The Knight of the Golden Melice Part 45

"You seem to know all things," said the lady, scornfully, "and I wonder why ye trouble yourselves with anything that an ignorant woman can say. Have it as you will."

"Hath not our examination proceeded far enough?" asked Sir Richard.

"Is there aught else ye expect to elicit?"

"The woman, I think, hath confessed the whole," said Dudley. "She openly admits that this Gardiner, or whatever else be his name, is her paramour; and, for the remainder, what hath been wrested from her by her own contradictions, sufficiently confounds her."

"Base man, it is false!" cried the lady, roused into indignation by the charge. I have confessed to naught whereof a woman should be ashamed. There is no infamy attached to my name; and as high as Heaven is above the earth, so far is Sir Christopher above thy craven nature."

"Heyday!" said Dudley; "it thunders and lightens. I bandy not words with thee, but the record of the Secretary will show."

"I find not the exact word," said the Secretary, Master Nowell, after examining his minutes, "but she doth acknowledge this pretended Knight as her protector since they left England, and the terms are equivalent."

"I meant it not so. I have acknowledged nothing to my disgrace,"

exclaimed the lady. "Ye have enveigled and entrapped me by artful questions, and then put constructions on my answers which do not belong to them. A worthy business, truly, for grave and learned men to be engaged in, to set their wits to work against a forlorn woman, to pervert her language into shameful meanings."

"Madam," said Winthrop, "you have permission to retire. Bring with thee," he added, addressing the beadle, "the little Indian girl, without letting her come to speech with this gentlewoman, and also Sa.s.sacus, properly guarded."

CHAPTER x.x.x.

"Vainly, but well, that Chief had fought, He was a captive now; Yet pride, that fortune humbles not, Was written on his brow.

The scars his dark, broad bosom wore, Showed warrior true and brave; A prince among his tribe before--"

BRYANT.

"A manifest Papist! I can scent one of them out as easily as a hound doth the hare," said Endicott, after the lady had retired.

"Beyond a peradventure," echoed Dudley; "and the attempt at deception doth aggravate her guilt."

"I, too, remarked," said an a.s.sistant, "that she possesses not the s.h.i.+bboleth whereunto she laid claim."

"Yet, wherefore should they, being Papists, come hither?" said Master Nowell. "I understand not the mystery that surrounds them."

"A circ.u.mstance in itself suspicious," said Endicott, "wherefore needs an honest intent to hide its head?"

"On the contrary, it is ever ready to show itself in the sunlight,"

said Master Nowell.

"Know you what is expected to be learned from the child?" asked an a.s.sistant, of Dudley.

"I surmise our Governor desires something further to quiet his ever-anxious and doubting mind," answered Dudley.

"I lack no light to form a judgment," said Endicott, "and a further inquiry is supererogatory."

"Nevertheless," said Master Bradstreet, "there be some of us on whom a clear light hath not yet s.h.i.+ned. My charity strongly inclines me to view this poor woman in a less unfavorable light since she hath avowed herself not to be an idolater of Rome."

"Well saith the Scripture," exclaimed Dudley, "that charity doth cover a mult.i.tude of sins. The rule is good in the exercise of judgment in things pertaining to private concerns, but in public business it is naught. But your scruples, and those of Master Winthrop, are likely soon to be satisfied, for here comes the little Canaanite."

And as he spoke the door was opened, and the servitor appeared, bringing in the child.

"Where is the other Indian?" inquired Endicott.

"He will be here incontinently, your wors.h.i.+p," replied the man. "As there was some delay in the needful preparation, I did think it expedient not to keep your wors.h.i.+ps waiting, more especially as it would not be becoming that ye should be put to inconvenience for a heathen red skin."

"Reasoned like Aristoteles," said Dudley, laughing. "Give me a man of thy humor, Hezekiah Negus, who rightly apprehends the value of time, and the danger of keeping his superiors dependent on his laziness."

"Bring hither the child," said Winthrop.

The servitor, in obedience to the order, led the girl to the Governor's seat, and placed her standing by his side.

"What is thy name, little one?" asked Winthrop, putting his hand upon her head.

"Neebin," answered the girl, whose eyes, from the moment of her entrance, had been scanning the company and the room in that quiet, covert way, in which the Indian is wont to gratify his curiosity while endeavoring to conceal it. At the same time, if she felt fear, neither her voice nor manner betrayed it.

"Neebin!" repeated Winthrop. "A very pretty name, and hath a pretty meaning in English, I doubt not."

The child, encouraged by the gentleness of his voice and looks, and perhaps proud of showing her knowledge of the language of the whites, answered:

"Neebin is summer."

"Darling Neebin," said Winthrop, whose countenance really expressed an interest in the little Indian, "hast ever been taught thy prayers?"

"Neebin knows two prayers."

"Will she say them for me?"

The child crossed her arms upon her bosom, after having first made the sign of the cross upon her brow, her lips, and breast; and then, letting fall the long, black lashes of her eye-lids, commenced repeating the "pater-noster." At the sign of the cross, Dudley started; but, as if recollecting himself, sunk back with a groan.

After finis.h.i.+ng the pater-noster, the little girl began the "Ave Maria;" but this was more than the scandalized deputy could endure.

"I may not," he cried, starting up, "listen without sin to this idolatry. Better to smite--"

"I pray thee to have a little patience," said Winthrop, interrupting him. "None of its guilt attaches itself to us."

"I know not that," replied Dudley. "I will not, like Naaman the Syrian, bow myself down in the house of Rimmon, even although my master leaneth on my hand. I do bear my testimony against these popish incantations."

The face of Winthrop flushed at the taunt conveyed, both in the manner and in the language; but, as his custom was, he paused before replying, which gave opportunity to Endicott to say:

"My teeth, also, as well as those of Master Dudley, are set on edge; and I think that any farther inquiry on this branch of the subject may well be pretermitted."

"In my judgment," said Sir Richard Saltonstall, "it were well, inasmuch as, though not partaking to the degree of their delicacy of the scruples of the Deputy-Governor and of Master Endicott, yet do I respect them, considering the fountain whence they flow. I also highly approve of and thank the Governor for his judicious questions, whereby the truth hath been brought to light, and what was a little dark before hath been made plain. But the end being sufficiently attained, it were better, perhaps, not to press in this way after further knowledge, seeing we neither need nor desire it."

"I accede to your wishes, gentlemen," said Winthrop, "though I hardly approve of this cutting short the answer of a witness. Ye shall have, however, your will."

"What!" exclaimed Dudley; "not when the answer is blasphemous, or idolatrous, or otherwise impious?"