by Walter Scott
CHAPTER XVII
This a love-meeting? See the maiden mourns, And the sad suitor bends his looks on earth. There's more hath pass'd between them than belongs To Love's sweet sorrows. --OLD PLAY.
As he approached the monument of Goddard Crovan, Julian cast many ananxious glance to see whether any object visible beside the huge greystone should apprise him, whether he was anticipated, at the appointedplace of rendezvous, by her who had named it. Nor was it long beforethe flutter of a mantle, which the breeze slightly waved, and the motionnecessary to replace it upon the wearer's shoulders, made him aware thatAlice had already reached their place of meeting. One instant set thepalfrey at liberty, with slackened girths and loosened reins, to pickits own way through the dell at will; another placed Julian Peveril bythe side of Alice Bridgenorth.
That Alice should extend her hand to her lover, as with the ardour of ayoung greyhound he bounded over the obstacles of the rugged path, wasas natural as that Julian, seizing on the hand so kindly stretchedout, should devour it with kisses, and, for a moment or two, withoutreprehension; while the other hand, which should have aided in theliberation of its fellow, served to hide the blushes of the fair owner.But Alice, young as she was, and attached to Julian by such long habitsof kindly intimacy, still knew well how to subdue the tendency of herown treacherous affections.
"This is not right," she said, extricating her hand from Julian's grasp,"this is not right, Julian. If I have been too rash in admitting such ameeting as the present, it is not you that should make me sensible of myfolly."
Julian Peveril's mind had been early illuminated with that touch ofromantic fire which deprives passion of selfishness, and confers on itthe high and refined tone of generous and disinterested devotion. He letgo the hand of Alice with as much respect as he could have paid to thatof a princess; and when she seated herself upon a rocky fragment, overwhich nature had stretched a cushion of moss and lichen, interspersedwith wild flowers, backed with a bush of copsewood, he took his placebeside her, indeed, but at such distance as to intimate the duty of anattendant, who was there only to hear and to obey. Alice Bridgenorthbecame more assured as she observed the power which she possessed overher lover; and the self-command which Peveril exhibited, which otherdamsels in her situation might have judged inconsistent with intensityof passion, she appreciated more justly, as a proof of his respectfuland disinterested sincerity. She recovered, in addressing him, thetone of confidence which rather belonged to the scenes of their earlyacquaintance, than to those which had passed betwixt them since Peverilhad disclosed his affection, and thereby had brought restraint upontheir intercourse.
"Julian," she said, "your visit of yesterday--your most ill-timed visit,has distressed me much. It has misled my father--it has endangered you.At all risks, I resolved that you should know this, and blame me notif I have taken a bold and imprudent step in desiring this solitaryinterview, since you are aware how little poor Deborah is to betrusted."
"Can you fear misconstruction from me, Alice?" replied Peveril warmly;"from me, whom you have thus highly favoured--thus deeply obliged?"
"Cease your protestations, Julian," answered the maiden; "they do butmake me the more sensible that I have acted over boldly. But I did forthe best.--I could not see you whom I have known so long--you, who sayyou regard me with partiality----"
"_Say_ that I regard you with partiality!" interrupted Peveril in histurn. "Ah, Alice, with a cold and doubtful phrase you have used toexpress the most devoted, the most sincere affection!"
"Well, then," said Alice sadly, "we will not quarrel about words; butdo not again interrupt me.--I could not, I say, see you, who, I believe,regard me with sincere though vain and fruitless attachment, rushblindfold into a snare, deceived and seduced by those very feelingstowards me."
"I understand you not, Alice," said Peveril; "nor can I see any dangerto which I am at present exposed. The sentiments which your fatherhas expressed towards me, are of a nature irreconcilable with hostilepurposes. If he is not offended with the bold wishes I may haveformed,--and his whole behaviour shows the contrary,--I know not aman on earth from whom I have less cause to apprehend any danger orill-will."
"My father," said Alice, "means well by his country, and well by you;yet I sometimes fear he may rather injure than serve his good cause; andstill more do I dread, that in attempting to engage you as an auxiliary,he may forget those ties which ought to bind you, and I am sure whichwill bind you, to a different line of conduct from his own."
"You lead me into still deeper darkness, Alice," answered Peveril. "Thatyour father's especial line of politics differs widely from mine, Iknow well; but how many instances have occurred, even during the bloodyscenes of civil warfare, of good and worthy men laying the prejudice ofparty affections aside, and regarding each other with respect, and evenwith friendly attachment, without being false to principle on eitherside?"
"It may be so," said Alice; "but such is not the league which my fatherdesires to form with you, and that to which he hopes your misplacedpartiality towards his daughter may afford a motive for your formingwith him."
"And what is it," said Peveril, "which I would refuse, with such aprospect before me?"
"Treachery and dishonour!" replied Alice; "whatever would render youunworthy of the poor boon at which you aim--ay, were it more worthlessthan I confess it to be."
"Would your father," said Peveril, as he unwillingly received theimpression which Alice designed to convey,--"would he, whose views ofduty are so strict and severe--would he wish to involve me in aught, towhich such harsh epithets as treachery and dishonour can be applied withthe lightest shadow of truth?"
"Do not mistake me, Julian," replied the maiden; "my father is incapableof requesting aught of you that is not to his thinking just andhonourable; nay, he conceives that he only claims from you a debt, whichis due as a creature to the Creator, and as a man to your fellow-men."
"So guarded, where can be the danger of our intercourse?" repliedJulian. "If he be resolved to require, and I determined to accede to,nothing save what flows from conviction, what have I to fear, Alice? Andhow is my intercourse with your father dangerous? Believe not so; hisspeech has already made impression on me in some particulars, andhe listened with candour and patience to the objections which I madeoccasionally. You do Master Bridgenorth less than justice in confoundinghim with the unreasonable bigots in policy and religion, who can listento no argument but what favours their own prepossessions."
"Julian," replied Alice; "it is you who misjudge my father's powers,and his purpose with respect to you, and who overrate your own powers ofresistance. I am but a girl, but I have been taught by circumstances tothink for myself, and to consider the character of those around me. Myfather's views in ecclesiastical and civil policy are as dear to him asthe life which he cherishes only to advance them. They have been, withlittle alteration, his companions through life. They brought him at oneperiod into prosperity, and when they suited not the times, he sufferedfor having held them. They have become not only a part, but the verydearest part, of his existence. If he shows them not to you at first,in the flexible strength which they have acquired over his mind, donot believe that they are the less powerful. He who desires to makeconverts, must begin by degrees. But that he should sacrifice to aninexperienced young man, whose ruling motive he will term a childishpassion, any part of those treasured principles which he has maintainedthrough good repute and bad repute--Oh, do not dream of such animpossibility! If you meet at all, you must be the wax, he the seal--youmust receive, he must bestow, an absolute impression."
"That," said Peveril, "were unreasonable. I will frankly avow to you,Alice, that I am not a sworn bigot to the opinions entertained by myfather, much as I respect his person. I could wish that our Cavaliers,or whatsoever they are pleased to call themselves, would have some morecharity towards those who differ from them in Church and State. But tohope that I wou
ld surrender the principles in which I have lived, wereto suppose me capable of deserting my benefactress, and breaking thehearts of my parents."
"Even so I judged of you," answered Alice; "and therefore I asked thisinterview, to conjure that you will break off all intercourse with ourfamily--return to your parents--or, what will be much safer, visit thecontinent once more, and abide till God send better days to England, forthese are black with many a storm."
"And can you bid me go, Alice?" said the young man, taking herunresisting hand; "can you bid me go, and yet own an interest in myfate?--Can you bid me, for fear of dangers, which, as a man, as agentleman, and a loyal one, I am bound to show my face to, meanlyabandon my parents, my friends, my country--suffer the existence ofevils which I might aid to prevent--forego the prospect of doing suchlittle good as might be in my power--fall from an active and honourablestation, into the condition of a fugitive and time-server--Can you bidme do all this, Alice? Can you bid me do all this, and, in the samebreath, bid farewell for ever to you and happiness?--It is impossible--Icannot surrender at once my love and my honour."
"There is no remedy," said Alice, but she could not suppress a sighwhile she said so--"there is no remedy--none whatever. What we mighthave been to each other, placed in more favourable circumstances, itavails not to think of now; and, circumstanced as we are, with openwar about to break out betwixt our parents and friends, we can be butwell-wishers--cold and distant well-wishers, who must part on this spot,and at this hour, never meet again."
"No, by Heaven!" said Peveril, animated at the same time by his ownfeelings, and by the sight of the emotions which his companion invain endeavoured to suppress,--"No, by Heaven!" he exclaimed, "we partnot--Alice, we part not. If I am to leave my native land, you shallbe my companion in my exile. What have you to lose?--Whom have you toabandon?--Your father?--The good old cause, as it is termed, is dearerto him than a thousand daughters; and setting him aside, what tie isthere between you and this barren isle--between my Alice and any spot ofthe British dominions, where her Julian does not sit by her?"
"O Julian," answered the maiden, "why make my duty more painful byvisionary projects, which you ought not to name, or I to listen to? Yourparents--my father--it cannot be!"
"Fear not for my parents, Alice," replied Julian, and pressing closeto his companion's side, he ventured to throw his arm around her; "theylove me, and they will soon learn to love, in Alice, the only being onearth who could have rendered their son happy. And for your own father,when State and Church intrigues allow him to bestow a thought upon you,will he not think that your happiness, your security, is better caredfor when you are my wife, than were you to continue under the mercenarycharge of yonder foolish woman? What could his pride desire betterfor you, than the establishment which will one day be mine? Come then,Alice, and since you condemn me to banishment--since you deny me a sharein those stirring achievements which are about to agitate England--come!do you--for you only can--do you reconcile me to exile and inaction, andgive happiness to one, who, for your sake, is willing to resign honour."
"It cannot--it cannot be," said Alice, faltering as she uttered hernegative. "And yet," she said, "how many in my place--left alone andunprotected, as I am--But I must not--I must not--for your sake, Julian,I must not."
"Say not for my sake you must not, Alice," said Peveril eagerly; "thisis adding insult to cruelty. If you will do aught for my sake, you willsay yes; or you will suffer this dear head to drop on my shoulder--theslightest sign--the moving of an eyelid, shall signify consent. Allshall be prepared within an hour; within another the priest shallunite us; and within a third, we leave the isle behind us, and seek ourfortunes on the continent." But while he spoke, in joyful anticipationof the consent which he implored, Alice found means to collect togetherher resolution, which, staggered by the eagerness of her lover,the impulse of her own affections, and the singularity of hersituation,--seeming, in her case, to justify what would have been mostblamable in another,--had more than half abandoned her.
The result of a moment's deliberation was fatal to Julian's proposal.She extricated herself from the arm which had pressed her to hisside--arose, and repelling his attempts to approach or detain her, said,with a simplicity not unmingled with dignity, "Julian, I always knew Irisked much in inviting you to this meeting; but I did not guess that Icould have been so cruel to both to you and to myself, as to sufferyou to discover what you have to-day seen too plainly--that I love youbetter than you love me. But since you do know it, I will show you thatAlice's love is disinterested--She will not bring an ignoble name intoyour ancient house. If hereafter, in your line, there should arise somewho may think the claims of the hierarchy too exorbitant, the powers ofthe crown too extensive, men shall not say these ideas were derived fromAlice Bridgenorth, their whig granddame."
"Can you speak thus, Alice?" said her lover. "Can you use suchexpressions? and are you not sensible that they show plainly it is yourown pride, not regard for me, that makes you resist the happiness ofboth?"
"Not so, Julian; not so," answered Alice, with tears in her eyes; "itis the command of duty to us both--of duty, which we cannot transgress,without risking our happiness here and hereafter. Think what I, thecause of all, should feel, when your father frowns, your mother weeps,your noble friends stand aloof, and you, even you yourself, shall havemade the painful discovery, that you have incurred the contempt andresentment of all to satisfy a boyish passion; and that the poorbeauty, once sufficient to mislead you, is gradually declining under theinfluence of grief and vexation. This I will not risk. I see distinctlyit is best we should here break off and part; and I thank God, who givesme light enough to perceive, and strength enough to withstand, yourfolly as well as my own. Farewell, then, Julian; but first take thesolemn advice which I called you hither to impart to you:--Shun myfather--you cannot walk in his paths, and be true to gratitude and tohonour. What he doth from pure and honourable motives, you cannot aidhim in, except upon the suggestion of a silly and interested passion, atvariance with all the engagements you have formed at coming into life."
"Once more, Alice," answered Julian, "I understand you not. If a courseof action is good, it needs no vindication from the actor's motives--ifbad, it can derive none."
"You cannot blind me with your sophistry, Julian," replied AliceBridgenorth, "any more than you can overpower me with your passion. Hadthe patriarch destined his son to death upon any less ground than faithand humble obedience to a divine commandment, he had meditated a murderand not a sacrifice. In our late bloody and lamentable wars, how manydrew swords on either side, from the purest and most honourable motives?How many from the culpable suggestions of ambition, self-seeking, andlove of plunder? Yet while they marched in the same ranks, and spurredtheir horses at the same trumpet-sound, the memory of the former isdear to us as patriots or loyalists--that of those who acted on mean orunworthy promptings, is either execrated or forgotten. Once more, I warnyou, avoid my father--leave this island, which will be soon agitatedby strange incidents--while you stay, be on your guard--distrusteverything--be jealous of every one, even of those to whom it mayseem almost impossible, from circumstances, to attach a shadow ofsuspicion--trust not the very stones of the most secret apartment inHolm-Peel, for that which hath wings shall carry the matter."
Here Alice broke off suddenly, and with a faint shriek; for, steppingfrom behind the stunted copse which had concealed him, her father stoodunexpectedly before them.
The reader cannot have forgotten that this was the second time inwhich the stolen interviews of the lovers had been interrupted by theunexpected apparition of Major Bridgenorth. On this second occasionhis countenance exhibited anger mixed with solemnity, like that of thespirit to a ghost-seer, whom he upbraids with having neglected a chargeimposed at their first meeting. Even his anger, however, produced nomore violent emotion than a cold sternness of manner in his speech andaction. "I thank you, Alice," he said to his daughter, "for the painsyou have taken to traverse my designs towards this
young man, andtowards yourself. I thank you for the hints you have thrown out beforemy appearance, the suddenness of which alone has prevented you fromcarrying your confidence to a pitch which would have placed my life andthat of others at the discretion of a boy, who, when the cause of Godand his country is laid before him, has not leisure to think of them,so much is he occupied with such a baby-face as thine." Alice, pale asdeath, continued motionless, with her eyes fixed on the ground, withoutattempting the slightest reply to the ironical reproaches of her father.
"And you," continued Major Bridgenorth, turning from his daughter to herlover,--"you sir, have well repaid the liberal confidence which Iplaced in you with so little reserve. You I have to thank also for somelessons, which may teach me to rest satisfied with the churl's bloodwhich nature has poured into my veins, and with the rude nurture whichmy father allotted to me."
"I understand you not, sir," replied Julian Peveril, who, feeling thenecessity of saying something, could not, at the moment, find anythingmore fitting to say.
"Yes, sir, I thank you," said Major Bridgenorth, in the same coldsarcastic tone, "for having shown me that breach of hospitality,infringement of good faith, and such like peccadilloes, are not utterlyforeign to the mind and conduct of the heir of a knightly house oftwenty descents. It is a great lesson to me, sir: for hitherto I hadthought with the vulgar, that gentle manners went with gentle blood. Butperhaps courtesy is too chivalrous a quality to be wasted in intercoursewith a round-headed fanatic like myself."
"Major Bridgenorth," said Julian, "whatever has happened in thisinterview which may have displeased you, has been the result of feelingssuddenly and strongly animated by the crisis of the moment--nothing waspremeditated."
"Not even your meeting, I suppose?" replied Bridgenorth, in the samecold tone. "You, sir, wandered hither from Holm-Peel--my daughterstrolled forth from the Black Fort; and chance, doubtless, assigned youa meeting by the stone of Goddard Crovan?--Young man, disgrace yourselfby no more apologies--they are worse than useless.--And you, maiden,who, in your fear of losing your lover, could verge on betraying whatmight have cost a father his life--begone to your home. I will talk withyou at more leisure, and teach you practically those duties which youseem to have forgotten."
"On my honour, sir," said Julian, "your daughter is guiltless of allthat can offend you; she resisted every offer which the headstrongviolence of my passion urged me to press upon her."
"And, in brief," said Bridgenorth, "I am not to believe that you met inthis remote place of rendezvous by Alice's special appointment?"
Peveril knew not what to reply, and Bridgenorth again signed with hishand to his daughter to withdraw.
"I obey you, father," said Alice, who had by this time recovered fromthe extremity of her surprise,--"I obey you; but Heaven is my witnessthat you do me more than injustice in suspecting me capable of betrayingyour secrets, even had it been necessary to save my own life or that ofJulian. That you are walking in a dangerous path I well know; but youdo it with your eyes open, and are actuated by motives of which youcan estimate the worth and value. My sole wish was, that this young manshould not enter blindfold on the same perils; and I had a right to warnhim, since the feelings by which he is hoodwinked had a direct referenceto me."
"'Tis well, minion," said Bridgenorth, "you have spoken yoursay. Retire, and let me complete the conference which you have soconsiderately commenced."
"I go, sir," said Alice.--"Julian, to you my last words are, and I wouldspeak them with my last breath--Farewell, and caution!"
She turned from them, disappeared among the underwood, and was seen nomore.
"A true specimen of womankind," said her father, looking after her, "whowould give the cause of nations up, rather than endanger a hair of herlover's head.--You, Master Peveril, doubtless, hold her opinion, thatthe best love is a safe love!"
"Were danger alone in my way," said Peveril, much surprised at thesoftened tone in which Bridgenorth made this observation, "there are fewthings which I would not face to--to--deserve your good opinion."
"Or rather to win my daughter's hand," said Bridgenorth. "Well, youngman, one thing has pleased me in your conduct, though of much I havemy reasons to complain--one thing _has_ pleased me. You have surmountedthat bounding wall of aristocratical pride, in which your father, and,I suppose, his fathers, remained imprisoned, as in the precincts of afeudal fortress--you have leaped over this barrier, and shown yourselfnot unwilling to ally yourself with a family whom your father spurns aslow-born and ignoble."
However favourable this speech sounded towards success in his suit, itso broadly stated the consequences of that success so far as his parentswere concerned, that Julian felt it in the last degree difficult toreply. At length, perceiving that Major Bridgenorth seemed resolvedquietly to await his answer, he mustered up courage to say, "Thefeelings which I entertain towards your daughter, Master Bridgenorth,are of a nature to supersede many other considerations, to which inany other case, I should feel it my duty to give the most reverentialattention. I will not disguise from you, that my father's prejudicesagainst such a match would be very strong; but I devoutly believe theywould disappear when he came to know the merit of Alice Bridgenorth, andto be sensible that she only could make his son happy."
"In the meanwhile, you are desirous to complete the union which youpropose without the knowledge of your parents, and take the chanceof their being hereafter reconciled to it? So I understand, from theproposal which you made but lately to my daughter."
The turns of human nature, and of human passion, are so irregular anduncertain, that although Julian had but a few minutes before urgedto Alice a private marriage, and an elopement to the continent, asa measure upon which the whole happiness of his life depended, theproposal seemed not to him half so delightful when stated by the calm,cold, dictatorial accents of her father. It sounded no longer like thedictates of ardent passion, throwing all other considerations aside, butas a distinct surrender of the dignity of his house to one who seemedto consider their relative situation as the triumph of Bridgenorth overPeveril. He was mute for a moment, in the vain attempt to shape hisanswer so as at once to intimate acquiescence in what Bridgenorthstated, and a vindication of his own regard for his parents, and for thehonour of his house.
This delay gave rise to suspicion, and Bridgenorth's eye gleamed, andhis lip quivered while he gave vent to it. "Hark ye, young man--dealopenly with me in this matter, if you would not have me think you theexecrable villain who would have seduced an unhappy girl, under promiseswhich he never designed to fulfil. Let me but suspect this, and youshall see, on the spot, how far your pride and your pedigree willpreserve you against the just vengeance of a father."
"You do me wrong," said Peveril--"you do me infinite wrong, MajorBridgenorth, I am incapable of the infamy which you allude to. Theproposal I made to your daughter was as sincere as ever was offeredby man to woman. I only hesitated, because you think it necessary toexamine me so very closely; and to possess yourself of all my purposesand sentiments, in their fullest extent, without explaining to me thetendency of your own."
"Your proposal, then, shapes itself thus," said Bridgenorth:--"You arewilling to lead my only child into exile from her native country, togive her a claim to kindness and protection from your family, which youknow will be disregarded, on condition I consent to bestow her hand onyou, with a fortune sufficient to have matched your ancestors, whenthey had most reason to boast of their wealth. This, young man, seemsno equal bargain. And yet," he continued, after a momentary pause, "solittle do I value the goods of this world, that it might not be utterlybeyond thy power to reconcile me to the match which you have proposed tome, however unequal it may appear."
"Show me but the means which can propitiate your favour, MajorBridgenorth," said Peveril,--"for I will not doubt that they will beconsistent with my honour and duty--and you shall soon see how eagerly Iwill obey your directions, or submit to your conditions."
"They are summed in few words," an
swered Bridgenorth. "Be an honest man,and the friend of your country."
"No one has ever doubted," replied Peveril, "that I am both."
"Pardon me," replied the Major; "no one has, as yet, seen you showyourself either. Interrupt me not--I question not your will to beboth; but you have hitherto neither had the light nor the opportunitynecessary for the display of your principles, or the service of yourcountry. You have lived when an apathy of mind, succeeding to theagitations of the Civil War, had made men indifferent to state affairs,and more willing to cultivate their own ease, than to stand in the gapwhen the Lord was pleading with Israel. But we are Englishmen; and withus such unnatural lethargy cannot continue long. Already, many of thosewho most desired the return of Charles Stewart, regard him as a Kingwhom Heaven, importuned by our entreaties, gave to us in His anger. Hisunlimited licence--and example so readily followed by the young and thegay around him--has disgusted the minds of all sober and thinking men.I had not now held conference with you in this intimate fashion, wereI not aware that you, Master Julian, were free from such stain of thetimes. Heaven, that rendered the King's course of license fruitful,had denied issue to his bed of wedlock; and in the gloomy and sterncharacter of his bigoted successor, we already see what sort of monarchshall succeed to the crown of England. This is a critical period, atwhich it necessarily becomes the duty of all men to step forward, eachin his degree, and aid in rescuing the country which gave us birth."Peveril remembered the warning which he had received from Alice, andbent his eyes on the ground, without returning any reply. "How is it,young man," continued Bridgenorth, after a pause--"so young as thouart, and bound by no ties of kindred profligacy with the enemies of yourcountry, you can be already hardened to the claims she may form on youat this crisis?"
"It were easy to answer you generally, Major Bridgenorth," repliedPeveril--"It were easy to say that my country cannot make a claim on mewhich I will not promptly answer at the risk of lands and life. But indealing thus generally, we should but deceive each other. What is thenature of this call? By whom is it to be sounded? And what are to be theresults? for I think you have already seen enough of the evils of civilwar, to be wary of again awakening its terrors in a peaceful and happycountry."
"They that are drenched with poisonous narcotics," said the Major, "mustbe awakened by their physicians, though it were with the sound of thetrumpet. Better that men should die bravely, with their arms in theirhands, like free-born Englishmen, than that they should slide into thebloodless but dishonoured grave which slavery opens for its vassals--Butit is not of war that I was about to speak," he added, assuming a mildertone. "The evils of which England now complains, are such as can beremedied by the wholesome administration of her own laws, even in thestate in which they are still suffered to exist. Have these laws not aright to the support of every individual who lives under them? Have theynot a right to yours?"
As he seemed to pause for an answer, Peveril replied, "I have to learn,Major Bridgenorth, how the laws of England have become so far weakenedas to require such support as mine. When that is made plain to me, noman will more willingly discharge the duty of a faithful liegeman tothe law as well as the King. But the laws of England are under theguardianship of upright and learned judges, and of a gracious monarch."
"And of a House of Commons," interrupted Bridgenorth, "no longer dotingupon restored monarchy, but awakened, as with a peal of thunder, to theperilous state of our religion, and of our freedom. I appeal to yourown conscience, Julian Peveril, whether this awakening hath not been intime, since you yourself know, and none better than you, the secret butrapid strides which Rome has made to erect her Dagon of idolatry withinour Protestant land."
Here Julian seeing, or thinking he saw, the drift of Bridgenorth'ssuspicions, hastened to exculpate himself from the thought of favouringthe Roman Catholic religion. "It is true," he said, "I have beeneducated in a family where that faith is professed by one honouredindividual, and that I have since travelled in Popish countries;but even for these very reasons I have seen Popery too closely to befriendly to its tenets. The bigotry of the laymen--the persevering artsof the priesthood--the perpetual intrigue for the extension of the formswithout the spirit of religion--the usurpation of that Church over theconsciences of men--and her impious pretensions to infallibility, areas inconsistent to my mind as they can seem to yours, with common-sense,rational liberty, freedom of conscience, and pure religion."
"Spoken like the son of your excellent mother," said Bridgenorth,grasping his hand; "for whose sake I have consented to endure so muchfrom your house unrequited, even when the means of requital were in myown hand."
"It was indeed from the instructions of that excellent parent," saidPeveril, "that I was enabled, in my early youth, to resist and repel theinsidious attacks made upon my religious faith by the Catholic priestsinto whose company I was necessarily thrown. Like her, I trust to liveand die in the faith of the reformed Church of England."
"The Church of England!" said Bridgenorth, dropping his young friend'shand, but presently resuming it--"Alas! that Church, as now constituted,usurps scarcely less than Rome herself upon men's consciences andliberties; yet, out of the weakness of this half-reformed Church,may God be pleased to work out deliverance to England, and praise toHimself. I must not forget, that one whose services have been in thecause incalculable, wears the garb of an English priest, and hath hadEpiscopal ordination. It is not for us to challenge the instrument, sothat our escape is achieved from the net of the fowler. Enough, that Ifind thee not as yet enlightened with the purer doctrine, but preparedto profit by it when the spark shall reach thee. Enough, in especial,that I find thee willing to uplift thy testimony to cry aloud and sparenot, against the errors and arts of the Church of Rome. But remember,what thou hast now said, thou wilt soon be called upon to justify, in amanner the most solemn--the most awful."
"What I have said," replied Julian Peveril, "being the unbiassedsentiments of my heart, shall, upon no proper occasion, want the supportof my open avowal; and I think it strange you should doubt me so far."
"I doubt thee not, my young friend," said Bridgenorth; "and I trust tosee that name rank high amongst those by whom the prey shall be rentfrom the mighty. At present, thy prejudices occupy thy mind like thestrong keeper of the house mentioned in Scripture. But there shallcome a stronger than he, and make forcible entry, displaying onthe battlements that sign of faith in which alone there is foundsalvation.--Watch, hope, and pray, that the hour may come."
There was a pause in the conversation, which was first broken byPeveril. "You have spoken to me in riddles, Major Bridgenorth; and Ihave asked you for no explanation. Listen to a caution on my part, givenwith the most sincere good-will. Take a hint from me, and believe it,though it is darkly expressed. You are here--at least are believed to behere--on an errand dangerous to the Lord of the island. That danger willbe retorted on yourself, if you make Man long your place of residence.Be warned, and depart in time."
"And leave my daughter to the guardianship of Julian Peveril! Runs notyour counsel so, young man?" answered Bridgenorth. "Trust my safety,Julian, to my own prudence. I have been accustomed to guide myselfthrough worse dangers than now environ me. But I thank you foryour caution, which I am willing to believe was at least partlydisinterested."
"We do not, then, part in anger?" said Peveril.
"Not in anger, my son," said Bridgenorth, "but in love and strongaffection. For my daughter, thou must forbear every thought of seeingher, save through me. I accept not thy suit, neither do I reject it;only this I intimate to you, that he who would be my son, must firstshow himself the true and loving child of his oppressed and deludedcountry. Farewell; do not answer me now, thou art yet in the gall ofbitterness, and it may be that strife (which I desire not) should fallbetween us. Thou shalt hear of me sooner than thou thinkest for."
He shook Peveril heartily by the hand, and again bid him farewell,leaving him under the confused and mingled impression of pleasure,doubt, and wonder. Not a l
ittle surprised to find himself so far in thegood graces of Alice's father, that his suit was even favoured with asort of negative encouragement, he could not help suspecting, as wellfrom the language of the daughter as of the father, that Bridgenorth wasdesirous, as the price of his favour, that he should adopt some line ofconduct inconsistent with the principles in which he had been educated.
"You need not fear, Alice," he said in his heart; "not even yourhand would I purchase by aught which resembled unworthy or trucklingcompliance with tenets which my heart disowns; and well I know, were Imean enough to do so, even the authority of thy father were insufficientto compel thee to the ratification of so mean a bargain. But let mehope better things. Bridgenorth, though strong-minded and sagacious, ishaunted by the fears of Popery, which are the bugbears of his sect. Myresidence in the family of the Countess of Derby is more than enough toinspire him with suspicions of my faith, from which, thank Heaven, I canvindicate myself with truth and a good conscience."
So thinking, he again adjusted the girths of his palfrey, replacedthe bit which he had slipped out of its mouth, that it might feed atliberty, and mounting, pursued his way back to the Castle of Holm-Peel,where he could not help fearing that something extraordinary might havehappened in his absence.
But the old pile soon rose before him, serene, and sternly still, amidthe sleeping ocean. The banner, which indicated that the Lord of Manheld residence within its ruinous precincts, hung motionless by theensign-staff. The sentinels walked to and fro on their posts, and hummedor whistled their Manx airs. Leaving his faithful companion, Fairy, inthe village as before, Julian entered the Castle, and found all withinin the same state of quietness and good order which external appearanceshad announced.