Nicholas Ferrar

“ His travels had so far established his health that he was now able to turn to business. His own desire was to return to Cambridge, but his father was old, and the business concerns of the firm were more than his elder brother could manage by himself. The Ferrar family was closely connected with the business of the Virginia Company, to which Nicholas now devoted himself. His reputation was so great as a man of science that in 1619 he was offered the post of reader of geometry at Gresham College, which he declined. ”

“ With ill men first impressions are the true ones. Thou hadst been more than a stripling of the cloister, and we had taught thee over well for thy years, had he, whose power has lain in such arts, not made thee love him in spite of thyself. Son, dost thou know why this Maugher lies here in exile?"
"Ay, Father, was he not like St. John of old, who said, 'Thou shalt not have her:' to King Herod?" answered I, as I thought aptly.
"Indeed, my son, they said so, and strong were the archbishop's words when Duke William wedded against God's law. ”

“ I replied, "I am not that I seem; no priest am I, though bred in Vale cloister in Guernsey."
"Then how darest thou," said he, hotly, "to come hither in this habit?"
"If thou but knewest the greatness of the perils of our brethren, how they are near being murdered by savage men, thou wouldst forgive me, father. But I bear a name none need fear to own—I am Nigel de Bessin, and mine uncle its vicomte, would vouch for me, were he here——"
"As indeed he is," put in a pleasant voice of a gentleman that in scarlet cloak sat by my lord's right hand. ”

“ And then our worst fears were realized. It was late one evening, I stood at the cloister gate, and on the white road that led to the château I saw a figure I seemed to know; but kind heavens, what a figure I It was good Brother Ralf indeed! But his white skirts were slit in rags, his ankles bleeding with sore wounds; he stooped and tottered as he walked, and, horror! that women's sons should do such deeds, his ears had been hacked and hewn away, and his head hung bloody on his breast whereon a strip of parchment said—
The envoy of Michael to William returns from Geoffroy to Michael. ”

“ But this was the last act of Ferrar's public life. He had seen enough of the world and its ways. He shrank from the struggle which he saw would soon break out between Charles I and parliament, and fell back upon an old design of spending his days in religious retirement and in the practices of devotion. He had been offered one of the greatest heiresses in London for his wife, but declined, saying that he had determined to lead a single life. The animosities of public life caused him remorseful feelings, and he set to work to wind up his business concerns that he might withdraw from London. ”

“ Ferrars was anxious that his son should make a great alliance, but he was so distracted between prudential considerations and his desire that in the veins of his grand-children there should flow blood of undoubted nobility, that he could never bring to his purpose that clear and concentrated will which was one of the causes of his success in life ”

“ Pierre, and great man I felt myself, as I pushed open the church door and took the bell-rope in my hand. "Ding-dong!" rang out the alarm bell from the tower hasty and quick, and ere twenty pulls at the rope, the townsmen were all around, and I was drawn into the market-place, and there at the head of the Rue des Vaches I sang out lustily—
"Good men, good citizens and sons of St Pierre, make fast your defences, and man your walls this night; the fleet of Le Grand Sarrasin is anchored in Moulin Huet." ”

“ Apolline, curled on his wood settle in honest slumber, and snoring lustily withal.
Des Bois gazed at him with a merry smile, and presently tweaked him merrily by the ear, crying out—
"Up, good hog! up, griskin-knave! up, lubber! and provide meet entertainment for honest men."
"Ralf! Ralf!" sang out the priest in alarm, as he leapt from his poor couch. "What make you here at this hour of night?"
"Often hast thou," answered Des Bois, "with sage reproof bid me turn to an honest and a sober life, and now I have turned to the side of the holy saints. Lo! ”

“ In fact the institution at Little Gidding did not profess to be the beginning of an order; it aimed at nothing but the organisation of a family life on the basis of putting devotion in the first place among practical duties. Ferrar had no special mission to mankind, nor passion for influencing others. He was not even desirous of doing much literary work, but contented himself with framing a harmony of the gospels and of the history of the Books of Kings and Chronicles. ”

“ Maria Lease is next door to mad over it, I know; and t’other, finding herself the best liked, crows over her. It’s something like the Bible story of Leah and Rachel, young gents, Dan Ferrar likes the one, and he’s bound by promise to the t’other. As to the French jade,” concluded Hill, giving his head a toss, “she’d make a show of liking any man that followed her, she would; a dozen of ’em on a string.”
It was all very well for surly Hill to call Daniel Ferrar a “nice lot,” but he was the best-looking fellow in church on Sunday morning—well-dressed too. ”

“ A thing more deadly than the plague is abroad here in London. Apart from the personal aspect of the matter—of which I dare not think—what do we know of Ferrara's activities? His record is damnable. To our certain knowledge, his victims are many. If the murder of his adoptive father, Sir Michael, was actually the first of his crimes, we know of three other poor souls who beyond any shadow of doubt were launched into eternity by the black arts of this ghastly villain. ”

“ Robert Cairn gave him an account of the morning's incidents, describing Ferrara's chambers with a minute exactness which revealed how deep, how indelible an impression their strangeness had made upon his mind.
"There is one thing," he concluded, "against which I am always coming up, I puzzled over it at Oxford, and others did, too; I came against it to-day. Who is Antony Ferrara? Where did Sir Michael find him? What kind of woman bore such a son?" ”

“ That is (as the Squire put it) , did her eyes see a real, spectral Daniel Ferrar; or were they deceived by some imagination of the brain? Opinions were divided. Nothing can shake her own steadfast belief in its reality; to her it remains an awful certainty, true and sure as heaven.
If I say that I believe in it too, I shall be called a muff and a double muff. But there is no stumbling-block difficult to be got over. Ferrar, when found, was wearing the seal-skin cap tied over the ears and the thick grey coat buttoned up round him, just as Maria Lease had described to me ”

“ I heard him say: "Helen, dearest, the time is come; let us fly from this dreadful city. All is ready. I have money and trusty friends; Julius will not care: he loves others." And I heard her answer: "Dave you speak to me thus?—leave the room, wicked creature, or I will call Agnes, and alarm the house!" Then I sprang forward, and said, while my whole frame shook with suppressed fury: "Reginald, you are a villain; it is time your artful plots came to an end—begone from the room, and from the house!" ”

“ Do you know that you have attacked the integrity of my empire, and made yourself responsible to me for the life of that valuable Minister? Answer me and excuse yourself if you can or dare; and let me not hear such a verbose abomination as that which your patron the Doctor has just stuffed down my throat.'
'The man of few words is the best man, sir; and as the carpenter is known by his chips, so is the murderer by his blood-stains. I have none; therefore I am innocent of the death of Partigan, sir.'
'This is quibbling—this is lying!' cried the enraged Demon. ”

“ Ay, that was through the foresight of my uncle, the Vicomte de Bessin, since I knew not then my father, and the good care of the monks of the Vale, and chiefly of Brother Bernard, a ripe scholar and a good, with whom I progressed so well in learning, that at fifteen I was more like to have put this grissled head under a cowl than under a soldier's helm. A fair place was L'Ancresse in the days of Abbot Michael, false Maugher, and the Grand Sarrasin. And a good school of manners and of learning of books and piety, that may aid men in their earthly life, was the Vale Cloister. ”

“ The rogue dissembled not. "Our captain is Le Grand Geoffroy, Lord of Guernsey, and his aide-de-camp, Mahmud le Terrible, is even now on board of yonder craft."
"Then, hark you, Sarrasin dog!" said Simon. "Sooner will we three die on this rock as good men and true to the law of God and man, than have parley further in anywise with you and your men of blood." ”

“ Nothing but ‘fear for their property’ prevented such bishops from fully ‘reforming their churches’ (ib. pp. 72, 76; Burnet, iii. 350; cf. v. 197–205 for his opinions on ‘some abuses of the mass’) . Ferrar was one of the bishops who protested against the act of November 1549 for making a new body of church laws (Burnet, iii. 362) .
On arriving in his diocese, Ferrar encountered most serious difficulties. His greedy and turbulent chapter had already waged furious war against Barlow. They at once resisted the commission of Edmond Farlee, whom Ferrar had despatched to visit and reform them. ”

“ With no recollection of having traversed the intervening streets, he found himself walking under the archway leading to the court in which his chambers were situated; in the far corner, shadowed by the tall plane tree, where the worn iron railings of the steps and the small panes of glass in the solicitor's window on the ground floor called up memories of Charles Dickens, he paused, filled with a sort of wonderment. It seemed strange to him that such an air of peace could prevail, anywhere, whilst Antony Ferrara lived and remained at large. ”

“ She walked slightly in front of him, her blue skirt swinging briskly from side to side, her white sunbonnet hanging by its strings from her shoulders. Above the starched ruffles rose her small dark head and white profile, and Nicholas could see the determined curve of her chin and the humorous tremor of her nostril. It was a vivid little face, devoid of colour except for the warm mouth, and sparkling with animation which burned steadily at the white heat of intensity—but to Nicholas she was only a plain, dark, little girl, with an unhealthy pallor of complexion. ”

“ Ferrar went into the passage and shouted out for the landlady, Mrs. Richenough. I thought it an odd name.
She came in from the kitchen at the end of the passage, carrying a candle. A neat little woman with grey hair and a puckered face; the sleeves of her brown gown were rolled up to the elbows, and she wore a check apron.
“Mr. Pym, sir?” she said, in answer to Ferrar. “He dressed hisself and went out when he’d swallowed down his tea. He always do go out, sir, the minute he’s swallowed it.”
“Do you expect him back to-night?” questioned Jack. ”

“ I wonder how he will form his cabinet. What a pity he is not here!”
“It is a wonderful event, but the difficulties must be immense,” observed Ferrars.
“Oh! you always see difficulties. I see none. The King is with us, the country is disgusted. It is what I always said would be; the reaction is complete.”
“Well, we had better now go and tell the children,” said Ferrars. “I leave you all here for the first time,” and he seemed to sigh.
“Well, I hope we shall soon join you,” said Mrs. Ferrars. “It is the very best time for hiring a house. What I have set my heart upon is the Green Park. ”

“ You must fly from the place, If you do not, you will fall into a pit from which even death itself cannot afford you the means of escape—at least, for your memory and immortal reputation. Do not marry J. W.; he is a son of Belial and perdition. Say you will fly, and I will honourably help you. An old woman will call at W.'s shop-door on Saturday, at nine p.m. Ask her from whom she comes, and she will say from D. Address your reply to D., and sign it C. Destroy this at once."
'In an alarmed consultation with Helen and Agnes, we decided to take no notice whatever of these letters ”

“ It was, he perceived, an elaborated copy of Ferrara's room at Oxford; infinitely more spacious, of course, and by reason of the rugs, cushions and carpets with which its floor was strewn, suggestive of great opulence. But the littered table was there, with its nameless instruments and its extraordinary silver lamp; the mummies were there; the antique volumes, rolls of papyrus, preserved snakes and cats and ibises, statuettes of Isis, Osiris and other Nile deities were there; the many photographs of women, too (Cairn had dubbed it at Oxford "the zenana") ; above all, there was Antony Ferrara. ”

“ In the early part of his life he wrote some tracts on his own profession, which gained him great reputation, and which discover that he was a lover of liberty, and not disposed to sacrifice to the crown the rights and properties of the subject. It seldom happens that when a man often changes his situation, or is forced to do so, that he continues to preserve the good opinion of different parties, but this was a happiness which Ferrars enjoyed. ”

“ A tangible clue lay upon the table before him—the silken cord. But it was a clue of such a nature that, whatever deductions an expert detective might have based upon it, Robert Cairn could base none. Dusk was not far off, and he knew that his nerves were not what they had been before those events which had led to his Egyptian journey. He was back in his own chamber—scene of one gruesome outrage in Ferrara's unholy campaign; for darkness is the ally of crime, and it had always been in the darkness that Ferrara's activities had most fearfully manifested themselves. ”