But we on changeful days are cast,
When bright names from their place fall fast;
Oh, ye that with your glory passed,
We cannot mourn you now.'
THERE were peaceful days at Pihel after the return of the travelers from Prague. In the chapel, on Sundays and holidays, Stasek preached the Word of God and gave the cup of Christ, not only to the household, but to as many of the neighbors as wished to receive it. People often came from Leitmeritz for the purpose, Frantisek being seldom absent, and not discontinuing his attendance even when evangelical preaching and the Communion in both kinds were to be had in the town.
In this quiet interval Pani Sophia regained a measure of health, such as she had not known since the death of her son. She clung fondly to her remaining boy, and he was devoted to her. Her lord, seeing this, shrank ever more and more from the thought of sending him away; and the rather because he worshipped Hubert, whose influence over him was very good. When, therefore, young Hussenec̆ rode over to Pihel to know the final decision, Chlum, with much courtesy and many apologies, explained this to him. Still, Hussenec̆ did not think his visit thrown away. It was likely, as he told his friends, to be his last for some time. He was going to England, to see the court and the country, and to stay for a term or two at the famous University of Oxford, where he might hold converse with the disciples of the great Master Wickliffe. He promised Hubert—whom he was disposed to patronize a little more than that young gentleman exactly liked—to look up his kinsfolk in England, and asked for a `token' from him to show them. There was another person in the castle whom he asked also for a token,' though in very different fashion, and Hubert knew not if she gave it. He did know that a knot of crimson ribbon she had worn upon her throat adorned the young knight's cap as he rode away; but he shrewdly suspected it had been picked up without her knowledge.
When Hussenec̆ was gone Páni Sophia observed to her lord, with a sigh of relief, ‘I hope he will be preserved from harm in all his journeys in foreign lands, and that he will continue there for a good space.'
‘I am glad that, as touching Zedenka, nothing is concluded absolutely,' Chlum answered. ‘The child is full young; there is tin e enough. Still, we must remember there is no better alliance in all Bohemia; any maiden might feel honored by the preference of the Panec̆ of Hussenec̆.'
Young Leffle came to the castle just after the departure of Hussenec̆. He was a bright, good-humored lad, and he and Vaclav and little Sandresky made the old walls ring again with boyhood's merry noise? Ostrodek contributed less to the general enlivenment. Although devoted to Chlum personally, and always obedient to his lightest word, he was moody, irritable, and liable to violent fits of passion. Truly, as Hubert said, he needed good guidance.
In November, when the first snow was on the ground, came another visitor, the Secretary Petr Mladenowie. Chlum, Hubert, and Vaclav welcomed him warmly; and their first eager question was about the unhappy prisoner still pining in the Tower of St. Paul, in Constance. Since their return to Bohemia they had not heard anything of him.
‘If he had been burned we should know it,' said Chlum; ‘still, it is hard to guess why they have spared him so long.'
Mladenowie, who looked more tall and gaunt than ever, and more melancholy, stood in silence, with downcast eyes.
‘Perhaps he was so closely shut up thou couldest hear naught of him; that was no fault of thine,' said Vaclav, noting his embarrassment. ‘You remember, my father, how Vitus saw him at the window, and managed so cleverly and bravely to get a word with him, though it was like to have cost him dear.'
Vitus, who was present, flushed at the words of praise, and gathered courage to say: ‘I pray you, Master Petr, tell us all you know. Master Jerome is very dear to us.'
Still Mladenowie hesitated, until Chlum said: ‘Whatever the truth is, let us hear it, Petr. Have they dealt worse with him than even with Master John? '
‘Sir Knight, they have. With all their malice, Master John they never hurt; Master Jerome they have hurt, and sorely.'
‘How mean you? '
‘Sir Knight, he has retracted, denied his faith, slandered the memory of the man he loved, as we all thought, better than his life.'
In the group gathered round him there was a dead silence, Bitter sorrow and mortification might be read in every face. At last Ostrodek broke the pause with a cry of ‘Shame! '
‘Silence, boy!’ said Cilium sternly. ‘It is not for us, who have borne nothing for our Lord, to blame him who already has borne so much. I suspect,' he added, turning to Mladenowie, it is a lie which our enemies have set on foot to discredit him and us. ‘What proof have we of it’
‘Proof, sir knight? only too much. I saw him with these eyes, and heard him with these ears, in the cathedral, praising the Council, and submitting himself wholly to its decisions. I read the letter he wrote to his friends in Prague, saying he had been deceived, and was now enlightened by the grace of God. Alas! alas! how is the gold become dim and the fine gold changed! But,' continued Mladenowie, the glow of a dawning smile illumining his sorrowful face, there was one thing neither Council nor Kaiser, neither hope of freedom nor fear of death, could make him do. Slander Master John as heretic he might, but against him as man could no word be wrung from him. "There never was a fault in him,"' he said.
‘I cannot but think,' faltered Rani Sophia, in a voice choked with tears, ‘what the strong man must have suffered to bring him down to that.'
‘This I will say indeed, Paid,' said Mladenowic̆—' that he looked a wreck, pale, worn, and emaciated, scarcely able to stand.'
‘He that is without sin among us—nay, he that thinks he would have done better in his place—let him cast a stone at him,' said Priest Stasek.
‘Is he released yet, Master Petr?’ asked Vitus eagerly. ‘For if he is, and my good lord here present will give me leave, I would fain go to him, and comfort him, and serve him. No doubt his heart is broken.'
‘He is not released, nor like to be.'
‘And wherefore? On what pretext can they keep him now?’ was asked indignantly, by more voices than one.
‘They say his retractation is "suspected;" there be other articles against him—they are drawing up a new act of accusation.'
‘It is like them, the priests of Antichrist! Cruel—treacherous—cowardly!’ cried Václav.
‘There be many, even in the Council, who think ill of it, and say so as plainly as they dare,' pursued Mladenowie. The Cardinal of Florence hath acted very honorably. When the Council refused to set the captive free, he resigned his place on the commission appointed to try him, and would have no more to do with the business. If all were like him, we might have to meet wrong and violence, but falsehood never. Also, the English Bishop of Salisbury spoke for him nobly, but in vain.'
‘When a man sells his soul he ought to get the price. Even the devil knows that,' said Ostrodek, unabashed by his recent rebuff.
‘I think the better part of the Council would have prevailed, and Master Jerome have been set at liberty,' continued Mladenowic̆, ‘had not the whole influence of one of the greatest of the doctors been used against him. "A man who has once been a heretic can never be trusted" said the Chancellor of Paris. If, after all, Master Jerome comes by his death, his blood will be upon the head of Jean Gerson.' Untrue! untrue!' cried the voice of Hubert, which had not been heard before. ‘Master Petr, thou art mistaken. Jean Gerson never counseled a baseness.'
‘Under favor, Master Hubert, it is you who are mistaken. The chancellor's part in this matter is known of all men. I had it from those who heard his spoken, and read his written, words.'
‘Then they lied!’ cried Hubert; and passion so far overcame him that he added, ‘or you do '
‘My son!’ said Chlum with a look of surprise and pain. Look and word passed unheeded then, though afterward Hubert recalled them. But he recollected immediately that it was the act of a coward to give the lie to one who could not give it back to him at the sword's point. With quick shame for his discourtesy, he hastened to apologize. I crave your pardon, Master Petr; I know you only speak what you have heard, and believe. But this thing I can—not—believe —never!’ So saying, he turned away and strode rapidly out of the hall.
The rest discussed the story with shame and pain, but with tender pity for a good man's sin. 'Who would have thought it?’ asked they all. Jerome had been a proverb for dauntless courage and impetuous daring.
‘Just the man,' said Stasek, for whom we would have foretold the martyr's crown. Rather for him than for Master John, who was ever tender of heart. I mind me of the time those three poor lads—one of them of my namesake and kinsman—were put to death for speaking against Indulgences—how Master John—who had begged hard for them, saying, "Whatsoever you would do unto them, do it rather unto me"—took it so to heart that he could not preach the next Sunday in Bethlehem. But Master Jerome, who never feared the face of priest or friar—who burned the pope's bull—who defended Wickliffe and his doctrines in half the universities of Europe—Master Jerome to fail thus! '
Chlum went over to the table fastened against the wall, upon which the great Czech Bible lay. His study had been so much in it of late that he was not long in finding the place he sought. With the slow and hesitating utterance of one unaccustomed to the exercise he read aloud:—
“Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy; when I fall, I shall arise, when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against Him, until He plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold His righteousness!" Amen!’ he added solemnly, as he closed the book. Nor was he heard to speak another word on the subject.
Afterward, in very deed, God did bring His servant forth to the light, and he did behold His righteousness. When, like St. Peter, he looked not to the face of Christ, but to the waves and billows, which were boisterous, he began to sink. But, like St. Peter, he cried, and the Lord heard, stretched forth His hand, and caught him, and held him fast. Not many months afterward a second martyr crown was won in Constance. ‘Strengthened with all might,' the brilliant, impetuous Jerome recovered from his fall, witnessed nobly before the Council arid at the stake for his dear Master,' and for his dear Master's Lord and King.