Part 16 (2/2)
”There is fighting matter in that, upon the spot,” exclaimed the Skipper. ”By St. Sebastian, I hope it may come up while I am in port!
The Collector, old as he is, will buckle on his toledo in that quarrel.
He has mettle for it; and I could wish no better play than to stand by his side. Who is this Secretary of my Lord's private chamber? I met him at the Collector's to-day.”
”Master Albert Verheyden,” replied the priest.
”I know his name--they told it to me there--but his quality and condition, father?”
”You may be proud of his fellows.h.i.+p,” said father Pierre; ”he was once a scholar of the Jesuit school at Antwerp, of the cla.s.s inscribed 'Princeps Diligentiae,' and brought thence by my Lord. A youth, Master c.o.c.klescraft, of promise and discretion--a model to such as would learn good manners and cherish virtuous inclinations. You may scarcely fail to see him at the Collector's: the townspeople do say he has an eye somewhat dazzled there.”
”Craving pardon for my freedom, I say, father Pierre, a fig's end for such a model!” exclaimed the Skipper, pettishly: ”you may have such by the score, wherever lazy, bookish men eat their bread. I like him not, with his laced band and feather, his book and lute: harquebuss and whinyard are the tools for these days. I hear the Fendalls have been at mischief again. We shall come to bilbo and buff before long. Your Secretary will do marvellous service in these straits, father.”
”Son, you are somewhat sinful in your scorn,” said the priest, mildly; ”the Secretary doth not deserve this taunt----”
”By the holy hermits, father, I speak of the Secretary but as I think.
He does not awe me with his greatness. I vail no topsail to him, I give you my word for it.”
”The saints preserve us from harm!” said the churchman. ”We know not what may befall us from the might of our enemies, when this hot blood shall sunder our friends. In sober counsel, son, and not in rash divisions shall we find our safety. It doth not become thee, Master c.o.c.klescraft, to let thy tetchy humour rouse thee against the Secretary. It might warrant my displeasure.”
”Mea culpa, holy father--I do confess my fault,” said the seaman, in a tone of a.s.sumed self-constraint--”I will not again offend; and for my present atonement will offer a censer of pure silver, which in my travels I picked up, and in truth did then design to give, to the Chapel of St. Mary's. I will bring it to the chapel, father Pierre, as soon as my vessel is unladen.”
”You should offer up your anger too, to make this gift acceptable,”
returned the priest. ”Let thy dedication be with a cleansed heart.”
”Ha, father Pierre,” said the Skipper, jocularly; ”my conscience does easily cast off a burden: so it shall be as you command. I did not tell you that whilst my brigantine lay in the Helder, I made a land flight to Louvaine, where a certain Abbot of Andoyne,--a pious, somewhat aged, and, thanks to a wholesome refectory! a good jolly priest,--hearing I came from the province, must needs send for me to ask if I knew father Pierre de la Maise, and upon my answer, that I did right well, he begs me to bring his remembrance back to you.”
”I knew father Gervase,” replied the priest with a countenance full of benignity--”some forty years ago, when he was a reader in the Chair of St. Isidore at Rome. He remembers me?--a blessing on his head!--and he wears well, Master Skipper?”
”Quite as well as yourself,” replied c.o.c.klescraft. ”Father, a cup of your cool water, and I will depart,” he said, as he helped himself to the draught. ”I will take heed to what you have said touching the royal order--and by St. Iago, I will be a friend in need to the Collector.
Master Verheyden shall not be a better one. Now fare thee well, father.
Peregrine Cadger shall have order to cut you off a ca.s.sock from the best cloth I have brought him, and little Abbot the tailor shall put it in fas.h.i.+on for you.”
”You are lavish of your bounties, son,” replied the priest, taking c.o.c.klescraft by both hands as he was now about to withdraw. ”You have a poor churchman's thanks. It gives me comfort to be so considered, and I prize your kindness more than the ca.s.sock. A blessing on thy ways, Master c.o.c.klescraft!”
The Skipper once more set forth on his way towards the port; and with a temper somewhat allayed by the acting of the scene I have just described, though with no abatement of the resentment which rankled at the bottom of his heart, even under the smiling face and gay outside which he could a.s.sume with the skill of a consummate dissembler, he soon reached the Crow and Archer. From thence he meditated, as soon as his occasions would permit, a visit to the Cripple of St. Jerome's.
CHAPTER XVI.
”Who be these, sir?”
”Fellows to mount a bank. Did your instructer In the dear tongues never discourse to you Of the Italian mountebanks?”
”Yes, sir.”
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