CHAPTER XLI.
GLAMORGAN.
The winter passed, with much running to and fro, in foul weather andfair; and still the sounds of war came no nearer to Raglan, which laylike a great lion in a desert that the hunter dared not arouse. Thewhole of Wales, except a castle or two, remained subject to the king;and this he owed in great measure to the influence and devotion of theSomersets, his obligation to whom he seemed more and more bent onacknowledging.
One day in early summer lady Margaret was sitting in her parlour, busywith her embroidery, and Dorothy was by her side assisting her, whenlord Herbert, who had been absent for many days, walked in.
'How does my lady Glamorgan?' he said gaily.
'What mean you, my Herbert?' returned his wife, looking in his eyessomewhat eagerly.
'Thy Herbert am I no more; neither plume I myself any more in the sparefeathers of my father. Thou art, my dove, as thou deservest to be,countess of Glamorgan, in the right of thine own husband, first earl ofthe same; for such being the will of his majesty, I doubt not thou wiltgive thy consent thereto, and play the countess graciously. Come,Dorothy, art not proud to be cousin to an earl?'
'I am proud that you should call me cousin, my lord,' answered Dorothy;'but truly to me it is all one whether you be called Herbert orGlamorgan. So thou remain thou, cousin, and my friend, the king may callthee what he will, and if thou art pleased, so am I.'
It was the first time she had ever thou'd him, and she turned pale ather own daring.
'St. George! but thou hast well spoken, cousin!' cried the earl. 'Hathshe not, wife?'
'So well that if she often saith as well, I shall have much ado not tohate her,' replied lady Glamorgan. 'When didst thou ever cry "wellspoken" to thy mad Irishwoman, Ned?'
'All thou dost is well, my lady. Thou hast all the titles to my praisesalready in thy pocket. Besides, cousin Dorothy is young and meek, andrequireth a little encouragement.'
'Whereas thy wife is old and bold, and cares no more for thy good word,my new lord of Glamorgan?'
Dorothy looked so grave that they both fell a-laughing.
'I would thou couldst teach her a merry jest or two, Margaret,' said theearl. 'We are decent people enough in Raglan, but she is much too soberfor us. Cheer up, Dorothy! Good times are at hand: that thou mayest notdoubt it, listen--but this is only for thy ear, not for thy tongue: theking hath made thy cousin, that is me, Edward Somerset, the husband ofthis fair lady, generalissimo of his three armies, and admiral of afleet, and truly I know not what all, for I have yet but run my eye overthe patent. And, wife, I verily do believe the king but bides his timeto make my father duke of Somerset, and then one day thou wilt be aduchess, Margaret. Think on that!'
Lady Glamorgan burst into tears.
'I would I might have a kiss of my Molly!' she cried.
She had never before in Dorothy's hearing uttered the name of her childsince her death. New dignity, strange as it may seem to some, awokesuddenly the thought of the darling to whom titles were but words, andthe ice was broken. A pause followed.
'Yes, Margaret, thou art right,' said Glamorgan at length; 'it is allbut folly; yet as the marks of a king's favour, such honours areprecious.'
As to what a king's favour itself might be worth, that my lord ofGlamorgan lived to learn.
'It is I who pay for them,' said his wife.
'How so, my dove?'
'Do they not cost me thee, Herbert--and cost me very dear? Art not everfrom my sight? Wish I not often as I lay awake in the dark, that we wereall in heaven and well over with the foolery of it? The angels keepMolly in mind of us!'
'Yes, my Peggy, it is hard on thee, and hard on me too,' said the earltenderly, 'yet not so hard as upon our liege lord, the king, who sellethhis plate and jewels.'
'Pooh! what of that then, Herbert? An' he would leave me thee, he mighthave all mine, and welcome; for thou knowest, Ned, I but hold them forthee to sell when thou wilt.'
'I know; and the time may come, though, thank God, it is not yet. Whatwouldst thou say, countess, if with all thy honours thou did yet come topoverty? Canst be poor and merry, think'st thou?'
'So thou wert with me, Herbert--Glamorgan, I would say, but my lipsframe not themselves to the word. I like not the title greatly, but whenit means thee to me, then shall I love it.'
'Art thou poor, yet hast thou golden slumbers? O sweet content!'
--sang the earl in a mellow tenor voice.
'My lord, an' I have leave to speak,' said Dorothy, 'did you not say thediamond in that ring Richard Heywood sent me was of some worth?'
'I did, cousin. It is a stone of the finest water, and of good weight,though truly I weighed it not.'
'Then would I cast it in the king's treasury, an' if your lordship wouldcondescend to be the bearer of such a small offering.'
'No, child; the king robs not orphans.'
'Did the King of Kings rob the poor widow that cast in her two mites,then?'
'No; but perhaps the priests did. Still, as I say, the hour may comewhen all our mites may be wanted, and thine be accepted with the rest,but my father and I have yet much to give, and shall have given itbefore that hour come. Besides, as to thee, Dorothy, what would thathandsome roundhead of thine say, if instead of keeping well the ring hegave thee, thou had turned it to the use he liked the least?'
'He will never ask me concerning it,' said Dorothy, with a faint smile.
'Be not over-sure of it, child. My lady asks me many things I neverthought to tell her before the priest made us one. Dorothy, I have noright and no wish to spy into thy future, and fright thee with what, ifit come at all, will come peacefully as June weather. I have notconstructed thy horoscope to cast thy nativity, and therefore I speak asone of the ignorant; but let me tell thee, for I do say it confidently,that if these wars were once over, and the king had his own again, therewill be few men in his three kingdoms so worthy of the hand and heart ofDorothy Vaughan as that same roundhead fellow, Richard Heywood. I wouldto God he were as good a catholic as he is a mistaken puritan! And now,my lady, may I not send thy maiden from us, for I would talk with theealone of certain matters--not from distrust of Dorothy, but that theyare not my own to impart, therefore I pray her absence.'
The parliament having secured the assistance of the Scots, and theirforces having, early in the year, entered England, the king on his sidewas now meditating an attempt to secure the assistance of the Irishcatholics, to which the devotion of certain of the old catholic housesat home encouraged him. But it was a game of terrible danger, for if helost it, he lost everything; and that it should transpire beforematurity would be to lose it absolutely; for the Irish catholics had,truly or falsely, been charged with such enormities during therebellion, that they had become absolutely hateful in the eyes of allEnglish protestants, and any alliance with them must cost him far morein protestants than he could gain by it in catholics. It was necessarytherefore that he should go about it with the utmost caution; and indeedin his whole management of it, the wariness far exceeded the dignity,and was practised at the expense of his best friends. But the poor kingwas such a believer in his father's pet doctrine of the divine right ofhis inheritance, that not only would he himself sacrifice everything tothe dim shadow of royalty which usurped the throne of his conscience,but would, without great difficulty or compunction, though not alwayswithout remorse, accept any sacrifice which a subject might havedevotion enough to bring to the altar before which Charles Stuart actedas flamen.
In this my story of hearts rather than fortunes, it is not necessary tofollow the river of public events through many of its windings, althoughevery now and then my track will bring me to a ferry, where the boatbearing my personages will be seized by the force of the current, andcarried down the stream while crossing to the other bank.
It must have been, I think, in view of his slowly-maturing intention toemploy lord Herbert in a secret mission to Ireland with the object abovementioned, that the king had sought to bind him yet
more closely tohimself by conferring on him the title of Glamorgan. It was not,however, until the following year, when his affairs seemed on the pointof becoming desperate, that he proceeded, possibly with some protestantcompunctions, certainly with considerable protestant apprehension, tocarry out his design. Towards this had pointed the relaxation of hismeasures against the catholic rebels for some time previous, and may tosome have indicated hopes entertained of them. It must be rememberedthat while these catholics united to defend the religion of theircountry, they, like the Scots who had joined the parliament, professed asincere attachment to their monarch, and in the persons of their ownenemies had certainly taken up arms against many of his.
Meantime the Scots had invaded England, and the parliament had largelyincreased their forces in the hope of a decisive engagement; but theking refused battle and gained time. In the north prince Rupert madesome progress, and brought on the battle of Marston Moor, where thevictory was gained by Cromwell, after all had been regarded as lost bythe other parliamentary generals. On the other hand, the king gained animportant advantage in the west country over Essex and his army.
The trial and execution of Laud, who died in the beginning of thefollowing year, obeying the king rather than his rebellious lords, was aterrible sign to the house of Raglan of what the presbyterian party wascapable of. But to Dorothy it would have given a yet keener pain, hadshe not begun to learn that neither must the excesses of individuals beattributed to their party, nor those of his party taken as embodying themind of every one who belongs to it. At the same time the oldinsuperable difficulty returned; how could Richard belong to such aparty?
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