The Lancashire Witches (Historical Novel). William Harrison Ainsworth

of em,” sobbed Susan.

      “That’s good, that’s kind of you, Susan,” replied Alizon, taking her hand. “Do not be cross any more, Jennet. You see you have made her weep.”

      “Ey’m glad on it,” rejoined the little girl, laughing; “let her cry on. It’ll do her good, an teach her to mend her manners, and nah offend me again.”

      “Ey didna mean to offend ye, Jennet,” sobbed Susan, “boh yo’re so wrythen an marr’d, a body canna speak to please ye.”

      “Weel, if ye confess your fault, ey’m satisfied,” replied the little girl; “boh let it be a lesson to ye, Suky, to keep guard o’ your tongue i’ future.”

      “It shall, ey promise ye,” replied Susan, drying her eyes.

      At this moment a door opened, and a woman entered from an inner room, having a high-crowned, conical-shaped hat on her head, and broad white pinners over her cheeks. Her dress was of dark red camlet, with high-heeled shoes. She stooped slightly, and being rather lame, supported herself on a crutch-handled stick. In age she might be between forty and fifty, but she looked much older, and her features were not at all prepossessing from a hooked nose and chin, while their sinister effect was increased by a formation of the eyes similar to that in Jennet, only more strongly noticeable in her case. This woman was Elizabeth Device, widow of John Device, about whose death there was a mystery to be inquired into hereafter, and mother of Alizon and Jennet, though how she came to have a daughter so unlike herself in all respects as the former, no one could conceive; but so it was.

      “Soh, ye ha donned your finery at last, Alizon,” said Elizabeth. “Your brother Jem has just run up to say that t’ rush-cart has set out, and that Robin Hood and his merry men are comin’ for their Queen.”

      “And their Queen is quite ready for them,” replied Alizon, moving towards the door.

      “Neigh, let’s ha’ a look at ye fust, wench,” cried Elizabeth, staying her; “fine fitthers may fine brids—ey warrant me now yo’n getten these May gewgaws on, yo fancy yourself a queen in arnest.”

      “A queen of a day, mother; a queen of a little village festival; nothing more,” replied Alizon. “Oh, if I were a queen in right earnest, or even a great lady—”

      “Whot would yo do?” demanded Elizabeth Device, sourly.

      “I’d make you rich, mother, and build you a grand house to live in,” replied Alizon; “much grander than Browsholme, or Downham, or Middleton.”

      “Pity yo’re nah a queen then, Alizon,” replied Elizabeth, relaxing her harsh features into a wintry smile.

      “Whot would ye do fo me, Alizon, if ye were a queen?” asked little Jennet, looking up at her.

      “Why, let me see,” was the reply; “I’d indulge every one of your whims and wishes. You should only need ask to have.”

      “Poh—poh—yo’d never content her,” observed Elizabeth, testily.

      “It’s nah your way to try an content me, mother, even whon ye might,” rejoined Jennet, who, if she loved few people, loved her mother least of all, and never lost an opportunity of testifying her dislike to her.

      “Awt o’pontee, little wasp,” cried her mother; “theaw desarves nowt boh whot theaw dustna get often enough—a good whipping.”

      “Yo hanna towd us whot yo’d do fo yurself if yo war a great lady, Alizon?” interposed Susan.

      “Oh, I haven’t thought about myself,” replied the other, laughing.

      “Ey con tell ye what she’d do, Suky,” replied little Jennet, knowingly; “she’d marry Master Richard Assheton, o’ Middleton.”

      “Jennet!” exclaimed Alizon, blushing crimson.

      “It’s true,” replied the little girl; “ye knoa ye would, Alizon, Look at her feace,” she added, with a screaming laugh.

      “Howd te tongue, little plague,” cried Elizabeth, rapping her knuckles with her stick, “and behave thyself, or theaw shanna go out to t’ wake.”

      Jennet dealt her mother a bitterly vindictive look, but she neither uttered cry, nor made remark.

      In the momentary silence that ensued the blithe jingling of bells was heard, accompanied by the merry sound of tabor and pipe.

      “Ah! here come the rush-cart and the morris-dancers,” cried Alizon, rushing joyously to the window, which, being left partly open, admitted the scent of the woodbine and eglantine by which it was overgrown, as well as the humming sound of the bees by which the flowers were invaded.

      Almost immediately afterwards a frolic troop, like a band of masquers, approached the cottage, and drew up before it, while the jingling of bells ceasing at the same moment, told that the rush-cart had stopped likewise. Chief amongst the party was Robin Hood clad in a suit of Lincoln green, with a sheaf of arrows at his back, a bugle dangling from his baldric, a bow in his hand, and a broad-leaved green hat on his head, looped up on one side, and decorated with a heron’s feather. The hero of Sherwood was personated by a tall, well-limbed fellow, to whom, being really a forester of Bowland, the character was natural. Beside him stood a very different figure, a jovial friar, with shaven crown, rubicund cheeks, bull throat, and mighty paunch, covered by a russet habit, and girded in by a red cord, decorated with golden twist and tassel. He wore red hose and sandal shoon, and carried in his girdle a Wallet, to contain a roast capon, a neat’s tongue, or any other dainty given him. Friar Tuck, for such he was, found his representative in Ned Huddlestone, porter at the abbey, who, as the largest and stoutest man in the village, was chosen on that account to the part. Next to him came a character of no little importance, and upon whom much of the mirth of the pageant depended, and this devolved upon the village cobbler, Jack Roby, a dapper little fellow, who fitted the part of the Fool to a nicety. With bauble in hand, and blue coxcomb hood adorned with long white asses’ ears on head, with jerkin of green, striped with yellow; hose of different colours, the left leg being yellow, with a red pantoufle, and the right blue, terminated with a yellow shoe; with bells hung upon various parts of his motley attire, so that he could not move without producing a jingling sound, Jack Roby looked wonderful indeed; and was constantly dancing about, and dealing a blow with his bauble. Next came Will Scarlet, Stukely, and Little John, all proper men and tall, attired in Lincoln green, like Robin Hood, and similarly equipped. Like him, too, they were all foresters of Bowland, owning service to the bow-bearer, Mr. Parker of Browsholme hall; and the representative of Little John, who was six feet and a half high, and stout in proportion, was Lawrence Blackrod, Mr. Parker’s head keeper. After the foresters came Tom the Piper, a wandering minstrel, habited for the occasion in a blue doublet, with sleeves of the same colour, turned up with yellow, red hose, and brown buskins, red bonnet, and green surcoat lined with yellow. Beside the piper was another minstrel, similarly attired, and provided with a tabor. Lastly came one of the main features of the pageant, and which, together with the Fool, contributed most materially to the amusement of the spectators. This was the Hobby-horse. The hue of this, spirited charger was a pinkish white, and his housings were of crimson cloth hanging to the ground, so as to conceal the rider’s real legs, though a pair of sham ones dangled at the side. His bit was of gold, and his bridle red morocco leather, while his rider was very sumptuously arrayed in a purple mantle, bordered with gold, with a rich cap of the same regal hue on his head, encircled with gold, and having a red feather stuck in it. The hobby-horse had a plume of nodding feathers on his head, and careered from side to side, now rearing in front, now kicking behind, now prancing, now gently ambling, and in short indulging in playful fancies and vagaries, such as horse never indulged in before, to the imminent danger, it seemed, of his rider, and to the huge delight of the beholders. Nor must it be omitted, as it was matter of great wonderment to the lookers-on, that by some legerdemain contrivance the rider of the hobby-horse had a couple of daggers stuck in his cheeks, while from his steed’s bridle hung a silver ladle, which he held now and then to the crowd, and in which, when he did so, a few coins were sure to rattle. After the hobby-horse came the May-pole, not the tall pole so called