an unremitting attendance on his part on allpublic occasions, and jealously noted every absence he made fromLondon. Each interview between this now loving husband and wife was abrief space of perfect contentment to both, and a respite from themany cares and troubles which did continually increase upon him; forthe great change in his manner of life had bred suspicion in the mindsof some courtiers and potent men, who therefore began to think himwhat he was indeed, but of which no proof could be alleged.
During the year which followed these haps mine aunt died, and Mr.Congleton sold his house in Ely Place, and took a small one in Gray'sInn Lane, near to Mr. Wells's and Mr. Lacy's. It had no garden, northe many conveniences the other did afford; but neither Muriel normyself did lament the change, for the vicinity of these good friendsdid supply the place of other advantages; and it also liked me more,whilst Basil lived in poverty abroad, to inhabit a less sumptuousabode than heretofore, and dispense with accustomed luxuries. OfHubert I could hear but scanty tidings at that time--only that he hadeither lost or resigned his place at court? Mr. Hodgson was told byone who had been his servant that he had been reconciled; others saidhe did lead a very disordered life, and haunted bad persons. The truthor falsity of these statements I could not then discern; but methinks,from what I have since learnt, both might be partly true; for hebecame subject to fits of gloom, and so discomfortable a remorse asalmost unsettled his reason; and then, at other times, plunged intoworldly excesses for to drown thoughts of the past. He was frightened,I ween, or leastways distrustful of the society of good men, butconsorted with Catholics of somewhat desperate character and fortunes,and such as dealt in plots and treasonable schemes.
Father Campion's arrest for a very different cause--albeit his enemiesdid seek to attach to him the name traitor--occurred this year atMrs. Yates's house in Worcestershire, and consternated thehearts of all recusants; but when he came to London, and speech washad of him by many amongst them which gained access to him in prison,and reported to others his great courage and joyfulness in the midstof suffering, then, methinks, a contagious spirit spread amongstCatholics, and conversions followed which changed despondency intorejoicing. But I will not here set down the manner of his trial, northe wonderful marks of patience and constancy which he showed undertorments and rackings, nor his interview with her majesty at my lordLeicester's house, nor the heroic patience of his death; for otherswith better knowledge thereof, and pens more able for to do it, havewritten this martyr's life and glorious end. But I will rather relatesuch events as took place, as it were, under mine own eye, and whichare not, I ween, so extensively known. And first, I will speak of aconversation I held at that time with a person then a stranger, andtherefore of no great significancy when it occurred, but which laterdid assume a sudden importance, when it became linked with succeedingevents.
One day that I was visiting at Lady Ingoldsby's, where Polly and herhusband had come for to spend a few weeks, and much company was goingin and out, the faces and names of which were new to me, somegentlemen came there whose dress attracted notice from the Frenchfashion thereof. One of them was a young man of very comely appearanceand pleasant manners, albeit critical persons might have judgedsomewhat of' the bravado belonged to his attitudes and speeches, butwithal tempered with so much gentleness and courtesy, that no soonerhad the eye and mind taken note of the defect than the judgment wasrepented of. What in one of less attractive face and behavior shouldhave displeased, in this youth did not offend. It was my hap to sitbeside him at supper, which lasted a long time; and as his behaviorwas very polite, I freely conversed with him, and found him to beEnglish, though from long residence abroad his tongue had acquired aforeign trick. When I told him I had thought he was a Frenchman, helaughed, and said if the French did ever try to land in England, theyshould find him to be a very Englishman for to fight against them; butin the matter of dinners and beds, and the liking of a dear sunny skyover above a dim cloudy one, he did confess himself to be so much of atraitor as to prefer France to England, and he could not abide thesmoke of coal fires which are used in this country.
"And what say you, sir," I answered, "to the new form of smoke whichSir Walter Raleigh hath introduced since his return from the latediscovered land of Virginia?"
He said he had learnt the use of it in France, and must needs confesshe found it to be very pleasant. Monsieur Nicot had brought some seedsof tobacco into France, and so much liking did her majesty QueenCatharine conceive for this practice of smoking, that the new plantwent by the name of the queen's herb. "It is not gentlemen alone whodo use a pipe in France," he said, "but ladies also. What doth thefair sex in England think on it?"
"I have heard," I answered, "that her majesty herself did try for tosmoke, but presently gave it up, for that it made her sick. Herhighness is also reported to have lost a wager concerning that samesmoking of tobacco."
"What did her grace bet?" the gentleman asked.
"Why, she was one day," I replied, "inquiring very exactly of thevarious virtues of this herb, and Sir Walter did assure her that noone understood them better than himself, for he was so well acquaintedwith all its qualities, that he could even tell her majesty the weightof the smoke of every pipeful he consumed. Her highness upon thissaid, 'Monsieur Traveller, you do go too far in putting on methe license which is allowed to such as return from foreign parts;'and she laid a wager of many pieces of gold he should not be able toprove his words. So he weighed in her presence the tobacco before heput it into his pipe, and the ashes after he had consumed it, andconvinced her majesty that the deficiency did proceed from theevaporation thereof. So then she paid the bet, and merrily told him'that she knew of many persons who had turned their gold into smoke,but he was the first who had turned smoke into gold.'"
The young gentleman being amused at this story, I likewise told him ofSir Walter's hap when he first returned to England, and was staying ina friend's house: how a servant coming into his chamber with a tankardof ale and nutmeg toast, and seeing him for the first time with alighted pipe in his mouth puffing forth clouds of smoke, flung the alein his face for to extinguish the internal conflagration, and thenrunning down the stairs alarmed the family with dismal cries that thegood knight was on fire, and would be burnt into ashes before theycould come to his aid.
My unknown companion laughed, and said he had once on his travels beentaken for a sorcerer, so readily doth ignorance imagine wonders. "Nearunto Metz, in France," quoth he, "I fell among thieves. My money I hadquilted within my doublet, which they took from me, howsoever leavingme the rest of my apparel, wherein I do acknowledge their courtesy,since thieves give all they take not; but twenty-five French crowns,for the worst event, I had lapped in cloth, and whereupon did winddivers-colored threads, wherein I sticked needles, as if I had been sogood a husband as to mend mine own clothes. Messieurs the thieves werenot so frugal to take my ball to mend their hose, but did tread itunder their feet. I picked it up with some spark of joy, and I and myguide (he very sad, because he despaired of my ability to pay him hishire) went forward to Chalons, where he brought me to a poorale-house, and when I expostulated, he replied that stately inns werenot for men who had never a penny in their purses; but I told him thatI looked for comfort in that case more from gentlemen than clowns;whereupon he, sighing, obeyed me, and with a dejected and fearfulcountenance brought me to the chief inn, where he ceased not to bewailmy misery as if it had been the burning of Troy; till the host,despairing of my ability to pay him, began to look disdainfully on me.The next morning, when, he being to return home, I paid him his hire,which he neither asked nor expected, and likewise mine host forlodgings and supper, he began to talk like one mad for joy, andprofessed I could not have had one penny except I were an alchemist orhad a familiar spirit."
I thanked the young gentleman for this entertaining anecdote, andasked him if France was not a very disquieted country, and nothing init but wars and fighting.
"Yea," he answered; "but men fight there so merrily, that it appearsmore a pastime than aught
else. Not always so, howsoever. WhenFrenchman meets Frenchman in the fair fields of Provence, and those ofthe League and those of the Religion--God confound the first and blessthe last!--engage in battle, such encounters ensue as have not theirmatch for fierceness in the world. By my troth, the sight of deadbodies doth not ordinarily move me; but the valley of Allemagne on theday of the great Huguenot victory was a sight the like of which Iwould not choose to look on again, an I could help it."
"Were you, then, present at that combat, sir?" I asked.
"Yea," he replied; "I was at that time with Lesdiguieres, theProtestant general, whom I had known at La Rochelle, and beshrew me ifa more valiant soldier doth live, or a worthier soul in astalwart frame. I was standing by his side when Tourves the