CHAPTER VI. MASTER MARMADUKE NEVILE FEARS FOR THE SPIRITUAL WEAL OF HISHOST AND HOSTESS.
Before the hour of supper, which was served at six o'clock, NicholasAlwyn arrived at the house indicated to him by Madge. Marmaduke, aftera sound sleep, which was little flattering to Sibyll's attractions, haddescended to the hall in search of the maiden and his host, and findingno one, had sauntered in extreme weariness and impatience into thelittle withdrawing-closet, where as it was now dusk, burned a singlecandle in a melancholy and rustic sconce; standing by the door thatopened on the garden, he amused himself with watching the peacock,when his friend, following Madge into the chamber, tapped him on theshoulder.
"Well, Master Nevile. Ha! by Saint Thomas, what has chanced to thee?Thine arm swathed up, thy locks shorn, thy face blanched! My honouredfoster-brother, thy Westmoreland blood seems over-hot for Cockaigne!"
"If so, there are plenty in this city of cut-throats to let out thesurplusage," returned Marmaduke; and he briefly related his adventure toNicholas.
When he had done, the kind trader reproached himself for havingsuffered Marmaduke to find his way alone. "The suburbs abound with thesemiscreants," said he; "and there is more danger in a night walk nearLondon than in the loneliest glens of green Sherwood--more shame to thecity! An' I be Lord Mayor one of these days, I will look to it better.But our civil wars make men hold human life very cheap, and there'sparlous little care from the great of the blood and limbs of thewayfarers. But war makes thieves--and peace hangs them! Only wait till Imanage affairs!"
"Many thanks to thee, Nicholas," returned the Nevile; "but foul befallme if ever I seek protection from sheriff or mayor! A man who cannotkeep his own life with his own right hand merits well to hap-lose it;and I, for one, shall think ill of the day when an Englishman looks moreto the laws than his good arm for his safety; but, letting this pass, Ibeseech thee to avise me if my Lord Warwick be still in the city?"
"Yes, marry, I know that by the hostelries, which swarm with his badges,and the oxen, that go in scores to the shambles! It is a shame to theEstate to see one subject so great, and it bodes no good to our peace.The earl is preparing the most magnificent embassage that ever crossedthe salt seas--I would it were not to the French, for our interests liecontrary; but thou hast some days yet to rest here and grow stout, for Iwould not have thee present thyself with a visage of chalk to a man whovalues his kind mainly by their thews and their sinews. Moreover, thoushouldst send for the tailor, and get thee trimmed to the mark. It wouldbe a long step in thy path to promotion, an' the earl would take theein his train; and the gaudier thy plumes, why, the better chance forthy flight. Wherefore, since thou sayest they are thus friendly tothee under this roof, bide yet a while peacefully; I will send thee themercer, and the clothier, and the tailor, to divert thy impatience. Andas these fellows are greedy, my gentle and dear Master Nevile, may Iask, without offence, how thou art provided?"
"Nay, nay, I have moneys at the hostelrie, an' thou wilt send me mymails. For the rest, I like thy advice, and will take it."
"Good!" answered Nicholas. "Hem! thou seemest to have got into a poorhouse,--a decayed gentleman, I wot, by the slovenly ruin!"
"I would that were the worst," replied Marmaduke, solemnly, and underhis breath; and therewith he repeated to Nicholas the adventure on thepastime-ground, the warnings of the timbrel-girls, and the "awsome"learning and strange pursuits of his host. As for Sibyll, he wasevidently inclined to attribute to glamour the reluctant admiration withwhich she had inspired him. "For," said he, "though I deny not that themaid is passing fair, there be many with rosier cheeks, and taller bythis hand!"
Nicholas listened, at first, with the peculiar expression of shrewdsarcasm which mainly characterized his intelligent face, but hisattention grew more earnest before Marmaduke had concluded.
"In regard to the maiden," said he, smiling and shaking his head, "it isnot always the handsomest that win us the most,--while fair Meg went amaying, black Meg got to church; and I give thee more reasonable warningthan thy timbrel-girls, when, in spite of thy cold language, I bidthee take care of thyself against her attractions; for, verily, my dearfoster-brother, thou must mend and not mar thy fortune, by thy lovematters; and keep thy heart whole for some fair one with marks in hergipsire, whom the earl may find out for thee. Love and raw pease are twoill things in the porridge-pot. But the father!--I mind me now that Ihave heard of his name, through my friend Master Caxton, the mercer, asone of prodigious skill in the mathematics. I should like much to seehim, and, with thy leave (an' he ask me), will tarry to supper. But whatare these?"--and Nicholas took up one of the illuminated manuscriptswhich Sibyll had prepared for sale. "By the blood! this is couthly andmarvellously blazoned."
The book was still in his hands when Sibyll entered. Nicholas stared ather, as he bowed with a stiff and ungraceful embarrassment, which oftenat first did injustice to his bold, clear intellect, and his perfectself-possession in matters of trade or importance.
"The first woman face," muttered Nicholas to himself, "I ever saw thathad the sense of a man's. And, by the rood, what a smile!"
"Is this thy friend, Master Nevile?" said Sibyll, with a glance atthe goldsmith. "He is welcome. But is it fair and courteous, MasterNelwyn--"
"Alwyn, an' it please you, fair mistress. A humble name, but goodSaxon,--which, I take it, Nelwyn is not," interrupted Nicholas.
"Master Alwyn, forgive me; but can I forgive thee so readily for thyespial of my handiwork, without license or leave?"
"Yours, comely mistress!" exclaimed Nicholas, opening his eyes,and unheeding the gay rebuke--"why, this is a master-hand. My LordScales--nay, the Earl of Worcester himself--hath scarce a finer in allhis amassment."
"Well, I forgive thy fault for thy flattery; and I pray thee, in myfather's name, to stay and sup with thy friend." Nicholas bowed low,and still riveted his eyes on the book with such open admiration, thatMarmaduke thought it right to excuse his abstraction; but there wassomething in that admiration which raised the spirits of Sibyll, whichgave her hope when hope was well-nigh gone; and she became so vivacious,so debonair, so charming, in the flow of a gayety natural to her, andvery uncommon with English maidens, but which she took partly, perhaps,from her French blood, and partly from the example of girls and maidensof French extraction in Margaret's court, that Nicholas Alwyn thought hehad never seen any one so irresistible. Madge had now served the eveningmeal, put in her head to announce it, and Sibyll withdrew to summon herfather.
"I trust he will not tarry too long, for I am sharp set!" mutteredMarmaduke. "What thinkest thou of the damozel?"
"Marry," answered Alwyn, thoughtfully, "I pity and marvel at her. Thereis eno' in her to furnish forth twenty court beauties. But what good canso much wit and cunning do to an honest maiden?"
"That is exactly my own thought," said Marmaduke; and both the young mensunk into silence, till Sibyll re-entered with her father.
To the surprise of Marmaduke, Nicholas Alwyn, whose less gallant mannerhe was inclined to ridicule, soon contrived to rouse their host from hislethargy, and to absorb all the notice of Sibyll; and the surprise wasincreased, when he saw that his friend appeared not unfamiliar withthose abstruse and mystical sciences in which Adam was engaged.
"What!" said Adam, "you know, then, my deft and worthy friend MasterCaxton! He hath seen notable things abroad--"
"Which, he more than hints," said Nicholas, "will lower the value ofthose manuscripts this fair damozel has so couthly enriched; and thathe hopes, ere long, to show the Englishers how to make fifty, ahundred,--nay even five hundred exemplars of the choicest book, in amuch shorter time than a scribe would take in writing out two or threescore pages in a single copy."
"Verily," said Marmaduke, with a smile of compassion, "the poor man mustbe somewhat demented; for I opine that the value of such curiositiesmust be in their rarity; and who would care for a book, if five hundredothers had precisely the same?--allowing always, good Nicholas, for thyfriend's vaunting and over-
crowing. Five hundred! By'r Lady, there wouldbe scarcely five hundred fools in merry England to waste good nobles onspoilt rags, specially while bows and mail are so dear."
"Young gentleman," said Adam, rebukingly, "meseemeth that thou wrongestour age and country, to the which, if we have but peace and freedom, Itrust the birth of great discoveries is ordained. Certes, Master Alwyn,"he added, turning to the goldsmith, "this achievement maybe readilyperformed, and hath existed, I heard an ingenious Fleming say years ago,for many ages amongst a strange people [Query, the Chinese?] known tothe Venetians! But dost thou think there is much appetite among thosewho govern the State to lend encouragement to such matters?"
"My master serves my Lord Hastings, the king's chamberlain, and my lordhas often been pleased to converse with me, so that I venture to say,from my knowledge of his affection to all excellent craft and lere,that whatever will tend to make men wiser will have his countenance andfavour with the king."
"That is it, that is it!" exclaimed Adam, rubbing his hands. "Myinvention shall not die!"
"And that invention--"
"Is one that will multiply exemplars of books without hands; works ofcraft without 'prentice or journeyman; will move wagons and litterswithout horses; will direct ships without sails; will--But, alack! it isnot yet complete, and, for want of means, it never may be."
Sibyll still kept her animated countenance fixed on Alwyn, whoseintelligence she had already detected, and was charmed with the profoundattention with which he listened. But her eye glancing from his sharpfeatures to the handsome, honest face of the Nevile, the contrast was soforcible, that she could not restrain her laughter, though, the momentafter, a keen pang shot through her heart. The worthy Marmaduke hadbeen in the act of conveying his cup to his lips; the cup stood arrestedmidway, his jaws dropped, his eyes opened to their widest extent, anexpression of the most evident consternation and dismay spoke in everyfeature; and when he heard the merry laugh of Sibyll, he pushed hisstool from her as far as he well could, and surveyed her with a look ofmingled fear and pity.
"Alas! thou art sure my poor father is a wizard now?"
"Pardie!" answered the Nevile. "Hath he not said so? Hath he not spokenof wagons without horses, ships without sails? And is not all this whatevery dissour and jongleur tells us of in his stories of Merlin? Gentlemaiden," he added earnestly, drawing nearer to her, and whispering in avoice of much simple pathos, "thou art young, and I owe thee much.Take care of thyself. Such wonders and derring-do are too solemn forlaughter."
"Ah," answered Sibyll, rising, "I fear they are. How can I expect thepeople to be wiser than thou, or their hard natures kinder in theirjudgment than thy kind heart?" Her low and melancholy voice went to theheart thus appealed to. Marmaduke also rose, and followed her into theparlour, or withdrawing-closet, while Adam and the goldsmith continuedto converse (though Alwyn's eye followed the young hostess), the formerappearing perfectly unconscious of the secession of his other listeners.But Alwyn's attention occasionally wandered, and he soon contrived todraw his host into the parlour.
When Nicholas rose, at last, to depart, he beckoned Sibyll aside. "Fairmistress," said he, with some awkward hesitation, "forgive a plain,blunt tongue; but ye of the better birth are not always above aid, evenfrom such as I am. If you would sell these blazoned manuscripts, I cannot only obtain you a noble purchaser in my Lord Scales, or in myLord Hastings, an equally ripe scholar, but it may be the means of myprocuring a suitable patron for your father; and, in these times, thescholar must creep under the knight's manteline."
"Master Alwyn," said Sibyll, suppressing her tears, "it was formy father's sake that these labours were wrought. We are poor andfriendless. Take the manuscripts, and sell them as thou wilt, and Godand Saint Mary requite thee!"
"Your father is a great man," said Alwyn, after a pause.
"But were he to walk the streets, they would stone him," replied Sibyll,with a quiet bitterness.
Here the Nevile, carefully shunning the magician, who, in the nervousexcitement produced by the conversation of a mind less uncongenial thanhe had encountered for many years, seemed about to address him--here, Isay, the Nevile chimed in, "Hast thou no weapon but thy bludgeon? Dearfoster-brother, I fear for thy safety."
"Nay, robbers rarely attack us mechanical folk; and I know my way betterthan thou. I shall find a boat near York House; so pleasant night andquick cure to thee, honoured foster-brother. I will send the tailor andother craftsmen to-morrow."
"And at the same time," whispered Marmaduke, accompanying his friendto the door, "send me a breviary, just to patter an ave or so. Thisgray-haired carle puts my heart in a tremble. Moreover, buy me agittern--a brave one--for the damozel. She is too proud to take money,and, 'fore Heaven, I have small doubts the old wizard could turn myhose into nobles an' he had a mind for such gear. Wagons without horses,ships without sails, quotha!"
As soon as Alwyn had departed, Madge appeared with the finalrefreshment, called "the Wines," consisting of spiced hippocras andconfections, of the former of which the Nevile partook in solemnsilence.
The Last of the Barons — Complete Page 9
