The King's Achievement

  CHAPTER VI

  A CATASTROPHE

  Ralph rode away early next morning, yet not so early as to escape aninterview with his father. They met in the hall, Sir James in his loosemorning gown and Ralph booted and spurred with his short cloak and tightcap. The old man took him by the sleeve, drawing him to the fire thatburned day and night in winter.

  "Ralph--Ralph, my son," he said, "I must thank you for last night."

  "You have to thank yourself only, sir, and my mother. I could do nootherwise."

  "It is you--" began his father.

  "It is certainly not Nick, sir. The hot fool nearly provoked me."

  "But you hate such mummery yourself, my son?"

  Ralph hesitated.

  "It is not seemly--" began his father again.

  "It is certainly not seemly; but neither are the common folk seemly."

  "Did you have much business with them, my son?" Ralph smiled in thefirelight.

  "Why, no, sir. I told them who I was. I charged myself with the burden."

  "And you will not be in trouble with my Lord?"

  "My Lord has other matters to think of than a parcel of mummers."

  Then they separated; and Ralph rode down the drive with his servantsbehind him. Neither father nor son had said a word of any return.Neither had Ralph had one private word with Beatrice during his threedays' stay. Once he had come into the parlour to find her going out atthe other door; and he had wondered whether she had heard his step andgone out on purpose. But he knew very well that under the superficialcourtesy between him and her there lay something deeper--some passionateemotion vibrated like a beam between them; but he did not know, even onhis side and still less on hers, whether that emotion were one of loveor loathing. It was partly from the discomfort of the chargedatmosphere, partly from a shrinking from thanks and explanations that hehad determined to go up to London a day earlier than he had intended; hehad a hatred of personal elaborateness.

  * * * * *

  He found Cromwell, on his arrival in London, a little less moody than hehad been in the previous week; for he was busy with preparations for theParliament that was to meet in April; and to the occupation that thisgave him there was added a good deal of business connected with Henry'snegotiations with the Emperor. The dispute, that at present centredround the treatment of Englishmen in Spain, and other similar matters,in reality ran its roots far deeper; and there were a hundred detailswhich occupied the minister. But there was still a hint of storm in theair; Cromwell spoke brusquely once or twice without cause, and Ralphrefrained from saying anything about the affair at Overfield, but tookup his own work again quietly.

  A fortnight later, however, he heard of it once more.

  He was sitting at a second table in Cromwell's own room in the RollsHouse, when one of the secretaries came up with a bundle of reports, andlaid them as usual before Ralph.

  Ralph finished the letter he was engaged on--one to Dr. Barnes who hadpreached a Protestant sermon at Paul's Cross, and who now challengedBishop Gardiner to a public disputation. Ralph was telling him to keephis pugnacity to himself; and when he had done took up the reports andran his eyes over them.

  They were of the usual nature--complaints, informations, protests,appeals from men of every rank of life; agents, farm-labourers, priests,ex-Religious, fanatics--and he read them quickly through, docketingtheir contents at the head of each that his master might be savedtrouble.

  At one, however, he stopped, glanced momentarily at Cromwell, and thenread on.

  It was an illiterate letter, ill-spelt and smudged, and consisted of acomplaint from a man who signed himself Robert Benham, against "Mr.Ralph Torridon, as he named himself," for hindering the performance of apiece entitled "The Jolly Friar" in the parish of Overfield, on Sunday,February the first. Mr. Torridon, the writer stated, had used my LordCromwell's name and authority in stopping the play; expenses had beenincurred in connection with it, for a barn had been hired, and thetransport of the properties had cost money; and Mr. Benham desired toknow whether these expenses would be made good to him, and if Mr.Torridon had acted in accordance with my Lord's wishes.

  Ralph bit his pen in some perplexity, when he had finished making outthe document. He wondered whether he had better show it to Cromwell; itmight irritate him or not, according to his mood. If it was destroyedsurely no harm would be done; and yet Ralph had a disinclination todestroy it. He sat a moment or two longer considering; once he took thepaper by the corners to tear it; then laid it down again; glanced oncemore at the heavy intent face a couple of yards away, and then by asudden impulse took up his pen and wrote a line on the corner explainingthe purport of the paper, initialled it, and laid it with the rest.

  Cromwell was so busy during the rest of the day that there was noopportunity to explain the circumstances to him; indeed he was hardly inthe room again, so great was the crowd that waited on him continuallyfor interviews, and Ralph went away, leaving the reports for his chiefto examine at his leisure.

  * * * * *

  The next morning there was a storm.

  Cromwell burst out on him as soon as he came in.

  "Shut the door, Mr. Torridon," he snapped. "I must have a word withyou."

  Ralph closed the door and came across to Cromwell's table and stoodthere, apparently imperturbable, but with a certain quickening of hispulse.

  "What is this, sir?" snarled the other, taking up the letter that waslaid at his hand. "Is it true?"

  Ralph looked at him coolly.

  "What is it, my Lord? Mr. Robert Benham?"

  "Yes, Mr. Robert Benham. Is it true? I wish an answer."

  "Certainly, my Lord. It is true."

  "You hindered this piece being played? And you used my name?"

  "I told them who I was--yes."

  Cromwell slapped the paper down.

  "Well, that is to use my name, is it not, Mr. Torridon?"

  "I suppose it is."

  "You suppose it is! And tell me, if you please, why you hindered it."

  "I hindered it because it was not decent. My mother had been buriedthat day. My father asked me to do so."

  "Not decent! When the mummers have my authority!

  "If your Lordship does not understand the indecency, I cannot explainit."

  Ralph was growing angry now. It was not often that Cromwell treated himlike a naughty boy; and he was beginning to resent it.

  The other stared at him under black brows.

  "You are insolent, sir."

  Ralph bowed.

  "See here," said Cromwell, "my men must have no master but me. They mustleave houses and brethren and sisters for my sake. You should understandthat by now; and that I repay them a hundredfold. You have been longenough in my service to know it. I have said enough. You can sit down,Mr. Torridon."

  Ralph went to his seat in a storm of fury. He felt he was supremely inthe right--in the right in stopping the play, and still more so for notdestroying the complaint when it was in his hands. He had been scoldedlike a school-child, insulted and shouted down. His hand shook as hetook up his pen, and he kept his back resolutely turned to his master.Once he was obliged to ask him a question, and he did so with an icyaloofness. Cromwell answered him curtly, but not unkindly, and he wentto his seat again still angry.

  When dinner-time came near, he rose, bowed slightly to Cromwell and wenttowards the door. As his fingers touched the handle he heard his namecalled; and turned round to see the other looking at him oddly.

  "Mr. Torridon--you will dine with me?"

  "I regret I cannot, my Lord," said Ralph; and went out of the room.

  * * * * *

  There were no explanations or apologies on either side when they metagain; but in a few days their behaviour to one another was as usual.Yet underneath the smooth surface Ralph's heart rankled and pricked withresentment.

  * * * * *

  At t
he meeting of Parliament in April, the business in Cromwell's handsgrew more and more heavy and distracting.

  Ralph went with him to Westminster, and heard him deliver his eloquentlittle speech on the discord that prevailed in England, and the King'sdetermination to restore peace and concord.

  "On the Word of God," cried the statesman, speaking with extraordinaryfervour, his eyes kindling as he looked round the silent crowdedbenches, and his left hand playing with his chain, "On the Word of GodHis Highness' princely mind is fixed; on this Word he depends for hissole support; and with all his might his Majesty will labour that errorshall be taken away, and true doctrines be taught to his people,modelled by the rule of the Gospel."

  Three days later when Ralph came into his master's room, Cromwell lookedup at him with a strange animation in his dark eyes.

  "Good-day, sir," he said; "I have news that I hope will please you. HisGrace intends to confer on me one more mark of his favour. I am to beEarl of Essex."

  It was startling news. Ralph had supposed that the minister was notstanding so high with the King as formerly, since the unfortunateincident of the Cleves marriage. He congratulated him warmly.

  "It is a happy omen," said the other. "Let us pray that it be aconstellation and not a single star. There are others of my friends, Mr.Torridon, who have claim to His Highness' gratitude."

  He looked at him smiling; and Ralph felt his heart quicken once more, asit always did, at the hint of an honour for himself.

  The business of Parliament went on; and several important bills becamelaw. A land-act was followed by one that withdrew from most of the townsof England the protection of a sanctuary in the case of certainspecified crimes; the navy was dealt with; and then in spite of thepromises of the previous years a heavy money-bill was passed. Finallyfive more Catholics, four priests and a woman, were attainted for hightreason on various charges.

  * * * * *

  Ralph was not altogether happy as May drew on. There began to be signsthat his master's policy with regard to the Cleves alliance was losingground in the councils of the State; but Cromwell himself seemed toacquiesce, so it appeared as if his own mind was beginning to change.There was a letter to Pate, the ambassador to the Emperor, that Ralphhad to copy one day, and he gathered from it that conciliation was to beused towards Charles in place of the old defiance.

  But he did not see much of Parliament affairs this month.

  Cromwell had told him to sort a large quantity of private papers thathad gradually accumulated in Ralph's own house at Westminster; for thathe desired the removal of most of them to his own keeping.

  They were an enormous mass of documents, dealing with every sort andkind of the huge affairs that had passed through Cromwell's hands forthe last five years. They concerned hundreds of persons, living anddead--statesmen, nobles, the foreign Courts, priests, Religious,farmers, tradesmen--there was scarcely a class that was not representedthere.

  Ralph sat hour after hour in his chair with locked doors, sorting,docketting, and destroying; and amazed by this startling object-lessonof the vast work in which he had had a hand. There were secrets therethat would burst like a bomb if they were made public--intrigues,bribes, threats, revelations; and little by little a bundle of the mostimportant documents accumulated on the table before him. The rest lay inheaps on the floor.

  Those that he had set aside beneath his own eye were a miscellaneous setas regarded their contents; the only unity between them lay in the factthat they were especially perilous to Cromwell. Ralph felt as if he werehandling gunpowder as he took them up one by one or added to the heap.

  The new coronet that my Lord of Essex had lately put upon his head wouldnot be there another day, if these were made public. There would not beleft even a head to put it upon. Ralph knew that a great minister likehis master was bound to have a finger in very curious affairs; but hehad not recognised how exceptional these were, nor how many, until hehad the bundle of papers before him. There were cases in which personsaccused and even convicted of high treason had been set at liberty onCromwell's sole authority without reference to the King; there werecommissions issued in his name under similar conditions; there werepapers containing drafts, in Cromwell's own hand of statements ofdoctrine declared heretical by the Six Articles, and of which copies hadbeen distributed through the country at his express order; there werecopies of letters to country-sheriffs ordering the release of convictedheretics and the imprisonment of their accusers; there were evidences ofenormous bribes received by him for the perversion of justice.

  Ralph finished his task one June evening, and sat dazed with work andexcitement, his fingers soiled with ink, his tired eyes staring at theneat bundle before him.

  The Privy Council, he knew, was sitting that afternoon. Even at thismoment, probably, my Lord of Essex was laying down the law, speaking inthe King's name, silencing his opponents by sheer force of will, butwith the Royal power behind him. And here lay the papers.

  He imagined to himself with a fanciful recklessness what would happen ifhe made his way into the Council-room, and laid them on the table. Itwould be just the end of all things for his master. There would be nomore bullying and denouncing then on that side; it would be a matter ofa fight for life.

  The memory of his own grudge, only five months old, rose before hismind; and his tired brain grew hot and cloudy with resentment. He tookup the bundle in his hand and wielded it a moment, as a man might test asword. Here was a headsman's axe, ground and sharp.

  Then he was ashamed; set the bundle down again, leaned back in his chairand stretched his arms, yawning.

  What a glorious evening it was! He must go out and take the air for alittle by the river; he would walk down towards Chelsea.

  He rose up from his chair and went to the window, threw it open andleaned out. His house stood back a little from the street; and there wasa space of cobbled ground between his front-door and the uneven stonesof the thoroughfare. Opposite rose up one of the tall Westminsterhouses, pushing forward in its upper stories, with a hundred diamondpanes bright in the slanting sunshine that poured down the street fromthe west. Overhead rose up the fantastic stately chimneys, against thebrilliant evening sky, and to right and left the street passed out ofsight in a haze of sunlight.

  It was a very quiet evening; the men had not yet begun to streamhomewards from their occupations; and the women were busy within. Achorus of birds sounded somewhere overhead; but there was not a livingcreature to be seen except a dog asleep in the sunshine at the corner ofthe gravel.

  It was delicious to lean out here, away from the fire that burned hotand red in the grate under its black mass of papers that had beendestroyed,--out in the light and air. Ralph determined that he would letthe fire die now; it would not be needed again.

  He must go out, he told himself, and not linger here. He could lock upthe papers for the present in readiness for their transport next day;and he wondered vaguely whether his hat and cane were in theentrance-hall below.

  He straightened himself, and turned away from the window, noticing as hedid so the dog at the corner of the street sit up with cocked ears. Hehesitated and turned back.

  There was a sound of furious running coming up the street. He would justsee who the madman was who ran like this on a hot evening, and then goout himself.

  As he leaned again the pulsating steps came nearer; they were comingfrom the left, the direction of the Palace.

  A moment later a figure burst into sight, crimson-faced and hatless,with arms gathered to the sides and head thrown back; it appeared to bea gentleman by the dress--but why should he run like that? He dashedacross the opening and disappeared.

  Ralph was interested. He waited a minute longer; but the footsteps hadceased; and he was just turning once more from the window, when anothersound made him stand and listen again.

  It came from the same direction as before; and at first he could notmake out what it was. There was a murmur and a pattering.

&nbs
p; It came nearer and louder; and he could distinguish once more runningfootsteps. Were they after a thief? he wondered. The murmur and clattergrew louder yet; and a second or two later two men burst into sight;one, an apprentice with his leather apron flapping as he ran, the othera stoutish man like a merchant. They talked and gesticulated as theywent.

  The murmur behind swelled up. There were the voices of many people, menand women, talking, screaming, questioning. The dog was on his feet bynow, looking intently down the street.

  Then the first group appeared; half a dozen men walking fast ortrotting, talking eagerly. Ralph could not hear what they said.

  Then a number surged into sight all at once, jostling round a centre,and a clamour went up to heaven. The dog trotted up suspiciously as ifto enquire.

  Ralph grew excited; he scarcely knew why. He had seen hundreds of suchcrowds; it might mean anything, from a rise in butter to a declarationof war. But there was something fiercely earnest about this mob. Was theKing ill?

  He leaned further from the window and shouted; but no one paid him theslightest attention. The crowd shifted up the street, the din growingas they went; there was a sound of slammed doors; windows openedopposite and heads craned out. Something was shouted up and the headsdisappeared.

  Ralph sprang back from the window, as more and more surged into sight;he went to his door, glancing at his papers as he ran across; unlockedthe door; listened a moment; went on to the landing and shouted for aservant.

  There was a sound of footsteps and voices below; the men were alreadyalert, but no answer came to his call. He shouted again.

  "Who is there? Find out what the disturbance means."

  There was an answer from one of his men; and the street door opened andclosed. Again he ran to the window, and saw his man run out without hisdoublet across the court, and seize a woman by the arm.

  He waited in passionate expectancy; saw him drop the woman's arm andturn to another; and then run swiftly back to the house.

  There was something sinister in the man's very movements across thatlittle space; he ran desperately, with his head craning forward; once hestumbled; once he glanced up at his master; and Ralph caught a sight ofhis face.

  Ralph was on the landing as the steps thundered upstairs, and met him atthe head of the flight.

  "Speak man; what is it?"

  The servant lifted a face stamped with terror, a couple of feet belowRalph's.

  "They--they say--"

  "What is it?"

  "They say that the King's archers are about my Lord Essex's house."

  Ralph drew a swift breath.

  "Well?"

  "And that my Lord was arrested at the Council to-day."

  Ralph turned, and in three steps was in his room again. The key clackedin the lock.