The courtyard beneath was alive with colour and movement. In front of the entrance opposite waited the great gilded state carriage, and another was just driving away. On one side a dozen ladies on grey horses were drawn up, to follow behind the Queen when she should come out; and a double row of liveried servants were standing bare-headed round the empty carriage.
The rest of the court was filled with Spanish and English n.o.bles, mounted, with their servants on foot; all alike in splendid costumes--the Spaniards with rich chains about their necks, and tall broad-brimmed hats decked with stones and pearls, and the Englishmen in feathered buckled caps and short cloaks thrown back. Two or three trumpeters stood on the steps of the porch. Anthony did not see much state at Lambeth, and the splendour and gaiety of this seething courtyard exhilarated him, and he stared down at it all, fascinated, while Mary Corbet poured out a caustic commentary:
"There is the fat fool Chris again, all red with his tilting. I would like to baa at him again, but I dare not with all these foreign folk.
There is Leicester, that tall man with a bald forehead in the cap with the red feather, on the white horse behind the carriage--he always keeps close to the Queen. He is the enemy of your prelate, Master Anthony, you know.... That is Oxford, just behind him on the chestnut. Yes, look well at him. He is the prince of the tilt-yard; none can stand against him.
You would say he was at his nine-pins, when he rides against them all....
And he can do more than tilt. These sweet-washed gloves"--and she flapped an embroidered pair before Anthony--"these he brought to England. G.o.d bless and reward him for it!" she added fervently.... "I do not see Burghley. Eh! but he is old and gouty these days; and loves a cushion and a chair and a bit of flannel better than to kneel before her Grace. You know, she allows him to sit when he confers with her. But then, she is ever p.r.o.ne to show mercy to bearded persons.... Ah! there is dear Sidney; that is a sweet soul. But what does he do here among the stones and mortar when he has the beeches of Penshurst to walk beneath. He is not so wise as I thought him.... But I must say I grow weary of his nymphs and his airs of Olympus. And for myself, I do not see that Flora and Phoebus and Maia and the rest are a great gain, instead of Our Lady and Saint Christopher and the court of heaven. But then I am a Papist and not a heathen, and therefore blind and superst.i.tious. Is that not so, Master Anthony?... And there is Maitland beside him, with the black velvet cap and the white feather, and his cross eyes and mouth. Now I wish he were at Penshurst, or Bath--or better still, at Jericho, for it is further off. I cannot bear that fellow.... Why, Suss.e.x is going on the water, too, I see. Now what brings him here? I should have thought his affairs gave him enough to think of.... There he is, with his groom behind him, on the other chestnut. I am astonished at him. He is all for this French marriage, you know. So you may figure to yourself Mendoza"s love for him!
They will be like two cats together on the barge; spitting and snarling softly at one another. Her Grace loves to balance folk like that; first one stretches his claws, and then the other; then one arches his back and snarls, and the other scratches his face for him; and then when all is flying fur and blasphemy, off slips her Grace and does what she will."
It was an astonishing experience for Anthony. He had stepped out from his workaday life among the grooms and officers and occasional glimpses of his lonely old master, into an enchanted region, where great personages whose very names were luminous with fame, now lived and breathed and looked cheerful or sullen before his very eyes; and one who knew them in their daily life stood by him and commented and interpreted them for him.
He listened and stared, dazed with the strangeness of it all.
Mistress Corbet was proceeding to express her views upon the foreign element that formed half the pageant, when the shrill music broke out again in the palace, and the trumpeters on the steps took it up; and a stir and bustle began. Then out of the porch began to stream a procession, like a river of colour and jewels, pouring from the foot of the carved and windowed wall, and eddying in a tumbled pool about the great gilt carriage;--ushers and footmen and n.o.bles and ladies and pages in bewildering succession. Anthony pressed his forehead to the gla.s.s as he watched, with little exclamations, and Mary watched him, amused and interested by his enthusiasm.
And last moved the great canopy bending and swaying under the doorway, and beneath it, like two gorgeous b.u.t.terflies, at the sight of whom all the standing world fell on its knees, came the pale Elizabeth with her auburn hair, and the brown-faced Mendoza, side by side; and entered the carriage with the five plumes atop and the caparisoned horses that stamped and tossed their jingling heads. The yard was already emptying fast, _en route_ for Chelsea Stairs; and as soon as the two were seated, the shrill trumpets blew again, and the halberdiers moved off with the carriage in the midst, the great n.o.bles going before, and the ladies behind. The later comers mounted as quickly as possible, as their horses were brought in from the stable entrance, and clattered away, and in five minutes the yard was empty, except for a few sentries at their posts, and a servant or two lounging at the doorway; and as Anthony still stared at the empty pavement and the carpeted steps, far away from the direction of the Abbey came the clear call of the horns to tell the loyal folk that the Queen was coming.
It was a great inspiration for Anthony. He had seen world-powers incarnate below him in the glittering rustling figure of the Queen, and the dark-eyed courtly Amba.s.sador in his orders and jewels at her side.
There they had sat together in one carriage; the huge fiery realm of the south, whose very name was redolent with pa.s.sion and adventure and boundless wealth; and the little self-contained northern kingdom, now beginning to stretch its hands, and quiver all along its tingling sinews and veins with fresh adolescent life. And Anthony knew that he was one of the cells of this young organism; and that in him as well as in Elizabeth and this sparkling creature at his side ran the fresh red blood of England. They were all one in the possession of a common life; and his heart burned as he thought of it.
After he had parted from Mary he rode back to Westminster, and crossed the river by the horse-ferry that plied there. And even as he landed and got his beast, with a deal of stamping and blowing, off the echoing boards on to the clean gravel again, there came down the reaches of the river the mellow sound of music across a mile of water, mingled with the deep rattle of oars, and sparkles of steel and colour glittered from the far-away royal barges in the autumn sunshine; and the lad thought with wonder how the two great powers so savagely at war upon the salt sea, were at peace here, sitting side by side on silken cushions and listening to the same trumpets of peace upon the flowing river.
CHAPTER II
SOME NEW LESSONS
The six years that followed Sir Nicholas" return and Hubert"s departure for the North had pa.s.sed uneventfully at Great Keynes. The old knight had been profoundly shocked that any Catholic, especially an agent so valuable as Mr. Stewart, should have found his house a death-trap; and although he continued receiving his friends and succouring them, he did so with more real caution and less ostentation of it. His religious zeal and discretion were further increased by the secret return to the "Old Religion" of several of his villagers during the period; and a very fair congregation attended Ma.s.s so often as it was said in the cloister wing of the Hall. The new rector, like his predecessor, was content to let the squire alone; and unlike him had no wife to make trouble.
Then, suddenly, in the summer of "77, catastrophes began, headed by the unexpected return of Hubert, impatient of waiting, and with new plans in his mind.
Isabel had been out with Mistress Margaret walking in the dusk one August evening after supper, on the raised terrace beneath the yews. They had been listening to the loud snoring of the young owls in the ivy on the chimney-stack opposite, and had watched the fierce bird slide silently out of the gloom, white against the blackness, and disappear down among the meadows. Once Isabel had seen him pause, too, on one of his return journeys, suspicious of the dim figures beneath, silhouetted on a branch against the luminous green western sky, with the outline of a mouse with its hanging tail plain in his crooked claws, before he glided to his nest again. As Isabel waited she heard the bang of the garden-door, but gave it no thought, and a moment after Mistress Margaret asked her to fetch a couple of wraps from the house for them both, as the air had a touch of chill in it. She came down the lichened steps, crossed the lawn, and pa.s.sed into the unlighted hall. As she entered, the door opposite opened, and for a moment she saw the silhouette of a man"s figure against the bright pa.s.sage beyond. Her heart suddenly leapt, and stood still.
"Anthony!" she whispered, in a hush of suspense.
There was a vibration and a step beside her.
"Isabel!" said Hubert"s voice. And then his arms closed round her for the first time in her life. She struggled and panted a moment as she felt his breath on her face; and he released her. She recoiled to the door, and stood there silent and panting.
"Oh! Isabel!" he whispered; and again, "Isabel!"
She put out her hand and grasped the door-post behind her.
"Oh! Hubert! Why have you come?"
He came a step nearer and she could see the faint whiteness of his face in the western glimmer.
"I cannot wait," he said, "I have been nearly beside myself. I have left the north--and I cannot wait so long."
"Well?" she said; and he heard the note of entreaty and anxiety in her voice.
"I have my plans," he answered; "I will tell you to-morrow. Where is my aunt?"
Isabel heard a step on the gravel outside.
"She is coming," she said sharply. Hubert melted into the dark, and she saw the opposite door open and let him out.
The next day Hubert announced his plans to Sir Nicholas, and a conflict followed.
"I cannot go on, sir," he said, "I cannot wait for ever. I am treated like a servant, too; and you know how miserably I am paid, I have obeyed you for six years, sir; and now I have thrown up the post and told my lord to his face that I can bear with him no longer."
Sir Nicholas" face, as he sat in his upright chair opposite the boy, grew flushed with pa.s.sion.
"It is your accursed temper, sir," he said violently. "I know you of old.
Wait? For what? For the Protestant girl? I told you to put that from your mind, sir."
Hubert did not propose as yet to let his father into all his plans.
"I have not spoken her name, sir, I think. I say I cannot wait for my fortune; I may be impatient, sir--I do not deny it."
"Then how do you propose to better it?" sneered his father.
"In November," said Hubert steadily, looking his father in the eyes, "I sail with Mr. Drake."
Sir Nicholas" face grew terrific. He rose, and struck the table twice with his clenched fist.
"Then, by G.o.d, sir, Mr. Drake may have you now."
Hubert"s face grew white with anger; but he had his temper under control.
"Then I wish you good-day, sir," and he left the room.
When the boy had left the house again for London, as he did the same afternoon, Lady Maxwell tried to soothe the old man. It was impossible, even for her, to approach him before.
"Sweetheart," she said tranquilly, as he sat and glowered at his plate when supper was over and the men had left the room, "sweetheart, we must have Hubert down here again. He must not sail with Mr. Drake."
The old man"s face flared up again in anger.
"He may follow his own devices," he cried. "I care not what he does. He has given up the post that I asked for him; and he comes striding and ruffling home with his hat c.o.c.ked and--and----"; his voice became inarticulate.
"He is only a boy, sweetheart; with a boy"s hot blood--you would sooner have him like that than a milk-sop. Besides--he is our boy."
The old man growled. His wife went on:
"And now that James cannot have the estate, he must have it, as you know, and carry on the old name."
"He has disgraced it," burst out the angry old man, "and he is going now with that d.a.m.ned Protestant to harry Catholics. By the grace of G.o.d I love my country, and would serve her Grace with my heart"s blood--but that my boy should go with Drake----!" and again his voice failed.