One Snowy Night Part 4

"But I am anxious about it, Aunt. These folks are in your house, and if they are witches and such like, it's you and the girls who will suffer."

"Well, do you think it's much matter?" asked Isel, putting aside the lampreys, and taking up a bushel basket of Kentish pearmains. "If our Lady could hear me in one corner, I reckon she could hear me in another."

"But to turn their backs on them!" remonstrated Anania.

"Well, I turn mine on her, when I'm at work, many a time of a day."

"Work--ay. But not when you're at prayer, I suppose?"

"Oh, it'll be all right at last, I hope," said Isel a little uneasily.

"Hope's poor fare, Aunt. But I tell you, these folks are after no good.

Why, only think! five of them got taken in by those rascals of Jews-- three in Benefei's house, and two at Jurnet's. _They'd_ never have taken them in, depend on it, if they hadn't known they weren't so much better than they should be."

Agnes and Ermine understood none of these words, though they saw readily enough that the looks Anania cast upon them were not friendly. But Derette spoke up for her friends.

"They're much better than you, Cousin Anania!" said that downright young woman.

"Keep a civil tongue in your head," replied Anania sharply.

"I'd rather have a true one," was the child's answer; "and I'm not sure they always go together."

"Osbert says," pursued Anania, ignoring Derette, "that he expects there'll be a stir when my Lord comes to hear of them. Much if they don't get turned out, bag and baggage. Serve 'em right, too!"

"They haven't got any bags," said literal Derette. "I don't think they've any of them any clothes but what they wear. Only Gerard's got a book."

"A book! What is it about?" cried Anania. "Is he a priest?--surely not!"

Only a priest or monk, in her eyes, could have any business with a book.

"Oh no, he's no priest; he's a weaver."

"Then what on earth is he doing with a book? You get hold of it, Aunt!

I'll warrant you it's some sort of wickedness--safe to be! Black spells to turn you all into ugly toads, or some such naughty stuff--take my word for it!"

"I'd rather not, Cousin Anania, for you haven't seen it, so your word isn't much good," said Derette calmly.

"It's not like to do us much good when we do see it," observed Isel, "because it will be in their own language, no doubt."

"But if it's a witch-book, it's like to have horoscopes and all manner of things in it!" said Anania, returning to the charge.

"Then it is not, for I have seen it," said Flemild. "It is in a foreign language; but all in it beside words is only red lines ruled round the pages."

"He read me a piece out of it," added Derette; "and it was a pretty story about our Lady, and how she carried our Lord away when He was a baby, that the wicked King should not get hold of Him. It wasn't bad at all, Cousin Anania. You are bad, to say such things when you don't know they are true."

"Hush, child!" said her mother.

"I'll hush," responded Derette, marching off to Agnes and the baby: "but it's true, for all that."

"That girl wants teaching manners," commented Anania. "I really think it my duty, Aunt, to tell you that nearly every body that knows you is talking of that child's forward manners and want of respect for her betters. You don't hear such remarks made, but I do. She will be insufferable if the thing is not stopped."

"Oh, well, stop it, then!" said Isel wearily, "only leave me in peace.

I'm just that tired!--"

"I beg your pardon, Aunt! Derette is not my child. I have no right to correct her. If I had--"

Anania left it to be understood that the consequences would not be to her little cousin's taste.

"She'll get along well enough, I dare say. I haven't time to bother with her," said Isel.

"She will just be a bye-word in the whole town, Aunt. You don't know how people talk. I've heard it said that you are too idle to take any pains with the child."

"Idle?--me!" cried poor Isel. "I'm up long before you, and I don't get a wink of sleep till the whole town's been snoring for an hour or more: and every minute of the time as full as it can be crammed. I'll tell you what, Anania, I don't believe you know what work means. If you'd just change with me for a week, you'd have an idea or two more in your head at the end of it."

"I see, Aunt, you are vexed at what I told you," replied Anania in a tone of superior virtue. "I am thankful to say I have not my house in the mess yours is, and my children are decently behaved. I thought it only kind to let you know the remarks that are being made: but of course, if you prefer to be left ignorant, I don't need to stay. Good morrow! Pray don't disturb yourself, Flemild--I can let myself out, as you are all so busy. You'll be sorry some day you did not take advice.

But I never obtrude my advice; if people don't want it, I shall not trouble them with it. It's a pity, that's all."

"Oh deary, deary!" cried poor Isel, as Anania sailed away with her head held rather higher than usual. "Why ever did she come to plague me, when I've got my hands as full already!--And what on earth does she mean, calling me names, and Derette too? The child's good enough--only a bit thoughtless, as children always are. I do wonder why folks can't let a body alone!"

For three days the Germans rested peacefully in their new quarters. At the end of that time, Gerhardt called on all his little company, and desired them to meet him early on the following morning on a piece of vacant ground, a few miles from the city. They met as agreed, eighteen men and eleven women, of all ages, from young Conrad whose moustache was little more than down, to old Berthold who carried the weight of threescore and fifteen years.

"My friends," said Gerhardt, "let us speak to our G.o.d, before we say anything to each other."

All knelt, and Gerhardt poured forth a fervent prayer that G.o.d would be with them and aid them in the work which they had undertaken; that He would supply them with bread to eat, and raiment to put on; that He would keep the door of their lips, that they should speak neither guile, discourtesy, nor error, yet open their mouths that with all boldness they might preach His Word; that none of them might be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified, nor seek to hide the offence of the cross for the sake of pleasing men. A whole-hearted Amen was the response from the group around him.

They rose, and Gerhardt repeated by heart three Psalms--the fifteenth, the forty-sixth, and the ninetieth--not in Latin, but in sonorous German, many of his compatriots taking up the words and repeating them with him, in a style which made it plain that they were very familiar.

Then Gerhardt spoke.

"I will but shortly remind you, my friends," he said, "of the reason for which we are here. Hundreds of years ago, it pleased G.o.d to send to us Germans a good English pastor, who name was Winfrid, when we were poor heathens, serving stocks and stones. He came with intent to deliver us from that gloomy bondage, and to convert us to the faith of Christ. G.o.d so blessed his efforts that as their consequence, Germany is Christian at this day; and he, leaving his English name of Winfrid, the Peace-Conqueror (though a truer name he could never have had), is known among us as Boniface, the doer of good deeds. Since his day, four hundred years have pa.s.sed, and the Church of Christ throughout the world has woefully departed from the pure faith. We are come out, like the Apostles, a little company,--like them, poor and unlearned,--but rich in the knowledge of G.o.d, and of Jesus our Lord; we are come to tread in their steps, to do the work they did, and to call the world back to the pure truth of the earliest days of Christendom. And we come here, because it is here that our first duty is due. We come to give back to England the precious jewel of the true faith which she gave to us four hundred years ago. Let every one of us clearly understand for what we are to be ready. We tread in our Master's steps, and our Master was not flattered and complimented by the world. He came bringing salvation, and the world would none of it, nor of Him. So, if we find the world hates us, let us be neither surprised nor afraid, but remember that it hated Him, and that as He was, so are we in this world. Let us be prepared to go with Him, if need be, both into prison and to death. If we suffer with Him, we shall reign. Brethren, if we seek to reign, we must make account first to suffer."

"We are ready!" cried at least a dozen voices.

"Will ye who are foremost now, be the foremost in that day?" asked Gerhardt, looking round upon them with a rather compa.s.sionate smile.

"G.o.d grant it may be so! Now, my friends, I must further remind you-- not that ye know it not, but that ye may bear its importance in mind-- that beyond those beliefs common to all Christians, our faith confesses three great doctrines which ye must teach.

"First, that Holy Scripture alone containeth all things necessary to salvation; and nothing is to be taught as an article of faith but what G.o.d has revealed.

"Secondly, the Church of G.o.d consists of all who hear and understand the Word of G.o.d. All the saved were elect of G.o.d before the foundation of the world; all who are justified by Christ go into life eternal.

Therefore it follows that there is no Purgatory, and all ma.s.ses are d.a.m.nable, especially those for the dead. And whosoever upholds free will--namely, man's capacity to turn to G.o.d as and when he will--denies predestination and the grace of G.o.d. Man is by nature utterly depraved; and all the evil that he doth proceeds from his own depravity.

"Thirdly, we acknowledge one G.o.d and one Mediator--the Lord Jesus Christ; and reject the invocation of saints or angels. We own two Sacraments--baptism and the Supper of the Lord; but all Church observances not ordained by Christ and the Apostles, we reject as idle superst.i.tions and vain traditions of men. [Note 3.]

"This is our faith. Brethren, do ye all stand banded together in this faith?"

Up went every right arm, some quietly, some impetuously.

"Furthermore," continued the leader, "as to conduct. It is inc.u.mbent upon us to honour all secular powers, with subjection, obedience, prompt.i.tude, and payment of tribute. On the Sabbath, cease ye from all worldly labours, abstain from sin, do good works, and pay your devotions to G.o.d. Remember, to pray much is to be fervent in prayer, not to use many words nor much time. Be orderly in all things; in attire, so far as lies in your power, avoid all appearance of either pride or squalor.

We enter no trade, that we may be free from falsehood: we live by the labour of our hands, and are content with necessaries, not seeking to ama.s.s wealth. Be ye all chaste, temperate, sober, meek: owe no man anything; give no reason for complaint. Avoid taverns and dancing, as occasions of evil. The women among you I charge to be modest in manners and apparel, to keep themselves free from foolish jesting and levity of the world, especially in respect of falsehood and oaths. Keep your maidens, and see that they wander not; beware of suffering them to deck and adorn themselves. 'We serve the Lord Christ.' 'Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong!' Read the Scriptures, serve G.o.d in humility, be poor in spirit. Remember that Antichrist is all that opposeth Christ. 'Love not the world, neither the things of the world.' 'Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free,' and bear in mind that ye are sent forth as sheep in the midst of wolves, as under-shepherds to seek for His strayed sheep. Beware that ye glorify not yourselves, but Him.