The Cloister and the Hearth

by Charles Reade

  CHAPTER II

  "The soup is hot," said Gerard.

  "But how are we to get it to our mouths?" inquired the senior,despondingly.

  "Father, the young man has brought us straws." And Margaret smiledslily.

  "Ay, ay!" said the old man; "but my poor bones are stiff, and indeed thefire is too hot for a body to kneel over with these short straws. St.John the Baptist, but the young man is adroit!"

  For, while he stated his difficulty, Gerard removed it. He untied in amoment the knot on his breast, took his hat off, put a stone into eachcorner of it, then, wrapping his hand in the tail of his jerkin, whippedthe flask off the fire, wedged it in between the stones, and put thehat under the old man's nose with a merry smile. The other tremulouslyinserted the pipe of rye-straw and sucked. Lo and behold, his wan, drawnface was seen to light up more and more, till it quite glowed; and assoon as he had drawn a long breath:

  "Hippocrates and Galen!" he cried, "'tis a soupe au vin--the restorativeof restoratives. Blessed be the nation that invented it, and the womanthat made it, and the young man who brings it to fainting folk. Have asuck, my girl, while I relate to our young host the history and virtuesof this his sovereign compound. This corroborative, young sir, wasunknown to the ancients: we find it neither in their treatises ofmedicine, nor in those popular narratives, which reveal many of theirremedies, both in chirurgery and medicine proper. Hector, in the Ilias,if my memory does not play me false--

  (Margaret. "Alas! he's off.")

  ----was invited by one of the ladies of the poem to drink a draught ofwine; but he declined, on the plea that he was just going into battle,and must not take aught to weaken his powers. Now, if the soupe au vinhad been known in Troy, it is clear that in declining vinum merum uponthat score, he would have added in the hexameter, 'But a soupe au vin,madam, I will degust, and gratefully.' Not only would this have been butcommon civility--a virtue no perfect commander is wanting in--but notto have done it would have proved him a shallow and improvident person,unfit to be trusted with the conduct of a war; for men going into abattle need sustenance and all possible support, as is proved by this,that foolish generals, bringing hungry soldiers to blows with full ones,have been defeated, in all ages, by inferior numbers. The Romans losta great battle in the north of Italy to Hannibal, the Carthaginian, bythis neglect alone. Now, this divine elixir gives in one moment force tothe limbs and ardour to the spirits; and taken into Hector's body atthe nick of time, would, by the aid of Phoebus, Venus, and the blessedsaints, have most likely procured the Greeks a defeat. For note howfaint and weary and heart-sick I was a minute ago; well, I suck thiscelestial cordial, and now behold me brave as Achilles and strong as aneagle."

  "Oh, father, now? an eagle, alack!"

  "Girl, I defy thee and all the world. Ready, I say, like a foamingcharger, to devour the space between this and Rotterdam, and strongto combat the ills of life, even poverty and old age, which lastphilosophers have called the summum malum. Negatur; unless the man'slife has been ill-spent--which, by the bye, it generally has. Now forthe moderns!"

  "Father! dear father!"

  "Fear me not, girl; I will be brief, unreasonably and unseasonablybrief. The soupe au vin occurs not in modern science; but this is onlyone proof more, if proof were needed, that for the last few hundredyears physicians have been idiots, with their chicken-broth and theirdecoction of gold, whereby they attribute the highest qualities to thatmeat which has the least juice of any meat, and to that metal whichhas less chemical qualities than all the metals; mountebanks! dunces!homicides! Since, then, from these no light is to be gathered, go weto the chroniclers; and first we find that Duguesclin, a French knight,being about to join battle with the English--masters, at that time, ofhalf France, and sturdy strikers by sea and land--drank, not one, butthree soupes au vin in honour of the Blessed Trinity. This done, hecharged the islanders; and, as might have been foretold, killed amultitude, and drove the rest into the sea. But he was only the firstof a long list of holy and hard-hitting ones who have, by this divinerestorative, been sustentated, fortified, corroborated, and consoled."

  "Dear father, prithee add thyself to that venerable company ere thesoup cools." And Margaret held the hat imploringly in both hands till heinserted the straw once more.

  This spared them the "modern instances," and gave Gerard an opportunityof telling Margaret how proud his mother would be her soup had profiteda man of learning.

  "Ay! but," said Margaret, "it would like her ill to see her son give alland take none himself. Why brought you but two straws?"

  "Fair mistress, I hoped you would let me put my lips to your straw,there being but two."

  Margaret smiled and blushed. "Never beg that you may command," said she."The straw is not mine, 'tis yours: you cut it in yonder field."

  "I cut it, and that made it mine; but after that, your lip touched it,and that made it yours."

  "Did it Then I will lend it you. There--now it is yours again; your liphas touched it."

  "No, it belongs to us both now. Let us divide it."

  "By all means; you have a knife."

  "No, I will not cut it--that would be unlucky. I'll bite it. There Ishall keep my half: you will burn yours, once you get home, I doubt.'

  "You know me not. I waste nothing. It is odds but I make a hairpin ofit, or something."

  This answer dashed the novice Gerard, instead of provoking him, to freshefforts, and he was silent. And now, the bread and soup being disposedof, the old scholar prepared to continue his journey. Then came alittle difficulty: Gerard the adroit could not tie his ribbon again asCatherine had tied it. Margaret, after slily eyeing his efforts forsome time, offered to help him; for at her age girls love to be coy andtender, saucy and gentle, by turns, and she saw she had put him out ofcountenance but now. Then a fair head, with its stately crown of auburnhair, glossy and glowing through silver, bowed sweetly towards him; and,while it ravished his eye, two white supple hands played delicately uponthe stubborn ribbon, and moulded it with soft and airy touches. Then aheavenly thrill ran through the innocent young man, and vague glimpsesof a new world of feeling and sentiment opened on him. And these new andexquisite sensations Margaret unwittingly prolonged: it is not naturalto her sex to hurry aught that pertains to the sacred toilet. Nay, whenthe taper fingers had at last subjugated the ends of the knot, her mindwas not quite easy, till, by a manoeuvre peculiar to the female hand,she had made her palm convex, and so applied it with a gentle pressureto the centre of the knot--a sweet little coaxing hand-kiss, as much asto say, "Now be a good knot, and stay so." The palm-kiss was bestowed onthe ribbon, but the wearer's heart leaped to meet it.

  "There, that is how it was," said Margaret, and drew back to take onelast keen survey of her work; then, looking up for simple approvalof her skill, received full in her eyes a longing gaze of such ardentadoration, as made her lower them quickly and colour all over. Anindescribable tremor seized her, and she retreated with downcast lashesand tell-tale cheeks, and took her father's arm on the opposite side.Gerard, blushing at having scared her away with his eyes, took theother arm; and so the two young things went downcast and conscious, andpropped the eagle along in silence.

  They entered Rotterdam by the Schiedamze Poort; and, as Gerard wasunacquainted with the town, Peter directed him the way to the HoochStraet, in which the Stadthouse was. He himself was going with Margaretto his cousin, in the Ooster-Waagen Straet, so, almost on entering thegate, their roads lay apart. They bade each other a friendly adieu, andGerard dived into the great town. A profound sense of solitude fell uponhim, yet the streets were crowded. Then he lamented too late that, outof delicacy, he had not asked his late companions who they were andwhere they lived.

  "Beshrew my shamefacedness!" said he. "But their words and theirbreeding were above their means, and something did whisper me they wouldnot be known. I shall never see her more. Oh weary world, I hate you andyour ways. To think I must meet beauty and goodness and learning--threepearls of price--and never
see them more!"

  Falling into this sad reverie, and letting his body go where it would,he lost his way; but presently meeting a crowd of persons all moving inone direction, he mingled with them, for he argued they must be makingfor the Stadthouse. Soon the noisy troop that contained the moody Gerardemerged, not upon the Stadthouse, but upon a large meadow by the side ofthe Maas; and then the attraction was revealed. Games of all sortswere going on: wrestling, the game of palm, the quintain, legerdemain,archery, tumbling, in which art, I blush to say, women as well as menperformed, to the great delectation of the company. There was also atrained bear, who stood on his head, and marched upright, and bowed withprodigious gravity to his master; and a hare that beat a drum, and acock that strutted on little stilts disdainfully. These things madeGerard laugh now and then; but the gay scene could not really enlivenit, for his heart was not in tune with it. So hearing a young man sayto his fellow that the Duke had been in the meadow, but was gone tothe Stadthouse to entertain the burgomasters and aldermen and thecompetitors for the prizes, and their friends, he suddenly rememberedhe was hungry, and should like to sup with a prince. He left theriver-side, and this time he found the Hooch Straet, and it speedily ledhim to the Stadthouse. But when he got there he was refused, firstat one door, then at another, till he came to the great gate of thecourtyard. It was kept by soldiers, and superintended by a pompousmajor-domo, glittering in an embroidered collar and a gold chain ofoffice, and holding a white staff with a gold knob. There was a crowd ofpersons at the gate endeavouring to soften this official rock. They cameup in turn like ripples, and retired as such in turn. It cost Gerard astruggle to get near him, and when he was within four heads of thegate, he saw something that made his heart beat; there was Peter, withMargaret on his arm, soliciting humbly for entrance.

  "My cousin the alderman is not at home; they say he is here."

  "What is that to me, old man?"

  "If you will not let us pass in to him, at least take this leaf from mytablet to my cousin. See, I have written his name; he will come out tous.

  "For what do you take me? I carry no messages, I keep the gate."

  He then bawled, in a stentorian voice, inexorably:

  "No strangers enter here, but the competitors and their companies."

  "Come, old man," cried a voice in the crowd, "you have gotten youranswer; make way."

  Margaret turned half round imploringly:

  "Good people, we are come from far, and my father is old; and my cousinhas a new servant that knows us not, and would not let us sit in ourcousin's house."

  At this the crowd laughed hoarsely. Margaret shrank as if they hadstruck her. At that moment a hand grasped hers--a magic grasp; it feltlike heart meeting heart, or magnet steel. She turned quickly round atit, and it was Gerard. Such a little cry of joy and appeal came from herbosom, and she began to whimper prettily.

  They had hustled her and frightened her, for one thing; and her cousin'sthoughtlessness, in not even telling his servant they were coming,was cruel; and the servant's caution, however wise and faithful to hermaster, was bitterly mortifying to her father and her. And to her somortified, and anxious and jostled, came suddenly this kind hand andface. "Hinc illae lacrimae."

  "All is well now," remarked a coarse humourist; "she hath gotten hersweetheart."

  "Haw! haw! haw!" went the crowd.

  She dropped Gerard's hand directly, and turned round, with eyes flashingthrough her tears:

  "I have no sweetheart, you rude men. But I am friendless in your boorishtown, and this is a friend; and one who knows, what you know not, how totreat the aged and the weak."

  The crowd was dead silent. They had only been thoughtless, and now feltthe rebuke, though severe, was just. The silence enabled Gerard to treatwith the porter.

  "I am a competitor, sir."

  "What is your name?" and the man eyed him suspiciously.

  "Gerard, the son of Elias."

  The janitor inspected a slip of parchment he held in his hand:

  "Gerard Eliassoen can enter."

  "With my company, these two?"

  "Nay; those are not your company they came before you."

  "What matter? They are my friends, and without them I go not in."

  "Stay without, then."

  "That will I not."

  "That we shall see."

  "We will, and speedily." And with this, Gerard raised a voice ofastounding volume and power, and routed so that the whole street rang:

  "Ho! PHILIP, EARL OF HOLLAND!"

  "Are you mad?" cried the porter.

  "HERE IS ONE OF YOUR VARLETS DEFIES YOU."

  "Hush, hush!"

  "AND WILL NOT LET YOUR GUESTS PASS IN."

  "Hush! murder! The Dukes there. I'm dead," cried the janitor, quaking.

  Then suddenly trying to overpower Gerard's thunder, he shouted, with allhis lungs:

  "OPEN THE GATE, YE KNAVES! WAY THERE FOR GERARD ELIASSOEN AND HISCOMPANY! (The fiends go with him!)"

  The gate swung open as by magic. Eight soldiers lowered their pikeshalfway, and made an arch, under which the victorious three marchedin triumphant. The moment they had passed, the pikes clashed togetherhorizontally to bar the gateway, and all but pinned an abdominal citizenthat sought to wedge in along with them.

  Once past the guarded portal, a few steps brought the trio upon a sceneof Oriental luxury. The courtyard was laid out in tables loaded withrich meats and piled with gorgeous plate. Guests in rich and variouscostumes sat beneath a leafy canopy of fresh-cut branches fastenedtastefully to golden, silver, and blue silken cords that traversed thearea; and fruits of many hues, including some artificial ones of gold,silver, and wax, hung pendant, or peeped like fair eyes among the greenleaves of plane-trees and lime-trees. The Duke's minstrels swept theirlutes at intervals, and a fountain played red Burgundy in six jets thatmet and battled in the air. The evening sun darted its fires throughthose bright and purple wine spouts, making them jets and cascades ofmolten rubies, then passing on, tinged with the blood of the grape,shed crimson glories here and there on fair faces, snowy beards, velvet,satin, jewelled hilts, glowing gold, gleaming silver, and sparklingglass. Gerard and his friends stood dazzled, spell-bound. Presentlya whisper buzzed round them, "Salute the Duke! Salute the Duke!" Theylooked up, and there on high, under the dais, was their sovereign,bidding them welcome with a kindly wave of the hand. The men bowed low,and Margaret curtsied with a deep and graceful obeisance. The Duke'shand being up, he gave it another turn, and pointed the new-comers outto a knot of valets. Instantly seven of his people, with an obedientstart, went headlong at our friends, seated them at a table, and putfifteen many-coloured soups before them, in little silver bowls, and asmany wines in crystal vases.

  "Nay, father, let us not eat until we have thanked our good friend,"said Margaret, now first recovering from all this bustle.

  "Girl, he is our guardian angel."

  Gerard put his face into his hands.

  "Tell me when you have done," said he, "and I will reappear and havemy supper, for I am hungry. I know which of us three is the happiest atmeeting again."

  "Me?" inquired Margaret.

  "No: guess again."

  "Father?"

  "No."

  "Then I have no guess which it can be;" and she gave a little crow ofhappiness and gaiety. The soup was tasted, and vanished in a twirlof fourteen hands, and fish came on the table in a dozen forms, withpatties of lobster and almonds mixed, and of almonds and cream, and animmense variety of brouets known to us as rissoles. The next trifle wasa wild boar, which smelt divine. Why, then, did Margaret start away fromit with two shrieks of dismay, and pinch so good a friend as Gerard?Because the Duke's cuisinier had been too clever; had made thisexcellent dish too captivating to the sight as well as taste. He hadrestored to the animal, by elaborate mimicry with burnt sugar and otheredible colours, the hair and bristles he had robbed him of by fire andwater. To make him still more enticing, the huge tusks were carefullypreserved in the brute's
jaw, and gave his mouth the winning smile thatcomes of tusk in man or beast; and two eyes of coloured sugar glowedin his head. St. Argus! what eyes! so bright, so bloodshot, sothreatening--they followed a man and every movement of his knife andspoon. But, indeed, I need the pencil of Granville or Tenniel to makeyou see the two gilt valets on the opposite side of the table puttingthe monster down before our friends, with a smiling, self-satisfied,benevolent obsequiousness for this ghastly monster was the flower of allcomestibles--old Peter clasping both hands in pious admiration ofit; Margaret wheeling round with horror-stricken eyes and her hand onGerard's shoulder, squeaking and pinching; his face of unwise delight atbeing pinched, the grizzly brute glaring sulkily on all, and the guestsgrinning from ear to ear.

  "What's to do?" shouted the Duke, hearing the signals of femaledistress. Seven of his people with a zealous start went headlong andtold him. He laughed and said, "Give her of the beef-stuffing, then, andbring me Sir Boar." Benevolent monarch! The beef-stuffing was his ownprivate dish. On these grand occasions an ox was roasted whole, andreserved for the poor. But this wise as well as charitable prince haddiscovered, that whatever venison, bares, lamb, poultry, etc., youskewered into that beef cavern, got cooked to perfection, retainingtheir own juices and receiving those of the reeking ox. These he calledhis beef-stuffing, and took delight therein, as did now our trio;for, at his word, seven of his people went headlong, and drove silvertridents into the steaming cave at random, and speared a kid, a cygnet,and a flock of wildfowl. These presently smoked before Gerard andcompany; and Peter's face, sad and slightly morose at the loss of thesavage hog, expanded and shone. After this, twenty different tarts offruits and herbs, and last of all, confectionery on a Titanic scale;cathedrals of sugar, all gilt painted in the interstices of thebas-reliefs; castles with moats, and ditches imitated to the life;elephants, camels, toads; knights on horseback jousting; kings andprincesses looking on trumpeters blowing; and all these personageseating, and their veins filled with sweet-scented juices: works of artmade to be destroyed. The guests breached a bastion, crunched a crusaderand his horse and lance, or cracked a bishop, cope, chasuble, crosierand all, as remorselessly as we do a caraway comfit; sipping meanwhilehippocras and other spiced drinks, and Greek and Corsican wines, whileevery now and then little Turkish boys, turbaned, spangled, jewelled,and gilt, came offering on bended knee golden troughs of rose-water andorange-water to keep the guests' hands cool and perfumed.

  But long before our party arrived at this final stage appetite hadsuccumbed, and Gerard had suddenly remembered he was the bearer of aletter to the Princess Marie, and, in an under-tone, had asked one ofthe servants if he would undertake to deliver it. The man took it witha deep obeisance: "He could not deliver it himself, but would instantlygive it one of the Princess's suite, several of whom were about."

  It may be remembered that Peter and Margaret came here not to dine, butto find their cousin. Well, the old gentleman ate heartily, and--beingmuch fatigued, dropped asleep, and forgot all about his cousin. Margaretdid not remind him; we shall hear why.

  Meanwhile, that Cousin was seated within a few feet of them, at theirbacks, and discovered them when Margaret turned round and screamedat the boar. But he forbore to speak to them, for municipal reasons.Margaret was very plainly dressed, and Peter inclined to threadbare. Sothe alderman said to himself:

  "'Twill be time to make up to them when the sun sets and the companydisperses then I will take my poor relations to my house, and none willbe the wiser."

  Half the courses were lost on Gerard and Margaret. They were no greateaters, and just now were feeding on sweet thoughts that have ever beenunfavourable to appetite. But there is a delicate kind of sensuality,to whose influence these two were perhaps more sensitive than any otherpair in that assembly--the delights of colour, music, and perfume, allof which blended so fascinatingly here.

  Margaret leaned back and half closed her eyes, and murmured to Gerard:"What a lovely scene! the warm sun, the green shade, the rich dresses,the bright music of the lutes and the cool music of the fountain, andall faces so happy and gay! and then, it is to you we owe it."

  Gerard was silent all but his eyes; observing which--

  "Now, speak not to me," said Margaret languidly; "let me listen to thefountain: what are you a competitor for?"

  He told her.

  "Very well! You will gain one prize, at least."

  "Which? which? have you seen any of my work?"

  "I? no. But you will gain a prize.

  "I hope so; but what makes you think so?"

  "Because you were so good to my father."

  Gerard smiled at the feminine logic, and hung his head at the sweetpraise, and was silent.

  "Speak not," murmured Margaret. "They say this is a world of sin andmisery. Can that be? What is your opinion?"

  "No! that is all a silly old song," explained Gerard. "'Tis a byword ourelders keep repeating, out of custom: it is not true."

  "How can you know? You are but a child," said Margaret, with pensivedignity.

  "Why, only look round! And then thought I had lost you for ever; and youare by my side; and now the minstrels are going to play again. Sin andmisery? Stuff and nonsense!"

  The lutes burst out. The courtyard rang again with their delicateharmony.

  "What do you admire most of all these beautiful things, Gerard?"

  "You know my name? How is that?"

  "White magic. I am a--witch."

  "Angels are never witches. But I can't think how you--"

  "Foolish boy! was it not cried at the gate loud enough to deave one?"

  "So it was. Where is my head? What do I admire most? If you will sit alittle more that way, I'll tell you."

  "This way?"

  "Yes; so that the light may fall on you. There! I see many fair thingshere, fairer than I could have conceived; but the fairest of all, tomy eye, is your lovely hair in its silver frame, and the setting sunkissing it. It minds me of what the Vulgate praises for beauty, 'anapple of gold in a network of silver,' and oh, what a pity I did notknow you before I sent in my poor endeavours at illuminating! I couldilluminate so much better now. I could do everything better. There, nowthe sun is full on it, it is like an aureole. So our Lady looked, andnone since her until to-day."

  "Oh, fie! it is wicked to talk so. Compare a poor, coarse-favoured girllike me with the Queen of Heaven? Oh, Gerard! I thought you were a goodyoung man." And Margaret was shocked apparently.

  Gerard tried to explain. "I am no worse than the rest; but how can Ihelp having eyes, and a heart Margaret!"

  "Gerard!"

  "Be not angry now!"

  "Now, is it likely?"

  "I love you."

  "Oh, for shame! you must not say that to me," and Margaret colouredfuriously at this sudden assault.

  "I can't help it. I love you. I love you."

  "Hush, hush! for pity's sake! I must not listen to such words from astranger. I am ungrateful to call you a stranger. Oh! how one may bemistaken! If I had known you were so bold--" And Margaret's bosom beganto heave, and her cheeks were covered with blushes, and she lookedtowards her sleeping father, very much like a timid thing that meditatesactual flight.

  Then Gerard was frightened at the alarm he caused. "Forgive me," said heimploringly. "How could any one help loving you?"

  "Well, sir, I will try and forgive you--you are so good in otherrespects; but then you must promise me never to say you--to say thatagain."

  "Give me your hand then, or you don't forgive me."

  She hesitated; but eventually put out her hand a very little way, veryslowly, and with seeming reluctance. He took it, and held it prisoner.When she thought it had been there long enough, she tried gently to drawit away. He held it tight: it submitted quite patiently to force.What is the use resisting force. She turned her head away, and her longeyelashes drooped sweetly. Gerard lost nothing by his promise. Wordswere not needed here; and silence was more eloquent. Nature was in thatday what she is in ours; but m
anners were somewhat freer. Then as now,virgins drew back alarmed at the first words of love; but of pruderyand artificial coquetry there was little, and the young soon read oneanother's hearts. Everything was on Gerard's side, his good looks, herbelief in his goodness, her gratitude; and opportunity for at the Duke'sbanquet this mellow summer eve, all things disposed the female natureto tenderness: the avenues to the heart lay open; the senses were sosoothed and subdued with lovely colours, gentle sounds, and delicateodours; the sun gently sinking, the warm air, the green canopy, the coolmusic of the now violet fountain.

  Gerard and Margaret sat hand in hand in silence; and Gerard's eyessought hers lovingly; and hers now and then turned on him timidly andimploringly and presently two sweet unreasonable tears rolled down hercheeks, and she smiled while they were drying: yet they did not takelong.

  And the sun declined; and the air cooled; and the fountain plashed moregently; and the pair throbbed in unison and silence, and this wearyworld looked heaven to them.

  Oh, the merry days, the merry days when we were young. Oh, the merry days, the merry days when we were young.