LONG AGO STORIES

Taranaki Daily News, 17 August 1935, Page 18 (Supplement)

LONG AGO STORIES

SYBILLA ON TENTERHOOKS. Sybilla was an English weaver’s daughter and it was her business to tenter the cloth which her father wove. They were employed mostly at farms for the good wives were often too busy in spring to weave the yarn they had spun during winter—and they stayed at each farm till their work was done. All day long they forked in barns, and when the cloth was woven Sybilla stretched it on hooks which went through the selvedges. This way of stretching cloth is so ancient that the word tent, which means stretched, came from it. Once Sybilla and her father went weaving at a farm full of Cromwells soldiers, and a strange thing happened. A young Cavalier burst into the bam in broad daylight and hailed Sybilla and her father as loyal servants of the King. They were terrified. “I must have a horse—money to buy a horse,” he whispered. “Surely you will lend your earnings to the King! I will give you a bond for your money and when the Kin.' returns to his own he will repay you. You are rich coinpared with him or with me.” So great was the loyalty of Sybilla and her father that they gave their earnings to the Cavalier, and he wrote out a bond in Sybilla’s name. Then three of Cromwell’s Soldiers strolled to the barn to watch the weaving, and the young Cavalier only just had time to hide behind the tentered cloth. The soldiers chatted to Sybilla and she answered brightly while sha threw her kerchief carelessly over the bond which was on the bench, then pulled, smoothed, and stretched the cloth on the hooks. But her anxiety was such that she felt that she was on tenterhooks herself, stretched to the uttermost. At last the

soldiers went away and the young man crept out of hiding. “I have been on tenterhooks myself this last hour,” murmured Sybilla. "So have I," replied the young map. “Stretched like a tent on them! I thank you, maiden. Goodbye." He slipped away, and Sybilla never saw him again. It was ten years later when King Charles II returned to England, and by then the wars had made Sybilla so poor that she had nothing left but her bond. She walked to London and waited tor the King in Pall Mall, tor he spoke freely with the people and refusdfi to have a body guard. When she saw hitn coming along the street she fell on her knees and presented the bond. ; And the King paid her double and made her toll him the story <sf how she had been oft tenterhooks tor one anxious hour.. , ,