The White Rose of Langley | Page 4

was a great noise in the night, and
strange voices in the cottage, and cries for mercy; and that when
morning broke Uncle David was gone, and was seen afterwards no
more. So then they tried to keep on the old forge a little longer; but
Grandfather was past work, and Cousin Jack was young and
inexperienced, and customers would not come as they had done to
brawny-armed Uncle David, to whose ringing blows on the anvil
Maude had loved to listen. And one day she heard Aunt Elizabeth say
to Grandfather that the forge brought in nothing, and they must go up to
the castle and ask the great Lord there, whose vassals they were, to find
them food until Jack was able to work: but the old man rose up from
the settle and answered, his voice trembling with passion, that he would
starve to death ere he would take food from the cruel hand which had
deprived him of his boy. So then, Cousin Jack used to go roaming in
the forest and bring home roots and wild fruits, and sometimes the
neighbours would give them alms in kind or in money, and so for a
while they tried to live. But Grandfather grew weaker, and Mother and
Aunt Elizabeth very thin and worn, and the bloom faded from Cousin
Hawise's cheeks, and the gloss died away from her shining hair. And at
last Grandfather died. And then Aunt Elizabeth went to a neighbouring
franklin's farm, to serve the franklin's dame; and Cousin Jack went
away to sea; and Maude could not recollect how they lived for a time.
And then came another mournful day, when strange people came to the
cottage and roughly ordered the three who were left to go away. They
took Cousin Hawise with them, for they said she would be comely if
she were well fed, and the Lady had seen her, and she must go and
serve the Lady. And Maude never knew what became of her. But
Mother wept bitterly, and seemed to think that Hawise's lot was a very
unhappy one. So then they set out, Mother and Maude, for London. The
reasons for going to London were very dim and vague to Maude's
apprehension. They were going to look for somebody; so much she
knew: and she thought it was some relation of Grandmother's, who
might perchance give them a home again. London was a very grand
place, only a little less than the world: but it could not fill quite all the
world, because there was room left for Pleshy and one or two other

places. The King lived in London, who never did any thing all day long
but sit on a golden throne, with a crown on his head, and eat bread and
marmalade, and drink Gascon wine; and the Queen, who of course sat
on another golden throne, and shared the good things, and wore
minever dresses and velvet robes which trailed all across the room.
Perhaps the houses were not all built of gold; some of them might be
silver; but at any rate the streets were paved with one or other of the
precious metals. And of course, nobody in London was at all poor, and
everybody had as much as he could possibly eat, and was quite warm
and comfortable, and life was all music, and flowers, and sunshine.
Poor little Maude! was her illusion much more extravagant than some
of ours?
But, as we have seen, the hapless travellers never reached their bourne.
And now even Mother was gone, and Maude was left alone in all the
world. The nuns had not been particularly unkind to her; they had
taught her many things, though they had not made her work beyond her
strength; yet not one of them had given her what she missed most--
sympathy. The result was that the child had been unhappy in the
convent, and yet she could not have said why, had she been asked. But
nobody ever asked that of little Maude. She was alone in all the
world--the great, bare, hard, practical world.
For this was the side of the world presented to Maude.
The world is many-sided, and it presents various sides and corners to
various people. The side which Maude saw was hard and bare. Hard
bed, hard fare, hard work, hard words sometimes. Had she any
opportunity of thinking the world a soft, comfortable, cushioned place,
as some of her sisters find it?
This had been the child's life up to the moment when Ursula Drew
made her appearance on the scene. But now a new element was
introduced; for Maude's third home was a stately palace, filled with
beautiful carvings, and delicate tracery, and exquisite colours, all which,
lowest of