THE BRAVEST OF THE BRAVE

CHAPTER I: THE WAR OF THE SUCCESSION


"He is an idle vagabond!" the mayor of the good town of Southampton
said, in high wrath--"a ne'er do well, and an insolent puppy; and as to
you, Mistress Alice, if I catch you exchanging words with him again, ay,
or nodding to him, or looking as if in any way you were conscious of his
presence, I will put you on bread and water, and will send you away for
six months to the care of my sister Deborah, who will, I warrant me,
bring you to your senses."

The Mayor of Southampton must have been very angry indeed when he spoke
in this way to his daughter Alice, who in most matters had her own
way. Especially did it show that he was angry, since he so spoke in the
presence of Mistress Anthony, his wife, who was accustomed to have a by
no means unimportant share in any decision arrived at respecting family
matters.

She was too wise a woman, however, to attempt to arrest the torrent
in full flood, especially as it was a matter on which her husband had
already shown a very unusual determination to have his own way. She
therefore continued to work in silence, and paid no attention to the
appealing glance which her daughter, a girl of fourteen, cast toward
her. But although she said nothing, her husband understood in her
silence an unuttered protest.

"It is no use your taking that scamp's part, Mary, in this matter. I am
determined to have my own way, and the townspeople know well that when
Richard Anthony makes up his mind, nothing will move him."

"I have had no opportunity to take his part, Richard," his wife said
quietly; "you have been storming without interruption since you came in
five minutes ago, and I have not uttered a single word."

"But you agree with me, Mary--you cannot but agree with me--that it is
nothing short of a scandal for the daughter of the Mayor of Southampton
to be talking to a penniless young rogue like that at the garden gate."

"Alice should not have met him there," Mistress Anthony said; "but
seeing that she is only fourteen years old, and the boy only sixteen,
and he her second cousin, I do not see that the matter is so very
shocking."

"In four more years, Mistress Anthony," the mayor said profoundly, "he
will be twenty, and she will be eighteen."

"So I suppose, Richard; I am no great head at a figures, but even I can
reckon that. But as at present they are only fourteen and sixteen, I
repeat that I do not see that it matters--at least not so very much.
Alice, do you go to your room, and remain there till I send for you."

The girl without a word rose and retired. In the reign of King William
the Third implicit obedience was expected of children.

"I think, Richard," Mrs. Anthony went on when the door closed behind her
daughter, "you are not acting quite with your usual wisdom in treating
this matter in so serious a light, and in putting ideas into the girl's
head which would probably never have entered there otherwise. Of course
Alice is fond of Jack. It is only natural that she should be, seeing
that he is her second cousin, and that for two years they have lived
together under this roof."

"I was a fool, Mistress Anthony," the mayor said angrily, "ever to yield
to your persuasions in that matter. It was unfortunate, of course, that
the boy's father, the husband of your Cousin Margaret, should have been
turned out of his living by the Sectarians, as befell thousands of other
clergymen besides him. It was still more unfortunate that when King
Charles returned he did not get reinstated; but, after all, that was
Margaret's business and not mine; and if she was fool enough to marry a
pauper, and he well nigh old enough to be her father--well, as I say, it
was no business of mine."

"He was not a pauper, Richard, and you know it; and he made enough by
teaching to keep him and Margaret comfortably till he broke down and
died three years ago, and poor Margaret followed him to the grave a year
later. He was a good man--in every way a good man."

"Tut, tut! I am not saying he wasn't a good man. I am only saying that,
good or bad, it was no business of mine; and then nothing will do but
I must send for the boy and put him in my business. And a nice mess
he made of it--an idler, more careless apprentice, no cloth merchant,
especially one who stood well with his fellow citizens, and who was
on the highway to becoming mayor of his native city, was ever crossed
with."

"I think he was hardly as bad as that, Richard. I don't think you were
ever quite fair to the boy."