“Oh! now I see what thou art driving at, Master Benjamin. I suppose you and Mistress Lucy are so smitten with each other’s good looks that you wish to hasten the wedding?”
“Put it as you please,” said he. “For my part, I do not see why Parson Drumbleforth should not marry us as soon as harvest is over. I tell thee what I think, Will. Lucy and I have gotten two hundred guineas in gold hidden under yonder hearthstone, which is a sum that no man may despise. I want not to lose it in fines and penalties. Now, if I open my shop again, these Roundhead rogues, seeing me a man of substance, will levy a heavy fine upon me, and I shall lose all. So let me lie quietly here, working in thy harvest-field until matters have blown over somewhat. Then we will all be married and my money will be safe. What do you think?”
“I think, Ben, that thou art a second Solomon. However, these are not over-pleasant times for marrying. You would not like Lucy to be a widow within a month of her wedding.”
“Heaven forbid!” said he, turning pale at the thought. “Why should she?”
“Because thou hast been such a bold assailer of the Roundheads that they may desire to cut off thy head. Wait a while, Ben, till the country be settled.”
But when I came to consider what Ben had said, I began to think there might be some reason in his notions. Come what might, it was my intention to go no more to the wars: let the King and the Commons do what they would, I meant to stay at home and mind my own business. And since I had made up my mind to that, why should I not hasten my wedding, and so have a better right than ever to protect my dear love? The more I thought of the matter, the more I liked the idea, so that before I slept that night I resolved to see what Rose thought of it. The next morning I rose early and went out to look round my farm, and, finding Rose already risen, I asked her to go with me, as had been her custom in the days before I went a-fighting. So we went hand in hand through the fields, which were already ripening unto harvest.
“How strange it seems,” said Rose, as we walked slowly along, “not to hear the sound of the cannon! All day we used to listen to it, and at every shot we prayed God that none of ours should suffer. Not a day passed that we did not think of you, and wonder what you were doing, and whether you were ill or well; and many a time did old Jacob take his staff and walk across the fields to the hilltop, so that he might come back and tell us that the King’s standard still floated over the Castle. And now here you are safe and sound once more.”
“Yes,” I answered; “and I shall never go away again, Rose, of my own free will. Let those fight that will: if I had stayed at home and minded my own business, that villain had not vexed you.”
“Hush, hush!” she said. “Let that be; I am none the worse for such vexation as that.”
“Nevertheless,” I said, “here I am and here I stay. These times of trouble are not over yet, and I shall do better to protect my own than to go a-fighting for the King. You had rather I stayed at home than that I went to the wars, Rose?”
“Why,” said she, laughing, “is not that a strange question to ask of me, considering that I do not care to trust you out of my sight, Master Will?”
And she smiled so archly in my face and looked at me with such eyes of love that I took her into my arms and told her of all that was in my mind, namely, that I wanted her to marry me as soon as harvest was in, so that in future I could watch over her even more closely than before. To which she answered honestly and fondly that she was mine and mine only, and would do whatever I pleased. So that matter was settled, and we went homewards across the fields to acquaint Philip Lisle of our desires; and if there were any people in all God’s world who were happier than we were at that moment it is a marvel to me, for our happiness was much too great for words.
We found Philip and Jack busied in cleaning their harness, while Ben sat by and lectured them on the folly of war in general and of this war in particular. Whether they attended to his remarks I know not, but at the moment of our arrival they were conversing together in undertones, so that I think Master Ben’s discourse flew above their heads.
“War,” quoth Ben, as we came up, “was first of all invented by the evil one, and therefore no wise man ought to engage in it. As for me, I only went into the Castle to defend myself, because, gentlemen, every honest citizen hath a right to take up arms when his own good estate is threatened. But as to fighting for a—”
“Good Ben,” said I, “you ought to have been a parson, for your tongue is ever ready;” and I came close to him and asked him if he had sounded Lucy as to his plans of the previous night. To which he answered that he had not, but he knew Lucy’s mind on that matter as well as he knew his own. So with that I bade him find Lucy and take her to my mother, and to them I brought Philip and Rose, and we there and then arranged matters for a double wedding, which was to take place as soon as
