Lavengro

"What do you mean by a disgraceful affair?" said the man in black. "I a.s.sure you that nothing has occurred for the last fifty years which has given the High Church party so much credit in the eyes of Rome as that,--we did not imagine that the fellows had so much energy. Had they followed up that affair by twenty others of a similar kind, they would by this time have had everything in their own power; but they did not, and, as a necessary consequence, they are reduced to almost nothing."

"I suppose," said I, "that your Church would have acted very differently in its place."

"It has always done so," said the man in black, coolly sipping. "Our Church has always armed the brute population against the genius and intellect of a country, provided that same intellect and genius were not willing to become its instruments and eulogists; and provided we once obtain a firm hold here again, we would not fail to do so. We would occasionally stuff the beastly rabble with horseflesh and bitter ale, and then halloo them on against all those who were obnoxious to us."

"Horseflesh and bitter ale!" I replied.

"Yes," said the man in black; "horseflesh and bitter ale--the favourite delicacies of their Saxon ancestors, who were always ready to do our bidding after a liberal allowance of such cheer. There is a tradition in our Church, that before the Northumbrian rabble, at the instigation of Austin, attacked and ma.s.sacred the Presbyterian monks of Bangor, they had been allowed a good gorge of horseflesh and bitter ale. He! he! he!"

continued the man in black, "what a fine spectacle to see such a mob, headed by a fellow like our friend the landlord, sack the house of another Priestley!"

"Then you don't deny that we have had a Priestley," said I, "and admit the possibility of our having another? You were lately observing that all English literary men were sycophants?"

"Lick-spittles," said the man in black; "yes, I admit that you have had a Priestley, but he was a Dissenter of the old cla.s.s; you have had him, and perhaps may have another."

"Perhaps we may," said I. "But with respect to the lower cla.s.ses, have you mixed much with them?"

"I have mixed with all cla.s.ses," said the man in black, "and with the lower not less than the upper and middle; they are much as I have described them; and of the three, the lower are the worst. I never knew one of them that possessed the slightest principle, no, not... It is true, there was one fellow whom I once met, who... but it is a long story, and the affair happened abroad."

"I ought to know something of the English people," he continued, after a moment's pause; "I have been many years amongst them, labouring in the cause of the Church."

"Your See must have had great confidence in your powers, when it selected you to labour for it in these parts," said I.

"They chose me," said the man in black, "princ.i.p.ally because, being of British extraction and education, I could speak the English language and bear a gla.s.s of something strong. It is the opinion of my See, that it would hardly do to send a missionary into a country like this who is not well versed in English--a country where, they think, so far from understanding any language besides his own, scarcely one individual in ten speaks his own intelligibly; or an ascetic person where, as they say, high and low, male and female, are, at some period of their lives, fond of a renovating gla.s.s, as it is styled--in other words, of tippling."

"Your See appears to entertain a very strange opinion of the English,"

said I.

"Not altogether an unjust one," said the man in black, lifting the gla.s.s to his mouth.

"Well," said I, "it is certainly very kind on its part to wish to bring back such a set of beings beneath its wing."

"Why, as to the kindness of my See," said the man in black, "I have not much to say; my See has generally in what it does a tolerably good motive; these heretics possess

"The Founder of the Christian religion cared nothing for money," said I.

"What have we to do with what the Founder of the Christian religion cared for?" said the man in black. "How could our temples be built, and our priests supported without money? But you are unwise to reproach us with a desire of obtaining money; you forget that your own Church, if the Church of England be your own Church, as I suppose it is, from the willingness which you displayed in the public-house to fight for it, is equally avaricious; look at your greedy bishops, and your corpulent rectors--do they imitate Christ in His disregard for money? You might as well tell me that they imitate Christ in His meekness and humility."

"Well," said I, "whatever their faults may be, you can't say that they go to Rome for money."

The man in black made no direct answer, but appeared by the motion of his lips to be repeating something to himself.

"I see your gla.s.s is again empty," said I; "perhaps you will replenish it?"

The man in black arose from his seat, adjusted his habiliments, which were rather in disorder, and placed upon his head his hat, which he had laid aside; then, looking at me, who was still lying on the ground, he said--"I might, perhaps, take another gla.s.s, though I believe I have had quite as much as I can well bear; but I do not wish to hear you utter anything more this evening, after that last observation of yours--it is quite original; I will meditate upon it on my pillow this night, after having said an ave and a pater--go to Rome for money!" He then made Belle a low bow, slightly motioned to me with his hand as if bidding farewell, and then left the dingle with rather uneven steps.

"Go to Rome for money," I heard him say as he ascended the winding path, "he! he! he! Go to Rome for money, ho! ho! ho!"

CHAPTER XCV

Wooded Retreat--Fresh Shoes--Wood Fire--Ash, when Green--Queen of China--Cleverest People--Declensions--Armenian--Thunder--Deep Olive--What Do You Mean?--Koul Adonai--The Thick Bushes--Wood Pigeon--Old Goethe.

Nearly three days elapsed without anything of particular moment occurring. Belle drove the little cart containing her merchandise about the neighbourhood, returning to the dingle towards the evening. As for myself, I kept within my wooded retreat, working during the periods of her absence leisurely at my forge. Having observed that the quadruped which my companion drove was as much in need of shoes as my own had been some time previously, I had determined to provide it with a set, and during the aforesaid periods occupied myself in preparing them. As I was employed three mornings and afternoons about them, I am sure that the reader will agree that I worked leisurely, or rather, lazily. On the third day Belle arrived somewhat later than usual; I was lying on my back at the bottom of the dingle, employed in tossing up the shoes which I had produced, and catching them as they fell--some being always in the air mounting or descending, somewhat after the fas.h.i.+on of the waters of a fountain.

"Why have you been absent so long?" said I to Belle; "it must be long past four by the day."

"I have been almost killed by the heat," said Belle; "I was never out in a more sultry day--the poor donkey, too, could scarcely move along."

"He shall have fresh shoes," said I, continuing my exercise; "here they are quite ready; to-morrow I will tack them on."

"And why are you playing with them in that manner?" said Belle.

"Partly in triumph at having made them, and partly to show that I can do something besides making them; it is not every one who, after having made a set of horse-shoes, can keep them going up and down in the air, without letting one fall."

"One has now fallen on your chin," said Belle.

"And another on my cheek," said I, getting up; "it is time to discontinue the game, for the last shoe drew blood."

Belle went to her own little encampment; and as for myself, after having flung the donkey's shoes into my tent, I put some fresh wood on the fire, which was nearly out, and hung the kettle over it. I then issued forth from the dingle, and strolled round the wood that surrounded it; for a long time I was busied in meditation, looking at the ground, striking with my foot, half unconsciously, the tufts of gra.s.s and thistles that I met in my way. After some time, I lifted up my eyes to the sky, at first vacantly, and then with more attention, turning my head in all directions for a minute or two; after which I returned to the dingle. Isopel was seated near the fire, over which the kettle was now hung; she had changed her dress--no signs of the dust and fatigue of her late excursion remained; she had just added to the fire a small billet of wood, two or three of which I had left beside it; the fire cracked, and a sweet odour filled the dingle.

"I am fond of sitting by a wood fire," said Belle, "when abroad, whether it be hot or cold; I love to see the flames dart out of the wood; but what kind is this, and where did you get it?"

"It is ash," said I, "green ash. Somewhat less than a week ago, whilst I was wandering along the road by the side of a wood, I came to a place where some peasants were engaged in cutting up and clearing away a confused ma.s.s of fallen timber: a mighty aged oak had given way the night before, and in its fall had s.h.i.+vered some smaller trees; the upper part of the oak, and the fragments of the rest, lay across the road. I purchased, for a trifle, a bundle or two, and the wood on the fire is part of it--ash, green ash."

"That makes good the old rhyme," said Belle, "which I have heard sung by the old women in the great house:--

'Ash, when green, Is fire for a queen.'"

"And on fairer form of queen, ash fire never shone," said I, "than on thine, O beauteous queen of the dingle."

"I am half disposed to be angry with you, young man," said Belle.

"And why not entirely?" said I.

Belle made no reply.

"Shall I tell you?" I demanded. "You had no objection to the first part of the speech, but you did not like being called queen of the dingle.

Well, if I had the power, I would make you queen of something better than the dingle--Queen of China. Come, let us have tea."

"Something less would content me," said Belle, sighing, as she rose to prepare our evening meal.

So we took tea together, Belle and I. "How delicious tea is after a hot summer's day, and a long walk," said she.

"I dare say it is most refres.h.i.+ng then," said I; "but I have heard people say that they most enjoy it on a cold winter's night, when the kettle is hissing on the fire, and their children playing on the hearth."

Belle sighed. "Where does tea come from?" she presently demanded.