For one whole
month in the summer there had been a visitor at the house--a cousin of
old Mr. Manners, it was understood; and, except for the Catholics in
the place, not a soul knew him for a priest, against whom the hue and
cry still raged in York.
Derbyshire, indeed, had done well for the old Religion. Man after man
went in these years southwards and was heard of no more, till there came
back one day a gentleman riding alone, or with his servant; and it
became known that one more Derbyshire man was come again to his own
place to minister to God's people. Mr. Ralph Sherwine was one of them;
Mr. Christopher Buxton another; and Mr. Ludlam and Mr. Garlick, it was
rumoured, would not be long now.... And there had been a wonderful
cessation of trouble, too. Not a priest had suffered since the two, the
news of whose death she had heard two years ago.
* * * * *
Marjorie, then, sitting quiet over the fire that burned now all the
winter in her mother's room, was thinking over these things.
She had had more news from London from time to time, sent on to her
chiefly by Mr. Babington, though none had come to her since the summer,
and she had singled out in particular all that bore upon Father Campion.
There was no doubt that the hunt was hotter every month; yet he seemed
to bear a charmed life. Once he had escaped, she had heard, through the
quick wit of a servant-maid, who had pushed him suddenly into a
horse-pond, as the officers actually came in sight, so that he came out
all mud and water-weed; and had been jeered at for a clumsy lover by the
very men who were on his trail.
Pages:
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204