Kabanata Kabanata 26 · Of the Strife in the Council

King Monmouth’s council was assembled at the time of my coming, and my

entrance caused the utmost surprise and joy, as they had just heard news

of my sore danger. Even the royal presence could not prevent several

members, among whom were the old Mayor and the two soldiers of fortune,

from springing to their feet and shaking me warmly by the hand. Monmouth

himself said a few gracious words, and requested that I should be seated

at the board with the others.

‘You have earned the right to be of our council,’ said he; ‘and lest

there should be a jealousy amongst other captains that you should come

among us, I do hereby confer upon you the special title of Scout-master,

which, though it entail few if any duties in the present state of our

force, will yet give you precedence over your fellows. We had heard that

your greeting from Beaufort was of the roughest, and that you were in

sore straits in his dungeons. But you have happily come yourself on the

very heels of him who bore the tidings. Tell us then from the beginning

how things have fared with you.’

I should have wished to have limited my story to Beaufort and his

message, but as the council seemed to be intent upon hearing a full

account of my journey, I told in as short and simple speech as I

could the various passages which had befallen me--the ambuscado of

the smugglers, the cave, the capture of the gauger, the journey in the

lugger, the acquaintance with Farmer Brown, my being cast into prison,

with the manner of my release and the message wherewith I had been

commissioned. To all of this the council hearkened with the uttermost

attention, while a muttered oath ever and anon from a courtier or a

groan and prayer from a Puritan showed how keenly they followed the

various phases of my fortunes. Above all, they gave the greatest heed

to Beaufort’s words, and stopped me more than once when I appeared to be

passing over any saying or event before they had due time to weigh

it. When I at last finished they all sat speechless, looking into each

other’s faces and waiting for an expression of opinion.

‘On my word,’ said Monmouth at last, ‘this is a young Ulysses, though

his Odyssey doth but take three days in the acting. Scudery might not be

so dull were she to take a hint from these smugglers’ caves and sliding

panels. How say you, Grey?’

‘He hath indeed had his share of adventure,’ the nobleman answered, ‘and

hath also performed his mission like a fearless and zealous messenger.

You say that Beaufort gave you nought in writing?’

‘Not a word, my lord,’ I replied.

‘And his private message was that he wished us well, and would join us

if we were in his country?’

‘That was the effect, my lord.’

‘Yet in his council, as I understand, he did utter bitter things against

us, putting affronts upon the King, and making light of his just claims

upon the fealty of his nobility?’

‘He did,’ I answered.

‘He would fain stand upon both sides of the hedge at once,’ said King

Monmouth. ‘Such a man is very like to find himself on neither side, but

in the very heart of the briars. It may be as well, however, that we

should move his way, so as to give him the chance of declaring himself.’

‘In any case, as your Majesty remembers,’ said Saxon, ‘we had determined

to march Bristolwards and attempt the town.’

‘The works are being strengthened,’ said I, ‘and there are five thousand

of the Gloucestershire train-bands assembled within. I saw the labourers

at work upon the ramparts as I passed.’

‘If we gain Beaufort we shall gain the town,’ quoth Sir Stephen

Timewell. ‘There are already a strong body of godly and honest folk

therein, who would rejoice to see a Protestant army within their gates.

Should we have to beleaguer it we may count upon some help from within.’

‘Hegel und blitzen!’ exclaimed the German soldier, with an impatience

which even the presence of the King could not keep in bounds; ‘how can

we talk of sieges and leaguers when we have not a breaching-piece in the

army?’

‘The Lard will find us the breaching-pieces,’ cried Ferguson, in his

strange, nasal voice. ‘Did the Lard no breach the too’ers o’ Jericho

withoot the aid o’ gunpooder? Did the Lard no raise up the man Robert

Ferguson and presairve him through five-and-thairty indictments and

twa-and-twenty proclamations o’ the godless? What is there He canna do?

Hosannah! Hosannah!’

‘The Doctor is right,’ said a square-faced, leather-skinned English

Independent. ‘We talk too much o’ carnal means and worldly chances,

without leaning upon that heavenly goodwill which should be to us as a

staff on stony and broken paths. Yes, gentlemen,’ he continued, raising

his voice and glancing across the table at some of the courtiers, ‘ye

may sneer at words of piety, but I say that it is you and those like you

who will bring down God’s anger upon this army.’

‘And I say so too,’ cried another sectary fiercely.

‘And I,’ ‘And I,’ shouted several, with Saxon, I think, among them.

‘Is it your wish, your Majesty, that we should be insulted at your very

council board?’ cried one of the courtiers, springing to his feet with

a flushed face. ‘How long are we to be subject to this insolence because

we have the religion of a gentleman, and prefer to practise it in the

privacy of our hearts rather than at the street corners with these

pharisees?’

‘Speak not against God’s saints,’ cried a Puritan, in a loud stern

voice. ‘There is a voice within me which tells me that it were better to

strike thee dead--yea, even in the presence of the King--than to allow

thee to revile those who have been born again.’

Several had sprung to their feet on either side. Hands were laid upon

sword-hilts, and glances as stern and as deadly as rapier thrusts were

flashing backwards and forwards; but the more neutral and reasonable

members of the council succeeded in restoring peace, and in persuading

the angry disputants to resume their seats.

‘How now, gentlemen?’ cried the King, his face dark with anger, when

silence was at last restored. ‘Is this the extent of my authority that

ye should babble and brawl as though my council-chamber were a Fleet

Street pot-house? Is this your respect for my person? I tell ye that I

would forfeit my just claims for ever, and return to Holland, or devote

my sword to the cause of Christianity against the Turk, rather than

submit to such indignity. If any man he proved to have stirred up strife

amongst the soldiers or commonalty on the score of religion I shall

know how to deal with him. Let each preach to his own, but let him not

interfere with the flock of his neighbour. As to you, Mr. Bramwell,

and you, Mr. Joyce, and you also, Sir Henry Nuttall, we shall hold ye

excused from attending these meetings until ye have further notice from

us. Ye may now separate, each to your quarters, and to-morrow morning

we shall, with the blessing of God, start for the north to see what luck

may await our enterprise in those parts.’

The King bowed as a sign that the formal meeting was over, and taking

Lord Grey aside, he conversed with him anxiously in a recess. The

courtiers, who numbered in their party several English and foreign

gentlemen, who had come over together with some Devonshire and Somerset

country squires, swaggered out of the room in a body, with much clinking

of spurs and clanking of swords. The Puritans drew gravely together and

followed after them, walking not with demure and downcast looks, as was

their common use, but with grim faces and knitted brows, as the Jews of

old may have appeared when, ‘To your tents, O Israel!’ was still ringing

in their ears.

Indeed, religious dissension and sectarian heat were in the very air.

Outside, on the Castle Green, the voices of preachers rose up like the

drone of insects. Every waggon or barrel or chance provision case had

been converted into a pulpit, each with its own orator and little knot

of eager hearkeners. Here was a russet-coated Taunton volunteer in

jackboots and bandolier, holding forth on the justification by works.

Further on a grenadier of the militia, with blazing red coat and white

cross-belt, was deep in the mystery of the Trinity. In one or two

places, where the rude pulpits were too near to each other, the sermons

had changed into a hot discussion between the two preachers, in which

the audience took part by hums or groans, each applauding the champion

whose creed was most in accordance with his own. Through this wild

scene, made more striking by the ruddy flickering glare of the

camp-fires, I picked my way with a weight at my heart, for I felt how

vain it must be to hope for success where such division reigned, Saxon

looked on, however, with glistening eyes, and rubbed his hands with

satisfaction.

‘The leaven is working,’ quoth he. ‘Something will come of all this

ferment.’

‘I see not what can come of it save disorder and weakness,’ I answered.

‘Good soldiers will come of it, lad,’ said he. ‘They are all sharpening

themselves, each after his own fashion, on the whetstone of religion.

This arguing breedeth fanatics, and fanatics are the stuff out of which

conquerors are fashioned. Have you not heard how Old Noll’s army divided

into Presbyterians, Independents, Ranters, Anabaptists, Fifth Monarchy

men, Brownists, and a score of other sects, out of whose strife rose the

finest regiments that ever formed line upon a field of battle?

“Such as do build their faith upon

The holy text of sword and gun.”

You know old Samuel’s couplet. I tell you, I would rather see them thus

employed than at their drill, for all their wrangling and jangling.’

‘But how of this split in the council?’ I asked.

‘Ah, that is indeed a graver matter. All creeds may be welded together,

but the Puritan and the scoffer are like oil and water. Yet the Puritan

is the oil, for he will be ever atop. These courtiers do but stand for

themselves, while the others are backed up by the pith and marrow of the

army. It is well that we are afoot to-morrow. The King’s troops are, I

hear, pouring across Salisbury Plain, but their ordnance and stores are

delaying them, for they know well that they must bring all they need,

since they can expect little from the goodwill of the country folk. Ah,

friend Buyse, wie geht es?’

‘Ganz gut,’ said the big German, looming up before us through the

darkness. ‘But, sapperment, what a cawing and croaking, like a rookery

at sunset! You English are a strange people--yes, donnerwetter, a very

strange people! There are no two of you who think alike upon any subject

under Himmel! The Cavalier will have his gay coat and his loose word.

The Puritan will cut your throat rather than give up his sad-coloured

dress and his Bible. “King James!” cry some, “King Monmouth!” say the

peasants. “King Jesus!” says the Fifth Monarchy man. “No King at all!”

cry Master Wade and a few others who are for a Commonwealth. Since I

set foot on the Helderenbergh at Amsterdam, my head hath been in a whirl

with trying to understand what it is that ye desire, for before I have

got to the end of one man’s tale, and begin to see a little through the

finsterniss, another will come with another story, and I am in as evil a

case as ever. But, my young Hercules, I am right glad to see you back

in safety. I am half in fear to give you my hand now, after your recent

treatment of it. I trust that you are none the worse for the danger that

you have gone through.’

‘Mine eyelids are in truth a little heavy,’ I answered. ‘Save for an

hour or two aboard the lugger, and about as long on a prison couch, I

have not closed eye since I left the camp.’

‘We shall fall in at the second bugle call, about eight of the clock,’

said Saxon. ‘We shall leave you, therefore, that you may restore

yourself after your fatigues. ‘With a parting nod the two old soldiers

strode off together down the crowded Fore Street, while I made the best

of my way back to the Mayor’s hospitable dwelling, where I had to repeat

my story all over again to the assembled household before I was at last

suffered to seek my room.