"It is the Lord's justice," she said. "His will be done." She straightened herself, went down to her household, and rebuked Ann when she wept.
"Shall not the Lord chastise His children?" she said. "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth. Indeed, I am well pleased that our God careth for us so well that He does chastise us; for, seeing we were so prosperous, I feared He held us to be of no account, but now I am exalted, and my spirit is glad within me, for the Lord has laid His hand on my house."
This enthusiasm was wonderful; her face, which before had been sad, shone now with an inner light of satisfaction. She went about her duties with an energy and a briskness which had long failed her.
The maid-servants exclaimed, "The mistress is of cheerful countenance; is it seemly that she should rejoice over the master's misfortune?"
If she divined their thoughts she paid no heed to them.
"Poor ignorant souls, they cannot understand," she said to Patience, who, to tell the truth, herself did not understand why the wife should rejoice when her husband was sent to prison and was in danger of his life.
She remembered how sorely she had grieved over the misfortunes which had befallen the royal standard, and how she had mourned for those who were then laid low.
"It is not natural," she said to Agnes; "we must accept the will of the Lord, but we are not bound to rejoice when He afflicts us."
Reginald had left the house almost immediately after his father's departure, to find out where he had been taken to and what could be done to further his release, so Agnes and Patience remained with Ann and cheered her as best they could. Mistress Newbolt needed no cheering; she busied herself arranging her husband's clothes, packing them to send to his prison, wherever that might be, and she employed the maids in taking off the lace ruffles from his shirts, replacing them with plain linen ones.
"He shall not appear before his judges like a popinjay," she said, "but like a sober, righteous man."