CHAPTER XXIX.
THE SEARCH.
Humfrey had been much disappointed, when, instead of joining the hunt,Sir Amias Paulett bade him undertake the instruction of half a dozenextremely awkward peasants, who had been called in to increase theguard, but who did not know how to shoulder, load, or fire an arquebus,had no command of their own limbs, and, if put to stand sentry, wouldquite innocently loll in the nearest corner, and go to sleep. However,he reflected that if he were resident in the same house as Cicely hecould not expect opportunities to be daily made for their meeting, andhe addressed himself with all his might to the endeavour to teach hisawkward squad to stand upright for five minutes together. Sturdyfellows as they were, he had not been able to hinder them from loppingover in all directions, when horses were heard approaching. Every manof them, regardless of discipline, lumbered off to stare, and Humfrey,after shouting at them in vain, and wishing he had them all on boardship, gave up the endeavour to recall them, and followed their example,repairing to the hall-door, when he found Sir Amias Paulettdismounting, together with a clerkly-looking personage, attended byWill Cavendish. Mary Seaton was being assisted from her horse,evidently in great grief; and others of the personal attendants of Marywere there, but neither herself, Cicely, nor the Secretaries.
Before he had time to ask questions, his old companion came up to him."You here still, Humfrey? Well. You have come in for the outburst ofthe train you scented out when you were with us in London, though Icould not then speak explicitly."
"What mean you? Where is Cicely? Where is the Queen of Scots?" askedHumfrey anxiously.
Sir Amias Paulett heard him, and replied, "Your sister is safe, MasterTalbot, and with the Queen of Scots at Tixall Castle. We permitted herattendance, as being young, simple, and loyal; she is less like toserve for plots than her elders in that lady's service."
Sir Annas strode on, conducting with him his guest, whom Cavendishexplained to be Mr. Wade, sworn by her Majesty's Council to takepossession of Queen Mary's effects, and there make search for evidenceof the conspiracy. Cavendish followed, and Humfrey took leave to dothe same.
The doors of the Queen's apartment were opened at the summons of SirAmias Paulett, and Sir Andrew Melville, Mistress Kennedy, Marie deCourcelles, and the rest, stood anxiously demanding what was become oftheir Queen. They were briefly and harshly told that her foul andabominable plots and conspiracies against the life of the Queen, andthe peace of the Kingdom, had been brought to light, and that she wasunder secure ward.
Jean Kennedy demanded to be taken to her at once, but Paulett replied,"That must not be, madam. We have strict commands to keep her secludedfrom all."
Marie de Courcelles screamed aloud and wrung her hands, crying, "If yehave slain her, only tell us quickly!" Sir Andrew Melville gravelyprotested against such a barbarous insult to a Queen of Scotland andFrance, and was answered, "No queen, sir, but a State criminal, as weshall presently show."
Here Barbara Curll pressed forward, asking wildly for her husband; andWade replying, with brutal brevity, that he was taken to London to beexamined for his practices before the Council, the poor lady, wellknowing that examination often meant torture, fell back in a swoon.
"We shall do nothing with all these women crying and standing about,"said Wade impatiently; "have them all away, while we put seals on theeffects."
"Nay, sirs," said Jean Kennedy. "Suffer me first to send her Gracesome changes of garments."
"I tell thee, woman," said Wade, "our orders are precise! Not so muchas a kerchief is to be taken from these chambers till search hath beenmade. We know what practices may lurk in the smallest rag."
"It is barbarous! It is atrocious! The King of France shall hear ofit," shrieked Marie de Courcelles.
"The King of France has enough to do to take care of himself, my goodlady," returned Wade, with a sneer.
"Sir," said Jean Kennedy, with more dignity, turning to Sir AmiasPaulett, "I cannot believe that it can be by the orders of the Queen ofEngland, herself a woman, that my mistress, her cousin, should bedeprived of all attendance, and even of a change of linen. Suchunseemly commands can never have been issued from herself."
"She is not without attendance," replied the knight, "the little Talbotwench is with her, and for the rest, Sir Walter and Lady Ashton haveorders to supply her needs during her stay among them. She is treatedwith all honour, and is lodged in the best chambers," he added,consolingly.
"We must dally no longer," called out Wade. "Have away all this thronginto ward, Sir Amias. We can do nothing with them here."
There was no help for it. Sir Andrew Melville did indeed pause toenter his protest, but that, of course, went for nothing with theCommissioners, and Humfrey was ordered to conduct them to the uppergallery, there to await further orders. It was a long passage, in thehighly pointed roof, with small chambers on either side which could beused when there was a press of guests. There was a steep stair, as theonly access, and it could be easily guarded, so Sir Amias directedHumfrey to post a couple of men at the foot, and to visit and relievethem from time to time.
It was a sad procession that climbed up those narrow stairs, of thosefaithful followers who were separated from their Queen for the firsttime. The servants of lower rank were merely watched in their kitchen,and not allowed to go beyond its courtyard, but were permitted to cookfor and wait on the others, and bring them such needful furniture aswas required.
Humfrey was very sorry for them, having had some acquaintance with themall his life, and he was dismayed to find himself, instead of watchingover Cicely, separated from her and made a jailer against his will.And when he returned to the Queen's apartments, he found Cavendishholding a taper, while Paulett and Wade were vigorously affixing cords,fastened at each end by huge red seals bearing the royal arms, to everyreceptacle, and rudely plucking back the curtains that veiled the ivorycrucifix. Sir Amias's zeal would have "plucked down the idol," as hesaid, but Wade restrained him by reminding him that all injury ordamage was forbidden.
Not till all was sealed, and a guard had been stationed at the doors,would the Commissioners taste any dinner, and then their conversationwas brief and guarded, so that Humfrey could discover little. He did,indeed, catch the name of Babington in connection with the "Counterprison," and a glance of inquiry to Cavendish, with a nod in return,showed him that his suspicions were correct, but he learnt little ornothing more till the two, together with Phillipps, drew together inthe deep window, with wine, apples, and pears on the ledge before them,for a private discussion. Humfrey went away to see that the sentriesat the staircase were relieved, and to secure that a sufficient mealfor the unfortunate captives in the upper stories had been allowed topass. Will Cavendish went with him. He had known these ladies andgentlemen far more intimately than Humfrey had done, and allowed thatit was harsh measure that they suffered for their fidelity to theirnative sovereign.
"No harm will come to them in the end," he said, "but what can we do?That very faithfulness would lead them to traverse our purposes did wenot shut them up closely out of reach of meddling, and there is noother place where it can be done."
"And what are these same purposes?" asked Humfrey, as, having fulfilledhis commission, the two young men strolled out into the garden andthrew themselves on the grass, close to a large mulberry-tree, whoseluscious fruit dropped round, and hung within easy reach.
"To trace out all the coils of as villainous and bloodthirsty a plot asever was hatched in a traitor's brain," said Will; "but they littleknew that we overlooked their designs the whole time. Thou wastmystified in London, honest Humfrey, I saw it plainly; but I might notthen speak out," he added, with all his official self-importance.
"And poor Tony hath brought himself within compass of the law?"
"Verily you may say so. But Tony Babington always was a fool, and awrong-headed fool, who was sure to ruin himself sooner or later. Youremember the decoy for the wild-fowl? Well, never was silly duck orgoose so ready
to swim into the nets as was he!"
"He always loved this Queen, yea, and the old faith."
"He sucked in the poison with his mother's milk, you may say. Mrs.Babington was naught but a concealed Papist, and, coming from her, itcost nothing to this Queen to beguile him when he was a mere lad, andmake him do her errands, as you know full well. Then what must my LordEarl do but send him to that bitter Puritan at Cambridge, who turnedhim all the more that way, out of very contradiction. My Lord thoughthim cured of his Popish inclinations, and never guessed they had onlyled him among those who taught him to dissemble."
"And that not over well," said Humfrey. "My father never trusted him."
"And would not give him your sister. Yea, but the counterfeit was goodenough for my Lord who sees nothing but what is before his nose, andfor my mother who sees nothing but what she _will_ see. Well, he hadfallen in with those who deem this same Mary our only lawful Queen, andwould fain set her on the throne to bring back fire and faggot by theSpanish sword among us."
"I deemed him well-nigh demented with brooding over her troubles andthose of his church."
"Demented in verity. His folly was surpassing. He put his faith in arecusant priest--one John Ballard--who goes ruffling about as CaptainFortescue in velvet hose and a silver-laced cloak."
"Ha!"
"Hast seen him?"
"Ay, in company with Babington, on the day I came to London, passingthrough Westminster."
"Very like. Their chief place of meeting was at a house at Westminsterbelonging to a fellow named Gage. We took some of them there. Well,this Ballard teaches poor Antony, by way of gospel truth, that 'tis themere duty of a good Catholic to slay the enemies of the church, andthat he who kills our gracious Queen, whom God defend, will do theholiest deed; just as they gulled the fellow, who murdered the Princeof Orange, and then died in torments, deeming himself a holy martyr."
"But it was not Babington whom I saw at Richmond."
"Hold, I am coming to that. Let me tell you the Queen bore it in mind,and asked after you. Well, Babington has a number of friends, ashot-brained and fanatical as himself, and when once he had swallowedthe notion of privily murdering the Queen, he got so enamoured of it,that he swore in five more to aid him in the enterprise, and then whatmust they do but have all their portraits taken in one picture with aLatin motto around them. What! Thou hast seen it?"
"He showed it to me in Paul's Walk, and said I should hear of them, andI thought one of them marvellously like the fellow I had seen inRichmond Park."
"So thought her Majesty. But more of that anon. On the self-same dayas the Queen was to be slain by these sacrilegious wretches, anotherband was to fall on this place, free the lady and proclaim her, whilethe Prince of Parma landed from the Netherlands and brought fire andsword with him."
"And Antony would have brought this upon us?" said Humfrey, still slowto believe it of his old comrade.
"All for the true religion's sake," said Cavendish. "They were ringingbells and giving thanks, for the discovery and baffling thereof, whenwe came down from London."
"As well they might," said Humfrey. "But how was it detected andoverthrown? Was it through Langston?"
"Ah, ha! we had had the strings in our hands all along. Why, Langston,as thou namest him, though we call him Maude, and a master spy calledGifford, have kept us warned thoroughly of every stage in the business.Maude even contrived to borrow the picture under colour of getting itblessed by the Pope's agent, and lent it to Mr. Secretary Walsingham,by whom it was privily shown to the Queen. Thereby she recognised therogue Barnwell, an Irishman it seems, when she was walking in the Parkat Richmond with only her women and Sir Christopher Hatton, who isbetter at dancing than at fighting. Not a sign did she give, but shekept him in check with her royal eye, so that he durst not so much asdraw his pistol from his cloak; but she owned afterwards to my LadyNorris that she could have kissed you when you came between, and allthe more, when you caught her meaning and followed her biddingsilently. You will hear of it again, Humps."
"However that may be, it is a noble thing to have seen such courage ina woman and a queen. But how could they let it go so near? I couldshudder now to think of the risk to her person!"
"There goes more to policy than you yet wot of," said Will, in hispatronising tone. "In truth, Barnwell had started off unknown to hiscomrades, hoping to have the glory of the achievement all to himself byforestalling them, or else Mr. Secretary would have been warned in timeto secure the Queen."
"But wherefore leave these traitors at large to work mischief?"
"See you not, you simple Humfrey, that, as I said methinks some timesince, it is well sometimes to give a rogue rope enough and he willhang himself? Close the trap too soon, and you miss the biggest rat ofall. So we waited until the prey seemed shy and about to escape.Babington had, it seems, suspected Maude or Langston, or whatever youcall him, and had ridden out of town, hiding in St. John's Wood withsome of his fellows, till they were starved out, and trying to creepinto some outbuildings at Harrow, were there taken, and brought intoLondon the morning we came away. Ballard, the blackest villain of all,is likewise in ward, and here we are to complete our evidence."
"Nay, throughout all you have said, I have heard nothing to explainthis morning's work."
Will laughed outright. "And so you think all this would have been donewithout a word from their liege lady, the princess they all wanted todeliver from captivity! No, no, sir! 'Twas thus. There's an honestman at Burton, a brewer, who sends beer week by week for this house,and very good ale it is, as I can testify. I wish I had a tankard ofit here to qualify these mulberries. This same brewer is instructed byGifford, whose uncle lives in these parts, to fit a false bottom to oneof his barrels, wherein is a box fitted for the receipt of letters andparcels. Then by some means, through Langston I believe, Babington andGifford made known to the Queen of Scots and the French ambassador thathere was a sure way of sending and receiving letters. The Queen'sbutler, old Hannibal, was to look in the bottom of the barrel with theyellow hoop, and one Barnes, a familiar of Gifford and Babington,undertook the freight at the other end. The ambassador, M. deChateauneuf, seemed to doubt at first, and sent a single letter by wayof experiment, and that having been duly delivered and answered, thebait was swallowed, and not a week has gone by but letters have comeand gone from hence, all being first opened, copied, and deciphered byworthy Mr. Phillipps, and every word of them laid before the Council."
"Hum! We should not have reckoned that fair play when we went toMaster Sniggius's," observed Humfrey, as he heard his companion's toneof exultation.
"Fair play is a jewel that will not pass current in statecraft,"responded Cavendish. "Moreover, that the plotter should be plottedagainst is surely only his desert. But thou art a mere sailor, myTalbot, and these subtilties of policy are not for thee."
"For the which Heaven be praised!" said Humfrey. "Yet having, as yousay, read all these letters by the way, I see not wherefore ye are comedown to seek for more."
Will here imitated the Lord Treasurer's nod as well as in him lay, notperhaps himself knowing the darker recesses of this same plot. He didknow so much as that every stage in it had been revealed to Walsinghamand Burghley as it proceeded. He did not know that the entire schemehad been hatched, not by a blind and fanatical partisan of Mary's,doing evil that what he supposed to be good, might come, but by Giffordand Morgan, Walsingham's agents, for the express purpose of causingMary totally to ruin herself, and to compel Elizabeth to put her todeath, and that the unhappy Babington and his friends were thusrecklessly sacrificed. The assassin had even been permitted to appearin Elizabeth's presence in order to terrify her into the convictionthat her life could only be secured by Mary's death. They, too, didevil that good might come, thinking Mary's death alone could ensurethem from Pope and Spaniard; but surely they descended into a lowerdepth of iniquity than did their victims.
Will himself was not certain what was wanted am
ong the Queen's papers,unless it might be the actual letters, from Babington, copies of whichhad been given by Phillips to the Council, so he only looked sagacious;and Humfrey thought of the Castle Well, and felt the satisfaction thereis in seeing a hunted creature escape. He asked, however, aboutCuthbert Langston, saying, "He is--worse luck, as you may haveheard--akin to my father, who always pitied him as misguided, butthought him as sincere in his folly as ever was this unlucky Babington."
"So he seems to have been till of late. He hovered about in sundrydisguises, as you know, much to the torment of us all; but finally heseems to have taken some umbrage at the lady, thinking she flouted hisservices, or did not pay him high enough for them, and Gifford boughthim over easily enough; but he goes with us by the name of Maude, andthe best of it is that the poor fools thought he was hoodwinking us allthe time. They never dreamt that we saw through them like glass.Babington was himself with Mr. Secretary only last week, offering to goto France on business for him--the traitor! Hark! there are more soundsof horse hoofs. Who comes now, I marvel!"
This was soon answered by a serving-man, who hurried out to tellHumfrey that his father was arrived, and in a few moments the young manwas blessed and embraced by the good Richard, while Diccon stood by,considerably repaired in flesh and colour by his brief stay under hismother's care.
Mr. Richard Talbot was heartily welcomed by Sir Amias Paulett, whoregretted that his daughter was out of reach, but did not make anyoffer of facilitating their meeting.
Richard explained that he was on his way to London on behalf of theEarl. Reports and letters, not very clear, had reached Sheffield ofyoung Babington being engaged in a most horrible conspiracy against theQueen and country, and my Lord and my Lady, who still preserved a greatkindness for their former ward, could hardly believe it, and had senttheir useful and trustworthy kinsman to learn the truth, and to findout whether any amount of fine or forfeiture would avail to save hislife.
Sir Amias thought it would be a fruitless errand, and so did Richardhimself, when he had heard as much of the history as it suited Paulettand Wade to tell, and though they esteemed and trusted him, they didnot care to go beneath that outer surface of the plot which was fillingall London with fury.
When, having finished their after-dinner repose, they repaired to makefarther search, taking Cavendish to assist, they somewhat reluctantlythought it due to Mr. Talbot to invite his presence, but he declined.He and his son had much to say to one another, he observed, and notlong to say it in.
"Besides," he added, when he found himself alone with Humfrey, havingdespatched Diccon on some errand to the stables, "'tis a sorry sight tosee all the poor Lady's dainty hoards turned out by strangers. If itmust be, it must, but it would irk me to be an idle gazer thereon."
"I would only," said Humfrey, "be assured that they would not light onthe proofs of Cicely's birth."
"Thou mayst be at rest on that score, my son. The Lady saw them, ownedthem, and bade thy mother keep them, saying ours were safer hands thanhers. Thy mother was sore grieved, Humfrey, when she saw thee not; butshe sends thee her blessing, and saith thou dost right to stay andwatch over poor little Cis."
"It were well if I were watching over her," said Humfrey, "but she ismewed up at Tixall, and I am only keeping guard over poor MistressSeaton and the rest."
"Thou hast seen her?"
"Yea, and she was far more our own sweet maid than when she came backto us at Bridgefield."
And Humfrey told his father all he had to tell of what he had seen andheard since he had been at Chartley. His adventures in London hadalready been made known by Diccon. Mr. Talbot was aghast, perhaps mostof all at finding that his cousin Cuthbert was a double traitor. Fromthe Roman Catholic point of view, there had been no treason in hisformer machinations on behalf of Mary, if she were in his eyes hisrightful sovereign, but the betrayal of confidence reposed in him wasso horrible that the good Master Richard refused to believe it, till hehad heard the proofs again and again, and then he exclaimed,
"That such a Judas should ever call cousin with us!"
There could be little hope, as both agreed, of saving the unfortunatevictims; but Richard was all the more bent on fulfilling LordShrewsbury's orders, and doing his utmost for Babington. As toHumfrey, it would be better that he should remain where he was, so thatCicely might have some protector near her in case of any suddendispersion of Mary's suite.
"Poor maiden!" said her foster-father, "she is in a manner ours, and wecannot but watch over her; but after all, I doubt me whether it had notbeen better for her and for us, if the waves had beaten the little lifeout of her ere I carried her home."
"She hath been the joy of my life," said Humfrey, low and hoarsely.
"And I fear me she will be the sorrow of it. Not by her fault, poorwench, but what hope canst thou have, my son?"
"None, sir," said Humfrey, "except of giving up all if I can so defendher from aught." He spoke in a quiet matter-of-fact way that made hisfather look with some inquiry at his grave settled face, quite calm, asif saying nothing new, but expressing a long-formed quiet purpose.
Nor, though Humfrey was his eldest son and heir, did Richard Talbot tryto cross it.
He asked whether he might see Cicely before going on to London, but SirAmias said that in that case she would not be allowed to return to theQueen, and that to have had any intercourse with the prisoners mightoverthrow all his designs in London, and he therefore only left withHumfrey his commendations to her, with a pot of fresh honey and alavender-scented set of kerchiefs from Mistress Susan.
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