A Family Tree

Book I. The Roots Of It

CHAPTER PACE I. HOW MARTHA DENYS WAS TRIED FOR WITCHCRAFT 3 II. THE EFFECT OF HOLY WATER . . 31 III. THE SEARCH-WARRANT . . . .52 TV. NOBLESSE OBLIGE 74 V. AMOR VINCIT OMNIA .... 99 VI. A FRIEND IN NEED .... 121 Vn. "I HAVE THEE NOW, GOOD MASTER DES MOND ".'.... 143 VIII. ON THE ROAD 1G9 Contents. IV CHAPTER PAGE IX. HOW TOM STEVENS LIED FOR HIS MASTER 190 X. "FORGIVE HIM THIS TIME!" . . . 213 XI. HOW THE SNARE WAS SET . . .239 XII. HUGH DESMOND'S SHIELD . . .259 XIII. A BLACK NIGHT A FAMILY TREE

BOOK I THE BOOTS OF IT.

1 VOL. I.

Chapter I. How Martha Denys Was Tried For Witchcraft

[pSiSi HE roots of it go down two huni-^gg^. dred and sixty-four years, into p*:* what are sometimes called " the good old times." An old Queen, who had reigned like a king — and a bold one — was not long dead ; and a middle-aged king, who was no better than an old woman, governed merrie England in her stead. But he was a learned prince, and a cunning. He could talk you Latin by 1—2 the hour. He would have made an ex cellent President of a School Board if there had been such things in his time. About the period whereof I write he gave up his mind to put down the smoking of to bacco, and to eradicate the curse of witchcraft from his dominions. Alas ! And were there witches in those "good old times?" The learned king said so. Infallibility at Bome said so. Par liament said so. The Glorious Beforma tion had nothing to say to the contrary.

There were witches in good sooth — dread ful creatures, who sold themselves to the devil, and worshipped him, under the form of a goat, at their unholy sabbaths. They flew about on broomsticks smeared with the fat of unbaptised infants. They afflicted man and beast with diseases, blighted crops, spoiled milk in the churn, and beer in the vat ; changed themselves, upon occasions, into rats, and cats, and bats, and toads, and committed other enormities too numerous to detail. One of them, finding the orthodox conveyance inconvenient, (perhaps it was not up to her weight) used to change her daughter into a pony, and have her shod by the ; well, I don't like to repeat the bad word, so will say by the goat, who appears to have not been a skilled farrier, as the poor girl's hands and feet were maimed.

Another old lady, and her daughter aged nine, sold themselves as aforesaid, and raised a fearful storm by pulling off their stockings, and making a lather of soap — proceedings which in these godless days would suggest nothing more reprehensible than a family wash ; but they knew better in the "good old times," and hanged the pair for witchcraft. In Germany, from first to last, one hundred thousand crimi nals expiated their crimes on the scaffold ; and in merrie England we disposed of about thirty thousand before we were done with them. Learned judges, grave men who gave body, bone, and brain to the Common Law of England ; jurists, whose names are household words in the Temple and Lin coln's Inn ; writers, whose text books are quoted now with respect in our highest courts of justice — sat and judged these wretches, and solemnly took note of the stocking-pulling, sud making, and demonia cal shoeing evidence brought against them, they pretending all the while to be only poor ugly old women, and the goat having the meanness never to interfere in their favour.

Perhaps the strangest thing of all was, that many of them confessed their crimes. Writing whilst on circuit as a judge of assize in the year 1682, Lord North relates, "Here have been 3 old women condemned for witchcraft * * * they were the most old, decrepid, despicable, miserable creatures that he (the judge who tried them) ever saw. A painter would have chosen them out of the whole country for figures of that kind to have drawn by. The evidence against them was very full and fanciful!, but their own confessions ex ceeded it — they appeared not only weary of their lives, but to have a great deal of skill to convict themselves ; their descrip tion of the sucking devils with sawcer eyes was so naturall, that the jury could not choose but beleeve them." The old lady who made the storm out of soap-suds confessed to being a witch, and so did her demoniacal sister who had her daughter so badly shod.

She was so idiotic — says the chronicler — that she clapped her withered old hands with glee at the sight of the fire which was to burn her. This befel in Scotland in the year 1722, more than a century after the time when my story opens. It opens soon after the wise king aforesaid had published his " Dæmonologie," and Parhament had enacted this law : " If any person shall use an invocation or conjuration of any evil or wicked spirit — shall entertain, em ploy, feed, or reward any evil or cursed spirit — take up any dead body to employ in witchcraft, sorcery, or enchantment, or shall practise, or shall exercise any sort of sorcery, &c, whereby any person shall be killed, wasted, consumed, or lamed," shall suffer death, The wise king caused a whole assize to be prosecuted because a reputed witch was acquitted !

So you see there must have been witches, and as the race has died out, let us bless the Providence which made our forefathers so wisely severe, so scientific, and so acute. But do not let us be puffed up with self conceit. There were wise men in other countries. A horse was tried at Lisbon, in 1601, and found guilty of being possessed by the devil. It was weakly urged that his mundane master had taught him many tricks ; perhaps he ran round the ring as that master indicated by motion of whip, picked up pocket-handkerchiefs, fired pistols, wheeled round and round with his front feet on a chair, and performed other accursed and demoniacal evolutions. Tricks, quotha ! Was the Holy Office — was In fallibility to be taken in by tricks ? They burned that horse to death. -a There were so many witches in the year of grace 1610, and honest people were so afraid of them, that clever men, upon whom a portion of the king's wisdom was shed, arose, and were commissioned to detect them and their ways.

In the northern countries (especially in Lancashire) the curse of witchcraft was felt direfully, and consequently there was no lack of official witch-finders. Perhaps, writing in a better age, I should say that there were many official witch-finders, and consequently no lack of witches. People must live ! Be this as it may, it is certain that the good town of Manchester was grievously afflicted in divers ways, and the reeve and the rector agreed that witchcraft was at the bottom of the troubles. In the first place the Medlock and the Irwell had risen higher than the oldest inhabitant had known those rivers to rise, and they had flooded some parts of the town. In the country about, sheep and oxen died ; and a fever broke out when the waters sub sided. Who could have done all this but the witches ?

So said Master Willford, a noted witch finder. He came to town specially re tained, and there was no hiding the truth from him. In less than a week he discovered the culprit, and had her down to the river, opposite where the old church stands, to " try " her. There were various ways of " trying " witches known in these " good old times." One was the trial by water. You tied the thumbs of the suspected person together, and flung her into the stream where it was deepest. If she floated, she was a witch ; if she did not, she was drowned ! There was an end of her, any way. The trial by water was favoured by Master Willford, as being the most conclusive. The old woman upon whom his suspicions fell was duly tied, hoven into the water, and floated hke cork ! "A witch! a witch!" cried the mob. " Death to the witch !"

And they would have stoned her to death as she floated ; but the witch-finder, calm and proud of his success, bade them drag her to the bank, and spare her for her legal doom. " She will not drown, my friends," he said, as they hauled her in ; " but, in good sooth, she will burn !" " To the fire with her then ! to the fire !" shouted the infuriated crowd. There was not one there who had not suffered in some way by the flood or the fever. " Softly, softly, my masters," said Will ford. It was his first case amongst them, and he wanted to show more of his wisdom. " Softly ; let us be sure. There be other tests. Ha ! what have we here ?" The supposed witch had struggled so vigorously against her trial, that it had become necessary to tie her legs as well as her thumbs ; and in the operation, the upper part of her dress had been torn off her back, and left exposed a pair of withered shoulders, upon one of which the eagle eye of Master Willford detected a mole — a black mole, with three grey hairs in it — as she lay fainting on the bank.

" What think you of this <"' he cried, in triumph. " Let us praise the Lord, for He has dehvered the wicked into our hand. Hark ye, my friends ! Wherever the devil kisseth a witch, there springeth a mark like unto this." " It is a mole," said the nearest by stander. " Thou art a good man, Master Symes," said the witch-finder, with a sigh, " and knoweth not the iniquity of these crea tures. I tell thee it is the devil's mark. Now, look you ; when I strike my bodkin into the accursed spot " But before he could strike, the mob was divided, and he sent rolling almost into the river, by a tall man in a riding-dress, who led a handsome chestnut horse (from which he had just dismounted) by the bridle. " What savagery is this ." asked the new comer, sternly. " A witch ! a witch, Master Hugh !" cried a dozen voices.

" 'Tis she who brought the flood !" " She bewitched my good man !" " She lamed my sheep, curse her !" " She gave my little Jack the fever !' " Death to the witch !" And a storm of other accusations and threats rose from the excited crowd. " Stand back !" cried the horsemen. "So, ho, Hafid!" (this to his horse). "Who proves she is a witch ?" " I do," replied Willford, pale and trembling with anger. " Have a care. I am not without authority." " Nor I either, sir. I am a justice of peace, as all here know. Again I ask who proves her a witch ?" "She floated. Did not she float, my friends ?" replied Willford, appealing to the crowd. "Aye, aye, 'tis true! She floated, Master Hugh," said the man who had been addressed as Symes, with a grave shake of his bald head. " And so wouldst thou have done, if thou hadst worn her coats.

Why, gossip," ex postulated Master Hugh, " what means all this ? A reasonable man like thee talking thus ! Floated, quotha ! Didst thou not mark that her coats, tied at the knee, were full of air, and bulged out like a piper's wind-bag ? Floated ! I' faith, it would have been more like witchcraft if she had sunk !" " There be other proofs," cried Willford, eagerly. " Will ye that I put her to the other proofs ?" This to the crowd. " Aye, aye !" they shouted, with a rush and a roar, which was too much for "Hafid's " equanimity. He gave a swirl to the right, and then to the left, describing a semicircle, of which his master was the centre ; and having gotten his hoofs well charged with gravel and small stones, let fly- The horse that was burned at Lisbon for witchcraft could not have done his master's work more scientifically ; but " Hafid " is not bewitched — only high-spirited.

He does not like to have strange people fuss ing round within reach of his heels ; and after his first volley, they do not do so. They retire out of range, and mutter — " Let her be put to other proof." " Thou wast about to strike thy bodkin into her flesh?" said Master Hugh, ad dressing the witch-finder. " Into Satan's mark," he cried ; " Satan's own mark, my friends ! I appeal to thee, whom she has bewitched. Who is this man, that he should withstand me, when I have the warrant of his worship the " Were he fifty times the reeve he could not warrant the torture of the humblest of his majesty's lieges," said Hugh Desmond, lifting his hat. " Who is this stranger ?" " 'Tis no stranger ; 'tis Master Willford, the witch-finder," replied Symes, in a solemn whisper. " Pry 'thee, Master Hugh, withstand him not. 'Tis true as he says.

He hath the reeve's license. Be silent, lest it be taken ill of thee. The woman is surely a witch." " If she be, let her suffer ; but not with out proof," replied the rider aloud. " Ha ! thy famous bodkin ! If thou dost thrust it into this mark, Master Willford— if that be thy name — and she be verily a witch, what will befall ?" " She will call on the name of her master who made it," said Willford. " Is there aught strange in thy bodkin ? Any charm ? May one see it ?" asked Master Hugh. "Charm! Thanks be to God, there is none. The Truth — the sound Truth, my 2 VOL. I. friends, is the only charm I know. Take the bodkin in thy hand, and strike thyself." Master Hugh received the instrument — a large and sharp gold pin — and knelt down close to the assumed witch ; but instead of thrusting it into her shoulder, he pre tended to slip, and sent it up to the head in the leg of the witch-finder, who incon tinently shrieked out — " The Devil !"

" Why, look you, now," said his tor mentor, " how deceitful are these so-called proofs ! Did we not know Master Will ford for an honest man, he would stand confessed a wizard ! You heard what he cried?" "'Twas not struck into a devil's mark," growled the witch-finder, rubbing his bleeding calf. " A fico for your devil's marks ! 'Tis but a mole. Thou hast one on thy cheek, sweetheart," Hugh added, turning to a pretty woman who stood near. " I would fain be the Prince of Darkness for awhile if I might kiss so fair a piece of flesh." At this sally the crowd laughed — a good sign, for when a crowd laughs it is no longer dangerous. Master Hugh knew well how to take advantage of the turn of the tide. He treated the witch-finder and his expostula tions with ridicule. He rated the men, and laughed at the women ; and in a few minutes the latter, who had been most violent against the witch, vied with each other in restoring the poor wretch to con sciousness.

" 'Tis true," they said to each other. " Master Hugh is right. There was air in her coats. 'Twas but natural that she should float. Poor old dame ! Who is she ? Does any one know her ?" No one knew her. She had only lately come to live in the town with her son, who 2—2 was an armourer. It was rather a good thing for Master Willford that, wise under defeat, he had beaten a retreat before this young giant came upon the scene, with his ten-pound hammer in his hand. Besides being a most inoffensive person, old Martha Denys, the reputed witch, was a devout Boman Catholic. This did not change the views of Master Willford, who was of the Beformed faith ; but the old religion was strong just then in Man chester, and many came forward to vouch for the piety of the accused now that she was safe ; so Willford thought it best to retire from the prosecution as gracefully as he could — but he did so with a vow of vengeance against the man who had so misused his bodkin.

Hugh Desmond was not so far in ad vance of his age as to deny the power of witches. What wrote Mr. Justice Black stone, whose " Commentaries " are still a legal text-book. " To deny," he says, "the possibility, nay, actual existence of witch craft and sorcery, is at once flatly to con tradict the revealed word of God in various passages, both of the Old and New Testa ment ; and the thing itself is a truth to which every nation in the world has in its turn borne testimony, either by examples seemingly well-attested, or by prohibitory laws, which at least suppose the possibility of a commerce with evil spirits." Lord North's letter, already quoted from, concludes — " Sir, I find the country so fully pos sessed against them" (the three old women left for execution as witches) "that, al though some of the virtuosi may think these " (the confessions) " the effect of con federacy, melancholy, or delusion, and that young folks are altogether as quick-sighted as those who are old and infirm, yet we cannot reprieve them without appearing to denye the very being of witches, which, as it is contrary to law, so I think it would be ill for his majesty's service, for it may give the faction occasion to set afoot the old trade of witch-finding, that cost many innocent persons their hves, which the justice will prevent."

Hugh Desmond was not wiser in his generation than were North and Black stone in theirs. Moreover, in his time, the trade of witch-finding was in full swing. He had an idea that the rains could have caused the flood, and the flood the fever ; without the aid of witchcraft in this particular case. But that was no reason why witches should not have been, and be thereafter, the sole cause of disaster in others. He admitted that malign influences might be invoked, but objected to throwing old women into the river, and pricking them with bodkins as a means of discovering by whom such spells were exercised. lie interposed between Master Willford and his victim out of pure humanity and love of justice, and was very glad to find after wards that old Martha was the mother of the young smith whom he had just taken into his service.

But there were those who shook their heads when this fact was brought out. In his youth Hugh Desmond had been what we call " wild." He ran away to sea, fought the Turks for the Venetian Bepublic, and did some buccaneering on the Spanish main afterwards on his own account. His hot blood calmed a little, he returned to Europe, wandered about in strange countries, and picked up strange knowledge and occupations, which caused some scandal to the good folks of Man chester, when at last he came back to take his father's place amongst them. He was a fourth son when he ran away, and was not much missed ; but one by one his brothers died, and the old man was left with no kindred hand to close his eyes, or heir to inherit his well-won wealth. Master Hugh had not been heard of for twenty years, and yet he turned up at the funeral of his last surviving brother, and showed no surprise when told that the others were dead.

How was that ? As long as his father lived — it was only for a year — the worst that could be said of Hugh was that nothing would induce him to become a merchant, that he was restless and at times morose, that he swore Spanish and Italian oaths, and rode off alone and stayed away for weeks together on no ap parent errand. Still he was not unpopular. He excelled in feats of strength, had a free, rolhcking way with women, and a rough and-ready manner of doing justice and see ing justice done to the poor, which gained him many friends — and some enemies. How came it that a man who had passed more than half his life abroad should know so much about the rights of Englishmen, that he could beard the reeve himself? This was another mystery. Within a month of the death of the old merchant, his father, he opened a huge coffer, which had been forwarded after him from Italy, took out many strange, and, to his wondering domestics, unrighteous im plements, and set up a forge in an old building once used as a brewhouse, where he began to spend his days and nights forging iron beams, and cranks and springs, and poring over great moth-eaten books.

A man of his wealth, who might be reeve, as his father had been, turning blacksmith ! The gossips could not understand it, and laid it down at first to the pernicious effects of going abroad. The time came when they took a graver view. This was why Master Symes was anxious to prevent him from helping the reputed witch. He was now about thirty years of age, strong, but well-formed, with clear grey eyes, and a touch of sadness in them. Short chestnut hair curled naturally round a broad and massive forehead, and a well trimmed beard of the same rich hue hid the lower portion of his face. He was a handsome man, this Hugh Desmond, and you could not be half an hour in his company without discovering that he was one with whom it would be dangerous to trifle. Many knew him as kind and generous. Women and children took to him at once.

They saw nothing stern in his eye. With the men he was not so popular, as a rule. Truth to tell, he car ried too many guns (intellectually) for the majority of his acquaintances. They were rather afraid of him, though amongst them selves they ridiculed his various accom plishments, as jealous people will do. There was nothing unholy in his cranks and bars, or in the big black books he studied. He had simply become bitten whilst in Florence with that art which was to mechanics, what astrology was to astro mony, and alchemy to chemistry. He was bent upon discovering perpetual motion, and pursued his experiments in the manner and with the ceremonies which the enthu siasts or charlatans, under whom he had studied, exacted. According to the science of those days, a wheel for the machine which was to move of itself, and never cease moving, was not only to be made of a certain size and weight, but to be commenced at given combinations of heavenly bodies, and many ingredients utterly unknown to Messrs. Whitworth, or Penn, had to be mixed w7ith the metal.

In the intervals of his great work, Master Hugh employed himself upon a much more profitable labour. One of his masters — a pupil of the great Cellini — had given him three keys made by the very hands of that famous man, and each haft was a work of art worthy of its designer. The first was in the shape of an anchor, en twined with sea-weed ; the second, of a cross, entwined with ivy ; the third, of a heart, entwined with forget-me-nots. Hope, Faith, and Charity. The first was iron, the second silver, the third gold. To what caskets they belonged, or if indeed they had belonged to any, was not known. Hugh Desmond determined to make one for them. A strong hand, a correct eye, and a vivid imagination untrammelled by rule, produced what was at least a curiosity — in parts really beautiful, as a whole quaint and weird.

A sort of Mooresque palace, or temple, upon which a crowd of angels, demons, sprites, dwarfs, and creatures half human, half animal, swarmed as bees upon a hive — peering in and outjof the windows, climbing over the roof, attacking and de fending the doors. There was nothing in common between the casket and its keys, except that its outside was made of the same metals — iron, silver, and gold. Certian inquisitive neighbours, excited by the rumours that were current, took heart of grace (and a ladder) and watched Master Hugh at his work through a window of the old brewhouse. They saw the great machine growing, day by day, more horribly incomprehensible. They saw it move, and heard it groan. They beheld lumps of clay and metal gradually taking unholy forms, and you may be sure that such scandals lost nothmg in the telling.

One veracious reporter had seen the Prince of Darkness himself blowing the forge bellows ! When it became known that the worker had taken the son of the reputed witch into his service to assist him in his mys terious labours, and that the reputed witch herself was living in his house, there was great excitement in the good city. It was not reported that the reputed witch passed hours on her knees praying that her benefactor might be delivered from evil— that she went regularly to church and confession, and was religious to fanati cism. It was not considered that Desmond had befriended others besides old Dame Denys, simply because they were friendless or oppressed. Against either— standing alone — there was only a vague suspicion ; but although zero, multiplied by zero, gives no value in arithmetic ; nothing, multiplied by nothing — according to Scandal's rule — very often makes something ; and so it was when Hugh Desmond's unproved sorcery, and Martha Denys' unproved witchcraft, were put together.

CHAPTEB II. THE EFFECT OF HOLY WATER. DENYS did more than pray for the soul of her defender. She determined to save him in spite of herself. He was such a good man, such a kind master, that it was impossible he could be willingly going to destruction. The arch deceiver had him in his toils, and mayhap would soon have his assistant — her son — also. True it was that the young smith's work was not of an occult nature. He forged, and hammered, and cast metals, as an honest man might do ; and laughed at the fears and prayers of his pious parent. But he did not sit up at night over those gruesome books, or know for what awful use the instruments he made were intended. No, Hugh Des mond was to have his eyes opened, and the fiend exorcised by a sprinkling of the old brewhouse with holy water. Bemember this was in the "good old times."

In holy water Martha Denys put her trust. Had not the saints of old fought and beaten the — the goat with it, over and over again ? Had not even sinners used it to his discomfiture ? She took a flacon to her priest, and, for a con sideration, obtained a quart of liquid of more than common holiness — of XXX strength against the powers of darkness — and brought it reverently to her room in Master Hugh's house. But how was she to administer the sacred disinfectant ? That was the question ! For her life she dared not enter that infernal laboratory. She had looked in once and was terrified. The sight that met her view was evil enough, disguised as it was by infernal artifices. What would it not be when that weird machine and those fearsome instruments resumed their right forms as dæmons of the nethermost pit under the influence of her holy water?

What was she to do? Take her son into the plot ? He would only laugh at it. Find some other instrument ? Easily said, but where ? — she a stranger and mistrusted ! At last she found an accessory in the person of a naughty little boy. The naughty little boy, who goes where he is not wanted, spies into what is not intended for him to see, and does generally what he is forbid (as they say in America) out of sheer " cussedness," is not peculiar to any country or any age. I dare say there were naughty little boys in Nineveh, VOL. I. who played tip-cat in the streets, and made personal remarks upon the subjects of Sardanapalus, pretty much as they vex the lieges of Queen Victoria with such pastimes and observations in this year of grace. There were certainly naughty little street boys in Manchester when James the First was king, and in one of these Dame Martha put her trust.

Too young to understand what was whispered of Master Hugh Des mond's work, he was all agog to see what was in the old brewhouse, and so steal a march upon his companions. He was to mount on a ladder to a window from which a good sight could be had, and the only service exacted as the price of this treat,. was just to scatter some water out of a bottle as far and as widely as he could. This was fun in itself. Naughty little boys like throwing water — at a safe dis tance — over people. Dame Martha did not tell him it was holy water, and I'm afraid it would not have much mattered if she had. Up he went like a lamplighter, and was some what disappointed, when he reached his coign of vantage, to find that there was no one to sprinkle ; but when he saw that grim machine moving by itself, his heart (or one of his legs) failed him.