The Witch

THE LONG ROLL. The first of two books dealing with the war between the States. With Illustrations in color by N. C. WYETH.

CEASE FIRING. The second of two books dealing with the war between the States. With Illustrations in color by N. C. WYETH.

LEWIS RAND. With Illustrations in color by F. C. YOHN.

AUDREY. With Illustrations in color by F. C. YOHN.

PRISONERS OF HOPE. With Frontispiece.

TO HAVE AND TO HOLD. With 8 Illustrations by HOWARD PYLE, E. B. THOMPSON, A. W. BETTS, and EMLEN MCCONNELL.

THE GODDESS OF REASON. A Drama.

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

BOSTON AND NEW YORK

[Illustration: (p. 154) “GOOD-BYE, MISTRESS FRIENDLY-SOUL!”]

THE WITCH

BY

MARY JOHNSTON

[Illustration: LOGO]

BOSTON AND NEW YORK

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

The Riverside Press Cambridge

1914

COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY MARY JOHNSTON

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Published October 1914

CONTENTS

I. THE QUEEN’S CHAMBER 1

II. THE CAP AND BELLS 10

III. THE TWO PHYSICIANS 24

IV. THE ROSE TAVERN 37

V. THE ROAD TO HAWTHORN 54

VI. THE MAN WITH THE HAWK 69

VII. JOAN 82

VIII. THE SQUIRE’S BROTHER 97

IX. THE OAK GRANGE 109

X. IN HAWTHORN FOREST 124

XI. THE PLAGUE 136

XII. HERON’S COTTAGE 151

XIII. HAWTHORN CHURCH 165

XIV. NIGHT 176

XV. NEXT DAY 188

XVI. MASTER THOMAS CLEMENT 204

XVII. MOTHER SPURAWAY 218

XVIII. THE GAOL 235

XIX. ADERHOLD AND CARTHEW 246

XX. THE WITCH JUDGE 260

XXI. THE WITCH 272

XXII. ESCAPE 281

XXIII. THE ROAD TO THE PORT 298

XXIV. THE FARTHER ROAD 312

XXV. THE SILVER QUEEN 327

XXVI. THE OPEN BOAT 342

XXVII. THE ISLAND 351

XXVIII. FOUR YEARS 362

XXIX. THE SPANIARDS 376

XXX. THE ISLET 387

XXXI. THE HOUR-GLASS 404

XXXII. A JOURNEY 420

THE WITCH

THE WITCH

CHAPTER I

THE QUEEN’S CHAMBER

IT was said that the Queen was dying. She lay at Richmond, in the palace looking out upon the wintry, wooded, March-shaken park, but London, a few miles away, had daily news of how she did. There was much talk about her--the old Queen—much telling of stories and harking back. She had had a long reign—“Not far from fifty years, my masters!”—and in it many important things had happened. The crowd in the streets, the barge and wherry folk upon the wind-ruffled river, the roisterers in the taverns drinking ale or sack, merchants and citizens in general talking of the times in the intervals of business, old soldiers and seamen ashore, all manner of folk, indeed, agreed upon the one most important thing. The most important thing had been the scattering of the Armada fifteen years before. That disposed of, opinions differed as to the next most important. The old soldiers were for all fighting wherever it had occurred. The seamen and returned adventurers threw for the voyages of Drake and Frobisher and Gilbert and Raleigh. With these were inclined to agree the great merchants and guild-masters who were venturing in the East India and other joint-stock companies. The little merchant and guild fellows agreed with the great. A very large number of all classes claimed for the overthrow of Popery the first place. On the other hand, a considerable number either a little hurriedly slurred this, or else somewhat too anxiously and earnestly supported the assertion. One circle, all churchmen, lauded the Act of Uniformity, and the pains and penalties provided alike for Popish recusant and non-conforming Protestant. Another circle, men of a serious cast of countenance and of a growing simplicity in dress, left the Act of Uniformity in obscurity, and after the deliverance from the Pope, made the important happening the support given the Protestant principle in France and the Netherlands. A few extreme loyalists put in a claim for the number of conspiracies unearthed and trampled into nothingness—Scottish conspiracies, Irish conspiracies, Spanish conspiracies, Westmoreland and Northumberland conspiracies, Throgmorton conspiracies—the death of the Queen of Scots, the death, two years ago, of Essex.