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Conyers "Weekly VOL. XV. w is \ 3 C. r -- 1 : Q TANlEY" AWEYi/lAAff. /U| THOU or “THE IN BLACK.", “A GENTLEMAN OF FRANCE ”, E TC E re . COPYRIGHT 189.4 BY CASSElt PUBLISH INC* CO. ALL BIGHTS' RESERVED CHAPTER I. On the boundary line between the two counties of Warwick and Worcester there le a road very famous in those parts and called the Ridgoway. Father Carey used to say— and no better Latinist could be found for a score of miles round in the times of which I write—that it was made by the Romans, It runs north and south along the narrow spine of the country, wbtob is spread out on either side like a map ot a picture. As you fare southward you lee on your right hand the green orchards and pastures of Worcestershire stretching aafaras the Malvern hills. You have in front of you Bredon hill, which is a won¬ derful hill, for if a man goes down the Aron by boat it goes with him, now bo fore and now behind, a whole day’s jour¬ ney, and then stands in the same place. And on the left hand you have the great forest of Arden and not much besides, ex¬ cept oak trees, which grow well in War¬ wickshire. I describe this road, firstly, because it is a notable one and 40 years ago was the only Queen’s highway, to call a highway, ln that country. Tho rest were mere horse tracks. Secondly, because the chase wall of Coton End runs along tho side of it for two good miles, and the Cluddes—I am Francis Cludde—have lived at Coton End by the Ridgoway time out of mind, prob¬ ably—for tho name smacks of the soil before the Romans made the road. And, thirdly, because 40 years ago, on a driz¬ zling February day in 1555—second year of Mary, old religion just re-established— a number of people were oollectcd on this read, forming a group of a score or more, who stood in an ordered kind of disorder about my uncle’s gates and looked all one way, as if expecting an arrival, and an ar rival of consequence. First, there was my uncle Sir Anthony, tall and lean. He wore his best black vel Vet doublet and clonk and had put them on with an air of huge importance. This Increased each timo he turned, staff in hand, and surveyed his following, nnd ns regularly gave place to a “Pshaw!” of veiation and petulant glance when his eye rested on me. Close beside nim, looking important, too, but anxious and a little frightened as well, stood good Father Carey. Tho priest wore his silk cassock, and his lips moved from time to time without sound, as though he were trying over a Latin oration, which indeed was tho fact. At a more respectful distance were ranged Baldwin Moor, the steward, and a dozen servants, while still farther away less lounged as many ragmufflns—land¬ men, who swarmed about every gen¬ tleman’s door in those times and took toll of such abbey lauds as the king might have given him. Against one of the stone gate pillars I leaned myself, 19 years nnd 6 months oid, and none too wise, though well grown and as strong as one hero and there. And perched on the top of the twin post, with his chin on his knees and his hands clasped about them, was Mar¬ tin Luther, the fool. Martin had chosen this elevated position partly out of curiosity and partly perhaps under a strong sense of duty. He knew that, whether he would or no, he must needs look funny up there. His nose was red, and his eyes were running and his teeth chattering, and he did look funny. But as he felt the cold most his patience failed first. The steady, silent drizzle, the mist creeping about the the stems of the oak trees, the leaden sky, proved too much for him in the end. "A watched pot never boils!” he grumbled. “Silence, sirrah!” commanded my uncle angrily. “This is no time for your fool fug. Have a eare how you talk in the same breath of pots and my lord bishop.” “Sanctaa ecclesi®," Father Carey broke out, turning up bis eyes in a kind of ec¬ stasy, as though be were knee to knee with the prelate—"to defensorem inclytum atque ardentem”— "Pottuml” cried I, laughing loudly at my own wit. It was an ill mannered word, but I was cold and peevish. I had been forced to this function against my will. I had never reen the guest whom we were expecting, and who was no other than the queen’s liked chancellor, Stephen Gardiner, but I dis¬ him as if I had. In truth, he was related to us in a peculiar fashion, which my uncle and I naturally looked at from different standpoints. Sir Anthony viewed with complacence, if not with pride, any connection with the powerful bishop of Winchester, for tho knight knew the world and could appre¬ ciate the value it sets on success and the blind eyes it has for spots if they do but •Peckle (he risen snn. I conld make no such allowance, but, with the pride of youth and family, at once despised the Peat bishop for his base blood and blush¬ ed that the shame lay on our side. I hated this parade of doing honor to him and would fain have hidden at home with Pe wonilla, my cousin, Sir Anthony’sdaugh end awaited our guest there. The knight, however, had not permitted this, end I had been forced out, being in the worst of humors. So I said ■ • Pottum I” and laughed. uerceiy. "Silence, boy!” cried Sir Anthony He loved an orderly procession end to arrange things decently. “Silence!" ™ repeated, darting an angry glance first at me and then at his followers, “or I will *«m that jacket of yours, lad! And you, -Martin Luther, see to your tongue for the hc*t 24 hours and keep ft off my lord PMOop; And, Father Carey, hold yourself ready”_ *4 bere S ’ 1 Mot Pot cometh 1” cried undaunted Martin, skipping nimbly own fcqm b j s pQgj. 0 f vantage “and a cozen of London saucepans with him, fir may I never lick the inside of one CONYERS, GA„ SATURDAY, MARCH 23,1395. again!” A jest on the sauciness of London serv¬ ing men was sure to tell with the crowd, and there was a great laugh at this, espe¬ cially among tho landless men, who were on the skirts of the party and well shel¬ tered from Sir Anthony's eye. Ho glared about him, provoked to find at this critic¬ al moment smiles where there should have been looks of deference, and a ring round a fool where he had marshaled a proces¬ sion. Unluckily he chose to visit his dis¬ pleasure upon me. “You won’t behave, won't you, you puppy!” hs cried. ‘‘Yon won’t, won’t you!” and stepping forward he ainwd a blow at my shoulders, which would have made me rub myself if it had reached me. But I was too quick. I step¬ ped back, the stick swung idly, and the crowd laughed. And there the matter would have ended, for tho bishop’s party were now close upon ns, had not my foot slipped on the wet grass and I fallen backward. Seeing me thus at his mercy, the temptation proved too much for tho knight. Ho forgot his love of scomliness nnd even that his visit¬ ors were at his elbow, nnd stooping a moment to plant home a oouple of shrewd cuts cried: ‘‘Take thatl Take that, my lad!” in a voice that rang ns crisply ns his thwacks. I was up in an Instant. Not that the pain was anything, and before our own people I should have thought as little of shame, for if the old may not lay band to the young, being related, where is to be any obedience? Now, however, my first glance met the grinning faces of strange lackeys, and while my shoulders still smarted the laughter of a couplo of sober¬ ly clad pages stung a hundred times more sharply I glared furiously round, and my eyes fell on one face—a face long re¬ membered. It was that of a man who neither smiled nor laughed; a man whom I recognized immediately, not by his sleek hackney or his purple cassock, which a riding coat partially concealed, or even by his jeweled hand, but. by the keen glance of power which passed over me, took me in and did not acknowledge mo; which eaw uiy humiliation without interest or amusement. The look hurt mo beyond smarting of shoulders, for it convoyed to me in the twentieth part of a second how very small a person Francis Cluddo was, and how very great a personage was Ste¬ phen Gardiner, whom in my thoughts I had presumed to belittle. 1 stood irresolute a moment, shifting my feet, and glowering at him, my face on firo But when he raised his hand to give the benediction, and tho more devout, or those with mended hose, fell on their knees in the mud, 1 turned my back ab¬ ruptly, and climbing the wall flung away across the chase. “What, Sir Anthony!” I heard him sny as I stalked off, his voice ringing clear and incisive amid the reverential silence which followed the Latin words. “Have we a heretic hero, cousin? How is this? So near home too!” "It is my nephew, my lord bishop,” I could hear Sir Anthony answer, apology in his tono, “and a willful boy at times. You know of him. He has queer notions of his own, put into his head long ago.” I caught no more, my angry strides oaTrying me out of earshot. Fuming, I hurried across tho long damp grass, avoid¬ ing here and there the fallen limb of an elm or a huge round of holly. I wanted to get out of the way and be out of the way, aDd made suoh haste that before the slow¬ ly moving cavalcade had traversed one-half of the Interval between the road and the bouse I had reached the bridge which crossed tho moat, and pushing my way impatiently through the maids and scul¬ lions who had flocked to it to see the show bad passed into the courtyard. The light was failing, and tho place looked dark and gloomy ln spite of the warm glow of burning logs which poured from the lower windows and some show of green boughs which bad been placed over the doorways in honor of the occa¬ sion. 1 glanced up at a lattice in one of the gables, the window of Petronilla’s lit¬ tle parlor. There was no face af it, and I turned fretfully into tho hall—and, yes, there she was, perohod up in one of the high window scats. She was looking out on the chase, as the maids were doing. Yes, as the maids were doing. She, too, was watching for his high mightiness, I muttered, and that angered me afresh. I crossed tho rushes in silence and climbed up beside her. “Well,” I said ungraciously as she start¬ ed, hearing me at her shoulder, “well, have you seen enough of him yet, cousin? You will, I warrant you, before he leavea A little of him goes far. ” “A little of whom, Francis?” she asked simply. Though her voice betrayed some wonder at my rough tone, she was so much en gaged with the show that sbo did not look at me immediately. This, of course, kept my anger warm, and I began to feel that she was in the conspiracy against me. “Of my lord of Winchester, of course," I answered, laughing rudely. “Of Sir Hot pot! did turn her soft dark eyes upon me. She was a slender, willowy girl in those days, with a complexion clear, yet pale—-a maid- j en all bending and gracefulness, yet with j ; a great store of secret firmness, as I was to learn. “He seems as handsoroo an old man,” she continued, “as I have ever met, ffim atih^s d^cTwba 1 ; TthTuLtZ with you, Francis? What has put you ont? angrily “Put me out!" I retorted “Who said anything had put me out?” But I reddened under her eyes. I was I Jppging totell her gU ao. 4 be pwjfqrted, while at tho sSiue time I shrank with a man's shame from saying to her that I had been beaten. 'lean see that something is the mat ter, " she said sagely, with her head on one side, and that air of being the eider which she often assumed with me, though she was really tho younRer by two years, •Why did you not wait for tho others? Why have you come home alone? Frun ois, ” with sudden conviction, "you have vexed my father! That is it!” Ho has beaten mo liko a dog!” I blurt ed out passionately, "and before them all! Before those strangers he flogged met” She had her back to the window, and some faint gleam of wintry sunshine, pass¬ ing through the gules of the shield bla¬ zoned behind her, cast a red stain on her dark hair and shapely head. She was si¬ lent, probably through pity or consterna¬ tion, but I could not see her face and mis¬ read her. I thought her hard, and, resent¬ ing this, bragged on with a lad’s empty violence. ‘‘He did, but I will not stand it! I give you warning, I won’t stand it, Petronil ia!” and I stamped, young bully that I was, until the dust sprang out of the boards and the hounds by the distant hearth jumped up and whined. “No, not for all tho base bishops in England!” I continued, taking a step this way and that. "He had better not do it again! If he does, I tell you it will be the worse for some one!” "Francis,” she exclaimed abruptly, ‘‘you must not speak in that way I” But I was too angry to be silenced, though instinctively 1 changed my ground. “Stephen Gardiner!" 1 cried furiously. ‘‘Who is Stephen Gardiner, 1 should like to know? He has no right to call himself Gardiner at all! Dr. Stephens he used to tall himself, I have heard. A child with Bo name but his godfather’s; that is what he is, for all his airs and Ms bishopric! Who is he to look on and see a Cludde beaten? If my uncle does not take care”— “Francis!" she cried again, cutting mo Bhort ruthlessly. “Be silent, sir!” And this time I was silent. “You unmnnly boy,” she continued, her face glowing With indignation, “to threaten my father before my facol How daro you, sir? How dare you? And who aro you, you poor child,” she exclaimed, with a startling change from invootivo to sarcasm—“who are you to talk of bishops, 1 should like to know?” “One,” I said sullenly, “ who thinks less of cardinals and bishops than some folk, Mistress Petronilia!” ^ "Aye, I know,” she retorted scathingly —“I know that you are a kind of half hearted Protestant—neither fish, flesh nor f °“I am what my 1 father made me!" I , ““At any rate,” she replied, "you do not see how small you aro. or you would not talk of bishops. T Heaven help usl That a : boy who , has done nothing.and „„„„ seen noth h.g should talk of the queen s chancellorl country °or’ cut may talk of ouch -en-men who could the unmake pe D I you ion, andl to talk yours so with of Stephen a^troko Gar- of »nd li.id l«8 hand extended toward me. I could scarce ly understand or' believe thot this was^my noSln«Sd a mTl W Tt happened that th^servantscam^hur dishes and knives, and the noise covered my retreat. I had a fancy afterward that, as 1 moved away, Petronilia called to me. But at the time, what with the confusion and my J,... own disorder, b.w.u. I paid no heed to h„; ;r i. „< .,.1. a ” y s°ha n t was a rp losson. But my feelings, when, being alone, I had time to feel, need not be set down. After events made them of no moment, for I was even then „ , n that nil T \r \ t] ESHS” SSSS r place rSHE was beside them, half^dovvn the table and I was not » top my fee usua/with voice,“raised in a harsher tone than was dis him, even when he was P “C?me S her“Xahl” he cried roundly, “Come here, L Master Francis! I nave . TV - „ „■ l z“ .Mot o“ O, dala, I bnd n ol «ora ol oondleo and rushlights floating in mist, and of in numerable bodiless faces all turned up to mo. But the vision and the mistiness passed away aad ^ -cie’s .^hi ^ rtnLnf nfht the watc nl ey , t _? ’ bighon’s la ‘ “l L ' ” „ t dropped , , , before, , the ,, frown ,__. of a _ Tudor. wia HU Tried Friends Best. _ ForthirtyyearsTuttsPfflshave proven 1 ablessine to the invalid, o Are truly the , friend, . SICK man S A Known Fact For blllOUS . headache, , , dyspepsia , __. sour stomach, malaria, constipa t j Qn anc J kindred diseases. TUTT’S Liver PILLS AN ABSOLUTE CURE. i purple cap and cassock, the loco and rich • fur, the chain of office, I remembered aft erward. "Now, boy,” thundered Sir Anthony, pointing out tho place where 1 should . 1 stand, "what hnve you tosoy for yourself* l Why hnve you so misbehaved this after , noon? Let your tongue speak quickly, do you hear, or you will smart for it. And | let l it be to about tho purpose, boy!” something— was to answer whether it was likely to make things worse or better I cannot remember—when Gardiner staid me. He laid his band gently on Sir Anthony’s sleeve and inter / id WMW' ! r JiSar. Be raised his voice with the last words. posed. “One moment,” lie said mildly. "Your nephew did not stay for the church’s blessing, I remember. Perhaps he has scruples. Thero are people nowadays who have. Let us hoar if it bo so.” This time it was Sir Anthony who did not lot me answer. “No, no!” he cried hastily. “No, not It is not so. He conforms, my lord; he Conforms. You conform, sir,” he contin¬ ued, turning fiercely upon me, "do you not? Answer, sir.” “Ahl” the bishop put ln, with r. sneer, "you conform, do you?” “I attend mass—to please my uncle,” I replied boldly. “He was ill brought up as a child,” Sir Anthony said hastily, speaking in a tone which thoso below could not hear. “But you know all that, my lord—you know all that. It Is an old story to you. So I make and I pray you to make, for the sake of tho house, some allowance. He conforms. He undoubtedly conforms." “Enough!” Gardiner assented. “The rest is for tho good priest here, whose min¬ istrations will no doubt in time avail. But a word with thi9 young gentleman, Sir Anthony, on another subject. If It was »°* to tha hol y offlc « ha ob J« Pf h »P» it was to the queen s chancellor or to the 9 uean? ” «*’ ra ‘f d > lis volce ^' tb t hc las ‘ words and bent his brows, that . 1 could so sca “ e, F '’fJJST® ** wns • ho ,lldn speaking. P « “Eh, sir, was that so?” he con as | do An . remonstrance and glowering at ^ knight, unabie {o contfifn !limEe lf. It was clear that he t d alrcndy o{ big m disc i p ii no -■*- --~ .'. r „ J ,| ch „„ u „ „ p , M . ’ f - ; , ._____ y ,, , drum nlng on the tablo w itb b fln «« « Francis speak for J/ SR Thomas Wyatt had any following In this Nano t0 \ D ° W f?* 6 ' As fo the queen « marriage with the prince of Si 10 1 "’ which was the ground, as we gath ered , here, of W yatt’s rising wi h the Kent “ “4 sr tllat 1)0 not su j '• tor P art ’ would rath a f lavfc her u ' aTri S; d to H st0 " t Eng Uehman-aye or to a I renchman. , And w liy younggi ntlemnn Bocause I would we kcptrtt peace with “Whoever wnitirqj awsasMsrstt! “ ssr { applause ln the haH b( .iow. for France,” I continued, carried away by this, “ we have been flghting it S2 wtat we had to begin. Besides I am told that ^ance is five times stronger than it was ln Henry V’s time, and we should orb**? m jf 1 ^ n -'‘T' ‘Why, my father taught the French at £“ lnegata l grandfather at Cher bonrg, and his father at Aginoourt But XS^K’’I«v swered warmly, “and colonizing Here among the newly discovered countries of toe world, and getting all tho trade, and and Spain, after all, is a nation with no excited and raising f my ^ voico, “that now ^ Qur t , me or ncv( r , he Ppaniard8 and the Portuguese have discovered a new world over seas. “A Castilla y a Leon Nnevo mundo dio Colon! say they, but, depend upon it, every coun¬ try that is to be rich and strong in the time that is coming must have part in it. We cannot conquer either Spain or France; we have not men enough. But we have docks and sailors and ships in London and Fowey and Bristol and the Cinqne ports, enough to fight Spain over the great seas, and I say, Have at her!' ” "What next?” groaned Sir Anthony pitecusly. “Did man ever hear such crackbrained nonsense?” But I think it was not nonsense, fay his words were almost lost in the cry which ran through toe hall as I ceased speaking —4 cry of English voioet On? moment my heart beat high and proudly with a new sonso of power; the next, as a shadow of a cloud falls on a sunny hillside, the cold sneer on the statesman’s face fell on me and chilled me. His set look had neither thawed nor altered, his color lmd neither cqpie nor gone. "You speak your lesson well, lad," he said. "Who taught you statecraft?" I grew smaller, shrinking with each word ho uttered, and faltered and was dumb "Come,” he said, “you seo but a little vny. Vet country lads do not talk of ’fowey and Brtstol! Who primed you?” ”1 met a Master Sebastian Cabot,” I said reluctantly, at last, when he lmd .tessed mo more than once, “who staid awhile at a houso not fur from here and nod been inspector of the navy to King •Sdward. lie had boon a seaman 70 years, -ml lie talked”— "Too fast!” said Gardiner, with a curt lod. "Butcnongh. I understand. I know Jie man. Ho is dead.” Ho was silent then and seemed to have alien suddenly into thought, as a man well might who had tho governing of a kingdom on his shoulders. Seemingly he had done with me. I 'ooked at Sir Anthony. “Ayo, go!”, he said .rritabiy,waving me off. ”Go!" And I went. The ordeal wns over, and over so successfully that I felt the huhitll ..tion of the afternoon cheap at the price of this triumph, for as I stepped down thcre was a buzz nround mo, a murmur of On ever^Cotoi^faco ?marked < a°fluX In every Colon eye I read a sparklo, and every flush and every sparkle was for me. Even the chancellor’s secretaries, grave, down looking men, all secrecy and caution, cost ourions glances at me, as though I wore something out of tho common, and the chancellor's pages made way tor mo with newborn deference. “Thero is for coon try wits!” 1 heard Baidwin Moor cry gleo folly, while the man who put food before mo murmured of “the Cludde bull pup!” If I read in Father Carey's fnoo, os indeod I did, solicitude os well ns relief nnd glad¬ ness, I marked the latter only and hugged a natural prido to my breast. When Mar tin Luther said boldly that it was not only bishop oould fill a bowl, it was by an effort I refrained from joining in the laugh which followed. For an hour I onjoyed this triumph nnd did all but brag of it. Especially 1 wished Petronilia lmd witnosed It. At tho end of that time—ilnis, as tho book says— I wns crossing the courtyard, one-half of which wns bathed in a cold splendor of moon¬ light, and was feoling the first sobering touoli of the night air on my brow, when I heard some one cnll out my nmne I ants, e< a*°sh'ck,°substnntint foliow^^with 1 ^ smug mouth, at my elbow. "What is it?" I said. “I am bidden to fetch you at once, Mas zz°i domoanor. "The chancellor would see you in his room, young sir.” | [TO BE CONTINUED. 1 I ’ •The supreme court of the Unitod States recently disposed of 58 cases in one day. It was the heaviest day’s work even that heavy body accomplished. If i they could dispatch so much business every day, they might catch up even with the work before them in a oouple of years. OOLUMBIA3— THEY ALMOST FLY. Dieting wopt THAT MEANS_ RATE Curg you Neither will medicine. P ieVG T& Bicycling will. All you need is to get outdoors and let the tonic of rapid motion put new blood into your veins and tissues. Buy a... r// r, -i • • • ^olurrjbia. Bicycles -—$100 Or a HARTFORD -- *80, * 60 . Boys’ or Girly’ Hartford?--^50. Q«t a SHANOH STORKS* Columbia Boston Catalogue flew YorH Free at any Col¬ Chicago umbia agency; San rer»r>eJ»c© by mail for two Providence Buffalo 2-cent stamps. N A 12. State legislatures. The Review of Reviews contains u summary of the work thus far of 89 state legislatures this winter. Delaware is one of them, ami the work of the B« aware legislature is very easily smnmqfl up. Except Rhode Island, she is tlte smallest state in tho Union, yet it tat(6l her longer to eleot a senator than ft dbea all the other 43 states put together. Of tho 83 states whose lawmnktqg bodies met this winter all but four, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey, have biennial legisla¬ tures. Tho lawmaking of this year is therefore expected to tido them over till 1897. No doubt it will. Three of tho legislatures, those of Illinois, New Y&k and California, are deep in the matter of investigating police corruption. Very instructive it is to observe the trend Of public sentiment in different parts of the Union. In the Atlantic states there has arisen a general sentiment^ against book making, pool selling and all gam¬ bling of that kind. Connecticut passed new acts aimed at thoso evils. So did New Jersey. In the wost Kansas did likewise. Tho most important law ett ncte d thus far by tbo Now York legista *" T0 18 0110 civlE S tho mayor of Now York city power to remove any officers appointed by his predecessors in offlea. This was (ho famous "power of removal . ... ,, ' ** gratifying to obsorve a general , “ movement the country over in favor of improved roads. In half a dozen of the .. , rQad - ]nW8 havo eithm been passed this winter or are now pending. In tho arid belt, of course, irrigation Jaws take precedence of all others. Tb, legislatures of states wholly or partly included ill that portion of U this sid«, 0 f tho Rookies are struggling bravely with questions of water supply and wa tfi r rights to settlers, seeking to do jus* tloe to all. Undoubtedly they will evolvu after a time the right system, Minnesota ami Wisoonsin, mlndfnl of toe awful expononces of last summer, are occupiod with measures for tbo pre von tion of forest fires. North Dakota *■«“ *» think her lax divorce laws ar, scandaloup, and a bill was laid before the legislature requiring a residenoe of on(3 y ()ar j b tbo state beforo divoroe pro* - ■» w-« vs. gmia is going to increase tbo efficiency of her public soboo! system. Several of tho state legislatures are busy with va* xioua antiliquor laws, from absolute pro hibition to the stato dispensary system of Maine and South Carolina. .7 — ~~ — ____— Count Castellano nnd Anna Gould are married. May they stay married! Conyeri Is goiua to have a Cottpn Mill. Call on Mr. W. J, Freeman and take a snare