The Lost Treasure of Trevlyn | Page 4

choke
him withal! And to think that he has corrupted my son, as if the rearing
of his own heretic brood was not enough!"
Cuthbert was unable to speak; his father's hand pressed too tightly on
his throat. He did not struggle or resist. Those were days when sons--ay,
and daughters too--were used to receiving severe chastisement from the
parental hand without murmur: and Nicholas Trevlyn had not been one
to spare the rod where his son had been concerned. His wrath seemed
to rise as he felt the slight form of the lad sway beneath his strong grasp.
Surely that slim stripling could be reduced to obedience; but the lesson
must be a sharp one, for plainly the poison was working, and had
already produced disastrous results.
"Miserable boy!" cried Nicholas, his eyes blazing in their cavernous
hollows, "the time has come when this matter must be settled betwixt
us twain. Swear that thou wilt go no more to the churches of the
Protestant faction, be the laws what they may; swear that thou wilt hold
no more converse on matters of religion with thy cousins at the
Chase--swear these things with a solemn and binding oath, and all may
yet be well. Refuse, and thou shalt yet learn, as thou hast not learned
before, what the wrath of a wronged and outraged father can be!"
Petronella, the dark-eyed girl, who had all this while been crouching
back in her high-backed chair in an attitude of shrinking terror, now
sprang suddenly towards her brother, crying: "O Cuthbert, Cuthbert!
prithee do not anger him more!
"Father, O dear sir, let but him go this once! He does not willingly

anger you; he does but--"
"Peace, foolish girl, and begone! This is no time for woman's whining.
Thy brother and I can settle this business betwixt us twain. But stay, go
thou to my room and fetch thence the strong whip wherewith I chastise
the unruly hounds. Those who disobey like dogs must be beaten like
dogs.
"But, an thou wilt swear to do my bidding in the future, and avoid all
pestilent controversy with those false scions of thy house, thy
chastisement shall be light. Defy me, and thou shalt feel the full weight
of my arm as thou hast never felt it before."
Petronella had never seen her father so angry in all her life before. True,
he had always been a harsh, stern man, an unloving father, a captious
tyrant in his own house. But there had been limits to his anger. It had
taken more generally the form of sullen brooding than of wild wrath,
and the irritation and passion which had lately been increasing visibly
in him was something comparatively new.
Of late, however, there had been growing friction between Cuthbert
and his father. The youth, who had remained longer a boy in his
secluded life than he would have done had his lot been cast in a wider
sphere, was awakening at last to the stirrings of manhood within him,
and was chafing against the fetters, both physical and spiritual, laid
upon him by the life he was forced to lead through the tyrannical will
of his father. He was beginning, in a semi-conscious fashion, to pant
for freedom, and to rebel against the harsh paternal yoke.
When a struggle of wills commences, the friction continues a long
while before the spark is produced; but when some unwonted contest
has ignited this, the flame often bursts out in wonderful fury, and the
whole scene is thence forward changed.
If the old man's blood was up today, Cuthbert's was no less so. He
shook himself free for a moment from his father's grasp and stood
before him, tall, upright, indignant, no fear in his face, but a deep anger
and pain; and his words were spoken with great emphasis and

deliberation.
"I will swear nothing of all that. I claim for myself the right of a man to
judge for myself and act for myself. I am a boy no longer; I have
reached man's estate. I will be threatened and intimidated no longer by
any man, even though he be my father. I am ready and willing to leave
your house this very day. I am weary of the life here. I would fain carve
out fortune for myself. It is plain that we cannot be agreed; wherefore it
plainly behoves us to part. Let me then go, but let me go in peace. It
may be when I return to these doors you may have learned to think
more kindly of me."
But the very calmness of these words only stung Nicholas to greater
fury. He had in full force that inherent belief, so deeply rooted in the
minds of many of the sons of Rome,