Part 12 (1/2)

CHAPTER IX.

UNQUIET.

Bridgefield was a peaceable household, and the castle and manor beyond might envy its calm.

From the time of the marriage of Elizabeth Cavendish with the young Earl of Lennox all the shreds of comfort which had remained to the unfortunate Earl had vanished. First he had to clear himself before Queen Elizabeth from having been a consenting party, and then he found his wife furious with him at his displeasure at her daughter's aggrandis.e.m.e.nt. Moreover, whereas she had formerly been on terms of friendly gossiphood with the Scottish Queen, she now went over to the Lennox side because her favourite daughter had married among them; and it was evident that from that moment all amity between her and the prisoner was at an end.

She was enraged that her husband would not at once change his whole treatment of the Queen, and treat her as such guilt deserved; and with the illogical dulness of a pa.s.sionate woman, she utterly scouted and failed to comprehend the argument that the unhappy Mary was, to say the least of it, no more guilty now than when she came into their keeping, and that to alter their demeanour towards her would be unjust and unreasonable.

”My Lady is altogether beyond reason,” said Captain Talbot, returning one evening to his wife; ”neither my Lord nor her daughter can do ought with her; so puffed up is she with this marriage! Moreover, she is hotly angered that young Babington should have been sent away from her retinue without notice to her, and demands our Humfrey in his stead as a page.”

”He is surely too old for a page!” said his mother, thinking of her tall well-grown son of fifteen.

”So said I,” returned Richard. ”I had sooner it were Diccon, and so I told his lords.h.i.+p.”

Before Richard could speak for them, the two boys came in, eager and breathless. ”Father!” cried Humfrey, ”who think you is at Hull? Why, none other than your old friend and s.h.i.+pmate, Captain Frobisher!”

”Ha! Martin Frobisher! Who told thee, Humfrey?”

”Faithful Ekins, sir, who had it from the Doncaster carrier, who saw Captain Frobisher himself, and was asked by him if you, sir, were not somewhere in Yorks.h.i.+re, and if so, to let you know that he will be in Hull till May-day, getting men together for a voyage to the northwards, where there is gold to be had for the picking-and if you had a likely son or two, now was the time to make their fortunes, and show them the world. He said, any way you might ride to see an old comrade.”

”A long message for two carriers,” said Richard Talbot, smiling, ”but Martin never was a scribe!”

”But, sir, you will let me go,” cried Humfrey, eagerly. ”I mean, I pray you to let me go. Dear mother, say nought against it,” entreated the youth. ”Cis, think of my bringing thee home a gold bracelet like mother's.”

”What,” said his father, ”when my Lady has just craved thee for a page.”

”A page!” said Humfrey, with infinite contempt-”to hear all their tales and bickerings, hold skeins of silk, amble mincingly along galleries, be begged to bear messages that may have more in them than one knows, and be noted for a bear if one refuses.”

The father and Cis laughed, the mother looked unhappy.

”So Martin is at Hull, is he?” said Richard, musingly. ”If my Lord can give me leave for a week or fortnight, methinks I must ride to see the stout old knave.”

”And oh, sweet father! prithee take me with you,” entreated Humfrey, ”if it be only to come back again. I have not seen the sea since we came here, and yet the sound is in my ears as I fall asleep. I entreat of you to let me come, good my father.”

”And, good father, let me come,” exclaimed Diccon; ”I have never even seen the sea!”

”And dear, sweet father, take me,” entreated little Ned.

”Nay,” cried Cis, ”what should I do? Here is Antony Babington borne off to Cambridge, and you all wanting to leave me.”

”I'll come home better worth than he!” muttered Humfrey, who thought he saw consent on his father's brow, and drew her aside into the deep window.

”You'll come back a rude sailor, smelling of pitch and tar, and Antony will be a well-bred, point-device scholar, who will know how to give a lady his hand,” said the teasing girl.

”And so the playful war was carried on, while the father, having silenced and dismissed the two younger lads, expressed his intention of obtaining leave of absence, if possible, from the Earl.”

”Yea,” he added to his wife, ”I shall even let Humfrey go with me. It is time he looked beyond the walls of this place, which is little better than a prison.”