CHAPTER I.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 14, 6 April 1899, Page 23

CHAPTER I.

The evening sun falls on the orange trees in our inner quadrangle surrounded by its arched verandah— falls through the narrow pane' of my withdrawing room, and gleams upon the silver outlines of my beloved Crucifix. I, Donna Maria de Escorval, am an old woman now ; but as I look at it, the faithful companion of so many years my youth rises before me again. In the swift falling of the Spanish twilight, I see myself once more, no longer as Donna Maria, with ruff, stiff satin bodice, and puffed sleeves, but as simple Mistress May Etchingham, of Liddon Hall, Sussex— in plain woollen gown, and white cross-over of somewhat Puritan cut. I mind me well as I sit and dream of my sixteenth birthday, the morning when I first saw the Crucifix. It was in the summer of lf>Sß, when the quiet of the old gabled Manor was disturbed by the return of my father and brother, who, with all the men on our estate, had ridden post-haste into Rye a week before to man the ships hastily there, and to measure swords with the redoubtable Spaniard, to defend our country against the dreaded Armada. In those days and along that ■coast every man was a soldier and a sailor, and my father kept his own ship at Rye, in which he delighted to sail forth on a cruise against pirates, the French enemy, to help out of the country a poor persecuted priest, or a hated Jesuit. This he did from no religious .motive, for in those days many men knew not what to think. ° The .enforced religion of Queen Bess did not suit his mind, which was ■ever too stiff -necked to take his creed from a woman, although he had never practised the old faith of our fathers, my grandfather being somewhat faint-hearted in his adherence to Rome, when the frown of stern Henry bid him look to his own neck ! And yet my father would never have me taught the new religion, although I had sometimes been to the little desecrated church, where Master Blackgown thumped the pulpit, and lauded the Queen as if she were some goddesi. Dame Dorothy indeed insisted perforce on my going with her, when I was a child, once a month to the church and by bo doing escape the fine which the Queen imposed for nonattendance. Dame Dorothy was our housekeeper, for my mother was long since dead — a humble Catholic as I learned long afterwards — but Dame Dorothy kept under lock and key all her books and objects of devotion, so it came to pass I had never seen a crucifix until that stormy morning when my father and Francis clattered into our courtyard with shouts of victory, and the men at their back laden with spoil from the Spanish ships. ' Here, Moll,' quoth my father, • here be line gowns for thee. rich brocades and stuffs from the Spanish galleons !' And as my brother leaped from his horse he threw into my arms a silver chain to which was attached an ebony crucifix bound and adorned with silver. ' Take this trophy, little maid : I tore it from the Spaniard in hard fight ; the knave fought gallantly, forsooth, a handsome knight, but we wrestled on the ship s eJge and 1 hurled him into the sea. snatching the silver gaud round his neck as a prize for thee ! And many other line things shalt thou have little Moll. 1

They were wild with excitement, nor could 1 gather clearly for some time the particular* of tlut terrible light and overthrow, now matter of history. Although 1 have been brought up amidst'wars and fighting, yet 1 m,\r\ellcd on that morning at the strange lo\eof combat, that Jire (.1 buttle and blood and .slaughter that burns m men's breasts, ever incomprehensible to a maid ! As 1 held the Crucifix silently in my hand. 1 pitied the knight who had worn and valued it. and had met a watery giave as it seemed. The tables were laid quickly in our great hall, Dame Dorothy and the sen ing men and wenches bustled about, and i stood silently watching the turmoil until they were seated, when my father kissed my check tenderly, and paid . ' This is no place for thee. httlu maid ; hie to thy sitting-room, for the men aie mad with \ ictory.' Truly, my lather was a nio-t g.illant gentleman under his rough, war-like exterior, I ever thou^nt. mid always nnndiulut me ! May God forgne his want of religion, which was chieily ignorance, for a truer heart never beat.

I hurried to the o.ik chamber at the end of the west gallery, which was for my own particular use, and w hero I hoarded my lew treasures. 1 examined carefully the curiuiis workmanship of tne chain and cross, while the distant sound of revel, the clash of -sword, and drinking- songs echoed lrom below (tertrs, the English were ever hard fighters and drinkers, methinks). A strange fascination, almost awe, riveted my eyes to the beautifully moulded figure of Christ on the face of the ebony cross. At its base were a skull and cross-bones in silver, and at the back a crown of thorns, and the implements of the Passion, most curiously wrought. Long I gazed at it, till the tears filled my eyes at the thought of that cruel death which Dame Dorothy had read to me irom her Bible, and which was all I knew of religion. All ! but how much ! Truly one can meditate a long time on the cross and the five wounds. Tnen, looking tremblingly round to see that none observed me. I softly kissed the Crucifix over and o\er again. 1 then hung it from a nail in the oak panel, from which was suspended a small portrait of my mother, so that the chain came round the frame. I was contemplating my two treasures with delight, as the light tell through the open latticed window on them, when Dame Dorothy's shadow crossed the threshold. Jso sooner did she see my occupation, than her prim, stern face, framed in its white, round stiff cap, assumed a yet sterner expression, and one even of alarm, as it seemed to me.

'Child,' aaid she, 'what art thou doing, worshipping that Popish gaud! I marvel at thee. Master Ulackgown would tell thee, " Thou shalt make to thyself no graven image." And what, prithee, is this but idolatry ? Moreover, child.' and she sunk her voice in an ominous whisper, 'were her Majesty's informers to see

that gaud in Liddon Hall, penalties, perhaps confiscation would befall us, and suspicion of favouring the Queen's enemies. GiTe me the thing, and I will lock it in thy mother's chest ' Tears of anger stook in mine eyes, and for thp firaf f;™ t rebelled against Dame Dorothy's authority. ' The cross SmS' f exclaimed, 'no one shall touch it,' for sle would have S S' it Some new expression in my eye surprised the old woman I kne w that she loved me, and her thought was to shield me from the dangers of the times. 'It is Sir Lionel's fault ' m,,™^ / v <T would not let Master Blackgown teach iS tL^ZS? r' and these arc no tine- to trifle : danger Si conS Tf it * t)™' louder: 'There haye already been rumonw that thy father h-s incurred suspicion of disloyalty by helping Jon .skulkiL ™ vi L to escape. It is not without purpose that I have look2 t»JZ* L mother's trinkets and now thou flattest this "da^So % we ? Give me the trinket, dear mistress. Dost wish to sw fhv fnfif one of her Majesty's dungeons ? ' See thy father in She spoke almost persuasively, but her words sppitia,? t^ ™ wild and needless fears, though I have since learnp^h f T F feared was but too true : that°there were £ forme™^ w ! ? * he seeking to earn money by denouncing suspend persons' £T Secretary Cecil, and that the alarm of the Snaniah inv^w i the tear of a Catholic rising all over the coXy ln unfon 'with them, had rendered the Queen and her menials mor alert and eager to punish. Suspicion was equal to proof in thcZ l i times But of this I heard little in my quieFEmc wher Iw"I w" guarded with jealous care. I was a little moved, howevex by the Dames fears, and more by her unwonted ir^n^l* V y-7y -7 'Well, Dame,l will hide i^ myself . and 'no IS^Te^ Llf T promise thee.' With this she was content, perforce and I put the cross round my neck under my gown, fastening the brokra link which showed with what violence it had been torn fZa ' knight. After this I often thought of him Tnd'he cha^seeS a kind of link with his memory. I pra yed that God woSld ™m fort his poor mother for his death, and as I often l read l on thl tombstones the prayers for the departed, which taught me what no one else had. 'May God rest his soul!" I cried^ and then fel? happier at possessing the relic. leit

• f :J^ llasterl laster Black ?° w n shall never teach me his reli gion, for methmks he seems to worship the Queen more than God Ihe snivelling turncoat, as my foiher would call him under his breath lor it was known that he was once the chaplata of my Lord D— - but that he ' reformed ' his faith at the beck of the imperious Queen, and informed upon his late patron, betraying his secrets, so that Lord D s head soon lay on the block So time passed in fasting after the victory, and recounting hair-breadth adventures, and the glorious riiikin/of so many h£S galleon,, pursued by the little English vessel ; and how myfother and the Kye ships had pursued the enemy U p the channel and round the south coast. Then came Queen Elizabeth in person^ thank her hege subjects of Rye for their brave and tinelyassiv couiage and nun command-, han as a woman. And truly as r looked from the latt.re of the old inn upon the royal countenance us .he pn.sc.l. wreathed n. sn.ilc, affectedly offering her small haivl (of winch she v>as mighty proud) to the populate to k"£ I thouyhL I had never ,u-n a harder or more feuVsome countenance on a woman s faco. although udl favoured. There too stood Jl*bt.r BLckgown, with tin clergy of Rye, outtyinTW^onc in his iulsouio and t,rmgui» adulation of his royal deity 1 saw my father's lip curl with unspoken scorn, as he rode past him for truiy he could not abide the man. 'Be a gooYand puie nuuden, as thy mother was, sweet Moll, and <ay thy prayer" • that, i, all the religion I can o jvcj ye thee.' would my lather sL to Se in hi, serious moments • that villum shall never teach thee any! Hunt-, for my lather had a chivalrou* belief m woman's natural innocence uluch as to him as a kmd of religion in thote rou-h nuts. It was a trace ..t hi. «le< p ]o\t- for my ,Uad mother who "as he said, -n.l, the only saint he knew of.' So Master Bluckuown ul'y set loot in our hall, and I grew np, carefully guarded iwm all knowledge ot evil, with the bird- and the llowei. in our old garden set with prim hedges of cut yew. Ah! but the scent of the LnjUi.h rose.-, comes back to me, and the Mnell of The oramn>Madrid UP ° U m '° tIUS summer « vtu ">« that I sit dreaming^n Bui the crucifix ! Well, among all the treasures that my father and mother gave me from the Spanish galleons. I valued most the crucifix, which lay concealed on my bosom for so many months in that Lnj-lish home, and little recked I then that, like a ma-ie tollman, it would change my whole life.