Volume I Part 68 (1/2)
But Roger de Lacy immediately saw that the deed was to a similar purport with the copy which had been sent by some unknown hand, immediately on the death of the testator, to Halton Castle.
With a look of devouring and terrible indignation he cried out--
”Though thou wert the holy pontiff himself, and all the terrors of the Church were at thy command, thou shouldst not escape my vengeance, thou daring priest! To the Furca!--his offence is repugnant to my nostrils--'tis rank with treason!”
”Hold!” cried the mysterious hermit; ”I have promised him protection, nor shall the promise be foregone.”
”Thou!” cried the warrior, with unfeigned astonishment; ”and who art thou that seemest here the arbiter of destiny, whether good or evil?”
”A sinful but heaven-destined man,” replied the hermit, meekly.
”Our vengeance slumbereth not,” said the chief; ”the sentence is gone forth, and he dies ere sunset.”
”Not so,” replied the hermit, again a.s.suming the att.i.tude of command.
”By the beard of Hugh Lupus, he dieth.”
”He doth, but not by thy decree.”
”How! methinks the fever of disloyalty hath seized you all: the infection hath so tainted your nature that a skilful leech, whom I employ in cases of emergency, will be of service--my headsman, or hangman, as shall seem most fitting. He dies, I tell thee, though the saints themselves were interceding.”
”I have promised,” said the hermit again, with the confidence of careless superiority.
Adam de Dutton, who had hitherto been waiting anxiously for an opportunity to communicate with his lord, now whispered something in his ear.
”How!” said the bewildered chieftain; ”'tis said thou wearest the badge of our house, and art thyself under some surrept.i.tious disguise.”
”I wear no disguise,” returned the hermit calmly; ”what thou seest is my badge, and will be, Heaven permitting, until I die.”
”Who art thou?”
”A sinful mortal like thyself; but worn down with long vigils and maceration. Lord of as wide inheritance as thou, and yet a tenant only in a narrow cell!”
”Thou speakest riddles;--thy meaning?”
”I was an outcast, though heir to a vast heritage. I vowed that if He, whose prerogative it is, would cleanse me from my stains, my life should thenceforth be His, and consecrate to Heaven. I was a leper; but my prayer was heard. I washed in yonder holy well which gushes from the rock, whose virtues had been reported to me. Was.h.i.+ng daily, with faith and prayer, I was healed. I found close by a convenient hermitage; and many caverns and secret chambers, with hidden pa.s.sages and communications, had been dug therefrom, by which I could pa.s.s to and fro, and thus visit the castle unseen. I was the confessor and companion of Robert de Lacy. At my desire, he left the whole of his domains to the Fitz-Eustace. But thou art not the eldest-born of thy father.”
”My eldest brother has long been dead. He was a leper; his cruel disease drove him from the haunts of men. The last we knew of him, he went forth with cup and clapper as they are wont. Soon after news arrived of his decease.”
”Was he not driven forth by rude and cruel taunts, the rather?” said the hermit, gazing with unaverted eye on the haughty chieftain. ”This n.o.ble birth and heritage are mine! Behold, 'tis thus I repay your injustice!”
He threw off his cloak; underneath appeared a complete suit of proof armour, and a surcoat, on which was emblazoned the badge of the Fitz-Eustace.
”I am Richard Fitz-Eustace, thine elder brother! Nay, put off that brow of discontent. I claim not my birthright; the vows of Heaven are upon me, and to thee and thine will this good inheritance devolve. One right only do I claim--this prisoner is free. Was he not my stay and sustenance when the fiat of Heaven guided me hither? He sheltered me, and had pity on mine infirmity. Moreover, he had some well-founded expectancy towards these domains, by reason of kindred to the Lacies, had they not been devised by will to the Fitz-Eustace. His blood is n.o.ble as our own. He thinks there is injustice in the deed, but not to him shall the atonement come. Thou hast a daughter, and my prescience hath this consequence, that by her this rankling wound shall be healed.
If so be that he have found favour in her sight, let her and the son of this ambitious priest be joined together in the bonds of holy wedlock; for my word is gone forth--his blood mingles with ours.”
The whole a.s.sembly were aghast with this thrilling discovery. The baron would have embraced his brother; but the gloomy ascetic forbade. He left the hall, returned to his cell, and but a short period elapsed ere the grave he had prepared with his own hands was closed over his corpse--the period of his sojourn having been shortened, no doubt, by the austerities and mortifications he deemed himself called upon to endure.
Maud was shortly afterwards united to Geoffery de Whalley, unto whom her father granted the Villa de Tunley or Townley, and the manor of Coldcoats, with Snodworth, as a marriage portion. From them is descended the present owner of Townley, nephew to that celebrated scholar and antiquary, Charles Townley, the twenty-ninth in descent from Spartlingus, the first Dean of Whalley upon record. The latter was predecessor to Cutwulph, whose exploits in the days of Canute we have before noticed.