Robert Neilson Stephens

“ Whatever were the captain's feelings, Mistress Millicent seemed glad, or at least relieved, to be alone with him.
"I wish you joy of your coming marriage," said Ravenshaw, tentatively.
"You would as well wish me joy of my death," she replied, with a mixture of anger and forlornness.
He rose and walked over to the fireplace, near her.
"Why, 'tis true," quoth he; "when the bride is young, the arms of an old husband are a grave."
"Worse! When one is dead in one's grave, one knows nothing; but to be alive in those arms—foh!" ”

“ Jerningham shrugged his shoulders.
"It is the truth," said the captain. "Virtue beats in her heart, modesty courses with her blood, purity shines in her eyes, she is the mirror of innocence. Should you find means to try her, I swear to you the attempt would but mar her peace, and serve you nothing. Nay, even if that were not so,—if there were a chance of your enticing her,—black curses would fall upon the man by whose deed that stainless flower were smirched. Innocence robed in beauty—there's too little of it walks the world, that gentlemen should take a hand in spoiling it!" ”

“ As he ran down Friday Street, Holyday heard an increased tumult in Cheapside behind him; he knew that apprentices must be gathering from every side; Ravenshaw's position would be that of a stag surrounded by a multitude of threatening hounds. A thrown club might bring him down at any moment. The scholar, with a sudden catching at the throat, ran into the White Horse tavern, and, seizing a tapster by the arms, said hoarsely in his ear:
"The noise in Cheapside—the prentices—they will kill Ravenshaw—for God's sake, Tony!—the friend of all tapsters, he—but say not I summoned ye." ”

“ After the goldsmith had left the room, Sir Peregrine directed the conversation into such channels that Holyday was perforce out of it. The old knight evidently thought that enough talk had gone to the affairs of this young gentleman from Kent.
The scholar, wondering how matters would go, agitated within but maintaining a kind of preternatural calm without, ventured to scan Millicent's face for a sign. She was regarding him furtively, as if she apprehended, yet feared to find herself deceived; in truth, her experience with Captain Ravenshaw had made it difficult for her to hope, or trust, anew. ”

“ Talk you of manners?"
"What!—what!—what!—what!" was all the answer the amazed captain could make for the moment.
"Ay, manners, thou base, scurvy knave; thou houseless parasite, thou resuscitated starveling!—thou and thy hungry scholar!" put in Master Hawes.
"Oho! 'Tis thus? Ye think to try my swaggering lessons against me?" said the captain, springing to his feet.
"Pish! You are no better than Cutting Tom," retorted Maylands.
Ravenshaw's wrath knew no bounds. The four rebellious pupils and providers were on their feet, defiant and impudent. ”

“ A larger boat, manned with a more numerous crew, was in waiting at the western stairs. The waterman with whom Ravenshaw had bargained in the morning, making sure of Holyday's face in the light of a lantern, guided the fugitives aboard with orderly swiftness. But already the noise of pursuit was in Thames Street; ere the last man—a slim fellow with a thickly bearded face, which he carried well forward from his body—was embarked, the cries, swelling suddenly as the pursuers emerged from the narrow passage, were upon the wharf, and the red flare of torches came with them. ”

“ I take you to be a gentleman that has power in the world. I beg of you, now that the villainy has failed, deal not too hardly with us."
"It lies with yourselves. If you be minded to undo the villainy, to serve me in my protection of this maid—"
"We will, we will! and thank your good worship!" said Tom, quickly, and turned to his men with a look which elicited from them a chorus of confirmatory "ayes," supported by a variety of oaths.
"Then seize that man, till I pass with this lady," said Jerningham, in a decided tone. "To him, all of ye,—Meadows and Goodcole, too!" ”

“ Jerningham smiled with tolerant contempt. "I scarce think you will believe that, mistress," said he, lightly, "seeing how completely I am a stranger to you."
"Believe him?" she replied, scornfully. "He is the prince of cozeners; he is all made of lies and shifts. I know not how he hath come to be steward to a gentleman; belike you know not of him; perchance he hath passed upon you by another name, as he did upon us; he is Captain Ravenshaw." ”

“ The captain thought it politic to urge a scruple.
"But bethink ye," quoth he, "to be a true swaggerer is no child's play. And you are of delicate rearing, all; meant to play lutes in ladies' chambers; court buds, gallants."
"Why, then," said Maylands, "we shall be gallants and swaggerers, too; an you make swaggerers of us, we will make a gallant of you, will we not, boys?"
"Nay," replied Ravenshaw, "I have been a gallant in my time, and need but the clothes to be one again; and so does my friend here, who is a gentleman and a scholar, though out of favour with fortune. ”

“ But look you, Meg, I have no money. I have kept my word with you; I have given you a home at the Grange; 'twas all I promised."
"'Tis all I ask. But the place must be a home, not a hell. 'Tis well enough by day, and I mind not the loneness—troth, I'm glad to hide my shame. But by night 'tis fearful, with none but old Jeremy for protection, and he so feeble and such a coward. You must send a man there, you must!—a man that is able to use a sword and pistol, and not afraid."
"Why, who would go so far from the highroad to rob such a rotten husk of a house?" ”

“ Master Holyday, looking on from the fireplace, was amazed to see how much art could be displayed in what had ever seemed to him quite a simple matter. The captain went through every possible stage short of sword-thrusts; but there he stopped, saying that roaring ended where real fighting began.
"If your man has not given way by this time," said he, "and you think he may be your better with the weapons, the next thing is to come gracefully out of the quarrel, by some jest or other shift. This is what many swaggering boys do, out of fear. ”

“ Hence did Ravenshaw see in the title of "captain of the suburbs" an insult little less than lay in that of "Apple-John," or "Apple-squire," itself.
When a gentleman calls another by the name of a bad thing, it is not necessarily implied that he thinks the other is that thing; but it is certain that he means to be defiantly offensive. Therefore, in this case, the captain's part was not to deny, but to resent. Not only must he keep up his reputation with the other gentlemen as a man not to be affronted, but he really was in a towering rage at being bearded with easy temerity by such a youngling. ”

“ A sturdy blow of a staff bore down Jerningham's rapier, a filching hook tore his dagger from his other hand. Iron-shod crutches and staves rained upon the heads of Sir Clement and the other men; hooks caught their clothing, and dragged some to the floor. When at close quarters, the beggars drew their knives; the women fought like men. Millicent, separated from Jerningham in the fray, ran shrieking in the one direction open to her; this was toward the corner at the right of the front door. Ravenshaw, dashing through the confusion, placed himself triumphantly at her side. ”

“ A moment later, a head was thrust forth from the shrubbery by the gate,—the head of Master Jerningham's man Gregory, who had patiently hounded Ravenshaw all afternoon and evening, and had slipped in when Sir Peregrine had left the gate unclosed.
"Holyday, forsooth!" he went on, instantly alive to the opportunity of serving his master by shattering the falsely won confidence he saw between the maid and Ravenshaw. "You are cozened, mistress. The man's name is not Holyday; 'tis Ravenshaw—and a scurvy name he has made of it, too!" ”

“ Hollo, hollo!"
"An't please you," spoke up one of the link-boys, "while we waited yonder, the watchmen ran past us; and methought two of them dragged a man along between them; but 'twas so dark, and they went so fast—"
"Marry, that's how the wind lies," cried the captain. "Gallants, here's more business of a roaring nature. A rescue! Come, the hunt is up! To the cage, boys! We may catch 'em on the way."
Without more ado, Ravenshaw led his followers, link-boys and all, on a run toward the Poultry, leaving the grateful old gentleman in the darkness and to his own devices. ”

“ You see I bear no sword, being but a poor master of arts. None so bold of speech as the helpless, among honourable men of the sword."
"Some truth in that. Look ye, young sir, hast ever heard of one Ravenshaw, a captain, about the town here?"
"Ay, he is the loudest roarer of them all, I have heard; one whose bite is as bad as his bark, too, which is not the case with all of these braggadocios; but he is a scurvy rascal, is he not? a ragged hector of the ale-houses. Is it he you mean?" ”

“ Beshrew me, man, you may find yourself nested for life if you keep my favour. No more nakedness and starvation." Jerningham, on the eve of his long voyage, could afford any promise; besides, 'twas not impossible this redoubtable fellow might really be useful to him indefinitely, one way or another.
Ravenshaw glared at him with the tortured look of a man sorely tempted.
"Moreover," added Jerningham, "what profit can you have in any kind of virtue, when your reputation is so villainous?"
"Hang my reputation! I'll not be taken for a love-messenger. I'll help no man to any woman." ”

“ He would neither have her go free, nor taken back to her father. He thinks to find her at his mercy. But we shall outwit him, and no more fighting. 'Tis for you to—"
"One would think he was her friend," said Meg, glancing toward the captain.
"Poh! she fears him as he were the devil."
"Does he, then, desire her?" queried Meg, with a curious feigned unconcernedness of tone and look.
Jerningham regarded her with the silence of sudden discovery; then, restraining a smile, said, watchfully: "He is another's instrument, I think. Such a man's fancy would ne'er light upon a child; she is little more. ”

“ He wore silken black moustaches, and a small black beard trimmed to two points.
At the captain's words, this gentleman looked around, took full note of the speaker in a brief glance, and scarce dropping his smile,—a smile careless and serene, of heartless humour,—said, calmly:
"Stand back, knave; she is not for your eyes."
The captain had already thought of the inequality between this fragile damsel and her persecutors; despite his account against womankind, her looks and attitude had struck within him a note of compassion; and now her chief tormentor had called him a knave. ”

“ She looked all the more young, and fresh, and warm with life, for that; and when Ravenshaw glanced from her to the colourless, shrivelled old knight—from the humid rose in its first bloom, to the withered rush—he felt for an instant a choking sickness of disgust. But the girl's parents remained serenely callous, and the old coxcomb, with equal insensibility, prattled on, putting it to the blame of nature that he should be, without intent, so much the desire of ladies and the jealousy of his wives past and to come. ”

“ When Jerningham took his departure, the captain strode over to where Holyday awaited him.
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"Rogue's work," said Ravenshaw; "but a rogue am I, and there's an end. I must get access to a rich man's house, and to the private ear of a wench; and move her to meet secretly a gentleman she knows not; and all within two days. How is it to be done?"
"Is the rich man a gentleman—of the true gentry, I mean—or is he a citizen here, a man of trade?" queried Holyday. "If a man of trade, the way to his house, or his anything, is to make him think there's money to be got out of you." ”

“ Only Ravenshaw took note that one of the lanterns disappeared with the beggars. The captain, Jerningham, Mistress Meg, who had watched recent occurrences from the kitchen door, and Sir Clement Ermsby were left in the hall.
"How?" quoth the captain, staring at the knight. "Do you break faith? Why go you not with the other men?"
"Troth, sir, I am nobody's man," replied Sir Clement. "I am this gentleman's friend, and, when I choose, I fight for him; but my comings and goings are not to be stipulated for by any man." ”

“ Tut, scholar, you have been hungry yourself; roofless, too. Be so as oft as I have been, and with as small chance of mending matters, and I'll give a cracked three farthings for what virtue is left in you. Boy, boy, hast thou yet to learn what a troublesome comrade thy belly is, in time of poverty? What a leader into temptation? Am I, who was once a gentleman, a rascal as well as a brawler? Yes, I am a rascal. ”

“ But when I choose a servant, 'tis rather for lack of wit in him; else he might take it into his head to outwit his master. My boy there serves well enough to carry sonnets to court ladies; but he would never do for your business. You say this goldsmith is watchful. Therefore, you want a man the most unlike the common go-betweens in such affairs; a man that looks the last in the world to be chosen as love's ambassador."
"Some venerable Puritan, perchance," said Jerningham, with the slight irony of one not quite convinced. ”