The Lancashire Witches | Page 4

poor, whom we fed at our gates, and
lodged within our wards, gone away hungry and without rest? Have not
the sick, whom we would have relieved, died untended by the
hedge-side? I am the head of the poor in Lancashire, the redresser of
their grievances, and therefore I style myself Earl of Poverty. Have I
not done well?"
"You have, lord abbot," replied Father Eastgate.
"Poverty will not alone be the fate of the Church, but of the whole
realm, if the rapacious designs of the monarch and his heretical
counsellors are carried forth," pursued the abbot. "Cromwell, Audeley,
and Rich, have wisely ordained that no infant shall be baptised without
tribute to the king; that no man who owns not above twenty pounds a
year shall consume wheaten bread, or eat the flesh of fowl or swine
without tribute; and that all ploughed land shall pay tribute likewise.
Thus the Church is to be beggared, the poor plundered, and all men
burthened, to fatten the king, and fill his exchequer."

"This must be a jest," observed Father Haydocke.
"It is a jest no man laughs at," rejoined the abbot, sternly; "any more
than the king's counsellors will laugh at the Earl of Poverty, whose title
they themselves have created. But wherefore comes not the signal? Can
aught have gone wrong? I will not think it. The whole country, from
the Tweed to the Humber, and from the Lune to the Mersey, is ours;
and, if we but hold together, our cause must prevail."
"Yet we have many and powerful enemies," observed Father Eastgate;
"and the king, it is said, hath sworn never to make terms with us.
Tidings were brought to the abbey this morning, that the Earl of Derby
is assembling forces at Preston, to march upon us."
"We will give him a warm reception if he comes," replied Paslew,
fiercely. "He will find that our walls have not been kernelled and
embattled by licence of good King Edward the Third for nothing; and
that our brethren can fight as well as their predecessors fought in the
time of Abbot Holden, when they took tithe by force from Sir
Christopher Parsons of Slaydburn. The abbey is strong, and right well
defended, and we need not fear a surprise. But it grows dark fast, and
yet no signal comes."
"Perchance the waters of the Don have again risen, so as to prevent the
army from fording the stream," observed Father Haydocke; "or it may
be that some disaster hath befallen our leader."
"Nay, I will not believe the latter," said the abbot; "Robert Aske is
chosen by Heaven to be our deliverer. It has been prophesied that a
'worm with one eye' shall work the redemption of the fallen faith, and
you know that Robert Aske hath been deprived of his left orb by an
arrow."
"Therefore it is," observed Father Eastgate, "that the Pilgrims of Grace
chant the following ditty:--
"'Forth shall come an Aske with one eye, He shall be chief of the
company-- Chief of the northern chivalry.'"

"What more?" demanded the abbot, seeing that the monk appeared to
hesitate.
"Nay, I know not whether the rest of the rhymes may please you, lord
abbot," replied Father Eastgate.
"Let me hear them, and I will judge," said Paslew. Thus urged, the
monk went on:--
"'One shall sit at a solemn feast, Half warrior, half priest, The greatest
there shall be the least.'"
"The last verse," observed the monk, "has been added to the ditty by
Nicholas Demdike. I heard him sing it the other day at the abbey gate."
"What, Nicholas Demdike of Worston?" cried the abbot; "he whose
wife is a witch?"
"The same," replied Eastgate.
"Hoo be so ceawnted, sure eno," remarked the forester, who had been
listening attentively to their discourse, and who now stepped forward;
"boh dunna yo think it. Beleemy, lort abbut, Bess Demdike's too yunk
an too protty for a witch."
"Thou art bewitched by her thyself, Cuthbert," said the abbot, angrily.
"I shall impose a penance upon thee, to free thee from the evil influence.
Thou must recite twenty paternosters daily, fasting, for one month; and
afterwards perform a pilgrimage to the shrine of our Lady of Gilsland.
Bess Demdike is an approved and notorious witch, and hath been seen
by credible witnesses attending a devil's sabbath on this very
hill--Heaven shield us! It is therefore that I have placed her and her
husband under the ban of the Church; pronounced sentence of
excommunication against them; and commanded all my clergy to
refuse baptism to their infant daughter, newly born."
"Wea's me! ey knoas 't reet weel, lort abbut," replied Ashbead, "and
Bess taks t' sentence sore ta 'ert!"

"Then let her amend her ways, or heavier punishment will befall her,"