of the Peak

by Sir Walter Scott







PEVERIL OF THE PEAK



CHAPTER I

When civil dudgeon first grew high,
And men fell out, they knew not why;
When foul words, jealousies, and fears,
Set folk together by the ears--
--BUTLER.

William, the Conqueror of England, was, or supposed himself to be, the
father of a certain William Peveril, who attended him to the battle of
Hastings, and there distinguished himself. The liberal-minded monarch,
who assumed in his charters the veritable title of Gulielmus
Bastardus, was not likely to let his son's illegitimacy be any bar to
the course of his royal favour, when the laws of England were issued
from the mouth of the Norman victor, and the lands of the Saxons were
at his unlimited disposal. William Peveril obtained a liberal grant of
property and lordships in Derbyshire, and became the erecter of that
Gothic fortress, which, hanging over the mouth of the Devil's Cavern,
so well known to tourists, gives the name of Castleton to the adjacent
village.

From this feudal Baron, who chose his nest upon the principles on
which an eagle selects her eyry, and built it in such a fashion as if
he had intended it, as an Irishman said of the Martello towers, for
the sole purpose of puzzling posterity, there was, or conceived
themselves to be, descended (for their pedigree was rather
hypothetical) an opulent family of knightly rank, in the same county
of Derby. The great fief of Castleton, with its adjacent wastes and
forests, and all the wonders which they contain, had been forfeited in
King John's stormy days, by one William Peveril, and had been granted
anew to the Lord Ferrers of that day. Yet this William's descendants,
though no longer possessed of what they alleged to have been their
original property, were long distinguished by the proud title of
Peverils of the Peak, which served to mark their high descent and
lofty pretensions.

In Charles the Second's time, the representative of this ancient
family was Sir Geoffrey Peveril, a man who had many of the ordinary
attributes of an old-fashioned country gentleman, and very few
individual traits to distinguish him from the general portrait of that
worthy class of mankind. He was proud of small advantages, angry at
small disappointments, incapable of forming any resolution or opinion
abstracted from his own prejudices--he was proud of his birth, lavish
in his housekeeping, convivial with those kindred and acquaintances,
who would allow his superiority in rank--contentious and quarrelsome
with all that crossed his pretensions--kind to the poor, except when
they plundered his game--a Royalist in his political opinions, and one
who detested alike a Roundhead, a poacher, and a Presbyterian. In
religion Sir Geoffrey was a high-churchman, of so exalted a strain
that many thought he still nourished in private the Roman Catholic
tenets, which his family had only renounced in his father's time, and
that he had a dispensation for conforming in outward observances to
the Protestant faith. There was at least such a scandal amongst the
Puritans, and the influence which Sir Geoffrey Peveril certainly
appeared to possess amongst the Catholic gentlemen of Derbyshire and
Cheshire, seemed to give countenance to the rumour.

Such was Sir Geoffrey, who might have passed to his grave without
further distinction than a brass-plate in the chancel, had he not
lived in times which forced the most inactive spirits into exertion,
as a tempest influences the sluggish waters of the deadest mere. When
the Civil Wars broke out, Peveril of the Peak, proud from pedigree,
and brave by constitution, raised a regiment for the King, and showed
upon several occasions more capacity for command than men had
heretofore given him credit for.

Even in the midst of the civil turmoil, he fell in love with, and
married, a beautiful and amiable young lady of the noble house of
Stanley; and from that time had the more merit in his loyalty, as it
divorced him from her society, unless at very brief intervals, when
his duty permitted an occasional visit to his home. Scorning to be
allured from his military duty by domestic inducements, Peveril of
the Peak fought on for several rough years of civil war, and performed
his part with sufficient gallantry, until his regiment was surprised
and cut to pieces by Poyntz, Cromwell's enterprising and successful
general of cavalry. The defeated Cavalier escaped from the field of
battle, and, like a true descendant of William the Conqueror,
disdaining submission, threw himself into his own castellated mansion,
which was attacked and defended in a siege of that irregular kind
which caused the destruction of so many baronial residences during the
course of those unhappy wars. Martindale Castle, after having suffered
severely from the cannon which Cromwell himself brought against it,
was at length surrendered when in the last extremity. Sir Geoffrey
himself became a prisoner, and while his liberty was only restored
upon a promise of remaining a peaceful subject to the Commonwealth in
future, his former delinquencies, as they were termed by the ruling
party, were severely punished by fine and sequestration.

But neither his forced promise, nor the fear of farther unpleasant
consequences to his person or property, could prevent Peveril of the
Peak from joining the gallant Earl of Derby the night before the fatal
engagement in Wiggan Lane, where the Earl's forces were dispersed. Sir
Geoffrey having had his share in that action, escaped with the relics
of the Royalists after the defeat, to join Charles II. He witnessed
also the final defeat of Worcester, where he was a second time made
prisoner; and as, in the opinion of Cromwell and the language of the
times, he was regarded as an obstinate malignant, he was in great
danger of having shared with the Earl of Derby his execution at
Bolton-le-Moor, having partaken with him the dangers of two actions.
But Sir Geoffrey's life was preserved by the interest of a friend, who
possessed influence in the councils of Oliver.--This was a Mr.
Bridgenorth, a gentleman of middling quality, whose father had been
successful in some commercial adventure during the peaceful reign of
James I.; and who had bequeathed his son a considerable sum of money,
in addition to the moderate patrimony which he inherited from his
father.

The substantial, though small-sized, brick building of Moultrassie
Hall, was but two miles distant from Martindale Castle, and the young
Bridgenorth attended the same school with the heir of the Peverils. A
sort of companionship, if not intimacy, took place betwixt them, which
continued during their youthful sports--the rather that Bridgenorth,
though he did not at heart admit Sir Geoffrey's claims of superiority
to the extent which the other's vanity would have exacted, paid
deference in a reasonable degree to the representative of a family so
much more ancient and important than his own, without conceiving that
he in any respect degraded himself by doing so.

Mr. Bridgenorth did not, however, carry his complaisance so far as to
embrace Sir Geoffrey's side during the Civil War. On the contrary, as
an active Justice of the Peace, he rendered much assistance in
arraying the militia in the cause of the Parliament, and for some time
held a military commission in that service. This was partly owing to
his religious principles, for he was a zealous Presbyterian, partly to
his political ideas, which, without being absolutely democratical,
favoured the popular side of the great national question. Besides, he
was a moneyed man, and to a certain extent had a shrewd eye to his
worldly interest. He understood how to improve the opportunities which
civil war afforded, of advancing his fortune, by a dexterous use of
his capital; and he was not at a loss to perceive that these were
likely to be obtained in joining the Parliament; while the King's
cause, as it was managed, held out nothing to the wealthy but a course
of exaction and compulsory loans. For these reasons, Bridgenorth
became a decided Roundhead, and all friendly communication betwixt his
neighbour and him was abruptly broken asunder. This was done with the
less acrimony, that, during the Civil War, Sir Geoffrey was almost
constantly in the field, following the vacillating and unhappy
fortunes of his master; while Major Bridgenorth, who soon renounced
active military service, resided chiefly in London, and only
occasionally visited the Hall.

Upon these visits, it was with great pleasure he received the
intelligence, that Lady Peveril had shown much kindness to Mrs.
Bridgenorth, and had actually given her and her family shelter in
Martindale Castle, when Moultrassie Hall was threatened with pillage
by a body of Prince Rupert's ill-disciplined Cavaliers. This
acquaintance had been matured by frequent walks together, which the
vicinity of their places of residence suffered the Lady Peveril to
have with Mrs. Bridgenorth, who deemed herself much honoured in being
thus admitted into the society of so distinguished a lady. Major
Bridgenorth heard of this growing intimacy with great pleasure, and he
determined to repay the obligation, as far as he could without much
hurt to himself, by interfering with all his influence, in behalf of
her unfortunate husband. It was chiefly owing to Major Bridgenorth's
mediation, that Sir Geoffrey's life was saved after the battle of
Worcester. He obtained him permission to compound for his estate on
easier terms than many who had been less obstinate in malignancy; and,
finally, when, in order to raise the money to the composition, the
Knight was obliged to sell a considerable portion of his patrimony,
Major Bridgenorth became the purchaser, and that at a larger price
than had been paid to any Cavalier under such circumstances, by a
member of the Committee for Sequestrations. It is true, the prudent
committeeman did not, by any means, lose sight of his own interest in
the transaction, for the price was, after all, very moderate, and the
property lay adjacent to Moultrassie Hall, the value of which was at
least trebled by the acquisition. But then it was also true, that the
unfortunate owner must have submitted to much worse conditions, had
the committeeman used, as others did, the full advantages which his
situation gave him; and Bridgenorth took credit to himself, and
received it from others, for having, on this occasion, fairly
sacrificed his interest to his liberality.

Sir Geoffrey Peveril was of the same opinion, and the rather that Mr.
Bridgenorth seemed to bear his exaltation with great moderation, and
was disposed to show him personally the same deference in his present
sunshine of prosperity, which he had exhibited formerly in their early
acquaintance. It is but justice to Major Bridgenorth to observe, that
in this conduct he paid respect as much to the misfortunes as to the
pretensions of his far-descended neighbour, and that, with the frank
generosity of a blunt Englishman, he conceded points of ceremony,
about which he himself was indifferent, merely because he saw that his
doing so gave pleasure to Sir Geoffrey.

Peveril of the Peak did justice to his neighbour's delicacy, in
consideration of which he forgot many things. He forgot that Major
Bridgenorth was already in possession of a fair third of his estate,
and had various pecuniary claims affecting the remainder, to the
extent of one-third more. He endeavoured even to forget, what it was
still more difficult not to remember, the altered situation in which
they and their mansions now stood to each other.

Before the Civil War, the superb battlements and turrets