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The Buccaneer - A Tale

Page 154

Jointure, portion, gold, estate,

Houses, household-stuff, or land,

(The low conveniences of fate,)

Are Greek no lovers understand.

COWLEY

"Verily the Lord scattereth!" was the exclamation of the Reverend Jonas

Fleetword, as he passed from one to another of the apartments of Cecil

Place, seeking for some one with whom to hold converse, yet finding

none. Sir Willmott Burrell was abroad, even at an hour so early; Lady

Frances Cromwell closeted with Constantia; Sir Robert Cecil particularly

engaged; even Barbara Iverk was not to be found--and the poor preacher

had but little chance of either a breakfast or a gossip, or, as he

termed it, "a commune." In the course of his wanderings, however, he at

length encountered Solomon Grundy, puffing and courtesying under the

weight of a huge pasty he was conveying, by a prodigious effort, to the

buttery.

"Ah, Solomon, my friend," said Fleetword, "of a truth it is a pleasant

thing to see thee."

"You mean that you behold something pleasant with me," retorted the

cook; "and of a verity, your reverence----"

"You must not call me reverence; it is one of the designations of the

beast;--my voice is raised against it--against the horned beast."

"This was a horned beast once," again replied Solomon, observing that

the preacher's eye was fixed upon the pasty; "nature may be changed by

cookery. It hath lost all the sinful qualities that you talk about, and

hath become most savoury and nourishing food: doth it resemble the

change that, you say, takes place in the spirit?"

"We must not so mingle profane and sacred things," murmured Fleetword,

placing his forefinger upon the tempting dish, with a longing and eager

look; for he had walked far and was fasting. "Is this one of the baked

meats thou art preparing for the coming festival?"

"What festival?" inquired the cook, surlily: "I know of no festival. Of

a surety, have I laboured in my calling, to furnish forth something

worthy of this house; yet, from what I hear, there will be few at this

wedding to profit by my skill. I little thought to see our dear young

lady so wedded."

"Solomon, feasting is foolishness; it savoureth of the mammon of

unrighteousness: yet was Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord, and

Isaac loved seethed kid. Couldst thou extract a morsel of meat from that

compound, for of a truth I am an hungered?"

"What! spoil my garnishing!" exclaimed Grundy, "look at the frosting of

that horn, and the device, the two doves--see'st thou not the doves?"

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