Part 7 (1/2)
”Though you do not know where your niece is, is Mr Lerew, or is her father's old friend, Mr Lennard, acquainted with her present address?”
asked the general.
”I should think that she would have informed me rather than any one else,” replied Miss Pemberton; and the general at length, finding that he could get no information out of the lady, took his leave.
”I will try, at all events, to ascertain what either Lennard or Lerew know,” said the general to himself, as he drove off. Though he suspected that the vicar knew something about the matter, he decided first to call on Mr Lennard. He believed him to be an honest man, but he had no great opinion of his sense. Mr Lennard was at home; he received the general in a kindly way. The latter observed that his manner was unusually subdued. Without loss of time, the general mentioned Miss Maynard, and expressed his regret at not finding her at home.
”Can you tell me where she has gone to?” he asked, ”for her aunt declares that she does not know, though it was evident from her manner that she is not anxious about her.”
”I regret to say that I know no more than you do,” answered Mr Lennard.
”I had been for some time absent, and on my return I was greatly surprised to find that she had left Luton; and when I enquired of the Lerews, they told me that she had resolved to devote herself to works of charity, and was about to enter a sisterhood, but in what neighbourhood they did not inform me.”
”In other words, that she is about to become a nun, to discard my poor son, and to give up her property, as soon as she has the power of disposing of it, to the safe keeping of one of those Romish communities,” exclaimed the general, with more vehemence than he was accustomed to exhibit; ”what do you say to that, Mr Lennard?”
”I don't suppose that Miss Maynard purposes entering a Romish convent; her intention, I conclude, is to join a sisterhood of the Anglican Church,” said Mr Lennard.
”The Church of England, of which I suppose you speak, recognises no such inst.i.tutions,” replied the general; ”they are contrary to the spirit of the Reformation. Unhappy will it be for our country if they ever gain ground.”
”I had been inclined to suppose that they would prove a great advantage, by enabling ladies to unite together and work under a good system in visiting the sick and poor, and in the instruction of the children, and in other beneficent labours; and I have, when requested, subscribed towards their support,” remarked Mr Lennard.
”I do not insist that ladies should not thus employ themselves,”
observed the general; ”but my objection is to the mode in which they unite themselves in the so-called religious system under which they are placed. They may, in most instances, serve G.o.d far better by staying at home and doing their duty in their families, instead of a.s.suming the dress and imitating the customs of the nuns of the middle ages.”
”I do not look at the subject in that light,” observed Mr Lennard, ”and I know that it must be a hard matter for some young ladies to be religious at home, where the rest of the family are worldly-minded.”
”Much more reason for them to stay at home and endeavour to improve the tone of the rest of the household,” answered the general. ”Those who know what human nature is should see that with whatever good intentions these sisterhoods are begun, they must in the end lead to much that is objectionable. If Miss Maynard has joined one of them, I must endeavour to find the means of getting her out, or of ascertaining if she was induced to join it, and remains of her own free will. I fear that Lerew will not afford me any a.s.sistance, as from his Romish tendencies he will probably consider them admirable inst.i.tutions, and would think that he had done a laudable act in inducing Clara to enter one. I must now wish you good-bye. I hope that you have good accounts of your young daughter Mary, and your son at Oxford.”
Mr Lennard shook his head. ”I received a letter to-day from my little girl, saying that she was very ill, and begging me to come and take her home; but as the mistress did not write, I do not suppose that her illness is serious. However, I intend to go to-morrow to Mary, and ascertain how she is, and I trust that I shall not be obliged to take her away from school.”
The general considered whether he should call on Mr Lerew; but he first bethought himself of paying a visit to a lawyer in the neighbouring town, with whom he was well acquainted, and who had been a friend of Captain Maynard's. He was also an earnest religious man, and strongly opposed to ritualism. The general was not a person to let the gra.s.s grow under his feet. He was driving rapidly along, when he met Lieutenant Sims, who made a sign to him to stop. The general did so, and invited the lieutenant to accompany him into the town.
”With all my heart, for I want to have a talk with you, general,”
answered the lieutenant, springing in. ”I have long been wis.h.i.+ng for your return. We've had some extraordinary goings on in this place.
What has concerned me most is the disappearance of my old friend's daughter, in whom you, I know, take a deep interest. All I know is that she went away with the vicar and his wife, and it is my belief that they had an object in spiriting her off; but whether to shut her up in a Romish or Ritualist convent is more than I can say. I don't think there is much to choose between them; the vicar might select the Ritualist, or the Anglican, as he would call it, as he, though a Papist at heart, would prefer keeping his living, while his lady would recommend the former; for it is said, and I believe it to be a fact, that she herself has turned Romanist, with her dear friend Lady Bygrave. Haven't you heard that both Sir Reginald and her ladys.h.i.+p were received last week into the bosom of the Church of Rome, as the expression runs?”
”Is it possible!” exclaimed the general; ”but I ought not to be surprised when I saw the characters they admitted into their house. I thought that French abbe and Father Lascelles had some other object in view than the establishment of a colony; but perhaps you have been misinformed.”
”I tell you, general, I haven't a doubt about the matter,” answered Mr Sims. ”They and Mrs Lerew attended the Romish church together, and I am told had been baptised with all ceremony a few days before. I know that two or three priests have been staying at the Hall ever since, and Mrs Lerew goes there regularly. They are about to have a chapel built in their grounds, and an architect came down from London about it; and in the meantime they have got a room fitted up in the house. What surprises me is that the vicar should allow his wife to turn; but that she has done so seems probable, for she was not at church last Sunday.
Should Lerew object to his wife's perversion, he has only himself to thank for it; he has led her up to the door as carefully as a man could do, and cannot be surprised at her going inside. Of course she thinks it safer to join what she has been taught to look upon as the true church, and has therefore honestly gone over to it; while whatever he may think, putting honesty and honour aside, he considers that it is more to his advantage to retain his living, and lead others in the way he has led his wife.”
”I suspect that you are right,” observed the general; ”too many have set him the example. He, like them, has been trained in the school of the Jesuits, who are fully persuaded that evil may be done that good may come of it, and banish from their minds the principles which guide honest men, and which they themselves would advocate in the ordinary affairs of life. I can only wish that, unless Mr Lerew's mind is enlightened, he would go over himself; as I am afraid, while he remains in the Church of England, he may lead others in the same direction.”
”Not much fear of that,” observed the lieutenant; ”except a few silly young people of the better cla.s.ses, and the poor, who look out for the loaves and fishes in the shape of coals and blankets and other creature comforts, I don't think many are influenced by him. He is more likely to empty his church, and to fill the Dissenting chapels.”
”Still,” said the general, ”he sows broadcast the germs of Romanism through the doctrines he preaches, while he accustoms people to the sight of the ceremonies and paraphernalia of Rome, keeping them in ignorance at the same time of the simple truths of the Gospel, at the bidding of those whose commands he obeys; for he and his ritualistic brethren are but instruments in the hands of more cunning men than themselves. I have little doubt that he was carefully educated at the university for the part he is now playing, though he then had no idea of the designs of his tutor. People laugh at the notion that a Jesuit plot has long existed in England for the subversion of Protestantism; but I have evidence, which receives daily corroboration, that Jesuits in disguise matriculated at the universities for the express purpose of perverting the minds of all whom they could bring under their influence.
The pupils in numberless instances went over to Rome, while the tutors remained nominally in the Church of England, for the sake of trapping others. The scheme has succeeded, and has since been greatly enlarged; the Jesuits have now agents in every shape--some as inc.u.mbents of parishes, as lay supporters, men and women, guilds and sisterhoods; they have encouraged works of charity, schools, hospitals, refuges for the fallen and dest.i.tute, _creches_, mothers' meetings, and other inst.i.tutions, all excellent in themselves, knowing how much such would forward their object. Of that object, those who take part in them are, I am ready to believe, in many instances utterly ignorant; they are influenced by the desire to obey the commands of Christ, and to make themselves useful to their fellow-creatures, though the idea that they are thereby meriting heaven, and what they call working out their own salvation, underlies all they do, as they misinterpret the pa.s.sage.
They ignore the glorious truth that through simple faith in the atoning blood of Christ salvation is gained--that it is their own, and that the right motive of action must be through love and obedience to Him who has already saved them. All the forms and ceremonies in which they indulge are but will-wors.h.i.+p, tending to obscure their view of Him, and to destroy their spiritual life.”
”General,” said the lieutenant, ”I have seen a good deal of Roman Catholic countries, where the priests have full sway, and I am very sure that the system these Ritualists have introduced is tending in the same direction. I know from experience that true religion makes a man all that can be expected of him. We had a dozen or more such men on board the last s.h.i.+p in which I served, and they were out and out the best men we had; they could be trusted on all occasions; and if any dangerous work had to be done, they were the first to volunteer. They were Dissenters of some sort, I believe, and were not in favour with our ritualistic chaplain, who had his followers both among officers and men.
I can't say much about those officers, and as to the men who pretended to agree with him, they were the most sneaking rascals in the s.h.i.+p. He tried to bring me over to his way of thinking, but my eyes were opened.