Part 48 (2/2)
”All as silent as the valley of the shadow of death-Even as the vale of Jehosaphat.”
”Pshaw! tell me not of Jehosaphat, Pearson,” said Cromwell. ”These words are good for others, but not for thee. Speak plainly, and like a blunt soldier as thou art. Each man hath his own mode of speech; and bluntness, not sanct.i.ty, is thine.”
”Well then, nothing has been stirring,” said Pearson.-”Yet peradventure”-
”Peradventure not me,” said Cromwell, ”or thou wilt tempt me to knock thy teeth out. I ever distrust a man when he speaks after another fas.h.i.+on from his own.”
”Zounds! let me speak to an end,” answered Pearson, ”and I will speak in what language your Excellency will.”
”Thy zounds, friend,” said Oliver, ”showeth little of grace, but much of sincerity. Go to then-thou knowest I love and trust thee. Hast thou kept close watch? It behoves us to know that, before giving the alarm.”
”On my soul,” said Pearson, ”I have watched as closely as a cat at a mouse-hole. It is beyond possibility that any thing could have eluded our vigilance, or even stirred within the house, without our being aware of it.”
”'Tis well,” said Cromwell; ”thy services shall not be forgotten, Pearson. Thou canst not preach and pray, but thou canst obey thine orders, Gilbert Pearson, and that may make amends.”
”I thank your Excellency,” replied Pearson; ”but I beg leave to chime in with the humours of the times. A poor fellow hath no right to hold himself singular.”
He paused, expecting Cromwell's orders what next was to be done, and, indeed, not a little surprised that the General's active and prompt spirit had suffered him during a moment so critical to cast away a thought upon a circ.u.mstance so trivial as his officer's peculiar mode of expressing himself. He wondered still more, when, by a brighter gleam of moons.h.i.+ne than he had yet enjoyed, he observed that Cromwell was standing motionless, his hands supported upon his sword, which he had taken out of the belt, and his stern brows bent on the ground. He waited for some time impatiently, yet afraid to interfere, lest he should awaken this unwonted fit of ill-timed melancholy into anger and impatience. He listened to the muttering sounds which escaped from the half-opening lips of his princ.i.p.al, in which the words, ”hard necessity,” which occurred more than once, were all of which the sense could be distinguished. ”My Lord-General,” at length he said, ”time flies.”
”Peace, busy fiend, and urge me not!” said Cromwell. ”Think'st thou, like other fools, that I have made a paction with the devil for success, and am bound to do my work within an appointed hour, lest the spell should lose its force?”
”I only think, my Lord-General,” said Pearson, ”that Fortune has put into your coffer what you have long desired to make prize of, and that you hesitate.”
Cromwell sighed deeply as he answered, ”Ah, Pearson, in this troubled world, a man, who is called like me to work great things in Israel, had need to be, as the poets feign, a thing made of hardened metal, immovable to feelings of human charities, impa.s.sible, resistless. Pearson, the world will hereafter, perchance, think of me as being such a one as I have described, 'an iron man, and made of iron mould.'-Yet they will wrong my memory-my heart is flesh, and my blood is mild as that of others. When I was a sportsman, I have wept for the gallant heron that was struck down, by my hawk, and sorrowed for the hare which lay screaming under the jaws of my greyhound; and canst thou think it a light thing to me, that, the blood of this lad's father lying in some measure upon my head, I should now put in peril that of the son? They are of the kindly race of English sovereigns, and, doubtless, are adored like to demiG.o.ds by those of their own party. I am called Parricide, Blood-thirsty Usurper, already, for shedding the blood of one man, that the plague might be stayed-or as Achan was slain that Israel might thereafter stand against the face of their enemies. Nevertheless, who has spoke unto me graciously since that high deed? Those who acted in the matter with me are willing that I should be the scape-goat of the atonement-those who looked on and helped not, bear themselves now as if they had been borne down by violence; and while I looked that they should shout applause on me, because of the victory of Worcester, whereof the Lord had made me the poor instrument, they look aside to say, 'Ha! ha! the King-killer, the Parricide-soon shall his place be made desolate.'-Truly it is a great thing, Gilbert Pearson, to be lifted above the mult.i.tude; but when one feeleth that his exaltation is rather hailed with hate and scorn than with love and reverence-in sooth, it is still a hard matter for a mild, tender-conscienced, infirm spirit to bear-and G.o.d be my witness, that, rather than do this new deed, I would shed my own best heart's-blood in a pitched field, twenty against one.” Here he fell into a flood of tears, which he sometimes was wont to do. This extremity of emotion was of a singular character. It was not actually the result of penitence, and far less that of absolute hypocrisy, but arose merely from the temperature of that remarkable man, whose deep policy, and ardent enthusiasm, were intermingled with a strain of hypochondriacal pa.s.sion, which often led him to exhibit scenes of this sort, though seldom, as now, when he was called to the execution of great undertakings.
Pearson, well acquainted as he was with the peculiarities of his General, was baffled and confounded by this fit of hesitation and contrition, by which his enterprising spirit appeared to be so suddenly paralysed. After a moment's silence, he said, with some dryness of manner, ”If this be the case, it is a pity your Excellency came hither. Corporal Humgudgeon and I, the greatest saint and greatest sinner in your army, had done the deed, and divided the guilt and the honour betwixt us.”
”Ha!” said Cromwell, as if touched to the quick, ”wouldst thou take the prey from the lion?”
”If the lion behaves like a village cur,” said Pearson boldly, ”who now barks and seems as if he would tear all to pieces, and now flies from a raised stick or a stone, I know not why I should fear him. If Lambert had been here, there had been less speaking and more action.”
”Lambert! What of Lambert?” said Cromwell, very sharply.
”Only,” said Pearson, ”that I long since hesitated whether I should follow your Excellency or him-and I begin to be uncertain whether I have made the best choice, that's all.”
”Lambert!” exclaimed Cromwell impatiently, yet softening his voice lest he should be overheard descanting on the character of his rival,-”What is Lambert?-a tulip-fancying fellow, whom nature intended for a Dutch gardener at Delft or Rotterdam. Ungrateful as thou art, what could Lambert have done for thee?”
”He would not,” answered Pearson, ”have stood here hesitating before a locked door, when fortune presented the means of securing, by one blow, his own fortune, and that of all who followed him.”
”Thou art right, Gilbert Pearson,” said Cromwell, grasping his officer's hand, and strongly pressing it. ”Be the half of this bold accompt thine, whether the reckoning be on earth or heaven.”
”Be the whole of it mine hereafter,” said Pearson hardily, ”so your Excellency have the advantage of it upon earth. Step back to the rear till I force the door-there may be danger, if despair induce them to make a desperate sally.”
”And if they do sally, is there one of my Ironsides who fears fire or steel less than myself?” said the General. ”Let ten of the most determined men follow us, two with halberts, two with petronels, the others with pistols-Let all their arms be loaded, and fire without hesitation, if there is any attempt to resist or to sally forth-Let Corporal Humgudgeon be with them, and do thou remain here, and watch against escape, as thou wouldst watch for thy salvation.”
The General then struck at the door with the hilt of his sword-at first with a single blow or two, then with a reverberation of strokes that made the ancient building ring again. This noisy summons was repeated once or twice without producing the least effect.
”What can this mean?” said Cromwell; ”they cannot surely have fled, and left the house empty.”
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