by Moyle Sherer
CHAP. X.
Great God! there is no safety here below; Thou art my fortress; thou that seem'st my foe, 'Tis thou that strik'st the stroke, must guard the blow. QUARLES.
Although the malice of the hypocrite Daws had been disappointed by theresult of his wicked artifices at Cheddar fair, and the worthy Noblehad been saved from the injury and ruin which a lawless rabble wereinstigated to inflict on that peaceful man of God, yet Daws, beingunsuspected and secure from detection, did not relax his efforts forthe persecution and ejectment of Noble.
He contrived to have him haled before a committee of religious inquirywhich visited those parts soon after; but here again he was baffled:for one of the commissioners being pricked in his conscience byobserving the godly simplicity of the good parson of Cheddar, and thesincerity of his love to the blessed Saviour of the world, procuredhis dismissal from that ordeal unharmed. Nevertheless Daws continuedto work secretly for his own ends, and gave himself no rest in thepursuit of his great object. He had the reputation of great strictnessand sanctity as a minister,--and the outward man imposed upon many; inhis heart he cared not for the souls of men; his sins were those whichoften and long escape the detection of the world, and which can beindulged under the cloak of religious zeal without exciting thesuspicions of any, but those honest and sagacious persons who candetect a character by indications of its spirit too slight and fine tobe admitted as important by the multitude. He was avaricious andtyrannical: money was his idol; and to subject the minds of acongregation was his next delight. From his pulpit he dealt forth themost fierce and cruel fulminations against all unbelievers. Nor was hewithout many trembling followers, whom he scolded and comforted,according to the caprice of his own temper.
"He damned the sins he had no mind to, And spared the few he was inclined to."
In his creed, the prayers and alms of any one who did not exactlyentertain his notions of faith were sins, and would be visited assuch. Now Parson Noble was a minister who bowed his knees before theFather of mercies as a self-abased sinner, confessing himself withoutgrace or strength to will or to do, save of God's free mercy,communicated through and for Christ's sake. He taught all his peoplethat if they asked the gifts and graces of repentance and faith inthat precious name they could not be denied, and should never be sentempty away: to proclaim the message of peace and reconciliation washis delight; to invite all freely, to tell of a pardon to the humanrace, which, under the present dispensation of mercy, was the commonright of all who were _willing_ to accept it, was his constantpractice; and he showed them plainly that if they came not to thelight, it was because they loved darkness; because they could not partwith their sins, and shrunk from the Gospel as a rule of life. "Love,"he would say, "worketh no ill to his neighbour, therefore love is thefulfilling of the law. Love is keeping the commandments: God is love,from whom they came. Jesus is love, by whom they were taught,magnified, and perfectly obeyed, that in his sacrifice of himself, asa pure and spotless victim, we might have an all-sufficient atonement,and hope towards a God who had taken our nature upon him, and beenmanifest in the flesh." Now Daws held that Noble was a blind leader ofthe blind, and that both would fall into the ditch; and he desired,first, the proceeds of Cheddar living in his pocket, and, next, thegratification of telling the flock of Noble that they were one and allin the broad road to destruction.
Nor did this insidious priest fail to spread all sorts of calumniesabout the poor unconscious vicar, and to irritate many furiouszealots against him. He kept up a constant correspondence with apolitical partisan in London, to whom he gave much information onlocal and county matters, stretching his invention not a little whenhe had to tell any thing against the Royalists of those parts. By thismeans he got a name as a person well affected to the Parliament, andgreatly interested in the cause of religious liberty.
It so happened, that, in the November immediately following thebreaking out of the war, and the great battle of Keinton, a body ofParliamentarian horse being quartered in his neighbourhood, Daws founda fit instrument for his purposes on Cheddar, in a most furious andbigotted fanatic, who commanded a troop of horse. This man was easilypersuaded that he could not render a more acceptable service to Godthan by destroying with fire and sword all places, all persons, andall things, which were, in his own view, defiled, and idolatrous, andimpure; and he therefore sallied forth against the church and theparson of Cheddar as he would against a temple and a priest of Baal.
On the day on which old Noble was ejected from Cheddar, with manycircumstances of cruelty and hardship, he arose, as usual, with somefears, but with unshaken trust in the goodness and mercy of anall-wise and almighty Father. The day was cold, and not a sunbeam wasadmitted through the cloud and gloom which brooded over all things. Itchanced that the stout and resolute old franklin Blount had determinedthat his grandchild should be publicly baptized at the same ancientfont at which his own venerable forehead had been signed with the signof the cross. There was some doubt in the mind of his son-in-law,Hargood, whether it was prudent at that moment of busy persecution, onthe part of the county committee, to make so open a display of devoutattachment to the hallowed ceremony of a christening. His lovingdaughter, from a tender apprehension about her infant's safety, if anything should fall out amiss, would have stolen to church, at theearliest possible hour, and in the most quiet manner. However, habitsof submission to her father, formed by an admiration of his character,were of so long a growth, and so deeply rooted, that the remonstranceof her fears was not ventured on; indeed Blount would have held itcraven to yield to the timid suggestions of prudence, where he lookedto a principle in his conduct. It is not improbable that some shadowof a domestic tragedy had been cast upon the old man's solitarythoughts; for, within a few days past, there had been observable inhis manner a mixture of severity and gentleness at once strange andaffecting. He had twice been found in the large oak parlour alone,reading from the Book of Martyrs, which was there chained upon a talldesk. It is true that on both these occasions he had whistled andwalked away quick; but it was afterwards remembered. Howbeit, at teno'clock in the forenoon, there issued from the porch of the franklin'sold mansion a small party consisting of about eight persons, male andfemale: one of the last bore in her arms an infant so folded up andhidden in a large mantle of thick white woollen, that nothing but alittle outline of the babe could be seen, and not a breath of the keenwintry wind could penetrate to its tender frame. They moved slowly,and in a formal order up the long straggling street; and all thevillagers who met them by the way, or looked at them from their doors,saluted them with bows and good words, but with evident and anxiouswonder. A faithful woodman ventured to go close and whisper to MasterBlount that he was just come in from Axbridge, and saw some of therascal Roundheads mustering, and that he heard say, at the OldPack-horse Inn, that they were going to march for Wells by the road ofCheddar. "Well, let them come," said the franklin; "we are not doingany thing to be ashamed of: let them see us doing as their forefathersdid before us, and redden in the face for their own falsehood; 'churchand king' is an old cry and a good one: out upon the knaves!--God willdefend his own."
The party went forward; and having reached the churchyard, passedinto the church by the low chancel door, walked down the great aisle,and turned into the southern transept. Here stood the font; here theworthy parson awaited them, and his wife also, who was by a promise oflong date to stand as godmother to the child. The old stone font,round which this pious family were assembled, had long been an objectof great veneration to the inhabitants of Cheddar. It was octagonal inform, and supported upon a clustered shaft of Purbeck marble. Thecompartments on its sides were sculptured with scenes from Holy Writ.In one was represented the circumcision of Christ; in another the sameblessed Lord was figured in manhood, with a little child in his arms,and his disciples standing round: through age and injury the subjectsin the other compartments were no longer discernible.
Above the font
was a window of painted glass, which, as there was nolight of the sun to illuminate its gorgeous groups, did only presentto the eye a dim cold grandeur;--a grave and visionary glory, throughwhich, as in the pages of unaccomplished prophecy, might be caughtbright glimpses of pale and celestial faces, and yet garments crimsonwithal, as though they had been rolled in blood.
In this solemn light, and around this sacred font, the family ofBlount reverently kneeled, and the service proceeded. The babe laystill and unconscious in the arms of the old franklin's wife; andnothing told of its young life but a soft breath from parted lips, anda faint flush upon a waxen cheek. By its side knelt the fair mother,delicate and colourless, with eyes bent on the ground, and a foreheadover which fears flitted, and disturbed her prayers.
Of all the party none save the sweet infant was so calm as Blounthimself. Upon the throne of the old man's heart his God was seated,and his soul was at peace. In fancy and in spirit he was again thesubject of that holy rite. When Noble took the babe in his arms, andit opened its blue eyes and stretched out its little helpless hands,and as it felt the sprinkled water, and was signed with the sign ofthe cross, gave that little cry for which mother and nurse listen sofondly, a few large tears dropped from the eyelids of the stalwartfranklin, and the voice of Noble faltered a little as he saw themfall. The solemn declaration by which the child is received intoChrist's flock was completed, and was responded to by the deep andfervent Amen of Blount, and the gentler tones of those around him; andthe good parson was proceeding to the thanksgiving that follows, whenthat fearful sound, which is made up of the trampling of horses, andthe rattle of harness, and the blast of the trumpet, was heard at thechurch doors in the opposite transept. Their heavy leaves were thrownopen with a sudden and violent crash, and two of the horsemen rodeinto the body of the church, accompanied by three severe and sourlooking persons in sad coloured doublets, and narrow crowned hats, andfollowed by some low rabble, with whom, in fear and curiosity, a fewof the good folk of Cheddar intermingled.
"I have a message for thee, thou priest of Baal,--thou blind leader ofthe blind,--thou whited wall," said he, whose caparisons bespoke himthe chief, laying the flat of his sword with a smart stroke upon theneck of Noble. "Thou art weighed in the balance, and found wanting:thou must come with me; thy mummeries and thy knaveries shall no morepollute the sanctuary."
"Dost thou not fear God?" said the meek but undaunted Noble, with afirm voice and unshrinking mien. "Dost thou not fear God, that thusthou comest to his holy temple? To what manner of man was it told,that it were better for him a millstone were tied about his neck, andhe cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these littleones? I tell thee, the angel of that helpless babe doth, even now,behold the face of his Father, which is in heaven, and beareth witnessagainst thee.--Go forth. I myself will follow thee, whithersoever thouwouldest, be it to judgment or to death; but this hoof-clatter in thecourts of the Lord is a most abominable sin."
"Now will I do so, and yet more, thou hypocrite, thou whitenedsepulchre!" so saying, the fanatic plunged his spurs into the flanksof his frightened war-horse, but the fretted and gallant beast didonly rear, and chafe, and champ the bit. Meanwhile, the young mother,with her child in her bosom, and the other women round her, had sunkback into the corner of the transept in terror. Old Blount and hisson-in-law interposed between the horsemen and Noble, and demanded ofthem loudly to quit the sacred building.
"I ask ye not," said he, "as Christians, for that ye cannot be, butfor your manhood's sake, to suffer, that these poor terrified womenpass forth with the infant in peace; for ourselves, though we beunarmed, we will abide your wrath as best we may."
"Let not thine eye pity," said a harsh voice from behind the horsemen:"blessed be he that taketh her children and dasheth them against thestones. Woe to the idolaters! woe!--The priest shall be slain at thealtar, and the water of the Babylonish font shall be red with theblood of sacrifice."
The frenzied zeal of the willing fanatic being thus excited, he urgedon his powerful steed, and raised his glittering sword. The hot animalby a weighty plunge came breast upon the font, and overthrew and brakeit, and the consecrated water was spilled upon the ground. At thissight old Blount, with the strong arm of a Samson, caught at thebridle, and threw back the horse and his rider with so violent aforce, that the hoofs slipped upon the smooth pavement, and they felltogether; and before they had risen, the old man had caught up a heavybar of wood near him, and raising the ponderous weapon with bothhands, aimed so true and so deadly a blow at the sacrilegious chiefthat he never moved after; and the life-blood ran from his mouth andears, and flowing onward, mingled with the water from the BROKEN FONT.
Every voice was silenced,--every foot was rivetted there where itstood. All were hushed and motionless, and every face looked ghastly.During this awful pause, the aged franklin, exhausted by the mightyand energetic deed, fell back against a seat, and, sinking into it,turned pale, and his eye-sight became dim. Noble went over and tookhis hand in alarm, and eagerly inquired, "What is this? what is this?Are you wounded?"
"No," he faintly answered, "not wounded, but--this is--death. HeavenlyFather, forgive me, for thy dear Son's sake, for I knew not what Idid."
His wife and daughter and his sons now gathered round him; but he wasdying, and his words were few. He tried to kiss his infant grandchild,and he said to Noble, with a heavy sigh,--
"Your trials are coming:--I count myself happy, and commit my own dearfamily and yours to him who remembers mercy in judgment;" and now,letting fall his head on his wife's bosom, he breathed a few times ina struggling convulsive manner, and his spirit returned to the God whogave it.