Penshurst Castle

stroke astoni

takes from us

d when others

to weep, when

onstabl

y in sight, and, however restive Ambrose might be under the control which h

not go beyond the gate leading from the farmyard on one side of Ford Manor, or int

ndertake. Although it was a relief that peace reigned now that the wranglings between their stepmother and Lucy had ceased, Mary found the additional work a great strain

s news came through the Puritan friends of Mrs Forrester that several Papists had been seized at Tunbridge, and had been thrown into prison, on the suspici

gns against the Queen's life, and that they were only biding their time to league with those who wished t

this time through the country, and stories of the manner in which he had been merci

the village of Penshurst, and Ambrose, hearing of them from his friend Ned t

do take me down to see it. Oh! mother, do; I'll hold your hand all the time; I won't run away from you, no, not an inch. I am six ye

safe place I will wait for a part of the sports, but you must not fret if I do not sta

wistfully into

d you will tell Mr Sidney that I didn't plague you, and tell Master Hum

Ratcliffe will be a g

t? if I

you had no mothe

ice, which told of something that was partly fear and partly incredulity. 'No mother! but you said we should always ha

ill must be done,

capering about and singing as he went in a joyou

n the morrow. I'm to see

f the bakehouse, where she had been storing piles of loaves on a hi

ir heads, whoever they be, mind that, Mary Gifford, mind that! Ay, I know what you will say, that the Queen lends her countenance to them, and your

but her stepmother's words so

venth day, believed that God had ordained it for the refreshment both of body and soul-a day when, free from the labours of this toilsome world, th

s, but, in the due observance of Sunday, as in many other things, the extreme Puritan failed to influence those around t

were not so numerous as sometimes, and the pew occupied by the

many times exchanged a kindly greeting with Mary and complimented Lucy on her 'lilies and roses,' and asked in a jocose way for that good and amiable lady, thei

r as she was crossing the churchyard, and aske

Mistress Gifford, and need refresh

he sat with him in a bower, over which a tangle of early roses and honeysuckle hung, and filled the air with fragrance. A rosy-cheeked maiden with bare arms, in a blue kirtle scarcely reaching below the knees, which displ

ing a pair of white butte

mother, who is a widow. I hear Master Philip Sidney looks at him with favour; and, no doubt,

e of earthly joy, I would say. I pray to be helped to bring him up

, you have the air of one who is burdened with a hidden grief. Now, if I can, by hearing it, assuage it, a

r, but there are griefs whi

under heavy displeasure for daring to break through the old custom of the Church-before she was purged of many abuses, which fo

Michaelmas, but the wound is fresh; and I yet n

given us. Then, when the sun shone on us Protestants, and our present Queen-God bless her!-ascended the throne, and I came hither, the hungry longing for my lost one oppressed me. But the Lord gives, and the Lord takes away: let us both

d Ambrose,

ld, sir, and

the Rector pronounced the blessing, which has always a pe

s you and keep you. The Lord lift up the light of his count

echoed by the child's, as the old man's footsteps w

and creamy cheese; and his mother smiled to see him as he buried his face in the l

Lou says it is as sour as grandmother, who brews it. Aunt Lucy is having sweet drinks now

my boy,

n the rude bench which was fixed round the summer bower. Hi

Gifford's heart; and that quiet hour of the Sunday noontide remained in her

sing himself at last, and struggling to

me, Ambrose, by go

ered, and the colou

ts,' he said; 'you prom

he child's troubled face, where keen disappoin

ed, you must come away, nor plague me to stay. I am not stout enough

e seen in all their Sunday trim hurrying towards t

old timbered houses by the lych gate, and asked a man she knew, if

ill they have ridden on. I might get into d

ly, and he added; 'scant blessings come to

be hard on country folk for a little merry-making, when the Queen and

orning, and feasting and revelling all the rest of the day. I tell you

sts and Puritans-but, thank the stars, I care not a groat for either. I am contented, any

letting alone. You and I may live to see the fires

THE LYCH GAT

of that. I watch the tide, and tur

feet was heard, and that of the crowd drawing near, he good-naturedly lifted Ambrose on his shoulder, and, planting his broad back against the trunk of t

with so little trouble and risk. She rested herself on a large stone by the wall, Ambr

called into requisition by the gentry of the neighbourhood, for the far gra

zzas and cheers which hailed the victor in every passage of arms-che

point of his tilting pole a crown made of gilded leaves, which was a good deal batt

ld as the property of the conqueror, till, perhaps, at a future trial, he w

so kind to her boy, with one of her sweetes

e the show. I'd like to see the game of

must go home, and you must get to bed ea

gallop and prance. Only, I long to be astr

hildish fashion-wanting no reply, nor even attention from his mother, while she was thinkin

thers saw in them no harm, if they did not actually countenance them by their presence; while others, like herself, had many misgivings as to th

of the household to a prayer and praise meeting, held in the barn belonging to a neighbouring yeoman, two miles away; and he only hoped, he s

gone out from her home a fair young girl, and had returned a sad widow with her o

Sabbath day was q

m the Epistle of St John, and the love of which it told seemed to fill her

d, as Mary pressed him close to her side,

, I can bear all thi

amb which had wandered away from the fold on the previous day. The shepherd had been afraid to tell his mistress of the loss, and Mary had promised to k

s found the lamb, and then there will be no need to

in a leaden sky, while a mist was hovering o

gave prolonged and melancholy caws as they took their early flight, and the cocks crowed querulousl

e profound, and there was a sense of oppression

the hillocks of gorse and heather and the slight

l-known figure looming before her in the mist wit

erd has gone down into the valley, and it is chill and damp fo

appeared through the haze, like every o

nd, she began to run at her utmost speed along the sheep-path to

ind to see what had

ig black ma

less of hillocks and big stones-heedless of

he was running at full speed, and struck her head against some sharp stones

nd was laid on his shoulder-a strong hand, with a grasp whic

but men like Ambrose Gifford are not troubled with what is com

ek for the aid of a surgeon. We must get help to car

said, throwing himself on the ground by her

ed stream trickling down from a wound on

inking which children always show when their

ted in a pair of strong arms, a

ill die if we do not get help, boy. Hush! If you cry out

ded into a low wail of agony

ing, sir? Set me

or your mother. L

ere he was going nor utter another cry; he only knew he was being carried off by this strange man he knew not where, and that he had l

for his sin. This hatred was in Ambrose Gifford's heart, and was the primary cause of his thus forcibly

ld be educated by the Jesuits, with whom he had cast in his lot; he would be trained as a son of the Catholic

s of which he had been guilty, and he had been received i

s, and to prepare for the struggle which at any moment she might b

ry under the shadow of a crime committed, were glad to throw themselves into the arms ready to receive them, and, as they would have expressed it, find pardon and peace by fasting and penance in the bosom of the Catholic Church. Dou

eing a man of considerable ability and shrewdness, had after a time of probation been despatched

ne physique and noble air he had noted with pride as he had, unseen, watched h

all the pains taken to educate him

ps the dominant feeling. She loved that boy better than anything on earth; she would brin

unish her for the words she had spoken to him by the porch of

lic, and only waited the turn of the tide to declare himself. He led a bad, immoral life, and it was scarcely more than two years after her marriage that Mary Gifford's eyes were opened to the t

ove offered her had been unworthy the name, and that she had been betrayed and deceived by a man who, as soon as the first glamour of his passion was over, showed himself in

y, and soon after heard the report that her husband had been killed in a fray, and that if he had lived he would have been arrested and condemned for the

rose Gifford was alive-that he had escaped to join the Jesuits at Douay, and was employed by them as one of their most shrewd and

xcept, indeed, when with her boy, who was a source of unfailing delight,

way, that the shepherd, with his staff in his hand and the lost lam

es the cut on her forehead, she had sprained her ankle, and the atte

the shepherd said, 'how did this come abou

e is my boy-where is Ambrose? Get me ti

ink of the boy. He has run home, I dare to

for the love of Heaven, hasten to f

e with a great stride, and, going up to the back door of the house, he called Mis

e young pigs, which had been bought in Tunbridge a few days before. Her skirts were tucked up

y find somebody else's lambs to lose, and leave mine alone. A little more barleymeal in tha

t Mistress Gifford is lying yonder more dead than alive. Ned, t

rs Forrester

look after her, there's blood running down from a cut on her forehead. Here!' calling to one of the women, 'here, if the M

n her coarse homespun skirt, and settled the hood on her head. 'You bide where yo

Ned, it will take two to bear her home, poor thing. Don't let the b

, as she filled a pewter pot with water, and follow

pity as she looked down on her step

stolen from me. Oh! fo

Forrester said. 'I warrant he is a-bed and

with me, when I fell. I was running f

ed. Drink a drop of water, and we'll get you home and a-bed. I'll plaister th

led her forehead; and then Jenkyns, with Ned's help, rais

of the pain movement caused her

Mary? Sure you have

adly faintness almost deprived

here when he passed through, came trotting towards him, the long thick

e sorrowful eyes upo

other. Oh! kind people, find-find my boy, a

and a knot of men and maidens were standing by the back door, regardless of their

by staring like a parcel of idiots at Mistress Gifford. Ask the Lord

that morning, and Amice decl

he low truckle bed, the shepherd moving as gently as he

again wrung from her a bi

n to her, Mistress, for I b

prithee, where

'Master Burt from Tunbridge puts up at

was now really frightened at Mary's ghastly face, which was convulsed with pain. 'S

h a great effort she raised herself to speak in an audible voice. 'Hearken! My boy was stolen from

space, mercifully unconscious of both bodily and mental agony. Hers was literally the stroke which, by the suddenness of the blow, deadens the present sense of pa