Peveril of the Peak Page 4
CHAPTER IV
No, sir--I will not pledge--I'm one of those Who think good wine needs neither bush nor preface To make it welcome. If you doubt my word, Fill the quart-cup, and see if I will choke on't. --OLD PLAY.
There was a serious gravity of expression in the disclamation with whichMajor Bridgenorth replied to the thanks tendered to him by LadyPeveril, for the supply of provisions which had reached her Castle soopportunely. He seemed first not to be aware what she alluded to; and,when she explained the circumstance, he protested so seriously that hehad no share in the benefit conferred, that Lady Peveril was compelledto believe him, the rather that, being a man of plain downrightcharacter, affecting no refined delicacy of sentiment, and practisingalmost a quaker-like sincerity of expression, it would have been muchcontrary to his general character to have made such a disavowal, unlessit were founded in truth.
"My present visit to you, madam," said he, "had indeed some reference tothe festivity of to-morrow." Lady Peveril listened, but as her visitorseemed to find some difficulty in expressing himself, she was compelledto ask an explanation. "Madam," said the Major, "you are not perhapsentirely ignorant that the more tender-conscienced among us havescruples at certain practices, so general amongst your people at timesof rejoicing, that you may be said to insist upon them as articles offaith, or at least greatly to resent their omission."
"I trust, Master Bridgenorth," said the Lady Peveril, not fullycomprehending the drift of his discourse, "that we shall, as yourentertainers, carefully avoid all allusions or reproaches founded onpast misunderstanding."
"We would expect no less, madam, from your candour and courtesy," saidBridgenorth; "but I perceive you do not fully understand me. To beplain, then, I allude to the fashion of drinking healths, and pledgingeach other in draughts of strong liquor, which most among us consider asa superfluous and sinful provoking of each other to debauchery, andthe excessive use of strong drink; and which, besides, if derived, aslearned divines have supposed, from the custom of the blinded Pagans,who made libations and invoked idols when they drank, may be justly saidto have something in it heathenish, and allied to demon-worship."
The lady had already hastily considered all the topics which werelikely to introduce discord into the proposed festivity; but this veryridiculous, yet fatal discrepancy, betwixt the manners of the parties onconvivial occasions, had entirely escaped her. She endeavoured to soothethe objecting party, whose brows were knit like one who had fixed anopinion by which he was determined to abide.
"I grant," she said, "my good neighbour, that this custom is at leastidle, and may be prejudicial if it leads to excess in the use of liquor,which is apt enough to take place without such conversation. But Ithink, when it hath not this consequence, it is a thing indifferent,affords a unanimous mode of expressing our good wishes to our friends,and our loyal duty to our sovereign; and, without meaning to put anyforce upon the inclination of those who believe otherwise, I cannot seehow I can deny my guests and friends the privilege of drinking a healthto the King, or to my husband, after the old English fashion."
"My lady," said the Major, "if the age of fashion were to command it,Popery is one of the oldest English fashions that I have heard of; butit is our happiness that we are not benighted like our fathers, andtherefore we must act according to the light that is in us, and notafter their darkness. I had myself the honour to attend the Lord-KeeperWhitelocke, when, at the table of the Chamberlain of the kingdom ofSweden, he did positively refuse to pledge the health of his Queen,Christina, thereby giving great offence, and putting in peril the wholepurpose of that voyage; which it is not to be thought so wise a manwould have done, but that he held such compliance a thing not merelyindifferent, but rather sinful and damnable."
"With all respect to Whitelocke," said the Lady Peveril, "I continue ofmy own opinion, though, Heaven knows, I am no friend to riot or wassail.I would fain accommodate myself to your scruples, and will discourageall other pledges; but surely those of the King and of Peveril of thePeak may be permitted?"
"I dare not," answered Bridgenorth, "lay even the ninety-ninth part of agrain of incense upon an altar erected to Satan."
"How, sir!" said the lady; "do you bring Satan into comparison with ourmaster King Charles, and with my noble lord and husband?"
"Pardon me, madam," answered Bridgenorth, "I have no suchthoughts--indeed they would ill become me. I do wish the King's healthand Sir Geoffrey's devoutly, and I will pray for both. But I see notwhat good it should do their health if I should prejudice my own byquaffing pledges out of quart flagons."
"Since we cannot agree upon this matter," said Lady Peveril, "we mustfind some resource by which to offend those of neither party. Supposeyou winked at our friends drinking these pledges, and we should conniveat your sitting still?"
But neither would this composition satisfy Bridgenorth, who was ofopinion, as he expressed himself, that it would be holding a candleto Beelzebub. In fact, his temper, naturally stubborn, was at presentrendered much more so by a previous conference with his preacher, who,though a very good man in the main, was particularly and illiberallytenacious of the petty distinctions which his sect adopted; and while hethought with considerable apprehension on the accession of power whichPopery, Prelacy, and Peveril of the Peak, were like to acquire by thelate Revolution, became naturally anxious to put his flock on theirguard, and prevent their being kidnapped by the wolf. He dislikedextremely that Major Bridgenorth, indisputably the head of thePresbyterian interest in that neighbourhood, should have given his onlydaughter to be, as he termed it, nursed by a Canaanitish woman; andhe told him plainly that he liked not this going to feast in thehigh places with the uncircumcised in heart, and looked on the wholeconviviality only as a making-merry in the house of Tirzah.
Upon receiving this rebuke from his pastor, Bridgenorth began to suspecthe might have been partly wrong in the readiness which, in his firstardour of gratitude, he had shown to enter into intimate intercoursewith the Castle of Martindale; but he was too proud to avow this to thepreacher, and it was not till after a considerable debate betwixt them,that it was mutually agreed their presence at the entertainment shoulddepend upon the condition, that no healths or pledges should be givenin their presence. Bridgenorth, therefore, as the delegate andrepresentative of his party, was bound to stand firm against allentreaty, and the lady became greatly embarrassed. She now regrettedsincerely that her well-intended invitation had ever been given, for sheforesaw that its rejection was to awaken all former subjects of quarrel,and perhaps to lead to new violences amongst people who had not manyyears since been engaged in civil war. To yield up the disputed point tothe Presbyterians, would have been to offend the Cavalier party, and SirGeoffrey in particular, in the most mortal degree; for they made itas firm a point of honour to give healths, and compel others to pledgethem, as the Puritans made it a deep article of religion to refuseboth. At length the lady changed the discourse, introduced that of MajorBridgenorth's child, caused it to be sent for, and put into his arms.The mother's stratagem took effect; for, though the parliamentary majorstood firm, the father, as in the case of the Governor of Tilbury, wassoftened, and he agreed that his friends should accept a compromise.This was, that the major himself, the reverend divine, and such of theirfriends as held strict Puritan tenets, should form a separate partyin the Large Parlour, while the Hall should be occupied by the jovialCavaliers; and that each party should regulate their potations aftertheir own conscience, or after their own fashion.
Major Bridgenorth himself seemed greatly relieved after this importantmatter had been settled. He had held it matter of conscience to bestubborn in maintaining his own opinion, but was heartily glad whenhe escaped from the apparently inevitable necessity of affronting LadyPeveril by the refusal of her invitation. He remained longer than usual,and spoke and smiled more than was his custom. His first care onhis return was to announce to the clergyman and his co
ngregation thecompromise which he had made, and this not as a matter for deliberation,but one upon which he had already resolved; and such was his authorityamong them, that though the preacher longed to pronounce a separation ofthe parties, and to exclaim--"To your tents, O Israel!" he did not seethe chance of being seconded by so many, as would make it worth while todisturb the unanimous acquiescence in their delegate's proposal.
Nevertheless, each party being put upon the alert by the consequencesof Major Bridgenorth's embassy, so many points of doubt and delicatediscussion were started in succession, that the Lady Peveril, theonly person, perhaps, who was desirous of achieving an effectualreconciliation between them, incurred, in reward for her goodintentions, the censure of both factions, and had much reason toregret her well-meant project of bringing the Capulets and Montagues ofDerbyshire together on the same occasion of public festivity.
As it was now settled that the guests were to form two differentparties, it became not only a subject of dispute betwixt themselves,which should be first admitted within the Castle of Martindale, butmatter of serious apprehension to Lady Peveril and Major Bridgenorth,lest, if they were to approach by the same avenue and entrance, aquarrel might take place betwixt them, and proceed to extremities, evenbefore they reached the place of entertainment. The lady believed shehad discovered an admirable expedient for preventing the possibility ofsuch interference, by directing that the Cavaliers should be admittedby the principal entrance, while the Roundheads should enter the Castlethrough a great breach which had been made in the course of the siege,and across which there had been made a sort of by-path to drive thecattle down to their pasture in the wood. By this contrivance the LadyPeveril imagined she had altogether avoided the various risks whichmight occur from two such parties encountering each other, and disputingfor precedence. Several other circumstances of less importance wereadjusted at the same time, and apparently so much to the satisfaction ofthe Presbyterian teacher, that, in a long lecture on the subject of theMarriage Garment, he was at the pains to explain to his hearers, thatoutward apparel was not alone meant by that scriptural expression, butalso a suitable frame of mind for enjoyment of peaceful festivity; andtherefore he exhorted the brethren, that whatever might be the errors ofthe poor blinded malignants, with whom they were in some sort to eat anddrink upon the morrow they ought not on this occasion to show any evilwill against them, lest they should therein become troublers of thepeace of Israel.
Honest Doctor Dummerar, the elected Episcopal Vicar of Martindale _cum_Moultrassie, preached to the Cavaliers on the same subject. He hadserved the cure before the breaking out of the rebellion, and wasin high favour with Sir Geoffrey, not merely on account of his soundorthodoxy and deep learning, but his exquisite skill in playing atbowls, and his facetious conversation over a pipe and tankard ofOctober. For these latter accomplishments, the Doctor had the honour tobe recorded by old Century White amongst the roll of lewd, incompetent,profligate clergymen of the Church of England, whom he denounced to Godand man, on account chiefly of the heinous sin of playing at games ofskill and chance, and of occasionally joining in the social meetings oftheir parishioners. When the King's party began to lose ground, DoctorDummerar left his vicarage, and, betaking himself to the camp, showedupon several occasions, when acting as chaplain to Sir GeoffreyPeveril's regiment, that his portly bodily presence included a stoutand masculine heart. When all was lost, and he himself, with most otherloyal divines, was deprived of his living, he made such shift as hecould; now lurking in the garrets of old friends in the University, whoshared with him, and such as him, the slender means of livelihood whichthe evil times had left them; and now lying hid in the houses of theoppressed and sequestered gentry, who respected at once his characterand sufferings. When the Restoration took place, Doctor Dummerar emergedfrom some one of his hiding-places, and hied him to Martindale Castle,to enjoy the triumph inseparable from this happy change.
His appearance at the Castle in his full clerical dress, and the warmreception which he received from the neighbouring gentry, added not alittle to the alarm which was gradually extending itself through theparty which were so lately the uppermost. It is true, Doctor Dummerarframed (honest worthy man) no extravagant views of elevation orpreferment; but the probability of his being replaced in the living,from which he had been expelled under very flimsy pretences, inferreda severe blow to the Presbyterian divine, who could not be consideredotherwise than as an intruder. The interest of the two preachers,therefore, as well as the sentiments of their flocks, were at directvariance; and here was another fatal objection in the way of LadyPeveril's scheme of a general and comprehensive healing ordinance.
Nevertheless, as we have already hinted, Doctor Dummerar behaved ashandsomely upon the occasion as the Presbyterian incumbent had done.It is true, that in a sermon which he preached in the Castle hall toseveral of the most distinguished Cavalier families, besides a worldof boys from the village, who went to see the novel circumstance ofa parson in a cassock and surplice, he went at great length into thefoulness of the various crimes committed by the rebellious party duringthe late evil times, and greatly magnified the merciful and peacefulnature of the honourable Lady of the Manor, who condescended tolook upon, or receive into her house in the way of friendship andhospitality, men holding the principles which had led to the murderof the King--the slaying and despoiling his loyal subjects--and theplundering and breaking down of the Church of God. But then he wiped allthis handsomely up again, with the observation, that since it was thewill of their gracious and newly-restored Sovereign, and the pleasure ofthe worshipful Lady Peveril, that this contumacious and rebellious raceshould be, for a time, forborne by their faithful subjects, it wouldbe highly proper that all the loyal liegemen should, for the present,eschew subjects of dissension or quarrel with these sons of Shimei;which lesson of patience he enforced by the comfortable assurance, thatthey could not long abstain from their old rebellious practices; inwhich case, the Royalists would stand exculpated before God and man, inextirpating them from the face of the earth.
The close observers of the remarkable passages of the times from whichwe draw the events of our history, have left it upon record, that thesetwo several sermons, much contrary, doubtless, to the intention of theworthy divines by whom they were delivered, had a greater effect inexasperating, than in composing, the disputes betwixt the two factions.Under such evil auspices, and with corresponding forebodings on the mindof Lady Peveril, the day of festivity at length arrived.
By different routes, and forming each a sort of procession, as if theadherents of each party were desirous of exhibiting its strength andnumbers, the two several factions approached Martindale Castle; and sodistinct did they appear in dress, aspect, and manners, that it seemedas if the revellers of a bridal party, and the sad attendants upon afuneral solemnity, were moving towards the same point from differentquarters.
The puritanical party was by far the fewer in numbers, for which twoexcellent reasons might be given. In the first place, they had enjoyedpower for several years, and, of course, became unpopular among thecommon people, never at any time attached to those, who, being in theimmediate possession of authority, are often obliged to employ it incontrolling their humours. Besides, the country people of England had,and still have, an animated attachment to field sports, and a naturalunrestrained joviality of disposition, which rendered them impatientunder the severe discipline of the fanatical preachers; while theywere not less naturally discontented with the military despotism ofCromwell's Major-Generals. Secondly, the people were fickle as usual,and the return of the King had novelty in it, and was therefore popular.The side of the Puritans was also deserted at this period by a numerousclass of more thinking and prudential persons, who never forsook themtill they became unfortunate. These sagacious personages were called inthat age the Waiters upon Providence, and deemed it a high delinquencytowards Heaven if they afforded countenance to any cause longer than itwas favoured by fortune.
But, though thus forsaken
by the fickle and the selfish, a solemnenthusiasm, a stern and determined depth of principle, a confidence inthe sincerity of their own motives, and the manly English pride whichinclined them to cling to their former opinions, like the traveller inthe fable to his cloak, the more strongly that the tempest blew aroundthem, detained in the ranks of the Puritans many, who, if no longerformidable from numbers, were still so from their character. Theyconsisted chiefly of the middling gentry, with others whom industryor successful speculations in commerce or in mining had raised intoeminence--the persons who feel most umbrage from the overshadowingaristocracy, and are usually the most vehement in defence of what theyhold to be their rights. Their dress was in general studiously simpleand unostentatious, or only remarkable by the contradictory affectationof extreme simplicity or carelessness. The dark colour of their cloaks,varying from absolute black to what was called sad-coloured--theirsteeple-crowned hats, with their broad shadowy brims--their long swords,suspended by a simple strap around the loins, without shoulder-belt,sword-knot, plate, buckles, or any of the other decorations with whichthe Cavaliers loved to adorn their trusty rapiers,--the shortness oftheir hair, which made their ears appear of disproportioned size,--aboveall, the stern and gloomy gravity of their looks, announced theirbelonging to that class of enthusiasts, who, resolute and undismayed,had cast down the former fabric of government, and who now regardedwith somewhat more than suspicion, that which had been so unexpectedlysubstituted in its stead. There was gloom in their countenances; butit was not that of dejection, far less of despair. They looked likeveterans after a defeat, which may have checked their career and woundedtheir pride, but has left their courage undiminished.
The melancholy, now become habitual, which overcast Major Bridgenorth'scountenance, well qualified him to act as the chief of the group whonow advanced from the village. When they reached the point by which theywere first to turn aside into the wood which surrounded the Castle, theyfelt a momentary impression of degradation, as if they were yielding thehigh road to their old and oft-defeated enemies the Cavaliers. When theybegan to ascend the winding path, which had been the daily passage ofthe cattle, the opening of the wooded glade gave them a view of theCastle ditch, half choked with the rubbish of the breach, and ofthe breach itself, which was made at the angle of a large squareflanking-tower, one-half of which had been battered into ruins,while the other fragment remained in a state strangely shattered andprecarious, and seemed to be tottering above the huge aperture in thewall. A stern still smile was exchanged among the Puritans, as thesight reminded them of the victories of former days. Holdfast Clegg, amillwright of Derby, who had been himself active at the siege, pointedto the breach, and said, with a grim smile to Mr. Solsgrace, "I littlethought, that when my own hand helped to level the cannon which Oliverpointed against yon tower, we should have been obliged to climb likefoxes up the very walls which we won by our bow and by our spear.Methought these malignants had then enough of shutting their gates andmaking high their horn against us."
"Be patient, my brother," said Solsgrace; "be patient, and let not thysoul be disquieted. We enter not this high place dishonourably, seeingwe ascend by the gate which the Lord opened to the godly."
The words of the pastor were like a spark to gunpowder. The countenancesof the mournful retinue suddenly expanded, and, accepting what hadfallen from him as an omen and a light from heaven how they were tointerpret their present situation, they uplifted, with one consent, oneof the triumphant songs in which the Israelites celebrated the victorieswhich had been vouchsafed to them over the heathen inhabitants of thePromised Land:--
"Let God arise, and then His foes Shall turn themselves to flight, His enemies for fear shall run, And scatter out of sight;
And as wax melts before the fire, And wind blows smoke away, So in the presence of the Lord, The wicked shall decay.
God's army twenty thousand is, Of angels bright and strong, The Lord also in Sinai Is present them among.
Thou didst, O Lord, ascend on high, And captive led'st them all, Who, in times past, Thy chosen flock In bondage did enthral."
These sounds of devotional triumph reached the joyous band of theCavaliers, who, decked in whatever pomp their repeated misfortunes andimpoverishment had left them, were moving towards the same point,though by a different road, and were filling the principal avenue tothe Castle, with tiptoe mirth and revelry. The two parties were stronglycontrasted; for, during that period of civil dissension, the mannersof the different factions distinguished them as completely as separateuniforms might have done. If the Puritan was affectedly plain in hisdress, and ridiculously precise in his manners, the Cavalier oftencarried his love of ornament into tawdry finery, and his contempt ofhypocrisy into licentious profligacy. Gay gallant fellows, young andold, thronged together towards the ancient Castle, with general andjoyous manifestation of those spirits, which, as they had been buoyantenough to support their owners during the worst of times, as they termedOliver's usurpation, were now so inflated as to transport them nearlybeyond the reach of sober reason. Feathers waved, lace glittered, spearsjingled, steeds caracoled; and here and there a petronel, or pistol, wasfired off by some one, who found his own natural talents for making anoise inadequate to the dignity of the occasion. Boys--for, as we saidbefore, the rabble were with the uppermost party, as usual--halloo'dand whooped, "Down with the Rump," and "Fie upon Oliver!" Musicalinstruments, of as many different fashions as were then in use, playedall at once, and without any regard to each other's tune; and the gleeof the occasion, while it reconciled the pride of the high-born of theparty to fraternise with the general rout, derived an additional zestfrom the conscious triumph, that their exultation was heard by theirneighbours, the crestfallen Roundheads.
When the loud and sonorous swell of the psalm-tune, multiplied by allthe echoes of the cliffs and ruinous halls, came full upon their ear,as if to warn them how little they were to reckon upon the depressionof their adversaries, at first it was answered with a scornful laugh,raised to as much height as the scoffers' lungs would permit, in orderthat it might carry to the psalmodists the contempt of their auditors;but this was a forced exertion of party spleen. There is something inmelancholy feelings more natural to an imperfect and suffering statethan in those of gaiety, and when they are brought into collision, theformer seldom fail to triumph. If a funeral-train and wedding-processionwere to meet unexpectedly, it will readily be allowed that the mirth ofthe last would be speedily merged in the gloom of the others. But theCavaliers, moreover, had sympathies of a different kind. The psalm-tune,which now came rolling on their ear, had been heard too often, and upontoo many occasions had preceded victory gained over the malignants, topermit them, even in their triumph, to hear it without emotion. Therewas a sort of pause, of which the party themselves seemed ratherashamed, until the silence was broken by the stout old knight, SirJasper Cranbourne, whose gallantry was so universally acknowledged, thathe could afford, if we may use such an expression, to confess emotions,which men whose courage was in any respect liable to suspicion, wouldhave thought it imprudent to acknowledge.
"Adad," said the old Knight, "may I never taste claret again, if that isnot the very tune with which the prick-eared villains began their onsetat Wiggan Lane, where they trowled us down like so many ninepins! Faith,neighbours, to say truth, and shame the devil, I did not like the soundof it above half."
"If I thought the round-headed rogues did it in scorn of us," saidDick Wildblood of the Dale, "I would cudgel their psalmody out of theirpeasantly throats with this very truncheon;" a motion which, beingseconded by old Roger Raine, the drunken tapster of the Peveril Arms inthe village, might have brought on a general battle, but that Sir Jasperforbade the feud.
"We'll have no ranting, Dick," said the old Knight to the youngFranklin; "adad, man, we'll have none, for three reasons: first, becauseit would be ungentle to Lady Peveril; then, because it is againstthe King's peace; and, lastly, Dick, because if we did set on thepsalm-sin
ging knaves, thou mightest come by the worst, my boy, as haschanced to thee before."
"Who, I! Sir Jasper?" answered Dick--"I come by the worst!--I'll bed--d if it ever happened but in that accursed lane, where we had nomore flank, front, or rear, than if we had been so many herrings in abarrel."
"That was the reason, I fancy," answered Sir Jasper, "that you, to mendthe matter, scrambled into the hedge, and stuck there, horse and man,till I beat thee through it with my leading-staff; and then, instead ofcharging to the front, you went right-about, and away as fast as yourfeet would carry you."
This reminiscence produced a laugh at Dick's expense, who was known, orat least suspected, to have more tongue in his head than mettle inhis bosom. And this sort of rallying on the part of the Knight havingfortunately abated the resentment which had begun to awaken in thebreasts of the royalist cavalcade, farther cause for offence wasremoved, by the sudden ceasing of the sounds which they had beendisposed to interpret into those of premeditated insult.
This was owing to the arrival of the Puritans at the bottom of the largeand wide breach, which had been formerly made in the wall of the Castleby their victorious cannon. The sight of its gaping heaps of rubbish,and disjointed masses of building, up which slowly winded a narrow andsteep path, such as is made amongst ancient ruins by the rare passage ofthose who occasionally visit them, was calculated, when contrasted withthe grey and solid massiveness of the towers and curtains which yetstood uninjured, to remind them of their victory over the stronghold oftheir enemies, and how they had bound nobles and princes with fetters ofiron.
But feelings more suitable to the purpose of their visit to MartindaleCastle, were awakened in the bosoms even of these stern sectaries,when the Lady of the Castle, still in the very prime of beauty and ofwomanhood, appeared at the top of the breach with her principal femaleattendants, to receive her guests with the honour and courtesy becomingher invitation. She had laid aside the black dress which had been hersole attire for several years, and was arrayed with a splendour notunbecoming her high descent and quality. Jewels, indeed, she had none;but her long and dark hair was surmounted with a chaplet made of oakleaves, interspersed with lilies; the former being the emblem of theKing's preservation in the Royal Oak, and the latter of his happyRestoration. What rendered her presence still more interesting to thosewho looked on her, was the presence of the two children whom she held ineither hand; one of whom was well known to them all to be the childof their leader, Major Bridgenorth, who had been restored to life andhealth by the almost maternal care of the Lady Peveril.
If even the inferior persons of the party felt the healing influence ofher presence, thus accompanied, poor Bridgenorth was almost overwhelmedwith it. The strictness of his cast and manners permitted him not tosink on his knee, and kiss the hand which held his little orphan; butthe deepness of his obeisance--the faltering tremor of his voice--andthe glistening of his eye, showed a grateful respect for the lady whomhe addressed, deeper and more reverential than could have been expressedeven by Persian prostration. A few courteous and mild words, expressiveof the pleasure she found in once more seeing her neighbours as herfriends--a few kind inquiries, addressed to the principal individualsamong her guests, concerning their families and connections, completedher triumph over angry thoughts and dangerous recollections, anddisposed men's bosoms to sympathise with the purposes of the meeting.
Even Solsgrace himself, although imagining himself bound by his officeand duty to watch over and counteract the wiles of the "Amalekitishwoman," did not escape the sympathetic infection; being so much struckwith the marks of peace and good-will exhibited by Lady Peveril, that heimmediately raised the psalm--
"O what a happy thing it is, And joyful, for to see Brethren to dwell together in Friendship and unity!"
Accepting this salutation as a mark of courtesy repaid, the Lady Peverilmarshalled in person this party of her guests to the apartment, whereample good cheer was provided for them; and had even the patience toremain while Master Nehemiah Solsgrace pronounced a benediction ofportentous length, as an introduction to the banquet. Her presence wasin some measure a restraint on the worthy divine, whose prolusion lastedthe longer, and was the more intricate and embarrassed, that he felthimself debarred from rounding it off by his usual alliterative petitionfor deliverance from Popery, Prelacy, and Peveril of the Peak, which hadbecome so habitual to him, that, after various attempts to conclude withsome other form of words, he found himself at last obliged to pronouncethe first words of his usual _formula_ aloud, and mutter the rest insuch a manner as not to be intelligible even by those who stood nearestto him.
The minister's silence was followed by all the various sounds whichannounce the onset of a hungry company on a well-furnished table; and atthe same time gave the lady an opportunity to leave the apartment, andlook to the accommodation of her other company. She felt, indeed,that it was high time to do so; and that the royalist guests might bedisposed to misapprehend, or even to resent, the prior attentions whichshe had thought it prudent to offer to the Puritans.
These apprehensions were not altogether ill-founded. It was in vain thatthe steward had displayed the royal standard, with its proud motto of_Tandem Triumphans_, on one of the great towers which flanked the mainentrance of the Castle; while, from the other, floated the banner ofPeveril of the Peak, under which many of those who now approached hadfought during all the vicissitudes of civil war. It was in vain herepeated his clamorous "Welcome, noble Cavaliers! welcome, generousgentlemen!" There was a slight murmur amongst them, that their welcomeought to have come from the mouth of the Colonel's lady--not from thatof a menial. Sir Jasper Cranbourne, who had sense as well as spirit andcourage, and who was aware of his fair cousin's motives, having beenindeed consulted by her upon all the arrangements which she had adopted,saw matters were in such a state that no time ought to be lost inconducting the guests to the banqueting apartment, where a fortunatediversion from all these topics of rising discontent might be made, atthe expense of the good cheer of all sorts, which the lady's care had soliberally provided.
The stratagem of the old soldier succeeded in its utmost extent. Heassumed the great oaken-chair usually occupied by the steward at hisaudits; and Dr. Dummerar having pronounced a brief Latin benediction(which was not the less esteemed by the hearers that none of themunderstood it), Sir Jasper exhorted the company to wet their appetitesto the dinner by a brimming cup to his Majesty's health, filled as highand as deep as their goblets would permit. In a moment all was bustle,with the clank of wine-cups and of flagons. In another moment the guestswere on their feet like so many statues, all hushed as death, but witheyes glancing with expectation, and hands outstretched, which displayedtheir loyal brimmers. The voice of Sir Jasper, clear, sonorous, andemphatic, as the sound of his war-trumpet, announced the health of therestored Monarch, hastily echoed back by the assemblage, impatient torender it due homage. Another brief pause was filled by the draining oftheir cups, and the mustering breath to join in a shout so loud, thatnot only the rafters of the old hall trembled while they echoed itback, but the garlands of oaken boughs and flowers with which theywere decorated, waved wildly, and rustled as if agitated by a suddenwhirlwind. This rite observed, the company proceeded to assail the goodcheer with which the table groaned, animated as they were to the attackboth by mirth and melody, for they were attended by all the minstrelsof the district, who, like the Episcopal clergy, had been put to silenceduring the reign of the self-entitled saints of the Commonwealth. Thesocial occupation of good eating and drinking, the exchange of pledgesbetwixt old neighbours who had been fellow-soldiers in the moment ofresistance--fellow-sufferers in the time of depression and subjugation,and were now partners in the same general subject of congratulation,soon wiped from their memory the trifling cause of complaint, which inthe minds of some had darkened the festivity of the day; so that whenthe Lady Peveril walked into the hall, accompanied as before withthe children and her female attendants, she was welcomed with theacclamations
due to the mistress of the banquet and of the Castle--thedame of the noble Knight, who had led most of them to battle with anundaunted and persevering valour, which was worthy of better success.
Her address to them was brief and matronly, yet spoken with so muchfeeling as found its way to every bosom. She apologised for the latenessof her personal welcome, by reminding them that there were then presentin Martindale Castle that day, persons whom recent happy events hadconverted from enemies into friends, but on whom the latter characterwas so recently imposed, that she dared not neglect with them any pointof ceremonial. But those whom she now addressed, were the best, thedearest the most faithful friends of her husband's house, to whom and totheir valour Peveril had not only owed those successes, which had giventhem and him fame during the late unhappy times, but to whose courageshe in particular had owed the preservation of their leader's life, evenwhen it could not avert defeat. A word or two of heartfelt authority,completed all which she had boldness to add, and, bowing gracefullyround her, she lifted a cup to her lips as if to welcome her guests.
There still remained, and especially amongst the old Cavaliers of theperiod, some glimmering of that spirit which inspired Froissart, when hedeclares that a knight hath double courage at need, when animated by thelooks and words of a beautiful and virtuous woman. It was not until thereign which was commencing at the moment we are treating of, thatthe unbounded licence of the age, introducing a general course ofprofligacy, degraded the female sex into mere servants of pleasure, and,in so doing, deprived society of that noble tone of feeling towardsthe sex, which, considered as a spur to "raise the clear spirit,"is superior to every other impulse, save those of religion and ofpatriotism. The beams of the ancient hall of Martindale Castle instantlyrang with a shout louder and shriller than that at which they had solately trembled, and the names of the Knight of the Peak and his ladywere proclaimed amid waving of caps and hats, and universal wishes fortheir health and happiness.
Under these auspices the Lady Peveril glided from the hall, and leftfree space for the revelry of the evening.
That of the Cavaliers may be easily conceived, since it had the usualaccompaniments of singing, jesting, quaffing of healths, and playing oftunes, which have in almost every age and quarter of the world been theaccompaniments of festive cheer. The enjoyments of the Puritans were ofa different and less noisy character. They neither sung, jested, heardmusic, nor drank healths; and yet they seemed not the less, in their ownphrase, to enjoy the creature-comforts, which the frailty of humanityrendered grateful to their outward man. Old Whitaker even protested,that, though much the smaller party in point of numbers, they discussednearly as much sack and claret as his own more jovial associates. Butthose who considered the steward's prejudices, were inclined to think,that, in order to produce such a result, he must have thrown in hisown by-drinkings--no inconsiderable item--to the sum total of thePresbyterian potations.
Without adopting such a partial and scandalous report, we shallonly say, that on this occasion, as on most others, the rareness ofindulgence promoted the sense of enjoyment, and that those who madeabstinence, or at least moderation, a point of religious principle,enjoyed their social meeting the better that such opportunities rarelypresented themselves. If they did not actually drink each other'shealths, they at least showed, by looking and nodding to each other asthey raised their glasses, that they all were sharing the same festivegratification of the appetite, and felt it enhanced, because it was atthe same time enjoyed by their friends and neighbours. Religion, as itwas the principal topic of their thoughts, became also the chief subjectof their conversation, and as they sat together in small separate knots,they discussed doctrinal and metaphysical points of belief, balanced themerits of various preachers, compared the creeds of contending sects,and fortified by scriptural quotations those which they favoured.Some contests arose in the course of these debates, which might haveproceeded farther than was seemly, but for the cautious interferenceof Major Bridgenorth. He suppressed also, in the very bud, a disputebetwixt Gaffer Hodgeson of Charnelycot and the Reverend Mr. Solsgrace,upon the tender subject of lay-preaching and lay-ministering; nor did hethink it altogether prudent or decent to indulge the wishes of some ofthe warmer enthusiasts of the party, who felt disposed to make the restpartakers of their gifts in extemporaneous prayer and exposition. Thesewere absurdities that belonged to the time, which, however, the Majorhad sense enough to perceive were unfitted, whether the offspring ofhypocrisy or enthusiasm, for the present time and place.
The Major was also instrumental in breaking up the party at an early anddecorous hour, so that they left the Castle long before their rivals,the Cavaliers, had reached the springtide of their merriment; anarrangement which afforded the greatest satisfaction to the lady, whodreaded the consequences which might not improbably have taken place,had both parties met at the same period and point of retreat.
It was near midnight ere the greater part of the Cavaliers, meaning suchas were able to effect their departure without assistance, withdrew tothe village of Martindale Moultrassie, with the benefit of the broadmoon to prevent the chance of accidents. Their shouts, and the burden oftheir roaring chorus of--
"The King shall enjoy his own again!"
were heard with no small pleasure by the lady, heartily glad thatthe riot of the day was over without the occurrence of any unpleasingaccident. The rejoicing was not, however, entirely ended; for theelevated Cavaliers, finding some of the villagers still on foot around abonfire on the street, struck merrily in with them--sent to Roger Raineof the Peveril Arms, the loyal publican whom we have already mentioned,for two tubs of merry stingo (as it was termed), and lent their ownpowerful assistance at the _dusting_ it off to the health of the Kingand the loyal General Monk. Their shouts for a long time disturbed, andeven alarmed, the little village; but no enthusiasm is able towithstand for ever the natural consequences of late hours, and potationspottle-deep. The tumult of the exulting Royalists at last sunk intosilence, and the moon and the owl were left in undisturbed sovereigntyover the old tower of the village church, which, rising white above acircle of knotty oaks, was tenanted by the bird, and silvered by theplanet.