I have a gun, madam, said little Julian, and the park-keeper is to teach me how to fire it next year.
I will list you for my soldier, then, said the Countess.
Ladies have no soldiers, said the boy, looking wistfully at her.
He has the true masculine contempt of our frail sex, I see, said the Countess; it is born with the insolent varlets of mankind, and shows itself so soon as they are out of their long clothes. Did Ellesmere never tell you of Latham House and Charlotte of Derby, my little master?
A thousand thousand times, said the boy, colouring; and how the Queen of Man defended it six weeks against three thousand Roundheads, under Rogue Harrison the butcher.
It was your mother defended Latham House, said the Countess, not I, my little soldier Hadst thou been there, thou hadst been the best captain of the three.
Do not say so, madam, said the boy, for mamma would not touch a gun for all the universe.
Not I, indeed, Julian, said his mother; there I was for certain, but as useless a part of the garrison
You forget, said the Countess, you nursed our hospital, and made lint for the soldiers wounds.
But did not papa come to help you? said Julian.
Papa came at last, said the Countess, and so did Prince Rupert but not, I think, till they were both heartily wished for. Do you remember that morning, Margaret, when the round-headed knaves, that kept us pent up so long, retreated without bag or baggage, at the first glance of the Princes standards appearing on the hill and how you took every high-crested captain you saw for Peveril of the Peak, that had been your partner three months before at the Queens mask? Nay, never blush for the thought of it it was an honest affection and though it was the music of trumpets that accompanied you both to the old chapel, which was almost entirely ruined by the enemys bullets; and though Prince Rupert, when he gave you away at the altar, was clad in buff and bandoleer, with pistols in his belt, yet I trust these warlike signs were no type of future discord?
Heaven has been kind to me, said the Lady Peveril, in blessing me with an affectionate husband.
And in preserving him to you, said the Countess, with a deep sigh; while mine, alas! sealed with his blood his devotion to his king2 Oh, had he lived to see this day!
Alas! alas! that he was not permitted! answered Lady Peveril; how had that brave and noble Earl rejoiced in the unhoped-for redemption of our captivity!
The Countess looked on Lady Peveril with an air of surprise.
Thou hast not then heard, cousin, how it stands with our house? How indeed had my noble lord wondered, had he been told that the very monarch for whom he had laid down his noble life on the scaffold at Bolton-le-Moor, should make it his first act of restored monarchy to complete the destruction of our property, already well-nigh ruined in the royal cause, and to persecute me his widow!
You astonish me, madam! said the Lady Peveril. It cannot be, that you that you, the wife of the gallant, the faithful, the murdered Earl you, Countess of Derby, and Queen in Man you, who took on you even the character of a soldier, and seemed a man when so many men proved women that you should sustain evil from the event which has fulfilled exceeded the hopes of every faithful subject it cannot be!
Thou art as simple, I see, in this worlds knowledge as ever, my fair cousin, answered the Countess. This restoration, which has given others security, has placed me in danger this change which relieved other Royalists, scarce less zealous, I presume to think, than I has sent me here a fugitive, and in concealment, to beg shelter and assistance from you, fair cousin.
From me, answered the Lady Peveril from me, whose youth your kindness sheltered from the wife of Peveril, your gallant Lords companion in arms you have a right to command everything; but, alas! that you should need such assistance as I can render forgive me, but it seems like some ill-omened vision of the night I listen to your words as if I hoped to be relieved from their painful import by awaking.
It is indeed a dream a vision, said the Countess of Derby; but it needs no seer to read it the explanation hath been long since given Put not your faith in princes. I can soon remove your surprise. This gentleman, your friend, is doubtless honest?
The Lady Peveril well knew that the Cavaliers, like other factions, usurped to themselves the exclusive denomination of the honest party, and she felt some difficulty in explaining that her visitor was not honest in that sense of the word.
Had we not better retire, madam? she said to the Countess, rising, as if in order to attend her. But the Countess retained her seat.
It was but a question of habit, she said; the gentlemans principles are nothing to me, for what I have to tell you is widely blazed, and I care not who hears my share of it. You remember you must have heard, for I think Margaret Stanley would not be indifferent to my fate that after my husbands murder at Bolton, I took up the standard which he never dropped until his death, and displayed it with my own hand in our Sovereignty of Man.
I did indeed hear so, madam, said the Lady Peveril; and that you had bidden a bold defiance to the rebel government, even after all other parts of Britain had submitted to them. My husband, Sir Geoffrey, designed at one time to have gone to your assistance with some few followers; but we learned that the island was rendered to the Parliament party, and that you, dearest lady, were thrown into prison.
But you heard not, said the Countess, how that disaster befell me. Margaret, I would have held out that island against the knaves as long as the sea continued to flow around it. Till the shoals which surround it had become safe anchorage till its precipices had melted beneath the sunshine till of all its strong abodes and castles not one stone remained upon another, would I have defended against these villainous hypocritical rebels, my dear husbands hereditary dominion. The little kingdom of Man should have been yielded only when not an arm was left to wield a sword, not a finger to draw a trigger in its defence. But treachery did what force could never have done. When we had foiled various attempts upon the island by open force treason accomplished what Blake and Lawson, with their floating castles, had found too hazardous an enterprise a base rebel, whom we had nursed in our own bosoms, betrayed us to the enemy. This wretch was named Christian
Major Bridgenorth started and turned towards the speaker, but instantly seemed to recollect himself, and again averted his face. The Countess proceeded, without noticing the interruption, which, however, rather surprised Lady Peveril, who was acquainted with her neighbours general habits of indifference and apathy, and therefore the more surprised at his testifying such sudden symptoms of interest. She would once again have moved the Countess to retire to another apartment, but Lady Derby proceeded with too much vehemence to endure interruption.
This Christian, she said, had eaten of my lord his sovereigns bread, and drunk of his cup, even from childhood for his fathers had been faithful servants to the House of Man and Derby. He himself had fought bravely by my husbands side, and enjoyed all his confidence; and when my princely Earl was martyred by the rebels, he recommended to me, amongst other instructions communicated in the last message I received from him, to continue my confidence in Christians fidelity. I obeyed, although I never loved the man. He was cold and phlegmatic, and utterly devoid of that sacred fire which is the incentive to noble deeds, suspected, too, of leaning to the cold metaphysics of Calvinistic subtlety. But he was brave, wise, and experienced, and, as the event proved, possessed but too much interest with the islanders. When these rude people saw themselves without hope of relief, and pressed by a blockade, which brought want and disease into their island, they began to fall off from the faith which they had hitherto shown.
Major Bridgenorth started and turned towards the speaker, but instantly seemed to recollect himself, and again averted his face. The Countess proceeded, without noticing the interruption, which, however, rather surprised Lady Peveril, who was acquainted with her neighbours general habits of indifference and apathy, and therefore the more surprised at his testifying such sudden symptoms of interest. She would once again have moved the Countess to retire to another apartment, but Lady Derby proceeded with too much vehemence to endure interruption.
This Christian, she said, had eaten of my lord his sovereigns bread, and drunk of his cup, even from childhood for his fathers had been faithful servants to the House of Man and Derby. He himself had fought bravely by my husbands side, and enjoyed all his confidence; and when my princely Earl was martyred by the rebels, he recommended to me, amongst other instructions communicated in the last message I received from him, to continue my confidence in Christians fidelity. I obeyed, although I never loved the man. He was cold and phlegmatic, and utterly devoid of that sacred fire which is the incentive to noble deeds, suspected, too, of leaning to the cold metaphysics of Calvinistic subtlety. But he was brave, wise, and experienced, and, as the event proved, possessed but too much interest with the islanders. When these rude people saw themselves without hope of relief, and pressed by a blockade, which brought want and disease into their island, they began to fall off from the faith which they had hitherto shown.
What! said the Lady Peveril, could they forget what was due to the widow of their benefactor she who had shared with the generous Derby the task of bettering their condition?
Do not blame them, said the Countess; the rude herd acted but according to their kind in present distress they forgot former benefits, and, nursed in their earthen hovels, with spirits suited to their dwellings, they were incapable of feeling the glory which is attached to constancy in suffering. But that Christian should have headed their revolt that he, born a gentleman, and bred under my murdered Derbys own care in all that was chivalrous and noble that he should have forgot a hundred benefits why do I talk of benefits? that he should have forgotten that kindly intercourse which binds man to man far more than the reciprocity of obligation that he should have headed the ruffians who broke suddenly into my apartment immured me with my infants in one of my own castles, and assumed or usurped the tyranny of the island that this should have been done by William Christian, my vassal, my servant, my friend, was a deed of ungrateful treachery, which even this age of treason will scarcely parallel!
And you were then imprisoned, said the Lady Peveril, and in your own sovereignty?
For more than seven years I have endured strict captivity, said the Countess. I was indeed offered my liberty, and even some means of support, if I would have consented to leave the island, and pledge my word that I would not endeavour to repossess my son in his fathers rights. But they little knew the princely house from which I spring and as little the royal house of Stanley which I uphold, who hoped to humble Charlotte of Tremouille into so base a composition. I would rather have starved in the darkest and lowest vault of Rushin Castle, than have consented to aught which might diminish in one hairs-breadth the right of my son over his fathers sovereignty!
And could not your firmness, in a case where hope seemed lost, induce them to be generous and dismiss you without conditions?
They knew me better than thou dost, wench, answered the Countess; once at liberty, I had not been long without the means of disturbing their usurpation, and Christian would have as soon encaged a lioness to combat with, as have given me the slightest power of returning to the struggle with him. But time had liberty and revenge in store I had still friends and partisans in the island, though they were compelled to give way to the storm. Even among the islanders at large, most had been disappointed in the effects which they expected from the change of power. They were loaded with exactions by their new masters, their privileges were abridged, and their immunities abolished, under the pretext of reducing them to the same condition with the other subjects of the pretended republic. When the news arrived of the changes which were current in Britain, these sentiments were privately communicated to me. Calcott and others acted with great zeal and fidelity; and a rising, effected as suddenly and effectually as that which had made me a captive, placed me at liberty and in possession of the sovereignty of Man, as Regent for my son, the youthful Earl of Derby. Do you think I enjoyed that sovereignty long without doing justice on that traitor Christian?
How, madam, said Lady Peveril, who, though she knew the high and ambitious spirit of the Countess, scarce anticipated the extremities to which it was capable of hurrying her have you imprisoned Christian?
Ay, wench in that sure prison which felon never breaks from, answered the Countess.
Bridgenorth, who had insensibly approached them, and was listening with an agony of interest which he was unable any longer to suppress, broke in with the stern exclamation
Lady, I trust you have not dared
The Countess interrupted him in her turn.
I know not who you are who question and you know not me when you speak to me of that which I dare, or dare not do. But you seem interested in the fate of this Christian, and you shall hear it. I was no sooner placed in possession of my rightful power, than I ordered the Dempster of the island to hold upon the traitor a High Court of Justice, with all the formalities of the isle, as prescribed in its oldest records. The Court was held in the open air, before the Dempster and the Keys of the island, assembled under the vaulted cope of heaven, and seated on the terrace of the Zonwald Hill, where of old Druid and Scald held their courts of judgment. The criminal was heard at length in his own defence, which amounted to little more than those specious allegations of public consideration, which are ever used to colour the ugly front of treason. He was fully convicted of his crime, and he received the doom of a traitor.
But which, I trust, is not yet executed? said Lady Peveril, not without an involuntary shudder.
You are a fool, Margaret, said the Countess sharply; think you I delayed such an act of justice, until some wretched intrigues of the new English Court might have prompted their interference? No, wench he passed from the judgment-seat to the place of execution, with no farther delay than might be necessary for his souls sake. He was shot to death by a file of musketeers in the common place of execution called Hango Hill.
Bridgenorth clasped his hands together, wrung them, and groaned bitterly.
As you seem interested for this criminal, added the Countess, addressing Bridgenorth, I do him but justice in repeating to you, that his death was firm and manly, becoming the general tenor of his life, which, but for that gross act of traitorous ingratitude, had been fair and honourable. But what of that? The hypocrite is a saint, and the false traitor a man of honour, till opportunity, that faithful touchstone, proves their metal to be base.
It is false, woman it is false! said Bridgenorth, no longer suppressing his indignation.
What means this bearing, Master Bridgenorth? said Lady Peveril, much surprised. What is this Christian to you, that you should insult the Countess of Derby under my roof?