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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Historical Nights Entertainment, Second Series + +Author: Rafael Sabatini + +Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7949] +[This file was first posted on June 4, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO Latin-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE HISTORICAL NIGHTS ENTERTAINMENT, SECOND SERIES *** + + + + +Text scanned by J. C. Byers. Proofreading by Abdulh Ameed Alhassan. + + + +THE HISTORICAL NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENT, SECOND SERIES + +by RAFAEL SABATINI + + + + + + + +To +David Whitelaw + +My Dear David, + +Since the narratives collected here as well as in the preceding +volume under the title of the Historical Nights Entertainment-- +narratives originally published in The Premier Magazine, which +you so ably edit--owe their being to your suggestion, it is +fitting that some acknowledgment of the fact should be made. To +what is hardly less than a duty, allow me to add the pleasure of +dedicating to you, in earnest of my friendship and esteem, not +merely this volume, but the work of which this volume is the +second. + +Sincerely yours, + +Rafael Sabatini + +London, June, 1919. + + + + + +Preface + +The kindly reception accorded to the first volume of the +Historical Nights Entertainment, issued in December of 1917, has +encouraged me to prepare the second series here assembled. + +As in the case of the narratives that made up the first volume, +I set out again with the same ambitious aim of adhering +scrupulously in every instance to actual, recorded facts; and +once again I find it desirable at the outset to reveal how far +the achievement may have fallen short of the admitted aim. + +On the whole, I have to confess to having allowed myself perhaps +a wider latitude, and to having taken greater liberties than was +the case with the essays constituting the previous collection. +This, however, applies, where applicable, to the parts rather +than to the whole. + +The only entirely apocryphal narrative here included is the +first--"The Absolution." This is one of those stories which, if +resting upon no sufficient authority to compel its acceptance, +will, nevertheless, resist all attempts at final refutation, +having its roots at least in the soil of fact. It is given in the +rather discredited Portuguese chronicles of Acenheiro, and finds +place, more or less as related here, in Duarte Galvao's +"Chronicle of Affonso Henriques," whence it was taken by the +Portuguese historical writer, Alexandre Herculano, to be included +in his "Lendas e Narrativas." If it is to be relegated to the +Limbo of the ben trovato, at least I esteem it to afford us a +precious glimpse of the naive spirit of the age in which it is +set, and find in that my justification for including it. + +The next to require apology is "His Insolence of Buckingham," but +only in so far as the incident of the diamond studs is concerned. +The remainder of the narrative, the character of Buckingham, the +details of his embassy to Paris, and the particulars of his +audacious courtship of Anne of Austria, rest upon unassailable +evidence. I would have omitted the very apocryphal incident of +the studs, but that I considered it of peculiar interest as +revealing the source of the main theme of one of the most famous +historical romances ever written--"The Three Musketeers." I give +the story as related by La Rochefoucauld in his "Memoirs," whence +Alexandre Dumas culled it that he might turn it to such excellent +romantic account. In La Rochefoucauld's narrative it is the +painter Gerbier who, in a far less heroic manner, plays the part +assigned by Dumas to d'Artagnan, and it is the Countess of +Carlisle who carries out the political theft which Dumas +attributes to Milady. For the rest, I do not invite you to attach +undue credit to it, which is not, however, to say that I account +it wholly false. + +In the case of "The _Hermosa Fembra_" I confess to having +blended together into one single narrative two historical +episodes closely connected in time and place. Susan's daughter +was, in fact, herself the betrayer of her father, and it was in +penitence for that unnatural act that she desired her skull to be +exhibited as I describe. Into the story of Susan's daughter I +have woven that of another New-Christian girl, who, like the +Hermosa Fembra, her taken a Castilian lover--in this case a youth +of the house of Guzman. This youth was driven into concealment in +circumstances more or less as I describe them. He overheard the +judaizing of several New-Christians there assembled, and bore +word of it at once to Ojeda. The two episodes were separated in +fact by an interval of three years, and the first afforded Ojeda +a strong argument for the institution of the Holy Office in +Seville. Between the two there are many points of contact, and +each supplies what the other lacks to make an interesting +narrative having for background the introduction of the +Inquisition to Castile. The denouement I supply is entirely +fictitious, and the introduction of Torquemada is quite +arbitrary. Ojeda was the inquisitor who dealt with both cases. +But if there I stray into fiction, at least I claim to have +sketched a faithful portrait of the Grand Inquisitor as I know +him from fairly exhaustive researches into his life and times. + +The story of the False Demetrius is here related from the point +of view of my adopted solution of what is generally regarded as a +historical mystery. The mystery lies, of course, in the man's +identity. He has been held by some to have been the unfrocked +monk, Grishka Otropiev, by others to have been a son of Stephen +Bathory, King of Poland. I am not aware that the theory that he +was both at one and the same time has ever been put forward, and +whilst admitting that it is speculative, yet I claim that no +other would appear so aptly to fit all the known facts of his +career or to shed light upon its mysteries. + +Undoubtedly I have allowed myself a good deal of licence and +speculation in treating certain unwitnessed scenes in "The +Barren Wooing." But the theory that I develop in it to account +for the miscarriage of the matrimonial plans of Queen Elizabeth +and Robert Dudley seems to me to be not only very fully warranted +by de Quadra's correspondence, but the only theory that will +convincingly explain the events. Elizabeth, as I show, was widely +believed to be an accessory to the murder of Amy Robsart. But in +carefully following her words and actions at that critical time, +as reported by de Quadra, my reading of the transaction is as +given here. The most damning fact against Elizabeth was held to +be her own statement to de Quadra on the eve of Lady Robert +Dudley's murder to the effect that Lady Robert was "already dead, +or very nearly so." This foreknowledge of the fate of that +unfortunate lady has been accepted as positive evidence that the +Queen was a party to the crime at Cumnor, which was to set her +lover free to marry again. Far from that, however, I account it +positive proof of Elizabeth's innocence of any such part in the +deed. Elizabeth was far too crafty and clear-sighted not to +realize how her words must incriminate her afterwards if she knew +that the murder of Lady Robert was projected. She must have been +merely repeating what Dudley himself had told her; and what he +must have told her--and she believed--was that his wife was at +the point of a natural death. Similarly, Dudley would not have +told her this, unless his aim had been to procure his wife's +removal by means which would admit of a natural interpretation. +Difficulties encountered, much as I relate them--and for which +there is abundant evidence--drove his too-zealous agents to +rather desperate lengths, and thus brought suspicion, not only +upon the guilty Dudley, but also upon the innocent Queen. The +manner of Amy's murder is pure conjecture; but it should not be +far from what actually took place. The possibility of an +accident--extraordinarily and suspiciously opportune for Dudley +as it would have been--could not be altogether ruled out but for +the further circumstance that Lady Robert had removed everybody +from Cumnor on that day. To what can this point--unless we accept +an altogether incredible chain of coincidence--but to some such +plotting as I here suggest? + +In the remaining six essays in this volume the liberties taken +with the absolute facts are so slight as to require no apology or +comment. + +R. S. + +London, June, 1919. + + + + + +CONTENTS + + + +I. THE ABSOLUTION + Affonso Henriques, First King of Portugal +II. THE FALSE DEMETRIUS + Boris Godunov and the Pretended Son of Ivan the Terrible +III. THE HERMOSA FEMBRA + An Episode of the Inquisition in Seville +IV. THE PASTRY-COOK OF MADRIGAL + The Story of the False Sebastian of Portugal +V. THE END OF THE VERT GALANT + The Assassination of Henry IV +VI. THE BARREN WOOING + The Murder of Amy Robsart +VII. SIR JUDAS + The Betrayal of Sir Walter Ralegh +VIII. HIS INSOLENCE OF BUCKINGHAM + George Villiers' Courtship of Anne of Austria +IX. THE PATH OF EXILE + The Fall of Lord Clarendon +X. THE TRAGEDY OF HERRENHAUSEN + Count Philip Königsmark and the Princess Sophia Dorothea +XI. THE TYRANNICIDE + Charlotte Corday and Jean Paul Marat + + + + + +I. THE ABSOLUTION + +Aftonso Henriques, first King of Portugal + + + +In 1093 the Moors of the Almoravide dynasty, under the Caliph +Yusuf, swept irresistibly upwards into the Iberian Peninsula, +recapturing Lisbon and Santarem in the west, and pushing their +conquest as far as the river Mondego. + +To meet this revival of Mohammedan power, Alfonso VI. Of Castile +summoned the chivalry of Christendom to his aid. Among the +knights who answered the call was Count Henry of Burgundy +(grandson of Robert, first Duke of Burgundy) to whom Alfonso gave +his natural daughter Theresa in marriage, together with the +Counties of Oporto and Coimbra, with the title of Count of +Portugal. + +That is the first chapter of the history of Portugal. + +Count Henry fought hard to defend his southern frontiers from the +incursion of the Moors until his death in 1114. Thereafter his +widow Theresa became Regent of Portugal during the minority of +their son, Affonso Henriques. A woman of great energy, resource +and ambition, she successfully waged war against the Moors, and +in other ways laid the foundations upon which her son was to +build the Kingdom of Portugal. But her passionate infatuation for +one of her knights--Don Fernando Peres de Trava--and the +excessive honours she bestowed upon him, made enemies for her in +the new state, and estranged her from her son. + +In 1127 Alfonso VII. of Castile invaded Portugal, compelling +Theresa to recognize him as her suzerain. But Affonso Henriques, +now aged seventeen--and declared by the citizens of the capital +to be of age and competent to reign--incontinently refused to +recognize the submission made by his mother, and in the following +year assembled an army for the purpose of expelling her and her +lover from the country. The warlike Theresa resisted until +defeated in the battle of San Mamede and taken prisoner. + + * * * * * * + +He was little more than a boy, although four years were sped +already since, as a mere lad of fourteen, he had kept vigil +throughout the night over his arms in the Cathedral of Zamora, +preparatory to receiving the honour of knighthood at the hands of +his cousin, Alfonso VII. of Castile. Yet already he was looked +upon as the very pattern of what a Christian knight should be, +worthy son of the father who had devoted his life to doing battle +against the Infidel, wheresoever he might be found. He was +well-grown and tall, and of a bodily strength that is almost a +byword to this day in that Portugal of which he was the real +founder and first king. He was skilled beyond the common wont in +all knightly exercises of arms and horsemanship, and equipped +with far more learning--though much of it was ill-digested, as +this story will serve to show--than the twelfth century +considered useful or even proper in a knight. And he was at least +true to his time in that he combined a fervid piety with a +weakness of the flesh and an impetuous arrogance that was to +bring him under the ban of greater excommunication at the very +outset of his reign. + +It happened that his imprisonment of his mother was not at all +pleasing in the sight of Rome. Dona Theresa had powerful friends, +who so used their influence at the Vatican on her behalf that the +Holy Father--conveniently ignoring the provocation she had given +and the scandalous, unmotherly conduct of which she had been +guilty--came to consider the behaviour of the Infante of Portugal +as reprehensibly unfilial, and commanded him to deliver Dona +Theresa at once from duress. + +This Papal order, backed by a threat of excommunication in the +event of disobedience, was brought to the young prince by the +Bishop of Coimbra, whom he counted among his friends. + +Affonso Henriques, ever impetuous and quick to anger, flushed +scarlet when he heard that uncompromising message. His dark eyes +smouldered as they considered the aged prelate. + +"You come here to bid me let loose again upon this land of +Portugal that author of strife, to deliver over the people once +more to the oppression of the Lord of Trava?" he asked. "And you +tell me that unless by obeying this command I am false to the +duty I owe this country, you will launch the curse of Rome +against me? You tell me this?" + +The bishop, deeply stirred, torn between his duty to the Holy See +and his affection for his prince, bowed his head and wrung his +hands. "What choice have I?" he asked, on a quavering note. + +"I raised you from the dust." Thunder was rumbling in the +prince's voice. "Myself I placed the episcopal ring upon your +finger." + +"My lord, my lord! Could I forget? All that I have I owe to you-- +save only my soul, which I owe to God; my faith, which I owe to +Christ; and my obedience, which I owe to our Holy Father the +Pope." + +The prince considered him in silence, mastering his passionate, +impetuous nature. "Go," he growled at last. + +The prelate bowed his head, his eyes not daring to meet his +prince's. + +"God keep you, lord," he almost sobbed, and so went out. + +But though stirred by his affection for the prince to whom he +owed so much, though knowing in his inmost heart that Affonso +Henriques was in the right, the Bishop of Coimbra did not swerve +from his duty to Rome, which was as plain as it was unpalatable. +Betimes next morning word was brought to Affonso Henriques in the +Alcazar of Coimbra that a parchment was nailed to the door of the +Cathedral, setting forth his excommunication, and that the +Bishop--either out of fear or out of sorrow--had left the city, +journeying northward towards Oporto. + +Affonso Henriques passed swiftly from incredulity to anger; then +almost as swiftly came to a resolve, which was as mad and +harebrained as could have been expected from a lad in his +eighteenth year who held the reins of power. Yet by its very +directness and its superb ignoring of all obstacles, legal and +canonical, it was invested with a certain wild sanity. + +In full armour, a white cloak simply embroidered in gold at the +edge and knotted at the shoulder, he rode to the Cathedral, +attended by his half-brother Pedro Affonso, and two of his +knights, Emigio Moniz and Sancho Nunes. There on the great +iron-studded doors he found, as he had been warned, the Roman +parchment pronouncing him accursed, its sonorous Latin periods +set forth in a fine round clerkly hand. + +He swung down from his great horse and clanked up the Cathedral +steps, his attendants following. He had for witnesses no more +than a few loiterers, who had paused at sight of their prince. + +The interdict had so far attracted no attention, for in the +twelfth century the art of letters was a mystery to which there +were few initiates. + +Affonso Henriques tore the sheepskin from its nails, and crumpled +it in his hand; then he passed into the Cathedral, and thence +came out presently into the cloisters. Overhead a bell was +clanging by his orders, summoning the chapter. + +To the Infante, waiting there in the sun-drenched close, came +presently the canons, austere, aloof, majestic in their unhurried +progress through the fretted cloisters, with flowing garments and +hands tucked into their wide sleeves before them. In a semi- +circle they arrayed themselves before him, and waited impassively +to learn his will. Overhead the bell had ceased. + +Affonso Henriques wasted no words. + +"I have summoned you," he announced, "to command that you proceed +to the election of a bishop." + +A rustle stirred through the priestly throng. The canons looked +askance at the prince and at one another. Then one of them spoke. + +"Habemus episcopum," he said gravely, and several instantly made +chorus: "We have a bishop." + +The eyes of the young sovereign kindled. "You are wrong," he told +them. "You had a bishop, but he is here no longer. He has +deserted his see, after publishing this shameful thing" And he +held aloft the crumpled interdict. "As I am a God-fearing, +Christian knight, I will not live under this ban. Since the +bishop who excommunicated me is gone, you will at once elect +another in his place who shall absolve me." + +They stood before him, silent and impassive, in their priestly +dignity, and in their assurance that the law was on their side. + +"Well?" the boy growled at them. + +"Habemus episcopum," droned a voice again. + +"Amen," boomed in chorus through the cloisters. + +"I tell you that your bishop is gone," he insisted, his voice +quivering now with anger, "and I tell you that he shall not +return, that he shall never set foot again within my city of +Coimbra. Proceed you therefore at once to the election of his +successor." + +"Lord," he was answered coldly by one of them, "no such election +is possible or lawful." + +"Do you dare stand before my face, and tell me this?" he roared, +infuriated by their cold resistance. He flung out an arm in a +gesture of terrible dismissal. "Out of my sight, you proud and +evil men! Back to your cells, to await my pleasure. Since in your +arrogant, stiff-necked pride you refuse to do my will, you shall +receive the bishop I shall myself select." + +He was so terrific in his rage that they dared not tell him that +he had no power, prince though he might be, to make such an +election, bowed to him, ever impassively, and with their hands +still folded, unhurried as they had come, they now turned and +filed past him in departure. + +He watched them with scowling brows and tightened lips, Moniz and +Nunes silent behind him. Suddenly those dark, watchful eyes of +his were held by the last figure of all in that austere +procession--a tall, gaunt young man, whose copper-coloured skin +and hawk-featured face proclaimed his Moorish blood. Instantly, +maliciously, it flashed through the prince's boyish mind how he +might make of this man an instrument to humble the pride of that +insolent clergy. He raised his hand, and beckoned the cleric to +him. + +"What is your name?" he asked him. + +"I am called Zuleyman, lord," he was answered, and the name +confirmed--where, indeed, no confirmation was necessary--the +fellow's Moorish origin. + +Affonso Henriques laughed. It would be an excellent jest to +thrust upon these arrogant priests, who refused to appoint a +bishop of their choice, a bishop who was little better than a +blackamoor. + +"Don Zuleyman," said the prince, "I name you Bishop of Coimbra in +the room of the rebel who has fled. You will prepare to celebrate +High Mass this morning, and to pronounce my absolution." + +The Christianized Moor fell back a step, his face paling under +its copper skin to a sickly grey. In the background, the hindmost +members of the retreating clerical procession turned and stood at +gaze, angered and scandalized by what they heard, which was +indeed a thing beyond belief. + +"Ah no, my lord! Ah no!" Don Zuleyman was faltering. "Not that!" + +The prospect terrified him, and in his agitation he had recourse +to Latin. "Domine, non sum dignus," he cried, and beat his +breast. + +But the uncompromising Affonso Henriques gave him back Latin for +Latin. + +"Dixi--I have spoken!" he answered sternly. "Do not fail me in +obedience, on your life." And on that he clanked out again with +his attendants, well-pleased with his morning's work. + +As he had disposed with boyish, almost irresponsible rashness, +and in flagrant contravention of all canon law, so it fell out. +Don Zuleyman, wearing the bishop's robes and the bishop's mitre, +intoned the Kyrie Eleison before noon that day in the Cathedral +of Coimbra, and pronounced the absolution of the Infante of +Portugal, who knelt so submissively and devoutly before him. + +Affonso Henriques was very pleased with himself. He made a jest +of the affair, and invited his intimates to laugh with him. But +Emigio Moniz and the elder members of his council refused to +laugh. They looked with awe upon a deed that went perilously near +to sacrilege, and implored him to take their own sober view of +the thing he had done. + +"By the bones of St. James!" he cried. "A prince is not to be +brow-beaten by a priest." + +Such a view in the twelfth century was little short of +revolutionary. The chapter of the Cathedral of Coimbra held the +converse opinion that priests were not to be browbeaten by a +prince, and set themselves to make Affonso Henriques realize this +to his bitter cost. They dispatched to Rome an account of his +unconscionable, high-handed, incredible sacrilege, and invited +Rome to administer condign spiritual flagellation upon this +errant child of Mother Church. Rome made haste to vindicate her +authority, and dispatched a legate to the recalcitrant, audacious +boy who ruled in Portugal. But the distance being considerable, +and means of travel inadequate and slow, it was not until Don +Zuleyman had presided in the See of Coimbra for a full two months +that the Papal Legate made his appearance in Affonso Henriques' +capital. + +A very splendid Prince of the Church was Cardinal Corrado, the +envoy dispatched by Pope Honorius II., full armed with apostolic +weapons to reduce the rebellious Infante of Portugal into proper +subjection. + +His approach was heralded by the voice of rumour. Affonso +Henriques heard of it without perturbation. His conscience at +ease in the absolution which he had wrung from Mother Church +after his own fashion, he was entirely absorbed in preparations +for a campaign against the Moors which was to widen his +dominions. Therefore when at length the thunderbolt descended, it +fell--so far as he was concerned--from a sky entirely clear. + +It was towards dusk of a summer evening when the legate, in a +litter slung in line between two mules, entered Coimbra. He was +attended by two nephews, Giannino and Pierluigi da Corrado, both +patricians of Rome, and a little knot of servants. Empanoplied in +his sacred office, the cardinal had no need of the protection of +men-at-arms upon a journey through god-fearing lands. + +He was borne straight to the old Moorish palace where the Infante +resided, and came upon him there amid a numerous company in the +great pillared hall. Against a background of battle trophies, +livid weapons, implements of war, and suits of mail both Saracen +and Christian, with which the bare walls were hung, moved a +gaily-clad, courtly gathering of nobles and their women-folk, +when the great cardinal, clad from head to foot in scarlet, +entered unannounced. + +Laughter rippled into silence. A hush descended upon the company, +which stood now at gaze, considering the imposing and unbidden +guest. Slowly the legate, followed by the two Roman youths, +advanced down the hall, the soft pad of his slippered feet and +the rustle of his silken robes being at first the only sound. +On he came, until he stood before the shallow dais, where in a +massively carved chair sat the Infante of Portugal, mistrustfully +observing him. Affonso Henriques scented here an enemy, an ally +of his mother's, the bearer of a fresh declaration of hostilities. +Therefore of deliberate purpose he kept his seat, as if to stress +the fact that here he was the master. + +"Lord Cardinal," he greeted the legate, "be welcome to my land of +Portugal." + +The cardinal bowed stiffly, resentful of this reception. In his +long journey across the Spains, princes and nobles had flocked to +kiss his hand, and bend the knee before him, seeking his +blessing. Yet this mere boy, beardless save for a silky down +about his firm young cheeks, retained his seat and greeted him +with no more submissiveness than if he had been the envoy of some +temporal prince. + +"I am the representative of our Holy Father," he announced, in a +voice of stern reproof. "I am from Rome, with these my well- +beloved nephews." + +"From Rome?" quoth Affonso Henriques. For all his length of limb +and massive thews he could be impish upon occasion. He was impish +now. "Although no good has ever yet come to me from Rome, you +make me hopeful. His Holiness will have heard of the preparations +I am making for a war against the Infidel that shall carry the +Cross where new stands the Crescent, and sends me perhaps, a gift +of gold or assist me in this holy work." + +The mockery of it stung the legate sharply. His sallow, ascetic +face empurpled. + +"It is not gold I bring you," he answered, "but a lesson in the +faith which you would seem to have forgotten. I am come to teach +you your Christian duty, and to require of you immediate +reparation of the sacrilegious wrongs you have done. The Holy +Father demands of you the instant re-instatement of the Bishop of +Coimbra, whom you have driven out with threats of violence, and +the degradation of the cleric you blasphemously appointed Bishop +in his stead." + +"And is that all?" quoth the boy, in a voice dangerously quiet. + +"No." Fearless in his sense of right, the legate towered before +him. "It is demanded of you further that you instantly release +the lady, your mother, from the unjust confinement in which you +hold her." + +"That confinement is not unjust, as all here can witness," the +Infante answered. "Rome may believe it, because lies have been +carried to Rome. Dona Theresa's life was a scandal, her regency +an injustice to my people. She and the infamous Lord of Trava +lighted the torch of civil war in these dominions. Learn here the +truth, and carry it to Rome. Thus shall you do worthy service." + +But the prelate was obstinate and proud. + +"That is not the answer that our Holy Father awaits." + +"It is the answer that I send." + +"Rash, rebellious youth, beware!" The cardinal's anger flamed up, +and his voice swelled. "I come armed with spiritual weapons of +destruction. Do not abuse the patience of Mother Church, or you +shall feel the full weight of her wrath released against you." + +Exasperated, Affonso Henriques bounded to his feet, his face +livid now with passion, his eyes ablaze. + +"Out! Away!" he cried. "Go, my lord, and go quickly, or as God +watches us I will add here and now yet another sacrilege to those +of which you accuse me." + +The prelate gathered his ample robes about him. If pale, he was +entirely calm once more. With stern dignity, he bowed to the +angry youth, and so departed, but with such outward impassivity +that it would have been difficult to say with whom lay the +victory. If Affonso Henriques thought that night that he had +conquered, morning was to shatter the illusion. + +He was awakened early by a chamberlain at the urgent instances of +Emigio Moniz, who was demanding immediate audience. Affonso +Henriques sat up in bed, and bade him to be admitted. + +The elderly knight and faithful counsellor came in, treading +heavily. His swarthy face was overcast, his mouth set in stern +lines under its grizzled beard. + +"God keep you, lord," was his greeting, so lugubriously delivered +as to sound like a pious, but rather hopeless, wish. + +"And you, Emigio," answered him the Infante. "You are early +astir. What is the cause?" + +"III tidings, lord." He crossed the room, unlatched and flung +wide a window. "Listen," he bade the prince. + +On the still morning air arose a sound like the drone of some +gigantic hive, or of the sea when the tide is making. Affonso +Henriques recognized it for the murmur of the multitude. + +"What does it mean?" he asked, and thrust a sinewy leg from the +bed. + +"It means that the Papal Legate has done all that he threatened, +and something more. He has placed your city of Coimbra under a +ban of excommunication. The churches are closed, and until the +ban is lifted no priest Will be found to baptize, marry, shrive +or perform any other Sacrament of Holy Church. The people are +stricken with terror, knowing that they share the curse with you. +They are massing below at the gates of the alcazar, demanding to +see you that they may implore you to lift from them the horror of +this excommunication." + +Affonso Henriques had come to his feet by now, and he stood there +staring at the old knight, his face blenched, his stout heart +clutched by fear of these impalpable, blasting weapons that were +being used against him. + +"My God!" he groaned, and asked: "What must I do?" + +Moniz was preternaturally grave. "It is of the first importance +that the people should be pacified." + +"But how?" + +"There is one way only--by a promise that you will submit to the +will of the Holy Father, and by penance seek absolution for +yourself and your city." + +A red flush swept into the young cheeks that had been so pale. + +"What?" he cried, his voice a roar. "Release my mother, depose +Zuleyman, recall that fugitive recreant who cursed me, and humble +myself to seek pardon at the hands of this insolent Italian +cleric? May my bones rot, may I roast for ever in hell-fire if I +show myself such a craven! And do you counsel it, Emigio--do you +really counsel that?" He was in a towering rage. + +"Listen to that voice," Emigio answered him, and waved a hand to +the open window. "How else will you silence it?" + +Affonso Henriques sat down on the edge of the bed, and took his +head in his hands. He was checkmated--and yet.... + +He rose and beat his hands together, summoning chamberlain and +pages to help him dress and arm. + +"Where is the legate lodged?" he asked Moniz. + +"He is gone," the knight answered him. "He left at cock-crow, +taking the road to Spain along the Mondego--so I learnt from the +watch at the River Gate." + +"How came they to open for him?" + +"His office, lord, is a key that opens all doors at any hour of +day or night. They dared not detain or delay him." + +"Ha!" grunted the Infante. "We will go after him, then." And he +made haste to complete his dressing. Then he buckled on his great +sword, and they departed. + +In the courtyard of the alcazar, he summoned Sancho Nunes and a +half-dozen men-at-arms to attend him, mounted a charger and with +Emigio Moniz at his side and the others following, he rode out +across the draw-bridge into the open space that was thronged with +the clamant inhabitants of the stricken city. + +A great cry went up when he showed himself--a mighty appeal to +him for mercy and the remission of the curse. Then silence fell, +a silence that invited him to answer and give comfort. + +He reined in his horse, and standing in his stirrups very tall +and virile, he addressed them. + +"People of Coimbra," he announced, "I go to obtain this city's +absolution from the ban that has been laid upon it. I shall +return before sunset. Till then do you keep the peace." + +The voice of the multitude was raised again, this time to hail +him as the father and protector of the Portuguese, and to invoke +the blessing of Heaven upon his handsome head. + +Riding between Moniz and Nunes, and followed by his glittering +men-at-arms, he crossed the city and took the road along the +river by which it was known that the legate had departed. All +that morning they rode briskly amain, the Infante fasting, as he +had risen, yet unconscious of hunger and of all else but the +purpose that was consuming him. He rode in utter silence, his +face set, his brows stern; and Moniz, watching him furtively the +while, wondered what thoughts were stirring in that rash, +impetuous young brain, and was afraid. + +Towards noon at last they overtook the legate's party. They +espied his mule-litter at the door of an inn in a little village +some ten miles beyond the foothills of the Bussaco range. The +Infante reined up sharply, a hoarse, fierce cry escaping him, +akin to that of some creature of the wild when it espies its +prey. + +Moniz put forth a hand to seize his arm. + +"My lord, my lord," he cried, fearfully. "What is your purpose?" + +The prince looked him between the eyes, and his lips curled in a +smile that was not altogether sweet. + +"I am going to beg Cardinal Corrado to have compassion on me," he +answered, subtly mocking, and on that he swung down from his +horse, and tossed the reins to a man-at-arms. + +Into the inn he clanked, Moniz and Nunes following closely. He +thrust aside the vinter who, not knowing him, would have hindered +him, great lord though he seemed, from disturbing the holy guest +who was honouring the house. He strode on, and into the room +where the Cardinal with his noble nephews sat at dinner. + +At sight of him, fearing violence, Giannino and Pierluigi came +instantly to their feet, their hands upon their daggers. But +Cardinal da Corrado sat unmoved. He looked up, a smile of +ineffable gentleness upon his ascetic face. + +"I had hoped that you would come after me, my son," he said. "If +you come a penitent, then has my prayer been heard." + +"A penitent!" cried Affonso Henriques. He laughed wickedly, and +plucked his dagger from its sheath. + +Sancho Nunes, in terror, set a detaining hand upon his prince's +arm. + +"My lord," he cried in a voice that shook, "you will not strike +the Lord's anointed--that were to destroy yourself for ever." + +"A curse," said Affonso Henriques, "perishes with him that +uttered it." He could reason loosely, you see, this hot-blooded, +impetuous young cutter of Gordian knots. "And it imports above +all else that the curse should be lifted from my city of +Coimbra." + +"It shall be, my son, as soon as you show penitence and a +Christian submission to the Holy Father's will," said the +undaunted Cardinal. + +"God give me patience with you," Affonso Henriques answered him. +"Listen to me now, lord Cardinal." And he leaned forward on his +dagger, burying the point of it some inches into the deal table. +"That you should punish me with the weapons of the Faith for the +sins that you allege against me I can understand and suffer. +There is reason in that, perhaps. But will you tell me what +reasons there can be in punishing a whole city for an offence +which, if it exists at all, is mine alone?--and in punishing it +by a curse so terrible that all the consolations of religion are +denied those true children of Mother Church, that no priestly +office may be performed within the city, that men and women may +not approach the altars of the Faith, that they must die +unshriven with their sins upon them, and so be damned through all +eternity? Where is the reason that urges this?" + +The cardinal's smile had changed from one of benignity to one of +guile. + +"Why, I will answer you. Out of their terror they will be moved +to revolt against you, unless you relieve them of the ban. Thus, +Lord Prince, I hold you in check. You make submission or else you +are destroyed." + +Affonso Henriques considered him a moment. "You answer me +indeed," said he, and then his voice swelled up in denunciation. +"But this is statecraft, not religion. And when a prince has no +statecraft to match that which is opposed to him, do you know +what follows? He has recourse to force, Lord Cardinal. You compel +me to it; upon your own head the consequences." + +The legate almost sneered. "What is the force of your poor lethal +weapons compared with the spiritual power I wield? Do you +threaten me with death? Do you think I fear it?" He rose in a +surge of sudden wrath, and tore open his scarlet robe. "Strike +here with your poniard. I wear no mail. Strike if you dare, and +by the sacrilegious blow destroy yourself in this world and the +next." + +The Infante considered him. Slowly he sheathed his dagger, smiling +a little. Then he beat his hands together. His men-at-arms came +in. + +"Seize me those two Roman whelps," he commanded, and pointed to +Giannino and Pierlulgi. "Seize them, and make them fast. About +it!" + +"Lord Prince!" cried the legate in a voice of appeal, wherein +fear and anger trembled. + +It was the note of fear that heartened Affonso Henriques. "About +it!" he cried again, though needlessly, for already his +men-at-arms were at grips with the Cardinal's nephews. In a trice +the kicking, biting, swearing pair were overpowered, deprived of +arms, and pinioned. The men looked to their prince for further +orders. In the background Moniz and Nunes witnessed all with +troubled countenances, whilst the Cardinal, beyond the table, +white to the lips, demanded in a quavering voice to know what +violence was intended, implored the Infante to consider, and in +the same breath threatened him with dread consequences of this +affront. + +Affonso Henriques, unmoved, pointed through the window to a +stalwart oak that stood before the inn. + +"Take them out there, and hang them unshriven," he commanded. + +The Cardinal swayed, and almost fell forward. He clutched the +table, speechless with terror for those lads who were as the very +apple of his eye, he who so fearlessly had bared his own breast +to the steel. + +The two comely Italian youths were dragged out writhing in their +captors' hands. + +At last the half-swooning legate found his voice. "Lord Prince," +he gasped. "Lord Prince . . . you cannot do this infamy! You +cannot! I warn you that . . . that. . ." The threat perished +unuttered, slain by mounting terror. "Mercy! Have mercy, lord! as +you hope for mercy!" + +"What mercy do you practice, you who preach a gospe of mercy in +the world, and cry for mercy now?" the Infante asked him. + +"But this is an infamy! What harm have those poor children done? +What concern is it of theirs that I have offended you in +performing my sacred duty?" + +Swift into that opening flashed the home-thrust of the Infante's +answer. + +"What harm have my people of Coimbra done? What concern is it of +theirs that I have offended you? Yet to master me you did not +hesitate to strike at them with the spiritual weapons that are +yours. To master you I do not hesitate to strike at your nephews +with the lethal weapons that are mine. When you shall have seen +them hang you will understand the things that argument could not +make clear to you. In the vileness of my act you will see a +reflection of the vileness of your own, and perhaps your heart +will be touched, your monstrous pride abated." + +Outside, under the tree, the figures of the men-at-arms were +moving. Expeditiously, and with indifference, they went about the +preparations for the task entrusted to them. + +The Cardinal writhed, and fought for breath. "Lord Prince, this +must not be!" He stretched forth supplicating hands. "Lord +Prince, you must release my nephews." + +"Lord Cardinal, you must absolve my people." + +"If . . . if you will first make submission. My duty . . . to the +Holy See . . . Oh God! Will nothing move you?" + +"When they have been hanged you will understand, and out of your +own affliction learn compassion." The Infante's voice was so +cold, his mien so resolute that the legate despaired of +conquering his purpose. Abruptly he capitulated, even as the +halters went about the necks of his two cherished lads. + +"Stop!" he screamed. "Bid them stop! The curse shall be lifted." + +Affonso Henriques opened the window with a leisureliness which to +the legate seemed to belong to the realm of nightmare. + +"Wait yet a moment," the Infante called to those outside, about +whom by now a little knot of awe-stricken villagers had gathered. +Then he turned again to Cardinal Corrado, who had sunk to his +chair like a man exhausted, and sat now panting, his elbows on +the table, his head in his hands. "Here," said the prince, "are +the terms upon which you may have their lives: Complete +absolution, and Apostolic benediction for my people and myself +this very night, I on my side making submission to the Holy +Father's will to the extent of releasing my mother from duress, +with the condition that she leaves Portugal at once and does not +return. As for the banished bishop and his successor, matters +must remain as they are; but you can satisfy your conscience on +that score by yourself confirming the appointment of Don +Zuleyman. Come, my lord, I am being generous, I think. In the +enlargement of my mother I afford you the means of satisfying +Rome. If you have learnt your lesson from what I here proposed, +your conscience should satisfy you of the rest." + +"Be it so," the Cardinal answered hoarsely. "I will return with +you to Coimbra and do your will." + +Thereupon, without any tinge of mockery, but in completest +sincerity in token that the feud between them was now completely +healed, Affonso Henriques went down upon his knees, like the true +and humble son of Holy Church he accounted himself, to ask a +blessing at the Cardinal's hands. + + + + + +II. THE FALSE DEMETRIUS + +Boris Godunov and the Pretended Son of Ivan the Terrible + + + +The news of it first reached him whilst he sat at supper in the +great hall of his palace in the Kremlin. It came at a time when +already there was enough to distract his mind; for although the +table before him was spread and equipped as became an emperor's, +the gaunt spectre of famine stalked outside in the streets of +Moscow, and men and women were so reduced by it that cannibalism +was alleged to be breaking out amongst them. + +Alone, save for the ministering pages, sat Boris Godunov under +the iron lamps that made of the table, with its white napery and +vessels of gold and silver plate, an island of light in the gloom +of that vast apartment. The air was fragrant with the scent of +burning pine, for although the time of year was May, the nights +were chill, and a great log-fire was blazing on the distant +hearth. To him, as he sat there, came his trusted Basmanov with +those tidings which startled him at first, seeming to herald that +at last the sword of Nemesis was swung above his sinful head. + +Basmanov, a flush tinting the prominent cheek-bones of his sallow +face, an excited glitter in his long eyes, began by ordering the +pages out of earshot, then leaning forward quickly muttered forth +his news. + +At the first words of it, the Tsar's knife clashed into his +golden platter, and his short, powerful hands clutched the carved +arms of his great gilded chair. Quickly he controlled himself, +and then as he continued to listen he was moved to scorn, and a +faint smile began to stir under his grizzled beard. + +A man had appeared in Poland--such was the burden of Basmanov's +story--coming none knew exactly whence, who claimed to be +Demetrius, the son of Ivan Vassielivitch, and lawful Tsar of +Russia--Demetrius, who was believed to have died at Uglich ten +years ago, and whose remains lay buried in Moscow, in the Church +of St. Michael. This man had found shelter in Lithuania, in the +house of Prince Wisniowiecki, and thither the nobles of Poland +were now flocking to do him homage, acknowledging him the son of +Ivan the Terrible. He was said to be the living image of the dead +Tsar, save that he was swarthy and black-haired, like the dowager +Tsarina, and there were two warts on his face, such as it was +remembered had disfigured the countenance of the boy Demetrius. + +Thus Basmanov, adding that he had dispatched a messenger into +Lithuania to obtain more precise confirmation of the story. That +messenger--chosen in consequence of something else that Basmanov +had been told--was Smirnoy Otrepiev. + +The Tsar Boris sat back in his chair, his eyes on the gem +encrusted goblet, the stem of which his fingers were mechanically +turning. There was now no vestige of the smile on his round white +face. It had grown set and thoughtful. + +"Find Prince Shuiski," he said presently, "and send him to me +here." + +Upon the tale the boyar had brought him he offered now no +comment. + +"We will talk of this again, Basmanov," was all he said in +acknowledgment that he had heard, and in dismissal. + +But when the boyar had gone, Boris Godunov heaved himself to his +feet, and strode over to the fire, his great head sunk between +his massive shoulders. He was a short, thick-set, bow-legged man, +inclining to corpulence. He set a foot, shod in red leather +reversed with ermine, upon an andiron, and, leaning an elbow on +the carved overmantel, rested his brow against his hand. His eyes +stared into the very heart of the fire, as if they beheld there +the pageant of the past, upon which his mind was bent. + +Nineteen years were sped since Ivan the Terrible had passed away, +leaving two sons, Feodor Ivanovitch, who had succeeded him, and +the infant Demetrius. Feodor, a weakling who was almost imbecile, +had married Irene, the daughter of Boris Godunov, whereby it had +fallen out that Boris became the real ruler of Russia, the power +behind the throne. But his insatiable ambition coveted still +more. He must wear the crown as well as wield the sceptre; and +this could not be until the Ruric dynasty which had ruled Russia +for nearly seven centuries should be stamped out. Between himself +and the throne stood his daughter's husband and their child, and +the boy Demetrius, who had been dispatched with his mother, the +dowager Tsarina, to Uglich. The three must be removed. + +Boris began with the last, and sought at first to drive him out +of the succession without bloodshed. He attempted to have him +pronounced illegitimate, on the ground that he was the son of +Ivan's seventh wife (the orthodox Church recognizing no wife as +legitimate beyond the third). But in this he failed. The memory +of the terrible Tsar, the fear of him, was still alive in +superstitious Russia, and none dared to dishonour his son. So +Boris had recourse to other and surer means. He dispatched his +agents to Uglich, and presently there came thence a story that +the boy, whilst playing with a knife, had been taken with a fit +of epilepsy, and had fallen, running the blade into his throat. +But it was not a story that could carry conviction to the +Muscovites, since with it came the news that the town of Uglich +had risen against the emissaries of Boris, charging them with the +murder of the boy, and killing them out of hand. + +Terrible had been the vengeance which Boris had exacted. Of the +luckless inhabitants of the town two hundred were put to death by +his orders, and the rest sent into banishment beyond the Ural +Mountains, whilst the Tsarina Maria, Demetrius's mother, for +having said that her boy was murdered at the instigation of +Boris, was packed off to a convent, and had remained there ever +since in close confinement. + +That had been in 1591. The next to go was Feodor's infant son, +and lastly--in 1598--Feodor himself, succumbing to a mysterious +illness, and leaving Boris a clear path to the throne. But he +ascended it under the burden of his daughter's curse. Feodor's +widow had boldly faced her father, boldly accused him of +poisoning her husband to gratify his remorseless ambitions, and +on a passionate appeal to God to let it be done by him as he had +done by others she had departed to a convent, swearing never to +set eyes upon him again. + +The thought of her was with him now, as he stood there looking +into the heart of the fire; and perhaps it was the memory of her +curse that turned his stout heart to water, and made him afraid +where there could surely be no cause for fear. For five years now +had he been Tsar of Russia, and in these five years he had taken +such a grip of power as was not lightly to be loosened. + +Long he stood there, and there he was found by the magnificent +Prince Shuiski, whom he had bidden Basmanov to summon. + +"You went to Uglich when the Tsarevitch Demetrius was slain," +said Boris. His voice and mien were calm and normal. "Yourself +you saw the body. There is no possibility that you could have +been mistaken in it?" + +"Mistaken?" The boyar was taken aback by the question. He was a +tall man, considerably younger than Boris, who was in his +fiftieth year. His face was lean and saturnine, and there was +something sinister in the dark, close-set eyes under a single, +heavy line of eyebrow. + +Boris explained his question, telling him what he had learnt from +Basmanov. Basil Shuiski laughed. The story was an absurd one. +Demetrius was dead. Himself he had held the body in his arms, and +no mistake was possible. + +Despite himself, a sigh of relief fluttered from the lips of +Boris. Shuiski was right. It was an absurd story, this. There was +nothing to fear. He had been a fool to have trembled for a +moment. + +Nevertheless, in the weeks that followed, he brooded more and +more over all that Basmanov had said. It was in the thought that +the nobility of Poland was flocking to the house of Wisniowiecki +to do honour to this false son of Ivan the Terrible, that Boris +found the chief cause of uneasiness. There was famine in Moscow, +and empty bellies do not make for loyalty. Then, too, the +Muscovite nobles did not love him. He had ruled too sternly, and +had curbed their power. There were men like Basil Shuiski who +knew too much--greedy, ambitious men, who might turn their +knowledge to evil account. The moment might be propitious to the +pretender, however false his claim. Therefore Boris dispatched a +messenger to Wisniowiecki with the offer of a heavy bribe if he +would yield up the person of this false Demetrius. + +But that messenger returned empty-handed. He had reached Bragin +too late. The pretender had already left the place, and was +safely lodged in the castle of George Mniszek, the Palatine of +Sandomir, to whose daughter Maryna he was betrothed. If these +were ill tidings for Boris, there were worse to follow soon. +Within a few months he learned from Sandomir that Demetrius +had removed to Cracow, and that there he had been publicly +acknowledged by Sigismund III. of Poland as the son of Ivan +Vassielivitch, the rightful heir to the crown of Russia. He +heard, too, the story upon which this belief was founded. +Demetrius had declared that one of the agents employed by Boris +Godunov to procure his murder at Uglich had bribed his physician +Simon to perform the deed. Simon had pretended to agree as the +only means of saving him. He had dressed the son of a serf, who +slightly resembled Demetrius, in garments similar to those worn +by the young prince, and thereafter cut the lad's throat, leaving +those who had found the body to presume it to be the prince's. +Meanwhile, Demetrius himself had been concealed by the physician, +and very shortly thereafter carried away from Uglich, to be +placed in safety in a monastery, where he had been educated. + +Such, in brief, was the story with which Demetrius convinced the +court of Poland, and not a few who had known the boy at Uglich +came forward now to identify with him the grown man, who carried +in his face so strong a resemblance to Ivan the Terrible. That +story which Boris now heard was soon heard by all Russia, and +Boris realized that something must be done to refute it. + +But something more than assurances--his own assurances--were +necessary if the Muscovites were to believe him. And so at last +Boris bethought him of the Tsarina Maria, the mother of the +murdered boy. He had her fetched to Moscow from her convent, and +told her of this pretender who was setting up a claim to the +throne of Russia, supported by the King of Poland. + +She listened impassively, standing before him in the black robes +and conventual coif which his tyranny had imposed upon her. When +he had done, a faint smile swept over the face that had grown so +hard in these last twelve years since that day when her boy had +been slain almost under her very eyes. + +"It is a circumstantial tale," she said. "It is perhaps true. It +is probably true." + +"True!" He bounded from his seat. "True? What are you saying, +woman? Yourself you saw the boy dead." + +"I did, and I know who killed him." + +"But you saw him. You recognized him for your own, since you set +the people on to kill those whom you believed had slain him." + +"Yes," she answered. And added the question: "What do you want of +me now?" + +"What do I want?" He was amazed that she should ask, exasperated. +Had the conventual confinement turned her head? "I want your +testimony. I want you to denounce this fellow for the impostor +that he is. The people will believe you." + +"You think they will?" Interest had kindled in her glance. + +"What else? Are you not the mother of Demetrius, and shall not a +mother know her own son?" + +"You forget. He was ten years of age then--a child. Now he is a +grown man of three-and-twenty. How can I be sure? How can I be +sure of anything?" + +He swore a full round oath at her. "Because you saw him dead." + +"Yet I may have been mistaken. I thought I knew the agents of +yours who killed him. Yet you made me swear--as the price of my +brothers' lives--that I was mistaken. Perhaps I was more mistaken +than we thought. Perhaps my little Demetrius was not slain at +all. Perhaps this man's tale is true." + +"Perhaps . . ." He broke off to stare at her, mistrustfully, +searchingly. "What do you mean?" he asked her sharply. + +Again that wan smile crossed the hard, sharp-featured face that +once had been so lovely. "I mean that if the devil came out of +hell and called himself my son, I should acknowledge him to your +undoing." + +Thus the pent-up hate and bitterness of years of brooding upon +her wrongs broke forth. Taken aback, he quailed before it. His +jaw dropped foolishly, and he stared at her with wide, unblinking +eyes. + +"The people will believe me, you say--they will believe that a +mother should know her own son. Then are your hours of usurpation +numbered." + +If for a moment it appalled him, yet in the end, forewarned, he +was forearmed. It was foolish of her to let him look upon the +weapon with which she could destroy him. The result of it was +that she went back to her convent under close guard, and was +thereafter confined with greater rigour than hitherto. + +Desperately Boris heard how the belief in Demetrius was gaining +ground in Russia with the people. The nobles might still be +sceptical, but Boris knew that he could not trust them, since +they had no cause to love him. He began perhaps to realize that +it is not good to rule by fear. + +And then at last came Smirnoy Otrepiev back from Cracow, where he +had been sent by Basmanov to obtain with his own eyes confirmation +of the rumour which had reached the boyar on the score of the +pretender's real identity. + +The rumour, he declared, was right. The false Demetrius was none +other than his own nephew, Grishka Otrepiev, who had once been a +monk, but, unfrocked, had embraced the Roman heresy, and had +abandoned himself to licentious ways. You realize now why Smirnoy +had been chosen by Basmanov for this particular mission. + +The news heartened Boris. At last he could denounce the impostor +in proper terms, and denounce him he did. He sent an envoy to +Sigismund III. to proclaim the fellow's true identity, and to +demand his expulsion from the Kingdom of Poland; and his +denunciation was supported by a solemn excommunication pronounced +by the Patriarch of Moscow against the unfrocked monk, Grishka +Otrepiev, who now falsely called himself Demetrius Ivanovitch. + +But the denunciation did not carry the conviction that Boris +expected. It was reported that the Tsarevitch was a courtly, +accomplished man, speaking Polish and Latin, as well as Russian, +skilled in horsemanship and in the use of arms, and it was asked +how an unfrocked monk had come by these accomplishments. +Moreover, although Boris, fore-warned, had prevented the Tsarina +Maria from supporting the pretender out of motives of revenge, he +had forgotten her two brothers; he had not foreseen that, +actuated by the same motives, they might do that which he had +prevented her from doing. This was what occurred. The brothers +Nagoy repaired to Cracow publicly to acknowledge Demetrius their +nephew, and to enrol themselves under his banner. + +Against this Boris realized that mere words were useless. The +sword of Nemesis was drawn indeed. His sins had found him out. +Nothing remained him but to arm and go forth to meet the +impostor, who was advancing upon Moscow with a great host of +Poles and Cossacks. + +He appraised the support of the Nagoys at its right value. They, +too, had been at Uglich, and had seen the dead boy, almost seen +him slain. Vengeance upon himself was their sole motive. But was +it possible that Sigismund of Poland was really deceived, as well +as the Palatine of Sandomir, whose daughter was betrothed to the +adventurer, Prince Adam Wisniowiecki, in whose house the false +Demetrius had first made his appearance, and all those Polish +nobles who flocked to his banner? Or were they, too, moved by +some ulterior motive which he could not fathom? + +That was the riddle that plagued Boris Godunov what time--in the +winter of 1604--he sent his armies to meet the invader. He sent +them because, crippled now by gout, even the satisfaction of +leading them was denied him. He was forced to stay at home in the +gloomy apartments of the Kremlin, fretted by care, with the +ghosts of his evil past to keep him company, and assure him that +the hour of judgment was at hand. + +With deepening rage he heard how town after town capitulated to +the adventurer, and mistrusting Basmanov, who was in command, he +sent Shuiski to replace him. In January of 1605 the armies met at +Dobrinichi, and Demetrius suffered a severe defeat, which +compelled him to fall back on Putioli. He lost all his infantry, +and every Russian taken in arms on the pretender's side was +remorselessly hanged as Boris had directed. + +Hope began to revive in the heart of Boris; but as months passed +and no decision came, those hopes faded again, and the canker of +the past gnawed at his vitals and sapped his strength. And then +there was ever present to his mind the nightmare riddle of the +pretender's identity. At last, one evening in April, he sent for +Smirnoy Otrepiev to question him again concerning that nephew of +his. Otrepiev came in fear this time. It is not good to be the +uncle of a man who is giving so much trouble to a great prince. + +Boris glared at him from blood-injected eyes. His round, white +face was haggard, his cheeks sagged, and his fleshly body had +lost all its erstwhile firm vigour. + +"I have sent for you to question you again," he said, "touching +this lewd nephew of yours, this Grishka Otrepiev, this unfrocked +monk, who claims to be Tsar of Muscovy. Are you sure, man, that +you have made no mistake--are you sure?" + +Otrepiev was shaken by the Tsar's manner, by the ferocity of his +mien. But he made answer: "Alas, Highness! I could not be +mistaken. I am sure." + +Boris grunted, and moved his body irritably in his chair. His +terrible eyes watched Otrepiev mistrustfully. He had reached the +mental stage in which he mistrusted everything and everybody. + +"You lie, you dog," he snarled savagely. + +"Highness, I swear . . ." + +"Lies!" Boris roared him down. "And here's the proof. Would +Sigismund of Poland have acknowledged him had he been what you +say? When I denounced him the unfrocked monk Grishka Otrepiev, +would not Sigismund have verified the statement had it been +true?" + +"The brothers Nagoy, the uncles of the dead Demetrius . . ." +Otrepiev was beginning, when again Boris interrupted him. + +"Their acknowledgment of him came after Sigismund's, after--long +after--my denunciation." He broke into oaths. "I say you lie. +Will you stand there and pelter with me, man? Will you wait until +the rack pulls you joint from joint before you speak the truth?" + +"Highness!" cried Otrepiev, "I have served you faithfully these +years." + +"The truth, man; as you hope for life," thundered the Tsar, "the +whole truth of this foul nephew of yours, if so be he is your +nephew." + +And Otrepiev spoke the whole truth at last in his great dread. +"He is not my nephew." + +"Not?" It was a roar of rage. "You dared lie to me?" + +Otrepiev's knees were loosened by terror, and he went down upon +them before the irate Tsar. + +"I did not lie--not altogether. I told you a half-truth, +Highness. His name is Grishka Otrepiev; it is the name by which +he always has been known, and he is an unfrocked monk, all as I +said, and the son of my brother's wife." + +"Then . . . then . . ." Boris was bewildered. Suddenly he +understood. "And his father?" + +"Was Stephen Bathory, King of Poland. Grishka Otrepiev is King +Stephen's natural son." + +Boris seemed to fight for breath for a moment. + +"This is true?" he asked, and himself answered the question. "Of +course it is true. It is the light at last . . . at last. You may +go." + +Otrepiev stumbled out, thankful, surprised to escape so lightly. +He could not know of how little account to Boris was the +deception he had practiced in comparison with the truth he had +now revealed, a truth that shed a fearful, dazzling light upon +the dark mystery of the false Demetrius. The problem that so long +had plagued the Tsar was solved at last. + +This pretended Demetrius, this unfrocked monk, was a natural son +of Stephen Bathory, and a Roman Catholic. Such men as Sigismund +of Poland and the Voyvode of Sandomir were not deceived on the +score of his identity. They, and no doubt other of the leading +nobles of Poland, knew the man for what he was, and because of it +supported him, using the fiction of his being Demetrius +Ivanovitch to impose upon the masses, and facilitate the +pretenders occupation of the throne of Russia. And the object of +it was to set up in Muscovy a ruler who should be a Pole and a +Roman Catholic. Boris knew the bigotry of Sigismund, who already +had sacrificed a throne--that of Sweden--to his devout conscience, +and he saw clearly to the heart of this intrigue. Had he not +heard that a Papal Nuncio had been at Cracow, and that this +Nuncio had been a stout supporter of the pretender's claim? +What could be the Pope's concern in the Muscovite succession? Why +should a Roman priest support the claim of a prince to the throne +of a country devoted to the Greek faith? + +At last all was clear indeed to Boris. Rome was at the bottom of +this business, whose true aim was the Romanization of Russia; and +Sigismund had fetched Rome into it, had set Rome on. Himself an +elected King of Poland, Sigismund may have seen in the ambitious +son of Stephen Bathory one who might perhaps supplant him on the +Polish throne. To divert his ambition into another channel he had +fathered--if he had not invented--this fiction that the pretender +was the dead Demetrius. + +Had that fool Smirnoy Otrepiev but dealt frankly with him from +the first, what months of annoyance might he not have been +spared; how easy it might have been to prick this bubble of +imposture. But better late than never. To-morrow he would publish +the true facts, and all the world should know the truth; and it +was a truth that must give pause to those fools in this +superstitious Russia, so devoted to the Orthodox Greek Church, +who favoured the pretender. They should see the trap that was +being baited for them. + +There was a banquet in the Kremlin that night to certain foreign +envoys, and Boris came to table in better spirits than he had +been for many a day. He was heartened by the thought of what was +now to do, by the conviction that he held the false Demetrius in +the hollow of his hand. There to those envoys he would announce +to-night what to-morrow he would announce to all Russia--tell +them of the discovery he had made, and reveal to his subjects the +peril in which they stood. Towards the close of the banquet he +rose to address his guests, announcing that he had an important +communication for them. In silence they waited for him to speak. +And then, abruptly, with no word yet spoken, he sank back into +his chair, fighting for breath, clawing the air, his face +empurpling until suddenly the blood gushed copiously from his +mouth and nostrils. + +He was vouchsafed time in which to strip off his splendid apparel +and wrap himself in a monk's robe, thus symbolizing the putting +aside of earthly vanities, and then he expired. + +It has been now and then suggested that he was poisoned. His +death was certainly most opportune to Demetrius. But there is +nothing in the manner of it to justify the opinion that it +resulted from anything other than an apoplexy. + +His death brought the sinister opportunist Shuiski back to Moscow +to place Boris's son Feodor on the throne. But the reign of this +lad of sixteen was very brief. Basmanov, who had gone back to the +army, being now inspired by jealousy and fear of the ambitious +Shuiski, went over at once to the pretender, and proclaimed him +Tsar of Russia. Thereafter events moved swiftly. Basmanov marched +on Moscow, entered it in triumph, and again proclaimed Demetrius, +whereupon the people rose in revolt against the son of the +usurper Boris, stormed the Kremlin, and strangled the boy and his +mother. + +Basil Shuiski would have shared their fate had he not bought his +life at the price of betrayal. Publicly he declared to the +Muscovites that the boy whose body he had seen at Uglich was not +that of Demetrius, but of a peasant's son, who had been murdered +in his stead. + +That statement cleared the last obstacle from the pretender's +path, and he advanced now to take possession of his throne. Yet +before he occupied it, he showed the real principles that +actuated him, proved how true had been Boris's conclusion. He +ordered the arrest and degradation of the Patriarch who had +denounced and excommunicated him, and in his place appointed +Ignatius, Bishop of Riazan, a man suspected of belonging to the +Roman communion. + +On the 30th of June of that year 1605, Demetrius made his +triumphal entry into Moscow. He went to prostrate himself before +the tomb of Ivan the Terrible, and then to visit the Tsarina +Maria, who, after a brief communion with him in private, came +forth publicly to acknowledge him as her son. + +Just as Shuiski had purchased his life by a falsehood, so did she +purchase her enlargement from that convent where so long she had +been a prisoner, and restoration to the rank that was her proper +due. After all, she had cause for gratitude to Demetrius, who, in +addition to restoring her these things, had avenged her upon the +hated Boris Godunov. + +His coronation followed in due season, and at last this amazing +adventurer found himself firmly seated upon the throne of Russia, +with Basmanov at his right hand to help and guide him. And at +first all went well, and the young Tsar earned a certain measure +of popularity. If his swarthy face was coarse-featured, yet his +bearing was so courtly and gracious that he won his way quickly +to the hearts of his people. For the rest he was of a tall, +graceful figure, a fine horseman, and of a knightly address at +arms. + +But he soon found himself in the impossible position of having to +serve two masters. On the one hand there was Russia, and the +orthodox Russians whose tsar he was, and on the other there were +the Poles, who had made him so at a price, and who now demanded +payment. Because he saw that this payment would be difficult and +fraught with peril to himself he would--after the common wont of +princes who have attained their objects--have repudiated the +debt. And so he was disposed to ignore, or at least to evade, the +persistent reminders that reached him from the Papal Nuncio, to +whom he had promised the introduction into Russia of the Roman +faith. + +But presently came a letter from Sigismund couched in different +terms. The King of Poland wrote to Demetrius that word had +reached him that Boris Godunov was still alive, and that he had +taken refuge in England, adding that he might be tempted to +restore the fugitive to the throne of Muscovy. + +The threat contained in that bitter piece of sarcasm aroused +Demetrius to a sense of the responsibilities he had undertaken, +which were precisely as Boris Godunov had surmised. As a +beginning he granted the Jesuits permission to build a church +within the sacred walls of the Kremlin, whereby he gave great +scandal. Soon followed other signs that he was not a true son of +the Orthodox Greek Church; he gave offence by his indifference to +public worship, by his neglect of Russian customs, and by +surrounding himself with Roman Catholic Poles, upon whom he +conferred high offices and dignities. + +And there were those at hand ready to stir up public feeling +against him, resentful boyars quick to suspect that perhaps they +had been swindled. Foremost among these was the sinister turncoat +Shuiski, who had not derived from his perjury all the profit he +expected, who resented, above all, to see Basmanov--who had ever +been his rival--invested with a power second only to that of the +Tsar himself. Shuiski, skilled in intrigue, went to work in his +underground, burrowing fashion. He wrought upon the clergy, who +in their turn wrought upon the populace, and presently all was +seething disaffection under a surface apparently calm. + +The eruption came in the following May, when Maryna, the daughter +of the Palatine of Sandomir, made her splendid entry into Moscow, +the bride-elect of the young Tsar. The dazzling procession and +the feasting that followed found little favour in the eyes of the +Muscovites, who now beheld their city aswarm with heretic Poles. + +The marriage was magnificently solemnized on the 18th of May, +1606. And now Shuiski applied a match to the train he had so +skilfully laid. Demetrius had caused a timber fort to be built +before the walls of Moscow for a martial spectacle which he had +planned for the entertainment of his bride. Shuiski put it abroad +that the fort was intended to serve as an engine of destruction, +and that the martial spectacle was a pretence, the real object +being that from the fort the Poles were to cast firebrands into +the city, and then proceed to the slaughter of the inhabitants. + +No more was necessary to infuriate an already exasperated +populace. They flew to arms, and on the night of the 29th of May +they stormed the Kremlin, led on by the arch-traitor Shuiski +himself, to the cry of "Death to the heretic! Death to the +impostor!" + +They broke into the palace, and swarmed up the stairs into the +Tsar's bedchamber, slaying the faithful Basmanov, who stood sword +in hand to bar the way and give his master time to escape. The +Tsar leapt from a balcony thirty feet to the ground, broke his +leg, and lay there helpless, to be dispatched by his enemies, who +presently discovered him. + +He died firmly and fearlessly protesting that he was Demetrius +Ivanovitch. nevertheless, he was Grishka Otrepiev, the unfrocked +monk. + +It has been said that he was no more than an instrument in the +hands of priestcraft, and that because he played his part badly +he met his doom. But something more he was. He was an instrument +indeed, not of priestcraft, but of Fate, to bring home to Boris +Godunov the hideous sins that stained his soul, and to avenge his +victims by personating one of them. In that personation he had +haunted Boris as effectively as if he had been the very ghost of +the boy murdered at Uglich, haunted and tortured, and finally +broken him so that he died. + +That was the part assigned him by Fate in the mysterious scheme +of human things. And that part being played, the rest mattered +little. In the nature of him and of his position it was +impossible that his imposture should be other than ephemeral. + + + + + +III. THE HERMOSA FEMBRA + +An Eposode of the Inquisition in Seville + + + +Apprehension hung like a thundercloud over the city of Seville in +those early days of the year 1481. It had been growing since the +previous October, when the Cardinal of Spain and Frey Tomas de +Torquemada, acting jointly on behalf of the Sovereigns--Ferdinand +and Isabella--had appointed the first inquisitors for Castile, +ordering them to set up a Tribunal of the Faith in Seville, to +deal with the apostatizing said to be rampant among the New- +Christians, or baptized Jews, who made up so large a proportion +of the population. + +Among the many oppressive Spanish enactments against the Children +of Israel, it was prescribed that all should wear the distinguishing +circlet of red cloth on the shoulder of their gabardines; that +they should reside within the walled confines of their ghettos +and never be found beyond them after nightfall, and that they +should not practice as doctors, surgeons, apothecaries, or +innkeepers. The desire to emancipate themselves from these and +other restrictions upon their commerce with Christians and from +the generally intolerable conditions of bondage and ignominy +imposed upon them, had driven many to accept baptism and embrace +Christianity. + +But even such New-Christians as were sincere in their professions +of faith failed to find in this baptism the peace they sought. +Bitter racial hostility, though sometimes tempered, was never +extinguished by their conversion. + +Hence the alarm with which they viewed the gloomy, funereal, +sinister pageant--the white-robed, black-mantled and hooded +inquisitors, with their attendant familiars and barefoot friars-- +headed by a Dominican bearing the white Cross, which invaded the +city of Seville one day towards the end of December and took its +way to the Convent of St. Paul, there to establish the Holy +Office of the Inquisition. The fear of the New-Christians that +they were to be the object of the attentions of this dread +tribunal had sufficed to drive some thousands of them out of the +city, to seek refuge in such feudal lordships as those of the +Duke of Medina Sidonia, the Marquis of Cadiz, and the Count of +Arcos. + +This exodus had led to the publication by the newly appointed +inquisitors of the edict of 2nd January, in which they set forth +that inasmuch as it had come to their knowledge that many persons +had departed out of Seville in fear of prosecution upon grounds +of heretical pravity, they commanded the nobles of the Kingdom of +Castile that within fifteen days they should make an exact return +of the persons of both sexes who had sought refuge in their +lordships or jurisdictions; that they arrest all these and lodge +them in the prison of the Inquisition in Seville, confiscating +their property, and holding it at the disposal of the inquisitors; +that none should shelter any fugitive under pain of greater +excommunication and of other penalties by law established against +abettors of heretics. + +The harsh injustice that lay in this call to arrest men and women +merely because they had departed from Seville before departure +was in any way forbidden, revealed the severity with which the +inquisitors intended to proceed. It completed the consternation +of the New-Christians who had remained behind, and how numerous +these were may be gathered from the fact that in the district of +Seville alone they numbered a hundred thousand, many of them +occupying, thanks to the industry and talent characteristic of +their race, positions of great eminence. It even disquieted the +well-favoured young Don Rodrigo de Cardona, who in all his vain, +empty, pampered and rather vicious life had never yet known +perturbation. Not that he was a New-Christian. He was of a +lineage that went back to the Visigoths, of purest red Castilian +blood, untainted by any strain of that dark-hued, unclean fluid +alleged to flow in Hebrew veins. But it happened that he was in +love with the daughter of the millionaire Diego de Susan, a girl +whose beauty was so extraordinary that she was known throughout +Seville and for many a mile around as la Hermosa Fembra; and he +knew that such commerce--licit or illicitly conducted--was +disapproved by the holy fathers. His relations with the girl had +been perforce clandestine, because the disapproval of the holy +fathers was matched in thoroughness by that of Diego de Susan. It +had been vexatious enough on that account not to be able to boast +himself the favoured of the beautiful and opulent Isabella de +Susan; it was exasperating to discover now a new and more +imperative reason for this odious secrecy. + +Never sped a lover to his mistress in a frame of mind more +aggrieved than that which afflicted Don Rodrigo as, tight-wrapped +in his black cloak, he gained the Calle de Ataud on that January +night. + +Anon, however, when by way of a garden gate and an easily +escaladed balcony he found himself in the presence of Isabella, +the delight of her effaced all other considerations. Her father +was from home, as she had told him in the note that summoned him; +he was away at Palacios on some merchant's errand, and would not +return until the morrow. The servants were all abed, and so Don +Rodrigo might put off his cloak and hat, and lounge at his ease +upon the low Moorish divan, what time she waited upon him with a +Saracen goblet filled with sweet wine of Malaga. The room in +which she received him was one set apart for her own use, her +bower, a long, low ceilinged chamber, furnished with luxury and +taste. The walls were hung with tapestries, the floor spread with +costly Eastern rugs; on an inlaid Moorish table a tall, three- +beaked lamp of beaten copper charged with aromatic oil shed light +and perfume through the apartment. + +Don Rodrigo sipped his wine, and his dark, hungry eyes followed +her as she moved about him with vaguely voluptuous, almost feline +grace. The wine, the heavy perfume of the lamp, and the beauty of +her played havoc among them with his senses, so that he forgot +for the moment his Castilian lineage and clean Christian blood, +forgot that she derived from the accursed race of the Crucifiers. +All that he remembered was that she was the loveliest woman in +Seville, daughter to the wealthiest man, and in that hour of +weakness he decided to convert into reality that which had +hitherto been no more than an infamous presence. He would loyally +fulfil the false, disloyal promises he had made. He would take +her to wife. It was a sacrifice which her beauty and her wealth +should make worth while. Upon that impulse he spoke now, +abruptly: + +"Isabella, when will you marry me?" + +She stood before him, looking down into his weak, handsome face, +her fingers interlacing his own. She merely smiled. The question +did not greatly move her. Not knowing him for the scoundrel that +he was, guessing nothing of the present perturbation of his +senses, she found it very natural that he should ask her to +appoint the day. + +"It is a question you must ask my father," she answered him. + +"I will," said he, "to-morrow, on his return." And he drew her +down beside him. + +But that father was nearer than either of them dreamed. At that +very moment the soft thud of the closing housedoor sounded +through the house. It brought her sharply to her feet, and loose +from his coiling arms, with quickened breath and blanching face. +A moment she hung there, tense, then sped to the door of the +room, set it ajar and listened. + +Up the stairs came the sound of footsteps and of muttering +voices. It was her father, and others with him. + +With ever-mounting fear she turned to Don Rodrigo, and breathed +the question: "If they should come here?" + +The Castilian stood where he had risen by the divan, his face +paler now than its pale, aristocratic wont, his eyes reflecting +the fear that glittered in her own. He had no delusion as to what +action Diego de Susan would take upon discovering him. These +Jewish dogs were quickly stirred to passion, and as jealous as +their betters of the honour of their womenfolk. Already Don +Rodrigo in imagination saw his clean red Christian blood +bespattering that Hebrew floor, for he had no weapon save the +heavy Toledo dagger at his girdle, and Diego de Susan was not +alone. + +It was, he felt, a ridiculous position for a Hidalgo of Spain. +But his dignity was to suffer still greater damage. In another +moment she had bundled him into an alcove behind the arras at the +chamber's end, a tiny closet that was no better than a cupboard +contrived for the storing of household linen. She had-moved with +a swift precision which at another time might have provoked his +admiration, snatching up his cloak and hat, and other evidences +of his presence, quenching the lamp, and dragging him to that +place of cramped concealment, which she remained to share with +him. + +Came presently movements in the room beyond, and the voice of her +father: + +"We shall be securest from intrusion here. It is my daughter's +room. If you will give me leave, I will go down again to admit +our other friends." + +Those other friends, as Don Rodrigo gathered, continued to arrive +for the next half-hour, until in the end there must have been +some twenty of them assembled in that chamber. The mutter of +voices had steadily increased, but so confused that no more than +odd words, affording no clue to the reason of this gathering, had +reached the hidden couple. + +And then quite suddenly a silence fell, and on that silence beat +the sharp, clear voice of Diego de Susan addressing them. + +"My friends," he said, "I have called you hither that we may +concert measures for the protection of ourselves and all New- +Christians in Seville from the fresh peril by which we are +menaced. The edict of the inquisitors reveals how much we have to +fear. You may gather from it that the court of the Holy Office is +hardly likely to deal in justice, and that the most innocent may +find himself at any moment exposed to its cruel mercies. +Therefore it is for us now to consider how to protect ourselves +and our property from the unscrupulous activities of this +tribunal. You are the principal New Christian citizens of +Seville; you are wealthy, not only in property, but also in the +goodwill of the people, who trust and respect, and at need will +follow, you. If nothing less will serve, we must have recourse to +arms; and so that we are resolute and united, my friends, we +shall prevail against the inquisitors." + +Within the alcove, Don Rodrigo felt his skin roughening with +horror at this speech, which breathed sedition not only against +the Sovereigns, but against the very Church. And with his horror +was blent a certain increase of fear. If his situation had been +perilous before, it was tenfold more dangerous now. Discovery, +since he had overheard this treason, must mean his certain death. +And Isabella, realizing the same to the exclusion of all else, +clutched his arm and cowered against him in the dark. + +There was worse to follow. Susan's address was received with a +murmur of applause, and then others spoke, and several were +named, and their presence thus disclosed. There was the +influential Manuel Sauli, who next to Susan was the wealthiest +man in Seville; there was Torralba, the Governor of Triana; Juan +Abolafio, the farmer of the royal customs, and his brother +Fernandez, the licentiate, and there were others--all of them men +of substance, some even holding office under the Crown. Not one +was there who dissented from anything that Susan had said; rather +did each contribute some spur to the general resolve. In the end +it was concerted that each of those present should engage himself +to raise a proportion of the men, arms and money that would be +needed for their enterprise. And upon that the meeting was +dissolved, and they departed. Susan himself went with them. He +had work to do in the common cause, he announced, and he would do +it that very night in which it was supposed that he was absent at +Palacios. + +At last, when all had gone, and the house was still again, +Isabella and her lover crept forth from their concealment, and in +the light of the lamp which Susan had left burning each looked +into the other's white, startled face. So shaken was Don Rodrigo +with horror of what he had overheard, and with the terror of +discovery, that it was with difficulty he kept his teeth from +chattering. + +"Heaven protect us!" he gasped. "What Judaizing was this?" + +"Judaizing!" she echoed. It was the term applied to apostacy, to +the relapse of New-Christians to Judaism, an offense to be +expiated at the stake. "Here was no Judaizing. Are you mad, +Rodrigo? You heard no single word that sinned against the +Faith." + +"Did I not? I heard treason enough to." + +"No, nor treason either. You heard honourable, upright men +considering measures of defence against oppression, injustice, +and evil acquisitiveness masquerading in the holy garments of +religion." + +He stared askance at her for a moment, then his full lips curled +into a sneer. "Of course you would seek to justify them," he said. +"You are of that foul brood yourself. But you cannot think to +cozen me, who am of clean Old-christian blood and a true son of +Mother Church. These men plot evil against the Holy Inquisition. +Is that not Judaizing when it is done by Jews?" + +She was white to the lips, and a new horror stared at him from +her great dark eyes; her lovely bosom rose and fell in tumult. +Yet still she sought to reason with him. + +"They are not Jews--not one of them. Why, Perez is himself in +holy orders. All of them are Christians, and . . ." + +"Newly-baptized!" he broke in, sneering viciously. "A defilement +of that holy sacrament to gain them worldly advantages. That is +revealed by what passed here just now. Jews they were born, the +sons of Jews, and Jews they remain under their cloak of mock +Christianity, to be damned as Jews in the end." He was panting +now with fiery indignation; a holy zeal inflamed this profligate +defiler. "God forgive me that ever I entered here. Yet I do +believe that it was His will that I should come to overhear what +is being plotted. Let me depart from hence." + +With a passionate gesture of abhorrence he swung towards the +door. Her clutch upon his arm arrested him. + +"Whither do you go?" she asked trim sharply. He looked now into +her eyes, and of all that they contained he saw only fear; he saw +nothing of the hatred into which her love had been transmuted in +that moment by his unsparing insults to herself, her race and her +home, by the purpose which she clearly read in him. + +"Whither?" he echoed, and sought to shake her off. + +"Whither my Christian duty bids me." + +It was enough for her. Before he could prevent or suspect her +purpose, she had snatched the heavy Toledo blade from his girdle, +and armed with it stood between the door and him. + +"A moment, Don Rodrigo. Do not attempt to advance, or, as Heaven +watches us, I strike, and it maybe that I shall kill you. We must +talk awhile before you go." + +Amazed, chapfallen, half-palsied, he stood before her, his fine +religious zeal wiped out by fear of that knife in her weak +woman's hand. Rapidly to-night was she coming into real knowledge +of this Castilian gentleman, whom with pride she had taken for +her lover. It was a knowledge that was to sear her presently with +self-loathing and self-contempt. But for the moment her only +consideration was that, as a direct result of her own wantonness, +her father stood in mortal peril. If he should perish through the +deletion of this creature, she would account herself his slayer. + +"You have not considered that the deletion you intend will +destroy my father," she said quietly. + +"There is my Christian duty to consider," answered he, but +without boldness now. + +"Perhaps. But there is something you must set against it. Have +you no duty as a lover--no duty to me?" + +"No earthly duty can weigh against a spiritual obligation. . . ." + +"Ah, wait! Have patience. You have not well considered, that is +plain. In coming here in secret you wronged my father. You will +not trouble to deny it. + +"Jointly we wronged him, you and I. Will you then take advantage +of something learnt whilst you were hiding there like a thief +from the consequences of what you did, and so do him yet this +further wrong?" + +"Must I wrong my conscience?" he asked her sullenly. + +"Indeed, I fear you must." + +"Imperil my immortal soul?" He almost laughed. + +"You talk in vain." + +"But I have something more than words for you." With her left +hand she drew upon the fine gold chain about her neck, and +brought forth a tiny jewelled cross. Passing the chain over her +head, she held it out. + +"Take this," she bade him. "Take it, I say. Now, with that sacred +symbol in your hand, make solemn oath to divulge no word of what +you have learnt here tonight, or else resign yourself to an +unshriven death. For either you take that oath, or I rouse the +servants and have you dealt with as one who has intruded here +unbidden for an evil end." She backed away from him as she spoke, +and threw wide the door. Then, confronting him from the +threshold, she admonished him again, her voice no louder than a +whisper. "Quick now! Resolve yourself. Will you die here with +all your sins upon you, and so destroy for all eternity the +immortal soul that urges you to this betrayal, or will you take +the oath that I require?" + +He began an argument that was like a sermon of the Faith. But she +cut him short. "For the last time!" she bade him. "Will you +decide?" + +He chose the coward's part, of course, and did violence tomb fine +conscience. With the cross in his hand he repeated after her the +words of the formidable oath that she administered an oath which +it must damn his immortal soul to break. Because of that, because +she imagined that she had taken the measure of his faith, she +returned him his dagger, and let him go at last. She imagined +that she had bound him fast in irrefragable spiritual bonds. + +And even on the morrow, when her father and all those who had +been present at that meeting at Susan's house were arrested by +order of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, she still clung to +that belief. Yet presently a doubt crept in, a doubt that she +must at all costs resolve. And so presently she called for her +litter, and had herself carried to the Convent of St. Paul, where +she asked to see Frey Alonso de Ojeda, the Prior of the +Dominicans of Seville. + +She was left to wait in a square, cheerless, dimly-lighted room +pervaded by a musty smell, that had for only furniture a couple +of chairs and a praying-stool, and for only ornament a great, +gaunt crucifix hanging upon one of its whitewashed walls. + +Thither came presently two Dominican friars. One of these was a +harsh-featured man of middle height and square build, the +uncompromising zealot Ojeda. The other was tall and lean, +stooping slightly at the shoulders, haggard and pale of +countenance, with deep-set, luminous dark eyes, and a tender, +wistful mouth. This was the Queen's confessor, Frey Tomas de +Torquemada, Grand Inquisitor of Castile. He approached her, +leaving Ojeda in the background, and stood a moment regarding her +with eyes of infinite kindliness and compassion. + +"You are the daughter of that misguided man, Diego de Susan," he +said, in a gentle voice. "God help and strengthen you, my child, +against the trials that may be in store for you. What do you seek +at our poor hands? Speak, child, without fear." + +"Father," she faltered, "I come to implore your pity." + +"No need to implore it, child. Should I withhold pity who stand +myself in need of pity, being a sinner--as are we all." + +"It is for my father that I come to beg your mercy." + +"So I supposed." A shade crossed the gentle, wistful face; the +tender melancholy deepened in the eyes that regarded her. "If +your father is innocent of what has been alleged against him, the +benign tribunal of the Holy Office will bring his innocence to +light, and rejoice therein; if he is guilty, if he has strayed-- +as we may all stray unless fortified by heavenly grace--he shall +be given the means of expiation, that his salvation may be +assured him." + +She shivered at the words. She knew the mercy in which the +inquisitors dealt, a mercy so spiritual that it took no account +of the temporal agonies inflicted to ensure it. + +"My father is innocent of any sin against the Faith," said she. + +"Are you so sure?" croaked the harsh voice of Ojeda, breaking in. +"Consider well. Remember that your duty as a Christian is above +your duty as a daughter." + +Almost had she bluntly demanded the name of her father's accuser, +that thus she might reach the object of her visit. Betimes she +checked the rash impulse, perceiving that subtlety was here +required; that a direct question would close the door to all +information. Skilfully, then, she chose her line of attack. + +"I am sure," she exclaimed, "that he is a more fervent and pious +Christian--New-Christian though he be--than his accuser." + +The wistfulness faded from Torquemada's eyes. They grew keen, as +became the eyes of an inquisitor, the eyes of a sleuth, quick to +fasten on a spoor. But he shook his head. + +Ojeda advanced. "That I cannot believe," said he. "The deletion +was made from a sense of duty so pure that the delator did not +hesitate to confess the sin of his own commission through which +he had discovered the treachery of Don Diego and his associates." + +She could have cried out in anguish at this answer to her +unspoken question. Yet she controlled herself, and that no single +doubt should linger, she thrust boldly home. + +"He confessed it?" she cried, seemingly aghast. The friar slowly +nodded. "Don Rodrigo confessed?" she insisted, as will the +incredulous. + +Abruptly the friar nodded again; and as abruptly checked, +recollecting himself. + +"Don Rodrigo?" he echoed, and asked: "Who mentioned Don Rodrigo?" + +But it was too late. His assenting nod had betrayed the truth, +had confirmed her worst fear. She swayed a little; the room swam +round her, she felt as she would swoon. Then blind indignation +against that forsworn betrayer surged to revive her. If it was +through her weakness and undutifulness that her father had been +destroyed, through her strength should he be avenged, though in +doing so she pulled down and destroyed herself. + +"And he confessed to his own sin?" she was repeating slowly, ever +on that musing, incredulous note. "He dared confess himself a +Judaizer?" + +"A Judaizer!" Sheer horror now overspread the friar's grim +countenance. "A Judaizer! Don Rodrigo? Oh, impossible!" + +"But I thought you said he had confessed." + +"Why, yes, but . . . but not to that." Her pale lips smiled, +sadly contemptuous. + +"I see. He set limits of prudence upon his confession. He left +out his Judatting practices. He did not tell you, for instance, +that this deletion was an act of revenge against me who refused +to marry him, having discovered his unfaith, and fearing its +consequences in this world and the next." + +Ojeda stared at her in sheer, incredulous amazement. + +And then Torquemada spoke: "Do you say that Don Rodrigo de +Cardona is a Judaizer? Oh, it is unbelievable." + +"Yet I could give you evidence that should convince you." + +"Then so you shall. It is your sacred duty, lest you become an +abettor of heresy, and yourself liable to the extreme penalty." + +It would be a half-hour later, perhaps, when she quitted the +Convent of St. Paul to return home, with Hell in her heart, +knowing in life no purpose but that of avenging the parent her +folly had destroyed. As she was being carried past the Alcazar, +she espied across the open space a tall, slim figure in black, in +whom she recognized her lover, and straightway she sent the page +who paced beside her litter to call him to her side. The summons +surprised him after what had passed between them; moreover, +considering her father's present condition, he was reluctant to +be seen in attendance upon the beautiful, wealthy Isabella de +Susan. Nevertheless, urged on by curiosity, he went. + +Her greeting increased his surprise. + +"I am in deep distress, Rodrigo, as you may judge," she told him +sadly. "You will have heard what has befallen my father?" + +He looked at her sharply, yet saw nothing but loveliness rendered +more appealing by sorrow. Clearly she did not suspect him of +betrayal; did not realize that an oath extorted by violence--and +an oath, moreover, to be false to a sacred duty--could not be +accounted binding. + +"I . . . I heard of it an hour ago," he lied a thought +unsteadily. "I . . . I commiserate you deeply." + +"I deserve commiseration," answered she, "and so does my poor +father, and those others. It is plain that amongst those he +trusted there was a traitor, a spy, who went straight from that +meeting to inform against them. If I but had a list it were easy +to discover the betrayer. One need but ascertain who is the one +of all who were present whose arrest has been omitted." Her +lovely sorrowful eyes turned full upon him. "What is to become +of me now, alone in the world?" she asked him. "My father was +my only friend." + +The subtle appeal of her did its work swiftly. Besides, he saw +here a noble opportunity worth surely some little risk. + +"Your only friend?" he asked her thickly. "Was there no one else? +Is there no one else, Isabella?" + +"There was," she said, and sighed heavily. "But after what befell +last night, when . . . You know what is in my mind. I was +distraught then, mad with fear for this poor father of mine, so +that I could not even consider his sin in its full heinousness, +nor see how righteous was your intent to inform against him. Yet +I am thankful that it was not by your deletion that he was taken. +The thought of that is to-day my only consolation." + +They had reached her house by now. Don Rodrigo put forth his arm +to assist her to alight from her litter, and begged leave to +accompany her within. But she denied him. + +"Not now--though I am grateful to you, Rodrigo. Soon, if you will +come and comfort me, you may. I will send you word when I am more +able to receive you--that is, if I am forgiven for . . ." + +"Not another word," he begged her. "I honour you for what you +did. It is I who should sue to you for forgiveness." + +"You are very noble and generous, Don Rodrigo. God keep you!" And +so she left him. + +She had found him--had she but known it--a dejected, miserable +man in the act of reckoning up all that he had lost. In betraying +Susan he had acted upon an impulse that sprang partly from rage, +and partly from a sense of religious duty. In counting later the +cost to himself, he cursed the folly of his rage, and began to +wonder if such strict observance of religious duty was really +worth while to a man who had his way to make in the world. In +short, he was in the throes of reaction. But now, in her +unsuspicion, he found his hopes revive. She need never know. +The Holy Office preserved inviolate secrecy on the score of +deletions--since to do otherwise might be to discourage delators-- +and there were no confrontations of accuser and accused, such as +took place in temporal courts. Don Rodrigo left the Calle de +Ataud better pleased with the world than he had been since +morning. + +On the morrow he went openly to visit her; but he was denied, a +servant announcing her indisposed. This fretted him, damped his +hopes, and thereby increased his longing. But on the next day he +received from her a letter which made him the most ample amends: + +"Rodrigo,--There is a matter on which we must come early to an +understanding. Should my poor father be convicted of heresy and +sentenced, it follows that his property will be confiscated, +since as the daughter of a convicted heretic I may not inherit. +For myself I care little; but I am concerned for you, Rodrigo, +since if in spite of what has happened you would still wish to +make me your wife, as you declared on Monday, it would be my wish +to come to you well cowered. Now the inheritance which would be +confiscated by the Holy Office from the daughter of a heretic +might not be so confiscated from the wife of a gentleman of +Castile. I say no more. Consider this well, and decide as your +heart dictates. I shall receive you to-morrow if you come to me. + +"Isabella." + +She bade him consider well. But the matter really needed little +consideration. Diego de Susan was sure to go to the fire. His +fortune was estimated at ten million maravedis. That fortune, it +seemed, Rodrigo was given the chance to make his own by marrying +the beautiful Isabella at once, before sentence came to be passed +upon her father. The Holy Office might impose a fine, but would +not go further where the inheritance of a Castilian nobleman of +clean lineage was concerned. He was swayed between admiration of +her shrewdness and amazement at his own good fortune. Also his +vanity was immensely flattered. + +He sent her three lines to protest his undying love, and his +resolve to marry her upon the morrow, and went next day in +person, as she had bidden him, to carry out the resolve. + +She received him in the mansion's best room, a noble chamber +furnished with a richness such as no other house in Seville could +have boasted. She had arrayed herself for the interview with an +almost wanton cunning that should enhance her natural endowments. +Her high-waisted gown, low-cut and close-fitting in the bodice, +was of cloth of gold, edged with miniver at skirt and cuffs and +neck. On her white bosom hung a priceless carcanet of limpid +diamonds, and through the heavy tresses of her bronze-coloured +hair was coiled a string of lustrous pearls. Never had Don +Rodrigo found her more desirable; never had he felt so secure and +glad in his possession of her. The quickening blood flushing now +his olive face, he gathered her slim shapeliness into his arms, +kissing her cheek, her lips, her neck. + +"My pearl, my beautiful, my wife!" he murmured, rapturously. Then +added the impatient question: "The priest? Where is the priest +that shall make us one?" + +Deep, unfathomable eyes looked up to meet his burning glance. +Languorously she lay against his breast, and her red lips parted +in a smile that maddened him. + +"You love me, Rodrigo--in spite of all?" + +"Love you!" It was a throbbing, strangled cry, an almost +inarticulate ejaculation. "Better than life--better than +salvation." + +She fetched a sigh, as of deep content, and nestled closer. "Oh, +I am glad--so glad--that your love for me is truly strong. I am +about to put it to the test, perhaps." + +He held her very close. "What is this test, beloved?" + +"It is that I want this marriage knot so tied that it shall be +indissoluble save by death." + +"Why, so do I," quoth he, who had so much to gain. + +"And, therefore, because after all, though I profess +Christianity, there is Jewish blood in my veins, I would have a +marriage that must satisfy even my father when he regains his +freedom, as I believe he will--for, after all, he is not charged +with any sin against the faith." + +She paused, and he was conscious of a premonitory chill upon his +ardour. + +"What do you mean?" he asked her, and his voice was strained. + +"I mean--you'll not be angry with me?--I mean that I would have +us married not only by a Christian priest, and in the Christian +manner, but also and first of all by a Rabbi, and in accordance +with the Jewish rites." + +Upon the words, she felt his encircling arms turn limp, and relax +their grip upon her, whereupon she clung to him the more tightly. + +"Rodrigo! Rodrigo! If you truly love me, if you truly want me, +you'll not deny me this condition, for I swear to you that once I +am your wife you shall never hear anything again to remind you +that I am of Jewish blood." + +His face turned ghastly pale, his lips writhed and twitched, and +beads of sweat stood out upon his brow. + +"My God!" he groaned. "What do you ask? I . . . I can't. It were +a desecration, a defilement." + +She thrust him from her in a passion. "You regard it so? You +protest love, and in the very hour when I propose to sacrifice +all to you, you will not make this little sacrifice for my sake, +you even insult the faith that was my forbears', if it is not +wholly mine. I misjudged you, else I had not bidden you here to- +day. I think you had better leave me." + +Trembling, appalled, a prey to an ineffable tangle of emotion, he +sought to plead, to extenuate his attitude, to move her from her +own. He ranted torrentially, but in vain. She stood as cold and +aloof as earlier she had been warm and clinging. He had proved +the measure of his love. He could go his ways. + +The thing she proposed was to him, as he had truly said, a +desecration, a defilement. Yet to have dreamed yourself master of +ten million maravedis, and a matchless woman, is a dream not +easily relinquished. There was enough cupidity in his nature, +enough neediness in his condition, to make the realization of +that dream worth the defilement of the abominable marriage rites +upon which she insisted. But fear remained where Christian +scruples were already half-effaced. + +"You do not realize," he cried. "If it were known that I so much +as contemplated this, the Holy Office would account it clear +proof of apostasy, and send me to the fire." + +"If that were your only objection it were easily overcome," she +informed him coldly. "For who should ever inform against you? +The Rabbi who is waiting above-stairs dare not for his own life's +sake betray us, and who else will ever know?" + +"You can be sure of that?" + +He was conquered. But she played him yet awhile, compelling him +in his turn to conquer the reluctance which his earlier +hesitation had begotten in her, until it was he who pleaded +insistently for this Jewish marriage that filled him with such +repugnance. + +And so at last she yielded, and led him up to that bower of hers +in which the conspirators had met. + +"Where is the Rabbi?" he asked impatiently, looking round that +empty room. + +"I will summon him if you are quite sure that you desire him." + +"Sure? Have I not protested enough? Can you still doubt me?" + +"No," she said. She stood apart, conning him steadily. "Yet I +would not have it supposed that you were in any way coerced to +this." They were odd words; but he heeded not their oddness. He +was hardly master of the wits which in themselves were never of +the brightest. "I require you to declare that it is your own +desire that our marriage should be solemnized in accordance with +the Jewish rites and the law of Moses." + +And he, fretted now by impatience, anxious to have this thing +done and ended, made answer hastily: + +"Why, to be sure I do declare it to be my wish that we should be +so married--in the Jewish manner, and in accordance with the law +of Moses. And now, where is the Rabbi?" He caught a sound and saw +a quiver in the tapestries that masked the door of the alcove. +"Ah! He is here, I suppose...." + +He checked abruptly, and recoiled as from a blow, throwing up his +hands in a convulsive gesture. The tapestry had been swept aside, +and forth stepped not the Rabbi he expected, but a tall, gaunt +man, stooping slightly at the shoulders, dressed in the white +habit and black cloak of the order of St. Dominic, his face lost +in the shadows of a black cowl. Behind him stood two lay +brothers of the order, two armed familiars of the Holy Office, +displaying the white cross on their sable doublets. + +Terrified by that apparition, evoked, as it seemed, by those +terribly damning words he had pronounced, Don Rodrigo stood +blankly at gaze a moment, not even seeking to understand how this +dread thing had come to pass. + +The friar pushed back his cowl, as he advanced, and displayed the +tender, compassionate, infinitely wistful countenance of Frey +Tomas de Torquemada. And infinitely compassionate and wistful +came the voice of that deeply sincere and saintly man. + +"My son, I was told this of you--that you were a Judaizer--yet +before I could bring myself to believe so incredible a thing in +one of your lineage, I required the evidence of my own senses. +Oh, my poor child, by what wicked counsels have you been led so +far astray?" The sweet, tender eyes of the inquisitor were +luminous with unshed tears. Sorrowing pity shook his gentle +voice. + +And then Don Rodrigo's terror changed to wrath, and this +exploded. He flung out an arm towards Isabella in passionate +denunciation. + +"It was that woman who bewitched and fooled and seduced me into +this. It was a trap she baited for my undoing." + +"It was, indeed. She had my consent to do so, to test the faith +which I was told you lacked. Had your heart been free of +heretical pravity the trap had never caught you; had your faith +been strong, my son, you could not have been seduced from loyalty +to your Redeemers" + +"Father! Hear me, I implore you!" He flung down upon his knees, +and held out shaking, supplicating hands. + +"You shall be heard, my son. The Holy Office does not condemn any +man unheard. But what hope can you put in protestations? I had +been told that your life was disorderly and vain, and I grieved +that it should be so, trembled for you when I heard how wide you +opened the gates of your soul to evil. But remembering that age +and reason will often make good and penitent amends for the +follies of early life, I hoped and prayed for you. Yet that you +should Judaize--that you should be bound in wedlock by the +unclean ties of Judaism--Oh!" The melancholy voice broke off upon +a sob, and Torquemada covered his pale face with his hands--long, +white, emaciated, almost transparent hands. "Pray now, my child, +for grace and strength," he exhorted. "Offer up the little +temporal suffering that may yet be yours in atonement for your +error, and so that your heart be truly contrite and penitent, you +shall deserve salvation from that Divine Mercy which is +boundless. You shall have my prayers, my son. I can do no more. +Take him hence." + +On the 6th of February of that year 1481, Seville witnessed the +first Auto de Fe, the sufferers being Diego de Susan, his fellow- +conspirators, and Don Rodrigo de Cardona. The function presented +but little of the ghastly pomp that was soon to distinguish these +proceedings. But the essentials were already present. + +In a procession headed by a Dominican bearing aloft the green +Cross of the Inquisition, swathed in a veil of crepe, behind whom +walked two by two the members of the Confraternity of St. Peter +the Martyr, the familiars of the Holy Office, came the condemned, +candle in hand, barefoot, in the ignominious yellow penitential +sack. Hemmed about by halberdiers, they were paraded through the +streets to the Cathedral, where Mass was said and a sermon of the +faith preached to them by the stern Ojeda. Thereafter they were +conveyed beyond the city to the meadows of Tablada, where the +stake and faggots awaited them. + +Thus the perjured accuser perished in the same holocaust with the +accused. Thus was Isabella de Susan, known as la Hermosa Fembra, +avenged by falseness upon the worthless lover who made her by +falseness the instrument of her father's ruin. + +For herself, when all was over, she sought the refuge of a +convent. But she quitted it without professing. The past gave her +no peace, and she returned to the world to seek in excesses an +oblivion which the cloister denied her and only death could give. +In her will she disposed that her skull should be placed over the +doorway of the house in the Calle de Ataud, as a measure of +posthumous atonement for her sins. And there the fleshless, +grinning skull of that once lovely head abode for close upon four +hundred years. It was still to be seen there when Buonaparte's +legions demolished the Holy Office of the Inquisition. + + + + + + +IV. THE PASTRY-COOK OF MADRIGAL + +The Story of the False Sebastian of Portugal + + + +There is not in all that bitter tragi-comic record of human +frailty which we call History a sadder story than this of the +Princess Anne, the natural daughter of the splendid Don John of +Austria, natural son of the Emperor Charles V. and, so, half- +brother to the bowelless King Philip II. of Spain. Never was +woman born to royal or semi-royal state who was more utterly the +victim of the circumstances of her birth. + +Of the natural sons of princes something could be made, as +witness the dazzling career of Anne's own father; but for natural +daughters--and especially for one who, like herself, bore a +double load of cadency--there was little use or hope. Their royal +blood set them in a class apart; their bastardy denied them the +worldly advantages of that spurious eminence. Their royal blood +prescribed that they must mate with princes; their bastardy +raised obstacles to their doing so. Therefore, since the world +would seem to hold no worthy place for them, it was expedient to +withdraw them from the world before its vanities beglamoured +them, and to immure them in convents, where they might aspire +with confidence to the sterile dignity of abbesshood. + +Thus it befell with Anne. At the early age of six she had been +sent to the Benedictine convent at Burgos, and in adolescence +removed thence to the Monastery of Santa Maria la Real at +Madrigal, where it was foreordained that she should take the +veil. She went unwillingly. She had youth, and youth's hunger of +life, and not even the repressive conditions in which she had +been reared had succeeded in extinguishing her high spirit or in +concealing from her the fact that she was beautiful. On the +threshold of that convent which by her dread uncle's will was to +be her living tomb, above whose gates her spirit may have beheld +the inscription, "Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch' entrate!" she +made her protest, called upon the bishop who accompanied her to +bear witness that she did not go of her own free will. + +But what she willed was a matter of no account. King Philip's +was, under God's, the only will in Spain. Still, less perhaps to +soften the sacrifice imposed upon her than because of what he +accounted due to one of his own blood, his Catholic Majesty +accorded her certain privileges unusual to members of religious +communities: he granted her a little civil list--two ladies-in- +waiting and two grooms--and conferred upon her the title of +Excellency, which she still retained even when after her hurried +novitiate of a single year she had taken the veil. She submitted +where to have striven would have been to have spent herself in +vain; but her resignation was only of the body, and this dejected +body moved mechanically through the tasks and recreations that go +to make up the grey monotone of conventual existence; in which +one day is as another day, one hour as another hour; in which the +seasons of the year lose their significance; in which time has no +purpose save for its subdivision into periods devoted to sleeping +and waking, to eating and fasting, to praying and contemplating, +until life loses all purpose and object, and sterilizes itself +into preparation for death. + +Though they might command and compel her body, her spirit +remained unfettered in rebellion. Anon the claustral apathy might +encompass her; in time and by slow degrees she might become +absorbed into the grey spirit of the place. But that time was not +yet. For the present she must nourish her caged and starving soul +with memories of glimpses caught in passing of the bright, +active, stirring world without; and where memory stopped she had +now beside her a companion to regale her with tales of high +adventure and romantic deeds and knightly feats, which served but +to feed and swell her yearnings. + +This companion, Frey Miguel de Souza, was a Portuguese friar of +the order of St. Augustine, a learned, courtly man who had moved +in the great world and spoke with the authority of an eye- +witness. And above all he loved to talk of that last romantic +King of Portugal, with whom he had been intimate, that high- +spirited, headstrong, gallant, fair-haired lad Sebastian, who at +the age of four-and-twenty had led the disastrous overseas +expedition against the Infidel, which had been shattered on the +field of Alcacer-el-Kebir some fifteen years ago. + +He loved to paint for her in words the dazzling knightly pageants +he had seen along the quays at Lisbon, when that expedition was +embarking with crusader ardour, the files of Portuguese knights +and men-at-arms, the array of German and Italian mercenaries, the +young king in his bright armour, bare of head--an incarnation of +St. Michael--moving forward exultantly amid flowers and +acclamations to take ship for Africa. And she would listen with +parted lips and glistening eyes, her slim body bending forward in +her eagerness to miss no word of this great epic. Anon when he +came to tell of that disastrous day of Alcacer-el-Kebir, her +dark, eager eyes would fill with tears. His tale of it was hardly +truthful. He did not say that military incompetence and a +presumptuous vanity which would listen to no counsels had been +the cause of a ruin that had engulfed the chivalry of Portugal, +and finally the very kingdom itself. He represented the defeat as +due to the overwhelming numbers of the Infidel, and dwelt at +length upon the closing scene, told her in fullest detail how +Sebastian had scornfully rejected the counsels of those who urged +him to fly when all was lost, how the young king, who had fought +with a lion-hearted courage, unwilling to survive the day's +defeat, had turned and ridden back alone into the Saracen host to +fight his last fight and find a knightly death. Thereafter he was +seen no more. + +It was a tale she never tired of hearing, and it moved her more +and more deeply each time she listened to it. She would ply him +with questions touching this Sebastian, who had been her cousin, +concerning his ways of life, his boyhood, and his enactments when +he came to the crown of Portugal. And all that Frey Miguel de +Souza told her served but to engrave more deeply upon her virgin +mind the adorable image of the knightly king. Ever present in the +daily thoughts of this ardent girl, his empanoplied figure +haunted now her sleep, so real and vivid that her waking senses +would dwell fondly upon the dream-figure as upon the memory of +someone seen in actual life; likewise she treasured up the memory +of the dream--words he had uttered, words it would seem begotten +of the longings of her starved and empty heart, words of a kind +not calculated to bring peace to the soul of a nun professed. She +was enamoured, deeply, fervently, and passionately enamoured of a +myth, a mental image of a man who had been dust these fifteen +years. She mourned him with a fond widow's mourning; prayed daily +and nightly for the repose of his soul, and in her exaltation +waited now almost impatiently for death that should unite her +with him. Taking joy in the thought that she should go to him a +maid, she ceased at last to resent the maidenhood that had been +imposed upon her. + +One day a sudden, wild thought filled her with a strange +excitement. + +"Is it so certain that he is dead?" she asked. "When all is said, +none actually saw him die, and you tell me that the body +surrendered by Mulai-Ahmed-ben-Mahomet was disfigured beyond +recognition. Is it not possible that he may have survived?" + +The lean, swarthy face of Frey Miguel grew pensive. He did not +impatiently scorn the suggestion as she had half-feared he would. + +"In Portugal," he answered slowly, "it is firmly believed that he +lives, and that one day he will come, like another Redeemer, to +deliver his country from the thrall of Spain." + +"Then . . . then . . ." + +Wistfully, he smiled. "A people will always believe what it +wishes to believe." + +"But you, yourself?" she pressed him. + +He did not answer her at once. The cloud of thought deepened on +his ascetic face. He half turned from her--they were standing in +the shadow of the fretted cloisters--and his pensive eyes roamed +over the wide quadrangle that was at once the convent garden and +burial ground. Out there in the sunshine amid the hum of +invisible but ubiquitously pulsating life, three nuns, young and +vigorous, their arms bared to the elbows, the skirts of their +black habits shortened by a cincture of rope, revealing feet +roughly shod in wood, were at work with spade and mattock, +digging their own graves in memento mori. Amid the shadows of the +cloisters, within sight but beyond earshot, hovered Dona Maria de +Grado and Dona Luiza Nieto, the two nobly-born nuns appointed by +King Philip to an office as nearly akin to that of ladies-in- +waiting as claustral conditions would permit. + +At length Frey Miguel seemed to resolve himself. + +"Since you ask me, why should I not tell you? When I was on my +way to preach the funeral oration in the Cathedral at Lisbon, as +befitted one who had been Don Sebastian's preacher, I was warned +by a person of eminence to have a care of what I said of Don +Sebastian, for not only was he alive, but he would be secretly +present at the Requiem." + +He met her dilating glance, noted the quivering of her parted +lips. + +"But that," he added, "was fifteen years ago, and since then I +have had no sign. At first I thought it possible . . . there was +a story afloat that might have been true . . . But fifteen +years!" He sighed, and shook his head. + +"What . . . what was the story?" She was trembling from head to +foot. + +"On the night after the battle three horsemen rode up to the +gates of the fortified coast-town of Arzilla. When the timid +guard refused to open to them, they announced that one of them +was King Sebastian, and so won admittance. One of the three was +wrapped in a cloak, his face concealed, and his two companions +were observed to show him the deference due to royalty." + +"Why, then . . ." she was beginning. + +"Ah, but afterwards," he interrupted her, "afterwards, when all +Portugal was thrown into commotion by that tale, it was denied +that King Sebastian had been among these horsemen. It was +affirmed to have been no more than a ruse of those men's to gain +the shelter of the city." + +She questioned and cross-questioned him upon that, seeking to +draw from him the admission that it was possible denial and +explanation obeyed the wishes of the hidden prince. + +"Yes, it is possible," he admitted at length, "and it is believed +by many to be the fact. Don Sebastian was as sensitive as high- +spirited. The shame of his defeat may have hung so heavily upon +him that he preferred to remain in hiding, and to sacrifice a +throne of which he now felt himself unworthy. Half Portugal +believes it so, and waits and hopes." + +When Frey Miguel parted from her that day, he took with him the +clear conviction that not in all Portugal was there a soul who +hoped more fervently than she that Don Sebastian lived, or +yearned more passionately to acclaim him should he show himself. +And that was much to think, for the yearning of Portugal was as +the yearning of the slave for freedom. + +Sebastian's mother was King Philip's sister, whereby King Philip +had claimed the succession, and taken possession of the throne of +Portugal. Portugal writhed under the oppressive heel of that +foreign rule, and Frey Miguel de Sousa himself, a deeply, +passionately patriotic man, had been foremost among those who had +sought to liberate her. When Don Antonio, the sometime Prior of +Crato, Sebastian's natural cousin, and a bold, ambitious, +enterprising man, had raised the standard of revolt, the friar +had been the most active of all his coadjutators. In those days +Frey Miguel, who was the Provincial of his order, a man widely +renowned for his learning and experience of affairs, who had been +preacher to Don Sebastian and confessor to Don Antonio, had +wielded a vast influence in Portugal. That influence he had +unstintingly exerted on behalf of the Pretender, to whom he was +profoundly devoted. After Don Antonio's army had been defeated on +land by the Duke of Alba, and his fleet shattered in the Azores +in 1582 by the Marquis of Santa Cruz, Frey Miguel found himself +deeply compromised by his active share in the rebellion. He was +arrested and suffered a long imprisonment in Spain. In the end, +because he expressed repentance, and because Philip II., aware of +the man's gifts and worth, desired to attach him to himself by +gratitude, he was enlarged, and appointed Vicar of Santa Maria la +Real, where he was now become confessor, counsellor and confidant +of the Princess Anne of Austria. + +But his gratitude to King Philip was not of a kind to change his +nature, to extinguish his devotion to the Pretender, Don Antonio-- +who, restlessly ambitious, continued ceaselessly to plot abroad-- +or yet to abate the fervour of his patriotism. The dream of his +life was ever the independence of Portugal, with a native prince +upon the throne. And because of Anne's fervent hope, a hope that +grew almost daily into conviction, that Sebastian had survived +and would return one day to claim his kingdom, those two at +Madrigal, in that quiet eddy of the great stream of life, were +drawn more closely to each other. + +But as the years passed, and Anne's prayers remained unanswered +and the deliverer did not come, her hopes began to fade again. +Gradually she reverted to her earlier frame of mind in which all +hopes were set upon a reunion with the unknown beloved in the +world to come. + +One evening in the spring of 1594--four years after the name of +Sebastian had first passed between the priest and the princess-- +Frey Miguel was walking down the main street of Madrigal, a +village whose every inhabitant was known to him, when he came +suddenly face to face with a stranger. A stranger would in any +case have drawn his attention, but there was about this man +something familiar to the friar, something that stirred in him +vague memories of things long forgotten. His garb of shabby black +was that of a common townsman, but there was something in his air +and glance, his soldierly carriage, and the tilt of his bearded +chin, that belied his garb. He bore upon his person the stamp of +intrepidity and assurance. + +Both halted, each staring at the other, a faint smile on the lips +of the stranger--who, in the fading light, might have been of any +age from thirty to fifty--a puzzled frown upon the brow of the +friar. Then the man swept off his broad-brimmed hat. + +"God save your paternity," was his greeting. + +"God save you, my son," replied Frey Miguel, still pondering him. +"I seem to know you. Do I?" + +The stranger laughed. "Though all the world forget, your +paternity should remember me" + +And then Frey Miguel sucked in his breath sharply. "My God!" he +cried, and set a hand upon the fellow's shoulder, looking deeply +into those bold, grey eyes. "What make you here?" + +"I am a pastry-cook." + +"A pastry-cook? You?" + +"One must live, and it is a more honest trade than most. I was in +Valladolid, when I heard that your paternity was the Vicar of the +Convent here, and so for the sake of old times--of happier times-- +I bethought me that I might claim your paternity's support." He +spoke with a careless arrogance, half-tinged with mockery. + +"Assuredly . . ." began the priest, and then he checked. "Where +is your shop?" + +"Just down the street. Will your paternity honour me?" + +Frey Miguel bowed, and together they departed. + +For three days thereafter the convent saw the friar only in the +celebration of the Mass. But on the morning of the fourth, he +went straight from the sacristy to the parlour, and, despite the +early hour, desired to see her Excellency. + +"Lady," he told her, "I have great news; news that will rejoice +your heart." She looked at him, and saw the feverish glitter in +his sunken eyes, the hectic flush on his prominent cheek-bones. +"Don Sebastian lives. I have seen him." + +A moment she stared at him as if she did not understand. Then she +paled until her face became as white as the nun's coil upon her +brow; her breath came in a faint moan, she stiffened, and swayed +upon her feet, and caught at the back of a prie-dieu to steady +and save herself from falling. He saw that he had blundered by +his abruptness, that he had failed to gauge the full depth of her +feelings for the Hidden Prince, and for a moment feared that she +would swoon under the shock of the news he had so recklessly +delivered. + +"What do you say? Oh, what do you say?" she moaned, her eyes +half-closed. + +He repeated the news in more measured, careful terms, exerting +all the magnetism of his will to sustain her reeling senses. +Gradually she quelled the storm of her emotions. + +"And you say that you have seen him? Oh!" Once more the colour +suffused her cheeks, and her eyes glowed, her expression became +radiant. "Where is he?" + +"Here. Here in Madrigal." + +"In Madrigal?" She was all amazement. "But why in Madrigal?" + +"He was in Valladolid, and there heard that I--his sometime +preacher and counsellor--was Vicar here at Santa Maria la Real. +He came to seek me. He comes disguised, under the false name of +Gabriel de Espinosa, and setting up as a pastry-cook until his +term of penance shall be completed, and he shall be free to +disclose himself once more to his impatiently awaiting people." + +It was bewildering, intoxicating news to her. It set her mind in +turmoil, made of her soul a battle-ground for mad hope and +dreadful fear. This dream-prince, who for four years had been the +constant companion of her thoughts, whom her exalted, ardent, +imaginative, starved Soul had come to love with a consuming +passion, was a living reality near at hand, to be seen in the +flesh by the eyes of her body. It was a thought that set her in +an ecstasy of terror, so that she dared not ask Frey Miguel to +bring Don Sebastian to her. But she plied him with questions, and +so elicited from him a very circumstantial story. + +Sebastian, after his defeat and escape, had made a vow upon the +Holy Sepulchre to lay aside the royal dignity of which he deemed +that he had proved himself unworthy, and to do penance for the +pride that had brought him down, by roaming the world in humble +guise, earning his bread by the labour of his hands and the sweat +of his brow like any common hind, until he should have purged his +offense and rendered himself worthy once more to resume the +estate to which he had been born. + +It was a tale that moved her pity to the point of tears. It +exalted her hero even beyond the eminence he had already held in +her fond dreams, particularly when to that general outline were +added in the days that followed details of the wanderings and +sufferings of the Hidden Prince. At last, some few weeks after +that first startling announcement of his presence, in the early +days of August of that year 1594, Frey Miguel proposed to her the +thing she most desired, yet dared not beg. + +"I have told His Majesty of your attachment to his memory in all +these years in which we thought him dead, and he is deeply +touched. He desires your leave to come and prostrate himself at +your feet." + +She crimsoned from brow to chin, then paled again; her bosom +heaved in tumult. Between dread and yearning she spoke a faint +consent. + +Next day he came, brought by Frey Miguel to the convent parlour, +where her Excellency waited, her two attendant nuns discreetly in +the background. Her eager, frightened eyes beheld a man of middle +height, dignified of mien and carriage, dressed with extreme +simplicity, yet without the shabbiness in which Frey Miguel had +first discovered him. + +His hair was of a light brown--the colour to which the golden +locks of the boy who had sailed for Africa some fifteen years ago +might well have faded--his beard of an auburn tint, and his eyes +were grey. His face was handsome, and save for the colour of his +eyes and the high arch of his nose presented none of the +distinguishing and marring features peculiar to the House of +Austria, from which Don Sebastian derived through his mother. + +Hat in hand, he came forward, and went down on one knee before +her. + +"I am here to receive your Excellency's commands," he said. + +She steadied her shuddering knees and trembling lips. + +"Are you Gabriel de Espinosa, who has come to Madrigal to set up +as a pastry-cook?" she asked him. + +"To serve your Excellency." + +"Then be welcome, though I am sure that the trade you least +understand is that of a pastry-cook." + +The kneeling man bowed his handsome head, and fetched a deep +sigh. + +"If in the past I had better understood another trade, I should +not now be reduced to following this one." + +She urged him now to rise, hereafter the entertainment between +them was very brief on that first occasion. He departed upon a +promise to come soon again, and the undertaking on her side to +procure for his shop the patronage of the convent. + +Thereafter it became his custom to attend the morning Mass +celebrated by Frey Miguel in the convent chapel--which was open +to the public--and afterwards to seek the friar in the sacristy +and accompany him thence to the convent parlour, where the +Princess waited, usually with one or another of her attendant +nuns. These daily interviews were brief at first, but gradually +they lengthened until they came to consume the hours to dinner- +time, and presently even that did not suffice, and Sebastian must +come again later in the day. + +And as the interviews increased and lengthened, so they grew also +in intimacy between the royal pair, and plans for Sebastian's +future came to be discussed. She urged him to proclaim himself. +His penance had been overlong already for what was really no +fault at all, since it is the heart rather than the deed that +Heaven judges, and his heart had been pure, his intention in +making war upon the Infidel loftily pious. Diffidently he +admitted that it might be so, but both he and Frey Miguel were of +opinion that it would be wiser now to await the death of Philip +II., which, considering his years and infirmities, could not be +long delayed. Out of jealousy for his possessions, King Philip +might oppose Sebastian's claims. + +Meanwhile these daily visits of Espinosa's, and the long hours he +spent in Anne's company gave, as was inevitable, rise to scandal, +within and without the convent. She was a nun professed, +interdicted from seeing any man but her confessor other than +through the parlour grating, and even then not at such length or +with such constancy as this. The intimacy between them--fostered +and furthered by Frey Miguel--had so ripened in a few weeks that +Anne was justified in looking upon him as her saviour from the +living tomb to which she had been condemned, in hoping that he +would restore her to the life and liberty for which she had ever +yearned by taking her to Queen when his time came to claim his +own. What if she was a nun professed? Her profession had been +against her will, preceded by only one year of novitiate, and she +was still within the five probationary years prescribed. +Therefore, in her view, her vows were revocable. + +But this was a matter beyond the general consideration or +knowledge, and so the scandal grew. Within the convent there +was none bold enough, considering Anne's royal rank, to offer +remonstrance or advice, particularly too, considering that her +behaviour had the sanction of Frey Miguel, the convent's +spiritual adviser. But from without, from the Provincial of +the Order of St. Augustine, came at last a letter to Anne, +respectfully stern in tone, to inform her that the numerous +visits she received from a pastry-cook were giving rise to talk, +for which it would be wise to cease to give occasion. That +recommendation scorched her proud, sensitive soul with shame. She +sent her servant Roderos at once to fetch Frey Miguel, and placed +the letter in his hands. + +The friar's dark eyes scanned it and grew troubled. + +"It was to have been feared," he said, and sighed. + +"There is but one remedy, lest worse follow and all be ruined. +Don Sebastian must go." + +"Go?" Fear robbed her of breath. "Go where?" + +"Away from Madrigal--anywhere--and at once; tomorrow at latest." +And then, seeing the look of horror in her face, "What else, what +else?" he added, impatiently. "This meddlesome provincial may be +stirring up trouble already." + +She fought down her emotion. "I . . . I shall see him before he +goes?" she begged. + +"I don't know. It may not be wise. I must consider." He flung +away in deepest perturbation, leaving her with a sense that life +was slipping from her. + +That late September evening, as she sat stricken in her room, +hoping against hope for at least another glimpse of him, Dona +Maria de Grado brought word that Espinosa was even then in the +convent in Frey Miguel's cell. Fearful lest he should be smuggled +thence without her seeing him, And careless of the impropriety of +the hour--it was already eight o'clock and dusk was falling--she +at once dispatched Roderos to the friar, bidding him bring +Espinosa to her in the parlour. + +The friar obeyed, and the lovers--they were no less by now--came +face to face in anguish. + +"My lord, my lord," she cried, casting all prudence to the winds, +"what is decided?" + +"That I leave in the morning," he answered. + +"To go where?" She was distraught. + +"Where?" He shrugged. "To Valladolid at first, and then . . . +where God pleases." + +"And when shall I see you again?" + +"When . . . when God pleases." + +"Oh, I am terrified . . . if I should lose you . . . if I should +never see you more!" She was panting, distraught. + +"Nay, lady, nay," he answered. "I shall come for you when the +time is ripe. I shall return by All Saints, or by Christmas at +the latest, and I shall bring with me one who will avouch me." + +"What need any to avouch you to me?" she protested, on a note of +fierceness. "We belong to each other, you and I. But you are free +to roam the world, and I am caged here and helpless. . ." + +"Ah, but I shall free you soon, and we'll go hence together. +See." He stepped to the table. There was an ink-horn, a box of +pounce, some quills, and a sheaf of paper there. He took up a +quill, and wrote with labour, for princes are notoriously poor +scholars: + +"I, Don Sebastian, by the Grace of God King of Portugal, take to +wife the most serene Dona ulna of Austria, daughter of the most +serene Prince, Don John of Austria, by virtue of the disiensation +which I hold from two pontiffs." + +And he signed it--after the manner of the Kings of Portugal in +all ages--"El Rey"--the King. + +"Will that content you, lady?" he pleaded, handing it to her. + +"How shall this scrawl content me?" + +"It is a bond I shall redeem as soon as Heaven will permit." + +Thereafter she fell to weeping, and he to protesting, until Frey +Miguel urged him to depart, as it grew late. And then she forgot +her own grief, and became all solicitude for him, until naught +would content her but she must empty into his hands her little +store of treasure--a hundred ducats and such jewels as she +possessed, including a gold watch set with diamonds and a ring +bearing a cameo portrait of King Philip, and last of all a +portrait of herself, of the size of a playing-card. + +At last, as ten was striking, he was hurried away. Frey Miguel +had gone on his knees to him, and kissed his hand, what time he +had passionately urged him not to linger; and then Sebastian had +done the same by the Princess both weeping now. At last he was +gone, and on the arm of Dona Maria de Grado the forlorn Anne +staggered back to her cell to weep and pray. + +In the days that followed she moved, pale and listless, oppressed +by her sense of loss and desolation, a desolation which at last +she sought to mitigate by writing to him to Valladolid, whither +he had repaired. Of all those letters only two survive. + +"My king and lord," she wrote in one of these, "alas! How we +suffer by absence! I am so filled with the pain of it that if I +did not seek the relief of writing to your Majesty and thus spend +some moments in communion with you, there would be an end to me. +What I feel to-day is what I feel every day when I recall the +happy moments sodeliciously spent, which are no more. This +privation is for me so severe a punishment of heaven that I +should call it unjust, for without cause I find myself deprived +of the happiness missed by me for so many years and purchased at +the price of suffering and tears. Ah, my lord, how willingly, +nevertheless, would I not suffer all over again the misfortunes +that have crushed me if thus I might spare your Majesty the least +of them. May He who rules the world grant my prayers and set a +term to so great an unhappiness, and to the intolerable torment I +suffer through being deprived of the presence of your Majesty. It +were impossible for long to suffer so much pain and live. + +"I belong to you, my lord; you know it already. The troth I +plighted to you I shall keep in life and in death, for death +itself could not tear it from my soul, and this immortal soul +will harbour it through eternity. . ." + +Thus and much more in the same manner wrote the niece of King +Philip of Spain to Gabriel Espinosa, the pastry-cook, in his +Valladolid retreat. How he filled his days we do not know, +beyond the fact that he moved freely abroad. For it was in the +streets of that town that meddlesome Fate brought him face to +face one day with Gregorio Gonzales, under whom Espinosa had been +a scullion once in the service of the Count of Nyeba. + +Gregorio hailed him, staring round-eyed; for although Espinosa's +garments were not in their first freshness they were far from +being those of a plebeian. + +"In whose service may you be now?" quoth the intrigued Gregorio, +so soon as greetings had passed between them. + +Espinosa shook off his momentary embarrassment, and took the hand +of his sometime comrade. "Times are changed, friend Gregorio. I +am not in anybody's service, rather do I require servants +myself." + +"Why, what is your present situation?" + +Loftily Espinosa put him off. "No matter for that," he answered, +with a dignity that forbade further questions. He gathered his +cloak about him to proceed upon his way. "If there is anything +you wish for I shall be happy, for old times' sake, to oblige +you." + +But Gregorio was by no means disposed to part from him. We do not +readily part from an old friend whom we rediscover in an +unsuspected state of affluence. Espinosa must home with Gregorio. +Gregorio's wife would be charmed to renew his acquaintance, and +to hear from his own lips of his improved and prosperous state. +Gregorio would take no refusal, and in the end Espinosa, yielding +to his insistence, went with him to the sordid quarter where +Gregorio had his dwelling. + +About an unclean table of pine, in a squalid room, sat the +three--Espinosa, Gregorio, and Gregorio's wife; but the latter +displayed none of the signs of satisfaction at Espinosa's +prosperity which Gregorio had promised. Perhaps Espinosa observed +her evil envy, and it may have been to nourish it--which is the +surest way to punish envy--that he made Gregorio a magnificent +offer of employment. + +"Enter my service," said he, "and I will pay you fifty ducats +down and four ducats a month." + +Obviously they were incredulous of his affluence. To convince +them he displayed a gold watch--most rare possession--set with +diamonds, a ring of price, and other costly jewels. The couple +stared now with dazzled eyes. + +"But didn't you tell me when we were in Madrid together that you +had been a pastry-cook at Ocana?" burst from Gregorio. + +Espinosa smiled. "How many kings and princes have been compelled +to conceal themselves under disguises?" he asked oracularly. And +seeing them stricken, he must play upon them further. Nothing, it +seems, was sacred to him--not even the portrait of that lovely, +desolate royal lady in her convent at Madrigal. Forth he plucked +it, and thrust it to them across the stains of wine and oil that +befouled their table. + +"Look at this beautiful lady, the most beautiful in Spain," he +bade them. "A prince could not have a lovelier bride." + +"But she is dressed as a nun," the woman protested. "How, then, +can she marry?" + +"For kings there are no laws," he told her with finality. + +At last he departed, but bidding Gregorio to think of the offer +he had made him. He would come again for the cook's reply, +leaving word meanwhile of where he was lodged. + +They deemed him mad, and were disposed to be derisive. Yet the +woman's disbelief was quickened into malevolence by the jealous +fear that what he had told them of himself might, after all, be +true. Upon that malevolence she acted forthwith, lodging an +information with Don Rodrigo de Santillan, the Alcalde of +Valladolid. + +Very late that night Espinosa was roused from his sleep to find +his room invaded by alguaziles--the police of the Alcalde. He was +arrested and dragged before Don Rodrigo to give an account of +himself and of certain objects of value found in his possession-- +more particularly of a ring, on the cameo of which was carved a +portrait of King Philip. + +"I am Gabriel de Espinosa," he answered firmly, "a pastry-cook of +Madrigal." + +"Then how come you by these jewels?" + +"They were given me by Dona Ana of Austria to sell for her +account. That is the business that has brought me to Valladolid." + +"Is this Dona Ana's portrait?" + +"It is." + +"And this lock of hair? Is that also Dona Ana's? And do you, +then, pretend that these were also given you to sell?" + +"Why else should they be given me?" + +Don Rodrigo wondered. They were useless things to steal, and as +for the lock of hair, where should the fellow find a buyer for +that? The Alcalde conned his man more closely, and noted that +dignity of bearing, that calm assurance which usually is founded +upon birth and worth. He sent him to wait in prison, what time he +went to ransack the fellow's house in Madrigal. + +Don Rodrigo was prompt in acting; yet even so his prisoner +mysteriously found means to send a warning that enabled Frey +Miguel to forestall the Alcalde. Before Don Rodrigo's arrival, +the friar had abstracted from Espinosa's house a box of papers +which he reduced to ashes. Unfortunately Espinosa had been +careless. Four letters not confided to the box were discovered by +the alguaziles. Two of them were from Anne--one of which supplies +the extract I have given; the other two from Frey Miguel himself. + +Those letters startled Don Rodrigo de Santillan. He was a shrewd +reasoner and well-informed. He knew how the justice of Castile +was kept on the alert by the persistent plottings of the +Portuguese Pretender, Don Antonio, sometime Prior of Crato. He +was intimate with the past life of Frey Miguel, knew his self- +sacrificing patriotism and passionate devotion to the cause of +Don Antonio, remembered the firm dignity of his prisoner, and +leapt at a justifiable conclusion. The man in his hands--the man +whom the Princess Anne addressed in such passionate terms by the +title of Majesty--was the Prior of Crato. He conceived that he +had stumbled here upon something grave and dangerous. He ordered +the arrest of Frey Miguel, and then proceeded to visit Dona Ana +at the convent. His methods were crafty, and depended upon the +effect of surprise. He opened the interview by holding up +before her one of the letters he had found, asking her if she +acknowledged it for her own. + +She stared a moment panic-stricken; then snatched it from his +hands, tore it across, and would have torn again, but that he +caught her wrists in a grip of iron to prevent her, with little +regard in that moment for the blood royal in her veins. King +Philip was a stern master, pitiless to blunderers, and Don +Rodrigo knew he never would be forgiven did he suffer that +precious letter to be destroyed. + +Overpowered in body and in spirit, she surrendered the fragments +and confessed the letter her own. + +"What is the real name of this man, who calls himself a pastry- +cook, and to whom you write in such terms as these?" quoth the +magistrate. + +"He is Don Sebastian, King of Portugal." And to that declaration +she added briefly the story of his escape from Alcacer-el-Kebir +and subsequent penitential wanderings. + +Don Rodrigo departed, not knowing what to think or believe, but +convinced that it was time he laid the whole matter before King +Philip. His Catholic Majesty was deeply perturbed. He at once +dispatched Don Juan de Llano, the Apostolic Commissary of the +Holy Office to Madrigal to sift the matter, and ordered that Anne +should be solitarily confined in her cell, and her nuns-in- +waiting and servants placed under arrest. + +Espinosa, for greater security, was sent from Valladolid to the +prison of Medina del Campo. He was taken thither in a coach with +an escort of arquebusiers. + +"Why convey a poor pastry-cook with so much honour?" he asked his +guards, half-mockingly. + +Within the coach he was accompanied by a soldier named Cervatos, +a travelled man, who fell into talk with him, and discovered that +he spoke both French and German fluently. But when Cervatos +addressed him in Portuguese the prisoner seemed confused, and +replied that although he had been in Portugal, he could not speak +the language. + +Thereafter, throughout that winter, examinations of the three +chief prisoners--Espinosa, Frey Miguel, and the Princess Anne-- +succeeded one another with a wearisome monotony of results. The +Apostolic Commissary interrogated the princess and Frey Miguel; +Don Rodrigo conducted the examinations of Espinosa. But nothing +was elicited that took the matter forward or tended to dispel its +mystery. + +The princess replied with a candour that became more and more +tinged with indignation under the persistent and at times +insulting interrogatories. She insisted that the prisoner was Don +Sebastian, and wrote passionate letters to Espinosa, begging him +for her honour's sake to proclaim himself what he really was, +declaring to him that the time had come to cast off all disguise. + +Yet the prisoner, unmoved by these appeals, persisted that he was +Gabriel de Espinosa, a pastry-cook. But the man's bearing, and +the air of mystery cloaking him, seemed in themselves to belie +that asseveration. That he could not be the Prior of Crato, Don +Rodrigo had now assured himself. He fenced skilfully under +exurnination, ever evading the magistrate's practiced point when +it sought to pin him, and he was no less careful to say nothing +that should incriminate either of the other two prisoners. He +denied that he had ever given himself out to be Don Sebastian, +though he admitted that Frey Miguel and the princess had +persuaded themselves that he was that lost prince. + +He pleaded ignorance when asked who were his parents, stating +that he had never known either of them--an answer this which +would have fitted the case of Don Sebastian, who was born after +his father's death, and quitted in early infancy by his mother. + +As for Frey Miguel, he stated boldly under examination the conviction +that Don Sebastian had survived the African expedition, and the +belief that Espinosa might well be the missing monarch. He +protested that he had acted in good faith throughout, and without +any thought of disloyalty to the King of Spain. + +Late one night, after he had been some three months in prison, +Espinosa was roused from sleep by an unexpected visit from the +Alcalde. At once he would have risen and dressed. + +"Nay," said Don Rodrigo, restraining him, "that is not necessary +for what is intended." + +It was a dark phrase which the prisoner, sitting up in bed with +tousled hair, and blinking in the light of the torches, instantly +interpreted into a threat of torture. His face grew white. + +"It is impossible," he protested. "The King cannot have ordered +what you suggest. His Majesty will take into account that I am a +man of honour. He may require my death, but in an honourable +manner, and not upon the rack. And as for its being used to make +me speak, I have nothing to add to what I have said already." + +The stern, dark face of the Alcalde was overspread by a grim +smile. + +"I would have you remark that you fall into contradictions. +Sometimes you pretend to be of humble and lowly origin, and +sometimes a person of honourable degree. To hear you at this +moment one might suppose that to submit you to torture would be +to outrage your dignity. What then . . ." + +Don Rodrigo broke off suddenly to stare, then snatched a torch +from the hand of his alguaziles and held it close to the face of +the prisoner, who cowered now, knowing full well what it was the +Alcalde had detected. In that strong light Don Rodrigo saw that +the prisoner's hair and beard had turned grey at the roots, and +so received the last proof that he had to do with the basest of +impostures. The fellow had been using dyes, the supply of which +had been cut short by his imprisonment. Don Rodrigo departed +well-satisfied with the results of that surprise visit. + +Thereafter Espinosa immediately shaved himself. But it was too +late, and even so, before many weeks were past his hair had faded +to its natural grey, and he presented the appearance of what in +fact he was--a man of sixty, or thereabouts. + +Yet the torture to which he was presently submitted drew nothing from +him that could explain all that yet remained obscure. It was from +Frey Miguel, after a thousand prevarications and tergiversations, +that the full truth--known to himself alone--was extracted by the +rack. + +He confessed that, inspired by the love of country and the ardent +desire to liberate Portugal from the Spanish yoke, he had never +abandoned the hope of achieving this, and of placing Don Antonio, +the Prior of Crato, on the throne of his ancestors. He had +devised a plan, primarily inspired by the ardent nature of the +Princess Anne and her impatience of the conventual life. It was +while casting about for the chief instrument that he fortuitously +met Espinosa in the streets of Madrigal. Espinosa had been a +soldier, and had seen the world. During the war between Spain and +Portugal he had served in the armies of King Philip, had +befriended Frey Miguel when the friar's convent was on the point +of being invaded by soldiery, and had rescued him from the peril +of it. Thus they had become acquainted, and Frey Miguel had had +an instance of the man's resource and courage. Further, he was of +the height of Don Sebastian and of the build to which the king +might have grown in the years that were sped, and he presented +other superficial resemblances to the late king. The colour of +his hair and beard could be corrected; and he might be made to +play the part of the Hidden Prince for whose return Portugal was +waiting so passionately and confidently. There had been other +impostors aforetime, but they had lacked the endowments of +Espinosa, and their origins could be traced without difficulty. +In addition to these natural endowments, Espinosa should be +avouched by Frey Miguel than whom nobody in the world was better +qualified in such a matter--and by the niece of King Philip, to +whom he would be married when he raised his standard. It was +arranged that the three should go to Paris so soon as the +arrangements were complete, where the Pretender would be +accredited by the exiled friends of Don Antonio residing there-- +the Prior of Crato being a party to the plot. From France Frey +Miguel would have worked in Portugal through his agents, and +presently would have gone there himself to stir up a national +movement in favour of a pretender so fully accredited. Thus he +had every hope of restoring Portugal to her independence. Once +this should have been accomplished, Don Antonio would appear in +Lisbon, unmask the impostor, and himself assume the crown of the +kingdom which had been forcibly and definitely wrenched from +Spain. + +That was the crafty plan which the priest had laid with a +singleness of aim and a detachment from minor considerations that +never hesitated to sacrifice the princess, together with the +chief instrument of the intrigue. Was the liberation of a +kingdom, the deliverance of a nation from servitude, the +happiness of a whole people, to weigh in the balance against the +fates of a natural daughter of Don John of Austria and a soldier +of fortune turned pastry-cook? Frey Miguel thought not, and his +plot might well have succeeded but for the base strain in +Espinosa and the man's overweening vanity, which had urged him to +dazzle the Gonzales at Valladolid. That vanity sustained him to +the end, which he suffered in October of 1595, a full year after +his arrest. To the last he avoided admissions that should throw +light upon his obscure identity and origin. + +"If it were known who I am . . ." he would say, and there break +off. + +He was hanged, drawn and quartered, and he endured his fate with +calm fortitude. Frey Miguel suffered in the same way with the +like dignity, after having undergone degradation from his +priestly dignity. + +As for the unfortunate Princess Anne, crushed under a load of +shame and humiliation, she had gone to her punishment in the +previous July. The Apostolic Commissary notified her of the +sentence which King Philip had confirmed. She was to be +transferred to another convent, there to undergo a term of four +years' solitary confinement in her cell, and to fast on bread and +water every Friday. She was pronounced incapable of ever holding +any office, and was to be treated on the expiry of her term as an +ordinary nun, her civil list abolished, her title of Excellency +to be extinguished, together with all other honours and +privileges conferred upon her by King Philip. + +The piteous letters of supplication that she addressed to the +King, her uncle, still exist. But they left the cold, implacable +Philip of Spain unmoved. Her only sin was that, yielding to the +hunger of her starved heart, and chafingunder the ascetic life +imposed upon her, she had allowed herself to be fascinated by the +prospect of becoming the protectress of one whom she believed to +be an unfortunate and romantic prince, and of exchanging her +convent for a throne. + +Her punishment--poor soul--endured for close upon forty years, +but the most terrible part of it was not that which lay within +the prescription of King Philip, but that which arose from her +own broken and humiliated spirit. She had been uplifted a moment +by a glorious hope, to be cast down again into the blackest +despair, to which a shame unspeakable and a tortured pride were +added. + +Than hers, as I have said, there is in history no sadder story. + + + + + +V. THE END OF THE "VERT GALANT" + +The Assassination of Henry IV + + + +In the year 1609 died the last Duke of Cleves, and King Henry IV. +of France and Navarre fell in love with Charlotte de Montmorency. + +In their conjunction these two events were to influence the +destinies of Europe. In themselves they were trivial enough, +since it was as much a commonplace that an old gentleman should +die as that Henry of Bearn should fall in love. Love had been the +main relaxation of his otherwise strenuous life, and neither the +advancing years--he was fifty-six at this date--nor the +recriminations of Maria de' Medici, his long-suffering Florentine +wife, sufficed to curb his zest. + +Possibly there may have been a husband more unfaithful than King +Henry; probably there was not. His gallantries were outrageous, +his taste in women catholic, and his illegitimate progeny +outnumbered that of his grandson, the English sultan Charles II. +He differs, however, from the latter in that he was not quite as +Oriental in the manner of his self-indulgence. Charles, by +comparison, was a mere dullard who turned Whitehall into a +seraglio. Henry preferred the romantic manner, the high +adventure, and knew how to be gallant in two senses. + +This gallantry of his is not, perhaps, seen to best advantage in +the affair of Charlotte de Montmorency To begin with he was, as I +have said, in his fifty-sixth year, an age at which it is +difficult, without being ridiculous, to unbridle a passion for a +girl of twenty. Unfortunately for him, Charlotte does not appear +to have found him so. On the contrary, her lovely, empty head was +so turned by the flattery of his addresses, that she came to +reciprocate the passion she inspired. + +Her family had proposed to marry her to the gay and witty Marshal +de Bassompierre; and although his heart was not at all engaged, +the marshal found the match extremely suitable, and was willing +enough, until the King declared himself. Henry used the most +impudent frankness. + +"Bassompierre, I will speak to you as a friend," said he. "I am in +love, and desperately in love, with Mademoiselle de Montmorency. +If you should marry her I should hate you. If she should love me +you would hate me. A breach of our friendship would desolate me, +for I love you with sincere affection." + +That was enough for Bassompierre. He had no mind to go further +with a marriage of convenience which in the sequel would most +probably give him to choose between assuming the ridiculous role +of a complacent husband and being involved in a feud with his +prince. He said as much, and thanked the King for his frankness, +whereupon Henry, liking him more than ever for his good sense, +further opened his mind to him. + +"I am thinking of marrying her to my nephew, Conde. Thus I shall +have her in my family to be the comfort of my old age, which is +coming on. Conde, who thinks of nothing but hunting, shall have a +hundred thousand livres a year with which to amuse himself." + +Bassompierre understood perfectly the kind of bargain that was in +Henry's mind. As for the Prince de Conde, he appears to have been +less acute, no doubt because his vision was dazzled by the +prospect of a hundred thousand livres a year. So desperately poor +was he that for half that sum he would have taken Lucifer's own +daughter to wife, without stopping to consider the disadvantages +it might entail. + +The marriage was quietly celebrated at Chantilly in February of +1609. Trouble followed fast. Not only did Conde perceive at last +precisely what was expected of him, and indignantly rebel against +it, but the Queen, too, was carefully instructed in the matter by +Concino Concini and his wife Leonora Galigai, the ambitious +adventurers who had come from Florence in her train, and who saw +in the King's weakness their own opportunity. + +The scandal that ensued was appalling. Never before had the +relations between Henry and his queen been strained so nearly to +breaking-point. And then, whilst the trouble of Henry's own +making was growing about him until it threatened to overwhelm +him, he received a letter from Vaucelas, his ambassador at +Madrid, containing revelations that changed his annoyance into +stark apprehension. + +When the last Duke of Cleves died a few months before, "leaving +all the world his heirs"--to use Henry's own phrase--the Emperor +had stepped in, and over-riding the rights of certain German +princes had bestowed the fief upon his own nephew, the Archduke +Leopold. Now this was an arrangement that did not suit Henry's +policy at all, and being then--as the result of a wise husbanding +of resources--the most powerful prince in Europe, Henry was not +likely to submit tamely to arrangements that did not suit him. +His instructions to Vaucelas were to keep open the difference +between France and the House of Austria arising out of this +matter of Cleves. All Europe knew that Henry desired to marry the +Dauphin to the heiress of Lorraine, so that this State might one +day be united with France; and it was partly to support this +claim that he was now disposed to attach the German princes to +his interests. + +Yet what Vaucelas told him in that letter was that certain agents +at the court of Spain, chief among whom was the Florentine +ambassador, acting upon instructions from certain members of the +household of the Queen of France, and from others whom Vaucelas +said he dared not mention, were intriguing to blast Henry's +designs against the house of Austria, and to bring him willy- +nilly into a union with Spain. These agents had gone so far in +their utter disregard of Henry's own intentions as to propose to +the Council of Madrid that the alliance should be cemented by a +marriage between the Dauphin and the Infanta. + +That letter sent Henry early one morning hot-foot to the Arsenal, +where Sully, his Minister of State, had his residence. Maximilien +de Bethune, Duke of Sully, was not merely the King's servant, he +was his closest friend, the very keeper of his soul; and the King +leaned upon him and sought his guidance not only in State affairs, +but in the most intimate and domestic matters. Often already had +it fallen to Sully to patch up the differences created between +husband and wife by Henry's persistent infidelities. + +The King, arriving like the whirlwind, turned everybody out of +the closet in which the duke--but newly risen--received him in +bed-gown and night-cap. Alone with his minister, Henry came +abruptly to the matter. + +"You have heard what is being said of me?" he burst out. He stood +with his back to the window, a sturdy, erect, soldierly figure, a +little above the middle height, dressed like a captain of fortune +in jerkin and long boots of grey leather, and a grey hat with a +wine-coloured ostrich plume. His countenance matched his raiment. +Keeneyed, broad of brow, with a high-bridged, pendulous nose, red +lips, a tuft of beard and a pair of grizzled, bristling +moustachios, he looked half-hero, half-satyr; half-Captain, half- +Polichinelle. + +Sully, tall and broad, the incarnation of respectability and +dignity, despite bed-gown and slippers and the nightcap covering +his high, bald crown, made no presence of misunderstanding him. + +"Of you and the Princesse de Conde, you mean, sire?" quoth he, +and gravely he shook his head. "It is a matter that has filled me +with apprehension, for I foresee from it far greater trouble than +from any former attachment of yours." + +"So they have convinced you, too, Grand-Master?" Henry's tone was +almost sorrowful. "Yet I swear that all is greatly exaggerated. +It is the work of that dog Concini. Ventre St. Gris! If he has no +respect for me, at least he might consider how he slanders a +child of such grace and wit and beauty, a lady of her high birth +and noble lineage." + +There was a dangerous quiver of emotion in his voice that was not +missed by the keen ears of Sully. Henry moved from the window, +and flung into a chair. + +"Concini works to enrage the Queen against me, and to drive her +to take violent resolutions which might give colour to their +pernicious designs." + +"Sire!" It was a cry of protest from Sully. + +Henry laughed grimly at his minister's incredulity, and plucked +forth the letter from Vaucelas. + +"Read that." + +Sully read, and, aghast at what the letter told him, ejaculated: +"They must be mad!" + +"Oh, no," said the King. "They are not mad. They are most wickedly +sane, which is why their designs fill me with apprehension. What +do you infer, Grand-Master, from such deliberate plots against +resolutions from which they know that nothing can turn me while +I have life?" + +"What can I infer?" quoth Sully, aghast. + +"In acting thus--in daring to act thus," the King expounded, +"they proceed as if they knew that I can have but a short time to +live." + +"Sire!" + +"What else? They plan events which cannot take place until I am +dead." + +Sully stared at his master for a long moment, in stupefied +silence, his loyal Huguenot soul refusing to discount by flattery +the truth that he perceived. + +"Sire," he said at last, bowing his fine head, "you must take +your measures." + +"Ay, but against whom? Who are these that Vaucelas says he dare +not name? Can you suggest another than . . ." He paused, +shrinking in horror from completing the utterance of his thought. +Then, with an abrupt gesture, he went on, ". . . than the Queen +herself?" + +Sully quietly placed the letter on the table, and sat down. He +took his chin in his hand and looked squarely across at Henry. + +"Sire, you have brought this upon yourself. You have exasperated +her Majesty; you have driven her in despair to seek and act upon +the councils of this scoundrel Concini. There never was an +attachment of yours that did not beget trouble with the Queen, +but never such trouble as I have been foreseeing from your +attachment to the Princess of Conde. Sire, will you not consider +where you stand?" + +"They are lies, I tell you," Henry stormed. But Sully the +uncompromising gravely shook his head. "At least," Henry amended, +"they are gross exaggerations. Oh, I confess to you, my friend, +that I am sick with love of her. Day and night I see nothing but +her gracious image. I sigh and fret and fume like any callow lad +of twenty. I suffer the tortures of the damned. And yet . . . and +yet, I swear to you, Sully, that I will curb this passion though +it kill me. I will stifle these fires, though they consume my +soul to ashes. No harm shall come to her from me. No harm has +come yet. I swear it. These stories that are put about are the +inventions of Concini to set my wife against me. Do you know how +far he and his wife have dared to go? They have persuaded the +Queen to eat nothing that is not prepared in the kitchen they +have set up for her in their own apartments. What can you +conclude from that but that they suggest that I desire to poison +her?" + +"Why suffer it, sire?" quoth Sully gravely. "Send the pair +packing back to Florence, and so be rid of them." + +Henry rose in agitation. "I have a mind to. Ventre St. Gris! I +have a mind to. Yes, it is the only thing. You can manage it, +Sully. Disabuse her mind of her Suspicions regarding the Princess +of Conde; make my peace with her; convince her of my sincerity, +of my firm intention to have done with gallantry, so that she on +her side will make me the sacrifice of banishing the Concinis. +You will do this, my friend?" + +It was no less than Sully had been expecting from past +experience, and the task was one in which he was by now well- +practiced; but the situation had never before been quite so +difficult. He rose. + +"Why, surely, sire," said he. "But her Majesty on her side may +require something more to reconcile her to the sacrifice. She may +reopen the question of her coronation so long and--in her view-- +so unreasonably postponed." + +Henry's face grew overcast, his brows knit. "I have always had an +instinct against it, as you know, Grand Master," said he, "and +this instinct is strengthened by what that letter has taught me. +If she will dare so much, having so little real power, what might +she not do if . . ." He broke off, and fell to musing. "If she +demands it we must yield, I suppose," he said at length. "But +give her to understand that if I discover any more of her designs +with Spain I shall be provoked to the last degree against her. +And as an antidote to these machinations at Madrid you may +publish my intention to uphold the claims of the German Princes +in the matter of Cleves, and let all the world know that we are +arming to that end." + +He may have thought--as was long afterwards alleged--that the +threat itself should be sufficient, for there was at that time no +power in Europe that could have stood against his armies in the +field. + +On that they parted, with a final injunction from Sully that +Henry should see the Princesse de Conde no more. + +"I swear to you, Grand Master, that I will use restraint and +respect the sacred tie I formed between my nephew and Charlotte +solely so that I might impose silence upon my own passion." + +And the good Sully writes in comment upon this: "I should have +relied absolutely upon these assurances had I not known how easy +it is for a heart tender and passionate as was his to deceive +itself"--which is the most amiable conceivable way of saying that +he attached not the slightest faith to the King's promise. + +Nevertheless he went about the task of making the peace between +the royal couple with all the skill and tact that experience had +taught him; and he might have driven a good bargain on his +master's behalf but for his master's own weakness in supporting +him. Maria de' Medici would not hear of the banishment of the +Concinis, to whom she was so deeply attached. She insisted with +perfect justice that she was a bitterly injured woman, and +refused to entertain any idea of reconciliation save with the +condition that arrangements for her coronation as Queen of +France--which was no more than her due--should be made at once, +and that the King should give an undertaking not to make himself +ridiculous any longer by his pursuit of the Princess of Conde. Of +the matters contained in the letter of Vaucelas she denied all +knowledge, nor would suffer any further inquisition. + +From Henry's point of view this was anything but satisfactory. +But he yielded. Conscience made a coward of him. He had wronged +her so much in one way that he must make some compensating +concessions to her in another. This weakness was part of his +mental attitude towards her, which swung constantly between +confidence and diffidence, esteem and indifference, affection and +coldness; at times he inclined to put her from him entirely; at +others he opined that no one on his Council was more capable of +the administration of affairs. Even in the indignation aroused +by the proof he held of her disloyalty, he was too just not to +admit the provocation he had given her. So he submitted to a +reconciliation on her own terms, and pledged himself to renounce +Charlotte. We have no right to assume from the sequel that he was +not sincere in the intention. + +By the following May events proved the accuracy of Sully's +judgment. The court was at Fontainebleau when the last bulwark of +Henry's prudence was battered down by the vanity of that lovely +fool, Charlotte, who must be encouraging her royal lover to +resume his flattering homage. But both appear to have reckoned +without the lady's husband. + +Henry presented Charlotte with jewels to the value of eighteen +thousand livres, purchased from Messier, the jeweller of the Pont +au Change; and you conceive what the charitable ladies of the +Court had to say about it. At the first hint of scandal Monsieur +de Conde put himself into a fine heat, and said things which +pained and annoyed the King exceedingly. Henry had amassed a +considerable and varied experience of jealous husbands in his +time; but he had never met one quite so intolerable as this +nephew of his. He complained of it in a letter to Sully. + +"My friend,--Monsieur the Prince is here, but he acts like a man +possessed. You will be angry and ashamed at the things he says of +me. I shall end by losing all patience with him. In the meanwhile +I am obliged to taut to him with severity." + +More severe than any talk was Henry's instruction to Sully to +withhold payment of the last quarter of the prince's allowance, +and to give refusals to his creditors and purveyors. Thus he +intended also, no doubt, to make it clear to Conde that he did +not receive a pension of a hundred thousand livres a year for +nothing. + +"If this does not keep him in bounds," Henry concluded, "we must +think of some other method, for he says the most injurious things +of me." + +So little did it keep the prince in bounds--as Henry understood +the phrase--that he immediately packed his belongings, and +carried his wife off to his country house. It was quite in vain +that Henry wrote to him representing that this conduct was +dishonouring to them both, and that the only place for a prince +of the blood was the court of his sovereign. + +The end of it all was that the reckless and romantic Henry took +to night-prowling about the grounds of Conde's chateau. In the +disguise of a peasant you see his Majesty of France and Navarre, +whose will was law in Europe, shivering behind damp hedges, +ankle-deep in wet grass, spending long hours in love-lore, +ecstatic contemplation of her lighted window, and all--so far as +we can gather--for no other result than the aggravation of +certain rheumatic troubles which should have reminded him that he +was no longer of an age to pursue these amorous pernoctations. + +But where his stiffening joints failed, the Queen succeeded. +Henry had been spied upon, of course, as he always was when he +strayed from the path of matrimonial rectitude. The Concinis saw +to that. And when they judged the season ripe, they put her +Majesty in possession of the facts. So inflamed was she by this +fresh breach of trust that war was declared anew between the +royal couple, and the best that Sully's wit and labours could now +accomplish was a sort of armed truce. + +And then at last in the following November the Prince de Conde +took the desperate resolve of quitting France with his wife, +without troubling--as was his duty--to obtain the King's consent. +On the last night of that month, as Henry was at cards in the +Louvre, the Chevalier du Guet brought him the news of the +prince's flight. + +"I never in my life," says Bassompierre, who was present, "saw a +man so distracted or in so violent a passion." + +He flung down his cards, and rose, sending his chair crashing +over behind him. "I am undone!" was his cry. "Undone! This madman +has carried off his wife--perhaps to kill her." White and +shaking, he turned to Bassompierre. "Take care of my money," he +bade him, "and go on with the game." + +He lurched out of the room, and dispatched a messenger to the +Arsenal to fetch M. de Sully. Sully obeyed the summons and came +at once, but in an extremely bad temper, for it was late at +night, and he was overburdened with work. + +He found the King in the Queen's chamber, walking backward and +forward, his head sunk upon his breast, his hands clenched behind +him. The Queen, a squarely-built, square-faced woman, sat apart, +attended by a few of her ladies and one or two gentlemen of her +train. Her countenance was set and inscrutable, and her brooding +eyes were fixed upon the King. + +"Ha, Grand Master!" was Henry's greeting, his voice harsh and +strained. "What do you say to this? What is to be done now?" + +"Nothing at all, sire," says Sully, as calm as his master was +excited. + +"Nothing! What sort of advice is that?" + +"The best advice that you can follow, sire. This affair should be +talked of as little as possible, nor should it appear to be of +any consequence to you, or capable of giving you the least +uneasiness." + +The Queen cleared her throat huskily. "Good advice, Monsieur le +Duc," she approved him. "He will be wise to follow it." Her voice +strained, almost threatening. "But in this matter I doubt wisdom +and he have long since become strangers." + +That put him in a passion, and in a passion he left her to do the +maddest thing he had ever done. In the garb of a courier, and +with a patch over one eye to complete his disguise, he set out in +pursuit of the fugitives. He had learnt that they had taken the +road to Landrecy, which was enough for him. Stage by stage he +followed them in that flight to Flanders, picking up the trail as +he went, and never pausing until he had reached the frontier +without overtaking them. + +It was all most romantic, and the lady, when she learnt of it, +shed tears of mingled joy and rage, and wrote him impassioned +letters in which she addressed him as her knight, and implored +him, as he loved her, to come and deliver her from the detestable +tyrant who held her in thrall. Those perfervid appeals completed +his undoing, drove him mad, and blinded him to everything--even +to the fact that his wife, too, was shedding tears, and that +these were of rage undiluted by any more tender emotion. + +He began by sending Praslin to require the Archduke to order the +Prince of Conde to leave his dominions. And when the Archduke +declined with dignity to be guilty of any such breach of the law +of nations, Henry dispatched Cccuvres secretly to Brussels to +carry off thence the princess. But Maria de' Medici was on the +alert, anti frustrated the design by sending a warning of what +was intended to the Marquis Spinola, as a result of which the +Prince de Conde and his wife were housed for greater security in +the Archduke's own palace. + +Checkmated at all points, yet goaded further by the letters which +he continued to receive from that most foolish of princesses, +Henry took the wild decision that to obtain her he would invade +the Low Countries as the first step in the execution of that +design of a war with Spain which hitherto had been little more +than a presence. The matter of the Duchy of Cleves was a pretext +ready to his hand. To obtain the woman he desired he would set +Europe in a blaze. + +He took that monstrous resolve at the very beginning of the +new year, and in the months that followed France rang with +preparations. It rang, too, with other things which should have +given him pause. It rang with the voice of preachers giving +expression to the popular vied; that Cleves was not worth +fighting for, that the war was unrighteous--a war undertaken by +Catholic France to defend Protestant interests against the very +champions of Catholicism in Europe. And soon it began to ring, +tool with prophecies of the King's approaching end. + +These prognostics rained upon him from every quarter. Thomassin, +and the astrologer La Brosse, warned him of a message from the +stars that May would be fraught with danger for him. From Rome-- +from the very pope himself Came notice of a conspiracy against +him in which he was told that the very highest in the land +were engaged. From Embrun, Bayonne, and Douai came messages of +like purport, and early in May a note was found one morning on +the altar of the church of Montargis announcing the King's +approaching death. + +But that is to anticipate. Meanwhile, Henry had pursued his +preparations undeterred by either warnings or prognostications. +There had been so many conspiracies against his life already that +he was become careless and indifferent in such matters. Yet +surely there never had been one that was so abundantly heralded +from every quarter, or ever one that was hatched under conditions +so propitious as those which he had himself created now. In his +soul he was not at ease, and the source of his uneasiness was the +coronation of the Queen, for which the preparations were now +going forward. + +He must have known that if danger of assassination threatened him +from any quarter it was most to be feared from those whose +influence with the Queen was almost such as to give them a +control over her--the Concinis and their unavowed but obvious +ally the Duke of Epernon. If he were dead, and the Queen so left +that she could be made absolute regent during the Dauphin's +minority, it was those adventurers who would become through her +the true rulers of France, and so enrich themselves and gratify +to the full their covetous ambitions. He saw clearly that his +safety lay in opposing this coronation--already fixed for the +13th May--which Maria de' Medici was so insistent should take +place before his departure for the wars. The matter so preyed +upon his mind that last he unburdened himself to Sully one day at +the Arsenal. + +"Oh, my friend," he cried, "this coronation does not please me. +My heart tells me that some fatality will follow." + +He sat down, grasping the case of his reading-glass, whilst Sully +could only stare at him amazed by this out-burst. Thus he remained +awhile in deep thought. Then he started up again. + +"Pardieu!" he cried. "I shall be murdered in this city. It is +their only resource. I see it plainly. This cursed coronation +will be the cause of my death." + +"What a thought, sir!" + +"You think that I have been reading the almanach or paying heed +to the prophets, eh? But listen to me now, Grand Master." And +wrinkles deepened about the bold, piercing eyes. "It is four +months and more since we announced our intention of going to war, +and France has resounded with our preparations. We have made no +secret of it. Yet in Spain not a finger has been lifted in +preparation to resist us, not a sword has been sharpened. Upon +what does Spain build? Whence her confidence that in despite of +my firm resolve and my abundant preparations, despite the fact +announced that I am to march on the lath of this month, despite +the fact that my troops are already in Champagne with a train of +artillery so complete and well-furnished that France has never +seen the like of it, and perhaps never will again--whence the +confidence that despite all this there is no need to prepare +defences? Upon what do they build, I say, when they assume, as +assume they must, that there will be no war? Resolve me that, +Grand Master." + +But Sully, overwhelmed, could only gasp and ejaculate. + +"You had not thought of it, eh? Yet it is clear enough Spain +builds on my death. And who are the friends of Spain here in +France? Who was it intrigued with Spain in such a way and to +such ends as in my lifetime could never have been carried to an +issue? Ha! You see." + +"I cannot, sire. It is too horrible. It is impossible!" cried +that loyal, honest gentleman. "And yet if you are convinced of +it, you should break off this coronation, your journey, and your +war. If you wish it so, it is not difficult to satisfy you." + +"Ay, that is it." He came to his feet, and gripped the duke's +shoulder in his strong, nervous hand. "Break off this coronation, +and never let me hear of it again. That will suffice. Thus I can +rid my mind of apprehensions, and leave Paris with nothing to +fear." + +"Very well. I will send at once to Notre Dame and to St. Denis, +to stop the preparations and dismiss the workmen." + +"Ah, wait." The eyes that for a moment had sparkled with new +hope, grew dull again; the lines of care descended between the +brows. "Oh, what to decide! What to decide! It is what I wish, my +friend. But how will my wife take it?" + +"Let her take it as she will. I cannot believe that she will +continue obstinate when she knows what apprehensions you have of +disaster." + +"Perhaps not, perhaps not," he answered. But his tone was not +sanguine. "Try to persuade her, Sully. Without her consent I +cannot do this thing. But you will know how to persuade her. Go +to her." + +Sully suspended the preparations for the coronation, and sought +the Queen. For three days, he tells us, he used prayers, entreaties, +and arguments with which to endeavour to move her. But all was +labour lost. Maria de' Medici was not to be moved. To all Sully's +arguments she opposed an argument that was unanswerable. + +Unless she were crowned Queen of France, as was her absolute +right, she would be a person of no account and subject to the +Council of Regency during the King's absence, a position unworthy +and intolerable to her, the mother of the Dauphin. + +And so it was Henry's part to yield. His hands were tied by the +wrongs that he had done, and the culminating wrong that he was +doing her by this very war, as he had himself openly acknowledged. +He had chanced one day to ask the Papal Nuncio what Rome thought +of this war. + +"Those who have the best information," the Nuncio answered +boldly, "are of opinion that the principal object of the war is +the Princess of Conde, whom your Majesty wishes to bring back to +France." + +Angered by this priestly insolence, Henry's answer had been an +impudently defiant acknowledgment of the truth of that allegation. + +"Yes, by God!" he cried. "Yes--most certainly I want to have her +back, and I will have her back; no one shall hinder me, not even +God's viceregent on earth." + +Having uttered those words, which he knew to have been carried to +the Queen, and to have wounded her perhaps more deeply than +anything that had yet happened in this affair, his conscience +left him, despite his fears, powerless now to thwart her even to +the extent of removing those pernicious familiars of hers of +whose plottings he had all but positive evidence. + +And so the coronation was at last performed with proper pomp and +magnificence at St. Denis on Thursday, the 13th May. It had been +concerted that the festivities should last four days and conclude +on the Sunday with the Queen's public entry into Paris. On the +Monday the King was to set out to take command of his armies, +which were already marching upon the frontiers. + +Thus Henry proposed, but the Queen--convinced by his own +admission of the real aim and object of the war, and driven by +outraged pride to hate the man who offered her this crowning +insult, and determined that at all costs it must be thwarted--had +lent an ear to Concini's purpose to avenge her, and was ready to +repay infidelity with infidelity. Concini and his fellow- +conspirators had gone to work so confidently that a week before +the coronation a courier had appeared in Liege, announcing that +he was going with news of Henry's assassination to the Princes of +Germany, whilst at the same time accounts of the King's death +were being published in France and Italy. + +Meanwhile, whatever inward misgivings Henry may have entertained, +outwardly at least he appeared serene and good-humoured at his +wife's coronation, gaily greeting her at the end of the ceremony +by the title of "Madam Regent." + +The little incident may have touched her, arousing her conscience. +For that night she disturbed his slumbers by sudden screams, and +when he sprang up in solicitous alarm she falteringly told him +of a dream in which she had seen him slain, and fell to imploring +him with a tenderness such as had been utterly foreign to her of +late to take great care of himself in the days to come. In the +morning she renewed those entreaties, beseeching him not to leave +the Louvre that day, urging that she had a premonition it would +be fatal to him. + +He laughed for answer. "You have heard of the predictions of La +Brosse," said he. "Bah! You should not attach credit to such +nonsense." + +Anon came the Duke of Vendome, his natural son by the Marquise de +Verneuil, with a like warning and a like entreaty, only to +receive a like answer. + +Being dull and indisposed as a consequence of last night's broken +rest, Henry lay down after dinner. But finding sleep denied him, +he rose, pensive and gloomy, and wandered aimlessly down, and out +into the courtyard. There an exempt of the guard, of whom he +casually asked the time, observing the King's pallor and +listlessness, took the liberty of suggesting that his Majesty +might benefit if he took the air. + +That chance remark decided Henry's fate. His eyes quickened +responsively. "You advise well," said he. "Order my coach. I will +go to the Arsenal to see the Duc de Sully, who is indisposed." + +On the stones beyond the gates, where lackeys were wont to await +their masters, sat a lean fellow of some thirty years of age, in +a dingy, clerkly attire, so repulsively evil of countenance that +he had once been arrested on no better grounds than because it +was deemed impossible that a man with such a face could be other +than a villain. + +Whilst the coach was being got ready, Henry re-entered the +Louvre, and startled the Queen by announcing his intention. With +fearful insistence she besought him to countermand the order, and +not to leave the palace. + +"I will but go there and back," he said, laughing at her fears. +"I shall have returned before you realize that I have gone." And +so he went, never to return alive. + +He sat at the back of the coach, and the weather being fine all +the curtains were drawn up so that he might view the decorations +of the city against the Queen's public entry on Sunday. The Duc +d'Epernon was on his right, the Duc de Montbazon and the Marquis +de la Force on his left. Lavordin and Roquelaure were in the +right boot, whilst near the left boot, opposite to Henry, sat +Mirebeau and du Plessis Liancourt. He was attended only by a +small number of gentlemen on horseback, and some footmen. + +The coach turned from the Rue St. Honore into the narrow Rue de +la Ferronerie, and there was brought to a halt by a block +occasioned by the meeting of two carts, one laden with hay, the +other with wine. The footmen went ahead with the exception of +two. Of these, one advanced to clear a way for the royal vehicle, +whilst the other took the opportunity to fasten his garter. + +At that moment, gliding like a shadow between the coach and the +shops, came that shabby, hideous fellow who had been sitting on +the stones outside the Louvre an hour ago. Raising himself by +deliberately standing upon one of the spokes of the stationary +wheel, he leaned over the Duc d'Epernon, and, whipping a long, +stout knife from his sleeve, stabbed Henry in the breast. The +King, who was in the act of reading a letter, cried out, and +threw up his arms in an instinctive warding movement, thereby +exposing his heart. The assassin stabbed again, and this time the +blade went deep. + +With a little gasping cough, Henry sank together, and blood +gushed from his mouth. + +The predictions were fulfilled; the tale borne by the courier +riding through Liege a week ago was made true, as were the +stories of his death already at that very hour circulating in +Antwerp, Malines, Brussels, and elsewhere. + +The murderer aimed yet a third blow, but this at last was parried +by Epernon, whereupon the fellow stepped back from the coach, and +stood there, making no attempt to escape, or even to rid himself +of the incriminating knife. St. Michel, one of the King's +gentlemen-in-waiting, who had followed the coach, whipped out his +sword and would have slain him on the spot had he not been +restrained by Epernon. The footmen seized the fellow, and +delivered him over to the captain of the guard. He proved to be a +school-master of Angouleme--which was Epernon's country. His name +was Ravaillac. + +The curtains of the coach were drawn, the vehicle was put about, +and driven back to the Louvre, whilst to avoid all disturbance it +was announced to the people that the King was merely wounded. + +But St. Michel went on to the Arsenal, taking with him the knife +that had stabbed his master, to bear the sinister tidings to +Henry's loyal and devoted friend. Sully knew enough to gauge +exactly whence the blow had proceeded. With anger and grief in +his heart he got to horse, ill as he was, and, calling together +his people, set out presently for the Louvre, with a train one +hundred strong, which was presently increased to twice that +number by many of the King's faithful servants who joined his +company as he advanced. In the Rue de la Pourpointicre a man in +passing slipped a note into his hand. + +It was a brief scrawl: "Monsieur, where are ye going? It is done. +I have seen him dead. If you enter the Louvre you will not escape +any more than he did." + +Nearing St. Innocent, the warning was repeated, this time by a +gentleman named du Jon, who stopped to mutter: + +"Monsieur le Duc, our evil is without remedy. Look to yourself, +for this strange blow will have fearful consequences." + +Again in the Rue St. Honore another note was thrown him, whose +contents were akin to those of the first. Yet with misgivings +mounting swiftly to certainty, Sully rode amain towards the +Louvre, his train by now amounting to some three hundred horse. +But at the end of the street he was stopped by M. de Vitry, who +drew rein as they met. + +"Ah, monsieur," Vitry greeted him, "where are you going with such +a following? They will never suffer you to enter the Louvre with +more than two or three attendants, which I would not advise you +to do. For this plot does not end here. I have seen some persons +so little sensible of the loss they have sustained that they +cannot even simulate the grief they should feel. Go back, +monsieur. There is enough for you to do without going to the +Louvre." + +Persuaded by Vitry's solemnity, and by what he knew in his heart, +Sully faced about and set out to retrace his steps. But presently +he was overtaken by a messenger from the Queen, begging him to +come at once to her at the Louvre, and to bring as few persons as +possible with him. "This proposal," he writes, "to go alone and +deliver myself into the hands of my enemies, who filled the +Louvre, was not calculated to allay my suspicions." + +Moreover he received word at that moment that an exempt of the +guards and a force of soldiers were already at the gates of the +Arsenal, that others had been sent to the Temple, where the +powder was stored, and others again to the treasurer of the +Exchequer to stop all the money there. + +"Convey to the Queen my duty and service," he bade the messenger, +"and assure her that until she acquaints me with her orders I +shall continue assiduously to attend the affairs of my office." +And with that he went to shut himself up in the Bastille, whither +he was presently followed by a stream of her Majesty's envoys, +all bidding him to the Louvre. But Sully, ill as he was, and now +utterly prostrated by all that he had endured, put himself to bed +and made of his indisposition a sufficient excuse. + +Yet on the morrow he allowed himself to be persuaded to obey her +summons, receiving certain assurances that he had no ground for +any apprehensions. Moreover, he may by now have felt a certain +security in the esteem in which the Parisians held him. An +attempt against him in the Louvre itself would prove that the +blow that had killed his master was not the independent act of a +fanatic, as it was being represented; and vengeance would follow +swiftly upon the heads of those who would thus betray themselves +of having made of that poor wretch's fanaticism an instrument to +their evil ends. + +In that assurance he went, and he has left on record the burning +indignation aroused in him at the signs of satisfaction, +complacency, and even mirth that he discovered in that house of +death. The Queen herself, however, overwrought by the events, and +perhaps conscience-stricken by the tragedy which in the eleventh +hour she had sought to avert, burst into tears at sight of Sully, +and brought in the Dauphin, who flung himself upon the Duke's +neck. + +"My son," the Queen addressed him, "this is Monsieur de Sully. +You must love him well, for he was one of the best and most +faithful servants of the King your father, and I entreat him to +continue to serve you in the same manner." + +Words so fair might have convinced a man less astute that all his +suspicions were unworthy. But, even then, the sequel would very +quickly have undeceived him. For very soon thereafter his fall +was brought about by the Concinis and their creatures, so that no +obstacle should remain between themselves and the full gratification +of their fell ambitions. + +At once he saw the whole policy of the dead King subversed; he +saw the renouncing of all ancient alliances, and the union of the +crowns of France and Spain; the repealing of all acts of +pacification; the destruction of the Protestants; the dissipation +of the treasures amassed by Henry; the disgrace of those who +would not receive the yoke of the new favourites. All this Sully +witnessed in his declining years, and he witnessed, too, the +rapid rise to the greatest power and dignity in the State of that +Florentine adventurer, Concino Concini--now bearing the title of +Marshal d'Ancre--who had so cunningly known how to profit by a +Queen's jealousy and a King's indiscretions. + +As for the miserable Ravaillac, it is pretended that he +maintained under torture and to the very hour of his death that +he had no accomplices, that what he had done he had done to +prevent an unrighteous war against Catholicism and the Pope-- +which was, no doubt, the falsehood with which those who used him +played upon his fanaticism and whetted him to their service. I +say "pretended" because, after all, complete records of his +examinations are not discoverable, and there is a story that when +at the point of death, seeing himself abandoned by those in whom +perhaps he had trusted, he signified a desire to confess, and did +so confess; but the notary Voisin, who took his depositions in +articulo mortis, set them down in a hand so slovenly as to be +afterwards undecipherable. + +That may or may not be true. But the statement that when the +President du Harlay sought to pursue inquiries into certain +allegations by a woman named d'Escoman, which incriminated the +Duc d'Epernon, he received a royal order to desist, rests upon +sound authority. + + * * * * * * + +That is the story of the assassination of Henry IV. re-told in +the light of certain records which appear to me to have been +insufficiently studied. They should suggest a train of speculation +leading to inferences which, whilst obvious, I hesitate to define +absolutely. + +"If it be asked," says Perefixe, "who were the friends that +suggested to Ravaillac so damnable a design, history replies that +it is ignorant and that upon an action of Such consequences it is +not permissible to give suspicions and conjectures for certain +truths. The judges themselves who interrogated him dared not open +their mouths, and never mentioned the matter but with gestures of +horror and amazement." + + + + + +VI. THE BARREN WOOING + +The Murder of Amy Robsart + + + +There had been a banquet, followed by a masque, and this again by +a dance in which the young queen had paired off with Lord Robert +Dudley, who in repute was the handsomest man in Europe, just as +in fact he was the vainest, shallowest, and most unscrupulous. +There had been homage and flattery lavishly expressed, and there +was a hint of masked hostility from certain quarters to spice the +adventure, and to thrill her bold young spirit. Never yet in all +the months of her reign since her coronation in January of last +year had she felt so much a queen, and so conscious of the power +of her high estate; never so much a woman, and so conscious of +the weakness of her sex. The interaction of those conflicting +senses wrought upon her like a heady wine. She leaned more +heavily upon the silken arm of her handsome Master of the Horse, +and careless in her intoxication of what might be thought or +said, she--who by the intimate favour shown him had already +loosed the tongue of Scandal and set it chattering in every court +in Europe--drew him forth from that thronged and glittering +chamber of the Palace of Whitehall into the outer solitude and +friendly gloom. + +And he, nothing loth to obey the suasion of that white hand upon +his arm, exultant, indeed, to parade before them all the power he +had with her, went willingly enough. Let Norfolk and Sussex +scowl, let Arundel bite his lip until it bled, and sober Cecil +stare cold disapproval. They should mend their countenances soon, +and weigh their words or be for ever silenced, when he was master +in England. And that he would soon be master he was assured to- +night by every glance of her blue eyes, by the pressure of that +fair hand upon his arm, by the languishing abandonment with which +that warm young body swayed towards him, as they passed out from +the blaze of lights and the strains of music into the gloom and +silence of the gallery leading to the terrace. + +"Out--let us go out, Robin. Let me have air," she almost panted, +as she drew him on. + +Assuredly he would be master soon. Indeed, he might have been +master already but for that wife of his, that stumbling-block to +his ambition, who practiced the housewifely virtues at Cumnor +Place, and clung so tenaciously and so inconsiderately to life in +spite of all his plans to relieve her of the burden of it. + +For a year and more his name had been coupled with the Queen's in +a tale that hurt her honour as a woman and imperilled her dignity +as a sovereign. Already in October of 1559 Alvarez de Quadra, the +Spanish ambassador, had written home: "I have learnt certain +things as to the terms on which the Queen and Lord Robert stand +towards each other which I could not have believed." + +That was at a time when de Quadra was one of a dozen ambassadors +who were competing for her hand, and Lord Robert had, himself, +appeared to be an ally of de Quadra and an advocate of the +Spanish marriage with the Archduke Charles. But it was a presence +which nowise deceived the astute Spaniard, who employed a legion +of spies to keep him well informed. + +"All the dallying with us," he wrote, "all the dallying with the +Swede, all the dallying there will be with the rest, one after +another, is merely to keep Lord Robert's enemies in play until +his villainy about his wife can be executed." + +What that particular villainy was, the ambassador had already +stated earlier in his letter. "I have learnt from a person who +usually gives me true information that Lor d Robert has sent to +have his wife poisoned." + +What had actually happened was that Sir Richard Verney--a trusted +retainer of Lord Robert's--had reported to Dr. Bayley, of New +College, Oxford, that Lady Robert Dudley was "sad and ailing," +and had asked him for a potion. But the doctor was learned in +more matters than physic. He had caught an echo of the tale of +Lord Robert's ambition; he had heard a whisper that whatever +suitors might come from overseas for Elizabeth, she would marry +none but "my lord"--as Lord Robert was now commonly styled. More, +he had aforetime heard rumours of the indispositions of Lady +Robert, yet had never found those rumours verified by the fact. +Some months ago, it had been reported that her ladyship was +suffering from cancer of the breast and likely soon to die of it. +Yet Dr. Bayley had reason to know that a healthier woman did not +live in Berkshire. + +The good doctor was a capable deductive reasoner, and the +conclusion to which he came was that if they poisoned her under +cover of his potion--she standing in no need of physic--he might +afterwards be hanged as a cover for their crime. So he refused to +prescribe as he was invited, nor troubled to make a secret of +invitation and refusal. + +For awhile, then, Lord Robert had prudently held his hand; +moreover, the urgency there had been a year ago, when that host +of foreign suitors laid siege to Elizabeth of England, had +passed, and his lordship could afford to wait. But now of a +sudden the urgency was returned. Under the pressure brought to +bear upon her to choose a husband, Elizabeth had half-committed +herself to marry the Archduke Charles, promising the Spanish +ambassador a definite answer within a few days. + +Lord Robert had felt the earth to be quaking under him; he had +seen the ruin of his high ambitions; he had watched with rage the +expanding mockery upon the countenances of Norfolk, Sussex, and +those others who hated and despised him; and he had cursed that +wife of his who knew not when to die. But for that obstinacy with +which she clung to life he had been the Queen's husband these +many months, so making an end to suspense and to the danger that +lies in delay. + +To-night the wantonness with which the Queen flaunted before the +eyes of all her court the predilection in which she held him, +came not merely to lull his recent doubts and fears, to feed his +egregious vanity, and to assure him that in her heart he need +fear no rival; it came also to set his soul Quiver impotent rage. +He had but to put forth his hands to possess himself of this +splendid prize. Yet those hands of his were bound while that +woman lived at Cumnor. Conceive his feelings as they stole away +together like any pair of lovers. + +Arm in arm they came by a stone gallery, where a stalwart scarlet +sentinel, a yeoman of the guard, with a Tudor rose embroidered in +gold upon his back, stood under a lamp set in the wall, with +grounded pike and body stiffly erect. + +The tall young Queen was in crimson satin with cunningly-wrought +silver embroideries, trimmed with tufted silver fringe, her +stomacher stiff with silver bullion studded with gold rosettes +and Roman pearls, her bodice cut low to display her splendid +neck, decked by a carcanet of pearls and rubies, and surmounted +by a fan-like cuff of guipure, high behind and sloping towards +the bust. Thus she appeared to the sentinel as the rays of the +single lamp behind him struck fire from her red-gold hair. As if +by her very gait to express the wantonness of her mood, she +pointed her toes and walked with head thrown back, smiling up +into the gipsy face of her companion, who was arrayed from head +to foot in shimmering ivory satin, with an elegance no man in +England could have matched. + +They came by that stone gallery to a little terrace above the +Privy Steps. A crescent moon hung low over the Lambeth marshes +across the river. From a barge that floated gay with lights in +mid-stream came a tinkle of lutes, and the sweet voice of a +singing boy. A moment the lovers stood at gaze, entranced by the +beauty of the soft, tepid September night, so subtly adapted to +their mood. Then she fetched a sigh, and hung more heavily upon +his arm, leaned nearer to his tall, vigorous, graceful figure. + +"Robin, Robin!" was all she said, but in her voice throbbed a +world of passionate longing, an exquisite blend of delight and +pain. + +Judging the season ripe, his arm flashed round her, and drew her +fiercely close. For a moment she was content to yield, her head +against his stalwart shoulder, a very woman nestling to the mate +of her choice, surrendering to her master. Then the queen in her +awoke and strangled nature. Roughly she disengaged herself from +his arm, and stood away, her breathing quickened. + + +"God's Death, Robin!" There was a harsh note in the voice that +lately had cooed so softly. "You are strangely free, I think." + +But he, impudence incarnate, nothing abashed, accustomed to her +gusty moods, to her alternations between the two natures she had +inherited--from overbearing father and wanton mother--was +determined at all costs to take the fullest advantage of the +hour, to make an end of suspense. + +"I am not free, but enslaved--by love and worship of you. Would +you deny me; Would you?" + +"Not I, but fate," she answered heavily, and he knew that the +woman at Cumnor was in her mind. + +"Fate will soon mend the wrong that fate has done--very soon +now." He took her hand, and, melted again from her dignity, she +let it lie in his. "When that is done, sweet, then will I claim +you for my own." + +"When that is done, Robin?" she questioned almost fearfully, as +if a sudden dread suspicion broke upon her mind. "When what is +done?" + +He paused a moment to choose his words, what time she stared +intently into the face that gleamed white in the surrounding +gloom. + +"When that poor ailing spirit is at rest." And he added: "It will +be soon." + +"Thou hast said the same aforetime, Robin. Yet it has not so +fallen out." + +"She has clung to life beyond what could have been believed of +her condition," he explained, unconscious of any sinister +ambiguity. "But the end, I know, is very near--a matter but of +days." + +"Of days!" she shivered, and moved forward to the edge of the +terrace, he keeping step beside her. Then she stood awhile in +silence, looking down at the dark oily surge of water. "You loved +her once, Robin?" she asked, in a queer, unnatural voice. + +"I never loved but once," answered that perfect courtier. + +"Yet you married her--men say it was a love marriage. It was a +marriage, anyway, and you can speak so calmly of her death?" Her +tone was brooding. She sought understanding that should silence +her own lingering doubt of him. + +"Where lies the blame? Who made me what I am?" Again his bold arm +encompassed her. Side by side they peered down through the gloom +at the rushing waters, and he seized an image from them. "Our +love is like that seething tide," he said. "To resist it is to +labour in agony awhile, and then to perish." + +"And to yield is to be swept away." + +"To happiness," he cried, and reverted to his earlier prayer. +"Say that when . . . that afterwards, I may claim you for my own. +Be true to yourself, obey the voice of instinct, and so win to +happiness." + +She looked up at him, seeking to scan the handsome face in that +dim light that baffled her, and he observed the tumultuous heave +of her white breast. + +"Can I trust thee, Robin? Can I trust thee? Answer me true!" she +implored him, adorably weak, entirely woman now. + +"What does your own heart answer you?" quoth he, loaning close +above her. + +"I think I can, Robin. And, anyway, I must. I cannot help myself. +I am but a woman, after all," she murmured, and sighed. "Be it as +thou wilt. Come to me again when thou art free." + +He bent lower, murmuring incoherently, and she put up a hand to +pat his swarthy bearded cheek. + +"I shall make thee greater than any man in England, so thou make +me happier than any woman." + +He caught the hand in his and kissed it passionately, his soul +singing a triumph song within him. Norfolk and Sussex and those +other scowling ones should soon be whistled to the master's heel. + +As they turned arm in arm into the gallery to retrace their +steps, they came suddenly face to face with a slim, sleek +gentleman, who bowed profoundly, a smile upon h is crafty, +shaven, priestly face. In a smooth voice and an accent markedly +foreign, he explained that he, too, sought the cool of the +terrace, not thinking to intrude; and upon that, bowing again, he +passed on and effaced himself. It was Alvarez de Quadra, Bishop +of Aquila, the argus-eyed ambassador of Spain. + +The young face of the Queen hardened. + +"I would I were as well served abroad as the King of Spain is +here," she said aloud, that the retreating ambassador might hear +the dubious compliment; and for my lord's ear alone she added +under her breath: "The spy! Philip of Spain will hear of this." + +"So that he hears something more, what shall it signify?" quoth +my lord, and laughed. + +They paced the length of the gallery in silence, past the yeoman +of the guard, who kept his watch, and into the first antechamber. +Perhaps it was that meeting with de Quadra and my lord's answer +to her comment that prompted what now she asked: "What is it ails +her, Robin?" + +"A wasting sickness," he answered, never doubting to whom the +question alluded. + +"You said, I think, that . . . that the end is very near." + +He caught her meaning instantly. "Indeed, if she is not dead +already, she is very nearly so." + +He lied, for never had Amy Dudley been in better health. And yet +he spoke the truth, for in so much as her life depended upon his +will, it was as good as spent. This was, he knew, a decisive +moment of his career. The hour was big with fate. If now he were +weak or hesitant, the chance might slip away and be for ever lost +to him. Elizabeth's moods were as uncertain as were certain the +hostile activities of my lord's enemies. He must strike quickly +whilst she was in her present frame of mind, and bring her to +wedlock, be it in public or in private. But first he must shake +off the paralysing encumbrance of that house-wife down at Cumnor. + +I believe--from evidence that I account abundant--that he +considered it with the cold remorselessness of the monstrous +egotist he was. An upstart, great-grandson to a carpenter, noble +only in two descents, and in both of them stained by the block, +he found a queen--the victim of a physical passion that took no +account of the worthlessness underlying his splendid exterior-- +reaching out a hand to raise him to a throne. Being what he was, +he weighed his young wife's life at naught in the evil scales of +his ambition. And yet he had loved her once, more truly perhaps +than he could now pretend to love the Queen. + +It was some ten years since, as a lad of eighteen, he had taken +Sir John Robsart's nineteen-year-old daughter to wife. She had +brought him considerable wealth and still more devotion. Because +of this devotion she was content to spend her days at Cumnor, +whilst he ruffled it at court; content to take such crumbs of +attention as he could spare her upon occasion. And during the +past year, whilst he had been plotting her death, she had been +diligently caring for his interests and fostering the prosperity +of the Berkshire estate. If he thought of this at all, he allowed +no weakly sentiment to turn him from his purpose. There was too +much at stake for that--a throne, no less. + +And so, on the morning after that half-surrender of Elizabeth's, +we find my lord closeted with his henchman, Sir Richard Verney. +Sir Richard--like his master--was a greedy, unscrupulous, +ambitious scoundrel, prepared to go to any lengths for the sake +of such worldly advancement as it lay in my lord's power to give +him. My lord perforce used perfect frankness with this perfect +servant. + +"Thou'lt rise or fall with me, Dick," quoth he. "Help me up, +then, and so mount with me. When I am King, as soon now I shall +be, look to me. Now to the thing that is to do. Thou'lt have +guessed it." + +To Sir Richard it was an easy guess, considering how much already +he had been about this business. He signified as much. + +My lord shifted in his elbow-chair, and drew his embroidered +bedgown of yellow satin closer about his shapely limbs. + +"Hast failed me twice before, Richard," said he. "God's death, +man, fail me not again, or the last chance may go the way of the +others. There's a magic in the number three. See that I profit by +it, or I am undone, and thou with me." + +"I'd not have failed before, but for that suspicious dotard +Bayley," grumbled Verney. "Your lordship bade me see that all was +covered." + +"Aye, aye. And I bid thee so again. On thy life, leave no +footprints by which we may be tracked. Bayley is not the only +physician in Oxford. About it, then, and swiftly. Time is the +very soul of fortune in this business, with the Spaniard +straining at the leash, and Cecil and the rest pleading his case +with her. Succeed, and thy fortune's made; fail, and trouble not +to seek me again." + +Sir Richard bowed, and took his leave. As he reached the door, +his lordship stayed him. "If thou bungle, do not look to me. The +court goes to Windsor to-morrow. Bring me word there within the +week." He rose, magnificently tall and stately, in his bedgown of +embroidered yellow satin, his handsome head thrown back, and went +after his retainer. "Thou'lt not fail me, Dick," said he, a hand +upon the lesser scoundrel's shoulder. "There is much at issue for +me, and for thee with me." + +"I will not fail you, my lord," Sir Richard rashly promised, and +on that they parted. + +Sir Richard did not mean to fail. He knew the importance of +succeeding, and he appreciated the urgency of the business as +much as did my lord himself. But between his cold, remorseless +will to succeed and success itself there lay a gulf which it +needed all his resource to bridge. He paid a short visit to Lady +Robert at Cumnor, and professed deepest concern to find in her a +pallor and an ailing air which no one else had yet observed. He +expressed himself on the subject to Mrs. Buttelar and the other +members of her ladyship's household, reproaching them with their +lack of care of their mistress. Mrs. Buttelar became indignant +under his reproaches. + +"Nay, now, Sir Richard, do you wonder that my lady is sad and +downcast with such tales as are going of my lord's doings at +court, and of what there is 'twixt the Queen and him? Her +ladyship may be too proud to complain, but she suffers the more +for that, poor lamb. There was talk of a divorce awhile ago that +got to her ears." + +"Old wives' tales," snorted Sir Richard. + +"Likely," agreed Mrs. Buttelar. "Yet when my lord neither comes +to Cumnor, nor requires her ladyship to go to him, what is she to +think, poor soul?" + +Sir Richard made light of all, and went off to Oxford to find a +physician more accommodating than Dr. Bayley. But Dr. Bayley had +talked too much, and it was in vain that Sir Richard pleaded with +each of the two physicians he sought that her ladyship was +ailing--"sad and heavy"--and that he must have a potion for her. + +Each in turn shook his head. They had no medicine for sorrow, was +their discreet answer. From his description of her condition, +said each, it was plain that her ladyship's sickness was of the +mind, and, considering the tales that were afloat, neither was +surprised. + +Sir Richard went back to his Oxford lodging with the feeling of a +man checkmated. For two whole days of that precious time he lay +there considering what to do. He thought of going to seek a +physician in Abingdon. But fearing no better success in that +quarter, fearing, indeed, that in view of the rumours abroad he +would merely be multiplying what my lord called "footprints," he +decided to take some other way to his master's ends. He was a +resourceful, inventive scoundrel, and soon he had devised a plan. + +On Friday he wrote from Oxford to Lady Robert, stating that he +had a communication for her on the subject of his lordship as +secret as it was urgent. That he desired to come to her at Cumnor +again, but dared not do so openly. He would come if she would +contrive that her servants should be absent, and he exhorted her +to let no one of them know that he was coming, else he might be +ruined, out of his desire to serve her. + +That letter he dispatched by the hand of his servant Nunweek, +desiring him to bring an answer. It was a communication that had +upon her ladyship's troubled mind precisely the effect that the +rascal conceived. There was about Sir Richard's personality +nothing that could suggest the villain. He was a smiling, blue- +eyed, florid gentleman, of a kindly manner that led folk to trust +him. And on the occasion of his late visit to Cumnor he had +displayed such tender solicitude that her ladyship--starved of +affection as she was--had been deeply touched. + +His letter so cunningly couched filled her with vague alarm and +with anxiety. She had heard so many and such afflicting rumours, +and had received in my lord's cruel neglect of her such +circumstantial confirmation of them, that she fastened avidly +upon what she deemed the chance of learning at last the truth. +Sir Richard Verney had my lord's confidence, and was much about +the court in his attendance upon my lord. He would know the +truth, and what could this letter mean but that he was disposed +to tell it. + +So she sent him back a line in answer, bidding him come on Sunday +afternoon. She would contrive to be alone in the house, so that +he need not fear being seen by any. + +As she promised, so she performed, and on the Sunday packed off +her household to the fair that was being held at Abingdon that +day, using insistence with the reluctant, and particularly with +one of her women, a Mrs. Oddingsell, who expressed herself +strongly against leaving her ladyship alone in that lonely house. +At length, however, the last of them was got off, and my lady was +left impatiently to await her secret visitor. It was late +afternoon when he arrived, accompanied by Nunweek, whom he left +to hold the horses under the chestnuts in the avenue. Himself he +reached the house across the garden, where the blighting hand of +autumn was already at work. + +Within the porch he found her waiting, fretted by her impatience. + +"It is very good in you to have come, Sir Richard," was her +gracious greeting. + +"I am your ladyship's devoted servant," was his sufficient +answer, and he doffed his plumed bonnet, and bowed 1ow before +her. "We shall be private in your bower above stairs," he added. + +"Why, we are private anywhere. I am all alone, as you desired." + +"That is very wise--most wise," said he. "Will your ladyship lead +the way?" + +So they went up that steep, spiral staircase, which had loomed so +prominently in the plans the ingenious scoundrel had evolved. +Across the gallery on the first floor they entered a little room +whose windows overlooked the garden. This was her bower--an +intimate cosy room, reflecting on every hand the gentle, +industrious personality of the owner. On an oak table near the +window were spread some papers and account-books concerned with +the estate--with which she had sought to beguile the time of +waiting. She led the way towards this, and, sinking into the +high-backed chair that stood before it, she looked up at him +expectantly. She was pale, there were dark stains under her eyes, +and wistful lines had crept into the sweet face of that neglected +wife. + +Contemplating his poor victim now, Sir Richard may have compared +her with the woman by whom my lord desired so impatiently to +supplant her. She was tall and beautifully shaped, despite an +almost maidenly slenderness. Her countenance was gentle and +adorable, with its soft grey eyes and light brown hair, and +tender, wistful mouth. + +It was not difficult to believe that Lord Robert had as ardently +desired her to wife five years ago as he now desired to be rid of +her. Then he obeyed the insistent spur of passion; now he obeyed +the remorseless spur of ambition. In reality, then as now, his +beacon-light was love of self. + +Seeing her so frail and trusting, trembling in her anxious +impatience to hear the news of her lord which he had promised +her, Sir Richard may have felt some pang of pity. But, like my +lord, he was of those whose love of self suffers the rivalry of +no weak emotion. + +"Your news, Sir Richard," she besought him, her dove-like glance +upon his florid face--less florid now than was its wont. + +He leaned against the table, his back to the window. "Why, it is +briefly this," said he. "My lord . . ." And then he checked, and +fell into a listening attitude. + +"What was that? Did you hear anything, my lady?" + +"No. What is it?" Her face betrayed alarm, her anxiety mounting +under so much mystery. + +"Sh! Stay you here," he enjoined. "If we are spied upon . . ." He +left the sentence there. Already he was moving quickly, +stealthily, towards the door. He paused before opening it. "Stay +where you are, my lady," he enjoined again, so gravely that she +could have no thought of disobeying him. "I will return at once." + +He stepped out, closed the door, and crossed to the stairs. There +he stopped. From his pouch he had drawn a fine length of +whipcord, attached at one end to a tiny bodkin of needle +sharpness. That bodkin he drove into the edge of one of the +panels of the wainscot, in line with the topmost step; drawing +the cord taut at a height of a foot or so above this step, he +made fast its other end to the newel-post at the stair-head. He +had so rehearsed the thing in his mind that the performance of it +occupied but a few seconds. Such dim light of that autumn +afternoon as reached the spot would leave that fine cord +invisible. + +Sir Richard went back to her ladyship. She had not moved in his +absence, so brief as scarcely to have left her time in which to +resolve upon disobeying his injunction. + +"We move in secret like conspirators," said he, "and so we are +easily affrighted.. I should have known it could be none but my +lord himself . . . here?" + +"My lord!" she interrupted, coming excitedly to her feet. "Lord +Robert?" + +"To be sure, my lady. It was he had need to visit you in secret-- +for did the Queen have knowledge of his coming here, it would +mean the Tower for him. You cannot think what, out of love for +you, his lordship suffers. The Queen . . I, + +"But do you say that he is here, man", her voice shrilled up in +excitement. + +"He is below, my lady. Such is his peril that he dared not set +foot in Cumnor until he was certain beyond doubt that you are +here alone." + +"He is below!" she cried, and a flush dyed her pale cheeks, a +light of gladness quickened her sad eyes. Already she had +gathered from his cunning words a new and comforting explanation +of the things reported to her. "He is below!" she repeated. "Oh!" +She turned from him, and in an instant was speeding towards the +door. + +He stood rooted there, his nether lip between his teeth, his face +a ghastly white, whilst she ran on. + +"My lord! Robin! Robin!" he heard her calling, as she crossed the +corridor. Then came a piercing scream that echoed through the +silent house; a pause; a crashing thud below; and--silence. + +Sir Richard remained by the table, immovable. Blood was trickling +down his chin. He had sunk his teeth through his lip when that +scream rang out. A long moment thus, as if entranced, awe- +stricken. Then he braced himself, and went forward, reeling at +first like a drunken man. But by the time he had reached the +stairs he was master of himself again. Swiftly, for all his +trembling fingers, he unfastened the cord's end from the newel- +post. The wrench upon it had already pulled the bodkin from the +wainscot. He went down that abrupt spiral staircase at a moderate +pace, mechanically coiling the length of whip-cord, and bestowing +it with the bodkin in his pouch again, and all the while his eyes +were fixed upon the grey bundle that lay so still at the stairs' +foot. + +He came to it at last, and, pausing, looked more closely. He was +thankful that there was not the need to touch it. The position of +the brown-haired head was such as to leave no doubt of the +complete success of his design. Her neck was broken. Lord Robert +Dudley was free to marry the Queen. + +Deliberately Sir Richard stepped over the huddled body of that +poor victim of a knave's ambition, crossed the hall, and passed +out, closing the door. An excellent day's work, thought he, most +excellently accomplished. The servants, returning from Abingdon +Fair on that Sunday evening, would find her there. They would +publish the fact that in their absence her ladyship had fallen +downstairs and broken her neck, and that was the end of the +matter. + + * * * * * * + +But that was not the end at all. Fate, the ironic interloper, had +taken a hand in this evil game. + +The court had moved a few days earlier to Windsor, and thither on +the Friday--the 6th of September--came Alvarez de Quadra to seek +the definite answer which the Queen had promised him on the +subject of the Spanish marriage. What he had seen that night at +Whitehall, coupled with his mistrust of her promises and +experience of her fickleness, had rendered him uneasy. Either she +was trifling with him, or else she was behaving in a manner +utterly unbecoming the future wife of the Archduke. In either +case some explanation was necessary. De Quadra must know where he +stood. Having failed to obtain an audience before the court left +London, he had followed it to Windsor, cursing all women and +contemplating the advantages of the Salic law. + +He found at Windsor an atmosphere of constraint, and it was not +until the morrow that he obtained an audience with the Queen. +Even then this was due to chance rather than to design on the +part of Elizabeth. For they met on the terrace as she was +returning from hunting. She dismissed those about her, including +the stalwart Robert Dudley, and, alone with de Quadra, invited +him to speak. + +"Madame," he said, "I am writing to my master, and I desire to +know whether your Majesty would wish me to add anything to what +you have announced already as your intention regarding the +Archduke." + +She knit her brows. The wily Spaniard fenced so closely that +there was no alternative but to come to grips. + +"Why, sir," she answered dryly, "you may tell his Majesty that I +have come to an absolute decision, which is that I will not marry +the Archduke." + +The colour mounted to the Spaniard's sallow cheeks. Iron self- +control alone saved him from uttering unpardonable words. Even so +he spoke sternly: + +"This, madame, is not what you had led me to believe when last we +talked upon the subject." + +At another time Elizabeth might have turned upon him and rent him +for that speech. But it happened that she was in high good-humour +that afternoon, and disposed to indulgence. She laughed, +surveying herself in the small steel mirror that dangled from her +waist. + +"You are ungallant to remind me, my lord," said she. "My sex, you +may have heard, is privileged to change of mind." + +"Then, madame, I pray that you may change it yet again." His tone +was bitter. + +"Your prayer will not be heard. This time I am resolved." + +De Quadra bowed. "The King, my master, will not be pleased, I +fear." + +She looked him straightly in the face, her dark eyes kindling. + +"God's death!" said she, "I marry to please myself, and not the +King your master." + +"You are resolved on marriage then?" flashed he. + +"And it please you," she mocked him archly, her mood of +joyousness already conquering her momentary indignation. + +"What pleases you must please me also, madame," he answered, in a +tone so cold that it belied his words. "That it please you, is +reason enough why you should marry . . . Whom did your Majesty +say?" + +"Nay. I named no names. Yet one so astute might hazard a shrewd +guess." Half-challenging, half-coy, she eyed him over her fan. + +"A guess? Nay, madame. I might affront your Majesty." + +"How so?" + +"If I were deluded by appearances. If I named a subject who +signally enjoys your royal favour." + +"You mean Lord Robert Dudley." She paled a little, and her +bosom's heave was quickened. "Why should the guess affront me?" + +"Because a queen--a wise queen, madame--does not mate with a +subject--particularly with one who has a wife already." + +He had stung her. He had wounded at once the pride of the woman +and the dignity of the queen, yet in a way that made it difficult +for her to take direct offense. She bit her lip and mastered her +surge of anger. Then she laughed, a thought sneeringly. + +"Why, as to my Lord Robert's wife, it seems you are less well- +informed than usual, sir. Lady Robert Dudley is dead, or very +nearly so." + +And as blank amazement overspread his face, she passed upon her +way and left him. + +But anon, considering, she grew vaguely uneasy, and that very +night expressed her afflicting doubt to my lord, reporting to him +de Quadra's words. His lordship, who was mentally near-sighted, +laughed. + +"He'll change his tone before long," said he. + +She set her hands upon his shoulders, and looked up adoringly +into his handsome gipsy face. Never had he known her so fond as +in these last days since her surrender to him that night upon the +terrace at Whitehall, never had she been more the woman and less +the queen in her bearing towards him. + +"You are sure, Robin? You are quite sure?" she pleaded. + +He drew her close, she yielding herself to his embrace. "With so +much at stake could I be less than sure, sweet?" said he, and so +convinced her--the more easily since he afforded her the +conviction she desired. + +That was on the night of Saturday, and early on Monday came the +news which justified him of his assurances. It was brought him to +Windsor by one of Amy's Cumnor servants, a fellow named Bowes, +who, with the others, had been away at Abingdon Fair yesterday +afternoon, and had returned to find his mistress dead at the +stairs' foot--the result of an accident, as all believed. + +It was not quite the news that my lord had been expecting. It +staggered him a little that an accident so very opportune should +have come to resolve his difficulties, obviating the need for +recourse to those more dangerous measures with which he had +charged Sir Richard Verney. He perceived how suspicion might now +fall upon himself, how his enemies would direct it, and on the +instant made provision. There and then he seized a pen, and wrote +to his kinsman, Sir Thomas Blount, who even then was on his way +to Cumnor. He stated in the letter what he had learnt from Bowes, +bade Blount engage the coroner to make the strictest investigation, +and send for Amy's natural brother, Appleyard. "Have no respect +to any living person," was the final injunction of that letter +which he sent Blount by the hand of Bowes. + +And, then, before he could carry to the Queen the news of this +accident which had broken his matrimonial shackles, Sir Richard +Verney arrived with the true account. He had expected praise and +thanks from his master. Instead, he met first dismay, and then +anger and fierce reproaches. + +"My lord, this is unjust," the faithful retainer protested. +"Knowing the urgency, I took the only way--contrived the +accident." + +"Pray God," said Dudley, "that the jury find it to have been an +accident; for if the truth should come to be discovered, I leave +you to the consequences. I warned you of that before you engaged +in this. Look for no help from me." + +"I look for none," said Sir Richard, stung to hot contempt by the +meanness and cowardice so characteristic of the miserable egotist +he served. "Nor will there be the need, for I have left no +footprints. + +"I hope that may be so, for I tell you, man, that I have ordered +a strict inquiry, bidding them have no respect to any living +person, and to that I shall adhere." + +"And if, in spite of that, I am not hanged?" quoth Sir Richard, a +sneer upon his white face. + +"Come to me again when the affair is closed, and we will talk of +it." + +Sir Richard went out, rage and disgust in his heart, leaving my +lord with rage and fear in his. + +Grown calmer now, my lord dressed himself with care and sought +the Queen to tell her of the accident that had removed the +obstacle to their marriage. And that same night her Majesty +coldly informed de Quadra that Lady Robert Dudley had fallen down +a flight of stairs and broken her neck. + +The Spaniard received the information with a countenance that was +inscrutable. + +"Your Majesty's gift of prophecy is not so widely known as it +deserves to be," was his cryptic comment. + +She stared at him blankly a moment. Then a sudden uneasy memory +awakened by his words, she drew him forward to a window embrasure +apart from those who had stood about her, and for greater +security addressed him, as he tells us, in Italian. + +"I do not think I understand you, sir. Will you be plain with +me?" She stood erect and stiff, and frowned upon him after the +manner of her bullying father. But de Quadra held the trumps, and +was not easily intimidated. + +"About the prophecy?" said he. "Why, did not your Majesty +foretell the poor lady's death a full day before it came to pass? +Did you not say that she was already dead, or nearly so?" + +He saw her blench; saw fear stare from those dark eyes that could +be so very bold. Then her ever-ready anger followed swiftly. + +"'Sblood, man! What do you imply?" she cried, and went on without +waiting for his answer. "The poor woman was sick and ill, and +must soon have succumbed; it will no doubt be found that the +accident which anticipated nature was due to her condition." + +Gently he shook his head, relishing her discomfiture, taking +satisfaction in torturing her who had flouted him and his master, +in punishing her whom he had every reason to believe guilty. + +"Your Majesty, I fear, has been ill-informed on that score. The +poor lady was in excellent health--and like to have lived for +many years--at least, so I gather from Sir William Cecil, whose +information is usually exact." + +She clutched his arm. "You told him what I had said?" + +"It was indiscreet, perhaps. Yet, how was I to know . . . ?" He +left his sentence there. "I but expressed my chagrin at your +decision on the score of the Archduke--hardly a wise decision, if +I may be so bold," he added slyly. + +She caught the suggestion of a bargain, and became instantly +suspicious, + +"You transcend the duties of your office, my lord," she rebuked +him, and turned away. + +But soon that night she was closeted with Dudley, and closely +questioning him about the affair. My lord was mightily vehement. + +"I take Heaven to be my witness," quoth he, when she all but +taxed him with having procured his lady's death, "that I am +innocent of any part in it. My injunctions to Blount, who has +gone to Cumnor, are that the matter be sifted without respect to +any person, and if it can be shown that this is other than the +accident I deem it, the murderer shall hang." + +She flung her arms about his neck, and laid her head on his +shoulder. "Oh, Robin, Robin, I am full of fears," she wailed, and +was nearer to tears than he had ever seen her. + +But, anon, as the days passed their fears diminished, and finally +the jury at Cumnor--delayed in their finding, and spurred by my +lord to exhaustive inquiries--returned a verdict of "found dead," +which in all the circumstances left his lordship--who was known, +moreover, to have been at Windsor when his lady died--fully +acquitted. Both he and the Queen took courage from that finding, +and made no secret of it now that they would very soon be wed. + +But there were many whom that finding did not convince, who read +my lord too well, and would never suffer him to reap the fruits +of his evil deed. Prominent among these were Arundel--who himself +had aimed at the Queen's hand--Norfolk and Pembroke, and behind +them was a great mass of the people. Indignation against Lord +Robert was blazing out, fanned by such screaming preachers as +Lever, who, from the London pulpits, denounced the projected +marriage, hinting darkly at the truth of Amy Dudley's death. + +What was hinted at home was openly expressed abroad, and in Paris +Mary Stuart ventured a cruel witticism that Elizabeth was to +conserve in her memory: "The Queen of England," she said, "is +about to marry her horse-keeper, who has killed his wife to make +a place for her." + +Yet Elizabeth persisted in her intent to marry Dudley, until the +sober Cecil conveyed to her towards the end of that month of +September some notion of the rebellion that was smouldering. + +She flared out at him, of course. But he stood his ground. + +"There is," he reminded her, "this unfortunate matter of a +prophecy, as the Bishop of Aquila persists in calling it." + +"God's Body! Is the rogue blabbing?" + +"What else did your Majesty expect from a man smarting under a +sense of injury? He has published it broadcast that on the day +before Lady Robert broke her neck, you told him that she was dead +or nearly so. And he argues from it a guilty foreknowledge on +your Majesty's part of what was planned." + +"A guilty foreknowledge!" She almost choked in rage, and then +fell to swearing as furiously in that moment as old King Harry at +his worst. + +"Madame!" he cried, shaken by her vehemence. "I but report the +phrase he uses. It is not mine." + +"Do you believe it?" + +"I do not, madame. If I did I should not be here at present." + +"Does any subject of mine believe it?" + +"They suspend their judgment. They wait to learn the truth from +the sequel." + +"You mean?" + +"That if your motive prove to be such as de Quadra and others +allege, they will be in danger of believing." + +"Be plain, man, in God's name. What exactly is alleged?" + +He obeyed her very fully. + +"That my lord contrived the killing of his wife so that he might +have liberty to marry your Majesty, and that your Majesty was +privy to the deed." He spoke out boldly, and hurried on before +she could let loose her wrath. "It is still in your power, +madame, to save your honour, which is now in peril. But there is +only one way in which you can accomplish it. If you put from you +all thought of marrying Lord Robert, England will believe that de +Quadra and those others lied. If you persist and carry out your +intention, you proclaim the truth of his report; and you see what +must inevitably follow." + +She saw indeed, and, seeing, was afraid. + +Within a few hours of that interview she delivered her answer to +Cecil, which was that she had no intention of marrying Dudley. + +Because of her fear she saved her honour by sacrificing her +heart, by renouncing marriage with the only man she could have +taken for her mate of all who had wooed her. Yet the wound of +that renunciation was slow to heal. She trifled with the notion +of other marriages, but ever and anon, in her despair, perhaps, +we see her turning longing eyes towards the handsome Lord Robert, +later made Earl of Leicester. Once, indeed, some six years after +Amy's death, there was again some talk of her marrying him, which +was quickly quelled by a reopening of the question of how Amy +died. Between these two, between the fulfilment of her desire and +his ambition, stood the irreconcilable ghost of his poor murdered +wife. + +Perhaps it was some thought of this that found expression in her +passionate outburst when she learnt of the birth of Mary Stuart's +child: "The Queen of Scots is lighter of a fair son; and I am but +a barren stock." + + + + + +VII. SIR JUDAS + +The Betrayal of Sir Walter Ralegh + + + +Sir Walter was met on landing at Plymouth from his ill-starred +voyage to El Dorado by Sir Lewis Stukeley, which was but natural, +seeing that Sir Lewis was not only Vice-Admiral of Devon, but +also Sir Walter's very good friend and kinsman. + +If Sir Walter doubted whether it was in his quality as kinsman or +as Vice-Admiral that Sir Lewis met him, the cordiality of the +latter's embrace and the noble entertainment following at the +house of Sir Christopher Hare, near the port, whither Sir Lewis +conducted him, set this doubt at rest and relighted the lamp of +hope in the despairing soul of our adventurer. In Sir Lewis he +saw only his kinsman--his very good friend and kinsman, to insist +upon Stukeley's own description of himself--at a time when of all +others in his crowded life he needed the support of a kinsman and +the guidance of a friend. + +You know the story of this Sir Walter, who had been one of the +brightest ornaments of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and might +have added lustre to that of King James, had not his Sowship--to +employ the title bestowed upon that prince by his own queen--been +too mean of soul to appreciate the man's great worth. Courtier, +philosopher, soldier, man of letters and man of action alike, +Ralegh was at once the greatest prose-writer, and one of the +greatest captains of his age, the last survivor of that glorious +company--whose other members were Drake and Frobisher and +Hawkins--that had given England supremacy upon the seas, that had +broken the power and lowered the pride of Spain. + +His was a name that had resounded, to the honour and glory of +England, throughout the world, a name that, like Drake's, was a +thing of hate and terror to King Philip and his Spaniards; yet +the King of Scots, unclean of body and of mind, who had succeeded +to the throne of Elizabeth, must affect ignorance of that great +name which shall never die while England lives. + +When the splendid courtier stood before him--for at fifty Sir +Walter was still handsome of person and magnificent of Apparel-- +James looked him over and inquired who he might be. When they had +told him: + +"I've rawly heard of thee," quoth the royal punster, who sought +by such atrocities of speech to be acclaimed a wit. + +It was ominous of what must follow, and soon thereafter you see +this great and gallant gentleman arrested on a trumped-up charge +of high treason, bullied, vituperated, and insulted by venal, +peddling lawyers, and, finally, although his wit and sincerity +had shattered every fragment of evidence brought against him, +sentenced to death. Thus far James went; but he hesitated to go +further, hesitated to carry out the sentence. Sir Walter had too +many friends in England then; the memory of his glorious deeds +was still too fresh in the public mind, and execution might have +been attended by serious consequences for King James. Besides, +one at least of the main objects was achieved. Sir Walter's broad +acres were confiscate by virtue of that sentence, and King James +wanted the land--filched thus from one who was England's pride-- +to bestow it upon one of those golden calves of his who were +England's shame. + +"I maun hae the land for Carr. I maun hae it," was his brazen and +peevish answer to an appeal against the confiscation. + +For thirteen years Sir Walter lay in the Tower, under that +sentence of death passed in 1603, enjoying after a season a +certain liberty, visited there by his dear lady and his friends, +among whom was Henry, Prince of Wales, who did not hesitate to +publish that no man but his father--whom he detested--would keep +such a bird in a cage. He beguiled the time in literary and +scientific pursuits, distilling his essences and writing that +stupendous work of his, "The History of the World." Thus old age +crept upon him; but far from quenching the fires of enterprise +within his adventurer's soul, it brought a restlessness that +urged him at last to make a bid for liberty. Despairing of +winning it from the clemency of James, he applied his wits to +extracting it from the King's cupidity. + +Throughout his life, since the day when first he had brought +himself to the notice of a Queen by making of his cloak a carpet +for her feet, he had retained side by side with the dignity of +the sage and the greatness of the hero, the craft and opportunism +of the adventurer. His opportunity now was the straitened +condition of the royal treasury, a hint of which had been let +fall by Winwood the Secretary of State. He announced at once that +he knew of a gold mine in Guiana, the El Dorado of the Spaniards. + +On his return from a voyage to Guiana in 1595, he had written of +it thus: + +"There the common soldier shall fight for gold instead of pence, +pay himself with plates half a foot broad, whereas he breaks his +bones in other wars for provant and penury Those commanders and +chieftains that shoot at honour and abundance shall find here +more rich and beautiful cities, more temples adorned with golden +images, more sepulchres filled with treasure than either Cortez +found in Mexico or Pizarro in Peru." + +Winwood now reminded him that as a consequence many expeditions +had gone out, but failed to discover any of these things. + +"That," said Ralegh, "is because those adventurers were ignorant +alike of the country and of the art of conciliating its +inhabitants. Were I permitted to go, I would make Guiana to +England what Peru has been to Spain." + +That statement, reported to James in his need, was enough to fire +his cupidity, and when Ralegh had further added that he would +guarantee to the Crown one-fifth of the treasure without asking +any contribution towards the adventure either in money or in +ships, he was permitted to come forth and prepare for the +expedition. + + +His friends came to his assistance, and in March of 1617 he set +sail for E1 Dorado with a well-manned and wellequipped fleet of +fourteen ships, the Earls of Arundel and Pembroke standing +sureties for his return. + +From the outset the fates were unpropitious. Disaster closed the +adventure. Gondomar, the Ambassador of Spain at Whitehall, too +well-informed of what was afoot, had warned his master. Spanish +ships waited to frustrate Sir Walter, who was under pledge to +avoid all conflict with the forces of King Philip. But conflict +there was, and bloodshed in plenty, about the city of Manoa, +which the Spaniards held as the key to the country into which the +English adventurers sought to penetrate. Among the slain were the +Governor of Manoa, who was Gondomar's own brother, and Sir +Walter's eldest son. + +To Ralegh, waiting at the mouth of the Orinoco, came his beaten +forces in retreat, with the terrible news of a happening that +meant his ruin. Half-maddened, his anguish increased by the loss +of his boy, he upbraided them so fiercely that Keymis, who had +been in charge of the expedition, shut himself up in his cabin +and shot himself with a pocket-pistol. Mutiny followed, and +Whitney--most trusted of Sir Walter's captains--set sail for +England, being followed by six other ships of that fleet, which +meanwhile had been reduced to twelve. With the remaining five the +stricken Sir Walter had followed more at leisure. What need to +hurry? Disgrace, and perhaps death, awaited him in England. He +knew the power of Spain with James, who was so set upon a Spanish +marriage for his heir, knew Spain's hatred of himself, and what +eloquence it would gather in the mouth of Gondomar, intent upon +avenging his brother's death. + +He feared the worst, and so was glad upon landing to have by him +a kinsman upon whom he could lean for counsel and guidance in +this the darkest hour of all his life. Sitting late that night in +the library of Sir Christopher Hare's house, Sir Walter told his +cousin in detail the story of his misadventure, and confessed to +his misgivings. + +"My brains are broken," was his cry. + +Stukeley combed his beard in thought. He had little comfort to +offer. + +"It was not expected," said he, "that you would return. + +"Not expected?" Sir Walter's bowed white head was suddenly flung +back. Indignation blazed in the eyes that age had left undimmed. +"What act in all my life justified the belief I should be false +to honour? My danger here was made quite plain, and Captain King +would have had me steer a course for France, where I had found a +welcome and a harbour. But to consent I must have been false to +my Lords of Arundel and Pembroke, who were sureties to the King +for my return. Life is still sweet to me, despite my three-score +years and more, but honour is sweeter still." + +And then, because life was sweet, he bluntly asked his cousin: +"What is the King's intent by me?" + +"Nay, now," said Stukeley, "who shall know what passes in the +King's mind? From the signs, I judge your case to be none so +desperate. You have good friends in plenty, among whom, although +the poorest, count myself the first. Anon, when you are rested, +we'll to London by easy stages, baiting at the houses of your +friends, and enlisting their good offices on your behalf." + +Ralegh took counsel on the matter with Captain King, a bluff, +tawny-bearded seaman, who was devoted to him body and soul. + +"Sir Lewis proposes it, eh?" quoth the hardy seaman. "And Sir +Lewis is Vice-Admiral of Devon? He is not by chance bidden to +escort you to London?" + +The Captain, clearly, had escaped the spell of Stukeley's +affability. Sir Walter was indignant. He had never held his +kinsman in great esteem, and had never been on the best of terms +with him in the past. Nevertheless, he was very far from +suspecting him of what King implied. To convince him that he did +Sir Lewis an injustice, Ralegh put the blunt question to his +kinsman in King's presence. + +"Nay," said Sir Lewis, "I am not yet bidden to escort you. But as +Vice-Admiral of Devon I may at any moment be so bidden. It were +wiser, I hold, not to await such an order. Though even if it +come," he made haste to add, "you may still count upon my +friendship. I am your kinsman first, and Vice-Admiral after." + +With a smile that irradiated his handsome, virile countenance, +Sir Walter held out his hand to clasp his cousin's in token of +appreciation. Captain King expressed no opinion save what might +be conveyed in a grunt and a shrug. + +Guided now unreservedly by his cousin's counsel, Sir Walter set +out with him upon that journey to London. Captain King went with +them, as well as Sir Walter's body-servant, Cotterell, and a +Frenchman named Manourie, who had made his first appearance in +the Plymouth household on the previous day. Stukeley explained +the fellow as a gifted man of medicine, whom he had sent for to +cure him of a trivial but inconvenient ailment by which he was +afflicted. + +Journeying by slow stages, as Sir Lewis had directed, they came +at last to Brentford. Sir Walter, had he followed his own bent, +would have journeyed more slowly still, for in a measure, as he +neared London, apprehensions of what might await him there grew +ever darker. He spoke of them to King, and the blunt Captain said +nothing to dispel them. + +"You are being led like a sheep to the shambles," he declared, +"and you go like a sheep. You should have landed in France, where +you have friends. Even now it is not too late. A ship could be +procured . . ." + +"And my honour could be sunk at sea," Sir Walter harshly +concluded, in reproof of such counsel. + +But at the inn at Brentford he was sought out by a visitor, who +brought him the like advice in rather different terms. This was +De Chesne, the secretary of the French envoy, Le Clerc. Cordially +welcomed by Ralegh, the Frenchman expressed his deep concern to +see Sir Walter under arrest. + +"You conclude too hastily," laughed Sir Walter. + +"Monsieur, I do not conclude. I speak of what I am inform'." + +"Misinformed, sir. I am not a prisoner--at least, not yet," he +added, with a sigh. "I travel of my own free will to London with +my good friend and kinsman Stukeley to lay the account of my +voyage before the King." + +"Of your own free will? You travel of your own frets will? And +you are not a prisoner? Ha !" There was bitter mockery in De +Chesne's short laugh. "C'est bien drole!" And he explained: +"Milord the Duke o Buckingham, he has write in his master's name +to the ambassador Gondomar that you are taken and held at the +disposal of the King of Spain. Gondomar is to inform him whether +King Philip wish that you be sent to Spain to essay the justice +of his Catholic Majesty, or that you suffer here. Meanwhile your +quarters are being made ready in the Tower. Yet you tell me you +are not prisoner! You go of your own free will to London. Sir +Walter, do not be deceive'. If you reach London, you are lost." + +Now here was news to shatter Sir Walter's last illusion. Yet +desperately he clung to the fragments of it. The envoy's secretary +must be at fault. + +"'Tis yourself are at fault, Sir Walter, in that you trust those +about you," the Frenchman insisted. + +Sir Walter stared at him, frowning. "D'ye mean Stukeley?" quoth +he, half-indignant already at the mere suggestion. + +"Sir Lewis, he is your kinsman." De Chesne shrugged. "You should +know your family better than I. But who is this Manourie who +accompanies you? Where is he come from? What you know of him?" + +Sir Walter confessed that he knew nothing. + +"But I know much. He is a fellow of evil reputation. A spy who +does not scruple to sell his own people. And I know that letters +of commission from the Privy Council for your arrest were give' +to him in London ten days ago. Whether those letters were to +himself, or he was just the messenger to another, imports +nothing. The fact is everything. The warrant against you exists, +and it is in the hands of one or another of those that accompany +you. I say no more. As I have tol' you, you should know your own +family. But of this be sure, they mean that you go to the Tower, +and so to your death. And now, Sir Walter, if I show you the +disease I also bring the remedy. I am command' by my master to +offer you a French barque which is in the Thames, and a safe +conduct to the Governor of Calais. In France you will find safety +and honour, as your worth deserve'." + +Up sprang Sir Walter from his chair, and flung off the cloak of +thought in which he had been mantled. + +"Impossible," he said. "Impossible! There is my plighted word to +return, and there are my Lords of Arundel and Pembroke, who are +sureties for me. I cannot leave them to suffer by my default." + +"They will not suffer at all," De Chesne assured him. He was very +well informed. "King James has yielded to Spain partly because he +fears, partly because he will have a Spanish marriage for Prince +Charles, and will do nothing to trouble his good relations with +King Philip. But, after all, you have friends, whom his Majesty +also fears. If you escape' you would resolve all his perplexities. +I do not believe that any obstacle will be offer' to your escape-- +else why they permit you to travel thus without any guard, and to +retain your sword?" + +Half distracted as he was by what he had learnt, yet Sir Walter +clung stoutly and obstinately to what he believed to be the only +course for a man of honour. And so he dismissed De Chesne with +messages of gratitude but refusal to his master, and sent for +Captain King. Together they considered all that the secretary had +stated, and King agreed with De Chesne's implied opinion that it +was Sir Lewis himself who held the warrant. + +They sent for him at once, and Ralegh straightly taxed him with +it. Sir Lewis as straightly admitted it, and when King thereupon +charged him with deceit he showed no anger, but only the +profoundest grief. He sank into a chair, and took his head in his +hands. + +"What could I do? What could I do?" he cried. "The warrant came +in the very moment we were setting out. At first I thought of +telling you; and then I bethought me that to do so would be but +to trouble your mind, without being able to offer you help." + +Sir Walter understood what was implied. "Did you not say," he +asked, "that you were my kinsman first and Vice-Admiral of Devon +after?" + +"Ay--and so I am. Though I must lose my office of Vice-Admiral, +which has cost me six hundred pounds, if I suffer you to escape, +I'd never hesitate if it were not for Manourie, who watches me as +closely as he watches you, and would baulk us at the last. And +that is why I have held my peace on the score of this warrant. +What can it help that I should trouble you with the matter until +at the same time I can offer you some way out?" + +"The Frenchman has a throat, and throats can be slit," said the +downright King. + +"So they can; and men can be hanged for slitting them," returned +Sir Lewis, and thereafter resumed and elaborated his first +argument, using now such forceful logic and obvious sincerity +that Sir Walter was convinced. He was no less convinced, too, of +the peril in which he stood. He plied those wits of his, which +had rarely failed him in an extremity. Manourie was the +difficulty. But in his time he had known many of these agents +who, without sentimental interest and purely for the sake of +gold, were ready to play such parts; and never yet had he known +one who was not to be corrupted. So that evening he desired +Manourie's company in the room above stairs that had been set +apart for Sir Walter's use. Facing him across the table at which +both were seated, Sir Walter thrust his clenched fist upon the +board, and, suddenly opening it, dazzled the Frenchman's beady +eyes with the jewel sparkling in his palm. + +"Tell me, Manourie, are you paid as much as that to betray me?" + +Manourie paled a little under his tan. He was a swarthy, sharp- +featured fellow, slight and wiry. He looked into Sir Walter's +grimly smiling eyes, then again at the white diamond, from which +the candlelight was striking every colour of the rainbow. He made +a shrewd estimate of its price, and shook his black head. He had +quite recovered from the shock of Sir Walter's question. + +"Not half as much," he confessed, with impudence. + +"Then you might find it more remunerative to serve me," said the +knight. "This jewel is to be earned." + +The agent's eyes flickered; he passed his tongue over his lips. +"As how?" quoth he. + +"Briefly thus: I have but learnt of the trammel in which I am +taken. I must have time to concert my measures of escape, and +time is almost at an end. You are skilled in drugs, so my kinsman +tells me. Can you so drug me as to deceive physicians that I am +in extremis?" + +Manourie considered awhile. + +"I . . . I think I could," he answered presently. + +"And keep faith with me in this, at the price of, say .. two such +stones?" + +The venal knave gasped in amazement. This was not generosity; it +was prodigality. He recovered again, and swore himself Sir +Walter's. + +"About it, then." Sir Walter rolled the gem across the board into +the clutch of the spy, which pounced to meet it. "Keep that in +earnest. The other will follow when we have cozened them." + +Next morning Sir Walter could not resume the journey. When +Cotterell went to dress him he found his master taken with +vomits, and reeling like a drunkard. The valet ran to fetch Sir +Lewis, and when they returned together they found Sir Walter on +all fours gnawing the rushes on the floor, his face livid and +horribly distorted, his brow glistening with sweat. + +Stukeley, in alarm, ordered Cotterell to get his master back to +bed and to foment him, which was done. But on the next day there +was no improvement, and on the third things were in far more +serious case. The skin of his brow and arms and breast was +inflamed, and covered with horrible purple blotches--the result +of an otherwise harmless ointment with which the French empiric +had supplied him. + +When Stukeley beheld him thus disfigured, and lying apparently +inert and but half-conscious upon his bed, he backed away in +terror. The Vice-Admiral had seen afore-time the horrible +manifestations of the plague, and could not be mistaken here. He +fled from the infected air of his kinsman's chamber, and summoned +what physicians were available to pronounce and prescribe. The +physicians came--three in number--but manifested no eagerness to +approach the patient closely. The mere sight of him was enough to +lead them to the decision that he was afflicted with the plague +in a singularly virulent form. + +Presently one of them plucked up courage so far as to feel the +pulse of the apparently delirious patient. Its feebleness +confirmed his diagnosis; moreover the hand he held was cold and +turgid. He was not to know that Sir Walter had tightly wrapped +about his upper arm the ribbon from his poniard, and so he was +entirely deceived. + +The physicians withdrew, and delivered their verdict, whereupon +Sir Lewis at once sent word of it to the Privy Council. + +That afternoon the faithful Captain King, sorely afflicted by the +news, came to visit his master, and was introduced to Sir Walter's +chamber by Manourie, who was in attendance upon him. To the seaman's +amazement he found Sir Walter sitting up in bed, surveying in a +hand-mirror a face that was horrible beyond description with the +complacent smile of one who takes satisfaction in his appearance. +Yet there was no fevered madness in the smiling eyes. They were +alive with intelligence, amounting, indeed, to craft. + +"Ah, King!" was the glad welcome "The prophet David did make +himself a fool, and suffered spittle to fall upon his beard, to +escape from the hands of his enemies And there was Brutus, ay, +and others as memorable who have descended to such artifice." + +Though he laughed, it is clear that he was seeking to excuse an +unworthiness of which he was conscious. + +"Artifice?" quoth King, aghast. "Is this artifice?" + +"Ay--a hedge against my enemies, who will be afraid to approach +me." + +King sat himself down by his master's bed. "A better hedge +against your enemies, Sir Walter, would have been the strip of +sea 'twixt here and France. Would to Heaven you had done as I +advised ere you set foot in this ungrateful land." + +"The omission may be repaired," said Sir Walter. + +Before the imminence of his peril, as now disclosed to him, Sir +Walter had been reconsidering De Chesne's assurance touching my +Lords of Arundel and Pembroke, and he had come to conclude--the +more readily, perhaps because it was as he would have it--that De +Chesne was right; that to break faith with them were no such +great matter after all, nor one for which they would be called +upon to suffer. And so, now, when it was all but too late, he +yielded to the insistence of Captain King, and consented to save +himself by flight to France. King was to go about the business of +procuring a ship without loss of time. Yet there was no need of +desperate haste, as was shown when presently orders came to +Brentford for the disposal of the prisoner. The King, who was at +Salisbury, desired that Sir Walter should be conveyed to his own +house in London. Stukeley reported this to him, proclaiming it a +sign of royal favour. Sir Walter was not deceived. He knew the +reason to be fear lest he should infect the Tower with the plague +by which he was reported stricken. + +So the journey was resumed, and Sir Walter was brought to London, +and safely bestowed in his own house, but ever in the care of his +loving friend and kinsman. Manourie's part being fulfilled and +the aim accomplished, Sir Walter completed the promised payment +by bestowing upon him the second diamond--a form of eminently +portable currency with which the knight was well supplied. On the +morrow Manourie was gone, dismissed as a consequence of the part +he had played. + +It was Stukeley who told Sir Walter this--a very well informed +and injured Stukeley, who asked to know what he had done to +forfeit the knight's confidence that behind his back Sir Walter +secretly concerted means of escape. Had his cousin ceased to +trust him? + +Sir Walter wondered. Looking into that lean, crafty face, he +considered King's unquenchable mistrust of the man, bethought him +of his kinsman's general neediness, remembered past events that +shed light upon his ways and nature, and began now at last to have +a sense of the man's hypocrisy and double-dealing. Yet he reasoned +in regard to him precisely as he had reasoned in regard to Manourie. +The fellow was acquisitive, and therefore corruptible. If, indeed, +he was so base that he had been bought to betray Sir Walter, then +he could be bought again to betray those who had so bought him. + +"Nay, nay," said Sir Walter easily. "It is not lack of trust in +you, my good friend. But you are the holder of an office, and +knowing as I do the upright honesty of your character I feared to +embarrass you with things whose very knowledge must give you the +parlous choice of being false to that office or false to me." + +Stukeley broke forth into imprecations. He was, he vowed, the +most accursed and miserable of men that such a task as this +should have fallen to his lot. And he was a poor man, too, +he would have his cousin remember. It was unthinkable that he +should use the knowledge he had gained to attempt to frustrate +Sir Walter's plans of escape to France. And this notwithstanding +that if Sir Walter escaped, it is certain he would lose his +office of Vice-Admiral and the six hundred pounds he had paid for +it. + +"As to that, you shall be at no loss," Sir Walter assured him. "I +could not suffer it. I pledge you my honour, Lewis, that you +shall have a thousand pounds from my wife on the day that I am +safely landed in France or Holland. Meanwhile, in earnest of what +is to come, here is a toy of value for you." And he presented Sir +Lewis with a jewel of price, a great ruby encrusted in diamonds. + +Thus reassured that he would be immune from pecuniary loss, Sir +Lewis was ready to throw himself whole-heartedly into Sir +Walter's plans, and to render him all possible assistance. True, +this assistance was a costly matter; there was this person to be +bought and that one; there were expenses here and expenses there, +incurred by Sir Lewis on his kinsman's behalf; and there were odd +presents, too, which Stukeley seemed to expect and which Sir +Walter could not deny him. He had no illusions now that King had +been right; that here he was dealing with a rogue who would exact +the uttermost farthing for his services, but he was gratified at +the shrewdness with which he had taken his cousin's measure, and +did not grudge the bribes by which he was to escape the scaffold. + +De Chesne came again to the house in London, to renew his +master's offer of a ship to carry Sir Walter overseas, and such +other assistance as Sir Walter might require But by now the +knight's arrangements were complete. His servant Cotterell had +come to inform him that his own boatswain, now in London, was the +owner of a ketch, at present lying at Tilbury, admirably suited +for the enterprise and entirely at Sir Walter's disposal. It had +been decided, then, with the agreement of Captain King, that they +should avail themselves of this; and accordingly Cotterell was +bidden desire the boatswain to have the craft made ready for sea +at once. In view of this, and anxious to avoid unnecessarily +compromising the French envoy, Sir Walter gratefully declined the +latter's offer. + +And so we come at last to that July evening appointed for the +flight. Ralegh, who, having for some time discarded the use of +Manourie's ointment, had practically recovered his normal +appearance, covering his long white hair under a Spanish hat, and +muffling the half of his face in the folds of a cloak, came to +Wapping Stairs--that ill-omened place of execution of pirates and +sea-rovers--accompanied by Cotterell, who carried the knight's +cloak-bag, and by Sir Lewis and Sir Lewis's son. Out of +solicitude for their dear friend and kinsman, the Stukeleys could +not part from him until he was safely launched upon his voyage. +At the head of the stairs they were met by Captain King; at the +foot of them a boat was waiting, as concerted, the boatswain at +the tiller. + +King greeted them with an air of obvious relief. + +"You feared perhaps we should not come," said Stukeley, with a +sneer at the Captain's avowed mistrust of him. "Yet now, I trust, +you'll do me the justice to admit that I have shown myself an +honest man." + +The uncompromising King looked at him and frowned, misliking the +words. + +"I hope that you'll continue so," he answered stiffly. + +They went down the slippery steps to the boat, and then the shore +glided slowly past them as they pushed off into the stream of the +ebbing tide. + +A moment later, King, whose suspicious eyes kept a sharp look- +out, observed another boat put off some two hundred yards higher +up the river. At first he saw it breast the stream as if +proceeding towards London Bridge, then abruptly swing about and +follow them. Instantly he drew the attention of Sir Walter to +that pursuing wherry. + +"What's this?" quoth Sir Walter harshly. "Are we betrayed?" + +The watermen, taking fright at the words, hung now upon their +oars. + +"Put back," Sir Walter bade them. "I'll not betray my friends to +no purpose. Put back, and let us home again." + +"Nay, now," said Stukeley gravely, himself watching the wherry. +"We are more than a match for them in oars, even if their purpose +be such as you suspect--for which suspicion, when all is said, +there is no ground. On then!" He addressed himself to the +watermen, whipping out a pistol, and growing truculent in mien +and voice. "To your oars! Row, you dogs, or I'll pistol you where +you sit." + +The men bent their backs forthwith, and the boat swept on. But +Sir Walter was still full of apprehensions, still questioning the +wisdom of keeping to their down-stream course if they were being +followed. + +"But are we followed?" cried the impatient Sir Lewis. "'Sdeath, +cousin, is not the river a highway for all the world to use, and +must every wherry that chances to go our way be in pursuit of us? +If you are to halt at every shadow, faith, you'll never +accomplish anything. I vow I am unfortunate in having a friend +whom I would save so full of doubts and fears." + +Sir Walter gave him reason, and even King came to conclude that +he had suspected him unjustly, whilst the rowers, under +Stukeley's suasion, now threw themselves heartily into their +task, and onward sped the boat through the deepening night, +taking but little account of that other wherry that hung ever in +their wake. In this wise they came at length to Greenwich on the +last of the ebb. But here finding the water beginning to grow +against them, and wearied by the exertion into which Stukeley's +enthusiasm had flogged them, the watermen paused again, declaring +that they could not reach Gravesend before morning. + +Followed a brief discussion, at the end of which Sir Walter bade +them put him ashore at Purfleet. + +"And that's the soundest counsel," quoth the boatswain. "For at +Purfleet we can get horses on to Tilbury." + +Stukeley was of the same opinion; but not so the more practical +Captain King. + +"'Tis useless," he declared to them. "At this hour how shall you +get horses to go by land?" + +And now, Sir Walter, looking over his shoulder, saw the other +wherry bearing down upon them through the faintly opalescent +mists of dawn. A hail came to them across the water. + +"Oh, 'Sdeath! We are betrayed!" cried Ralegh bitterly, and +Stukeley swore more fiercely still. Sir Walter turned to him. +"Put ashore," he said shortly, "and let us home." + +"Ay, perhaps 'twere best. For to-night there's an end to the +enterprise, and if I am taken in your company now, what shall be +said to me for this active assistance in your escape?" His voice +was gloomy, his face drawn and white. + +"Could you not plead that you had but pretended to go with me to +seize on my private papers?" suggested the ingenious mind of +Ralegh. + +"I could. But shall I be believed? Shall I?" His loom was +deepening to despair. + +Ralegh was stricken almost with remorse on his cousin's account. +His generous heart was now more concerned with the harm to his +friends than with his own doom. He desired to make amends to +Stukeley, but had no means save such as lay in the power of that +currency he used. Having naught else to give, he must give that. +He plunged his hand into an inner pocket, and brought forth a +handful of jewels, which he thrust upon his kinsman. + +"Courage," he urged him. "Up now, and we may yet win out and +home, so that all will be well with you at least, and you shall +not suffer for your friendship to me." + +Stukeley embraced him then, protesting his love and desire to +serve him. + +They came to land at last, just below Greenwich bridge, and +almost at the same moment the other wherry grounded immediately +above them. Men sprang from her, with the obvious intent of +cutting off their retreat. + +"Too late!" said Ralegh, and sighed, entirely without passion +now that the dice had fallen and showed that the game was lost. +"You must act on my suggestion to explain your presence, Lewis." + +"Indeed, there is no other course," Sir Lewis agreed. "And you are +in the same case, Captain King. You must confess that you joined +with me but to betray Sir Walter. I'll bear you out. Thus, each +supporting the other . . ." + +"I'll roast in Hell before I brand myself a traitor," roared the +Captain furiously. "And were you an honest man, Sir Lewis, you'ld +understand my meaning." + +"So, so?" said Stukeley, in a quiet, wicked voice. And it was +observed that his son and one or two of the watermen had taken +their stand beside him as if in readiness for action. "Why, then, +since you will have it so, Captain, I arrest you, in the King's +name, on a charge of abetting treason." + +The Captain fell back a step, stricken a moment by sheer +amazement. Then he groped for a pistol to do at last what he +realized he should have done long since. Instantly he was +overpowered. It was only then that Sir Walter understood the +thing that had happened, and with understanding came fury. The +old adventurer flung back his cloak, and snatched at his rapier +to put it through the vitals of his dear friend and kinsman. But +he was too late. Hands seized upon him, and he found himself held +by the men from the wherry, confronted by a Mr. William Herbert, +whom he knew for Stukeley's cousin, and he heard Mr. Herbert +formally asking him for the surrender of his sword. + +Instantly he governed himself, repressed his fury. He looked +coldly at his kinsman, whose face showed white and evil in the +growing light of the early summer dawn "Sir Lewis," was all he +said, "these actions will not turn out to your credit." + +He had no illusion left. His understanding was now a very full +one. His dear friend and kinsman had played him false throughout, +intending first to drain him of his resources before finally +flinging the empty husk to the executioner. Manourie had been in +the plot; he had run with the hare and hunted with the hounds; +and Sir Walter's own servant Cotterell had done no less. Amongst +them they had "cozened the great cozener"--to use Stukeley's own +cynical expression. Even so, it was only on his trial that Sir +Walter plumbed the full depth of Stukeley's baseness; for it was +only then he learnt that his kinsman had been armed by a warrant +of immunity to assist his projects of escape, so that he might +the more effectively incriminate and betray him; and Sir Walter +discovered also that the ship in which he had landed, and other +matters, were to provide additional Judas' fees to this +acquisitive betrayer. + +If to escape his enemies Sir Walter had had recourse to artifices +unworthy the great hero that he was, now that all hope was lost +he conducted himself with a dignity and cheerfulness beyond +equal. So calm and self-possessed and masterly was his defence +from the charge of piracy preferred at the request of Spain, and +so shrewd in its inflaming appeal to public opinion, that his +judges were constrained to abandon that line of prosecution, and +could discover no way of giving his head to King James save by +falling back upon the thirteen-year old sentence of death against +him. Of this they now ordered execution. + +Never a man who loved his life as dearly as Sir Walter loved it +met death as blithely. He dressed himself for the scaffold with +that elegance and richness which all his life he had observed. He +wore a ruff band and black velvet wrought nightgown over a +doublet of hair-coloured satin, a black wrought waistcoat, black +cut taffety breeches and ash-coloured silk stockings. Under his +plumed hat he covered his white locks with a wrought nightcap. +This last he bestowed on his way to the scaffold upon a bald- +headed old man who had come to take a last look of him, with the +observation that he was more in need of it than himself. When he +had removed it, it was observed that his hair was not curled as +usual. This was a matter that had fretted his barber Peter in the +prison of the Gatehouse at Westminster that morning. But Sir +Walter had put him off with a laugh and a jest. + +"Let them comb it that shall have it," he had said of his own +head. + +Having taken his leave of the friends who had flocked about him +with the observation that he had a long journey before him, he +called for the axe, and, when presented to him, ran his fingers +along the edge, and smiled. + +"Sharp medicine," quoth he, "but a sound cure for all diseases." + +When presently the executioner bade him turn his head to the +East: + +"It is no great matter which way a man's head stands, so that his +heart lies right," he said. + +Thus passed one of Englanl's greatest heroes, indeed one of the +very makers of this England, and than his death there is no more +shameful blot upon the shameful reign of that pusillanimous +James, unclean of body and of soul, who sacrificed him to the +King of Spain. + +A spectator of his death, who suffered for his words--as men must +ever suffer for the regardless utterance of Truth--declared that +England had not such another head to cut off. + +As for Stukeley, the acquisitiveness which had made a Judas of +him was destined, by a poetic justice, ever desired but rarely +forthcoming for knaves, soon to be his ruin. He was caught +diminishing the gold coin of the realm by the operation known to- +day as "clipping," and with him was taken his creature Manourie, +who, to save himself, turned chief witness against Stukeley. Sir +Lewis was sentenced to death, but saved himself by purchasing his +pardon at the cost of every ill-gotten shilling he possessed, and +he lived thereafter as bankrupt of means as he was of honour. + +Yet before all this happened, Sir Lewis had for his part in Sir +Walter Ralegh's death come to be an object of execration +throughout the land, and to be commonly known as "Sir Judas." At +Whitehall he suffered rebuffs and insults that found a climax in +the words addressed to him by the Lord Admiral, to whom he went +to give an account of his office. + +"Base fellow, darest thou who art the contempt and scorn of men +offer thyself in my presence?" + +For a man of honour there was but one course. Sir Judas was not a +man of honour. He carried his grievance to the King. James leered +at him. + +"What wouldst thou have me do? Wouldst thou have me hang him? On +my soul, if I should hang all that speak ill of thee, all the +trees of the country would not suffice, so great is the number." + + + + + +VIII. HIS INSOLENCE OF BUCKINGHAM + +George Villier's Courtship of Ann of Austria + + + +He was Insolence incarnate. + +Since the day when, a mere country lad, his singular good looks +had attracted the attention of King James--notoriously partial to +good-looking lads--and had earned him the office of cup-bearer to +his Majesty, the career of George Villiers is to be read in a +series of acts of violent and ever-increasing arrogance, +expressing the vanity and levity inherent in his nature. Scarcely +was he established in the royal favour than he distinguished +himself by striking an offending gentleman in the very presence +of his sovereign--an act of such gross disrespect to royalty that +his hand would have paid forfeit, as by law demanded, had not the +maudlin king deemed him too lovely a fellow to be so cruelly +maimed. + +Over the mind and will of King Charles his ascendancy became even +greater than it had been over that of King James; and it were +easy to show that the acts of George Villiers' life supplied the +main planks of that scaffold in Whitehall whereupon Charles +Stuart came to lose his head. Charles was indeed a martyr; a +martyr chiefly to the reckless, insolent, irresponsible vanity of +this Villiers, who, from a simple country squire with nothing but +personal beauty to recommend him, had risen to be, as Duke of +Buckingham, the first gentleman in England. + +The heady wine of power had gone to his brain, and so addled it +that, as John Chamberlain tells us, there was presently a touch +of craziness in him--of the variety, no doubt, known to modern +psychologists as megalomania He lost the sense of proportion, and +was without respect for anybody or anything. The Commons of +England and the immensely dignified Court of Spain--during that +disgraceful, pseudo-romantic adventure at Madrid--were alike the +butts of this parvenu's unmeasured arrogance But the crowning +insolence of his career was that tragicomedy the second act of +which was played on a June evening in an Amiens garden on the +banks of the river Somme. + +Three weeks ago--on the 14th May, 1625, to be precise--Buckingham +had arrived in Paris as Ambassador Extra-ordinary, charged with +the task of conducting to England the King of France's sister, +Henrietta Maria, who three days earlier had been married by proxy +to King Charles. + +The occasion enabled Buckingham to fling the reins on to the neck +of his mad vanity, to indulge to the very fullest his crazy +passion for ostentation and magnificence. Because the Court of +France was proverbially renowned for splendour and luxury, +Buckingham felt it due to himself to extinguish its brilliance by +his own. On his first coming to the Louvre he literally blazed. +He wore a suit of white satin velvet with a short cloak in the +Spanish fashion, the whole powdered over with diamonds to the +value of some ten thousand pounds. An enormous diamond clasped +the heron's plume in his hat; diamonds flashed in the hilt of his +sword; diamonds studded his very spurs, which were of beaten +gold; the highest orders of England, Spain, and France flamed on +his breast. On the occasion of his second visit he wore a suit of +purple satin, of intent so lightly sewn with pearls that as he +moved he shook them off like raindrops, and left them to lie +where they fell, as largesse for pages and the lesser fry of the +Court. + +His equipages and retinue were of a kind to match his personal +effulgence. His coaches were lined with velvet and covered with +cloth of gold, and some seven hundred people made up his train. +There were musicians, watermen, grooms of the chamber, thirty +chief yeomen, a score of cooks, as many grooms, a dozen pages, +two dozen footmen, six outriders, and twenty gentlemen, each with +his own attendants, all arrayed as became the satellites of a +star of such great magnitude. + +Buckingham succeeded in his ambition. Paris, that hitherto had +set the fashion to the world, stared mouth-agape, dazzled by the +splendour of this superb and scintillating ambassador. + +Another, by betraying consciousness of the figure that he cut, +might have made himself ridiculous. But Buckingham's insolent +assurance was proof against that peril. Supremely self-satisfied, +he was conscious only that what he did could not be better done, +and he ruffled it with an air of easy insouciance, as if in all +this costly display there was nothing that was not normal. He +treated with princes, and even with the gloomy Louis XIII., as +with equals; and, becoming more and more intoxicated with his +very obvious success, he condescended to observe approvingly the +fresh beauty of the young Queen. + +Anne of Austria, then in her twenty-fourth year, was said to be +one of the most beautiful women in Europe. She was of a good +height and carriage, slight, and very gracefully built, of a +ravishing fairness of skin and hair, whilst a look of wistfulness +had come to invest with an indefinable tenderness her splendid +eyes. Her childless marriage to the young King of France, which +had endured now for ten years, had hardly been successful. +Gloomy, taciturn, easily moved to suspicion, and difficult to +convince of error, Louis XIII. held his wife aloof, throwing up +between himself and her a wall of coldness, almost of dislike. + +There is a story--and Tallemant des Raux gives credit to it-- +that in the early days of her reign as Queen of France, Richelieu +had fallen deeply in love with her, and that she, with the +mischief of an irresponsible young girl, had encouraged him, +merely to betray him to a ridicule which his proud spirit had +never been able to forgive. Be that or another the reason, the +fact that Richelieu hated her, and subjected her to his +vindictive persecution, is beyond dispute. And it was he who by a +hundred suggestions poisoned against her the King's mind, and +thus kept ever open the gulf between the two. + +The eyes of that neglected young wife dilated a little, and +admiration kindled in them, when they rested upon the dazzling +figure of my Lord of Buckingham. He must have seemed to her a +figure of romance, a prince out of a fairy-tale. + +That betraying glance he caught, and it inflamed at once his +monstrous arrogance. To the scalps already adorning the belt of +his vanity he would add that of the love of a beautiful young +queen. Perhaps he was thrilled in his madness by the thought of +the peril that would spice such an adventure. Into that adventure +he plunged forthwith. He wooed her during the eight days that he +abode in Paris, flagrantly, openly, contemptuous of courtiers and +of the very King himself. At the Louvre, at the Hotel de +Chevreuse, at the Luxembourg, where the Queen-Mother held her +Court, at the Hotel de Guise, and elsewhere he was ever at the +Queen's side. + +Richelieu, whose hard pride and self-love had been wounded by the +Duke's cavalier behaviour, who despised the fellow for an upstart, +and may even have resented that so shallow a man should have been +sent to treat with a statesman of his own caliber--for other +business beside the marriage had brought Buckingham to Paris-- +suggested to the King that the Duke's manner in approaching the +Queen lacked a proper deference, and the Queen's manner of +receiving him a proper circumspection. Therefore the King's long +face became longer, his gloomy eyes gloomier, as he looked on. +Far, however, from acting as a deterrent, the royal scowl was +mere incense to the vanity of Buckingham, a spur to goad him on +to greater daring. + +On the 2nd of June a splendid company of some four thousand +French nobles and ladies, besides Buckingham and his retinue, +quitted Paris to accompany Henrietta Maria, now Queen of England, +on the first stage of her journey to her new home. The King was +not of the party. He had gone with Richelieu to Fontainebieau, +leaving it to the Queen and the Queen-Mother to accompany his +sister. + +Buckingham missed no chance upon that journey of pressing his +attentions upon Anne of Austria. Duty dictated that his place +should be beside the carriage of Henrietta Maria. But duty did +not apply to His Insolence of Buckingham, so indifferent of whom +he might slight or offend. And then the devil took a hand in the +game. + +At Amiens, the Queen-Mother fell ill, so that the Court was +compelled to halt there for a few days to give her Majesty the +repose she required. Whilst Amiens was thus honoured by the +presence of three queens at one and the same time within its +walls, the Duc de Chaulnes gave an entertainment in the Citadel. +Buckingham attended this, and in the dance that followed the +banquet it was Buckingham who led out the Queen. + +Thereafter the royal party had returned to the Bishop's Palace, +where it was lodged, and a small company went out to take the +evening cool in the Bishop's fragrant gardens on the Somme, +Buckingham ever at the Queen's side. Anne of Austria was attended +by her Mistress of the Household, the beautiful, witty Marie de +Rohan, Duchess of Chevreuse, and by her equerry, Monsieur de +Putange. Madame de Chevreuse had for cavalier that handsome +coxcomb, Lord Holland, who was one of Buckingham's creatures, +between whom and herself a certain transient tenderness had +sprung up. M. de Putange was accompanied by Madame de Vernet, +with whom at the time he was over head and ears in love. +Elsewhere about the spacious gardens other courtiers sauntered. + +Now either Madame de Chevreuse and M. de Putange were too deeply +engrossed in their respective companions, or else the state of +their own hearts and the tepid, languorous eventide disposed them +complacently towards the affair of gallantry upon which their +mistress almost seemed to wish to be embarked. They forgot, it +would seem, that she was a queen, and remembered sympathetically +that she was a woman, and that she had for companion the most +splendid cavalier in all the world. Thus they committed the +unpardonable fault of lagging behind, and allowing her to pass +out of their sight round the bend of an avenue by the water. + +No sooner did Buckingham realize that he was alone with the +Queen, that the friendly dusk and a screen of trees secured them +from observation, than, piling audacity up on audacity, he +determined to accomplish here and now the conquest of this lovely +lady who had used him so graciously and received his advances +with such manifest pleasure. + +"How soft the night! How exquisite!" he sighed. + +"Indeed," she agreed. "And how still, but for the gentle murmur +of the river." + +"The river!" he cried, on a new note. "That is no gentle murmur. +The river laughs, maliciously mocking. The river is evil." + +"Evil?" quoth she. He had checked in his step, and they stood now +side by side. + +"Evil," he repeated. "Evil and cruel. It goes to swell the sea +that soon shall divide me from you, and it mocks me, rejoicing +wickedly in the pain that will presently be mine." + +It took her aback. She laughed, a little breathlessly, to hide +her discomposure, and scarce knew how to answer him, scarce knew +whether she took pleasure or offense in his daring encroachment +upon that royal aloofness in which she dwelt, and in which her +Spanish rearing had taught her she must ever dwell. + + +"Oh, but Monsieur l'Ambassadeur, you will be with us again, +perhaps before so very long." + +His answer came in a swift, throbbing question, his lips so near +her face that she could feel his breath hot upon her cheek. + +"Do you wish it, madame? Do you wish it? I implore you, of your +pity, say but that you wish it, and I will come, though I tear +down half a world to reach you." + +She recoiled in Wright and displeasure before a wooing so +impetuous and violently outspoken; though the displeasure was +perhaps but a passing emotion, the result of early training. Yet +she contrived to answer him with the proper icy dignity due to +her position as a princess of Spain, now Queen of France. + +"Monsieur, you forget yourself. The Queen of France does not +listen to such words. You are mad, I think." + +"Yes, I am mad," he flung back. "Mad with love--so mad that I +have forgot that you are a queen and I an ambassador. Under the +ambassador there is a man, under the queen a woman--our real +selves, not the titles with which Fate seeks to dissemble our +true natures. And with the whole strength of my true nature do I +love you, so potently, so overwhelmingly that I will not believe +you sensible of no response." + +Thus torrentially he delivered himself, and swept her a little +off her feet. She was a woman, as he said; a queen, it is true; +but also a neglected, coldly-used wife; and no one had ever +addressed her in anything approaching this manner, no one had +ever so much as suggested that her existence could matter +greatly, that in her woman's nature there was the magic power of +awakening passion and devotion. He was so splendidly magnificent, +so masterful and unrivalled, and he came thus to lay his being, +as it were, in homage at her feet. It touched her a little, who +knew so little of the real man. It cost her an effort to repulse +him, and the effort was not very convincing. + +"Hush, monsieur, for pity's sake! You must not talk so to me. It +. . . it hurts." + +O fatal word! She meant that it was her dignity as Queen he +wounded, for she clung to that as to the anchor of salvation. But +he in his egregious vanity must of cours e misunderstand. + +"Hurts!" he cried, and the rapture in his accents should have +warned her. "Because you resist it, because you fight against the +commands of your true self. Anne!" He seized her, and crushed her +to him. "Anne!" + +Wild terror gripped her at that almost brutal contact, and anger, +too, her dignity surging up in violent outraged rebellion. A +scream, loud and piercing, broke from her and rang through the +still garden. It brought him to his senses. It was as if he had +been lifted up into the air, and then suddenly allowed to fall. + +He sprang away from her, an incoherent exclamation on his lips, +and when an instant later Monsieur de Putange came running up in +alarm, his hand upon his sword, those two stood with the width of +the avenue between them, Buckingham erect and defiant, the Queen +breathing hard and trembling, a hand upon her heaving breast as +if to repress its tumult. + +"Madame! Madame!" had been Putange's cry, as he sprang forward in +alarm and self-reproach. + +He stood now almost between them, looking from one to the other +in bewilderment. Neither spoke. + +"You cried out, Madame," M. de Putange reminded her, and +Buckingham may well have wondered whether presently he would be +receiving M. de Putange's sword in his vitals. He must have known +that his life now hung upon her answer. + +"I called you, that was all," said the Queen, in a voice that she +strove to render calm. "I confess that I was startled to find +myself alone with M. I'Ambassadeur. Do not let it occur again, +M. de Putange!" + +The equerry bowed in silence. His itching fingers fell away from +his sword-hilt, and he breathed more freely. He had no illusions +as to what must have happened. But he was relieved there were to +be no complications. The others now coming up with them, the +party thereafter kept together until presently Buckingham and +Lord Holland took their leave. + +On the morrow the last stage of the escorting journey was +accomplished. A little way beyond Amiens the Court took its leave +of Henrietta Maria, entrusting her now to Buckingham and his +followers, who were to convey her safely to Charles. + +It was a very contrite and downcast Buckingham who came now to +Anne of Austria as she sat in her coach with the Princesse de +Conti for only companion. + +"Madame," he said, "I am come to take my leave." + +"Fare you well, Monsieur l'Ambassadeur," she said, and her voice +was warm and gentle, as if to show him that she bore no malice. + +"I am come to ask your pardon, madame," he said, in a low voice. + +"Oh, monsieur--no more, I beg you." She looked down; her hands +were trembling, her cheeks going red and white by turns. + +He put his head behind the curtains of the coach, so that none +might see him from outside, and looking at him now, she beheld +tears in his eyes. + +"Do not misunderstand me, madame. I ask your pardon only for +having discomposed you, startled you. As for what I said, it were +idle to ask pardon, since I could no more help saying it than I +can help drawing breath. I obeyed an instinct stronger than the +will to live. I gave expression to something that dominates my +whole being, and will ever dominate it as long as I have life. +Adieu, madame! At need you know where a servant who will gladly +die for you is to be found." He kissed the hem of her robe, +dashed the back of his hand across his eyes, and was gone before +she could say a word in answer. + +She sat pale, and very thoughtful, and the Princesse de Conti, +watching her furtively, observed that her eyes were moist. + +"I will answer for the Queen's virtue," she stated afterwards, +"but I cannot speak so positively for the hardness of her heart, +since without doubt the Duke's tears affected her spirits." + +But it was not yet the end. As Buckingham was nearing Calais, he +was met by a courier from Whitehall, with instructions for him +regarding the negotiations he had been empowered to carry out +with France in the matter of an alliance against Spain-- +negotiations which had not thriven with Louis and Richelieu, +possibly because the ambassador was ill-chosen. The instructions +came too late to be of use, but in time to serve as a pretext for +Buckingham's return to Amiens. There he sought an audience of the +Queen-Mother, and delivered himself to her of a futile message +for the King. This chimerical business--as Madame de Motteville +shrewdly calls it--being accomplished, he came to the real matter +which had prompted him to use that pretext for his return, and +sought audience of Anne of Austria. + +It was early morning, and the Queen was not yet risen. But the +levées at the Court of France were precisely what the word +implies, and they were held by royalty whilst still abed. It was +not, therefore, amazing that he should have been admitted to her +presence. She was alone save for her lady-in-waiting, Madame de +Lannoi, who was, we are told, aged, prudent and virtuous. +Conceive, therefore, the outraged feelings of this lady upon +seeing the English duke precipitate himself wildly into the room, +and on his knees at the royal bedside seize the coverlet and bear +it to his lips. + +Whilst the young Queen looked confused and agitated, Madame de +Lannoi became a pillar of icy dignity. + +"M. le Duc," says she, "it is not customary in France to kneel +when speaking to the Queen." + +"I care nothing for the customs of France, madame" he answered +rudely. "I am not a Frenchman." + +"That is too obvious, monsieur," snapped the elderly, prudent and +virtuous countess. "Nevertheless, whilst in France perhaps +monsieur will perceive the convenience of conforming to French +customs. Let me call for a chair for Monsieur le Duc." + +"I do not want a chair, madame." + +The countess cast her eyes to Heaven, as if to say, "I suppose +one cannot expect anything else in a foreigner," and let him +kneel as he insisted, placing herself, however, protectingly at +the Queen's pillow. + +Nevertheless, entirely unabashed, heeding Madame de Lannoi's +presence no more than if she had been part of the room's +furniture, the Duke delivered himself freely of what was in his +mind. He had been obliged to return to Amiens on a matter of +State. It was unthinkable that he should be so near to her +Majesty and not hasten to cast himself at her feet; and whilst +gladdening the eyes of his body with the sight of her matchless +perfection, the image of which was ever before the eyes of his +soul, allow himself the only felicity life now held for him--that +of protesting himself her utter slave. This, and much more of the +kind, did he pour out, what time the Queen, embarrassed and +annoyed beyond utterance, could only stare at him in silence. + +Apart from the matchless impudence of it, it was also of a +rashness beyond pardon. Unless Madame de Lannoi were the most +circumspect of women, here was a fine tale for Court gossips, and +for the King's ears, a tale that must hopelessly compromise the +Queen. For that, Buckingham, in his self-sufficiency and +arrogance, appears to have cared nothing. One suspects that it +would have pleased his vanity to have his name linked with the +Queen's by the lips of scandal. + +She found her tongue at last. + +"Monsieur le Duc," she said in her confusion, "it was not +necessary, it was not worth while, to have asked audience of me +for this. You have leave to go." + +He looked up in doubt, and saw only confusion; attributed it +perhaps to the presence of that third party to which himself he +had been so indifferent. He kissed the coverlet again, stumbled +to his feet, and reached the door. Thence he sent her a flaming +glance of his bold eyes, and hand on heart-- + +"Adieu, madame!" said he in tragic tones, and so departed. + +Madame de Lannoi was discreet, and related at the time nothing of +what had passed at that interview. But that the interview itself +had taken place under such conditions was enough to set the +tongue of gossip wagging. An echo of it reached the King, +together with the story of that other business in the garden, and +he was glad to know that the Duke of Buckingham was back in +London. Richelieu, to vent his own malice against the Queen, +sought to feed the King's suspicions. + +"Why did she cry out, sire?" he will have asked. "What did M. de +Buckingham do to make her cry out?" + +"I don't know. But whatever it was, she was no party to it since +she did cry out." + +Richelieu did not pursue the matter just then. But neither did he +abandon it. He had his agents in London and elsewhere, and he +desired of them a close report upon the Duke of Buckingham's +movements, and the fullest particulars of his private life. + +Meanwhile, Buckingham had left behind him in France two faithful +agents of his own, with instructions to keep his memory green +with the Queen. For he intended to return upon one pretext or +another before very long, and complete the conquest. Those agents +of his were Lord Holland and the artist Balthazar Gerbier. It is +to be presumed that they served the Duke's interests well, and it +is no less to be presumed from that which followed that they +found her Majesty willing enough to hear news of that amazingly +romantic fellow who had flashed across the path of her grey life, +touching it for a moment with his own flaming radiance. In her +loneliness she came to think of him with tenderness and pity, in +which pity for herself and her dull lot was also blent. He was +away, overseas; she might never see him again; therefore there +could be little harm in indulging the romantic tenderness he had +inspired. + +So one day, many months after his departure, she begged Gerbier-- +as La Rochefoucauld tells us--to journey to London and bear the +Duke a trifling memento of her--a set of diamond studs. That +love-token--for it amounted to no less--Gerbier conveyed to +England, and delivered to the Duke. + +Buckingham's head was so completely turned by the event, and his +desire to see Anne of Austria again became thereupon so +overmastering, that he at once communicated to France that he was +coming over as the ambassador of the King of England to treat of +certain masters connected with Spain. But Richelieu had heard +from the French ambassador in London that portraits of the Queen +of France were excessively abundant at York House, the Duke's +residence, and he had considered it his duty to inform the King. +Louis was angry, but not with the Queen. To have believed her +guilty of any indiscretion would have hurt his gloomy pride +too deeply. All that he believed was that this was merely an +expression of Buckingham's fanfaronading, thrasonical disposition, +a form of vain, empty boasting peculiar to megalomaniacs. + +As a consequence, the King of England was informed that the Duke +of Buckingham, for reasons well known to himself, would not be +agreeable as Charles's ambassador to his Most Christian Majesty. +Upon learning this, the vainglorious Buckingham was loud in +proclaiming the reason ("well known to himself") and in +protesting that he would go to France to see the Queen with the +French King's consent or without it. This was duly reported to +Richelieu, and by Richelieu to King Louis. But his Most Christian +Majesty merely sneered, accounted it more empty boasting on the +part of the parvenu, and dismissed it from his mind. + +Richelieu found this attitude singularly exasperating in a King +who was temperamentally suspicious. It so piqued and annoyed him, +that when considered in addition to his undying rancour against +Anne of Austria, it is easily believed he spared no pains to +obtain something in the nature of a proof that the Queen was not +as innocent as Louis insisted upon believing. + +Now it happened that one of his London agents informed him, among +other matters connected with the Duke's private life, that he had +a bitter and secret enemy in the Countess of Carlisle, between +whom and himself there had been a passage of some tenderness too +abruptly ended by the Duke. Richelieu, acting upon this +information, contrived to enter into correspondence with Lady +Carlisle, and in the course of this correspondence he managed her +so craftily--says La Rochefoucauld--that very soon she was, +whilst hardly realizing it, his Eminence's most valuable spy near +Buckingham. Richelieu informed her that he was mainly concerned +with information that would throw light upon the real relations +of Buckingharn and the Queen of France, and he persuaded her that +nothing was too insignificant to be communicated. Her resentment +of the treatment she had received from Buckingham, a resentment +the more bitter for being stifled--since for her reputation's +sake she dared not have given it expression--made her a very +ready instrument in Richelieu's hands, and there was no scrap of +gossip she did not carefully gather up and dispatch to him. But +all was naught until one day at last she was able to tell him +something that set his pulses beating more quickly than their +habit. + +She had it upon the best authority that a set of diamond studs +constantly worn of late by the Duke was a love-token from the +Queen of France sent over to Buckingham by a messenger of her +own. Here, indeed, was news. Here was a weapon by which the Queen +might be destroyed. Richelieu considered. If he could but obtain +possession of the studs, the rest would be easy. There would be +an end--and such an end!--to the King's obstinate, indolent faith +in his wife's indifference to that boastful, flamboyant English +upstart. Richelieu held his peace for the time being, and wrote +to the Countess. + +Some little time thereafter there was a sumptuous ball given at +York House, graced by the presence of King Charles and his young +French Queen. Lady Carlisle was present, and in the course of the +evening Buckingham danced with her. She was a very beautiful, +accomplished and ready-witted woman, and to-night his Grace found +her charms so alluring that he was almost disposed to blame +himself for having perhaps treated her too lightly. Yet she +seemed at pains to show him that it was his to take up again the +affair at the point at which it had been dropped. She was gay, +arch, provoking and irresistible. So irresistible that presently, +yielding to the lure of her, the Duke slipped away from his +guests with the lady on his arm, and they found themselves at the +foot of the garden in the shadow of the water-gate that Inigo +Jones had just completed for him. My lady languished at his side, +permitted him to encircle her with a protecting arm, and for a +moment lay heavily against him. He caught her violently to him, +and now her ladyship, hitherto so yielding, with true feminine +contrariness set herself to resist him. A scuffle ensued between +them. She broke from him at last, and sped swift as a doe across +the lawn towards the lights of the great house, his Grace in +pursuit between vexation and amusement. + +But he did not overtake her, and it was with a sense of having +been fooled that he rejoined his guests. His questing eyes could +discern her nowhere. Presently he made inquiries, to be told that +she had desired her carriage to be called, and had left York +House immediately upon coming in from the garden. + +He concluded that she was gone off in a pet. It was very odd. It +was, in fact, most flagrantly contradictory that she should have +taken offense at that which she had so obviously invited. But +then she always had been a perverse and provoking jade. With that +reflection he put her from his mind. + +But anon, when his guests had departed, and the lights in the +great house were extinguished, Buckingham thought of the incident +again. Cogitating it, he sat in his room, his fingers combing his +fine, pointed, auburn beard. At last, with a shrug and a half- +laugh, he rose to undress for bed. And then a cry escaped him, +and brought in his valet from an adjoining room. The riband of +diamond studs was gone. + +Reckless and indifferent as he was, a sense of evil took him in +the moment of his discovery of that loss, so that he stood there +pale, staring, and moist of brow. It was no ordinary theft. There +were upon his person a dozen ornaments of greater value, any one +of which could have been more easily detached. This was the work +of some French agent. He had made no secret of whence those studs +had come to him. + +There his thoughts checked on a sudden. As in a flash of +revelation, he saw the meaning of Lady Carlisle's oddly +contradictory behaviour. The jade had fooled him. It was she who +had stolen the riband. He sat down again, his head in his hands, +and swiftly, link by link, he pieced together a complete chain. + +Almost as swiftly he decided upon the course of action which he +must adopt so as to protect the Queen of France's honour. He was +virtually the ruler of England, master in these islands of an +almost boundless power. That power he would exert to the full +this very night to thwart those enemies of his own and of the +Queen's, who worked so subtly in concert. Many would be wronged, +much harm would be done, the liberties of some thousands of +freeborn Englishmen would be trampled underfoot. What did it +matter? It was necessary that his Grace of Buckingham should +cover up an indiscretion. + +"Set ink and paper yonder," he bade his gaping valet. "Then go +call M. Gerbier. Rouse Lacy and Thom, and send them to me at +once, and leave word that I shall require a score of couriers to +be in the saddle and ready to set out in half an hour." + +Bewildered, the valet went off upon his errand. The Duke sat down +to write. And next morning English merchants learnt that the +ports of England were closed by the King's express command-- +delivered by his minister, the Duke of Buckingham--that measures +were being taken--were already taken in all southern ports--so +that no vessel of any kind should leave the island until the +King's further pleasure were made known. Startled, the people +wondered was this enactment the forerunner of war. Had they known +the truth, they might have been more startled still, though in a +different manner. As swiftly as couriers could travel--and +certainly well ahead of any messenger seeking escape overseas-- +did this blockade spread, until the gates of England were tight +locked against the outgoing of those diamond studs whirls meant +the honour of the Queen of France. + +And meanwhile a diamond-cutter was replacing the purloined stones +by others, matching them so closely that no man should be able to +say which were the originals and which the copies. Buckingham and +Gerbier between them guided the work. Soon it was accomplished, +and a vessel slipped down the Thames, allowed to pass by those +who kept close watch to enforce the royal decree, and made sail +for Calais, which was beginning to manifest surprise at this +entire cessation of traffic from England. From that vessel landed +Gerbier, and rode straight to Paris, carrying the Queen of France +the duplicate studs, which were to replace those which she had +sent to Buckingham. + +Twenty-four hours later the ports of England were unsealed, and +commerce was free and unhampered once more. But it was twenty- +four hours too late for Richelieu and his agent, the Countess of +Carlisle. His Eminence deplored a fine chance lost through the +excessive power that was wielded in England by the parvenu. + +Yet that is not quite the end of the story. Buckingham's inflamed +and reckless mind would stop at nothing now to achieve the object +of his desires--go to France and see the Queen. Since the country +was closed to him, he would force a way into it, the red way of +war. Blood should flow, ruin and misery desolate the land, but in +the end he would go to Paris to negotiate a peace, and that +should be his opportunity. Other reasons there may have been, but +none so dominant, none that could not have been remved by +negotiation. The pretexted casus belli was the matter of the +Protestants of La Rochelle, who were in rebellion against their +king. + +To their aid sailed Buckingham with an English expedition. +Disaster and defeat awaited it. Its shattered remnant crept back +in disgrace to England, and the Duke found himself more detested +by the people than he had been already--which is saying much. He +went off to seek comfort at the hands of the two persons who +really loved him--his doting King and his splendid wife. + +But the defeat had neither lessened his resolve nor chastened his +insolence. He prepared a second expedition in the very teeth of a +long-suffering nation's hostility, indifferent to the mutinies +and mutterings about him. What signified to him the will of a +nation? He desired to win to the woman whom he loved, and to +accomplish that he nothing recked that he should set Europe in a +blaze, nothing recked what blood should be poured out, what +treasure dissipated. + +Hatred of him by now was so widespread and vocal, that his +friends, fearing that soon it would pass from words to deeds, +urged him to take precautions, advised the wearing of a shirt of +mail for greater safety. + +But he laughed sneeringly, ever arrogant and scornful. + +"It needs not. There are no Roman spirits left," was his +contemptuous answer. + +He was mistaken. One morning after breakfast, as he was leaving +the house in the High Street, Portsmouth, where he lodged whilst +superintending the final preparations for that unpopular +expedition, John Felton, a self-appointed instrument of national +vengeance, drove a knife to the hilt into the Duke's breast. + +"May the Lord have mercy on your soul!" was the pious exclamation +with which the slayer struck home. And, in all the circumstances, +there seems to have been occasion for the prayer. + + + + + + +IX. THE PATH OF EXILE + +The Fall of Lord Clarendon + + + +Tight-wrapped in his cloak against the icy whips of the black +winter's night, a portly gentleman, well advanced in years, +picked his way carefully down the wet, slippery steps of the +jetty by the light of a lanthorn, whose rays gleamed lividly on +crushed brown seaweed and trailing green sea slime. Leaning +heavily upon the arm which a sailor held out to his assistance, +he stepped into the waiting boat that rose and fell on the +heaving black waters. A boathook scraped against the stones, and +the frail craft was pushed off. + +The oars dipped, and the boat slipped away through the darkness, +steering a course for the two great poop lanterns that were +swinging rhythmically high up against the black background of the +night. The elderly gentleman, huddled now in the stern-sheets, +looked behind him--to look his last upon the England he had loved +and served and ruled. The lanthorn, shedding its wheel of yellow +light upon the jetty steps, was all of it that he could now see. + +He sighed, and settled down again to face the poop lights, +dancing there above the invisible hull of the ship that was to +carry Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, lately Lord Chancellor of +England, into exile. As a dying man looks down the foreshortened +vista of his active life, so may Edward Hyde--whose career had +reached a finality but one degree removed from the finality of +death--have reviewed in that moment those thirty years of sincere +endeavour and high achievement since he had been a law student in +the Temple when Charles I. was King. + +That King he had served faithfully, so faithfully that when the +desperate fortunes of the Royalist party made it necessary to +place the Prince of Wales beyond the reach of Cromwell, it was in +Sir Edward Hyde's care that the boy was sent upon his travels. +The present was not to be Hyde's first experience of exile. He +had known it, and of a bitter sort, in those impecunious days +when the Second Charles, whose steps he guided, was a needy, +homeless outcast. A man less staunch and loyal might have thrown +over so profitless a service. He had talents that would have +commanded a price in the Roundhead market. Yet staunchly adhering +to the Stuart fortunes, labouring ceaselessly and shrewdly in the +Stuart interest, employing his great ability and statecraft, he +achieved at long length the restoration of the Stuarts to the +Throne of England. And for all those loyal, self-denying labours +in exile on the Stuart behalf, all the reward he had at the time +was that James Stuart, Duke of York, debauched his daughter. + +Nor did Hyde's labours cease when he had made possible the +Restoration; it was Hyde who, when that Restoration was +accomplished, took in hand and carried out the difficult task of +welding together the old and the new conditions of political +affairs. And it was Hyde who was the scapegoat when things did +not run the course that Englishmen desired. As the head of the +administration he was held responsible even for those acts which +he had strongly but vainly reprobated in Council. It was Hyde who +was blamed when Charles sold Dunkirk to the French, and spent the +money in harlotry; it was Hyde who was blamed because the Queen +was childless. + +The reason for this last lay in the fact that the wrong done to +Hyde's daughter Anne had now been righted by marri age with the +Duke of York. Now the Duke of York was the heir-apparent, and the +people, ever ready to attach most credit to that which is most +incredible and fantastic, believed that to ensure the succession +of his own grandchildren Hyde had deliberately provided Charles +with a barren wife. + +When the Dutch, sailing up the Thames, had burnt the ships of war +at Chatham, and Londoners heard the thunder of enemy guns, Hyde +was openly denounced as a traitor by a people stricken with +terror and seeking a victim in the blind, unreasoning way of +public feeling. They broke his windows, ravaged his garden, and +erected a gibbet before the gates of his superb mansion on the +north side of Piccadilly. + +Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, and Lord Chancellor of England, +commanded the love of his intimates, but did not possess those +qualities of cheap glitter that make for popularity with the +masses. Nor did he court popularity elsewhere. Because he was +austere in his morals, grave and sober in his conduct, he was +hated by those who made up the debauched court of his prince. +Because he was deeply religious in his principles, the Puritans +mistrusted him for a bigot. Because he was autocratic in his +policy he was detested by the Commons, the day of autocracy being +done. + +Yet might he have weathered the general hostility had Charles +been half as loyal to him as he had ever been loyal to Charles. +For a time, it is true, the King stood his friend, and might so +have continued to the end had not the women become mixed up in +the business. As Evelyn, the diarist, puts it, this great man's +fall was the work of "the buffoones and ladys of pleasure." + +It really is a very tangled story--this inner history of the fall +of Clarendon, with which the school-books are not concerned. In a +sense, it is also the story of the King's marriage and of Catherine +of Braganza, his unfortunate little ugly Queen, who must have +suffered as much as any woman wedded to a sultan in any country +where the seraglio is not a natural and proper institution. + +If Clarendon could not be said to have brought about the +marriage, at least he had given it his suffrages when proposed by +Portugal, which was anxious to establish an alliance with England +as some protection against the predatory designs of Spain. He had +been influenced by the dowry offered--five hundred thousand +pounds in money, Tangier, which would give England a commanding +position on the Mediterranean, and the Island of Bombay. Without +yet foreseeing that the possession of Bombay, and the freedom to +trade in the East Indies--which Portugal had hitherto kept +jealously to herself--were to enable England to build up her +great Indian Empire, yet the commercial advantages alone were +obvious enough to make the match desirable. + +Catherine of Braganza sailed for England, and on the lath of May, +1662, Charles, attended by a splendid following, went to meet his +bride at Portsmouth. He was himself a very personable man, tall-- +he stood a full six feet high--lean and elegantly vigorous. The +ugliness of his drawn, harsh-featured face was mitigated by the +glory of full, low-ridded, dark eyes, and his smile could be +irresistibly captivating. He was as graceful in manner as in +person, felicitous of speech, and of an indolent good temper that +found expression in a charming urbanity. + +Good temper and urbanity alike suffered rudely when he beheld the +wife they brought him. Catherine, who was in her twenty-fifth +year, was of an absurdly low stature, so long in the body and +short in the legs that, dressed as she was in an outlandish, +full-skirted farthingale, she had the appearance of being on her +knees when she stood before him. Her complexion was sallow, and +though her eyes, like his own, were fine, they were not fine +enough to redeem the dull plainness of her face. Her black hair +was grotesquely dressed, with a long fore-top and two great +ribbon bows standing out, one on each side of her head, like a +pair of miniature wings. + +It is little wonder that the Merry Monarch, the fastidious +voluptuary, with his nice discernment in women, should have +checked in his long stride, and halted a moment in consternation. + +"Lord!" was his wry comment to Etheredge, who was beside him. +"They've brought me a bat, not a woman." + +But if she lacked beauty, she was well cowered, and Charles was +in desperate need of money. + +"I suppose," he told Clarendon anon, "I must swallow this black +draught to get the jam that goes with it." + +The Chancellor's grave eyes considered him almost sternly what +time he coldly recited the advantages of this marriage. If he did +riot presume to rebuke the ribaldry of his master, neither would +he condescend to smile at it. He was too honest ever to be a +sycophant. + +Catherine was immediately attended--in the words of Grammont--by +six frights who called themselves maids-of-honour, and a +governess who was a monster. With this retinue she repaired to +Hampton Court, where the honeymoon was spent, and where for a +brief season the poor woman--entirely enamoured of the graceful, +long-legged rake she had married--lived in a fool's paradise. + +Disillusion was to follow soon enough. She might be, by he grace +of her dowry, Queen of England, but she was soon to discover that +to King Charles she was no more than a wife de jure. With wives +de facto Charles would people his seraglio as fancy moved him; +and the present wife defacto, the mistress of his heart, the +first lady of his harem, was that beautiful termagant, Barbara +Villiers, wife of the accommodating Roger Palmer, Earl of Castle- +maine. + +There was no lack--there never is in such cases--of those who out +of concern and love for the happily deluded wife lifted the veil +for her, and made her aware of the facts of his Majesty's +association with my Lady Castle-maine--an association dating back +to the time when he was still a homeless wanderer. The knowledge +would appear to have troubled the poor soul profoundly; but the +climax of her distress was reached when, on her coming to +Whitehall, she found at the head of the list of ladies-in-waiting +assigned to her the name of my Lady Castlemaine. The forlorn +little woman's pride rose up before this outrage. She struck out +that offending name, and gave orders that the favourite was not +to be admitted to her presence. + +But she reckoned without Charles. For all his urbane, good- +tempered, debonair ways, there was an ugly cynical streak in his +nature, manifested now in the manner in which he dealt with this +situation. Himself he led his boldly handsome favourite by the +hand into his wife's presence, before the whole Court assembled, +and himself presented her to Catherine, what time that Court, +dissolute and profligate as it was, looked on in amazement at so +outrageous a slight to the dignity of a queen. + +What followed may well have exceeded all expectations. Catherine +stiffened as if the blow dealt her had been physical. Gradually +her face paled until it was grey and drawn; tears of outraged +pride and mortification flooded her eyes. And then, as if +something snapped within her brain under this stress of bitter +emotion, blood gushed from her nostrils, and she sank back in a +swoon into the arms of her Portuguese ladies. + +Confusion followed, and under cover of it Charles and his light +of love withdrew, realizing that if he lingered not all his easy +skill in handling delicate situations could avail him to save his +royal dignity. + +Naturally the experiment was not to be repeated. But since it was +his wish that the Countess of Castlemaine should be established +as one of the Queen's ladies--or, rather, since it was her +ladyship's wish, and since Charles was as wax in her ladyship's +hands--it became necessary to have the Queen instructed in what +was, in her husband's view, fitting. For this task he selected +Clarendon. But the Chancellor, who had so long and loyally played +Mentor to Charles's Telemachus, sought now to guide him in +matters moral as he had hitherto guided him in matters political. + +Clarendon declined the office of mediator, and even expostulated +with Charles upon the unseemliness of the course upon which his +Majesty was bent. + +"Surely, sire, it is for her Majesty to say who shall and who +shall not be the ladies of her bedchamber. And I nothing marvel +at her decision in this instance." + +"Yet I tell you, my lord, that it is a decision that shall be +revoked." + +"By whom, sire?" the Chancellor asked him gravely. + +"By her Majesty, of course." + +"Under coercion, of which you ask me to be the instrument," said +Clarendon, in the tutorly manner he had used with the King from +the latter's boyhood. "Yourself, sire, at a time when your own +wishes did not warp your judgment, have condemned the very thing +that now you are urging. Yourself, sire, hotly blamed your +cousin, King Louis, for thrusting Mademoiselle de Valliere upon +his queen. You will not have forgotten the things you said then +of King Louis." + +Charles remembered those unflattering criticisms which he was now +invited to apply to his own case. He bit his lip, admitting +himself in check. + +But anon--no doubt in obedience to the overbearing suasion of my +Lady Castlemaine--he returned to the attack, and sent the +Chancellor his orders in a letter demanding unquestioning +obedience. + +"Use your best endeavours," wrote Charles, "to facilitate what I +am sure my honour is so much concerned in. And whosoever I find +to be my Lady Castlemaine's enemy in this matter, I do promise +upon my word to be his enemy so long as I live." + +My Lord Clarendon had few illusions on the score of mankind. He +knew his world from froth to dregs--having studied it under a +variety of conditions. Yet that letter from his King was a bitter +draught. All that Charles possessed and was he owed to Clarendon. +Yet in such a contest as this, Charles did not hesitate to pen +that bitter, threatening line: "Whosoever I find to be my Lady +Castlemaine's enemy in this matter, I do promise upon my word to +be his enemy so long as I live." + +All that Clarendon had done in the past was to count for nothing +unless he also did the unworthy thing that Charles now demanded. +All that he had accomplished in the service of his King was to be +swept into oblivion by the breath of a spiteful wanton. + +Clarendon swallowed the draught and sought the Queen, upon that +odious embassy with whose ends he was so entirely out of +sympathy. He used arguments whose hollowness was not more obvious +to the Queen than to himself. + +That industrious and entertaining chronicler of trifles, Mr. +Pepys, tells us, scandalized, in his diary that on the following +day the talk of the Court was all upon a midnight scene between +the royal couple in the privacy of their own apartments, so +stormy that the sounds of it were plainly to be heard in the +neighbouring chambers. + +You conceive the poor little woman, smarting under the insult of +Charles's proposal by the mouth of Clarendon, assailing her royal +husband, and fiercely upbraiding him with his lack not merely of +affection but even of the respect that was her absolute due. And +Charles, his purpose set, urged to it by the handsome termagant +whom he dared not refuse, stirred out of his indolent good- +nature, turning upon her, storming back, and finally threatening +her with the greater disgrace of seeing herself pack ed home to +Portugal, unless she would submit to the lesser disgrace he +thrust upon her here. + +Whether by these or by other arguments he made his will prevail, +prevail it did. Catherine of Braganza swallowed her pride and +submitted. And a very complete submission it was. Lady Castlemaine +was not only installed as a Lady of the Bedchamber, but very soon +we find the Queen treating her with a friendliness that provoked +comment and amazement. + +The favourite's triumph was complete, and marked by an increasing +insolence, most marked in her demeanour towards the Chancellor, +of whose views on the subject, as expressed to the King, she was +aware. Consequently she hated him with all the spiteful +bitterness that is inseparable from the nature of such women. And +she hated him the more because, wrapped in his cold contempt, he +moved in utter unconcern of her hostility. In this hatred she +certainly did not lack for allies, members of that licentious +court whose hostility towards the austere Chancellor was begotten +of his own scorn of them. Among them they worked to pull him +down. + +The attempt to undermine his influence with the King proving +vain--for Charles was as well aware of its inspiration as of the +Chancellor's value to him--that crew of rakes went laboriously +and insidiously to work upon the public mind, which is to say the +public ignorance--most fruitful soil for scandal against the +great. Who shall say how far my lady and the Court were +responsible for the lampoon affixed one day to my Lord +Clarendon's gatepost: + + Three sights to be seen: + Dunkirk, Tangier, and a barren queen. + +Her ladyship might well have considered the unpopularity of the +Chancellor as the crown of her triumph, had this triumph been as +stable as she could have wished. But, Charles being what he was, +it follows that her ladyship had frequent, if transient, anxious +jealousies to mar the perfection of her existence, to remind her +how insecure is the tenure of positions such as hers, ever at the +mercy of the very caprice to existence. + +And then, at long length, there came a day of horrid dread for +her, a day when she found herself bereft of her influence with +her royal lover, when pleadings and railings failed alike to sway +him. In part she owed it to an indiscretion of her own, but in +far greater measure to a child of sixteen, of a golden-headed, +fresh, youthful loveliness, and a nature that still found +pleasure in dolls and kindred childish things, yet of a quick and +lively wit, and a clear, intelligent mind, untroubled either by +the assiduity of the royal attentions or the fact that she was +become the toast of the day. + +This was Miss Frances Stewart, the daughter of Lord Blantyre, +newly come to Court as a Lady-in-Waiting to her Majesty. How +profound an impression her beauty made upon the admittedly +impressionable old Pepys you may study in his diary. He had a +glimpse of her one day riding in the Park with the King, and a +troop of ladies, among whom my Lady Castlemaine, looking, as he +tells us, "mighty out of humour." There was a moment when Miss +Stewart came very near to becoming Queen of England, and although +she never reached that eminence, yet her effigy not only found +its way into the coinage, but abides there to this day (more +perdurable than that of any actual queen) in the figure of +Britannia, for which she was the model. + +Charles wooed her openly. It was never his way to study +appearances in these matters. He was so assiduous that it became +customary in that winter of 1666 for those seeking the King at +Whitehall to inquire whether he were above or below--"below" +meaning Miss Stewart's apartments on the ground-floor of the +palace, in which apartments his Majesty was a constant visitor. +And since where the King goes the Court follows, and where the +King smiles there the Court fawns, it resulted that this child +now found herself queering it over a court that flocked to her +apartments. Gallants and ladies came there to flirt and to +gossip, to gamble and to pay homage. + +About a great table in her splendid salon, a company of rustling, +iridescent fops in satin and heavy periwigs, and of ladies with +curled head-dresses and bare shoulders, played at basset one +night in January. Conversation rippled, breaking here and there +into laughter, white, jewelled hands reached out for cards, or +for a share of the heaps of gold that swept this way and that +with the varying fortunes of the game. + +My Lady Castlemaine, seated between Etheredge and Rochester, +played in silence, with lips tight-set and brooding eyes. She had +lost, it is true, some L1500 that night; yet, a prodigal +gamester, and one who came easily by money, she had been known to +lose ten times that sum and yet preserve her smile. The source of +her ill-humour was not the game. She played recklessly, her +attention wandering; those handsome, brooding eyes of hers were +intent upon watching what went on at the other end of the long +room. There, at a smaller table, sat Miss Stewart, half a dozen +gallants hovering near her, engaged upon a game of cards of a +vastly different sort. Miss Stewart did not gamble. The only +purpose she could find for cards was to build castles; and +here she was building one with the assistance of her gallants, +and under the superintendence of his Grace of Buckingham, who +was as skilled in this as in other equally unstable forms of +architecture. + +Apart, over by the fire, in a great chair of gilt leather, +lounged the King, languidly observing this smaller party, a +faint, indolent smile o n his swarthy, saturnine countenance. +Absently, with one hand he stroked a little spaniel that was +curled in his lap. A black boy in a gorgeous, plumed turban and a +long, crimson surcoat arabesqued in gold--there were three or +four such attendants about the room--proffered him a cup of +posses on a golden salver. + +The King rose, thrust aside the little blackamoor, and with his +spaniel under his arm, sauntered across to Miss Stewart's table. +Soon he found himself alone with her--the others having removed +themselves on his approach, as jackals fall back before the +coming of the lion. The last to go, and with signs of obvious +reluctance, was his Grace of Richmond, a delicately-built, +uncomely, but very glittering gentleman. + +Charles faced her across the table, the tall house of cards +standing between them. + +Miss invited his Majesty's admiration for my Lord of Buckingham's +architecture. Pouf! His Majesty blew, and the edifice rustled +down to a mere heap of cards again. + +"Symbol of kingly power," said Miss, pertly. "You demolish better +than you build, sire." + +"Oddsfish! If you challenge me, it were easy to prove you wrong," +quoth he. + +"Pray do. The cards are here." + +"Cards! Pooh! Card castles are well enough for Buckingham. But +such is not the castle I'll build you if you command me." + +"I command the King's Majesty? Mon Dieu! But it would be treason +surely." + +"Not greater treason than to have enslaved me." His fine eyes +were oddly ardent. "Shall I build you this castle, child?" + +Miss looked at him, and looked away. Her eyelids fluttered +distractingly. She fetched a sigh. + +"The castle that your Majesty would build for any but your Queen +must prove a prison." + +She rose, and, looking across the room, she met the handsome, +scowling eyes of the neglected favourite. "My Lady Castlemaine +looks as if she feared that fortune were not favouring her." She +was so artless that Charles could not be sure there was a double +meaning to her speech. "Shall we go see how she is faring?" she +added, with a disregard for etiquette, whose artlessness he also +doubted. + +He yielded, of course. That was his way with beauty, especially +with beauty not yet reduced into possession. But the characteristic +urbanity with which he sauntered beside her across the room was +no more than a mask upon his chagrin. It was always thus that +pretty Frances Stewart used him. She always knew how to elude him +and, always with that cursed air of artlessness, uttered seemingly +simple sentences that clung to his mind to tantalize him. + +"The castle your Majesty would build for any but your Queen must +prove a prison." What had she meant by that? Must he take her to +queen before she would allow him to build a castle for her? + +It was an insistent, haunting thought, wracking his mind. He knew +there was a party hostile to the Duke of York and Clarendon, +which, fearing the succession of the former, and, so, of the +grandchildren of the latter, as a result of Catherine of +Braganza's childlessness, strongly favoured the King's divorce. + +It was a singular irony that my Lady Castlemaine should be +largely responsible for the existence of that party. In her +hatred for Clarendon, and her blind search for weapons that would +slay the Chancellor, she had, if not actually invented, at least +helped to give currency to the silly slander that Clarendon had +deliberately chosen for Charles a barren queen, so as to ensure +the ultimate succession of his own daughter's children. But she +had never thought to see that slander recoil upon her as it now +did; she had never thought that a party would come to rise up in +consequence that would urge divorce upon the King at the very +moment when he was consumed by passion for the unattainable, +artlessly artful Frances Stewart. + +It was Buckingham, greatly daring, who slyly made himself that +party's mouthpiece. The suggestion startled Charles, voicing, as +perhaps it did, the temptation by which he was secretly assailed. +He looked at Buckingham, frowning. + +"I verily believe you are the wickedest dog in England." + +The impudent gallant made a leg. "For a subject, sire, I believe +I am." + +Charles--with whom the amusing word seems ever to have been more +compelling than the serious--laughed his soft, mellow laugh. Then +he sighed, and the frown of thought returned. + +"It would be a wicked thing to make a poor lady miserable only +because she is my wife, and has no children by me, which is no +fault of hers." + +He was a thoroughly bad husband, but his indolent good-nature +shrank from purchasing his desires at the price of so much +ignominy to the Queen. Before that could come to pass it would be +necessary to give the screw of temptation another turn or two. +And it was Miss Stewart herself who--in all innocence--supplied +what was required in that direction. Driven to bay by the +importunities of Charles, she announced at last that it was her +intention to retire from Court, so as to preserve herself from +the temptations by which she was beset, and to determine the +uneasiness which, through no fault of her own, her presence was +occasioning the Queen; and she announced further, that, so +desperate had she been rendered that she would marry any +gentleman of fifteen hundred pounds a year who would have her in +honour. + +You behold Charles reduced to a state of panic. He sought to +bribe her with offers of any settlements she chose to name, or +any title she coveted, offering her these things at the nation's +expense as freely and lightly as the jewels he had tossed into +her lap, or the collar of pearls worth sixteen hundred pounds he +had put about her neck. The offers were ineffectual, and Charles, +driven almost to distraction by such invulnerable virtue, might +now have yielded to the insidious whispers of divorce and re- +marriage had not my Lady Castlemaine taken a hand in the game. + +Her ladyship, dwelling already, as a consequence of that royal +infatuation for Miss Stewart, in the cold, rarefied atmosphere of +a neglect that amounted almost to disgrace, may have considered +with bitterness how her attempt to exploit her hatred of the +Chancellor had recoiled upon herself. + +In the blackest hour of her despair, when hope seemed almost +dead, she made a discovery--or, rather, the King's page, the +ineffable Chiffinch, Lord Keeper of the Back Stairs and Grand- +Eunuch of the Royal Seraglio, who was her ladyship's friend, made +it and communicated it to her There had been one ardent +respondent in the Duke of Richmond to that proclamation of Miss +Stewart's that she would marry any gentleman of fifteen hundred +pounds a year. Long enamoured of her, his Grace saw here his +opportunity, and he seized it. Consequently he was now in +constant attendance upon her, but very secretly, since he feared +the King's displeasure. + +My Lady Castlemaine, having discovered this, and being well +served in the matter by Chiffinch, spied her opportunity. It came +one cold night towards the end of February of that year 1667. +Charles, going below at a late hour to visit Miss Stewart, when +he judged that she would be alone, was informed by her maid that +Miss was not receiving, a headache compelling her to keep her +room. + +His Majesty returned above in a very ill-humour, to find himself +confronted in his own apartments by my Lady Castlemaine. +Chiffinch had introduced her by the back-stairs entrance. Charles +stiffened at sight of her. + +"I hope I may be allowed to pay my homage," says she, on a note +of irony, "although the angelic Stewart has forbid you to see me +at my own house. I come to condole with you upon the affliction +and grief into which the new-fashioned chastity of the inhuman +Stewart has reduced your Majesty." + +"You are pleased to be amused, ma'am," says Charles frostily. + +"I will not," she returned him, "make use of reproaches which +would disgrace myself; still less will I endeavour to excuse +frailties in myself which nothing can justify, since your +constancy for me deprives me of all defence." Her ladyship, you +see, had a considerable gift of sarcasm. + +"In that case, may I ask you why you have come?" + +"To open your eyes. Because I cannot bear that you should be made +the jest of your own Court." + +"Madam!" + +"Ah! You didn't know, of course, that you are being laughed at +for the gross manner in which you are being imposed upon by the +Stewart's affectations, any more than you know that whilst you +are denied admittance to her apartments, under the presence of +some indisposition, the Duke of Richmond is with her now." + +"That is false," he was beginning, very indignantly. + +"I do not desire you to take my word for it. If you will follow +me, you will no longer be the dupe of a false prude, who makes +you act so ridiculous a part." + +She took him, still half-resisting, by the hand, and in silence +led him, despite his reluctance, back by the way he had so lately +come. Outside her rival's door she left him, but she paused at +the end of the gallery to make sure that he had entered. + +Within he found himself confronted by several of Miss Stewart's +chambermaids, who respectfully barred his way, one of them +informing him scarcely above a whisper that her mistress had been +very ill since his Majesty left, but that, being gone to bed, she +was, God be thanked, in a very fine sleep. + +"That I must see," said the King. And, since one of the women +placed herself before the door of the inner room, his Majesty +unceremoniously took her by the shoulders and put her aside. + +He thrust open the door, and stepped without further ceremony +into the well-lighted bedroom. Miss Stewart occupied the +handsome, canopied bed. But far from being as he had been told, +in "a very fine sleep," she was sitting up; and far from +presenting an ailing appearance, she looked radiantly well and +very lovely in her diaphanous sleeping toilet, with golden +ringlets in distracting disarray Nor was she alone. By her pillow +sat one who, if at first to be presumed her physician, proved +upon scrutiny to be the Duke of Richmond. + +The King's swarthy face turned a variety of colours, his languid +eyes lost all trace of languor. Those who knew his nature might +have expected that he would now deliver himself with that +sneering sarcasm, that indolent cynicism, which he used upon +occasion. But he was too deeply stirred for acting. His self- +control deserted him entirely. Exactly what he said has not been +preserved for us. All that we are told is that he signified his +resentment in such terms as he had never before used; and that +his Grace, almost petrified by the King's most royal rage, +uttered never a word in answer. The windows of the room +overlooked the Thames. The King's eyes strayed towards them. +Richmond was slight of build, Charles vigorous and athletic. His +Grace took the door betimes lest the window should occur to his +Majesty, and so he left the lady alone with the outraged monarch. + +Thereafter Charles did not have it all quite his own way. Miss +Stewart faced him in an indignation nothing less than his own, +and she was very far from attempting any such justification of +herself, or her conduct, as he may have expected. + +"Will your Majesty be more precise as to the grounds of your +complaint?" she invited him challengingly. + +That checked his wildness. It brought him up with a round turn. +His jaw fell, and he stared at her, lost now for words. Of this +she took the fullest advantage. + +"If I am not allowed to receive visits from a man of the Duke of +Richmond's rank, who comes with honourable intentions, then I am +a slave in a free country. I know of no engagement that should +prevent me from disposing of my hand as I think fit. But if this +is not permitted me in your Majesty's dominions, I do not believe +there is any power on earth can prevent me going back to France, +and throwing myself into a convent, there to enjoy the peace +denied me at this Court." + +With that she melted into tears, and his discomfiture was +complete. On his knees he begged her forgiveness for the injury +he had done her. But Miss was not in a forgiving humour. + +"If your Majesty would graciously consent to leave me now in +peace," said she, "you would avoid offending by a longer visit +those who accompanied or conducted you to my apartments." + +She had drawn a bow at a venture but shrewdly, and the shaft went +home Charles rose, red in the face. Swearing he would never speak +to her again, he stalked out. + +Later, however, he considered. If he felt bitterly aggrieved, he +must also have realized that he had no just grounds for this, and +that in his conduct in Miss Stewart's room he had been entirely +ridiculous. She was rightly resolved against being lightly worn +by any man. If anything, the reflection must have fanned his +passion. It was impossible, he thought, that she should love that +knock-kneed fellow, Richmond, who had no graces either of body or +of mind, and if she suffered the man's suit, it must be, as she +had all but said, so that she might be delivered from the +persecution to which his Majesty had submitted her. The thought +of her marrying Richmond, or, indeed, anybody, was unbearable to +Charles, and it may have stifled his last scruple in the matter +of the divorce. + +His first measure next morning was to banish Richmond from the +Court. But Richmond had not stayed for the order to quit. The +King's messenger found him gone already. + +Then Charles took counsel in the matter with the Chancellor. +Clarendon's habitual gravity was increased to sternness. He spoke +to the King--taking the fullest advantage of the tutelary +position in which for the last twenty-five years he had stood to +him--much as he had spoken when Charles had proposed to make +Barbara Palmer a Lady of the Queen's Bedchamber, saving that he +was now even more uncompromising. The King was not pleased with +him. But just as he had had his way, despite the Chancellor, in +that other matter, so he would have his way despite him now. +This time, however, the Chancellor took no risks. He feared too +much the consequences for Charles, and he determined to spare no +effort to avoid a scandal, and to save the already deeply-injured +Queen. So he went secretly to work to outwit the King. He made +himself the protector of those lovers, the Duke of Richmond and +Miss Stewart, with the result that one dark night, a week or two +later, the lady stole away from the Palace of White-hall, and +made her way to the Bear Tavern, at the Bridge-foot, Westminster, +where Richmond awaited her with a coach. And so, by the secret +favour of the Lord Chancellor, they stole away to Kent and +matrimony. + +That was checkmate indeed to Charles who swore all manner of +things in his mortification. But it was not until some six weeks +later that he learnt by whose agency the thing had been +accomplished. He learnt it, not a doubt, from my Lady +Castlemaine. + +The estrangement between her ladyship and the King, which dated +back to the time of his desperate courtship of Miss Stewart, was +at last made up; and once again we see her ladyship triumphant, +and firmly established in the amorous King's affections. She had +cause to be grateful to the Chancellor for this. But her +vindictive nature remembered only the earlier injury still +unavenged. Here at last was her chance to pay off that score. +Clarendon, beset by enemies on every hand, yet trusting in the +King whom he had served so well, stood his ground unintimidated +and unmoved--an oak that had weathered mightier storms than this. +He did not dream that he was in the power of an evil woman. And +that woman used her power. When all else failed, she told the +King of Clarendon's part in the flight of Miss Stewart, and lest +the King should be disposed to pardon the Chancellor out of +consideration for his motives, represented him as a self-seeker, +and charged him with having acted thus so as to make sure of +keeping his daughter's children by the Duke of York in the +succession. + +That was the end. Charles withdrew his protection, threw +Clarendon to the wolves. He sent the Duke of Albemarle to him +with a command that he should surrender his seals of office. The +proud old man refused to yield his seals to any but the King +himself. He may have hoped that the memory of all that lay +between them would rise up once more when they were face to face. +So he came in person to Whitehall to make surrender. He walked +deliberately, firmly, and with head erect, through the hostile +throng of courtiers--"especially the buffoones and ladys of +pleasure," as Evelyn says. + +Of his departure thence, his disgrace now consummated, Pepys has +left us a vivid picture: + +"When he went from the King on Monday morning my Lady Castlemaine +was in bed (though about twelve o'clock), and ran out in her +smock into her aviary looking into Whitehall Gardens; and thither +her woman brought her her nightgown; and she stood, blessing +herself at the old man's going away; and several of the gallants +of Whitehall--of which there were many staying to see the +Chancellor's return--did talk to her in her birdcage; among +others Blandford, telling her she was the bird of passage." + +Clarendon lingered, melancholy and disillusioned, at his fine +house in Piccadilly until, impeached by Parliament, he remembered +Strafford's fate, and set out to tread once more and for the +remainder of his days the path of exile. + +Time avenged him. Two of his granddaughters--Mary and Anne-- +reigned successively as queens in England. + + + + + +X. THE TRAGEDY OF HERRENHAUSEN + +Count Philip Königsmark and the Princess Sophia Dorothea + + + +He was accounted something of a scamp throughout Europe, and +particularly in England, where he had been associated with his +brother in the killing of Mr. Thynne. But the seventeenth century +did not look for excessively nice scruples in a soldier of +fortune; and so it condoned the lack of virtue in Count Philip +Christof Königsmark for the sake of his personal beauty, his +elegance, his ready wit, and his magnificent address. The court +of Hanover made him warmly welcome, counting itself the richer +for his presence; whilst he, on his side, was retained there by +the Colonelcy in the Electoral Guard to which he had been +appointed, and by his deep and ill-starred affection for the +Princess Sophia Dorothea, the wife of the Electoral Prince, who +later was to reign in England as King George I. + +His acquaintance with her dated back to childhood, for they had +been playmates at her father's ducal court of Zell, where +Königsmark had been brought up. With adolescence he had gone out +into the world to seek the broader education which it offered to +men of quality and spirit. He had fought bulls in Madrid, and the +infidel overseas; he had wooed adventure wherever it was to be +met, until romance hung about him like an aura. Thus Sophia met +him again, a dazzling personality, whose effulgence shone the +more brightly against the dull background of that gross +Hanoverian court; an accomplished, graceful, self-reliant man of +the world, in whom she scarcely recognized her sometime playmate. + +The change he found in her was no less marked, though of a +different kind. The sweet child he had known--she had been +married in 1682, at the age of sixteen--had come in her ten years +of wedded life to the fulfilment of the handsome promise of her +maidenhood. But her beauty was spiritualized by a certain +wistfulness that had not been there before, that should not have +been there now had all been well. The sprightliness inherent in +her had not abated, but it had assumed a certain warp of +bitterness; humour, which is of the heart, had given place in her +to wit, which is of the mind, and this wit was barbed, and a +little reckless of how or where it offended. + +Königsmark observed these changes that the years had wrought, and +knew enough of her story to account for them. He knew of her +thwarted love for her cousin, the Duke of Wolfenbuttel, thwarted +for the sake of dynastic ambition, to the end that by marrying +her to the Electoral Prince George the whole of the Duchy of +Luneberg might be united. Thus, for political reasons, she had +been thrust into a union that was mutually loveless; for Prince +George had as little affection to bring to it as herself. Yet for +a prince the door to compensations is ever open. Prince George's +taste, as is notorious, was ever for ugly women, and this taste +he indulged so freely, openly, and grossly that the coldness +towards him with which Sophia had entered the alliance was +eventually converted into disgust and contempt. + +Thus matters stood between that ill-matched couple; contempt on +her side, cold dislike on his, a dislike that was fully shared by +his father, the Elector, Ernest Augustus, and encouraged in the +latter by the Countess von Platen. + +Madame von Platen, the wife of the Elector's chief minister of +state, was--with the connivance of her despicable husband, who +saw therein the means to his own advancement--the acknowledged +mistress of Ernest Augustus. She was a fleshly, gauche, vain, and +ill-favoured woman. Malevolence sat in the creases of her painted +face, and peered from her mean eyes. Yet, such as she was, the +Elector Ernest loved her. His son's taste for ugly women would +appear to have been hereditary. + +Between the Countess and Sophia there was a deadly feud. The +princess had mortally offended her father-in-law's favourite. Not +only had she never troubled to dissemble the loathing which that +detestable woman inspired in her, but she had actually given it +such free and stinging expression as had provoked against Madame +von Platen the derision of the court, a derision so ill-concealed +that echoes of it had reached its object, and made her aware of +the source from whence it sprang. + +It was into this atmosphere of hostility that the advent of the +elegant, romantic Königsmark took place. He found the stage set +for comedy of a grim and bitter kind, which he was himself, by +his recklessness, to convert into tragedy. + +It began by the Countess von Platen's falling in love with him. +It was some time before he suspected it, though heaven knows he +did not lack for self-esteem. Perhaps it was this very self- +esteem that blinded him here to the appalling truth. Yet in the +end understanding came to him. When the precise significance of +the fond leer of that painted harridan's repellent coquetry was +borne in upon him he felt the skin of his body creep and roughen +But he dissembled craftily. He was a venal scamp, after all, and +in the court of Hanover he saw opportunities to employ his gifts +and his knowledge of the great world in such a way as to win to +eminence. He saw that the Elector's favourite could be of use to +him; and it is not your adventurer's way to look too closely into +the nature of the ladder by which he has the chance to climb. + +Skilfully, craftily, then, he played the enamoured countess so +long as her fondness for him might be useful, her hostility +detrimental. But once the Colonelcy of the Electoral Guards was +firmly in his grasp, and an intimate friendship had ripened +between himself and Prince Charles--the Elector's younger son-- +sufficiently to ensure his future, he plucked off the mask and +allied himself with Sophia in her hostility towards Madame von +Platen. He did worse. Some little time thereafter, whilst on a +visit to the court of Poland, he made one night in his cups a +droll story of the amorous persecution which he had suffered at +Madame von Platen's hands. + +It was a tale that set the profligate company in a roar. But +there was one present who afterwards sent a report of it to the +Countess, and you conceive the nature of the emotions it aroused +in her. Her rage was the greater for being stifled. It was +obviously impossible for her to appeal to her lover, the Elector, +to avenge her. From the Elector, above all others, must the +matter be kept concealed. But not on that account would she forgo +the vengeance due. She would present a reckoning in full ere all +was done, and bitterly should the presumptuous young adventurer +who had flouted her be made to pay. + +The opportunity was very soon to be afforded her. It arose more +or less directly out of an act in which she indulged her spite +against Sophia. This lay in throwing Melusina Schulemberg into +the arms of the Electoral Prince. Melusina, who was years +afterwards to be created Duchess of Kendal, had not yet attained +to that completeness of lank, bony hideousness that was later to +distinguish her in England. But even in youth she could boast of +little attraction. Prince George, however, was easily attracted. +A dull, undignified libertine, addicted to over-eating, heavy +drinking, and low conversation, he found in Melusina von +Schulemberg an ideal mate. Her installation as maîtresse en-titre +took place publicly at a ball given by Prince George at +Herrenhausen, a ball at which the Princess Sophia was present. + +Accustomed, inured, as she was to the coarse profligacy of her +dullard husband, and indifferent to his philandering as her +contempt of him now left her, yet in the affront thus publicly +offered her, she felt that the limit of endurance had been +reached. Next day it was found that she had disappeared from +Herrenhausen. She had fled to her father's court at Zell. + +But her father received her coldly; lectured her upon the freedom +and levity of her manners, which he condemned as unbecoming the +dignity of her rank; recommended her to use in future greater +prudence, and a proper, wifely submission; and, the homily +delivered, packed her back to her husband at Herrenhausen. + +George's reception of her on her return was bitterly hostile. She +had been guilty of a more than usual, of an unpardonable want of +respect for him. She must learn what was due to her station, and +to her husband. He would thank her to instruct herself in these +matters against his return from Berlin, whither he was about to +journey, and he warned her that he would suffer no more tantrums +of that kind. + +Thus he delivered himself, with cold hate in his white, flabby, +frog-face and in the very poise of his squat, ungainly figure. + +Thereafter he departed for Berlin, bearing hate of her with him, +and leaving hate and despair behind. + +It was then, in this despair, that Sophia looked about her for a +true friend to lend her the aid she so urgently required; to +rescue her from her intolerable, soul-destroying fate. And at her +elbow, against this dreadful need, Destiny had placed her +sometime playmate, her most devoted friend--as she accounted +him, and as, indeed, he was--the elegant, reckless Königsmark, +with his beautiful face, his golden mane, and his unfathomable +blue eyes. + +Walking with him one summer day between clipped hedges in the +formal gardens of Herrenhausen--that palace as squat and +ungraceful as those who had built and who inhabited it--she +opened her heart to him very fully, allowed him, in her +overwhelming need of sympathy, to see things which for very shame +she had hitherto veiled from all other eyes. She kept nothing +back; she dwelt upon her unhappiness with her boorish husband, +told him of slights and indignities innumerable, whose pain she +had hitherto so bravely dissembled, confessed, even, that he had +beaten her upon occasion. + +Königsmark went red and white by turns, with the violent surge of +his emotions, and the deep sapphire eyes blazed with wrath when +she came at last to the culminating horror of blows endured. + +"It is enough, madame," he cried. "I swear to you, as Heaven +hears me, that he shall be punished." + +"Punished?" she echoed, checking in her stride, and looked at him +with a smile of sad incredulity. "It is not his punishment I +seek, my friend, but my own salvation." + +"The one can be accomplished with the other," he answered hotly, +and struck the cut-steel hilt of his sword. "You shall be rid of +this lout as soon as ever I can come to him. I go after him to +Berlin to-night." + +The colour all faded from her cheeks, her sensitive lips fell +apart, as she looked at him aghast. + +"Why, what would you do? What do you mean?" she asked him. + +"I will send him the length of my sword, and so make a widow of +you, madame." + +She shook her head. "Princes do not fight," she said, on a note +of contempt. + +"I shall so shame him that he will have no alternative--unless, +indeed, he is shameless. I will choose my occasion shrewdly, put +an affront on him one evening in his cups, when drink shall have +made him valiant enough to commit himself to a meeting. If even +that will not answer, and he still shields himself behind his +rank--why, there are other ways to serve him." He was thinking, +perhaps, of Mr. Thynne. + +The heat of so much reckless, romantic fury on her behalf warmed +the poor lady, who had so long been chilled for want of sympathy, +and starved of love. Impulsively she caught his hand in hers. + +"My friend, my friend!" she cried, on a note that quivered and +broke. "You are mad--wonderfully beautifully mad, but mad. What +would become of you if you did this?" + +He swept the consideration aside by a contemptuous, almost angry +gesture. "Does that matter? I am concerned with what is to become +of you. I was born for your service, my princess, and the service +being rendered . . ." He shrugged and smiled, threw out his hands +and let them fall again to his sides in an eloquent gesture. He +was the complete courtier, the knight-errant, the romantic preux- +chevalier all in one. + +She drew closer to him, took the blue lapels of his military coat +in her white hands, and looked pathetically up into his beautiful +face. If ever she wanted to kiss a man, she surely wanted to kiss +Königsmark in that moment, but as she might have kissed a loving +brother, in token of her deep gratitude for his devotion to her +who had known so little true devotion. + +"If you knew," she said, "what balsam this proof of your +friendship has poured upon the wounds of my soul, you would +understand my utter lack of words in which to thank you. You +dumbfound me, my friend; I can find no expression for my +gratitude." + +"I ask no gratitude," quoth he. "I am all gratitude myself that +you should have come to me in the hour of your need. I but ask +your leave to serve you in my own way." + +She shook her head. She saw his blue eyes grow troubled. + +He was about to speak, to protest, but she hurried on. "Serve me +if you will--God knows I need the service of a loyal friend--but +serve me as I shall myself decide--no other way." + +"But what alternative service can exist?" he asked, almost +impatiently. + +"I have it in mind to escape from this horrible place--to quit +Hanover, never to return." + +"But to go whither?" + +"Does it matter? Anywhere away from this hateful court, and this +hateful life; anywhere, since my father will not let me find +shelter at Zell, as I had hoped. Had it not been for the thought +of my children, I should have fled long ago. For the sake of +those two little ones I have suffered patiently through all these +years. But the limit of endurance has been reached and passed. +Take me away. Königsmark!" She was clutching his lapels again. +"If you would really serve me, help me to escape." + +His hands descended upon hers, and held them prisoned against his +breast. A flush crept into his fair cheeks, there was a sudden +kindling of the eyes that looked down into her own piteous ones. +These sensitive, romantic natures are quickly stirred to passion, +ever ready to yield to the adventure of it. + +"My princess," he said, "you may count upon your Königsmark while +he has life." Disengaging her hands from his lapels, but still +holding them, he bowed low over them, so low that his heavy +golden mane tumbled forward on either side of his handsome head +to form a screen under cover of which he pressed his lips upon +her fingers. + +She let him have his will with her hands. It was little enough +reward for so much devotion. + +"I thank you again," she breathed. "And now I must think--I must +consider where I can count upon finding refuge." + +That cooled his ardour a little. His own high romantic notion +was, no doubt, to fling her there and then upon the withers of +his horse, and so ride out into the wide world to carve a kingdom +for her with his sword. Her sober words dispelled the dream, +revealed to him that it was not quite intended he should +hereafter be her custodian. And there for the moment the matter +was suspended. + +Both had behaved quite recklessly. Each should have remembered +that an Electoral Princess is not wise to grant a protracted +interview, accompanied by lapel-holding, hand-holding, and hand- +kissings, within sight of the windows of a palace. And, as it +happened, behind one of those windows lurked the Countess von +Platen, watching them jealously, and without any disposition to +construe the meeting innocently. Was she not the deadly enemy of +both? Had not the Princess whetted satire upon her, and had not +Königsmark scorned the love she proffered him, and then +unpardonably published it in a ribald story to excite the mirth +of profligates? + +That evening the Countess purposefully sought her lover, the +Elector. + +"Your son is away in Prussia," quoth she. "Who guards his honour +in his absence?" + +"George's honour?" quoth the Elector, bulging eyes staring at the +Countess. He did not laugh, as might have been expected at the +notion of guarding something whose existence was not easily +discerned. He had no sense of humour, as his appearance +suggested. He was a short, fat man with a face shaped like a +pear--narrow in the brow and heavy in the jowl. "What the devil +do you mean?" he asked. + +"I mean that this foreign adventurer, Königsmark, and Sophia grow +too intimate." + +"Sophia!" Thick eyebrows were raised until they almost met the +line of his ponderous peruke. His face broke into malevolent +creases expressive of contempt. + +"That white-faced ninny! Bah!" Her very virtue was matter for +his scorn. + +"It is these white-faced ninnies can be most sly," replied the +Countess, out of her worldly wisdom. "Listen a moment now." And +she related, with interest rather than discount, you may be sure, +what she had witnessed that afternoon. + +The malevolence deepened in his face. He had never loved Sophia, +and he felt none the kinder towards her for her recent trip to +Zell. Then, too, being a libertine, and the father of a +libertine, it logically followed that unchastity in his women- +folk was in his eyes the unpardonable sin. + +He heaved himself out of his deep chair. "How far has this +gone?" he demanded. + +Prudence restrained the Countess from any over-statement that +might afterwards be disproved. Besides, there was not the need, +if she could trust her senses. Patience and vigilance would +presently afford her all the evidence required to damn the pair. +She said as much, and promised the Elector that she would +exercise herself the latter quality in his son's service. Again +the Elector did not find it grotesque that his mistress should +appoint herself the guardian of his son's honour. + +The Countess went about that congenial task with zeal--though +George's honour was the least thing that concerned her. What +concerned her was the dishonour of Sophia, and the ruin of +Königsmark. So she watched assiduously, and set others, too, to +watch for her and to report. And almost daily now she had for the +Elector a tale of whisperings and hand-pressings, and secret +stolen meetings between the guilty twain. The Elector enraged, +and would have taken action, but that the guileful Countess +curbed him. All this was not enough. An accusation that could not +be substantiated would ruin all chance of punishing the +offenders, might recoil, indeed, upon the accusers by bringing +the Duke of Zell to his daughter's aid. So they must wait yet +awhile until they held more absolute proof of this intrigue. + +And then at last one day the Countess sped in haste to the +Elector with word that Königsmark and the Princess had shut +themselves up together in the garden pavilion. Let him come at +once, and he should so discover them for himself, and thus at +last be able to take action. The Countess was flushed with +triumph. Be that meeting never so innocent--and Madame von Platen +could not, being what she was, and having seen what she had seen, +conceive it innocent--it was in an Electoral Princess an +unforgivable indiscretion, to take the most charitable view, +which none would dream of taking. So the Elector, fiercely red in +the face, hurried off to the pavilion with Madame von Platen +following. He came too late, despite the diligence of his spy. + +Sophia had been there, but her interview with the Count had been +a brief one. She had to tell him that at last she was resolved in +all particulars. She would seek a refuge at the court of her +cousin, the Duke of Wolfenbuttel, who, she was sure--for the sake +of what once had lain between them--would not now refuse to +shelter and protect her. Of Königsmark she desired that he should +act as her escort to her cousin's court. + +Königsmark was ready, eager. In Hanover he would leave nothing +that he regretted. At Wolfenbuttelyy, having served Sophia +faithfully, his ever-growing, romantic passion for her might find +expression. She would make all dispositions, and advise him when +she was ready to set out. But they must use caution, for they +were being spied upon. Madame von Platen's over-eagerness had in +part betrayed her. It was, indeed, their consciousness of +espionage which had led to this dangerous meeting in the +seclusion of the pavilion, and which urged him to linger after +Sophia had left him. They were not to be seen to emerge together. + +The young Dane sat alone on the window-seat, his chin in his +hands, his eyes dreamy, a faint smile on his shapely lips, when +Ernest Augustus burst furiously in, the Countess von Platen +lingering just beyond the threshold. The Elector's face was +apoplectically purple from rage and haste, his breath came in +wheezing gasps. His bulging eyes swept round the chamber, and +fastened finally, glaring, upon the startled Königsmark. + +"Where is the Princess?" he blurted out. + +The Count espied Madame von Platen in the back ground, and had +the scent of mischief very strong. But he preserved an air of +innocent mystification. He rose and answered with courteous ease: + +"Your Highness is seeking her? Shall I ascertain for you?" + +At a loss, Ernest Augustus stared a moment, then flung a glance +over his shoulder at the Countess. + +"I was told that her Highness was here," he said. + +"Plainly," said Königsmark, with perfect calm, "you have been +misinformed." And his quiet glance and gesture invited the +Elector to look round for himself. + +"How long have you been here yourself?" Feeling at a +disadvantage, the Elector avoided the direct question that was in +his mind. + +"Half an hour at least." + +"And in that time you have not seen the Princess?" + +"Seen the Princess?" Königsmark's brows were knit perplexedly. "I +scarcely understand your Highness." + +The Elector moved a step and trod on a soft substance. He looked +down, then stooped, and rose again, holding in his hand a woman's +glove. + +"What's this?" quoth he. "Whose glove is this?" + +If Königsmark's heart missed a beat--as well it may have done-- +he did not betray it outwardly. He smiled; indeed he almost +laughed. + +"Your Highness is amusing himself at my expense by asking me +questions that only a seer could answer." + +The Elector was still considering him with his ponderously +suspicious glance, when quick steps approached. A serving-maid, +one of Sophia's women, appeared in the doorway of the pavilion. + +"What do you want?" the Elector snapped at her. + +"A glove her Highness lately dropped here," was the timid answer, +innocently precipitating the very discovery which the woman had +been too hastily dispatched to avert. + +The Elector flung the glove at her, and there was a creak of evil +laughter from him. When she had departed' he turned again to +Königsmark. + +"You fence skilfully," said he, sneering, "too skilfully for an +honest man. Will you now tell me without any more of this, +precisely what the Princess Sophia was doing here with you?" + +Königsmark drew himself stiffly up, looking squarely into the +furnace of the Elector's face. + +"Your Highness assumes that the Princess was here with me, and a +prince is not to be contradicted, even when he insults a lady +whose spotless purity is beyond his understanding. But your +Highness can hardly expect me to become in never so slight a +degree a party to that insult by vouchsafing any answer to your +question." + +"That is your last word, sir?" The Elector shook with suppressed +anger. + +"Your Highness cannot think that words are necessary?" + +The bulging eyes grew narrow, the heavy nether lip was thrust +forth in scorn and menace. + +"You are relieved, sir, of your duties in the Electoral Guard, +and as that is the only tie binding you to Hanover, we see no +reason why your sojourn here should be protracted." + +Königsmark bowed stiffly, formally. "It shall end, your Highness, +as soon as I can make the necessary arrangements for my +departure--in a week at most." + +"You are accorded three days, sir." The Elector turned, and +waddled out, leaving Königsmark to breathe freely again. The +three days should suffice for the Princess also. It was very +well. + +The Elector, too, thought that it was very well. He had given +this troublesome fellow his dismissal, averted a scandal, and +placed his daughter-in-law out of the reach of harm. Madame von +Platen was the only one concerned who thought that it was not +well at all, the consummation being far from that which she had +desired. She had dreamt of a flaming scandal, that should utterly +consume her two enemies, Sophia and Königsmark. Instead, she saw +them both escaping, and the fact that she was--as she may have +supposed--effectively separating two loving hearts could be no +sort of adequate satisfaction for such bitter spite as hers. +Therefore she plied her wicked wits to force an issue more +germane to her desires. + +The course she took was fraught with a certain peril. Yet +confident that at worst she could justify it, and little fearing +that the worst would happen, she boldly went to work. She forged +next day a brief note in which the Princess Sophia urgently bade +Königsmark to come to her at ten o'clock that night in her own +apartments, and with threat and bribe induced the waiting woman +of the glove to bear that letter. + +Now it so happened that Königsmark, through the kind offices of +Sophia's maid-of-honour, Mademoiselle de Knesebeck, who was in +the secret of their intentions, had sent the Princess a note that +morning, briefly stating the urgency of departure, and begging +her so to arrange that she could leave Herrenhausen with him on +the morrow. He imagined the note now brought him to be in answer +to that appeal of his. Its genuineness he never doubted, being +unacquainted with Sophia's writing. He was aghast at the rashness +which dictated such an acsignation, yet never hesitated as to +keeping it. It was not his way to hesitate. He trusted to the +gods who watch over the destinies of the bold. + +And meanwhile Madame von Platen was reproaching her lover with +having dealt too softly with the Dane. + +"Bah!" said the Elector. "To-morrow he goes his ways, and we are +rid of him. Is not that enough?" + +"Enough, if, soon as he goes, he goes not too late already," +quoth she. + +"Now what will you be hinting?" he asked her peevishly. + +"I'll be more plain. I will tell you what I know. It is this. +Königsmark has an assignation with the Princess Sophia this +very night at ten o'clock--and where do you suppose? In her +Highness's own apartments." + +The Elector came to his feet with an oath. "That is not true!" he +cried. "It cannot be!" + +"Then I'll say no more," quoth Jezebel, and snapped her thin +lips. + +"Ah, but you shall. How do you know this?" + +"That I cannot tell you without betraying a confidence. Let it +suffice you that I do know it. Consider now whether in banishing +this profligate you have sufficiently avenged the honour of your +son." + +"My God, if I thought this were true...." He choked with rage, +stood shaking a moment, then strode to the door, calling. + +"The truth is easily ascertained," said Madame. "Conceal yourself +in the Rittersaal, and await his coming forth. But you had best +go attended, for it is a very reckless rogue, and he has been +known aforetime to practice murder." + +Whilst the Elector, acting upon this advice, was getting his men +together, Königsmark was wasting precious moments in Sophia's +antechamber, whilst Mademoiselle de Knesebeck apprised her +Highness of his visit. Sophia had already retired to bed, and +the amazing announcement of the Count's presence there startled +her into a fear of untoward happenings. She was overwhelmed, too, +by the rashness of this step of his, coming after the events +of yesterday. If it should be known that he had visited her +thus, terrible consequences might ensue. She rose, and with +Mademoiselle de Knesebeck's aid made ready to receive him. Yet +for all that she made haste, the precious irreclaimable moments +sped. + +She came to him at last, Mademoiselle de Knesebeck following, for +propriety's sake. + +"What is it?" she asked him breathlessly. "What brings you here +at such an hour?" + +"What brings me?" quoth he, surprised at that reception. "Why, +your commands--your letter." + +"My letter? What letter?" + +A sense of doom, of being trapped, suddenly awoke in him. He +plucked forth the treacherous note, and proffered it. + +"Why, what does this mean?" She swept a white hand over her eyes +and brows, as if to brush away some thing that obscured her +vision. "That is not mine. I never wrote it. How could you dream +I should be imprudent as to bid you hither, and at such an hour +How could you dream it?" + +"You are right," said he, and laughed, perhaps to ease her alarm, +perhaps in sheer bitter mirth. "It will be, no doubt, the work of +our friend, Madame von Platen. I had best begone. For the rest, +my travelling chaise will wait from noon until sunset to-morrow +by the Markt Kirck in Hanover, and I shall wait within it. I +shall hope to conduct you safely to Wolfenbuttelyy." + +"I will come, I will come. But go now--oh, go!" + +He looked very deeply into her eyes--a valedictory glance against +the worst befalling him. Then he took her hand, bowed over it and +kissed it, and so departed. + +He crossed the outer ante-room, descended the short flight of +stairs, and pushed open the heavy door of the Hall of Knights. He +passed through, and thrust the door behind him, then stood a +moment looking round the vast apartment. If he was too late to +avoid the springs of the baited trap, it was here that they +should snap upon him. Yet all was still. A single lamp on a table +in the middle of the vast chamber shed a feeble, flickering +light, yet sufficient to assure him that no one waited here. He +sighed relief, wrapped his cloak about him, and set out swiftly +to cross the hall. + +But even as he passed, four shadows detached themselves from the +tall stove, resolved themselves into armed men, and sprang after +him. + +He heard them, wheeled about, flung off his cloak, and disengaged +his sword, all with the speed of lightning and the address of the +man who for ten years had walked amid perils, and learned to +depend upon his blade. That swift action sealed his doom. Their +orders were to take him living or dead, and standing in awe of +his repute, they were not the men to incur risks. Even as he came +on guard, a partisan grazed his head, and another opened his +breast. + +He went down, coughing and gasping, blood dabbling his bright +golden hair, and staining the priceless Mechlin at his throat, +yet his right hand still desperately clutching his useless sword. + +His assassins stood about him, their partisans levelled to strike +again, and summoned him to yield. Then, beside one of them, he +suddenly beheld the Countess von Platen materializing out of the +surrounding shadows as it seemed, and behind her the squat, +ungraceful figure of the Elector. He fought for breath. +"I am slain," he gasped, "and as I am to appear before my Maker +I swear to you that the Princess Sophia is innocent. Spare her at +least, your Highness." + +"Innocent!" said the Elector hoarsely. "Then what did you now in +her apartments? + +"It was a trap set for us by this foul hag, who . . ." + +The heel of the vindictive harridan ground viciously upon the +lips of the dying man and choked his utterance. Thereafter the +halberts finished him off, and he was buried there and then, in +lime, under the floor of the Hall of Knights, under the very spot +where he had fallen, which was long to remain imbrued with his +blood. + +Thus miserably perished the glittering Königsmark, a martyr to +his own irrepressible romanticism. + +As for Sophia, better might it have been for her had she shared +his fate that night. She was placed under arrest next morning, +and Prince George was summoned back from Berlin at once. + +The evidence may have satisfied him that his honour had not +suffered, for he was disposed to let the matter drop, content +that they should remain in the forbidding relations which had +existed between them before this happening. But Sophia was +uncompromising in her demand for strict justice. + +"If I am guilty, I am unworthy of you," she told him. "If +innocent, you are unworthy of me." + +There was no more to be said. A consistory court was assembled to +divorce them. But since with the best intentions there was no +faintest evidence of her adultery, this court had to be content +to pronounce the divorce upon the ground of her desertion. + +She protested against the iniquity of this. But she protested in +vain. She was carried off into the grim captivity of a castle on +the Ahlen, to drag out in that melancholy duress another thirty- +two years of life. + +Her death took place in November of 1726. And the story runs that +on her death-bed she delivered to a person of trust a letter to +her sometime husband, now King George I. of England. Seven months +later, as King George was on his way to his beloved Hanover, that +letter was placed in his carriage as it crossed the frontier into +Germany. It contained Sophia's dying declaration of innocence, +and her solemn summons to King George to stand by her side before +the judgment-seat of Heaven within a year, and there make answer +in her presence for the wrongs he had done her, for her blighted +life and her miserable death. + +King George's answer to that summons was immediate. The reading +of that letter brought on the apoplectic seizure of which he died +in his carriage next day--the 9th of June, 1727--on the road to +Osnabruck. + + + + + +XI. THE TYRANNICIDE + +Charlotte Corday and Jean Paul Morat + + + +Tyrannicide was the term applied to her deed by Adam Lux, her +lover in the sublimest and most spiritual sense of the word--for +he never so much as spoke to her, and she never so much as knew +of his existence. + +The sudden spiritual passion which inflamed him when he beheld +her in the tumbril on her way to the scaffold is a fitting +corollary to her action. She in her way and he in his were alike +sublime; her tranquil martyrdom upon the altar of Republicanism +and his exultant martyrdom upon the altar of Love were alike +splendidly futile. + +It is surely the strangest love-story enshrined in history. It +has its pathos, yet leaves no regrets behind, for there is no +might-have-been which death had thwarted. Because she died, he +loved her; because he loved her, he died. That is all, but for +the details which I am now to give you. + +The convent-bred Marie Charlotte Corday d'Armont was the daughter +of a landless squire of Normandy, a member of the chétive +noblesse, a man of gentle birth, whose sadly reduced fortune may +have predisposed him against the law of entail or primogeniture-- +the prime cause of the inequality out of which were sprung so +many of the evils that afflicted France. Like many of his order +and condition he was among the earliest converts to Republicanism-- +the pure, ideal republicanism, demanding constitutional government +of the people by the people, holding monarchical and aristocratic +rule an effete and parasitic anachronism. + +From M. de Corday Charlotte absorbed the lofty Republican +doctrines to which anon she was to sacrifice her life; and she +rejoiced when the hour of awakening sounded and the children of +France rose up and snapped the fetters in which they had been +trammelled for centuries by an insolent minority of their fellow- +countrymen. + +In the early violence of the revolution she thought she saw a +transient phase--horrible, but inevitable in the dread convulsion +of that awakening. Soon this would pass, and the sane, ideal +government of her dreams would follow--must follow, since among +the people's elected representatives was a goodly number of +unselfish, single-minded men of her father's class of life; men +of breeding and education, impelled by a lofty altruistic +patriotism; men who gradually came to form a party presently to +be known as the Girondins. + +But the formation of one party argues the formation of at least +another. And this other in the National Assembly was that of the +Jacobins, less pure of motive, less restrained in deed, a party +in which stood pre-eminent such ruthless, uncompromising men as +Robespierre, Danton,--and Marat. + +Where the Girondins stood for Republicanism, the Jacobins stood +for Anarchy. War was declared between the two. The Girondins +arraigned Marat and Robespierre for complicity in the September +massacres, and thereby precipitated their own fall. The triumphant +acquittal of Marat was the prelude to the ruin of the Girondins, +and the proscription of twenty-nine deputies followed at once as +the first step. These fled into the country, hoping to raise an +army that should yet save France, and several of the fugitives +made their way to Caen. Thence by pamphlets and oratory they +laboured to arouse true Republican enthusiasm. They were gifted, +able men, eloquent speakers and skilled writers, and they might +have succeeded but that in Paris sat another man no less gifted, +and with surer knowledge of the temper of the proletariat, +tirelessly wielding a vitriolic pen, skilled in the art of +inflaming the passions of the mob. + +That man was Jean Paul Marat, sometime medical practitioner, +sometime professor of literature, a graduate of the Scottish +University of St. Andrews, author of some scientific and many +sociological works, inveterate pamphleteer and revolutionary +journalist, proprietor and editor of L'Ami du Peuple, and idol of +the Parisian rabble, who had bestowed upon him the name borne by +his gazette, so that he was known as The People's Friend. + +Such was the foe of the Girondins, and of the pure, altruistic, +Utopian Republicanism for which they stood; and whilst he lived +and laboured, their own endeavours to influence the people were +all in vain. From his vile lodging in the Rue de l'Ecole de +Médecine in Paris he span with his clever, wicked pen a web that +paralysed their high endeavours and threatened finally to choke +them. + +He was not alone, of course. He was one of the dread triumvirate +in which Danton and Robespierre were his associates. But to the +Girondins he appeared by far the most formidable and ruthless and +implacable of the three, whilst to Charlotte Corday--the friend +and associate now of the proscribed Girondins who had sought +refuge in Caen--he loomed so vast and terrible as to eclipse his +associates entirely. To her young mind, inflamed with enthusiasm +for the religion of Liberty as preached by the Girondins, Marat +was a loathly, dangerous heresiarch, threatening to corrupt that +sublime new faith with false, anarchical doctrine, and to replace +the tyranny that had been overthrown by a tyranny more odious +still. + +She witnessed in Caen the failure of the Girondin attempt to +raise an army with which to deliver Paris from the foul clutches +of the Jacobins. An anguished spectator of this failure, she saw +in it a sign that Liberty was being strangled at its birth. On +the lips of her friends the Girondins she caught again the name +of Marat, the murderer of Liberty; and, brooding, she reached a +conclusion embodied in a phrase of a letter which she wrote about +that time. + +"As long as Marat lives there will never be any safety for the +friends of law and humanity." + +From that negative conclusion to its positive, logical equivalent +it was but a step. That step she took. She may have considered +awhile the proposition thus presented to her, or resolve may have +come to her with realization. She understood that a great +sacrifice was necessary; that who undertook to rid France of that +unclean monster must go prepared for self-immolation. She counted +the cost calmly and soberly--for calm and sober was now her every +act. + +She made her packages, and set out one morning by the Paris coach +from Caen, leaving a note for her father, in which she had +written: + +"I am going to England, because I do not believe that it will be +possible for a long time to live happily and tranquilly in +France. On leaving I post this letter to you. When you receive it +I shall no longer be here. Heaven denied us the happiness of +living together, as it has denied us other happinesses. May it +show itself more clement to our country. Good-by, dear Father. +Embrace my sister for me, and do not forget me." + +That was all. The fiction that she was going to England was +intended to save him pain. For she had so laid her plans that her +identity should remain undisclosed. She would seek Marat in the +very Hall of the Convention, and publicly slay him in his seat. +Thus Paris should behold Nemesis overtaking the false Republican +in the very Assembly which he corrupted, and anon should adduce a +moral from the spectacle of the monster's death. For herself she +counted upon instant destruction at the hands of the furious +spectators. Thus, thinking to die unidentified, she trusted that +her father, hearing, as all France must hear, the great tidings +that Marat was dead, would never connect her with the instrument +of Fate shattered by the fury of the mob. + +You realize, then, how great and how terrible was the purpose of +this maid of twenty-five, who so demurely took her seat in the +Paris diligence on that July morning of the Year 2 of the +Republic--1793, old style. She was becomingly dressed in brown +cloth, a lace fichu folded across her well-developed breast, a +conical hat above her light brown hair. She was of a good height +and finely proportioned, and her carriage as full of dignity as +of grace. Her skin was of such white loveliness that a contemporary +compares it with the lily. Like Athene, she was gray-eyed, and, +like Athene, noble-featured, the oval of her face squaring a little +at the chin, in which there was a cleft. Calm was her habit, calm +her slow-moving eyes, calm and deliberate her movements, and calm +the mind reflected in all this. + +And as the heavy diligence trundles out of Caen and takes the +open country and the Paris road, not even the thought of the +errand upon which she goes, of her death-dealing and death- +receiving mission, can shake that normal calm. Here is no wild +exaltation, no hysterical obedience to hotly-conceived impulse. +Here is purpose, as cold as it is lofty, to liberate France and +pay with her life for the privilege of doing so. + +That lover of hers, whom we are presently to see, has compared +her ineptly with Joan of Arc, that other maid of France. But Joan +moved with pomp in a gorgeous pageantry, amid acclamations, +sustained by the heady wine of combat and of enthusiasm openly +indulged, towards a goal of triumph. Charlotte travelled quietly +in the stuffy diligence with the quiet conviction that her days +were numbered. + +So normal did she appear to her travelling companions, that one +among them, with an eye for beauty, pestered her with amorous +attentions, and actually proposed marriage to her before the +coach had rolled over the bridge of Neuilly into Paris two days +later. + +She repaired to the Providence Inn in the Rue des Vieux +Augustine, where she engaged a room on the first floor, and then +she set out in quest of the Deputy Duperret. She had a letter of +introduction to him from the Girondin Barbaroux, with whom she +had been on friendly terms at Caen. Duperret was to assist her to +obtain an interview with the Minister of the Interior. She had +undertaken to see the latter on the subject of certain papers +relating to the affairs of a nun of Caen, an old convent friend +of her own, and she was in haste to discharge this errand, so as +to be free for the great task upon which she was come. + +From inquiries that she made, she learnt at once that Marat was +ill, and confined to his house. This rendered necessary a change +of plans, and the relinquishing of her project of affording him a +spectacular death in the crowded hall of the Convention. + +The next day, which was Friday, she devoted to furthering the +business of her friend the nun. On Saturday morning she rose +early, and by six o'clock she was walking in the cool gardens of +the Palais Royal, considering with that almost unnatural calm of +hers the ways and means of accomplishing her purpose in the +unexpected conditions that she found. + +Towards eight o'clock, when Paris was awakening to the business +of the day and taking down its shutters, she entered a cutler's +shop in the Palais Royal, and bought for two francs a stout +kitchen knife in a shagreen case. She then returned to her hotel +to breakfast, and afterwards, dressed in her brown travelling- +gown and conical hat, she went forth again, and, hailing a +hackney carnage, drove to Marat's house in the Rue de l'Ecole de +Médecine. + +But admittance to that squalid dwelling was denied her. The +Citizen Marat was ill, she was told, and could receive no +visitors. It was Simonne Everard, the triumvir's mistress--later +to be known as the Widow Marat--who barred her ingress with this +message. + +Checked, she drove back to the Providence Inn and wrote a letter +to the triumvir: + +"Paris, 13th July, Year 2 of the Republic. +"Citizen,--I have arrived from Caen. Your love for your country +leads me to assume that you will be anxious to hear of the +unfortunate events which are taking place in that part of the +Republic. I shall therefore call upon you towards one o'clock. +Have the kindness to receive me, and accord me a moment's +audience. I shall put you in the way of rendering a great service +to France. +"Marie Corday." + +Having dispatched that letter to Marat, she sat until late +afternoon waiting vainly for an answer. Despairing at last of +receiving any, she wrote a second note, more peremptory in tone: + +"I wrote to you this morning, Marat. Have you received my letter? +May I hope for a moment's audience? If you have received my +letter, I hope you will not refuse me, considering the importance +of the matter. It should suffice for you that I am very +unfortunate to give me the right to your protection." + +Having changed into a gray-striped dimity gown--you observe this +further manifestation of a calm so complete that it admits of no +departure from the ordinary habits of life--she goes forth to +deliver in person this second letter, the knife concealed in the +folds of the muslin fichu crossed high upon her breast. + +In a mean, brick-paved, ill-lighted, and almost unfurnished room +of that house in the Rue de l'Ecole de Médecine, the People's +Friend is seated in a bath. It is no instinct of cleanliness he +is obeying, for in all France there is no man more filthy in his +person and his habits than this triumvir. His bath is medicated. +The horrible, loathsome disease that corrodes his flesh demands +these long immersions to quiet the gnawing pains which distract +his active, restless mind. In these baths he can benumb the +torment of the body with which he is encumbered. + +For Marat is an intellect, and nothing more--leastways, nothing +more that matters. What else there is to him of trunk and limbs +and organs he has neglected until it has all fallen into decay. +His very lack of personal cleanliness, the squalor in which he +lives, the insufficient sleep which he allows himself, his habit +of careless feeding at irregular intervals, all have their source +in his contempt for the physical part of him. This talented man +of varied attainments, accomplished linguist, skilled physician, +able naturalist and profound psychologist, lives in his intellect +alone, impatient of all physical interruptions. If he consents to +these immersions, if he spends whole days seated in this +medicated bath, it is solely because it quenches or cools the +fires that are devouring him, and thus permits him to bend his +mind to the work that ishis life. But his long-suffering body is +avenging upon the mind the neglect to which it has been +submitted. The morbid condition of the former is being +communicated to the latter, whence results that disconcerting +admixture of cold, cynical cruelty and exalted sensibility which +marked his nature in the closing years of his life. + +In his bath, then, sat the People's Friend on that July evening, +immersed to the hips, his head swathed in a filthy turban, his +emaciated body cased in a sleeveless waistcoat. He is fifty years +of age, dying of consumption and other things, so that, did +Charlotte but know it, there is no need to murder him. Disease +and Death have marked him for their own, and grow impatient. + +A board covering the bath served him for writing-table; an empty +wooden box at his side bore an inkstand, some pens, sheets of +paper, and two or three copies of L'Ami do Peuple. There was no +sound in the room but the scratch and splutter of his quill. He +was writing diligently, revising and editing a proof of the +forthcoming issue of his paper. + +A noise of voices raised in the outer room invaded the quiet in +which he was at work, and gradually penetrated his absorption, +until it disturbed and irritated him. He moved restlessly in his +bath, listened a moment, then, with intent to make an end of the +interruption, he raised a hoarse, croaking voice to inquire what +might be taking place. + +The door opened, and Simonne, his mistress and household drudge, +entered the room. She was fully twenty years younger than +himself, and under the slattern appearance which life in that +house had imposed upon her there were vestiges of a certain +comeliness. + +"There is a young woman here from Caen, who demands insistently +to see you upon a matter of national importance." + +The dull eyes kindle at the mention of Caen; interest quickens in +that leaden-hued countenance. Was it not in Caen that those old +foes of his, the Girondins, were stirring up rebellion? + +"She says," Simonne continued, "that she wrote a letter to you +this morning, and she brings you a second note herself. I have +told her that you will not receive anyone, and . . ." + +"Give me the note," he snapped. Setting down his pen, he thrust +out an unclean paw to snatch the folded sheet from Simonne's +hand. He spread it, and read, his bloodless lips compressed, his +eyes narrowing to slits. + +"Let her in," he commanded sharply, and Simonne obeyed him +without more ado. She admitted Charlotte, and left them alone +together--the avenger and her victim. For a moment each regarded +the other. Marat beheld a handsome young woman, elegantly +attired. But these things had no interest for the People's +Friend. What to him was woman and the lure of beauty? Charlotte +beheld a feeble man of a repulsive hideousness, and was full +satisfied, for in this outward loathsomeness she imagined a +confirmation of the vileness of the mind she was come to blot +out. + +Then Marat spoke. "So you are from Caen, child?" he said. "And +what is doing in Caen that makes you so anxious to see me?" + +She approached him. + +"Rebellion is stirring there, Citizen Marat." + +"Rebellion, ha!" It was a sound between a laugh and a croak. +"Tell me what deputies are sheltered in Caen. Come, child, their +names." He took up and dipped his quill, and drew a sheet of +paper towards him. + +She approached still nearer; she came to stand close beside him, +erect and calm. She recited the names of her friends, the +Girondins, whilst hunched there in his bath his pen scratched +briskly. + +"So many for the guillotine," he snarled, when it was done. + +But whilst he was writing, she had drawn the knife from her +fichu, and as he uttered those words of doom to others his own +doom descended upon him in a lightning stroke. Straight driven by +that strong young arm, the long, stout blade was buried to its +black hilt in his breast. + +He looked at her with eyes in which there was a faint surprise as +he sank back. Then he raised his voice for the last time. + +"Help, chére amie! Help!" he cried, and was for ever silent. + +The hand still grasping the pen trailed on the ground beside the +bath at the end of his long, emaciated arm. His body sank +sideways in the same direction, the head lolling nervelessly upon +his right shoulder, whilst from the great rent in his breast the +blood gushed forth, embruing the water of his bath, trickling to +the brick-paved floor, bespattering--symbolically almost--a copy +of L'Ami du Peuple, the journal to which he had devoted so much +of his uneasy life. + +In answer to that cry of his came now Simonne in haste. A glance +sufficed to reveal to her the horrible event, and, like a +tigress, she sprang upon the unresisting slayer, seizing her by +the head, and calling loudly the while for assistance. Came +instantly from the anteroom Jeanne, the old cook, the Fortress of +the house, and Laurent Basse, a folder of Marat's paper; and now +Charlotte found herself confronted by four maddened, vociferous +beings, at whose hands she may well have expected to receive the +death for which she was prepared. + +Laurent, indeed, snatched up a chair, and felled her by a blow of +it across her head. He would, no doubt, have proceeded in his +fury to have battered her to death, but for the arrival of gens +d'armes and the police commissioner of the district, who took her +in their protecting charge. + +The soul of Paris was convulsed by the tragedy when it became +known. All night terror and confusion were abroad. All night the +revolutionary rabble, in angry grief, surged about and kept watch +upon the house wherein the People's Friend lay dead. + +That night, and for two days and nights thereafter, Charlotte +Corday lay in the Prison of the Abbaye, supporting with fortitude +the indignities that for a woman were almost inseparable from +revolutionary incarceration. She preserved throughout her +imperturbable calm, based now upon a state of mind content in the +contemplation of accomplished purpose, duty done. She had saved +France, she believed; saved Liberty, by slaying the man who would +have strangled it. In that illusion she was content. Her own life +was a small price to pay for the splendid achievement. + +Some of her time of waiting she spent in writing letters to her +friends, in which tranquilly and sanely she dwelt upon what she +had done, expounding fully the motives that had impelled her, +dwelling upon the details of the execution, and of all that had +followed. Among the letters written by her during those "days of +the preparation of peace "--as she calls that period, dating in +such terms a long epistle to Barbaroux--was one to the Committee +of Public Safety, in which she begs that a miniature-painter may +be sent to her to paint her portrait, so that she may leave this +token of remembrance to her friends. It is only in this, as the +end approaches, that we see in her conduct any thought for her +own self, any suggestion that she is anything more than a +instrument in the hands of Fate. + +On the 15th, at eight o'clock in the morning, her trial began +before the Revolutionary Tribunal. A murmur ran through the hall +as she appeared in her gown of grey-striped dimity, composed and +calm--always calm. + +The trial opened with the examination of witnesses; into that of +the cutler, who had sold her the knife, she broke impatiently. + +"These details are a waste of time. It is I who killed Marat." + +The audience gasped, and rumbled ominously. Montane turned to +examine her. + +"What was the object of your visit to Paris?" he asks. + +"To kill Marat." + +"What motives induced you to this horrible deed?" + +"His many crimes." + +"Of what crimes do you accuse him?" + +"That he instigated the massacre of September; that he kept alive +the fires of civil war, so that he might be elected dictator; +that he sought to infringe upon the sovereignty of the People by +causing the arrest and imprisonment of the deputies to the +Convention on May 31st." + +"What proof have you of this?" + +"The future will afford the proof. Marat hid his designs behind a +mask of patriotism." + +Montane shifted the ground of his interrogatory. + +"Who were your accomplices in this atrocious act?" + +"I have none." + +Montane shook his head. "You cannot convince anyone that a person +of your age and sex could have conceived such a crime unless +instigated by some person or persons whom you are unwilling to +name." + +Charlotte almost smiled. "That shows but a poor knowledge of the +human heart. It is easier to carry out such a project upon the +strength of one's own hatred than upon that of others." And then, +raising her voice, she proclaimed: "I killed one man to save a +hundred thousand; I killed a villain to save innocents; I killed +a savage Wild-beast to give repose to France. I was a Republican +before the Revolution. I never lacked for energy." + +What more was there to say? Her guilt was completely established. +Her fearless self-ossession was not to be ruffled. Yet Fouquier- +Tinville, the dread prosecutor, made the attempt. Beholding her +so virginal and fair and brave, feeling perhaps that the Tribunal +had not had the best of it, he sought with a handful of +revolutionary filth to restore the balance. He rose slowly, his +ferrety eyes upon her. + +"How many children have you had?" he rasped, sardonic, his tone a +slur, an insult. + +Faintly her cheeks crimsoned. But her voice was composed, +disdainful, as she answered coldly: + +"Have I not stated that I am not married?" + +A leer, a dry laugh, a shrug from Tinville to complete the +impression he sought to convey, and he sat down again. + +It was the turn of Chauveau de la Garde, the advocate instructed +to defend her. But what defence was possible? And Chauveau had +been intimidated. He had received a note from the jury ordering +him to remain silent, another from the President bidding him +declare her mad. + +Yet Chauveau took a middle course. His brief speech is admirable; +it satisfied his self-respect, without derogating from his +client. It uttered the whole truth. + +"The prisoner," he said, "confesses with calm the horrible crime +she has committed; she confesses with calm its premeditation; she +confesses its most dreadful details; in short, she confesses +everything, and does riot seek to justify herself. That, citizens +of the jury, is her whole defence. This imperturbable calm, this +utter abnegation of self, which displays no remorse even in the +very presence of death, are contrary to nature. They can only be +explained by the excitement of political fanaticism which armed +her hand. It is for you, citizens of the jury, to judge what +weight that moral consideration should have in the scales of +justice." + +The jury voted her guilty, and Tinville rose to demand the full +sentence of the law. + +It was the end. She was removed to the Conciergerie, the +antechamber of the guillotine. A constitutional priest was sent +to her, but she dismissed him with thanks, not requiring his +ministrations. She preferred the painter Hauer, who had received +the Revolutionary Tribunal's permission to paint her portrait in +accordance with her request. And during the sitting, which lasted +half an hour, she conversed with him quietly on ordinary topics, +the tranquillity of her spirit unruffled by any fear of the death +that was so swiftly approaching. + +The door opened, and Sanson, the public executioner, came in. He +carried the red smock worn by those convicted of assassination. +She showed no dismay; no more, indeed, than a faint surprise that +the time spent with Hauer should have gone so quickly. She begged +for a few moments in which to write a note, and, the request +being granted, acquitted herself briskly of that task, then +announcing herself ready, she removed her cap that Sanson might +cut her luxuriant hair. Yet first, taking his scissors, she +herself cut off a lock and gave it to Hauer for remembrance. When +Sanson would have bound her hands, she begged that she might be +allowed to wear gloves, as her wrists were bruised and cut by the +cord with which she had been pinioned in Marat's house. He +answered that she might do so if she wished, but that it was +unnecessary, as he could bind her without causing pain. + +"To be sure," she said, "those others had not your experience," +and she proffered her bare wrists to his cord without further +demur. "If this toilet of death is performed by rude hands," she +commented, "at least it leads to immortality." + +She mounted the tumbril awaiting in the prison yard, and, +disdaining the chair offered her by Sanson, remained standing, to +show herself dauntless to the mob and brave its rage. And fierce +was that rage, indeed. So densely thronged were the streets that +the tumbril proceeded at a crawl, and the people surging about +the cart screamed death and insult at the doomed woman. It took +two hours to reach the Place de la Révolution, and meanwhile a +terrific summer thunderstorm had broken over Paris, and a +torrential rain had descended upon the densely packed streets. +Charlotte's garments were soaked through and through, so that her +red smock, becoming glued now to her body and fitting her like a +skin, threw into relief its sculptural beauty, whilst a +reflection of the vivid crimson of the garment faintly tinged her +cheeks, and thus heightened her appearance of complete composure. + +And it is now in the Rue St. Honoré that at long last we reach +the opening of our tragic love-story. + +A tall, slim, fair young man, named Adam Lux--sent to Paris by the +city of Mayence as Deputy Extraordinary to the National Convention-- +was standing there in the howling press of spectators. He was an +accomplished, learned young gentleman, doctor at once of philosophy +and of medicine, although in the latter capacity he had never +practiced owing to an extreme sensibility of nature, which rendered +anatomical work repugnant to him. He was a man of a rather exalted +imagination, unhappily married--the not uncommon fate of such +delicate temperaments--and now living apart from his wife. He had +heard, as all Paris had heard, every detail of the affair, and of +the trial, and he waited there, curious to see this woman, with +whose deed he was secretly in sympathy. + +The tumbril slowly approached, the groans and execrations swelled +up around him, and at last he beheld her--beautiful, serene, full +of life, a still smile upon her lips. For a long moment he gazed +upon her, standing as if stricken into stone. Then heedless of +those about him, he bared his head, and thus silently saluted and +paid homage to her. She did not see him. He had not thought that +she would. He saluted her as the devout salute the unresponsive +image of a saint. The tumbril crawled on. He turned his head, and +followed her with his eyes for awhile; then, driving his elbows +into the ribs of those about him, he clove himself a passage +through the throng, and so followed, bare-headed now, with fixed +gaze, a man entranced. + +He was at the foot of the scaffold when her head fell. To the +last he had seen that noble countenance preserve its immutable +calm, and in the hush that followed the sibilant fall of the +great knife his voice suddenly rang out. + +"She is greater than Brutus!" was his cry; and he added, +addressing those who stared at him in stupefaction: "It were +beautiful to have died with her!" + +He was suffered to depart unmolested. Chiefly, perhaps because at +that moment the attention of the crowd was upon the executioner's +attendant, who, in holding up Charlotte's truncated head, slapped +the cheek with his hand. The story runs that the dead face +reddened under the blow. Scientists of the day disputed over this, +some arguing from it a proof that consciousness does not at once +depart the brain upon decapitation. + +That night, while Paris slept, its walls were secretly placarded +with copies of a eulogy of Charlotte Corday, the martyr of +Republicanism, the deliverer of France, in which occurs the +comparison with Joan of Arc, that other great heroine of France. +This was the work of Adam Lux. He made no secret of it. The +vision of her had so wrought upon the imagination of this +susceptible dreamer, had fired his spirit with such enthusiasm, +that he was utterly reckless in yielding to his emotions, in +expressing the phrenetic, immaterial love with which in her last +moments of life she had inspired him. + +Two days after her execution he issued a long manifesto, in which he +urged the purity of her motive as the fullest justification of her +act, placed her on the level of Brutus and Cato, and passionately +demanded for her the honour and veneration of posterity. It is in +this manifesto that he applies euphemistically to her deed the term +"tyrannicide." That document he boldly signed with his own name, +realizing that he would pay for that temerity with his life. + +He was arrested on the 24th of July--exactly a week from the day +on which he had seen her die. He had powerful friends, and they +exerted themselves to obtain for him a promise of pardon and +release if he would publicly retract what he had written. But he +laughed the proposal to scorn, ardently resolved to follow into +death the woman who had aroused the hopeless, immaterial love +that made his present torment. + +Still his friends strove for him. His trial was put off. A doctor +named Wetekind was found to testify that Adam Lux was mad, that +the sight of Charlotte Corday had turned his head. He wrote a +paper on this plea, recommending that clemency be shown to the +young doctor on the score of his affliction, and that he should +be sent to a hospital or to America. Adam Lux was angry when he +heard of this, and protested indignantly against the allegations +of Dr. Wetekind. He wrote to the Journal de la Montagne, which +published his declaration on the 26th of September, to the effect +that he was not mad enough to desire to live, and that his +anxiety to meet death half-way was a crowning proof of his +sanity. + +He languished on in the prison of La Force until the 10th of +October, when at last he was brought to trial. He stood it +joyously, in a mood of exultation at his approaching deliverance. +He assured the court that he did not fear the guillotine, and +that all ignominy had been removed from such a death by the pure +blood of Charlotte. + +They sentenced him to death, and he thanked them for the boon. + +"Forgive me, sublime Charlotte," he exclaimed, "if I should find +it impossible to exhibit at the last the courage and gentleness +that were yours. I glory in your superiority, for it is right +that the adored should be above the adorer." + +Yet his courage did not fail him. Far from it, indeed; if hers +had been a mood of gentle calm, his was one of ecstatic +exaltation. At five o'clock that same afternoon he stepped from +the tumbril under the gaunt shadow of the guillotine. He turned +to the people, his eyes bright, a flush on his cheeks. + +"At last I am to have the happiness of dying for Charlotte," he +told them, and mounted the scaffold with the eager step of the +bridegroom on his way to the nuptial altar. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE HISTORICAL NIGHTS ENTERTAINMENT, SECOND SERIES *** + +This file should be named 8hne210.txt or 8hne210.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8hne211.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8hne210a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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