Great Britain -- History -- Mary I, 1553-1558 -- Fiction; Historical fiction
He had his way and his talk with Sir Anthony; the latter lasting far
into the night and producing odd results. In the first place, the
unbidden guest and his wife stayed on over next day, and over many
days to come, and seemed gradually to grow more and more at home. The
knight began to take long walks and rides with his brother, and from
each walk and ride came back with a more gloomy face and a curter
manner. Petronilla, his companion of old, found herself set aside for
her uncle, and cast, for society, on Ferdinand's wife, the strange
young woman with the brilliant eyes, whose odd changes from grave to
gay rivaled Martin Luther's; and who now scared the girl by wild
laughter and wilder gibes, and now moved her to pity by fits of
weeping or dark moods of gloom. That Uncle Ferdinand's wife stood in
dread of her husband, Petronilla soon learned, and even began to share
this dread, to shrink from his presence, and to shut herself up more
and more closely in her own chamber.
There was another, too, who grew to be troubled about this time, and
that was Father Carey. The good-natured, easy priest received with joy
and thankfulness the news that Ferdinand Cludde had seen his errors
and re-entered the fold. But when he had had two or three interviews
with the convert, his brow, too, grew clouded, and his mind troubled.
He learned to see that the accession of the young Protestant queen
must bear fruit for which he had a poor appetite. He began to spend
many hours in the church--the church which he had known all his
life--and wrestled much with himself--if his face were any index to
his soul. Good, kindly man, he was not of the stuff of which martyrs
are made; and to be forced, pushed on, and goaded into becoming a
martyr against one's will--well, the Father's position was a hard one.
As was that in those days of many a good and learned clergyman bred in
one church, and bidden suddenly, on pain of losing his livelihood, if
not his life, to migrate to another.
The visitors had been in the house a month--and in that month an
observant eye might have noted much change, though all things in
seeming went on as before--when the queen's orders enjoining all
priests to read the service, or a great part of it, in English, came
down, being forwarded by the sheriff to Father Carey. The missive
arrived on a Friday, and had been indeed long expected.
"What shall you do?" Ferdinand asked Sir Anthony.
"As before!" the tall old man replied, gripping his staff more firmly.
It was no new subject between them. A hundred times they had discussed
it already, even as they were now discussing it on the terrace by the
fish-pool, with the church which adjoins the house full in view across
the garden. "I will have no mushroom faith at Coton End," the knight
continued warmly. "It sprang up under King Henry, and how long did it
last? A year or two. It came in again under King Edward, and how long
did it last? A year or two. So it will be again. It will not last,
Ferdinand."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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