diff options
Diffstat (limited to '75740-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 75740-0.txt | 14230 |
1 files changed, 14230 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/75740-0.txt b/75740-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ecf53bc --- /dev/null +++ b/75740-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14230 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75740 *** + + + + + + + + THE + + Draytons and the Davenants + + _A STORY OF_ + + THE CIVIL WARS. + + + _By the Author of_ + "CHRONICLES OF THE SCHONBERG-COTTA FAMILY," + ETC., ETC. + + + New York: + _M. W. DODD, 506 BROADWAY._ + 1869. + + + + +CARD FROM THE AUTHOR. + +"The Author of the 'Schonberg-Cotta Family' wishes it to be generally +known among the readers of her books in America, that the American +Editions issued by Mr. M. W. Dodd, of New York, alone have the +Author's sanction." + + + + + NOTICE. + + _This Volume will be followed next year by + a supplementary Volume covering the + period of the Commonwealth and + the Restoration, and embracing + incidents connected with + the Early History + of this country._ + + + + +_Works by the same Author._ + + +CHRONICLES OF THE SCHONBERG-COTTA FAMILY. + +THE EARLY DAWN. + +DIARY OF KITTY TREVYLYAN. + +WINIFRED BERTRAM. + +THE DRAYTONS AND THE DAVENANTS. + +ON BOTH SIDES OF THE SEA. + +_Each of the above belongs to the "Cotta Family Series," and are +uniform in size and binding._ + +POEMS--"The Women of the Gospels," etc. _With + other Poems not before published. 1 Vol. 16mo._ + +MARY, THE HANDMAID OF THE LORD. + _One Vol. 16mo._ + +THE SONG WITHOUT WORDS. + _Dedicated to Children. Square 16mo_ + + +PUBLISHED BY M. W. DODD, + +_By arrangement with the Author._ + + + + + Contents + + + Introductory + Chapter II. + Chapter III. + Chapter IV. + Chapter V. + Chapter VI. + Chapter VII. + Chapter VIII. + Chapter IX. + Chapter X. + Chapter XI. + Chapter XII. + + + + + THE + Draytons and the Davenants + + + +INTRODUCTORY. + +Yesterday at noon, when the house and all the land were still, and +the men, with the lads and lasses, were away at the harvesting, and I +sat alone, with barred doors, for fear of the Indians (who have of +late shown themselves unfriendly), I chanced to look up from my +spinning-wheel through the open window, across the creek on which our +house stands. And something, I scarce know what, carried me back +through the years and across the seas to the old house on the borders +of the Fen Country, in the days of my childhood. It may have been +the quiet rustling of the sleepy air in the long grasses by the +water-side that wafted my spirit back to where the English winds sigh +and sough among the reeds on the borders of the fens; it may have +been the shining of the smooth water, furrowed by the track of the +water-fowl, that set my memory down beside the broad Mere, whose +gleam we could see from my chamber window. It may have been the +smell of this year's hay, which came in in sweet, soft gusts through +the lattice, that floated me up to the top of the tiny haystack, made +of the waste grass in the orchard at old Netherby Manor, at the foot +of which Roger, my brother, used to stand while I turned up the hay, +assisted by our Cousin Placidia (when she was condescending), and by +our Aunt Gretel, my mother's sister, whenever we had need of her. +Most probably it was the hay. For, as the excellent Mr. Bunyan has +illustriously set forth in his work on the Holy War, the soul hath +five gates through which she holdeth parlance with the outer world. +And correspondent with these outer gates from the sensible world in +space, meseemeth, are as many inner gates into the inner, invisible +world of thought and time; which inner gates open simultaneously with +the outer, by the same spring. But of all the mystic springs which +unlock the wondrous inward world, none act with such swift, secret +magic as those of the Gate of Odors. There stealeth in unobserved +some delicate perfume of familiar field flower or garden herb, and +straightway, or ere she is aware, the soul is afar off in the world +of the past, gathering posies among the fields of childhood, or +culling herbs in the old corner of the old garden, to be laid, by +hands long since cold, in familiar chambers long since tenanted by +other owners. + +Wherefore, I deem, it was the new, sweet smell of our New England hay +which more than anything carried me back to the old house in Old +England, and the days so long gone by. + +With my heart in far-off days, I continued my spinning, as women are +wont, the hand moving the more swiftly for the speed wherewith the +thoughts travel, until my thoughts and my work came to a pause +together by the flax on my distaff being exhausted. I went to an +upper chamber for a fresh stock, and while there my eye lighted on an +old chest, in the depths whereof lay many little volumes of an old +journal written by my hand through a series of buried years. + +An irresistible attraction drew me to them; and as I knelt before the +old chest, and turned over these yellow leaves, in some cases, eaten +with worms, and read the writing--the earlier portions of it in +large, laborious, childish characters, as if each letter were a +solemn symbol of weighty import--the later scrawled hastily in the +snatched intervals of a busy and tangled life--I seemed to be looking +through a series of stained windows into the halls of an ancient +palace. On the windows were the familiar portraits of a little eager +girl, and a young maiden familiar to me, yet strange. But the +paintings were also window-panes; and, after the first glance, the +painted panes seemed to vanish, and I saw only the palace chambers on +which they looked. Not empty chambers, or shadowy, or silent, but +solid, and fresh, and vivid, and full of the stir of much life; so +that, when I laid down those old pages, and looked out through the +declining light over these new shores, across this new sea, towards +the far-off England which still lives beyond, it seemed for a moment +as if the sun setting behind the wide western woods, the strip of +golden corn-fields, the reapers returning slowly over the hill, the +Indian burial-mounds beside the creek, the trim new house, my old +quiet self, were the shadows, and that Old World, in which my spirit +had been sojourning, still the living and the real. + +Neighbor Hartop's cheery voice roused me out of my dream, and I +hurried down to open the door, and to set out the harvest supper. + +But as I look at the old crumpled papers again to-day, the past lives +again once more before me, and I will not let it die. + +There is an hour in the day when the sun has set, and all the dazzle +of day is gone, and the dusk of night has not set in, when I think +the world looks larger and clearer than at any other time. The sky +seems higher and more heavenly than at other hours; and yet the +earth, tinted here and there on its high places with heavenly color, +seems more to belong to heaven. The little landscape within our +horizon becomes more manifestly a portion of a wider world. And is +there not such an hour in life? Before it passes let me use the +light, and fix in my mind the scenes which will so soon vanish into +dreams and silence. + +The first entry in those old journals of mine is: + + +"_The twenty-eighth day of March, in the year of our Lord sixteen +hundred and thirty-seven._--On this day, twelve years since, King +Charles was proclaimed King at Whitehall Gate, and in Cheapside; the +while the rain fell in heavy showers. My father heard the herald; +and my Aunt Dorothy well remembers the rain, because it spoiled a +slashed satin doublet of my father's (the last he ever bought, having +since then been habited more soberly); also because many of the +people said the weather was of evil promise for the new reign. But +father saith that is a superstitious notion, unworthy of Christian +people. + +"Also my father was present at the king's coronation, on the 5th of +February in the following year. Our French Queen would not enter the +Abbey on account of her Popish faith. When the king was presented +bareheaded to the people, all were silent, none crying God save the +King, until the Earl of Arundel bade them; which my father saith was +a worse omen than if the clouds poured down rivers." + + +These in large characters, each letter formed with conscientious +pains. + +The second entry is diverse from the first. It runs thus: + + +"_April the tenth._--The brindled cow hath died, leaving an orphan +calf. Aunt Gretel saith I may bring up the calf for my own, with the +help of Tib the dairy-woman." + + +The diversity between these entries recalls many things to me. On +the day before the first entry, father brought to Roger my brother, +my Cousin Placidia, and me, three small books stitched neatly +together, and told us these were for us to use to note down any +remarkable events therein. "For," said he, "we live in strange and +notable times, and you children may see things before you are grown, +yea, and perchance do or suffer such things as history is made of." + +The stipulation was, that we were each to write independently, and +not to borrow from the other; which was a hard covenant for me, who +seldom then meditated or did anything without the co-operation or +sanction of Roger. + +After much solitary pondering, therefore, I arrived at the conclusion +that history especially concerns kings and queens, and lesser people +only as connected with them. That is, when there are kings and +queens. In the old Greek history I remembered there were heroes who +were not kings, but I supposed they did instead. But the English +history was all made up of what happened to the kings. One was shot +while hunting; another was murdered at Berkeley Castle; the little +princes were smothered in the Tower. King Edward III. gained a great +victory at Creçy in France; King Henry V. gained another at +Agincourt. Of course other people were concerned in these things. +Sir Walter Tyrrel shot the arrow by accident that killed King +William, and some wicked people must have murdered King Edward and +the little princes on purpose. And, of course, there were armies who +helped King Edward and King Henry to gain their victories; but none +of these people would have been in history, I thought, except as +connected with the kings. At the same time I thought it was of no +use to relate things which no one belonging to me had had anything to +do with, because any one else could have done that without my taking +the trouble to write a note-book at all. Therefore it seemed to me +that my father, and even my father's slashed satin doublet, fairly +became historical by having been present at the King's proclamation, +and Aunt Dorothy by having commented thereon. + +The second entry was caused by an entirely different theory of +history, having its origin in a talk with Roger. Roger said that we +never can tell what things are historical until afterwards, and that +therefore the only way was to note down what honestly interests us. +If these things prove afterwards to be things which interest the +world, our story of them becomes part of the world's story, and, as +such, history to the people who care for us. But to note down feeble +echoes of far-off great events, in which we think we ought to be +interested, is no human speech at all, Roger thought, but mere +monkey's imitative chattering. Every one, Roger thinks, sees +everything just a little differently from any one else, and therefore +if every one would describe truly the little bit they do see, in that +way, by degrees, we might have a perfect picture. But to copy what +others have seen is simply to depart with every fresh copy a little +further from the original. If, for instance, said he, the nurse of +Julius Cæsar had told us nursery stories of what Julius Cæsar did +when he was a little boy, it would have been history; but the +opinions of Julius Cæsar's nurse on the politics of the Roman +republic would probably not have been history at all, but idle tattle. + +With respect to kings and queens being the only true subjects for +history, also, Roger was very scornful. He had lately been paying a +visit to Mr. John Hampden, Mr. Oliver Cromwell, and others of my +father's friends, and he had returned full of indignation against the +tyranny of the court and the prelates. The nation, he said wise men +thought, was not made for the king, but the king for the nation. +And, to say nothing of the Greek history, the Bible history was +certainly not filled up with kings and queens, but with shepherds, +herdsmen, preachers, and soldiers; or if with kings, with kings who +had been shepherds and soldiers, and who were saints and heroes as +well as kings. + +All which reasoning decided me to make my next entry concerning the +calf of the brindled cow, which at that time was the subject in the +world which honestly interested me the most. If my father, or Roger, +or Cousin Placidia, or Aunt Gretel, ever became historical personages +(and, as Roger said, who could tell?), then anecdotes concerning the +calf of the cow which my father owned and Aunt Gretel cherished, and +which Cousin Placidia thought it childish to care so much about, +might become, in a secondary sense, historical also. At all events, +I resolved I would not be like Julius Cæsar's nurse, babbling of +politics. + +The next entry was: + + +"_August_ 4, 1637.--Dr. Antony has spent the evening with us, and is +to remain some days, at father's entreaty, to recruit his strength; +Aunt Dorothy having knowledge of medicinal herbs, and Aunt Gretel of +savory dishes, which may be of use to him. He hath narrowly escaped +the jail-sickness, having of late visited many afflicted good people +in the prisons through the country, as is his custom. 'Sick and in +prison,' Dr. Antony saith, 'and ye visited me,' is plain enough to +read by the dimmest light, whatever else is hard to understand. He +told us of two strange things which happened lately. At least they +seem very strange to me. + +"In the Palace Yard at Westminster, on the 30th of last June (while +Roger and I were making hay in the pleasant sunshine of the orchard), +Dr. Antony saw three gentlemen stand in the pillory. The pillory is +a wooden frame set up on a platform, where wicked people are fastened +helplessly like savage dogs, with their heads and hands coming +through holes, to make them look ridiculous, that people may mock and +jeer at them. But father and Dr. Anthony did not think these +gentlemen wicked, only at worst a little hasty in speech. And the +people did not think them ridiculous; they did not mock and jeer at +them, but kept very still, or wept. Their names were Mr. Prynne, a +gentleman at the bar, Dr. John Bastwick, a physician; and Mr. Burton, +a clergyman of a parish in London. There they stood many hours while +the hangman came to each of them in turn and sawed off their ears +with a rough knife, and then burnt in two cruel letters on their +cheeks, S.L., for seditious libeler. Dr. Anthony did not say the +three gentlemen made one cry or complaint, but bore themselves like +brave men. But the bravest of all, I think, was Mrs. Bastwick, the +doctor's wife. She stayed on the scaffold, and bore to see all her +husband's pain without a word or moan, lest she should make him +flinch, and then received his ears in her lap, and kissed his poor +wounded face before all the people. Sweet, brave heart! I would +fain have her home amongst us here, and kiss her faithful hands like +a queen's, and lay my head on her brave heart, as if it were my +mother's! The sufferers made no moan; but the people broke their +pitiful silence once with an angry shout, and many times with low, +hushed groans, as if the pain and shame were theirs (Dr. Anthony +said), and they would remember it. And Mr. Prynne, when the irons +were burning his face, said to the executioner, 'Cut me, tear me, I +fear not thee; I fear the fire of hell.' Mr. Burton spoke to the +people of God and his truth, and how it was worth while to suffer +rather than give up that. And at last he nearly fainted, but when he +was borne away into a house near, he said, with good cheer, 'It is +too hot to last.' (He meant the persecution.) But the three +gentlemen are now shut up in three prisons--in Launceston, Lancaster, +and Caernarvon. And father and Dr. Antony say it is Archbishop Laud +who ordered it all to be done. But could not the king have stopped +it if he liked? + +"But will Roger and I ever turn over the hay again in the pleasant +June sunshine, without thinking how it burned down on those poor, +maimed and wounded gentlemen? And one day I do hope I may see brave +Mistress Bastwick and tell her how I love and honor her, and how the +thought of her will help me to be brave and patient more than a +hundred sermons. + +"Dr. Antony's other story was of one Jenny or Janet Geddes, not a +gentlewoman, for she kept an apple stall in Edinburgh streets, and, +moreover, does not appear to have used good language at all. The +Scotch, it seems, do not like bishops, and, indeed, will not have +bishops. But Archbishop Laud and the king will make them. On +Sunday, the 23d of last July, a month since, one of Archbishop Laud's +bishops began the collect for the day in St. Giles's Cathedral, +Edinburgh. Jenny Geddes had brought her folding stool (on which she +sat by her apple stall, I suppose) into the church, and when the +bishop came out in his robes (which Archbishop Laud likes of many +colors, while the Scotch, it seems, will have nothing but black), she +took up her stool and flung it at the bishop's head, calling the +service, the mass and the bishop a thief, and wishing him very ill +wishes in a curious Scottish dialect, which, I suppose, I do not +quite understand; for it sounded like swearing, and if Jenny Geddes +was a good woman (although not a gentlewoman) she would scarcely, I +should think, swear, at least not in church. Whether the bishop was +hurt or not, no one seems to know or care. I suppose the stool did +not reach his head. But it stopped the service. For all the people +rose in great fury, not against Jenny Geddes, but against the bishop, +and the archbishop, and the prayer-book, and against all bishops and +all prayers in books, not in Edinburgh only, but throughout the land. +Which shows, father said, that a great deal of angry talk had been +going on beforehand in the streets around Jenny Geddes' apple stall. +There must always be some angry person, father said, to throw the +folding stool, but no one heeds the angry person unless there is +something to be angry about." + + +A very long entry, which lost me many hours and many pages. + +And about the passages in my own history which it led to, not a word. +Indeed, throughout these journals I notice that it is more what they +recall than what they say which brings back the past to me. I wonder +if it is not thus with most diaries. For to keep to Roger's rule of +writing the things which really interest us at the time seems to me +scarcely possible; because at the time we scarcely know what things +are most deeply interesting us, and if we do, they are the very +things we cannot write about. Underneath the things we see and think +and speak about are the great, dim, silent places out of which we +ourselves are growing into being, and where God is at work. The +things we are beginning to see we can not see, the things we are +feeling without knowing what we feel, the dim, struggling thoughts we +cannot utter or even think. Without form and void is the state of a +world being created. When the world is created, the creation is a +history, and can be written. While it is being created, it is chaos, +and from without can only be described as without form and void--from +within, in the chaos, not at all. The Creator only understands +chaos, and knows the chaos before the new creation from the mere +waste and ruin of the old. + +To understand the past is only partly possible for the wisest men. + +To understand the present is only possible to God. + +Because to understand the present would be to foresee the future. To +see through the chaos would be to foresee the new creation. + +Wherefore it seems to me all diaries are of value not as records, but +as suggestions. And all self-examination resolves itself at last +into prayer, saying, "What I see not, teach Thou me." + +"Search me and try me, and see Thou, and lead Thou me." + +The passages in my history that this story of Dr. Antony led to, +arise before me as clearly as if they happened yesterday, although in +the Journal not a hint of them is given. + +The Sunday after Dr. Antony had told us those terrible things about +the sufferings in the pillory, Roger and I had gone to our usual +Sunday afternoon perch in an apple-tree in the corner of the orchard +furthest from the house. We had taken with us for our contemplation +a very terrible delineation, which was the nearest approach to a +picture Aunt Dorothy would let us have on the Sabbath-day. This she +permitted us, partly, I believe, because it was not the likeness of +anything in heaven or earth (nor, I hope, under the earth), and +partly on account of the very awful thoughts it was calculated to +inspire. + +It was a huge branching thing like our old family tree. But at the +root of the tree, where would be the name of Adam or Noah, or Æneas +of Troy, or Cassibelaun, or whoever else was recognized as the head +of the family, stood the sacred name of the Holy Trinity. From this +trunk forked off two leading branches, one representing the wicked +and the other the just, with the words written along them to show +that the very same mercies and means of grace which produce +repentance and faith and love in the hearts of the just, produce +bitterness and false security and hatred of God in the hearts of the +wicked. Further and further the branches diverged until one ended in +an angel with wings, and the other in a mouth of a horrible hobgoblin +with a whale's mouth, a dragon's claws, and a lion's teeth, and both +were united by the lines,-- + + "Whether to heaven or hell you bend, + God will have glory in the end."* + + +* A similar tree is to be seen in the beginning of Bunyan'a Pilgrim's +Progress, in the edition of 1698. + + +Most terrible was this delineation to me, sitting that sunny autumn +day in the apple-tree, especially because if you were once on the +wrong branch, it was not at all pointed out how you were ever to get +on the right. All seemed as irrevocable and inevitable as that point +in our own pedigree where Edwy, the eldest son, became a Benedictine +monk and vanished into a thin flourish, and Walter, the second son, +married Adalgiva, heiress of Netherby Manor, and branched off into +us. And it looked so terribly (with unutterable terror I felt it) as +if it mattered as little to the Holy Trinity what became of any one +of us, as to Cassibelaun or Noah what became of his descendants, Edwy +or Walter. + +So it happened that Roger and I sat very awe-stricken and still in +our perch in the apple-tree, while the wind fluttered the green +leaves around us, and the sunbeams ripened the rosy apples for their +work, and then danced in and out on the grass below for their play. +And I remember as if it were yesterday how the thought shuddered +through my heart, that the same sun which was shining on Roger and +me, on that last 30th of June, making hay in the orchard, was at that +very same moment scorching those poor wounded gentlemen in the +pillory in the Palace Yard, and not losing a whit of its glory to us +by all the anguish it was inflicting, like a blazing furnace, on +them. And if this fearful tree were true, did it not seem as if it +were the same with God? + +I sat some time silent under the weight of this dread. It made me +shiver with cold in the sunshine, and at length I could keep it in no +longer, and said to Roger, in a whisper, for I was half afraid to +hear my own words,-- + +"Oh, Roger, why did not God kill the devil?" + +At that moment something shook the tree, and I clung to Roger in +terror. I could not see what it was from among the thick leaves +where we were sitting. I trembled at the echo of my own voice. The +dark thoughts within seemed to have brought night with its nameless +terrors into the heart of day. But Roger leant down from the branch, +and said,-- + +"Cousin Placidia! For shame! You shook the tree on purpose. I +heard the apples fall on the ground, and you are picking them up. +That is cheating." + +For the fallen fruit was the right of us, children. + +Said Placidia in a smooth, unmoved voice,-- + +"I came against the stem of the tree by accident, and perhaps I did +shake it a little more than I need, when I heard what Olive said. +They were very wicked words, and I shall tell Aunt Dorothy." + +"You may tell any one you like," said Roger indignantly. "Olive did +not mean to say anything wrong. You are cruel enough to sit in the +Star-chamber, Placidia." + +"She is exactly like our gray cat," he continued to me, as she glided +away, "with her soft, noiseless ways, and her stealthy, steady +following of her own interests. When the fowl-house was burnt down +last year, and the turkeys were screaming, and the hens cackling, and +every one flying hither and thither trying to save somebody or +something, I saw the gray cat quietly licking her lips in a corner +over a poor singed chicken. I believe she thought the whole thing +had been set on foot to roast her supper. And Placidia would have +done precisely the same. If London were on fire, and she in it, I +believe she would contrive to get her supper roasted on the cinders. +And the provoking thing is, she thinks no one sees." + +Roger was not often vehement in speech, but Placidia was our standing +grievance, his and mine. There were certain little unfairnesses, not +quite cheating, certain little meannesses, not quite dishonesties, +and certain little prevarications, not quite lies, which always +excited his greatest wrath, especially when, as often happened, I was +the loser or the sufferer by them. + +"Do you think she will tell Aunt Dorothy?" I said, for that very +morning Placidia and I had had a quarrel, she having pinched my arm +where it could not be seen, and I having to my shame bitten her +finger where it could be seen. + +"I don't know, and I don't care," said Roger loftily. "What is the +good of minding? I suppose we must all go through a certain quantity +of punishment, Olive, and it is to be hoped it will do us good for +the future, if we did not deserve it by the past. At least Aunt +Dorothy says so. Go on with what you were saying." + +So I recurred to my question. + +"Oh, Roger, I wish I knew why God did not destroy the devil in the +beginning, or at least not let him come into the garden. Because, +then, nothing would have gone wrong, would it? Eve would not have +eaten the fruit, Mr. Prynne and Dr. Bastwick would not have been set +in the pillory. And I should not, most likely, have quarrelled with +Placidia, because, I suppose, Placidia would not have been provoking." + +"I wish I knew why my Father lets Cousin Placidia live with us, and +always be making us do wrong," said Roger. + +"She is an orphan, and some one must take care of her, you know," I +said. "Besides, surely, Father has reasons, only we don't always +know." + +"And I suppose God has reasons," said Roger reverently, "only we +don't always know." + +"But the devil is all bad," said I, "and will never be better; and +Cousin Placidia may. It could not be for the devil's own sake God +did not kill him, for he only gets worse; and I do not see how it +could be for ours." + +"The devil was not always the devil, Olive," said Roger, after +thinking a little while. "He was an angel at first." + +"Then, O Roger," said I eagerly, for the perplexity lay heavy on my +heart, "why did not God stop the devil from ever being the devil? +That would have been better than anything." + +Roger made no reply. + +"It cannot be because God could not," I pursued, "because Aunt +Dorothy says He can do everything. And it cannot be because He would +not, because Aunt Gretel says He hates to see any one do wrong or be +unhappy. But there must be some reason; and if we only knew it, I +think everything else would become quite plain." + +"I do not see the reason, Olive," said Roger, after a long pause. "I +cannot see it in the least. I remember hearing two or three people +discuss it once with Father and Aunt Dorothy; and I think they all +thought they explained it. But no one thought any one else did. And +they used exceedingly long and learned words, longer and more learned +the further they went on. But they could not agree at all, and at +last they became angry, so that I never heard the end. But in two or +three years, you know, I am going to Oxford, and then I will try and +find out the reason. And when I have found it out, Olive, I will be +sure to tell you." + +"But that is not at all the most perplexing thing to me, Olive," he +began, after a little silence; "because, after all, if we or the +angels were to be persons and not things, I don't see how it could be +helped that we might do wrong if we liked. The great puzzle to me +is, why we do anything, or if we can help doing anything we do; that +is, if we are really persons at all, and not a kind of puppets." + +"Of course we are not puppets, Roger," said I. "Of course we can +help doing things if we like. I do not think that is any puzzle at +all. I could have helped biting Placidia's finger if I had +liked--that is, if I had tried. And that is what makes it wrong." + +"But you did not like it," said Roger, "and so you did not help it. +And what was to make you like to help it, if you did not?" + +"If I had been good, I should not have liked to hurt Placidia, +however provoking she was," I said. + +"And what is to be good?" said he. + +"To like to do right," I said. "I think that is to be good." + +"But what is to make you like to do right?" + +"Being good, to be sure," said I, feeling myself helplessly drawn +into the whirlpool. + +"That is going round and round, and coming to nothing," said Roger. +"But leaving alone about right and wrong, what is to make you do +anything?" + +"Because I choose," said I, "or some one else chooses." + +"But what makes you choose?" said he. "What made you choose, for +instance, to come here this afternoon?" + +"Because you wished it, and because it was a fine afternoon; and we +always do when it is," said I. + +"Then you chose it because of something in you which makes you like +to please me, and because the sun was shining. Neither of which you +could help; therefore you did not really choose at all." + +"I _did_ choose, Roger," said I. "I might have felt cross, and +chosen to disappoint you, if I had liked." + +"But you are not cross; you are good-tempered, on the whole, so you +could not help liking to please me." + +"But I am cross sometimes with Placidia," I said. + +"That is because, as Aunt Gretel says, your temper is like what our +mother's was, quick but sweet," said he; "and that is a deeper puzzle +still, because it goes further back than you and your character, to +our mother's character, that is to say; and if to hers, no one can +say how much further, probably as far as Eve." + +"But sometimes," said I, "for instance, when you talk like this, my +temper is tempted to be cross even with you, Roger. But I choose to +keep my temper, and it must be I myself that choose, and not my +temper or my mother's." + +"That is because of the two motives, the one which inclines you to +keep your temper is stronger than the one which inclines you to lose +it," said he. "But there is always something before your choice to +make you choose, so that really you must choose what you do, and +therefore you do not really choose at all." + +"But I do choose, Roger," said I. "I choose this instant to jump +down from this tree--so--and go home." + +"That proves nothing," said he, following me down from the tree with +provoking coolness; "you chose to jump down, because there is a +wilful feeling in you which made you choose it, and that is part of +your character, and probably can be traced back to Eve, and proves +exactly what I say." + +"I am not free to do right or wrong, or anything, Roger!" I said. +"Then I might as well be a cat, or a tree, or a stone." + +"I suppose you might, if you were," said Roger drily. + +"Is there no way out of the puzzle, Roger?" I said. + +"I do not see any," he said; "at least not by thinking. But there +seems to me no end to the puzzles, if one begins to think." + +He did not seem to mind it at all, but rather to enjoy it, as if it +were a mere tossing of mental balls and catching them. + +But I, on the other hand, was in great bewilderment and heaviness, +for I felt like being a ball myself, tossed helplessly round and +round, without seeing any beginning or end to it, and it made me very +unhappy. + +We came back to the house at supper-time with a vague sense of some +judgment hanging over our heads. Aunt Dorothy met us in the porch +with a switch in her hand. + +"Naughty children," said she, "Placidia says she heard you using +profane language in the apple-tree, taking God's holy name in vain." + +"I was not speaking so much of God, Aunt Dorothy," said I in +confusion, "as of the devil." + +"Worse again," said Aunt Dorothy, "that is swearing downright. It is +as bad as the cavaliers at the Court. Hold out your hand, Roger; +and, Olive, go to bed without supper." + +Roger scorned any self-defence. He held out his hand, and received +three sharp switches without flinching. Only at the end he said,-- + +"Now I shall tell my father how Placidia stole the apples and get +justice done to Olive." + +"You will tell your father nothing, sir," said Aunt Dorothy. "I have +sent Placidia to bed three hours ago for tale-bearing, and given her +the chapter in the Proverbs to learn. And you will sit down and +learn the same, and both of you say it to me to-morrow morning before +breakfast." + +This was what Aunt Dorothy considered even-handed justice. Time, she +said, was too precious to spend in searching out the rights of +children's quarrels, and human nature being depraved as it is, all +accusations had probably some ground of truth, and all accusers some +wrong motive. And in all quarrels there is always, said she, fault +on both sides. She therefore punished accused and accuser alike, +without further investigation. I have observed something of the same +plan pursued since by some persons who aspire to the character of +impartial historians. But it never struck me as quite fair in the +historians or in Aunt Dorothy. However, I must say, in Aunt +Dorothy's case, this mode of administering justice had a tendency to +check accusations. It must have been an unusually strong desire of +vengeance, or sense of wrong, which induced us to draw up an +indictment which was sure to be visited with equal severity on +plaintiff and defendant. And although our sense of justice was not +satisfied, and Roger and I in consequence formed ourselves into a +permanent Committee of Grievances, the peace of the household was +perhaps on the whole promoted by the system. The embittering effects +were, moreover, softened in our case by the presence of other +counteracting elements. + +I had not been long in bed according to the decrees of Justice in the +person of Aunt Dorothy, when Mercy, in the person of Aunt Gretel, +came to bind up my wounds. + +"Olive, my little one," said she, sitting down on the side of my bed, +"what hast thou been saying? Thou wouldst not surely say anything +ungrateful against the dear Lord and Saviour?" + +Whereupon I buried my face in the bed-clothes, and sobbed so that the +bed shook under me. + +She took my hand, and bending over me, said tenderly,-- + +"Poor little one! Thou must not break thy heart. The good Lord will +forgive, Olive, will forgive all. Tell me what it is, darling, and +don't be afraid." + +Still I sobbed on, when she said,-- + +"If thou canst not tell me, tell the dear Saviour. He is gentler +than poor Aunt Gretel, and knows thee better. Only do not be afraid +of Him, nothing grieves Him like that, sweet heart; anything but +that." + +Then I grew a little calmer, and moaned out,-- + +"Indeed, Aunt Gretel, I did not mean anything wicked. But it is so +hard to understand. There are so many things I cannot make out. And +oh, if I should be on the wrong side of the tree after all! If I +should be on the wrong side of the tree!" + +And at the thought my sobs burst forth afresh. + +Aunt Gretel was sorely perplexed. She said-- + +"What tree, little one? Where is thy poor brain wandering?" + +"The tree with God at the beginning," said I, "and with heaven at one +end and hell at the other, and no way to cross over if once you get +wrong, and God never seeming to mind." + +"A very wicked tree," said Aunt Gretel. "I never heard of it. The +only tree in the Bible is the Tree of Life. And of that the Blessed +Lord will give freely to every one who comes--the fruit for life and +the leaves for healing. Never mind the other, sweet heart." + +"If there were only a way across!" said I, "and if I could be sure +God did care!" + +"There is a way across, my lamb," said she. "Only it is not a way. +It is but a step. It is a look. It is a touch. For the way across +is the blessed Saviour Himself. And He is always nearer than I am +now, if you could only see." + +"And God does care," said I, "whether we are lost or saved?" + +"Care! little Olive," said she. "Hast thou forgotten the manner and +the cross? That comes of trying to see back to the beginning. _He_ +was in the beginning, sweet heart, but not thou or I! He is the +beginning every day and for ever to us. Look to Him. His face is +shining on you now, watching you tenderly as if it were your +mother's, my poor motherless lamb. Whatever else is dark, that is +plain. And you never meant to grieve or question Him! You did not +mean to say the darkness was in Him, Olive! You never meant that. +Put the darkness anywhere but there, sweet heart--anywhere but there. +There is darkness enough, in good sooth. But in Him is no darkness +at all." And then she murmured, half to herself, "It is very +strange, Dr. Luther made it all so plain, more than a hundred years +ago. And it seems as if it all had to be done over again." + +"Didst thou say thy prayers, my lamb?" she added. + +I had. But it was sweet to kneel down with Aunt Gretel again, with +her arms and her warm dress folded around me, and say the words after +her, the Our Father, and the prayer for father and Roger and all. + +But when I came to ask a blessing on Cousin Placidia, my lips seemed +unable to frame the words. + +"Thou didst not pray for thy cousin, Olive," said Aunt Gretel. + +"She is so very difficult to love, Aunt Gretel," said I; "she often +makes me do wrong. And I bit her finger this morning." + +Aunt Gretel shook her head. + +"Poor little one," said she, "ah, yes! It is always hardest to +forgive those we have hurt." + +"But she pinched my arm where no one could see," said I. + +"It will not help thee to think of that, poor lamb," said Aunt +Gretel, "what thou hast to do is to forgive. Think of what will help +thee to do that." + +"I can't think of anything that helps me," said I. + +"Dost thou wish anything bad to happen to thy cousin?" said Aunt +Gretel, after a pause. "If thou couldst bring trouble on her by +praying for it, wouldst thou do it?" + +"No, not from God," said I. "Of course I could not ask anything bad +from God." + +"Then wouldst thou ask thy father to send her away, poor neglected +orphan child that she was?" + +"No, no, Aunt Gretel," I said, "not that. But I should like to see +her punished by Aunt Dorothy." + +"How much?" said Aunt Gretel. + +"I am not sure. Only as much as she quite deserves." + +"That would be a good deal for us all," said she; "perhaps even for +thee a little more than going to bed one night without supper." + +"Then until she was good," said I. + +"Thou wishest thy cousin to be good, then?" said Aunt Gretel. "Then +thou canst at least pray for that." + +"It would make the house like the Garden of Eden, I think," I said, +"before the tempter came, if Placidia were only not so provoking." + +"Would it?" said she, gravely. "Art thou then always so good? Then, +perhaps, thou canst ask that thy cousin's trespasses may be forgiven, +even if _thou_ canst not forgive her, and hast _none of thine own_ to +be forgiven!" + +"O, Aunt Gretel." said I, suddenly perceiving her meaning, "I see it +all now! It is the bit of ice in my own heart that made everything +dark and cold to me. It is the bit of ice in my own heart!" + +She smiled and folded me to her heart. + +And then she prayed once more for Placidia the orphan, and for me, +and Roger, "that God in His great pity would bless us and forgive us, +and make us good and loving, and like Himself and His dear Son who +suffered for us and bore our sins." + +And after that I did not so much care even whether Roger brought the +answer he promised from Oxford or not. + +And it flashed on me for an instant, as if the answer to Roger's +other puzzle might come somehow from the same point; as if it +answered everything to the heart to think that light and not +darkness, love and not necessity, are at the innermost heart of all. +For love is at once perfect freedom and inevitable necessity. + +But before I fell asleep, while Aunt Gretel was still sitting on the +bedside with her knitting, I heard her say to herself-- + +"Not so very strange--not so strange after all, although Dr. Luther +did make it all clear as sunshine more than a hundred years ago. It +is that bit of ice in the heart, that bit of ice that is always +freezing afresh in the heart." + +But Aunt Dorothy, on a night's consideration, thought the affair of +the apple-tree too important to be passed over, as most of our +childish quarrels were, without troubling my father about them. + +Accordingly the next morning we were summoned into my father's +private room, where he received his rents as a landlord, and +sentenced offenders as a magistrate, and kept his law-books, and many +other great hereditary folios on divinity, philosophy, and things in +general. A very solemn proceeding for me that morning, my conscience +oppressed with a sense of having done some wrong intentionally, and I +knew not how much more without intending it. + +Gradually, Roger and I standing on the other side of the table, with +the law-books and the mathematical instruments my father was so fond +of between us, he drew from us what had been the subject of our +conversation. + +Then, to my surprise, as we stood awaiting our sentence, he called me +gently to him, and, seating me on his knee, pointed out a paper +spread on a huge folio volume, which lay open before him. It was a +diagram of the sun and the planets, with the four moons of Jupiter, +the earth and the moon, complicated by circles and lines mysteriously +intersecting each other. + +"Olive," said he, "be so good as to explain that to me. It is made +by a gentleman who learned about it from the great astronomer +Galileo, and is meant to explain how the earth and the sun are kept +in their places." I looked at the complication of figures and lines +and magical-looking signs, and then in his face to see what he could +mean. + +"You do not understand it?" he said, as if he were surprised. + +"Father," said I, "a little child like me!" + +"And yet this is only a drawing of a little corner of the world, +Olive--the sun and the earth and a few of the planets in the nook of +the world in which we live. The whole universe is a good deal harder +to understand than this." + +"Father," said I, ashamed and blushing, "indeed I never thought I +could understand these things--at least not yet; I only thought you +might, or some wise people somewhere." + +"Olive," said he, in a low voice, tenderly and reverently, stroking +my head while he spoke, "before the great mysteries you and Roger +have fallen on, I can only wonder, and wait, and say like you, +'_Father, a little child like me!_' And I do not think the great +Galileo himself could do much more." + +But to Roger he said, rising and laying his hand on his shoulder-- + +"Exercise your wits as much as you can, my boy; but there are two +kinds of roads I advise you for the most part to eschew. One kind +are the roads that lead to the edge of the great darkness which +skirts our little patch of light on every side. The other are the +roads that go in a circle, leading you round and round with much toil +to the point from which you started. I do not say, never travel on +these--you cannot always help it. But for the most part exercise +yourself on the roads which lead somewhere. The exercise is as good, +and the result better." And he was about to send us away. + +But Aunt Dorothy was not at all satisfied. "That Signor Galileo was +a very dangerous person," she said. "He said the sun went round, and +the earth stood still, which was contrary at once to common sense, +the five senses, and Scripture; and if chits like Roger and me were +allowed to enter on such false philosophy at our age, where should we +have wandered at hers?" + +"Not much further, Sister Dorothy," said my Father, "if they reached +the age of Methuselah. Not much further into the question, and not +much nearer the answer." + +"I see no difficulty in the question at all," said Aunt Dorothy. +"The Almighty does everything because it is His will to do it. And +we can do nothing except He wills us to do it. Which answers Olive +and Roger at once. All doubts are sins, and ought to be crushed at +the beginning." + +"How would you do this, Sister Dorothy?" asked my Father; "a good +many persons have tried it before and failed." + +"How! The simplest thing in the world," said Aunt Dorothy. "In the +first place, set people to work, so that they have no time for such +foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions." + +"A wholesome plan, which seems to be very generally pursued with +regard to the whole human race," said Father. "It is mercifully +provided that those who have leisure for such questions are few. But +what else would you do?" + +"For the children there is the switch," said Aunt Dorothy. "They +would be thankful enough for it when they grew wiser." + +"So think the Pope and Archbishop Laud," replied my Father; "and so +they set up the Inquisition and the Star Chamber." + +"I have no fault to find with the Inquisition and the Star Chamber," +said Aunt Dorothy, "if they would only punish the right people." + +"But sometimes we learn we have been mistaken ourselves," said +Father. "How can we be sure we are absolutely right about +everything?" + +"_I am_," said Aunt Dorothy, emphatically. "Thank Heaven I have not +a doubt about anything. Heresy is worse than treason, for it is +treason against God; and worse than murder, for it is the murder of +immortal souls. The fault of the Pope and Archbishop Laud is that +they are heretics themselves, and punish the wrong people." + +This was a point often reached in discussions between my Father and +Aunt Dorothy, but this time it was happily closed by the clatter of a +horse's hoofs on the pavement of the court before the house. + +My father's face brightened, and he rose hastily, exclaiming, "A +welcome guest, Sister Dorothy--the Lord of the Fens--sot the table in +the wainscoted parlour." + +He left the room, and we children watched a tall, stalwart gentleman, +well known to us, with a healthy, sunburnt face, alight from his +horse. + +"The Lord of the Fens, indeed!" said Aunt Dorothy in a disappointed +tone, as she looked out of the window. "Why, it is only Mr. Oliver +Cromwell of Ely, with his coat as slovenly as usual, and his hat +without a hat-band. I am as much against gewgaws as any one. If I +had my way, not a slashed doublet, or ribboned hose, or feather, or +lace, should be seen in the kingdom. But there is reason in all +things. Gentlemen should look like gentlemen, and a hat without a +hat-band is going too far, in all conscience. The wainscoted +parlour, in good sooth! Why, his boots are covered with mud, and I +dare warrant it, he will never think of rubbing them on the straw in +the hall. And they will get talking, no one knows how long, about +that everlasting draining of the Fens. I can't think why they won't +let the Fens alone. They did very well for our fathers as they were, +and they were better men than we see now-a-days; and if the Almighty +made the Fens wet, I suppose he meant them to be wet; and people had +better take care how they run against His designs. And they say the +king is against it, or against somebody concerned in it, so that +there is no knowing what it may lead to. All Scotland in a tumult, +and the godly languishing in prison, and our parson putting on some +new furbelow and setting up some new fandango every Sabbath; and a +godly gentleman like Mr. Oliver Cromwell (for he is that, I don't +deny) to have nothing better to do than to try and squeeze a few +acres more of dry land out of the Fens!" + +But Roger whispered to me,-- + +"Mr. Hampden says Mr. Cromwell would be the greatest man in England +if things should come to the worst, and there should be any +disturbance with the king." + +At that moment my father called Roger, and to his delight he was +allowed to accompany him and our guest over the farm. + +And the next entry in my Journal is this,-- + + +"Mr. Oliver Cromwell of Ely was at our house yesterday. Roger walked +over the farm with him and my father. Their discourse was concerning +twenty shillings which the king wants to oblige Mr. Hampden of Great +Hampden to lend him, which Mr. Hampden will not, not because he +cannot afford it, but because the king would then be able to make +every one lend him money whether they like it or not, or whether they +are able or not. They call it the ship-money. Concerning this and +also concerning some good men, ministers or lecturers, whom Mr. +Cromwell wishes to set to preach the Gospel to the people in places +where no one else preaches, so that they can understand, but whom +Archbishop Laud has silenced with fines and many threats, Aunt +Dorothy thinks it a pity godly men like Mr. Hampden and Mr. Cromwell +should concern themselves about such poor worldly things as shillings +and pence. Regarding the lecturers, she says that they have more +reason. Only, she says, it is a wonder to her they will begin with +such small insignificant things. Let them set to work, root and +branch (says she), against Popery under false names and in high +places, and these lesser matters will take care of themselves. But +father says, 'poor worldly things' are just the things by which we +are tried and proved whether we will be faithful to the high +unworldly calling or not. And 'small insignificant things' are the +beginnings of everything that lives and endures, from a British oak +to the kingdom of heaven." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +_May Day_, 1638. + +"This morning, before break of day, I went to bathe my face in the +May dew by the Lady Well. There I met Lettice Davenant with her +maidens. She was dressed in a kirtle of grass-green silk, with a +blue taffetas petticoat, and her eyes were like wet violets, and her +brown hair like wavy tangles of soft glossy unspun silk, specked and +woven with gold, and she looked like a sweet May flower, just lifting +itself out of its green sheath into the sunshine, and all the colours +changing and blending into each other, as they do in the flowers. +And she laid her soft, little hand in mine, and said her mother loved +mine, and she wished I would love her, and be her friend. And she +kissed me with her dear, sweet, little mouth, like a rosebud--like a +child's. And I held her close in my arms, with her silky hair +falling on my shoulder. She is just so much shorter than I am. And +her heart beat on mine. And I will love her all my life. No wonder +Roger thinks her fair. + +"I will love her all my life, whatever Aunt Dorothy says. + +"Firstly, because I cannot help it. And secondly, because I am sure +it is right--right--right to love; always right to love--to love as +much, as dearly, as long, as deep as we can. Always right to love, +never right to despise, or keep aloof, or turn aside. Sometimes +right to hate, at least I think so; sometimes right to be angry, I am +sure of that; but never right to despise, and always--always right to +love. + +"For Roger and I have looked well all through the Gospels to see. +And the Pharisee despised, the Priest and the Levite passed by, and +the disciples said once or twice, send her away. But the Lord drew +near, called them to Him, touched, took in His arms, loved, always +loved. Loved when they were wandering--loved when they would not +come; loved even when they 'went away.' + +"And Aunt Gretel thinks the same. Only I sometimes wish we had lived +in the times she speaks of, told of in certain Family Chronicles of +hers, a century old. For then it was the people with the wrong +religion who despised others, and were harsh and severe. And they +went into convents, which must have been a great relief to the rest +of the family. And now it seems to be the people with the right +religion who do like the Pharisees. And they stay at home, which is +more difficult to understand, and more unpleasant to bear." + + +A very vehement utterance, crossed through with repentant lines in +after times, but still quite legible, and of interest to me for the +vanished outer world of life, and the tumultuous inward world of +revolt it recalls. + +For that May morning, on my way home through the wood, I met the +village lads and lasses bringing home the May; and when I reached the +house, it was late; the serving men and maidens had finished their +meal at the long table in the hall, and Aunt Dorothy sat at one end +on the table, which crossed it at the top, and span; and Cousin +Placidia sat silent at the other end and span, the whirr of their +spinning-wheels distinctly reproaching me in a steady hum of +displeasure, until I was constrained to reply to it and to Aunt +Dorothy's silence. + +"Aunt Dorothy, prithee, forgive me. I only went to bathe my face in +the May dew by the Lady Well. And there I met Lettice Davenant." + +"I never reproached thee, child," said Aunt Dorothy. "There is too +much license in this house for that. But this, I will say, the +excuse is worse than the fault. How often have I told thee not to +stain thy lips with the idolatrous title of that well? And as to +bathing thy face in the May dew, Olive, it is Popery--sheer Popery." + +"Not Popery, sister Dorothy," said my Father, looking up from his +sheet of news just brought from London. "Not Popery; Paganism. The +custom dates back to the ancient Romans, probably to the festival of +the goddess Maia, mother of Mercury, but here antiquarians are +divided." + +"And well they may be," said Aunt Dorothy, "what but sects and +divisions can be expected from such tampering with vanities and +idolatries? For my part, it matters little to me whether the custom +dates to the modern or the ancient Romans, or to the Hittites, the +Perizzites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites. Whoever painted the +idol, I have little doubt who made it. And of the two I like the +unchristened idols best." + +"Not quite, sister Dorothy, not always," remonstrated my Father, "it +is certainly a great mistake to worship the Virgin Mary. But the +Moloch to whom they burned little children was worse, much worse." + +"If he was, the less we hear about him the better, Brother," said +Aunt Dorothy. "But as to the burning I see little difference. You +can see the black sites of Queen Mary's fires still. And Lettice +Davenant has been up at the court of the new Queen Marie (as they +call her);--an unlucky name for England. And little good she or hers +are like to do to our Olive." + +On which I turned wholly into a boiling caldron of indignation; and +to what it might have led I know not, had not Aunt Gretel at that +moment intervened, ruddy from the kitchen fire, and with the glow of +a pleasant purpose in her kindly blue eyes. + +"They are like to have the blithest May to-day they have seen for +many a year," said she. "Our Margery, the daughter of Tib the +dairywoman, is to be queen. And a better maiden or a sweeter face +there is not in all the country side. And Dickon, the gardener's son +at the Hall, is her sweetheart, and the Lady Lucy Davenant has let +them deck the bower with posies from her own garden, and they are +coming from the Hall, the Lady Lucy and Sir Walter, and Mistress +Lettice and her five brothers, to see the jollity." + +"Tell Tib's goodman to broach a barrel of the best ale, sister +Gretel," said my Father, "and we will go and see." + +This was said in the tone Aunt Dorothy never answered, and she made +no remonstrance except through the whirr of her spinning-wheel, which +always seemed to Roger and me to be a kind of "_famulus_," or a +second-self to Aunt Dorothy (of course of a white not a black kind), +saying the thing she meant but would not say, and in a thousand ways +spinning out and completing, not her thread only, but her life and +thought. + +My Father soon rose and went to the farm. Aunt Dorothy span silent +at one end of the table, and Cousin Placidia at the other; while I +sat too indignant to eat anything, and Aunt Gretel moved about in a +helpless, conciliatory state between. + +"The Bible does speak of being merry, sister Dorothy," said she at +length, metaphorically putting her foot into Aunt Dorothy's spiritual +spinning, as she was wont to do. + +"No doubt it does," said Aunt Dorothy. "'Is any merry among you, let +him sing psalms.'" + +"I am sure I wish they would," said Aunt Gretel, "there is nothing I +enjoy so much. And," pursued she, waxing bold, "after all, sister +Dorothy, the whole world does seem to sing and dance in the green +May, the little birds hop and sing, (sing love-songs too, sister +Dorothy), and the leaves dance and rustle, and the flowers don all +the colours of the rainbow." + +"As to the flowers," said Aunt Dorothy, "they did not choose their +own raiment, so no blame to them, poor perishing things. I hold they +were clothed in their scarlet and purple, like fools in motley, for +the very purpose of shaming us into being sober and grave in our +attire. The birds, indeed, may hop and sing if they like it. Not +that I think they have much cause, poor inconsiderate creatures, what +with the birds'-nesting, and the poaching, and Mr. Cromwell draining +the fens. But they have no foresight, and they have not immortal +souls, and if they're to be in a pie to-morrow they don't know it; +and they are no worse for it the day after." + +"But," said Aunt Gretel, "we have immortal souls, and I think that +ought to make us sing a thousand-fold better than the birds." + +"We have not only souls, we have sins," said Aunt Dorothy; "and there +is enough in sin, I hold, to stop the sweetest music in the world +when the burden is felt." + +"But we have the Gospel and the Saviour," said Aunt Gretel, "glad +tidings of great joy to all people." + +"Tell them, then, to the people," said Aunt Dorothy; "get a godly +minister to go and preach them to the poor sinners in the village, +and that will be better than setting up May-poles and broaching beer +barrels." + +"I do tell them whenever I can, sister Dorothy," said Aunt Gretel +meekly, "as well as I can. But the best of us cannot always be +listening to sermons." + +"We might listen much longer than we do if we tried," said Aunt +Dorothy, branching off from the subject. "In Scotland, I am told, +the Sabbath services last twelve hours." + +Aunt Gretel sighed; whether in compassion for the Scottish +congregations, or in lamentation over her own shortcomings, she did +not explain. + +"But," she resumed, "it does seem that if the good God meant that +there should have been no merry-making in the world he would have +arranged that people should have come into the world full-grown." + +"Probably it would have been better if it could have been so +managed," said Aunt Dorothy; "but I suppose it could not. However +that may be, the best we can do now is to make people grow up as soon +as they can, and not keep them babies with May games, and junketings, +and possetings." + +"But," said Aunt Gretel timidly, "after all, sister Dorothy, the +Bible does not give us any strict rules by which we can judge other +people in such things." + +"I confess," replied Aunt Dorothy, "that if there could be a thing to +be wished for in the Bible (with reverence I say it), it is just that +there were a few plain rules. St. Paul came very near it when he was +speaking of the weak brethren at the idol-feasts; but I confess I do +think it would have been a help if he had gone a little further while +he was about it. Then, people would not have been able to pretend +they did not know what he meant. I do think it would have been a +comfort if there could have been a book of Leviticus in the New +Testament." + +"But your Mr. John Milton," said Aunt Gretel, "in his new masque of +Comus, which your brother thinks beautiful, introduces music and +dancing." + +"Mr. Milton is a godly man," said Aunt Dorothy "but, poor gentleman, +he is a poet; and poets can not always be expected to keep straight, +like reasonable people." + +"But Dr. Martin Luther himself dearly loved music," said Aunt Gretel, +driven to her final court of appeal, "and even sanctioned dancing, in +a Christian-like way, without rioting and drunkenness." + +"Dr. Luther might," rejoined Aunt Dorothy. "Dr. Luther believed in +consubstantiation, and rejected the Epistle of St. James. And, +besides, by this time he has been in heaven, it is to be hoped, for +nearly a hundred years, and there can be no doubt he knows better." + +Aunt Gretel was roused. + +"Sister Dorothy," she said, "Dr. Luther does not need to be defended +by me. But I sometimes think if he came to England in these days he +would think some of you had gone some way towards painting again that +terrible picture of God, which made the little ones fly from Him +instead of taking refuge with Him, and which it took him so much toil +to destroy." + +And she fled to the kitchen, rosier than she came, but with tears +instead of smiles in her eyes. + +"If people could enjoy themselves harmlessly, without rioting and +drunkenness," said Aunt Dorothy, half yielding, "there might be less +to be said against it. + +"What is rioting, Aunt Dorothy?" asked Placidia from her +spinning-wheel. + +"Idling and romping, and doing what had better not be done nor talked +about." + +"Because, Aunt Dorothy," said Placidia solemnly, "I saw Dickon trying +to kiss our Tib's daughter, Margery, behind the door; and she would +not let him. But she laughed and did not seem angry. Is that +rioting?" + +"Dickon may kiss Margery as often as he likes without hurting you or +any one, Placidia," said Aunt Dorothy, incautiously. "Margery is a +good honest girl, and can take care of herself. And you have no +right to watch what any one does behind doors. You, at least, shall +not go to the May-pole to-day, but shall stay with me and learn the +thirteenth of First Corinthians." + +"I do not wish to go to any rioting or May games," said Placidia. "I +like my spinning and my book. I never did care for dancing and +playing and fooling, Aunt Dorothy, I am thankful to say." + +"Don't be a Pharisee, Placidia," said Aunt Dorothy, turning hotly on +her unwelcome ally. "Better play and dance like a flipperty-gibbet, +than watch what other people do behind doors, and tell tales." + +And I left them to settle the controversy, while I went to join Aunt +Gretel, who was in my Father's chamber preparing for me such sober +decorations in honor of the festivities as our Puritan wardrobes +admitted of. It was a great day for me; chiefly for the expectation +of meeting the Lady Lucy and the sweet maiden Lettice. + +I was starting full of glee when the sight of Aunt Dorothy, spinning +silently in the hall as we passed the door, with Placidia beside her, +threw a little shadow over my contentment. Aunt Dorothy so +completely represented to me the majesty of law, and at the bottom of +our hearts both Roger and I so trusted and honored her, that in spite +even of my Father's sanction, something of misgiving troubled me at +the sight of her grave face. With a sudden impulse I ran back, and, +standing before her, said-- + +"Aunt Dorothy, you are not angry? I shall not dance, only look, and +soon be at home again, and all will go on the same as ever." + +She shook her head, but more sorrowfully than angrily. + +"Eve only looked," said she, "but nothing went on the same evermore." + +At that moment my father came back to seek me, and, catching Aunt +Dorothy's last words, he said kindly but gravely, "Do not let us +trouble the child's conscience with our scruples. It is a serious +danger to force our scruples on others. When experience of their own +peculiar weaknesses and besetments has led them to scruple at things +for themselves, it is another matter. But to add to God's laws is +almost as tremendous a mistake as to subtract from them. Our +additions, moreover, are sure to end in subtractions in some other +direction. Indifferent things done with a guilty conscience lead to +guilty things done with an indifferent conscience. In inventing +imaginary sins you create real sinners." + +"Well, brother, it is as you please," said Aunt Dorothy, "but I +should have thought our new parson reading from that blasphemous +'Book of Sports' from the pulpit, commanding the people to dance +around the May-poles on the Sabbath afternoons, was enough to turn +any serious person against them." + +"Nay; that is exactly one of the strongest reasons why I go to-day," +said my father. "I go to show that it is not the May-poles we +scruple at, but the cruel robbing of the poor by the desecration of +the day given them by God for higher things." + +And he led me away. But my free, innocent gladsomeness was gone. + +Conscience had come in with her questionings, and her discernings and +her dividings. I was not sure whether God was pleased with me or +with any of us. Even when I looked at the garlanded May-pole, I +thought of the old tree in Eden with its pleasant fruit, which I had +embroidered with a serpent coiled round it, darting out his forked +tongue at Eve. I wondered whether if my eyes were opened I should +see him there, writhing among the hawthorn garlands, or hissing +envenomed words into the ear of our Tib's Margery as she sat in her +royal bower of green boughs crowned with flowers, or gliding in and +out among the dancers, as hand in hand they moved singing around the +May-pole, wreathing and unwreathing the long garland which united +them, and making low reverences, as they passed, to their blushing +Queen. I wondered whether the whole thing had some mysterious +connection with idolatry, and heaven itself were after all watching +us with grieved displeasures like Aunt Dorothy, and secretly +preparing fiery serpents, or a rain of fire and brimstone, or a +thunder storm, or whatever came instead of fiery serpents and fire +and brimstone in these days when there were no more miracles. + +These thoughts, however, all vanished when the family appeared from +the Hall. The Lady Lucy was borne by two men in a sedan-chair which +she had brought from London, a thing I had never seen before. It so +happened that I had never seen the Lady Lucy until that day. The +family had been much about the court, and on the few occasions on +which they had spent any time at the Hall, the Lady Lucy's health had +been too feeble to admit of her attending at the parish church with +the rest of the family. From the moment, therefore, that Sir Walter +handed her out of the chair and seated her on cushions prepared for +her, I could not take my eyes from her, not even to look at Lettice. +So queenly she appeared to me, such a perfection of grace and dignity +and beauty. Her complexion was fair like Lettice's, but very +delicate and pale, like a shell; and her hair, still brown and +abundant, was arranged in countless small ringlets around her face. +On her neck and her forehead there was a brilliant sparkle and a +glitter, which must, of course, have been from jewels; and her dress +had a sheen and a gloss, and a delicate changing of gorgeous colours +on it which must have been that of velvet and brocade and rare laces. +But in my eyes she sat wrapped in a kind of halo of unearthly glory. +I no more thought of resolving it into the texture of any earthly +looms than if she had been a lily or a star. All around her seemed +to belong to her, like the moonbeams to the moon or the leaves to a +flower. Not her dress only, but the green leaves which bent lovingly +down to her, and the flowery turf which seemed to kiss her feet. If +I thought of any comparison, it was Aunt Gretel's fairy-tale of the +princess with the three magic robes, enclosed in the magic +nut-shells, like the sun, like the moon, and like the stars. + +Even Sir Walter, burly, and sturdy, and noisy, and substantial as he +was, seemed to me to acquire a kind of reflected glory by her +speaking to him. And her seven sons girdled her like the planets +around the sun, or like the seven electors Aunt Gretel told us about +around the emperor. But when at last her eyes rested on me, and she +whispered something to Sir Walter, and he came across and doffed his +plumed hat to my father, and then led me across to her, and she +looked long in my face, and then up in my father's, and said, "The +likeness is perfect," and then kissed me, and made me sit down on the +cushion beside her with her hand in mine, I thought her voice like an +angel's, and her touch seemed to me to have something hallowing in it +which made me feel safe like a little bird under its mother's wing. +The silent smile of her soft eyes under her smooth, broad, unfurrowed +brow, as she turned every now and then and looked at me, fell on my +heart like a kiss. And I thought no more of Eve and the serpent, or +Aunt Dorothy, or anything, until she rose to go. And then she kissed +me again. But I scarcely seemed to care that she should kiss me. +Her presence was an embrace; her smile was a kiss; every tone of her +voice was a caress. A tender motherliness seemed to fold me all +round as I sat by her. As she left me she said softly,-- + +"Little Olive, you must come and see me. Your mother and I loved +each other." Then holding out her hand to my father, she added,-- + +"Politics and land-boundaries, Mr. Drayton, must not keep us any +longer apart." + +He bowed, and they conversed some time longer; but the only thing I +heard was that he promised I should go and see her at the Hall. + +I think every one felt something of the soft charm there was in her. +For, quiet and retiring as she was, when she left, a light and +gladness seemed to go with her. Before long the dancing and singing +stopped, the tables were set on the green, and the feasting began, +and we left and went home. + +"Oh, Roger," said I, when we were alone that evening, "there can be +no one like her in the world." + +"Of course not," said Roger decisively. "Did I not always say so?" + +"But you never saw her before." + +"Never saw her, Olive? How can I help seeing her every Sunday? She +sits at the end of the pew just opposite mine." + +"She never came to church, Roger." + +"Never came to church? Who do you mean?" + +"Mean? The Lady Lucy, to be sure." + +"Oh," said Roger, "I thought, of course, you were speaking of +Mistress Lettice." + +But when we came back to Netherby, full as my heart was of my new +love, there was something in Aunt Dorothy's manner that quite froze +any utterance of it, and brought me back to Eve and the apple. Yet +she spoke kindly,-- + +"Thou lookest serious, Olive," said she. "Perhaps thou didst not +find it such a paradise after all. Poor child, the world's a shallow +cup, and the sooner we drain it the better. I think better of thee +than that thou wilt long be content with such May games and vanities. +Come to thy supper." + +But my honesty compelled me to speak. I did not wish Aunt Dorothy to +think better of me than I deserved. + +"It _was_ rather like paradise, Aunt Dorothy," I said. + +"Paradise around a May-pole," said she compassionately. "Poor babe, +poor babe!" + +"It was not the May-pole," said I, my face burning at having to bring +out my hidden treasure of new love; "not the May-pole, but Lady Lucy." + +"Lady Lucy took a fancy to the child, Sister Dorothy," said my +father, "and asked her to the Hall." And lowering his voice he +added, "She thought her like Magdalene." + +I had scarcely ever heard him litter my mother's Christian name +before, and now it seemed to fall from his lips like a blessing. + +Aunt Dorothy's brow darkened. + +"Thou wilt never let the child go, brother?" + +He did not at once reply. + +"Into the very jaws of Babylon, brother? The Lady Lucy is one of the +favourites, they say, of the Popish Queen." + +"Very probably," said my father dryly, "I do not see how the Queen or +any one else could help honouring or favouring the Lady Lucy." + +My heart bounded in acquiescence. + +"They say she has a chapel at the Hall fitted up on the very pattern +of Archbishop Laud, and priests in coats of no one knows how many +colours, and painted glass, and incense. Thou wilt never let the +poor unsuspecting lamb go into the very lair of the Beast?" + +"There are jewels in many a dust-heap, Sister Dorothy, and the Lady +Lucy is one," said my father a little impatiently, for Aunt Dorothy +had the faculty of arousing the latent wilfulness of the meekest of +men. "Let us say no more about it. I have made up my mind." + +Had he known how deep was the spell on me, he might have thought +otherwise. For, ungrateful that I was, having lost my heart to this +fair strange lady, I sat chafing at Aunt Dorothy's injustice, in a +wide-spread inward revolt, which bid fair to extend itself to +everything Aunt Dorothy believed or required. All her life-long care +and affection, and patient (or impatient) toiling and planning for me +and mine, blotted out by what I deemed her blind injustice to this +object of my worship, who had but kissed me twice, and smiled on me, +and said half-a-dozen soft words, and had won all my childish heart! + +And yet, looking back from these sober hours, I still feel it was not +altogether an infatuation. Such true and tender motherliness as +dwelt in Lady Lucy is the greatest power it seems to me that can +invest a woman. + +All mothers certainly do not possess it. On some, on the contrary, +the motherly love which passionately enfolds those within is too like +a bristling fortification of jealousy and exclusiveness to those +without. Or rather (that I dishonour not the most sacred thing in +our nature), I should say, the mother's love which is from above is +lowered and narrowed into a passion by the selfishness which is not +from above. And some unmarried women possess it, some little maidens +even who from infancy draw the little ones to them by a soft +irresistible attraction, and seem to fold them under soft dove-like +plumage. Without something of it women are not women, but only +weaker, and shriller, and smaller men. But where, as in Lady Lucy, +the whole being is steeped in it, it seems to me the sweetest, +strongest, most irresistible power on earth, to control, and bless, +and purify, and raise, and the truest incarnation (I cannot say +anything so cold as image), the truest embodying and ensouling of +what is divine. + +But that night it so chanced that I, who had fallen asleep lapped in +sweet memories of Lady Lucy and in the protection of Aunt Gretel's +presence, awakened by the long roll of a thunder-peal which seemed as +if it never would end. + +For some time I tried to hide myself from the flash and the terrific +sound under the bed-clothes. But it would not do. At length I +sprang speechless from my little bed to Aunt Gretel's. She took me +in close to her. And there, with my head on her shoulder, speech +came back to me, and I said, in a frightened whisper (for it seemed +to me like speaking in church),-- + +"Aunt Gretel, will the last trumpet be like that?" + +"I do not know, Olive," said she quietly. "More awful, I think, yet +plainer, for we shall all understand it, even those in the graves; +and it will call us home." + +"O Aunt Gretel," I said at last, "can it have anything to do with the +May-pole?" + +"What, sweet heart! the thunder?" + +"It is God's voice, is it not? Does not the Bible say so? And it +does sound like an angry voice," I whispered, for the windows were +rattling and the house was quivering with the repeated peals, as if +in the grasp of a terrible giant. + +"There is much indeed to make the good God angry, my lamb, much more +than May-poles." + +"Yes," said I, "there were the three gentlemen in the pillory! That +must have been worse certainly. But do you think God can be angry +with me, Aunt Gretel?" + +"For what, sweet heart?" + +"For loving Lady Lucy," said I; "she is so very sweet." + +"God is never angry with any one for loving," said Aunt Gretel, "only +for not loving. But there is a better voice of God than the thunder, +Olive," added she. "A voice that does not roar but speaks, sweet +heart. Hast thou never heard that?" + +I was silent, for I half guessed what she meant. + +"'_It is I, be not afraid,_'" she said, in a low, clear tone, +contrasting with my awe-stricken whisper. "Whenever thou dost not +understand the voice that thunders, sweet heart, go back to the voice +that speaks, and that will tell thee what the voice that thunders +means." + +"Aunt Gretel," said I, after a little silence, "it seemed to me as if +Lady Lucy were like some words of our Saviour's. As if everything in +her were saying in a soft dove's voice, 'Suffer the little children +to come unto Me.' Was it wrong to think so? It seemed as if I were +sitting beside my Mother, and then I thought of those very words. +Was it wrong?" + +"Not wrong, my poor motherless lamb," said she, "no, surely not +wrong. Remember, Olive, from Paradise downwards the worst heresy has +been slander of the love of God; distrust of His love, and disbelief +of the awful warnings His love gives against sin. Whenever we feel +anything very tender in any human love, we should feel as if the +blessed God were stretching out His arms to us through it, and +saying, 'That is a little like the way I love thee. But only a +little, only a little.'" + +And the thunder rolled on, and the lightning that night cleft the +great elm by the gate, so that in the morning it stood a scorched and +blackened trunk. + +And Aunt Dorothy said what an awful warning it was. But to me, if it +was an "awful warning," it stood also like a parable of mercy. I +could not exactly have explained why; but I thought I could read the +meaning of the Voice that thundered by the Voice that spoke. + +I thought how He had been scathed and bruised for us. + +And I pleaded hard with my father that the old scathed tree might not +be felled. For to me its great bare blackened branches seemed to +shelter the house like that accursed tree which had spread its bare +arms one Good Friday night outside Jerusalem, and had pleaded not for +vengeance, but for pity and for pardon. + + +I think the resentment of injustice is one of the first-born and +strongest passions in an ingenuous heart. And to this, I believe, is +often due the falling off of children from the party of their +parents, They hear hard things said of opponents; on closer +acquaintance they find these to be exaggerations, or, at least, +suppressions; the general gloom of a picture being even more produced +by effacing lights than by deepening shadows. The discovery throws a +doubt over the whole range of inherited beliefs, and it is well if in +the heat of youth the revulsion is not far greater than the wrong; if +in their indignation at discovering that the heretic is not an +embodied heresy, but merely a human creature believing something +wrong, they do not glorify him into a martyr and a model. + +For Roger and me it was the greatest blessing that our father was +just and candid to the extent of seeing (often to his own great +distress and perplexity) even more clearly the defects of his own +party which he might correct, than of the other side, which he could +not; and that Aunt Gretel was apt to see all opinions and characters +melted into a haze of indiscriminate sunshine by the light of her own +loving heart. + +Our indignation, therefore, during the period of our lives which +followed on this May-day was almost entirely directed against Aunt +Dorothy. + +My idol remained for some time precisely at the due idolatrous +distance, enshrined in general behind a screen of sweet mystery, with +occasional flashes of beatific vision; the intervals filled up with +rumours of the music, and breaths of the incense of the inner +sanctuary, enhanced by what I deemed the unjust murmurs of the +profane outside. + +My father fulfilled his promise of taking me to the Hall. On our way +to Lady Lucy's drawing-chamber I caught a glimpse through a half-open +door into her private chapel, which left on my memory a haze and a +fragrance of coloured light falling on the marble pavements through +windows like rubies and sapphires, of golden chalices and +candelabras, of aromatic perfumes, with a rise and fall of sweet +chords of sacred music, all blended together into a kind of sacred +spell, like the church bells on Sunday across the Mere. The Lady +Lucy herself was embroidering a silken church vestment with gold and +crimson; skeins of glossy silk of brilliant colours lay around her, +which thenceforth invested the descriptions of the broidered work of +the tabernacle for me with a new interest. She received my father +with a courtly grace, and me with her own motherly sweetness. She +made me sit on a tabouret at her feet, while she conversed with my +father, and gave me a French ivory puzzle to unravel. But I could do +nothing but drink in the soft modulations of her voice without +heeding what she said, except that the discourse seemed embroidered +with the names of the King and the Queen, and the Princes and +Princesses, which seemed as fit for her lips as her rich dress was +for her person. She seemed to speak with a gentle raillery, +reminding him of old times, and asking why he deserted the court. +But his words and tones were very grave. Then, as he spoke of +leaving, she unlocked a little sandal-wood cabinet, and took out a +locket containing a curl of fair hair, and she said softly, "This was +Magdalene's!" and held it beside mine. And then, as she carefully +laid it aside again, the conversation for a few moments rose to +higher things, and a Name higher than those of kings and queens was +in it. And she said reverently, "In whatever else we differ, that +good part, I trust, may be mine and yours! as we know so well it was +hers." And my father seemed moved, took leave, and said nothing more +until we had passed through the outer gate, when in the avenue +Lettice met us, cantering on a white palfrey, in a riding coat laced +with red, blue and yellow; and springing off, left her horse to go +whither it would, as she ran to welcome me, saying a thousand pretty, +kindly things, while I, in a shy ecstasy, could only stand and hold +her hand, and feel as if I had been transported, entirely unprepared, +straight into the middle of a fairy tale. + +After that for some weeks there was a stream of courtly company at +the Hall, and Roger and I only saw Lettice and occasionally the Lady +Lucy at church, or met them now and then in our rides and rambles by +the Mere or through the woods. But whenever we did meet there was +always the same eager cordial greeting from Lettice, and the same +affectionate manner in her mother. And from time to time we heard, +through Tib's sweetheart Dickon, of the gracious little kindnesses of +both mother and daughter, of their thoughtful care for tenant and +servant, of the honour in which they were held by prince and peasant. +And so on me and on Roger the spell worked on. + +The Draytons were of as old standing in the parish as the Davenants. +Indeed, if tradition and our family tree spoke true, many a broad +acre around Netherby had been in the possession of our ancestors, +maternal or paternal, when the forefathers of the Davenants had been +holding insignificant fiefs under Norman dukes, or cruising on very +doubtful errands about the northern seas. Our pedigree dated back to +Saxon times; the porch of the oldest transept of the church had, to +Aunt Dorothy's mingled pride and horror, an inscription on it +requesting prayers for the soul of one of our progenitors; and the +oldest tomb in the church was ours. But while our family had +remained stationary in place as well as in rank, the Davenants had +climbed far above us. Our old Manor House had received no additions +since the reign of Elizabeth, when the third gable had been built +with the large embayed window, and the three terraces sloping to the +fish-pond and the orchards, while on the other side of the court +extended, as of old, the cattle-sheds and stables. Meantime, the old +Hall of the Davenants had been degraded into farm-buildings, whilst a +new mansion, with sumptuous banqueting halls and dainty ladies' +withdrawing-chamber like a palace, had gradually sprung up around the +remains of the suppressed Priory, which had been granted to the +family; the ancient Priory Church serving as Lady Lucy's private +chapel, the monks' refectory as the family dining-hall, whilst all +signs of farm life had vanished out of sight, and scent, and hearing. + +During the same period, the new transept of our parish church, which +had been the Davenants' family chapel, had become enriched with +stately monuments, where the effigies of knight and dame rested under +decorated canopies. The titles and armorial bearings of many a noble +family were mingled with theirs on monumental brass and stained +window; whilst the plain massive architecture of our hereditary +portion of the church was not more contrasted with the rich and +delicate carving of theirs than were we and our servingmen and +maidens, in our plain, sad-colored stuffs, unplumed, unadorned hats, +caps or coifs, and white linen kerchiefs, with the brocades, satins, +and velvets, ostrich feathers and jewels, ribboned hosen and buckled +shoes of the Hall. + +The contrast had gone deeper than mere externals, as external +contrasts mostly do, in this symbolical world. In the Civil Wars, +when no political principle was involved, it had chanced that the +Draytons and the Davenants had seldom been on the same side. But at +and after the Reformation the difference manifested itself plainly +and steadily. + +The Davenants had recognized Henry VIII.'s supremacy to the extent of +receiving from him a grant of the lands belonging to the neighbouring +abbey. But it had probably cost them little change of belief to +return zealously to the old religion, under the rule of Queen Mary; +whereas the Draytons, adhering with Saxon immobility to the Papal +authority when Henry VIII. discarded it, had slowly come round to the +conviction of the truth of the reformed religion by the time it +became dangerous; and we hold it one of our chief family distinctions +that we have a name closely connected with us enrolled among the +noble army in "Fox's Book of Martyrs." Indeed, throughout their +history, our family had an unprosperous propensity to the dangerous +side. The religious convictions, so painfully adopted and so dearly +proved, had throughout the reign of Elizabeth given our ancestors a +leaning to the Puritan side; deep religious conviction binding them +from generation to generation to the noblest spirits of their times, +whilst a certain almost perverse honesty and inflexibility of temper +naturally drove them to resist any kind of pressure from without, and +a taste for what is solid and simple rather than for what is elegant +and gorgeous, whether in life or in ritual, inclined them to the +simplest forms of ecclesiastical ceremonial. + +It was this strong hereditary Protestantism which had led my Father +to join the religious wars in Germany. He held King Gustavus +Adolphus, the Swede, to be the noblest man and the greatest general +of ancient or modern times. And he held that the fearful conflict by +which that great king turned the tide against the Popish arms was +little less than a conflict between truth and falsehood, barbarism +and civilization, light and darkness. It was enough to make any one +believe in the necessity of hell, he said, to have seen, as he had, +the city of Magdeburg, ten days after Tilly's soldiers had sacked it, +when scarce three thousand corpse-like survivors crept around the +blackened ruins where lay buried the mangled remains of their +fourteen thousand happier dead. To see that, said my Father, would +make any one understand what is meant by the wrath of the Lamb; and +that there are things which can make a gospel of vengeance as +precious to just men as a gospel of mercy. And some foretaste of +that merciful vengeance, he said, had been given already. For after +Magdeburg it was said Tilly never won a battle. My Father fought +with the Swedish army till the death of the king, on the sixth of +November, 1632; and that day of his victory and death at Lützen, was +always kept in our household as a day of family mourning. + +Had Elizabeth been on the throne, my Father used to say, and Cecil at +the helm of state, it would not have been the little northern kingdom +of Sweden which should have stemmed the torrent of Popish and +Imperial tyranny, while England stood by wringing helpless womanish +hands, beholding her brethren in the faith tortured and slaughtered, +her own king's daughter exiled and dethroned, and, at the same time, +her brave soldiers and sailors trifled to inglorious death by +thousands at the bidding of a musked and curled court favourite at +Rhé and Rochelle. + +It was in Germany that my Father met my mother. She was a Saxon from +Luther's own town, Wittemberg. Her name was Reichenbach, and her +family retained affectionate personal memories of the great Reformer, +as well as an enthusiastic devotion to his doctrines. She and Aunt +Gretel (Magdalene and Margarethe) were orphan daughters of an officer +in the Protestant armies. And I often count it among my mercies that +our family history linked us with more forms of our religion than +one, and extended our horizon beyond the sects and parties of +England. Our mother died two years after my father's return to +England, leaving him us two children, and a memory of a love as +devoted, and a piety as simple, as ever lit up a home by keeping it +open to heaven. + +It was during these years she made the acquaintance with Lady Lucy. +They had been very closely attached, although political differences, +and the long absences of the Davenants at Court, had prevented much +intercourse between the families since her death. + +Roger recollected her face and voice and her foreign accent, and one +or two things she said to him. I remember nothing of her but a kind +of brooding warmth and care, tender caressing tones, and being +watched by eyes with a look in them unlike any other, and then a day +of weeping and silence and black dresses and sad faces, and a +wandering about with a sense of something lost. Lost for ever out of +my life. As much as by any possibility could be, Aunt Gretel made up +the tenderness, and Aunt Dorothy the discipline; and my father did +all he could to supply her place by a fatherly care softened into an +uncommon passion by his sorrow, and deepened into the most sacred +principle by his desire to remedy our loss. Yet, in looking back, I +feel more and more we did indeed inevitably lose much. All these +balancing and compensating cares and affections and restraints from +every side yet missed something of the tender constraints and the +heart-quickening warmth they would have had all living, blended, and +consecrated in the one mother's heart. Yet to Roger, perhaps, the +loss was at various points in his life even greater than to me. + +If she had lived, perchance the lessons we had to learn after that +May Day would have been learned with less of blundering and heat. +Yet how can I tell? It seems to me the true painter keeps his +pictures in harmony not by mixing the colours on the palette, but by +blending them on the canvass, not by painting in leaden monotonous +grays, but by interweaving and contrasting countless tints of pure +and varied colour. And in nature, in history, in life, it seems to +me the Creator does the same. + +Yes, God forbid that in lamenting what we lost I should blaspheme the +highest love--the love which, as Aunt Gretel says, takes every image +of human affection, and fills and overfills it, and casts it away as +too shallow; in its unutterable intensity putting as it were a tender +paradox of slander on even a mother's love for her babes, and saying, +"They may forget, yet will not I." + +For that love, we believe, gave and took away, and has led us through +fasting and feasting, dangers and droughts, Marahs and Elims, +chastenings and cherishings, ever since. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +At length the time arrived when my dark ages of mystery and adoration +were to to close. The pestilence so constantly hovering over the +wretched wastes of devastated Germany had been brought to Netherby by +a cousin of my mother's, who had come on a visit to us. He fell sick +the day after his arrival, and died on the third day. That evening +Tib, the dairywoman, sickened, and before the next morning, Margery, +her daughter. A panic seized the household. My father accepted Lady +Lucy's generous offer, to take charge of Roger and me, we happening +to have been from the first secluded from all contact with the sick. +Aunt Dorothy made a faint remonstrance. There were, said she, +contagions worse than any plague. If her brother would answer for +it, to his conscience, it was well. She, at least, would wash her +hands of the whole thing. But my father had no scruples. "He only +hoped," he said, "that Lady Lucy might touch us with the infection of +her gracious kindliness; Olive would be only with her, and as to +Roger and the rest of the household, if he was ever to be a true +Protestant, the time must come when he must learn, if necessary, to +protest." + +So much to Aunt Dorothy. To Roger himself, he said, in a low voice, +as we were riding off, with his hand on the horse's mane,-- + +"Remember, my lad, there is no true manliness without godliness." + +Aunt Gretel watched and waved her hand to us from the infected +chamber window where she sat nursing Margery; and when I opened my +bundle of clothes that evening, I found in the corner a little book +containing my mother's favorite psalms copied in English for us, the +46th (Dr. Luther's own psalm), the 23d, and the 139th. + +Thus armed, Roger and I sallied forth into our enchanted castle. + +To be disenchanted. Not to be repelled, but certainly to be +disenchanted. Not by any subtle spell of counter-magic, or rude +shock of bitter discovery, but by the slow changing of the world of +misty twilight splendours, of dreams and visions, guesses and +rumours, into a world of daylight, of sight and touch. + +My first disenchantment was the Lady Lucy's artificial curls. She +allowed me to remain with her while her gentlewoman disrobed her that +evening. I shall never forget the dismay with which I beheld one +dainty ringlet after another, of the kind called "heart-breakers," +disentangled from among her hair--itself still brown and +abundant--and laid on the dressing-table. The perfumes, essences, +powders, ointments, salves, balsams, crystal phials, and porcelain +cups, among which these "heart-breakers" were laid, (mysterious and +strange as they were to me who knew of no cosmetics but cold water +and fresh air,) seemed to me only so many appropriate decorations of +the shrine of my idol. But the hair was false, and perplexed me +sorely, Puritan child that I was, brought up with no habits of subtle +discernment between a deception and a lie. + +The next morning brought me yet greater perplexity, I slept in a +light closet in a turret off the Lady Lucy's chamber. The Lady +Lucy's own gentle woman came in to dress me, but before she appeared +I was already arrayed, and was kneeling at the window-seat of my +little arched window, reading my mother's psalms. + +I thought she came to call me to prayers, with which we always began +the day at home; my father reading a psalm at daybreak and offering a +short solemn prayer in the Hall, where all the men and maidens were +gathered, after which we sat down at one table to breakfast as the +family had done since the days of Queen Elizabeth. But when I asked +her if she came for this, she smiled, and said it was not a saint's +day, so that it was not likely the whole household would assemble, +though no doubt my Lady and Mistress Lettice would attend service +with the chaplain in the chapel. But she said I might attend Lady +Lucy in her chamber before she rose, I gladly accepted, and Lady Lucy +invited me to partake of a new kind of confection called chocolate, +brought from the Indies by the Spaniards, which finding I could not +relish, she sent for a cup of new milk and a manchet of fine +milk-bread on which I breakfasted. Then she began her dressing; and +then ensued my second stage of disenchantment. Out of the many +crystal and porcelain vases on the table, her gentlewoman took +powders and paints, and to my unutterable amazement actually began to +tint with rose-colour Lady Lucy's checks, and to lay a delicate +ivory-white on her brow. She made no mystery of it; but I suppose +she saw the horror in my eyes, for she laughed and said,-- + +"You are watching me little Olive, with great eyes, as if I were Red +Riding Hood's wolf-grand-mother. What is the matter?" + +I could not answer, but I felt myself flush crimson, and I remember +that the only word that seemed as if it could come to my lips, was +"Jezebel." I quite hated myself for the thought; the Lady Lucy was +so tender and good! Yet all the day, through the service in the +chapel, and my plays with Lettice, and my quiet sitting on my +favorite footstool at Lady Lucy's feet, those terrible words haunted +me like a bad dream: "and she painted her face and tired her head and +looked out at a window." A thousand times I drove them away. I +repeated to myself how she loved my mother, how my father honored +her, how gracious and tender she was to me and to all. Still the +words came back, with the visions of the false curls, and the paint, +and the powder. And I could have cried with vexation that I had ever +seen these. For I felt sure Lady Lucy was inwardly as sweet and true +as I had believed, and that these were only little court customs +quite foreign to her nature, to which she as a great lady had to +submit, but which no more made her heart bad than the washed hands +and platters made the Pharisees good. Yet the serene and perfect +image was broken, and do what I would I could not restore it. + +My third disenchantment was more serious. + +At the ringing of the great tower bell for dinner, summoning the +household and inviting all within hearing to share the hospitality of +the Hall, a cavalcade swept up the avenue, consisting of the family +of a neighbouring country gentleman. Lady Lucy who was seated at her +embroidery frame in the drawing-chamber, was evidently not pleased at +this announcement. "They always stay till dark," she said, "and +question me till I am wearied to death, about what the queen wears, +what the princesses eat, or how the king talks, as if their majesties +were some strange foreign beasts, and I some Moorish showman hired to +exhibit them. Lettice, my sweet, take them into the garden after +dinner, or I shall not recover it." + +Yet when the ladies entered she received them with a manner as +gracious as if they had been anxiously expected friends. I reasoned +with myself that this graciousness was an inalienable quality of +hers, as little voluntary or conscious as the soft tones of her +voice; or that probably she repented of having spoken hastily of her +visitors and compensated for it by being more than ordinarily kind. +But when it proved that they had to leave early, and she lamented +over the shortness of the visit, and yet immediately after their +departure threw herself languidly on a couch, and sighed, "What a +deliverance!" I involuntarily shrank from her to the farthest corner +of the room, and watching the departing strangers, wished myself +departing with them. + +I stood there long, until she came gently to me and laid her hand +kindly on my head. I looked up at her, and longed to look straight +into her heart. + +"Tears on the long lashes!" said she, caressingly. "What is the +matter, little one?" + +My eyelids sank and the tears fell. + +"What ails thee, little silent woman?" said she, stooping to me. + +I threw my arms around her and sobbed, "You are _really_ glad to have +me, Lady Lucy; are you not? You would not like me to go?" + +She seemed at first perplexed. + +"You take things too much to heart, Olive, like your poor mother," +she said at last, very gently. "Those ladies are nothing to me; and +your mother was dear to me, Olive, and so are you." + +But in the evening when I was in bed she came herself into my little +chamber, and sat by my bedside, like Aunt Gretel, and played with my +long hair in her sweet way; and then before she left, said tenderly,-- + +"My poor little Olive, you must not doubt your mother's old friend. +I am not all, or half I would be, but I could not bear to be +distrusted by you. But you have lived too much shut up in a world of +your own. You wear your heart too near the surface. You bring heart +and conscience into things which only need courtesy and tactics. You +waste your gold where beads and copper are as valuable. I must be +courteous to my enemies, little one, and gracious to people who weary +me to death; but to you I give a bit of my heart, and that is quite a +different thing." + +And she left me reassured of her affection, but not a little +perplexed by this double code of morals. That one region of life +should be governed by the rules of right and wrong, and another by +those of politeness, was altogether a strange thing to me. + +Meantime Lettice and I were rapidly advancing from the outer court of +courtesies into the inner one of childish friendship, spiced with +occasional sharp debates, and very undisguised honesties towards each +other; as Lettice and her brothers initiated me and Roger into the +various plays and games in which they were so much superior to us, +and we became eager on both sides for victory. A very new world this +play-world was to us, who had known scarcely any toys but such as we +made for ourselves, and no amusements but such as we had planned for +ourselves. + +Very charming it was to us at first, the billiard-table, the +tennis-court, or pall-mall; and great delight Roger took in learning +to vault and throw the dart on horseback, to wheel and curvet, or +pick up a lady's glove at full speed, and in the various courtly +exercises and feats, Spanish, French, or Arabian, which the young +Davenants had learned from their riding-master. Naturally agile, he +had been trained to thorough command of his horse, by following my +Father through flood and fen, while his eye had learned quickness and +accuracy from hunting the wild fowl, and tracking hares and foxes +through the wild country around us, and these accomplishments came +easily enough to him. Yet with all these ingenious arrangements for +passing the time, it seemed to hang more heavily on hand at the Hall +than at Netherby; it came, indeed, to Roger and me as something +completely new that any arrangements should be needed to make the +time pass quickly. What with spinning, and sewing, and my helping my +Aunts, and his learning Greek, and Latin, and Italian of my Father, +and helping him about the farm, our holiday hours had always seemed +too brief for half the things we had to do in them. Every morning +found an eager welcome from us, and every evening a reluctant +farewell; and it was not until we spent those days at the Hall that +the question, "What are we to do next?" ever occurred to us, not in +hesitation which to select of the countless things we had to do in +our precious spare hours, but as an appeal for some new excitement. + +Moreover, while in outward accomplishments and graces we felt our +inferiority, in many things we could not but feel that our education +had been far more extensive than that of the Davenants. + +Allusions to Greek and Roman history, and to new discoveries in art +and science, and even to stories of modern European wars, which were +as natural to us as household words, were plainly an unknown tongue +to them. Even on the lute and the harpsichord, Lattice's +instructions had fallen short of those my father had procured for me, +although her sweet clear voice, and her graceful way of doing +everything, made all she did seem done better than any one else could +have done it. + +The brothers, for the most part, laughed off their deficiencies, and +often made them seem for the moment a kind of gentlemanlike +distinction, bantering Roger as if learning were but a little better +kind of servile labour, beneath the attention of any but those who +had to earn their bread. All that kind of thing, they said, was +going out of the mode. The late King James had tired the court out +with overmuch pedantry and learning; the present king indeed was a +grave and accomplished gentleman, but merrier days would come in with +the French queen's court and the young princes, when the "gay +science" would be the only one much worth cultivating by men of +condition. Meantime the elder brothers paid me many choice and +graceful compliments on my hands and my hair, my eyes and my +eye-lashes, my learning and my accomplishments, jesting now and then +in a courtly way on my sober attire; and, child that I was, sent me +looking with much interest and wonder at myself in the long glass in +Lady Lucy's drawing-chamber, to see if what they said was true. I +remember, one noon, after a long survey of myself, I concluded that +much of it was, and thanked God that evening for having made me +pleasant to look at. A few years later, the danger would have been +different. + +But Lettice was of a different nature from all her brothers except +one. Generously alive to whatever was to be loved or admired in +others, and ready to depreciate herself, she wanted Roger and me to +teach her all we knew. She made him hunt out the books which would +instruct her in Sir Walter's neglected library. She sat patiently +three sunny mornings trying to learn from Roger the Italian grammar, +which she had pleaded hard he should teach her, she made him read the +poetry to her, and said it was sweeter than her mother's lute. But +on the fourth morning her patience was exhausted;--she declared it +was a wicked prodigality to waste the sunny hours in-doors, and +danced us away to the woods; and all Roger's remonstrances could not +bring her back to such unwonted work. Indeed the more he +remonstrated, the more idle and indifferent she chose to be, +insisting instead on showing him some new French dance or singing him +some snatch of French song she had learned from the Queen's ladies, +until he gave up in despair; when she declared that but for his want +of patience she had been fairly on the way to become a feminine +Solomon. + + +It was Monday when our visit commenced, so that we were no longer +strangers in the house by the following Sunday. But we were not +prepared for the contrast between the Sundays at Davenant Hall with +those at Netherby. At our own home, grave as the day was, there was +always a quiet festival air about it. The hall was fresh swept, and +strewn with clean sand. My Father and my Aunts, the maids and men, +had on their holiday dresses. That morning at prayers we always had +a psalm, and the mere thrill of my voice against my Father's rich +deep tones was a pleasure to me. Then after breakfast Roger and I +had a walk in the fields with him, and he made us hear, and see a +hundred things in the ways of birds and beasts and insects that we +should never have known without him. One day it was the little brown +and white harvest-mouse, which, by cautiously approaching it, we saw +climbing by the help of its tail and claws to its little round nest +woven of grass suspended from a corn-stalk. Another day it was a +squirrel, with its summer house hung to the branch of a tree with its +nursery of little squirrels; and its warm winter house, lined with +hay, in the fork of an old trunk; or a colony of ants roofing their +dwellings in the wood with dry leaves and twigs. Or he would turn it +into a parable and show us how every creature has its enemies, and +must live on the defensive or not live at all. Or he would watch +with us the butterfly struggling from the chrysalis, or the +dragon-fly soaring from its first life in the reedy creeks of the +Mere to the new life of freedom in the sunshine. Or he would point +out to us how the field-spider had anticipated military science; how +she threw up her bulwarks and strengthened every weak point by her +fairy buttresses, and kept up the communication between the citadel +and the remotest outwork. Or he would teach us to distinguish the +various songs of the birds, the throstles, the chaffinches, the +blackbirds, or the nightingales. God, he said, had filled the woods +with throngs of sacred carollers, and melodious troubadours, and +merry minstrels; some with one sweet monotonous cadence, one +bell-like note, one happy little "peep" or chirp, and no more, and +others overflowing with a passion of intricate and endlessly varied +song; and it was a churlish return for such a concert not to give +heed enough to learn one song from another. Or, together, we would +watch the rooks in the great elm grove behind the house, how strict +their laws of property were, the old birds claiming the same nest +every year, and the young ones having to construct new ones. Or he +would tell us of the different forms of government among the various +creatures; how the bees had an hereditary monarchy, yet owned no +aristocracy but that of labour, killing their drones before winter, +that if any would not work neither should he eat; and how the rooks +held parliaments. Everywhere he made us see, wonderfully blended and +balanced, fixed order, with free spontaneous action; freaks of +sportive merriment, free as the wildest play of childhood, with a +fixedness of law more exact than the nicest calculations of the +mathematicians; "service which is perfect freedom;" delicate beauty +with homely utility; lavish abundance with provident care. And +everywhere he made us feel that the spring of all this order, the +source of all this fullness, the smile through all this humour and +play of nature, the soul of all this law, was none other than God. +So that often after these morning walks with him we fell into an awed +silence, feeling the warm daylight solemn as a starry midnight, with +the Great Presence; and entered the church-porch almost with the +feeling that we were rather stepping out of the Temple than into it; +that, sacred as was the place of worship and of the dead, it was not +more sacred or awful than the world of life we left to enter it. + +The other golden hour of our golden day (for Sunday was ever that to +us), was when in the evening he read the Bible with Roger and me in +his own room. I cannot remember much that he used to say about it. +I only remember how he made us reverence and love it; its fragments +of biography which make you know the people better than volumes of +narrative; its characters that are never mere incarnations of +principles, but men and women; its letters that are never mere +sermons concentrated on an individual; its sermons that are never +mere dissertations peculiarly applicable to no one time or place, but +speeches intensely directed to the needs of one audience, and the +circumstances of one place, and therefore containing guiding wisdom +for all; its prayers that are never sermons from a pulpit, but brief +cries of entreaty from the dust or flaming torrents of adoration +piercing beyond the stars, or quiet asking of little children for +daily bread; its confessions that are as great drops of blood, wrung +slowly from the agony of the heart; its hymns that dart upward +singing and soaring in a wild passion of praise and joy. + +I can recall little of what my father said to us in those evening +hours, but I remember that they left on our minds the same kind of +joyous sense of having found something inexhaustible which came from +our morning walks. They made us feel that in coming to the Bible, as +to nature, we come not to a cistern or a stream or a ponded store, +though it might be abundant enough for a nation; but to a Fountain, +which, though it might seem at times but a gentle bubbling up of +waters just enough for the thirsty lips which pressed it, was, +nevertheless, living, inexhaustible, eternal, because it welled up +from the fullness of God. + +The usual name for the Sabbath in our home was the Lord's Day, +because of our Lord's Resurrection. On other days my Father read to +us, and made us read and love other books--books of history and +science as well as of religion, Shakespeare, Spenser, the early poems +of Mr. John Milton, and, when we could understand them, the Italian +poet Dante, or Davila, and other great Italians who spoke nobly of +order and liberty. + +Bui on this day of God he never read but from these two divine books, +Nature and the Holy Scriptures. + +In church we had not always any sermon at all. Preaching had not +been much encouraged since the days of Queen Elizabeth. Occasionally +one of the lecturers, or gospel preachers, whom Mr. Cromwell and +other good men were so anxious to supply at their own cost, used, in +our earlier days, to enter our pulpit and arouse us children with +bursts of earnest warning or entreaty (our parish minister then being +a meek and conformable person). But Archbishop Laud soon put a stop +to this, and sent us a clergyman of his own type, who fretted Aunt +Dorothy by changing the places and colours of things, moving the +communion-table from the middle of the church, where it had stood +since the Reformation, to the East End, wearing white where we were +used to black, and coats of many colours where we were used to white, +and in general moving about the church in what appeared to us Puritan +children, uninstructed in symbolism, a restless and unaccountable +manner; standing when we had been wont to sit, kneeling when we had +been wont to stand, making little unexpected bows in one direction +and little inexplicable turns in another, in a way which provided +matter of lively speculation to Roger and me during the week, since +we never knew what new movement might be executed on the following +Sunday. But to Aunt Dorothy these innovations were profanities, +which would have been utterly intolerable had she not consoled +herself by regarding them as signs of the end of all things. For +what to Mr. Nicholls, the parson, was the "beauty of holiness," and +to our father "personal peculiarities of Mr. Nicholls," and to Aunt +Gretel but one more of our "incomprehensible English customs," were +to Aunt Dorothy the infernal insignia of the "Mother of abominations." + +She therefore remained resolutely and rigidly sitting and standing as +she had been wont, a target for fiery darts from Mr. Nicholls' eyes, +and a sore perplexity to Aunt Gretel, who, never having mastered our +Anglican rubric, had hitherto had no ceremonial rule, but to do what +those around her did, and was thus thrown into inextricable +difficulties between the silent reproaches of Aunt Dorothy's +compressed lips if she did one thing, and the suspicious glances of +the Parson's eyes if she did another. + +On our return Aunt Dorothy frequently made us repeat the sixteenth +and seventeenth chapters of the Revelation. We understood that she +regarded both these chapters as in some way directed against Mr. +Nicholls. In what way--we discussed it often--Roger and I at that +time could never make out. The great wicked city, with ships, and +merchants, and traders, and pipers, and harpers, seemed to us more +like London town, with the Court of the King, than like the parish +church at Netherby. However that may be, I am thankful for having +learned those chapters. Many and many a time, when in after life the +world has tempted me with its splendours, or straitened me with its +cares, and I have been assailed with the Psalmist's old temptation at +seeing the wicked in great prosperity, the grand wail over the doomed +city has pealed like a triumphal march through my soul, and the whole +gaudy pomp and glory of the world has lain beneath me in the power of +that solemn dirge, like the tinsel decorations of a theatre in the +sunbeams, whilst above me has arisen, snow-white and majestic, the +vision of the Bride in her fine linen "clean and white,"--of the City +coming down from heaven "having the glory of God." + +Aunt Gretel, on the other hand, would frequently quiet her ruffled +spirits after her perplexities, by making Roger and me read to her +the fourteenth chapter of the Romans, ending with, "We then that are +strong ought to bear with the infirmities of the weak. Let every one +of us please his neighbour for his good to edification. For even +Christ pleased not Himself."--A rubric which secretly seemed to us to +have two edges, one for Aunt Dorothy and one for Mr. Nicholls, but of +which Aunt Gretel contrived to turn both on herself. + +"You see, my dears," she would say, "that is a rule of which I am +naturally very fond. Because, of course, I am one of the weak. And +it certainly would be a relief to me if those who are strong would +have a little more patience with me. But then it is a comfort to +think that He who is stronger than all does bear with me. For He +knows I do not wish to please myself, and would be thankful indeed if +I could tell how to please my neighbours." Which seemed to us like +the weak bearing the infirmities of the strong. + +After this learning and repeating our chapters from the Bible, while +my Father and my Aunts were going about the cottages and villages +near us on various errands of mercy, Roger and I had a free hour or +two, during which we commonly resorted in summer to our perch on the +apple-tree, and in winter to the chamber over the porch where the +dried herbs were kept, where we held our weekly convocation as to all +matters that came under our cognizance, domestic, personal, +ecclesiastical, or political. Placidia was not excluded, but being +four years older, she preferred "her book" and the society of our +Aunts. Then came the sacred hour with our Father in his own chamber. +Afterwards in winter, we often gathered round the fire in the great +hall, we in the chimney-nook, and the men and maidens in an outer +circle, while my Father told stories of the sufferings of holy men +and women for conscience' sake, or while Dr. Antony (when he was +visiting us) narrated to us his interviews with those who were +languishing for truth or for liberty in various prisons throughout +the realm. + +And so the night came, always, it seemed to us, sooner than on any +other day. Although never until our visit at Davenant Hall did I +understand the unspeakable blessing of that weekly closing of the +doors on Time, and opening all the windows of the soul towards +Eternity; the unspeakable lowering and narrowing of the whole being +which follows on its neglect and loss. To us the Lord's Day was a +day of Paradise; but I believe the barest Sabbath which was ever +fenced round with prohibitions by the most rigid Puritanism, looking +rather to the fence than the enclosure, rather to what is shut out +than to what is cultivated within, is a boon and a blessing compared +with the life without pauses, without any consecrated house for the +soul built out of Time, without silences wherein to listen to the +Voice that is heard best in silence. + +It was a point of honor and a badge of loyalty with many of the +Cavaliers to protest against the Puritan observance of the Sabbath. +The Lady Lucy, indeed, welcomed the sacred day, as she did everything +else that was sacred and heavenly. She sang to her lute a lovely +song in praise of the day from the new "Divine Poems" of Mr. George +Herbert, and told me how he had sung it to his lute on his death-bed +only a few years before, in 1632. + + "On Sunday heaven's gates stand ope," + +she sang; and I am sure they stood ever open to her. + +But the rest of the family, whilst reverencing her devout and +charitable life, seemed to have no more thought of following it than +if she had been a nun in a convent. Indeed, in a sense, she did +dwell apart, cloistered in a hallowed atmosphere of her own. + +Her husband and her sons requested her prayers when they went on any +expedition of danger, as their ancestors must have sought for the +intercessions of priest or canonized saint. The heavier oaths, +except under strong provocation, were dropped (by instinct rather +than by intention) in her presence; and mild adjurations, as by +heathen gods or goddesses, or by a lover's troth, or by a cavalier's +honor, substituted for them. They would listen fondly as she sang +"divine poems" to her lute, and declare she had the sweetest warbling +voice and the prettiest hands in His Majesty's three kingdoms. But +it never seemed to occur to them that her piety was any condemnation, +or any rule to them. Indeed, she had so many minute laws and +ceremonies that, easily as they suited her, it would have been +difficult to fit them into any but a lady's life of leisure. She had +special prayers and hymns for nine o'clock, mid day, three o'clock, +six o'clock. And once awakening in the night I heard sounds like +those of her lute stealing from the window of the little oratory next +her chamber. She had what seemed to me countless distinctions of +days and seasons, marked by the things she ate or did not eat, which +she observed as strictly as Aunt Dorothy her prohibitions as to not +wearing things. Only in one thing Lady Lucy was happier than Aunt +Dorothy; for whilst Aunt Dorothy fondly wished for a book of +Leviticus in the New Testament, and could not find it, Lady Lucy had +her book of Leviticus,--not indeed exactly in the New Testament, but +solemnly sanctioned by the authority of Archbishop Laud. + +A complex framework to adapt to the endless varieties and inexorable +necessities of any man's life, rich or poor, in court, or camp, or +city; or indeed of any woman's, unless provided with waiting +gentlewomen. + +In fact, the Lady Lucy herself sometimes spoke with wistful looks and +sighs of Mr. Farrar's Sacred College at Little Gidding (not far from +us), between Huntingdon and Cambridge, where the voice of prayer +never ceased day nor night, and the psalter was chanted through in a +rotatory manner by successive worshippers once in every +four-and-twenty hours. + +Sir Walter and her sons never attempted to imitate her. She floated +in their imagination, in a land of clouds, between earth and heaven. +Her religion had a dainty sweetness and solemn grace about it most +becoming, they considered, to a noble lady; but for men, except for a +few clergymen, as inapplicable as Archbishop Laud's priestly +vestments for the street or the battle-field. + +In our Puritan homes there was altogether another stamp of religion. +Whatever it might lack in grace and taste, it was a religion for men +as much as for women, a religion for the camp as much as the oratory. +Rough it might be often, and stern. It was never feeble. It had no +two standards of holiness for clergy and laity, men and women. All +men and women, we were taught, were called to love God with the whole +heart; to serve him at all times. If we obeyed we were still (in our +sinfulness) ever doing less than duty. If we disobeyed, we were in +revolt against the King of heaven. There were no neutrals in that +war, no reserves in that obedience. + +And unhappily the Lady Lucy's family, in surrendering any hope of +reaching her eminence of piety, surrendered more. For, it is not +elevating, it is lowering, to have constantly before us an image of +holiness which we admire but do not imitate. + +In the morning the household met in the Family Chapel (the Parish +Church being for the present avoided until danger of the infectious +sickness was over). In the afternoon, Sir Walter and his sons +loyally played at tennis and bowls with the young men of the +household. And in the evening there was a dance in the hall, in +which all joined. + +The merriment was loud, and reached Lettice and me where we sat with +the Lady Lucy and her lute. + +Yet now and then one of the boys would come in and complain of the +tedium of the day. It was such an interruption, they said, to the +employments of the week, and just at the best season in the year for +hunting, and with their father's hounds in perfect condition and +training. Tennis they said, was all very well for boys, and +Morris-dancing for girls, but there was no real sport in such things +after all, except to fill up an idle hour or two. The next day there +was to be a rare bear-baiting at Huntingdon, and the day after a +cock-fight in the next village. And at the beginning of the +following week Sir Walter had promised to give them a bull to be +baited. And the Book of Sports, in their opinion, let the Puritans +say what they like, was too rigid by half in prohibiting such true +old English sports on Sundays. + +The Lady Lucy said a few pitiful tender words on behalf of Sir +Walter's bull, which they listened to without the slightest +disrespect, or the slightest change of mind--kissing her hand and +laughingly vowing she was too tender and sweet for this world at all, +and that if she had had the making of it she would certainly have +left bears and bulls altogether out of the creation. + +It was without doubt a long and dreary Sunday to Roger and me. It +would naturally have been long and melancholy anywhere without our +Father. + +I missed the busy work of the week, which made it not only a sacred +day but a holiday. I missed Aunt Dorothy's laws which made our +liberty precious. + +But to Roger the day had had other trials. + +In the evening he and I had a few minutes alone together in the +window of the drawing-chamber. + +"Oh, Roger," said I, "I am afraid it cannot be right; but I am so +glad Sunday is over." + +"So am I--rather," he said. + +"Has it seemed long to you? I thought I heard your voice in the +tennis-court all the afternoon." + +"You did not hear mine," he said. + +"You did not think it right?" I asked, "I wondered how they could." + +"I am not sure about its being right or wrong for other people," said +Roger. "But I was sure it was wrong for me. My Father would not +have liked it, and, therefore, I could not think of doing it; +especially when he was away." + +"Were they angry?" I asked. + +"Not exactly," he said. "They only laughed." + +"_Only_ laughed!" said I. "I think that is worse to bear than +anything." + +"So do I," he said. + +"But you did not hesitate?" + +"Not after they laughed, certainly," said he. "That set my blood up, +naturally; for it was not so much at me as at my Father and all of +us. They said I was too much of a man for such a crew." + +"They laughed at Father!" said I, in horror. + +"Not by name," said he, "but at all he thinks right--at the Puritans, +or Precisians, as they call us." + +"What did you do, Roger?" I said. + +"Walked away into the wood," he replied. + +"Why did you not come to us?" I asked. + +"Because they told me to go to you," he said, flushing. + +"That was a pity; we were singing sweet hymns." + +"I heard you," he said. "But I do not think it was a pity I did not +come." + +"What did you find in the wood, then?" said I. + +"I do not know that I found anything," he said. + +"What did you do then, Roger?" + +"I went to the Lady Well, and lay down among the long grass by the +stream which flows from it towards the Mere, and separates my +Father's land from Sir Walter's, at the place where you can see +Davenant Hall on one side and Netherby among its woods on the other. +And I thought." + +"What did you think of?" said I. + +"I thought I had rather live as a hired servant at my Father's than +as master here," said he. + +"Was that all?" said I. + +"I thought of our talk in the apple-tree about our being puppets, or +free." + +I was silent. + +"And Olive," he continued, "I seemed like some one waking up, and it +flashed on me that God has no puppets. The devil has puppets. But +God has free, living creatures, freely serving him. And I thought +how glorious it would be to be a free servant and a son of his. And +then I thought of the words, 'Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy +blood;' not from God, Olive, but to God, to be his free servants for +ever." + +"That was a great deal to think, Roger," said I. "I think you did +find something in the wood." + +"I found I _wanted_ something, Olive," he said very gravely; "and I +thought of something Mr. Cromwell once said when people were talking +about sects and parties,--'To be a seeker is to be of the best sect +next to being a finder.' He meant to be seeking happiness, or +wealth, or peace, or anything in the world, Olive, but to be seeking +God." + +We were looking out across the woods to the Mere, which we could also +see from Netherby. The water was crimson in the sunset, and beyond +it the flats stretched on and on, dark and shadowy except where the +rows of willows and alders in the distance, and some cattle on an +enbankment, stood out distinct and black, like an ink etching, +against the golden sky. + +And something in Roger's words made the sky look higher and the world +wider to me than ever before. + + +The next week, Lady Lucy's eldest son, Harry, came from London to the +Hall with an acquaintance of his, Sir Launcelot Trevor. + +I thought Harry Davenant the most polished gentleman I had ever seen. +He was the first person who ever called me Mistress Olive, and +treated me with a gentle deference as if I had been a woman. I +admired his manners exceedingly. His voice, though deep and strong, +had something of the soft cadence of Lady Lucy's. He always saw what +every one wanted before they knew it themselves. He always seemed to +listen to what you said as if he had something to learn from every +one. His whole soul always appeared to be in what he was saying or +what you were saying, and yet there seemed to be another kind of +porter-soul outside, quite independent of this inner soul, always on +the watch to render any little courtesy to all around. I supposed +these courtly attentions had become an instinct to him, so that he +could attend to them and to other things at the same time, as easily +as we can talk while we are eating or walking. + +He was his mother's greatest friend. Sir Walter never was this. He +was always almost lover-like in his deference and attention to her, +stormy and soldier-like as his usual manner was. But into her +thoughts he did not seem to care to enter, any more than into her +oratory. They had some portion of their worlds in common, but the +largest portion, by far, apart. And the younger boys were like him, +more or less. But whatever Lady Lucy might have missed in him was +made up to her in her eldest son. + +He was a cavalier to her heart,--grave, religious, cultivated,--a +soldier from duty, but finding his delight in poetry and music, and +all beautiful things made by God or by man. It was a great interest +to me to sit at Lady Lucy's feet and listen to their discourse about +music and painting,--about the great Flemish painter Rubens, who had +painted the ceiling of the king's banqueting-house at Whitehall, the +grand building which Mr. Inigo Jones had just erected; and about the +additions the king had lately made to his superb collection of +pictures. He and Lady Lucy spoke of the purchase of the cartoons of +Raffaelle and of other pictures by this great master, and by Titian, +Correggio, and Giulio Romano, or by Cornelius Jansen and other +Flemish painters, with as much triumph as if each picture had been a +province won for the crown. He spoke also with the greatest +enthusiasm of the painter Vandyke, who was painting the portraits of +the Royal Family, and the great gentlemen and ladies of the Court. +He had brought a portrait of himself by Vandyke as a present to his +mother, (only, he said, as a bribe for her own by the same hand); and +it seemed to me that Mr. Vandyke must be as fine a gentleman as Harry +Davenant himself, or he never could have painted so perfectly and +nobly the noble features, the grave almost sad look of the eyes, the +long chestnut-coloured love-locks, the courtly air, and the dress so +easy and yet so rich. + +All this was very new discourse to me; paintings, especially +religious paintings such as the Holy Families and Crucifixions by the +foreign masters which Harry Davenant described, never having been +much encouraged among us. + +When he spoke of music and poetry I was more at home, and when he +alluded with admiration to the Masque of Comus by Mr. John Milton, I +felt myself flush as at the praise of a friend. + +For the names revered at Davenant Hall and at Netherby were usually +altogether different. For instance, of Archbishop Laud and Mr. +Wentworth (afterwards Lord Strafford), whom Lady Lucy and her son +seemed to regard as the two pillars of church and state, I had only +heard as the persecutors of Mr. Prynne, and the subvertors of the +liberties of the nation. + +But indeed the nation itself seemed to be little in Harry Davenant's +esteem, except as a Royal Estate with very troublesome tenants who +had to be kept down; and liberty, which in our home was a kind of +sacred word, fell from his lips as if it had been a mere pretext for +every kind of disorder. + +With all his refinement, however, it did seem strange to me that +Harry Davenant should enter with apparent zest into the bull-baiting, +bear-baiting, and cock-fighting which were the festivities of the +next week. But he said these were fine old English amusements, and +it was right to show the people that the polish of the court did not +make the courtiers dainty or womanish, or prevent their entering into +these manly sports. + +Sir Launcelot Trevor was a man of a different stamp. He had bold +handsome features, black hair, black eyes, and low forehead, a face +with those sharp contrasts of colour some people think handsome. But +there was something in him from which, even as a child, I shrank, +although he paid the most finished compliments to the Lady Lucy, +Lettice, and me, and to everything we did or said. His compliments +always seemed to me like insults. When Harry Davenant spoke of +Beauty in women, or pictures, or nature, he made you feel it +something akin to God and truth, to reverence and give thanks for. + +When Sir Launcelot spoke of Beauty, he made you feel it a thing akin +to the dust, to be fingered and smelt and tasted, and then to fade +and perish. + +Harry Davenant's was a polish bringing out the grain, as in fine old +oak. Sir Launcelot's was like a glittering crust of ice over a +stagnant pond, with occasionally a flaw giving you a glimpse into the +black depths beneath. + +But I suppose it was the way in which he behaved to Roger that more +than anything opened my eyes to what he was. So that, behind all his +bland smiles on us, I always seemed to see the curl of the mocking +smile with which he so often addressed Roger. From the first they +seemed to recognize each other as antagonists. + +Two days after his coming Sir Walter's bull was to be baited in a +field near the village. Lettice and I were standing in the hall +porch, debating whether we ought at once to report to Lady Lucy a +dangerous adventure from which we had just escaped, or whether it +would alarm her too much, when we heard voices approaching in eager +and rather angry conversation. First Sir Walter's rather scornful,-- + +"Let the boy alone. If his father chose to bring him up as a monk or +a mercer it is no concern of yours or mine." + +Then Sir Launcelot's smooth tones. + +"Far from it. Is there not indeed something quite amiable in such +compassion as Mr. Roger displays for your bull? In a woman it would +be irresistible. Should we not almost regret that the hardening +years are too likely to destroy that delightful tenderness?" + +Then Roger's voice, monotonous and low, as always when he was much +moved. + +"I see nothing more manly, Sir Launcelot, in tormenting a bull than a +cockchafer, when neither of them can escape. My Father says it is +not so much because it is savage, as because it is mean, that he will +have nothing to do with cock-fighting or bear and bull baiting." + +Then a chorus of indignant disclaimers of the comparison from the +boys. + +"If you are too tender to stand a bull-baiting, how would you like a +battle?" + +But the next moment little Lettice, sweet, generous Lettice (herself +Roger's prime tormentor when he was left to her), confronting the +whole company--the five brothers and Sir Launcelot--and seizing her +father's hand in both hers, exclaimed,-- + +"For shame on you all, Robert and George, and Roland, and Dick, and +Walter" (Harry was not there, and she scornfully omitted Sir +Launcelot); "you are all baiting Roger. And that is worse than +baiting a dozen bulls. Don't let them, Father. He has done a braver +thing this very day for us than baiting a hundred bulls. This very +morning he faced that very bull in the priory meadow; not an hour +ago. We were crossing it, Olive and I, and the bull ran at us, and +Roger saw him and leapt over the hedge and fronted him, holding up my +scarlet kerchief, which I had dropped, and then moved slowly +backward, never turning till we were safe over the paling beyond the +bull's reach." + +Sir Walter's eyes kindled as he turned and held out his hand to Roger. + +"Why did you not tell me of this, my boy?" he said. + +"I did not think it had anything to do with it," said Roger quietly. +"I did not know any one thought I was a coward." + +Sir Launcelot took off his plumed hat and bowed low to Lettice. + +"Heaven send me such a fair defender, Mistress Lettice, when I am +assailed." + +She looked up in his face with her large deep eyes, and said +indignantly,-- + +"I am not Roger's defender. He was mine." + +He laughed, but not pleasantly. + +"Few would take much heed of such a danger for such a reward," he +said. + +After this he professed to treat Roger with the profoundest deference. + +"A hero and a saint, a Don Quixote and one of the godly, all in one," +he said, "and such a paragon at sixteen! What might not England +expect from such a son?" + +He was, moreover, continually referring questions of conscience to +Roger; asking him whether it was consistent with Christian compassion +to play at tennis; he had heard of a tennis-ball once hitting a man +in the eye, and who could say but that it might happen again? or +whether he seriously thought it charitable to ride horses with sharp +bits, since it was almost certain they did not like it! or whether +certain equestrian feats were not positively profane, since they were +brought to Europe by the Moors; or whether indeed there was not a +text forbidding the riding of horses altogether. + +He did not venture on these taunts when Harry Davenant was present. +But he generally contrived to make them with such a quaint and +good-humoured air that the boys joined in the laugh, and Roger, +having neither so nimble nor so practised a wit, could only flush +with indignation, and then with vexation at himself that he could not +control the quick rush of blood which always betrayed that he felt +the sting. + +Sir Launcelot had many of the qualities which command the regard of +boys--an indifference to expenditure sustained by the Fortunatus +purse of an unbounded capacity for getting into debt, which passed +for generosity ("if the worst comes to the worst," said he; "I can +but make interest with the king, for a monopoly"); a wit never too +heavily weighted to wheel sharp round on an assailant; skill and +quickness in all the accomplishments of a cavalier, from commanding a +squadron of horse to tuning a lady's lute; a dashing courage which +shrank from no bodily danger; (brave I could not call him, for to be +brave is a quality of the spirit, and spirit it was very difficult to +conceive Sir Launcelot had, except such as there is in a mettlesome +horse); a kindly instinct which would make him take care of his +horses or dogs, or fling a piece of money to a crying child; or in +the wars share his rations with a hungry soldier (plundering the next +Puritan cottage to repay himself). For cruel he was not, at least +not for cruelty's sake; if his pleasures, whether at the bull-baiting +or bear-baiting, or of other baser kinds proved cruelty to others, +that was not his intention, it was only an attendant accident, not, +("of course,") to be avoided, since life was short and enjoyment must +be had, follow what might. + +But of all that went on in the tennis-court and the riding-ground I +knew little, except such glimpses as I have given, until long +afterwards, when Lettice, who heard it from her brothers told me; +Roger scorning to breathe a word of complaint on the subject, either +while at the Hall or after our return. + +But oh! the joy when one morning my Father came up to the Hall with +two led horses following him, the speechless joy with which, rushing +down from Lady Lucy's drawing chamber, I met him at the great door +and threw myself into his arms as he dismounted. + +"Why, Olive," he said, "you are like a small whirlwind." + +Yet I shed many tears when the moment came to go. Lady Lucy, if no +more a serene goddess, and embodiment of perfect womanhood to me, was +in some sense more by being less. I loved her as a dear, loving, +mother-like woman. Her tender words that night by my +bedside--"Olive, I am not all or half I would be. But I could not +bear to be distrusted by you"--and all her frank, gracious, +considerate self-forgetful ways had made my heart cling with a true, +reverent tenderness to her, far deeper rooted than my old idolatry. +And Lettice, generous, eager, willful as the wind, truthful as the +light, now imperious as an empress, now self-distrustful and +confiding as a little child, her sweet changing beauty seemed to me +only the necessary raiment of the ever-changing, varying, yet, +constant heart, that glowed in the brilliant flush of her cheek, and +beamed or flashed through her eye. + +Lettice and I were friends by right of our differences and our +sympathies, by right of a common antagonism to Sir Launcelot Trevor, +and our common conviction of our each having in Roger and in Harry +Davenant the best brothers in the world. Lettice and Harry royalist, +and Roger and I patriots to the core; they devoted to the King and +the Queen Marie, and we to England and her liberties; they persuaded +that Archbishop Laud was a new apostle, we that he was a new +Diocletian. + + +I shall never forget the joy of waking early the next morning in my +old chamber, and looking up and seeing the sheen of the morning in +the Mere, and watching Aunt Gretel asleep in the bed close to mine, +and hearing the first solitary crow of the king of the cocks, and +then the clacking of his family as they woke up one by one; the +bleating of the sheep in the orchard meadow, and the lowing of cows +in the sheds--the lowing of White-face, and Beauty my own orphaned +calf, and Meadow-sweet; and then the cheery voice of Tib, the +dairy-woman, recovered from the sickness, remonstrating with them on +their impatience; and the calls of Bob, Tib's husband, to his oxen, +as he yoked them and drove his team a-field; and mingled with all, +the deep soldierly bay of old Lion, the watch-mastiff, and the sharp +business-like bark of the sheep-dogs driving the flocks to fresh +pastures. It was such a delight to be among all the living creatures +again. It felt like coming out of an enchanted castle, drowsy with +perfumes and languid strains of music, into the fresh open air of +God's own work-a-day world--a world of daylight, and truth, and +judgment, and righteousness, and duty. + +I was dressed before Aunt Gretel was fairly awake, and down among the +animals, eager to learn from Tib the latest news of all my friends in +field and poultry-yard. + +But Roger was out before me. And before breakfast we had visited +nearly all our familiar haunts--the heronry by the Mere, the creek +where the waterfowl loved to build among the rushes, the swan's nest +on the reedy island, the shaded fish-ponds in the orchard, the little +brook below where he and I had made the weir, the bit of waste +low-ground which the brook used to flood, which with Bob's help we +had dyked and embanked into corn-ground for Roger's pigeons. + +My very spinning task with Aunt Dorothy was a luxury. I could +scarcely help singing with a loud voice, as I span; my heart was +singing and dancing every moment of the day. The lessons for my +Father were a keen delight, like a race on the dykes in a fresh wind; +the Latin grammar was like poetry to me. It was such a liberation to +have come into a busy, every-day, working world again;--a world of +law, and therefore of liberty, where every one had his task, and +every task its time, and the play-hours were as busy as the +working-hours to heads and hands vigorous with the rebound of real +necessary labour. + +All the world became thus again our play-ground, and all the +creatures our play-mates, by the mere fact that when not at play we, +too, were fellow-workers with them--working as hard in our way as ant +or bee, or happy building bird, or cleansing winds, or even the +glorious ministering sunbeams themselves, whose work was all joyous +play, and whose play was all world-helpful work. + +An then it was inspiring to hear once more the great old honoured +names of our childhood--Sir John Eliot (honoured in his dishonoured +grave), and Hampden, and Pym, and Sir Bevill Grenvil (loyal then to +his country and his King, and afterwards, as he believed, to his King +for his country's sake), and Mr. Cromwell, who whether in Parliament, +in the Fens, or on the "Soke of Somersham," understood liberty to be, +liberty to restrain the strong from oppressing the weak--liberty to +speak the truth loud enough for all the world to hear. + +I thought I began to understand what was meant by, "Thou hast set my +feet in a large room." For it seemed like coming forth from the +ante-room of a court presence-chamber, with low-toned voices. +perfumed atmosphere, constrained, soft movements, into our own dear, +free Old England, where we might run, and sing, and freely use every +free faculty to the utmost, beneath the glorious open heavens, which +are the Presence-chamber of the Great King. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +The very afternoon of Roger's and my return from Davenant Hall Dr. +Antony came on one of his ever-welcome visits. He had, by dint of +much trouble and perseverance, obtained access to Mr. Prynne, in his +solitary cell at Caernarvon, and to Mr. Bastwick and Mr. Burton, in +theirs, in Launceston and Lancaster Castles; and afterwards to the +prisons to which they were removed, in Guernsey, Jersey, and the +Scilly Islands, and also to old Mr. Alexander Leighton, in his +prison, after his most cruel mutilations. + +Often in the summer Dr. Antony left his patients for a season, to +visit such throughout the land as were in bonds for conscience' sake, +bearing them the tidings, so precious to the solitary captive, that +in the rush of life outside they were not forgotten; taking them food +or physic, and such poor bodily comforts as were permitted by the +hard rules of their imprisonment, and bringing back messages to their +friends and kinsfolk. This last year Dr. Antony himself (as we heard +from others) had been somewhat impoverished by a fine of £250 +sterling, to which he had been sentenced by the Star-Chamber on +account of these visits of compassion; although there was no law +against them. + +This time he brought us grievous tidings from many quarters; and very +grave was the discourse between him and my Father. + +Everywhere disgrace and disaster to our country; the French Huguenots +cursing our Court for encouraging them to insurrection, and then +sending ships against them to Rochelle (though, thank Heaven! +scarcely one of our brave sailors would bear arms against their +Protestant brethren--officers and men deserting in a body when they +discovered against whom they had been treacherously sold to fight); +our own fisheries on the east coast sold to the Hollanders, and the +capture of one of our Indiamen by Dutch ships; the Barbary corsairs +landing on the coast near Plymouth, and kidnapping our countrymen and +countrywomen from their village homes, to sell them as slaves to the +Moors in Africa; the King of Spain, the very pillar of Popery and +persecution, the sworn foe of our religion and our race from the days +of the Armada, permitted to recruit for his armies in Ireland; the +Government, with Wentworth (traitor to liberty) and Archbishop Laud +at the head of it, weak as scorched tow to chastise our enemies +abroad, yet armed with scorpions against every defender of our +ancient rights at home. The decision but lately given by the judges +against the brave and good Mr. Hampden as to ship money, placing our +fortunes at the mercy of the Court, who chiefly valued them as meant +wherewith to destroy our liberties; Justice Berkeley declaring from +the judgment-seat that Lex was not Rex, but that Rex was Lex; +thirty-one monopolies sold, thus making nearly every article of +consumption at once dear and bad. The sweeping, steady pressure of +Lord Strafford's (Mr. Wentworth) "Thorough" wrought into a vexation +for every housewife in the kingdom, by the king's petty monopolies. +The heavy links of Wentworth's imperious despotism, filed and twisted +by Archbishop Laud's petty tyrannies into needles wherewith to +torture tender consciences, and wiry ligatures wherewith to tie and +bind every limb. "Regulations as to the colours and cutting of +vestments, worthy (Aunt Dorothy said) of a court tailor, enforced by +cruelties minute and persevering enough for a malignant witch." Dark +stories, too, of private wrong, wrought by Wentworth in Ireland, +worthy of the basest days of the Roman emperors; tales of royal +forests arbitrarily extended from six miles to sixty, to the ruin of +hundreds of gentlemen and peasants; disgraceful news of faith broken +with Dutch and French refugees welcome to the heart of England since +the days of Elizabeth, made secure with rights confirmed to them by +James and by King Charles himself, now forbidden by Archbishop Laud +to worship God in the way for which their fathers had suffered +banishment and loss of all things,--driven to seek another home in +Holland, and in their second exile ruining the flourishing town of +Ipswich, where they had lived, and carrying over the cloth-trade +which was the support of our eastern counties to our rivals the Dutch. + +"You have a copy of Fox's Book of Martyrs?" Dr. Antony asked of my +Father, after he had been speaking of these lamentable things. + +"What good Protestant English household is without one?" exclaimed +Aunt Dorothy; "least of all such as this, whose forefathers are +enrolled in its lists." + +"Take good care of it, then," Dr. Antony replied, "for the Primate +hath forbidden another copy to be printed, under the penalties the +Star-Chamber will not fail to enforce." + +"The times are dark," he continued, "dark and silent. I stood this +spring by the grave of Sir John Eliot, in the Church of the Tower; as +brave, and loyal, and devout a gentleman as this nation ever knew, +killed by inches in prison for calmly pleading the ancient rights of +England in his place in Parliament, and then his body refused to his +family for honourable burial among his kindred in his parish church +in Cornwall, and cast like a felon's into a dishonoured grave in the +precincts of the prison where he died. And I thought how it might +have thrown a deeper shadow over his deathbed if he could have +foreseen how, during these six years, the tyranny would be tightened, +and the voice of the nation never once be heard in her lawful +Parliaments." + +"The voice of the nation is audible enough to those who have ears to +hear," said my Father. + +"Yea, verily," said Dr. Antony, "if you had journeyed through the +country as I have, you would say so. When will kings learn that +moans and subdued groans between set teeth are more dangerous from +human lips than any torrents of passionate speech?" + +"And," added my Father, "that there is a silence even more +significant and perilous than these!" + +"But there are two points of hope," said Dr. Antony. "One is the +Puritan colony in New England, where our brethren have exchanged the +vain struggle with human blindness and tyranny for the triumphant +struggle with nature in her primeval forests and untrodden wilds. +Four thousand good English men and women, and seventy-seven +clergymen, have taken refuge there during these last twenty years. +Not poor men only, for they have taken many thousand pounds of +English money, or money's worth, with them, forsaking country and +comfortable homes for the dear liberty to obey God rather than man. +And these plantations, after the severest struggles and privations, +are beginning to grow. + +"What they hope and mean to be is shown by this, that two years +since, while food was still hard to win from the wilderness, and +roads and bridges had yet to be made, the plantation of Massachusetts +voted £400 for the founding of a college. Such an act might seem +more like the foresight of the fathers of a nation than the care of a +little exiled band struggling for existence with the Indians, the +wilderness, and a hostile Court at home. + +"The other point of hope is the Greyfriars' Church in Edinburgh, +where, on the 1st of last March, after long prayers and preachings, +the great congregation rose, gathered from all corners of the +kingdom,--nobles, gentlemen, burgesses, ministers, lifted their hands +solemnly to heaven, and swore to the Covenant." Then Dr. Antony took +a manuscript paper from the breast of his coat, and read: "'We +abjure,' they swore, 'the Roman Antichrist,--all his tyrannous law +made upon indifferent things against our Christian liberty; his +erroneous doctrine against the written Word, the perfection of the +law, the office of Christ, and His blessed Evangel; his cruel +judgments against infants departing this life without the sacraments; +his blasphemous priesthood; his canonization of men; his dedicating +of kirks, altars, days, vows to creatures; his purgatory, prayers for +the dead, praying or speaking in a strange language; his desperate +and uncertain repentance; his general and doubtsome faith; his holy +water, baptizing of bells, conjuring of spirits, crossing, saving, +anointing, conjuring, hallowing of God's good creatures.' 'We, +noblemen, barons, gentlemen, burgesses, ministers, and commons, +considering the danger of the true Reformed religion, of the king's +honour, and of the public peace of the kingdom by the manifold +innovations and evils generally contained and particularly mentioned +in our late supplications, complaints, and protestations, do hereby +profess, and before God, his angels, and the world, solemnly declare +that with our whole hearts we agree and resolve all the days of our +life constantly to adhere unto and defend the foresaid true religion, +and forbearing the practice of all novations already introduced in +the matter of the worship of God, or approbations of the corruptions +of the public government of the Kirk, till they be tried or allowed +in free Assemblies and in Parliaments, to labour by all means lawful +to recover the purity and liberty of the Gospel.' 'Neither do we +fear the aspersions of rebellion, combination, or what else our +adversaries, from their craft and malice, could put upon us, seeing +what we do is well warranted, and ariseth from an unfeigned desire to +maintain the true worship of God, the majesty of our king, and the +peace of the kingdom, for the common happiness of ourselves and +posterity. And because we cannot look for a blessing of God on our +proceedings except with our subscription we gave such a life and +conversation as becometh Christians who have renewed their covenant +with God, we therefore promise to endeavour to be good examples to +others of all godliness, soberness, and righteousness, and of every +duty we owe to God and man. And we call the living God, the Searcher +of hearts, to witness, as we shall answer to Jesus in that great day, +under pain of God's ever-lasting wrath and of infamy; most humbly +beseeching the Lord to strengthen us with his Holy Spirit for this +end.' And this," added Dr. Antony, "has been sworn to not in the +Greyfriars' Church alone; but by crowds, signed with their blood on +parchment spread on the stones of the churchyards in Edinburgh and +Glasgow; yea, in church after church, in city, village, and on +hill-side, from John o'Groats' House to the Borders, from Mull to +Fife, with tears, and shouts, and fervent prayers." + +"And this means?" said my Father. + +"It means that the Scottish nation will rather die than submit to +Archbishop Laud's ceremonies and canons; but that they mean neither +to die nor to submit; that every covenanted congregation will be a +recruiting ground, if necessary, fora covenanted army; that the oath +sworn in the Kirk they are prepared to fulfil on the battle-field." + +"And a goodly army they might soon discipline," said my Father, "with +the military officers they have trained under the great Gustavus." + +"It means," added Dr. Antony, lowering his voice, "that they are +ready to kindle a fire for religion and liberty in Scotland which +will not stop at the Borders, and will find fuel enough in every +county in England." + +"The Court had better, for its own peace, have heeded Jenny Geddes' +folding-stool," said my Father. + +"For his own peace," rejoined Aunt Dorothy, "but scarcely for ours." + + +From that time (1638), through more than a quarter of a century, +public and private life were so intertwined that no faithful history +can divide them. In quieter times, while the great historical +paintings are being wrought in parliament-houses and palaces, +countless small family-pictures are being woven entirely independent +of these in countless homes. But in times of revolution, national +history and private story are interwoven into one great tapestry, +from which the humblest figure cannot be detached without unravelling +the whole web. + +Such times are hard, but they are ennobling. Or at least they are +enlarging. Faults, and ordinary virtues become crimes, or heroical +virtues, by mere force of temperature and space. Principles are +tested; pretences are dissolved by the fact of being pretences. Such +times are ennobling, but they are also necessarily tragical. All +noble lives--all lives worth living--are expanded from the small +circles of everyday domestic circumstances into portions of the grand +orbits of the worlds. Yet, doubtless, thereby in themselves such +lives must often become fragments instead of wholes, must seem in +themselves unfinished, must be in themselves inexplicable. + +But, indeed, are not the histories of nations, and revolutions +themselves, even the grandest, but fragments of those greater orbits +of which we scarcely, even in centuries, can trace the movement? Is +it any wonder then that national histories as well as personal should +often seem tragical? As now, alas, to us! poor tempest-tossed +fragments of the ship's company which we deemed should have brought +home the argosies for ages to come, driven to these untrodden far off +shores; whilst to England, instead of the golden fleece of peace and +liberty, our enterprise may seem but to have brought a tyranny more +cruel and a court more corrupt. Yet may there be something in the +future which, to those who look back, will explain all! + +For England; and perhaps even for these wild shores which we fondly +call New England! + +Can it be possible that we have won the Golden Fleece, and have +brought it hither? + +There is something, moreover, in having lived in times of storm. The +temperature is raised at such times; all life is keener, colour more +vivid, and growth more rapid. + +A nation in revolution is, in more ways than one, like a ship in a +storm. The dividing barriers of selfishness are dissolved for a time +into a common passion of patriotic hope, purpose, and endeavour. We +feel our common humanity in our common throbs of hope and fear, in +our common efforts for deliverance. And we are (or ought to be) +nobler, and more large of heart for ever afterwards. And I think the +greater part are. Perhaps, in some measure, all; unless, indeed, it +be the ship's cats, who, no doubt, privately pursue the ship's mice +with undeviating purpose through the raging of winds and waves, and +look on the strife of the elements as a providential arrangement to +enable them to fulfil their mousing destinies with less interruption. + +And what such times of revolution do for a nation, ought not +Christianity, the great perpetual revolution, to do for us always? + +The great hindrance seems to me to be, that it is so much easier to +be partizans than patriots, whether in the Church or State. + +If men would do for the country what they do for the party, what a +country we should have! + +If Christians would do for the Church what they do for their sect, +what a world we should have! + +For a quarter of a century, from the signing of the Covenant in the +High Kirk of Edinburgh, the long struggle went on. Nor has it ceased +yet, though the combatants have changed, and the battle-field. + +The Scottish covenanted congregations grew quickly indeed into a +covenanted army, and advanced to the border. The King, by Archbishop +Laud's counsel, disbelieving in the Covenant, proclaimed that if +within six weeks the Scotch did not renounce it, he would come and +chastise them (in a fatherly way) with an army. The King and +Archbishop Laud regarded the Covenant as a freak of rebellious +misguided children. The Scotch regarded it as the portion of the +eternal law of God which they then had to keep; and would keep, or +die. + +A difference not to be settled by royal proclamation. + +The Scotch had the advantage of _being_ their own army, ready to +fight for their Divine law; while the king had to pay his army with +the coin of the realm, and never could inspire them to the end with +the conviction that they were fighting for anything but coin of the +realm. + +The coin of the realm, moreover, lay in the keeping of those dragons +called Parliaments, which his majesty had termed "vipers" at their +last meeting, and in a letter to Strafford, had compared to "cats," +tameable when young, "cursed" if allowed to grow old, and which he +had therefore banished underground for eleven years into shadow and +silence. + +When, therefore, the king and the Covenanted army met on the borders, +it was found that the Scotch, commanded, as my Father said, by old +Gustavus Adolphus's officers; every regiment as in that old Swedish +army, also a congregation, meeting morning and evening round its +banner of "Christ's crown and covenant," for prayer was a rock +against which the English army might vainly break; but from which, as +the event proved, it preferred to ebb silently away, the pay for +which only it professed to fight, being, moreover, exhausted. + +The king took refuge in a treaty, promising to leave Kirk affairs in +the hands of the Kirk, and to call a free assembly. Poor gentleman, +his promises were still believed to have some small amount of truth +in them, and a pacification was effected. + +Then came the moment of hope for those who had been watching those +movements with the intensest interest in England. + +Of the two evils, a remonstrating Parliament in London and a fighting +Kirk in Scotland, the former now appeared to the king the least. In +the keeping of the Parliament, dragon-monster as it seemed to him, +lay the gold. And once more, after a silence of eleven years, on the +15th of April, 1640, the Parliament was summoned; a weapon welded by +the wrongs and the patience of eleven years into a temper the king +had done well to heed. + +Pym and Hampden were the chief spokesmen, and Mr. Cromwell sat for +Huntingdon. + +At the last Parliament they, and brave men like them, had wept bitter +tears at the king's arbitrary measures, and at his false dealing. + +At this Parliament there were no tears shed. There were no +disrespectful or hasty words spoken. + +It was as if in spirit they met around the grave of the martyred Sir +John Eliot, and would do or say nothing to dishonour the grave to +which since last they met he had been brought for liberty. + +But no portion of the hoarded treasure could the king force or cajole +from their grasp. The court insisted on supplies. The Parliament +insisted on grievances. + +And on May the 5th, the king dissolved the Parliament. + +My Father's voice trembled with emotion when he heard it. "They +would have saved him!" he said. "They would have saved the country +and the king!" + +Said Aunt Dorothy grimly, "The king prefers armies to parliaments; +and no doubt he will have his choice." + +A second royal army was raised by enforcing ship-money, seizing the +pepper of the Indian merchants, and compelling loans, filling the +towns and cities with angry men who dared not resist, and the prisons +with brave men who dared. And to rouse the country further, the +queen appealed publicly for aid to the Roman Catholics, whilst +Archbishop Laud demanded contributions of the clergy. Earl +Strafford, recalled from Ireland, was appointed commander-in-chief. +The court endeavoured also to enkindle the fury of the old Border +war-memories; but the Borderers were brethren in the faith, and, +refusing to hate each other, combined in hating the bishops. + +The second army melted like the first, after some little heartless +fighting in a cause they hated; having distinguished itself mainly by +shouting its sympathy with the Puritan preachers in the various towns +through which it passed; by insisting on testing whether its +commanders were Papists before it would follow them to the field; and +by draining the king's treasury, so that he could proceed no further +without once more looking to the dreaded guardians of the gold. + +"They meet in a different temper from the last," my Father said, as +we walked home from the village, where we had eagerly hastened to +meet the flying Post, who galloped from one patriot's house to +another with printed sheets and letters containing the account of the +king's opening speech on the 3d of November; "as different as the +sweet May days of promise during which the Little Parliament debated, +from the gray fogs which creep along the Fens before our eyes to-day. +Summer, and hope, and restitution brightened before that April +Parliament. Over this lower winter, storms, and retribution; slow +clearing of the stubble-fields of centuries, stern ploughing of the +soil for better harvests, not to be reaped, perchance, by the hands +that sow." + +For the six months between had been ill-filled by the court party. + +I remember now how one day during those months my Father's hands +trembled and his voice grew low as a whisper as he read to us a +letter telling how a poor reckless young drummer lad, who, when, on +leave from the army in the north, had joined a wild mob of London +apprentices in an attack on Lambeth Palace, had been racked and +tortured in the Tower to make him confess his accomplices; and +torture failing to make him base, poor boy, how he had been hanged +and quartered the day after. + +"They dared not torture Felton a few years since for the murder of +Buckingham," my Father said, "and now they twist this boy's offence +into treason, because, forsooth, a drum chanced to be sounded by the +mob, that the poor misguided lad may suffer the traitor's doom, and +the honour of his Holiness, their Pontifex Maximus, their Archangel, +as they call him, be avenged." + +(These were the things that silenced the pleadings of pity in good +and merciful men when, in after years, the Archbishop was brought to +the scaffold. + +Now that the crime and its avenging all are past, and victim, slayer, +avenger, all have met before the great Bar, it is hard to recall the +passion of indignation these deeds awakened in the gentlest hearts +when they were being done with little chance of ever being avenged. +But is not the most inflexible judgment the offspring of outraged +mercy?) + +All through that summer the king, the archbishop, and Strafford went +on accumulating wrongs on the nation, too surely to recoil on +themselves. + +There may have been many tyrannies more terrible. Never could there +have been one more irritating, more ingenious in sowing discontents +in every corner of the land. + +The archbishop in convocation made a new canon, requiring every +clergyman and every graduate of the universities to take an oath that +all things necessary to salvation were contained in the doctrine and +discipline of the Church of England, as distinguished from +Presbyterianism and Papistry. + +I remember that canon especially, because it brought Roger home from +Oxford, where he had been studying during the past two years, and was +about to take his degree, and led to results, sad indeed for us, +though not exactly among the miseries to be set down to the +archbishop. Roger would not swear, he said, against the religion of +half the kingdom, at least without understanding it better. + +From Northamptonshire, Kent, Devonshire,--old conservative Kent and +the loyal West,--came up indignant petitions against this canon. +London was exasperated by the committal of four aldermen who refused +to set before the king the names of those persons within their wards +who were able to lend his majesty money; every borough in the kingdom +was aroused by the presence of its members ignominiously dismissed +from the dissolved Parliament; nine boroughs were still more deeply +moved by the absence of their members, imprisoned the day after the +dissolution in the Tower. Every day brought reports of some fresh +victim fined in the Star-Chamber on account of the odious ship-money. +Especial complaints came from the North, which Strafford was grinding +with the steady pressure of his presence in the council at York. + +And meantime the friendly Scots were practically inculcating +Presbyterianism and the advantages of armed resistance in the four +counties beyond the Tees, where they had been left in possession +until they received the price wherewith the king had paid them for +rebellion. + +There was much stir and movement in the land all through those +months. Netherby lay close to the high road, and we had many +visitors. Mr. Cromwell once, on his way to Cambridge (for which +place he then sate in Parliament), brief in speech and to the point, +hearty in look, and word, and gesture, and also at times in laughter. +Mr. Hampden, dignified and courtly as any nobleman of the king's +court. Mr. Pym, with firm, close-set lips and grave eyes. He came +more than once on horseback, and put up for the night, on one of the +many rides he took at that time around the country to stir up the +patriots to act together. My father also was often absent attending +meetings of the country party at Broughton Hall, the Lord Brooks' +mansion, near Oxford, where Roger, being at the university, sometimes +met him. + +So the summer passed on, its perishable things fading, and its +enduring things ripening into autumn. Crop after crop of royal +promises budded and bloomed and bore no fruit, until the people grew +sorrowfully to understand that royal words, like flowers cultivated +into barrenness in royal gardens, were never purposed to bear fruit, +but only to attract with empty show of blossom. The nobles +petitioned for a Parliament; ten thousand citizens of London, in +spite of threats, petitioned for parliament; and at last once more +the king summoned it. + +A month afterwards, early in December, my Father called the household +around the great hall fire to hear a letter from Dr. Antony: + + "_To my very loving friend,_ + "_Roger Drayton, Esq.,_ + "_November_ 28_th._ + +"_Present these._ + +"HONOURED SIR,--Let us rejoice and praise God together. My +occupation is gone. The prisons bid fair to be cleared of all save +their rightful tenants. Parish after parish will welcome back +faithful ministers, undone and imprisoned by Star-Chamber and High +Commission. Heaven send that prison and persecution have made their +voices strong and gentle, and not bitter and shrill; for I have found +the devil not locked out by prison-bolts. And too surely also he +will find his way into triumphal processions such as we have had in +London to-day, on behalf of Mistress Olive's old friends, Mr. Prynne, +Mr. Bastwick, and Mr. Burton. But let me set my narrative in order. + +"A fortnight before the Parliament was opened two thousand rioters +had torn down the benches in St. Paul's, where the cruel High +Commission were sitting, shouting that they would have no bishop, no +High Commission. Now these disorders cease. Once more the gag is +off the lips of every borough and county in Old England; and the +bitter helpless moans and wild inarticulate cries which have vainly +filled the land these eleven years give place to calm and temperate +speech. Petitions and remonstrances pour in from north, south, east +and west; some brought by troops of horsemen. The calmest voices are +heard more clearly. + +"'He is a great stranger in Israel,' said Lord Falkland, 'who knoweth +not that this kingdom hath long laboured under great oppression both +in religion and liberty. Under pretence of uniformity they have +brought in superstition and scandal; under the titles of reverence +and decency they have defiled our Church by adorning our churches. +They have made the conforming to ceremonies more important than the +conforming to Christianity.' + +"Said Sir Edward Deering, in attacking the High Commission Court,-- + +"'A Pope at Rome will do me less hurt than a patriarch at Lambeth.' + +"Said Sir Benjamin Rudyard,-- + +"'We have seen ministers, their wives, and families, undone against +law, against conscience, about not dancing on Sundays. They have +brought it so to pass, that under the name of Puritans all our +religion is branded. Whosoever squares his actions by any rule +divine or human, he is a Puritan; whosoever would be governed by the +king's laws, he is a Puritan; he that will not do whatsoever other +men will have him do, he is a Puritan.' + +"The Commons had not sate four days when, on the 7th of November, by +warrant of the house, they sent for Mr. Prynne, Mr. Bastwick, and Mr. +Burton, from their prisons beyond the seas, to certify by whose +authority they had been mutilated, branded, and imprisoned. + +"And now after three weeks these three gentlemen, freed from their +sea-washed dungeons in Jersey, Guernsey, and the Scilly Islands, have +this day arrived in the city. All the way from the coast they have +been eagerly welcomed, escorted by troops of friends with songs and +garlands, from town to town. + +"Five thousand citizens of condition rode forth on horseback to meet +them, among them many a citizen's wife, and all with bay and rosemary +in their hats and caps, to do honour to those their enemies had +vainly sought to shame. I trow brave Mrs. Bastwick, who stood +tearless by her husband at the pillory, and who hath not been +suffered to see him in his prison since, thought it no shame to unman +him by shedding tears of joy to-day. Old gray-haired Mr. Leighton, +moreover, bent with imprisonment and torture, and young John Lilburn, +for whom Mr. Cromwell so fervently pleaded, were there to share the +triumph, all marked with honourable scars from the Star-Chamber. +This outside the city. And within, at Westminster, another +victory--not a triumph but a victory--not festive, but solemn and +tragical, as victories on battle-fields are wont to be. + +"This day at the bar of the House of Peers, about three of the clock +in the afternoon, Mr. Pym, in the name of all the Commons of England, +impeached Thomas, Earl of Strafford, of high treason. And this night +Lord Strafford lodges in the Tower. + +"He is too stately a cedar that there should not be something great +in his fall. + +"Scorning the Commons' message, with a proud-glooming countenance the +earl made towards his place at the head of the board. But at once +many bade him void the house. Sullenly he had to move to the door +till he was called. There he, at whose door so many vainly waited, +had to wait till he was summoned. Loftily he stood to hear the +sentence of the House. He was commanded to kneel, and on his knees +he was committed prisoner to the Keeper of the Black Rod. He would +have spoken, but he who had silenced England for eleven years was +sternly silenced now, and had to go without a word. In the outer +room they demanded his sword. The carl cried to his serving-man with +a loud voice to take my Lord-Lieutenant's sword. A crowd thronged +the doors of the House as he stepped out to his coach. No fellow +capped to him before whom yesterday not a noble in England would have +stood uncovered with impunity. One cried to another, 'What is the +matter?' 'A small matter, I warrant you,' quoth the earl. Coming to +where he had left his coach he found it not, and had to walk back +again through the gazing, gaping crowd. He was not suffered to enter +his own coach, but was carried away a prisoner in that of the Keeper +of the Black Rod. + +"And this night he lodges--scarce, I trow, rests or sleeps--in the +Tower. Will the memory of his old companion in the days before he +turned traitor to England and liberty, our noble murdered patriot +Eliot, haunt his memory there? From his ghost the earl is safe +enough. Such ghosts are in other keeping and other company. And for +the earl's memory, darker recollections than that of Eliot with all +his wrongs may well haunt it, if report speaks truth; recollections +which the Old Tower itself, with all its chambers of death, can +scarce outgloom. + +"But Lord Strafford is not a man to dream while there is work to be +done, or to look back when life may hang on his wisdom in looking +forward. + +"The first stroke is struck, but the cedar is not felled yet. Nor +can any surmise what it may bring down with it if it falls. + +"Your faithful servant and loving friend. + +"LEONARD ANTONY. + + +"Roger will like to hear that his friend Mr. Cromwell presented the +petition for poor John Lilburn, (some time writer for Mr. Prynne) +that was scourged from Westminster to the Fleet prison. And also +that he hath warmly espoused the cause of certain poor countrymen +whom he knows near St. Ives, robbed of their ancient pasture-rights +on a common tyrannously enclosed by one of the queen's servants. + +"Mr. Cromwell seemed to take these poor men's wrongs sorely to heart, +and spoke with a flushed face and much vehement eloquence concerning +them, in a voice which certain courtiers thought loud and untunable, +clad in a coat and band they thought unhandsome and made by an 'ill +country-tailor,' and in a hat without a hatband. But the Parliament +hearkened to him with much regard, and gave great heed to what he +counselled." + +Roger's eye kindled. + +"Mr. Cromwell will never forget the old friends for the new," said my +Father, "nor pass by little duties in hurrying to great ends." + + +Then our household broke into twos and threes debating the news. + +Aunt Dorothy shook her head. "I do mourn over it," said she. "Mr. +Cromwell might do great things. And here are the Church and State +all on fire, and the Almighty sending His lightnings on the cedars of +Lebanon and the oaks of Bashan, while Mr. Cromwell keeps harping on +these petty worldly things; on the wrongs of an insignificant servant +of Mr. Prynne's, which no doubt would get set right of themselves +when once the great battle is fought; and on whether some poor +clodpoles near St. Ives get a few acres more or less to feed their +sheep on. And, meanwhile, the sheep of the Lord's pasture wandering +on the mountains without pasture or shepherd! I do think it a pity, +too, that Mr. Cromwell does not change his tailor; we ought to +provide things honest in the sight of all men. Not but that I will +say," she concluded, "Mrs. Cromwell and the maidens might take some +of these matters on herself." + + +I remember that night asking Aunt Gretel if she thought it would be +wrong to put Earl Strafford's name into my prayers. He was not +exactly an enemy of mine, or there would be a command to do so; and +he certainly was not a friend, nor, now, any longer "one in +authority." But it went to my heart to think how in a moment all his +glory seemed turned to dishonor, the crowd gaping on him, and no man +capping to him. + +"What wouldst thou pray for, Olive?" said Aunt Gretel. "Certainly +not that he may have power again, and set up the Star-Chamber, and +send the three gentlemen to the pillory once more." + +"Would he do that if he got out of the Tower?" said I. + +"The wise and good men think so, or they would not have him sent +there," said she. + +"But might he not be better always afterwards?" I asked. + +"The people cannot trust that he would," she said. "Even if he +promised ever so much and intended it, they could not at once trust +him." + +"Is it too late then for him to be forgiven?" I said. + +"Too late, it seems, for men to forgive him," said she, very gravely. + +"But never too late for God?" I said. + +"No, never too late for God," said she, slowly. "Because God knows +when we really intend to give up sinning, even when we can do nothing +to show it to men. So it is never too late for Him to take His +prodigals home to his bosom." + +"Then I can ask for that," said I. And I did. But that night there +sank down on my heart for the first time (the first time of so many +in the solemn years that, followed) the terrible words, "Too late;" +the terrible sense that an hour may come when, if repentance towards +God is still possible, reparation to man and mercy from man are +possible no longer. + + +This fervour of patriotic life which animated us all at Netherby made +us rather hard, I am afraid, on Cousin Placidia. + +Throughout the year, after our sojourn at Davenant Hall, she had +tried Roger and me (and I believe also secretly Aunt Dorothy) very +seriously by becoming in her way exceedingly religious. One winter +morning when Roger and I were busy with my father about our Italian +lessons at one end of the hall, the following discussion took place +between Placidia and Aunt Dorothy over their spinning near the +hearth. Placidia had seen, she informed Aunt Dorothy, the vanity of +all things under the sun, the folly of pride, and the wickedness of +all worldly pomp, and she washed decidedly to take her place "on the +Lord's side," to work out betimes her own salvation, and to secure +for herself an abundant entrance into the kingdom. Aunt Dorothy +spoke of the heart being deceitful, and hoped Placidia would make +sure of her foundation. Placidia rejoined with some slight +resentment as to any doubts of her orthodoxy, that she humbly trusted +she knew as well as any one, that every one's heart was indeed +deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, that is, every +ungodly person's; indeed one only needed to look around in any +direction to see it. Aunt Dorothy replied that, for her part, she +found her own heart still very ingenious in deceiving her, and in +need of a great deal of daily watching. + +Placidia admitted the necessity. Indeed, she said, that on a review +of her life she felt that, although she had been mercifully preserved +from many infirmities which beset other people, (her temper being +naturally even, and her tastes sober,) still no doubt she shared in +the universal depravity. But she had, like Jacob at Bethel, she +said, made a solemn covenant with God, promising to give Him +henceforth His due portion of her affections and substance; she had +signed and sealed it on her knees, and she believed she was accepted, +that she was on the Lord's side, and that, as with Jacob, He would +henceforth be on hers. + +Aunt Dorothy's spinning-wheel flew with ominous rapidity, but some +moments passed before she replied. Then she said,-- + +"My dear, I trust that you know the difference between a _covenant_ +and a _bargain_. The patriarch Jacob, on the whole, no doubt meant +well, but I never much liked his 'ifs' and 'thens' with the Almighty. +The best kind of covenants, I think, are those which begin on the +other side. As when the Lord said to Abraham, 'Fear not, Abraham, I +am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward.' Or, 'I am the +Almighty God, walk before me and be thou perfect.' Then follow the +promises, lavish as His riches, which fill heaven and earth; free as +the air He gives us to breathe. When God gives there is no limit, no +reserve, no condition. But, on the other hand, neither is there +reserve, or condition, or limit when He demands. It is not so much +for so much, but _all_ surrendered in absolute trust. It is, 'Be +thou perfect;' it is, 'Leave thy country, and thy kindred, and thy +father's house;' it is, 'Give me thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom +thou lovest.' Is this what you mean by a covenant with God? Think +well, for He 'is not mocked.' His hand is larger than ours, as the +sea is larger than a drinking-cup; but He will not accept our hands +half full." + +Said Placidia,-- + +"Aunt Dorothy, I have no intention whatever of being half for the +world and half for God. I have no opinion at all of the religion +which can dance round May-poles on the week-day, and attend the +worship of God on Sundays; or fast and pray on Fridays, wear mourning +in Lent, and be decked out in curls, and laces, and jewels, on +feast-days. I have made up my mind never to wear a feather, or a +trinket, or a bit of lace to my band, or a laced stomacher, nor to +use crisping-tongs, nor to indulge in any kind of 'dissoluteness in +hair,' nor ever to sport any gayer colour in mantle or wimple than +gray, or at the most 'liver colour.' I have not the least intention, +Aunt Dorothy, of trying to serve two masters. I know in that way we +gain nothing. But I do believe that those that honour Him He will +honour, and that godliness hath promise of the life that now is as +well as of that which is to come." + +"The Lord's honours are not often like King Ahasuerus's," said Aunt +Dorothy, gravely; "the Crowns of those He delighted to honour have +sometimes been of fire, and their royal apparel of sack-cloth. There +is such a thing," she continued, her wheel whirling like a whirlwind, +"as serving only one master, yet that not the right one, though +taking His name. And we are near the brink of that precipice +whenever we seek any reward from the Master beyond His 'Well done.' +'_I_ am thy shield,'" she concluded, "'_I, the Lord Himself;_' not +what He promises or what He gives, though it were to be the half of +His kingdom." + +By this time my Father's attention had been aroused to the +discussion, and rising from the table and approaching the spinners, +he said,-- + +"What you say, sister Dorothy, reminds me of some words I heard +lately in a letter of Mr. Cromwell's. 'Truly no creature hath more +cause,' he wrote, 'to put himself forth in the cause of his God than +I. I have had plentiful wages beforehand, and I am sure I shall +never earn the least mite.'" + +"Yea, verily," said Aunt Dorothy, "Mr. Cromwell may waste too much +thought on draining and dyking; but he is a godly gentleman, and he +under stands the Covenant." + +Cousin Placidia, however, pursued her course, and continued a living +rebuke to Roger and me if we indulged in too noisy merriment, and to +any of the maids who were tempted into a gayer kirtle or ribbon than +ordinary. On Sunday she was never known to smile, nor on any other +day to laugh, except in a mild moderate manner, as a polite +concession to any one who expected it in response to a facetious +remark. + +Her conversation meantime became remarkably scriptural. She did not +allow herself an indulgence which she did not justify by a text; if +her dresses wore longer than usual, so as to spare her purse, she +looked on it as a proof that she had been marvellously helped with +wisdom in the choice. If she escaped the various accidents which not +unfrequently brought me into disgrace, and my clothes to premature +ruin, she regarded it as an interference of Providence, like to that +which watched over the Israelites in the wilderness. + +Indeed, it seemed to Roger and me that Placidia's primary meaning of +being "on the Lord's side" was, that in a general way the Almighty +should do what she liked; and that in particular the weather should +be arranged with considerate reference as to whether she had on her +new taffetas or her old woolsey. Great therefore was our relief, +although great also our astonishment, when Aunt Dorothy announced to +us one day that Cousin Placidia was about to be married to Mr. +Nicholls, the vicar of Netherby. + +"Are you not surprised?" I ventured to ask of my Father. "Cousin +Placidia is such a Precisian, as they call it, and Mr. Nicholls +thinks so much of Archbishop Laud." + +"Not much surprised, Olive," he said. "I think Placidia's religion +and Mr. Nicholls' are a little alike. Both have a great deal to do +with the colour and shape of clothes, and with the places and times +at which things are done, and the way in which they are said. And +both are prudent persons, desirous of taking a respectable place in +the world in a religious way. I should think they would agree very +well." + +Aunt Dorothy was at once indignant and consoled. + +"I never quite trusted Placidia's professions," said she; "but this, +I confess, goes beyond my fears. A person who never passes what he +calls the altar without making obeisances such as the old heathens +made to the sun and the moon, and who, not six months ago, defiled +the house of God with Popish incense!" + +But Cousin Placidia had explanations which were quite satisfactory to +herself. + +"She had had so many providential intimations," she said (one of the +habits of Placidia that always most exasperated Roger was her way of +always doing what she wished, because, she said, some one else wished +it; and since she had become religious, she usually threw the +responsibility on the Highest Quarter)--"intimations so plain, that +she could not disregard them without disobedience. Mr. Nicholls' +coming to Netherby at all was the consequence of a series of most +remarkable circumstances, entirely beyond his own control. The way +in which the prejudice against each other, with which they began, had +by degrees changed into esteem, and then into something more, was +also very remarkable. And what was most remarkable of all was, that +on the very morning of the day when he proposed to her, she +had--quite by chance, as it might seem, but that there was no such +thing as chance--opened the Bible on the passage, 'Get thee out from +thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, into +a land that I will shew thee: and I will bless thee.'" + +"But, my dear," remarked Aunt Gretel, to whom, Aunt Dorothy being +unapproachable, Placidia had made this explanation--"my dear, you are +not going to leave your country, are you? and you do know the land to +which you are going." + +"Of course," said Placidia, "there are always differences. But the +application was certainly very remarkable. Mr. Nicholls quite agreed +with me, when I told him of it." + +"No doubt, my dear, no doubt," said Aunt Gretel, retreating. "But +there does seem a little difference in your opinions." + +"Uncle Drayton says we should look on the things in which we agree, +more than on those in which we differ," said Placidia. "Besides, if +Aunt Dorothy would only see it, I really trust I have been already +useful to Mr. Nicholls. He said, only yesterday, he thought there +was a good deal to be said in favour of some late ordinances of the +Parliament against too close approach to Papistical ceremonies. Mr. +Nicholls had never any propension towards the Pope; and he thinks now +that, it may be, his canonical obedience to Archbishop Laud led him +to some unwise compliances. But the powers that be, he says, must +always have their due honour. The great point is, to ascertain which +powers be, and which only seem to be. And now that the Parliament +has impeached Archbishop Laud, and sent him to the Tower, this is +really an exceedingly difficult question for a conscientious +clergyman, who is also a good subject, to determine." + +Aunt Gretel did not pursue the subject, she being always in fear of +losing her way, and straying into wildernesses, when English politics +or rubrics came into question. + +And in due time Placidia became Mistress Nicholls, and removed to the +parsonage, with a generous dowry from my Father, and everything that +by the most liberal interpretation could in any way be construed into +belonging to her, down to a pair of perfumed Cordova gloves which had +been given her by some gay kinswoman, and, having been thrown aside +in a closet as useless vanities, cost Aunt Dorothy a long and +indignant search. Everything might be of use, said Placidia, in +their humble housekeeping. And she had always remembered a saying +she had once heard Aunt Gretel quote from Dr. Luther,--"that what the +husband makes by earning, the wife multiplies by sparing." + +"An invaluable maxim," she remarked, "for people in narrow +circumstances, who had married from pure godly affection, without +passion or ambition, despising all worldly considerations, like +herself and Mr. Nicholls." + + +It was a strange Christmas to many in England, that first in the +stormy life of the Long Parliament. Earl Stratford had been in the +Tower since the 28th of November. A week before Christmas day +Archbishop Laud had been impeached and committed to custody. There +was no thought of the Parliament dispersing. Mr. Pym and others of +the patriot members were occupied with preparing for Lord Strafford's +trial, which did not begin until the 22nd of the following March. + +On the other hand, faithful voices, long silent in prisons, were +heard again in many pulpits throughout the land. + +Judge Berkeley, who had given the unjust decision in favour of +ship-money, was seized on the bench in his ermine, and taken to +prison like a common felon. + +The great thunder-cloud of Star-chamber and High Commission Court had +dispersed. The Puritans and Patriots breathed once more, and the +great voice of the nation, speaking at Westminster the words which +were deeds, while it quieted the cries and groans of the oppressed +country, set men's tongues free for earnest and determined speech by +every hall hearth, and every blacksmith's forge, and ale-house, and +village-green, and place of public or social talk throughout the +country. + +The blacksmith's forge in Netherby village was indeed a place well +known to Roger and me. Job Forster, the smith, a brave, +simple-hearted giant from Cornwall (given to despising our inland +peasants, who had never seen the sea, and suspected of being the +mainstay of a little band of sectaries in the neighborhood), having +always been Roger's chief friend; while Rachel, his gentle, sickly, +saintly little wife (whom he cherished with a kind of timorous +tenderness, like something almost too small and delicate for him to +meddle with), had always given me the child's place in her motherly +heart, which no child had been given to their house to fill. +Whenever we were missed in childhood, it was commonly at Job +Forster's forge we were sought and found. And by this means we +learned a great deal of politics from Job's point of view, as well as +many marvellous stories of God's providence by sea and land, which +seemed to us to show that God was as near to those who trust Him now, +as to the Israelites of old, which, also, Job and Rachel most surely +believed. + +But, meantime, while the clouds over England seemed scattering, a +heavy cloud gathered over us at Netherby. + +The Davenant family had come to the Hall for the Christmas +festivities. We met often during the time they were there, more than +ever before. The ties of friendship and of neighbourhood seemed to +prevail over the party strife which had so long kept us apart. + +Hope there was also that those party conflicts at last might cease +with the disgrace of the hated Lord-Lieutenant. + +His sudden abandonment of the patriot side, his rapid rise, and his +lofty, imperious temper, had not failed to make enemies even among +those of his own party. Sir Walter Davenant said he had no liking +for turn-coats. They always over-acted their new part, and commonly +did more to injure the party they joined than the party they +betrayed. The haughty earl once out of the way, the king would +listen to truer men and better servants. + +The Lady Lucy held in detestation the earl's private character. The +king, she said, was a high-minded gentleman, an affectionate husband +and father, his presence and life had done much to reform the court; +the earl was a man of commanding ability, but his hands were not pure +enough to defend so lofty a cause. Better men, she thought, if in +themselves weaker, would yet form stronger stays for the throne of +the anointed of God. If Lord Strafford were displaced, she thought, +the best men of all parties would unite; would understand each other, +would understand their king, and all might yet go well. My Father, +though less sanguine, was not without hope, although on rather +different grounds. While Lady Lucy believed that Lord Strafford's +violence and evil life were a weakness to the cause she deemed in +itself sacred, my Father thought that Lord Strafford's power of +character and mind were a fatal strength to the cause he deemed in +itself evil. The earl once gone, he believed the king would never +find such another prop for his arbitrary measures, the lesser tyrant +would fall like an arch with the key-stone out, and the king would +yield, perforce, to the just demands of the nation. + +However, for the time, Lord Strafford's imprisonment formed a bond of +sympathy between the two families, to Roger's and my great content. +Much friendly rivalry there was in the Christmas adornment of the two +transepts with wreaths of ivy and holly, ending in a free confession +of defeat on our part, as our somewhat clumsy bunches of evergreen +stood out in contrast with the graceful wreaths and festoons with +which Lettice had made the memory of the Davenants green. + +For a moment she enjoyed her triumph, and then begging permission to +make a little change in our arrangements, with that quick perception +of hers, and those fairy fingers which never could touch anything +without weaving something of their own grace into it, in an hour or +two she had made the massive columns and heavy arches of our +ancestral chapel light and graceful as the most decorated monument of +the Davenants, with traceries of glossy leaves and berries. + +Lettice's birthday was on Twelfth Night. She was fifteen, nearly two +years younger than I was, and three than Roger. + +There was great merry-making at the Hall that day. In the morning +distributings of garments to all the maidens in the parish of +Lettice's age, by her own hands. She had some kindly or merry word +for every one, and throughout the day was the soul of all the +festivities. There was such a fullness of life and enjoyment in her; +such a power of going out of herself altogether into the pleasures or +wants of others. She seemed to me the centre of all, just as the sun +is, by sending her sunbeams everywhere. While every one else was +full of the thought of her, she was full only of shining into every +neglected corner and shy blossom, making every one feel glad and +cared for, down to Gammer Grindle's idiot boy. + +It was a wonderful joy for me to be Lettice's friend. I had almost +as much delight in her as Sir Walter, who watched her with such +pride, or Lady Lucy, whose eyes so oft moistened as they rested on +her. She would have it that Roger and I must be at her right hand in +everything. + +In the afternoon Harry Davenant came with Sir Launcelot Trevor. +Harry looked rather grave, I thought, but he was naturally that; and +Lettice's gaiety soon infected him so that he became foremost in the +games, which lasted until the sun went down, and the servants and +villagers dispersed to kindle up the twelve bonfires. But Sir +Launcelot looked sorely out of temper. His heavy brows quite lowered +over his keen, dark eyes, so that they flashed out beneath like the +stormy light under a thunder cloud. He scarcely bent to my Father or +to any of us; and although he was lavish as ever of compliments to +Lady Lucy and Lettice, his brow scarcely relaxed to correspond with +the lip-smiles with which he accompanied them. + +When the sun was fairly set, the twelve fires were kindled, this time +on the field in front of the Hall, in honour of Lettice, instead of +as usual on the village green. + +We waited to see them kindle up, and then we left. Roger stayed +behind us. There was to be songs and dances round the fires, and +then feasting in the Hall late into the night. But Roger only +intended to remain a little while to see the merriment begin. + +I remember looking back for a last glimpse of the fires as they leapt +and sank, one moment lighting up every battlement of the turrets, and +all the carving of the windows with lurid light, and flashing back +from the glass like carbuncles; the next substituting for the reality +their own fantastic light and goblin shadows, so that not a corner or +gable of the old building looked like itself. And I remember +afterwards that close by one of the fires were standing Roger and +Lettice, and Sir Launcelot, near each other; Roger piling wood on the +fire at Lettice's direction, and Sir Launcelot standing a little +apart with folded arms watching them. His face looked red and angry. +I thought it was perhaps because of the angry glare of the flames. +Yet something made me long to turn back and bring Roger away with us. +It was impossible. But involuntarily I looked back once more: the +flames leapt up at the moment, and then I saw Sir Launcelot and Roger +as clearly as in daylight, apparently in eager debate. + +I lingered to watch them, but just then the fitful flames fell, I +could see no more, and I had to hasten on to follow my Father and +Aunt Gretel home. + +Before we reached home the clouds, which had been threatening all +day, began to fall in showers of hail. We had not been in an hour +when, as we were sitting over the hall fire, talking cheerily over +the doings of the day, Roger suddenly entered, his face ashen-white, +his eyes like burning coals, and, in a low voice, called my Father +out to speak to him outside. For a few minutes, which seemed to me +hours, we sat in suspense, Aunt Gretel's knitting falling on her lap, +in entire disregard of consequence to the stitches--Aunt Dorothy's +spinning-wheel whirling as if driven by the Furies. Then my Father +returned alone, as pale as Roger. + +He seated himself again, with his arms on his knees and his hands +over his face--an attitude I had never seen him in before. It made +him look like an old man; and I remember noticing for the first that +his hair was growing gray. + +No one asked any questions. + +At length, in a calm, low voice, my Father said,-- + +"Roger and Sir Launcelot Trevor have quarrelled. Roger struck Sir +Launcelot, and he fell against one of the great logs of the bonfires. +He is wounded severely, and Roger is going to ride to Cambridge for a +physician." + +"In such a night!" said Aunt Gretel; "not a star; and the hail has +been driving against the panes this half hour!" + +"It is the best thing Roger can do," said my Father, quietly. + +The next minute we heard the ring of a horse's hoofs on the pavement +of the court, and then the sound of a long gallop dying slowly away +on the road amidst the howling of the wind and the clattering of the +hail. + +But no one spoke until the household were gathered for family prayer. + +There was no variation in the chapter read or in the usual words of +prayer; only a tremulous depth in my Father's voice as he asked for +blessings on the son and daughter of the house. + +And afterwards, as I wished him good-night, he leant his hand on my +head, and said-- + +"Watch and pray, Olive--watch and pray, my child, lest ye enter into +temptation." + +Then I knelt down, and hid my face on his knee, and said-- + +"O Father, Roger must have been sorely provoked--I am sure he was. I +am sure it was not Roger's fault--I am sure; so sure! Sir Launcelot +is so wicked, and I will never forgive him." + +"Roger said it was his fault, my poor little Olive," replied my +Father, very tenderly, "and that he will never forgive _himself_. +And whatever Sir Launcelot said or did, you must forgive him, and +pray that God may forgive him; for he is very seriously hurt, and may +die." + +"Roger would be sure to say that," I said. "He is always ready to +blame himself and excuse every one else. But, O Father, God will not +let Sir Launcelot die! What can we do?" + +"Pray! Olive," he said in a trembling voice--"pray!" and he went to +his own room. + +But all night long, whenever I woke from fitful snatches of sleep, +and went to the window to look if the storm had passed, and if Roger +were coming, I saw the light burning in my Father's window. + +The last time Aunt Gretel crept up softly behind me, and throwing her +large wimple over me, drew me gently away. + +"I have kept such a poor watch for Roger!" I said; "and see! my +Father's lamp is burning still. He has been watching all night." + +"There is Another watching, Olive," she said, softly, "night and day. +The Intercessor slumbers not, nor sleeps. It is never dark now in +the Holiest Place, for he is ever there; and never silent, for He is +ever interceding." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +When I awoke again, the cheerful stir of life had begun within and +without the house--the ducks splashing in the pond in the front +court; the unsuccessful swine and poultry grunting and cackling out +their bill of grievances against their stronger-snouted or +quicker-witted rivals; Tib's cheery voice instructing her cows and +calves; and at intervals the pleasant regular beat of the flail in +the barn, where they were thrashing the corn,--striking steady time +to all the busy irregular sounds of animal life, and bringing them +into a kind of unity. + +All these homely, quiet sounds seemed stranger to me than the howling +of the winds, and fitful clattering of the hail, through the night. +They made me feel impatient with the animals, and with Tib, and with +the inflexible every-day course of things. Was not Roger--our own +Roger--in agony worse than mortal sickness, in suspense whether or +not his hand had dealt a death-blow. Were not we in dreadful +suspense whether his whole life might not be overshadowed from this +moment as with a curse? + +And yet the calves must be fed, and the swine snuff at their troughs +and grudge if they be not satisfied, and the ducks splash and preen +themselves as if nothing was the matter. + +There are many seasons in life when the quiet flow of the stream of +every-day life, as it prattles past our door among the familiar +grasses and pebbles, falls on the heart with a sense of inflexibility +more terrible than the storm which ploughs the waves of the Atlantic +into mountains, and snaps the masts of great ships like withered corn +stalks. + +But that morning was the first on which I learned it. + +The storm had quite passed. The dawn was still struggling with the +cold winter moonlight. Far off the gray morning shone with a steely +gleam on the creek of the Mere, were I used to sit quite still for +hours while Roger angled, holding his fish-basket, amply rewarded at +last by his dictum that there was one little woman in the world who +knew when to hold her tongue, and by the reflecting glory of his +triumph when he brought the basket of fish to Tib for my father's +supper. Only last autumn, and now it seemed as if it had happened in +another life. + +Close to us in the high-road the moonlight still glimmered on the +pools. + +Aunt Gretel was dressed and gone. My last sleep had been sound. I +reproached myself for my hard-heartedness in sleeping at all. + +It was still dusk enough to show the faint red light in my Father's +chamber. Was he still watching? + +My question was answered by the sound of the psalm coming up from the +hall, where the household were gathered for family prayer. This +reminded me that it was the Sabbath-day, the only day on which we +used to sing a psalm at morning prayers. I knelt at the window while +they sang. I heard my father's voice leading the psalm, and Aunt +Dorothy's deep second, and Aunt Gretel's tremulous treble; but not +Roger's. I felt so strange to be listening, instead of joining in +the song. Such a thing had never happened to me before. Aunt Gretel +must have thought it good for me to sleep on, and have crept down +stairs like a ghost. But the feeling of being _outside_ was terrible +to me that morning. It brought back my old terror about being "on +the wrong side of the tree." But not so much for myself. For Roger! +for Roger! What if he should be feeling left outside like +this!--outside the prayers, outside the hymns, outside the holy +family gatherings, outside the light and the welcome! That morning I +felt something of what must be meant by the _outer_ darkness. The +darkness outside! Even the "darkness" did not seem to me so terrible +as the being _outside_! For it showed there was a within--a home; +light within, music within, the Father's welcome within and we +outside! Could it be that Roger was feeling this now? + +All this rushed through my heart as I knelt to the music of the +family psalm. + +Then, dressing hastily, I went down. + +"Roger has been here, Olive," said my Father, answering my looks. +"He brought the chirurgeon to the Hall, and came home an hour since, +and then went back again to watch." + +"Then Sir Launcelot is not out of danger," I said. + +"No," he replied; "but there is hope." + +There was no morning walk for us that day. My Father went to his +chamber, my aunts to theirs, and I to the chamber where the dried +herbs lay, partly because it was Roger's and my Sunday +parliament-house, and partly because from it I could see the towers +of Davenant Hall. + +In our Puritan household we were brought up with great faith in the +virtues of solitude. A very solemn part of our ritual was, "Thou, +when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and shut thy door, and pray +to thy Father which is in secret." "The one minute and unmistakable +rubric," my Father called it, "in the New Testament." For he used to +say, "not only is the solitary place the place for the Redeemer's +agonies and the apostle's bitter weeping; it is the place of the +largest assemblies. For therein passing the barriers of the +congregation, we enter into the assembly and Church of the +first-born, and into the temple not made with hands, eternal in the +heavens. Any religion," said he, "whose secret springs do not exceed +its surface waters, will evaporate in the burden and heat of the day." + +We went to church as usual, and slowly and silently we were coming +away, avoiding as much as possible the usual greetings with +neighbours, and I feeling especially anxious to escape Placidia's +sympathy. + +But that was impossible. However, as she joined us she looked really +anxious; too anxious even to find an appropriate text. She took my +hand kindly, and said-- + +"We must hope for the best, Olive." + +And there was something in the "we," and the briefness of her words, +which brought tears into my eyes, and made me think I might still +have been keeping a hard place in my heart which would have to be +melted. + +But we had only just left the church-yard, and gone a few steps +beyond the gate on the field-path to Netherby (I walking behind the +rest), when a soft hand was laid on my shoulder, and my face was +drawn down to Lettice Davenant's kisses, as in a low voice she said-- + +"Oh, Olive, I am sure Sir Launcelot will get well. My Mother has +been saying prayers all night. And Roger is so good. Indeed, it was +not nearly half Roger's fault. Sir Launcelot did say terribly +provoking things about the Precisians, and hypocrisy, and your +Father." + +"_What_ did he say, Lettice?" I asked, passionately. + +"My Mother says we ought to forget bitter words," she said; "and I +think we ought--at all events, until he gets better." + +"Oh, Lettice," I implored, "tell me, only me! That I may know, if he +should not get better. Roger told my Father it was all his fault; +but I know--I always knew--it was not. I shall know this if you will +not tell me another word, and perhaps think even worse things than +were said." + +"It was not so much the words--they were ordinary enough--it was the +tone," said she. "And, besides, it is so difficult to repeat any +conversation truly; and it was all in such a moment, I can scarcely +tell. It began about Lord Strafford, and about Mr. Hampden and Mr. +Pym being canting hypocrites, and Mr. Cromwell being a beggarly +brewer; and then Sir Launcelot muttered something in a whining tone +about wondering that Roger's Father permitted him to indulge in such +ungodly amusements as bonfires; and Roger said it was not fair to +attack when he knew there could be no retort (meaning because I was +there); and Sir Launcelot said he believed the Precisians never +thought it fair to be attacked except behind some good city walls. +And then followed a fire of words about cowardice, and hypocrisy, and +treason; and then something about your father having taken care to +leave the German wars in good time for his own safety. Then I saw +Roger's hand up, thrusting Sir Launcelot away, rather than striking +him, I thought. But the next instant Sir Launcelot lay on the +ground, with his head against a jagged log, the other end of which +was in the bonfire, and Roger was pulling him back, and Sir Launcelot +swearing something about a "Puritan dog" and being "murdered." And +then I saw the blood flowing from a wound in his head. I gave Roger +my veil to staunch it with. But it would not stop. Sir Launcelot +fainted; and Roger told me to run to my Mother. In five minutes all +the people were on the spot, and Roger was on horseback riding of for +the physician. There! I have told you all I know," she said, +"whether I ought or not. But don't tell Roger. For I tried to +comfort him by saying how he had been provoked. But it did not +comfort him in the least. He looked quite fierce at rue--at me!" +said little Lettice, the tears overflowing, "when he was always so +kind! And he said there was no excuse for murder. He was wild with +trouble," she continued, sobbing, "not a bit like himself, Olive; and +since that I cannot tell what to say to him. Your ways and ours are +not exactly the same, you know. So I have been with my Mother in her +oratory. It is so hard to understand anybody. But I hope God +understands us all. I do hope He does. My Mother could not find one +of the church prayers that quite fitted. But she joined two or three +together, in the Collects, and the Visitation of the Sick, and the +Litany, which seemed to say all she wanted wonderfully. I never knew +how much they meant before. And it does seem as if God must hear; +and Roger always so good. He may say what he likes, always so good, +to me and to every one!" + +Lettice's tears opened the sluices of mine, and were a great comfort; +and it was a comfort, too, to think of those dear kind voices joining +in Lady Lucy's oratory. + +When we reached home, the great table was spread in the hall, and the +serving-men and maidens were standing round it. + +My Father moved to the head and asked the blessing on the meal, then +he said,-- + +"Friends, the hand of God is heavy on me to-day, and you will not +look that I should eat bread while a life is in peril through deed of +one who is to me as my own soul. I might brave it out, and put on a +cheerful countenance. But I would have you know I am humbled. The +blows of an enemy we may face as men. Beneath the rod of the Lord we +must bow like smitten children. And I would have you know I do. Yet +I cannot refrain from telling you also that it was for bitter words +against good men that the blow was struck. So much I must say for +the boy, though God forbid I should hide the sin." + +He left the hall, and every eye was moist as it followed him. + +The general judgment was anything but harsh against Roger, as was +easy to see from the few low broken words which interrupted the +silence of that sorrowful meal, and from the response of Tib, to whom +I secretly ventured to tell how sorely Roger had been provoked. + +"No need to tell me, Mistress Olive!" said she. "That Sir Launcelot +is enough to rouse a saint, his groom told my Margery's Dickon. And +they may say what they like, but I wouldn't give a farthing for any +saint that can't be roused." + +It was not the public verdict Roger had to fear. Aunt Dorothy took +my Father's place at the head of the table, her face white and rigid, +carving the meat, but eating not a morsel, nor uttering a word. Aunt +Gretel moved about on one pretence and another, holding +half-whispered discourse with the elder servants of the house, from +the broken snatches of which I gathered that she fell into great +historical difficulties in her double anxiety to say nothing harsh of +the wounded gentleman, and at the same time to prove that Roger had +meant no harm. And I, meantime, could scarce have sat through that +terrible meal at all, but for Roger's stag-hound Lion, who nestled in +close to me, pressing his great head under my hand, and calling my +attention by a soft moan, and from time to time secretly relieving me +of the food I could not touch, bolting it in a surreptitious manner, +regardless of consequences, which said as plainly as possible, "Thou +and I understand each other. Our hearts are in the same place. I +eat, not because I care a straw about it, but to please thee and help +_him_." Only once, when my tears fell fast on his nose, as I stooped +over him to hide them, his feelings betrayed him, and his great paws +appeared for a moment on the clean Sabbath cloth, as with an +inquiring whine he started up and tried to lick my face, which I +supposed was his way of figuratively wiping away my tears. But at +the gentlest touch on his paws he subsided, casting one anxious +glance at Aunt Dorothy, who, however, neither saw him nor the brown +foot-prints on the tablecloth. Always afterwards he maintained his +gentlemanlike reserve, limiting all further expression of his +feelings to spasmodic movements of his tail, and to his great soft +wistful eyes, which he never took off from me, For dogs always know +when anything is the matter. Their misfortune is they can never make +out what it is. Roger's ancient foe, the old gray cat, meantime made +secretly off with a piece of meat which Lion had dropped. And I +caught sight of her slowly luxuriating over it in a corner, entirely +regardless of the family circumstances. + +Every most trivial incident in that day glows as vividly and +distinctly in my memory, in the fire of the passion that burned +through it all, as every detail of the carving of Davenant Hall in +the flames of the twelve bonfires. + +The meal passed in a silence so deep that every whisper of Aunt +Gretel's and every moan of Lion's were clearly heard. But afterwards +the men slunk hastily away to the farm-yard and stables, and Tib with +bones and fragments to her hens and pigs, and the maidens began to +clear away the wooden trenchers and our pewter dishes, the clatter +and rattle sounding singularly noisy without the cheerful talk which +generally accompanied it. + +Aunt Dorothy, Aunt Gretel, and I, went, at his summons, into my +Father's justice-room. "Where two or three are gathered together," +said he; and without further preamble we all knelt down while he +prayed, in a few words and quiet (to the ear). For he seemed to feel +the great, loving, omnipotent Presence; not far off, where cries only +could reach, but near, close, overshadowing, indwelling, too near +almost for speech. And we felt the same. + +When he ceased, it was some minutes before we rose. And the silence +fell on me like an answer like an "Amen," like one of those "Verilys" +which shine through so many of the Gospel words, and illumine them so +that they may read in the dark; in the dark when we most need them. + +Before we left, I told him of Lady Lucy and Lettice praying the +Collects for Roger in her oratory. + +My Father turned away with trembling lips to the window. Aunt Gretel +sobbed, Aunt Dorothy said, with a faint voice,-- + +"God forgive me if I said anything of Lady Lucy I should not have +said." + +We had not left the room when Lettice's white palfry flashed past the +door, and in another moment she had met us in the porch. + +"Sir Launcelot will live!" she said. "The physician says there is +every hope; and he sleeps. If he wakes better, all will be right; +and Roger waits to see, because he still fears. But I am sure all +will be well. And I could not bear you should wait; so my mother let +me come." + +In his thankfulness my Father forgot the stately courtesy with which +he usually treated Lettice, and stooping down, took her in his arms, +as if she had been me, and kissed and blessed her, and called her +"God's sweet messenger and dove of hope!" and prayed she might be so +all her life. And Aunt Gretel disappeared to tell every one. But +Aunt Dorothy stood still where she was, and covered her face with her +hands and wept unrestrainedly in a way most uncommon with her. + +Lettice, with her own sweet instinct when to come and when to go, was +on the steps by the door in a moment (anticipating her groom's ready +hand), on her white pony, waving her hand to us as we watched her in +the porch, and away out of sight, escaping our thanks, and leaving us +to our hope. + +Slowly the dispersed household, who had all been invisibly bound to +the centre they nevertheless would not approach, gathered in the hall +from stall, and shed, and field. + +And then my Father said,-- + +"Friends, God has given us hope. Therefore let us pray." And for a +few minutes we all knelt together while he prayed, in brief trustful +words, ending with the Lord's Prayer, in which all the voices joined, +at least all that could, for there were many tears. + +Then my Father read Luther's Psalm, "God is our refuge and strength, +a very present help in time of trouble." + +And we felt it was true. And so the service ended. And once more +the household scattered. For Roger had yet to return, and we all +felt a family-gathering would be a welcome he could ill bear. So +Aunt Dorothy went to her chamber, and Aunt Gretel to her German +hymn-book by the fireside, and I to my place at her feet, and then to +watch from the porch. For my Father went out to meet Roger. + +And of that meeting neither of them ever spoke. + +They came back together, my Father's hand on Roger's shoulder, half +as on a child's for tenderness, half as an old man's on a son's for +support. + +"Sir Launcelot is out of danger!" said my Father, when he came into +the hall. + +Roger kissed me and Aunt Gretel as he passed, and took my hand and +tried to say something; but said nothing, only let me sob a minute on +his shoulder, and then went up to his chamber. + +We were used rather to repress than to give utterance to feeling in +our Puritan households. And Lion was the only person who made much +show of what he felt, twisting and whining and fondling round Roger +in a way very unsuited to his giant bulk. We heard him pacing after +Roger to the foot of the great staircase. Upstairs no dog under Aunt +Dorothy's rule would venture, under the strongest excitement; so +after lying expectant at its foot for some time, Lion returned to +express his satisfaction in a more composed manner to me. + +At family-prayer that night, my Father made one brief allusion of +fervent thankfulness to the mercy of the day. More neither he nor +Roger could have borne. + +And so that Sabbath of unrest ended. To us, but not to Roger; +although I only learned this long afterwards. For no lamp marked the +watch of agony he kept that night. And on his haggard countenance, +when he came down the next morning, no one dared question nor comment. + +For while others rejoiced in the deliverance, he writhed in agony +under the burden and in the coils of his sin. The accident of the +log being at hand, that might have made it murder, and the other +accident, that the wound had not been an inch nearer the temple or a +barley-corn deeper, made absolutely no difference in the burden that +weighed on him. If Sir Launcelot had died, the punishment would have +been heavier; but not the remorse. And although his living was the +deepest cause of thankfulness, yet it was no lightening of the sin. +For it was the fountain of the sin within that was Roger's misery; +the fountain deep in the heart. + +Now he began to feel the meaning of the words, "Out of the heart." +Now the old difficulties he and I had discussed in the apple-tree and +in the herb-chamber rushed back on him. Now he began to feel that it +was no mere entertaining question in metaphysical dynamics whether he +was a free agent or not, but a question of moral and eternal life or +death. + +Could he have resisted the temptation to strike Sir Launcelot? Or +could he not? His hand had stirred to deal that blow, at the bidding +of the bitter anger in his heart, as instinctively and almost as +unconsciously as the indignant blood had rushed to the cheek. What +had stirred the sudden movement of anger in his heart? Far bitterer +words from the lips of a stranger had not moved him as those mocking +tones of Sir Launcelot's. The strength of that fatal impulse was but +the accumulated force of the irritation of countless petty +provocations, not retaliated outwardly, but suffered to ferment in +the heart. Nor was that last sin altogether rooted in sin. Roger's +search into his own heart was made with too intense a desire of being +true to himself and to God for him to fall into that blind passion of +self-accusing. It had been more than half-rooted in justice, just +anger against injustice, generous indignation against ungenerous +slander, truth revolting against falsehood. And so gradual (and in +part so just) had been the growth of deep-rooted detestation of Sir +Launcelot's character, that the last act--which might have been crime +in the eyes of man, which was crime in the eyes of God, whose +judgment is not measured by consequences--had become almost as +irresistible and instinctive as the movement of the eyelid to sweep a +grain of dust from the eye. + +When, then, could he have begun to resist? When would it have been +possible to stem the little stream which had swollen into a torrent +that had all but swept his life into ruin? Where was the point where +sin and virtue, hatred which leads to murder, and justice which is +the foundation of all virtue, began to intertwine until they were +ravelled inextricably beyond his power to sever or distinguish? Had +there ever been such a point? Must not all, he being as he was by +nature, and things being as they were, and Sir Launcelot being as he +was, have necessarily gone on as it had, and led to the result it led +to? + +But here came in the low inextinguishable voice of conscience. + +"This anguish is no fruit of inevitable necessity. It was sin--it +was sin. I have sinned." And then-- + +"I have sinned, because there is sin _in me_. Sin in me; no mere +detached faults, no isolated wrong acts, but a fountain of evil +within me, from which every evil thing proceeds. Out of the +heart--out of the heart; not from without, not something merely in +me. It is _I myself_ that am sinful, that have sinned. This one +evil thing, which, unlike all other seemingly evil things, storms or +frosts, or corruption and death itself, never produces good fruit, +but only evil fruit, is springing is an inexhaustible flow from the +depths of my innocent being." + +"Free? I am _not_ free! I am in bondage. I am a slave. I am tied +and bound. Yet this bondage is no excuse; it is the very essence of +my sin. I cannot explain it; but I feel it. I feel it in this +anguish which I cannot escape any more than we can escape from +anguish in the bones by writhing. For this is not the anguish of +blows or of wounds, but of disease within, growing from my inmost +heart, preying on my inmost life. O God, I have sinned, I am a +sinful man. In me is no help. Is there none in the universe, none +in Thee?" + +Then from the depth of the anguish came the relief. The thought +flashed through him-- + +"Unless one worse than the worst conception man ever formed of the +devil is the Maker of man and the Omnipotent Ruler of the world, it +is impossible that we should be so powerless in ourselves to overcome +sin, and so agonized in remorse for it, and yet that there should be +no deliverance." + +That thought made a lull in his anguish for a time, a silence; that +thought, and the mere exhaustion of the conflict. For his thoughts +had whirled him round until thought, with the mere rapidity of +motion, became imperceptible. In the centre of the whirlwind there +was stillness, and therein he lay prostrate, dumb, and exhausted. + +But not alone. + +On his mind, wearied out with vain thinking, on his heart, numb with +suffering, fell in the pause of the storm old sweet, familiar words, +still small voices, soft echoes of sacred hymns learned in childhood; +those old familiar, simple words, wherewith the Spirit, moving like a +dove on the face of the waters, knows how to win entrance into souls +tempest-tossed, when new words, though wise and deep as an +archangel's, would only sweep past its closed doors undistinguished +from the wail of the winds, or the raging of the seas on which it +tosses. + +Old familiar words,-- + +"Go in peace, thy sins are forgiven thee." + +Words of healing to so many! + +Forgiveness; not as a far-off result of a life of expiation, but +free, complete, present. Peace; not after years of doubtful +conflict, but now, to strengthen for the conflict. Yet these were +not the words he most wanted then. It was not so much that guilt +pressed on him as a burden, as that sin bound him like a chain. Not +peace he most wanted, but power; freedom to fight, power to overcome. +It seemed to him as if what he longed for was not so much "Go in +peace," as "Come! and I will chasten thee, smite thee low, humble +thee in the dust; but make thee whole." + +Not soft words of comfort, but strong words of hope and promise, were +what he needed, and they did not seem to come. + +He crept out of the house before dawn to obtain tidings at the Hall +of Sir Launcelot, and to quiet the restlessness of his heart by +outward movement. + +On his way he passed the forge where Job Forster, the blacksmith, +lived alone with his wife at the edge of the village opposite to +ours, on the way to the Hall. + +There was a light in Job's window; a strange sight in his orderly and +childless home. The red glare it cast across the road was struggling +with the growing dawn. As Roger approached, it was put out; and just +when he reached the door it was opened, and Job's tall figure issued +forth. + +Job strode forward and grasped Roger's hand. + +"Thee had best not be roaming about the country by theeself in the +dark like a ghost," said he. "It's wisht!" + +"Is anything the matter?" asked Roger, diverting the conversation +from himself. + +"There's nought the matter with us," said Job. + +"There was a light in your window, so I thought Rachel might be ill," +said Roger. + +"There's nought ailing with us," repeated Job; and after some +hesitation he added, "We were but thinking of thee." + +"You used not to need a lamp to think by," said Roger, touched more +than he liked to show. + +"No, nor to pray by," said Job. "But we wanted a promise, she and +I." (Job seldom called his wife anything but she.) "We wanted a +promise, Master, for thee. For she thought the devil would be sure +to be busy with thee just now, and so did I." + +"Did you find one?" asked Roger. + +"They are as plenty as the stars," said Job, "but we couldn't light +on the one that would fit. And it's bad work hammering them promises +to fit if they don't go right at first." + +"As many as the stars, and not one that fits me!" said Roger, +unintentionally betraying the struggles of the night. "Peace, and +pardon, and everything every one wants, but not what I want. You +found none, Job! Then, of course, there was nothing more to be done. +You and Rachel wouldn't give in easily." + +"Well, Master Roger," said Job, "we didn't. But we came to a stand, +and for a while gave up looking altogether. And I sat down on one +edge of the bed and she on the other, and we said nothing. But she +wept nigh as bitter as Esau, for she ever had a tender heart for +thee, having none of her own, and thee no mother. When all at once +she flashed up through her tears, and said, 'Why, Job, we've gone +a-hunting for a promise, and we've got them all to our hand. All in +Him! Yea and amen, in Him! We've forgotten the blessed Lord!' Then +it struck me all of a heap what fools we were; and I could have +laughed for gladness, but that she might have thought I'd gone mazed. +So I only said, 'Why, child, here we've been chattering like cranes, +as if we'd been all in the twilight, like poor old Hezekiah. We've +been hunting for the promises, and we've got the Gift! We've been +groping for words, and we've got the Word.' So we knelt down again, +and begged hard of the Lord to mind how He was tempted and forsaken, +and to mind thee, Master Roger, and help thee any way He could. And +we rose up wonderful lightened, she and I. And then the promises +came falling about us as thick as hail; and uppermost of them all, +'If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed;' +'Reconciled to God by His death; saved by His life;' and, 'I am come +that they might have _life_.'" + +"Job," said Roger, "I think that will do; I think that will fit me." + +"Maybe, Master Roger," said Job. "They're mighty words. But, please +God, thee and she and I never forget what we learnt to-night. Words +are not so strong always the thousandth time as the first. But His +voice goes deeper every time we hearken to it. And every sore needs +a fresh salve. But His touch is a salve for all sores. Never you be +such a fool as we were, Master Roger. Never you go creeping back +into the dark hunting for a promise and forget that they are all, yea +and amen, in the Lord. No more if's or maybe's, or peradventure's, +but yea and amen in Him for us all for ever." + +Roger grasped Job's hand in silence, and went on to hear tidings of +Sir Launcelot. + +The night had been quiet; the fever had subsided, and the danger was +over. And Roger came back to his chamber at Netherby to give thanks +to God. For danger averted from others, for a curse averted from +himself, but above all, for the glorious promise of freedom now and +for ever--freedom to overcome sin, freedom to serve God. Freedom in +the liberating Saviour, life in the Life, sonship in the Son, now and +for ever. + + +The various streams of the various lives which had been flooded into +one by the common anxiety about Roger and Sir Launcelot soon shrank +back into their various separate channels. + +Ah! if we could all keep at the point, "_I will arise_," or better +still, at the place where the Father meets us, how good, and lowly, +and tender-hearted we should be! No, "_thou never gavest me a kid;_" +no, "_this thy son, which hath devoured thy substance!_" Strange +that the memory of such moments (and what Christian life can be +without such?) should not keep the heart ever broken and open. The +best way towards this, no doubt, is to have such an arising and such +an embracing every day we live. I am sure we need it. However, we +did not exactly do this at that time at Netherby. + +Aunt Dorothy, on thinking matters over with her "sober judgment," +thought it a duty to warn us against the "spirit of bondage," which, +with all her sweetness, had restrained poor Lady Lucy's prayers to +the limits of the Prayer-Look. Cousin Placidia, the immediate +anxiety having subsided, could not but feel that Roger's vehemence +had added another step to the distance which already separated them. +Once on that Pharisaic height, to which, alas! we so easily rise +without any trouble of climbing, being puffed up thither by windy +substances within and without, other people's falls necessarily +increase our comparative elevation above them; and whether this is +caused by their descent or by our ascent is difficult to determine; +just as in the case of one boat passing another, it is difficult by +the mere sense of sight to ascertain which is moving. Not that +Placidia asserted this conscious superiority by reproaches. Did she +need to descend to speech? Was not her life a reproach? That placid +life, unbroken by any movement deeper than the soft ripples of an +approving conscience; or a calm disapproval of any one attempting an +encroachment on her rights,--which of course she never permitted. +Had she not heard of Archbishop Laud's cruelties to the three +gentlemen in the pillory with no further emotion than a gentle regret +that the three gentlemen could not have held their tongues? Had she +not, on the other hand, heard the tidings of Lord Stratford's arrest, +and the destruction of the Star-Chamber Court, with no more vehement +feeling than a remark on the vanity of human greatness, and a gentle +hope that it might lead to the abolition of the very inconvenient +monopolies on pepper and soap? + +Had she not always warned Roger and me against severity on Sir +Launcelot? Had she not even gone the length of pronouncing him a +very fine gentleman? And what could be more striking than the +subsequent justification of her warnings by the revengeful act to +which Roger had been betrayed? + +Under all these circumstances, Placidia's forbearance must have +seemed to herself remarkable. She uttered no rebuke, she pointed no +moral, by reminding us of her prophetical sayings. She merely +towered above us on her serene heights, a little higher, a little +more serene--a very little--than before. And she called me "Olive, +my dear," and Roger "poor Roger." But that was partly, no doubt, on +account of her being married. + +Roger bore her superiority most meekly. Indeed, I believe he felt it +as much as she did. For Roger _did_ remain at that point of +penitence and pardon where the heart keeps sweet, and lowly, and +tender. Which, most certainly, I very often did not. For Placidia's +condescension, especially to Roger, chafed me often past endurance. + +Only once I remember his being roused. + +She had been saying (I forget in what connection) that she hoped +Roger would not be too much cast down. "It was never too late to +turn over a new leaf; and then there was the consoling example of the +Apostle Peter. There was reason to believe that the Apostle Peter +was a wiser and better man all his life from his terrible fall. And +we know that 'all things work for good,'" said she, "'to them that +are called.'" + +Then Roger, sitting at the other end of the hall cleaning his gun, as +we believed out of hearing, suddenly rose, and coming to where we +were sitting, stood before Placidia with compressed lips and arms +folded tightly on his breast,-- + +"Cousin Placidia," he said, "never, never say that again. St. Peter +was not wiser and better, or even humbler for denying Christ. No +doubt he was wiser, and better, and tenderer for that look, for ever +and ever; and better for the bitter weeping; but not for the denial, +not for the sin." + +Said my Father, who came in behind Roger as he spoke, laying his hand +on Roger's shoulder,-- + +"True, Roger, true; but though sin can never work for good, the +memory of sin may; and at any point in the lowest depths where we +turn our back on the husks and our face to the Father's house, God +will meet us, and from that moment make the consequences, bitter as +they may be, begin to work for good to us." + +"To us! Father, to us," said Roger, "but to others--how to others? +To those our misdoing may have misled or confirmed in evil? We may +stop a rock hurled down a precipice. But who can stop all it has set +in motion, or undo the ruin it has wrought in its way?" + +"Nothing works for good," said my Father mournfully, "to those whose +faces are turned from God. But He can help us, and will, if we set +our whole hearts to it, to counter-work the evil we have wrought. +Counter-work, I say, not undo; for to undo a deed done is impossible +even to Omnipotence. And that makes sin the one terrible and +unalterably evil and sorrowful thing in the world, and the only one." + +The words fell heavily on my heart. Was this the gospel? I thought. +Evil never, never to be undone, sin never to be the same as if it had +not been? Placidia said no more until Roger and my Father went out +on the farm together, and we were left alone with Aunt Gretel, and +then she observed in her deliberate way, with a slow shake of her +head,-- + +"I hope Cousin Roger is not still in the dark. I trust he +understands the gospel--" + +"What do you mean by the gospel, Placidia?" said I, half roused on +Roger's account and half troubled on my own. + +Placidia, always ready (at that time) with a theological definition, +neatly folded and packed, entered into a disquisition of some length +as to what she understood by "the gospel." In a deliberate and +business-like manner she undertook to explain the purposes of the +Almighty from the beginning, as if she had, in some inexplicable way, +been in the confidence of Heaven before the beginning, and +comprehended not only all the purposes of the Eternal, but the +reasons on which these purposes were founded. The effect produced on +my mind was as if the whole life-giving stream of redeeming love +flowing from the glorious unity of the living God, the Father, the +Son, and the Holy Spirit, had been frozen into a rigid contract +between certain high sovereign powers for the purchase of a certain +inheritance for their own use, in which the utmost care was taken on +all sides that the quantity paid and the quantity received should be +precisely equivalent. It was as if the whole living, breathing +world, with its infinite blue heavens, its abounding rivers, its +waving corn-fields, its heaving seas, and all that is therein, had +been shrivelled into a map of estates, in which nothing was of +importance but the dividing lines. These "dividing lines" of her +system might, for aught I knew, be correct enough, might be those of +the Bible itself; but the awful Omnipresence, the real holy +indignation against wrong, the love, the life, the yearning, pitying, +repenting, immutably just, yet tenderly forgiving heart which beats +in every page of the Bible, had vanished altogether. All the while +she spoke, as it were in spite of myself, the words kept running +through my head, "They that make them are like unto them." + +At the close she said, turning to Aunt Gretel,-- + +"I think I have stated the gospel clearly. I only hope Cousin Roger +understands it." + +"I am sure I do not know, my dear," said Aunt Gretel (for Aunt +Gretel, being always afraid of in some way compromising Dr. Luther by +any confusion in her theological statements, seldom ventured out of +the text of Scripture). "I am sure, my dear, I do not know. I am no +theologian. And it is a blessing that the Holy Scriptures provide +what Dr. Luther calls a gospel in miniature for those who are no +theologians: 'God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten +Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have +ever-lasting life.' That is my gospel, my dear. It is shorter, you +see, than yours, and I think rather better news; especially for the +wandering sheep and prodigal sons, and all the people outside, and +for those who, like me, trust they have come back, but still feel, as +I do, very apt to go wrong again." + +"Mr. Nicholls always says I have rather a remarkably clear head for +theology," said Placidia. "But gifts differ, and we have none of us +anything to be proud of." + +"No doubt, my dear," said Aunt Gretel. "At least I am sure I have +not. But I cannot say I think the punishment, or at least the sad +consequences of sin are all exactly taken away for us, at least in +this life. For instance, there is Gammer Grindle's grandchild, poor +Cicely, as pretty a girl as ever danced around the May-pole, that +people say Sir Launcelot Trevor tempted away to London, and left to +no one knows what misery there. (If it was not Sir Launcelot, may I +be forgiven for joining in an unjust accusation; but he was seen +speaking to her the evening before she left.) Now if Sir Launcelot +were to repent, as I pray he may, that would not bring back the lost +innocence to little Cicely; nor do I see how the thought of her could +ever bring anything but a bitter agony of remorse to him." + +("Ah," interposed Aunt Dorothy, who had joined us, "_I did_ speak my +mind, I am thankful to say, about those May-poles.") + +"What is forgiveness, then?" resumed Placidia. "And what is the good +of being religious, if we are to be punished just the same as if we +were not forgiven?" + +"The blessing of forgiveness," said Aunt Dorothy, "is _being +forgiven_; and the good of being godly is, I should think, being +godly." + +"Forgiveness, my dear," added Aunt Gretel, "What is forgiveness? It +is welcome back to the Father's heart. It is the curse borne for us +and taken from us out of everything, out of death itself. It is God +with us against all our sins, God for us against all our real foes. +It is the broken link reknit between us and God. It is the link +broken between us and sin. What would you have better? What could +you have more? Once on the Father's heart, can we not well leave it +to Him to decide what pain we can be spared, and what we can not be +spared, without so much the more sin, which is so infinitely worse +than any pain." + +"My theology," Aunt Dorothy continued, "is the doctrine Nathan taught +when he said to David, 'The Lord hath put away thy sin, but the child +shall die,'--and to the Apostle Paul when he wrote, 'God is not +mocked; whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap:' the +theology our fathers taught us; no gospel of _tolerating_ sin, but of +_forgiving_ and _destroying_ it. 'Christ has redeemed us from the +curse of the law, being made a curse for us.' He has brought us +under the rod of the covenant, having Himself 'learned obedience +through the things which He suffered.' There is as much mercy and as +much justice in one as in the other. I hope, my dear," she +concluded, "you and Mr. Nicholls do indeed understand the gospel. +But, I confess, people who get into the Covenant so very easily do +puzzle me. They say the anguish all but cost Dr. Luther his life, +and Mr. Cromwell his reason." + +Placidia, from her double height of spiritual serenity and +semi-clerical dignity, looked mildly down on Aunt Dorothy's +suggestions. + +"Aunt Dorothy," said she, "I have often thought, you scarcely +comprehend Mr. Nicholls and me. But it is written, 'Woe unto you +when all men speak well of you.' And as to Cousin Roger's Gospel, I +should call it simply the Law." + +Soon after Placidia rose to leave. But as she was putting on her +mufflers, she remarked, as if the thought had just occurred to her,-- + +"Aunt Dorothy, those three beautiful cows Uncle Drayton gave me, I am +a little anxious about them: the glebe farm is on high ground, and +the grass is not so rich as they have been used to, and I was saying +to Mr. Nicholls yesterday morning that I was sure Uncle Drayton would +be quite distressed if he saw how much less yellow and rich the +butter was than it used to be. And Mr. Nicholls said he quite felt +with me. And Uncle Drayton is always so kind. So I said I thought I +had better be quite frank with Uncle Drayton. You know I always am +frank, and speak out what I think. It is no merit in me. It is my +nature, and I cannot help it. And Mr. Nicholls said he thought I +had. And yesterday evening it happened that we were passing the +meadow by the Mere, and there were no cattle on it. And I said to +Mr. Nicholls at once, what a pity that beautiful grass should run to +seed, and our butter be such a poor colour. And Mr. Nicholls saw it +at once. And he advised me--or I suggested and he approved of it, I +cannot be certain which (and I am always so anxious to report +everything exactly as it happened)--at once to go to Uncle Drayton +and ask him if he would allow our three cows just to stand for a +little while in that meadow, while there are no other cattle to put +in it, just to prevent the pasture running to waste, which I know +would be quite a trouble to Uncle Drayton if he thought of it, only +no one can be in every place at once, and no doubt he had forgotten +it." + +"_Very few_ people's eyes can be in every place at once, certainly, +Placidia," said Aunt Dorothy, with point. "But it so happens that +your uncle had not forgotten that meadow. And this morning Bob drove +all our cows there." + +"Oh," said Placidia, "that is quite enough. I only felt naturally +anxious that nothing should be wasted, especially when we happened to +be wanting it. But, of course, a poor parson's wife cannot expect +such butter as you have at Netherby; only I always remember the +'twelve baskets,' and how important it is 'nothing should be lost,' +and the virtuous woman at the end of the Proverbs. I shall always +have reason to be grateful to you, Aunt Dorothy, for making me learn +so much Scripture." + +"Thank you, my dear," said Aunt Dorothy, "you always had an excellent +memory. But it is very important with the Holy Scriptures, at least +the English version, not to read them from right to left." + +So Cousin Placidia departed, leaving Aunt Dorothy with a comfortable +sense of having defeated a plot. + +But half an hour afterwards my Father came in. + +"Poor Placidia," said he, "I met her on her way home, and I really +was quite touched by her gratitude for those few cows I gave her, and +also by the feeling she expressed about Roger. It seems the glebe +pasture does not agree with the beasts as well as ours, and she had +been rather troubled about the butter, but had not liked to speak of +it, especially when we were in such anxiety about Roger. It really +shows more delicacy of feeling than I thought Placidia possessed, +poor child. And it shows how careful we ought to be not to form +uncharitable judgments. So I ordered Bob to put those three cows +with ours in the Mere meadow for a little while." + +"Did Placidia mention the Mere meadow?" said Aunt Dorothy. + +"Well, I cannot be sure, but I think she did; and I think it was a +very sensible notion." + +"What did Bob say?" said Aunt Dorothy, grimly. + +"Bob spoke rather sharply," said my Father; "he is apt to be very +free-spoken at times; he said he had like to look well to our +pastures if we were to give change of air to all Mistress Nicholl's +cattle. It was not likely, Bob thought, they would be in any hurry +to change back again." + +"Well, there _are_ men," murmured Aunt Dorothy, "who are as harmless +as doves, and there are women who are as wise as serpents. And the +less the two meet the better. I don't care a rush who feeds +Placidia's cows; but it is almost more than I can bear that she +thinks no one sees through her schemes." + +But Placidia had triumphed. And the parsonage cows never needed any +further change of residence. + +It irks me somewhat to intertwine these rough dark threads with the +story of those so dear to me, but the whole would drop into +unmeaningness without them. Placidia and Mr. Nicholls made many a +calumny of the enemy's comprehensible to me. For in later days it +became the fashion to assert that characters of that stamp formed the +staple of our Commonwealth men and women. Characters of this stamp +win Naseby and Worcester! save the persecuted Vaudois! make England +the reverence of the world! conceive the "Pilgrim's Progress," the +"Areopagitica," and the "Living Temple!" sacrifice two thousand +livings for conscience sake! + +No! Pharisees, doubtless, there were among us, as, alas, doubtless +there is the root of Pharisaism within us. But they were of the make +of Saul the disciple of Gamaliel, not of those who tithed the "mint, +anise, and cummin." + + +At first it seemed to me that Placidia's "Gospel" was more likely to +be fulfilled in Roger's case than his own forebodings. + +Good seemed to come out of that hasty act of his rather than evil. +The feeling he, usually so self-repressing, had shown about Sir +Launcelot, revealed him in a new light to Lady Lucy. + +"I thought him rather stony, I must confess," she said; "but now I +see it was only a little of your Puritan ice, if I may say so without +offence; and that there is an ocean of feeling below. My dear, now +all has ended well, he really must not take it so much to heart. He +has grown too grave. We cannot have precisely the same standard for +young men, with all their temptations and strong passions, as for +sweet innocent girls sheltered tenderly in homes, with our softer +natures. I should always wish to be severe to myself. But young +men; ah, my child, the king is a good man, but if you had seen a +little even of our Court, you would think Roger an angel." + +Compared with Sir Launcelot, I most sincerely believed he was. But +this double standard was unknown in our Puritan home. One law of +righteousness, and purity, and goodness we knew, and only one, for +man and woman. And in this I learned to think Aunt Dorothy's +grimmest sternness more pitiful than Lady Lucy's pity. I do not wish +to set down what seemed to me Lady Lucy's mistakes to any sect or any +doctrine. In theory all Christian sects are agreed as to the moral +standard. But I believe in my heart it was the high moral standard +set up, in those days, chiefly (never only) in our Puritan homes, +which will be the salvation of England, if ever that pest-house, +called the Court, is to be cleansed, and if England ever is to be +saved. + +Lady Lucy's religion was one of tender, devotional emotions, minute +ceremonial, and gorgeous ritual. When braced up by Christian +principle, it was beautiful and attractive. The Puritan religion was +one of principle and doctrine. When inspired by Divine love, it was +gloriously deep and strong. + +Meantime, with Sir Walter and his boys, Roger had manifestly risen +many degrees by his "spirited conduct." Sir Launcelot's jests, they +admitted, could bite, and it was just as well he should have a +lesson, though rather a severe one. + +Sir Launcelot himself, moreover, took a far different demeanour +towards Roger. "Saints with that amount of fire in their temper," he +observed, "might be dangerous, but were certainly not despicable." + +And as to Lettice, whose moral code was chivalrous rather than +Scriptural, and to whom generosity was a far more admirable virtue +than justice, and honour a more glorious thing than duty, she said +candidly she was delighted Roger had lost his temper for once, just +to show every one how much heart and spirit he had. + +"You and I knew what he was, Olive," said she; "but I wanted the rest +to feel it too." + +And yet there was something lost. Slowly I grew to see and feel it. + +Firstly, in the relative position of Roger and Sir Launcelot. Deeds +of violence inevitably place the one who does them morally below the +one who suffers. There had been a real honour to Roger in Sir +Launcelot's previous mockery; there was a real dishonour in the +assumption he now made that Roger stood on his own level. Moreover, +Roger's own generous self-reproach deprived him of the power of +retort. + +And secondly (but chiefly), in Lettice's altered feeling about Sir +Launcelot. Roger never spoke of him; but now that he had recovered, +I felt that I could not forget how, by Lettice's own account, he had +provoked the blow; nor could I see that the fact of his having +received a blow which he had provoked in any way made his character +different from what it had been. Many debates we had on the subject, +for we met often during those weeks--those weeks of winter and early +spring, when the whole nation was in suspense about Lord Strafford's +trial, watching during the ploughing and sowing of the year the +solemn reaping of the harvest he had sown. One of these debates in +particular I remember, because of the way in which it closed. + +It was on Thursday, the 13th of May (1641). We had met in the wood +by the Lady Well. There seemed a marvellous melody that day in the +music of the little spring, as it bubbled up into its stone trough, +and echoed back from the stone roof of the little sacred cell the +monks had lovingly made for it seven hundred years ago. The +inscription could still be read on the front:-- + + "Ut jucundas cervus undas + Æstuans desiderat, + Sic ad rivum Dei vivum + Mens fidelis properat." + + +Lettice and I knelt and listened to it. + +"It is as if all the bells in fairy-land were ringing," said she at +length, softly; "only hear how the soft peals rise and fall, and go +and come, and how one sound drops into another, and blends with it, +and flows away and comes back, and meets the next, until there is no +following them." + +"Then," said I, "there must have been choirs and church-bells in +fairy-land, for there is surely something sad and sacred in the +sound. It sounds to me like those bells the legends tell us of, +buried beneath the sea, tolling up to us from far beneath the dark +waters of the past." + +Then Lettice fastened back her long hair, and stooped down and drank +of the crystal water, bathing her face as she drank. + +"Those Israelitish soldiers understood how to enjoy water," said she, +rising from her draught. "That is delicious." + +For we were tired and thirsty with gathering lapfuls of the +blue-bells, of which the woods were full. + +As she stood, her moist parted lips, the rich glow on her cheeks, her +eyes dancing with life, her arms full of flowers, she said,-- + +"It never seems enough to look at the beautiful world, Olive. I seem +to want another sense for it. I want to drink of it like this +spring; to take it to my heart, as I do these flowers. And I suppose +that is why I delight to gather them, just as when I was a little +child. Do you understand?" + +I did; but I thought of the inscription on the Lady Well. + +"I suppose we do want to get nearer, Lettice," I said; "we want to +drink of the Fountain. We want to rest on the Heart." + +"Do you think that is what this strange unsatisfied longing means," +said she, "which all great joys and all very beautiful things give +me?" + +For a few moments she was silent. Then she said,-- + +"What life there is everywhere! Everything seems filled too full of +joy, and brimming over--the birds into songs, the fields into +flowers, and the trees into leaves, the oldest and gayest of them. +And I feel just like them all, Olive. On such a morning one must +love every one and everything, altogether regardless of their being +lovable, just for the sake of loving. Olive," she added, with one of +her sudden turns of thought, "to-day you must forgive Sir Launcelot +from the very bottom of your heart, once for all." + +"Oh, Lettice," said I, "I do forgive him, I really think I did, long +since; at least for everything but his forgiving Roger in that +gracious way, as if Roger had nothing to forgive him. I have +forgiven him, but I cannot think him good." + +"Ungenerous!" said she, half in jest and half in earnest; "you ought +to think every one good on such a morning as this. Besides, Sir +Launcelot always speaks so kindly and generously of you: he says you +are goodness itself." + +"I cannot think what is not true, just because the sun shines and the +birds sing," said I, "and I certainly cannot think any one good +because they call me good, or goodness itself. How _can_ I, Lettice? +How can I believe a thing because I wish to believe it?" + +"Truth, truth!" said she, a little petulantly "truth and duty, and +right and wrong, I wish those cold words were not so often on your +lips. There are others so much warmer and more beautiful--nobleness +and generosity, and loyalty and devotion, those are the things I +love. Yours is a world of daylight, Olive. I like sunshine, glowing +morning and evening like rubies and opals, veiling the distance at +noon with its own glorious haze. I hate always to see everything +exactly as it is, even beautiful things; and ugly things I never will +see, if I can help it." + +"I love to see everything exactly as it is," said I; "I want, and I +pray, to see everything as it is. And in the end I am sure that is +the way to see the real beauty of everything in the world. For God +has made it, and not the devil. And therefore we need never be +afraid to look into things. And I shall always think truth and duty +the most beautiful words in the world." + +"Very pretty!" said she perversely, "and under all those beautiful +words you bury the fact that you will never forgive poor Sir +Launcelot." + +"I have long forgiven him," said I; "but I cannot think him good, if +I tried for ever, until he is. I cannot help thinking of poor little +Cicely, Gammer Grindle's grandchild, wandering lost in London." + +"Hush, Olive, hush," said she passionately, "that is ungenerous and +unkind. I will not listen to village gossip. My Mother says we must +not be harsh in judging those whose temptations we cannot estimate. +But she means to do all she can in London to help poor Cicely." + +"Oh, Lettice," said I, "it is not a question of more or less pity, +but of who needs our pity most." + +"You are all alike," she rejoined; "yet I love you all, and I love +you, Olive, dearly. Without your Puritan training, Olive, you and +Roger would have been the best people and the pleasantest in the +world; but as my Mother says, all these severe doctrines about law, +and justice, and conscience, do make people harsh in judging others, +and bitter in resenting wrong." + +I could say no more. She had taken refuge under the shadow of +Roger's hasty act, and the argument was closed. + +When we reached Davenant Hall an unusual crowd was gathered at the +front door--a silent eager throng--around a horseman whose horse was +covered with foam, from the speed with which he had come. It was +Harry Davenant. And the tidings he brought were that on yesterday +morning Lord Strafford had been beheaded on Tower Hill, a hundred +thousand people gathered there to see; but through all the silent +multitude neither sighs of sympathy nor sounds of triumph. + +The servants silently dispersed. Harry's horse was led to the +stables, and we went in with Lady Lucy, Sir Walter, and Sir +Launcelot, into the hall. + +"That is what they were doing in London while we were gathering +blue-bells!" said Lettice. And she threw her flowers on the stone +floor. "I will never gather any more." + +She buried her face in her hands and burst into tears--"Cruel, +cruel," she said, "of the king, of the queen, to let him die." + +"It was the Parliament which hunted him to death," said Harry, +bitterly. "And the king did try to save him." + +"The Parliament is wicked, and hated him, and I don't care what they +did," said Lettice, looking up with a flushed face; "but the king, +oh, Mother, you said the king would never let Lord Strafford die. +What is the use of being a king if kings can only _try_ to do things +like other people. I thought kings could _do_ the things they +thought right. He was faithful to the king, was he not, Mother?" + +"A devoted servant to the king Lord Strafford surely was," said Lady +Lucy, "whether a good counsellor or no. I did not think the king +would have given him up. Did no one plead for him?" she asked. + +"He pleaded with a wonderful eloquence for himself," said Harry +Davenant, "that might well-nigh have turned the heads of his +bitterest enemies, and did win the hearts of every one who heard him." + +"But the king did try to save him?" said Lady Lucy, clinging to this. + +"The king called his privy council together," said Harry Davenant, +"last Sunday, when the bill of attainder had passed through the Lords +and Commons, and said he had doubts and scruples about assenting to +it, and asked their advice. Dr. Juxon, Bishop of London, counselled +him never to consent to the shedding of what he believed innocent +blood. But the rest of the council advised him to yield.-- And the +king yielded." + +"Some people," he continued, "think the king was justified by a +letter the earl wrote him on the Tuesday before, wherein he offered +his life in this world to the king with all cheerfulness; nay, even +counselled the sacrifice to reconcile him to his people, saying, 'To +a willing man there is no injury done.'" + +"Oh, Harry," said Lettice, "the king could give him up _after that_?" + +"It is said the earl scarcely believed it when he heard it, and that +he laid his hand on his heart and exclaimed, 'Put not your trust in +princes.'" + +"And well he might!" exclaimed Lettice, her tears dried by the fire +of her indignation. + +"Hush, child, hush!" said Lady Lucy. + +"The king made another effort to save him," Harry continued; "he +wrote to the Lords recommending imprisonment instead of death; and at +the end of the letter he added a postscript: 'If he must die, it were +charity to relieve him till Saturday.'" + +"A miserable, cold request!" exclaimed Lettice, vehemently; "more +cruel than the sentence." + +"I would have expected this from his father," murmured Sir Walter, +"but not from the king." Then turning from a painful subject, he +added, "The earl died bravely, no doubt." + +"As he passed the windows of the chamber where Archbishop Laud was, +he bowed to receive his blessing, and he said, 'Farewell, my lord, +God protect your innocence.' He marched to the Tower Hill more with +the bearing of a general leading his army, than a sentenced man +moving to the scaffold. At the Tower Gate the lieutenant desired him +to take coach, fearing the violence of the people, but the earl +refused: 'I dare look death in the face,' said he, 'and I hope the +people do. Have you a care I do not escape, and I care not how I +die, whether by the hand of the executioner or by the madness of the +people. If that give them better content, it is all one to me.' And +so, after protesting his innocence, saying he forgave all the world, +and sending a few affectionate words to his wife and four children, +he laid his head on the block. There was no base triumphing in the +crowd, I will say that for them; they behaved like Englishmen. The +earl fell in silence. But in the evening the brutish populace cried +out in exultation, 'His head is off! his head is off!' and the city +was blazing with bonfires. The people feel they have gained the +first step in a victory. The Court thinks it has made the +furthermost step in concession, and that thenceforward all must be +peace. Would to heaven the king and the Court might be right; but it +is hard to say." + + +It was dusk before all this converse was ended and I left the Hall. +Harry Davenant persisted in guarding me across the fields to +Netherby, until we came to the high road close to the house. There +he took leave. + +"My Father would like to see you," I said. + +"Mr. Drayton would be courteous to his mortal enemy," said he. + +"We are not enemies," I said, a little pained. + +"Heaven forbid," he replied; "but I had better not come, not to-day. +The fall of the earl scarcely means the same thing in your home as in +ours." + +"There will be no mean triumphing over Lord Strafford's death at +Netherby," I said, with some indignation. + +"There will be no low, or ungenerous, or mean thing said by one of +the Draytons!" he said, warmly. "But I had better not see Mr. +Drayton this evening." + +And waving his plumed hat, he vaulted over the stile; and I felt he +was right. Looking back at the turn leading to the house, I saw he +was watching me from the field. But as I turned the corner and came +in sight of the gables of the Manor, a foreboding came on me, as of +siftings and severings to come--of a few pebbles, or a few rushes, +gently giving the slightest turn to the course of the two little +trickling springs, and their waters flowing, ever after, by different +banks, and falling at last into the oceans which wash the shores of +opposite worlds. But not Lettice, never Lettice; the whole world, I +thought, should be no barrier to sever us from Lettice! Nor should +all the political or ecclesiastical differences in the world ever +check or chill the current of our love and reverence to all the true, +and brave, and just, and good, and godly. For politics, even +ecclesiastical politics, are of time; but truth, and courage, and +justice, and goodness, and godliness, are of God, and are eternal. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +The six mouths of the year 1641, from early May till November, shine +back on me beyond the stormy years which part them from us, like a +meadow bright with dew and sunshine on the edge of a dark and heaving +sea. Beyond those months, in the further distance, stretches the dim +Eden of childhood, with its legends and its mysteries, and its gates +of Paradise scarcely closed. Bordering them, on the further side, +glooms the broad shadow of Roger's temptation and bitter repentance. +On the hither side heaves the great intervening sea of civil war. +But through all, that little sunny space beams out, peaceful, as if +no stormy waves beat against it; distinct, as if no long space of +life parted it from us. + +Did I say childhood was the Eden? Then youth is the "garden planted +eastward in Eden," the Paradise which "the Lord God plants" in the +outset of the dullest or stormiest life, where the river which +compasseth the land flows over golden sands, "and the gold of that +land is good." Not childhood, surely, but early youth, "the youth of +youth," is the golden age of life. Childhood is the twilight. Youth +is the beautiful dawn. Childhood is the dream and the struggling out +of it; youth is the conscious, joyful waking. If childhood has its +fairy robes spun out of every gossamer, its fairy treasures in every +leaf; it has also its eerie terrors woven of the twilight shadows, +its overwhelming torrents of sorrow having their fountains in an +April shower, as it steps uncertainly through the unknown world. And +neither its joys, nor its sorrows, nor its terrors, nor its +treasures, can it utter. + +Childhood is the dim Colchis where the Golden Fleece lies hidden; +youth is the Jason that brings thence the "Argosy." Childhood is the +sweet shadowy Hesperides, lying dreamily in the tropic sunshine, +where the golden fruit ripens silently among the dark and glossy +leaves. Youth is the Hero who penetrates the garden and makes it +alive with human music, and wins the fruit and bears it forth into +the free wide world. If childhood is the golden age, youth is the +heroic age, when the heart beats high with the first consciousness of +power, and the first stir of half-conscious hopes; when the earth +lies before us as a field of glorious adventure, and the heaven +spreads above us a space for boundless flight; before we have learned +how mixed earth's armies are, how slow the conquests of truth; how +seldom we can fight any battle here without wounding some we would +fain succour; or win any victory in which some things precious as +those borne aloft before us in triumph, are not trailed in the dust +behind us, dishonoured and lost. + +Not that the most vivid and golden hopes of youth are delusions. God +forbid that I should blaspheme His writing on the heart by thinking +so for an instant! It is but that the Omniscient, who knows the +glorious End that is to be, sets us in youth on the mountain-tops to +breathe the pure air of heaven, foreshortening the intervening +distance from these heights of hope and by its sunny haze, as +eternity foreshortens it to Him; that, forgetting the things that are +behind, and overspanning the things that are between, every brave and +trusting heart may go down into the battle-field strong in the +promise of the End, of the Triumph of Truth that shall yet surely be, +and of the Kingdom of Righteousness that shall one day surely come. + +Such, at least, was youth to us; to Lettice Davenant, and Roger, and +me. And, looking back, this sunny time of youth seems all gathered +up into those six months before the beginning of the Civil War. + +For we were continually meeting through that summer; and the land was +quiet. At least so it seemed to us at Netherby. + +The king had granted Triennial Parliaments; had granted that this +Parliament should never be dissolved like its predecessors by his +arbitrary will, but only with its own consent; had seemed, indeed, +ready to grant anything. Strafford, the strong prop of his +despotism, had fallen; Archbishop Laud, his instigator to all the +petty irritations of tyranny, which had well-nigh driven the nation +mad, lay helpless in the Tower; the unjust judges, who had decreed +the evil decrees about ship-money, had fled, disgraced, beyond the +seas. What then might not be hoped, if not from the king's active +good-will, at least from his passive consent? There had, indeed, +been an attempt to bring Pym and Hampden into the royal councils, and +if this had not quite succeeded, at least the patriot St. John was +solicitor-general. + +During much of the summer, after assenting to everything the +Parliament proposed, the king sojourned in Scotland. It was true +that the reports that reached us thence were not altogether +satisfactory. There were rumours of army-plots encouraged in the +highest quarters; rumours of some dark plot called "The Incident," +intending treachery against Argyle and others; of His Majesty going +with five hundred armed men to the Scottish Parliament, to the great +offence of all Edinburgh; rumours that the English Parliament, +hearing of "The Incident," had demanded a guard against similar +outrages, if any "flagitious persons" should attempt them. + +But for the most part, hope predominated over fear with us at +Netherby. One thing was certain; a Parliament alive to every rumour +stood on guard for the nation at St. Stephen's, vowed together by a +solemn "Protestation" to do or suffer ought rather than yield our +ancient rights and liberties, and until the note of warning came +thence, the nation might peacefully pursue its daily work; not +asleep, indeed, and with arms not out of reach, but for the present +called not to contend, but to work and wait. + +There was just enough of stir in the air, and of storm in the sky, to +quicken every movement without impeding it; to take all languor out +of leisure, to make moments of intercourse more precious, and +friendships ripen more quickly. + +We were still one nation, we owned one law, one throne, one national +council. We were still one national Church, gathering weekly in one +house of prayer; kneeling, at least at Easter, although with some +scruples, around one Holy Table; together confessing ourselves to +have "gone astray like lost sheep;" together giving thanks for our +"creation and redemption;" kneeling reverently, and with one voice +saying, "Our Father which art in heaven;" together standing as +confessors of one Catholic faith, and with one voice repeating the +ancient creeds; together praying (in the words ordered in King James' +reign) for our sovereign lord King Charles, and (in the form his own +reign first appointed) for the High Court of Parliament, under him +assembled. + +There were indeed words and postures and vestments which were not to +the liking of all, which to some were signs of irritating defeat and +to others of petty triumph; but in general--especially since the Book +of Sports had been silenced, and Archbishop Laud had been kept quiet +(and Mr. Nicholls had forsaken his more novel practices)--there was a +strong tide of truth and devotion in the ancient services, which +swept all true and devout hearts along with it. + +And besides, there was, at this period, with some of the Puritans, a +hope of peacefully affecting some slight further reformation, so that +even Aunt Dorothy was less controversial than usual; contenting +herself with an occasional warning against going down to Egypt for +horses, or against Achans in the camp, and an occasional hope that, +while his words were smoother than butter, the enemy had not war in +his heart. But she did not distinctly explain whether by these +Achans and Egyptian cavalry she meant Mr. Nicholls, Placidia, Lady +Lucy, Lettice and the king; or, on the other hand, the little band of +Separatists or Brownists whom we met from time to time coming from +their worship in a cottage on the outskirts of the village, against +whom she considered my Father not a little remiss in his magisterial +duty. These apparently inoffensive people were suspected of +Anabaptist tendencies. Aunt Gretel even associated them in her own +mind with some very dangerous characters of the same name at Münster. +It was, indeed, the utmost stretch of her toleration, to connive at +our Bob and Tib's occasional attendance at their assemblies; but the +consideration of Tib's discreet years, and Bob's discreet character, +and Aunt Dorothy's somewhat indiscreet zeal, had hitherto induced her +to do so, her conscience being further fortified by my Father's +solemn promise to bring these sectaries to justice if ever they +showed the slightest tendency towards polygamy or homicide. They +consisted chiefly of small freeholders and independent hand-workers, +the tailor, the village carpenter, and at the head, Job Forster, the +blacksmith; Tib and Bob were, I think, the only household servants +among them. They were few, poor, and quiet, doing nothing at their +meetings, it seemed, but read the Bible, listen to one reading or +explaining it, and praying: some among them having scruples as to +whether it might not be a carnal indulgence to sing hymns. +Occasionally they were strengthened by the visit of a preacher of +their way of thinking from Suffolk, where the sect was more numerous. +They were good to each other; not hurtful to any one else. They +would certainly, every one of them, have died or gone into destitute +exile for the minutest scruple of their belief or disbelief, being +satisfied that every thread of the broidered work of their tabernacle +was as divinely ordered as the tables of the law written with the +finger of God. But as yet there was nothing to show what their +enthusiasm would do when it was enkindled to action, instead of +smouldering in passive endurance; nothing to show what germs of +vigorous life lay dormant in that little company, each holding his +commission, as he believed, direct from God. Yet from these, and +such as these, at the touch of Oliver Cromwell, sprang into life that +crop of Ironsides terrible as Samsons, chaste as Sir Galahad, +unyielding as Elijah before the threats of Jezebel, unsparing as +Elijah with the prophets of Jezebel on Carmel, which overthrew power +after power in the state; made England the greatest power in the +world; and if the only human hand that could command it had been +immortal, might have ruled England and the world to this day. + +So many hidden germs of life lie around us undeveloped everywhere. +In the primeval forests of this, our New England, when the pines are +felled, a succession of oaks springs up self-sown in their stead. If +the pines had not been felled what would have become of the acorns? +Would they have perished, or waited dormant through the ages, till +their hour should come? + +But I am creeping back to Roger's ancient puzzle of Necessity, +wherewith he bewildered me of old as we sat in the apple-tree at +Netherby. + +And after all, however these things be, it is only the king's +ministers that are changed in the universal government of the +nations. The King never dies. + +Meantime these sectaries were the only outward schism in the unity of +the Church and Nation, as represented at Netherby. Korahs, Dathans, +and Abirams, Aunt Dorothy called them, or (when she was most +displeased) "Anabaptists," and would (theoretically) have liked them +to be made examples of in some striking and uncomfortable way; +harmless enthusiasts my Father called them, and let them alone; +well-meaning persons with dangerous tendencies, Aunt Gretel +considered them, and made them possets and broth when they were ill. +In Lady Lucy's eyes they were misguided schismatics; in Sir Walter's, +self-conceited fools; in Harry Davenant's, vulgar fanatics. Of all +our circle, I thinkj none cared to find out what they really meant +and wanted, except Roger, who, especially after his great trouble, +had always the most earnest desire not to misjudge any one; or, +indeed, to judge any one as from a judgment-seat above them. And +Roger said they believed they had found God, and were living in His +Presence, as truly as Moses, or Elijah, or any to whom He appeared of +old, which made everything else seem to them infinitely small in +comparison; that they wanted, above all things, to do what God +commanded, whenever they knew what it was, which made every homeliest +duty on the way towards that end seem to them part of the "service of +the sanctuary," any mountain of difficulty but as the small dust of +the balance; every obstacle as the chaff before the whirlwind. +Convictions which gave an invincible power of endurance, and could +give a tremendous force of achievement, as events proved. + +To this better estimate of them, Roger was, no doubt, partly led by +his friendship for Job Forster. Job, indeed, through the whole of +these six months, so calm and full of hope to us at Netherby, +continued to forebode storms. "The weather was brewed," he said, "on +the hills and by the sea; and folks who were bred on the flats, out +of sight of sea and hills, and who only knew one-half of the world, +could not reasonably be expected to understand the signs of the sky. +The Lord, in his belief, had plenty of work to do on his anvil yet, +before the swords were beaten into ploughshares and the spears into +pruning-hooks. It was more likely the ploughshares would have to be +beaten into swords, and priming-hooks into spears." + +And the village coulters, spades, and mattocks, received from Job's +hammer treatment all the more vigorous on account of the warlike +figures they supplied. + +Moreover, Rachel, his wife, looking out from her chamber-window one +stormy night across the Fens, had seen wonders in the heavens, +black-plumed clouds, marshalled like armies, rolling far away to the +east, till the rising sun smote them to a blood-red; while high +above, from behind these, one white-winged arm, as of an archangel +swept across the sky untouched by the red glow of battle, raised +majestically, as if to warn or to smite. + +"There is something terrible going on somewhere," she had said, "or +else something terrible to come." + +And Job, to whom Rachel's words had always a tender sacredness in +them, woven of the old reverence of our northern race for the +prophet-woman; of sacred memories of the inspired songs of Deborah +and Hannah, interpreted by his belief that the people of the Bible +were not exceptional but typical; and of his own strong love for +her--believed Rachel's visions with entire unconsciousness how much +they were reflections of his own convictions. "How," he would say, +"could a feeble creature like her, nurtured and cherished like a +babe, and busy all her life in naught but enduring sicknesses or +doing kindnesses, know aught of wars and battlefields, unless it was +of the Lord?" So Job foreboded, and we hoped, and the summer months +passed on. + +Scarcely a day passed on which we and the Davenants did not meet, +especially Roger, and Lettice, and I; for Roger had taken his degree, +and having overworked at it, was constrained to be idle for a while; +and the boy Davenants were most of the time in London. At church, at +the Hall, at the Manor, riding, coursing, hay-making, nutting, +boating on the Mere; on rainy days, hunting out wonderful old +illuminated manuscripts in Sir Walter's library, or by the organ in +my Father's, singing glees and madrigals; making essays at Italian +poetry, generally resulting in translations, metrical or otherwise, +by Roger, for Lettice's benefit. Lettice reigning in all things, by +a thousand indisputable royal rights; as pupil; as sovereign lady; as +the youngest; as the most adventurous; as the most timid; by right of +her need of care, and her clinging to protection; by right of +minority, she being one, and we two; by right of her true constancy +and her little seeming ficklenesses; by right of her brilliant, +ever-changing beauty, and all her nameless, sweet, tyrannical, +winning, willful ways; by right of all her generous +self-forgetfulness, and delight to give pleasure; and firstly and +lastly, by right of the subtle power which, through all these charms, +stole into Roger's heart, and took possession of it, unchallenged and +unresisted, then and for ever. + +We spoke little of politics. Lettice never had any, except loyalty +to the king; and at this time her loyalty was sorely tried by reason +of her perplexity and distress at what seemed to her the ungenerous +desertion of Strafford in his need. + +There were no forbidden topics between us. There was one, indeed, +which by tacit mutual consent we always avoided, and that was all +that concerned Sir Launcelot Trevor. Lettice, always scenting from +afar the least symptom of what could pain, never approached what had +been the cause of so much anguish to Roger; and me she never freed +from the suspicion of a certain sisterly injustice in my sentiments +towards my brother's enemy. But a very insignificant and unnecessary +chamber indeed was this to be locked out of the palace of delights +through which we three roamed at will together. Nor can I remember +one pang of vexation at my own falling from the first place to the +second in Roger's thoughts. If I had not loved Lettice on my own +account as I did, there was nothing in Roger's love for her that +could have sown one miserable seed of jealousy in my heart. If he +loved her most, he was more to me than ever before. The reflection +of his tender reverence for her fell like a glory on all women for +her sake. He was more to all for being most to her. Mean +calculations of more or less, better or best, could not enter into +comparison in affections stamped with such a sweet diversity. All +true love expands, not narrows; strengthens, not weakens; anoints the +eyes with eye-salve, not blinds; opens the heart, and opens the +world, and transfigures the universe into an enchanted palace and +treasure-house of joys, simply by giving the key to unlock its +chambers, and the vision to see its treasures. + +This was the innermost heart of the joy of those our halcyon days, +that Roger and Lettice and I were together. We three made for +ourselves our new Atlantis. We should have made it equally in the +dingiest street of London city. Only, there the joy within us would +have had to transform our world into a paradise. At Netherby, riding +over the fields with the fresh air in our faces, or roaming the +musical woods, or skimming the Mere while Roger rowed, and dipping +our hands in the cool waters, or talking endlessly on the fragrant +garden terraces of the Manor and the Hall, it had not to transform, +only to translate. + +Outside this inner world of our own lay a bright and friendly world +all around us. First, our Father, sweet Lady Lucy, and Aunt +Gretel--scarcely indeed outside, except by the fact of their not +quite understanding what we had within, regarding us, as they fondly +did, as dear happy children not yet out of our paradise of childhood; +next Aunt Dorothy, Job Forster, and Rachel, guarding us as fondly, +though anxiously, as on the unconscious eve of encounter with our +dragons and leviathans; and beyond, the village, of which we were the +children; the country, which was our mother; the world, of which we +were the heirs. For to us in those days there were no harassing +Philistines, no crushing Babylon; no Egyptians behind, nor Red Sea +before. The world was to be conquered, but not as a prostrate foe, +rather as a willing tributary to Truth and Right. The kings of +Tarshish and of the isles were to bring presents; Sheba and Seba were +to offer gifts. The wilderness and the solitary place were to be +glad for us, and the desert was to rejoice and blossom as the rose. + +Meanwhile Lady Lucy came back to her old place in my heart. Her +sweet motherliness seemed to brood like the wings of a dove over our +whole happy world. + +Harry Davenant came more than once to the Hall, and stayed a few +days, to Lady Lucy's perfect content, and entered into our pursuits +as keenly as any of us. Only with him there was always an undertone +of sadness, a despondency about the country and the world, a +bitterness about the times, a slight cynicism about men and women, +inevitable, perhaps, to a noble spirit like his, which (as it seems +to me) has lost its way, and strayed into the backward current, +contrary to all the generous forward movements of the age; but +strongly contrasted with the steadfast, hopeful temper no danger +could daunt and no defeat could damp, which characterized the nobler +spirits on the patriot side. The noble Sir Bevil Grenvill had bitter +thoughts of his contemporaries; the generous Lord Falkland craved for +peace and welcomed death. Eliot, Pym, Hampden, Cromwell, Milton, +looked for liberty; believed in the triumph of truth; thought England +worth fighting for, living for, if needful, dying for; they braved +death indeed like heroes, they met it like Christians, but they did +not long for it like men sick and hopeless of the world. If God had +willed it so, they had rather have lived on, because of the great +hopes that inspired them, because they believed that not fate nor the +devil were at the heart of the world, or at the head of the nations; +but God. + +Yet about such men as Harry Davenant there was an inexpressible +fascination. There is something that irresistibly touches the heart +in heroism which, like Hector's of Troy, is nourished, not by hope, +but by duty; which sacrifices self in a cause which it believes no +courage and no sacrifice can make victorious, and bates no jot of +heart when all hope has fled. + +And to me he was always so gentle a friend. We had so many things in +common; our love for his Mother, his reverence for my Father's +goodness, justice, and wisdom; his generous appreciation of Roger; a +certain protecting, shielding tenderness we both had for Lettice, who +was, indeed, a creature so tender, and dependent, and willful, so +likely to rush into trouble, so sure to feel it, that no womanly +heart could help feeling motherlike toward her. + +Yet there always seemed a kind of half-acknowledged barrier between +us, even from the first, more distinctly acknowledged afterwards, +which gave a strange mixture of frankness and reserve, of nearness +and separation, to our intercourse; wherein, perhaps, lay something +of its charm. + + +And across this world of ours flashed from time to time during those +months lofty visions of nobleness and wisdom from other spheres; +especially during the last six weeks when the Parliament was in +recess, and many a worthy head found a night's shelter in the +guest-chamber at Netherby. + +Mr. Hampden was in Scotland as Parliamentary Commissioner, keeping +watch over the king; Mr. Pym, at his lodgings in Gray's Inn Lane, +keeping guard for the nation. But Mr. Cromwell went home in the +recess to his family at Ely, and spent some hours with us on his way +back to London. He was forty-two years old then, my Father said, and +his hair was not without some tinge of gray; tall, all but six feet +in stature, and firmly knit. Many things seemed to lie hidden in the +depths of his grave eyes; a subdued fire of temper flashing forth at +times sufficiently to show that at the heart of this gravity lay not +ice but fire; a hearty humour, as of a soul at liberty, grasping its +purpose firmly enough to be able to give it play--keen to descry +likenesses in things unlike, inner differences in things similar, +absurdities in things decorous, and the meaning of men and things in +general through all seemings. Yet withal, capacities and traces of +heart-deep sorrow, as of one who had looked into the depths on many +sides and found them unfathomable. Moreover, above all, his were +eyes which saw; not merely windows through which you looked into the +soul. Aunt Gretel said there was a look in him which made her think +of a portrait of Dr. Luther which she had seen in her youth. He +loved music, too, which was another resemblance to Dr. Luther. He +was always kind to us children, and now he spoke fondly of his two +"little wenches" at home--Bridget (afterwards Mistress Ireton), a +little beyond my age, and Elizabeth (Mistress Claypole), then about +eleven, his dearly-loved daughter; and the two blithe little ones, +Mary and Frances, about five and three. Methought his eyes rested +with a sorrowful yearning on Roger; and my Father told us, after he +left, he had only two years before, in May, buried his eldest son +Robert, about nineteen, which was Roger's age. This son was buried +far from home, at Felsted Church in Essex; a youth whose promise had +been so great that the parson of the parish where he died had +inserted a record of him in the parish register, which reads like a +fond epitaph amidst the dry unbroken list of names and dates. Mr. +Cromwell spoke also with much reverence of his aged mother, who dwelt +in his house at Ely. + +Mr. Cromwell was full of a firm confidence in the future of the +church and the country; but, like Job Forster, he seemed to think +there was much to be done and gone through before the end was gained. +On his way through the village he had held some converse with Job +Forster while having his horse shod; and he said something of such +men as Job being the men for a Parliament army, if ever such an army +should be needed. + +Whilst Job, on his part, as he told us afterwards, was deeply moved +by his interview with Mr. Cromwell. "He was a man," said Job, "who +had been in the depths, and had brought thence the sacred fire, which +made two or three of his words worth a hundred spoken by common men." + + +Then towards the close of that happy time there was one evening in +October which lingers on my memory as its golden sunset lingered on +the many-coloured autumn woods. + +We were standing on the terrace at Netherby, overlooking the orchard, +Roger, Lettice, and I, in the fading light; Lettice twining some +water-lilies Roger had just gathered from the pond. Through the +embayed window of the wainscoted parlour, which stood open, poured +forth the music of my Father's organ, in chords rich and changing as +the colours of the sunset on wood, and meadow, and Mere. + +Mr. John Milton was the musician, and as the intertwined harmonies +flowed from his hands + + "In linked sweetness long drawn out, + His melting voice through mazes running, + Untwisted all the chains that tie + The hidden soul of harmony." + +As we listened, enrapt by the power of the music, which seemed + + "Dead things with imbreathèd sense, able to pierce, + And to our high-raised phantasy present + That undisturbed song of pure concent + Aye sung before the sapphire-coloured throne + To Him that sits thereon."-- + +the lilies dropped from Lettice's fingers, and she sat like the +statue of a listening nymph; the knitting fell from Aunt Gretel's +lap, and the tears came into her eyes, and, thinking of my mother, +she murmured "Magdalene!" Roger and I were leaning on the +window-sill, and all of us were so unconscious of anything present, +that Lady Lucy had advanced from the other end of the terrace near +enough to touch me on the arm without my hearing a footstep. + +By her side stood a courtly-looking young clergyman, with dark hair +flowing from under his velvet cap, and dark, meditative eyes, yet +with much light of smiles hidden in them, like dew in violets. Him +she introduced as "Dr. Taylor, one of His Majesty's chaplains." He +was not yet eight-and-twenty years of age, but was in mourning for +his first wife, but lately dead. + +Mr. Milton joined us soon with my Father. He was a few years older +than Dr. Taylor, but in appearance much more youthful; with his brown +un-Puritan love-locks, his short stature, his face determined, almost +to severity, yet delicate as a beautiful woman's. + +And then between these two, while we listened, ensued an hour's +converse, like the antiphons of some heavenly choir. + +Names of ancient heroes and philosophers--Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, +Latin--dropped from their lips like household words. Until at last +they rose into a chorus in praise of liberty, of conscience, and of +thought; Dr. Taylor, I thought, basing his argument more on the +dimness of human vision, and Mr. Milton on the inherent and +victorious might of truth. Dr. Taylor pleading for a charitable +tolerance for error, Mr. Milton for a glorious freedom for truth; the +which converse I often recalled when, in after years, we read the +Liberty of Prophesying by the one, and the Liberty of Printing by the +other. + +As they spoke, the glory faded from the sky and the golden autumnal +woods, and when they ceased, and we stepped from the terrace into the +gloom of the dark wainscoted parlour, it seemed to me as if we had +stepped out of a fragrant and melodious elysium into a farm-yard, so +homely and unmeaning, like the cacklings or lowings of animals, did +all common discourse seem afterwards. + +The next day, when Mr. Milton had left us, and we were speaking +together of this discourse, Aunt Gretel said it was like beautiful +music, only, being mostly in a kind of Latin, was, of course, beyond +her comprehension. Aunt Dorothy only consoled herself for what she +regarded as the dangerous licence of their conclusions, by the +thought that their path to them was too fantastic and fine for any +common mortals to tread. And my Father said afterwards that it +seemed to him as if Dr. Taylor's learning and fancy hung around his +reason like the jewelled state-trappings of a royal palfrey; you +wondered how his wit could move so nimbly under such a weight of +ornament; whilst Mr. Milton's learning and imagination were like +wings to the strong Pegasus of his wisdom, only helping him to soar. +When Dr. Taylor alluded to the lore of the ancients, it seemed like a +treasury wherewith to adorn his fancies or to wing his airy shafts. +But to Mr. Milton it seemed an armory common to him and to the wise +men of whom he spoke, and to which he had as free access as they; to +draw thence weapons for his warfare and theirs, and to add thereto +for the generations to come. + +Yet brilliant and glowing as their speech was, Roger would have it +that Mr. Cromwell's brief and rugged words had in them more of the +red heat that fuses the weapons wherewith the great battles of life +are fought. For we spoke often of that evening, Roger, and Lettice, +and I, in the few short days that remained of our golden age of peace. + + +Scarcely a fortnight after that evening at Netherby, tidings of the +Irish massacre thrilled through all the land with one shudder of +horror and helpless indignation for the past; awakening one bitter +cry for rescue and vengeance in the future. + +On the 20th of October the Parliament had met again. + +It was a gray and comfortless evening early in November when a Post +spurred into the village of Netherby, and stopped at Job Forster's +forge to have some slight repair made in the gear of his horse. + +Rachel was there immediately with a jug of ale for the weary rider +and water for his horse. The horseman took both in silence. + +"Thou art scant of greetings to-day, good-master," said Job, as he +busied himself about the broken bit, without looking in the rider's +face. + +But Rachel, who had caught in an instant the weight of heavy tidings +on the stranger's face, laid her hand with a silencing gesture on her +husband's arm. + +Then Job looked up, and meeting the horseman's eye, dropped the bit, +and said abruptly,-- + +"What tidings, master? We are not of those who look for smooth +things." + +"Rough enough," was the reply. "A hundred thousand Protestants,* +men, women, and children, surprised, and robbed, and massacred in +Ireland, scarce more than a sennight agone. At morning, met with +good-days and friendly looks by the Papists around them; before +evening, driven from their burning homes, naked and destitute, into +the roads and wildernesses. Thousands murdered amidst their ruined +homes; happy those who were only murdered, or murdered quickly; no +mercy on age or sex, no memory of kindness; treachery and torture; +women and little children turning into fiends of cruelty. Dublin +itself only saved by one who gave warning the evening before. But +the worst was for the women, and the little helpless tortured babes." + + +* This was the number commonly believed among us at the time. Since +I have heard it disputed. But that the slaughter and the atrocities +were terrible, there can be no doubt. + + +"Softly, softly, master," said Job; for Rachel had fallen on his +shoulder fainting. "She can bear to hear any dreadful thing, or to +see any dreadful sight, if she can be of any help; but this is too +much for her." + +Gently he bore her in and laid her on the bed, and hesitated an +instant what to do, not liking to leave her. + +"She always seems to know whether it's me or any one else, even when +she's clean gone like this," he said; "but yet I dare not hinder the +Post." + +"Leave her to me, Job," I said; "she'll not feel strange with me." + +And after a moment's further pause, lifting her into an easier +position, he went out. + +Sprinkling water on her face and chafing her hands, breathing on her +lips and temples, as I had seen Aunt Gretel do in such a case, I had +the comfort of soon seeing Rachel languidly open her eyes. For a +moment there was a bewildered, inquiring look in them, but quickly it +gave place to a mournful collectedness. + +"I knew it--I knew it, Mistress Olive!" she said, "I knew something +must come. But I thought the judgment would fall on the Lord's +enemies; and Job and I have been pleading with Him for mercy, even on +them. I never thought the sword would fall on the sheep of His +pasture. Least of all on the lambs," she added; "on the innocent +lambs. But maybe, after all, that was His mercy. They are but gone +home by a cruel path, poor innocents--only gone home." Then a burst +of tears came to her relief; a neighbour came in to help; and I left +to go home without further delay. + +The few minutes which I had spent at Rachel Forster's bedside had +sufficed to gather all the village around the forge; women with +babies in their arms and little ones clinging to their skirts; men on +their way home from the day's labour with spades and mattocks on +their shoulders; the tailor needle in hand; the miller white from the +mill; women with hands full of dough from the kneading-trough; none +waiting to lay aside an implement, none left hehind but the +bedridden, yet none asking a question, or uttering an exclamation, as +they passed around the messenger, drinking in the horrible details of +the slaughter. Only, in the pauses, a long-drawn breath, or now and +then a suppressed sob from the women. + +Job meanwhile continued, as was his wont, working his feelings into +the task he had in hand, so that long before the villagers were weary +of listening while the Post told the cruel particulars, heightening +the excitement and deepening the silence, the bit was mended, every +weak point of hoof or harness had undergone Job's skillful +inspection, and offering the messenger another draught at the +beer-can, he said to him in his abrupt way,-- + +"Whither next, master? We may not delay such tidings." + +"I have letters for Squire Drayton of Netherby Manor," was the reply. + +"Trust them to me," said Roger. + +"The best hands you can trust them to," said Job. + +In consideration of the urgent need of haste, the Post gave us a +letter in Dr. Antony's writing to Roger, and in another minute was +out of sight beyond the turn of the village street. + +A little murmur arose among the village-gossips. "No need for +breaking a Post short like that, goodman Forster," said the miller's +wife; "sure he knows his own business best." + +"What did we need to hear more, good wife?" was Job's reply. "All +England has to hear it yet! Thousand of prayers have to be stirred +up throughout the land before night. And haven't we heard enough to +make this night a night of watching? Hearkening to fearful tales +helps little; and talking less. For this kind goeth not out but with +prayer and fasting." + +And Job turned away into his cottage. But as Roger and I hastened up +the street, the village had already broken into little eager groups, +and the words, "the Irish Popish Army," and "the Popish Queen," came +with bitter emphasis from many voices. + +Deep was the excitement at home when we brought the terrible tidings. +Dr. Antony's letter too dreadfully confirmed them, telling how the +House of Commons received the news, brought in by one O'Conolly, in +an awe-stricken silence; how nearly all Ulster, the head-quarters of +the Protestants, was still in the hands of the insurgents; the towns +and villages in flames. + +"Tilly and Magdeburg!" were the first words that broke from my +Father's lips. "The same strife, the same weapons, the same fiendish +cruelty, in the name of the All Pitiful. If such another conflict is +indeed to come, God send England weapons as good wherewith to wage +it; soldiers that can pray; and, if such can be twice in one +generation, another Gustavus!" + +Fervently he pleaded that night together with the gathered household +for the robbed and bereaved sufferers in Ireland. Far into the night +Roger saw the lamp burning in his window. No doubt he had sought Job +Forster's Refuge. + +But the next morning, when we came in to breakfast, he had taken down +the old sword he had worn through the German wars; and was trying its +edge. + +"The good God keep us from war, Brother!" said Aunt Gretel, trembling +at the thoughts that old weapon recalled, "I was thinking we might +search out our stores for woolseys and linseys. They will be sure to +be sending such to the poor sufferers, and they will be building +orphan houses." + +"Citadels have to be built and kept first!" said my Father. "There +are times when war is as much a work of mercy as clothing the naked +and feeding the hungry." + +"But war with whom, Brother?" said Aunt Dorothy, pointedly. "It is +little use lopping the branches and sparing the tree. What has +become of the Irish Popish army the king was so loth to dismiss? Of +what avail is it to smite a few poor blind fanatics, when the Popish +queen and her Jesuits rule in the Palace? It wearies me to the heart +to hear of honest men like Mr. Hampden, Mr. Pym, and all of them +impeaching Lord Strafford and imprisoning Archbishop Laud, who, I +believe (poor deluded man), thought himself doing God's service; and +yet kissing the hand that appointed Laud and Strafford, and would +sign death-warrants for every patriot and Puritan in the kingdom +to-night, if it were safe." + +"Mr. Hampden, Mr. Pym, and Mr. Cromwell are doing their best to make +it not safe, Sister Dorothy," was my Father's reply. "And meantime +there is more strength in silence than in invective." + +"A Parliament of women," said Aunt Dorothy, "would have gone to the +point months since, and let the king understand what they meant." + +"Probably," said my Father, "but the great thing is to gain the +point." + + +Unusually early in the day for her, Lady Lucy appeared at the Manor, +with Harry and Lettice walking beside her horse. + +She looked very pale as my Father led her into the wainscoted parlour. + +"Mr. Drayton," she said, "who ever could have dreamed of such +tidings! The only ray of comfort is that they may help to unite our +distracted country. There can be but one mind throughout the land +about such deeds as these. The king went at once to the Scottish +Parliament with the news, to seek their counsel and aid. Now at +least the king, parliament, and nation, will be one in their +indignation." + +"It would be well if the king had dismissed before this the Irish +Catholic army which Lord Strafford raised for him," said nay Father. +"It is well known that its officers have been in communication with +the assassins." + +"The king did send orders to disband it long since," she said. + +"Yes, _public_ orders," my Father replied; "but there are rumours of +secret instructions having accompanied, not precisely to the same +effect." + +"Rumours!" she said eagerly; "Mr. Drayton, mere rumours! You are too +just and generous to listen to a vulgar report, with the king's word +against it." + +"Madam," he replied, very gravely, "it would have been the salvation +of the country long since if the king's word had been a sufficient +reply to attacks on his policy. There is nothing so revolutionary as +falsehood in high places." + +"You call the king a revolutionist?" she said. + +"I call untruth the great revolutionist," he replied. "Without truth +and trust all communities must ultimately fall to pieces, with more +or less noise, according as they are assailed by a strong hand from +without, or simply crumble from within. The ruin is certain." + +"But all good men must be agreed in detesting these barbarous deeds," +she said. "Even the Earl of Castlehaven, a Catholic, has said that +all the water in the sea would not wash off from the Irish the stain +of their treacherous murders in a time of settled peace." + +"No doubt there are Catholics, madam, who speak the truth and hate +injustice," said my Father. + +"You are unjust, you are cruel to His Majesty," she said, with tears +in her eyes, "if you could be unjust or cruel to any one." + +"Lady Lucy," he replied, "this is a time for all men who fear God and +love England to be united. Would Lord Strafford (could he come back +among us) contradict the words wrung from him when the king signed +his death-warrant? Would he say, 'Put your trust in princes?'" + +Harry Davenant passionately interposed. + +"It is too bad to drive the king to actions he detests, and then to +reproach him for them. He would have saved Lord Strafford, as all +men know, if he could. It is the distrust of the country that has +compelled the king to have recourse to subtleties no gentleman would +choose." + +"Harry Davenant," said my Father, "I am confident no measure of +unjust distrust would drive you to the policy of making promises you +never meant to keep." + +"My life is simple, sir," was the mournful reply, "and it is my own. +If I choose any evil to myself, rather than go from my word, or imply +the thing I do not mean, I am at liberty to do so. But the king's +life is manifold. He stands before the Highest with the nation +gathered up into his single person. He stands above the nation as +the anointed representative of the King of kings. God himself is +only indirectly King of nations by being King of kings. He stands +between the past and the future with a sacred trust of prerogative +and right to guard and transmit. It is not for us to apply the +standards of our private morality to him." + +"Apply the standards of Divine morality to all!" said my Father. +"Truth is the pillar of heaven as well as of earth. There is no bond +of society like a trusted word." + +"At least, sir," rejoined Harry Davenant, gently but loftily, "it is +not for me who eat the king's bread to say or hear ought disloyal to +him. Nor will I." And he rose to leave. + +My Father held out his hand to grasp his. + +"One word more," he said, "disloyalty is a terrible word, and we may +hear more of it in these coming years. Let me say to you, once for +all, the question is not of loyalty or disloyalty, but to whom our +loyalty is due. I believe it is to England and her laws; to the king +if he is faithful to these." + +"What tribunal can judge the king?" Harry Davenant replied. + +"More than one," said my Father, solemnly. "The English laws he has +sworn to maintain; the eternal Lawgiver from whom you say he holds +his crown, whose laws of truth and equity are no secret, and are as +binding on the peasant as the prince." + +Lady Lucy's manner had a peculiar tenderness in it to me as she +wished me good-bye. + +"Very difficult times, Olive!" she said, kissing me; "but we will +remember women have one work at all times; to make peace and pour +balm into wounds." + +And Lettice whispered to me and Roger,-- + +"Don't believe those wicked things about the king, or I shall not be +able to come to Netherby." + +Roger looked sorely perplexed. + +"But how can we help believing them," he said, "if we find them true?" + +"I can always help believing things I don't like," she said. +"Wishing is half way to believing." And she slipped away, leaving a +very heavy shadow on Roger's face as he turned back to the house. + +"Not quite so clear, Olive," said Aunt Dorothy, when I repeated to +her Lady Lucy's words as a proof of her good will. "There are times +when Deborah is as necessary as Barak, and more so. And then there +was Judith, a valiant and godly woman, although she is in the +Apocrypha. And there are times when the knife is kinder than all the +balm in Gilead." + +"Knives are never safe, however," added my Father, "except in hands +that use them for the same purpose as the balms." + +The intercourse of the two families did not cease after that little +debate. It rather became more frequent. The uneasy consciousness of +the many public differences that might at any time sever us only made +us cling the more tenaciously, although with trembling, to the +private ties that united us For a fortnight after the Irish tidings +reached us, Lady Lucy, Aunt Gretel, and even Aunt Dorothy, found a +practical bond of union in collecting all the clothes and provisions +they could send to the sufferers by the Irish massacre. + +Then came the news of divisions in the patriot party in the +Parliament, with reference to the framing and printing of the Grand +Remonstrance, voted to be printed on the 8th of December. Lady Lucy +dwelt much on the conciliatory intentions of the king, on the +feastings and welcomes prepared for him in the city of London, and +especially on the defection of the gallant Sir Bevil Granvill, Lord +Falkland, and Mr. Hyde, from the popular cause. "All moderate men," +she said, "felt it was becoming the cause of disorder, and were +abandoning it; and my Father, the most moderate and candid of men, +would not, she was sure, remain with a little knot of fanatics and +levellers." + +That Christmas-tide the Grand Remonstrance, with its long list of +royal and ecclesiastical oppressions, and its statement of the recent +victories of Parliament over evil laws and evil councillors, was read +and eagerly debated at every fire-side in the kingdom. + +"But what do they want?" Lady Lucy would say. "They seem, from their +own statements, to have gained all they sought." + +"They want security for everything!" my Father would reply, "security +for what they have won; a guard of their own appointing to keep them +free, to secure them against the guard of his own appointing, with +which they believe the king is endeavouring to surround and make them +prisoners." + +"Will no promises, no assurances of good-will satisfy them?" she +said. "They have sent ten more prelates to keep the archbishop +company in the Tower. What further guarantees would they demand?" + +"It is hard indeed," he said, sorrowfully, "for all the concessions +in the world to restore broken confidence. All the fortresses in +England, or a standing army of a million, would not be such a +safeguard to the king as his own word might have been. There is no +cement in heaven or earth strong enough to restore trust in broken +faith." + +"It is not always so easy to be sincere," she said, "and God forgives +and trusts us again and again." + +"God forgives because he sees," he said. "Nations are not +omniscient, and therefore cannot forgive, nor trust when they have +been betrayed." + +"The Parliament is unreasonable," she said, with tears in her eyes; +"they judge like private gentlemen. Statesmen and princes cannot +speak with the simple candour of private men. Politics are like +chess. You would not confide every move beforehand to your enemy." + +"The King and the Parliament do not profess to be on opposite sides +of the game," he replied. "But if, in fact, it has come to that, can +you wonder at any amount of mutual suspicion? Yet our Puritan faith +is, that there is but one law of truth and equity in heaven and earth +for prince, soldier, peasant, woman, and child. And I believe that, +even with hostile nations, not all the diplomatic subtleties in the +world would give us the strength there is in a trusted word. Let it +once be felt of man or nation, 'They have said it, therefore they +mean it;' and they have a strength nothing else can give. There must +be two threads to weave a web of false policy. Withdraw one, and the +other falls to pieces of itself. I believe the ruler who could make +the word of an Englishman a proverb for truth, would do more for the +strength of England than one who won her fortresses on every island +and coast in the world." + +"But see how the king trusts the people, Mr. Drayton," she said. +"His presence in that very tumultuous disorderly city ought to make +them believe him." + +"I do not see that His Majesty has had reason to distrust the +people," my Father replied. + +"Ah!" she sighed; "if you had only seen His Majesty amidst his +family, his chivalrous tenderness to the queen, his native +stateliness all laid aside in playful fondness for his children." + +"It might have made it more painful to have to distrust him as a +king," my Father replied. "It could scarcely have made it more +possible to trust." + +"Well," she said, "either the nation will learn, ere long, to trust +his gracious intentions as he deserves, or will learn to their cost +what a sovereign they have distrusted!" + + +But scarcely a week afterwards the whole country was set in a flame +by the tidings that His Majesty had gone in person--attended by five +hundred armed men, many of them young desperadoes, feasted the night +before at Whitehall--to arrest the five members (Pym, Hampden, +Hazelrig, Denzil Hollis, and William Strode) in the inviolate +sanctuary of the nation, the Parliament House itself. + +And after that my Father and Lady Lucy ceased to hold any more +political debates. + +He simply said, when, on the evening of those tidings, we met in the +village,-- + +"The meaning of His Majesty's promises seems plain at last." + +And she replied,-- + +"But if all good men distrust His Majesty, will he not be driven to +trust to evil men?" + +"I am afraid the course of falsehood is ever downward," he answered, +very sadly, "and the breaches of just distrust ever widening." + +"But, for heaven's sake, Mr. Drayton," she said, with an imploring +accent, as we returned with her to the Hall, "think before you plunge +into these terrible divisions." + +"I have thought long, madam," he said, "for I have fought in the +Thirty Years' War, and seen how war can devastate." + +"But that was easy," she said, "that was church against church, state +against state, prince against prince. This will be the church +divided against itself, the nation divided against itself, subject +against king, one good man against another. Think, if you join Mr. +Hampden and Mr. Pym what noble and wise men you will have against +you! (for you honour Sir Bevil Grenvill and Lord Falkland as much as +we do); what violent and fanatical men with you!" + +"If all good men were on one side," he said, sorrowfully, "there need +be few battles in church or state." + +"It seems to me," she added, "there is no party one would willingly +join save that of the peace-makers." + +"That indeed is the very party I would seek to join," said my Father. +"But that seems to me the very party which, from ancient times, has +been stigmatized as those who turn the world upside down. Since the +Fall peace can seldom be reached save through conflict." + + +Meanwhile Roger had joined us, and Lettice, as we were about to +separate, whispered to me, clasping my hands in hers,-- + +"They may turn the world upside down, Olive, but they shall not +separate us! How happy it is for us," she said, turning to Roger, +who was standing a little apart, "that, as Harry says, women have +nothing to do with politics." + +"I am afraid," he said, in his abrupt way, "women have often more +than any to suffer from politics." + +"You take things so gravely, Roger," she said. "Everything would be +right if you would not all of you be so hard on people who have done +a little wrong; and would only try and believe what we must all wish, +and so bring it about." + +"Everything will be _wrong_," said Roger, with melancholy emphasis, +"if you will believe things and people because you wish, and not +because they are true." + +For Roger, true to every one, was truthful to scrupulousness with +Lettice; what she was, or became, being of more moment to him than +even what she thought of him. + +But Lettice only laughed, and said,-- + +"I am not sixteen, and I have seen the country at the point of ruin, +I cannot tell how many times. Other clouds have blown over, and so +will this." + +And she sped away to rejoin her mother, only once more turning back +to wave her hand and say: + +"To-morrow morning, Olive, at the Lady Well! The ice will be strong +enough on the Mere for skating. To-morrow!" + +But the next morning, when Roger and I went to the Lady Well, no +Lettice was there. + +Snow had fallen in the night. + +The frozen surface of the Mere was strewn with it, except in places +where it was sheltered by the overhanging brushwood, where it lay +black as steel against the white banks. All the music was frozen in +stream and wood. The drops, whose soft trickling into the well +beneath, had floated Lettice and me into fairy-land last summer, hung +in glittering silent icicles around the stone sides of the well. + +And Roger and I went silently home. + +"The snow has detained her," I said. + +"She is not so easily turned aside from a promise," he said. + +And when we reached home we found a messenger and a letter from +Lettice, saying Lady Lucy had been summoned to attend the Queen at +Windsor, that Lettice had accompanied her, and that Harry Davenant +and Sir Walter, being engaged about the king's person, Sir Launcelot +Trevor had come to escort them. + +"The Princess Mary is about to be married to the Prince of Orange," +Lettice wrote; "and as the queen is to accompany her to the Low +Countries, she wishes to see my mother before she leaves the country." + +"It would be a good service to us all if the queen would stay away +for ever," said Aunt Dorothy--and she expressed the feeling of a +large part of the nation--"the king would lose the worst of his evil +counsellors." + +"That depends," said my Father, sadly, "on whether the king is not +his own worst counsellor. If the evil has its origin in others, the +queen may indeed injure him more by remaining here. But, on the +other hand, she may succour him more on the Continent." + +"Well, at all events," said Aunt Dorothy, "her absence may be a +blessing to Lady Lucy and Mistress Lettice. For that child is not +without gracious dispositions. Last week she called when every one +else was out, and wishing to turn the time to account, I set her to +read aloud from the sermons of good Mr. Adams; and she read two and +part of the third, only twice going to the window to see if any one +was coming, and never even looking up, after I once asked her if she +was tired." + +"Do you think she really enjoyed them, Aunt Dorothy?" I asked; +knowing how difficult it was to ascertain Lettice's distastes, on +account of her predominant taste of doing what pleased other people. + +"I think better of the child than to deem she would seem pleased with +aught she did not really like," said Aunt Dorothy; and, although +unconvinced, I rejoiced that Aunt Dorothy had fallen under the spell. + +"What did she say?" I asked. + +"The first sermon was 'The Spiritual Navigator Bound for the Holy +Land,' about the glassy sea; and she said it was near as pretty +reading as Spenser's 'Faery Queen'--a remark which, though it showed +some lack of spiritual discernment, was something, in that it showed +she was entertained. The second was 'Heaven's Gate;' and when we +came to the place about the gate being in our own heart,--'Great +manors have answerable porches. Heaven must needs be spacious, when +a little star fixed in a far lower orb exceeds the earth in quantity; +yet it hath a low gate, not a lofty coming in.' And she said she had +thought the Gate of Heaven was only opened when we die, not here +while we live, and it was a strange thing to think on. The third +sermon was 'Semper Idem, the Immutable Mercy of Jesus Christ,' and in +that we did not read far; for when she read 'the sun of divinity is +the Scripture, the sun of Scripture is the gospel, the sun of the +gospel is Jesus Christ. Nor is this the centre of his word only, but +of our rest. Thou hast made us for thee, O Christ, and the heart is +unquiet till it rest in thee; seeking, we may find Him--he is ready; +finding, we may still seek Him; he is infinite,'--her voice trembled, +and with tears in her eyes, she looked up and said, 'I suppose that +is what the other sermon means by _entering the Gate of Heaven now_.' +And I deem that a wise thing for a child to say, brought up as she +has been under the very walls of Babylon. And the poor young thing's +ways pleased me so that I gave her the three sermons to keep. And +she promised to set store by them, and treasure them in a cedarn box +she hath, together with some books by Dr. Taylor. And although Dr. +Taylor is an Arminian, I had not the heart to cross the child. +Especially as books are not like us; they are none the worse for +being in bad company." + +But Roger made no comment. Only the next Sunday, as we were walking +home from church together, he said sorrowfully-- + +"Oh, Olive, so ready to be pleased with everything as she is, so +pleased to please every one, so sure to please, so true and generous, +so ready to believe good of every one; that she should be launched +into that false Court! I shall always dread to hear any one say, +'To-morrow.' If we could only have known, there were so many things +one might have said or have left unsaid. The last thing I said to +her seems to me now so harsh. She will always think of us as +rebuking her. And her last look was a defiant little smile! If we +could only know what days, or what words, are to be the last. +To-morrow," he added, "she was to have met us at the old well, and +now she is at the king's Court; and between us lies a great gulf of +civil war; and the whole country in such tumult, it seems a kind of +disloyalty to England to think of our own private sorrows." + +And Roger spoke but too truly. For it is impossible to say how +deeply that act of the king's in invading the Parliament had incensed +the whole nation. It showed, as nothing else could have done, my +Father said, that what was holy ground to the nation was mere common +soil to the king. Men had borne to have soldiers illegally billeted +on their homes; fathers torn, against law, from their families, and +left to die in prisons. Each such act of tyranny was exceptional or +partial, and might be redressed by patient appeals to our ancient +laws. Much of personal liberty might be sacrificed rather than +violate the order on which all true liberty is based. But the +Parliament House during the sitting of the Parliament was the sacred +hearth of the nation itself. Every man felt his own hearth violated +in its violation. Henceforth nothing was sacred, nothing was safe, +throughout the land. And from that day, my Father, dreading civil +war as only a soldier can who knows what the terrors of war are, +never seemed to have a doubt that it must come. Nor, candid as he +was, to the verge of weakness (as Aunt Dorothy thought), in his +anxiety to allow what was just to all sides, did he ever seem after +that to doubt, if the strife came, on which side he must stand. + + +There was a strange mixture of rigid adherences to ancient forms, +with the boldest spirit of liberty, in that scene in Parliament on +the 3rd of January 1642. + +Dr. Antony wrote us how all the members rose uncovered before the +king, how the speaker on his knee beside his own chair, which the +king had usurped, refused to answer His Majesty's questions as to the +absence of the five members, whom his eye vainly sought in their +vacant places, saying: "Please your Majesty, I have neither eyes to +see, nor ears to hear, nor tongue to speak in this place, save as the +House directs me." "Words," wrote Dr. Antony, "respectful enough for +a courtier of Nebuchadnezzar, with a meaning as kingly as those of +any Cæsar. Not a disrespectful word or gesture was directed against +the king as he retired baffled from the House, saying, that he saw +the birds had flown, and protesting that he had intended no breach of +privilege. But before he descended the steps of the Hall to rejoin +the armed guard outside, the civil war, my Father said, had begun." + +The next day the king had returned baffled from another attempt to +arrest the five members in the city. The aldermen, true +representatives of the great merchants of England, were as resolute +as the Parliament. They made His Majesty a great feast, but no +concessions. + +Within a week a thousand seamen from the good ships in the broad +Thames had offered their services to guard the Parliament from their +refuge in the city by water to Westminster, and as many 'prentices +had entreated to be permitted to render a similar service by land; +four thousand freeholders from Buckinghamshire (Hampden's county) had +entered London on horseback with petitions against wicked +councillors, and (on the 10th of January) the king had left Whitehall +for Hampden Court. + +But no man knew he would not return thither until seven years later, +on another January day, never to leave it more. + +So few last days come to us clothed in mourning announcing themselves +as the last. We step smiling into the ferry-boat which is to carry +us for a little while, as we think, across the narrow stream, and +wave our hands and say to those who watch us from the familiar shore, +"_To-morrow!_" and before we are aware the stream is a sea, the +ferry-boat is the boat of Charon, the familiar shore is out of sight; +the window of the Banquetting house has become the threshold of the +scaffold, and to-morrow is eternity. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +When I think of the months which passed between the king's attempted +arrest of the five members and the first battle of the Civil War, I +sometimes wonder how any one can ever undertake to write history. + +In the little bit of the world known to us, parties were so strangely +intertwined, so strangely divided, and so heterogeneously composed. +The motives that drew men to one side or the other were so various +and so mixed, that I think scarce one of those we knew fought on the +same side for the same reason; while the differences which separated +many men in the same party were certainly wider in many respects than +those which separated them from others against whom they fought. + +How world-wide the difference between Harry Davenant and Sir +Launcelot Trevor! How nicely balanced the scales that made my Father +and John Hampden "rebels," and Harry Davenant or Lord Falkland +"malignants!" + +Yet the distinctions were real, at least so it seems to me. Nor do I +see how, if all were to be again starting from the same point, either +could avoid coming to the same issue. + +Harry Davenant believed revolution to be ruin, and chose the most +arbitrary rule instead. + +My Father, equally dreading revolution, believed the king to be the +great revolutionist; by his arbitrary will changing times and laws; +by his hopeless untruth subverting the foundations of society. +Slowly he stepped down into the cold bitter waters of civil war, +having for his watch-word, "Loyalty to England and her laws!" His +chief hope lay in Mr. Hampden. + +Roger again, and others like him, hoping more from liberty than he +feared from revolution, and believing the contest would be fiery, but +brief and decisive, plunged gallantly into the flood, with Liberty +blazoned on their banners; liberty to do right and to speak the +truth. His chosen captain was Mr. Cromwell, in whose troop he served +from the first. God only knew the bitter pang it cost him (I knew it +not till years afterwards) to take his post on the field which must, +he knew, make so great a gulf between him and the Davenants. It was +seldom Roger spoke of what he felt; scarce ever of what he suffered. + +Dr. Antony wrote, meanwhile, from London:-- + +"Chirurgeons, like women, have indeed their place on the +battle-field, and not out of reach of the danger. But their work is +with the wounded, and their weapons are turned against the enemy of +all; the 'last enemy,' scarce to be destroyed in this war! I hope to +succour on the battle-field those I sought to comfort in the prisons. +God grant I find the air of the field as wholesome to the spirits of +my patients as that of the dungeon." + +Job Forster never hesitated for a moment as to which was the right +side. To him England was in one sense Canaan to be conquered, in +another the Chosen Land to be kept sacred. The king was Saul; or, in +other aspects, Sihon king of the Amorites, or Og king of Bashan. The +Parliament, at first, and then the Lord Protector and the army, were +the chosen people, Moses, Joshua, David. His only hesitation was +whether he himself ought to fight on the field, or to work at the +forge and protect Rachel and the village at home. "The Almighty," he +said, "has not given me this big body of mine for nought. God forbid +it should be said of Job Forster, Why abodest thou amidst the +sheep-folds to hear the bleatings of the flocks?--that is, the ring +of the hammer and anvil, which is as the bleating of my flocks to me. +Yet there is Rachel! And the old law was merciful; and if it forbid +a man to leave his new-married wife, how should I answer for leaving +her who has more need of me, and has none but me? and she so ailing, +and I, to whom the Lord has said as plain as words can speak, 'Be +thou better to her than ten sons." + +It was perhaps the first perplexity he had never confided to her, and +sorely was Job exercised, until one morning in August he came to my +Father with a lightened countenance, and said,-- + +"Mr. Drayton, she has given the word, as plain as ever Deborah spoke +to Barak. I've got my commission, and I'm ready to go this night." + +Afterwards, in an intimate talk by a camp-fire, he once told Roger +how that morning, between the lights, he woke up and saw her kneeling +down with her arms crossed upon the Book, and her eyes raised up to +heaven, and running fast with tears. "I lifted myself," he said, "on +my elbow, and I looked at her. But I didn't like to speak; I saw +there was something going on between her soul and the Lord. And last +she rose and came to me with a face as pale as the sheet, but without +a tear in her eyes or a tremble in her voice, and she said, 'Job, +thou shalt have thy way; the Lord has made me ready to give thee up.' +And I said, sheepish-like, 'How canst thee know what I willed? I +never said aught to thee!' Then she smiled and said, 'Thee never +thinks thee says aught except thee speaks plain enough for the +town-crier. Have not I heard thy sighs, and seen thy hankering looks +whenever any of the lads listed these weeks past? But I could not +speak before; now I can. For I've gotten the word from the Lord for +thee and for me, and woe is me if I hold my peace.' The word for me +was: 'Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld +thy son, thy only son, from me.' 'And that,' said she, 'means thee, +Job; for thou are more to me than that,' said she, 'more than that, +only and all. I have no promise to hold thee by, like Abraham had +for Isaac, yet if the Lord calls, what can I do?' And there her +voice gave way, but she hurried on--'And I've gotten a word for thee, +"_Have not I commanded thee?_ Be strong and of a good courage, for +the Lord thy God is with thee wheresoever thou goest."' "So," +concluded Job, "I got my word of command; and there was no more to be +said. We knelt down together and gave ourselves up; and as soon as +it was fairly day I came to give in my name." + +That was Job Forster's motive. He believed he had the word of +command direct from the King of kings. And this was the motive, I +believe, of hundreds and thousand more or less like him; men who, as +the Lord Protector said when the strife was over, were "never +beaten." Gloriously distinct the two armies and the two causes +seemed to him, perplexed by no subtle perceptions of right on the +wrong side, or of wrong on the right. + +To Aunt Dorothy also matters were equally clear, although her point +of view was not precisely the same, and in the subsequent +subdivisions she and Job became seriously opposed. Aunt Dorothy +believed that she saw in the New Testament a model of church ritual +and government, minutely defined to the last stave or pin or loop of +the tabernacle; and rather that abandon the minutest of these sacred +details she would willingly have suffered any temporal loss. The +whole Presbyterian order of church government she saw clearly +unfolded in the Acts and the Epistles; and that godly men like Mr. +Cromwell on the other hand, or learned men like Dr. Jeremy Taylor on +the other, should fail to see it also, was a miracle only to be +accounted for by the blinding power of Satan, especially predicted in +these last days. With regard to the Government of the State also, +her belief was equally definite, derived, as she considered, from the +same Divine source. The king was "the anointed of the Lord." In +this, she said, Lady Lucy had undoubted insight into the truth. His +wicked councillors might be put to death, as traitors at once against +him and the realm; armies might by his Parliament be raised against +him; but it must be in his name, with the purpose of setting him free +from those evil councillors by whom he was virtually kept a prisoner; +his judgment being by them enthralled, so that he was irresponsible +for his acts, and might quite lawfully by his faithful covenanted +subjects be placed, respectfully, under bodily restraint, if thereby +his mind might be disenthralled from the hard bondage of the wicked. +But beyond this no subject might go. The king's person was sacred; +no profane hand could be lifted with impunity against him. Any +difficulty, disorder, or evil, must be endured, rather than touch a +hair of the consecrated head. This also was a conviction for which +Aunt Dorothy was fully prepared to encounter any amount of +contradiction or disaster. The narrow ridge on which she walked +erect, without wavering or misgiving, was, she was persuaded, marked +out as manifestly as the path of the Israelites through the Red Sea +by the wall of impassable waters on either hand, by the pillar of +cloud and fire behind. To this narrow way she would have allured, +led, or if needful compelled every human soul, for their good, and +the glory of God. No vicissitudes of fortune affected her +convictions; the sorrows of all who deviated from this narrow path +being, in her belief, from the Sword of the Avenger, while the +sorrows of those who kept to it were from the Rod of the Comforter. +My Father's adherence to very much the same course of conduct, from a +belief of its expediency, and Aunt Gretel's from the tenderness of +sympathy which inevitably drew her to the side on which there was the +most suffering, seemed to Aunt Dorothy happy accidents, or special +and uncovenanted mercies, singularly vouchsafed to persons of their +uncertain and indefinite opinions. Not that Aunt Dorothy's nature +was in any way vulgar, small, and narrow. Her heart was deep and +high, if not always wide. To her convictions she would have +sacrificed first herself, then the universe. Her convenience she +would have sacrificed to the comfort of the meanest human being in +the universe. She would not have swerved from her ridge of orthodoxy +for the dearest love on earth. She would have stooped from it to +save or help the most degraded wanderer, or her greatest enemy. + +But the most dangerous conviction she held was unfortunately one of +the deepest. It was that of her own practical infallibility. It was +strange that, with the profoundest and most practical convictions of +her own sinfulness, she never could learn the impossibility that all +error should be removed whilst any sin remains; that there should be +no darkness in the mind while there is so much in the heart. +Strange, but not uncommon. Her sin she acknowledged as her own. Her +creed she identified entirely with the Holy Scriptures. It was not +her own, she said, it was God's truth to the minutest point, and, as +such, she would have suffered or fought for every clause. + +Nevertheless, with advancing years Roger and I grew into a deeper +reverence for her character. If in our childhood she represented to +us Justice with the sword and scales (often in our belief very +effectually blindfolded), whilst Aunt Gretel enacted counteracting +Mercy; in after years we grew rather to look on them as Truth and +Tenderness, acting not counter to each other, but in combination. +And in this imperfect world, where truth and love are never blended +in perfect proportions in any one character, it is difficult to say +on which we leant the most. It was strange to see how often their +opposite attributes led them to the same actions. "Speaking the +truth in love," was Aunt Dorothy's maxim; and if the love were +sometimes lost in the emphasis on truth, neither truth nor love were +ever sacrificed to selfish interest. "First pure then peaceable" was +her wisdom; and I cannot say she always got as far as the "gentle, +and easy to be entreated." But it is something to be able to look +back on a life like hers, unprofaned by one stain of untruthfulness, +or by one low or petty aim. It is only in looking back that we learn +what a rock of strength she was to us all, or how the tenderest +memories of home often cling like mosses around such rocks; the more +closely, sometimes, for their very ruggedness. Thus our home at +Netherby contained various elements ecclesiastical and political as +well as moral, all of which, however, at the commencement of the +civil wars were gathered together under the watchword, "Loyalty above +all to the King of kings. Liberty to obey God." + +It was this indeed, that, with all our internal differences as to +church government and secular government, united us into one party. +Whatever varieties of opinion as to church government our party +contained: Presbyterian, Independent, Moderate Episcopal, or Quaker; +classical, republican, aristocratic, English constitutional, or, +finally, the adherents of the Deliverer, chosen (they deemed) as +divinely and to be obeyed as implicitly as any Hebrew judge--all +believed in the theocracy. + +The liberty our party contended for was no mere unloosing of bonds. +It was liberty to obey the highest law. It was no mere levelling to +clear an empty space for new experiments. It was sweeping away ruins +to clear a platform for the kingdom of God. + +And this was another point in which the recollections of my life make +me feel how vast and complicated an undertaking it must be to write +history. + +In our early days we used to be given histories of the Church and +histories of the world. Profane histories and sacred histories as +neatly and definitely separated as if the Church and the world had +been two distinct planets. + +But in our own times, at least, it seems to me absolutely impossible +thus to separate them. The Battle of Dunbar was to Oliver Cromwell +and his army as religious an act as their prayer-meeting at Windsor. +The righting the poor folks who lost their rights on the Soke of +Somersham was, I believe, as religious an act to Mr. Cromwell as the +appointment of the gospel-lectures. And as with the actions so with +the persons. Who can say which persons of our time belong to +ecclesiastical and which to secular history? + +Does the history of the Convocation, of the Star-Chamber, or of the +Westminster Assembly, belong to sacred history; and the history of +the Long Parliament, where decisions were made for time and eternity, +or of the battle-fields whence thousands went to their last account, +to profane? Is the making of confessions of faith a religious act, +and the living by them or dying for them secular? Are Archbishop +Laud, Bishop Williams, Mr. Baxter, Dr. Owen, Mr. Howe, ecclesiastical +persons; and Lord Falkland, Mr. Hampden, Mr. Pym, or Oliver Cromwell, +secular? + +In our times, as in my own life, it seems to me absolutely impossible +to say where sacred history begins and where the profane ends. + +My consolation is that it seems to me much the same in the Holy +Scriptures. We call Genesis sacred history; and what is it, chiefly, +but a story of family life? What is Exodus but a record of national +deliverances? What are the Chronicles and Kings but histories of +wars and sieges, interspersed with pathetic family stories? What, +indeed, are the gospels themselves but the record, not of creeds or +ecclesiastical conflicts, but of a life, the Life, coming in contact +with every form of sickness, and sin, and sorrow in this our common +everyday human life? What would the gospels be with nothing but the +Sabbaths and the synagogues, and the Sanhedrim, and the Scribes and +Pharisees left in them? With the widow's only son left out of them, +and the ruler's little daughter, and the woman who was a sinner, and +the five thousand fed on the grassy slopes of Galilee, and the one +young man who departed sorrowful 'for he had great possessions?' +Would it have been more truly Church history for being the less human +history? + +The Bible history seems to me to be a history of all human life in +relation to God. The sins of the Bible are terribly manifest, +secular sins; injustice, impurity, covetousness, cruelty. Its +virtues are simple homely, positive virtues; truth, uprightness, +kindness, mercy, gratitude, courage, gentleness; such sins and +virtues as make the weal or woe of nations and of homes. Ordinary +ecclesiastical history seems to me too often a record of secular +struggles for consecrated things, and names, and places, and of +selfish strivings for which shall be greatest. The sins it blames, +too often mere transgressions of rules, mistakes as to religious +terms, neglect of the tithe of mint, anise, and cummin. The virtues +it commends, alas! too often negative renunciations of certain +indulgences, scruples as to certain observances, fasting twice in the +week; things which, done or undone, leave the heart the same. + +But underneath all this a Church history like that of the Bible is +being silently lived on earth, is being silently written in heaven. +Little glimpses of it we see here from time to time. What will it be +when we see it all? + + +All through that summer the country was astir with the enlistings for +the king and the Parliament. + +These began about April. + +On the 23d of February, Queen Henrietta Maria had embarked at Dover +for the Low Countries, with the Princess Mary and the crown jewels. + +From the time that she was in safety the king's tone to the +Parliament began (it was thought) to change. Always chivalrously +regardful of her, and in different to danger for himself (for none of +his father's timidity could ever be charged to him), he began to give +more open answers to the popular demands. He hoped also, it was +said, much from the queen's eloquence and exertions in his cause on +the Continent. It was his misfortune, my Father said, that any +favourable turn in his affairs made him unyielding; and thus it +happened that he only came to terms when his cause was at the worst, +so that his treaties had the double disadvantage of being made under +the most adverse circumstances, and with men who knew from repeated +experience that not one of his most sacred promises would be kept if +he could help it. Such virtues as he possessed seemed always to come +into action at the wrong moment; his courage when it could only +kindle irritation; his graciousness when it could only inspire +contempt. + +The queen being safely out of the country, and the king safely out of +the capital, from his refuge at York came the renewal of the old +irritating demand for tonnage and poundage, rooting the opposition +firmer than ever in the irrevocable distrust of the royal word. + +The demand of the king for the old usurpations was met by the +assertion of the Parliament of old rights, with the demand for new +powers to secure these; by the assertion of the power of the purse, +and the demand for power over the militia. + +But to us women at Netherby all these negotiations and fencings +between the king and the Parliament sounded so much like what had +gone on for so long, everything was couched in such orderly and +constitutional language, that it was difficult to think anything more +than Protestations, Remonstrances, Breach of Privilege, and Protests +for Privilege, would ever come of it. + +The first thing that roused me to the sense that it might end not in +words but in battles, was the news that reached us one April evening +that the king had gone in person with three hundred horsemen to the +gates of Hull, and had summoned Sir John Hotham to surrender the +city; that Sir John had refused to surrender or to admit the king's +troops (offering all loyal courtesy at the same time to the king +himself); that the king and his three hundred had thereon gone off +baffled to Beverly, and there proclaimed Sir John Hotham a traitor. + +That night I said to Aunt Gretel,-- + +"This seems to me altogether to introduce a new set of terms and +things. Instead of Protestations and Remonstrances, we hear of +Summonses and Surrenders. The king and his cavaliers repulsed from +the closed gates of one of his own cities! Aunt Gretel, these are +new words to us; does not this look like war?" + +And she replied, in a tremulous voice,-- + +"Alas, sweet heart, these are no new words to me. Your people seem +to arrange many things others fight about, by talking about them. +And it is difficult for me to say what words mean with you. But +these words are indeed terribly familiar to me. And in my country +they would certainly mean war." + +And that night I well remember the perplexity that crossed my +prayers, whether in praying as usual for the king I might not be +praying against the Parliament, and against my Father and Roger, and +the nation; until after debating the matter in my own mind for some +time, I came to the conclusion that on whatever dark mountains +scattered, and by whatever deep waters divided, to Him there is still +"One flock, one Shepherd," and that however ill I knew how to ask, He +knew well what to give. + + +LETTICE DAVENANT'S DIARY. + +(_From another source._) + +"_York_, _April_, 1642.--It has actually begun at last. The +rebellion has begun. Sir John Hotham (Sir I hesitate to call him, +for what knight is worthy the name who turns his disloyal sword +against the very Fountain of knighthood and of all honor?) has closed +the gates of Hull against the summons--against the very voice and +person of His Sacred Majesty. At once the king withdrew to Beverley, +and under the shadow of the grand old Minster proclaimed the false +knight a traitor. + +"The rebellion has begun, but every one says it cannot last long. +Next Christmas at latest must see us all at peace again; the nation +once more at the feet of the king. My Mother says like a prodigal +child; Sir Launcelot says like a beaten hound. Mobs, says he, like +dogs, can only learn to obey by being suffered to rebel a little, and +then being whipped for it. (I like not well this talk of Sir +Launcelot. If the nation is like a hound, at what point in the +nation does the dog-nature begin, and the human end?) Speaking so, I +told him, we might include ourselves. But he laughed, and said, such +discerning of spirits required no miraculous gift. Moreover, he +said, the king himself had once compared the Parliaments to 'cats, to +be tamed when young but cursed when old;' and had called his sailors +in the Thames who offered to guard the Parliament 'water-rats.' If +the king said so, I confess I think His Majesty might have chosen +more courtly similes. But I do not believe he did. I will never +believe any evil of His Majesty, whoever says it, scarcely if I were +to see it myself, for my eye? might be deceived. + +"Only I should be sorely vexed if they heard these things at +Netherby; because they never said rough things of any one. +Especially now I am not there to explain things. For I am not +allowed to write to them, nor to see them again, until things are +right again in the country; which makes me write this. + +"However, it cannot last long. Every one here agrees in that. Every +one except Harry, whom we call 'Il Penseroso.' He sees such a long +way, and on so many sides, or at least he tries to do so; and he +talks of the Wars of the Roses, and the Wars in Germany; as if there +were any resemblance! In Germany there were kings and states +opposed. In the Wars of the Roses royal persons, with some kind of +claim to reign. But this is nothing but flat rebellion. The family +against the father; sworn liegemen against their sovereign lord; the +body against the head. And how can any one think for a moment there +can be any end to it but one, and that soon? Yes; at Christmas, I +trust, we Davenants shall be at the Hall again, and the Draytons at +Netherby, looking back to the end of this frantic and unnatural +outbreak. + +"And I mean to be most generous to them all about it. I do not mean +even to say, 'I always told you how it would end.' They will see, +and that will be enough. The king will forgive every one, I am sure, +he is so gracious and gentle--(he spoke to me like a father the other +day, and yet with such knightly deference!)--except, perhaps, a very +few, who will have to be made examples of, unless they make examples +of themselves by running out of the country, which I hope they may. +For having once re-asserted his rightful authority, the king will be +able to be forgiving without being suspected of weakness. There need +not be any more poor mistaken people set in the pillory, which really +seems to do no one any good, as far as I can see, and to make every +one so exceedingly angry. The Puritans (that is, those among them +who have any sense) will see that it really can make no difference +whether the clergyman says the prayers in a white dress or a black. +Perhaps even the bishops and archbishops might own the same. +Because, although it cannot be good management to give a naughty +child its way for crying, if it stops crying and is good, it is quite +another thing. + +"And then everything would go on delightfully. The very troublesome +and obstinate people (on both sides, I think) might, perhaps, all go +to America, some to the north and some to the south. For the +American plantations are very wide, they say, and by the time they +met--say in one or two hundred years--their great-great grandchildren +might have given up caring so much about the colours of the vestments +and the titles of the clergymen who do the services in the church. +So that by that time everything would go on delightfully in America +as well as in England. And by next Christmas, from what the +gentlemen and ladies about here say, I should think this might all +have begun. Only just now this little unpleasant contest has to be +gone through first. And I am very much afraid as to what Mr. Drayton +and Roger may do, or even Olive. They are so terribly conscientious. +They will pick up the smallest questions with their consciences +instead of with their common sense; which seems to me like watering a +daisy with a fire-engine, or weeding a flower-bed with a plough. +Mistress Dorothy is the worst of them (dear, kind, old soul, I must +now and then look at her sermons, in order to make it quite clear to +myself I was not a hypocrite in listening to them all that time). +But I do not think any of them are quite safe in this way. And yet I +know, in my inmost heart, they are better than any one in the world, +except my Mother, and perhaps Harry. (Of His Majesty it is not for +me to speak.) And I love them better than any one in the world, +which, I am afraid, they will not believe, now I am not allowed to +write to them. I love them for their noble perverseness, and their +heroic conscientiousness, and their terrible truthfulness, and +everything that separates us. And these last months at home have +been the happiest of my life. I felt growing quite good. And one +thing I have resolved. I will not say one word I should mind their +hearing, so that when we meet again I may have nothing to explain or +to unsay. For it is only misunderstanding that will ever make any of +them take the wrong side; nothing but misunderstanding. And facts +will set that all right when they see how things really are. As they +will, I trust, before Christmas. + +"It is not so easy to be good here as at Netherby. People say so +many pretty things to me. My Mother says I must not heed them; they +are only Court ways of speaking, which mean nothing; and that rightly +used, I might even make them means of mortification, saying every +time I hear such pretty phrases, as good Dr. Taylor recommended, 'My +beauty is in colour inferior to many flowers; and even a dog hath +parts as well proportioned to the designs of his nature as I have; +and three fits of an ague can change it into yellowness and leanness, +and to hollowness and wrinkles of deformity.' But this I find not so +easy. If I were a rose, I should be pleased at being a rose, and at +being thought sweet and fair. And even a well-favoured dog, meseems, +has some harmless delight in his good looks. And as to the ague, I +see no likelihood of it. And as to becoming yellow and lean, the +more I think of it, the gladder I am to think I am not. And yet +there is some little flutter in my pleasure at these fair speeches +which hardly seems to me quite altogether good. And I do not think +my Mother quite knows what nonsense these young Cavaliers talk. +Perhaps no one did ever talk nonsense to her. Or, if they did, I am +sure she never liked it. And I am afraid I do sometimes a little. +Else, why should it all come back into my mind at wrong times?--in +the Minster or at prayers. Heigh, ho! I wish I was at Netherby. No +one ever called me fair enchantress there, or my cheeks Aurora's +rose-garden, or my teeth strings of pearls, or my hands lilies, or my +hair imprisoned sunbeams, or my voice the music of the spheres. Sir +Launcelot talked enough of that kind of poetry to me, between +Netherby and Windsor, to make a book of ballads. (For my Mother was +in the sedan-chair, whilst I rode most of the way with Sir +Launcelot.) And yet, I think, there is more honour in Roger +Drayton's telling me in his straight-forward way he thought me wrong, +as he so often did, than in all Sir Launcelot's most honeyed +compliments. + +"Not that I think Olive just to poor Sir Launcelot. If she could +have seen his debonair and courteous ways to every clown and poor +wench we met, and how he flung his crowns and angels to any beggar, +she must have felt there is much kindliness in him, with all his wild +ways. + +"And when he saw I liked not so many fair speeches, he gave them up +in a measure. I must say that for him; and he has been as +deferential to me ever since at the Court, as if I were one of the +princesses. Only I wish he would not always see when I drop my glove +or my posy: at least, I think I do. Yet it is rather pleasant, too, +at times to feel there is some one who cares about one among so many +strange people, and some one who is always ready to talk about poor +old Netherby, and who honours the Draytons, moreover, so generously. +I wish Olive knew this. + +"And I wish I were like my Mother, and had 'a chapel built in my +heart.' Or else that I could live at Netherby. + +"Sir Launcelot admires the 'beauty of holiness' in my Mother. He +says, in all times, happily, there have been these sweet exalted +Saints, especially among women, bright particular stars, celestial +beauties, and princesses, that all men must revere. Quite another +kind of thing, he says, from the Puritan notion of calling all men to +be 'saints,' or else consigning them to reprobation as among the +wicked. + +"_Note_.--I am at a loss what to call this writing of mine. It is +scarcely a Diary or Journal, for I certainly shall not do anything as +regular as write in it every day. It shall not be 'Annals;' for I +hope to have done with it before Christmas, when I shall have met +Olive and all of them again at home. 'Chronicles' are more solemn +still. 'Thoughts?' where shall I find them? 'Facts?' how is one to +know them, when people give such different accounts of things? +'Meditations?' worse again. 'Religious Journals,' 'Confessions,' +etc., always puzzled me. I could never make out for whom they were +written. Especially the prayers I have seen written out at length in +them. They cannot be meant for other people to read. That would be +turning the 'closet' into 'the corners of the street.' They cannot +be meant for the people themselves to read. For what good could that +do? It would not be praying to see how I prayed some years since. +They cannot surely be meant for God to read. He is always near, and +can hear, or read our hearts, which is quite another thing from +reading our Diaries. + + +"_May_ 30, _York_.--The birds begin to sing in the trees around the +Minster. Our lodging is opposite. And the courtiers begin to gather +once more around the king. Many lords have come these last days from +London, with some faithful members of the Commons' House, and old +Lord Littleton has come, with somewhat limping loyalty, they say, +after the Great Seal, now in the right hand. So that this grave old +town begins to look gay. Cavaliers caracolling about the streets, +doffing their hats to fair faces in the windows. Troops mustering +but slowly; somewhat slowly. Nor can I make out if these townspeople +altogether like us and our ways. There are so many Puritans among +these traders. And Sir Launcelot says they have great sport in the +Puritan household where he is quartered, in making the Puritan lads +learn the 'Distracted Puritan,' and other roystering Cavalier songs, +and drink confusion to the Covenant; and in making the host and +hostess bring out their best conserves, linen and plate, for the use +of the men. Sir Launcelot told them, he said, that they should only +look on it as the payment of an old debt the children of Israel had +owed to the Egyptians these three thousand years. I do not think +such jokes good manners in any other person's house, and I told him +so. But he said their ridiculous gravity makes the temptation too +strong to be resisted. If they would jest good-humouredly in return, +he said, they would soon understand each other. But would they? I +am not quite sure how Sir Launcelot enjoys not having the best of a +joke. And I could not bear his calling the Puritans all canting, or +ridiculous. He knows better. And I told him so. I felt quite +indignant, and the tears were in my eyes (for I thought of them all +at Netherby). He seemed penitent. Indeed, I hope it did him good. + +"_June_.--The Parliament are growing more insolent every day; they +dared to say in one of their ridiculous Remonstrances that 'the king +is for the kingdom, not the kingdom for the king, that even the crown +jewels are not His Majesty's own, but given him in trust for the +regal power.' However, they will soon learn their mistake about +that, for the crown-jewels are safe in Holland, and have there +purchased for the Crown good store of arms and ammunition. These +were all embarked in a Dutch ship called the _Providence_. A great +Providence, my Mother says, attended her. For although she was +wrecked on the coast of Yorkshire, nevertheless, all her stores have +this day been safely brought into York. + +"Now we shall see what gentlemen can do against tapsters, and +tailors' and haberdashers' 'prentices, such as make up the wretched +army they have been mustering in London! The citizens' wives +actually brought their thimbles and bodkins, it is said, to pay the +men; to such mean and ludicrous straits are they reduced. The +Cavaliers call it 'the Thimble and Bodkin Army.' + +"_July_ 20.--Sir John Hotham is said to be wavering back to loyalty. +A day or two since, a gallant little army of four thousand men rode +forth hence through the Mickle Bar, to demand the surrender of that +presumptuous city, Hull, and if refused, to storm it. Better they +had listened to His Majesty's gentle summons with his three hundred. +How gallant and brave they looked. Plumed helmets gleaming swords +flashing, pennons flying, horses looking as proud of the cause as the +riders. Not a cavalier among them who would not face battle as gayly +as the hunting-field. + +"_July_ 22.--Those treacherous townspeople! Not a troop of them is +to be relied on. Our gallant Cavaliers came back in disorder. And +all because of the faithless train-bands, and those turbulent +citizens of Hull. Lord Lindsay, with three thousand men, was at +Beverley, and on the lighting of a fire on Beverley Minster, the +gates of Hull were to be opened by some loyal men inside. But five +hundred rebels within the town, hearing too soon of the intention of +these loyal men, made a sortie under the command of Sir John Hotham. +The true Cavaliers would have stood firm, every one says, but the +Yorkshire train-bands would not draw sword against their neighbours, +but ran away to Beverley, and so the whole ended in disgrace and +defeat. If we could only have an army entirely composed of +gentlemen, and their sons, and retainers, the Parliament could not +stand a day. But the worst news that has reached us lately, is the +treachery of the Earl of Warwick and the navy. They have all gone +over to the Parliament, in spite of the king's offering them better +pay than they ever received before. Five ships stood firm at first, +but the rest overpowered them. I hope no one ever told them about +their being called 'water-rats,' but there are always some malicious +people who delight to make mischief by telling tales. I should think +royal persons ought to be very careful about their jests. + +"_August_.--We are on the point of leaving York to spend a few days +at Nottingham, where the king's standard is to be set up. + +"I am not sorry to leave this old town. I miss the pleasant walks at +home. For here one dare scarce venture much out of doors. If the +Cavaliers are as dangerous to their enemies as they are sometimes to +their friends, the Parliament has good cause to tremble. The streets +echo dismally at night with the shouts of drunken revelry. But, I +suppose, all armies are alike. Only it is rather unfortunate for us +that gravity and the show of piety being the badge of the Puritans, +levity and a reckless dashing carriage are taken up as their badge by +many of the young Cavaliers. + +"I would they took example by the king. His Majesty has been riding +around the country lately himself, calling his lieges to follow him. +And his majestic courtesy and grace, with his loving and winning +speeches, such as he made at Newark and Lincoln, showing his good +intentions and desires for their liberty and welfare, must, I am +sure, be worth him a mint of such money as the London citizens can +coin out of their thimbles and bodkins. + +"The North country is well disposed, they say; and Lancashire, where +the queen hath much hold on the Catholic gentlemen of ancient lineage +there; and the West country, where brave Sir Bevil Granvill lives, is +full of loyalty. Mr. Hampden has done mischief in Buckinghamshire, +and Mr. Cromwell (a brewer, Sir Launcelot says, rather than a +country-gentleman, though not of low parentage) calls himself +captain, and is disaffecting the eastern counties, already disloyal +enough, with their French Huguenot weavers, and their 'Anabaptists, +Atheists, and Brownists,' as His Majesty calls them. + +"The towns are the worst, however. I suppose there is something in +buying and selling, and tinkering and tailoring, which makes people +think more of mean money considerations, than of loyalty and honour. +Then there are so many Puritans in the town. Perhaps the narrow dark +high streets make them naturally inclined to be gloomy and +strait-laced. I think, however, the less our Cavalier soldiers are +quartered in the towns, the better, till they mend their manners. It +may make the citizens less pleased than ever with the Book of Sports. + +"_Nottingham, August_ 23.--This evening the king himself set up his +standard on the top of the field behind the castle. There was much +sounding of drums and trumpets. Several hundreds gathered around the +royal party, and we watched a little way off. But, I know not how, +the act did not seem as solemn as the occasion. The night was +stormy; and the trumpets and drums, and then the voice of the herald +reading the royal proclamation, sounded small and thin against the +rush and howling of the winds. The troops have not yet answered the +king's call as they should, and those present were mostly the +train-bands. Then His Majesty, on the spot, made some alterations in +the proclamation, which perplexed the herald, so that he blundered +and stumbled in reading it. Altogether I wish I had not been there. + +"The king's standard ought to be something more than a pole no higher +than a May-pole with a few streamers, and a common flag at the top. +And the trumpets which are to rouse a nation, ought to have a certain +magnificence in them, altogether different from the trumpets they +blow at the carols at Netherby at Christmas. I am sure I cannot tell +how. But I always pictured it so. The words are grander than the +things. + +"Perhaps all our pomps and solemnities look poor and mean under the +open sky. We had better keep them beneath roofs of our own making. +The pomps we are used to under the open sky are the purple and +crimson and gold of sunset and sunrise, great banners of storm-clouds +flung across the sky. And the solemnities are the thunders, and the +mighty winds, and the rushing of rivers, and the dashing of seas. + +"The things are grander, infinitely, than any words wherewith we can +speak of them. + +"But when I said so to my Mother, she said, 'And yet, my child, one +soul, and even one human voice, is grander, or more godlike than all +the thunders. It is their significance, Lettice, which gives the +grandeur to any solemnities of ours. If we heard those trumpets +summon our countrymen by thousands to the battle, or saw that flag +borne blood-stained from the field, we should not think the voice of +the trumpet wanted terrible magnificence, or call the flag a common +thing ever more.' + +"Perhaps, after all, it was only a little inward depression that made +me feel this disappointment. For only three days before, Coventry +had shut her gates in the king's face, and the Earl of Essex is at +hand, they say, with a great army, and so few flocking loyally to the +king. + +"But worst of all, I think, is this Prince Rupert. His mother's +name, Elizabeth of Bohemia, has been like a sacred name in the +country for years; a saint and a heroine in courage and patience. +But this prince is so noisy and reckless, and takes so much upon +himself, that he angers the older gentlemen and experienced soldiers +sorely. My Father says he is little better than a petulant boy. Yet +he has great weight with the king, his uncle, and takes the command +into his own hands; so that the gallant old Earl of Lindsay deems his +own command little better than nominal. And, meanwhile, the younger +Cavaliers take their colour from him, and use that new low cant word +of his, 'plunder,' quite as a jest, as if it meant some new sport or +sword-exercise, instead of meaning, as it does, scouring all over the +country, burning lonely farm-houses, robbing the inmates, and +sometimes hanging the servants at the doors for refusing to betray +their masters, sacking villages, and I know not what other +wickednesses. In the fortnight he has been here, he has flown +through Worcestershire, Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire, +Leicestershire, and Cheshire. And not a night but we have seen the +sky aglow with the fires of burning villages and homesteads. I +should fear to hear how the people along his line of march, coming +back to their ruined homes, speak of the king. + +"Moreover, it is said, the rebel troops are strictly forbidden to +take anything without paying for it, a contrast worth them much. + +"_August_ 24.--This morning, before I rose, my Mother's waiting +gentlewoman brought dismal news. The royal standard, said she, has +been blown down in the night, and lies a wreck along the hill. + +"My Mother says it is heathenish to talk of omens and auguries. And +my Father says these foreigners are the worst omen, and all would be +well enough if they would leave Englishmen to fight out their own +quarrels, like neighbours, who exchange blows and are friends again, +instead of like wretched hired Lanzknechts or Free Companions. + +"But Sir Launcelot laughs, and says it is a good thing to give the +whining Puritans something to cry for at last. And Harry sighs, and +says he supposes it is necessary to make the rebels see we are in +earnest. + +"Altogether, we do not seem in very good humour with each other just +now. However, a few victories will no doubt set us all right again. +There can be no reasonable doubt that the king will bring these +rebels to their senses sooner or later; in a few months at latest. + +"Only I had not understood at all how very melancholy war is. I +thought of it as concerning no one but the soldiers. And men must +incur danger one way or another. And there is the glory, and the +excitement, and the exercise of noble courage, making such men as +nothing but such trials can make. + +"But the battles seem but a small part of the misery; the misery +without glory to any one. + +"On our way hither from York, my Mother was faint and tired, and we +stopped at a little farm-house with an orchard. It was evening, and +the woman had just finished milking the cows by the door, and she +gave my Mother a cup of new milk while she rested on the settle in +the clean little kitchen. There were two little children playing +about, and the father was at work in the orchard, and one of the +children called him, and he brought my Father a cup of cider. And +there was a Bible on the table with wood-cuts; and I found the eldest +child knew the meaning of them. He said his father had told him. +They were very kind and pleasant to us. + +"And a few days since Harry told me they had passed a little farm +with an orchard, and the man was surly and a Puritan, and refused to +tell the way some fugitives had fled; and Prince Rupert had him +hanged on his own threshold, and drove off the cows for plunder. + +"And from what Harry says I feel sure it is the same. + +"And I have scarcely slept since, thinking of that poor man, and the +silent voice that will never any more explain the wood-cuts in the +old Bible, and the poor hands that will never show their willing +hospitality again. + +"But it is only one, Harry says, among hundreds; and such things must +be, and I must not think of it. + +"But every one of the hundreds is just that terrible only one, which +leaves the world all lonely to some poor mourner! + +"Those gentlemen in Parliament have dreadful things to answer for. + +"Why did not Mr. Hampden pay a thousand times his miserable +ship-money rather than lead the country on to such horrors? + +"For the king cannot have his commands disobeyed. If he did, how +could he be a king? + +"I do wish he could be more a king with his own troops; I am sure he +hates this ravaging and marauding. But so many of the gentlemen +serve, and, indeed, keep their regiments at their own cost, which +makes them difficult to control. + +"_October_.--Prince Rupert has been driven from Worcester. If it +were only a lesson in reverence and modesty for the prince, it would +not so much matter, some think, that he left twenty good and true men +dead there. The Earl of Essex occupies the city. He has been there +a fortnight doing nothing. Some remnants of loyalty, we think, +hinder him from coming to open collision. But what the use of +collecting an army can be unless it is to fight, it is hard to see. +The truth is, perhaps, that he begins to feel the peril of setting +his haberdashers and grocers' 'prentices, commanded by a forsworn +peer, against gentlemen's sons fighting under their king! Meantime, +our army is gathering at last, and only too eager, they say, to give +the rebels a lesson. Once for all, God grant it be a lesson once for +all. Although the battles do not seem to me half so dreadful as +these 'plunderings.' But perhaps that is because I never came near a +battle; nor, indeed, can the oldest man in England remember any one +that ever did on English soil." + + +OLIVE DRAYTON'S RECOLLECTIONS. + +All through the summer the armies were gathering. In our seven +eastern counties--Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Lincoln, +Huntingdonshire, and Hertfordshire--called the associated counties, +because bound by Mr. Hampden and Mr. Cromwell into an association for +mutual defence, the King's Commission of Array and the Parliament's +Ordinance of Militia clashed less than elsewhere. In August Mr. +Cromwell seized a magazine of arms and ammunition at Cambridge. The +stronghold of the Puritans was in these eastern regions; and except +where a few Royalist gentlemen, like the Davenants, led off their +retainers, the Parliament had, amongst us, mostly its own way. All +the more reason, my Father said, for our men to risk their persons, +since our homes were safer than elsewhere. + +My Father, from his old military experience, had much to do with +training and drilling the men. Strange sounds of clanging arms and +sharp words of command echoed from the old court of the Manor. Old +arms, the very stories belonging to which were well-nigh forgotten, +were taken down; arms which had hung on the walls of manor-house and +farm-house since the Wars of the Roses. The newest weapon we had at +Netherby which had seen service in England was a short jewel-hilted +sword the Drayton of the day had worn at the Battle of Bosworth +Field, fighting, by a rare piece of good luck for us, under Henry +VII., on the winning side. Since then the Reformation had +revolutionized the Church, and gunpowder had revolutionized the art +of war; so that instead of the sturdy bow-men, each provided with his +weapon and ready trained to the use of it, whom his ancestors brought +to the field, my Father could only muster a few labourers and +servants, without weapons and without training, with no further +preparation for war than hands used to labour, wits ready to learn, +and hearts ready to dare. + +My Father did not mean to lead his own men. Having had experience of +engineering in the German wars, he was employed here and there as his +directions were needed. Roger and those who went from Netherby +served from the first with Mr. Cromwell's Ironsides; my Father, as +his contribution, providing the armour, which, like that of +Haselrigge's Lobsters, was complete and costly. Other bands passed +and repassed often, and shared the hospitalities of the Manor, to +join Lord Brook's purple-coats, Lord Say and Lord Mandeville's +bluecoats. Hollis' red-coats were London men, and Mr. Hampden's +green-coats all from his own county, Buckinghamshire; while the badge +of all was the orange scarf round the arm--the family colours of Lord +Essex, the general. Each regiment had its own motto--Hampden's, +"_Vestigia nulla retrorsum_;" Essex's (pointing many a cavalier jest, +if seen in plunder or retreat), "_Cave adsum_." On the reverse of +each banner was the common motto of all, "God with us"--the +watch-word of so many a battle. + +Money was not stinted; the city of London heading the contributions +in January with £50,000, and the Merchants' Companies with nigh as +large a sum (then intended to avenge the Irish massacre); whilst Mr. +Hampden gave £1000, and his cousin, Mr. Cromwell, £500. + +Women brought their rings and jewels; cherished old family plate was +not held back. We in our sober Puritan household had few jewels to +bring, but such as we had were disinterred from their caskets, and +the few silver drinking-cups which distinguished our table from any +farmers round were packed up by Aunt Dorothy's own hands, and +despatched to the London Guildhall, not without sighs, but without +hesitation, with all the money that could be spared. + +Cousin Placidia also offered what she called her "mite," when she +heard that the poor citizens' wives in London had even offered their +thimbles and bodkins. + +"I am but a poor parson's wife," said she, "but I am thankful they +will receive even such poor offerings as I can bring." + +And she brought those embroidered Cordova gloves, the search for +which had so incensed Aunt Dorothy. + +"It is remarkable," she observed, "that I always said one never knew +what use anything might be in a poor parson's household; and now I +have found the use." + +"What use, my dear," said Aunt Dorothy; "do you think the Parliament +soldiers will fight in embroidered gloves?" + +"Spanish leather is dear," replied Placidia, "and things will always +sell. It is only a poor mite I know, but so is a thimble. The +Parliament soldiers cannot, of course, fight in thimbles any more +than in gloves, and the widow's mite was accepted." + +"A mite and the 'widow's mite,' are some way apart, my dear," said +Aunt Dorothy; "your 'widow's mite,' I suppose, might be the parsonage +and the glebe, and those cows in your uncle's park and meadow. Take +care what you offer to the Lord. He sometimes takes us at our word. +And there are plunderers abroad who take their own estimate of +people's mites, widows' and others." + +Said Placidia, never taken aback-- + +"Aunt Dorothy, Mr. Nicholls and I regard the glebe as a sacred trust, +of which we feel we must on no account relinquish the smallest +fraction. And as to the cows Uncle Drayton gave me, I wonder you can +suspect me of such ingratitude as to give them up to any one." + +"I did not, my dear," said Aunt Dorothy, quietly. "What shall I +label your Cordova gloves? A parson's mite? You know I cannot +exactly say 'widow's.'" + +"An orphan's perhaps, Aunt Dorothy." + +"Very well, my dear," said Aunt Dorothy; "I should think that would +affect the Parliament very much. It may even get into history." + +With which this little passage at arms closed. + +Happily for the popular cause, the common interpretation of +acceptable 'mites' differed from Placidia's, so that in a short time +a considerable army was levied. + +The navy ever remained true to the Parliament; irritated, some +foolish persons said, by a report that the king had called them +"water-rats." As well say the whole Parliament stood firm, because +the king once compared them to cats. The navy had its own +watchwords, better pointed than by the sting of a sorry jest. +English seamen were not likely to trust too implicitly to the +promises of the Sovereign who had tried to sell them to aid in the +destruction of the brave little band of beleaguered Protestants at +Rochelle. + +All through the summer the armies were being levied, and the breach +was silently widening. + +In July an incident showed, my Father said, as much as anything +could, how entirely the king's mind was unchanged, and how "thorough" +would have been the tyranny established in his hands, though Laud, +and Strafford, and the Queen, and every violent councillor, had been +removed. My old friend, Dr. Bastwick, the physician, was seized by +the royal forces at Worcester while engaged in levying men for the +Parliament, under Earl Stamford, who retreated. It was with the +greatest difficulty that one of the judges restrained the king from +having him hanged on the spot although there could be no reason why +he should have been sentenced with this exceptional severity except +the fact that he had already been scourged, pilloried, and maimed by +the cruelty of the Star-Chamber. + +The deep distrust which such indications of the king's true mind +produced, cost him more than many lost battles. + +They tended to inspire such resistances as that made a few weeks +afterwards by the brave commoners of Coventry, when, without +garrison, without engineers, with no defence but their feeble ancient +walls, they shut their gates in the Sovereign's face, defied the +royal forces, and when the breach was made by artillery in the old +tottering walls, barricaded the streets with barrows and carts, made +a sally, carried the nearest lines, seized the guns, and turned them +against the besiegers, compelling them at last to retire baffled. + +But it was Prince Rupert, "the Prince Robber," who, perhaps, more +than any, turned the hearts of the people against the Sovereign who +could use such an instrument. Trained in the cruel school of the +Palatinate wars, he had read its terrible lessons the wrong way; +having learned from the sufferings of his father's subjects not pity, +but a savage recklessness of suffering. He brought home to hundreds +of burning villages and plundered lonely farms, which no +Parliamentary remonstrances or declarations would have reached, the +conviction that the king looked on his people, not as a flock, but as +mere live-stock on an estate, to be kept up if profitable and +manageable, and if not to be sacrificed to any system of management +which gave less trouble and brought in more profit. + +"_Whose own the sheep ore not_," was written in the ashes of every +home ruined by Prince Rupert in the king's service. + +With these deeds the people contrasted the well-kept orders of the +Parliament to Lord Essex. "You shall carefully restrain all +impieties, profaneness, and disorders, violence, insolence, and +plundering in your soldiers, as well by strict and severe punishment +of such offences as by all others means which you in your wisdom +shall think fit." + +And we grew to think that whoever the true shepherd and king of the +people might be, it was scarcely one who employed the wolf for a +sheepdog. + +It was but slowly and reluctantly that this conviction grew on the +nation. Those who look back on the king's life, hallowed by the +shadow of his death, little know how slowly and reluctantly. We +would fain have trusted him if he would have let us. The nation +tried it again and again, and only too much was sacrificed before +they would believe it was in vain. Still there had been no battle. +The Earl of Essex, after following the Prince from Worcester, +lingered there three weeks, doing nothing. No battle worth the name +for nearly a hundred and seventy years, until Sunday the 23d of +October, 1642. + +Then came the first great shock. All that Sunday afternoon our +countrymen, husbands, brothers, fathers, sons of the women left in +the quiet villages at home, were fighting in the desperate struggle +for life and death, until at night four thousand Englishmen lay dead +on the slopes of Edgehill, or dying in the villages around--the day +before as tranquil and peaceful as ours. + +I remember there was a peculiar quiet about that Sunday at Netherby. +So many of the men of the village had gone to the war. Roger had +been away many weeks, and my Father had left some days before to join +Lord Essex at Worcester. In all our household there were no men left +except Bob the herdsman. The church was strangely deserted. The +Hall pew empty. Scarcely one deep manly voice in response or psalm. +On the benches in the village a few old men had an unwonted monopoly +of talk, and the lads on anything like the verge of manhood strode +heavily about with a new sense of importance. One asked another for +news. But there was none, save rumours of mysterious marchings and +counter-marchings of troops, without any aim that we knew, or the +echo of some far-off foray of Prince Rupert's. There was a dreamy +stillness all around. Tib's voice came up alone from the kitchen as +she moved about some Sabbath work of necessity, and sung rather +uncertainly snatches of the psalm we had sung at prayers in the +morning. From the slope where the house stood (which gave us that +wide range over the levels which I miss everywhere else), I saw the +cattle feeding far off in the marshy lands, too far for any sound of +their voices to reach me. The harvest was over on the nearer slopes, +so that there was no music of the wind rustling through the corn. +The land lay half slumbering in its autumn rest, like Roger's +faithful Lion in his Sunday afternoon sleep on the terrace below. +But, I knew not why, there seemed to me a kind of expectancy in this +calm. A waiting and listening seemed to palpitate through this +stillness of the land such as pervaded Lion's slumbers as he couched, +quivering at every sound, vainly waiting for Roger's voice to summon +him as usual at this hour for a walk in the fields. + +The feeling grew on me, till all this quiet seemed not as the rest +after a calm, but the calm before a storm; and the silence excited in +me as if it were the breathless hush of thousands of beating hearts. + +Then I thought of Rachel Forster in her lonely home. And it was a +relief to rise at once and go to her. Her door was open. She was +sitting before the old Bible. It was open, but she was not reading. +Her hands were clashed on her knees. There was a stillness on her +face as great as that over the country. But in this calm there was +something that calmed me. + +It seemed to me conscious and victorious, not dreamlike, and liable +at any moment to a terrible waking. + +I told her the restlessness I had been feeling. + +"Can we wonder, Mistress Olive?" said she. "Do we not know what we +might be giving them up for?" + +"This quietness of the world seems awful to me to-day, Rachel," said +I, "but in you there is something that quiets me. You find peace in +prayer Rachel," said I. "Is it not that?" + +"I scarce know whether it is prayer, Mistress Olive. It is nothing +but going to the Rock that is higher than I, and taking all that is +precious to me there, and staying there. It is just creeping to the +foot of the Cross, and keeping there." + +"You feel, then, as if something terrible were coming, Rachel," I +said. + +"I know something terrible must come," she said, with a tremulousness +in her voice which was more from enthusiasm than from fear. "To-day, +or to-morrow, or some day. For the Day of Vengeance is come; and the +year of His redeemed is at hand." + +"Oh, Rachel," I said, "I cannot silently rest as you do. I want +words, entreaties for Roger, for my Father, for Job, and also for the +good men who, if the battle comes, must die on the wrong side, and +for the king; the king who, if he would but be true, might set all +right again." + +And she knelt down and prayed in words brief and burning, like the +prayers in the Bible. + +"You do not feel it too lonely here, Rachel?" I said as I left, "Why +not come up to us? Your presence would be like a strong wall and +fortress to me." + +"I am less lonesome here, Mistress Olive," said she. "Job made so +many little plans to spare me trouble before he went. I see his hand +everywhere. There is the pile of wood close to the fire, and the +little pipe carrying the water to the very door. It would seem like +making light of his work not to use it all. And besides," she added, +"there's a few poor tried folk who used to look to Job for a good +word and a good turn, and now some of them look to me. And I could +not fail them for the world." + +As I wished her good-bye, and walked home and thought of her, a +glorious new sense came on me of the strength there is in waiting on +God, of the possibility of the feeblest who lean on him being not +only sustained, but becoming themselves strong to sustain others. + +When I went to see Rachel, the whole solid world had seemed to me, in +my anxiety for the precious lives I could do nothing to preserve, but +as some treacherous and quaking ground among our marshes, ready to +sink down and overwhelm, us, beneath the weight of our passing +footsteps. + +As I returned, the world, though in itself as transitory and +uncertain as ever, was once more a solid pathway to me, because +underneath it stood the foundation of an Almighty love, one word from +whom was stronger and more enduring than all the worlds. + +So we sang our evening psalm, and slept quietly that night at +Netherby, knowing nothing of the four thousand pale and rigid corpses +that lay stretched on the blood-stained battle-slopes at Edgehill, +while Lord Essex encamped on the silent battle-field, and the king's +watch-fires were kindled on the hill above, where he began the day, +and no ground was gained on either side; only the lives of four +thousand men lost. + +If we may say "lost" of any life yielded up to duty, and called back +to God! + +In the tongues of men, we speak of lives lost on battle-fields: +perhaps in the tongue of angels they speak of lives lost in easy and +luxurious homes. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +OLIVE'S RECOLLECTIONS. + +It was not till mid-day on Monday the 24th of October 1642, that the +first tidings reached us of Keinton Fight, or, as some call it, the +Battle of Edgehill. Tidings indeed they scarcely were, only rumours, +as of far-off thunder faintly moaning through the heat and stillness +of a summer's noon, mysterious, uncertain, scarcely louder than the +hum of insects in the sunshine, yet almost more awful than the crash +of the thunder-peal overhead. "Wars and rumours of wars." Until +that Monday I had no conception of the significance of that word +"rumours." I had anticipated the sudden shocks, the ruthless +desolations of war; I had not thought of its terrible uncertainties, +its heart-sickening suspenses. + +At noon, when the few men left in the village were all away in the +fields at work, a travelling tinker passed by who that morning about +daybreak had done some work at a farm where the swineherd keeping his +swine the evening before, on the edge of a beech-forest some miles to +the south, had heard the sounds far off in the south-west, in the +direction of Oxford, like the thunder of great guns, and the sharp +cracking of musketry. + +The tinker did what tinkering was needed in the village, in the +absence of Job the village smith, and went on his way. Just after he +left, Aunt Gretel and I went to take broken meat and broth to two or +three sick and aged people, and we found all the women gathered +around the black and silent forge, or rather around Rachel, while she +sat quietly patching in the porch of the cottage; the latticed, +narrow cottage-windows letting in too little light for any work that +required to be neatly done. + +An eager excited crowd it was, the scanty measure of the text only +furnishing wider margin for the commentary. Rachel, meanwhile, sat +quietly in the middle, like a mother among a number of eager +chattering children. + +As we reached the group, poor Margery, Dickon's young wife, with her +child in her arms, half-sobbed,-- + +"I wonder, Rachel, thee can bear to go on stitch, stitch. Since the +news came I have been all of a tremble thinking of my goodman, who +went off with yourn. I couldn't bring my fingers together to hold a +needle, do what I would." + +"I don't know that I could well bear it without the stitching, +neighbour," said Rachel, softly. "When trouble is come, we may well +sit still and weep. The Lord calls us to it. But in the +waiting-times I see nought for it but to brace up the heart and work." + +When we came, all turned to tell us of the dread rumour. Aunt Gretel +brought one or two cheering stories of providence and deliverance out +of the eventful histories of her youth; and then we went on our +errands, Aunt Gretel thinking we should do more to soothe and quiet +these agitated hearts by the example of steadily pursuing our task, +than by the wisest talking in the world. + +"For," said she, "the true tidings have yet to come; and they are +like to be sad enough to some. And how will they bear it, if all the +strength is wasted before-hand in vain and mournful guesses?" + +The result proved her right, for when our baskets were emptied, and +Aunt Gretel returned home, while I went to see Rachel again, the +village was stirring as usual with quiet sounds of labour in house +after house, and the excited group around the porch had dispersed. +Only poor Margery lingered, Rachel having found her occupation in +lighting the fire and preparing supper, to save her returning to her +lonely cottage; while the baby crowed and kicked on the ground at +Rachel's feet. + +"But, Rachel," I said, "would it not have quieted the neighbours to +pray together, you with them?" + +"Maybe, sweetheart," she said. "But I did not feel I could. If the +news is true, the fight is over. It's over hours since. The dead +are lying cold, out of the reach of our prayers. And the living are +saved and are giving thanks; and the wounded are writhing in their +anguish, and we know not who is dead, or wounded, or whole. And when +we look to the earth to think, it comes over us like a rush of dark +waters when the dykes are pierced. So I can but look to heaven and +work. It's light and not dark where He sitteth. And beyond the +thunders and the lightnings He is caring for us in the great calm of +the upper sky. Caring for us, sweetheart, as the poor mother cares +for this babe; not sitting on a throne and smiling like the king in +the picture, with both hands full of his sceptre and his bauble; but +with both hands free, to help and to uphold. So I try to do the bit +of work He sets me, and to look up to Him and feel, 'There is no fear +but that Thou wilt do the work Thou hast set Thyself; and that is, to +care for us all.' And I told the neighbours they had best try the +same." + +The words were scarcely out of her lips, when a horseman came +clattering down the village and stopped at Job's well-known forge. + +"What news?" asked a score of voices one after another, as the women +crowded round him. + +"Dismal news enough for some, and glorious for others," he said. +"The king's army and Lord Essex's met yesterday. Lord Essex below in +the Vale of the Red Horse, and the king on Edgehill above. Prince +Rupert charged down on the Parliament horse, under Commissary-General +Ramsay, broke them in a trice, and pursued them to Keinton, killing +and plundering. I heard it from one of the routed horsemen who +escaped. Everything is lost, he said, for Lord Essex, and I hasten +to carry the news to one who loves the king." + +Hastily draining Rachel's can of home-brewed ale, he was off in a +minute, and out of sight. + +All through the afternoon confused and contradictory news continued +to drop in from one and another. But it was not till the next day +(Tuesday) that we could collect anything like a true account of the +battle,--how for hours, all through the noon-tide of that autumn +Sunday, the two armies had couched, like two terrible beasts of prey, +watching each other; the king on the height, and Essex in the +plain--as if loth to break with the murderous roar of cannon our +England's two centuries of peace. + +Prayers, no doubt, there were, many and deep, breaking that silence, +to the ear of God; but few, perhaps, better than that of gallant Sir +Jacob Ashley, one of the king's major-generals: "Lord, Thou knowest I +must be busy this day; if I forget Thee, do not Thou forget me." + +Who began the fight at last, we could not well make out. The most +part said Lord Essex, directing a sally up the hill, which Prince +Rupert answered by dashing down like a torrent, from the royal +vantage-ground to the plain, on the left wing of the Parliament army. +The men fell or fled on all sides before his furious charge; and he +pursued them to the village of Keinton, where Lord Essex had encamped +the day before. Deeming the day won, his men gave themselves up to +plundering the baggage, and slaughtering the wagoners and unarmed +labourers. But meantime Sir William Balfour, on the right wing, +charged the king's left, broke it, seized and spiked many of the +king's guns, took the royal standard after a struggle which left +sixty brave men dead in sixty yards around it, and drove nearly the +whole royal army to their morning's position up the hill. There they +rallied. Prince Rupert returned, laden with his blood-stained +plunder, to find the king's army in confusion. But darkness was +setting in; it is said the Parliament gun-powder began to fail; so no +further pursuit was made, and on Sunday night again both armies +encamped on the ground where they had begun the battle. The king's +camp-fires blazed on the hill, and the Parliament's in the Vale of +the Red Horse. But between them lay four thousand dead +Englishmen,--that Sabbath morning full of life and courage, now lying +stiff and helpless on the quiet slopes where they had fallen in the +tumult of the mortal conflict. + +It is said, most of those who fell on the king's side fell standing +firm, and of ours running away; which means, I suppose, that they +lost their bravest, and we our cowards. + +I found my Father, and many of the soldiers I know, always loth to +speak much of the battle-field after a battle. My Father and Roger +would discuss by the hour the handling of troops and the strategy of +the commanders, and all which related to war as an art or a science, +and regarded the troops as pieces on a board. But of the +after-misery, when the terrible excitement and the skillful +manœuvres of the day were over, and the troops and regiments had +again become only men, wounded, weary, dead, I never heard them to +speak save in a few broken words. + +The difference of language served a little to veil the common +humanity in the German wars, my Father said; but to hear the fallen +entreating for quarter, or the dying calling on God and on dear +familiar names, or the wounded praying for help which, in the rush of +the battle, could not be given, in the old mother-tongue, was enough, +he said, to take all the pomp and glory out of war, and to leave it +nothing but its agony and its horror. + +Both sides claimed the victory,--Lord Essex by right of encamping on +the field, and the king (some said) by the weight of Prince Rupert's +plunder. + +However that might be, neither side pursued the advantage they both +boasted to have gained. + +The king, who was between the Parliament army and London, to the +great anxiety of the city, did not advance, but retired on +Oxford,--the Parliament garrison of Banbury, however, surrendering to +him without a struggle. + +Lord Essex made no pursuit, but withdrawing to London, left the +country open to Prince Rupert's foragers. + +But victory or defeat were scarcely the chief questions to us women +that day at Netherby. + +Margery's anxieties were the first relieved. Her husband Dickon +being in the king's army, sent her an orange scarf taken from a +Parliament horseman at Keinton, in token of his safety. + +Then, on Wednesday, poor Tim, Gammer Grindle's half-witted grandson, +who would, in spite of all that could be said, follow Roger to the +war, came limping into the village, emaciated and footsore, with his +arm bound up in a sling. He stopped at Rachel Forster's door, and +began stammering a confused account of Master Roger and Job lying +wounded at Keinton, and the prince's men murdering some of the +wounded, and carrying off Roger and Job, pinioned, in a cart to gaol, +and Tim's trying to follow on foot, and having his arm broken by a +musket-shot, and his leg wounded, and so, being left behind, having +limped home to tell Mistress Olive. + +But where the gaol was, or how severe Roger's wound was, or Job's, +could in no way be extracted from poor Tim's confused brain and +tongue! "Poor Tim!" he said, apologising with broken words, as a +faithful dog might with wistful looks, for having escaped without his +master, "Poor Tim tried hard to follow Master Roger--tried hard! +Master Roger knows Tim did not wish to leave him; Master Roger knows. +Master Roger said, 'Tim, you've done all you could. Go home. And +tell them Master Roger's all right.'" When first he saw Rachel, he +said, "Poor Job said, 'Take care!'" And then clenching his hand, +with a smile, "Poor Tim took care!" But he never repeated or +explained it. It was quite useless to question him. That one +purpose of obeying Roger possessed the whole of his poor brain. The +poor creature was faint from pain and weariness, and loss of blood. +Rachel would have made him a bed in the cottage, and not one of us at +Netherby but would have counted it an honour to have nursed him for +his love to Roger; but he shook his head: 'Master Roger said, 'Tim, +you've done all you could. Go home.'" And nothing would satisfy him +but to go on to the hovel by the Mere, were his grandmother lived. + +Gammer Grindle was a poor, wizened, old woman, soured by much trouble +and by the constant fretting of a sharp temper against poverty and +wrong, until few in the village liked to venture near her. Indeed, +there were dark suspicious afloat about her. Many a labouring-man +would have gone a mile round rather than pass her door after dusk, +and many a yeoman-farmer and goodwife who had lost an unusual number +of sheep or poultry would propitiate her by the present of a lamb or +a fat pullet. And, in general, in the neighbourhood she was spoken +of with a reverent terror much akin to that of the man who, after +hastily using the name of the devil, crossed himself, and said, "May +he pardon me for taking his holy name in vain." + +But Roger and I happened to have come across her on another and very +different side. In our fishing expeditions on the Mere her grandson +Tim had often followed us with the fish-basket or tackle; and the +rare contrast of Roger's kindly tones and words with the jeerings of +the rough boys in the village, had won him in Tim's heart an +affection intense, absorbing, disinterested, and entirely free from +demand of return or hope of reward; more like that of a faithful dog +than of a human being with purposes and interests of his own. + +This had given us access to his grandmother's hovel, and many a time +she had saved me from the consequences of Aunt Dorothy's just wrath +by kindling up her poor embers of fire to dry my soaked shoes, and +cleaning the mud from my clothes. Simple easy services, but such as +made it altogether impossible for Roger and me to regard the poor, +kind, shrivelled hands that had rendered them as having signed a +compact with Satan. Besides, did we not see how good she was, with +all her scoldings, to Tim, and know from broken words which had +dropped now and then how she had loved her only daughter, the mother +of Cicely and Tim, and how sore her heart was for the poor, lost +girl, and what a power of wronged and disappointed love lay seething +and fermenting beneath the sour sharp words she spoke? + +Roger and I knew that Gammer Grindle was no outlaw from the pale of +humanity by seeing it; and Rachel Forster knew it, I believe, by +seeing Him at whose feet so many outcasts from human sympathy found a +welcome. And so it happened, that of all the village no one but +Rachel, Roger and I sought access, or would have had it, to Gammer +Grindle's hovel, so that Rachel that day accompanied Tim home, and +was permitted to share his grandmother's watch that night. + +For Tim's exhaustion soon changed to delirious fever, as his wound +began to be inflamed, and it was as much as both the women could do +to keep him from rushing out of the hovel to "follow Master Roger." + +All the time, they noticed he kept the hand of his unwounded arm +firmly clenched over something. But no coaxing or commands, even +from his grandmother's voice, which he was so used to obey, would +induce him to unclasp his hand or let it go. + +All that night and the next day the two women watched by the poor +lad, bathing his head, and trying vainly to keep him still. But +towards evening his strength began to fail, and it was plain that the +fever, having done its work, was relinquishing its hold to the cold +grasp of Another stronger than it. + +The poor lad's delirious entreaties ceased, and he lay so still, that +Rachel could hear the cold ripples of the Mere outside plashing +softly among the rushes, stirred by the night wind; and they sounded +to her like the slow waters of the river of Death. + +Only now and then he said, in a low voice, like a child crooning to +itself, "Poor Tim, Master Roger knows. Master Roger said, you have +done all you could. Go home." + +Once also his eye brightened, and he said, "Cicely, sister Cicely! +Tell her to come soon--soon. I have watched for her so long!" + +Rachel tried to speak to him about Jesus, the loving Master of us +all; he did not object, but whether he understood or not, she could +not tell. He did not alter the words which had been so engraven on +his poor faithful heart. Only they grew fainter and fainter, and +fewer and more broken, until, with one sigh, "Master--home," the poor +feeble spirit departed, and the poor feeble body was at rest. + +But Rachel said it seemed to her as if the blessed Lord would most +surely not fail to understand the poor lad who could not understand +about Him, yet had served so faithfully the best he knew. And she +almost thought she heard a voice from heaven saying, "Poor Tim! the +Master knows. You have done the best you could. Come home!" + + +It was not until the poor lad was dead that they found what he had +been so tightly clasping in his hand. + +It was a fragment of paper containing a few words written by Job +Forster, of which Tim had indeed "taken care," as the clasp of the +lifeless hand proved too well. + +The words were,-- + +"Rachel, be of good cheer, as I am. I am hurt on the shoulder, but +not so bad. They are taking me with Roger to Oxford goal. His wound +is in the side, painful at first, but Dr. Antony got the ball out, +and says he will do well. Thee must not fret, nor try to come to us. +It would hurt thee and do us no good. The Lord careth." + +Rachel read this letter, with every word made emphatic, by her +certainty that Job would make as light as possible of any trouble, by +her knowledge that his pen was not that of a ready writer, and by her +sense of what she would have done herself in similar circumstances. + +"Rachel!"--the word, she knew, had taken him a minute or two to spell +out, and it meant a whole volume of esteem and love; and by the same +measure, "hurt" meant "disabled;" and "not so bad," simply not in +immediate peril of life; and "thee must not come," to her heart meant +"come if thou canst, though I dare not bid thee." + +It was not Rachel's way to let trouble make her helpless, or even +prevent her being helpful where she was needed. God, she was sure, +had not meant it for that. She lived at the door of the House of the +Lord, and therefore, at this sudden alarm, she did not need a long +pilgrimage by an untrodden path to reach the sanctuary. A moment to +lay down the burden and enter the open door, and lift up the heart +there within; and then to the duty in hand. She remained, therefore, +with Gammer Grindle until they had laid the poor faithful lad in his +shroud; then she gave all the needful orders for the burial, so that +it was not till dusk she was seated in her own cottage, with leisure +to plan how she should carry out what, from the moment she had first +glanced at her husband's letter, she had determined to do. + +Half an hour sufficed her for thinking, or "taking counsel," as she +called it; half an hour more for making preparations and coming +across to us at Netherby, with her mind made up and all her +arrangements settled. + +Arrived in the Hall, she handed Job's letter to Aunt Dorothy. + +"What can be done?" said Aunt Dorothy. "How can it be that we have +not heard from my brother or Dr. Antony? The king's forces must be +between us and Oxford, and the letters must have been seized. But +never fear, Rachel," she added, in a consoling tone. "At first they +talked of treating all the Parliament prisoners as traitors; but that +will never be. A ransom or an exchange is certain. Stay here +to-night; it will be less lonely for you. We can take counsel +together; and to morrow we will think what to do." + +"I have been thinking, Mistress Dorothy; and I have taken counsel. I +am going at day-break to-morrow to Oxford; and I came to ask if I +could do aught for you, or take any message to Master Roger." + +"How?" said Aunt Dorothy. "And who will go with you? Who will +venture within the grasp of those plunderers?" + +"I have not asked any one, Mistress Dorothy. I am going alone on our +own old farm-horse." + +"You travel scores of miles alone, and into the midst of the king's +army, Rachel!" said Aunt Dorothy. + +"I have taken counsel, Mistress Dorothy," said Rachel calmly, and, +looking up, Aunt Dorothy met that in Rachel's quiet eyes which she +understood, and she made no further remonstrance. + +"We will write letters to Roger," she said, after a pause. + +In a short time they were ready, with one from me to Lettice Davenant. + +Neither my Aunts nor I slept much that night. We were revolving +various plans for helping Rachel, each unknown to the other. + +I had thought of a letter to a friend of my Father's who lived +half-way between us and Oxford, and rising softly in the night, +without telling any one, I wrote it. For I had removed to Roger's +chamber while he was away; it seemed to bring me nearer to him. + +Then, before daybreak, feeling sure Rachel would be watching for the +first streaks of light, I crept out of our house to hers. + +She was dressed, and was quietly packing up the great Bible which lay +always on the table, and laying it in the cupboard. + +"Happy Rachel!" I said, kissing her; "to be old enough to dare to go." + +"There is always some work, sweetheart," said she, "for every season, +not to be done before or after. That is why we need never be afraid +of growing old." + +I gave her my letter. She took it gratefully; but she said-- + +"Too fine folks for a plain body like me, Mistress Olive. God bless +you for the thought. But in one village I must pass there is a +humble godly man who has oft tarried with us for a night, and has +expounded the word to us, and no doubt he will give me a token to +another. And if not, the seven thousand are always known to the +Lord. The prophet Elijah, indeed, did not know; but after he was +told about it once for all, none of us ought ever to say again, 'I +only am left alone.'" + +"But how will you manage when you get to Oxford?" I said. + +"God forbid I should presume to say, sweet-heart," said she. "Oxford +is many steps off. And the Lord has only shown me the next step. +Job is wounded and in prison and wants me, and will my God, and his, +fail to show me how to get to him?" + +As she spoke these last words, the force of repressed passion, and of +faith contending in them, gave her voice an unwonted depth, which +made it sound to me like another voice answering her. + +At that moment Aunt Gretel arrived, laden with a small basket +containing spiced cordials and preserved meats for Rachel's journey. + +And not a quarter of an hour afterwards, Aunt Dorothy, on horseback, +bent on protecting Rachel through some portion of her way. + +And then Margery and the babe, who had come at Rachel's request. + +Before mounting her horse, Rachel said,-- + +"You will have thought of being at poor Tim's burying, Mistress +Olive?" + +We promise all to be there. + +And Rachel from the mounting-steps climbed up on the patient old +horse, and was gone, only turning back once to smile at us as we +watched her. + +She was not a woman for after-thoughts, or last lingering words. She +had always said what she wanted before the last. + +She had left us the heavy key of the cottage-door, that we might give +away the little stores which she had divided the night before into +various portions for her poor neighbours. She had intended +committing them to Margery, but as we were there first, we undertook +the charge. How simply and how unheralded events come which hallow +our common tables and chambers with the tender solemnity as of places +of worship or of burial. The sound of Rachel's horse-hoofs was +scarcely out of hearing when the empty cottage had become to us as a +sacred place. The little packets her neat hands had arranged so +thoughtfully were no common loaves, or meat, but sacred relics +hallowed by her loving touch. And it was hard to look at the +firewood Job had piled by the fire for her, and the little stone +channel he had made to bring the water near the door, without tears. + + +LETTICE DAVENANT'S DIARY. + +"_Oxford, November_ 1, 1642.--Victoria! The first step is gained; +the first lesson given, though at some cost of noble lives to us and +to the king. Lord Essex is fain to retreat to London to console the +affrighted citizens, leaving the whole country open to the king. Yet +my Father saith privately to us, this victory of Edgehill might have +been far more complete had it not been for Prince Rupert's rashness. +Indeed, after the fight there had well-nigh been a duel in the king's +presence between the prince and a gentleman who expressed his mind +pretty freely on the matter. The prince, after pursuing the rebels +to Keinton, lingered there, plundering the baggage, and returned with +his horses laden with the spoils to find the royal army not in such +order as it might have been had his troops kept with it. 'We can +give a good account of the enemy's horse, your Majesty,' he said. +'Yes,' said this gentleman standing by, 'and of their carts too.' +For which jest the haughty hot-blooded prince would have had severe +revenge, had not the king with much ado brought them to an +accommodation. + +"_Note_.--The young Princes Charles and James, of but ten or twelve +years old, had a narrow escape. Their governor, Dr. Harvey, a +learned man, was sitting quietly with them on the grass reading his +book, and never perceived anything was amiss until the bullets came +whizziug round him. I wonder royal persons should be trusted to the +care of people whose wits are always at the ends of the earth, like +philosophers. Who knows how different things might have been in the +world if Dr. Harvey and the young princes had sat there a few minutes +longer! + +"However, the best fruits of victory are beginning to appear. +Gentlemen, whose loyalty had been somewhat wavering, are riding in +from all quarters, well accoutred, abundantly attended, finely +mounted, to offer their services to His Majesty. + +"This grave and stately old city is gorgeous with warlike array, and +echoing with warlike music. + +"My Father, Mother, and I are lodged in Lincoln College. A distant +cousin of ours, Sir William Davenant, who hath writ many plays and +farces, and now fights in the army, being of this college, and also +others of our kindred from the north country. I feel quite at home +in the rooms with their thick walls, and high narrow arched windows +like those in the turret-chamber at the Hall, more at home than the +old quadrangles and walls themselves can be with all this clamour and +trumpeting to arms. + +"Not that there is much to be seen in the great inner court on which +my chamber-window looks. An ancient vine climbs up one side of the +walls, encircling the entrance arch, and its leaves, brown and +crimson with the autumn, stirred with the breeze, are making a +pleasant quiet country music as I write. This vine is held in high +honour in the college, having illustrated the text of the sermon, +'Look on this vine,' which inspired good Bishop de Rotheram, more +than two hundred years since, to become the second Founder of the +College. + +"Through this entrance-arch I look beyond its shadow to the sunny +street, crossed now and then by the flash of arms, and gay Cavaliers' +mantles, or the prancings of a troop of horse. That is all the +glimpse I have of the outer world. But I think my Mother were +content to live in such a place for ever. Every day she resorts more +than once to a quiet corner of the new Chapel to pay her orisons, +taking delight in the stillness, and in the brilliant colours of the +painted windows Bishop Williams (once the antagonist of Archbishop +Laud, and now with him in the Tower) had brought but a few years +since from Italy. + +"Outside this chapel there is a garden, where we walk, and discourse +of the prospects of the kingdom, and of those friends at Netherby +from whom we are now so sadly parted. + +"For Roger and Mr. Drayton are in the rebel army--alas! there is no +longer doubt of it--and any day their hands and those of my seven +brothers, all in the king's army, may be against each other. + +"_November_ 8th.--The king and the army are away at Reading, with my +Father and my brothers; and the city is quiet enough without them. + +"Sir Launcelot is now on service about the Castle. I would he were +on the field, and one of my brothers here. However, I am not like to +see much of him at present. He will scarce venture to come after +what I had to say to him this morning. + +"He came in laughing, saying he had just seen an encounter between an +old rebel woman at the gate and four of Prince Rupert's plunderers. +'She was contending with them for the possession of a sober +Puritanical-looking old horse,' said he. 'They claimed it for the +king's service. She said 'that might be, but in that case she chose +to give it up herself unto the care of one of His Majesty's court, to +whom she had a letter.' + +"'Did you not give her a helping word?' said I. + +"'I am scarcely such a knight errant as that, Mistress Lettice,' said +he; 'I should have enough to do, in good sooth. Moreover, the godly +generally make good fight for their carnal goods, and in this +instance the woman seemed as likely as not to have the best of the +debate, to say nothing of her being wrinkled and toothless.' + +"That made me flash up, as speaking lightly of aged women always +does. 'Poor chivalry,' said I, 'which has not recollection enough of +a mother to lend a helping hand to the old and wrinkled. We shall be +wrinkled and toothless in a few years, sir, and our imagination is +not so weak but that we can fore-date a little while, and transfer +all such heartless jests to ourselves. I have been used to higher +chivalry than that among the Puritans. + +"He laughed, and made a pretty pathetic deprecation. His mother had +died (quoth he) when he was too young to remember. Some little +excuse, perchance. However, Roger Drayton's mother also died when he +was in infancy. But be that as it might, I was in no mood to listen. +And as we were speaking, a serving-man came to tell me a poor woman +from Netherby was in the ante-room craving to see me or my Mother. + +"It was Rachel Forster. + +"Her neat Puritan hood, so dainty, I think around her pale +worn-looking face, was rather ruffled, and although her eyes had the +wonted quiet in them, (only a little loftier than usual,) she was +trembling, and willingly took the chair I offered her. + +"'You did not find it easy coming through the royal lines,' I said. + +"'Nothing but a few rude jests at the gate, Mistress Lettice,' said +she; 'but I am not used to them, or to going about the world alone. +But I have been taken good care of. And I am _here_,' she added, +fervently; 'which is all I asked.' + +"'Did they try to take your horse from you?' I said. + +"'They took him,' she said. 'But that matters little. He was a +faithful beast, and I am feared how they may use him. But the beasts +have only now, neither fore nor after, which saves them much.' Then +without more words she gave me a letter from Olive. + +"From this I found that Roger is a prisoner in the Castle here, with +Job Forster. + +"I went into the other chamber, and asked Sir Launcelot had he known +of this. + +"'I learned it a day or two since,' he replied, hesitating, 'but I +did not tell you or Lady Lucy, because you are so pitiful, I feared +to pain you uselessly.' + +"'_We_ might have judged whether it was uselessly or not, Sir +Launcelot!' said I. + +"'Can I do anything for you?' he asked, in confusion. + +"'Nothing,' said I. 'You might have helped an aged woman, a friend +of mine, whom you found in difficulties at the gate this morning. +But now, excuse me, I have no time to spare--I must go to my Mother.' +And I withdrew to the inner room, to bring my Mother out at once to +see what could be done; leaving him to retire through the ante-room, +where Rachel Forster sat. + +"I trow he will not be in a hurry to visit us again. + +"My Mother and Rachel had always been friends. They both live a good +deal at the height where the party-colours blend in the one sunlight; +and they neither of them ever speak half as much as they feel about +religion. + +"There was not much to say, therefore, when my Mother understood her +errand. My Mother's word had weight, and in a few hours she had +procured a permit for Rachel to see her husband, provided the +interview was in her presence. + +"It was a noisome place, she said--many persons crowded together like +cattle in dungeons, with scant light or air, and none to wait on them +but each other. Job was on some straw in a corner, looking sorely +altered--his strong limbs limp and emaciated, and his eye languid. +But it was wonderful how his face lighted up when he saw Rachel. + +"'I thought thee would come', said he, 'though I bid thee not. I +knew thee had learned how "all things are possible."' + +"My Mother's intercessions procured for them the great favour of a +cell, which, though narrow, low, damp, and underground, they were to +have to themselves. And before she left, Rachel's neat hands had +made the straw and matting look like a proper sick-bed, while her +presence had lighted the cell into a home. + +"Then my Mother went to see Roger Drayton. His wound was not so +severe as Job's, and his lodging was better, though wretched enough. +Great complaints were made about the prisons. But, I fear, all +war-prisons, suddenly and not very tenderly arranged, are hard enough. + +"'Have you seen Job Forster?' was his first question after greeting +her. + +"She told him what had been done. + +"'I begged hard to be allowed to share his prison. But they would +not let me,' said Roger. + +"Roger, though far less suffering, looked less tranquil than Job, my +Mother said. He did not ask for me until he had read Olive's letter, +and then he said abruptly,-- + +"'Olive says she has written to Mistress Lettice.' And his face +flushed deeply as he added, 'Olive is but a child in such things, +Lady Lucy, and cannot know the hard laws of war. You will not be +offended if she pleads, fancying you could do anything for us. You +must not let anything she says trouble you, you are so kind. For I +know nothing can be done.' + +"'Only one thing troubles me,' my Mother said, evasively, 'I would +give much if _that_ could be changed.' + +"She did not think it generous to say more, but he understood, and +answered,-- + +"'_That_ can _not_ be changed, unless all could be changed. It makes +me restless enough to be shut up here, Lady Lucy, but it does not +make me _doubt_.' + +"'Those Draytons are like rocks--as firm, and almost as hard. No, +not hard. Nothing they ought not to be, if only they were on the +right side! + +"And Roger called Olive a child. I wonder, then, what he thinks me, +who am two years younger! + +"However, my Mother thinks something can be done for Roger. +Exchanges can be made. Little comfort in that. He is less dangerous +to himself and every one else where he is, than in the field again. +Yet my Mother says the air and food of the prison are none of the +most wholesome. And, of course, Olive wants to have him free. These +are most perplexing times. One cannot even tell what to wish. + +"I would send him a message when my Mother goes again, but that he +scarcely even asked for me; only defended himself against joining in +Olive's pleadings for himself. So proud! I will send him no +message, not a word. Nothing but a few sweet autumn violets from the +college garden; because the air of the prison is so bad. + +"_February_ 10.--Job Forster all but sank. He must have died if my +Mother had not pleaded hard and got permission at last for him to be +taken home to Netherby in one of our Hall wagons. She thought it +would scarce be more than to die. But to-day we have had a letter +from Rachel, saying, the very sight of the forge and smell of the +fields seemed to work on him like a heavenly cordial, and she doubts +not he will rally. Dr. Antony hath been to see him, and Olive, and +Mistress Gretel, and Mistress Dorothy, and brought him meats and +strong waters, and read him sermons, saith she, and they say he could +not be doing better. But, she adds, she hopes Lady Lucy will not +think it thankless that he should use his liberty to fight for the +Parliament, as no condition was made on his return; and he thinks the +Covenant under which he fights must stand good, and dares not break +it. So my sweet Mother hath on her conscience the guilt of tenderly +nourishing a viper to sting what she loveth best! + +"But Roger Drayton is to be exchanged for one of our Cavaliers, and +is to leave Oxford to-morrow. All these weeks he hath been here, and +never a word between us, except some cold thanks for those violets. +So proud is he! And it was not for me to begin. + +"_February_ 11.--Roger Drayton had the grace to pay us his devoirs +before he left, at Lincoln College. But he would scarce sit down. I +trow he was afraid of being vanquished if he ventured into debate +concerning his bad cause. He did not say anything to me. If he had, +I felt tempted to say something angry. But he did not begin; and why +should I? Until at last, as he was leaving, he said,-- + +"'Mistress Lettice, I am going to join Colonel Cromwell at Cambridge. +But I may see Olive by the way. May I say a word to her from you? +Sometimes a message is better than a letter.' + +"I could not think of anything to say. It took me so by surprise +after his silence. For it was just like his old tone by the Mere, or +in the woods, or on the terraces at Netherby, and at the Hall. And +it so brought poor old Netherby back to me, and all the old happy +days, that I was afraid my voice would tremble if I spoke. I could +only think of Mistress Dorothy's sermons; things come into one's head +so strangely. So, after a little while, I said very abruptly, 'I +sent Olive dear love--and to tell Mistress Dorothy I had read her +sermons.' + +"But his voice trembled a little as he wished us good-bye; I +certainly think it did. And he was not out of the door when I +thought of ten thousand messages to send to Olive. But I could not +go after him to say them. I could only go to the window and watch +him through the court. I was almost sorry I did. For he looked up +and saw me, and seemed half inclined to turn back. But, instead, he +made a strange little reverence, as if he did not quite know whether +to seem to see me or not. I wonder if he also had thought of a few +things he would have liked to have said! He was always rather slow +in speech; I mean, his words always meant about ten times as much as +any other man's. + +"And so he strode across the court and under the shadow of the +archway into the sunny street outside. To join Colonel Cromwell. +Colonel, indeed! By whose commission? Roger might at least have +spared us that. If it had been Mr. Hampden even, or Lord Essex, it +would not have been so bad. But this fanatic brewer! + +"However, I am glad I said nothing angry. One never knows in these +days where or when the next word may be spoken. And then alack, this +Mr. Cromwell, they say, is sure to be just where the fighting is. + +"He did not look amiss in that plain Puritan armour. The cap-a-pie +armour of the 'Ironsides,' as some begin to call them. It seems to +me more martial and more manly than the gay trappings of our +Cavaliers. Gallant decorations are well enough for a dance or a +masque; but in real warfare I think the plainest vesture looks the +noblest. At Edgehill His Majesty must have looked most stately in +his suit of plain black velvet, with no ornament but the George. + +"_March_ 1643.--There is a Dr. Thomas Fuller lodging here at present, +who is a great solace to my Mother, and also to me, being a kind of +cousin of ours through his maternal uncle Dr. Davenant, Bishop of +Salisbury. + +"He is tall and athletic, with pleasant blue eyes, full of mirth, and +withal of kindness, of a ruddy complexion, with fair wavy locks. He +hath wit enough for a play-wright, and piety enough,--I had almost +said for a Puritan--I should rather say for an archbishop. + +"He was in London a few weeks since, and preached a sermon to incline +the rebels to peace, which is all his desire. But they did not +relish it, and would have him sign one of their unmannerly Covenants; +which not being able to do, he has fled hither. Yet am I not sure +that he is more at home among our rollicking Cavaliers. + +"I would I could remember half the wise and witty things he saith. I +like his wit, because is often cuts both ways--against Puritan and +Cavalier; and more especially at present against the younger sort of +the latter, whose reckless manners suit him ill. The poor Puritans +are so hit on all sides with the shafts of ridicule, that in fairness +I like to see some of the darts flying the other way, especially +against such as assume to themselves the monopoly of wit. + +"'Harmless mirth,' said Dr. Fuller the other day, 'is the best +cordial against the consumption of the spirits, but jest not with the +two-edged sword of God's word. Will nothing please thee to wash thy +hands in but the font? Or to drink healths in but the +church-chalice?' + +"He is very busy, and is abstemious in eating and drinking, and is an +early riser. Sir Launcelot, liking not, I ween, to feel the jest so +against himself, calls him a Puritan in disguise; but Harry and he +are good friends, and to my Mother he behaveth ever with a gentle +deference, as all men, indeed, are wont to do. With her his wit +seems to change its nature from fire to sunshine. So tenderly doth +he seek to brighten her pensive and somewhat self-reproachful spirit +into peace and praise. She on her part hath her sweet returns of +sympathy for him, drawing him forth to discourse of his young wife +lately dead, and his motherless infant boy. + +"Religion with my Mother is a life of affections, not merely a code +of rules; and, I suppose, like all affections, brings its sorrows as +well as its joys. Otherwise I could scarce account for the heaviness +she so often is burdened withal. + +"One day, when she was fearing to embrace the cheering words of +Scripture, Dr. Fuller encouraged her by reminding her how in the +Hebrews the promise, 'I will not leave thee, nor forsake thee,' +though at first made only to Joshua, is applied to all good men. +'All who trust the Saviour, and follow him,' said he, 'are +heirs-apparent to all the promises.' + +"But she, who being a saint (by any laws of canonization) ever +bemoaneth herself as though she were a penitent weeping between the +porch and the altar, put off his consolation with-- + +"'True, indeed, for all _good_ men.' + +"To which he, unlike most ghostly comforters I have heard, replied +with no honeyed commendation, false or true, but said,-- + +"'In the agony of a wounded conscience always look upward to God to +keep thy soul steady. For looking downward on thyself, thou shalt +find nothing but what will increase thy fear; infinite sins, good +deeds few and imperfect. It is not thy faith, but God's faithfulness +thou must rely on. Casting thine eyes down to thyself, to behold the +great distance between what thou desirest and what thou deservest is +enough to make thee giddy, stagger, and reel unto despair. Ever, +therefore, lift up thine eyes to the hills whence cometh thine help.' + +"'The reason,' quoth he afterwards, 'why so many are at a loss in the +agony of a wounded conscience, is, that they look for their life in +the wrong place--namely, in their own piety and purity. Let them +seek and search, dig and dive never so deep, it is all in vain. For +though Adam's life was hid in himself, yet, since Christ's coming all +the original evidences of our salvation are kept in a higher +office--namely, hidden in God himself. Surely many a despairing soul +groaning out his last breath with fear to sink down to hell, hath +presently been countermanded by God to eternal happiness.' + +"His words brought tears to my Mother's eyes, but comfort, said she, +to her heart. + +"Yet, though she saw sunshine through the clouds, she feared to find +the cloud again beyond the sunshine, whereon he heartened her further +by saying, 'Music is sweetest near or over rivers, where the echo +thereof is best rebounded by the water. Praise for pensiveness, +thanks for tears, and blessing God over the floods of affliction, +makes the most melodious music in the ear of heaven.' + +"Good and fit words for her who needs and deserves such. To me these +other words of his are more to the purpose. + +"'How easy,' saith he, 'is pen and paper piety. It is far cheaper to +work one's head than one's heart to goodness. I can make a hundred +meditations sooner than subdue one sin in my soul.' + +"He gave my Mother also a sermon of his 'on the doctrine of +assurance,' which she much affects. 'All who seek the grace of +assurance,' he writes, 'in a diligent and faithful life, may attain +it without miraculous illumination. Yet many there are who have +saving faith without it. And those who deny this will prove racks to +tender consciences. As the careless mother killed her little child, +for she overlaid it, so this heavy doctrine would press many poor but +pious souls, many infant faiths, to the pit of despair.' + +"_April_ 1643.--Dr. Fuller hath left us to be chaplain in the +regiment of Lord Hopton, an honorable man, who will honour him, and +give him scope to do all the good that may be to the soldiers. + +"He took leave of us in the college-garden, and gave my Mother a book +of his imprinted last year, when he was preacher at the Savoy in +London. It is entitled the Holy State and the Profane State, and +seemeth wise and witty like himself. As he parted from us, he begged +her to remember that 'all heavenly gifts, as they are got by prayer, +are kept and increased by praise.' + +"_Note_.--I like well what he writes of anger. 'Anger is one of the +sinews of the soul. He that wants it hath a maimed mind.' I would I +had known this saying to comfort Roger Drayton withal, when Sir +Launcelot provoked him to that blow. + +"Yet another saying is perhaps as needful, at least for me, 'Be not +mortally angry for a venial fault. He will make a strange combustion +in the state of his soul who at the landing of every cock-boat sets +the beacons on fire.' + +"We miss Dr. Fuller sorely; my Mother for his words of ghostly cheer, +and I for the just and generous things he dares to say of good men on +the other side, and saith with a wit and point which leaves no +opening for scornful jest to controvert. + +"If Dr. Fuller had been the vicar of Netherby, and if the Draytons +had known him, maybe many things had gone otherwise. + +"Now, alack! there seems less hope of accommodation by this Christmas +than I had felt sure of by the last. + +"The Parliament Commissioners were here through March, and have but +now left. + +"Some Lords and some Commons. But nought could they accomplish. +How, indeed, could aught be hoped from subjects who presume to treat +with their liege lord as with a rival power? + +"My Lord Falkland (now the king's secretary) comes now and then to +converse with my Mother. Those who knew him before this sad +rebellion began, say he is sorely changed from what he was. Whereas +his mind used to be as free and open to entertain all wise and +pleasant thoughts of others, as his mansion at Great Tew, near this +was free and open to entertain their persons, so that they called it +'a college of smaller volume in a purer air;' now, they say, he is +often preoccupied, and when in private will sigh and moan 'Peace! +peace!' and say he shall soon die of a broken heart, if this dire war +be prolonged. This especially since the royal army was driven back +from Brentford on its way to London. + +"But to us, who contrast him not with his former self, but with other +men, he seems the gentlest and most affable of Cavaliers, ever ready +to give ear and due weight to thought and wish of any, the least or +the lowest. + +"We had not known him much of old, because he leant to the Puritan +party (being a close friend of Mr. Hampden), and thought ill of +Archbishop Laud, and spoke not too well of bishops or episcopacy. + +"But in this conflict I think the noblest on each side are those who +are all but on the other; not, I mean, in affection--for lukewarmness +is never a virtue--but in conviction and character. + +"The queen is amongst us again, as graceful and full of charms as +ever. But some think the king were liker to follow moderate counsels +without her. He holds her as ever in a perfect adoration, and it is +not likely to conciliate him that Parliament have actually dared to +'impeach' her. Blasphemy almost, if it were not more like the folly +of naughty children playing at being grandsires and grandames! + +"_June_ 26.--Mr. Hampden is dead! By a singular mark of the divine +judgment (Mr. Hyde says), he was mortally wounded on Chalgrove Field, +the very place where he began not many months since to proclaim the +rebellious Ordinance Militia. It was in a skirmish with Prince +Rupert. The same night the rumour spread among us that something +beyond ordinary ailed him, for he was seen to ride off the field in +the middle of the fight (a thing never before known in him), with his +head low drooping, and his hands on his horse's neck. Less than a +fortnight afterwards, he died in sore agonies, they say, but +persevering in his delusion to the end, so that his heart was not +troubled. + +"The king would have sent him a chirurgeon of his own, had it been of +any use. + +"He was much on my Mother's heart, since she heard of his being +wounded, for he was ever held to be a brave and blameless gentleman. +She grieved sore that he uttered no one repentant word. + +"(Yet the last word we heard he spoke was not so ill a word to die +with; 'O God, save my bleeding country!') + +"'But,' said she, 'there are Papists who die without ever seeing +anything wrong in the mass, or in regarding the blessed Virgin as +Queen of Heaven, who yet die calling on the blessed Saviour with such +piteous entreaty as he surely faileth not to hear. And it may be +trusted Mr. Hampden's heresy is no worse.' + +"To most around us it is simply the rebels' loss in him that is +accounted of. And that they say is more than an army. For he was +the man best beloved in all the land. Some of us, however, speak of +the loss to England, and say that his and my Lord Falkland's were the +only right hands through which this sundered realm might have met in +fellowship again. + +"I see nothing glorious in the glories of this war, nothing +triumphant in its triumphs, no gain in its spoils. + +"It makes my heart ache to see Prince Rupert and his Cavaliers return +flushed with success and laden with plunder from raids all over the +country. I cannot help seeing in my heart the poor farmers wandering +about their despoiled granaries and stalls, and the goodwife +bemoaning her empty dairy, and the children missing the cattle and +poultry, which are not 'provision' only to them, but friends; and +soon, alack poor foolish babes, to miss provision too and cry for it +in vain. + +"These are our own English homes that are ravaged and wasted. What +triumph is there in it for any of us? I would the hearts of these +Palatine princes yearned a little more tenderly towards their +mother's countrymen. + +"The only hope is that all these horrors will bring the end, the end, +the 'Peace, peace,' for which my Lord Falkland groans. + +"But I know not; I think of Netherby and the Draytons; and I scarce +deem English hearts are to be won back by terror and plunder. + +"_August_ 28, 1643.--Better hopes! Something like a glimpse of the +end, at last. + +"Two memorable months. + +"Everything is going prosperously for the king and the good cause, +north, and south, and west. + +"In the north, on June the 3rd, the Earl of Newcastle defeated Lord +Fairfax and the rebels at Atherton Moor. A few days afterwards York +and Gainsborough and Lincoln surrendered, and now not a town remains +to the Parliament between Bewich and Hull. + +"On the 13th of July, not a fortnight afterwards, Sir William Waller +was defeated and his whole army scattered on Lansdowne Heath, near +Devizes; the only offset to this advantage being the death of the +brave and good Sir Bevill Grenvill, for whose wife, Lady Grace, bound +to him in the truest honour and love, my Mother mourned much. + +"The West, they say, is loyal; Cornwall fervent for the king. + +"And on July 22nd, not a fortnight after this, Prince Rupert took +Bristol, thus doing much to secure Wales, otherwise, moreover, +well-affected. + +"Our hopes are high indeed. In all the horizon there seems but one +shadow like a cloud, and that so small I should scarce mention it but +that an old friend is under it. Mr. Cromwell (or Colonel, as they +call him now, forsooth) gained some slight advantage at Grantham and +Gainsborough, and stormed Burleigh House. Indeed, wherever he is, +they say, he seems just now to bring good fortune. But this, I +think, bodes no ill. Little weight indeed can these unsuccessful +skirmishes have to counterbalance victories, and captured cities, and +reviving loyalty throughout the North and West and South. And if the +rebels are to succeed anywhere, I had rather it were where Roger +Drayton is, because it is in the nature of the Draytons to be more +yielding in prosperity than in ill fortune. + +"His Majesty has just set forth with the army, all in high feather, +to besiege the obstinate and disloyal city of Gloucester. + +"Lord Essex, they say, is collecting an army to meet him. But we +could wish for no better. One decisive battle, my Lord Falkland and +other wise men think, is the one thing to end the war. + +"_September_ 22_nd_, 1643.--I cannot make it out. They say there has +been a victory at Newbury, yet nothing seems to come of it. The king +is here again, and the siege of Gloucester is given up, and our +people begin to quarrel among themselves, treading on each other in +their eagerness for places and titles and honours. I think they +might wait a little, at all events, till the Court is at Whitehall +again. + +"One good sign is that three rebel Earls--Bedford, Holland, and +Clare--have returned to their allegiance. The Earl of Holland raised +the militia for the Parliament, so that he hath somewhat to repent +of. There is much discussion how they should be received; the elder +Cavaliers recommending a politic forgetting of their offence; but we, +who are younger, desire they should be received as naughty children, +if not with reproaches, at most with a cool and lofty indifference, +to show we need them not. It would not look well to be too glad. +And, moreover, they are three more claimants for the royal grace, and +the faithful like not that the faithless should be better served than +they who have borne the burden and heat of the day. + +"I thought prosperity would have made us one, but it seems otherwise. + +"And Harry says the noblest is gone. The noblest, he says, always +fall the first victims in such conflicts as these, so that the strife +grows more cruel, and baser from year to year. + +"The Lord Falkland was slain at Newbury. He was missing on the +evening of the fight, but all through the night they hoped he might +have been taken prisoner. On the morrow, however, they found him +among the slain, 'Only too glad to receive his discharge,' Harry +said. On the morning of the battle he was of good cheer, as was his +wont; his spirits rising at the approach of danger. His friends +urged him not to go into the battle, he having no command, but he +would not be kept away. He rode gallantly on in the front ranks of +Lord Byron's regiment, between two hedges, behind which the +Roundheads had planted their musketeers. 'I am weary of the times,' +he said to those who urged him to withdraw; 'I foresee much misery to +my country, but I believe I shall be out of it before night.' + +"And so he was; and needeth now no more dolefully to moan for 'Peace, +peace!' as so often in these last months. He is singing it now, we +trust, where good men understand all perplexed things, and each other. + +"Falkland and Hampden! Alas! how many more before the peace songs +are chanted here on earth! + +"The two right hands are cold and stiff through which the king and +the nation might have been clasped together again in fellowship. + +"Who, or what, will reunite us now?" + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +The winter of 1642-43 was one of uneasy uncertainty to us at +Netherby. The whole world seemed to lie dim and hazy, as if wrapped +in the heavy folds of a November fog. The next villages seemed to +become far-off and foreign, in the unsettled state of the country. +There was no knowing the faces and voices of friends from those of +foes, in the rapid shifting of parties. The comrade of yesterday was +the opponent of to-day. Who could say what the comrade of to-day +might be to-morrow? Mr. Capel, the Member for Hertfordshire, who had +been the first in Parliament to complain of grievances, had become +Lord Capel, and was threatening the seven associated counties with +his plunderers. + +Lord Essex (many thought) seemed as frightened at success as at +failure. Victories lulled him into fruitless negotiations; and the +only thing that roused him to action was imminent ruin. Some +murmured that "professional soldiers love long wars as physicians +love long diseases." Some whispered of treachery, and others of +Divine displeasure. The explosion of battle had come; but the only +consequence seemed to be the loosening of the whole ground around, +the crumbling away of the nation in all directions. + +Partly, no doubt, this sense of vagueness and dimness was caused by +the absence from most homes and communities of the most capable and +manly men in each,--in the garrisons, on the field, taking counsel +with the King at Oxford, or taking counsel for the nation at +Westminster. Thus events were left to be guessed and debated by old +men despondent with the decay of many hopes; or women, draining in +anxious imaginations the dregs of every peril they could not share in +fact; or boys delighting in magnifying the dangers they hoped soon to +encounter, therewith to magnify themselves in the eyes of mothers and +maids. + +Rachel Forster, on whose gentle strength the whole village was wont +to lean, was away; and Aunt Dorothy, the manliest heart left among +us, had a belief in the general wickedness of men, and the general +going wrong of things in this evil world, which was anything but +reassuring to those whose fears were quickened with the life-blood of +more vivid hopes than hers. + +Thus we were ripe for all kinds of credulities that winter at +Netherby. + +I can remember nothing rising prominently out of the general hum and +fog except two convictions, which enlarged before us steadily, +becoming more solid instead of more shadowy as they came nearer. The +first was the impossibility of trusting the King. The second was +that everything went right where Colonel Cromwell was; for by this +time he was Colonel Cromwell, at the head of his regiment, which he +was slowly sifting and compressing into the firm invincible kernel of +his invincible army. + +A dim, dreary time it was for us from the Edgehill Fight, in October, +1642, to the beginning of February, 1643. Roger in prison at Oxford +with Job; my Father at Reading or in London with Lord Essex and the +army. + +But in the beginning of February a new time dawned on us. My Father +came home to us for a few days, to make the old house as tight as he +could against any assaults from Lord Capel, or any straggling party +of Prince Rupert's plunderers, who were always making dashing forays +into the counties favourable to the Parliament, and appearing where +they were least expected. The old moat, which in front of the house +had long been the peaceful retreat of many generations of ducks, and +elsewhere had been partially blocked up with fallen stones and trees, +was carefully cleared out and filled with water. The terraces which +led to it on the steep side of the house were scarped, all but the +uppermost, which was palisadoed, and had two great guns planted on +it. The drawbridge was repaired, and ordered to be always drawn up +at night. We were provided with a garrison of four of the +farm-servants, drilled as best might be for the occasion, and placed +under the command of Bob, which virtually placed the whole fortress +under the command of Tib, whose orders were the only ones Bob was +never known not to disregard. Meantime my aunts and I, with the +serving-maids, were instructed how to make cartridges, and prepare +matches for the match-locks; and Aunt Gretel gave us the benefit of +her experience in pulling lint, preparing bandages, and other +hospital work. + +If an attack, however, were ever made, the general belief in the +household was that Aunt Dorothy would take her place as commandant, +her courage being of the active rather than the passive kind. +Indeed, I think the sense of danger to ourselves was a kind of relief +to most of us. It seemed to make us sharers in the great struggle, +which we believed to be for God, and truth, and righteousness. It +took us out of the position of uneasy listeners for rumours into that +of sentinels on the alert for an attack. And the whole spirit of the +household rose from dreamy disquiet into cheery watchfulness and +activity. + +My Father brought us the story of the king's attempt to surprise +London. "It was a treacherous, unkingly deed," my Father said, +"enough to quench in the heart of the people every spark of trust +left in His Majesty." + +He said it happened on this wise. On Thursday, the 11th of November, +1642 (my father told us), the king received messengers from the +Commons with proposals of peace, declared his readiness to negotiate, +and his intention to remain peaceably in the same neighborhood till +all was amicably settled. The Parliament, trusting him, ceased +hostilities. Nevertheless, instantly after despatching this message, +he set off in full march for London. On Saturday he sent forces +under Prince Rupert to surprise Brentford under cover of a November +fog, and of his own too loyally trusted word. But Denzil Hollis, +with part of his regiment, made a noble stand, and stopped the +Prince's progress. + +Hampden came up first, and Lord Brook, to the succour of Hollis' +imperilled regiment; they tried to fight through the royal troops, +which had surrounded Hollis and his men in the streets of Brentford. +This they could not effect. But Hollis' little band themselves +fought to their last bullet, and then threw themselves into the +river, those who were not drowned swimming past Prince Rupert's +troops to Hampden and his Greencoats. Lord Essex, hearing the sound +of guns in the Parliament House, where he was at the time, took horse +and galloped across the parks and through Knightsbridge to the scene +of action. After this, all through the Saturday night, soldiers came +pouring out from the roused city, until, on Sunday morning, four and +twenty thousand men were gathered on Turnham Green. + +Then the tables were turned, and Hampden fell on the king's rear. + +"And then?" asked Aunt Dorothy. + +"And then," replied my Father, drily, "Lord Essex recalled him, and +so nothing further came of it; but things have gone on simmering ever +since; always getting ready, and discussing how things should be +done, and never doing them." + +"How do Mr. Hampden and Mr. Pym brook these delays?" said Aunt +Dorothy. + +"Mr. Hampden would have had my Lord Essex invest Oxford," said my +Father, "but he is a subordinate, and Lord Essex a veteran; and Mr. +Hampden, I trow, deems military obedience the best example he can +give an army scarce six months recruited from the shop or the plough." + +"And meantime," said Aunt Dorothy, "I warrant Prince Rupert is active +enough. There is no end to the tales of his devastations, seizing +whole teams from the plough, setting fire to quiet villages at +midnight, with I know not what iniquities besides, and carrying home +the spoil from twenty miles around to the king's quarters at Oxford. +If Lord Essex does not want to fight the king, why does not he submit +to him? Keeping twenty-four thousand men armed and fed at the public +expense, and doing nothing, is neither peace nor war to my mind!" + +"True, sister Dorothy," said my Father, "I know of no method by which +war can be carried on in a friendly way. And when Lord Essex has +come to the same conclusion, perhaps things will go a little faster." + +"Will they ever, under Lord Essex?" said she. + +"Time will show," said he. "We have scarcely found our Great +Gustavus yet." + +"Colonel Cromwell has been doing something better than dreaming what +to do, at Cambridge, since he saved the magazine there and £2,000 of +plate for the Parliament last June," said Aunt Dorothy. "Troops are +pouring up to him from Essex and Suffolk, and all around, they say; +and Cambridge is being fortified; and they say it is owing to Colonel +Cromwell we are so quiet in these seven counties." + +"Colonel Cromwell has a rare gift of sifting the chaff from the +wheat; finding out who can do the work and setting them to do it," +said my Father, thoughtfully. + +"So strict with his soldiers too," said Aunt Dorothy. "They say the +men are fined twelve pence if they swear a profane oath." + +"Then," said my Father, "he is doing what he told his cousin Mr. +Hampden must be done, if ever the Parliament army is to match the +king's." + +"What is that?" said she. + +"Getting men of religion," my Father replied, "to fight the men of +birth. You will never do it," said Colonel Cromwell, "with tapsters +and 'prentice lads. Match the enthusiasm of loyalty with the +enthusiasm of piety!" + +"It is strange," rejoined Aunt Dorothy, "that Mr. Cromwell never +discovered his right profession before. A farmer till forty-three, +and then all at once to find out he was made for a soldier!" + +"What can make or find out soldiers but wars, sister Dorothy?" said +my Father. "Moreover, I warrant Colonel Cromwell has known what it +is to wage other kinds of war before this. It is only taking up new +weapons. It is only the same conflict for the oppressed against the +oppressor, in which he contended for those of the Fen country against +Royal assumption, and for the poor men of Somersham against the +courtiers who would have ousted them from their ancient +common-rights; or for the gospel lecturers whom Archbishop Laud +silenced. The same war, only a new field and new weapons. At any +rate, I am glad the lad Roger is to serve under him; and so you may +tell him when he gets his liberty and comes home, as I trust he will +in a fortnight." + +This was said as my Father was taking an early breakfast alone with +us in the Hall, with his horse saddled at the door, ready to take him +back to the Lord General's quarters. + + +Rachel and Job Forster came home before Roger, in Sir Walter +Davenant's wagon, stored with provisions and cordials, and soft +pillows, by Lady Lucy. + +I believe every one in Netherby slept with a greater feeling of +security on the night after their return. Poor Margery, Dickon's +young wife, said it was like the Ark coming back from the +Philistines, regardless of the slur she thereby cast on the Royalist +army, in which Dickon fought. And yet there was nothing very +reassuring in Job's appearance. He looked like a gaunt ghost, and +stumbled into the cottage like a tottering infant, and rather fell on +the bed, which had been made up for him in the kitchen, than lay down +on it, so broken was his strength. When the neighbours came in after +a while, however, he had a good word to hearten each of them. As to +Rachel, she settled in at once, without more ado, to her old ways and +plans, doing everything with the purpose-like quietness which so +calms the sick. + +Cheered by Job's greetings to the neighbours, she told me it was not +until the place was still, and she was making up the fire for the +night, that she knew how low his strength was. As she took the wood +from the pile he had made for her close to the fire, she was +startled, she told me, by a sound like a stifled sob from where he +lay. + +"Art laid uneasy?" said she, at his side in an instant. "Does aught +ail thee? Is the bed ill-made?" + +"Naught," said he. "It's better than the bed of Solomon to me, with +the pillars of silver and the bottom of gold. But I am like to them +that dream, laughing and crying all in one. For I used to think +before thee come to the gaol, how I should never see thee kindle a +fire in the old place again, and how every stick thee had to take +from where I laid it for thee would go to thy heart like a stab. And +it shamed me not to have made a better shot at the Lord's meaning for +thee and me." + +"How could thee tell His meaning," said Rachel, "before He told thee? +He gave thee no promise to bring thee out of prison, nor me." + +"Nay," said Job, "but it's making very bold with Him, and making +fools of ourselves, to guess at His words when they're half spoken, +instead of waiting to hear them out. And it grieves me I should have +suspected Him when He was moaning us so well. Read me what the +Scripture saith about the forgiveness of sins." + +"But, Mistress? Olive," concluded Rachel, when she told me this +little history, "when Elijah, worn out with trouble, misunderstood +the Lord, the angel comforted him, not with a text, but with a cake +baken on the coals; so, when Job took to misunderstanding the +Almighty like that, thinking He would be angered with what would not +have fretted one of the likes of us poor hasty creatures, instead of +the Bible I gave him a good cup of strong broth. I knew it was the +body, poor soul, and not the spirit that was to blame, and that all +those brave words he spoke to the neighbours had cost more than they +were worth; and, of course, I was not going to profane the Holy Word +by using it like the spell in a witch's charm." + +So for several days she kept every creature out of the cottage, which +deprived me of her counsel in a moment of difficulty, which happened +the week of their return. + +Lord Capel's troops continued to hover round, and to keep the +district in a state of suspense and alarm, ripe for any marvellous +stories of horror, or for any acts of terrified revenge. For in +stormy times there are sure to be some cowardly spirits ready to +throw any helpless victim as an expiatory sacrifice to the powers of +evil. + +One Saturday evening, late in February, I was returning home through +the village from Gammer Grindle's cottage, which I had very often +visited since poor Tim's death. The old woman had seemed gentler in +her way of speaking of her neighbours, and once or twice had betrayed +her pleasure in seeing me by speaking sharply to me if I stayed away +longer than usual, as if I had been one of her own lost grandchildren. + +I had made rather a long circuit in returning, not liking to try the +high road again, because, in going, I had encountered a dozen or so +of the king's troopers, and as I was hurrying past them, they +complimented me in a way I did not like, and came after me. I +recognized Sir Launcelot Trevor's voice among them, and then I turned +round and spoke to him, and begged him to call his men away. Which, +when he recognized me, he did; but not without some more idle +Cavalier jesting, which set my heart beating, and made me resolve to +come back by a quiet path through the Davenant woods, which led round +through the village by Job Forster's. + +Poor old Gammer was very friendly. I suppose I was trembling a +little, though I did not tell her why, for she declared I was +chattering with cold, and would have me drink a hot cup of peppermint +water, and kindled up the fire, and took off my shoes, which were +wet, and dried them, wrapping up my feet, meanwhile, in her own best +woolsey whimple. Indeed, she was so gracious and approachable, that +I ventured to say something about the benefit of coming to church, +and mingling a little more with her neighbours. + +"Too late, too late for that!" said she, firing up. "This twenty +year, come Lammas, my Joan, Cicely's mother, was buried, she and her +man, Cicely's father, in one grave. And the parson would do nothing +without his fee. So I sold the cover from my bed to pay him. And I +vowed I'd never darken his church-door again." + +"But that parson is dead, Gammer," said I, "and it was not his church +after all." + +"That may be," said she. "But a vow is a vow. Besides, I could +never bear the folks' eyes speiring at me. I'm ugly, and lone, and +poor, and they make mouths at me, and call me an old hag and a witch. +But it's only natural. All the brood will peck at the lame chick. +All the herd will leave the stricken deer. Didn't all the village +hoot and jeer at my poor, tender, innocent Tim?" + +And then she poured forth the story of her life of sorrow as I had +never heard it before. A heart trained to distrust and suspect +through a childhood of bondage under the petty tyrannies of a +stepmother and her children. One year of happy married life, ending +in a sudden widowhood, which widowed her heart also of all its +remnant of hope in God, and left her to struggle prayerless and alone +with a hard world, for bread for herself and her orphan babe. The +growing up of this child to be a stay and comfort, and, for three +years, a second home with her when she married. This second home +broken up as suddenly as the first, by the death of the daughter and +her husband in one month, from a catching sickness, leaving the +grandmother once more alone to toil with enfeebled strength for two +orphan babes; the boy, poor, faithful Tim, half-witted and sickly; +the girl, Cicely, wilful and high-spirited, and the beauty of the +village. Then the terrible morning when Cicely was gone, and no +account could be got of her beyond Tim's confused and exulting +statement, that Cicely had cried, and laughed, and kissed him, and +told him to wish grandmother good-bye for her, and she would come +back a lady and bring Tim a gun like Master Roger's; to Gammer +Grindle tidings worse than bereavement or all the misery she had +known, for she came of a truly honourable yeoman's house that had +never known shame. Tim, however, could never be brought to look on +his sister's disappearance in any but the most cheerful light, and +would watch for hours at the corner of the path leading to the +village for Cicely and the "gun like Master Roger's," until, as time +passed on, the expectation seemed to fade away, only to be awakened +once again by the mysterious touch of death. And since then not a +word of the poor lost girl. Tim in the grave, and the vain longing +that Cicely were there too. And all the little world around her, as +she believed, leagued against her crushed but unconquered heart. She +ended with,-- + +"But it's but natural. When the lightnings have rent the trunk the +winds soon snap the boughs. They say the devil stands by me. If he +did no one need wish him for a friend. They say the Almighty is +against me. And most times I think belike He is." + +Then Aunt Gretel's words came back to me, "_Anywhere but there. Put +the darkness anywhere but there_;" and I said,-- + +"Never, Gammer, never. The devil said that thousands of years ago; +but the Lord Christ came to show what a lie it was. He stood by the +stricken and wounded always. The lame and the blind came to Him in +the temple, and he healed them." + +She listened as if she half believed, and then, after a silence, she +said,-- + +"The devil is no easy enemy to deal with, mistress, but if I could be +sure it was only him, maybe I might look up and try again." + +At last she was persuaded so far as to let me say I might call for +her the next Sunday on my way to church. "It was as like as not she +would not go, but at any rate it would do her no harm to see me." + +And as I left I heard something like a blessing follow me, and I saw +the poor, bent old figure leaning out of the door and watching me. + +But when I came back to Netherby I found the whole village at the +doors in a ferment of eager talk. + +I thought at once of Sir Launcelot and the troopers, and asked if +there had been another battle. + +"Nay, nay," said the woman I spoke to, "it's naught but folks going +to reap their deserts at last." + +Then came a chorus of grievances. + +"Three of Farmer White's finest milch kine gone in one night!" +"Goodwife Joyce's best black hen killed, and not a feather touched; +no mortal fox's work it was too plain to see!" "The dogs yelling as +if they were possessed, as belike they were, on Saturday evening, +seeing no doubt more than they could tell, poor beasts, of what was +going on in the air!" "Lord Essex and his army lying spellbound, +able to do nothing, while the Prince Robber was plundering the land +far and wide!" "Job and Master Roger, the best in the village, the +first stricken; too clear where the blows came from!" "And to-day +the squire's own cattle driven off the meadow, with Mistress +Nicholl's, by a troop of plunderers, who came no one knew whence, and +had gone no one knew whither!" "And finally, Tony Tomkin had been +pursued by a headless hound through the Davenant woods, where he had +only gone to take a rabbit or two he had snared, and thought no harm, +the family being away and fighting against the country!" "And," but +this was muttered under the breath, "there were those who said they +had seen something that was not smoke come out of Gammer Grindle's +chimney--something that flew away over the fens faster than any bird. +And this was only on last Saturday night, and every one knew that +Saturday was the day of the witches' Sabbath ever since the Jews had +brought the innocent blood on their heads!" + +Then suddenly it flashed on me what it all meant. They were going to +execute some dreadful vengeance on Gammer Grindle, believing her to +be one of the witches who were causing all the mischief in the land. + +It was no use to set myself against the torrent of fear and rage, so +I said as quietly as I could,-- + +"What are they going to do, and when?" + +"First," was the reply, "they're going to duck her in the Mere before +her own door. If she sinks they will pull her out if they can, as it +mayn't be her doings after all. If she swims she's a witch, clear +and plain." + +"And what then?" I said. + +"Nothing too bad, Mistress Olive, for the like of them. But the +lads'll see when it comes to the point. It isn't often their master +helps the wretches out at last, they say. And if she don't sink +natural, as a Christian ought, belike the lads'll make her." + +"When did they go to do this?" I asked. + +"They're but just off," was the answer. "But they'll make short work +of it, never fear. It's time a stop could be put to such things, if +ever it was." + +"If Rachel and Job had been among you this would never have been," I +thought. I longed to have consulted Rachel, had it been possible. +But there was no time to hesitate. + +My first impulse was to rush after the cruel boys; but I felt that in +the maddened state of terror in which the village was, they would +most probably keep me back. So, without saying a word or visibly +quickening my pace, I walked quietly on towards home. + +In the porch I found Aunt Gretel. She was watching for me. + +I took her arm, not violently, I was so afraid of frightening her +from doing what I had determined must be done. And I said quite +quietly,-- + +"Aunt Gretel, we must go together this instant to Gammer Grindle's." + +"What is the matter?" she said. + +"I will tell you as we go," I said. "There is no time to be lost." + +She came with me. I turned into the path by the meadows. + +"Not this way, Olive," she said. "The plunderers have been there +to-day. Your Father's best cattle are taken, and Placidia's." + +"If the cattle are gone, then belike so are the plunderers," I said. +"But if the king's whole army were there we must take the shortest +way." + +And I told her the whole story. + +She said nothing but,-- + +"Then the good God guard us, sweetheart, and don't waste your breath +in words." + +We went quickly on. + +Only once I thought I heard shouts, and I said,-- + +"Aunt Gretel, what do they do with witches at the worst?" + +"They have roasted them alive," she said, under her breath. And we +said no more. + +As we came to the creek of the Mere, on the opposite side of which +the cottage was, we heard yells and shouts too plainly borne across +the water in the stillness of the evening, unbroken by the lowing of +the stolen cattle which had been feeding there that morning. And in +another moment we saw the reflection of torches gleaming in the +water, as wo stumbled along in the dusk among the reeds. I listened +eagerly for poor old Gammer's voice. But I heard nothing. Indeed, +my own heart began to beat so fast, I could hear little but that. +Until, just as we reached the cottage, there was a dull splash, and +then a silence. It was followed by a low moan, but by no cry. They +were drowning the poor old woman, and the brave broken heart would +vouchsafe them the triumph of no entreaty for mercy and no cry of +distress! I knew it as if I saw it. And the next moment I had flown +along the shore and was in the midst of the crowd on the brink of the +water, clinging with one hand round the stem of an alder, and +stretching out the other till it grasped the poor shrivelled hands +which had caught at the branches which drooped over the water. + +"Cling to me, Gammer!--to me, Olive Drayton! I am holding +fast--cling to me!" + +I was scarcely prepared for the desperate tenacity of the grasp which +returned mine. I never felt till that moment what it means to cling +to Life. My other arm held firm, but the bank was oozy and slippery, +and I felt as if I were losing my power, when at that instant Aunt +Gretel came and knelt beside me, and clutching Gammer Grindle's +dress, between us we dragged her to land. + +Then the second part of the work of rescue began, and the hardest. + +The men, or rather lads (for they were few of them more), who formed +the crowd, had been startled into inaction by our sudden appearance +among them; but now they began to mutter angrily, and would have +pushed us rudely away, saying "it was no matter for women to meddle +in. They had not come there for nothing, and they would have it out. +The whole country-side should not be laid waste to save one wicked +old witch, that no one had a good word to say for." + +By this time Gammer Grindle had recovered so far as to rise out of +that mere instinct of self-preservation with which she had +desperately clung to me. And disengaging herself from me, she said, +standing erect and facing her assailants,-- + +"Let me alone, Mistress Olive. They say right. They are all gone +who would have said a good word for me. Let me go to them." + +Two of the men seized her again. + +"Confess!" said one of them, shaking her rudely; "confess, and we'll +leave you to the justices. If not you shall try the water once more +to sink or swim." + +And they dragged her again to the brink. The touch of the cold +oozing water made the horror and weakness come over her again. Her +courage forsook her, and she cried like the feeble old woman she +was,-- + +"Have pity on me, neighbours. I'll confess anything, if you'll leave +me alone--anything I can. I've been a sinful old woman, and the +Lord's against me; the Lord's against me!" + +"Hear her, mistress," said the men with a cry of triumph; "she'll +confess anything. She says the Almighty's against her. It isn't fit +such should live." + +They were forcing her on; her poor, patched, thin garments tore in my +hands as I clung to them. Aunt Gretel, driven to the end of her +English, as usual with her in strong emotion, was pouring forth +entreaties and prayers in German, when I caught sight of a Netherby +lad well known as the pest of the village, and the ringleader in all +mischief. He was carrying a torch. I caught his arm and looked in +his face. + +"Tony Tomkin," I said, "Squire Drayton shall know of this, and it +shall not be unpunished. It is your wickedness, and such as yours, +that brings the trouble on us all, and not Gammer Grindle's. God is +angry with you, Tony, for breaking your little brother's head, and +idling away your time, while your poor mother toils her life away to +get you bread. You will not give up your hearts to be good like +brave men, which is the only sacrifice God will have; and instead, +like a pack of cowards, you are sacrificing a poor helpless old woman +to the devil. Isn't there one man here with the heart of a man in +him? What harm can the devil do you, much less a witch, if you +please God? And which of you thinks God will be pleased by a troop +of you slinking here in the dark to murder a helpless old woman at +her own door? Can none of you lads of Netherby remember poor Tim, +and how he died for Master Roger, and how good she was to him? Or +can't you trust Squire Drayton to do justice, and leave her to him?" + +Tony let his torch fall and slunk back. Then two Netherby men came +forward and said,-- + +"She's right; Mistress Olive is right! Squire Drayton'll see justice +done." + +Two or three others joined them. The cry arose, "No one shall touch +the old woman to-night, as long as there's any Netherby lads to +hinder it." + +A scuffle ensued, during which Aunt Gretel and I got hold of Gammer +Grindle once more, and led her back into the cottage. + +Once there, we barricaded the door with the logs and fagots which +formed Gammer's store of firewood, and felt safe. + +But it was not until the angry voices had quite died away in the +distance, and we heard again the quiet plashing of the water among +the rushes, that we could quiet the poor old woman so that she would +let go her clasp of our hands. Then she let us kindle a fire, and +wrap her in warm dry things. + +We wanted to lay her in a clean comfortable bed which was made in the +corner of the hut. But this she would not suffer. "It is Cicely's," +she said. "It's not for me." So we had to pack her up as +comfortably as we could upon the heap of straw and rags laid on an +old chest, which was her bed. + +There she lay quite still for a long time, while Aunt Gretel and I +sat silent by the fire, hoping she would sleep. + +But in about an hour she said, in a quiet voice-- + +"Take away those logs from the door." + +I went to her bedside. + +"In the morning, Gammer," I said, "when it is quite safe." + +"This moment!" said she, starting up any trying to walk. But the +terrors of the night had made her so faint and feeble, that she fell +helplessly back. + +"This moment, Mistress Olive!" she repeated, in a faint querulous +voice, very unlike her usual sharp firm tones--"this moment! The +poor maid might come and try the door, and go away, and never come +again. I've been sharp with her, I know, and she might be afraid, +not knowing, poor lamb, how I watch for her." + +Aunt Gretel went to the door and began to unpile the logs. + +"God will care for us, Olive," said she with a faltering voice. "He +will know and care; He who never closes the door against us." + +And gently we withdrew the logs which formed our protection. + +"Set the light in the window," Gammer said. + +By the window she meant a rough crevice in the wall, with a canvas +curtain hung before it. + +Aunt Gretel ventured a little remonstrance. + +"Hardly that to-night," said she. "It might guide any evil-disposed +people here." + +"It will guide her, and what does it matter for anything else?" said +Gammer Grindle, almost fiercely. "She knew there was always a light +burning, and if she saw none, she might think I was dead, and turn +away." + +And the lamp was placed in the window. + +Then another long silence, broken again by Gammer. + +"What'll they think's come to you, my mistresses? What a selfish old +woman I've been. Why didn't I let them do for me, and be quiet. I +never knew before what fear was. I've wished to die scores of times; +but when death came near, I clung to life like a drowning dog or cat, +and never cared who I pulled in to save myself. I never thought I +should live to be such a pitiful old coward. But the Lord's against +me," she cried, going back to her old wail--"the Lord's against me. +Everybody says so, and it must be true. He not only leaves me to be +drowned; He leaves me also to be as selfish and wicked as I will. +The Lord's against me. Why did you try to save me? I must fall into +His hands at last!" + +This was exactly what Aunt Gretel never could hear with patience. + +"You are a little better than those bad men, my dear woman," said +she. "You, none of you, can see the difference between the good God +and the devil. You talk of falling into His hands, as if His arms +were hell. And all the while He is stretching out His arms that you +may fall on His heart. You slander, grandmother, you slander God!" +she added. + +"He is not against you; you are against Him." + +"Much the same in the end," moaned poor Gammer, "if we're going +against each other." + +"It is not the same," said Aunt Gretel. "You can turn and go with +Him, and He will not have to drive you home. You can bow under his +yoke, and you will not feel it heavy. You can bow under His rod, and +you will find it comfort you as much as His staff." + +"Not so easy, mistress," said Gammer, after a pause. "I have turned +from Him so long, how can I know if I should have a welcome?" + +"That is what Cicely is waiting for, Gammer," I whispered, kneeling +down beside. "But the door is open and the light is burning for her. +If she could only know! if she could only have a glimpse _inside_!" + +"If she could only know!" murmured the poor old woman, her eyes +moistening as she turned from the thought of her own sorrows to those +of her lost child. + +And she said no more. But there was something in the quiet of her +face which made me hope that she herself had got a "glimpse inside." + +And soon afterwards she fell asleep. + + +Aunt Gretel and I were left to our watch. Then, for the first time, +when we ceased to watch for sleep to come over the poor exhausted +aged frame, I began to watch the noises outside, and feel a creeping +horror as I listened to the slow cold plashing of the water among the +rushes, and the soughing, and wailing, and whistling of the wind +among the leafless boughs of the wood behind us. There was one +gnarled old oak especially, just outside the house, whose dry boughs +creaked in the wind as if they had been dead beams instead of living +branches. + +Often I thought I heard long sighs and wailings as of human voices, +and with difficulty persuaded myself that it was fancy. But at last +there came sounds which could not be mistaken--low whistles, and +short, peculiar cries, responded to by others, until we became sure +that a number of men must be moving about in the darkness around us. +At first Aunt Gretel and I thought it must be the witch-finders come +again for Gammer Grindle, and very softly we replaced the logs to +barricade the door. + +But other sounds began to mingle with those of human voices, like the +lowings of cattle forcibly driven. Suddenly I remembered my +encounter that very morning with the royal troopers, which, with all +that happened since, seemed weeks distant. + +"It is Sir Launcelot and the plunderers!" I exclaimed. + +"That accounts for their not sending after us," said Aunt Gretel. +"They have tried to reach us, no doubt, and cannot." + +And we listened again. + +Then came something like a soft knock and a low cry, which seemed +close to the door, and a heavy thud as of something falling. But, +though we listened breathlessly, no second sound came; and the old +stories of supernatural horrors haunting the place crept back to us, +and kept us motionless. + +By this time the dawn was slowly creeping in, and making the lamp in +the window red and dim. + +We sat crouching close together by the embers of the dying fire, and +took each others' hands, and listened. + +The voices came nearer, till we could plainly distinguish them, and +with them the sound of trampling: feet of men and horses, and then of +men springing from the saddle and approaching the hut. + +"It's the old witch's den," a gruff voice said; "she's burning a +candle to the devil. No one ever got good by going near her." + +Then a laugh, and Sir Launcelot Trevor's mocking voice,-- + +"One would think you were a Roundhead, from the respect with which +you mention the old enemy's name. At all events, witches don't live, +like saints, on air and prayers. We'll get some warmth and comfort +this bitter night out of the old hag's stores. Some sack or malmsey, +perchance, and a fat capon or two bewitched from good men's cellars +and larders. Stay here, if you are afraid. And I will storm this +witch's castle for you," And his long heavy stride approached the +door. We sat with beating hearts, expecting the rickety door to be +shaken or forced in by a strong hand. But instead, the steps +suddenly ceased, and the intruder seemed to start back as if struck +by an invisible hand on the threshold. + +Then there was an exclamation of amazement and horror, ending in a +fearful oath in a low deep tone, very different from Sir Launcelot's +usual bravado. Afterwards a few hasty retreating steps, and as he +rejoined his men, some words in the old light tone, but hurried and +wild as of one overacting his part. + +"Belike you are right, lads. Black art or white, better keep to beer +of mortal brewing than seize anything from a witch's caldron, or +touch anything of a witch's brood. Besides, the country will be +awake, and it's as well we were in safe quarters with the booty. +Steady, and look out tor pitfalls in this cursed place." + +After which there was a splashing of horses' feet on the reedy margin +of the Mere. Then a heavy trampling as they reached firmer ground, +succeeded by a sharp gallop across the meadow, until every sound was +lost in the distance, and we were left in the silence to listen once +more to the cold plashing of the water among the rushes, and to the +breathing of poor old Gammer in her heavy sleep, as we watched the +slow breaking of the morning. + +We had not sat half an hour after the last tramp of the horsemen had +died away, when we heard a faint sound as of something stirring on +the threshold. + +Aunt Gretel laid her hand on mine. + +"What made Sir Launcelot turn back, Olive?" she whispered. "He is +scarcely a man likely to dream dreams or see visions." + +By one impulse we softly removed the logs with which we had +barricaded the door, and opened it. + +There was a rude porch outside to keep off the beat of the weather, +and under it a low seat where Gammer used to sit in summer and carry +on any work that needed more light than could be had in the hut. + +Across this lay stretched, in a death-like swoon, the form of a +woman. She was half kneeling, half prostrate, her head towards the +door, resting on the seat, one arm beneath it, the other fallen +helpless by her side, half hidden in a heavy mass of long hair. A +puny little child lay cuddled up close to her, clasping the +unconscious form with both arms, asleep. + +The features were sharp as with age, and pallid as with the touch of +death, and the long soft hair was gray, but it was still easy to +recognise in the sharp and altered face what memories it had brought +back to Sir Launcelot, and why that poor faded form had guarded her +threshold from him better than an army of fiends. + +It was the flaming sword of conscience which had guarded us that +night. + +Poor pallid wasted face, so terrible in its mute reproach! + +We took her up between us. It was easy. She was light enough to +carry. We laid her on the old bed which her grandmother had kept +always ready for her. Aunt Gretel loosened her dress and chafed her +hands, while I took the poor puny child to the fire to keep it quiet +while I made some warm drink to revive the mother. + +But the poor sickly little one was not easily to be quieted. In +spite of all my soothing it awoke, and began wailing for mammy. +Perhaps, after all, the best restorative! The sharp fretful cry +aroused the mother from her swoon, and the grandmother from her heavy +sleep. + +In another instant the old woman was kneeling by the poor girl's +bedside, clasping and fondling her, and calling her by tender, +endearing, childish names, such as no one at Netherby would have +dreamed could have poured forth from Gammer Grindle's lips. The +first words Cicely spoke when she fully recovered consciousness and +sate up (her beautiful large gray eyes gleaming from her faded hollow +cheeks like living souls among a pale troop of ghosts), were,-- + +"Gammer, I heard him--I heard his voice. Where is he? I thought I +saw his face. But it was dusk, and faces change. But voices will be +the same, I think, even in heaven or in hell. And I heard his voice, +the same as when he called me darling and wife." + +"Wife!" said the old woman, starting and standing erect. "Say that +again, Cicely." + +"All in vain, Gammer!" she said, with a slow hopeless tone. "With +the priest and the ring! But it was all false. He told me so when +it was too late. He said I must have known. But how was I to know, +Gammer? I trusted him; I trusted him. Yet, perhaps, I ought to have +known better, Gammer? I suppose it must have been wicked of me. +Every one seems to think it was." + +"Not me, sweetheart!" the old woman cried; "never me! Thank God, my +lamb comes back to me as pure as she went. Thank God, Cicely my +darling, thank God, sweetheart, and take courage. If all the cruel +world hunted my lamb to death and cried shame on her, there's one in +the world who knows she's as pure as the sweetest lady that ever trod +the church floor in her bride's white, with her path strewn with +roses." Then, taking the child in her arms, and cuddling it to her, +she added, "And thy child's as much a crown of joy to thee and me, +Cicely, as to any lady in the land. Take courage, sweetheart. What +does all the world matter, if grandmother knows; and Him that's +above, darling," she added, in a voice faltering again into +feebleness. "For He is above, Cicely, and He's not against us, for +He's brought thee home." + +All this time the old woman and Cicely had seemed quite unconscious +of our presence, as we sat in a shadowed corner of the dark old hut, +keeping as quiet as sobs would let us. But when the poor girl was +calmed by the long-forgotten relief of a burst of tears on a heart +that trusted her, she looked up and around with a quieter glance, and +began to ask again how it could be that she had heard the voice. + +Then I stepped forward to explain. + +She started, and covered her face with her hands, as if she would +have hidden herself. + +"It's only me, Cicely, Olive Drayton," I said, as plainly as I could +for weeping. "You've come back among those that know you and trust +you, Cicely." + +Then, after giving her such explanation as I could of the events of +the night, and after Aunt Gretel had made up the fire, we bade them +farewell, and left the three together to go over the mournful history +that lay between their meetings; while we hastened away to assure +those at home of our safety. + +"What a night, Aunt Gretel!" I said, as we went. "It seems like a +life-time." + +"Things come often thus in life," said she, "as far as I have seen; +the fruits ripened through the long silent year, reaped in a day." I +scarcely understood her then, but since, I have often thought she was +right. Sowing-times and growing-times, long, silent, underground; +and then bursts of flowering days, reapings and gatherings; a +life-time in a day; a thousand long-prepared events bursting into +flower in a moment. A thousand ghosts of forgotten deeds gathered +together and confronting us at one point. The probation thousands of +years; the Judgment a day. + +Aunt Dorothy was a little doubtful as to our having too much commerce +with Gammer Grindle or Cicely. "If Gammer was not a witch," said +she, "which God forbid--though that there are witches who ill-wish +cattle, and ride on broom-sticks, is as certain as there are +wandering stars and sea-serpents; at all events it is a solemn +warning to every one on the danger of not going to church like your +neighbours. And if Cicely was not as bad as had been feared--for +which God be praised--she was nevertheless an awful example of the +danger of dancing round May-poles, and wearing bits of ribbons and +roses on your head." + +But when Job heard of it, his anger was greatly kindled. + +"One would think," said he, "the Book of Job had been put into the +Apocrypha, that men who profess themselves Christians should go +worrying the afflicted like Zophar, Bildad, and Eliphaz, heaping +coals on the devil's furnace. Witches there were, no doubt, poor +wretches, or they could not have been hanged and burned, although for +the most part he believed the devil was too good a general to let his +soldiers waste their time in cavalcading about on broom-sticks. But, +be that as it might, it was ill work piling wood on fires that were +hot enough already, especially when you could not be sure who had +kindled the flames. The only comfort was, that after all the devil +was nothing more than the Almighty's furnace-heater. All his toil +only went to heating it to the right point to fuse the silver. The +Master would see that none of the true metal was lost." + + +At the end of February, Roger came to us. He was pale with +prison-air and meagre from prison-fare, and the hair had grown on his +upper lip. In my eyes he had gained far more than he had lost. His +eyes had a look of purpose and command in them, pleasant to yield to; +though little enough of command had he exercised during the last four +months, except, indeed, that command of himself which is true +obedience, and lies at the root of all true command. + +He was even less given than of old to long narratives or orations of +any kind. + +The history of what he had seen and heard dropped from him in broken +sentences, as he went about seeing to various little plans for +strengthening the defences of the house, or as he repaired or cleaned +his arms in the evening. Of what he had suffered he said nothing, +except to make light of it in answer to any questioning of mine. +More than once he mentioned, in a few brief words, Lady Lucy's +kindness. But he did not speak at all of Lettice except once, when +we were all sitting together round the Hall fire--Aunt Dorothy, Aunt +Gretel, and I--when he said carelessly, as if he had just remembered +it by accident,-- + +"Mistress Lettice told me she had read the sermons you gave her, Aunt +Dorothy. And she sent you her love, Olive." + +"There are gracious dispositions in the child," said Aunt Dorothy. +"I have been sure of it for a long time." + +And I ventured after a little while to say,-- + +"She sent me her love, Roger, and was that all?" + +"Her dear love, I think it was," said he dryly, as if the adjective +made little difference in the value of the substantive. + +"And she said no more, Roger? Not one message?" + +"I only saw her for ten minutes, Olive," said he, a little +impatiently, "and most of the time she was talking to a little French +poodle, a little wretch with wool like a sheep and eyes like +glass-beads." + +"You are hard on the poor child, Roger," said Aunt Dorothy; "consider +her bringing up. I warrant she never spun a web, or learned a +chapter in Proverbs through in her life. What can you expect from a +mother who is a friend of the Popish queen, and, I am only too sure, +wears false hair and paint?" + +"Aunt Dorothy," said he, firing up, "the Lady Lucy is as near a +ministering angel as any creature I ever wish to see. And if it were +not so, it's not for me, who have lived on her bread and on her kind +looks for months, to hear a word against her." + +And Roger arose, and strode out of the hall and across the court, +whistling for Lion; leaving Aunt Dorothy in perplexity as to whether +he were more aggrieved with her for defending Lettice or for +assailing Lady Lucy, and me in equal perplexity as to how I could +ever venture to introduce Lettice's name again, longing as I did to +hear more of her. + +"You never saw Lettice after she gave you that message?" I ventured +at last to say one day when we were walking alone together. + +"How could I, Olive?" said he, "I went away instantly; except +indeed," he added, "when I happened to look back, as I was leaving +the court, I saw her standing at the window with that poodle in her +arms. But I did not look again, for at the same moment Sir Launcelot +Trevor came out of another door, looking as if he were, as no doubt +he is, quite at home in the place with them all." + +"O Roger," I said, "some of us ought to write to Lady Lucy at once to +say how wicked he is!" + +"What is the use, Olive?" said he, sadly. "It is not from us, rebels +and traitors, she will believe evil of a good Cavalier. Least of all +from me or mine about Sir Launcelot!" he added, in a lower voice. + +"But he may be deceiving them all," I said, passionately. "It is a +sin to let him. Can nothing be done? Have you never thought of it?" + +"You had better ask me could I think of nothing else, Olive?" said +he. "For I had to ask myself that many times as I paced up and down +in prison, and knew about it all. And the more I thought, the more +helpless I saw we were about it." + +"And what did you decide on at last?" I asked. + +"I decided that _this was what the Civil War cost_," he replied; "not +battles and loss of limb or life only, but misunderstandings and loss +of friends. To have all we say and do reported to those we love best +through those who think the worst of us, and to have no power of +saying a word in justification or explanation. To be identified with +the worst men and the most violent acts on our side, and, in loyalty +to the principles of our party, not to be able to disown them. To +see often the people we love best estranged more and more from the +principles we hold dearest; and to watch a great gulf widening +between us which no voice of man can reach across." + +"I feel sure nothing and no one could make Lettice think harshly of +us, Roger," I exclaimed; "I feel as sure as if I had been speaking to +her yesterday." + +"How can it be otherwise, Olive?" said he, "especially when I am +under Colonel Cromwell. You should have seen the little start and +scornful look she gave when I mentioned his name. 'Colonel!' said +she, almost under her breath, as if she were talking only to that +poodle. But I heard her There is no one the Cavaliers hate like him." + +"It seems almost a pity you must be with him!" I said, thinking only +of Roger and Lettice. + +"A pity, Olive!" said he, flashing up. "The Cavaliers hate Colonel +Cromwell, because wherever he is there is doing instead of debating. +And for what better reason can we hold to him? If we fight at all, +it is because we believe there is something worth fighting for to be +lost or won; and where Colonel Cromwell is, it is won. The country +he defends is defended; the city he holds is held; the men he trains +fight; and, thank God, my lot is with him, to defend the old +liberties under him, Olive, or, if he fails, to find new liberty in +the New England across the seas." + +The next day Roger went off to join his regiment at Cambridge, where +Colonel Cromwell was. + +How silent and languid the old house seemed when he left us, without +his firm, soldier-like tread clearing the stairs at a few bounds, and +his whistle to the dogs, and his voice singing with a firm precision, +like the tramp of a regiment, snatches of the grave, grand old psalm +tunes which the Ironsides loved to march to! + +A fortnight afterwards, Job Forster followed him. And then came +again months of listening and waiting, and of contradictory rumours, +ending too often in ill-tidings worse than the worst we had feared. + +For that whole year brought little but disaster to the Parliament +troops. Day after day in that yellow old Diary of mine is marked +with black tidings of defeat and death. + +First comes-- + +"_June_ 18.--Mr. Hampden wounded in trying to keep off Prince +Rupert's plunderers, until Lord Essex came. Lord Essex did not come +in time, and Mr. Hampden went off the field sorely wounded. They say +he felt himself death-stricken, and turned his horse towards the +house of his first wife, whom he loved so dearly, that he might die +there. But his strength failed. It was as much as he could do to +make one last effort, and spurring his horse over a little brook +which bounded the field, to find his way to the nearest village, and +home. + +"_June_ 24.--Mr. Hampden died, thinking to the last more of his +country than himself. In the midst of terrible pain he wrote (my +Father tells us) to entreat Lord Essex to act with more vigour, and +to collect his forces round London. He received the sacrament, and +spoke with affection of the services of the Church of England, +although not altogether so of her bishops. He received the Lord's +Supper, and for himself looked humbly and peacefully to God. But for +England his heart looked sorrowfully onward. And his last words +were, 'Lord, have mercy on my bleeding country;' and then another +prayer, the end not heard by mortal ears. My Father writes: 'His +love for his country will scarce fail in the better country whither +he is gone. But his counsel and all his slowly garnered treasures of +wisdom are lost to us for ever.'" + +The next death marked is-- + +"_September_ 20.--A battle at Newbury, in Gloucestershire. Lord +Falkland killed. Once Hampden's friend, and now (must it not be?) +his friend again. A good man, and gentle, and wise, they say. I +wonder how it all looks and sounds there where they are gone." + +And the next-- + +"_November_.--Mr. Pym is dead. They have buried him among the kings +in Westminster Abbey. I wonder how many of the people who began the +war will be fighting at the end of it, and whether they will be +fighting for the same things as when they began." + +Then, mixed up with these notices of the dead, are long accounts of +skirmishes and fights, which every one thought all-important then, +but which no one thinks of now, save those who have their beloved +dead lying beneath the fields where they were fought. + +And through it all a steady going downward and downward of the +Parliament cause, from that fatal June, 1643, when Hampden died, to +near the close of the following year. + +"_June_ 30, 1643.--The Fairfaxes defeated at Atherton Moor. + +"_July 13_.--Sir William Waller (once vainly boasted of as William +the Conqueror) defeated, and his army scattered, in Lansdowne. + +"_July_ 22.--Prince Rupert took Bristol." + +And so the war surged away to the Royalist West and Royalist North, +until in all the West Country not a city was left to the Parliament +but Gloucester; and in the North Country, not a city but Hull, which +the Hothams had been baffled in an attempt to betray to the king; +whilst in the counties between, Prince Rupert and the plunderers were +having it much their own way. Very evil times we thought them. And +many different reasons were assigned for the failure of the good +cause. Aunt Dorothy feared it was a punishment for a licentious +spirit of toleration to zealots and sectaries, and the sins of the +Independents. The zealous preacher who came from Suffolk +occasionally to expound at Job Forster's meeting, was sure it was +carnal compromise lording it over God's heritage, and the sins of the +Presbyterians. And Rachel believed it was the sins of us all, and of +herself in particular, who had, she considered, been too much like +Ananias and Sapphira, in that she had professed to give the whole +price to God and then would fain have kept back the half, having +indulged the deceitful hope that Job was so wounded as never to be +able to go to the wars again. + +Placidia and Mr. Nicholls were much "exercised." Especially since +the loss of the three parsonage cows, which were (by what Aunt +Dorothy considered a very solemn warning to Placidia) swept off with +my Father's by the plunderers from the meadow by the Mere. "There +were two texts," said Placidia, "which had always seemed to her +exceedingly hard to reconcile. One was, 'Godliness hath promise of +the life which now is as well as of that which is to come.' And the +other, 'Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.' What could be done with +texts so exceedingly difficult to reconcile as these?" + +To which Aunt Dorothy replied,-- + +"Give up trying to reconcile them at all, my dear. Let them fight, +as frost and heat do, fire and water, sunshine and storm; and out of +the strife come the flower and the fruit, spring-time and harvest, +which shall never cease. Not that I see any difficulty in it. The +promise is not meadows or cows, but grace and peace. The perplexity +is over when you make up your mind that what you want is not to feel +warm for a day or two, but to have things grow; not a few sunny +hours, but the harvest." + +Perhaps among us all, the person least perplexed by these continued +disasters was Aunt Gretel; because, leaving the whole field of +politics as altogether too complicated for her to comprehend, she +continued to see only the links which bind every day to the Eternal +Day, and every event to the hand of the merciful Father; and thus her +chief wonders ever were the pity which forgave so many sins, and the +love which provided so many mercies. Overlooking all the battles and +skirmishes around us, she saw but one Battle and one Battle-field, +and but two Captains. Overlooking all the subordinate divisions of +nations and parties, she saw only a flock and a Shepherd, and the +Shepherd calling each one by one, from the Great Gustavus to little +Cicely and poor Tim; folded, one, in the heavenly fold of which he +knew nothing till he was in it, and the other in the poor earthly +house which she and her child and her grateful love had made, once +more, a home and a refuge for poor old Gammer. For since Cicely's +return, Gammer's broken links with her fellow-creatures began to be +knit again; and more than one at Netherby took Job's words to heart. +The broad shield of her love and welcome which she threw around the +wanderer had shielded herself. + +But side by side with the doleful records in my Diary run two series +of letters full of victory and hope. + +One was to my Father from Dr. Antony, who spent most of that period +in London. And there, throughout all these disasters, the courage of +the citizens seemed never to fail. + +When Lord Essex returned from Edgehill with very doubtful success, +which he had entirely failed to convert into lasting gain by his +hesitations and delays, London, of as brave and generous a heart as +old Rome, voted him £5,000. + +When Bristol fell before Prince Rupert, and every city in the west +save Gloucester fell into the hands of the king, and Lord Essex +timidly recommended accommodation with His Majesty, and the Lords +would have petitioned him, the Commons, the Preachers, and the +citizens (knowing that no accommodation with the king could be relied +on unless secured by victory) rejected all such wavering thoughts. +The shops were all shut for some days, not to make holiday, but for +solemn fasting. These days were spent in the churches, and the +people came forth from them ready for any sacrifice for the eternal +truth and the ancient liberty. It was determined to surround London +with entrenchments. Knights and dames went forth, spade in hand, to +the beat of drum, to share in the digging of the trenches, and to +hearten others to the work. And in a few days twelve miles of +entrenchment were dug. Whereof we heard His Majesty took notice, and +lost heart thereby. + +Throughout all those adverse times London never lost heart. Plate +and jewels kept pouring into the Parliament's treasury at Guildhall. +Time spent by the 'prentices in the Parliament army was ruled to +count as time served in their trades. And jests against the courage +of men bred in streets and trained behind counters lost their point. +Dr. Antony's letters through all that dreary time had the cheer and +stir of a triumphal march in them, although he had no triumphs to +relate, but only defeats borne with the courage which repairs them, +and although he himself went to the battle-field not to wound but to +bind up wounds. + +The other series of letters was from Roger. And these cheered us, +because they always told of victory. They were brief, and mostly +written from the battle-field, to assure us at once of victory and +safety. They crossed the dark shadows of my Diary like sunbeams. In +June, when we were mourning over the death of Hampden, and over the +slow debates of the Lord-General what to do first for the bleeding +country, wounded in every part by the stabs of plunderers and +reckless Cavaliers, came Roger's first letter, delayed on its way, +dated, "Grantham, 18th May, 1643." It spoke of a glorious victory +won that day against marvellous odds of number, the enemy running +away for three miles, four colours taken, and forty-five prisoners, +and many prisoners rescued. Again in July, when we were bewailing +the Fairfaxes defeated at Atherton Moor in the north, Sir William +Waller's army routed at Lansdowne Heath in the west, and Bristol +lost, Roger was writing us, on the 31st, news from Gainsborough of a +"notable victory with a chase of six miles." + +Mingled with these good tidings were sayings which Roger had heard of +Colonel Cromwell's. Some of these sayings were like proverbs, so +closely did the word fit the thought. Others had in them the ring of +a war-song, as when he wrote to the Commissioners at Cambridge. "You +see by this enclosed how sadly your affairs stand. It's no longer +disputing, but out instantly all you can. Raise all your bands; send +them to Huntingdon; get up what volunteers you can; hasten your +horses. Send these letters to Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex without +delay. I beseech you, spare not. You must act lively; do it without +distraction. Neglect no means." Yet often it seemed, when you +listened to Colonel Cromwell, as if it were by some marvellous +accident his thoughts did ever tumble into their right clothes, so +strangely did they come lumbering out. But every now and then, if +you had patience, amidst the rattling of the rough stones and +pebbles, flashed a sentence, sharp cut and brilliant as a diamond, +although, apparently, as unconscious of its polish and sharpness as +the rest of their uncouth ness. "Subtilty may deceive you, integrity +never will;" "Truly, God follows us with encouragements, who is the +God of blessings; and I beseech you, let him not lose his blessing +upon us! They come in season, and with all the advantages of +heartening, as if God should say, 'Up and be doing, and I will stand +by you and help you!' There is nothing to be feared but our own sin +and sloth." "If I could speak words to pierce your hearts with the +sense of our and your condition, I would. It may be difficult to +raise so many men in so short time; but let me assure you it's +necessary, and, therefore, to be done." "God hath given reputation +to our handful (the Ironsides), let us endeavour to keep it. I had +rather have a plain, russet-coated captain that knows what he fights +for, and loves what he knows, than that which you call 'a gentleman' +and nothing else. I honour a gentleman that is so indeed." + +"Yet," said Roger in one of his letters, "it gives you little +knowledge of what the Colonel is to extract these bits of his +sayings, and make them emphatic, as if he meant them for epigrams, +when the force is that they are said without force; the thought and +purpose in him, which always go to the point in deeds, from time to +time flashing straight to the point in words, which are then as +strong as other men's deeds. But this I know, when he says of us, +'We never find our men so cheerful as when there is work to do,' or, +'God hath given reputation to our handful,' we all feel as if we were +dubbed knights, and were moving about glorious with Royal Orders." + +So, slowly as the year passed on, some of us began dimly to feel that +a kingly being had arisen among us, such a king as David was before +he was crowned, when he ruled in the hearts of the thousands of +Israel by right of the slain giant and the secret anointing of the +seer; a mighty man, who felt nothing impossible which he believed +right, with whom, if a thing was "necessary," it was "to be done." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +LETTICE DAVENANT'S DIARY. + +Oxford, _January_ 30_th_, 1644.--Another Christmas, and another +birthday, shut up within these monkish old stone walls. To my mother +the chapel, with the painted windows, and the organ, and the daily +services, makes up for much that we lose. But as to me, when I hear +the same sounds, and see the same sights, from day to day, I scarcely +seem to hear or see them at all. They do not wake my soul up. The +sacred music of the woods and fields seems to do me more good, at +least on week-days. For it is sacred, and it is never the same. And +the choristers there, while they are singing their psalms, are busy +all the time building their nests, and finding food for their +nestlings, which make their songs all the more tender and sacred to +me. + +"Not a word from them at Netherby. And not a step nearer to the end. + +"Yet it is wrong to complain. It is something to have my Father and +my seven brothers still untouched, after being exposed during all +this time to the risks of the war. I dread to think what a gulf +would yawn between me and Olive, and all of them, if once one very +dear to either of us fell in the strife. + +"I have nothing to complain of, but that things do not change; and +with what a passion of regret I should long for one of these +unchanging days, if one of the terrible changes that might come, came. + +"A wretched phantom of a Parliament appeared here on the 22nd of +January. I would the king had not summoned it. We should leave it +to the rebels, I think, to deal with shows and phantoms of real +things, with their presumptuous talk of colonels and generals. I +would his Majesty had not encountered their pretence of royal +authority, with this pretence of Parliamentary debate. Sixty Lords +and a hundred Commons, or thereabouts, moving helplessly about these +old University streets, with no more power or life in them than the +effigies of the saints and crusaders in the churches. Indeed far +less, for the effigies are memorials of persons who once were alive, +and this Parliament is nothing but a copy of the clothes and +trappings of a power now living. The king does not consult them, and +the nation does not heed them, and they only show how real the +division is amongst us. The king himself calls them the 'mongrel +Parliament.' His Majesty is so grand and majestic when he is grave, +I feel one could give up anything to bring a happy smile over his sad +and kingly countenance. But I would he did not make these jests. +Many grave persons, I have noticed, when they set about jesting, are +apt to do it rather cruelly. Their jests want feathers. They fall +heavily, weighted with the gravity of their character, and instead of +pleasantly pricking and stimulating, they wound. Therefore I wish +His Majesty would not jest. Especially about Parliaments and the +navy. People are apt not to see the wit of being called 'cats,' or +'water-rats,' or 'mongrel.' They only feel the sting. + +"_March_.--The Scottish General Leslie has led an army over the +Borders. Traitor! When the king was so gracious as to create him +Earl of Leven but a few years since. Oh, faithless Scottish men! +Infatuated by a thing they call Presbytery, and treacherous to their +compatriot and anointed king! + +"_June_, 1644.--Another summer within the walls of this old city. +Another summer away from the woods at home. I am tempted sometimes +to wish the war would end in any way. Politics perplex me more and +more. So many people wishing the same thing, for contrary reasons. +So many people wishing contrary things for the same reasons. So many +on our side whom one hates; so many against us whom we honour. The +best men doing the worst mischief by beginning the strife; and then +dying, or doubting, and giving place to the worst men, who finish +it--if ever it is to be finished. Hampden gone, and Lord Falkland; +and the names one hears most of now, Prince Rupert and this Oliver +Cromwell. They call him General now. What next? A country +gentleman, none of the most notable or of the greatest condition, +eking out his farming, some way, with brewing ale, at Huntingdon, +until he was forty-two--and at forty-five, forsooth, General +Cromwell, with men of condition capping to receive his orders. A +fanatic, moreover, who preaches in the open-air to his men between +the battles. + +"A cheerful life for Roger Drayton, methinks! For commander, this +fanatic brewer; for comrades, preaching tailors and fighting +cobblers; for recreation, General Cromwell's sermons; and for martial +music, Sir Launcelot says, Puritan Psalms, entoned pathetically +through the nose. A change for Roger Drayton from Mr. Milton's +organ-playing, or the madrigals we sang at Netherby. And yet I +question whether our Harry would not find even that doleful Puritan +music more to his taste than many a mocking Cavalier ditty wherewith +our men entertain themselves. The times are grave enough, and I +doubt sometimes but the Puritan music suits them best. + +"_July_ 20.--Terrible tidings, if true. Lord Newcastle and Prince +Rupert defeated at Marston Moor, on the 2nd of July, by the Earl of +Manchester and Cromwell. A hundred colours taken, and all the +baggage; the royal army scattered in all directions. And ten days +afterwards, York surrendered. Loyal York, in the heart of the loyal +North, His Majesty's first retreat from his faithless capital! + +"Strange that men speak more of Oliver Cromwell than of the Earl of +Manchester in this battle. Strange, if it is true, as some say, that +this firebrand was already in a ship bound for flight to America a +few years since, when the king forbade him to go. My Father says, +however, that the man who really won the victory for the Parliament +was Prince Rupert, who, saith he, is no general, but a mere reckless +chief of foraging-parties. It was he who hurried the Marquis of +Newcastle into battle, against his judgment. And now it is reported +that my Lord Newcastle, despairing of himself, with such associates +(or of the cause with such leaders), has taken ship for France. I +would it were the Palatine princes instead. Their standard was taken +at Marston Moor. + +"Three of my brothers were there; one wounded, but not severely; the +other two have gone northward we know not where. + +"Harry is much with us, being about the king's person. He will have +nothing to do with the prince's plundering parties. But he chafes at +having missed this battle, and is eager for the king to go westward +to inspire and reward loyal Devon and Cornwall by his presence, and +to pursue my Lord Essex, who has gone thither with the rebel forces. + +"_August_.--The queen embarked on the 14th of July for France. I +marvel she can bear to put the seas between her and the king at such +times as these. But my Mother says she could not help it, and +sacrifices herself most, and most to the purpose, by taking off the +burden, of her safety from His Majesty, and going among her royal +kindred, whom she may stir up to fight. And indeed she did essay to +rejoin the king. After the birth of the little princess at Exeter, +she asked my Lord Essex for a safe-conduct to the Bath to drink the +waters; but he offered her instead a safe-conduct to London, 'where,' +quoth he, 'she would find the best physicians.' A sorry jest I deem +this, inviting her to run into the very den of the disloyal +parliament, which lately dared to 'impeach' her. + +"Rebel galleys followed her from Torbay, but she escaped safe to +Brest, and I trow the king's affection for her is so true he had +rather know her safe than have her with him. Yet, methinks, in her +case I would not have left it to him to decide. The more one I so +loved cared for my welfare and safety, the more I would delight to +risk and dare all. + +"_August_.--They are off to the West, the faithful West--the king, +and my Father, and Harry, with an army enthusiastical in their +loyalty, and high in hope and courage. Prince Rupert not with them, +and Oliver Cromwell not with the rebels. Surely there must be great +things done! + +"_September_.--The glorious news has come:-- + +"Lord Essex's army is ruined, gone, vanished. Not routed in a hard +fight, but steadily pursued to Fowey, in a corner of loyal Cornwall, +there cooped up ingloriously, closer and closer, until the general +was fain to flee by sea, and the whole of the foot had to surrender. +The cavalry, indeed, fought their way through, which, being +Englishmen, I excuse them. But never was ruin more complete. + +"Harry writes from Tavistock, where His Majesty has retired, a small +town nestled among wooded hills at the foot of the wild moors, Mr. +Pym was member for it; nevertheless the place seems not ill-disposed. + +"_November_.--Harry is with us. I have never seen him so in spirits +since the war began. + +"The royal army received a slight check at Newbury, a place fatal +already with the blood of the brave Lord Falkland. + +"But Harry seems to think nothing of that in comparison with the +state of things this battle hath revealed among the rebels. +Rebellion, saith he, is at last obeying its own laws, and crumbling +away by its own inherent disorganization. + +"After the second battle of Newbury the quiet of our life was +effectually broken by a threatened attack on Oxford. + +"Artillery booming at our gates, bullets falling in our streets. At +last I had a little taste of real war. I did not altogether dislike +it. There was something that made my heart beat firmer in the +thought of sharing my brothers' and my Father's danger. But then, I +must confess, it did not come very near. The walls were still +between us and the enemy. After a short cannonading the rebels drew +off, from a cause, Harry says, worth us many victories. Lord Essex +and Sir William Waller, their two generals, could not agree, and +between them the attack on Oxford was abandoned; and what was more, +the king, who was encamped outside the city, with a force in numbers +quite unequal to cope with their combined forces, was suffered to +retreat without a blow to Worcester. + +"But better than all. Harry says the rebel generals are assailing +each other with all kinds of reproaches in the Parliament, accusing +each other as the cause of all the late failures. Lord Essex, Lord +Manchester, and Sir William Waller, none of them cordially uniting +with each other against us, but all most cordially uniting in +assailing Oliver Cromwell, who is the only one among them we have +cause to dread. And to complete the mêlée, the Scotch preachers are +having their say in the matter, and solemnly accuse Mr. Cromwell of +being an 'Incendiary!' + +"Which is quite plain to us he is. So that now, when the +Incendiaries themselves have set about to fight each other, and to +put out the flames, it is probable the arson will be avenged, the +flames _will_ be put out, and we quiet and loyal subjects shall have +nothing left to do but to rebuild the ruins. + +"Then we will try to say as little as we can about who began the +mischief, and only see who can work best in repairing it. + +"The King and the Parliament throughout the land, and the Draytons +and the Davenants at dear old Netherby." + + +OLIVE'S RECOLLECTIONS. + +At the end of July, 1644, we had a letter from Roger:-- + +"_Marston Moor, July_ 3_d._--To my dear sister Mistress Olive +Drayton.--On the battle-field. A messenger going south will take +these. + +"Thank God we are here this day. And the enemy is not here, but +flying right and left, over moor and mountain. No such victory has +been vouchsafed us before. + +"Yesterday, the 2nd July, early in the morning, we were moving off +the ground--Lord Manchester, General Leslie, and General Cromwell. + +"Prince Rupert had gallantly thrown provisions into York, which we +were beleaguering; but the generals thought he would not venture an +attack on our combined forces. + +"But when we were fairly in order of march the prince fell on our +rear. + +"It took us till three in the day to face round, front them, and +secure the position we wanted. There is a rye field here with a +ditch in front, where the dead bear witness how we had to fight for +it. + +"At three, Prince Rupert gave their battle-cry: '_For God and the +king;_' and we ours: '_God with us._' From three till five we +pounded each other with the great guns. But little impression was +made on either side. And at five there was a pause. Two hours' +silence, confronting each other, from five to seven. Such silence as +may be where many are wounded, and many are waiting in agonies for +the summons to die, while the rest were waiting for the summons to +charge. At last, at seven, it came. + +"Our foot, under Lord Manchester, ran across the ditch before that +rye field for which they had fought so hard. Thus far was clear to +all. The rest we know only from comparing what we did, and seeing +what we had done afterwards. For immediately on the attack of the +foot came the charges of the horse. The left wing of the king's army +on our right they all but routed, driving the Lord Manchester, Lord +Fairfax, and the old veteran Leslie from the field. Meantime our +right--that is, we, the Ironsides with the general--charged their +left. We were not beaten. I trust we gave him no reason to be +ashamed of us. But everywhere the fighting was hard. Having +discharged our pistols, we flung them from us and fell to it with +swords. Then came the shock, like two seas meeting, each man +encountering the foe before him, but few knowing how the day was +speeding elsewhere, till we found ourselves with the whole front of +the battle changed, each victorious wing having wheeled round as they +fought, and standing where the enemy had stood when the fight began. +Then came up General Cromwell's reserves with General Leslie's, and +decided the day, sending Prince Rupert and his plunderers flying +headlong through the gathering dusk. It was the first time they had +encountered the Ironsides. Their broken horse trampled, as they +fled, on the broken and flying foot, we spurring after them, till +within a mile of York. Arms, ammunition, baggage, colours, all cast +away in the mad terror of the flight. To within a mile from York we +followed them, and then turned back, and slept on the battle-field. + +"Another silence, Olive; not as before, in expectation of another +fight, but with our work done, and four thousand dead around us to be +buried. + +"Job Forster is safe, and would have you tell Rachel that the Lord +has sent Israel a judge at last, and all must go right now. + +"He went about with Dr. Antony all night, seeing to the wounded and +the dying. + +"When I awoke, the summer morning was shining on the field, and I +wondered how I could have slept with all those sights and sounds +around me. But, thank God, I did, for there is more to be done yet. +York has to be taken. + +"Tell Rachel, by using my military authority, I got Job to lie down +in my place, while I went round with Dr. Antony. At first he +wavered. But I said: 'The general is sharp on any of us who neglect +our arms or powder. And the body has to be looked to as well as the +powder.' Whereon he lay down in my cloak, and in a minute was beyond +the reach of any rousing, short of a cannonade. + +"_N.B._--Two young Davenants fought well a few yards from me; +scarcely more than lads. + +"God grant we gained yesterday a step towards peace." + +A fortnight after, another letter, dated:-- + +"_York, the_ 15_th July_.--York has surrendered. The North is ours. +This moment returned from a thanksgiving in the minster. The +grandest music of the organ scarce, I think, could have echoed more +solemnly among the old roofs and arches than that psalm, sung by the +thousands of rough soldiers' voices. King David was a soldier, and +knew how to make such psalms as soldiers need. Nor do I think the +old minster has often seen a congregation more serious and devout. +If some on the Cavalier side had heard it, they could scarce have +said afterwards, our Puritan religion lacked its solemnities. Our +solemnities begin indeed within; but when the tide of devotion is +high and deep enough, no music like that it makes in overflowing." + + +To Roger, as to any one borne on the chariot of the sun, the whole +world seemed full of light. To us, however, meanwhile in the Fens, +things seemed verging more and more from twilight into night. + +Not much more than a month after the letter of Roger's concerning the +surrender of York, came tidings which, it seemed to us, more than +counterbalanced these advantages. + +The royal letter post, lately established on the great North Road +between London and Edinburgh, and southward between London and +Plymouth, had been interrupted during the war. Netherby lay in the +line of one of the more recent branch-posts; and we missed at first +the pleasant sound of the horn which the postman was commanded to +blow four times every hour, besides at the posting-stations. + +At first Aunt Dorothy had rather rejoiced. She had been wont to say +it was a grievous interference with the liberty of the subject, that +we should be compelled to send all our letters by the hands of the +king's messengers, instead of by any private carrier we chose. And, +moreover, she deemed it highly derogatory to His Majesty to demean +himself to take a few pence each letter for such services. But a few +months of return to the old private method, with all its +uncertainties and suspenses, made her receive the public posts again +as a boon, when the Commonwealth government re-established them. + +It was from Dr. Antony, therefore, that we first heard the tidings of +the Lord Essex's flight from Fowey, and the ruin of his whole army. + +This was not until November. + +He brought two letters from my Father and Roger. My Father's was +sad; Roger's was indignant. Both spoke of divisions among the +supporters of the Parliament. They were written at different times, +but reached us together by Dr. Antony's hand as the first safe +opportunity. The first was from Roger, dated late in September, +speaking of the surrender of Lord Essex's foot:--"Marston Moor with +the four thousand that lie dead there," he wrote, "was after all, it +seems, not a step towards the end. Everything gained there is thrown +away again by the indecisions of noblemen who are afraid to win too +much; and old soldiers who will not move a finger except in the +fashion some one else moved it a hundred years ago. As if when war +is once begun, there were any way to peace but by the ruin of one +party, except, indeed, by the ruin of both; as if a lingering war +were a kind of half peace, instead of being as it is, the worst of +wars; the opening of the nation's veins at a thousand points, whereby +she slowly bleeds to death. Lieutenant-General Cromwell takes sadly +to heart the sad conditions of our army in the West. He saith, had +we wings we would fly thither. Indeed, wings he hath at command, in +the hearts of his men, 'never so cheerful,' he says, 'as when there +is work to do.' But there are those whose chief business is to clip +these wings, lest affairs fly too fast. The general saith, 'If we +could all intend our own ends less, and our ease too, our business in +this army would go on wheels for expedition.' If he were at the head +of affairs, we should not, in sooth, lack wheels or wrings." + + +The second letter was from my Father written early in November, after +the second battle of Newbury (fought on the 27th of October). + +He wrote,-- + +"It is the old story, I fear, of our Protestant lack of unity. +People do not seem able to see that the military unity of the Roman +Church being broken, the only ecclesiastical unity possible for us is +the unity as of an empire, like that of Great Britain, with different +races and local constitutions under one sovereign; or the unity as of +a family of grown-up children, in free obedience to one father. If +Lutherans and Calvinists could have merged their lesser differences +in their real agreement, probably that terrible war, which is still +crushing the life out of Germany, need never have begun. If +Prelatists, Presbyterians, and Independents could agree now to yield +each other liberty, this war of ours might end. But while they had +power, Prelatists would rather let the nation be torn asunder than +tolerate Presbyterians. And now the Presbyterians think they have +power, they had rather lose everything we have gained than tolerate +Independents. The merit of the Independents and Anabaptists being, +perhaps, only this, that they never have had the power to persecute. +I cannot see whither it is all tending. + +"We have lost an army in Cornwall; but that is little. It seems to +me some of us are losing all hold of what we are fighting for. This +success at Newbury shows our weakness more than the ruin at Fowey. +Lord Manchester will not pursue the king, lest our last army should +be lost; in which case, he says, His Majesty might hang us all. As +if the block or the gallows had not been the alternative of success +from the beginning. In consequence of a disagreement between him and +Sir William Waller, the combined attack on Oxford failed; and eleven +days after our success at Newbury, His Majesty's troops were suffered +quietly to withdraw their artillery from Donington Castle, in face of +our victorious army lying inactive. + +"The indignation in the army is unbounded. But all minor divisions +bid fair to resolve themselves into two great factions of +Presbyterians and Independents; Lieutenant-General Cromwell having +addressed a remonstrance to the Parliament against Lord Manchester, +and Lord Manchester, Lord Essex, and Hollis, with the Scotch +Commissioners, being set on crushing General Cromwell. + +"The quarrel is of no new origin. The affair of Donington Castle did +but set the tinder to the train. It dates back to the first setting +of the Westminster Assembly, when the Presbyterians, not content with +absorbing the Church revenues, which would have been conceded to +them, would have had the magistrate imprison and confiscate the goods +of all whom they excommunicated. 'Toleration,' said one of them, +'will make the kingdom a chaos, a Babel, another Amsterdam, a Sodom, +an Egypt, a Babylon. Toleration is the grand work of the devil; his +masterpiece and chief engine to support his tottering kingdom. It is +the most compendious, ready, sure way to destroy all religion, lay +all waste, and bring in all evil. As original sin is the fundamental +sin, having the seed and spawn of all sin in it, so toleration hath +all errors in it and all evils.' They call toleration the 'great +Diana of the Independents.' Yet no one contends for toleration to +extend beyond the orthodox Protestant sects. These divisions set +many of us thinking what we are fighting for. It would be scarcely +worth so much blood-shedding to establish one hundred and twenty +popes at Westminster, instead of one at Lambeth. They are golden +words of General Cromwell's: 'All that believe have the real unity, +which is most glorious, because inward and spiritual, in the Body and +to the Head. For being united in forms, every Christian will, for +peace' sake, study and do, as far as conscience will permit. And for +brethren, in things of the mind, we look for no compulsion but that +of light and reason.'" + +"What does my brother mean, Master Antony?" quoth Aunt Dorothy, when +she came to this passage. "And what doth General Cromwell mean? 'No +compulsion!' and 'light and reason!' Most dangerous words. An +assembly of godly divines at Westminster to settle everything! That +is precisely what we have been fighting for. Not for disorder; not +for each man to think what is right in his own judgment, and do what +is right in his own eyes. But for those who believe right to have +the power to instruct, or else to silence, those who believe wrong. +Light and reason indeed! The cry of all the heretics from the +beginning. Why, reason is the very source of all error. And light +is precisely what we lack, and what the Westminster Assembly is +providing for us; and when they have just kindled it, and set it up +like a city on a hill, does Mr. Cromwell, forsooth, think we are +going to let every tinker and tailor kindle his farthing candle +instead, and lead people into any wilderness he pleases?" + +Said Dr. Antony,-- + +"There was a great light enkindled and set up on a Sorrowful Hill +sixteen hundred years ago. But it has only enlightened the hearts of +those who would look at it. And if the Sun does not put out these +poor farthing candles, Mistress Dorothy, I am afraid we shall find it +a hard matter to do so with our fingers." + +"Well," said Aunt Dorothy, "I am sure I cannot see whither things are +tending." + +And even Aunt Gretel remarked,-- + +"That Independents and Presbyterians should agree might indeed be +easy enough. But Lutherans and Calvinists are quite another +question. In the next world--well, it is to be hoped. Death works +miracles. But in this, scarcely. The dear brother-in-law is one of +the wisest of men. But it cannot be expected that the wisest +Englishman should quite fathom the religious differences of Germany." + +Of toleration towards Papists, Infidels, or Quakers, no one dreamed. +Infidelity, all admitted, comes direct from the devil, and, of +course, no Christian should tolerate the devil or his works. The +Papists had within the memory of our older men sent fetters to bind +us, and fagots to burn us in the Armada, which the winds of God +scattered from our coasts. In France they had massacred our brethren +in cold-blood to the number of one hundred thousand in the slaughter +which began on St. Bartholomew's day. They had assassinated our +kindred by tens of thousands in Ireland in our own times. And they +were binding, and burning, and torturing, and making galley-slaves of +our brethren still on the Continent of Europe. Not as heretics we +kept them under, but as rebels. And as to the Quakers, they were +reported to be liable to attacks of objections to clothes very +perplexing to sober-minded Christians, and were probably many of them +lunatics. These should not indeed be burned, but they should at all +events be clothed, and, if possible, silenced, until they came to +their right mind. + +The third letter which Dr. Antony had brought us was from Job +Forster. I went with Dr. Antony to take it to Rachel. In it Job +spoke much of Roger's courage and goodness, in a way it made my heart +beat quick to hear. + +"Master Roger fights like a lion-like man of Judah," wrote Job, "and +commands like one of the chief princes. And at other times he can +tend a wounded man, friend or foe, or speak good words to the dying, +most as tender, Rachel, as thee." + +Job's letter was by no means doubtful or desponding. He had the +advantage of those in the ranks. He saw only the rank and the step +immediately before him, and heard not the discussions of the +commanders but only the word of command. "I think," he concluded, +"we have come about to 1 Sam. xxii. 14. Some time back we were in 1 +Sam. xxii. 1, in cave Adullam: 'Every one that was in debt, and every +one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto them,' and a +sorry troop they were. But that is over. The General saith himself: +'I have a lovely company; honest, sober Christians; you would respect +them did you know them.' And respect us they do; leastways the +enemy. And now David (that is, General Cromwell) is in Keilah. And +they inquired of the Lord and the Lord said, 'They will deliver thee +up.' _But God delivered him not_. The rest has to come in its +season." + +Job wrote also of "the young gentleman the chirurgeon." "Of as good +a courage as the best," quoth Job. "For I hold it harder to stand +about among the whizzing bullets, succouring or removing the wounded +than to fight. It is always harder to stand fire than to charge. +And it is harder to spend days and nights tending poor groaning +suffering men than to suffer yourself. That is, if you have got a +heart. Which that doctor hath. But every man hath his calling. And +Dr. Antony hath his. Straight from headquarters, as I deem." + +It was curious that what struck me first in those words of Job's was +his calling Dr. Antony "young." It set me wondering what his age +might be; and as we walked home together I glanced at him to see. I +had always thought of him as my Father's friend, and therefore of +another generation. Besides there was the doctor's cap, and a +physician is always, _ex officio_, an elder. But when I came to +consider his face, it had certainly nothing of old age in it. His +carriage was erect and easy; his hair, raven-black, had not a streak +of gray; his eyes, dark as they were, had fire enough in them. These +researches scarce took me a moment, but his eyes met mine, and it +seemed as if he half guessed what I was thinking of, for he said,-- + +"You wondered at Job's talking of the courage of a chirurgeon." + +"Not at all," said I, somewhat confused. "I was only thinking how it +was you were always our Father's friend instead of ours." + +"Was I not yours?" he said, half smiling. + +"Oh, yes, of course," I said, "every one's." + +"Every one's, Mistress Olive," he said inquiringly, "only, not yours?" + +"Mine, of course," I said, feeling myself becoming hopelessly +entangled, "and every one's besides." + +"Thank you," he said, gravely, "I should not have liked the exchange." + +"Is it easier, do you think, Dr. Antony," I said, breaking hurriedly +from the subject, "to fight, than to be a chirurgeon on the +battle-field?" + +"Easier, probably, to me," he said. "Fighting is in our blood. My +grandfather was a soldier, and fought in the French wars of religion. +He was assassinated at the St. Bartholomew with Coligny. My father, +then a child, was seized, baptized, and educated in a Catholic +seminary. But he escaped, at the risk of his life, to England. In +France we had enough of wars of religion. I have thought it better +work to devote myself as far as I may to succour the oppressed, and +heal such as can be healed of the wounds and sorrows of men. There +is enough of danger and of warfare in these days in such a calling to +satisfy a soldier's passion, and not to let the blood stagnate or +grow cold." + +There was a subdued fire in his eye and a deep sonorous ring in his +voice, which gave force to his words. + +"But Antony is not a French name," I said. + +"It was my father's Christian name, which he adopted for safety. His +name was properly Antoine la Mothe Duplessis, from an estate our +family had held for some centuries. But, Mistress Olive," he said, +turning the discourse, as if it led to painful subjects, or as if he +shrank from continuing on a theme so unusual with him as himself, "I +understand you are accused of upholding witches." + +Whereby I was led into an earnest defence of Gammer Grindle. + +"But even if she had been a witch," I ventured to say, in conclusion, +"would it not have been more like the Sermon on the Mount to rescue +and then to instruct her, than to drown her? And is not the Sermon +on the Mount the highest law we have?" + +"It is the last edition of the Divine law yet issued, Mistress +Olive," he said. "And one great glory of it is, it seems to me, that +it is not only so plain itself as to need no commentary of lawyer or +scribe, but if we try to keep it, it has a wonderful power of making +other things plain as we go on." + +At which point we reached the porch at Netherby. + +Said Aunt Dorothy, as Dr. Antony was taking leave the next day,-- + +"You must not trouble yourself to be our letter-carrier. Less useful +men can be spared on such errands. I wonder my brother should have +burdened you therewith." + +"I thank you, Mistress Dorothy," said he; "but it was my free choice +to come. And I promise you I will only come when it is no burden." + +Said she, holding his hand,-- + +"Pardon me; but I am old enough to be your mother. Suffer an aged +woman to warn you against new-fangled notions. Beware of 'light' and +'reason,' prithee, and such presumptuous pleas. The light that is in +us is darkness, and our reason is corrupt. The spiritual armour your +fathers fought in Master Antony, is proof still." + +"I believe it, Mistress Dorothy," he replied; "and if in new times +and in new dangers I should need new weapons, believe me, I will only +go to my fathers' armoury for them." + +I was provoked with myself when he had left, that of all the wise +discourse that had been held since he came, the things that kept +recurring to my mind were what Job had said of Dr. Antony, and how +foolish I had been in the answers I gave him on our way home from +Rachel's. He must deem me so unmannerly, I thought. And, besides, +so many fitting things now occurred which I might have said. Nothing +occupies one like a conversation in which one has failed to say what +one ought to have said. It haunts one like a melody of which you +cannot find the end. + +It was evident, moreover, that Aunt Dorothy took the same view of Dr. +Antony's age as Job. It made Dr. Antony seem like some one quite +new, to think of this; new, and yet certainly not strange. + +The next Christmas, the army being in winter-quarters, my Father +spent with us, which made it a holiday indeed. + +In February, 1645, he read us a letter which Dr. Antony wrote to him, +narrating what was going on in London. At the beginning there was a +considerable piece which he did not read to us. He said it related +to family matters, which he could speak of hereafter, and contained +greetings to us. Thus the letter proceeded--it was dated January +21st, 1645: + +"Sir Thomas Fairfax is this day appointed by the Commons' House +general-in-chief, in lieu of Lord Essex; Skipton major-general; while +the post of lieutenant-general is _left open_. Most men deem that he +who fills it will fill _more than it_, as his name and fame now fill +all men's mouths. There have been fierce debates, whisperings, +conspirings, mysterious midnight meetings at Essex House: the aim of +the whole of these conspirings, the bond of all these gatherings, +being to 'remove out of the way General-Lieutenant Cromwell, whom,' +said the Scottish Commissioners, 'ye ken very weel is no friend of +ours.' This 'obstacle,' this '_remora_' this 'INCENDIARY,' as they +called him (soaring high into Latin in their vain endeavours to find +words lofty enough to express their abhorrence), had hundreds of +grave English and Scottish Presbyterian divines, soldiers and +lawyers, been labouring for months to remove out of the way; yet, +nevertheless, on the 9th of December, there he stood in the Commons' +House, as immovable an obstacle and '_remora_' as ever, and about to +prove himself an 'Incendiary' indeed by kindling a flame which should +consume their eloquent Latin accusations and their authority at once. + +"There was a long silence in the House. General Cromwell broke it, +speaking abruptly, and not in Latin. + +"'It is now a time to speak,' he said, 'or for ever hold the tongue. +The important occasion now is no less than to save a nation out of a +bleeding, nay, almost dying condition, which the long continuance of +this war hath already brought it into; so that without a more speedy, +vigorous, effectual prosecution of the war--casting off all lingering +proceedings like those of soldiers of fortune beyond sea to spin out +a war--we shall make the kingdom weary of us, and hate the name of a +Parliament. + +"'For what do the enemy say? Nay, what do many that were friends at +the beginning of the Parliament? Even this, that the members of both +Houses have got great places and commands, and the sword into their +hands, and what by interest in Parliament, what by power in the army, +will perpetually continue themselves in grandeur, and not permit the +war speedily to end, lest their own power should determine with it. +This that I speak here to our own faces, is but what others do utter +abroad behind our backs. I am far from reflecting on any. I know +the worth of those commanders. Members of both Houses who are still +in power; but if I may speak my conscience without reflection on any, +I do conceive if the army is not put into another method, and the war +more vigorously prosecuted, the people can bear the war no longer, +and will enforce you to a dishonourable peace. + +"'But this I would recommend to your prudence. Not to insist upon +any complaint or oversight of any commander-in-chief upon any +occasion whatsoever, for as I must acknowledge myself guilty of +oversights, so I know they can rarely be avoided in military affairs. +Therefore, waiving a strict inquiry into the issues of these things, +let us apply ourselves to the remedy, which is most necessary. And I +hope we have such true English hearts, and zealous affections towards +the general weal of our mother-country, as no members of either House +will scruple to _deny_ themselves and their own private interests for +the public good, nor account it to be a dishonour done to them, +whatever the Parliament shall resolve upon in this weighty matter.' + +"Another member followed and said,-- + +"'Whatever be the cause, two summers are passed over, but we are not +saved. Our victories (the price of blood invaluable) so gallantly +gotten, and (which is more pity) so graciously bestowed, seem to have +been put into a bag with holes; what we won one time, we lost +another; the treasure is exhausted, the country wasted, a summer's +victory has proved but a winter's story; the game, however, shut up +with autumn, was to be played again the next spring, as if the blood +that had been shed were only to manure the field of war for a more +plentiful crop of contention. Men's hearts have failed them with the +observation of these things.' + +"The cause General Cromwell deemed to be the multiplication of +commanders. The remedy, that members of both Houses should _deny +themselves_ the right to appoint _themselves_ to posts of military +command. The 'Self-Denying Ordinance' and the 'New Model' of the +army were proposed, and soon passed the House of Commons. The Lords +debated and rejected it; but this day the Commons have appointed Sir +Thomas Fairfax commander-in-chief, superseding Lord Essex. And few +doubt but they will carry it through. + +"Thus may, we trust, a few vigorous strokes bring peace; and peace, +order. + +"But meanwhile, during these dark January days, another conflict has +ended; on Tower Hill. + +"The fallen archbishop, whose name was a terror for so many years in +every Puritan home in England, there, on this 10th of January, laid +down his life heroically and calmly as a martyr, which he surely +believed himself to be. He read a prayer he had composed for the +occasion. I grieve to say, the scaffold was crowded, not with his +friends. He said he would have wished an empty scaffold, but if it +could not be so, God's will be done; he was more willing to go out of +the world than any could be to send him. A helpless, forsaken old +man, heavily laden with bodily infirmities, four years a prisoner, +uneasily dragged from trial to trial, I never heard that his courage +failed. I would they had let him die in quiet. But Sir John +Clotworthy, over zealous, as I think, asked him what text was most +comfortable to a man in his departure. 'Cupio dissolviet esse cum +Christo,' said the archbishop. 'That is a good desire,' was the +rejoinder; 'but there must be a foundation for that desire, an +assurance.' 'No man can express it,' was the calm reply, 'it must be +found within.' 'Yet it is founded on a word, and that word should be +known.' 'It is the knowledge of Jesus Christ,' said the archbishop, +'and that alone;' and to finish the discussion, he turned to the +headsman, gave him some money, and said, 'Here, honest friend, God +forgive thee, and do thy office on me in mercy;' and so, after a +short prayer, his head was struck off at one blow. The crowd +dispersed, and the fatal hill was left once more silent and deserted, +with the scaffold and the Tower facing each other, the weary prison +of so many, and the blood-stained key, which had for so many unbarred +its heavy gates, and also, we may trust, another gate, from inside +which our whole earth seems but a prison chamber. + +"If we look at the world only as divided into _parties_, truly this +death of his were worth to those who think with him, more than many +victories in Parliament or in the field. But if we think of the One +Kingdom, surely we may rejoice that one who, as it seems to us, erred +much in head and heart, and did no little hurt, came right at last, +and took refuge with Him who receives us not as Archbishops, or +Presbyterians or Independents, but as repentant, weary, and +heavy-laden men and women. + +"Some few friends reverently buried him in Barking Church to the +words of the old burial-service, prohibited by the Parliament a few +days before. All honour to them." + +Said Aunt Gretel, when my Father had finished reading this letter,-- + +"It is a great pity the martyrs should not all be on the right side. +It would make it so very much easier to know which is the right." + +"Martyrs on the wrong side," exclaimed Aunt Dorothy, indignantly; +"you might as well talk of orthodox heretics." + +But my Father replied,-- + +"If obedience is better than sacrifice, then obedience is the best +part of the sacrifice of martyrdom; and may we not trust that the +Master may accept the act of obedience even of some who misread the +word of command?" + +The next day he left us for London, and we saw him no more for many +months. + +On the 29th of January, commissioners of the Parliament and of the +king met at Uxbridge to negotiate for peace. But they did not get on +at all. Dr. Stewart syllogistically defended the divine right of +Episcopacy, and Dr. Henderson the divine right of the Presbyterial +government. My Lord Hertford and my Lord Pembroke would have passed +this by, to proceed to the particular points to be settled; but the +divines declined to be hurried, insisting on disputing +syllogistically "as became scholars." So, after twenty days, Dr. +Stewart and Dr. Henderson, being each confirmed in their conviction +of his own orthodoxy, the commissioners separated with no further +result. + +One evening, indeed, it is said, the king had consented to honourable +terms; but in the night a letter came from Montrose announcing +Royalist victories, and in the morning His Majesty retracted the +concessions of the evening. + +Meanwhile the two armies continued fighting; not in two large bodies, +but in scattered skirmishes, sieges, surprises, all over the country, +making well-nigh every quiet home in England a sharer in the misery +and tumult of the war. + +The moral difference between the forces of the Parliament and the +king became, it was said, more obvious. It could scarce be +otherwise. War must make men firmer in virtues or more desperate in +sin. Men must get less and less human with years of plundering, and +indulgence in every selfish sinful pleasure. No good woman durst +venture near the Royalist army, my Father said, and vice and +profaneness were scarcely punished; whereas in the Parliament camp, +as in a well-ordered city, passage was safe, and traffic free. It +was the armies of the great Gustavus and that of Wallenstein over +again. I think it would be blasphemy to deem such differences can +have no weight in a world where God is King. + +I wonder if it can be that, after all, it leads to more good to fight +out the great battles of right and wrong in this way, than +syllogistically, in Dr. Stewart and Dr. Henderson's way. The logical +battles making good men fierce, and not hurting the bad at all; the +battles for life and death making good men nobler, at all events, +even if they make the bad men worse. Making good men better seems +the end of so many things that God permits or orders in this world. +And as to making bad men worse, it seems as if that could not be +helped, because everything does that until they change the direction +they are going in, which great troubles and dangers sometimes startle +them to do. If this be so, the pain and misery and death would cease +to be so perplexing. Aunt Dorothy used to say, a Church without a +rod in her hand is a Church without sinews. But a Church with a rod +seems sometimes as blind and severe in using it as the world. For +which reason, I suppose, the best periods of Church history seem +often to be those in which the world holds the rod instead of the +Church. And a war may sometimes be as effectual an instrument of +godly discipline as a synod. + + +LETTICE'S DIARY. + +"_June_ 14_th_, 1645, _Davenant Hall, Three o'clock in the +morning_.--We came home yesterday, and I grudge to sleep away any of +these first hours in the old house. It is like travelling into some +marvellous foreign country, to rise at an unwonted hour in the +morning. The sky looks so much higher before the roof of daylight +has quite spread over it. For after all, daylight is a roof shutting +us in to our own green sunny home of earth. And that is partly what +makes the night so awful. We stand roofless at night, open to all +the other worlds, with no walls or bounds on any side. And at dawn +something of the boundlessness and awfulness are still left. With a +majestical slow pomp the morning sweeps the veil of sunlight over +star after star, falling in grand solemn folds of purple and crimson +as it touches the edge of our world, until the great spaces of the +upper worlds are all shut out, and we are shut in with our own kindly +sun, and our own many-coloured fleeting clouds, and our own green +earth. + +"Then the other aspect of the dawn begins. Her first steps and +movements are all grand and silent. But when the awful infinity +beyond is shut out, and we are left alone, face to face with her, she +changes altogether. + +"The stars pass away in silence. But the day awakes with all kinds +of joyful sounds. The clouds are transformed from solemn purple +banners in some great martial or sacred procession to royal or bridal +draperies. They garland the earth with roses, they strew pearls and +diamonds; they spread the path of the new sun with cloth of gold. +The whole world, earth, and sky, seems to blossom into colour, like a +flower from its sheath. Every leaf of the limes outside my window, +every spike of the horse-chestnuts seems to awake with a flutter of +joy. + +"It seems as if infinity came back to us in a new way. For the +infinite spaces of night, we have the infinite numbers of day. +Instead of the heavy masses of foliage waving an hour or two dimly +since against the sky, there is a countless multitude of leaves +fluttering in and out of the sunlight, a countless multitude of birds +singing, chirping, twittering, among the branches, a countless throng +of insects hovering, wheeling, darting in and out among the leaves; +there are the infinite varieties of colour on every blade of grass, +on every blossom, on every insect's wing. + +"It is a wonderful joy to be here again. Every creature seems to +welcome me. I seem to long to speak to every one of them, and just +add a little drop of happiness to the happiness of them all. I want +to take all of them, in some way, like little children, to my heart +and kiss them. + +"Olive said that feeling was really the longing to be folded to the +Heart which is at the heart of all; but nearer us than any other +creature. + +"'_He fell on his neck and kissed him_.' + +"She thought it meant something like that. + +"Leaning out of my window, looking down from the slopes of the Wolds, +as we do across the long space of fens which stretches before us like +a sea, I see the gables of Netherby. + +"Olive is there asleep. + +"Olive, and Mistress Dorothy and Mistress Gretel. + +"And here, my mother and I. + +"Fathers and brothers all at the war. In sight, yet how sadly out of +reach! This terrible war that seems as if it would never end. +Things have not been going on quite so prosperously with us lately; +although many strong places in the North are still loyal; and all the +West is ours, and much of Wales. A new vigour seems to have come +into the rebel councils. They say the soul of them all is this +Oliver Cromwell, that he and his friends have brought in some new +regulation, called by some of their unpleasant Parliament names. +They call everything a covenant or an ordinance, as if it were all +out of the Bible. They call this the Self-Denying Ordinance. The +meaning of it seems to be that they are all to deny themselves to +give Mr. Cromwell the real command. At least, Harry thinks so. And +he looks gloomily on our affairs. He was at home before we came, to +make the place ready for us. And he only left yesterday morning to +rejoin the king's army, which is in Leicestershire. Not so very far +off. + +"I wonder, if there were a battle, if we should hear the sound of it! + +"A few days since the troops stormed Leicester, and sacked it. Harry +would not tell us much about it. He said it was too much after the +fashion of those dreadful German wars of religion, which Prince +Rupert has taught our men to imitate too well. + +"Poor wretched city! We could not hear anything of that. Groans and +even helpless cries for pity do not reach far. At least, not on +earth. I suppose nothing reaches heaven sooner. + +"I wish that thought had not come into my head about hearing the roar +of a battle if there were one. Since it came, I cannot help +listening, through all the sweet cheerful country-sounds, the +twitterings of the swallows under the eaves, the soft cadences of the +thrushes, the stirring of the grasses, for something in the distance! + +"If we did hear anything, it would be very, very far off, fainter +than the fluttering of the leaves: like the moan of distant thunder. + +"In summer days there are often mysterious, far-off sounds one cannot +account for. And now I can do nothing but listen for it. + +"For almost the last thing Harry said when he went away was, that +there would be a battle, probably, before long, and if a battle, +probably a great battle. + +"The forces are gathering and approaching each other. + +"He took leave of us gayly, my Mother and me. But ten minutes +afterwards, he galloped back to the place in the outer field where I +was standing looking after him (my Mother having gone to be alone, as +she always does when Harry leaves us). His face had lost all the +gaiety, and he said,-- + +"'Lettice, if things were not to prosper with the king, and the +rebels were to attack this house, I think it would be better not +attempt to stand a siege. The house extends too far to be defended, +except with a larger garrison than you could muster. And the country +is against us. If it came to the very worst, Mr. Drayton is a +generous enemy and a gentleman, and would give you safe harbour for a +time. If all on their side or ours had been like the Draytons, there +need have been no war. You may tell them that I said so, if you +like, if it ever comes to that.' + +"'Comes to _what_, Harry?' I said, shuddering. + +"He tried to smile. But then, his countenance suddenly changing, he +said,-- + +"'Lettice, we must think of all possibilities. You are young, and my +Mother is used to lean on others.' + +"'Only on _you_, Harry,' I said. + +"'Yes,' he said, hurriedly; 'too much, perhaps. But trust the +Draytons, if necessary, Lettice. They will never do anything unjust +or ungenerous. If you ask their advice, they will advise you for +your good, though it cut their own throats or broke their own hearts.' + +"Then, after a moment's pause, he said,-- + +"'It is never any good to try to say out a farewell, Lettice. If one +had years to say it in, there would always be something left unsaid. +Partings are always sudden, whether we are snatched from each other +as if by pirates in the dead of night, or watch the lessening sail +till it becomes a speck in the horizon. The last step is always a +plunge into a gulf. But, Lettice,' he added, lowering his voice, +'death itself is not really a gulf, only to those on this edge of it. +Do not tell my Mother I came back. If she asks you anything about +it, tell her I never went away with a lighter heart. For I see less +and less what the end will be, or what to wish for, and I am content +more and more to make the day's march, and leave the conduct of the +campaign to God.' + +"And he rode off, looking like a prince, and I watched him till he +disappeared behind the trees. He looked back once again and waved +his plumed hat to me, and then galloped out of sight in a moment. + +"I crept back by a side-door near the stable, that my Mother might +not see me; and Cæsar, Harry's dog, made a dismal whining, and +crouched and fawned on me, so that it went to my heart not to be able +to grant him what he asked for so plainly in his poor dumb way, and +set him free to follow Harry. + +"_June_ 14, _Ten o'clock at night_.--Some men who came from the North +this evening, say there has been fighting towards the North-west, +somewhere on the borders of Northamptonshire and Leicestershire The +roar of the guns began early in the day, and then there was sharp +interrupted firing, which went on till the afternoon, when it seemed +gradually to cease. + +"All day it has been going on. All this quiet summer day. My Father +there, perhaps, and Harry certainly. And nothing to be heard until +to-morrow. + +"My Mother will not seek rest to-night. I see the lamp in her +oratory-window. And far off across the fields, another light in the +gable of old Netherby, where Olive Drayton used to sleep. It is some +comfort to think we are watching together. Olive is so good. And +she will be sure to remember us. + +"_June_ 20.--We heard before the morrow. The next morning, when the +dawn began to break again, a horseman galloped hastily up to the +door. I was in my mother's room; we were both dressed. We had +neither of us slept. I looked out. It was Roger Drayton. My Mother +sat up on the bed, when I had persuaded her to rest. + +"'I will go down and ask,' I said. + +"'We will go together, Lettice,' said she. + +"Then came a cry from one of the maids. + +"'Perhaps it is poor Margery,' I said. For Margery had come to stay +with us since we returned. It comforted us to keep together, all of +us who had kindred at the field. + +"My Mother shook her head. + +"She knelt down one moment, and drew me down beside her, by the +bedside, heart against heart, and murmured,-- + +"'Thy will, not mine! Oh, help us to say it. For His sake who said +it first.' + +"Then she rose, and with a firm step went down into the hall with me. + +"She held out her hand to Roger when she saw him. + +"His face spoke evil-tidings only too plainly. + +"'There has been a battle,' she said. + +"'At Naseby, Lady Lucy,' he replied. + +"'Was the victory for the king or not?' she asked; unable to utter +the question uppermost on her heart and mine. + +"'There was hard fighting on both sides' he replied. 'The king and +Prince Rupert have gone westward towards Wales.' + +"I could hear that his voice trembled. + +"'Then the king has lost,' she said. 'But it was not to tell us this +you came. Who is hurt?' + +"He hesitated an instant. + +"'It is Harry!' she exclaimed. 'You have come to summon us to him. +Is the wound severe? Is there hope? Can we go to him at once?' + +"There was a pause, and a dreadful irresponsive silence between each +of her questions. He answered only the last,-- + +"'He will be brought to you, Lady Lucy. They are bringing him now.' + +"At once the whole depth of her sorrow opened beneath her. Not an +instant too soon. For the words had scarcely left Roger's lips when +the heavy regular tramp of men bearing a burden echoed through the +silence of the morning outside, and paused at the porch. + +"My Mother took my hand, and led me forward. + +"'He must not come home unwelcomed!' she said. + +"For an instant I feared she had not yet grasped Roger's meaning. +For this awful burden they were bearing was _not Harry_, I knew. No +welcomes would ever greet him more. But I had not fathomed her +sorrow nor her strength. + +"She met the bearers at the door. They stood with uncovered heads, +having laid down what they bore on the stone seat of the porch. They +were mostly old servants of the family. + +"'My friends, I thank you,' she said. 'You have done all you could. +But not there. On the place of honour. He was worthy.' + +"And she motioned them to the dais at the head of the Hall, where the +heads of our house are wont to receive the homage of their retainers. + +"Silently they bore him there, and laid their sacred burden gently +down. She thanked them again for their good service. And then as +silently they withdrew. I saw many a rough hand lifted to brush away +the tears. But she did not weep. She stood motionless, with clasped +hands, beside the bier, and murmured to herself again and again, in a +low voice,-- + +"'He was worthy.' + +"Then, turning with her own sweet, never-forgotten courtesy to Roger, +she held out her hand to him again, and said,-- + +"'You did kindly to come and tell us. He always honoured you.' + +"He held her hand, and said rapidly, as if uncertain of the firmness +of his own voice,-- + +"'I was near him at the last, and he made me promise to see you, or I +could not have dared to come.' + +"She looked up with trembling, parted lips, listening for more. + +"'He made me promise to tell you he had little pain and no fear,' +Roger said, in a low voice. 'And he gave me this for you, and said, +"Tell my mother these words of hers have often helped me to believe, +through all these evil days, that God is living and commanding still. +But, more than all words, tell her my faith in God has been kept +unquenched by the thought of _herself_."' + +"She took the packet from him. It was a little book, with Scriptures +and prayers written in it by her own hand, given to Harry when he was +a boy. On the crimson silk cover she had embroidered for it, was one +stain of a deeper crimson. As she opened it, a little well-worn leaf +dropped out, with a child's prayer on it she had written for him when +first he went to school. + +"When she saw it, the thought of the hero dying on the battle-field +for the good cause vanished, and in its place came the memory of the +little hands clasped on her knees in prayer. + +"And withdrawing her hand from Roger, a sudden quiver passed through +all her frame, and throwing her arms around me, she sobbed,-- + +"'My boy, my boy! O Lettice, it is Harry we have lost! It is our +Harry!' + +"When I looked up again Roger was at the door. It seemed to me, from +the glance he gave he was waiting to say something more. And I +resolved, cost what it might, to hear it. We led my Mother into the +nearest chamber, and then leaving her with the maidens, I went back +to the Hall. + +"Roger was still waiting in the porch. + +"He came forward when he saw me. + +"'Did he say anything more?' I asked. + +"He hesitated an instant. + +"He said, 'The Draytons and the Davenants might have to combat one +another in these evil times, but that we should never distrust each +other, and that he never had distrusted one of us.' + +"He said so to me, the last thing before he left us. I said; 'And +that was all?' + +"'The battle swept on; I had to mount again,' he said, 'and I could +not leave my men.' + +"'You saw him no more,' I said. 'You could not even stay to watch +his last breath!' + +"The moment I had uttered them I felt there was something like +reproach in my words, and I would have recalled them if I could. + +"'I saw him no more until the fighting was over,' he said. 'Then I +came back and found him; and we brought him home. It was all we +could do,' he added; 'and it was little indeed.' + +"'I am sure you did all you could, Roger,' I said; for I feared I had +wounded him. 'I should always be sure you would do all you could for +any of us.' + +"'Should you, indeed!' he said. 'God knows I would.' + +"And there was a tremor and a depth of pleased surprise in his tones +that startled me, and I could not look up. + +"'Would to God I could do anything to comfort Lady Lucy or you,' he +said. + +"'No one can comfort her, Roger,' I said; and the tears I had been +trying to put back choked my voice, 'Harry was everything to her. He +was everything to us all. No one will ever comfort her more.' + +"'_You_ will comfort her, Lettice,' he said, with that quiet +commanding way he has sometimes. 'God gives it you to do; and He +will give you to do it.' + +"And as he ceased speaking, and I went back to my Mother, I felt as +if there were indeed a strength through which I could do anything +that had to be done. + +"_July_ 1.--Sir Launcelot Trevor has come with tidings of my Father +and my brothers. + +"They are in the West, save the two younger, who went across the +Borders after the battle of Marston Moor, and have joined Montrose in +the Scottish Highlands, deeming that the king's cause will best rally +there. + +"The good cause is low; lower than ever before. Soon after that +fatal day at Naseby the town of Bridgewater surrendered to General +Fairfax. + +"Prince Rupert (with such courage as one might expect, I think, from +a chief of plunderers) thereon counselled the king to make peace. +But His Majesty, never so majestic as in adversity, said, 'That +although, as a soldier and a statesman, he saw no prospect but of +ruin, yet, as a Christian, he knew God would never forsake his cause, +and suffer rebels to prosper; that he knew his obligations to be, +both in conscience and honour, neither to abandon God's cause, to +injure his successors, or forsake his friends. Nevertheless, for +himself (he said) he looked for nothing but to die with honour and a +good conscience; and to his friends he had little prospect to offer, +but to die in a good cause, or, what was worse, to live as miserable +in maintaining it as the violence of insulting rebels could make +them.' + +"What promises, or royal orders, could bind men, with any soul in +them, to their sovereign as words like these? Least of all those +who, like us, are bound to the cause by having given up our best for +it. Nothing, my Mother says, makes a thing so precious to us as what +we suffer for it. Indeed, nothing now seems able to kindle her to +anything like life, save aught associated with that sacred cause for +which Harry died. + +"Sir Launcelot saith, moreover, that the rebels have been base enough +to lay bare to the eyes of the common people of London the private +letters from His Majesty to the queen, found in his cabinet on the +field at Naseby. And that these letters contain things which have +even lost the king some old loyal friends. Sorry friendship, indeed, +or loyalty, to be moved by discoveries, made only through treachery +and breach of confidence, which no gentleman would practice to save +his life. + +"But there is one thing Sir Launcelot hinted to me which I dare not +breathe to my Mother. He said there was reason enough why Roger was +near Harry when he fell; for it was by the hand of one of the +Ironsides, beyond doubt, that he died. + +"But never by Roger's hand! Or, if possibly such a curse could have +been suffered to fall on one like Roger, it must have been unknown to +him. Of this I am as sure as of my life. + +"Sir Launcelot said that Roger's hand was wont to be a little too +ready to be raised. Ungenerous of him to say it, and yet too true. +Slowly roused; but once roused, blind to all results. + +"How bitter his vain repentance would be if this terrible thing were +possible, and he once came to know it. + +"How bitter and how vain! + +"But even if it were possible, and he never knew it, but we knew it, +what a gulf from henceforth for ever between us and him! + +"I cannot breathe this to my Mother. And yet, if Sir Launcelot's +fears could have any ground, it would seem a treachery, if ever Roger +came to us again to let her touch in welcome the hand that dealt that +blow! + +"I know not what to do. It is the first perplexity I ever knew in +which I could not fly to her for aid and counsel. + +"What a child I have been. + +"What a child I am! + +"Can it be possible that our Lord thought of His disciples being +perplexed and bewildered at all, as I am, when, just before He went +away, He called them 'little children?' Can it be possible that He +meant, Come to me, as little children to their mother; when you want +wisdom, come to Me!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +OLIVE'S STORY. + +The first trustworthy tidings we had of the battle of Naseby were +from Dr. Antony. I saw him coming hastily across the fields from the +direction of Davenant Hall. + +It was very early in the morning. The village had been stirring +through the previous afternoon with uneasy rumours, and I had not +slept. I was watching the light in the window of Lady Lucy's +oratory, and thinking how she and Lettice had watched there together +that terrible night so long ago, saying collects for Roger, and how +Lettice had hastened to us in the morning, on her white palfrey with +the welcome tidings that Sir Launcelot would recover. And now how +far we were from each other! What a sea between us! Two moats, (the +moonlight was shining on ours just below me,) drawbridges, and +fortifications. But deeper and stronger than all the moats and walls +in the world lay between us the memories of those bitter years of +war, and ever-widening misconception and division. Yet I felt sure +Lettice loved us still. + +And as I was thus looking and thinking, I saw Dr. Antony coming +hastily down the road from the stile which led across the fields to +the Hall, where I had parted from Harry Davenant that night when he +brought the tidings of Lord Strafford's execution, and would not come +in. + +My first impulse was to rush down the stairs and unbar the door. But +many things held me back. A presentiment that the news he brought +might be such as there was no need to fore-date by hurrying to meet +it; an uncomfortable recollection of Job Forster's letter, and of +that conversation in which I had said nothing right. + +I went, therefore, to summon Aunt Dorothy as head of the household. +She had so many preparations to make, that Dr. Antony's hand was on +the great house-bell long before she was ready. Nothing so slow she +said as hurry, besides its being a proof of the impatience of the +flesh. She would even fold up scrupulously the clothes she took off, +faithful to her maxim, that we should always leave everything as if +we might never return to it. + +The bell rang again. + +I went to see if Aunt Gretel was more capable of being hastened. +She, dear soul, was sympathizing, excited, and agitated beyond my +utmost desires, for she could lay her hands on nothing she wanted. +So that I had to return to Aunt Dorothy, who, by that time, was +ready; and feeling how cold and trembling my hand was as she took it +to lead me downstairs, she laid her other on it with an unwonted +demonstration of tenderness, and said,-- + +"Child, we can neither hasten the Lord's steps nor make them linger. +But He will do right." There was strength in her words, but almost +as much to me in the tones, which were tremulous, and in the cold +touch of her hand, which showed that the blood at her heart stood as +still as mine. + +We went down together in time to meet Dr. Antony just as he entered +the Hall. + +My Father was wounded, not dangerously, only so as to render him +incapable of further service in the field, at least at present. His +right arm was broken. Roger was coming home with him. + +I wondered that Dr. Antony seemed so heavy at heart, to bring tidings +which made my heart leap with thankfulness. What could be better +than that Roger was unhurt, and that my Father had received a slight +wound just sufficient to keep him at home with us? + +Then it flashed on me in what direction I had seen him coming. + +"Dr. Antony!" I said, "there is sorrow for the Davenants!" And then +he told us how Harry Davenant had fallen. + +We had little time for bewailing him, for the household had to be +roused, and refreshment and a bed prepared for my Father. + +I had scarce ever seen Roger so cast down as he was about Harry +Davenant's death. One of the noblest gentlemen the king had on his +side, he thought so pure, and true, and brave. If all had been like +him there had been no war, and no need for it. "And," said Roger, "I +always looked for the day to come when Harry Davenant would +understand us. For we were fighting for the same thing, though on +opposite sides--for England and her old laws and liberties; for a +righteous kingdom. And I always thought one day he would see where +it could be found, and where it could _not_." + +Roger could not stay with us long. But before he went, Harry +Davenant was buried, very quietly in the old vault of the Davenants +in Netherby church. + +It was at night, for the liturgy had been abolished six months +before, and was unlawful, and the Vicar risked something in suffering +it to be read even by Lady Lucy's chaplain, as it was. And we +honoured him and Placidia for the venture. Roger had asked to be one +of the bearers. Aunt Gretel, Rachel Forster, and I, waited for them +in the church-porch. Slowly through the silent summer-night came the +heavy tramp of the bearers, until they paused and laid their burden +down under the old Lych Gate. Then, while they came up the +churchyard, we crept quietly back into the church, dark in all parts +except where the funeral torches lit up a little space around the +open vault, and threw strange flickering shadows on the recumbent +forms of the dead of Harry Davenant's race, knight and dame, priest +and crusader. It made them look as if they moved, to meet him; for +none of the living men of his house were there, although of all his +race none had fallen more bravely. + +Behind the bier followed four women closely veiled. The first, by +the height and movement, I knew was his Mother, and at her side, as +the sacred words were read, knelt Lettice. I think in times of +overwhelming joy or sorrow, when no words could fathom the depths of +the heart, when almost every human voice would fall outside it +altogether, or jar rudely if it reached within, there is a wonderful +comfort in the calm of those ancient immutable liturgies. They are a +channel worn deep by the joys and sorrows of ages. Their +changelessness links them to eternity, and seems thus to make room +for the sorrow which overflows the narrow measures of thought and +time. + +"Delivered from the burden of the flesh," "are in joy and liberty," +"not to be sorry as men without hope for them that sleep in Him, that +when we shall depart this life, we may rest on Him as our hope is, +this our brother doth." How tranquilly the simple words sank into +the very depths of the heart. + +All the more precious and sacred, doubtless, for the tender sanctity +which ever invests a proscribed religion. + +Not that our Puritan faith is without its liturgies. Older than +England, and older than Christendom, fused in the burning heart of +the king of old, warrior, patriot, exile, conqueror, and penitent. +But it is a perilous thing to make services like those of the Church +of England, dear enough already to every faithful heart who has used +them from infancy, dearer still by making them dangerous. I never +knew how I loved them till we lost them. + +And as that night the sacred, simple, time-honoured words fell like +heavenly music among the shadows of the dim old church, I felt as if +the decree which made them unlawful, and the grave of the brother +slain at Naseby, were slowly mining a gulf which could never be +crossed between the Draytons and the Davenants. + +Alas, alas for truth! or at least for us who fain would ever +recognise and be loyal to her, when she changes raiment with error, +when the crown of thorns is transferred to the brows of her enemies, +and the martyrs are on the wrong side. But such transformations have +not hitherto lasted long, and meantime the crown of thorns may +imprint its lessons even on those who wear it by mistake. + +There was no sound of loud weeping. But when, for the last time, +before the coffin was lowered out of sight, Lady Lucy knelt once more +to embrace it, she did not rise until Lettice went gently to lift her +thence; when it was found that she had fainted, and had to be borne +away. But for this, Lettice would probably never have known we were +there. I went at Roger's bidding to see if I could render any +assistance. And then for a moment Lettice drew aside her veil, and +with a suppressed sob clasped my hands in hers, and murmured,-- + +"Thank God, Olive. I knew you would all feel with us. Pray for her +and for me, Olive; we have no one like him left." + +Then she kissed me once, and hastened on after the rest; as they +silently went back through the fields, bearing instead of the corpse +of the son the almost lifeless form of the mother. + +The day after the funeral Roger left us to go back to the army. I +told him what Lettice had said. And he seemed more hopeful than he +had been for a long time about her not misunderstanding or forgetting +us. + +"We must never distrust her again, Olive," he said. "She has trusted +us all through." + +It was strange that he should thus admonish me, for it was only Roger +who ever had distrusted her caring still for us. But such little +oblivions are the common lot of sisters situated as I was. I was far +too satisfied with his conclusion to dispute as to the way he reached +it. + +Yet for many weeks after he left we heard nothing from any one of the +Davenants. + +Sir Launcelot Trevor came and stayed there some days at the beginning +of July; and again I was tormented with fears that he had been +poisoning their hearts with some evil reports of us. And as I sat +watching by my Father's bed-side, many a time I rejoiced that Roger +was away, so that he could not share my anxieties. + +It so happened that most of the nursing fell on me, to my great +thankfulness. Aunt Dorothy's sphere was governing every one outside, +and Aunt Gretel's more especially preparing food and cooling drinks. +Dr. Antony was pleased to say there was something in my step which +fitted a sick-room. Quiet and quick, and not hasty. And in my +voice, he fancied, too; cheerful, he said, as a bird singing, yet +soft and low. + +Be that as it might, my Father naturally liked best to have me about +him; me and Rachel Forster, in whose presence he found that repose +she seemed to breathe on every one. As if she had wings invisible, +which enfolded a warm, quiet space around her, like a hen brooding +over her chickens. Rachel Forster and Lady Lucy, of all the women I +ever knew, had most of this. And my Father felt it. + +One day Rachel had a letter from Job, written a few days after the +battle of Naseby. + +"We began marching at three o'clock in the morning of the 14th of +June," he wrote. "The day before we, the Ironsides, had come with +General Cromwell from the eastern counties to our army. They had +gathered after him like Abi-Ezer after Gideon. The horse already +there gave a mighty shout for joy of his coming to them. By five we +were at Naseby, and saw the heads of the enemy coming over the hill. +Such a thing as they call a hill in these parts. A broad up and down +moor. We fought it out in a fallow field, a mile broad, near the +top, from early morning till afternoon. It began somewhat like the +day at Marston Moor. They came on first up the hill. Prince Rupert +and the plunderers were on our left, charging swift and steady, +crying out: 'For God and Queen Mary.' 'God our strength,' cried we. +They broke our left, though this we did not know till afterwards. +Our right, that is we, General Cromwell's horse, fell on their left +and drove them back, flying down the hill through the furze-bushes +and rabbit-warrens. The main body, horse and foot, fought hard, +breaking and gathering again, like the sea at Lizard at turn of tide. +This raging back and forward lasted till Prince Rupert's horse and +ours came back from the chase. + +"The difference between keeping the Ten Commandments and breaking +them tells in the long run. Plundering, firing villages, and +slaughtering innocents, shrinks up the courage of men after a time. +Prince Rupert's men could charge to the end like devils, but they +could not rally like ours. Neither the prince's nor the king's word +can bind their men together again to stand a second shock, as +Oliver's word can rally the Ironsides. This difference turned the +day. The difference between keeping the Ten Commandments (as far as +mortal men can) and breaking them. The king rode about fearless as a +lion to the last. 'One charge more and we recover the day,' quoth +he. But there was no power in his word to rally them, and the sun +was still high when he and they fled headlong into Leicester, and we +after them. + +"But the Ten Commandments fought against them there too. 'The stars +in their courses fought against Sisera.'" There was no night's rest +for the king in the houses he had seen rifled and dishonoured but a +few days before, and never lifted up his voice to hinder it. And on +and on he had to fly, to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Wales, and who knows +where? The plunder of Leicester lay strewn about the fallow field at +Naseby, where we camped that night, with six hundred of the +plunderers dead. Yet God forbid I slander the dead. They fought +like true men. And brave, young Master Harry Davenant was among +them. Belike the true men fell; and the plunderers fled off safe, as +such vermin do. Until the Lord and the Ten Commandments take them in +hand and bring them to account, whether in the body or out of the +body. + +"A hundred Irish Papist women were found hanging about the +battle-field, armed with long knives, and speaking no Christian +tongue. Poor benighted savages! Very strange to think such have +husbands, and children, and hearts, and souls. Yet belike so had the +Canaanites. These things are dark to me. I have wrestled sore there +about, but can get no light on them. + +"Two or three days after the battle a young gentleman, a preacher, +aged some thirty years, came amongst the army. His name was Richard +Baxter, a puny feeble body, marked with small-pox, and bowed and worn +at thirty like an old man. Yet had the puny body good quality of +courage in it. Courage of the soul, burning out of his dark eyes. +Courage, surely, he had of his kind. For he came amongst our men, +flushed and strong from the victorious fight, and exhorted us as if +we had been a pack of school-boys. Called us--the Ironsides, and +Whalley's and Rue's regiments of horse--'hot-headed, self-conceited +sectaries,' Anabaptists, Antinomians, and what not--us who had been +fighting the Lord's battles for him and the like of him these two +years! Took our camp jokes ill, about 'Scotch _dryvines_,' +'Dissembling men at Westminster,' and '_priest_byters.' Called us +profane; us who had paid twelve-pence fine for one careless oath ever +since we came together. + +"Argued with us, dividing his discourse into as many heads as +Leviathan, and using words from every heathen tongue under the sun. +If we had the best of it, called us levellers and fire-brands. If we +were silent under his flood of talk, thought we were beaten, as if to +have the best in talk were to win the day. As if an honest +Englishman was to change his mind, because he could not, all in a +moment, see his way out of Mr. Baxter's Presbyterial puzzles. +Scarcely grateful, I think, seeing our men had once asked him to be +their chaplain. Some of us reminded him of it, and he said he was +sorry he had refused, or we should not have come to what we are. And +he rebuked us sore, and called us out of our names in a gentlemanly +way, in Latin and Greek, as if we had been plunderers and malignants; +us of General Cromwell's own regiment. Of his courage there can +after this, I think, be no doubt. Nor forsooth of our patience. And +he hath gone back to Coventry and spoken slanders of the 'sad state' +of the army! + +"Sad state of the army indeed, where every morsel we put in our +mouths is paid for, through which every modest wench, if she were as +fair as Sarah, can walk, if she had need, as safe as past her +father's door. An army which had just won Naseby, by the strength of +the Lord and the Ten Commandments--where not an oath is heard--where +psalms and prayers rise night and morning as from the old Temple--and +where a young gentleman like Mr. Richard Baxter, could come and go, +and call the soldiers what ill names he chose, without hurt. For a +godly young gentleman we all hold him to be, and a scholar, and +honour him in our souls as such, and for the chastening hand of the +Lord on the poor suffering, puny, brave body of him, although in some +ways he and the likes of him cost me more wrestlings than even the +Irish Papist women with their knives." + +Wherever General Cromwell was throughout that summer, there continued +to be a series of successes. Job's letters and Roger's were records +of castles stormed or surrendered, sieges raised and troops +dispersed, in Devonshire from Salisbury to Bovey Tracey. + +On the 4th of August, Roger wrote of the dispersing of the poor +mistaken Clubmen; a new force of peasants who had gathered to the +number of two thousand on Hambledon Hill, in Surrey. Blind, as my +Father says peasant armies mostly are. Aunt Gretel turned pale when +she heard of them, and talked of dreadful peasant wars in Dr. +Luther's time in Saxony; Dr. Luther dearly loving and fighting, in +his way, for the peasants, but not being able to make them understand +him, like Oliver Cromwell now. + +These poor fellows had gathered like brave men in the West to defend +their homes from Lord Goring's band--"the child-eaters" as some +called them, the most lawless and merciless among the Cavalier +troops, surpassing even Prince Rupert's, whom one of their own called +afterwards, "terrible in plunder, and resolute in running away." + + "If ye offer to plunder or take our cattle, + Be you assured we'll give you battle," + +was the clubmen's motto. A good one enough. But in time they became +hopelessly involved in political plots, of which they understood +nothing, demanded to garrison the coast-towns, picked out and killed +peaceable Posts, fired on messengers of peace sent by General +Cromwell, who had much pity for them, and finally had to be fallen +upon and beaten from the field. "I believe," the General wrote to +Sir Thomas Fairfax, "not twelve of them were killed, but very many +were cut, and three hundred taken--poor silly creatures, whom if you +please to let me send home, they promise to be very dutiful for time +to come, and will be hanged before they come out again." So men and +leaders were taken, and the army dispersed, and came not out again; +and the land all around had quiet. + +But, as Job Forster said, it was the Ten Commandments that fought +best for us. + +The king's cabinet at Naseby, with all the false and traitorous +letters found therein in his handwriting, did more to undermine his +power than a hundred battles. For in it was shown how, while +solemnly promising to make no treaties with Papists, and speaking +words of peace at Uxbridge, he was negotiating for six thousand +Papist soldiers from Ireland, and for more than ten thousand from +across the seas; that he had only agreed to call the Parliament +Parliament "in the treating with them, in the sense that it was not +the same to call them so, and to acknowledge them so to be." He +spoke, moreover, of the gentlemen who gathered around him loyally at +Oxford, as "the mongrel Parliament." So that many of his old friends +were sorely aggrieved, and many neutrals began to see that, call men +by what titles you will, there can be no loyalty where there is no +truth. + +In the North affairs went not so prosperously, though there, too, +reckless ravaging wrought its own terrible cure in time. For six +weeks Montrose with his Irish, and Highlanders, and some English +adventurers, laid Argyleshire waste, killing every man who could bear +arms, plundering and burning every cottage. It was not like the war +in England, save where Prince Rupert and Lord Goring brought the +savage customs of foreign warfare in on us. It was a war of clans, +bent on extirpating each other like so many wild beasts, and of +mountain-robbers set on carrying away as much spoil as they could +from the Lowland cities, and on inflicting as much misery as they +could by the way to inspire a profitable terror for the future. +Perth was sacked by them, and Aberdeen, and Dundee. + +At Kilsyth, near Stirling, Montrose and his men killed ten times as +many of a Covenanted army, against which they fought, as fell of the +Cavaliers at Naseby. Six hundred lay slain at Naseby; at Kilsyth, +six thousand. + +And the king, meanwhile, speaking of this robber chief as the great +restorer of his kingdom and support of his throne, with never an +entreaty to spare his countrymen and subjects. + +Can any wonder that the sheep he commissioned so many hirelings to +fleece, robbers to plunder, and wolves to slay, would not follow him? + +In person, indeed, throughout that summer of 1645, His Majesty was +pursuing a kind of warfare too similar to that of Wallenstein or +Montrose. It was in the August of this year, scarce two months after +the victory of Naseby, that the war surged up nearer us at Netherby, +than at any other time. + +The king had fled from Naseby to Ragland Castle, the seat of the +Marquis of Worcester (an ingenious gentleman who spent his living in +seeking out many inventions). There he held his court for many +weeks; entertained with princely state in the halls of the grand old +castle, and hunting deer gaily through the forests on the banks of +the Wye, as if his subjects were not themselves in his quarrel +hunting each other to death in every corner of his kingdom. + +Whilst there tidings came to him of the successes of Montrose, and he +endeavored to go northward to join him in Scotland. From Doncaster, +however, he fell back on Newark, turned from his purpose by the +Covenanted army of Sir David Leslie, which threatened him from the +North. And then he turned his steps to us, to the Fens and the +Associated Counties, which General Cromwell's care, and their own +fidelity to the Parliament, had kept hitherto high and dry out of +reach of the war, save for some few stray foraging parties. During +this August 1645 we learned, however, at His Majesty's hands, the +meaning of civil war. The eastern counties lay exposed to attack, +having sent their tried men westward with Cromwell and Fairfax; so +that we had nothing but our own more recent foot-levies to defend us. + +The king dashed from Stamford through Huntingdonshire and +Cambridgeshire, ravaging the whole country as he passed, and +detaching flying squadrons to plunder Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, +as far as St. Albans. Several times he threatened Cambridge. + +On the 24th of August, he took Huntingdon by assault, and four days +afterwards, by the 28th, was safe again within the lines of Oxford, +with large store of booty seized from the very cradle and stronghold +of the Parliamentary army. + +No doubt the Cavaliers had fine triumphing and merry-making over the +spoils at Oxford. But to us, around whom lay the empty granaries and +roofless homesteads, and the wrecked and burned villages from which +these spoils came, the lesson was not one of submission or of terror, +but of resistance more resolute than ever. Prince Rupert had been +teaching this lesson for three years in every corner of the realm. +His Majesty taught it us in person. A lesson of resistance not +desperate but hopeful; for we could not but deem that a king who +would indiscriminately ravage whole counties of his kingdom, must +look on it as an alien territory already lost to his crown. + +Many sins, no doubt, may be laid to the charge of the Parliament and +its army. But of two sins terribly common in civil strife they were +never guilty; indiscriminate plunder and secret assassination. The +ruins and desecrations the Commonwealth soldiers wrought in churches +and cathedrals, will tell their tale against us to many a generation +to come. The ruins the Royalist troopers wrought were in poor men's +homes long since repaired. The desecrations they wrought were also +in homes, ruins and desecrations of temples not made with hands, and +never to be repaired, but recorded on sacred inviolable tables, more +durable than any stone, though not to be read on earth, at least not +yet. + +The village of Netherby lay just beyond the edge of the royal +devastations. But the cattle all around us were seized, with all the +corn that was reaped. And at night the sky was all aglow with the +flames of burning cottages, and corn and hay-stacks. Our own barns +were untouched, but my Father gave orders at once to begin husbanding +our stores by limiting our daily food, looking on what was spared to +us as the granary of the whole destitute neighbourhood through the +coming winter, and as the seed-store for the following spring. Our +sheds and out-houses, meantime, were fitted up for those who had been +driven from their homes. Every cottage in Netherby gave shelter to +some homeless neighbour. Rachel Forster's became an orphan-house. +Yet it was the private lesson which was taught our own family through +this foray of His Majesty's that is engraven most deeply in my memory. + +Throughout the summer, Cousin Placidia had been more than ever a +subject of irritation and distress to Aunt Dorothy. The successes of +Montrose in Scotland, followed by the plunderings of the king's +troops in our own counties, had once more caused her to feel much +"exercised" as to which was the right side. In February, after the +execution of Archbishop Laud, Mr. Nicholls had obediently substituted +the Directory of Worship for the Common Prayer, sorely trying thereby +Aunt Dorothy's predilections for unwritten, or rather unprinted +prayers; Mr. Nicholls' supplications not having, in her opinion, +either unction or fire, being in fact, she said, nothing but the old +Liturgy minced and sent up cold. Her only comfort was in the trust +that sifting days were at hand. (The Triers had not yet been +appointed.) But what vexed Aunt Dorothy's soul even more than any +ecclesiastical "trimmings," was what she regarded as the gradual +eating up of Placidia's heart by the rust of hoarded wealth. +Placidia had at that time an additional reason to justify herself for +any amount of straitening and sparing, in the expectation of the +birth of her first child. This prospect opened a new field for her +economies and for Aunt Dorothy's anxieties. Even the general +devastations of the country, which opened every door and every heart +wide to the sufferers, only effected the narrowest possible opening +in Placidia's stores. Her health, she said, obviously prevented her +receiving any strangers into the house; and it was little indeed that +a poor parson, with a family to provide for, and nothing but income +to depend on, and the certainty of receiving scarcely any tithes the +next season, could have to spare. Such as she had, said she, she +gave willingly. There was a stack of hay but slightly damaged by +getting heated. And there was some preserved meat, a little strong +perhaps from keeping, but quite wholesome and palatable with a little +extra salt. These she most gladly bestowed. Aunt Dorothy was in +despair, and made one last solemn appeal. + +"Placidia," she said, "a child will shut up your heart and be a curse +to you, if you let it shut your doors against the poor; until at last +who knows what door may be shut on you?" + +But Placidia was impregnable. + +"Aunt Dorothy," she said, with mild imperturbability, "everything may +be made either a curse or a blessing. But to those who are in the +covenant everything is a blessing." + +"Sister Gretel," said Aunt Dorothy, afterwards, "I see no way of +escape for her. The mercies of God's providence and the doctrines of +His grace freeze on that poor woman's heart, until the ice is so +thick that the sunshine itself can do nothing but just thaw the +surface, and make the next day's ice smoother and harder." + +Aunt Gretel looked up. + +"Never give up hope, sister," said she. "Our good God has more +weapons than we wot of, and more means of grace than are counted in +any of our Catechisms and Confessions. Sometimes He can warm the +coldest heart with the glow of a new human love until all the ice +melts away from within. And the touch of a little child's hand has +opened many a door, where the Master has afterwards come in and sat +down and supped. When the Saviour wanted to teach the Pharisees, He +set in the midst of them a little child." + +Aunt Dorothy shook her head. + +"Children have dragged many a godly man back again to Egypt," said +she. "Many a rope which binds good men tight to the car of Mammon is +twisted by very little hands." + +And the proposition being unanswerable, the discussion ended. + +A few nights afterwards we were roused by a suspicious glare in the +direction of the Parsonage. The next morning early we went to see if +anything had happened there. + +As we passed through the village, we heard the news quickly enough. + +Just after dusk, on the evening before, a party of Royalist troopers +had appeared at the Parsonage gates. The house stood alone, at some +little distance from the village, at the end of the glebe-fields. +The captain of the little troop said they were on their way to join +His Majesty at Oxford; but seeing a light, they were tempted to seek +the hospitality of Mistress Nicholls, of which they had heard in the +neighbourhood. + +Poor Placidia's protestations of poverty were of little avail with +such guests. They politely assured her they were used to rough fare, +and would themselves render any assistance she required towards +preparing the feast. Whereupon they put up their horses in the +stables, supplied them liberally with corn from, the granaries, +seized the fattest of the poultry, and strung them in a tempting row +before the kitchen fire, which they piled into huge dimensions with +any wooden articles that came first to hand, chairs and chests +included; the contents of these chests being meanwhile skillfully +rifled, and all that was most valuable in them of plate, linen, or +silk, set apart in a heap "for the king's service." + +The supper being prepared, they insisted on their host drinking His +Majesty's health in the choicest wines in his cellar. The captain +had been informed, he said, that Mr. Nicholls had been induced +(reluctantly, of course, as he perceived from the fervent +protestations of loyalty) to disuse the Liturgy, and even to +contribute of his substance to the rebel cause. He felt glad, +therefore, to be able to give him this opportunity of proving his +unjustly suspected fidelity, and of contributing, at the same time, +of his substance to His Majesty's service, by means of the portion of +his goods which they would the next day convey to His Majesty's +head-quarters in the loyal city of Oxford, and thus save it from +being misapplied in this disaffected country, in a manner which Mr. +Nicholls' loyal heart must abhor. This we heard from one of the +frightened serving-wenches, who had escaped towards morning, and +spread the news through the village. + +As the night passed on, they grew riotous, and were with difficulty +roused from their carouse by the captain, to see about getting their +plunder together before dawn. They poured on the ground what wine +they could not drink, set fire (whether by accident or on purpose was +not known) to the large corn-stack whilst hunting about the sheds and +stables for cattle and horses; till finally the inmates were thankful +to get them away early in the morning, although they took with them +all the beasts they could drive and all the booty they could carry. + +The sympathy in the village was not deep, and Aunt Dorothy and I went +on in silence to the Parsonage, to give what help and comfort we +could. Neither Aunt Dorothy nor I spoke a word as we hastened up the +rising ground towards the house. + +The homely ruins of the farm-yard moved me more than many a stately +ruin. The remains of the corn-stack, the flames of which had alarmed +us in the night, stood there black and charred; the stables were +empty and the cattle-sheds; the house-dog was hanged to the door of +one of them; the yard was strewn with trampled corn, which the +sparrows and starlings, in the absence of the privileged poultry, +were making bold to pick up; and the silence of the deserted court +was made more dismal by the occasional restless lowing of a calf, +which was roaming from one empty shed to another in search of its +mother. + +We went into the house. The kitchen was full of the serving-wenches, +and of some of the more curious and idle in the village, who were +condoling with each other, by making the worst of the disaster. The +hearth was black with the cinders of the enormous fire of the night +before, and the floor was strewn with broken pieces of the chairs and +chests which had helped to kindle it, and with fragments of the +feast. In a corner of the settle by the cold hearth sat Placidia, as +if she were stupified, with her hands clasped and her eyes fixed upon +them. + +When she saw Aunt Dorothy, she turned away, and said,-- + +"Don't reproach me, Aunt Dorothy; I can't bear it." + +"Didst thou think I came for that?" said Aunt Dorothy. "But belike I +deserve it of thee." + +And with a voice a little sharpened by the feeling she strove to +repress, Aunt Dorothy sent the curious neighbours to the right-about, +and disposed of the two serving-wenches, by telling them the very +fowls of the air were setting such lazy sluts as they were an +example, and despatching them to gather up the scattered corn in the +yard. + +Then she came again to Placidia, and taking her clasped hands in +hers, said,-- + +"I've learnt many things, child, this last hour. I judged thee a +Pharisee, and belike I've been a worse one myself. I've sat on the +judgment-seat this many a day on thee. But I'm off it now. And may +the Lord grant me grace never to climb up there again. I've wished +for some heavy rod to fall and teach thee. And now it's come, it +can't smite thee heavier than it does me. Forgive me, child, and let +us both begin again." + +Placidia looked up, and meeting the honest eyes fixed on her, not in +scorn but in entreaty, she sobbed,-- + +"I shall never have heart to begin again, Aunt Dorothy." + +"To begin what again?" said Aunt Dorothy. + +"Contriving and saving to make up all the things I have lost," +replied Placidia. "I've been years heaping it together, and it's all +gone in a night!" + +Aunt Dorothy looked sorely puzzled, between her desire to be +charitable and her horror of Placidia's misreading of the +dispensation. + +"Begin that again, my dear," she said, at last. "Nay; thou must +never begin that again. It will never do to fly in the face of +Providence like that." + +Placidia uncovered her face, but as her eyes rested on the desolation +around her, she covered them again, and sobbed,-- + +"Just when there was to be one to save it all for, and make it worth +while to deny oneself." + +"Nay," said Aunt Dorothy; "that's the mercy. That's precisely the +mercy. The Lord will not let the child be a curse to thee. He will +have it a blessing; so He says to thee as plain as can be, I give +thee a treasure, not to make thee rage and stint and grudge, but to +teach thee to love and serve and give, not to make thee poor, but to +make thee rich. And He will go on teaching thee till thou openest +thy heart and learnest, and thy burden falls off, and thy heart leaps +up, and thou shalt be free. I know it by the way my heart is +lightened now. He's smitten me down for my sitting in judgment on +thee. Not that I'm safe never to climb that seat again. One is +there before one knows, and the black-cap on in a moment. Some one +is always near, I trow, to help us up." + +And turning from Placidia, she proceeded to a quiet survey of the +ruins, which, under her brisk and discriminating hands, with such +help as I could give, soon began to show some signs of order. + +The fire was lighted; the calf despatched to Netherby to be fed; +sundry fragments of chairs and chests to the village carpenter, to be +mended; the broken meat put into two baskets. + +"This is for the household," said Aunt Dorothy, "and that for the +fatherless children at Rachel Forster's. One of the maids can take +it at once, Placidia, when she leads away the calf." + +Placidia was at length quite roused from her stupor. She looked at +Aunt Dorothy as if she thought she were in league with the plunderers. + +"Me send meat to Rachel Forster's orphans!" she said faintly; "a poor +plundered woman like me!" + +"Better begin at once, my dear," said Aunt Dorothy; "the fatherless +are God's little ones. Better give the treasure to them. You see +our bags have holes in them." + +At that moment Mr. Nicholls returned. Placidia appealed to him for +his usual confirmation of her opinions. + +"Dear heart," he said ruefully, "Belike Mistress Dorothy is right. +It's of no use fighting against God. Who knoweth if He may turn and +repent and leave a blessing behind Him." + +"Nay, Master Nicholls," said Aunt Dorothy, "not that way. It's of no +use trying to escape in that way. You must let go altogether first, +or the Almighty will never take hold of you. It's hoping for nothing +again. If thou and Placidia will send this to the orphans, ye must +send it because it has been given to you, and because they want it +more than you do. Because thou wast an orphan, Placidia," she added, +tenderly, "and He has not failed to care for thee. Take heed how ye +slight His staff or His rod. Both have been used plainly enough for +thee. I'll divide the stuff," she concluded, "and you must settle +what to do with it yourselves, afterwards." + +And insisting on Placidia's resting up-stairs while she subjected the +contents of the chests strewn about the chamber-floor to the same +process of division, she left the house before dusk restored to +something like order, with two significant heaps of clothing on the +bed-chamber, and two significant baskets of provisions in the +kitchen, to speak what parables they might during the night to the +consciences of Placidia and Mr. Nicholls. + +But before the morning other teachers had been there. Death and +Anguish--those merciful curses sent to keep the world, which had +ceased to be Eden, from becoming a sensual Elysium, idle, selfish, +and purposeless--visited the house that night. Another life was +ushered into the world under the shadow of Death itself. In the +morning Placidia lay feebly rejoicing in the infant-life for which +her own had been so nearly sacrificed. Rejoicing in a gift which had +cost her so much, and which was to cost her so much more of patient +sacrifices, toil and watching, sacrifices for which no one would +especially admire her, and for which she would not admire herself; +rejoicing as she had never rejoiced in any possession before. Not by +any supernatural effort of virtue, but by the simple natural fountain +of motherly love which had been opened in her heart. One of the +first things she said was to Rachel, who was watching with her +through the next night. Very softly, as Rachel sat by her bed-side +with the baby on her knee, Placidia said,-- + +"Strange such a gift should have been given to me and not to thee." + +"And," said Rachel (when she told me of it), "I could not answer her +all in a moment, for there are seas stronger and deeper than those +outside our dykes around our hearts. And it's not safe, even in the +quietest weather, opening the cranny to let in those tides. So I +said nothing. And in a few moments Mistress Nicholls spoke again, +'For thou art good and worthy, Rachel,' said she, 'and it would be no +great wonder if the Lord gave thee the best He has to give.' + +"Then I understood what she meant, and my heart was nigh as glad as +if the child had been given to me. For I thought there was a soul +new born to God as a little child, meek and lowly. The Lord had led +her along the hardest step on the way to Himself, the first step +down. And she said no more. I smoothed her pillow, laid the babe +beside her, and she and it fell asleep. But I sat still and cried +quietly for joy. And the next morning, when the light broke in, +Mistress Nicholls looked up and saw those two heaps Mistress Dorothy +had set apart, and then she looked down on the babe, and murmured as +if to herself,-- + +"'Poor motherless little ones! God has given me thee and spared me +to thee. The poor motherless babes, they shall have the things.' + +"And then," pursued Rachel, "I turned away and cried again to myself +half for gladness, and half for trouble. For I thought sure the +Lord's a-going to take her, poor lamb, if she's so changed as that." + +But Aunt Dorothy, when Rachel narrated this, although she wiped her +eyes sympathetically, at the same time gave her head a consolatory +shake and said,-- + +"Never fear, neighbour, never fear, not yet. Depend on it, the old +Enemy will have a fight for it yet. Depend on it, there's a good +deal of work to be done for her in this world yet, before she's too +good to be left in it." + + +LETTICE'S DIARY. + +"_Davenant Hall, Twelfth Night_, 1645-6.--Only four years since that +merry sixteenth birthday of mine, when all the village were gathered +in the Hall, and Olive and I gave the garments to the village maidens +of my own age, and in the evening Roger stayed to help kindle the +twelve bonfires. + +"And now we are walled and moated out from the village and from the +Manor as we were in the old days of the Norman Conquest, when the +Davenants first took possession of these lands, and built the old +ruined keep, where the gateway is (whence they afterwards removed to +this abbey), to overawe the Saxon village, where the Draytons even +then lived in the old Manor. I wonder if there is anything left of +the old contentions in Saxon and Norman blood now. The rebel army is +so much composed, they say, both of officers and men, of the stout +old Saxon yeomanry, and the traders in the towns; whilst ours is +officered from the old baronial castles, by gentlemen with the old +Norman historical names. How many of the higher gentry and nobility +are loyal has been proved these last six months, since fatal Naseby, +by the sieges (and, alas! by the stormings and surrenders) of at +least a score of old castles and mansions, from Bristol, surrendered +on the 11th of September by Prince Rupert to Bovey Tracey in the +faithful West. Thank Heaven, they gave Oliver Cromwell and Sir +Thomas Fairfax much trouble, Basing Hall especially. In future days, +when the king shall enjoy his own again (as he surely will), I hold +such a blackened ruin will be a choicer possession to a gentleman's +family than a palace furnished regally. The rebels called Basing +House _Basting_, for the mischief it did them. And our men called it +_Loyally_. + +"Roger Drayton hath shared, no doubt, in many of these sieges. So +stern in his delusion of duty, I suppose, if this brewer of +Huntingdon commanded him, he would not scruple to plant his reble +guns against us. 'Thine eye shall not spare,' they say, in their +hateful cant. Sir Launcelot says they have been chasing His Sacred +Majesty from place to place like a hunted stag; that Mr. Cromwell, +whom Roger loves above king and friend, never sets on any great +enterprise without having a '_text_' to lean on! That before +storming Basing Hall, he passed the night in prayer, and that the +text he especially 'rested on' for that achievement was Psalm cxviii. +8: '_They that make them are like unto them, so is every one that +trusteth in them!_' as if we Royalists were Canaanites, idolaters, +Papists, I know not what. Fancy burning down a corn-stack to a +psalm-tune, or setting out on a burglary to a text. Yet what is it +better to burn down loyal gentlemen's houses about their ears, from +one end of England to another. It is all Conscience; this dreadful +Moloch of Conscience! It was the one weak point of the Draytons +always. + +"Sir Launcelot Trevor came here a week since to see if anything can +be done to strengthen the fortifications. My Father was in Bristol +when it was stormed, and has followed the king ever since; two of my +brothers are in Ireland, seeing what can be done there; two fled +beyond the seas after the defeat of the gallant Marquis of Montrose +last September at Philipshaugh, near Selkirk; and two lie on that +fatal Rowton Heath, where on September the 23rd the king's last army, +worth the name, was broken and lost. + +"We have made sacrifices enough to endear the royal cause to us. I +suppose this old house will be the next. For Harry said it would +never stand a siege. But, oh, if I could only be sure Sir Launcelot +is mistaken in what he says about Roger giving Harry his death-blow, +much of the rest would seem light. I have never yet told my Mother +of this dread. Sometimes when I think how Roger looked and spoke +that morning, I feel sure it cannot be true. But he always said it +was so wrong to believe things because I wished them true. And now +the more I long to believe this false, the less I seem able. + +"Only four years since that merry sixteenth birthday, when I was a +child. And then that happy summer afterwards, when the world seemed +to grow so beautiful and great, and it seemed as if we were to do +such glorious things in it. + +"First the birthdays seem like triumphal columns, trophies of a +conquered year. Then like mile-stones, marking rather sadly the way +we have come. But now I think they look like grave-stones, so much +is buried for ever beneath this terrible year that is gone. Not +lives only, but love, and trust, and hope. + +"I said so to my Mother to-night, as I wished her good-night. It was +selfish. For I ought to comfort her. But she comforted me. She +said, 'The birthdays will look like mile-stones again, by-and-by, +sweetheart. They will be marked on the other side, "so much nearer +home," and perhaps at last like trophies again, marking the conquered +years.' + +"On which I broke down altogether, and said,-- + +"'Oh, Mother, don't speak like that, don't say you look on them like +that. Think of me at the beginning of the journey, so near the +beginning.' + +"'I do, Lettice,' said she. 'I pray to live, for thy sake, every +day.' + +"For my sake; only for my sake. For her own she longs to go. And +that is saddest of all to me. + +"For, except on days like these, when I think and look back, I am not +always so very wretched. It is very strange, after all that has +happened. But I am sometimes--rather often--a little bit happy. +There is so much that is cheerful and beautiful in the world, I +cannot help enjoying it. And pleasant things might happen yet. + +"I did love Harry, dearly; nearly better than any one. I do. But to +my Mother losing him seems just the one sorrow which puts her on the +other side of all earthly joys and sorrows, with a great gulf +between, so that she looks on them from afar off, like an angel. + +"I suppose there is just _the one thing_ which would be the darkening +of the whole world to most of us, making it night instead of day. +Other people leave that sepulchre behind. It is grown over, and in +years it becomes a little sacred grass-grown mound, or a stately +memorial to the life ended there. + +"But to one, it has made _the whole earth_ a sepulchre, at which she +stands without, weeping and looking on. + +"_There is only one_ Voice which can quiet the heart there. + +"_The day after_.--Sir Launcelot and I have had high words to-day. +We were looking from the terrace towards Netherby, and I said +something about old times, and that the Draytons would probably +resume the lands they had lost in old times at the Conquest. + +"I fired up, and said not one of the Draytons would ever touch +anything that did not belong to them. '_They_ were not of Prince +Rupert's plunderers,' said I. + +"'No doubt,' said he, 'they hold by a better right than the sword.' +And with nasal solemnity, clasping his hands, he added, 'Voted, it is +written the saints shall possess the land; voted, we are the saints.' + +"'Sir Launcelot,' I said, 'you know I hate to hear old friends spoken +of like that.' + +"(When I had written bitter things myself of them but yesterday! But +it always angers me when people are unfair.) + +"Here he changed his tone, and spoke seriously enough. Too +seriously, indeed, by far. He said something about my opinion being +more to him than anything in the world. And when I went back into +the garden-parlour, not desiring such discourse, he was on his knees +at my feet, before I could raise him, pouring out, I know not what +passionate protestations, and saying that I could save him, and +reclaim him, and make him all he longed to be, and was not. And that +if I rejected him, there was not another power on earth or heaven +that could keep him from plunging into perdition, which perplexed and +grieved me much. For I do not love him. Of that I am sure. But it +is terrible to think of being the only barrier between any human soul +and destruction. And I am half afraid to tell my Mother, for fear +she should counsel me to take Sir Launcelot's conversion on me. +Because she thinks everything of no weight compared with religion. +But I cannot think it would be a duty to marry a person for the same +reason from which you might become his godmother. Besides, if I did +not love, what real power should I have to save? + +"_At night_ (_later_).--I have told my Mother, and she says that last +consideration makes it quite clear. I could have no power for good, +unless I loved. And I do not love Sir Launcelot; and I never could. + +"At the same time, when I opened my heart to her about this, I +ventured at last to tell her what Sir Launcelot had thought about +Harry and Roger Drayton. I wish I had told her weeks ago. + +"For she does not believe it. She says Roger would never have come +and told us had it been so. She has not the slightest fear it can be +true. It has lightened my heart wonderfully. Roger is not quite +just in saying I can believe in anything I wish. + +"_March_.--A biting March for the good cause. On the 14th brave Sir +Ralph Hopton surrendered in Cornwall. On the 22nd brave old Sir +Jacob Astley (he who made the prayer before Edgehill fight, 'Lord, if +I forget Thee this day, do not Thou forget me'), was beaten at Stow +in Gloucestershire, as he was bringing a small force he had gathered +with much pains, to succour the king at Oxford. 'You have now done +your work and may go to play,' he said to the rebels who captured +him, 'unless you fall out among yourselves.' Gallant sententious old +veteran that he is! + +"_May_.--His Majesty has taken refuge with the Scottish army at +Newark. + +"We marvel he should have trusted his sacred person with Covenanted +Presbyterians. But in good sooth he may well be weary of wandering, +and may look for some pity yet in his own fellow-countrymen. Not +that they showed much to the sweet fair lady his father's mother. + +"We hear it was but unwillingly he went to them at night, between two +and three o'clock in the morning, on the 27th of April. A few days +since he left the shelter of Oxford, faithful to him so long; riding +disguised as a servant, behind his faithful attendant Mr. Ashburnham. +Once he was asked by a stranger on the road if his master were a +nobleman. 'No,' quoth the king, 'my master is one of the Lower +House,' a sad truth, forsooth, though spoken in parable. It is +believed amongst us that he would fain have reached the eastern +coast, thence to take ship for Scotland, to join Montrose and the +true Scots with him. For his flight was uncertain, and changed +direction more than once--to Henley-on-Thames, Slough, Uxbridge; then +to the top of Harrow Hill, across the country to St. Albans, where +the clattering hoofs of a farmer behind them gave false alarm of +pursuit; thence by the houses of many faithful gentlemen who knew and +loved him, but respected his disguise and made as though they knew +him not; to Downham in Norfolk; to Southwell, and thence, beguiled by +promises some say, others declare throwing himself of his own free +will like a prince on the ancient Scottish loyalty, he rode to Newark +into the midst of the Earl of Leven's army. + +"_August_, 1646.--The civil war, they give out now, is over. Every +garrison and castle in the kingdom have surrendered. In June, loyal +Oxford; and now, last and most loyal of all, on the 19th of August, +Ragland Castle, with the noble old Marquis of Worcester, who hath +ruined himself past all remedy in the king's service, and in this +world will scarce now find his reward. + +"In June, Prince Rupert rode through the land, and embarked at Dover. +Well for the good cause if he had never come. His marauding ways +gave quite another complexion to the war from what it might have had +without him. His rashness, Harry thought, lost us many a field. His +lawlessness infected our army. The king could not forgive him his +surrender of Bristol a few days after he was led to believe it could +be held for months. But in this some think perchance he is less to +blame than elsewhere. Cromwell and the Ironsides were there and they +stormed the city, and it seems as if this Cromwell could never be +baffled. + +"With Prince Rupert went three hundred loyal gentlemen, some +despairing of the cause at home, others, and with them my Father, on +missions to seek aid from foreign courts. + +"_February_, 1647.--The Scottish army has yielded him up ('Bought and +sold,' His Majesty said; others say the two hundred thousand pounds +the Scotch received was for the expenses of the war,) into the hands +of the English Presbyterians at Newcastle. + +"_March_.--We have seen the king once more. My Mother has heard for +certain the true cause why the king was given up by the Scotch to his +enemies. He would not sign their blood-stained Covenant. He would +not sacrifice the Church of these kingdoms, with her bishops and her +sacred liturgy, though nobles, loyal men and true, nay the queen +herself, by letter, entreated him. My mother saith he is now in most +literal truth a martyr, suffering for the spotless bride--our dear +Mother, the Church of England--and for the truth. We heard he was to +arrive at Holmby House in Northamptonshire, and, weak as my Mother +is, nothing would content her but to be borne thither in a litter to +pay him her homage. I would not have missed it for the world. +Numbers of gentlemen and gentlewomen were there to welcome him with +tears and prayers and hearty acclamations. It did our hearts good to +hear the hearty cheers and shouts, and I trust cheered his also. The +rebel troopers were Englishmen enough to offer no hindrance. And we +had the joy of gazing once more on that kingly pathetic countenance. +He is serene and cheerful, as a true martyr should be, my mother +says, accepting his cross and rejoicing in it, not morose and of a +sad countenance as those who feign to be persecuted for conscience +sake. He scorns no blameless pleasure which can solace the weary +hours of captivity, riding miles sometimes to a good bowling-green to +play at bowls, and beguiling the evenings with chess or converse on +art with Mr. Harrington or Mr. Herbert. + +"He will not suffer a Presbyterian chaplain to say grace at his +table, and the hard-hearted jailers will allow no other. + +"Thank heaven the common people are true to him still, as they took +him from Newcastle to Holmby House the simple peasants flocked round +to see him and bless him, and to feel the healing touch of his sacred +hand for the king's evil. Sir Harry Marten, a rebel and a +republican, made a profane jest thereon, and said, 'The touch of the +great seal would do them as much good.' But no one relished the +scurrilous jest. And the blessings and prayers of the poor followed +the king everywhere. Yes; it is the common people and the nobles +that honour true greatness. The Scribes and Pharisees, I am +persuaded, sprang from the middle-order yeomen, craftsmen, chapmen. +"Tithing mint and devouring widows' houses," are just base, weeping, +unpunishable middle-station sins. The troubles of this middle class +are wretched, low, carking money-troubles. The sorrows of the high +and low are natural ennobling sorrows; bereavement, pain, and death. +It is the sordid middle order that envies the great. The common +people reverence them when on high places, and generously pity them +when brought low. My Mother says, belike the sorrows of their king +shall yet move the honest heart of the nation to a reverent pity, and +thus back to loyalty, and so, as so often in great conflicts, more be +won through suffering than through success. + +"_April_, 1647.--We are to pay our last penalty. Our old hall is +declared to be a perilous nest of traitors and cradle of +insurrection. A rebel garrison is to be quartered on us. + +"Our expedition to Holmby, has led to two results; it offended some +of the people in authority among the rebels, and thereby caused them +to take possession of the hall; and it so taxed my mother's wasted +strength that she is unfit for any journey, so that we must even stay +and suffer the presence of these insolent and rebellious men in our +home. + +"_April, Davenant Hall_.--Mr. Drayton hath been here to-day. He +looked pale and thin from the long imprisonment he has had, and he +hath lost his right arm--a sore loss to him who ever took such +pleasure in his geometrical instruments, and played the viol-di-gambo +so masterly. + +"He gave a slight start when he saw my mother, and there was a kind +of anxious compassionate reverence in his manner towards her which +makes me uneasy. I fear he deems her sorely changed, and ofttimes I +have feared the same. But then this mourning garb which she will +never more lay aside, and her dear gray hair, which I love, put back +like an Italian Madonna from her forehead, in itself makes a +difference. Although I think her eyes never looked so soft and +beautiful as now. The golden hair of youth, and all its brilliant +colour, seems to me scarcely so fair as this silver hair of hers, +with the soft pale hues on her cheeks. + +"Mr. Drayton asked us to take asylum at Netherby Hall till such time +as we join my father elsewhere. My mother knows what Harry thought, +and seems not averse to accept his hospitality. I certainly had not +thought to enter old Netherby again in such guise as this." + + +OLIVE'S RECOLLECTIONS. + +The old house seemed to gain a kind of sacredness when it became the +refuge of that dear bereaved Lady and sweet Lettice. Lady Lucy was +much changed. Her voice always soft, was low as the soft notes in a +hymn; her step, always light, was slower and feebler; her hair, +though still abundant, had changed from luxuriant auburn to a soft +silvery brown; her cheeks were worn into a different curve, though +still, I thought, as beautiful, and the colour in them was paler. +Everything in her seemed to have changed from sunset to moonlight. +Her voice and her very thoughts seem to come from afar; from some +region we could not tread, like music borne over still waters. It +was as if she had crossed a river which severed her far from us, +which she would never more recross, but only wait till the call came +to mount the dim heights on the other side. Not that she was in any +way sad or uninterested, or abstracted, only she did not seem to +belong to us any more. + +I wondered if Lettice saw this as I did. And many a time the tears +came to my eyes as I looked at those two and thought how strong were +the cords of love which bound them, and how feeble the thread of life. + +Aunt Dorothy welcomed Lady Lucy with as true a tenderness as any one. +The silvery hair in place of those heart-breakers--the hair silvered +so suddenly by sorrow--softened her in more ways than one. One +thing, however, tried her sorely. And I much dreaded the explosion +it might lead to if Aunt Dorothy's conscience once got the upper hand +of her hospitality. + +The Lady Lucy always had a little erection closely resembling an +altar, in her oratory at home, dressed in white, with sacred books on +it; the Holy Scriptures, A Kempis, Herbert, and others, and above +them a copy of a picture by Master Albert Durer, figuring our Lord on +the Cross, the suffering thorn-crowned form gleaming pale and awful +from the terrible noonday darkness. Before this solemn picture stood +two golden candlesticks, which at night the waiting gentlewomen were +wont to light. I shall never forget Aunt Dorothy's expression of +dismay and distress when she first saw this erection, one evening +soon after Lady Lucy's arrival. She mastered herself so far as to +say nothing to Lady Lucy then, beyond the good wishes for the night, +and directions as to some possets which she had come to administer. + +But the solemn change that came over her voice and face she could not +conceal. And afterwards she solemnly summoned us into my Father's +private room to make known her discovery. + +"An idol, brother!" she concluded, "an abomination! At this moment, +probably, idol-worship going on under this roof, drawing down on us +all the lightnings of heaven!" + +"I should not use such a thing as a help to devotion myself, Sister +Dorothy," said my Father; "but what would you have me do?" + +"Help to devotion!" she exclaimed, "'Thou shalt not make any graven +image, nor the likeness of any thing.' Sweep them away with the +besom of destruction, and cast the idols to the moles and to the +bats." + +"Sister Dorothy," he said, "you would not have me take a hammer, and +axe, and cords, and drag this piece of painted work from the Lady +Lucy's chamber before her eyes." + +"Thine eye shall not spare," she replied, solemnly. + +"But in the first place I must know that it is an idol to Lady Lucy," +he said, "and that she does bow down to it." + +"Subtle distinctions, brother; traffickings with the enemy. Heaven +grant they prove not our ruin, as of Jehoshaphat before us." + +For Aunt Dorothy, although she had forsaken the judgment seat for +private offences, would still have deemed it an impiety to abandon it +in cases of heresy. + +"Sister Dorothy," interposed Aunt Gretel, "in my country good men and +women do use such things and do not become idolaters thereby in their +private devotion and in the churches." + +"Belike they do, sister Gretel," rejoined Aunt Dorothy, drily. "The +hand that would have pulled down the Epistle of St. James might well +leave some idols standing. An owl sees better than a blind man. But +it is no guide to those whose eyes are used to-day." + +This profane comparison of Dr. Luther to an owl dismayed Aunt Gretel, +so as to throw her entirely out of the conflict, which finished with +an ordinance from my Father that liberty of conscience should be the +order of his household; and a protest from Aunt Dorothy that, be the +consequences what they may, she would not suffer any immortal soul +within her reach to go the broad road to ruin without warning. + +Which threat kept us in anxious anticipation. We took the greatest +care not to leave the combatants alone; one so determined and the +other so unconscious of danger. + +At last, however, the fatal moment arrived. + +It was early in April, a fortnight after Lady Lucy and Lettice took +shelter under our roof. + +Dr. Anthony had arrived from London with tidings which made us all +very uneasy. + +The Presbyterian majority in the House of Commons, believing the +civil war ended, were very eager to disband the army which had ended +it, but which, being mostly composed of Independents, they dreaded +even more than the king. + +In February, they had voted that no officer under Sir Thomas Fairfax +should hold any rank higher than a colonel, intending thereby to +displace Oliver Cromwell, Ireton, Ludlow, Blake, Skippon, and +Algernon Sydney, and, in short, every commander whom the army most +trusted, and under whom their victories had been gained. + +They were to be disbanded, moreover, without receiving their pay, now +due for more than half a year. It was also proposed that such of the +soldiers as were still kept together should be sent to Ireland to +settle matters there, under new Presbyterian commanders, instead of +those whom they knew and trusted. + +The indignation in the army was deep. But it was as much under the +restraint of law, and was expressed in as orderly a way, as if the +army had been a court of justice. The regiments met, deliberated, +remonstrated, and drew up a petition, demanded arrears of pay, and +refused to go to Ireland save under commanders they knew. "For the +desire of our arrears," they said, "necessity, especially of our +soldiers, enforced us thereunto. We left our estates, and many of us +our trade and callings to others, and forsook the contentments of a +quiet life, not fearing nor regarding the difficulties of war for +your sakes; after which we hoped that the desires of our hardly +earned wages would have been no unwelcome request, nor argued us +guilty of the least discontent or intention of mutiny." + +No one, my Father said, could deny the truth of this. The Parliament +army had not eked out with plunder their arrears of pay. + +On the 3d of April three soldiers--Adjutators (or Agitators, as some +called them)--had been sent with a respectful but determined message +to the House of Commons. General Cromwell (attending in his place in +the House in spite of the plots there had been during the past weeks, +as he knew, to commit him to the Tower) rose and spoke at length of +the danger of driving the army to extremities. + +And now Dr. Antony came with the tidings that General Cromwell was at +Saffron Walden, bearing to the army the promise of indemnity and +arrears. He brought also a brief letter from Roger, saying that now +all was sure to go right. + +This news drew us all together, and it was not until she had been +absent some time that it was discovered that Aunt Dorothy had left us. + +Aunt Gretel was the first to perceive her departure, and to suspect +its cause. At once she repaired to Lady Lucy's chamber, whence, in a +minute or two, she returned, and pressing me lightly on the shoulder, +she said, in a solemn whisper,-- + +"Olive, it must be stopped; the Lady Lucy is looking like a ghost, +and Mistress Lettice like a damask rose, and your Aunt Dorothy is +talking Latin." + +This was Aunt Gretel's formula for controversial language. She said +English was composed of two elements; the German she could +understand; we used it, she said, when we were speaking of things +near our hearts, of matters of business, or of affection, or of +religion, in a peaceable and kindly manner. But the Latin was beyond +her. There were long words in _ation_, _atical_, or _arian_, which +always came on the field when there was to be a battle. And then she +always withdrew. In this martial array Aunt Dorothy's thoughts were +now being clothed. And Aunt Gretel thought I had better summon my +Father to interrupt the debate. + +I went at once and indicated to him the danger. He looked half angry +half amused. + +"Dr. Antony," he said, "your medical attendance is required +up-stairs. My sister has recommenced the Civil War." + +I flew up to announce the coming of the gentlemen. + +At the moment when I entered the room the controversy had reached a +climax. Lady Lucy was sitting very pale and upright, and on a +high-backed chair with tears in her eyes, and saying in a faint +voice,-- + +"Mistress Dorothy, I am not a Papist, and hope never to be." + +Lettice, behind the chair, with her arm round her mother, and her +hand on her shoulder, like a champion, stood with quivering lips and +burning cheeks, and rejoined that "there were worse heretics than the +Papists, worse tyrants than the Inquisition." Whilst Aunt Dorothy, +as pale as Lady Lucy, and with lips quivering as much as Lettice's, +faced them both with the consciousness of being herself a witness or +a martyr for the truth struggling within her against the sense that +she was regarded by others in the light of an inquisitor and +tormentor of martyrs. + +"An't please you, Lady Lucy," I said, "my Father thought Dr. Antony, +who is down-stairs, might recommend you some healing draught. He has +wonderful recipes for coughs." + +And before a reply could be given, my Father and Dr. Antony were at +the door, and Aunt Dorothy was arrested in her testimony without the +possibility of uttering a last word. + +Dr. Antony seemed to comprehend the position at a glance. With a +quiet courtesy which introduced him at once, and gave him the command +of the field, he went up to Lady Lucy, and, feeling her pulse, +observed that it was slightly feverish and uneven, ordered the +windows to be open, and recommended that as much air as possible +should be obtained, by means of all but Mistress Lettice leaving the +room. He had little doubt then that some cooling medicines, which he +had at hand, would do the rest. As I was going Lettice entreated me +to stay, which I was ready to do. + +And ere long we were all three quietly gathered around Lady Lucy's +chair, Lettice on a cushion at her feet (where she best loved to be), +I on the window-seat near, and Dr. Antony leaning on the back of her +chair. She was discoursing to him in French, which she spoke with a +marvellously natural accent, and which I had never heard him speak +before. I know not why, it seemed as if the language threw a new +vivacity and fire into his countenance, and I felt very ignorant, and +humbled, not to be able to join. But this feeling did not last long, +Lady Lucy had a way of divining what passed in the mind, and she +called me near, and made me sit on a little chair beside her, and +drew my hand into hers, and encouraged me to say such words as I +knew, and praised my accent, and said it had just that pretty English +lisp in it that some of the countrymen of poor Queen Henrietta Maria +had thought charming. + +She made Dr. Antony tell us moving histories still in French of his +ancestors, their daring deeds and hair-breadth 'scapes. So an hour +passed, and we were all friends, bound together by the easy charm of +her sweet gracious manner, and had forgotten the storm and everything +else, till we were summoned to supper. + +"Ah, Monsieur!" said she, giving him her hand as she took leave of +him, with a smile, "re-assure Mistress Dorothy as to my orthodoxy, +and make her believe my sympathies are on the right side with the +sufferers of St. Bartholomew's Day. And Olive, little champion," +said she, drawing my forehead down to her for a kiss, and stroking my +cheek, "never think it necessary again to interpose in a battle +between your aunt and your Mother's friend. I honour her from my +heart for her fidelity to conscience. And if she is more anxious +than necessary about my faith--we should surely bear one another no +grudge for that. I know it cost her more than it did me for her to +exhort me as she did. And I am not sure," she added, smiling, "if +after all she does not love me better than any of you." + +"Mistress Olive," said Dr. Antony, as we sat that evening in the +dusk, by the window of my Father's room, while he wrote, "I would +that Christian women understood the beautiful work they might do if +they would take their true part as such." + +"What would that be?" I said, thinking, after the experience of +to-day, it might probably be the part of the Mute. + +"To see that Morals and Theology, Charity and Truth, are never +divorced," he replied. "To win us back to the Beatitudes when we are +straying into the curses. To lead us back to Persons when we are +groping into abstractions. For Books full of dogma, Orthodox, +Arminian supra-lapsarian, or otherwise, to give us a home, a living +world, full of the Father, the Son, and the Comforter, of angels and +brothers. To see that we never petrify the thought of the Living God +into a metaphysical formula, still less into a numerical term. Never +to let us forget that the great purpose of redemption is to bring us +to God; that the great purpose of the Church is to make us good. +When we have clipped, and stretched, and stiffened the living Truth +into the narrow immutability of our theological or philosophical +definitions, to breathe it back again into the unfathomable +simplicity of the wisdom that brings heavenly awe over the faces of +little children, and heavenly peace into the eyes of dying men. To +keep the windows open through our definitions into God's Infinity. +To translate our ingenious, definite, unchangeable scholastic terms +into the simple, infinite, ever-changing--because ever-living--words +of daily and eternal life; so that holiness shall never come to mean +a stern or mystic quality quite different from goodness; or +righteousness, a mere legal qualification quite different from +justice; or, humility, a supernatural attainment quite different from +being humble; or charity, something very far from simply being +gentle, and generous, and forbearing; and brethren, an ecclesiastical +noun of multitude totally unconnected with brother. When women rise +to their work in the Church, it seems to me the Church will soon rise +to her true work in the world." + +"You speak with fervour," said my Father, rising from the table, and +smiling as he laid his hand on Dr. Antony's shoulder; "the womanhood +you picture is something loftier than that of Eve." + +"Mary's Ave has gone far to transfigure the name of Eve," he replied. +"'Ecce concilia Domini' shall echo deeper and further and be +remembered longer than 'The serpent tempted me and I did eat.' But," +he added, "we have a better type than Mary for woman as well as man, +in Him who came not to be ministered unto but to minister. I was +chiefly thinking of the gifts most common, it seems to me, to women, +and least to controversialists, I mean, imagination and common sense. +Imagination which penetrates, from signs to things signified, which +pierces, for instance, into the depth and meaning of such words as +'eternity' and 'accursed'--which also penetrates behind the adjective +'Calvinistic or Arminian,' to the substantive men and women whose +theology they define. And common sense, which, when a conclusion +contradicts our inborn conscience of right and wrong, refuses to +receive it although the path to it be smoothed and hedged by logic +without a flaw. + +"In other words," said my Father, "you would say that, with women the +heart corrects the errors of the head oftener than we suffer it to do +so with us. We must remember, however, that the heart and the +conscience also are not infallible, and that the same qualities which +can make women the best saints make them the worst controversialists. +Theology and morals being in their hearts thus closely intertwined, +they fight against a mistake as if it were a sin. They quicken +abstractions, and even rites and ceremonies, into personal life, and +are apt to defend them with a blind and passionate vehemence as they +would the character of a husband or a son." + +"Best gifts abused must ever be worst curses," said Dr. Antony. + +And I ventured to say,-- + +"Is it not just the lowliness of our lot that makes it high? Can we +help our voices becoming shrill, if we will have them loud?" + +"Tune thine then, sweetheart, where first I learnt how sweet it was," +said my Father, stroking my cheek. "By sick-beds, or by children's +cradles, or, in the house of mourning, or wherever good words are +needed only to be heard by the one to whom they are spoken; there +women's voices are attuned to their truest tones." + + +And the next morning I had that walk in the orchard with Dr. Antony, +when he told me the secret which my Father would persist in declaring +(most unwarrantably, I think) lay at the root of his high +expectations as to the future work and destinies of women. + +And when, a few hours afterwards, after I had been alone a while, and +we had knelt together and received my Father's blessing, and I began +to understand my happiness a little, and went and said something +about it to Lady Lucy, and especially how strange it was that Dr. +Antony said he had thought of it so long, whilst I had not been +dreaming of it, she kissed my forehead, and said with a smile,-- + +"Very strange, my unsuspecting little Puritan. For it crossed my +thoughts the first hour I saw you together, and that was yesterday +evening. Ah, Olive," she added, very tenderly, in a faltering voice, +"I had fond thoughts once that it might have been otherwise. If my +Harry had lived, and this poor distracted realm had returned to her +allegiance, I had thought perchance some day to have the right to +call thee by the tenderest name. But God hath not willed it so. And +I try hard that his will may be mine. He hath given thee the great +gift of a good man's heart. And I have no fear but that thou wilt +keep it." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +LETTICE'S DIARY. + +Netherby, _May_, 1647.--They have given us the best upper chambers in +the house, one for a withdrawing-chamber, the other for my Mother's +and my sleeping-chamber. This last has a broad embayed window +commanding the orchard, at the bottom of which is the pond where the +water-lilies grow that Roger gathered for me on that night when Dr. +Taylor and Mr. Milton discoursed together on the terrace, in speech +like rich music, about liberty of thinking and speaking. + +"England has been echoing another kind of music all these years +since, on the same theme; but it seems as if we had drawn but little +nearer a conclusion. The Presbyterians seem as convinced of the sin +of allowing any one else to think or speak freely as the poor +martyred Archbishop was. The Presbyterians, it seems, are for the +Covenant (meaning Presbytery), King, and Parliament; the Covenant +first. We for King without Covenant and with Bishops. But the +Presbyterians are against conventicles and all sectaries (except +themselves). Herein, so far, we and they agree, and herein, some +think, may be a hope for the good cause. If we could make a +compromise, order might, it is thought, be speedily restored. This, +however, seems very hard. They would have to sacrifice the Covenant, +which seems nigh as dear to them as the Bible. We, the Church by law +established; the sacred links, my Mother says, which bind us to the +Catholic Church of all the past, which the king will die, she thinks, +rather than do. The only chance, therefore, of agreement seems to +be, if the Presbyterians ever reach the point of hating or fearing +the Independents more than they love the Covenant. Then, some think +the King and the Presbyterians, Scottish and English, might unite and +overpower the Independents; and--what then? + +"I cannot at all imagine. Because, when the common enemy is gone, +Episcopacy and the Covenant still remain, and in the face of each +other. Sir Launcelot said the king thinks he has a very plain 'game' +to play. 'He must persuade one of his enemies to extirpate the +other, and then come in easily and put the weakened victor under his +feet.' This he has in letters declared to be his intention. I trust +the royal letters have been misread. For such a 'game' seems to me +very far from paternal or kingly; and, except on far better +testimony, I will not credit it. But for me there is an especial +grief in all these matters. Olive, who takes her politics mostly +from Roger, seems to lean to the Independents, who constitute the +strength of the army, and to General Cromwell, who is their idol; so +that whatever cause triumphs, nothing is likely to bring peace +between the Davenants and the Draytons. + +"At present, however, our peace in this house is much increased. My +Mother and Mistress Dorothy have concluded a treaty on the ground of +their common loyalty to His Majesty, and their common abhorrence of +'sectaries.' + +"Moreover, Mistress Dorothy is marvellous gentle and kind to us. +Having delivered her conscience, she treats my Mother with a tender +consideration and deference that go to my heart, although sometimes I +think it is only from the pity a benevolent jailer would feel for +sentenced criminals. They have been condemned. Justice will be +satisfied. And meantime, mercy may safely satisfy herself by keeping +them fed and warmed. + +"She says little; but she watches my Mother's tastes, and supplies +her with unexpected delicacies in a way which binds my whole heart to +her. + +"I scarce know why; but I always liked her. She is so downright and +true; manly, as a man may be womanly. She is most like Roger in some +ways of any of them, only he, being really a man and a soldier, is +gentler. And when she loves you, it seems to be in spite of herself, +which makes it all the sweeter. For she does love me. I am sure of +it, by the way she watches and exhorts, and contradicts me. +Especially, since I read her those sermons that afternoon when we +were waiting. I asked Olive, and she told me Mistress Dorothy said, +that afternoon, she thought I had gracious dispositions. That meant, +I opine, that she liked me. She wanted to excuse herself for liking +so worldly and Babylonish a young damosel as she believed me to be. +And, therefore, she has invested me with 'gracious dispositions,' and +believes herself commissioned to bring me out of Babylon, and to be a +'means of grace' to me, which, I am sure, I am willing she should be. +For my heart is too light and careless, I know well. Except on one +or two points. And, meantime, I flatter myself I may be an +'ordinance and means of grace' in some little measure to her, little +as she might acknowledge it. It does good people so much good to +love (really love I mean, not take in hand merely like patients) +people who are not so good as themselves. It sets them planning, +praying for others, and takes them away from looking within for +signs, and forward for rewards; by filling the heart with love, which +is the most gracious sign, and the most glorious reward in itself. + +"Sweet Mother, mine! we all have been great means of grace to her in +that way. + +"Think what she may, she would not have been a greater saint at +Little Gidding, although she had chanted the Psalter through three +hundred and sixty-five times in the year. + +"I think she and Mistress Dorothy help each other. They make me +think of the two groups of graces in the Bible. St. Paul's,--'Love, +joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, +temperance.' I picture these as sweet maidenly or matronly forms +white-robed, radiant, with low sweet voices. They represent my +Mother and the holy people of Mr. Herbert's school. Then there are +St. Peter's,--'Faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, +godliness, brotherly-kindness, charity.' These rise before me like a +company of knights in armour, valiant, true, and pure. In the kind +of plain, manly armour of the Ironsides, as Roger looked in it that +morning at Oxford, when he turned back and waved farewell to me in +the court of the College. And these represent Mistress Dorothy and +the nobler Puritans. They are the same, no doubt, essentially; love +and charity, the mother of one group, the king and crown of the +other. Yet they seem to represent to me two diverse orders of piety, +the manly and the womanly. Together, side by side, in mutual aid and +service, not front to front in battle, what a church and what a world +they might make. + +"But the great event in the house now is the bethrothal of Olive and +Dr. Antony, which took place on the very morning after Mistress +Dorothy's grand Remonstrance. + +"Dr. Antony left a day or two afterwards. And over since we have +been as busy as possible preparing for the wedding, which is to be in +July. Not a long betrothal-time. But they needed not further time +to try each other. + +"It is very pleasant to be all of us occupied for her, who is so +little wont to be occupied with herself. She seems in a little +tumult of happiness, as far as any Puritan soul can be in a tumult. + +"Many of these Puritan ways seem to me wondrous innocent and sweet. + +"They have their solemnities, I see, and their ritual, and +ceremonial; and their symbolism and sacred art, moreover, say what +Mistress Dorothy may to the contrary. + +"Tender sacred family rites and solemnities. They have, indeed, no +chapel or chaplain. But the family seems a little church; the father +is the priest. Not without sacred beauty this order, nor without +sanction either from the fathers of the Church (fathers older than +Archbishop Laud's), the fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. + +"For instance, when Olive and Dr. Antony were betrothed, Mr. Drayton +led them into his room, and laid his hands on them, and blessed them. +And that was the seal of their betrothal. Every Sunday morning, +Olive tells me, when she and Roger were children, after family +prayers, they used to kneel thus for their father's blessing. Sacred +touches, holy as coronation sacring oil, I think, to bear about the +memory of through life. But then there is this to be remembered. +When the consecrating touch is from hands which work with us in daily +life, they need to be very pure. No pomp of place, and no mist of +distance glorifies the ministrant. He had need, indeed, to be all +glorious within. + +"Family solemnities must be very true to be at all fair. I can fancy +Puritan hypocrisy, or a mere formal Puritanism, the driest and most +hideous thing in the world. + +"Then as to symbols and sacred art. What else are these Scripture +texts, carved over door-ways, graven on chimney-stones, emblazoned on +walls? 'They are not graven images,' saith Mistress Dorothy. But +what are words but images within the soul, or images, rightly used, +but children's words? Not that even as to 'holy pictures' and +'images' they are quite destitute. What else are the paintings from +Scripture on the Dutch tiles in Mr. Drayton's room, where Olive and +Roger learned from Mistress Gretel's lips their earliest Bible lore? +It is true, they are chiefly from the Old Testament. But Adam and +Eve delving, the serpent darting out his forked tongue from the tree, +Noah and the animals walking out of the ark, are as much pictures as +St. Peter fishing, or the blessed Virgin and the Babe, on church +windows? What difference, then, except that the Puritan pictures are +on tiles at home instead of on glass at church? 'They are for +instruction, and not for idolatry,' saith Mistress Dorothy. But did +not the monks in old times paint their pictures also for instruction, +and not for idolatry? 'Centuries of abuse make the most innocent +things perilous,' saith Mistress Dorothy. 'When the brazen serpent +had become an idol, Jehoshaphat called it a piece of brass, and broke +it in pieces.' I can see something in that. The sacrilege, then, is +the idolatry, not in the destruction of the idol. But alas, if we +set ourselves to destroy all things that have been, or can be made +into idols, where are we to stop? Some people made idols of the very +stones of their houses, without any scriptures thereon, or of their +firesides, without the sacred pictures. There are two things, +however, which fill me with especial reverence in these Puritan ways. +First, this sweet and sacred family piety. Second, or rather first, +for it is at the root of all, the intense conviction that every man, +woman, and child, in every word and work, has to do directly with +God, and that he, by virtue of being divine, is nearer us than all +the creatures; that to Him each one is immediately responsible, and +that, therefore, on his word only can it be safe for each one to +believe or do anything. Such conviction gives a power which ceases +to be wonderful only when you think of its source. But alas, alas! +what if this Divine word be misunderstood. + +"_July_.--Roger Drayton has come, on a few days' leave, to be present +at his sister's wedding. + +"He hath brought the strange news that the king is in the keeping of +the army. We scarcely know whether to mourn or rejoice. It came +about on this wise, as Roger told my Mother and me:-- + +"It was reported in the army that the Presbyterian party in the +Parliament designed to remove the king from Holmby, where he was, to +Oatlands, near London, there to make a separate treaty, in which the +soldiers were not to be consulted or considered. + +"On the fourth of June, therefore, Cornet Joyce, without commission, +it seems, from any one, but simply as knowing that it would be +agreeable to the army; and to prevent this design of a separate +Presbyterian treaty, went, with some seven or eight hundred men, to +Holmby House, where His Majesty had remained since we saw him in +April. + +"The Commissioners of the Parliament, who were His Majesty's jailers, +were very indignant at this interference of Cornet Joyce, and +commanded the gates to be closed, and preparations to be made to +resist an assault. Their own soldiers, on the contrary, were of the +same mind with the army and the Cornet, and threw open the gates at +once to their comrades. Nor was the king himself, it seems, +unwilling. When Cornet Joyce made his way to the royal presence, the +king spoke to him with much graciousness. He asked the Cornet if he +would promise to do him no hurt, and to force him to nothing against +his conscience. Cornet Joyce declared he had no ill intention in any +way; the soldiers only wanted to prevent His Majesty being placed at +the head of another army, and that he would be most unwilling to +force any man against his conscience, much less His Majesty. The +king, therefore, agreed to accompany him the next day, this happening +at night. + +"The next morning, at six o'clock, His Majesty condescended to meet +the soldiers. + +"He again demanded to know the Cornet's authority, and if he had no +writing from the general, Sir Thomas Fairfax. + +"'I pray you, Mr. Joyce,' he said, 'deal ingenuously with me, and +tell me what commission you have.' + +Said Joyce,-- + +"'Here is my commission.' + +"'Where?' asked the king. + +"'Behind me,' said the Cornet, pointing to his troopers; 'and I hope +that will satisfy your Majesty.' + +The King smiled. + +"'It is as fair a commission,' he said, 'and as well written as I +have ever seen in my life; a company of as handsome and proper +gentlemen as I have seen a great while. But what if I should yet +refuse to go with you? I hope you would not force me! I am your +king. You ought not to lay violent hands on your king. I +acknowledge none to be above me but God.' + +"Cornet Joyce assured His Majesty he meant him no harm; and at length +the king went with the soldiers as they desired, they suffering him +to choose between two or three places the one he liked best. + +"So, by easy stages, they conducted him to Childerley, near +Newmarket. And it is said the king was the merriest of the company. +Heaven send it to be a good augury. + +"Roger said, moreover, that His Majesty continues to be of good +cheer, and the army to be friendly disposed towards him. They have +hope yet that Sir Thomas Fairfax, General Cromwell, and Ireton may +make some arrangement to which His Majesty may honourably accede. + +"And, meantime, they allow him not only the attendance of his +faithful servants, but his own chaplains to perform the services of +the Church, which the Presbyterians refused him at Holmby. +Englishmen, especially the common people, and most of all, I think, +English soldiers, have honest hearts after all; safer to trust to +than those of men armed _cap-a-pie_ in covenants, and catechisms, and +confessions. Surely the king will yet win the hearts of the army, +and all will yet go right. Roger, meanwhile, is as stately in his +courtesy to me as a Spanish hidalgo, listening and assenting to all I +say in a way I detest. For it means that he feels our differences +too deep to venture on." + +"_July_ 2_nd_.--Roger has begun to contradict and controvert me again +delightfully. This morning we had our first serious battle. + +"Yester eve I said something about abhoring all middle states of +things. It was in reference to the poor peasants flocking around the +king. I said there was no poetry in mid-way things, or times, or +states, in mid-day, mid-summer, middle-life, or the middle-station in +the state. + +"He took this up earnestly after his manner, and went into a serious +argument to prove me wrong. It was but a weakling and half-fledged +poesy, quoth he, which must needs go to dew-drops, and rosy clouds, +and primroses, and violets, for its smiles and decorations, and could +see no glory and beauty in summer or in noon. Summer with its golden +ripening harvests, and all its depths of bountiful life in woods and +fields; noon-tide with its patient toil or its rapturous hush of +rest; manhood and womanhood with their dower of noble work and +strength to do it. He could not abide (he said), to hear the +spring-tide spoken pulingly of as if it faded instead of ripened into +summer, or youth as if it set instead of dawned into manhood. And as +to the middle station in a nation, its yeomanry and traders, nations +must have their heads to think and their hands to work; but the +middle order was the nation's heart. If that was sound, the nation +was sound, if that was corrupt and base, the nation's heart was +rotten at the core. Which (ended he) he thought these last years, +with all their miseries, had proved the heart of England was not. + +"Roger Drayton has a strange way of his own in discourse, of putting +aside all your light skirmishing forces, and closing with the very +kernel and core of the people he has to do with. The way of the +Ironsides, I suppose. I have been used to little but skirmishing in +discourse among the younger Cavaliers; light jesting talk whether the +heart or the subject be grave or gay. Even serious feelings being +hidden for the most part under a mask of levity. But Roger seldom, +perhaps never, exactly jests. His mirth, like a child's laughter, is +from the heart, as much as his gravity. He will know and have you +know what you really honour, or love, or want, or dread. + +"So it happened that to-day on the terrace we came on the very +subject I had intended always to avoid; General Cromwell. + +"I chanced to allude in passing to some of the reports I had heard +against the General, some careless words about his praying and +preaching with his men. + +"I had no notion until then how Roger reveres this man, like a son +his father, or a loyal subject his sovereign. + +"He said, quietly, but with that repressed passion which often makes +his words so strong, that no man who had ever knelt at General +Cromwell's prayers would jest at his praying, any more than any man +who had ever encountered him in battle would jest at his fighting. +That his word could inspire his men to charge like a word from +heaven, and could rally them like a re-inforcement. That after the +battle his strong utterance of Christian hope and faith could hearten +men to die, as it had heartened them to fight; that after such a +battle as Marston Moor, while directing the siege-works outside York, +he could find time to go down into the depths of his own past sorrows +to draw thence living waters of comfort for a friend (Mr. Walton) +whose son had been slain, writing him a letter of consolation (which +Roger had seen) containing words deep enough 'to drink up the +father's sorrow.' + +"Then Roger spoke of the unflinching justice, which was only the +other side of this same sympathy and care; how General Cromwell had +two of his men hanged for plundering prisoners at Winchester, and +sent others accused of the same offence to be judged by the royal +garrison at Oxford, whence the governor sent them back with a +generous acknowledgment. + +"'It is _loyalty_ you feel towards General Cromwell,' I said, 'such a +disinterested, ennobling, self-sacrificing passion as our Harry felt +for the king.' + +"He paused a moment,-- + +"'If God sends us a judge and a deliverer what else can we feel for +him?' he said, at length; 'I believe General Cromwell is the defender +of the law, and will be the deliverer of the nation, and if he will +suffer it,' he added, in a lower voice, 'of the king.' + +"'Is it true,' I asked, 'that, as you once told us, General Cromwell +and the army are courteous to His Majesty, and anxious to make good +terms with him? Can it be possible that there may yet be an +honourable peace?' 'I believe,' he replied, 'that all things else +are possible, if only it is possible for the king to be true. But if +a word, king's or peasant's, is worth nothing, what other bond +remains between man and man? Forgive my rough speech. I know your +loyalty is a sacred thing to you. If the king will deal truly, I +believe General Cromwell will make him such a king as he never was +before. But who can twist ropes of sand? For one who is untrue +seems to me not to be a real substance at all, not even a shadow of a +substance, but simply a dream or phantasm, simply _nothing_.' + +"I felt myself flush. We have sacrificed too much for His Majesty, +not to believe in him. Yet I fear he has other thoughts as to the +double-dealing to be permitted in diplomacy than Harry had, or many +gentlemen who serve him. + +"I could only answer Roger by saying,-- + +"Adversity makes a king sacred if nothing else can. If the king's +cause were once more to prosper, we might debate such things as +these. But not now, Roger. I dare not now.' + +"He looked as if words were on his lips, he could scarcely, with all +his reserve and courtesy, hold back. But he turned away, and calling +Lion from the pond where he was chasing some wild-fowl, we went into +the house. + +"_July_ 4_th_.--Dr. Antony has come for the wedding. He brought us a +moving account of the two days spent by the Royal children. James +the Duke of York, the Duke of Gloucester, and the Princess Elizabeth, +with His Majesty, at Caversham, near Reading. The Independent +officers of the army permitted it. And they say General Cromwell +himself, having sons and daughters of his own, shed tears to see the +affection of the king and the innocent playfulness of the children, +knowing so little of the dangers around them. + +"_July_ 5_th_.--Olive looked wondrous fair as a bride, in her plain +spotless dress, without an ornament, partly from Puritanical +plainness, and partly because the family jewels went long since with +the thimbles and bodkins of the London dames into the treasury at the +Guildhall. So grave and serene, pure and young, with her fair pale +face, and her smooth white brow and soft true eyes. + +"She was married in the church, with some fragments of the +marriage-service, the whole being forbidden. + +"It was sweet afterwards to see her kneel while my Mother kissed her +forehead, and placed a string of large pearls round her neck, with a +jewel. + +"They had always a singular love for each other, Olive and my Mother. +The bride and bridegroom rode away together after noon-tide towards +their London home. + +"_July_ 6_th_.--This morning I rose early and went down to the pond +in the orchard, and being led back by the sight of it to the thought +of Olive and old times, strayed on towards the Lady Well where first +we met. + +"By the way I passed old Gammer Grindle's cottage, and finding the +door open, early as it was, went in to tell her about the bride. + +"And there I saw Cicely and the child again; and heard her terrible +story of wrong and sorrow. + +"It made me very sad, and as I went on towards the Well, it set me +thinking of many things. + +"Why did Olive never tell me? But then I thought how I had more than +once wilfully refused to believe evil of Sir Launcelot, choosing to +believe what I liked. And a cold shudder came over me as I sat by +the Lady Well, to think how near danger I had been, and how terrible +it would have been if I had cared for him (not indeed that I ever +could). I meditated also whether it was not yet possible to get +right done to Cicely. And I resolved as far as I could for the +future never to believe anything because I wished, but because it was +true; that is, to try not to wish about things being true, but to +search out honestly if they are. And I was standing looking into the +Well, sunk deep in these thoughts, wondering if any one ever really +did quite do this, when I heard a footstep and glancing upwards, I +met Roger Drayton's eyes. + +"And then he told me of his love. I cannot say I had never thought +of it before. I had sometimes even thought it might one day come to +something like this, and had even imagined a little, what I should +say, or perhaps, not so much what, as how I would say many wise +things to him and manage it so ingeniously that in some marvellous +way all the difficulties about the Civil wars would vanish, he would +see he had made some mistakes, and I would acknowledge candidly that +our side had not been blameless, and then I might admit, that, +perhaps, one day he might speak to me again on the other subject. At +least I know these dreams of mine always ended in my being left in +perfect certainty that Roger would one day join in the good cause, +and Roger perhaps in a very little uncertainty as to the rest. + +"But everything went quite the other way. Roger was so much in +earnest about what he had to say, that what I had to say about +politics unfortunately went entirely out of my head. Roger has left +me with anything but a certainty or probability of his ever being a +Cavalier, as things are at present. And I have left him in no +uncertainty at all about the rest. + +"I am afraid it was a golden opportunity lost. But how could I help +it? When he showed all his heart to me, how could I help his seeing +mine? And since I am sure there is no one in the world to be +compared with Roger, how could I help his seeing that I feel and +think so? Besides, after all, there is something base in such +conditions. It might have been trifling with his conscience. And +that would have been almost a crime. + +"Wherefore, I am sure I could not have done otherwise, and I think I +have done right. + +"Yet we made no promises. We know we love each other. That is all. +And I know he has loved me ever since he can remember. And I know, +with such a heart as his, once is for ever? + +"And I know that now, if it were possible, that the whole world could +come between us; a world of oceans and continents, a world of war and +politics and calumnies, it would always be outside, it would never +come between our hearts. + +"My Mother thinks so too. I feel now, for the first time, in some +ways what it is to have a Mother's heart to rest on. Although +through all her tender silence, I feel she sees more difficulties in +the way than I do. + +"_July_ 10_th_.--A world of oceans and continents no separation! How +boldly I wrote! Roger is gone back to the army; gone not half an +hour, barely a mile away, scarcely out of sight. If I listen I fancy +I can almost hear his horse hoofs in the distance. And it seems as +if that mile were a world of oceans and continents, as if these +moments since he left were the beginning of an eternity, altogether +beyond the poor counted minutes and hours and days of time. But a +minute since, his hand in mine, and what may happen before I see him +again? How do I know if I shall ever see him again? In love such as +ours, ever and never so terribly intertwine! + +"Unbelieving that I am. Now I shall have to learn if I understand +really anything of what it is to trust God and to pray. + +"Prayer and trust must be as deep as _this love_, or they are nothing. + +"They must be _deeper_, or they are no support." + + +OLIVE'S RECOLLECTIONS. + +We began our home in London in troublous times. + +As we came near our house which was not far from the river and from +Whitehall, we saw something which moved me not a little, a coach +being drawn to St. James's Palace, guarded by Parliament soldiers. A +few people turned and gazed as it passed; and two children were +looking out of the window. These were the Royal children being taken +back to St. James's Palace after their two days with the king at +Caversham. There was something very mournful in beholding these +young creatures, born to be children of the nation as well as of the +king, taken to their royal home as to a prison, dwelling in their own +land as exiles, their Mother a fugitive in France, their Father a +captive among his own people. + +There is a terrible strength in the pathetic majesty which enshrines +a fallen king; a well-nigh irresistible power in the crown which has +become a crown of thorns. A captive monarch is a more perilous foe +than a victorious army to the subjects who hold him captive. How +often during those sad years, 1647 and 1648, I had to go over all the +causes of the civil war again and again; Eliot slowly murdered in his +unlawful and unwholesome prison; the silenced Parliaments; the +tortured Puritans; the imprisoned patriots. How often I had to +recall all its course--Prince Rupert's plundering; the king's +repeated duplicity, slowly wearing out the nation's lingering trust +in him, and baffling all attempts at negotiation. I had to repeat +these things to myself, by an effort of will again and again, in +order to keep true to our principles at all. + +And the conflict with this rebound of instinctive loyalty, which went +on in my heart secretly, was going on in the city openly at the time +when we took up our abode there. + +So strong and general, indeed, was this rebound of loyalty, that in +that August, 1647, which was our honeymoon, it seemed that the whole +city of London--at the beginning of the war the Parliament's very +strength and stay--was panting to return to its allegiance, led by +the Presbyterian majority in the House of Commons. The conflict +seemed altogether to have shifted its ground. The enemy now dreaded +by the city was not the king, but the army which its own liberal +contributions and persevering courage had done so much to create. +Like the German magician, Dr. Faustus, of whom Aunt Gretel used to +tell us, the city crouched trembling before the untameable spirit it +had evoked, as from moment to moment it grew into more terrible +stature and strength. + +Sunday the 1st August, 1647, my first Sunday in London, was a +memorable day to me. + +Through all the hush of the Puritan Sabbath there was a deep hum of +unrest throughout the city, a ceaseless stir of men walking in silent +haste hither and thither, or gathering for eager debate at the +corners of streets, in the squares, or in any public place. It was a +notable contrast to the cheerful stir of animal life and the deep +under-stillness at Netherby. + +On the Friday before, the House of Commons had been invaded, not as +once in the beginning of the strife by the king trampling on +"Privilege" in quest of five "traitors," but by a crowd of 'prentices +with hats on, clamouring for the king against the army. + +Then the two Speakers of the Lords and Commons had fled to the army, +with the mace, and all the Independent members. + +The eleven banished Presbyterian members had returned; among them +Denzil Hollis (one of the king's fated "five traitors" who had +afterwards withstood the royal forces so gallantly at Brentford) and +Sir John Clotworthy, whose zeal had pursued Archbishop Laud with +theological questions even on the scaffold. + +Recruitings, gatherings of men and arms, and drillings and +gun-practice had been going on in all quarters of the city on the +Saturday. + +On Monday these were renewed with the earliest light of the summer +morning. Drums beating, trumpets calling, 'prentices hurrahing on +all sides, "No peace with Sectaries." The London militia, "one and +all," against the factious army, then believed to be couching +tranquilly near Bedford. + +But on Tuesday the army rose from its lair, and advanced to Hounslow. +Then all Southwark came pouring in terrified throngs across London +Bridge, demanding peace with the army, and declaring they would not +fight. The Presbyterian General Poyntz was indignant, and there was +tumult and bloodshed in the streets. + +Closer and closer that defied but dreaded monster of an army came, +every step forward and every halt watched with fluctuations of hope +and fear in the city. The army, meanwhile, strong in the presence of +the king, the speakers, the mace, and Oliver Cromwell, looked on +itself as not only representing but _being_ all the three powers of +the state combined, inspired by an invisible power stronger than all +states; and so it advanced majestically free from hurry or disorder. +Not a provision-cart or pack-horse was stopped on its way into the +city. And on Friday, August the 9th, the army appeared in the city, +marching three deep through Hyde Park with boughs of laurel in their +hats, through Westminster, along the Strand, through the City, to the +Tower. In a day or two they were quietly established in the villages +around, the headquarters being at Putney. The king was lodged the +while at Hampton Court. + +Not an act of vengeance nor of disorder, as far as I know, disgraced +their triumph. Not that this was any matter of wonder to us. Our +wonder was that sober and godly citizens should wonder at the +soberness and godliness of the army, every regiment of which was a +worshipping congregation, and the soul of it Oliver Cromwell. + +Job Forster was sorely vexed at the evil reports spread concerning +the soldiers. We saw him often during that autumn. + +"Have they forgotten," he said, "that we have won Marston Moor and +Naseby for them? that we have been marching through the land all +these years, and not left a godly homestead nor a family the worse +for us throughout the length and breadth of the country? A man might +think it was we who sacked Leicester and plundered and burnt villages +and farms far and wide. They should have heard the prayers our poor +men poured forth by the camp-fires on the battle-fields where we shed +our blood for them. Such prayers as might well-nigh lift the roofs +from their great vaults of churches, and belike the great stone also +from their hearts. Men creeping easily among streets, praying safely +as long as they like behind walls, and sleeping every night on +feather-beds, might be the better for a good stretch now and then in +one of our Cromwell's marches, and a hard bed on the moors, and a +good look right up into the sky, beyond the roofs, and the clouds, +and the stars, and the Covenants and Confessions." + +Roger also chafed much at the citizens, but most of all at their +misunderstanding of General Cromwell. All that autumn, said Roger, +the General, with Ireton, Vane, and Harry Marten, and other faithful +men, were labouring hard to establish peace on a lasting foundation, +as the proposals of the army proved. They would have provided that +His Majesty's person, the queen, and the royal issue should be +restored to honour and all personal rights; that the royal authority +over the militia should be subject to the advice of Parliament for +ten years; that all civil penalties for ecclesiastical offences (for +instance, whether for using or disusing the Common Prayer), should be +removed; that some old decayed boroughs should be disfranchised, and +the representation be made more equal; that parliaments should last +two years, not to be dissolved except by their own consent, unless +they had sat one hundred and twenty days; that grand jurymen should +be chosen in some impartial way, and not at the discretion of the +sheriff. But no man would have it so. The Levellers in the army +clamoured for justice on the "Chief Delinquent," and declared that +General Cromwell had betrayed them to the king. There was a mutiny +which Cromwell himself barely succeeded in quelling. The +Presbyterians would not give up the right to enforce the Covenant. +The king carried on negotiations at the same time with General +Cromwell, with the Presbyterians, and with the Irish Papists; +intending, as was showed, alas! too surely, from intercepted letters, +to be true to none, except, perchance, the last. + +On November the 12th, early in the morning, the news flashed through +the city, cried from street to street, that the king had fled from +Hampton Court; and Roger, who was with us, that morning, said,-- + +"Once more General Cromwell would have saved the king and the +country. But the king will not be saved. Now he must turn wholly to +the country." + +"But what," replied my husband, "if the country also refuses to be +saved by General Cromwell?" + +"Then for a New England across the seas," said Roger. "But we are +not come to that yet." + +For even after the king's flight Roger clung to the hope of +reconciliation, his hopes nourished by secret fountains flowing from +the very icebergs of his fears. For with the bond which bound People +and King, might be snapped for him the bond, not indeed of love, but +of hope between him and Lettice. + +Still throughout that dreary winter negotiations went on between the +Parliament and His Majesty at the Castle of Carisbrook. More and +more hopeless as more and more men became mournfully convinced of the +king's untruth. Until, in April, 1648, when, from the upper windows +of our house, I could see on one side the trees bursting into leaf in +St. James' Park, and on the other the river shining with a thousand +tints of green and gold with the reflection of the wooded gardens of +the palaces and mansions from Westminster to the Temple; when the +fleets of swans began to pass by on their way to build their nests in +the reedy islets by Richmond or Kew, the news came from all quarters +that, amidst all this sweet stir of natural life, the country was +stirring with fatal insurrections from Kent to the Scottish borders. + +The first outburst was in London itself. + +A few 'prentices were playing at bowls on Sunday, April 9th, in +Moorfields, during church time. The train-bands tried to disperse +them. They fought, were routed by the train-bands, but rallied +quickly to the old cry of "Clubs." All through that night we heard +the tumult surging up and down through the city. The watermen, a +powerful body of men, joined them. The cry was, "For God and King +Charles." And not till the Ironsides charged on them from +Westminster was the riot quelled. + +Then came tidings that Chepstow and Pembroke were taken by the +royalists, and that a Scottish army of forty thousand was coming +across the borders to undo all that had been done and to restore the +king. + +About that time Roger came into the chamber where I was busied with +confections, and unlacing and laying aside his helmet, he sat down in +silence. + +His face was fixed and very pale. + +"No ill-tidings?" I said. + +"I ought not to think so," he replied. + +And then he told me of a solemn prayer-meeting, held throughout the +day before at Windsor Castle, by the army leaders. How some of them, +being "sore perplexed that what they had judged to do for the good of +these poor nations had not been accepted by them, were minded to lay +down arms, disband, and return each to his home, there to suffer +after the example of Him who, having done what He could to save His +people, sealed His life by suffering." But others were differently +minded, and striving to trace back the causes of their present +divisions and weakness, they came at last to what they believed the +root, those cursed carnal conferences which their own conceited +wisdom had prompted them to the year before with the king's party. + +Then Major Goffe solemnly rehearsed from the Scripture the words, +"Turn you at my reproof, and I will pour out my Spirit unto you;" and +thereupon their sin and their duty was set unanimously with weight on +each heart, so that none was able to speak a word to each other for +bitter weeping, at the sense and shame of their sins and their base +fear of men." "Cromwell, Ireton, and his Ironsides weeping bitterly! +It was a thing not to forget," said Roger, pausing. + +"Then, Roger," said I, trembling, "if this was the sin they wept for, +what is the _duty_ they see before them?" + +Roger bowed his forehead on his hands as they rested on the table +before him, and his reply came muffled and slow. + +"'To call Charles Stuart, that man of blood, to an account for that +blood he hath shed and mischief he hath done to his utmost against +the Lord's cause and people in these poor nations.' This is what +they deem their duty," he said. + +"Call the king to an account, Roger!" I said, "the king!" + +I could scarce speak the word for horror. + +"Kings have to be called to account," he said. + +"Yes, in heaven," I said. "But on earth, Roger, on earth never." + +"Herod was called to account on earth, Olive," said he. + +"True, but it was by God, Roger," I said. "Not by man! never by man!" + +"By the law, Olive," he said; "by God's law, which is above all men." + +"But what men can ever have right to execute the law on a king?" I +said; "on their own king?" + +"Woe to the men who have to do it," said Roger; "but bitterer woe to +the man who does not the work God sets him to do, whatever woe it +brings on the doing. Olive, who gave," he added, mournfully, +"sanction to Laud and Strafford's oppressions, and to Prince Rupert's +plunderings?" + +I could only weep. + +"Oh, Roger," I said, "let the thunderbolt, or the pestilence, or any +of God's terrible angels do this work in His time. They are strong +and swift enough. It is not for men." + +He made no reply. + +"What lies between this terrible resolve and its execution?" I asked +at length. + +"Chepstow and Pembroke to be besieged and taken; Wales to be +reconquered; the Scottish army of forty thousand to be driven back +over the borders," he replied. + +"Then there is a hope of escape for the king yet." + +"There is an interval, Olive," he replied. "These things must take +time. But they must be done. In a few days, General Cromwell is to +lead us forth to do them. The order is given for the army to march +to Wales." + +I did not venture to mention Lettice's name to him. We both knew too +well what a gulf this terrible resolve, if ever it came to action, +must create between us. But before he left he said,-- + +"Olive, I don't think it is cowardice not to say anything of this to +Lettice yet. Her mother, she writes to-day, is failing so sadly. +And there are so many chances in battle. If I fall, I need not leave +on her memory of me what would so embitter sorrow to her. + +"And the king might escape," thought I. "His Majesty had all but +succeeded in getting through the bars of his chamber-window not a +month since. But I did not say this to Roger." + +On the next day, the 3rd of May, the army marched forth, and with it +Roger and Job Forster. And my husband went with them on his work of +mercy. + +So that this summer of 1648 was a very anxious and solitary one for +me. I longed much to see my Father, but he was occupied in quelling +insurrection in the North. And the city was so unquiet, I thought it +selfish to send for either of my aunts. + +Not that I was without friends. Now and then it fortified me greatly +to have a glimpse of Mr. John Milton in his small house at Holborn; +to hear his strong words of determination and hope for the English +people; and, perchance, to catch some strains from his organ. + +But my chief solaces were, first the morning exercises, between six +and eight of the clock, at St. Margaret's Church near the Abby, where +there was daily prayer, and praise, and reading of God's word, with +comments to press it home to the heart, from divers excellent and +godly ministers. + +And next, a friendship I had made with good Mr. John Henry a Welsh +gentleman who kept the royal garden and orchard at Whitehall, and +lived in a pleasant house close on Whitehall Stairs. His wife had +died scarce three years before, of a consumption, and it was edifying +to hear him and his daughters speak of her virtue and piety; how she +had looked well to the ways of her household, had prayed daily with +them, catechized her children, and devoted her only son Philip to the +work of the ministry in his infancy, and how a little before she died +she had said, "My head is in heaven, my heart is in heaven; it is but +one step more and I shall be there too." + +This friendship solaced me for many causes; primarily for three: in +that Mr. Henry was a godly gentleman; in that he lived in a garden by +fair water, which reminded me of Netherby; and in that he was a +Royalist. For it did my heart good to near some good words spoken +for the captive king, poor gentleman; and I have been wont ever to +gain benefit from good men who differ from us on party points. With +such we leave the party differences, and fly to the common harmonies, +which are deeper. + +Many a delightsome hour have I spent in Mr. Henry's house in the +orchard, by the river, watching the boats, and gay barges, and the +fishers, and the white fleets of swans, and the flow of the broad +river sweeping by, always like a poem of human life, set to a stately +organ music, plying my needle meanwhile beside the young daughters of +the house, with cheerful converse. But most of all I loved to +hearken to the father's discourse concerning the king and the court +in the days gone by. How the young princes used to play with his +Philip, and gave him gifts, and had wondrous courtesy for him; and +how Archbishop Laud took a particular kindness for him when he was a +child, because he would be very officious to attend to the water-gate +(which was part of his father's charge), to let the archbishop +through when he came late from council, to cross the water to +Lambeth; and how afterwards the lad Philip had been taken to see the +fallen archbishop in the Tower, and he had given him some "new money." + +It was strange to think how the great River of Time had borne all +that stately company away, king, court, archbishop, council, like +some fleeting pomp of gay barges beneath the windows, or like the +masques and pageants they had delighted in, of which Mr. Henry told +me. It was good, too, to have such touches of simple kindness, as +remembering a child's taste for bright new money, thrown into the +dark picture we Puritans had among us of the persecutor of our +brethren. It is good for the persecuted to feel by some human touch +that their persecutors are human; good while the persecuted suffer, +good beyond price if ever they come to rule and judge. + +Sometimes, moreover, Mr. Philip the son came home from Christchurch, +Oxford, where he was a student, and his discourse was wondrous sacred +and pleasant for so young a gentleman. One thing I remember he said +which was a special solace to me. He would blame those who laid so +much stress on every one knowing the exact time of their conversion. +"Who can so soon be aware of the daybreak," quoth he, "or of the +springing up of the seed sown? The blind man in the Gospel is our +example. This and that concerning the recovering of his sight he +knew not: 'But this one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I +see.'" Which words have often returned to my comfort. In that, +instead of sending me back into my past life, and down into my heart +to look for tokens of grace, they set me looking up to my Lord, to +see his gracious countenance; and in looking I am enlightened, be it +for the first time, or the thousand and first. + +Meantime the great tide of Time was flowing on, bearing on its breast +to the sea royal fleets, and little row-boats such as mine. + +In July the sailors of the fleet suddenly declared for the king, +landed the Parliament admiral, and crossing the Channel, took on +board the Prince of Wales, acknowledging him as their commander. + +At this news my heart beat as high with hope as the fiercest +royalist's. The Prince of Wales with a fleet in the Downs! the king +his father in prison close to the shore at Carisbrook! what could +hinder a rescue? But no rescue was attempted. Weeks passed on--the +opportunity was lost; the fleet was won back to the Parliament, and +the king remained at Carisbrook. I have never heard any attempt to +explain why the prince neglected this chance of saving the king. It +made my heart ache to think of the captive sovereign watching all +those weeks for rescue, (for he sent to entreat it might be +attempted) and listening for the sound of friendly guns, and the +appearance of a band of loyal seamen, all in vain. + +For all this time his doom was coiling closer and closer round him. + +Pembroke and Chepstow were retaken. General Cromwell wrote from +Nottingham for shoes for his "poor tried soldiers," wearied with a +hundred and fifty miles hasty marching across the wild country of +Wales towards the north. In August came the tidings of the total +defeat of the Scottish army at Preston. + +I had just received the news of this in a letter from my husband, and +was sitting alone in my chamber, tossed hither and thither in mind, +as was my wont during those anxious months, scarce knowing at any +news whether to rejoice or to mourn, in that every victory of the +army seemed but to bring a step nearer the fulfillment of that +dreadful purpose of calling the king to account. By way of quieting +these uneasy thoughts, I rose to go to good Mr. Henry's, when a +little stir at the door aroused me, and in another minute I was +clasped to Aunt Gretel's heart, sobbing out my gladness at seeing her. + +"Hush, sweetheart, hush," she said, "that is the worst of surprises. +I meant to save thee suspense, and to make as little disturbance as +possible." + +"I wanted thee so sorely," said I. "It is not thy coming that has so +moved me; it was the trying to do without thee." + +In half an hour she had unpacked her small bundle, and established +herself in the guest-chamber, with everything belonging to her as +quietly in its place, as if it had never known another. Her presence +brought an unspeakable quiet with it. The solitary house became home +again. And in another fortnight we were rejoicing together over my +first-born, our little Magdalene; the fountain of delight opened for +us in the desert of those dreary times. + +And in September my husband returned to me. + +Preston was the last battle of that campaign worthy the name. The +Scottish royalist army was broken up, and General Cromwell was +welcomed in Edinburgh, and by the Covenanters everywhere, as the +deliverer of the land. + +Throughout September the king was holding conferences at Newport with +the Commissioners of the Parliament. All bore witness to the ability +and readiness with which he spoke. His hair had turned gray, his +face was furrowed with deep lines of care, but all the old majesty +was in his port, and even those who had known him before were +surprised at his learning and wit. + +But, alas, it was mere speech. The king wrote to his friends +excusing himself for making concessions, by the assurance that he +merely did it in order to facilitate his escape. + +And more than that, all the actors in that drama, sincere or not, +were rapidly fading into mere performers in a pageant. The decisive +conferences were held, the true work was done. The doom was fixed +elsewhere. + +By the middle of November the army, victorious from Wales and +Scotland, and mindful of the prayer-meeting at Windsor, was again at +St. Albans, calling for justice on the Chief Delinquent. + +On the 29th of November the king was removed from Carisbrook to Hurst +Castle, a lonely, bare and melancholy fort opposite to the Isle of +Wight, whose walls were washed by the sea. + +On December the 2d the quiet of Mr. Henry's house and of the royal +orchard was broken, by the arrival of a portion of the Parliament +army at Whitehall, trampling down with heavy armed tread the grass +which had grown in the deserted palace-court. + +On Sunday there was much preaching in many quarters, of a kind little +likely to calm the storm. In the churches the Presbyterian preachers +declaimed fervently against the atrocity and iniquity of seizing the +person of the king. In the parks Independent soldiers preached on +the equality of all before the law of God. "Tophet is ordained of +old," one of them took for his text. For the king it is prepared. A +notable example, my husband said, of that random reading of the +Sacred Scriptures which turns them into a lottery of texts to conjure +with, like a witch's charms. + +In the Parliament my old hero Mr. Prinne, with his cropped ears and +his branded forehead, stood up and boldly pleaded for the king, never +braver, I thought, than then. + +On the 5th of December came another invasion of the Parliament House, +Colonel Pride and his soldiers turning all the Presbyterian and +Royalist members back from the doors. "Pride's Purge." + +It was a sorely perplexed time. Had the very act of despotism which +first roused the nation to the point of civil war now to be repeated +in the name of liberty for the ruin of the king? + +"What are we fighting for? I used to ask myself. The battle-cries, +as well as the front of the armies, had so strangely changed. For +the king and Parliament? The king was in prison. The Parliament was +reduced to fifty members. For the nation? The nation was half in +insurrection. For liberty? No party seemed to allow it to any other. + +Roger and the Ironsides alone seemed clear as to the answer. "We are +fighting--not under six hundred members of Parliament, nor under +fifty, but under one leader given us by God; under General Cromwell," +he said. "And he is fighting for the country, to save it and make it +free and righteous, and glorious in spite of itself. When he has +done it, it will be acknowledged. Till then he must be content to be +misjudged, and we must content he should be, as the heroes have been +too often, and the saints nearly always, until their work, perhaps +until their life, is done." + +I lay awake much during those nights of December. My little +Magdalene was often restless, and I used to listen to the flow of the +river through the silence of the sleeping city and think how the sea +was washing the walls of the king's desolate prison, praying for him, +and for General Cromwell, and all, and thanking God that my lot was +the lowly one of submitting instead of that of deciding, in these +terrible times. + +But a sorer sorrow was advancing slowly on us all. On the 10th of +December came an imploring letter from Lettice, saying that her +mother had failed sadly during the last week, that she and her mother +longed for Dr. Antony, and her mother even more for me and the babe. + +The next day we were on the road to Netherby, Aunt Gretel, my +husband, the babe, and I. + +It was late in the evening of the second day when we reached the dear +old house. + +We were met with a hush, which fell on me like a chill. The Lady +Lucy had fallen into one of those quiet sleeps which of late had +become so rare with her, and the whole household was quieted so as +not to disturb her. + +The subdued tone into which everything falls, in a house in which +there has been long sickness, and where everything has been ordered +with reference to one sufferer, fell heavily on us, coming in from +the fresh autumn air with voices attuned to the bracing winds, and +hearts eager with expectations of welcome. It was like being ushered +into a church hushed for some mournful ceremony; and we stepped +noiselessly, and spoke under our breath, until an unsubdued wail from +the only creature of the company unable to understand the change, the +baby waking suddenly from sleep, broke the dreary spell of stillness. + +The Lady Lucy heard the little one's cry, and sent to crave a glimpse +of us all that night. + +In her chamber alone, throughout the house that anxious hush was +absent. She spoke in her natural voice, though now lower than even +its usual sweet low tones, from weakness. She had a bright welcoming +word for each, and while gratefully heeding my husband's counsel, +declared that baby would be her head physician. The very touch of +the soft little fingers and the sound of her little cooings and +crowings had healing in them, she said. + +She looked less changed than I had expected. But my husband shook +his head and would give little promise. Lettice seemed to me more +altered than her mother. Her eyes had a steady, deep, watchful look +in them, very unlike her wonted changeful brilliancy. She said +nothing beyond a few words of welcome to me that night. But the next +morning the first moment we were alone together she took my hands, +and pressing them to her heart, she said,-- + +"Tell me Olive; I have been afraid to ask any one else, but I must +know. What do they mean by Petitions from the army for justice on +the King?" + +I was so startled by her sudden appeal, I could not meet her eyes nor +think what to say. I could only murmur something about there having +been so many Petitions, Remonstrances, and Declarations, which had +ended in talking. + +"True," said she, "but the army are like no other party in the state. +They do not end with talking. They know what they want, and mean +what they say, and do what they mean. What do they mean by Petitions +against the Chief Delinquent?" + +"Many do think, Lettice," I said, "that the king himself, and not +only his counsellors, began all the evil." + +"I know," she replied. "But they have had justice enough on the +king, I should think, to satisfy any one. They have deprived him of +all power, separated him from the queen and the royal children, and +all who love him, and shut him up behind iron bars. And now, they +petition for justice on him. What would they do to him worse, Olive? +What can he suffer more? What has the king left but life?" + +I could not answer her. + +"To touch _that_, Olive," she continued, looking steadily into my +eyes, and compelling me by the very intensity of her gaze to meet +them, "to touch that would be crime, the worst of crimes. It would +be regicide, parricide." + +"But how could it ever be, Olive?" She went on. "They have +assassinated kings I know before now. But a king brought to justice +(as they call it) like a common criminal! Since the world was, such +a thing was never known. It can never be, Olive, she added in a +trembling voice, "I have heard the king dreads assassination. Do +you? Could his enemies descend to that depth?" + +"Never, Lettice," I replied, "never." And in saying thus I could +meet her eyes frankly and fearlessly. + +Her face lighted up. + +"Never! no, I believe not. Then there can surely be little fear. +There is no tribunal which can judge the king. No bar for him to +stand arraigned before but the judgment-seat of God. A king was +never condemned and put to death deliberately and solemnly in the +face of his own people, and of all the nations. Never since the +world was. And it never could be. From assassination you are sure +he is safe. Be honest with me, Olive. There are base men in all +parties. You are _sure_?" + +"As sure as of my life," I said, "as sure as of my father's word, or +Roger's." + +"Then there can be no reason to fear," she said. "I will cast away +this awful dread. Oh, Olive," she exclaimed, bursting into tears, +"you have brought me new life. Do you know that sometimes during +these last few days, since I heard of those Petitions, I have almost +prayed that if such a fearful crime and curse could be hanging over +England, my Mother might be taken to God first, and learn about it +first there, where we shall understand it all. But you have +comforted me, Olive. I need make no such prayers. What I have so +dreaded can never be." + +I felt almost guilty of falsehood in letting her thus take comfort. +Yet if my husband's fears about Lady Lucy were well-founded, there +was little need for such a prayer. And to Time I might surely leave +it to unveil the horrors that after all might be averted. + + +But no intervention from above or from below came to avert the steady +unfolding of the great tragedy on which the nation's eyes were fixed. + +The king went on to his doom, as the doomed in some terrible old +tragedy of destiny, tremblingly watchful for the storm to break from +the side whence there was no danger, but all the time advancing with +blind fearlessness to confront the lightnings which were to smite him. + +In the solitary sea-washed walls of Hurst Castle he listened for the +stealthy tread of the assassin. And when at midnight, on the 17th of +December, the creak of the drawbridge was heard between the dash of +the waves, and then the tramp of armed horsemen echoing beneath the +castle-gate, the king rose and spent an hour alone in prayer. +Colonel Harrison, who commanded these men, had been named to him as +one likely to be employed to assassinate him. "I trust in God who is +my helper," said the king to his faithful servant, Herbert; "but I +would not be surprised. This is a fit place for such a purpose," and +he was moved to tears; no unmanly tears, and no groundless fears. He +was not the first of his unhappy race who had been the victim of +treacherous midnight murders. But when on the morrow he recognized +in Colonel Harrison's frank countenance and honest converse one +incapable of such baseness, his spirits rose, and he rode away almost +gayly with his escort of gallant and well-mounted men, courteous +enough in their demeanour to him. In the daylight, and in the royal +halls of Windsor, where they lodged him, he felt strong again in the +sacredness of the king's person, and alas he fancied himself strong +in those false schemes of policy which, and which only, had divested +his royal person of its sacredness in the hearts of his people. "He +had yet three games to play," he said, "the least of which gave him +hope of regaining all." + +On the 5th of January he gave orders for sowing melon-seed at +Wimbledon; and dwelt on Lord Ormond's work for him in Ireland. He +made a jest of the threat of bringing him to a public trial. Kings +had been killed in battle, treacherously put to agonizing deaths in +dungeons whose walls tell no tales, and let no cries of anguish +through, secretly stabbed at midnight. But the rebels it seemed +plain were not foes of that stamp. Even the example three of his +Cavaliers had lately given them in treacherously assassinating +Rainsborough, one of Cromwell's bravest officers at Doncaster, +kindled in the most fanatical of the Roundheads no emulation, but +simply a burning indignation and contempt. Save the sword of battle, +or the dagger of the murderer, no weapon was known wherewith to kill +a king. The Roundheads did not number assassination among their +"instruments of justice." The war was over. What then was there for +His Majesty to fear? + +Strafford, indeed, had been almost as confident up to the last. And +neither gray hairs or consecration had saved the Archbishop's head +from the scaffold. But between an anointed king and the loftiest of +his subjects, according to the royal and the royalist creed, the +distinction was not of degree but of nature. + +All the courts of Europe surely would rise and interfere ere a king +should be tried before a tribunal of his lieges, of creatures who +held honour and life by his breath. + +Nor only earthly courts. Would the One Tribunal before which a +sovereign alone could be summoned, suffer such an infringement of its +rights? + +So the king went on jesting at the thought of his subjects bringing +him to trial, playing his "three games," and peacefully sowing seeds +for more harvests than one. + + +And meanwhile Cromwell came back slowly advancing from Scotland to +London; Petitions for Justice on the Chief Delinquent lay on the +table of the House of Commons not unheeded; on the 6th of January, +Colonel Pride, with his soldiers, guarded the door of the House of +Commons, and sent thence every member who disposed still to prolong +treaties with the king; in the afternoon of that same 6th of January, +General Cromwell was thanked by the "purged" house, or Rump, of fifty +members, for his services, and the High Court of Justice was +instituted for the trial of "Charles Stuart, for traitorously and +tyrannically seeking to overthrow the rights and liberties of the +people." And on the 19th of January, not three weeks after he had +been tranquilly planning at Westminster for his summer garden crops, +and sowing seed for other harvests in Ireland, the king was sitting +in Westminster Hall arraigned before this Court as a "tyrant, +traitor, and murderer." + +And still only were the heavens unmoved, but not a word of +remonstrance or of generous pleading had come from one crowned head +in Europe. + +But meantime over our little world at Netherby that awful Presence +was hovering to which all the outward terrors that may, or may not +surround it, the midnight dagger, the headsman's axe, the crowds of +eager gazers around the scaffold, are but as the trappings of the +warrior to his sword, or the glitter of the axe to its edge. Death +was silently wearing away the little remaining strength of Lady Lucy +Davenant. + +There was one amongst us nearer the beginning of the new life than +any of us knew, so near that the roar of the political tempest around +us was hushed ere it reached her chamber, and she lay on the +threshold of the other world almost as unconscious of the storms of +this as our little infant Magdalene, whose cradle she used to delight +to have beside her. + +I can remember, as if it were yesterday, the dim tender smile with +which she used to watch the babe asleep beside her. + +Once she said to me,-- + +"There seems to me something strangely alike, Olive, in the darling's +place and mine, though to all outward seeming so different. I lie +and look at her and think of the angels in the Percy Shrine at the +Minster at Beverly, how they bear in their arms to Jesus a little +helpless new-born soul, and He stretches out His hands to take it to +His bosom--a soul new-born from death, to the deathless life with Him. + +"Sometimes it seems like that, Olive, what is coming to me; so great +and perfect the change. Sometimes so easy and simple; more like +laying aside garments we have worn through the night bathing in the +water of life, and stepping refreshed, strong, and 'clothed in +raiment clean and white'--into the next chamber, to meet Him who +awaits us there. So little the change, for we have in us the +treasure we shall bear with us. The new eternal life is in our Lord, +and not in any state or time; and since we have him with us, both +here and there, it seems only like stepping a little further into the +Father's house--from the threshold to the inner chambers--and hearing +Him nearer and seeing Him more clearly. Tell Lettice I had these +comforting thoughts, Olive," she would say; "I cannot speak to her, +she is too much moved; and she wants me to say I long to stay on +earth, and I cannot, Olive. I cannot feel at home any more here +since Harry is gone. And I am so weak and sinful, I may do harm, as +well as good by staying longer, even to Lettice, poor tender child. +The world--at least the world here in England--is very dark to me. +And sometimes I think it will all soon end, not this war only, but +all wars, and the kingdom come for which the Church prayed so long, +and the glorious Epiphany." + +One thing I remarked with Lady Lucy, as with others whom since I have +watched passing from this world of shadows into the world of real +things. The lesser beliefs which separate Christians seemed +forgotten, fallen far back into the distance and the shade, in the +light of the great truths which are our life--which are Christianity. +The spontaneous utterances of such Christian deathbeds as I have +watched, have had little of party-beliefs, and of party-politics +nothing. As Lady Lucy herself once said,-- + +"Oh, if all could only see Him as He is! We are divided because we +are fragments: the whole race is fallen and broken into fragments. +But in Him, in Christ, all the broken fragments are one again and +live. Truth is no fair ideal vision: it is Christ." + +And again she would speak of her death with infinite comfort. "He +died really--really as I must," she said; "the flesh failed, the +heart failed, but he overcame. He offered Himself up without spot to +God, and me, sin-stained as I am, in Him--the Son, the Redeemer, the +Lord. And the Father was in Him, reconciling the world to Himself. +And we are in Him, reconciled, for ever and ever." + +Now and then she would ask if we had heard news of the king. And we +gave her such general and vague accounts as we dared, deeming it +unmeet to distress her with perplexities which would so soon be +unperplexed to her. And this was easy, her attention being seldom +now fixed long on any subject. + +On the 6th of January Roger came on his way to London from the +North--on the old Christmas day, which Lady Lucy had continued to +keep. + +In the morning Lettice had read her the gospel for the day. + +In the afternoon when she saw Roger, connecting him with the army and +the king, she asked at once for his Majesty. + +"The king is at Windsor," Roger said. + +"At home!" she said with a smile; "at home again for the Christmas. +That is well." + +Roger made no reply, and, to the relief of all, her mind passed +contentedly from the subject. She took Lettice's hand and Roger's in +hers, and pressed them to her lips, and murmured, "My God, I thank +Thee." And then, as a faintness came over her, we all withdrew but +Lettice. + +Roger and I were alone in the ante-room. He was waiting to bid +Lettice farewell. When she came out of her mother's chamber she sat +down on the window seat, her eyes cast down, her trembling mute lips +almost as white as her cheeks. + +Roger went towards her, and stood before her; but she made no +movement and did not even lift her eyelids, heavy and swollen as they +were with much weeping. + +"Lettice," he said, "let me say one word before I go. Let me say one +word to comfort you in this sorrow, for is not your sorrow mine?" + +"Of what avail?" she said. "You are taking the king to London to +die. The greatest crime and curse is about to fall on the nation, +and you will go and share and sanction it, and make it your own. No +word of mine will move you--how can word of yours comfort me? You +will, if you are commanded by him you have chosen for your priest and +king, keep guard by the scaffold while the king is murdered. Did not +you tell me so two hours since? Did not I entreat and implore and +tell you you were digging a gulf, not only, between me and you, but +between you and heaven?" + +He stood for a few moments silent and motionless, and then he said: +"And did I not tell you, that, as a soldier I could do no otherwise +unless I deserted my chief, nor as a patriot unless I betrayed my +country? It is the king who has betrayed us, Lettice; who has +refused to let us save him and trust him. The hand that could have +stopped all the oppression and injustice at the source--from the +beginning--and _did not_, must be the guiltiest hand of all. It is +_falsehood_ that is leading the king to this end, not the country, +nor the Parliament, nor General Cromwell." + +At last she looked up,--"Do not try to persuade me, Roger," she said, +"God knows I am too willing to be persuaded. I cannot reason about +it any more than about loving my Mother or obeying my Father. I dare +not listen to you. I am untrue," she added, bursting at length into +passionate tears, "I have been a traitor, to let my Mother be +deceived--to let her thank God for what can never be!" + +"Lettice," he said in a tone of anguish, "if you reproach yourself, +if you call yourself a traitor, what am I?" + +"You are as true as the Gospel, Roger," she said, her sobs subsiding +into quiet weeping; "as true as heaven itself. You would never have +done what I did. You would break your own heart and every one's +rather than utter or act one falsehood, or neglect one thing you +believe to be duty. That is what makes it so terrible." + +His voice trembled as he replied,--"You trust me, and yet you think +me capable of a terrible crime." + +"I know that to lay sacrilegious hands on the king is an unspeakable +crime," said she; "but to trust you is no choice of mine. I cannot +tear the trust of my heart from you if I would, Roger, and God knows +I would not if I could." + +A light of almost triumphant joy passed over his face, as, standing +erect before her, with folded arms, he looked on her down-cast face,-- + +"Then the time must come when a delusion that cannot separate us in +heart can no longer separate us in life," he said, in tones scarcely +audible. "Your Mother said the truth, Lettice, when she joined our +hands. Such words from her lips at such a time are surely prophecy." + +Lettice shook her head. + +"My Mother saw beyond this world," she said, mournfully; "where there +are no delusions, and no divisions, and no partings." + +He bent before her for an instant, and pressed her hand to his lips. +And so they parted. + +That night Lettice and I watched together by Lady Lucy's bedside. +And all things that could distract and divide seemed for the time to +be dissolved in the peace of her presence. + +She revived once or twice and spoke, although it seemed more in rapt +soliloquy than to any mortal ear. + +"Everything grows clear to me," she said once; "everything I cared +most to see. The divisions and perplexities which bewilder us here +are only the colours the light puts on when it steps on earth. On +earth it is scarlet and purple and bordered work; in heaven it is +fine linen, clean and white, clean and white." + +Often she murmured in clear rapid tones, very awful in the silence of +the sick-chamber at night, the words,-- + +"The king, the king!" + +Lettice and I feared to go to her to ask what she meant, dreading +some question we dared not answer. We thought belike her mind was +wandering, as she did not seem to be appealing to us or looking for +an answer. + +But at length the words came more distinctly, though broken and low, +and then we knew what they meant,-- + +"The King! King of kings! Faithful and true. Mine eyes shall see +the King in His beauty. He shall deliver the needy when he crieth, +King of the poor, King of the nations, King of kings, Faithful and +true. I am passing beyond the shadows. I begin to see the lights +which cast them. Beyond the storms--I see the angels of the winds. +Beyond the thunders--they are music, from above. Beyond the +clouds--they are the golden streets, from above. Mine eyes shall see +the King--as He is; as thou art; no change in Thee, but a change in +me. In Thy beauty as Thou art." + +All the following day the things of earth were growing dim to her, +but to the last her courtesy seemed to survive her strength. No +little service was unacknowledged; even when the voice was inaudible, +the parched lips moved in thanks or in prayer. + +And on the early morning of the 21st of January she passed away from +us, her hand in Lettice's, her eyes deep with the awful joy of some +sight we could not see. + +On the evening of that very day came the tidings that the king had +been brought, on the 19th of January, as a criminal, before the High +Court of Justice in Westminster Hall, to be tried for his life as the +"principal author of the calamities of the nation." + +When Lettice heard it, the first burst of tears came breaking the +stupor of her sorrow, as she sobbed on my shoulder, "Thank God she is +safe, beyond the storms of this terrible distracted world. She is +gone where she will never more be perplexed what to believe or what +to do." + +"She is gone," said my Father, tenderly taking one of her hands in +his, "where loyalty and love of country, and liberty and law are +never at variance; where the noblest feelings and the noblest hearts +are never ranged against each other. And we hope to follow her +thither." + +"But oh," sobbed Lettice, "this terrible space between!" + +"Look up and press forward, my child," he replied, "and the way will +become clear. Step by step, day by day; the space between is the way +thither." + + + + + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75740 *** |