CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.
ROSE'S FIERY ORDEAL.
"Art thou come, dear heart?" said Alice Mount, as her daughter ranhurriedly into her bedchamber. "That is well. Rose, the Master iscome, and calleth for us, and He must find us ready."
There was no time to say more, for steps were ascending the stairs, andin another minute Master Simnel entered--the Bailiff of ColchesterHundred, whose office it was to arrest criminals within his boundaries.He was a rough, rude sort of man, from whom women were wont to shrink.
"Come, mistress, turn out!" said he. "We'll find you other lodgings fora bit."
"Master, I will do mine utmost," said Alice Mount, lifting her achinghead from the pillow; "but I am now ill at ease, and I pray you, giveleave for my daughter to fetch me drink ere I go hence, or I fear I mayscarce walk."
We must remember that they had then no tea, coffee, or cocoa; and theyhad a funny idea that cold water was excessively unwholesome. The richdrank wine, and the poor thin, weak ale, most of which they brewedthemselves from simple malt and hops--not at all like the strong,intoxicating stuff which people drink in public-houses now.
Mr Simnel rather growlingly assented to the request. Rose ran down,making her way to the dresser through the rough men of whom the kitchenwas full, to get a jug and a candlestick. As she came out of thekitchen, with the jug in her right hand and the candle in her left, shemet a man--I believe he called himself a gentleman--named Edmund Tyrrel,a relation of that Tyrrel who had been one of the murderers of poorEdward the Fifth and his brother. Rose dropped a courtesy, as she hadbeen taught to do to her betters in social position.
Mr Tyrrel stopped her. "Look thou, maid! wilt thou advise thy fatherand mother to be good Catholic people?"
Catholic means _general_; and for any one Church to call itself theCatholic Church, is as much as to say that it is the only ChristianChurch, and that other people who do not belong to it are notChristians. It is, therefore, not only untrue, but most insulting toall the Christians who belong to other Churches. Saint Paulparticularly warned the Church of Rome not to think herself better thanother Churches, as you will see in the eleventh chapter of the Epistleto the Romans, verses 17 to 22. But she took no heed, and keeps callingherself _the_ Catholic Church, as if nobody could be a Christian who didnot belong to her. No Protestant Church has ever committed this sin,though some few persons in several denominations may have done so.
However, Rose was accustomed to the word, and she knew what Mr Tyrrelmeant. So she answered, gently--
"Master, they have a better instructor than I, for the Holy Ghost dothteach them, I hope, which I trust shall not suffer them to err." [SeeNote 1.]
Mr Tyrrel grew very angry. He remembered that Rose had been before themagistrates before on account of Protestant opinions, "Why art thoustill in that mind, thou naughty hussy?" cried he. "Marry, it is timeto look upon such heretics indeed."
Naughty was a much stronger word then than it is now. It meant, utterlyworthless and most wicked.
Brave Rose Allen! she lifted her eyes to the face of her insulter, andreplied,--"Sir, with that which you call heresy, do I worship my LordGod, I tell you truth."
"Then I perceive you will burn, gossip, with the rest for company'ssake," said Mr Tyrrel, making a horrible joke.
"No, sir, not for company's sake," said Rose, "but for my Christ's sake,if so be I be compelled; and I hope in His mercies, if He call me to it,He will enable me to bear it."
Never did apostle or martyr answer better, nor bear himself morebravely, than this girl! Mr Tyrrel was in the habit of looking withthe greatest reverence on certain other young girls, whom he calledSaint Agnes, Saint Margaret, and Saint Katherine--girls who had madesuch answers to Pagan persecutors, twelve hundred years or so beforethat time: but he could not see that the same scene was being enactedagain, and that he was persecuting the Lord Jesus in the person of youngRose Allen. He took the candle from her hand, and she did not resisthim. The next minute he was holding her firmly by the wrist, with herhand in the burning flame, watching her face to see what she would do.
She did nothing. Not a scream, not a word, not even a moan, came fromthe lips of Rose Allen. All that could be seen was that the empty jugwhich she held in the other hand trembled a little as she stood there.
"Wilt thou not cry?" sneered Tyrrel as he held her,--and he called hersome ugly names which I shall not write.
The answer was as calm as it could be. "I have no cause, thank God,"said Rose tranquilly; "but rather to rejoice. You have more cause toweep than I, if you consider the matter well."
When people set to work to vex you, nothing makes them more angry thanto take it quietly, and show no vexation. That is, if they are peoplewith mean minds. If there be any generosity in them, then it is the wayto make them see that they are wrong. There was no generosity, nor loveof justice, in Edmund Tyrrel. When Rose Allen stood so calmly beforehim, with her hand on fire, he was neither softened nor ashamed. Heburned her till "the sinews began to crack," and then he let go her handand pushed her roughly away, calling her all the bad names he couldthink of while he did so.
"Sir," was the meek and Christlike response, "have you done what youwill do?"
Surely few, even among martyrs, have behaved with more exquisitegentleness than this! The maiden's hand was cruelly burnt, and hertormentor was adding insult to injury by heaping false and abominablenames upon her: and the worst thing she had to say to him was simply toask whether he wished to torture her any more!
"Yes," sneered Tyrrel. "And if thou think it not well, then mend it!"
"`Mend it'!" repeated Rose. "Nay! the Lord mend you, and give yourepentance, if it be His will. And now, if you think it good, begin atthe feet, and burn to the head also. For he that set you a-work shallpay you your wages one day, I warrant you."
And with this touch of sarcasm--only just enough to show how well shecould have handled that weapon if she had chosen to fight with it--Rosecalmly went her way, wetted a rag, and bound up her injured hand, andthen drew the ale and carried it to her mother.
"How long hast thou been, child!" said her mother, who of course had nonotion what had been going on downstairs.
"Ay, Mother; I am sorry for it," was the quiet reply. "Master Tyrrelstayed me in talk for divers minutes."
"What said he to thee?" anxiously demanded Alice.
"He asked me if I did mean to entreat you and my father to be goodCatholics; and when I denied the same, gave me some ill words."
Rose said nothing about the burning, and as she dexterously kept herinjured hand out of her mother's sight, all that Alice realised was thatthe girl was a trifle less quick and handy than usual.
"She's a good, quick maid in the main," said she to herself: "I'll notfault her if she's upset a bit."
While Rose was helping her mother to dress, the Bailiff was questioningher step-father whether any one else was in the house.
"I'm here," said John Thurston, rising from the pallet-bed where he layin a corner of the little scullery. "You'd best take me, if you wantme."
"Take them all!" cried Tyrrel. "They be all in one tale, be sure."
"Were you at mass this last Sunday?" said the Bailiff to Thurston. Hewas not quite so bad as Tyrrel.
"No, that was I not," answered Thurston firmly.
"Wherefore?"
"Because I will not worship any save God Almighty."
"Why, who else would we have you to worship?"
"Nay, it's not who else, it's what else. You would have me to worshipstocks and stones, that cannot hear nor see; and cakes of bread that thebaker made overnight in his oven. I've as big a throat as other men,yet can I not swallow so great a notion as that the baker made Him thatmade the baker."
"Of a truth, thou art a naughty heretic!" said the Bailiff; "and I mustneeds carry thee hence with the rest. But where is thy wife?"
Ay, where was Margaret? Nobody had seen her since the Bailiff knockedat the door. He ordered h
is men to search for her; but she had hiddenherself so well that some time passed before she could be found. Atlength, with much laughter, one of the Bailiff's men dragged her out ofa wall-closet, where she crouched hidden behind an old box. Then theBailiff shouted for Alice Mount and Rose to be brought down, andproceeded to tie his prisoners together, two and two,--Rose contrivingto slip back, so that she should be marched behind her parents.
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Note 1. This part of the story is all quite true, and I am not puttinginto Rose's lips, in her conversation with Mr Tyrrel, one word whichshe did not really utter.