She wept and fell upon the ground.
A rumour was spread about, in a few days' time, that the Bowyer's
cruel daughter had come home, and that Master Graham had given her
lodging in his house. It was rumoured too that he had resigned her
fortune, in order that she might bestow it in acts of charity, and
that he had vowed to guard her in her solitude, but that they were
never to see each other more. These rumours greatly incensed all
virtuous wives and daughters in the ward, especially when they
appeared to receive some corroboration from the circumstance of
Master Graham taking up his abode in another tenement hard by. The
estimation in which he was held, however, forbade any questioning
on the subject; and as the Bowyer's house was close shut up, and
nobody came forth when public shows and festivities were in
progress, or to flaunt in the public walks, or to buy new fashions
at the mercers' booths, all the well-conducted females agreed among
themselves that there could be no woman there.
These reports had scarcely died away when the wonder of every good
citizen, male and female, was utterly absorbed and swallowed up by
a Royal Proclamation, in which her Majesty, strongly censuring the
practice of wearing long Spanish rapiers of preposterous length (as
being a bullying and swaggering custom, tending to bloodshed and
public disorder), commanded that on a particular day therein named,
certain grave citizens should repair to the city gates, and there,
in public, break all rapiers worn or carried by persons claiming
admission, that exceeded, though it were only by a quarter of an
inch, three standard feet in length.
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