Constance Sherwood: An Autobiography of the Sixteenth Century

wasmurthered, the heretics came to her and said that unless she would goto the church, her mother should be put to death. The child, thinkingto save the life of her who had given her birth, went to a sermon, andthus they deceived her."

  "God forgive them!" my father ejaculated; and I, creeping to mymother's side, threw my arms about her neck, upon which she, caressingme, said:

  "Now thou wilt be up to their deceits, Conny, if they should practicethe same arts on thee."

  "Mother," I cried, clinging to her, "I will go with thee to prison andto death; but to their church I will not go who love not our BlessedLady."

  "So help thee God!" my father cried, and laid his hand on my head.

  "Take heart, good Mrs. Sherwood," Mr. Mush said to my mother, who wasweeping; "God may spare you such trials as those which that sweetsaint rejoiced in, or he can give you a like strength to hers. We haveneed in these times to bear in mind that comfortable saying of holywrit, 'As your day shall your strength be.'"

  "'Tis strange," my father observed, "how these present troubles seemto awake the readiness, nay the wish, to suffer for truth's sake. Itis like a new sense in a soul heretofore but too prone to eschewsuffering of any sort: 'tis even as the keen breezes of our ownCannock Chase stimulate the frame to exertions which it would shrinkfrom in the duller air of the Trent Valley."

  "Ah! and is it even so with you, my friend?" exclaimed Mr. Mush. "Frommy heart I rejoice at it: such thoughts are oftentimes forerunners ofGod's call to a soul marked out for his special service."

  My mother, against whom I was leaning since mention had been made ofMrs. Clitherow's daughter, began to tremble; and rising said she wouldgo to the chapel to prepare for confession. Taking me by the hand, shemounted the stairs to the room which was used as such since theancient faith had been proscribed. One by one that night we knelt atthe feet of the good shepherd, who, like his Lord, was ready to laydown his life for his sheep, and were shriven. Then, at two of theclock, mass was said, and my parents and most of our servantsreceived, and likewise some neighbors to whom notice had been sent insecret of Mr. Mush's coming. When my mother returned from the altar toher seat, I marvelled at the change in her countenance. She who hadbeen so troubled before the coming of the Heavenly Guest into herbreast, wore now so serene and joyful an aspect, that the looking uponher at that time wrought in me a new and comfortable sense of thegreatness of that divine sacrament. I found not the thought of deathfrighten me then; for albeit on that night I for the first time fullyarrived at the knowledge of the peril and jeopardy in which theCatholics of this land do live; nevertheless this knowledge awoke inme more exultation than fear. I had seen precautions used, andreserves maintained, of which I now perceived the cause. For some timepast my parents had prepared the way for this no-longer-to-be-deferredenlightenment. The small account they had taught me to make of thewealth and comforts of this perishable world, and the histories theyhad recounted to me of the sufferings of Christians in the early timesof the Church, had been directed unto this end. They had, as it were,laid the wood on the altar of my heart, which they prayed might oneday burn into a flame. And now when, by reason of the discourseI had heard touching Mrs. Clitherow's blessed but painful end forharboring of priests in her house, and the presence of one under ourroof, I took heed that the danger had come nigh unto our own doors, myheart seemed to beat with a singular joy. Childhood sets no greatstore on life: the passage from this world to the next is not terribleto such as have had no shadows cast on their paths by their own orothers' sins. Heaven is not a far-off region to the pure in heart; butrather a home, where God, as St. Thomas sings,

  "Vitam sine termino Nobis donet in patria."

  But, ah me! how transient are the lights and shades which flit acrossthe childish mind! and how mutable the temper of youth, never longimpressed by any event, however grave! Not many days after Mr. Mush'svisit to our house, another letter from the Countess of Surrey cameinto my hand, and drove from my thoughts for the time all but thematters therein disclosed.

  "SWEET MISTRESS CONSTANCE" (my lady wrote),--"In my last letter I made mention, in an obscure fashion, of a secret which my lord had told me touching a matter of great weight which Higford, his grace's steward, had let out to him; and now that the whole world is speaking of what was then in hand, and that troubles have come of it, I must needs relieve my mind by writing thereof to her who is the best friend I have in the world, if I may judge by the virtuous counsel and loving words her letters do contain. 'Tis like you have heard somewhat of that same matter, Mistress Constance; for much talk has been ministered anent it since I wrote, amongst people of all sorts, and with various intents to the hindering or the promoting thereof. I mean touching the marriage of his grace the Duke of Norfolk with the Queen of Scots, which is much desired by some, and very little wished for by others. My lord, as is reasonable in one of his years and of so noble a spirit, and his sister, who is in all things the counterpart of her brother, have set their hearts thereon since the first inkling they had of it; for this queen had so noted a fame for her excellent beauty and sweet disposition that it has wrought in them an extraordinary passionate desire to title her mother, and to see their father so nobly mated, though not more than he deserves; for, as my lord says, his grace's estate in England is worth little less than the whole realm of Scotland, in the ill state to which the wars have reduced it; and when he is in his own tennis-court at Norwich, he thinks himself as great as a king.

  "As a good wife, I should wish as my lord does; and indeed this marriage, Mistress Constance, would please me well; for the Queen of Scots is Catholic, and methinks if his grace were to wed her, there might arise some good out of it to such as are dependent on his grace touching matters of religion; and since Mr. Martin has gone beyond seas, 'tis very little I hear in this house but what is contrary to the teaching I had at my grandmother's. My lord saith this queen's troubles will be ended if she doth marry his grace, for so Higford has told him; but when I spoke thereof to my Lady Lumley, she prayed God his grace's might not then begin, but charged me to be silent thereon before my Lord Arundel, who has greatly set his heart on this match. She said words were in every one's mouth concerning this marriage which should never have been spoken of but amongst a few. 'Nan,' quoth she, 'if Phil and thou do let your children's tongues wag anent a matter which may well be one of life and death, more harm may come of it than can well be thought of.' So prithee, Mistress Constance, do you be silent as the grave on what I have herein written, if so be you have not heard of it but from me. My lord had a quarrel with my Lord Essex, who is about his own age, anent the Queen of Scots, a few days since, when he came to spend his birthday with him; for my lord was twelve years old last week, and I gave him a fair jewel to set in his cap, for a love-token and for remembrance. My lord said that the Queen of Scots was a lady of so great virtue and beauty that none else could be compared with her; upon which my lord of Essex cried it was high treason to the queen's majesty to say so, and that if her grace held so long a time in prison one who was her near kinswoman, it was by reason of her having murthered her husband and fomented rebellion in this kingdom of England, for the which she did deserve to be extremely used. My lord was very wroth at this, and swore he was no traitor, and that the Queen of Scots was no murtheress, and he would lay down his head on the block rather than suffer any should style her such; upon which my lord of Essex asked, 'Prithee, my Lord Surrey, were you at Thornham last week when the queen's majesty was on a visit to your grandfather, my Lord Arundel?' 'No,' cried my lord, 'your lordship being there yourself in my Lord Leicester's suite, must needs have noticed I was absent; for if I had been present, methinks 'tis I and not your lordship would have waited behind her majesty's chair at table and held a napkin to her.' 'And if you had, my lord,' quoth my Lord Essex, waxing hot in his speech, 'you would have noticed how her grace's majesty gave a nip to his grace your father, who was sitting by her side, and said she would have
him take heed on what pillow he rested his head.' 'And I would have you take heed,' cries my lord, 'how you suffer your tongue to wag in an unseemly manner anent her grace's majesty and his grace my father and the Queen of Scots, who is kinswoman to both, and even now a prisoner, which should make men careful how they speak of her who cannot speak in her own cause; for it is a very inhuman part, my lord, to tread on such as misfortune has cast down.' There was a nobleness in these words such as I have often taken note of in my lord, though so young, and which his playmate yielded to; so that nothing more was said at that time anent those matters, which indeed do seem too weighty