of the midnight meeting in the crypt beneath the
chapter-house.
it was on the stroke of midnight that osbert clinton, muffled in a long black cloak, and armed with rapier and dagger, arrived at the place of rendezvous appointed by de noailles. the night was bright and beautiful, and the moon, nearly at the full, and hanging above the north side of the noble gothic fane, silvered its hoary battlements and buttresses, and glittered upon the tinted panes of the great pointed windows.
passing through an arched doorway, he entered the cloisters, and marched slowly along the south ambulatory. no one was there. having thus tracked one side of the square, and glanced down the alley on the left, he stood still and listened, but no sound reached his ears, until shortly afterwards the deep bell of the abbey tolled forth the hour of midnight. then all again relapsed into solemn silence, and had there been even a light footfall on the pavement, osbert must have heard it.
again he moved slowly on. his thoughts were too much occupied with the business he had on hand, or he might have noted the vaulted and richly-ornamented ceiling overhead, or the pillared openings at the side, through which the moonlight streamed upon the pavement, but though he was not wholly unconscious of these architectural beauties, 309they produced little effect upon him, neither did the serene loveliness of the night, or the hushed tranquility of the spot, soothe his perturbed spirits.
he had reached another angle of the cloisters, and was proceeding along the alley, which was here plunged in gloom, when he fancied he discerned a dark figure advancing towards him, upon which he quickened his steps, and soon reached the person, who, on seeing him, remained stationary. it was de noailles. like osbert he was muffled in a cloak, and his broad-leaved hat was pulled over his brows.
“you have not changed your mind, i perceive,” observed de noailles, “but are resolved to go on with the enterprise.”
“i am,” replied osbert.
“follow me, then,” rejoined the french ambassador, “and i will introduce you to those in league with us.”
marching quickly but noiselessly along, he conducted osbert towards the chapter-house. on reaching it, they descended a flight of stone steps which seemed to lead to a vault, but further progress was arrested by a door, against which de noailles tapped gently. at this summons the door was cautiously opened by a man, who appeared to be well-armed, and they were admitted into a large subterranean chamber.
this crypt, for such it was, was dimly illumined by an iron lamp fixen to a pillar standing in the centre of the vault. the stone walls were of great solidity, in order to sustain the weight of the chapter-house, and the roof, which likewise formed the floor of the superstructure, was of stone, ribbed, and groined, and supported by the pillar to which the lamp was fixed.
in this crypt were assembled some eight or nine young men, all of good condition, judging from their attire and deportment as de noailles and osbert entered the vault, a tall, richly-dressed man detached himself from the group with whom he was conversing, and advanced to meet them. as he advanced, osbert instantly knew him to be thomas stafford, second son to lord stafford, and grandson of the duke of buckingham, a disaffected personage who had been engaged in wyat’s rebellion, but had escaped owing to want of proof of his complicity in the affair.
310“your excellency is welcome,” said stafford to the ambassador. “i am glad to find you bring us a recruit. what! osbert clinton, is it you?” he added, as the young man unmuffled his countenance. “you are, indeed, an important accession to our ranks. but you must take the oath of fidelity. our object is to deliver our country from the tyranny of spain, to depose mary, to place elizabeth on the throne and wed her to courtenay, and to restore the protestant faith.”
“i will be true to you to the death,” replied osbert emphatically, “and will aid you to the utmost of my power—this i solemnly swear.”
“enough,” replied stafford; “and now i will present you to my associates in this great and holy cause. some of them you know.”
“i know sir henry dudley, sir anthony kingston, and sir nicholas throckmorton,” replied osbert, saluting the three persons he named, “but the rest are strangers to me.”
“this is honest master udal, and this bold master staunton, both good protestants, and hearty haters of the spaniard and popish idolatry,” said sir henry dudley. and after salutations had passed by osbert and the persons indicated, he went on: “these gentlemen,” bringing forward two others, “are masters peckham and werne. you have heard of them, i make no doubt?”
“ay, marry have i, oftentimes,” replied osbert. “they are officers to the princess elizabeth. i am glad to see them here.”
“they bring us messages from the princess approving of our design,” said dudley. “her highness will not write, after the danger she incurred from her intercepted correspondence with wyat.”
“her grace is very favourable to your cause, as i have already stated, sir henry,” observed peckham, “and wishes it all possible success.”
“she has need to do,” said sir anthony kingston. “if we succeed, we shall place the crown upon her head.”
“there is yet another gentleman whom you have not made known to me, sir henry,” said osbert, indicating a dark, sinister-looking personage, in a philemot-coloured mantle and doublet, who stood aloof from the others.
311“ha! this is a very useful person,” replied dudley. “this is m. de freitville, a secret agent of the king of france, who promises to aid our enterprise with men and money.”
“i hope he will fulfil his promises better than those made by him to wyat,” remarked osbert, regarding freitville distrustfully.
“had wyat held out a few days longer, he would not have lacked support,” rejoined freitville. “my royal master afforded an asylum and gave pensions to all those implicated in the rebellion who fled to france. his excellency m. de noailles will tell you that his majesty has ever been hostile to this spanish alliance, and that, failing in preventing it, he is now determined to drive the queen and her husband from the throne, and set up the princess elizabeth in their stead.”
“has he no other views?” said osbert.
“none averse to this country,” said de noailles, “that i can declare emphatically. it would be idle to assert that my royal master is influenced by the same motives that you are; but the end is the same. you both seek the dissolution of this marriage and the overthrow of philip—he as the avowed enemy of spain, you as suffering from the tyranny of philip, and anxious to restore the reformed religion. our interests, therefore, are identical, and we make common cause together against the foe. for my own part, i have a personal antipathy to philip. he has done me a grievous injury, and i will never rest till i requite him. some day or other his life will be in my hands and then he shall feel my vengeance.”
“my wrongs are greater than yours,” cried osbert. “i have thrown off all allegiance to him, and am henceforth his deadly foe. he has stepped between me and her whom i love dearer than life, and has sought to sacrifice her to his unhallowed desires. he is unworthy to be the queen’s consort—unworthy to govern englishmen. i will shed my heart’s blood in the attempt to drive him from the throne.”
“why not plunge a dagger in his breast,” said freitville, “and so rid the country of a tyrant?”
“i am no assassin,” replied osbert. “deeply as i hate him, i would not slay him save in fair fight. no, we must rouse our countrymen to a sense of their danger, and rise in 312arms against him, and put him justly to death, or drive him from the country.”
“his design is to subjugate england, and reduce us to the condition of flanders and burgundy,” cried stafford. “if he is allowed to remain on the throne for another year, he will become absolute master of our liberties. the twelve strongest fortresses in england—the tower itself included—are to be delivered up to him by the misguided and unworthy queen, and garrisoned by twenty thousand spaniards.”
“i can scarce think the queen would be thus false to her country,” said osbert.
“it is so, sir, and i will tell you more,” pursued stafford. “alva is to be governor of the tower, and ere he has been there many months more noble english blood will drench the scaffold than ever dyed it in king harry’s days. the inquisition, also, is to be established.”
“it is already established among us,” cried sir henry dudley. “we had our auto-da-fé in smithfield yesterday.”
“the queen is so infatuated by her love for the king,” pursued stafford, “that she can deny him nothing. you, sir,” he added to osbert, “who have been in attendance upon him, must know how shamefully he abuses her regard, and the scandalous infidelities he practises.”
“it is true,” replied osbert. “it is true, also, that her majesty can refuse him nothing. he has incited her to settle her crown upon him by her will in the event of her decease during her time of travail.”
“can she be so blind as not to perceive that by making such a will she ensures her own death by poison?” observed de noailles. “but her senseless passion deprives her of all judgment.”
“now is the time to strike,” cried stafford. “men’s minds are so excited that a single spark will set the whole city of london in a flame. all the protestants are ripe for outbreak. let us raise the standard of revolt in smithfield, on the very spot where rogers was martyred, proclaim the princess elizabeth queen, the deposition of philip and mary, and restoration of the reformed religion. we can only number a handful of men at first, but what matters that? thousands will soon rally round us, and ere night we shall be masters of the city.”
313“the enterprise is desperate,” said osbert, “but the moment is propitious. i am with you.”
“so are we all!” cried the others.
“our cry shall be, ‘down with philip and mary! down with the mass and idolatry! long live queen elizabeth, the head and defender of the protestant church!’” said stafford. “every protestant will respond to the call.”
“if we fail, we throw away our lives in a righteous cause,” rejoined osbert.
“we shall not fail,” cried sir henry dudley. “i was at smithfield yesterday, and spoke with hundreds, who are ready for an outbreak.”
“so did i,” added sir anthony kingston. “i can vouch for the detestation with which the king is regarded. let not the attempt be delayed.”
“it shall be made to-morrow,” said stafford. “i can muster fifty well armed men.”
“and i half that number,” said dudley.
“and i twenty,” said kingston.
“i can bring no one with me,” said osbert. “but i will gain a thousand followers before the day is over.”
“at what hour shall we meet to-morrow?” said dudley.
“at noon,” replied stafford. “give me your hand upon it, osbert clinton.”
“readily,” rejoined the other, grasping the hand stretched out to him.
at this moment the lamp was suddenly thrown down, and the crypt plunged in darkness.
“traitors, before to-morrow you shall be all clapped in the tower!” cried a voice.
“’tis the king!” mentally ejaculated osbert clinton. and he sprang towards the door.
“perdition! we have a spy among us,” cried stafford. “seize him and put him to death!”
and, as he spoke, swords were drawn by the conspirators.
“let no one go forth, but let each man answer for himself. where is osbert clinton?”
“here,” he replied, from the door.
“where is sir henry dudley?”
314“here,” answered the person designated.
while stafford was pursuing these inquiries, osbert heard some one approaching, and stepped a little aside. it was well he did so, as otherwise a rapier would have transfixed him. as it was, the point of the weapon merely pierced the side of his doublet, without doing him any injury. but at the same moment osbert seized the arm that had dealt the blow. after vainly struggling to free himself from the iron grasp in which he was held, the king (for it was he) whispered, “release me, sir, i command you.”
“your commands are of no weight here, sire,” replied osbert. “but i will not see you assassinated. save yourself!”
and letting go his hold as he spoke, the king instantly passed through the door, and made good his retreat.
at the noise occasioned by his exit, all was confusion and alarm among the conspirators. amid fierce shouts and exclamations a general rush was made to the door, and had they not reached it quickly, the whole party would have been made prisoners without the possibility of escape, for some one was trying to lock them in.
made aware of their approach by the noise, this person fled, without having accomplished his purpose, but, while hastily mounting the steps, he became entangled in his gown—for his garments were those of a monk—and fell. the first of the conspirators to issue from the crypt, were stafford and dudley, and on catching sight of the monk, who was getting up as quickly as he could, they recognised father alfonso de castro.
“by heaven! it is the king’s confessor who has been playing the spy upon us,” exclaimed stafford.
“he shall not escape to tell the tale,” roared dudley. “my sword shall stop his preaching in future.”
and they dashed up the steps. ere they could reach him, however, father alfonso had regained his feet, and speeded across the court, shouting lustily for help.
his object was to gain a small tower, then standing near the cloisters, on the summit of which tower, under a wooden pent-house, hung the alarm-bell. as father alfonso was aware, the door of this building was always left open, and if he could only reach it, he would be safe. fear lent him 315wings, and he had passed through the door, shut it, and barred it inside before his pursuers came up.
while they were venting their disappointment in maledictions, he ran up a narrow spiral stone staircase, and, reaching a small chamber, seized a rope that dangled from a hole in the ceiling, and began to ring the alarm-bell.
