The Armourer's PrenticesYonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
History
The Armourer's Prentices
Yonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
Great Britain -- History -- Henry VIII, 1509-1547 -- Fiction
Then Tibble escaped, and Perronel drew near to the party round the fire,
where the divination of the burning of nuts was going on, but not
successfully, since no pair hitherto put in would keep together.
However, the next contribution was a snail, which had been captured on
the wall, and was solemnly set to crawl on the hearth by Dennet, "to see
whether it would trace a G or an H."
However, the creature proved sullen or sleepy, and no jogging of hands,
no enticing, would induce it to crawl an inch, and the alderman, taking
his daughter on his knee, declared that it was a wise beast, who knew
her hap was fixed. Moreover, it was time for the rere supper, for the
serving-men with the lanterns would be coming for the young folk.
London entertainments for women or young people had to finish very early
unless they had a strong escort to go home with, for the streets were
far from safe after dark. Giles's great desire to convoy her home,
added to Perronel's determination, and on All Souls' Day, while knells
were ringing from every church in London, she roused Aldonza from her
weeping devotions at her father's grave, and led her to Dennet, who had
just finished her round of prayers at the grave of the mother she had
never known, under the protection of her nurse, and two or three of the
servants. The child, who had thought little of her mother, while her
grandmother was alert, and supplied the tenderness and care she needed,
was beginning to yearn after counsel and sympathy, and to wonder, as she
told her beads, what might have been, had that mother lived. She took
Aldonza's hand, and the two girls threaded their way out of the crowded
churchyard together, while Perronel betook herself to the Deanery of
Saint Paul's.
Good Colet was always accessible to the meanest, but he had been very
ill, and the porter had some doubts about troubling him respecting the
substantial young matron whose trim cap and bodice, and full petticoats,
showed no tokens of distress. However, when she begged him to take in
her message, that she prayed the Dean to listen to her touching the
child of the old man who was slain on May Eve, he consented; and she was
at once admitted to an inner chamber, where Colet, wrapped in a gown
lined with lambskin, sat by the fire, looking so wan and feeble that it
went to the good woman's heart, and she began by an apology for
troubling him.
"Heed not that, good dame," said the Dean, courteously, "but sit thee
down and let me hear of the poor child."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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