Rob of the Bowl: A Legend of St. Inigoe's. Vol. 1 (of 2)

by John Pendleton Kennedy

  CHAPTER V.

  ---deep on his front engraven, Deliberation sat, and public care.

  MILTON.

  Lend me thy lantern quoth a? Marry I'll see thee hanged first.

  SHAKSPEARE.

  A small fire blazed on the hearth of the study and mingled its lightwith that of a silver cresset, which hung from the ceiling above atable furnished with writing materials and strewed over with papers.Here the Proprietary sat intent upon the perusal of the pacquet. Itscontents disquieted him; and with increasing solicitude he again andagain read over the letters.

  At length the secretary was summoned into his presence. "Albert," hesaid, "the council must be called together to-morrow at noon. Themessengers should be despatched to-night; they have a dark road and farto ride. Let them be ready with the least delay."

  The secretary bowed and went forth to execute his order.

  The letters brought the Proprietary a fresh importation of troubles.That which most disturbed him was from the Board of Trade andPlantations, and spoke authoritatively of the growing displeasure ofthe ministry at the exclusiveness, as it was termed, of theProprietary's favours, in the administration of his government, to theCatholic inhabitants of the province; it hinted at the popular andprobably well-founded discontent--to use its own phrase--of hisMajesty's Protestant subjects against the too liberal indulgence shownto the Papists; repeated stale charges and exploded calumnies againstthe Proprietary, with an earnestness that showed how sedulously hisenemies had taken advantage of the disfavour into which the Church ofRome and its advocates had fallen since the Restoration; and concludedwith a peremptory intimation of the royal pleasure that all the officesof the province should be immediately transferred into the hands of theChurch of England party.

  This was a blow at Lord Baltimore which scarcely took him by surprise.His late visit to England had convinced him that not all the personalpartiality of the monarch for his family--and this was renderedconspicuous in more than one act of favour at a time when the Catholiclords were brought under the ban of popular odium--would be ablefinally to shelter the province from that religious proscription whichalready was rife in the mother land. He was not, therefore, altogetherunprepared to expect this assault. The mandate was especially harsh inreference to the Proprietary, first because it was untrue that he hadever recognised the difference of religious opinion in hisappointments, but on the contrary had conferred office indiscriminatelyin strict and faithful accordance with the fundamental principle oftoleration upon which his government was founded; and secondly, becauseit would bear with pointed injustice upon some of his nearest and mostdevoted friends--his uncle the chancellor, the whole of his council,and, above all others in whose welfare he took an interest, upon thecollector of the port of St. Mary's, Anthony Warden, an old inhabitantof the province, endeared to the Proprietary--and indeed to all hisfellow-burgesses--by long friendship and tried fidelity. What renderedit the more grating to the feelings of the Proprietary in thisinstance, was that the collectorship had already been singled out as aprize to be played for by that faction which had created the latedisturbances in the province. It was known that Coode had set his eyesupon this lure, and gloated upon it with the gaze of a serpent. Theemoluments of the post were something considerable, and its importancewas increased by the influence it was supposed to confer on theincumbent, as a person of weight and consequence in the town.

  The first expression of irritation which the perusal of the pacquetbrought to the lips of the Proprietary had a reference to thecollector. "They would have me," he said, as he rose and strode throughthe apartment, "discard from my service, the very approved friends withwhom in my severest toils, in this wilderness, I have for so many yearsbuffeted side by side, and to whom I am most indebted for support andencouragement amidst the thousand disasters of my enterprise. Theywould have me turn adrift, without a moment's warning, and even withcircumstances of disgrace, that tried pattern of honesty, old AnthonyWarden. Virtue, in her best estate, hath but a step-daughter's portionin the division of this world's goods, and often goes begging, whenvarnished knavery carries a high head and proud heart, and lords itlike a very king. By the blessed light! old Anthony shall not budge onmy motion. Am I to be schooled in my duty by rapacious malcontents, andto be driven to put away my trustiest friends, to make room for suchthirsty leeches and coarse rufflers as John Coode? The argument is,that here, in what my father would have made a peaceful, contentedland, planted by him and the brothers of his faith,--with the kindest,best and most endeared supporters of that faith by my side--worthy men,earnest and zealous to do their duty--they and their children true toevery christian precept--men who have won a home by valour and patient,wise endurance--they must all be disfranchised, as not trustworthy evenfor the meanest office, and give their places to brawlers, vapouringbullies and factious stirrers-up of discord--and that too in the nameof religion! Oh, this viper of intolerance, how hath it crept in anddefiled the garden! One would have thought this world were wide enoughto give the baser passions elbow room, without rendering our littlesecluded nook a theatre for the struggle. Come what may, Anthony Wardenshall not lack the collectorship whilst a shred of my prerogativeremains untorn!"

  In this strain of feeling the Proprietary continued to chafe hisspirit, until the necessity of preparing the letters which were to urgethe attendance of his council, drew him from his fretful reverie into acalmer tone of mind.

  In the servants' hall there was an unusual stir occasioned by thepreparations which were in train for the outriding of the messengerswhom the secretary had put in requisition for the service of the night.The first of these was Derrick Brown, a man of stout mould thoughsomewhat advanced in years. He held in the establishment what might betermed the double post of master of the mews and keeper of the foxhounds, being principal falconer and huntsman of the household. Thesecond was a short, plump little fellow, bearing the name of JohnAlward, who was one of the grooms of the stable. These two, now readybooted, belted and spurred, were seated on a bench, discussing aluncheon, with the supplement of a large jack or tankard of brownbastard. Several of the other domestics loitered in the hall, throwingin occasionally a word of advice to the riders, or giving themunsolicited aid in the carnal occupation of bodily reinforcement towhich they were devoting themselves with the lusty vigour of practisedtrenchermen. Leaning against the jamb of the ample fireplace,immediately below a lamp which tipped the prominent points of his gravevisage with a sharp light, stood an old Indian, of massive figure andswarthy hue, named Pamesack, or, as he was called in the Englishtranslation of the Indian word, The Knife. This personage had been, forsome years past, at intervals, a privileged inmate of the Proprietary'sfamily, and was now, though consigned to a portion of the duties of theevening, apparently an unconcerned spectator of the scene around him.He smoked his pipe in silence, or if he spoke, it was seldom more thanin the short monosyllable, characteristic of the incommunicative habitsof his tribe.

  "When I saw Dick Pagan, the James Town courier, coming into town thisevening with his leather pouch slung across his shoulder," said theelder of the riders, "I guessed as much as that there would be matterfor the council. News from that quarter now-a-days is apt to bringbusiness for their worships. I warrant you the brother of MasterFendall hath been contriving an outcome in Virginia. I heard John Rye,the miller of St. Clements, say last Sunday afternoon, that SamuelFendall had forty mounted men ready in the forest to do his biddingwith broad-sword and carbine. And he would have done it too, if my Lordhad not laid him by the heels at unawares. He hath a savage spiteagainst my Lord and the chancellor both."

  "But knew ye ever the like before," said John Alward, "that hislordship should be in such haste to see their worships, he must needshave us tramping over the country at midnight? By the virtue of mybelt, there must be a hot flavour in the news! It was a post hasteletter."

  "Tush, copperface! What have you to do with the flavour of the news?The virtue of thy belt, indeed! Precious l
ittle virtue is there withinits compass, ha, ha! You have little to complain of, John Alward, for amidnight tramp. It is scant twelve miles from this to Mattapany, andthine errand is done. Thou mayst be snoozing on a good truss of hay inMaster Sewall's stable before midnight, if you make speed. Think of myride all the way to Notley Hall,--and round about by the head of theriver too--for I doubt if I have any chance to get a cast over theferry to-night. Simon the boat-keeper is not often sober at this hour:and if he was, a crustier churl--the devil warm his pillow!--doesn'tlive 'twixt this and the old world. He gets out of his sleep for noman."

  "But it is a dark road mine," replied the groom. "A plague upon it! Ihave no stomach for this bush and brier work, when a man can see thelimb of a tree no more than a cobweb."

  "A dark road!" exclaimed the master of the kennels, laughing. "A darkroad, John! It is a long time, I trow, since there has been a dark roadfor thy night rides, with that nose shining like a lighted link a halfscore paces around thee. It was somewhat deadened last September, Iallow, when you had the marsh ague, and the doctor fed you for a weekon gruel--but it hath waxed lately as bright as ever. I wish I couldbuckle it to my head-strap until to-morrow morning."

  A burst of laughter, at this sally, which rang through the hall,testified the effect of the falconer's wit and brought the groom to hisfeet.

  "'S blood, you grinning fools!" he ejaculated, "haven't you heardDerrick's joke a thousand times before, that you must toss up yourscurvy ha-haws at it, as if it was new! He stole it--as the wholehundred knows--from the fat captain, old Dauntrees in the fort there;who would have got it back upon hue and cry, if it had been hisown;--but the truth is, the Captain filched it from a play-book, as thesurveyor told him in my hearing at Garret Weasel's, where the Captainmust needs have it for a laughing matter."

  "It is a joke that burns fresh every night," replied Derrick; "a thingto make light of. So, up with the bottom of the pot, boy, and feed itwith mother's milk: it will stand thee in stead to-night. Well done,John Alward! I can commend thee for taking a jest as well as another."

  "Master Derrick," said the other, "this is not the way to do hisLordship's bidding: if we must go, we should be jogging now. I would Ihad thy ride to take, instead of my own,--short as you think it."

  "Ha, say you that! By the rochet, John, you shall have it, an it pleaseMaster Secretary! But upon one condition."

  "Upon what condition?"

  "That you tell me honestly why you would choose to ride twenty miles toNotley rather than twelve to Mattapany."

  "Good Derrick," answered the groom, "it is but as a matter ofhorsemanship. You have a broader road, and mine is a path much besetwith brush-wood. I like not the peril of being unhorsed."

  "There is a lie in thy face, John Alward;--the Mattapany road is thebroadest and best of the two--is it not so, Pamesack?"

  "It is the first that was opened by the white man," replied the Indian;"and more people pass upon it than the other."

  "John," said the falconer, "you are a coward. I will not put you to theinventing another lie, but will wager I can tell you at one guess whyyou would change with me."

  "Out with it, Master Derrick!" exclaimed the bystanders.

  "Oh, out with it!" repeated John Alward; "I heed not thy gibes."

  "You fear the cross road," said the falconer; "you will not pass thefisherman's grave."

  "In troth, masters--I must needs own," replied the groom, "that I havequalms. I never was ashamed to tell the truth, and confess that I am somuch of a sinner as to feel an honest fear of the devil and his doings.I have known a horse to start and a rider to be flung at the cross roadbefore now:--there are times in the night when both horse and rider maysee what it turns one's blood into ice to look at. Nay, I am inearnest, masters:--I jest not."

  "Thou hast honestly confessed, like a brave man, that thou art acoward, John Alward; and so it shall be a bargain between us. I willtake your message. I fear not Paul Kelpy--he has been down with thatstake through his body, ever too fast to walk abroad."

  "There's my hand to it," said the groom, "and thanks to boot. I am nocoward, Derrick,--but have an infirmity which will not endure to lookby night in the lonesome woods, upon a spirit which walks with a greatshaft through it. Willy of the Flats saw it, in that fashion, as hewent home from the Viewer's feast on the eve of St. Agnes."

  "Willy had seen too much of the Viewer's hollands that night," saidDerrick; "and they are spirits worth a dozen Paul Kelpys, even if thewhole dozen were trussed upon the same stake, like herrings hung up tosmoke. In spite of the fisherman and his bolt, I warrant you I passunchallenged betwixt this and Mattapany."

  The secretary, soon after this, entered the hall and confirmed thearrangements which had just been made. He accordingly delivered theletters intended for Colonel Talbot and Nicholas Sewall to thefalconer, and that for Mr. Notley, the late lieutenant general of theprovince, to John Alward. To the Indian was committed the duty ofbearing the missions to such members of the council as resided eitherin the town or within a few miles of it. Holding it matter ofindifference whether he despatched this duty by night or by day, theKnife took it in hand at once, and set forth, on foot, with a letterfor Colonel Digges, who lived about five miles off, at the same timethat the other two couriers mounted their horses for their lonesomejourneys through the forest.