Peveril of the Peak Read online

  CHAPTER XLIII

  He came amongst them like a new raised spirit To speak of dreadful judgments that impend, And of the wrath to come. --THE REFORMER.

  The astonishment of Julian at the unexpected apparition of Bridgenorth,was instantly succeeded by apprehension of his father's violence, whichhe had every reason to believe would break forth against one, whom hehimself could not but reverence on account of his own merits, as wellas because he was the father of Alice. The appearance of Bridgenorth wasnot however, such as to awaken resentment. His countenance was calm,his step slow and composed, his eye not without the indication of somedeep-seated anxiety, but without any expression either of anger orof triumph. "You are welcome," he said, "Sir Geoffrey Peveril, to theshelter and hospitality of this house; as welcome as you would have beenin other days, when we called each other neighbours and friends."

  "Odzooks," said the old Cavalier; "and had I known it was thy house,man, I would sooner had my heart's blood run down the kennel, than myfoot should have crossed your threshold--in the way of seeking safety,that is."

  "I forgive your inveteracy," said Major Bridgenorth, "on account of yourprejudices."

  "Keep your forgiveness," answered the Cavalier, "until you are pardonedyourself. By Saint George I have sworn, if ever I got my heels out ofyon rascally prison, whither I was sent much through your means, MasterBridgenorth,--that you should pay the reckoning for my bad lodging.--Iwill strike no man in his own house; but if you will cause the fellow tobring back my weapon, and take a turn in that blind court there below,along with me, you shall soon see what chance a traitor hath with a trueman, and a kennel-blooded Puritan with Peveril of the Peak."

  Bridgenorth smiled with much composure. "When I was younger and morewarm-blooded," he replied, "I refused your challenge, Sir Geoffrey; itis not likely I should now accept it, when each is within a stride ofthe grave. I have not spared, and will not spare, my blood, when mycountry wants it."

  "That is when there is any chance of treason against the King," said SirGeoffrey.

  "Nay, my father," said Julian, "let us hear Master Bridgenorth! We havebeen sheltered in his house; and although we now see him in London, weshould remember that he did not appear against us this day, when perhapshis evidence might have given a fatal turn to our situation."

  "You are right, young man," said Bridgenorth; "and it should besome pledge of my sincere goodwill, that I was this day absent fromWestminster, when a few words from my mouth had ended the long line ofPeveril of the Peak: it needed but ten minutes to walk to WestminsterHall, to have ensured your condemnation. But could I have done this,knowing, as I now know, that to thee, Julian Peveril, I owe theextrication of my daughter--of my dearest Alice--the memory of herdeparted mother--from the snares which hell and profligacy had openedaround her?"

  "She is, I trust safe," said Peveril eagerly, and almost forgetting hisfather's presence; "she is, I trust, safe, and in your own wardship?"

  "Not in mine," said the dejected father; "but in that of one in whoseprotection, next to that of Heaven, I can most fully confide."

  "Are you sure--are you very sure of that?" repeated Julian eagerly. "Ifound her under the charge of one to whom she had been trusted, and whoyet----"

  "And who yet was the basest of women," answered Bridgenorth; "but he whoselected her for the charge was deceived in her character."

  "Say rather you were deceived in his; remember that when we parted inMoultrassie, I warned you of that Ganlesse--that----"

  "I know your meaning," said Bridgenorth; "nor did you err in describinghim as a worldly-wise man. But he has atoned for his error by recoveringAlice from the dangers into which she has plunged when separated fromyou; and besides, I have not thought meet again to entrust him with thecharge that is dearest to me."

  "I thank God your eyes are thus far opened!" said Julian.

  "This day will open them wide, or close them for ever," answeredBridgenorth.

  During this dialogue, which the speakers hurried through withoutattending to the others who were present, Sir Geoffrey listened withsurprise and eagerness, endeavouring to catch something which shouldrender their conversation intelligible; but as he totally failed ingaining any such key to their meaning, he broke in with,--"'Sblood andthunder, Julian, what unprofitable gossip is this? What hast thou todo with this fellow, more than to bastinado him, if you should think itworth while to beat so old a rogue?"

  "My dearest father," said Julian, "you know not this gentleman--I amcertain you do him injustice. My own obligations to him are many; and Iam sure when you come to know them----"

  "I hope I shall die ere that moment come," said Sir Geoffrey; andcontinued with increasing violence, "I hope in the mercy of Heaven, thatI shall be in the grave of my ancestors, ere I learn that my son--myonly son--the last hope of my ancient house--the last remnant of thename of Peveril--hath consented to receive obligations from the man onearth I am most bound to hate, were I not still more bound to contemnhim!--Degenerate dog-whelp!" he repeated with great vehemence, "youcolour without replying! Speak, and disown such disgrace; or, by the Godof my fathers----"

  The dwarf suddenly stepped forward and called out, "Forbear!" witha voice at once so discordant and commanding, that it soundedsupernatural. "Man of sin and pride," he said, "forbear; and call notthe name of a holy God to witness thine unhallowed resentments."

  The rebuke so boldly and decidedly given, and the moral enthusiasm withwhich he spoke, gave the despised dwarf an ascendancy for the momentover the fiery spirit of his gigantic namesake. Sir Geoffrey Peverileyed him for an instant askance and shyly, as he might have done asupernatural apparition, and then muttered, "What knowest thou of mycause of wrath?"

  "Nothing," said the dwarf;--"nothing but this--that no cause can warrantthe oath thou wert about to swear. Ungrateful man! thou wert to-dayrescued from the devouring wrath of the wicked, by a marvellousconjunction of circumstances--Is this a day, thinkest thou, on which toindulge thine own hasty resentments?"

  "I stand rebuked," said Sir Geoffrey, "and by a singular monitor--thegrasshopper, as the prayer-book saith, hath become a burden tome.--Julian, I will speak to thee of these matters hereafter;--and foryou, Master Bridgenorth, I desire to have no farther communication withyou, either in peace or in anger. Our time passes fast, and I would fainreturn to my family. Cause our weapons to be restored; unbar the doors,and let us part without farther altercation, which can but disturb andaggravate our spirits."

  "Sir Geoffrey Peveril," said Bridgenorth, "I have no desire to vex yourspirit or my own; but, for thus soon dismissing you, that may hardly be,it being a course inconsistent with the work which I have on hand."

  "How, sir! Do you mean that we should abide here, whether with oragainst our inclinations?" said the dwarf. "Were it not that I am laidunder charge to remain here, by one who hath the best right tocommand this poor microcosm, I would show thee that bolts and bars areunavailing restraints on such as I am."

  "Truly," said Sir Geoffrey, "I think, upon an emergency, the little manmight make his escape through the keyhole."

  Bridgenorth's face was moved into something like a smile at theswaggering speech of the pigmy hero, and the contemptuous commentary ofSir Geoffrey Peveril; but such an expression never dwelt on his featuresfor two seconds together, and he replied in these words:--"Gentlemen,each and all of you must be fain to content yourselves. Believe me, nohurt is intended towards you; on the contrary, your remaining here willbe a means of securing your safety, which would be otherwise deeplyendangered. It will be your own fault if a hair of your head is hurt.But the stronger force is on my side; and, whatever harm you may meetwith should you attempt to break forth by violence, the blame must restwith yourselves. It you will not believe me, I will permit Master JulianPeveril to accompany me, where he shall see that I am provided fullywith the means of repressing violence."

  "Treason!--treason!" exclaimed the old Knight--"Tre
ason against God andKing Charles!--Oh, for one half-hour of the broadsword which I partedwith like an ass!"

  "Hold, my father, I conjure you!" said Julian. "I will go with MasterBridgenorth, since he requests it. I will satisfy myself whether therebe danger, and of what nature. It is possible I may prevail on him todesist from some desperate measure, if such be indeed in agitation.Should it be necessary, fear not that your son will behave as he oughtto do."

  "Do your pleasure, Julian," said his father; "I will confide in thee.But if you betray my confidence, a father's curse shall cleave to you."

  Bridgenorth now motioned to Peveril to follow him, and they passedthrough the small door by which he entered.

  The passage led to a vestibule or anteroom, in which several other doorsand passages seemed to centre. Through one of these Julian was conductedby Bridgenorth, walking with silence and precaution, in obedience toa signal made by his guide to that effect. As they advanced, he heardsounds, like those of the human voice, engaged in urgent and emphaticdeclamation. With slow and light steps Bridgenorth conducted himthrough a door which terminated this passage; and as he entered alittle gallery, having a curtain in front, the sound of the preacher'svoice--for such it now seemed--became distinct and audible.

  Julian now doubted not that he was in one of those conventicles, which,though contrary to the existing laws, still continued to be regularlyheld in different parts of London and the suburbs. Many of these,as frequented by persons of moderate political principles, thoughdissenters from the Church for conscience' sake, were connived at bythe prudence or timidity of the government. But some of them, inwhich assembled the fiercer and more exalted sects of Independents,Anabaptists, Fifth-Monarchy men, and other sectaries, whose sternenthusiasm had contributed so greatly to effect the overthrow of thelate King's throne, were sought after, suppressed, and dispersed,whenever they could be discovered.

  Julian was soon satisfied that the meeting into which he was thussecretly introduced was one of the latter class; and, to judge by theviolence of the preacher, of the most desperate character. He was stillmore effectually convinced of this, when, at a sign from Bridgenorth, hecautiously unclosed a part of the curtain which hung before the gallery,and thus, unseen himself, looked down on the audience, and obtained aview of the preacher.

  About two hundred persons were assembled beneath, in an area filled upwith benches, as if for the exercise of worship; and they were all ofthe male sex, and well armed with pikes and muskets, as well as swordsand pistols. Most of them had the appearance of veteran soldiers, nowpast the middle of life, yet retaining such an appearance of strength asmight well supply the loss of youthful agility. They stood, or sat, invarious attitudes of stern attention; and, resting on their spears andmuskets, kept their eyes firmly fixed on the preacher, who ended theviolence of his declamation by displaying from the pulpit a banner,on which was represented a lion, with the motto, "_Vicit Leo ex tribuJudae._"

  The torrent of mystical yet animating eloquence of the preacher--an oldgrey-haired man, whom zeal seemed to supply with the powers of voice andaction, of which years had deprived him--was suited to the taste of hisaudience, but could not be transferred to these pages without scandaland impropriety. He menaced the rulers of England with all the judgmentsdenounced on those of Moab and Assyria--he called upon the saints to bestrong, to be up and doing; and promised those miracles which, in thecampaigns of Joshua, and his successors, the valiant Judges of Israel,supplied all odds against the Amorites, Midianites, and Philistines. Hesounded trumpets, opened vials, broke seals, and denounced approachingjudgments under all the mystical signs of the Apocalypse. The end of theworld was announced, accompanied with all its preliminary terrors.

  Julian, with deep anxiety, soon heard enough to make him aware that themeeting was likely to terminate in open insurrection, like that of theFifth-Monarchy men, under Venner, at an earlier period of Charles'sreign; and he was not a little concerned at the probability ofBridgenorth being implicated in so criminal and desperate anundertaking. If he had retained any doubts of the issue of the meeting,they must have been removed when the preacher called on his hearers torenounce all expectation which had hitherto been entertained of safetyto the nation, from the execution of the ordinary laws of the land.This, he said, was at best but a carnal seeking after earthly aid--agoing down to Egypt for help, which the jealousy of their Divine Leaderwould resent as a fleeing to another rock, and a different banner, fromthat which was this day displayed over them.--And here he solemnly swungthe bannered lion over their heads, as the only sign under which theyought to seek for life and safety. He then proceeded to insist, thatrecourse to ordinary justice was vain as well as sinful.

  "The event of that day at Westminster," he said, "might teach them thatthe man at Whitehall was even as the man his father;" and closed a longtirade against the vices of the Court, with assurance "that Tophet wasordained of old--for the King it was made hot."

  As the preacher entered on a description of the approaching theocracy,which he dared to prophesy, Bridgenorth, who appeared for a time to haveforgotten the presence of Julian, whilst with stern and fixed attentionhe drunk in the words of the preacher, seemed suddenly to collecthimself, and, taking Julian by the hand, led him out of the gallery,of which he carefully closed the door, into an apartment at no greatdistance.

  When they arrived there, he anticipated the expostulations of Julian, byasking him, in a tone of severe triumph, whether these men he had seenwere likely to do their work negligently, or whether it would notbe perilous to attempt to force their way from a house, when all theavenues were guarded by such as he had now seen--men of war from theirchildhood upwards.

  "In the name of Heaven," said Julian, without replying to Bridgenorth'squestion, "for what desperate purpose have you assembled so manydesperate men? I am well aware that your sentiments of religion arepeculiar; but beware how you deceive yourself--No views of religion cansanction rebellion and murder; and such are the natural and necessaryconsequences of the doctrine we have just heard poured into the ears offanatical and violent enthusiasts."

  "My son," said Bridgenorth calmly, "in the days of my non-age, Ithought as you do. I deemed it sufficient to pay my tithes of cummin andaniseed--my poor petty moral observances of the old law; and I thought Iwas heaping up precious things, when they were in value no more than thehusks of the swine-trough. Praised be Heaven, the scales are fallen frommine eyes; and after forty years' wandering in the desert of Sinai, Iam at length arrived in the Land of Promise--My corrupt human nature hasleft me--I have cast my slough, and can now with some conscience putmy hand to the plough, certain that there is no weakness left in mewhere-through I may look back. The furrows," he added, bending hisbrows, while a gloomy fire filled his large eyes, "must be drawn longand deep, and watered by the blood of the mighty."

  There was a change in Bridgenorth's tone and manner, when he used thesesingular expressions, which convinced Julian that his mind, which hadwavered for so many years between his natural good sense and the insaneenthusiasm of the time, had finally given way to the latter; and,sensible of the danger in which the unhappy man himself, the innocentand beautiful Alice, and his own father, were likely to be placed--tosay nothing of the general risk of the community by a suddeninsurrection, he at the same time felt that there was no chance ofreasoning effectually with one, who would oppose spiritual conviction toall arguments which reason could urge against his wild schemes. Totouch his feeling seemed a more probable resource; and Julian thereforeconjured Bridgenorth to think how much his daughter's honour and safetywere concerned in his abstaining from the dangerous course which hemeditated. "If you fall," he said, "must she not pass under the powerand guardianship of her uncle, whom you allow to have shown himselfcapable of the grossest mistake in the choice of her female protectress;and whom I believe, upon good grounds, to have made that infamous choicewith his eyes open?"

  "Young man," answered Bridgenorth, "you make me feel like the poorbird, around whose wing some wanton
boy has fixed a line, to pull thestruggling wretch to earth at his pleasure. Know, since thou wilt playthis cruel part, and drag me down from higher contemplations, that shewith whom Alice is placed, and who hath in future full power to guideher motions, and decide her fate, despite of Christian and every oneelse, is--I will not tell thee who she is--Enough--no one--thou least ofall, needs to fear for her safety."

  At this moment a side-door opened, and Christian himself came into theapartment. He started and coloured when he saw Julian Peveril; thenturning to Bridgenorth with an assumed air of indifference, asked, "IsSaul among the prophets?--Is a Peveril among the saints?"

  "No, brother," replied Bridgenorth, "his time is not come more thanthine own--thou art too deep in the ambitious intrigues of manhood, andhe in the giddy passions of youth, to hear the still calm voice--Youwill both hear it, as I trust and pray."

  "Master Ganlesse, or Christian, or by whatever name you are called,"said Julian, "by whatever reasons you guide yourself in this mostperilous matter, _you_ at least are not influenced by any idea of animmediate divine command for commencing hostilities against the state.Leaving, therefore, for the present, whatever subjects of discussion maybe between us, I implore you, as a man of shrewdness and sense, to joinwith me in dissuading Master Bridgenorth from the fatal enterprise whichhe now meditates."

  "Young gentleman," said Christian, with great composure, "when we met inthe west, I was willing to have made a friend of you, but you rejectedthe overture. You might, however, even then have seen enough of me tobe assured, that I am not likely to rush too rashly on any desperateundertaking. As to this which lies before us, my brother Bridgenorthbrings to it the simplicity, though not the harmlessness of the dove,and I the subtilty of the serpent. He hath the leading of saints who aremoved by the spirit; and I can add to their efforts a powerful body, whohave for their instigators the world, the devil, and the flesh."

  "And can you," said Julian, looking at Bridgenorth, "accede to such anunworthy union?"

  "I unite not with them," said Bridgenorth; "but I may not, withoutguilt, reject the aid which Providence sends to assist His servants. Weare ourselves few, though determined--Those whose swords come to helpthe cutting down of the harvest, must be welcome--When their work iswrought, they will be converted or scattered.--Have you been at YorkPlace, brother, with that unstable epicure? We must have his lastresolution, and that within an hour."

  Christian looked at Julian, as if his presence prevented him fromreturning an answer; upon which Bridgenorth arose, and taking the youngman by the arm, led him out of the apartment, into that in which theyhad left his father; assuring him by the way, that determined andvigilant guards were placed in every different quarter by which escapecould be effected, and that he would do well to persuade his father toremain a quiet prisoner for a few hours.

  Julian returned him no answer, and Bridgenorth presently retired,leaving him alone with his father and Hudson. To their questions hecould only briefly reply, that he feared they were trepanned, since theywere in the house with at least two hundred fanatics, completely armed,and apparently prepared for desperate enterprise. Their own want of armsprecluded the possibility of open violence; and however unpleasant itmight be to remain in such a condition, it seemed difficult, from thestrength of the fastenings at doors and windows, to attempt any secretescape without instantaneous detection.

  The valiant dwarf alone nursed hopes, with which he in vain endeavouredto inspire his companions in affliction. "The fair one, whose eyes," hesaid, "were like the twin stars of Leda"--for the little man was a greatadmirer of lofty language--"had not invited him, the most devoted, and,it might be, not the least favoured of her servants, into this placeas a harbour, in order that he might therein suffer shipwreck; and hegenerously assured his friends, that in his safety they also should besafe."

  Sir Geoffrey, little cheered by this intimation, expressed his despairat not being able to get the length of Whitehall, where he trusted tofind as many jolly Cavaliers as would help him to stifle the wholenest of wasps in their hive; while Julian was of opinion that the bestservice he could now render Bridgenorth, would be timeously to disclosehis plot, and, if possible, to send him at the same time warning to savehis person.

  But we must leave them to meditate over their plans at leisure; noone of which, as they all depended on their previous escape fromconfinement, seemed in any great chance of being executed.