Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-03-21

Father Carey says, construe Latin sem tonce if it be not too difficult. You arc scarcely 20, and you will have mo for your patron. Why, wero you, boy, with your age and your chances, would die prince or pope! Aye, wOud!" He stopped speak ing his eyes on fire. Nay, a ring of such rcal feeling flashed out in his last words that, though I distrusted him, though old l prejudiccs warned me against him, and, at heart Protestant, 1 shuddercd at things l had heard of him, the longing to sec tho | world and have adventures seized upon me Yet did not speak at once. He had told mo that my tongue outran my thoughts, and l stood silent until he asked me curtly, Well, sirrah, what do you say?''
 II say, my lord bishop" replied re- spectfully, that the prospect you hold out to mo would tempt mo were I a younger son or without those ties of gratitude which hold me to my uncle But, my fa- ther excepted, am Sir Anthony's only heir"
 "Ah, your fathorr' he said contemptu- ously. You do we'll to remind me of him, for I sec you arc forgetting the first part of my speech in thinking of the last! Should | have promised first and threatened later? You would fain, l expect, stay here and woo Mistress Pctronilla? Do touch there? You think to marry the maid and be mas ter of Cotton End in Gods time, do you? l Then listen, Francis Cludde Neither one nor the other, neither maid nor meadow, will be yours should you stay here till | doOmsday!'
 | 1 started and stood glowering on him, speeches. with anger and astonishment. You do not know who you are, he l continued, leaning forward with a sudden movement and speaking with one claw like finger extended and a malevolent | glcam in his eyes You called me a namcless child awhile ago, and so was. Net have risen to be ruler of England, i Master Cluddc! But you-I will tell you which of us is base born. will tell you | who and what your father, Ferdinand | Cludde, was. He was-nay, he is-my tool, | spy, jacknli Do you understand, boyf | Your father is one of the band of foul l creatures to whom such as 1, base born though be, fling the scraps from their ta- ble! Hc is the vilest of the vile men who do my dirty work, my lad.''
 He had raised his voice and hand in pas sion real or assumed. He dropped them as 1 sprang forward. You lie!" cried, trembling all over.
 | " Easy, casy!'' he said. He stopped me where l was by a gesture of stern com mand. ''Thinkr' he continued calmly and | wCightily. Has any one ever spoken to you of your father since tho day seven | years ago when you camo here child brought by a srrvant7 Has Sir Anthony talked of him? Has any servant named his name ia you? Think, boy. If Ferdi- nand Cluddc he father to be proud of, why does his brother mako naught of | him:"
 ''IIr is n Protcstant," 1 said faintly, al.. very question not oncr but often. Sir An | thony sO seldom mentioned my father that I had thought it strange myself I had | thought il strange, too that the servants, | who must remember Ferdinand CluddC, | never talked to mo about him. Hith- | erto l had always been satisfied to answer, "IIc Is Prutcstant," but faco to face | with this terrible old man and his pitilcss | charge the words came but faintly from my lips.
 "A PrOtCstant," he replied solcmnly. "ICS, this comes of schiSm, that villains cloak themselves in it and parade for true men. \ Protestant you call him, boyi | He has been that-ayc, and all things tc all mcn-and he has betrayed all things and all men. He was in the great car dinal's confidence and forSouk him, when he fell, for Cromwell. Thomas Cromwell, although they were of the same persuasion, he betrayed to me. l have hero, and Int struck the letters in his hand a scornful blow, the offer he made to me and his terms. Then eight years hack, when the late King Edward came to tho throne, l, too fell on evil days, and Master CluddC abandoned me for my Lord Hertford, but did me no great harm. But he did some, thing which blasted him-blasted him al last"
 He paused. Had tho fire died down, ol was it only my imagination that tho shadows thickened round the bed behind him and closed in moro nearly on us, leav ing his pale grim face to confront me-his face which seemed the paler and grimmer the more saturnine and all mastering, fol the dark frame which set it off
 He did this" he continued slowly which came to light and blasted him he asked as the price of his service in be traying me his brothers estate"
 "Impossiblc!" 1 stammered "Why, Sil Anthony''-
 What of Sir Anthony, you would ask?' the chancellor replied, interrupting mo with savage irony. "Oh, he was a papist an obstinate papistI Ho might go hang or to Warwick jail!''
 Nay, but this at least, my lord, i
 false! cried. "Palpably false! If my | AdAIINI II'iN Sb bCIISAyCNA HIS oN II 1SSl uIlN
 blood, should be here' Should bo a
 Cotton End3 You say this happened cigh
 years ago seven years ago I came here
 Would Sir Anthony"-
 There aro fools everywhere" " tho olI man SnCcrcd. "Whcn my Lord Hcrtfort
 refused your fathers suit, Ferdinand be | gan-it is his naturc-to plot against him
 He was found out and cxccratcd by all
 for he had been false to all. He fled for hi
 life. He left you behind, and a servan
 brought you to Cotton End, where Sir An
 thony took you in.
 I covered my face. Alas, I bclicvct
 him! l, who had always been SD proud O
 my lineage, proud of tho brave trI
 ditions of the house and Its honor
 so proud of Cotton End and all that be
 lungrd to it! Now, if this were true,
 could never again take pleasure in On
 or tho other. 1 was the son of a maI branded as turncoat and an inforner, O
 one who was the worst of traitorsl sanl ; down on the settle behind me and hid m,
 face, Another might have thought less o
 the blow, or, with greater knowledge o the world. might have made light of 1t a } a thing not touching himself. But or } mo, young as I was and proud, and as ye
 tender, and having done nothing myself, | } fell with crushing force
 It was years since had seen my father 7 and could not stand forth Loyalty anC ! fight his battle a son his fathers frienC and familiar for years might have tough
 it. On the contrary, there was so mucl } which seemed mysterious in my past life } go much that bore out tho chancellor's ac cusation, that I felt dread of its trutl even before had proof. Yet would hav ! proof. Show mo the lettersi" I sait } harshly. Show me tho letters, my lordV You know your fathers handwritingf' II do."
 knew 1t, not from any correspondence my father had held with me, but becaus had more than oncc examined with nat
 ural curiosity the wrappers of the dis