Peveril of the Peak | Page 9

Sir Geoffrey has his opinions on many points, which have differed, and
probably do still differ, from mine. He is high-born, and I of middling
parentage only. He uses the Church Service, and I the Catechism of the
Assembly of Divines at Westminster----"

"I hope you will find prescribed in neither of them," said the Lady
Peveril, "that I may not be a mother to your motherless child. I trust,
Master Bridgenorth, the joyful Restoration of his Majesty, a work
wrought by the direct hand of Providence, may be the means of closing
and healing all civil and religious dissensions among us, and that,
instead of showing the superior purity of our faith, by persecuting those
who think otherwise from ourselves on doctrinal points, we shall
endeavour to show its real Christian tendency, by emulating each other
in actions of good-will towards man, as the best way of showing our
love to God."
"Your ladyship speaks what your own kind heart dictates," answered
Bridgenorth, who had his own share of the narrow-mindedness of the
time; "and sure am I, that if all who call themselves loyalists and
Cavaliers, thought like you--and like my friend Sir Geoffrey"--(this he
added after a moment's pause, being perhaps rather complimentary than
sincere)--"we, who thought it our duty in time past to take arms for
freedom of conscience, and against arbitrary power, might now sit
down in peace and contentment. But I wot not how it may fall. You
have sharp and hot spirits amongst you; I will not say our power was
always moderately used, and revenge is sweet to the race of fallen
Adam."
"Come, Master Bridgenorth," said the Lady Peveril gaily, "those evil
omenings do but point out conclusions, which, unless they were so
anticipated, are most unlikely to come to pass. You know what
Shakespeare says--
'To fly the boar before the boar pursues, Were to incense the boar to
follow us, And make pursuit when he did mean no chase.'
"But I crave your pardon--it is so long since we have met, that I forgot
you love no play-books."
"With reverence to your ladyship," said Bridgenorth, "I were much to
blame did I need the idle words of a Warwickshire stroller, to teach me
my grateful duty to your ladyship on this occasion, which appoints me
to be directed by you in all things which my conscience will permit."

"Since you permit me such influence, then," replied the Lady Peveril, "I
shall be moderate in exercising it, in order that I may, in my
domination at least, give you a favourable impression of the new order
of things. So, if you will be a subject of mine for one day, neighbour, I
am going, at my lord and husband's command, to issue out my warrants
to invite the whole neighbourhood to a solemn feast at the Castle, on
Thursday next; and I not only pray you to be personally present
yourself, but to prevail on your worthy pastor, and such neighbours and
friends, high and low, as may think in your own way, to meet with the
rest of the neighbourhood, to rejoice on this joyful occasion of the
King's Restoration, and thereby to show that we are to be henceforward
a united people."
The parliamentarian Major was considerably embarrassed by this
proposal. He looked upward, and downward, and around, cast his eye
first to the oak-carved ceiling, and anon fixed it upon the floor; then
threw it around the room till it lighted on his child, the sight of whom
suggested another and a better train of reflections than ceiling and floor
had been able to supply.
"Madam," he said, "I have long been a stranger to festivity, perhaps
from constitutional melancholy, perhaps from the depression which is
natural to a desolate and deprived man, in whose ear mirth is marred,
like a pleasant air when performed on a mistuned instrument. But
though neither my thoughts nor temperament are Jovial or Mercurial, it
becomes me to be grateful to Heaven for the good He has sent me by
the means of your ladyship. David, the man after God's own heart, did
wash and eat bread when his beloved child was removed--mine is
restored to me, and shall I not show gratitude under a blessing, when he
showed resignation under an affliction? Madam, I will wait on your
gracious invitation with acceptance; and such of my friends with whom
I may possess influence, and whose presence your ladyship may desire,
shall accompany me to the festivity, that our Israel may be as one
people."
Having spoken these words with an aspect which belonged more to a
martyr than to a guest bidden to a festival, and having kissed, and

solemnly blessed his little girl, Major Bridgenorth took his departure
for Moultrassie Hall.