The Star-Chamber, Volume 1 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 259 pages of information about The Star-Chamber, Volume 1.

The Star-Chamber, Volume 1 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 259 pages of information about The Star-Chamber, Volume 1.

CHAPTER XVI.

Of the sign given by the Puritan to the Assemblage.

Meanwhile, a great crowd had collected beneath the window, and though no interruption was offered to the speaker, it was easy to discern from the angry countenances of his hearers what was the effect of the address upon them.  When he had done, Hugh Calveley folded his arms upon his breast, and sternly regarded the assemblage.

He was well-stricken in years, as his grizzled hair and beard denoted, but neither was his strength impaired, nor the fire of his eye dimmed.  Squarely built, with hard and somewhat massive features, strongly stamped with austerity, he was distinguished by a soldier-like deportment and manner, while his bronzed countenance, which bore upon it more than one cicatrice, showed he must have been exposed to foreign suns, and seen much service.  There was great determination about the mouth, and about the physiognomy generally, while at the same time there was something of the wildness of fanaticism in his looks.  He was habited in a buff jerkin, with a brown, lackered, breast-plate over it, thigh-pieces of a similar colour and similar material, and stout leathern boots.  A broad belt with a heavy sword attached to, it crossed his breast, and round his neck was a plain falling band.  You could not regard Hugh Calveley without feeling he was a man to die a martyr in any cause he had espoused.

A deep groan was now directed against him.  But it moved not a muscle of his rigid countenance.

Jocelyn began to fear from the menacing looks of the crowd that some violence might be attempted, and he endeavoured to check it.

“Bear with him, worthy friends,” he cried, “he means you well, though he may reprove you somewhat too sharply.”

“Beshrew him for an envious railer,” cried a miller, “he mars all our pleasures with his peevish humours.  He would have us all as discontented with the world as himself—­but we know better.  He will not let us have our lawful sports as enjoined by the King himself on Sundays, and he now tries to interfere with our recreations on holidays.  A pest upon him for a cankerbitten churl!”

“His sullen looks are enough to turn all the cream in the village sour,” observed an old dame.

“Why doth he not betake himself to the conventicle and preach there?” old Greenford cried.  “Why should we have all these bitter texts of scripture thrown at our heads?  Why should we be likened to the drunkards of Ephraim because we drink our Whitsun-ales?  I have tasted nothing more than my morning cup as yet.”

“Why should our May-pole be termed an idol?  Answer me that, good grandsire?” Gillian demanded.

“Nay, let him who called it so answer thee, child, for I cannot,” the old farmer rejoined.  “I can see naught idolatrous in it.”

“Why should our pretty May Queen be despoiled of her ornaments because they please not his fanatical taste?” Dick Taverner demanded.  “For my part I can discern no difference between a Puritan and a knave, and I would hang both.”

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The Star-Chamber, Volume 1 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.