"Do you remember what he dared, by way of adventure, not a hundred miles from this; when Major Wellmore and Walter De Guerre were masquing it here so gaily?" inquired Robin.
"Ay, ay! But he and Grimstone were both half-seas over, or they"d have hardly ventured it:--poor Grim paid the penalty."
"And deserved it too," added Robin. "He whom they a.s.saulted was a wonder--a being that will serve future ages to talk about, when the rulers of the present day are either execrated or forgotten. Marry! but it makes one"s head swim to think of the warm blood and true that has been spilled and wasted to raise up a throne for obscenity and folly!
Chambering and wantonness walk together as twin-born, along the very halls where Cromwell, and Ireton, and Milton, and--my head"s too hot to recollect their names; but they are graven on my heart, as men who made England a Queen among the nations."
"Then their Popery plots!" chimed in the Buccaneer; "the innocent blood that has flooded the scaffold, as if the earth was thirsty for it--and upon what grounds? the evidence, I hear, of one villain, supported by the evidence of another! I grieve for one thing, truly--that I was ever instrumental in forwarding the King"s views. Robin said a true word in jest the other day, that men as well as puppies were born blind, only it takes a much longer period to open our eyes, than those of our four-footed friends."
"So it does," said Springall, laughing; "that was one of Robin"s wise sayings. Barbara!--I beg your pardon,--Mistress Hays--do you think him as wise as ever?"
"I always thought him wise; but I know it now," she replied, smiling.
"Sit ye down, Barbara," said Robin, "and our friend here will tell you how much he admires our children; they are fine, healthy, and, though I say it, handsome--straight withal--straight as Robin Hood"s own arrow; and I do bless G.o.d for that--for that especially! I would rather have seen them dead at my feet than----"
"Now, G.o.d forgive you, Rob! so would not I. I should have loved them as well, had they been crooked as--" interrupted his wife.
"Their father!"
"For shame, Robin!"
Robin looked at Barbara and laughed, but turned away his head; and then he looked a second time, and saw that a deep red hue had mounted to his wife"s cheek, while a tear stood in her eye; and he forgot the stranger"s presence, and converted the tear to a gentle satisfied smile, by a kind and affectionate kiss. How little tenderness, how little, how very little, does it take to const.i.tute the happiness of a simple mind!
"There was a strange long preacher here, ages ago," inquired Springall, filling his silver cup with sherris; "he surely did not migrate with the higher powers?"
"No!" replied Dalton, whose eyes had been fixed upon the burning logs, as if recapitulating the events of former days; "he was a staunch and true-hearted Puritan, apt to take wrong notions in tow, and desperately bitter against Papistry, which same bitterness is a log I never could read, seeing that the best all sects can accomplish is to act up to the belief they have. But, as I have said, he was true-hearted, and never recovered the tale we heard, as to the way in which the new directors insulted the remains of one whom they trembled even to look at in his lifetime. He died off, sir, like an autumn breeze, chilly and weak, but praying, and thankful that G.o.d was so good as to remove him from the blight of the Philistines, who covered the earth as thickly as the locusts overspread the land of Egypt."
"I never did, nor ever can believe," said Robin, "it was permitted that such cravens should insult the body of so great a soul. The Protector wished to be buried on the field of Naseby, and something tells me he had his wish."
"Your politics changed as well as mine!" replied the sea-captain; "what cavaliers we were in the days of our youth--heh, Commandant!"
"It is very odd, Springall," replied the old Skipper; "but somehow, my heart is too full for words; I seem to be living my life over again; and but now could have sworn I saw poor Sir Robert, as I saw him last, clutching those dreaded papers. What a night that was, and what a day the next!"
"And the poor Lady Zillah, when she heard of Sir Willmott"s end!" said Barbara. "She spoke no word, she made no scream; but her trouble came quickly, and hard and bitter it was; and the child her hope rested on breathed no breath--there was no heir to the house of Burrell; and she and her father pa.s.sed from the land, and were seen no more."
"Seen no more, certainly; but many were the jewels and costly the tirings she sent from foreign parts to my lady"s firstborn," continued Robin.
"And to me she sent baubles,--not baubles either," added Barbara, "but things too costly for one in my state. Her last gift was the most precious in my sight--a gold cross, and along the top these words--"Thy G.o.d shall be my G.o.d;" and down the centre--"Thy people my people!" It gave me great consolation; it was like a token of resignation and peace, and a wonderful working of G.o.d"s providence." And after she had so said, she went out of the room, to conceal the emotion she always felt when speaking of the Jewish lady.
"So it was undoubtedly," rejoined Robin, who had not noted Barbara"s departure.
"Despite your bravery, Master," said the seaman, "I think you have got a touch of the past times yourself; I have not heard the breath of an oath from either?"
"Hush!" replied Robin, looking round the room, and right pleased to find that Barbara was absent: "were it only to avoid giving her pain, it would ill become either of us to blaspheme Him in whom we trust."
"And so you say," commenced Dalton, uniting the thread of the discourse, which had been broken, "that Sir Walter and Lady Cecil are seldom seen at court? I heard this before, but not for certain."
"Seldom, you may well say," returned Springall; "the king presented Lady Castlemaine to the Lady Constantia, at one of the drawing-rooms; and our right n.o.ble dame declared it was the last she would ever attend. It was said that the king spoke to Sir Walter about it; and I think it likely, as he knew him abroad so well. And Sir Walter was even more high on the matter than his lady had been; and the king jested, and said it was only the court fashion; to which Sir Walter returned for answer, that, however it might be the court fashion, it was scarce courtly to present an immodest to a modest woman. With that the king chafed, and said he supposed Lady Constantia"s friendship for Dame Frances Russell was stronger than her loyalty, for she regarded Cromwell"s daughter, both as RICH and RUSSELL, more than she did his favour. And Sir Walter, making a low bow, replied that Lady Constantia had little thought to displease her king by her attachment to a lady who had once been honoured by the offer of his hand. Upon which the king bit his lip, turned upon his heel, and spoke no farther word to Sir Walter Cecil."
"Good! good! good!" exclaimed Robin with manifest delight, chuckling and rubbing his hands, "that _was_ good! How it warms my heart when an honest subject speaks to a king as man to man, feeling he has no cause to dread his frown or court his smile. Brave! brave, Sir Walter! There is a moral dignity, a fearlessness in truth, that makes one not tread--not tread, mind ye, but spurn the earth he walks upon. If we would not be of the earth, earthy, but of the heavens, heavenly, we must be independent in thought and action! Brave, brave Sir Walter!"
"Master Robin," said the captain, looking earnestly in his countenance, and half-inclined to smile at his enthusiasm--"Master Robin, _that_"s not the court fashion."
"D--n the court!" shouted the Ranger; then suddenly checking himself, he added, turning to his wife, whose return he had not heeded,--"I beg your pardon, my dear Barbara,--it was his fault, not mine. Nay, I have said nothing half so wicked this long, long time. Come, tell me, did you see Sir Walter"s children, Captain? Oliver, he is the first-born, a n.o.ble boy? Then,--I forget their names; but I know there is neither a Herbert nor a Robert among them. Alas! there are good reasons why it should so be. I think Richard Cromwell stood G.o.dfather to the eldest."
"Richard Cromwell!" repeated Springall, in a tone of contempt.
"He was wise, though; he felt that he had not his father"s talents, consequently could not maintain his father"s power," observed Robin.
"Master Hays," inquired Springall, wisely avoiding any topic likely to excite political difference, "you are an oracle, and can tell me what has become of my worthy friend, that most excellent compounder of confections, Solomon Grundy?"
"Poor Solomon!" replied Robin, "he accompanied the family after Sir Robert"s death,--which was lingering enough, to set forth more brightly the virtues of both daughter and nephew,--to London, and was choked by devouring too hastily a French prawn! Poor Solomon! it was as natural for him so to die as for a soldier to fall on the field of battle."
"So it was," replied the seaman; "but having discussed the events and the persons with whom we had most to do in past years, let us, before entering on other subjects, fill a b.u.mper to the health of my long cherished, and, despite his faults, my trusty beloved friend--the OLD BUCCANEER! Much has he occupied my thoughts, and it joys me to find him, and leave him, where an old man ought to be--in the bosom of his true and beautiful family. We have all faults," continued the officer, somewhat moved by the good sherris and his own good feeling--"for it"s a well-written log that has no blots; but hang it, as I said before, I never could spin a yarn like my friend Robin here, either from the wheel, which I mean to typify the head--or the distaff, which, be it understood, signifies the heart: So here goes--" and, with a trembling hand, and a sparkling eye, the generous Springall drained the deep tankard, to the health of his first sea friend.
"It is not seemly in woman to drink of strong waters or glowing wine,"
said Barbara, whose tearful eyes rested upon the time-worn features of her father: "but, G.o.d knows, my heart is often so full of grateful thanks, that I lack words to speak my happiness; and I have need of constant watchfulness to prevent the creature from occupying the place of the Creator. My father has sometimes hours of bitterness, yet I bless G.o.d he is not as a brand consumed in the burning, but rather as gold purified and cleansed by that which devoureth our impurities, but maketh great that which deserveth greatness. As to Robin----"
"Don"t turn me into a fable, wife!" exclaimed Robin, playfully interrupting her:--"I am, in my own proper person, an aesop as it is.
There has been enough of all this for to-night: we will but pledge another cup to the health of Sir Walter, the Lady Constance, and their children--and then to bed; and may all sleep well whose hearts are innocent as yours, Barbara! and I hope I may add without presumption, purified as mine. You see, Springall, the earth that nourishes the rose may in time partake of its fragrance."
THE END.