He is too hot,said the curate;and I pray to God that He may grant him the patience to deal with Varney as is fitting.Patience and Varney,said Mumblazen,is worse heraldry than metal upon metal.He is more false than a siren,more rapacious than a griffin,more poisonous than a wyvern,and more cruel than a lion rampant.Yet I doubt much,said the curate,whether we can with propriety ask from Sir Hugh Robsart,being in his present condition,any deed deputing his paternal right in Mistress Amy to whomsoever--Your reverence need not doubt that,said Will Badger,who entered as he spoke,for I will lay my life he is another man when he wakes than he has been these thirty days past.Ay,Will,said the curate,hast thou then so much confidence in Doctor Diddleum's draught?Not a whit,said Will,because master ne'er tasted a drop on't,seeing it was emptied out by the housemaid.But here's a gentleman,who came attending on Master Tressilian,has given Sir Hugh a draught that is worth twenty of yon un.I have spoken cunningly with him,and a better farrier or one who hath a more just notion of horse and dog ailment I have never seen;and such a one would never be unjust to a Christian man.A farrier!you saucy groom--and by whose authority,pray?said the curate,rising in surprise and indignation;or who will be warrant for this new physician?For authority,an it like your reverence,he had mine;and for warrant,I trust I have not been five-and-twenty years in this house without having right to warrant the giving of a draught to beast or body--I who can gie a drench,and a ball,and bleed,or blister,if need,to my very self.The counsellors of the house of Robsart thought it meet to carry this information instantly to Tressilian,who as speedily summoned before him Wayland Smith,and demanded of him (in private,however)by what authority he had ventured to administer any medicine to Sir Hugh Robsart?
Why,replied the artist,your worship cannot but remember that I told you I had made more progress into my master's--I mean the learned Doctor Doboobie's--mystery than he was willing to own;and indeed half of his quarrel and malice against me was that,besides that I got something too deep into his secrets,several discerning persons,and particularly a buxom young widow of Abingdon,preferred my prescriptions to his.None of thy buffoonery,sir,said Tressilian sternly.If thou hast trifled with us--much more,if thou hast done aught that may prejudice Sir Hugh Robsart's health,thou shalt find thy grave at the bottom of a tin-mine.I know too little of the great ARCANUM to convert the ore to gold,said Wayland firmly.But truce to your apprehensions,Master Tressilian.I understood the good knight's case from what Master William Badger told me;and I hope I am able enough to administer a poor dose of mandragora,which,with the sleep that must needs follow,is all that Sir Hugh Robsart requires to settle his distraught brains.I trust thou dealest fairly with me,Wayland?said Tressilian.
Most fairly and honestly,as the event shall show,replied the artist.What would it avail me to harm the poor old man for whom you are interested?--you,to whom I owe it that Gaffer Pinniewinks is not even now rending my flesh and sinews with his accursed pincers,and probing every mole in my body with his sharpened awl (a murrain on the hands which forged it!)in order to find out the witch's mark?--I trust to yoke myself as a humble follower to your worship's train,and I only wish to have my faith judged of by the result of the good knight's slumbers.Wayland Smith was right in his prognostication.The sedative draught which his skill had prepared,and Will Badger's confidence had administered,was attended with the most beneficial effects.The patient's sleep was long and healthful,and the poor old knight awoke,humbled indeed in thought and weak in frame,yet a much better judge of whatever was subjected to his intellect than he had been for some time past.He resisted for a while the proposal made by his friends that Tressilian should undertake a journey to court,to attempt the recovery of his daughter,and the redress of her wrongs,in so far as they might yet be repaired.Let her go,he said;she is but a hawk that goes down the wind;I would not bestow even a whistle to reclaim her.But though he for some time maintained this argument,he was at length convinced it was his duty to take the part to which natural affection inclined him,and consent that such efforts as could yet be made should be used by Tressilian in behalf of his daughter.He subscribed,therefore,a warrant of attorney,such as the curate's skill enabled him to draw up;for in those ****** days the clergy were often the advisers of their flock in law as well as in gospel.
All matters were prepared for Tressilian's second departure,within twenty-four hours after he had returned to Lidcote Hall;but one material circumstance had been forgotten,which was first called to the remembrance of Tressilian by Master Mumblazen.
