made search for him, leaving no placeunsought where I could suspect him to abide; and as I see no hopes ofsuccess, I am resolved to leave the city for a season."
Then Mr. Wells proposed to carry Edmund to Kate's house, where somefriends were awaiting him; and for some days I saw him not again. Buton the next Sunday evening he came to our house, and I noticed apaleness in him I had not before perceived. I asked him if anythinghad disordered him.
"Nothing," he answered; "only methinks my old shaking malady dothagain threaten me; for this morning, walking forth of mine inn tovisit a friend on the other side of the city, and passing by St.Paul's church, when I was on the east side thereof, I felt suddenly astrange sensation in my body, so much that my face glowed, and itseemed to me as if mine hair stood on end; all my joints trembled, andmy whole body was bathed in a cold sweat. I feared some evil wasthreatening me, or danger of being taken up, and I looked back to seeif I could perceive any one to be pursuing me; but I saw nobody near,only a youth in a brown-colored cloak; and so, concluding that someaffection of my head or liver had seized me, I thought no more on it,but went forward to my intended place to say mass."
A strange thinking came into mine head at that moment, and I doubtedif I should impart to him my sudden fancy.
"Mr. Edmund," I said, unable to refrain myself, "suppose that youth inthe brown cloak should have been your brother!"
He started, but shaking of his head said:
"Nay, nay, why should it have been him rather than a thousand others Ido see every day?"
"Might not that strange effect in yourself betoken the presence of akinsman?"
"Tut, tut, Mistress Constance," he cried, half kindly, halfreprovingly; "this should be a wild fancy lacking ground in reason."
Thus checked, I held my peace, but could not wholly discard thisthought. Not long after--on the very morning before Mr. Geningsproposed to depart out of town--I chanced to be walking homeward withhim and some others from a house whither we had gone to hear his mass.As we were returning along Ludgate Hill, what should he feel but thesame sensations he had done before, and which were indeed visible inhim, for his limbs trembled and his face turned as white as ashes!
"You are sick," I said, for I was walking alongside of him.
"Only affected as that other day," he answered, leaning against a postfor to recover himself.
I had hastily looked back, and, lo and behold I a youth in a browncloak was walking some paces behind us. I whispered in Mr. Genings'sear:
"Look, Edmund; is this the youth you saw before?"
"O my good Lord!" he cried, turning yet more pale, "this is strangeindeed! After all, it may be my brother. Go on," he said quickly; "Imust get speech with him alone to discover if it should be so."
We all walked on, and he tarried behind. Looking back, I saw himaccost the stranger in the brown cloak. And in the afternoon he cameto tell us that this was verily John Genings, as I had with so littleshow of reason guessed.
"What passed between you?" I asked.
He said:
"I courteously saluted the young man, and inquired what countryman hewas; and hearing that he was a Staffordshireman, I began to conceivehopes it should be my brother; so I civilly demanded his name.Methought I should have betrayed myself at once when he answeredGenings; but as quietly as I could, I told him I was hiskinsman, and was called Ironmonger, and asked him what had become ofhis brother Edmund. He then, not suspecting aught, told me he hadheard that he was gone to Rome to the Pope, and was become a notablepapist and a traitor both to God and his country, and that if he didreturn he should infallibly be hanged. I smiled, and told him I knewhis brother, and that he was an honest man, and loved both the queenand his country, and God above all. 'But tell me,' I added, 'goodcousin John, should you not know him if you saw him?' He then lookedhard at me, and led the way into a tavern not far off, and when wewere seated at a table, with no one nigh enough to overhear us, hesaid: 'I greatly fear I have a brother that is a priest, and that youare the man,' and then began to swear that if it was so, I shoulddiscredit myself and all my friends, and protested that in this hewould never follow me; albeit in other matters he might respect me. Ipromise you that whilst these harsh words passed his lips I longed tothrow my arms round his neck. I saw my mother's face in his, and hisonce childish loveliness only changed into manly beauty. His youngyears and mine rose before me, and I could have wept over thisnew-found brother as Joseph over his dear Benjamin. I could no longerconceal myself, but told him truly I was his brother indeed, and forhis love had taken great pains to seek him, and begged of him to keepsecret the knowledge of my arrival; to which he answered: 'He wouldnot for the world disclose my return, but that he desired me to comeno more unto him, for that he feared greatly the danger of the law,and to incur the penalty of the statute for concealing of it.' I sawthis was no place or time convenient to talk of religion; but we hadmuch conversation about divers things, by which I perceived him to befar from any good affection toward Catholic religion, and persistentin Protestantism, without any hope of a present recovery. Therefore Ideclared unto him my intended departure out of town, and took myleave, assuring him that within a month or little more I should returnand see him again, and confer with him more at large touching somenecessary affairs which concerned him very much. I inquired of himwhere a letter should find him. He showed some reluctance for to giveme any address, but at last said if one was left for him at LadyIngoldsby's, in Queen street, Holborn, he should be like to get it."
After Mr. Genings had left, I considered of this direction his brotherhad given him, which showed him to be acquainted with Polly'smother-in-law, and then remembering the young gentleman I had met ather house, I suspected him to be no other than John Genings. Andcalled back to mind all his speeches for to compare them with thissuspicion, wherein they did all tally; and some days afterward, when Iwas walking on the Mall with Sir Ralph and Polly, who should accostthem but this youth, which they presently introduced to me, and Pollyadded, she believed we had played at hide-and-seek together when wewere young. He looked somewhat surprised, and as if casting about forto call to mind old recollections; then spoke of our meeting at LadyIngoldsby's; and she cried out,
"Oh, then, you do know one another?"
"By sight," I said, "not by name."
Some other company joining us, he came alongside of me, and began forto pay me compliments in the French manner.
"Mr. John Genings," I said, "do you remember Lichfield and the close,and a little; girl, Constance Sherwood, who used to play with you,before you went to La Rochelle?"
"Like in a dream," he answered, his comely face lighting up with asmile.
"But your brother," I said, "was my chiefest companion then; for atthat age we do always aspire to the notice of such as be older than condescend to such as be younger than ourselves."
When I named his brother a cloud darkened his face, and he abruptlyturned away. He talked to Polly and some other ladies in a gay,jesting manner, but I could see that ever and anon he glanced towardme, as if to scan my features, and, I ween, compare them with whatmemory depicted; but he kept aloof from me, as if fearing I shouldspeak again of one he would fain forget.
On the 7th of November, Edmund returned to London, and came in theevening to Kate's house. He had been laboring in the country,exhorting, instructing, and exercising his priestly functions amongstCatholics with all diligence. It so happened that his friend, Mr.Plasden, a very virtuous priest, which had landed with him at Whitby,and parted with him soon afterward, was there also; and several otherpersons likewise which did usually meet at Mr. Wells's house; but,owing to that gentleman's absence, who had gone into the country forsome business, and his wife's indisposition, had agreed for to spendthe evening at Mr. Lacy's. Before the company there assembled parted,the two priests treated with him where they should say mass thefollowing day, which was the Octave of All Saints. They agreed to saytheir matins together, and, by Bryan's advice, to celebrate it at thehouse of Mr. Wells, notwithstanding h
is absence; for that MistressWells, who could not conveniently go abroad, would be exceeding gladfor to hear mass in her own lodging. I told Edmund of my meeting withhis brother on the Mall, and the long talk ministered between us someweeks ago, when neither did know the other's name. Methought in hiscountenance and conversation that night there appeared an unwontedconsolation, a sober joy, which filled me almost with awe. When hewished me good-night, he added, "I pray you, my dear child, to liftup your soul to heaven ere yon sleep and when you wake, and recommendto heaven our good purpose, and then come and attend at the holysacrifice with the crowd of angels and saints which do always assistthereat." When the light faintly dawned in the dull sky, Muriel and Istole from our beds,
Constance Sherwood: An Autobiography of the Sixteenth Century Page 91
