"You will dance for joy!" he said. "And why do you not know whether you wish it to come?"
"I have no taste to be a Spanish subject."
"Why, nor have I! But the King of Spain will but sail away again when he hath made terms against the privateers, whether they be those that ply on the high seas against men"s bodies, or here in England against their souls. There will be no subjection of England beyond that."
Mr. John was silent.
"Why, I heard from Sir Thomas but a week ago, to ask for a little money to pay his fines with. He said that repayment should follow so soon as the fleet should come. Those were his very words."
"You sent the money, then?"
"Why, yes; I made shift that a servant should throw down a bag with ten pounds in it, into a bush, and that Brittlebank--your brother"s man--should see him do it! And lo! when we looked again, the bag was gone!"
He laughed again with open mouth. Certainly he was an inspiriting man with a loud bark of his own; but Robin imagined that he would not bite too cruelly for all that. But he saw another side of him presently.
"What was that matter of Mr. Sutton, the priest who was executed in Stafford last year?" asked Mr. John suddenly.
The face of the other changed as abruptly. His eyes became pin-points under his grey eyebrows and his mouth tightened.
"What of him?" he said.
"It was reported that you might have stayed the execution, and would not. I did not believe a word of it."
"It is true," said Mr. Ba.s.sett sharply--"at least a portion of it."
"True?"
"Listen," cried the other suddenly, "and tell me what you would have done. Mr. Sutton was taken, and was banished, and came back again, as any worthy priest would do. Then he was taken again, and condemned. I did my utmost to save him, but I could not. Then, as I would never have any part in the death of a priest for his religion, another was appointed to carry the execution through. Three days before news was brought to me by a private hand that Mr. Sutton had promised to give the names of priests whom he knew, and of houses where he had said ma.s.s, and I know not what else; and it was said to me that I might on this account stay the execution until he had told all that he could. Now I knew that I could not save his life altogether; that was forfeited and there could be no forgiveness. All that I might do was to respite him for a little--and for what? That he might d.a.m.n his own soul eternally and bring a great number of good men into trouble and peril of death for themselves. I sent the messenger away again, and said that I would listen to no such tales. And Mr. Sutton died like a good priest three days after, repenting, I doubt not, bitterly, of the weakness into which he had fallen. Now, sir, what would you have done in my place?"
He wagged his face fiercely from side to side.
Mr. John put his hand over his eyes and nodded without speaking. Robin sat silent: it was not only for priests, it seemed, that life presented a tangle.
II
The evening before the two left for the north again, Mr. Ba.s.sett took them both into his own study. It was a little room opening out of his bedroom, and was more full of books than Robin had ever seen, except in the library at Rheims, in any room in the world. A shelf ran round the room, high on the wall, and was piled with ma.n.u.scripts to the ceiling.
Beneath, the book-shelves that ran nearly round the room were packed with volumes, and a number more lay on the table and even in the corners.
"This is my own privy chamber," said Mr. Ba.s.sett to the priest. "My other friends have seen it many a time, but I thought I would show it to your Reverence, too."
Robin looked round him in wonder: he had no idea that his host was a man of such learning.
"All the books are ranged in their proper places," went on the other. "I could put my finger on any of them blind-fold. But this is the shelf I wished you to see."
He took him to one that was behind the door, holding up the candle that he might see. The shelf had a box or two on it, besides books, and these he opened and set on the table. Robin looked in, as he was told, but could understand nothing that he saw: in one was a round ball of crystal on a little gold stand, wrapped round in velvet; in another some kind of a machine with wheels; in a third, some dried substances, as of herbs, tied together with silk. He inspected them gravely, but was not invited to touch them. Then his host touched him on the breast with one finger, and recoiled, smiling.
"This is my magic," he said. "John here does not like it; neither did poor Mr. Fenton when he was here; but I hold there is no harm in such things if one does but observe caution."
"What do you do with them, sir?" inquired the priest curiously, for he was not sure whether the man was serious.
"Well, sir, I hold that G.o.d has written His will in the stars, and in the burning of herbs, and in the shining of the sun, and such things.
There is no black magic here. But, just as we read in the sky at morning, if it be red or yellow, whether it will be foul or fair, so I hold that G.o.d has written other secrets of His in other things; and that by observing them and judging rightly we may guess what He has in store.
I knew that a prince was to die last year before ever it happened. I knew that a fleet of ships will come to England this year, before ever an anchor is weighed. And I would have you notice that here are Mr.
FitzHerbert and your Reverence, too, fleeing for your lives; and here sit I safe at home; and all, as I hold, because I have been able to observe by my magic what is to come to pa.s.s."
"But that strikes at the doctrine of free-will," cried the priest.
"No, sir; I think it does not. G.o.d"s foreknowledge doth not hinder the use of our free-will (which is a mystery, no doubt, yet none the less true). Then why should G.o.d"s foreknowledge any more hinder our free-will, when He chooses to communicate it to us?"
Robin was silent. He knew little or nothing of these things, except from his theological reading. Yet he felt uneasy. The other said nothing.
"And the stars, too?" he asked.
"I hold," said Mr. Ba.s.sett, "that the stars have certain influences and powers upon those that are born under their signs. I do not hold that we are so ruled by these that we have no action of our own, any more than we are compelled to be wet through by rain or scorched by the sun: we may always come into a house or shelter beneath a tree, and thus escape them. So, too, I hold, with the stars. There is an old saying, sir: "The fool is ruled by his stars; the wise man rules them." That is, in a nutsh.e.l.l, my faith in the matter. I have told Mr. Fenton"s fortune here, and Mr. FitzHerbert"s, only they will never listen to me."
Robin looked round the room. It was dark outside long ago; they had supped at sunset, and sat for half an hour over their banquet of sweetmeats and wine before coming upstairs. And the room, too, was as dark as night, except where far off in the west, beyond the tall trees of the park, a few red streaks lingered. He felt oppressed and miserable. The place seemed to him sinister. He hated these fumblings at locks that were surely meant to remain closed. Yet he did not know what to say. Mr. John had wandered off to one of the windows and was humming uneasily to himself.
Then, suddenly, an intense curiosity overcame him.
His life was a strange and perilous one; he carried it in his hand every day. In the morning he could not be sure but that he would be fleeing before evening. As he fell asleep, he could not be sure that he would not be awakened to a new dream. He had long ago conquered those moods of terror which, in spite of his courage, had come down on him sometimes, in some lonely farm, perhaps, where flight would be impossible--or, in what was far more dangerous, in some crowded inn where every movement was known--these had pa.s.sed, he thought, never to come back.
But in that little book-lined room, with these curious things in boxes on the table, and his merry host peering at him gravely, and the still evening outside; with the knowledge that to-morrow he was to ride back to his own country, whence he had fled for fear of his life, six weeks ago; leaving the security of this ex-sheriff"s house for the perils of the Peak and all that suspected region from which even now, probably, the pursuit had not altogether died away--here a sudden intense desire to know what the future might hold overcame him.
"Tell me, sir," he said. "You have told Mr. FitzHerbert"s fortune, you say, as well as others. Have you told mine since I have been here?"
There was a moment"s silence. Mr. John was silent, with his back turned.
Robin looked up at his host, wondering why he did not answer. Then Mr.
Ba.s.sett took up the candle.
"Come," he said; "we have been here long enough."
CHAPTER III
I
"There will be a company of us to-night," said Mr. John to the two priests, as he helped them to dismount. "Mr. Alban has sent his man forward from Derby to say that he will be here before night."
"Mr. Ludlam and I are together for once," said Mr. Garlick. "We must separate again to-morrow, he is for the north again, he tells me. There has been no more trouble?"
"Not a word of it. They were beaten last time and will not try again, I think, for the present. You heard of the attempt at Candlemas, then?"
It had been a quiet time enough ever since Lent, throughout the whole county; and it seemed as if the heat of the a.s.sault had cooled for want of success. Plainly a great deal had been staked upon the attack on Padley, which, for its remoteness from towns, was known to be a meeting-place where priests could always find harbourage. And, indeed, it was time that the Catholics should have a little breathing s.p.a.ce.