The Knight of the Golden Melice Part 35

"The holy saints and angels have watched over you, to guard you in your ways," she said, "and it proves the Divine approbation."

"Truly, Celestina, is such a belief necessary, else would the things I am called sometimes to do, break me down with their oppressive weight.

Only by its means can I satisfy myself, when the commands of my superiors seem to conflict with mine honor."

"Honor!" exclaimed sister Celestina--"what is it but a delusive phantom, whereby ye men are frighted from the n.o.blest undertakings?

What right has such a consideration to interfere, when you are called upon to act by them who are set over you, and whom you are bound to obey? It is a deadly sin to dream that they may err, and granting that they do, on them and not on you rests the responsibility."

"True; yet speak not slightingly of a feeling which is ever the parent of glorious deeds. Was it not inspired by honor, that the Roman Regulus returned to certain torture and death? that the chivalrous King of Israel, when fainting with thirst, poured out to the Lord the water for which his soul longed? that gallant hearts innumerable have crimsoned the battle-field with their hearts blood, rather than that even a suspicion should soil their escutcheon?"

"Were a profane heretic, or an accursed Jew, or a misguided heathen, to set these up to himself as ensamples, it might be excused," said the sister, scornfully; "but what has the soldier, who has enlisted under the banner of the blessed St. Ignatius, to do with imaginations alike fantastic and full of a sounding frenzy? Was it for the glory of G.o.d that these men died, or because they coveted the praise of the world, and gratified a ferocious instinct of their nature?"

"I deny not the superior n.o.bility of the principle of my order,"

returned the Knight, "inasmuch as it excludes selfishness, save as it is of necessity, connected with the aspiration for salvation; still can I not be mistaken in the admiration of a sentiment which lifts man above all baseness, and prompts him to achieve exploits that shall send his name reverberating through the halls of princes and the cabins of laborers, to be warbled by the lips of beauty at the festival, or shouted in front of the charging host. Yet, mistake me not, Celestina, but believe, that while my heart loves not honor less, my understanding renders a deeper homage to the principle of Ignatius.

But whither hath my wandering talk strayed?" he added, checking himself. "I did desire, after delivering thy letter, to say, that it is my purpose to follow hard on the heels of Master Arundel, and also to caution thee to continue to keep carefully concealed, during my absence, the sacred crucifix, and whatever else might betray us to our enemies. Forgive me that I give this advice, but I see that thou hast relaxed thy watchfulness over the missal."

"The warning is unnecessary. Nightly is the blessed cross, whereon the hands of his holiness have been laid, deposited with my missal and rosary in our place of concealment. And as for Neebin, fear not to trust her. She is as jealous of her treasure as could be thou or I.

But leave me not until you receive tidings from the heretics. These ill-omened reports I like not. They may, indeed, be idle, yet it is only, prudence to wait."

"I care not for them, yet, to pleasure thee, would I do more. I will remain, according to thy wish, and, meanwhile, to-night, seek Sa.s.sacus, who soon returns to his distant tribe."

"Be it so, then," said the lady. "Neebin." she called to the Indian girl, who was in the adjoining apartment, and who, at the summons, came running up; "give me now the book, and I will tell thee a story about one of the pictures."

The Knight understood this as a signal to withdraw, and accordingly took his leave.

The lady, on his departure, instead of talking with the child, returned her the missal with no excuse, and drawing the letter of Father Le Vieux from her bosom, commenced reading it again.

"My judgment, then," she murmured, "is confirmed by that of the holy father. Thus writes he: 'I fear, my daughter, that the leaven hath not done its perfect office. There be many called, but alas, how few are fit for the work! In some things hesitancy is a deadly sin. Let the faint hearted step aside, that more vigorous souls may take their place.' Whatever may be the consequences," she continued to herself, "I feel cheered, in that my course will be approved by the father.

Thou knowest, holy Mary, that it was through no ign.o.ble motive, but only for thy glory I did this thing, whereof, alas! my poor woman's heart more than half repented. Oh! pity, that one endowed with so many gracious qualities as Sir Christopher, should lack the iron firmness which gives consistency and dignity to life, and that his weakness compelled me to that which I would not, for the world, his n.o.ble nature should suspect: But since this letter from the father, no doubt a.s.sails me. The course I have adopted I will pursue, nor shall my constant soul falter. Sooner shall the needle desert the beloved pole."

The face of the woman a.s.sumed an expression of indomitable resolution.

She looked like one incapable of a weakness--like one who, mastered by an engrossing purpose, feels that all else is trivial, and to be as little regarded as the dust which the traveller shakes from his soiled garment.

CHAPTER XXV.

He hears On all sides, from innumerable tongues, A dismal, universal hiss.

PARADISE LOST.

When Arundel arrived at the little settlement, he proceeded straightway to the hostelry, which was his usual stopping place, and as he entered, was met by the landlord with those demonstrations of welcome, wherewith the publican is in the habit of greeting his customers.

"So you have got safe off from them b.l.o.o.d.y salvages, (praised be the Lord for all his mercies)," said goodman Nettles. "And you look browner, as though you'd caught some of their color from being with them, but hearty as my tapster, Zachariah Sider, who can begin with the head of an ox, and never stop till he wipes his mouth with the tuft on the end of the tail, was.h.i.+ng it down, moreover, with a quant.i.ty of ale that ails me--ahem!--(here Nettles put his finger on the side of his nose, and grinned as if he had really said a capital thing,) to see wasted on his lean carcase. But, Master Arundel, you must be dry. There is some of the old Canary left."

"Let me have a bottle, and, if agreeable to thee, we will empty it together."

As the landlord left the room, Arundel, on looking round, discovered what he had not observed before, viz., our old friend, Master p.r.o.nt, in a sort of recess, formed by the projection of the chimney. The worthy functionary was engaged, at the moment, in taking his eleven o'clock refreshment of a pot of beer, (a habit from which his exile from the old country had not been able to wean him,) but, at the approach of the young man, he rose, and gravely shook hands with him.

Miles had barely time to offer a share of the wine, which, however, Master Prout refused, when Nettles returned with a bottle.

"There," said he, setting it down, and looking affectionately at it, "I warrant me you get no such soul of the grape among the red heathen, though if they had any wit they might have puncheons of it, if they only knew how to make them, for they say there is store of grape vines growing about."

"As for me," said Master Prout, after raising the tankard to his lips, and taking a draught, long and deep, "I'm a genuine Englishman in my taste. Give me, say I, your humming beer, with a body to it, in place of all the wishy-washy wines of the Frenchman or the Spaniard. They only pucker one's mouth, and heat one's blood; but there is neither bread nor cheese in them, as in good John Barleycorn."

"The ale deserves all your praise, Master Prout," said the host, "though I say it myself; nevertheless, is the good wine not to be despised. I know no reason why a true born Englishman may not like both."

"It may be well for thee, whose business is to get thy living from their sale, to talk thus," replied Master Prout; "but for all that, I relish not these foreign decoctions--your Canaries, your Sherries, and your Portos. Their very names have a smack of popery in them. Down with the Pope, and all his inventions to tickle men's palates and d.a.m.n their souls."

"And so say I, down with the Pope, but up with good wine, and down with it too, so it only runs in the right place; but it grieves me to hear you, good Master Prout, evening down good wine to the Pope--why--"

"Contradict me not, goodman Nettles," interrupted the guardian of public morals. "I say that I have ever remarked the man who prefers wine to ale, to be of an unsteady faith. It savors of a hankering after the flesh-pots of Egypt. Let not such a man be trusted."

As the constable was speaking, Arundel could not help fancying that he looked hard at him, as if some personal application of the words were intended. He took no notice, however, of them, especially as mine host immediately rejoined:

"Dear, good Master Prout, speak not so. Why, if my customers were to hear you, the character of my house might be ruinated. Whoever heard before that the Pope had ever anything to do with wine? I do not believe he drinks it at all."

"Art thou a Christian man, and so ignorant of the things that pertain to salvation? Tells us not the Book of Revelations of the merchandise of the great city of Babylon, when it shall fall--cinnamon, and odors, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine; and sayest thou the Pope hath no part thereof?"

"An' you are for Scripture," answered mine host, "have at thee with a text in return? Saith not the Scripture, also, He giveth wine to gladden man's heart? Moreover, though there be wine at Rome, it doth not follow, therefrom, that it is drunk by the Pope."

"Contradict me not, I say, goodman, and pervert not the Scriptures with thy famulistical interpretations. I observed you spoke but a moment ago of the soul of the grape, as if it were possible that a divine principle could lodge therein, I caution thee against this, as a profane and indecent form of speech, unbecoming in one of the congregation; and, besides, an' thou wouldst retain my custom, take heed thou put more malt into thy ale."

"It is strong enough to answer thy purpose," muttered the offended landlord, but in so low a tone as to be unheard; and, as new customers began to come in, he left, in order to a.s.sist in manipulations of the bottle and spigot, his tapster, Zachariah Sider, whom his late flouris.h.i.+ng fortune had enabled him to add to the establishment.

"Has anything worthy of note occurred, during my absence of three weeks?" inquired Arundel of Master Prout.

"How were it possible otherwise?" replied the constable, whom the colloquy with the host seemed not to have left in the best of humors.

"Here hath been Increase Faith Higginson twice coopered up in a barrel, once for drunkenness, and a second time on suspicion thereof; Jonathan Makepiece hath lain in the stocks for quarreling with, and using contumacious language toward David Battle; Susannah Silence hath sat tied in a chair, before her door, with a cleft stick upon her tongue, for being too free in the use of that member; divers G.o.dly persons have connected themselves with the congregation, and two unworthy Achans been driven therefrom--the one for incontinence, until he repent thereof, and the other for denying the just power of the elders."

Arundel could not forbear smiling at this odd enumeration of important events, which his informant observing, and construing into disrespect, immediately added:

"Have a care, Master Miles Arundel, unto thyself. I wish thee well, for thou art a proper young man, and, did the inner garnis.h.i.+ng correspond with the outer adornment, thou wert indeed a comely vessel of grace; and, therefore, say I unto thee, there be other matters touching thee more nearly than those things whereof I have spoken, and whereat, I know not wherefore, it pleased thee to smile."

"I pray you to pardon my involuntary offence," said the young man, "and to believe that my smiling betokened no disrespect. My mirth was awakened by the comical pictures which thine ingenious answer conjured before the imagination."

"I trow," said Master Prout, "they who come under the displeasure of our magistrates, will find their punishments no such comical matters.

There be such things as whippings and nose-slittings, as well as sittings in the stocks, and the like."

"I know," answered Arundel, "that your magistrates are no lambs. Yet of thy complaisance, tell me wherein I am interested in aught that has befallen in my absence."

"This Sir Christopher Gardiner, the man who is sometimes called 'The Knight of the Golden Melice,' is a great friend of thine, is he not?"

asked Master Prout.

"I account it an honor to call him my friend. A worthier or more honorable gentleman lives not in the colony."

"There be different opinions on that head, my young master. The closer thy friends.h.i.+p, the worse, I fear, it will be for thee."

"Speak out, Master Prout," exclaimed Arundel, losing patience. "If thou knowest any talk prejudicial to the fair fame of the Sir Christopher, let me know it, that the calumniator may be dragged to light, and receive deserved punishment."