Page:Once a Week June to Dec 1863.pdf/532

522 calamity had lately become more heavy and threatening, by the accession of a Romish king, it was truly a day of humiliation to the most advanced Reformers.

One member of the family was, however, in a mood of high exhilaration. Joanna had had a present thus early on this dismal day. When she came to the breakfast-table, she had a book in her hand; and this explained her timid glance at her father.

“Come hither, child!” said the Lady Alice, “I have told thy father that I have brought thee a book. Come and show it him.”

The Squire’s grave face looked graver still when he found it was a story-book, and that his little daughter was already full of the earliest adventures in it. But Madam Lisle’s opinion had much weight with him; and when he found that the intent was holy, and the story about holy things, he made no remonstrance. The case seemed quite altered when he further learned that the writer was a sufferer for the Cause, being even then in Bedford jail, using every occasion for testifying, even as he had testified in his book. The oddest thing was, that Elizabeth was the person in the whole house best acquainted with the name of John Bunyan. In fact, she had a strong wish to read a book which had spread all over the country, but which she had hardly hoped to lay hands on. It was not a book which could be permitted at the High Sheriff’s.

The fasting was scarcely perceptible, for the young people were desired to eat of what was set before them; and the children, while growing, were never allowed to fast at all. The grace was long and solemn, but the conversation was cheerful. It was expected that nobody should go beyond the gate this day; and that nobody should appear at any window when the procession went by. Beyond this there was no restraint. What prayers there might be in closets when the door was shut, there was no knowing; but in the sitting-rooms and the grounds the day was like a bright spring Sunday. So it seemed up to the time of the passage of the procession.

With the first sound of the trumpets and the shouts approaching from below, the family retired to the back-rooms, so as to see nothing of the really pretty spectacle of the oak houghs and garlands of spring flowers, and the flags, or of the platform on which figures represented King Charles and his brother, led by the hand by a bishop and a very grand nobleman, the group being completed by a donkey in a skull-cap, gown, and bands, and the devil in the mask and dress of the Protector, who was overthrown and trampled upon every two or three minutes. The mayor and corporation led the way with great zeal; and it was decidedly the voice of Mr. Gregory Alford, the mayor, which called a halt before the Squire’s gate.

It seemed a long halt to those who heard the jeering laughs of the crowd, and were aware that the merriment was provoked by insults to themselves; but the composure of the elders had its effect on the young people, and their agitation showed itself at last only in the general exclamation—“There! they are gone!”—when the cavalcade had accomplished turning round in the narrow road, and the rough music had died away down the hill. When Nurse came in to say that nobody was in sight, mother, daughters, and guests went forth into the shrubbery, and the boys to the bowling-green to refresh their spirits. There they quietly walked, sat in the sun, played, put a bunch of white lilac in Madam Lisle’s stomacher, and played ball with Guelder-roses, little imagining what was going on within doors.

When they went into the house they found a party of constables, and very ill-behaved constables, in possession. They must have watched the moment of the household being out of doors to demand entrance. They at once obtained it, as they would have done at any other hour. Their object was to search for a traitor, of whom they had information that he was hidden in the mansion. After having gone over the whole house, looking behind all the curtains, and under all the beds, and knocking down a good deal of plaster and dust by hammering with a mallet at the ceilings and the walls, from the cellar to the rafters, they condescended to answer the question—who it was that they were in search of. They were charged to arrest one Emmanuel Florien, who stood accused of treason.

“What! our tutor?” exclaimed the boys.

“You hear!” the leader of the party observed to his subordinates, very ominously.

“Why, Mr. Markland!” said Anthony, “that is no news to you. You know our tutor very well. We bought my last fishing-rod at your shop; and you yourself showed M. Florien what you called the cupboard in the butt-end.”

“You hear him called the tutor,” repeated the solemn Mr. Markland. “We shall find out next what he has taught these young plotters. The main point is, however, where the fellow is.”

This was what nobody in the house could tell. M. Florien had gone abroad in February, as for a temporary absence. He had written a few lines on his landing in France—

Where was that letter?

It was in the Squire’s desk; and, being produced, was found to tell nothing but that the writer had had a safe voyage. There was something in the look of it which persuaded Mr. Markland and his posse that M. Florien was now in the house; and again they went all over it, making a most vexatious disorder wherever they went, and ransacking every hole and corner for papers. All the clothes of the family were left on the floor, with the bedding on the top of them; the men grew cross, and became mischievous,—broke the mirrors, spoiled David’s new knife by trying to wrench open a lock, though the key was proffered, and were on the point of opening and reading a packet of letters found in Elizabeth’s dressing-box, when she quietly observed that those letters were the property of the High Sheriff of Dorsetshire, when they dropped the packet as if it had burned their fingers. Finally, they turned upon poor little Joanna, who was sitting on a low stool, reading her new book, with her hands at her ears. She was startled by one of the constables taking the volume from her knees and handing it to his superior, as desired.