Custance

“ There is no such thing as sin, if it be no sin to swear to a lie!”
“But, Custance, the King’s Highness asketh not thee to deny that thou wert wed unto my Lord of Kent, but only to allow openly that the same were not good in law.”
“Can a law go backwards-way?”
“Fair Cousin, the priest was excommunicate afore.”
“God wot if he were!” said Custance shrewdly.
“Bishops use not to leave their letters tarry two months on the road, child. There have been riddles writ ere now; ay, and black treachery done—by shaven crowns too. Canst thou crede that story? ’Tis more than I can.” ”

“ Custance, Merrygreek, Roister Doister.
C. Custance. What gauding and fooling is this afore my door?
M. Merry. May not folks be honest, pray you, though they be poor?
[110]
C. Custance. As that thing may be true, so rich folks may be fools.
R. Roister. Her talk is as fine as she had learned in schools.
M. Merry. Look partly toward her, and draw a little near. [Aside.
C. Custance. Get ye home, idle folks.
M. Merry. Why may not we be here?
Nay, and ye will haze, haze; [123] otherwise, I tell you plain,
And ye will not haze, then give us our gear again.
C. Custance. ”

“ Custance and Trusty both, I do you here well find.
C. Custance. Ah! Matthew Merrygreek, ye have used me well!
M. Merry. Now, for altogether, [151] ye must your answer tell.
Will ye have this man, woman, or else will ye not?
Else will he come, never boar so brim, [152] nor toast so hot.
C. Custance. But why join ye with him?
T. Trusty. For mirth?
C. Custance. Or else in sadness?
M. Merry. The more fond of you both: hardily the matter guess.
T. Trusty. Lo, how say ye, dame?
M. Merry. Why, do ye think, dame Custance,
That in this wooing I have meant ought but pastance?
C. Custance. ”

“ C. Custance. Well said, Truepenny!
Truepenny. Ah, whoresons!
C. Custance. Well done, indeed!
M. Merry. Hold thine own, Harpax! Down with them, Dobinet!
C. Custance. Now, Madge; there, Annot; now stick them, Tibet!
Tib. Talk. All my chief quarrel is to this same little knave,
That beguiled me last day; nothing shall him save.
D. Dough. Down with this little quean, that hath at me such spite!
Save you from her, master, it is a very sprite.
C. Custance. I myself will mounsire grand captain undertake.
[146]
R. Roister. They win ground!
M. Merry. Save yourself, sir, for God's sake! ”

“ C. Custance. Yes, a foul usurer he is, ye shall see else.
R. Roister. Did'st not thou promise she would pick no mo quarrels?
[To Merr.
C. Custance. He will lend no blows, but he have in recompense
Fifteen for one, which is too much of conscience.
R. Roister. Ah dame! by the ancient law of arms, a man
Hath no honour to foil his hands on a woman.
C. Custance. And where other usurers take their gains yearly, [157]
This man is angry, but he have his by and by.
G. Good. Sir, do not for her sake bear me your displeasure. ”

“ His mother hated this apostasy, and at the wedding breakfast slew all the apostates except the bride. Her she embarked in a ship, which was set adrift and in due time reached the British shores, where Custance was rescued by the Lord-constable of Northumberland, who took her home, and placed her under the care of his wife Hermegild. Custance converted both the constable and his wife. A young knight wished to marry her, but she declined his suit, whereupon he murdered Hermegild, and then laid the bloody knife beside Custance, to make her suspected of the crime. ”

“ C. Custance. I can [149] thee thank, Truepenny; thou hast done
right well.
Truepenny. Mistress, since I went, no grass hath grown on my heel:
But Master Tristram Trusty here maketh no speed.
C. Custance. That he came at all, I thank him in very deed;
For now have I need of the help of some wise man.
T. Trusty. Then may I be gone again, for none such I am.
Truepenny. Ye may be by your going; for no Alderman
Can go, I dare say, a sadder [150] pace than ye can.
C. Custance. Truepenny, get thee in; thou shalt among them know,
How to use thyself like a proper man, I trow. ”

“ M. Merry. He hath in his head—
C. Custance. As much brain as a burbolt. [106]
M. Merry. Well, dame Custance, if he hear you thus play choploge. [107]
C. Custance. What will he?
M. Merry. Play the devil in the horologe. [108]
C. Custance. I defy him, lout.
M. Merry. Shall I tell him what ye say?
[102]
C. Custance. Yea, and add whatsoever thou canst, I thee pray,
And I will avouch it, whatsoever it be.
M. Merry. Then let me alone; we will laugh well, ye shall see:
It will not be long, ere he will hither resort.
C. Custance. Let him come when him lust, I wish no better sport. ”

“ Wise," Ethel said that evening to Captain Knight. "She's over eighty and her eyesight is getting very bad."
"Very good of you, Miss Custance, I'm sure," said Captain Knight, and he moved away to the other end of the drawing-room, and began to talk to a girl in yellow, with whom he had been exchanging smiles at a distance, ever since the men came in from the dining-room. ”

“ Never let your foe so much pleasure of you take.
Rather play the man's part, and do love refrain:
If she despise you, e'en despise ye her again.
R. Roister. By Goss [125] and for thy sake, I defy her indeed!
M. Merry. Yea, and perchance that way ye shall much sooner speed;
For one mad property these women have, in fay, [126] [114]
When ye will, they will not: will not ye? then will they.
Ah, foolish woman! ah, most unlucky Custance!
Ah, unfortunate woman! ah, peevish Custance,
Art thou to thine harms so obstinately bent,
That thou canst not see where lieth thine high preferment? ”

“ C. Custance. Some wise gentleman belike. I am bespoken:
And I thought verily thys had bene some token
From my dere spouse Gawin Goodluck, whom when him please
God luckily sende home to both our heartes ease.
M. Mumbl. A ioyly man it is I wote well by report,
And would haue you to him for marriage resort:
Best open the writing, and see what it doth speake.
C. Custance. At thys time nourse I will neither reade ne breake.
M. Mumbl. He promised to giue you a whole pecke of golde.
C. Custance. Perchaunce lacke of a pynte when it shall be all tolde. ”

“ M. Merry. Whough! dost thou doubt of that?
M. Mumbl. What shall I have?
M. Merry. An hundred times more than thou canst devise to crave.
M. Mumbl. Shall I have some new gear, for my old is all spent?
M. Merry. The worst kitchen wench shall go in ladies' raiment.
M. Mumbl. Yea?
M. Merry. And the worst drudge in the house shall go better
Than your mistress doth now.
M. Mumbl. Then I trudge with your letter.
R. Roister. Now may I repose me: Custance is mine own.
Let us sing and play homeward, that it may be known. ”

“ What I mean is, that the general custom, against which there is little opposition in any life, is, either to indulge in the social glass, [252] or look leniently upon the habit. Without preaching or parading his own strength in having overcome the habit, General Custer stood among the officers and men as firm an advocate of temperance as any evangelist whose life is devoted to the cause.
I scarcely think I would have realized the constantly recurring temptations of my husband's life, had I not been beside him when he fought these oft-repeated battles. ”

“ Inaction is not always what it seems,
And Custer's mind with plan and project teems.
Fixed in his peaceful purpose he abides
With none takes counsel and in none confides;
But slowly weaves about the foe a net
Which leaves them wholly at his mercy, yet
He strikes no fateful blow; he takes no life,
And holds in check his men, who pant for bloody strife. ”

“ For when she looked down into the jar there was a great rattlesnake coiled up over the smooth white skull.
So she ran and called her father and told him in great fright what she had seen.
“Ah!” said the father, for he was a very wise priest-chief, “thou shouldst not meddle with things. Thou shouldst keep quiet,” said he. He then arose and went into the room. Then he approached the jar, and, looking down into it, said: “Have mercy upon us, my child, my father. Become as thou art. Disguise not thyself in hideous forms, but as thou hast been, be thou.” ”

“ Now, fair Constance, Almighty God thee guide!
Now woulde some men waiten, as I guess,
That I should tellen all the purveyance,
The which the emperor of his noblesse
Hath shapen for his daughter, Dame Constance.
Well may men know that so great ordinance
May no man tellen in a little clause,
As was arrayed for so high a cause. ”

“ Forth to the river side went the priests. "We carry no pricking quills," said they, raising their hands all weaponless, "and, O, Black-banded father, we seek your aid; for look now, the mother-maidens of seed whose substance is the food alike of thy people and our people, have fled away whither neither our grandfather the Eagle, nor yet his younger brother the Falcon, can trace them; and we pray thee to aid us or give us counsel of guidance."
"Ka! ka!" cried the Raven. "Nay, now; much too hungry am I to go abroad fasting on business for ye and thy kind. Ye are stingy! ”

“ The army must proceed, with feint of further fray.
XXXII.
The weary warriors mount their foam-flecked steeds,
With flags unfurled the dauntless host proceeds.
What though the foe outnumbers two to one?
Boldness achieves what strength oft leaves undone;
A daring mein will cause brute force to cower,
And courage is the secret source of power.
As Custer's column wheels upon their sight
The frightened red men yield the untried field by flight. ”

“ My personal experience of General Custer does not abound in anecdotes, but is extremely rich in my impressions of him, as a type and a character, both as man and gentleman. There is many a man whom I have met a thousand times, whom I hardly recollect at all, while I could never forget him. ”

“ The consul stared hopelessly from the one to the other. It had always seemed possible that this dreadful mania might develop into actual insanity, and he had little doubt but that the younger man’s brain was slightly affected. But this did not account for the delusion and expectations of the elder. Harry Custer, as the consul remembered him, was a level-headed, practical miner, whose leaning to adventure and excitement had not prevented him from being a cool speculator, and he had amassed more than a competency by reason of his judicious foresight and prompt action. ”

“ Were by the white man swept from off the earth's fair face,
XX.
Were every red man slaughtered in a day,
Still would that sacrifice but poorly pay
For one insulted woman captive's woes.
Again great Custer in his strength arose,
More daring, more intrepid than of old.
The passing years had touched and turned to gold
The ever widening aureole of fame
That shone upon his brow, and glorified his name.
XXI.
Wise men make laws, then turn their eyes away,
While fools and knaves ignore them day by day;
And unmolested, fools and knaves at length
Induce long wars which sap a country's strength. ”

“ And all the vale is strewn with bodies of the slain.
XXVI.
And those who are not numbered with the dead
Before all-conquering Custer now are led.
To soothe their woes, and calm their fears he seeks;
An Osage guide interprets while he speaks.
The vanquished captives, humbled, cowed and spent
Read in the victor's eye his kind intent.
The modern victor is as kind as brave;
His captive is his guest, not his insulted slave. ”

“ In a letter to my husband, dated June 9, 1867, I wrote: "When the sun came out yesterday, we could almost have worshipped it, like the heathen. We have had some [371] dreadful days, and had not all the officers been so kind to us, I do not know how we could have endured what we have. Even some whom we do not know have shown the greatest solicitude in our behalf. We are drenching wet still, and everything we have is soggy with moisture. ”

“ We did a hundred things we would not have remembered to do had not the quickly passing time brought nearer each day those hours of separation when we would have no one to do for. I am sure I never saw more tender men than the officers. One learned to conceal the fact that one was ailing or fatigued, for it made them so anxious. The eyes of sister Margaret’s husband come to me now, full of intense suffering for his wife, as she silently read her home letters telling of our mother Custer’s failing strength. ”

“ He was astonished and told her so, told her that he would never have suspected such sincerity, such fervour, such capacity for pity in a woman of her caste. But she defended her caste, especially because she did not wish to be too exuberant in her new youth and new life and was perpetually suppressing herself. ”

“ Sound forth his praise from sea to listening sea—
Greece her Achilles claimed, immortal Custer, we.
II.
Intrepid are earth's heroes now as when
The gods came down to measure strength with men.
Let danger threaten or let duty call,
And self surrenders to the needs of all;
Incurs vast perils, or, to save those dear,
Embraces death without one sigh or tear. ”

“ He looked at her with wide eyes, his fine, young, blue eyes:
“But, Constance . . .”
“Yes, you’re always crabbing Adolphine, her husband, her house, her children. . . .”
“But, Constance, I never mention them. . . .” ”

“ He hath brought me now to Constance without let or hindrance; for although I rode the whole way dressed as a priest without disguise, and in all the towns called out my name in a loud voice, I met no open enemy; in fact, I should not have many enemies in Constance if the Bohemian clergy, in their greed for livings and their bondage to avarice, had not been leading people astray on the journey. [5] Yet I trust to the mercy of the Saviour and to your prayers that I shall stand firm in God’s truth unto death. ”