The Miracle at St. Bruno's

My mother came to the Abbey with the usual baskets full of good things. She had a story to tell. She had the twins with her for they seized the opportunity to come to the Abbey whenever they could and they carried her baskets for her.

The girls came to see what she had brought and to listen to her news.

"My word," she said, settling down, "there are goings-on in the city.”

"Tell us, Grandmother," commanded Catherine.

"Well, my dear, 'tis a haunted house in Aldersgate Street, though maybe it is not haunted. It may well be that it is an angel of God abiding there. Who can say?”

"Do get on," cried Catherine. "Oh, Grandmother, you are so maddening. You keep us in suspense always with your stories.”

"She will tell it in good time," I said. "Don't harass her.”

"Good time," cried Catherine. "What is good time? Now is good time in my opinion.”

'And who is wasting time now?" asked Honey.

"You!" cried Catherine. "Now, Grandmother.”

"It's a voice that came from the bricks," said Peter. "I heard it. Didn't you, Paul?”

Paul agreed with his brother as he agreed in everything.

"What sort of a voice?" insisted Catherine.

"Well, if you had let me explain from the beginning," said my mother, "you would know by now.”

"Which is perfectly true," I added.

"Well, tell us," cried Catherine.

"There is a voice which comes from the bricks of this house. And when the people cry, 'God save Queen Mary,' it says nothing.”

"How can it be a voice if nothing is said?" demanded Catherine.

"What an impatient child she is," said my mother frowning. "You do not wait to hear.

Now when the crowd shouts, 'God save the Lady Elizabeth,' the voice says, 'So be it.' “

"Who is it then?" asked Honey.

"That is the mystery. There is no one in the house. Yet the voice comes.”

"There must be someone," I said.

"There is no one. The house is empty. And when the crowds shout, 'What is the Mass?’ the voice answers, 'Idolatry.' “

Catherine had flushed scarlet. "It is some wicked person who is tricking people.”

"It's a voice," said my mother, "and no one there. A voice without a body. Is that not a marvelous thing?”

"If it talked sense it would be," said Catherine.

"Sense! Who is to question the divine word?”

"I do," said Catherine. "It is only divine for Protestants. To the people of the true faith it is... heresy.”

"Be silent, Cat," I said. "You are disrespectful to your grandmother.”

"Is it disrespectful then to tell the truth?”

"Truth to one perhaps is not truth to another.”

"How can that be? The truth must always stand,”

I said wearily: "I will not have these conflicts in the house. Is it not bad enough that they persist in the country?”

Catherine persisted: "I must say what I feel.”

"You must learn to curb your tongue and show a proper respect where it is due.”

"Respect!" said Catherine. "My father would say...”

I said: "I will have no more of this.”

Catherine flung out of the room. "It is a pretty pass," she muttered, "when one must pretend to agree with wicked lies...just to please people.”

"My word," said my mother, "there goes a fierce little Papist." I noticed that Honey was smiling, as she always did when there was a difference between myself and Catherine.

With such frictions in the family, I wondered how one could hope for harmony in the world.

Catherine was triumphant when an investigation of the house revealed a young woman, named Elizabeth Croft, who had been secreted into a hole in the wall that she might answer the questions which were put to her and incite the people against the Queen and her Spanish marriage.

"There is your voice," cried Catherine and hurried over to Caseman Court to tell my mother.

"She was so discountenanced, I couldn't help laughing," she told me when she came back.

"You should have had more compassion," I told her.

"Compassion on such a bigot!”

"And you, my dear, do you perhaps suffer from the same complaint?”

"But I am in favor of the true religion.”

"As I said, a bigot, Catherine, I do not wish you to become involved in these matters.”

"I talk of them with my father... now." Her eyes were shining. "It is wonderful to have discovered him. All these years I have been at fault.”

"He took no notice of you.”

"Of course he did not when I was young and stupid. It is different now.”

"I do beg of you to be careful.”

She flew at me and hugged me. "Dearest Mother, you must know that I am grown up... almost.”

"But not quite," I reminded her.

Peter came in to tell us that Elizabeth Croft was in the pillory for playing her part in the hoax.

"Poor girl," I said. "I hope she does not pay for this with her head.”

I thought then: A common price to be asked. And when I considered the religious conflict which seemed to have intensified rather than to have diminished now that we had a firmly Catholic Queen I continued in my apprehension and promised myself that if it must be there in the outside world it should be curbed in the family.

That July Prince Philip of Spain landed in England and the Queen traveled to Winchester where they were married.