The Lancashire Witches (Historical Novel). William Harrison Ainsworth
of the loveliest streams in Lancashire. His devotions performed, Paslew, attended by a guard, slowly descended the hill, and gazed his last on scenes familiar to him almost from infancy. Noble trees, which now looked like old friends, to whom he was bidding an eternal adieu, stood around him. Beneath them, at the end of a glade, couched a herd of deer, which started off at sight of the intruders, and made him envy their freedom and fleetness as he followed them in thought to their solitudes. At the foot of a steep rock ran the Hodder, making the pleasant music of other days as it dashed over its pebbly bed, and recalling times, when, free from all care, he had strayed by its wood-fringed banks, to listen to the pleasant sound of running waters, and watch the shining pebbles beneath them, and the swift trout and dainty umber glancing past.
A bitter pang was it to part with scenes so fair, and the abbot spoke no word, nor even looked up, until, passing Little Mitton, he came in sight of Whalley Abbey. Then, collecting all his energies, he prepared for the shock he was about to endure. But nerved as he was, his firmness was sorely tried when he beheld the stately pile, once his own, now gone from him and his for ever. He gave one fond glance towards it, and then painfully averting his gaze, recited, in a low voice, this supplication:—
“Miserere mei, Deus, secundum magnam misericordiam tuam. Et secundum multitudinem miserationum tuarum, dele iniquitatem meam. Amplius lava me ab iniquitate meâ, et à peccato meo munda me.“
But other thoughts and other emotions crowded upon him, when he beheld the groups of his old retainers advancing to meet him: men, women, and children pouring forth loud lamentations, prostrating themselves at his feet, and deploring his doom. The abbot’s fortitude had a severe trial here, and the tears sprung to his eyes. The devotion of these poor people touched him more sharply than the severity of his adversaries.
“Bless ye! bless ye! my children,” he cried; “repine not for me, for I bear my cross with resignation. It is for me to bewail your lot, much fearing that the flock I have so long and so zealously tended will fall into the hands of other and less heedful pastors, or, still worse, of devouring wolves. Bless ye, my children, and be comforted. Think of the end of Abbot Paslew, and for what he suffered.”
“Think that he was a traitor to the king, and took up arms in rebellion against him,” cried the sheriff, riding up, and speaking in a loud voice; “and that for his heinous offences he was justly condemned to death.”
Murmurs arose at this speech, but they were instantly checked by the escort.
“Think charitably of me, my children,” said the abbot; “and the blessed Virgin keep you steadfast in your faith. Benedicite!”
“Be silent, traitor, I command thee,” cried the sheriff, striking him with his gauntlet in the face.
The abbot’s pale check burnt crimson, and his eye flashed fire, but he controlled himself, and answered meekly,—
“Thou didst not speak in such wise, John Braddyll, when I saved thee from the flood.”
“Which flood thou thyself caused to burst forth by devilish arts,” rejoined the sheriff. “I owe thee little for the service. If for naught else, thou deservest death for thy evil doings on that night.”
The abbot made no reply, for Braddyll’s allusion conjured up a sombre train of thought within his breast, awakening apprehensions which he could neither account for, nor shake off. Meanwhile, the cavalcade slowly approached the north-east gateway of the abbey—passing through crowds of kneeling and sorrowing bystanders;—but so deeply was the abbot engrossed by the one dread idea that possessed him, that he saw them not, and scarce heard their woful lamentations. All at once the cavalcade stopped, and the sheriff rode on to the gate, in the opening of which some ceremony was observed. Then it was that Paslew raised his eyes, and beheld standing before him a tall man, with a woman beside him bearing an infant in her arms. The eyes of the pair were fixed upon him with vindictive exultation. He would have averted his gaze, but an irresistible fascination withheld him.
“Thou seest all is prepared,” said Demdike, coming close up the mule on which Paslew was mounted, and pointing to the gigantic gallows, looming above the abbey walls; “wilt them now accede to my request?” And then he added, significantly—“on the same terms as before.”
The abbot understood his meaning well. Life and freedom were offered him by a being, whose power to accomplish his promise he did not doubt. The struggle was hard; but he resisted the temptation, and answered firmly,—
“No.”
“Then die the felon death thou meritest,” cried Bess, fiercely; “and I will glut mine eyes with the spectacle.”
Incensed beyond endurance, the abbot looked sternly at her, and raised his hand in denunciation. The action and the look were so appalling, that the affrighted woman would have fled if her husband had not restrained her.
“By the holy patriarchs and prophets; by the prelates and confessors; by the doctors of the church; by the holy abbots, monks, and eremites, who dwelt in solitudes, in mountains, and in caverns; by the holy saints and martyrs, who suffered torture and death for their faith, I curse thee, witch!” cried Paslew. “May the malediction of Heaven and all its hosts alight on the head of thy infant—”
“Oh! holy abbot,” shrieked Bess, breaking from her husband, and flinging herself at Paslew’s feet, “curse me, if thou wilt, but spare my innocent child. Save it, and we will save thee.”
“Avoid thee, wretched and impious woman,” rejoined the abbot; “I have pronounced the dread anathema, and it cannot be recalled. Look at the dripping garments of thy child. In blood has it been baptised, and through blood-stained paths shall its course be taken.”
“Ha!” shrieked Bess, noticing for the first time the ensanguined condition of the infant’s attire. “Cuthbert’s blood—oh!”
“Listen to me, wicked woman,” pursued the abbot, as if filled with a prophetic spirit. “Thy child’s life shall be long—beyond the ordinary term of woman—but it shall be a life of woe and ill.”
“Oh! stay him—stay him; or I shall die!” cried Bess.
But the wizard could not speak. A greater power than his own apparently overmastered him.
“Children shall she have,” continued the abbot, “and children’s children, but they shall be a race doomed and accursed—a brood of adders, that the world shall flee from and crush. A thing accursed, and shunned by her fellows, shall thy daughter be—evil reputed and evil doing. No hand to help her—no lip to bless her—life a burden; and death—long, long in coming—finding her in a dismal dungeon. Now, depart from me, and trouble me no more.”
Bess made a motion as if she would go, and then turning, partly round, dropped heavily on the ground. Demdike caught the child ere she fell.
“Thou hast killed her!” he cried to the abbot.
“A stronger voice than mine hath spoken, if it be so,” rejoined Paslew. ”Fuge miserrime, fuge malefice, quia judex adest iratus.”
At this moment the trumpet again sounded, and the cavalcade being put in motion, the abbot and his fellow-captives passed through the gate.
Dismounting from their mules within the court, before the chapter-house, the captive ecclesiastics, preceded by the sheriff were led to the principal chamber of the structure, where the Earl of Derby awaited them, seated in the Gothic carved oak chair, formerly occupied by the Abbots of Whalley on the occasions of conferences or elections. The earl was surrounded by his officers, and the chamber was filled with armed men. The abbot slowly advanced towards the earl. His deportment was dignified and firm, even majestic. The exaltation of spirit, occasioned by the interview with Demdike and his wife, had passed away, and was succeeded by a profound calm. The hue of his cheek was livid, but otherwise he seemed wholly unmoved.
The ceremony of delivering up the bodies of the prisoners to the earl was gone through by the sheriff, and their sentences were then read aloud by a clerk. After this the earl, who had hitherto remained covered, took off his cap, and in