Part 40 (1/2)
”I will, old friend, when mine amaze is o'er at hearing of such words from one Ned Underhill.”
”Amaze!--what need, trow?”
”But little need, when one doth call to mind that the most uncommon of all things is consistency. Only when one hath been used for forty years and more to see a man (I name him not) ever foremost in all perilous aventure, and thrusting him forward into whatsoever danger there were as into a bath of rosewater, 'tis some little surprise that taketh one to hear from the self-same party that 'tis never so much sweeter to keep safe and sound at home.”
Mr Underhill threw his head back, and indulged in a hearty peal of laughter.
”On my word, Robin, thou ticklest me sore! But what, lad!--may a man not grow prudent in his old age?”
”By all manner of means, or in his youth no less; but this will I say, that the last prudent man I looked to set eyes on should bear the name of Underhill.”
”Well-a-day! Here is Eunice made up of prudence.”
”She taketh after her mother, trow,” replied the Rector dryly.
”Come, I'll give o'er, while I have some bones left whole.--And what thinkest, lad, of the outlook of matters public at this time?”
”Nay, what think you, that have been of late in London?”
”Robin,” said Mr Underhill gravely, ”dost mind, long years gone, when King Edward his reign was well-nigh o'er, the ferment men's minds gat in touching the succession?”
”_Eh, la belle journee_!” said Mrs Rose waggishly. ”I do well mind the ferment _you_ were in, Mr Underhill, and how you did push your Queen Mary down all the throats of your friends: likewise how sweetly she did repay you, bidding you for a month's visit to her palace of Newgate!
Pray you, shall it be the same again, _hermano_?”
”Dear heart! What a memory have you, Mistress Rose!” said Mr Underhill, with another hearty laugh. ”It shall scantly be Newgate again, metrusteth: the rather, since there is no Queen Mary to thrust adown your throats--thank the Lord for that and all other His mercies.
He that we may speak of is no Papist, whatso else; but I mistake greatly, Robin, if somewhat the same matter shall not come o'er again, should it please G.o.d to do a certain thing.”
Mr Underhill spoke thus vaguely, having no wish to finish his days on the gallows; as men had done ere now, for little more than a hint that the reigning Sovereign might not live for ever.
”And when the ferment come, under what flag must we look for you, Mr Underhill?” asked. Mrs Tremayne.
”Well,” said he, ”Harry Eighth left a lad and two la.s.ses, and we have had them all. But Harry Seventh left likewise a lad and two la.s.ses; and we have had the lad, but ne'er a one of the la.s.ses.”
”Both these la.s.ses be dead,” responded the Rector.
”They be so. But the first left a lad and a la.s.s; and that lad left a la.s.s, and that la.s.s left a lad--which is alive and jolly.”
This meant, that Queen Margaret of Scotland, elder sister of Henry the Eighth, had issue King James the Fifth, whose daughter was Mary Queen of Scots, and her son was James the Sixth, then living.
”You count the right lieth there?” queried Mr Tremayne.
Mr Underhill nodded his head decidedly.
”And is--yonder party--well or ill affected unto the Gospellers?--how hear you?”
”Lutheran to the back-bone--with no love for Puritans, as men do now begin to call us Hot Gospellers.”
”Thus is the Queen, mecounteth: and we have thriven well under her, and have full good cause to thank G.o.d for her.”
”Fifty years gone, Robin--when she was but a smatchet [a very young person]--I said that la.s.s would do well. There is a touch of old Hal in her--not too much, but enough to put life and will into her.”