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In 1647, he preached for the first time at Duckenfield, not far from Manchester; but the most fruitful scene of his labours was at Swarthmoor, near Ulverston. His disciples followed his example; the word of the Spirit was given to women as well as men; and the preachers of both sexes, as well as many of their followers, attracted the notice and the censures of the civil magistrate.
"A man possessed of all this," thought Mr. Forster again; "he must be mad." Then the carriage stopped before the grand entrance of one of the most magnificent mansions in England. Ulverston Priory whose beauty has been described, in prose and in verse, by pens more eloquent than mine. "Is Lady Carruthers at home?" asked Mr. Forster of the stately old butler. "My lady is at home, sir."
Forster, angrily, "I should say you were mad now!" Basil paid no heed to the remark. "The only thing I can do," he said, "I will do. I will go to Vienna as soon as I leave here. I will not remain in London one-half hour." "I fear your compliance will be too late then," he said. "I must leave you, if I go to Ulverston this evening. I have several matters that I must attend to.
Will any persuasion of mine induce you to alter your mind?" "No; though I thank you for your interest." And the lawyer left the young man's cell with something like a moan upon his lips. Ulverston Priory. During his walk from the prison to his office, Mr. Forster was stopped several times. "Is this rumor about young Carruthers true?" asked Sir James Hamlyn, anxiously.
I had hoped to preserve my incognito. If I cannot, well, I must bear the shame." "And your mother?" asked the lawyer. "My poor mother! Perhaps, after all, you had better go down to Ulverston and tell her! She will begin to wonder where I am. Besides, the London house must be attended to." "If I know Lady Carruthers rightly," said the lawyer, "she will never get over the blow."
It was full two hours' ride by rail from London, and all the way there the lawyer was worrying himself with conjectures, and trying to solve what he thought honestly the greatest mystery he had ever known. It was six o'clock on a bright May evening when he reached Ulverston. He ordered a fly, and drove at once to the Priory. More than half that busy town of Rutsford belonged to the Carruthers.
Many curious glances were bent on the pair who sat before the grand tier of fragrant blossoms. "Who is that with Lady Amelie?" asked one of another. "Mr. Carruthers of Ulverston," was the, reply; and great was the indignation felt by young ladies and their mammas. Poor Lady Masham had five marriageable daughters, and none had as yet received even the faintest shadow of an offer.
Forster; "it will break his mother's heart; she can never forget it. He is ruined for life. For a lawyer, I am strangely unwilling to tell a lie; but it must be done! He must be saved at any price!" As the solicitor of that family, and manager of the Ulverston property, I beg to contradict it. Mr. Carruthers, himself, informed me of his intention to go abroad.
"Bring her up as you would a daughter of your own," wrote the dying mother. "She has a large fortunes save her from fortune-hunters." And Lady Carruthers, scrupulously carried out her kinswoman's wish. She took the girl to her own home, Ulverston Priory; she superintended her education; she brought her up in simple, refined habits succeeded in making of her a perfect lady and a noble woman.
"It was not for this you came," she thought. At last the colonel spoke openly. "I have come to ask of you a great favor, Lady Lisle," he said. "You have perhaps heard of my young kinsman, Basil Carruthers?" "The heir of Ulverston?" she said. "Certainly. He is one of the prizes in the matrimonial market at present, colonel."
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