"He is then dead. I thought his end was near."

"He died soon after you left," said Dame Hathaway. "The crowner sat on's body, and the man Martin from the Hall was examined with Lawyer Grasp and Master Dismal, and the man were known to be an escaped traitor. And so he's buried in a hole like a dog; and there's an end. And a good end too, if men will go about to compa.s.s such mischief as he seems to have been hatching all his life."

"And fair Mistress Anne," said Shakespeare, "is she too busied like yourself, 'weaving her thread with bones'?"

"No," said Dame Hathaway, "though she is occupied, she is out in the orchard with Mopsy, and Lawyer Grasp, and Master Doubletongue."

"Grasp!" exclaimed Shakespeare, as a sort of strange feeling shot across him; "what doth the scrivener at Shottery?"

The dame smiled, knowingly. "The bright day hath brought him forth mayhap," said she.

"'Tis the bright day that brings forth the adder," said Shakespeare; "and that Doubletongue too. I am sorry they are acquainted with Mistress Anne."

"Why so?" said the dame. "Master Grasp is rich. He hath store of moneys 'tis said. He hath been saying some pretty things to Anne; nay, in good sooth I think he, _in some sort_, affects her."

"May the pestilence strike the crafty knave!" said Shakespeare to himself, as a slight pang of jealousy shot through his breast. "He affect the handsome Anne Hathaway!"

"You know Master Grasp?" said Dame Hathaway, inquiringly.

"I do," said Shakespeare, drily.

"I thought as much," said the good dame, "for I heard his discourse to Anne, and, sooth to say, he did not speak well of you; nay, he speaks vilely of you."

"Thank Heaven, therefore," said Shakespeare, smiling; "the praise of the wicked is less to be coveted than their censure. By your leave I will seek your daughter in the orchard."

"I pray you do," said Dame Hathaway, "and bid them in to dinner."

When Shakespeare entered the orchard he found the two damsels engaged in removing apples from a sort of store-house erected at the further end of it, to another outhouse nearer to the dwelling; and, as the two elderly swains had gallantly volunteered to a.s.sist them in their labours, the damsels were amusing themselves by taxing their good-nature and strength to the utmost.

Accordingly as the youth strolled amongst the tree towards them, he beheld the unhappy Grasp bent double under the weight of an enormous basket, so filled with apples that he could scarce stagger beneath it, whilst Anne Hathaway, with both hands, was still piling up more fruit.

Master Doubletongue was similarly loaded, and both the maidens were laughing till their sides ached at the rueful figures their patient lovers exhibited.

The situation was indeed felt by the suitors as sufficiently ridiculous, and when they saw some one approaching both would fain have thrown down their burthens if they had been able.

"Nay, I pray thee, Good Mistress Anne," said Grasp, "give me not the entire produce of the orchard at one turn. I am neither Hercules nor Atlas. My back is well nigh broke, as well as my heart, by your cruelty.

I would fain stand upright. Heaven relieve me," he muttered to himself, "from this pestilent load."

"My strength sufficeth not to remove so large a load," said Anne, still laughing, "all I can do is to take them out by degrees, as I have placed them _one by one_!"

"I should die ere relieved by so slow a process," said Grasp. "Oh, my back, my weary back is cramped with long suffering and weight of apples."

"Then trudge off, and throw them into yonder wood-house," said Anne.

"I'll never entertain your services if you are thus idle."

"I cannot budge a foot," said Grasp, "I am, as it were, rooted in the snow. Heaven help me."

"Stop whilst I give you this small basketfull," said Anne, emptying more apples into the load.

"Nay, then, I can no longer bear it," said Grasp; and he sank upon his knees, whilst both the la.s.ses kept piling more apples upon his head.

"I am utterly foredone, and must fain succ.u.mb," said Grasp; "my better parts are vanquished, lo, I fall," and, as he sank under his burthen, the huge load rolled in heaps around him.

"I shall be crushed, altogether crushed and flattened like a shrove-groat shilling," said Master Doubletongue. "I pray you, fair damsel, to help me down with this burthen. I would fain do my best in your service, but I am not able, I find, to do the work of a younger man."

But the saucy maidens, having brought their two admirers to their present doleful state, as soon as they saw young Shakespeare approaching, ran, shrieking with laughter to meet him, leaving their swains to extricate themselves as they best could.

"I do perceive that I am made an exceeding a.s.s of by this lively virgin," said Grasp, gathering himself up from amongst the rolling apples; "nevertheless her comeliness and favour hath quite entamed my spirits to her worship. I would fain contract a marriage, and the good yeoman her father is right willing to receive me for a son-in-law."

"And I," said Doubletongue, "should greatly like to wive also, an I could achieve the maiden Mopsy. Ma.s.s, but she is fresh as an April morn, and strong as a porter. Would to Heaven she had relieved me of this burthen ere she fled! Help me down with it, good Grasp, an you love me."

"Who was that I saw approaching when the maidens deserted us?" inquired Grasp. "See, they are now returning with him into the house, without so much as 'I thank ye,' for all we have done for them."

"'Tis surely young Shakespeare," said Doubletongue, "your sometime clerk."

"Oh, the young scapegallows," said Grasp, "by my fay, and so it is. His presence here bodes no good to my suit, and I have already possessed Mistress Anne with my opinion of him. Nay, Sir Thomas Lucy hath spoken with me about him, too. The dare-devil lad hath somehow offended Sir Thomas, and he vows to deal hardly with him an he can catch him trespa.s.sing on his domain. I'll stir him further to't."

"He hath trespa.s.sed upon our domains here too, I think, and carried off my sweet friend Mopsy," said Doubletongue. "I'll abuse the varlet where'er I come."

"Thou canst not say worse of him than he deserves," said Grasp; "an I can but once catch him tripping, I'll be his ruin yet."

"Methinks we bad better wend our steps back to Stratford this morning,"

said Doubletongue. "I am sore wearied, and sorely nipped with the cold blast. The pestilence seize this Shakespeare, I had rather not encounter him."

"I would we were both rid of him," said Grasp; "albeit I am somewhat sorry to leave him in the company of the fair Anne; such a smooth-tongued varlet is sufficient to corrupt a whole village."

"Let us slink by and get a peep in at the window," said Doubletongue; and the worthy pair of friends left the orchard.

On that evening a youth and a village maiden were soon strolling quietly along the footpath leading from Shottery to Stratford-upon-Avon. The youth, with head inclined, was telling a soft tale in the ear of his companion--a tale such as evidently was pleasing to her, for her handsome face was radiant with smiles. There was something in the step and bearing of both which proclaimed them superior to the common ran of mortals: albeit their costume was but a degree removed from, and in somewhat better taste than that of the peasant of the period. Both were extremely handsome, and it was evident they were lovers, inasmuch as (although the occasional pa.s.ser seldom failed to stop and turn to regard them) they were so entirely wrapped in each other's society that they seemed lost to all external objects.

As they reached a part of the path which in crossed by the high road, they stopped, and a stately knight, accompanied by two ladies, and attended by several mounted serving men, rode by. The ladies seemed struck with the form of the handsome maiden; and the cavalier, after pa.s.sing, turned and leant upon the cantle of his saddle, and steadily regarded the youth.

"'Tis he," said the Knight of Charlecote, to himself, "and the girl is Hathaway's daughter. 'Tis pity she should mate with so reckless a youth."

"Who, said ye, they are?" inquired the elder daughter of Sir Thomas; "methinks I have seen the youth at Clopton Hall."

"See him when and where thou wilt, Alicia," returned the knight, "I fear me you will have seen but a graceless suitor, from all I have learned through the scrivener Grasp. 'Tis the wool-comber's eldest son, young Shakespeare of Stratford."

After this brief discourse, the party rode on.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

SHOTTERY HALL.

With lovers, days, weeks, and months pa.s.s swiftly by. The fair and witty Rosalind is made to tell us, however, that time trots hard with a young maid, between the contract of her marriage and the day it is solemnized, for "if the interim be but a se'night, time's pace is so hard, that it seems the length of seven years."