every friend known and affectioned in our young years; but that deepest, holiest love, the type of Christ's union with hisChurch, still doth shed its light over the evening of life. My dearBasil, I am assured, thinks me as fair as when we did sit togetherfishing on the banks of the Ouse; and his hoary head and witheredcheeks are more lovely in mine eyes than ever were his auburn locksand ruddy complexion. One of us must needs die before the other,unless we should be so happy that that good should befal us as to endour days as two aged married persons I have heard of. It was thehusband's custom, as soon as ever he unclosed his eyes, to ask hiswife how she did; but one night, he being in a deep sleep, she quietlydeparted toward the morning. He was that day to have gone outa-hunting, and it was his custom to have his chaplain pray with himbefore he went out. The women, fearful to surprise him with the illnews, had stolen out and acquainted the chaplain, desiring him toinform him of it. But the gentleman waking did not on that day, as washis custom ask for his wife, but called his chaplain to prayers, and,joining with him, in the midst of the prayer expired, and both wereburied in the same grave. Methinks this should be a very desirableend, only, if it pleased God, I would wish to have the lastsacraments, and then to die just before Basil, when his time cometh.But God knoweth best; and any ways we are so old and so near of anage, one cannot tarry very long behind when the other is gone.
Being at rest after our marriage touching what concerned ourselves,compassion for Lady Arundel filled our hearts. Alas! how bravely andhow sweetly she bore this parting grief. Her intense love for herlord, and sorrow at their approaching separation, struggled with herresolve not to sadden their last hours, which were prolonged beyondexpectancy. For once on that day, and twice on that which followed,when all was made ready for departure, a message came from the captainfor to say the wind, and another time the tide, would not serve; andalbeit each time, like a reprieved person, Lady Arundel welcomed thedelay, methinks these retardments served to increase her sufferings.Little Bess hung fondly on her father's neck the last time he returnedfrom Littlehampton with the tidings the vessel would not sail for somehours, kissing his face and playing with his beard.
"Ah, dearest Phil!" her mother cried, "the poor babe rejoiceth in thesight of thee, all unwitting in her innocent glee of the shortness ofthis joy. Howsoever, methinks five or six hours of it is a boon for tothank God for;" and so putting her arm in his, she led him away to asolitary part of the garden, where they walked to and fro, she, as shehath since written to me, starting each time the clock did strike,like one doomed to execution. Methinks there was this differencebetween them, that he was full of hope and bright forecastings of aspeedy reunion; but on her soul lay a dead, mournful despondency,which she hid by an apparent calmness. When, late in the evening, athird message came for to say the ship could not depart that night, Ibegun to think it would never go at all. I saw Basil looked at theweathercock and shrugged his shoulders, as if the same thought was inhis mind. But when I spake of it, he said seafaring folks had aknowledge in these matters which others did not possess, and we mustneeds be patient under these delays. Howsoever, at three o'clock inthe morning the shipman signified that the wind was fit and all inreadiness. So we rose in haste and prepared for to depart. Thecountess put her arms about my neck, and this was the last embrace Iever had of her. My lord's brother and sisters hung about him awhilein great grief. Then his wife put out her hands to him, and, with asorrow too deep for speech, fixed her eyes on his visage.
"Cheep up, sweetest wife," I heard him say. "Albeit nature suffers inthis severance from my native land, my true home shall be wherever itshall please God to bring thee and me and our children together. Goddefend the loss of this world's good should make us sad, if we be butonce so blessed as to meet again where we may freely serve him."
Then, after a long and tender clasping of her to his breast, he torehimself away and getting on a horse rode to the coast. Basil and I,with Mr. William Bray and Mr. Burlace, drove in a coach to the port.It was yet dark, and a heavy mist hung on the valley. Folks were yetabed, and the shutters of the houses closed, as we went down the hillthrough the town. After crossing the bridge over the Arun the air feltcold and chill. At the steep ascent near Leominster I put my head outof the window for to look once more at the castle, but the fog was toothick. At the port the coach stopped, and a boat was found waiting forus. Lord Arundel was seated in it, with his face muffled in a cloak.The savor of the sea air revived my spirits; and when the boat movedoff, and I felt the waves lifting it briskly, and with my hand inBasil's I looked on the land we were leaving, and then on the wateryworld before us, a singular emotion filled my soul, as if it was somesort of death was happening to me--a dying to the past, a gliding onto an unknown future on a pathless ocean, rocked peacefully in thearms of his sheltering love, even as this little bark which carried usalong was lifted up and caressed by the waves of the deep sea.
When we reached the vessel the day was dawning. The sun soon emergedfrom a bank of clouds, and threw its first light on the ripplingwaters. A favoring wind filled our sails, and like a bird on the wingthe ship bounded on its way till the flat shore at Littlehampton andthe far-off white cliffs to the eastward were well-nigh lost sight of.Lord Arundel stood with Basil on the narrow deck, gazing at thereceding coast.
"How sweet the air doth blow from England!" he said; "how blue the skydoth appear to-day! and those saucy seagulls how free and happy theydo look!" Then he noticed some fishing-boats, and with a telescope hehad in his hand discerned various ships very far off. Afterward hecame and sat down by my side, and spoke in a cheerful manner of hiswife and the simple home he designed for her abroad. "Some years ago,Mistress Constance," he said--and then smiling, added, "My tongue isnot yet used to call you Mistress Rookwood--when my sweet Nan, albeita wife, was yet a simple child, she was wont to say, 'Phil, would wewere farmers! You would plough the fields and cut wood in the forest,and I should milk the cows and feed the poultry.' Well, methinks herwish may yet come to pass. In Brittany or Normandy some littlehomestead should shelter us, where Bess shall roll on the grass andgather the fallen apples, and on Sundays put on her bravest clothesfor to go to mass. What think you thereof, Mistress Constance? and whoknoweth but you and your good husband may also dwell in the samevillage, and some eighteen or twenty years hence a gay wedding for totake place betwixt one Master Rookwood and one Lady Ann or MargaretHoward, or my Lord Maltravers with one Mistress Constance or MurielRookwood? And on the green on such a day, Nan and Basil and you and Ishould lead the brawls."
"Methinks, my lord," I answered, smiling, "you do forecast too great acondescension on your part, and too much ambition on our side, in theplanning of such a union."
"Well, well," he said; "if your good husband carrieth not beyond seaswith him the best earl's title in England, I'll warrant you in God'ssight he weareth a higher one far away--the merit of anunstained life and constant nobility of action; and I promise you,beside, he will be the better farmer of the twain; so that in thematter of tocher, Mistress Rookwood should exceed my Lady Bess or AnnHoward."
With such-like talk as this time was whiled away; and whilst we wereyet conversing I noticed that Basil spoke often to the captain andlooked for to be watching a ship yet at some distance, but whichseemed to be gaining on us. Lord Arundel, perceiving it, then alsojoined them, and inquired what sort of craft it should be. The captainprofessed to be ignorant thereof; and when Basil said it looked like asmall ship-of-war, and as there were many dangerous pirates about theChannel it should be well to guard against it, he assented thereto,and said he was prepared for defence.
"With such unequal means," Basil replied, "as it is like we shouldbring to a contest, speed should serve us better than defence."
"But," quoth Lord Arundel, "she is, 'tis plain, a swifter sailer thanthis one we are in. God's will be done, but 'tis a heavy misfortune ifa pirate at this time do attack us, and so few moneys with us for tospare!"
Now none of our eyes could detach themselves from this pursuingvessel. The capt
ain eluded further talk, on pretence for to giveorders and move some guns he had aboard on deck; but it was vain forto think of a handful of men untrained to sea-warfare encountering asuperior force, such as this ship must possess, if its designs shouldbe hostile. As it moved nigher to us, we could perceive it to be wellmanned and armed. And the captain then exclaimed:
"'Tis Keloway's ship!"
This man was of a notorious, infamous life, well known for hissea-robberies and depredations in the Channel.
"God yield," murmured the earl, "he shall content himself with thesmall sum we can deliver to him and not stay us any further."
A moment afterward we were boarded by this man, who, with his crew,thrice as numerous as ours and armed to the