St. George and St. Michael

by George MacDonald

  CHAPTER XXXIII.

  JUDGE GOUT.

  Dorothy had hardly reached her room when the castle was once more astir.The rush of the guard across the stone court, the clang of openinglattices, and the voices that called from out-shot heads, again filledher ears, but she never once peeped from her window. A moment, and thenews was all over the castle that the prisoner had escaped.

  Lord Charles went at once to his father's room. The old man wokeinstantly. He had but just laid his hand on his mane, not mounted theshadowy steed, and was ill pleased to be already, and the second time,startled back to conscious weariness. When he heard the bad tidings hewas silent for a few moments.

  'I would Herbert were at home, Charles, to stop this rat-hole for me,'he said at length. 'Let the roundhead go--I care not. I had but half aright to hold him, and he deserves his freedom. But what a governor artthou, my lord? Prithee, dost know the rents in thine own hose, whoknowest not when thy gingerbread bulwarks gape? Find me out thisrat-hole, I say, or I will depose thee and send for thy brother John,whom the king can ill spare.'

  'Have patience with me, father,' said lord Charles gently. 'I am moreashamed than thou art angry.'

  'Thou know'st I did but jest, my son. But in truth an' thou find it notI will send for lord Herbert. If he find what thou canst not, that willbe no disgrace to thee. But find it we must.'

  'Think you not, my lord, it were best set mistress Dorothy on thesearch? She hath a wondrous gift of discovery.'

  'A good thought, Charles! I will even do as thou sayest. But search thecastle first, from vane to dungeon, that we may be assured the roundheadhath indeed vanished.'

  As he spoke the marquis turned him round, to search the wide gray fieldsagain for the shadowy horse that roamed them tetherless. But the steedwould not come to his call; he grew chilly and asthmatic, tossed to andfro, and began to dread an attack of the gout.

  The sun rose higher; the hive of men and women was astir once more; theclatter of the day's work and the buzz of the day's talk began, andnothing was in anybody's mouth but the escape of the prisoner. Hiscapture and trial were already of the past, forgotten for the time inthe nearer astonishment. Lord Charles went searching, questioning,peering about everywhere, but could find neither prisoner nor thetraitorous hole.

  Meantime mistress Watson was not a little anxious until she should haverevealed what she knew to the marquis, for the prisoner was in hercharge when he disappeared. In the course of the morning lord Charlescame to her apartment to question her, but she begged to be excused,because of a certain disclosure she was not at liberty to make to anybut his father. Lord Charles, whom she had known from his boyhood,readily yielded, and mistress Watson, five minutes after he had left hisroom, followed the marquis to his study, whither it was his customalways to repair before breakfast. He was looking pale from the troubleof the night, which had resulted in unmistakeable symptoms of the gout,listened to all she had to tell him without comment, looked grave, andtold her to fetch mistress Dorothy. As soon as she was gone, he calledScudamore from the antechamber, and sent him to request lord Charles'spresence. He came at once, and was there when Dorothy entered.

  She was very white and worn, and her eyes were heavily downcast. Herface wore that expression so much resembling guilt, which indicates themisery the most innocent feel the most under the consciousness ofsuspicion. At the sight of lord Charles, she crimsoned: it was one thingto confess to the marquis, and quite another to do so in the presence ofhis son.

  The marquis sat with one leg on a stool, already in the graduallycontracting gripe of his ghoulish enemy. Before Dorothy could recoverfrom the annoyance of finding lord Charles present, or open her mouth tobeg for a more private interview, he addressed her abruptly.

  'Our young rebel friend hath escaped, it seems, mistress Dorothy!' hesaid, gently but coldly, looking her full in the eyes, with searchinggaze and hard expression.

  'I am glad to hear it, my lord,' returned Dorothy, with a sudden influxof courage, coming, as the wind blows, she knew not whence.

  'Ha!' said the marquis, quickly; 'then is it news to thee, mistressDorothy?'

  His lip, as it seemed to Dorothy, curled into a mocking smile; but thegout might have been in it.

  'Indeed it is news, my lord. I hoped it might be so, I confess, but Iknew not that so it was.'

  'What, mistress Dorothy! knewest thou not that the young thief wasgone?'

  'I knew that Richard Heywood was gone from his chamber--whether from thecastle I knew not. He was no thief, my lord. Your lordship's page andfool were the thieves.'

  'Cousin, I hardly know myself in the change I find in thee! Truly, amarvellous change! In the dark night thou takest a roundhead prisoner;in the gray of the morning thou settest him free again! Hath one visitto his chamber so wrought upon thee? To an old man it seemeth less thanmaidenly.'

  Again a burning blush overspread poor Dorothy's countenance. But shegoverned herself, and spoke bravely, although she could not keep hervoice from trembling.

  'My lord,' she said, 'Richard Heywood was my playmate. We were asbrother and sister, for our fathers' lands bordered each other.'

  'Thou didst say nothing of these things last night?'

  'My lord! Before the whole hall? Besides, what mattered it? All was overlong ago, and I had done my part against him.'

  'Fell you out together then?'

  'What need is there for your lordship to ask? Thou seest him of the onepart, and me of the other.'

  'And from loving thou didst fall to hating?'

  'God forbid, my lord! I but do my part against him.'

  'For the which thou hadst a noble opportunity unsought, raising the hueand cry upon him within his enemy's walls!'

  'I would to God, my lord, it had not fallen to me.'

  'Thinking better of it, therefore, and repenting of thy harshness, thoudidst seek his chamber in the night to tell him so? I would fain knowhow a maiden reasoneth with herself when she doth such things.'

  'Not so, my lord. I will tell you all. I could not sleep for thinking ofmy wounded playmate. And as to what he had done, after it became clearthat he sought but his own, and meant no hair's-breadth of harm to yourlordship, I confess the matter looked not the same.'

  'Therefore you would make him amends and undo what you had done? You hadcaught the bird, and had therefore a right to free the bird when youwould? All well, mistress Dorothy, had he been indeed a bird! But beinga man, and in thy friend's house, I doubt thy logic. The thing hadpassed from thy hands into mine, young mistress,' said the marquis, intothe ball of whose foot the gout that moment ran its unicorn-horn.

  'I did not set him free, my lord. When I entered the prison-chamber, hewas already gone.'

  'Thou hadst the will and didst it not! Is there yet another in my housewho had the will and did it?' cried the marquis, who, although more thanannoyed that she should have so committed herself, yet was willing togive such scope to a lover, that if she had but confessed she hadliberated him, he would have pardoned her heartily. He did not yet knowhow incapable Dorothy was of a lie.

  'But, my lord, I had not the will to set him free,' she said.

  'Wherefore then didst go to him?'

  'My lord, he was sorely wounded, and I had seen him fall fainting,' saidDorothy, repressing her tears with much ado.

  'And thou didst go to comfort him?'

  Dorothy was silent.

  'How camest thou locked into his room? Tell me that, mistress.'

  'Your lordship knows as much of that as I do. Indeed, I have been sorelypunished for a little fault.'

  'Thou dost confess the fault then?'

  'If it WAS a fault to visit him who was sick and in prison, my lord.'

  The marquis was silent for a whole minute.

  'And thou canst not tell how he gat him forth of the walls? Must Ibelieve him to be forth of them, my lord?' he said, turning to his son.

  'I cannot imagine him within them, my lord, after such search as we havemade.'

 
'Still,' returned the marquis, the acuteness of whose wits had not beenswallowed up by that of the gout, 'so long as thou canst not tell how hegat forth, I may doubt whether he be forth. If the manner of his exit beacknowledged hidden, wherefore not the place of his refuge? MistressDorothy,' he continued, altogether averse to the supposition oftreachery amongst his people, 'thou art bound by all obligations ofloyalty and shelter and truth, to tell what thou knowest. An' thou donot, thou art a traitor to the house, yea to thy king, for when theworst comes, and this his castle is besieged, much harm may be wroughtby that secret passage, yea, it may be taken thereby.'

  'You say true, my lord: I should indeed be so bound, an' I knew what mylord would have me disclose.'

  'One may be bound and remain bound,' said the marquis, spyingprevarication. 'Now the thing is over, and the youth safe, all I ask ofthee, and surely it is not much, is but to bar the door against hisreturn--except indeed thou didst from the first contrive so to meet thyroundhead lover in my loyal house. Then indeed it were too much torequire of thee! Ah ha! mistress Dorothy, the little blind god is arascally deceiver. He is but blind nor' nor' west. He playeth hoodman,and peepeth over his bandage.'

  'My lord, you wrong me much,' said Dorothy, and burst into tears, whileonce more the red lava of the human centre rushed over her neck andbrow. 'I did think that I had done enough both for my lord of Worcesterand against Richard Heywood, and I did hope that he had escaped: therelies the worst I can lay to my charge even in thought, my lord, and Itrust it is no more than may be found pardonable.'

  'It sets an ill example to my quiet house if the ladies therein goanights to the gentlemen's chambers.'

  'My lord, you are cruel,' said Dorothy.

  'Not a soul in the house knows it but myself, my lord,' said mistressWatson.

  'Hold there, my good woman! Whose hand was it turned the key upon her?More than thou must know thereof. Hear me, mistress Dorothy: I would beheart-loath to quarrel with thee, and in all honesty I am glad thylover--'

  'He is no lover of mine, my lord! At least--'

  'Be he what he may, he is a fine fellow, and I am glad he hath escaped.Do thou but find out for my lord Charles here the cursed rat-hole bywhich he goes and comes, and I will gladly forgive thee all the troublethou hast brought into my sober house. For truly never hath been in myday such confusion and uproar therein as since thou camest hither, andthy dog and thy lover and thy lover's mare followed thee.'

  'Alas, my lord! if I were fortunate enough to find it, what would youbut say I found it where I knew well to look for it?'

  'Find it, and I promise thee I will never say word on the matter again.Thou art a good girl, and thou do venture a hair too far for a lover.The still ones are always the worst, mistress Watson.'

  'My lord! my lord!' cried Dorothy, but ended not, for his lordship gavea louder cry. His face was contorted with anguish, and he writhed underthe tiger fangs of the gout.

  'Go away,' he shouted, 'or I shall disgrace my manhood before women, Godhelp me!'

  'I trust thee will bear me no malice,' said the housekeeper, as theywalked in the direction of Dorothy's chamber.

  'You did but your duty,' said Dorothy quietly.

  'I will do all I can for thee,' continued mistress Watson, mountedagain, if not on her high horse then on her palfrey, by her master'sbehaviour to the poor girl--'if thou but confess to me how thou didstcontrive the young gentleman's escape, and wherefore he locked the doorupon thee.'

  At the moment they were close to Dorothy's room; her answer to theimpertinence was to walk in and shut the door; and mistress Watson wasthenceforward entirely satisfied of her guilt.