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diff --git a/old/grgr10.txt b/old/grgr10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e0c7bd0 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/grgr10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7292 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Grisly Grisell, by Charlotte M. Yonge + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Grisly Grisell + +Author: Charlotte M. Yonge + +Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7387] +[This file was first posted on April 24, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, GRISLY GRISELL *** + + + + +Transcribed from the 1906 edition by David Price, +email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + +GRISLY GRISELL, or THE LAIDLY LADY OF WHITBURN: A TALE OF THE WARS +OF THE ROSES + + + + +CHAPTER I--AN EXPLOSION + + + +It was a great pity, so it was, this villanous saltpetre should be +digg'd out of the bowels of the harmless earth. + +SHAKESPEARE King Henry IV., Part I. + +A terrible shriek rang through the great Manor-house of Amesbury. It +was preceded by a loud explosion, and there was agony as well as +terror in the cry. Then followed more shrieks and screams, some of +pain, some of fright, others of anger and recrimination. Every one +in the house ran together to the spot whence the cries proceeded, +namely, the lower court, where the armourer and blacksmith had their +workshops. + +There was a group of children, the young people who were confided to +the great Earl Richard and Countess Alice of Salisbury for education +and training. Boys and girls were alike there, some of the latter +crying and sobbing, others mingling with the lads in the hot dispute +as to "who did it." + +By the time the gentle but stately Countess had reached the place, +all the grown-up persons of the establishment--knights, squires, +grooms, scullions, and females of every degree--had thronged round +them, but parted at her approach, though one of the knights said, +"Nay, Lady Countess, 'tis no sight for you. The poor little maid is +dead, or nigh upon it." + +"But who is it? What is it?" asked the Countess, still advancing. + +A confused medley of voices replied, "The Lord of Whitburn's little +wench--Leonard Copeland--gunpowder." + +"And no marvel," said a sturdy, begrimed figure, "if the malapert +young gentles be let to run all over the courts, and handle that with +which they have no concern, lads and wenches alike." + +"Nay, how can I stop it when my lady will not have the maidens kept +ever at their distaffs and needles in seemly fashion," cried a small +but stout and self-assertive dame, known as "Mother of the Maidens," +then starting, "Oh! my lady, I crave your pardon, I knew not you were +in this coil! And if the men-at-arms be let to have their perilous +goods strewn all over the place, no wonder at any mishap." + +"Do not wrangle about the cause," said the Countess. "Who is hurt? +How much?" + +The crowd parted enough for her to make way to where a girl of about +ten was lying prostrate and bleeding with her head on a woman's lap. + +"Poor maid," was the cry, "poor maid! 'Tis all over with her. It +will go ill with young Leonard Copeland." + +"Worse with Hodge Smith for letting him touch his irons." + +"Nay, what call had Dick Jenner to lay his foul, burning gunpowder--a +device of Satan--in this yard? A mercy we are not all blown to the +winds." + +The Countess, again ordering peace, reached the girl, whose moans +showed that she was still alive, and between the barber-surgeon and +the porter's wife she was lifted up, and carried to a bed, the +Countess Alice keeping close to her, though the "Mother of the +Maidens," who was a somewhat helpless personage, hung back, declaring +that the sight of the wounds made her swoon. There were terrible +wounds upon the face and neck, which seemed to be almost bared of +skin. The lady, who had been bred to some knowledge of surgical +skill, together with the barber-surgeon, did their best to allay the +agony with applications of sweet oil. Perhaps if they had had more +of what was then considered skill, it might have been worse for her. + +The Countess remained anxiously trying all that could allay the +suffering of the poor little semi-conscious patient, who kept moaning +for "nurse." She was Grisell Dacre, the daughter of the Baron of +Whitburn, and had been placed, young as she was, in the household of +the Countess of Salisbury on her mother being made one of the ladies +attending on the young Queen Margaret of Anjou, lately married to +King Henry VI. + +Attendance on the patient had prevented the Countess from hearing the +history of the accident, but presently the clatter of horses' feet +showed that her lord was returning, and, committing the girl to her +old nurse, she went down to the hall to receive him. + +The grave, grizzled warrior had taken his seat on his cross-legged, +round-backed chair, and a boy of some twelve years old stood before +him, in a sullen attitude, one foot over the other, and his shoulder +held fast by a squire, while the motley crowd of retainers stood +behind. + +There was a move at the entrance of the lady, and her husband rose, +came forward, and as he gave her the courteous kiss of greeting, +demanded, "What is all this coil? Is the little wench dead?" + +"Nay, but I fear me she cannot live," was the answer. + +"Will Dacre of Whitburn's maid? That's ill, poor child! How fell it +out?" + +"That I know as little as you," was the answer. "I have been seeing +to the poor little maid's hurts." + +Lord Salisbury placed her in the chair like his own. In point of +fact, she was Countess in her own right; he, Richard Nevil, had been +created Earl of Salisbury in her right on the death of her father, +the staunch warrior of Henry V. in the siege of Orleans. + +"Speak out, Leonard Copeland," said the Earl. "What hast thou done?" + +The boy only growled, "I never meant to hurt the maid." + +"Speak to the point, sir," said Lord Salisbury sternly; "give +yourself at least the grace of truth." + +Leonard grew more silent under the show of displeasure, and only hung +his head at the repeated calls to him to speak. The Earl turned to +those who were only too eager to accuse him. + +"He took a bar of iron from the forge, so please you, my lord, and +put it to the barrel of powder." + +"Is this true, Leonard?" demanded the Earl again, amazed at the +frantic proceeding, and Leonard muttered "Aye," vouchsafing no more, +and looking black as thunder at a fair, handsome boy who pressed to +his side and said, "Uncle," doffing his cap, "so please you, my lord, +the barrels had just been brought in upon Hob Carter's wain, and +Leonard said they ought to have the Lord Earl's arms on them. So he +took a bar of hot iron from the forge to mark the saltire on them, +and thereupon there was this burst of smoke and flame, and the maid, +who was leaning over, prying into his doings, had the brunt thereof." + +"Thanks to the saints that no further harm was done," ejaculated the +lady shuddering, while her lord proceeded--"It was not malice, but +malapert meddling, then. Master Leonard Copeland, thou must be +scourged to make thee keep thine hands off where they be not needed. +For the rest, thou must await what my Lord of Whitburn may require. +Take him away, John Ellerby, chastise him, and keep him in ward till +we see the issue." + +Leonard, with his head on high, marched out of the hall, not uttering +a word, but shaking his shoulder as if to get rid of the squire's +grasp, but only thereby causing himself to be gripped the faster. + +Next, Lord Salisbury's severity fell upon Hob the carter and Hodge +the smith, for leaving such perilous wares unwatched in the court- +yard. Servants were not dismissed for carelessness in those days, +but soundly flogged, a punishment considered suitable to the +"blackguard" at any age, even under the mildest rule. The gunner, +being somewhat higher in position, and not in charge at the moment, +was not called to account, but the next question was, how the "Mother +of the Maids"--the gouvernante in charge of the numerous damsels who +formed the train of the Lady of Salisbury, and were under education +and training--could have permitted her maidens to stray into the +regions appropriated to the yeomen and archers, and others of the +meine, where they certainly had no business. + +It appeared that the good and portly lady had last seen the girls in +the gardens "a playing at the ball" with some of the pages, and that +there, on a sunny garden seat, slumber had prevented her from +discovering the absence of the younger part of the bevy. The demure +elder damsels deposed that, at the sound of wains coming into the +court, the boys had rushed off, and the younger girls had followed +them, whether with or without warning was not made clear. Poor +little Grisell's condition might have been considered a sufficient +warning, nevertheless the two companions in her misdemeanour were +condemned to a whipping, to enforce on them a lesson of maidenliness; +and though the Mother of the Maids could not partake of the +flagellation, she remained under her lord's and lady's grave +displeasure, and probably would have to submit to a severe penance +from the priest for her carelessness. Yet, as she observed, Mistress +Grisell was a North Country maid, never couthly or conformable, but +like a boy, who would moreover always be after Leonard Copeland, +whether he would or no. + +It was the more unfortunate, as Lord Salisbury lamented to his wife, +because the Copelands were devoted to the Somerset faction; and the +King had been labouring to reconcile them to the Dacres, and to bring +about a contract of marriage between these two unfortunate children, +but he feared that whatever he could do, there would only be +additional feud and bitterness, though it was clear that the mishap +was accidental. The Lord of Whitburn himself was in Ireland with the +Duke of York, while his lady was in attendance on the young Queen, +and it was judged right and seemly to despatch to her a courier with +the tidings of her daughter's disaster, although in point of fact, +where a house could number sons, damsels were not thought of great +value, except as the means of being allied with other houses. A +message was also sent to Sir William Copeland that his son had been +the death of the daughter of Whitburn; for poor little Grisell lay +moaning in a state of much fever and great suffering, so that the +Lady Salisbury could not look at her, nor hear her sighs and sobs +without tears, and the barber-surgeon, unaccustomed to the effects of +gunpowder, had little or no hope of her life. + +Leonard Copeland's mood was sullen, not to say surly. He submitted +to the chastisement without a word or cry, for blows were the lot of +boys of all ranks, and were dealt out without much respect to +justice; and he also had to endure a sort of captivity, in a dismal +little circular room in a turret of the manorial house, with merely a +narrow loophole to look out from, and this was only accessible by +climbing up a steep broken slope of brick-work in the thickness of +the wall. + +Here, however, he was visited by his chief friend and comrade, Edmund +Plantagenet of York, who found him lying on the floor, building up +fragments of stone and mortar into the plan of a castle. + +"How dost thou, Leonard?" he asked. "Did old Hal strike very hard?" + +"I reck not," growled Leonard. + +"How long will my uncle keep thee here?" asked Edmund sympathisingly. + +"Till my father comes, unless the foolish wench should go and die. +She brought it on me, the peevish girl. She is always after me when +I want her least." + +"Yea, is not she contracted to thee?" + +"So they say; but at least this puts a stop to my being plagued with +her--do what they may to me. There's an end to it, if I hang for +it." + +"They would never hang thee." + +"None knows what you traitor folk of Nevil would do to a loyal +house," growled Leonard. + +"Traitor, saidst thou," cried Edmund, clenching his fists. "'Tis thy +base Somerset crew that be the traitors." + +"I'll brook no such word from thee," burst forth Leonard, flying at +him. + +"Ha! ha!" laughed Edmund even as they grappled. "Who is the traitor +forsooth? Why, 'tis my father who should be King. 'Tis white-faced +Harry and his Beauforts--" + +The words were cut short by a blow from Leonard, and the warder +presently found the two boys rolling on the floor together in hot +contest. + +And meanwhile poor Grisell was trying to frame with her torn and +flayed cheeks and lips, "O lady, lady, visit it not on him! Let not +Leonard be punished. It was my fault for getting into his way when I +should have been in the garden. Dear Madge, canst thou speak for +him?" + +Madge was Edmund's sister, Margaret of York, who stood trembling and +crying by Grisell's bed. + + + +CHAPTER II--THE BROKEN MATCH + + + +The Earl of Salisbury, called Prudence. + +Contemporary Poem. + +Little Grisell Dacre did not die, though day after day she lay in a +suffering condition, tenderly watched over by the Countess Alice. +Her mother had been summoned from attendance on the Queen, but at +first there only was returned a message that if the maid was dead she +should be embalmed and sent north to be buried in the family vault, +when her father would be at all charges. Moreover, that the boy +should be called to account for his crime, his father being, as the +Lady of Whitburn caused to be written, an evil-minded minion and +fosterer of the house of Somerset, the very bane of the King and the +enemies of the noble Duke of York and Earl of Warwick. + +The story will be clearer if it is understood that the Earl of +Salisbury was Richard Nevil, one of the large family of Nevil of Raby +Castle in Westmoreland, and had obtained his title by marriage with +Alice Montagu, heiress of that earldom. His youngest sister had +married Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, who being descended from +Lionel, Duke of Clarence, was considered to have a better right to +the throne than the house of Lancaster, though this had never been +put forward since the earlier years of Henry V. + +Salisbury had several sons. The eldest had married Anne Beauchamp, +and was in her right Earl of Warwick, and had estates larger even +than those of his father. He had not, however, as yet come forward, +and the disputes at Court were running high between the friends of +the Duke of Somerset and those of the Duke of York. + +The King and Queen both were known to prefer the house of Somerset, +who were the more nearly related to Henry, and the more inclined to +uphold royalty, while York was considered as the champion of the +people. The gentle King and the Beauforts wished for peace with +France; the nation, and with them York, thought this was giving up +honour, land, and plunder, and suspected the Queen, as a Frenchwoman, +of truckling to the enemy. Jack Cade's rising and the murder of the +Duke of Suffolk had been the outcome of this feeling. Indeed, Lord +Salisbury's messenger reported the Country about London to be in so +disturbed a state that it was no wonder that the Lady of Whitburn did +not make the journey. She was not, as the Countess suspected, a very +tender mother. Grisell's moans were far more frequently for her +nurse than for her, but after some space they ceased. The child +became capable of opening first one eye, then the other, and both +barber and lady perceived that she was really unscathed in any vital +part, and was on the way to recovery, though apparently with +hopelessly injured features. + +Leonard Copeland had already been released from restraint, and +allowed to resume his usual place among the Earl's pages; when the +warder announced that he saw two parties approaching from opposite +sides of the down, one as if from Salisbury, the other from the +north; and presently he reported that the former wore the family +badge, a white rosette, the latter none at all, whence it was +perceived that the latter were adherents of the Beauforts of +Somerset, for though the "Rose of Snow" had been already adopted by +York, Somerset had in point of fact not plucked the Red Rose in the +Temple gardens, nor was it as yet the badge of Lancaster. + +Presently it was further reported that the Lady of Whitburn was in +the fore front of the party, and the Lord of Salisbury hastened to +receive her at the gates, his suite being rapidly put into some +order. + +She was a tall, rugged-faced North Country dame, not very smooth of +speech, and she returned his salute with somewhat rough courtesy, +demanding as she sprang off her horse with little aid, "Lives my +wench still?" + +"Yes, madam, she lives, and the leech trusts that she will yet be +healed." + +"Ah! Methought you would have sent to me if aught further had +befallen her. Be that as it may, no doubt you have given the +malapert boy his deserts." + +"I hope I have, madam," began the Earl. "I kept him in close ward +while she was in peril of death, but--" A fresh bugle blast +interrupted him, as there clattered through the resounding gate the +other troop, at sight of whom the Lady of Whitburn drew herself up, +redoubling her grim dignity, and turning it into indignation as a +young page rushed forward to meet the newcomers, with a cry of +"Father! Lord Father, come at last;" then composing himself, doffed +his cap and held the stirrup, then bent a knee for his father's +blessing. + +"You told me, Lord Earl, the mischievous, murderous fellow was in +safe hold," said the lady, bending her dark brows. + +"While the maid was in peril," hastily answered Salisbury. "Pardon +me, madam, my Countess will attend you." + +The Countess's high rank and great power were impressive to the +Baroness of Whitburn, who bent in salutation, but almost her first +words were, "Madam, you at least will not let the murderous traitors +of Somerset and the Queen prevail over the loyal friends of York and +the nation." + +"There is happily no murder in the case. Praise be to the saints," +said Countess Alice, "your little maid--" + +"Aye, that's what they said as to the poor good Duke Humfrey," +returned the irate lady; "but that you, madam, the good-sister of the +noble York, should stand up for the enemies of him, and the friends +of France, is more than a plain North Country woman like me can +understand. And there--there, turning round upon the steep steps, +there is my Lord Earl hand and glove with that minion fellow of +Somerset, who was no doubt at the bottom of the plot! None would +believe it at Raby." + +"None at Raby would believe that my lord could be lacking in courtesy +to a guest," returned Lady Salisbury with dignity, "nor that a North +Country dame could expect it of him. Those who are under his roof +must respect it by fitting demeanour towards one another." + +The Lady of Whitburn was quenched for the time, and the Countess +asked whether she did not wish to see her daughter, leading the way +to a chamber hung with tapestry, and with a great curtained bed +nearly filling it up, for the patient had been installed in one of +the best guest-chambers of the Castle. Lady Whitburn was surprised, +but was too proud to show herself gratified by what she thought was +the due of the dignity of the Dacres. An old woman in a hood sat by +the bed, where there was a heap of clothes, and a dark-haired little +girl stood by the window, whence she had been describing the arrivals +in the Castle court. + +"Here is your mother, my poor child," began the Lady of Salisbury, +but there was no token of joy. Grisell gave a little gasp, and tried +to say "Lady Mother, pardon--" but the Lady of Whitburn, at sight of +the reddened half of the face which alone was as yet visible, gave a +cry, "She will be a fright! You evil little baggage, thus to get +yourself scarred and made hideous! Running where you ought not, I +warrant!" and she put out her hand as if to shake the patient, but +the Countess interposed, and her niece Margaret gave a little cry. +"Grisell is still very weak and feeble! She cannot bear much; we +have only just by Heaven's grace brought her round." + +"As well she were dead as like this," cried this untender parent. +"Who is to find her a husband now? and as to a nunnery, where is one +to take her without a dower such as is hard to find, with two sons to +be fitly provided? I looked that in a household like this, better +rule should be kept." + +"None can mourn it more than myself and the Earl," said the gentle +Countess; "but young folks can scarce be watched hour by hour." + +"The rod is all that is good for them, and I trusted to you to give +it them, madam," said Lady Whitburn. "Now, the least that can be +done is to force yonder malapert lad and his father into keeping his +contract to her, since he has spoilt the market for any other." + +"Is he contracted to her?" asked the Countess. + +"Not fully; but as you know yourself, lady, your lord, and the King, +and all the rest, thought to heal the breach between the houses by +planning a contract between their son and my daughter. He shall keep +it now, at his peril." + +Grisell was cowering among her pillows, and no one knew how much she +heard or understood. The Countess was glad to get Lady Whitburn out +of the room, but both she and her Earl had a very trying evening, in +trying to keep the peace between the two parents. Sir William +Copeland was devoted to the Somerset family, of whom he held his +manor; and had had a furious quarrel with the Baron of Whitburn, when +both were serving in France. + +The gentle King had tried to bring about a reconciliation, and had +induced the two fathers to consent to a contract for the future +marriage of Leonard, Copeland's second son, to Grisell Dacre, then +the only child of the Lord of Whitburn. He had also obtained that +the two children should be bred up in the household of the Earl of +Salisbury, by way of letting them grow up together. On the same +principle the Lady of Whitburn had been made one of the attendants of +Queen Margaret--but neither arrangement had been more successful than +most of those of poor King Henry. + +Grisell indeed considered Leonard as a sort of property of hers, but +she beset him in the manner that boys are apt to resent from younger +girls, and when he was thirteen, and she ten years old, there was +very little affection on his side. Moreover, the birth of two +brothers had rendered Grisell's hand a far less desirable prize in +the eyes of the Copelands. + +To attend on the Court was penance to the North Country dame, used to +a hardy rough life in her sea-side tower, with absolute rule, and no +hand over her save her husband's; while the young and outspoken +Queen, bred up in the graceful, poetical Court of Aix or Nancy, +looked on her as no better than a barbarian, and if she did not show +this openly, reporters were not wanting to tell her that the Queen +called her the great northern hag, or that her rugged unwilling +curtsey was said to look as if she were stooping to draw water at a +well. Her husband had kept her in some restraint, but when be had +gone to Ireland with the Duke of York, offences seemed to multiply +upon her. The last had been that when she had tripped on her train, +dropped the salver wherewith she was serving the Queen, and broken +out with a loud "Lawk a daisy!" all the ladies, and Margaret herself, +had gone into fits of uncontrollable laughter, and the Queen had +begged her to render her exclamation into good French for her +benefit. + +"Madam," she had exclaimed, "if a plain woman's plain English be not +good enough for you, she can have no call here!" And without further +ceremony she had flown out of the royal presence. + +Margaret of Anjou, naturally offended, and never politic, had sent +her a message, that her attendance was no longer required. So here +she was going out of her way to make a casual inquiry, from the Court +at Winchester, whether that very unimportant article, her only +daughter, were dead or alive. + +The Earl absolutely prohibited all conversation on affairs in debate +during the supper which was spread in the hall, with quite as much +state as, and even greater profusion and splendour, than was to be +found at Windsor, Winchester, or Westminster. All the high born sat +on the dais, raised on two steps with gorgeous tapestry behind, and a +canopy overhead; the Earl and Countess on chairs in the centre of the +long narrow table. Lady Whitburn sat beside the Earl, Sir William +Copeland by the Countess, watching with pleasure how deftly his son +ran about among the pages, carrying the trenchers of food, and the +cups. He entered on a conversation with the Countess, telling her of +the King's interest and delight in his beautiful freshly-founded +Colleges at Eton and Cambridge, how the King rode down whenever he +could to see the boys, listen to them at their tasks in the +cloisters, watch them at their sports in the playing fields, and join +in their devotions in the Chapel--a most holy example for them. + +"Ay, for such as seek to be monks and shavelings," broke in the North +Country voice sarcastically. + +"There are others--sons of gentlemen and esquires--lodged in houses +around," said Sir William, "who are not meant for cowl or for mass- +priests." + +"Yea, forsooth," called Lady Whitburn across the Earl and the +Countess, "what for but to make them as feckless as the priests, +unfit to handle lance or sword!" + +"So, lady, you think that the same hand cannot wield pen and lance," +said the Earl. + +"I should like to see one of your clerks on a Border foray," laughed +the Dame of Dacre. "'Tis all a device of the Frenchwoman!" + +"Verily?" said the Earl, in an interrogative tone. + +"Ay, to take away the strength and might of Englishmen with this +clerkly lore, so that her folk may have the better of them in France; +and the poor, witless King gives in to her. And so while the +Beauforts rule the roast--" + +Salisbury caught her up. "Ay, the roast. Will you partake of these +roast partridges, madam?" + +They were brought round skewered on a long spit, held by a page for +the guest to help herself. Whether by her awkwardness or that of the +boy, it so chanced that the bird made a sudden leap from the +impalement, and deposited itself in the lap of Lady Whitburn's +scarlet kirtle! The fact was proclaimed by her loud rude cry, "A +murrain on thee, thou ne'er-do-weel lad," together with a sounding +box on the ear. + +"'Tis thine own greed, who dost not--" + +"Leonard, be still--know thy manners," cried both at once the Earl +and Sir William, for, unfortunately, the offender was no other than +Leonard Copeland, and, contrary to all the laws of pagedom, he was +too angry not to argue the point. "'Twas no doing of mine! She knew +not how to cut the bird." + +Answering again was a far greater fault than the first, and his +father only treated it as his just desert when he was ordered off +under the squire in charge to be soundly scourged, all the more +sharply for his continuing to mutter, "It was her fault." + +And sore and furrowed as was his back, he continued to exclaim, when +his friend Edmund of York came to condole with him as usual in all +his scrapes, "'Tis she that should have been scourged for clumsiness! +A foul, uncouth Border dame! Well, one blessing at least is that now +I shall never be wedded to her daughter--let the wench live or die as +she lists!" + +That was not by any means the opinion of the Lady of Whitburn, and no +sooner was the meal ended than, in the midst of the hall, the debate +began, the Lady declaring that in all honour Sir William Copeland was +bound to affiance his son instantly to her poor daughter, all the +more since the injuries he had inflicted to her face could never be +done away with. On the other hand, Sir William Copeland was +naturally far less likely to accept such a daughter-in-law, since her +chances of being an heiress had ceased, and he contended that he had +never absolutely accepted the contract, and that there had been no +betrothal of the children. + +The Earl of Salisbury could not but think that a strictly honourable +man would have felt poor Grisell's disaster inflicted by his son's +hands all the more reason for holding to the former understanding; +but the loud clamours and rude language of Lady Whitburn were enough +to set any one in opposition to her, and moreover, the words he said +in favour of her side of the question appeared to Copeland merely +spoken out of the general enmity of the Nevils to the Beauforts and +all their following. + +Thus, all the evening Lady Whitburn raged, and appealed to the Earl, +whose support she thought cool and unfriendly, while Copeland stood +sullen and silent, but determined. + +"My lord," she said, "were you a true friend to York and Raby, you +would deal with this scowling fellow as we should on the Border." + +"We are not on the Border, madam," quietly said Salisbury. + +"But you are in your own Castle, and can force him to keep faith. No +contract, forsooth! I hate your mincing South Country forms of law." +Then perhaps irritated by a little ironical smile which Salisbury +could not suppress. "Is this your castle, or is it not? Then bring +him and his lad to my poor wench's side, and see their troth +plighted, or lay him by the heels in the lowest cell in your dungeon. +Then will you do good service to the King and the Duke of York, whom +you talk of loving in your shilly-shally fashion." + +"Madam," said the Earl, his grave tones coming in contrast to the +shrill notes of the angry woman, "I counsel you, in the south at +least, to have some respect to these same forms of law. I bid you a +fair good-night. The chamberlain will marshal you." + + + +CHAPTER III--THE MIRROR + + + +"Of all the maids, the foulest maid + From Teviot unto Dee. +Ah!" sighing said that lady then, + "Can ne'er young Harden's be." + +SCOTT, The Reiver's Wedding. + +"They are gone," said Margaret of York, standing half dressed at the +deep-set window of the chamber where Grisell lay in state in her big +bed. + +"Who are gone?" asked Grisell, turning as well as she could under the +great heraldically-embroidered covering. + +"Leonard Copeland and his father. Did'st not hear the horses' tramp +in the court?" + +"I thought it was only my lord's horses going to the water." + +"It was the Copelands going off without breaking their fast or taking +a stirrup cup, like discourteous rogues as they be," said Margaret, +in no measured language. + +"And are they gone? And wherefore?" asked Grisell. + +"Wherefore? but for fear my noble uncle of Salisbury should hold them +to their contract. Sir William sat as surly as a bear just about to +be baited, while thy mother rated and raved at him like a very +sleuth-hound on the chase. And Leonard--what think'st thou he saith? +"That he would as soon wed the loathly lady as thee," the cruel +Somerset villain as he is; and yet my brother Edmund is fain to love +him. So off they are gone, like recreant curs as they are, lest my +uncle should make them hear reason." + +"But Lady Madge, dear Lady Madge, am I so very loathly?" asked poor +Grisell. + +"Mine aunt of Salisbury bade that none should tell thee," responded +Margaret, in some confusion. + +"Ah me! I must know sooner or later! My mother, she shrieked at +sight of me!" + +"I would not have your mother," said the outspoken daughter of "proud +Cis." "My Lady Duchess mother is stern enough if we do not bridle +our heads, and if we make ourselves too friendly with the meine, but +she never frets nor rates us, and does not heed so long as we do not +demean ourselves unlike our royal blood. She is no termagant like +yours." + +It was not polite, but Grisell had not seen enough of her mother to +be very sensitive on her account. In fact, she was chiefly occupied +with what she had heard about her own appearance--a matter which had +not occurred to her before in all her suffering. She returned again +to entreat Margaret to tell her whether she was so foully ill- +favoured that no one could look at her, and the damsel of York, +adhering to the letter rather young than the spirit of the cautions +which she had received, pursed up her lips and reiterated that she +had been commanded not to mention the subject. + +"Then," entreated Grisell, "do--do, dear Madge--only bring me the +little hand mirror out of my Lady Countess's chamber." + +"I know not that I can or may." + +"Only for the space of one Ave," reiterated Grisell. + +"My lady aunt would never--" + +"There--hark--there's the bell for mass. Thou canst run into her +chamber when she and the tirewomen are gone down." + +"But I must be there." + +"Thou canst catch them up after. They will only think thee a slug-a- +bed. Madge, dear Madge, prithee, I cannot rest without. Weeping +will be worse for me." + +She was crying, and caressing Margaret so vehemently that she gained +her point. Indeed the other girl was afraid of her sobs being heard, +and inquired into, and therefore promised to make the attempt, +keeping a watch out of sight till she had seen the Lady of Salisbury +in her padded head-gear of gold net, and long purple train, sweep +down the stair, followed by her tirewomen and maidens of every +degree. Then darting into the chamber, she bore away from a stage +where lay the articles of the toilette, a little silver-backed and +handled Venetian mirror, with beautiful tracery in silvered glass +diminishing the very small oval left for personal reflection and +inspection. That, however, was quite enough and too much for poor +Grisell when Lady Margaret had thrown it to her on her bed, and +rushed down the stair so as to come in the rear of the household just +in time. + +A glance at the mirror disclosed, not the fair rosy face, set in +light yellow curls, that Grisell had now and then peeped at in a +bucket of water or a polished breast-plate, but a piteous sight. One +half, as she expected, was hidden by bandages, but the other was +fiery red, except that from the corner of the eye to the ear there +was a purple scar; the upper lip was distorted, the hair, eyebrows, +and lashes were all gone! The poor child was found in an agony of +sobbing when, after the service, the old woman who acted as her nurse +came stumping up in her wooden clogs to set the chamber and bed in +order for Lady Whitburn's visit. + +The dame was in hot haste to get home. Rumours were rife as to +Scottish invasions, and her tower was not too far south not to need +to be on its guard. Her plan was to pack Grisell on a small litter +slung to a sumpter mule, and she snorted a kind of defiant contempt +when the Countess, backed by the household barber-surgeon, declared +the proceeding barbarous and impossible. Indeed she had probably +forgotten that Grisell was far too tall to be made up into the bundle +she intended; but she then declared that the wench might ride pillion +behind old Diccon, and she would not be convinced till she was taken +up to the sick chamber. There the first sound that greeted them was +a choking agony of sobs and moans, while the tirewoman stood over the +bed, exclaiming, "Aye, no wonder; it serves thee right, thou evil +wench, filching my Lady Countess's mirror from her very chamber, when +it might have been broken for all thanks to thee. The Venice glass +that the merchant gave her! Thou art not so fair a sight, I trow, as +to be in haste to see thyself. At the bottom of all the scathe in +the Castle! We shall be well rid of thee." + +So loud was the objurgation of the tirewoman that she did not hear +the approach of her mistress, nor indeed the first words of the +Countess, "Hush, Maudlin, the poor child is not to be thus rated! +Silence!" + +"See, my lady, what she has done to your ladyship's Venice glass, +which she never should have touched. She must have run to your +chamber while you were at mass. All false her feigning to be so sick +and feeble." + +"Ay," replied Lady Whitburn, "she must up--don her clothes, and away +with me." + +"Hush, I pray you, madam. How, how, Grisell, my poor child. Call +Master Miles, Maudlin! Give me that water." The Countess was +raising the poor child in her arms, and against her bosom, for the +shock of that glance in the mirror, followed by the maid's harsh +reproaches, and fright at the arrival of the two ladies, had brought +on a choking, hysterical sort of convulsive fit, and the poor girl +writhed and gasped on Lady Salisbury's breast, while her mother +exclaimed, "Heed her not, Lady; it is all put on to hinder me from +taking her home. If she could go stealing to your room--" + +"No, no," broke out a weeping, frightened voice. "It was I, Lady +Aunt. You bade me never tell her how her poor face looked, and when +she begged and prayed me, I did not say, but I fetched the mirror. +Oh! oh! It has not been the death of her." + +"Nay, nay, by God's blessing! Take away the glass, Margaret. Go and +tell thy beads, child; thou hast done much scathe unwittingly! Ah, +Master Miles, come to the poor maid's aid. Canst do aught for her?" + +"These humours must be drawn off, my lady," said the barber-surgeon, +who advanced to the bed, and felt the pulse of the poor little +patient. "I must let her blood." + +Maudlin, whose charge she was, came to his help, and Countess Alice +still held her up, while, after the practice of those days, he bled +the already almost unconscious child, till she fainted and was laid +down again on her pillows, under the keeping of Maudlin, while the +clanging of the great bell called the family down to the meal which +broke fast, whether to be called breakfast or dinner. + +It was plain that Grisell was in no state to be taken on a journey, +and her mother went grumbling down the stair at the unchancy bairn +always doing scathe. + +Lord Salisbury, beside whom she sat, courteously, though perhaps +hardly willingly, invited her to remain till her daughter was ready +to move. + +"Nay, my Lord, I am beholden to you, but I may scarce do that. I be +sorely needed at Whitburn Tower. The knaves go all agee when both my +lord and myself have our backs turned, and my lad bairns--worth a +dozen of yon whining maid--should no longer be left to old Cuthbert +Ridley and Nurse. Now the Queen and Somerset have their way 'tis all +misrule, and who knows what the Scots may do?" + +"There are Nevils and Dacres enough between Whitburn and the Border," +observed the Earl gravely. However, the visitor was not such an +agreeable one as to make him anxious to press her stay beyond what +hospitality demanded, and his wife could not bear to think of giving +over her poor little patient to such usage as she would have met with +on the journey. + +Lady Whitburn was overheard saying that those who had mauled the maid +might mend her, if they could; and accordingly she acquiesced, not +too graciously, when the Countess promised to tend the child like her +own, and send her by and by to Whitburn under a safe escort; and as +Middleham Castle lay on the way to Whitburn, it was likely that means +would be found of bringing or sending her. + +This settled, Lady Whitburn was restless to depart, so as to reach a +hostel before night. + +She donned her camlet cloak and hood, and looked once more in upon +Grisell, who after her loss of blood, had, on reviving, been made to +swallow a draught of which an infusion of poppy heads formed a great +part, so that she lay, breathing heavily, in a deep sleep, moaning +now and then. Her mother did not scruple to try to rouse her with +calls of "Grizzy! Look up, wench!" but could elicit nothing but a +half turn on the pillow, and a little louder moan, and Master Miles, +who was still watching, absolutely refused to let his patient be +touched or shaken. + +"Well a day!" said Lady Whitburn, softened for a moment, "what the +Saints will must be, I trow; but it is hard, and I shall let St. +Cuthbert of Durham know it, that after all the candles I have given +him, he should have let my poor maid be so mauled and marred, and +then forsaken by the rascal who did it, so that she will never be +aught but a dead weight on my two fair sons! The least he can do for +me now is to give me my revenge upon that lurdane runaway knight and +his son. But he hath no care for lassies. Mayhap St. Hilda may +serve me better." + +Wherewith the Lady of Whitburn tramped down stairs. It may be feared +that in the ignorance in which northern valleys were left she was +very little more enlightened in her ideas of what would please the +Saints, or what they could do for her, than were the old heathen of +some unknown antiquity who used to worship in the mysterious circles +of stones which lay on the downs of Amesbury. + + + +CHAPTER IV--PARTING + + + +There in the holy house at Almesbury +Weeping, none with her save a little maid. + +TENNYSON, Idylls of the King. + +The agitations of that day had made Grisell so much worse that her +mind hardly awoke again to anything but present suffering from fever, +and in consequence the aggravation of the wounds on her neck and +cheek. She used to moan now and then "Don't take me away!" or cower +in terror, "She is coming!" being her cry, or sometimes "So foul and +loathly." She hung again between life and death, and most of those +around thought death would be far better for the poor child, but the +Countess and the Chaplain still held to the faith that she must be +reserved for some great purpose if she survived so much. + +Great families with all their train used to move from one castle or +manor to another so soon as they had eaten up all the produce of one +place, and the time had come when the Nevils must perforce quit +Amesbury. Grisell was in no state for a long journey; she was +exceedingly weak, and as fast as one wound in her face and neck +healed another began to break out, so that often she could hardly +eat, and whether she would ever have the use of her left eye was +doubtful. + +Master Miles was at his wits' end, Maudlin was weary of waiting on +her, and so in truth was every one except the good Countess, and she +could not always be with the sufferer, nor could she carry such a +patient to London, whither her lord was summoned to support his +brother-in-law, the Duke of York, against the Duke of Somerset. + +The only delay was caused by the having to receive the newly- +appointed Bishop, Richard Beauchamp, who had been translated from his +former see at Hereford on the murder of his predecessor, William +Ayscough, by some of Jack Cade's party. + +In full splendour he came, with a train of chaplains and cross- +bearers, and the clergy of Salisbury sent a deputation to meet him, +and to arrange with him for his reception and installation. It was +then that the Countess heard that there was a nun at Wilton Abbey so +skilled in the treatment of wounds and sores that she was thought to +work miracles, being likewise a very holy woman. + +The Earl and Countess would accompany the new bishop to be present at +his enthronement and the ensuing banquet, and the lady made this an +opportunity of riding to the convent on her way back, consulting the +Abbess, whom she had long known, and likewise seeing Sister Avice, +and requesting that her poor little guest might be received and +treated there. + +There was no chance of a refusal, for the great nobles were +sovereigns in their own domains; the Countess owned half Wiltshire, +and was much loved and honoured in all the religious houses for her +devotion and beneficence. + +The nuns were only too happy to undertake to receive the demoiselle +Grisell Dacre of Whitburn, or any other whom my Lady Countess would +entrust to them, and the Abbess had no doubt that Sister Avice could +effect a cure. + +Lady Salisbury dreaded that Grisell should lie awake all night +crying, so she said nothing till her whirlicote, as the carriage of +those days was called, was actually being prepared, and then she went +to the chamber where the poor child had spent five months, and where +she was now sitting dressed, but propped up on a sort of settle, and +with half her face still bandaged. + +"My little maid, this is well," said the Countess. "Come with me. I +am going to take thee to a kind and holy dame who will, I trust, with +the blessing of Heaven, be able to heal thee better than we have +done." + +"Oh, lady, lady, do not send me away!" cried Grisell; "not from you +and Madge." + +"My child, I must do so; I am going away myself, with my lord, and +Madge is to go back with her brother to her father the Duke. Thou +couldst not brook the journey, and I will take thee myself to the +good Sister Avice." + +"A nun, a nunnery," sighed Grisell. "Oh! I shall be mewed up there +and never come forth again! Do not, I pray, do not, good my lady, +send me thither!" + +Perhaps my lady thought that to remain for life in a convent might be +the fate, and perhaps the happiest, of the poor blighted girl, but +she only told her that there was no reason she should not leave +Wilton, as she was not put there to take the vows, but only to be +cured. + +Long nursing had made Grisell unreasonable, and she cried as much as +she dared over the order; but no child ventured to make much +resistance to elders in those days, and especially not to the +Countess, so Grisell, a very poor little wasted being, was carried +down, and only delayed in the hall for an affectionate kiss from +Margaret of York. + +"And here is a keepsake, Grisell," she said. "Mine own beauteous +pouncet box, with the forget-me-nots in turquoises round each little +hole." + +"I will keep it for ever," said Grisell, and they parted, but not as +girls part who hope to meet again, and can write letters constantly, +but with tearful eyes and clinging hands, as little like to meet +again, or even to hear more of one another. + +The whirlicote was not much better than an ornamental waggon, and +Lady Salisbury, with the Mother of the Maids, did their best to +lessen the force of the jolts as by six stout horses it was dragged +over the chalk road over the downs, passing the wonderful stones of +Amesbury--a wider circle than even Stonehenge, though without the +triliths, i.e. the stones laid one over the tops of the other two +like a doorway. Grisell heard some thing murmured about Merlin and +Arthur and Guinevere, but she did not heed, and she was quite worn +out with fatigue by the time they reached the descent into the long +smooth valley where Wilton Abbey stood, and the spire of the +Cathedral could be seen rising tall and beautiful. + +The convent lay low, among meadows all shut in with fine elm trees, +and the cows belonging to the sisters were being driven home, their +bells tinkling. There was an outer court, within an arched gate kept +by a stout porter, and thus far came the whirlicote and the +Countess's attendants; but a lay porteress, in a cap and veil and +black dress, came out to receive her as the door of the carriage was +opened, and held out her arms to receive the muffled figure of the +little visitor. "Ah, poor maid," she said, "but Sister Avice will +soon heal her." + +At the deeply ornamented round archway of the inner gate to the +cloistered court stood the Lady Abbess, at the head of all her +sisters, drawn up in double line to receive the Countess, whom they +took to their refectory and to their chapel. + +Of this, however, Grisell saw nothing, for she had been taken into +the arms of a tall nun in a black veil. At first she shuddered and +would have screamed if she had been a little stronger and less tired, +for illness and weakness had brought back the babyish horror of +anything black; but she felt soothed by the sweet voice and tender +words, "Poor little one! she is fore spent. She shall lie down on a +soft bed, and have some sweet milk anon." + +Still a deadly feeling of faintness came upon her before she had been +carried to the little bed which had been made ready for her. When +she opened her eyes, while a spoon was held to her lips, the first +thing she saw was the sweetest, calmest, most motherly of faces bent +over her, one arm round her, the other giving her the spoon of some +cordial. She looked up and even smiled, though it was a sad +contorted smile, which brought a tear into the good sister's eyes; +but then she fell asleep, and only half awoke when the Countess came +up to see her for the last time, and bade her farewell with a kiss on +her forehead, and a charge to Sister Avice to watch her well, and be +tender with her. Indeed no one could look at Sister Avice's gentle +face and think there was much need of the charge. + +Sister Avice was one of the women who seem to be especially born for +the gentlest tasks of womanhood. She might have been an excellent +wife and mother, but from the very hour of her birth she had been +vowed to be a nun in gratitude on her mother's part for her father's +safety at Agincourt. She had been placed at Wilton when almost a +baby, and had never gone farther from it than on very rare occasions +to the Cathedral at Salisbury; but she had grown up with a wonderful +instinct for nursing and healing, and had a curious insight into the +properties of herbs, as well as a soft deft hand and touch, so that +for some years she had been sister infirmarer, and moreover the sick +were often brought to the gates for her counsel, treatment, or, as +some believed, even her healing touch. + +When Grisell awoke she was alone in the long, large, low room, which +was really built over the Norman cloister. The walls were of pale +creamy stone, but at the end where she lay there were hangings of +faded tapestry. At one end there was a window, through the thick +glass of which could be dimly seen, as Grisell raised herself a +little, beautiful trees, and the splendid spire of the Cathedral +rising, as she dreamily thought, like a finger pointing upwards. +Nearer were several more narrow windows along the side of the room, +and that beside her bed had the lattice open, so that she saw a +sloping green bank, with a river at the foot; and there was a trim +garden between. Opposite to her there seemed to be another window +with a curtain drawn across it, through which came what perhaps had +wakened her, a low, clear murmuring tone, pausing and broken by the +full, sweet, if rather shrill response in women's voices. Beneath +that window was a little altar, with a crucifix and two candlesticks, +a holy-water stoup by the side, and there was above the little deep +window a carving of the Blessed Virgin with the Holy Child, on either +side a niche, one with a figure of a nun holding a taper, the other +of a bishop with a book. + +Grisell might have begun crying again at finding herself alone, but +the sweet chanting lulled her, and she lay back on her pillows, half +dozing but quite content, except that the wound on her neck felt +stiff and dry; and by and by when the chanting ceased, the kind nun, +with a lay sister, came back again carrying water and other +appliances, at sight of which Grisell shuddered, for Master Miles +never touched her without putting her to pain. + +"Benedicite, my little maid, thou art awake," said Sister Avice. "I +thought thou wouldst sleep till the vespers were ended. Now let us +dress these sad wounds of thine, and thou shalt sleep again." + +Grisell submitted, as she knew she must, but to her surprise Sister +Avice's touch was as soft and soothing as were her words, and the +ointment she applied was fragrant and delicious and did not burn or +hurt her. + +She looked up gratefully, and murmured her thanks, and then the +evening meal was brought in, and she sat up to partake of it on the +seat of the window looking out on the Cathedral spire. It was a milk +posset far more nicely flavoured than what she had been used to at +Amesbury, where, in spite of the Countess's kindness, the master cook +had grown tired of any special service for the Dacre wench; and +unless Margaret of York secured fruit for her, she was apt to be +regaled with only the scraps that Maudlin managed to cater for her +after the meals were over. + +After that, Sister Avice gently undressed her, took care that she +said her prayers, and sat by her till she fell asleep, herself +telling her that she should sleep beside her, and that she would hear +the voices of the sisters singing in the chapel their matins and +lauds. Grisell did hear them, as in a dream, but she had not slept +so well since her disaster as she slept on that night. + + + +CHAPTER V--SISTER AVICE + + + +Love, to her ear, was but a name +Combined with vanity and shame; +Her hopes, her fears, her joys, were all +Bounded within the cloister wall. + +SCOTT, Marmion. + +Sister Avice sat in the infirmary, diligently picking the leaves off +a large mass of wood-sorrel which had been brought to her by the +children around, to make therewith a conserve. + +Grisell lay on her couch. She had been dressed, and had knelt at the +window, where the curtain was drawn back while mass was said by the +Chaplain, the nuns kneeling in their order and making their +responses. It was a low-browed chapel of Norman or even older days, +with circular arches and heavy round piers, and so dark that the +gleam of the candles was needed to light it. + +Grisell watched, till tired with kneeling she went back to her couch, +slept a little, and then wondered to see Sister Avice still +compounding her simples. + +She moved wearily, and sighed for Madge to come in and tell her all +the news of Amesbury--who was riding at the ring, or who had shot the +best bolt, or who had had her work picked out as not neat or well +shaded enough. + +Sister Avice came and shook up her pillow, and gave her a dried plum +and a little milk, and began to talk to her. + +"You will soon be better," she said, "and then you will be able to +play in the garden." + +"Is there any playfellow for me?" asked Grisell. + +"There is a little maid from Bemerton, who comes daily to learn her +hornbook and her sampler. Mayhap she will stay and play with you." + +"I had Madge at Amesbury; I shall love no one as well as Madge! See +what she gave me." + +Grisell displayed her pouncet box, which was duly admired, and then +she asked wearily whether she should always have to stay in the +convent. + +"Oh no, not of need," said the sister. "Many a maiden who has been +here for a time has gone out into the world, but some love this home +the best, as I have done." + +"Did yonder nun on the wall?" asked Grisell. + +"Yea, truly. She was bred here, and never left it, though she was a +King's daughter. Edith was her name, and two days after Holy Cross +day we shall keep her feast. Shall I tell you her story?" + +"Prithee, prithee!" exclaimed Grisell. "I love a tale dearly." + +Sister Avice told the legend, how St. Edith grew in love and +tenderness at Wilton, and how she loved the gliding river and the +flowers in the garden, and how all loved her, her young playmates +especially. She promised one who went away to be wedded that she +would be godmother to her first little daughter, but ere the daughter +was born the saintly Edith had died. The babe was carried to be +christened in the font at Winchester Cathedral, and by a great and +holy man, no other than Alphegius, who was then Bishop of Winchester, +but was made Archbishop of Canterbury, and died a holy martyr. + +"Then," said Sister Avice, "there was a great marvel, for among the +sponsors around the square black font there stood another figure in +the dress of our Mother Abbess, and as the Bishop spake and said, +"Bear this taper, in token that thy lamp shall be alight when the +Bridegroom cometh," the form held the torch, shining bright, clear, +and like no candle or light on earth ever shone, and the face was the +face of the holy Edith. It is even said that she held the babe, but +that I know not, being a spirit without a body, but she spake the +name, her own name Edith. And when the holy rite was over, she had +vanished away." + +"And that is she, with the lamp in her hand? Oh, I should have been +afraid!" cried Grisell. + +"Not of the holy soul?" said the sister. + +"Oh! I hope she will never come in here, by the little window into +the church," cried Grisell trembling. + +Indeed, for some time, in spite of all Sister Avice could say, +Grisell could not at night be free from the fear of a visit from St. +Edith, who, as she was told, slept her long sleep in the church +below. It may be feared that one chief reliance was on the fact that +she could not be holy enough for a vision of the Saint, but this was +not so valuable to her as the touch of Sister Avice's kind hand, or +the very knowing her present. + +That story was the prelude to many more. Grisell wanted to hear it +over again, and then who was the Archbishop martyr, and who were the +Virgins in memory of whom the lamps were carried. Both these, and +many another history, parable, or legend were told her by Sister +Avice, training her soul, throughout the long recovery, which was +still very slow, but was becoming more confirmed every day. Grisell +could use her eye, turn her head, and the wounds closed healthily +under the sister's treatment without showing symptoms of breaking out +afresh; and she grew in strength likewise, first taking a walk in the +trim garden and orchard, and by and by being pronounced able to join +the other girl scholars of the convent. Only here was the first +demur. Her looks did not recover with her health. She remained with +a much-seamed neck, and a terrible scar across each cheek, on one +side purple, and her eyebrows were entirely gone. + +She seemed to have forgotten the matter while she was entirely in the +infirmary, with no companion but Sister Avice, and occasionally a lay +sister, who came to help; but the first time she went down the turret +stair into the cloister--a beautiful succession of arches round a +green court--she met a novice and a girl about her own age; the elder +gave a little scream at the sight and ran away. + +The other hung back. "Mary, come hither," said Sister Avice. "This +is Grisell Dacre, who hath suffered so much. Wilt thou not come and +kiss and welcome her?" + +Mary came forward rather reluctantly, but Grisell drew up her head +within, "Oh, if you had liefer not!" and turned her back on the girl. + +Sister Avice followed as Grisell walked away as fast as her weakness +allowed, and found her sitting breathless at the third step on the +stairs. + +"Oh, no--go away--don't bring her. Every one will hate me," sobbed +the poor child. + +Avice could only gather her into her arms, though embraces were +against the strict rule of Benedictine nuns, and soothe and coax her +to believe that by one at least she was not hated. + +"I had forgotten," said Grisell. "I saw myself once at Amesbury! but +my face was not well then. Let me see again, sister! Where's a +mirror?" + +"Ah! my child, we nuns are not allowed the use of worldly things like +mirrors; I never saw one in my life." + +"But oh, for pity's sake, tell me what like am I. Am I so loathly?" + +"Nay, my dear maid, I love thee too well to think of aught save that +thou art mine own little one, given back to us by the will of Heaven. +Aye, and so will others think of thee, if thou art good and loving to +them." + +"Nay, nay, none will ever love me! All will hate and flee from me, +as from a basilisk or cockatrice, or the Loathly Worm of +Spindlesheugh," sobbed Grisell. + +"Then, my maid, thou must win them back by thy sweet words and kind +deeds. They are better than looks. And here too they shall soon +think only of what thou art, not of what thou look'st." + +"But know you, sister, how--how I should have been married to Leonard +Copeland, the very youth that did me this despite, and he is fair and +beauteous as a very angel, and I did love him so, and now he and his +father rid away from Amesbury, and left me because I am so foul to +see," cried Grisell, between her sobs. + +"If they could treat thee thus despiteously, he would surely not have +made thee a good husband," reasoned the sister. + +"But I shall never have a husband now," wailed Grisell. + +"Belike not," said Sister Avice; "but, my sweetheart, there is better +peace and rest and cheer in such a home as this holy house, than in +the toils and labours of the world. When my sisters at Dunbridge and +Dinton come to see me they look old and careworn, and are full of +tales of the turmoil and trouble of husbands, and sons, and dues, and +tenants' fees, and villeins, and I know not what, that I often think +that even in this world's sense I am the best off. And far above and +beyond that," she added, in a low voice, "the virgin hath a hope, a +Spouse beyond all human thought." + +Grisell did not understand the thought, and still wept bitterly. +"Must she be a nun all her life?" was all she thought of, and the +shady cloister seemed to her like a sort of prison. Sister Avice had +to soothe and comfort her, till her tears were all spent, as so often +before, and she had cried herself so ill that she had to be taken +back to her bed and lie down again. It was some days before she +could be coaxed out again to encounter any companions. + +However, as time went on, health, and with it spirits and life, came +back to Grisell Dacre at Wilton, and she became accustomed to being +with the other inmates of the fine old convent, as they grew too much +used to her appearance to be startled or even to think about it. The +absence of mirrors prevented it from ever being brought before her, +and Sister Avice set herself to teach her how goodness, sweetness, +and kindness could endear any countenance, and indeed Grisell saw for +herself how much more loved was the old and very plain Mother Anne +than the very beautiful young Sister Isabel, who had been forced into +the convent by her tyrannical brother, and wore out her life in +fretting and rudeness to all who came in her way. She declared that +the sight of Grisell made her ill, and insisted that the veiled hood +which all the girls wore should be pulled forward whenever they came +near one another, and that Grisell's place should be out of her sight +in chapel or refectory. + +Every one else, however, was very kind to the poor girl, Sister Avice +especially so, and Grisell soon forgot her disfigurement when she +ceased to suffer from it. She had begun to learn reading, writing, +and a little Latin, besides spinning, stitchery, and a few +housewifely arts, in the Countess of Salisbury's household, for every +lady was supposed to be educated in these arts, and great +establishments were schools for the damsels there bred up. It was +the same with convent life, and each nunnery had traditional works of +its own, either in embroidery, cookery, or medicine. Some secrets +there were not imparted beyond the professed nuns, and only to the +more trustworthy of them, so that each sisterhood might have its own +especial glory in confections, whether in portrait-worked vestments, +in illuminations, in sweetmeats, or in salves and unguents; but the +pensioners were instructed in all those common arts of bakery, +needlework, notability, and surgery which made the lady of a castle +or manor so important, and within the last century in the more +fashionable abbeys Latin of a sort, French "of the school of +Stratford le Bowe," and the like, were added. Thus Grisell learnt as +an apt scholar these arts, and took especial delight in helping +Sister Avice to compound her simples, and acquired a tender hand with +which to apply them. + +Moreover, she learnt not only to say and sing her Breviary, but to +know the signification in English. There were translations of the +Lord's Prayer and Creed in the hands of all careful and thoughtful +people, even among the poor, if they had a good parish priest, or had +come under the influence of the better sort of friars. In convents +where discipline was kept up the meaning was carefully taught, and +there were English primers in the hands of all the devout, so that +the services could be intelligently followed even by those who did +not learn Latin, as did Grisell. Selections from Scripture history, +generally clothed in rhyme, and versified lives of the Saints, were +read aloud at meal-times in the refectory, and Grisell became so good +a reader that she was often chosen to chant out the sacred story, and +her sweet northern voice was much valued in the singing in the +church. She was quite at home there, and though too young to be +admitted as a novice, she wore a black dress and white hood like +theirs, and the annual gifts to the nunnery from the Countess of +Salisbury were held to entitle her to the residence there as a +pensioner. She had fully accepted the idea of spending her life +there, sheltered from the world, among the kind women whom she loved, +and who had learnt to love her, and in devotion to God, and works of +mercy to the sick. + + + +CHAPTER VI--THE PROCTOR + + + +But if a mannes soul were in his purse, +For in his purse he should yfurnished be. + +CHAUCER, Canterbury Pilgrims. + +Five years had passed since Grisell had been received at Wilton, when +the Abbess died. She had been infirm and confined to her lodging for +many months, and Grisell had hardly seen her, but her death was to +change the whole tenor of the maiden's life. + +The funeral ceremonies took place in full state. The Bishop himself +came to attend them, and likewise all the neighbouring clergy, and +the monks, friars, and nuns, overflowing the chapel, while peasants +and beggars for whom there was no room in the courts encamped outside +the walls, to receive the dole and pray for the soul of the right +reverend Mother Abbess. + +For nine days constant services were kept up, and the requiem mass +was daily said, the dirges daily sung, and the alms bestowed on the +crowd, who were by no means specially sorrowful or devout, but +beguiled the time by watching jongleurs and mountebanks performing +beyond the walls. + +There was the "Month's Mind" still to come, and then the chapter of +nuns intended to proceed to the election of their new Abbess, +unanimously agreeing that she should be their present Prioress, who +had held kindly rule over them through the slow to-decay of the late +Abbess. Before, however, this could be done a messenger arrived on a +mule bearing an inhibition to the sisters to proceed in the election. + +His holiness Pope Calixtus had reserved to himself the next +appointment to this as well as to certain other wealthy abbeys. + +The nuns in much distress appealed to the Bishop, but he could do +nothing for them. Such reservations had been constant in the +subservient days that followed King John's homage, and though the +great Edwards had struggled against them, and the yoke had been +shaken off during the Great Schism, no sooner had this been healed +than the former claims were revived, nay, redoubled, and the pious +Henry VI. was not the man to resist them. The sisters therefore +waited in suspense, daring only meekly to recommend their Prioress in +a humble letter, written by the Chaplain, and backed by a +recommendation from Bishop Beauchamp. Both alike were disregarded, +as all had expected. + +The new Abbess thus appointed was the Madre Matilda de Borgia, a +relation of Pope Calixtus, very noble, and of Spanish birth, as the +Commissioner assured the nuns; but they had never heard of her +before, and were not at all gratified. They had always elected their +Abbess before, and had quite made up their minds as to the choice of +the present Mother Prioress as Abbess, and of Sister Avice as +Prioress. + +However, they had only to submit. To appeal to the King or to their +Bishop would have been quite useless; they could only do as the Pope +commanded, and elect the Mother Matilda, consoling themselves with +the reflection that she was not likely to trouble herself about them, +and their old Prioress would govern them. And so she did so far as +regarded the discipline of the house, but what they had not so +entirely understood was the Mother de Borgia's desire to squeeze all +she could out of the revenues of the house. + +Her Proctor arrived, a little pinched man in a black gown and square +cap, and desired to see the Mother Prioress and her steward, and to +overlook the income and expenditure of the convent; to know who had +duly paid her dowry to the nunnery, what were the rents, and the +like. The sisters had already raised a considerable gift in silver +merks to be sent through Lombard merchants to their new Abbess, and +this requisition was a fresh blow. + +Presently the Proctor marked out Grisell Dacre, and asked on what +terms she was at the convent. It was explained that she had been +brought thither for her cure by the Lady of Salisbury, and had stayed +on, without fee or payment from her own home in the north, but the +ample donations of the Earl of Salisbury had been held as full +compensation, and it had been contemplated to send to the maiden's +family to obtain permission to enrol her as a sister after her +novitiate--which might soon begin, as she was fifteen years old. + +The Proctor, however, was much displeased. The nuns had no right to +receive a pensioner without payment, far less to admit a novice as a +sister without a dowry. + +Mistress Grisell must be returned instantly upon the hands either of +her own family or of the Countess of Salisbury, and certainly not +readmitted unless her dowry were paid. He scarcely consented to give +time for communication with the Countess, to consider how to dispose +of the poor child. + +The Prioress sent messengers to Amesbury and to Christ Church, but +the Earl and Countess were not there, nor was it clear where they +were likely to be. Whitburn was too far off to send to in the time +allowed by the Proctor, and Grisell had heard nothing from her home +all the time she had been at Wilton. The only thing that the +Prioress could devise, was to request the Chaplain to seek her out at +Salisbury a trustworthy escort, pilgrim, merchant or other, with whom +Grisell might safely travel to London, and if the Earl and Countess +were not there, some responsible person of theirs, or of their son's, +was sure to be found, who would send the maiden on. + +The Chaplain mounted his mule and rode over to Salisbury, whence he +returned, bringing with him news of a merchant's wife who was about +to go on pilgrimage to fulfil a vow at Walsingham, and would feel +herself honoured by acting as the convoy of the Lady Grisell Dacre as +far at least as London. + +There was no further hope of delay or failure. Poor Grisell must be +cast out on the world--the Proctor even spoke of calling the +Countess, or her steward, to account for her maintenance during these +five years. + +There was weeping and wailing in the cloisters at the parting, and +Grisell clung to Sister Avice, mourning for her peaceful, holy life. + +"Nay, my child, none can take from thee a holy life." + +"If I make a vow of virginity none can hinder me." + +"That was not what I meant. No maid has a right to take such a vow +on herself without consent of her father, nor is it binding +otherwise. No! but no one can take away from a Christian maid the +power of holiness. Bear that for ever in mind, sweetheart. Naught +that can be done by man or by devil to the body can hurt the soul +that is fixed on Christ and does not consent to evil." + +"The Saints forefend that ever--ever I should consent to evil." + +"It is the Blessed Spirit alone who can guard thy will, my child. +Will and soul not consenting nor being led astray thou art safe. +Nay, the lack of a fair-favoured face may be thy guard." + +"All will hate me. Alack! alack!" + +"Not so. See, thou hast won love amongst us. Wherefore shouldst not +thou in like manner win love among thine own people?" + +"My mother hates me already, and my father heeds me not." + +"Love them, child! Do them good offices! None can hinder thee from +that." + +"Can I love those who love not me?" + +"Yea, little one. To serve and tend another brings the heart to +love. Even as thou seest a poor dog love the master who beats him, +so it is with us, only with the higher Christian love. Service and +prayer open the heart to love, hoping for nothing again, and full oft +that which was not hoped for is vouchsafed." + +That was the comfort with which Grisell had to start from her home of +peace, conducted by the Chaplain, and even the Prioress, who would +herself give her into the hands of the good Mistress Hall. + +Very early they heard mass in the convent, and then rode along the +bank of the river, with the downs sloping down on the other side, and +the grand spire ever seeming as it were taller as they came nearer; +while the sound of the bells grew upon them, for there was then a +second tower beyond to hold the bells, whose reverberation would have +been dangerous to the spire, and most sweet was their chime, the +sound of which had indeed often reached Wilton in favourable winds; +but it sounded like a sad farewell to Grisell. + +The Prioress thought she ought to begin her journey by kneeling in +the Cathedral, so they crossed the shaded close and entered by the +west door with the long vista of clustered columns and pointed arches +before them. + +Low sounds of mass being said at different altars met their ears, for +it was still early in the day. The Prioress passed the length of +nave, and went beyond the choir to the lady chapel, with its slender +supporting columns and exquisite arches, and there she, with Grisell +by her side, joined in earnest supplications for the child. + +The Chaplain touched her as she rose, and made her aware that the +dame arrayed in a scarlet mantle and hood and dark riding-dress was +Mistress Hall. + +Silence was not observed in cathedrals or churches, especially in the +naves, except when any sacred rite was going on, and no sooner was +the mass finished and "Ite missa est" pronounced than the scarlet +cloak rose, and hastened into the south transept, where she waited +for the Chaplain, Prioress, and Grisell. No introduction seemed +needed. "The Holy Mother Prioress," she began, bending her knee and +kissing the lady's hand. "Much honoured am I by the charge of this +noble little lady." Grisell by the by was far taller than the plump +little goodwoman Hall, but that was no matter, and the Prioress had +barely space to get in a word of thanks before she went on: "I will +keep her and tend her as the apple of mine eye. She shall pray with +me at all the holy shrines for the good of her soul and mine. She +shall be my bedfellow wherever we halt, and sit next me, and be +cherished as though she were mine own daughter--ladybird as she is-- +till I can give her into the hands of the good Lady Countess. Oh +yes--you may trust Joan Hall, dame reverend mother. She is no new +traveller. I have been in my time to all our shrines--to St. Thomas +of Canterbury, to St. Winifred's Well, aye, and, moreover, to St. +James of Compostella, and St. Martha of Provence, not to speak of +lesser chantries and Saints. Aye, and I crossed the sea to see the +holy coat of Treves, and St. Ursula's eleven thousand skulls--and a +gruesome sight they were. Nay, if the Lady Countess be not in London +it would cost me little to go on to the north with her. There's St. +Andrew of Ely, Hugh, great St. Hugh and little St. Hugh, both of them +at Lincoln, and there's St. Wilfred of York, and St. John of Beverly, +not to speak of St. Cuthbert of Durham and of St. Hilda of Whitby, +who might take it ill if I pray at none of their altars, when I have +been to so many of their brethren. Oh, you may trust me, reverend +mother; I'll never have the young lady, bless her sweet face, out of +my sight till I have safe bestowed her with my Lady Countess, our +good customer for all manner of hardware, or else with her own kin." + +The good woman's stream of conversation lasted almost without drawing +breath all the way down the nave. It was a most good-humoured hearty +voice, and her plump figure and rosy face beamed with good nature, +while her bright black eyes had a lively glance. + +The Chaplain had inquired about her, and found that she was one of +the good women to whom pilgrimage was an annual dissipation, +consecrated and meritorious as they fondly believed, and gratifying +their desire for change and variety. She was a kindly person of good +reputation, trustworthy, and kind to the poor, and stout John Hall, +her husband, could manage the business alone, and was thought not to +regret a little reprieve from her continual tongue. + +She wanted the Prioress to do her the honour of breaking her fast +with her, but the good nun was in haste to return, after having once +seen her charge in safe hands, and excused herself, while Grisell, +blessed by the Chaplain, and hiding her tears under her veil, was led +away to the substantial smith's abode, where she was to take a first +meal before starting on her journey on the strong forest pony which +the Chaplain's care had provided for her. + + + +CHAPTER VII--THE PILGRIM OF SALISBURY + + + +She hadde passed many a strange shrine, +At Rome she had been and at Boleine, +At Galice, at St. James, and at Coleine, +She could moche of wandering by the way. + +CHAUCER, Canterbury Pilgrims. + +Grisell found herself brought into a hall where a stout oak table +occupied the centre, covered with home-spun napery, on which stood +trenchers, wooden bowls, pewter and a few silver cups, and several +large pitchers of ale, small beer, or milk. A pie and a large piece +of bacon, also a loaf of barley bread and a smaller wheaten one, were +there. + +Shelves all round the walls shone with pewter and copper dishes, +cups, kettles, and vessels and implements of all household varieties, +and ranged round the floor lay ploughshares, axes, and mattocks, all +polished up. The ring of hammers on the anvil was heard in the court +in the rear. The front of the hall was open for the most part, +without windows, but it could be closed at night. + +Breakfast was never a regular meal, and the household had partaken of +it, so that there was no one in the hall excepting Master Hall, a +stout, brawny, grizzled man, with a good-humoured face, and his son, +more slim, but growing into his likeness, also a young notable- +looking daughter-in-law with a swaddled baby tucked under her arm. + +They seated Grisell at the table, and implored her to eat. The +wheaten bread and the fowl were, it seemed, provided in her honour, +and she could not but take her little knife from the sheath in her +girdle, turn back her nun-like veil, and prepare to try to drive back +her sobs, and swallow the milk of almonds pressed on her. + +"Eh!" cried the daughter-in-law in amaze. "She's only scarred after +all." + +"Well, what else should she be, bless her poor heart?" said Mrs. Hall +the elder. + +"Why, wasn't it thou thyself, good mother, that brought home word +that they had the pig-faced lady at Wilton there?" + +"Bless thee, Agnes, thou should'st know better than to lend an ear to +all the idle tales thy poor old mother may hear at market or fair." + +"Then should we have enough to do," muttered her husband. + +"And as thou seest, 'tis a sweet little face, only cruelly marred by +the evil hap." + +Poor Grisell was crimson at finding all eyes on her, an ordeal she +had never undergone in the convent, and she hastily pulled forward +her veil. + +"Nay now, my sweet young lady, take not the idle words in ill part," +pleaded the good hostess. "We all know how to love thee, and what is +a smooth skin to a true heart? Take a bit more of the pasty, +ladybird; we'll have far to ride ere we get to Wherwell, where the +good sisters will give us a meal for young St. Edward's sake and thy +Prioress's. Aye--I turn out of my way for that; I never yet paid my +devotion to poor young King Edward, and he might take it in dudgeon, +being a king, and his shrine so near at hand." + +"Ha, ha!" laughed the smith; "trust my dame for being on the right +side of the account with the Saints. Well for me and Jack that we +have little Agnes here to mind the things on earth meanwhile. Nay, +nay, dame, I say nought to hinder thee; I know too well what it means +when spring comes, and thou beginn'st to moan and tell up the tale of +the shrines where thou hast not told thy beads." + +It was all in good humour, and Master Hall walked out to the city +gate to speed his gad-about or pious wife, whichever he might call +her, on her way, apparently quite content to let her go on her +pilgrimages for the summer quarter. + +She rode a stout mule, and was attended by two sturdy varlets--quite +sufficient guards for pilgrims, who were not supposed to carry any +valuables. Grisell sadly rode her pony, keeping her veil well over +her face, yearning over the last view of the beloved spire, thinking +of Sister Avice ministering to her poor, and with a very definite +fear of her own reception in the world and dread of her welcome at +home. Yet there was a joy in being on horseback once more, for her +who had ridden moorland ponies as soon as she could walk. + +Goodwife Hall talked on, with anecdotes of every hamlet that they +passed, and these were not very many. At each church they dismounted +and said their prayers, and if there were a hostel near, they let +their animals feed the while, and obtained some refreshment +themselves. England was not a very safe place for travellers just +then, but the cockle-shells sewn to the pilgrim's hat of the dame, +and to that of one of her attendants, and the tall staff and wallet +each carried, were passports of security. Nothing could be kinder +than Mistress Hall was to her charge, of whom she was really proud, +and when they halted for the night at the nunnery of Queen Elfrida at +Wherwell, she took care to explain that this was no burgess's +daughter but the Lady Grisell Dacre of Whitburn, trusted to HER +convoy, and thus obtained for her quarters in the guest-chamber of +the refectory instead of in the general hospitium; but on the whole +Grisell had rather not have been exposed to the shock of being shown +to strangers, even kindly ones, for even if they did not exclaim, +some one was sure to start and whisper. + +After another halt for the night the travellers reached London, and +learned at the city gate that the Earl and Countess of Salisbury were +absent, but that their eldest son, the Earl of Warwick, was keeping +court at Warwick House. + +Thither therefore Mistress Hall resolved to conduct Grisell. The way +lay through narrow streets with houses overhanging the roadway, but +the house itself was like a separate castle, walled round, enclosing +a huge space, and with a great arched porter's lodge, where various +men-at-arms lounged, all adorned on the arm of their red jackets with +the bear and ragged staff. + +They were courteous, however, for the Earl Richard of Warwick +insisted on civility to all comers, and they respected the scallop- +shell on the dame's hat. They greeted her good-humouredly. + +"Ha, good-day, good pilgrim wife. Art bound for St. Paul's? Here's +supper to the fore for all comers!" + +"Thanks, sir porter, but this maid is of other mould; she is the Lady +Grisell Dacre, and is company for my lord and my lady." + +"Nay, her hood and veil look like company for the Abbess. Come this +way, dame, and we will find the steward to marshal her." + +Grisell had rather have been left to the guardianship of her kind old +friend, but she was obliged to follow. They dismounted in a fine +court with cloister-like buildings round it, and full of people of +all kinds, for no less than six hundred stout yeomen wore red coats +and the bear and ragged staff. Grisell would fain have clung to her +guide, but she was not allowed to do so. She was marshalled up stone +steps into a great hall, where tables were being laid, covered with +white napery and glittering with silver and pewter. + +The seneschal marched before her all the length of the hall to where +there was a large fireplace with a burning log, summer though it was, +and shut off by handsome tapestried and carved screens sat a half +circle of ladies, with a young-looking lady in a velvet fur-trimmed +surcoat in their midst. A tall man with a keen, resolute face, in +long robes and gold belt and chain, stood by her leaning on her +chair. + +The seneschal announced, "Place, place for the Lady Grisell Dacre of +Whitburn," and Grisell bent low, putting back as much of her veil as +she felt courtesy absolutely to require. The lady rose, the knight +held out his hand to raise the bending figure. He had that power of +recollection and recognition which is so great an element in +popularity. "The Lady Grisell Dacre," he said. "She who met with so +sad a disaster when she was one of my lady mother's household?" + +Grisell glowing all over signed acquiescence, and he went on, +"Welcome to my poor house, lady. Let me present you to my wife." + +The Countess of Warwick was a pale, somewhat inane lady. She was the +heiress of the Beauchamps and De Spensers in consequence of the +recent death of her brother, "the King of the Isle of Wight"--and +through her inheritance her husband had risen to his great power. +She was delicate and feeble, almost apathetic, and she followed her +husband's lead, and received her guest with fair courtesy; and +Grisell ventured in a trembling voice to explain that she had spent +those years at Wilton, but that the new Abbess's Proctor would not +consent to her remaining there any longer, not even long enough to +send to her parents or to the Countess of Salisbury. + +"Poor maiden! Such are the ways of his Holiness where the King is +not man enough to stand in his way," said Warwick. "So, fair maiden, +if you will honour my house for a few days, as my lady's guest, I +will send you north in more fitting guise than with this white-smith +dame." + +"She hath been very good to me," Grisell ventured to add to her +thanks. + +"She shall have good entertainment here," said the Earl smiling. "No +doubt she hath already, as Sarum born. See that Goodwife Hall, the +white smith's wife, and her following have the best of harbouring," +he added to his silver-chained steward. + +"You are a Dacre of Whitburn," he added to Grisell. "Your father has +not taken sides with Dacre of Gilsland and the Percies." Then seeing +that Grisell knew nothing of all this, he laughed and said, "Little +convent birds, you know nought of our worldly strifes." + +In fact, Grisell had heard nothing from her home for the last five +years, which was the less marvel as neither her father nor her mother +could write if they had cared to do so. Nor did the convent know +much of the state of England, though prayers had been constantly said +for the King's recovery, and of late there had been thanksgivings for +the birth of the Prince of Wales; but it was as much as she did know +that just now the Duke of York was governing, for the poor King +seemed as senseless as a stone, and the Earl of Salisbury was his +Chancellor. Nevertheless Salisbury was absent in the north, and +there was a quarrel going on between the Nevils and the Percies which +Warwick was going to compose, and thus would be able to take Grisell +so far in his company. + +The great household was larger than even what she remembered at the +houses of the Countess of Salisbury before her accident, and, fresh +from the stillness of the convent as she was, the noises were amazing +to her when all sat down to supper. Tables were laid all along the +vast hall. She was placed at the upper one to her relief, beside an +old lady, Dame Gresford, whom she remembered to have seen at +Montacute Castle in her childhood, as one of the attendants on the +Countess. She was forced to put back her veil, and she saw some of +the young knights and squires staring at her, then nudging one +another and laughing. + +"Never mind them, sweetheart," said Dame Gresford kindly; "they are +but unmannerly lurdanes, and the Lord Earl would make them know what +is befitting if his eye fell on them." + +The good lady must have had a hint from the authorities, for she kept +Grisell under her wing in the huge household, which was like a city +in itself. There was a knight who acted as steward, with innumerable +knights, squires, and pages under him, besides the six hundred red +jacketed yoemen, and servants of all degrees, in the immense court of +the buttery and kitchen, as indeed there had need to be, for six oxen +were daily cooked, with sheep and other meats in proportion, and any +friend or acquaintance of any one in this huge establishment might +come in, and not only eat and drink his fill, but carry off as much +meat as he could on the point of his dagger. + +Goodwife Hall, as coming from Salisbury, stayed there in free +quarters, while she made the round of all the shrines in London, and +she was intensely gratified by the great Earl recollecting, or +appearing to recollect, her and inquiring after her husband, that +hearty burgess, whose pewter was so lasting, and he was sure was +still in use among his black guard. + +When she saw Grisell on finally departing for St. Albans, she was +carrying her head a good deal higher on the strength of "my Lord +Earl's grace to her." She hoped that her sweet Lady Grisell would +remain here, as the best hap she could have in the most noble, +excellent, and open-handed house in the world! Grisell's own wishes +were not the same, for the great household was very bewildering--a +strange change from her quietly-busy convent. The Countess was quiet +enough, but dull and sickly, and chiefly occupied by her ailments. +She seemed to be always thinking about leeches, wise friars, +wonderful nuns, or even wizards and cunning women, and was much +concerned that her husband absolutely forbade her consulting the +witch of Spitalfields. + +"Nay, dame," said he, "an thou didst, the next thing we should hear +would be that thou hadst been sticking pins into King Harry's waxen +image and roasting him before the fire, and that nothing but roasting +thee in life and limb within a fire would bring him to life and +reason." + +"They would never dare," cried the lady. + +"Who can tell what the Queen would dare if she gets her will!" +demanded the Earl. "Wouldst like to do penance with sheet and +candle, like Gloucester's wife?" + +Such a possibility was enough to silence the Lady of Warwick on the +score of witches, and the only time she spoke to Grisell was to ask +her about Sister Avice and her cures. She set herself to persuade +her husband to let her go down to one of his mother's Wiltshire +houses to consult the nun, but Warwick had business in the north, nor +would he allow her to be separated from him, lest she might be +detained as a hostage. + +Dame Gresford continued to be Grisell's protector, and let the girl +sit and spin or embroider beside her, while the other ladies of the +house played at ball in the court, or watched the exercises of the +pages and squires. The dame's presence and authority prevented +Grisell's being beset with uncivil remarks, but she knew she was like +a toad among the butterflies, as she overheard some saucy youth +calling her, while a laugh answered him, and she longed for her +convent. + + + +CHAPTER VIII--OLD PLAYFELLOWS + + + + Alone thou goest forth, + Thy face unto the north, +Moor and pleasance all around thee and beneath thee. + +E. BARRETT BROWNING, A Valediction. + +One great pleasure fell to Grisell's share, but only too brief. The +family of the Duke of York on their way to Baynard's Castle halted at +Warwick House, and the Duchess Cecily, tall, fair, and stately, +sailed into the hall, followed by three fair daughters, while +Warwick, her nephew, though nearly of the same age, advanced with his +wife to meet and receive her. + +In the midst of the exchange of affectionate but formal greetings a +cry of joy was heard, "My Grisell! yes, it is my Grisell!" and +springing from the midst of her mother's suite, Margaret Plantagenet, +a tall, lovely, dark-haired girl, threw her arms round the thin +slight maiden with the scarred face, which excited the scorn and +surprise of her two sisters. + +"Margaret! What means this?" demanded the Duchess severely. + +"It is my Grisell Dacre, fair mother, my dear companion at my aunt of +Salisbury's manor," said Margaret, trying to lead forward her +shrinking friend. "She who was so cruelly scathed." + +Grisell curtsied low, but still hung back, and Lord Warwick briefly +explained. "Daughter to Will Dacre of Whitburn, a staunch baron of +the north. My mother bestowed her at Wilton, whence the creature of +the Pope's intruding Abbess has taken upon him to expel her. So I am +about to take her to Middleham, where my mother may see to her +further bestowal." + +"We have even now come from Middleham," said the Duchess. "My Lord +Duke sent for me, but he looks to you, my lord, to compose the strife +between your father and the insolent Percies." + +The Duke was at Windsor with the poor insane King, and the Earl and +the Duchess plunged into a discussion of the latest news of the +northern counties and of the Court. The elder daughters were +languidly entertained by the Countess, but no one disturbed the +interview of Margaret and Grisell, who, hand in hand, had withdrawn +into the embrasure of a window, and there fondled each other, and +exchanged tidings of their young lives, and Margaret told of friends +in the Nevil household. + +All too soon the interview came to an end. The Duchess, after +partaking of a manchet, was ready to proceed to Baynard's Castle, and +the Lady Margaret was called for. Again, in spite of surprised, not +to say displeased looks, she embraced her dear old playfellow. +"Don't go into a convent, Grisell," she entreated. "When I am wedded +to some great earl, you must come and be my lady, mine own, own dear +friend. Promise me! Your pledge, Grisell." + +There was no time for the pledge. Margaret was peremptorily +summoned. They would not meet again. The Duchess's intelligence had +quickened Warwick's departure, and the next day the first start +northwards was to be made. + +It was a mighty cavalcade. The black guard, namely, the kitchen +menage, with all their pots and pans, kettles and spits, were sent on +a day's march beforehand, then came the yeomen, the knights and +squires, followed by the more immediate attendants of the Earl and +Countess and their court. She travelled in a whirlicote, and there +were others provided for her elder ladies, the rest riding singly or +on pillions according to age or taste. Grisell did not like to part +with her pony, and Dame Gresford preferred a pillion to the bumps and +jolts of the waggon-like conveyances called chariots, so Grisell rode +by her side, the fresh spring breezes bringing back the sense of +being really a northern maid, and she threw back her veil whenever +she was alone with the attendants, who were used to her, though she +drew it closely round when she encountered town or village. There +were resting-places on the way. In great monasteries all were +accommodated, being used to close quarters; in castles there was room +for the "Gentles," who, if they fared well, heeded little how they +slept, and their attendants found lairs in the kitchens or stables. +In towns there was generally harbour for the noble portion; indeed in +some, Warwick had dwellings of his own, or his father's, but these, +at first, were at long distances apart, such as would be ridden by +horsemen alone, not encumbered with ladies, and there were +intermediate stages, where some of the party had to be dispersed in +hostels. + +It was in one of these, at Dunstable, that Dame Gresford had taken +Grisell, and there were also sundry of the gentlemen of the escort. +A minstrel was esconced under the wide spread of the chimney, and +began to sound his harp and sing long ballads in recitative to the +company. Whether he did it in all innocence and ignorance, or one of +the young squires had mischievously prompted him, there was no +knowing; Dame Gresford suspected the latter, when he began the ballad +of "Sir Gawaine's Wedding." She would have silenced it, but feared +to draw more attention on her charge, who had never heard the song, +and did not know what was coming, but listened with increasing +eagerness as she heard of King Arthur, and of the giant, and the +secret that the King could not guess, till as he rode - + + +He came to the green forest, + Underneath a green hollen tree, +There sat that lady in red scarlet + That unseemly was to see. + + +Some eyes were discourteously turned on the maiden, but she hardly +saw them, and at any rate her nose was not crooked, nor had her eyes +and mouth changed places, as in the case of the "Loathly Lady." She +heard of the condition on which the lady revealed the secret, and how +King Arthur bound himself to bring a fair young knight to wed the +hideous being. Then when he revealed to his assembled knights - + + +Then some took up their hawks, + And some took up their hounds, +And some sware they would not marry her + For cities nor for towns. + + +Glances again went towards the scarred visage, but Grisell was +heedless of them, only listening how Sir Gawaine, Arthur's nephew, +felt that his uncle's oath must be kept, and offered himself as the +bridegroom. + +Then after the marriage, when he looked on the lady, instead of the +loathly hag he beheld a fair damsel! And he was told by her that he +might choose whether she should be foul at night and fair by day, or +fair each evening and frightful in the daylight hours. His choice at +first was that her beauty should be for him alone, in his home, but +when she objected that this would be hard on her, since she could +thus never show her face when other dames ride with their lords - + + +Then buke him gentle Gawayne, + Said, "Lady, that's but a shill; +Because thou art mine own lady + Thou shalt have all thy will." + + +And his courtesy broke the spell of the stepdame, as the lady related +- + + +"She witched me, being a fair young lady, + To the green forest to dwell, +And there must I walk in woman's likeness, + Most like a fiend in hell." + + +Thenceforth the enchantment was broken, and Sir Gawaine's bride was +fair to see. + +Grisell had listened intently, absorbed in the narrative, so losing +personal thought and feeling that it was startling to her to perceive +that Dame Gresford was trying to hush a rude laugh, and one of the +young squires was saying, "Hush, hush! for very shame." + +Then she saw that they were applying the story to her, and the blood +rushed into her face, but the more courteous youth was trying to turn +away attention by calling on the harper for "The Beggar of Bethnal +Green," or "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet," or any merry ballad. So it +was borne in on Grisell that to these young gentlemen she was the +lady unseemly to see. Yet though a few hot tears flowed, indignant +and sorrowful, the sanguine spirit of youth revived. "Sister Avice +had told her how to be not loathly in the sight of those whom she +could teach to love her." + +There was one bound by a pledge! Ah, he would never fulfil it. If +he should, Grisell felt a resolute purpose within her that though she +could not be transformed, he should not see her loathly in his sight, +and in that hope she slept. + + + +CHAPTER IX--THE KING-MAKER + + + +O where is faith? O where is loyalty? + +SHAKESPEARE, Henry VI., Part II. + +Grisell was disappointed in her hopes of seeing her Countess of +Salisbury again, for as she rode into the Castle of York she heard +the Earl's hearty voice of greeting. "Ha, stout Will of Whitburn, +well met! What, from the north?" + +The Earl stood talking with a tall brawny man, lean and strong, brown +and weather-beaten, in a frayed suit of buff leather stained to all +sorts of colours, in which rust predominated, and a face all brown +and red except for the grizzled eyebrows, hair, and stubbly beard. +She had not seen her father since she was five years old, and she +would not have known him. + +"I am from the south now, my lord," she heard his gruff voice say. +"I have been taking my lad to be bred up in the Duke of York's house, +for better nurture than can be had in my sea-side tower." + +"Quite right. Well done in you," responded Warwick. "The Duke of +York is the man to hold by. We have an exchange for you, a daughter +for a son," and he was leading the way towards Grisell, who had just +dismounted from her pony, and stood by it, trembling a little, and +bending for her father's blessing. It was not more than a crossing +of her, and he was talking all the time. + +"Ha! how now! Methought my Lady of Salisbury had bestowed her in the +Abbey--how call you it?" + +"Aye," returned Warwick; "but since we have not had King or +Parliament with spirit to stand up to the Pope, he thrusts his claw +in everywhere, puts a strange Abbess into Wilton, and what must she +do but send down her Proctor to treat the poor nunnery as it were a +sponge, and spite of all my Lady Mother's bounties to the place, what +lists he do but turn out the poor maid for lack of a dowry, not so +much as giving time for a notice to be sent." + +"If we had such a rogue in the North Country we should know how to +serve him," observed Sir William, and Warwick laughed as befitted a +Westmoreland Nevil, albeit he was used to more civilised ways. + +"Scurvy usage," he said, "but the Prioress had no choice save to put +her in such keeping as she could, and send her away to my Lady +Mother, or failing her to her home." + +"Soh! She must e'en jog off with me, though how it is to be with her +my lady may tell, not I, since every groat those villain yeomen and +fisher folk would raise, went to fit out young Rob, and there has not +been so much as a Border raid these four years and more. There are +the nuns at Gateshead, as hard as nails, will not hear of a maid +without a dower, and yonder mansworn fellow Copeland casts her off +like an old glove! Let us look at you, wench! Ha! Face is +unsightly enough, but thou wilt not be a badly-made woman. Take +heart, what's thy name--Grisell? May be there's luck for thee still, +though it be hard of coming to Whitburn," he added, turning to +Warwick. "There's this wench scorched to a cinder, enough to fright +one, and my other lad racked from head to foot with pain and sores, +so as it is a misery to hear the poor child cry out, and even if he +be reared, he will be good for nought save a convent." + +Grisell would fain have heard more about this poor little brother, +but the ladies were entering the castle, and she had to follow them. +She saw no more of her father except from the far end of the table, +but orders were issued that she should be ready to accompany him on +his homeward way the next morning at six o'clock. Her brother Robert +had been sent in charge of some of the Duke of York's retainers, to +join his household as a page, though they had missed him on the +route, and the Lord of Whitburn was anxious to get home again, never +being quite sure what the Scots, or the Percies, or his kinsmen of +Gilsland, might attempt in his absence. "Though," as he said, "my +lady was as good as a dozen men-at-arms, but somehow she had not been +the same woman since little Bernard had fallen sick." + +There was no one in the company with whom Grisell was very sorry to +part, for though Dame Gresford had been kind to her, it had been +merely the attending to the needs of a charge, not showing her any +affection, and she had shrunk from the eyes of so large a party. + +When she came down early into the hall, her father's half-dozen +retainers were taking their morning meal at one end of a big board, +while a manchet of bread and a silver cup of ale was ready for each +of them at the other, and her father while swallowing his was in deep +conversation over northern politics with the courteous Earl, who had +come down to speed his guests. As she passed the retainers she +heard, "Here comes our Grisly Grisell," and a smothered laugh, and in +fact "Grisly Grisell" continued to be her name among the free-spoken +people of the north. The Earl broke off, bowed to her, and saw that +she was provided, breaking into his conversation with the Baron, +evidently much to the impatience of the latter; and again the polite +noble came down to the door with her, and placed her on her palfrey, +bidding her a kind farewell ere she rode away with her father. It +would be long before she met with such courtesy again. Her father +called to his side his old, rugged-looking esquire Cuthbert Ridley, +and began discussing with him what Lord Warwick had said, both wholly +absorbed in the subject, and paying no attention to the girl who rode +by the Baron's side, so that it was well that her old infantine +training in horsemanship had come back to her. + +She remembered Cuthbert Ridley, who had carried her about and petted +her long ago, and, to her surprise, looked no older than he had done +in those days when he had seemed to her infinitely aged. Indeed it +was to him, far more than to her father, that she owed any attention +or care taken of her on the journey. Her father was not unkind, but +never seemed to recollect that she needed any more care than his +rough followers, and once or twice he and all his people rode off +headlong over the fell at sight of a stag roused by one of their +great deer-hounds. Then Cuthbert Ridley kept beside her, and when +the ground became too rough for a New Forest pony and a hand +unaccustomed to northern ground, he drew up. She would probably--if +not thrown and injured--have been left behind to feel herself lost on +the moors. She minded the less his somewhat rude ejaculation, "Ho! +Ho! South! South! Forgot how to back a horse on rough ground. Eh? +And what a poor soft-paced beast! Only fit to ride on my lady's +pilgrimage or in a State procession." + +(He said Gang, but neither the Old English nor the northern dialect +could be understood by the writer or the reader, and must be taken +for granted.) + +"They are all gone!" responded Grisell, rather frightened. + +"Never guessed you were not among them," replied Ridley. "Why, my +lady would be among the foremost, in at the death belike, if she did +not cut the throat of the quarry." + +Grisell could well believe it, but used to gentle nuns, she shuddered +a little as she asked what they were to do next. + +"Turn back to the track, and go softly on till my lord comes up with +us," answered Ridley. "Or you might be fain to rest under a rock for +a while." + +The rest was far from unwelcome, and Grisell sat down on a mossy +stone while Ridley gathered bracken for her shelter, and presently +even brought her a branch or two of whortle-berries. She felt that +she had a friend, and was pleased when he began to talk of how he +remembered her long ago. + +"Ah! I mind you, a little fat ball of a thing, when you were fetched +home from Herring Dick's house, how you used to run after the dogs +like a kitten after her tail, and used to crave to be put up on old +Black Durham's back." + +"I remember Black Durham! Had he not a white star on his forehead?" + +"A white blaze sure enough." + +"Is he at the tower still? I did not see him in the plump of +spears." + +"No, no, poor beast. He broke his leg four years ago come Martinmas, +in a rabbit-hole on Berwick Law, last raid that we made, and I +tarried to cut his throat with my dagger--though it went to my heart, +for his good old eyes looked at me like Christians, and my lord told +me I was a fool for my pains, for the Elliots were hard upon us, but +I could not leave him to be a mark for them, and I was up with the +rest in time, though I had to cut down the foremost lad." + +Certainly "home" would be very unlike the experience of Grisell's +education. + +Ridley gave her a piece of advice. "Do not be daunted at my lady; +her bark is ever worse than her bite, and what she will not bear with +is the seeming cowed before her. She is all the sharper with her +tongue now that her heart is sore for Master Bernard." + +"What ails my brother Bernard?" then asked Grisell anxiously. + +"The saints may know, but no man does, unless it was that Crooked Nan +of Strait Glen overlooked the poor child," returned the esquire. +"Ever since he fell into the red beck he hath done nought but peak +and pine, and be twisted with cramps and aches, with sores breaking +out on him; though there's a honeycomb-stone from Roker over his bed. +My lord took out all the retainers to lay hold on Crooked Nan, but +she got scent of it no doubt, for Jack of Burhill took his oath that +he had seen a muckle hare run up the glen that morn, and when we got +there she was not to be seen or heard of. We have heard of her in +the Gilsland ground, where they would all the sooner see a the young +lad of Whitburn crippled and a mere misery to see or hear." + +Grisell was quite as ready to believe in witchcraft as was the old +squire, and to tremble at their capacities for mischief. She asked +what nunneries were near, and was disappointed to find nothing within +easy reach. St. Cuthbert's diocese had not greatly favoured +womankind, and Whitby was far away. + +By and by her father came back, the thundering tramp of the horses +being heard in time enough for her to spring up and be mounted again +before he came in sight, the yeomen carrying the antlers and best +portions of the deer. + +"Left out, my wench," he shouted. "We must mount you better. Ho! +Cuthbert, thou a squire of dames? Ha! Ha!" + +"The maid could not be left to lose herself on the fells," muttered +the squire, rather ashamed of his courtesy. + +"She must get rid of nunnery breeding. We want no trim and dainty +lassies here," growled her father. "Look you, Ridley, that horse of +Hob's--" and the rest was lost in a discussion on horseflesh. + +Long rides, which almost exhausted Grisell, and halts in exceedingly +uncomfortable hostels, where she could hardly obtain tolerable +seclusion, brought her at last within reach of home. There was a +tall church tower and some wretched hovels round it. The Lord of +Whitburn halted, and blew his bugle with the peculiar note that +signified his own return, then all rode down to the old peel, the +outline of which Grisell saw with a sense of remembrance, against the +gray sea-line, with the little breaking, glancing waves, which she +now knew herself to have unconsciously wanted and missed for years +past. + +Whitburn Tower stood on the south side, on a steep cliff overlooking +the sea. The peel tower itself looked high and strong, but to +Grisell, accustomed to the widespread courts of the great castles and +abbeys of the south, the circuit of outbuildings seemed very narrow +and cramped, for truly there was need to have no more walls than +could be helped for the few defenders to guard. + +All was open now, and under the arched gateway, with the portcullis +over her head, fitly framing her, stood the tall, gaunt figure of the +lady, grayer, thinner, more haggard than when Grisell had last seen +her, and beside her, leaning on a crutch, a white-faced boy, small +and stunted for six years old. + +"Ha, dame! Ha, Bernard; how goes it?" shouted the Baron in his +gruff, hoarse voice. + +"He willed to come down to greet you, though he cannot hold your +stirrup," said the mother. "You are soon returned. Is all well with +Rob?" + +"O aye, I found Thorslan of Danby and a plump of spears on the way to +the Duke of York at Windsor. They say he will need all his following +if the Beauforts put it about that the King has recovered as much wit +as ever he had. So I e'en sent Rob on with him, and came back so as +to be ready in case there's a call for me. Soh! Berney; on thy feet +again? That's well, my lad; but we'll have thee up the steps." + +He seemed quite to have forgotten the presence of Grisell, and it was +Cuthbert Ridley who helped her off her horse, but just then little +Bernard in his father's arms exclaimed + +"Black nun woman!" + +"By St. Cuthbert!" cried the Baron, "I mind me! Here, wench! I have +brought back the maid in her brother's stead." + +And as Grisell, in obedience to his call, threw back her veil, +Bernard screamed, "Ugsome wench, send her away!" threw his arms round +his father's neck and hid his face with a babyish gesture. + +"Saints have mercy!" cried the mother, "thou hast not mended much +since I saw thee last. They that marred thee had best have kept +thee. Whatever shall we do with the maid?" + +"Send her away, the loathly thing," reiterated the boy, lifting up +his head from his father's shoulder for another glimpse, which +produced a puckering of the face in readiness for crying. + +"Nay, nay, Bernard," said Ridley, feeling for the poor girl and +speaking up for her when no one else would. "She is your sister, and +you must be a fond brother to her, for an ill-nurtured lad spoilt her +poor face when it was as fair as your own. Kiss your sister like a +good lad, and - + +"No! no!" shouted Bernard. "Take her away. I hate her." He began +to cry and kick. + +"Get out of his sight as fast as may be," commanded the mother, +alarmed by her sickly darling's paroxysm of passion. + +Grisell, scarce knowing where to go, could only allow herself to be +led away by Ridley, who, seeing her tears, tried to comfort her in +his rough way. "'Tis the petted bairn's way, you see, mistress--and +my lady has no thought save for him. He will get over it soon enough +when he learns your gentle convent-bred conditions." + +Still the cry of "Grisly Grisell," picked up as if by instinct or by +some echo from the rear of the escort, rang in her ears in the angry +fretful voice of the poor little creature towards whom her heart was +yearning. Even the two women-servants there were, no more looked at +her askance, as they took her to a seat in the hall, and consulted +where my lady would have her bestowed. She was wiping away bitter +tears as she heard her only friend Cuthbert settle the matter. "The +chamber within the solar is the place for the noble damsels." + +"That is full of old armour, and dried herrings, and stockfish." + +"Move them then! A fair greeting to give to my lord's daughter." + +There was some further muttering about a bed, and Grisell sprang up. +"Oh, hush! hush! I can sleep on a cloak; I have done so for many +nights. Only let me be no burthen. Show me where I can go to be an +anchoress, since they will not have me in a convent or anywhere," and +bitterly she wept. + +"Peace, peace, lady," said the squire kindly. "I will deal with +these ill-tongued lasses. Shame on them! Go off, and make the +chamber ready, or I'll find a scourge for you. And as to my lady-- +she is wrapped up in the sick bairn, but she has only to get used to +you to be friendly enough." + +"O what a hope in a mother," thought poor Grisell. "O that I were at +Wilton or some nunnery, where my looks would be pardoned! Mother +Avice, dear mother, what wouldst thou say to me now!" + +The peel tower had been the original building, and was still as it +were the citadel, but below had been built the very strong but narrow +castle court, containing the stables and the well, and likewise the +hall and kitchen--which were the dwelling and sleeping places of the +men of the household, excepting Cuthbert Ridley, who being of gentle +blood, would sit above the salt, and had his quarters with Rob when +at home in the tower. The solar was a room above the hall, where was +the great box-bed of the lord and lady, and a little bed for Bernard. + +Entered through it, in a small turret, was a chamber designed for the +daughters and maids, and this was rightly appropriated by Ridley to +the Lady Grisell. The two women-servants--Bell and Madge--were wives +to the cook and the castle smith, so the place had been disused and +made a receptacle for drying fish, fruit, and the like. Thus the +sudden call for its use provoked a storm of murmurs in no gentle +voices, and Grisell shrank into a corner of the hall, only wishing +she could efface herself. + +And as she looked out on the sea from her narrow window, it seemed to +her dismally gray, moaning, restless, and dreary. + + + +CHAPTER X--COLD WELCOME + + + +Seek not for others to love you, + But seek yourself to love them best, +And you shall find the secret true, + Of love and joy and rest. + +I. WILLIAMS. + +To lack beauty was a much more serious misfortune in the Middle Ages +than at present. Of course it was probable that there might be a +contract of marriage made entirely irrespective of attractiveness, +long before the development of either of the principal parties +concerned; but even then the rude, open-spoken husband would consider +himself absolved from any attention to an ill-favoured wife, and the +free tongues of her surroundings would not be slack to make her aware +of her defects. The cloister was the refuge of the unmarried woman, +if of gentle birth as a nun, if of a lower grade as a lay-sister; but +the fifteenth century was an age neither of religion nor of chivalry. +Dowers were more thought of than devotion in convents as elsewhere. +Whitby being one of the oldest and grandest foundations was sure to +be inaccessible to a high-born but unportioned girl, and Grisell in +her sense of loneliness saw nothing before her but to become an +anchoress, that is to say, a female hermit, such as generally lived +in strict seclusion under shelter of the Church. + +"There at least," thought poor Grisell, "there would be none to sting +me to the heart with those jeering eyes of theirs. And I might feel +in time that God and His Saints loved me, and not long for my father +and mother, and oh! my poor little brother--yes, and Leonard +Copeland, and Sister Avice, and the rest. But would Sister Avice +call this devotion? Nay, would she not say that these cruel eyes and +words are a cross upon me, and I must bear them and love in spite--at +least till I be old enough to choose for myself?" + +She was summoned to supper, and this increased the sense of +dreariness, for Bernard screamed that the grisly one should not come +near him, or he would not eat, and she had to take her meal of dried +fish and barley bread in the wide chimney corner, where there always +was a fire at every season of the year. + +Her chamber, which Cuthbert Ridley's exertions had compelled the +women to prepare for her, was--as seen in the light of the long +evening--a desolate place, within a turret, opening from the solar, +or chamber of her parents and Bernard, the loophole window devoid of +glass, though a shutter could be closed in bad weather, the walls +circular and of rough, untouched, unconcealed stone, a pallet bed-- +the only attempt at furniture, except one chest--and Grisell's own +mails tumbled down anyhow, and all pervaded by an ancient and fishy +smell. She felt too downhearted even to creep out and ask for a +pitcher of water. She took a long look over the gray, heaving sea, +and tired as she was, it was long before she could pray and cry +herself to sleep, and accustomed as she was to convent beds, this one +appeared to be stuffed with raw apples, and she awoke with aching +bones. + +Her request for a pitcher or pail of water was treated as southland +finery, for those who washed at all used the horse trough, but +fortunately for her Cuthbert Ridley heard the request. He had been +enough in the south in attendance on his master to know how young +damsels lived, and what treatment they met with, and he was soon +rating the women in no measured terms for the disrespect they had +presumed to show to the Lady Grisell, encouraged by the neglect of +her parents + +The Lord of Whitburn, appearing on the scene at the moment, backed up +his retainer, and made it plain that he intended his daughter to be +respected and obeyed, and the grumbling women had to submit. Nor did +he refuse to acknowledge, on Ridley's representation, that Grisell +ought to have an attendant of her own, and the lady of the castle, +coming down with Bernard clinging to her skirt with one hand, and +leaning on his crutch, consented. "If the maid was to be here, she +must be treated fitly, and Bell and Madge had enough to do without +convent-bred fancies." + +So Cuthbert descended the steep path to the ravine where dwelt the +fisher folk, and came back with a girl barefooted, bareheaded, with +long, streaming, lint-white locks, and the scantiest of garments, +crying bitterly with fright, and almost struggling to go back. She +was the orphan remnant of a family drowned in the bay, and was a +burthen on her fisher kindred, who were rejoiced thus to dispose of +her. + +She sobbed the more at sight of the grisly lady, and almost screamed +when Grisell smiled and tried to take her by the hand. Ridley fairly +drove her upstairs, step by step, and then shut her in with his young +lady, when she sank on the floor and hid her face under all her +bleached hair. + +"Poor little thing," thought Grisell; "it is like having a fresh- +caught sea-gull. She is as forlorn as I am, and more afraid!" + +So she began to speak gently and coaxingly, begging the girl to look +up, and assuring her that she would not be hurt. Grisell had a very +soft and persuasive voice. Her chief misfortune as regarded her +appearance was that the muscles of one cheek had been so drawn that +though she smiled sweetly with one side of her face, the other was +contracted and went awry, so that when the kind tones had made the +girl look up for a moment, the next she cried, "O don't--don't! Holy +Mary, forbid the spell!" + +"I have no spells, my poor maid; indeed I am only a poor girl, a +stranger here in my own home. Come, and do not fear me." + +"Madge said you had witches' marks on your face," sobbed the child. + +"Only the marks of gunpowder," said Grisell. "Listen, I will tell +thee what befell me." + +Gunpowder seemed to be quite beyond all experience of Whitburn +nature, but the history of the catastrophe gained attention, and the +girl's terror abated, so that Grisell could ask her name, which was +Thora, and learning, too, that she had led a hard life since her +granny died, and her uncle's wife beat her, and made her carry heavy +loads of seaweed when it froze her hands, besides a hundred other +troubles. As to knowing any kind of feminine art, she was as +ignorant as if the rough and extremely dirty woollen garment she +wore, belted round with a strip of leather, had grown upon her, and +though Grisell's own stock of garments was not extensive, she was +obliged, for very shame, to dress this strange attendant in what she +could best spare, as well as, in spite of sobs and screams, to wash +her face, hands, and feet, and it was wonderful how great a +difference this made in the wild creature by the time the clang of +the castle bell summoned all to the midday meal, when as before, +Bernard professed not to be able to look at his sister, but when she +had retreated he was seen spying at her through his fingers, with +great curiosity. + +Afterwards she went up to her mother to beg for a few necessaries for +herself and for her maid, and to offer to do some spinning. She was +not very graciously answered; but she was allowed an old frayed +horse-cloth on which Thora might sleep, and for the rest she might +see what she could find under the stairs in the turret, or in the +chest in the hall window. + +The broken, dilapidated fragments which seemed to Grisell mere +rubbish were treasures and wonders to Thora, and out of them she +picked enough to render her dreary chamber a very few degrees more +habitable. Thora would sleep there, and certainly their relations +were reversed, for carrying water was almost the only office she +performed at first, since Grisell had to dress her, and teach her to +keep herself in a tolerable state of neatness, and likewise how to +spin, luring her with the hope of spinning yarn for a new dress for +herself. As to prayers, her mind was a mere blank, though she said +something that sounded like a spell except that it began with +"Pater." She did not know who made her, and entirely believed in +Niord and Rana, the storm-gods of Norseland. Yet she had always been +to mass every Sunday morning. So went all the family at the castle +as a matter of course, but except when the sacring-bell hushed them, +the Baron freely discussed crops or fish with the tenants, and the +lady wrangled about dues of lambs, eggs, and fish. Grisell's +attention was a new thing, and the priest's pronunciation was so +defective to her ear that she could hardly follow. + +That first week Grisell had plenty of occupation in settling her room +and training her uncouth maid, who proved a much more apt scholar +than she had expected, and became devoted to her like a little +faithful dog. + +No one else took much notice of either, except that at times Cuthbert +Ridley showed himself to be willing to stand up for her. Her father +was out a great deal, hunting or hawking or holding consultations +with neighbouring knights or the men of Sunderland. Her mother, with +the loudest and most peremptory of voices, ruled over the castle, +ordered the men on their guards and at the stables, and the cook, +scullions, and other servants, but without much good effect as +household affairs were concerned, for the meals were as far removed +from the delicate, dainty serving of the simplest fast-day meal at +Wilton as from the sumptuous plenty and variety of Warwick house, and +Bernard often cried and could not eat. She longed to make up for him +one of the many appetising possets well known at Wilton, but her +mother and Ralf the cook both scouted her first proposal. They +wanted no south-bred meddlers over their fire. + +However, one evening when Bernard had been fretful and in pain, the +Baron had growled out that the child was cockered beyond all bearing, +and the mother had flown out at the unnatural father, and on his half +laughing at her doting ways, had actually rushed across with clenched +fist to box his ears; he had muttered that the pining brat and +shrewish dame made the house no place for him, and wandered out to +the society of his horses. Lady Whitburn, after exhaling her wrath +in abuse of him and all around, carried the child up to his bed. +There he was moaning, and she trying to soothe him, when, darkness +having put a stop to Grisell's spinning, she went to her chamber with +Thora. In passing, the moaning was still heard, and she even thought +her mother was crying. She ventured to approach and ask, "Fares he +no better? If I might rub that poor leg." + +But Bernard peevishly hid his face and whined, "Go away, Grisly," and +her mother exclaimed, "Away with you, I have enough to vex me here +without you." + +She could only retire as fast as possible, and her tears ran down her +face as in the long summer twilight she recited the evening offices, +the same in which Sister Avice was joining in Wilton chapel. Before +they were over she heard her father come up to bed, and in a harsh +and angered voice bid Bernard to be still. There was stillness for +some little time, but by and by the moaning and sobbing began again, +and there was a jangling between the gruff voice and the shrill one, +now thinner and weaker. Grisell felt that she must try again, and +crept out. "If I might rub him a little while, and you rest, Lady +Mother. He cannot see me now." + +She prevailed, or rather the poor mother's utter weariness and +dejection did, together with the father's growl, "Let her bring us +peace if she can." + +Lady Whitburn let her kneel down by the bed, and guided her hand to +the aching thigh. + +"Soft! Soft! Good! Good!" muttered Bernard presently. "Go on!" + +Grisell had acquired something of that strange almost magical touch +of Sister Avice, and Bernard lay still under her hand. Her mother, +who was quite worn out, moved to her own bed, and fell asleep, while +the snores of the Baron proclaimed him to have been long appeased. +The boy, too, presently was breathing softly, and Grisell's attitude +relaxed, as her prayers and her dreams mingled together, and by and +by, what she thought was the organ in Wilton chapel, and the light of +St. Edith's taper, proved to be the musical rush of the incoming +tide, and the golden sunrise over the sea, while all lay sound asleep +around her, and she ventured gently to withdraw into her own room. + +That night was Grisell's victory, though Bernard still held aloof +from her all the ensuing day, when he was really the better and +fresher for his long sleep, but at bed-time, when as usual the pain +came on, he wailed for her to rub him, and as it was still daylight, +and her father had gone out in one of the boats to fish, she ventured +on singing to him, as she rubbed, to his great delight and still +greater boon to her yearning heart. Even by day, as she sat at work, +the little fellow limped up to her, and said, "Grisly, sing that +again," staring hard in her face as she did so. + + + +CHAPTER XI--BERNARD + + + +I do remember an apothecary, - +And hereabouts he dwells. + +SHAKESPEARE, Romeo and Juliet. + +Bernard's affection was as strong as his aversion had been. Poor +little boy, no one had been accustomed enough to sickly children, or +indeed to children at all, to know how to make him happy or even +comfortable, and his life had been sad and suffering ever since the +blight that had fallen on him, through either the evil eye of Nan the +witch, or through his fall into a freezing stream. His brother, a +great strong lad, had teased and bullied him; his father, though not +actually unkind except when wearied by his fretfulness, held him as a +miserable failure, scarcely worth rearing; his mother, though her +pride was in her elder son, and the only softness in her heart for +the little one, had been so rugged and violent a woman all the years +of her life, and had so despised all gentler habits of civilisation, +that she really did not know how to be tender to the child who was +really her darling. Her infants had been nursed in the cottages, and +not returned to the castle till they were old enough to rough it-- +indeed they were soon sent off to be bred up elsewhere. Some failure +in health, too, made it harder for her to be patient with an ailing +child, and her love was apt to take the form of anger with his +petulance or even with his suffering, or else of fierce battles with +her husband in his defence. + +The comfort would have been in burning Crooked Nan, but that beldame +had disposed of herself out of reach, though Lady Whitburn still +cherished the hope of forcing the Gilsland Dacres or the Percies to +yield the woman up. Failing this, the boy had been shown to a +travelling friar, who had promised cure through the relics he carried +about; but Bernard had only screamed at him, and had been none the +better. + +And now the little fellow had got over the first shock, he found that +"Grisly," as he still called her, but only as an affectionate +abbreviation, was the only person who could relieve his pain, or +amuse him, in the whole castle; and he was incessantly hanging on +her. She must put him to bed and sing lullabies to him, she must rub +his limbs when they ached with rheumatic pains; hers was the only +hand which might touch the sores that continually broke out, and he +would sit for long spaces on her lap, sometimes stroking down the +scar and pitying it with "Poor Grisly; when I am a man, I will throw +down my glove, and fight with that lad, and kill him." + +"O nay, nay, Bernard; he never meant to do me evil. He is a fair, +brave, good boy." + +"He scorned and ran away from you. He is mansworn and recreant," +persisted Bernard. "Rob and I will make him say that you are the +fairest of ladies." + +"O nay, nay. That he could not." + +"But you are, you are--on this side--mine own Grisly," cried Bernard, +whose experiences of fair ladies had not been extensive, and who +curled himself on her lap, giving unspeakable rest and joy to her +weary, yearning spirit, as she pressed him to her breast. "Now, a +story, a story," he entreated, and she was rich in tales from +Scripture history and legends of the Saints, or she would sing her +sweet monastic hymns and chants, as he nestled in her lap. + +The mother had fits of jealousy at the exclusive preference, and now +and then would rail at Grisell for cosseting the bairn and keeping +him a helpless baby; or at Bernard for leaving his mother for this +ill-favoured, useless sister, and would even snatch away the boy, and +declare that she wanted no one to deal with him save herself; but +Bernard had a will of his own, and screamed for his Grisly, throwing +himself about in such a manner that Lady Whitburn was forced to +submit, and quite to the alarm of her daughter, on one of these +occasions she actually burst into a flood of tears, sobbing loud and +without restraint. Indeed, though she hotly declared that she ailed +nothing, there was a lassitude about her that made it a relief to +have the care of Bernard taken off her hands; and the Baron's +grumbling at disturbed nights made the removal of Bernard's bed to +his sister's room generally acceptable. + +Once, when Grisell was found to have taught both him and Thora the +English version of the Lord's Prayer and Creed, and moreover to be +telling him the story of the Gospel, there came, no one knew from +where, an accusation which made her father tramp up and say, "Mark +you, wench, I'll have no Lollards here." + +"Lollards, sir; I never saw a Lollard!" said Grisell trembling. + +"Where, then, didst learn all this, making holy things common?" + +"We all learnt it at Wilton, sir, from the reverend mothers and the +holy father." + +The Baron was fairly satisfied, and muttered that if the bairn was +fit only for a shaveling, it might be all right. + +Poor child, would he ever be fit for that or any occupation of +manhood? However, Grisell had won permission to compound broths, +cakes, and possets for him, over the hall fire, for the cook and his +wife would not endure her approach to their domain, and with great +reluctance allowed her the materials. Bernard watched her operations +with intense delight and amusement, and tasted with a sense of +triumph and appetite, calling on his mother to taste likewise; and +she, on whose palate semi-raw or over-roasted joints had begun to +pall, allowed that the nuns had taught Grisell something. + +And thus as time went on Grisell led no unhappy life. Every one +around was used to her scars, and took no notice of them, and there +was nothing to bring the thought before her, except now and then when +a fishwife's baby, brought to her for cure, would scream at her. She +never went beyond the castle except to mass, now and then to visit a +sick person, and to seek some of the herbs of which she had learnt +the use, and then she was always attended by Thora and Ridley, who +made a great favour of going. + +Bernard had given her the greater part of his heart, and she soothed +his pain, made his hours happy, and taught him the knowledge she +brought from the convent. Her affections were with him, and though +her mother could scarcely be said to love her, she tolerated and +depended more and more on the daughter who alone could give her more +help or solace. + +That was Grisell's second victory, when she was actually asked to +compound a warm, relishing, hot bowl for her father when be was +caught in a storm and came in drenched and weary. + +She wanted to try on her little brother the effect of one of Sister +Avice's ointments, which she thought more likely to be efficacious +than melted mutton fat, mixed with pounded worms, scrapings from the +church bells, and boiled seaweed, but some of her ingredients were +out of reach, unless they were attainable at Sunderland, and she +obtained permission to ride thither under the escort of Cuthbert +Ridley, and was provided with a small purse--the proceeds of the +Baron's dues out of the fishermen's sales of herrings. + +She was also to purchase a warm gown and mantle for her mother, and +enough of cloth to afford winter garments for Bernard; and a steady +old pack-horse carried the bundles of yarn to be exchanged for these +commodities, since the Whitburn household possessed no member +dexterous with the old disused loom, and the itinerant weavers did +not come that way--it was whispered because they were afraid of the +fisher folk, and got but sorry cheer from the lady. + +The commissions were important, and Grisell enjoyed the two miles' +ride along the cliffs of Roker Bay, looking up at the curious caverns +in the rock, and seeking for the very strangely-formed stones +supposed to have magic power, which fell from the rock. In the +distance beyond the river to the southward, Ridley pointed to the +tall square tower of Monks Wearmouth Church dominating the great +monastery around it, which had once held the venerable Bede, though +to both Ridley and Grisell he was only a name of a patron saint. + +The harbour formed by the mouth of the river Wear was a marvel to +Grisell, crowded as it was with low, squarely-rigged and gaily- +coloured vessels of Holland, Friesland, and Flanders, very new sights +to one best acquainted with Noah's ark or St. Peter's ship in +illuminations. + +"Sunderland is a noted place for shipbuilding," said Ridley. +"Moreover, these come for wool, salt-fish, and our earth coal, and +they bring us fine cloth, linen, and stout armour. I am glad to see +yonder Flemish ensign. If luck goes well with us, I shall get a +fresh pair of gauntlets for my lord, straight from Gaunt, the place +of gloves." + +"GANT for glove," said Grisell. + +"How? You speak French. Then you may aid me in chaffering, and I +will straight to the Fleming, with whom I may do better than with +Hodge of the Lamb. How now, here's a shower coming up fast!" + +It was so indeed; a heavy cloud had risen quickly, and was already +bursting overhead. Ridley hurried on, along a thoroughfare across +salt marshes (nowdocks), but the speed was not enough to prevent +their being drenched by a torrent of rain and hail before they +reached the tall-timbered houses of Wearmouth. + +"In good time!" cried Ridley; "here's the Poticary's sign! You had +best halt here at once." + +In front of a high-roofed house with a projecting upper story, hung a +sign bearing a green serpent on a red ground, over a stall, open to +the street, which the owner was sheltering with a deep canvas awning. + +"Hola, Master Lambert Groats," called Ridley. "Here's the young +demoiselle of Whitburn would have some dealings with you." + +Jumping off his horse, he helped Grisell to dismount just as a small, +keen-faced, elderly man in dark gown came forward, doffing his green +velvet cap, and hoping the young lady would take shelter in his poor +house. + +Grisell, glancing round the little booth, was aware of sundry +marvellous curiosities hanging round, such as a dried crocodile, the +shells of tortoises, of sea-urchins and crabs, all to her eyes most +strange and weird; but Master Lambert was begging her to hasten in at +once to his dwelling-room beyond, and let his wife dry her clothes, +and at once there came forward a plump, smooth, pleasant-looking +personage, greatly his junior, dressed in a tight gold-edged cap over +her fair hair, a dark skirt, black bodice, bright apron, and white +sleeves, curtseying low, but making signs to invite the newcomers to +the fire on the hearth. "My housewife is stone deaf," explained +their host, "and she knows no tongue save her own, and the unspoken +language of courtesy, but she is rejoiced to welcome the demoiselle. +Ah, she is drenched! Ah, if she will honour my poor house!" + +The wife curtsied low, and by hospitable signs prayed the demoiselle +to come to the fire, and take off her wet mantle. It was a very +comfortable room, with a wide chimney, and deep windows glazed with +thick circles of glass, the spaces between leaded around in diamond +panes, through which vine branches could dimly be seen flapping and +beating in the storm. A table stood under one with various glasses +and vessels of curious shapes, and a big book, and at the other was a +distaff, a work-basket, and other feminine gear. Shelves with pewter +dishes, and red, yellow, and striped crocks, surrounded the walls; +there was a savoury cauldron on the open fire. It was evidently +sitting-room and kitchen in one, with offices beyond, and Grisell was +at once installed in a fine carved chair by the fire--a more +comfortable seat than had ever fallen to her share. + +"Look you here, mistress," said Ridley; "you are in safe quarters +here, and I will leave you awhile, take the horses to the hostel, and +do mine errands across the river--'tis not fit for you--and come back +to you when the shower is over, and you can come and chaffer for your +woman's gear." + +From the two good hosts the welcome was decided, and Grisell was glad +to have time for consultation. An Apothecary of those days did not +rise to the dignity of a leech, but was more like the present owner +of a chemist's shop, though a chemist then meant something much more +abstruse, who studied occult sciences, such as alchemy and astrology. + +In fact, Lambert Groot, which was his real name, though English lips +had made it Groats, belonged to one of the prosperous guilds of the +great merchant city of Bruges, but he had offended his family by his +determination to marry the deaf, and almost dumb, portionless orphan +daughter of an old friend and contemporary, and to save her from the +scorn and slights of his relatives--though she was quite as well-born +as themselves--he had migrated to England, where Wearmouth and +Sunderland had a brisk trade with the Low Countries. These cities +enjoyed the cultivation of the period, and this room, daintily clean +and fresh, seemed to Grisell more luxurious than any she had seen +since the Countess of Warwick's. A silver bowl of warm soup, +extracted from the pot au feu, was served to her by the Hausfrau, on +a little table, spread with a fine white cloth edged with embroidery, +with an earnest gesture begging her to partake, and a slender Venice +glass of wine was brought to her with a cake of wheaten bread. Much +did Grisell wish she could have transferred such refreshing fare to +Bernard. She ventured to ask "Master Poticary" whether he sold +"Balsam of Egypt." He was interested at once, and asked whether it +were for her own use. + +"Nay, good master, you are thinking of my face; but that was a burn +long ago healed. It is for my poor little brother." + +Therewith Grisell and Master Groats entered on a discussions of +symptoms, drugs, ointments, and ingredients, in which she learnt a +good deal and perhaps disclosed more of Sister Avice's methods than +Wilton might have approved. In the midst the sun broke out gaily +after the shower, and disclosed, beyond the window, a garden where +every leaf and spray were glittering and glorious with their own +diamond drops in the sunshine. A garden of herbs was a needful part +of an apothecary's business, as he manufactured for himself all of +the medicaments which he did not import from foreign parts, but this +had been laid out between its high walls with all the care, taste, +and precision of the Netherlander, and Grisell exclaimed in perfect +ecstasy: "Oh, the garden, the garden! I have seen nothing so fair +and sweet since I left Wilton." + +Master Lambert was delighted, and led her out. There is no +describing how refreshing was the sight to eyes after the bare, dry +walls of the castle, and the tossing sea which the maiden had not yet +learnt to love. Nor was the garden dull, though meant for use. +There was a well in the centre with roses trained over it, roses of +the dark old damask kind and the dainty musk, used to be distilled +for the eyes, some flowers lingering still; there was the brown +dittany or fraxinella, whose dried blossoms are phosphoric at night; +delicate pink centaury, good for ague; purple mallows, good for +wounds; leopard's bane with yellow blossoms; many and many more old +and dear friends of Grisell, redolent of Wilton cloister and Sister +Avice; and she ran from one to the other quite transported, and +forgetful of all the dignities of the young Lady of Whitburn, while +Lambert was delighted, and hoped she would come again when his lilies +were in bloom. + +So went the time till Ridley returned, and when the price was asked +of the packet of medicaments prepared for her, Lambert answered that +the value was fully balanced by what he had learnt from the lady. +This, however, did not suit the honour of the Dacres, and Grisell, as +well as her squire, who looked offended, insisted on leaving two gold +crowns in payment. The Vrow kissed her hand, putting into it the +last sprays of roses, which Grisell cherished in her bosom. + +She was then conducted to a booth kept by a Dutchman, where she +obtained the warm winter garments that she needed for her mother and +brother, and likewise some linen, for the Lady of Whitburn had never +been housewife enough to keep up a sufficient supply for Bernard, and +Grisell was convinced that the cleanliness which the nuns had taught +her would mitigate his troubles. With Thora to wash for her she +hoped to institute a new order of things. + +Much pleased with her achievements she rode home. She was met there +by more grumbling than satisfaction. Her father had expected more +coin to send to Robert, who, like other absent youths, called for +supplies. + +The yeoman who had gone with him returned, bearing a scrap of paper +with the words:- + + +"MINE HONOURED LORD AND FATHER--I pray you to send me Black Lightning +and xvj crowns by the hand of Ralf, and so the Saints have you in +their keeping.--Your dutiful sonne, + +"ROBERT DACRE." + + +xvj crowns were a heavy sum in those days, and Lord Whitburn vowed +that he had never so called on his father except when he was +knighted, but those were the good old days when spoil was to be won +in France. What could Rob want of such a sum? + +"Well-a-day, sir, the house of the Duke of York is no place to stint +in. The two young Earls of March and of Rutland, as they call them, +walk in red and blue and gold bravery, and chains of jewels, even +like king's sons, and none of the squires and pages can be behind +them." + +"Black Lightning too, my best colt, when I deemed the lad fitted out +for years to come. I never sent home the like message to my father +under the last good King Henry, but purveyed myself of a horse on the +battlefield more than once. But those good old days are over, and +lads think more of velvet and broidery than of lances and swords. +Forsooth, their coats-of-arms are good to wear on silk robes instead +of helm and shield; and as to our maids, give them their rein, and +they spend more than all the rest on women's tawdry gear!" + +Poor Grisell! when she had bought nothing ornamental, and nothing for +herself except a few needles. + +However, in spite of murmurs, the xvj crowns were raised and sent +away with Black Lightning; and as time went on Grisell became more +and more a needful person. Bernard was stronger, and even rode out +on a pony, and the fame of his improvement brought other patients to +the Lady Grisell from the vassals, with whom she dealt as best she +might, successfully or the reverse, while her mother, as her health +failed, let fall more and more the reins of household rule. + + + +CHAPTER XII--WORD FROM THE WARS + + + +Above, below, the Rose of Snow, +Twined with her blushing face we spread. + +GRAY'S Bard. + +News did not travel very fast to Whitburn, but one summer's day a +tall, gallant, fair-faced esquire, in full armour of the cumbrous +plate fashion, rode up to the gate, and blew the family note on his +bugle. + +"My son! my son Rob," cried the lady, starting up from the cushions +with which Grisell had furnished her settle. + +Robert it was, who came clanking in, met by his father at the gate, +by his mother at the door, and by Bernard on his crutch in the rear, +while Grisell, who had never seen this brother, hung back. + +The youth bent his knee, but his outward courtesy did not conceal a +good deal of contempt for the rude northern habits. "How small and +dark the hall is! My lady, how old you have grown! What, Bernard, +still fit only for a shaven friar! Not shorn yet, eh? Ha! is that +Grisell? St. Cuthbert to wit! Copeland has made a hag of her!" + +"'Tis a good maid none the less," replied her father; the first +direct praise that she had ever had from him, and which made her +heart glow. + +"She will ne'er get a husband, with such a visage as that," observed +Robert, who did not seem to have learnt courtesy or forbearance yet +on his travels; but he was soon telling his father what concerned +them far more than the maiden's fate. + +"Sir, I have come on the part of the Duke of York to summon you. +What, you have not heard? He needs, as speedily as may be, the arms +of every honest man. How many can you get together?" + +"But what is it? How is it? Your Duke ruled the roast last time I +heard of him." + +"You know as little as my horse here in the north!" cried Rob. + +"This I did hear last time there was a boat come in, that the Queen, +that mother of mischief, had tried to lay hands on our Lord of +Salisbury, and that he and your Duke of York had soundly beaten her +and the men of Cheshire." + +"Yea, at Blore Heath; and I thought to win my spurs on the Copeland +banner, but even as I was making my way to it and the recreant that +bore it, I was stricken across my steel cap and dazed." + +"I'll warrant it," muttered his father. + +"When I could look up again all was changed, the banner nowhere in +sight, but I kept my saddle, and cut down half a dozen rascaille +after that." + +"Ha!" half incredulously, for it was a mere boy who boasted. "That's +my brave lad! And what then? More hopes of the spurs, eh?" + +"Then what does the Queen do, but seeing that no one would willingly +stir a lance against an old witless saint like King Harry, she gets a +host together, dragging the poor man hither and thither with her, at +Ludlow. Nay, we even heard the King was dead, and a mass was said +for the repose of his soul, but with the morning what should we see +on the other side of the river Teme but the royal standard, and who +should be under it but King Harry himself with his meek face and fair +locks, twirling his fingers after his wont. So the men would have it +that they had been gulled, and they fell away one after another, till +there was nothing for it but for the Duke and his sons, and my Lords +of Salisbury and Warwick and a few score more of us, to ride off as +best we might, with Sir Andrew Trollope and his men after us, as hard +as might be, so that we had to break up, and keep few together. I +went with the Duke of York and young Lord Edmund into Wales, and +thence in a bit of a fishing-boat across to Ireland. Ask me to fight +in full field with twice the numbers, but never ask me to put to sea +again! There's nothing like it for taking heart and soul out of a +man!" + +"I have crossed the sea often enow in the good old days, and known +nothing worse than a qualm or two." + +"That was to France," said his son. "This Irish Sea is far wider and +far more tossing, I know for my own part. I'd have given a knight's +fee to any one who would have thrown me overboard. I felt like an +empty bag! But once there, they could not make enough of us. The +Duke had got their hearts before, and odd sort of hearts they are. I +was deaf with the wild kernes shouting round about in their +gibberish--such figures, too, as they are, with their blue cloaks, +streaming hair, and long glibbes (moustaches), and the Lords of the +Pale, as they call the English sort, are nigh about as wild and +savage as the mere Irish. It was as much as my Lord Duke could do to +hinder two of them from coming to blows in his presence; and you +should have heard them howl at one another. However, they are all +with him, and a mighty force of them mean to go back with him to +England. My Lord of Warwick came from Calais to hold counsel with +him, and they have sworn to one another to meet with all their +forces, and require the removal of the King's evil councillors; and +my Lord Duke, with his own mouth, bade me go and summon his trusty +Will Dacre of Whitburn--so he spake, sir--to be with him with all the +spears and bowmen you can raise or call for among the neighbours. +And it is my belief, sir, that he means not to stop at the +councillors, but to put forth his rights. Hurrah for King Richard of +the White Rose!" ended Robert, throwing up his cap. + +"Nay, now," said his father. "I'd be loth to put down our gallant +King Harry's only son." + +"No one breathes a word against King Harry," returned Robert, "no +more than against a carven saint in a church, and he is about as much +of a king as old stone King Edmund, or King Oswald, or whoever he is, +over the porch. He is welcome to reign as long as he likes or lives, +provided he lets our Duke govern for him, and rids the country of the +foreign woman and her brat, who is no more hers than I am, but a mere +babe of Westminster town carried into the palace when the poor King +Harry was beside himself." + +"Nay, now, Rob!" cried his mother. + +"So 'tis said!" sturdily persisted Rob. "'Tis well known that the +King never looked at him the first time he was shown the little imp, +and next time, when he was not so distraught, he lifted up his hands +and said he wotted nought of the matter. Hap what hap, King Harry +may roam from Church to shrine, from Abbey to chantry, so long as he +lists, but none of us will brook to be ruled or misruled by the +foreign woman and the Beauforts in his name, nor reigned over by the +French dame or the beggar's brat, and the traitor coward Beaufort, +but be under our own noble Duke and the White Rose, the only badge +that makes the Frenchman flee." + +The boy was scarcely fifteen, but his political tone, as of one who +knew the world, made his father laugh and say, "Hark to the cockerel +crowing loud. Spurs forsooth!" + +"The Lords Edward and Edmund are knighted," grunted Rob, "and there's +but few years betwixt us." + +"But a good many earldoms and lands," said the Baron. "Hadst spoken +of being out of pagedom, 'twere another thing." + +"You are coming, sir," cried Rob, willing to put by the subject. +"You are coming to see how I can win honours." + +"Aye, aye," said his father. "When Nevil calls, then must Dacre +come, though his old bones might well be at rest now. Salisbury and +Warwick taking to flight like attainted traitors to please the +foreign woman, saidst thou? Then it is the time men were in the +saddle." + +"Well I knew you would say so, and so I told my lord," exclaimed +Robert. + +"Thou didst, quotha? Without doubt the Duke was greatly reassured by +thy testimony," said his father drily, while the mother, full of +pride and exultation in her goodly firstborn son, could not but +exclaim, "Daunt him not, my lord; he has done well thus to be sent +home in charge." + +"_I_ daunt him?" returned Lord Whitburn, in his teasing mood. "By +his own showing not a troop of Somerset's best horsemen could do +that!" + +Therewith more amicably, father and son fell to calculations of +resources, which they kept up all through supper-time, and all the +evening, till the names of Hobs, Wills, Dicks, and the like rang like +a repeating echo in Grisell's ears. All through those long days of +summer the father and son were out incessantly, riding from one +tenant or neighbour to another, trying to raise men-at-arms and means +to equip them if raised. All the dues on the herring-boats and the +two whalers, on which Grisell had reckoned for the winter needs, were +pledged to Sunderland merchants for armour and weapons; the colts +running wild on the moors were hastily caught, and reduced to a kind +of order by rough breaking in. The women of the castle and others +requisitioned from the village toiled under the superintendence of +the lady and Grisell at preparing such provision and equipments as +were portable, such as dried fish, salted meat, and barley cakes, as +well as linen, and there was a good deal of tailoring of a rough sort +at jerkins, buff coats, and sword belts, not by any means the gentle +work of embroidering pennons or scarves notable in romance. + +"Besides," scoffed Robert, "who would wear Grisly Grisell's scarf!" + +"I would," manfully shouted Bernard; "I would cram it down the throat +of that recreant Copeland." + +"Oh! hush, hush, Bernard," exclaimed Grisell, who was toiling with +aching fingers at the repairs of her father's greasy old buff coat. +"Such things are, as Robin well says, for noble demoiselles with fair +faces and leisure times like the Lady Margaret. And oh, Robin, you +have never told me of the Lady Margaret, my dear mate at Amesbury." + +"What should I know of your Lady Margarets and such gear," growled +Robin, whose chivalry had not reached the point of caring for ladies. + +"The Lady Margaret Plantagenet, the young Lady Margaret of York," +Grisell explained. + +"Oh! That's what you mean is it? There's a whole troop of wenches +at the high table in hall. They came after us with the Duchess as +soon as we were settled in Trim Castle, but they are kept as demure +and mim as may be in my lady's bower; and there's a pretty sharp eye +kept on them. Some of the young squires who are fools enough to +hanker after a few maids or look at the fairer ones get their noses +wellnigh pinched off by Proud Cis's Mother of the Maids." + +"Then it would not avail to send poor Grisell's greetings by you." + +"I should like to see myself delivering them! Besides, we shall meet +my lord in camp, with no cumbrance of woman gear." + +Lord Whitburn's own castle was somewhat of a perplexity to him, for +though his lady had once been quite sufficient captain for his scanty +garrison, she was in too uncertain health, and what was worse, too +much broken in spirit and courage, to be fit for the charge. He +therefore decided on leaving Cuthbert Ridley, who, in winter at +least, was scarcely as capable of roughing it as of old, to protect +the castle, with a few old or partly disabled men, who could man the +walls to some degree, therefore it was unlikely that there would be +any attack. + +So on a May morning the old, weather-beaten Dacre pennon with its +three crusading scallop-shells, was uplifted in the court, and round +it mustered about thirty men, of whom eighteen had been raised by the +baron, some being his own vassals, and others hired at Sunderland. +The rest were volunteers--gentlemen, their younger sons, and their +attendants--placing themselves under his leadership, either from +goodwill to York and Nevil, or from love of enterprise and hope of +plunder. + + + +CHAPTER XIII--A KNOT + + + +I would mine heart had caught that wound + And slept beside him rather! +I think it were a better thing +Than murdered friend and marriage-ring + Forced on my life together. + +E. B. BROWNING, The Romaunt of the Page. + +Ladies were accustomed to live for weeks, months, nay, years, without +news of those whom they had sent to the wars, and to live their life +without them. The Lady of Whitburn did not expect to see her husband +or son again till the summer campaign was over, and she was not at +all uneasy about them, for the full armour of a gentleman had arrived +at such a pitch of perfection that it was exceedingly difficult to +kill him, and such was the weight, that his danger in being +overthrown was of never being able to get up, but lying there to be +smothered, made prisoner, or killed, by breaking into his armour. +The knights could not have moved at all under the weight if they had +not been trained from infancy, and had nearly reduced themselves to +the condition of great tortoises. + +It was no small surprise when, very late on a July evening, when, +though twilight still prevailed, all save the warder were in bed, and +he was asleep on his post, a bugle-horn rang out the master's note, +at first in the usual tones, then more loudly and impatiently. +Hastening out of bed to her loophole window, Grisell saw a party +beneath the walls, her father's scallop-shells dimly seen above them, +and a little in the rear, one who was evidently a prisoner. + +The blasts grew fiercer, the warder and the castle were beginning to +be astir, and when Grisell hurried into the outer room, she found her +mother afoot and hastily dressing. + +"My lord! my lord! it is his note," she cried. + +"Father come home!" shouted Bernard, just awake. "Grisly! Grisly! +help me don my clothes." + +Lady Whitburn trembled and shook with haste, and Grisell could not +help her very rapidly in the dark, with Bernard howling rather than +calling for help all the time; and before she, still less Grisell, +was fit for the public, her father's heavy step was on the stairs, +and she heard fragments of his words. + +"All abed! We must have supper--ridden from Ayton since last +baiting. Aye, got a prisoner--young Copeland--old one slain--great +victory--Northampton. King taken--Buckingham and Egremont killed-- +Rob well--proud as a pyet. Ho, Grisell," as she appeared, "bestir +thyself. We be ready to eat a horse behind the saddle. Serve up as +fast as may be." + +Grisell durst not stop to ask whether she had heard the word Copeland +aright, and ran downstairs with a throbbing heart, just crossing the +hall, where she thought she saw a figure bowed down, with hands over +his face and elbows on his knees, but she could not pause, and went +on to the kitchen, where the peat fire was never allowed to expire, +and it was easy to stir it into heat. Whatever was cold she handed +over to the servants to appease the hunger of the arrivals, while she +broiled steaks, and heated the great perennial cauldron of broth with +all the expedition in her power, with the help of Thora and the +grumbling cook, when he appeared, angry at being disturbed. + +Morning light was beginning to break before her toils were over for +the dozen hungry men pounced so suddenly in on her, and when she +again crossed the hall, most of them were lying on the straw-bestrewn +floor fast asleep. One she specially noticed, his long limbs +stretched out as he lay on his side, his head on his arm, as if he +had fallen asleep from extreme fatigue in spite of himself. + +His light brown hair was short and curly, his cheeks fair and ruddy, +and all reminded her of Leonard Copeland as he had been those long +years ago before her accident. Save for that, she would have been +long ago his wife, she with her marred face the mate of that nobly +fair countenance. How strange to remember. How she would have loved +him, frank and often kind as she remembered him, though rough and +impatient of restraint. What was that which his fingers had held +till sleep had unclasped them? An ivory chessrook! Such was a +favourite token of ladies to their true loves. What did it mean? +Might she pause to pray a prayer over him as once hers--that all +might be well with him, for she knew that in this unhappy war +important captives were not treated as Frenchmen would have been as +prisoners of war, but executed as traitors to their King. + +She paused over him till a low sound and the bright eyes of one of +the dogs warned her that all might in another moment be awake, and +she fled up the stair to the solar, where her parents were both fast +asleep, and across to her own room, where she threw herself on her +bed, dressed as she was, but could not sleep for the multitude of +strange thoughts that crowded over her in the increasing daylight. + +By and by there was a stir, some words passed in the outer room, and +then her mother came in. + +"Wake, Grisly. Busk and bonne for thy wedding-morning instantly. +Copeland is to keep his troth to thee at once. The Earl of Warwick +hath granted his life to thy father on that condition only." + +"Oh, mother, is he willing?" cried Grisell trembling. + +"What skills that, child? His hand was pledged, and he must fulfil +his promise now that we have him." + +"Was it troth? I cannot remember it," said Grisell. + +"That matters not. Your father's plight is the same thing. His +father was slain in the battle, so 'tis between him and us. Put on +thy best clothes as fast as may be. Thou shalt have my wedding-veil +and miniver mantle. Speed, I say. My lord has to hasten away to +join the Earl on the way to London. He will see the knot tied beyond +loosing at once." + +To dress herself was all poor Grisell could do in her bewilderment. +Remonstrance was vain. The actual marriage without choice was not so +repugnant to all her feelings as to a modern maiden; it was the +ordinary destiny of womanhood, and she had been used in her childhood +to look on Leonard Copeland as her property; but to be forced on the +poor youth instantly on his father's death, and as an alternative to +execution, set all her maidenly feelings in revolt. Bernard was +sitting up in bed, crying out that he could not lose his Grisly. Her +mother was running backwards and forwards, bringing portions of her +own bridal gear, and directing Thora, who was combing out her young +lady's hair, which was long, of a beautiful brown, and was to be worn +loose and flowing, in the bridal fashion. Grisell longed to kneel +and pray, but her mother hurried her. "My lord must not be kept +waiting, there would be time enough for prayer in the church." Then +Bernard, clamouring loudly, threw his arms round the thick old heavy +silken gown that had been put on her, and declared that he would not +part with his Grisly, and his mother tore him away by force, +declaring that he need not fear, Copeland would be in no hurry to +take her away, and again when she bent to kiss him he clung tight +round her neck almost strangling her, and rumpling her tresses. + +Ridley had come up to say that my lord was calling for the young +lady, and it was he who took the boy off and held him in his arms, as +the mother, who seemed endued with new strength by the excitement, +threw a large white muffling veil over Grisell's head and shoulders, +and led or rather dragged her down to the hall. + +The first sounds she there heard were, "Sir, I have given my faith to +the Lady Eleanor of Audley, whom I love." + +"What is that to me? 'Twas a precontract to my daughter." + +"Not made by me nor her." + +"By your parents, with myself. You went near to being her death +outright, marred her face for life, so that none other will wed her. +What say you? Not hurt by your own will? Who said it was? What +matters that?" + +"Sir," said Leonard, "it is true that by mishap, nay, if you will +have it so, by a child's inadvertence, I caused this evil chance to +befall your daughter, but I deny, and my father denies likewise, that +there was any troth plight between the maid and me. She will own the +same if you ask her. As I spake before, there was talk of the like +kind between you, sir, and my father, and it was the desire of the +good King that thus the families might be reconciled; but the +contract went no farther, as the holy King himself owned when I gave +my faith to the Lord Audley's daughter, and with it my heart." + +"Aye, we know that the Frenchwoman can make the poor fool of a King +believe and avouch anything she choose! This is not the point. No +more words, young man. Here stands my daughter; there is the rope. +Choose--wed or hang." + +Leonard stood one moment with a look of agonised perplexity over his +face. Then he said, "If I consent, am I at liberty, free at once to +depart?" + +"Aye," said Whitburn. "So you fulfil your contract, the rest is +nought to me." + +"I am then at liberty? Free to carry my sword to my Queen and King?" + +"Free." + +"You swear it, on the holy cross?" + +Lord Whitburn held up the cross hilt of his sword before him, and +made oath on it that when once married to his daughter, Leonard +Copeland was no longer his prisoner. + +Grisell through her veil read on the youthful face a look of grief +and renunciation; he was sacrificing his love to the needs of King +and country, and his words chimed in with her conviction. + +"Sir, I am ready. If it were myself alone, I would die rather than +be false to my love, but my Queen needs good swords and faithful +hearts, and I may not fail her. I am ready!" + +"It is well!" said Lord Whitburn. "Ho, you there! Bring the horses +to the door." + +Grisell, in all the strange suspense of that decision, had been +thinking of Sir Gawaine, whose lines rang in her head, but that look +of grief roused other feelings. Sir Gawaine had no other love to +sacrifice. + +"Sir! sir!" she cried, as her father turned to bid her mount the +pillion behind Ridley. "Can you not let him go free without? I +always looked to a cloister." + +"That is for you and he to settle, girl. Obey me now, or it will be +the worse for him and you." + +"One word I would say," added the mother. "How far hath this matter +with the Audley maid gone? There is no troth plight, I trow?" + +"No, by all that is holy, no. Would the lad not have pleaded it if +there had been? No more dilly-dallying. Up on the horse, Grisly, +and have done with it. We will show the young recreant how promises +are kept in Durham County." + +He dragged rather than led his daughter to the door, and lifted her +passively to the pillion seat behind Cuthbert Ridley. A fine horse, +Copeland's own, was waiting for him. He was allowed to ride freely, +but old Whitburn kept close beside him, so that escape would have +been impossible. He was in the armour in which he had fought, dimmed +and dust-stained, but still glancing in the morning sun, which +glittered on the sea, though a heavy western thunder-cloud, purple in +the sun, was rising in front of this strange bridal cavalcade. + +It was overhead by the time the church was reached, and the heavy +rain that began to fall caused the priest to bid the whole party come +within for the part of the ceremony usually performed outside the +west door. + +It was very dark within. The windows were small and old, and filled +with dusky glass, and the arches were low browed. Grisell's +mufflings were thrown aside, and she stood as became a maiden bride, +with all her hair flowing over her shoulders and long tresses over +her face, but even without this, her features would hardly have been +visible, as the dense cloud rolled overhead; and indeed so tall and +straight was her figure that no one would have supposed her other +than a fair young spouse. She trembled a good deal, but was too much +terrified and, as it were, stunned for tears, and she durst not raise +her drooping head even to look at her bridegroom, though such light +as came in shone upon his fair hair and was reflected on his armour, +and on one golden spur that still he wore, the other no doubt lost in +the fight. + +All was done regularly. The Lord of Whitburn was determined that no +ceremony that could make the wedlock valid should be omitted. The +priest, a kind old man, but of peasant birth, and entirely +subservient to the Dacres, proceeded to ask each of the pair when +they had been assoiled, namely, absolved. Grisell, as he well knew, +had been shriven only last Friday; Leonard muttered, "Three days +since, when I was dubbed knight, ere the battle." + +"That suffices," put in the Baron impatiently. "On with you, Sir +Lucas." + +The thoroughly personal parts of the service were in English, and +Grisell could not but look up anxiously when the solemn charge was +given to mention whether there was any lawful "letting" to their +marriage. Her heart bounded as it were to her throat when Leonard +made no answer. + +But then what lay before him if he pleaded his promise! + +It went on--those betrothal vows, dictated while the two cold hands +were linked, his with a kind of limp passiveness, hers, quaking, +especially as, in the old use of York, he took her "for laither for +fairer"--laith being equivalent to loathly--"till death us do part." +And with failing heart, but still resolute heart, she faltered out +her vow to cleave to him "for better for worse, for richer for +poorer, in sickness or health, and to be bonner (debonair or +cheerful) and boughsome (obedient) till that final parting." + +The troth was plighted, and the silver mark--poor Leonard's sole +available property at the moment--laid on the priest's book, as the +words were said, "with worldly cathel I thee endow," and the ring, an +old one of her mother's, was held on Grisell's finger. It was done, +though, alas! the bridegroom could hardly say with truth, "with my +body I thee worship." + +Then followed the procession to the altar, the chilly hands barely +touching one another, and the mass was celebrated, when Latin did not +come home to the pair like English, though both fairly understood it. +Grisell's feeling was by this time concentrated in the one hope that +she should be dutiful to the poor, unwilling bridegroom, far more to +be pitied than herself, and that she should be guarded by God +whatever befell. + +It was over. Signing of registers was not in those days, but there +was some delay, for the darkness was more dense than ever, the rush +of furious hail was heard without, a great blue flash of intense +light filled every corner of the church, the thunder pealed so +sharply and vehemently overhead that the small company looked at one +another and at the church, to ascertain that no stroke had fallen. +Then the Lord of Whitburn, first recovering himself, cried, "Come, +sir knight, kiss your bride. Ha! where is he? Sir Leonard--here. +Who hath seen him? Not vanished in yon flash! Eh?" + +No, but the men without, cowering under the wall, deposed that Sir +Leonard Copeland had rushed out, shouted to them that he had +fulfilled the conditions and was a free man, taken his horse, and +galloped away through the storm. + + + +CHAPTER XIV--THE LONELY BRIDE + + + + Grace for the callant +If he marries our muckle-mouth Meg. + +BROWNING. + +"The recreant! Shall we follow him?" was the cry of Lord Whitburn's +younger squire, Harry Featherstone, with his hand on his horse's +neck, in spite of the torrents of rain and the fresh flash that set +the horses quivering. + +"No! no!" roared the Baron. "I tell you no! He has fulfilled his +promise; I fulfil mine. He has his freedom. Let him go! For the +rest, we will find the way to make him good husband to you, my +wench," and as Harry murmured something, "There's work enow in hand +without spending our horses' breath and our own in chasing after a +runaway groom. A brief space we will wait till the storm be over." + +Grisell shrank back to pray at a little side altar, telling her +beads, and repeating the Latin formula, but in her heart all the time +giving thanks that she was going back to Bernard and her mother, +whose needs had been pressing strongly on her, yet that she might do +right by this newly-espoused husband, whose downcast, dejected look +had filled her, not with indignation at the slight to her--she was +far past that--but with yearning compassion for one thus severed from +his true love. + +When the storm had subsided enough for these hardy northlanders to +ride home, and Grisell was again perched behind old Cuthbert Ridley, +he asked, "Well, my Dame of Copeland, dost peak and pine for thy +runaway bridegroom?" + +"Nay, I had far rather be going home to my little Bernard than be +away with yonder stranger I ken not whither." + +"Thou art in the right, my wench. If the lad can break the marriage +by pleading precontract, you may lay your reckoning on it that so he +will." + +When they came home to the attempt at a marriage-feast which Lady +Whitburn had improvised, they found that this was much her opinion. + +"He will get the knot untied," she said. "So thick as the King and +his crew are with the Pope, it will cost him nothing, but we may, for +very shame, force a dowry out of his young knighthood to get the +wench into Whitby withal!" + +"So he even proffered on his way," said the Baron. "He is a fair and +knightly youth. 'Tis pity of him that he holds with the Frenchwoman. +Ha, Bernard, 'tis for thy good." + +For the boy was clinging tight to his sister, and declaring that his +Grisly should never leave him again, not for twenty vile runaway +husbands. + +Grisell returned to all her old habits, and there was no difference +in her position, excepting that she was scrupulously called Dame +Grisell Copeland. Her father was soon called away by the summons to +Parliament, sent forth in the name of King Henry, who was then in the +hands of the Earl of Warwick in London. The Sheriff's messenger who +brought him the summons plainly said that all the friends of York, +Salisbury, and Warwick were needed for a great change that would dash +the hopes of the Frenchwoman and her son. + +He went with all his train, leaving the defence of the castle to +Ridley and the ladies, and assuring Grisell that she need not be +downhearted. He would yet bring her fine husband, Sir Leonard, to +his marrow bones before her. + +Grisell had not much time to think of Sir Leonard, for as the summer +waned, both her mother and Bernard sickened with low fever. In the +lady's case it was intermittent, and she spent only the third day in +her bed, the others in crouching over the fire or hanging over the +child's bed, where he lay constantly tossing and fevered all night, +sometimes craving to be on his sister's lap, but too restless long to +lie there. Both manifestly became weaker, in spite of all Grisell's +simple treatment, and at last she wrung from the lady permission to +send Ridley to Wearmouth to try if it was possible to bring out +Master Lambert Groot to give his advice, or if not, to obtain +medicaments and counsel from him. + +The good little man actually came, riding a mule. "Ay, ay," quoth +Ridley, "I brought him, though he vowed at first it might never be, +but when he heard it concerned you, mistress--I mean Dame Grisell--he +was ready to come to your aid." + +Good little man, standing trim and neat in his burgher's dress and +little frill-like ruff, he looked quite out of place in the dark old +hall. + +Lady Whitburn seemed to think him a sort of magician, though inferior +enough to be under her orders. "Ha! Is that your Poticary?" she +demanded, when Grisell brought him up to the solar. "Look at my +bairn, Master Dutchman; see to healing him," she continued +imperiously. + +Lambert was too well used to incivility from nobles to heed her +manner, though in point of fact a Flemish noble was far more +civilised than this North Country dame. He looked anxiously at +Bernard, who moaned a little and turned his head away. "Nay, now, +Bernard," entreated his sister; "look up at the good man, he that +sent you the sugar-balls. He is come to try to make you well." + +Bernard let her coax him to give his poor little wasted hand to the +leech, and looked with wonder in his heavy eyes at the stranger, who +felt his pulse, and asked to have him lifted up for better +examination. There was at first a dismal little whine at being +touched and moved, but when a pleasantly acid drop was put into his +little parched mouth, he smiled with brief content. His mother +evidently expected that both he and she herself would be relieved on +the spot, but the Apothecary durst not be hopeful, though he gave the +child a draught which he called a febrifuge, and which put him to +sleep, and bade the lady take another of the like if she wished for a +good night's rest. + +He added, however, that the best remedy would be a pilgrimage to +Lindisfarne, which, be it observed, really meant absence from the +foul, close, feverish air of the castle, and all the evil odours of +the court. To the lady he thought it would really be healing, but he +doubted whether the poor little boy was not too far gone for such +revival; indeed, he made no secret that he believed the child was +stricken for death. + +"Then what boots all your vaunted chirurgery!" cried the mother +passionately. "You outlandish cheat! you! What did you come here +for? You have not even let him blood!" + +"Let him blood! good madame," exclaimed Master Lambert. "In his +state, to take away his blood would be to kill him outright!" + +"False fool and pretender," cried Lady Whitburn; "as if all did not +ken that the first duty of a leech is to take away the infected +humours of the blood! Demented as I was to send for you. Had you +been worth but a pinch of salt, you would have shown me how to lay +hands on Nan the witch-wife, the cause of all the scathe to my poor +bairn." + +Master Lambert could only protest that he laid no claim to the skill +of a witch-finder, whereupon the lady stormed at him as having come +on false pretences, and at her daughter for having brought him, and +finally fell into a paroxysm of violent weeping, during which Grisell +was thankful to convey her guest out of the chamber, and place him +under the care of Ridley, who would take care he had food and rest, +and safe convoy back to Wearmouth when his mule had been rested and +baited. + +"Oh, Master Lambert," she said, "it grieves me that you should have +been thus treated." + +"Heed not that, sweet lady. It oft falls to our share to brook the +like, and I fear me that yours is a weary lot." + +"But my brother! my little brother!" she asked. "It is all out of my +mother's love for him." + +"Alack, lady, what can I say? The child is sickly, and little enough +is there of peace or joy in this world for such, be he high or low +born. Were it not better that the Saints should take him to their +keeping, while yet a sackless babe?" + +Grisell wrung her hands together. "Ah! he hath been all my joy or +bliss through these years; but I will strive to say it is well, and +yield my will." + +The crying of the poor little sufferer for his Grisly called her back +before she could say or hear more. Her mother lay still utterly +exhausted on her bed, and hardly noticed her; but all that evening, +and all the ensuing night, Grisell held the boy, sometimes on her +lap, sometimes on the bed, while all the time his moans grew more and +more feeble, his words more indistinct. By and by, as she sat on the +bed, holding him on her breast, he dropped asleep, and perhaps, +outwearied as she was, she slept too. At any rate all was still, +till she was roused by a cry from Thora, "Holy St. Hilda! the bairn +has passed!" + +And indeed when Grisell started, the little head and hand that had +been clasped to her fell utterly prone, and there was a strange cold +at her breast. + +Her mother woke with a loud wail. "My bairn! My bairn!" snatching +him to her arms. "This is none other than your Dutchman's doings, +girl. Have him to the dungeon! Where are the stocks? Oh, my pretty +boy! He breathed, he is living. Give me the wine!" Then as there +was no opening of the pale lips, she fell into another tempest of +tears, during which Grisell rushed to the stair, where on the lowest +step she met Lambert and Ridley. + +"Have him away! Have him away, Cuthbert," she cried. "Out of the +castle instantly. My mother is distraught with grief; I know not +what she may do to him. O go! Not a word!" + +They could but obey, riding away in the early morning, and leaving +the castle to its sorrow. + +So, tenderly and sadly was little Bernard carried to the vault in the +church, while Grisell knelt as his chief mourner, for her mother, +after her burst of passion subsided, lay still and listless, hardly +noticing anything, as if there had fallen on her some stroke that +affected her brain. Tidings of the Baron were slow to come, and +though Grisell sent a letter by a wandering friar to York, with +information of the child's death and the mother's illness, it was +very doubtful when or whether they would ever reach him. + + + +CHAPTER XV--WAKEFIELD BRIDGE + + + +I come to tell you things since then befallen. +After the bloody fray at Wakefield fought, +Where your brave father breathed his latest gasp. + +SHAKESPEARE, King Henry VI., Part III. + +Christmas went by sadly in Whitburn Tower, but the succeeding weeks +were to be sadder still. It was on a long dark evening that a +commotion was heard at the gate, and Lady Whitburn, who had been +sitting by the smouldering fire in her chamber, seemed suddenly +startled into life. + +"Tidings," she cried. "News of my lord and son. Bring them, +Grisell, bring them up." + +Grisell obeyed, and hurried down to the hall. All the household, men +and maids, were gathered round some one freshly come in, and the +first sound she heard was, "Alack! Alack, my lady!" + +"How--what--how--" she asked breathlessly, just recognising Harry +Featherstone, pale, dusty, blood-stained. + +"It is evil news, dear lady," said old Ridley, turning towards her +with outstretched hands, and tears flowing down his cheeks. "My +knight. Oh! my knight! And I was not by!" + +"Slain?" almost under her breath, asked Grisell. + +"Even so! At Wakefield Bridge," began Featherstone, but at that +instant, walking stiff, upright, and rigid, like a figure moved by +mechanism, Lady Whitburn was among them. + +"My lord," she said, still as if her voice belonged to some one else. +"Slain? And thou, recreant, here to tell the tale!" + +"Madam, he fell before I had time to strike." She seemed to hear no +word, but again demanded, "My son." + +He hesitated a moment, but she fiercely reiterated. + +"My son! Speak out, thou coward loon." + +"Madam, Robert was cut down by the Lord Clifford beside the Earl of +Rutland. 'Tis a lost field! I barely 'scaped with a dozen men. I +came but to bear the tidings, and see whether you needed an arm to +hold out the castle for young Bernard. Or I would be on my way to my +own folk on the Border, for the Queen's men will anon be everywhere, +since the Duke is slain!" + +"The Duke! The Duke of York!" was the cry, as if a tower were down. + +"What would you. We were caught by Somerset like deer in a buck- +stall. Here! Give me a cup of ale, I can scarce speak for chill." + +He sank upon the settle as one quite worn out. The ale was brought +by some one, and he drank a long draught, while, at a sign from +Ridley, one of the serving-men began to draw off his heavy boots and +greaves, covered with frosted mud, snow, and blood, all melting +together, but all the time he talked, and the hearers remained +stunned and listening to what had hardly yet penetrated their +understanding. Lady Whitburn had collapsed into her own chair, and +was as still as the rest. + +He spoke incoherently, and Ridley now and then asked a question, but +his fragmentary narrative may be thus expanded. + +All had, in Yorkist opinion, gone well in London. Henry was in the +power of the White Rose, and had actually consented that Richard of +York should be his next heir, but in the meantime Queen Margaret had +been striving her utmost to raise the Welsh and the Border lords on +behalf of her son. She had obtained aid from Scotland, and the +Percies, the Dacres of Gilsland, and many more, had followed her +standard. The Duke of York and Earl of Salisbury set forth to +repress what they called a riot, probably unaware of the numbers who +were daily joining the Queen. With them went Lord Whitburn, hoping +thence to return home, and his son Robert, still a squire of the +Duke's household. + +They reached York's castle of Sendal, and there merrily kept +Christmas, but on St. Thomas of Canterbury's Day they heard that the +foe were close at hand, many thousands strong, and on the morrow +Queen Margaret, with her boy beside her, and the Duke of Somerset, +came before the gate and called on the Duke to surrender the castle, +and his own vaunting claims with it, or else come out and fight. + +Sir Davy Hall entreated the Duke to remain in the castle till his son +Edward, Earl of March, could bring reinforcements up from Wales, but +York held it to be dishonourable to shut himself up on account of a +scolding woman, and the prudence of the Earl of Salisbury was at +fault, since both presumed on the easy victories they had hitherto +gained. Therefore they sallied out towards Wakefield Bridge, to +confront the main body of Margaret's army, ignorant or careless that +she had two wings in reserve. These closed in on them, and their +fate was certain. + +"My lord fell in the melee among the first," said Featherstone. "I +was down beside him, trying to lift him up, when a big Scot came with +his bill and struck at my head, and I knew no more till I found my +master lying stark dead and stripped of all his armour. My sword was +gone, but I got off save for this cut" (and he pushed back his hair) +"and a horse's kick or two, for the whole battle had gone over me, +and I heard the shouting far away. As my lord lay past help, +methought I had best shift myself ere more rascaille came to strip +the slain. And as luck or my good Saint would have it, as I stumbled +among the corpses I heard a whinnying, and saw mine own horse, Brown +Weardale, running masterless. Glad enough was he, poor brute, to +have my hand on his rein. + +"The bridge was choked with fighting men, so I was about to put him +to the river, when whom should I see on the bridge but young Master +Robin, and with him young Lord Edmund of Rutland. There, on the +other side, holding parley with them, was the knight Mistress Grisell +wedded, and though he wore the White Rose, he gave his hand to them, +and was letting them go by in safety. I was calling to Master Rob to +let me pass as one of his own, when thundering on came the grim Lord +Clifford, roaring like the wind in Roker caves. I heard him howl at +young Copeland for a traitor, letting go the accursed spoilers of +York. Copeland tried to speak, but Clifford dashed him aside against +the wall, and, ah! woe's me, lady, when Master Robin threw himself +between, the fellow--a murrain on his name--ran the fair youth +through the neck with his sword, and swept him off into the river. +Then he caught hold of Lord Edmund, crying out, "Thy father slew +mine, and so do I thee," and dashed out his brains with his mace. +For me, I rode along farther, swam my horse over the river in the +twilight, with much ado to keep clear of the dead horses and poor +slaughtered comrades that cumbered the stream, and what was even +worse, some not yet dead, borne along and crying out. A woful day it +was to all who loved the kindly Duke of York, or this same poor +house! As luck would have it, I fell in with Jock of Redesdale and a +few more honest fellows, who had 'scaped. We found none but friends +when we were well past the river. They succoured us at the first +abbey we came to. The rest have sped to their homes, and here am I." + +Such was the tenor of Featherstone's doleful history of that blood- +thirsty Lancastrian victory. All had hung in dire suspense on his +words, and not till they were ended did Grisell become conscious that +her mother was sitting like a stone, with fixed, glassy eyes and +dropped lip, in the high-backed chair, quite senseless, and breathing +strangely. + +They took her up and carried her upstairs, as one who had received +her death stroke as surely as had her husband and son on the slopes +between Sendal and Wakefield. + +Grisell and Thora did their utmost, but without reviving her, and +they watched by her, hardly conscious of anything else, as they tried +their simple, ineffective remedies one after another, with no thought +or possibility of sending for further help, since the roads would be +impassable in the long January night, and besides, the Lancastrians +might make them doubly perilous. Moreover, this dumb paralysis was +accepted as past cure, and needing not the doctor but the priest. +Before the first streak of dawn on that tardy, northern morning, +Ridley's ponderous step came up the stair, into the feeble light of +the rush candle which the watchers tried to shelter from the +draughts. + +The sad question and answer of "No change" passed, and then Ridley, +his gruff voice unnecessarily hushed, said, "Featherstone would speak +with you, lady. He would know whether it be your pleasure to keep +him in your service to hold out the Tower, or whether he is free to +depart." + +"Mine!" said Grisell bewildered. + +"Yea!" exclaimed Ridley. "You are Lady of Whitburn!" + +"Ah! It is true," exclaimed Grisell, clasping her hands. "Woe is me +that it should be so! And oh! Cuthbert! my husband, if he lives, is +a Queen's man! What can I do?" + +"If it were of any boot I would say hold out the Tower. He deserves +no better after the scurvy way he treated you," said Cuthbert grimly. +"He may be dead, too, though Harry fears he was but stunned." + +"But oh!" cried Grisell, as if she saw one gleam of light, "did not I +hear something of his trying to save my brother and Lord Edmund?" + +"You had best come down and hear," said Ridley. "Featherstone cannot +go till he has spoken with you, and he ought to depart betimes, lest +the Gilsland folk and all the rest of them be ravening on their way +back." + +Grisell looked at her mother, who lay in the same state, entirely +past her reach. The hard, stern woman, who had seemed to have no +affection to bestow on her daughter, had been entirely broken down +and crushed by the loss of her sons and husband. + +Probably neither had realised that by forcing Grisell on young +Copeland they might be giving their Tower to their enemy. + +She went down to the hall, where Harry Featherstone, whose night had +done him more good than hers had, came to meet her, looking much +freshened, and with a bandage over his forehead. He bent low before +her, and offered her his services, but, as he told her, he and Ridley +had been talking it over, and they thought it vain to try to hold out +the Tower, even if any stout men did straggle back from the battle, +for the country round was chiefly Lancastrian, and it would be +scarcely possible to get provisions, or to be relieved. Moreover, +the Gilsland branch of the family, who would be the male heirs, were +on the side of the King and Queen, and might drive her out if she +resisted. Thus there seemed no occasion for the squire to remain, +and he hoped to reach his own family, and save himself from the risk +of being captured. + +"No, sir, we do not need you," said Grisell. "If Sir Leonard +Copeland lives and claims this Tower, there is no choice save to +yield it to him. I would not delay you in seeking your own safety, +but only thank you for your true service to my lord and father." + +She held out her hand, which Featherstone kissed on his knee. + +His horse was terribly jaded, and he thought he could make his way +more safely on foot than in the panoply of an esquire, for in this +war, the poorer sort were hardly touched; the attacks were chiefly +made on nobles and gentlemen. So he prepared to set forth, but +Grisell obtained from him what she had scarcely understood the night +before, the entire history of the fall of her father and brother, and +how gallantly Leonard Copeland had tried to withstand Clifford's +rage. + +"He did his best for them," she said, as if it were her one drop of +hope and comfort. + +Ridley very decidedly hoped that Clifford's blow had freed her from +her reluctant husband; and mayhap the marriage would give her claims +on the Copeland property. But Grisell somehow could not join in the +wish. She could only remember the merry boy at Amesbury and the fair +face she had seen sleeping in the hall, and she dwelt on +Featherstone's assurance that no wound had pierced the knight, and +that he would probably be little the worse for his fall against the +parapet of the bridge. Use her as he might, she could not wish him +dead, though it was a worthy death in defence of his old playfellow +and of her own brother. + + + +CHAPTER XVI--A NEW MASTER + + + +In the dark chambere, if the bride was fair, + Ye wis, I could not see. + . . . . + And the bride rose from her knee +And kissed the smile of her mother dead. + +E. B. BROWNING, The Romaunt of the Page. + +The Lady of Whitburn lingered from day to day, sometimes showing +signs of consciousness, and of knowing her daughter, but never really +reviving. At the end of a fortnight she seemed for one day somewhat +better, but that night she had a fresh attack, and was so evidently +dying that the priest, Sir Lucas, was sent for to bring her the last +Sacrament. The passing bell rang out from the church, and the old +man, with his little server before him, came up the stair, and was +received by Grisell, Thora, and one or two other servants on their +knees. + +Ridley was not there. For even then, while the priest was crossing +the hall, a party of spearmen, with a young knight at their head, +rode to the gate and demanded entrance. + +The frightened porter hurried to call Master Ridley, who, instead of +escorting the priest with the Host to his dying lady, had to go to +the gate, where he recognised Sir Leonard Copeland, far from dead, in +very different guise from that in which he had been brought to the +castle before. He looked, however, awed, as he said, bending his +head - + +"Is it sooth, Master Ridley? Is death beforehand with me?" + +"My old lady is in extremis, sir," replied Ridley. "Poor soul, she +hath never spoken since she heard of my lord's death and his son's." + +"The younger lad? Lives here?" demanded Copeland. "Is it as I have +heard?" + +"Aye, sir. The child passed away on the Eve of St. Luke. I have my +lady's orders," he added reluctantly, "to open the castle to you, as +of right." + +"It is well," returned Sir Leonard. Then, turning round to the +twenty men who followed him, he said, "Men-at-arms, as you saw and +heard, there is death here. Draw up here in silence. This good +esquire will see that you have food and fodder for the horses. Kemp, +Hardcastle," to his squires, "see that all is done with honour and +respect as to the lady of the castle and mine. Aught unseemly shall +be punished." + +Wherewith he dismounted, and entered the narrow little court, looking +about him with a keen, critical, soldierly eye, but speaking with +low, grave tones. + +"I may not tarry," he said to Ridley, "but this place, since it falls +to me and mine, must be held for the King and Queen." + +"My lady bows to your will, sir," returned Ridley. + +Copeland continued to survey the walls and very antiquated defences, +observing that there could have been few alarms there. This lasted +till the rites in the sick-room were ended, and the priest came +forth. + +"Sir," he said to Copeland, "you will pardon the young lady. Her +mother is in articulo mortis, and she cannot leave her." + +"I would not disturb her," said Leonard. "The Saints forbid that I +should vex her. I come but as in duty bound to damn this Tower on +behalf of King Harry, Queen Margaret, and the Prince of Wales against +all traitors. I will not tarry here longer than to put it into hands +who will hold it for them and for me. How say you, Sir Squire?" he +added, turning to Ridley, not discourteously. + +"We ever did hold for King Harry, sir," returned the old esquire. + +"Yea, but against his true friends, York and Warwick. One is cut +off, ay, and his aider and defender, Salisbury, who should rather +have stood by his King, has suffered a traitor's end at Pomfret." + +"My Lord of Salisbury! Ah! that will grieve my poor young lady," +sighed Ridley. + +"He was a kind lord, save for his treason to the King," said Leonard. +"We of his household long ago were happy enough, though strangely +divided now. For the rest, till that young wolf cub, Edward of +March, and his mischief-stirring cousin of Warwick be put down, this +place must be held against them and theirs--whosoever bears the White +Rose. Wilt do so, Master Seneschal?" + +"I hold for my lady. That is all I know," said Ridley, "and she +holds herself bound to you, sir." + +"Faithful. Ay? You will be her guardian, I see; but I must leave +half a score of fellows for the defence, and will charge them that +they show all respect and honour to the lady, and leave to you, as +seneschal, all the household, and of all save the wardship of the +Tower, calling on you first to make oath of faith to me, and to do +nought to the prejudice of King Henry, the Queen, or Prince, nor to +favour the friends of York or Warwick." + +"I am willing, sir," returned Ridley, who cared a great deal more for +the house of Whitburn than for either party, whose cause he by no +means understood, perhaps no more than they had hitherto done +themselves. As long as he was left to protect his lady it was all he +asked, and more than he expected, and the courtesy, not to say +delicacy, of the young knight greatly impressed both him and the +priest, though he suspected that it was a relief to Sir Leonard not +to be obliged to see his bride of a few months. + +The selected garrison were called in. Ridley would rather have seen +them more of the North Country yeoman type than of the regular +weather-beaten men-at-arms whom wars always bred up; but their +officer was a slender, dainty-looking, pale young squire, with his +arm in a sling, named Pierce Hardcastle, selected apparently because +his wound rendered rest desirable. Sir Leonard reiterated his charge +that all honour and respect was to be paid to the Lady of Whitburn, +and that she was free to come and go as she chose, and to be obeyed +in every respect, save in what regarded the defence of the Tower. He +himself was going on to Monks Wearmouth, where he had a kinsman among +the monks. + +With an effort, just as he remounted his horse, he said to Ridley, +"Commend me to the lady. Tell her that I am grieved for her sorrow +and to be compelled to trouble her at such a time; but 'tis for my +Queen's service, and when this troublous times be ended, she shall +hear more from me." Turning to the priest he added, "I have no coin +to spare, but let all be done that is needed for the souls of the +departed lord and lady, and I will be answerable." + +Nothing could be more courteous, but as he rode off priest and squire +looked at one another, and Ridley said, "He will untie your knot, Sir +Lucas." + +"He takes kindly to castle and lands," was the answer, with a smile; +"they may make the lady to be swallowed." + +"I trow 'tis for his cause's sake," replied Ridley. "Mark you, he +never once said 'My lady,' nor 'My wife.'" + +"May the sweet lady come safely out of it any way," sighed the +priest. "She would fain give herself and her lands to the Church." + +"May be 'tis the best that is like to befall her," said Ridley; "but +if that young featherpate only had the wit to guess it, he would find +that he might seek Christendom over for a better wife." + +They were interrupted by a servant, who came hurrying down to say +that my lady was even now departing, and to call Sir Lucas to the +bedside. + +All was over a few moments after he reached the apartment, and +Grisell was left alone in her desolation. The only real, deep, +mutual love had been between her and poor little Bernard; her elder +brother she had barely seen; her father had been indifferent, chiefly +regarding her as a damaged piece of property, a burthen to the +estate; her mother had been a hard, masculine, untender woman, only +softened in her latter days by the dependence of ill health and her +passion for her sickly youngest; but on her Grisell had experienced +Sister Avice's lesson that ministry to others begets and fosters +love. + +And now she was alone in her house, last of her household, her work +for her mother over, a wife, but loathed and deserted except so far +as that the tie had sanctioned the occupation of her home by a +hostile garrison. Her spirit sank within her, and she bitterly felt +the impoverishment of the always scanty means, which deprived her of +the power of laying out sums of money on those rites which were +universally deemed needful for the repose of souls snatched away in +battle. It was a mercenary age among the clergy, and besides, it was +the depth of a northern winter, and the funeral rites of the Lady of +Whitburn would have been poor and maimed indeed if a whole band of +black Benedictine monks had not arrived from Wearmouth, saying they +had been despatched at special request and charge of Sir Leonard +Copeland. + + + +CHAPTER XVII--STRANGE GUESTS + + + +The needle, having nought to do, + Was pleased to let the magnet wheedle, +Till closer still the tempter drew, + And off at length eloped the needle. + +T. MOORE. + +The nine days of mourning were spent in entire seclusion by Grisell, +who went through every round of devotions prescribed or recommended +by the Church, and felt relief and rest in them. She shrank when +Ridley on the tenth day begged her no longer to seclude herself in +the solar, but to come down to the hall and take her place as Lady of +the Castle, otherwise he said he could not answer for the conduct of +Copeland's men. + +"Master Hardcastle desires it too," he said. "He is a good lad +enough, but I doubt me whether his hand is strong enough over those +fellows! You need not look for aught save courtesy from him! Come +down, lady, or you will never have your rights." + +"Ah, Cuthbert, what are my rights?" + +"To be mistress of your own castle," returned Ridley, "and that you +will never be unless you take the upper hand. Here are all our +household eating with these rogues of Copeland's, and who is to keep +rule if the lady comes not?" + +"Alack, and how am I to do so?" + +However, the consideration brought her to appear at the very early +dinner, the first meal of the day, which followed on the return from +mass. Pierce Hardcastle met her shyly. He was a tall slender +stripling, looking weak and ill, and he bowed very low as he said, +"Greet you well, lady," and looked up for a moment as if in fear of +what he might encounter. Grisell indeed was worn down with long +watching and grief, and looked haggard and drawn so as to enhance all +her scars and distortion of feature into more uncomeliness than her +wont. She saw him shudder a little, but his lame arm and wan looks +interested her kind heart. "I fear me you are still feeling your +wound, sir," she said, in the sweet voice which was evidently a +surprise to him. + +"It is my plea for having been a slug-a-bed this morning," he +answered. + +They sat down at the table. Grisell between Ridley and Hardcastle, +the servants and men-at-arms beyond. Porridge and broth and very +small ale were the fare, and salted meat would be for supper, and as +Grisell knew but too well already, her own retainers were grumbling +at the voracious appetites of the men-at-arms as much as did their +unwilling guests at the plainness and niggardliness of the supply. + +Thora had begged for a further allowance of beer for them, or even to +broach a cask of wine. "For," said she, "they are none such fiends +as we thought, if one knows how to take them courteously." + +"There is no need that you should have any dealings with them, +Thora," said her lady, with some displeasure; "Master Ridley sees to +their provision." + +Thora tossed up her head a little and muttered something about not +being mewed out of sight and speech of all men. And when she +attended her lady to the hall there certainly were glances between +her and a slim young archer. + +The lady's presence was certainly a restraint on the rude men-at- +arms, though two or three of them seemed to her rough, reckless- +looking men. After the meal all her kindly instincts were aroused to +ask what she could do for the young squire, and he willingly put +himself into her hands, for his hurt had become much more painful +within the last day or two, as indeed it proved to be festering, and +in great need of treatment. + +Before the day was over the two had made friends, and Grisell had +found him to be a gentle, scholarly youth, whom the defence of the +Queen had snatched from his studies into the battlefield. He told +her a great deal about the good King, and his encouragement of his +beloved scholars at Eton, and he spoke of Queen Margaret with an +enthusiasm new to Grisell, who had only heard her reviled as the +Frenchwoman. Pierce could speak with the greatest admiration, too, +of his own knight, Sir Leonard, whom he viewed as the pink of +chivalry, assuring Lady Copeland, as he called her, that she need +never doubt for a moment of his true honour and courtesy. Grisell +longed to know, but modest pride forbade her to ask, whether he knew +how matters stood with her rival, Lady Eleanor Audley. Ridley, +however, had no such feeling, and he reported to Grisell what he had +discovered. + +Young Hardcastle had only once seen the lady, and had thought her +very beautiful, as she looked from a balcony when King Henry was +riding to his Parliament. Leonard Copeland, then a squire, was +standing beside her, and it had been currently reported that he was +to be her bridegroom. + +He had returned from his captivity after the battle of Northampton +exceedingly downcast, but striving vehemently in the cause of +Lancaster, and Hardcastle had heard that the question had been +discussed whether the forced marriage had been valid, or could be +dissolved; but since the bodies of Lord Whitburn and his son had been +found on the ground at Wakefield, this had ceased, and it was +believed that Queen Margaret had commanded Sir Leonard, on his +allegiance, to go and take possession of Whitburn and its vassals in +her cause. + +But Pierce Hardcastle had come to Ridley's opinion, that did his +knight but shut his eyes, the Lady Grisell was as good a mate as man +could wish both in word and deed. + +"I would fain," said he, "have the Lady Eleanor to look at, but this +lady to dress my hurts, ay, and talk with me. Never met I woman who +was so good company! She might almost be a scholar at Oxford for her +wit." + +However much solace the lady might find in the courtesy of Master +Hardcastle, she was not pleased to find that her hand-maiden Thora +exchanged glances with the young men-at-arms; and in a few days +Ridley spoke to Grisell, and assured her that mischief would ensue if +the silly wench were not checked in her habit of loitering and +chattering whenever she could escape from her lady's presence in the +solar, which Grisell used as her bower, only descending to the hall +at meal-times. + +Grisell accordingly rebuked her the next time she delayed +unreasonably over a message, but the girl pouted and muttered +something about young Ralph Hart helping her with the heavy pitcher +up the stair. + +"It is unseemly for a maiden to linger and get help from strange +soldiers," said Grisell. + +"No more unseemly than for the dame to be ever holding converse with +their captain," retorted the North Country hand-maiden, free of +speech and with a toss of the head. + +"Whist, Thora! or you must take a buffet," said Grisell, clenching a +fist unused to striking, and trying to regard chastisement as a duty. +"You know full well that my only speech with Master Hardcastle is as +his hostess." + +Thora laughed. "Ay, lady; I ken well what the men say. How that +poor youth is spell-bound, and that you are casting your glamour over +him as of old over my poor old lady and little Master Bernard." + +"For shame, Thora, to bring me such tales!" and Grisell's hand +actually descended on her maiden's face, but so slight was the force +that it only caused a contemptuous laugh, which so angered the young +mistress as to give her energy to strike again with all her might. + +"And you'd beat me," observed her victim, roused to anger. "You are +so ill favoured yourself that you cannot bear a man to look on a fair +maid!" + +"What insolence is this?" cried Grisell, utterly amazed. "Go into +the turret room, spin out this hank, and stay there till I call you +to supper. Say your Ave, and recollect what beseems a modest +maiden." + +She spoke with authority, which Thora durst not resist, and withdrew +still pouting and grumbling. + +Grisell was indeed young herself and inexperienced, and knew not that +her wrath with the girl might be perilous to herself, while sympathy +might have evoked wholesome confidence. + +For the maiden, just developing into northern comeliness, was +attractive enough to win the admiration of soldiers in garrison with +nothing to do, and on her side their notice, their rough compliments, +and even their jests, were delightful compared with the dulness of +her mistress's mourning chamber, and court enough was paid to her +completely to turn her head. If there were love and gratitude +lurking in the bottom of her heart towards the lady who had made a +fair and skilful maiden out of the wild fisher girl, all was +smothered in the first strong impulse of love for this young Ralph +Hart, the first to awaken the woman out of the child. + +The obstacles which Grisell, like other prudent mistresses in all +times, placed in the course of this true love, did but serve to +alienate the girl and place her in opposition. The creature had +grown up as wild and untamed as one of the seals on the shore, and +though she had had a little training and teaching of late years, it +was entirely powerless when once the passion was evoked in her by the +new intercourse and rough compliments of the young archer, and she +was for the time at his beck and call, regarding her lady as her +tyrant and enemy. It was the old story of many a household. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII--WITCHERY + + + +The lady has gone to her secret bower, +The bower that was guarded by word and by spell. + +SCOTT, The Lay of the Last Minstrel. + +"Master Squire," said the principal man-at-arms of the garrison to +Pierce Hardcastle, "is it known to you what this laidly dame's +practices be?" + +"I know her for a dame worthy of all honour and esteem," returned the +esquire, turning hastily round in wrath. He much disliked this man, +a regular mercenary of the free lance description, a fellow of French +or Alsatian birth, of middle age, much strength, and on account of a +great gash and sideways twist of his snub nose always known as Tordu, +and strongly suspected that he had been sent as a sort of spy or +check on Sir Leonard Copeland and on himself. The man replied with a +growl: + +"Ah ha! Sans doubt she makes her niggard fare seem dainty cakes to +those under her art." + +In fact the evident pleasure young Hardcastle took in the Lady +Castellane's society, the great improvement in his wound under her +treatment, and the manner in which the serfs around came to ask her +aid in their maladies, had excited the suspicion of the men-at-arms. +They were older men, hardened and roughened, inclined to despise his +youth, and to resent the orderly discipline of the household, which +under Ridley went on as before, and the murmurs of Thora led to +inquiries, answered after the exaggerated fashion of gossip. + +There were outcries about provisions and wine or ale, and shouts +demanding more, and when Pierce declared that he would not have the +lady insulted, there was a hoarse loud laugh. He was about to order +Tordu as ringleader into custody, but Ridley said to him aside, "Best +not, sir; his fellows will not lay a finger on him, and if we did so, +there would be a brawl, and we might come by the worst." + +So Pierce could only say, with all the force he could, "Bear in mind +that Sir Leonard Copeland is lord here, and all miscourtesy to his +lady is an offence to himself, which will be visited with his wrath." + +The sneering laugh came again, and Tordu made answer, "Ay, ay, sir; +she has bewitched you, and we'll soon have him and you free." + +Pierce was angered into flying at the man with his sword, but the +other men came between, and Ridley held him back. + +"You are still a maimed man, sir. To be foiled would be worse than +to let it pass." + +"There, fellow, I'll spare you, so you ask pardon of me and the +lady." + +Perhaps they thought they had gone too far, for there was a sulky +growl that might pass for an apology, and Ridley's counsel was +decided that Pierce had better not pursue the matter. + +What had been said, however, alarmed him, and set him on the watch, +and the next evening, when Hardcastle was walking along the cliffs +beyond the castle, the lad who acted as his page came to him, with +round, wondering eyes, "Sir," said he, after a little hesitation, "is +it sooth that the lady spake a spell over your arm?" + +"Not to my knowledge," said Pierce smiling. + +"It might be without your knowledge," said the boy. "They say it +healed as no chirurgeon could have healed it, and by magic arts." + +"Ha! the lubbard oafs. You know better than to believe them, Dick." + +"Nay, sir, but 'tis her bower-woman and Madge, the cook's wife. Both +aver that the lady hath bewitched whoever comes in her way ever since +she crossed the door. She hath wrought strange things with her +father, mother, and brothers. They say she bound them to her; that +the little one could not brook to have her out of sight; yet she +worked on him so that he was crooked and shrivelled. Yet he wept and +cried to have her ever with him, while he peaked and pined and +dwindled away. And her mother, who was once a fine, stately, +masterful dame, pined to mere skin and bone, and lay in lethargy; and +now she is winding her charms on you, sir!" + +Pierce made an exclamation of loathing and contempt. Dick lowered +his voice to a whisper of awe. + +"Nay, sir, but Le Tordu and Ned of the Bludgeon purpose to ride over +to Shields to the wise, and they will deal with her when he has found +the witch's mark." + +"The lady!" cried Hardcastle in horror. "You see her what she is! A +holy woman if ever there was one! At mass each morning." + +"Ay, but the wench Thora told Ralph that 'tis prayers backward she +says there. Thora has oft heard her at night, and 'twas no Ave nor +Credo as they say them here." + +Pierce burst out laughing. "I should think not. They speak +gibberish, and she, for I have heard her in Church, speaks words with +a meaning, as her priest and nuns taught her." + +"But her face, sir. There's the Evil One's mark. One side says nay +to the other." + +"The Evil One! Nay, Dick, he is none other than Sir Leonard himself. +'Twas he that all unwittingly, when a boy, fired a barrel of powder +close to her and marred her countenance. You are not fool and ass +enough to give credence to these tales." + +"I said not that I did, sir," replied the page; "but it is what the +men-at-arms swear to, having drawn it from the serving-maid." + +"The adder," muttered Pierce. + +"Moreover," continued the boy, "they have found out that there is a +wise man witch-finder at Shields. They mean to be revenged for the +scanty fare and mean providings; and they deem it will be a merry +jest in this weary hold, and that Sir Leonard will be too glad to be +quit of his gruesome dame to call them to account." + +It was fearful news, for Pierce well knew his own incompetence to +restrain these strong and violent men. He did not know where his +knight was to be found, and, if he had known, it was only too likely +that these terrible intentions might be carried out before any +messenger could reach him. Indeed, the belief in sorcery was +universal, and no rank was exempt from the danger of the accusation. +Thora's treachery was specially perilous. All that the young man +could do was to seek counsel with Cuthbert Ridley, and even this he +was obliged to do in the stable, bidding Dick keep watch outside. +Ridley too had heard a spiteful whisper or two, but it had seemed too +preposterous for him to attend to it. "You are young, Hardcastle," +he said, with a smile, "or you would know that there is nothing a +grumbler will not say, nor how far men's tongues lie from their +hands." + +"Nay, but if their hands DID begin to act, how should we save the +lady? There's nothing Tordu would not do. Could we get her away to +some nunnery?" + +"There is no nunnery nearer at hand than Gateshead, and there the +Prioress is a Musgrove, no friend to my lord. She might give her up, +on such a charge, for holy Church is no guardian in them. My poor +bairn! That ingrate Thora too! I would fain wring her neck! Yet +here are our fisher folk, who love her for her bounty." + +"Would they hide her?" asked Pierce. + +"That serving-wench--would I had drowned her ere bringing her here-- +might turn them, and, were she tracked, I ken not who might not be +scared or tortured into giving her up!" + +Here Dick looked in. "Tordu is crossing the yard," he said. + +They both became immediately absorbed in studying the condition of +Featherstone's horse, which had never wholly recovered the flight +from Wakefield. + +After a time Ridley was able to steal away, and visit Grisell in her +apartment. She came to meet him, and he read alarm, incredulous +alarm, in her face. She put her hands in his. "Is it sooth?" she +said, in a strange, awe-stricken voice. + +"You have heard, then, my wench?" + +"Thora speaks in a strange tone, as though evil were brewing against +me. But you, and Master Hardcastle, and Sir Lucas, and the rest +would never let them touch me?" + +"They should only do so through my heart's blood, dear child; but +mine would be soon shed, and Hardcastle is a weakly lad, whom those +fellows believe to be bewitched. We must find some other way!" + +"Sir Leonard would save me if he knew. Alas! the good Earl of +Salisbury is dead." + +"'Tis true. If we could hide you till we be rid of these men. But +where?" and he made a despairing gesture. + +Grisell stood stunned and dazed as the horrible prospect rose before +her of being seized by these lawless men, tortured by the savage +hands of the witch-finder, subjected to a cruel death, by fire, or at +best by water. She pressed her hands together, feeling utterly +desolate, and prayed her prayer to the God of the fatherless to save +her or brace her to endure. + +Presently Cuthbert exclaimed, "Would Master Groats, the Poticary, +shelter you till this is over-past? His wife is deaf and must +perforce keep counsel." + +"He would! I verily believe he would," exclaimed Grisell; "and no +suspicion would light on him. How soon can I go to him, and how?" + +"If it may be, this very night," said Ridley. "I missed two of the +rogues, and who knows whither they may have gone?" + +"Will there be time?" said the poor girl, looking round in terror. + +"Certes. The nearest witch-finder is at Shields, and they cannot get +there and back under two days. Have you jewels, lady? And hark you, +trust not to Thora. She is the worst traitor of all. Ask me no +more, but be ready to come down when you hear a whistle." + +That Thora could be a traitress and turn against her--the girl whom +she had taught, trained, and civilised--was too much to believe. She +would almost, in spite of cautions, have asked her if it were +possible, and tried to explain the true character of the services +that were so cruelly misinterpreted; but as she descended the dark +winding stair to supper, she heard the following colloquy: + +"You will not deal hardly with her, good Ralph, dear Ralph?" + +"That thou shalt see, maid! On thy life, not a word to her." + +"Nay, but she is a white witch! she does no evil." + +"What! Going back on what thou saidst of her brother and her mother. +Take thou heed, or they will take order with thee." + +"Thou wilt take care of me, good Ralph. Oh! I have done it for +thee." + +"Never fear, little one; only shut thy pretty little mouth;" and +there was a sound of kissing. + +"What will they do to her?" in a lower voice. + +"Thou wilt see! Sink or swim thou knowst. Ha! ha! She will have +enough of the draught that is so free to us." + +Grisell, trembling and horror-stricken, could only lean against the +wall hoping that her beating heart did not sound loud enough to +betray her, till a call from the hall put an end to the terrible +whispers. + +She hurried upwards lest Thora should come up and perceive how near +she had been, then descended and took her seat at supper, trying to +converse with Pierce as usual, but noting with terror the absence of +the two soldiers. + +How her evasion was to be effected she knew not. The castle keys +were never delivered to her, but always to Hardcastle, and she saw +him take them; but she received from Ridley a look and sign which +meant that she was to be ready, and when she left the hall she made +up a bundle of needments, and in it her precious books and all the +jewels she had inherited. That Thora did not follow her was a boon. + + + +CHAPTER XIX--A MARCH HARE + + + +Yonder is a man in sight - +Yonder is a house--but where? +No. she must not enter there. +To the caves, and to the brooks, +To the clouds of heaven she looks. + +WORDSWORTH, Feast of Brougham Castle. + +Long, long did Grisell kneel in an agony of prayer and terror, as she +seemed already to feel savage hands putting her to the ordeal. + +The castle had long been quiet and dark, so far as she knew, when +there was a faint sound and a low whistle. She sprang to the door +and held Ridley's hand. + +"Now is the time," he said, under his breath; "the squire waits. +That treacherous little baggage is safe locked into the cellar, +whither I lured her to find some malvoisie for the rascaille crew. +Come." + +He was without his boots, and silently led the way along the narrow +passage to the postern door, where stood young Hardcastle with the +keys. He let them out and crossed the court with them to the little +door leading to a steep descent of the cliffs by a narrow path. Not +till the sands were reached did any of the three dare to speak, and +then Grisell held out her hands in thanks and farewell. + +"May I not guard you on your way, lady?" said Pierce. + +"Best not, sir," returned Ridley; "best not know whither she is gone. +I shall be back again before I am missed or your rogues are +stirring." + +"When Sir Leonard knows of their devices, lady," said Pierce, "then +will Ridley tell him where to find you and bring you back in all +honour." + +Grisell could only sigh, and try to speak her thanks to the young +man, who kissed her hand, and stood watching her and Ridley as the +waning moon lighted them over the glistening sands, till they sought +the friendly shadows of the cliffs. And thus Grisell Dacre parted +from the home of her fathers. + +"Cuthbert," she said, "should you see Sir Leonard, let him know that +if--if he would be free from any bond to me I will aid in breaking +it, and ask only dowry enough to obtain entrance to a convent, while +he weds the lady he loves." + +Ridley interrupted her with imprecations on the knight, and +exhortations to her to hold her own, and not abandon her rights. "If +he keep the lands, he should keep the wife," was his cry. + +"His word and heart--" began Grisell. + +"Folly, my wench. No question but she is bestowed on some one else. +You do not want to be quit of him and be mewed in a nunnery." + +"I only crave to hide my head and not be the bane of his life." + +"Pshaw! You have seen for yourself. Once get over the first glance +and you are worth the fairest dame that ever was jousted for in the +lists. Send him at least a message as though it were not your will +to cast him off." + +"If you will have it so, then," said Grisell, "tell him that if it be +his desire, I will strive to make him a true, loyal, and loving +wife." + +The last words came with a sob, and Ridley gave a little inward +chuckle, as of one who suspected that the duties of the good and +loving wife would not be unwillingly undertaken. + +Castle-bred ladies were not much given to long walks, and though the +distance was only two miles, it was a good deal for Grisell, and she +plodded on wearily, to the sound of the lap of the sea and the cries +of the gulls. The caverns of the rock looked very black and gloomy, +and she clung to Ridley, almost expecting something to spring out on +her; but all was still, and the pale eastward light began to be seen +over the sea before they turned away from it to ascend to the +scattered houses of the little rising town. + +The bells of the convent had begun to ring for lauds, but it was only +twilight when they reached the wall of Lambert's garden of herbs, +where there was a little door that yielded to Ridley's push. The +house was still closed, and hoar frost lay on the leaves, but Grisell +proposed to hide herself in the little shed which served the purpose +of tool-house and summer-house till she could make her entrance. She +felt sure of a welcome, and almost constrained Cuthbert to leave her, +so as to return to the Tower early enough to avert suspicion--an +easier matter as the men-at-arms were given to sleeping as late as +they could. He would make an errand to the Apothecary's as soon as +he could, so as to bring intelligence. + +There sat Grisell, looking out on the brightening sky, while the +blackbirds and thrushes were bursting into song, and sweet odours +rising from the spring buds of the aromatic plants around, and a +morning bell rang from the great monastery church. With that she saw +the house door open, and Master Lambert in a fur cap and gown turned +up with lambs'-wool come out into the garden, basket in hand, and +chirp to the birds to come down and be fed. + +It was pretty to see how the mavis and the merle, the sparrow, +chaffinch, robin, and tit fluttered round, and Grisell waited a +moment to watch them before she stepped forth and said, "Ah! Master +Groot, here is another poor bird to implore your bounty." + +"Lady Grisell," he cried, with a start. + +"Ah! not that name," she said; "not a word. O Master Lambert, I came +by night; none have seen me, none but good Cuthbert Ridley ken where +I am. There can be no peril to you or yours if you will give shelter +for a little while to a poor maid." + +"Dear lady, we will do all we can," returned Lambert. "Fear not. +How pale you are. You have walked all night! Come and rest. None +will follow. You are sore spent! Clemence shall bring you a warm +drink! Condescend, dear lady," and he made her lean on his arm, and +brought her into his large living room, and placed her in the +comfortable cross-legged chair with straps and cushions as a back, +while he went into some back settlement to inform his wife of her +visitor; and presently they brought her warm water, with some +refreshing perfume, in a brass basin, and he knelt on one knee to +hold it to her, while she bathed her face and hands with a sponge--a +rare luxury. She started at every sound, but Lambert assured her +that she was safe, as no one ever came beyond the booth. His +Clemence had no gossips, and the garden could not be overlooked. +While some broth was heated for her she began to explain her peril, +but he exclaimed, "Methinks I know, lady, if it was thereanent that a +great strapping Hollander fellow from your Tower came to ask me for a +charm against gramarie, with hints that 'twas in high places. 'Twas +enough to make one laugh to see the big lubber try to whisper hints, +and shiver and shake, as he showed me a knot in his matted locks and +asked if it were not the enemy's tying. I told him 'twas tied by the +enemy indeed, the deadly sin of sloth, and that a stout Dutchman +ought to be ashamed of himself for carrying such a head within or +without. But I scarce bethought me the impudent Schelm could have +thought of you, lady." + +"Hush again. Forget the word! They are gone to Shields in search of +the witch-finder, to pinch me, and probe me, and drown me, or burn +me," cried Grisell, clasping her hands. "Oh! take me somewhere if +you cannot safely hide me; I would not bring trouble on you!" + +"You need not fear," he answered. "None will enter here but by my +goodwill, and I will bar the garden door lest any idle lad should pry +in; but they come not here. The tortoise who crawls about in the +summer fills them with too much terror for them to venture, and is +better than any watch-dog. Now, let me touch your pulse. Ah! I +would prescribe lying down on the bed and resting for the day." + +She complied, and Clemence took her to the upper floor, where it was +the pride of the Flemish housewife to keep a guest-chamber, +absolutely neat, though very little furnished, and indeed seldom or +never used; but she solicitously stroked the big bed, and signed to +Grisell to lie down in the midst of pillows of down, above and below, +taking off her hood, mantle, and shoes, and smoothing her down with +nods and sweet smiles, so that she fell sound asleep. + +When she awoke the sun was at the meridian, and she came down to the +noontide meal. Master Groot was looking much entertained. + +Wearmouth, he said, was in a commotion. The great Dutch Whitburn +man-at-arms had come in full of the wonderful story. Not only had +the grisly lady vanished, but a cross-bow man had shot an enormous +hare on the moor, a creature with one ear torn off, and a seam on its +face, and Masters Hardcastle and Ridley altogether favoured the +belief that it was the sorceress herself without time to change her +shape. Did Mynheer Groot hold with them? + +For though Dutch and Flemings were not wholly friendly at home, yet +in a strange country they held together, and remembered that they +were both Netherlanders, and Hannekin would fain know what thought +the wise man. + +"Depend on it, there was no time for a change," gravely said Groot. +"Have not Nostradamus, Albertus Magnus, and Rogerus Bacon" (he was +heaping names together as he saw Hannekin's big gray eyes grow +rounder and rounder) "all averred that the great Diabolus can give +his minions power to change themselves at will into hares, cats, or +toads to transport themselves to the Sabbath on Walpurgs' night?" + +"You deem it in sooth," said the Dutchman, "for know you that the +parish priest swears, and so do the more part of the villein fisher +folk, that there's no sorcery in the matter, but that she is a true +and holy maid, with no powers save what the Saints had given her, and +that her cures were by skill. Yet such was scarce like to a mere +Jungvrow." + +It went sorely against Master Lambert's feelings, as well as somewhat +against his conscience, to encourage the notion of the death of his +guest as a hare, though it ensured her safety and prevented a search. +He replied that her skill certainly was uncommon in a Jungvrow, +beyond nature, no doubt, and if they were unholy, it was well that +the arblaster had made a riddance of her. + +"By the same token," added Hannekin, "the elf lock came out of my +hair this very morn, I having, as you bade me, combed it each morn +with the horse's currycomb." + +Proof positive, as Lambert was glad to allow him to believe. And the +next day all Sunderland and the two Wearmouths believed that the dead +hare had shrieked in a human voice on being thrown on a fire, and had +actually shown the hands and feet of a woman before it was consumed. + +It was all the safer for Grisell as long as she was not recognised, +and of this there was little danger. She was scarcely known in +Wearmouth, and could go to mass at the Abbey Church in a deep black +hood and veil. Master Lambert sometimes received pilgrims from his +own country on their way to English shrines, and she could easily +pass for one of these if her presence were perceived, but except to +mass in very early morning, she never went beyond the garden, where +the spring beauty was enjoyment to her in the midst of her loneliness +and entire doubt as to her future. + +It was a grand old church, too, with low-browed arches, reminding her +of the dear old chapel of Wilton, and with a lofty though undecorated +square tower, entered by an archway adorned with curious twisted +snakes with long beaks, stretching over and under one another. + +The low heavy columns, the round circles, and the small windows, +casting a very dim religious light, gave Grisell a sense of being in +the atmosphere of that best beloved place, Wilton Abbey. She longed +after Sister Avice's wisdom and tenderness, and wondered whether her +lands would purchase from her knight, power to return thither with +dower enough to satisfy the demands of the Proctor. It was a hope +that seemed like an inlet of light in her loneliness, when no one was +faithful save Cuthbert Ridley, and she felt cut to the heart above +all by Thora's defection and cruel accusations, not knowing that half +was owning to the intoxication of love, and the other half to a +gossiping tongue. + + + +CHAPTER XX--A BLIGHT ON THE WHITE ROSE + + + +Witness Aire's unhappy water + Where the ruthless Clifford fell, +And when Wharfe ran red with slaughter + On the day of Towton's field. +Gathering in its guilty flood +The carnage and the ill spilt blood + That forty thousand lives could yield. + +SOUTHEY, Funeral Song of Princess Charlotte. + +Grisell from the first took her part in the Apothecary's household. +Occupation was a boon to her, and she not only spun and made lace +with Clemence, but showed her new patterns learned in old days at +Wilton; and still more did she enjoy assisting the master of the +house in making his compounds, learning new nostrums herself, and +imparting others to him, showing a delicacy of finger which the old +Fleming could not emulate. In the fabrication of perfumes for the +pouncet box, and sweetmeats prepared with honey and sugar, she proved +to have a dainty hand, so that Lambert, who would not touch her +jewels, declared that she was fully earning her maintenance by the +assistance that she gave to him. + +They were not molested by the war, which was decidedly a war of +battles, not of sieges, but they heard far more of tidings than were +wont to reach Whitburn Tower. They knew of the advance of Edward to +London; and the terrible battle of Towton begun, was fought out while +the snow fell far from bloodless, on Palm Sunday; and while the choir +boys had been singing their Gloria, laus et honor in the gallery over +the church door, shivering a little at the untimely blast, there had +been grim and awful work, when for miles around the Wharfe and Aire +the snow lay mixed with blood. That the Yorkists had gained was +known, and that the Queen and Prince had fled; but nothing was heard +of the fate of individuals, and Master Lambert was much occupied with +tidings from Bruges, whence information came, in a messenger sent by +a notary that his uncle, an old miser, whose harsh displeasure at his +marriage had driven him forth, was just dead, leaving him heir to a +fairly prosperous business and a house in the city. + +To return thither was of course Lambert's intention as soon as he +could dispose of his English property. He entreated Grisell to +accompany him and Clemence, assuming her that at the chief city of so +great a prince as Duke Philip of Burgundy, she would have a better +hope of hearing tidings of her husband than in a remote town like +Sunderland; and that if she still wished to dispose of her jewels she +would have a far better chance of so doing. He was arguing the point +with her, when there was a voice in the stall outside which made +Grisell start, and Lambert, going out, brought in Cuthbert Ridley, +staggering under the weight of his best suit of armour, and with a +bundle and bag under his mantle. + +Grisell sprang up eagerly to meet him, but as she put her hands into +his he looked sorrowfully at her, and she asked under her breath, +"Ah! Sir Leonard--?" + +"No tidings of the recreant," growled Ridley, "but ill tidings for +both of you. The Dacres of Gilsland are on us, claiming your castle +and lands as male heirs to your father." + +"Do they know that I live?" asked Grisell, "or"--unable to control a +little laugh--"do they deem that I was slain in the shape of a hare?" + +"Or better than that," put in Lambert; "they have it now in the +wharves that the corpse of the hare took the shape and hands of a +woman when in the hall." + +"I ken not, the long-tongued rogues," said Ridley; "but if my young +lady were standing living and life-like before them as, thank St. +Hilda, I see her now, they would claim it all the more as male heirs, +and this new King Edward has granted old Sir John seisin, being that +she is the wife of one of King Henry's men!" + +"Are they there? How did you escape?" + +"I got timely notice," said Cuthbert. "Twenty strong halted over the +night at Yeoman Kester's farm on Heather Gill--a fellow that would do +anything for me since we fought side by side on the day of the +Herrings. So he sends out his two grandsons to tell me what they +were after, while they were drinking his good ale to health of their +King Edward. So forewarned, forearmed. We have left them empty +walls, get in as they can or may--unless that traitor Tordu chooses +to stay and make terms with them." + +"Master Hardcastle! Would he fly? Surely not!" asked Grisell. + +"Master Hardcastle, with Dutch Hannekin and some of the better sort, +went off long since to join their knight's banner, and the Saints +know how the poor young lad sped in all the bloody work they have +had. For my part, I felt not bound to hold out the castle against my +old lord's side, when there was no saving it for you, so I put what +belonged to me together, and took poor old Roan, and my young lady's +pony, and made my way hither, no one letting me. I doubt me much, +lady, that there is little hope of winning back your lands, whatever +side may be uppermost, yet there be true hearts among our villeins, +who say they will never pay dues to any save their lord's daughter." + +"Then I am landless and homeless," sighed Grisell. + +"The greater cause that you should make your home with us, lady," +returned Lambert Groot; and he went on to lay before Ridley the state +of the case, and his own plans. House and business, possibly a seat +in the city council, were waiting for him at Bruges, and the vessel +from Ostend which had continually brought him supplies for his +traffic was daily expected. He intended, so soon as she had made up +her cargo of wool, to return in her to his native country, and he was +urgent that the Lady Grisell should go with him, representing that +all the changes of fortune in the convulsed kingdom of England were +sure to be quickly known there, and that she was as near the centre +of action in Flanders as in Durham, besides that she would be out of +reach of any enemies who might disbelieve the hare transformation. + +After learning the fate of her castle, Grisell much inclined to the +proposal which kept her with those whom she had learnt to trust and +love, and she knew that she need be no burthen to them, since she had +profitable skill in their own craft, and besides she had her jewels. +Ridley, moreover, gave her hopes of a certain portion of her dues on +the herring-boats and the wool. + +"Will not you come with the lady, sir?" asked Lambert. + +"Oh, come!" cried Grisell. + +"Nay, a squire of dames hath scarce been heard of in a Poticar's +shop," said Ridley, and there was an irresistible laugh at the rugged +old gentleman so terming himself; but as Lambert and Grisell were +both about to speak he went on, "I can serve her better elsewhere. I +am going first to my home at Willimoteswick. I have not seen it +these forty year, and whether my brother or my nephew make me welcome +or no, I shall have seen the old moors and mosses. Then methought I +would come hither, or to some of the towns about, and see how it +fares with the old Tower and the folk; and if they be as good as +their word, and keep their dues for my lady, I could gather them, and +take or bring them to her, with any other matter which might concern +her nearly." + +This was thoroughly approved by Grisell's little council, and Lambert +undertook to make known to the good esquire the best means of +communication, whether in person, or by the transmission of payments, +since all the eastern ports of England had connections with Dutch and +Flemish traffic, which made the payment of monies possible. + +Grisell meantime was asking for Thora. Her uncle, Ridley said, had +come up, laid hands on her, and soundly scourged her for her foul +practices. He had dragged her home, and when Ralph Hart had come +after her, had threatened him with a quarter-staff, called out a mob +of fishermen, and finally had brought him to Sir Lucas, who married +them willy-nilly. He was the runaway son of a currier in York, and +had taken her en croupe, and ridden off to his parents at the sign of +the Hart, to bespeak their favour. + +Grisell grieved deeply over Thora's ingratitude to her, and the two +elder men foreboded no favourable reception for the pair, and hoped +that Thora would sup sorrow. + +Ridley spent the night at the sign of tire Green Serpent, and before +he set out for Willimoteswick, he confided to Master Groot a bag +containing a silver cup or two, and a variety of coins, mostly +French. They were, he said, spoils of his wars under King Harry the +Fifth and the two Lord Salisburys, which he had never had occasion to +spend, and he desired that they might be laid out on the Lady Grisell +in case of need, leaving her to think they were the dues from her +faithful tenantry. To the Hausvrow Clemence it was a great grief to +leave the peaceful home of her married life, and go among kindred who +had shown their scorn in neglect and cold looks; but she kept a +cheerful face for her husband, and only shed tears over the budding +roses and other plants she had to leave; and she made her guest +understand how great a comfort and solace was her company. + + + +CHAPTER XXI--THE WOUNDED KNIGHT + + + +Belted Will Howard is marching here, +And hot Lord Dacre with many a spear + +SCOTT, The Lay of the Last Minstrel. + +"Master Groot, a word with you." A lay brother in the coarse, dark +robe of St. Benedict was standing in the booth of the Green Serpent. + +Groot knew him for Brother Christopher of Monks Wearmouth, and +touched his brow in recognition. + +"Have you here any balsam fit for a plaguey shot with an arquebuss, +the like of which our poor peaceful house never looked to harbour?" + +"For whom is it needed, good brother?" + +"Best not ask," said Brother Christopher, who was, however, an +inveterate gossip, and went on in reply to Lambert's question as to +the place of the wound. "In the shoulder is the worst, the bullet +wound where the Brother Infirmarer has poured in hot oil. St. Bede! +How the poor knight howled, though he tried to stop it, and brought +it down to moaning. His leg is broken beside, but we could deal with +that. His horse went down with him, you see, when he was overtaken +and shot down by the Gilsland folk." + +"The Gilsland folk!" + +"Even so, poor lad; and he was only on his way to see after his own, +or his wife's, since all the Whitburn sons are at an end, and the +Tower gone to the spindle side. They say, too, that the damsel he +wedded perforce was given to magic, and fled in form of a hare. But +be that as it will, young Copeland--St. Bede, pardon me! What have I +let out?" + +"Reck not of that, brother. The tale is all over the town. How of +Copeland?" + +"As I said even now, he was on his way to the Tower, when the Dacres- +-Will and Harry--fell on him, and left him for dead; but by the +Saints' good providence, his squire and groom put him on a horse, and +brought him to our Abbey at night, knowing that he is kin to our Sub- +Prior. And there he lies, whether for life or death only Heaven +knows, but for death it will be if only King Edward gets a scent of +him; so hold your peace, Master Groats, as to who it be, as you live, +or as you would not have his blood on you." + +Master Groats promised silence, and gave numerous directions as to +the application of his medicaments, and Brother Kit took his leave, +reiterating assurances that Sir Leonard's life depended on his +secrecy. + +Whatever was said in the booth was plainly audible in the inner room. +Grisell and Clemence were packing linen, and the little shutter of +the wooden partition was open. Thus Lambert found Grisell standing +with clasped hands, and a face of intense attention and suspense. + +"You have heard, lady," he said. + +"Oh, yea, yea! Alas, poor Leonard!" she cried. + +"The Saints grant him recovery." + +"Methought you would be glad to hear you were like to be free from +such a yoke. Were you rid of him, you, of a Yorkist house, might win +back your lands, above all, since, as you once told me, you were a +playmate of the King's sister." + +"Ah! dear master, speak not so! Think of him! treacherously wounded, +and lying moaning. That gruesome oil! Oh! my poor Leonard!" and she +burst into tears. "So fair, and comely, and young, thus stricken +down!" + +"Bah!" exclaimed Lambert. "Such are women! One would think she +loved him, who flouted her!" + +"I cannot brook the thought of his lying there in sore pain and +dolour, he who has had so sad a life, baulked of his true love." + +Master Lambert could only hold up his hands at the perversity of +womankind, and declare to his Clemence that he verily believed that +had the knight been a true and devoted Tristram himself, ever at her +feet, the lady could not have been so sore troubled. + +The next day brought Brother Kit back with an earnest request from +the Infirmarer and the Sub-Prior that "Master Groats" would come to +the monastery, and give them the benefit of his advice on the wounds +and the fever which was setting in, since gun-shot wounds were beyond +the scope of the monastic surgery. + +To refuse would not have been possible, even without the earnest +entreaty of Grisell; and Lambert, who had that medical instinct which +no training can supply, went on his way with the lay brother. + +He came back after many hours, sorely perturbed by the request that +had been made to him. Sir Leonard, he said, was indeed sick nigh +unto death, grievously hurt, and distraught by the fever, or it might +be by the blow on his head in the fall with his horse, which seemed +to have kicked him; but there was no reason that with good guidance +and rest he should not recover. But, on the other hand, King Edward +was known to be on his progress to Durham, and he was understood to +be especially virulent against Sir Leonard Copeland, under the +impression that the young knight had assisted in Clifford's slaughter +of his brother Edmund of Rutland. It was true that a monastery was a +sanctuary, but if all that was reported of Edward Plantagenet were +true, he might, if he tracked Copeland to the Abbey, insist on his +being yielded up, or might make Abbot and monks suffer severely for +the protection given to his enemy; and there was much fear that the +Dacres might be on the scent. The Abbot and Father Copeland were +anxious to be able to answer that Sir Leonard was not within their +precincts, and, having heard that Master Groats was about to sail for +Flanders, the Sub-Prior made the entreaty that his nephew might thus +be conveyed to the Low Countries, where the fugitives of each party +in turn found a refuge. Father Copeland promised to be at charges, +and, in truth, the scheme was the best hope for Leonard's chances of +life. Master Groot had hesitated, seeing various difficulties in the +way of such a charge, and being by no means disposed towards Lady +Grisell's unwilling husband, as such, though in a professional +capacity he was interested in his treatment of his patient, and was +likewise touched by the good mien of the fine, handsome, straight- +limbed young man, who was lying unconscious on his pallet in a narrow +cell. + +He had replied that he would answer the next day, when he had +consulted his wife and the ship-master, whose consent was needful; +and there was of course another, whom he did not mention. + +As he told all the colour rose in Grisell's face, rosy on one side, +purple, alas, on the other. "O master, good master, you will, you +will!" + +"Is it your pleasure, then, mistress? I should have held that the +kindness to you would be to rid you of him." + +"No, no, no! You are mocking me! You know too well what I think! +Is not this my best hope of making him know me, and becoming his true +and--and--" + +A sob cut her short, but she cried, "I will be at all the pains and +all the cost, if only you will consent, dear Master Lambert, good +Master Groot." + +"Ah, would I knew what is well for her!" said Lambert, turning to his +wife, and making rapid signs with face and fingers in their mutual +language, but Grisell burst in - + +"Good for her," cried she. "Can it be good for a wife to leave her +husband to be slain by the cruel men of York and Warwick, him who +strove to save the young Lord Edmund? Master, you will suffer no +such foul wrong. O master, if you did, I would stay behind, in some +poor hovel on the shore, where none would track him, and tend him +there. I will! I vow it to St. Mary." + +"Hush, hush, lady! Cease this strange passion. You could not be +more moved if he were the tenderest spouse who ever breathed." + +"But you will have pity, sir. You will aid us. You will save us. +Give him the chance for life." + +"What say you, housewife?" said Groot, turning to the silent +Clemence, whom his signs and their looks had made to perceive the +point at issue. Her reply was to seize Grisell's two hands, kiss +them fervently, clasp both together, and utter in her deaf voice two +Flemish words, "Goot Vrow." Grisell eagerly embraced her in tears. + +"We have still to see what Skipper Vrowst says. He may not choose to +meddle with English outlaws." + +"If you cannot win him to take my knight, he will not take me," said +Grisell. + +There was no more to be said except something about the waywardness +of the affections of women and dogs; but Master Groot was not ill- +pleased at the bottom that both the females of the household took +part against him, and they had a merry supper that night, amid the +chests in which their domestic apparatus and stock-in-trade were +packed, with the dried lizard, who passed for a crocodile, sitting on +the settle as if he were one of the company. Grisell's spirits rose +with an undefined hope that, like Sir Gawaine's bride, or her own +namesake, Griselda the patient, she should at last win her lord's +love; and, deprived as she was of all her own relatives, there arose +strongly within her the affection that ten long years ago had made +her haunt the footsteps of the boy at Amesbury Manor. + +Groot was made to promise to say not a word of her presence in his +family. He was out all day, while Clemence worked hard at her +demenagement, and only with scruples accepted the assistance of her +guest, who was glad to work away her anxiety in the folding of +curtains and stuffing of mails. + +At last Lambert returned, having been backwards and forwards many +times between the Vrow Gudule and the Abbey, for Skipper Vrowst drove +a hard bargain, and made the most of the inconvenience and danger of +getting into ill odour with the authorities; and, however anxious +Father Copeland might be to save his nephew, Abbot and bursar +demurred at gratifying extortion, above all when the King might at +any time be squeezing them for contributions hard to come by. + +However, it had been finally fixed that a boat should put in to the +Abbey steps to receive the fleeces of the sheep-shearing of the home +grange, and that, rolled in one of these fleeces, the wounded knight +should be brought on board the Vrow Gudule, where Groot and the women +would await him, their freight being already embarked, and all ready +to weigh anchor. + +The chief danger was in a King's officer coming on board to weigh the +fleeces, and obtaining the toll on them. But Sunderland either had +no King, or had two just at that time, and Father Copeland handed +Master Groot a sum which might bribe one or both; while it was to the +interest of the captain to make off without being overhauled by +either. + + + +CHAPTER XXII--THE CITY OF BRIDGES + + + +So for long hours sat Enid by her lord, +There in the naked hall, propping his head, +And chafing his pale hands, and calling to him. +And at the last he waken'd from his swoon. + +TENNYSON, Enid. + +The transit was happily effected, and closely hidden in wool, Leonard +Copeland was lifted out the boat, more than half unconscious, and +afterwards transferred to the vessel, and placed in wrappings as +softly and securely as Grisell and Clemence could arrange before King +Edward's men came to exact their poundage on the freight, but happily +did not concern themselves about the sick man. + +He might almost be congratulated on his semi-insensibility, for +though he suffered, he would not retain the recollection of his +suffering, and the voyage was very miserable to every one, though the +weather was far from unfavourable, as the captain declared. Grisell +indeed was so entirely taken up with ministering to her knight that +she seemed impervious to sickness or discomfort. It was a great +relief to enter on the smooth waters of the great canal from Ostend, +and Lambert stood on the deck recognising old landmarks, and pointing +them out with the joy of homecoming to Clemence, who perhaps felt +less delight, since the joys of her life had only begun when she +turned her back on her unkind kinsfolk. + +Nor did her face light up as his did while he pointed out to Grisell +the beauteous belfry, rising on high above the many-peaked gables, +though she did smile when a long-billed, long-legged stork flapped +his wings overhead, and her husband signed that it was in greeting. +The greeting that delighted him she could not hear, the sweet chimes +from that same tower, which floated down the stream, when he doffed +his cap, crossed himself, and clasped his hands in devout +thanksgiving. + +It was a wonderful scene of bustle; where vessels of all kinds +thronged together were drawn up to the wharf, the beautiful tall +painted ships of Venice and Genoa pre-eminent among the stoutly-built +Netherlanders and the English traders. Shouts in all languages were +heard, and Grisell looked round in wonder and bewilderment as to how +the helpless and precious charge on the deck was ever to be safely +landed. + +Lambert, however, was truly at home and equal to the occasion. He +secured some of the men who came round the vessel in barges +clamouring for employment, and--Grisell scarce knew how--Leonard on +his bed was lifted down, and laid in the bottom of the barge. The +big bundles and cases were committed to the care of another barge, to +follow close after theirs, and on they went under, one after another, +the numerous high-peaked bridges to which Bruges owes its name, while +tall sharp-gabled houses, walls, or sometimes pleasant green gardens, +bounded the margins, with a narrow foot-way between. The houses had +often pavement leading by stone steps to the river, and stone steps +up to the door, which was under the deep projecting eaves running +along the front of the house--a stoop, as the Low Countries called +it. At one of these--not one of the largest or handsomest, but far +superior to the old home at Sunderland--hung the large handsome +painted and gilded sign of the same serpent which Grisell had learnt +to know so well, and here the barge hove to, while two servants, the +man in a brown belted jerkin, the old woman in a narrow, tight, white +hood, came out on the steps with outstretched hands. + +"Mein Herr, my dear Master Lambert. Oh, joy! Greet thee well. +Thanks to our Lady that I have lived to see this day," was the old +woman's cry. + +"Greet thee well, dear old Mother Abra. Greet thee, trusty Anton. +You had my message? Have you a bed and chamber ready for this +gentleman?" + +Such was Lambert's hasty though still cordial greeting, as he gave +his hand to the man-servant, his cheek to his old nurse, who was +mother to Anton. Clemence in her gentle dumb show shared the +welcome, and directed as Leonard was carried up an outside stone +stair to a guest-chamber, and deposited in a stately bed with fresh, +cool, lace-bordered, lavender-scented sheets, and Grisell put between +his lips a spoonful of the cordial with which Lambert had supplied +her. + +More distinctly than before he murmured, "Thanks, sweet Eleanor." + +The move in the open air had partly revived him, partly made him +feverish, and he continued to murmur complacently his thanks to +Eleanor for tending her "wounded knight," little knowing whom he +wounded by his thanks. + +On one point this decided Grisell. She looked up at Lambert, and +when he used her title of "Lady," in begging her to leave old Mother +Abra in charge and to come down to supper, she made a gesture of +silence, and as she came down the broad stair--a refinement scarce +known in England--she entreated him to let her be Grisell still. + +"Unless he accept me as his wife I will never bear his name," she +said. + +"Nay, madame, you are Lady of Whitburn by right." + +"By right, may be, but not in fact, nor could I be known as mine own +self without cumbering him with my claims. No, let me alone to be +Grisell as ever before, an English orphan, bower-woman to Vrow +Clemence if she will have me." + +Clemence would not consent to treat her as bower-woman, and it was +agreed that she should remain as one of the many orphans made by the +civil war in England, without precise definition of her rank, and be +only called by her Christian name. She was astonished at the status +of Master Groot, the size and furniture of the house, and the +servants who awaited him; all so unlike his little English +establishment, for the refinements and even luxuries were not only +far beyond those of Whitburn, but almost beyond all that she had seen +even in the households of the Earls of Salisbury and Warwick. He had +indeed been bred to all this, for the burghers of Bruges were some of +the most prosperous of all the rich citizens of Flanders in the +golden days of the Dukes of Burgundy; and he had left it all for the +sake of his Clemence, but without forfeiting his place in his Guild, +or his right to his inheritance. + +He was, however, far from being a rich man, on a level with the great +merchants, though he had succeeded to a modest, not unprosperous +trade in spices, drugs, condiments and other delicacies. + +He fetched a skilful Jewish physician to visit Sir Leonard Copeland, +but there was no great difference in the young man's condition for +many days. Grisell nursed him indefatigably, sitting by him so as to +hear the sweet bells chime again and again, and the storks clatter on +the roofs at sunrise. + +Still, whenever her hand brought him some relief, or she held drink +to his lips, his words and thanks were for Eleanor, and more and more +did the sense sink down upon her like lead that she must give him up +to Eleanor. + +Yes, it was like lead, for, as she watched his face on the pillow her +love went out to him. It might have done so even had he been +disfigured like herself; but his was a beautiful countenance of noble +outlines, and she felt a certain pride in it as hers, while she +longed to see it light up with reason, and glow once more with +health. Then she thought she could rejoice, even if there were no +look of love for her. + +The eyes did turn towards her again with the mind looking out of +them, and he knew her for the nurse on whom he depended for comfort +and relief. He thanked her courteously, so that she felt a thrill of +pleasure every time. He even learnt her name of Grisell, and once he +asked whether she were not English, to which she replied simply that +she was, and on a further question she said that she had been at +Sunderland with Master Groot, and that she had lost her home in the +course of the wars. + +There for some time it rested--rested at least with the knight. But +with the lady there was far from rest, for every hour she was +watching for some favourable token which might draw them nearer, and +give opportunity for making herself known. Nearer they certainly +drew, for he often smiled at her. He liked her to wait on him, and +to beguile the weariness of his recovery by singing to him, telling +some of her store of tales, or reading to him, for books were more +plentiful at Bruges than at Sunderland, and there were even whispers +of a wonderful mode of multiplying them far more quickly than by the +scrivener's hand. + +How her heart beat every time she thus ministered to him, or heard +his voice call to her, but it was all, as she could plainly see, just +as he would have spoken to Clemence, if she could have heard him, and +he evidently thought her likewise of burgher quality, and much of the +same age as the Vrow Groot. Indeed, the long toil and wear of the +past months had made her thin and haggard, and the traces of her +disaster were all the more apparent, so that no one would have +guessed her years to be eighteen. + +She had taken her wedding-ring from her finger, and wore it on a +chain, within her kirtle, so as to excite no inquiry. But many a +night, ere she lay down, she looked at it, and even kissed it, as she +asked herself whether her knight would ever bid her wear it. Until +he did so her finger should never again be encircled by it. + +Meantime she scarcely ever went beyond the nearest church and the +garden, which amply compensated Clemence for that which she had left +at Sunderland. Indeed, that had been as close an imitation of this +one as Lambert could contrive in a colder climate with smaller means. +Here was a fountain trellised over by a framework rich in roses and +our lady's bower; here were pinks, gilly-flowers, pansies, lavender, +and the new snowball shrub recently produced at Gueldres, and a +little bush shown with great pride by Anton, the snow-white rose +grown in King Rene's garden of Provence. + +These served as borders to the green walks dividing the beds of +useful vegetables and fruits and aromatic herbs which the Groots had +long been in the habit of collecting from all parts and experimenting +on. Much did Lambert rejoice to find himself among the familiar +plants he had often needed and could not procure in England, and for +some of which he had a real individual love. The big improved +distillery and all the jars and bottles of his youth were a joy to +him, almost as much as the old friends who accepted him again after a +long "wander year." + +Clemence had her place too, but she shrank from the society she could +not share, and while most of the burghers' wives spent the summer +evening sitting spinning or knitting on the steps of the stoop, +conversing with their gossips, she preferred to take her distaff or +needle among the roses, sometimes tending them, sometimes beguiling +Grisell to come and take the air in company with her, for they +understood one another's mute language; and when Lambert Groot was +with his old friends they sufficed for one another--so far as +Grisell's anxious heart could find solace, and perhaps in none so +much as the gentle matron who could caress but could not talk. + + + +CHAPTER XXIII--THE CANKERED OAK GALL + + + +That Walter was no fool, though that him list +To change his wif, for it was for the best; +For she is fairer, so they demen all, +Than his Griselde, and more tendre of age. + +CHAUCER, The Clerke's Tale. + +It was on an early autumn evening when the belfry stood out beautiful +against the sunset sky, and the storks with their young fledglings +were wheeling homewards to their nest on the roof, that Leonard was +lying on the deep oriel window of the guest-chamber, and Grisell sat +opposite to him with a lace pillow on her lap, weaving after the +pattern of Wilton for a Church vestment. + +"The storks fly home," he said. "I marvel whether we have still a +home in England, or ever shall have one!" + +"I heard tell that the new King of France is friendly to the Queen +and her son," said Grisell. + +"He is near of kin to them, but he must keep terms with this old Duke +who sheltered him so long. Still, when he is firm fixed on his +throne he may yet bring home our brave young Prince and set the +blessed King on his throne once more." + +"Ah! You love the King." + +"I revere him as a saint, and feel as though I drew my sword in a +holy cause when I fight for him," said Leonard, raising himself with +glittering eyes. + +"And the Queen?" + +"Queen Margaret! Ah! by my troth she is a dame who makes swords fly +out of their scabbards by her brave stirring words and her noble +mien. Her bright eyes and undaunted courage fire each man's heart in +her cause till there is nothing he would not do or dare, ay, or give +up for her, and those she loves better than herself, her husband, and +her son." + +"You have done so," faltered Grisell. + +"Ah! have I not? Mistress, I would that you bore any other name. +You mind me of the bane and grief of my life." + +"Verily?" uttered Grisell with some difficulty. + +"Yea! Tell me, mistress, have I ever, when my brains were astray, +uttered any name?" + +"By times, even so!" she confessed. + +"I thought so! I deemed at times that she was here! I have never +told you of the deed that marred my life." + +"Nay," she said, letting her bobbins fall though she drooped her +head, not daring to look him in the face. + +"I was a mere lad, a page in the Earl of Salisbury's house. A good +man was he, but the jealousies and hatreds of the nobles had begun +long ago, and the good King hoped, as he ever hoped, to compose them. +So he brought about a compact between my father and the Dacre of +Whitburn for a marriage between their children, and caused us both to +be bred up in the Lady of Salisbury's household, meaning, I trow, +that we should enter into solemn contract when we were of less tender +age; but there never was betrothal; and before any fit time for it +had come, I had the mishap to have the maid close to me--she was ever +besetting and running after me--when by some prank, unhappily of +mine, a barrel of gunpowder blew up and wellnigh tore her to pieces. +My father came, and her mother, an unnurtured, uncouth woman, who +would have forced me to wed her on the spot, but my father would not +hear of it, more especially as there were then two male heirs, so +that I should not have gained her grim old Tower and bare moorlands. +All held that I was not bound to her; the Queen herself owned it, and +that whatever the damsel might be, the mother was a mere northern +she-bear, whose child none would wish to wed, and of the White Rose +besides. So the King had me to his school at Eton, and then I was a +squire of my Lord of Somerset, and there I saw my fairest Eleanor +Audley. The Queen and the Duke of Somerset--rest his soul--would +have had us wedded. On the love day, when all walked together to St. +Paul's, and the King hoped all was peace, we spoke our vows to one +another in the garden of Westminster. She gave me this rook, I gave +her the jewel of my cap; I read her true love in her eyes, like our +limpid northern brooks. Oh! she was fair, fairer than yonder star in +the sunset, but her father, the Lord Audley, was absent, and we could +go no farther; and therewith came the Queen's summons to her liegemen +to come and arrest Salisbury at Bloreheath. There never was rest +again, as you know. My father was slain at Northampton, I yielded me +to young Falconberg; but I found the Yorkists had set headsmen to +work as though we had been traitors, and I was begging for a priest +to hear my shrift, when who should come into the foul, wretched barn +where we lay awaiting the rope, but old Dacre of Whitburn. He had +craved me from the Duke of York, it seems, and gained my life on what +condition he did not tell me, but he bound my feet beneath my horse, +and thus bore me out of the camp for all the first day. Then, I own +he let me ride as became a knight, on my word of honour not to +escape; but much did I marvel whether it were revenge or ransom that +he wanted; and as to ransom, all our gold had all been riding on +horseback with my poor father. What he had devised I knew not nor +guessed till late at night we were at his rat-hole of a Tower, where +I looked for a taste of the dungeons; but no such thing. The choice +that the old robber--" + +Grisell could not repress a dissentient murmur of indignation. + +"Ah, well, you are from Sunderland, and may know better of him. But +any way the choice he left me was the halter that dangled from the +roof and his grisly daughter!" + +"Did you see her?" Grisell contrived to ask. + +"I thank the Saints, no. To hear of her was enow. They say she has +a face like a cankered oak gall or a rotten apple lying cracked on +the ground among the wasps. Mayhap though you have seen her." + +Grisell could truly say, in a half-choked voice, "Never since she was +a child," for no mirror had come in her way since she was at Warwick +House. She was upborne by the thought that it would be a relief to +him not to see anything like a rotten apple. He went on - + +"My first answer and first thought was rather death--and of my word +to my Eleanor. Ah! you marvel to see me here now. I felt as though +nothing would make me a recreant to her. Her sweet smile and shining +eyes rose up before me, and half the night I dreamt of them, and knew +that I would rather die than be given to another and be false to +them. Ah! but you will deem me a recreant. With the waking hours I +thought of my King and Queen. My elder brother died with Lord +Shrewsbury in Gascony, and after me the next heir is a devoted +Yorkist who would turn my castle, the key of Cleveland, against the +Queen. I knew the defeat would make faithful swords more than ever +needful to her, and that it was my bounden duty, if it were possible, +to save my life, my sword, and my lands for her. Mistress, you are a +good woman. Did I act as a coward?" + +"You offered up yourself," said Grisell, looking up. + +"So it was! I gave my consent, on condition that I should be free at +once. We were wedded in the gloom--ere sunrise--a thunderstorm +coming up, which so darkened the church that if she had been a +peerless beauty, fair as Cressid herself, I could not have seen her, +and even had she been beauty itself, nought can to me be such as my +Eleanor. So I was free to gallop off through the storm for Wearmouth +when the rite was over, and none pursued me, for old Whitburn was a +man of his word. Mine uncle held the marriage as nought, but next I +made for the Queen at Durham, and, if aught could comfort my spirit, +it was her thanks, and assurances that it would cost nothing but the +dispensation of the Pope to set me free. So said Dr. Morton, her +chaplain, one of the most learned men in England. I told him all, +and he declared that no wedlock was valid without the heartfelt +consent of each party." + +"Said he so?" Poor Grisell could not repress the inquiry. + +"Yea, and that though no actual troth had passed between me and Lord +Audley's daughter, yet that the vows we had of our own free will +exchanged would be quite enough to annul my forced marriage." + +"You think it evil in me, the more that it was I who had defaced that +countenance. I thought of that! I would have endowed her with all I +had if she would set me free. I trusted yet so to do, when, for my +misfortune as well as hers, the day of Wakefield cut off her father +and brother, and a groom was taken who was on his way to Sendal with +tidings of the other brother's death. Then, what do the Queen and +Sir Pierre de Breze but command me to ride off instantly to claim +Whitburn Tower! In vain did I refuse; in vain did I plead that if I +were about to renounce the lady it were unknightly to seize on her +inheritance. They would not hear me. They said it would serve as a +door to England, and that it must be secured for the King, or the +Dacres would hold it for York. They bade me on my allegiance, and +commanded me to take it in King Henry's name, as though it were a +mere stranger's castle, and gave me a crew of hired men-at-arms, as I +verily believe to watch over what I did. But ere I started I made a +vow in Dr. Morton's hands, to take it only for the King, and so soon +as the troubles be ended to restore it to the lady, when our marriage +is dissolved. As it fell out, I never saw the lady. Her mother lay +a-dying, and there was no summoning her. I bade them show her all +due honour, hoisted my pennon, rode on to my uncle at Wearmouth, and +thence to mine own lands, whence I joined the Queen on her way to +London. As you well know, all was over with our cause at Towton +Moor; and it was on my way northward after the deadly fight that half +a dozen of the men-at-arms brought me tidings, not only that the +Gilsland Dacres had, as had been feared, claimed the castle, but that +this same so-called lady of mine had been shown to deal in sorcery +and magic. They sent for a wise man from Shields, but she found by +her arts what they were doing, fled, and was slain by an arquebuss in +the form of a hare! + +"Do you believe it was herself in sooth?" asked Grisell. + +"Ah! you are bred by Master Lambert, who, like his kind, hath little +faith in sorcery, but verily, old women do change into hares. All +have known them." + +"She was scarce old," Grisell trusted herself to say. + +"That skills not. They said she made strange cures by no rules of +art. Ay, and said her prayers backward, and had unknown books." + +"Did your squire tell this, or was it only the men?" + +"My squire! Poor Pierce, I never saw him. He was made captive by a +White Rose party, so far as I could hear, and St. Peter knows where +he may be. But look you, the lady, for all her foul looks, had cast +her spell over him, and held him as bound and entranced as by a true +love, so that he was ready to defend her beauty--her beauty! look +you!--against all the world in the lists. He was neither to have nor +to hold if any man durst utter a word against her! And it was the +same with her tirewoman and her own old squire." + +"Then, sir, you deem that in slaying the hare, the arquebusier rid +you of your witch wife?" There was a little bitterness, even scorn, +in the tone. + +"I say not so, mistress. I know men-at-arms too well to credit all +they say, and I was on my way to inquire into the matter and learn +the truth when these same Dacres fell on me; and that I lie here is +due to you and good Master Lambert. Many a woman whose face is ill +favoured has learnt to keep up her power by unhallowed arts, and if +it be so with her whom in my boyish prank I have marred, Heaven +forgive her and me. If I can ever return I shall strive to trace her +life or death, without which mayhap I could scarce win my true +bride." + +Grisell could bear no more of this crushing of her hopes. She crept +away murmuring something about the vesper bell at the convent chapel +near, for it was there that she could best kneel, while thoughts and +strength and resolution came to her. + +The one thing clear to her was that Sir Leonard did not view her, or +rather the creature at Whitburn Tower, as his wife, but as a hag, +mayhap a sorceress from whom he desired to be released, and that his +love to Eleanor Audley was as strong as ever. + +Should she make herself known and set him free? Nay, but then what +would become of him? He still needed her care, which he accepted as +that of a nurse, and while he believed himself to be living on the +means supplied by his uncle at Wearmouth to the Apothecary, this had +soon been exhausted, and Grisell had partly supplied what was wanting +from Ridley's bag, partly from what the old squire had sent her as +the fishermen's dues; and she was perceiving how to supplement this, +or replace it by her own skill, by her assistance to Lambert in his +concoctions, and likewise by her lace-work, which was of a device +learnt at Wilton and not known at Bruges. There was something +strangely delightful to her in thus supporting Leonard even though he +knew it not, and she determined to persist in her present course till +there was some change. Suppose he heard of Eleanor's marriage to +some one else! Then? But, ah, the cracked apple face. She must +find a glass, or even a pail of water, and judge! Or the Lancastrian +fortunes might revive, he might go home in triumph, and then would +she give him her ring and her renunciation, and either earn enough to +obtain entrance to a convent or perhaps be accepted for the sake of +her handiwork! + +Any way the prospect was dreary, and the affection which grew upon +her as Leonard recovered only made it sadder. To reveal herself +would only be misery to him, and in his present state of mind would +deprive him of all he needed, since he would never be base enough to +let her toil for him and then cast her off. + +She thought it best, or rather she yearned so much for counsel, that +at night, over the fire in the stove, she told what Leonard had said, +to which her host listened with the fatherly sympathy that had grown +up towards her. He was quite determined against her making herself +known. The accusation of sorcery really alarmed him. He said that +to be known as the fugitive heiress of Whitburn who had bewitched the +young squire and many more might bring both her and himself into +imminent danger; and there were Lancastrian exiles who might take up +the report. Her only safety was in being known, to the few who did +meet her, as the convent-bred maiden whose home had been destroyed, +and who was content to gain a livelihood as the assistant whom his +wife's infirmity made needful. As to Sir Leonard, the knight's own +grace and gratitude had endeared him, as well as the professional +pleasure of curing him, and for the lady's sake he should still be +made welcome. + +So matters subsided. No one knew Grisell's story except Master +Lambert and her Father Confessor, and whether he really knew it, +through the medium of her imperfect French, might be doubted. Even +Clemence, though of course aware of her identity, did not know all +the details, since no one who could communicate with her had thought +it well to distress her with the witchcraft story. + +Few came beyond the open booth, which served as shop, though +sometimes there would be admitted to walk in the garden and converse +with Master Groot, a young Englishman who wanted his counsel on +giving permanence and clearness to the ink he was using in that new +art of printing which he was trying to perfect, but which there were +some who averred to be a work of the Evil One, imparted to the +magician Dr. Faustus. + + + +CHAPTER XXIV--GRISELL'S PATIENCE + + + +When silent were both voice and chords, + The strain seemed doubly dear, +Yet sad as sweet,--for English words + Had fallen upon the ear. + +WORDSWORTH, Incident at Bruges. + +Meanwhile Leonard was recovering and vexing himself as to his future +course, inclining chiefly to making his way back to Wearmouth to +ascertain how matters were going in England. + +One afternoon, however, as he sat close to thine window, while +Grisell sang to him one of her sweet old ballads, a face, attracted +by the English words and voice, was turned up to him. He exclaimed, +"By St. Mary, Philip Scrope," and starting up, began to feel for the +stick which he still needed. + +A voice was almost at the same moment heard from the outer shop +inquiring in halting French, "Did I see the face of the Beau Sire +Leonard Copeland?" + +By the time Leonard had hobbled to the door into the booth, a tall +perfectly-equipped man-at-arms, in velvet bonnet with the Burgundian +Cross, bright cuirass, rich crimson surcoat, and handsome sword belt, +had advanced, and the two embraced as old friends did embrace in the +middle ages, especially when each had believed the other dead. + +"I deemed thee dead at Towton!" + +"Methought you were slain in the north! You have not come off scot- +free." + +"Nay, but I had a narrow escape. My honest fellows took me to my +uncle at Wearmouth, and he shipped me off with the good folk here, +and cares for my maintenance. How didst thou 'scape?" + +"Half a dozen of us--Will Percy and a few more--made off from the +woful field under cover of night, and got to the sea-shore, to a +village--I know not the name--and laid hands on a fisher's smack, +which Jock of Hull was seaman enough to steer with the aid of the lad +on board, as far as Friesland, and thence we made our way as best we +could to Utrecht, where we had the luck to fall in with one of the +Duke's captains, who was glad enough to meet with a few stout fellows +to make up his company of men-at-arms." + +"Oh! Methought it was the Cross of Burgundy. How art thou so well +attired, Phil?" + +"We have all been pranked out to guard our Duke to the King of +France's sacring at Rheims. I promise thee the jewels and gold +blazed as we never saw the like--and as to the rascaille Scots +archers, every one of them was arrayed so as the sight was enough to +drive an honest Borderer crazy. Half their own kingdom's worth was +on their beggarly backs. But do what they might, our Duke surpassed +them all with his largesses and splendour." + +"Your Duke!" grumbled Leonard. + +"Aye, mine for the nonce, and a right open-handed lord is he. Better +be under him than under the shrivelled skinflint of France, who wore +his fine robes as though they galled him. Come and take service here +when thou art whole of thine hurt, Leonard." + +"I thought thy Duke was disinclined to Lancaster." + +"He may be to the Queen and the poor King, whom the Saints guard, but +he likes English hearts and thews in his pay well enough." + +"Thou knowst I am a knight, worse luck." + +"Heed not for thy knighthood. The Duke of Exeter and my Lord of +Oxford have put their honours in their pouch and are serving him. +Thy lame leg is a worse hindrance than the gold spur on it, but I +trow that will pass." + +The comrades talked on, over the fate of English friends and homes, +and the hopelessness of their cause. It was agreed in this, and in +many subsequent visits from Scrope, that so soon as Leonard should +have shaken off his lameness he should begin service under one of the +Duke's captains. A man-at-arms in the splendid suite of the +Burgundian Dukes was generally of good birth, and was attended by two +grooms and a page when in the field; his pay was fairly sufficient, +and his accoutrements and arms were required to be such as to do +honour to his employer. It was the refuge sooner or later of many a +Lancastrian, and Leonard, who doubted of the regularity of his +uncle's supplies, decided that he could do no better for himself +while waiting for better times for his Queen, though Master Lambert +told him that he need not distress himself, there were ample means +for him still. + +Grisell spun and sewed for his outfit, with a strange sad pleasure in +working for him, and she was absolutely proud of him when he stood +before her, perfectly recovered, with the glow of health on his cheek +and a light in his eye, his length of limb arrayed in his own armour, +furbished and mended, his bright helmet alone new and of her own +providing (out of her mother's pearl necklace), his surcoat and +silken scarf all her own embroidering. As he truly said, he made a +much finer appearance than he had done on the morn of his melancholy +knighthood, in the poverty-stricken army of King Henry at +Northampton. + +"Thanks," he said, with a courteous bow, "to his good friends and +hosts, who had a wonderful power over the purse." He added special +thanks to "Mistress Grisell for her deft stitchery," and she +responded with downcast face, and a low courtesy, while her heart +throbbed high. + +Such a cavalier was sure of enlistment, and Leonard came to take +leave of his host, and announced that he had been sent off with his +friend to garrison Neufchatel, where the castle, being a border one, +was always carefully watched over. + +His friends at Bruges rejoiced in his absence, since it prevented his +knowledge of the arrival of his beloved Queen Margaret and her son at +Sluys, with only seven attendants, denuded of almost everything, +having lost her last castles, and sometimes having had to exist on a +single herring a day. + +Perhaps Leonard would have laid his single sword at her feet if he +had known of her presence, but tidings travelled slowly, and before +they ever reached Neufchatel the Duke had bestowed on her wherewithal +to continue her journey to her father's Court at Bar. + +However, he did not move. Indeed be did not hear of the Queen's +journey to Scotland and fresh attempt till all had been again lost at +Hedgeley Moor and Hexham. He was so good and efficient a man-at-arms +that he rose in promotion, and attracted the notice of the Count of +Charolais, the eldest son of the Duke, who made him one of his own +bodyguard. His time was chiefly spent in escorting the Count from +one castle or city to another, but whenever Charles the Bold was at +Bruges, Leonard came to the sign of the Green Serpent not only for +lodging, nor only to take up the money that Lambert had in charge for +him, but as to a home where he was sure of a welcome, and of kindly +woman's care of his wardrobe, and where he grew more and more to look +to the sympathy and understanding of his English and Burgundian +interests alike, which he found in the maiden who sat by the hearth. + +From time to time old Ridley came to see her. He was clad in a +pilgrim's gown and broad hat, and looked much older. He had had free +quarters at Willimoteswick, but the wild young Borderers had not +suited his old age well, except one clerkly youth, who reminded him +of little Bernard, and who, later, was the patron of his nephew, the +famous Nicolas. He had thus set out on pilgrimage, as the best means +of visiting his dear lady. The first time he came, under his robe he +carried a girdle, where was sewn up a small supply from Father +Copeland for his nephew, and another sum, very meagre, but collected +from the faithful retainers of Whitburn for their lady. He meant to +visit the Three Kings at Cologne, and then to go on to St. Gall, and +to the various nearer shrines in France, but to return again to see +Grisell; and from time to time he showed his honest face, more and +more weather-beaten, though a pilgrim was never in want; but Grisell +delighted in preparing new gowns, clean linen, and fresh hats for +him. + +Public events passed while she still lived and worked in the +Apothecary's house at Bruges. There were wars in which Sir Leonard +Copeland had his share, not very perilous to a knight in full armour, +but falling very heavily on poor citizens. Bruges, however, was at +peace and exceedingly prosperous, with its fifty-two guilds of +citizens, and wonderful trade and wealth. The bells seemed to be +always chiming from its many beautiful steeples, and there was one +convent lately founded which began to have a special interest for +Grisell. + +It was the house of the Hospitalier Grey Sisters, which if not +actually founded had been much embellished by Isabel of Portugal, the +wife of the Duke of Burgundy. Philip, though called the Good, from +his genial manners, and bounteous liberality, was a man of violent +temper and terrible severity when offended. He had a fierce quarrel +with his only son, who was equally hot tempered. The Duchess took +part with her son, and fell under such furious displeasure from her +husband that she retired into the house of Grey Sisters. She was +first cousin once removed to Henry VI.--her mother, the admirable +Philippa, having been a daughter of John of Gaunt--and she was the +sister of the noble Princes, King Edward of Portugal, Henry the great +voyager, and Ferdinand the Constant Prince; and she had never been +thoroughly at home or happy in Flanders, where her husband was of a +far coarser nature than her own family; and, in her own words, after +many years, she always felt herself a stranger. + +Some of Grisell's lace had found its way to the convent, and was at +once recognised by her as English, such as her mother had always +prized. She wished to give the Chaplain a set of robes adorned with +lace after a pattern of her own devising, bringing in the five +crosses of Portugal, with appropriate wreaths of flowers and emblems. +Being told that the English maiden in Master Groot's house could +devise her own patterns, she desired to see her and explain the +design in person. + + + +CHAPTER XXV--THE OLD DUCHESS + + + +Temples that rear their stately heads on high, +Canals that intersect the fertile plain, +Wide streets and squares, with many a court and hall, +Spacious and undefined, but ancient all. + +SOUTHEY, Pilgrimage to Waterloo. + +The kind couple of Groots were exceedingly solicitous about Grisell's +appearance before the Duchess, and much concerned that she could not +be induced to wear the head-gear a foot or more in height, with veils +depending from the peak, which was the fashion of the Netherlands. +Her black robe and hood, permitted but not enjoined in the external +or third Order of St. Francis, were, as usual, her dress, and under +it might be seen a face, with something peculiar on one side, but +still full of sweetness and intelligence; and the years of comfort +and quiet had, in spite of anxiety, done much to obliterate the +likeness to a cankered oak gall. Lambert wanted to drench her with +perfumes, but she only submitted to have a little essence in the +pouncet box given her long ago by Lady Margaret at their parting at +Amesbury. Master Groot himself chose to conduct her on this first +great occasion, and they made their way to the old gateway, +sculptured above with figures that still remain, into the great +cloistered court, with its chapel, chapter-house, and splendid great +airy hall, in which the Hospital Sisters received their patients. + +They were seen flitting about, giving a general effect of gray, +whence they were known as Soeurs Grises, though, in fact, their dress +was white, with a black hood and mantle. The Duchess, however, lived +in a set of chambers on one side of the court, which she had built +and fitted for herself. + +A lay sister became Grisell's guide, and just then, coming down from +the Duchess's apartments, with a board with a chalk sketch in his +hand, appeared a young man, whom Groot greeted as Master Hans +Memling, and who had been receiving orders, and showing designs to +the Duchess for the ornamentation of the convent, which in later +years he so splendidly carried out. With him Lambert remained. + +There was a broad stone stair, leading to a large apartment hung with +stamped Spanish leather, representing the history of King David, and +with a window, glazed as usual below with circles and lozenges, but +the upper part glowing with coloured glass. At the farther end was a +dais with a sort of throne, like the tester and canopy of a four-post +bed, with curtains looped up at each side. Here the Duchess sat, +surrounded by her ladies, all in the sober dress suitable with +monastic life. + +Grisell knew her duty too well not to kneel down when admitted. A +dark-complexioned lady came to lead her forward, and directed her to +kneel twice on her way to the Duchess. She obeyed, and in that +indescribable manner which betrayed something of her breeding, so +that after her second obeisance, the manner of the lady altered +visibly from what it had been at first as to a burgher maiden. The +wealth and luxury of the citizen world of the Low Countries caused +the proud and jealous nobility to treat them with the greater +distance of manner. And, as Grisell afterwards learnt, this was +Isabel de Souza, Countess of Poitiers, a Portuguese lady who had come +over with her Infanta; and whose daughter produced Les Honneurs de la +Cour, the most wonderful of all descriptions of the formalities of +the Court. + +Grisell remained kneeling on the steps of the dais, while the Duchess +addressed her in much more imperfect Flemish than she could by this +time speak herself. + +"You are the lace weaver, maiden. Can you speak French?" + +"Oui, si madame, son Altese le veut," replied Grisell, for her tongue +had likewise become accustomed to French in this city of many +tongues. + +"This is English make," said the Duchess, not with a very good French +accent either, looking at the specimens handed by her lady. "Are you +English?" + +"So please your Highness, I am." + +"An exile?" the Princess added kindly. + +"Yes, madame. All my family perished in our wars, and I owe shelter +to the good Apothecary, Master Lambert." + +"Purveyor of drugs to the sisters. Yes, I have heard of him;" and +she then proceeded with her orders, desiring to see the first piece +Grisell should produce in the pattern she wished, which was to be of +roses in honour of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, whom the Peninsular +Isabels reckoned as their namesake and patroness. + +It was a pattern which would require fresh pricking out, and much +skill; but Grisell thought she could accomplish it, and took her +leave, kissing the Duchess's hand--a great favour to be granted to +her--curtseying three times, and walking backwards, after the old +training that seemed to come back to her with the atmosphere. + +Master Lambert was overjoyed when he heard all. "Now you will find +your way back to your proper station and rank," he said. + +"It may do more than that," said Grisell. "If I could plead his +cause." + +Lambert only sighed. "I would fain your way was not won by a base, +mechanical art," he said. + +"Out on you, my master. The needle and the bobbin are unworthy of +none; and as to the honour of the matter, what did Sir Leonard tell +us but that the Countess of Oxford, as now she is, was maintaining +her husband by her needle?" and Grisell ended with a sigh at thought +of the happy woman whose husband knew of, and was grateful for, her +toils. + +The pattern needed much care, and Lambert induced Hans Memling +himself, who drew it so that it could be pricked out for the cushion. +In after times it might have been held a greater honour to work from +his pattern than for the Duchess, who sent to inquire after it more +than once, and finally desired that Mistress Grisell should bring her +cushion and show her progress. + +She was received with all the same ceremonies as before, and even the +small fragment that was finished delighted the Princess, who begged +to see her at work. As it could not well be done kneeling, a +footstool, covered in tapestry with the many Burgundian quarterings, +was brought, and here Grisell was seated, the Duchess bending over +her, and asking questions as her fingers flew, at first about the +work, but afterwards, "Where did you learn this art, maiden?" + +"At Wilton, so please your Highness. The nunnery of St. Edith, near +to Salisbury." + +"St. Edith! I think my mother, whom the Saints rest, spoke of her; +but I have not heard of her in Portugal nor here. Where did she +suffer?" + +"She was not martyred, madame, but she has a fair legend." + +And on encouragement Grisell related the legend of St. Edith and the +christening. + +"You speak well, maiden," said the Duchess. "It is easy to perceive +that you are convent trained. Have the wars in England hindered your +being professed?" + +"Nay, madame; it was the Proctor of the Italian Abbess." + +Therewith the inquiries of the Duchess elicited all Grisell's early +story, with the exception of her name and whose was the iron that +caused the explosion, and likewise of her marriage, and the +accusation of sorcery. That male heirs of the opposite party should +have expelled the orphan heiress was only too natural an occurrence. +Nor did Grisell conceal her home; but Whitburn was an impossible word +to Portuguese lips, and Dacre they pronounced after its crusading +derivation De Acor. + + + +CHAPTER XXVI--THE DUKE'S DEATH + + + +Wither one Rose, and let the other flourish; +If you contend, a thousand lives must wither. + +SHAKESPEARE, King Henry VI., Part III. + +So time went on, and the rule of the House of York in England seemed +established, while the exiles had settled down in Burgundy, Grisell +to her lace pillow, Leonard to the suite of the Count de Charolais. +Indeed there was reason to think that he had come to acquiesce in the +change of dynasty, or at any rate to think it unwise and cruel to +bring on another desperate civil war. In fact, many of the Red Rose +party were making their peace with Edward IV. Meanwhile the Duchess +Isabel became extremely fond of Grisell, and often summoned her to +come and work by her side, and talk to her; and thus came on the +summer of 1467, when Duke Philip returned from the sack of unhappy +Dinant in a weakened state, and soon after was taken fatally ill. +All the city of Bruges watched in anxiety for tidings, for the kindly +Duke was really loved where his hand did not press. One evening +during the suspense when Master Lambert was gone out to gather +tidings, there was the step with clank of spurs which had grown +familiar, and Leonard Copeland strode in hot and dusty, greeting Vrow +Clemence as usual with a touch of the hand and inclination of the +head, and Grisell with hand and courteous voice, as he threw himself +on the settle, heated and weary, and began with tired fingers to +unfasten his heavy steel cap. + +Grisell hastened to help him, Clemence to fetch a cup of cooling +Rhine wine. "There, thanks, mistress. We have ridden all day from +Ghent, in the heat and dust, and after all the Count got before us." + +"To the Duke?" + +"Ay! He was like one demented at tidings of his father's sickness. +Say what they will of hot words and fierce passages between them, +that father and son have hearts loving one another truly." + +"It is well they should agree at the last," said Grisell, "or the +Count will carry with him the sorest of memories." + +And indeed Charles the Bold was on his knees beside the bed of his +speechless father in an agony of grief. + +Presently all the bells in Bruges began to clash out their warning +that a soul was passing to the unseen land, and Grisell made signs to +Clemence, while Leonard lifted himself upright, and all breathed the +same for the mighty Prince as for the poorest beggar, the +intercession for the dying. Then the solemn note became a knell, and +their prayer changed to the De Profundis, "Out of the depths." + +Presently Lambert Groot came in, grave and saddened, with the +intelligence that Philip the Good had departed in peace, with his +wife and son on either side of him, and his little granddaughter +kneeling beside the Duchess. + +There was bitter weeping all over Bruges, and soon all over Flanders +and the other domains united under the Dukedom of Burgundy, for +though Philip had often deeply erred, he had been a fair ruler, +balancing discordant interests justly, and maintaining peace, while +all that was splendid or luxurious prospered and throve under him. +There was a certain dread of the future under his successor. + +"A better man at heart," said Leonard, who had learnt to love the +Count de Charolais. "He loathes the vices and revelry that have +stained the Court." + +"That is true," said Lambert. "Yet he is a man of violence, and with +none of the skill and dexterity with which Duke Philip steered his +course." + +"A plague on such skill," muttered Leonard. "Caring solely for his +own gain, not for the right!" + +"Yet your Count has a heavy hand," said Lambert. "Witness Dinant! +unhappy Dinant." + +"The rogues insulted his mother," said Leonard. "He offered them +terms which they would not have in their stubborn pride! But speak +not of that! I never saw the like in England. There we strike at +the great, not at the small. Ah well, with all our wars and troubles +England was the better place to live in. Shall we ever see it more?" + +There was something delightful to Grisell in that "we," but she made +answer, "So far as I hear, there has been quiet there for the last +two years under King Edward." + +"Ay, and after all he has the right of blood," said Leonard. "Our +King Henry is a saint, and Queen Margaret a peerless dame of romance, +but since I have come to years of understanding I have seen that they +neither had true claim of inheritance nor power to rule a realm." + +"Then would you make your peace with the White Rose?" + +"The rose en soleil that wrought us so much evil at Mortimer's Cross? +Methinks I would. I never swore allegiance to King Henry. My father +was still living when last I saw that sweet and gracious countenance +which I must defend for love and reverence' sake." + +"And he knighted you," said Grisell. + +"True," with a sharp glance, as if he wondered how she was aware of +the fact; "but only as my father's heir. My poor old house and +tenants! I would I knew how they fare; but mine uncle sends me no +letters, though he does supply me." + +"Then you do not feel bound in honour to Lancaster?" said Grisell. + +"Nay; I did not stir or strive to join the Queen when last she called +up the Scots--the Scots indeed!--to aid her. I could not join them +in a foray on England. I fear me she will move heaven and earth +again when her son is of age to bear arms; but my spirit rises +against allies among Scots or French, and I cannot think it well to +bring back bloodshed and slaughter." + +"I shall pray for peace," said Grisell. All this was happiness to +her, as she felt that he was treating her with confidence. Would she +ever be nearer to him? + +He was a graver, more thoughtful man at seven and twenty than he had +been at the time of his hurried marriage, and had conversed with men +of real understanding of the welfare of their country. Such talks as +these made Grisell feel that she could look up to him as most truly +her lord and guide. But how was it with the fair Eleanor, and +whither did his heart incline? An English merchant, who came for +spices, had said that the Lord Audley had changed sides, and it was +thus probable that the damsel was bestowed in marriage to a Yorkist; +but there was no knowing, nor did Grisell dare to feel her way to +discovering whether Leonard knew, or felt himself still bound to +constancy, outwardly and in heart. + +Every one was taken up with the funeral solemnities of Duke Philip; +he was to be finally interred with his father and grandfather in the +grand tombs at Dijon, but for the present the body was to be placed +in the Church of St. Donatus at Bruges, at night. + +Sir Leonard rode at a foot's pace in the troop of men-at-arms, all in +full armour, which glanced in the light of the sixteen hundred +torches which were borne before, behind, and in the midst of the +procession, which escorted the bier. Outside the coffin, arrayed in +ducal coronet and robes, with the Golden Fleece collar round the +neck, lay the exact likeness of the aged Duke, and on shields around +the pall, as well as on banners borne waving aloft, were the armorial +bearings of all his honours, his four dukedoms, seven counties, +lordships innumerable, besides the banners of all the guilds carried +to do him honour. + +More than twenty prelates were present, and shared in the mass, which +began in the morning hour, and in the requiem. The heralds of all +the domains broke their white staves and threw them on the bier, +proclaiming that Philip, lord of all these lands, was deceased. +Then, as in the case of royalty, Charles his son was proclaimed; and +the organ led an acclamation of jubilee from all the assembly which +filled the church, and a shout as of thunder arose, "Vivat Carolus." + +Charles knelt meanwhile with hands clasped over his brow, silent, +immovable. Was he crushed at thought of the whirlwinds of passion +that had raged between him and the father whom he had loved all the +time? or was there on him the weight of a foreboding that he, though +free from the grosser faults of his father, would never win and keep +hearts in the same manner, and that a sad, tumultuous, troubled +career and piteous, untimely end lay before him? + +His mother, Grisell's Duchess, according to the rule of the Court, +lay in bed for six weeks--at least she was bound to lie there +whenever she was not in entire privacy. The room and bed were hung +with black, but a white covering was over her, and she was fully +dressed in the black and white weeds of royal widowhood. The light +of day was excluded, and hosts of wax candles burnt around. + +Grisell did not see her during this first period of stately mourning, +but she heard that the good lady had spent her time in weeping and +praying for her husband, all the more earnestly that she had little +cause personally to mourn him. + + + +CHAPTER XXVII--FORGET ME NOT + + + + And added, of her wit, +A border fantasy of branch and flower, +And yellow-throated nestling in the nest. + +TENNYSON, Elaine. + +The Duchess Isabel sent for Grisell as soon as the rules of etiquette +permitted, and her own mind was free, to attend to the suite of lace +hangings, with which much progress had been made in the interval. +She was in the palace now, greatly honoured, for her son loved her +with devoted affection, and Grisell had to pass through tapestry-hung +halls and chambers, one after another, with persons in mourning, all +filled with men-at-arms first, then servants still in black dresses. +Next pages and squires, knights of the lady, and lastly ladies in +black velvet, who sat at their work, with a chaplain reading to them. +One of these, the Countess of Poitiers, whom Grisell had known at the +Grey Sisters' convent, rose, graciously received her obeisance, and +conducted her into the great State bedroom, likewise very sombre, +with black hangings worked and edged, however, with white, and the +window was permitted to let in the light of day. The bed was raised +on steps in an alcove, and was splendidly draped and covered with +black embroidered with white, but the Duchess did not occupy it. A +curtain was lifted, and she came forward in her deepest robes of +widowhood, leading her little granddaughter Mary, a child of eight or +nine years old. Grisell knelt to kiss the hands of each, and the +Duchess said - + +"Good Griselda, it is long since I have seen you. Have you finished +the border?" + +"Yes, your Highness; and I have begun the edging of the corporal." + +The Duchess looked at the work with admiration, and bade the little +Mary, the damsel of Burgundy, look on and see how the dainty web was +woven, while she signed the maker to seat herself on a step of the +alcove. + +When the child's questions and interest were exhausted, and she began +to be somewhat perilously curious about the carved weights of the +bobbins, her grandmother sent her to play with the ladies in the +ante-room, desiring Grisell to continue the work. After a few kindly +words the Duchess said, "The poor child is to have a stepdame so soon +as the year of mourning is passed. May she be good to her! Hath the +rumour thereof reached you in the city, Maid Griselda, that my son is +in treaty with your English King, though he loves not the house of +York? But princely alliances must be looked for in marriage." + +"Madge!" exclaimed Grisell; then colouring, "I should say the Lady +Margaret of York." + +"You knew her?" + +"Oh! I knew her. We loved each other well in the Lord of +Salisbury's house! There never was a maid whom I knew or loved like +her!" + +"In the Count of Salisbury's house," repeated the Duchess. "Were you +there as the Lady Margaret's fellow-pupil?" she said, as though +perceiving that her lace maker must be of higher quality than she had +supposed. + +"It was while my father was alive, madame, and before her father had +fixed his eyes on the throne, your Highness." + +"And your father was, you said, the knight De--De--D'Acor." + +"So please you, madame," said Grisell kneeling, "not to mention my +poor name to the lady." + +"We are a good way from speech of her," said the Duchess smiling. +"Our year of doole must pass, and mayhap the treaty will not hold in +the meantime. The King of France would fain hinder it. But if the +Demoiselle loved you of old would she not give you preferment in her +train if she knew?" + +"Oh! madame, I pray you name me not till she be here! There is much +that hangs on it, more than I can tell at present, without doing +harm; but I have a petition to prefer to her." + +"An affair of true love," said the Duchess smiling. + +"I know not. Oh! ask me not, madame!" + +When Grisell was dismissed, she began designing a pattern, in which +in spray after spray of rich point, she displayed in the pure +frostwork-like web, the Daisy of Margaret, the Rose of York, and +moreover, combined therewith, the saltire of Nevil and the three +scallops of Dacre, and each connected with ramifications of the +forget-me-not flower shaped like the turquoises of her pouncet box, +and with the letter G to be traced by ingenious eyes, though the +uninitiated might observe nothing. + +She had plenty of time, though the treaty soon made it as much of a +certainty as royal betrothals ever were, but it was not till July +came round again that Bruges was in a crisis of the fever of +preparation to receive the bride. Sculptors, painters, carvers were +desperately at work at the Duke's palace. Weavers, tapestry-workers, +embroiderers, sempstresses were toiling day and night, armourers and +jewellers had no rest, and the bright July sunshine lay glittering on +the canals, graceful skiffs, and gorgeous barges, and bringing out in +full detail the glories of the architecture above, the tapestry-hung +windows in the midst, the gaily-clad Vrows beneath, while the bells +rang out their merriest carillons from every steeple, whence +fluttered the banners of the guilds. + +The bride, escorted by Sir Antony Wydville, was to land at Sluys, and +Duchess Isabel, with little Mary, went to receive her. + +"Will you go with me as one of my maids, or as a tirewoman +perchance?" asked the Duchess kindly. + +Grisell fell on her knee and thanked her, but begged to be permitted +to remain where she was until the bride should have some leisure. +And indeed her doubts and suspense grew more overwhelming. As she +freshly trimmed and broidered Leonard's surcoat and sword-belt, she +heard one of the many gossips who delighted to recount the members of +the English suite as picked up from the subordinates of the heralds +and pursuivants who had to marshal the procession and order the +banquet. "Fair ladies too," he said, "from England. There is the +Lord Audley's daughter with her father. They say she is the very +pearl of beauties. We shall see whether our fair dames do not +surpass her." + +"The Lord Audley's daughter did you say?" asked Grisell. + +"His daughter, yea; but she is a widow, bearing in her lozenge, per +pale with Audley, gules three herrings haurient argent, for +Heringham. She is one of the Duchess Margaret's dames-of-honour." + +To Grisell it sounded like her doom on one side, the crisis of her +self-sacrifice, and the opening of Leonard's happiness on the other. + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII--THE PAGEANT + + + +When I may read of tilts in days of old, + And tourneys graced by chieftains of renown, +Fair dames, grave citoyens, and warriors bold - + If fancy would pourtray some stately town, +Which for such pomp fit theatre would be, +Fair Bruges, I shall then remember thee. + +SOUTHEY, Pilgrimage to Waterloo. + +Leonard Copeland was in close attendance on the Duke, and could not +give a moment to visit his friends at the Green Serpent, so that +there was no knowing how the presence of the Lady of Heringham +affected him. Duke Charles rode out to meet his bride at the little +town of Damme, and here the more important portions of the betrothal +ceremony took place, after which he rode back alone to the Cour des +Princes, leaving to the bride all the splendour of the entrance. + +The monastic orders were to be represented in the procession. The +Grey Sisters thought they had an especial claim, and devised the +presenting a crown of white roses at the gates, and with great +pleasure Grisell contributed the best of Master Lambert's lovely +white Provence roses to complete the garland, which was carried by +the youngest novice, a fair white rosebud herself. + +Every one all along the line of the tall old houses was hanging from +window to window rich tapestries of many dyes, often with gold and +silver thread. The trades and guilds had renewed their signs, +banners and pennons hung from every abode entitled to their use, +garlands of bright flowers stretched here and there and everywhere. +All had been in a frenzy of preparation for many days past, and the +final touches began with the first hours of light in the long, summer +morning. To Grisell's great delight, Cuthbert Ridley plodded in at +the hospitable door of the Green Serpent the night before. "Ah! my +ladybird," said he, "in good health as ever." + +"All the better for seeing you, mine old friend," she cried. "I +thought you were far away at Compostella." + +"So verily I was. Here's St. James's cockle to wit--Santiago as they +call him there, and show the stone coffin he steered across the sea. +No small miracle that! And I've crossed France, and looked at many a +field of battle of the good old times, and thought and said a prayer +for the brave knights who broke lances there. But as I was making +for St. Martha's cave in Provence, I met a friar, who told me of the +goodly gathering there was like to be here; and I would fain see +whether I could hap upon old friends, or at any rate hear a smack of +our kindly English tongue, so I made the best of my way hither." + +"In good time," said Lambert. "You will take the lady and the +housewife to the stoop at Master Caxton's house, where he has +promised them seats whence they may view the entrance. I myself am +bound to walk with my fellows of the Apothecaries' Society, and it +will be well for them to have another guard in the throng, besides +old Anton." + +"Nay, but my garb scarce befits the raree show," said Ridley, looking +at his russet gown. + +"We will see to that anon," said Lambert; and ere supper was over, +old Anton had purveyed a loose blue gown from the neighbouring +merchants, with gold lace seams and girdle, peaked boots, and the +hideous brimless hat which was then highly fashionable. Ridley's +trusty sword he had always worn under his pilgrim's gown, and with +the dagger always used as a knife, he made his appearance once more +as a squire of degree, still putting the scallop into his hat, in +honour of Dacre as well as of St. James. + +The party had to set forth very early in the morning, slowly gliding +along several streets in a barge, watching the motley crowds +thronging banks and bridges--a far more brilliant crowd than in these +later centuries, since both sexes were alike gay in plumage. From +every house, even those out of the line of the procession, hung +tapestry, or coloured cloths, and the garlands of flowers, of all +bright lines, with their fresh greenery, were still unfaded by the +clear morning sun, while joyous carillons echoed and re-echoed from +the belfry and all the steeples. Ridley owned that he had never seen +the like since King Harry rode home from Agincourt--perhaps hardly +even then, for Bruges was at the height of its splendour, as were the +Burgundian Dukes at the very climax of their magnificence. + +After landing from the barge Ridley, with Grisell on his arm, and +Anton with his mistress, had a severe struggle with the crowd before +they gained the ascent of the stoop, where the upper steps had been +railed in, and seats arranged under the shelter of the projecting +roof. + +Master Caxton was a gray-eyed, thin-cheeked, neatly-made Kentishman, +who had lived long abroad, and was always ready to make an Englishman +welcome. He listened politely to Grisell's introduction of Master +Ridley, exchanged silent greetings with Vrow Clemence, and insisted +on their coming into the chamber within, where a repast of cold +pasty, marchpane, strawberries, and wine, awaited them--to be eaten +while as yet there was nothing to see save the expectant multitudes. + +Moreover, he wanted to show Mistress Grisell, as one of the few who +cared for it, the manuscripts he had collected on the history of Troy +town, and likewise the strange machine on which he was experimenting +for multiplying copies of the translation he had in hand, with blocks +for the woodcuts which Grisell could not in conscience say would be +as beautiful as the gorgeous illuminations of his books. + +Acclamations summoned them to the front, of course at first to see +only scattered bodies of the persons on the way to meet the bride at +the gate of St. Croix. + +By and by, however, came the "gang," as Ridley called it, in earnest. +Every body of ecclesiastics was there: monks and friars, black, +white, and gray; nuns, black, white, and blue; the clergy in their +richest robes, with costly crucifixes of gold, silver, and ivory held +aloft, and reliquaries of the most exquisite workmanship, sparkling +with precious jewels, diamond, ruby, emerald, and sapphire flashing +in the sun; the fifty-two guilds in gowns, each headed by their +Master and their banner, gorgeous in tint, but with homely devices, +such as stockings, saw and compasses, weavers' shuttles, and the +like. Master Lambert looked up and nodded a smile from beneath a +banner with Apollo and the Python, which Ridley might be excused for +taking for St. Michael and the Dragon. The Mayor in scarlet, white +fur and with gold collar, surrounded by his burgomasters in almost +equally radiant garments, marched on. + +Next followed the ducal household, trumpets and all sorts of +instruments before them, making the most festive din, through which +came bursts of the joy bells. Violet and black arrayed the +inferiors, setting off the crimson satin pourpoints of the higher +officers, on whose brimless hats each waved with a single ostrich +plume in a shining brooch. + +Then came more instruments, and a body of gay green archers; next +heralds and pursuivants, one for each of the Duke's domains, +glittering back and front in the tabard of his county's armorial +bearings, and with its banner borne beside him. Then a division of +the Duke's bodyguard, all like himself in burnished armour with +scarves across them. The nobles of Burgundy, Flanders, Hainault, +Holland, and Alsace, the most splendid body then existing, came in +endless numbers, their horses, feather-crested as well as themselves, +with every bridle tinkling with silver bells, and the animals +invisible all but their heads and tails under their magnificent +housings, while the knights seemed to be pillars of radiance. Yet +even more gorgeous were the knights of the Golden Fleece, who left +between them a lane in which moved six white horses, caparisoned in +cloth of gold, drawing an open litter in which sat, as on a throne, +herself dazzling in cloth of silver, the brown-eyed Margaret of old, +her dark hair bride fashion flowing on her shoulders, and around it a +marvellously-glancing diamond coronet, above it, however, the wreath +of white roses, which her own hands had placed there when presented +by the novice. Clemence squeezed Grisell's hand with delight as she +recognised her own white rose, the finest of the garland. + +Immediately after the car came Margaret's English attendants, the +stately, handsome Antony Wydville riding nearest to her, and then a +bevy of dames and damsels on horseback, but moving so slowly that +Grisell had full time to discover the silver herrings on the +caparisons of one of the palfreys, and then to raise her eyes to the +face of the tall stately lady whose long veil, flowing down from her +towered head-gear, by no means concealed a beautiful complexion and +fair perfect features, such as her own could never have rivalled even +if they had never been defaced. Her heart sank within her, +everything swam before her eyes, she scarcely saw the white doves let +loose from the triumphant arch beyond to greet the royal lady, and +was first roused by Ridley's exclamation as the knights with their +attendants began to pass. + +"Ha! the lad kens me! 'Tis Harry Featherstone as I live." + +Much more altered in these seven years than was Cuthbert Ridley, +there rode as a fully-equipped squire in the rear of a splendid +knight, Harry Featherstone, the survivor of the dismal Bridge of +Wakefield. He was lowering his lance in greeting, but there was no +knowing whether it was to Ridley or to Grisell, or whether he +recognised her, as she wore her veil far over her face. + +This to Grisell closed the whole. She did not see the figure which +was more to her than all the rest, for he was among the knights and +guards waiting at the Cour des Princes to receive the bride when the +final ceremonies of the marriage were to be performed. + +Ridley declared his intention of seeking out young Featherstone, but +Grisell impressed on him that she wished to remain unknown for the +present, above all to Sir Leonard Copeland, and he had been quite +sufficiently alarmed by the accusations of sorcery to believe in the +danger of her becoming known among the English. + +"More by token," said he, "that the house of this Master Caxton as +you call him seems to me no canny haunt. Tell me what you will of +making manifold good books or bad, I'll never believe but that Dr. +Faustus and the Devil hatched the notion between them for the +bewilderment of men's brains and the slackening of their hands." + +Thus Ridley made little more attempt to persuade his young lady to +come forth to the spectacles of the next fortnight to which he +rushed, through crowds and jostling, to behold, with the ardour of an +old warrior, the various tilts and tourneys, though he grumbled that +they were nothing but child's play and vain show, no earnest in them +fit for a man. + +Clemence, however, was all eyes, and revelled in the sight of the +wonders, the view of the Tree of Gold, and the champion thereof in +the lists of the Hotel de Ville, and again, some days later, of the +banquet, when the table decorations were mosaic gardens with silver +trees, laden with enamelled fruit, and where, as an interlude, a +whale sixty feet long made its entrance and emitted from its jaws a +troop of Moorish youths and maidens, who danced a saraband to the +sound of tambourines and cymbals! Such scenes were bliss to the deaf +housewife, and would enliven the silent world of her memory all the +rest of her life. + +The Duchess Isabel had retired to the Grey Sisters, such scenes being +inappropriate to her mourning, and besides her apartments being +needed for the influx of guests. There, in early morning, before the +revels began, Grisell ventured to ask for an audience, and was +permitted to follow the Duchess when she returned from mass to her +own apartments. + +"Ah! my lace weaver. Have you had your share in the revels and +pageantries?" + +"I saw the procession, so please your Grace." + +"And your old playmate in her glory?" + +"Yea, madame. It almost forestalled the glories of Heaven!" + +"Ah! child, may the aping of such glory beforehand not unfit us for +the veritable everlasting glories, when all these things shall be no +more." + +The Duchess clasped her hands, almost as a foreboding of the day when +her son's corpse should lie, forsaken, gashed, and stripped, beside +the marsh. + +But she turned to Grisell asking if she had come with any petition. + +"Only, madame, that it would please your Highness to put into the +hands of the new Duchess herself, this offering, without naming me." + +She produced her exquisite fabric, which was tied with ribbons of +blue and silver in an outer case, worked with the White Rose. + +The Dowager-Duchess exclaimed, "Nay, but this is more beauteous than +all you have wrought before. Ah! here is your own device! I see +there is purpose in these patterns of your web. And am I not to name +you?" + +"I pray your Highness to be silent, unless the Duchess should divine +the worker. Nay, it is scarce to be thought that she will." + +"Yet you have put the flower that my English mother called 'Forget- +me-not.' Ah, maiden, has it a purpose?" + +"Madame, madame, ask me no questions. Only remember in your prayers +to ask that I may do the right," said Grisell, with clasped hands and +weeping eyes. + + + +CHAPTER XXIX--DUCHESS MARGARET + + + +I beheld the pageants splendid, that adorned those days of old; +Stately dames, like queens attended, knights who bore the Fleece of +Gold. + +LONGFELLOW, The Belfry of Bruges. + +In another week the festivities were over, and she waited anxiously, +dreading each day more and more that her gift had been forgotten or +misunderstood, or that her old companion disdained or refused to take +notice of her; then trying to console herself by remembering the +manifold engagements and distractions of the bride. + +Happily, Grisell thought, Ridley was absent when Leonard Copeland +came one evening to supper. He was lodged among the guards of the +Duke in the palace, and had much less time at his disposal than +formerly, for Duke Charles insisted on the most strict order and +discipline among all his attendants. Moreover, there were tokens of +enmity on the part of the French on the border of the Somme, and +Leonard expected to be despatched to the camp which was being formed +there. He was out of spirits. The sight and speech of so many of +his countrymen had increased the longing for home. + +"I loathe the mincing French and the fat Flemish tongues," he owned, +when Master Lambert was out of hearing. "I should feel at home if I +could but hear an honest carter shout 'Woa' to his horses." + +"Did you have any speech with the ladies?" asked Grisell. + +"I? No! What reck they of a poor knight adventurer?" + +"Methought all the chivalry were peers, and that a belted knight was +a comrade for a king," said Grisell. + +"Ay, in the days of the Round Table; but when Dukes and Counts, and +great Marquesses and Barons swarm like mayflies by a trout stream, +what chance is there that a poor, landless exile will have a word or +a glance?" + +Did this mean that the fair Eleanor had scorned him? Grisell longed +to know, but for that very reason she faltered when about to ask, and +turned her query into one whether he had heard any news of his +English relations. + +"My good uncle at Wearmouth hath been dead these four years--so far +as I can gather. Amply must he have supplied Master Groot. I must +account with him. For mine inheritance I can gather nothing clearly. +I fancy the truth is that George Copeland, who holds it, is little +better than a reiver on either side, and that King Edward might grant +it back to me if I paid my homage, save that he is sworn never to +pardon any who had a share in the death of his brother of Rutland." + +"You had not! I know you had not!" + +"Hurt Ned? I'd as soon have hurt my own brother! Nay, I got this +blow from Clifford for coming between," said he, pushing back his +hair so as to show a mark near his temple. "But how did you know?" + +"Harry Featherstone told me." She had all but said, "My father's +squire." + +"You knew Featherstone? Belike when he was at Whitburn. He is here +now; a good man of his hands," muttered Leonard. "Anyway the King +believes I had a hand in that cruel business of Wakefield Bridge, and +nought but his witness would save my neck if once I ventured into +England--if that would. So I may resign myself to be the Duke's +captain of archers for the rest of my days. Heigh ho! And a lonely +man; I fear me in debt to good Master Lambert, or may be to Mistress +Grisell, to whom I owe more than coin will pay. Ha! was that--" +interrupting himself, for a trumpet blast was ringing out at +intervals, the signal of summons to the men-at-arms. Leonard started +up, waved farewell, and rushed off. + +The summons proved to be a call to the men-at-arms to attend the Duke +early the next morning on an expedition to visit his fortresses in +Picardy, and as the household of the Green Serpent returned from +mass, they heard the tramp and clatter, and saw the armour flash in +the sun as the troop passed along the main street, and became visible +at the opening of that up which they walked. + +The next day came a summons from the convent of the Grey Sisters that +Mistress Griselda was to attend the Duchess Isabel. + +She longed to fly through the air, but her limbs trembled. Indeed, +she shook so that she could not stand still nor walk slowly. She +hurried on so that the lay sister who had been sent for her was quite +out of breath, and panted after her within gasps of "Stay! stay, +mistress! No bear is after us! She runs as though a mad ox had got +loose!" + +Her heart was wild enough for anything! She might have to hear from +her kind Duchess that all was vain and unnoticed. + +Up the stair she went, to the accustomed chamber, where an additional +chair was on the dais under the canopy, the half circle of ladies as +usual, but before she had seen more with her dazzled, swimming eyes, +even as she rose from her first genuflection, she found herself in a +pair of soft arms, kisses rained on her cheeks and brow, and there +was a tender cry in her own tongue of "My Grisell! my dear old +Grisell! I have found you at last! Oh! that was good in you. I +knew the forget-me-nots, and all your little devices. Ah!" as +Grisell, unable to speak for tears of joy, held up the pouncet box, +the childish gift. + +The soft pink velvet bodice girdled and clasped with diamonds was +pressed to her, the deep hanging silken sleeves were round her, the +white satin broidered skirt swept about her feet, the pearl-edged +matronly cap on the youthful head leant fondly against her, as +Margaret led her up, still in her embrace, and cried, "It is she, it +is she! Dear belle mere, thanks indeed for bringing us together!" + +The Countess of Poitiers looked on scandalised at English +impulsiveness, and the elder Duchess herself looked for a moment +stiff, as her lace-maker slipped to her knees to kiss her hand and +murmur her thanks. + +"Let me look at you," cried Margaret. "Ah! have you recovered that +terrible mishap? By my troth, 'tis nearly gone. I should never have +found it out had I not known!" + +This was rather an exaggeration, but joy did make a good deal of +difference in Grisell's face, and the Duchess Margaret was one of the +most eager and warm-hearted people living, fervent alike in love and +in hate, ready both to act on slight evidence for those whose cause +she took up, and to nourish bitter hatred against the enemies of her +house. + +"Now, tell me all," she continued in English. "I heard that you had +been driven out of Wilton, and my uncle of Warwick had sped you +northward. How is it that you are here, weaving lace like any +mechanical sempstress? Nay, nay! I cannot listen to you on your +knees. We have hugged one another too often for that." + +Grisell, with the elder Duchess's permission, seated herself on the +cushion at Margaret's feet. "Speak English," continued the bride. +"I am wearying already of French! Ma belle mere, you will not find +fault. You know a little of our own honest tongue." + +Duchess Isabel smiled, and Grisell, in answer to the questions of +Margaret, told her story. When she came to the mention of her +marriage to Leonard Copeland, there was the vindictive exclamation, +"Bound to that blood-thirsty traitor! Never! After the way he +treated you, no marvel that he fell on my sweet Edmund!" + +"Ah! madame, he did not! He tried to save him." + +"He! A follower of King Henry! Never!" + +"Truly, madame! He had ever loved Lord Edmund. He strove to stay +Lord Clifford's hand, and threw himself between, but Clifford dashed +him aside, and he bears still the scar where he fell against the +parapet of the bridge. Harry Featherstone told me, when he fled from +the piteous field, where died my father and brother Robin." + +"Your brother, Robin Dacre! I remember him. I would have made him +good cheer for your sake, but my mother was ever strict, and rapped +our fingers, nay, treated us to the rod, if we ever spake to any of +my father's meine. Tell on, Grisell," as her hand found its way +under the hood, and stroked the fair hair. "Poor lonely one!" + +Her indignation was great when she heard of Copeland's love, and +still more of his mission to seize Whitburn, saying, truly enough, +that he should have taken both lady and Tower, or given both up, and +lending a most unwilling ear to the plea that he had never thought +his relations to Grisell binding. She had never loved Lady +Heringham, and it was plainly with good cause. + +Then followed the rest of the story, and when it appeared that +Grisell had been instrumental in saving Copeland, and close inquiries +elicited that she had been maintaining him all this while, actually +for seven years, all unknown to him, the young Duchess could not +contain herself. "Grisell! Grisell of patience indeed. Belle mere, +belle mere, do you understand?" and in rapid French she recounted +all. + +"He is my husband," said Grisell simply, as the two Duchesses showed +their wonder and admiration. + +"Never did tale or ballad show a more saintly wife," cried Margaret. +"And now what would you have me do for you, my most patient of +Grisells? Write to my brother the King to restore your lands, and-- +and I suppose you would have this recreant fellow's given back since +you say he has seen the error of following that make-bate Queen. But +can you prove him free of Edmund's blood? Aught but that might be +forgiven." + +"Master Featherstone is gone back to England," said Grisell, "but he +can bear witness; but my father's old squire, Cuthbert Ridley, is +here, who heard his story when he came to us from Wakefield. +Moreover, I have seen the mark on Sir Leonard's brow." + +"Let be. I will write to Edward an you will. He has been more prone +to Lancaster folk since he was caught by the wiles of Lady Grey; but +I would that I could hear what would clear this knight of yours by +other testimony than such as your loving heart may frame. But you +must come and be one of mine, my own ladies, Grisell, and never go +back to your Poticary--Faugh!" + +This, however, Grisell would not hear of; and Margaret really +reverenced her too much to press her. + +However, Ridley was sent for to the Cour des Princes, and returned +with a letter to be borne to King Edward, and likewise a mission to +find Featherstone, and if possible Red Jock. + +"'Tis working for that rogue Copeland," he growled. "I would it were +for you, my sweet lady." + +"It is working for me! Think so with all your heart, good Cuthbert." + +"Well, end as it may, you will at least ken who and what you are, wed +or unwed, fish, flesh or good red herring, and cease to live +nameless, like the Poticary's serving-woman," concluded Ridley as his +parting grumble. + + + +CHAPTER XXX--THE WEDDING CHIMES + + + +Low at times and loud at times, +Changing like a poet's rhymes, +Rang the beautiful wild chimes, +From the belfry in the market +Of the ancient town of Bruges. + +LONGFELLOW, The Carillon. + +No more was heard of the Duchess for some weeks. Leonard was absent +with the Duke, who was engaged in that unhappy affair of Peroune and +Liege, the romantic version of which may be read in Quentin Durward, +and with which the present tale dares not to meddle, though it seemed +to blast the life of Charles the Bold, all unknowing. + +The Duchess Margaret was youthful enough to have a strong taste for +effect, and it was after a long and vexatious delay that Grisell was +suddenly summoned to her presence, to be escorted by Master Groot. +There she sat, on her chair of state, with the high tapestried back +and the square canopy, and in the throng of gentlemen around her +Grisell at a glance recognised Sir Leonard, and likewise Cuthbert +Ridley and Harry Featherstone, though of course it was not etiquette +to exchange any greetings. + +She knelt to kiss the Duchess's hand, and as she did so Margaret +raised her, kissing her brow, and saying with a clear full voice, "I +greet you, Lady Copeland, Baroness of Whitburn. Here is a letter +from my brother, King Edward, calling on the Bishop of Durham, Count +Palatine, to put you in possession of thy castle and lands, whoever +may gainsay it." + +That Leonard started with amazement and made a step forward Grisell +was conscious, as she bent again to kiss the hand that gave the +letter; but there was more to come, and Margaret continued - + +"Also, to you, as to one who has the best right, I give this +parchment, sealed and signed by my brother, the King, containing his +full and free pardon to the good knight, Sir Leonard Copeland, and +his restoration to all his honours and his manors. Take it, Lady of +Whitburn. It was you, his true wife, who won it for him. It is you +who should give it to him. Stand forth, Sir Leonard." + +He did stand forth, faltering a little, as his first impulse had been +to kneel to Grisell, then recollecting himself, to fall at the +Duchess's feet in thanks. + +"To her, to her," said the Duchess; but Grisell, as he turned, spoke, +trying to clear her voice from a rising sob. + +"Sir Leonard, wait, I pray. Her Highness hath not spoken all. I am +well advised that the wedlock into which you were forced against your +will was of no avail to bind us, as you in mind and will were +contracted to the Lady Eleanor Audley." + +Leonard opened his lips, but she waved him to silence. "True, I know +that she was likewise constrained to wed; but she is a widow, and +free to choose for herself. Therefore, either by the bishop, or it +may be through our Holy Father the Pope, by mutual consent, shall the +marriage at Whitburn be annulled and declared void, and I pray you to +accept seisin thereof, while my lady, her Highness the Duchess +Isabel, with the Lady Prioress, will accept me as a Grey Sister." + +There was a murmur. Margaret utterly amazed would have sprung +forward and exclaimed, but Leonard was beforehand with her. + +"Never! never!" he cried, throwing himself on his knees and mastering +his wife's hand. "Grisell, Grisell, dost think I could turn to the +feather-pated, dull-souled, fickle-hearted thing I know now Eleanor +of Audley to be, instead of you?" + +There was a murmur of applause, led by the young Duchess herself, but +Grisell tried still to withdraw her hand, and say in low broken +tones, "Nay, nay; she is fair, I am loathly." + +"What is her fair skin to me?" he cried; "to me, who have learnt to +know, and love, and trust to you with a very different love from the +boy's passion I felt for Eleanor in youth, and the cure whereof was +the sight and words of the Lady Heringham! Grisell, Grisell, I was +about to lay my very heart at your feet when the Duke's trumpet +called me away, ere I guessed, fool that I was, that mine was the +hand that left the scar that now I love, but which once I treated +with a brute's or a boy's lightness. Oh! pardon me! Still less did +I know that it was my own forsaken wife who saved my life, who tended +my sickness, nay, as I verily believed, toiled for me and my bread +through these long seven years, all in secret. Yea, and won my +entire soul and deep devotion or ever I knew that it was to you alone +that they were due. Grisell, Grisell," as she could not speak for +tears. "Oh forgive! Pardon me! Turn not away to be a Grey Sister. +I cannot do without you! Take me! Let me strive throughout my life +to merit a little better all that you have done and suffered for one +so unworthy!" + +Grisell could not speak, but she turned towards him, and regardless +of all spectators, she was for the first time clasped in her +husband's arms, and the joyful tears of her friends high and low. + +What more shall be told of that victory? Shall it be narrated how +this wedlock was blest in the chapel, while all the lovely bells of +Bruges rang out in rejoicing, how Mynheer Groot and Clemence rejoiced +though they lost their guest, how Caxton gave them a choice specimen +of his printing, how Ridley doffed his pilgrim's garb and came out as +a squire of dames, how the farewells were sorrowfully exchanged with +the Duchess, and how the Duke growled that from whichever party he +took his stout English he was sure to lose them? + +Then there was homage to King Edward paid not very willingly, and a +progress northward. At York, Thora, looking worn and haggard, came +and entreated forgiveness, declaring that she had little guessed what +her talk was doing, and that Ralph made her believe whatever he +chose! She had a hard life, treated like a slave by the burgesses, +who despised the fisher maid. Oh that she could go back to serve her +dear good lady! + +There was a triumph at Whitburn to welcome the lady after the late +reign of misrule, and so did the knight and dame govern their estates +that for long years the time of 'Grisly Grisell' was remembered as +Whitburn's golden age. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, GRISLY GRISELL *** + +This file should be named grgr10.txt or grgr10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, grgr11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, grgr10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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