Pabo, the Priest: A Novel
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CHAPTER II
NEST
King Henry folded his hands over his paunch, leaned back and laughedheartily.
"'Sdeath!" said he. "But I believe the salamander has perished: he couldnot endure the mirth of it. Odds blood! But Bernard will be a veritablesalamander in the rude bowels of Wales."
Before him stood Nest, with fire erupting from her dark eyes.
Henry looked at her, raised his brows, settled himself more easily inhis chair, but cast aside the pillows on which his arms had rested. "Ha!Nest, I had forgotten thy presence. Hast caught me a bluebottle? Mytrouble is not so acute just now. How fares our boy, Robert?"
She swept the question aside with an angry gesture of the hand.
"And what sort of housekeeping do you have with Gerald?" he asked.
Again she made a movement of impatience.
"Odds life!" said he. "When here it was ever with thee Wales this, andWales that. We had no mountains like thy Welsh Mynyddau--that is thesilly word, was it not? And no trees like those in the Vale of Towy, andno waters that brawled and foamed like thy mountain brooks, and no musiclike the twanging of thy bardic harps, and no birds sang so sweet, andno flowers bloomed so fair. Pshaw! now thou art back among them allagain. I have sent thee home--art content?"
"You have sent me back to blast and destroy my people. You have coupledmy name with that of Gerald, that the curses of my dear people when theyfall on him may fall on me also."
"Bah!" said the King. "Catch me a bluebottle, and do not talk in suchhigh terms."
"Henry," she said, in thrilling tones, "I pray you----"
"You were forever praying me at one time to send you back to Wales. Ihave done so, and you are not content."
"I had rather a thousand times have buried my head--my shamed, mydishonored head"--she spoke with sternness and concentrated wrath--"insome quiet cloister, than to be sent back with a firebrand into my ownland to lay its homesteads in ashes."
"You do pretty well among yourselves in that way," said Henrycontemptuously. "When were you ever known to unite? You are foreverflying at each other's throats and wasting each other's lands. Those whocannot combine must be broken."
Nest drew a long breath. She knitted her hands together.
"Henry," she said, "I pray you, reconsider what Gerald has advised, andwithhold consent."
"Nay, it was excellent counsel."
"It was the worst counsel that could be given. Think what has been doneto my poor people. You have robbed them of their corn-land and havegiven it to aliens. You have taken from them their harbors, and theycannot escape. You have driven away their princes, and they cannotunite. You have crushed out their independence, and they cease to bemen. They have but one thing left to them as their very own--theirChurch. And now you will plunder them of that--thrust yourselves inbetween them and God. They have had hitherto their own pastors, as theyhave had their own princes. They have followed the one in war and theother in peace. Their pastors have been men of their own blood, of theirown speech, men who have suffered with them, have wept with them, andhave even bled with them. These have spoken to them when sick at heart,and have comforted them when wounded in spirit. And now they are to bejostled out of their places, to make room for others, aliens in blood,ignorant of our language, indifferent to our woes; men who cannot advisenor comfort, men from whom our people will receive no gift, howeverholy. Deprived of everything that makes life endurable, will you nowdeprive them of their religion?"
She paused, out of breath, with flaming cheek, and sparklingeyes--quivering, palpitating in every part of her body.
"Nest," said the King, "you are a woman--a fool. You do not understandpolicy."
"Policy!" she cried scornfully. "What is policy? My people have theirfaults and their good qualities."
"Faults! I know them, I trow. As to their good qualities, I have them tolearn." He shrugged his shoulders contemptuously.
"You know their faults alone," pursued Nest passionately, "because youseek to find them that you may foster and trade on them. That is policy.Policy is to nurture the evil and ignore the good. None know bettertheir own weaknesses than do we. But why not turn your policy to helpingus to overcome them and be made strong?"
"It is through your own inbred faults that we have gained admission intoyour mountains. Brothers with you cannot trust brothers----"
"No more than you or Robert can trust each other, I presume," sneeredNest. "An arrow was aimed at you from behind. Who shot it? Not aWelshman, but Robert, or a henchman of Robert. On my honor, you set us arare example of fraternal affection and unity!"
Henry bit his lips.
"It is through your own rivalries that we are able to maintain our holdupon your mountains."
"And because we know you as fomenters of discord--doers of the devil'swork--that is why we hate you. Give up this policy, and try anothermethod with us."
"Women cannot understand. Have done!"
"Justice, they say, is figured as a woman; for Justice is pitifultowards feebleness and infirmity. But with you is no justice at all,only rank tyranny--tyranny that can only rule with the iron rod, anddrive with the scourge."
"Be silent! My salamander is moving again."
But she would not listen to him. She pursued--
"My people are tender-hearted, loving, loyal, frank. Show them trust,consideration, regard, and they will meet you with open arms. We knownow that our past has been one of defeat and recoil, and we also knowwhy it has been so. Divided up into our little kingdoms, full ofrivalries, jealousies, ambitions, we have not had the wit to cohere. Whowould weave us into one has made a rope of sand. It was that, not thesuperior courage or better arms of the Saxon, that drove us intomountains and across the sea. It is through playing with, encouragingthis, bribing into treachery, that you are forcing your way among usnow. But if in place of calling over adventurers from France and boorsfrom Flanders to kill us and occupy our lands, you come to us with theolive branch, and offer us your suzerainty and guarantee us againstinternecine strife--secure to us our lands, our laws, ourliberties--then we shall become your devoted subjects, we shall look upto you as to one who raises us, whereas now we regard you as one whocasts us down to trample on us. We have our good qualities, and thesequalities will serve you well if you will encourage them. But yourpolicy is to do evil, and evil only."
Henry Beauclerk, with a small mallet, struck a wooden disk, and anattendant appeared.
"Call Gerald Windsor back," said he; then, to himself, "this woman is anoffense to me."
"Because I utter that which you cannot understand. I speak of justice,and you understand only tyranny."
"Another word, Nest, and I shall have you forcibly removed."
She cast herself passionately at the King's feet.
"I beseech thee--I--I whom thou didst so cruelly wrong when a poorhelpless hostage in thy hands--I, away from father and mother--aloneamong you--not knowing a word of your tongue. I have never asked foraught before. By all the wrongs I have endured from thee--by thy hopesfor pardon at the great Day when the oppressed and fatherless will berighted--I implore thee--withhold thy consent."
"It is idle to ask this," said Henry coldly, "Leave me. I will hear nomore." Then taking the ewer, he began again to pour water into thebasin, and next to ladle it back into the vessel whence he had pouredit.
"Oh, you beau clerk!" exclaimed Nest, rising to her feet. "So skilled inbooks, who knowest the qualities of the porcupine through Plinius, andhow to draw forth a salamander, as instructed by Galen! A beau clerkindeed, who does not understand the minds of men, nor read their hearts;who cannot understand their best feelings, whose only thought is that ofthe churl, to smash, and outrage, and ruin. A great people, a peoplewith more genius in its little finger than all thy loutish Saxons intheir entire body, thou wilt oppress, and turn their good to gall, theirsweetness to sour, and nurture undying hate where thou mightest breedlove."
"Begone! I will strike and summon assistance, and have thee removed."<
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"Then," said Nest, "I appeal unto God, that He may avenge the injuredand the oppressed. May He smite thee where thou wilt most painfully feelthe blow! May He break down all in which thou hast set thy hopes, andlevel with the dust that great ambition of thine!" She gasped. "Sire,when thou seest thy hopes wrecked and thyself standing a stripped andblasted tree--then remember Wales!"