," said Anthony, smiling. + +"Give it him," said a voice from the end of the table. + +"Here then," said Wade unwillingly. + +Anthony got up and took the paper from him, and saw one or two places +named where he had not been, and saw that it had been drawn up at any +rate partly on guesswork. + +He put the paper down and went back to his chair and sat down. + +"It is not true," he said, looking steadily at the Secretary; "I cannot +sign it." + +"Do you deny that you have been to any of these places?" inquired Wade +indignantly. + +"The paper is not true," said Anthony again. + +"Well, then, show us what is not true upon it." + +"I cannot." + +"We will find means to persuade you," said the Secretary. + +"If God permits," said Anthony. + +Wade glanced round inquiringly and shrugged his shoulders; one or two +shook their heads. + +"Well, then, we will turn to another point. There are known to have been +certain Jesuit priests in Lancashire in November of last year--do you +deny that, sir?" + +"You ask too much," said Anthony, smiling again; "they may have been +there for aught I know, for I certainly did not see them elsewhere at the +time you mention." + +Wade frowned, but the one at the end laughed loud. + +"He has you there, Wade," he said. + +"This is foolery," said the Secretary. "Well, these two, Father Edward +Oldcorne and Father Holtby were in Lancashire in November; and you, Mr. +Norris, spoke with them then. We wish to know where they are now, and you +must tell us." + +"You have yet to prove that I spoke with them," said Anthony, for the +trap was too transparent. + +"But we know that." + +"That may or may not be; but it is for you to prove it." + +"Nay, for you to tell us." + +"For you to prove it." + +Wade lost his temper. + +"Well, then," he cried, "take this paper and see which of us is in the +right." + +Anthony rose again, wondering what the paper could be, and came towards +the table. He saw it bore a name at the end, and as he advanced saw that +it had an official appearance. Wade still held it; but Anthony took it in +his hand too to steady it, and began to read; but as he read a mist rose +before his eyes, and the paper shook violently. It was a warrant to put +him to the torture. + +Wade laughed a little. + +"Why, see, Mr. Norris, how you tremble at the warrant; what will it be +when you----" + +But a voice murmured "Shame!" and he stopped and stared. + +Anthony passed his hand over his eyes and went back to his chair and sat +down; he saw his knees trembling as he sat, and hated himself for it; but +he cried bravely: + +"The flesh is weak, but, please God, the spirit is willing." + +"Well, then," said Wade again, "must we execute this warrant, or will you +tell us what we would know?" + +"You must do what God permits," said Anthony. + +Wade sat down, throwing the warrant on the table, and began to talk in a +low voice to those who sat next him. Anthony fixed his eyes on the +ground, and did his utmost to keep his thoughts steady. + +Now he realised where he was, and what it all meant. The little door to +the left, behind him, that he had noticed as he came in, was the door of +which he had heard other Catholics speak, that led down to the great +crypt, where so many before him had screamed and fainted and called on +God, from the rack that stood at the foot of the stairs, or from the +pillar with the fixed ring at its summit. + +He had faced all this in his mind again and again, but it was a different +thing to have the horror within arm's length; old phrases he had heard of +the torture rang in his mind--a boast of Norton's, the rackmaster, who +had racked Brian, and which had been repeated from mouth to mouth--that +he had "made Brian a foot longer than God made him"; words of James +Maxwell's that he had let drop at Douai; the remembrance of his limp; and +of Campion's powerlessness to raise his hand when called upon to +swear--all these things crowded on him now; and there seemed to rest on +him a crushing swarm of fearful images and words. He made a great effort, +and closed his eyes, and repeated the holy name of Jesus over and over +again; but the struggle was still fierce when Wade's voice, harsh and +dry, broke in and scattered the confusion of mind that bewildered him. + +"Take the prisoner to a cell; he is not to go back to the Clink." + +Anthony felt a hand on his arm, and the gaoler was looking at him with +compassion. + +"Come, sir," he said. + +Anthony rose feeling heavy and exhausted; but remembered to bow to the +Commissioners, one or two of whom returned it. Then he followed the +gaoler out into the ante-room, who handed him over to one of the Tower +officials. + +"I must leave you here, sir," he said; "but keep a good heart; it will +not be for to-day." + + * * * * + +When Anthony got to his new cell, which was in the Salt Tower, he was +bitterly angry and disappointed with himself. Why, he had turned white +and sick like a child, not at the pain of the rack, not even at the sight +of it, but at the mere warrant! He threw himself on his knees, and bowed +down till his head beat against the boards. + +"O Lord Jesus," he prayed, "give me of Thy Manhood." + + * * * * + +He found that this prison was more rigorous than the Clink; no liberty to +leave the cell could possibly be obtained, and no furniture was provided. +The gaoler, when he had brought up his dinner, asked whether he could +send any message for him for a bed. Anthony gave Isabel's address, +knowing that the authorities were already aware that she was a Catholic, +and indeed she had given bail to come up for trial if called upon, and +that his information could injure neither her nor the Marretts, who were +sound Church of England people; and in the afternoon a mattress and some +clothes arrived for him. + +Anthony noticed at dinner that the knife provided was of a very +inconvenient shape, having a round blunt point, and being sharp only at a +lower part of the blade; and when the keeper came up with his supper he +asked him to bring him another kind. The man looked at him with a queer +expression. + +"What is the matter?" asked Anthony; "cannot you oblige me?" + +The man shook his head. + +"They are the knives that are always given to prisoners under warrant for +torture." + +Anthony did not understand him, and looked at him, puzzled. + +"For fear they should do themselves an injury," added the gaoler. + +Then the same shudder ran over his body again. + +"You mean--you mean...." he began. The gaoler nodded, still looking at +him oddly, and went out; and Anthony sat, with his supper untasted, +staring before him. + + * * * * + +By a kind of violent reaction he had a long happy dream that night. The +fierce emotions of that day had swept over his imagination and scoured it +as with fire, and now the underlying peace rose up and flooded it with +sweetness. + +He thought he was in the north again, high up on a moor, walking with one +who was quite familiar to him, but whose person he could not remember +when he woke; he did not even know whether it was man or woman. It was a +perfect autumn day, he thought, like one of those he had spent there last +year; the heather and the gorse were in flower, and the air was redolent +from their blossoms; he commented on this to the person at his side, who +told him it was always so there. Mile after mile the moor rose and +dipped, and, although Skiddaw was on his right, purple and grey, yet to +his left there was a long curved horizon of sparkling blue sea. It was a +cloudless day overhead, and the air seemed kindling and fresh round him +as it blew across the stretches of heather from the western sea. He +himself felt full of an extraordinary vitality, and the mere movement of +his limbs gave him joy as he went swiftly and easily forward over the +heather. There was the sound of the wind in his ears, and again and again +there came the gush of water from somewhere out of sight--as he had heard +it in the church by Skiddaw. There was no house or building of any kind +within sight, and he felt a great relief in these miles of heath and the +sense of holiday that they gave him. But all the joy round him and in his +heart found their point for him in the person that went with him; this +presence was their centre, as a diamond in a gold ring, or as a throned +figure in a Court circle. All else existed for the sake of this +person;--the heather blossomed and the gorse incensed the air, and the +sea sparkled, and the sky was blue, and the air kindled, and his own +heart warmed and throbbed, for that only. When he tried to see who it +was, there was nothing to see; the presence existed there as a centre in +a sphere, immeasurable and indiscernible; sometimes he thought it was +Mary, sometimes he thought it Henry Buxton, sometimes Isabel--once even +he assured himself it was Mistress Margaret, and once James Maxwell--and +with the very act of identification came indecision again. This +uncertainty waxed into a torment, and yet a sweet torment, as of a lover +who watches his mistress' shuttered house; and this torment swelled yet +higher and deeper until it was so great that it had absorbed the whole +radiant fragrant circle of the hills where he walked; and then came the +blinding knowledge that the Presence was all these persons so dear to +him, and far more; that every tenderness and grace that he had loved in +them--Mary's gallantry and Isabel's serene silence and his friend's +fellowship, and the rest--floated in the translucent depths of it, +stained and irradiated by it, as motes in a sunbeam. + +And then he woke, and it was through tears of pure joy that he saw the +rafters overhead, and the great barred door, and the discoloured wall +above his bed. + + * * * * + +When his gaoler brought him dinner that day it was half an hour earlier +than usual; and when Anthony asked him the reason he said that he did not +know, but that the orders had run so; but that Mr. Norris might take +heart; it was not for the torture, for Mr. Topcliffe, who superintended +it, had told the keeper of the rack-house that nothing would be wanted +that day. + +He had hardly finished dinner when the gaoler came up again and said that +the Lieutenant was waiting for him below, and that he must bring his hat +and cloak. + +Since his arrest he had worn his priest's habit every day, so he now +threw the cloak over his arm and took his hat, and followed the gaoler +down. + +In passing through the court he went by a group of men that were talking +together, and he noticed very especially a tall old man with a grey head, +in a Court suit with a sword, and very lean about the throat, who looked +at him hard as he passed. As he reached the archway where the Lieutenant +was waiting, he turned again and saw the sunken eyes of the old man still +looking after him; when he turned to the gaoler he saw the same odd look +in his face that he had noticed before. + +"Why do you look like that?" he asked. "Who is that old man?" + +"That is Mr. Topcliffe," said the keeper. + +The Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir Richard Barkley, saluted him kindly at +the gate, and begged him to follow him; the keeper still came after and +another stepped out and joined them, and the group of four together +passed out through the Lion's Tower and across the moat to a little +doorway where a closed carriage was waiting. The Lieutenant and Anthony +stepped inside; the two keepers mounted outside; and the carriage set +off. + +Then the Lieutenant turned to the priest. + +"Do you know where you are going, Mr. Norris?" + +"No, sir." + +"You are going to Whitehall to see the Queen's Grace." + + + + + CHAPTER XIV + + AN OPEN DOOR + + +When the carriage reached the palace they were told that the Queen was +not yet come from Greenwich; and they were shown into a little ante-room +next the gallery where the interview was to take place. The Queen, the +Lieutenant told Anthony, was to come up that afternoon passing through +London, and that she had desired to see him on her way through to +Nonsuch; he could not tell him why he was sent for, though he conjectured +it was because of Mistress Corbet's death, and that her Grace wished to +know the details. + +"However," said the Lieutenant, "you now have your opportunity to speak +for yourself, and I think you a very fortunate man, Mr. Norris. Few have +had such a privilege, though I remember that Mr. Campion had it too, +though he made poor use of it." + +Anthony said nothing. His mind was throbbing with memories and +associations. The air of state and luxury in the corridors through which +he had just come, the discreet guarded doors, the servants in the royal +liveries standing here and there, the sense of expectancy that mingled +with the solemn hush of the palace--all served to bring up the figure of +Mary Corbet, whom he had seen so often in these circumstances; and the +thought of her made the peril in which he stood and the hope of escape +from it seem very secondary matters. He walked to the window presently +and looked out upon the little court below, one of the innumerable yards +of that vast palace, and stood staring down on the hound that was chained +there near one of the entrances, and that yawned and blinked in the +autumn sunshine. + +Even as he looked the dog paused in the middle of his stretch and stood +expectant with his ears cocked, a servant dashed bareheaded down a couple +of steps and out through the low archway; and simultaneously Anthony +heard once more the sweet shrill trumpets that told of the Queen's +approach; then there came the roll of drums and the thunder of horses' +feet and the noise of wheels; the trumpets sang out again nearer, and the +rumbling waxed louder as the Queen's cavalcade, out of sight, passed the +entrance of the archway down upon which Anthony looked; and then stilled, +and the palace itself began to hum and stir; a door or two banged in the +distance, feet ran past the door of the ante-room, and the strain of the +trumpets sounded once in the house itself. Then all grew quiet once more, +and Anthony turned from the window and sat down again by the Lieutenant. + +There was silence for a few minutes. The Lieutenant stroked his beard +gently and said a word or two under his breath now and again to Anthony; +once or twice there came the swift rustle of a dress outside as a lady +hurried past; then the sound of a door opening and shutting; then more +silence; then the sound of low talking, and at last the sound of +footsteps going slowly up and down the gallery which adjoined the +ante-room. + +Still the minutes passed, but no summons came. Anthony rose and went to +the window again, for, in spite of himself, this waiting told upon him. +The dog had gone back to his kennel and was lying with his nose just +outside the opening. Anthony wondered vacantly to himself what door it +was that he was guarding, and who lived in the rooms that looked out +beside it. Then suddenly the door from the gallery opened and a page +appeared. + +"The Queen's Grace will see Mr. Norris alone." + +Anthony went towards him, and the page opened the door wide for him to go +through, and then closed it noiselessly behind him, and Anthony was in +the presence. + + * * * * + +It was with a sudden bewilderment that he recognised he was in the same +gallery as that in which he had talked and sat with Mary Corbet. There +were the long tapestries hanging opposite him, with the tall three +windows dividing them, and the suits of steel armour that he remembered. +He even recalled the pattern of the carpet across which Mary Corbet had +come forward to meet him, and that still lay before the tall window at +the end that looked on to the Tilt-yard. The sun was passing round to the +west now, and shone again across the golden haze of the yard through this +great window, with the fragments of stained glass at the top. The memory +leapt into life even as he stepped out and stood for a moment, dazed in +the sunshine, at the door that opened from the ante-room. + +But the figure that turned from the window and faced him was not like +Mary's. It was the figure of an old woman, who looked tall with her +towering head-dress and nodding plume; she was dressed in a great dark +red mantle thrown back on her shoulders, and beneath it was a pale yellow +dress sown all over with queer devices; on the puffed sleeve of the arm +that held the stick was embroidered a great curling snake that shone with +gold thread and jewels in the sunlight, and powdered over the skirt were +representations of human eyes and other devices, embroidered with dark +thread that showed up plainly on the pale ground. So much he saw down one +side of the figure on which the light shone; the rest was to his dazzled +eyes in dark shadow. He went down on his knees at once before this +tremendous figure, seeing the buckled feet that twinkled below the skirt +cut short in front, and remained there. + +There was complete silence for a moment, while he felt the Queen looking +at him, and then the voice he remembered, only older and harsher, now +said: + +"What is all this, Mr. Norris?" + +Anthony looked for a moment and saw the Queen's eyes fixed on him; but he +said nothing, and looked down again. + +"Stand up," said the Queen, not unkindly, "and walk with me." + +Anthony stood up at once, and heard the stiff rustle of her dress and the +tap of her heels and stick on the polished boards as she came towards +him. Then he turned with her down the long gallery. + +Until this moment, ever since he had heard that he was to see the Queen, +he had felt nervous and miserable; but now this had left him, and he felt +at his ease. To be received in this way, in privacy, and to accompany her +up and down the gallery as she took her afternoon exercise was less +embarrassing than the formal interview he had expected. The two walked +the whole length of the gallery without a word, and it was not until they +turned and faced the end that looked on to the Tilt-yard that the Queen +spoke; and her voice was almost tender. + +"I understand that you were with Minnie Corbet when she died," she said. + +"She died for me, your Grace," said Anthony. + +The Queen looked at him sharply. + +"Tell me the tale," she said. + +And Anthony told her the whole story of the escape and the ride; speaking +too for his friend, Mr. Buxton, and of Mary's affection for him. + +"Your Grace," he ended, "it sounds a poor tale of a man that a woman +should die for him so; but I can say with truth that with God's grace I +would have died a hundred deaths to save her." + +The Queen was silent for a good while when the story was over, and +Anthony thought that perhaps she could not speak; but he dared not look +at her. + +Then she spoke very harshly: + +"And you, Mr. Norris, why did you not escape?" + +"Your Grace would not have done so." + +"When I saw that she was dying, I would." + +"Not if you had been a priest, your Grace." + +"What is that?" asked the Queen, suddenly facing him. + +"I am a priest, madam, and she was a Catholic, and my duty was beside +her." + +"Eh?" + +"I shrived her, your Grace, before she died." + +"Why! they did not tell me that." + +Anthony was silent. + +They walked on a few steps, and the Queen stood silent too, looking down +upon the Tilt-yard. Then she turned abruptly, and Anthony turned with +her, and they began to go up and down again. + +"It was gallant of you both," she said shortly. "I love that my people +should be of that sort." Then she paused. "Tell me," she went on, "did +Mary love me?" + +Anthony was silent for a moment. + +"The truth, Mr. Norris," she said. + +"Mistress Corbet was loyalty itself," he answered. + +"Nay, nay, nay, not loyalty but love I asked you of. How did she speak of +me?" + +"Well, your Grace, Mistress Corbet had a shrewd wit, and she used it +freely on friend and foe, but her very sharpness on your Grace, +sometimes, showed her love; for she hated to think you otherwise than +what she deemed the best." + +The Queen stopped full in her walk. + +"That is very pleasantly put," she said; "I told Minnie you were a +courtier." + +Again the two walked on. + +"Then she used her tongue on me?" + +"Your Grace, I have never met one on whom she did not: but her heart was +true." + +"I know that, I know that, Mr. Norris. Tell me something she said." + +Anthony racked his brains for something not too severe. + +"Mistress Corbet once said that the Queen's most disobedient subject was +herself." + +"Eh?" said Elizabeth, stopping in her walk. + +"'Because,' said Mistress Corbet, 'she can never command herself,'" +finished Anthony. + +The Queen looked at Anthony, puzzled a moment; and then chuckled loudly +in her throat. + +"The impertinent minx!" she said, "that was when I had clouted her, no +doubt." + +Again they walked up and down in silence a little while. Anthony began to +wonder whether this was all for which the Queen had sent for him. He was +astonished at his own self-possession; all the trembling awe with which +he had faced the Queen at Greenwich was gone; he had forgotten for the +moment even his own peril; and he felt instead even something of pity for +this passionate old woman, who had aged so quickly, whose favourites one +by one were dropping off, or at the best giving her only an exaggerated +and ridiculous devotion, at the absurdity of which all the world laughed. +Here was this old creature at his side, surrounded by flatterers and +adventurers, advancing through the world in splendid and jewelled +raiment, with trumpets blowing before her, and poets singing her praises, +and crowds applauding in the streets, and sneering in their own houses at +the withered old virgin-Queen who still thought herself a Diana--and all +the while this triumphal progress was at the expense of God's Church, her +car rolled over the bodies of His servants, and her shrunken, gemmed +fingers were red in their blood;--so she advanced, thought Anthony, day +by day towards the black truth and the eternal loneliness of the darkness +that lies outside the realm where Christ only is King. + +Elizabeth broke in suddenly on his thoughts. + +"Now," she said, "and what of you, Mr. Norris?" + +"I am your Grace's servant," he said. + +"I am not so sure of that," said Elizabeth. "If you are my servant, why +are you a priest, contrary to my laws?" + +"Because I am Christ's servant too, your Grace." + +"But Christ's apostle said, 'Obey them that have the rule over you.'" + +"In indifferent matters, madam." + +The Queen frowned and made a little angry sound. + +"I cannot understand you Papists," said the Queen. "What a-God's name do +you want? You have liberty of thought and faith; I desire to inquire into +no man's private opinions. You may worship Ashtaroth if it please you, in +your own hearts; and God looks to the heart, and not to the outer man. +There is a Church with bishops like your own, and ministers; there are +the old churches to worship in--nay, you may find the old ornaments still +in use. We have sacraments as you have; you may seek shrift if you will; +nay, in some manner we have the mass--though we do not call it so--but we +follow Christ's ordinance in the matter, and you can do no more. We have +the Word of God as you have, and we use the same creeds. What more can +the rankest Papist ask? Tell me that, Mr. Norris; for I am a-weary of +your folk." + +The Queen turned and faced him again a moment, and her eyes were peevish +and resentful. + +Presently she went on again. + +"Mr. Campion told me it was the oath that troubled him. He could not take +it, he said. I told the fool that I was not Head of the Church as Christ +was, but only the supreme governor, as the Act declares, in all spiritual +and ecclesiastical things:--I forget how it runs,--but I showed it him, +and asked him whether it were not true; and I asked him too how it was +that Margaret Roper could take the oath, and so many thousands of persons +as full Christian as himself--and he could not answer me." + +The Queen was silent again. Then once more she went on indignantly: + +"It is yourselves that have brought all this trouble on your heads. See +what the Papists have done against me; they have excommunicated me, +deposed me--though in spite of it I still sit on the throne; they have +sent an Armada against me; they have plotted against me, I know not how +many times; and then, when I defend myself and hang a few of the wolves, +lo! they are Christ's flock at once for whom he shed His precious blood, +and His persecuted lambs, and I am Jezebel straightway and Athaliah and +Beelzebub's wife--and I know not what." + +The Queen stopped, out of breath, and looked fiercely at Anthony, who +said nothing. + +"Tell me how you answer that, Mr. Norris?" said the Queen. + +"I dare not deal with such great matters," said Anthony, "for your Grace +knows well that I am but a poor priest that knows nought of state-craft; +but I would like to ask your Highness two questions only. The first is: +whether your Grace had aught to complain of in the conduct of your +Catholic subjects when the Armada was here; and the second, whether there +hath been one actual attempt upon your Grace's life by private persons?" + +"That is not to the purpose," said the Queen peevishly. + +"It was Catholics who fought against me in the Armada, and it was +Catholics who plotted against me at Court." + +"Then there is a difference in Catholics, your Grace," said Anthony. + +"Ah! I see what you would be at." + +"Yes, your Highness; I would rather say, Although they be Catholics they +do these things." + +There was silence again, which Anthony did not dare to break; and the two +walked up the whole length of the gallery without speaking. + +"Well, well," said Elizabeth at last, "but this was not why I sent for +you. We will speak of yourself now, Mr. Norris. I hope you are not an +obstinate fellow. Eh?" + +Anthony said nothing, and the Queen went on. + +"Now, as I have told you, I judge no man's private opinions. You may +believe what you will. Remember that. You may believe what you will; nay, +you may practise your religion so long as it is private and unknown to +me." + +Anthony began to wonder what was coming; but he still said nothing as the +Queen paused. She stood a moment looking down into the empty Tilt-yard +again, and then turned and sat suddenly in a chair that stood beside the +window, and put up a jewelled hand to shield her face, with her elbow on +the arm, while Anthony stood before her. + +"I remember you, Mr. Norris, very well at Greenwich; you spoke up sharply +enough, and you looked me in the eyes now and then as I like a man to do; +and then Minnie loved you, too. I wish to show you kindness for her +sake." + +Anthony's heart began to fail him, for he guessed now what was coming and +the bitter struggle that lay before him. + +"Now, I know well that the Commissioners have had you before them; they +are tiresome busybodies. Walsingham started all that and set them +a-spying and a-defending of my person and the rest of it; but they are +loyal folk, and I suppose they asked you where you had been and with whom +you had stayed, and so on?" + +"They did, your Grace." + +"And you would not tell them, I suppose?" + +"I could not, madam; it would have been against justice and charity to do +so." + +"Well, well, there is no need now, for I mean to take you out of their +hands." + +A great leap of hope made itself felt in Anthony's heart; he did not know +how heavy the apprehension lay on him till this light shone through. + +"They will be wrath with me, I know, and will tell me that they cannot +defend me if I will not help them; but, when all is said, I am Queen. Now +I do not ask you to be a minister of my Church, for that, I think, you +would never be; but I think you would like to be near me--is it not so? +And I wish you to have some post about the Court; I must see what it is +to be." + +Anthony's heart began to sink again as he watched the Queen's face as she +sat tapping a foot softly and looking on the floor as she talked. Those +lines of self-will about the eyes and mouth surely meant something. + +Then she looked up, still with her cheek on her right hand. + +"You do not thank me, Mr. Norris." + +Anthony made a great effort; but he heard his own voice quiver a little. + +"I thank your Grace for your kindly intentions toward me, with all my +heart." + +The Queen seemed satisfied, and looked down again. + +"As to the oath, I will not ask you to take it formally, if you will give +me an assurance of your loyalty." + +"That, your Grace, I give most gladly." + +His heart was beating again in great irregular thumps in his throat; he +had the sensation of swaying to and fro on the edge of a precipice, now +towards safety and now towards death; it was the cruellest pain he had +suffered yet. But how was it possible to have some post at Court without +relinquishing the exercise of his priesthood? He must think it out; what +did the Queen mean? + +"And, of course, you will not be able to say mass again; but I shall not +hinder your hearing it at the Ambassador's whenever you please." + +Ah! it had come; his heart gave a leap and seemed to cease. + +"Your Grace must forgive me, but I cannot consent." + +There was a dead silence; when Anthony looked up, she was staring at him +with the frankest astonishment. + +"Did you think, Mr. Norris, you could be at Court and say mass too +whenever you wished?" Her voice rang harsh and shrill; her anger was +rising. + +"I was not sure what your Grace intended for me." + +"The fellow is mad," she said, still staring at him. "Oh! take care, take +care!" + +"Your Grace knows I intend no insolence." + +"You mean to say, Mr. Norris, that you will not take a pardon and a post +at Court on those terms?" + +Anthony bowed; he could not trust himself to speak, so bitter was the +reaction. + +"But, see man, you fool; if you die as a traitor you will never say mass +again either." + +"But that will not be with my consent, your Grace." + +"And you refuse the pardon?" + +"On those terms, your Grace, I must." + +"Well----" and she was silent a moment, "you are a fool, sir." + +Anthony bowed again. + +"But I like courage.--Well, then, you will not be my servant?" + +"I have ever been that, your Grace; and ever will be." + +"Well, well,--but not at Court?" + +"Ah! your Grace knows I cannot," cried Anthony, and his voice rang +sorrowfully. + +Again there was silence. + +"You must have your way, sir, for poor Minnie's sake; but it passes my +understanding what you mean by it. And let me tell you that not many have +their way with me, rather than mine." + +Again hope leapt up in his heart. The Queen then was not so ungracious. + +He looked up and smiled--and down again. + +"Why, the man's lips are all a-quiver. What ails him?" + +"It is your Grace's kindness." + +"I must say I marvel at it myself," observed Elizabeth. "You near angered +me just now; take care you do not so quite." + +"I would not willingly, as your Grace knows." + +"Then we will end this matter. You give me your assurance of loyalty to +my person." + +"With all my heart, madam," said Anthony eagerly. + +"Then you must get to France within the week. The other too--Buxton--he +loses his estate, but has his life. I am doing much for Minnie's sake." + +"How can I thank your Grace?" + +"And I will cause Sir Richard to give it out that you have taken the +oath. Call him in." + +There was a quick gasp from the priest; and then he cried with agony in +his voice: + +"I cannot, your Grace, I cannot." + +"Cannot call Sir Richard! Why, you are mad, sir!" + +"Cannot consent; I have taken no oath." + +"I know you have not. I do not ask it." + +Elizabeth's voice came short and harsh; her patience was vanishing, and +Anthony knew it and looked at her. She had dropped her hand, and it was +clenching and unclenching on her knee. Her stick slipped on the polished +boards and fell; but she paid it no attention. She was looking straight +at the priest; her high eyebrows were coming down; her mouth was +beginning to mumble a little; he could see in the clear sunlight that +fell on her sideways through the tall window a thousand little wrinkles, +and all seemed alive; the lines at the corners of her eyes and mouth +deepened as he watched. + +"What a-Christ's name do you want, sir?" + +It was like the first mutter of a storm on the horizon; but Anthony knew +it must break. He did not answer. + +"Tell me, sir; what is it now?" + +Anthony drew a long breath and braced his will, but even as he spoke he +knew he was pronouncing his own sentence. + +"I cannot consent to leave the country and let it be given out that I had +taken the oath, your Grace. It would be an apostasy from my faith." + +Elizabeth sprang to her feet without her stick, took one step forward, +and gave Anthony a fierce blow on the cheek with her ringed hand. He +recoiled a step at the shock of it, and stood waiting with his eyes on +the ground. Then the Queen's anger poured out in words. Her eyes burned +with passion out of an ivory-coloured face, and her voice rang high and +harsh, and her hands continually clenched and unclenched as she screamed +at him. + +"God's Body! you are the ungratefullest hound that ever drew breath. I +send for you to my presence, and talk and walk with you like a friend. I +offer you a pardon and you fling it in my face. I offer you a post at +Court and you mock it; you flaunt you in your treasonable livery in my +very face, and laugh at my clemency. You think I am no Queen, but a weak +woman whom you can turn and rule at your will. God's Son! I will show you +which is sovereign. Call Sir Richard in, sir; I will have him in this +instant. Sir Richard, Sir Richard!" she screamed, stamping with fury. + +The door into the ante-room behind opened, and Sir Richard Barkley +appeared, with a face full of apprehension. He knelt at once. + +"Stand up, Sir Richard," she cried, "and look at this man. You know him, +do you not? and I know him now, the insolent dog! But his own mother +shall not in a week. Look at him shaking there, the knave; he will shake +more before I have done with him. Take him back with you, Sir Richard, +and let them have their will of him. His damned pride and insolence shall +be broken. S' Body, I have never been so treated! Take him out, Sir +Richard, take him out, I tell you!" + + + + + CHAPTER XV + + THE ROLLING OF THE STONE + + +It was a week later, and a little before dawn, that Isabel was kneeling +by Anthony's bed in his room in the Tower. The Lieutenant had sent for +her to his lodging the evening before, and she had spent the whole night +with her brother. He had been racked four times in one week, and was +dying. + + * * * * + +The city and the prison were very quiet now; the carts had not yet begun +to roll over the cobble-stones and the last night-wanderers had gone +home. He lay, on the mattress that she had sent in to him, in the corner +of his cell under the window, on his back and very still, covered from +chin to feet with her own fur-lined cloak that she had thrown over him; +his head was on a low pillow, for he could not bear to lie high; his feet +made a little mound under the coverlet, and his arms lay straight at his +side; but all that could be seen of him was his face, pinched and white +now with hollows in his cheeks and dark patches and lines beneath his +closed eyes, and his soft pointed brown beard that just rested on the fur +edging of Isabel's cloak; his lips were drawn tight, but slightly parted, +showing the rim of his white teeth, as if he snarled with pain. + +The only furniture in the room was a single table and chair; the table +was drawn up not far from the bed, and a book or two, with a flask of +cordial and some fragments of food on a plate lay upon it; his cloak and +doublet and ruff lay across the chair and his shoes below it, and a +little linen lay in a pile in another corner; but the clothes in which he +had been tortured the evening before, his shirt and hose, could not be +taken off him and he lay in them still. They had been so soaked with +sweat, that Isabel had found him shivering, and laid her cloak over him, +and now he lay quiet and warm. + +Earlier in the night she had been reading to him, and a taper still +burned in a candlestick on the table; but for the last two hours he had +lain either in a sleep or a swoon, and she had laid the book down and was +watching him. + +He was so motionless that he would have seemed dead except for the steady +rise and fall of a fold in the mantle, and for a sudden muscular twitch +every few minutes. Isabel herself was scarcely less motionless; her face +was clear and pale as it always was, but perfectly serene, and even her +lips did not quiver. She was kneeling and leaning back now, and her hands +were clasped in her lap. There was a proud content in her face; her dear +brother had not uttered one name on the rack except those of the Saviour +and of the Blessed Mother. So the Lieutenant had told her. + +Suddenly his eyes opened and there was nothing but peace in them; and his +lips moved. Isabel leaned forward on her hands and bent her ear to his +mouth till his breath was warm on it, and she could hear the whisper.... + +Then she opened the book that lay face down on the table and began to +read on, from the point at which she had laid it down two hours before. + +"'_Erat autem hora tertia: et crucifixerunt eum._ And it was the third +hour and they crucified him ... And with him they crucify two thieves, +the one on his right hand, and the other on his left. And the scripture +was fulfilled which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors.'" + +Her voice was slow and steady as she read the unfamiliar Latin, still +kneeling, with the book a little raised to catch the candlelight, and her +grave tranquil eyes bent upon it. Only once did her voice falter, and +then she commanded it again immediately; and that, as she read "_Erant +autem et mulieres de longe aspicientes_." "There were also women looking +on afar off." + +And so the tale crept on, minute by minute, and the priest lay with +closed eyes to hear it; until the mocking was complete, and the darkness +of the sixth hour had come and gone, and the Saviour had cried aloud on +His Father, and given up the ghost; and the centurion that stood by had +borne witness. And the great Criminal slept in the garden, in the +sepulchre "wherein was never man yet laid." + +There was a listening silence as the voice ceased without another falter. +Isabel laid the book down and looked at him again; and his eyes opened +languidly. + +He had not yet said more than single words, and even now his voice was so +faint that she had to put her ear close to his mouth. It seemed to her +that his soul had gone into some inner secret chamber of profound peace, +so deep that it was a long and difficult task to send a thought to the +surface through his lips. + +She could just hear him, and she answered clearly and slowly as to a +dazed child, pausing between every word. + +"I cannot get a priest; it is not allowed." + +Still his eyes bent on her; what was it he said? what was it?... + +Then she heard, and began to repeat short acts of contrition clearly and +distinctly, pausing between the phrases, in English, and his eyes closed +as she began: + +"O my Jesus--I am heartily sorry--that I have--crucified thee--by my +sins--Wash my soul--in Thy Precious Blood. O my God--I am sorry--that I +have--displeased Thee--because thou art All-good. I hate all the +sins--that I have done--against Thy Divine Majesty." + +And so phrase after phrase she went on, giving him time to hear and to +make an inner assent of the will; and repeating also other short vocal +prayers that she knew by heart. And so the delicate skein of prayer rose +from the altar where this morning sacrifice lay before God, waiting the +consummation of His acceptance. + +Presently she ended, and he lay again with closed eyes and mute face. +Then again they opened, and she bent down to listen.... + +"It will all be well with me," she answered, raising her head again. +"Mistress Margaret has written from Brussels. I shall go there for a +while.... Yes, Mr. Buxton will take me; next week: he goes to Normandy, +to his estate." + +Again his lips moved and she listened.... + +A faint flush came over her face. She shook her head. + +"I do not know; I think not. I hope to enter Religion.... No, I have not +yet determined.... The Dower House?... Yes, I will sell it.... Yes, to +Hubert, if he wishes it." + +Every word he whispered was such an effort that she had to pause again +and again before he could make her understand; and often she judged more +by the movement of his lips than by any sound that came from him. Now and +then too she lifted her handkerchief, soaked in a strong violet scent, +and passed it over his forehead and lips. She motioned with the flask of +cordial once or twice, but his eyes closed for a negative. + +As she knelt and watched him, her thoughts circled continually in little +flights; to the walled garden of the Dower House in sunshine, and Anthony +running across it in his brown suit, with the wallflowers behind him +against the old red bricks and ivy, and the tall chestnut rising behind; +to the wind-swept hills, with the thistles and the golden-rod, and the +hazel thickets, and Anthony on his pony, sunburnt and voluble, hawk on +wrist, with a light in his eyes; to the warm panelled hall in winter, +with the tapers on the round table, and Anthony flat on his face, with +his feet in the air before the hearth, that glowed and roared up the wide +chimney behind, and his chin on his hands, and a book open before him; +or, farther back even still, to Anthony's little room at the top of the +house, his clothes on a chair, and the boy himself sitting up in bed with +his arms round his knees as she came in to wish him good-night and talk +to him a minute or two. And every time the circling thought came home and +settled again on the sight of that still straight figure lying on the +mattress, against the discoloured bricks, with the light of the taper +glimmering on his thin face and brown hair and beard; and every time her +heart consented that this was the best of all. + +A bird chirped suddenly from some hole in the Tower, once, and then three +or four times; she glanced up at the window and the light of dawn was +beginning. Then, as the minutes went by, the city began to stir itself +from sleep. There came a hollow whine from the Lion-gate fifty yards +away; up from the river came the shout of a waterman; two or three times +a late cock crew; and still the light crept on and broadened. But Anthony +still lay with his eyes closed. + +At last over the cobbles outside a cart rattled, turned a corner and was +silent. Anthony had opened his eyes now and was looking at her again; and +again she bent down to listen; ... and then opened and read again. + +"'_Et cum transisset sabbatum Maria Magdalene et Maria Jacobi et Salome +emerunt aromata, ut venientes ungerent Jesum._' + +"'And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of +James and Salome, had bought sweet spices that they might come and anoint +him.'" + +A slight sound made her look up. Anthony's eyes were kindling and his +lips moved; she bent again and listened.... What was it he said?... + +Yes, it was so, and she smiled and nodded at him: she was reading the +Gospel for Easter Day, the Gospel of the first mass that they had heard +together on that spring morning at Great Keynes, when their Lord had led +them so far round by separate paths to meet one another at His altar. And +now they were met again here. She read on: + +"'_Et valde mane una sabbatorum, veniunt ad monumentum, orto jam +sole._' + +"'Very early they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun; and +they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the +door of the sepulchre? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was +rolled away, for it was very great.'... + +"'... _magnus valde_,'" read Isabel; and looked up again;--and then +closed the book. There was no need to read more. + + * * * * + +She walked across the court half an hour later, just as the sun came up; +and passed out through the Lieutenant's lodging, and out by the narrow +bridge on to the Tower wharf. + +To the left and behind her, as she looked eastwards down the river, lay +the heavy masses of the prison she had left, and the high walls and +turrets were gilded with glory. The broad river itself was one rolling +glory too; the tide was coming in swift and strong and a barge or two +moved upwards, only half seen in the bewildering path of the sun. The air +was cool and keen, and a breeze from the water stirred Isabel's hair as +she stood looking, with the light on her face. It was a cloudless October +morning overhead. Even as she stood a flock of pigeons streamed across +from the south side, swift-flying and bathed in light; and her eyes +followed them a moment or two. + +As she stood there silent, a step came up the wharf from the direction of +St. Katharine's street, and a man came walking quickly towards her. He +did not see who she was until he was close, and then he started and took +off his hat; it was Lackington on his way to some business at the Tower; +but she did not seem to see him. She turned almost immediately and began +to walk westwards, and the glory in her eyes was supreme. And as she went +the day deepened above her. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's By What Authority?, by Robert Hugh Benson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BY WHAT AUTHORITY? *** + +***** This file should be named 19697.txt or 19697.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/6/9/19697/ + +Produced by Geoff Horton and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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