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diff --git a/75741-0.txt b/75741-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0916e57 --- /dev/null +++ b/75741-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14529 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75741 *** + + + + + + + + On Both Sides of the Sea: + + A STORY OF + + The Commonwealth and the Restoration + + + A SEQUEL TO + + "THE DRAYTONS AND THE DAVENANTS" + + + + _BY THE AUTHOR OF_ + + "Chronicles of the Schonberg-Cotta Family." + + + + NEW YORK: + DODD, MEAD & COMPANY, + PUBLISHERS. + + + + +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." + + + + + Contents + + Chapter + + I. Olive's Recollections + II. Olive's Recollections + III. Lettice's Diary + IV. Lettice's Diary + V. Olive's Recollections + VI. Olive's Recollections + VII. Olive's Recollections + VIII. Olive's Recollections + IX. Notes by Magdalene Antony + X. Lettice's Diary + XI. Lettice's Diary + XII. Lettice's Diary + + + + +On Both Sides of the Sea. + + + + +ON BOTH SIDES OF THE SEA. + + + +CHAPTER I. + +OLIVE'S RECOLLECTIONS. + +Since England was, such an event was never witnessed within sound of +her seas, as that which darkened London on the fatal 30th of January, +1649. In the recollection of such moments it is difficult to +disentangle feeling from fact, what we saw with our eyes and heard +with our ears from what others told us, from what we saw with the +imagination and heard with the heart. + +In my memory that day lies shrouded and silent, as if all that +happened in it had been done in a city spell-bound into silence in a +hushed, sunless, colorless world, where all intermediate tints were +gathered into funereal black and white, the black of the +heavily-draped scaffold and the whiteness of the frosty ground from +which it rose into the still and icy air; whilst behind the palace +slept, frost-bound, the mute and motionless river, imprisoning with +icy bars the motionless ships. + +From early in the day the thoroughfares and squares and open +gathering-places of the city were filled with the Commonwealth +soldiers. I remember no call of trumpet or beat of drum; only a slow +pacing of horsemen, and marching of footmen, silently, to their +assigned positions, the tramp of men and the clatter of the +horse-hoofs ringing from the hard and frosty ground, and echoing from +the closed and silent houses on the line of march. + +It was no day of triumph to any. To the army, and those who felt +with them, it was a day of solemn justice, not of triumphant +vengeance. To the Royalists it was a day of passionate hushed sorrow +and bitter inward vows of retribution; to the people generally a day +of perplexity and woe. + +Old Mr. Prynne, who owed the king nothing, as he said, but the loss +of his ears, the pillory, imprisonment, and fines, had pleaded for +him generously in the House, before the House had been finally +"purged." + +And the most part of the men, and well-nigh all the women, I think, +would have said "Amen" to Mr. Prynne. If the king's captivity and +trial and condemnation had been a solemn drama enacted to win the +hearts of the people back to him, it could not have been more +effectual. Political and civil rights, rights of taxation and rights +of remonstrance, seemed to the hearts of most people to become mere +technical legal terms in the presence of Royalty and Death. +Pillories and prisons were dwarfed into mere private grievances +beside the scaffold on which the king, son of so many kings, kings of +so many submissive generations, the source of power, the only +possible object of the dreadful crime called treason, was to die the +death of a traitor. + +The trial brought out all that was most pathetic in royalty and most +noble in the king. The haughty glance which had been resented on the +throne, was simply majestic when it encountered unflinchingly the +illegal bench of judges on whom his life depended. + +The Parliament, mutilated to a remnant of fifty; the High Court of +Justice, who could not agree among themselves, whose assumption of +legal forms sounded (to many) like mockery, whose trappings of +authority sat on them (many thought) like masquerade-robes, were a +poor show to confront with that lonely majestic figure defying their +sentence and their authority, a captive in the ancient Hall of +Justice from which, throughout the centuries, not a sentence had +issued save by the sanction of his forefathers. + +The royal banners, which drooped from the roof above him, taken from +his Cavaliers at Edgehill, Marston Moor, and Naseby, seemed to float +there rather in his honor than in that of his judges. Many felt that +adversity had restored to him his true royalty, and that he sat far +more a king now, arraigned at the bar, than when, eight years before, +at the last trial those walls had witnessed, he sat as a helpless +spectator of the proceedings which brought Strafford, his greatest +minister, to the scaffold. + +It was well for his adversaries that those days of the king's +humiliation were not prolonged. Irrepressible veneration and pity +began to stir among the crowds who beheld him, and the cries of +"Justice! justice!" were changed more than once into murmurs of "God +save the king." + +But the pity was a slowly-rising tide of waves now advancing and now +recoiling. The determination for "justice on the chief delinquent" +was a strong and steady, though narrow current; and it swept the +ration on irresistibly to its end. + +The soldiers, foot and horse, had taken up their position. My +brother Roger and Job Forster were posted opposite Whitehall. Roger +waved his hand as he passed our windows. His face, as was his wont +in times of strong emotion, was fixed and stern. He was riding in a +funeral procession, which for him led to more graves than one. + +At ten o'clock His Majesty walked through St. James's Park to +Whitehall, passing rapidly through the bitter cold, under the bare +branches of the silent trees, through a crowd in appearance as cold +as silent. His face, men said, was calm and majestic as ever, +although worn; his beard had become gray, and his form had a slight +stoop, although he was not fifty years of age, but his step was firm. +He disappeared through the Palace gates, from which he was never to +step forth again. Then followed six hours of suspense and terrible +expectation, the crowds surging uneasily to and fro, unable to rest, +repelled and yet attracted by the terrible fascination of the empty, +expectant scaffold, whose heavy funereal draperies fell from the +windows of the Banqueting Hall on the frosty ground beneath. There +were whispers that the ambassador of the United Provinces was +pleading not hopelessly with Lord Fairfax; that the Prince of Wales +had sent a blank letter signed by himself, to be filled with any +conditions the Commons chose to demand; but that the king had burned +this letter, and refused the ministrations of any but the clergy of +the Episcopal Church of the realm;--so that if he was indeed to die, +it would be as a martyr to the rights of the Crown and the Church. + +And through these soberer reports ever and anon rose wild rumors of +approaching deliverance, of risings in the Royalist counties, of +avenging fleets approaching the Thames, of judgment direct from +heaven on the sacrilegious heads of the regicides. + +But to us who knew of the purpose which had been gathering force in +the army since that prayer-meeting at Windsor six months before, +those mid-day hours were hours not of doubt or suspense, but of awful +certainty, as minute by minute the hour approached when that scaffold +was to be empty no more. + +We knew that within the still and deserted halls of that palace, the +king was preparing to meet his doom; and (all political questions and +personal wrongs for the time forgotten) from a thousand roofs in the +city went up prayers that he might be sustained in dying, and might +exchange the earthly crown which had sat on his brow so uneasily, for +the crown of life which burdens not, nor fades away. + +At length three o'clock, the moment of doom, came. "It was the ninth +hour," as the Royalists loudly noted. Save the guard around the +scaffold, and those who attended his dying moments on it, none were +near enough to hear what passed there. It was all mute; but the +spectacle spoke. In most royal pageants, the thing seen is but a +sign of the thing not seen. In this the thing to be seen was no mere +sign, but a dread reality, a tremendous event. The black scaffold, +the wintry silence, the vast awe-stricken crowd gazing mute and +motionless on the inevitable tragedy; a few plainly dressed men at +last appearing on the scaffold around the well-known stately figure +of the king, richly arrayed "as for his second bridal;" "the comely +head" laid down without a struggle on the block "as on a bed;" the +momentary flash of the axe; the severed head raised an instant on +high as "the head of a traitor;" a shrouded form prostrate on the +scaffold;--and then, as good Mr. Philip Henry, who was present, said, +"at the instant when the blow was given, a diurnal universal groan +among the thousands of people who were within sight of it, as if with +one consent, such as he had never heard before, and desired he might +never hear the like again, or see such a cause for it." + +The multitude were not left long to bewail their king. One troop of +Parliament horse rode instantly, by previous order, from Charing +Cross towards King Street, and another from King Street towards +Charing Cross; and so the crowd were scattered right and left, to +lament as they might each man under his own roof, and to read in +secret the "Eikon Basilike," which it is said the king composed, +copies of which were distributed under his scaffold, and will, +doubtless, be reverently treasured in every Royalist household; not +in the library, but in the oratory, beside the Bible and the +Prayer-book, enkindling loyalty from a conviction into a passion, +deepening it from a passion to a religion, while they compare the +king's trial to that before the unjust judge of old, his walk to the +scaffold to that along the Dolorous Way, his sayings to those last +words on which dying men and women have hung ever since. + +Every one knows the heaviness with which even a day of festivity +closes, when the event of the day is over. The weight with which +that fatal day closed it is hard for any who did not feel it to +imagine. + +Scripture words repeated with ominous warning by ministers, +Presbyterian and Episcopal, echoed like curses through countless +hearts: "I gave them a king in my anger and took him away in my +wrath." "Who am I that I should lay hands on the Lord's anointed?" + +Death gave to the king's memory an immaculateness very different from +the technical, "the king can do no wrong of the ancient constitution." + +And even with those whose resolution remained unwavering to the last, +this was not the time for speech. The extremity of justice had been +done, there was nothing more to be said. It would have been an +ungenerous revenge far from the thoughts of such regicides as Colonel +Hutchinson and General Cromwell to follow it with insulting words, +and their own self-defence they were content to leave to events. Mr. +Milton's majestic Defences of the English People came later. + +Ours was a silent fireside that winter night, as Roger, weary and +numb, came at last to warm himself beside us. + +As lie entered, I was saying to my husband, "The terrible thing is, +that he who lived trampling on the constitution and the rights of +conscience, seems to have died a martyr to the constitution and +conscience, doomed by a few desperate men." + +"We must concern ourselves as little as possible, sister," Roger said +very quietly, "with what seems." + +"I fear this day will turn the tide against all for which you have +fought throughout the war." + +"The tide will turn back," he said. + +"But what if not in our time?" I said. + +"Then in God's time, Olive," he said; "which is the best." + +But he looked very worn and sad. I repented of having said these +discouraging words, and weakly strove to undo them as he asked me to +unlace the helmet which his benumbed hands could not unloose. + +"I would rather a thousand times," I said, "have you with Colonel +Hutchinson, and General Cromwell, and those who dared to do what they +thought right in the lace of the world, than with those who thought +it right yet dared not do it. The nation will recognize their +deliverer in General Cromwell yet." + +"I do not know that, Olive," he said; "but it will be enough if +General Cromwell delivers the nation." + +"At least the generations to come will do you all justice," I said. + +"I am not sure of that," he said. "It depends on who writes the +history for them. There is one Judgment Seat whose awards it is safe +to set before us. Before that we have sought to stand. That +sentence is irrevocably fixed. What it is we shall hear hereafter, +when the voice of this generation and all the generations will move +us no more than the murmur of a troubled sea a great way off, and far +below." + +Yet he could not touch the food we set before him; and as he sat +gazing into the fire, I knew there was one adverse verdict which he +knew too well, and which moved his heart all the more that it had not +been able to move a hair's breadth his conscience or his purpose. + +Many sorrows met in Roger's heart, I knew, that night; the pain of +pity repressed driven back on the heart by a stern sense of justice; +the pain of being misjudged by some whom we honour; the pain of the +resignation of the tenderest love and hope; the pain of giving bitter +pain to the heart dearest to him in the world. But one pain, perhaps +the worst of all, he and men who, like Cromwell and Colonel +Hutchinson, had carried out that day's doom fearlessly before the +world because in unshaken conviction of its justice before God, were +spared--the enervating anguish of perplexity and doubt. And this, +perhaps, is the sorest pain of all. + + +LETTICE'S DIARY. + +"'The space between is the way thither,' Mr. Drayton said. It may +be; it ought to be. But _is it_? That seems to me precisely the one +terrible question which, when we can get cleared, all life becomes +clear in the light of the answer, but which it is so exceedingly hard +to have cleared. + +"The days, as they pass, whether clothed in light and joy, as the old +time at home was when I had a home, and a mother, and so many +hopes--or in darkness that may be felt, as so many of these later +days have been to me, are indeed surely leading us on to old age, to +death, to the unseen world, and the judgment. But are they indeed +leading us on to new youth, to changeless life, to heaven, and the +King's 'Well done?' + +"If I were as sure of the last as of the first, for me and mine, I +think (at least there are moments when I think) I would scarcely care +whether the days were dark or bright. For life is to be a warfare. +All kinds of Christian people agree in that. And having learned what +war means, I do not expect it to be easy or pleasant. + +"But I am not sure. For myself or for any one. + +"Roger thinks the execution of the king was a terrible duty. I think +it was almost an inexpiable crime. + +"Olive, I know, thinks I am breaking plighted faith, and betraying +the most faithful affection in the world in parting from Roger. +Mistress Dorothy thinks I am fulfilling a sacred duty, doing what was +meant when we were commanded to pluck out the right eye. As to the +pain, I am sure she is right. If I could only be as sure as to the +duty! For if it is right, it must be good, really, in the end for +him as well as for me. How, I cannot imagine. For it seems bad as +well as bitter for me. And Olive says it will be bad and embittering +for him. + +"Happy, happy people, who lived in the old days of dreams, and +visions, and heavenly voices, saying, 'This is the way; walk in it;' +when God's will became manifest in pillars of fire and cloud, in +discriminating dews and fires of sacrifice, and such simple outward +signs as poor perplexed hearts like mine can understand. + +"Holy people say these days of ours are in advance of those, that the +light has increased since then. I suppose it has, for holy people, +who have grown up to it, and have eyes to see those inward leadings, +and ears to hear those inward voices, which to me are so dim. But I +feel as if I were still a child, and would fain have lived in that +simple childhood of the world, when God spoke to men in plain ways as +to children. + +"Since I came here, I saw at the door of one of the churches a very +awful piece of sculpture of the souls in purgatory, all aglow with +the fires in which they were burning, stretching out piteous hands +through iron bars for help and prayers from those still living on the +earth. + +"Mistress Dorothy was with me, and she clasped her hands over her +eyes in horror, as she turned away. + + +"But to me it did not seem so horrible. At least not for the souls +in purgatory. If there were a purgatory. Because the thought of its +being purgatory, must take away all that is unendurable out of the +anguish of the flames. There are hearts on earth tormented in fires +as real. But the sting of their anguish is, they cannot be sure they +are purgatorial fires. The anguish is clear enough. If we could +only be as sure as to the purification. That the pain is from the +remedy, not from the disease; that the flames are on the way to +heaven, not mercifully confronting us on the other way to turn us +back. + +"It always seemed as if, by Roger's side, I should have grown good +like him. How am I to grow good without him, severing myself from +him? Oh, mother, mother! why must you leave me just now, when no one +else in the world could have told me what to do. Because, while +loving me more than yourself, you loved God's will far more than my +pleasure. + +"But Mistress Dorothy says, when I am tempted with 'vain reasonings' +and 'debatings of the flesh,' I must go back to the first sacred +impulse, when, by my mother's death-bed, I felt the death of the king +for whom she would have died must place an impassable barrier between +me and those who slew him, or consented to his death. + +"First thoughts, says she, are often from above; second thoughts from +within or from below. And if we endure to the end, third thoughts +will come crowning the divine impulse of the first with a calm divine +assurance. + +"I will try to endure to the end. At least I will wait. + +"To strengthen my resolve, let me go back to that sacred impulse, and +through all it led to, up to this day. + +"It was during those terrible days of early January, when hope and +fear had passed, with uncertainty; and I sat by my mother's bedside, +all my heart and soul absorbed in watching her depart, and in +relieving any suffering or supplying any want for her so fast passing +away from all suffering and from all our service. + +"The east winds were careering across the Fens, and broke fiercely +against the old house, and one night there was a crash of the great +scarred elm-tree falling close outside the windows. But she heeded +it not; and I remember feeling a strange kind of despairing triumph +over all the violence of the elements. They might rage as at the +Deluge; but they could neither hinder nor hasten the slow, silent +progress of the awful power which was silently removing her from us. + +"Before, in days of doubt and hope, I had been wont to watch the +winds with a kind of superstitious solicitude, as if there were some +mysterious sympathy between nature and men, and the ravings of her +storms had been ominous of evil to us. But now that spell seemed +broken. The sympathy between us and nature ceased with death. To +her it was natural, a link in her endless chain of ever-recurring +changes. To her, life and death were but as day and night, bright or +dark phases of her ceaseless revolutions. She could see her children +die as calmly as her suns set. To us death was unnatural, a +convulsion, a horror, a curse. The terrible thing which seemed to +assimilate us to her, in reality rent us from her sphere altogether. +A week before, when we began to fear there was danger, I trembled at +the wind wailing in the dead branches of the elms, or at a bird +beating its wings against the window. Now that she was dying, I +could have smiled at an earthquake or a tornado. + +"All the outward and visible world, the terrors of its stormy nights +as well as the sweet familiar delights of its dawns and days, seemed +to lie outside me like a world of shadows, as for the first time I +learned in my inmost heart that we are but strangers, not belonging +to it, but passing swiftly through. As I gazed into the eyes which +so soon were to cease to be the portal where my soul could meet hers, +my own body seemed to become a mere phantasm, the innermost shell of +this world of phantasms, where we stay a little while, to read its +lessons and experience its changes, and then vanish, we from it and +it from us. It was not so with the conflict then going on about the +king. There, consciences were concerned, and right and wrong. And +by her dying bed, right and wrong seemed the only realities left. I +dared not break on the calm of her spirit with one word that might +recall the conflicts of parties. Thus Love itself severed her spirit +from me before death had sealed her eyes. And this was terrible +beyond all. For as I sat there, the conviction became clearer and +clearer that to put the king to death was crime, a crime she would +have abhorred, a crime which, if he persisted in the doing it, must +sever me from Roger. + +"But alas, when Death came, this was all terribly reversed. + +"When the feeble voice which had called on the Heavenly King, and the +eyes whose tender smiles for me had changed at the last into the awed +yet joyful intensity of the gaze with which her spirit seemed to +welcome heaven and enter it, the whole unseen world seemed to vanish +from my heart with her, and nothing was left but the eyes which could +never look at me, and the lips which could never speak to me more. + +"For this horror I was wholly unprepared. I thought, when she went, +she would have left me standing, if but for one never-to-be-forgotten +moment, on the threshold of an opened Paradise! She left me +shivering on the brink of an impenetrable darkness. I could not feel +even on the brink of an abyss. To have believed in an abyss even +would have been an infinite relief. The horror was whether the +darkness hid anything, whether there was a beyond at all. + +"Could it be, indeed, that all, absolutely all, any one saw of death +was just the heaving breast, the labouring breath, the few, faint, +intermittent sighs; all which, in all animated creatures, marks the +dissolution of natural life, and nothing to mark the distinctive, +continuing, spiritual life of man? + +"Was faith, then, to step so absolutely alone, unlighted by the least +glimmer of the old familiar light, into the unknown? + +"No one else around me seemed to experience this terrible darkness. + +"They recalled the last words she spoke; they spoke of the pure +raiment, clean and white, in which her spirit was clothed, of the +golden streets she was treading, of the 'harps of God' to which she +was listening. But the words fell altogether outside me, like some +sweet, pathetic story of faëry or romance, such as she used to tell +me. + +"I, too, from my childhood had delighted in those fair pictures of a +Paradise beyond the grave, of the city with gates of moon-like pearl, +and walls of radiant gems; of trees whose leaves were healing and +whose fruit was life; of waters clear as crystal, able to satisfy +immortal thirst. I had delighted in those pictures, my fancy +floating on them as on the glowing clouds of twilight, caring not to +discriminate what was cloud, what were the bright glorified heights +of earth, and what were heavenly, enduring stars; caring not to +separate symbol from fact. + +"But now all this was changed. What were fair pictures to me, +brought face to face with this visible, terrible fact, that the +spirit which had been my guide before I could remember, that my +mother herself had gone where no cry of passionate entreaty, no +tender ministry of love could reach, no agony of prayer avail to win +the faintest sign that she heard, or cared, or existed? + +"A few hours since she had said, 'Throw my warm old mantle round +thee, Lettice, the nights are chill.' She had taken food from my +hands, and murmured, smiling, 'Once I gave it thee.' And now the +farthest star that sent the faintest ray from the utmost verge of the +world, was near, compared with the impassable gulf of distance +between her and me. What were fair visions of angels to me? What +had they been to the Magdalene of old? If she lived, she was the +same loving, tender saintly mother still, unlike any one else in the +universe; not a white-robed angel lost in an overwhelming multitude +of other white-robed angels, singing. + +"My heart ached, and cried to heaven for one word, one syllable, one +touch, to show that she was there. Would God give me instead, only +fair pictures of an innumerable multitude far off, serenely singing +as if they had not left any on earth bitterly weeping? + +"I scarcely dared to think those thoughts, much less to utter them, +until one day, the dreadful day when we left the house with the +precious burden through which she had been all she was to me, and +returned with nothing, the passion of my grief overcame me. + +"Olive and Dr. Antony had left. Mistress Dorothy was standing on one +side of the fire, in the wainscotted parlour which they had reserved +for me. + +"It was not her wont to dwell much on symbols and pictures, whether +painted with words or colours. And seeing me sit with clasped hands +in a kind of stupor, for I could not weep, she said, not in a tone of +consolation so much as of rebuke,-- + +"'Child, sorrow not as those without hope. It is a sin. Thy mother +is with God.' + +"There was something in her words which went more to my heart than +all the tenderest consolations had done. They did not seem said so +much to comfort me, as simply because they were true. + +"'If I could hope, I would not sorrow,' I murmured. + +"'There is much reason to hope,' said she. 'Papists even have been +saved, I doubt not, at least before the Reformation. And Lady Lucy +was not a Papist. I doubt not that the Spirit of God dwelt in her as +his temple. The Lord, indeed, of old suffered neither idol nor +trafficker in his temple. But, mayhap, the traffickers are worse +than the idols. And, indeed, dear heart,' she concluded, 'I do think +sometimes we Protestants are like the later Jews, if the Papists and +the Papistically inclined are like the earlier. We have cleared out +the idols; but we keep the tables of the money-changers, mayhap the +basest idolatry of all.' + +"She had entirely misunderstood my perplexity. That she should +imagine my mother's title to blessedness required defence to me, +would have stung me to an indignant reply at other moments; but I was +too cast down to be angry, and I only said,-- + +"'It is not of my mother I doubt, but of heaven; of everything. It +seems as if all my old faith had vanished like a dream.' + +"I scarcely thought of the weight of my words, until their own echo +startled me; and I trembled at what effect they might have on +Mistress Dorothy. + +"But, to my surprise, her first words, spoken as if to herself, +were,-- + +"'Thank God; the good work has begun.' Then laying her hand with +unwonted tenderness on mine, she said, 'The tempter is cruel, dear +heart; he is cruel indeed. But fear not, poor, torn, forsaken lamb. +The eye of the Shepherd is on thee, and none shall pluck thee out of +His hand. The tempter is cruel, not because he is strong, but +because he is weak; he rages, not because he is victorious, but +because he is vanquished; vanquished on behalf of all the flock, +vanquished for thee, since the Lord is leading thee. His first +lesson is ever to show the emptiness and the darkness; and He has +shown thee this. Do not strive to hasten His handiwork by blending +it with thine. Give thyself up to Him to be poor and blind, to walk +in darkness, to have no light, as long as He wills. He will lay His +hands on thee when the hour is come. He has begun, and He will +finish. But thou must tread this part of the way alone. Take heed +how, by conferring with flesh and blood, thou break the silence He is +making in thy heart. Hitherto thou hast been dreaming. We are near +waking when we dream that we dream."* + + +* These words are in "Novalis."--Editor. + + +"And she left me alone. But although she did not say so, I knew she +would go and wrestle for me alone till I had won the victory. + +"There was help in the thought. + +"Yet, I could not think she was altogether right. I could not think +all my former life a dream; that all the prayers which, childish and +weak as they might have been, had helped me to bear painful things +and to do difficult things, were delusions; or that the thoughts I +had had about God's loving-kindness, and the joy in His works, were +unreal fancies, that came not from Him. I could not give the lie to +all that had been heavenly and holy in my efforts and aspirings. I +could not draw a sharp border-line between one part of my life and +the other, and say, Beyond that all is heathendom, where no God is; +and here God begins. It seemed to me either He had been always with +me and was near me now, or all was delusion, and I could never reach +Him. Besides, it was of my mother my heart was full, not of myself. +And the words of Mistress Dorothy which remained with me were,-- + +"'Thy mother is with God.' + +"They turned the current of my thoughts from the future state to the +Living Presence. Fancy, being of the brain, lay dumb and motionless, +her fairy wings folded, as I think they ever must be, at the touch of +real sorrow. Imagination, being of the heart, after vainly striving +to penetrate to the heart of things, sank, dazzled by the +impenetrable darkness, blinded by the ineffectual effort to gaze into +the blank out of which she could avail to shape nothing but emptiness +and darkness, no form and no light,--the bare negation of all she +knew. + +"Then Faith, turning away from the sepulchre with its impenetrable +darkness, looked up into heaven, and listening, heard the living +words,-- + +"'Thy mother is with God.' + +"Dust to dust; spirit to Spirit; love to Love; weakness with Power; +the mortal with the Eternal. The thought did not bring a softening +gush of tenderness, but a solemn repose of awe; a silence, a hush, a +subjection, in which my poor, weary, tossed heart seemed to gather +strength. + +"The words were the last with me at night; they made a calm in my +heart, and I slept. They were the first with me in the morning; and +through the days they rose from my heart like a prayer. + +"Strong in that calm, on the Sunday after her chamber had been made +empty, I ventured into it alone, to read the service for the day once +more where I had read it so often to her. I came to the Apostles' +Creed. The snow lay on the ground, hushing the earth with a +death-like hush. All the world, seen and unseen, earth and heaven, +seemed to me full of silence. I could only think of heaven itself as +a vast snow-white mountain of God, silent and spotless, where the +white-robed angels silently came and went on ministries of mercy, and +the white-robed human creatures neither came nor went, but rested and +adored, absorbed in the unutterable light around them. + +"Silence in her death-chamber; silence on the cold snowy earth; +silence in the pure light of heaven; silence in my heart. + +"But as I sat there, a little robin came and perched on the snowy +window-sill, turning his quick eyes from side to side, as if looking +for the crumbs my mother never let me forget to scatter for him. +Then he hopped off to a neighboring spray, and poured out a brief +happy carol there, leaving the print of his pretty crimson feet on +the snow. + +"The silence of the earth was broken by his song. + +"There was still a Master's table from which the crumbs fell for him. + +"The silence in my heart was broken by the rush of tearful +recollection his little song had brought, and I wept and sobbed as if +my heart were breaking. Yet through all I felt it was not breaking, +but being healed, as never before. + +"For a word came to me which seemed to change the silence in heaven +and earth into music. + +"'I believe in God the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ His only +Son our Lord.' + +"The Father and the Son. + +"This is the fountain-truth of Christianity. This is God. No mere +solitary immutable Unity, but the living, eternal communion of +Eternal Love. Not merely immutable, incomprehensible Being; but +ever-creating, all-comprehending Life. + +"This is Eternal Life; the fruitful source of all life. This is +Eternal Love, not an attribute without object, but the Father and the +Son eternally loving--the loving rejoicing fountain of all love +sending forth the Spirit of power and love. + +"This is heaven. Where the Father and the Son abide, and the holy +angels and the redeemed: not absorbed in the contemplation of far-off +separate light, but folded into the communion of eternal present +love. '_That the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them +and I in them._' + +"God is called the Father, not in condescension to our +understandings, because a human father's love is the best image human +creatures can have of Him, but because He is the eternal Father, and +the love of the Father and the Son is the root and bond of all +creation. + +"Heaven is called the Father's house, not because a human home is the +purest picture our poor dim hearts can form of heaven, but because it +is the Father's house--the parent-home and sacred health of the +universe. + +"And therefore the immortality of pure human love, of all that is +truly human (not a perversion of original humanity) is ensured not by +an Almighty Fiat, not even fundamentally by the incarnation of the +Son in whom God is manifest to us, but by the very nature of God. + +"It was to this love my mother had been taken up, and into the +unutterable fulness of this joy--'My joy'--the joy of the Son. What +images could be glowing enough to picture it? + +"If the heavenly visions of the Apocalypse had been blotted out +to-day, it seemed to me as if they must have sprung up spontaneously +around the Apostles' Creed to-morrow. + +"Living fountains of water, trees of life and leaves of healing, +gates of pearl and walls of precious stones, raiment white as the +light, rivers bright as crystal, harpers with the harps of God, songs +like the sound of many waters; the very pavement which the feet of +the 'many sons' were to tread, the sea by which they stood, radiant +with combinations of glory impossible on earth, 'water mingled with +fire,' 'pure gold like transparent glass,'--what are these but faint +pictures in such colors as earth and earth's skies can furnish of the +unutterable joy enshrined in the words, '_I in them, and thou in Me;' +'Thou hast loved them as thou hast loved Me?_' + +"I began to understand how my mother could be still _herself_, no +tender touch of the old familiar affection lost, yet full of a joy +which must overflow in the new song. + +"For as I listened my heart recognized a distinction in the music. + +"Not like an angel's her heart; not like an angel's was her song. + +"The pathetic human tone should never vanish from the songs of the +redeemed. The agony of redemption, the rapture of reconciliation, +should never be forgotten there. + +"To all He is the Father of Spirits. To each of the lost sons He is +the Father who saw him while a great way off and ran and fell on his +neck and kissed him, and said, Rejoice with me, for this my son was +lost and is found. + +"To all He is the Eternal Son. To us He is the Son who became the +Lamb, who bore our sins and carried our sorrows, and redeemed us to +God by His blood. + +"I suppose my face shone with something of the joy in my heart, for +Mistress Dorothy said solemnly to me that evening, as she bade me +Good-night in my room, 'Has the tempter departed, and have the angels +come and ministered to thee?' + +"Then I told her something of the new light in which the old truths +had come to me in my mother's chamber. She seemed to take hope +concerning me, but not without fear, and questioned me as to whether +I had experienced this and that, and through what instruments this +deliverance had come. + +"I could only say, 'I think it was thou, Mistress Dorothy, and the +Apostles' Creed, and the robin redbreast.' She looked doubtful. + +"'I never heard of any being led in such a way as that,' said she, +'and I cannot quite make it out. Doubtless, however, the Word of God +is still His Word if it be written on the Pope's mitre, much more in +the Apostles' Creed. Only be sure it is a Word from Him thou art +resting on. Nothing else will stand when the heavens and the earth +are shaken. And as to the robin,' she added, 'no doubt the Almighty +once used ravens; and He might use robins. I have hope of thee, dear +heart, but I would fain be more assured. I never heard of any soul +being brought into the fold by such a way before.' + +"But do any two wandering souls come back by the same way? + +"It seem as if the ways back were countless as the wanderings: the +Door is one, being the One who stands there to let us in. + +"Nor am I sure that that was my first coming to the fold. + +"It seems to me as life were in some sense one long course of +conversion, one series of translations from darkness to light. Is +not the sun always converting the sun-flowers by shining on them? + +"Once and for ever in one sense; day by day in another. + +"It seems to me as if every fresh sorrow or joy opens new depths in +our hearts, which must be filled with fresh springs of the living +water or else become empty and waste; as if every new revelation of +life needs to be met by a new and deeper revelation of God. + + +"That Sunday, so full of peace to me, was the 28th of January. + +"On the 30th the fatal scaffold stood outside the Banqueting Hall, +and the king was led forth to die the death of a malefactor, in the +presence of his people and of all the nations. + +"On the evening of the next day the news reached Netherby. + +"Mistress Dorothy entered my room after I had laid down to rest. + +"'It is done!' she murmured under her breath. 'They have laid their +hands on the Lord's anointed. The irremediable crime is committed.' +And then, as usual with the Puritans in moments of strong emotion, +falling into Bible language as into a mother-tongue, 'The crown is +fallen from our heads,' she said; 'Woe unto us that we have sinned!' + +"I could not speak. + +"'Before the windows of his palace!' she continued, 'at mid-day, in +face of heaven and of all the people.' + +"'And not a voice to plead for him,' I said; 'not one arm lifted to +rescue!' + +"'Of what avail? the Ironsides were there,' she replied bitterly. +'They girded the scaffold like a wall of brass. They would not +suffer the poor people to come near enough to listen to a word from +the dying lips of their king.' + +"My eyes met hers. + +"'The Ironsides were there!' it was all I could say or think. For +before me rose the figure of Roger Drayton on horseback amongst his +men, stern and motionless, his soul masked in iron more rigid than +his armour, not suffering the grief and pity at his heart to relax +one muscle of the rigid resolution of his face. + +"And between him and me for ever that scaffold and the shrouded +corpse of the martyred king! + +"I had, as it were, been living in heaven with her who was at rest +there; and now the words came to me with a terrible desolation, 'I am +no more in the world, _but these are in the world_.' Around her, +rest, and peace, and songs of joy. Around me crime, and separation, +and the terrible necessity to resolve. + +"Mistress Dorothy spoke again, and her voice trembled,-- + +"'This is no longer a home for thee or for me, dear heart. I feared +that thy joy had been sent thee to arm thee for some uncommon woe!' + +"'No more a home for me, indeed,' I said; 'but how no longer for +thee?' + +"'I told my brother long since that if ever this crime was +consummated, and neither he nor Roger lifted up their voices against +it, I could not sleep another night under his roof, lest I should +seem to embrue my hands in sacred blood. It is not for us to be like +Pilate, languidly washing our hands of the crime we or ours might +have averted.' + +"'But whither will you flee?' I said. + +"'I have a small tenement at Kidderminster, where godly Mr. Baxter +dwelleth, a man who is as true to his king as to his God. There, if +thou wilt, shall be a shelter for thee and me. It will be no palace, +but the best I have shall be thine; and with Mr. Baxter's ministry +that may suffice us both.' + +"The generous offer touched me; but I felt that my father's home was +the only one for me, now that Roger's way and mine must part for ever. + +"She shook her head when I said so. + +"'Thy father is among papists and idolaters,' she replied. 'It is +written, "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy +of me."' + +"'If my father is in a place of peril,' I said, 'all the more my +place is by his side.' + +"She was silent some minutes; her eyes cast down, her lips set, and +her hands grasping each other. + +"'Child, thou art right. The heart is deceitful above all things. I +thought I was pleading for God, and I was pleading for myself. I +will take thee to thy refuge in France, and then I will go to my +house alone. Canst thou be ready by to-morrow? I have vowed never +to sleep nor to break bread under this roof again.' + +"'The sooner the better,' I said; for I felt as if nothing but the +overhanging shadow of that dreadful scaffold could strengthen me for +the sacrifice. I dreaded lest time might make the treason against +the king sink in my eyes into a mere political error, and my own +departure seem more and more like a treason against those to whom I +owed so much, and whom I loved so well. + +"I spent the night, under Mistress Dorothy's direction, in packing +the few things I might carry with me. + +"In the morning, when Mr. Drayton's step was first heard on the +stairs, Mistress Dorothy went out and followed him into his room +below. For a few moments they were alone; then I heard her step +re-ascending the stairs. It was not brisk, as was her wont, but +slow, like the tread of an aged person. She re-entered the chamber, +looking very white. + +"'It is settled, child,' she said. 'My brother will not hinder us.' + +"She would not be present at the family-prayer that morning, nor at +breakfast, true to her vow. + +"Immediately afterwards, Mr. Drayton requested an interview with me +in his room. + +"'My child,' he said, laying his hand on my shoulder, 'conscience is +sacred. Are you sure that in this deed you are obeying, not my +sister's conscience, nor even your mother's, but your own?' + +"The question opened a labyrinth I could not disentangle. + +"'It is so difficult to tell what is our own and what we inherit,' I +said. 'My mother was my conscience, and I believe I am doing what +she would have desired. Politics she said women must leave to men. +But loyalty was like religion or affection. To the king every +subject is personally related as to a parent or to God. That is what +she believed and I believe. I dare not debate with myself. I dare +not reason about what I feel to be a crime, or remain with those who +sanction it. I dare not, Mr. Drayton, trust myself any longer to all +that tempts me to stay.' + +"He walked up and down the room once or twice with hasty steps. + +"'Then, my child,' he said at length, 'neither dare I debate with +thee nor hinder thee. I have loved thee as I love Olive, and hoped +to have a right to call by a name as dear. But if thou wilt go, God +forbid I should make my house a prison. By noon, an escort shall be +ready to convey thee and my sister to the coast.' + +"He was as good as his word. By noon we had left the old house. By +the morrow we were on the sea on our way to France. + +"In the dusk, before we sailed, a boat came to the ship's side, and a +tall, muffled figure sprang on board. Of what happened, from the +time the vessel began to toss on the short waves, I knew not much, +buried in cushions among the luggage. But when the French coast was +within reach, and we were waiting for the tide to enter the harbour +of Calais, there was some little stir about a boat putting off from +the ship; and as I lay gazing towards the harbour, I saw this boat +struggle through the breakers to a point of rock, where one of the +crew sprang on shore. + +"The next morning we landed. We were met by the keeper of a +hostelry, who courteously told us that our apartments were ready. +And on the morrow, as I was sitting alone after breakfast, whilst +Mistress Dorothy had gone to make preparation for our journey, there +was a clatter of a horse's feet in the court-yard, and in a few +minutes my father strode into the room and bade me welcome. + +"'But by what miracle, father, couldst thou know we were here,' I +said; as soon as I could speak for his kisses and my tears. + +"'Didst thou not know? No miracle; only Roger Drayton riding through +the night to tell me.' + +"It was Roger, then, who had crept on board in the dusk, whose boat I +had watched struggling through the breakers to the coast. And I +dared not trust myself to ask where he was or when he would depart! + +"'A brave and gallant gentleman he is,' said my father; 'a thousand +pities such should lend their swords to traitors.' + +"Then I began to tell him of all Mr. Drayton's goodness, and how +Mistress Dorothy had undertaken the voyage in her motherly care of me. + +"At that moment she re-appeared, and my father poured out his thanks. + +"But she was very reserved and grave. + +"'Sir Walter,' she said, at last. 'Little thanks I deserve for +bringing this innocent lamb hither. I have seen awful things to-day. +At the door of a church I saw a number of frightful images in a cage, +standing in painted flames, and stretching out their hands through +the bars, begging for money to buy them out of torment. And while I +was looking on this, a procession of boys and men, in white clothes, +passed me, bearing aloft something under a canopy, and wherever it +came the people fell on their knees and worshipped. I asked a +sober-looking woman what it was, and as far as I could understand she +said it was "our Lord." They thought they were carrying God. I had +heard much of Papistry, but I had not thought to come to places like +Gaza and Ashdod almost within sight of England.' + +"'It was the Host, good mistress Dorothy,' replied my father, +explanatorily; 'the Holy Sacrament. Doubtless there is superstition +in their reverence. But I must not forget my message from your +nephew. Roger Drayton desires to know whether you will be ready to +sail under his care to-night.' + +Mistress Dorothy gave a questioning glance at me, and hesitated. + +"'Let us persuade you,' my father said, 'to tarry awhile with us.' + +"'God forbid, Sir Walter,' she replied, 'that I should tarry a night +longer than I need, among these Philistines. And God forgive me,' +she added solemnly, 'for bringing this lamb of the flock among them.' + +"'Must I then tell Mr. Drayton you will accompany him?' + +"Mistress Dorothy hesitated again. + +"'It is a sore perplexity,' she said, at last, 'to have to choose +between this land of idolaters and the company of those who, kith and +kin of mine though they be, have embrued their hands in sacred, +though I may not say innocent blood.' + +"'Had Roger Drayton aught to do with that monstrous iniquity?' my +father exclaimed fiercely. + +"'Alas, was he not one of General Cromwell's Ironsides?' replied +Mistress Dorothy. 'The heart of youth is too easily misguided.' + +"'Ay,' said my father, with a strong Cavalier oath, 'and woe to those +who misguided them--the quiet and sober Presbyterians and +Parliamentarians, who made a breach in the dykes, and now wonder to +see the country flooded by the ocean.' + +"Again Mistress Dorothy had to lift up her voice in testimony; and in +the midst of it Roger Drayton entered. The three chief elements of +the civil war were comprised in the little English company gathered +in the chamber of that Calais hostelry. + +"My father, sorely irritated by what he considered Mistress Dorothy's +Puritanical cant, lost all control of his temper. There were high +and fierce words; and bitter epithets were freely exchanged. I only +remember that in the end Mistress Dorothy, after embracing me with +many a warning word, decided to depart with Roger, and that +throughout it all Roger said not one intemperate or uncourteous word, +bitterly as my father assailed him and those whose honour was dear to +him as his own. + +"When Mistress Dorothy and Roger had left, my father, after some +rapid pacings of the room, and some severe soliloquising on the state +of England, gradually become cooler, and then his courtesy returning +he said,-- + +"'Ungracious return I have made for their generous kindness to you, +Lettice; stay, and make ready for the journey, while I go and see if +I can do anything for that fiery old lady. It would disgrace us if +she were not well-sped on her homeward way. And I know the +outlandish ways of this place better than they do.' + +"I went to the window, saw him join them, watched them cross the +court, and then sank down in a chair and hid my face in my hands, and +was weeping vain and hopeless tears when the door of the room opened +gently, with the quiet words, in Roger's voice,-- + +"'My aunt left her mantle.' + +"I rose and he came to my side. + +"'I had not meant this, Lettice,' he said, 'yet you need not have +fled without one farewell. Your convictions are as sacred to me as +yourself.' + +"'I knew it,' I said, scarcely knowing what I said. 'I was not +afraid of you but of myself.' + +"'Lettice,' he said, 'it cannot be always so. It is impossible that +such a difference can separate us forever. I must hope. If, as I +trust, General Cromwell saves our England and makes her noble and +great as ever she was before, say I may hope.' + +"'What can I hope?' I said. 'Can I believe a thing a crime, and look +forward to not always so believing it? Right and wrong are right and +wrong for ever.' + +"I think I never saw on his face such a look as then. Reverence, and +honour, and love, and grief. I shall never see such a look on any +face again. But he only said very softly,-- + +"'And love is love for ever.' + +"There was a faltering in his tone which made it like an appeal, and +I answered,-- + +"'For ever!' + +"He wrung my hand once and was gone. + +"I scarcely know if after all I should not have called him back, but +for the memory of that look. + +"Better to be separated from him all my life than to be dethroned +from his heart by one wavering or unworthy thought or word. Yet even +that dread scaffold seems sometimes a shadowy ghost to part love like +ours. I would (at times) it were some plain, homely woman's duty +that separated us instead. Then there might be heart-breaking, but +scarcely this heavy mist of perplexity and doubt. + +"I have to say to myself again and again, as if the words were a +spell,-- + +"'It is not politics that part us, but right and wrong; what my +mother would surely have deemed a monstrous crime. And dare I deem +it less?'" + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +OLIVE'S RECOLLECTIONS. + +The next morning, the 31st January, the nation awoke a Republic. The +king had died "a traitor" (they said) "to the nation;" and in the +space before his scaffold it had been proclaimed, that whoever +presumed to call his son, Charles Stuart, king, was a traitor to the +Commonwealth. It was a strange, dreary dawning. As I opened my +casement and looked across the black frozen river to London Bridge, +with its "Traitor's Gate" and the towers of Southwark rising above +from the marshy flats beyond, to the one long cold bar of brazen +light which parted the dark clouds on the horizon from the heavy +vault of snowclouds above, everything seemed hard and metallic--the +heavens "iron and brass," the waters steel, the earth and her living +creatures motionless, rigid, as if turned to stone. + +What kind of a day was this to be? The king was dead; though the +remains of the Westminster Assembly, and many of the Independent +ministers, and well-nigh all the Parliament had protested against his +execution, and well-nigh all the nation bewailed him. The king was +dead. What authority had sentenced him? and what power was to rule +in his place? Half, at least, of the nation looked on his death as a +murder--but there was to be no mourning; the rest, as the terrible +but victorious close of a terrible conflict--but there was to be no +triumph. + +No funeral pomp was to darken the streets that day, as for a king +slain. No triumphal procession was to make them festive, as for an +enemy vanquished. It was to be a day without mark or sign; and yet +since England was first one nation surely such a day had never dawned +on her. "The first day of freedom, by God's blessing restored," said +the Commonwealth coins; the first day of England's widowhood, said +the Royalists, widowed and orphaned at one blow. + +Yet there was no disorder, no interruption of employment. The sounds +of day began to awake in the busy city, the cries of countrymen +bringing their vegetables from the fields, the ringing of the hammer +on a forge near our house, the calls of the bargemen and boatmen +locked in by the ice; and then, as the day went on, all distinction +of sound lost in the general hum, like the sound of many waters, +which marks that a great city is awake and at work. + +Looking westward, I could see the gardener sweeping the snow from the +walks in the gardens behind Whitehall, as if no terrible black +scaffold had that day to be taken down in front. + +Yet, I suppose, in well-nigh every heart, man or woman's, in London +that morning, the first conscious thought was, "the king is dead;" +all the more because there were few lips that would have uttered the +words. + +"What are we to do to-day, Leonard?" I said, when we had breakfasted. + +"Do! dear heart," quoth he; "it is not thy wont to need thy day's +tasks set thee by any." + +"Nay; but to-day seems like a work-day with out work, and a Sabbath +without services," I said. + +"There will be a service," he replied. "The great Dr. Owen is to +preach before the Parliament in St. Margaret's Church." + +"The Parliament!" I said; thinking pitifully of the fifty members who +still bore the name. + +"You scarcely recognize the Rump as the Parliament," he said, +answering my tone rather than my words. + +"I scarce know what to recognize or reverence," I said. "I was wont +in the old days at Netherby to think I had politics of my own, and +would have belonged to the country party by free choice, if all +around me had deserted it. But since our own people have split and +divided into so many sections, I begin to fear, after all, it was +nought but a young maid's conceit in me to think I had any +convictions of my own. Aunt Dorothy and the Presbyterians think the +killing of the king a great crime; my father and the old +Parliamentarians think the forcible purging of the Parliament a +manifest tyranny; Roger and the army think these things but the +necessary violence to introduce the new reign of justice and freedom. +But I know not what to believe, or whom to follow. What is to come +next? Who are to rule us? We must have some to honour and obey; if +not the king, and if not the Parliament, then whom?" + +"Sweet heart," said he, "if the government of the three kingdoms has +been resting on thy shoulders, no wonder thou art cast down and +weary. But thou and I are among the multitude who are to be +governed, not among the few who govern. Let us be thankful, as good +Mr. Baxter saith, for any government which suffers people to be as +good as they are willing to be. And let us be willing to be as good +as we can. That will give us enough to do." + +"But," I said, "all these years we have been learning that the +country is as a great mother who demands fidelity from her most +insignificant child; that Liberty is no mere empty name for +schoolboys to make orations about, and Law no mere confused heap of +technicalities for lawyers to disentangle, but simple sacred +realities mothers are to teach their children to reverence; that the +glory and safety of a nation depends on their political rights being +sacred household words. We have been taught to look to Jewish and +Roman matrons as our examples. Are we to unlearn all this now, and +go back to the old saws we have been taught to think selfish and +base; that politics are to be left to rulers, and laws to lawyers, +and our liberties and rights to whoever will defend or trample on +them?" + +"Not go back, I think," he said gently, looking a little surprised at +my vehemence; "only go deeper. Some precious rights, I believe, have +been won. Let us use them. That is the best way to secure them. We +are free to do what good we can, to unloose what burdens, and to hear +and speak what good words we will. Let us use our freedom. No one +can say how long it may last. This morning I must go to visit +Newgate, and other gaols, in which there has been much sickness. For +although the prisons are no longer filled by the Star Chamber, or the +High Commission, they are unhappily still kept too well supplied by a +tyrant more ancient and more universal than these. Moreover, Olive," +he added, "there is still one sect not tolerated. The number of the +imprisoned Quakers is increasing; and in Newgate there is one poor +Quaker maiden whom I think thou mightest succour. A few days since +thou wert desiring a maiden to wait on the babe. This Quaker maiden +is a composed and gentle creature, and with kind treatment, such as +she would have from thee, might, I think, be led into ways which seem +to us more sober and rational." + +My husband's words opened a prospect of abundant work before me. +Already we had four washing-women of four different unpopular +persuasions. + +And I would have preferred choosing a nurse for the babe, on account +of her qualities as a serving-wench, rather than as a Confessor. +Moreover, what he intended to be re-assuring in his description, +alarmed me rather the more. For of all fanatics, I have found gentle +fanatics the most incorrigible, and of all wilful persons, these +whenever "discompose" themselves, or put themselves wrong by losing +their tempers, are certainly the most immovable. However, I +repressed such selfish fears as quite unworthy of Leonard Antony's +wife. And, accordingly, when he returned from the gaol, I was quite +prepared to welcome the Quaker. And so I told him as we joined the +sober throng who were going to hear Dr Owen preach at "Margaret's" +before the Parliament. + +A scanty Parliament indeed! No Lords, and about fifty Commons; and +among them scarce one of those whose words and deeds had made its +early years so strong and glorious. + +Hampden lay among his forefathers in the church of Great Hampden; Pym +among the kings in Westminster Abbey. Denzil Hollis and Haselrigge +had been expelled from it; old Mr. Prynne, who had been liberated by +its first act, had vehemently denounced its last; even the young Sir +Harry Vane had for the time deserted its austere counsels. + +Nevertheless the congregation was great and grave. And when Dr. Owen +spoke, he led our thoughts at once to spheres compared with whose +sublime chronology the length of the longest Parliament is indeed but +as a moment. He came of an ancient Welsh ancestry; his bearing had a +courtly grace; his tall and stately figure had the ease and vigor of +one used to manly exercises; his voice was well-tuned, as the tones +of one who loved music as he did should be; his eyes were dark and +keen. + +To the death of the king on that dreadful yesterday he barely +alluded. There was neither regret nor triumph in his discourse. His +exhortations were addressed not to the vanquished, but to the +victorious party. If he alluded at all to the oppressions and vices +of the late government, it was in order to conjure those now in power +not to tread in their steps. His text was: "Let them return unto +thee; but return not thou unto them. And I will make thee unto this +people a fenced brazen wall: and they shall fight against thee, but +they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee +and to deliver thee, saith the Lord." + +God's judgments, he said, are a flaming sword turning every way. Not +in one of these ways, but in all, He resists those who resist them. +"How do we spend our thoughts to extricate ourselves from our present +pressures! If this hedge, this pit were passed, we should have +smooth ground to walk on; not considering that God can fill our +safest paths with snares and serpents. Give us peace; give us +wealth; give us to be as we were, with our own, in quietness. Poor +creatures! suppose all these designs were in sincerity; yet if peace +were, and wealth were, and God were not, what would it avail you? In +vain do you seek to stop the streams while the fountains are open; +turn yourselves whither you will, bring yourselves into what +condition you can, nothing but peace and reconciliation with the God +of all these judgments can give you rest in the day of visitation. +You see what variety of plagues are in His hand. Changing of +condition will do no more to the avoiding of them, than a sick man +turning himself from one side of the bed to another; during his +turning he forgets his pain by striving to move; being laid down +again he finds his condition the same as before. + +"It was nothing new," he said, "for the instruments of God's greatest +works to be the deepest objects of a professing people's cursings and +revilings. _Men that under God deliver a kingdom may have the +kingdom's curses for their pains_. + +"Moses was rewarded for the deliverance of Israel from Korah by being +told 'ye have killed the Lord's people.' Man's condemnation and +God's absolution do not seldom meet on the same person for the same +things. '_Bonus vir Caius Sejanus, sed malus quia Christianus_.' +What precious men should many be, would they let go the work of God +in their generation! + +"Yet be tender towards fainters in difficult seasons. God's +righteousness, His kindness, is like a great mountain easy to be +seen. His judgments are like a great deep. Who can look into the +bottom of the sea, or know what is done in the depths thereof? When +first the confederacy was entered into by the Protestant princes +against Charles V., Luther himself was bewildered. + +"It is by a small handful, a few single persons--a Moses, a Samuel, +two witnesses--He ofttimes opposes the rage of a hardened multitude. +His judgments ofttimes are the giving up of a sinful people to a +fruitless contending with their own deliverers, if ever they be +delivered. God, indeed, cannot be the author of sin, for He can be +the author of nothing but what hath being in itself (for He works as +the fountain of beings). This sin hath not. It is an aberration. +Man writes fair letters upon a wet paper, and they run all into one +blot; not the skill of the scribe, but the defect in the paper, is +the cause of the deformity. The first cause is the proper cause of a +thing's being; but the second of its being evil." Not, I understood +him to mean, that sin is natural, but that the faculties of nature +are perverted. + +Then he fervently warned against fear of man, covetousness, ambition; +against turning to "such ways as God hath blasted before our eyes, +oppression, self-seeking, persecution." + +And at the close he said, "All you that are the Lord's workmen, be +always prepared for a storm. Be prepared. The wind blows; a storm +may come." + +Opinions about the sermon were various. On the whole I think it was +hardly popular. Some said it was pitiless, that the harshest of his +enemies would not have grudged one generous word for the fallen king. +Others deemed it half-hearted, and declared that if John Knox, or one +of the mighty men of old, had been in the pulpit, they would have +made all true hearts thrill, and all false hearts tremble at the +sentence of terrible justice just executed. + +"What was thy mind about it, Olive?" my husband asked, when he, and +Roger, and I had returned to the quiet of our little garden-parlor. + +"I thought Dr. Owen very wise," I said, "in that he directed his +discourse to those who were there to hear. I never could see the +profit of denunciations of Popery addressed to those who hate it +enough already; or of arguments addressed to Arminians who are not +present to be crushed; or of railing at people who will not come to +church, for the edification of those who do. It set me questioning +myself whether God is indeed at work among us, and praying that if He +is, none of us may mistake His hand." + +"May it but have set every heart on the same questioning!" said +Roger. "How can any call those words of Dr. Owen's an uncertain +sound?" he added. "To me every tone was as clear as the +trumpet-signals before a battle. God has sent you deliverance, has +sent you a deliverer, he seemed to me to say, as Moses to Israel in +bondage, as Luther to the Church in bondage. All depends on whether +we acknowledge him--not, indeed, as to the Promised Land being +reached at last, but everything as to when it is reached, everything +as to our reaching it at all. Events seem to me constantly saying to +us, '_If ye will receive it, this is Elias which was for to come_.'" + +The revenges of the Commonwealth were few. Three Royalist noblemen +beheaded without torture or insult in Palace Yard. As far as Oliver +Cromwell's rule extended there was not one barbarous execution. +Baiting was not a sport he encouraged, whether of bulls and bears or +of men. + +During the ten years of the Commonwealth, the pillory, the +whipping-post, the torture-chamber, were scarcely once used, and not +one Englishman suffered the savage punishment awarded to traitors. + +It was difficult to see what most men had to complain of. Good men +of every party but one, the Royalist Episcopal, were encouraged. + +Nevertheless, from every party rose murmurs of discontent. Before +the king had been executed four months, General Cromwell had to +subdue opposition in the Parliament, the city, among the peasantry, +in the army itself. + +Roger grieved sorely at what he deemed the blindness of the people. + +Mr. Baxter preached and wrote against General Cromwell and his +measures, at Kidderminster, to Aunt Dorothy's heart's content, +propounding twenty unanswerable queries to show why none should take +the "Engagement to the Commonwealth now established without King or +Lords," and having in reserve twenty other queries equally +unanswerable. + +Colonel Hutchinson, the Republican, forbore not to exhort and rebuke +him, seeing, as Mistress Lucy, his stately wife, said, how "ambition +had ulcerated his heart." + +Colonel Rich, Commissary Staines, and Watson, made a design on his +life. The Council would have punished, but the General pardoned +them. Men in general were indeed moved by such generosity. But it +could not "blind" the penetrating eyes of Mistress Lucy Hutchinson, +or of Mr. Baxter. If Oliver did magnanimous deeds in public, it was +"to court popularity;" if little kindly acts in private, it was "to +cajole weak members." If his plans succeeded, it was a "favor of +fortune." If his enemies were vanquished, it was because they were +"slaves or puppets," whom he, with marvelous prescience, had "tempted +to oppose him for the easy glory of knocking them down." If he +pleaded with almost a tearful tenderness against the coldness of old +friends, it was "dissimulation;" if he sought to approve himself to +good men, it was "because his own conscience was uneasy." If he +disregarded their opinions, it was because he was "inflated with +pride, or hardened to destruction." + +Yet Roger thought much of this misapprehension would pass away. It +was, he hoped, but the dimness natural to the twilight of this new +dawn. + +The greatest dangers to the new liberty, he thought, were from the +hopes which it had created. + +The first time this danger opened on me was from a conversation +between Job Forster and Annis Nye. + +The gentle Quaker maiden had been installed for some weeks as the +nurse of baby Magdalene, who seemed to find a soothing spell in her +still serene face, and quiet even voice. + +As yet, no unusual or alarming symptoms had appeared in Annis, +nothing to indicate her being capable of the offence for which it was +said she had been cast into prison, which was that, one Sunday, she +had confronted a well-known Presbyterian minister in his pulpit, at +the conclusion of a sermon against "the Papal and Prelatical +Antichrist" and in a calm and deliberate voice had denounced him in +face of the indignant congregation as himself a "false priest," +"hireling shepherd," and "minister of Antichrist." + +Yet there was something in her different from any one I had yet seen. +You could by no means be always sure of her responding to converse on +good things; but when she did, it was like some one listening to a +far-off heavenly voice and echoing it, and very beautiful often were +the things she said. + +Her neglect of ordinary gestures and titles of respect seemed in no +way disrespectful in her. "Olive Antony" and "Leonard Antony" from +her soft voice had more honour in them than titles at every breath +from ordinary people, and when she called us "thou" and "thee," even +the bad grammar which accompanied the custom had a kind of quaint +grace from her lips. If asked her reasons for these customs she gave +them. These customs were false, she said; a hollow compliance with +the hollow world. The honour was rendered universally, and therefore +insincerely; and to call a single person "you" was an untruth which +"led to great depravation of manners." Having given these reasons, +she never debated the point further; they satisfied her; if they did +not satisfy you, she could not help it. + +Occasionally there was inconvenience arising from the difficulty of +knowing when any command might cross the non-observances she held +sacred. Nevertheless, her presence had a kind of hallowing calm in +it which compensated for much. + +My husband had sympathy with her sect on account of their large +thoughts of the love of God to mankind. And he said we ought to wait +to see what portion of divine truth or church history it had been +given to the Quakers to unfold, he sharing Mr. Milton's belief, that +truth is found on earth but in fragments either in the world or the +church. So, for the sake of my husband, and the free development of +church history, and a growing love to the maid, I continued to accept +from Annis such services as her conscience permitted, and to make up +the deficiencies myself. + +Job Forster, who, for Rachel's sake, had much reverence for feminine +judgment, had frequent converse with Annis when he came to solace +himself with our little Magdalene. For between him and the babe +there was the fullest confidence and love, the little one never +seeming more at home than in his brawny arms. + +Job thought Annis "a woman of an understanding heart," and had hopes +of reclaiming her from the error of her way. He did not for a long +time discover that Annis was the most patient of listeners to his +arguments simply as the Cornish cliffs are patient with the beat of +the waves; and that when she "dealt softly" with him, it was not +because she was convinced by his reasoning, but because she +compassionated his blindness. + +It was, therefore, with some surprise that I found him one April +evening in 1649 listening with indignant gesticulations to Annis, as +she stood, with clasped hands and eyes looking dreamily forward, +repeating in a low monotonous voice, like a chant, the words,-- + +"Woe unto those that build with untempered mortar! Woe unto those +that would build the temple of the Lord with the dust of the +battle-field! Woe to those who run to and fro and cry, Lo here! and +Lo there! The kingdom of God cometh not with observation, not with +observation. The kingdom of God is within you, within you, within!" + +Her voice died away into a sigh, and I confess it moved me not a +little. + +But Job, on whom the words came in the heat of debate, was by no +means calmed thereby. + +"It is no fair fight, Mistress Olive," he said, appealing to me; "she +does not know when she is beaten. Only yesterday, she quite gave in, +and had never a word to say, and to-day it's all to be begun over +again. It's them poor honest fellows down in Surrey she means, and +it's a sin to cast up all those Bible texts at them as if they were +blinded persecutors, instead of poor true men striving to hasten the +coming of the Kingdom. Mistress Annis," he concluded, for there was +something in her which compelled from others the titles she refused +to any, "did I not give you chapter and verse until you had never a +word to gainsay? Is it not written so plain, that he who runs may +read, that the Jews are to go in and possess the land, and did I not +show thee that the Saxons are the lost tribes, the descendants of the +Jews?" + +But Annis had meekly resumed her knitting, and simply said,-- + +"A concern was upon my spirit regarding thee. I have spoken; the +rest belongs not to me. There is the Power and the Anointing. But +these are not with me." And she relapsed into silence. + +"That is her way, Mistress Olive," exclaimed Job, much ruffled. "You +shall be judge if any rational discourse can proceed on such +principles. You bring forth Scripture enough to silence a council of +rabbis--to say nothing of reasons. She listens as patient as a lamb, +has not a word to answer--and this is the end." + +Annis made no defence, she only said,-- + +"I had hopes, Job Forster, thee had been reached. But it seemeth +otherwise." + +For if Annis heeded not the arguments of others, neither did she rely +on her own. Her confidence was not on the power of her words, but on +the Power in and with them. But this Job did not perceive. + +"Reached!" he exclaimed, looking hopelessly at me. "She speaks of me +as if I were a babe in swaddling-clothes; and I old enough to be her +grandfather." + +"What was the matter in debate?" I asked. + +"There was no debate!" said Job, still agitated. "Debates are only +possible with people who are amenable to Scripture and reason. I was +but speaking of the peasants at St. Margaret's Hill in Surrey, and +the great work they are beginning there." + +"What great work? Is there some great preacher risen among them?" I +asked, thinking he meant some great work of conversion. + +"There is a prophet among them, mistress," said Job solemnly, "by +name Everard, once in the army. The work may seem small to the eye +of flesh. As yet they are but thirty. But the Apostles were but +twelve. And soon they may be thousands." + +"But what is the work?" I said. + +"Simple work enough," he replied mysteriously. "They began with +digging the ground, and sowing beans therein." + +"Surely none will gainsay them," I said, "if it is their own ground +they are digging. But what is to come of beans except the +bean-stalks?" + +"It is not exactly their own ground," Job replied; "it is +common-ground. And they invite all men to come and help them to make +the barren land fruitful, and to restore the ancient community of the +fruits of the earth, to distribute to the poor and needy, and to +clothe the naked. Gospel words, Mistress Olive, and gospel deeds, +let the Justices say what they may." + +"The Justices interfered, then?" I said. + +"Doubtless," he replied. "Justices do, in all the books of the +martyrs I ever read. Justices are a stiff-necked race." + +"And so it ended?" I said. + +"So it began, Mistress Olive," Job replied mysteriously. "The +country-people also were blinded, and two troops of horse were sent +against them. They were brought before General Fairfax. Master +Everard spoke up to him like a lion, and told him how the Saxon +people were of the race of the Jews, how all the liberties of the +people were lost by the coming of William the Conqueror, and how, +ever since, the people of God had lived under tyranny worse than +their forefathers in Egypt. But that now the time of deliverance was +come, and there had appeared to him a vision, saying, Arise, dig and +plough the earth, and receive the fruits thereof, and restore the +creation to its state before the curse." + +"What does General Cromwell say?" I asked. + +"He has not yet got the light," replied Job. "But his eyes will be +opened, for he is of them that sigh and cry for the iniquities of the +land. The light must be flashed a little stronger in his face, and +he will see." + +"But the General is taking away oppression; he has destroyed +slavery," I said. "And there are so many curses, Job, besides the +thistles and thorns. Yet even our Lord took them not away. How can +these thirty countrymen hope to do it by sowing beans in the Surrey +commons? Our Lord did not take hard things away. He changed them +into blessings. The sweat of the brow, the thistles and all; even +death." + +"That is what I was trying to explain to Mistress Annis," replied +Job. "There are the Two Kingdoms. One cometh not with observation; +the other cometh like the lightning which lighteneth from one end of +heaven to the other." + +"But I do not see how digging up the Surrey sand-hills is like +either," I said. + +"No," said Job, shaking his head pitifully; "I daresay not, Mistress +Olive. Others must do their part of the work first. There are the +'men as trees walking' and there is the 'shining more and more.' But +I did think Mistress Annis would have had understanding. For these +country folk were like to those she calls Friends. They would not +take arms to defend themselves against the powers that be, but would +wait and submit. And when asked why they did not take off their hats +to General Fairfax, they said, Because he was their fellow-creature." + +But not even this orthodoxy as to "hat-honour" moved Annis. + +"Not with observation," she said; "not in bean fields, nor +battle-fields, nor in king's palaces. Within you--within!" + +Job rose, and gently laying little Magdalene in my arms, took his +hat, and went away without further farewell. + +"She will not see the Two Kingdoms," he murmured. "This generation +will have to be roused by louder voices. The foxes must be hunted +with beagles of other make. Those who will not wake at the lark's +singing will be startled when the trumpet peals. Five Monarchies," +he added, turning to us from the threshold; "Two Kingdoms and Five +Monarchies. Four have been, and are not. One is yet to come; cut +out of the mountain without hands--to crush the remnants of the four +and fill the world. Take heed that ye fail not of the signs of its +coming." + +Job's words made me uneasy. They seemed to betray a subterranean +fire of wild hopes, and wild distrusts, and tumultuous purposes, +which might burst up beneath our feet any day anywhere is a volcano +of wilder deeds. + +"What does Job mean," I said to my husband afterwards, "by his Fifth +Monarchy and his Kingdom coming like the lightning, and his 'beagles +to hunt foxes'?" + +"He means precisely what is endangering the Commonwealth most of all +at this moment," my husband said. "So many evils have been removed, +that sanguine men think it is nothing but faint-heartedness in the +leaders which suffers any to remain. Now that the Star Chamber and +the persecutions are suppressed, they seem to think it is only +Cromwell's half-heartedness that prevents the devil being suppressed +also, instantly, with all his works. Now that fines and persecutions +are swept away, and the laws which sanctioned them, and the men who +made the laws; what, they think, is to hinder poverty being swept +away, and unaccountable inequalities of station, and avarice, and +luxury, and waste, and want, and all the old tangle of too much toil +for some and too much idleness for others? But we must see after +this. There are mischief-makers abroad. 'Free-born John Lilburn' is +scattering fire-brands from his prison in the Tower, about England's +'new chains;' and we must not suffer Job Forster to be among his +victims. To-morrow we will tell Roger of the danger, that he may +counsel Job." + +But on the morrow it was too late. In the night (the 23th of April) +there was much stir in the city; sudden sharp alarms of trumpet and +drum, and galloping to and fro of horsemen, not on parade. + +A troop of Whalley's regiment, quartered at the Bull Inn, Bishopsgate +mutinied; why, it was not clear, but with some vague intention of +bringing in swiftly the thousand years of liberty and universal +happiness. + +General Cromwell and Lord Fairfax extinguished the fire for the time. +Five ringleaders were seized and condemned, and out of them one, +Sergeant Lockyer, was shot the next day in St. Paul's Churchyard. + +They were practical times. It mattered very much what people's +opinions were about prophecy, when they expressed them by +insurrections and mutinies. + +But, naturally, executions did not alter the convictions of the +people who believed the prophets. + +Of all the assemblies the old church and the houses round the +churchyard had witnessed, I think there had scarce been a sadder than +when young Trooper Lockyer was led out there to die. No crime was +laid to his charge, but this unpardonable military crime of mutiny. +He was but twenty-three. At sixteen he had joined the army of +freedom, and had fought bravely in it seven years. Blameless and +brave, all the fervour of his early manhood had burnt pure in +aspirations for a Kingdom of God on earth, a free and holy nation, +where the poor and needy should be judged and saved, and deceit and +violence should cease, and the oppressor should be broken in pieces. +And thousands with him had prayed for it by the camp fires at night, +and had fought for it on many battle-fields by day for seven years. +And the poor and needy had been saved, and deceit and violence +avenged, and many oppressors broken in pieces. The Bible had +promised it, and with prayers and strong right arms they, the army of +freedom, had done it. But the Bible promised more. One set of +workers after another had been set aside, they thought, "as doing the +work of the Lord deceitfully." They were prepared to do it +thoroughly--to pray and fight on till every wrong in England was +redressed, and every chain, new and old, was broken, till every +valley should be exalted, and every mountain and hill should be laid +low, when avarice with its base hoards of gold, and ambition with its +lordly palaces, should vanish, and every home in England should be a +home of plenty and of well-rewarded toil; the praises of God going up +from every holy city and happy hill-side through the land, till the +whole earth stopped to listen, and the thousand years of the better +Eden began. + +And for hopes such as these young Trooper Lockyer was led out to die; +for carrying out a little too swiftly what all Christian men hoped to +see; for "doing the Lord's work," "not deceitfully," but too hastily, +at the wrong time, and not altogether in the right way. + +There was nothing new to him in facing death. He stood to receive +the fatal volley; and when he fell, the great crowd of men and women +broke into bitter weeping and bewailed him. + +That Saturday and Sunday were sad days in the city. There was a +sense of hushed murmurs and tears all around us among the people. We +knew the corpse was being solemnly watched night and day with prayers +weeping in the city. The death of the king, alone and gray-haired, +had smitten the people with awe; the execution of this brave young +soldier touched them with a passionate reverence and pity. + +Nothing was to be seen of Job during those days. Roger had seen him +once; but he looked gloomy, and would be drawn into no discourse. He +was among the watchers over the dead, nursing wild hopes of the Fifth +Kingdom, and bitter distrusts of those who hindered its coming. + +On Monday the feeling of the people manifested itself in a solemn +procession passing through the city to Westminster. + +Ceremonial, funereal or festive, was so foreign to our Puritan +people, that the few occasions on which the irrepressible feeling +burst forth into such manifestation had a terrible reality. + +A soldier's funeral is heart-stirring enough at any time; but to me, +scarce any procession, before or since, seemed so moving as this +which bore Trooper Lockyer to his grave in Westminster Churchyard. + +There were none of the rich or great among them. First, a hundred +men, five or six in file. Then the corpse of the poor brave youth, +with the sword he had long used so well, stained now with blood, and +beside it bundles of rosemary, also dipped in blood. Then the horse +he had ridden to many battle-fields, moving uneasily under his heavy +mourning draperies, and beside it six men pealing on six trumpets the +soldier's knell. Behind, thousands of men, marching slow and silent +in order like soldiers. And after all a crowd of mourning women; +all, men and women, with bunches of black or sea-green ribbon on +their hats and breasts. + +At Westminster they were met by thousands more, "of the better sort," +it was said. And so the young man died, for trying to fulfil men's +best hopes at a wrong time and in a impracticable way, and was +buried, not without honour. + +The crime was not one which moved men to vengeance. The doom was one +which moved men much to pity. + +So the fire went on spreading in the army. On May the 9th, the +mutinous sea-green ribbons appeared among the soldiers at a review in +Hyde Park. + +General Cromwell with one of those speeches of his which critical +gentlemen pronounced so confused, but which those to whom they were +addressed found so plain, made the men in general understand that to +be a soldier meant to obey commands. If they declined to obey, they +should receive arrears of pay and be dismissed. If they decided +still to be soldiers, they must obey, or suffer the penalties of +martial law, under which they had put themselves. + +I suppose his words told, as usual, for the sea-green ribbons +disappeared, and no further mutiny followed in London. + +Meantime Mr. John Lilburn, for whom General Cromwell had once pleaded +with so vehement a passion when he was Mr. Prynne's servant in danger +of the pillory and the whipping-posts, continued to disperse his +incendiary pamphlets from the cell to which he had been committed in +the Tower. And at length the news came that the conflagration had +burst out in the army in three places at once, two hundred mutineers +at Banbury, at Salisbury a thousand, in Gloucestershire more. + +Job Forster had gone westward within those weeks with scarce a word +of farewell to any. With a grave and glooming countenance, and +avoiding all discourse. We feared sorely to hear that he was among +the mutineers. + +On Sunday, May the 14th, Roger called to bid us farewell, ready +booted and spurred to ride off with Fairfax and Cromwell and their +troops for Salisbury, to quell the mutiny there. + +It was an uneasy Sabbath for us who were left behind. John Lilburn +was in the Tower, and somewhere around the Tower were dwelling the +thousands of grave and determined men who had borne Trooper Lockyer +to his grave scarce a fortnight before. And the only voice which +seemed able to command the stormy waves was out of hearing, +heartening his men on their rapid march through Hampshire towards +Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire; as they tracked the +mutineers northward till they came on them at midnight taking uneasy +rest at Burford. + +But London remained quiet, to all outward seeming. Whatever vows +were being made in homes where the "Eikon Basilike" was being read +secretly, with a passionate devotion, together with the proscribed +liturgy, the hopes cherished were of a "blessed restoration" and +"vengeance on bloody usurpers;" or, on the other hand, in homes where +Trooper Lockyer was the martyr, and the hopes were of a speedy +millennium with vengeance on all who hindered it,--they did not +disturb the quiet of that Sabbath. Leonard and I went to the morning +exercise in "Margaret's," and the preaching in the abbey, and Annis +to her obscure meeting of Friends. And little Magdalene welcomed us +back with crowings "significant" (we thought, as my Diary records), +"of a remarkable vivacity of intelligence." And as in the evening we +looked on the Lent-lilies and primroses Aunt Gretel had sent from +Netherby, making the little garden behind the house faintly represent +the woods and fields, it seemed to us that the city had even more +than its usual Sabbath stillness, while we listened to the evening +family psalm rising from the open lattices of many houses around us. + +Yet all through that Sabbath-day those who were keeping the peace +with their good swords for us, were chasing the mutineers from county +to county and from town to town, making meanwhile such Sabbath +melodies in their hearts as best they might. + +The story of the pursuit I heard afterwards from Job. All through +the Monday the chase went on. + +"We thought to cross into Oxfordshire at Newbridge, and join our +fellows at Banbury," said Job. "But they had been before us? the +bridge was guarded. We had to double and swim the river. By this +time it grew dusk, and when we reached the little town of Burford on +Monday evening it grew dark. At the entrance of the street we made a +halt. Little welcome had we found at town or village. The name of +him who was chasing us had been our shield and boast too long not to +weight against us now. + +"For the first time these two days since first they came nigh us, we +missed the tramp of the horse in pursuit. Some of us hoped they were +off the scent. Others knew better than to think the General was to +be baffled so. We knew his ways too well. But be that as it might +we were fain to stay. The horses stumbled and would not be spurred +further. We had to cross fifty miles of country that day, to say +nothing of doublings. We turned the poor brutes out to grass in the +meadows by the river, and, wet and weary as we were, turned in to get +such sleep as we might. + +"Running away is work that breaks the heart of man and beast, and +Oliver had not used us to it. + +"But as midnight boomed out from the tall old steeple, we found what +the silence of the pursuers had meant. + +"They had been lying quiet in ambush outside the town. On they came, +clattering into the narrow streets, with the old cries we had joined +in with them so long. It was enough to make any man's heart fail to +have to go against the old watchwords, to which we had charged and +rallied scores of times together. But worse than all was Oliver's +voice. Few of us could stand that. It had been more than a thousand +trumpets to us for years. A few desperate shots were fired, and all +was over. We were caught and clapped up together to await the +sentence. We went to sleep thinking we might yet be the Lord's +handful to bring in the Millennium. We woke up and found we were +nothing better than a lot of traitorous mutineers. + +"Two days of waiting followed, and they finished the work for most of +us. Some still braved it out, and talked of martyrdom, and of paving +the way to the Kingdom with our corpses. But the greater part were +downcast and heart-stricken, and in sore bewilderment of soul. We +minded Oliver's prayers before so many battles, and the cheer of his +voice in the fight, and his thanksgivings afterwards; and how he had +praised the Lord and praised us, and made as though he owed all to +us, while we felt we owed all under God to him. We minded how he had +never thought it beneath him to write up to Parliament to claim +reward for any faithful service of any among us, and had never +claimed honor or reward for himself. More than one among us minded +how a glance from his eye singled us out, and had made our hearts +swell like a public triumph, though not a soul saw it besides; how it +had been enough reward for any toil to know that the General knew we +had done our best. All of us had heard his cheery voice joining in +joke and laugh, and more than one had heard it in low tones beside +the dying, breathing words which could make a man brave to face the +last enemy of all. + +"And now his eyes had rested on us in grave displeasure, and grieved +disappointment. He had thought we knew him, his sorrowful eyes had +said; he had thought we could have trusted him to do the good work, +and would have helped him in it. + +"The Royalists hated him, good Mr. Baxter and the Presbyterians +distrusted him, but he had thought we knew him! + +"And so we did! And before those two days were over, there were many +among us who would have asked no better from him or from Heaven than +that we might have one chance of following him to the field, and +showing how faithful we could be to him again. + +"So we came to the Thursday. The court-martial sat and gave +sentence. Ten out of every hundred of us were doomed to die. We +were taken up to a flat place on the roof of the old church to see +our comrades shot in the church-yard and to abide our turn. Cornet +Thompson came; he and his brother had been at the bottom of it, and +he had no hope of pardon. But he spoke out bravely, and said that +what befell him was just; God did not own the ways he went; he had +offended the General; he asked the people to pray for him; he told +the men who stood ready with loaded guns, when he should hold out his +hands to do their duty. I suppose he gave the sign. I was too sick +at heart to look. But the volley came and he fell. Next came two +corporals--made no sign of fear, said no word of repentance, looked +the men in the face till they gave fire, and fell. Then came Cornet +Dean--confessed he had done wrong, after a short pause received +pardon from the generals. And so we, standing sentenced on the roof +of the old church, waited what would befall us next. + +"The shooting was over. Oliver had us called into the church. There +he preached us a sermon none of us are like to forget. Not long nor +under many heads, but home to every heart. Some say the General is +blundering in speech, and no man knows what he would say. We always +knew. And all I knew of the sermon that day, is that blundering or +not, he made us all feel we had blundered sorely as to the Almighty's +purposes--blundered as to him. There were silence enough in the old +church that day, but for the weeping. The sobs of men like some of +ours are catching to listen to; Oliver's Ironsides are not too easily +moved. But that day I believe we all wept together like children. +We had lost our lives and we had them given back to us; we had lost +our way in the wilderness and we had found it again. We had lost our +leader and we had found him, and it will be hard if any noisy talker, +free-born John Lilburn or other, tempt us to leave his lead again. +We Ironsides are not going to use our Captain as the children of +Israel used their Moses. Thank God, we have another chance given us, +and we are ready to follow him to Ireland, or to the world's end. + +"The General is breaking the chains fast enough, and opening the +prisons, and breaking in pieces the oppressors. And God forbid we +should hinder him again. And as to the millennium, the Lord must +bring it about in His own way, and in His own time. I for one will +never try to hurry the Almighty again, nor the General." + +The Surrey labourers went home to sow beans in their master's fields. +The army Levellers, after being sent for a while to the Devizes, were +restored to their own regiments, and were eager to prove their +fidelity to General Cromwell by following him to the new campaign in +Ireland. + +It rejoiced me to hear that Dr. John Owen was going to Ireland as +General Cromwell's chaplain. His strong calm words were such as were +able to move and to quiet men like the Ironsides, who were not to be +stirred with zephyrs, or quieted with sweet murmurs as of a lady's +lute;--words plain and strong as their own armour. The sound of a +trumpet was in them, Job said, and the voice of words. + +Often and often his words echoed back to me as we heard them before +the Parliament in St. Margaret's, on the day of humiliation, the 28th +of February. + +"How is it that Jesus is in Ireland only as a lion, staining all His +garments with the blood of His enemies, and none to hold Him out as a +lamb sprinkled with His own blood to His friends? Is it the +sovereignty and interest of England that is alone to be there +transacted? For my part, I see no further into the mystery of these +things, but that I could heartily rejoice that, innocent blood being +expiated, the Irish might enjoy Ireland so long as the moon endureth, +so that Jesus Christ might possess the Irish. In this to deal +faithfully with the Lord Jesus--call Him out to the battle, and then +keep away His crown? God hath been faithful in doing great things +for you; be faithful in this one, do your utmost for the preaching of +the gospel in Ireland."* + + +* "On the sinfulness of Staggering at the Promises." + + +And again in the great sermon on the shaking of heaven and earth, on +the 19th of April. + +"The Lord requireth that in the great things He hath to accomplish in +this generation all His should close with Him; that we be not +sinfully bewildered in our own cares, fears, and follies, but that we +may follow hard after God, and be upright in our generation. + +"God does not care to set His people to work in the dark. They are +the children of light, and they are no deeds of darkness which they +have to do. He suits their light to their labour. The light of +every age is the forerunner of the work of every age. + +"Every age hath its peculiar work, hath its peculiar light. The +peculiar light of this generation is the discovery which the Lord +hath made to His people of the mystery of civil and ecclesiastical +tyranny. + +"The works of God are vocal-speaking works. They may be heard, and +read, and understood. Now what, I pray, are the works He is bringing +forth upon the earth? What is He doing in our own and the +neighbouring nations? Show me the potentate on earth that hath a +peaceable molehill to build a habitation upon. Are not all the +controversies, or most of them, that are now disputed in letters of +blood among the nations somewhat of a distinct constitution from +those formerly under debate? those tending thereof to the power and +splendour of single persons, and these to the interest of the many. +Is not the hand of the Lord in all this? Is not the voice of Christ +in the midst of all this tumult? What speedy issue all this will be +driven to, I know not: so much is to be done as requires a long +space. Though a tower may be pulled down faster than it was set up, +yet that which hath been building a thousand years is not like to go +down in a thousand days. + +"Let the professing people that are among us look well to themselves. +'The day is coming that will burn like an oven.' Dross will not +stand this day. We have many a hypocrite yet to be uncased. Try and +search your hearts; force not the Lord to lay you open to all. + +"Be loose from all shaken things. You see the clouds return after +the rain; one storm on the neck of another. 'Seeing that all these +things must be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in +all holy conversation?' Let your eyes be upwards, and your hearts be +upwards, and your hands be upwards, that you be not moved at the +passing away of shaken things. I could encourage you by the glorious +issue of all these shakings, whose foretaste might be as marrow to +your bones, though they should be appointed to consumption before the +accomplishment of it. + +"See the vanity and folly of such as labour to oppose the bringing of +the kingdom of the Lord Jesus! Canst thou hinder the rain from +falling? Canst thou stop the sun from rising? Surely with far more +ease mayest thou stop the current and course of nature than the +bringing in of the kingdom of Christ in righteousness and peace. +Some are angry, some are troubled, some are in the dark, some full of +revenge; but the truth is, whether they will hear, or whether they +will forbear, Babylon shall fall, and all the glory of the earth be +stained, and the kingdoms become the kingdoms of our Lord Jesus +Christ."* + + +* "On the Shaking of Heaven and Earth." + + +On the 7th of June, Dr. Owen preached again at "Margaret's" before +the Parliament, on the great thanksgiving day, when the city feasted +the Parliament, and distributed £100 to feast the poor. + +Aunt Gretel and my father, who had come up from Netherby, heard him, +with us. About the same time, Annis Nye returned from one of the two +"threshing-floors,"* where the "Friends" had been suffered publicly, +by "searching words," to sift the chaff from the wheat; and a +"prelatical" friend of ours came in to tell us of his having joined +in the ancient Common Prayer at St. Peter's Church on Paul's wharf, +and heard good Archbishop Ussher preach. + + +* These two threshing floors are first spoken of a few years later, +in 1655. + + +Whereon Aunt Gretel, who (believing far more in the power of light +than in that of darkness) was ever wont to be seeing the clouds +breaking, before others could, remarked to me,-- + +"Surely, sweet heart, the years of peace are already in sight. +Quakers, Prelatists, and Puritans free to do what good they can in +their different ways, what is that but the lion lying down with the +lamb?" + +"Ah, sister Gretel," said my father, "lions and lambs have lain down +together in cages, with the keeper's eye on them, many a time before +now, when they were well fed, and could not help it. It remains to +be seen what they will do when the keeper's eye is removed. General +Cromwell saith all sects cry for liberty when they are oppressed, but +he never yet met with any that would allow it to any one else when +they were in power." + +And as we passed the kitchen door on our way upstairs, we heard +sounds of scarcely millennial debate. + +I am afraid Annis Nye had been taking a feminine advantage of the +failure of her antagonist's cause to remind him how she had +forewarned him. For Job was saying,-- + +"Convinced we are not to look for the Fifth Monarchy because we poor +soldiers blundered about the ways and the times! As little as a man +would be convinced the sun was never to rise because some idle +watch-dog waked him up too soon by baying at the moon. Moved from +the error of my ways! Moved at farthest from the First of +Thessalonians to the Second. Not a whit farther. But that folks +should call themselves Friends of Truth, who are not to be brought +round by chapter and verse, is a marvel. General Cromwell knows what +he is about in letting such have their 'threshing-floors.' There are +those that think another sort of threshing-floor might be best to +sift such chaff away. Eden is before us, Mistress Annis; before as +well as behind. And the best Paradise is to come." + +"The lion and the lamb are scarcely at peace yet, sister Gretel!" +said my father. + +But when we were all seated together in the parlour that evening, my +father said,-- + +"How many hearts, like Job Forster's, have believed they saw the +breaking of the dawn, which was to usher in the golden age, when it +was only the breaking forth of the moon from the clouds, or perhaps +only the deepening of the darkness, which they thought must be the +darkest hour preceding the dawn. The Thessalonians of old; the early +Church in her persecutions; Gregory the Great at the breaking up of +the Empire; the Middle Ages in the year One Thousand, with a +trembling expectation which led men, not indeed to sow beans on +commons to make the whole earth fruitful, but to sow nothing, +believing that earth's last harvest was at hand." + +"Yet were they far wrong?" said my husband. "The moonlight and the +morning both draw their light from the sun. The dawn shows that he +is coming, but all light worth the name testifies that he is. In the +moon, which dimly lights our night, it is already day. So that the +moonlight, in truth, is as sure a promise of the day as the dawn." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +LETTICE'S DIARY. + +"_Rouen_.--We have not yet been able to enter Paris. The city is in +great excitement with the wars of the Fronde. The queen-mother, Anne +of Austria, and the young king Louis XIV., have been compelled to fly +to St. Germains. It is strange to be exiled from one Civil War to +another. The French Court is so poor in consequence of these +tumults, that they have had to dismiss some of their pages; and it is +reported that our own youngest princess, Henrietta, was obliged to +stay in bed to keep herself warm for lack of fuel to light a fire. + +"I have not had to wait long for the fulfilment of my murmuring wish, +that some simple, homely woman's duty were separating me from Roger, +instead of a political crime. + +"When my father returned from paying such farewell courtesies as he +might to Mistress Dorothy, he said, fixing a penetrating look on me +(who, if I cast down my eyes, could not hide from him my eyelids +swollen with weeping),-- + +"'Master Roger Drayton was longer than need be in fetching Mistress +Dorothy's mantle. I trust, Lettice, thou gavest him no cause.' + +"Then I told him all, as well as brief words might tell it. + +"'Thou hast done well,' said he. 'Could I think daughter of mine +would have felt otherwise to one of those who have made England a +reproach and a curse on the earth, I would sooner she had died. For +to eternity my curse would rest on her, and never would I see her +face again.' + +"Then seeing me grow pale, he added, in a cheery voice,-- + +"'But what need to speak of curses? Thou art a true maiden, Lettice, +as true as fair. And many a hand there is that would be glad to be +linked with this little hand, none the less that it has rejected a +traitor.' + +"Then I gathered courage once for all, and said,-- + +"'Father, they were good as angels to mother and to me. I shall +always love them better than any in the world, save thee; I shall +always think them holier and wiser, and more true and good than any +in the world, save mother. For my sake, father, say no ill of them. +It wounds me to the heart. And, father, say no more of any other +wooer. I will live for thee and for no other.' + +"He was not moved as I hoped by my pleading. He only smiled and +said,-- + +"'No need for me to say anything of other wooers, child. They may +speak for themselves. But as to living for me, I fear thou wilt find +me a rough old tyrant enough to live with, say nothing cf living for. +See already, when I meant to cheer thee I have made thee weep. +Maidens are mysterious,' he added, going to the window and whistling +uneasily. Then returning, he laid his hand kindly on my shoulder, +saying, 'Come, come child. Thou shalt be as good to me as thou wilt. +And I will say as little evil of any thou carest for as I can, though +as to picking my words it is what I am little used to. Only no +tragedy, Lettice, and no heroics! Your mother knew I had no capacity +for the heroics, and she never troubled me with them. I knew that +she loved the mountain-tops, and now and then I should hear her +singing there as it were like a lark or an angel. But she never +expected me to climb. She had her divine songs, and her heroic +epics, and her lays, and her romaunts, and I loved her all the better +for them, but to me she always talked in prose, so that we understood +each other. Thou and I will do the same." + +"And then the horses were ready, and we rode away together to Rouen. + +"But his words are very mournful to me. Are only the streets and +market-places, as it were, of our souls to be open to each other, and +the inmost places, the hearth and the church, always to be closed? + +"Yet there is a kind of unreasonable consolation in the prohibition +of my father's as to Roger. It is a terrible strain to have to keep +that door closed myself; whilst, at the same time, the barrier of +another's will seems less impenetrable than that of my own purpose. + +"_May_ 3_rd_.--I am not sure that my father's words were not the best +medicine in the world for me. It is so much better to have to meet +others than to expect them to meet us. + +"I have not to erect my cross into an idolatry, serving it with a +ritual of passionate kisses and tears. I have to carry it; and to do +my work carrying it. + +"'_Si tu crucem portas; ipsa te vicissim portabit_,' saith my +mother's A Kempis. + +"Shall I indeed ever prove that? Not as a sufferer only, but as a +conqueror? Then how? Not surely by looking at my cross, but by +bearing it. Not by bearing it with downcast eyes, but with eyes +upward to the redeeming Cross now empty;--to the living Conqueror who +once suffered there! + +"_May_ 4_th_.--Mistress Dorothy left a sermon of Dr. Owen's with me. +It was preached on occasion of a Parliament victory over the king at +Colchester and Romford. She asked my forbearance with the occasion. +'Not difficult to exercise (I said), since victor and vanquished, +King and Parliament, are both banished now before this new +usurpation.' + +"I read it with interest. Little of the cant some think +characteristic of the Puritan speech there. Dr. Owen calls +Colchester, Colchester, and not Gilead or Manasseh; and England, +England, not Canaan; and Naseby, Naseby, not Jezreel or Armageddon; +and his enemies their own English names, not bulls of Bashan, or +Amorites, or Edomites, or Hagarenes. + +"But it is for what he saith therein on trouble, that she gave it me. +The text is the prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth. +Shigionoth, saith the doctor, means 'variety, a song in various +metres.' 'Are not God's variable dispensations held out under these +variable tunes, not all alike fitted to one string? Are not several +tunes of mercy and judgment in those songs? "_By terrible things in +righteousness wilt thou answer us_." Nothing more refreshes the +panting soul than an "answer" of its desires; but to have this answer +by "_terrible things_"--that string strikes a humbling, a mournful +note. + +"'We are clothed by our Father in a party-coloured coat; here a piece +of unexpected deliverance, and there a piece of deserved correction. +The cry of every soul is like the cry of old and young at the +foundation of the second temple. A mixed cry is in our streets. + +"'A full wind behind the ship drives her not so fast forward as a +side wind that seems almost as much against her as with her; and the +reason, they say, is, because a full wind fills but some of her +sails, which keep it from the rest that they are empty, when a side +wind fills all her sails, and sends her speedily forward. + +"'Labour to have your hearts right tuned for these variable songs, +and sweetly to answer all God's dispensations in their choice +variety. It is a song that reacheth every line of our hearts, to be +framed by the grace and Spirit of God. Therein hope, fear, +reverence, with humility and repentance have a space, as well as joy, +delight, and love, with thankfulness. + +"'That instrument will make no music that hath but some strings in +tune. If, when God strikes on the string of joy and gladness, we +answer pleasantly; but when He touches upon that of sorrow and +humiliation, we suit it not; we are broken instruments that make no +melody unto God. A well-tuned heart must have all its strings, all +its affections, ready to answer every touch of God's finger. He will +make everything beautiful in its time. Sweet harmony cometh out of +some discords. When hath a gracious heart the soundest joys, but +when it hath the deepest sorrows? When hath it the humblest +meltings, but when it hath the most ravishing joys? + +"'In every distress learn to wait with patience for the appointed +time. Wait for it believing, wait for it praying, wait for it +contending. Waiting is not a lazy hope, a sluggish expectation. + +"'Ye must be weary and thirsty, ye must be led into the wilderness +before the rock-waters come. Yet (to those who wait) they shall +come. Though grace and mercy seem to be locked up from them like +water in a flint, whence fire is more natural than water,--yet God +will strike abundance out of Christ for their refreshment with His +rod of mercy. + +"'He would have His people wholly wrapt up in His all-sufficiency. +Have your souls never in spiritual trial been drawn from all your +outworks to this main fort? God delights to have the soul give up +itself to a contented losing of all its reasonings even in the +infinite unsearchableness of His goodness and power. Here He would +have us secure our shallow barks in this quiet sea, this infinite +ocean whither neither wind nor storm do once approach. + +"'Those blustering temptations which rage at the shore, when we are +half at land and half at sea, half upon the bottom of our own reason +and half upon the ocean of Providence, reach not at all into this +deep. Oh, that we could in all our trials lay ourselves down in +these arms of the Almighty, His all-sufficiency in power and +goodness. Oh, how much of the haven should we have in our voyage; +how much of home in our pilgrimage, how much of heaven in this +wretched earth!' + + +"Words of strong consolation, Dr. Owen, to reach even to us +'malignant' exiles in this foreign land. + +"_May_ 4_th_.--It was well I copied these words out; for my father, +seeing the superscription of the pamphlet, grew very fierce at it, +called it a firebrand and a seditious libel, and bade Barbe, our +servant, light her next fire therewith. + +"And to-day he hath brought me the 'Icon Basilike,' daintily bound +like a missal. + +"'Here is reading fitter for a loyal maiden,' quoth he. Since which +I have done little else but lament ever the sorrows and heavenly +patience of His Sacred Majesty. + +"If Olive and the rest could but see this, they would surely be +melted to repentance, and enkindled to counterwork their sad +misdoings. And who shall say any repentance is vain? + +"My father is full of hope at present. We have had fearful accounts +of the disorders in the city of London and in the army; the very +strongholds of the rebels. The whole country seems to be in a blaze. +Executions, funeral processions in honour of the people executed, +mutiny suppressed only by the strongest measures. Surely this tumult +must spend itself, or exhaust the nation soon. And, as if smitten +with madness, they say the substance of the army and its greatest +chiefs are to depart for Ireland, leaving this half-suppressed +conflagration behind them. + +"These things nourish great hopes among us. + +"Meanwhile, from Scotland there are the most encouraging tidings, the +whole nation seeming to be awaking to their duty. His Majesty the +young king will depart before long, to be a rallying point for this +reviving loyalty." + +_August_ 20, _Paris_.--The tumults of the Fronde are over. The +French Court has returned to Paris, and it is my work at present to +give as much a look of home as I can to these four or five great +rooms on one floor of an hotel belonging to one of the ancient +decayed nobility, where we are to make our sojourn. (_Abode_ is a +word I will never use in relation to this land of our exile.) + +"These rooms open into each other, and command an inner courtyard, +where a fountain flows all day from a classical marble urn held by a +nymph. The cool trickle is very pleasant to hear in this great heat. +On this nymph and on other classical statues, the cook of the French +family who live below us irreverently hangs his pots and pans to dry +singing, meanwhile, snatches of chansons, which end high up in the +scale, with all kinds of unexpected and indescribable flourishes. + +"Our family is enlarged. Besides our own cook, we have a French +waiting-maid, who also does work about my rooms. She has wonderfully +lissom fingers, turning everything out of her hands, from my coiffure +to my father's chocolate, with a finish and neatness which give to +our little household arrangements such a grace and order as if we had +a splendid establishment. Indeed, few of our fellow-exiled have the +comforts we have. Our revenues come to us regularly, my father knows +not (or will not know) how. But I feel little doubt to whose hands +and hearts we owe them. They enable us to keep something like an +open table in a simple way for our countrymen, so that we hear much +of what is going on. + +"_August_ 26_th_.--Our rooms do begin to have something of a home +feeling. My youngest brother, Walter, has joined us. Roland, now +our eldest, is not hopeful as to the king's prospects while Oliver +Cromwell lives, and has offered his sword to the Spanish Court. But +Walter is a marvellous solace and delight to us. He was always the +gayest and lightest-hearted of the band of brothers, and (except +Harry) the kindest and gentlest. In all other respects he resembled +my mother more than any of us. The bright auburn hair (such a crown, +when flowing in the Cavalier love-locks); the soft eyes. And, next +to Harry, he was most on her heart. In a different way--Harry as her +stay and rest; Walter as her tenderest anxiety. So much she thought +there was of promise in him, yet so much to cause solicitude. None +amongst us were so moved in childhood by devotional feeling. As a +child, he said lovely things to her, having an angelic insight, she +deemed, into the beauty of heavenly truth. She would weep in +repeating these sayings, and say she feared ('but ought to hope') it +betokened early death. But this passed away with early childhood. +As a boy, he was the merriest, and, in some ways, the wildest of all; +the oftenest in difficulties, though the soonest out of them. But +she had ever the strongest influence over him. And up to her death, +although he had done many things to make her anxious, he had done +nothing to make her despond. + +"In her last illness she spoke of him more than of any one, and +charged me to care for him. + +"And now he is once more at home with us, and seems to cling to me +with much of the fond reverence he had for her. In the twilight on +Sundays he likes me to talk of her, and sing the heavenly songs she +loved. + +"And for his sake mainly I tune my lute, and sing old English songs, +and learn some new French ones, and mind the fashions of the Court; +not that for my own sake I like to have ill-made or miscoloured +clothes. (I think, too, there is one who would care; and whether he +ever see me again or not, I have a kind of self-regard due to him. +Who can tell if Oliver might repent, or die, and England be England +once more?) + +"_August_ 27_th_.--This day my father has presented me to a sweet +aged French lady, Madame la Motha St. Rémy. She knew my mother, in +long past days, at the English Court, and for her sake has welcomed +me as a child (having none of her own), embracing me tenderly, +kissing me on both cheeks. A most lovely lady, with a sweet grandeur +in her demeanour, which made me feel as if I had been given the +honour of the Tabouret at Court, when she seated me on a low seat +beside her, clasping my hands in hers. + +"When we were left alone together, after some conversation on +indifferent topics, pushing my hair back from my forehead, she said,-- + +"'The same face, my child! but different tints; and a different soul. +More colour, I think, without and within. The brown richer, the gold +brighter, the eyes darker, and a look in them which seems to say, +life will not easily conquer what looks through them. Of colour +here,' she said, stooping and kissing my cheek, 'perhaps I must not +judge at this moment. Pardon me, my child, that I spoke as if I was +speaking to a picture. When we see the children of those whom we +loved in early years, we see our youth in their faces. To me thou +art not only Mademoiselle Lettice, thou art a whole lost world of +love and delight. When I look at thee I see not thee only, I see +visions and dream dreams. Ah, pardon, my child, I have made thee +weep; I have brought back her image indeed into thine eyes.' + +"Tell me of her, madame,' I said. + +"How shall I tell thee of her? She was a St. Agnes--a beautiful soul +lent for a season to this world never belonging to it. Some called +her an angel; that she never was. When first I knew her, she was +simple, joyous, guileless as a child, but always tender, with tears +near the brim, a heart sensitive to every touch of delight or pain; +not strong, radiant, triumphant, like the angels who have never +suffered.' + +"'She had suffered even then,' I said, 'when you knew her, madame?' + +"'She never told thee? Ah then, perhaps, I make treacherous +revelations. What right have I to lift the veil she kept so +faithfully drawn?' + +"'You can tell me nothing of my mother, madame,' I said, 'which will +not make her memory more sacred.' + +"'Again, that look is not hers! Your face bewilders me, my child. +This moment soft like hers; now all enkindled, full of fire; to do +battle for her, I know,'--she added. 'But, as thou sayest, there is +nothing which needs to be concealed.' + +"'Madame,' I said, 'her life belongs to me, does it not? any +recollection of her is my legacy and treasure. I also may have to +endure. Most women have.' + +"'It was my brother, my child,' she said. 'The sorrow was half mine, +which perhaps gives me some right to speak. He was in the embassy in +London, and I, recently married, was there also. They loved each +other. They were all but betrothed. But they were separated. +Calumnious cabals, I know not what. The misery of these things is, +that one never knows how they go wrong. A bewildering mist, a breath +of gusty rumour, and the souls which saw into each other's depths +with a glance, which revealed to each other life-secrets in a tone, +which were as one, which are as one, lose each other on the sea of +life, drifting for ever further and further apart, beyond reach of +look, or tone, or cry of anguish. So it was with them. He came back +to France, bewildered, despairing; sought death on more than one +battle-field; at last found it. And then we learned how true she was +to him; what a depth of passionate love dwelt in the child-like +heart. But two years afterwards your father entreated and your +grandfather insisted, till at length she yielded and was married. +They thought the old love was dead. But when I &aw her afterwards, +pale, meek, and passive, like the ghost of herself, I thought it was +not the love that was dead, but the heart.' + +"'But her heart was not dead, madame,' I said. 'She loved us all at +home with a love tender, and living, and fervent as ever warmed heart +or home.' + +"'Without doubt, my child,' said madame. 'Duty was a kind of passion +with her always. She was ardent in goodness, as others are in love. +There is the passion of maternal love, and there is the flame of +devotion. A great passion may leave fuel for other fires in a pure +heart, but it leaves no place for a second like itself. But why +should I speak to thee thus? thou who art but a child. After all, +have I been a traitor?' + +"'It is my English fairness and colour, perhaps, which make madame +think me younger than I am. Do not repent what you have told me; I +may need such memories yet to strengthen me.' + +"She smiled, one of those smiles which always bring youth into the +faces that have them; a smile from the heart, which lit up her dark +eyes so that my heart was warmed at their light--and turned the +wrinkles into dimples, and seemed to bring sunshine on the silky +white hair. + +"'No, no, my friend,' she said, 'thou wilt never suffer as she did. +Thou wilt conquer thy destiny.' + +"'She conquered,' I said; 'she was the joy and blessing of every +heart that knew her.' + +"'As to heaven and duty, yes, my child; she was a saint. But thou +wilt conquer as to earth also; I see it in thine eyes.' + +"How little she knows! + +"This history has made so many things clear to me. I know now what +my mother meant when she said I could never save Sir Launcelot by +marrying him, unless I loved him. I know now how it was she bore so +passively some things which I could have wished otherwise at home. +She felt, I think, that, give what she might in patience, and duty, +and loyal regard, she could not give my father what he had given her. +And therefore, perhaps, she could not, as he said, help him to +'climb.' She could come down to him in all loving, lowly ministries +and forbearances; but love only (I think), in that relationship, can +have that instinctive sympathy, that secret irresistible constraint +which, with a thousand wilfulnesses and blunderings, yet could have +drawn his soul up to hers. When so much of the strength of the +nature is spent in keeping doors of memory rigidly closed, perchance +too little is left to meet the little daily difficulties of life with +the play and freedom which makes them light. And this awakens a new +strong hope in my heart, binding me as never before with a fond, +regretful reverence to my father. Something she has left me to do. + +"Something, perhaps, which she could never have done for him. I (so +far beneath her!) may, by virtue of there being no locked-up world of +the past between us, help a little more to lead him to those other +heights which he protested to her he could never climb. By virtue, +moreover, of not having to stoop from any heights to him, but being +in the valley with him, so that I can honestly say and feel, 'we will +try to climb together.' + +"For in this at least I am sure the Puritans are right. The up-hill +path is no exceptional supererogatory excursion for those who have a +peculiar fancy for mountain-tops; it is the one necessary path for +every one of us, and it is always up-hill to the end; the only other +being, not along the levels, but downward, downward, every step +downward, out of the pure air, out of the sun-light; downward for +ever! + +"_August_ 23_d_.--To-day I kissed our queen's hand. She embraced me, +and said gracious words about my mother. She was in deep mourning; +and with her was the little Princess Henrietta, a child cf marvellous +vivacity and grace. Her Majesty graciously have taken me into closer +connection with her Court, and with the French Court also. But my +father seems not solicitous for this. He is all the more an +Englishman for being an exile; and he misliketh their Popish doings, +and some other doings of which probably the Pope would disapprove as +much as the Puritans. He saith the French courtiers, many of them, +seem to think of nothing but making love, without sufficiently +considering to whom; not making love and settling it once for all +like reasonable people, but going on making it the amusement of their +lives all the way through, which is quite another thing. And he +thinks the less I hear of all this the better. + +"He saith, moreover, that the company around the young king, if fit +enough for His Majesty and for young men like Walter, who 'must sow +their wild oats on some field,' is not the fittest for me. + +"But it seems to me I should be ten thousand times safer in such +company than Walter, impetuous and gay, and easily moved, and with no +great love in his heart to keep it pure and warm. I would I could +find him some such French maiden as Madame la Mothe must have been +when she was young. Are these wild oats, then, the only seeds in the +world that yield no harvest? My heart aches for Walter in that bad +world where I cannot follow him, and whence he so often comes back +flushed, and hasty, and impatient, and unlike himself. + +"Last Sunday we attended the English service, which our queen has +obtained permission to be held in a hall at the palace of the Louvre. +Bishop Cosins officiated. + +"It was the happiest hour I have spent in this strange land. The +sacred old words, how they come home to the heart. Not heaven alone +is in them; but England, home, childhood. + +"Unhappy Puritans! to have banished the old prayers from +parish-church, hall, and minster. + +"Unhappy Papistical people! to banish them into a dead ancient +language. The other day I went with my father into the Cathedral of +Notre Dame. The priests were chanting in Latin at the altar. Those +Catholic children can have none of the memories so dear to us of the +gradual breaking of the light into the dear old words, as in our +childhood we wake up to them one by one to see they are not music +only, but words: to find a joyful significance in each sentence of +the creeds and hymns and prayers. + +"I wonder what they have instead? + +"_September_ 8_th_.--To-day Madame la Mothe came into my bed-chamber. +Seeing the little table with the picture of the Crucifixion my mother +loved, resting on it, and her Bible and A Kempis on it (with the +'Icon Basilike'), she crossed herself and embraced me, pointing to +the picture. + +"'It was my mother's,' I said. + +"'Had she then come back to the Church?' + +"'She was always in the Church, madame,' I said; 'she was no Sectary.' + +"'Excuse me, I do not understand your English terms. I mean the +true, the ancient Church,' she rejoined. + +"'My mother believed ours to be the ancient Church, madame,' I said. +'We are not mere Calvinists or Lutherans.' + +"'No doubt, my child, I would not give you offence; but it is not to +be expected a Catholic should recognize those little distinctions +among those we must consider heretics. You understand, I mean no +offence, it is simply that I am ignorant. Perplex me not with those +subtleties, my child; I ask, can it be possible that thou and thine +are returning to allegiance to His Holiness the Pope, and the holy +Roman Church?' + +"'Our Church does not indeed acknowledge the Pope, madame, nor the +Roman Church,' I said, trying to recall some of the debates I had +heard on the matter, which had in itself never much occupied me. 'We +are English, not Roman. But I have heard our chaplain speak with the +greatest respect of some popes who lived, I think, a little more than +a thousand years ago, and say he would gladly have received +consecration from them.' + +"'No doubt, my friend, no doubt,' said madame, becoming a little +excited, 'but the priests of to-day cannot be consecrated by popes +who lived a thousand years ago. I would ask, are any of you willing +to return to the popes of to-day? We used to hear your Bishop Laud +well spoken of, and were not without hopes of you all at that time. +It was once reported he had been offered a Cardinal's hat--of course +on conditions. Have you advanced a little nearer since then? Are +you coming back to the fold in earnest?' + +"'To the Pope who lives now, madame?' I said; 'I do not think the +archbishop or our chaplain ever dreamed of that. Our chaplain was +always hoping the Church of Rome would come back towards us.' + +"'Towards you! towards heresy, my child! You speak of what you know +not,' she replied, waving her hands rapidly, as if to brush away a +swarm of insects. 'Any one of us, our priests, His Holiness himself +may indeed move towards a Protestant, as the good Shepherd towards +the wandering sheep, to bring it back. But the Church, never! She +is the rock, my friend, on which the world rests. She moves not. +The world moves, the sand shifts, the sea beats, but she is the rock.' + +"'But, madame, pardon me,' I said, 'the chaplain thought the Church +of Rome _had_ changed. There is a Rock, he thought, on which all the +Churches rest. All we want (he said) is to remove some accumulations +with which the lapse of time has encumbered this rock; and then he +thought we might all be one again.' + +"'My child,' she replied, 'the Church does not move; but most surely +she _builds_, or rather she grows. She is living, and all things +living grow. She is as one of our great cathedrals. Age after age +adds to its towers, its chapels, its side aisles. Heart after heart +adds to its shrines. But it is still one cathedral. We do not need +to hunt out obsolete books to see if we are building according to the +oldest rules. New needs create new rules. When we want to know what +to believe, we do not need to send for antiquaries. We do not need +to grope back among the far-off centuries and see what those +excellent popes, of whom your good chaplain spoke, said a thousand +years ago. We have a living Pope now. He is the vicar of Christ; we +listen, he can speak, he can teach, he can command. We do not need +to go to ancient worm-eaten books for our creeds. They were living +voices in their age, and spoke for it. We have the living voice for +our age, and we listen to it. Tell me then, quite simply; are your +English people, or any of them, coming back to the true ancient +Catholic Church?' + +"'Many among us have sighed for a union with the rest of Catholic +Christendom,' I said. 'Our chaplain used to speak much of it. We +are not of the sects, he said, who have overrun Germany and other +Protestant countries, Lutheran, Zwinglian, Calvinist, Huguenot. He +used to speak much of their errors. One or two little concessions, +he said, and all might be one again.' + +"'Concessions from us, my child!' said madame, shaking her head. +'What would you have? The doors of the Church stand open. You have +but to enter. The arms of His Holiness are outstretched. You have +but to fly to them. You have pardon, welcome, reconciliation, not a +reproach for the past, all forgotten! What would you have more?' + +"'Madame,' I said, 'we think we _are_ in the Catholic Church.' + +"'Ah, my charming child,' she said, smiling compassionately. 'I see +it is in vain to speak of these things. In your island you have the +ideas of an island. You have so many things to yourselves that you +think you may have everything to yourselves. You have your +constitution, your seas, your mountains and plains, your clouds, your +skies, all to yourselves. But the Catholic Church! Ah, my child, +that is impossible; you are a remarkable people, and have remarkable +ambitions. But there are things possible and things impossible. You +cannot have a Catholic Church all to yourselves. It is not a thing +possible.' + +"Then the slight excitement there had been in her manner passed away, +and she said,-- + +"'My child, we will not perplex ourselves much with these difficult +things. I have a very holy cousin among the ladies of Port Royal. +Perhaps one day I may introduce her to you. For women, happily, if +they can help to welcome each other within the sacred doors, have not +the keys to close them. And with regard to thy mother, all this has +nothing to do. Heavenly beings are not subject to earthly laws. And +that among the heathen there were such, my director assures me there +is no doubt. I trust even there were such among the Huguenots; for +some of my ancestors were unhappily 'gentlemen of the religion.'" + +"'Did any of them suffer in the St. Bartholomew?' I asked; 'and do +you know if any among them took refuge in London?' + +"'I have heard there is one of their descendants established in +London as a physician,' she said. + +"'I know him, madame,' I said. And it made me feel a kind of kindred +with the gentle French lady that a connection of hers, however +remote, had married Olive. + +"But this evening, when Barbe, the waiting-woman, was arranging my +hair, and I was consoling her with telling her some of Dr. Owen's +thoughts about sorrow (for Barbe has lately lost her mother, and is a +destitute orphan, and has had a sorrowful life in many ways), she +said, in a choked voice,-- + +"'Ah, if mademoiselle could only hear the minister at the prêche. +For the people of the religion are allowed to meet again, in a quiet +way.' + +"'You belong to the religion then, Barbe?' + +"'Without doubt, mademoiselle. Have not my kindred fought and been +massacred for it these hundred years? This is what made me so glad +when the chevalier engaged me to wait on mademoiselle. I knew at +once it was the good hand of God. For the English are also of the +religion, my father said; and although they have sometimes perplexed +our people by promising much and doing little for us, we always knew +these were mere Court intrigues; and that in heart we were one.' + +"'But, Barbe,' I said, with some hesitation, wishing not to mislead, +nor yet to pain her, 'we are not exactly of "the religion." The +English Church is not like yours. We are not Calvinists. We have +bishops and a liturgy, and have changed as little as possible the old +Catholic ritual.' + +"'Ah, what does that matter?' replied Barbe, unmoved; 'to each +country its customs! These little distinctions are affairs of the +clergy. They aro not for such as me. And I have known from my +infancy that the English are Protestant. They do not acknowledge the +Pope nor the Mass. They do not burn for these things; on the +contrary, they have been burned for them. They may, indeed, have +their little eccentricities,' continued Barbe charitably. 'Bishops +even, and a Book of Prayers! Do they not live on an island? Which +in itself is an eccentricity. But they are Protestant. I have +always known it, and now I see it. Mademoiselle does not go to +Confession; she does not adore the Host. Every morning and evening +she reads her Bible in her own language. She consoles me with the +excellent words of a Protestant minister, as good as we hear at our +prêche. Therefore mademoiselle is doubtless of "the religion." And +to me it is a privilege, for which I thank God day and night, that I +am called to wait on her.' + +"It is very strange how differently things look a little way off. +Neither Barbe nor Madame la Mothe seem able even to perceive the +differences which to us have been so important. In spite of all I +can say, Madame la Mothe regards me as outside; 'very good, very +dear, very charming,' but still outside; as a heretic, as a Huguenot. +And in spite of all I can say, Barbe regards me as within; of her +community, of her Church, of her religion, of her family; as a sister. + +"What are we to do? + +"We offer our hands courteously to all the ancient Churches. And +they turn scornfully away, saying, On your knees, as penitents, we +will receive you, but, otherwise, never! You are outcasts, +prodigals, in the 'far country.' + +"On the other hand we turn away from the new Protestant Churches +saying, In some respects you are right, but you have lost the ancient +priesthood you have rent yourselves from Catholic antiquity. And +nevertheless they persist in embracing us, in calling us kindred, +sisters and brethren. + +"What are we to do? + +"In England it was in comparison easy. We had things to ourselves. +Across the seas, where these foreign Churches loomed on our vision in +rocky masses through the mist and distance, it was easy to maintain +our theory about them. But here, where we are amidst them, and +Churches break into communities of men and women, it is difficult to +continue stretching out peaceable hands to those who scornfully pass +by on the other side, and not to clasp in brotherly greeting the +hands held out in welcome to us. Barbe and her Huguenots (since they +have will it so) I must then acknowledge as kindred. + +"Yet whether they heed or not, I must and will also honour as our +brethren every Catholic who is just, and good, and Christian. Their +treasures of goodness are ours, in as far as they are our delight and +our example, and none can deprive us of the possession. + +"It seems to me, if the English Church shuts her heart against the +Protestants on one side, and the Roman Church on the other, her fold +becomes the narrowest corner of Christendom a Christian can creep +into. But if, on the contrary, she stretches out her hands to both, +bound on one side by her creeds and liturgies to the Catholic past, +and on the other free to receive all the truth yet to be revealed in +the free Word of God, what field on earth so fertile and so free, +enriched by all the past, free to all the future? + +"It is those who exclude who are really the excluded. The more our +hearts can find to love and honour, the richer they are. + +"The outlaws, I think, in God's Church are not those who are cast out +of the synagogue, but those who cast others out." + + +OLIVE'S RECOLLECTIONS. + +At five o'clock on the evening of the 10th of July, 1649, the +trumpets sounded again in London streets, not for a soldier's +funeral, and not for a triumph, but for an army going forth to war. +To battle with a whole nation in insurrection, or rather in tumult; +every man's hand practised in cruel and treacherous warfare against +every man through those blood stained eight years since the massacre +of 1641, now all combined against the Commonwealth and Oliver. + +With hopeful hearts they went forth with Cromwell, as Lord-Lieutenant. + +It was the first time General Cromwell had taken on him much show of +outward state. But men said it seemed to fit him well, as I think +state must which grows out of power, like the pomp of summer leaves +around massive trunks. He rode in a coach drawn by six gray Flanders +mares; many coaches in his train; his life-guard eighty gentlemen, +none of them below the rank of an esquire; the trumpets echoing +through the city, stirring the hearts of the Ironsides, who, when he +led them, "thank God, were never beaten." His colours were white, as +of one who made war to ensure peace; who was going not as a soldier +only and a conqueror, but as a ruler and judge to bring order into +chaos, and law into lawlessness. This state beseemed the occasion +well. + +The army went with a good heart, and in unshaken trust that he was +leading them to a good work, and that it was "necessary and therefore +to be done;" the most part, like Roger, proud of being the men who +had never mistrusted him; a few, like Job Forster, all the more eager +in their loyalty for the shame of having once mistrusted; and many, +like the chief himself, all the stronger in this and every work for +sharing his conviction that all earthly work (to say nothing of +pleasure), compared with the inward spiritual work from which it drew +its strength, was only done "upon the Bye." + +But we women who watched them go, looked on them with anxious hearts. +They were plunging into a chaos, which for hundreds of years no man +had been able to bring into light and order. What they would do +there seemed doubtful; who would return thence terribly uncertain; +that all could never return terribly certain. + +Poor Bridget Cromwell, then young Mistress Ireton, and many beside, +could the veil have been lifted, would, instead of festive white +banners, have seen funeral draperies, and for the call to arms would +have heard the trumpets peal for the soldier's knell. + +Mistress Lucy Hutchinson needed not to speak scornfully of the fine +clothing which became General Cromwell's daughters "as little as +scarlet an ape." They did not wear it long. And indeed holiday +garments at the longest are scarcely worn long enough in this world +for it to be worth while that any should envy or flout at them. + +For the rest, the Lord-Lieutenant's life was no holiday; nor did he +or his Ironsides look that it should be. Not for merry-making or +idling, he thought, but "for public services a man is born." If +victories and successes came, "these things are to strengthen our +faith and love," he said, "against more difficult times." + +We are always in a warfare, he believed; the scenes change, but the +campaign ends not. + +As Mr. John Milton wrote of him: "In a short time he almost surpassed +the greatest generals in the magnitude and rapidity of his +achievements. Nor is this surprising, for he was a soldier +disciplined to perfection in the knowledge of himself. He had either +extinguished, or by habit had learned to subdue, the whole host of +vain hopes, fears, and passions which infest the soul; so that on the +first day he took the field against the external enemy he was a +veteran in arms, consummately practised in the toils and exigencies +of war." + +The portion of the army which went before the General gained a +victory in July over the Marquis of Ormond, who was besieging Dublin; +so that when Oliver landed, with hat in hand, and spoke gently to the +people in Dublin, and told them he wished, by God's providence, to +spread the gospel among them, to restore all to their just rights and +liberties, and the bleeding nation to happiness, many hundreds +welcomed him and vowed they would live and die with him. + +Three letters are preserved among my old Diaries which came to us +during that Irish Campaign. One was from Job not long after the +storming of Wexford. + +"We have had to do '_terrible things in righteousness_,'" he wrote. +"For years the land has been like one of the wicked old Roman +wild-beast shows in the Book of Martyrs; the wild beasts first +tearing the Christians in pieces, and then in their fury falling on +each other. This the General is steadfastly minded shall not any +longer be. Whereon all the people of the land have for a time given +over rending each other in pieces, to fall on us. We, how ever, +praised be God, are not, like the ancient Christians, thrown to the +wild beasts unarmed, nor untrained in fighting. For which cause, and +through the mercy of God, the wild beasts have not slaughtered us, +but we not a few of them. And the rest we hope in good time to send +to their dens, that the peaceable folk may have rest, may till their +fields in peace, and may have freedom to worship God. + +"For peaceable folk there are in the land. It has lightened my heart +to find that the natives are not all savages, like the Irish women +with knives we found on the field at Naseby. Many of the more kindly +creatures, well understand fair treatment, and generously return it. +Their countenances are many of them open, and their understandings +seem quick, to a marvel, for poor folks who have been brought up +without knowing either the English tongue or the Christian religion. +It seems as if they had been seduced with evil reports of us; for at +first they ran away, and hid themselves in caves and dens of the +earth, whenever we came near them. But since they understand that we +are no persecutors nor plunderers, the common people begin to come +freely to the camp, and bring us meat for man and horse, for which we +pay. + +"The Lord-General is very stern against all misuse or plundering of +these poor folk. Two of ours have been hanged for dealing ill with +them; which was a wonderful sight to the natives, and hath encouraged +them much. + +"The storm of Tredah was no child's-play. The Lord-General offered +the garrison (mostly Englishmen) mercy. 'But if upon refusing this +offer, what you like not befalls you,' he said, 'you will know whom +to blame.' They refused mercy. Wherefore, after winning the place +by some hard fighting (being once driven back, a thing we were not +used to), the garrison had justice. They were three thousand. +Scarce any of them survived to dispute on whom to lay the blame. It +was not so bad as some of the things Joshua had to do; the judgment +not going beyond the fighting men. But praised be God, that for the +most part it pleases Him to work his terrible things by the stormy +winds, the earthquakes, and pestilence, and not by the hands of men. + +"The General saith, 'I trust this bitterness will save much effusion +of blood, through the goodness of God.' + +"And truly, after Tredah, few garrisons waited for our summons, and +fewer still refused the Lord-General's mercy. We had but one piece +of storming work since then. That was at Wexford. There was some +confusion; the Lord-General wishing to save the town from plunder. +His summons by words scorned, he summoned them by batteries. Then +the captain would have yielded the castle, and the enemy left the +walls of the town, whereon our men got the storming ladders, and +scaled the walls. In the market-place there was again a hot fight, +and near two thousand of the enemy fell; some were drowned in trying +to escape in boats by the harbour. A notable judgment, we thought, +for some eight score of poor Protestants, who had been sent out not +long before in a ship into the harbour, then the ship scuttled, and +they left to sink; also for other Protestants shut up in one of their +mass-houses, and famished to death. + +"Since then the enemy has been scattered before us like dust before +the whirlwind. Their strong places yield to our summons one by one. +Please God we may have no more of the work of the whirlwind and +pestilence to do! For these poor towns, on the day after the +storming, with the blackened walls and the empty houses, from which +the poor foolish folks have fled away into the fields, are a sad +desolation to behold. It hath cast some little light on the slaying +of the women and little ones in the Bible; in that when the men are +slain, the lot of the widows and orphaned little ones is sure to see. +But war is not peace; and they who try to mix up the two, most times +but put off the peace, and in the end make the war more cruel. The +surgeon who laid down his knife at every groan of the patient, would +make a sorry cure. The Lord-General has great hope of yet bringing +the land to be a place for honest and godly men and women to live in, +which, they say, it hath not been since the memory of man. But one +thing will by no means be suffered; and that is the Mass. Some say +this is cruel mercy (since the deluded people hang their salvation on +it); and that it is contrary to the Lord-General's promises of +freedom of conscience. But liberty to think is one thing, and +liberty to do another. The poor folk may believe what lies they +will; but that they should be suffered to act falsehoods in the sight +of a godly Church and army is an abomination not to be borne." + +The letter from Roger came later. In it he wrote much of the +Lord-Lieutenant. It was dated February, from Fethard in Tipperary, +which, with Cashe, and other towns in the west, had lately come under +the Commonwealth. + +"Six months since," Roger wrote, "only three cities were for the +Commonwealth--Dublin, Belfast, and Derry, and Derry besieged. The +Lord Lieutenant stormed two, after mercy refused, with severity of +the severest--Tredah and Wexford, since which, none but have yielded +in time to avoid the same fate: and in a little while, we have good +hopes, if matters go on as they have, not a town or a stronghold will +be left in the enemy's hands. The misery and desolation of the +country is sore indeed; but it has not been the fruit of only these +six months' war. Scarce, I think, of the terrible eight years' +tumult since the massacre of 1641; rather, perhaps, of no one can say +how many centuries of misrule, or no rule at all. + +"The people united at first against us; loyal Catholics of the Pale, +disloyal Catholics beyond the Pale, Presbyterian Royalists, and +Papists of the massacre. Now their union seems crumbling to pieces +again, being founded, not on love, but on hatred; and out of hatred +no permanent bonds can, I think, be woven, even as my Lord-Lieutenant +told them last month in his Declaration. + +"Divers priests met at the Seven Churches of Clonmacnoise, on the +Shannon, to patch up this crumbling 'union' against us, if they +could. Upon this was issued the 'Declaration for the Undeceiving of +Deluded and Seduced People;' wherein the Lord-Lieutenant told these +clergymen many things which, perhaps, they thought little to the +point, but which to him (and to us) are the root of all things, and +therefore must naturally be to the point, especially when it is a +question of uprooting. + +"'The terms "laity and clergy,"' he said, 'are dividing, +anti-christian terms. + +"'_Ab initio non fuit sic_. The most pure and primitive times, as +they best know what true union is, so in all addresses unto the +churches, not one word of this. + +"'The members of the churches are styled "brethren," and saints of +the same household of faith; and although they had orders and +distinctions among them for administrating of ordinances (of a far +different use and character from yours), yet it nowhere occasioned +them to say _contemptim_, and by way of lessening or +contra-distinguishing, "laity and clergy." It was your pride that +begat this expression; and ye (as the Scribes and Pharisees of old +did by their "laity") keep the knowledge of the law from them, and +then be able in their pride to say, "This people that know not the +law are cursed." + +"'Only consider what the Master of the apostles said to them--"So +shall it not be among _you_: whoever will be chief shall be servant +of all." For He Himself came "_not to be ministered unto but to +minister_." And by this he that runs may read of what tribe you are. + +"'This principle, that people are for kings and churches, and saints +are for the pope and churchmen, begins to be exploded. + +"'Here is your argument. "The design is to extirpate the Catholic +religion. But this is not to be done but by the massacring and +banishing or otherwise destroying the Catholic inhabitants; ergo, it +is designed to massacre, banish, and destroy the Catholic +inhabitants." This argument doth agree well with your principles and +practice, you having chiefly made use of fire and sword in all the +changes in religion you have made in the world. But I say there may +be found out another means than massacring, destroying, and +banishing, to wit, the Word of God, which is able to convert. + +"'Therefore in these words your false and twisted dealing may be +discovered. Good now! Give us an instance of one man, since my +coming into Ireland, not in arms, massacred, destroyed, or banished, +concerning the massacre or destruction of whom justice hath not been +done or endeavoured to be done. + +"'If ever men were engaged in a righteous cause in the world, this +will scarce be second to it. We are come to ask an account of +innocent blood that hath been shed. We come to break the power of a +company of lawless rebels, who, having cast off the authority of +England, live as enemies to human society. We come, by the +assistance of God, to hold forth and maintain the lustre and glory of +English liberty; wherein the people of Ireland, if they listen not to +seducers such as you are, may equally participate in all benefits; to +use their liberty and fortune equally with Englishmen, if they keep +out of arms.' + +"Then the Lord-Lieutenant offers peace, their estates, and fortunes, +to all except the leading contrivers of the Rebellion, to soldiers, +nobles, gentle and simple, who will lay down arms and live peaceably +and honestly; and promises justice on all soldiers or others who +insolently oppress them. + +"The which (Roger wrote) we have hopes the people will listen to; and +so, some ringleaders being banished, some of the murderers of the +massacre of 1641 having after fair trial been hanged, this terrible +war end in order and blessing to all who will be orderly. It hath +been no beating the air, this campaign in Ireland. Of courage there +is no lack among this people. And many of ours have suffered by the +country sickness, which, with the famine, came in the train of such +wild lawlessness and fierce factions as have long desolated this +unhappy country. The Lord-Lieutenant himself has been but crazy in +health, and has been laid up more than once. But, as he said, _God's +worst is better than the world's best_. He writes to the Parliament +that he hopes before long to see Ireland no burden to England, but a +profitable part of the Commonwealth. And we are not without hope +that our rough work here has ploughed up the land for better harvests +than it has yet yielded." + +Then, some weeks later, another letter from Job to Rachel, mentioning +the storming of Clonmel on the 10th of May, 1650, after many hours +fiery fighting. + +"Against the stoutest enemy," Job writes, "we have yet encountered in +Ireland. Not that the Irish are enemies to be despised. Their +faculty for fighting seems of the highest, indeed it seems their +taste, and the thing they like best, since they are always ready, it +seems, to be at it at the shortest notice, and for the smallest +cause, or none--which is not the way of the Ironsides. We are +peaceful quiet men, as thou knowest, and went into the fighting, not +for the love of it, but for the love of what they would not let us +have without fighting. Which is a difference. + +"It is said our Oliver hath permitted such officers as lay down their +arms to gather regiments of such as will join them and to cross the +seas to Spain or France, there to fight for whoever will pay them, +They say 45,000 of these Kurisees are going. Which seems to me +pretty nearly the worst thing human beings can do. Worse than +slavery, inasmuch as it must be worse for men to sell themselves than +to be bought and sold. Who can say what such courses may end in? +For the Almighty does not buy his soldiers; He has no mercenaries. +But the devil has. And he pays; though not as he promises. However, +no doubt the country is better without them." + +We thought again often of Job's words, when three regiments of these +"Kurisees" were found, in after years, massacring and torturing the +peaceable Vaudois peasants in their valleys, in the pay of the Duke +of Savoy, doing some of the direst devil's work that perhaps was ever +done on this earth. + +This letter reached us at Netherby, where about this time our little +Dorothea was born. + +I remember well how it cheered my heart as I sate at my open +chamber-window in some of the soft days which now and then break the +sharpness of our early spring, and are as like a foretaste of heaven +as anything may be, to think that perchance the long night of tumult +and disorder which had hung over that distracted land was passing +away, and a new kingdom was arising of liberty and righteousness and +truth. + +Our little Magdalen (Maidie) playing at my feet with the first +snowdrops she had ever seen, and the baby Dorothea (Dolly) asleep on +a pillow on my knee. Spring-time, I thought, for the earth, and for +these darling; and for the nations. When _life_ is given, who minds +through what throes or storms? + +The old home was much changed by the absence of Aunt Dorothy. I +missed the force of her determined will and her sharp definite +beliefs and disbeliefs. The music seemed too much all treble. I +missed the decisive discords which give force and meaning to the +harmonies. There seemed no one to waken us up with a hearty vigorous +No! + +In the village, too, her firm straight-forward counsels and rebukes +were missed. Aunt Gretel and my father seemed to have grown quieter +and older. Forcible, truthful, militant characters like Aunt +Dorothy's make a healthy stir about them, which tends to keep youth +alive in themselves and those around. They are as necessary in this +world, where so much has to be fought against, as the frosts which +destroy the destructive grubs. The foes of our foes are often our +best friends; and none the less because they are the foes of our +indolent peace. + +My father had been, moreover, not a little shaken by the loss of his +arm. He had withdrawn from war and politics, and had thrown himself +with new vigor into his old pursuits, investigating the earth and sky +and all things therein. + +But the more we stay together the more needful we all grew to each +other. Maidie especially so twined herself around her grandfather's +heart, that we made a compact to spend the larger portion of the +years henceforth together; we with them in the summers at Netherby, +and they with us in the winters in London. In this way, moreover, my +father would be able to attend the meetings and weekly lecturings of +the association of gentlemen, for the prosecution of the "new +experimental philosophy," which met during the Commonwealth chiefly +at Gresham College, and was, after the Restoration, incorporated as +the Royal Society. + +Aunt Dorothy's absence, with the cause of it, was much on my mind +during those quiet spring days. Every error, she thought, had seeds +of death in it, and carried out to its consequences must lead to +death; therefore no error ought to be tolerated. This perplexed me +much, until I learned a lesson from the old beech tree outside my +chamber window. + +"Aunt Gretel," I said one day as we were sitting there quietly with +the babes, "I have learned a lesson which makes me glad." + +"From whom?" said she. + +"From that old beech-tree," I said. "The old dead leaves are hanging +on it still. Now, if the world were governed on Aunt Dorothy's +principles, strong winds would have been sent to sweep every one of +them away weeks ago. But God carries on his controversy with dead +things, simply by making the living things grow. The young leaves +are pushing off the old, one by one, and will displace them all when +the hour is come when all things are ready. It seems as if the old +things hold on just as long as they have any life left in them +wherewith to serve the new." + +"Yes, that is it, sweet heart," she said as if assenting to what she +had long known. "I, at least, know no way of fighting with what is +wrong, like helping everything good and true to grow." + +So April grew into May. The snowdrops, hawthorns, and blue +hyacinths, and all the early flowers were lost in the general tide of +colour and song which suffused the earth. These "first-born from the +dead" were succeeded by the universal resurrection which they +prefigured and promised. + +The first forerunners of spring which come one by one, like saints or +heroes, bearing solitary witness to the new kingdom of life, which +meanwhile is secretly and surely expanding round their roots, had +fought the fight with snows and storms, had borne their testimony and +then had vanished in the growing dawn of the year. + +A thousand happy thoughts came to me as I wandered in the old +gardens, and sat on the old terrace, with Aunt Gretel and Placidia, +while Placidia's little Isaac and our little Maidie played around us; +and none of them were happier than those suggested by little Isaac +himself. Again and again he recalled to me Aunt Gretel's words, "The +good God has more weapons than we wot of, and more means of grace +than are counted in any of our catechisms and confessions. The touch +of a little child's hand has opened many a door through which the +Master has afterwards come in, and sate down and supped." + +It seemed as if the child were ever leading his mother on (all the +more surely because so unconsciously to him and to her,) opening her +heart to love, and, what is not less essential, opening her eyes to +see the truth about herself. For it in not only through their +trustfulness and their helplessness that little children are such +heavenly teachers in our homes. It is by their truthfulness, or +rather by their incapacity to understand hypocrisy. They are simply +unable to see the filmy disguises with which we cover and adorn our +sins and infirmities. The disguises are invisible to them. They see +only (and so help to make us see) the reality within; and thus confer +on us, if we will attend, the inestimable blessing of calling our +faults by their right names. + +I remember one little incident among many. + +I was sitting by the fireside in the Parsonage hall, and had just +finished reading a letter from Roger, and telling my father about the +Irish war. + +"It is a conflict between light and darkness," said my father. "And +the Mornings of the Ages do not dawn silently like the morning of the +days, but with storms and thunders, like the spring, the morning of +the year." + +As he spoke, I looked out through the door to the sunshine. Placidia +was sitting at the porch at her spinning-wheel, Maidie at her feet +pulling some flowers to pieces with great purpose and earnestness, +singing to herself the while, when little Isaac came running to her +across the farmyard hugging a struggling cackling hen, which he +plumped in a triumphant way into Maidie's lap. "I give it you, +Maidie," said he, "for your very own." But Maidie, far more +overwhelmed by the hen than by the homage; began to cry; whereon +Placidia, leaving her spinning-wheel, rescued the hen and Maidie, and +said-- + +"I was very foolish, Isaac. You should ask me before you give +presents. Maidie is too little to understand hens. If you wanted to +give her anything, you should have asked mother." + +"But I was afraid you might say no," said Isaac. "And I had been +planning it all night. I thought it would be so nice for Maggie." + +"Maggie is a very little girl," rejoined Placidia; "and if you wanted +to give her something, a very little thing would please her quite as +much. There is your little gilt bauble, that you used to play with +when you were Maidie's age. It is of no use to you now, and it would +be nice for her." + +"But," said Isaac scornfully, "that would not be giving, that would +be only _leaving_. I want to give Maidie something. And I love +Maidie dearly, and and so I want to give her the nicest thing I have. +Don't you understand, mother," he continued, in the eager hasty way +natural to him, knitting his brows with earnestness. "I want to +_give_ something to Maidie. There is no pleasure in throwing old +things away, to Maidie or any where else. It is giving that is so +pleasant." + +The colour came into Placidia's face. She said in a hesitating way,-- + +"But the hen will lay ever so many eggs, Isaac. You could give +Maidie the eggs, and keep the hen, which would lay more." + +"But I want the hen to lay the eggs _for Maidie_," he replied. "I +have thought of it all. It is a great pity you don't understand, +Maidie," he continued, seriously appealing to Maidie's reason in a +way she could not at all appreciate. "It is the prettiest hen in the +yard, and she will give you a new egg every morning, and it would be +your very own, and you could give it Aunt Olive yourself." + +But this extensive future was entirely beyond Maidie's powers of +vision. She shook her head, apparently hesitating between +encountering a fresh assault from Isaac and the hen, and sacrificing +the precious bits of flowers she had so diligently pulled to pieces +and thought so beautiful; until at length, as Isaac again approached, +terror won the day, and gathering up her treasures as best she could, +in her lap, she fled to me for protection, and hid her face in my +skirt. + +"It is a great pity Maidie cannot understand," murmured Isaac in the +porch, not venturing, however, to follow and renew his homage. "But +mother, don't you understand?" + +It is not the mother, it was the child that did not understand. But +she made no further explanation nor opposition. She only said +softly,-- + +"Never mind, Isaac. You shall have the pleasure of giving. You +shall keep the hen for Maidie, and give it her when she is old enough +to know what it means." + +She would not, for much, that her child should see into the dark +place he had revealed to her in her own heart. So ennobling it is to +be believed incapable of being ignoble. + +I seemed to see the mother, through the coming years, led gently away +from all that kept her spirit down, and on to the best of which she +was capable by the hallowing trust of the child. + +It seemed to me that a conflict between light and darkness was going +on in the quiet parsonage at Netherby, as well as on the +blood-stained fields in Ireland. + +And I thought that hour had witnessed one of its silent victories. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +LETTICE'S DIARY. + +_September_ 1649, _Paris_.--'Put not your trust in princes.' + +"The young king hath left for Jersey; whither further, time will +show. Regret at his departure by this hollow French Court is scarce +even feigned. Walter is gone to join the gallant Marquis of +Montrose. And perilous as the enterprise is, it is a kind of relief +to us; so far greater seem to us the perils of the king's idle court +than those of the field. + +"We are not made to feel so very welcome here as to make our lives a +festival. Cardinal Mazarin, who, with the Queen-Mother, ordereth all +things (the king, Louis XIV., being but a boy of eleven or twelve +years of age), lets it be seen but too plainly that they would not be +sorry to see the young king, and even the Queen Henrietta herself +(though a daughter of France), translated to any other asylum. His +Majesty but lately dismissed some Commissioners from Scotland (where +they had the grace to proclaim him in February). They were +Covenanted persons, and made so much parley as to the conditions on +which they would be subject to him, that it seemed as if their true +purpose was but to make him subject to them. The negotiations were +broken off all the more abruptly, in consequence of the over-zeal of +some followers of the gallant Marquis of Montrose, who assassinated +the Ambassador of the 'Parliament' at the Hague. This deed made the +Scottish Commissioners more stiff in their ways, so that their +Commission ended in nothing. My father, with the most zealous of the +king's followers, much misliketh these dealings with men 'whose very +Covenant (saith he) constitutes them rebels.' + +"'If the Scottish people are happy enough to get their king back,' he +protests, 'after basely selling his father (of sacred memory), they +must take him as a king, not as a scholar or slave of their arrogant +preachers. Otherwise, better remain king of his faithful exiles +here, of loyal Jersey and the Isle of Man (which the noble Countess +of Derby still holds for him), and bide his time.' + +"For my father liketh not subtleties, and the double ways of Courts. +The Marquis of Montrose (with his followers) he thinks well-nigh the +only Scottish man worthy the name of loyal; he who writ on his +master's death-- + + "'I'll sing thine obsequies with trumpet sounds, + And write thine epitaph in blood and wounds.' + + +"_October_ 15_th_.--Good Mr. Evelyn, who came to kiss the king and +the queen's hand (an honour few covet now), hath brought us heavy +tidings to-day of a dire massacre at Tredah in Ireland; the flower of +the Marquis of Ormond's army cut off, and such a panic struck through +the land that one stronghold after another has yielded. It was +Cromwell's doing. When will the awful career of this man of blood be +brought to an end? Not a few among us think he must be master of +some dread sorceries. How else should he cast his wicked spells +around the good men who, alas! follow him? + +"Some even think there are mysterious allusions to him in the Book of +the Revelations. Certain Greek figures there, which are also +letters, being capable, if ingeniously taken to pieces and put +together again, of being made to spell the number of his name, or the +name of something belonging to him. Of this I cannot judge, not +knowing Greek. And I think it scarce wise to build too much on it, +because I understand these same figures have been diversely applied +before by various interpreters to their various enemies. And perhaps +it is better (at least for people who do not know Greek) to wait +until the prophecies are fulfilled before they thus interpret them. +It would be a pity (if we should, after all, be mistaken) to find we +had been misapplying the Holy Scriptures into a vocabulary for +calling people ill names withal. That this terrible man is, however, +indeed as a terrible 'Beast,' trampling on kings and peoples and +nations, 'dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly, having iron +teeth, devouring and breaking in pieces, and stamping the residue +with his feet,' no Royalist can doubt. + +"This loss of Tredah, good Mr. Evelyn saith, forerunneth the loss of +all Ireland. His Majesty, when he heard of it, is reported to have +said, 'Then I must go and die there too.' But these melancholic and +heroical moods, my father saith, do not last long with His Majesty. + +"_Jan._ 30_th_, 1650.--A day ever to be remembered with fasting, and +weeping, and bitter lamentation. + +"So I wrote this morning, and just after, sweet Madame La Mothe came +to bid me to a fête. She came into the room in a glow of kindly +animation with the pleasure she hoped to give me, but started +appalled at my robe of deep mourning (which of late, at my father's +wish, I had lightened), and the grave face which too unfeignedly +accompanied it. + +"'My child,' she said, 'what new calamity? Thou shouldst have let +thy mother's old friend share it.' + +"'No new calamity, madame,' I said; 'or, at least, a calamity always +new until it is expiated. This is the anniversary of the martyrdom.' + +"'The fête of a martyr, my friend?' said she 'I thought your English +Church had no martyrs, or, at least, no calendar. Besides, we keep +our martyrs' days as festivals.' + +"'Scarcely, madame,' I said, 'when only a year old. It is the day of +the death of our martyred king.' + +"'Ah!' she said, drawing a long breath. 'Doubtless the death of the +late king of England was a was a sad tragedy. All the Courts of +Europe acknowledged it to be so. Most of them went in mourning at +the time.' + +"But she was evidently much relieved. + +"'It matters not, my loyal child!' she said. 'To-day you shall +devote to your pious lamentations. I will defer the little fête I +promised myself on your account till to-morrow.' + +"And with an embrace she left me. + +"But I think scarcely anything before has made me feel so much what +it is to be an exile. To her the sovereign for whom we have +willingly sacrificed so much, and were ready to sacrifice all, is +merely 'the late king of England;' the anniversary of his martyrdom +is no more than that of St. Pancras or St. Alban; and an ample +lamentation for his death is a Court mourning! + +"My father commended me for my loyal black draperies. But when Barbe +began and concluded our dinner with the meagre soup which I thought +the only fare appropriate for such a day, he looked a little +anxiously for something to follow; and when nothing came, and I +reminded him what day it was, and asked him to finish with a grace he +said a little hastily,-- + +"'The grace at the beginning is enough, I think, child, when the end +follows so close upon it.' + +"Then when Barbe had withdrawn, he went to the window looking into +the court and whistled a cavalier tune; and then, checking himself, +threw himself into a chair, and murmured,-- + +"'It has a fearful effect on an English gentleman's brain to be shut +up for months in streets, like a London haberdasher. With such a +life one might sink into anything in time; a Roundhead--a +Leveller--anything! No wonder the Parliament found their adherents +in the towns.' + +"Then moving uneasily again to the window, he said,-- + +"'Lettice, can't you get some fellow to stop that doleful +broken-nosed woman from everlastingly letting the water drop out of +her pitcher? It is enough to drive a man crazy. It is like a +perpetual rainy day, and takes away the only comfort one has left in +this den of a place, which is the weather.' + +"I persuaded him to listen to a little of the 'Icon Basilike' to +soothe him. But he even took exception to His Majesty's words. At +length he cried,-- + +"Lettice, my child, prithee stop. It is very excellent, but it is +very dismal. I suppose His Majesty did write it all, poor gentlemen, +though how he could find it a comfort I cannot imagine. However, +there is no saying what a man may be driven to comfort himself +withal, if kept months together in one chamber. A day makes me feel +like an idiot.' + +"Then I took my embroidery, and sought to tempt him to converse. + +"But he only went from one melancholy topic to another--the +assassination of Dr. Dorislaus at the Hague ('a disgrace to the good +cause,' he said); the folly of listening to Covenanting Scottish men; +the incivilities of the cardinal and the French Court; the baseness +of the Spanish Court in calling the young king the Prince of Wales, +and scarce receiving his ambassadors except as private friends. The +only topic which he seemed to dwell on with any satisfaction was the +wickedness of Cromwell and the Ironsides, which he said was too bad +to be tolerated long even in such a wretched place as Puritans and +Papists had made of this world. But on this it gave me no delight to +hear him expatiate, which he noticed with some irritation, saying,-- + +"'Between your loyalty, and your objection to hear things said +against the rebels, Lettice, and that confounded woman who can never +get her pitcher emptied, and Cardinal Mazarin, it is really no easy +thing for a man to keep up his spirits.' + +"And he paced out of the room, leaving me alone. Thereupon, I went +faithfully over the bitter steps of the 'dolorous' way trodden by +those royal feet so recently; the while I thought how good Mistress +Dorothy was doubtless keeping a Puritan fast at Kidderminster on the +same occasion; and my heart wandered involuntarily to other sorrows +of a dolorous way not yet finished, and I hugged my crosses until I +felt rather like celebrating my own martyrdom as well as the king's. +Thus I wept much, and was beginning to feel very wretched, and to +hope I was the better for it, when my father returned. + +"His countenance was lightened, and he kissed me very kindly on the +cheek. + +"'Poor pale child!' he said. 'Well, it can't be helped. I hope the +fasting does thee good. But it does me none. It makes me, not a +saint, but a sour old curmudgeon; as I have proved pretty forcibly to +thee, sweet heart. It never suited me when things were cheerful. I +always told your mother I could never take it up until she found some +Protestant Pope who could grant dispensations when necessary. And +now that everything is dismal, it is a great deal more than I can +bear. So, my dear, I have told Barbe to bring me the remains of that +venison pasty and a flask of Burgundy. And I feel better for the +thought of it already. The times are altogether too melancholic for +fasts, Lettice. Fasts are all very well for comfortable cardinals +like this Mazarin, who know they can dine like princes to-morrow; but +not for poor dogs of exiles, who may have to dine with Duke Humphrey +any day without getting any benefit out of it for body or soul.' + +"Barbe duly appeared with the pasty and the wine, and as I sat beside +my father the words came to me, '_Be not as the hypocrites, of a sad +countenance_,' and a chill seemed to pass away from my heart. I +began to wonder whether, after all, I had been keeping the right kind +of fast; and I said something cheerful to my father. + +"'Well, sweet heart,' he replied, 'the fast seems to do thee no harm. +What wast thou doing while I was away?' + +"'Reading the Acts of the Martyrdom,' I said. 'Going over the king's +parting with the royal children, and his walk from St. James's to +Whitehall through the biting frost, and what he said to Bishop Juxon +on the scaffold, and his taking off the George, and all.' + +"'But, dear heart,' said he, 'that is all over! To whom dost think +it does good for thee to cry over it all again? Not, of course, to +the king, who is on the other side of it; nor to the queen; nor to +the young king, who seems able enough to take consolation in one way +or another. To whom, then? Because if it is only to thyself, it +seems a great deal of pains to take. There are so many people +suffering now, whom one might perhaps comfort by weeping with them, +that life seems to me scarce long enough to weep for the sorrows of +those who weep no more.' + +"'He spoke diffidently, as if on ground on which he felt his footing +doubtful. And when for a while I did not reply, he rejoined,-- + +"'Do not speak if it troubles thee, child. Never heed an old +Cavalier's confused thoughts. I know there are mysterious rites +which only the initiated understand.' + +"'Father,' I said, drawing close to him, and sitting on a footstool +at his feet. 'I know no mysterious sanctuary which we cannot enter +together. We will go everywhere together, will we not? I think your +kind of fast seems the Bible kind. I am sure any fast which leaves +the head bowed down like a bulrush, cannot be the right kind. And if +we live till this day next year, I will try and find out some +sorrowful people whom our sympathy might comfort, and our bread might +feed. And that will, surely, not make either of us of a sad +countenance.' + +"'He smiled, and began to tell me what he had seen in his absence. +And as he kissed me to-night, he said,-- + +"'Lettice, child, what didst thou mean by our going everywhere +together? I am not such a heathen as to hinder thee from being as +good as thou wilt. I lived too long with the sweetest saint on earth +for that.' + +"'I meant that we will both try to be as good as we can,' I said. + +"'True, true,' he said; 'but a man's goodness is one thing, and a +young maiden's another. A Cavalier's virtue is to be brave and loyal +and true, generous to foes, faithful in friendship, and (as far as +possible), in love, faithful to death to the king. For a few slips +by the way, if these things are kept to in the main, it is to be +hoped there is pardon from a merciful Heaven.' + +"'And a young maiden's goodness?' I said. He hesitated,-- + +"'All this of course, and something pure and tender, and gentle and +heavenly, beside. Ask thine own heart, child!' he added; 'what do I +know of it?' + +"'All this, father,' I said, 'and no failures by the way? Is that +the difference?' + +"'Nay, saucy child, never flatter thyself,' he said. 'Thou hast +perplexed me too often by thy pretty poutings and elfish tricks and +wilful ways, that I should say that.' + +"Then I ventured to say,-- + +"'Are the Cavalier's slips by the way forgiven if they do not ask +forgiveness, and do not try to mend?' + +"'Come, come, I am no father-confessor to meet thy pretty casuistry,' +he said; and then gravely, 'Many of us do ask forgiveness. God knows +we need it. And when an honest man asks to be forgiven, no doubt he +means to do better.' + +"'Then where is the difference?' I said. + +"'Belike,' he said thoughtfully, 'belike there might be less! So, +good-night, child! I trow thou never forgettest thy prayers. And I +suppose there is something left in them of what thou wast wont to ask +when I used to listen to thee a babe lisping at thy mother's knee; +"Pray God bless my dear father and mother and brothers, and make us +all good, and take us to Thee when we die." That prayer is answered, +surely enough, for two of us. Try it still, child; try it still.' + +"Words which made me go to rest with little temptation to be, as the +hypocrites, of a sad countenance. + +"_April_.--The gallant Marquis of Montrose has landed with foreign +recruits in Caithness, to venture all for the king, in fair and open +war. The king, meanwhile, has been entertaining Commissioners from +the Covenanting party, who hate Montrose to the death; writing +secretly to assure the marquis of his favour, and openly receiving +the marquis's mortal enemies. My father is sick at heart, he and +many other of the noblest of the Cavaliers, at these courtly +double-dealings. + +"_May_.--My father came in to-day sorely dispirited. + +"'There,' he exclaimed bitterly. 'A letter from Walter. He is safe, +poor boy, in some desert mountain or other, among the wild deer and +wild men. But the best of us is gone; the only Scottish captain I +would have cared to serve under, Montrose, debated at Invercarron in +the Highlands, his foreign hirelings a hundred of them killed, and +the rest, with the Highlanders, scattered; the marquis himself taken +by those "loyal" Covenanters and hanged at Edinburgh! + +"'He died the death of a hero,' he pursued, after a pause; 'it might +be well if we were all with him, away from these fatal clever tricks +of policy. The king's most faithful servant hanged at the Tolbooth, +and the king going to Scotland hand in glove with the canting +hypocrites who murdered him; making promises without stint, and +meantime encouraging his old followers by promising never to keep +them! How can any man know what promises he does mean to keep? A +curse on this hollow French Court, and all that comes of it! It +would take little to drive many of us back to our English homes, to +the farm and the chase, and let these Puritans and politicians hunt +each other as they please.' + +"'But the brave marquis?' I said, wishing to turn him from bitter +thoughts on which I knew he would never act. + +"'Deserted by his men, changing clothes with a poor country fellow; +taken in this disguise by the enemy, delivered up to General David +Lesley, dragged about from town to town, and exhibited to the people +in his mean dress, in the hope he would be insulted. But the poor +common folk jeered him not--they pitied him; so that in this Lesley's +malice was disappointed. Then taken in an open cart through +Edinburgh, his arms tied to the sides of the cart, his hat taken off +by the hangman, and so dragged in base triumph through the streets of +the city. He gave the driver money for conducting what he called his +triumphal car. Then persecuted and cursed in the form of prayers, by +ministers and men calling themselves judges, for two days, and at +last hanged on a gallows thirty feet high, with the book recording +his deeds around his neck; a more honourable decoration, he said, +than his Order of the Garter which he lost in his last battle. One +thing only of the traitor's doom was spared him. They did not +torture him, but hanged him till he was dead. His limbs were +quartered. When they threatened him with that, he said he would he +had flesh enough to be distributed through every town in Christendom, +as a testimony of the cause for which he suffered. A brave end; no +death on a victorious battle-field more worthy of a loyal gentleman!' + +"'But the king will never trust himself with Montrose's murderers?' I +said. + +"'He will go with them immediately,' was his reply, 'accepting all +their conditions, spite of all that Mr. Hyde and other counsellors, +who love him and love truth, can say. Not one of his old friends and +counsellors permitted to be with him, nor one who fought for his +father against the Parliament, without taking the Covenant. And he +is to take the Covenant himself. How is it he cannot see (as Mr. +Hyde says), that "to be a king but in name _in his own kingdom_, is a +far lower degradation than to be a king but in name anywhere else?" +How is it he cannot see, that promises made to be broken, ruin the +soul in making and the cause in breaking? But it is all the Queen +Mother's doing, and those hollow French Papistical ways. Tossed to +and fro between Papists and Covenanters, what can a sanguine and +good-natured young king of twenty do?' + +"Thus having relieved himself by some hearty abuse of the French +politicians and the Scottish preachers, my father's loyalty began to +blaze bright again, and he concluded,-- + +"'And we shall have to go to him, and get him out of his Covenanting +jailers' hands as best we may.' + +"So His Majesty has landed in Cromarty, having to sign the Covenant +before they would suffer him to tread on Scottish ground. He is +being led about listening to sermons containing invectives on his +father's tyranny, his mother's idolatry, and his own malignity; +rebuked by preachers on their knees, in humble postures, but in very +plain terms. + +"_July_.--A letter from Mistress Dorothy, full of hopeful +expectation, rejoicing that the best hopes are entertained of His +Majesty's salvation, temporal and eternal. She understands that he +is desirous of being instructed in the ways of the Lord, listens with +marvellous earnestness to gospel sermons in which he and his are not +spared, and has already signed the Solemn League and Covenant. The +only thing to be wished, saith she, is that the instructions could +have preceded the signing. Marvellous, she thinks, are the ways of +the Almighty; that 'out of the ashes, as it were, of the late king, +who, whatever his excellences, it could not be denied had prelatical +predilections and prejudices strongly opposed to the Covenant, should +spring a young monarch of so docile a disposition and so hopeful a +piety, for the everlasting sanctification and benediction of the +three kingdoms.' + +"My father gave a low significant whistle when I read him this +passage. + +"'Poor Mistress Dorothy!' he said; 'and poor young king!' + +"_July_ 3.--Another letter from Mistress Dorothy, in a strain unusual +with her, speaking of increasing infirmity, and hinting that she may +not be able to write often again to me. It is only me, saith she, to +whom she does write. By my father's permission I have written to +tell Olive. + +"_August_ 14.--Oliver Cromwell is on his way to Scotland. There will +be fighting. The king and the Covenanted Scottish Puritans against +the Ironsides and the uncovenanted English Puritans! A strange +jumble! My father is set on going, to take his share of the +fighting. He is to leave me under the care of Madame la Mothe, who +has designs of making me acquainted with some of her friends of Port +Royal. + +"_August_ 16.--My father has left to-day. + +"'Don't turn Puritan or Papist, Lettice,' he said, 'and do not forget +thy old father in thy prayers.' + +"'Nor you me, father,' I whispered, 'in yours.' + +"'The men the fighting, and the women the praying, is an old +soldier's rule,' he said. + +"'But not ours, father,' I said, half afraid to say so. 'There must +be quiet times before the and after them.' + +"'Not very quiet,' he said, 'where Oliver is. However, there is +always quiet enough for old Sir Jacob Astley's prayer--or the +publican's;' he added reverently. + +"And with a kiss, and a blessing in a faltering voice, he was gone. + +"Never so entirely bound to each other as the moment before parting; +never so free from heart-barriers as when time and space are about to +interpose their impenetrable barriers between us. + +"This feeling must be a promise, not a terrible mockery. Surely it +must mean that the barriers are made of corruptible things, the bonds +of the incorruptible." + + +OLIVE'S RECOLLECTIONS. + +When we came back to London from Netherby, my husband and I, Maidie +and the babe and Annis Nye, on the 31st May 1650, the whole city was +awake and astir with the triumphal welcome of Oliver Cromwell on his +way home from the Irish war. In Hyde Park the Train-bands and +salvoes of artillery; through the streets eager crowds thronging +around him, shouting welcomes, as he rode to the royal lodgings the +nation had assigned him in "the Cockpit" at Whitehall, whither +Mistress Cromwell and her daughters had moved (not very willingly, +some said) a few weeks before. + +In a short time Roger came into the house. + +"At last the nation acknowledges him, Roger!" I said; "and now, we +may trust, the wars are over, and we may begin to reap the fruit." + +"Always hoping still, Olive!" he replied, with a quiet smile. +"Always thinking we are getting out of the Book of Judges into the +Book of Ruth; out of the 'Book of the wars of the Lord,' into the +greetings of the reapers and the welcome of the gleaners. Not yet, I +am afraid. The Scottish Covenanters are even now making ready to +welcome their Stuart king; and that matter will have to be settled +before there is peace." + +"But, meantime," I said, "it must cheer the Lord-Lieutenant's heart +to be thus received." + +"I am not sure, Olive," he said. "I just heard that a person said to +him, thinking to please him, 'What a crowd to see your lordship's +triumph!' but that he replied, 'There would be a greater crowd to see +me hanged.'" + +"I do not believe that, Roger," said I. "I do not believe his is a +heart not to be stirred by a people's welcome." + +"Perhaps it was stirred, Olive; only a little more deeply than to a +ripple of pleasure. Perhaps he thought of the poor peasants trying +to till the Millennium in on the Surrey hills, and the poor soldiers +trying to fight it in at Burford, and of the mutiny in Bishopsgate +Street among his bravest troopers, and of the many who began the +struggle at his side now in deadly opposition to him; and of that +ancient crowd whose hosannas and palm-branches were so quickly +changed." + +"Roger," I said, "you and General Cromwell have been wanting us and +_home_! It is not like you to look in this melancholic way on +things." + +And I took him into the nursery to see Maidie and the babe; a sight +which, my husband used to say, I superstitiously thought a charm +against well-nigh any despondencies. + +Maidie had forgotten him, and went through a number of pretty, shy, +feminine tricks, before she would be coaxed to come near him. The +plain Ironsides' armour was not so attractive to her as would have +been the Cavalier plumes and tassels. Her approval, however, once +won, she became completely at her ease, subjecting Roger entirely to +her petty tyrannies, and making the room ring with her merry little +voice; while the babe looked on, serious and amazed, expressing her +sympathy in the festivities by senselessly crowing, and by vainly +endeavouring to embrace her own rosy toes, as if she had been a +benighted baby of the Dark Ages, instead of an enlightened infant of +the Commonwealth. + +So we talked no more politics that evening. And in the morning, +Roger's views of the world seemed to me more hopeful. Indeed, there +was work to be done, and so no more time for despondency; a bitter +root which needs leisure to make it grow. + +In June, General Cromwell was appointed Captain-General of the Forces +instead of General Fairfax, and set off at once with his troops for +Scotland, Roger and Job Forster among them. + +My husband also accompanied them. + +My father soon afterwards took Aunt Gretel to pay a visit they had +been desiring to make to Germany ever since the Thirty Years' War had +ended (in 1648); two years before. + +Early in August, a letter came from Lettice Davenant, telling me +that, from a letter she had received, she thought ill of Aunt +Dorothy's health, and deemed that she stood in need of succour and +sympathy, which, rigid to her vow, and all its consequences, she +would never ask. + +If this was true, there was no time to be lost, Nor was there +anything to detain me from Aunt Dorothy. The old house at Netherby +was, for the time, deserted, and London just then, in the sweet +summer time, seemed to me a wilderness and solitary place. + +Moreover, our departure was made all the easier, in that it gave me +an opportunity of doing a kindness to one of my husband's prison +friends, good Dr. Rich, an ancient clergyman whom Leonard had found +in gaol on account of his having given aid to the Royalists, and to +whom, being now liberated but deprived of his benefice, our house +might offer a welcome asylum. Dr. Rich was a sober, devout, and +learned gentleman; a man who dwelt much in the past, and was more +interested in the present as illustrating the past, than for its own +sake. + +Nothing gave him more satisfaction than tracing the pedigree of +doctrines, heterodox or orthodox, to the primitive centuries, in +which he assured us were to be found the parents, or the parallels, +of all the heretics and sectaries of our own day, from the monks to +the Quakers; including the Fifth Monarchy men, who, he declared, were +nothing but a resuscitation of certain deluded persons called +Chiliasts, who had been convincingly refuted by I know not how many +Fathers. + +Meantime (the fifth of the revenue of his benefice, allowed to +deprived ministers by the Parliament, being but irregularly paid), +Dr. Rich, Mistress Rich, and his eleven children found a parallel in +their own circumstances to the primitive poverty of the earliest +centuries too obvious to be pleasant; and it was a delight to be able +to offer them a home under the guise of taking care of our house in +our absence. + +He was a man at all times pleasantly easy to practise upon with +little friendly devices, having little more knowledge than the birds +of the air as to the storehouse or barn whence his table was +supplied, and being always diverted by a little subtlety from the +perplexing cares of the present to the perplexed questions of a +thousand years ago. + +Accordingly, with little parley, or preparation, Dr. Rich and his +family were lodged in our house, and we were ready to depart. If +Aunt Dorothy's stronghold was to be entered, it must be by surprise +or storm; surrender was not in her dictionary, much less entreaties +for succour. + +We set off, under the care of our serving-man, Annis and I with +Maidie and the babe, our cavalcade consisting of three horses, one +carrying Annis on a pillow behind the serving-man; the other (a sober +old roadster) bearing the babes in panniers, and me enthroned between +them; the third, a pack-horse, with our luggage and provender for the +way. + +This mode of travelling was neither swift nor exciting. It left me +much leisure to meditate by what subtleties I might avoid encounters +between Annis and Aunt Dorothy, should Aunt Dorothy be sufficiently +well for her orthodoxy to be in full force. + +To forewarn Annis was only to bring on the conflict I dreaded with +more speed and certainty; to tell her a road was dangerous being the +first step towards convincing her it was right. + +To forewarn Aunt Dorothy, on the other hand, was equally perilous. +So I came to the conclusion that I could only let things take their +course. + +For without Annis I could not have come at all. Her care of the +babes was pleasant. Her quiet, firm will, her stillness, and her +sweet even voice kept them serene. They were as content with her as +with me. She seemed to grudge no weariness or toil for them, and her +temper was never ruffled. Her dainty neatness and cleanliness were +like perpetual fresh air around them; and, moreover, my heart was +tender to the orphan maiden with a heart so womanly, and a belief so +perilous, in the midst of a rude world, which might crush her +delicate frame to dust, yet never bend her will a hair's breadth. + +The points at which she and her sect came into antagonism with the +rest of the world were scattered all over the surface of every-day +social life; and to her every one of these became, when assailed, no +mere outwork, but the very citadel of her most central convictions, +in which, for the time, all the forces of her mind and heart were +gathered, and which she could no more voluntarily yield than could +voluntarily cease to breathe. + +It was a serious responsibility to have the charge of a person, every +one of whose minutest convictions was to her essential as the +distinctive conviction of each sect to its members, and whose +convictions crossed those of the rest of the world, not only in what +they profess in church on Sunday, but in what they practise at home +every hour of every day. + +Nor was this all. If Annis's resistance had been merely passive, +there might still have been hope of escape. + +But not only did all the world believe the Quakers wrong; they +believed all the world wrong. Nor only this. They believed +themselves commanded jointly and severally to set all the world +right, a conviction which, under no conceivable form of government, +is likely to lead to a tranquil life. We could never tell at what +moment Annis might feel moved to tell any peaceful Presbyterian +minister, in the gentlest tones, that he was "a minister of +Antichrist;" or any strict Precisian matron, who would no more have +indulged in a feather than in an idol-feast, that she was "swallowed +up with the false and heathen customs of the world," in calling a +single person you; or in "idolatrously naming the second or third day +after the hosts of heaven." + +However, the duty had been assigned me by my husband, and was bound +fast on me by the pity and love I felt for Annis. This did not +hinder her being a far more anxious charge to me than my babes. + +On the occasion, however, we owed a brotherly welcome to her. + +We were benighted on the Surrey hills, to which we had turned aside +with a view of lodging at a friend's house. + +The babes began to mewl and be weary. The place was solitary, sandy, +with sweeps of barren heath. It was St. George's Hill, and I began +to recall wild stories of the poor peasants "called Saxons, but +believing themselves Jews, and inheritors of the earth," who had +tried to dig the wild moors into millennial fertility a few months +before, and had threatened park palings;--so that I should have half +feared to ask shelter had any human dwelling appeared. Yet to camp +on the wilds, with two young fretting babes, even on an August night, +was unwelcome. + +As I was plodding on, seeking to soothe the infant in my arms, and +singing soft songs to Maidie, a wild figure issued forth from a +hollow tree, at sight of whom my heart stood still. He was clad in +leather from top to toe. + +But his carriage was grave, not like a plunderer, and he accosted me +soberly, though without any titles (as Mistress or Madam), calling me +"friend" and "thou." + +At once Annis recognized him, calling him "George," and greeting him +as one she honoured. + +After a brief conference with her, he came and bade me be of good +cheer, there were some of the Children of Light dwelling not far off, +to whom he would take us for shelter. + +In a few minutes we came to a humble cot in a hollow of the downs, +where, without many words, we found kindness and hospitality worthy +of any mansion; the good woman preparing food and fire, so that the +babes were soon quiet and asleep, while far into the night they +entertained us with heavenly discourse, which was more restful than +sleep. The goodman told us how, "when after Everard and Winstanley +and their promised millennium had failed, he had gone back hopeless +and dispirited to his old toils for a froward master, working early +and late taking rest, knocked about by his master for an idle knave, +jeered at by his mates for a lunatic, earning with all his toil +scarce enough to still the hungry cries of his babes; the world, dark +enough before, made dark as night by the putting out of the glory of +the kingdom, which was so soon to have made it day. ("And," said the +good-wife with moist eyes, "too oft with a sour word from me.") How +then, when he was feeling like one forsaken of God and man, George +Fox, the man in leather, from among the woods where he passed much +time in solitude with his Bible, but lately battered and bruised by a +mob in a market-place, where he had exhorted the people against false +weights, had come to him like Elijah from the wilderness, and had +told him of the universal free grace of God to all mankind, of the +_kingdom within_, and the Light within, and the Spirit within, and +the one Priesthood of the Eternal Intercessor, and the way of +stillness and simplicity by the rivers of the valleys, and the true +language of Thou and Thee, and the sin of war, and of all false words +and looks; and how, at last, looking for the Lord within his heart, +he had found in Him both the kingdom and the garden, and rivers of +water in a dry place." + +After him spoke George Fox himself. He could not have been more than +six-and-twenty; but I confess his discourse came to me with +marvellous power. + +The words were sometimes confused, as if they were burst and +shattered with the fulness of the thought within them. Something of +the same kind we had noticed of old in Oliver Cromwell. + +He seemed like one looking into depths into which he himself only saw +a little way, and by glimpses; like one listening to a far-off voice, +which reached his spirit but in broken cadences, and our spirits +still more faintly, through the echo of his voice. Yet he inspired +me with the conviction that these depths exist, and this music is +going on; a conviction worth something. + +He spoke somewhat of his early life--of his father, Christopher Fox, +a weaver of Drayton-in-the-Clay in Leicestershire, whom the +neighbours called Righteous Christer; of his mother, an upright +woman, and "of the stock of the martyrs;" of the "gravity and +staidness of mind" he had when very young. How he sought to act +faithfully inwardly to God and outwardly to man, and to keep to yea +and nay in all things. And how men said, "If George says Verily, +there is no altering him." + +He felt himself "a stranger in the world," and when others were +keeping Christmas with jollity he kept it by giving what he had to +some poor widows whom he visited. + +Yet in his youth "strong temptations came on him to despair." He +went to various ministers (he called them "priests"). But none +helped him. One "ancient priest" reasoning with him about the ground +of hie despair, bid him "take tobacco and sing psalms." But "tobacco +he did not love, and psalms he was not in a state to sing." + +When he was twenty-two (in 1645), as he approached the gate of +Coventry, "a consideration arose in him that all Christians are +believers, both Protestants and Papists," and that "if all were +believers then they were all born of God, and passed from death to +life, and that none were believers but such; and that being bred at +Oxford or Cambridge was not enough to qualify men to be ministers of +Christ." + +The "darkness and covetousness of professors" troubled him sorely in +London and elsewhere. + +Then (said he), it was "opened in him," that "God dwelleth not in +temples made with hands; but in people's hearts." + +This seemed at first to him "a strange word," because both priests +and people call their churches "holy ground" and "dreadful places," +and temples of God. + +He ceased to go near the priests, and wandered about night and day, +in "the chase," in the open fields, and woods, and orchards with his +Bible; until finding no help in man, at last he heard a voice which +said, _There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy +condition_." "_He on whom the sins of the whole had been laid; He +who hath the key, and openeth the door of light and life_." There +were "two thirsts in him, after the creature and after the Lord, the +Creator." At length, "his thirst was stilled in God," his soul was +"wrapped up in the love of God," and when storms came again, "his +still, secret belief was stayed firm; and hope underneath held him as +an anchor in the bottom of the sea, and anchored his immortal soul to +Christ its Bishop, causing it to swim above the sea (the world), +where all raging waves, foul weather, tempests, and temptations are." + +He "found that his inward distresses had come from his selfish +earthly will, which could not give up to the will of God," and that +"the only true liberty is the liberty of subjection in the spirit to +God;" and "his sorrows wore off, and he could have wept night and day +with tears of joy to the Lord, in humility and brokenness of heart." + +As I listened to him, my thoughts ebbed and flowed within me. At one +time he seemed a daring self-willed youth, setting his judgment +against the world; at another, as a simple lowly child who had +_listened to God_, and must obey Him and none else; again, as one who +might have been a poet, or a discoverer of great secrets of +nature--so inward and penetrating seemed his glimpse into the heart +of things; and again, as a reformer to break in pieces the empire of +lies throughout the world. + +"I saw," said he, "that there was an ocean of darkness and death; but +_an infinite ocean of light and love which flowed over the ocean of +darkness_." + +Again, "one morning as I was sitting by the fire, a great cloud came +over me, and a temptation beset me; but I sate still. And it was +said, '_all things come by nature_,' and the elements and stars came +over me, so that I was in a manner quite clouded with it. But as I +sate still under it, and let it alone, a living hope arose in me, and +a true voice, which said, _There is a living God who made all +things_. And immediately the cloud and temptation vanished away, and +life rose over it all; my heart was glad, and I praised the living +God. After some time I met with some people who had a notion that +there is no God, but that all things come by nature. I had a dispute +with them, and made some of them confess there is a living God. Then +I saw it was good I had gone through that exercise." + +His search into the reality of people's beliefs led him among strange +people, some who held that "women have no more soul than a goose," +whom he answered in the words of Mary, "My soul doth magnify the +Lord;" others (Ranters) whom he went to visit in prison, who +blasphemously held themselves to be God. + +"Now," said he, "after a time was I come up in spirit into the +Paradise of God. All things were new; and all the creation gave +another smell unto me than before, beyond what words can utter. The +creation was opened unto me, and it was showed me how all things had +their names given them according to their nature and virtue." + +Again, "while I was in the Vale of Beavor, the Lord opened to me +three things, in relation to those three great professions in the +world, physic, divinity (so called), and law. He showed me that the +physicians were out of the wisdom of God, by which the creatures were +made, and so knew not their virtues; that the priests were out of the +true faith which purifies and gives victory, and gives access to God; +that the lawyers were out of the true equity. I felt the power of +the Lord went forth unto all, by which all might be reformed; if they +would bow to it. The priests might be brought to the true faith, +which is the gift of God; the lawyers unto the true law, which brings +to love one's neighbour as oneself, and lets man see if he wrongs his +neighbour he wrongs himself; the physicians unto the wisdom of God, +the Word of Wisdom, by which all things were made and are upheld. +For as all believe in the light, and walk in the light, which Christ +hath enlightened every man that cometh into the world withal, and so +become Children of the Light and of the Day of Christ;--in His Day +all things are seen, visible and invisible, by the divine light of +Christ, the spiritual heavenly Man by whom all things were created." + +Very strange words those seemed to me for so young a man. At first I +felt disposed to turn from him as one full of an amazing +self-conceit, lifting himself up above all in church and the world; +but I remembered what my husband always said about trying to find the +real meaning of all men. And as I sate still, and thought, a strange +depth opened in those words. Something true, real, and eternal (I +thought he meant), some divine meaning lay at the root of all human +works, and states, and callings. By this they stand, and live; By +departing from this they become hollow, and at last crumble away, by +returning to this they are reformed. + +He spoke also of the whole of nature and history as being repeated in +the wonderful world within us. How the spirit has its Egypts and its +Sodom, and its wildernesses and its Red Seas; its Paradise and its +mountains of the Lord's House; its Cains, and Esaus, and Judases. +"Some men," said he, "have the nature of swine wallowing in the mire. +Some the nature of dogs, to bite both the sheep and one another. +Some of lions and of wolves, to tear, devour, and destroy; some of +serpents, to sting, envenom, and poison; some of horses, to prance +and vapour in their strength, and be swift in doing evil; some of +tall sturdy oaks to flourish and spread in wisdom and strength. Thus +the evil is one in all, but worketh many ways; therefore take heed of +the enemy and keep in the faith of Christ." + +These thoughts in him were no mere visionary meditations, revolving +on themselves. The strange thing in him was the blending of +far-reaching mystical thought with direct and most practical action. + +"The Lord," said he, "commanded me to go abroad unto the world, which +was like a briery thorny wilderness; and when I came in the Lord's +mighty power with the word of life into the world, the world swelled +and made a noise like the great raging waves of the sea. Priests and +professors, magistrates and people, were all like the sea when I came +to proclaim the day of the Lord among them, and to preach repentance +to them." + +His preaching places were no secluded chambers, or conventional +religious assemblies, but the market-place, the "sitting of justices +to hire servants," schools, firesides, sea-shores where wreckers +watched, and, at times, the very "steeple-houses" where the "false +priests" seemed to him "a lump of clay set up in the pulpit above a +dead fallow ground." + +By preaching repentance he did not mean crying out in general that +sin was evil. He meant, like him who preached in the Desert of old, +pointing out to each man, and class of men, their particular sins, +telling magistrates to judge justly, tradesmen to have no false +weights and measures, Cornish wreckers to save wrecked ships and +shelter wrecked men, masters not to oppress servants, servants to +serve honestly, soldiers to do violence to no man, excisemen to make +no inequitable demands, "priests" to speak the truth. + +And the results of his preaching were two-fold: everywhere priests, +excisemen, soldiers, masters, tradesmen, and magistrates were +enraged, seized him, beat and bruised and trampled on him, threw him +into prisons; and everywhere some ministers, soldiers, tradesmen, and +magistrates, and even his jailers listened, gave up their false +weights, or unjust dealings, and sought to live uprightly before God. + +After this discourse there was silent prayer, and the good couple +insisted on yielding up their own bed in the upper chamber to Annie +and me, and the babes. But it was far on in the night before I could +sleep. And in my sleep I had strange confused dreams of John the +Baptist in the wilderness; of a madhouse, full of Quakers clothed in +camels' hair with leathern girdles; and of the world shining in a +wondrous light, neither of sun nor moon, which made it like Paradise. + +In the morning the poor people of the house set us on our way with +great loving-kindness, and I had much ado to make them take any +recompense. And I have always been thankful that through this +interview I learned to distinguish those whom many confound--the +Ranters, Fifth Monarchy men, and other lawless fanatics--from the +true Quakers, or (as they would be called) "Friends of truth." + +After that we had no adventures until we reached Kidderminster. + +Our way lay past many ruins of unroofed cottages, with their +blackened walls deserted and bare; gardens of herbs running wild, and +orchards still flourishing, and overhanging with pleasant fruit; the +open and broken casements of the charred and ruined homestead; here +and there a stately castle or mansion battered and breached by +cannon, while choice flowers still bloomed in patches on the trampled +terraces or round the broken fountains, where fair hands had tended +them. + +In the heat of the day we rested. But wondrous pleasant were the +sights we saw and the sounds we heard as we journeyed through the +land through those summer morns and eves; the pleasant old country, +well-watered everywhere with broad still rivers among the meadows, +and little talking brooks among the woods, orchards, and corn-fields; +and soft waving sweeps of hill and valley, all smooth and green, as +if the waters of the great sin-flood of old had never torn and +convulsed them, but only gently heaved and rippled over them. And as +we neared Kidderminster, far off on either side rose two ranges of +hills, with blue peaks pointing to the sky like church-roofs, the +Malverns and the hills of Wales. + +Again and again, now, as I read godly Mr. Bunyan's Pilgrim's +Progress, pictures of what I saw on that journey in old England rise +before me--the "river with the green trees on its banks;" the "meadow +curiously beautified with lilies, and green all the year long;" the +"tempting stile into Bypath Meadow;" the "hills with gardens and +orchards and fountains of waters;" the "delicate plain called Ease;" +the valley of humiliation, "green through the summer; fat ground, +consisting much in meadows," with its "pleasant air;" the +"fruit-trees, with their mellow fruit, which shot over the garden +walls;" the Delectable Mountains, not too high and savage for the +shepherds to fold their flocks thereon. I can remember, also, many a +Hill Difficulty, up which our horses slowly toiled, and Sloughs of +Despond through which they struggled. But the "valley of the shadow +of death" had nothing outward in that pleasant land to picture it. +Out of the dark and rugged depths of his own despair, John Bunyan +created a landscape he never could have seen. + +I was the sole observer of these things among our little band: the +babe saw little but me; Maidie saw nothing of hills and woods, the +wild roses and honeysuckles we gathered for her were the channels +through which the beauty of the world stole into her heart, as it +did, making her clap her hands and laugh with delight as we rode; the +serving-man, being a Londoner, thought scorn of the woods and lanes +as very barbarous and ill-made places compared with Cheapside with +its wares and signs; and Annis, if she saw the outward world at all, +beheld it but as the mystical mirror of the world within, the waters +of quietness and trees of healing among which her spirit dwelt. + +And so at last, on the seventh day after leaving home, we came to a +valley on the slopes of which rise the houses of Kidderminster, on +each side of the river Stour--"the church on the brow above the +water," as they say the name signifies in the old tongues, British +and Saxon, which were spoken when first men began to make houses +there. + +Rich old English names; every name (like the old minsters of our +land) in itself a poem, with histories imbedded in every syllable! + +Fondly we transfer the familiar old words to new places in this New +World. But here alas, as yet, they are no living, growing +words,--only poor pathetic relics or arbitrary symbols; at least, +until generations to come shall have breathed into them the new +significances of a new human history. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +OLIVE'S RECOLLECTIONS. + +It was evening when we entered the old town of Kidderminster. As we +rode along the street to Aunt Dorothy's house, many of the casements +were open to let in cool summer evening air; and from one and +another, as we passed, rose the music of the psalm sung at the +family-worship, the voices of the little ones softly blending with +the deeper tones of the father and mother, or the trembling treble of +age. + +It was a heavenly welcome; and, by an irresistible impulse, I +dismounted, for, wearied as I was with the journey, I felt it a kind +of irreverence not to walk. It was like going up the aisle of a +great church. The whole town seemed a house of prayer. + +None of these sweet musical sounds, however, came out of Aunt +Dorothy's windows as, at length, we stopped at her door; although the +casements were open. But, as we paused before trying to enter, I +heard the cadences of a soft voice reading in an upper chamber. I +tried the latch, found it open, and, softly mounting the stairs, +through a bedroom door, which stood slightly ajar, I saw a grave man, +habited like a minister, with a broad collar, and closely-fitting cap +on his head, sitting at a table with an open Bible before him. By +his side stood a little serving-maiden, whom at the moment he was +questioning in simple language, in a calm, persuasive voice and with +a remarkably clear utterance, while she answered without fear. His +form was slight, and his gait slightly stooping; his face worn and +grave, yet not unfrequently "tending to a smile," and always lighted +up by his dark, keen, observant eyes. This, I felt, could be no +other than Mr. Baxter. Altogether the face made me think of +portraits of saintly monks, worn with fasting and prayer, save that +the eyes were quick and piercing rather than contemplative; as if he +saw, not dreams and visions of Christendom in general, but just the +little bit of it he had to do with at the moment, in the person of +Aunt Dorothy's little maid. When the little maid had answered, he +turned with a look of approval to some one out of sight, whom I knew +must be Aunt Dorothy. Judging from the fact of the catechizing being +held in her chamber, that she would be equal to seeing me, and that +therefore I had better appear in an ordinary way, I crept softly +down-stairs again, and knocked at the house-door. + +Aunt Dorothy was much moved at my coming; although in words she only +vouchsafed a grave remonstrance. And I was no less moved to see how +feeble and shrunken she looked. She had been much enfeebled by an +attack of low fever and although professing to make little of it, +like most people unaccustomed to illness she believed herself much +worse than she really was, and had, dear soul, gone in spirit +pathetically through her own funeral, with the effect so solemn an +event might be hoped to have on the hearts of her misguided kinsmen +and kinswomen. + +"Olive, my dear," she said to me, on the morning after our arrival, +after directing me where to find her will, and a letter she had +written, "thou wilt find I had not forgotten thy babes, nor indeed +any of my kindred, unnatural as no doubt they think me. I wish the +letter to be given to your father at once, immediately after all is +over. My example and arguments have had little weight; but it may be +otherwise then. I have no physician but good Mr. Baxter, who is +physician both for body and soul to his people. He hath endeavoured +to reassure me; but I know what that means. And yesterday he gave me +his 'Saint's Rest,' which, of course, is only a considerate way of +preparing me for the end." + +All through that week Aunt Dorothy continued marvellously meek and +gentle, her grave eyes moistening tenderly as she looked on the +babes. She commended Annis as a maiden of a modest countenance and +lowly carriage. (I had not ventured to inform her of Annis's +peculiar belief.) She spoke tenderly of every one, and agreed as far +as possible with everything; which last symptom I did feel alarming. + +The kindness and sympathy of the neighbours were so great, that it +seemed to me their evening psalm was only the musical Amen to the +psalm they had lived all day. One brought us possets, another dainty +meats, another confections for the babes; others would watch in the +sick-chamber at night; another sent for the babes to play with her +own, to keep the house quiet. If we gave thanks, they said Mr. +Baxter "thought nothing of godliness which did not show itself in +goodness." Another told us how Aunt Dorothy had been borne on their +hearts at the Thursday prayer-meeting at Mr. Baxter's; and more than +one came to "repeat to us Mr. Baxter's last Sunday sermon;" repeating +Mr. Baxter's sermon (he only preached one on Sunday) being a great +ordinance at Kidderminster. Never before did I understand so fully +what the meaning of the word church is, or the meaning of the word +pastor. Before I came to Kidderminster I had thought of Mr. Baxter +as a godly man, rather fond of debate, and very unjust to Oliver +Cromwell (as I still hold him to have been). After staying there +that week, I learned that if the joys of fighting (syllogistically) +were his favourite recreation (which, in spite of all his +protestations, I think they were, for a true Ironsides' soul dwelt in +that slight and suffering body); his work was teaching little +children, seeking the lost, bringing back the wandering, supporting +the weak,--all that is meant by being "shepherd" and "ensample" to +the flock; going before them in every good and generous work, going +after them into every depth of misery, if only he could bring them +home. + +As I sat by the window of the sick-chamber where I could see Mr. +Baxter's house on the opposite side of the street, with the people +going in to consult him, the poor patients sometimes waiting by +twenty at a time at his door, and a pleasant stir of welcome all down +the street when his "thin and lean and weak" figure passed out and +along, Aunt Dorothy loved to discourse to me of him. She told me how +in his childhood he had lived in a village called Eaton Constantine, +near the Wrekin Hill, in a rustical region, where Ave Marys still +lingered with paternosters in the peasants' prayers; where the +clergyman, being about eighty years of age, with failing eye-sight, +and having two churches, twenty miles distant, under his charge, used +to say the Common Prayer without book; and got "one year a thresher, +or common day-labourer, another a tailor, and after that a kinsman of +his, who was a stage-player and gamester, to read the psalms and +chapters." Mr. Baxter's father, "having been addicted to gaming, had +entangled his freehold estate; but it pleased God to instruct and +change him by the bare reading of the Scriptures in private, without +either preaching or godly company, or any other books, so that his +serious speeches of God and the life to come very _early possessed +his son with a fear of sinning_." For reading the Scripture on the +Sundays, when others were dancing, by royal order, round the +May-pole, he was called a "Puritan." + +Good books were the means of Richard Baxter's early teaching, though +when his "sincere conversion" began he was never able to say. One of +these books (to Aunt Dorothy's perplexity) was by a Jesuit; another +was "Sibbes' Bruised Reed," brought by a poor pedler and +ballad-seller to the door; another was a "little piece" of Mr. +Perkin's works, which a servant in the house had. For all that while +(Mr. Baxter had told her) neither he nor his father had acquaintance +with any that "had understanding in matters of religion, nor ever +heard any pray extempore." Their prayers were chiefly the Confession +in the Prayer-book, and one of Bradford, the martyr's, prayers. + +But Mr. Baxter deemed his own sicknesses and infirmities to have been +among the chief means of grace to him. "The calls of approaching +death on one side, and the questioning of a doubtful conscience on +the other hand, kept his soul awake." + +His doubts were many; for instance, "whether a base fear did not move +him more than a son's love to God," and "because his grief and +humiliation were no greater;" until, at last, he understood that +"_God breaketh not all men's hearts alike_; that the change of our +heart from sin to God is true repentance; and that he that had rather +leave his sin than have leave to keep it, and that had rather be the +most holy, than _have leave_ to be unholy or _less_ holy, is neither +without repentance nor the love of God." + +His diseases were more than his doubts, and his physicians more (and +belike more dangerous) than his diseases. He had thirty-six +physicians, by whose orders he took drugs without number, which, said +he, "God thought not fit to make successful;" whereupon at last he +forsook the physicians altogether. Under which circumstances he had +doubtless reason to count it among his mercies (as he did) that he +was never overwhelmed with "real melancholy." "For years," as he +said, "rarely a quarter of an hour's ease, yet (through God's mercy) +never an hour's melancholy, nor many hours in the week disabled from +work." + +Mr. Baxter's being so much indebted to good books as his teachers and +comforters, was perhaps partly the reason why he wrote so many. Of +his "Saint's Rest" he himself said: "Whilst I was in health I had not +the least thought of writing books, or of serving God in any more +public way than preaching; but when I was weakened with great +bleeding, and left solitary in my chamber at Sir John Cook's in +Derbyshire, without any acquaintance but my servant about me, and +sentenced to death by the physicians, I began to contemplate more +seriously on the everlasting rest which I believed myself to be on +the borders of." He originally intended it to be no more than the +length of one or two sermons; but the weakness being long continued, +the book was enlarged. The first and last parts being for his own +use were written first, and then the second and third. It was +written with no books at hand but a Bible and a Concordance, and he +found that "the transcript of the heart hath the greatest force on +the hearts of others;" and for the good he had heard that multitudes +have received by that writing, he humbly thanked "Him that compelled +him to it." + +A history which interested me much; for I delight to think of books I +love as growing in this and that unexpected way from little unnoticed +seeds, like living creatures, not as constructed deliberately from +outside, like a thing made by hands. Doth not John Milton say that a +good book is "the precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed +and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life; so that he who +destroys a good book commits not so much a murder as a massacre, and +slays an immortality rather than a life." + +Much also Aunt Dorothy had to say of Mr. Baxter's good works; how out +of his narrow income he contrived to send promising young men to the +university, and to relieve the destitute without stint, "having ever +more to give," he said, "as he gave more;" how he had been the +physician of his people, fighting against their sicknesses as well as +their sins; how the old were moved by him, who had never been moved +before, and little children were stirred by his eloquent entreaties, +and trained by his patient teaching, so that they brought the light +of love and godliness into many a home which before had been all +darkness. + +She said Mr. Baxter was wont humbly to attribute the wonderful +efficacy of his ministry to many causes rather than to any peculiar +power in his words; to the following among others:--. + +1. That "the people had never had any awakening ministry before, and +therefore were not sermon-proof." + +2. The infirmity of his health. That "as he had naturally a +familiar, moving voice, and doing all in bodily weakness as a dying +man, his soul was more easily brought to seriousness, and to preach +as a dying man to dying men." + +3. That many of the bitter enemies to godliness, "in their very +hatred of Puritans," had gone into the king's armies, and "were +quickly killed." + +4. The change made in public affairs by the success of the wars; +"which (said Mr. Baxter), however it was done, and though much +corrupted by the usurpers, yet removed many impediments to men's +salvation. Before, godliness was the way to shame and ruin; but +though Cromwell gave liberty to all sects, and did not set up any +party alone, by force, yet this much gave abundant advantage to the +gospel; especially considering that godliness now had countenance and +reputation also as well as liberty; and such liberty (even under a +usurper) as never before since the gospel came into the land did it +possess. And" (said he) "much as I have written against +licentiousness in religion, and the power of the magistrate in it, +yet, in comparison of the rest of the world, I think that land happy +that hath but _bare liberty to be as good as they are willing to be, +and toleration for truth to bear down her adversaries_." + +5. Another advantage was the zeal, diligence, the holy, humble, +blameless lives, and the Christian concord of the religious sort. + +6. The private meetings for prayer, repetitions, and asking +questions, and his personal intercourse with every family apart. + +7. Being able to give his writings, and especially a Bible, to every +family that had none. + +8. That the trade of the weaving of Kidderminster stuffs enabled them +to set a Bible on the loom before them, wherewith to edify one +another while at their work. For (thought Mr. Baxter) "free-holders +and tradesmen are the strength of religion and civility in the land, +and gentlemen (_idle_ men, I think he meant) and beggars the strength +of iniquity." + +9. His own single life, "enabling him the easilier to take his people +for his children." + +10. That God made great use of sickness to do good to many: and then +of Mr. Baxter's practice of physic; at once recovering their health +and moving their souls. + +11. The quality of the wicked people of the place, who, "being +chiefly drunkards, would roar and rave in the streets like stark +madmen, and so make that sin abhorred." + +12. The assistance of good ministers around. + +To these things, and such as these, said Aunt Dorothy, Mr. Baxter +loved to attribute those conversions which "at first he used to count +up as jewels, but of which afterwards he could not keep any number." + +All this made me greatly desire the time when I might hear Mr. Baxter +preach; and, at last, on the second Sunday after our arrival, Aunt +Dorothy insisted on my going to church. + +The only perplexity was Annis Nye. However, I trusted that Aunt +Dorothy's subdued frame of mind, and Annis's being busy with the +babes or in the kitchen, would avert a collision. + +The sermon went far to explain to me Kidderminster and Mr. Baxter. +But no written words will ever explain to those who did not hear them +what his sermons were. + +The pulpit was at once Mr. Baxter's hearth, his throne, and his true +battle-field: the central hearth at which the piety of every fireside +in Kidderminster was weekly enkindled; the throne from which the +hearts of men and women, old men and little children, were swayed; +the battle-field where he fought, not so much against sectaries and +misbeliefs, but against sin and unbelief. He was at home there, +close to every heart there; yet at home as a father among his +children. All that he was, turn by turn, through the week--pleading, +teaching, exhorting, consoling, from house to house--he was in the +pulpit altogether; but with the difference between glow and flame, +between speech and song; between a man calmly using his faculties one +by one and a man with his whole soul awake and on fire, and +concentrated into one burning desire to save men and make them holy; +with a message to deliver, which he knew could do both. His eye +enkindled, his face illumined, his whole emaciated frame quivering +with emotion as he leant over the pulpit, and spoke to every heart in +the church. + +"Though we speak not unto you as men would do that had seen heaven +and hell, and were themselves perfectly awake," he said. But it +seemed to me as if he _had_ seen heaven and hell (or rather _felt_ +them); and as if, while I listened to him, for the first time in my +life, my soul was "perfectly awake" all through. + +And of all this, the next generation, and those who never heard him +in this, will know nothing! Instead, they will have one hundred and +sixty little books and treatises, out of which they may vainly strive +to piece together what Mr. Baxter was during those fourteen most +fruitful years of his ministry at Kidderminster. But even if they +could put the fragments together right, they would only have created +an image of clay. And most likely they will piece them together +wrong (as I did before I knew him). And then they will wonder at the +clumsy image, and wonder what gentlemen of the neighbourhood, trained +in universities, in courts, and in armies, and at the same time the +poor weavers of Kidderminster, and the nailers of Dudley, who +clustered round the doors and windows when he preached, could find in +his words so beautiful and so moving. + +Most words, written or spoken, are perhaps more spoken to one +generation than men like to think. If the next generation read them, +it is not so much as living words to move themselves, but as lifeless +effigies of what moved their fathers. But with great orators this +must be especially the case, and with great preachers more perhaps +than with other orators. Nor need they complain. Their words reach +far enough, moving hearts whose repentings move the angels in the +presence of God. They live long enough: on high, in the deathless +souls they awaken; on earth, in the undying influence from heart to +heart, from age to age, of the holy lives they inspire. + +The large old church was thronged to the extremity of the five new +galleries which had been built since Mr. Baxter preached, to +accommodate the congregation. + +When he ceased speaking, there was a long hush, as of reluctance to +supersede the last tones of that persuasive voice by any other sound. + +And as the congregation gently dispersed, that sacred hush seemed on +them still. They were treasuring up the words wherewith they would +strengthen themselves and each other during the week; the housewife +keeping them in her heart like a song from heaven; the weaver, as he +worked with his open Bible before him on the loom, seeing them shine +on its verses like the fingers of a discriminating sunbeam. + +As I came home, I remember feeling not so much as if I had been in a +church where something good had been said, as in a battle-field where +something great had been done. Death-blows had been given to +cherished sins; angels of hell had been despoiled of their false +"armour of light," and compelled to appear in their own hideous +shrunken shapes; hidden faults had been dragged from their ambush in +the heart, and smitten; the joints of armour, deemed impervious, had +been pierced at a venture; the powers of darkness had been defeated +by being detected; the powers of light had been aroused, refreshed, +arrayed in order of battle, and sent on their warfare, strengthened +and cheered, as the Ironsides by the voice of Oliver. A battle had +been fought, and a campaign set in order, and the combatants inspired +for fresh conflicts. As those living words echoed in my heart, all +the conflicts of armies and politicians seemed mere shadowy +repetitions (like the battles in the Elysian shades) of that eternal +essential conflict between good and evil waged unceasingly within and +around us. + +I remember that Aunt Dorothy's first words to me, when I returned, +sounded as if they came up to me on a sunny height, from a strange +voice in some dim region far below. + +She said,-- + +"Olive, dear heart, it rejoices me that you have such a discerning +young woman to serve you. She is, I deny not, a trifle rustical, and +needs instruction as to gestures and forms of address, but, at least, +she is able to perceive how sadly poor General Cromwell has been +seduced from the ways of humility and uprightness, and has failed in +protecting the people of God." + +Nevertheless, these words were not without something consolatory in +them for me. Much as Aunt Dorothy and Annis had, belike, +misunderstood one another as to what they meant by the "people of +God" whom the Captain-General failed to protect, it was evident they +were still so far on friendly relations with each other. And it was +also plain to me that Aunt Dorothy's militant faculty (and therefore +she herself) was recovering. + +A very opportune improvement. For on the following day came letters +from Roger and Job Forster announcing the battle of Dunbar, which +those who fought it looked on as an act of the great warfare between +good and evil, as truly as any of Mr. Baxter's preachings. In which +belief Aunt Dorothy and Mr. Baxter agreed with them; but not as to +the sides on which the combatants were ranged. + + +The first letter from Dunbar was from Roger, dated September 2nd:-- + +"A word to thee, Olive, my sister, by the post who is to carry +letters for the Lord-General. Ill news travel fast, and if such have +reached thee before these, I would have thee know, though our case is +low enough, our hearts are not daunted. + +"I write in my tent on my knee--wind and rain driving across this +wild tongue of land, dashing the waves against the rocks, whistling +through the long grasses of the marshes, as in the sedges by old +Netherby Mere. Nothing to do but to keep our powder dry, if we can, +and pray. + +"The enemy think us caught in a worse Pound than my Lord Essex at +Fowey. Even the General thinks little less than a miracle can save +us. But maybe the miracle is wrought already in the courage of our +men, without a grain of earthly food to sustain it; the miracles of +the New Covenant being, for the most part, inward. + +"For months we have been watching them up and down the hills and the +shores round Edinburgh, yet never able to tempt them to a battle. +And now they deem us trapped and doomed, which may work to better +purpose on them than our challenges. To all appearance their +boastings are justified. + +"The ships we hasted into this 'trap' to meet (sorely needing fresh +victuals), are nowhere in sight. Through his knowledge of the +country, the enemy has possessed himself of all the passes between us +and England. His army is on the bill above us, twenty-three thousand +strong, with veteran generals, threatening to sweep down, and with +'one shower, wash us out of the country.' + +"We with but eleven thousand to meet them. Many of ours lying sick +in the town of Dunbar. + +"In all Scotland not another stronghold is ours. + +"Among them is the shout of a king, 'a Covenanted king;' whatever +strength may lie in that! Many of their soldiers godly men and brave. + +"I think we shall not be suffered to dishonour the good cause or the +General by lack of courage. But victory is not in our hands. And +what may be in God's, I am no prophet to tell. + +"Between us and England an army twice our number. Between England +and the old tyranny, as we deem, nothing but Oliver and his eleven +thousand. A thought to nerve heart and hand. + +"'We are sensible of our disadvantages,' as the General saith. 'But +not a few of us stand in this trust, that because of their +numbers--because of their confidence--because of our +weakness--because of our strait, we are in the Mount, and in the +Mount the Lord will be seen; and that He will find out a way of +deliverance and salvation for us.' + +"The sea and the waves roaring, but as yet, God be praised, no man's +heart failing him for fear. Farewell! Whatever comes to-morrow I +would have thee know we are not dismayed to-day." + +And, enclosed, a few lines from my husband:-- + +"This campaign has been one of more occupation for the leech than the +soldier," he wrote. "The wild weather, and food not of the best or +most plentiful, with lying out on the wet moors, always restlessly on +the watch for battles which never came, have shattered the troops +more than many a hard fight. Sickness is on all sides. The +Captain-General saith the men fall sick beyond imagination. He +himself has not escaped. The foe I fight with has left me little +intermission. The prospect of a battle, such as hangs over us in the +thousands gathering on Doon Hill through the day, and now ready to +sweep down the slopes, seems proving already to some a better physic +than any of mine. A wound is doubled when the spirit is wounded, and +half healed when the spirit is cheered. + +"Never fear for me, dear heart; I know I am where my task is set. +And I keep as well as men for the most part do who have plenty to do +and hope in doing it." + + +"Ah," sighed Aunt Dorothy, "snared in their own net at last! Did not +Mr. Baxter write to the well-disposed in the sectarian army, warning +them of the sin of going to war against the godly in Scotland; 'for +which, O blindness!' quoth he, 'they thought me an uncharitable +censurer.' Remarkable providence!" she concluded; "to have actually +run of their own free will into a place which as if it had been +ordained from the beginning to be just such a trap." + +"Had we not better wait till we see whether they get out, Aunt +Dorothy?" said I. + +"Get out, child?" said she, fierily; "I think better of them, with +all their transgressions, than to believe they are bad enough to be +suffered to prosper in their evil ways! Mr. Cromwell himself was, or +seemed to be, in the Covenant once." + + +But that very evening flew through the land the news of Dunbar +victory: these letters having been delayed by coming round through +London. The Scottish forces were totally routed. As Mr. Baxter +said, "Their foot taken, their horse pursued to Edinburgh; when, if +they would only have let Oliver's weakened and ragged army go, or +cautelously followed them, it would have kept their peace and broken +his honour." + +For neither Mr. Baxter nor Aunt Dorothy thought it at all a +"remarkable providence" that Oliver and his army had thus escaped. +It was plain, on the contrary, she thought, to all right-thinking +people, that their successes, so far from proving them right, only +proved that they had gone too far wrong to be corrected. + +A few days afterwards arrived a letter, sent me by Rachel Forster +from Job. + +It began:-- + +"See Psalm 107. (_O praise the Lord, all ye nations; praise him all +ye people._ + +_For his merciful kindness is great towards us; and the truth of the +Lord endureth for ever. Praise ye the Lord_).* We sang it on the +battle-field yesterday. The shortest psalm that is. Made on +purpose, belike, for such a service and such a congregation. For we +had no time for more. We sang it, Oliver and the foremost of us, on +the halt, before the rest came up for the chase. The music rolled up +grand, like the sea, from the hollow of the brook against the hill of +Doon. We had cause to sing it, and the whole land hath cause. Never +better. Do thou sing it, dear heart, at Netherby, and let Mistress +Olive sing it, and the babes listen, and Mistress Annis (if she will +unlearn her perverse ways); 'old men and children, young men and +maidens.' For their 'covenant with death' is broken. The snare is +broken, and we are delivered. And not we and England only, but all +the godly throughout the three kingdoms; if they will but see. +Surely they must see; kirk-ministers and all, 'spite (as the General +saith) of all their sullenness at God's providences, and their envy +at Eldad and Medad and the Lord's people who prophecy; their envy +(saith he) at instruments, because things did not work forth their +platform, and the great God did not come down to their thoughts.' + + +* In Mr. Rous's version:-- + + "O give ye praise unto the Lord, + All nations that be; + Likewise, ye people, all accord + His name to magnify. + For great to usward ever are + His loving-kindnesses; + His truth endures for evermore, + The Lord O do ye bless." + + +"They hung above us on the hill of Doon, twenty-three thousand +strong, all through the night. A wild night it was; the waves +roaring, the cold rain driving across the tongue of land where they +thought us trapped. But we prayed, and watched, and kept our powder +dry, which was as much as we could do. We had some scant shelter +under tents and walls. They, poor souls, had none; and before dawn +they put out all their matches but two to a company, and lay down +under the corn-shocks. Oliver did not wait for them to burst on us; +nor for the morning to break. We did not wait for his word to be on +the alert. A company of us were in prayer at three o'clock, with a +poor cornet (one of the Eldads and Medads), when Major Hodgson rode +past and stopped to join, and found strength in it, as the day proved. + +"We were to have charged before they woke. But there were delays in +getting all the men forward. So before we had gathered we heard the +enemy's trumpets wake up one by one in the dark, along the hill-side. +Then the moon broke from a cloud, and, with the first ray of dawn, +made light enough to see where we were going, when at last all the +men came up, and the trumpets pealed out all along our line with the +English battle-shout, and the great guns. + +"Their cry and ours met: '_The Covenant!_' and '_The Lord of Hosts!_' +And with it we and they met, met and closed in death-grapple for +three-quarters of an hour; company to company, man to man. Once we +were pressed back across the brook in the hollow, their horse +charging desperately. No hearing the winds and waves roar then. +Then we charged back, horse and foot,--such a charge (many say) as +they never saw--back again across the hollow of the brook. That +charge was never returned. We heard Oliver's voice, '_They run, I +profess they run!_' And then the sun broke across the field, and +with it again Oliver's voice, '_Let God arise, and let his enemies be +scattered._' + +"And scattered they were. Three thousand dead in the hollow of the +brook. (Three thousand whose hands we would fain have held as +brothers. God knows how Oliver entreated them sore, and how they +gave us hatred for our love.) Ten thousand prisoners. The rest +flying right and left through the land. An army gone in an hour. + +"An army of brave Scottish men, godly men many of them doubtless; +ministers there in store to bless them (no Eldads and Medads, but +covenanted kirk-ministers), all swept away like the chaff of the +summer threshing-floor. + +"Will they not yet see? Not our courage did it; they were brave as +we. Not our numbers; theirs doubled ours. Not our field: they chose +it. The passes of the hills were theirs. What then? Can any fail +to see? The lie that is among them makes them weak, the false oaths +to a false Covenant sworn at their command, against his will and +conscience, by the poor, false, young Stuart king. The difference is +the difference in our battle-cries. '_The Covenant_,' good once (far +be it from us to speak scorn of it), good twice, but not good always; +strong against one evil yesterday, not strong against all evil for +ever. And '_The Lord of Hosts_,' Almighty against all evil for ever. +Not His own Covenant even, as far as it is but written in stone; much +less theirs, though signed with their blood; not His own Covenant, +though 'confirmed by an oath,' so much as _Himself_ living to confirm +the oath. + +"As the Lord-General saith, 'What He hath done, what He is to us in +Christ, is the root of our comfort; in this is stability; in us is +weakness. Faith as an act yields not perfect peace; _but only as it +carries into Him who is our perfect peace_. Rest we here, and here +only.'* + + +* "What God hath done, what He is to us in Christ, is the root of our +comfort: and this is stability; in us is weakness. Acts of obedience +are not perfect, and, therefore, yield not perfect peace. Faith as +an act yields it not; but only as it carries us into Him, who is our +perfect peace, and in whom we are accounted of and received by the +Father even as Christ Himself. This is our high calling. Rest we +here, and here only." + + +"Truly soldiers have cause to sing the 109th Psalm who have such a +General to lead and speak to them; although, in the eyes of the kirk, +he be but an Eldad. I trust I meddle not with things too high for me +after the lesson I have had. Often, dear heart, I long for thee, and +thy comfortable speech and smile. + +"Master Roger and I talk over many things by the camp-fires when most +are asleep; we knowing old Netherby, and thee, and so many other +things the rest know not. He is heavier and graver than I would see +him, save where there is work to be done. + +"I doubt there is somewhat gnawing, without noise, as worms and +blights do, at his heart. + +"There was the pretty lady at the hall, now among the Hivites and +Perizzites (so to speak) in France. I know nothing, but that he +never speaks of her and hers. And they were aye together, he and she +and Mistress Olive, in the old days. + +"Poor brave young heart, mine is sore for him many a time. It is not +all who get such plentiful wages beforehand as I, Rachel, in thee." + +Which last sentence Rachel had annotated with,-- + +"The goodman means no harm, Mistress Olive. But on that matter he +could never be brought to see plain, say what I would." + + +The next Sunday a Thanksgiving was appointed by the Parliament ("the +Rump") for the victory of Dunbar. This Mr. Baxter openly +disregarded; using his influence, moreover, to persuade others to do +the same. He did not hesitate in his sermon to warn his hearers of +the sin of fighting against a loyal Scottish Covenanted army; while, +at the same time, he blamed the Scots themselves for "imposing laws +upon their king, for forcing him to dishonour the memory of his +father, and for tempting him to take God's name in vain by speaking +and publishing that which, they might easily know, was contrary to +his heart." + +So, in the afternoon of that Sabbath which Mr. Baxter refused to make +a day of thanksgiving to Kidderminster, I held a private thanksgiving +service in my own chamber. + +At first, in my solitude, my spirit was too busy with protesting +against Mr. Baxter to be at leisure for praise. + +At the doors of some of the houses opposite, quiet groups of weavers +were gathered, in their Sunday best. In all the town, Mr. Baxter +rejoiced to think, there was not one Separatist. The Quakers (he +fondly believed) he had silenced, at a discussion held in his church. +One journeyman shoemaker, indeed, had turned Anabaptist, "but he had +left the town upon it." + +No "Eldads and Medads" had troubled Kidderminster with irregular +prophesying; "for," said Mr. Baxter, "so modest were the ablest of +the people, that they were never inclined to a preaching way, but +thought they had teaching enough by their pastors." + +"Among all these busy brains and stirring hearts," I thought, as I +sat at my window, "not one that differs from Mr. Baxter; while Mr. +Baxter differs in so many directions from so many people that fifty +books have been written against him." + +The thought of a whole town walking on such a narrow path, step by +step after Mr. Baxter, with those fifty precipices and "bye-paths" on +all sides, had something appalling in it;--appalling in its monotony, +and in its precariousness. What kind of a place would England be to +live in if it were all brought to this Kidderminster standard? Not +very pleasant certainly for any journeyman shoemaker who was +unfortunate enough to turn Anabaptist! Perhaps in the end a little +wearisome even for Mr. Baxter himself, when no one was left for him +to silence. + +I need not have perplexed myself with such speculations. Long before +the experiment reached that stage, Mr. Baxter's own eloquent voice +itself was silenced, and his faithful words made doubly precious to +his flock by the prohibition, on peril of imprisonment or fine, of +ever listening to them again. + +Nor was a slumbrous unanimity by any means the danger England had +then to dread. + +As I opened my Bible and read the Dunbar Psalm, and sought to make +melody with it in heart, my quiet chamber seemed to become a side +chapel of a vast cathedral. I felt no more alone. A thousand +services of song seemed going on around me. From Dr. Jeremy Taylor +silenced in Wales, and good Bishop Hall near Norwich, and numerous +little companies in old halls and manors, meeting secretly to use the +Liturgy banished from churches and cathedrals. From these same +ancient churches and cathedrals, where hundreds of "painful +ministers," like Mr. Baxter, Joseph Alleine, or John Howe, were +leading the devotions of the people in psalms more ancient than any +Liturgy, and prayers new as every morning's mercies. From Puritan +armies in Scotland, covenanted and uncovenanted. From meetings of +Quakers, many of them in prisons. Beyond these again, from Lutherans +and Calvinists in Protestant Europe; and doubtless also from +countless devout hearts in Catholic cathedrals and convents. And +farther off still, from the Puritan villages in the wilderness on the +other side of the sea. + +At first this concourse of sounds scarce seemed a concert. Babel has +smitten men with deeper divisions than those of speech. Too many of +the prayers sounded terribly like anathemas. Too many of the psalms +like war-cries. + +Until, as I still listened, the roof even of this vast cathedral of +Christendom seemed to melt away into the firmament of heaven. Then I +found that there was a height whence all discords, which were not +music, fell back to earth, and whence all the discords without which +music cannot be, flowed up in one grand River of Praise, in at the +Gates of Pearl. + +The burden of the song seemed simply that old prayer, "Our Father +which art in heaven." + +But from the crystal fiery sea into which that river flowed, rolled +back, as in an echo of countless ocean waves, the antiphon,-- + +"_Great and marvellous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty. Just and +true are Thy ways, Thou King of Saints!_" + + +Then the thought came to me, "Mr. Baxter, however, with all his +moderatings and balancings cannot antedate these harmonies. Aunt +Dorothy says he believes he has found the exact middle point between +every extreme--Calvinism and Arminianism, Episcopacy, Presbytery, +Independency. But, unfortunately, to other people it is but a point. +Aunt Dorothy cannot quite balance herself on it. It is certain the +whole world cannot. It is doubtful if any one can, except Mr. +Baxter." + +The harmony is made, not by each trying to learn the whole, but by +each keeping faithfully to the part given him to learn and sing, +though the part be only a broken note here and there. + +And I thanked God that all the efforts of the worst men, or the best, +to anticipate that majestic anthem of conflicting and embracing sound +by a thin unison of voices, had never succeeded, and never could +succeed, as long as men are men, and the second Man is not St. Paul, +or Apollos, or St. John--but the Son of Man; the Lord from heaven. + + +LETTICE'S DIARY. + +"_Paris_, 1650, _September_.--It is a new world in which I find +myself, here, in the hotel of Madame la Mothe. Save Barbe and +myself, not one Protestant is of the circle. + +"The loneliness is sometimes oppressive, courteous as all are. It is +not so much the condemnation of Protestant England, as an unfortunate +island shattered from the rest of Christendom by the earthquake of +the Reformation, which makes me feel how far off we are from each +other, as their incapacity to comprehend the divisions which are +convulsing our country. 'From shattering to pulverizing, the process +is but natural,' a good priest said the other day. They seem to look +on us as the dust of a ruined Church; and between one atom of dust +and another--between atoms Episcopal, atoms Presbyterian, and atoms +Independent--they have no sunbeam strong enough to distinguish. + +"_Paris, October_ 1_st_.--This morning Madame la Mothe, always +anxious for my welfare, and now and then awakening to spasms of +conviction that my welfare means my 'conversion,' took me to hear an +excellent priest, called Singlin, preach. + +"'I do not go often myself, my child,' she said, 'because the power +of M. Singlin's sermons is redoubtable. They sweep people away from +transitory ties, like a torrent. Now, while M. la Mothe lives, this +is a danger to which I scarcely venture to expose myself. He is, as +you see, more aged than I am. And what could he do without me? When +I married him, I was a child; he a man of high reputation, who had +made his mark in the world. It was considered a brilliant destiny +for me. It has been a tranquil and a happy destiny. He was ever to +me the most considerate of friends, guiding me through the +temptations of the world like a director, generously providing me +with the pleasures suited to my age, and consoling me like an angel +when our only child died. I could never abandon him now.' + +"Many things were strange to me in these words. This married life +seemed so strangely dual, instead of one. She spoke of him rather as +leading on than going with; rather as providing her joys than joining +in them; rather as consoling her griefs than sharing them. And as +strange seemed to me this mingled, love and dread of M. Singlin's +sermons. + +"We dressed, and set off for the church. + +"'Surely, Madame,' I said, as we walked through the streets, 'no good +man would advise you to abandon home and M. la Mothe?' + +"'No, certainly,' she said; 'not advise. But he might make me feel +the world so hollow and momentary, all its relationships so +transitory, that an irresistible attraction would draw my heart from +the world, like that of the young lady you see on the other side of +the street, Mademoiselle Jacqueline Pascal. And what comfort, then, +would my husband have in my going through life, by his side indeed, +but as a machine wound up to its work, with the spirit elsewhere!' + +"And she pointed out to me a maiden habited much like a nun, moving +silently along with downcast eyes. + +"'See, my child,' she whispered, 'one of the trophies of M. Singlin's +eloquence, or, at least, of the doctrines he enforces. A young +person of good family, daughter of M. Etienne Pascal, counsellor of +the king. At thirteen she was a poetess. She charmed the Queen, +Anne of Austria, and the Court, by her verses on the birth of the +Dauphin, his present Majesty. She captivated all by the point of her +repartees. At fourteen she won from Cardinal Richelieu her father's +pardon for some political offence, by her marvellous acting in a +drama. Her brother, Blaise, works miracles of science--literally +miracles. He has weighed the air, and made a machine which +calculates. She is beautiful, accomplished, not yet twenty-six; the +most brilliant prospects open to her; the only unmarried daughter of +an indulgent father who loves her tenderly. She hears M. Singlin. +His words give the seal to her vocation. She renounces +everything--the Court, the world, the family as far as she can, her +genius, her wit, herself.' + +"'You mean she renounces her genius by consecrating it.' + +"'I mean she _renounces_. Hereafter God and the Church may +consecrate. But who can say? What are our talents to Him? His +Providence can destroy a navy by a whirlwind or by a little worm. +Henceforth she reads only books of devotion and theology. She writes +no more poetry. She denies herself the manifestation of her dearest +affections. Until her father freely consents to her profession, she +yields, indeed, so far as to remain in his house. But she makes her +home a convent, her chamber a cell. She spends the day there in +solitude--last winter without a fire, bleak as it was--reciting +offices, reading books of piety. She only joins the family at meals. +And of the meals, as far as possible, she makes fasts, refusing to +warm herself at the fire. Charity alone, and devotion, bring her out +of her retirement. When her sister's child was dying of the +small-pox she nursed it night and day with devoted tenderness. She +would, doubtless, have done the same for the child of a beggar; so +entire is her consecration. Soon, no doubt, such piety will vanquish +all objections; her father will yield (if he lives), and she will +enter Port Royal. And this is one result of M. Singlin's eloquence, +and of the power of his doctrine. You will confess it is a power, +beneficent indeed, but formidable. + +"'Formidable indeed, Madame,' I said, shuddering, for I thought of my +own father. 'Fire, I think, to the brain, and frost to the heart.' + +"'Alas, my child!' she said; 'how should you understand what is meant +by genuine Vocation, or a thorough Conversion?' + +"To me, indeed, this seemed not conversion; but annihilation. + + +"We were silent some way on our return from the church. + +"'You were arrested,' said Madame la Mothe. + +"'It reminded me of a Puritan sermon I once heard in England,' I +said; 'speaking of the world as a "carcass that had neither life nor +loveliness." Only M. Singlin seemed to include more in what he meant +by the world than the Puritan did.' + +"'That is what I should expect,' she replied. 'The higher the point +of view, the more utter must seem the vanity of all below. Does he +not make life seem a speck of dust, its history a moment? yet each +speck of dust on the earth a world, and each moment a lifetime, as to +its issues, radiating as these do through eternity!' + +"When we came back, Madame la Mothe gave an ardent account of the +sermon to an Abbe, a cousin of hers, who happened to be visiting at +the house. + +"To my surprise, he solemnly denounced the recluses of Port Royal, +with M. Singlin and their directors. He called it a conspiracy. + +"He said: 'A renegade Capuchin has (as they confess) been the means +of the conversion of their adored Abbess, Angélique Arnauld. The +Arnauld family, the soul of the whole thing, were Protestants in the +previous generation; and (as the Spaniards say) it takes more than +one generation to wash the taint of heresy from the blood.' + +"At this point Madame la Mothe considerately introduced me. + +"'With the Protestants we are on open ground, he said, bowing +graciously to me. 'Mademoiselle will understand I spoke +ecclesiastically. But these Jansenists are conspirators. They are +digging mines underneath the altar itself. However, the Pope lives, +and the Order of Jesus is awake. We shall see which will perish--the +sanctuary, or the mine which was to explode it.' + +"'Is it true,' I asked Madame la Mothe afterwards, 'that the Abbess +of Port Royal owed her first impulse heavenward to a Protestant?' + +"'They have told me, indeed, it was a renegade monk who so moved the +young Abbess' heart,' she replied. 'The miserable being, it is said, +spoke so forcibly on the blessedness of a holy life, and on the +infinite love and humiliation of our Lord in His incarnation.' + +"'Perhaps, then, he knew the blessedness of a holy life,' I said. + +"'He was a wretched fugitive, escaping from his convent, my child,' +she replied, a little impatiently. 'But what of that? Was not +Balaam one of the prophets?' + +"Two things, however, give me a kind of mournful consolation. + +"One is, that, deny it as they will, there is an undying link between +the holy people of Port Royal and those of the Protestant Church. I +like to think that. Not only has their piety a common source in the +same Sun, but it was enkindled by the touch of a poor heretic hand +they would refuse to grasp in brotherhood. They will have to grasp +that poor hand by-and-by, I like to think; and then, not reluctantly! + +"And the other consolation is, that divisions are not confined to +Protestants; a consolation both as regards the Roman Catholics and +ourselves. For it seems to me, wherever there is thought there must +be difference; wherever there is life there must be variety. Life +and sin; these seem to me the chief sources of religious difference. +God only knows from which of these two fountains each drop of the +turbulent stream flows. Life, which must manifest itself in forms +varied as the living, varying as their growing; sin, which adds to +these varieties of healthy growth the sad varieties of disease, +infirmity, excrescence, or defect. + +"_Paris, October_ 2_nd_.--A battle at Dunbar, on the coast of +Scotland. + +"Another defeat. 'A complete rout,' my father says in his letter, +which is very desponding. He is very indignant with the Scots, who +will not let the king's 'loyal servants and counsellors' come near +him, or even fight for him, but drag him about like a culprit and +preach sermons to him, 'once,' he says, 'six in succession.' (And, +here, His Majesty had not the reputation of being too fond of +sermons.) He is also grieved with the king himself; at his signing +the Covenant, at his publicly condemning his royal martyred father's +acts, and his mother's religion; and, above all, at his suffering +himself to be conducted in state into Edinburgh, under the gate where +were exposed the dishonoured remains of Montrose, who so gallantly +died for him not six months before. 'Nevertheless,' he concludes, +'we shall all die for him when our time comes, no doubt, as willingly +as Montrose did. And after all, the true mischief-makers are the +priests. From the Pope to the kirk preachers, not a disturbance in +the world but you find them at the bottom of it. Let all the +theologies alone, sweetheart. One is as bad as another. Say thy +Creed; keep the Commandments; pray the Lord's Prayer. And remember +thy old father.' + +"_January, Chateau St. Rémi_.--We have come to M. la Mothe's country +chateau for the Christmas. + +"The Abbey Church of Port Royal des Champs is our parish-church. +Madame la Mothe often takes me there. + +"The first morning after our arrival she took me to the edge of the +Valley of Port Royal. + +"It is rather a cup-like hollow in the plain than a valley among +hills. Its sides are clothed with a sombre mantle of ancient +forests,--at the further end sweeping into the plain into which the +valley opens. A broad rich plain with rivers, woods, corn-fields, +now ploughed into long brown ridges for sowing; towns, villages with +spires and towers, all stretching far away into a blue dimness. + +"The recluses who occupied Les Granges, the abbey farm on the brow of +the hill where we stood. must find their prayers helped, I think, by +this glimpse into the wide world of life beyond. The nuns at the +bottom of the valley must lose it. + +"The valley was entirely filled by the convent. + +"'It is like a vase carved by the Creator Himself for the precious +ointment whose odour fills all His house,' Madame la Mothe said. + +"To my unaccustomed eyes it was more like a prosperous village than a +monastery. + +"In the midst, the great tower of the church; close to it, the +convent itself, with its lofty roofs, arched windows and gateways, +turrets and pinnacles; around, the infirmary, surgery, +weaving-houses, wash-houses, bake-houses, wood, corn and hay stacks, +the mill and the mill-pond, and fish-ponds; the new and stately hotel +which is the retreat of the Duchess de Longueville, with the +residences of other noble ladies; and beyond, the kitchen-gardens and +meadows divided by a winding brook from the 'Solitude,' where, amidst +groups of ancient trees, and under the steep slopes of the wooded +hill, the nuns repair for confession and meditation. Even then, on +that winter-day, I thought I perceived the gleam of their white +dresses among the trees. + +"As we look, Madame la Mothe told me some of the scenes which had +been witnessed there within the last fifty years. + +"Not fifty years since, the abbey had been a place of restless gaiety +and revelry. Light songs and laughter might have been heard echoing +among the woods, when the child Angélique Arnauld was appointed +Abbess. + +"She then described the great king Henri Quatre with his courtiers +invading the valley in the eagerness of the chase, and the child +Abbess with her crozier in her hand marching in state out of that +grand arched gateway at the head of her nuns, and warning His Majesty +from the sacred precincts; the king gallantly kissing the queenly +child's hand, and obeying her behests. + +"Then the renegade Capuchin, finding one night's shelter in the abbey +on his flight to a Protestant country, preaching in that church of +the 'blessedness of a holy life and the love of Christ,' so as to +awaken the young Abbess in her seventeenth year to the vision of a +new world and a new life, which, in a subsequent sickness, deepened +into thorough conversion to God. + +"The 'Journée du Guichet,' when the Abbess Angélique began her +attempts to reform and seclude the nuns by refusing to admit her own +father within the grating; by the long fainting-fit with which her +resistance ended, showing him what the effort cost her, and +convincing him of her sincerity. + +"The reform of Port Royal. Its growing reputation for sanctity. The +mission of the young Abbess to reform other convents; the thronging +of new nuns under her rule, until the valley (then undrained) became +too small, health failed, and all the community had to remove for +fifteen years to Paris. + +"The arrival of the Abbess Angélique's brother, M. Arnauld d'Andilly, +and the other recluses, to take up their abode at the deserted abbey, +then half in ruins, the meadows a marsh, the gardens a wilderness. +The draining of the marsh and rebuilding of the abbey by the hands of +these gentlemen, working to the sound of psalms. + +"The return of the Abbess Angélique, with her long train of +white-robed daughters, welcomed with enthusiasm by the peasants. The +one meeting of the recluses and the nuns, eighteen of them of the +Arnauld family; as the brothers led the sisters into the church they +had worked so hard to restore, and then retired to the abbey farm, to +see each other no more except at the church services through a +grating. + +"As I looked down, nothing struck me so much as the stillness. To +the eye, the valley was a place of busy human life. To the ear, it +was a solitude. No discordant noises came from it, no hum of +cheerful converse, nor voices of children at play. The nuns have +large schools, which they teach most diligently and intelligently; +the best ever known, it is said. But the children are accustomed to +play, each by herself, quietly. The nuns think they like it as +much,--after a little while. They are also never allowed to kiss or +caress each other. Caresses might lead to quarrels, and are, besides +(the nuns think), a weakening indulgence of emotion. + +"I hope they often read the little ones the gospel which tells how +the Master 'took the little children in His arms.' They must need it. + +"The stillness had a sacred solemnity; but there was something of a +vault-like chill in it, which crept over me like a shadow, as we +descended the steep path, strewn with moist dead leaves among the +roots of the leafless trees. + +"I should like better to have seen Port Royal when, as in the wars of +the Fronde a year or two since, it became a refuge for the plundered +peasants of the neighbourhood, the infirmary filled with their sick +and aged, the church with their corn, the sacred napkins for the +altar torn up to bind their wounds. + +"Through the grand arched gateway we went into the inner court, and +thence into the church, where the nuns were chanting the service. + +"Their music seems all kept for the church. Sin and eternity! These +two thoughts seem to hush all the music at Port Royal, except such as +goes up to God. It was a solemn thing to hear the hundred voices +joining in the severe and simple chants to which they tune their +lives so well. + + +"Madame la Mothe was pleased to see me moved as I was by it. + +"'In England, you have scarcely a choir like that,' she said. + +"'Not quite,' I replied; yet not to mislead her with false hopes as +to me I could not help adding,--'With us the singers are not gathered +into a choir, but scattered through the Church; in scattered +Christian homes throughout the nation. And the pauses of the psalms +are filled up by family joys and sorrows, and by the voices and +laughter of little children; which, it seems to me, make the psalms +all the sweeter and truer.' + +"But more solemn than this general assembly it was to me to see, as I +have this evening, while I was in the church alone, that motionless, +white robed, kneeling figure keeping watch in the dusk before the +'Sacred Host' on the altar. One silver lamp radiated a dim and +silvery light into the recesses of the empty silent church; the lamp +never extinguished, the prayer never ceasing. + +"That kneeling worshipper seemed to me herself a living symbol and +portion of the Perpetual living Sacrifice, in which the One sacrifice +unto death is for ever renewed; as Christian heart after heart is +enkindled to love, and sacrifice, and serve; as the Church, redeemed +by Him who offered Himself up without spot to God, offers herself up +in Him to do and suffer the Father's will, to drink of His cup and be +baptized with His baptism; His living body, the fulness of Him that +filleth all in all.' + +"As we came up the hill my heart was full of that thought. We turned +and looked back over the valley. The massive towers threw long +shadows over the meadows, silvered with dew and moonlight. The broad +lake shone, like the tranquil lives of the sisterhood, mirroring the +heavens. + +"On the other side, on the brow of the hill, the lights of Les +Granges showed where the recluses were keeping their watch. A +deep-toned bell from the abbey church struck the hour. + +"Then, in the deepened hush of silence which followed, the soft chant +of the nuns came stealing up the slopes. As we listened, it seemed +to be answered from above by the deep music of men's voices from Les +Granges. + +"We listened till the last notes died away. I never heard church +music which so moved me as those unconscious antiphons, where the two +sides of the choir could not hear each other, whilst we heard both. +It made me think of so many things: of the many choirs on earth who +sing a part, and cannot hear or will not recognize each other's +music, while God is listening to all; of the two sides of the choir +in heaven and earth; and of the voices in the higher choir which I +should hear no more on earth. + +"I felt lifted into a higher world. And we two walked home in one of +those restful silences which sometimes say so much more than words. + +"It broke a little rudely on this when, at the gate of the chateau, +M. la Mothe's servant met us, exclaiming: + +"'Ah, madame! M. le Comte is much agitated. He says it is ten +minutes after the time when madame brings him his posset.' + +"We hastened into the salon. M. la Mothe was indeed much agitated. + +"'Pardon me, my friend,' she said; 'I am ten minutes late.' + +"He pointed to the clock. + +"'Ten, madam!' he exclaimed. 'Fourteen and a half, at the least! +when the physician said every minute was of consequence. But we must +bear it, no doubt. Neglect is the portion of the aged. And madame +has her salvation to accomplish, no doubt! In my youth married women +accomplished their salvation in accomplishing the comfort of their +husbands. But times change. In a few months I shall, no doubt, be +beyond the reach of neglect; and then madame can accomplish her +salvation without further interruption. Heaven grant it may prove +your salvation after all! Those learned gentlemen, the Jesuits, +think otherwise, and they have great saints among them.' + +"I shall never forget the sweet humility with which she acknowledged +the justice of his reproaches, and tact and tenderness with which she +soothed his feeble irritability into tranquillity again. + +"'You mean well, no doubt, my poor friend!' he said at last, with a +lofty air of forbearance; 'and no doubt we shall not soon have such +an omission again. + +"'Ah, my child!' she said to me, as she came into my room afterwards; +'if you had only known how good he was, and how patient with me, when +I was wild and young! These little irritations are not from the +heart, but from the brain, which is over-tasked and tired. He had no +sleep last night on account of the gout, and I read aloud to him +romances, insipid enough, I think, to send me asleep in a house on +fire. But they had no effect on him, the pain was so acute.' + +"The tears came into my eyes. She thought nothing of her own fatigue. + +"'You need not pity me,' she said, with her own bright smile. 'I am +an easy, happy old woman, far too contented, I fear, with the world +and with my lot in it. If I have any virtue, it is good temper; and +that is scarcely a virtue, not certainly a grace--indeed, merely a +little hereditary advantage, like skin that heals quickly.' + +"'I was not pitying you, madame,' I ventured to say; 'I was only +thinking how much better God makes our crosses for us than they make +them even at Port Royal.' + +"'Alas, my child!' she sighed; 'there is no need for the holy ladies +and gentlemen of Port Royal to make their own crosses. The Jesuits +are preparing plenty of crosses, I fear, for them. But do not, I +entreat you, dignify such little prickles as mine by the name of +crosses.' + +"I made no answer, save by kissing her hand. For I thought her +crosses were none the worse discipline because to her they seemed +only prickles; and her graces all the more genuine and sweet because +to her they seemed only 'little hereditary advantages.' + +"It is such a help to 'crosses,' in the work they have to do for us, +when they have no chance of looking grand enough to be set up on +pedestals and adored; and it is such a blessing for 'graces' when +they are not clothed in Sunday or 'religious' clothes, so as to have +any opportunity of looking at themselves at all. + +"Good temper, kindliness, cheerfulness, lowliness, tenderness, +justice, generosity, seem to me to lose so much of their beauty and +fragrance when they change their sweet familiar home-names (which are +also their true Christian names) for three-syllabled saintly titles, +such as 'holy indifference,' or 'saintly resignation,' and pace +demurely about in processions, saying, in every deprecatory look and +regulated gesture, 'See how unlike the rest of the world we are!' + +"'_When saw we Thee an hungered?_?'--how much that means! It was not +so much, I think, that the 'righteous' had not recognized the Master +in their acts, as that they did not recall the acts. They did not +recognize the sweet blossoms of their own graces, because His life +had gone down to the root, and flowed through every stem and twig of +everyday feeling, and overflowed in every bud and blossom of +every-day words and works, as naturally and inevitably as a fountain +bubbles up in spray. It was not His presence they had been +unconscious of, but their own services. For it seems to me just the +acts religious people least remember that are the most beautiful, and +that Christ most remembers, because they flow from the deepest +source; not from a conscious purpose, but from a pervading +instinctive life. + +"In such unconscious acts the noble men and women of Port Royal are +rich indeed. I love, for instance, to think how M. de St. Cyran, +when himself a prisoner in the Bastille, sold some of the few +precious books remaining to buy clothes for two fellow-prisoners of +his--the Baron and Baroness de Beau Soleil--and said to the lady who +undertook the commission for him, 'I do not know what is necessary, +but some one has told me that gentlemen and ladies of their condition +ought not to be seen in company without gold lace for the men and +black lace for the women. Pray purchase the best, and let everything +be done modestly, and yet handsomely, that when they see each other +they may forget, for a few minutes at least, that they are captives.' +Madame de Beau Soleil's beautiful 'worldly' lace will perhaps prove a +more religious robe for M. de St. Cyran than his own 'religious +habit.' + +"The selling of the church plate at Port Royal to relieve the poor is +certainly as much a religious act as the buying it. The voluntary +desecration of their church into a granary, to save the corn of the +poor peasants from plunder during the wars of the Fronde, was +certainly a true consecration of it. The lovely wax models which the +sister Angélique makes to purchase comforts for our Royalist +countrywomen, heretics though she believes us to be, seem (to us at +least) a labour of love sure not to be forgotten above. The delight +in acts of kindness to others, for which Blaise Pascal is said to +torture himself by pressing the sharp studs of his iron girdle into +the flesh, may prove to have been more sanctifying than the pain by +which he seeks to expiate it. The homely services which Jacqueline +Pascal rendered her little dying niece on the nights she spent in +nursing her through 'confluent smallpox,' may prove to have been more +'divine offices' than those she spent so many nights, half-benumbed +with cold, in reciting. + + +"And so, after all, from the most self-questioning religious life, as +well as from the lowliest life of love that scarcely dared call +itself religious, may come that same answer of the righteous. He who +scarce dared lift his eyes to heaven, saying with rapture, 'Was it +indeed Thee to whom I gave that cup of cold water?'--and the austere +Puritan (Catholic or Protestant, saying), 'Was it indeed the +_feeding_ and _clothing_, those little forgotten acts of kindness I +thought nothing of, that were pleasing Thee?" + +"_February_.--I wonder what Olive is doing and learning. These +misunderstandings of God and of one another perplex me at times not a +little. I wonder if she has any perplexities of the same kind in +England? + +"This morning Madame la Mothe told me a beautiful saying of M. +Arnauld d'Andilly, brother to the Mère Angélique, when some one was +exhorting him to rest, 'There is all eternity,' he replied, 'to rest +in.' + +"This evening I repeated this to Barbe. She replied: 'It reminds me +of a saying of a good pastor of ours, who said, when some one tried +to comfort him in severe sickness by wishing him health and rest, +"Mon lit de santè et de repos sera dans le ciel."'* + + +* Told of M. Drelincourt, pastor of Charenton, who died in 1669. + + +"The two sides of the choir again!--taking up the responses from each +other without knowing anything of each other's singing! How +wonderful it all is! This deafness to each other's music; these +misunderstandings of each other's words! this deafness to what God +tells us of Himself in the Gospels, and in the world; these +misunderstandings of Him! And His patient listening, and +understanding us all! + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +OLIVE'S RECOLLECTIONS. + +As Aunt Dorothy continued to recover, I knew the dreaded clash of +arms with Annis Nye could not be long delayed; and I had been casting +about in my mind for some means of settling Annis for the time +elsewhere, when the storm burst suddenly upon me. Maidie and I had +come from a ramble near the town; Maidie enraptured with her first +experience of the treasures of the woods, having that day discovered +that in the autumn the trees drop showers of inestimable jewels in +the form of spiky green balls, which, when opened, proved to be each +a casket containing a glossy, brown lump of delight, called in the +tongues of men a horse-chestnut, but in the tongue of Maidie having +no word adequate to express its beauty and preciousness. I was +bringing home a store of these treasures in a kerchief; while Maidie +held my hand, discoursing, like a person just entered on a fortune, +as to how much of her wealth she would bestow on Annis, and how much +on Aunt Dorothy; baby she considered not able to appreciate; but in +time, perhaps, she might grow up to it, and then she should have her +share. + +But at the door Aunt Dorothy met us, pale and agitated. + +"Child!" she said, in the tone of one deeply wronged--"Olive! I did +not look for this from thee!" + +In her hand was a sheet of writing. She gave it me with a trembling +hand. + +"Read it, Olive," she said. "It is from George Fox, now in the House +of Correction at Derby! a person concerning whom no sober person can +entertain a hope, save that he may be mad. And it is sent to your +maid Annis Nye; and is by her acknowledged. He is a Quaker, Olive! +One of that mad sect opposed to all rule in Church, Army, and State. +I knew the perilous latitude of thy husband's courses. I had even +fears as to his being entirely free from Arminian heresies; but this, +I confess, I had not looked for from thee!" + +We came into the parlour; and while I was reading, Maidie took +advantage of the silence to display her treasures. + +"Poor innocent!" said Aunt Dorothy, taking her on her knee, and +kissing her. "Poor innocent lamb! entrusted to a very wolf in +sheep's clothing. I little thought to live to see this! Pretty! +yes, pretty, my lamb!" she added, absently, as the little hands were +held up to her with the new wonders. + +But this reception of her treasures was far too absent and +parenthetical to satisfy Maidie, who slipped off to the ground, and, +calling on Annis, was making her way to the kitchen, when Aunt +Dorothy anticipated her by closing the door and planting the little +one summarily on the table, with an injunction to be quiet. + +"The moment is come!" she said, solemnly, to me. "This house shall +never be profaned by the presence of a person who calls Mr. Baxter a +'priest,' his church a steeple-house, and George Fox a servant of the +Lord." + +"She is fatherless and motherless, Aunt Dorothy," I said. "What +would you have me to do? She cannot be turned houseless on the world +to starve." + +"Let her go to her Friends, as she calls them," said Aunt +Dorothy--"her 'children of light!' Alas for the land! there is no +lack of them. Although in the town Mr. Baxter has silenced them, by +a remarkable discussion he held with them in the church, I doubt not +they lie, like other foxes, in the holes and corners of the hills +around. Although, in good sooth, the safest and mercifulest place +for Quakers, in my judgment, is a prison, where they cannot spread +their poison, or make everybody angry with them, as they do +everywhere else. And to the inside of a prison, it seems, the maid +is no stranger already. I am no persecutor, Olive. But when people +scatter fire-brands, the only mercy to them and to the world is to +tie their hands. Do you know," she added, "for what George Fox is in +the House of Correction? For brawling in the church; in a solemn +congregation of ministers, soldiers, and people, which had assembled +to hear godly Colonel Barton preach!" + +"Is Colonel Barton a minister?" I said. + +"Belike not," she replied, a little testily. "I am not for defending +Colonel Barton, nor the times, nor the ways of those in power ('in +_authority_' I will not call them, for authority in these disorderly +days there is none). But there are degrees in disorder. Colonel +Barton preaching in the pulpit is one thing, and George Fox the +weaver's son crying out in the pews is another." + +"Did he say anything very bad?" I said. + +"What need we care what an ignorant upstart like that said, Olive? +It was _where_ he said it that was the crime. No place is sacred to +the youngster. He preaches in market-places against cheating and +cozening, in fairs against mountebanks, in courts of justice against +the magistrates, in churches against the ministers." + +"But, Aunt Dorothy," I ventured to say, "if he must preach at all, at +least this way seems to me better than preaching in church against +the mountebanks, and in the markets against the priests. To tell +people their own sins to their faces is more like right preaching, is +it not, than telling them of other people's sins behind their backs? +Whether it is wrong or not for George Fox to exhort the ministers +before their own congregations who _dislike_ it, I think it would be +meaner and more wrong to rail at them in a congregation of Quakers +who might _like_ it." + +"If you can defend George Fox, Olive," she said, "we may as well give +up debating anything! At all events, I am thankful to say, whatever +divisions there may be on other questions, the professing Church in +general is of one opinion as to the Quakers. Whatever you may think +of the mercy of imprisoning Quakers as regards their souls, there is +no doubt it is a mercy to their bodies. For George Fox is no sooner +at liberty from the prison, than he begins exhorting every one, +making every one so angry that he is whipped and hunted from one town +to another, and finds no rest until he is mercifully shut up in +another prison. And I much doubt if you will not find it the same +with Annis Nye." + +I was not without fears of the kind. But I said,-- + +"She has shown a marvellous tenderness and love for the babes, Aunt +Dorothy; and since she came to us, she has been as quiet as any other +Christian. I dare not do anything to drive her forth into the cruel +world; for she is tender and gentle as any gentlewoman born." + +"Tender and gentle indeed!" exclaimed Aunt Dorothy. "Yes, she told +me George Fox's letter was written to the Friends, and other 'tender +people,' wherever they might be. I, at least, am not one of the +tender people, to tolerate such ways. I hear much talk of +toleration; and I will not deny that even Mr. Baxter has looser +thoughts on Christian concord than I altogether like. He would be +content if all Christians would unite on the ground of the Apostles' +Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments. Whereas, in my +opinion, you might nigh as well have no walls at all around the fold +as walls any wolf can leap in over to devour the sheep, and any poor +lamb may leap out over to lose itself in the wilderness. Why, a +Socinian, an Arminian, a Papist, for I ought I know, might sign the +Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments (praying +and keeping them is, no doubt, another thing.) Belike any one might, +but a Quaker; for the Quakers will sign nothing, so that they are +safe to be out of a fold that has any walls, which is some +consolation. Everybody's toleration must stop somewhere; yours, I +suppose, would stop at house-breaking. Mine stops at sacrilege or +church-breaking; and that I consider every Quaker may be considered +to be guilty of. So, Olive, you must e'en choose between Annis Nye +and me. Your company, and that of the babes, poor lambs, is pleasant +to me. But I have not lifted up my testimony against my mother's +son, whom I love as my own soul, and forsaken the only place I shall +ever feel a home on earth, to have my house made a refuge, or a +madhouse, for Quakers, Jews, Turks, and Infidels." + +At this point Aunt Dorothy's face was considerably flushed, and her +voice raised in a way which was altogether too much for Maidie's +feelings. Her eyes were fixed anxiously on Aunt Dorothy's; two large +tears gathered in them, and her lip began to quiver ominously, when I +caught her softly in my arms, just in time to hush a great sob on my +bosom. + +Poor little Maidie! I do not think she had ever seen any one really +angry before, except herself; and not being able to distinguish +between righteous ecclesiastical anger and ordinary unecclesiastical +hastiness of temper, it was some time before she could be induced to +respond to all the helpless blandishments and tender epithets which +poor Aunt Dorothy lavished on her, with anything but "Naughty, +naughty! go away!"--an insult which Aunt Dorothy bore in patience +once, but on its repetition, observed, "That comes of Antinomian +serving-wenches, Olive! The child has no idea of any one being angry +about anything; a most dangerous delusion! Mark my words, Olive! the +world is not Eden, and Antinomianism is the natural religion of us +all; and it is too plain Maidie is not free from the infection of +nature; and if you bring up the babes to look for nothing but fair +weather, they will find the Lord's rough winds only the harder to +bear. Thou wast not brought up altogether on sweetmeats, Olive! +Though may be on too many after all. It seems, however, that her +poor old aunt's ways are not to the babe's mind; so I suppose I had +better withdraw." + +Nothing makes one feel more helpless than the uncontrollable +repugnance of a child to some one it ought to love. I knew that Aunt +Dorothy loved Maidie dearly, and that her sharp voice and manner were +nothing but the pain of repressed and wounded feeling. But there +were no words by which I could translate those harsh tones into +Maidie's language of love. On the other hand, I knew that Maidie's +repugnance was not naughtiness, but a real uncontrollable terror, +which nothing but soothing and caressing could allay. Yet, while +thus seeking to soothe the child, I felt conscious I was regarded by +Aunt Dorothy as one of Solomon's unwise parents; and I knew that, if +it had been in her power, she would have sentenced me, as in our +childhood, to learn a punitive "chapter in Proverbs." + +My confusion was still worse confounded by the gentle opening of the +door, and the sudden appearance of Annis with a bundle in her arms, +at sight of whose calm face Maidie's countenance brightened, and she +stretched out her hands to go to her. + +Annis softly laid down her bundle and took the child in her arms, the +little hands clinging fondly round her neck. + +It was the last drop in Aunt Dorothy's cup and mine. "The babe at +least has chosen, Olive!" she said, in a dry, hard voice. "And I +suppose the mother will obey, according to the rule of these +republican days." Aunt Dorothy was really "naughty" at that moment, +in the fullest acceptation of the word; and she knew it, which made +her worse. + +Gently Annis replaced the child in my arms, but there was a tremor in +her voice when she spoke. + +"Olive Antony," she said, "thee and thine have been true friends to +me. But it is best I should leave thee. I have gathered my goods +together" (they were easily gathered, poor orphan maid), "and I am +going. Fare thee well!" + +My heart ached. I knew her determined ways so well; I knew so well +the hard things that must await her in the world; and I felt as if by +even for a moment debating in my mind the possibility of letting her +depart, I was accessory to her banishment, and so betraying my +husband's trust. + +"Not so, Annis," I said; "this once I must be mistress. How else +could I answer to my husband for his trust of the fatherless;--or, +what is more, to the Father of the fatherless?" + +"Thy husband had no power to entrust thee with me," she replied, +gently; "nor have I the power to commit myself to the care of any +mortal. God has entrusted me with myself, soul and body, and I +answer only to Him." + +"But think, Annis, of the ruthlessness of the world," I said; a weak +argument, I felt, the moment I had uttered it, and one which with +Annis would be sure to turn the wrong way. The softness which +Maidie's caresses had brought into her eyes left them, and a lofty +courage came instead. + +"Bonds and imprisonments may await me," she said. "If it were death, +who that loved God was ever turned from His ways by that?" + +"But the babes," I pleaded, "the little ones, will miss thee so +sorely." + +A tender smile came over her face as she glanced at Maidie. + +"I have thought of that. I have pleaded it rebelliously with my Lord +many days," she said; "but it is of no avail. His fire burneth in +me, and who can stand it? I must go." + +"But whither, Annis?" I said. + +"There is a concern on my spirit," she said, "for my people and my +father's house. They reviled me, and drove me from them. I must +return. They have smitten me on the right cheek; I must turn to them +the left. Maybe they will hear; but if not, I must speak. Or if +they will not let me speak, I must be silent among them, and suffer. +Sometimes silence speaks best.--Fare thee well, Olive Antony, and +thou, aged Dorothy Drayton! I have said to thee what was given me to +say. Thou hast done me no despite. It is not for thy words I +depart. If they had been softer than butter, I dared not have +tarried. The Power is on my spirit, and I must go." + +She kissed Maidie, and I kissed her serene forehead. Further +remonstrance was in vain. I would have pressed money on her, but she +refused. + +"I have no need," she said, with a smile. "I shall not be forsaken. +And I have not earned it. Little enough have I done for all thee and +thine hath been to me." + +With tears I stood at the door and watched her quietly pass down the +street, not knowing whither she went. But before she had gone many +steps Aunt Dorothy appeared with a basket laden with meat, bread, and +wine, which, hurrying after Annis, she succeeded in making her take. + +"It is written, 'Thou shalt not receive him into thy house, or bid +him God speed,'" said she apologetically to me, as she re-entered the +door. "But it is not written, 'Thou shalt send him out of thy house +hungry and fasting.'" + +"It is written, 'If thine enemy hunger, feed him,'" I said. + +"I had thought of that text also, Olive," said she, "but I do not +think it quite fits. For the pool maid is not mine enemy. God knows +I would not have shut house or heart against her if she had been only +that!" + +We were very silent that day. The house seemed very empty and quiet, +when Maidie's last sobbing entreaties for Annis were hushed, and, the +babes being asleep, Aunt Dorothy and I seated ourselves by the +fireside. + +"It was a hard duty, Olive, to speak as I did; and belike, after all, +the flesh had its evil share in the matter," she said, as we parted +for the night. "But I did it. And I think it has been owned." + +But I did not think her conscience was as easy as she tried to +persuade herself. + +The night was wild and stormy, and I heard her pacing unquietly about +her room and opening her casement more than once, as I sat watching +Maidie in a restless sleep, and reading the papers by George Fox +which Annis had left behind her. The words were such as no +Christian, it seemed to me, could but deem good. Some of them rang +like an ancient hymn out of some grand old liturgy. + +"Oh, therefore," he wrote from his prison, "mind the pure spirit of +the everlasting God, which will teach you to use the creatures in +their right place, and which judgeth the evil. To Thee, O God, be +all glory and honour, who art Lord of all, visible and invisible! To +Thee be all praise, who bringest out of the deep to Thyself, O +powerful God, who art worthy of all glory. For the Lord who created +all, and gives life and strength to all, is over all, and is merciful +to all. So Thou who hast made all, and art over all, to Thee be all +glory! In Thee is my strength and refreshment, my life, my joy, and +my gladness, my rejoicing and glorying for evermore. For there is +peace in resting in the Lord Jesus." + +"Love the cross; and satisfy not your own minds in the flesh, but +prize your time, while you have it, and walk up to that you know, in +obedience to God; then you shall not be condemned for that you know +not; but for that you know and do not obey." + +So I read on, watching Maidie's restless tossings and her flushed +cheek, hearing now and then Aunt Dorothy's uneasy footsteps, and +wondering whether Annis Nye had found shelter, or whether she were +still wandering along the wet and windy roads; whilst beneath these +thoughts every now and then I kept falling back on the things that +were never long absent from me: those two Puritan armies watching +each other in Scotland, with the "covenanted king" at the head of +one, and Oliver at the heart of the other, where my husband, and +Roger, and Job Forster were. I thought also of my father and Aunt +Dorothy journeying through the desolations made by the Thirty Years' +religious war in Germany. Who could say when our war would cease, +and what further desolations it would leave behind? Then my mind +wandered to Lettice Davenant, from whom Aunt Dorothy had lately +received a letter, which had made her uneasy, from its comparing +certain godly Catholic people who live in a nunnery called Port Royal +with the godly people in England. Thence, reverting to my early days +I thought how small the divisions of the great battle-field seemed +then, and how complicated now! And, looking fondly at Maidie and the +babe, it occurred to me whether the child's simple divisions of +"good" and "naughty" might not after all be more like those of the +angels than we are apt to think. + +Aunt Dorothy looked pale and haggard the next morning, but she +betrayed nothing of her nightly investigations into the weather, only +manifesting her uneasiness by looking up anxiously when a peculiarly +violent gust of wind drove the rain against the windows, and by an +unusual tolerance and gentleness with Maidie, who was in a very +fretful temper. + +In the evening, when the children were asleep, and Aunt Dorothy and I +were left alone: "It is very strange!" she said; "something in that +Quaker woman's ways seems to have marvellously moved my little maid +Sarah. I found the child crying over her Bible, and she said, 'Annis +Nye had told her _God would teach her_; but she wished He would send +her some one like Annis again to help her to learn.' + +"It is very strange, Olive," she added. "The directions about +heretics coming to one's house are so very plain. But then I always +thought of a heretic as a noisy troublesome person, puffed up with +vanity and conceit, whom it would be quite a pleasure to put down. +It is rather hard that a heretic should come to me in the shape of a +poor, lonely orphan maid, for the most part quiet and peaceable, and +so like a sober Christian; that I should have to send her away alone +no one knows where; and that such a night would follow, just as if on +purpose to make right look like wrong. I begin to see a mercy in the +persecutions of the Church. When one comes to know the heretics, the +natural man gets such a terrible hold of one, that it would certainly +be easier to suffer the punishment than to inflict it. Although, of +course, I am not going to shrink from my duty on account of its not +being easy." + +It was Aunt Dorothy's first experience of being at the board of the +Star-chamber instead of its bar. And she certainly did not enjoy it. + + +The year 1651 seemed to roll on rather heavily at Kidderminster. + +Aunt Dorothy kept her private fasts, in loyal contempt of the +Parliament, especially that one which Mr. Philip Henry, and other +Royalist Presbyterians, so faithfully held until some years after the +Restoration, in memory of the death of King Charles the First. + +Mr. Baxter helped to make many people good by his fervent sermons, +and meantime made many good people angry by his "convincing" +controversial books, calling out fifty angry, controversial books in +reply. + +Meantime, in a quiet hollow of the hills near the town, I discovered +a small manor-house where certain Episcopal Christians met secretly +to hear a deprived clergyman read the proscribed liturgy. And more +than once I crept in among them to join in the familiar prayers. The +calm, ancient words seemed to lift me so far above the dust and din +of our present strifes. Once I heard Dr. Jeremy Taylor preach a +sermon to this little company. And the rich intertwining harmonies +of his poetical speech, and the golds, crimsons, and purples of his +eloquent imagery, seemed to transform the plain old hall, in which we +listened to them, into a cathedral glorious with organ music and +choristers' voices, and with the shadows and illuminations of +richly-sculptured shrines and richly-coloured windows. + +So the year passed on. To us, chronicled in skirmishes and sieges +and political changes; and to Maidie in daisies and cowslips, +primroses, violets, strawberries, and heart-stirring promises of +another Eldorado of those living jewels known among men as +horse-chestnuts. + +Letters came frequently, after the Battle of Dunbar, from Scotland. + +One from Job Forster, forwarded by Rachel:-- + +"Godly Mr. Baxter puzzled me sore at Naseby by miscalling us poor +soldiers who had left our farms and honest trades to fight his +battles, as if we had been mere common hirelings or fanatic praters. +It was a bewilderment in Ireland to see how angry the poor natives +were with us for trying to bring them law and order. But all the +puzzles, and bewilderments, and subtleties were nothing to these +Scottish covenanted ministers and their kirk. + +"They slander us behind our backs to the country people, calling us +'monsters of the world,' till the poor deluded people run away from +us as if we were savage black Indians. And when the few who stay +behind find we are sober Christians who eat not babes but bread (and +little enough, in this poor stripped county, of that), and pay for +what we eat, and the women-folk (who, I will say, have quicker wits +than the men) come back and peaceably brew and bake for us, they +still go on slandering us to those who have not seen us. + +"They calls us names to our faces in their pulpits, 'blasphemers, +sectaries,' and what not. And when we deal softly with them and are +as dumb as lambs (when we could chase them into their holes like +lions), and let them talk on, even that does not convince them that +we mean no one any harm. + +"Meantime they drag about the late king's son, poor young gentleman, +until one cannot but pity him, chief mangnant as he is. For they +will not let any of his old friends and followers come near him. The +other day he made off, like a poor caged bird, to get among his true +malignants near Perth. But his friends had no gilded cage and +sugared food to suit his taste, and after spending a dismal night +among them in a Highland hut, he had to creep back to the ministers, +and take some more oaths, and hear some more sermons. + +"Very dark it is to me the notions these Kirkmen have concerning many +things, especially kings, oaths, and sermons. Concerning oaths. +They seem to think the more a man swears the more he cares for it, +instead of the less; as if a second oath made a first worth more, +instead of showing that it was worth nothing. It is enough to make +one turn Quaker--(But this I would not have known to Annis Nye, poor +perverse maid)! Concerning sermons. As if they did a man good, +whether he will or no, like physic, if he only takes enough of them! +Concerning kings. As if dragging a poor young gentleman, like a bear +in a show, with a crown on his head, about with them, and scolding +him (on their knees), and doing what they like without asking him, +and never letting him do what he likes, or see whom he likes, was +having a _king_! If they have their way, and drive Oliver and us +into the sea, and make their covenanted show-king into a real king, I +wonder how he will show them his gratitude. Scarcely, I think, by +listening to sermons, such as they like. Perhaps by making them +listen to sermons such as he likes, whether they will or no. + +"But, thank God, Oliver lives, though more than once this spring he +has been sick and like to die; and we are little likely (God helping +us) to be chased into the sea by enemies who already cannot agree +among themselves. Meantime, Dr. Owen has been preaching to them with +his plain words, in Edinburgh, and Oliver with his guns; and it is +yet to be hoped the wise among them may open their ears and hear. + +"Not that I think it any wonder that any poor mortal should blunder, +and get into a maze. A poor soul that went so far astray as to +misdoubt Oliver, and to think of bringing in the Fifth Monarchy by +muskets and pikes, and could not be got right again without being +stuck on the leads of Burford Church to see his comrades shot, has no +great reason to wonder at the strange ways of others, be they Kirk +ministers or Quakers." + +My husband wrote:-- + +"I have watched by many death-beds. + +"I have seen many die these last months, Olive. The hails, and +frosts, and scanty food, and scanty clothing, have done more despatch +than the muskets or great guns. I have saved some lives, I trust, +but I have seen many die; men of all stamps, Covenanted, +Uncovenanted, Resolutioners, Protesters, Presbyterians, Sectaries; +and within all these grades of theological men (and outside them all) +I have seen not a few, thank God, to whom dying was not death. Death +brings back to any soul which meets it awake, the hunger and thirst +which nothing but God can satisfy. Resolutions, Covenants, and +Confessions may, like other perishable clothes, be needful enough on +earth. But they have to be left entirely behind, as much as money, +or titles, or any other corruptible thing. If they have been +garments to fit us for earthly work, well; they have had their use, +and can be gently laid aside. If they have been veils to hide us +from God and ourselves, how terribly bare they leave us! Alone, +unclothed, helpless, the only question then is, can we trust +ourselves to the Father as a babe to the bosom of its mother? + +"Does the Christ, the Son, who has died for us, offering Himself up, +without spot, to God, and lives for ever; does He who, dying, +committed His spirit to the Father's hands, enable us to offer +ourselves up, in Him,--commit our spirits, helpless, but redeemed, +into the Father's hands? Then the sting is plucked out. I have seen +it again and again. Death is abolished. It is not seen. It is not +tasted. Christ is seen instead. The eternal life no more begins +than it ends at death. It continues. The cramping chrysalis shell +is thrown off, and it expands. But it no more begins then than it +ends. + +"If ever there is to be a Confession of Faith which is to unite +Christendom, I think it should be drawn from dying lips. For these +will never freeze the Confession into a profession. On dying lips +the Creed and the Hymn are one; for they are uttered not to man, but +to God." + +And later Roger wrote:-- + +"This campaign has aged the Captain-General sensibly. He has had +ague, and has more than once been near death. I think the cold in +godly men's hearts has struck at his heart more than the cold of the +country at his life. The other day a gentleman who is much near him, +said to me: '_My lord is not aware that he has grown an old man_.' +So do deeds count for years. For, as we know, he is barely fifty +years of age. But as he wrote to one not long since, he knows where +the life is that never grows old. 'To search God's statutes for a +rule of conscience, and to seek grace from Christ to enable him to +walk therein,--this _hath life in it, and will come to somewhat_. +What is a poor creature without this?' + +"Some, indeed, call him a tyrant and usurper; some very near him. (A +_hypocrite_ I think none very near him dare call him; though men are +ever too ready to think that no one can honestly see things otherwise +than they do.) + +"But I know not what they mean. He would respect every trace of the +ancient laws, every hard-won inch of the new liberties, and every +honest scruple of the conscience,--if men would have it so. I see +not what tyranny he exercises, save to keep men from tyrannizing over +each other. But this power to tyrannize over others seems, alas! +what too many mean by liberty. + +"Sometimes, Olive, I am ashamed to feel myself growing old. Hope is +faint in me sometimes for the country and myself. And when hope is +gone, youth is gone, be our age what it may. In the General, I +think, this youth never fails, as one who knows him said: 'Hope shone +in him like a pillar of fire when it had gone out in all others.' + +"_P.S._--There is talk of the Scottish army faring southward with +their king. Scarce credible. But if true, we shall follow swift on +their trail, and swiftly be in old England and with thee." + + +They came, the two armies, as swiftly as Roger could have dreamed. +The Scottish Covenanted-Royalist force, 14,000 strong, sweeping down +through the west, by Carlisle, Lancashire, Cheshire, Shrewsbury, to +Worcester; the English Uncovenanted-Puritan army through the east by +Yorkshire. + +Two tides to meet in deadly shock for the last time at Worcester. +Two tides between which the difference became more and more apparent +as they swept on: the one flowing like a summer torrent through some +dark valley in a tropical country, receiving no tributaries, welcomed +in no quiet resting-places, becoming ever shallower and narrower as +it advanced; the other swelling as it swept on like a thing that was +at home, and was to last, gathering force here, gathering bulk there, +ever deepening and widening as it went. + +King Charles and his Scottish leaders summoned place after place, but +they met with no response. His trumpeters went to the gates of +Shrewsbury and proclaimed the king, but the gates remained closed, +and the unwelcome tide had to sweep sullenly past the walls. I +scarce know how this came to pass. Oliver, as I think, was never +popular throughout the nation; nothing of the old unquestioning +loyalty which slumbered everywhere (as time proved) in the dumb heart +of the people was accorded to him. Even those who acknowledged him, +with some few exceptions, acknowledged him rather sullenly as a +break-water against tyranny, than enthusiastically as a hero and a +chief. It might be dread of the Ironsides pursuing; it might be +bitter memories of the Star-chamber and of Prince Rupert's +plunderings, not yet effaced by years of liberty and security. It +might be, as Mr. Baxter said, that the Scots came into England rather +in the manner of fugitives; it being hard for the common people to +distinguish between an army going before another following it, and an +army running away; and into a flying army few men will enlist. But +however this may have been, all along that dreary progress scarce a +note of welcome cheered the Scottish army and their king, until +Worcester received them under the shadow of her Cathedral (ominously +tenanted by the remains of the King of the Magna Charta), opening her +gates to give them the shelter which so soon was to become to +thousands of them the shelter of a grave. + +Part of the Scots army passed not further than a field's length from +Kidderminster; and a gallant orderly company they seemed, being +governed, as Mr. Baxter said, far differently from Prince Rupert's +troopers; "not a soldier of them durst wrong any man the worth of a +penny." Honest, hard-fighting, covenanted men, sorely bewildered, I +should think, with the ways of King and Kirk, and not a little also +with the ways of Providence; but true, nevertheless, to the Covenant +and to the Ten Commandments. + +Divers messages were sent from the army (and, it was believed, from +the king himself) to Mr. Baxter, to request him to come to them. But +Mr. Baxter was at that time "under so great an affliction of sore +eyes, that he was not scarce able to see the light, nor to stir out +of doors; and being (moreover) not much doubtful of the issue which +followed, he thought if he had been able it would have been no +service to the king--it being so little that, on such a sudden, he +could add to his assistance." + +It was not until some days after this that Oliver and his army came +up. I knew it first from my husband, who came for an hour to see me +and the babes on the 2nd of September, the day before the battle, +bringing good tidings of Roger and of Job Forster. I thought he +might have tarried with us until after the fight, when his skill +would be in request. But he took not that view of his duty. +Skirmishes might occur at any moment, he said, and he must be on the +spot. He had little doubt what the end would be; but he deemed the +struggle would be hard, being, so to speak, a death-struggle. And so +it proved. + +On the 3d of September the shock of battle came. It was Oliver's +White Day, the first anniversary of his victory at Dunbar (to be made +memorable to England afterwards by another death-struggle, which +would have no anniversary on earth to him, but which, none the less, +I think, made it the White Day of his hard and toilsome life). + +Soon after noon, stragglers came in and told us what was going on; +and all through the rest of the day the town was in unquiet +expectation, the people thronging at a moment's notice from loom, and +forge, and household work, into the market-place in front of Mr. +Baxter's house, to hear any report brought by any passing traveller. + +The first news was that Oliver was making two bridges of boats, +across the Severn and the Teme; that the young king and his generals +had seen him from the spire of Worcester Cathedral, and had +despatched troops to contest the passage of the river, and that a +hard struggle was going on by its banks. Then, after these tidings +had been eagerly turned over and over until no more could be made of +them, the townsmen returned to their homes. For some hours there was +a cessation of tidings, and the whole town seemed unusually still. +The ordinary interests were suspended, and the minds of men were not +sufficiently united for any general assembling together. There was +no gathering for prayer in the church. Mr. Baxter was sitting apart +in his house, unable to bear the light; certainly not praying for +Oliver to win, yet, I think, scarce wishing very earnestly for the +complete success of the Scots. + +Aunt Dorothy, on the first rumour of the fight, had rigidly shut +herself up in her chamber for a day of solitary fasting. But if we +had been together, we should each have been none the less solitary; +perhaps more, shut out from each other by the door of our lips. The +lives dearest to us both on earth were at stake. Of these we could +neither of us have spoken. The things dearest to each of us were at +stake. But of these we thought not alike, and would not have spoken. +It was almost a boon for me that Annis Nye had departed, so that the +babes were thrown entirely on my care. It kept me from straining my +hearing with that vain effort to catch the terrible sounds which I +knew were to be heard not far off. It kept me from straining my +heart with that vain effort to catch some intimation of what might be +the will of God, and from distracting self-questioning whether I had +done as much as I could, by praying, to help those who were certainly +doing as much as they could for us, by fighting. And instead, it +left me only leisure to lift up my soul from time to time in one +brief simple reiteration: "Father, Thou seest, Thou carest; I commit +them to Thee." + +Towards evening further tidings came, putting an end to our suspense +in one direction. After hours of stiff fighting, from hedge to +hedge, the Scots army had been driven into Worcester, out of +Worcester, out of reach of Worcester. + +The issue of the day as to victory was no longer doubtful. But its +issue as to the lives so precious to us remained to us unknown. + +So the slow hours of the afternoon wore on, until the declining +autumn sun threw the shadow of the opposite houses over the room, and +with the babe on my knee, and Maidie singing to herself low lullabies +as she dressed and undressed her wooden baby at my feet, my thoughts +went back to the October Sunday nine years before (1642), when the +stillness of the land was terribly broken by the first battle of the +Civil War, the fight of Edgehill. + +How simple it all seemed to me then; how complex now. Then there +seemed visibly two causes, two ends, two ways, two armies, the choice +being plainly that between wrong and right. Now so perplexed and +interlaced were convictions, parties, leaders, followers, that it +seemed as if to our eyes the causes and armies were legion; and to +none but the Divine eyes, which see, through all temporary party +differences, the eternal moral differences, could the divisions of +the hosts be clear. + +Partly no doubt this perplexity was simply the consequence of the +armies having encountered; no longer couched expectant opposite each +other on their several opposite heights, but grappling in deadly +struggle on the plains between. + +Partly, perhaps, also because the eternal moral differences on which +we believed the final judgment must be based, had become more the +basis of ours. + +And Maidie and the babe, I thought, poor darlings, had all this yet +to learn! How could I help them, so that they might have less than I +to unlearn? + +How! except by engraving deep on their hearts Aunt Gretel's trust in +God. "Put the darkness anywhere but there, sweetheart; anywhere but +in Him!" By slowly dyeing their hearts in grain, as Mr. Baxter would +have wished, in the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten +Commandments, so that any after surface-colouring, if it modified +these heavenly tints, should never be able to efface them. + +There are qualities in some waters, it is said, as at Kidderminster, +which tend to fix dyes, and give value to the fabrics of the places +where they flow. + +Has not God given a mother's love this fixing power for all truths +that come to a child's heart steeped in its living waters? + +So far, therefore, Maidie and the babe might have something through +my lessons, which the combined teaching of Aunt Gretel and Aunt +Dorothy, each in herself so much better than I, could not quite +possess for Roger's childhood and mine. + +The thought made me glad and strong; and I was still going in the +strength of it, when Job Forster appeared at the door. + +I ran out and met him on the threshold. + +He brought good news of my husband and Roger. The fight was over. +Leonard was attending to the wounded. Roger was still engaged in the +pursuit. But the Scots were scattered hither and thither among the +woods and harvest-fields. The reapers and labourers had taken up the +pursuit, and before night-fall, probably, not a stray party would +hold together strong enough to offer ten minutes' resistance. + +"And His Majesty?" said a grim voice behind us. + +"The King of Scots is in hiding, Mistress Dorothy," said Job +controversially, but very respectfully. "No one knows the road he +has taken." + +"Then there is something to pray for yet," said she. "That this +blood-stained land may imbrue her hands no deeper in the blood of her +kings." + +"Aunt Dorothy," I ventured to say, "you will give thanks as well as +pray? Leonard and Roger are safe." + +"I know," said she, "it is written, 'In everything give thanks.'" + +And without further concession she turned back to her chamber. But +on her way she halted, and said, turning to me,-- + +"Olive, see that Job is fed and lodged. We must make a difference. +A heretic is one thing, and a rebel another." + +Without giving Job the privilege of reply, she remounted the stairs. + +I asked him into the kitchen. But Job was somewhat hard to persuade. + +"It is hard, Mistress Olive," said he, "to have bread and shelter +flung at you like a dog, without a chance to explain. When Mistress +Dorothy herself was one of the keenest to set us against the +oppressors! And when, but for Oliver, though I say it, she herself +might have been in Newgate among the Quakers years ago." + +Yet without Maidie I doubt whether I should have prevailed. She, +poor lamb, seeing nothing in Job but a bit of home, and a +never-failing storehouse of kindnesses, had already enthroned herself +in his arms, undaunted by breast-plate or sword, and with her arms +clinging around him constrained him to come into the kitchen, if it +were only to set her down. + +Once there, to make him stay was easier. For he was wounded in the +left shoulder, so that he could not hold the horse's reins, and had +little strength to walk further. But for that, indeed, he would not +have been Roger's messenger. The pallor of his countenance, when his +helmet was unlaced, startled me; yet, after refreshing him with ale +and meat, it was with no little difficulty that I persuaded him to +let me dress and bandage his wound. + +After that he seemed easier, and his first inquiries were for Annis +Nye, concerning whom we had had no tidings for some weeks. "When I +am set up a bit, mistress," said he, "I must see after that poor maid +the first thing, for she is a godly maid, although a Quakeress. And +I misdoubt whether she be not in jail. It's beyond the wisest of us +to keep a Quaker safe anywhere. Only," he added, "I must be set up a +bit first. I don't feel sure flesh and blood could stand her +discourse on the wickedness of war, until the pain's a bit less +sharp. She's so terrible quiet, Mistress Olive, and so shut up +against reason." + +At night we were roused by the clattering of flying horsemen through +the streets, Kidderminster being but eleven miles from Worcester. +Then came a party of thirty of the Parliament troopers and took +possession of the market-place. Then hundreds more of the flying +Royalists, who "not knowing in the dark how few they were that +charged them," when the Parliament troopers cried "stand," either +hasted away, or cried quarter. And so, as Mr. Baxter said, "as many +were taken there, as so few men could lay hold on; and until midnight +the bullets flying towards my doors and windows, and the sorrowful +fugitives hasting for their lives, did tell me the calamitousness of +war." + +So ended the last battle of the Civil War. + +Maidie, terrified, clung to me and would not leave my arms. Aunt +Dorothy remained in her chamber; the little maid Sarah took shelter +in mine. Only the babe and Job Forster were unmoved by the noise. +The babe slept peacefully on, the storm of war in the streets being +no more to her on her mother's knee, than an earthquake to the planet +Jupiter's satellites; and Job being wearied out with pain and +fatigue, and lulled by the absence of the duty of soldierly +vigilance, which had kept him on the stretch so long. + +The next day Roger passed through the town, pausing a minute at the +door to see me and the babes. He told us my husband would come in a +few days to take us home. He told us also how complete the ruin of +the enemy was. + +"Now," he said, as he remounted at the door, "we shall see what peace +and Oliver can make of England." + +And there was a ring of hope in his voice, as ha rode away, I had not +heard in it for many a day. + +England he thought was to be made such a kingdom of righteousness and +peace, that all the nations far and wide must see and acknowledge it. +And amongst them, I felt sure he dreamed also of one fair loyal +maiden, whose verdict I knew was worth more to him than he dared to +own to himself. + +But Job watching him up the street, turned back to us shaking his +head. + +"It remains to be seen, on the other hand, what England will do with +peace and Oliver!" he said. "Sometimes my heart misgives me that we +may have longer to wait for the Fifth Monarchy than Master Roger or +most of us dream. There do seem so many things to be set right +first. The Kirk ministers and the Quakers do puzzle a plain +Cornishman sore!" + +Roger had not been gone more than a few seconds, and we had not yet +ceased looking after him, when he came galloping back to the door. + +Bending low from his saddle as I went up to him, "Olive," he said, "I +saw some constables in a village near Worcester taking Annis Nye to +prison. I could have rescued her, but she refused my aid, saying +that I was a man of war, and she chose rather to be set in gaol by a +man of peace than to have her bonds broken by the carnal sword. On +second thoughts, I concluded that at present she might be safer in +gaol, while men's minds are so disturbed. But I thought it best to +let thee know." + +And he was away once more. + +This tidings cost Job and me many heavy musings. At length he +resolved on losing no time (his wound having proved less severe than +we feared); but to set out on the morrow to rescue Annis, and bring +her back, if possible to return with us to London. + +Accordingly early on the morrow he went forth. + +In the evening, to my relief, and to Maidie's joy, he returned, with +Annis, looking very pale and worn; but with her face as serene and +her eyes as steady and clear as ever. + +I embraced her on the threshold. Beyond that she would not step. + +"Dorothy Drayton would have none of me," said she. "We are to give +our coat to him who takes away our cloak. But it never says we are +to take a cloak from him that denied us his coat. I may not enter +this house." + +"But it is night-fall," said I. "Whither would you turn?" + +"It is not the first night-fall I have been content with such lodging +as the fowls of the air," said she, and quietly went her way. + +I would have followed her; but Job Forster restrained me. + +"Let her be, Mistress Olive!" he whispered, "She is as hard to catch +as a wild colt, and far harder to hold. There be reins to turn +colts, and there be corn to coax them; but there be no reins to hold +and no lure to coax a Quaker. Their ways are wonderful. Let her be: +maybe she'll come back of herself and, if not, neither love nor fear +will bring her. It is not to be told, Mistress Olive," he added, as +we reluctantly turned back into the kitchen, "what I've borne from +that poor maid this day. I had some work to get her off on bail, for +she had angered the justices and the constables grievously, and I had +to contrive; for the Quakers will not let any one go bail for them. +They're as lofty as the apostle Paul with his Roman rights, and would +rather stay in prison than be set free as guilty. When I came to the +gaol and gave her joy that I had come to set her free, she smiled at +me as innocent as a babe, as meek (seemingly) as one of Fox's +martyrs, and yet bold as a lion, and said: 'Thee cannot set me free, +Job Forster. What is the bondage of bars and stocks to such bondage +as thine?' And then she railed, that is, railed in her way, as soft +as if she were saying the civilest things--at Oliver and the +Ironsides, and the war, and all war, until it was a harder trial of +patience to stand quiet before her than before any pounding of great +guns. I could only get her off at last by getting her put in my +charge, as if I had been a constable, to bring home to her mistress; +and all the way back, from time to time she discoursed on the +wickedness of soldiering,--mixing up Bible texts in a way to make a +man mazed, and at times 'most think he might as well have been at +home by the forge at Netherby, as raging over the world fighting the +Lord's battles. Although I knew, of course, Mistress Olive, that was +only a temptation. At last I gave her my mind plain. 'Mistress +Annis,' I said, 'of all the fighting men of the time, it's my belief +there's none who have more fight in them than you and your friends. +It's very well to say you won't fight, when you rouse every drop of +fighting blood there is in other people by your words. For Scripture +saith there be words which are fiercer weapons of war than any +swords. You talk a deal of keeping to the spirit, and not to the +letter; and you talk of giving the left cheek to him that smites the +right. But it's my belief, the spirit of those words is, you shall +not provoke your enemies; and it's my belief that it's dead against +the spirit when, by keeping to the letter and turning the left cheek, +you are just doing the provokingest thing you can. It's not the +virtues of _war_, it seems to me, you are lacking in,' I said, 'but +the virtues of _peace_. You and yours, from first to last, have had +courage enough to lead a forlorn hope. The thing you want most, to +my seeming, is meekness. I would give somewhat for thee and my +mistress to meet. She is real meek, and, withal, brave as a lion, if +need be; and she would treat thee like a child, as thou art, instead +of like a martyr--which would, belike, do thee more good. Yet she +would give thee a hearty welcome, with all thy wilfulness.' And, +after that, she was quiet a good bit. And then she said, quite +simple and natural: 'Job Forster, I am but a child; and one day, +belike, I may have a call to see thy wife. I feel as if she would be +like a mother. From all thou sayest, she must be a woman of a tender +spirit and an understanding heart.'" + +In the morning Aunt Dorothy came down from her solitary chamber. She +looked pale, but relieved in spirit. "Olive," said she, "I heard +that poor bewildered maid come to the house last night, and go away; +and I do not mean to pass through such another night as these two she +has cost me. I have wrestled the thing out in my heart. On the one +side, there is the heretic the Apostle John spake of in the epistle. +But I consider that heretic was a tempter, and a man. Now Annis, +poor soul, is tempted, and a maid; which makes a difference, to begin +with. Then, on the other hand, there is the man who fell among +thieves. I consider Annis Nye has fallen among thieves; and I don't +think one of Mr. Baxter's people, in this year of our Lord sixteen +hundred and fifty-one, ought to be outdone by an ignorant Samaritan, +who lived in no year of our Lord at all." + +"Then, Aunt Dorothy," I suggested, "there were the Samaritans all +through the Gospels, and our Lord's pitiful ways with them +altogether. I think the Samaritans must have been at least as wrong +as the Quakers." + +"Maybe, my dear; I am not so well informed as I should wish as to the +theology of the Samaritans. I should think it was a great medley. +But our Saviour knew all things, and could do what He pleased." + +"And may not we do what pleased Him?" + +"Olive," said Aunt Dorothy, turning on me, "I am not going to have +Scripture quoted against me by one I taught to read it. I never did +call down fire from heaven on any one, nor wished to do so, and I am +not to be enticed by any smooth by-paths into such tolerations as +yours and your husband's. You need not think it. But, with regard +to Annis Nye, my conscience is satisfied; and you may bring her at +once to the house. Besides," she added, "I do not mean to let any of +you depart without bearing my testimony." + +Whereon Job Forster departed in search of Annis Nye; whom, with some +difficulty, he persuaded to place herself again within range of Aunt +Dorothy's hospitalities and admonitions. + +The day passed in much stillness. Aunt Dorothy herself moved +heavily, like a thunder-cloud with lightnings in it; and the weight +of her impending "testimony" made the air heavy. + +Towards evening my husband came, and all thunder-clouds naturally +grew much lighter to me. + +He brought more tidings of the campaign in Scotland and the Battle of +Worcester. He believed it would be the last of the war. Aunt +Dorothy loaded us with every kind of bodily refreshment and comfort. +But she kept herself apart from the conversation, and never +vouchsafed to ask one question, save concerning the safety of the +king, of whom no news had been heard. It was decided we were to +leave on the morrow; and often I saw her eyes moisten tenderly as she +glanced at Maidie, who, in her sweet trustful way, kept drawing her +amongst us by claiming her sympathy with her joy in the little +treasures her father had brought her. + +In the night, before the dawn of the next morning, Aunt Dorothy and +her little maid were astir, and wonderful cookings and bakings must +have gone forward. For when we came down to breakfast, a huge basket +stood laden with provisions for the way, substantial and dainty, with +special reference to Maidie's tastes; little tender preparations +which often brought tears to my eyes on the journey, as I found them +out one by one, and thought of the self-repressed rigour of the dear +old rock from which those springs of kindness flowed. + +Yet all the while we were at breakfast together at the great table in +the kitchen, every slightest want watched and anticipated by Aunt +Dorothy, I felt as if she were looking on every morsel as a coal of +fire heaped on our heads; while the weight of the impending testimony +hung over us. + +At length it came. + +"Nephew and niece, Leonard and Olive Antony," said she, as we were +about to rise; "and thou, Annis Nye and Job Forster, I have somewhat +to say to you." + +And then she testified against us all, and also against Oliver +Cromwell, the army, and the country; comparing us to the people who +built Babel to make themselves a name, to Jeroboam who made priests +of the lowest of the people, to Absalom, to Jezebel, to the evil +angels who speak evil of dignities, and to the Laodiceans, in a way +which made the blood rush to my face on behalf of my husband. +Finally, turning to Annis Nye, she launched on her a separate +denunciation; beginning with the devil who clothed himself as an +angel of light, and ending with the Anabaptists of Münster, and the +Jesuits, who, Mr. Baxter believed, had emissaries among the Quakers. + +I knew that the more tenderness Aunt Dorothy felt at heart for +offenders, the more severe were her denunciations of their offences. +But Annis could not be expected to be aware of this, and I trembled +to see how she would bear it, lest it should drive her once more from +us into the world, so hard on Quakers. The calm on her countenance, +however, was not even ruffled. She kept her eyes, all the time, +fully opened, fixed with an expression, not of defiance, but of +wonder and compassion, on Aunt Dorothy, until Aunt Dorothy herself at +length paused, apparently checked by the strength of her own +language, held out her hand to Annis and added,-- + +"Now I have said what was on my mind. I did not mean to anger thee; +but less, in conscience, I dared not say." + +Annis took the hand offered to her with a tender compassion, as she +might that of an aged sick person. + +"Why should I be angered, friend?" said she in her softest voice. +"Can thy words touch the truth? It was there when they began; and it +is there when they end. And one day we shall all have to see it; +whatever it is, wherever we be, thee, and Olive Antony and her +husband, and all." + +Aunt Dorothy had no further words to lavish on obduracy so hopeless. +She only struck her palms together, shook her head slowly, and looked +up in speechless dismay. + +Job muttered under his breath, as he rose to saddle the horses,-- + +"Poor souls! poor dear souls! They have got somewhat yet to learn. +They have got to learn the lesson Oliver taught us on old Burford +steeple!" + +But my husband only replied,--. + +"Mistress Dorothy, you have been the truest of friends to me and +mine. We cannot agree on all things, although I shall always honour +you in my heart more than nine-tenths of the people I do agree with. +But there is one admonition of Oliver Cromwell's which I should like +to have engraved deep on the hearts of us all. It is one which he +addressed last year, in a letter, to the General Assembly of the Kirk +of Scotland. 'I beseech you,' he wrote, 'in the bowels of Christ, +_think it you may be mistaken_?'" + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +OLIVE'S RECOLLECTIONS + +The last battle of the Civil Wars was fought. Or rather the +battle-field was changed, and the long contest of the Commonwealth +began, between Oliver governing and all the rest of parties and men +who wished England otherwise governed, who wished it ungoverned, or +who wished to govern it themselves. + +The Royalists, Prelatical or Presbyterian, necessarily against him, +the classical Republicans, the Anabaptist levellers, and, in their +passive way, the Quakers. Indeed, it seemed as if all parties, as +parties, were against him. The wonder was, that the arm which kept +them all at bay should be strong enough at the same time to keep the +world at bay, for England; and to keep England so ordered, that many +of those who hated the Protector's rule confessed that the times--"by +God's merciful sweetening (said they) of bitter waters"--had never +been so prosperous as under it. + +I confess that the change from Kidderminster to our home in London +was in some measure a relief. It was like coming from a walled +garden (admirably kept, indeed, and watered) into the open fields. +It had not been my wont to live in a place so pervaded by one man as +Kidderminster, or at least what I saw of it, was at that time by Mr. +Baxter. He was so very active and self-denying and good, that do +what I would whilst there, I could never get over the feeling of +being, in some way, a transgressor if I happened to differ from him. +His writings and sermons were certainly mainly directed against the +great permanent evils of ungodliness and unrighteousness. But he +wrote so many controversial books on every kind of ecclesiastical +topic, and was so convinced that they were all convincing to all +sound minds, that it was difficult, while in the Kidderminster world, +to regard oneself, if not convinced, as having anything but a very +sound mind. + +So that it did feel like getting into a large room, to meet and +converse again with people who did not think Mr. Baxter's judgment, +moderate and wise as it doubtless was, the one final standard of +truth in the universe. Not, certainly, that London at that time was +a world free from debate and controversy of the fiercest kind. A +Commonwealth in which, during the eleven years of its existence, +thirty thousand controversial pamphlets of the fiercest and most +contradictory kind were battering each other, each regarded by its +author and his particular friends as absolutely convincing to all +sound minds, was not likely to be that. + +From our home, however, such debates were mostly absent. My father +fled from controversy to the Bible, and to the Society for the +promotion of the new experimental philosophy, which met at Gresham +College; the revelation of God in His Word and in His world. Aunt +Gretel had the happy exemption of a foreigner from our English +debates, political and ecclesiastical, and tranquilized herself at +all times by her knitting, her hymns, and the making of possets +acceptable to sick people of all persuasions. And my husband had +what he regarded as the advantage of differing on some theological +questions from the good men with whom he acted in religious work (he +having a leaning rather to Dr. Thomas Goodwin, in his "Redemption +Redeemed," than to Dr. Owen, or even to Mr. Baxter); so that he had +to avoid the intermediate debatable grounds, and keep to those +highest heights of adoration where Christianity is incarnate in +Christ, or to those lowly duties where it is embodied in kindnesses. +So much of his time, moreover, was spent in what the Protector vainly +endeavoured to persuade his Parliaments to keep to, namely, the "work +of healing and settling" that he had little left for the +"definitions" of all things in Church and State, into which those +unhappy Parliaments were so continually, to the Protector's vexation, +straying. + +Then there were the children, Maidie and Dolly, and the two boys who +came after them, renewing one by one, in their happy infancy, the +golden age; the joyous little ones, around whom it was manifestly our +duty to gather as many relics of Eden, and foretastes of the thousand +years of peace, as were to be had in a world where thirty thousand +fiery pamphlets were flying about. + +The spirit of Annis Nye, meantime, abode, listening and looking +heavenward, on lofty heights far above all debate, though ready for +any lowly service. And in a house in our garden, on the river bank, +enlarged for his accommodation, lived our High Church friend, Dr. +Rich, with his eleven children, his spirit also loftily looking down +on the strifes of the present, not from the heights of immediate +inspiration, but from those of history; while his eleven children, +lately orphaned of their mother, made no small portion of my world, +with its many interests and cares. + +So that, in spite of the wide divergences of judgment in our +household concerning matters political and ecclesiastical (perhaps +rather in consequence of the mutual self-restraint they rendered +necessary), our home came to be looked on by many as a kind of haven +where people might meet face to face on the common ground of humanity +and Christianity. + +The mere meeting face to face on common ground, if it be pure and +high, or helpful and lowly, the mere taking and giving the cups of +cold water in the Master's name, the mere looking into each others' +faces and grasping each others' hands as kindred, has in itself, I +think, something almost sacramental. How much, indeed, of the depth +and sacredness of the Highest Sacrament consists in such communion +union through what we are in Him instead of agglomeration through +what we think; union in Him who is to us all the Way, the Truth, the +Life, but of whom the best we can think is so dim, and poor, and low. + +In those years we learned to know and revere many whose memories (now +that so many of them are gone, and that we so soon must be going), +shining from the past we shared with them, throw a sacred yet +familiar radiance on the future we hope to share. + +Dr. Owen, coming now and then from his post as Vice-chancellor of +Oxford to preach before the Parliament on state occasions. + +Mr. John Howe, the Protector's chaplain, living on radiant lofty +heights, far above the thirty thousand controversial pamphlets, +himself a living temple of the living truth he adored. + +Colonel Hutchinson and Mistress Lucy, with that lofty piety of +theirs, which, as she said, "is the blood-royal of all the virtues." +He with his republican love of liberty, and stately chivalry of +character and demeanour: she with her pure and passionate love; with +her earnest endeavours to judge men and things by high impartial +standards; and her success in so far as that standard was embodied in +her husband. Much of their time, however, during the Commonwealth +they spent on the Colonel's estate, collecting pictures and +sculpture, planting trees, "procuring tutors to instruct their sons +and daughters in languages, sciences, music, and dancing, whilst he +himself instructed them in humility, godliness, and virtue." + +And Mr. John Milton, blinded to the sights of this lower world by his +zeal in writing that Defence of the English People which wakened all +Europe like a trumpet; and by his very blindness, it seemed, made +free of higher worlds than were open to common mortals. Whitehall, I +think, was not degraded by his dwelling there, nor its chambers made +less royal by his eyes having looked their last through those windows +on + + "Day, or the sweet approach of morn or even, + Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose, + Or flocks, and herds, and human face divine," + +before his + + .....light was spent, + Ere half his days, in this dark world and wide." + +For his life was indeed the pure and lofty poem he said the lives of +all who would write worthily must be. + +The Society of our Puritan London in those Commonwealth days was not +altogether rustical or fanatical. Discourse echoes back to me from +it which can, I think, have needed to be tuned but little higher to +flow unbroken into the speech of the City, where all the citizens are +as kings, and all the congregation seers and singers. + +The first public event after our return to London was the funeral of +General Ireton, Bridget Cromwell's brave husband, who had died at his +post in Ireland. + +He was buried in Henry the Seventh's Chapel. The concourse was +great. Dr. Owen preached the funeral sermon. There was no pomp of +funeral ceremonial, of organ-music or choir. The Puritan funeral +solemnities were the pomp of solemn words, and the eloquent music of +the truths which stir men's hearts. + +The text was, "But go thou thy way till the end be; for thou shalt +rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days." (Dan. xii. 13). + +"It is not the manner of God," Dr. Owen said, "to lay aside those +whom He hath found faithful in His service. _Men indeed do so_; but +God changeth not. + +"There is an appointed season wherein the saints of the most eminent +abilities, in the most useful employments, must receive their +dismission. There is a manifold wisdom which God imparteth to the +sons of men; there is a civil wisdom, and there is a spiritual +wisdom: both these shone in Ireton. + +"He ever counted it his wisdom to look after the will of God in all +wherein he was called to serve. For _this_ were his wakings, +watchings, inquiries. When that was made out, he counted not his +business half done, but even accomplished, and that the issue was +ready at the door. The name of God was his land in every storm; in +the discovery whereof he had as happy an eye, at the greatest seeming +distance, when the clouds were blackest and the waves highest, as any. + +"Neither did he rest here. Some men have wisdom to know things, but +not seasons. Things as well as words are beautiful in their time. +He was wise to discern the seasons. There are few things that belong +to civil affairs but are alterable upon the incomprehensible variety +of circumstances. He that will have the garment, made for him one +year, serve and fit him the next, must be sure that he neither +increase nor wane. Importune insisting on the most useful things, +without respect to alterations of seasons, is a sad sign of a narrow +heart. He who thinks the most righteous and suitable proposals and +principles that ever were in the world (setting aside general rules +of unchangeable righteousness and equity) must be performed as +desirable, because once they were, is a stranger to the affairs of +human kind. + +"Some things are universally unchangeable and indispensable: as that +a government must be. Some again are allowable merely on the account +of preserving the former principles. If any of them are out of +course, it is a vacuum in _nature politic_, which all particular +elements instantly dislodge and transpose themselves to supply. And +such are all forms of government among men. + +"In love to his people Ireton was eminent. All his pains, labour, +jeopards of life, and all dear to him, relinquishments of relatives +and contents, had sweetness of life from this motive, intenseness of +love to his people. + +"But fathers and prophets have but their season: they have their +dismission. So old Simeon professeth, _Nunc dimittis_. They are +placed of God in their station as a sentinel on his watch-tower, and +then they are dismissed from their watch. The great Captain comes +and saith, Go thou thy way; thou hast faithfully discharged thy duty; +go now to thy rest. Some have harder service, harder duty, than +others. Some keep guard in the winter, others in the summer. Yet +duty they all do; all endure some hardship, and have their appointed +season for dismission; and be they never so excellent in the +discharging of their duty, they shall not abide one moment beyond the +bounds which He hath set them who saith to all His creatures, 'Thus +far shall you go and no further.' + +"The three most eminent works of God in and about His children in the +days of old were His giving His people the law, and settling them in +Canaan; His recovering them from Babylon; and His promulgation of the +gospel unto them. In these three works he employed three most +eminent persons. Moses is the first, Daniel is the second, and John +Baptist is the third; and none of them saw the work accomplished in +which he was so eminently employed. Moses died the year before the +people entered Canaan; Daniel some few years before the foundation of +the temple; and John Baptist in the first year of the baptism of our +Saviour, when the gospel which he began to preach was to be published +in its beauty and glory. I do not know of any great work that God +carried out, the same persons to be the beginners and enders thereof. +Should He leave the work always on one hand, it would seem at length +to be the work of the instrument only. Though the people opposed +Moses at first, yet it is thought they would have worshipped him at +the last; and therefore God buried him where his body was not to be +found. Yet, indeed, he had the lot of most who faithfully serve God +in their generation--despised while they are present, idolized when +they are gone. + +"God makes room, as it were, in His vineyard for the budding, +flourishing, and fruit-bearing of other plants which He hath planted. + +"You that are employed in the work of God, you have but your allotted +season--your day hath its evening. You have your _season_, and you +have _but_ your season; neither can you lie down in peace until you +have some persuasion that your _work_ as well as your _life_ is at an +end. + +"Behold here one receiving his dismission about the age of forty +years; and what a world of work for God did he in that season. And +now rest is sweet to this labouring man. Provoke one another by +examples. Be diligent to pass through your work, and let it not too +long hang upon your hands; yea, search out work for God. You that +are entrusted with power trifle not away your season. Is there no +oppressed person that with diligence you might relieve? Is there no +poor distressed widow or orphan whose righteous requests you might +expedite and despatch? Are there no stout offenders against God and +man that might be chastised? Are there no slack and slow counties +and cities in the execution of justice that might be quickened by +your example? no places destitute of the gospel that might be +furnished? + +"God takes His saints away (among other reasons) to manifest that He +hath better things in store for them than the _best_ and _utmost_ of +what they can desire or aim at here below. He had a heaven for +Moses, and therefore might in mercy deny him Canaan. Whilst you are +labouring for a handful of _first-fruits_, He gives you the _full +harvest_. + +"You that are engaged in the work of God, seek for the reward of your +service _in the service itself_. Few of you may live to see that +beauty and glory which perhaps you aim at. God will proceed at His +own pace, and calls us to go along with Him; to wait in faith and not +make haste. Those whose minds are so fixed on, and swallowed up +with, some end (though good) which they have proposed to themselves, +do seldom see good days and serene in their own souls. There is a +sweetness, there is wages to be found in the work of God itself. Men +who have learned to hold communion with God in every work He calls +them out unto, though they never see the main harvest they aim at, +yet such will rest satisfied, and submit to the Lord's limitation of +their time. They bear their sheaves in their own bosom. + +"_The condition of a dismissed saint is a condition of rest_. Now +rest holds out two things to us; a freedom from what is opposite +thereunto, and something which satisfies our nature; for nothing can +rest but in that which satiates the whole nature of it in all its +extent and capacity. + +"They are at rest from sin, and from labour and travail. They sin no +more; they wound the Lord Jesus no more; they trouble their own souls +no more; they grieve the Spirit no more; they dishonour the gospel no +more; they are troubled no more with Satan's temptations, no more +with their own corruption; but lie down in a constant enjoyment of +one everlasting victory over sin. They are no more in cold +communion. They have not one thought that wanders from God to all +eternity. They lose Him no more. + +"There is no more watching, no more fasting, no more wrestling, no +more fighting, no more blood, no more sorrow. There tyrants pretend +no more title to their kingdom; rebels lie not in wait for their +blood; they are no more awakened by the sound of the trumpet, nor the +noise of the instruments of death; they fear not for their relations; +they weep not for their friends. The Lamb is their temple, and God +is all in all unto them. + +"Yet this cessation from sin and labour will not complete their rest; +something further is required thereto; even something to satisfy and +everlastingly content them. Free them in your thoughts from what you +please, without this they are not at rest. _God is the rest of their +souls_. Dismissed saints rest in the bosom of God; because in the +fruition of Him they are everlastingly satisfied, as having attained +the utmost end whereto they were created, all the blessedness whereof +they are capable. + +"Every man stands in a threefold capacity--natural, civil, religious. +And there are distinct qualifications unto these several capacities. +To the first are suited some seeds of those _heroical virtues_ as +courage, permanency in business. To the civic capacity, ability, +faithfulness, industry. In their religious capacity, men's peculiar +ornament lies in those fruits of the Spirit which we call Christian +graces. Of these, in respect of usefulness, there are three most +eminent, faith, love and self-denial. Now all these were eminent in +the person deceased. My business is not to make a funeral oration, +only I suppose that without offence I may desire that in courage and +permanency in business (which I name in opposition to that unsettled, +pragmatical, shuffling disposition which is in some men), in ability +for wisdom and counsel, in faithfulness to his trust and in his +trust, in indefatigable industry, in faith in the promises of God, in +love to the Lord Jesus and all His saints, in a tender regard to +their interest, delight in their society, contempt of himself and all +his for the gospel's sake, in impartiality and sincerity in the +execution of justice, that in these and the like things we may have +many raised up in the power and spirit wherein he walked before the +Lord and before this nation. This I hope I may speak without offence +here upon such an occasion as this. MY business being occasionally +to preach the Word, not to carry on a part of a funeral ceremony, I +shall add no more, but commit you to Him who is able to prepare you +for your eternal condition." + +Often I had longed, if only for once, to hear the organ rolling its +grand surges of music through the aisles of the Abbey. But when that +grave voice ceased, and left a hush through that great assembly, I +felt no music could be more worthy of the solemn place than those +nobly reticent words of lamentation and praise; nor could England +raise a nobler statue to any of her heroes than that Puritan picture +of a Christian statesman. + +Indeed, the public pomps of the Commonwealth which have engraven +themselves most deeply on my memory were of the funereal kind. + +In 1650, five years after Ireton's death, for once, by the +Protector's command, the dear, long-unfamiliar sound of the old +Prayer-book was heard in the Abbey, as the funeral service was read +over the remains of good Archbishop Usher, buried at the Protector's +expense in the great mausoleum of the nation and her kings. + +In November, 1654, three years after the funeral of Ireton, Mistress +Cromwell, the Protector's mother, was buried beside him among the +kings. + +She was ninety-four years of age. She died on the 15th of November. +A little before her death (we heard) she gave the Protector her +blessing, saying, "The Lord cause His face to shine upon you, and +comfort you in all your adversities, and enable you to do great +things for the glory of your most high God, and to be a relief unto +His people. My dear son, I leave my heart with thee. Good-night!" + +She, living wellnigh all those fifty-five years of his beside him, +knew well that his life had been no triumphal procession, but a +toilsome march and a sore battle, little indeed changed by the +battle-field being transferred from moors and hill-sides to palaces +and parliament-houses. At sound of a gun she was wont to tremble in +that stately home at Whitehall, fearing lest some of the many plots +of assassination had at last succeeded in proving to the assassin +that killing her son was no murder, And once at least every day she +craved to see him, if only to know that he lived. + +They laid her to rest reverently among the kings in Henry the +Seventh's Chapel. And so the consecrating presence of +tenderly-reverenced age passed from that English home, which during +the years of the Commonwealth was at the head of all the homes of the +land. + +And five years after came that last funeral, which was, indeed, the +funeral of the Commonwealth itself. + +These are the state ceremonies of the Commonwealth which have left +the deepest mark on my memory. Its thanksgivings for victories, its +inauguration, installation, and enthronization of the Lord Protector +in Westminster Hall were not without a certain sober republican +grandeur, nor did the ermine and the sceptre misbecome the true +dignity of his bearing; but they did not, I think, enhance it. +Clothes need some mystical links to the unseen and the past to make +them glorious; and Oliver certainly did not need clothes to make him +glorious. The brow, furrowed with thought for England, was his +crown; the sceptre seemed a bauble in the hand that had ruled so long +without it; and the robes of state that fitted him best were the +plain armour of the Ironsides. Roger, however, thought otherwise. +He would have had every symbol of the royalty within our "chief of +men" outwardly gathered around him, even to the crown and title of +king. Whatever may be the case in religion, in politics (he +thought), the common people are taught by ceremonial. As the +Protector said "The people love that they do know; they love +settlement and know names." If Oliver, he thought, had been +proclaimed king, no Stuart would have returned to proclaim him +traitor. + +Be that as it might, it was not done; and the omission seemed (to +many) to make the rest of the state ceremonials of the Commonwealth +ragged and incomplete. Crowned, Oliver might have become in the eyes +of the people King Oliver; uncrowned, he seemed but Mr. Cromwell of +Huntingdon, with a sceptre in his hand which did not belong to him. + +But after all, the great solemnities of the Commonwealth were the +sermons. Great sermons and great congregations to hear them. They +were our state-music, our military-music, our church-music, all in +one. The _Te Deum_ of our thanksgiving days for victories, our +coronation anthems, our requiems. + +The sermons which so moved the heart of Puritan England were no empty +sound of words harmoniously arranged,--a lower music, I think, than +that of any true musician;--for words have a higher sphere than mere +melodious tones; and, like all orders in creation, if they do not +rise to the height of their own sphere, fall below the sphere below +them. + +It was the eloquence of men speaking to men, of things which most +deeply concerned all men; of the ablest men in England speaking to +her ablest men; of the loftiest spirits in England speaking to all +that was loftiest in the spirit of man. + +Dr. Owen's appearances in London were only occasional. + +The sermons that come back on me across the years like the voice of a +great river resounding with deep even flow through all the petty or +tumultuous noises of the times, are those of Mr. John Howe, chaplain +to the Protector. + +He came to London as a country minister from his parish of +Torrington, somewhere about 1654, and went to hear the preaching in +Whitehall Chapel. But Oliver, "who generally had his eyes +everywhere," and whose eyes had such a singular faculty for seeing +men's capacity, discerned something more than ordinary in his +countenance, and sent to desire to speak with him after the worship +of God was over. The interview satisfied him he had not been +mistaken. The great heart that so singularly honoured the worth his +eyes were so quick to discern, whether those he honoured honoured him +or not; and the will so strong to bend all men's wills, would not +rest until he had induced the parson of Torrington, though somewhat +reluctantly, to become his own chaplain. + +The choice might reflect some light on the nature of the Protector's +own piety. + +There was abundance of vehement fiery eloquence to be had among the +Puritan preachers, and (I doubt not) there could have been found too +many flatterers. + +But Mr. Howe so little flattered the Protector, that he deliberately +preached against the doctrine of a particular persuasion in prayer, +which was one of the Protector's strongholds. + +And so far was his eloquence from being vehement, that its very glory +was a majestic evenness of flow, which, while it swept the whole soul +irresistibly on to his conclusion, seldom tossed it up and down with +those changeful heavings of emotion that are the luxuries of popular +orations. Any preacher who was less of a fiery declaimer and of a +fanatic, or less of a brilliant popular orator than John Howe, +Oliver's chosen chaplain, can, I think, scarcely be found in the +history of preaching. If he had a fault, it is the difficulty of +detaching any word, image, or pointed sentence from the grand sweep +of his argument sufficiently to give any conception of its power to +those who did not hear him. If his eloquence was a river, it was one +without the dash and sparkle of rapids and eddies, steadily deepening +and broadening, in a majestic current to its end. If it was a fire, +it was no mere spark or flame to make the heart glow for a moment, +but a steady furnace enkindling principles into divine affections. +If it was a flight, it was no mere darting hither and thither, as of +smaller birds; scarcely even the upward musical mounting of the lark +to descend on her nest; but the soaring of the eagle with his eye on +the sun. He strengthened you for duty by transporting you to the +divine spring of all duty. He strengthened you against earthly care +simply by lifting you above it to "the holy order of God." "Do not +hover as meteors; do not let your minds hang in the air in a +pendulous, uncertain, unquiet posture," he said; "a holy rectitude, +composure, and tranquillity in our life, carries with it a lively, +sprightly vigour. Our Saviour says that life consists not in things, +but in a good healthy internal habit of spirit. What a blessed +repose, how pleasant a vacancy of diseasing, vexatious thoughts, doth +that soul enjoy which gives a constant, unintermittent consent to the +divine government, when it is an agreed, undisputed thing, that God +shall always lead and prescribe, and it follow and obey. Discontent +proceeds from self-conceit, self-dependence, self-seeking, all which +despicable idols (or that one great idol _self_ thus variously +idolized) one sight of God would bring to nothing." + +He strengthened men for death, not by fortifying them against it as a +sleep, but by regarding life as the sleep and death the waking. "It +fares with the sluggish soul as if it were lodged in an enchanted +bed. So deep an oblivion hath seized it of its own country, of its +alliance above, of its relation to the Father and world of spirits, +it takes this earth for its home where 'tis both in exile and +captivity at once, as a prince stolen away in his infancy and bred up +in a beggar's shed. Being in the body, it is as with a bird that +hath lost its wings. The holy soul's release from its earthly body +will shake off this drowsy sleep. Now is the happy season of its +awaking into the heavenly vital light of God. The blessed morning of +the long-desired day hath now dawned upon it; the cumbersome +night-veil is laid aside, and the garments of salvation and immortal +glory are now put on." "The greatest enemy we have cannot do us the +despite to keep us from dying." To one whose spirit was thus itself +a living Temple, even the great Abbey seemed an earthly house. The +incense, the ritual, and the music of the heavenly city were around +Him. "The sacrifice of Christ," he said, "is of virtue to perfume +the whole world." + +Yet I feel that these extracts give as little idea of the power of +his preaching, as a phial of salt-water of the sea. You perceive +from it that the water of the sea is salt and clear, but of the sea +itself, heaving in multitudinous waves from horizon to horizon, you +have no more idea than before. + +The very titles of his books read like arguments of a divine poem--a +Paradise Lost and Regained. "The Living Temple;" "The Blessedness of +the Righteous;" "Of Delighting in God;" "The Redeemer's Tears wept +over lost Souls;" "The Love of God and our Brother;" "The Carnality +of Religious Contention;" "Of Reconciliation between God and Man;" +"The Redeemer's Dominion over the Invisible World." + +Far indeed his spirit dwelt above the small controversies of the +time, engaged in the great controversy of light against darkness. +"Holiness," he said, "is the Christian's armour, the armour of light: +strange armour that may be seen through." "A good man's armour is +that he needs none; his armour is an open breast. Likeness to God is +an armour of proof. A person truly like God is far raised above the +tempestuous stormy region, and converses where winds and clouds have +no place. Holy souls were once darkness, but now they are light in +the Lord--_darkness_, not in the dark, as if that were their whole +nature, and they were nothing but an impure mass of conglobated +darkness. So '_ye are light_,'--as if they were that and nothing +else. How suppose we such an entire sphere of nothing else but pure +light? What can raise a storm with it? A calm serene thing, +perfectly homogeneous, void of contrariety. We cannot yet say that +thus it is with holy souls, but thus it will be when they awake. +Glory is revealed to them, transfused through them; not a +_superficial skin-deep glory_, but a transformation, changing the +soul throughout; _glory, blessedness, brought home and lodged in a +man's own soul_." + +Blessedness, to Mr. Howe, consisted in godliness, and godliness +manifested itself in goodness--as high a conception of Christian +religion, I think, as has been realized before or since. His +learning was not as fragments of a foreign language, intertwined for +purposes of decoration with his own, but as a translation into the +language of day of the converse he had held, on the high places of +the earth, with his kindred among the lofty souls of the past, in the +language native to them all, concerning the infinite heavens above +them all. This was the kind of eloquence we listened to at Whitehall +and St. Margaret's during the days of the Commonwealth. And among +all the great Puritan preachers this was the one whom Oliver chose +for his chaplain. + +We never intruded ourselves on the Protector during his greatness. +There were so many to claim his notice then. And we needed it not; +having work enough to occupy us and means enough to do it, and +happiness enough in it, what with the sick and the prisons and the +children in the home. + +But Roger was always in his service, and he brought us word +continually what a burden and toil that rule was to the ruler. + +Above the noisy strife of parties, men like Howe could dwell in the +purer air; beneath it the people and the churches were silently +prospering. But Oliver's way lay through the thick of the strife, +with little intermission, from the beginning to the end. If ever "I +serve" was justly a prince's motto, it was his. "Ready to serve," as +he said, "_not as a king but as a constable_; if they liked it, often +thinking indeed that he could not tell what his business in the place +he stood in was, save that of a good constable set to keep the peace +of the parish." Oliver's parish (Roger said) being England with all +her parties, and Europe with her Protestants and Catholics, ready at +a word to fly on each other. He kept the peace of his parish well. +Others might concern themselves with the _well-being_ of the nation +(as he said)--"he had to consider its _being_." The ship which the +mixed crew of Anabaptists, Levellers, classical Republicans, and +Royalists, were debating in Parliament and out of it how to work +according to most perfect rules, had meantime _to be worked_, being +not in harbour but on the stormiest sea, amidst hostile fleets. + +Parliament after parliament met, debated, did nothing, and was +dissolved. But still the ship of the nation sailed majestically and +triumphantly on, breasting stormy waves and scattering hostile +fleets, with that one hand on the helm, and the eyes of that one man +on the stars and on the waves. + +Roger was full of hope throughout those years. The time must come, +he said, when the nation would see what the Protector was doing for +her. All Europe had seen it long. Ambassadors came from Spain, +France, Denmark, Sweden, Austria. + +All Europe felt England a power, and knew who made her so. England +herself could not fail to see it soon. Then, instead of taking her +greatness sullenly from Oliver's hands, she would acknowledge him as +the "single person" to whom the parliaments and people owed +allegiance--her sovereign by divinest right--suffer him to rule in +accordance with her ancient order instead of in spite of it--grant +what he passionately craved, the privilege of making her as free as +he had made her strong; rise herself to be the queen of the +Protestant nations. + +And then the glorious day would dawn, Roger thought, for England and +the world. What tender sweet hopes lay deep in his heart, as one of +the roses strewn by this Aurora, I knew well. What England and the +world said, one maiden's heart would surely be blind to no more! + +So the years passed on. Our fleets, with Blake in command, were +ranging the Mediterranean Sea, Rumours came of victories over Italian +and Mussulman, of compensation for wrong, of slaves set free. + +In the late king's reign the Barbary Pirates had carried off our +countrymen from our shores near Plymouth Sound. Under Oliver, our +fleets battered down the forts of the Pirates on their own shores, +and set the captives free. + +All nations courted his alliance. And from the plantations of New +England (through Mr. John Cotton and others) came joyful voices of +congratulation on the liberties and glories which these children of +Old England felt still to be theirs. + +All seemed advancing, Roger thought, like a triumph. Righteousness +springing out of the earth, Truth looking down from heaven--when +tidings burst upon us which stirred the heart of England to its +depths, from sea to sea. + +From the far-off valleys of the Alps of Piedmont came the cry of +wrong. How a whole race of our fellow-Protestants, "men otherwise +harmless, only for many years famous for embracing the purity of +religion," had been tortured, massacred, and driven from their homes, +to perish naked and starving on the mountains. + +Never, since the Irish massacre at the beginning of the Civil Wars, +had England been so moved with one overwhelming tide of indignation +and pity. But with the indignation at the Irish massacre meaner +feelings of selfish terror had been mingled. This wrong touched +England only in her noblest part. For the time we seemed to reach +the depths beneath all our divisions and turmoils. England felt +herself one, in this common sympathy; and what was more, the +Protestant Church glowed into a living unity through this holy fire +of indignation and pity, which, being true, failed not to burst forth +in generous deeds of succour. "For," as Milton wrote, "that the +Protestant name and cause, although they differ among themselves in +some things of little consequence, is nevertheless the same, the +hatred of our adversaries alike incensed against Protestants very +easily demonstrates." + +The massacre began in December, 1654, that merciless "slaughter on +the Alpine mountains cold." Six regiments were engaged in it, three +of them the Irish "Kurisees," from whom the Protector had delivered +Ireland. + +It was the 3rd of June before the cry of distress reached Oliver at +Whitehall. The hills had been flashing it for five months to heaven. +For five months our brethren and their families had been wandering +destitute, afflicted, tormented, on the mountains above their ruined, +desolated homes. + +Much frightful wrong had been wrought irrevocably, past all the +remedies of earth. What remedy was still possible there was no delay +in finding, and no lack of generous tenderness in applying. + +The Protector at once gave £2,000 from his private purse. A day of +humiliation was appointed throughout the country, "such a fast as God +hath chosen, to undo the heavy burdens, to break every yoke, to deal +bread to the hungry, and cover the naked." Thirty-seven thousand +pounds were contributed to the suffering brethren in the Valleys. +Secretary Milton wrote six State letters in the Protector's name to +the princes of Europe and the Switzer Republic. Oliver showed +plainly to France that he cared more for the righting of this wrong +than for the most profitable alliances in the world. The Catholic +world perceived for once that Protestantism meant more than mere +doubt and denial, that it meant a common faith and a common life. + +And as far as might be the wrong was set right, the exiles were +relieved from their destitution and restored to their homes. + + +It was something to be an Englishwoman then. + +Roger was appointed to accompany the envoys sent by the Protector to +Paris. He came to take leave of us with a face all alit with hope. + +"England is beginning to acknowledge her deliverer," he said. "All +Europe is flashing back on her his kingly likeness, as if from a +thousand mirrors. She must acknowledge him at last." + +And with a farewell which had the joyous ring of a welcome in it, he +went. + +The joyful confidence of his tones and hope made them linger on my +heart long, like music. "She must acknowledge him at last." They +mingled with my dreams, and woke with me when I woke, but with a +double meaning subtilely intertwined into them; as if England were +personated, as in some royal festive masque, in the form of Lettice +Davenant, no more weeping and downcast, as when I had seen her last, +but her bright face, and her dear joyous eyes full of serene +determination and unquenchable hope. + + +LETTICE'S DIARY. + +"_Paris, Twelfth Night_, 1655.--My birth-day. More than four years +since I wrote a word in this book. The pages begin to look faded, +like my youth. I scarcely know why I have left such an interval, +except that it is so difficult not to look on the whole of this life +of exile as an interval; a blank space, or an impertinent episode in +the history of life, which, by-and-by, when the true history begins +again, we just tear out or seal together. + +"All this time I have heard nothing from the old friends in England, +except two letters; one from Mistress Dorothy, wherein she gave me a +terrible picture of the wrong-doings and thinkings of certain +religious people of an entirely new kind, whom she calls 'Quakers.' +It seems that Olive brought one to her house at Kidderminster, which +Mistress Dorothy thought a great wrong. As far as I can make out, +Olive has no thought of becoming a Quaker; nor can I find out +distinctly what the Quakers are or do, except that every one seems +enraged against them, and that on that ground Olive and Dr. Antony +took this Quaker maiden under their wing. Poor sweet Olive, she +always had a way of getting entangled into defending people under +general ban; from witches downward or upward. I suppose Annis Nye is +Olive's present Gammer Grindle. In which case, Olive at least seems +little changed. But that letter was written before the Battle of +Worcester. From Mistress Dorothy's account they appear to be a new +kind of sect, with a new elaborate ceremonial or ritual, to which +they adhere very strictly. Mistress Dorothy speaks of their refusing +to take off their hats, and to bow or courtesy. This must evidently +be a ritual observance; because people would scarcely be sent to +prison simply for keeping on their hats and not courtesying. + +"Mistress Dorothy spoke, too, by the way, of Olive's two children, +Maidie and the babe. + +"The babe must be now a prattling child of five, and Maidie probably +a little person invested with the solemn responsibilities of the +eldest sister. I fancy her with Olive's fair, calm face, thinking it +her greatest honour to share her mother's household occupations, or +to run by her side with a basket of food to supplement Dr. Antony's +medicines. I fancy Mistress Gretel smiling at the babes, and letting +them entangle her knitting with the feeblest of remonstrances, and in +a serene way undermining all Olive's 'wholesome' discipline. I fancy +Mr. Drayton a little older, a little graver, not quite satisfied with +the fruits of the war, wishing Mr. Hampden back, and Lord Falkland, +and England as they might have made it; and taking refuge with the +stars and his grand-children. I fancy--till I am angry with myself +for fancying anything, as if it made shadows out of realities. For +they live; _they live_, in the old solid living England. If any are +shadows, it is we, poor helpless, voiceless exiles on this shadowy +shore; not they. And then I begin to think not of what I fancy, but +what I know. I know they are good, and kind, and godly still. And I +know--yes, I know--they have not forgotten; they still love and think +of me. + +"Only sometimes it troubles me a little that they are going on +thinking of me as the young Lettice they knew so long ago; which is +scarcely the same as thinking of the middle-aged Lettice Davenant who +has reached her twenty-ninth birth-day to-day. + +"I think sometimes now of the scorn with which I was wont to speak of +middle-states of things, saying there was no poetry in mid-day, +mid-summer, middle-station, middle-age. And often and often the +answer comes cheerily back, how _he_ spoke of 'manhood and womanhood, +with their dower of noble work, and strength to do it;' and how he +could not abide 'to hear the spring-tide spoken pulingly of, as if it +faded instead of ripening into summer; and youth, as if it set +instead of dawned into manhood.' 'It was but a half-fledged poetry,' +he said, 'which must go to dew-drops and rosy morning clouds for its +similes and could see no beauty in noon-tide with its patient toil or +its rapturous hush of rest.'--It comes back to me like an +invigorating march music, now that the joyous notes of the reveille +have died away, and the vesper hymns are not yet ready, and the march +of noon-tide life has fairly begun. + +"What, then, makes evening and morning, spring and autumn, the +delight of poets? The light then blossoms or fades into colour. The +light itself then is a fair picture to look at. At noon it sinks +deeper no longer on the surface of clouds, but into the chalices of +flowers and into the heart of fruits; it is painting pictures on the +harvest-fields and orchards; it is ripening and making the world +fair, and enabling us to see it. It is light not to look at, but to +work by. Its beauty is in making things beautiful. And so I think +it is with middle-age. Its beauty is not in itself; but in loving +thought for others, and loving work for others. Looking at ourselves +in middle-life, we see only the glow faded, the dewy freshness +brushed away. Therefore we must not look at ourselves, but at the +work the Master gives us to do, the brothers and sisters the Father +gives us to love. In Olive's heart, no doubt, the thought of youth +passing away scarcely arises. She sees her children growing around +her, and works and plans for them, and counts the hours again as +morning, not as evening hours, renewing her life in the morning of +theirs. And although that lot is not mine, I have scarcely more +temptation to 'talk pulingly of morning fading into noon' than she. +Madame la Mothe takes me close to her heart. With her I am her +friend's child. Then these revenues which come to us so much more +regularly than to most of the Cavaliers, give us so many means of +helping others, that this alone is an occupation. Especially as +these revenues are, after all, not unlimited, and my father and +Walter believe they are (as the wants of the Cavaliers certainly +are), so that it requires some planning and combining to make things +go as far as they can. Which in itself is a great occupation to +Barbe and me, and makes our daily house-keeping as interesting as a +work of charity. And since the English Service has been prohibited +at the Louvre, as it has been since the Battle of Worcester, I have +some happy work in a kind of little school of young English girls, +amongst whom it is sweet to do what I can, that when they go back, +the Holy Scriptures and the prayers of the dear old Prayer-book may +not be unfamiliar to them. + +"Then my father is wonderfully forbearing with me. For it has vexed +him that I could not listen to some excellent Cavaliers, who wished +for our alliance. + +"Madame la Mothe also sometimes lectures me a little on this score +with reference to a nephew of hers. But as the project was primarily +hers and not his, this little proposal was much easier to decline. +Only sometimes she shakes her head and says,-- + +"'There has been a history, my poor child! Every woman's heart has +its history. But heaven forbid that I should seek to penetrate into +thy secret. Yet thou art not like thy mother in all things. She +suffered. Thou wilt conquer. Her eyes were as those of Mater +Dolorosa by the Cross. Thine are as those of Regina Cœli above +the storms.'" + +"And I cannot tell her. Because I can never look on that love as a +history. I know so well he could not change. It is scarcely +betrothal, for there is neither promise nor hope. It is simply +belonging to each other in life and in death. + +"Then sometimes she smiles and kisses me and says, 'There is some +little comfort even in thy being of "the religion." On that rock of +thine, no torrent of Port-Royalist eloquence will sweep thee away +from us into a convent. And for the rest, God is merciful; and +having made islands, it is possible He has especial dispensations +suited to islands.'" + +"For Madame la Mothe has entirely relinquished my conversion. Seeing +that I can honour the ladies of Port Royal from the bottom of the +heart, without being attracted to Port Royal, she has given me up. + +"She says I have no restless cravings, no void to fill, and it is to +the restlessness of the heart that the repose of religion appeals. + +"In one way she is right. Thank God she is right. Or rather my +whole heart is one great craving unfathomable void. But Christianity +fills it. Christ fills it. He Himself; satisfying every aspiration, +meeting every want, being all I want. Pitying, forgiving, loving, +_commanding_ me. The commanding sometimes most satisfying of all. +Always, always; all through my heart. Redeemer, that is much; +Master, that (afterwards) is almost more. Father! that is all. + +"There have been sorrows. After Worcester, my father was so terribly +cast down and gentle. I remember it was almost a relief the first +time he was really a little angry after that; although it was with me +he was angry; and quite a relief to hear him begin to storm at the +French Court again, when they suppressed our English Service at the +Louvre, and did what they could with any civility to suppress or +dismiss us, and began to pay court to the Arch-Traitor. + +"Since then the success of the Usurper in making England great, and +the baseness of some of the attempts to assassinate him (not +discouraged, alas, by some of our Court)! have strained my father's +loyalty to the utmost. + +"But the sorrow is Walter; the wrong which sometimes makes us ready, +in desperation, to pay our allegiance anywhere but there whence the +evil came, is the sore change in him. We made some sacrifices in old +times to the royal cause. But what were poor Dick, and Robert, and +George, slain on the field, or even Harry laying down his life at +Naseby, or even that precious mother stricken into heaven by his +death, compared with a life poisoned in its springs like Walter's at +this selfish wicked Court? All the fair promise of his youth turned +into corruption; his very heart slain! + +"Our martyred king required the lives of our dearest, and they were +given willingly for him. But this king takes their souls, +themselves, their life of life, not as a living sacrifice, but to be +trampled, and soiled, and crushed in the dust and mire of sin, till +their dear familiar features are scarcely to be distinguished by +those who love them best. + +"The gladness of heart my mother delighted in changed into a fickle +irritability, or frozen into mockery at all sacred things human or +divine. The generous spirit degraded into mere selfish lavishness, +caring not at what cost to others it buys its wretched pleasures. + +"And then the miserable reactions of regret and remorse which I used +to rejoice in, until I learned to know they were the mere irritable +self-loathing of exhausted passion, as little moral as when (at other +times) the same irritation turned against my father or me instead of +against himself. Until at last I dare not profane the sacred names +of mother and of God, by using them as a kind of magic spell to +unseal the springs of maudlin sentimental tears. Oh, how bitter the +words look! Walter, Walter, my brother! tenderly committed by my +mother to me, living in the house with us day by day, yet farther +off--more out of reach (it seems) of pleading or prayer than those +who lie on the cold slopes of Rowten Heath and Naseby! Is there no +weapon in God's armoury to reach thy heart? Good Mistress Gretel +used to say God had so many weapons we knew not of in His +storehouses. In mine, alas, there seem none; none except going on +loving. And perhaps after all that is the strongest in His. + +"Going on loving. Yes; our Lord surely did that, does that. When +'He turned to the woman' in Simon's house, it was not the first time +He had so turned to her. Not the first. How many times from the +first! Yet at last she turned and came and looked on Him. And she +was forgiven. And in loving Him a new fountain of purity was opened +in her heart, the only purity worth the name, the purity of love; the +purity not of ice but of fire. Yes; in Him there is the possibility +of restoration. + +"But, oh, for these desecrated wasted years, for the glory of the +prime turned into corruption, for all that might have been and never +can be, for this one irrevocable life ebbing, ebbing so fast away, +for the terrible possibility of there being no restoration. For some +looked, and listened, and longed, but never came! + +"_May_.--Barbe came into my chamber this morning, weeping and +wringing her hands. + +"'Ah, mademoiselle!' she said; 'another St. Bartholomew--a second St. +Bartholomew!'" + +"'Have they risen against the Protestants in Paris?' I said. And my +first thought was of Walter,--a wild thought, whether this might be +the angel's sword to drive him back into the fold. If we were to be +hunted hither and thither, who could say but in the severe +destitution of some den or cave of refuge, or even in the prison of +the Inquisition, sacred old words might come back to him, and he +might turn and be saved? And then another flash of thought! If we +were seized as Protestants, England would rise; Cromwell, Englishman +and Protestant that he was, would demand us back. We should no more +be Royalist and Rebel, but all English and Protestant; and return to +England, to Netherby, and Walter with us, and a new life begin. Wild +hopes, flashing through my mind between my question and Barbe's +answer, delayed, as it was, by her tears. + +"'Not in Paris yet, mademoiselle; that is to come. No doubt, the +tyrants will not end where they began. It is the people of the +valleys--the Vaudois--men of the religion, before France knew what +the religion was. My mother's kindred came thence,--quiet, loyal +peasants, tilling their poor patches of field and vineyard among the +savage mountains. The Duke of Savoy would have them all foreswear +the religion in three days. They held firm. He sent six +regiments--herds of monsters, wild beasts, among the people. They +tortured, killed, wrought horrors I cannot name, but which those +faithful men and women had to bear.' And her sobs choked her words; +until by degrees she told me all she knew of the dreadful story of +outrage and wrong. + +"'And is there none to help?' I said. + +"'There is none;--unless it be this Mr. Cromwell,' she said, with a +little hesitation, knowing how abhorred the name was amongst us. +'These poor, exiled, outraged Christians have appealed to him.' + +"_June_ 8.--My father says all the world is ablaze about this letter +of Mr. John Milton, the Usurper's Latin secretary, concerning these +persecuted exiles from the valleys. Its words are very strong. It +seems not unlikely the French Court may be moved to interfere an +their behalf. 'It is some comfort,' said my father, 'to see that the +old country has a voice which must be listened to, even though she +speaks through the mouth of this murderous Usurper.' + +"_June_ 9.--My father came in, with his eyes enkindled with a look of +triumph such as I had not seen in them for years. + +"'We must have a rejoicing, Lettice, cost what it may. There is no +help for it, but an English gentleman's heart must be glad at such +news! Robert Blake has been pounding them right and left--Pope and +Turk, Duke and Dey. The Blakes of Somersetshire--a good old family: +I knew them well. The English fleet calls at Leghorn, and the Pope +and his Italians eagerly grant whatever they demand. The English +fleet calls at Tunis, demanding justice from the Dey and his pirates. +The Dey refuses: Blake batters down his forts, and burns his fleet in +the harbour. The Dey will not refuse us our rights again. The world +begins to know what the name of an Englishman means. Already these +French courtiers practise a little civility. The very rascal boys in +the streets seem less impudent. We must have a merry-making, +Lettice. What can we do? At home we would have all the village to a +feast, set all the ale-barrels flowing, and all the bells in the +country ringing. But here the people, poor half-starved creatures, +drink nothing but vinegar. And as to these everlasting bells, that +are always dropping and trickling, no one knows why; it would do +one's heart good if one could wake them up for once, and set them +free all together, to burst out in the torrent of a grand old English +peal. But we cannot. Who can we give a feast to, Lettice? One +cannot exactly have a Cavalier dinner, because it might look like +celebrating the victory of the Usurper. Yet somebody or other must +be made the merrier, that the old country has done such a good stroke +of work. Whom can we have?' + +"I could think of no one but Barbe, her father and mother, and the +seven hungry little brothers and sisters she helped to support. +Accordingly the next day we made them a supper in honour of the +victory over the Turks, an attention which seemed to gratify our +guests much, although my father was not a little dissatisfied at +having to entertain guests on what he scornfully termed 'broth, +vinegar, and sugar-plums.' But I think to the end Barbe and her +family remained in a very misty state of mind as to what they were to +rejoice about; and but for my father's imperfect acquaintance with +the French language, I am afraid the closing speech of Barbe's +father, who was an old gentleman with political theories, and of a +lofty and florid style of eloquence, might have caused an explosion. +For the point of it was: + +"'Excellent Monsieur and amiable Mademoiselle, your country is a +great country; though sometimes to us Frenchmen a little difficult to +understand. No doubt, this Monseigneur Cromwell has not the +advantage of a descent as pure as could be wished; but he has the +advantage of making himself understood in all languages. The Turks +seem to have understood Mr. Blake. There is, also, Mr. Milton, who +writes Latin with the elegance of the renowned Tully. The Duke of +Savoy will have to understand him. The poor exiled Vaudois are to be +restored to their valleys. Monseigneur Cromwell has insisted on it. +He has also sent two thousand pounds of his own for their relief, and +your nation has added more than thirty thousand;--a sum scarcely to +be calculated by simple people. It is a pity Monseigneur should be +out of the legitimate line of your country's kings. But such changes +must happen at times in dynasties. Our own has changed more than +once. And, no doubt, your magnanimous nation understands her own +affairs, and ere long will arrange herself to the satisfaction of all +parties. Monsieur and mademoiselle, I thank you in the name of my +family. Such hospitality is a proof of a tender and generous heart, +worthy of the great nation which has sent this princely succour to +the oppressed.' + +"'What does he say, Lettice?' whispered my father. + +"'That England is a great nation,' I replied; 'and that it is a pity +Oliver Cromwell was not of the house of Stuart.' + +"For a moment my father's eyes flashed; but then, shaking his head +compassionately, he only said: 'Of course, these poor foreigners +cannot be expected to understand our politics. We must make +allowances, Lettice; we must make allowances. Every man cannot, +after all, be born an Englishman.' + +"_June_ 10.--The meaning of Barbe's father's speech is plain. The +Usurper has sent an Embassy Extraordinary to the French Court and to +Savoy, and all the redress he demands for the Vaudois is to be made. +They are to be restored to their mountain homes, and protected from +future ill usage. He styles himself 'Oliver, Protector.' The poor +Vaudois, at least, are likely to think the title not undeserved. + +"_June_ 11.--My father says Roger is here. If any one in the world +could help Walter, he might. Walter has been terrible lately. His +reckless, mocking ways drive my father wild. He storms in righteous +anger. Walter recriminates with cool, reckless jests. My father +commands him to go. Walter goes; does not come back for days. My +father grows more and more restless and wretched during his absence; +reproaches himself; taps at my door at night, and says: 'Lettice, I +shall never rest any more. I have driven the lad to destruction. I +will go and seek him.' In a few hours he returns with Walter, +destitute and affectionate. He returns as a prodigal; but, alas! not +come to himself; aggrieved against the husks--against the beggarly +citizens, who would not give him any--but chiefly against the father, +who, having given him his own portion, refused him his brother's. +And so, for the hundredth time, we welcome him, weep over him, make +much of him, and provide him with such best robes and portions of our +living as we can possibly spare. And in a day or two he meets his +old associates, has some good-natured message from the king, and, +before long, is drawn off into the old tide of riotous living. Away +from us, heart and soul, in the far country, where we at the old home +are mere shadows to him. We mere shadows to him; and he the core of +our hearts to us! + +"I feel that these tender changes of feelings of my father's, the +very anger springing from affection, and the affection making him +repent of his just anger as of a sin, are not good for Walter. I +cannot help, sometimes, telling him what sacrifices my father makes +for him; how ungrateful and unjust he is in return. But he merely +laughs, and talks as if women were creatures with quite another +edition of the Ten Commandments from men; or, sometimes, he says my +Puritan friends have taken the spirit out of me; or that I should +have married, and then I should have understood the world a little, +and had something else to do than to educate my brothers. But when +he says such things to me, he is always, or often, sorry afterwards, +and tries to expiate them by some little extra gift or attention. + +"And often my father also is vexed rather with me than with Walter, +when he and Walter have differed. He seems to think I ought in some +way to have made life more cheerful to them both. But this I know he +does not mean. Such words are only as an inarticulate cry of pain. +He means it no more than he means what he says far oftener and more +vehemently, that he will never waste another groat, nor hazard a drop +of blood again, for the heartless, faithless family ('Scottish and +French not English,' saith he, in his bitterest moments), which fate +has smitten England with; when I know that, at the next glimpse of a +hope of Restoration, he would spend his fortune to the uttermost +farthing, and his blood to the last drop, to see the young king enjoy +his own again. + +"_June_ 12th.--We have met, Roger and I, for a few minutes, but those +minutes, seemed to have bridged over all the years between, and it is +as if our lives had been lived side by side all the time, Yet we said +scarcely a connected sentence that I can recall. + +"It was in one of the little tumults which now and then arise in the +narrow streets out of disputes for precedence. + +"I was in Madame la Mothe's coach, when we met a coach which happened +to belong to a seigneur, whose lands are close to Madame la Mothe's +in the country. Neither of the coachmen would give way and back his +horses. It was a rivalry of centimes. As happens in so many +contests, the immediate interests of the chiefs were lost sight of in +the vehemence of their followers. Madame la Mothe and I were left +solitary and uneasy in the coach, while the servants contended for +our dignity in the street. At length the tumult of voices grew +fierce, the hoofs of the horses clattered on the stones as the +postillions urged them with a defiant crack of their whips, and it +seemed as if the two coaches and their inmates were to charge each +other bodily, as if we had been batteries or battalions. + +"'There will be bloodshed,' exclaimed Madame la Mothe, 'bloodshed for +a title, for my title!' and pushing open the door, she sprang on the +pavement, and threw herself among the combatants with words of peace. + +"The lady in the other coach seeing her descend, did the same. +Advancing rapidly towards each other they made reverences to each +other. + +"Madame la Mothe held out her hands. 'Let us make a compromise, +madame,' she said; 'we will both reascend one coach with my young +friend, Let it be yours. We will then proceed together, while my +coach retires. Bloodshed will be avoided. The loyal rivalry of our +people will be satisfied. Your side will gain the victory, but it +will be in my service.' + +"The ladies embraced, and hand in hand entered the other coach. The +retainers shouted long life to both the illustrious houses; and the +little drama was ending in a general embrace, when an obstacle +presented itself in the determination of one of Madame la Mothe's +horses, which absolutely refused to sacrifice his own sense of +dignity by retreating. + +"The perplexity was great when Madame la Mothe, turning to me, +exclaimed, 'My child, you will excuse my making you the victim of a +slight _ruse de guerre_, to avoid wounding the honour of these +excellent people. We will make it a question of national courtesy.' +And having obtained the other lady's consent, leaning from the +window, she said to one of the young gentlemen in attendance, in a +voice that all round might hear: 'See, this young lady is of a noble +English house, in exile for loyalty to the unfortunate king. All +noblesse yields to noblesse sacrificing itself for royalty. Conduct +Mademoiselle Davenant, I pray you, to my carriage, aid let us retire +before her.' + +"I wad being reconducted to Madame la Mothe's carriage, pale, perhaps +a little anxious, for there were murmurs of discontent among the +retainers of the adverse company, when suddenly Roger appeared before +me, and in a moment my hand was in his before I knew how, and I was +alone in the carriage, slowly advancing, while he walked beside the +window. + +"'A friend of mademoiselle's father! Move forward!' he said to the +attendants, in slightly broken French, with that quiet expectation of +obedience which always gave credentials to his commands. He was +obeyed; and we moved slowly on. + +"'You excuse me?' he said to me. His hand was on the edge of the +window. 'I heard your name, and saw you looking alarmed, and before +I had time to question my right to do it, I found myself taking care +of you.' + +"He said no more. And I said nothing. It was one of those moments +which seemed not to belong to the hour but to the ages; because ore +does not think of looking backward or forward while they last, the +rest they bring is so complete. + +"But as we came to the end of the narrow street, and were about to +turn into a broader place, there was again a little tumult which +delayed us. Looking out, I saw it was caused by a company of young +cavaliers arrogantly pushing the crowd aside. Among them I saw the +faces of one or two whom I recognized as friends of Walter's, and I +thought I caught a glimpse of Walter himself. + +"Then I forgot everything but Walter, the longing I had so often had +that he could know Roger and the possibility of Roger saving him. + +"'Roger,' I said, 'you remember Walter the youngest of us, the boy my +mother thought so much of. Those are some of our king's courtiers. +They are Walter's friends. They are bad friends. They are ruining +him for life and for ever. I have thought sometimes if you could +have been his friend, it might have been different.' + +"'I will do all what I can, Lettice,' he said, and that was all. But +his 'what I can,' and his 'Lettice,' are volumes that need no +commentary. + +"Madame la Mothe re-appeared. + +"I introduced Roger as best I could. + +"She lavished thanks on him, and kept him some little time in +conversation, while the men were setting something right about the +harness. + +"But he replied only in monosyllables. + +"For some time after he had taken leave we drove on in silence. + +"I was thinking whether I had done right. In committing my brother +to Roger had I not, as it were, made him my knight, set him forth on +a sacred enterprise for my sake, which he might interpret into an +atonement for that terrible deed which separated us? + +"That terrible deed which all the blood in the world, and all the +good deeds in the world cannot expiate, which nothing but repentance +can blot out! And Roger will never repent. + +"They came sweeping back on my heart with his voice, all the old +familiar sacred recollections, my mother's affection for him, the +touch of her hand clasping ours, the sound of her voice blessing us. +And far away, like a ghost, at cock-crowing, glided that dreadful +scaffold. 'Politics!' did not every one say; 'what have women to do +with politics?' + +"And after all, what had Roger to do with that terrible deed? He had +sat near on horseback, as a soldier of Parliament, while it was done. +As a soldier of the Parliament, what could he do otherwise? As a +man, would he not rather have risked his life to save the royal +sufferer's life? All the consequences of rebellion are involved in +the first act of rebellion. War means life or death, victory or +death to all involved. All the terrible results were unfolded in the +first fatal lifting up of the rebel standard at Edgehill; a shot +might have ended His Majesty's life then as easily as the axe years +afterwards. Roger's loyalty is to England, and, for her sake, to +whomsoever he believed will rule and serve her best. That first act +of disloyalty once committed, in the choice of a wrong leader, the +more loyal the character the more disloyal must be the acts ever +after. It was Roger's fatal hereditary misbelief which had enlisted +him in Cromwell's army. And that my mother knew, and knowing, had +sanctioned his love. But once enlisted, it was the very loyalty of +heart which would have led him to die with Montrose for the king's +cause, however hopeless, which had lead him thus to guard the king's +scaffold, however he hated to be there. For I know he did hate to be +there! If he would but once confess that his heart had bled at the +sight, as I am sure it did! But I knew too well how that fatal +loyalty of nature which had prevented his resisting the worst deed of +his traitorous leader, would keep his lips sealed for ever from +disclaiming his share in it, when done. + +"But if I knew his heart, ought I not to accept the reverent pity +which I knew must have moved him, and made his presence at the +martyrdom a torture to him, in place of any mere words which a heart +less true than his would have uttered so easily? Indeed, whether I +accepted it or not, had not it been already understood and accepted +above? As the mistakes of Port Royal were understood and forgiven, +and of Aunt Dorothy, and, as we trust, our own mistakes will be. + +"Then came the thought,-- + +"'You are getting sophistical. Right and wrong are right and wrong +for all and for ever. If you try to put yourself into the place, and +feel the temptations of every criminal, as he feels them, you will +end in condemning no crime.' + +"Thus as I sat silent by Madame la Mothe's side, while in a few +moments all those arguments rushed in conflict through my heart, +there was anything but silence within. + +"At last Madame la Mothe spoke. Very quietly she laid her hand on +mine, and without looking at me, said,-- + +"'My child, forgive me. I shall never ask what your secret is again, +nor wonder why you keep your heart sealed like the doors of Port +Royal.' + +"'It is no secret, madame,' I said. 'We were betrothed by my +mother's sanction. Only this dreadful war has separated us.' + +"'Your young Cavalier is not on the king's side?' she said. 'It is a +pity. He has the manners of the ancient chivalry. Deferential and +stately, his politeness has something at once protecting and lofty in +it, as if he were a king, and all women as queens to him. Alas, for +these English politics and these consciences!' + +"'It is not politics that separate us, madame,' I said, almost +mechanically; 'it is the king's death.' + +"'Surely the young Cavalier was too noble to be concerned in that!' +she said. + +"'He was a soldier of the Commonwealth, madame,' I said, 'and as a +soldier had to obey.' + +"I found myself defending him in spite of myself. + +"'The king's death was not the work of the soldier, was it?" she +said, 'but of the headsman.' + +"'The soldiers guarded the scaffold,' I said. + +"'This young Cavalier was among those who guarded the scaffold,' she +said. 'Was that all? Being a soldier, what would you have had him +do? Surely there is absolution on earth and in heaven for such a +mistake as that.' + +"'He does not repent, madame.' + +"'Ah, my child,' she said, 'see what it is to be a Protestant; you +have to be your own Supreme Tribunal, even when your conscience is on +the Judgment-seat, and your own heart at the bar, to be broken by the +sentence. Now, if you would only believe the Pope and the Church, +whatever the unavoidable pain of the sentence, you would at all +events escape the torture of at once inflicting and enduring it.' + +"'Alas, madame,' I said, 'can the sisters of Port Royal escape the +torture of being their own tribunal? Can they believe a fact is a +fact because a Pope says it? They distinguish, indeed, between fact +and right; but are not rights really but facts of a higher sphere, if +we only knew them? And as unalterable? We only want to know what is +right, madame. It seems to me no decision on earth, or in heaven, +can make a thing right, any more than it makes it true.' + +"'My poor child,' she said tenderly, 'heaven guide you. Only take +care your heart does not get into the judgment-seat, and persuade +your conscience that the very anguish of the sentence is a proof of +its justice. Noble hearts have made such mistakes ere now. One, I +think, very dear to thee and to me.' + +"She was silent some minutes, and then said in a more cheerful tone,-- + +"'He was silent, this young Cavalier. His character is perhaps +rather grave?' + +"'It is a way of all the men of our nation who are worth anything, +madame,' I said. 'Your countrymen have a natural eloquence. Feeling +enkindles them into speech. With us it oftener fuses men into +silence. An Englishman who has no dumbness in him is not to be +trusted.' + +"She smiled. + +"'Ah, my friend,' she said, 'if I defend, you attack; if I attack, +you defend. I will leave you to defend your own cause against +yourself.'" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +OLIVE'S RECOLLECTIONS. + +Roger brought back from Paris an account of the life led by the son +of the late king and his companions, that might perhaps have +enfeebled Aunt Dorothy's prayers for his restoration, could she have +believed it, which, however (having her belief much under the control +of her will), she doubtless never would, on any evidence we could +have brought. Of the Davenants he said little. But he had seen +them, and from his tone I judged that the intercourse had done more +to cheer than to sadden him. Sir Walter's face, he thought, looked +somewhat lined with care; but, as far as I could gather, he saw no +change in Lettice. To him she was the same he had parted from seven +years before, the same he had held in his heart all the seven years +through. + +"Was she looking older?" I asked. + +"In one way, not an hour," he said; "in another seven years." + +"Paler?" + +He could not tell; "her colour always came and went like sunshine; +like her smile." + +"As loyal as ever?" + +"To the late king, and to royalty; yes." + +"Graver?" + +"They spoke of grave things. He thought, with all the old +changefulness in her countenance, the calm beneath seemed deeper." + +"Then she must be fairer than ever?" + +"He thought not. She was the same." + +And to him that was evidently the utmost he desired. If she had in +any way changed, it had only been as he had changed, keeping parallel +with him; therefore from him evidently no more was to be learned. +Yet something in his interview had evidently strengthened him, like a +new dawn of hope. Sir Walter, no doubt, would not hear of alliance +with an adherent of "the Usurper;" yet he accepted, with scarcely +disguised triumph, the glory England had won under the Usurper. A +little more experience of what the Court of the young king was like +to be; a little more proof of what free England could be; a little +more of the hallowing touch of time, on the new Power's new glories; +perhaps the Title belonging to the Power, once boldly claimed, +recognized by the nation; and in the end for the sake of the old +England the new dynasty might be recognized. + +So Roger hoped; and to him, therefore, the debates in 1657, on the +Protector's assuming the title of king, had a twofold interest. + +The year 1656 closed, and the year 1657 began, stormily. + +On the 27th of December my husband came to the house looking +dispirited, and, catching up Maidie in his arms, he said to me,-- + +"I have a mind to sell all we have, and seek our fortunes in the +wilderness, among the Indians." + +Then he told me the scene he had just witnessed, Annis Nye and Job +Forster standing by whilst he narrated how the poor fanatic, James +Naylor, had stood in the pillory in front of the Exchange, weakened +by the terrible scourging four days before from Whitehall to the +Exchange, while his tongue was bored with a hot iron by command of +the Parliament "for blasphemy." + +"Twenty years have rolled away," he said; "countless precious lives +have been sacrificed, a dynasty displaced, the king and the +archbishop executed, the Star Chamber destroyed; and here stands the +pillory again in the open day, with fierce fire in the hearts of +those in power, to carry out a sentence cruel as any of Archbishop +Laud's, to the uttermost." + +"But the people?" I asked. + +"As pitiful as in the days when Prynne, Bastwick, and Barton suffered +in Palace Yard! Scarce an insulting word or gesture. While the +cruel iron was at work, the crowd stood bareheaded, and Mr. Rich, the +brave merchant, who had waited at the doors of the Parliament House +imploring the members for mercy from eight till eleven this morning, +held the sufferer's hand all the while, and afterwards licked his +wounds." + +"But they say the poor wretch was indeed guilty of blasphemy," I +said. "His crime was at least very different from Mr. Prynne's." + +"It was indeed mad blasphemy," he replied; "the madness of spiritual +vanity veiling itself under some mystical notion that the homage was +paid to Christ in him. The poor wretch suffered half-a-dozen deluded +men and women to lead his horse into Bristol, scattering branches and +garments before him, and crying hosannas." + +Job, who was near, could not let the occasion pass. + +"Take warning, Mistress Annis," he said, in a low voice aside to her; +"this is what your Quaker inspiration leads to." + +"I have need of warnings, Job Forster," she replied, "and so hast +thou. This is what your tyranny over men's consciences leads to. +This is what ambition has led thy Oliver Cromwell to; once a man of +whom George Fox had hope, and over whose soul the Friends have been +very tender." + +"The Lord Protector protests against this cruelty," said my husband. + +"His work is not to protest, Leonard Antony," said she, "but to +prevent. But he has been faithfully warned. George Fox hath told +him what will come upon him if he heeds not; and George's warnings +are not to be scorned. Before now, more than one who has despised +them has come to a fearful end." + +For once my husband was roused. "Annis Nye," he said, "you and your +Friends are as unmerciful in heart as the rest. The Voices that +denounce God's lightnings for their own private wrongs are moved by +the same spirit as the hands that heat the irons for the pillory. +Verily ye know not what spirit ye are of. Denunciatory prophecies +are the persecution of the persecuted." And he turned sadly away. + +Aunt Gretel wept many tears when she heard the narrative of James +Naylor's sufferings, afterwards completed by a second scourging at +Bristol, the scene of his mad and blasphemous entry. But she reached +the source of consolation sooner than any of us. Looking, according +to her wont, beyond all the middle distance which is the battle-field +of the great national questions of churches and governments, and +seeing in the whole primarily the Good Shepherd seeking the sheep and +leading the wandering flock, she said, wiping her eyes,-- + +"Poor foolish creature! if Annis speaks right, he was once a humble +and devout Christian. He had fallen deep and wandered far. Perhaps +he will have to thank the good Lord that he has found the ways of the +wilderness so cruel. Perhaps even now, if we could see, he is +beginning to creep back, torn, maimed, and bleeding as he is, body +and soul, to the feet of the Good Shepherd. Thou wilt not forget +him, Leonard, when thou visitest the prison." + +My husband did not, and afterwards brought us word how, during his +imprisonment in Bridewell, James Naylor came to true repentance, and +published his confession of his fall, when "darkness came upon him, +and he ran against that Rock to be broken which had so long borne +him, and whereof he had so largely drunk, and of which at last he +drank in measure again, praising God's mercy in delivering him, and +greatly fearing ever to offend again, whereby the innocent truth, or +the people of God might suffer." + +After that the poor restored penitent's career was brief, but +blameless. + +Aunt Gretel watched it to the close with a tender pity. He survived +his fall and punishment four years, dying at the age of forty-four. +And Aunt Gretel was wont to keep the record of what he spoke shortly +before his death among her treasury of trophies of the triumph of +God's good over men's evil. The words were these:-- + +"There is a spirit which I feel that delights to do no evil nor to +revenge any wrong, but delights to endure all things, and hopes to +enjoy its own in the end. Its hope is to outlive all wrath and +contention, and to weary out all exaltation and cruelty. If it is +betrayed, it bears it; for its ground and spring is the mercies and +forgiveness of God. Its crown is meekness, its life is everlasting +love unfeigned; it takes its kingdom with entreaty and not with +contention, and keeps it by lowliness of mind." + +And two hours afterwards, the brief journey, so full of bewilderment +and pain and repentance, was over. To a heart burdened with the +dishonour of that blasphemous entry into Bristol, the pillory in +Palace Yard and in the City must, I think, have been a dishonour not +bitter to bear, but rather one for which he would bless God who +suffered him to suffer it. Perhaps those, his judges, who had in +their memories the dishonour of issuing and enforcing such a +sentence, had also in their turn their sentences to suffer, for which +they also afterwards learned to bless God. + +For the wheel went quickly round in those days. Laud in the Star +Chamber, Prynne in the pillory; the Presbyterians and Prynne in the +Parliament, the archbishop on the scaffold; Naylor in the pillory; +his judges in the prisons of the Restoration. + +A quarter of a century accomplished it all. But no one saw the wheel +turning. Each revolution, as it came, seemed the last. For there +was a pause between each. And in the pause the people who were +uppermost looked round on the earth, and shouted, "Now the Kingdom is +come, and the world will stand still;" while the people who were +underneath looked to heaven, and sighed, "Will the years of peace +never come? O Lord, how long?" + +But I think it a noble trait in the Quakers that, accused as they +were on all sides of fanaticism, and strong as the temptation must +have been to disown any connection with such a fallen man as Naylor, +nevertheless, although they faithfully rebuked him in secret, they +generously stood by him in his degradation, and did not leave him +until they had brought him to repentance, and tenderly welcomed him +back among them. + +With James Naylor's torturing sentence, the year 1656 closed. The +year 1657 began with stratagems and plots. + +Towards morning, on the night of the 8th of January, the drowsy voice +of the bellman, speaking benedicites on our home, and calling us to +"hang out our lights," had just died away at the corner of the silent +street, and his bell was faintly echoing in the distance, mingling +with the dream it had broken, when a call at the door aroused us. + +It was Job Forster. + +His first words as my husband opened the house-door to him (I +listening on the stairs), were an alarming assurance that we need not +be alarmed. In a minute I was wrapped in my mantle and beside them. + +Job's face was haggard and his eyes ringed with dark circles of +anxiety. + +"All danger is over!" he said. "The assassin has been taken after a +hard struggle. He is in the Tower. Miles Sindercombe, an old +comrade of mine," added Job with a groan, "one of those that were +sentenced with me at Burford!" It was another attempt on the Lord +Protector's life. Some time since, the assassin (having received +£1,500 from the baser spirits among the Royalists for the purpose) +had hired a room at Hammersmith, on the road by which Oliver rode +every Saturday to his Sabbath rest at Hampton Court, watching for an +opportunity to murder him. But in vain. And at length this night +the attempt was to have been made at Whitehall. At midnight the +sentinel had smelt fire, a match had been found close to a basket of +wildfire, the locks of the doors were discovered to have been picked, +and all prepared for a conflagration, in the confusion of which +Oliver was to have been assassinated. But it had been found out in +time, the danger was averted, and the Protector had refused to have +the city alarmed, or the train-bands roused. "But, oh!" groaned Job, +"Mistress Olive and Master Antony, think of what a pit I stood on the +brink! 'Mutiny the first step;' and the last, murder. No doubt the +poor deluded wretch went down easy enough after that first step. And +I had taken the first!" + +He was very gentle and subdued, and said nothing at breakfast. Not +even Annis Nye's gentle "hope that the Protector would take warning +at last, and see that the poor Friends' prophecies had some meaning +in them," could rouse him. He only shook his head and said,-- + +"Poor maid! She has got to take her lesson by Burford steeple yet." + +The excitement in the city that day was great. It was one of the few +occasions which I remember in which a strong and general display of +personal feeling was called out towards the Protector. + +The Parliament ordered a Thanksgiving Day, and numbers went to offer +congratulations. One sentence of Oliver's reply Roger repeated to +us,-- + +"If we will have peace without a worm in it," said the Protector, +"lay we foundations in justice and righteousness." + +Roger kept full of hope through all. This danger of death to its +head, as with so many refractory families, had at last (he thought) +roused the nation to gratitude. + +The offer of the title of King followed. Roger believed the +Protector would accept it. King was a name dear to the English +people, who "love not change," and "love settlement and familiar +words." King was a name known to the laws, "honoured, and bounded" +by the laws. Any other name, said the Protector in comparison, was +too "large and boundless." The power he possessed--and on that he +suffered no debate; the end of all the fighting, he said, had been +settlement. A Parliament voting itself to sit constantly, and +debating everything, from the nation's faith to the forms of +governing--"debating three months the meaning of the word +encumbrance"--"committees elected to fetch men from the extremest +part of the nation to attend committees set to determine all things," +Oliver considered would never lead to "settlement." Between this +nation and general "topsy-turvying" he had submitted to take his +stand; and there, while he lived, whether honoured or reviled, he +would stand, whether as King, Protector, or Constable, to keep the +peace of the parish; "not so much hoping to do much good as to +prevent imminent evil;" to "keep the godly of all judgments from +running on each other;" to keep some men from the kind of liberty +which consisted in "liberty to pinch other men's consciences;" to +keep other men from such liberty as resulted in license or "orderly +confusion;" to keep all Protestants from ruin; to keep England from +becoming "an Aceldama." This the Protector regarded as the thing God +had given him to do; and by whatever weapons, by whatever title, he +was determined to do it; and then was ready, as he wrote to his +son-in-law, to "flee away and be at rest," being meantime lifted +above men's judgment by the consciousness of "some little sincerity +in him." Roger said that the new work could have been better done +under the old names; so much necessary change in substance being made +more acceptable to the common people by the least possible change in +forms (the principle, according to Aunt Gretel, on which Luther had +carried out his Reformation). And so, he believed, thought the +Protector. But his son-in-law, Fleetwood, and so many of the best +men around him, either considered the very name of king doomed with +the dynasty which had abused it, or valued the forms of a republic as +of the essence of liberty--that his Highness yielded what to him +would indeed have been nothing more than a "feather in a man's cap;" +an adornment at no time sacred or precious to Puritan men for its own +sake. + +Thus the debate on the kingly title ended in the solemn inauguration +of Oliver as Lord Protector. + +It was on the 25th of June, in Westminster Hall, that the last great +ceremonial of the Commonwealth, except the Great Funerals, took +place. The old stone of the Scotch kingdom, the purple robe, the +canopy of state, the sword, the Bible, the sceptre given by the +Speaker of the Commons to be "the stay and staff of the nation," into +the hands that, as we believed, had been their stay and staff so +long; the foreign ambassadors of all nations around him, they at +least, recognizing him openly as England's ruler and deliverer; and, +outside, the multitudes shouting "God save the Lord Protector,"--the +hearts of all men still aglow with the news of the great victory of +Blake over the Spaniards in the harbour of Santa Cruz, in Teneriffe. + +There was no lack of enthusiasm; nor, indeed, of colour and music. +Some picture our Puritan times as draped in funereal black. The +Puritan ministers had a very different impression of them as they +bemoaned the glory and bravery of their people's attire; and Mistress +Hutchinson's colonel, in "his scarlet cloak, richly laced," was not +solitary in his splendour. + +Music graced all the Protector's festivals. It was, I think, to him, +as to Martin Luther, the festive thing in the world. And the music +of lofty and significant words was not wanting in the Speaker's +address, or in the solemn prayer which followed. + +Nevertheless there were not a few who, with our friend Dr. Rich, +could not forget what the last great scene in Westminster Hall had +been, when a king discrowned sat at the bar of his subjects, alone, +yet defying their authority. And among such it was murmured +ominously that there was one thing even the "murderers of his sacred +majesty" did not dare to take; the crown which had fallen from the +"anointed" head. + +So the grand ceremonial ended, and all men went again to their work; +the Protector to protect England and the Protestant Church against +the world; the Parliament (as he hoped) to reform laws, "manners," +and especially the Court of Chancery,--"the delays in suits," the +excessiveness in fees, the costliness of suits,--to see that "men +were not hanged for six and eight-pence, and acquitted for murder." + +And we to our humble work, each in his place. My husband went to his +patients and his prisons. Roger, strong in trust in the Protector, +and in hope for England, joined the troops which were fighting the +Spaniards with those of Marshal Turenne in Flanders. My father, on +the verge of seventy, had withdrawn altogether from politics. Having +as firm a faith in the triumph of truth as Roger, he yet deemed the +cycles wider in which she moved. Love with him was the reverse of +blind. It was natural to him to see with painful clearness the +faults of the cause dearest to him. Much as in many ways he honoured +the Protector, he nevertheless deemed his government a beneficent +despotism undermining the foundations of law. "Had the Protector +been immortal," he said, "a better government than his could scarce +be. But Laws and Constitutions are remedies against the mortality of +all men, as well as against the fallibility of the best men. +Therefore I cannot rejoice in a rule which interposes but the heart +and brain of one man between the nation and anarchy." + +So he turned therefore from the whirlwind of political affairs to the +calm rule of law in stars and seas; and the wonderful circulation of +life through all the animated world, as, according to Mr. Harvey's +discovery, through the veins of those fearfully made bodies of ours. +Through him we heard much of the proceedings of the Society of Art, +and of such patriotic efforts as the rescue of Raphael's cartoons, by +the Protector's desire. In promoting such works he hoped to serve +England (he said) as an old man best might. + +For if there were an idolatry among us in those Commonwealth days, it +was that of England. + +Patriotism with the nobler Commonwealth men was a passion and a +religion; what love is to a lover, and loyalty to such a Royalist as +rose. + +It was England for whose sake Cromwell was content to be called a +hypocrite and a despot, and to be a "constable," and a man worn to +old age at fifty with care and toil. + +It was the love of England which kindled the calm heart of the +glorious blind poet, who then dwelt among men, to a fanaticism of +passionate invective against all who assailed her. + +To him she was "a noble and puissant nation rousing herself like a +strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks; as an eagle +renewing her mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the +full midday beam, purging and unsealing her long-abused sight at the +fountain itself of heavenly radiance; while the whole noise of +timorous and flocking birds, with those also that love the twilight, +flutter about, amazed at what she means." + +"Thou, therefore," he wrote, "that sittest in light and glory +inapproachable, Parent of angels and men. Next, Thee I implore, +omnipotent King, Redeemer of that lost remnant whose nature Thou +didst assume; ineffable, and everlasting Love! And Thou the third +subsistence of Divine Infinitude, illumining Spirit, the joy and +solace of created things! one tri-personal Godhead! + +"O Thou that, after the impetuous rage of five blustering +inundations, and the succeeding sword of intestine war, soaking the +land in her own gore, didst pity the sad and ceaseless revolution of +our swift and thick-coming sorrows; when we were quite breathless, of +Thy free grace didst motion peace and terms of covenant with us, and +having first well-nigh freed us from antichristian thraldom, didst +build up this Thy Britannic Empire to a glorious and enviable height, +with all her daughter-islands about her; stay us in this felicity; +let not the obstinacy of our half-obedience and will-worship bring +forth the viper of sedition, .... that we may still remember in our +solemn thanksgivings how for us the Northern Ocean, even to the +frozen Thule, was scattered with the proud shipwrecks of the Spanish +Armada, and the very maw of hell ransacked, and made to give up her +concealed destruction, ere she could vent it in that terrible and +damned blast. Hitherto Thou hast but freed us, and that not fully, +from the unjust and tyrannous claim of Thy foes; now unite us +entirely, and appropriate us to Thyself; tie us everlastingly in +willing homage to the prerogatives of Thy eternal throne. + +"Then, amidst the hymns and hallelujahs of saints, some one may, +perhaps, be heard offering in high strains, in new and lofty measure, +to sing and celebrate Thy divine mercies and marvellous judgments in +this land throughout all ages; whereby this great and warlike nation, +instructed and inured to the fervent and continual practice of truth +and righteousness, and casting far from her the rags of her whole +vices, may press on hard to that high and happy emulation, to be +found the soberest, wisest, and most Christian people at that day, +when Thou, the eternal and shortly-expected King, shall open the +clouds to judge the several kingdoms of the world, and, distributing +national honours to religious and just commonwealths, shalt put an +end to all earthly tyrannies, proclaiming Thy universal and mild +monarchy through heaven and earth, where they, undoubtedly, that, by +their labours, counsels, and prayers, have been earnest for the +common good of religion and their country, shall receive, above the +inferior orders of the blessed, the regal addition of principalities, +legions, and thrones, unto their glorious titles, and, in +super-eminence of beatific vision, shall clasp inseparable hands with +joy and bliss, in over-measure for ever!" + +This was what ambition meant, and titles and crowns, to the nobler +Puritan men in the days of. the great Commonwealth. This was what +England meant, and patriotism. This was what made it so bitter to +them to see sedition undermining all this glorious possibility; to +see feeble meddling hands untwisting the cordage with which the good +old ship had to be worked through battle and storm; so unutterably +bitter to see good men blindly (as they believed) helping bad men to +undo that glorious past, and render that glorious future, if not +impossible for the world for ever, impossible for ages longer; and +for England perhaps impossible for evermore. + +"For if it should fall out otherwise--if you should basely relinquish +the path of virtue, if you do anything unworthy of +yourselves--posterity will sit in judgment on your conduct. They +will see that the foundations were well laid; that the +beginning--nay, it was more than a beginning--was glorious; but with +deep emotions of concern will they regret that they were wanting who +might have completed the structure. They will see that there was a +rich harvest of glory, and an opportunity for the greatest +achievements; but that men only were wanting for the execution, while +they were not wanting who could rightly counsel, exhort, enforce, and +bind an unfading wreath of praise around the brows of the illustrious +actors in so glorious a scene." + +So he wrote whose hand could best have bound the unfading wreath of +praise, whose vision, as he dwelt under the hallowing "shadow of +God's wing," became prophetic. + +But, meantime, Roger and the brave "labouring men" around him, who +reached not to those clear prophetic heights, toiled cheerily on, not +seeing the chasm which yawned between them and the glorious goal they +deemed so near. + + +LETTICE'S DIARY. + +"_January_, 1658.--For a twelvemonth now my father and I have been +alone. The usurper demanded the banishment of our king from France, +and Mazarin and the French Court submitted to the indignity; an +indignity, it seems to us, to all courts and all kings. + +"Walter accompanied the king to Bruges, and has scarce written to us +since. My father and I seldom mention him to each other, but I know +he is seldom absent from the thoughts of either of us. The only +things which seem to interest my father now are the movements of our +exiled Court, which he watches with a feverish solicitude, and the +triumphs of the English arms by land and sea, of which he eagerly +learns every detail with a mixture cf patriotic pride and loyal +indignation which it moves me much to see. + +"Last May, for instance, he told me how the French King Louis had +come back from reviewing the united French and English troops at +Boulogne, and how the French soldiers and courtiers could not say +enough of the soldierly bearing of those English horsemen and pikemen. + +"Roger saw Walter before he left France, and my father. But I did +not see him again. + +"It was from Walter I learned of their interview. + +"'An act of sisterly loving-kindness, Lettice,' said he, 'to turn a +Puritan battery on your brother!' + +"His tone was light, but not bitter, and he went on in a softened +voice. + +"'He has a princely temper, Lettice, and bore from me what I would +not bear from the king. But all the time he made me feel I lowered +myself and not him by my words. 'Tis a thousand pities, Lettice, +those gentlemen keep us out of house and home. I might have been +worth something at old Netherby with Roger Drayton for a neighbor. +But what is a fellow to do who has no choice but to amuse himself or +kill himself? And to throw oneself against Oliver and his England is +nothing less than suicide. Oliver is responsible, at all events, for +the mischiefs idleness has wrought among loyal men. Do you know, +Lettice,' he continued, affectionately, after a pause, 'who manages +the old estates for us, and sends us their rents so regularly?' + +"'I guessed,' I said. + +"'I had been told,' he replied, 'and I asked Roger, and he could not +deny it. He and Mr. Drayton manage the estate as if they were our +hired bailiffs. Roger himself paid the fine to the Parliament. But +he made me promise never to let my father know.' + +"I did not answer him. My heart was too full. + +"'Lettice,' he exclaimed, 'you are a brave maiden, and a good sister +to me. Forgive me if ever I said anything ungenerous to you. I +would not care to own for a sister the woman whom Roger Drayton +loved, if she could forget him for another. He is the kind of good +man it would be worth while to be like. If it were not too +late--altogether too late for me,' he added, despondingly. + +"'You know it is never too late,' I said. 'Oh, Walter, that is just +what you might have been! So my mother thought.' + +"'You cannot say might be, Lettice,' he replied; 'not even with Roger +Drayton always by my side.' + +"'No one can be like Roger,' I said, 'who can only be like him with +some one always by his side.' + +"'No,' he replied, bitterly; 'Roger is a man to be leant on, not to +lean.' + +"'He is a man to be leant on,' I said, 'because he does lean. On One +always by his side, Walter; the only One who can be always with any +of us, the only One we can depend on always, and not grow weak, but +strong in depending.' + +"He said no more, but sat in silence some time, which seemed to me +more like what I longed for in him than anything I had seen. And in +the evening he took leave of me with the old kind way he had after +our mother died. And for some weeks he was much with us. + +"But soon after, the king was desired to quit France, and Walter +would accompany him. It would be base, he said, to desert his master +when these perfidious Courts and all the world abandoned him. My +father could but faintly remonstrate. I ventured to ask if he was +strong enough to go into that temptation. But he answered, gaily,-- + +"'We shall have work to do, Lettice. There is promise of fighting. +The Spaniard is to help us, and we him; and together we will bear you +back to Netherby in triumph, proclaim amnesties and tolerations +without bounds, and bring back the golden age.' + +"But there has been no fighting; and since he left we have scarce +once heard from him. And we know too well what that means, in a +company where nothing good or great is really believed in; neither in +God, nor man, nor woman. + +"_February_.--M. la Mothe is dead. And Madame, when she has arranged +his affairs, has determined to retire to a convent, there to pray for +his soul and to accomplish her own salvation. + +"She is somewhat distracted what Order to join. The ladies of Port +Royal seem to her the holiest people in the world. But, at the same +time, the condemnation pronounced by the Pope on this book of +Jansenius, which they regard as so excellent, perplexes her. + +"Two years ago the world of Paris was set in a blaze by the 'Lettres +Provinciales' of M. Blaise Pascal, in reply to the Jesuits; and by +the attack on Jansenius and Port Royal. These letters were said to +combine the eloquence and wit of the most finished man of the world +with the devotion of a saint. + +"Since then the war has waxed fiercer and fiercer between the +Jansenists and the Jesuits. To a Protestant the controversy seems +strange. Both parties seem to agree that the Pope can pronounce +authoritively as to doctrine. But the offence of the Jansenists +appears to be that they deny his power to create facts. + +"But whatever the hinge of the controversy is (and in most +controversies how insignificant the hinge is on which all nominally +turns), the combatants seem to me to be divided by very real +distinctions. I judge chiefly from their weapons. The weapons of +the Jesuits seem to be assertions, anathemas, and prisons; those of +Port Royal eloquent words, and a most devout and blameless life. + +"Truth seems as sacred to them in its minutest expression as the +noblest of the Puritans. They cannot lie. They can be banished, +imprisoned; they can die, if such is the will of God, who loves them, +and of those who hate them. But they cannot solemnly declare before +Him, they believe a thing true which they believe to be false. +'Where is the Christian,' Jacqueline Pascal wrote, 'who would not +abhor himself, if it were possible for him to have been present in +Pilate's council; and if, when the question of condemning our Saviour +to death arose, he had been content with an ambiguous way of +pronouncing his opinion so that he might appear to agree with those +who condemned his Master, though his words, in their literal meaning, +and according to his own conscience, tended to an acquittal? M. de +St. Cyran says the least truth of religion ought to be as faithfully +defended as Christ Himself. The feebleness of our influence does not +lessen our guilt if we use that influence against the truth. Truth +is the only real liberator, and she makes none free but those that +strike off her own fetters, who bear witness to her with a fidelity +that entitles them to be acknowledged as the true children of God the +true. Poverty, dispersion, imprisonment, death, these seem to me +nothing compared with the anguish of my whole future life, if I +should be wretched enough to make a league with death.' + +"Noble Catholic Puritan woman! + +"Nevertheless Jacqueline Pascal's regulations for the little orphan +girls whom they charitably train at Port Royal freeze my heart even +to read. The poor little ones are to abstain from all kissing of +caressing each other. Even in their jealously limited hour of +recreation, they are to play, each alone, without noise! + +"And Thou has been on earth, O Christ, tender and gracious, folding +the little ones in Thine arms, and these holy sisters of Port Royal +love Thee, and read the gospel of Thy birth and death, and think this +is what pleases Thee! + +"The world was made by Thee, and the world knew Thee not. Alas, the +Church which was made and redeemed by Thee, does she also know Thee +so little! + +"What a surprise, what a rapture of surprise, when these Thy servants +who, seeing Thee so dimly, love Thee so much, wake up and see Thee as +Thou art, as (if they could but see it) Thou art _now_! + +"_June_ 1658.--Dunkirk has been taken from the Spaniards (chiefly +they say by English troops), and has been given over to an English +garrison. At last (my father writes), the blot of the loss of Calais +is wiped out of the escutcheon of our country. All through those +last months he had been watching the movements of the French and +English forces with jealous interest. 'That crafty Italian,' he +said, '(Mazarin) would overreach the usurper yet. The French Court +would use the help of England as long as they needed it, and as long +as they could pay with fair and flattering words. And when the time +came to pay in fortunes and solid territory, they would politely bow +Cromwell and his pikemen out of the country.' + +"But when we heard that the 'Protector' had insisted on some of the +fruits of the war being made over to England, and that the united +armies were on the Flemish coast preparing for an attack on Dunkirk, +my father's faith in the courage of our countrymen entirely got the +better of his indignation against their politics; and he found +several unanswerable reasons for being present at the seat of war. + +"_June_.--Barbe came to me to-day in tears. Sad news had come again +from her kindred in the Piedmont Valleys. Protestant surgeons +forbidden to live there; trade prohibited; public worship suppressed; +a new fortress, from which insolent troops sally to plunder and +maltreat the people; commands to sell lands; dim rumours of a second +massacre. + +"'And Monseigneur Cromwell,' she said, 'so busy with his wars and +sieges, that there can be little hope he will have leisure to +remember those poor forsaken ones! What hope is there? For beside +the English, these sufferers have no friend or protector in the +world.' + +"_July_ 3_rd_.--My father has returned. + +"'It was worth while to travel round the world,' he said, 'truly, to +hear the shout of the English pikemen before the fight. Marshal +Turenne could not say enough of their soldierly bearing. He asked +what that shout meant, and he was told, "They ever rejoice thus when +they behold the enemy." And to see the Spanish veterans driven back +before them from post after post, on the sandy dunes by the sea, was +a sight to make an old man young. For the old country is young, +Lettice, as young as when she stood up alone against old Spain and +her Armada! I would the Duke of York had not been on the Spaniard's +side. He seemed as out of place as Condé. I scarce know the cause,' +he added gloomily, 'which saves a man from being a traitor in +fighting against his country.' + +"'Then Walter was not there?' I asked. + +"His brow darkened. + +"'Would to heaven he had been there, on any side!' he answered +fiercely. 'Better fight for any cause than fight or work for none, +but lead a sluggard's life, a Court-jester's, a Fool's, with the +recreant idlers around the king.' + +"He was silent for some minutes, going to the window and watching the +melancholy dropping of the water from the urn of his old enemy, the +moss-green nymph. + +"Then he turned and said hastily,-- + +"'Drayton has found his service better rewarded than mine. Not a +gentleman in England or France but might be proud of such a son as +his. Firm as a rock, and as calm, who could guess the dash and fire +that are in him, unless they saw him head a charge, as I did? 'Tis a +labyrinth of a world, Lettice,' he added, 'and sometimes a man is +tempted to throw down the clue in despair, and let the Fates take him +and his where they will. Old Will Shakspeare saw to the bottom of it +all a hundred years ago, "an unsubstantial pageant, the baseless +fabric of a vision." Shakspeare and the Bible! There is nothing +else worth reading or thinking of.' + +"Then Roger was there; and has come out of the battle unscathed! +Otherwise my father would have told me. + +"But I know not whether they met or no. + +"_July_ 4.--I told my father of Barbe's sad tidings of the Vaudois. + +"'That will all be set right, you may feel sure,' he replied, grimly. +'There was talk enough about it in the midst of all the fighting. +There is nothing that this base and cringing court will not do to +court the alliance of that Traitor. I laugh when I hear these French +courtiers talk of their ancient nobility, and the glory of their +Royal House. Our kings and princes, cousins by blood of their own, +may creep about as beggars and outcasts in any poor trading town that +is not afraid to take them. But when "my lord Fauconbridge" comes as +"ambassador" from this brewer of Huntingdon, Louis, the glorious +monarch, descendant of a line of glorious monarchs (up to Nimrod, for +what I know), talks to him bareheaded; and Mazarin, the Cardinal, +conducts the rebel and heretic to his door with more than royal +honours. I am sick of the whole hollow pageant, kings, statesmen, +churchmen, all.' + +"My father's indignation had led him far from Barbe and the Vaudois. + +"'But I may tell Barbe the poor mountaineers will be saved?' I asked. + +"'Yes, yes!' he said impatiently. 'There was a Latin letter about +the oppression of these people, written, they say, by this Mr. John +Milton, whom foreigners seem to think another Cicero or Virgil, the +"wisest of Englishmen," and what not; why I know not, except that he +writes good Latin, and they cannot read English, so that of course +they cannot know anything about the wisdom of Englishmen. And the +king, was all attention, and the fox of a Cardinal all sympathy with +those poor plucked geese, of whose fate he was (of course) in entire +ignorance. And the Duke of Savoy is to have an exhortation; and the +massacre is to be forbidden.' + +"But Barbe when I told her was altogether overcome. She burst into +tears, and clasping her hands, exclaimed,-- + +"'To our dying day we will pray for the great heart that in the midst +of wars by sea or land could remember those few poor persecuted +brothers in the far-off mountains, and would not rest until they were +rescued. To our dying day we will pray for him and for the great +English nation. Mademoiselle will pardon, if I wound her loyal +feelings,' she added, remembering what the name of Cromwell was to +the Cavaliers, and kneeling for a moment and kissing my hand in +apology; 'English politics are so difficult for us to understand. To +you this Monseigneur may be such as you cannot approve, but to us +poor Protestants, he is a Protector, Deliverer, Brother. Can we err +in praying for him?' + +"'You can scarcely err in praying for him, or for any one, Barbe,' I +said. 'God will not give wrong because we ask wrong. If one of your +little brothers, being thirsty, asked you for a drink from a cup of +poison, you would smile and put it aside, and give him the cup of +water he wants instead.' + + +OLIVE'S RECOLLECTIONS. + +The taking of Dunkirk in June, 1658, and the relief ensured to the +threatened Christians in the Valleys, was a brilliant moment in that +stormy time. + +All England triumphed. The dishonour of the loss of Calais was +undone. The Protestant Commonwealth had avenged the disgrace which +sank so deep into the heart of the poor dying Popish Queen. + +Once more the Lord Protector had shown that the Protestant Church was +not a heap of disjointed fragments, but a living body, which felt +with a pang of actual pain an injury inflicted on its feeblest +member. A living body to feel, and a living power to avenge. + +England was no more an island (except in as far as her seas and ships +were her impassable trench and impregnable walls against the world), +but as in the old days before the Reformation, one of the great +commonwealth of nations, nay, rather the queenly protector of the +great commonwealth of Protestant nations. + +Nevertheless this sense of unity and strength seemed but the passing +consciousness of a waking moment. The rest of the months seemed too +much like a restless feverish dream. At least so they appear to me +as I look back. How far the great calamity of that autumn has to do +with darkening the whole year in my memory into a valley of the +shadow of death, it is hard to say. + +The clouds gathered and gathered again, thick and dark throughout the +year, over the Commonwealth and over the Protector's household. + +The prophets of doom saw sorrows enough break on Oliver's head to +satisfy them that their predictions were just. + +On February the 4th, his last Parliament was dissolved, with words +which seem to me noble and mournful as any with which a great man +ever uttered his grief that his people would not understand him, and +that he had to tread his way alone. + +A fortnight before he had opened it with words of stern warning, yet +of hope:--"I look upon this to be the great duty of my place," he had +said, "as being set on a watch-tower to see what may be for the good +of these nations, and what may be for the preventing of evil." Then +warning them of the dangers which environed England and the +Protestant nations, he said,--"You have accounted yourselves happy in +being environed with a great ditch from all the world beside. Truly +you will not be able to keep your ditch, nor your shipping, unless +you fight to defend yourselves. If you shall think this is a time of +sleep and ease and rest,--we may discourse of all things at pleasure, +there is no danger,--I have this comfort to Godward; I have told you +of it." + +And now the warnings were fulfilled, the hope had vanished, and with +stern voice he said;-- + +"I had very comfortable expectations that God would make the meeting +of this Parliament a blessing. That which brought me into the +capacity I now stand in was the petition and advice given me by you. +There is not a man living can say I sought it; not a man nor woman +treading upon English ground. + +"I can say in the presence of God--in comparison with whom we are but +like poor creeping ants upon the earth--I would have been glad to +have lived under my woodside, to have kept a flock of sheep." "I +thought I had been doing that which was my duty, and thought it would +have satisfied you. But if everything must be _too high or too low_, +you are not to be satisfied." (Theologies puffed up too high on airy +heights, above plain "virtue and honesty, justice, piety," and all +the sober work of men; disorders plunging too low.) "Yet you have +not only disjointed yourselves, but the whole nation; which is in +likelihood of running into more confusion in these fifteen or sixteen +days that you have sate, than it hath been from the rising of the +session to this day; that some men may rule all! And they are +endeavouring to engage the army to carry that thing! + +"These things tend to nothing but the playing of the King of Scots' +game (if I may so call him), and I think myself bound before God to +do what I can to prevent it. + +"The King of Scots hath an army ready to be shipped for England; and +while this is doing, there are endeavours from some who are not far +from this place, to stir up the people of this town into a tumulting. +Some of you have been listing persons by commission of Charles +Stuart. And if this be the end of your sitting, and this be your +carriage, I think it high time an end should be put to your sitting. +And I do dissolve this Parliament. And let God be Judge between you +and me." + +The Protector, at least, was not afraid to appeal to the highest +tribunal. Royalists, Quakers, Fifth-Monarchy men, good men of +various kinds, threatened him with the judgment of that bar as a +terror. He invoked it as a refuge. + +So his last Parliament went its way, leaving him to bear the whole +burden alone for the rest of the journey. It was not long. Six +months, and he should stand at the tribunal to which he had appealed. +He had appealed to the Highest; to the Highest he was to go. + +The blows of death fell thick on those he loved;--on the few who +steadfastly trusted and honoured him. In the August before, Blake +had died, the sea hero, coming home from his victories. He had died +off Plymouth, in sight of shore. + +Could we have seen it, the Protector also was in sight of shore; the +shore he longed for, and did not fail to reach. + +In February one of his young daughters was widowed, the Lady Frances, +bereaved in the first year of their marriage of her husband, young +Mr. Rich, a widow at seventeen. + +In April died the good Earl of Warwick, one of the noblemen who had +honoured Oliver from the first; Mr. Rich's grandfather. + +In July and early August the shadow drew closer. The Lady +Claypole--his dearest daughter Betty--lay sorely smitten at Hampton +Court. + +The tumults around the palace and the kingdom, for the time, must +have seemed faint, far-off echoes to the father's heart, compared +with the sufferings and fears of the sick-chamber, where his daughter +lay dying. + +Yet these were not few. + +General Lambert, his old friend and comrade, plotting to throw him +out of one of the windows of Whitehall, under pretence of presenting +a petition; "knowing," Roger said, "how open the brave heart which no +treachery could make suspicious, was to cries for redress of wrong." + +Colonel Hutchinson, Independent and Republican, also his old friend +and comrade, while warning him of this plot, piercing his heart, +belike, deeper than the assassin's knife by deeming the "affection" +and trusting words and tears with which the Protector thanked him +(almost beseeching the return of the old friendship) mere "arts" and +"fair courtship." + +The Presbyterians coldly holding off from him, or persistently +conspiring with the Cavaliers. + +Lord Ormond in London in disguise, organizing a Royalist insurrection. + +The tract, "Killing no Murder," warning him that "the muster-roll" of +those who thought it doing God service to kill him, was "longer than +he could count," and some of them "among his own friends." + +Fifth-Monarchy men raising the standard of the "Lion of the tribe of +Judah," against what they called his tyranny. + +George Fox and the Quakers, in awful letters of denunciation, "laying +on him the weight" of all the persecution of the Friends throughout +England, inflicted under the authority of his name, although, as far +as I know, never by his order. + +Aunt Dorothy wrote that deliverance must be at hand, for she +understood that a "synagogue of Portuguese Jews had been suffered to +pollute the land by celebrating publicly their anti-Christian rites +in London." + +Annis Nye said little. "But Thomas Oldham, Margaret Fell, George +Fox, and Edward Burrough have warned Oliver," she observed, "that if +he listen to lies against the innocent, and fail to release the +Friends from prison, God will suddenly smite him, and that without +remedy." + +"Not so easy, Mistress Annis," replied Job, "for a mortal man, +protector or king, to know what are lies, and who are the innocent, +nor to set all the wrongs right in a day. Not so easy it seems, even +for the Almighty, who has been ruling all these ages. I thought once +it could be done all in a day. But I had to learn otherwise, and so +wilt thou. Seems to me one half of the godly grumble at the +Protector because they think he wants to be almighty, and the other +because they want him to be all-seeing and all-present." + +Meanwhile, the ambassadors of all rations thronged to pay homage to +the man who made all men honour England, whether she honoured him or +not. Through those summer months after the victory and capture of +Dunkirk, the streets were brave with coaches of ambassadors and +princes, from France, Denmark, Austria, and the ends of the earth. + +The strong hand was still on the helm, the clear strong eyes were +still on the waves and stars, keeping watch for England, whether she +acknowledged it or not. + +No man saw the hand relax its grasp, or the eyes waver from their +purpose, for all the noise and clamour, or the aiming at his life. +He saw all, and calmly put aside the danger when too near; but never +turned from his steadfast watch, steadfastly piloting the good ship +on. + +Until at last, for a brief season, the brave heart gave way. His +dearest child was dying; and for fourteen days the Lord Protector +could attend to nothing save the dying moans and tears of that bed of +anguish. For her death was slow, and approached through terrible +pain, so that her anguish was more than her father could bear to see. + +George Fox wrote to her some words of warm and tender sympathy: + +"Be still and cool in thy own mind and spirit from thy own thoughts, +and be stayed in the principle of God in thee, that it may raise thy +mind up to God, and stay it upon God, and find Him to be a God at +hand. The humble, God will teach His way. The same light which lets +you see sin and transgression will let you see the covenant of God +which blots out your sin and transgression, which gives victory and +dominion over it. For looking down at sin and corruption and +desolation, ye are swallowed up in it; but looking at the light which +discovers them, you will see over them: that ye may feel the power of +an endless life, the power of God which is immortal; which brings the +immortal soul up to the immortal God, in whom it doth rejoice. So, +in the name and power of the Lord Jesus Christ, God Almighty +strengthen thee." + +Good words, though no new truth to the daughter of him who had +written, years before, to General Fleetwood, his daughter Bridget's +husband: "Faith, as an act, yields not grace; but only as it leads to +Him who is our perfect rest and peace." But when they were read to +the poor suffering lady, she said they "stayed her mind." She had +need of all the stay that could be given. And her father was not one +to keep one word of comfort from her fainting heart because he could +have spoken it better, or because it dropped from lips which had +denounced him. + +On the 5th of August the long watch by the bed of anguish in the +mournful palace-chamber was over. The weary body and spirit were at +rest. The Lady Elizabeth lay dead. + +The Protector roused himself once more to take up the burden of the +State, which while she suffered, he had been, for the first time, +unable to bear. Attempts at assassination, insurrections, had not +interrupted his work a day. But for fourteen days even England was +forgotten, as he watched the slow death agonies of his child. + +Now that she was dead, he arose and girded himself once more for his +warfare. + +Another fourteen days, and he could put his armour off and lie down +for the long rest! + +The sources of his strength were not altogether hidden from us. We +heard that a few days after his daughter's death he called on one to +read him from the Bible the words: "_Not that I speak in respect of +want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be +content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: +everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to +be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things +through Christ which strengthened me._" + +"This Scripture did once save my life," he said, "when my eldest son +died, which went as a dagger to my heart, indeed it did." + +"It's true, Paul," he went on, after a pause, "you have learned this, +and attained to this measure of grace, but what shall _I_ do? Ah, +poor creature, it's a hard lesson for me to take out. I find it so." +Then, looking on, he read aloud: "_I can do all things through Christ +which strengthened me_;" and his heart seemed comforted, for he said: +"He that was Paul's Christ is my Christ too." + +He was standing near the end of the arduous journey, though neither +he nor any knew it; and from the height he looked back over the many +battle-fields of his life; from this last sorrow to that first, to +the grave of his first-born, and all the promise buried with him in +the quiet old church at Felsted. + +A day or two after George Fox met him, riding at the head of his +life-guard. Oliver stopped and listened, and spoke to him about the +sufferings of Friends. Always so ready to listen to men he believed +good and true, denounce him as they might! And he bade George Fox +come to his house. But on the morrow when George went to Hampton +Court to wait on him, the physicians deemed the Protector too ill to +see him, and the Quaker went away and never saw him more. He thought +that he had felt a "waft of death" go forth against the Protector +when he met him at the head of his guard. It would be long before +George Fox found again one in king's palaces, lord of England, and +dread of Europe, who would "catch him by the hand," as Oliver did, +regardless of discourtesies and denunciations, and say with tears in +those searching and commanding eyes, "Come again to my house. If +thou and I were but an hour of the day together, we should be nearer +one to the other. I wish no more harm to thee than I do to my own +soul." + +Perhaps as George went away from the door so freely opened to him, +the memory of these welcomes and farewells came back to him. And he +may have thought that in prophesying death to the Protector, he and +his Friends had uttered rather a promise than a threat. But I know +not. + +On Friday, the 20th of August, uneasy rumours began to spread of his +Highness's sickness. On the following Tuesday, the 24th, the +symptoms were worse. It was tertian ague, and the doctors had him +removed to Whitehall for drier air. + +The anxiety in the city grew speechless; brief questions to any who +knew of his state; brief unsatisfying answers. And then prayers, +fervent, frequent, constant, in churches, in cathedrals, in palaces, +in homes; from Owen and Goodwin in a a room at Whitehall adjoining +that in which the Protector lay. Prayers so fervent, that those who +poured them forth from hearts made eloquent by hope and fear, mistook +this inward glow for a responsive divine fire, and assured others +that their offerings were accepted, that their petitions would be +granted, and the precious life be spared to England yet. + +But through all those days Roger, who had returned from France, spoke +scarce a word, save in answer to our questions about his Highness's +health, when he came from the palace. He looked pale as death +himself, and well-nigh as rigid. The longings in his heart for +Oliver's life were so fervent that to himself his own prayers and +those of other men seemed in comparison as if struck with a death +chill. "I cannot pray, Olive," he said to me once. "When I look up +to heaven I seem to see nothing but a great silent, stately Company, +making a path between them for him, straight to the Throne, and +waiting to see him pass." + +Once when coming from a place where many had met in prayer, broken by +tears and sobs, I said to Roger: "Surely God only suffers this to +show England what he is. The people begin to understand him now! +They will never forget!" + +"They begin to understand now," he said. "Wayward children do begin +to understand many things by a father's death-bed." + +The word fell from his lips like a tolling bell. I knew well he +could not have uttered it if he had felt any hope. + +Annis Nye was quieter than even her wont, and very gentle, during +those days. Once having heard how his Highness' "spirit was stayed," +she said a thing which drew my heart to her very closely. + +"May be the words of the Friends are being fulfilled otherwise than +we looked. May be the angel is smiting, not Oliver, but only the +fetters, and the prison doors to set him free." + +Roger brought us word from time to time of sacred words from the +sick-chamber. + +"The Covenants were two--Two put into One before the foundation of +the world." + +"It is holy and true--it is holy and true--it is holy and true! Who +made it holy and true? The Mediator of the Covenant." + +"The Covenant is but one. Faith in the Covenant is my support. And +if I believe not, He abides faithful." + +Solemn, slow, broken utterances, not to man, but to God. + +And then to his wife and children weeping by his bedside-- + +"Love not the world. I say unto you it is not good that you should +love this world." + +It was becoming "_this_" world, no longer "the" world to him; but one +of two worlds. For a little while longer _this_ world to him, soon +to be "_that_ world" still surging in tumult below, where he had +fought the good fight which is now over for ever. + +"Children, live like Christians; I leave you the Covenant to feed +upon." + +Then (belike passing through a chaos of darkness and doubt, such as +seems to edge round and usher in every fresh creation of light), +"three times with great weight and vehemency of spirit"-- + +"It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." + +And afterwards (the light beyond the darkness being reached)-- + +"All the promises of God are in _Him_, yea and in Him, Amen, to the +glory of God by us--by us--in Jesus Christ." + +"The Lord hath filled me with as much assurance of His favour and His +love as my soul can hold." + +"I think I am the poorest wretch that lives; but I love God, or +rather, am beloved of God." + +"I am a conqueror, and more than a conqueror through Christ that +strengtheneth me." + +So through the weary days and nights he passed, nearer and nearer to +the end, the tumult in men's hearts growing deeper, when on the +Monday the 30th of August, the fearful storm of wind which none who +heard can ever forget raged over the land, as if it were over the +sea; beating back carriages on the roads, as if they had been boats +on the rivers; raging, wailing, rending, destroying, as if the angels +who held the "four winds of the earth" had relaxed their hold, and +set the wild creatures all free together. + +But to us who loved Oliver and the Commonwealth, that tempest seemed +but the simple and natural accompaniment to the tumult in our souls, +a response to the storms in men's hearts; simply a fitting dirge to +the life that went out with it. + +And meantime, through the storm, his Highness was praying thus:-- + +"Lord, though I am a miserable and wretched sinner, I am in covenant +with Thee through grace. And I may, I will, come to Thee for Thy +people. Thou has made me, though very unworthy, a mean instrument to +do them some good, and Thee some service; and many of them have set +too high a value upon me, though others wish and would be glad of my +death. Lord, however Thou do dispose of me, continue to go on and do +good for them. Give them consistency of judgment, one heart, and +mutual love; and go on to deliver them, and with the work of +reformation; and make the name of Christ glorious in the world. +Teach those who look too much on Thy instruments to depend more upon +Thyself. Pardon such as desire to trample on the dust of a poor +worm, for they are Thy people too. And pardon the folly of this +short prayer. Even for Jesus Christ's sake. And give us a good +night if it be Thy pleasure. Amen." + +He knew it, then, and _he had felt it_; it had pierced his heart, +that those he deemed good men should mistrust him, and be glad that +he should die. _That_ arrow had gone home, yet with the barb in his +heart it could not make him think evil of those that launched it, nor +leave them out of his prayers. + +The last night came. It was the 2nd of September, the eve of his day +of victory, the day of his "crowning mercy," a Thanksgiving Day in +England since the battle of Worcester. The voice was low now, and +the words not always to be understood. + +"Surely God is good. He is--He will not--" + +And often again and again, "with cheerfulness and fervour in the +midst of his pains,"-- + +"God is good." + +This was the key-note to which "all along" his other tones kept +recurring-- + +"_Truly God is good--indeed He is._" + +"I could be willing to live to be further serviceable to God and His +people. But my work is done. Yet God will be with His people." + +Through the night much restlessness, yet much inward rest. Broken +words of holy consolation and peace, "self annihilating" words, words +of kingly care for England, and God's cause there; these among the +very last. + +Some drink being offered to him, with an entreaty to try to sleep, he +answered-- + +"It is not my design to drink or sleep; but my design is to make what +haste I can to be gone." + +And on the morrow he had fallen asleep, and was gone. + +Amongst us who were left behind, the Thanksgiving Day was turned into +weeping. But his long day of thanksgiving had begun. The long night +of his faithful watching of the wars and storms for England was over; +the clear eye, the steady hand, were gone from the helm. The day of +victory, and rest, and coronation, had dawned for him at last. + +For, as his chaplain Mr. John Howe, said: + +"The greatest enemy we have in the world cannot do us the despite to +keep us from dying." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +NOTES BY MAGDALENE ANTONY. + +The first public event of which I have any recollection, or rather +the first time I can clearly recollect having a glimpse beyond our +own little world in London and Netherby, was one warm evening in +August, 1658. + +My mother was coming home with me and Dolly from the house of Mr. +John Milton in Bird-Cage Walk, past Whitehall, when we noticed many +people clustering like bees around the doors of the palace; and I +remember my mother lifting up her finger, and saying to Dolly and me, +who were discussing some of our small affairs eagerly:-- + +"Hush, children, the Protector is there, in sore sickness." + +And then I remember noticing that the groups of people through which +we were passing were all speaking low and walking softly, as people +do in sick-chambers, and every now and then looking up anxiously to +the palace-windows. + +I recollect a hush and awe creeping over me, and a guilty feeling, as +if Dolly and I had been chidden for talking in church. + +And all spoke in murmurs, and no one said anything I could hear +distinctly, until, as we were leaving the space in front of the +palace, from the last point at which we could see the windows, my +mother turned back to look. It happened that at that moment two men +were standing close to us, and one pointed to the palace, and said: +"It was _there!_ the murderers set up the black scaffold there, just +under those windows. I see it now; and so, I trow, does the murderer +on his sick-bed inside. And so will more than one when the black +pall comes out at those doors. The day of vengeance always comes at +last." + +The words went through me like a shudder. They were spoken in a deep +hissing whisper, more like the gnashing of teeth than speaking. + +I did not venture to tell my mother of them. I did not know if she +had heard them. I never told anyone of them. They lay seething and +working in my brain, as so many perplexities do in children's +minds--half-shaped, half-shapeless, altogether voiceless, like ghosts +waiting to be born--and tormented me greatly. + +For in a few days the terrible black train did leave those +palace-doors. My mother took us to see it. And my mother wept, and +Aunt Gretel, which was not so wonderful, because Aunt Gretel would +weep as easily at anything that moved her as we, children. But my +father wept, and even Uncle Roger; and Annis, the nurse, was stiller +than ever. And there was great silence and quiet weeping among the +people as the black train passed from the Palace to the Abbey. It +was a great day of mourning; and my father told us we must never +forget it. For all the people of England, said he, that day had lost +their best friend. But all the time I could not get it out of my +head that somebody had called him a murderer, and had called this day +of mourning a day of vengeance. + +It puzzled me exceedingly, more especially as Dr. Rich, the quiet +clergyman who lived in the little house at the end of our garden, and +Austin his son, our playfellow, would not, I knew, have anything to +do with the procession; and, indeed, would never call the Protector +anything but Mr. Cromwell. And Annis, our nurse, never called him +anything but Oliver Cromwell (although in her that was not +remarkable, since she called even our father and mother Leonard and +Olive); and I had heard her say often, no man was to be called a +"Protector" who let hundreds of poor Friends languish in prison. +Also Aunt Dorothy, I knew, would not come to stay with us on account +of something that had to do with the Protector. All which things +made a great tumult and chaos in my brain. + +But I must confess that the result was, that we grew up with a great +tenderness for the Royalist side. + +There was little in the shows and titles of the Commonwealth to +enkindle the imaginations of children. + +In all the fairy tales and romaunts and poems we knew, there was no +such prosaical title as Lord Protector. Indeed, we agreed that the +Bible history itself became much more interesting after the judges +were changed into kings, however wrong it might have been of the Jews +to wish for the change. We felt that the threat of his taking our +"sons" to be his horsemen and charioteers, and our "daughters" to be +his cooks and confectionaries, would certainly not have deterred us +from demanding a king. We thought it would be undoubtedly more +glorious to be my Lady Confectionary to a queen, or my Lord +Charioteer to a king, than to be anything in the sober untitled train +of a protector. Queen Esther was to us a far more romantic personage +than Deborah, who was only a mother in Israel. And on Sundays, when +the sermons were very long and we were allowed to read the Bible to +keep us from going to sleep, we found great solace in expatiating +upon Shushan the palace, among the courts of the gardens with +mysterious splendours of fine linen and purple--beds of gold and +silver--pavement of red, blue, white, and black marble--silver rings +and pillars of marble, between which were to be caught glimpses of +fair ladies in robes fragrant with perfumes--of a crown royal and a +golden sceptre. + +But besides these enchantments for our earthly imaginations, the +Royalist cause, as expounded to us by Austin Rich and his brothers, +laid hold on our hearts by the irresistible charm of suffering +majesty. Over the story of the young orphan Princess Elizabeth, +dying in the castle where her father had been imprisoned, with her +head pillowed on the Bible she loved, we wept many tears. The young +Duke of Gloucester, who had declared to the king just before his +execution that he would let them tear him in pieces rather than +accept his brother's throne, was one of our earliest heroes. + +And, above all, the name of King Charles was sacred to us. Our +mother always spoke of him with a tender respect. We knew how he had +worn the portrait of the queen his wife next his heart, and only +parted with it with his life. We thought it quite natural that +Archbishop Usher, seeing from the roof of Lady Peterborough's house +the king's coat laid aside and his hair bound up for the fatal +stroke, should have been able to see no more, but been led fainting +away. Moreover, Austin Rich had sundry pathetic stories of Episcopal +clergymen plundered, and their parsonages pillaged by Parliament +troopers, because they would not deny the king or refuse to pray for +him. + +So that we were quite prepared to welcome the next great public event +which made an impression on us after the funeral of the Protector. +This was the entry of King Charles II. into London. A king was +actually coming through our streets! Our king; who had passed his +youth in exile! He was coming to be crowned in the Abbey, and to +reign over us. And if a king, then of course the queen would come, +and princes, and princesses, with all the splendours belonging to +them. + +We were sorry our kindred did not seem quite happy about it. But we +had been told to speak respectfully of the king, and we had heard the +minister in one of the churches pray for him. So that, on the whole, +Dolly and I came to the conclusion that it would not be very wrong +for us to enjoy the magnificence as much as we certainly did. +Especially as Aunt Dorothy (who, our mother told us, was as good as +Aunt Gretel, and Aunt Gretel we well knew was better than any one +else) was coming to town for nothing else but to see the face of His +Majesty and do him honour. + +The previous festivities had excited our expectations to a high +pitch. There had been heralds, in coats of many colours, proclaiming +the king at different places in the streets; and crowds shouting, +"The king, God bless him!" and bells breaking out into peals of joy; +and bonfires--we could count thirty one evening from our upper +windows--along the high road from Westminster to the City, in the +streets, on the bridges, by the water-side. + +So at last the great festival came. Banners hidden for years waving +from the windows all down the streets; fountains flowing with wine; +bells clashing all together in sudden peals, as if they had gone wild +for joy; and all the people as mad for joy as the bells--some +shouting, some weeping; strangers greeting each other like old +friends. And such dresses! Old Cavalier wardrobes brought to light +again; and some ladies and gentlemen in the new French fashions, with +dresses gilded, slashed, tasseled, plumed, laced; every one trying to +show their loyalty by going as far from the old Puritan plainness as +possible, in materials as rich as could be purchased, and of every +colour of the rainbow. We thought it almost as splendid as Shushan +the palace in the days of Esther the queen. Trumpets, bells, drums, +songs, wild shouts; colour and music everywhere, May-day +everywhere,--in dresses, in banners, in the budding trees, in the +blue skies; all the city, all the world seemed to us gone wild with +joy. + +And Aunt Dorothy, the soberest and gravest of all our kindred, as +wild as any one; crying out, "The king, God bless him!" kissing Dolly +and me again and again in a way which surprised us exceedingly, as we +were not aware of having done any thing remarkably good; and even at +bed-time the caresses exchanged between us usually went no further +than our courtesying and kissing her hand, and being told to be good +children. + +And then the king! + +On horseback, as a king should be; in gorgeous apparel, smiling and +bowing right and left, as if he felt we were all friends; +acknowledging every courtesy with the easy grace natural to him. + +And as he passed by, Aunt Dorothy actually sank down on one knee and +clasped her hands as if in prayer, while the tears streamed over her +face; and we thought we heard her murmur, "Lord, now let thy servant +depart in peace." For she told us the salvation of England had come. + +So the king went on to his palace; and the loyal lords and ladies +followed him in their coaches, brilliant with jewels and smiles. And +Aunt Dorothy, Dolly, and I looked on, when suddenly, while the +procession was pausing for a minute, one of the loveliest of the +ladies turned towards us; and when she saw Aunt Dorothy, her face, +which was graver and paler than most of those in that gay company +broke into smiles and into a sudden glow; and she seemed looking on +beyond us, and then her eyes came back and rested on us again, a +little sadly. + +Aunt Dorothy exclaimed,-- + +"Lettice Davenant!" + +And I looked, and loved her face at once, and yet wondered. For our +mother had talked to us of her as the brightest creature in the +world; and we had always pictured our loveliest fairy princesses as +like what our mother had told us of Lettice Davenant, with eyes like +diamonds, and teeth like pearls, and a colour like fresh roses, and a +brilliant changing face, with a flash and play like precious stones +about it. + +And now she sat there quietly dressed, unlike the ladies round her; +bedecked with few jewels; with a sweet, calm face, rather like the +good women in New Testament pictures, than a princess in a fairy tale. + +So she also passed on, following the king to the palace. And the +people rejoiced, and sang and feasted far into the night. + +We were wakened from our first sleep by sounds of revelry and wild +songs echoing through the streets. Strange sounds to us. + +We crept close to each other, Dolly and I; and I said, "Dolly, do you +think it was as good as the Book of Esther?" + +But Dolly confessed to being a little disappointed. The king in the +fairy tales was so different from other people, she said; you always +knew him from any one else, even when he was dressed like a beggar. +How, she could not quite tell; perhaps his face actually shone, and +his clothes, instead of being only shone upon, like other people's. + +But our king was dressed like a king in a fairy tale, there was +nothing to complain of in that; and yet, if Aunt Dorothy had not told +us, we might not have known him from the gentlemen with him. We +agreed that it would be convenient, since the faces of real kings did +not shine, that they should always wear crowns. Otherwise one might +make mistakes, which would be such a pity. + +Perhaps, when our king was crowned, however, it would be all right. + +But we concluded that it certainly was a very delightful thing to +have a king of our own, whether his face shone, or whether he was a +head and shoulders taller than other men, or not. It made every one +dress so beautifully, and seem so glad, and set all the bells and +trumpets going so gloriously. And we hoped very soon there would +come also the queen, and the princes and princesses. + +And then the world would be something like fairy-land indeed. Our +father and mother, and Uncle Roger, and all the good people, would of +course be rewarded, and made happy all the rest of their days, when +our king found them out, as he would be sure to do in time. Of +course, they were not expecting to be rewarded. On the contrary, +they would be exceedingly surprised when the king found them out, and +embraced them, and made them sit on his right hand. The good people +in the fairy tales always were. But there was sure to be no mistake +in the end. The good people always had their due when the true +prince came. And it was not to be thought of that England was to be +worse governed than a kingdom in fairy-land. + + +The next week we were still more satisfied that we had entered on +this fairy world. For as Isaac, Dolly, and I were passing +Westminster Abbey, we heard an unwonted sound issuing from it, and +crept in to listen. Then, for the first time, we heard the organ, +with the chant of the choristers. But we no more thought of its +being an earthly instrument, made of wood and metal, than of the +golden streets of the New Jerusalem being made of gold like one of +our coins. + +The wonderful sounds rolled up and down the aisles, and wound in and +out among the arches, and wreathed the old stone pillars, and seemed +to lose themselves in far-off shrines and mysterious endless recesses +like those in a forest, and then to come back again changed and +intertwined with earlier echoes to mingle with the new tides of music +that kept streaming forth; until we found that all the while the +wondrous tones had seemed wandering at their own sweet will, they had +been building a temple within the temple--a temple of melody within +the temple of stone. And the Abbey was no more a sculptured edifice, +but a living body with a living soul. And when this temple was +built, angels came and sang in it--voices such as we had never heard +on earth--clear as bells, and free as winds, without a touch of the +struggle and sadness in them which common human voices have. + +Thus Isaac, Dolly, and I walked home, with the gates of paradise all +open around us. + +The next morning we crept out again to listen if these heavenly gates +were open still. + +But on our way we met a noisy, riotous crowd dragging along a bear +which was to be baited in the Spring Gardens. Isaac said "baiting" +meant that it was to be torn in pieces by dogs for the amusement of +the people, after killing and gashing as many dogs as it could, +meantime, in its own defence. This was an amusement which the +Protector had not permitted. The thought of it closed the gates of +paradise to me, at least for that day. + + +OLIVE'S RECOLLECTIONS. + +They laid him in the Abbey among the kings. + +For two years the dust of Tudors and Plantagenets was honoured (so +Roger thought) by the neighbourhood of the mortal part of the man who +had served England as any of her kings might have been proud to have +served her--had loved her, as we believe, more than home or life, or +even the esteem of good men--had made her greater than any king or +prince had ever made her, from Alfred to the Elizabeth whom he called +"that great queen." + +And then, in the September after the Restoration, (by order of the +king who sold Dunkirk to the French, and spent the money like the +prodigal in the parable), the noble dust was taken out of its +resting-place, with the remains of the aged mother, and that +daughter, Elizabeth Claypole, whom the Protector had loved so dearly; +and of Blake, the great admiral, who had made the name of England a +renown from the shores of Italy and Algiers to Teneriffe and the +western islands of the Spanish main, to be cast contemptuously into a +pit in the neighbouring churchyard of St. Margaret's. + +I think, when he was gone, most good men in England--at least most +Puritan good men--felt something was lost our generation was scarce +likely to recover. The Scottish ministers said that God's goodness +had marvellously caused true piety to flourish more under this +usurper than under her rightful kings; "turning bitter waters into +sweet by a miracle." And so thought Mr. Richard Baxter; +acknowledging, moreover, that he believed the Protector, misled as he +had been, "meant well in the main." + +Good Mr. Philip Henry (who kept the day of the late king's death as a +fast day) wrote, that though during the years between forty and +sixty, "the foundations were out of course, yet in the matter of +God's worship thing went well; there was freedom and reformation." + +Mistress Lucy Hutchinson acknowledged that he had much natural +greatness, and well became the place he had usurped, and that "his +personal courage and magnanimity upheld him against all enemies and +malcontents." And Mr. John Maidstone, his faithful "gentleman and +cofferer," wrote (when nothing but dishonour could come to any for +honouring him): "In the direst perils of the war, and the high places +of the field, hope shone in him like a pillar of fire when it had +gone out in others." And he described him thus: "A body well compact +and strong; his stature under six feet (I believe two inches); his +head so shaped as you might see it both a _storehouse_ and a _shop_" +(full for every need, ready for all occasions); "a vast treasury of +natural parts; his temper exceeding fiery (as I have known), but the +flame of it kept down, for the most part, or soon allayed, with those +moral endowments he had; naturally compassionate towards objects in +distress, even to an effeminate measure, though God had made in him a +heart wherein was left little room for fear. _A larger soul, I +think, hath seldom dwelt in a house of clay than his was_." + +But he was gone. And all the people in England who thought they +could govern England better than he had governed her, were at liberty +to try. + +They did try, for a little more than a year. And at the end of that +time the whole nation, distracted to madness from end to end by the +disorders they brought about, threw itself at the feet of Charles the +Second, in a frenzy of loyalty, without conditions, simply +entreating, like a child wearied with its own wilfulness, to be +forgiven and governed and kept quiet, yielding every precious +right--the fruit of our forefathers' blood and toil--into his hands, +content, if he had been strong, to be made as servile as he pleased; +ready, alas, he being not strong, but weak and profligate, to be made +as base as (for the time) he could and did make it. + +"Such," said Roger, "was the Aceldama from which that strong faithful +arm had saved us." + +"Such," sighed my father, "was the end of the most beneficent of +despotisms that could not be immortal." + +Roger never ceased, during the few months of the Commonwealth, to do +all he could to carry out what he believed would have been the Lord +Protector's wish, doing his utmost to serve my Lord Richard, the new +Protector, and, after his resignation, to keep order and discipline +in the army. But he worked with little hope. During all the times +of trial before or since, I never saw him so downcast and desponding +as then. + +When once the Restoration came his spirits seemed, strangely, to rise +again. + +He had done his best; and the worst had come. The hopeless struggle +without a chief was over, and henceforth he, and those who thought +with him, must gird on a new courage, not to contend but to endure. +I well remember how, on the evening of the day of the king's entry +into London, he came into our parlour, and unlaced his helmet, and +quietly ungirding his sword, laid it on a shelf behind the great +Family Bible. + +He said nothing, but the action spoke; and we understood, and also +said nothing. + +Then he left the room, and after a time came down, with every vestige +of the old armour of the Ironsides gone, in the plain dress of a +Puritan gentleman, and sitting down, he took Maidie on his knee, and +began to talk to her cheerily. + +It overcame me altogether to see him so, for I knew it meant that he +had given up all hope for himself, and well-nigh for England, and the +tears fell fast on my sewing. He saw them, and gently setting Maidie +down, he came and sat down close by me, and said,-- + +"Let us thank God, Olive. The old army has been true to itself, and +to him who made it what it was, to the last. + +"We were gathered on Black Heath to-day, thirty thousand of us; +enough to have swept the king and his courtiers, and London and its +citizens, into the Thames. We had done more than that before, I +think, with fewer of us. And we know, most of us, that this day is +as our last; the last of the old army he made. Many of us see +nothing left to fight for, and will go back quietly to farm and home, +to honest toil and trade, that is, if they will let us; for there are +not a few of us that look for a halter rather than a home when the +king enjoys his own again in security. They will hardly trust us +together in force again. The discipline which won Naseby and gained +Dunbar never wavered. But we let the royal party pass quietly, as if +the Lord General had given the word of command. And that, I think, +is something to give thanks for. It would not have been well to +tarnish his memory by disorders he would have reproved." + +After that, the great army of the Commonwealth died away, as Roger +had expected, and was heard of no more, except when aged yeomen and +tradesmen, on village greens and in city homes, now and then +enkindled, as they spoke to each other of Naseby, Dunbar, Worcester, +and Dunkirk, into an enthusiasm strange to the next generation, who +had only known them peacefully labouring in the field, the workshop, +or at the forge. + +But the bones of the Protector had not yet reached their last +resting-place. On the 3rd of January 1661; the anniversary of the +"martyrdom of His Sacred Majesty" eleven years before, the body of +the "great prince" was once more disinterred, with that of Bradshaw, +hanged throughout the day on a gibbet at Tyburn, and at night thrown +like that of a dog into a pit at the foot of the gallows. + +It was a marvellous proof of the just judgments of God, some of the +Royalists thought, slow but sure. + +Roger only said, when he could speak of it all, which was not for +long, "'_After that, have no more that they can do_.' They have done +the worst. And how little it is, that even the basest vengeance +could add to the dishonour of the dust, and the worm, which awaits +what is mortal of us all! The distance between Tyburn and the royal +tombs in the Abbey is little indeed, measured from heaven. Nor will +it take longer time from the one than from the other to hear the +trumpet when it sounds, and to obey its summons." + +"But England is dishonoured by the deed." + +"I think not," he replied; "or not chiefly by _that_ deed. The men +of England may be dishonoured that they did not acknowledge him +living. But no grave in England can dishonour him dead, or can take +his dust from the faithful keeping of his native earth; nor, I think, +can all men may do keep the day from coming when England shall feel +that not one spot only, but every inch of English earth is made more +sacred by his feet having trodden it, and by his dust being mingled +with it." + +Little indeed can human vengeance add to the dishonour of death, when +once death is past. + +But alas, on this side, how much is possible to human cruelty! + +As victim after victim proved, led forth to the ignominy and the +protracted anguish of the traitor's death, patiently giving up their +souls to God amidst such agonies as the torturer's knife could +inflict. + +Some were in the prime of life and strong to feel; others aged and +weak to bear. But I never heard that any of the ten who so suffered +dishonoured either themselves, what they deemed "the good old cause," +England, or the God who sustained them, by one unworthy word or moan. + +The savage punishment of treason had never been inflicted once during +the Commonwealth. It was suffered eleven times in the first year +after the Restoration. It came back with the May-poles, and the +beautiful coats of many colours, and courtly manners. + +The king was present at some of these executions. He went from them +to hear the beautiful heavenly music in the Royal Chapel; or to +listen to other music, not heavenly, in the palace. + +But the people grew weary of this soon. It was feared that if these +executions were too often repeated, the minds of the Commonwealth +might once more become confused about the enormity of the crime, +illogically forgetting it in the enormity of the punishment. And it +was recommended they should not be continued; at all events, not so +near the royal residence. + +But amidst all the restorations--which to us seemed not going forward +and upward, but backward and downward--there was one which brought me +some peaceful and hallowed hours. + +It was the restoration of the old Liturgy. + +There was comfort in creeping into some quiet corner of the Abbey, or +of the great churches of the city, to join in the old familiar sacred +words. + +It was rest to kneel in silent adoration, and be certain one's heart +would not be turned aside from lifting itself up to God, by any +allusions to the triumphs or the reverses, the wrongs or the +revenges, of to-day. + +It was joy, in the _Te Deum_, to lose sight of divisions and +factions, and with the glorious company of apostles, the goodly +fellowship of the prophets, the noble army of martyrs, the holy +Church throughout all the world, to praise Him of the majesty of +whose glory all the earth is full. + +It was strength to stand up, and say with the Church of all ages and +lands: "I believe in God, the Father Almighty; and in Jesus Christ, +His only Son, our Lord; in the forgiveness of sins, in the holy +Catholic Church, and in the resurrection from the dead." + +To stand up above the graves, and under the heavens, and say this to +God; in the words I used in my childhood, and Lady Lucy, and so many +of our holy dead all their lives, and the Church for so many ages; +words which had outlived so many wars, and which flowed from calm +depths so far beneath them all. + + +LETTICE'S DIARY. + +Davenant Hall, _June_ 1660.--The country seems in a delirium of +delight to see us back again, and to have a king once more. + +"The Usurper, or the people who followed him, must, one would think, +have made England very wretched, that the restoration of her old +state should drive her well-nigh wild with joy. + +"At Dover, where His Majesty landed, and all along the road to +London, sober men and women knelt and sobbed out blessings on him! +Old men thanked God they saw this day before they died; Mothers held +up their children to look at him, that they might be able to carry on +to children and grandchildren the tradition of this glorious day! + +"Arches of triumph across the sober old streets; banners from the +windows, mad huzzas from the sober crowds, in whose costume tarnished +relics of old Cavalier gaieties struggled to kindle the Puritan +sobriety into colour. Oh, the thrill all through the heart of the +old English shout of welcome and triumph, the old English cheer! No +wonder Marshal Turenne asked what it meant at Dunkirk. + +"Dear, sober, solid, silent old England, when she goes wild, she does +it with a will. Bells, bonfires; dumb, patient crowds waiting, well +content, for hours, just for the moment's sight and the moment's +shout of welcome. The attempts to utter this joy in speeches and +processions, so hopelessly stiff and clumsy and inadequate, that +laughter and tears are kept in close neighbourhood all the time, so +delightfully inadequate to utter the welcome and delights in the +deep, dumb ocean of the nation's heart. + +"So glad, so crazy with joy, to see us back again! Patient, blind, +hopeful, wilful, loyal old mother of us all; and why? + +"Eleven years ago she suffered her king to die on the scaffold; and +this king, I think, is scarce like to be better. + +"It is strange to be made so much of as we are by all the neighbours +here. No one has been very glad to have us for so many years. And +now we are all heroes and heroines, we who have been with the king in +his exile. They cannot hear enough of what we did and suffered in +foreign parts, and of the bearing of the royal family in their +adverse fortunes. + +"And, in truth, we have come rather soon to the end of what we like +to say about His Majesty. + +"Yet His Majesty also cannot fail but be swept on with the joy and +hope of the nation. + +"Surely, surely the very welcome must be ennobling to him so +welcomed. The very love and trust of a whole people, such as this, +must inspire His Majesty to be worthy of the feeling he inspires; +must consume in its pure fires all that we had fain see consumed of +the past; must enkindle in his heart a returning glow of kingly +patriotism, which shall hallow it into an altar on which all falser +and baser fires shall be extinguished. + +"I had scarce thought we should have had so much to regret in leaving +France. We had always felt it so completely a land of exile, and had +always so hoped our sojourn in it must be drawing to a close, that it +was not until we had to sever them we learned how many ties had +slowly been weaving themselves around us, and binding our hearts to +the strange country. + +"Even the lofty rooms in the old palace, which had seemed such mere +prison-chambers when we entered them; even my father's old enemy 'the +stone woman, who could never empty her pitcher,' seemed to have +acquired a kind of right in us. + +"Madame la Mothe made a vain attempt at softening the parting with +congratulatory little pleasantries. They broke down into tears and +tender reproaches, her heart being much moved at the time, moreover, +by the death of her nephew, for the sake of whose young widow she +consented to remain in 'the world' to manage the family estates. + +"'Thou shouldst, indeed, have a heavy weight on thy conscience,' she +said to me, 'with all thine innocent looks. My poor nephew would +have been so happy with thee, if thou wouldst have wedded him; he +would never have gone to the wars and left this poor little helpless +widow to my guardianship. Then my nephew, still happily surviving, +and thou making his life good and pleasant, I should at last, +perhaps, have had leisure and grace to make a thorough conversion. I +should have gone to Port Royal, and thou, being brought in this way +more intimately acquainted with the exemplary piety of those saintly +ladies, wouldst once more have considered thy heresies, and at last +taken that little step--that one little step which divides thee from +the True Fold. Thus I should have made my own salvation and thine; +thou the salvation of my nephew. So all might have ended like a +romance composed for the edification of youth. And now see the +contrast! I remain in the world, bound to it by this poor young +widow (with whom otherwise I have no fault to find); thou returnest +to thine unbelieving England. My heart feels desolate for thee, as +if I lost thy mother and a second youth in losing thee. And, alas, +these gentlemen the Jesuits threaten to overwhelm Port Royal. Thus +every thing goes on to the wrong end. Or, if the romance is ever to +end right, there must be another volume, another volume not yet even +begun, quite out of my sight; which Heaven grant there may be! +Heaven grant there be, my child, here or hereafter. For me, +certainly, not here; but, if Heaven wills, I pray for thee, here and +hereafter also.' + +"Barbe was sorely distracted between me and her seven sisters and +brothers. At length she decided, with many tears, that duty bound +her to her family. + +"'My father is an excellent man, mademoiselle, also a great +politician, and religious as a pastor; but in the affairs of the +earth, mademoiselle, he is a child, blameless--but a child. + +"'And there are these seven other children. I call them still +children, because I am five years older than any of them, and because +they were children when I left them to attend mademoiselle, and gain +a living for the rest. The youngest is not yet eleven. The oldest +is scarcely twenty. He is a student, learned and "eloquent (my +father says) as Demosthenes." But, unhappily, not endowed with those +talents which earn bread. As yet I alone have developed these +inferior capacities; transitory, but, alas, so necessary in a world +where our corn has to be baked before it can be eaten, and one's flax +to be spun before it can be worn. What then can I do? If my father +should at last obtain that appointment he is always expecting from +some appreciating statesmen, or one of the children should develop +these inferior gifts for earning bread; and if then mademoiselle +should not, in the splendour of the establishment she was born to and +so well deserves, have forgotten her poor little French Huguenot +maid--' + +"But here Barbe's eloquence broke down, and she wept. + +"'I shall never forget thee, Barbe,' I said, 'nor the ten thousand +lessons of self-denial and sweet temper and cheerful diligence I have +learned from thee.' + +"'But mademoiselle will then have ladies for her attendants,' sighed +Barbe, who, in spite of all I could say, had formed very exalted +ideas of our destinies. + +"'Never one with such fingers as thine, or with a better heart,' I +said. + +"'Then,' sighed Barbe, as she delicately arranged my hair in long +tresses, 'it might yet be. History, my father says, is more romantic +than the romances. I might even yet arrange again this luxuriant +hair.' + +"'Scarcely luxuriant then, Barbe; or, if luxuriant gray, and only fit +to be soberly bound beneath some simple coif in some homely fashion, +quite unworthy of thy skilful fingers. You found three white hairs +yesterday.' + +"'Sorrow, not years!' she said, quietly. 'Mademoiselle has allowed +me sometimes to know how it was she understood our sorrows so well.' + +"'Sorrows partly, and partly years, Barbe,' I said. 'This Book tells +us the years are leading us on to the end of the sorrows, and the +sorrows training us to enjoy the harvest of the years.' + +"And we shed tears together as she read the inscription I had written +on the large French Bible I had bought her as a souvenir. + +"'Ah, mademoiselle,' she said, 'I shall always hear your voice +reading it; your voice and my mother's, the kindest I have ever known +or shall ever know till I meet you both again.' + + +"I saw Mistress Dorothy in the crowd at the entry into London. She +seemed half-kneeling--an unspeakable mark of honour from her dear +inflexible Puritan knees. She seemed a little aged; but her face was +all aglow with enthusiasm. And with her were two fair rosy children, +not like city children, who gazed at me with wide-open wondering +eyes--those of the eldest dark and flashing, like Dr. Antony's; the +other has Olive's eyes. I think she has told them something of +Lettice, little wild Lettice Davenant. They looked pleased, and yet +so puzzled. + +"My eyes went past them, but in vain. None else of the old Netherby +friends was there. Alas, I fear, they are not all swept into this +tide of welcome. + +"Roger's 'king,' I fear, lies silent underground. Like mine. His, +buried in state (they say), among the kings he supplanted, at +Westminster. Mine, laid in silence among the kings, his fathers, at +Windsor. + +"The great gulf between us is hardly bridged over yet. + +"Netherby is empty. Mr. Drayton and Mistress Gretel are in London +with Olive. + +"This old place is in such order as if we had left it yesterday, +which is more, I think, than any other of the exiled Cavaliers can +say of their restored homes. + +"I know how. I see the hands that did it all, at every turn, in +every nook, in every flower in my mother's terrace-garden so neat and +trim, in every grove and arbour of the Pleasaunce, where we used to +ramble in the old days. + +"Ungrateful that I am! I could almost wish they had left it +neglected. I could almost wish the roses had run wild, that the +flower-beds had returned to the possession of forest weeds, the +smooth turf run up into long wild grasses, that the terrace walls +were green and moss-grown, that nature had been suffered to run into +the elfish kind of revels she likes to play when she finds her way +once more into gardens stolen from her domain, that time had been +suffered to weave the tangled garlands wherewith, as with a lavish +funereal pomp, he is wont to strew deserted places which have been +dear to human creatures. + +"So much has run wild, has run to seed, has blossomed and shed its +bloom since then! So much is gone for ever and for ever, it is +almost more than I can bear to find these familiar things so much the +same. Ungrateful, diseased thoughts, I will not give them a minute's +voluntary entertainment. + +"Gone? _Nothing_ worth keeping has really gone, not one blossom +worth living has really faded. They have not faded, they have +fruited. They have fruited, or they are ripening into fruit, sunbeam +by sunbeam, shower by shower, day by day. Rich summer-time, golden +harvest-time of life! God forbid that I never speak 'pulingly' (as +he said), as if spring faded and not ripened into summer, or dawn +died instead of glowed into day. + +"And most of all this is so with thee, mother, mother! with thee, +whose lost presence makes garden, terrace, chamber, so sacred and so +sad. I know it--I know it! Thy dawn was full of tears, and has +glowed indeed into the day. I know it; and when I think of thee, of +thee and Harry, I rejoice in it. + +"As to myself, I cannot rejoice at it. Nor need I try. Thank God, I +need not freeze my heart by vainly trying to make sorrow not sorrow. +The sorrow is my share of it now, and the joy is to come _through +that_, through opening our hearts patiently to that, not by closing +them and trying to make some wretched artificial sunshine out of the +shadow of the cloud. The cloud is sent to bring us not light, but +shadow and rain. Behind and after it the sunshine, when the time +comes for that! + + +"I thought I saw Job Forster among the thirty thousand on Blackheath; +the terrible thousands which kept France and Spain and Europe in awe +all these years, and kept us out of England. Why they let us come +back at all is the wonder. For they were not broken nor disordered, +but compact and strong as ever. And I scarce think they share in the +welcome the nation gives us. I think most of us breathed more freely +when that dread host was passed. + +"I thought I saw Job Forster among them. Yet when I went into +Netherby, there he was at the old forge, working away as steadily and +soberly as if he had never left it, instead of roaming all over the +world at the beck of Oliver, beating army after army--English, +Royalist, Irish, Scottish, Spanish, on field after field. + +"I could scarce trust my eyes. I was half afraid to speak to him, +fearing lest he should give me but a grim greeting as a fragment of +the "malignant interest" wherewith they have dealt somewhat sternly. +Beside him stood a lad in a blacksmith's apron, helping him at the +forge, with a curious perplexing half-resemblance in his face, which +perplexed me like a strain of some familiar tune interwoven into +strange music. + +"But before I passed, Job looked up at my footsteps, and seeing me, I +suppose he forgot Naseby Worcester, malignancy, and everything, for +he threw down his tools, and striding forward, took my hands in both +of his, black as they were, and shook them till the tears ran down my +face, mostly for gladness, and a little for the pain in my fingers. + +"'Mistress Lettice, my dear,' he said, 'I am right glad to see thee +back again. Come how ye may,' he added, to guard himself against any +political concession--'come how ye may.' + +"Then Rachel came out at the door of the old cottage, her dear quiet +face little aged since I saw her at Oxford, when she made her way +through the royal lines to find her wounded husband in the prison. +Little aged, yet somewhat changed; ripened, not aged; less of outward +suffering, more of protecting motherliness in her ways and looks and +tones. And she, too, came forward and courtseyed, a little more +mindful of good manners, and bade me welcome, in words like the Book +of Ruth, to my country, and my people, and my father's house. + +"How sweet it was! The old English country tongue; the old English +welcome, shyly suppressing twice as much pleasure as it uttered, so +sweet that I could say nothing, but could only take her hands in +mine, and seek refuge in the cottage, and sit quiet, with my head on +her kind old heart, until the crowding memories and joys and sorrows +and love and loss which stifled each other into silence found their +outlet in a burst of tears. + +"It was soon over. And then a pale woman with a meek still face came +forward at Rachel's bidding from a dark corner of the room, where she +had been sitting sewing, and filled me a cup of fresh water from a +little basin outside the window. + +"When she came close to me she smiled, and made a little reverence. +And the smile brought back for a moment the youth into her face. And +I knew at once she was Cicely, Gammer Grindle's grandchild. Then it +all flashed on me in an instant. I had found where the strain of the +familiar tune came from; the lad outside was her son, and by Divine +right, if not by human law, Sir Launcelot's heir. + +"I shook her hand, and she lifted it to her lips and kissed it, with +a grace which brought back the day when that pale woman had danced +round the May-pole, laughing and rosy, and light-footed and +light-hearted, with so many looking on whose faces we should not see +again. + +"I shall get used to it all in time. But now scarce a familiar old +sight or sound but would move me to tears, if I did not repress them; +as I do, of course. For I would not have the people think I came +back among them with a sorrowful heart, or one left in foreign parts. + +"And how can they understand how the paths they have been going up +and down upon, and the doors they have been going in and out of every +day these eleven years, to me are doors into a buried past, and paths +trodden by feet that tread our earthly ways never more? + +"Yet I think Rachel understands it, for as I was coming away she +said,-- + +"'There has been One walking all the way with us all, Mistress +Lettice, all the time. And He knows all.' + +"It was just the strengthening word I wanted to turn me, from the +past to the Ever-Present, from the dead to the Living, for all live +unto Him. A glimpse into the heart of the Son of man, I think, such +as Rachel Forster has, gives those who have it a vision into the +hearts of all men. + +"To my father, our home-coming is well-nigh unmixed delight. He is +as frolicsome as a boy, full of schemes for re-uniting and +reconciling the whole world, by means primarily of ale and roast +beef. How pleasant it is to hear his great hearty voice ringing +through the hall and court, among the stables, giving orders about +the stud, the farm, the hounds; waxing warm over Roundhead insolence +with the old servants; cracking jokes with the young ones; mistaking +people for their grandfathers and grandmothers; and making his way +out of all his entanglements by chivalrous old courtly compliments +and hearty old English jokes; and through all never ceasing to be the +courtier and the master, and scarcely ever losing his temper, except +now and then with the cool mockeries of Roland, and the reckless +carriage of Walter and the courtiers of the New Court whom he brings +to see us. Indeed, it needs an occasional refreshing of my father's +recollection of the days of the Roundheads to keep his loyalty to the +Old Court very warm towards the new." + + +OLIVE'S RECOLLECTIONS. + +Aunt Dorothy was much with us during the months after the Restoration. + +She was marvellously gracious and gentle all that time. She believed +that we had suffered for our political sins, and must be convinced by +the irresistible demonstration of failure of the vanity and folly of +our conduct; and she was too magnanimous and too confident to demand +confession. It must now be but too plain to us, she thought, that we +had erred grievously, and she only hoped our retribution might not be +too grievous. For herself, she forgave us our follies on the ground +of their failure. The King himself, who had so much to forgive, had +written a letter from Breda offering indemnity for the past and +liberty of conscience for the future, and should she be more rigid +than His Majesty? Far from it. She would take the whole family +under her wing, and protect us as far as lay in her power from the +consequences of our transgressions. + +She had even some thoughts of extending toleration further than she +had once deemed possible. Mr. Baxter deemed a church government +possible which might include "Diocesans," Presbyterians, and +Independents; and a Liturgy which might be joined in by +moderate--very moderate--Arminians, and moderate (she feared +lukewarm) Calvinists. + +She scarcely saw her way to it. If any one could accomplish such a +thing, Mr. Baxter might. Some indulgence ought, perhaps (if +possible), to be extended to the Prelatists, on account of their +loyalty. Some concessions might perhaps be made to the Independents +(among whom she did not deny were some godly men) to prevent their +straying further into the wilderness of the Fifth Monarchy party, the +Quakers, and the Anabaptists. Much was doubtless due to charity. +And when once the true Presbyterian order was established, the gates +of Zion rebuilt, and her walls--though in troublous times--it was to +be hoped that the sober beauty of her fair towers and palaces would +root out the prelatical passion for Babylonish splendours, and the +Independent predilection for new ways, and "holes and corners," from +the hearts of all that beheld. + +For that the day of Presbyterial triumph had at last dawned on this +distracted England, she would not be so faint-hearted as to doubt. + +Had not His Majesty three times signed the Scottish Covenant? Had +not the divines who went to see him at Breda been suffered to listen +(unsuspected of course by His Majesty) to his private devotions, +until their souls were moved within them? Had not the excellent +Countess of Balcarres told Mr. Baxter how satisfied the French +Presbyterian ministers were with his religious dispositions? Had not +Monsieur Gaches, pastor of Charenton, himself written to Mr. Baxter +how His Majesty attended and appreciated the French Protestant +services? Had not Mr. Baxter himself been appointed one of His +Majesty's chaplains? And if this were insufficient grounds for +confidence, what honest English heart, what loyal soul, could dare to +doubt that a young king with such bitter lessons behind him, with +such glorious hopes before him, trusted and welcomed as never king +had been by the nation, brought back (as she believed) mainly by the +agency of covenanted soldiers, and the prayers and loyal endeavours +of Presbyterian pastors and their flocks, would be faithful to his +oaths, more especially when to be faithful to his promises was to be +faithful to his interests? Was there not, moreover, the solemn +Conference actually going on among the divines of the various parties +at the Savoy? + +Had not Mr. Baxter been encouraged to state all the Puritan +objections to the Prayer-book to the full--to propound any number of +"queries," and elaborate any number of alterations; and had he not +embraced the privilege to the full, sparing not a vestige of the +Babylonish vesture? Had he not, moreover, in a fortnight, drawn up +an amended Liturgy, correcting all the mistakes of the ancient +Prayer-book, and supplying all its omissions?--a form which, if there +must be forms, might satisfy the most scrupulous. Had not even the +learned Dr. Gauden, who had issued that most affecting Portraiture of +His Sacred Majesty, called the Icon Basilike, shown himself most +unfeignedly courteous and conciliating, and hopeful of an +accommodation? + +All these considerations set Aunt Dorothy on such a lofty pinnacle of +hope, that she suffered even Annis Nye to call her Friend Dorothy +without open rebuke, and was suspected of meditating a scheme which +might even embrace Anabaptists ("if they would only rebaptise each +other, and not blaspheme other people's baptism") and Quakers, if +they would hold silent meetings. + +The moment of triumph was not the moment for reproaches. Aunt +Dorothy, triumphing over us all, in fact, tolerated us all in +prospect. + +I confess it was sometimes a little difficult to be thus loftily +forgiven; and, indeed, I remember once when in a moment of +unparalleled magnanimity Aunt Dorothy loftily extended her toleration +to Dr. Martin Luther, saying that, although she could never think him +justified about some things, yet that she believed after all "he was +right in the main, poor man, and great allowance must be made for one +so recently set free from Popery;" that Aunt Gretel herself was +roused to say privately to me, "Olive, dear heart, I believe if St. +Paul were to appear she would tell him that, after all, she believed +he was right in the main, although she never could think he was +justified in shaving his head at Cenchrea, but great allowances were +to be made for any one only just set free from being a Pharisee.'" + +There were, indeed, a few symptoms which ruffled even Aunt Dorothy's +calm loyal confidence. It was unfortunate, she could not deny, that +(in consequence of certain legal technicalities) Mr. Baxter was +deprived of his living, the former vicar displaced by the +Commonwealth having at once entered on it as his right. But these +little perplexities were sure to be soon set right. All +transferences of authority were sure at first to press unjustly on +some. + +In the meantime Mr. Baxter had been offered a bishopric. He had +declined the bishopric, until the Comprehension for which the +Conference was labouring was fully accomplished. But the bishopric +had been offered, the chaplaincy accepted; and who could doubt that +in time, if he wished, his living would be restored? the old vicar +being, moreover, scarce able to preach at all, and sixteen hundred +communicants having sent up a request from Kidderminster for the +restoration of Mr. Baxter. + +It was also unfortunate, she admitted, that many hundred "painful +preachers" had been suddenly removed from their churches on the same +grounds as Mr. Baxter; but the Protector and his triers (said Aunt +Dorothy) had set an ill example, and ill fruit must be expected to +grow of it. + +Then there were some severe dealings with books. Mr. John Milton's +"Defence of the English People" was burned at Charing Cross by the +public hangman. But at that, said Aunt Dorothy, no loyal person +could wonder, seeing that therein he had dared to speak of the late +king's execution as a great and magnanimous act. Properly regarded, +it was indeed a singular proof of His Majesty's clemency that Mr. +Milton's book only was burned, and not Mr. Milton himself. + +The public burning of the Covenant was a more doubtful act. This she +saw with her own eyes at Kidderminster, in the market-place, before +Mr. Baxter's windows. The king had signed it and sworn to it, and +there were excellent things in it. But there was no denying it had +been used to seditious ends. Some (concluded Aunt Dorothy, pressed +hard for a Scriptural example) had ground the brazen serpent to +powder because it had been made an idol. And she had little doubt, +with reverence she said it, Moses would have done the same with the +very Tables of the Law, if they had been similarly desecrated. The +Ark itself was not spared, but suffered to fall into the hands of the +Philistines when Israel would have used it like a heathen charm. + +Nevertheless, with these arguments I believe Aunt Dorothy herself was +not easy; she was driven to them by Job Forster, who had asked her +one day, with a grim irony, how she liked the new doings in Scotland, +the execution of Argyle, the forcing of Prelacy and the Prayer-book +on the unwilling Presbyterian people, and the burning of the Covenant +in Edinburgh. + +But as the months of 1661 passed on, and the Conference stood still, +whilst Mr. Baxter and the other deprived ministers were not restored, +Aunt Dorothy's lofty confidence gradually changed into an irritable +apprehension, which took the form of vehement indignation against all +who refused to believe in the favorable issue of events, or who, as +she believed, stood in the way of it. And it often moved me much to +see how, with ingenious fondness, like a mother with a wild son, she +laid the blame on the servants of the house, on the riotous company +or grudging hospitality of the far country, on the very management of +the home itself rather than on the royal prodigal. + +A large portion of this diverted current of wrath was poured on the +Queen-mother, Henrietta Maria, who held open celebration of Roman +Catholic rites in her palace. + +To any information concerning the appropriation of apartments in the +king's palace to the king's "lady" or "ladies," she refused +absolutely to listen. "It is written," said she, "thou shalt not +speak evil of the ruler of thy people. But," she added, "if any one +were to blame, it was the party that had exposed him to the +seductions of his mother Jezebel, and the idolatrous foreign court. +Indeed, who can doubt the pureness of the king's Protestant +principle, which (even if his morals had been a little contaminated) +had resisted Papistical enticements so long?" + +The scene in Whitehall, where the king, under a canopy of state, laid +his hands on those who were brought to him to heal them of "the +king's evil," while the chaplain repeated the words, "_He laid His +hands on the sick and healed them_," was indeed a sore scandal to +her. It made her very indignant with the chaplain, who had misguided +His Majesty. + +"Mr. Baxter must be careful," she said, "how he conceded too much to +the Prelatical party." + +But the chief force of her wrath was directed against the +Queen-mother, who, she said, had ruined one king and one generation +of Englishmen, and was doing her best to ruin a second; against the +Queen-mother and the Fifth Monarchy men. + +To the insurrection of Venner, the winecooper, in January 1661, she +attributed the delay and disappointment in the Conference. How was a +young king, kept in exile so long, to learn in a moment to +distinguish between the various sects, or not to be induced by such +fanatical outbursts to believe the evil advisers who persuaded him +that outside the ancient Episcopal Church lay nothing but a slippery +descent from depth to depth? + +Still she hoped on from month to month, or protested that she did, +although her hopes made her less and less glad, and more and more +irritable, until she tried all our tempers in turn. All except +Roger's. His patience and gentleness with her was unwearied. + +"I know what she is feeling, Olive," he said. "I went through it all +between the Protector's death and the Restoration; hoping against +hope. It strains temper and heart as nothing else does. She will +have to give it up, and then she will be all right again." + +"Give up hoping, Roger?" I said. + +"Give up hoping against reason, give up trying to persuade oneself +down hill is up hill, and evening morning," he said, "and going into +the cloud coming out of it; giving up trying to see things as they +are not, Olive. Seeing things as they are, and still hoping, that +makes the spirit calm again. Hoping, knowing, that the end of the +road is up the heights, not into the abysses; that the evening is +only a foreshadowing of the morning that shall not tarry; that the +sun and not the cloud abides. That the Lord Christ," he added, +lowering his voice to tones which, soft as a whisper, vibrated +through my heart like thunder, "and not the devil, has all power in +heaven and in earth, and that His kingdom shall have no end." + +"Your hope is for the Church, Roger, but not for England." + +His face kindled as he answered,-- + +"Not for England? Always for England!--for England everywhere! Now; +in the ages to come; on this side of the sea, on the other side of +the sea; in the Old World and in the New; under the bondage of this +profligate tyranny, which must wear itself out as surely as a +putrifying carcass must decay; in the wilderness, where our people +are beginning a story more glorious, I believe, than all the heroic +tales of old Greece." + +For at that time, whilst doing all in his power by promoting concord +amongst Christians to aid Mr. Baxter and the ministers who were +seeking for "healing and settlement," and whilst sharing my husband's +labours among those in prison, Roger began to look with a new +interest on the tidings which came to us from the Plantations, +especially those concerning Mr. John Eliot, who was labouring to +convert the poor Indian natives to Christianity. In this he and Aunt +Dorothy had much sympathy. Mr. Baxter had always taken a lively +interest in this missionary work. Collections had been made during +the Commonwealth to aid in supporting evangelists, and aid in +translating the Bible and good books into the languages of the +natives; and now, in the midst of all his conferences and +contentions, Mr. Baxter was labouring at obtaining a charter for a +_Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts_. And in this +he succeeded. + +At that time a manuscript was much in Roger's hands, containing a +copy of Journals of the early Puritan settlers of forty years before. +He found it the best lesson of true hope he had ever read. And +during the winter evenings of 1661 he would often recite passages +aloud to us. Amidst the misunderstandings of good men and the +conflicts of parties, it was like a breath of bracing wind to listen +to those conflicts of our countrymen with rains and snows and storms, +and all the hardships of the wild country peopled by wild beasts and +wilder men. As in the Bible stories, there was little making of +sermons or drawing of morals in this narrative. The whole story was +a sermon, and engraved its own moral on the heart as it went on. In +three months half the first noble pilgrim band died, of cold and wet, +insufficient shelter and insufficient food. The original hundred +were reduced to fifty. Fifty living, and fifty graves to consecrate +the new country. Then the grave had to be levelled indistinguishably +into the sweep of the earth around, lest the hostile Indians, seeing +them, should violate them. Yet never a moan nor a murmur. Their +trust in God revealing itself in their patience and courage, their +cheerfulness and unquenchable hope. And now for the fifty were more +than twenty thousand; and the wilderness had become a place of +English homesteads and villages, fondly called by the old English +names. + +As Roger read and told us of these things the world grew round to me +for the first time. I began to see there was another side to it. +And the vision of this new world--this new English world--rose before +me as a new Land of Promise, which if persecution ever made this +England for the time "the wilderness," might be a refuge for our +suffering brethren again. + +Not indeed for us. I did not think so much of ourselves: our +convictions were moderate and our lives peaceable; and the Star +Chamber was not likely to be re-established within the memory of the +generation that had destroyed it. But the Anabaptists, and the more +decided Independents, who objected to all forms of prayer, and the +Quakers, might find such an asylum yet very welcome. Already there +were four thousand Quakers in prison. Some had been shut up, sixty +in a cell, and had died of bad air and scanty food. For sober +Presbyterians, like Aunt Dorothy and Mr. Baxter, or moderate people +attached with few scruples to the Liturgy, like my father, my +husband, and myself, there might not indeed be the triumph in store +of which Aunt Dorothy dreamed. But of persecution or imprisonment we +did not dream. The tide could never rise again in our lifetime as +high as that. + +It perplexed us much that during all these months we saw nothing of +the Davenants. We did not chance to be at Netherby during the year +1661, or the beginning of 1662. My father had rheumatism, and was +ordered not to winter on the Fens; my husband was much occupied; so +that we did not have our usual summer holiday. Lettice and Sir +Walter, we heard, were for a time in London, about the Court; but we +saw nothing of them. + +The children who were at Netherby brought back wonderful stories of +the sweet lady at the hall; and Maidie especially was inspired with a +love for her which reminded me of the fascination of Lady Lucy over +me in my own childhood. + +I felt sure Lettice's heart could not change. Had her will, then, +grown so weak that she dared not make one effort to break through the +barriers which separated us? + +Or was it, rather, stronger and more immovable than I had thought? +Did she indeed still refuse indemnity to the political offences of +the Commonwealth? Could, indeed, no lapse of time efface, no +shedding of traitors' blood expiate, the shedding of that royal blood +which separated her from Roger? + +Nothing but repentance?--the repentance he could never feel without +desecrating the memory of that good prince who, as he believed, had +been trained by God, through conflict within and without, anointed by +wars, and crowned by victory after victory, to be such a ruler as +England had never known, over such an England as the world had never +seen. + +What Roger thought, I knew not. He never mentioned the name of any +of the Davenants, except that of Walter, the youngest, who seemed to +come to him from time to time, and whom I saw once at his lodgings, +and did not recognize till after he had left, when Roger told me who +he was. + +For I remember Walter Davenant a light-hearted boy, with frank face +and bearing, and eyes like his mother's. And this Walter Davenant +had a manner half reckless and half sullen; a dress which, with all +its laces and plumes and tassels, looked neglected; and restless, +uneasy eyes, which never steadily met yours. + +"Is that Lettice Davenant's brother Walter?" I said. + +"It is Walter Davenant, one of the courtiers of King Charles the +Second." + +"He is a friend of yours, Roger." + +"He is Lettice's brother," he replied; "and she asked me to see him +sometimes; and now and then he likes to come." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +LETTICE'S DIARY. + +_August_ 19.--My father's wide-embracing schemes of correspondence +and reconciliation have been somewhat narrowed. My brother Roland +has been with us, and one or two of his friends about the Court; and +he has possessed my father with dark and chilling thoughts of the +Puritans. + +"Indeed, there is an icy touch of cynical doubt in Roland which seems +to take the glow out of everything. He does not assail any person, +or any party, or any belief. All parties, he protests, are good, to +a certain extent, in their measure, and for their time. But he makes +you feel he scorns you as a fond and incredulous fool for believing +in any person, any party, or any truth, with the kind of faith which +leads to sacrificing oneself. + +"The king, he says, declares that '_nothing_ shall ever part him +again from his three kingdoms;' and the king never says a foolish +thing. + +"According to Roland, all enthusiasm is either in foolish men, +fanaticism, or, in able men, the hypocrisy of fanaticism, put on to +deceive the fanatics. + +"When my father declaims against Oliver Cromwell as a wild fanatic, +and records instances of the destruction of painted windows and the +desecration of churches, Roland shrugs his shoulders, slightly raises +his eyebrows, smiles, and says:-- + +"'No doubt, that is what he would have had Job Forster and his +fellows believe. For himself, his fanaticism had the fortunate +peculiarity of always constraining him to climb as high as he could. +But he should not be too severely blamed. What can a shrewd man do, +when he sees every one taking the same road, but travel a little +faster than the rest, if he wishes to keep first?' + +"'Surely,' said I 'you cannot deny that the Puritans were sincere?' + +"'At first, probably, many of them,' he said, 'When they had only two +mites to give, doubtless they gave them. It is the destiny of mites +to be spent in that manner. Happily for the widow in the New +Testament, her subsequent history is not told.' + +"'For shame, sir!' said my father. 'Say what you like of the +Puritans of to-day; I will suffer no profane allusions to the good +people who lived at the Christian era.' + +"'Pardon me, sir!' retorted Roland. 'Anno Domini has no doubt made +those who lived near it sacred; except, of course, the Pharisees and +a few other reprobates, who are fair mark. But I assure you, nothing +could be further from my intuition than to cast the slightest +imputation on that excellent widow. I only suggest that if her +circumstances improved, no doubt her views enlarged with them. She +would naturally feel that while two mites might be bestowed without +regard to results, larger possessions involved wider +responsibilities, and must, therefore, be dispensed with more +prudence; as the Rabbis (who, no doubt, we should charitably suppose, +started with intentions as pure) had found out before.' + +"'Speak plainly,' said my father; 'none of your Court riddles for me. +Do you mean to say the Puritans were like that good widow or like the +Pharisees?' + +"'Sir,' replied Roland, 'you must excuse me if my charity reaches to +a later century than yours. You forbid any imputations on the early +Christians; I decline to make any against those of a later date. I +would leave the sentence to events. Before long there is reason to +hope that many of the Puritans will once more have an opportunity of +proving their principles, and, if they like, of returning to the +exemplary condition of the widow with the one farthing.' + +"'What do you mean? There are to be no confiscations.' + +"'I mean that the Savoy Conference will, I think, issue otherwise +than Mr. Baxter and his friends desire. Presbyterian shepherds, +Independent lions, and Episcopal lambs will, I think, scarcely at +present be made to lie down in the ample fold of the Church; and the +sheep to whom the fold naturally belongs, cannot, of course, be +expected to withdraw, especially after having tried the tender +mercies of the outside world as long as they have. + +"'It is all the clergy!' said my father, provoked into +indiscriminating irritation with some one, as he always is in +discussions with Roland. 'It is always the parsons and the preachers +who won't let the people be quiet. Banish them all to the +plantations, and we should have peace to-morrow.' + +"'And twice as many parsons and preachers to break it the day after +to-morrow,' said Roland. 'They have been trying it in England for +these eleven years; and I think you will find that has been the +result.' + +"'Roland,' said my father, changing the conversation, 'we must find +some way of showing our gratitude to the Draytons. Every corner of +the demesne is in better order than I left it.' + +"'Mr. Drayton is a clear-sighted man,' was the reply, 'and no doubt +foresaw that the rightful owners would return. However, we cannot be +too grateful; and no doubt circumstances will give us opportunities +of returning his kindness. He will scarcely escape some little +fines, which we can get lightened. Besides, they are sure, sooner or +later, to get entangled with some of the laws against conventicles; +Mistress Dorothy, or some of them. It is the way of the family. And +then we can be the mouse to nibble the lion's net.' + +"'At least,' I said, 'you cannot accuse the Daytons of hypocrisy.' + +"'Scarcely,' he replied, coolly, 'they are on the other side of the +balance, where conscience weighs heavier than brains. But at all +events,' he added, turning to my father, 'we are sure to be able to +assist Mr. Drayton's son; for, from all I hear, he is scarcely out of +the circle of those who are liable to the punishment of treason, so +that you may set your mind quite at rest, sir, as to having +opportunities of showing our gratitude.' + +"I know he said this to silence me. And it did silence me. I dared +not defend the Draytons, for fear of further rousing my father +against them. + +"But Walter, who had been listening to the debate hitherto with some +amusement, here broke in. + +"'Roger Drayton is no traitor,' said he. 'He took the wrong side, +unfortunately for him, and you the right side; but a more loyal +gentleman does not breathe.' + +"'That depends on the construction the crown lawyers set on loyalty,' +retorted Roland. + +And the conversation ceased. + +"_August_ 20_th_.--After that discussion, Roland had a walk with my +father round the estate, and the next morning he said to me:-- + +"'I will not have the family disgraced, Lettice, by Walter's reckless +ways. If he must beg or borrow, let him beg or borrow of some of +those gay courtiers who help him to spend. Not of a man like Roger +Drayton, to whom we already owe too much--a Puritan, too, a soldier +of the usurper; and, for aught I know, a regicide.' + +"'Did Walter borrow of Roger Drayton?' I said, and this time I could +not help flushing crimson. + +"'Yes, yes!' he replied, angrily; 'and Roland says, moreover, child, +it was thou who introduced them to each other. I will have no +clandestine intercourse, Lettice. Thou shalt see I will not!' + +"'Father,' I said, rising, 'has Roland's poisonous tongue gone as far +as that? Does he dare to accuse me or Roger Drayton of that? If you +wish to know what the understanding between Roger Drayton and me is, +it is this--I thought you knew it; my mother did. We have promised +to be true to each other till death, and beyond it, for ever. And +the promise was scarce needed. For the love that makes it sacred was +there before.' + +"For they had called Roger a traitor. And it was no time to measure +words. + +"I write these down, because I like to see them, as well as to +remember that I said them. + +"My father drew a long breath. + +"'Pretty words,' he said, 'for a lady who recognizes the divine right +of kings, parents, and all in authority.' + +"He paced up and down the room for some time, speaking to himself. + +"'Very strange, very strange,' he said; 'up to a certain point as +gentle as her mother; and once past that, like a lioness. Very +strange.' + +"And then still to himself,-- + +"''Tis a pity; 'tis a thousand pities. If he had been anything but +what Roland says every one says he is; if he had been only a little +misled! But now impossible; of course, impossible! + +"''Tis a pity, Lettice,' he then said to me in a vexed tone, but very +courteously. 'Roland told me of a neighbour of ours, a good and +loyal gentleman, who would be but too proud of the honour of my +daughter's hand. As fine an estate as any in the country, and +marching with our own. 'Tis a pity, child, for I should not have +lost thee. And I should do ill without thee.' + +"'You will not lose me, father,' I said. + +"'Nay, nay,' he said, 'thou art one to be trusted, I know that well. +Never believe I doubt that, Lettice, for any hasty word I speak. +Never believe I doubt that.' + +"And he kissed me and went his way. + +"No, he does not doubt me. But there is something in Roland which +tempts one to doubt everything and every one. + +"Did I say his touch was icy? Would it were only that. Frost rouses +nature to a vigorous resistance, or checks it with strengthening +repression. There is a healthy frost of doubt which kills the +insects which infest piety, and checking the too luxuriant growths of +faith with a wholesome cold, braces them from mere leafage to solid +stem and fruit. + +"But Roland's influence is not the wholesome winter of doubting and +inquiring, which seems to interpose between the successive summers of +advancing faith, testing its roots. It is a languid atmosphere of +doubt, in which everything is alike uncertain; every thing alike +mean, worthless, earthly. The disbelief in goodness itself, and +truth itself, which, like a pestilential malaria, rises from the +sloughs of a wicked life, such as our Court encourages. In the +depths of its degradation I believe he himself scorns to soil the +sole of his foot. But he stands on the edge and breathes the poison +into his brain, and breathes it out again in bitter and cynical talk. + +"While poor reckless Walter, capable not merely of creeping safely +along the dull wayworn ways of life, but of soaring to its noblest +heights, plunges into the midst of the pollution; until the very +wings with which he was meant to soar upward are clogged with the +evil thing; and instead of buoying him upwards, drag him downwards, +helpless, blinded, so that he can not only no longer soar, but +scarcely even creep. + +"What will the end be? + +"Often this weighs on me more than even Roger's peril. For that is +not for the soul, which is the man; and that is but for the moment. + +"Sometimes my spirit sinks, sinks as if its wings, too, were all +clipped and broken. And I have dreadful visions of one precious life +ending in dishonour before man here, in this England, in this age; +and the other in dishonour before God and good men for ever. And +Roland standing by and observing both, and saying, with a lifting of +his eyebrows, between pity and scorn,-- + +"Yes, that is the issue of passion, for syrens--or for clouds. That +is the result of giving the reins to enthusiasms; religious or +otherwise. Poor Walter; and poor Roger! With a few grains more of +self-interest and common sense, they might both have stood where I +stand, and learned the vanity of everything in the world or out of +it, except, as the preacher says, getting well through it." + +_August_ 27_th_.--The minister who succeeded Placidia Nicholls' +husband during the Commonwealth has been superseded by Dr. Rich, a +scholar who seems to have lived through those stormy times scarce +hearing their tumult; so near and so much more important seem to him +the tumults and controversies of former times. He will scarce assert +that Monday is the day after Sunday, without proving it by citations +from a catena of fathers and schoolmen; which sets one piously +questioning, whether what needs so many authorities to sustain it is +itself substantial. Otherwise, the matter of his statements seem so +free from everything every one does not believe, that one would have +thought no proof needed. + +"A most friendly, blameless, and harmless gentleman, however, he is; +although weighed down a little as to thinking by the authority of so +many ancients, and as to living by the necessities of eleven +motherless children, who have to be fed and instructed; since, +unfortunately, the children of such a learned man came into the world +as destitute of patristical lore as if they had been born in the +first century, or their father were a Leveller. + +"It does seem hard that so much learning cannot become hereditary, +like pointing, or retrieving. It is such a great hindrance in the +way of the moderns being so much wiser than the ancients as they +ought to be. + +"On one page of modern ecclesiastical history, however, it is easy to +make Dr. Rich, or any of his eleven, eloquent. And that is the +record of the good deeds of Olive and Dr. Antony, who seem to have +maintained and lodged the whole family throughout the times of the +Commonwealth. They are worthy, he says, to have lived in the days of +the Apostolic Fathers; and tears come into his eyes when he speaks of +Olive's little devices for delicately helping him. 'She thought I +was too buried in my books to see,' he said. 'But, in truth, I was +too much overwhelmed with their kindness to speak.' + +"The elder girls, too, have endless stories of Olive's motherly +counsels and succour. From their account, Maidie and Dolly must be +the blithest little un-Puritanical darlings in the world; and the +boys bold little Cavaliers. + +"_August_ 30_th_.--At our first return I felt almost more an exile in +some ways than while we were in France. People had fitted into each +other so closely as to leave no room for us but a kind of show-place +out of every one's way. The myriads of fine inter-lacing fibres +which bind communities together, and root each in its place, can only +grow slowly, one by one, as storms straining the boughs, or summers +overlading them with fruit, made them needed. + +"Even eleven years of mere Time almost place you in another +generation. Those we left babes are shy lads and lasses; the +children are young mothers at their cottage doors, with their own +babes in their arms, courtesying and wondering we do not know them; +the youths and maids are sober men and matrons, giving counsel on the +perils of life to the youths and maidens we left babes. And the +changes of these eleven years have not been those of mere Time. + +"Not the people only have changed, but the country:--the whole way in +which every one looks at every thing. In our youth King and +Parliament were the powers which ruled and divided the world. Men of +forty now scarcely remember a king really reigning. Men of twenty +scarcely remember a Parliament, save the poor mockery of a 'Rump' +which Oliver 'purged,' and which the London butchers roasted in +effigy--that is, in beef--at the Restoration. + +"The names honoured and dreaded in our youth, names scarce uttered +without the eye flashing, and the cheek flushing with admiration or +indignation, have passed from the regions of popular enthusiasm to +the sober and silent tribunals of history. Many which seemed to us +indelibly engraven on the hearts of men for renown or for abhorrence, +Sir John Hotham, 'the first traitor,' Sir Bevil Granvill, Sir Jacob +Astley, are--except among those who personally recollect +them--unknown; whilst around the loftier heights still in sight +strange mists of legend already begin to gather, especially among the +peasantry. Prince Rupert is the 'black man' with whose name men of +twenty have been spellbound into submission in the nursery. +Archbishop Laud and Strafford, in our Puritan village, have well-nigh +taken the place of the Spaniard and the Pope of our childhood, and +rise before the imagination of the people as fiery-eyed giants, +rattling chains, and thirsting for the blood of Englishmen. + +"Hampden, Pym, Falkland, Eliot, are mere grand, silent shades, +walking the Elysian fields of the past, far-off, among the heroes, +Leonidas, Brutus, or the Gracchi, but in no way disturbing the +pursuits or influencing the thoughts of the present. + +"Instead, people speak frequently and familiarly of Lambert, +Fleetwood, and others, whose names to me sound as strange as those of +the combatants of the Fronde. And, besides these, there are the +names which have shifted from side to side, until they seem to have +lost all meaning. + +"The names of religious influence among the Puritans--John Howe, Dr. +Owen, Vice-chancellor of Oxford, and Richard Baxter--are, through +Mistress Dorothy, less unfamiliar to me. Our good Bishop Hall is +dead. But Dr. Jeremy Taylor, whose discourse my mother loved so +well, still lives, and fills the church with the music of his +thoughts. + +"The one English name which, on the continent of Europe, overshadowed +(or outshone) all the rest--he whom the young King Louis (the +Fourteenth) called 'the greatest and happiest prince in Europe'--is +one men scarce utter willingly now. The emotions which his name +calls out have indeed still a perilous fire in them. + +"The other name, of which we used to hear most in foreign parts, +until it seemed at times as if, to the outer world, the Doing of +England were alone manifest in Oliver Cromwell, and her Thought in +John Milton--is also proscribed. The poet's treasonable 'Defences,' +which scholars abroad admired (on account of the Latin I suppose), +have been burned in public. But he himself will, it is thought, be +spared; although for the present he is in concealment. A poet of our +name and kindred, to whom they say he showed kindness, is doing his +utmost to save him. His blindness, and the great genius and renown +he hath, also give him a kind of sacredness. Some say Heaven hath +punished him enough already; others that Heaven shields him, and +makes his head sacred from violent touch by a crown of sorrow. + +"It is from Isaac Nicholls, Mistress Placidia's son, I hear most of +Mr. John Milton. Isaac is a strange sprout from such a stock. He +careth scarce at all for the world as a place to get on in; and +almost infinitely as a theatre to contemplate, with its scenes +painted by divine hands. He seems as familiar with the past as Dr. +Rich; but in a different way. To Dr. Rich the past seems a book, and +the present another book--a commentary on it. To Isaac the past +seems not a book, but a life, and the present a life flowing from it. + +"The names of the heroes seem as the names of friends to him, from +Leonidas to Falkland. The voices of the poets seem all living, from +Homer to Milton. And while Mistress Nicholls wears out heart and +brain in anxious cares to make him an inheritance, he finds a king's +treasury in a book, or in a carpet of mosses and wild-flowers, such +as clothes the sweet old glade by the Lady Well. + +"Of all the people I remember, no one seems to me to have grown so +old as Mistress Nicholls; and of all the new people, none seems to me +so delightfully new as Isaac Nicholls. + +"The prohibition laid by my father (through Roland's influence) +against all intercourse with the Draytons, does not extend to +Mistress Nicholls' home. She is the nearest link I have with the old +Netherby home. Isaac comes often to the Hall, and spends long days. +The library is a new world to him. And he is a new world to me; or, +rather, his mind is to me a mirror in which all the black, blank +England of these eleven years lives and moves, and has voice and +color. + +"It was a warm evening early in July when I first saw Isaac. +Mistress Nicholls was sitting spinning in the porch of her neat +house, on the outskirts of the village. + +"'As diligent as ever, Mistress Nicholls,' I said. + +"'Yes, Mistress Lettice,' said she, in a voice which had fallen into +an habitual whine (such as is thought by some characteristic of the +Puritans in general). 'Ah, yes, these are no times for a lone woman +to slacken her hands. It is not by folding of the hands that body +and soul are kept together in these days.' + +"As she spoke she led me to a chair in the parlor. In the window was +sitting a lad with round shoulders and long hair falling ever his +forehead, as he pored over a large folio on the window seat. + +"He turned round suddenly at her words, and said, in an abrupt, shy +way, yet with a gentle, cheerful voice: + +"'Oh, mother, don't speak of body and soul, we have much more than +food and raiment.' + +'"I do not deny,' she replied to me in a voice half querulous, half +apologetic, 'that the Lord has been merciful, far above my deserts, +no doubt. We have never yet been suffered to want, I freely +acknowledge, and we ought to be very thankful, Mistress Lettice; very +thankful, no doubt.' + +"Hearing my name the boy rose, and in a quiet, nervous way, came +forward, held out his hand, and then drew back, blushing, and made an +awkward bow. + +"'My Isaac has heard of you,' said his mother, 'from his cousins. +Isaac thinks no one fit to be compared with his cousins, Maidie and +Dolly Antony.' + +"'Olive's children!' I said. And I took his hand and held it in both +mine. It seemed to bring me nearer them. + +"'Maidie and Dolly think no one fit to be compared with Mistress +Lettice,' he said. + +"It touched me much. And with so much in common, friendship between +Isaac and me waxed apace. + +"Yes, it was I, Lettice Davenant, whom Olive's fond recollections had +made her children's queen of beauty and love; the fairy princess of +their fairy tales; the Una of their 'milk white lamb.' They knew all +about me; the adventures of our childhood were their nursery stories; +the love of our youth was the ideal friendship of their childhood. + +"And now I come back to them no longer their cotemporary in the +perpetual youth of fairyland, but their mother's; and here were these +boys, Isaac and Austin Rich, thinking no one in the world so sweet +and fair as Maidie and Dolly Antony. + +"Over again, the old story! Yet it does not make me feel old, but +young again. For our old friendships,--our old faithful love,--are +not dead, nor like to die; 'incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth +not away.' That is a heavenly inheritance which the heart enters on +here, or never there. + +"Not years nor sorrows make us old, but selfish cares. As Rachel +Forster said, when I asked her whether Mistress Nicholls had suffered +from any uncommon griefs or necessities, that she looked so old, and +seemed to feel so poor. + +"Nay, Mistress Lettice, nay! To my recollection Mistress Placidia +was never young; and all the riches of the Spanish main could not +make her rich. She has such a terrible empty space inside to fill. +Not even the Almighty, the possessor of heaven and earth, can make +her rich, at least not with riches. And, sure enough, He has tried, +to my belief, near all the ways He has. But it is of no use. But I +do think He has begun to make her poor. And that is something.' + +"'What do you mean, Rachel?' I said. + +"'Time was, though, poor soul, when she was never able to think that +she _had_ anything, she thought great store of what she _was_,' said +Rachel. 'But now that is broken down. I do believe the Lord took +her down that step when her boy was born. And that step, the +emptying and going down into the depths, in my belief, begins to make +us Christians. Then comes the step up again into the light. And, +poor soul, it seems to me, ever since, the good Lord has been trying, +by all manner of ways, to lead her up that stair. But she has never +had the heart to come. And so, down there, out of the light, her +poor wisht soul has grown old, and white, and withered like; and her +voice has got a moan in it, like a voice tuned in a sick-chamber, and +never lifted up in the fresh air, in a good hearty psalm. 'Tisn't +years or griefs that make us old, nor poverty that makes us poor, to +my seeing, but looking down instead of up, and being shut up alone +with self, instead of with God.' + +"And Job looked up, and said, with a smile and a nod:-- + +"'She knows well enough, wife; she knows it isn't anything the Lord +sends that makes us old or poor; but what the devil sends. The loss +of all the world can't make us poor, and the rolling by of all the +ages can't make us old, any more than the angels. But there's no +need to tell. She knows. Mistress Lettice knows.' + +"Job did not look up from the tool he was repairing as he spoke. But +I felt that his heart had seen into mine. + +"And it is a wonderful comfort to me to think that that good old +Puritan blacksmith knows. + +"For he has camped many a night on the field with Roger, as Rachel +has often told me. And, no doubt, he must have seen into Roger's +heart as well as into mine. And, no doubt, those two, who have loved +each ether so well, have a warm corner in their prayers for us. + +"_September_ 1_st_.--Isaac Nicholls has wonderful stories of the +settlers in the American Plantations. The wilderness across the +Atlantic seems to have been to him and Olive's children a kind of +Atlantis, and Fairy or Giant land;--what the Faery Queen or the +stories of Hercules or the Golden Fleece were to us. + +"He has tales of daring and endurance concerning those Pilgrims to +the West which seem to me worthy of the old heroic days. Of weeping +congregations parting on the sea-shores of the old world, reluctantly +left. Of congregations, free and delivered, praising God in the +midst of danger and distress on the shores of the new. Of a hundred +English men and women forsaking land and friends for religion, and +going in a little ship across the ocean, landing among the wooded +creeks, half of them perishing in the cold of the first winter; but +the fifty who survived never murmuring and never despairing. Of +toils to till the new fields by day, and watchings at night against +the Indians. Of exploring parties going through trackless forests +till they found a habitable nook by the borders of some lake or +stream. Of green meadows and golden corn-fields slowly won from the +wilderness; and pleasant gardens springing up around the new homes, +with strange fruits and flowers, and birds with song as strange as +the speech of the Indians. Of old Puritan psalms sung by the +sea-shore, till the homely villages arose, with their homely +churches, as in Old England on the village greens. + +"It sounds, as he tells it, like a story of some old Grecian colony, +with church bells through it;--a curious mosaic of a Greek legend +(such as Roger used to tell me), and the Acts of the Apostles. But +the colonists were not Athenians nor Spartans, but Englishmen. And +it all happened only forty years ago. Or, as Isaac believes, it is +all happening still. For although the great tide of Puritan +emigration has ceased during the Commonwealth, there are always a few +joining the numbers. + +"'And,' saith Isaac, 'Maidie says Uncle Roger thinks the tide will +set in again for the wilderness, if things go on as they are going +now at Court.' + +"But here Isaac halts abruptly, as treading on forbidden ground, and +the conversation is turned; he little knowing how gladly I would have +it flow in the same current, and I scarce deeming it keeping faith +with my father to make an effort that it should. + +"The two living men who seem to fill the largest space in Isaac's +admiring gaze, are Mr. John Milton, whom all the world knows, and a +John Bunyan (not even a Mr.), a poor tinker and an Anabaptist, whom +no one knows, I should think, out of his own neighbourhood or sect, +but whom Isaac declares to have a way of making past things present, +and far-off things near, and unseen things visible, as only the poets +have. + +"Mr. John Milton one can understand being the hero of a boy like +Isaac; losing his sight, as believes, in the 'Defence of the People +of England'; filling all Europe with his song, shaking the thrones of +persecuting princes by his eloquent pleadings for the oppressed +Christians of the Alps, seeming to find in his blindness (as a saint +in the darkness of death) the unveiling of higher worlds; a gentleman +with a countenance which my mother thought noble and beautiful as Dr. +Jeremy Taylor, or any about the late king's Court; a scholar whose +taste and learning the scholars of Italy send to consult, and whose +birth-house they come to see in London as of their own Petrarch or +Dante Alighieri; a poet whom men who can judge seem to lift +altogether out of the choirs of living singers, into a place by +himself among the poets who are dead. + +"But this Anabaptist tinker! It is a strange delusion. I cannot +wonder at Mrs. Nicholls' aversion from such guidance for her son, +especially as it leads into the most perilous religious path he can +tread. + +"_October_.--I have seen the Anabaptist tinker and heard him preach, +and I wonder no more at Isaac's enthusiasm. + +"It was in a barn a mile or two out of Netherby. Isaac persuaded me +to go, and I went; and wrapping myself in a plain old mantle, crept +into a corner and listened. + +"And there I heard the kind of sermon I have been wanting to hear so +long. + +"Heaven brought so near, and yet shown to be so infinite; the human +heart shown so dark and void, and yet so large and deep, and capable +of being made so fair and full of good. Grace, the 'grace which +over-mastereth the heart;' not something destroying or excluding +nature, but embracing, renewing, glorifying it. Christ our Lord +shown so glorious, and yet so human; more human than any man, because +without the sin which stunts and separates. Yes, that was it. This +tinker made me see Him, brought me down to His feet; not to the +Baptist, or Luther, or Calvin, or any one, but to Christ, who is all +in one. Brought me down to His feet, rebuked, humbled, emptied; and +then made me feel His feet the loftiest station any creature could be +lifted to. + +"He began, as I think all highest preaching does, by appealing not to +what is meanest, but what is noblest in us; not by showing how easy +religion is, but how great. + +"He began thus:--'When He had called the people, Jesus said, +"Whosoever will come after Me let him deny himself, and take up his +cross and follow Me." Let him count the charge he is like to be at; +for following Me is not like following some other masters. The wind +sets always on my face, and the foaming rage of the sea of this +world, and the proud and lofty waves thereof, do continually beat +upon the bark Myself and My followers are in; he therefore that will +not run hazards, let him not set foot in this vessel." + +"Then he spoke of the greatness of the soul that could be lost and +should be saved. God breathed it. 'And the breath of the Lord lost +nothing in being made a living soul. O man! dost thou know what thou +art? Made in God's image! I do not read of anything in heaven or +earth so made, or so called, but the Son of God. The King Himself, +the great God, desires communion with it. He deems no suit of +apparel good enough for it but one made for itself.' + +"Then he spoke of the wonderful beauty of the body. This 'costly +cabinet of that curious thing the soul.' The more it is thought of +and its works looked into, the more wonderfully it is seen to be +made. Yet is the body but the house, the raiment, of that noble +creature the soul. It is a tabernacle; the soul, the worshipper +within. Yet we are not to forget the body is a tabernacle, no common +dwelling, but a holy place, a temple. + +"Then he spoke of the powers of this 'noble creature:' of Memory, its +'register;' of Conscience, its seat of judgment; of the Affections, +the hands and arms with which it embraces what it loves. God's anger +is never, he said, against these powers--'the natives of the +soul'--but against their misuse. + +"But the soul being so noble, it is the soul that sins. Not the +body; that is passive. And it is the sinful impenitent soul which +suffers, 'when the clods of the valley are sweet to the wearied body.' + +"A whole world of wisdom, the wisdom I had been longing to hear, +seemed to me to lie in the words of this tinker. How many dark +hearts would be cheered, and downcast hearts lifted up and closed +narrowed souls opened and expanded to embrace the light around, if +this could be understood! The body is not vile, it is God's curious +costly cabinet; His tabernacle to be kept holy. The body sins not. +Sin is not in matter but in spirit. Conversion is a liberation of +all the '_natives_' from the intrusive tyranny of sin and Satan, a +making the whole man every whit whole. God's anger is not against +the natural affections or understanding. They are not to be +destroyed, crushed, or fettered. They are to be liberated, expanded, +quickened with the new life. + +"How many of the dark pages of Church history already written, and +now being written, might never have been, if the theology of this +tinker could be understood! + +"Luther, they say, also knew these things (and Roger used to declare +Oliver Cromwell did, but of this I know nothing). Strange it is to +see how from height to height these souls respond to each other, like +bonfires carrying the good news from range to range, throughout the +ages. These are the wise; wise like angels; wise like little +children. Half way down it seems to me, walk the smaller ingenious +men of each generation, laboriously building elaborate erections +which all the ingenious men on their own hill-side and on their own +level admire, but which those on the other side cannot see. And +below, in the valleys, the reapers reap, and the little children +glean, and the women work and weep and wait, and wonder at the skill +of the builders on the hill-side, so far above them to imitate. But +when they want to know if the good news from the far country is still +there for them, as for those of old, they look not to the hillsides +but to the hill-tops, where the bonfires flash the gospels--plainer +even in the night than in the day--and where the earliest and latest +sunbeams rest. And so the eyes of the watchers on the mountain tops, +of the children and the lowly labourers in the valleys, and of the +angels in the heavens, meet. And when the night comes--which comes +to all on earth--the ingenious builders on the hill-sides, no doubt, +have also to look to the mountain-tops, where the watch-fires burn, +and the sunset lingers and the sunrise breaks. + +"This tinker seems to have a soul ordered like a great kingdom, all +its powers in finest use and in most perfect subordination. But +Isaac says this kingdom sprang from a chaos of war, and conflict, and +anguish, such as scarce any human souls know. + +"In this also like Luther, who had his terrible civil wars to pass +through ere the Kingdom came within. (And Roger said Oliver Cromwell +had.) To John Bunyan (Isaac told me), the finding of an old thumbed +copy of Luther on the Galatians was like the discovery of the spring +in the wilderness to Hagar. 'I do prefer that book,' he said, +'before all others, except the Holy Bible, for a wounded conscience.' + +"So they meet--these simplest, wisest, widest, humblest, highest +souls, and understand each other's language, and take up each other's +song in antiphons from age to age. + +"Yet, I fear, this can scarce be so with John Bunyan. His voice can +scarce reach beyond his own time, deep as it is. For how could an +unlearned tinker write a book which ages to come would read? + +"And, withal, he is a true Englishman. That also pleased me well in +him. I think the greatest men who are most human, most for all men, +are also most characteristically national; it is the smaller great +men who are cosmopolitan. Even as St. Paul was a Hebrew of the +Hebrews, Martin Luther was German to the core, they say (and Roger +said Oliver Cromwell was English to the core). And so is John Bunyan. + +"A square, solid brow; a ruddy, healthy, sensible countenance; a body +muscular, strong-boned, tall, compact; eyes keen, calm, quick, +sparkling, observant, kindly, with twinklings of humour in them, and +tears, and anger, but not restless or dreamy; a mouth firm, capable +of rebuke or of quiet smiles. In company, Isaac says, not 'given to +loquacity or much discourse, unless some urgent occasion required +it;' and then 'accomplished with a quick discerning of persons, being +of a good judgment and an excellent wit.' The dumbness (natural to +all Englishmen worth anything) not absent in him; speech being with +him not for ornament but for use. + +"_November_, 1660.--Isaac is in great trouble. John Bunyan has been +cast into prison. Mistress Nicholls also is in great trouble, +fearing Isaac may be involved in John Bunyan's disgrace, seeing he +loves so much to hear him. + +"'It is a very peculiar trial,' saith she, 'that her boy should +embrace the most perilous form of all the perilous religions of the +day.' + +"'Not the most, mother,' said Isaac. 'The Quakers are worse.' + +"Indeed everyone seems to agree that of all the sects which have +sprung up during the Commonwealth, the Quakers are the worst. I +should like to see one. + +"_February_, 1661.--I am grieved to the heart at these ungenerous +revenges. It was an ill way to celebrate the martyrdom of His Sacred +Majesty, to drag the bodies of brave men from the graves in the +Abbey, and hang them on gibbets. + +"Senseless, mean, and barbarous revenges! They should have heard +John Bunyan the tinker preach. It was not the body that sinned. +They should have let it rest. + +"My father thinks Oliver Cromwell deserved anything; but he is not +pleased at their having disturbed the bones of his mother and +daughter, and of Robert Blake, and cast them into a pit in St. +Margaret's churchyard. + +"'A peaceable old gentlewoman, who never did any harm that I heard,' +said he, 'except bringing the usurper into the world; and a young +gentle lady too good for such a stock. Their dust would not have +hurt that of the kings'. Doubtless it was insolence to lay them +there; but it was scarce an English gentleman's work to molest them.' + +"But about the violation of Blake's tomb his anger waxed hot. 'A +good old Somersetshire family,' he said. 'They might have let him +rest; if only for the fright he gave the Pope, the Turk, and the +Spaniard.' + +"I was afraid to go near Job Forster's for some days after I heard of +these desecrations. When at last I went, Rachel could not altogether +restrain her indignation. Job only said, "Never heed, never heed. +_He_ they sought to dishonour doesn't heed. What is all the world +but a churchyard? In "the twinkling of an eye" will anyone have time +to see where the bodies rise from? Or dost think the gold and jewels +on kings' tombs will have much of a shine when the Gates of Pearl are +open, and the poor body they have thrown like a dog's beneath the +gibbet shall enter them shining like a star?' + +"But then something broke down his fortitude, and he added, in a +husky voice,-- + +"'Yet England might have found him another grave. He did his best +for her; he did his best.' + + +"_January_, 1662.--A long break in these pages. There has not been +much very cheerful to write. And I would never write moans. These +it is better to make into prayers. + +"Our house is not altogether at unity with itself. + +"Roland has brought home his wife. + +"From the first, my father did not affect her. + +"She took her new honours more loftily and easily than he liked. + +"'A pretty Frenchified poppet,' he called her. + +"I have done my best to smooth matters, although it is a little +vexatious to the temper, sometimes, to be counselled with matronly +airs, and consoled for my single state by this young creature. + +"It has been often difficult to keep the peace. + +"Naturally, the old associations of the old place are nothing to her, +and she offends my father continually, by laughing at the old +servants, the old furniture, and what she calls our old-fashioned +ways in general. + +"But to-day she kindled him into a flame which, for the time, will +probably keep her at a distance. + +"She ventured to propose that she should change my mother's oratory +into a cabinet for herself, 'to be draped,' said she, 'with silk, and +adorned with statues, and be like the apartments of the "Lady" at +Whitehall.' + +"Which brought out some very plain English from my father concerning +the 'Lady,' and all who favored her. + +"'The king,' he vowed, 'might degrade his palaces, if he pleased, and +if he dared. But he would see the Hall and everything in it burned +to the ground, rather than have the place where my mother had lived +the life and prayed the prayers of an angel, polluted by being +likened to the dwelling of a creature it was a dishonour for a man to +tolerate or for a woman to name.' + +"So, for the time, the controversy ended. And, in a few days, Roland +and his wife went back to the Court. + +"But my father is more and more uneasy and irritable. 'In his +youth,' he said, 'in the days of the good of sacred memory, all were +noble, rebels, royalists, all. Eliot, Pym, Hampden, Essex, were +gentlemen and true Englishmen, as well as Falkland, Bevil Granvill, +or Sir Jacob Astley. And all, however deluded, feared God, and +honoured all true men and women. But now,' says he, 'all are base +together--Court, Royalists, Roundheads--all. Why could not Roger +Drayton have kept to such politics as Hampden's or his own father's, +and not disgraced himself by joining these furious traitors and +sectaries?" + +"By which I know that my father has relentings towards the Draytons, +though he will by no means confess it. + +"_June_, 1662.--I have seen a Quaker. And a very soft and mild kind +of creature it seems to be. + +"Olive's children are at Netherby. To-day I met her little girls at +Mistress Nicholls's. Maidie is a darling little elfin queen. And +Dolly is a sweet, little Puritan angel. And with them was Annis Nye, +their nurse, a Quaker maiden, with a heroical serene face, and a +voice even and soft, like a river flowing through meadows. She +attracted me much; a harmless dove of a maiden she seemed. + +"But when I said so to Job Forster, on my way home, he shook his head +and muttered,-- + +"'Soft enough, and deep enough! You would find what kind of +gentleness she has if you saw her take the bit between her teeth and +make straight for the pillory, and you had to hold her in and keep +her safe, if you could. Why, I'm always expecting, morn and night, +that poor maid'll get a 'concern' to go and testify against the +king's mistresses, or the Popish bishops' surplices. To say nothing +of the chance of her setting off to preach in New England, or to the +Turks, or to the Pope cf Rome, as some of them do when they are well +persuaded it is more dangerous than anything else. And say what +George Fox may of the Protector, she'd find the tender mercies of the +Court scarce so tender as he was. If you want to make your life a +burden to you, Mistress Lettice,' he concluded dolefully, shaking his +head, 'you've nought to do but to get your heart tender to a Quaker +(as no man or woman with a heart in them can help getting it to that +wilful maid), and try to keep her out of harm's way. You'll find +you've no rest left, day nor night. I've had hard things to do in my +time, but never one that beat me over and over like trying to keep a +Quaker safe.' + +"_July_, 1662.--My father, a few days since, met Maidie and Dolly in +the village, and asked whose children they were. + +"In the evening he said to me,-- + +"'Those children of Olive Drayton's, at least, are guilty of no +crimes, political or other. Have them to the house, Lettice, if thou +wilt.' + +"And, since, the old house and the gardens have grown musical with +the frolics of these young creatures, Isaac and Maidie, Austin Rich +and Dolly. It makes me young again to see their story of life +beginning. + +"And it is pleasant to feel there is so much of youth left in my +heart to respond to the youth in theirs, so that they see and feel my +being with a sunshine, not a shadow. + +"Sometimes I feel as if I could be content to take this on-looker's +place in life, and be a kind of grandmother to every one's children. +If I could only be sure that Roger and the old friends were also +content and secure. + +"But the times press hard on them, and are like, they say, to press +harder yet. + +"_August_ 30.--The harder times for the Puritans have come, or have +begun. A week since, on St. Bartholomew's Day, two thousand of their +ministers resigned their benefices, rather than do what was commanded +by the Act of Uniformity. + +"My father is angry with the 'parsons' all round; with the bishops +for driving the Puritans out, with the Puritans for going. + +"Mistress Dorothy writes from Kidderminster:-- + +"'Mr. Baxter and sixteen hundred of His Majesty's most loyal +subjects, and the Church's most faithful ministers, banished from +their pulpits. We had looked for another return when, like Judah of +old, we hastened to be the first to bring back our king. But return, +or no return, let not any think we repent our loyalty. We will pray +for His Majesty by twos or threes, if, by his command, we are +forbidden to assemble in larger numbers. Pray that his throne may be +established, and his counsellors converted.' + +"Job Forster smiles grimly under the gray soldierly hair on his upper +lip, and says, sententiously, between the strokes on his anvil,-- + +"'They are finding it out. One after another. The four thousand +Quakers in the jails. The Scottish Covenanted men, with the choice +between the bishops and the gallows. Jenny Geddes will scarce rise +from the dead to help them now. They are learning how the king +remembers their sermons, to which they made him hearken so many +hours. And how he keeps their Covenant, to which they had him swear +so many oaths. The French, and the Dutch, and the Spaniards found it +out long ago. And now the two thousand parsons are finding it out. +And by-and-by, nigh the whole country will find it out. But Rachel +and I will scarce be here to see.' + +"'Find out what?' I said. + +"'That the Lord Protector's death was no such great blessing to any +but himself,' said Job. And he became at once too absorbed in his +work to pursue the conversation. + +"_October_ 29_th_.--To-day, the Post brought tidings which, when my +father read, he dashed the letter from him, and started to his feet +with an anathema, brief but deep. + +"Then he paced up and down the room once or twice in silence, and +then he said suddenly to me,-- + +"'Lettice, where is Roger Drayton?' + +"The abrupt question startled me for an instant, so that I could not +reply. I did not know what new calamity had come, or was coming. +And I suppose the color left my face. For at once my father added +very gently,-- + +"'I should not have asked thee. I know well thou hast kept my +prohibition but too loyally. I will send a messenger to Netherby +with the letter.' + +"He wrote a few rapid lines, and despatched a servant, with the +letter without delay. + +"Then deliberately and quietly he took his sword from his side and +hung it up beside my grandfather's in the hall. + +"'For the last time!' he said. 'The honor of England is gone for +ever. _The king has sold Dunkirk to the French_.' + +"And with a restless impatience he went on,-- + +"'Come, come, child! We will make no babyish moans. Get on thy +mantle and come round the old place. A man may still serve the +country by making two blades of grass where one grew before. But by +bearing arms under traitors who sell the honor of England to pay for +the paint and gewgaws of wicked women, never again. Henceforth call +thyself a husbandman's daughter; but never again a soldier's. In +name and in arms England is disgraced, child, dishonored, made a +bye-word and a laughing-stock to the whole world. But we may still +make the corn grow thicker and the sheep fatter. So who shall say +there is not something worth living for yet? + +"'Something worth doing yet,' he added, 'for the country of Eliot and +Falkland, and Robert Blake, who made the Pope and the Turk quake in +their castles, and now lies tossed like a dog into a pit in St. +Margaret's churchyard!' + +"But he did not tell me what was in the letter he sent to Netherby. + +"_October_ 31_st_.--The autumn wind was softly drifting the brown +leaves into heaps round the roots of the trees, by the Lady Well, and +softly adding to them by loosening one by one from the branches. I +was thinking he was God's gardener, tenderly, though with rough +hands, folding warm coverlids over the roots of the flowers. I was +thinking how wilder winds would come, and with icy breath heap the +snows above the dead leaves; and yet still only be God's gardeners to +keep His flowers housed against the spring, and not to shelter only, +but to feed and enrich them whilst sheltering. For sleep is not only +a rest, but a cordial of new life. I was listening to the dropping +of the water into the Holy Well the monks had made so long ago, and +thinking how Olive and I had listened to it long ago, and thought it +like church music from a kind of sacred Fairy land. The old well, +and the fresh spring; always fresh, always living, always young; when +there came a rustling among the leaves which was not the wind, +nearer, nearer, and before I could look, his hand on my hand, and his +voice, low as the dropping of the water, on my heart, and deep as the +spring from which it flowed. + +"'Lettice, your father told me I might come back. Do you say so?' + +"I could scarcely speak, still less could I meet his eyes, which I +felt through the heavy lids I could not raise. + +"'My heart has never changed, Roger,' I said at last, 'nor misdoubted +you one instant.' + +"'Has your determination changed, Lettice?' he said, gently +withdrawing his hand. + +"'Has yours?' I said. 'If you can but say you grieve for one +irrevocable deed, and would recall it if you could?' + +"'I repent of much, and would undo much,' he replied. 'But I can +never say I repent of following him who saved England; and to whom +England cannot even return the poor gratitude of a grave.' + +"We went silently home side by side, the dead leaves crumbling under +his feet in the still woodland paths, till we came to my mother's +garden, one side of which bordered on the wood. + +"There he unlatched the little garden gate, and held it for me to +pass. The click sounded startling in the silence. I passed through, +but did not look up, until my hands were suddenly seized in my +father's, and his face shone down on me beaming with smiles I had not +seen there for many a day. + +"'How now, child,' said he, 'whither away, pale and downcast as a +white violet?' + +"'Dost fear I distrust thee Lettice?' he added softly; 'I never did, +I never could.' + +"Then I looked up and met his eyes for a moment, but the softness in +them overcame me, and I could not speak. + +"'What does all this mean, Roger Drayton?' he resumed, impatiently. +'Does not she know I sent for thee? Surely she has not changed?' + +"'Mistress Lettice says she has not changed,' said Roger +despondingly, 'and never can.' + +"'Then what is all this coil about? She told me months since, in the +teeth of prohibitions and entreaties to bestow her hand elsewhere, +that you had exchanged troth, and would be true to each other till +death.' + +"'And after,' said I. 'Death cannot separate us for ever. Only that +terrible death, and that only in life.' + +"'It was because I guarded the scaffold at the king's beheading,' +said Roger. + +"'Tush, tush, child,' my father replied, hastily. 'We have been +through a wilderness, and which of us has not lost his way? We have +been through the fire and smoke of a hundred battles, who expects us +to come out with face and hands washed like a Pharisee's?' + +"Then suddenly turning to Roger and taking his hand, he said +solemnly,-- + +"'If thou hadst known, Roger Drayton, for what a king that scaffold +was in clearing the way, I trow thou hadst rather laid thy head on +the block thyself.' + +"This Roger did not deny. Was not his silence a confession? And so, +when my father laid our hands together in his, could I refuse? The +sacred irresistible touch of another hand which had once before so +joined them, seemed on us all, and a tender voice from heaven seemed +to float above like church music. And still as I listened to-night, +in the oratory alone, it seemed to say,-- + +"'My children, the way is rough, tread it together. The burdens are +heavy; share them all. Sorrows, fears, fruitless regrets, fruitful +repentances, share them all. Bear each other's burdens, and in so +bearing, make them sometimes light and always helpful. To you it is +given to love; not with the poor timid transitory love which dares +not see, but with the love which dares to see because it helps to +purify. My children, the way will not be smooth. Tread it together. +The burdens will be heavy. Share them all.'" + + +OLIVE'S RECOLLECTIONS. + +They were married as quietly as might be on a quiet autumn day in the +old parish-church of Netherby. + +We waited for them in the porch of the old church--the west porch, +which our forefathers had built--looking across the green graves of +the village churchyard, across the quiet village street to the arched +gate which opened opposite from one of the avenues of the hall; my +father, Aunt Dorothy (once more at Netherby), Aunt Gretel, my +husband, the children and I. + +No stately procession issued thence, only Lettice; leaning on her +father's arm, wrapped closely in a mantle, with a few faithful old +servants following. + +We saw them in the distance wending towards us among the grey stems +of the beech-trees. Their footsteps fell softly on the fallen leaves +as they crossed the church path. We met them at the churchyard gate. + +So we entered the church, which we had not done before. + +And there a sight met us which went deep to our hearts. + +There had been no triumphal wedding arches, no banners, no flowers +strewn on the bride's path. + +Netherby was a Puritan village, and we Puritans were at no time great +in pomps and ceremonials, Moreover, there was a weight of joy in the +crowning of this hope so long deferred, and a depth of content, which +moved rather to tears than to shouts of welcome. Nor were the times +very joyous to us. With two thousand deprived ministers to be kept +from starving, and thousands of those who believed as we did, not to +be kept from prisons, our festivities naturally took a sober +colouring. + +We had not therefore been prepared to find the church full from door +to altar; full of people from the village and from all the country +round--old men and women, and the youngest children that could be +trusted to be quiet. (For, as one mother said afterwards, "I would +like them to be able to say to their children, 'I was there when Mr. +Roger and Mistress Lettice were married.'") They rose as we passed +up the aisle, and a soft murmur of benediction seemed to fill the +silent church. + +For Roger and Lettice were dearly loved in the dear old place, with +an affection which had grown with their growth from infancy, and +which was strong through the intertwining roots of centuries. (It +will be long before the new roots in the New World strike so deep.) + +And through all the generations of Davenants and Draytons this was +the first time the lines had met in marriage. + +It was a solemn as well as a joyful thing to see those two stand with +joined hands at the altar, with the tombs of our fathers beside them +in the oldest transept, and the stately monuments of the Davenants +opposite, whilst the whole village of our tenants and servants +(children of generations of our tenants and servants) were gathered +behind. + +As they knelt down side by side on the altar steps, a ray from the +autumn sun fell softly on her bowed head, slightly turned, on the +rich brown hair flowing beneath her veil, on the broad fair brow, the +drooping eyelids, with their long dark lashes, and the pale cheek. +In its repose her face shone on me as if it had been her mother's +looking down on her from heaven; so close seemed the likeness, so +angelic the calm. It brought my childhood, and all heaven before me, +and blinded my eyes with tears. + +Good old Dr. Rich was so completely shaken out of his natural +dwelling-place in the past by his sympathy with them that he seemed +like another man. His voice was deep and tender, and the +benedictions fell from his lips with a power which resounded from +stone effigies of knight and dame, and thrilled back from every +living heart, in a deep echo, "Yea, and they shall be blessed." + +The most rigid Puritan in the place conformed for the occasion. +Responses went up, not, as Mr. Baxter complains, "in a confused and +unmeaning manner," but hearty and clear as an anthem; and the Amens +rang through the church like a salute of artillery. + +As the service closed and we followed Lettice and Roger down the +aisle, I noticed a cavalier wrapped in a large mantle, leaning +against one of the pillars near the door. Lettice saw him and +pointed him out to Roger, and both then went towards him. It was +Walter Davenant. He came forward and grasped their hands. + +His voice was low, and had a tremor in it. But I heard him say,-- + +"If my being publicly here could have been any sign of honour to you, +Roger Drayton, I would have come with a cavalcade. But my coming is +an honour to none. I pray you think it not a disgrace." + +Sir Walter coloured as he saw him (he had forbidden Walter to enter +his house), but Lettice placed their hands together, and there was no +resisting the entreaty in her sweet pleading face. So the old +cavalier went back to the hall leaning on his son's arm. + +It seemed as happy an augury as could be given of the blessing to +flow from the marriage. + +He was the only one of Lettice's kindred except her father who +vouchsafed his presence. And I believe it was to counterbalance this +cold reception, and testify how he honoured, as much as to show how +he loved, his child, that Sir Walter insisted on all the village +partaking of such a feast as Netherby had never seen, and on the +ringers of all the churches round ringing such peals as the +country-side had never heard. + +So it came about that at last, after flowing so parallel, so close, +and so divided for so many centuries, the two streams of life at +Netherby blended in one. + +Job Forster said,-- + +"I always knew it must be--I always knew. Do you think, Mistress +Olive, I've watched nightly with Master Roger by the camp-fires on +Scotch and Irish moors, on the hills and by the sea, and gone with +him into battle after battle, when neither of us knew who would ever +come back alive--without finding out where his heart was? and when +Mistress Lettice came back from beyond seas as a lily among thorns, I +knew she was all right, which made it plain. But I never breathed it +to a soul. _She_ (_i.e._ Rachel) of course always knew everything, +whether she was told or not. But she was unbelieving about +it--fearful and unbelieving. I never knew her so bad about anything. +I believe it was because she wished it so much. Scores of times she +has vexed me sore about it. 'There was no promise folks should be +happy,' said she, 'and have all they wished for.' I had to mind her +of the morning long ago, when we went hunting in the dark for a +promise for Master Roger when he was in that sore trouble, and no +promise came, till at last she found we wanted none, for we'd got +beyond the promises to Him who was the Promise of all promises. And +here she was standing up again for a promise! 'It was spiritual +inward blessing we were looking for then, Job,' said she (nigh as +perverse as that poor Quaker maid), 'and of course that's all plain. +This is _outward_, and that's another thing altogether. No doubt the +good Lord would have us all forgiven and made good. But it's by no +means clear to my mind He'd have us all married and made happy just +in the way we wish.' 'Well, said I, 'thou'rt a wise woman, a world +wiser than me. But thou'st never fought under Oliver. _He_ said he +knew not well to distinguish between outward blessings and inward. +_To a worldly man they are outward; to a saint, Christian_. The +difference is in the subject, if not in the object.' Nor," continued +Job, "do I know to distinguish, or care. Leastways thou'st been the +best means of grace the Lord ever sent to me. And why shouldn't +Master Roger and Lettice be like thee and me? Seems to me scarce +thankful, anyway, to put marriage among the outward blessings, like +meat!' Which, if it did not convince her (for the best of women +can't be always amenable to reason), anyways turned the conversation. +And now it's all come about as I said, wife, and thou must give in at +last," he concluded. "Sure, thou'lt never be as stiff-necked as +those poor wilful Scottish ministers, who were so wise they couldn't +even see what the Almighty meant after He had spoken in thunder at +Dunbar. Poor souls," he added, "poor stiff-necked souls; they're +learning it now on the other side of the book, by the gallows and the +boot, and the congregations scattered by the King's soldiers on the +hills." + +Rachel did not plunge into the vexed question his words raised; as to +whether the event proved the equity of the cause. She only said,-- + +"Promise or no promise, Job; inward or outward, I've no manner of +doubt the good Lord minds whether we're happy or no, and makes us as +happy as may be, while being made as good as we can be. Which, of +course, He minds ten thousand times more; because the goodness is the +happiness, come which way it may, by the drought or the flood. But +if the happiness _will_ make us good, no fear of His stinting that. +Good measure pressed down and running over, that's His measure, and +that's the measure He's given Mistress Lettice and Master Roger at +last, and thee and me, this many a year. Good measure, with His sign +and mark on it to show it is good, and no counterfeit." + +Aunt Dorothy was the only one among us who thought it necessary to +temper Roger and Lettice's content with dark forebodings. + +"It is no smooth sea, dear heart," said she to Lettice, "thy bark is +launched upon, nor can ye remain long in any haven." + +"I know that I have married a soldier," replied Lettice, "and a +soldier in a warfare which has no discharges. But I know his lot, +and I have chosen it for mine, Aunt Dorothy." + +"Aunt Dorothy" fell from her lips for the first time like a caress. +There was always a kind of sweet easy majesty about Lettice, which +made her caresses seem a dignity as well as a delight, and Aunt +Dorothy for the time ceased her forebodings. Her love for Lettice +was stronger than she confessed or knew, and she was always more +easily led by Lettice than by any amongst us to take a brighter view +of things and men. Not that Aunt Dorothy was one given to moan or +whine. She did not dread suffering, but she believed it her duty to +dread joy and was therefore ever wont to shadow sunny days with the +severe foresight of evil days to come. Dark days indeed were her +bright days, since on these she permitted herself to enjoy such stray +sunbeams as rarely fail to break through the darkest. + +During three years after Roger and Lettice's marriage we kept much at +Netherby. Sir Walter's failing health made him choose the quiet of +his country home. Moreover, the doings of that degraded court, which +the loyal Mr. Evelyn called "rather a luxurious and abandoned rout +than a court," displeased the old cavalier of the court of Charles +the First as much as it did any Puritan amongst us. Except for the +contrast which made it yet bitterer for us who had hoped much from +the Commonwealth, and remembered Milton dwelling at Whitehall, and +the blameless family of the Protector making a pure English home, +with dignified courtly festivities and family prayer, where now the +eager contests of the gaming-table and wretched French songs +resounded, on Sundays as well as on other days, through the +apartments where the King's mistresses reigned. + +An alliance grew up between Aunt Dorothy, Sir Walter, and good Dr. +Rich. Aunt Dorothy could never so far forgive my father, Roger, my +husband, or Job Forster, for turning (as she believed) liberty into +license, and lawful resistance into rebellion, as to consort with +them again as of the same party. With Sir Walter she had a broad +common ground in their loyalty to the late king, their lamentations +over the present court, their general admiration of the nobleness of +the past, and their general hopelessness as to the future. But with +Dr. Rich her sympathies were deeper. He would bring her passages +from St. Austin, which she thought only second to St. Paul; and, in +return, she would acknowledge that there was one passage which she +had not once understood as she ought, and that was, "Resist not the +power, for they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation." +She agreed with Mr. Baxter and Mr. Henry as to the duty of attending, +at least occasionally, the services in the church established by law. +And he agreed that from primitive times private assemblies for +edification in twos and threes were not forbidden. + +Sometimes, indeed, they had debates. + +"England also has now her St. Bartholomew," she said once, "and no +doubt she will have her retribution. Charles the Ninth of France +died in agonies of remorse soon after that fatal day of the execution +of the Huguenots." + +"Anniversaries are not always wise to observe, madam," he replied. +"On the eve of St. Bartholomew's day seventeen years ago, the +Commonwealth prohibited the use of the Common Prayer even in private. +That also is an anniversary. And some might say this St. Bartholomew +is the retribution. God forbid I should accuse Him of punishing one +injustice by another. But by all means let us avoid predictions. +Even agonies of remorse are not the most hopeless end of guilty +souls." + +"Yet," said my father, "nothing is more safe than predictions of +retribution. Most men being likely to suffer, and all men being sure +to die, what can be safer than to threaten either affliction or +death, or both, to those we deem guilty? It seems to me," he +continued, "an endless and fruitless toil to make up the balance of +accounts between the churches as to persecution. Perhaps all that +can be said is, that those who have had the least power have had the +privilege of inflicting the least wrong. He who ruled England once +said 'he never yet knew the sect who, when in power, would allow +liberty to the rest.'" + +"He was for license," interposed Aunt Dorothy. "Heaven forbid we +should call that liberty." + +"Ay, sister Dorothy, no doubt," said my father, smiling, "with many +sects liberty to any other is license. That was what the Protector +thought. Be thankful that you have no chance just now of making a +St. Bartholomew of your own." + +"The Protector has had his retribution, brother," said Aunt Dorothy, +solemnly, "let us leave him and his politics in peace." + +"But, sir," rejoined my father, turning to Dr. Rich, "after all, the +worst retributions are in our sins. The loss of the soul in sinning +must be greater than any subsequent loss in suffering; and I confess, +to me no severer retribution seems possible to the Church which +inflicts this present wrong than the wrong itself, the loss of two +thousand of her most fervent and holy pastors, and the rending from +her of the tens of thousands who revere and follow them. The losses +of churches, after all, are not in livings but in lives; not in money +but in men." + +Bitter and biting, indeed, were the times around us, yet the prisons +of those days were more honourable than the palaces. Better beyond +comparison any disgrace and suffering that reckless Court could +inflict than the disgrace of belonging to it. + +With two thousand good ministers and their families thrown destitute +on the world, it was impossible that any of those who honoured them +could feel their own possessions anything but a trust to be +scrupulously husbanded for their succour. Many hundreds also were in +prison, though none, I rejoice to think, of those two thousand, were +ever in prison for debt. Then there were the Quakers, who bore the +brunt of the battle, carrying passive resistance as close to action +as possible, and persisting in meeting in public assemblies, though +certain to be dispersed by constables or soldiers with wounds or loss +of life. + +Indeed it was for this reason, amongst others, we kept away from +London during the years following the passing the Act of Uniformity, +in the hope of keeping Annis Nye out of the peril we knew she would +confront if near enough to attend a meeting of Friends. + +It was not any one party in the state whose hearts began to fail, but +the good men of all parties. + +It was no longer Royalists or Roundheads only that were sinking, but +England. It was not Puritanism or Presbyterianism only that the +Court affronted, but righteousness, purity, and truth. + +Already the weapons of ecclesiastical or theological controversy, the +subtle and "unanswerable" arguments wherewith Episcopalians, +Presbyterians, Independents, Erastians, Calvinists, Arminians, +Semi-Arminians, and all the sixty sects Mr. Baxter had enumerated, +had been assailing each other during the past years, seemed to hang +rusting over our heads, as mere curious antiquities, such as the +bills and crossbows our ancestors had used in the wars of the Roses. + +The contest was being carried to other ground; to the oldest +battle-field of all, and the most plainly marked. + +As Job Forster said,-- + +"There's a good deal of the fighting that's been done these last +years, Mistress Olive, that's been a sore puzzle to a plain man like +me. I mean the wars with words as well as with swords. Friend and +foe used so much the same battle-cries, and fought under banners so +much alike, that when a man had gained a victory, it wasn't always +easy to see whether to make it a day of humiliation or of +thanksgiving. The safest way was to make it both. And after he who +could see for us all was taken from our head, things got clean +hopeless, and it was all shooting in the dark. But now there's a +kind of doleful comfort in putting by all the long hard words with +which Christians fight each other, and taking up for weapons the Ten +Commandments. A man feels more sure anyway they can't hit wrong. +There's been a deal of fighting and a deal of talking these last +years, and seems to me now as if the Almighty were calling us all to +a Quaker's silent meeting, to keep still a bit, and mind our own +business. Perhaps when the talking and the fighting begin again, +they'll both be the better for the silence." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +LETTICE'S DIARY. + +"Davenant Hall, _October_, 1664.--The blow has fallen on us at last. +Aunt Dorothy and Annis Nye are together in prison at Newgate. + +"Annis was the first taken. Olive being for a time in London, +nothing could keep the maiden from attending the forbidden meeting of +Quakers, held at the Bull and Mouth, Bishopsgate. And so it happened +that, one night, they looked for her return in vain, and Dr. Antony +going to search for her, found that the assembly had been broken up +by the soldiers with violence, and that among those seized and thrown +into prison was Annis Nye. They would have paid anything, or taken +any pains to rescue her, but the peculiar difficulty in the case of +the imprisonment of the Quakers is, that they will do nothing and +suffer nothing to be done, which would in any way recognize the +justice of their sentence. The magistrate in this case (as in +another which occurred at the same time) was willing to have set +Annis free, if she would have given any pledge to abstain from +attending such meetings in future. But she said,-- + +"'Ask me not to do aught against my conscience? If I were set free +to-day I must go to-morrow, if the Lord so willed me, to meet the +Friends at the Bull and Mouth.' + +"Nor would she suffer bail to be given. And so she was sentenced to +be carried beyond seas to the plantations in Jamaica--she and divers +other Quakers, men and women; the men being sentenced to Barbadoes, +and the women to Jamaica. + +"Aunt Dorothy's heart was moved for the maid; but, nevertheless, she +shook her head, and said she had always prophesied such willfulness +could have no other end. + +"'It was a pity,' said she, 'the rashness of such disorderly people +should throw discredit on the sufferings of sober Christians.' + +"For she still clung to the belief that there was a legal submission, +a conformity to the furthest limit possibly compatible with fidelity +to conscience, which must be a safeguard for the personal liberty of +those who, like Mr. Baxter and herself, rigidly kept within it. + +"But she was soon to be driven from this last point of hope. In July +the Conventicle Act came into action, ordering that any religious +meetings in private houses, or elsewhere, of more than five people +besides the household, rendered those who attended them liable to +imprisonment or fines. + +"And from that time no Puritan gentleman, who had an enemy base +enough to inform against him or happened to come in the way of a +common mercenary informer, could be safe. Some even deemed it unsafe +to say a grace when five strangers were present. + +"At Netherby, a few of the villagers had always been wont to join our +family-prayer from time to time. + +"At the time of the coming of the Conventicle Act into operation, +Aunt Dorothy chanced to be alone in the house, the rest of the family +being in London, and she scorned to make any change. + +"On Sunday morning, an ill-looking suspicious stranger dropped in on +their morning exercise. And on the next the constables made their +appearance at the same hour, and arrested Aunt Dorothy in the king's +name. + +"The servants talked of resistance, and the constables suggested +bail, but Aunt Dorothy refused either: the first, from loyalty to the +king; the second, from loyalty to truth. She was guilty of no +offence against God or the king, said she, and was ready to stand her +trial. + +"Accordingly she is in Newgate, and Roger is in London, doing all he +can, in conjunction with Mr. Drayton and Dr. Antony, to effect her +liberation. + +"_Twelfth Night_, 1665.--I little thought that ever again, while we +are both on earth, anything should separate Roger and me. + +"I had gone over, as I thought, all possible dangers, and resolved +that, in all, duty must keep me by his side. Exile, war, +imprisonment, all I would share. What duty could ever arise so +strong as my duty to cleave to him? + +"And yet now Roger lies in prison in London, and I am imprisoned +here, kept from him by soft ties of duty stronger than bolts of iron. + +"For in the cradle by my side, breathing the sweet even breath of an +infant's sleep, lies our little Harry Davenant Drayton. + +"And in the next chamber, with the door open between, lies my father, +sleeping the feverish broken sleep of sickness, from time to time +calling me to his side by an uneasy moan or a restless movement; +scarcely able to bear me out of his sight. + +"Roger was arrested for speaking some words of good cheer to a little +company who had gathered at early dawn in a solitary place to hear +their ancient pastor. The pastor had been thrown into prison, and +the poor flock waited in vain. Roger came to tell them of their +pastor's imprisonment, said a short prayer and a few words of good +counsel, and would thus have heartened and then dismissed them, when +the officers came and seized him. Strange that he, so little given +to overmuch discourse, should be in prison for speaking. + +"There were no bonfires or festivities to-day, as on that +Twelfth-night, all but a quarter of a century since, when all +Netherby, and my own brothers, and I made merry around the winter +bonfires; that night which was nigh costing Roger so dear; all life +and all the Civil War before us, then as unknown as to-morrow now! + +"How scattered the company who met then! On battle-field, and lonely +heath, and in the silent church; in this old house (which feels +almost as lonely and silent now), and in prison. + +"Yet better now than then, in many ways, and for most of us. Some of +the dearest who could never have rested here, at rest for ever above. +Roger with a rest in his heart no prison can rob him of. And my +father nearer my mother, I think, than ever before in heart and soul. + +"I read the Prayer-book to him often, and the Bible. He makes little +comment, but loves to listen, and asks for the chapters and hymns my +mother loved best. And sometimes he asks me what comforted her most +when she thought of dying. And I tell him,-- + +"'Christ our Lord. The thought of Him; all He said, did, and +suffered on earth; Himself living now in heaven. All else, she said, +was Hades, the Invisible. But Christ had become Visible; had been +manifested, seen, touched, and handled. "God refuses us all such +poor pictures," (said she,) "as Pagans and Mussulmans have of their +paradises and elysiums; all pictures, except such as it is plain are +not pictures, but symbols; either because they contradict +themselves--as 'gold like transparent glass,' and seas 'mingled with +fire'--or, because we are told they are symbols, like the living +water and the Tree of Life. The other world remains to us Hades. +But Christ the Lord has been seen by mortal eyes, held in the mortal +arms of a mortal mother. His feet bathed with tears and kissed by +the lips of an adoring, penitent woman. His hand laid with healing +touch on the leper none else would touch. His hands nailed to a +cross, and His feet; the prints of the nails seen by Thomas; His +voice heard on the slopes of Olivet, by the sea-side, by the well. +Christ the Lord was heard and seen,' she said. 'And that makes all +the Hades a place not of darkness, but of light to me, where the +human heart can long to be, to adore Him, and yet remain human.'" + +"'Did she say that?' my father says. 'Did she say that? Then that +is what I can understand too. Even she could have seen nothing but a +blank of darkness in it but for Him; but for Him. Then, sweetheart, +no wonder I seem like groping in the dark sometimes. I who have so +much more sin to be forgiven, and so much less faith to see.' + +"Then once I told him how that horror of thick darkness came on me +when she died, and how it was shone away by the Apostles' Creed. And +he listened, gazing at me as if his soul were living on the words. +Then I read him the gospels; the stories of the resurrection. + +"And then often, again and again, he asks me to repeat what my mother +said. And each time, instead of growing dull by repetition, it seems +to grow living to us both. + +"So I can have no doubt that my place is here, and not in the prison +with Roger, where otherwise it would be liberation to me to go. + +"_January_ 30_th_, 1665.--No word from the prison for some days. The +snow is white on all the breadths of the Fens, bounded only like the +sea by the gray sky, broken only by the Mere, black with ice, and by +the dark limbs of the trees which have stripped themselves 'like +athletes' to fight the winter storms. + +"Sixteen years since they laid the king amidst the falling snow, +among his fathers, in the Chapel at Windsor. + +"How little our sentences avail! + +"Executed this day sixteen years as a murderer and traitor! +Celebrated to-day in every church throughout the land as a martyr of +blessed memory; while the bones of those who put him to death lie +mouldering under the gallows. + +"Yet who shall say that the final sentence is given yet? Higher and +higher the cause is carried from tribunal to tribunal, from the angry +present to the calm-judging generations to come, from these again to +the Tribunal above, from which there is no appeal. + +"Of what avail for us to judge? + +"The sentence is given there already; given, and known to those whom +it most concerns. + +"What matters it what we are prattling about it here below? + +"My husband has left among his papers some letters and journals from +the other side of the sea, which are well worn by much reading, and +noted in the margin in many places, so that in reading them I +converse with him, and find much comfort every way, both in the text +and the comment. + +"The simple story goes straight to my heart, nerves and braces it at +once. Never, I think, were sufferings borne with more of courage and +less of repining. + +"Frost, famine, salt water freezing on their scanty clothing till it +was hard as the Ironsides' armour. Then 'vehement' coughs came on, +'hectic,' and consumption; still they bore cheerfully on. Out of the +hundred, seventeen died in the first February after their landing, +sixteen in March, sometimes three die in a day. At last, at the end +of the winter, of one hundred persons, scarce fifty remained; the +living scarce able to bury the dead; the well not sufficient to tend +the sick. And in a notice which touches me to the quick, the journal +says:-- + +"'While we were busy about our seed, our governor, Mr. Carver, comes +out of the field very sick, complains greatly of his head; within a +few hours his senses fail, so as he speaks no more, and in a few days +after, dies, to our great lamentation and heaviness. His care and +pains were so great for the common good, as therewith 'twas thought +he oppressed himself, and shortened his days; of whose loss we cannot +sufficiently complain; and his wife deceases about five or six weeks +after.' + +"She, belike, did not complain of his loss. She endured; and died. + +"And shall I complain while Roger lives? and of bodily hardship I +know nothing; though that, indeed, is scarce the hardest. + +"Half the exiles dead, yet the rest never lost heart or distrusted +God; but went on, and toiled and conquered;--and made a home and a +refuge for their brethren;--began a New World. + +"The sorrows were borne in unrepining silence, as knowing God the +Father would not try them on many that could be spared. The mercies +are recorded with grateful minuteness. + +"After their first harvest from seed saved from half-starving mouths, +they appointed an annual Thanksgiving Day; afterwards, after a time, +an annual fast. But the thanksgiving came first. And they made it a +right merry day: preparing for it by a holiday of hunting game for +the feast. A wholesome and not gloomy piety theirs seems to me, like +John Bunyan's. Moreover, they have eyes to see. The journal tells +of forests 'compassing about to the very sea, with oaks, pines, ash, +walnut, birch, holly, juniper, sassafras, and other sweet wood;' of +forest paths and sweet brooks; of quiet pools and deep grassy +valleys; of vines, too, and strawberries; and sorrel and yarrow, and +cherry trees and plum trees. + +"Deer range the forests, and wilder animals. One poor man whose feet +were 'pitifully ill' with the cold, crept abroad into the woods with +a spaniel. A little way from the plantation, two wolves ran after +the dog, who fled between his legs for succour; he had nothing in his +hand, but took up a stick and threw at one of them and hit him. They +ran away, but came again; he got a pale-board in his hand, and 'they +sat on their tails grinning at him a good while, and then went their +way, and left him.' + +"Cranes and mallards waded about the marshy places and plashed in the +pools; and now and then they started partridges and 'milky-white +fowl;' and birds sang pleasantly among the trees. + +"The world seems so wholesome there, so adventurous, so full of life. +Sometimes I think if Roger were out of prison, one day I should like +to go there with him and our babe, and all the rest; away from the +conflicts of this distracted land; out of the way of courts and +prisons and Conventicle Acts, to conquer some more homes from the +wilderness. + +"But, perhaps, this is only restlessness and repining; in which case +I should be no worthy member of such a company. + +"I wonder if Roger ever thought of this, and never liked to mention +it to me, knowing how I love the old country and the old church? The +pages are so well-worn and so carefully noted. When we meet again, +at all events, I will show him I am ready for anything he deems good. +'Thy country shall be my country; whither thou goest I will go; where +thou diest I will die, and there will I be buried.' + +"Yes, none can rob me ever more of that sacred right. + +"_February_ 2_nd_.--A letter from Roger from the prison. + +"Brief enough, as his letters and speeches for the most part are, yet +marvellously lengthy for him. + +"'Our case is but little to be commiserated,' he writes, 'being so +much lighter than that of others, and we trust soon to be ended. + +"'I might, indeed, have as fair a room as at Netherby, and as good +eggs, cheese, butter, and bacon as a soldier could wish for sold here +in the prison. + +"'But no man, hale and strong (as I am, sweet heart, so never be +downcast), could know that hundreds of men and women, imprisoned for +much the same cause as we, are under the same roof, ill-clad, +ill-fed, and worse lodged, and enjoy his feast alone. + +"'The Quakers, as usual, provoke the charge, and bear the brunt of +it. The men's sleeping-room, till lately, was a great bare chamber +with hammocks hung between a pillar in the midst and the wall, in +three tiers, one above another; the air, by the morning, enough to +breed a pestilence. God grant it do not. For although this is +somewhat mended, these crowded prisons are little better than +pest-houses at the best. And pestilences do not stay where they +begin. Whitehall is not so far from Newgate but that the poison +might spread. The Friends outside do what they can to succour, +clothe, and feed those within, arranging their help with a singular +order and care. But much is left for us to aid in. Wherefore, sweet +heart, send what warm woolseys and wholesome country food thou canst. +Leonard Antony will bring it and see it well bestowed. + +"'We have good hope of deliverance, by payment of sundry fines and +other moneys. Annis Nye, we fear, is sentenced to the plantations in +Jamaica. But Aunt Dorothy will, no doubt, speedily be free, and +bring thee tidings. So God keep thee and the babe. And be of good +cheer. I was never of better heart. Farewell. + +"'_P.S._--Thy brother Walter hath been to see me. He was much moved. +And he is doing what he can for our release. But he looks sorely +aged and changed.' + +"_February_ 10_th_.--Aunt Dorothy is at Netherby again. + +"She looks thin and pale after such prison-fare and lodging. She +brings certain tidings that Roger will soon be free. + +"Her wrath seems chiefly directed against the exactions of the +prison-officers. + +"'Harpies!' said she, 'unconscionable harpies. I would not have +given a groat of good money to fill their unhallowed coffers, and to +buy the rancid lard and fetid oil they dare to call butter and bacon, +or demeaned myself to ask them the favour of a lodging separate from +the vagabonds and purse-pickers, had it not been for that poor wilful +maid, Annis Nye. She looked like a ghost or a corpse; a corpse with +the eyes of an angel, and the courage of a lion. Yea, the courage of +a lion more than the meekness of a martyr. Brave I say she is as any +woman ever was. And brave the Quakers are. But meek I never will +call them. One of them was imprisoned for "finishing a job," mending +shoes, on the Sabbath morning! On religious principles, quoth he; +breaking the Sabbath "on religious grounds!" And when in prison he +let them nearly whip him to death, rather than confess himself guilty +by doing the malefactors prison work. Indeed, he would have died but +for the tender nursing of Mr. Thomas Ellwood and the other Friends, +dressing his wounds with balsams. For that they are friendly to each +other, these fanatics, no one can deny, brave and friendly; but +meek'--surely they are not. I had almost to belie myself by +pretending to want a waiting-woman (a bondage I hate), before I could +prevail on that poor maid to let me have her in a room apart, and +nurse and cherish her as she needed. For she had been sorely bruised +and wounded in the scattering of the meeting, where the soldiers took +her; and had been busier since with her "concerns" and her +"callings," to all seeming, than with mollifying her wounds and +bruises. I am a woman of no weak nerve, niece Lettice, but my heart +sickened when I came to see how she must have suffered. And she as +patient as a lamb, dumb and patient those Quakers can be. I will +never deny that; dumb and patient, brave and friendly. And now there +she is again alone, without a creature in their sober senses near her +to keep her from her "concerns" and her "calls." There she is with +ever so many others, sentenced to "service" in Jamaica.' + +"When Job Forster heard this sentence, he brushed his hand across his +eyes. + +"'Poor maid! poor, pleasant, wilful maid!' said he. + +"But before long he seemed to take a more cheerful view. + +"'Perhaps it's for the best, after all, Mistress Lettice. Who knows +but she might have been seized with a concern to go to preach to the +Grand Turk, or the Pope, or the Dey of Algiers? Several of the women +Friends have done such things. Not that the Turks are the worst foes +for a Quaker. They listen to them as meek as lambs for they think +they are mad; and they think the Almighty speaks through mad people. +And then they escort them out of the country, as gracious as may be. +And I don't see what any saint could do better with a Quaker, poor +blind infidels though those Turks be. Nay, the Turks are not the +worst danger for a Quaker. She might have had a concern to go to New +England, to testify, as others of her sect have done, against the +severity of their treatment there. And New England, they do say, is +about the hottest place a Quaker can go to just now. They don't +listen to them, like the poor Turks. And they do escort them out of +the country; but not graciously. They beat them from town to town, +and threaten them with the gallows if they come back again, which +makes it a stronger temptation than any Quaker can resist to go back +as soon as they can.' + +"This is a great perplexity to me. I thought the people in New +England had gone there on account of religious liberty. I must ask +Roger. + +"_February_ 17.--Roger is with us again; scarce the worse for his +imprisonment, except a little hollow in the cheeks, and a good deal +of want of repair in his clothes. I see he did not use the clothes I +had made. + +"'A little more in good campaigning order,' he says, if I attempt to +condole; 'a little relieved of over-abundance of flesh. That is all.' + +"It is the way of the Draytons generally, and of Roger in particular, +that their spirits rise beyond the ordinary level in a storm. I +suppose the family has been used to stormy weather so long that they +feel it their element. They are at home in it, and like it. + +"I have asked him about New England. His face quite beamed, and his +tongue seemed unloosed, when he found the thought of going to the +plantations was not so terrible to me. + +"He confessed that he had often thought it might be the best +resource, if things do not mend here, but had shrunk from mentioning +it to me. + +"'We are all cowards, in some direction,' he said, with a smile. +'How was I to know, sweet heart, I had married a Deborah, whose heart +would never fail?' + +"'Thou dost not despair for England?' I said. + +"'God forbid!' said he. 'But the lives of nations count by +centuries, and ours by years, and that but precariously. And, +meantime, while there is so little to be done here, I have sometimes +thought we might serve the old country best by extending her dominion +and anticipating her freedom in the new.' + +"'But,' said I, 'I cannot make out about this freedom. Job Forster +says they are by no means gentle to Quakers.' + +"He paused a little. + +"'The Quakers are not quite content with quietly pursuing their own +way,' he said. 'With all their objections to war and teaching of +passive resistance, their warfare is certainly not on the defensive +but a continual assault on other sects. And at present the New +England plantations are struggling, not "for wellbeing, but for +being;" which is a struggle in which men are apt to make rough terms. +By-and-by, they will feel stronger, and be gentler; and the Quakers, +seeing that every man's hand is no longer against them, will cease to +set their tongues against every man.' + +"'I scarce think,' he added, after a pause, in that low tone to which +his voice always naturally falls when he speaks of his old general, +'that the place is yet to be found on earth where such liberty exists +as the Protector would have had in England. + +"'But it has scarce come to the alternative of exile yet. I cannot +think that England will be steeped much longer in this Lethe of false +loyalty, forgetting not Eliot and Hampden, and the Commonwealth +alone, but Magna Charta, and all her history: all that makes her +England.' + + +LETTICE'S DIARY.--(_Continued._) + +"London, _April_, 1665.--The last weeks of watching by my father's +sick-bed are over. No bitterness mingles with the sorrow. At first +it seemed as if we could do nothing but give thanks for the peace and +patience of those last days; and the rest for the spirit, so weary +and hopeless as to this world and its future--so full of lowly, +trembling hope as to the other. + +"Then came the ebbing back of the tide of affection in a tide of +grief, the sense of blank and loss that must come and Roger thought +it best I should leave the old scenes altogether for a while, and +come to Olive's home. + +"For the old home at the hall can never be a home for us again. + +"Roland and his wife took possession at once, with workmen from town, +and a train of new servants. Happily, my father had pensioned many +of the old household. + +"My sister-in-law has remodelled my mother's oratory, and the old +places so sacred to me, as she wished, after the newest fashions at +Whitehall. + +"But these changes in things, however sacred, are little indeed, +compared with the changes in people; the evil influences brought into +the household and the village by the dissolute train of serving men +and women, trained in the wicked manners of the Court. + +"London, _May_, 1665.--The spring seems to unfold her robes slowly +this year, and feebly, like a butterfly I saw yesterday, in which +life was so low that it died whilst struggling out of its chrysalis. +There has been much drought. The scant foliage in the parks and by +the road-sides grows old and gray with dust and drought almost as +soon as it is out. + +"There have been comets and strange sights in the sky this winter. +Aunt Dorothy thinks they are for the nation's sins; but Mr. Drayton, +who attends the lectures of the Royal Society at Gresham College, +says they have to do with the revolutions of the heavens, not with +the revolutions in England. 'The signs of the times,' says he, 'are +not in the sky, but in the Whitehall gaming-tables.' But Aunt +Dorothy shakes her head, and says the Royal Society, the Quakers, and +the Court together, are fast undermining the faith of the people. + +"There are rumours that one or two poor folk in the villages of St. +Giles' and St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, between Westminster and the +City, lie sick with a malady men like not well to name. + +"But all just goes on as usual. The king feeds the wild-fowl and +plays pall-mall in the park, with the throng of idlers about him. + +"There is little, indeed, at Whitehall to recall that it ever was +what Roger and the foreign ambassadors say it was in the days of the +Commonwealth; a virtuous princely home; still less to make it +possible to think the king recalls it as the scene of his father's +martyrdom. A gaming-house, where wicked women are lodged, and fill +the galleries night and day with licentious revelry; where the wife +sits apart, neglected and despised, while her husband spends her +fortune on the mistress with whom he compels her to associate! + +"Is there no English gentleman left, no relic of old knighthood, that +these things can be? + +"Queen was a sacred name to the cavaliers of my youth. Were there no +cavaliers left when the young queen, after patiently sitting apart +some time in her neglected corner of the room while the base throng, +with a king at their head, gathered around the mistress--at length +rose and withdrew to hide her bitter tears in her chamber;--were +there none of the old cavaliers left to rally indignantly round her +and shame the king back to her? Were there no English gentlewomen +left to uphold her in the courageous and womanly resistance she dared +at first to make to the degradation of such company as the king +forced on her?--To say to her, 'For his sake and your own, never +yield to such dishonour! Better weep alone, neglected for life, a +widowed wife, than stoop to be but the first of such a company!' + +"Alas! now, poor lady, she has learned to hide her indignation, and +to converse freely with those any man with a spark of true manhood in +him, profligate though he might be, would have kept from her sight. + +"And some still speak of the king as a model of grace and courtesy, +and extol his infinite jest and wit; comparing the polish of those +refined days with the rough, soldierly jokes of the Usurper! + +"These days refined, and those coarse! Roger says there is more +coarseness in the most polished compliment of this hollow Court than +in the roughest joke a man like Cromwell could ever make. Just as +there is more coarseness in the theatre now established than in the +rudest jests in Shakspeare, whose plays the king's courtiers and +mistresses are too 'polite' to act, and the courtiers too 'polite' to +enjoy. + +"For the royal favourites now are to be seen on the stage. The +'lady' now, they say, does not reign alone. The poor young queen has +this wretched revenge, at least, that the king can be constant to no +love, lawful or not. + +"Bear and bull baiting, too, are restored among the 'refinements' of +the Court. But, perchance, I am the bitterer on this, in that this +degradation presses me so close. The gleam of better hope that broke +on us for Walter, when he appeared at our marriage and was reconciled +to my father, has long since vanished; and he is swept away again in +the whirlpool of the Court. + +"It is this which obliges me to think of evils from which otherwise I +might turn my eyes. + +"This Dance of Satyrs is to my brother, indeed, a Dance of Death. +These fires of sin are burning away his very life and soul, and none +can quench them. + +"_June_ 3.--The numbers of poor sick folk in St. Giles' and St. +Martin's have increased fearfully. The nobles and rich men take +alarm; many houses are deserted; the roads crowded with coaches full +of fugitives. + +"The Plague is amongst us! The Plague! + +"To none of us not yet beyond middle life are the terrors of that +word fully known. Mr. Drayton, Aunt Dorothy, and the aged, know the +meaning of the word too well. In 1636, nearly thirty years ago, was +the last great desolation of the City. Before that it recurred, with +more or less force, every few years. Then it swept away a fifth of +the inhabitants. But for the last sixteen years it has been scarcely +seen in London; merely four or five people in the year, in the lowest +districts, dying of it, and so preventing its being altogether +forgotten. + +"Said Aunt Dorothy: 'The Commonwealth was not all a godly people +could wish. But during the Commonwealth the Plague did not visit the +City. That scourge, at all events, was not deemed needful. Now the +Court has come back--or I should not say come back--such a Court as +was never known has come to us from those wicked, foreign, Popish +parts: and with the Court comes the Plague.' + +"'The real Plague has been among us some years,' said Mr. Drayton. +'Heaven grant this Plague may be the purification. But take heed, +sister Dorothy, take heed how we interpret Providence before the +time. The scourge has fallen on too many of late for us to say too +hastily this is the Father's rod, and that is the Lictor's; or this +is the King's accolade to smite his servant into knighthood, from the +lower place of service to the higher. What sayest thou, sister +Gretel?' + +"'For me, brother,' she replied, 'there is little temptation of being +too quick to interpret, because I am so slow to understand. So I +find it the safest way, when the rod falls on others, to hope it is +the King's accolade; when it falls on myself, I know well enough it +is the Father's rod--the loving Father's loving chastening, yet +sorely needed.' + +"But Aunt Dorothy set her lips rigidly. + +"'Some men's sins are open beforehand,' said she, 'going before to +judgment. And all men say it does seem very notable just now that +death seizes most on the profane, and seems to pass the sober and +religious people by.' + +"_June_ 3.--Rumours of a great victory over the Dutch Fleet. The +news scarce stirs up the smitten city to the faintest semblance of +joy or triumph. Yet are victories not so frequent now as to be made +common. + +"_June_ 25.--The Court has fled to Oxford. Whitehall is empty and +silent. That mockery, at least, is gone out of sight of the people's +misery. + +"The Court has fled, and the good Nonconformist ministers have come +back, and are allowed to preach in the churches from which they were +driven. + +"_June_ 30.--We have held a family consultation to-day whether to +stay or go. Roger and Leonard Antony had no doubt of their duty. + +"Many of the physicians have left (to attend their fugitive patients, +they say), which makes it all the more needful, Dr. Antony thinks, +for him to remain. + +"Many of the clergy, also (though by no means all), have fled (to +tend their fugitive flocks, they say). And Roger deems it the plain +duty of a Christian man, who is here already by Providence placed in +the midst of the peril, to stay, and give what help he can to the +stricken and the bereaved, by counsel, alms, and words of Christian +hope. This is the kind of season that unlocks Roger's lips. He +grows eloquent, when dying men and women look to him to lift their +hearts to God. At least, the few words he speaks are eloquent, and +refresh the heart like cold water after a burning drought--cold and +fresh, because of the deep places from which it comes. + +"They tried a little to persuade Olive and me and the children to +seek refuge elsewhere. + +"But not much, seeing that all persuasion could be of no avail to +move us to this. + +"Thank God, it is _not_ my duty to be parted from him now. God +spares us this agony. + +"Indeed there is one mitigation to the anguish of this time of +terrors. Death comes to many households now almost as the Glorious +Epiphany for which my mother looked; as it were with a great trumpet, +in the twinkling of an eye, smiting whole families together, without +parting, from earth to heaven. + +"For what richer mercy could we ask? + +"_July_.--The sunny sky, unshaded by a cloud, still smiles its +terrible steady stony smile on the drooping city; like a countenance +which despair has smitten into idiotic vacancy; like an eye from +which madness has dried the tears. + +"It is strange to have such leisure as we have now to listen and +think. For in one thing Roger and Dr. Antony are firm. They will +not suffer us to go into the infected streets, nor indeed to leave +the garden, save by the water-gate, to give the children fresh air in +the meadows by the river. + +"We keep everything as much as possible in its wonted, even course. +Our family prayer and psalm have not been omitted once; Roger's +father leading it, for Roger and Leonard are seldom present. + +"Maidie and Dolly sew and help us in the house, where there is much +to do; since we hold it duty by no means to suffer our servants to +remain in the infected city, unwilling as they were to depart. +Mistress Gretel, Mistress Dorothy, and Olive, therefore, do the +kitchen and the household work, and I and the young maidens help all +we can; although (being brought up too helplessly) I am not of half +the use I would be. + +"This regular even living Dr. Antony deems the best precaution. He +believes a feverish convulsive kind of religion is as dangerous as +any other excitement, and that we have great need at such (as at all) +times of the exhortation, _Study to be quiet, and to do your own +business_. + +"Much as he honours those who preach in the churches, he could desire +that their exhortations were sometimes less alarming. The people are +roused and alarmed enough, he says, by the pestilence. Death itself +is preaching the Alarm and the Call to the unconverted. What sermon +can preach 'Prepare' like Ten thousand Deaths in a week? The +preachers should preach Christ and His peace, he thinks. And so no +doubt many do. + +"The magistrates do what they can to produce the same regularity in +the city. London is not wholly abandoned by all her rulers in her +sore need. Bread is as abundant and cheap as ever, though it must be +brought to us at some peril. + +"There is a great quiet in the streets. No holiday processions now. +The merry-makers are all gone from the city or from the world. No +funeral processions. There are no burials, except by night. The +city is dying. But there are no tolling bells, no reverent slow +steps of the mourning train. The magistrates dare not let the +mourners go about the streets by day. + +"Death is stripped of all the pomps with which we seek to hide its +terrors, and stands bare. The only funeral procession is the +dead-cart with its ghastly drivers; the dead-cart met at the head of +each alley with shrieks of despair which break the silence of the +night. Twice the drivers of that cart were lost, and the horses +rushed wildly on. But no one knows if the drivers died or fled. The +general tomb is that dread Pit in the fields where the dead are +thrown at midnight, of which we scarce dare even think. + +"The pestilence makes no distinction that any of us can understand +now. Aunt Dorothy has well-nigh given up seeking to read God's +judgments, which at first she and many thought so distinct and +distinguishing. + +"Yet amid all these horrors there are alleviations such as sometimes +do make the meaning shine through them, as if they were illuminated +from within. + +"Divisions have ceased. Instead of disputing questions of precedence +as on a mock battle-field, Christians draw inward to the citadel, +which is the sole and common refuge of us all. + +"Mere religious talk has ceased. + +"People whose talk is deeper than their life, do not dare to talk for +fear of having to prove their words the same hour in dying. + +"People whose life lies deeper than their speech, do not need to talk +of what they feel. The peace which sets them free to serve and +comfort all around, speaks enough, with very few words. + +"Persecution has ceased. + +"The pestilence, with its cruel Act of Uniformity has altogether +annulled that of the king. Divers of the ejected ministers, now that +ten thousand are dying in a week, have resolved that no obedience to +the laws of mortal men whatever can justify them in neglecting men's +souls and bodies in such extremities. They therefore stay or return. +They go into the forsaken pulpits, unforbidden, to preach to the poor +people before they die; also to visit the sick, and get such relief +as they can for the poor, especially those who are shut up in the +smitten houses. + +"The fear, and hope, which at first made people avoid each other, +have passed together. And the churches are crowded whenever any +preach who speak as if they testified what they knew. + +"'Religion,' Roger says, 'is gaining such a hold of numbers of these +weeping, silent listeners, as, living or dying, will not be loosed +again.' + +"And (unless the Puritan preaching is different from any I ever +heard, or thought to hear) the sermons are such as the evident +possibility of the preachers never preaching another, and the +certainty of many of the congregation never hearing another, alone +can make them. + +"They are messages, not statements or arguments; scarcely so much +appeals as messages. The calmest allusion to danger penetrates the +heart like the archangel's trumpet, when ten thousand dying lips are +echoing it. + +"'_You are lost--wandering and lost in sin_.' + +"That has a strange power, when we know it to be true, and see before +us the edge of the abyss. + +"'_The son of God has come to seek and to save the lost_.' + +"He, Himself, not the plague, but the Saviour, is here, seeking the +lost now; not to judge but to save. + +"_God has so loved the world_; not hated, let these horrors say what +they may--not forgotten--but loved; not willed this open world to +perish, let these grass-grown streets, and these shutters rattling +against the empty houses, these midnight burials of thousands, these +death-wails, this death-silence, say what they will, _not to perish_; +the true perishing, the perishing in sin, of sin, is not His will, +never His will, but the being saved, out of sin and from sin. _This_ +salvation is as near you as the plague. Nay, the plague is only the +merciful thunder calling to it. + +"Few words are needed to move men now; no new words. The older the +better. If the old forgotten words once lisped at a mother's knee, +better than all. + +"O Walter! Walter! my brother! Art thou here still in this +plague-smitten city, or hast thou fled with that Court smitten with a +plague so infinitely more terrible? Would God thou wert here to hear +those sacred words of heavenly forgiveness and strength, echoed back +to thy heart once more, as from our mother's lips, from among these +congregations of dying men! + +"_August_ 25.--It has come close to us at last. + +"Our door is marked with the red cross now. + +"The sweetest and ripest souls among us--Roger's father and Aunt +Gretel--have been stricken, and are gone home. + + +"Yesterday morning, before daybreak, I was resting on my bed, having +watched through the night, when I heard the latch of the garden-door, +which was left open for Roger and Dr. Antony, softly lifted. I +thought it might be Roger, and crept down-stairs. + +"At the door I met Annis Nye. + +"Her face was pale and worn, but serene as ever, and her voice as +calm. + +"'I heard that you were all here, without any to serve you,' she +said, 'and I thought that was a call to me to come.' + +"'Do you know into what peril you come?' I asked. + +"'I saw the plague-sign on the street-door,' she said; 'so I came +round through the garden.' + +"I clasped her in my arms, and kissed her, and wept. Tears are not +common with us now; but I could not help these. Generous deeds +always touch the spring of tears, I think, more easily than sorrow. + +"What was stranger than my being thus moved, when Aunt Dorothy came +down and saw Annis, and heard why she had come, she did as I had +done; she took the maiden to her heart and wept. + +"But what sounded stranger yet in that house and city of death, when +the children saw her, they made the hushed house ring for a moment +with their joyous welcomes. + +"'Annis is at home again!' they said; 'Annis is safe. She will nurse +us all, and keep every one, quiet, and we shall all get well.' + +"Meantime, Mistress Dorothy had busied herself preparing food, which +she set before Annis, and with difficulty persuaded her to take a +little bread and milk. + +"She had a strange story to tell, and she told it in few words, as +was her wont, at our questioning. + +"'I and other women Friends were sentenced to the plantations in +Jamaica,' she said. 'But the ship-masters refused to take us. They +held our sentence unjust, and feared the judgment of the Lord if they +meddled with us. At last one was found who took us, he being denied +a pass down the river from the plague-smitten city unless he +covenanted to carry us. They had trouble in getting some of us on +board. For they would not acknowledge their sentence so far as to +climb willingly into the ship. So they had to be hoisted on board +like merchandise. To this I was not called. For which I was +thankful. For it angered the sailors sorely. "They would hoist +merchants' goods," said they, "but not men and women." But the +officers took the ropes, saying, "They are the king's goods." So, as +chattels, we were shipped for the plantations. But we had scarce +reached the sea when the pestilence broke out among us. One and +another sickened and died. So that the ship-masters would proceed no +further, but cast us on shore, and me among the rest.' + +"There was a kind of comfort in feeling that, coming thus from an +infected ship, the generous maiden had not really increased her risk +by devoting herself to our service, freely as she had dared to do so. +And our risk could scarce be increased. + +"Having told her tale, Annis quietly folded her out-of-door garments, +laying them aside in the old places, and said to Aunt Dorothy, 'Which +way can I serve thee best?' + +"We took her to Mr. Drayton's sick-chamber, Olive's eyes brightened +with the soft moisture of grateful tears as Annis entered, where she +sate by her father's bed. + +"But that was no place or season for spoken thanks or questionings. +Annis at once fitted into her place among the nurses. And I know not +how any of us could have survived those days and nights of watching, +but for her help. + +"Aunt Dorothy said,-- + +"'I will take heed how I speak lightly of Quakers and their calls +again.' + +"Yes; the two readiest among us have been called home. Roger's +father and his mother's sister. Honoured and beloved beyond any. + +"Yet we speak of them quietly, almost without tears. + +"Death is so around us--without, within, everywhere--that it seems +the most natural thing. We say, 'They are gone home,' with less +sense of separation than in ordinary times we say, 'They are gone to +Netherby,' with far less than we should have said, 'They have gone +across the seas.' + +"It is so likely we may be with them again to-morrow--to-day! + +"I look back a page or two in this Diary, and the words they spoke +and I wrote so lately have become sacred, dying, farewell words. + +"'_The Father's rod_.' Yes, that was what _they_ thought. '_The +King's touch smiting them from the lower service to the higher_,' +That is what we think, and we say it to each other as their epitaph. + +_September_.--No distinction, indeed, this pestilence makes as to +whom it smites. + +"What I wished, yet scarce dared to wish, for Walter has come true. + +"Could I have dared to wish it, had I thought it could come? + +"Two nights since, Roger came to my bedside and said,-- + +"'Lettice, I dare not spare thee, even thee, from a call such as +this. Canst thou be ready to come with me quickly, to visit one +smitten with plague?' + +"From any voice but his, the sudden, midnight summons would have set +my heart beating so as to rob me of the power to obey. + +"But there is always a calm about him which nerves me to do anything. +Besides, he said, 'Come with me.' And that was strength itself. + +"I did not waste time in questioning. He left me to tell Annis Nye +not to wake Olive. + +"I was dressed in a few minutes. Then I went and kissed the babe. +It might be perilous for me to touch his soft cheek, rosy with sleep, +when I came back. If ever I came back to him! For that was a +probability which must be met in such a leave-taking. + +"As I stood by the child's little bed, Roger came back. + +"'We will kneel beside him,' he said. + +"And in a few brief words he prayed, for strength to comfort, for +wisdom to guide, for balm to heal. + +"Before we rose, I knew what he meant + +"'It is Walter,' I said. + +"He took my hand in his, and we spoke no more. + +"Silently we went out, our steps echoing through the streets, the +great bonfires, kept up now in each street to purify the air, +lighting us on our way, now illuminating with tongues of fitful flame +the red cross and the closed door, now more drearily lighting up the +empty chambers of the houses of the dead, which needed no longer to +be closed, whose half-opened shutters creaked restlessly in the night +winds. + +"We stopped at the steps of what had been a stately mansion. + +"The door was ajar, as Roger must have left it. There were none to +usher us into the lofty hall or up the wide staircase, on whose stone +stairs our steps echoed so noisily through the deserted chambers, +step as softly as we might. + +"Through one luxurious chamber after another we passed, our steps +hushed on soft Persian rugs, and softened by tapestried walls. + +"In one lay virginals and lutes and song-books, as if from a recent +concert. In another, a table spread for a feast--the wine still +sparkling in the glasses, and summer-fruits mouldering on the +porcelain. + +"And in the last chamber, upon a stately gilded bed with silk +curtains, he lay, my brother, with scarce open, half-vacant eyes, +which seemed as if their sight and meaning were gone, his hands +clenched in agony. + +"Yet he saw and knew me, for he cried with an energy which pierced +the silence like a death-wail-- + +"'Take her away, Roger! take her away! I will not have that at my +door! Take her away!' + +"But I went close to him, and gently unclasped his clenched hand, and +kissed his forehead, and said-- + +"'Two of us have been smitten already, Walter. We are past peril.' + +"'Who have been smitten?' he asked suddenly. 'Not your child?' + +"'No,' I said--and I felt my voice falter--'not our Harry.' + +"Then his mind seemed to wander, for the far-off past came back so +vividly as to blot out the days that had intervened. + +"'Harry, my brother Harry--don't speak to me of Harry,' he said. 'He +loved me, and sent a dying message that he looked to meet me. And he +never will--he never will.' And then,-- + +"'I am dying, Lettice, don't you see? dying--body and soul. For +mercy's sake don't come near me. If you can bear it, I can't. There +will be torments enough soon. Don't burn my soul thus with your +purity and your love.' + +"I took his hand, and pressed it to my lips, for I could not speak. +But he drew it away with a convulsive energy. + +"Take her away, Roger!--don't let her! She doesn't know what I am, +or who it was these hands touched last.' + +"And then at intervals he told us how, when the Court left, a small +company of the more reckless young courtiers had persuaded him it +would be cowardly to go; and they had established themselves in this +house, belonging to a kinsman of one of them, and held wild revelries +there. How he had half intended, when he had heard we remained in +the City, to break with these dissolute associates, and find us out; +and had once or twice crept into churches by himself and heard +sermons, but had delayed and hesitated from week to week; until at +last, towards the end of August, a singing-girl, one of their +company, had been smitten with the plague. Then the door had been +closed and marked, and all the revellers had escaped through windows, +over the leads of other houses, or over the palings of gardens to the +river, and so into the country. But he could not shut his heart to +the dying shrieks of that poor lost girl, and abandon her to die +alone. + +"'I meant to wait till she was dead,' he said. 'and leave the men of +the dead-cart to find her in the empty house and bury her, and then +to follow the rest. I had enough on my conscience without being +followed through life with those dying cries. But before she died I +began to feel ill myself. I tried to keep up my spirits with wine; +but that was of no use. And then I found half a dozen leaves of an +old Prayer-book--the sentences and the Confession, and the +Absolution, and one or two of the Gospels. I entreated her to let me +read to her, but she would not listen, but kept deliriously singing, +mixing up light songs, bad enough at any time from a woman's lips, +with strains of music from the Royal Chapel, and melodies of innocent +old Christmas village carols, in a way horrible to hear. And then +she died, and I was too ill to leave. And I crept into this bed. +That was yesterday. And at night-fall there was a rattling at the +door, and heavy steps up-stairs, and heavier down again. So I knew +they would bury her. But I lay still under the coverlet; for a +horrid dread came over me that they might find me, carry me down, and +bury me with her, to save time. There had been horrible jests among +us of such things happening. But the door shut, echoing through the +empty house like thunder. + +"'And I knew I was left alone to die. And then another horrible +feeling came over me; that it would be better if they had found me, +and taken me out to die quietly among the dead, without thinking any +more about it, than leave me here lingering alone to think of it; to +look at death steadily, alone, no one knows how long; with nothing +but dying between me and it. + +"'And to pass the time and break the silence I took up the old +Prayer-book and read aloud,-- + +"'_When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness_. But I +thought, I can never turn away from my wickedness. I can only turn +round and round in it for ever and ever. So I stopped, until the +silence was worse to bear than the words; and then I read on again. +But my own voice sounded to me like a parody. Dreadful jesting +voices seemed reading the sacred words after me, until I came to the +Confession. + +"'Then the jesting voices vanished. And, instead, came my mother's +voice, and my own, as a boy, saying it after her, "We have gone +astray like lost sheep." I might have said it once, I knew, and have +_come back_; now I should have to _go on saying it_ for ever, with +her voice echoing it as if from heaven, and _never come back_. If I +could hear the voice of some one good reading this Confession and the +Gospels, I thought they might seem true, even for me, yet, but never +in my own. + +"'So I flung the book from me, and lay still until I heard a man's +feet coming softly up the staircase; and I thought it was a thief +come to pillage, and then perhaps to murder me. And the insane +desire of life mastered me again; and I covered my face again and +hushed my breath, until I heard Roger's voice beside me saying, +"_There is no one living here_." And then I looked up. And all +night he has been speaking to me, Lettice--nursing me as my mother +might, and now and then reading out of the Gospels and the +Confession. And if the merciful words would seem true to me in any +voice sister, they would in his. If I had only gone to you all +before! But it is too late, Is it not too late? Is not my life +wasted, lost--lost for ever?' + +"He gazed into my eyes with that wistful, thirsting look of the souls +who are departing. I knew nothing but truth would avail. So I said +as quietly as I could,-- + +"'Your life--this life, Walter--I am afraid it is lost--lost for +ever. Your _life_; but not you, Walter; not you.' + +He kept his eyes fixed on mine, and said,-- + +"And there is no second, Lettice. God Himself cannot give us back +the lost life again.' + +"Then all that he might have been, all my mother hoped he might be, +rushed over my heart, and I could not say any more. I could only +kneel down by his bedside and take his hand and sob out,-- + +"'O Father, Thou knowest all he might have been, all Thou wouldest +have had him be. And Thou seest the ruin they have made of him. +Have pity, have pity, and forgive.' + +"He laid his hand on mine. + +"'Hush, Lettice, hush!' he said; 'not _they--I_. I have ruined +myself. No one could have ruined me but myself. The sin is mine.' + +"Then I rose. For I felt as if my prayer was answered. I felt as +if, weak, trembling woman that I was, a priestly voice was in my ears +pronouncing absolution, ready to breathe the gospel of forgiveness +through my lips. For it seemed to me these were the first words of +real repenting I had ever heard Walter utter. I had heard him again +and again speak of himself or his life with a passionate loathing. +But that was not repenting. Too often if any one admitted the +justice of such self-accusations, he would turn them into +self-excusing and accusings of others. But now, it seemed to me, he +was indeed coming to himself, coming home; and I said,-- + +"'Walter, you could not turn from the cries of that poor dying +creature. Will you set your pity above God's?' + +"'I had none but myself to think of,' he said. 'It mattered nothing +to any one whether I did right or wrong about it. He is King and +Judge, and has the whole world to think of in forgiving any one.' + +"'Our Lord did not say so,' I said. 'When the lost son arose to come +home to be forgiven, it seemed as if the father had nothing to do +with any one in the world but with him. He did not think of what the +servants would say, or the elder brother, or how any one else might +be tempted by the forgiveness to wander. He was watching the +wanderer! Oh, Walter, He was the first to see him turn--the first! +He was the first to see you. I know it by the parable; I know it +because, after all--after _all_, Walter--He has let you die at your +post. Think of the mercy of that! You might have died helping to +ruin some one. You die trying to help. Think of the mercy of being +suffered to do that!' + +"A softer light came into his eyes, and after a minute he said,-- + +"'I cannot doubt His pity; no, I dare not. What I doubt is myself. +How can you know, Lettice, how can I know, that if life were given +back to me I might not waste it all again?' + +"Then turning that intense searching gaze from me to Roger, he went +on,-- + +"'How can I know whether I am clinging to Him, as a dying man clings +to _anything_, or indeed as the repenting son to the Father? How can +you know or I?' + +"Roger bent low over him and said,-- + +"'Neither you nor I can know. One only knows. He only can forgive. +He knew, on the cross, when He was dying for the world, and the thief +beside Him was dying for his own crimes, and dying He forgave the +dying. He knows now. He is as near as then, and not _dying; living_ +for evermore; almighty to save. But even if you are clinging to Him, +as a drowning man to a rock, or to an outstretched hand, in mere +terror of the waves, is He one likely to wrench His hand even from +such a poor, desperate, selfish grasp as that? Did He on the Sea of +Galilee?' + +"Walter drank in all Roger said, but made no reply. + +"Roger's next words fell solemn as a summons from another world. + +"'What do you want Him to save you from?' + +"Walter's answer was a cry of agony. + +"'From myself!--from myself!' + +"Roger's voice was firm no longer, but low and broken as Walter's +own, as he replied,-- + +"That He died to do; that He lives to do. That He can never refuse +to do for any that ask Him, for ever and for ever.' + +"Then, after a few moments, Roger said,-- + +"'If He sees no other way to save you but that you should lose your +life, that you should not be trusted with it again, could you be +content?' + +"'How can I be content?' Walter answered, 'Think what my life might +have been, It might have been like yours! And I have no second. I +would not complain. It is no wonder I cannot be trusted. I cannot +trust myself. But you can never know how bitter it is to begin to +see what life might have been when it is all over, and when you begin +to see how well He you have grieved was worth serving.' + +"He lingered some days. And then the lost life was over. + +"The life those we had served not disloyally had done their utmost to +ruin. + +"The spirit had departed, which He we have served so unworthily even +to the uttermost can save. + +"It was beyond comparison the bitterest sacrifice we had ever made. + +"Yet this sacrifice England is now making by hecatombs on the same +foul altar. + +"A sacrifice not of life ennobled, and made infinitely worthier in +laying it down, but of honour, of virtue, of all that makes men men. +Of souls degraded in the sacrifice to the level of that to which they +are sacrificed. A sacrifice to devils, and not to God." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +LETTICE'S DIARY. + +"Broad Oak, _February_, 1666.--For a brief season we are in this +haven, driven into rest by many storms. + +"The Plague has left London. The Court has returned to it unchanged, +to pursue its revelries. The ejected ministers who preached to the +dying city are once more silenced and driven from their pulpits, and +not only driven from their pulpits but from the city, by the Five +Mile Act, which prohibits any ejected minister, on severe penalties, +from approaching within five miles of the church where he was wont to +preach. + +"Roger deemed his work in London for the present done. + +"When we left, the streets were fragrant with the smoke of sweet +woods, burned in the houses, and curling through the open windows day +and night. The air was laden with strange Oriental odours of +incense, of aromatic gums and perfumes, floating the spirit on their +dream-like fragrance (as perfumes only can), within the spells of +Enchanted ground. + +"Yet the change is pleasant, to this wholesome country air, fresh +with the smell of the new-ploughed earth, of the young mosses and +grasses shooting out everywhere bright tiny spikes or stars of +jewel-like green, of the breath of cows, of gummy swelling leaf-buds, +and fir-stems warmed into pungent fragrance by the sun, of early +peeping snow-drops and rare violets, of sedges moistened by the +prattling brooks, of free winds coming and going we know not whence +or whither--from the mountains, from the sea, or from the forests of +the American wilderness. It is invigorating to body and soul to +change those costly foreign manufactured perfumes for all these +countless, changing, blending, breathing fragrances, which make what +I suppose is meant by 'the smell of a field which the Lord hath +blessed.' + +"It is a wonderful relief to be here, after what we have gone +through; free to go where we will, living with open doors, neighbours +freely coming and going, guests, unsuspected, dropping in at the +hospitable door from the highway. + +"It is not so much like coming in a ship out of the storm into the +haven, as like being quietly laid on a friendly sunny shore, after +buffeting with panting chest and weary arms through the waves which +have made the ship a wreck. + +"Something of this calm, indeed, began to come even before we left +London. + +"It is a thing never to forget, the change that came over people's +countenances on the first morning late in September, when the number +of the dead was in the week declared to have diminished instead of +increasing; the tears that those first gleams of hope brought to eyes +long dry in despair; the re-awaking of neighbourly sympathy, as each +house ceased to be either a refuge against infection, or a pest-house +from which it issued; windows opened fearlessly, once more, to hear +good news. The reserve which, like a fortress, rampart with rampart, +guards the deepest feelings of our people, broken down by the common +deliverance; strangers grasping each others' hands in the streets, +merely for the joy of telling the good news, weeping aloud for +gladness, or uttering the brief fervent thanksgiving--''_Tis all +wonderful; 'tis all a dream? Blessed be God, 'tis all His own doing. +Human help and skill were at an end. Let us give thanks to Him_.' + +"This melting together of men's hearts in the rapture of a common +deliverance, struck me more than all. It made me think how the best +balsam to heal the wounds of Christendom would be for Christianity to +be once more understood as the Gospel of Great Joy which it assuredly +is. There would be little room for controversy, I thought, and none +for isolation and exclusion, if every heart could only be penetrated +with the joy of the forgiven Prodigal, and of the Angels' Christmas +hymn. + +"Some people in their eagerness to purify their houses burned them +down. Wild despair was succeeded on every side by hopes as wild. +Those who had suspected every one, and crept along the streets, +fearing to touch each other's garments, grew so bold that they no +longer feared even the poor ghastly scarce-recovered victims of the +Plague, who began to limp about the streets with the bandages of the +dreaded sores and swellings still around their heads and limbs. + +"If even the reckless Court itself had lived through that peril and +that rescue, I think it would never have affronted Heaven and this +city of mourners again with its profligate revelries. The City, +indeed, was well fumigated from infection with perfumes, and with +brimstone, to make it a safe dwelling for the Court. But what +incense, what fires, can purify England from the infection of the +Court itself? + +"We should have gone to Netherby, but that is scarce a safe home just +now for Roger. A vexatious suit has been instituted against him, on +the ground of his aiding or abetting in some 'disloyal' attempt of +which he knew nothing. But we know it is his work during the +Commonwealth that is the true ground of prosecution. Sir Launcelot +Trevor will never pardon Roger's detecting him in one of the plots +for assassinating Cromwell. It is not the hard laws themselves, +severe as their restrictions and penalties are, that cause the most +suffering. It is the power they give to bad men to annoy the good. + +"Already much of the Drayton property has been sacrificed through +vexatious exactions. But now it is more than property that is +threatened. And so this pleasant home of Broad Oak, which is a house +of mercy to so many, has now become a refuge for us. We are, in +fact, here as in a hiding-place, until this tyranny be overpast, or +we can find some other refuge. + +"Our host, Mr. Philip Henry's courtly deference of manners, his +listening to every one as if he had something to learn from each, has +more charm for me than I like to confess to myself. It recalls the +stately courtesy of my brother Harry and of the Cavaliers who were +his contemporaries. + +"The Puritan manners are severer and less chivalrous than those of +our old Cavaliers, though with more of true knightly honour to women +in them than the courtiers of this New Court are capable of +comprehending. + +"We read together often, Roger and I, these old records of the early +settlers in the American wildernesses. We are beginning now to glean +more particular tidings concerning the various village communities +into which the settlers have now organized themselves. For more and +more we begin to speak of a 'New Netherby' rising beside some inland +mere or pleasant creek of the forest in New England. + +"'Not that I despair for a moment of England,' Roger says. 'But we +have but one life, and its years are few and precious; and if the +good fight is going on victoriously elsewhere, it seems scarce a +man's place to stay where the best he can do is to keep quiet and +hide for his life.' + +"_February_, 1666, Broad Oak.--There is a serenity and sunshine about +this house which makes it like an island of fair weather in the midst +of the turbulent world. Continually it recalls to me Port Royal. +And even more by resemblance than by Contrast. + +"It seems to me as fully as Port Royal a temple or house of God. (In +one sense I, as a Protestant, should believe more, since the church, +not the convent, is God's sacred Order.) Every morning and evening +all the inmates and family assemble for _prayer_ and _reading of the +Bible_. 'As the priests in the tabernacle,' Mr. Henry says, 'used +daily to _burn_ the _incense_, and to _light the lamps_.' All pray +kneeling; for Mr. Henry 'has high thoughts of the body as God's +workmanship, and desires that it should share in the homage offered +to Him.' + +"Mr. Henry never makes this service long, so as to be a weariness; he +calls it the 'hem to keep the rest of the day from ravelling.' In +the evening he gathers his household, servants, workmen, day +labourers, and sojourners, early, that the youngest, or those who +have done a good day's work, may not be sleepy. 'Better one absent +than all sleepy,' he says. + +"He explains the Bible as he reads it, not merely '_mincing it +small_, but by _easy unforced distribution_.' Above all, he seeks to +lift up before the heart '_Christ, the Treasure in the field of the +Bible_.' 'Every word of God is good,' he says, 'but especially God +the Word.' He closes with a psalm; sometimes many verses, but sung +quickly, every one having a book, so that there is no interruption to +the singing. + +"Afterwards his two little boys kneel with folded hands before their +father and mother, and ask their blessing, while he pronounces the +benediction over them, saying, 'The Lord bless thee.' On Thursday he +catechizes the servants on some simple subject. + +"On Sunday, 'the pearl of the week, the queen of days,' the perpetual +Easter-day on which we sing, 'The Lord is risen indeed,' the whole +house seems so full of tranquil light, all sounds and signs of +needless labour banished, all the sweet sounds of nature, birds and +bees and running brooks, heard with a new music in the hush of human +rest, the men and maids in their sober holiday attire, that it is +difficult to believe there is not an audible, visible increase of +light and music in the external world, that the fields, and woods, +and skies, have not also donned a festive attire, that the sun is not +shining with a new radiance, like the ancient Lamp of the sanctuary, +fresh filled and trimmed for the Sabbath. It shines on the heart +with a quiet radiance, like the last chapters of the Gospels; the +resurrection chapters. The household, since Mr. Henry has been +silenced, attend the Church service in the little neighbouring +parish-church of Whitechurch, always going early, before the service +begins. The walks through the field to and from the church are a +sacred service in themselves, by virtue of Mr. Henry's discourse. In +truth, there is no silencing the music of such a piety as his, unless +you could make it cease to flow. + +"This temple also has its shrines and inner sanctuary. Mrs. Henry +pointed out to me the little chamber where her husband prays alone; +when he changed it he consecrated the new one with a special prayer. +I remember Roger's father used to call the direction, '_When thou +enterest into thy closet shut thy door_,' 'the one unquestionably +divine rubric of the New Testament.' And it seems to me beautiful +that the inmost sanctuary of our houses, as of our hearts, should be +that which it consecrated by solitude with God. + +"Then, like Port Royal, this is a house of mercy. Standing near the +way-side, it is seldom that the hospitable board has none but inmates +round it. And Mr. Henry's simple, fervent thanksgiving at the table +must, I think, go along with the traveller on his further journey, +like the echo of a hymn. + +"The order of the convent, moreover, can scarcely be more thorough +than that of this home, save that it is broken, like the order of +nature, by the sweet irregularities and varieties which always come +to stir all Divine order out of monotony. The Hand which can make +Life the mainspring of its machinery may dare irregularities. + +"Port Royal was especially recalled to my mind by a letter I received +last November from Madame la Mothe, in which she speaks of the return +of the nuns to Port Royal des Champs. Four years ago they were +dispersed into imprisonment in various convents, in the hope that the +courage of each alone might fail, so that in isolation, moved by the +most plausible persuasions and the severest threats, the community +might separately sign the condemnation of Jansenism, which they had +refused to sign together. It was a simple question of fact. They +were required to declare that the five condemned propositions were in +Jansenius' books; thus asserting what they believed false to be true. +But out of the ninety-six nuns thus dispersed eighty-four returned +unshaken. Madame la Mothe writes: + +"'Such a welcome and restoration home as the holy sisters had was +worth sore suffering to win, as the various carriages met, bringing +the Mother Angélique and her scattered daughters once more together. +The church bells pealed joyous greetings, and the peasants shouted or +wept their welcomes, flocking by the roadside, along the steep +descent into the valley, in holiday dresses; gray-haired tottering +men, little toddling children, mothers and babes in arms--not a +creature that could stir left behind to miss the joy of welcoming +their benefactresses back. And so the long procession of nuns, in +their white robes, with scarlet crosses, disappeared under the great +Gothic gates, into the sacred enclosure. It was a sight +indescribably beautiful to the eye, but who can say what it was to +the heart?' + +"Martyrs not so much to truth as to truthfulness, they would not +recognize the distinction between consenting to what they deemed a +lie and telling it. + +"Should not their enemies concede at least this merit to the two +thousand ejected ministers? They may be over nice, as I think they +are, in some of their scruples. But why cannot people, who see a +noble heroism in eighty nuns suffering ejection and dispersion rather +than declare that false which they believe to be true--rather than +bring on their souls the degradation of a lie--see something of the +same heroism in two thousand English clergymen with their families +suffering ejection, calumny, and peril of starvation rather than +solemnly declare they believe things true which they believe false? +The families who have to share the misery whether they will or no, do +not make the sacrifice easier. + +"Yet many a tender-hearted lady of our acquaintance, of the old +Cavalier stock, whose face has glowed with interest when I have told +her of the sufferings and constancy of the Mère Angélique and her +nuns, and who has rejoiced with me when I read the story of their +restoration, can see nothing but vulgar perversity and obstinacy in +the conduct of these ejected ministers. + +"Why cannot these also be honoured as martyrs, if not to truth, at +least to truthfulness? + +"Can it be that the white dresses and red crosses, and the grand +arched entrance gates make the difference? + +"Or is it merely that the one took place in France and the other at +home? + +"Building the sepulchres of the prophets is such easy and graceful +feminine work! As easy as tapestry work, especially when the +sepulchres are reared in the imagination, and the prophets prophesied +to other people's forefathers. + +"But it seems as if, in heaven, not the slightest value was attached +to those elegant little erections. + +"The one thing regarded there seems to be whether we help and honour +those who are contending or suffering for truth and right now. And +this is not always so easy. + +"For, on the other hand, Aunt Dorothy was not a little incensed when +I once told her (intending to be conciliatory) that I thought the +Nonconformist ministers quite as much to be honoured as the Mère +Angélique and her nuns. + +"'To compare Mr. Baxter and two thousand of the most enlightened +ministers in England to a set of poor benighted papists!' said she. + +"And she was only to be mollified by the consideration of the +deficiency in my own religious training. + +"Perhaps for us women the safest course is to render as wide a +succour as we can to all who suffer. Because then if we make any +mistakes as to truth, in the great account they may be +counterbalanced by the entries on the side of love; which, on the +whole, seems to overrule the final judgment. + +"_March_, 1666.--We are to leave this friendly holy roof for another +shelter. + +"Many a sharp-cut diamond of Mr. Henry's good sayings I shall carry +away with me. + +"'_Repentance is not a sudden land-flood, but the flowing of a +perennial spring; an abiding habit_.' + +"'_Peace is joy in the bloom; joy is peace in the fruit_.' + +"But more than all such sayings, I bear away with me the memory of a +sanctity as fresh and fragrant as any I ever hope to see, fragrant +not as with the odours of manufactured perfumes, but with the +countless fragrances of a field which the Lord has blessed. + +"An Endurance of affliction made all the lovelier by the capacity for +the happiness it foregoes,--by the belief that every creature of God +is good and to be enjoyed with thanksgiving which prevents its being +stiffened into austerity; a submissive Loyalty ennobled by the higher +loyalty which prevents its becoming servile; an open-handed charity +sustained by busy-handed industry, by the thrift which deems waste a +sin, and the justice which deems debt a degradation; a Devotion whose +chief delight is to soar and sing, and which sings never the less +when it stoops to serve; a Religion as free from fanaticism, +worldliness, or austerity as any the world can see. + +"A piety which would have been my mother's element; worthy it seems +to me of the sober joyful liturgy she loved so dearly, yet to which +Mr. Henry cannot entirely conform. Yes; it seems to me a piety more +unlike that of the Puritans of our early days than unlike that of +George Herbert or of Port Royal. A lovely, patient, quiet, meek-eyed +piety! It recalls to me the group of St. Paul's gentle graces, +'love, joy, peace,' and the rest, which I used to think pictured my +mother's religion, far more than St. Peter's belligerent virtues, +godliness, faith, courage, which seemed to me to stand forth in sword +and breastplate like the religion of Roger and the Ironsides. + +"'If the old Cavaliers, alas, are gone,' I said to Roger to-day, 'it +seems to me the old Puritans are gone as well. Mr. Philip Henry is +far less like you Ironsides than like my mother. This is a piety, as +I deem, which would have suffered in prisons and pillories to any +extent, but would scarcely have lifted its voice in the Parliament +with Mr. Hampden and Mr. Pym, and would certainly not have raised the +standard at Edgehill or Worcester. Where are the old Puritans gone?' + +"'Where we may follow them, sweet heart,' said he; 'to fight the +wolves and conquer the wildernesses of the West.' + +"'Then,' said I, 'are the wrestling manlike Christian virtues to +migrate to New England to subdue the New World; whilst the feminine +Christian graces are to stay at home to endure the pillory and the +prison? That were a strange division. Meseems, what with +prohibitions to speak, and imprisonment, and the banishment of the +fighting men, this patient, passive nonconformity can never spread. +Rather, perhaps, in a generation or two it will die out.' + +"'Scarcely, I think,' he said. 'The old country is patient and dumb, +and sometimes takes a long sleep but I believe she will wake one day, +and break the nets they have entangled her in, and scatter those who +twisted them, simply by rising and shaking herself. Only her sleep +may be too long for us to wait to the end of it.' + +"'But who is to wake her?' I said. 'A piety this of Mr. Henry's, +like that of Mr. Herbert, beautiful and pure enough to convert the +world, if some louder voice could only rouse the world to look at it. +But whence is this voice to come? For it seems to me our liturgy, +though the purest music of devotion that can rise to heaven if once +people are awake to hear it and to sing it, has scarcely the kind of +fiery force in it to arouse the slumbering world. And if the Puritan +religion becomes alike meek and soft-spoken, whence is this +enkindling fire to come? + +"You might as well have asked our ancestor Cassibelawn where the fire +was to come from when the forests were cut down,' he said. 'While +the forests give fuel enough, who can foresee the coal-pits? + +"'Perhaps,' he added after a pause, as in a muse, 'when the spring +comes and the ice melts and the music of the living waters breaks on +England again, as it must and will, the new streams will find new +channels.' + +"Our discourse was broken at this point by the arrival of two +horsemen who dismounted at the door. The hospitable board was spread +for the midday meal, and as we went down to take our places at it, +Mr. Henry introduced us to these new guests as friends of his. + +"They were Dr. Annesly and Dr. Wesley,* two of the nonconformist +ministers." + + +* Maternal and paternal grandfather of the Wesleys. + + + +OLIVE'S RECOLLECTIONS. + +Troubles came, as troubles are wont to come, in troops, sweeping down +on us thick and fast in the year which followed the plague, 1666. + +Through the whole year Roger was in concealment with Lettice and +their boy. Lands and houses are no safeguards in a persecution where +so much lies at the mercy of informers. And Roger--and Lettice +also--had an implacable enemy in Sir Launcelot Trevor, the profligacy +of whose early years had, at its second fermentation, soured into +malignity against those who had reproved or thwarted him. It was Sir +Launcelot, indeed, who hunted us hither. In his youth he had made +some careless studies in the law, and now he was appointed one of the +judges. Vexations which render life impossible for all the best ends +of living are terribly easy to inflict when bad laws are executed by +worse men. And it was this which made the misery of those times. +The laws were indeed (as we believe) harsh and unjust; but it was the +authorities who made them and the judges who administered them, it +was the _spirit_ in which the _letter_ was carried out that made them +(at last) unsupportable. + +About the spring of this year the pressure of the times fell hard on +cousin Placidia. + +Her son Isaac was arrested for attending a forbidden meeting near +Bedford, and was thrown into the old jail on Bedford Bridge, where +John Bunyan (though loyal as Mr. Baxter), had already been +incarcerated for six years. + +Thence, Isaac wrote as if imprisonment in such company were not to be +imprisoned but emparadised. "Such heavenly discourse as John Bunyan +makes here," said he, "would make a dungeon a palace." He gave hints +also of a wonderful story, or allegory, which the tinker was penning +in the jail, and which (said Isaac) would make as much music in the +world, when it came forth, as Mr. Milton's poems. We smiled at the +lad's enthusiasm, for it was not to be thought that a poor tinker, +however godly, could write anything beyond edifying sheets suited to +paste on the walls of poor folks like himself. Indeed, we had seen +some verses of his, which, though full of piety and patience, were +scarce to be called poetry. + +And that very year Mr. Thomas Ellwood, a Quaker (and a friend of +Annis Nye's), who had once been reader to Mr. Milton in his +blindness, brought us marvellous accounts of a manuscript Mr. Milton +had given him to read at a "pretty box" Mr. Ellwood had taken for +him, during the Plague, at Giles Chalfont. It contained the Epic +Poem called "Paradise Lost." Thomas Ellwood said to him, "Thou hast +said much here of Paradise lost, but what hast thou to say of +Paradise found?" Some time afterwards, Mr. Milton showed him another +poem called Paradise Regained, saying, in a pleasant tone, "This is +owing to you; for you put it into my head by the question you put to +me at Chalfont, which before I had not thought of." + +So that, seeing, besides all he had already done to the marvel of +Europe, Mr. Milton had these wonderful epics in store, it naturally +amused us not a little that Isaac should compare this good tinker +with him. Nevertheless, we honoured the lad's heartiness, and +rejoiced that in his doleful condition he had such pious company to +comfort him withal. + +Not so, however, his mother. Her distress knew no bounds. This +affliction tore her heart in twain; setting what was highest in her +in fierce civil war with what was lowest. For, in spite of all her +protestations of poverty, rumour had rather magnified than diminished +the amount of cousin Placidia's hoards. The more she sought to keep +them unknown, the more magnificent they grew in the busy imaginations +of her neighbours. And coffer after coffer of her painfully hoarded +stores had to be confessed and emptied as she sought to bribe one +exacting officer after another to release her son; until, the more +she gave, the more they believed she could be tortured into giving, +the more the ingenuity of informers and the greed of jailers +increased, and the more distant grew the prospects of poor Isaac's +liberation. + +My heart ached for the torture she went through as, bit by bit, she +had to offer up the money which was dear to her as life, for the +child who was dearer. + +"It was worse than the boot or the thumb-screw with which they are +torturing the poor Covenanters in Scotland," I said one day to Job +Foster, when we were staying at Netherby; "screwed tighter and +tighter till it crushes the bone." + +"Never heed, Mistress Olive," said Job. "Thank the Lord it isn't in +your hands but in His, who loves Mistress Nicholls a sight better +than you. It isn't her _heart_ that screw is crushing, it's the +_worm in her heart_ which is eating it out." + +"Thou art somewhat hard on Mistress Nicholls," said Rachel, "to my +mind; after all, she had saved it all for the lad." + +"Women's hearts are tender," said Job, giving an emphatic hammer to +the spade he was repairing, "and thine tenderer than any. But +there's a love tenderer than thine. Glory to His holy name, He did +not put away the sorrowing cup for all His own pains. And He will +not put aside the healing cup for all our crying. In His warfare it +isn't once setting us on Burford church roofs, nor twice, that keeps +us steady to the Captain's lead." + +This trouble of Isaac's meantime wrought much on Maidie, who had +always repaid Isaac's devoted homage loftily, and not always +graciously, since the early days when he overwhelmed her with the +unwelcome offering of his best hen. Sharp-sighted as these children +are (flatter ourselves as we may) to spy out our failings, and +intolerant of them as youth with its high standards will be, Maidie +had been wont to hear cousin Placidia's moans of poverty with +ill-disguised incredulity, and to call her economies by very +unsparing scriptural names. But now Isaac's imprisonment seemed at +once to exalt him in the perverse maiden's imagination from a boy to +a hero. She wrote to him; and what was more, Dolly treacherously +reported that she wept nights long about him; and (which was the +greatest triumph of all), she began to love his mother for his sake. +"It was plain," she said, "how unjust she had been to cousin +Placidia; it was plain that it was only for Isaac's sake she had +pinched herself, and sometimes also other folk. Otherwise, would she +be ready to part with everything for his sake now? It was noble for +a mother to deny herself for her son," pronounced Maidie; "and if +this denying extended to others sometimes, it must be excused. It +was but the exuberance of a virtue; and she, for her part, was +ashamed of having ever spoken hardly of cousin Placidia, and would +never do so again." + +So a close bond grew up between these two; and it became clear to me +I should have to spare a portion of my daughter's love to soften with +its free sunshine, and quicken with its own generous youth, this +heart that had grown so old and shrivelled with self-imposed cares. + +And it was also plain what would come of this when Isaac, always so +faithful to her, came out of prison, at once exalted into manhood and +smitten into knighthood in Maidie's eyes--by persecution, and found +Maidie already ministering to his mother as a daughter. Indeed, the +betrothal was already accomplished in all its essentials. And it +seemed to me that, so beggared and so enriched, cousin Placidia would +have at last no alternative but to throw aside the self-deceiving and +self-tormenting which had made her youth old age and her wealth +poverty, and in her old age and destitution for the first time to +grow rich and young. + + +As the year went on, more and more our thoughts turned to the New +World on the other side of the sea. Roger's mind had been turned +thither ever since the Lord Protector's death, as the only place +where in his lifetime it was probable he would be able to render +England those "public services for which a man is born." + +Loyalty he believed England had refused to the prince God sent her, +and was suffering for it. Liberty was a word which would scarcely +come forth again as a watchword of noble warfare with the men of this +bewildered and subdued generation. + +On the other hand, my husband, while the prisons were fuller than +ever of sufferers for conscience, found it more difficult than ever +to obtain access to them or to give them succour. + +Cousin Placidia, on her part, was ready for any refuge which would +keep Isaac out of the way of John Bunyan and the informers. Job and +Rachel Forster still hesitated. They could not "get light upon it." +They doubted whether it would not be deserting the post they had been +set to keep; and more especially whether it would be safe to take +Annis Nye, who had gone to live with them, to New England. I think +also they were more moved by sympathy with Annis Nye's beliefs than +they quite knew themselves. Rachel thought the Quakers had been set +to give a wonderful testimony for peace and patience in an age when +there was too much fighting; and for silence in an age when there was +too much talking. And Job said, "We have done fighting and talking +enough in our day, in my belief, to last some time; and now the Lord +seems to be saying to us, '_Study to be quiet and to do your own +business_,' and, '_Where two or three are gathered together, there am +I in the midst of them_.' That's about where the lessons for the day +seem to me to be just now. And I've a mind we'd better be in no +hurry, but sit still and learn them." + +Aunt Dorothy was prepared at any moment to shake off the dust from +her feet against the profligate Court which encouraged +Sabbath-breaking, theatres, and bear-baitings, and banished five +miles from its suburbs the loyal and godly ministers who had laboured +so faithfully to bring it back; and against the infatuated country +which could pay servile adulation to such a Court. + +She was also a little troubled at Mr. Baxter's marrying so young a +wife, and winced a little when Lettice defended him and declared that +at heart Aunt Dorothy's place, after all, was beside the holy maids +and recluses of Port Royal. + +Still we lingered. It was not so easy to despair of the re-awaking +of an England in which John Milton was still living and thinking, and +John Bunyan, and John Howe, and Dr. Owen, and Richard Baxter, and +through which thirty thousand of Cromwell's soldiers were still +scattered, working at their farms and forges throughout the land. +Nor was it easy to leave such an England, so few years before a Queen +of Nations, as long as she would but give us a little space to work +for her, and a little reason to hope. + +But slowly the necessities which pressed us from her shores gathered +closer and closer around us, until we could linger no more. + + +The great Fire of London brought my husband to a decision. + +Our own house escaped; but many houses in the city, in which much of +his property consisted, were burnt. And the misery of so many +thousands, whom our losses deprived us of the power to relieve, made +us at last resolve to make the voyage, while we had the means yet +left to pay the ship-master and purchase such goods as we should need +in beginning life again in the wilderness. + +At ten o'clock on the 2nd of September, 1660, the flames of that +terrible Fire burst forth. By midnight they raged. In three days +the whole city was a heap of smoking smouldering ruins. + +To us who lived at Westminster, it seemed as if the fierce eastern +wind was driving the flames towards that guilty roof at Whitehall, +which scarce a righteous man in the nation but deemed to be itself +the plague spot and the Gehenna which was bringing desolation by +plague and fire on the whole land. + +All the night the sky was fiery, "like the top of a burning oven." +In the day the air was so thick with the coiling columns of smoke, +that "the sun shone through it with a colour like blood." Those who +ventured near said that the pavements glowed a fiery red, so that no +horse or man could tread them, and the melting lead from the burning +churches ran down the streets in a stream. Now and then the dense +masses of smoke were broken by the stones of St. Paul's flying like +grenadoes, or by a sudden burst of vivid flame making the smoke +visible even in the daylight, as some of the coal and wood wharves +and stores of oil and resin along the river side were seized by the +fire. And the steady roar of the flames was only broken now and then +by explosions, as vast powder-stores split asunder, or by the +wailings and cries of the ruined people running to and fro in +helpless consternation, not even attempting to save their goods. + +Still, day and night, the east wind, so steady in its fierceness, +drove on the flames and smoke _towards us--toward the Court_; till, +on the third day, they crossed towards Whitehall itself. Fearful, it +was said, was the confusion in the houses of revelry. Good men could +think of nothing that ever could be like it but the universal +conflagration of the world. But again, as in the Plague, the Court +escaped. The neighbouring houses were blown up, so as to kill the +flames by starvation; and at last their impetuous onset was stayed, +and Whitehall was left without one of its gaming-tables or chambers +of revelry being touched. + +Streets in the west, which were nests of unblushing wickedness, +escaped; whilst the city, of which Mr. Baxter said "there was not +such another in the world for piety, sobriety, and temperance," was +burnt to ashes. + +Aunt Dorothy took this much to heart; and from that time I scarcely +remember her attempting any more to interpret the Divine judgments, +which had once seemed to her so easy to translate. + +After the horror came the misery and the desolation. It is when the +ashes of the fires which desolate our lives are cold that we first +understand our loss. And it was many days before the ashes of the +great Fire of London were cold enough for men to tread them safely +and learn the extent of the ruin; to see the fountains dried up, the +stones calcined white as snow. + +Two hundred thousand homeless men, and women, and little children +were scattered in the fields and on the hill-sides, chiefly on the +north, as far as Highgate, by the wretched remnants of their +household stuff. They were ready to perish of hunger;--yet my +husband said they did not beg a penny as he passed from group to +group. Some of them had been rich and delicately lodged and clothed +three days before, and had not learned the art of craving alms. +Others were, it seemed, too stupified. His Majesty did his utmost to +make provision for their relief (said the admiring courtiers) by +"proclamation for the country to come in and refresh them with +provisions;" which, moved by the proclamation of the king (or by +another proclamation issued sixteen hundred years before by One who +spake with authority), the country people did, to the glory of the +king and the admiration of the courtiers. + +It was not the easiest thing in the world as we looked from one side +of our house over the blackened heaps of cinders, where three days +before had stood the City of London, and on the other towards +Whitehall, standing unscathed; when we thought of two thousand +faithful servants of God forbidden to speak for Him; of ten thousand +houses, from not a few of which had gone up day and night true prayer +and praise, made desolate; of a hundred thousand, not a few of them +good men and true, swept away by the Plague the year before; and then +of all the riotous voices in the palace not silenced, but permitted +to speak their worst for the devil; it was not always easy to keep +firm hold of the truth that "all power is given in heaven and earth" +not to the accuser and the enemy, but to "Jesus Christ the +righteous." It was not easy. We had to endure in those days "as +seeing Him who is invisible." + +My husband said, indeed, that the fire might prove to be God's +fumigation against the pestilence; and that the pestilence itself was +but (as it were) "the ships to take us to the other side, being sent +in a fleet instead of one by one." + +But in the pestilence which is inwardly and eternally pestilential, +the pestilence of vice and selfishness, which was corrupting the +inner life of England, the raging fire of sin which consumes not the +disease but the soul,--who could see any good? + +Roger's and my old puzzle of the apple tree yawned beneath and around +us, a great gulf, dark and unfathomable as of old. + +If our hearts were less tossed about on the surging waves of this +abyss than of old, it was not that the waves were quieter or less +unfathomed. We knew them to be deeper than we had dreamed. For we +had tried line after line and touched no bottom. We felt them to be +more unquiet, for the times were stormier, and we were no longer on +the edge but launched on the sea. It was simply that, falling at the +feet of Him who stood at the helm, we could worship Him with a deeper +adoration, and trust Him with more confiding simplicity. "Thou +knowest the other side," we could say. "Thou art there. Thou art +taking us thither. Thou knowest the depths. Thou alone. Thou hast +risen thence, Thou knowest God. We see Him manifested in Thee. And +Thou hast said, good and not evil is the heart and the crown of all. +And we are satisfied." + +So, after a heavy winter on the edge of that desolation which we +could do so little to restore, we left our old house in London in +March, and went in the spring for a few weeks to the old home at +Netherby, before it was broken up and passed out of our hands for +ever. + +Many of the old fields--we had roamed over every one of them--had +already been sold to meet the expenses thrown on Roger by the +lawsuit. And now the old house itself was to be sold. Oliver's +Parliament had not altogether reformed the Law. And I suppose no +reformation of laws avails very much when the men who administer them +are corrupt. Besides, unsuccessful revolution must be dealt with as +rebellious; those who fail must expect to suffer. Roger and most of +us had made our account for that, and it was not of that we +complained. + +It was not safe for Roger and Lettice to be with us at Netherby. + +Of this I was almost glad. The more the old home was like itself, +the harder it would be to leave. There were enough voices silent for +ever, making every chamber, and every nook of garden and pleasance +sacred by their echoes, to make the parting such a wrench as scarcely +leaves us the same ever after. + +All Aunt Dorothy's Puritan training had not swept the heathen +idolatry out of my heart. For what else was it to feel as if all the +dumb and lifeless things had voices calling me and pleading "for sake +us not, forsake us not, have we served you so ill?" and arms +stretched out to cling to us and draw us back. + +The store-room over the porch, where Roger and I had held our Sunday +conversations; the chamber where my father's books and mathematical +instruments still were, where he had taken me on his knee and said, +"Before the great mysteries, I can only wonder and wait and say like +thee, '_Father, how can I understand, a little child like me?_'"--the +wainscoted parlour where "Mr. Cromwell of Ely" had talked to us of +"his little wenches," and looked at Roger with softened eyes, +thinking, perchance, of that death of his first-born which "went as a +sword to his heart, indeed it did;" where John Milton (not blind +then) had played on the organ, and discoursed with Dr. Jeremy +Taylor;--how dared I have tears to spare for leaving such as these, +or even the graves of our fathers in the old church they had helped +to build, and the pews where we and ours had knelt for generations, +when England had lost Liberty and the strenuous heart to strive for +it, and it seemed almost the heart to weep for it now it was gone, +and could not afford her noblest even a grave? + +But there were other partings which went far deeper into the heart, +on which even now it is best not to dwell much, partings from those +whom it was no idolatry to feel it very sore to leave, old faithful +friends--our father's friends; (and every familiar face in the +village, as it came to see us go, was as the face of a friend to us, +going we knew not whither, among we knew not whom.) + +We could never have left them had it been possible to us to befriend +and succour them longer at home. As many as could leave went with us. + +And hardest of all it was to pass the old forge, and see no friendly +faces there, and know that Job and Rachel were praying for us in the +old cottage within not daring to see us go. + +Cousin Placidia was away making the last effort to release her son. + +So we went at the beginning of April to Southampton, where the ship +was. We had to wait some days there for her sailing. Dreary, blank +days, we thought they must be, suspended between the old life and the +new. But two surprises made them bright to us as a beginning, rather +an end. + +Two days before we started, Isaac appeared, with his mother. He +looked very much as if the prison had indeed been a Paradise to him; +and her face sharp and worn as it was, seemed to me stamped with the +cares which enrich, instead of impoverishing, the cares of love +instead of the cares of covetousness. There was a glow and a rest in +her eyes, as she looked on Isaac and Maidie, which I had never seen +there before. And as to Isaac and Maidie, I believe distinctions of +time and place were just then so dim to them, that if you had asked +them where those days were spent, they would have been clear but on +one point, and that was that it was most surely not in the Old World, +but in a world altogether and for ever New. + +Thus, as so often in the music of this changing life, the "dying +falls" were interlinked with the swell of the opening chords. And +so, with nothing to mark it as the last, the last evening came. + +So the last evening came. Roger and Lettice, with their little Harry +Davenant, were already safe on board. We were to join them at the +dawn. And when we climbed up into the ship, very strange it was to +find my hand in the welcoming grasp of a strong hand, certainly not +that of a strange sailor's, and looking up, to see Job Forster, with +Rachel and Annis Nye behind him. + +"There was no help for it. That wilful maid would come," he said, +apologizing to himself for doing what he liked. "She had the +'concern' at last I have been afraid of all along. She was set on +going into the lion's den; so, of course, there was nothing for it +but for Rachel and me to come and take care of her." + +So we sailed down Southampton water, by the shores the _Mayflower_ +had left nearly a half a century before. There were clouds over the +wooded slopes of the dear old country as we looked our last at her, +which broke ere we had been long on board, blending earth and sky in +a wild storm of rain. But before we lost sight of the shore, the +clouds were spanned by the rare glory of a perfect rainbow, bridging +the storm with hope. + +Then, as we sailed on, the clouds rose slowly and majestically, +detaching themselves from earth in grand sculptured masses, like +couchant lions guarding the land; until at sunset they had soared far +up the quiet heavens, and hovered like angels with folded wings over +a land at rest. + +And as we looked, Lettice said to Roger,-- + +"See, is it not a promise of the better sunshine hereafter to come?" + +"It is a witness of the sunshine now behind," he said; "of the +unquenchable sun which shines on both the Old England and the New." +And he added in a low voice, in the words of Oliver Cromwell, +"'_Jesus Christ, of whose diocese we are_,' on Both Sides of the Sea." + + + +CONCLUSION. + +OLIVE'S MEDITATIONS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SEA. + +_New Netherby_, 1691.--New always to us, but already to many grown +into "the old house at home." + +Again I am alone in the house, as on the day when the quiet rustling +of the summer air among the long grasses, and the shining of the +smooth water, and the smell of the hay from the hay-stack, carried me +back to the old house on the borders of the Fen country, in the days +of my childhood. + +The crimson and gold of a richer-coloured autumn than that at home +glows in the forests and in the still creek below, over which the +great trees bend, And autumn is also on our lives; its fading leaves, +and also, I trust, its harvests and its calms. + +At many intervals, these recollections of my life have been gathered +together out of the old yellow leaves in the oaken chest. + +The past has lived again to me through them. But not through these +pages alone. The past lives not only in the dried herbs and grasses, +in memories and monuments, but in every blade of grass and ear of +corn of the present; in our new houses and our old home customs, our +new laws, our new conflicts, our victories and our hopes. + +Old England lives and breathes in every breath of this our New +England. Sometimes from what we have heard during the dreary years +of oppression, we have thought she lived more truly here than in the +England we have left. + +The household is away, and the pleasant cheery house is silent. It +is not the harvesting that has emptied the house and the village +to-day. It is the thanksgiving for the harvest: the one festival +which the first settlers in the wilderness appointed, in the first +year of their exile, when the land was indeed a wilderness and an +exile, and the next harvest a precarious blessing. More than half a +century this festival has been kept. A venerable antiquity for New +England. + +And now our hearts are rich with tenfold offerings of praise. + +For at last we believe the harvest of the seed sown in the wars and +suffering of early days has been brought in! + +The great Englishman who, as we believe, served England so well, has +still no monument in our country nor even a grave. + +But a true Prince of a race of princely deliverers, a race whose +deeds fulfil more than their words promise, the grandson of William +the Silent, the Liberator of Holland--is on the throne of England. + +Once more, on the last days of January, forty years after the death +of Charles the First, the throne was vacant. For King James had fled. + +The link with the past, so sacred in England, which failed Oliver, +places William of Orange on the throne. + +"Yet," saith Roger, "but for Oliver, King James had never fled, nor +William of Orange never reigned. The throne of the one hero is the +best monument of the other." + +Heavier and heavier the tidings came to us from across the seas year +after year; until the climax seemed to us to be reached, when in one +year one gentlewoman was beheaded at Winchester for giving refuge to +two fugitives of Monmouth's Rebellion, and another was burnt at +Tyburn for a similar act of mercy. + +The free Puritan spirit seemed to us often extinct during those years +of corruption and wrong. Hope of deliverance for the nation seemed +to have expired in men's hearts. The best men seemed to gather up +all their courage to suffer cheerfully. Christianity appeared no +more with the sword of the warrior, keen to redress wrong, or the +sword of justice, heavy to suppress it, but with meek folded hands as +the martyr to endure it. + +Yet we know all through the darkness the old fires were burning +still, though they burned now in the still fires of devotion, +patience, and meditation, rather than in the flames which consume +fetters or which evangelize the world. + +Beautiful words came to us from across the sea; high words of highest +hope when lower hopes were quenched; of largest tolerance of +difference of thought, blended with a truthfulness ready for any +sacrifice rather than darken the soul with the least shadow of +falsehood. + +The very names of the books written then, with the circumstances +under which they were written, sounded to us like a psalm. + +From imprisoned Bunyan, a "Pilgrim's Progress from this world to a +better," written in Bedford gaol. + +From blind Milton, barely suffered to live, "The Paradise Lost and +Regained" sung in the darkness which he felt to be "the shadow of +celestial wings," in that lost England he never lived to see restored. + +From silenced Owen, "The Glory of the Person of Christ," "The +Mortification of Sin in Believers." + +From silenced Howe, "The Living Temple,'" "The Blessedness of the +Righteous," "On Delighting in God," "The Redeemer's Dominion over +Hades." + +It was of little avail to the kingdom of darkness the silencing of +such as these. It was silencing their thoughts from "a life," to "an +immortality." It was giving them a planet to preach from instead of +a pulpit. + +It was of little avail to crush with a weight of oppression hearts +such as these. All the oppressions pressed out of them--no moans, +but only immortal songs. + +And dear to us as any were the wise and mellowed words of Richard +Baxter, especially his declaration of the "_things in which he +himself had changed_," as he learned, by the slow teaching of life. + +In our hearts they were written in letters of gold, the autumnal gold +of harvests. + +"Among all parties," he wrote, "I found some that were naturally of +mild, and calm, and gentle dispositions; some of sour, froward, +peevish natures. Some were raw, inexperienced, and harsh, like a +young fruit. And some I found to be like ripe fruit, mellow and +sweet, first pure, then peaceable, easy to be entreated. + +"But the difference between the godly and ungodly was here the most +considerable of all. + +"In my youth I was quickly past my fundamentals, and was running up +into a multitude of controversies; but the older I grew the smaller +stress I laid on these controversies and curiosities (though still my +intellect abhorreth confusion), as finding greater uncertainties in +them than I at first discerned; and finding less usefulness even +where there is the greatest certainty. _The Creed, the Lord's Prayer +and the Ten Commandments, are now to me as my daily bread and drink_; +and as I can speak and write over them again and again, so I had +rather read and hear of them than of any of the school niceties. And +this I observed with Bishop Hooker also, and with many other men. + +"Heretofore I placed much of my religion in tenderness of heart and +grieving for sin, and penitential tears, and less of it in the love +of God, and studying His love and goodness, than now I do. Now my +conscience looketh at love and delight in God, and praising Him, as +the top of all my religious duties, for which it is that I value and +use all the rest. + +"I was once wont to meditate most on my own heart, and to dwell all +at home, and look little higher; I was still poring either on my sins +or wants; but now, though I am greatly convinced of the need of +heart-acquaintance and employment, yet I see more need of a higher +work. At home I find distempers to trouble me, and some evidences of +grace; but it is above that I must find matters of delight and joy, +and love and praise itself. Therefore I would have one thought at +home upon myself and my sins, and many thoughts upon Christ, and God, +and heaven. + +"Heretofore, I knew much less than now; and yet was not half so much +acquainted with my ignorance; but now I find far greater darkness +upon all things, and perceive, how very little it is that we know in +comparison with that we are ignorant of. + +"I see more good and more evil in all men than heretofore I did; I +see that good men are not so good as I once thought they were, but +have more imperfections. And I find few are so bad as either their +malicious enemies, or censorious separating professors do imagine. +Even in the wicked generally, there is more for grace to make +advantage of, and more to testify for God and holiness than I once +believed there had been. + +"I less admire gifts of utterance, and bare profession of religion +than I once did, and have much more charity for those who by the want +of gifts do make an obscurer profession; for I have met with divers +obscure persons, not noted for any extraordinary profession or +forwardness in religion, but only to live a quiet blameless life, +whom I have after found to have long lived, as far as I could +discern, a truly godly and sanctified life. Yet he that on this +pretence would confound the godly and the ungodly, may as well go +about to bring heaven and hell together. + +"I am not so narrow in my special love, nor in my principles of +church communion as heretofore. + +"My soul is much more affected with the thoughts of the miserable +world, and more drawn out in desire of their conversion than +heretofore. Could we but go among Tartarians, Turks, and heathens, +and speak their language, I should be little troubled for the +silencing of eighteen hundred ministers at once in England, nor for +all the rest that were cast out here, and in Scotland and Ireland; +there being no employment in the world so desirable in my eyes as to +labour for the winning of such miserable souls, which maketh me +greatly honour Mr. John Eliot, the Apostle of the Indians in New +England, and whoever else have laboured in this work. + +"Yet am I not so much inclined to pass a peremptory sentence of +denunciation upon all that have never heard of Christ, having some +more reason than I had before to think that God's dealing with such +is much unknown to us. + +"I am farther than ever from hopes of a golden age here, and more +apprehensive that suffering must be the Church's ordinary lot, and +that Christians must indeed be cross-bearers. And though God would +have vicissitudes of summer and winter, day and night, that the +Church may grow _extensively_ in the summer of prosperity, and +_intensively_ and radicately in the winter of adversity, yet usually +their night is longer than their day, and that day itself hath its +storms and tempests. The Church will be still imperfect and sinful, +and will have those diseases which need the bitter remedy. + +"My censures of the Papists do much differ from what they were at +first. I then thought that their errors in doctrine were their most +dangerous mistakes, as to the points of merit, justification by +works, assurance of salvation, the nature of faith. But now I am +assured that their mis-expressions and misunderstanding, with our +mistakings of them, and inconvenient expressing our own opinions, +hath made the differences in these points to appear much greater than +they are; and that in some of them it is next to none at all. + +"But the great and irreconcilable differences lie in their Church +tyranny and usurpations, and in their great corruptions and +abasements of God's worship, with their befriending of ignorance and +vice. I doubt not but that God hath many sanctified ones among them, +who have received the doctrine of Christianity so practically, that +their contradictory errors prevail not against them to hinder their +love of God and their salvation, but that their errors are like a +conquerable dose of poison which nature doth overcome. And I can +never believe that a man may not be saved by that religion which doth +but bring him to the true love of God, and a heavenly mind and life; +nor that God will ever cast a soul into hell that truly loveth Him. + +"I cannot be so narrow in my principles of Church communion as many +are. Many are so much for a liturgy or so much against it, so much +for ceremonies or so much against them, that they can hold communion +with no Church that is not of their mind and way. + +"I am much less regardful of the approbation of man, and set much +lighter by contempt or applause than I did long ago; all worldly +things appear most unsatisfactory where we have tried them most; yet, +as far as I can perceive, the knowledge of man's nothingness and +God's transcendent greatness, with whom it is that I have most to do, +and the sense of the brevity of human things and the nearness of +eternity, are the principal causes of this effect. + +"I am much more apprehensive than long ago of the odiousness and +danger of the sin of pride, especially in matters spiritual and +ecclesiastical. I think so far as any man is proud he is given to +the Devil, and entirely a stranger to God and himself. It's a wonder +that it should be a possible sin, to men that still carry about with +them, in soul and body, such humbling matter as we all do. + +"I am much more sensible than heretofore of the breadth, length, and +depth of the radical, universal, odious sin of selfishness; and of +the excellency and necessity of self-denial, and of a public mind, +and of loving our neighbour as ourselves. + +"I am more and more sensible that most controversies have more need +of right stating than of debating; and if my skill be increased in +anything it is in that; narrowing controversies by explication and +separating the real from the verbal, and proving to many contenders +that they differ less than they think they do. + +"I am more solicitous than I have been about my duty to God, and less +about His dealings with me; as being assured that He will do all +things well, and as knowing there is no rest but in the will and +goodness of God. + +"I must mention it by way of penitent confession that I am too much +inclined to such words in controversial writings which are too keen, +and apt to provoke the person I write against. I have a strong +natural inclination to call a spade a spade. I confess it is faulty, +because it is a hindrance to the usefulness of what I write; and +especially because though I feel no anger, yet (which is worse) I +know there is some want of honour and love and tenderness to others, +and therefore I repent of it, and wish all over-sharp passages were +expunged from my writings, and desire forgiveness of God and man. +And yet I must say that I am often afraid of the contrary extreme, +lest when I speak against great and dangerous errors and sins, I +should encourage men to them by speaking too easily of them, as Eli +did to his sons. + +"I mention these distempers that my faults may be a warning to others +to take heed, as they call on myself for repentance and watchfulness. +O Lord, for the merits and sacrifice and intercession of Christ, be +merciful to me a sinner, and forgive my known and unknown sins." + + +These words are as familiar to us as a liturgy, so often used Aunt +Dorothy to ask them to be read over to her; although to the last the +part she oftenest asked me to read was that about the danger of the +"contrary extreme of speaking too easily of dangerous errors and +sins," to which she always gave her most emphatic Amen. + +She forgave Mr. Baxter, however, for his marriage, on consideration +of his young wife's generous assistance of destitute ministers, of +her own and her mother's "manly patience" in adversities, and of the +faithful affection with which she shared and cheered her husband's +imprisonment. + +And dear to Aunt Dorothy beyond all other uninspired writings was Mr. +Baxter's, prison-hymn + + "THE RESOLUTION. + + "Must I be driven from my books, + From house, and goods, and dearest friends? + One of Thy sweet and gracious looks + For more than this will make amends. + The world's Thy book: there I can read + Thy power, wisdom, and Thy love; + And thence ascend by faith, and feed + Upon the better things above. + + "I'll read Thy works of providence: + Thy Spirit, conscience, and Thy rod + Can teach without these all the sense + To know the world, myself, and God, + Few books will serve when Thou wilt teach, + Many have stolen my precious time; + I'll leave my books to hear Thee preach, + Church-work is best when Thou dost chime, + + "As for my home it was my tent, + While there I waited on Thy flock; + That work is done, that time is spent, + There neither was my home nor stock. + Would I in all my journey have + Still the same sun and furniture? + Or ease and pleasant dwellings crave, + Forgetting what Thy saints endure? + + "My Lord hath taught me how to want + A place wherein to put my head; + While He is mine, I'll be content + To beg or lack my daily bread. + Heaven is my roof, earth is my floor; + Thy love can keep me dry and warm; + Christ and Thy bounty are my store; + Thy angels guard me from all harm. + + "As for my friends, they are not lost; + The several vessels of Thy fleet, + Though parted now, by tempest tost, + Shall safely in the haven meet. + Still we are centred all in Thee; + Members, thought distant, of one Head; + In the same family we be, + By the same faith and Spirit led. + + "Before Thy throne we daily meet, + As joint petitioners to Thee; + In spirit we each other greet, + And shall again each other see. + The heavenly hosts, world without end, + Shall be my company above; + And Thou my best and surest Friend-- + Who shall divide me from Thy love? + + "Must I forsake the soil and air + Where first I drew my vital breath? + That way may be as near and fair, + Thence I may come to Thee by death. + All countries are my Father's lands; + Thy sun, Thy love doth shine on all; + We may in all lift up pure hands, + And with acceptance on Thee call. + + "What if in prison I must dwell, + May I not there converse with Thee! + Save me from sin, Thy wrath, and hell, + Call me Thy child, and I am free. + No walls or bars can keep Thee out; + None can confine a holy soul, + The streets of heaven it walks about; + None can its liberty control. + + "Must I feel sicknesses and smart + And spend my days and nights in pale + Yet if Thy love refresh my heart, + I need not overmuch complain. + This flesh has drawn my soul to sin, + If it must smart, Thy will be done. + Oh, fill me with Thy joys within, + And then I'll let it grieve alone! + + "I know my flesh must turn to dust, + My parted soul must come to Thee, + And undergo Thy judgments just, + And in the endless world must be. + In this there's most of fear and joy, + Because there's most of sin and grace; + Sin will this mortal frame destroy, + But Christ will bring me to Thy face. + + "Shall I draw back, and fear the end + Of all my sorrows, fears, and pain, + To which my life and labours tend, + Without which all had been in vain? + Can I for ever be content + Without true happiness and rest? + Is earth become so excellent + That I should take it for my best? + + "Or can I think of finding here + That which my soul so long has sought? + Should I refuse those joys, through fear, + Which bounteous love so dear has bought? + All that does taste of heaven is good; + When heavenly light does me inform, + When heavenly life stirrs in my blood, + When heavenly love my heart doth warm. + + "Though all the reasons I can see, + Why should I willingly submit, + And comfortably come to Thee-- + My God, Thou must accomplish it. + The love which filled up all my days + Will not forsake me to the end; + This broken body Thou wilt raise, + My spirit I to Thee commend." + + +Such was the kind of whine or moan which persecution drew from the +true Puritans! Such was the music oppression drew by its strain from +strings not otherwise deemed musical. It is the solitary spontaneous +songs of those whose natural speech is a quiet prose, which, more +than anything, make me comprehend what is meant by the New Song. + +We sang that hymn by Aunt Dorothy's grave, on the hill-side, under +the old oak-tree where she loved to sit on summer evenings. She used +to say the sound of the wind in the leaves took her back to old +Netherby; and from its shade she could catch a gleam of the sea, on +the other side of which is England. + +We had not expected, and we did not find New England to be an Eden, +where the conflict would be over. It has been possible, however, to +wage "the good fight" here, not only for our own souls, but "in those +public services for which a man is born." For that end we took +refuge here; and we are content. Yet of some wars we have, I trust, +seen the victorious end. Since the "being" of the plantations seems +secure, men have more leisure to seek their "well-being." Since law +has grown to have firmer roots, the lawgivers have grown more +merciful. Magistrates and ministers have ceased to persecute, and +Quakers have ceased to provoke. Which was the cause and which the +effect, will perhaps long remain a subject of debate. + +Just now, however, there are terrible rumours of witches, which +recall the old witch-drowning and rescue of Gammer Grindle on +Netherby Mere in my early days. Wretched old women are said to be +accusing themselves of riding through the air on sticks, and of +having evil spirits in the form of cats to wait on them, knowing that +if convicted they will be hung. My husband thinks that, by-and-by, +when the magistrates cease to excite diseased fancies by threats of +the gallows, and thus the stimulus of danger is withdrawn, the +witches will cease to believe they deserved a terrible punishment by +having committed impossible crimes.* + + +* "When the persecution of the witches ceased, the Lord chained up +Satan, that the afflicted grew presently well."--P. COTTON MATHER. + + +Meantime John Eliot has been fighting the devil in more undeniable +forms by preaching the gospel to the Indians. He reduced the +language to writing, and translated the Bible into it. At first the +Pauwaws, their magicians or "clergymen," were furious, and threatened +his life. But he went fearlessly, alone, among them. "I am about +the work of the great God," he said. "God is with me. Touch me if +you dare." Now there are six churches of baptized praying Indians, +and eighteen assemblies of catechumens. + +Yet when he was passing away, he said there was a dark cloud on the +work among the Indians. The nation itself seems to fade before us. +The praying Indians perish like caged deer in their Christian +villages. + +Now the life of love which has been shining among them and us so many +years, has at last faded from our vision. + +The firm, gentle hand which "rang the curfew for contentions" is +still; the voice and the life which preached among us so constantly +"_bear, forbear, forgive_," are silenced. The eyes which flashed so +indignantly against wrongs to the weak and helpless, and which +glanced so tenderly on the little children, are closed. The "lambs +which Christ is not willing to lose" will watch for John Eliot's +smile and kindly word henceforth in vain. + +Whenever bad news came from England (and it came so often!), he would +say, "These are some of the clouds in which the Son of man will come." + +And now the better tidings have come, he has passed to better still. +The Son of man has come for him, not in a cloud of darkness but of +light. + +When he was too feeble to labour longer among his Indians, he said, +"I wonder for what my Lord keeps me longer here." And then he turned +to such sufferers as his labours could yet reach. His last efforts +were to gather the negro servants of the settlers and teach them. +His last scholar was a blind boy whom he took to be with him in his +house. + +His last words to us still in the battle-field were "Pray, pray, +pray." + +His first words to the victors he has joined were, "Welcome, joy." + +And soon after this our "Apostle of the Indians" died. Mr. Baxter +wrote:-- + +"There was no man on earth whom I honoured above him. It is his +evangelical work that is the Apostolical Succession I plead for. I +am now dying, I hope, as he did. It pleased me to read from him my +case ('my understanding faileth, my memory faileth, my tongue +faileth, but my charity faileth not'). That word much comforted me. +God preserve you and New England." + +Thus New England has already her apostolic fathers and her sacred +graves. + +A few months passed, and then we heard how Richard Baxter had +followed Eliot home. + +"I have pain," he said; "there is no arguing against sense. But I +have peace--_I have peace_." And when asked during his mortal +sickness how he did, his reply was "_almost well_." + +So the day he looked for as his Sabbath and "high day" came to him, +and he is gone to the great company of those he justly honoured, and +some whom he never learned to honour here, in the "many mansions" of +that "all-reconciling world." + +But alas, when shall we say "_almost well_" for, what he called, +"this distracted world?" + +In England the better days seem dawning, and here in New England. + +But from France Lettice's old servant Barbe, who has taken refuge +here with her family, brings tidings too sad to think of. + +Port Royal is extinguished as a source of light; the schools +suppressed; the nuns prisoners in their own convent or elsewhere; the +recluses silenced and scattered. Hundreds of the best men and women +in France, as Madame la Mothe deemed them, thus rendered powerless +for good. + +But the sufferers of whom Barbe speaks count by hundreds of +thousands. "One soweth and another reapeth." Who will reap the +harvest of this sowing? + +Of these hundred thousand good Protestant men and women scattered, +killed, tortured, at the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and +through all the persecutions before and after it, of whom Barbe tells +us stories of horror such as England never knew, those other good men +and women, Fort Royal, on earth, knew nothing! + +Oh, joyful revelations of that "all reconciling world!" Next to the +joy of seeing Him in whom God reconciles us all to Himself and to +each other will be the joy of seeing the wonder on the countenances +of saint after saint as they unlearn their wrong judgments of one +another. + +The joy of the unlearning. + +Yes! this joy of unlearning is one we shall certainly none of us +miss! As John Robinson said, on the other side of the sea at Delft +Haven, to the fathers of our New England when they were departing, +"If God reveal anything to you by any other instrument, be very +willing to receive it as from me. Lutherans go not beyond Luther; +Calvinists beyond Calvin; yet though burning and shining lights in +their time, they penetrated not into the whole course of God. But +were they now living, they would be as willing to receive further +light as that which they first received from the Word of God." + +They _are_ living, living and learning, and ever "receiving further +light" from the Eternal Light (oh, how willingly!), on the other side +of that Great Sea which we must all so soon pass over, to learn +together, with ever deepening love and joy, how wide His dominion is +"of whose Diocese we are" "On Both Sides of the Sea." + + + +THE END. + + + + + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75741 *** |