Sweet Mace: A Sussex Legend of the Iron Times

"A courtier," said Sir Mark, smiling, "Well perhaps I am; but see how I have taken to this rustic, delicious life. I have felt like another man since I have been here."

Gil's ship, with Father Brisdone on board, after waiting in vain for its freight, grounded as the tide went down. The old priest, who had been on deck, leaning over the bulwarks...

The days passed swiftly on in the lonely little valley where Jeremiah Cobbe had cast his lot. The trees flourished, and the wondrous variety of wild-flowers, for which that part...

For a few moments Gil's men and the followers of Sir Mark stood appalled by the effects of the explosion. Fully one-half had been prostrated by the terrible blast that had swept...

In the course of the morning a mounted messenger came on to the Pool-house with a despatch for Sir Mark, whose brow clouded as he read that it was a peremptory recall to town.

The founder yielded one day to Tom Croftly's importunities and gave him a holiday, which also meant taking one for himself, and to thoroughly enjoy it they both got up early.

The scene at the execution was different from that which Anne Beckley painted in her mind. The cart, with its helpless burden, went slowly on, bumping up and down through the ru...

By chance it happened that Anne Beckley had extended her walk towards the woods and had strolled farther than she had intended. Fate led her into the narrow lane where she had r...

"Quick, Polly, my hat and cloak!" cried Mistress Anne, running up to her room, where her little handmaiden was seated at work. "Then there is some truth in the old woman's philt...

"Sir Thomas, and if I did not feel bound to carry out my royal master's commands, I'd go no further, but sit down here on this shady bank, and bask in the sunshine of your daugh...

"Done!" cried Cobbe, "What do I always do, my girl? Acted like the passionate old fool I am. Poor boy!" he ejaculated, as the sword dropped from Sir Mark's hand, and white as Ma...

"Better, Master Cobbe; I am growing stronger," said Sir Mark, as he returned to the Pool-house with his silent companion, for, after their encounter with Gil and Mistress Anne,...

In his excitement the founder hastily laid Mace on the couch and rushed out, when Sir Mark was about to run to the poor girl's side, to seize his opportunity, and press his lips...

"Thou wicked old hag," cried Anne Beckley, angrily, as she stood in Mother Goodhugh's cottage. "Here have I, against my better sense, trusted to thee, and laid bare the secrets...

Nature seems to have ordained that the stricken ones should seek solitude to find solace for their wounds. The deer injured by the shot of the hunter plunges into the depths of...

"I do not often exact my lover's fees," cried Sir Mark, kissing her passionately in spite of her struggles, while a feeling of horror half froze her, as she thought that this ma...

The coming back of Sir Mark had the effect of driving Mace to her room, where she stayed as much as possible. Gil need have had no jealous fears, could he have read her heart, f...

"You may argue, Brother Brisdone, till all is blue," said Master Peasegood, "but I maintain that what I say is right. Now, look here; go back to the early days, and take your ow...

Sir Mark Leslie was too intent upon the scene before him, or he would have seen the face of Mistress Anne undergo a complete change. The soft simpering look of girlish meekness...

"The more need to get the matter over," he said to himself; and he had at once a long interview with the founder, one which set him more at ease, for it was decided then and the...

Dame Beckley was one of the happiest women under the sun, for she had scarcely a care. Her sole idea of home management was obedience, and she obeyed her lord implicitly. Next t...

There must be something very fascinating in the herb called tobacco, or else the reverend gentlemen, who had commenced taking it with distaste, would never have grown to be stea...

"Heaven send them a good voyage, master," said the workman. "I hear the girt ship went down the river at daybreak, and there's a brave deal of our work on board."

That was a bitter as well as a momentous day for Gil Carr. In the course of the morning he made his way to the Pool-house, determined to have a few words with Jeremiah Cobbe, an...

How long this lasted Mace never knew, but she lay there confused and troubled. One feeling, however, was dominant. It was very nearly the time when Gil would be beneath the wind...

The autumn sun shone brightly down into the ravine that led up to the mouth of Gil Carr's store, and the steep sides were glorious with the bright berries that glistened amongst...

Gil sat down beside the old woman and remained thinking of what had taken place during the past year. He had sailed away, reckless and heart-broken, caring little where he went,...

Sweet Mace stood motionless in the opening, a soft blue reek floating gently out from the store, as the damp air of the place was driven forth by a downward current through a fi...

It was terrible work to sit there in that profound silence, listening and wondering where she was; and at last it was with a feeling of relief that Anne awoke to the fact that s...

A week, a fortnight, a month glided by, as time will gallop on, when some unwished-for season is ahead. Matters at the Moat were as of old. Sir Thomas dispensed justice, Dame Be...

If Mother Goodhugh had stood by while it was done, Janet the weak would have taken the decoction placed in her hands; but, foolish as the girl was, she had her share of cunning.

A very different scene was enacting at the Pool-house on that very evening. Sir Mark had spent the day mostly out of doors, and had sought out the founder, who, finding that he...

Sir Mark's wound was of such a nature that, being a young and healthy man, it would soon have healed up; but his imprudence in leaving the house, and his immersion, gave matters...

"Have I drunk some love potion?" muttered Sir Mark to himself very early the next morning, "or am I going back to my calf-love days? Here have I enjoyed more conquests than any...

There was a deep, singular humming sound coming from the open window of Master Peasegood's cottage, and, as this noise passed through the big cherry-tree, it seemed to be broken...

"That Mother Goodhugh must have a care of herself," said Sir Thomas a day or two later; and Anne let fall her work upon her knee to listen to her father's words.

Time glided on, and Gil's ship was fast getting ready for sea. It was to be a good trip this season; and, as she approached completion, her freight was gradually accumulated, fo...

Sir Mark felt in anything but the best of tempers upon finding how thoroughly at home the stout parson of Roehurst was at the Pool-house. He had taken a dislike to him from the...

Master Joseph Peasegood's little parsonage was a humble quiet spot, and accorded well with the moderate income he received as clerk of Roehurst. There were four rooms, and the r...

Gil Carr proved to be a sorry companion to fair, weak, amorous Mistress Anne after the encounter with Mace Cobbe; but it troubled the maiden very little, for she was in a kind o...

"Too soon for sweet mace--a bunch for sweet Mace," said Gil Carr as he bent down amongst the sedges to pick the bright blue scorpion grass, its delicate flowers relieved with ye...

Another year slipped by and Gil's ship had made a couple more voyages with Wat Kilby at the helm, for Culverin Carr had stayed at home, the helper and adviser of Jeremiah Cobbe....

At the appointed time, Captain Gil made his way to where, some twenty strong, his crew were sitting and standing beneath a wide-spreading tree, with some forty horses grouped ar...

"He's too much for me," he muttered. "He's managed to get over me when I've had more ale than's good for me, and when I've brought out the sherry sack. It's prime stuff, that dr...

The rocky ravine which looked in the darkness like the entrance to some mystic region had hardly been vacated by Captain Gil's crew, and the storehouse that he had formed in thi...

"Am I a weak child?" cried Mace at last, as she sprang up and wiped away her tears. "I will not sit still, and be sold like this. I cannot be forced to wed a man I hate, and I w...

The hours glided slowly by, and the soft damp of night scented the forest with its peculiar odours,--of decaying leaves, swift-growing fungi, and mouldering wood. Ever and again...

In the days which followed there was a diligent search for Abel Churr, in which Gilbert Carr's men joined hands with those of the founder, for reasons best known to Gil; and eve...

"Confound you, fool," cried Sir Mark, leaping from his restive steed; and as he spoke his eyes rested upon Gil. "Have a care how you fire. Your blundering nearly cost worshipful...

Truly Satan must have been reigning upon earth in full fig when it was found necessary to execute thirty of his disciples at one time in Edinburgh. As for poor Mrs Hicks and her...

There was a great deal of talk about punishing those who had rescued Mother Goodhugh from the flames; but Sir Mark was away with his wife, and soon after his marriage, being som...

Men, when half-angry, are in their horseplay rather disposed to be brutal, and it was so here. Sir Mark's followers had made themselves exceedingly obnoxious to those of Gil, an...

A signal made with four glow-worms can be seen by many who happen to be gazing out into the darkness of the night. Janet had seen them plainly, and, as it happened, so had the f...

Sir Mark had not been alone in his suspicions, for the founder had had a half fancy come into his head that Gil might make some effort to prevent the marriage; and after all he...

Early morning, as bright and glowing autumn time as ever shone over the weald of Sussex. The harvest was gathered in; the trees were heavy beneath the red and golden crop of app...

"Dead, and they've buried her!" cried the old woman, as she stood beside the bed, whereon she had lain Mace. "Dead, and they've buried her; and Jeremiah Cobbe can feel now what...

to Father Brisdone and turn Roman Catholic. I told her to go, and he'd curse her for cursing, for it is his trade, and she has no right to handle such tools at all."