FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123  
124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   >>   >|  
th. "When the two further years were run out, Blanche--" Blanche was a little startled to hear how Mrs Tremayne's voice trembled. She was evidently telling "an owre true tale." "The maid's father, and he that should have been her husband, were taken in one day. When those two years were run out, her father lay hidden away, having 'scaped from prison, until he might safely be holpen out of the country over seas: and the young man was a captive in Exeter Castle, and in daily expectation of death." "Good lack!" "And two years thereafter, the young man was had away from Exeter unto Woburn, and there set in the dread prison called Little Ease, shaped like to a funnel, wherein a man might neither stand, nor sit, nor lie, nor kneel." "O Mistress Tremayne! Heard any ever the like! And what came of the maiden, poor soul?" The needlework in Mrs Tremayne's hand was still now; and if any one had been present who had known her thirty years before, he would have said that a shadow of her old look at that terrible time had come back to her deep sweet eyes. "My child, God allowed her to be brought very low. At the first, she was upheld mightily by His consolations: and they that saw her said how well she bare it. But 'tis not alway the first blush of a sorrow that trieth the heart most sorely. And there came after this a time--when it was an old tale to them that knew her, and their comforting was given over,--a day came when all failed her. Nay, I should have said rather, all seemed to fail her. God failed her not; but her eyes were holden, and she saw Him not beside her. It was darkness, an horror of great darkness, that fell upon her. The Devil came close enough; he was very busy with her. Was there any hope? quoth he. Nay, none, or but very little. Then of what worth were God's promises to hear and deliver? He had passed His word, and He kept it not. Was God able to help?--was He true to His promise?--go to, was there any God in Heaven at all? And so, Blanche, she was tossed to and fro on the swelling billows, now up, seeing a faint ray of light, now down, in the depth of the darkness: yet, through all, with an half-palsied grasp, so to speak, upon the hem of Christ's garment, a groping after Him with numb hands that scarce felt whether they held or no. O Blanche, it was like the plague in the land of Egypt--it was darkness that might be felt!" Blanche listened in awed interest. "Dear heart,
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123  
124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Blanche

 

darkness

 

Tremayne

 

Exeter

 

father

 
prison
 

failed

 

sorely

 

horror

 
holden

comforting

 
billows
 

Christ

 

garment

 

groping

 

palsied

 

scarce

 

listened

 

interest

 

plague


promise

 

passed

 

deliver

 

promises

 

Heaven

 

tossed

 

swelling

 

terrible

 

expectation

 

captive


Castle

 
Woburn
 

funnel

 

shaped

 

called

 
Little
 

country

 

evidently

 

telling

 

trembled


startled

 

husband

 

scaped

 

safely

 

holpen

 

hidden

 
allowed
 

brought

 

upheld

 

mightily