Robin Tremayne Part 42

When Isoult and Thekla came in from the market one morning in March, Dr Thorpe, who sat in the chimney-corner, asked them to go up to Mrs Rose.

"Yon dolt Carter hath been hither," said he, "and sat with her half an hour; and from what I heard since over mine head, I am afeard he gave her to wit some ill news, for she hath been sobbing ever since his departing. Go you and comfort her."

Thekla was up the stairs in a moment; and Isoult followed. Mr Carter [a fict.i.tious person] was the clergyman who had stepped into Mr Rose's place of minister to the Gospellers' gatherings, when they dared to hold them; a good man, but very cold and harsh.

"O Thekla! Isoult!" cried Mrs Rose when they came in. "Am I so very wicked as Mr Carter saith me to be?"

Poor soul! she had been weeping bitterly.

"Mother!" cried Thekla, in amazement, "what meanest thou?"

"If you be very wicked, dear Marguerite," said Isoult, "you have hidden it from me hitherto. But what saith Mr Carter?"

"He saith that I love my husband too much, and it is idolatry, which G.o.d will punish; and (_ay de mi_!) I ought not to grieve for him, but rather rejoice that he is called unto the high honour of martyrdom.

_M'amie, c'est impossible_! And he saith that by such sinful and extravagant grieving, I shall call down on me, and on him also, the great displeasure of G.o.d. He saith G.o.d alway taketh away idols, and will not suffer idolatry in His people. It is an abominable sin, which He hateth; and we ought to pray to be kept from loving overmuch. _Ca peut-il etre, ma soeur? Que digas, nina_?" [What sayest thou, child?]

Isoult looked at Thekla in dismay; for this was a new doctrine to her, and a very unpleasant one. Thekla's lip trembled, and her eyes flashed, but she did not speak; so Isoult answered herself: for poor Mrs Rose's wailings in French and Spanish showed that she was sorely troubled.

"Well, dear Marguerite," said she, "if it be thus, I fear I am to the full as guilty as thou. I never prayed in all my life to be kept from loving Jack or my childre overmuch. I thought in mine ignorance that I was bound to love them as much as ever I could. Doth not Scripture tell us to love our neighbour as ourself?"

"Ay," answered Mrs Rose, sobbing again, "and so I said to Mr Carter; but he answered that I loved him more than myself, because I did say I would rather to have died than he; and that was wicked, and idolatry."

Thekla knelt down, and pa.s.sed her arm round her mother, drawing her to herself, till Mrs Rose's head lay upon her bosom.

"Mother," she said, "whatsoever Mr Carter or any other shall say, I dare say that this is not G.o.d's Gospel. There is an whole book of Scripture written to bid us love; but I never yet fell in with any to bid us hate.

Nay, Mother dear, the wrong is not, a.s.suredly, that we love each other too much, but only that we love G.o.d too little."

"Thekla, thou art G.o.d's best gift to me!" said Mrs Rose, drying her eyes, and kissing her. "It made me so miserable, _mi querida_ [my darling--literally, my sought-for one], to think that G.o.d should be displeased with him because I loved him too much."

"I wish Mr Carter would keep away!" answered Thekla, her eyes flashing anew. "If he hath no better Gospel than this to preach to G.o.d's tried servants, he might as well tarry at home."

"But, _hija mia_ [my daughter]! thou knowest G.o.d's Word _so_ well!--tell me an other, if there be, to say whether it is wrong to grieve and sorrow when one is troubled. I do not think G.o.d meaneth to bid us do what we cannot do; and I cannot help it."

"Methinks, dear Mother," said Thekla, more quietly, "that Mr Carter readeth his Bible upside down. He seemeth to read Saint Paul to say that no chastening for the present is grievous, but joyous. An unmortified will is one thing; an unfeeling heart an other. G.o.d loveth us not to try to shake off His rod like a wayward and froward child; but He forbiddeth us not to moan thereunder when the pain wringeth it from us. And it may be the moan soundeth unto other at times that which it is not. He knoweth. He shall not put our tears into the wrong bottle, nor set down the sum of our groans in the wrong column of His book.

Hezekiah should scantly be told 'I have seen thy tears,' if he did very evil in shedding them; nor Moses twice over, 'I have seen, I have seen the affliction of My people, and am come down to deliver them,' if they had sinned in being afflicted. When G.o.d wipeth away all tears from our eyes, shall He do it as some do with childre--roughly, shaking the child, and bidding it have done? 'Despise not thou the chastening of the Lord' cometh before 'faint not when thou art rebuked of Him.'"

"Of a truth, I never could abide to see any so use a child," said Isoult, innocently; "but, Thekla, sweet heart, it should as little serve to run unto the further extremity, and give all that a babe should cry for."

"Were that love at all?" said Thekla; "unless it were the mother's love for herself, and her own ease."

Isoult saw that Mrs Rose seemed comforted, and Thekla was well able to comfort, so she gently withdrew. But when she came down-stairs, John having now returned, she asked him and Dr Thorpe to tell her their opinions.

"My thought is," replied Dr Thorpe, "that the fellow knoweth not his business. He must have cold blood in his veins, as a worm hath. I might search the Decalogue a great while ere I came to his two commandments--'Thou shalt not sorrow,' and 'Thou shalt not love thy neighbour any better than thyself.'"

"I have little patience with such doctrines, and scantly with such men,"

said John. "They would 'make the heart of the righteous sad, whom G.o.d hath not made sad.' They show our loving and merciful Father as an harsh, stern ruler, 'an austere man,' meting out to His servants no more joy nor comfort than He can help. For joy that is put on is not joy.

If it arise not of itself, 'tis not worth having. Paul saith, 'As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing;' but that joy showeth not alway in the face: and Father Carter hath forgot the first half. I do believe (as I have said to thee, dear heart, ere now) that G.o.d taketh more pleasure to see His people joyful than sorrowful; but He never taketh pleasure, sure am I, to see them make up an hypocrite's face, and fall to dancing, when their hearts are like to break. Why, sweeting! thou lovest rather to see Frank happy than woeful; but dost thou therefore desire her to smother her tears, and force a smile, rather than come and lodge her little troubles with thee? Nay, rather do I believe that to do such were to insult G.o.d. I could tell thee of that I have seen, where I do verily believe that pride, and naught else--that abominable sin that G.o.d hateth--kept His afflicted child up, and smirking with a false smile over the breaking heart; and no sooner was that self-righteous pride subdued, and the child brake forth into open sobbing,--crying, 'Father, Thy rod doth hurt, and I have been a fool!'--no sooner, I say, was this confession made, than G.o.d threw away His rod, and took His humbled child to His heart. Dear heart, when G.o.d taketh His rod in hand, He meaneth us to feel it. Methinks a man that can speak to one in such trouble as Mrs Rose, as Father Carter hath spoken, hath not himself known neither much love, neither much sorrow, neither much of G.o.d."

Bishop Ferrar was burnt in Wales on the 30th of March. Soon after this, the Queen declared her intention of restoring all the suppressed lands to the Church; nor was she content with that, but plainly intimated that she desired her n.o.bles to follow where she had paved the way. The old Earl of Bedford had but lately died--he who said that he held his sweet Abbey of Woburn worth more than all the fatherly counsels, that could come from Rome; but comparatively few of the Lords followed her Majesty in this matter.

On the 4th of April, the Queen took her chamber at Hampton Court. The Papists made great rejoicing over the young master for whom they hoped, but the Gospellers were very sorrowful, seeing that he would take precedence of the Lady Elizabeth, in whom after G.o.d was all their hope; and also that he would unquestionably be brought up a Papist. During the last evening in April came news that a Prince was born, and through all London there were ringing of bells and bonfires. But the next day came contrary tidings. G.o.d had written next upon the Crown of England the name of Queen Elizabeth, and no power less than His own could change that label.

Early in May, Isoult went alone to market, which was not her custom; and coming back along Cornhill, she suddenly heard a voice say,--"Is it not Mrs Barry?"

Wondering who could thus recognise her who was not also aware of her marriage, she looked up into the face of a handsome, courtly gentleman, splendidly apparelled.

"Sir," said she, "I pray you of your pardon; I am Isoult Barry, but I am not so fortunate as to know your name."

"Do you not so?" replied he, and he smiled.

And when he smiled, Isoult thought she knew him.

"Is it Mr James Ba.s.set?" said she.

"Truly so," answered he; "and I am very glad of thus meeting you. I cry you mercy for wrongly naming you, but in very deed I have forgot your present name. Dwell you hereabout?"

Isoult told him her name, and that she lived near London, yet not in the City; but she did not give her exact address.

"I trust we may be better acquainted," said he, "and that I may find in you (as I cast no doubt) a woman faithful unto G.o.d and the Queen's Grace."

The terrible peril in which she stood stared her all at once in the face. James Ba.s.set was a gentleman of the chamber, and "a stout Papist."

"Sir," said she, "I would be right sorry to be less."

"Of that I am well a.s.sured," replied he. "Saw you of late my sister?"

Isoult answered that she had not seen Philippa lately; and he, bowing low, bade our Lady keep her, and departed. Isoult came home trembling like an aspen leaf. She knew well that, did his faith come into question, ties of friendship would have little weight with James Ba.s.set.

The next morning brought Philippa Ba.s.set.

"Well," said she, "Isoult, so thou fellest in with my brother James yesterday?"

"I did so," answered Isoult, rather shortly.

"He told me so much," pursued she; "and said he had forgot to ask where thou dwelledst. So I told him."

Isoult drew her breath hard.

"I know not whether to thank you for that, Mrs Ba.s.set," observed John.

Philippa began to laugh.

"Do you take me for a fool, both of you?" said she. "Or for worse--a traitor? If I be a Catholic, yet am I a woman, not a stone. I told him you dwelt on the thither side of Lambeth. You have nought to fear from me. If all the Gospellers in the world were wrapped up in thy single person, Isoult, none should ever lay hand on an hair of thine head by means of Philippa Ba.s.set. Yea, though mine own life were the forfeit,--'tis not worth much to any now."

"I thank thee dearly for thy love, sweet Philippa," said Isoult, "but I hardly know how to thank thee for lying.

"'Twere a venial sin, I am a.s.sured," said she, lightly. "Why, dear heart! James would burn thee in Smithfield as soon as eat his dinner!"