the felicity of supping that evening, called this unwelcome down-pouring, which he afterwards declared was the should abate. dullest he ever spent in the whole course of his life. The next morning the fraternity proceeded with their guests to the marshes where their cattle fed, where a long and animated discussion took place between Humphrey and the superior of the convent respecting the price, the merits, and defects of the beasts which Humphrey deemed most worthy of his attention, in which so much time was wasted that the dinner bell rang before they had settled the price of so much as one bullock. At this meal they were again regaled with white bacon, which appeared a standing dish in this convent, for it was produced at supper, breakfast, and dinner; at the latter, indeed, there was the addition of a huge dish of hard dumplings, with which they devoured a quantity of pork-dripping by way of sauce. The morning had been fine but showery, in the afternoon a heavy rain set in, which rendered it impossible either to visit the cattle-marshes again, or to proceed homewards, which young Wolsey recommended his father's men to do, on the conviction of the impossibility of ever concluding a bargain with these frocked and cowled dealers in cattle and feeders of swine. The rain, however, continued without intermissison, and the malcontent student was compelled to remain where he was till the plague of water," as he 66 The following morning proving fine, they again proceeded to the marshes in hope of striking a bargain, which was at length concluded; but not till after a delay that appeared to the impatient Wolsey almost interminable, which time he employed, not in listening to the altercations of the buyer and sellers of the bullocks; but in strolling through the marshes and making observations, till he obtained a view of Blitheburgh on the line of country that intervened, across which, he persuaded himself a much shorter cut to that village might be made than by following the usual road through Wangford. Just as he had come to the resolution of attempting that route, the convent bell rang for dinner, and summoned him to a sixth meal of white bacon, of which the monks ate with as keen an appetite as if it had been the first time they ever partook of that savoury fare, of which Wolsey was by this time almost as weary as of the company of the founders of the entertainment. The bullocks, twelve in number, were now driven into the convent yard, and Humphrey called upon his young master to pay down the price for which he and the monks had agreed, at the average sum of one pound ten shillings a head, which he pronounced an unconscionable sum with a sly wink of intelligence at the Oxford student, by which he gave the youth, who was about to take his words literally, to understand Blitheburgh, they offered no objection, for that he was well satisfied with the bar- even the prudent Humphrey was desir gain. In fact, the Reydon monks, ous of adopting any expedient by which shrewd and exacting as they were, had they might make up for the time they met with more than their match in the had lost in drinking the convent ale after calculating, experienced Humphrey, who, the business was transacted. without making a boast of his wisdom in The monks assured them the project this way, knew how to judge of the was feasible, since the branch of the weight of a living ox almost to an odd Blithe which separated Henham and pound. Till the business was conclud- Reydon was fordable, and they would ed, the money paid, and the receipt giv- save a considerable distance by crossing en, he had forborne to taste of the con- the river, but their hospitality did not exvent mead or ale, though both had been tend to the civility of sending one of their pressed upon him with an earnestness swine-herds, or goose-boys to point out passing the bounds either of politeness the precise spot at which the attempt or hospitality by the cunning monks, might be made without danger to pas who hoped to overcome Humphrey's cool clear judgement and caution, by means of the merry brown bowl; but now all fear of being overreached in his bargain in consequence of such an indulgence was at an end, Humphrey, in spite of all his young master's expostulations, demanded the lately-rejected beverage, of which he, with Miles and Peter, drank pretty freely, though not perhaps so much as they would have done had the cloistered cattle-dealers been willing to produce more, which they were always sparing in doing after a bargain had been definitively struck. sengers. The stream was much swollen in consequence of the late heavy rains; Humphrey and the drovers paused on the rushy bank, each prudently declining to be the first to try the ford. Wolsey, who was piqued at their doubts of his assurance "that it was safe! perfectly safe!" though he would rather have had one of the others show a demonstrable proof that there was no danger, urged his reluctant mare forward. "Hold, master Thomas, hold! for the love of St. Margaret," cried Humphrey, who was suddenly sobered by the sight of his young master's peril, and the recollection that the stream was deep and muddy. The draughts which the trio had swallowed had had however the effect of putting them all into such high good humour, that when Wolsey on mounting proposed to them his plan of changing the roundabout route through Wangford, for a straight cut across the marshes to her name, he boldly plunged into the Now this St. Margaret was a saint for whom Wolsey had neither love nor reverence; so, without heeding the adjuration so pathetically addressed to him in THE BOY BACHELOR. dark and swollen waters of the dangerous ford. He was, as we have seen, an inexperienced rider on dry land, but a more skilful horseman than the stripling student would have found it a difficult matter to retain his seat and guide the terrified animal, who presently lost her footing, and began to plunge and kick in the muddy slippery ooze of which the bed of the Blithe and its dependent streams are composed, and which having recently been violently disturbed by the heavy rains, was in a state of complete ferment and liquefaction. Wolsey, though encumbered with his bachelor's gown, which he had not this time taken the precautionary measure of tucking up and fastening to his girdle, courageously maintained his seat till the mare, exhausted with her violent efforts, sunk, and left him floating on the stream. He was an expert swimmer in the clear calm Orwell, or the pastoral Gipping, his native streams, but scarcely a fish that had been used to the fresh sparkling element of such rivers as these, could have steered its course in the dank vortex of brackish mud in which poor Wolsey was immersed. Peter and Miles stood aghast at the accident, uttering doleful cries for help, without venturing to make a single effort to save the almost exhausted youth. Humphrey, the faithful Humphrey, at the first alarm had dismounted from the nag, and was preparing to plunge into the stream to save his master's son or 47 perish in the attempt, when one of Sir Richard Brandon's wood-rangers, who had seen the accident and hastened to the spot, reached the end of the long pole he had been using in leaping the marsh ditches, to the youth, by which assistance, the stream being narrow at that place, he was enabled, though not without some difficulty, to gain the opposite bank, from which, as soon as he had cleared his eyes and mouth of the salt, bitter, and unsavoury ooze he had been compelled to swallow, he called out in an accent of distress to Humphrey, "O, Humphrey, Humphrey! what shall we say to my father about the grey mare?" "St. Margaret take the mare!" sobbed Humphrey, who appeared to consider this patroness as somehow chargeable with the mishap; "don't talk of her, my dear boy, when she had nearly been the death of you. Howsomdever, master Thomas, you must never undertake to lead those who are wiser than yourself short cuts any more. I hope you have had enough of this precious ford, that was to take you such a near way to Blitheburgh." "Why so it will, you simple fellow," said Wolsey laughing, and wiping the mud from his face; do not you see the beautiful church over those marshes, almost at my elbow? I shall bestir myself to get there as fast as I can, now I am over the water, that I may get dry clothes, a good supper, and some pleas 48 AN ENIGMA. ant chat with the worthy monks of the Holy Rood, which will console me for the drenching I have got." "Alack, alack! master Thomas! what is to become of us and the bullocks?" howled Miles and Peter from the opposite bank. "You may come over the river to me, an you like," responded Wolsey from the other side. met with agreeable entertainment, nor will the limits of our tale admit of our tracing the progressive steps by which he in the sequel attained to the eminence to which his ambition, even in childhood, prompted him to aspire. By keeping his attention constantly fixed on this ob ject, he found it at last within his reach; but was he then contented? Let me answer this question with another "We durst not do that for our lives," When was the desire of human greatcried the trembling drovers. "Then turn yourselves and the bullocks about, and find the road to Wangford as well as ye can: Humphrey knows the country, and he will guide ye to get to Blitheburgh by that roundabout way, ye poltroons, unless ye choose to stay where ye are till I am a Cardinal, when it is my intention to build a bridge over this sweet stream, to prevent other travellers from incurring the peril which I have done in endeavouring to ford such a bottomless abyss of mud." We will not follow the young bachelor to Blitheburgh, where doubtless he ness ever satisfied? I refer the juvenile reader to the history of this extraordinary man, who, when he had attained the coveted rank of Cardinal, though he was burdened with the cares of the prime minister of England, which office he held during twenty years of Henry the Eighth's reign, was not forgetful of his promise of building a bridge over the stream which had so nearly proved fatal to himself. The name of the bridge, and the local tradition thereunto belonging, will long, I trust, exist to preserve the memory of an action of pure benev olence to future ages. AN ENIGMA. I am a cold, insipid creature, Sometimes deck'd with princely honours, Sometimes grac'd with holy mitres; Though my words are few in number, They are with sentiments replete ; Oft, in philosophic language, Moral lessons I repeat. I assist in marriage contracts, [THERE is a little book, which has gone through a number of editions, called "FABLES FOR THE NURSERY," which can be recommended to all mothers as one of the very best books that ever was printed for attracting the attention of children. One of the fables has been versified, and we insert it here as a happy specimen of making poetry conducive to instruction. If any of our little readers will versify another of these same fables, we will print it in our Magazine.] THERE dwelt 'neath the roots Of a fine elm tree, A peaceful old Hedgehog The hedgehog address'd, Herself from the nest. "It grieves me, my dears, To leave you alone, But I hope soon to bring you A good supper home: Stir not from this place While I wander for food, There are traps in the field, And dogs in the wood." They promis'd their mother, Obedience to pay, And with one parting look She was soon on her way; But was scarce out of sight, Ere Bustle began To propose to his brothers The following plan. "Come hither, dear Bob, And you, my dear Bristle, Let us go through the hedge That's close by yon thistle : I cannot with patience Behold you submit To remain in this hole, For none of us fit. |