CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
THE JUSTICE IS INDISCREET.
"Methinks we be like to have further troubles touching religion in theseparts. Marry, I do marvel what folks would be at, that they cannot becontent to do their duty, and pay their dues, and leave the cure oftheir souls to the priest. As good keep a dog and bark thyself, say I,as pay dues to the priest and take thought for thine own soul."
The speaker was Mr Justice Roberts, and he sat at supper in hisbrother's house, one of a small family party, which consisted, besidethe brothers, of their sister, Mistress Collenwood, Mistress GrenaHolland, Gertrude, and Pandora. The speech was characteristic of thespeaker. The Justice was by no means a bad man, as men go--and all ofthem do not go very straight in the right direction--but he made onemistake which many are making in our own day; he valued peace morehighly than truth. His decalogue was a monologue, consisting but of onecommandment: Do your duty. What a man's duty was, the Justice did notpause to define. Had he been required to do so, his dissection of thatdifficult subject would probably have run in three grooves--go tochurch; give alms; keep out of quarrels.
"It were verily good world, Master Justice, wherein every man should dohis duty," was the answer of Mistress Grena, delivered in that slightlyprim and didactic fashion which was characteristic of her.
"What is duty?" concisely asked Mistress Collenwood, who was by some tenyears the elder of her brothers, and therefore the eldest of thecompany.
Gertrude's eyes were dancing with amusement; Pandora only lookedinterested.
"Duty," said Mr Roberts, the host, "is that which is due."
"To whom?" inquired his sister.
"To them unto whom he oweth it," was the reply; "first, to God; afterHim, to all men."
"Which of us doth that?" said Mistress Collenwood softly, looking roundthe table.
Mistress Grena shook her head in a way which said, "Very few--not I."
Had Gertrude lived three hundred years later, she would have said whatnow she only thought--"I am sure _I_ do my duty." But in 1557 youngladies were required to "hear, see, and say nought," and for one of themto join unasked in the conversation of her elders would have been heldto be shockingly indecorous. The rule for girls' behaviour was toostrict in that day; but if a little of it could be infused into the verylax code of the present time, when little misses offer their opinions onsubjects of which they know nothing, and unblushingly differ from, oreven contradict their mothers, too often without rebuke, it would be adecided improvement on social manners.
"Which of the folks in these parts be not doing their duty?" asked MrRoberts of his brother.
"You know Benden of Briton's Mead?" replied the Justice.
"By sight; I am not well acquaint with him."
"Is he not an hard man, scarce well liked?" said his sister.
"True enough, as you shall say ere my tale come to an end. This Bendenhath a wife--a decent Woman enough, as all men do confess, save that sheis bitten somewhat by certain heretical notions that the priest cannotwin her to lay by; will not come to mass, and so forth; but in all otherfashions of good repute: and what doth this brute her husband but gohimself to the Bishop, and beg--I do ensure you, beg his Lordship thatthis his wife may be arrest and lodged in prison. And in prison she is,and hath so been now these three or four months, on the sworninformation of her own husband. 'Tis monstrous!"
"Truly, most shocking!" said Mistress Grena, cutting up the round ofbeef. The lady of the house always did the carving.
"Ah! As saith the old proverb: `There is no worse pestilence than afamiliar enemy,'" quoted the host.
"Well!" continued the Justice, with an amused look: "but now cometh agood jest, whereof I heard but yester-even. This Mistress Benden hathtwo brothers, named Hall--Roger and Thomas--one of whom dwelleth atFrittenden, and the other at yon corner house in Staplehurst, nigh tothe Second Acre Close. Why, to be sure, he is your manager--that had Iforgot."
Mr Roberts nodded. Pandora had pricked up her ears at the name ofHall, and now began to listen intently. Mistress Benden, of whom sheheard for the first time, must be an aunt of her _protegee_, littleChristabel.
"This Thomas Hall hath a wife, by name Tabitha, that the lads hereaboutcall Tabby, and by all accounts a right cat with claws is she. She, Ihear, went up to Briton's Mead a two-three days gone, or maybe somethingmore, and gave good Master Benden a taste of her horsewhip, that he hathsince kept his bed--rather, I take it, from sulkiness than soreness, yetI dare be bound she handled him neatly. Tabitha is a woman of strongbuild, and lithe belike, that I would as lief not be horsewhipped by.Howbeit, what shall come thereof know I not. Very like she thought itshould serve to move him to set Mistress Alice free: but she may find,and he belike, that 'tis easier to set a stone a-rolling down the hillthan to stay it. The matter is now in my Lord of Dover's hands; andwithout Mistress Tabitha try her whip on him--"
Both gentlemen laughed. Pandora was deeply interested, as she recalledlittle Christie's delicate words, that Aunt Alice was "away at present."The child evidently would not say more. Pandora made up her mind thatshe would go and see Christie again as soon as possible, and meanwhileshe listened for any information that she might give her.
"What is like to come of the woman, then?" said Mr Roberts, "apart fromMistress Tabitha and her whip?"
"Scarce release, I count," said the Justice gravely. "She hath beenmoved from the gaol; and that doubtless meaneth, had into straiterkeeping."
"Poor fools!" said his brother, rather pityingly than scornfully.
"Ay, 'tis strange, in very deed, they cannot let be this foolishmeddling with matters too high for them. If the woman would but conformand go to church, I hear, her womanish fantasies should very like beoverlooked. Good lack I can a man not believe as he list, yet hold histongue and be quiet, and not bring down the laws on his head?" concludedthe Justice somewhat testily.
There was a pause, during which all were silent--from very variousmotives. Mr Roberts was thinking rather sadly that the only choiceoffered to men in those days was a choice of evils. He had never wishedto conform--never would have done so, had he been let alone: but a manmust look out for his safety, and take care of his property--of coursehe must!--and if the authorities made it impossible for him to do sowith a good conscience, why, the fault was theirs, not his. Thus arguedMr Roberts, forgetting that the man makes a poor bargain who gains thewhole world and loses himself. The Justice and Gertrude were simplyenjoying their supper. No scruples of any kind disturbed theirslumbering consciences. Mistress Collenwood's face gave no indicationof her thoughts. Pandora was reflecting chiefly upon Christabel.
But there was one present whose conscience had been asleep, and was justwaking to painful life. For nearly four years had Grena Holland soothedher many misgivings by some such reasoning as that of Mr JusticeRoberts. She had conformed outwardly: had not merely abstained fromcontradictory speeches, but had gone to mass, had attended theconfessional, had bowed down before images of wood and stone, and allthe time had comforted herself by imagining that God saw her heart, andknew that she did not really believe in any of these things, but onlyacted thus for safety's sake. Now, all at once, she knew not how, itcame on her as by a flash of lightning that she was on the road thatleadeth to destruction, and not content with that, was bearing her youngnieces along with her. She loved those girls as if she had been theirown mother. Grave, self-contained, and undemonstrative as she was, shewould almost have given her life for either, but especially for Pandora,who in face, and to some extent in character, resembled her dead mother,the sister who had been the darling of Grena Holland's heart. Sherecalled with keen pain the half-astonished, half-shrinking look onPandora's face, as she had followed her to mass on the first holy-dayafter her return from Lancashire. Grena knew well that at ShardefordHall, her mother's house in Lancashire, Pandora would never have beenrequired to attend mass, but would have been taught that it was "a fondfable and a dangerous deceit." And now, she co
nsidered, that look hadpassed from the girl's face; she went silently, not eagerly on the onehand, yet unprotestingly, even by look, on the other. Forward into thepossible future went Grena's imagination--to the prison, and thetorture-chamber, and the public disgrace, and the awful death of fire.How could she bear those, either for herself or for Pandora?
These painful meditations were broken in upon by a remark from theJustice.
"There is some strong ale brewing, I warrant you, for some of our greatdoctors and teachers of this vicinage. I heard t'other day, from onethat shall be nameless--indeed, I would not mention the matter, but webe all friends and good Catholics here--"
Mistress Collenwood's eyes were lifted a moment from her plate, but thenwent down again in silence.
"Well, I heard say two men of my Lord Cardinal's had already beena-spying about these parts, for to win the names of such as weresuspect: and divers in and nigh Staplehurst shall hear more than theywot of, ere many days be over. Mine hostess at the White Hart had bestlook out, and--well, there be others; more in especial this Master Ro--Come, I'll let be the rest."
"I trust you have not said too much already," remarked Mr Robertsrather uneasily.
That the Justice also feared he had been indiscreet was shown by hisslight testiness in reply.
"Tush! how could I? There's never a serving-man in the chamber, and webe all safe enough. Not the tail of a word shall creep forth, be sure."
"`Three may keep counsel, if twain be away,'" said Mr Roberts, shakinghis head with a good-humoured smile.
"They do not alway then," added Mistress Collenwood drily.
"Well, well!" said the Justice, "you wot well enough, every one of you,the matter must go no further. Mind you, niece Gertrude, you slip itnot forth to some chattering maid of your acquaintance."
"Oh, I am safe enough, good Uncle," laughed Gertrude.
"Indeed, I hope we be all discreet in such dangerous matters," addedMistress Grena.
Only Mrs Collenwood and Pandora were silent.