Even the gibes of the apprentices fell dead upon their
ears. These varlets might laugh, but what would they say if they
knew that they were going to fight the Spaniards? The thought
so altered them that they felt almost a feeling of pity for these
lads, condemned to stay at home and mind their masters' shops.
As to John Lirriper, he was sorely troubled in his mind, and divided
between what he considered his duty to the vicar and his life long
respect and reverence towards the lords of Hedingham. The feudal
system was extinct, but feudal ideas still lingered among the people.
Their lords could no longer summon them to take the field, had no
longer power almost of life and death over them, but they were still
their lords, and regarded with the highest respect and reverence.
The earls of Oxford were, in the eyes of the people of those parts
of Essex where their estates lay, personages of greater importance
than the queen herself, of whose power and attributes they had but
a very dim notion. It was not so very long since people had risen
in rebellion against the queen, but such an idea as that of rising
against their lords had never entered the mind of a single inhabitant
of Hedingham.
However, Master Lirriper came to the conclusion that he was,
as Geoffrey had said, powerless to interfere. If Mr. Francis Vere
decided to take the boys with him, what could he do to prevent it?
He could hardly take them forcibly down to the boat against their
will, and even could he do so their father might not approve, and
doubtless the earl, when he came to hear of it, would be seriously
angry at this act of defiance of his kinsman.
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