The Cloister and the Hearth: A Tale of the Middle Ages

by Charles Reade

  CHAPTER IV

  IT was near four o'clock in the afternoon. Eli was in the shop. Hiseldest and youngest sons were abroad. Catherine and her little crippleddaughter had long been anxious about Gerard, and now they were gone alittle way down the road, to see if by good luck he might be visible inthe distance; and Giles was alone in the sitting-room, which I willsketch, furniture and dwarf included.

  The Hollanders were always an original and leading people. They claim tohave invented printing (wooden type), oil-painting, liberty, banking,gardening, &c. Above all, years before my tale, they inventedcleanliness. So while the English gentry, in velvet jerkins, andchicken-toed shoes, trode floors of stale rushes, foul receptacle ofbones, decomposing morsels, spittle, dogs' eggs, and all abominations,this hosier's sitting-room at Tergou was floored with Dutch tiles, sohighly glazed and constantly washed, that you could eat off them. Therewas one large window; the cross stone-work in the centre of it was verymassive, and stood in relief, looking like an actual cross to theinmates, and was eyed as such in their devotions. The panes were verysmall and lozenge-shaped, and soldered to one another with strips oflead: the like you may see to this day in our rural cottages. The chairswere rude and primitive, all but the arm-chair, whose back, at rightangles with its seat, was so high that the sitter's head stopped twofeet short of the top. This chair was of oak and carved at the summit.There was a copper pail, that went in at the waist, holding holy water;and a little hand-besom to sprinkle it far and wide; and a long, narrowbut massive oak table, and a dwarf sticking to its rim by his teeth, hiseyes glaring, and his claws in the air like a pouncing vampire. Nature,it would seem, did not make Giles a dwarf out of malice prepense: sheconstructed a head and torso with her usual care: but just then herattention was distracted, and she left the rest to chance; the resultwas a human wedge, an inverted cone. He might justly have taken her totask in the terms of Horace:--

  Amphora coepit Institui; currente rota cur urceus exit?

  His centre was anything but his centre of gravity. Bisected, upper Gileswould have outweighed three lower Giles. But this very disproportionenabled him to do feats that would have baffled Milo. His brawny armshad no weight to draw after them; so he could go up a vertical pole likea squirrel, and hang for hours from a bough by one hand like a cherry byits stalk. If he could have made a vacuum with his hands, as the lizardis said to do with its feet, he would have gone along a ceiling. Now,this pocket athlete was insanely fond of gripping the dinner-table withboth hands, and so swinging; and then--climax of delight!--he wouldseize it with his teeth, and taking off his hands, hold on like grimdeath by his huge ivories.

  But all our joys, however elevating, suffer interruption. Little Katecaught Sampsonet in this posture, and stood aghast. She was her mother'sdaughter, and her heart was with the furniture, not with the 12mo.gymnast.

  "Oh, Giles! how can you? Mother is at hand. It dents the table."

  "Go and tell her, little talebearer," snarled Giles. "You are the onefor making mischief."

  "Am I?" inquired Kate, calmly; "that is news to me."

  "The biggest in Tergou," growled Giles, fastening on again.

  "Oh, indeed?" said Kate drily.

  This piece of unwonted satire launched, and Giles not visibly blasted,she sat down quietly and cried.

  Her mother came in almost at that moment, and Giles hurled himself underthe table, and there glared.

  "What is to do now?" said the dame, sharply. Then turning herexperienced eye from Kate to Giles, and observing the position he hadtaken up, and a sheepish expression, she hinted at cuffing of ears.

  "Nay, mother," said the girl; "it was but a foolish word Giles spoke. Ihad not noticed it at another time; but I was tired and in care forGerard, you know."

  "Let no one be in care for me," said a faint voice at the door, and intottered Gerard, pale dusty, and worn out; and amidst uplifted hands andcries of delight, curiosity, and anxiety, mingled, dropped exhaustedinto the nearest chair.

  Beating Rotterdam, like a covert, for Margaret, and the long journeyafterwards, had fairly knocked Gerard up. But elastic youth soonrevived, and behold him the centre of an eager circle. First of allthey must hear about the prizes. Then Gerard told them he had beenadmitted to see the competitors' works all laid out in an enormous hallbefore the judges pronounced. "Oh, mother! oh Kate; when I saw thegoldsmith's work, I had like to have fallen on the floor. I had thoughtnot all the goldsmiths on earth had so much gold, silver, jewels, andcraft of design and facture. But, in sooth, all the arts are divine."

  Then to please the females, he described to them the reliquaries,feretories, calices, crosiers, crosses, pyxes, monstrances, and otherwonders ecclesiastical, and the goblets, hanaps, watches, clocks,chains, brooches, &c., so that their mouths watered.

  "But Kate, when I came to the illuminated work from Ghent and Bruges, myheart sank. Mine was dirt by the side of it. For the first minute Icould almost have cried; but I prayed for a better spirit, and presentlyI was able to enjoy them, and thank God for those lovely works, and forthose skilful, patient craftsmen, whom I own my masters. Well, thecoloured work was so beautiful I forgot all about the black and white.But, next day, when all the other prizes had been given, they came tothe writing, and whose name think you was called first?"

  "Yours," said Kate.

  The others laughed her to scorn.

  "You may well laugh," said Gerard, "but for all that Gerard Eliassoen ofTergou was the name the herald shouted. I stood stupid; they thrust meforward. Everything swam before my eyes. I found myself kneeling on acushion at the feet of the duke. He said something to me, but I was sofluttered I could not answer him. So then he put his hand to his sideand did not draw a glaive and cut off my dull head, but gave me a goldmedal, and there it is." There was a yell and almost a scramble. "Andthen he gave me fifteen great bright golden angels. I had seen onebefore, but I never handled one. Here they are."

  "Oh Gerard! oh Gerard!"

  "There is one for you, our eldest; and one for you, Sybrandt, and foryou, Little Mischief; and two for thee, Little Lily, because God hathafflicted thee; and one for myself to buy colours and vellum; and ninefor her that nursed us all, and risked the two crowns upon poor Gerard'shand."

  The gold drew out their characters. Cornelis and Sybrandt clutched eachhis coin with one glare of greediness and another glare of envy at Katewho had got two pieces. Giles seized his and rolled it along the floorand gambolled after it. Kate put down her crutches and sat down, andheld out her little arms to Gerard with a heavenly gesture of love andtenderness, and the mother, fairly benumbed at first by the shower ofgold that fell on her apron, now cried out, "Leave kissing him, Kate, heis my son, not yours. Ah, Gerard, my boy! I have not loved you as youdeserved."

  Then Gerard threw himself on his knees beside her, and she flung herarms round him and wept for joy and pride, upon his neck.

  "Good lad! good lad!" cried the hosier, with some emotion. "I must goand tell the neighbors. Lend me the medal, Gerard, I'll show it my goodfriend, Peter Buyskens; he is ever regaling me with how his son Jorianwon the tin mug a shooting at the butts."

  "Ay, do my man; and show Peter Buyskens one of the angels. Tell himthere are fourteen more where that came from. Mind you bring it meback!"

  "Stay a minute, father, there is better news behind," said Gerard,flushing with joy at the joy he caused.

  "Better! Better than this?"

  Then Gerard told his interview with the countess, and the house rangwith joy.

  "Now God bless the good lady and bless the Dame Van Eyck! A benefice?our son! My cares are at an end. Eli, my good friend and master, now wetwo can die happy whenever our time comes. This dear boy will take ourplace, and none of these loved ones will want a home or a friend."

  From that hour Gerard was looked upon as the stay of the family. He wasa son apart, but in another sense. He was always in the right, andnothing was too good for him. Cornelis and Sybrandt became more and morejealous of him, an
d longed for the day he should go to his benefice:they would get rid of the favourite, and his reverence's purse would beopen to them. With these views he co-operated. The wound love had givenhim, throbbed duller and duller. His success and the affection andadmiration of his parents, made him think more highly of himself, andresent with more spirit Margaret's ingratitude and discourtesy. For allthat, she had power to cool him towards the rest of her sex, and now forevery reason he wished to be ordained priest as soon as he could passthe intermediate orders. He knew the Vulgate already better than most ofthe clergy, and studied the rubric and the dogmas of the Church with hisfriends the monks; and, the first time the bishop came that way, heapplied to be admitted "exorcist," the third step in holy orders. Thebishop questioned him, and ordained him at once. He had to kneel, andafter a short prayer, the bishop delivered to him a little MS. full ofexorcisms, and said: "Take this, Gerard, and have power to lay hands onthe possessed, whether baptized or catechumens!" and he took itreverently, and went home invested by the Church with power to cast outdemons.

  Returning home from the church, he was met by little Kate on hercrutches.

  "Oh, Gerard! who think you, hath sent to our house seeking you?--theburgomaster himself."

  "Ghysbrecht Van Swieten? What would he with me?"

  "Nay, Gerard, I know not. But he seems urgent to see you. You are to goto his house on the instant."

  "Well, he is the burgomaster: I will go: but it likes me not. Kate, Ihave seen him cast such a look on me as no friend casts. No matter; suchlooks forewarn the wise. To be sure, he knows--"

  "Knows what, Gerard?"

  "Nothing."

  "Nothing?"

  "Kate, I'll go."