Emily Sarah Holt

“ Mr Marshall was too much at home in the White Bear to need announcement. He tapped softly at the parlour door, and opened it. “Mrs Gertrude, I don’t care who saith it! it’s a wicked heresy!” were the first words he heard, in the blunt tones of Temperance Murthwaite. “And it’s not true to say we Puritans teach any such thing. It’s a calumny and a heresy both.—Mr Marshall, I’m fain to see you. Do, pray you, tell this young gentlewoman we hold not that if a man but believe in the merits of Christ, he may live as he list, and look for Heaven in the end. ’Tis a calumny, I say—a wicked calumny!” ”

“ Now, Aubrey, what is thy wish?”
“I would like to be a rich king,” said he. “Were I a fairy queen, Aubrey, I would not give thee thy wish: for thou couldst scarce make a worser. ‘They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare,’ and they that seek power be little behind them. ‘Godliness is great riches,’ lad, ‘if a man be content with that he hath.’”
“Methinks, Aunt, that is one of your favourite texts,” remarked Edith.
“Ay,” said she, “it is. ‘Enough is as good as a feast.’ Hans, ’tis thy turn.” ”

“ Who art thou, my maid?”
“I am Lettice Murthwaite, Madam, if you please.”
“My dear heart, I do not please to be called Madam. I am thine Aunt Joyce. Come here and kiss me, if thou wilt.”
Lettice knelt down by the couch, and kissed the old lady.
“There is not much of Nell here, Lettice,” said Joyce to Lady Louvaine. “’Tis her father the child is like. Now then, which of these two lads is Aubrey—he with the thinking brow, or he with the restless eyes?”
Lady Louvaine called Aubrey, and he came up.
“Why, thou art like nobody,” said Aunt Joyce. “Neither Ned nor Faith, nor any of Ned’s elders. ”

“ Temperance laughed merrily, and Aubrey looked disconcerted.
“I think I care not much to be beautiful, Aunt, nor rich,” said Lettice: “only sufficient to be not uncomely nor tried of poverty. But so far as I myself can tell what I do most desire is to know things—all things that ever there be to know. I would like that, I think, above all.”
“To know God and all good things were a very good and wise wish, Lettice,” was Aunt Joyce’s answer; “but to know evil things, this was the very blunder that our mother Eve made in Eden. ”

“ At length, suddenly, the question was asked—
“Whence came you, Edith?”
“From Mere Lea, whither I have been with Mother and Aubrey, to say farewell.”
“And for why came you hither? Not to say farewell, I reckon.”
“Nay,” replied Edith, smiling. “I thought I might somewhat help you, Temperance. We must all try to spare poor Faith.”
“Spare poor Faith!” repeated Temperance, in a sarcastic tone. “Tell you what, Edith Louvaine,—if you’d think a bit less of sparing her, and she’d think a bit more of sparing you, it would be a sight better for poor Faith and poor Edith too.” ”

“ Temperance shut the door, and they heard her quick foot tread sharply down the gravel walk.
“I say, ’tis jolly moving house, isn’t it?” said Aubrey.
“I can’t think why Aunt Temperance supposes that Grandmother or any body should want comforting.”
“Well, we are young, and she is old,” replied Lettice; “I suppose old folks care more about those things, perhaps.”
“Oh, ’tis but because they are lazy and have the rheumatism,” said Aubrey, laughing. “Beside, Grandmother cares not about things like Mother. Mother’s for ever fretting, but Grandmother’s always cheery.” ”

“ It were a deal better so than for the lad to fetch home some fine town madam that should trouble herself with his mother and grandmother but as the cuckoo with the young hedge-sparrows in his foster-mother’s nest. She’s a downright good maid, Agnes, and she is bounden to your mother and yon, and so is her father: and though, if Selwick were to turn you forth, your home is at Minster Lovel, as my child here knows,”—and Aunt Joyce laid her hand lovingly on that of Edith—“yet while we be here in this short wilderness journey, ’tis best not to fall out by the way. ”

“ It is all so queer! Aunt Edith, they think the world is something good. And they want me to paint my face. And they call Aunt Temperance ‘Starch.’ And they say I am only two years old. And they purse up their faces, and look as if it were something strange, if I quote the Bible. And they talk about being married as if it must happen, whether you would or not, and as if it were the only thing worth thinking about. And they seemed to think it was quite delightful to have a lot of gentlemen bowing at yon, and saying all sorts of silly things, and I thought it was horrid. ”

“ She greeted each of them lovingly until Aubrey came to her. Then she said, playfully yet meaningly,—“Who is this?”
“Aunt Joyce,” replied Aubrey, as he bent down to kiss her, “shall I say, ‘A penitent fool?’”
“Nay, my lad,” was the firm answer. “A fool is never a penitent, nor a penitent a fool. The fool hath been: let the penitent abide.”
“This is our dear, kind friend, Mr Marshall, Joyce,” said Lady Louvaine. “He is so good as to come with us, and be our chaplain at Selwick: and here is his daughter.” ”

“ Agnes looked up with amused surprise.
“Truly,” she said, “I never thought about it.”
“I am sure I could not work at it ten minutes,” replied Aubrey.
Agnes laughed—a low, soft, musical laugh, which struck pleasantly on the ear.
“My father would be ill off for shirts if I could not,” she answered. “You see, Mr Louvaine, things have to be done. ’Tis to no good purpose to be impatient with them. It doth but weary more the worker, and furthers not the work a whit.” ”

“ Worst of all, and beyond all, were two better feelings—the honest affection which Aubrey had scarcely realised before that he entertained for Thomas Winter, and the shock and pain of his miserable fate: and even beyond this, a sense of humiliation, very wholesome yet very distressing, at the folly of his course, and the wreck which he had made of his life. How complete a wreck it was he had not discovered even now: but that he had been very foolish, he knew in his inmost heart. And when a man is just making that valuable discovery is not the best time for other men to tell him of it. ”

“ He has three sisters,—I saw not the other two; but I say, that Dorothy’s a beauty!”
“Well!” replied Temperance. “Folks say, ‘As mute as a fish’; but it seems to me the Golden Fish is well-nigh as talkative as the Angel. Mind thy ways, Aubrey, and get not thyself into no tanglements with no Dorothys. It shall be time enough for thee to wed ten years hence.”
“And have a care that Mr Rookwood be himself an upright and God-fearing man,” added his Aunt Edith.
“Oh, he’s all right!” answered Aubrey, letting Dorothy go by. “He saith he can hit a swallow flying at eighty paces.” ”

“ Mr Thomas Rookwood, whose brain was as sharp as a needle, guessed the situation in a moment, and with much amusement, from a glance at Aubrey’s face. He, of course, at once recognised Hans, and was at least as well aware as either that Hans represented the forces of law and order, and subordination to lawful authority, while Aubrey stood as the representative of the grand principle that every man should do what is right in his own eyes. ”

“ He told me to my face that a Papist was better than a Puritan. ‘Well, Mr Twinham,’ said I, ‘you may be a Papist, but I am a Puritan, and there I tarry till I find somewhat better.’”
“Why, Joyce!” said Lady Louvaine, smiling, “thou wert not wont to call thyself a Puritan, in the old days when thou and Bess Wolvercot used to pick a crow betwixt you over Dr Meade’s surplice at Keswick.”
“No, I wasn’t,” said she. “But I tell you, Lettice, there be things human nature cannot bear. A clean white surplice and Christ’s Gospel is one thing, and a purple vestment and an other Gospel is another. ”

“ I am ready to promise that.”
“That’s not much to promise,” commented Temperance.
“It is enough,” said Lady Louvaine, quietly.
An hour later, when Aubrey was gone, Faith asked rather complainingly what had induced Lady Louvaine to limit the promise to a month.
“I cannot tell thee, Faith,” was the answer. “Something seemed to whisper within me that if the lad would promise that, he would be safe. It may be no more than an old woman’s fantasy; and even so, no harm is done. Or it might be that God spake to me—and if thus, let us obey His voice. He knows what He will do, and what men will do.” ”

“ The man whom Christ hath saved, it is most true, hath no need to save himself. But hath he no need to save others? hath he no need to honour Christ? hath he no need to show forth to angels and to men his unity with Christ, the oneness of his will with His, the love wherewith Christ’s love constraineth him? You mix up justification and sanctification, as though they were but one. Justification is the washing of the soul from sin; sanctification is the dressing of the soul for Heaven. Sanctification is not a thing you do for God; ’tis a thing God doth in you. ”

“ Before this was ready, Catesby and John Wright took Robert Winter aside, and tried hard to induce him to write to his father-in-law, attempting to draw him into the now almost hopeless rebellion.
“There is no remedy, Robin,” said John Wright, “but thou must write a letter to thy father Talbot, to see if thou canst therewith draw him unto us.”
“Nay, that will I not,” was the determined answer.
“Robin, you must,” said Catesby.
“My masters, ye know not my father Talbot so well as I,” replied Robin Winter. “All the world cannot draw him from his allegiance. ”

“ It cost Hans much to allow any one a glimpse into his heart; it cost Aubrey nothing. But, as is often the case, the guarded chamber contained rare treasure, while in the open one there was nothing to guard.
“Thou art a good lad!” said Aubrey again, in a slightly ashamed tone, as he took the offered hand. “Truly, Hans, I was after none ill, only—well, I hate to be watched and dogged, or aught like thereto.”
“Who does not?” replied Hans. “And in truth likewise, I was but coming home, and spake my astonishment at seeing you.”
“We are friends, then?”
“God forbid we should ever be any thing else! ”

“ He that leaps into a volcano, counting it but a puddle, shall not find it a puddle, but a volcano. You have played with firebrands, Mr Louvaine, and must not marvel nor grumble to feel the scorching of your fingers.”
Aubrey’s silence was the issue of sheer despair.
“You must leave this house to-day,” said the Countess firmly, “and not as though you went on a journey. Go forth this afternoon, as for a walk of pleasure, and carrying nothing save what you can put in your pockets. When you have set a few miles betwixt yourself and the town, you may then hire an horse, and ride quickly. ”

“ I desire to do God’s will, and to be content therewith.”
“Angels could win no further,” answered Aunt Joyce, with much feeling in her voice. “Ay, lad; thou hast flown at highest game of all.”
“Why, Aunt!” said Aubrey, “never heard I a meaner wish. Any man could do that.”
“Prithee do it, then,” replied Aunt Joyce, “and I for one shall be full fain to see thee.”
“No man ever yet fulfilled that wish,” added Edith, “save only Christ our Lord.”
Lady Louvaine sighed somewhat heavily; and Joyce asked, “What is it, dear heart?” ”

“ Whose is it?”
“’Tis my Lord Dilston’s, that hath most kindly proffered it to Mother for the journey,” replied Edith. “We had settled that we four, with Lettice, should journey therein; but if you would rather be on horseback, Temperance—”
“That would I, by ten mile,” said she. “I hate being cooped up in a four-post bed, with all the curtains drawn; and that lumbering thing’s no better. Faith’ll go, I don’t doubt; any thing that’s a bit smart and showy!! take her: and Lettice may please herself. I dare say the child will have a fantasy to ride in a caroche for once in her life.” ”

“ As the door shut upon the aunt and niece, the former said, as if to the sister left behind in the parlour—
“A poor widow! Ay, forsooth, poor soul, that you are! for you have made of your widowhood so black a pall that you cannot see God’s blue sky through it. Dear heart, but why ever they called her Faith, and me Temperance! I’ve well-nigh as little temperance as she has faith, and neither of them would break a cat’s back.” ”

“ You, ’tis true, have my Lord Northumberland behind you, but how long time may he tarry? Were he to die, or to take pepper in the nose, where then are we? All is naught with us at once, being all but mean men of estate.”
“My cousin of Northumberland is not like to play that prank, or I err,” answered Percy, who well knew that Lord Northumberland was not in all cases cognisant of the use made of his name by this very worthy cousin: “as to death, of course that may hap,—we are all prone to be tumbled out of the world at short notice. ”

“ But my Aubrey’s wish was something like Hans’s, for he said he desired to be an angel. Ah me! nigh sixty years!”
“He hath his wish,” responded Aunt Joyce softly. “And methinks Hans is like to have his also, so far as mortal man may compass it. There be some wishes, children, that fulfil themselves: and aspirations after God be of that sort. ‘He meeteth them that remember Him.’ Lettice, I trust thou mayest have thy wish to a reasonable length, so far as is good for thee: and, Aubrey, I can but desire the disappointment of thine, for it were very evil for thee. ”

“ Hans looked, as he felt, honestly surprised. It was his nature to remember vividly benefits received, but to forget those which he conferred.
“Dost thou not know?” said Aubrey, reading the look. “After my unworthy conduct toward thee, that thou shouldst take my debts upon thine own—”
“Prithee, shut thy mouth,” answered Hans with a laugh, “and make me not to blush by blowing the trumpet over that which but gave me a pleasure. I ensure thee, my brother,” he added more gravely, “that I had a sufficiency to cover all was a true contentment unto me. ”

“ My boy, Mr Percy is a Popish recusant, and there is much fear of Mr Catesby likewise.”
“Not all recusants are bad men, I hope,” answered Aubrey evasively, as if he were unwilling to respond by a direct promise to that effect.
“I hope likewise: but some are, as we know. And when innocent men be drawn in with bad men, ’tis often found that the bad slip forth unhurt, and leave the innocent to abide the hazard. Promise me, Aubrey, that thou wilt haunt (visit) these men’s company no longer.” ”

“ Lady Oxford turned with a smile to Temperance.
“It seems to me, Mrs Temperance, that your words be something sharp.”
“Well, Madam, to tell truth, folks do put me out now and again more than a little. Many’s the time I long to give Faith a good shaking; and I could have laid a stick on Aubrey’s back middling often,—I’ll not say I couldn’t: but if the lad sees his blunders and is sorry for ’em, I’ll put my stick in the corner.”
“I think I would leave it tarry there for the present,” said Lady Oxford, with a soft little laugh. “God grant you a good even!” ”

“ It might be a pavior, a pear-monger, or a Papist. Hans was silent until Aubrey had again spoken, which he did in a hard, constrained tone.
“I shall go where I please, without asking your leave or any body’s else! I am of age, and I have been tied quite long enough to the apron-strings of a parcel of women: but I mean not to cut myself loose from them, only to pass under guidance of a silly lad that hath never a spark of spirit in him, and would make an old woman of me if I gave him leave.” ”

“ The four prisoners who were now to suffer were, the priests excepted, the most guilty of those left alive. They were drawn from the Tower on hurdles, as was usual. As they passed along the Strand, from an open window the beautiful Elizabeth Rookwood called to her husband—
“Ambrose, be of good courage! Thou art to suffer for a great and noble cause.”
Raising himself from the hurdle as well as he could, Rookwood answered, “My dear, pray for me.”
“I will, I will!” she cried. “And do you offer yourself with a good heart to God and your Creator. ”

“ These were Percy, the Wrights, and Rookwood, Keyes having left them on the way.
“Lost, lost!” cried impetuous Percy, as he came, booted, spurred, and covered with mud, into the very neat drawing-room where Lady Catesby and her young daughter Elizabeth were engaged on their embroidery. “All is lost! the whole plot discovered. I cast no doubt proclamations shall be out by morning light to seize us all, with a full relation how short or how long we be.” ”

“ Men are apt to look on their souls not as themselves, but as a sort of sacred possession, a rich jewel to be worn on Sundays, and carefully put up in cotton-wool for the rest of the week—of immense value, theoretically, of course, yet not at all the same thing as the “me” which is the centre of sensation to each one, and for which every man will give all that he hath. The mountain was terribly steep, but Aubrey climbed it—only God knew with how much inward suffering, and with how many fervent prayers. ”

“ I am informed of my Lord of Tobago here that all the gentlemen of the Court do use to perfume their velvets with it.”
“Well, I can tell you of two which so do,” said Aubrey in a nettled fashion—“my Lord of Northumberland and Sir Walter Raleigh: and you’ll not call them fools, Aunt Temperance.”
“I’ll give you a bit of advice, Mr Louvaine: and that is, not to lay your week’s wages out in wagers what I shall do. I call any man fool that is given to folly: and as to this filthy business, I should scarce stick at the King’s Majesty himself.” ”

“ Now came Temperance with her market-basket, and she had to be told. Her first thought was of a practical nature, but it was not Aubrey.
“Dear heart, you say not so? How ever am I to get to market? Lancaster and Derby! but I would those Papist companions were swept clean away out of the realm. I don’t believe there’s a loyal man amongst ’em!”
“Nay, Temperance, we know not yet if they be Papists.”
“Know not if they be! Why, of course they are!” was the immediate decision of Temperance. “What else can they be? There’s none other sort ill enough to hammer such naughty work out of their fantasy. ”

“ And if any of you gentlewomen should have a liking to look in—”
“Nay, the girls should count us spoil-sports,” said Edith, laughingly.
“Now come, Mrs Edith! ’tis not so long since you were a young maid.”
“Twelve good years, Mrs Rookwood: as long, pretty nigh, as Hester Abbott has been in the world.”
“Eh, but years don’t go for much, not with some folks.”
“Not with them that keep the dew of their youth,” said Lady Louvaine with a smile. “But to do that, friend, a woman should dwell very near to Him who only hath immortality.” ”

“ Justification was wrought by Christ for us; sanctification is wrought by the Holy Ghost in us. Justification was completed on Calvary; sanctification is not finished so long as we be in this life, Justification is quick and lively; the moment my faith toucheth the work of Christ for me, that moment am I fully justified, and for ever. Sanctification is slow, and groweth like a plant. I am as entirely justified as I ever shall be, but I am not as sanctified as I ever shall be. ”