CHAPTER VI.

THE EXCURSION.

The state barge of Lord De Freston was moored against the stairs, or huge oaken steps which led down directly from the shelving bank of the park to the waves of the Orwell. Six men, with broad oars in hand, prepared to thrust them through the round loop holes in the gunwale of the boat, for thowles were then unknown, and the barges or boats of the noblemen who lived on the banks of that far-famed river, were things of such size, as required able-bodied men and strong hands to urge them over the waves.

Unlike the little cockle which went bounding over the Orwell in the morning to meet the anxious Wolsey, this was a magnificent affair, somewhat after the shape of the Nautilus, and floating apparently as high out of the water. The huge bear rose rampant at the prow, and looked as if he would grapple with anything he met, whilst the seat at the stern was elevated, and with rude, but elaborately carved work, afforded room for as many persons as there were rowers in the boat. If any attendants went in the state barge, they squatted down beneath the hind paws of Bruin. They were not permitted to intercept the view; but were mostly hidden by the sailors.

'I wonder, messmate, how our moody young scholar liked his reception at the Tower to-day. I thought he looked rather gloomy upon the view. At all other times he was wont to be as brisk and bright as a light-hearted sailor-boy. I'll warrant he has something aboard his skull which presses heavily on the spirit.'

'Ah! Jervis, that boy, heavy as he appears to be, has more brains in his head than all we six put together; and he makes more use of them now than we shall ever make of ours. Never mind his being a little dull this morning; maybe our mistress smiling upon the young Oxonian may make him a little thoughtful. Did you not tell me that he was going to Oxford, or some seat of learning, for a time?'

'It was whispered so among our people, and Mistress Ellen's maid was heard to say her mistress would be very dull when young Master Thomas went away.'

'Well, then, art thou surprised that young Master Thomas should be a little thoughtful at leaving such a lively friend as our young mistress? I'll warrant now, Jervis, if our lord were to order thee to go by sea to the mouth of the Severn, and to wait his pleasure on that river, thou wouldst think of the maid Fanny, as much as Master Thomas does of her mistress. I never knew a youth in love--and I believe this young scholar is so--that was not moody; sometimes fit for nothing, sometimes as close and almost as stupid as an oyster. Young Wolsey was hard enough to open this morning. But have ye all got your oars in hand? for yonder they come from the castle, and we must be prepared.'

'Heave out the plank from the stern, Osborne!' exclaimed the old steersman, 'and fasten it to the head of the stair. Heave the barge round, and point her prow to the Priory! Gently, boys, gently! There, lay her stern as near the bank as you can! Leave off talking about your betters, and mind your own business!'

Six rowers, and this cockswain, whose long boom for a rudder bespoke a very primitive kind of steerage for himself. His seat was a strong oaken plank, through which this long oar or steering-boom was to be thrust, and upon which, seated upon its broad beam-end, he was observed to possess the most elevated position in the boat. Full three feet below his exalted post was the deck, if so it might be called, whereon De Freston and his friends were to take their seats.

Though Wolsey had never breathed a word of his devotion, yet these men appeared to be fully cognizant of it. The world will canvass the actions of a man, let the circumference of his orbit be what it may. It will talk for us, and at us, and make us drink sometimes the waters of bitterness, even when we would live in peace and harmony with all. There was no kind of evil will, however, in the conversation of De Freston's boatmen, as they spoke of young Wolsey and his love affair. Love sails as freely with seamen as with landsmen, and its pleasures were in as high estimation amongst those young fellows, in their green Flemish jerkins, as it could be in the heart of any of their superiors then coming along the slope to the Orwell.

The scholar soon appeared, all smiles and animation, as he handed the lovely Ellen across the plank to her seat, and gave a nod of recognition to the men, to whom, in the morning, he had scarcely spoken a word. They saw his altered mien, and rejoiced in that vivacity which now gave light to his countenance.

The lady Ellen also was now on board, and when did the heart of a British sailor ever fail to feel respect for the fair and honored daughters of England, whenever chance gave them the opportunity of showing them their esteem? With cap in hand, they saluted the lady and their lord.

'Give way, my good men!' he cried, 'and hasten with all speed to the town! We must go to Gypesswick and back this afternoon. Is that the Prior's boat, Herbert, close under the Donham shore, or is it Fastolf's barque?'

'It is the Prior's barge, from the port with provisions. I saw Fastolf's barge go down the river to the Haugh an hour ago. We shall have time and tide enough in the channel for the way, my lord.'

The old sailor gave the signal, the men thrust the oars through the holes, and soon, in stately grandeur, the lofty barge of De Freston was seen gliding past the banks of the Orwell.

The channel took almost a direct course from Freston Castle to the shores of the Priory of Downham, or Doneham, and swept, with a graceful curve, beneath the then overhanging woods which stood so prominently upon the projecting cliffs of the Orwell.

Wolsey and Latimer vied with each other in directing Ellen's attention to the beauty of the scenery, and in recording the different historical facts relative to the places which had been the scenes of daring exploit in the different periods of English and Danish warfare. Ellen could appreciate the beauties of the scenery, but her gentle heart shuddered at the idea of bloodshed, as every Christian female heart must do.

It was with far greater pleasure that she heard Wolsey recount the worthiness of the brotherhood who then inhabited the walls of Alneshborne Priory. He spoke of their learning and devotion to deeds of charity, and represented them as an exception to any other of the religious communities, then so prevalent in the kingdom. There was a raciness, fluency and force in his descriptive powers, which charmed even Latimer, who, though comparatively a novice upon the river, was alive to the spirit of poesy in which his companion indulged.

The tide had turned, but the channel was then both deeper and wider than it is now, and took a far more grand and oceanic sweep. The soil of centuries which has flowed down from the Gipping into the Orwell, and different streams which have deposited their sand and slime, have formed that immense track of ouse, which, swelling into steep, muddy banks, has now conglomerated into vast fields of slimy clay, upon which green samphire and long weeds have grown, and very much narrowed the mighty channel, which, in that day swept, as an arm of the German Ocean, up to the walls of the town of Ipswich.

It was then no uncommon thing, even in summer, to see the wild swan with his straight neck and yellow beak, sailing up the stream, followed by the brood of cygnets bred upon the flats of Levington; and in winter, the wild fowl from distant climes sported in thousands of flights, until they actually blackened the silvery waters around them. Gulls of every class used to whiten the ouse at low water, and coots used to blacken the waves at full-tide; now nothing of animated nature can be seen but a long, green track of seaweed, with perhaps a solitary swan, or a lonely gull.

But the barge is dashing away with the speed of good stout rowers, amidst the beauties of the wave and the shore, and Ellen's smile restores much of its wonted happiness to the heart of Wolsey, who only the more and more strove to make a favorable impression upon her mind, by bringing forth from the treasure-house of his intellect, such instances of his classical knowledge as should make her remember the last day when he went up the river with his patron and patroness.

It was indeed for his sake that she visited the town of Ipswich at that moment, in company with her parent; to urge upon Robert Wolsey, his father, the imperious necessity of sending the scholar to Oxford. Both De Freston and his daughter were carried away by their enthusiastic feelings in patronising this youth, and anticipated the day when he would rise to be an ornament to his country, and an honor to themselves. The thought of doing an act of kindness to Wolsey gave a peculiar degree of interest to the journey. Ellen, in particular, quite gloried in the thought of being of service to one who had been to her so congenial a companion.

The magnificent banks of the Orwell, opening their views on each side, on as lovely a late spring day as it was possible to see, added a great charm to the excursion; and, as they swept in view of the ancient town, they could not but admire the grand semicircle which the wharf and Peter's Priory, and different religious houses in the distance, then afforded.

But, as they neared the town, and beheld the tower, turret, house and hall, of the great merchants and burgesses of the borough, the old pilot called the attention of his lord to the number of boats then leaving the quays and sides of the river.

'Methinks, your honor, that all Ipswich is turning out to meet on the wave; their numbers seem to increase, and I certainly never saw such a float of boats upon the river before!'

'I see something on the wave before the boats,' replied De Freston. 'Now it disappears--now it meets us--now it turns, and the boats seem gathering round it. What can it be?'

'I see it now, my lord, I see it; and I think I discern two fish which the inhabitants of the town in their cockle-shell boats are pursuing. Yes, I see them plainly.'

'Come up, my child,' said De Freston, 'or if not able to ascend hither, if you can stand upon the seat, you will see a lively scene. Come hither, let the two young men be your supporters.'

The river, as they approached the town, seemed alive with boats, and it was evident that the people in them were engaged in pursuing two large fish, which were in vain trying to escape down the channel. One seemed larger than the other, and the declaration of Herbert at the helm soon pronounced what they were.

'They are two dolphins, old and young, and I think they have wounded the young one, and the parent will not leave it.'

And so it literally was. The pursuers had harpooned the lesser fish, and with several boats joined together were towing it from its mother, who, with that extraordinary instinct which this fish has often been known to display, preferred following its young to death, to making its own escape. Many times it was seen to return and run its nose against the exhausted body of its offspring, as if endeavoring, with maternal anxiety, to teach it to follow her; for it would, the moment after, dive down the current of the ebbing tide, and then seem to wait the approach of the wounded dolphin. It would then return with redoubled anxiety, and, unable to induce its young to follow, would lay itself alongside, and regardless of boats, blows, and harpoons, keep with it until they drew towards the shore. Even then it would not return, but as De Freston's barge came along, the heart of Ellen was grieved to see such maternal solicitude followed by a train of blood which actually streaked the waves.

'Alas! poor dolphin!' she exclaimed, as she saw it dragged to the shore opposite the creek, then leading up to Wyke's Bishop Palace in the hamlet of St. Clement. 'Alas, poor dolphin! thou didst deserve a better fate! For thou hast respected the laws of nature more than cruel man!'

She sat down in the barge and wept. De Freston had intended to have landed, and his men would have been equally glad to have seen a creature so rare in the Orwell. He urged them to proceed at once, without delay, to the landing-place beside St. Peter's Priory.

It was a long time before Ellen could rouse herself from the sorrowful feeling into which the recent incident had thrown her; and she spoke not a word until the hand of De Freston assisted her to land, and then it was--

'Father, I shall never forget the dolphin and her offspring.'