The White Rose of Langley Part 41

"Ah!--and then?"

"Why, then thou mayest match thy grandchildre yet better," answered Isabel, laughing.

"And after all, Isabel," returned Custance, in a manner much graver than was usual with her, "there abideth yet one further _then_--death, and G.o.d's judgment."

"Holy Mary aid us!--avaunt with such thoughts!"

"Canst thou avaunt with such thoughts, child?" said Custance, with a heavy sigh. "Ah me! they come unbidden, when the shadows of night be over the soul, and the thick darkness hath closed in upon the life. And I, at the least, have no spell to bid them avaunt. If holy Mary aid thee in that avoidment, 'tis more than she doth for me."

Isabel seemed at a loss for a reply. "I have had no lack of time for thought, fair Cousin, while I yonder lay. And the thought would not away,--when we stand together, I and Harry of Bolingbroke, at that Bar of G.o.d's judgment, shall I desire in that day that I had said ay or nay to him now?"

"Forsooth, Custance, I am not thy confessor. These be priests'

matters--not gear for women like thee and me."

"What, child! is thy soul matter for the priest's concernment only? Is it not rather matter for thee--thee by thyself, beyond all priests that be? Thou and the priest may walk handed [walk hand in hand] up to that Bar, but methinks he will be full fain to leave thee to bide the whipping."

"Nay, in very deed, Custance, thou art a Lollard, else hadst thou never spoken no such a thing!"

"What, be Lollards the only men that have a care for their own souls?

But be it as thou wilt--what will it matter _then_? Isabel, in good sooth I have sins enough to answer for, neither will I by my good-will add thereto. And if it be no sin to stand up afore G.o.d and men, and swear right solemnly unto His dread face that I did not that which I did before His sun in Heaven--good lack! I do marvel what sin may be.

There is no such thing as sin, if it be no sin to swear to a lie!"

"But, Custance, the King's Highness asketh not thee to deny that thou wert wed unto my Lord of Kent, but only to allow openly that the same were not good in law."

"Can a law go backwards-way?"

"Fair Cousin, the priest was excommunicate afore."

"G.o.d wot if he were!" said Custance shrewdly.

"Bishops use not to leave their letters tarry two months on the road, child. There have been riddles writ ere now; ay, and black treachery done--by shaven crowns too. Canst thou crede that story? 'Tis more than I can."

"Custance, I do ensure thee, the King's Grace sware into me his own self, by the holy Face of Lucca, and said, if thou didst cast any doubt of the same, my Lord Archbishop should lay to pledge his corporal oath thereon."

"His corporal oath ensure me! nay, nor an' he sware by Saint Beelzebub!"

cried Custance in bitter scorn. "I have heard of a corporal oath ere now, child. I know of one that was taken at Conway, by an old white-haired man [Note 1], whose reverend head should have lent weight to his words: but they were words, and nought else. How many days were, ere it was broken to s.h.i.+vers? I tell thee, Nib, Harry of Bolingbroke may swear an' it like him by every saint in the calendar from Aaron to Zachary; and when he is through, my faith in his oaths will go by the eye of a needle. Why, what need of oath if a man be but true? If I would know somewhat of Maude yonder, I shall never set her to swear by Saint Nicholas; I can crede her word. And if a man's word be not trustworthy, how much more worth is his oath?"

"But, Custance! the King's Grace and my Lord Archbishop--"

"How thou clarifiest [glorifiest] the King's Grace! Satan ruleth a wider realm than he, child, but I would not trust his oath. What caused them to take account that I should not believe them, unless their own ill consciences?"

Isabel was silent.

"Isabel!" said her cousin, suddenly turning to her, "have they _his_ oath for the same?"

"Whose, Custance?--my Lord of Kent?"

Custance nodded impatiently.

"Oh, ay."

"He hath allowed our wedding void in law?"

"Ay so."

"What manner of talk held his conscience with him, sithence, mewondereth?" suggested Custance, in a low, troubled voice. "But maybe, like thee, he accounteth if but priest's gear."

"Marry, 'tis far lighter travail. I list not to carry mine own sins: I had the liefer by the worth of the Queen's Highness' gems they were on the priest's back."

"Ah, Nib!--but how if G.o.d charge them on thy back at the last?"

"Good lack! a white lie or twain, spiced with a little matter of frowardness by times! My back is broad enough."

"I am fain to hear it, for so is not mine."

"Ah! thou art secular--no marvel."

"Much thanks for thy glosing [flattery], mine holy sister!" said Custance sarcastically. "The angels come down from Heaven, to set thee every morrow in a bath of rose-water, trow? While I, poor sinner that I am, having been twice wed, may journey to Heaven as best I can in the mire. 'Tis well, methinks, there be some secular in the world, for these monks and nuns be so holy that elsewise there were no use for G.o.d's mercy."

"Nay, Custance!"

"Well, have it as thou wilt, child! What matter?" returned her cousin with a weary air. "I am no doctor of the schools, to break lances with thee. Only methinks I have learned, these last months, a lesson or twain, which maybe even thy holiness were not the worser to spell over.

Now let me be."

Isabel thought that the victim was coming round by degrees, and she wisely forbore to press her beyond the point to which she chose to go of herself. So the interview ended. It was not till October that they met again.

Maude fancied that Avice eschewed any renewal of intercourse with her.

She kept herself strictly secluded in the chamber which had been allotted to the nuns; and since Maude had no power to pa.s.s beyond the door of the guard-room, the choice lay in Avice's own hands. At neither of the subsequent interviews was she present.

"Well, fair Cousin! what cheer?" was Isabel's greeting, when she presented herself anew.

"Thus much," replied Custance; "that, leave given, I will go with thee to London."

"Well said!" was the answer, in a tone which intimated that it was more than Isabel expected.

"But mark me, Isabel! I byhote [promise] nought beyond."

"Oh ay!--well and good."

"And for thus much yielding, I demand to have again the keeping of my childre."

"Good lack! thou treatest with the King's Grace as though thou wert queen of some land thyself," said Isabel, with a little laugh. "Verily, that goeth beyond my commission: but methinks I can make bold to say thus much: that an' thou come with me, they shall be suffered at the least to see thee and speak with thee."

Custance shook her head decidedly.

"That shall not serve."

"Nay, then, we be again at a point. I can but give mine avis.e.m.e.nt unto thee to come thither and see."