CHAPTER VI.
MASTER MARMADUKE NEVILE FEARS FOR THE SPIRITUAL WEAL OF HIS HOST AND
HOSTESS.
Before the hour of supper, which was served at six o'clock, Nicholas
Alwyn arrived at the house indicated to him by Madge. Marmaduke,
after a sound sleep, which was little flattering to Sibyll's
attractions, had descended to the hall in search of the maiden and his
host, and finding no one, had sauntered in extreme weariness and
impatience into the little withdrawing-closet, where as it was now
dusk, burned a single candle in a melancholy and rustic sconce;
standing by the door that opened on the garden, he amused himself with
watching the peacock, when his friend, following Madge into the
chamber, tapped him on the shoulder.
"Well, Master Nevile. Ha! by Saint Thomas, what has chanced to thee?
Thine arm swathed up, thy locks shorn, thy face blanched! My honoured
foster-brother, thy Westmoreland blood seems over-hot for Cockaigne!"
"If so, there are plenty in this city of cut-throats to let out the
surplusage," returned Marmaduke; and he briefly related his adventure
to Nicholas.
When he had done, the kind trader reproached himself for having
suffered Marmaduke to find his way alone. "The suburbs abound with
these miscreants," said he; "and there is more danger in a night walk
near London than in the loneliest glens of green Sherwood--more shame
to the city! An' I be Lord Mayor one of these days, I will look to it
better. But our civil wars make men hold human life very cheap, and
there's parlous little care from the great of the blood and limbs of
the wayfarers. But war makes thieves--and peace hangs them! Only
wait till I manage affairs!"
"Many thanks to thee, Nicholas," returned the Nevile; "but foul befall
me if ever I seek protection from sheriff or mayor! A man who cannot
keep his own life with his own right hand merits well to hap-lose it;
and I, for one, shall think ill of the day when an Englishman looks
more to the laws than his good arm for his safety; but, letting this
pass, I beseech thee to avise me if my Lord Warwick be still in the
city?"
"Yes, marry, I know that by the hostelries, which swarm with his
badges, and the oxen, that go in scores to the shambles! It is a
shame to the Estate to see one subject so great, and it bodes no good
to our peace. The earl is preparing the most magnificent embassage
that ever crossed the salt seas--I would it were not to the French,
for our interests lie contrary; but thou hast some days yet to rest
here and grow stout, for I would not have thee present thyself with a
visage of chalk to a man who values his kind mainly by their thews and
their sinews. Moreover, thou shouldst send for the tailor, and get
thee trimmed to the mark. It would be a long step in thy path to
promotion, an' the earl would take thee in his train; and the gaudier
thy plumes, why, the better chance for thy flight. Wherefore, since
thou sayest they are thus friendly to thee under this roof, bide yet a
while peacefully; I will send thee the mercer, and the clothier, and
the tailor, to divert thy impatience. And as these fellows are
greedy, my gentle and dear Master Nevile, may I ask, without offence,
how thou art provided?"
"Nay, nay, I have moneys at the hostelrie, an' thou wilt send me my
mails. For the rest, I like thy advice, and will take it."
"Good!" answered Nicholas. "Hem! thou seemest to have got into a poor
house,--a decayed gentleman, I wot, by the slovenly ruin!"
"I would that were the worst," replied Marmaduke, solemnly, and under
his breath; and therewith he repeated to Nicholas the adventure on the
pastime-ground, the warnings of the timbrel-girls, and the "awsome"
learning and strange pursuits of his host. As for Sibyll, he was
evidently inclined to attribute to glamour the reluctant admiration
with which she had inspired him. "For," said he, "though I deny not
that the maid is passing fair, there be many with rosier cheeks, and
taller by this hand!"
Nicholas listened, at first, with the peculiar expression of shrewd
sarcasm which mainly characterized his intelligent face, but his
attention grew more earnest before Marmaduke had concluded.
"In regard to the maiden," said he, smiling and shaking his head, "it
is not always the handsomest that win us the most,--while fair Meg
went a maying, black Meg got to church; and I give thee more
reasonable warning than thy timbrel-girls, when, in spite of thy cold
language, I bid thee take care of thyself against her attractions;
for, verily, my dear foster-brother, thou must mend and not mar thy
fortune, by thy love matters; and keep thy heart whole for some fair
one with marks in her gipsire, whom the earl may find out for thee.
Love and raw pease are two ill things in the porridge-pot. But the
father!--I mind me now that I have heard of his name, through my
friend Master Caxton, the mercer, as one of prodigious skill in the
mathematics. I should like much to see him, and, with thy leave (an'
he ask me), will tarry to supper. But what are these?"--and Nicholas
took up one of the illuminated manuscripts which Sibyll had prepared
for sale. "By the blood! this is couthly and marvellously blazoned."
The book was still in his hands when Sibyll entered. Nicholas stared
at her, as he bowed with a stiff and ungraceful embarrassment, which
often at first did injustice to his bold, clear intellect, and his
perfect self-possession in matters of trade or importance.
"The first woman face," muttered Nicholas to himself, "I ever saw that
had the sense of a man's. And, by the rood, what a smile!"
"Is this thy friend, Master Nevile?" said Sibyll, with a glance at the
goldsmith. "He is welcome. But is it fair and courteous, Master
Nelwyn--"
"Alwyn, an' it please you, fair mistress. A humble name, but good
Saxon,--which, I take it, Nelwyn is not," interrupted Nicholas.
"Master Alwyn, forgive me; but can I forgive thee so readily for thy
espial of my handiwork, without license or leave?"
"Yours, comely mistress!" exclaimed Nicholas, opening his eyes, and
unheeding the gay rebuke--"why, this is a master-hand. My Lord
Scales--nay, the Earl of Worcester himself--hath scarce a finer in all
his amassment."
"Well, I forgive thy fault for thy flattery; and I pray thee, in my
father's name, to stay and sup with thy friend." Nicholas bowed low,
and still riveted his eyes on the book with such open admiration, that
Marmaduke thought it right to excuse his abstraction; but there was
something in that admiration which raised the spirits of Sibyll, which
gave her hope when hope was well-nigh gone; and she became so
vivacious, so debonair, so charming, in the flow of a gayety natural
to her, and very uncommon with English maidens, but which she took
partly, perhaps, from her French blood, and partly from the example of
girls and maidens of French extraction in Margaret's court, that
Nicholas Alwyn thought he had never seen any one so irresistible.
Madge had now served the evening meal, put in her head to announce it,
and Sibyll withdrew to summon her father.
"I trust he will not tarry too long, for I am sharp set!" muttered
Marmaduke. "What thinkest thou of the damozel?" "Marry," answered
Alwyn, thoughtfully, "I pity and marvel at her. There is eno' in her
to furnish forth twenty court beauties. But what good can so much wit
and cunning do to an honest maiden?"
"That is exactly my own thought," said Marmaduke; and both the young
men sunk into silence, till Sibyll re-entered with her father.
To the surprise of Marmaduke, Nicholas Alwyn, whose less gallant
manner he was inclined to ridicule, soon contrived to rouse their host
from his lethargy, and to absorb all the notice of Sibyll; and the
surprise was increased, when he saw that his friend appeared not
unfamiliar with those abstruse and mystical sciences in which Adam was
engaged.
"What!" said Adam, "you know, then, my deft and worthy friend Master
Caxton! He hath seen notable things abroad--"
"Which, he more than hints," said Nicholas, "will lower the value of
those manuscripts this fair damozel has so couthly enriched; and that
he hopes, ere long, to show the Englishers how to make fifty, a
hundred,--nay even five hundred exemplars of the choicest book, in a
much shorter time than a scribe would take in writing out two or three
score pages in a single copy."
"Verily," said Marmaduke, with a smile of compassion, "the poor man
must be somewhat demented; for I opine that the value of such
curiosities must be in their rarity; and who would care for a book, if
five hundred others had precisely the same?--allowing always, good
Nicholas, for thy friend's vaunting and over-crowing. Five hundred!
By'r Lady, there would be scarcely five hundred fools in merry England
to waste good nobles on spoilt rags, specially while bows and mail are
so dear."
"Young gentleman," said Adam, rebukingly, "meseemeth that thou
wrongest our age and country, to the which, if we have but peace and
freedom, I trust the birth of great discoveries is ordained. Certes,
Master Alwyn," he added, turning to the goldsmith, "this achievement
maybe readily performed, and hath existed, I heard an ingenious
Fleming say years ago, for many ages amongst a strange people [Query,
the Chinese?] known to the Venetians! But dost thou think there is
much appetite among those who govern the State to lend encouragement
to such matters?"
"My master serves my Lord Hastings, the king's chamberlain, and my
lord has often been pleased to converse with me, so that I venture to
say, from my knowledge of his affection to all excellent craft and
lere, that whatever will tend to make men wiser will have his
countenance and favour with the king."
"That is it, that is it!" exclaimed Adam, rubbing his hands. "My
invention shall not die!"
"And that invention--"
"Is one that will multiply exemplars of books without hands; works of
craft without 'prentice or journeyman; will move wagons and litters
without horses; will direct ships without sails; will--But, alack! it
is not yet complete, and, for want of means, it never may be."
Sibyll still kept her animated countenance fixed on Alwyn, whose
intelligence she had already detected, and was charmed with the
profound attention with which he listened. But her eye glancing from
his sharp features to the handsome, honest face of the Nevile, the
contrast was so forcible, that she could not restrain her laughter,
though, the moment after, a keen pang shot through her heart. The
worthy Marmaduke had been in the act of conveying his cup to his lips;
the cup stood arrested midway, his jaws dropped, his eyes opened to
their widest extent, an expression of the most evident consternation
and dismay spoke in every feature; and when he heard the merry laugh
of Sibyll, he pushed his stool from her as far as he well could, and
surveyed her with a look of mingled fear and pity.
"Alas! thou art sure my poor father is a wizard now?"
"Pardie!" answered the Nevile. "Hath he not said so? Hath he not
spoken of wagons without horses, ships without sails? And is not all
this what every dissour and jongleur tells us of in his stories of
Merlin? Gentle maiden," he added earnestly, drawing nearer to her,
and whispering in a voice of much simple pathos, "thou art young, and
I owe thee much. Take care of thyself. Such wonders and derring-do
are too solemn for laughter."
"Ah," answered Sibyll, rising, "I fear they are. How can I expect the
people to be wiser than thou, or their hard natures kinder in their
judgment than thy kind heart?" Her low and melancholy voice went to
the heart thus appealed to. Marmaduke also rose, and followed her
into the parlour, or withdrawing-closet, while Adam and the goldsmith
continued to converse (though Alwyn's eye followed the young hostess),
the former appearing perfectly unconscious of the secession of his
other listeners. But Alwyn's attention occasionally wandered, and he
soon contrived to draw his host into the parlour.
When Nicholas rose, at last, to depart, he beckoned Sibyll aside.
"Fair mistress," said he, with some awkward hesitation, "forgive a
plain, blunt tongue; but ye of the better birth are not always above
aid, even from such as I am. If you would sell these blazoned
manuscripts, I can not only obtain you a noble purchaser in my Lord
Scales, or in my Lord Hastings, an equally ripe scholar, but it may be
the means of my procuring a suitable patron for your father; and, in
these times, the scholar must creep under the knight's manteline."
"Master Alwyn," said Sibyll, suppressing her tears, "it was for my
father's sake that these labours were wrought. We are poor and
friendless. Take the manuscripts, and sell them as thou wilt, and God
and Saint Mary requite thee!"
"Your father is a great man," said Alwyn, after a pause.
"But were he to walk the streets, they would stone him," replied
Sibyll, with a quiet bitterness.
Here the Nevile, carefully shunning the magician, who, in the nervous
excitement produced by the conversation of a mind less uncongenial
than he had encountered for many years, seemed about to address him--
here, I say, the Nevile chimed in, "Hast thou no weapon but thy
bludgeon? Dear foster-brother, I fear for thy safety."
"Nay, robbers rarely attack us mechanical folk; and I know my way
better than thou. I shall find a boat near York House; so pleasant
night and quick cure to thee, honoured foster-brother. I will send
the tailor and other craftsmen to-morrow."
"And at the same time," whispered Marmaduke, accompanying his friend
to the door, "send me a breviary, just to patter an ave or so. This
gray-haired carle puts my heart in a tremble. Moreover, buy me a
gittern--a brave one--for the damozel. She is too proud to take
money, and, 'fore Heaven, I have small doubts the old wizard could
turn my hose into nobles an' he had a mind for such gear. Wagons
without horses, ships without sails, quotha!"
As soon as Alwyn had departed, Madge appeared with the final
refreshment, called "the Wines," consisting of spiced hippocras and
confections, of the former of which the Nevile partook in solemn
silence.
