Constance Sherwood: An Autobiography of the Sixteenth Century
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herstudies and the tasks she was set to; and from her innocentconversation I discovered, as children do, without at the time takingmuch heed, but yet so as to remember it afterward, what especial carehad been taken by her grandmother--that religious and discreetlady--to instill into her virtue and piety, and in using her, besidesaying her prayers, to bestow alms with her own hands on prisoners andpoor people; and in particular to apply herself to the cure ofdiseases and wounds, wherein she herself had ever excelled. MistressAnn, in her childish but withal thoughtful way, chide me that in myown garden were only seen flowers which pleased the senses by theirbright colors and perfume, and none of the herbs which tend to theassuagement of pain and healing of wounds; and she made me promise togrow some against the time of her next visit. As we went through thekitchen-garden, she plucked some rosemary and lavender and rue, andmany other odoriferous herbs; and sitting down on a bench, she invitedme to her side, and discoursed on their several virtues and propertieswith a pretty sort of learning which was marvellous in one of heryears. She showed me which were good for promoting sleep, and whichfor cuts and bruises, and of a third she said it eased the heart.
"Nay, Mistress Ann," I cried, "but that must be a heartsease;" atwhich she smiled, and answered:
"My grandam says the best medicines for uneasy hearts are the bitterherb confession and the sweet flower absolution."
"Have you yet made your first communion, Mistress Ann?" I asked in alow voice, at which question a bright color came into her cheek, andshe replied:
"Not yet; but soon I may. I was confirmed not long ago by the goodBishop of Durham; and at my grandmother's seat I am to be instructedby a Catholic priest who lives there."
"Then you do not go to Protestant service?" I said.
"We did," she answered, "for a short time, whilst we stayed at theCharterhouse; but my grandam has understood that it is not lawful forCatholics, and she will not be present at it herself, or suffer us anymore to attend it, neither in her own house nor at his grace's."
While we were thus talking, the two little ladies, her sisters, camefrom the house, having craved leave from the governess to run out intothe garden. Mistress Mary was a pale delicate child, with softloving blue eyes; and Mistress Bess, the youngest, a merry imp, whoserosy cheeks and dimpling smiles were full of glee and merriment.
"What ugly sober flowers are these, Nan, that thou art playing with?"she cried, and snatched at the herbs in her sister's lap. "When Imarry my Lord William Howard, I'll wear a posy of roses andcarnations."
"When I am married," said little Mistress Mary, "I will wear nothingbut lilies."
"And what shall be thy posy, Nan?" said the little saucy one again,"when thou dost wed my Lord Surrey?"
"Hush, hush, madcaps!" cried Mistress Ann. "If your grandam was tohear you, I doubt not but the rod would be called for."
Mistress Mary looked round affrighted, but little Mistress Bess saidin a funny manner, "Prithee, Nan, do rods then travel?"
"Ay; by that same token, Bess, that I heard my lady bid thy nurse takecare to carry one with her."
"It was nurse told me I was to marry my Lord William, and Madge myLord Thomas, and thee, Nan, my Lord Surrey, and brother pretty MegHoward," said the little lady, pouting; "but I won't tell grandam ofit an it would be like to make her angry."
"I would be a nun!" Mistress Mary cried.
"Hush!" her elder sister said; "that is foolish talking, Madge; mygrandmother told me so when I said the same thing to her a year ago.Children do not know what Almighty God intends them to do. And nowmethinks I see Uncle Labourn making as if he would call us to thehouse, and there are the horses coming to the door. We must needs obeythe summons. Prithee, Mistress Constance, do not forget me."
Forget her! No. From that day to this years have passed over our headsand left deep scars on our hearts. Divers periods of our lives havebeen signalized by many a strange passage; we have rejoiced, and,oftener still, wept together; we have met in trembling, and parted inanguish; but through sorrow and through joy, through evil report andgood report, in riches and in poverty, in youth and in age, I haveblessed the day when first I met thee, sweet Ann Dacre, the fairest,purest flower which ever grew on a noble stem.
CHAPTER II.
A year elapsed betwixt the period of the so brief, but to me somemorable, visit of the welcomest guests our house ever received--towit, my Lady Mounteagle and her grand-daughters--and that in which Imet with an accident, which compelled my parents to carry me toLichfield for chirurgical advice. Four times in the course of thatyear I was honored with letters writ by the hand of Mistress AnnDacre; partly, as the gracious young lady said, by reason of hergrandmother's desire that the bud acquaintanceship which had sproutedin the short-lived season of the aforesaid visit should, by suchintercourse as may be carried on by means of letters, blossom into aflower of true friendship; and also that that worthy lady and my goodmother willed such a correspondence betwixt us as would serve to thesharpening of our wits, and the using our pens to be good servants toour thoughts. In the course of this history I will set down atintervals some of the letters I received at divers times from thisnoble lady; so that those who read these innocent pictures of herself,portrayed by her own hand, may trace the beginnings of those virtuousinclinations which at an early age were already working in her soul,and ever after appeared in her.
On the 15th day of January of the next year to that in which my eyeshad feasted on this creature so embellished with rare endowments and accomplished gracefulness, the first letter I had from her cameto my hand; the first link of a chain which knit together her heartand mine through long seasons of absence and sore troubles, to thegreat comforting, as she was often pleased to say, of herself, who wasso far above me in rank, whom she chose to call her friend, and of thepoor friend and servant whom she thus honored beyond her deserts. Inas pretty a handwriting as can well be thought of, she thus wrote:
"MY SWEET MISTRESS CONSTANCE, --Though I enjoyed your company but for the too brief time during which we rested under your honored parents' roof, I retain so great a sense of the contentment I received therefrom, and so lively a remembrance of the converse we held in the grounds adjacent to Sherwood Hall, that I am better pleased than I can well express that my grandmother bids me sit down and write to one whom to see and to converse with once more would be to me one of the chiefest pleasures in life. And the more welcome is this command by reason of the hope it raises in me to receive in return a letter from my well-beloved Mistress Constance, which will do my heart more good than anything else that can happen to me. 'Tis said that marriages are made in heaven. When I asked my grandam if it were so, she said, 'I am of opinion, Nan, they are made in many more places than one; and I would to God none were made but such as are agreed upon in so good a place.' But methinks some friendships are likewise made in heaven; and if it be so, I doubt not but that when we met, and out of that brief meeting there arose so great and sudden a liking in my heart for you, Mistress Constance,--which, I thank God, you were not slow to reciprocate,--that our angels had met where we hope one day to be, and agreed together touching that matter.
"It suits ill a bad pen like mine to describe the fair seat we reside in at this present time--the house of Mr. James Labourn, which he has lent unto my grandmother. 'Tis most commodious and pleasant, and after long sojourn in London, even in winter, a terrestrial paradise. But, like the garden of Eden, not without dangers; for the too much delight I took in out-of-doors pastimes-- and most of all on the lake when it was frozen, and we had merry sports upon it, to the neglect of my lessons, not heeding the lapse of time in the pursuit of pleasure--brought me into trouble and sore disgrace. My grandmother ordered me into confinement for three days in my own chamber, and I saw her not nor received her blessing all that time; at the end of which she sharply reproved me for my fault, and bade me hold in mind that 'twas when loitering in a garden Eve met the tempter, and threatened further and severe punishment if I applied not diligen
tly to my studies. When I had knelt down and begged pardon, promising amendment, she drew me to her and kissed me, which it was not her wont often to do. 'Nan,' she said, 'I would have thee use thy natural parts, and improve thyself in virtue and learning; for such is the extremity of the times, that ere long it may be that many first shall be last and many last shall be first in this realm of England. But virtue and learning are properties which no man can steal from another; and I would fain see thee endowed with a goodly store of both. That great man and true confessor, Sir Thomas More, had nothing so much at heart as his daughter's instruction; and Mistress Margaret Roper, once my sweet friend, though some years older than my poor self, who still laments her loss, had such fine things