Cardinal Pole; Or, The Days of Philip and Mary: An Historical RomanceAinsworth, William Harrison
History
Cardinal Pole; Or, The Days of Philip and Mary: An Historical Romance
Ainsworth, William Harrison
Great Britain -- History -- Mary I, 1553-1558 -- Fiction; Pole, Reginald, 1500-1558 -- Fiction
At an early hour the bells of the different churches began to toll
solemnly, announcing to the inhabitants that a sad ceremonial was about
to take place, and shortly after six o’clock a religious procession,
consisting of a number of Cluniac monks, with the clergy and authorities
of the place, the high sheriff, the under-sheriffs, the chief burgesses,
with the headborough and constables, assembled in the High Street, and
proceeded to the Star Inn, where Derrick Carver was brought out, and
ordered to join it. The train was headed by the Cluniac monks, who were
attired in the habits of their order, and after them walked the
prisoner, with Father Josfrid beside him. Next came the sheriff with
Captain Brand, then the local clergy and authorities, while the
head-borough and constables brought up the rear. The procession
descended the steep street leading to the East Gate, through which it
passed, and then, turning off on the right, and skirting the old walls,
which were thronged with spectators, crossed the valley to Southover,
and shaped its course towards the singular mount rising on the east of
the ruined priory of St. Pancras. On the summit of this eminence, a
large crucifix, with the figure of the Saviour nailed to it, was then
reared, forming, from its commanding position, a conspicuous object for
miles around.
On reaching the summit of the mount, the monks prostrated themselves at
the foot of the cross, and began to recite a prayer, while the rest of
the procession assumed an equally reverential posture. Derrick Carver,
however, refused to kneel, and on this occasion his prejudices were
respected. As he remained standing amidst the kneeling assemblage, he
cast his eyes around, and surveyed the fair scene of which he was about
to take leave for ever. To one less firmly constituted, it might have
seemed hard to quit so lovely a world. But his thoughts were fixed on
heaven, and though nature put on her most tempting aspect, she could not
lure him back to earth.
Immediately beneath him lay the ruins of the once noble priory of St.
Pancras, demolished by the Vicar-General Cromwell, in the reign of Henry
VIII., and as he looked at the fragments of this vast and stately pile,
Carver rejoiced in its destruction. Adjoining these ruins was an immense
dovecot, built in the form of a cross, above which thousands of pigeons
were circling or alighting on its roof. On his right, across a woody
valley, climbing the side of a hill, and with its picturesque
habitations intermingled with trees, was the town with whose annals his
name was thenceforward to be associated. Beautiful it looked on that
bright clear morning, and proudly towered its old Norman castle—grey
walls, quaint houses, and church-towers, glittering in the sunbeams, and
all seeming to claim attention; but Carver turned from them to gaze at
the downs, and as his eye wandered over those fair hills, thoughts of
other days rushed upon him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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