“Nay, I command you to desist from the attempt, if any such you meditate,” rejoined the prior; “it will avail nothing, and you will only sacrifice your own lives. Our enemies are too strong. The abbot himself would give you like counsel.”
Scarcely were the words uttered than from the great gate of the abbey there issued a dozen arquebussiers with an officer at their head, who marched directly towards the kneeling hinds, evidently with the intention of dispersing them. Behind them strode Nicholas Demdike. In an instant the alarmed rustics were on their feet, and Ruchot o’ Roaph’s, and some few among them, took to their heels, but Ashbead, Hal o’ Nabs, with half a dozen others, stood their ground manfully. The monks remained in the hope of preventing any violence. Presently the halberdiers came up.
“That is the ringleader,” cried the officer, who proved to be Richard Assheton, pointing out Ashbead; “seize him!”
“Naw mon shall lay honts o’ meh,” cried Cuthbert.
And as the guard pushed past the monks to execute their leader’s order, he sprang forward, and, wresting a halbert from the foremost of them, stood upon his defence.
“Seize him, I say!” shouted Assheton, irritated at the resistance offered.
“Keep off,” cried Ashbead; “yo’d best. Loike a stag at bey ey’m dawngerous. Waar horns! waar horns! ey sey.”
The arquebussiers looked irresolute. It was evident Ashbead would only be taken with life, and they were not sure that it was their leader’s purpose to destroy him.
“Put down thy weapon, Cuthbert,” interposed the prior; “it will avail thee nothing against odds like these.”
“Mey be, ‘oly prior,” rejoined Ashbead, flourishing the pike: “boh ey’st ony yield wi’ loife.”
“I will disarm him,” cried Demdike, stepping forward.
“Theaw!” retorted Ashbead, with a scornful laugh, “Cum on, then. Hadsta aw t’ fiends i’ hell at te back, ey shouldna fear thee.”
“Yield!” cried Demdike in a voice of thunder, and fixing a terrible glance upon him.
“Cum on, wizard,” rejoined Ashbead undauntedly. But, observing that his opponent was wholly unarmed, he gave the pike to Hal o’ Nabs, who was close beside him, observing, “It shall never be said that Cuthbert Ashbead feawt t’ dule himsel unfairly. Nah, touch me if theaw dar’st.”
Demdike required no further provocation. With almost supernatural force and quickness he sprung upon the forester, and seized him by the throat. But the active young man freed himself from the gripe, and closed with his assailant. But though of Herculean build, it soon became evident that Ashbead would have the worst of it; when Hal o’ Nabs, who had watched the struggle with intense interest, could not help coming to his friend’s assistance, and made a push at Demdike with the halbert.
Could it be that the wrestlers shifted their position, or that the wizard was indeed aided by the powers of darkness? None could tell, but so it was that the pike pierced the side of Ashbead, who instantly fell to the ground, with his adversary upon him. The next instant his hold relaxed, and the wizard sprang to his feet unharmed, but deluged in blood. Hal o’ Nabs uttered a cry of keenest anguish, and, flinging himself upon the body of the forester, tried to staunch the wound; but he was quickly seized by the arquebussiers, and his hands tied behind his back with a thong, while Ashbead was lifted up and borne towards the abbey, the monks and rustics following slowly after; but the latter were not permitted to enter the gate.
As the unfortunate keeper, who by this time had become insensible from loss of blood, was carried along the walled enclosure leading to the abbot’s lodging, a female with a child in her arms was seen advancing from the opposite side. She was tall, finely formed, with features of remarkable beauty, though of a masculine and somewhat savage character, and with magnificent but fierce black eyes. Her skin was dark, and her hair raven black, contrasting strongly with the red band wound around it. Her kirtle was of murrey-coloured serge; simply, but becomingly fashioned. A glance sufficed to show her how matters stood with poor Ashbead, and, uttering a sharp angry cry, she rushed towards him.
“What have you done?” she cried, fixing a keen reproachful look on Demdike, who walked beside the wounded man.
“Nothing,” replied Demdike with a bitter laugh; “the fool has been hurt with a pike. Stand out of the way, Bess, and let the men pass. They are about to carry him to the cell under the chapter-house.”
“You shall not take him there,” cried Bess Demdike, fiercely. “He may recover if his wound be dressed. Let him go to the infirmary — ha, I forgot — there is no one there now.”
“Father Bancroft is at the gate,” observed one of the arquebussiers; “he used to act as chirurgeon in the abbey.”
“No monk must enter the gate except the prisoners when they arrive,” observed Assheton; “such are the positive orders of the Earl of Derby.”
“It is not needed,” observed Demdike, “no human aid can save the man.”
“But can other aid save him?” said Bess, breathing the words in her husband’s ears.
“Go to!” cried Demdike, pushing her roughly aside; “wouldst have me save thy lover?”
“Take heed,” said Bess, in a deep whisper; “if thou save him not, by the devil thou servest! thou shalt lose me and thy child.”
Demdike did not think proper to contest the point, but, approaching Assheton, requested that the wounded man might be conveyed to an arched recess, which he pointed out. Assent being given, Ashbead was taken there, and placed upon the ground, after which the arquebussiers and their leader marched off; while Bess, kneeling down, supported the head of the wounded man upon her knee, and Demdike, taking a small phial from his doublet, poured some of its contents clown his throat. The wizard then took a fold of linen, with which he was likewise provided, and, dipping it in the elixir, applied it to the wound.
In a few moments Ashbead opened his eyes, and looking round wildly, fixed his gaze upon Bess, who placed her finger upon her lips to enjoin silence, but he could not, or would not, understand the sign.
“Aw’s o’er wi’ meh, Bess,” he groaned; “but ey’d reyther dee thus, wi’ thee besoide meh, than i’ ony other wey.”
“Hush!” exclaimed Bess, “Nicholas is here.”
“Oh! ey see,” replied the wounded man, looking round; “but whot matters it? Ey’st be gone soon. Ah, Bess, dear lass, if theawdst promise to break thy compact wi’ Satan — to repent and save thy precious sowl — ey should dee content.”
“Oh, do not talk thus!” cried Bess. “You will soon be well again.”
“Listen to me,” continued Ashbead, earnestly; “dust na knoa that if thy babe be na bapteesed efore to-morrow neet, it’ll be sacrificed to t’ Prince o’ Darkness. Go to some o’ t’ oly feythers — confess thy sins an’ implore heaven’s forgiveness — an’ mayhap they’ll save thee an’ thy infant.”
“And be burned as a witch,” rejoined Bess, fiercely. “It is useless, Cuthbert; I have tried them all. I have knelt to them, implored them, but their hearts are hard as flints. They will not heed me. They will not disobey the abbot’s cruel injunctions, though he be their superior no longer. But I shall be avenged upon him — terribly avenged.”
“Leave meh, theaw wicked woman.” cried Ashbead; “ey dunna wish to ha’ thee near meh. Let meh dee i’ peace.”
“Thou wilt not die, I tell thee, Cuthbert,” cried Bess; “Nicholas hath staunched thy wound.”
“He stawncht it, seyst to?” cried Ashbead, raising. “Ey’st never owe meh loife to him.”
And before he could be prevented he tore off the bandage, and the blood burst forth anew.
“It is not my fault if he perishes now,” observed Demdike, moodily.
“Help him — help him!” implored Bess.
“He shanna touch meh,” cried Ashbead, struggling and increasing the effusion. “Keep him off, ey adjure thee. Farewell, Bess,” he added, sinking back utterly exhausted by the effort.
“Cuthbert!” screamed Bes
s, terrified by his looks, “Cuthbert! art thou really dying? Look at me, speak to me! Ha!” she cried, as if seized by a sudden idea, “they say the blessing of a dying man will avail. Bless my child, Cuthbert, bless it!”
“Give it me!” groaned the forester.
Bess held the infant towards him; but before he could place his hands upon it all power forsook him, and he fell back and expired.
“Lost! lost! for ever lost!” cried Bess, with a wild shriek.
At this moment a loud blast was blown from the gate-tower, and a trumpeter called out,
“The abbot and the two other prisoners are coming.”
“To thy feet, wench!” cried Demdike, imperiously, and seizing the bewildered woman by the arm; “to thy feet, and come with me to meet him!”
* * *
CHAPTER IV. — THE MALEDICTION.
The captive ecclesiastics, together with the strong escort by which they were attended, under the command of John Braddyll, the high sheriff of the county, had passed the previous night at Whitewell, in Bowland Forest; and the abbot, before setting out on his final journey, was permitted to spend an hour in prayer in a little chapel on an adjoining hill, overlooking a most picturesque portion of the forest, the beauties of which were enhanced by the windings of the Hodder, one of the loveliest streams in Lancashire. His devotions performed, Paslew, attended by a guard, slowly descended the hill, and gazed his last on scenes familiar to him almost from infancy. Noble trees, which now looked like old friends, to whom he was bidding an eternal adieu, stood around him. Beneath them, at the end of a glade, couched a herd of deer, which started off at sight of the intruders, and made him envy their freedom and fleetness as he followed them in thought to their solitudes. At the foot of a steep rock ran the Hodder, making the pleasant music of other days as it dashed over its pebbly bed, and recalling times, when, free from all care, he had strayed by its wood-fringed banks, to listen to the pleasant sound of running waters, and watch the shining pebbles beneath them, and the swift trout and dainty umber glancing past.
A bitter pang was it to part with scenes so fair, and the abbot spoke no word, nor even looked up, until, passing Little Mitton, he came in sight of Whalley Abbey. Then, collecting all his energies, he prepared for the shock he was about to endure. But nerved as he was, his firmness was sorely tried when he beheld the stately pile, once his own, now gone from him and his for ever. He gave one fond glance towards it, and then painfully averting his gaze, recited, in a low voice, this supplication: —
“Miserere mei, Deus, secundum magnam misericordiam tuam. Et secundum multitudinem miserationum tuarum, dele iniquitatem meam. Amplius lava me ab iniquitate meâ, et à peccato meo munda me.”
But other thoughts and other emotions crowded upon him, when he beheld the groups of his old retainers advancing to meet him: men, women, and children pouring forth loud lamentations, prostrating themselves at his feet, and deploring his doom. The abbot’s fortitude had a severe trial here, and the tears sprung to his eyes. The devotion of these poor people touched him more sharply than the severity of his adversaries.
“Bless ye! bless ye! my children,” he cried; “repine not for me, for I bear my cross with resignation. It is for me to bewail your lot, much fearing that the flock I have so long and so zealously tended will fall into the hands of other and less heedful pastors, or, still worse, of devouring wolves. Bless ye, my children, and be comforted. Think of the end of Abbot Paslew, and for what he suffered.”
“Think that he was a traitor to the king, and took up arms in rebellion against him,” cried the sheriff, riding up, and speaking in a loud voice; “and that for his heinous offences he was justly condemned to death.”
Murmurs arose at this speech, but they were instantly checked by the escort.
“Think charitably of me, my children,” said the abbot; “and the blessed Virgin keep you steadfast in your faith. Benedicite!”
“Be silent, traitor, I command thee,” cried the sheriff, striking him with his gauntlet in the face.
The abbot’s pale check burnt crimson, and his eye flashed fire, but he controlled himself, and answered meekly, —
“Thou didst not speak in such wise, John Braddyll, when I saved thee from the flood.”
“Which flood thou thyself caused to burst forth by devilish arts,” rejoined the sheriff. “I owe thee little for the service. If for naught else, thou deservest death for thy evil doings on that night.”
The abbot made no reply, for Braddyll’s allusion conjured up a sombre train of thought within his breast, awakening apprehensions which he could neither account for, nor shake off. Meanwhile, the cavalcade slowly approached the north-east gateway of the abbey — passing through crowds of kneeling and sorrowing bystanders; — but so deeply was the abbot engrossed by the one dread idea that possessed him, that he saw them not, and scarce heard their woful lamentations. All at once the cavalcade stopped, and the sheriff rode on to the gate, in the opening of which some ceremony was observed. Then it was that Paslew raised his eyes, and beheld standing before him a tall man, with a woman beside him bearing an infant in her arms. The eyes of the pair were fixed upon him with vindictive exultation. He would have averted his gaze, but an irresistible fascination withheld him.
“Thou seest all is prepared,” said Demdike, coming close up the mule on which Paslew was mounted, and pointing to the gigantic gallows, looming above the abbey walls; “wilt them now accede to my request?” And then he added, significantly— “on the same terms as before.”
The abbot understood his meaning well. Life and freedom were offered him by a being, whose power to accomplish his promise he did not doubt. The struggle was hard; but he resisted the temptation, and answered firmly, —
“No.”
“Then die the felon death thou meritest,” cried Bess, fiercely; “and I will glut mine eyes with the spectacle.”
Incensed beyond endurance, the abbot looked sternly at her, and raised his hand in denunciation. The action and the look were so appalling, that the affrighted woman would have fled if her husband had not restrained her.
“By the holy patriarchs and prophets; by the prelates and confessors; by the doctors of the church; by the holy abbots, monks, and eremites, who dwelt in solitudes, in mountains, and in caverns; by the holy saints and martyrs, who suffered torture and death for their faith, I curse thee, witch!” cried Paslew. “May the malediction of Heaven and all its hosts alight on the head of thy infant—”
“Oh! holy abbot,” shrieked Bess, breaking from her husband, and flinging herself at Paslew’s feet, “curse me, if thou wilt, but spare my innocent child. Save it, and we will save thee.”
“Avoid thee, wretched and impious woman,” rejoined the abbot; “I have pronounced the dread anathema, and it cannot be recalled. Look at the dripping garments of thy child. In blood has it been baptised, and through blood-stained paths shall its course be taken.”
“Ha!” shrieked Bess, noticing for the first time the ensanguined condition of the infant’s attire. “Cuthbert’s blood — oh!”
“Listen to me, wicked woman,” pursued the abbot, as if filled with a prophetic spirit. “Thy child’s life shall be long — beyond the ordinary term of woman — but it shall be a life of woe and ill.”
“Oh! stay him — stay him; or I shall die!” cried Bess.
But the wizard could not speak. A greater power than his own apparently overmastered him.
“Children shall she have,” continued the abbot, “and children’s children, but they shall be a race doomed and accursed — a brood of adders, that the world shall flee from and crush. A thing accursed, and shunned by her fellows, shall thy daughter be — evil reputed and evil doing. No hand to help her — no lip to bless her — life a burden; and death — long, long in coming — finding her in a dismal dungeon. Now, depart from me, and trouble me no more.”
Bess made a motion as if she would go, and then turning, partly round, dropped heavily on the ground. Demdike caught the chi
ld ere she fell.
“Thou hast killed her!” he cried to the abbot.
“A stronger voice than mine hath spoken, if it be so,” rejoined Paslew. “Fuge miserrime, fuge malefice, quia judex adest iratus.”
At this moment the trumpet again sounded, and the cavalcade being put in motion, the abbot and his fellow-captives passed through the gate.
Dismounting from their mules within the court, before the chapter-house, the captive ecclesiastics, preceded by the sheriff were led to the principal chamber of the structure, where the Earl of Derby awaited them, seated in the Gothic carved oak chair, formerly occupied by the Abbots of Whalley on the occasions of conferences or elections. The earl was surrounded by his officers, and the chamber was filled with armed men. The abbot slowly advanced towards the earl. His deportment was dignified and firm, even majestic. The exaltation of spirit, occasioned by the interview with Demdike and his wife, had passed away, and was succeeded by a profound calm. The hue of his cheek was livid, but otherwise he seemed wholly unmoved.
The ceremony of delivering up the bodies of the prisoners to the earl was gone through by the sheriff, and their sentences were then read aloud by a clerk. After this the earl, who had hitherto remained covered, took off his cap, and in a solemn voice spoke: —
“John Paslew, somewhile Abbot of Whalley, but now an attainted and condemned felon, and John Eastgate and William Haydocke, formerly brethren of the same monastery, and confederates with him in crime, ye have heard your doom. To-morrow you shall die the ignominious death of traitors; but the king in his mercy, having regard not so much to the heinous nature of your offences towards his sovereign majesty as to the sacred offices you once held, and of which you have been shamefully deprived, is graciously pleased to remit that part of your sentence, whereby ye are condemned to be quartered alive, willing that the hearts which conceived so much malice and violence against him should cease to beat within your own bosoms, and that the arms which were raised in rebellion against him should be interred in one common grave with the trunks to which they belong.”
The Works of William Harrison Ainsworth Page 369