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Woodstock; or, The Cavalier

S >> Sir Walter Scott >> Woodstock; or, The Cavalier




"If you could write at all," said the Colonel, "with such an impression
on your mind, you may take the head of the English army for dauntless
resolution."

"Our courage is not our own, Colonel," said the divine, "and not as ours
should it be vaunted of. And again, when you speak of this strange
vision as an impression on my fancy, and not a reality obvious to my
senses, let me tell you once more, your worldly wisdom is but
foolishness touching the things that are not worldly."

"Did you not look again upon the mirror?" said the Colonel.

"I did, when I had copied out the comfortable text, 'Thou shalt tread
down Satan under thy feet.'"

"And what did you then see?"

"The reflection of the same Joseph Albany," said Holdenough, "passing
slowly as from behind my chair--the same in member and lineament that I
had known him in his youth, excepting that his cheek had the marks of
the more advanced age at which he died, and was very pale."

"What did you then?"

"I turned from the glass, and plainly saw the figure which had made the
reflection in the mirror retreating towards the door, not fast, nor
slow, but with a gliding steady pace. It turned again when near the
door, and again showed me its pale, ghastly countenance, before it
disappeared. But how it left the room, whether by the door, or
otherwise, my spirits were too much hurried to remark exactly; nor have
I been able, by any effort of recollection, distinctly to remember."

"This is a strange, and, as coming from you, a most excellently
well-attested apparition," answered Everard. "And yet, Master
Holdenough, if the other world has been actually displayed, as you
apprehend, and I will not dispute the possibility, assure yourself there
are also wicked men concerned in these machinations. I myself have
undergone some rencontres with visitants who possessed bodily strength,
and wore, I am sure, earthly weapons."

"Oh! doubtless, doubtless," replied Master Holdenough; "Beelzebub loves
to charge with horse and foot mingled, as was the fashion of the old
Scottish general, Davie Leslie. He has his devils in the body as well as
his devils disembodied, and uses the one to support and back the other."

"It may be as you say, reverend sir," answered the Colonel.--"But what
do you advise in this case?"

"For that I must consult with my brethren," said the divine; "and if
there be but left in our borders five ministers of the true kirk, we
will charge Satan in full body, and you shall see whether we have not
power over him to resist till he shall flee from us. But failing that
ghostly armament against these strange and unearthly enemies, truly I
would recommend, that as a house of witchcraft and abomination, this
polluted den of ancient tyranny and prostitution should be totally
consumed by fire, lest Satan, establishing his head-quarters so much to
his mind, should find a garrison and a fastness from which he might
sally forth to infest the whole neighbourhood. Certain it is, that I
would recommend to no Christian soul to inhabit the mansion; and, if
deserted, it would become a place for wizards to play their pranks, and
witches to establish their Sabbath, and those who, like Demas, go about
after the wealth of this world, seeking for gold and silver to practise
spells and charms to the prejudice of the souls of the covetous. Trust
me, therefore, it were better that it were spoiled and broken down, not
leaving one stone upon another."

"I say nay to that, my good friend," said the Colonel; "for the
Lord-General hath permitted, by his license, my mother's brother, Sir
Henry Lee, and his family, to return into the house of his fathers,
being indeed the only roof under which he hath any chance of obtaining
shelter for his grey hairs."

"And was this done by your advice, Markham Everard?" said the divine
austerely.

"Certainly it was," returned the Colonel.--"And wherefore should I not
exert mine influence to obtain a place of refuge for the brother of my
mother?"

"Now, as sure as thy soul liveth," answered the presbyter, "I had
believed this from no tongue but thine own. Tell me, was it not this
very Sir Henry Lee, who, by the force of his buffcoats and his
greenjerkins, enforced the Papist Laie's order to remove the altar to
the eastern end of the church at Woodstock?--and did not he swear by his
beard, that he would hang in the very street of Woodstock whoever should
deny to drink the King's health?--and is not his hand red with the blood
of the saints?--and hath there been a ruffler in the field for prelacy
and high prerogative more unmitigable or fiercer?"

"All this may have been as you say, good Master Holdenough," answered
the Colonel; "but my uncle is now old and feeble, and hath scarce a
single follower remaining, and his daughter is a being whom to look upon
would make the sternest weep for pity; a being who"--

"Who is dearer to Everard," said Holdenough, "than his good name, his
faith to his friends, his duty to his religion;--this is no time to
speak with sugared lips. The paths in which you tread are dangerous. You
are striving to raise the papistical candlestick which Heaven in its
justice removed out of its place--to bring back to this hall of
sorceries those very sinners who are bewitched with them. I will not
permit the land to be abused by their witchcrafts.--They shall not come
hither."

He spoke this with vehemence, and striking his stick against the ground;
and the Colonel, very much dissatisfied, began to express himself
haughtily in return. "You had better consider your power to accomplish
your threats, Master Holdenough," he said, "before you urge them so
peremptorily."

"And have I not the power to bind and to loose?" said the clergyman.

"It is a power little available, save over those of your own Church,"
said Everard, with a tone something contemptuous.

"Take heed--take heed," said the divine, who, though an excellent, was,
as we have elsewhere seen, an irritable man.--"Do not insult me; but
think honourably of the messenger, for the sake of Him whose commission
he carries.--Do not, I say, defy me--I am bound to discharge my duty,
were it to the displeasing of my twin brother."

"I can see nought your office has to do in the matter," said Colonel
Everard; "and I, on my side, give you warning not to attempt to meddle
beyond your commission."

"Right--you hold me already to be as submissive as one of your
grenadiers," replied the clergyman, his acute features trembling with a
sense of indignity, so as even to agitate his grey hair; "but beware,
sir, I am not so powerless as you suppose. I will invoke every true
Christian in Woodstock to gird up his loins, and resist the restoration
of prelacy, oppression, and malignancy within our borders. I will stir
up the wrath of the righteous against the oppressor--the Ishmaelite--the
Edomite--and against his race, and against those who support him and
encourage him to rear up his horn. I will call aloud, and spare not, and
arouse the many whose love hath waxed cold, and the multitude who care
for none of these things. There shall be a remnant to listen to me; and
I will take the stick of Joseph, which was in the hand of Ephraim, and
go down to cleanse this place of witches and sorcerers, and of
enchantments, and will cry and exhort, saying--Will you plead for
Baal?--will you serve him? Nay, take the prophets of Baal--let not a man
escape!"

"Master Holdenough, Master Holdenough," said Colonel Everard, with much
impatience, "by the tale yourself told me, you have exhorted upon that
text once too often already."

The old man struck his palm forcibly against his forehead, and fell back
into a chair as these words were uttered, as suddenly, and as much
without power of resistance, as if the Colonel had fired a pistol
through his head. Instantly regretting the reproach which he had
suffered to escape him in his impatience, Everard hastened to apologise,
and to offer every conciliatory excuse, however inconsistent, which
occurred to him on the moment. But the old man was too deeply
affected--he rejected his hand, lent no ear to what he said, and finally
started up, saying sternly, "You have abused my confidence, sir--abused
it vilely, to turn it into my own reproach: had I been a man of the
sword, you dared not--But enjoy your triumph, sir, over an old man, and
your father's friend--strike at the wound his imprudent confidence
showed you."

"Nay, my worthy and excellent friend," said the Colonel--

"Friend!" answered the old man, starting up--"We are foes, sir--foes
now, and for ever!"

So saying, and starting from the seat into which he had rather fallen
than thrown himself, he ran out of the room with a precipitation of step
which he was apt to use upon occasions of irritable feeling, and which
was certainly more eager than dignified, especially as he muttered while
he ran, and seemed as if he were keeping up his own passion, by
recounting over and over the offence which he had received.

"So!" said Colonel Everard, "and there was not strife enough between
mine uncle and the people of Woodstock already, but I must needs
increase it, by chafing this irritable and quick-tempered old man, eager
as I knew him to be in his ideas of church-government, and stiff in his
prejudices respecting all who dissent from him! The mob of Woodstock
will rise; for though he would not get a score of them to stand by him
in any honest or intelligible purpose, yet let him cry havoc and
destruction, and I will warrant he has followers enow. And my uncle is
equally wild and unpersuadable. For the value of all the estate he ever
had, he would not allow a score of troopers to be quartered in the house
for defence; and if he be alone, or has but Joceline to stand by him, he
will be as sure to fire upon those who come to attack the Lodge, as if
he had a hundred men in garrison; and then what can chance but danger
and bloodshed?"

This progress of melancholy anticipation was interrupted by the return
of Master Holdenough, who, hurrying into the room, with the same
precipitate pace at which he had left it, ran straight up to the
Colonel, and said, "Take my hand, Markham--take my hand hastily; for the
old Adam is whispering at my heart, that it is a disgrace to hold it
extended so long."

"Most heartily do I receive your hand, my venerable friend," said
Everard, "and I trust in sign of renewed amity."

"Surely, surely,"--said the divine, shaking his hand kindly; "thou hast,
it is true, spoken bitterly, but thou hast spoken truth in good time;
and I think--though your words were severe--with a good and kindly
purpose. Verily, and of a truth, it were sinful in me again to be hasty
in provoking violence, remembering that which you have upbraided me
with"--

"Forgive me, good Master Holdenough," said Colonel Everard, "it was a
hasty word; I meant not in serious earnest to _upbraid_."

"Peace, I pray you, peace," said the divine; "I say, the allusion to
that which you have _most justly_ upbraided me with--though the charge
aroused the gall of the old man within me, the inward tempter being ever
on the watch to bring us to his lure--ought, instead of being resented,
to have been acknowledged by me as a favour, for so are the wounds of a
friend termed faithful. And surely I, who have by one unhappy
exhortation to battle and strife sent the living to the dead--and I fear
brought back even the dead among the living--should now study peace and
good will, and reconciliation of difference, leaving punishment to the
Great Being whose laws are broken, and vengeance to Him who hath said, I
will repay it."

The old man's mortified features lighted up with a humble confidence as
he made this acknowledgment; and Colonel Everard, who knew the
constitutional infirmities, and the early prejudices of professional
consequence and exclusive party opinion, which he must have subdued ere
arriving at such a tone of candour, hastened to express his admiration
of his Christian charity, mingled with reproaches on himself for having
so deeply injured his feelings.

"Think not of it--think not of it, excellent young man," said
Holdenough; "we have both erred--I in suffering my zeal to outrun my
charity, you perhaps in pressing hard on an old and peevish man, who had
so lately poured out his sufferings into your friendly bosom. Be it all
forgotten. Let your friends, if they are not deterred by what has
happened at this manor of Woodstock, resume their habitation as soon as
they will. If they can protect themselves against the powers of the air,
believe me, that if I can prevent it by aught in my power, they shall
have no annoyance from earthly neighbours; and assure yourself, good
sir, that my voice is still worth something with the worthy Mayor, and
the good Aldermen, and the better sort of housekeepers up yonder in the
town, although the lower classes are blown about with every wind of
doctrine. And yet farther, be assured, Colonel, that should your
mother's brother, or any of his family, learn that they have taken up a
rash bargain in returning to this unhappy and unhallowed house, or
should they find any qualms in their own hearts and consciences which
require a ghostly comforter, Nehemiah Holdenough will be as much at
their command by night or day, as if they had been bred up within the
holy pale of the Church in which he is an unworthy minister; and neither
the awe of what is fearful to be seen within these walls, nor his
knowledge of their blinded and carnal state, as bred up under a prelatic
dispensation, shall prevent him doing what lies in his poor abilities
for their protection and edification."

"I feel all the force of your kindness, reverend sir," said Colonel
Everard, "but I do not think it likely that my uncle will give you
trouble on either score. He is a man much accustomed to be his own
protector in temporal danger, and in spiritual doubts to trust to his
own prayers and those of his Church."

"I trust I have not been superfluous in offering mine assistance," said
the old man, something jealous that his proffered spiritual aid had been
held rather intrusive. "I ask pardon if that is the case, I humbly ask
pardon--I would not willingly be superfluous."

The Colonel hastened to appease this new alarm of the watchful jealousy
of his consequence, which, joined with a natural heat of temper which he
could not always subdue, were the good man's only faults.

They had regained their former friendly footing, when Roger Wildrake
returned from the hut of Joceline, and whispered his master that his
embassy had been successful. The Colonel then addressed the divine, and
informed him, that as the Commissioners had already given up Woodstock,
and as his uncle, Sir Henry Lee, proposed to return to the Lodge about
noon, he would, if his reverence pleased, attend him up to the borough.

"Will you not tarry," said the reverend man, with something like
inquisitive apprehension in his voice, "to welcome your relatives upon
their return to this their house?"

"No, my good friend," said Colonel Everard; "the part which I have taken
in these unhappy broils, perhaps also the mode of worship in which I
have been educated, have so prejudiced me in mine uncle's opinion, that
I must be for some time a stranger to his house and family."

"Indeed! I rejoice to hear it with all my heart and soul," said the
divine. "Excuse my frankness--I do indeed rejoice; I had thought--no
matter what I had thought; I would not again give offence. But truly
though the maiden hath a pleasant feature, and he, as all men say, is in
human things unexceptionable, yet--but I give you pain--in sooth, I will
say no more unless you ask my sincere and unprejudiced advice, which you
shall command, but which I will not press on you superfluously. Wend we
to the borough together--the pleasant solitude of the forest may dispose
us to open our hearts to each other."

They did walk up to the little town in company, and somewhat to Master
Holdenough's surprise, the Colonel, though they talked on various
subjects, did not request of him any ghostly advice on the subject of
his love to his fair cousin, while, greatly beyond the expectation of
the soldier, the clergyman kept his word, and in his own phrase, was not
so superfluous as to offer upon so delicate a point his unasked counsel.

* * * * *

CHAPTER THE EIGHTEENTH.


Then are the harpies gone--Yet ere we perch
Where such foul birds have roosted, let us cleanse
The foul obscenity they've left behind them.
AGAMEMNON.

The embassy of Wildrake had been successful, chiefly through the
mediation of the Episcopal divine, whom we formerly found acting in the
character of a chaplain to the family, and whose voice had great
influence on many accounts with its master.

A little before high noon, Sir Henry Lee, with his small household, were
again in unchallenged possession of their old apartments at the Lodge of
Woodstock; and the combined exertions of Joceline Joliffe, of Phoebe,
and of old Joan, were employed in putting to rights what the late
intruders had left in great disorder.

Sir Henry Lee had, like all persons of quality of that period, a love of
order amounting to precision, and felt, like a fine lady whose dress has
been disordered in a crowd, insulted and humiliated by the rude
confusion into which his household goods had been thrown, and impatient
till his mansion was purified from all marks of intrusion. In his anger
he uttered more orders than the limited number of his domestics were
likely to find time or hands to execute. "The villains have left such
sulphureous steams behind them, too," said the old knight, "as if old
Davie Leslie and the whole Scottish army had quartered among them."

"It may be near as bad," said Joceline, "for men say, for certain, it
was the Devil came down bodily among them, and made them troop off."

"Then," said the knight, "is the Prince of Darkness a gentleman, as old
Will Shakspeare says. He never interferes with those of his own coat,
for the Lees have been here, father and son, these five hundred years,
without disquiet; and no sooner came these misbegotten churls, than he
plays his own part among them."

"Well, one thing he and they have left us," said Joliffe, "which we may
thank them for; and that is, such a well-filled larder and buttery as
has been seldom seen in Woodstock Lodge this many a day: carcasses of
mutton, large rounds of beef, barrels of confectioners' ware, pipes and
runlets of sack, muscadine, ale, and what not. We shall have a royal
time on't through half the winter; and Joan must get to salting and
pickling presently."

"Out, villain!" said the knight; "are we to feed on the fragments of
such scum of the earth as these? Cast them forth instantly! Nay,"
checking himself, "that were a sin; but give them to the poor, or see
them sent to the owners. And, hark ye, I will none of their strong
liquors. I would rather drink like a hermit all my life, than seem to
pledge such scoundrels as these in their leavings, like a miserable
drawer, who drains off the ends of the bottles after the guests have
paid their reckoning, and gone off. And, hark ye, I will taste no water
from the cistern out of which these slaves have been serving
themselves--fetch me down a pitcher from Rosamond's spring."

Alice heard this injunction, and well guessing there was enough for the
other members of the family to do, she quietly took a small pitcher, and
flinging a cloak around her, walked out in person to procure Sir Henry
the water which he desired. Meantime, Joceline said, with some
hesitation, "that a man still remained, belonging to the party of these
strangers, who was directing about the removal of some trunks and mails
which belonged to the Commissioners, and who could receive his honour's
commands about the provisions."

"Let him come hither." (The dialogue was held in the hall.) "Why do you
hesitate and drumble in that manner?"

"Only, sir," said Joceline, "only perhaps your honour might not wish to
see him, being the same who, not long since"--

He paused.

"Sent my rapier a-hawking through the firmament, thou wouldst say? Why,
when did I take spleen at a man for standing his ground against me?
Roundhead as he is, man, I like him the better of that, not the worse. I
hunger and thirst to have another turn with him. I have thought on his
passado ever since, and I believe, were it to try again, I know a feat
would control it. Fetch him directly."

Trusty Tomkins was presently ushered in, bearing himself with an iron
gravity, which neither the terrors of the preceding night, nor the
dignified demeanour of the high-born personage before whom he stood,
were able for an instant to overcome.

"How now, good fellow?" said Sir Henry; "I would fain see something more
of thy fence, which baffled me the other evening; but truly, I think the
light was somewhat too faint for my old eyes. Take a foil, man--I walk
here in the hall, as Hamlet says; and 'tis the breathing-time of day
with me. Take a foil, then, in thy hand."

"Since it is your worship's desire," said the steward, letting fall his
long cloak, and taking the foil in his hand.

"Now," said the knight, "if your fitness speaks, mine is ready. Methinks
the very stepping on this same old pavement hath charmed away the gout
which threatened me. Sa--sa--I tread as firm as a game-cock."

They began the play with great spirit; and whether the old knight really
fought more coolly with the blunt than with the sharp weapon, or whether
the steward gave him some grains of advantage in this merely sportive
encounter, it is certain Sir Henry had the better in the assault. His
success put him into excellent humour.

"There," said he, "I found your trick--nay, you cheat me not twice the
same way. There was a very palpable hit. Why, had I had but light enough
the other night--But it skills not speaking of it--Here we leave off. I
must not fight, as we unwise cavaliers did with you roundhead rascals,
beating you so often that we taught you to beat us at last. And good
now, tell me why you are leaving your larder so full here? Do you think
I or my family can use broken victuals? What, have you no better
employment for your rounds of sequestrated beef than to leave them
behind you when you shift your quarters?"

"So please your honour," said Tomkins, "it may be that you desire not
the flesh of beeves, of rams, or of goats. Nevertheless, when you know
that the provisions were provided and paid for out of your own rents and
stock at Ditchley, sequestrated to the use of the state more than a year
since, it may be you will have less scruple to use them for your own
behoof."

"Rest assured that I shall," said Sir Henry; "and glad you have helped
me to a share of mine own. Certainly I was an ass to suspect your
masters of subsisting, save at honest men's expense."

"And as for the rumps of beeves," continued Tomkins, with the same
solemnity, "there is a rump at Westminster, which will stand us of the
army much hacking and hewing yet, ere it is discussed to our mind."

Sir Henry paused, as if to consider what was the meaning of this
innuendo; for he was not a person of very quick apprehension. But having
at length caught the meaning of it, he burst into an explosion of louder
laughter than Joceline had seen him indulge in for a long while.

"Right, knave," he said, "I taste thy jest--It is the very moral of the
puppet-show. Faustus raised the devil, as the Parliament raised the
army, and then, as the devil flies away with Faustus, so will the army
fly away with the Parliament, or the rump, as thou call'st it, or
sitting part of the so-called Parliament. And then, look you, friend,
the very devil of all hath my willing consent to fly away with the army
in its turn, from the highest general down to the lowest drum-boy. Nay,
never look fierce for the matter; remember there is daylight enough now
for a game at sharps."

Trusty Tomkins appeared to think it best to suppress his displeasure;
and observing that the wains were ready to transport the Commissioners'
property to the borough, took a grave leave of Sir Henry Lee.

Meantime the old man continued to pace his recovered hall, rubbing his
hands, and evincing greater signs of glee than he had shown since the
fatal 30th of January.

"Here we are again in the old frank, Joliffe; well victualled too. How
the knave solved my point of conscience!--the dullest of them is a
special casuist where the question concerns profit. Look out if there
are not some of our own ragged regiment lurking about, to whom a
bellyful would be a God-send, Joceline. Then his fence, Joceline, though
the fellow foins well, very sufficient well. But thou saw'st how I dealt
with him when I had fitting light, Joceline."

"Ay, and so your honour did," said Joceline. "You taught him to know the
Duke of Norfolk, from Saunders Gardner. I'll warrant him he will not
wish to come under your honour's thumb again."

"Why, I am waxing old," said Sir Henry; "but skill will not rust through
age, though sinews must stiffen. But my age is like a lusty winter, as
old Will says, frosty but kindly; and what if, old as we are, we live to
see better days yet! I promise thee, Joceline, I love this jarring
betwixt the rogues of the board and the rogues of the sword. When
thieves quarrel, true men have a chance of coming by their own."

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