St. George and St. Michael | Page 7

as might be had within the clip of the ocean. Roger, the
father, had once only or twice in his lifetime been heard boast, in
humorous fashion, that although but a simple squire, he could, on this
side the fog of tradition, which nearer or further shrouds all origin,
count a longer descent than any of the titled families in the county, not
excluding the earl of Worcester himself. His character also would have
gone far to support any assertion he might have chosen to make as to
the purity of his strain. A notable immobility of nature--his friends
called it firmness, his enemies obstinacy; a seeming disregard of what
others might think of him; a certain sternness of manner--an
unreadiness, as it were, to open his door to the people about him; a
searching regard with which he was wont to peruse the face of anyone
holding talk with him, when he seemed always to give heed to the
looks rather than the words of him who spoke; these peculiarities had
combined to produce a certain awe of him in his inferiors, and a dislike,
not unavowed, in his equals. With his superiors he came seldom in
contact, and to them his behaviour was still more distant and unbending.
But, although from these causes he was far from being a favourite in

the county, he was a man of such known and acknowledged probity
that, until of late, when party spirit ran high and drew almost everybody,
whether of consequence or not, to one side or the other, there was
nobody who would not have trusted Roger Heywood to the uttermost.
Even now, foes as well as friends acknowledged that he was to be
depended upon; while his own son looked up to him with a reverence
that in some measure overshadowed his affection. Such a character as
this had necessarily been slow in formation, and the opinions which
had been modified by it and had reacted upon it, had been as
unalterably as deliberately adopted. But affairs had approached a crisis
between king and parliament before one of his friends knew that there
were in his mind any opinions upon them in process of formation--so
reserved and monosyllabic had been his share in any conversation upon
topics which had for a long time been growing every hour of more and
more absorbing interest to all men either of consequence, intelligence,
property, or adventure. At last, however, it had become clear, to the
great annoyance of not a few amongst his neighbours, that Heywood's
leanings were to the parliament. But he had never yet sought to
influence his son in regard to the great questions at issue.
His house was one of those ancient dwellings which have grown under
the hands to fit the wants of successive generations, and look as if they
had never been other than old; two-storied at most, and many-gabled,
with marvellous accretions and projections, the haunts of yet more
wonderful shadows. There, in a room he called his study, shabby and
small, containing a library more notable for quality and selection than
size, Richard the next morning sought and found him.
'Father!' he said, entering with some haste after the usual request for
admission.
'I am here, my son,' answered Roger, without lifting his eyes from the
small folio in which he was reading.
'I want to know, father, whether, when men differ, a man is bound to
take a side.'
'Nay, Richard, but a man is bound NOT to take a side save upon
reasons well considered and found good.'
'It may be, father, if you had seen fit to send me to Oxford, I should
have been better able to judge now.'
'I had my reasons, son Richard. Readier, perhaps, you might have been,

but fitter--no. Tell me what points you have in question.'
'That I can hardly say, sir. I only know there are points at issue betwixt
king and parliament which men appear to consider of mightiest
consequence. Will you tell me, father, why you have never instructed
me in these affairs of church and state? I trust it is not because you
count me unworthy of your confidence.'
'Far from it, my son. My silence hath respect to thy hearing and to the
judgment yet unawakened in thee. Who would lay in the arms of a
child that which must crush him to the earth? Years did I take to
meditate ere I resolved, and I know not yet if thou hast in thee the
power of meditation.'
'At least, father, I could try to understand, if you would unfold your
mind.'
'When you know what the matters at issue are, my son,--that is, when
you are able to ask me questions worthy of answer, I shall be ready to
answer