CHAPTER VII.
THE BLAST OF THE WHISTLE.
Richard Talbot was of course convinced that witchcraft was not likelyto be the most serious part of the misdeeds of Tibbott the huckstress.Committing Antony Babington to the custody of his wife, he sped on hisway back to the Manor-house, where Lord Shrewsbury was at presentresiding, the Countess being gone to view her buildings at Chatsworth,taking her daughter Bessie with her. He sent in a message desiring tospeak to my lord in his privy chamber.
Francis Talbot came to him. "Is it matter of great moment, Dick?" hesaid, "for my father is so fretted and chafed, I would fain not vex himfurther to-night.--What! know you not? Here are tidings that my ladyhath married Bess--yes, Bess Cavendish, in secret to my young LordLennox, the brother of this Queen's unlucky husband! How he is toclear himself before her Grace of being concerned in it, I know not,for though Heaven wots that he is as innocent as the child unborn, shewill suspect him!"
"I knew she flew high for Mistress Bess," returned Richard.
"High! nothing would serve her save royal blood! My poor father saysas sure as the lions and fleur-de-lis have come into a family, theheadsman's axe has come after them."
"However it is not our family."
"So I tell him, but it gives him small comfort," said Frank, "lookingas he doth on the Cavendish brood as his own, and knowing that therewill be a mighty coil at once with my lady and these two queens. He issore vexed to-night, and saith that never was Earl, not to say man, sobaited by woman as he, and he bade me see whether yours be a matter ofsuch moment that it may not wait till morning or be despatched by me."
"That is for you to say, Master Francis. What think you of this for atoy?" as he produced the parcel with the whistle and its contents. "Iwent home betimes to-day, as you know, and found my boy Humfrey hadjust made young Master Babington taste of his fists for trying to makeour little wench pass this packet to yonder huckster-woman who wassuccoured some months back by the Queen of Scots."
Francis Talbot silently took the whistle and unrolled the long narrowstrip of paper. "This is the cipher," said he, "the cipher used incorresponding with her French kin; Phillipps the decipherer showed methe trick of it when he was at Tutbury in the time of the Duke ofNorfolk's business. Soh! your son hath done good service, Richard.That lad hath been tampered with then, I thought he was over thick withthe lady in the lodge. Where is he, the young traitor?"
"At Bridgefield, under my wife's ward, having his bruises attended to.I would not bring him up here till I knew what my Lord would have donewith him. He is but a child, and no doubt was wrought with by sweetlooks, and I trust my Lord will not be hard with him."
"If my father had hearkened to me, he should never have been here,"said Francis. "His father was an honest man, but his mother was, Ifind, a secret recusant, and when she died, young Antony was quite oldenough to have sucked in the poison. You did well to keep him,Richard; he ought not to return hither again, either in ward or atliberty."
"If he were mine, I would send him to school," said Richard, "where themasters and the lads would soon drive out of him all dreams aboutcaptive princesses and seminary priests to boot. For, Cousin Francis,I would have you to know that my children say there is a rumour thatthis woman Tibbott the huckstress hath been seen in a doublet and hosenear Chesterfield."
"The villain! When is she looked for here again?"
"Anon, I should suppose, judging by the boy leaving this charge withCis in case she should come while he is gone to Chatsworth."
"We will take order as to that," said Francis, compressing his lips; "Iknow you will take heed, cousin, that she, or he, gets no breath ofwarning. I should not wonder if it were Parsons himself!" and heunfolded the scroll with the air of a man seeking to confirm histriumph.
"Can you make anything of it?" asked Richard, struck by its resemblanceto another scroll laid up among his wife's treasures.
"I cannot tell, they are not matters to be read in an hour," saidFrancis Talbot, "moreover, there is one in use for the Englishtraitors, her friends, and another for the French. This looks like theFrench sort. Let me see, they are read by taking the third letter ineach second word." Francis Talbot, somewhat proud of his proficiency,and perfectly certain of the trustworthiness of his cousin Richard,went on puzzling out the ciphered letters, making Richard set eachletter down as he picked it out, and trying whether they would makesense in French or English. Both understood French, having learned itin their page days, and kept it up by intercourse with the Frenchsuite. Francis, however, had to try two or three methods, which, beinga young man, perhaps he was pleased to display, and at last he hit uponthe right, which interpreted the apparent gibberish of thescroll--excepting that the names of persons were concealed undersoubriquets which Francis Talbot could not always understand--but thefollowing sentence by and by became clear:--"Quand le matelot vient desmarais, un feu peut eclater dans la meute et dans la melee"--"When thesailor lands from the fens, a fire might easily break out in thedog-kennel, and in the confusion" (name could not be read) "could carryoff the tercel gentle."
"La meute," said Francis, "that is their term for the home of usTalbots, and the sailor in the fens is this Don John of Austria, whomeans, after conquering the Dutchmen, to come and set free this tercelgentle, as she calls herself, and play the inquisitor upon us. On myhonour, Dick, your boy has played the man in making this discovery.Keep the young traitor fast, and take down a couple of yeomen to layhands on this same Tibbott as she calls herself."
"If I remember right," said Richard, "she was said to be the sister oraunt to one of the grooms or prickers."
"So it was, Guy Norman, methinks. Belike he was the very fellow to setfire to our kennel. Yea, we must secure him. I'll see to that, andyou shall lay this scroll before my father meantime, Dick. Why, tofall on such a trail will restore his spirits, and win back her Graceto believe in his honesty, if my lady's tricks should have made herdoubtful."
Off went Francis with great alacrity, and ere long the Earl was presentwith Richard. The long light beard was now tinged with gray, and therewere deep lines round the mouth and temples, betraying how the longanxiety was telling on him, and rendering him suspicious and querulous."Soh! Richard Talbot," was his salutation, "what's the coil now? Cana man never be left in peace in his own house, between queens andladies, plots and follies, but his own kinsfolk and retainers must cometo him on every petty broil among the lads! I should have thought yourboy and young Babington might fight out their quarrels alone withoutvexing a man that is near driven distracted as it is."
"I grieve to vex your lordship," said Richard, standing bareheaded,"but Master Francis thought this scroll worthy of your attention. Thisis the manner in which he deciphered it."
"Scrolls, I am sick of scrolls," said the Earl testily. "What! is itsome order for saying mass,--or to get some new Popish image or a skeinof silk? I wear my eyes out reading such as that, and racking mybrains for some hidden meaning!"
And falling on Francis's first attempt at copying, he was scornful ofthe whole, and had nearly thrown the matter aside, but when he lit atlast on the sentence about burning the meute and carrying off thetercel gentle, his brow grew dark indeed, and his inquiries camethickly one upon the other, both as to Antony Babington and thehuckstering woman.
In the midst, Frank Talbot returned with the tidings that the prickerGuy Norman was nowhere to be found. He had last been seen by hiscomrades about the time that Captain Richard had returned to theManor-house. Probably he had taken alarm on seeing him come back atthat unusual hour, and had gone to carry the warning to his supposedaunt. This last intelligence made the Earl decide on going down atonce to Bridgefield to examine young Babington before there was time tomiss his presence at the lodge, or to hold any communication with him.Frank caused horses to be brought round, and the Earl rode down withRichard by a shaded alley in an ordinary cloak and hat.
My Lord's appearance at Bridgefield was a rarer and more awful eventt
han was my Lady's, and if Mistress Susan had been warned beforehand,there is no saying how at the head of her men and maids she would havescrubbed and polished the floors, and brushed the hangings andcushions. What then were her feelings when the rider, who dismountedfrom his little hackney as unpretendingly as did her husband in thetwilight court, proved to have my Lord's long beard and narrow face!
Curtseying her lowest and with a feeling of consternation and pity, asshe thought of the orphan boy, she accepted his greeting with duteouswelcome as he said, "Kinswoman, I am come to cumber you, whilst Iinquire into this matter. I give your son thanks for the honesty andfaithfulness he hath shown in the matter, as befitted his father's son.I should wish myself to examine the springald."
Humfrey was accordingly called, and, privately admonished by his fatherthat he must not allow any scruples about bringing his playmate intotrouble to lead him to withhold his evidence, or shrink from tellingthe whole truth as he knew it, Humfrey accordingly stood before theEarl and made his replies a little sullenly but quitestraightforwardly. He had prevented the whistle from being given tohis sister for the huckstress because the woman was a witch, whofrightened her, and moreover he knew it was against rules. Did hesuspect that the whistle came from the Queen of Scots?
He looked startled, and asked if it were so indeed, and when againcommanded to say why he had thought it possible, he replied that heknew Antony thought the Queen of Scots a fair and gracious lady.
Did he believe that Antony ever had communication with her or herpeople unheard by others?
"Assuredly! Wherefore not, when he carried my Lady Countess'smessages?"
Lord Shrewsbury bent his brow, but did not further pursue this branchof the subject, but demanded of Humfrey a description of Tibbott,huckster or witch, man or woman.
"She wears a big black hood and muffler," said Humfrey, "and hath along hooked stick."
"I asked thee not of her muffler, boy, but of her person."
"She hath pouncet boxes and hawks' bells, and dog-whistles in herbasket," proceeded Humfrey, but as the Earl waxed impatient, anddemanded whether no one could give him a clearer account, Richard badeHumfrey call his mother.
She, however, could say nothing as to the woman's appearance. She hadgone to Norman's cottage to offer her services after the supposedaccident, but had been told that the potticary of the Queen of Scotshad undertaken her cure, and had only seen her huddled up in a heap ofrags, asleep. Since her recovery the woman had been several times atBridgefield, but it had struck the mistress of the house that there wasa certain avoidance of direct communication with her, and a preferencefor the servants and children. This Susan had ascribed to fear thatshe should be warned off for her fortune-telling propensities, or thechildren's little bargains interfered with. All she could answer forwas that she had once seen a huge pair of grizzled eyebrows, with lighteyes under them, and that the woman, if woman she were, was tall, andbent a good deal upon a hooked stick, which supported her limpingsteps. Cicely could say little more, except that the witch had a deepawesome voice, like a man, and a long nose terrible to look at.Indeed, there seemed to have been a sort of awful fascination about herto all the children, who feared her yet ran after her.
Antony was then sent for. It was not easy to judge of the expressionof his disfigured countenance, but when thus brought to bay he threwoff all tokens of compunction, and stood boldly before the Earl.
"So, Master Babington, I find you have been betraying the trust Iplaced in you--"
"What, trust, my Lord?" said Antony, his bright blue eyes looking backinto those of the nobleman.
"The cockerel crows loud," said the Earl. "What trust, quotha! Isthere no trust implied in the coming and going of one of my household,when such a charge is committed to me and mine?"
"No one ever gave me any charge," said Antony.
"Dost thou bandy words, thou froward imp?" said the Earl. "Thou hastnot the conscience to deny that there was no honesty in smuggling fortha letter thus hidden. Deny it not. The treasonable cipher hath beenread!"
"I knew nought of what was in it," said the boy.
"I believe thee there, but thou didst know that it was foully disloyalto me and to her Majesty to bear forth secret letters to disguisedtraitors. I am willing to believe that the smooth tongue which hathdeluded many a better man than thou hath led thee astray, and I amwilling to deal as lightly with thee as may be, so thou wilt tell meopenly all thou knowest of this infamous plot."
"I know of no plot, sir."
"They would scarce commit the knowledge to the like of him," saidRichard Talbot.
"May be not," said Lord Shrewsbury, looking at him with a glance thatAntony thought contemptuous, and which prompted him to exclaim, "And ifI did know of one, you may be assured I would never betray it were Itorn with wild horses."
"Betray, sayest thou!" returned the Earl. "Thou hast betrayed myconfidence, Antony, and hast gone as far as in thee lies to betray thyQueen."
"My Queen is Mary, the lawful Queen of us all," replied Antony, boldly.
"Ho! Sayest thou so? It is then as thou didst trow, cousin, thefoolish lad hath been tampered with by the honeyed tongue. I need notask thee from whom thou hadst this letter, boy. We have read it andknow the foul treason therein. Thou wilt never return to the castleagain, but for thy father's sake thou shalt be dealt with less sternly,if thou wilt tell who this woman is, and how many of these toys thouhast given to her, if thou knowest who she is."
But Antony closed his lips resolutely. In fact, Richard suspected himof being somewhat flattered by being the cause of such a commotion, andactually accused of so grand and manly a crime as high treason. TheEarl could extract no word, and finally sentenced him to remain atBridgefield, shut up in his own chamber till he could be dealt with.The lad walked away in a dignified manner, and the Earl, holding up hishands, half amused, half vexed, said, "So the spell is on that poor ladlikewise. What shall I do with him? An orphan boy too, and mine oldfriend's son."
"With your favour, my Lord," said Richard, "I should say, send him to agrammar school, where among lads of his own age, the dreams aboutcaptive princesses might be driven from him by hard blows and merrygames."
"That may scarce serve," said the Earl rather severely, for publicschools were then held beneath the dignity of both the nobility andhigher gentry. "I may, however, send him to study at Cambridge undersome trusty pedagogue. Back at the castle I cannot have him, so must Icumber you with him, my good kinswoman, until his face have recoveredyour son's lusty chastisement. Also it may be well to keep him heretill we can lay hands on this same huckster-woman, since there may beneed to confront him with her. It were best if you did scour thecountry toward Chesterfield for her, while Frank went to York."
Having thus issued his orders, the Earl took a gracious leave of thelady, mounted his horse, and rode back to Sheffield, dispensing withthe attendance of his kinsman, who had indeed to prepare for an earlystart the next morning, when he meant to take Humfrey with him, as notunlikely to recognise the woman, though he could not describe her.
"The boy merits well to go forth with me," said he. "He hath doneyeoman's service, and proved himself staunch and faithful."
"Was there matter in that scroll?" asked Susan.
"Only such slight matter as burning down the Talbots' kennel, while DonJohn of Austria is landing on the coast."
"God forgive them, and defend us!" sighed Susan, turning pale. "Wasthat in the cipher?"
"Ay, in sooth, but fear not, good wife. Much is purposed that ne'ercomes to pass. I doubt me if the ship be built that is to carry theDon hither."
"I trust that Antony knew not of the wickedness?"
"Not he. His is only a dream out of the romances the lads love sowell, of beauteous princesses to be freed, and the like."
"But the woman!"
"Yea, that lies deeper. What didst thou say of her? Wherefore do thechildren call her a witch? Is it only that she is grim and ugly?"
r /> "I trow there is more cause than that," said Susan. "It may be that Ishould have taken more heed to their babble at first; but I havequestioned Cis while you were at the lodge, and I find that even beforeMate Goatley spake here, this Tibbott had told the child of her beingof lofty race in the north, alien to the Talbots' kennel, holding outto her presages of some princely destiny."
"That bodeth ill!" said Richard, thoughtfully. "Wife, my soul misgivesme that the hand of Cuthbert Langston is in this."
Susan started. The idea chimed in with Tibbott's avoidance of herscrutiny, and also with a certain vague sense she had had of havingseen those eyes before. So light-complexioned a man would be easilydisguised, and the halt was accounted for by a report that he had had abad fall when riding to join in the Rising in the North. Nor couldthere now be any doubt that he was an ardent partisan of the imprisonedMary, while Richard had always known his inclination to intrigue. Shecould only agree with her husband's opinion, and ask what he would do.
"My duty must be done, kin or no kin," said Richard, "that is if I findhim; but I look not to do that, since Norman is no doubt off to warnhim."
"I marvel whether he hath really learnt who our Cis can be?"
"Belike not! The hint would only have been thrown out to gain powerover her."
"Said you that you read the cipher?"
"Master Frank did so."
"Would it serve you to read our scroll?"
"Ah, woman! woman! Why can thy kind never let well alone? I havesufficient on my hands without reading of scrolls!"
Humfrey's delight was extreme when he found that he was to ride forthwith his father, and half-a-dozen of the earl's yeomen, in search ofthe supposed witch. They traced her as far as Chesterfield; but havingmet the carrier's waggon on the way, they carefully examined FaithfulEkins on his report, but all the youth was clear about was the halt andthe orange tawny cloak, and after entering Chesterfield, no one knewanything of these tokens. There was a large village belonging to afamily of recusants, not far off, where the pursuers generally did losesight of suspicious persons; and, perhaps, Richard was relieved, thoughhis son was greatly chagrined.
The good captain had a sufficient regard for his kinsman to beunwilling to have to unmask him as a traitor, and to be glad that heshould have effected an escape, so that, at least, it should be otherswho should detect him--if Langston indeed it were.
His next charge was to escort young Babington to Cambridge, and deliverhim up to a tutor of his lordship's selection, who might draw thePopish fancies out of him.
Meantime, Antony had been kept close to the house and garden, and notallowed any intercourse with any of the young people, save Humfrey,except when the master or mistress of the house was present; but he didnot want for occupation, for Master Sniggius came down, and gave him along chapter of the Book of Proverbs--chiefly upon loyalty, in theSeptuagint, to learn by heart, and translate into Latin and English ashis Saturday's and Sunday's occupation, under pain of a flogging, whichwas no light thing from the hands of that redoubted dominie.
Young Babington was half-flattered and half-frightened at the commotionhe had excited. "Am I going to the Tower?" he asked, in a low voice,awestricken, yet not without a certain ring of self-importance, when hesaw his mails brought down, and was bidden to put on his boots and histravelling dress.
And Captain Talbot had a cruel satisfaction in replying, "No, MasterBabington; the Tower is not for refractory boys. You are going to yourschoolmaster."
But where the school was to be Richard kept an absolute secret byspecial desire, in order that no communication should be kept upthrough any of the household. He was to avoid Chatsworth, and toreturn as soon as possible to endeavour to trace the supposedhuckster-woman at Chesterfield.
When once away from home, he ceased to treat young Babington as acriminal, but rode in a friendly manner with him through lanes and overmoors, till the young fellow began to thaw towards him, and even wentso far as to volunteer one day that he would not have brought MistressCicely into the matter if there had been any other sure way of gettingthe letter delivered in his absence.
"Ah, boy!" returned Richard, "when once we swerve from the open anddirect paths, there is no saying into what tangles we may bringourselves and others."
Antony winced a little, and said, "Whoever says I lied, lies in histhroat."
"No one hath said thou wert false in word, but how as to thy deed?"
"Sir," said Antony, "surely when a high emprise and great right is tobe done, there is no need to halt over such petty quibbles."
"Master Babington, no great right was ever done through a little wrong.Depend on it, if you cannot aid without a breach of trust, it is thesure sign that it is not the will of God that you should be the one todo it."
Captain Talbot mused whether he should convince or only weary the ladby an argument he had once heard in a sermon, that the force of Satan'stemptation to our blessed Lord, when showing Him all the kingdoms ofthe world, must have been the absolute and immediate vanishing of allkinds of evil, by a voluntary abdication on the part of the Prince ofthis world, instead not only of the coming anguish of the strife, butof the long, long, often losing, battle which has been waging eversince. Yet for this great achievement He would not commit the moment'ssin. He was just about to begin when Antony broke in, "Then, sir, youdo deem it a great wrong?"
"That I leave to wiser heads than mine," returned the sailor. "My dutyis to obey my Lord, his duty is to obey her Grace. That is all a plainman needs to see."
"But an if the true Queen be thus mewed up, sir?" asked Antony. Richardwas too wise a man to threaten the suggestion down as rank treason,well knowing that thus he should never root it out.
"Look you here, Antony," he said; "who ought to reign is a question ofbirth, such as neither of us can understand nor judge. But we knowthus much, that her Grace, Queen Elizabeth, hath been crowned andanointed and received oaths of fealty as her due, and that is quiteenough for any honest man."
"Even when she keeps in durance the Queen, who came as her guest indire distress?"
"Nay, Master Antony, you are not old enough to remember that thedurance began not until the Queen of Scots tried to form a party forherself among the English liegemen. And didst thou know, thou simplelad, what the letter bore, which thou didst carry, and what it wouldbring on this peaceful land?"
Antony looked a little startled when he heard of the burning of thekennel, but he averred that Don John was a gallant prince.
"I have seen more than one gallant Spaniard under whose power I shouldgrieve to see any friend of mine."
All the rest of the way Richard Talbot entertained the young gentlemanwith stories of his own voyages and adventures, into which he managedto bring traits of Spanish cruelty and barbarity as shown in the LowCountries, such as, without actually drawing the moral every time,might show what was to be expected if Mary of Scotland and Don John ofAustria were to reign over England, armed with the Inquisition.
Antony asked a good many questions, and when he found that the captainhad actually been an eye-witness of the state of a country harried bythe Spaniards, he seemed a good deal struck.
"I think if I had the training of him I could make a loyal Englishmanof him yet," said Richard Talbot to his wife on his return. "But Ifear me there is that in his heart and his conscience which will onlygrow, while yonder sour-faced doctor, with whom I had to leave him atCambridge, preaches to him of the perdition of Pope and Papists."
"If his mother were indeed a concealed Papist," said Susan, "suchsermons will only revolt the poor child."
"Yea, truly. If my Lord wanted to make a plotter and a Papist of theboy he could scarce find a better means. I myself never could awaywith yonder lady's blandishments. But when he thinks of her incontrast to yonder divine, it would take a stronger head than his notto be led away. The best chance for him is that the stir of the worldabout him may put captive princesses out of his head."