Frith

“ FRITH (or Fryth) , JOHN (c. 1503–1533) , English Reformer and Protestant martyr, was born at Westerham, Kent. He was educated at Eton and King’s College, Cambridge, where Gardiner, afterwards bishop of Winchester, was his tutor. ”

“ So they turned to in manly wise, for there were the bravest of men come together in the best ship of the Northlands. But Frithiof sang a stave:
“So come in the West-sea, Nought see I the billows, The sea-water seemeth As sweeping of wild-fire. Topple the rollers, Toss the hills swan-white, Ellidi wallows O'er steep of the wave-hills.” ”

“ Why, thou’rt starved wi’ cowd, an’ never a hat a-top of all they curls, an’ not so much as a bit o’ shawl to hap thee round. What’s thy name, my wench?”
“Jinny, please, Mr Makin,” announced she; “Jinny Frith. I am John Frith’s little lass—John o’ Joe’s, ye know.”
“I know,” said he; “and what brings ye out in the cowd?” ”

“ It goes without saying that Leech was a worshipper of female beauty in all its bewitching variety. I remember watching with him the riders in Rotten Row, and after some startlingly lovely creatures had passed us, he said:
"Ah, my Frith, don't you wish you were a Turk, and able to marry all that little lot?"
Only two of Leech's children lived to maturity, and both survived him. His son, John Charles Warrington Leech—a fine boy, whom I well remember—was the darling of his father's heart, and the boy returned his love with all the fervour of his loving nature. ”

“ Nay for sothe sayde I. For other meates do onelye come to nouryshe the bodye, and to departe in to the draught: But thys meate that I here receyue, is spyrytuall meate, receyued with faythe, and nourysheth vs euerlastynglye bothe bodye and soule, and neuer entereth into the draughte. And euen as before the outwarde eyes do see the breade, and yet the inwarde eyes do not regarde that or thynke vpon it: So lykewyse the outwarde man dygesteth the breade, and casteth it in to the draughte. ”

“ Of course you remember that unfortunate postal envelope that I designed? Well, Leech caricatured it. You needn’t look so surprised—you don’t think I am such a fool as to mind being caricatured; but I do mind being represented as a blood-sucker! What else can he mean by using that infernal little leech in a bottle in the front of his caricature as my signature? You know well enough, Frith, that I have never asked monstrous prices for my pictures. You fellows get better paid for your work than I ever did, and you wouldn’t like to be called blood-suckers, I expect. ”

“ But at least we were saved, and going home. How delightful it would be to see mother again, to tell her all my adventures, to confess my temper, and to try to do all she had told me to please Mr. Bentham. Yes, I made up my mind to behave well, and give up the sea—if I must.
"Step in youngster," said someone. ”

“ That is to saye: the fleshe of the lorde is verye meate, and his bloode verye drynke. This is onelye the pleasure or profytte that we haue in this worlde, that we maye eate hys fleshe and drynke his bloode, not onely in a mysterye, but also in the readynge of scryptures. For it is very meate and drynke, which is taken out of Godes worde, by the knowelege of scryptures. Here maye ye see S. Hieroms mynde in fewe wordes. For fyrste he sayeth that we eate hys fleshe and drynke hys bloode in a mysterye, whiche is the sacrament of hys remembraunce, and memoryall of his passyon. ”

“ Enfants terribles come home from Eton, young miss practising her first flirtation, poor little ragged Polly making dirt-pies in the gutter, or staggering under the weight of her nurse-child, who is as big as herself—all these little ones, patrician and [Pg 74] plebeian, meet with kindness from this kind heart, and are watched with curious anxiety by this amiable observer. ”

“ In Baldur's Mead erst, And all songs that I could To the king's daughter sang; Now on Ran's bed belike Must I soon be a-lying, And another shall be By Ingibiorg's side.”
Biorn said: “Great fear lieth ahead of us, foster-brother, and now dread hath crept into thy words, which is ill with such a good man as thou.”
Says Frithiof: “Neither fear nor fainting is it, though I sing now of those our merry journeys; yet perchance more hath been said of them than need was: but most men would think death surer than life, if they were so bested as we be.” ”

“ Punch's horses have, and how Briggs on the back of them scampers across the country! You see youth, strength, enjoyment, manliness, in those drawings, and in none more so, to our thinking, than in the hundred pictures of children which this artist loves to design. Like a brave, hearty, good-natured Briton, he becomes quite soft and tender with the little creatures, pats gently their little golden heads, and watches with unfailing pleasure their ways, their jokes, laughter, caresses. ”

“ So those brethren fare home with their folk, right ill content with things. But Frithiof, when he deemed that the brethren might be looked for home again, spake to the king's daughter:
“Sweetly and well have ye done to us, neither has goodman Baldur been wroth with us; but now as soon as ye wot of the kings' coming home, spread the sheets of your beds abroad on the Hall of the Goddesses, for that is the highest of all the garth, and we may see it from our stead.”
The king's daughter said: “Thou dost not after the like of any other: but certes, we welcome dear friends whenas ye come to us.” ”

“ My senses were at once awakened. The Port Arthur servant was keeping me alert, and I saw he was pointing to some huts below us. Another village! I must act!
I looked around me in all directions, and made up my mind to rush the hill beside me and hide amid the boulders. I had no thought beyond escape, and when some minutes later "my coolie" dropped the end of the rope suddenly, exclaiming, "Kinchow!" I knew my chance had come, and the direction. The yellow fellow gesticulated in the face of my captors. I was free! ”

“ I can understand some of the lingo, and it's plain to me that the man named Oh Sing, or Kim,—I can't quite catch it,—is rather frightened of the boss, whose name is Lung. The Lung man won't let him out of his sight, and if a chance comes I suspect Mr. Lung will punish the other fellow."
"What's his object, then?" I asked.
"Can't say. Eagan is suspicious, too, of these Coreans. One fellow is evidently nervous, and keeps his Japanese servant near him all the time. The captain don't want any fuss on board this ship, you understand." ”

“ Now would I be laid in my mound over against King Beli's mound, down by the sea on this side the firth, whereas it may be easiest for us to cry out each to each of tidings drawing nigh.”
A little after this Thorstein departed, and was laid in mound even as he had bidden; but Frithiof took the land and chattels after him. Biorn and Asmund were Frithiof s foster-brethren; they were big and strong men both.
CHAPTER II. Frithiof wooeth Ingibiorg of those Brethren.
So Frithiof became the most famed of men, and the bravest in all things that may try a man. ”

“ Now those kings of Sogn, the brethren of Ingibiorg, heard these tidings, how that Frithiof had gotten a king's rule in Ringrealm, and had wedded Ingibiorg their sister. Then says Helgi to Halfdan, his brother, that unheard of it was, and a deed over-bold, that a mere hersir's son should have her to wife: and so thereat they gather together a mighty army, and go their ways therewith to Ringrealm, with the mind to slay Frithiof, and lay all his realm under them.
But when Frithiof was ware of this, he gathered folk, and spake to the queen moreover: “New war is come upon our realm ”

“ Strong our arms are no more, And our eyelids smart sore.”
Quoth Asmund: “Small harm though your arms be tried somewhat, for no pity we had from you when we rubbed our eyes whenas ye must needs rise early a-mornings to go to Baldu's Meadows.”
“Well,” said Frithiof, “why singest thou not, Asmund?”
“Not I,” said Asmund; yet sang a ditty straightway:
“Sharp work about the sail was When o'er the ship seas tumbled, And there was I a-working Within-board 'gainst eight balers; Better it was to bower, Bringing the women breakfast, Than here to be 'mid billows Black Ellidi a-baling.” ”

“ As the grey winter day rose out of the sea to port, all eyes were fixed upon the batteries and the ships in harbour. Telescopes swept the hills and platforms, the traces of the wrecked boom, the almost deserted islands, the shattered forts. As men gazed in silence, broken only at intervals by duty orders, a sense of depression fell upon me, as if something unpleasant awaited us. ”

“ But as soon as King Helgi had come to himself he bade follow after Frithiof speedily, and slay them all, him and his fellows: “A man of forfeit life, who spareth no Place of Peace!”
So they blew the gathering for the kings' men, and when they came out to the hall they saw that it was afire; so King Halfdan went thereto with some of the folk, but King Helgi followed after Frithiof and his men, who were by then gotten a-shipboard and were lying on their oars. ”

“ These wordes I expounded, by the wordes of the same doctoure Saynt Chrisostome, which in a nother homelye sayeth on thys maner. The inwarde eyes as soone as they see the breade, they flye over all creatures ād thynke not of the breade that is baken of the baker, but of the breade of euerlastynge lyfe, which is sygnyfyed by the mystycall breade. ”

“ Besydes that S. Hierome calleth the vnsterstōdynge of the scripture verye meate and very drynke: whiche you muste neades vnderstonde in a mysterye and spyrituall sense. For it is no materyall meate nor drynke that is receyued with the mouth and teth, but it is spyrytuall meate and drynke, and is so called for a symylytude and propertye: because that as meate and drynke counforte the bodye and outwarde man, so doth the readynge and knowelege of scrypture conforte the soule and inwarde man. ”

“ Unless the artist guest was possessed of courage uncommon among our fraternity, he could not have contemplated being blown into the air with the robbers, or being shot by the soldiers, with equanimity ”

“ Now, herewith was King Ring most of all wroth that the brothers had said that they accounted it a shame to fight with a man so old that he might not get a-horseback unholpen.
CHAPTER IV. Frithiof goes to Baldur's Meads.
Straightway whenas the kings were gone away Frithiof took his raiment of state and set the goodly gold ring on his arm; then went the foster-brethren down to the sea and launched Ellidi. Then said Biorn: “Whither away, foster-brother?”
“To Baldur's Meads,” said Frithiof, “to be glad with Ingibiorg.”,
Biorn said: “A thing unmeet to do, to make the gods wroth with us.” ”

“ FRIDA, as time went on, was growing hardy and strong in the bracing Forest air. Every kindness was lavished on her, and the child-spirit had asserted itself, and though often tears would fill her eyes as something or other reminded her vividly of the past, yet her merry laughter was often heard as she played with Hans in the woods. Yet through all her glee there was at times a seriousness of mind remarkable in one so young, also a power of observation as regarded others not often noticeable in one of her years. ”

“ The Friar has walk'd out, and where'er he has gone, The land and its fatness is mark'd for his own; He can roam where he lists, he can stop when he tires, For every man's house is the Barefooted Friar's. ”

“ Men and women dead—mutilated—every possible shame had been inflicted, and even then, in daylight, the Japanese soldiers were looting and killing all in their way, binding up bundles of plunder, or chasing an unfortunate Chinaman to death amid the laughter of his fellows. ”

“ Ever and anon the friar took up the little time-keeper, and shook it gently, as if to hasten the passage of the slow hours, and often, amid his watching and study, his head sank lower and lower towards the table, as if tired nature would assert her rights, and steep him in the swee oblivion of sleep, against his own powerful will. ”

“ Close came the fire, and still closer, as the Japanese "circled" in two divisions, and in opposite directions, around the Chinese ships. Shells crashed and shot thundered, bullets whizzed and sang in all directions, and over all the flame-streaked smoke of guns and furnaces poured out and hung upon the scene, as if to conceal man's awful passions and fierce conflicts. Through this Gehenna we rushed at great speed, tossing the water upon our sterns and bows, to leave it seething astern jotted with plunging shot. ”

“ Thirty miles have been passed over by the floe; the explorers are so much nearer, but then the drift ceases. Sixty miles or less of ice intervene, and then the open sea will be reached. But the doom has gone forth. Winter closes again on the brave, the sick, and the suffering; cold, disease, and privation are fast decimating the available hands. The snow-cloud settles down upon the vessels, darkness shrouds them; and when the curtain again rises, and the sun shines out, we find twenty-one officers and men had been laid to their long, last rest in the Arctic solitudes. ”

“ I behold men at sea Who, storm-beaten, shall need Help at our hands Ere the haven they make.”
Now the Earl heard what Hallward sang; so he asked for tidings, and Hallward said: “Men are come a-land here, much forewearied, yet brave lads belike: but one of them is so hardy that he beareth the others. ashore.”
Then said the Earl, “Go ye, and meet them, and welcome them in seemly wise; if this be Frithiof, the son of Hersir Thorstein, my friend, he is a man famed far and wide for all prowess.” ”

“ But this Frida with her wilful reserve, which we must overcome before reaching the real nature, has nothing weak and wavering about her. When once the somewhat forbidding crust has been broken through, strength and life are found beneath. I like such natures, perhaps because I feel something kindred in them, and sometimes I am surprised, almost startled, to hear from the lips of that girl, remarks and ideas almost identical with what were mine at the same age. ”