Grisly Grisell; Or, The Laidly Lady of Whitburn: A Tale of the Wars of the Roses

“May I not guard you on your way, lady?” said Pierce.

“Best not, sir,” returned Ridley; “best not know whither she is gone.  I shall be back again before I am missed or your rogues are stirring.”

“When Sir Leonard knows of their devices, lady,” said Pierce, “then will Ridley tell him where to find you and bring you back in all honour.”

Grisell could only sigh, and try to speak her thanks to the young man, who kissed her hand, and stood watching her and Ridley as the waning moon lighted them over the glistening sands, till they sought the friendly shadows of the cliffs.  And thus Grisell Dacre parted from the home of her fathers.

“Cuthbert,” she said, “should you see Sir Leonard, let him know that if—if he would be free from any bond to me I will aid in breaking it, and ask only dowry enough to obtain entrance to a convent, while he weds the lady he loves.”

Ridley interrupted her with imprecations on the knight, and exhortations to her to hold her own, and not abandon her rights.  “If he keep the lands, he should keep the wife,” was his cry.

“His word and heart—” began Grisell.

“Folly, my wench.  No question but she is bestowed on some one else.  You do not want to be quit of him and be mewed in a nunnery.”

“I only crave to hide my head and not be the bane of his life.”

“Pshaw!  You have seen for yourself.  Once get over the first glance and you are worth the fairest dame that ever was jousted for in the lists.  Send him at least a message as though it were not your will to cast him off.”

“If you will have it so, then,” said Grisell, “tell him that if it be his desire, I will strive to make him a true, loyal, and loving wife.”

The last words came with a sob, and Ridley gave a little inward chuckle, as of one who suspected that the duties of the good and loving wife would not be unwillingly undertaken.

Castle-bred ladies were not much given to long walks, and though the distance was only two miles, it was a good deal for Grisell, and she plodded on wearily, to the sound of the lap of the sea and the cries of the gulls.  The caverns of the rock looked very black and gloomy, and she clung to Ridley, almost expecting something to spring out on her; but all was still, and the pale eastward light began to be seen over the sea before they turned away from it to ascend to the scattered houses of the little rising town.

The bells of the convent had begun to ring for lauds, but it was only twilight when they reached the wall of Lambert’s garden of herbs, where there was a little door that yielded to Ridley’s push.  The house was still closed, and hoar frost lay on the leaves, but Grisell proposed to hide herself in the little shed which served the purpose of tool-house and summer-house till she could make her entrance.  She felt sure of a welcome, and almost constrained Cuthbert to leave her, so as to return to the Tower early enough to avert suspicion—an easier matter as the men-at-arms were given to sleeping as late as they could.  He would make an errand to the Apothecary’s as soon as he could, so as to bring intelligence.

There sat Grisell, looking out on the brightening sky, while the blackbirds and thrushes were bursting into song, and sweet odours rising from the spring buds of the aromatic plants around, and a morning bell rang from the great monastery church.  With that she saw the house door open, and Master Lambert in a fur cap and gown turned up with lambs’-wool come out into the garden, basket in hand, and chirp to the birds to come down and be fed.

It was pretty to see how the mavis and the merle, the sparrow, chaffinch, robin, and tit fluttered round, and Grisell waited a moment to watch them before she stepped forth and said, “Ah!  Master Groot, here is another poor bird to implore your bounty.”

“Lady Grisell,” he cried, with a start.

“Ah! not that name,” she said; “not a word.  O Master Lambert, I came by night; none have seen me, none but good Cuthbert Ridley ken where I am.  There can be no peril to you or yours if you will give shelter for a little while to a poor maid.”

“Dear lady, we will do all we can,” returned Lambert.  “Fear not.  How pale you are.  You have walked all night!  Come and rest.  None will follow.  You are sore spent!  Clemence shall bring you a warm drink!  Condescend, dear lady,” and he made her lean on his arm, and brought her into his large living room, and placed her in the comfortable cross-legged chair with straps and cushions as a back, while he went into some back settlement to inform his wife of her visitor; and presently they brought her warm water, with some refreshing perfume, in a brass basin, and he knelt on one knee to hold it to her, while she bathed her face and hands with a sponge—a rare luxury.  She started at every sound, but Lambert assured her that she was safe, as no one ever came beyond the booth.  His Clemence had no gossips, and the garden could not be overlooked.  While some broth was heated for her she began to explain her peril, but he exclaimed, “Methinks I know, lady, if it was thereanent that a great strapping Hollander fellow from your Tower came to ask me for a charm against gramarie, with hints that ’twas in high places.  ’Twas enough to make one laugh to see the big lubber try to whisper hints, and shiver and shake, as he showed me a knot in his matted locks and asked if it were not the enemy’s tying.  I told him ’twas tied by the enemy indeed, the deadly sin of sloth, and that a stout Dutchman ought to be ashamed of himself for carrying such a head within or without.  But I scarce bethought me the impudent Schelm could have thought of you, lady.”

“Hush again.  Forget the word!  They are gone to Shields in search of the witch-finder, to pinch me, and probe me, and drown me, or burn me,” cried Grisell, clasping her hands.  “Oh! take me somewhere if you cannot safely hide me; I would not bring trouble on you!”

“You need not fear,” he answered.  “None will enter here but by my goodwill, and I will bar the garden door lest any idle lad should pry in; but they come not here.  The tortoise who crawls about in the summer fills them with too much terror for them to venture, and is better than any watch-dog.  Now, let me touch your pulse.  Ah!  I would prescribe lying down on the bed and resting for the day.”

She complied, and Clemence took her to the upper floor, where it was the pride of the Flemish housewife to keep a guest-chamber, absolutely neat, though very little furnished, and indeed seldom or never used; but she solicitously stroked the big bed, and signed to Grisell to lie down in the midst of pillows of down, above and below, taking off her hood, mantle, and shoes, and smoothing her down with nods and sweet smiles, so that she fell sound asleep.

When she awoke the sun was at the meridian, and she came down to the noontide meal.  Master Groot was looking much entertained.

Wearmouth, he said, was in a commotion.  The great Dutch Whitburn man-at-arms had come in full of the wonderful story.  Not only had the grisly lady vanished, but a cross-bow man had shot an enormous hare on the moor, a creature with one ear torn off, and a seam on its face, and Masters Hardcastle and Ridley altogether favoured the belief that it was the sorceress herself without time to change her shape.  Did Mynheer Groot hold with them?

For though Dutch and Flemings were not wholly friendly at home, yet in a strange country they held together, and remembered that they were both Netherlanders, and Hannekin would fain know what thought the wise man.

“Depend on it, there was no time for a change,” gravely said Groot.  “Have not Nostradamus, Albertus Magnus, and Rogerus Bacon” (he was heaping names together as he saw Hannekin’s big gray eyes grow rounder and rounder) “all averred that the great Diabolus can give his minions power to change themselves at will into hares, cats, or toads to transport themselves to the Sabbath on Walpurgs’ night?”

“You deem it in sooth,” said the Dutchman, “for know you that the parish priest swears, and so do the more part of the villein fisher folk, that there’s no sorcery in the matter, but that she is a true and holy maid, with no powers save what the Saints had given her, and that her cures were by skill.  Yet such was scarce like to a mere Jungvrow.”

It went sorely against Master Lambert’s feelings, as well as somewhat against his conscience, to encourage the notion of the death of his guest as a hare, though it ensured her safety and prevented a search.  He replied that her skill certainly was uncommon in a Jungvrow, beyond nature, no doubt, and if they were unholy, it was well that the arblaster had made a riddance of her.

“By the same token,” added Hannekin, “the elf lock came out of my hair this very morn, I having, as you bade me, combed it each morn with the horse’s currycomb.”

Proof positive, as Lambert was glad to allow him to believe.  And the next day all Sunderland and the two Wearmouths believed that the dead hare had shrieked in a human voice on being thrown on a fire, and had actually shown the hands and feet of a woman before it was consumed.

It was all the safer for Grisell as long as she was not recognised, and of this there was little danger.  She was scarcely known in Wearmouth, and could go to mass at the Abbey Church in a deep black hood and veil.  Master Lambert sometimes received pilgrims from his own country on their way to English shrines, and she could easily pass for one of these if her presence were perceived, but except to mass in very early morning, she never went beyond the garden, where the spring beauty was enjoyment to her in the midst of her loneliness and entire doubt as to her future.

It was a grand old church, too, with low-browed arches, reminding her of the dear old chapel of Wilton, and with a lofty though undecorated square tower, entered by an archway adorned with curious twisted snakes with long beaks, stretching over and under one another.

The low heavy columns, the round circles, and the small windows, casting a very dim religious light, gave Grisell a sense of being in the atmosphere of that best beloved place, Wilton Abbey.  She longed after Sister Avice’s wisdom and tenderness, and wondered whether her lands would purchase from her knight, power to return thither with dower enough to satisfy the demands of the Proctor.  It was a hope that seemed like an inlet of light in her loneliness, when no one was faithful save Cuthbert Ridley, and she felt cut to the heart above all by Thora’s defection and cruel accusations, not knowing that half was owning to the intoxication of love, and the other half to a gossiping tongue.

CHAPTER XX

A BLIGHT ON THE WHITE ROSE

Witness Aire’s unhappy waterWhere the ruthless Clifford fell,And when Wharfe ran red with slaughterOn the day of Towton’s field.Gathering in its guilty floodThe carnage and the ill spilt bloodThat forty thousand lives could yield.Southey, Funeral Song of Princess Charlotte.

Grisell from the first took her part in the Apothecary’s household.  Occupation was a boon to her, and she not only spun and made lace with Clemence, but showed her new patterns learned in old days at Wilton; and still more did she enjoy assisting the master of the house in making his compounds, learning new nostrums herself, and imparting others to him, showing a delicacy of finger which the old Fleming could not emulate.  In the fabrication of perfumes for the pouncet box, and sweetmeats prepared with honey and sugar, she proved to have a dainty hand, so that Lambert, who would not touch her jewels, declared that she was fully earning her maintenance by the assistance that she gave to him.

They were not molested by the war, which was decidedly a war of battles, not of sieges, but they heard far more of tidings than were wont to reach Whitburn Tower.  They knew of the advance of Edward to London; and the terrible battle of Towton begun, was fought out while the snow fell far from bloodless, on Palm Sunday; and while the choir boys had been singing their Gloria, laus et honor in the gallery over the church door, shivering a little at the untimely blast, there had been grim and awful work, when for miles around the Wharfe and Aire the snow lay mixed with blood.  That the Yorkists had gained was known, and that the Queen and Prince had fled; but nothing was heard of the fate of individuals, and Master Lambert was much occupied with tidings from Bruges, whence information came, in a messenger sent by a notary that his uncle, an old miser, whose harsh displeasure at his marriage had driven him forth, was just dead, leaving him heir to a fairly prosperous business and a house in the city.

To return thither was of course Lambert’s intention as soon as he could dispose of his English property.  He entreated Grisell to accompany him and Clemence, assuming her that at the chief city of so great a prince as Duke Philip of Burgundy, she would have a better hope of hearing tidings of her husband than in a remote town like Sunderland; and that if she still wished to dispose of her jewels she would have a far better chance of so doing.  He was arguing the point with her, when there was a voice in the stall outside which made Grisell start, and Lambert, going out, brought in Cuthbert Ridley, staggering under the weight of his best suit of armour, and with a bundle and bag under his mantle.

Grisell sprang up eagerly to meet him, but as she put her hands into his he looked sorrowfully at her, and she asked under her breath, “Ah!  Sir Leonard—?”

“No tidings of the recreant,” growled Ridley, “but ill tidings for both of you.  The Dacres of Gilsland are on us, claiming your castle and lands as male heirs to your father.”

“Do they know that I live?” asked Grisell, “or”—unable to control a little laugh—“do they deem that I was slain in the shape of a hare?”

“Or better than that,” put in Lambert; “they have it now in the wharves that the corpse of the hare took the shape and hands of a woman when in the hall.”

“I ken not, the long-tongued rogues,” said Ridley; “but if my young lady were standing living and life-like before them as, thank St. Hilda, I see her now, they would claim it all the more as male heirs, and this new King Edward has granted old Sir John seisin, being that she is the wife of one of King Henry’s men!”

“Are they there?  How did you escape?”

“I got timely notice,” said Cuthbert.  “Twenty strong halted over the night at Yeoman Kester’s farm on Heather Gill—a fellow that would do anything for me since we fought side by side on the day of the Herrings.  So he sends out his two grandsons to tell me what they were after, while they were drinking his good ale to health of their King Edward.  So forewarned, forearmed.  We have left them empty walls, get in as they can or may—unless that traitor Tordu chooses to stay and make terms with them.”

“Master Hardcastle!  Would he fly?  Surely not!” asked Grisell.

“Master Hardcastle, with Dutch Hannekin and some of the better sort, went off long since to join their knight’s banner, and the Saints know how the poor young lad sped in all the bloody work they have had.  For my part, I felt not bound to hold out the castle against my old lord’s side, when there was no saving it for you, so I put what belonged to me together, and took poor old Roan, and my young lady’s pony, and made my way hither, no one letting me.  I doubt me much, lady, that there is little hope of winning back your lands, whatever side may be uppermost, yet there be true hearts among our villeins, who say they will never pay dues to any save their lord’s daughter.”

“Then I am landless and homeless,” sighed Grisell.

“The greater cause that you should make your home with us, lady,” returned Lambert Groot; and he went on to lay before Ridley the state of the case, and his own plans.  House and business, possibly a seat in the city council, were waiting for him at Bruges, and the vessel from Ostend which had continually brought him supplies for his traffic was daily expected.  He intended, so soon as she had made up her cargo of wool, to return in her to his native country, and he was urgent that the Lady Grisell should go with him, representing that all the changes of fortune in the convulsed kingdom of England were sure to be quickly known there, and that she was as near the centre of action in Flanders as in Durham, besides that she would be out of reach of any enemies who might disbelieve the hare transformation.

After learning the fate of her castle, Grisell much inclined to the proposal which kept her with those whom she had learnt to trust and love, and she knew that she need be no burthen to them, since she had profitable skill in their own craft, and besides she had her jewels.  Ridley, moreover, gave her hopes of a certain portion of her dues on the herring-boats and the wool.

“Will not you come with the lady, sir?” asked Lambert.

“Oh, come!” cried Grisell.

“Nay, a squire of dames hath scarce been heard of in a Poticar’s shop,” said Ridley, and there was an irresistible laugh at the rugged old gentleman so terming himself; but as Lambert and Grisell were both about to speak he went on, “I can serve her better elsewhere.  I am going first to my home at Willimoteswick.  I have not seen it these forty year, and whether my brother or my nephew make me welcome or no, I shall have seen the old moors and mosses.  Then methought I would come hither, or to some of the towns about, and see how it fares with the old Tower and the folk; and if they be as good as their word, and keep their dues for my lady, I could gather them, and take or bring them to her, with any other matter which might concern her nearly.”

This was thoroughly approved by Grisell’s little council, and Lambert undertook to make known to the good esquire the best means of communication, whether in person, or by the transmission of payments, since all the eastern ports of England had connections with Dutch and Flemish traffic, which made the payment of monies possible.

Grisell meantime was asking for Thora.  Her uncle, Ridley said, had come up, laid hands on her, and soundly scourged her for her foul practices.  He had dragged her home, and when Ralph Hart had come after her, had threatened him with a quarter-staff, called out a mob of fishermen, and finally had brought him to Sir Lucas, who married them willy-nilly.  He was the runaway son of a currier in York, and had taken her en croupe, and ridden off to his parents at the sign of the Hart, to bespeak their favour.

Grisell grieved deeply over Thora’s ingratitude to her, and the two elder men foreboded no favourable reception for the pair, and hoped that Thora would sup sorrow.

Ridley spent the night at the sign of tire Green Serpent, and before he set out for Willimoteswick, he confided to Master Groot a bag containing a silver cup or two, and a variety of coins, mostly French.  They were, he said, spoils of his wars under King Harry the Fifth and the two Lord Salisburys, which he had never had occasion to spend, and he desired that they might be laid out on the Lady Grisell in case of need, leaving her to think they were the dues from her faithful tenantry.  To the Hausvrow Clemence it was a great grief to leave the peaceful home of her married life, and go among kindred who had shown their scorn in neglect and cold looks; but she kept a cheerful face for her husband, and only shed tears over the budding roses and other plants she had to leave; and she made her guest understand how great a comfort and solace was her company.

CHAPTER XXI

THE WOUNDED KNIGHT

Belted Will Howard is marching here,And hot Lord Dacre with many a spearScott, The Lay of the Last Minstrel.

“Master Groot, a word with you.”  A lay brother in the coarse, dark robe of St. Benedict was standing in the booth of the Green Serpent.

Groot knew him for Brother Christopher of Monks Wearmouth, and touched his brow in recognition.

“Have you here any balsam fit for a plaguey shot with an arquebuss, the like of which our poor peaceful house never looked to harbour?”

“For whom is it needed, good brother?”

“Best not ask,” said Brother Christopher, who was, however, an inveterate gossip, and went on in reply to Lambert’s question as to the place of the wound.  “In the shoulder is the worst, the bullet wound where the Brother Infirmarer has poured in hot oil.  St. Bede!  How the poor knight howled, though he tried to stop it, and brought it down to moaning.  His leg is broken beside, but we could deal with that.  His horse went down with him, you see, when he was overtaken and shot down by the Gilsland folk.”

“The Gilsland folk!”

“Even so, poor lad; and he was only on his way to see after his own, or his wife’s, since all the Whitburn sons are at an end, and the Tower gone to the spindle side.  They say, too, that the damsel he wedded perforce was given to magic, and fled in form of a hare.  But be that as it will, young Copeland—St. Bede, pardon me!  What have I let out?”

“Reck not of that, brother.  The tale is all over the town.  How of Copeland?”

“As I said even now, he was on his way to the Tower, when the Dacres—Will and Harry—fell on him, and left him for dead; but by the Saints’ good providence, his squire and groom put him on a horse, and brought him to our Abbey at night, knowing that he is kin to our Sub-Prior.  And there he lies, whether for life or death only Heaven knows, but for death it will be if only King Edward gets a scent of him; so hold your peace, Master Groats, as to who it be, as you live, or as you would not have his blood on you.”

Master Groats promised silence, and gave numerous directions as to the application of his medicaments, and Brother Kit took his leave, reiterating assurances that Sir Leonard’s life depended on his secrecy.

Whatever was said in the booth was plainly audible in the inner room.  Grisell and Clemence were packing linen, and the little shutter of the wooden partition was open.  Thus Lambert found Grisell standing with clasped hands, and a face of intense attention and suspense.

“You have heard, lady,” he said.

“Oh, yea, yea!  Alas, poor Leonard!” she cried.

“The Saints grant him recovery.”

“Methought you would be glad to hear you were like to be free from such a yoke.  Were you rid of him, you, of a Yorkist house, might win back your lands, above all, since, as you once told me, you were a playmate of the King’s sister.”

“Ah! dear master, speak not so!  Think of him! treacherously wounded, and lying moaning.  That gruesome oil!  Oh! my poor Leonard!” and she burst into tears.  “So fair, and comely, and young, thus stricken down!”

“Bah!” exclaimed Lambert.  “Such are women!  One would think she loved him, who flouted her!”

“I cannot brook the thought of his lying there in sore pain and dolour, he who has had so sad a life, baulked of his true love.”

Master Lambert could only hold up his hands at the perversity of womankind, and declare to his Clemence that he verily believed that had the knight been a true and devoted Tristram himself, ever at her feet, the lady could not have been so sore troubled.

The next day brought Brother Kit back with an earnest request from the Infirmarer and the Sub-Prior that “Master Groats” would come to the monastery, and give them the benefit of his advice on the wounds and the fever which was setting in, since gun-shot wounds were beyond the scope of the monastic surgery.

To refuse would not have been possible, even without the earnest entreaty of Grisell; and Lambert, who had that medical instinct which no training can supply, went on his way with the lay brother.

He came back after many hours, sorely perturbed by the request that had been made to him.  Sir Leonard, he said, was indeed sick nigh unto death, grievously hurt, and distraught by the fever, or it might be by the blow on his head in the fall with his horse, which seemed to have kicked him; but there was no reason that with good guidance and rest he should not recover.  But, on the other hand, King Edward was known to be on his progress to Durham, and he was understood to be especially virulent against Sir Leonard Copeland, under the impression that the young knight had assisted in Clifford’s slaughter of his brother Edmund of Rutland.  It was true that a monastery was a sanctuary, but if all that was reported of Edward Plantagenet were true, he might, if he tracked Copeland to the Abbey, insist on his being yielded up, or might make Abbot and monks suffer severely for the protection given to his enemy; and there was much fear that the Dacres might be on the scent.  The Abbot and Father Copeland were anxious to be able to answer that Sir Leonard was not within their precincts, and, having heard that Master Groats was about to sail for Flanders, the Sub-Prior made the entreaty that his nephew might thus be conveyed to the Low Countries, where the fugitives of each party in turn found a refuge.  Father Copeland promised to be at charges, and, in truth, the scheme was the best hope for Leonard’s chances of life.  Master Groot had hesitated, seeing various difficulties in the way of such a charge, and being by no means disposed towards Lady Grisell’s unwilling husband, as such, though in a professional capacity he was interested in his treatment of his patient, and was likewise touched by the good mien of the fine, handsome, straight-limbed young man, who was lying unconscious on his pallet in a narrow cell.