He stepped in, and she closed and fastened the door again behind him; and then, holding the oil-lamp high over her head, she advanced in her slippers towards the staircase, and Anthony followed. On the stairs she turned once to see if he was coming, and beckoned him on with a movement of her head. Anthony looked about him as he went up: there was nothing remarkable or suspicious about the house in any way. It was cleaner than he had been led to expect by its outside aspect; wainscoted to the ceiling with oak; and the stairs were strong and well made. It was plainly a very tolerably respectable place; and Anthony began to think from its appearance that he had been admitted at the back door of some well-to-do house off Cheapside. The banisters were carved with some distinction; and there were the rudimentary elements of linen-pattern design on the panels that lined the opposite walls up to the height of the banisters. The woman went up and up, slowly, panting a little; at each landing she turned and glanced back to see that her companion was following: all the doors that they pa.s.sed were discreetly shut; and the house was perfectly dark except for the flickering light of the woman"s lamp, and silent except for the noise of the footsteps and the rush of a mouse now and then behind the woodwork.
At the third landing she stopped, and came close up to Anthony.
"That is the door," she whispered hoa.r.s.ely; and pointed with her thumb towards a doorway that was opposite the staircase. "Ask for Master Roger."
And then without saying any more, she set the lamp down on the flat head of the top banister and herself began to shuffle downstairs again into the dark house.
Anthony stood still a moment, his heart beating a little. What was this strange errand? and Isabel! what had she to do with this house buried away in the courts of the great city? As he waited he heard a door close somewhere behind him, and the shuffling footsteps had ceased. He touched the hilt of his knife once again to give himself courage; and then walked slowly across and rapped on the door. Instantly a voice full of trembling expectancy, cried to him to come in; he turned the handle and stepped into the fire-lit room.
It was extremely poorly furnished; a rickety table stood in the centre with a book or two and a basin with a plate, a saucepan hissed and bubbled on the fire; in the corner near the window stood a poor bed; and to this Anthony"s attention was immediately directed by a voice that called out hoa.r.s.ely:
"Thank G.o.d, sir, thank G.o.d, sir, you have come! I feared you would not."
Anthony stepped towards it wondering and expectant, but rea.s.sured. Lying in the bed, with clothes drawn up to the chin was the figure of a man.
There was no light in the room, save that given by the leaping flames on the hearth; and Anthony could only make out the face of a man with a patch over one eye; the man stretched a hand over the bed clothes as he came near, and Anthony took it, a little astonished, and received a strong trembling grip of apparent excitement and relief: "Thank G.o.d, sir!" the man said again, "but there is not too much time."
"How can I serve you?" said Anthony, sitting on a chair near the bedside.
"Your letter spoke of friends at Great Keynes. What did you mean by that?"
"Is the d-door closed, sir?" asked the man anxiously; stuttering a little as he spoke.
Anthony stepped up and closed it firmly; and then came back and sat down again.
"Well then, sir; I believe you are a friend of the priest Mr.
M-Maxwell"s."
Anthony shook his head.
"There is no priest of that name that I know."
"Ah," cried the man, and his voice shook, "have I said too much? You are Mr. Anthony Norris of the Dower House, and of the Archbishop"s household?"...
"I am," said Anthony, "but yet----"
"Well, well," said the man, "I must go forward now. He whom you know as Mr. James Maxwell is a Catholic p-priest, known to many under the name of Mr. Arthur Oldham. He is in sore d-danger."
Anthony was silent through sheer astonishment. This then was the secret of the mystery that had hung round Mr. James so long. The few times he had met him in town since his return, it had been on the tip of his tongue to ask what he did there, and why Hubert was to be master of the Hall; but there was something in Mr. James" manner that made the asking of such a question appear an impossible liberty; and it had remained unasked.
"Well," said the man in bed, in anxious terror, "there is no mistake, is there?"
"I said nothing," said Anthony, "for astonishment; I had no idea that he was a priest. And how can I serve him?"
"He is in sore danger," said the man, and again and again there came the stutter. "Now I am a Catholic: you see how much I t-trust you sir. I am the only one in this house. I was entrusted with a m-message to Mr.
Maxwell to put him on his guard against a danger that threatens him. I was to meet him this very evening at five of the clock; and this afternoon as I left my room, I slipped and so hurt my foot that I cannot put it to the ground. I dared not send a l-letter to Mr. Maxwell, for fear the child should be followed; I dared not send to another Catholic; nor indeed did I know where to find one whom Mr. M-Maxwell would know and trust, as he is new to us here; but I had heard him speak of his friend Mr. Anthony Norris, who was at Lambeth House; and I determined, sir, to send the child to you; and ask you to do this service for your friend; for an officer of the Archbishop"s household is beyond suspicion. N-now, sir, will you do this service? If you do it not, I know not where to turn for help."
Anthony was silent. He felt a little uneasy. Supposing that there was sedition mixed up in this! How could he trust the man"s story? How could he be certain in fact that he was a Catholic at all? He looked at him keenly in the fire-light. The man"s one eye shone in deep anxiety, and his forehead was wrinkled; and he pa.s.sed his hand nervously over his mouth again and again.
"How can I tell," said Anthony, "that all this is true?"
The man with an impatient movement unfastened his shirt at the neck and drew up on a string that was round his neck a little leather case.
"Th-there, sir," he stammered, drawing the string over his head. "T-take that to the fire and see what it is."
Anthony took it curiously, and holding it close to the fire drew off the little case; there was the wax medal stamped with the lamb, called _Agnus Dei_.
"Th-there," cried the man from the bed, "now I have p-put myself in your hands--and if more is w-wanted----" and as Anthony came back holding the medal, the man fumbled beneath the pillow and drew out a rosary.
"N-now, sir, do you believe me?"
It was felony to possess these things and Anthony had no more doubts.
"Yes," he said, "and I ask your pardon." And he gave back the _Agnus Dei_. "But there is no sedition in this?"
"N-none, sir, I give you my word," said the man, apparently greatly relieved, and sinking back on his pillow. "I will tell you all, and you can judge for yourself; but you will promise to be secret." And when Anthony had given his word, he went on.
"M-Ma.s.s was to have been said in Newman"s Court on Sunday, at number 3, but that c-cursed spy Walsingham, hath had wind of it. His men have been lurking round there; and it is not safe. However, there is no need to say that to Mr. Maxwell; he will understand enough if you will give him a message of half a dozen words from me,--Mr. Roger. You can tell him that you saw me, if you wish to. But ah! sir, you give me your word to say no more to any one, not even to Mr. Maxwell himself, for it is in a public place. And then I will tell you the p-place and the m-message; but we must be swift, because the time is near; it is at five of the clock that he will look for a messenger."
"I give you my word," said Anthony.
"Well, sir, the place is Papists" Corner in the Cathedral, and the words are these, "Come, for all things are now ready." You know sir, that we Catholics go in fear of our lives, and like the poor hares have to double and turn if we would escape. If any overhears that message, he will never know it to be a warning. And it was for that that I asked your word to say no more than your message, with just the word that you had seen me yourself. You may tell him, of course sir, that Mr. Roger had a patch over his eye and st-stuttered a little in his speech; and he will know it is from me then. Now, sir, will you tell me what the message is, and the place, to be sure that you know them; and then, sir, it will be time to go; and G.o.d bless you, sir. G.o.d bless you for your kindness to us poor papists!"
The man seized Anthony"s gloved hand and kissed it fervently once or twice.
Anthony repeated his instructions carefully. He was more touched than he cared to show by the evident grat.i.tude and relief of this poor terrified Catholic.
"Th-that is right, sir; that is right; and now, sir, if you please, be gone at once; or the Father will have left the Cathedral. The child will be in the court below to show you the way out to the churchyard. G.o.d bless you, sir; and reward you for your kindness!"
And as Anthony went out of the room he heard benedictions mingled with sobs following him. The woman was nowhere to be seen; so he took the oil-lamp from the landing, and found his way downstairs again, unfastened the front door, and went out, leaving the lamp on the floor. The child was leaning against the wall opposite; he could just see the glimmer of her face in the heavy dusk.
"Come, my child," he said, "show me the way to the churchyard."
She came forward, and he began to follow her out of the little flagged court. He turned round as he left the court and saw high up against the blackness overhead a square of window lighted with a glow from within; and simultaneously there came the sound of bolts being shut in the door that he had just left. Evidently the old woman had been on the watch, and was now barring the door behind him.
It wanted courage to do as Anthony was doing, but he was not lacking in that; it was not a small matter to go to Papists" Corner and give a warning to a Catholic priest: but firstly, James Maxwell was his friend, and in danger: secondly, Anthony had no sympathy with religious persecution; and thirdly, as has been seen, the last year had made a really deep impression upon him: he was more favourably inclined to the Catholic cause than he had ever imagined to be possible.
As he followed the child through the labyrinth of pa.s.sages, pa.s.sing every now and then the lighted front of a house, or a little group of idlers (for the rain had now ceased) who stared to see this gentleman in such company, his head was whirling with questions and conjectures. Was it not after all a dishonourable act to the Archbishop in whose service he was, thus to take the side of the Papists? But that it was too late to consider now.--How strange that James Maxwell was a priest! That of course accounted at once for his long absence, no doubt in the seminary abroad, and his ultimate return, and for Hubert"s inheriting the estates.
And then he pa.s.sed on to reflect as he had done a hundred times before on this wonderful Religion that allured men from home and wealth and friends, and sent them rejoicing to penury, suspicion, hatred, peril, and death itself, for the kingdom of heaven"s sake.
Suddenly he found himself in the open s.p.a.ce opposite the Cathedral--the child had again disappeared.
It was less dark here; the leaden sky overhead still glimmered with a pale sunset light; and many house-windows shone out from within. He pa.s.sed round the south side of the Cathedral, and entered the western door. The building was full of deep gloom only p.r.i.c.ked here and there by an oil-lamp or two that would presently be extinguished when the Cathedral was closed. The air was full of a faint sound, made up from echoes of the outside world and the footsteps of a few people who still lingered in groups here and there in the aisles, and talked among themselves. The columns rose up in slender bundles and faded into the pale gloom overhead; as he crossed the nave on the way to Papists" Corner far away to the east rose the dark carving of the stalls against the glimmering stone beyond. It was like some vast hall of the dead; the noise of the footsteps seemed like an insolent intrusion on this temple of silence; and the religious stillness had an active and sombre character of its own more eloquent and impressive than all the tumult that man could make.
As Anthony came to Papists" Corner he saw a very tall solitary figure pa.s.sing slowly from east to west; it was too dark to distinguish faces; so he went towards it, so that at the next turn they would meet face to face. When he was within two or three steps the man before him turned abruptly; and Anthony immediately put out his hand smiling.
"Mr. Arthur Oldham," he said.
The man started and peered curiously through the gloom at him.
"Why Anthony!" he exclaimed, and took his hand, "what is your business here?" And they began slowly to walk westwards together.